BIDEN: ‘I Would Have Beaten Trump,’ ‘Kamala Would Have Beaten Trump.’

Biden made the remarks during an evening press conference at the White House, one of the rare moments that he has answered questions from reporters.

“Do you regret your decision to run for re-election?” a reporter asked Biden. “Do you think that that made it easier for your predecessor to now become your successor?”

Biden responded: “I don’t think so. I think I would have beaten Trump, could have beaten Trump, and I think that Kamala could have beaten Trump and would have beaten Trump.”

Video of Biden’s latest attack of Trunalimunumaprzure here:

BECAUSE MUSLIM RAPE GANGS ARE “NEW BRITONS” NOT EXTREMISM, DUH: Why the UK Government’s ‘Counter-Extremism’ Unit Is Investigating Elon Musk. “The UK government has tasked its “Counter-Extremism” unit with investigating billionaire Elon Musk following his sharp criticism of Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Musk’s recent comments, which included harsh rebukes of Starmer’s leadership and policies, have raised alarms among some government officials concerned that his high-profile remarks could stoke division or undermine public trust in political institutions throughout the country. While critics argue the investigation is an overreach, the move signals growing tensions between the government and influential public figures whose rhetoric challenges the political status quo.”

They’re doing it for the same reason a dog licks himself, or a Pakistani gang rapes ten-year-old white girls — because they can.

THE MAFIA WAS BETTER AT PROVIDING SERVICES: Obvious Blue Model Failure: “It’s unclear when the reservoir first went offline.”

The Los Angeles Times reports this morning — confirming a conspiracy theory that people have been spreading online as social media disinformation, of course — that the major local reservoir at the heart of Pacific Palisades was dry when the fire started, due to a torn liner. The newspaper quotes a city DWP official as saying that the reservoir has been out of service for repairs for “a while.” They’re not sure about an actual date. The story is illustrated with a photograph of the empty reservoir that was taken in 2022, so.

As the fire burned, the water supply in the Palisades came from three storage tanks that hold “1 million gallons each,” while the 117 million gallon reservoir was completely empty. You can read the whole story to dig into the several arguments that the reservoir wouldn’t have been entirely full even if it was working, and that the supply from the reservoir wouldn’t have been immediately and entirely available for firefighting, but nonetheless: the most important water storage facility in the heart of the burning neighborhood was empty because of maintenance problems, with city officials shrugging and mumbling about the details.

When government becomes a shakedown, all they care about is the money. Not what the money is supposed to go for.

Plus: “We replaced our fleet of police cars with Teslas, by the way, consistent with our climate action plan. The image of new patrol Teslas racing across potholed streets past cracked bridges to save the climate is very blue zone.”

UPDATE:

Also:

KAROL MARKOWICZ: In LA fire horror, California elites face the consequences of blue misrule.

It was mostly the lower and middle classes, walloped by notoriously high taxes, mismanagement at every level of government and crumbling infrastructure, who made a run for the door.

The affluent have been largely protected from all that.

They could easily absorb the heavy tax burden and the high costs of housing or gas.

Like Gov. Gavin Newsom, they could avoid their state’s failing public schools and send their kids to private schools instead.

But no water in a fire hydrant is a great equalizer.

Comedian Billy Crystal lost his home — all but its tennis court — in Pacific Palisades.

The homes of actors Anthony Hopkins, Miles Teller and John Goodman were wiped out there, too.

Heiress Paris Hilton said she saw her luxe Malibu vacation house “burn to the ground on live TV.”

It’s unpleasant to talk about the politics that led to the loss of entire neighborhoods, but it’s necessary to examine the terrible policies that led to this preventable disaster.

After over a decade of one-party rule, California has become the testing ground for the left’s most extreme ideas — and we are seeing the results in real time now.

Whether it was cutting the budget of fire departments, not refilling the reservoirs, ignoring deforesting guidelines under pressure from environmentalists or simply deflecting blame, California’s leaders are agonizingly inept — and it shows.

