Posts on Sunday, May 19, 2019
Back in the days as a campaign flack, I learned that, while I was laboring over every word in a campaign speech or radio ad, most voters were way too busy raising kids and paying the bills to pay nearly as much attention as I tInstead, a political veteran told me, the voters will reduce your candidate and his entire campaign down to one idea or concept. “You get one sentence, kid. Make it count.” And so for Bernie Sanders, that one sentence is, “Socialist guy.” For Beto O’Rourke, it’s, “Kind of like a Kennedy, but weird.”
Doha - Qatari state-funded broadcaster Al Jazeera suspended two journalists on Sunday over a video they produced claiming the extent of the Holocaust was being misrepresented by Jews. The clip, posted by Al Jazeera's online AJ+ Arabic service, claimed "the narrative" that the Nazis killed six million Jews was "adopted by the Zionist movement". Six million Jews were systematically killed by the Nazis during World War II. Images of the persecution of European Jews living under Nazi rule, as well as photographs of those killed, were overlayed with narration asking "why is there a focus only on them?" The video
Nobody with any authority over it can admit that Jerry Brown’s pet project, a high-speed rail line between San Francisco and Los Angeles, is a multi-billion dollar fiasco and pull the plug to avoid squandering additional billions of dollars from taxpayers. Governor Gavin Newsom has “temporarily” downsized the project, promising to build only the 165 mile segment from Merced to Bakersfield in the flat Central Valley, a trip that few people would ever make at the sort of fares necessary to sustain high speed rail service, a premium-priced
Billion dollar China deals, cocaine pipes,
Joe Biden's son Hunter always has this
way of skating replies
Joe Biden's son Hunter always has this
way of skating replies
Joe Biden's son Hunter certainly lives a life of privilege.
How'd the cops treat one of us if they found a cocaine pipe in our car during a traffic pullover or a rental car return?
Here's the Washington Examiner:
A police report said that Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden returned a rental car in Arizona that contained a cocaine pipe days before the 2016 presidential election, according to a new report.
Sen. Mitt Romney is not ready to endorse his party's incumbent president for re-election.
The Utah Republican said Sunday on CNN "State of the Union" that it's "way too early" to declare his support for President Donald Trump in 2020, saying Trump needs to improve "when it comes to helping shape the character of the country."
Polling shows that the president is heavily favored to defeat former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, his only primary challenger to date. But even if Trump secures the nomination, Romney may cast his vote for the same woman as he did in 2016: his wife, Ann Romney.
No Wray of Hope for FBI Reform
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After he fired the longtime Clinton crony James Comey, President Trump’s choice to head the Federal Bureau of Investigation was Christopher Wray, a man of “impeccable credentials.”
Two years later, President Trump finds that the FBI has no leadership and the director is protecting the same deep-state squad that mounted an illegal coup against the president.
There are now 23 candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination with New York’s mayor jumping in. The unveiling of the spies and tactics behind the fake collusion tale continues apace. It looks as though Mueller will testify before Congress on the 12th of Never and the impeachment train will never leave the station. Inspector General Horowitz’s reports on Comey and another on charges of illegal conduct in the DoJ and FBI are due soon, though, as usual, seem to be a long time aborning. General Flynn’s sentencing hearing should come soon.
The U.S. embassy in Baghdad was the target of a rocket attack late Sunday, days after the Trump White House ordered American diplomatic personnel to pull out of the country.
Iraqi military officials confirmed Sunday a single Katyusha rocket landed near the parade grounds inside the heavily-fortified Green Zone in the Iraqi capital, which is home to the U.S. embassy as well as the main headquarters for the American-led coalition battling the Islamic State.
