Jimmy Cliff, born James Chambers, the trailblazing musician from Jamaica whose soulful voice and peace-themed lyrics propelled the genre from the island's streets to international stardom, died on Sunday at 81-years-old.

Ilhan Omar Says Somalians are the fabric of this nation. Okay, then why don’t they act like it and stop the shootings, terrorism, rapes and ranting against white people? I’m not saying this complaint has anything to do with their skin color, but it has everything to do with their criminal culture. Somalis, one of […] The post Ilhan Omar Smugly Informs the USA That Somalis Are the Fabric of Our Nation appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

Ukrainians like the European plan to end the war with Russia. NATO membership is part of it which is one of the reasons for the invasion. It won’t fly. They want no territorial concessions, EU membership, a ceasefire, and no change to the Ukrainian military. Russia will be compelled to rebuild Ukraine. Since Ukraine lost […] The post The European Peace Plan Is Ridiculous appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday launching a “national effort” to integrate artificial intelligence into research and accelerate innovation and scientific discovery. The Trump administration has made AI research and innovation a top priority as it seeks to win the AI “race” against China. The White House said the new national effort, named the Genesis Mission, will be one of the largest research and development projects in the history of the United States. Energy Secretary Chris Wright compared the effort that the Trump administration is coordinating for AI advancement to the Manhattan Project that developed the nuclear bomb and the Apollo Program that landed the first humans on the moon. “In this pivotal moment, the challenges we face require a historic national effort, comparable in urgency and ambition to the Manhattan Project that was instrumental to our victory in World War II and was a critical basis for the foundation of the Department of Energy (DOE) and its national laboratories,” the order states. The aim of the Genesis Mission is to build an AI model that will learn from and incorporate federal datasets “to train scientific foundation models and create AI agents to test new hypotheses, automate research workflows, and accelerate scientific breakthroughs.” Right now, DailyWire+ annual memberships are fifty percent off during our Black Friday sale. Join now at dailywire.com/blackfriday. The project will partner researchers at each of the United States’ 17 national laboratories with businesses and academic research centers to work on AI development and models. “The Genesis Mission will dramatically accelerate scientific discovery, strengthen national security, secure energy dominance, enhance workforce productivity, and multiply the return on taxpayer investment into research and development, thereby furthering America’s technological dominance and global strategic leadership,” the order states. The project will largely be run through the Department of Energy and its network of national laboratories that conduct some of the most sensitive research in the United States. “The Order directs the Department of Energy to create a closed-loop AI experimentation platform that integrates our Nation’s world-class supercomputers and unique data assets to generate scientific foundation models and power robotic laboratories,” a White House fact sheet on the order says.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday that steps to peace with Russia are “doable” under a renegotiated U.S.-backed peace plan. The White House introduced a 28-point peace plan last week in an effort to kickstart negotiations between Ukraine and Russia. The initial plan reportedly caused an uproar among Ukrainian officials for its seemingly favorable conditions for Russia, including giving all of the Donbas region to Russia while capping Ukraine’s military at 600,000 soldiers. Zelensky suggested in a video posted to social media on Monday evening that negotiations over the framework in Geneva have resulted in meaningful changes. “Now the list of necessary steps to end the war can become doable. As of now, after Geneva, there are fewer points – no longer 28 – and many of the right elements have been taken into account in this framework,” said Zelensky. “There is still work for all of us to do together to finalize the document, and we must do everything with dignity. We appreciate that most of the world is ready to help us and that the American side is approaching this constructively. Practically the entire day yesterday was filled with meetings – and it was challenging, extremely thorough work,” he added. The Ukrainian president said that Ukraine would not be the obstacle to peace, and that “there is the interest from Russia to derail this opportunity for an agreement and to prolong the war.” Today our delegation returned from Geneva after negotiations with the American side and European partners. Now the list of necessary steps to end the war can become doable. As of now, after Geneva, there are fewer points – no longer 28 – and many of the right elements have been… pic.twitter.com/bsaKyNXHQH — Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) November 24, 2025 The positive signs from Zelensky follow similar signals from the Trump administration. President Donald Trump said on Monday that “big progress” was being made in the negotiations to reach a final agreement. “Is it really possible that big progress is being made in Peace Talks between Russia and Ukraine??? Don’t believe it until you see it, but something good just may be happening. GOD BLESS AMERICA!” the president posted.

