Flotsam and Jetsam - ProPublica and West Point Try to Smear Hegseth and Fail

Dave Strom at Hat Hair has the story of how ProPublica Almost Succeeded in Smearing Pete Hegseth. 

EXCLUSIVE: Emails, Phone Logs Reveal How Botched Hegseth West Point Story Imploded

After a West Point spokesperson falsely claimed that @PeteHegseth had not applied or been accepted to the school, ProPublica reached out to Hegseth's lawyer, asserting that the Secretary of… pic.twitter.com/bN9ahCwC1p

— Reagan Reese (@reaganreese_) December 12, 2024

Ace, "That's How Real Journalism Works:" Leaked Emails Show How ProPublica Tried to Manufacture a Smear Against Pete Hegseth. At ET, West Point Apologizes, Confirms It Accepted Trump Nominee Pete Hegseth to the Academy, "The academy had falsely said that Hegseth did not even apply to the school." ProPublica is a anti-conservative so called news outlet. The writer will probably get fired for missing. But West Point is a military outfit, and, first, they should not have commented on Hegseth's records without checking with him, and second, they shouldn't have quickly assented to ProPublica request, and then screw it up. If somebody didn't get fired quickly, I'm sure they will be once Hegseth is confirmed. At Da Signal, ‘No One Gets Away With That S**t’: Alums of Hegseth-led Veterans Group Dismantle Media Narrative. RCD, For Pete's Sake ... Enough! "This is the real message: The Administrative State is not pleased. The Pentagon is panicking. The Deep state has come to the conclusion that they are in deep sh…." Paul Kengor at Am Spec, Pete Hegseth, Rachel Levine, and the Promising Return to Normalcy. It’s refreshing to once again have political appointees with normal scandals. Virginia Kruta at Da Wire, Hegseth Spares No Feelings In Quip To Media: ‘I Don’t Feel The Need To Respond To CNN’.  At the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 12.13.24, This Ain’t Hell, Pete Hegseth: Allowing Gays in military a part of Marxist agenda and The Federalist: Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) Invites A Primary Challenge By Refusing To Back Hegseth, How Team Trump Turned The RNC Into A Get-Out-The-Vote Machine, Leftist ProPublica’s Failed Hit Piece Just Made Pete Hegseth Defense Secretary and Power Line, A fair chance, ProPublica style.

At TownHall, Matt Vespa, Bombshell: The FBI Spied on Kash Patel, but we knew that. And Wray signed off on extended spying. Ace, Former CIA Director Counter-Terrorism: Tulsi Gabbard is Well-Qualified to be Director of National Intelligence and Rein in the Incompetent and Malign "Intelligence" Community. "This is a big endorsement for Gabbard. Bernie Hudson is as qualified a judge as anyone, and he's writing in National Review, to let other institutions-aligned people know that Gabbard is worthy." At OTP, New Border Czar Targets Chicago: ‘Your Mayor Sucks And Your Governor Sucks’. At the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 12.13.24, Louder With Crowder: Tom Homan Promises To Prosecute Mayors Who Impede ICE, Shark Tank, Progressive Democrats Whine Lake Appointment To VOA Is “Abuse of Power”

 Althouse read WaPoo, Headline writers blithely omit "a" and "the," but there's a big difference between "the polio vaccine" and "a polio vaccine." "The Washington Post splashes this in our face: "RFK Jr. ally filed petition to revoke FDA approval for polio vaccine." I suspect that many readers experience alarm — Oh, no, it's crazy to take away the polio vaccine! — and read no further. But it's not the polio vaccine. It's a polio vaccine. From the text of the article:" It's the Sabin, live-virus vaccine. A child of the 50's, I remember the polio epidemics and scares, how people were relieved when a vaccine came out, but kids especially liked the Sabin vaccine, because it was given with a sugar cube instead of a shot. But, yes, we've known for a long time that the Sabin vaccine converts into full blown polio in rare cases. People have argued that, in fact, the Sabin vaccine is what is keeping polio alive in the wild. It may or may not be true, but it's not a silly argument. Da Fetched, Whoopi Goldberg: RFK Jr Is “Fat Shaming” Obese People by Promoting Healthy Diets.  At the TN Star, Tennessee U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn Introduces DOGE Acts to Cut Wasteful Government Spending. 