Iraqi officials confirmed a single rocket landed inside the sprawling diplomatic compound, landing a few hundred meters from the U.S. embassy,
PHILADELPHIA —Former vice president Joe Biden defends his support for the 1994 crime bill that many blame for mass incarceration of blacks. He declares that most Americans are “satisfied” with a private insurance system reviled by the left. He justifies the North American Free Trade Agreement as a pact that “made sense at the moment.” And to the dismay of many liberals, he won’t call for a study of slavery reparations, saying the nation has other ways to fight racism. In his opening weeks as a presidential candidate, Biden has rejected much of the conventional wisdom that drove the first
Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg is participating in a televised Fox News town hall Sunday night, even as some fellow Democrats are choosing to shun the conservative cable network. Buttigieg, the openly gay mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who’s risen in polls since a CNN town hall in March gave him national exposure, said he agreed to appear because he wants to reach voters who might not otherwise hear his message. (Snip) “I strongly condemn the voices on Fox and in the media that uncritically amplify hate and the divisive sort of politics that gave rise to this presidency,” Buttigieg said
Rogel Lazaro Aguilera-Mederos,> semi driver accused of causing fiery I-70 crash,> bonds out of jail
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JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. – The 23-year-old semi driver accused of causing a fiery crash on Interstate 70 that killed four people and left many others injured bonded out of jail Saturday night.
Rogel Lazaro Aguilera-Mederos was charged with four counts of vehicular homicide by reckless driving, six counts of first-degree assault and 24 counts of attempted first-degree assault earlier this month.
Washington. No Democrat or Republican, let alone members of the media, have stated the obvious regarding the discredited Russia collusion hoax. That there was no collusion. Dead stop. Over. Not to mention the ensuing two-year investigative witch-hunt waged against President Donald Trump.
The CIA and FBI abused their powers largely thanks to the Patriot Act. Ironically, this legislation was passed by a Republican-controlled Congress and signed into law by a Republican president.
In October of 2001, and following 9/11, President George W. Bush told the nation that the Patriot Act would “give intelligence and law enforcement officials important new tools to fight a present danger.”
President Donald Trump ridiculed Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) on Sunday after the rogue Republican accused the president of impeachable conduct.
“Justin is a loser who sadly plays right into our opponents’ hands!” Trump wrote on Twitter.
“Contrary to Barr’s portrayal, Mueller’s report reveals that President Trump engaged in specific actions and a pattern of behavior that meet the threshold for impeachment,” Amash previously wrote on Twitter, criticizing Attorney General Bill Barr for misrepresenting the report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller:
Former CIA Director David Petraeus warned Iran that it is going to have to be “very careful” as tensions between the Middle Eastern nation and the United States continue to ratchet up.
“They are going to have to make a decision. Either they are going to have to really tighten their belt and keep tightening, because it's going to get worse,” Petraeus said on ABC’s “This Week.” "There are going to be further screws tightening down in maximum pressure campaign and try to grit their teeth and get to November 2020 in hopes that their desired outcome emerges."
No Democrat or Republican, let alone members of the media, have stated the obvious regarding the discredited Russia collusion hoax. That there was no collusion. Dead stop. Over. Not to mention the ensuing two-year investigative witch-hunt waged against President Donald Trump.
The CIA and FBI abused their powers largely thanks to the Patriot Act. Ironically, this legislation was passed by a Republican-controlled Congress and signed into law by a Republican president.
Devin Nunes "likely" sending obstruction criminal referral over Steele-State Department meeting
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Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., said on Sunday that he may send another criminal referral to the Justice Department.
During an interview on Fox News, Nunes said notes about a meeting between Trump dossier author Christopher Steele and a State Department official were withheld from the House Intelligence Committee during its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election that wrapped up last year.
John Durham, the prosecutor tapped by Attorney General William Barr to investigate how Trump-Russia allegations emerged and spread within federal law enforcement, has already been looking into whether the FBI’s former top lawyer, James Baker, illegally leaked to reporters.
In fact, the U.S. attorney from Connecticut appears to have begun that work more than seven months ago, to judge from an underreported transcript of an October congressional interview with Baker.
Illinois Republicans unhappy at the influence the Democrat-controlled city of Chicago holds over the state are looking at trying to blow the Windy City out of the state altogether -- despite the long odds that such a push would face. A new report by Pew Trusts' Stateline shines light on an effort by the state’s GOP to turn the state red by turning the blue city into its own state. The outlet reports that a resolution calling on Congress to declare Chicago America’s 51st state now has eight Republican co-sponsors in the state’s House, as well as growing support from
SEATTLE — Tents returned Friday to a homeless encampment that was cleared by Seattle police one day earlier.