'He is a gravitational pull'

Books Wind and Truth Reread Wind and Truth Reread: Chapters 130-132 Adolin battles for his life, while Dalinar and Szeth stand and will not fight… By Paige Vest, Lyndsey Luther, Drew McCaffrey | Published on November 24, 2025 Comment 0 Share New Share Ahoy, Sanderfans, and welcome back to our Wind and Truth reread! We’re happy you’re here and we hope you’ve enjoyed these three chapters of rapid-fire POV shifts! We get to see Adolin facing off against Abidi, Dalinar being confronted by Gavinor, Shallan finally figuring out who Formless really is, Rlain and Renarin struggling to decide what to do about Mishram, and Szeth and Kaladin dealing with Ishar and his human Fused. SO MUCH IS HAPPENING! It is truly Sanderlanche time and we are HERE for it! Join us! The book has been out long enough that most of you will hopefully have finished, and as such, this series shall now function as a re-read rather than a read-along. That means there will be spoilers for the end of the book (as well as full Cosmere spoilers, so beware if you aren’t caught up on all Cosmere content). Paige’s Commentary: Plot Arcs Chapter 130, “The Pleasure of Bleeding,” starts with a Szeth POV. When last we saw them, Szeth, Kaladin, and Syl were approaching Ishar, waiting to find out what test the Herald has in store for Szeth. They confer with each other, wondering what will happen, and Kaladin reminds them that Nale said Ishar would test Szeth to teach him humility. (Yeah, like he hasn’t learned that yet. Okay, Ishy.) Szeth decides that he is done with killing “unless he was given a very good reason.” He will have to decide if the cost of fighting is worth it. Szeth announces to Ishar that he has finished his pilgrimage and Ishar, being the cocky, self-important Herald that he is, allows Szeth to approach. Kaladin and Syl follow him as he steps closer, while Nale remains in the wagon for now. Szeth asks Ishar if he was truly the Voice in his mind and Ishar confirms it, speaking directly into Szeth’s mind. Then he says Szeth has returned to him: “Refined, like the clay pot having been fired in the kiln.” He’s basically just used Szeth as if he was a plaything. This really pissed me off, the way Ishar is so arrogant and manipulative. Syl asks him where the spren are. Ishar replies that they rejected him, so he rejected them. Szeth guesses that Ishar did that so that his people would continue to look for spren and worship them, so that when the Voice suddenly popped into their heads, they would happily follow its commands. Ishar announces that it’s time for Szeth to become the first of the new Heralds, to train others to lead the human Fused and the spren armies. That’s not unsettling at all. At this point, Nale approaches, telling Ishar that he’s wrong, that none of them are able to see straight. Ishar is pretty rude to him, telling Nale that he’s weak and that he’ll be the next Herald to be replaced. Ishar assures Szeth he’s nearly ready. Kaladin directs Szeth to look behind them, where people are approaching the wagon. There are six other Honorbearers—the ones turned into Fused by Ishar—who each take an Honorblade from the wagon. Then they come forward, passing Kaladin and Szeth. Nale fetches the rest of the Honorblades, saying that something must be done. Then all of the Honorbearers put their Blades into the slots where they left them at Aharietiam; Nale talks of how there were nine before, except that they didn’t have Taln’s. Ishar says that they still have nine, as they’re missing the blade they sent with Szeth. Szeth replies that it was lost; Ishar assures him that a new one will form when he joins the Heralds. Then Szeth notices that one of the Honorbearers is his father. Ishar addresses Szeth again, telling him that it’s good that he has returned to his God. Kaladin immediately informs Ishar that he is not a god, and that they’ve come to try to help him. Ishar is disdainful, stating that Dalinar’s contest is about to begin and that he’ll fail. Then he tells Szeth that he must be humbled and that the Honorbearers will defeat him together. He instructs Kaladin and Syl to stand beside him so they don’t interfere. Szeth quietly tells Kaladin that he must talk with his father, and that while he fights, Kaladin must convince Ishar to release the Shin. Syl understands immediately: If Ishar agrees to this, then Szeth’s quest is fulfilled. Szeth will ascend to his next oath, which means that Ishar will be sane so Kaladin can speak with him. Kaladin doesn’t know how to convince Ishar to release Shinovar but Syl is sure they’ll think of something. Oh, my sweet summer child. *tsk* Seth goes to face the Honorbearers, intent on losing the fight while