Flotsam and Jetsam - DOJ Subpoenas Walz, Frey in Insurrection Inquiry

I know it's early in the season, but I'd like to propose a trade

John Sexton at Hat Hair reports DOJ Issues Subpoenas to Gov. Walz and Mayor Frey "The Justice Department has issued subpoenas for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey as part of an investigation alleging that the two Democratic leaders are impeding federal law enforcement officers’ abilities to do their jobs in the state, two people familiar with the matter confirmed Friday...The subpoenas suggest that the Justice Department is examining whether Walz’s and Frey’s public statements disparaging the surge of officers and federal actions have amounted to criminal interference in law enforcement work." What comes around, goes around. Breitbart News @BreitbartNews, "Minneapolis Mayor Frey wants police officers "to fight ICE agents on the streets." The chief of police's reaction is priceless..." unseen1 @unseen1_unseen, "Al Capone didnt like it when federal agents came to his city either." Ace, Trump Again Warns Walz and Frey: Start Enforcing the Law, Or Federal Troops Are Coming "I don't hear Democrats taunting "Trump Always Chickens Out now." Sister Toldja at RedState hears DOJ Has Spicy Clapback After Soros-Backed Philly DA Issues Arrest Threat to ICE. Todd Blanche @DAGToddBlanche, "Go ahead and try." Quote Larry Krasner @LarryKrasnerDA, "“We will arrest you. We will handcuff you. We will close those cuffs. We will put you in a cell. We will set your bail and I'm going to ask for it to be appropriately high," said Krasner." Sundance at CTH, Homan on Minnesota Unrest: “Justice is Coming” … “You Should Hear Something, Real Soon.” PJM's Vick Taft has another West Coast, Messed Coast™ — Feckless Gavin Admits Calling ICE Agents 'Terrorists' Is 'Unfair', but… John Sexton again, Newsom: I Might Have Gone Too Far Calling ICE Agents 'State Sponsored Terrorists'. Will Chamberlain @willchamberlain, "Talk like this is a greater threat to the peaceful transfer of power and our Republican form of government than almost anything I can imagine" Quote Hakeem Jeffries @RepJeffries, "REMINDER: To all members of the Trump administration. The incitement and engagement in state violence against the American people is a serious crime." Matt Margolis at PJM thinks Hakeem Jeffries Just Crossed a Dangerous Line That Can’t Be Uncrossed. Guy Benson @guypbenson, "Enforcing duly-enacted immigration laws is not illegitimate, third world stuff. But vowing to prosecute vast swaths of your political enemies as soon as you’re back in power is." From Irons in the Fire, Hakeem Jeffries is a vile, oathbreaking bastard, "who thinks promising to misuse/abuse the Justice Department is fine as long as Democrats do it." At Am Mind, Crying “Fascism!” and Its Consequences. Amy Klobuchar @amyklobuchar, "It is completely unacceptable that law-abiding Minnesotans are being thrown to the ground, detained, pepper-sprayed, and threatened. This endangers public safety and is fundamentally un-American. From startribune.com." Cynical Publius @CynicalPublius, "If law-abiding Minnesotans were actually being thrown to the ground, detained, pepper-sprayed, and threatened, I would agree with you. But these are not law-abiding Minnesotans. Not a single one." Rick Moran at PJM, Oglala Sioux Chief Lied About ICE Locking up Tribe Members. Matt Vespa at TownHall sees a Biden-Appointed Judge Issues Insane Ruling on How ICE Should Handle Deranged MN Protesters. Stephen L. Miller @redsteeze, ""No one is illegal on stolen land." is the quiet part out loud, driving Dems and Walz on this. They just know you can't say that out loud for fear of sounding insane, so they indoctrinate these kids to say it." Quote Libs of TikTok @libsoftiktok "BREAKING: Students from Saint Paul Public Schools in Mn left class to march in an anti-ICE protest, saying they want to "get rid of ICE" and that "no one is illegal on stolen land." Some students admitted to warning illegals online to stay home and avoid ICE, while others . . ." Dave Strom, Too Good(?) to Check: Minneapolis Police Department Bleeding Officers—Again.

