Worth Knowing, Probably Not Quite Threadworthy 7/22

[SVPete]

Politico Finally Replaces British Editor Who Had To Google FDR

https://freebeacon.com/media/politico-finally-replaces-british-editor-who-had-to-google-fdr/

Politico's flagship newsletter will no longer be authored by a British journalist who had to look up Franklin D. Roosevelt on Wikipedia. Jack Blanchard has finally been replaced as Playbook managing editor and lead author, the Virginia-based news blog announced Sunday.

Blanchard took over the once-prestigious franchise days before Donald Trump's second inauguration in 2025. He got off to a rocky start, frequently making news for the wrong reasons. Blanchard botched Chuck Schumer's title, misspelled Billy Ray Cyrus's name, and referred to the field at the Super Bowl as a "pitch."

Those were minor flubs compared with the time Blanchard forgot about FDR while arguing that Trump's "impactful start" to his second term was without precedent in U.S. history. He followed up by conceding his critics "may have a point" and quoted a passage from FDR's Wikipedia entry.

Weeks later, Blanchard reported that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was "out of the country" while traveling from Hawaii (a U.S. state) to Guam (a U.S. territory). American journalists piled on. "There's a consistent pattern of colossal mistakes, and (even worse) poor analysis," Vox reporter Zack Beauchamp wrote of Blanchard's performance in March 2025.
...
The news blog announced Playbook's "next chapter" in a statement on Sunday. It did not acknowledge Blanchard's departure from the franchise but noted his new role as Politico's global politics bureau chief, where his familiarity with less important countries may prove more relevant.

I "get" that people tend to focus on the news and politics of their home countries - being there, doing that - and that the UK is a bit larger and is more populous than the US State of California, but if one is commenting on other countries' matters, learning something about that country would be a good idea. And how in Hades can a Brit not know that under FDR's leadership, the US played a major role in WW2?!

[SVPete]

Hamas attacks Gaza aid sites, holds Palestinians ransom for expended ammunition expenses - report

https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-903025

Hamas has repeatedly attacked food distribution points in the Gaza Strip, hijacking aid and threatening locals, Palestinians told The Telegraph in a report published on Saturday.

In one instance, according to one anonymous Gazan civilian, armed Hamas terrorists had been waiting near a shelter containing displaced women, children, and elderly people, when a group of men asked them to move away so that the shelter would not become a target.

“The group left, only to return with greater numbers. They stormed the shelter and opened fire, causing panic and terror among the women and children, and proceeded to arrest several people.”

The source also told the Telegraph that the Hamas terrorists had refused to release the civilians they'd arrested until they were compensated for the ammunition they had expended - around NIS 24,500.

Another source said that Hamas had been smuggling various goods inside trucks belonging to aid organizations, as well as commercial ones, in order to generate funds.

No US MSM "reporter" will dare ask Mayor Mamdani about this. Israel- and Jew-Hatred is only a bit less universal and intense among MSM-folk as among Mamdani and his minions.

[SVPete]

EXCLUSIVE: DOJ Has Been Hobbling New Mexico’s Epstein Ranch Investigation For Years, Former AG Says

https://dailycaller.com/2026/07/21/exclusive-doj-has-been-hobbling-new-mexicos-epstein-ranch-investigation-for-years-former-ag-says/

New Mexico’s former attorney general is taking the Justice Department to task for slowing down his state’s renewed probe into Jeffrey Epstein’s Zorro Ranch, telling the Daily Caller News Foundation that the federal government “burned” his office in its investigation of the property.

Federal investigators made an informal deal with the New Mexico Department of Justice (NMDOJ) to provide evidence for New Mexico’s investigation into Epstein’s Zorro Ranch in New Mexico, former New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas told the DCNF. The U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) failed to follow through on its informal agreement made on July 23, 2019, with the NMDOJ to refer any state-related matters of the Epstein investigation back to the NMDOJ, Balderas told the DCNF in an exclusive interview.

Balderas, who left office as New Mexico attorney general on Jan. 1, 2023, corroborated his statement by citing a newly discovered handwritten note and an email from James Comey’s daughter released with other Epstein files earlier this year.

Balderas sent a letter on Monday to the current New Mexico Attorney General calling out the “SDNY, and by proxy the U.S. DOJ” for their role in what he alleged was a direct impediment to his office’s investigation of Jeffrey Epstein’s Zorro Ranch in New Mexico.

It remains unclear exactly who wrote the July 2019 note, but Balderas believes it came from either a staff member or legal assistant in the New York office.

“Agreed NMDOJ will stop interviews + refer all matters to SDNY. SDNY will refer any state-related matters to NMAG @ [the] conclusion of SDNY case,” the handwritten note says.

An email in the Epstein files from Sept. 8, 2019, also appears to corroborate the handwritten note that Balderas just discovered. The email was sent by Maurene Comey, who was an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York in 2019, to an undisclosed address.

“We spoke with the New Mexico AG’s office back in July 2019. In essence, they agreed to cease any investigation into sex trafficking and share whatever they had gathered to date regarding sex trafficking activity with our office,” Comey, the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, wrote in the September email. “We have not communicated with anyone from the New Mexico AG’s office since that conversation in July 2019.”

So the anti-Trump FBI, DOJ, and SDNY created and the LIEden MalAdministration carried out an obstruction to the State of NM investigating Epstein's NM ranch. It's almost as if Hate-Trumpers in the FBI and DOJ knew in 2019 that an actual investigation would exonerate Trump of wrong-doing at the ranch.