Exit quote: “Breaking with the left is a difficult thing to do in a sea of deep blue. Yet the Californians who woke up with this current crisis can’t go back to sleep now.”

I hope I’m wrong, but I suspect that’s exactly what many of them will do.

I DIDN’T HAVE “WINKLEVOSS BROTHER AS MORAL LEADER” ON MY CARD FOR 2025, BUT HERE YOU ARE:

JONATHAN TURLEY: Judge Merchan tries to defend himself after Trump sentencing — but he and Bragg are responsible for this monster.

Acting Justice Juan Merchan admitted that the case was “unique and remarkable” but insisted that “once the courtroom doors were closed, the trial itself was no more special, unique, and extraordinary than the other 32 cases in this courthouse.”

If so, that is a damning indictment of the entire New York court system. Merchan allowed a dead misdemeanor to be resuscitated by allowing Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to effectively prosecute declined federal offenses.

He allowed a jury to convict Trump without any agreement, let alone unanimity, on what actually occurred in the case.

Merchan ruled that the jury did not have to agree on why Trump committed an alleged offense in describing settlement costs as legal costs.

Neither the defendant nor the public will ever know what the jury ultimately found in its verdict.
See Also
Donald Trump appearing remotely for his sentencing hearing in New York Criminal Court via computer screen
Donald Trump sounds off, says Dems lost ‘pathetic’ witch hunt as he gets no-penalty sentence in ‘hush money’ case

I once described this case as a legal Frankenstein: “It is the ultimate gravedigger charge, where Bragg unearthed a case from 2016 and, through a series of novel steps, is seeking to bring it back to life … Bragg is combining parts from both state and federal codes.”

Even liberal legal experts have denounced the case and Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) recently called it total “bulls–t.”

Now, Merchan seemed quick to assure this Frankenstein case was just like any other creature of the court. It did not matter that it was stitched together from dead cases and zapped into life through lawfare.

Merchan knows that there is a fair chance this monstrosity will finally die on appeal, and he was making the case for his own conduct.

The verdict, however, is likely to last far longer than the Trump verdict. It is a judgment against not just Merchan but the New York legal system, which allowed itself to be weaponized against political opponents.

More significantly, many people will be reluctant to do business in New York in the future, given this, despite Governor Kathy Hochul’s (damning) assurance that no one but Trump would ever be subjected to charges like this.

Related:

EXACTLY:

AND THE HITS JUST KEEP ON COMING: LA’s $750k-a-year water chief Janisse Quiñones ‘knew about empty reservoir and broken hydrants’ months before fires.

The $750,000-a-year LA water czar is responsible for a raft of failures that contributed to the devastating Palisades Fire, fire department insiders told DailyMail.com.

On Mayor Karen Bass’s orders, the city maxed out its budget to ‘attract private-sector talent’, hiring Department of Water and Power (LADWP) CEO Janisse Quiñones on a $750,000 salary in May – almost double that of her predecessor.

Now, Quiñones is being blamed by LA Fire Department (LAFD) insiders for leaving a nearby reservoir disconnected and fire hydrants broken for months, DailyMail.com can reveal, leading to firefighters running out of water as they battled the devastating Palisades Fire this week.

And, Daily Mail.com has learned, Quiñones past employer is also linked to fire scandals. She was previously a top executive at electricity company PG&E, which went bankrupt over liability for several massive wildfires in California.

She served as senior vice president at Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) from 2021 to 2023.
The utility company’s power lines sparked the second-largest wildfire in California history, Dixie, in 2021. Its involvement in the 2018 Camp Fire cost PG&E a $13.5billion legal settlement.
The firm’s liability for allegedly causing fires was estimated at $30billion when it filed for bankruptcy in 2018. It exited bankruptcy in 2020.

But her LinkedIn Profile was perfect: “With a tenure at Los Angeles Department of Water and Power spanning seven months, our team has taken significant strides towards realizing a sustainable energy vision for the city. Harnessing project management skills and engineering acumen, we’ve focused on the integration of clean energy solutions and enhancing infrastructure resilience.”

YEAH, PRETTY MUCH: