I once had the pleasure of going on animal safari. There is no better way to experience the beauty of the wild in their natural environments than safaris. They enable one to go into nature to observe the beauty of all that is our outdoor friends.

We saw tigers and giraffes. We saw gazelles and camels and beautiful llamas. Some of them yelled . Some called to us. It was an adventure. It is something I would recommend for any animal lover.

It is quite natural when animals howl — and yell — and speak to us in their native tongue. It is quite another when humans do this. One thing we did not see on this safari was Gym Jordan. Jungle Gym. Jungle Gym shouts as loudly as the most primitive beasts. And yet it is not natural. It is not natural at ALL for one human to be so angry all the time.

Many say it is an act. I disagree. I certainly am not saying some don’t wear political masks. But Jungle Gym is entirely too comfortable in his chosen role. Such anger! What does he do with all that rage when he’s not on the House floor?

Why Jungle Gym makes threats, of course. What else could one as empty-headed as him DO with his pitiful life? It has barely been night and a day since Jack Smith was announced as the special counsel to investigate Trump. And now Jungle Gym is already screaming.

His screams have no rhyme, reason, beginning, or end. Amid these screams are a few words. He went on Fox and told host Maria Bartiromo that he might look into investigating Jack Smith. Jungle Gym wants to examine the special council before he’s actually DONE anything.

And I write about this not because I’m angry. I am amused. Jungle Gym, you see, is a big reason why I believe the GOP lost as badly as they did. The “exhausted majority” isn’t just a catch-phrase. It’s real. And one of the things the American people are tired of is screaming.

Years of Jungle Gym’s screams — among others. Who WOULDN’T be driven halfway insane by it all? So let him investigate — and investigate. All these investigations will do is likely win us the House back in 2024. So go forward, Jungle Gym, into the quiet night. Keep on screaming and draining the nerves of the American people. And then watch us win — again.

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The Democratic chair of the House Oversight Committee is under scrutiny after she allegedly “solicited or accepted impermissible gifts” when she tried to land a spot on the invite list to the swanky Met Gala in 2016.

The House’s Office of Congressional Ethics in June voted unanimously to investigate Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D., N.Y.) after it interviewed and reviewed emails from executives at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, which hosts the gala, indicating the powerful Democrat tried to leverage her influence to get invited.

“I received a call this past week from Carolyn. She is unhappy to say the least that she is not receiving an invitation to the Party of the Year,” said Emily Rafferty, a former president of the museum, in a 2016 email to several museum executives obtained by the ethics office. “She went on about how much she does for the Met, always responsive when you call, and proactive re the institution’s concerns in DC. … I highly recommend you include Carolyn.”

Those communications suggesting Maloney tried to capitalize on her ability as a congresswoman to benefit the museum in order to get into the gala—a star-studded affair in which celebrities such as Beyoncé, Kanye West, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez appear in extravagant outfits—inclined the ethics office to decide there is “substantial reason to believe” Maloney acted improperly.

The investigation is another dark spot on the Oversight chair’s record—she’s faced accusations of pursuing a vendetta in the committee’s investigation of the Washington Commanders NFL team, and she won’t return to office next year after losing to Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D., N.Y.) in the August Democratic primary. In 2009, she attracted controversy after she used the “N”-word in recounting a phone call she received.

The ethics office noted in its report that Maloney has secured millions in funding for the museum since 2003 and lobbied in March 2020 for billions in coronavirus funding for nonprofit museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Maloney’s office has also lobbied New York’s redistricting commission to include the museum within her district’s boundaries, according to communications obtained by the ethics office.

Maloney denied any recollection of requesting an invite in an interview with the ethics office. Maloney’s counsel played off her communications with museum executives as an attempt to resolve “confusion” about her absence on the invite list, trying “merely to understand her invitation status.”

The ethics office found evidence Maloney may have tried to secure a spot at the gala in 2020 as well. After asking a staffer in an email whether she had received an invite to the gala and being told no, Maloney asked the staffer for a way to contact a museum executive.

