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Katie Hobbs Takes Unconventional Move for Inauguration Ceremony

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    Photo via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    Arizona’s new governor is already off to a rocky start.

    On Monday, Katie Hobbs (D) was sworn in as Arizona’s newest governor. The ceremony received little coverage and was widely kept from the public eye because Gov. Hobbs barred reporters from attending the ceremony.

    According to local reporters, the Democrat’s team allowed only a single photographer from the Associated Press into the room at the state Capitol while directing others to instead watch the event via live steam

    “Arizona’s 24th governor, Katie Hobbs, assumed power at 10 a.m. on Monday and in her first official act, she decided to take the public’s business private. Not a great start,” tweeted Laurie Roberts, a columnist for The Arizona Republic.

    According to The Daily Wire, as Roberts pointed out in a column, the restricted access deprived reporters the ability to ask questions of officials who are now leading the state. Others who took office on Monday included Democrats Adrian Fontes as secretary of state and Kris Mayes as attorney general.

    Roberts also noted Monday was a state holiday and Hobbs will participate in a ceremonial inauguration Thursday. Still, she added, Hobbs “decided to take the public’s business private” in her first official act, part of a celebratory affair funded by secret donors.

    Hobbs faced a contentious election battle against Trump-backed news anchor Kari Lake who recently sued Hobbs over the election outcome. (RELATED: Kari Lake Appeals Election Contest Dismissal)

    According to The Washington Examiner, In the appeal filed with Arizona Superior Court on Tuesday, the MAGA Republican challenged the dismissal of several counts that were thrown out by Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson over the weekend. In his decision, Thompson ruled Lake’s campaign did not have sufficient evidence to support her claims that the election was influenced by intentional misconduct that handed Hobbs the victory.

    “I am standing up for the people of this state, the people who were done wrong on Election Day, and the millions of people who live outside of Maricopa County, whose vote was watered down by this bogus election in Maricopa County,” Lake told Steve Bannon on his War Room podcast on Tuesday.

    Lake signaled her intent to appeal the judge’s decision shortly after her lawsuit was thrown out, claiming her “election case provided the world with evidence that proves our elections are run outside of the law.”

    Don Jr. Signs Multimillion Deal with Video Streaming Platform

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      Photo via Gage Skidmore Flickr

      Donald Trump Jr. is taking his talents to Rumble.

      The former president’s oldest son has reportedly signed a seven-figure multi-year deal to host a podcast with the conservative social media website Rumble.

      According to The Hill, “Triggered” will debut later this month, streaming on Rumble and available on Locals, Rumble’s subscription platform, where following each episode, Trump Jr. will take live questions from viewers.

      Rumble has emerged in recent years as a smaller alternative to YouTube, formed amid long-held, unsubstantiated assertions from conservatives that Big Technology companies such as Apple, Facebook, and YouTube parent company Google are biased against their viewpoints

      “While other Big Tech companies are focused on censoring dissent, Rumble is building a platform that welcomes it, which is why so many content creators — all over the political spectrum — are now joining them,” he said in a statement this week.

      The official deal with Rumble comes as Don Jr. has seen his following on the platform skyrocket since his father left the White House.

      2023: The Year of War – China Readies to Battle America over Taiwan

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      See page for author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

      ANALYSIS – Former Trump National Security Advisor and retired Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster is on a tear with the media, warning the nation of the biggest threats America faces in 2023. 

      Earlier, I wrote about the growing risk that Israel’s new nationalist government led by prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may strike Iran before the end of this year to prevent the Islamist regime from finally getting a nuke.

      In that piece I quoted McMaster as saying: “the chances are quite high of a significant conflict in the Middle East, maybe entailing an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear program.”

      An Israeli-Iranian conflict would certainly spread across the Middle East as Iran retaliates directly and asymmetrically, including targeting U.S. bases and interests.

      And now McMaster warns about something most of us already know, but he brings new urgency to the threat – that China is preparing its military for war with the United States war over Taiwan.

      On CBS Face The Nation, McMaster said: “Xi Jinping has made it quite clear, in his statements, that he is going to make, from his perspective, China whole again by subsuming Taiwan.” 

      “And preparations are underway,” he added.

      Earlier, I reported here that the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) had just deployed one of its three aircraft carriers within miles of the U.S. territory of Guam, America’s small but strategic outpost in the Western Pacific.

      This is the closest the Chinese navy has ever sailed a warship of this size to any American territory.

      And it is sending a message – Chinese naval forces can get close to U.S. bases as well.

      But there is more. Newsweek also reported on McMaster’s CBS appearance:

      “China has become increasingly aggressive, not only from an economic and financial perspective and a wolf warrior diplomacy perspective, but physically, with its military,” McMaster said. “And what’s really disturbing is, I think, Xi Jinping is preparing the Chinese people for war.”