Kaladin somehow talks Ishar into releasing the Shin. POV Shift! Dalinar reaches the top of Urithiru, armed only with a copy of The Way of Kings. He’s early, but Taravangian also pops up early. Then he introduces his champion. He opens a portal from the Spiritual Realm and out strides a man in a Kholin uniform, carrying Oathbringer: Elhokar. POV Shift! Back to Szeth, who promptly gets beat down by his own father and then systematically beaten and kicked by the other Honorbearers. POV Shift! Adolin! He’s dodging attacks by Abidi the Monarch as best as he can, but he’s barely able to stay ahead of the Fused. He tries again to summon Maya but, of course, cannot. He tries to reach the throne to trigger the unlocking mechanism but can’t find it. Despite Abidi being awkward in the Plate—Adolin’s own Plate—Adolin is barely staying ahead of him as his peg makes him unstable. He thinks for a moment that he’ll die there, but then rallies and decides that he has to find a way to stop Abidi. He’s not doing so well, so he taunts Abidi, asking how he had survived Taln’s attack, and why he didn’t fight Taln if he’d wanted a challenge. Then he asks if Abidi ran away and the Fused kicks a table at him, clipping him on the shoulder. He decides to run and dodge, rather than taunt; then Abidi begins taunting him in turn, asking if he misses the power of the Plate, asking if he feels small. Adolin whispers that he has felt small for years. Ugh, I hate how Adolin feels so unimportant and impotent because he’s not a Radiant. And yet, in this moment he finds a new perspective, and realizes that the darkeyes had always felt small in a world of Shardbearers. Then he thinks of how Kaladin had managed to kill a Shardbearer years ago, and he remembers his training with Zahel. Adolin finds new strength and focus, remembering that training, and begins moving more confidently, accounting for the peg as he moves about. Abidi offers him a deal: If the emperor surrenders, he’ll let them both live. He wants Yanagawn to become his servant rather than remain the monarch of Azir in exile, where he could garner support. Abidi obviously hadn’t recognized Yanagawn without his accoutrements and Adolin pretends to consider the offer. As he does so, he looks to an overturned table that had been covered with finery. He grabs something from the ground and turns to face a strike of the Blade from Abidi… stopping it cold with an aluminum candelabra. Chapter 131 is titled “The Worth of a Life” and opens with Shallan facing Mraize. Radiant asks if Shallan wants her to handle this but she says she doesn’t need Radiant right now. She banters with Mraize a bit, as they’re wont to do, and Shallan thinks he’s too confident. She wonders what she’s missing. Then she thinks of Iyatil and asks where she is. Mraize says she’s watching Dalinar but Shallan, moving on instinct, suddenly turns to attack Formless, who is lurking to the side. POV Shift! Kaladin looks away from the very unfair fight unfolding around Szeth in order to focus on Ishar. Nothing he says fazes the man, who seems to know exactly what Kaladin is about to say and counters it. Kaladin starts to play the Syl-flute and Ishar shuts him down. He bluntly tells Kaladin to keep his rhymes and songs to himself: “The adults are trying to save the world.” POV Shift! Renarin and Rlain inspect Melishi’s corpse. Mishram rants about how the world must be broken. They speak with Mishram a bit, knowing they need to do something quickly in case Shallan fails. Renarin asks if they should help her and Rlain said Shallan didn’t sound as if she wanted help. They focus on the gemstone and try to come to a decision. POV Shift! Dalinar is reeling over the Elhokar reveal… and then the man speaks and calls him Grandfather. It’s not Elhokar, it’s freaking Gavinor, aged twenty years in the Spiritual Realm in the space of an hour, since Navani had returned with a fake Gavinor. “No,” Dalinar said. “I don’t believe it. I can’t. This is an illusion. A Fused wearing his face.”