People who work on the same Second Avenue South block say it’s a never-ending cycle. (Snip) On Wednesday police started swarming tents in two different South Seattle encampments. Ten people were arrested, over $20,000 in cash was seized and an array of drugs, guns, knives and stolen property was also confiscated. Seattle police said the raid came at the conclusion of a nearly two-month investigation into the camp at Second Avenue South and South Washington Street and the camp at 10th Avenue
Australia's Labor party was supposed to have won yesterday's election handily. Their surefire formula for victory of increased taxes, heightened spending on climate change and engagement with China would bring in the votes. Then the unexpected happened: Labor lost. (Snip) Few if any of the pollsters predicted it. The resulting bafflement was expressed by one tweet: "How could polls, from every company, for months including exit polls taken on election day not just be wrong but spectacularly wrong?" It was a massive intelligence failure and one worthy of examination. All political parties presumably pay for accurate polling, even if it
WOLFEBORO — The sounds of power and hand tools echo through the 4,500-square-foot main shop of Lakes Region Wooden Boats near downtown Wolfeboro.
Amid a sparkling union of polished chrome, varnished mahogany and gilded lettering, its four craftsmen can work on six to seven boats at a time. (Snip) After negotiating the $75 purchase, the elder Lawrence asked the seller if he wanted some help unloading the boat that was already on the trailer. “He told him, ‘No, if you want to buy the trailer, you have to take the boat,’” Rob said.
I’m talking about an ice cream parlor. Yes, people who wouldn’t know John Milton from Milton Berle are in hellish agony over the decision by a landlord not to renew the lease on a local ice cream and cookie shop called Paradise Bakery.
The landlord was apparently offered a better deal by a clothing boutique.
This, say the lefties, proves again that capitalism is bad.
he bet was on, and it was over the fate of humanity. On one side was the Stanford biologist Paul R. Ehrlich. In his 1968 best seller, The Population Bomb, Ehrlich insisted that it was too late to prevent a doomsday apocalypse resulting from overpopulation. Resource shortages would cause hundreds of millions of starvation deaths within a decade. It was cold, hard math: The human population was growing exponentially; the food supply was not. Ehrlich was an accomplished butterfly specialist. He knew that nature did not regulate animal populations delicately. Populations exploded, blowing past the available resources, and then crashed.
In his book, Ehrlich played out hypothetical scenarios
Aside from expecting to deliver President Donald Trump’s head on a silver platter to slobbering Democrats, former vice president Joe Biden is in the 2020 presidential race because most people who voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, will now vote for Biden. The DNC, who know this, see Biden as their only chance to regain control of the power they lost in 2016. In a speech Saturday afternoon in Philadelphia, Biden offered his “unity” as an alternative to
Michigan Rep. Justin Amash became the first Republican lawmaker to declare that President Donald Trump committed impeachable offenses and that Attorney General William Barr “deliberately misrepresented” special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.
Amash, whose libertarian views often put him at odds with Trump and his fellow Republicans, posted a series of tweets Saturday afternoon outlining positions that even some Democrats have been unwilling to embrace — an extraordinary development that comes as Democratic leaders face increasing pressure from progressives to launch impeachment proceedings.
Maybe Matthew McConaughey was too dazed and confused all these years to pick up his high school diploma.
The Oscar-winning actor finally took home his certificate of graduation from Longview High School in Texas on Friday.
McConaughey graduated from the East Texas school in 1988.
He was on hand at the Class of 2019’s graduation to deliver the commencement speech and share words of encouragement.
California homelessness is so out of control, people
are turning to boats – Dems are clueless replies
are turning to boats – Dems are clueless replies
California is the country’s wealthiest and most highly taxed state, but its politicians have utterly failed to tackle the state’s most basic problem: homelessness. Estimates place California's homeless population at close to 130,000. To grasp the magnitude of that figure, imagine the entire population of New Haven, Connecticut or Charleston, South Carolina living on the streets.
Much has been written about the problems of feces on San Francisco’s streets and needles on the streets in downtown Los Angeles. But the problem has expanded far beyond those cities. It has now reached virtually all parts of the state, including, according to reports, the state’s water.
John Paul Stevens has had it rough. In 2005, Stevens, then an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, authored one of the worst SCOTUS decisions of the past 50 years. Kelo v. City of New London let a local government bulldoze a working-class neighborhood so that private developers would have a blank slate on which to build a luxury hotel, a conference center, and various other upscale amenities. The city's goal was to erase that existing community via eminent domain and replace it with a new commercial district that would (maybe? hopefully?) fill the local coffers with more abundant tax dollars.