      He pointed to some of Xi’s speeches, which have taken on a hardline tone in recent months, as evidence that the U.S. should take the threat of war more seriously and “extend our power.” Doing so would also compel allies to invest more in their national defense, which would further serve as a deterrent, he added.

      Newsweek continued:

      McMaster’s warning follows other indications that China may be considering a war over Taiwan. In November, The Guardian reported that Xi told his military to “focus all its energy on fighting” to prepare for a potential war.

      “Focus all [your] energy on fighting, work hard on fighting and improve [your] capability to win,” he reportedly said.

      Welcome to 2023, the year America should be concerned not only with Russia’s war in Ukraine escalating and spreading into NATO Europe and possibly triggering some sort of nuclear incident, but also a war between Israel and Iran that could engulf the entire Middle East.

      And to top it off, this could also be the year we see a major catastrophic war with China over Taiwan.

      Or even worse – we may face all three regional military conflicts at once. Happy New Year!

      Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.

      Report:  DOJ has 99.8% conviction rate in MAGA riot cases

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      President Biden’s highly politicized FBI is on a warpath.

      A report by The Wall Street Journal showed the Department of Justice’s Federal prosecutions of the more than 900 people charged with unlawfully storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, have resulted in an overwhelming conviction rate of 99.8%.

      More than 180 people have been put behind bars for committing federal crimes, including obstruction, assault, and sedition.

      Virtually all who have since been arrested and charged had walked off Capitol grounds that day and were only taken into custody in the weeks and months after the incident.

      Federal investigators said the insurrectionists’ social media posts bragging about the undertaking greatly helped the DOJ identify and go after those who it believed committed serious crimes. Police body cameras and security cameras in the vicinity also assisted prosecutors with tracking the more than 900 charged to date.

      Some have blamed former President Trump for the protest-turned-riot Special counsel Jack Smith and the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol have been evaluating Trump’s role and considering possible charges.

      Last month, the House Select Committee investigating the events surrounding the January 6th, 2021 Capitol riot unanimously voted to recommend the Department of Justice criminally prosecute the former president.

      Donald Trump Points Finger at This Group for Lackluster Midterm Results

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      Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

      Finger pointing almost never solves anything but that isn’t stopping Donald Trump.

      On Monday, former President Trump blamed pro-life Republicans for last year’s disappointing midterm results after experts predicted the GOP to make definitive gains in the House and Senate. Trump’s comments come after some have blamed the results on the former President’s interference.

      “It wasn’t my fault that the Republicans didn’t live up to expectations in the midterms,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “It was the ‘abortion issue,’ poorly handled by many Republicans, especially those that firmly insisted on No Exceptions, even in the case of rape, incest or life of the mother, that lost large numbers of voters.”

      “Also, the people that pushed so hard, for decades, against abortion, got their wish from the U.S. Supreme Court, and just plain disappeared, not to be seen again,” he added.

      Trump’s comments on pro-life Republicans come as his presidential campaign experiences a dip in the polls. Prior to the midterms, Trump was the overwhelming favorite to be the Republican nominee, regularly winning primary polls with upward of 50% of the vote.

      Last month, a Wall Street Journal poll of Republican primary voters found that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) leads Trump by double digits for the GOP nomination.

      McCarthy Offers Concessions in House Rules Package But Critics Doubt It Will Be Enough

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      Photo via Gage Skidmore Flickr

      Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is getting desperate in his attempts to sway Republican detractors back in his favor.

      According to The Hill, Rep. McCarthy offered a number of concessions including allowing a move to “vacate the chair” that would force a vote on ousting the Speaker with the approval of five Republican members, rather than a threshold of at least half of the House GOP Conference that Republicans adopted in an internal rule in November. 

      The chamber is also scheduled to create a House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the “Weaponization of the Federal Government,” a recognition of a request to increase scrutiny on the Biden administration and intelligence agencies.

      In a letter to GOP colleagues, McCarthy — speaking as “Speaker-Designate” — also addressed a request from conservatives to have more representation on committees.

      “I will use my selections on key panels to ensure they more closely reflect the ideological makeup of our conference, and will advocate for the same when it comes to the membership of standing committees. This will facilitate greater scrutiny of bills from the start so they stand a greater chance of passing in the end,” the letter from McCarthy said.

      However, despite McCarthy’s best attempts to re-attract hardline Republican lawmakers back to his side, some conservatives said after a Sunday conference call that McCarthy is still coming up short.