“Believe that lie if you wish,” Taravangian replied. “Maybe it will make you feel better when you kill him.” Gavinor has been conditioned during those “twenty years” to loathe Dalinar. Dalinar is utterly disgusted and tells Taravangian he’s done something truly horrific. He says he won’t fight his grandson and demands that Taravangian choose someone else. Of course, Taravangian will do no such thing. The Stormfather speaks in Dalinar’s mind, telling him it’s actually Gavinor. With this confirmation, Dalinar’s heart breaks. The contest hasn’t actually begun yet so he tries telling Gav that he’s been tricked and misled. Taravangian has prepared the boy, telling him that Dalinar would say this very thing. Gav says he was born to be a king and he will make the land his own. Taravangian has promised to give him Alethkar, and he vows that he will free their people. Dalinar insists he won’t fight Gavinor, but Taravangian says Dalinar is going to kill the boy—that he will save Alethkar and protect the cosmere by murdering an innocent. Chapter 132, “Fear What Is Coming,” opens with Adolin, who proceeds to attack Abidi with a plain sword and an aluminum candelabra. The Fused starts fighting in earnest and though he has the power of Plate, Adolin cares. He takes advantage of Abidi’s inexperience with the Plate and Abidi becomes frustrated and starts questioning his opponent. He asks why Adolin even bothers with this battle, as Azir isn’t his land. Adolin replies that the Fused made it everyone’s fight when they invaded. They brought him and so many others together, to stand against their common enemy. Adolin hesitated. “Besides. I promised I would help.”“Bah!” Abidi said. “You humans and your oaths.”“Not an oath,” Adolin whispered, parrying the Shardblade with a clang. “A promise.” In that moment, he realizes how different the two things are, in his mind, and the real importance of that distinction. POV Shift! Szeth’s spren is trying to help him, though it’s really not much help at all. He continues to get pummeled by the Fused Honorbearers and tries to yield. Ishar, however, won’t allow him to yield. He says it will be over when he says it’s over, when Szeth fights and loses. Szeth realizes that there should be seven Honorbearers there, but that there are only six. Then he sees the solution: He’d killed the Edgedancer with Nightblood. POV Shift! Rlain and Renarin kneel by the gemstone and clasp hands. Renarin asks what they should do and they ponder different strategies. They talk about finding another hiding place in the Spiritual Realm, or in Urithiru. Rlain thinks that someone, somewhere, would want this prison because Odium fears Misham. He wonders if it would be a betrayal of his people to free her. Tumi warns him to be very careful. Renarin asks Mishram why she led them to her; she continues to mutter about destroying them, though she grows quieter when Rlain says that she led them because she thought they might help her. After all her years of imprisonment, Rlain thinks that she still hopes for freedom. POV Shift! Ishar yells at Szeth to defend himself, and Kaladin notices that the Honorbearers get more aggressive when Ishar shouts. He tries to engage Ishar in conversation, as does Nale. Ishar is having none of it. He believes that he is the Almighty and can withstand the darkness that has stricken the other Heralds. Nale says the power of Odium has corrupted Ishar. Kaladin tries to antagonize Ishar, telling him he’s a god but leaves his people without choices. He says nobody worships Ishar, but Ishar insists they pray to the Almighty. Kaladin says they think they’re praying to Tanavast. He argues that Ishar forces people to follow him, that Ishar is just a pretender, pointing out that if Ishar released them and they still worshiped him, that would be different. Ishar sees the trick for what it is and asks Kaladin why he’s there. He says again that he didn’t foresee him coming. He chides Kaladin for being too broken to fight and unable to help with strategy, suggesting Dalinar sent him to Shinovar just to get him out of the way. Once, Kaladin would have been hurt by these words, but he’s grown, so he reminds himself that his worth doesn’t come from whether he helps, but whether he tries. As Ishar walks toward the fighting, Kaladin tells him again that he’s not a god, only a man, and that he needs help. Then the Wind returns. Syl says the spren are afraid, that they know something difficult is coming. Ishar says creepily that he has plans for the spren and that their fear of him should be greater than of that which is coming. Then he turns back to the ongoing brawl and yells at Szeth, telling him that he had not expected disobedience. Ishar furiously orders him to fight, and everyone’s attention turns back to Szeth and his failing Stormlight. Lyndsey’s Commentary: Character Arcs Szeth No more fighting unless he decided the cost was worth it. I’m so proud of Szeth for standing up for himself again. He’s made his own choice, not stood aside and let someone else make it for him. Dalinar […] Dalinar found himself standing tall. He was deeply flawed, but if those flaws were obvious to him now … that was because he had grown to the point he could acknowledge them. Recognizing that you have a problem is always the first step to any type of recovery. You can’t do anything about your flaws if you refuse to see them. Adolin “You ran, didn’t