Between Fani Willis’ indictment, the denouement of The Blind Side, and Podesta — man, what a week, huh? It’s that old Chinese saying, “May you live in interesting times,” just manifested right in our faces.
Of course, that old saying was a curse. You realize that, right?
At the beginning of the week — OK, it was Tuesday — Melissa Mackenzie and I did a Spectacle podcast episode titled “The Breaking of the American Heart.” It’s worth checking out as we go through all the different ways the Machine has stuck it in us.
And all week ever since, they’ve simply piled on more and more.
But that’s not all we’ve seen this week. The Machine took a few kicks in the groin, too.
Interesting times all around, dontchaknow.
1. Newt Gingrich Says the Indictment Is All Because of the Weiss Cover-Up
Why did Fani Willis, the district attorney in Fulton County, Georgia, cough up a half-baked indictment against former President Donald Trump that essentially amounted to criminalizing deliberations over an irregular election suspiciously lost? Well, obviously, Willis’ “investigation” of Trump’s “crimes” has been going on for some time. But to get it to drop now, when it’s clear this thing wasn’t ready for prime time — and frankly, it’s difficult to understand how this is a state indictment when none of the activity alleged to be criminal physically took place in Georgia, which means it would more properly be in federal court — was a little bit “funny.” (READ MORE: Georgia Levels Yet Another Indictment Against Trump)
But Thursday on Charlie Kirk’s podcast, New Gingrich offered a theory:
????BREAKING EXCLUSIVE????
Speaker Newt Gingrich joined me this morning and shared a remarkable story. If true, someone from DC called Fani Willis and demanded she indict Trump on Monday. Why? To cover up for the Weiss "screw up."
This would explain the late night press… pic.twitter.com/wgHSbsA8Bf
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) August 17, 2023
So that’s interesting enough. But as Gingrich says, it’s hearsay.
On the other hand, here’s some context for what the environment was like on Friday:
Friday evening was August 11th ????
"That I am told, this is hearsay, but I'm told by a reliable source that Friday evening, somebody from Washington called the district attorney in Atlanta and said, you have to indict on Monday.”
“‘We have to cover up all of the mistakes we just… pic.twitter.com/6NZ0zGUaSg
— Joni Job (@jj_talking) August 17, 2023
And what else will be interesting is the fallout in Georgia from Willis’ indictment because this is circulating:
BREAKING: Republican Georgia state Senator Colton Moore moves to impeach Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis for her actions against Trump.
Finally, a Republican with a backbone.
“I’m not going to sit back and watch as radical left prosecutors weaponize their elected offices… pic.twitter.com/FGxssA0wGm
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) August 17, 2023
Now, if you want to color yourself skeptical that other legislators in Georgia will follow suit and sign that petition in numbers enough that 60 percent of them will sign on to a special session that could result in Willis’ impeachment and removal, I won’t argue with you. (READ MORE: Georgia’s Geoff Duncan Must Be Disqualified for Anti-Trump Bias)
But what state senator Colin Moore is circulating is what you would expect to see happen as a legislative response to this insanity, and at least the wheels are in motion.
Interesting times.
2. The Awful, Awful, Awful Denouement Of The Blind Side
You’ve probably heard about the recent Michael Oher/Sean and Leigh Ann Tuohy controversy. If not, the Tuohys are the wealthy Memphis family who took in Oher, then a homeless poor kid from a tragic family situation (crackhead mother with 12 abused kids from a plethora of different fathers; Oher’s father was a career criminal who died in prison) and gave him the stable home he needed to blossom into a high school football star. Oher went on to become a star offensive lineman at Ole Miss and played eight years in the NFL.
His story was made into a blockbuster movie, The Blind Side, starring Tim McGraw and Sandra Bullock as the Tuohys, and everybody enjoyed a great windfall from the royalties the film generated.
But Oher is suing the Tuohys, contending — falsely, as his own autobiography written in 2011 makes clear — that the conservatorship he signed with the Tuohys for business reasons and for NCAA compliance (that’s a bit more complicated than will fit in a 5QT entry) was entered into because they tricked him.
Everything about this is awful. At the Hayride, I expressed my objections:
This case is charged, and it’s given more credence than it should, because of the racial aspect to it – namely, that the Tuohys are white and Oher is black. But it’s a terrible shame that this is the case; as Whitlock notes, the Tuohys sold their family business for $200 million. They didn’t need the money from The Blind Side. They’ve always been wealthier than Oher and they’ve done nothing but good things for him.
And his efforts to shake them down have destroyed what was one of the best feel-good stories modern America had to offer. Sandra Bullock’s portrayal of Leigh Ann Tuohy led a whole generation of Americans to appreciate what love could do across racial lines. It was a wonderful lesson for a nation which, at the time the movie came out, had just elected a black man president in what could only be appreciated as a yearning for that kind of love writ large.
But that’s all gone now.
And what Michael Oher is teaching the next family considering what they might do to help an underprivileged kid who needs a break is that it isn’t worth the trouble, that you’ll be made to regret it.