The post House Democrat Under Investigation for Trying To Score Ticket to Met Gala appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Ticketmaster and owner Live Nation Entertainment, the events ticketing giant behind the recently botched sale of Taylor Swift concert tickets, should be broken up by the Department of Justice if any misconduct is found in an ongoing investigation, Democratic senators said Monday.

In a letter to the U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, senators Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts said that “an investigation alone does nothing for the stakeholders already harmed by Live Nation’s market dominance and seemingly ongoing anticompetitive behavior.”

If the company, which controls an estimated 60% of the market for promotion of major concerts and events “has continued to abuse its dominant market position” despite two previous DOJ actions, “we urge the Department to consider unwinding the Ticketmaster-Live Nation merger and breaking up the company,” they wrote.

“This may be the only way to truly protect consumers, artists, and venue operators and to restore competition in the ticketing market.”

Live Nation and Ticketmaster merged in 2010 after a DOJ-brokered settlement that officials said would encourage competition and send ticket prices down. Instead, “across all genres and venues, Ticketmaster prices have more than tripled in the past 20 years,” the senators wrote.

Tickets for Swift’s U.S. ‘Eras’ concert tour, which went on sale last week, were hard to get amid website outages, poor customer service and long wait times, and are selling for thousands of dollars on resale sites.

The DOJ has proven in recent years much more willing to file antitrust lawsuits against giant companies – including the ongoing December 2020 lawsuit against Google – and fight mergers.

(NewsNation) — Colorado Springs officials say the Club Q patrons who subdued a gunman Saturday night are heroes who kept the tragedy from being even worse. 

The gruesome attack happened just before midnight in the popular gay nightclub, when a gunman used a shotgun to kill at least five people and injured 25. The toll would’ve been higher without two “very heroic individuals,” Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers said. 

One patron reportedly took the handgun from the shooter and hit him with it, while another held the gunman down until police arrived. The crowd at the club was lighter than usual, due to cold weather.

Police received a 911 call at 11:57 p.m. and arrived within four minutes. 

Officials have identified the suspect as 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich, who may be charged with a bias-motivated crime in addition to murder.

Advocates say hate crimes against LGBTQ people have increased in recent years. A recent report said at least 32 transgender people have already been killed in 2022. 

“We must drive out the inequities that contribute to violence against LGBTQI+ people. We cannot and must not tolerate hate,” President Joe Biden said Monday in a speech.

Aldrich may have previously been investigated by police over an alleged bomb threat in 2021, the BBC reports, after his mother had called emergency services saying “he was threatening to cause harm to her with a homemade bomb, multiple weapons, and ammunition.”

Matthew Haynes, the owner of Club Q, told The New York Times the club had an active shooter protocol, which was “followed to the letter.” 

By acting quickly, Haynes said the heroic patrons likely saved “dozens and dozens of lives.”

“Stopped the man cold,” he said. “Everyone else was running away, and he ran toward him.”

One patron reportedly took the handgun from the shooter and hit him with it, while another held the gunman down until police arrived. The crowd at the club was lighter than usual, due to cold weather.

(NewsNation) — Three of the law enforcement recruits injured in a horrific car crash last Wednesday remain in critical condition and at least one recruit is in a fight for his life.

Alejandro Martinez has suffered setbacks and is now in “grave condition,” the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in a news release Sunday afternoon.

Martinez was one of 75 recruits jogging in South Whittier, California when a wrong-way driver accelerated to about 40 mph and plowed into the group. The crash injured 25 recruits, five of them critically.

The driver, identified as 22-year-old Nicholas Joseph Gutierrez, was released from custody Thursday after authorities determined they didn’t have enough evidence to charge him at the time.

Gutierrez suffered minor injuries and says the collision was an accident after he fell asleep at the wheel. He has been cooperating with the investigation.

“We want to emphasize that Nicholas was on his way to work and had no drugs or alcohol in his system at the time of this tragic accident,” Gutierrez’s defense attorney, Alexandra Kazarian, said in a statement.