you?” Adolin asked, backing away, sword out, hand coated in sweat. “How regal of you.” Clever of Adolin, to use psychological tactics against his opponent: Get Abidi angry, not thinking about his attacks, and maybe he’ll stand a better chance. Anyone who’s ever used Vicious Mockery in D&D or a taunt in a fighting game knows that. […] last night, he’d been a common spearman. Adolin realized right then that the world hadn’t changed that much. The darkeyes had always felt small in this world of Shardbearers.Adolin’s place had changed. He’d been complaining about suddenly being one of the small ones—a reality the vast majority of soldiers lived with every day. Adolin has recognized his privilege. It is a sad fact that often, it takes losing that privilege to really understand and respect it. I’d love to see him have a talk with Kaladin about this revelation. Kaladin’s railing against the lighteyes in earlier books was based heavily in the injustice of their treatment of the lower caste, so he’d understand this concept intimately. “You unified us as nothing has ever been able to do. Alethi tyrants tried and failed, but nothing works like a common enemy.” If Watchmen and Code Geass taught me nothing else, it was this. In those stories, however, the villains had altruistic motivations. They killed people in an attempt to unite the rest. Abidi the Monarch and Taravangian do not have any such motives. They plan to rule this world, not sacrifice themselves to unite it. Kaladin “Regardless, please keep your children’s rhymes and songs to yourself. The adults are trying to save the world.” Ouch. Well, Kaladin, copying Wit’s homework isn’t going to work for you on this one. You’re gonna have to do this one on your own. His worth did not come from whether he helped. Only in whether he tried. It’s in the effort that the value lies, not the acceptance or success/failure of that effort. Gavinor “For twenty years, I remembered.” Poor, poor Gavinor. Who can blame him for feeling the way he does? He’s spent twenty years being brainwashed by Taravangian. “He told me you’d say that,” Gavinor replied. “That you’d treat me like a child, incapable of making choices.” Taravangian really did plan for everything. Of course, Dalinar would treat Gav this way; to Dalinar, his grandson still is a child. He hasn’t had time to mentally shift his perspective, to come to terms with the fact that this young man has decades of learned experience and is a man, not a child. Dalinar “You will save Alethkar—and protect the cosmere from my influence—with one simple act: the murder of an innocent.” Here’s that pesky trolley problem again. An impossible choice; a terrible one. Neturo But the eyes… the eyes were crying. I cannot imagine how hard of a life this man has lived, always trying to protect his only son, then being forced to try to kill him. Rlain Rlain looked down, attuning Joy, then found that feeling remarkable. How normal it felt, how easily he’d responded to that touch, how much he enjoyed it. He’s spent his life having his romantic feelings denied and reviled by society, thinking that it was wrong, that love was something he’d never be able to have. How beautiful that he’s found such joy and acceptance with Renarin. And such a powerful parallel, in terms of positive representation, for so many LGBTQIA youths. Two thousand years in a prison. Betrayed, hating all humankind, she still hoped for freedom—and she knew if no one ever found her, she’d never get out. If anyone was going to empathize with a lonely, lost soul… it’s these two. Mishram chose well. Ishar “I’ve observed that in you and the others,” Ishar said. “But I have become the Almighty, and have withstood the darkness.” Unlike Szeth, Ishar is unable to recognize his flaws. Overall Thoughts: I often reflect upon how the world changed that day. And how I spent it, completely unaware, working in the family orchard. Picking fruit while the End of All Things itself came upon us. —From Knights of Wind and Truth, page 92 This is something that I’ve been pondering a lot lately. Even while a nation is torn by war, or tyranny, or natural disaster, people still need to live. We have to go to work and earn a paycheck and do chores and shop for food, because life doesn’t stop just because the world is falling apart around us. Sometimes it can be hard to remember that, during times of great turmoil, the majority of the regular folks are still doing the same things they always do in order to get by. Drew’s Commentary: Invested Arts & Theories We’re well and truly into the climactic chapters of the book, now, with things moving fast and furiously. That said, one of the first bits that made me raise my eyebrows was from a