      According to The Washington Examiner:

      During the course of the call, multiple members “said they won’t vote for it [the rules package] if Kevin is not Speaker,” one lawmaker told The Examiner. Another member said moderates expressed grievances with the changes to the motion to vacate despite pro-McCarthy lawmakers attempting to sell the package to defectors in hopes it would shift critics’ support toward the California Republican.

      “They started [the call] with this new rules package that we’re all about to see and are obviously saying the rules package – it’s great, everyone worked so hard, we got all these great things and they’re gonna be historic. And then [Gaetz] got on there and said, ‘Well, if everyone wants the rules package, we should accept it no matter who the speaker is because if these are good rules are good rules, right?’” the lawmaker said. “But then the mods piled on and said actually, we hate the rules package.”

      Following the call, a group of conservatives released a letter saying the California Republican’s changes had come up short of what was needed to secure support.

      “Regrettably, however, despite some progress achieved, Mr. McCarthy’s statement comes almost impossibly late to address continued deficiencies ahead of the opening of the 118th Congress on January 3rd. At this stage, it cannot be a surprise that expressions of vague hopes reflected in far too many of the crucial points still under debate are insufficient,” they wrote.

      “This is especially true with respect to Mr. McCarthy’s candidacy for Speaker because the times call for radical departure from the status quo — not a continuation of past, and ongoing, Republican failures. For someone with a 14-year presence in senior House Republican leadership, Mr. McCarthy bears squarely the burden to correct the dysfunction he now explicitly admits across that long tenure.”

      House Freedom Caucus chairman Scott Perry told The Hill on Sunday, “I think what he’s trying to do is the bare minimum that he needs to try and get to where he can get the votes. And that’s not indicative of somebody that really wants to embrace new ideas, reject the status quo and unify all members in the conference.”

      FBI Now Going After Its Critics as ‘Conspiracy Theorists’ Spreading ‘Misinformation’

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      Arrest image via Pixabay

      ANALYSIS – Be very afraid. It just keeps getting worse. Under Joe Biden, the FBI is daily being further weaponized against its critics and critics of the administration’s chosen narratives.

      Following the disclosures that the FBI was in regular contact with Twitter employees to ensure they censored speech they designated ‘misinformation,’ the Bureau attacked anyone who criticizes them by, you guessed it – calling it ‘misinformation.’

      It also called these FBI critics – ‘conspiracy theorists.’

      This is a favorite leftwing buzz phrase often used to smear conservatives. 

      The most recent outrage came when the FBI made a statement to FOX News this week after journalists posted screenshots of messages showing how FBI agents communicated with top Twitter officials relating to reports and potential posts about Hunter Biden.

      In its response statement, rather than addressing the valid concerns, the Bureau slammed its critics as ‘conspiracy theorists’ spreading misinformation.’

      And one legal expert, constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley, is sounding the alarm.

      He told FOX News that it is a “menacing thing” for the nation’s largest law enforcement agency to declare that “combatting disinformation” is one of its top priorities, and then attack free speech advocates for criticizing them.

      The Epoch Times reports:

      A spokesperson for the FBI told Fox News, in response to several “Twitter Files” installments, that “conspiracy theorists” are “feeding the American public misinformation” and said they are trying to discredit the bureau and its agents.

      That statement, Turley told Fox News, is “disturbing” because the FBI has allegedly “attacked many of us who were raising free speech concerns and called all of us collectively ‘conspiracy theorists spreading disinformation.’

      “It was highly inappropriate, because the FBI has said that combatting disinformation is one of its priorities. So, it is a very menacing thing when you have the largest law enforcement agency attacking free speech advocates,” Turley, a professor of law at George Washington University who served as an expert witness during former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment inquiry, told the outlet.

      The FBI’s outrageous response comes after journalist Michael Shellenberger wrote about the outrageous FBI-Twitter collusion:

      “What I quickly put together is a pattern where it appears that FBI agents, along with former FBI agents within the company [Twitter], were engaged in a disinformation campaign aimed at top Twitter and Facebook executives, as well as at top news organization executives to basically prepare them, prime them, get them set up to dismiss Hunter Biden information when it would be released.”

      Turley noted that Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk “has confirmed that the FBI paid social media companies to help them deal with what they called disinformation, which most of us call censorship.”

      Turley added to FOX that the FBI “were in continuous communication [with Twitter], as were other agencies, targeting specific citizens and specific posters to be banned or suspended.”

      “That really does smack of an agency relationship and that could violate the first amendment,” he warned.

      But be very afraid, because things are now getting worse.

      Now the FBI may also be coming after anyone who points out this clear and demonstrated FBI-Big Tech collusion for being a “conspiracy theorist” spreading “misinformation.”

      Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.

      Final Bit of Democrat Insanity at End of 2022

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      Pixabay free images

      ANALYSIS – As we end yet another crazy year, we have a new report on how Democrats continue to be the crazy party. 