John Sexton, NY TImes Takes Another Try at Analyzing the Shooting Video, desperately trying to find some way to not see Renee Good hitting the ICE officer with her SUV. At Twitchy, Criminal Illegal Alien Walks Free After Ramming ICE Vehicles Head-On: Seattle Jury Says Not Guilty. Sister Toldja, DHS Announces Latest Arrest in Minnesota, and the Details Should Make Democrats Do Some Soul-Searching. From Amy Curtis at TownHall, Left-Wing Mobs in Minneapolis Now Stopping Cars and Interrogating Civilians. At Da Wire, Minneapolis Protesters Force Random White Guy To Prove He’s Not ICE "They’re singling him out based on his race, sex, and age — because they don’t like middle-aged white guys." Matt Vespa at TownHall, An Anti-ICE Activist Tried Interfering With an Arrest in California. Guess What Happened Next. Breaking911@Breaking911, "ICE protester who lost his vision while attempting to stop an arrest in Minneapolis: “I will be blind for life. I have fractures in my skull that they can't fix…They said it was a miracle I survived.” (It was in Santa Ana CA). Shipwreckedcrew, "Officer Created Jeopardy" -- A Wholly Specious Claim As Applied To The Minnesota ICE Shooting.

Jonathan Turley, Murder, She Wrote: CBS Reporter Declares Good Shooting to be “Murder” by ICE. "Given the strong arguments that can be made for this officer, one would think that CBS and other news organizations would avoid a declaration of murder. Even if you disagree with the use of force, it is not true that this can be reported as murder. There has not been a completion of the investigation, let alone an adjudication." The Good shooting. I like that, I think I'll start using it. Matt Vespa, CNN Host Was Not Happy When Scott Jennings Brought *This* Up About the Anti-ICE Ambush in Minneapolis. "On The Arena, host Kasie Hunt was not pleased that Jennings brought up the ambush on ICE agents in Minneapolis by three Venezuelan illegals. Also, he was not having any of the ‘does this bother you’ crap regarding showing identification when approached by an ICE agent." Overton @overton_news, "Scott Jennings just caught Abby Phillip in a bold-faced LIE on CNN — and he couldn’t believe she was denying the truth. Watch till the end to see the proof. As the panel freaked out over the DOJ probing Tim Walz and Jacob Frey for obstructing federal immigration operations, @ScottJenningsKY cut straight to the facts. JENNINGS: “And, look, based on their public statements, it’s pretty clear that…and based on the statements of officials at DOJ, it’s pretty clear there is concern that these two guys have used their positions and their public statements to try to obstruct the execution of federal laws.” “Now, whether that rises to a crime, I don’t know.”" Sister Toldja, Florida Sheriff Shuts Down Woke Reporter and Provides Vital Explainer on Blue State ICE Surge.

PJM's Stephen Kruiser thinks Aging Melba Toast Mobs Are Further Proof of Dems' Irrelevance. More like avocado toast. Althouse, "It wasn’t long ago that casual contempt for white women was the domain of the left, at least that part of the left that took books like 'White Fragility' seriously." ""So it’s striking how easily conservatives, who’ve been stewing over insults to white people for at least five years, have singled out a group of white women as the enemy. But it also makes sense, because everyone hates an apostate. In the right-wing imagination, these women are acting like harpies — an epithet often seen online — when they’re supposed to be helpmeets. Fox News’s Will Cain described a 'weird kind of smugness' in the way 'some of these liberal white women interact with authority.' For MAGA, ICE’s eagerness to put women in their place might be a feature, not a bug."" Writes Michelle Goldberg, in "The Right Is Furious With Liberal White Women" (NYT). Dave Strom, Women Are the Shock Troops of the Left. Zarathustra @zarathustra5150, "56% of liberal women aged 18-29 have literally been diagnosed with a mental health disorder. And that’s only the number officially diagnosed. The real number is obviously higher." Christina Hoff Sommers @CHSommers "We’ve spent years worrying about young men being radicalized online. What if it’s young women who should be our focus of concern?" Zarathustra @zarathustra5150, "Political scientists & data quants have been telling us this for half a decade. Women have moved *radically* leftward, at a scale & speed with no modern precedent, while men have, on the whole, remained largely steady & unchanged. And you can see it across the data." Chris Bray at Tell Me How This Ends The Explosion of Political Noise Is Meant to Cover the Death of the Blue Model, Nothing Else.