Kazarian did not elaborate but reiterated claims made by Gutierrez that facial injuries he suffered came at the hands of recruits pummeling him after the incident.

Officials found marijuana in the SUV at the time of the crash but Gutierrez passed a field sobriety test, sources told the Los Angeles Times.

Gutierrez could still face charges as the investigation remains ongoing. The Los Angeles County Sheriff previously told NewsNation that the evidence suggested this was not an accident.

“With the video surveillance, statements from the recruits, the physical evidence they had and what they got from the suspect himself, they were able to form the opinion that this was a deliberate act,” LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said Thursday.

Despite that, authorities say more evidence is needed before they can file charges.

In the meantime, the tragedy continues to weigh heavily on those at the training academy.

“It’s just a terrible situation,” said Larry Blackwell, a retired LA County sheriff. “You put your life on the line when you’re in that career and here you are at the very beginning and now there’s a possibility we may have people lose their lives.”

The California Highway Patrol is leading the crash investigation. Neither CHP nor the LA County Sheriff’s department provided an update on the investigation Monday.

SEOUL (Reuters) – Although the unexpected appearance of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s daughter raised speculation that she could be a successor in the making, analysts say it would be an unprecedented uphill struggle in the male-dominated dynasty.

Each change at the top in North Korea has raised the prospect of a leadership vacuum or collapse of the Kim dynasty, which has ruled the country since its founding in 1948.

Kim Jong Un’s daughter – who was not named in state media – appeared in coverage of a ballistic missile launch on Saturday, watching the firing and holding her father’s hand as he examined the missile. This provided the first official confirmation that Kim has children, and underscored a message that the family is here to stay, analysts said.

They cautioned that it is far too early to tell whether she is a successor or simply a symbol used to assure citizens that nuclear weapons would protect children and be “monuments to be passed down to our descendants for generations,” as state media reported.

Chun Su-jin, the South Korean author of a book on North Korean women leaders, said the chance of North Korean elites welcoming Kim’s daughter as ruler is close to zero.

“It is not ready to welcome a leader of the other gender,” she said. “(Kim) is just staging a show that he is a loving father, not just a brutal dictator who shoots missiles.”

Others argue that despite North Korea’s deeply patriarchal society, gender may not disqualify a daughter or other woman from taking the reins.

Barring a sudden health problem that leads to his incapacitation or death, there is a fair amount of time before Kim, believed to be nearly 40, needs to consider a successor, said Michael Madden, director of North Korea Leadership Watch.

“That gives ample time for North Korea’s political culture to change and create the conditions for a female successor,” Madden said.

Kim has elevated several powerful women around him, including his sister, Yo Jong, and Choe Son Hui, the country’s first woman foreign minister.

“Kim Jong Un belongs to a different generation than his grandfather and his father, and in some ways, he appears more receptive to change than his forefathers,” said Rachel Minyoung Lee of the 38 North research organisation.

Based on reports by former American basketball player Dennis Rodman, who spent time with Kim’s family in 2013, the North Korean leader is believed to have at least one daughter who is about 12-13 years old, Madden said. Analysts believe Kim may have as many as three children.

If Kim has any sons, they could still have an advantage to continue the male-centric “Mt. Paektu bloodline,” Lee said, referring to a volcano on the Chinese border that plays a central role in the ruling party’s mythology.

Women have held senior roles in North Korea over the years, but Kim Jong Il passed over several older daughters and sons to anoint Kim Jong Un, despite speculation at the time that his second daughter could be his successor, Madden noted.

The increased participation of North Korean women in elite politics does not necessarily indicate change to the broader social or political systems, 38 North said in a 2020 report.

North Korea is deeply isolated from world geopolitics and is under UN sanctions for its weapons programmes, which include nuclear bombs.

According to human rights activists, sexual and gender-based violence remains “endemic”, and COVID-19 border lockdowns and restrictions on previously growing market economies have been particularly hard on the women, who made up much of that workforce.