      Despite substantial scientific evidence to the contrary, a majority of Democrats still favor masking toddlers to battle the spread of COVID.

      A recent I&I/TIPP Poll showed this mass insanity when 56% of Democrats said they believed masking children under the age of 5 is still a good idea.

      In contrast, only 24% of Republicans and 31% of independents believed that masking toddlers is a good idea.

      When asked if masking toddlers was a bad idea, as much of the scientific evidence now shows, 58% of Republicans and 38% of independents said they think it is a bad idea.

      And only 24% of Democrats thought the same way.

      But the divide goes deeper, with ideology, race, and ethnicity playing big roles as well.

      The Blaze reported:

      When respondents were grouped by ideology rather than party, there was a similar divide: 56% of conservatives thought it was a bad idea; 31% of alleged conservatives supported the initiative. Liberals again majoritively (54%) supported covering children’s faces.

      Ideology and party were not the only differentiators.

      Only 33% of white Americans said it was a good idea, whereas 48% of black and Hispanic respondents supported masking kids. On the other hand, 44% of white respondents and 28% of black and Hispanic respondents were opposed.

      When it came to opposing the idea, 39% of women were opposed — two points higher than their male counterparts.

      The Blaze continued:

      I&I intimated that what might partially account for the significant ideological split between the right and the left on the matter of masking kids is media and activist suppression of legitimate medical studies putting the efficacy of masking children in doubt.

      Numerous studies questioned the effectiveness of masking in protecting from serious COVID effects.

      As The Blaze explains, these studies highlight the adverse impact masks have on toddlers’ communication skills and the relative unlikelihood of children becoming severely sick from COVID.

      The Blaze also notes that neither the World Health Organization (WHO) nor the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control recommends masking little kids.

      Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.

      Kevin McCarthy Makes Key Concession in House Speaker Battle

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      House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy delivers remarks at the 2021 Capitol Christmas Tree lighting ceremony in Washington DC, December 1, 2021. USDA Forest Service photo by Tanya E. Flores.

      Current House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy just made a key concession in what has become an uphill battle to become Speaker of the House once the GOP takes control of Congress on Jan. 3rd.

      Six Republican sources familiar with internal discussions told CNN that McCarthy conceded to reducing the threshold that is required to force a floor vote on ousting the sitting speaker in an effort to win over holdouts.

      One of the numbers that has come up in recent conversations between McCarthy and GOP lawmakers – and which has not been previously reported – is a five-person threshold, according to two of the Republican sources.

      Currently, the majority of the House GOP is required to call for the so-called motion to vacate the speaker’s chair. However, some conservatives such as Reps. Matt Gaetz (FL) and Ralph Norman (S.C.) are pushing for a single member to be able to call for such a vote, which they see as an important mechanism to hold the speaker accountable.

      A five-person threshold, however, may be too low for the moderate wing of the party, some of whom have privately suggested they would be willing to agree on a 50-person threshold.

      The compromise which McCarthy previously said he would not budge on could be key to unlocking the votes he needs to secure the speakership. But his willingness to negotiate on the issue also shows how desperate McCarthy is to seal the deal, even if it means giving away some of his power.

      “The ‘devil is in the details’ as far as threshold & other rule concessions,” Norman said. “Until the details are spelled out, in writing and sealed with social media posts, people will not move on votes.”

      Former Trump Official A Slams Ex-White House Press Sec. Kayleigh McEnany

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        Kayleigh McEnany via Gage Skidmore Flickr

        The claws are out.

        In a scathing attack former White House communications director Alyssah Farah Griffin called former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany a “liar and an opportunist” during her interview with the House Jan. 6th committee.

        “The View” co-host’s shocking view of her former colleague, was included in a batch of interview transcripts released by the House panel on Thursday. According to The Hill, Farah Griffin criticized McEnany for helping perpetuate the notion that the 2020 election was stolen throughout the interview.

        “I am a Christian woman, so I will say this. Kayleigh is a liar and an opportunist,” Farah Griffin said in her April interview with the committee. “She’s a smart woman. She’s a Harvard law grad. She knew we lost the election, but she made a calculation that she wanted to have a certain life post-Trump that required staying in his good graces.”  

        “She got her FOX News gig. It worked out precisely how she’d always planned for it to, but she knew better.” 

        She said McEnany wasn’t a “true believer” in the idea that former President Trump actually won the 2020 election. 

        Farah Griffin resigned from her position in the White House as then-President Trump continued his legal battles to overturn the 2020 election results.

        “The View” co-host has also faced accusations of being an opportunist and of shifting her political values to line up with her priorities at the moment.