And the tabs that spurred us on sit in browsers of all wrong, they decide and the clickbait sings the song ...

Ed: This reminds me of the first Star Wars movie, when Obi-Wan warns Vader about what will happen if Vader strikes him down. The Force is even stronger with this one. 

===

Newsweek: Texas Governor Greg Abbott has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Democratic gubernatorial nominee Gina Hinojosa seeking access to confidential communications between his office and Elon Musk's companies, calling it a “lazy political stunt.”

Hinojosa, state representative challenging Abbott in November, filed the lawsuit Monday, the first day of early voting in Texas, after the Republican governor's office denied her request to inspect unredacted records involving Musk and his businesses in the state.

Recommended
Nikole Hannah-Jones Still Doesn't Get It John Sexton Huge If True: Dems Throwing in the Towel in ... Minnesota? Ed Morrissey

"The lawsuit is baseless and nothing more than an act of desperation," Andrew Mahaleris, Abbott's press secretary, said in a statement. "Texans see this for what it is: a political stunt." ...

"What Gina is trying to do more than anything else is to try to get attention for her and her campaign," Abbott told reporters. "This election has slipped through her hands and she doesn't have any ability to do anything else other than to grasp at straws to get attention."

Ed: The lawsuit is absurd. Can we also get the emails between Reid Hoffman and the Talarico campaign? George Soros and any number of Democrat candidates? 'Stunt' barely covers the desperation at work in this move. 

===

... I'd be worried if I were him." 

"So they're going to start investigating again. You think he's not on the list? He's at the top of that list." 

"He has a very big sense of fate. And I think it's coming for him. And real hard." 

They're all just saying this stuff out loud now. There are no secrets about what they want to do.

Ed: Nope. The fascists have dropped the masks, starting with Elissa Slotkin and rapidly expanding outward. 

===

John Hinderaker at Power Line: A hallmark of a failed state is when politicians and their supporters can’t afford to give up power, because they will be criminally prosecuted by their successors if they do. Democrats have already tried to jail Donald Trump and various other Republicans, and they are now talking openly about bringing bogus prosecutions for the purpose of deterring people–young people, specifically–from coming out as Republicans....

On his way out of office, President Trump will likely have to issue pardons to hundreds or perhaps thousands of people who have served in, or merely supported, his administration. That probably will be the only way to protect them against misuse of the criminal law by Democrats to ruin their lives. Keep in mind, however, that presidential pardons apply only to alleged federal crimes. The Democrats can use state attorneys general or district attorneys to harass Republicans, as they did with Trump himself in New York and Georgia.

Ed: Letitia James and Fani Willis proved that well enough between 2021-24. James is still proving it to this day. Lawfare will be a key Democrat strategy until accountability for it comes from the voters. The first installment of that accountability came in 2024 with Trump's resounding win; let's hope the midterms will deliver another installment. 

===

... or trafficked. DNA testing can establish whether individuals claiming to be family members are actually related. Fraudulent family relationships can be used to exploit asylum and immigration systems and worse. Was the 'Omar Family' even a real family? It's a question worth asking, @JackPosobiec

Ed: I'm trying to come up with another explanation of why DNA would be important in an immigration case, and ... I'm coming up empty. That doesn't mean there isn't another explanation, but that this is the only one that fits the known parameters at the moment. If Omar isn't related to the man she claims was her father at entry and/or at naturalization, then that's fraud, and it raises questions about who she really is and why she's here – assuming, of course, that the reports about DNA evidence in this case are accurate in the first place. 

===

NBC News: The Supreme Court on Wednesday said the Trump administration cannot enforce a new policy that restricts treatment for transgender inmates in federal prison.

The justices in a brief order rejected an emergency application filed by the administration that sought to block a lower court injunction against the proposal. There are about 1,000 transgender inmates in federal custody.

The policy is part of President Donald Trump’s broader effort to roll back moves to expand transgender rights. It was announced in line with his January 2025 executive order telling federal agencies not to acknowledge the concept of gender identity outside of the “immutable biological classification” of male or female.

The court order included no explanation, saying only that two conservative justices, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, would have granted it.

Ed: Context is important here. The Supreme Court declined to intervene in this challenge before the actual trial. It may be that the court didn't think the administration was likely to prevail, but it may also be because the government would not suffer irreparable harm by continuing an existing policy until the merits were considered.  That seems a lot more likely, although the court didn't release an explanation for their demurral. This is not an assessment on the merits ... yet. 

===

Ed: This is the dumbest gun-control argument around. It's not surprising to see El-Sayed adopt it, in that sense. I wonder if he'd apply this to Gaza, a subject on which he expounds constantly. 

===

Axios: Russian President Vladimir Putin told White House envoy Steve Witkoff on Wednesday that he "agrees in principle" resuming trilateral peace talks between Russia, Ukraine and the U.S. to end the war, the Kremlin said.

Why it matters: The White House hopes Putin will show more willingness to compromise after President Trump agreed to lift sanctions on Russian diesel sales and took other steps welcomed by Moscow. For now, it seems the only concession Putin agreed to is to negotiate. ...