“In North Korea, gender is still important to be a leader,” said Hyun In-ae, a North Korean defector who now works at the Ewha Institute of Unification Studies in Seoul.

When rumours and speculation arose in 2020 about Kim Jong Un’s health, his sister was seen a possible placeholder to take over the family dynasty until one of Kim’s children was old enough.

Believed to be in her early 30s, Kim Yo Jong is the leader’s only close relative with a public role in politics, spearheading a new, tougher campaign to put pressure on South Korea and in some cases operating as a “de facto” second in command, according to South Korean intelligence.

Based on previous leaders, any children will need education and on the job experience before they can be considered for supreme leadership, and in about 10 years we can expect her to have begun an official career, Madden said.

If, over the next decade, Kim’s daughter becomes closely associated with economic development and the missile and nuclear weapons programmes, then the North Korean political and military apparatus could position her as the promising next generation of the Paektu line, said Darcie Draudt of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs.

“Bottom line: the bloodline, and military and economic development bona fides, matter more then gender in the fourth generation of the Kim Dynasty,” she said.

Indonesian rescue workers were racing on Tuesday to reach people still trapped in rubble after an earthquake devastated a West Java town a day earlier, killing at least 162 people and injuring hundreds, as officials warned the death toll may rise.

The epicentre of the shallow 5.6-magnitude quake was close to the town of Cianjur in a mountainous area of Indonesia’s most populous province. The tremor on Monday afternoon prompted panicked residents to flee onto the streets as buildings collapsed.

Overnight a hospital parking lot in Cianjur was inundated with victims, some treated in makeshift tents, others hooked up to intravenous drips on the pavement, while medical workers stitched up patients under the light of torches.

“Everything collapsed beneath me and I was crushed beneath this child,” Cucu, a 48-year-old resident, told Reuters, from the crowded hospital parking area.

“Two of my kids survived, I dug them up… Two others I brought here, and one is still missing,” she said through tears.

On Tuesday morning, hundreds of police officers had been deployed to assist in rescue efforts, Dedi Prasetyo, national police spokesperson told the Antara state news agency.

“Today’s main task order for personnel is to focus on evacuating victims,” he said.​​

At least 162 people were killed in Monday’s quake, many of them children, with more than 300 injured, West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil said, warning some residents remained trapped in isolated places.

Authorities were operating “under the assumption that the number of injured and death will rise with time”, he said.

The national disaster agency (BNPB) said it had confirmed the deaths of 62 people, but had not verified 100 additional victims.

On Tuesday, officials were working to reach the area of Cugenang, which had been blocked off by a landslide.

Rescue efforts were complicated by electricity outages in some areas, and more than 80 aftershocks.

The earthquake, which was felt strongly in the capital Jakarta, some 75 km (45 miles) away, damaged at least 2,200 homes and displaced more than 5,000 people, the BNPB said.

Straddling the so-called “Ring of Fire”, a highly seismically active zone where different plates on the earth’s crust meet, Indonesia has a history of devastating earthquakes.

In 2004, a 9.1 magnitude quake off Sumatra island in northern Indonesia triggered a tsunami that struck 14 countries, killing 226,000 people along the Indian Ocean coastline, more than half of them in Indonesia.

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Amid the blood and chaos of a mass shooting in a Colorado LGTBQ club, two men emerged from the crowd to subdue the gunman.

Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers identified the “two heroes” as Rich Fierro and Thomas James. Suthers told a news conference on Monday they “saved a lot of lives” at Club Q in Colorado Springs late Saturday.

Officials did not elaborate on the men’s actions. Fierro’s wife Jess Fierro said Monday that her husband, a decorated U.S. Army Afghanistan and Iraq veteran and microbrewery owner, hit the shooter with the suspect’s pistol before he and the other man pinned down the gunman after five people were killed and 17 wounded.

The dead included the boyfriend of the Fierros’ daughter, Fierro’s wife Jess said in a post on her family brewery’s Facebook page.