Paul Bedard at WaEx thinks Trump forms MAGA ‘Dream Team’ for 100-day sprint. Sundance at CTH hears  Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski Lament the Horror of Next Four Years Accountable to the Voters, Ace's THE MORNING RANT: Why I’ll Support an Ethically Flawed Politician Who Advances My Agenda. At Althouse, What the NYT is saying today under the heading "Trump Transition." "On the front page of the NYT website right now. . . "

Capt. Ed at Hat Hair reports A Good Penny To Turn Up In Trump-Vance Box Tomorrow. Fox, JD Vance confirms Daniel Penny will attend Army-Navy game after acquittal in subway chokehold trial. Althouse, "I’m grateful he accepted my invitation and hope he’s able to have fun and appreciate how much his fellow citizens admire his courage." "Said JD Vance, quoted in "Daniel Penny accepts VP-elect JD Vance's invite to be his 'personal guest' at the Army-Navy game Saturday. ""

Katie Couric and Jessica Tarlov admit Republicans sending illegals to blue cities worked. Call it the “smartest thing they ever did.”

Correct. The only way to make left-wingers change is to have them suffer the results of their own policies.

pic.twitter.com/AUaqyMPXR2

— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) December 13, 2024

Driscoll at Insty, BURIED LEDE: KATIE COURIC ACTUALLY GOT A STORY RIGHT! ‘Smartest Thing They Ever Did:’ Katie Couric, Jessica Tarlov Admit GOP Leaders Sending Migrants North Was Game Changer (Da Caller). "The ghost of Saul Alinsky smiles: “Make opponents live up to their own book of rules. ‘You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity.’”"

Capt. Ed watches NBC: Hamas Backing Down Over 'Trump Pressure'. 

Beege Welborn at Hat Hair sees An Interesting Thing Happened on the Way to an East Coast Longshoreman's Strike. Sundance at CTH, President Trump Supports Dockworker Position Against Automation. Da Beast, Canada Threatens to Cut Power to U.S. Over Trump Tariffs. 

At OTP, DC Restaurants Hate MAGA, Trump, Wait Staff To ‘Throw A Drink’ In Their Faces. Beege Welborn says Hey, Screechers - Leave Those Eats Alone! Nice one. Greg Price@greg_price11, "My favorite part of this story is when a liberal bartender was forced to admit that Republicans are cooler people than Democrats." Dave Strom at Hat Hair says About D@mn Time! when a Republican congresscritter proposes to revoke home rule for D.C. "Washington, D.C., is poorly run, an embarrassment to the country, and has proven its inability to responsibly govern itself."

COVER OF THE WEEK:

Capt. Ed hear Pennsylvania's Josh Shapiro: Why Did Biden Let Corrupt Judge Off the Hook?. Because "they" put the pardon in front of him. NYPo, Biden slammed for commuting sentence of notorious ‘Kids-for-Cash’ judge convicted of imprisoning juveniles for $2.1M kickbacks. Althouse, "Though Mr. Biden has the prerogative to confer broad immunity with what are sometimes called safe harbor or protective pardons, doing so now on a large scale would be difficult to achieve..." "... at least with any principled consistency.... [E]ven the broadest presidential pardon couldn’t fully protect someone Mr. Trump was determined to harass. . . . So writes the Washington Post Editorial Board, in "Biden should rule out preemptive pardons/Trump might target his enemies, but get-out-of-jail-free cards are unnecessary and imply guilt." Ace, Merrick Garland's Corrupt DOJ Makes Up New "Rule:" When January 6th Political Prisoners Accept Their Pardons from President Trump, That Counts as a Legal Admission of Being Insurrectionists. At PM,  Bennie Thompson would accept Biden's pardon after chairing J6 committee, "The president, it’s his prerogative. If he offers it, to me or other members of the committee, I think it — I would accept it, but it’s his choice," said Thompson.  PJM's Stephen Kruiser says Great — Biden Just Let All of Hunter's Friends Out of Jail. At the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 12.13.24, EBL, Biden Crime Family is Pounding out the Pardons!, American Greatness, The Real Criminal Here is Not Hunter Biden, Biden’s Pardon Is A Smokescreen for Corruption and Biden’s Paranoid Pardons and Leftist Morality. Nicholas Ballasy at JTN reports Former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov pleads guilty to lying to agency about the Bidens. "Smirnov reportedly told the FBI handler in 2020 that Biden and his son accepted $5 million from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma several years prior. According to the court filing, the turned out to be false, "as the Defendant knew." NewsMax reports Trump Will Pardon 'Most' Jan. 6 Defendants During First Hour in WH.