quieter moment: When Derethil—then so old he could not walk without the help of his grandson—told me his tale. Much of it was embellishments, I expect. I’ve searched for the islands he mentioned, and although my methods are not exhaustive, I could not find them. You might recall that I theorized earlier in the book about how Derethil’s story could indeed be true. The fact that Ishar looked for the islands and failed to find them only reinforces my belief. Ishar is locked onto Roshar at this point, incapable of leaving—of course he’d be unable to find where Derethil went. One possible wrinkle in this is that, well… this IS Ishar. He’s the guy who engineered the exodus from Ashyn to Roshar, he’s the Bondsmith with knowledge of perpendicularities, etc. If any Herald would think of the possibility for inter-Cosmere travel, you’d think it’s him. But it’s also possible that he simply didn’t consider the possibility for such a lesser being as Derethil to have made it into Shadesmar. “I subsume that power and make it mine. I corrupt it.” Okay, so obviously this is Ishar being woefully wrong, but it raises a question. What would it take to corrupt the Investiture of Odium? Investiture corrupting other Investiture is a long-running theme in the Cosmere at this point, but it’s always portrayed as an evil thing, engineered by antagonistic Shards like Odium and Autonomy. The color red is the major signifier, and of course red has plenty of its own real-world connotations for us to grapple with. But is it something inherent to so-called “evil” Shards like Odium and Autonomy that they can easily corrupt Investiture? Does it have to be a Shard? Ishar is incredibly Invested, after all, so why is it that he wasn’t able to truly co-opt Odium’s Investiture? It can’t be a matter of Intent—Ishar was very clear in his desire to create of himself a new god. Maybe it’s just because he’s dealing with Herald Insanity Syndrome. I dunno. I hope that we see more instances of corrupted Investiture as we head into a new era of the Cosmere, and get a better understanding of how and why it works. Not much more to say here, as these chapters were largely just action and a few plot progression beats—unless you all want me to get into the many, many problems I have with Adolin’s duel against Abidi. Maybe I’ll dig into that next week, when things come to a head in the Azish throne room… Fan theories via Social Media: Lyn: I recently came across an interesting Facebook post in the Stormlight Archive group, written by Jonathan Eccker. I found it to be an excellent analysis of both Szeth and Dalinar, making a case that Dalinar also exhibits neurodivergent characteristics. Jonathan argues that Szeth’s neurodivergence has been pretty well documented and explored, but Dalinar’s potential for the same is not. I highly recommend giving the whole post a read if you’ve already joined the Stormlight Archive group, but if you’re not a member and/or don’t do Facebook, here’s an excerpt that I found particularly interesting: [Dalinar] is the opposite side of the coin from Szeth. His route was one of hyper-empathy. He attempted to over-compensate for what he viewed as a distinct lack of empathy from his younger self, leading him to overrationalize the actions and emotions of others.Hyper-empathy tends to create pretty solid leaders; they are good at getting quick reads on others’ mental states and GREAT at understanding the nuances of social organizations without being explained them. They are bad at saying no and are very prone to serving the ones they lead.But when it leans too far into analytical processing and disregards holistic instinct, it’s susceptible to severe executive dysfunction (basically his entire story in Way of Kings).It’s actually poetic, to some extent, that Szeth’s arc was originally to assassinate Dalinar; hyper-rationalization versus hyper-empathy is, I can say, a somewhat familiar mental battle in the journey to re-embracing holistic intuition. I don’t quite agree with all of Jonathan’s points and hypotheses in the post, but this part is fascinating and not an angle I’ve seen discussed before. Thanks for your permission to include it, Jonathan! We’ll be keeping an eye on the comment sections of posts about this article on various social media platforms and may include some of your comments/speculation (with attribution) on future weeks’ articles! Keep the conversation going, and PLEASE remember to spoiler-tag your comments on social media to help preserve the surprise for those who haven’t read the book yet. See you next Monday with our discussion of chapters 133 through 136![end-mark] The post <i>Wind and Truth</i> Reread: Chapters 130-132 appeared first on Reactor.