Before the meeting, Russia released U.S. citizen Stephen Hubbard, 74, who had spent more than four years in captivity after being seized by Russian troops in eastern Ukraine in April 2022.

Putin announced his release at the top of the meeting with Witkoff. "He is at Pulkovo Airport," Putin told Witkoff in front of the cameras.

Ed: The release of an American detainee certainly looks like a concession, especially given Hubbard's capture in a war zone. Trump and his team clearly want to end this war using carrots and sticks to incentivize a settlement. Trump's using carrots with Putin and sticks with Zelensky, which I think gets it backwards. However, it may still be effective, and the release of Hubbard is a good development regardless. 

===

Ed: I do care why they're rioting, but it's not about schools or the cost of living. It's about Islamist supremacy, and if we don't learn from this example, we'll have the same riots here sooner or later. 

===

William Otis at Ringside At the Reckoning: The smart and painfully honest Prof. Jack Goldsmith of Harvard Law has a piece up taking a look at the recent remarks by Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI). Prof. Goldsmith says they were “imprudent.” I’d use a different word: foretelling. They tell us what’s coming up when the Democrats are once again running the show. If you don’t like Trump’s using governmental power to advance his personal grudges — which you shouldn’t because it’s appalling, grossly abusive and dangerous — then you shouldn’t like what Sen. Slotkin has in mind either. Indeed you should like it even less, because Trump (rightly) takes a pasting for his treating the power of government as his Revenge Toy, while the Democrats, given their effective ownership of the MSM, are going to get, let’s say, gentler treatment, and hence will try, and get away with, more of it. ...

Persons of a certain age, like me, can remember when we were urged to go into government service to advance the public good.

That, ladies and gentlemen, was then. Now, if you go into government service, even at a low level, during The Wrong Administration (as I did in joining a Republican Justice Department when I got out of law school in 1974), you are fair game for Ms. Slotkin and those who think like her.

Ed: Worth reading in full, because there is a good argument to be made that the James Comey prosecution over his dumb '8647' social media post is exactly what Slotkin describes. What we need is an end to lawfare. William Otis is right, though, that this started with Democrats in 2016 (and Comey, for that matter), and that it will get worse the longer it goes on. 

===

Ed: Tafoya is hammering on this scandal, and for good reason. However, it fits better in the gubernatorial election, so let's hope Lisa DeMuth is taking Amy Klobuchar to task about it as well. Tafoya has a great line here at the end, too. 

===

Free Beacon: A radical, police-bashing activist who resigned from a nonprofit job in the wake of an antisemitism scandal has been named to a $225,000-a-year position "overseeing" New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani's (D.) Office of Criminal Justice, the Washington Free Beacon can reveal. ...

[Justine] Olderman—a longtime activist and former executive director of the Bronx Defenders, a major nonprofit public defenders' group based in the crime-ridden South Bronx—made multiple posts on her now-deleted X account calling for the complete dismantling of the NYPD and of policing in general.

"Do you need any more proof that reform isn't the answer?" Olderman thundered after the police in Kenosha, Wis., shot and seriously wounded Jacob Blake, leading to violent unrest, in August 2020.

"You cannot reform something that was created for the purpose of enforcing white supremacy and has never wavered in its commitment to doing just that," she said adding the hashtag "#AbolishThePolice."

Ed: Quelle surprise. Leftists want to dismantle law enforcement to allow "street actions" like those seen in France this month to result in mob rule and the imposition of socialism by force. This appointment is akin to tasking an arsonist with control of the fire department. 

===

He stole more than $4 million in benefits from needy families. Here he is posing with jewelry, private planes, piles of cash (burning bills), and generally being a dirty thug. This comes amid a nationwide crackdown by the Trump admin that has resulted in mulitple arrests in 13 different districts. 

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Americans getting ripped off. Good work. Onward.

Ed: I voted for this, and a lot more of it. It's not just Minneapolis. 

===

NY Post: Embattled Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) is allowed to speak freely about the federal immigration fraud investigation against her – a privilege President Trump was not afforded during his legal woes, Attorney General Todd Blanche noted on the latest episode of “Pod Force One.” 

Blanche, who served as Trump’s personal lawyer when the president faced four criminal indictments during his 2024 campaign, couldn’t discuss the details of the ongoing case against Omar but drew a contrast between the Minnesota Democrat’s treatment and the various gag orders imposed on Trump. 

“To the extent that [Omar’s] commented on it, one of the things that she said is that we’re not going to keep her quiet, right? We’re not trying to keep her quiet,” Blanche told “Pod Force One” host Miranda Devine. 

“There’s no effort by the Department of Justice, unlike the last Department of Justice that worked very hard to keep President Trump quiet by getting gag orders and the like – that’s not what we’re doing,” the attorney general added.  

Ed: Yes, that's one difference between the two different forms of lawfare. One side still respects constitutional rights. 

===

Ed: Whenever you sit for an interview with '60 Minutes' or really any Protection Racket Media outlet, record the interaction yourself. Make sure to keep it handy. 

===

===

Last night's lyric: "Photograph" by Ringo Starr.