The Fierros had been celebrating a friend’s birthday at Club Q when the attack took place, Jess Fierro said.

Raymond Green, the boyfriend of her daughter Kassy, was shot dead and the couple’s two best friends were both shot multiple times, she said by text message. Colorado Springs police identified a Raymond Green Vance among the dead.

At this point, Rich Fierro rushed the shooter, pulled him to the ground, then grabbed the gunman’s pistol and hit him with it, Jess Fierro said by text.

“Rich injured both his hands, knees and ankle as he apprehended the shooter. He was covered in blood,” Jess Fierro said.

The Fierro’s Atrevida Beer Company was closed on Monday as family members gathered at their home in a quiet Colorado Springs suburb to mourn.

Speaking from her doorstep, Jess Fierro told Reuters the violence sparked her husband’ s post traumatic stress disorder.

Fierro served 14 years in the military and was awarded the Bronze Star twice as he served as a field artillery officer during three tours of Iraq and a tour of Afghanistan, U.S. Army records show.

I begin with a caveat. What I am about to say is conjecture, unsupported by physical or documentary evidence and, as far as I know, unvoiced by anyone else. But the conclusion is so compelling (to me, anyway) that I share it with you, brothers and sisters, for the first time.

I believe that, among the many excellent reasons Attorney General Merrick Garland has seen fit to appoint a special counsel to superintend the several criminal investigations into Donald Trump, there may be room for one or two more reasons. First, prior to his appointment as America’s top law enforcement officer, Mr. Garland spent the previous 25 years or so as a judge. Though he began the most serious part of his public professional life as a prosecutor, his recent experience has been in the staid and careful realm of the judiciary. Mr. Garland thinks, and correctly I would venture to say, that the job of prosecuting Trump should fall to a younger man or woman with more recent prosecutorial combat experience.

Such a person, with the almost comically average name of Jack Smith, has been found. Interestingly, it turns out that Mr. Smith is that rare thing, a prosecutor who does not take into account his own prosecutorial win/loss record when deciding whether or not to indict.

Second, I think the AG understands how delicate this matter is, and it’s part of his recent experience with the judiciary, together with his known personal habit of fanatical circumspection about the appearance of impropriety, that drives him. He doesn’t want any hint of political bias to pollute the process. Any pursuit of Trump must therefore be done without fear or favour, without passion or prejudice.

Finally, I think Mr. Garland understands that the time to prosecute Donald Trump has finally arrived. The investigative part is over and it’s time to indict. Merrick Garland inherited the office of the attorney general from a man who used it as a personal weapon to protect and avenge Donald Trump, and he wants to avoid any similar appearance of prosecutorial misconduct or bias. Therefore Garland believes the job of prosecuting Trump should fall to someone else — but it should happen and it should happen RIGHT NOW.

I think Mr. Garland knows that any prosecutor will look at the evidence he and his various teams have amassed and reach the same conclusion he has: that sufficient cause has been shown to proceed with an indictment of the former president of the United States. In other words, the time we have all been so desperately waiting for has come at long last. In short, this is Merrick Garland’s way of saying he intends that Donald Trump be prosecuted and the prosecution is to begin right away, within the next 30 to 90 days.

Do you agree? It all makes sense to me. But making sense and being true are often two different things. I hope it’s true, because it suggests two possibilities. First that Donald Trump will be pursued without any appearance of partisan bias, and second that Republicans will have less cause to complain or misrepresent his prosecution as a witch hunt.

Of course they will cry “witch hunt” anyway, but fewer people will believe them. More people will look at the circumstances and think to themselves that every effort was made to ensure a fair and impartial prosecution, insofar as it was possible to do so in these turbulent times.

Whether or not I am right (or even original in these thoughts) remains to be seen. Whatever the case, now is the time to watch and wait. It may not even be premature to lay in a fresh supply of popcorn. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.

The post Without fear or favor appeared first on Palmer Report.