Mike’s Blog Round-up

New York Times: “By stepping down now, as the conservative writer Erick Erickson observed, Wray has created a ‘legal obstacle to Trump trying to bypass the Senate confirmation process.’” “Here’s why. According to the Vacancies Reform Act, if a vacancy occurs in a Senate-confirmed position, the president can temporarily replace that appointee (such as the F.

“Meta Platforms has donated $1 million to president-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural fund, the latest step by CEO Mark Zuckerberg to bolster his once-fraught relationship with the incoming president,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “The donation, confirmed by the company, is a departure from past practice by Zuckerberg and his company, and comes after an election campaign in which Trump threatened to punish the tech tycoon if he tried to influence the election against him.”

President-elect Donald Trump chose Kari Lake, the former TV news anchor turned election denier who lost races for senator and governor of Arizona, to lead Voice of America, a federally funded broadcaster that aims to offer unbiased news to audiences around the world, the New York Times reports. The announcement came as Mr.

Arizona’s attorney general has sued a Saudi-owned farm operating a massive hay operation in the middle of the Arizona desert, alleging that the business is hastening the loss of the rural community’s rapidly depleting groundwater supply.  The farm owned by Fondomonte uses billions of gallons of groundwater in La Paz County each year to irrigate the desert to grow hay, which it then ships back to the Middle East to feed dairy cows.

Donald Trump’s nominee for FBI director, Kash Patel, ignored questions on Tuesday from reporters about the revelation that Trump’s Department of Justice spied on dozens as part of a leak investigation. Patel walked down a hallway speaking to an aide as reporters peppered him with questions about the recent disclosure. Patel did not acknowledge the questions and did address concerns about the possible abuse of power. Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz released a report on Tuesday detailing actions undertaken by the DOJ in 2017 and 2018, when Trump was president.

CNN's Kaitlan Collins asked Sen. Ted Cruz about recent MAGA attacks against Sen. Joni Ernst, who heaven forbid dared to express some hesitation about allowing the nomination of Pete Hegseth to go through for Defense Secretary. Cruz refused to condemn the attacks, and instead did his best to "both sides" what's happening now, with these unqualified, dangerous zealots that Trump wants to jam through the Senate if they allow it, and how he behaved when blocking the moderates that Biden nominated for his cabinet. COLLINS: Do you think it's fair that someone should be threatened with a primary just because they're not totally committed to a nominee yet? CRUZ: Look, I think the voters are going to express their views.