Peter St Onge, Ph.D. @profstonge, "GDP hits 5.5%. Meaning the American economy is now growing faster than China. - Productivity growth tripled - Wages are growing 3.8% - Layoffs are the lowest since 2022 - Inflation is just 1.7% per Truflation This is the crash legacy media and economists swore was coming." Truflation @truflation "US CPI Inflation today: 1.55% Our inflation index dropped further today, from 1.70% to 1.55%, as cooling spread across multiple categories. The main drivers included the Housing, Food, and Household items categories." From Ace, Mortgate Rates Fall to Lowest Level In Three Years As CNN Grieves, "Before that: Last week, Trump proposed banning large institutional investors from buying up single-family homes, which they've been doing for years, contributing to the high cost of home ownership. You will own nothing and love it, they promised." And Trump Proposes Rule to Make Big Pharma Sell Its Drugs to Americans at Same Price They Sell It To Europeans, Reducing Drug Costs by Up to 90% "Plus: More Quick Hits The era of big government is... continuing." From Twitchy, Lee Zeldin Speaks Slowly to Answer 'a Top Contender for Dumbest Reporter Question Ever'. It's a high bar. Whale Psychiatrist @k_ovfefe2, "Well ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to tell you that the winning has not slowed down a bit. Here is the Thursday Win Report! - Initial jobless claims come in under 200k, near a 56 year low - Empire State Manufacturing Index surges to 7.7. Expectations were 1.0 . . . " From Da Signal, Lawmaker Introduces ‘Common Sense’ Bill to Eliminate Capital Gains Taxes on Home Sales. I&I hopes With America Divided, Will Improving Economy Boost Trump’s Approval Ratings? At Hat Hair, Larry vids, CNN Was Forced to Report Trump's Big Economic Win and It Was Glorious and Trump and Powell Clash as Federal Reserve Faces Unprecedented Scrutiny while Beege Welborn reports Trump Moves to Make Data Centers Pay to Provide Their Own Juice Generation. CNBC forced to admit Taiwan will invest $250 billion in U.S. chipmaking under new trade deal. Sundance hosts President Trump Rural Investment Roundtable Event. Capt. Ed at Hat Hair cites Axios: When Donny Met Chuckie "President Trump and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) met at the White House on Thursday to discuss Trump's hold on billions of dollars of funding for the Gateway Tunnel Project in New York."

Driscoll at Insty, Shot: Iran’s Murderous Regime Is Irredeemable. "—New York Times editorial board column, Wednesday. Chaser: This particular Persian excursion, after all, is sponsored by none other than the New York Times, the esteemed paper of record that, in case you hadn’t noticed, is quickly transforming itself into a travel agency of some renown, offering an array of exhilarating (and expensive) cultural journeys for the sophisticated traveller." At the Spec, Roger Kimball wonders Why can’t Democrats speak frankly about Iran? Why can't they be frank about anything. wretchardthecat @wretchardthecat "There are two possible reasons why an unidentified operation against Iran slated for approximately Jan 14, 2026 was canceled or postponed: 1. The resources available were not sufficient to achieve the tactical objectives; and or 2. New strategic opportunities emerged that favored shifting to an entirely different set of plans. Since we don't know the character of the canceled operation (or if it really existed) the only clue to the future progress of the game is what new pieces are now moving."

Ace woke up to find Thwarted True Venezuelan President Presents Her Nobel Peace Prize to Trump, "Trump finally receives his Peace Prize. She had previously dedicated the Prize to Trump when she was awarded it." Art Schaper at Am Great, Trump Arrests Maduro, and The Axis of Evil is Crumbling. "Trump’s arrest of Maduro wasn’t war or nation-building—it was law enforcement abroad, striking narco-communism, curbing migration, and defending American interests without bloodshed." American bloodshed, that is (there were some wounded). The Cubans were not as fortunate. 

Sundance sees Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney Bows to Big Panda, Looking for Financial Assistance Against Godzilla Trump "My dear Canadian conservative friends, things look very troubling. You have my deepest sympathies for the events of the next few years that are about to unfold." VodkaPundit at Insty, THE SMART CROWD IS SLAMMING TRUMP TODAY FOR DRIVING CANADA TOWARD BEIJING, BUT OTTAWA HAS LEANED HARDER IN THAT DIRECTION FOR SEVERAL YEARS. Dave Strom sees Canadian Politicians Mourn Islamophobic Hate Crime Committed Against Bondi Beach Shooter.

Don Surber explains What Trump wants from Greenland "And yes, their military includes dog sleds." At the Brussels Signal, The Danes protecting Greenland: They must learn from de Gaulle "The cold, hard truth is that great powers do not consult the weak." Leslie Eastman at LI, Game of Tariffs: Trump Incentivizes European Support for His Greenland Acquisition. With tariffs rattling the markets, European troops on the ice, grandiose U.S. senators trying to play peacemaker, and Trump’s envoys vowing that a deal is within reach, the next episode in this Arctic saga promises even more intrigue."