Ace wakes up and notices Biden's Selling Off All the Materials Trump Bought for Building a Border Wall, to Prevent Trump From Building It "And he's selling tons of steel and concrete for pennies on the dollar. This will force Trump to re-buy all the material he already bought." Charlotte Hazard at JTN, Texas Lt Gov Patrick wants to buy construction materials auctioned by DHS, donate them to Trump, "Message to the White House right now: I will bid on all of that wall and we will buy it in Texas and we will give it to Donald Trump," Dan Patrick said." WokeSpy, New York Times Surprisingly Admits Joe Biden Is to Flame for “Largest Surge in Illegal Immigration in U.S. History” I assume they meant Blame. At the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 12.13.24, BattleSwarm, Biden: I’m Going To Force Taxpayers To Pay For Illegal Alien Healthcare. Federal Judge: Like Hell You Will. Dave Strom, Trump Goes After Climate Fanatics; UPDATE: Biden Says "Expect More Climate Funding" Before He Leaves. Richard A. Stern@RichAStern, "INFLATION IS BACK UP. Wonder why? The Fed has worked to quietly pump another $650 billion newly created dollars into the market over the last year. This artificially gave the economy a buzz before the election, but now comes the inflation hangover. As the money supply goes, so goes prices..." From WaEx, Biden gives economic farewell speech as voters say good riddance. WaEx, Jimmy Carter 2.0: Yet another Democratic presidency ends in disaster. At least Jimmy was fundamentally honest, misguided but honest. 

Matt Vespa Reports  Pelosi's Injuries in Luxembourg Are Quite Serious. Busted hip. Sundance, During CODEL, Pelosi Falls Down Marble Steps in Luxembourg. Ace, Nancy Pelosi Suffers Serious Injuries -- a Fractured Hip -- After Falling Down a Staircase in Luxembourg, "Any hip injury at age 84 is a major cause for concern." At Da Fetched, Calls for Term Limits Mount as Leaked Photo Shows Mitch McConnell Being Carted Around in Wheelchair. Time to go.

WokeSpy is concerned about Six Shot Missed Within 5 Feet:  House Task Force Publishes Damning Report on Trump’s Attempted Assassinations. At the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 12.13.24, BattleSwarm, How Do You Miss Six Shots From Five Feet Away? Panic. 

Campus Reform reports Socialist University of Pennsylvania prof apologizes for praising CEO-killer suspect, school condemns her post. At Spiked at explanation of Why the online left is simping for Luigi Mangione. "The celebration of the alleged assassin speaks to how morally and politically unmoored some ‘progressives’ have become." Mike LaChance at LI, hears Elizabeth Warren Triy to Walk Back Horrendous Comments on Murder of Healthcare CEO, “I should have been much clearer that there is never a justification for murder.” At Althouse, Peter Thiel talks to Piers Morgan about Daniel Penny and Luigi Mangione. "It's an interesting discussion, but many people are getting hung up on Thiel's very awkward, disfluent manner of speaking:"

John Sexton at Hat Hair, Bluesky: A Land of Unicorns, Rainbows and Death Threats and More Bluesky Blues: 'We Draw Battle Lines and F***ing Enforce Them'. TechCrunch, Bluesky at a crossroads as users petition to ban Jesse Singal over anti-trans views, harassment. Insty, SUCCESS: Elon Musk@elonmusk, "That is the goal. This platform only seems to”right-wing” to the left." Quote, Stat Shepherd@stat_sherpa "𝕏 stands out as the most politically balanced social media platform. Unlike many other platforms, 𝕏 has an almost equal split between Democrat (48%) and Republican (47%) news consumers. As you would expect, the data don't align with the "right-wing dominance" narrative."

At the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 12.13.24, Don Surber explains Why I want Dems to rely on MSM. Keep fooling themselves. 

Herr Professor Jacobson at LI sees Fifty-One Discriminatory Scholarships At University of Rhode Island Challenged By Equal Protection Project, “We’re going to seek to make URI a test case for the Trump administration.” From the College Fix, ‘Totally unacceptable’: House Education committee criticizes Dept. of Ed. targeting of Christian colleges. From the Free Bacon, Amy Wax Threatens To Sue Penn for Race Discrimination, Breach of Contract, "The embattled law professor says she will take legal action if Penn doesn't lift the sanctions against her." Also, Ex-CCP Officials Funneled Millions to US Universities, Nonprofits To Promote Green Energy, Tax Forms Show, "Energy Foundation China, which operates primarily from Beijing, promotes energy policies designed to weaken US, watchdogs warn." Ace, New York Times: Is the "Awkward" Era of the "Diversity Blockbuster" Behind Us? "If even the Marxist New York Times is contemplating the end of DEI even in Hollywood, then the era of DEI must really be coming to an end." Christopher F. Rufo@realchrisrufo, "Now is the time for a blitz through the institutions. The Left is exhausted. BLM is shattered. Trans is imploding. Trump has a mandate to abolish DEI, defund left-wing racialism, and restore public authority over the public institutions. The counterrevolution starts now." But at Commentary, Christopher Rufo’s Dangerous Wishful Thinking.

YaHoo! UCLA student sues California doctors, says she was 'fast-tracked' into transgender surgery.