Stevens, the poor soul,
Look at this, mates. From Down Under comes news that the incumbent prime minister of Australia has been returned to office in what the wires a calling a “sensational” result. The “bombshell triumph,” says a leading news site, comes after “repeated polls” placed the Australian Labor party ahead of the ruling conservatives, who Down Under are called the Liberal Party.
No doubt it would be a mistake for us Yanks to make too much of this. Gravity pulls in the opposite direction on this side of the globe. Then again, too, to make too much from this. Then again, too, it might be a mistake to ignore this portent altogether,
Critical Race Theory holds that American society is irredeemably racist in favor of the white majority. The thinking is that in a racially oppressive society, though you may also have in common with another your sex, your likes or dislikes, your religion, your political ideas, even your disposition, ethnic commonality or skin color matters beyond anything else. For this reason, only someone of your ethnicity can ever really understand you or grasp your deep-down motives for your actions
An extension of a consumer tax credit for electric vehicle purchases sought by a bipartisan contingent of lawmakers could cost as much as $15.7 billion, according to an analysis prepared by opponents of the effort.
The analysis of legislation by Senator Debbie Stabenow, a Michigan Democrat, to grant automakers a $7,000 tax credit for an additional 400,000 vehicles was commissioned by American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, a Washington trade group.
Democratic presidential hopeful Beto O'Rourke pointed to Russian hacking of Florida voter registration information as support for his suspicions about the 2016 presidential election.
When asked in an MSNBC interview Saturday if he was confident President Trump had been elected fairly, the former Texas congressman agreed the use of propaganda on voters and electoral system breaches gave him doubts.
"I don’t have complete confidence in part because of what you've just shared about Florida, in part because we know from other secretaries of state in other states in the union that their systems were breached.
Notes on the Great Realignment
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One of these days, I would like to cadge an invitation to a strategy meeting of #TheResistance. Not the pussy-behatted feminoid Hollywood chapter of #TheResistance. Nothing could be more boring, or more depressing, than that.
But I would like to get a glimpse into the engine room of the more-moral-than-thou rancid-Right confraternity. How are their troops dispatched? Whence do they receive their marching orders?
SYDNEY, Australia — The polls said this would be Australia’s climate change election, when voters confronted harsh reality and elected leaders who would tackle the problem.
And in some districts, it was true: Tony Abbott, the former prime minister who stymied climate policy for years, lost to an independent who campaigned on the issue. A few other new candidates prioritizing climate change also won.
But over all, Australians shrugged off the warming seas
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement pilot of new rapid DNA testing at the border has found that nearly a third of those tested were not biologically related to the children in their custody.
ICE conducted the pilot for a few days earlier this month in El Paso and McAllen, Texas, finding about 30 per cent of those tested were not related to the children they claimed were their own, an official told the Washington Examiner.
The official said that these were not cases of step-fathers or adoptive parents.
The most rational response to the news that New York City mayor Bill de Blasio wants to be president is to ask, “Of what?”
When informed that he wants to be president of the United States and not of, say, the local organic-hemp co-op, perhaps the next best response would be to take a page from the South and say, “Bless his heart.”
One of the more charming things about de Blasio is his amiable lack of self-awareness. He seems to have no idea that he doesn’t impress anybody. The obliviousness is somewhat understandable. He did get elected — twice. But his victories have more to do with the dysfunction
President Trump is preparing to pardon Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher and other members of armed forces accused of war crimes, according to a published report.
In a sign he is considering making the pardons on or around Memorial Day, Trump asked the Justice Department to prepare the requisite paperwork, the New York Times reported Saturday.
Gallagher, a special operations officer, is scheduled to go to trial for allegedly stabbing a wounded prisoner of war to death in Iraq and shooting unarmed civilians in Afghanistan.
War of Will may have won Saturday’s Preakness Stakes, but it was Bodexpress -- a horse that finished out of the money – that seemed to steal the spotlight.
That’s because Bodexpress threw its jockey immediately after leaving the gate – and ran riderless the rest of the way during the big event at Baltimore’s Pimlico Race Course.
At one point he even seemed a threat to cross the finish line first. “You've got to be careful because some of them try to win,” legendary trainer Bob Baffert told the Associated Press about such runaway horses.