Ace, For Some Reason AP and ABC "News" Cannot Even Guess At, Overdose Deaths In the US Plummeted in 2025 "I wonder what could have caused this. . . . Apparently it's just impossible that stopping fentanyl imports and deporting Tren de Aragua drug-dealers contributed to the decline. It's not even worth a mention. By the way, note that overdoses shot up during Fauci's (and Tucker Carlson's) shutdowns. More deaths that can be laid at their feet."

DOGE State @DOGE_STATE, "At one level, one has to admire the entrepreneurial spirit of the Somali scammers — with just a few Quality Learing Centers, they built an industrial scale fraud operation nearly on par with USAID, a feat which took our best educated deep staters decades to do …" Quote DataRepublican (small r) DataRepublican, "Important thread to read through x.com/SmartMaticEng/…" C3 @C_3C_3, "I’m frantically chugging a 24oz bottle of water my kids forgot they had in their backpack in the TSA line and Somalis are walking through with $700 million in cash. Insane." Beege Welborn takes a look at Hawala Lala Ding Dong Fraud. Plastic Straw Republican @SmartMaticEng. "The suitcases full of cash moving through Minneapolis St. Paul Airport fit the profile of a Hawala money broker settling balances in cash. What is Hawala?" Plastic Straw Republican @SmartMaticEng. "Hawala is a network of money brokers that function like an unregulated Western Union of the Middle East and North Africa. Brokers keep large amounts of cash and communicate outside of the regulated banking system. When you wish to send money to someone in, say, Somalia, where . . . " NYPo, Two scammers plead guilty to $68M Brooklyn adult day care fraud scheme. "Owners Zakia Khan and Ahsan Ijaz, as well as Oasmneah Hamdi, Ansir Abassi, and Amran Hashmi, were among those charged. Wasef and Antao are the sixth and seventh scammers to plead guilty in the case."

Betsy Stauffer at LI says Uh Oh: Mamdani Under Fire for Excluding Black Leaders From Top City Roles “Some Black and Latino leaders worry they are being denied access to power under Mayor Zohran Mamdani. … It has become a problem.” John Sexton reports a Mamdani-Endorsed Candidate Violates the Rules to Make Campaign Stop at a School.

Elon Musk @elonmusk, "This is needed to save democracy in America" Quote Arthur MacWaters @ArthurMacwaters "Make this make sense: 1. 85% of Americans (eg, the majority both sides) want a voter ID requirement 2. this would make it one of the most popular policies of all time. 3. yet, while controlling Congress, republicans haven't passed any law to enact this requirement. The SAVE Act would accomplish this, and it's passed the house but stalled in the senate for months. This is an absurdity that can only really be explained by massive incompetence or an incentive to cheat. I'm not sure which it is."

Ilya Shapiro, The Supreme Court Goes Back to Biology Class "Oral arguments over state sports laws underscored the simple truth that sex categories exist for a reason." Back? I doubt Ketanji ever went. Ace, As SCOTUS Debates "Trans Women" Competing in Girls Sports, the World's 671st Ranked Male Tennis Player Easily Beats the Woman Ranked #1; also, Remembering Scott Adams and Dilbert.

Scott Pinsker at PJM notices Who Does The Atlantic Blame for Antisemitism? Who Else: MAGA’s Jews. No really! Slantic, “MAGA’s Jewish Intellectuals Helped Create Their Own Predicament.”

Mike Cantrell at PJM reports Threats so Severe That Riley Gaines Says She Armors Her Infant Daughter "Conservative activist Riley Gaines recently appeared on the Fox News program Outnumbered, where she shared a heartbreaking truth. Because she received numerous death threats while attending the Supreme Court to hear arguments in a case that could ban transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports, she wrapped her 3-month-old daughter in a bulletproof blanket."

Driscoll at Insty, TOO ON BRAND: School Purges 1984, Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies, and Others to Promote ‘Diversity.’ "A London, Ontario, secondary school binned more than 10,000 library books between January and March this year under the Thames Valley District School Board’s “inclusive libraries revitalization project,” eliminating more than half of the school’s 18,000-book collection." Dave Strom, The Schools Teach That Activism Is the Highest Good, and It Is Not Going Well. From the Sentinel, Eureka elementary students cautioned that Donald Trump, Charlie Kirk are not role models. Eureka MO, not Eureka CA.

Vic Nava at NYPo, Pentagon to ‘refocus’ military newspaper Stars and Stripes away from ‘woke distractions.’ 

More, more, more, at the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 01.16.26 (Afternoon Edition) and In The Mailbox: 01.16.26 (Evening Edition).