Because Democrat senators have refused to confirm many of President Donald Trump’s preferred picks to serve as U.S. attorneys around the country, his administration has instead been forced to rely on the arcane, convoluted, confusing mechanisms available to temporarily fill those positions.    Given the unprecedented nature of this Democrat obstruction and the conflicting case law in this area, those seeking to avoid criminal charges have, of course, challenged many of these appointments.  And earlier today, a Clinton-appointed South Carolina judge, Cameron McGowan Currie, sitting by special designation in the Eastern District of Virginia, held that Lindsey Halligan had been improperly appointed to serve as the U.S. attorney for that district.  Under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, the attorney general can appoint an interim U.S. attorney for up to 120 days, after which a successor is typically appointed by the district court until the vacancy is filled by a Senate-confirmed U.S. attorney. In this case, following the resignation of the Biden-appointed U.S. attorney, Erik Seibert was appointed as interim U.S. attorney in that district. On May 9, less than two weeks before the 120-day period lapsed on May 21, the district court appointed Seibert to continue in that role.  In early September, Seibert announced that he was resigning from the position. Following Seibert’s departure, Attorney General Pam Bondi appointed Halligan as the interim U.S. attorney. Shortly thereafter, grand juries returned indictments against New York Attorney General Letitia James and former-FBI Director James Comey.  Significantly, Halligan was the only person claiming to represent the government who presented the charges to the grand jury.  Both James and Comey moved to dismiss the indictments that had been returned against them, arguing that Halligan had not been properly appointed at the time she made her grand jury appearances. They argued, and the judge agreed, that the best reading of the statute is that Bondi’s authority to appoint an interim U.S. attorney expired on May 21. The government, of course, disagrees with that interpretation. But the judge rejected the government’s argument that the statute allowed Bondi to make a series of interim appointments, restarting the 120-day clock with each appointment. Because the judge concluded Halligan was essentially a private citizen when she appeared before the grand jury, the indictments that were returned were invalid.   As a result, he dismissed—without prejudice—the indictments she secured against both James and Comey.  Where things go from here becomes somewhat murky—though the cases likely will continue.  Ordinarily, James and Comey could simply be re-indicted because the judge dismissed their cases “without prejudice.” Here, though, James and Comey are both asserting vindictive prosecution and other defenses to their indictments. And Comey, in particular, is asserting a statute-of-limitations defense to his re-indictment.  Essentially, he’s saying that any indictment had to be brought by Sept. 30, 2025, and that because the government brought no valid indictment by that date, the case must be dismissed.  As other commentators have pointed out, however, 18 U.S.C. § 3288 may provide an avenue to re-indict Comey. It provides:  “Whenever an indictment or information charging a felony is dismissed for any reason after the period prescribed by the applicable statute of limitations has expired, a new indictment may be returned in the appropriate jurisdiction within six calendar months of the date of the dismissal of the indictment or information, … which new indictment shall not be barred by any statute of limitations.”  While this provision does contain exceptions, it’s not clear that any of those would apply.  Moreover, Bondi may be able to validly appoint Halligan to oversee the prosecutions. Bondi can appoint Halligan to serve as the first assistant U.S. attorney (chief deputy) in the Eastern District of Virginia, which in turn, means that she would become the “acting” U.S. attorney (instead of the “interim” U.S. attorney) because that office would be vacant. Bondi recently did something similar for the U.S. attorney’s office overseeing Los Angeles.  For its part, the Justice Department has contended that all of this legal wrangling is unnecessary since higher-ranking validly appointed DOJ officials retroactively ratified Halligan’s actions. The Justice Department can appeal this judge’s decisions to dismiss these indictments, or it might simply choose to re-indict James and Comey.  Regardless of which path it chooses, it’s clear that these cases are far from over despite the judge’s ruling dismissing the indictments.  The post Judge Dismisses Letitia James and James Comey Cases. What Next? appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of today’s video from Daily Signal Senior Contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see more of his videos. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for The Daily Signal. I’m tired of the Epstein files, as you are. Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted pedophile, died over six years ago, in 2019. Yet, his ghost seems to haunt the political atmosphere today. So, what are these so-called Epstein files? Well, there’s no manila envelope that says or manila folder that says, “Epstein.” Rather, that term loosely refers to a corpus of hundreds, if not thousands, of text messages, emails, phone records between Jeffrey Epstein and hundreds of people. And because he was a spider-like person that had a web of entrapment and gave lavishly—I would just say at the outset, 90% of the monies that Jeffrey Epstein gave that had a political affiliation were Democratic and Left, not Republican. Get that straight right now. So, he was everywhere, trying to buy influence. And one of the ways he bought influence was, apparently, in his various domains, he had underaged, attractive girls that he trafficked and manipulated. And his modus operandi was to get powerful figures to come