That no good deed goes unpunished.
That even if your efforts lead to someone making $34 million over eight years as an NFL offensive lineman, you will be disparaged, defamed and treated as an exploiter. And if you should happen to reach across racial lines to do good for someone else, you’ll be tainted as a racist exploiter in the bargain.
This coming on the heels of the atrocious Colin Kaepernick saga and his abuse of his adoptive white parents, sends a signal that is catastrophically destructive. When you read news stories in the coming years of the desperate struggle for black kids to find stable foster and adoptive homes, something which is already a horrible problem that will certainly get worse, just remember this.
These are the wild success stories. If they turn out this badly, now what?
3. Shut Up, Podesta, You Slimy, Pervy, Ghoulish Oxygen Thief
John Podesta, the Senior Advisor to the President for Clean Energy Innovation and Implementation, took to the White House briefing room podium on Wednesday to blame climate change for the Maui wildfire and to tout the Inflation Reduction Act.
Claiming that the summer had brought “one climate disaster after another,” Podesta connected hot temperatures to the fires in Maui, though there is no direct evidence linking climate change to the disaster. The biggest environmental factor — as the San Francisco Chronicle recently reported — was the spread of invasive alien grass species, which are more flammable than the indigenous vegetation of Hawaii, and which used a recent wet winter to grow rapidly, providing even more fuel for the flames.
Podesta then claimed: “To stop these disasters from getting even worse, we have to cut the carbon pollution that is driving the climate crisis, and that’s what the Inflation Reduction Act is all about.” President Joe Biden recently admitted to donors that the “Inflation Reduction Act” was misnamed, and that it was really about subsidizing and funding “climate change” spending.
Asked later in the briefing about prominent failures of “green” companies, Podesta ascribed that to the natural failure rate of any kind of investment. He did not address the administration’s role in Proterra, an electric bus company that failed last week.
It quickly ran afoul of this:
The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Hawaiian Electric, the biggest power supplier in the state, focused on shifting to renewable energy sources to combat climate change, rather than spending money to address fire risk around its power lines.
Earlier that day, John Podesta, a left-wing stalwart who advises President Joe Biden on clean energy, took to the White House podium to blame climate change for the wildfire in Maui, which destroyed Lahaina and has likely killed hundreds of people….
The Journal reported that suspicion is rapidly focusing on Hawaiian Electric’s power lines, which are suspended from telephone poles, many of which were downed in the wind, and some of which were seen sparking in the hours before the wildfire spread.
Moreover, the Journal noted that Hawaiian Electric had taken note of similar risks in California’s recent wildfires, but had yet to devote significant resources to addressing the problem. Instead, it focused on complying with state “green” energy mandates….
Arson is a major cause of a lot of these wildfires. And given the great interest that large institutional capital had in Maui, and Lahaina in particular, it’s really bad form for Podesta to be banging the Climate Change drum before (1) the bodies have been recovered and (2) the cause of the fires has been fully identified. (READ MORE: Miracle On Hawaii: Catholic Church Survived Maui Wildfire)
What it comes off as is a cover story.
And John Podesta is not someone who gets the benefit of the doubt. I should note that while the legacy corporate media rushed to denounce Pizzagate as “debunked” all those years ago, the only part of it that was truly disproven was the bit about the pizzeria owner and his nonexistent basement. To this day, all the stuff about the weird references in Podesta’s emails that Wikileaks made available for the world to see still hasn’t been credibly explained.
That isn’t to say Podesta is or should have been a character in Sound of Freedom. But it isn’t not to say it, either.
Regardless of that, he should shut his pie-hole about Maui. America has zero interest in the sound waves carried by the pungent air emanating from his lungs. Not when his appearance is so obviously a ghoulish distraction.
4. Gosh, Who Could Have Seen This Coming?
The Post Millennial has the least surprising story of 2023:
A post from Project Veritas read “SOS Hannah Giles just fired us all.” And then it was gone. Only 18 people are left on staff.
Giles, who became notorious for starring in the ACORN video with founder and former CEO James O’Keefe, took over for O’Keefe after he was summarily pushed out by the board of directors. She took over as CEO only to destroy the company entirely.
“She came to all hands in April with her fat sidekick Ben Wetmore and all they did for 3 days was talk shit about James and relitigate all the terrible things he did to her/them 10-12 years ago. I knew right then her entire agenda was revenge,” a source said.
On-air talent Christian Hartsock, James Lalino were both laid off after Giles told staff that a restructuring would be underway. Kalen Eriksson, Jaime Phillips, Alyssa Dehen, were also fired. The terminations were done via a Zoom call with HR, with a few of those in the New York office. Giles did not make an appearance.
“She’s a lying sack of sh*t,” a source told The Post Millennial. “No one respected her anyway.”
Five people were let go on Monday, including the executive news producer Pam Browne. She was brought in by O’Keefe last year. Some of those who were fired were allegedly released in retaliation for their undercover work. Those who are left are primarily admin people, and about 20 people were fired Thursday.
The production team is gutted, and only a few undercover journalists remain to help with fundraising. After the blood bath, the team chats saw Giles mercilessly roasted.
“Since James quit,” a source told Post Millennial, “the donations dried up…the donations never resumed. The board were desperate to bring Hannah on board because they thought it would be cute but the problem is she’s a charlatan and a fraud. Everything she’s ever done has been a failure and she lied to everyone claiming she had all these donors she could bring in.”
“She came along in April,” a source said, “and to my knowledge she never brought in a penny.”
Project Veritas was James O’Keefe, and James O’Keefe was Project Veritas. It was ridiculous to think that the organization would survive beyond his tenure as its head. And it appears that it won’t.
Conservative impresario John Hawkins was right all along about this one:
Let's make this simple. The board goes, O'Keefe comes back and Project Veritas can continue doing good work or the board stays, O'Keefe doesn't come back and Project Veritas dies a shameful death. That really is your choice. Surprise everyone and do the right thing.
— John Hawkins (@johnhawkinsrwn) February 25, 2023
She actually seems perfect for the job. Someone who people only know because of James O'Keefe, taking money James O'Keefe raised to head an organization that's dying because it sold out James O'Keefe. Pathetic.
— John Hawkins (@johnhawkinsrwn) June 8, 2023
You already stole something none of you could have ever built and you vultures are obviously going to ride it into the ground and pick the bones clean. Could you leeches at least have the courtesy to leave O'Keefe alone while you destroy yourselves?
— John Hawkins (@johnhawkinsrwn) May 31, 2023
And he had this to say today:
"BREAKING EXCLUSIVE: CHAOS at Project Veritas—almost ALL employees have been laid off: sources…."Since James quit," a source told Post Millennial, "the donations dried up…the donations never resumed."
If only some genius could have seen this coming before it happened! https://t.co/aPnHLynpaR
— John Hawkins (@johnhawkinsrwn) August 17, 2023
We need something like Project Veritas. Of course, O’Keefe is popping along in his new venture, and that seems to be growing nicely, so maybe we have what we need without Project Veritas.
Either way, we don’t have Project Veritas anymore. And that might be just and foreseeable, but it isn’t a good thing.
5. In Louisiana, Much Hope for a Red Wave
I’ll probably do more on this in a column next week, but this week I’ve spent a ton of time with the other board members of the Louisiana Freedom Caucus PAC, of which I’m the director, doing Zoom calls with state legislative candidates. We have an election cycle coming up in the fall, which is the big statewide and legislative cycle, so all 105 House seats and all 39 Senate seats, as well as all the statewide officials and lots of other races, are up for grabs.
The PAC I’m running is tasked with trying to grow the membership of the Louisiana Freedom Caucus, which was inaugurated this spring. So far, that growth is assured. Our candidate calls have been a real eye-opener — the establishment and legacy media narrative is that the Freedom Caucus is a fringe group, and yet in race after race, we’re finding that the frontrunners are practically beating down our door to align with it. These guys are populist conservatives through and through, and more than that they’re telling us their voters are demanding that they be thus.
And a state legislative candidate who tells you that generally isn’t faking it. You win a state legislative race by walking your district night after night, and those people will absolutely tell you what they want.
I’m saying all this as a preface to something which popped up on Wednesday night, which is a poll by Emerson College on the governor’s race which was commissioned by a big group of TV stations in the state. That poll showed Jeff Landry, the state attorney general who has Donald Trump’s endorsement and is the most aggressive conservative in Louisiana politics in recent memory (Landry, among other things, is one of the two prime movers in pushing the Missouri v. Biden censorship case which has become a waterfall of trouble for the administration), sitting at 40 percent in the jungle primary race.
There are 16 candidates in the race. Seven of them are considered “major” candidates, and five of those are Republicans. The Democrat, Shawn Wilson, is the former head of the state Department of Transportation and Development — and if you’ve ever driven on the roads in Louisiana, you’ll know what an awesome job he did. [sarcasm]
Big numbers:
The Nextar Media poll found that when they asked participants, “If election for governor were held tomorrow, who would you vote for at this time?” Jeff Landry came in at 40 percent, Shawn Wilson at 22 percent, Sharon Hewitt and Stephen Waguespack at 5 percent each, John Schroder at 4 percent, and Hunter Lundy at 3 percent. Seventeen percent were undecided.
Since that poll came out, people are now talking about the possibility Landry can get over 50 percent in the primary and close off a runoff. Hewitt, Waguespack, Schroder, and Richard Nelson, the four Republicans in the race, have all styled themselves as conservatives, so given that it’s beginning to look mathematically impossible for any of them to make the runoff, it’s likely you might see some of their votes peel off and move to Landry.
Should that happen, he starts needing less and less of that undecided vote, most of which is the Democrat vote that Wilson is so far too weak to lock in to get over 50.
Point is, this is beginning to look like the biggest conservative wipeout election Louisiana has ever seen — more on this next week.