in, under the auspices of discussing statecraft, politics, great donations he would go to, and then they would succumb to these temptations of pedophilia, supposedly, unlawfully so. And he would have cameras and document that. And then, the subtext was they would be bribed. And he would offer to manage their financial affairs, or for a small donation to him, then he would keep that secret. And he used that to gain influence and money. And at his death, he was probably worth half a billion dollars. And so, now, people want to find out who was included in those communications. But here’s the problem. Everybody says, “Donald Trump. Donald Trump. We’re gonna get Donald Trump. He doesn’t wanna release it. He doesn’t wanna release it.” But it doesn’t quite make sense because the “trove” was under the jurisdiction of the Joe Biden Department of Justice, under Attorney General Merrick Garland. They had them for four years. Do you really believe that if they had something on Donald Trump, who admittedly knew Jeffrey Epstein, as a 1980s, 1990s celebrity in Manhattan—everybody seemed to know him—but if they had something incriminating—they leaked almost everything about Donald Trump. Remember, they raided his home. To get what? Just a few classified documents, 102 out of 14,000 papers. They raided an ex-president. Twenty-five states tried to get him off the ballot. He was the object of 91 felony charges in five different jurisdictions, civil and criminal. You think if they’re going to go to the—impeached twice during the first term—if they’re gonna go to that effort and they had incriminating evidence in this trial, they wouldn’t have leaked it? So, they kept it quiet. And then when Donald Trump became president, he had it under lock and key. And there were rumors that Attorney General Pam Bondi or FBI Director Kash Patel were gonna release it. And he didn’t. And there’s two schools of thought, why he didn’t. The first is that he thought that it was a distraction from his economic—and it is. I mean, he had a better economic record than former President Joe Biden. He didn’t have 5.2%, on average, every single year. But people were talking about the Epstein files. And so, he just wanted to get it outta mind and not visit it. It had the opposite effect. By suppressing it, people became more curious. And of course, there was the charge from the Left that he suppressed it because he would be incriminated, there would be a direct reference that he was involved. But we have just the opposite. What files or communications that have leaked out suggest that even some of the young girls knew that Donald Trump was not engaging in the type of activity that others were. So, what was the other reason? Why didn’t he release it then? He was innocent? If it wasn’t a matter of distracting from his economic—was there another reason? Probably. Maybe the same reason that Joe Biden didn’t leak it, that there were prominent donors or officials that were either Republican or Democrat who just didn’t wanna be embarrassed. How would that function? Somebody might call up President Trump: “This is Mr. Smith. Jeffrey Epstein came over to my home twice. I visited his home. We were discussing a large gift I was going to give to Harvard University. But my name came up. And without context, if my name is released, I will be incriminated because he is toxic.” That could happen. So, there’s all sorts of explanation. There is even a fourth- or fifth-dimensional chess explanation. And I’ll throw it out there. In other words, Donald Trump knew that he was not in those files. But he had heard, before he became president for a second time, during his first term, or he had seen in the first months of his office, that 90% of the references of fundraising and money and associates, to the degree they were political, involved Democrats. He also knew that, unlike himself, who had ostracized Jeffrey Epstein before he was convicted of trafficking and sexual crimes—that is, before he was a de facto pedophile—he had distanced himself, and others had not. So, in this kind of strange explanation or exegesis, Donald Trump, then just let this sit, like hot water on a kettle, and simmer and simmer and simmer. So then, the Democrats would overreach and say, “Get it out. Get it out. Get it out.” And he thought: Ah, they didn’t get it out because they are incriminated. And now they’ve leaked all they can about me. And unlike me, a lot of these people were involved after Jeffrey Epstein was convicted of a sexual crime. And I’m just gonna let them demand and clamor, until an opportune moment, I will release it. I’m not sure I believe this exegesis. But that is what has been commonly alleged, more recently. And lo and behold, they’re starting to release the Epstein files. And Democratic luminaries like Larry Summers, former secretary of the treasury, former president of Harvard, you can’t get much more elite and renowned than that, has already distanced himself from his Harvard former employer and Democratic grandees because he is mentioned in the Epstein files as asking for advice, how to, I guess you would call it, he says, “get horizontal,” or bed a young woman—I don’t know of what age. So, in this case, they are going to release the files. And there is going to be Democratic names in those files and liberal names in those files. And their names will occur in context, not before private citizen Epstein was charged with anything, but after they had to know that he was a convicted sex criminal. And after he was convicted of that, they continued these relations of some sort of nefarious activity, as alleged. And we’re gonna watch this. If that were to be true, then Donald Trump put a big noose out there. The Democrats unwisely put their head in it and screamed and yelled that Donald Trump was guilty. And then he pulled the lever, so to speak. And they’ve hung themselves. We’ll see. But it’s a sorted business all the way around. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Epstein’s Ghost Comes Back to Haunt the Democrats appeared first on The Daily Signal.