Posts on Monday, February 10, 2020
Crossfire Hurricane: Texts Suggest FBI
Considered Using Agent’s Connection
to Mike Pence Aide replies
Considered Using Agent’s Connection
to Mike Pence Aide replies
Text messages reveal the FBI considered using a personal connection between an FBI employee and a member of Vice President Mike Pence’s staff to further its controversial probe into unsubstantiated and ultimately discredited allegations of collusion between Russia and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
The text messages in question were exchanges between disgraced FBI agent Peter Strzok and FBI attorney Lisa Page, the infamous texting duo who were previously reportedly romantically involved.
The detail was buried in a three-sentence footnote, footnote 480, on page 344 of the Justice Department’s previously released 476-page Inspector General report on the FBI’s Russia collusion investigation, known as Crossfire Hurricane.
Armed ecoguards partly funded by the conservation group WWF to protect wildlife in the Republic of the Congo beat up and intimidated hundreds of Baka pygmies living deep in the rainforests, an investigation into a landmark global conservation project has heard.(Snip) The allegations, reported to the UN last year, included Baka tribespeople being beaten by the ecoguards, the criminalisation and illegal imprisonment of Baka men, summary evictions from the forest, the burning and destruction of property, and the confiscation of food. In addition, the UNDP’s social and environmental compliance unit heard how the ecoguards allegedly treated the Baka men as “sub-human” and humiliated some Baka women
President Trump at a Monday night rally claimed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was “mumbling terribly” behind him at last week’s State of the Union address — leading the New Hampshire crowd to chant “lock her up.”“That was very distracting,” the president told his supporters at the SNHU Arena in Manchester of Pelosi’s supposed interruption from the House chambers’ dais.
“I’m speaking and a woman is mumbling terribly behind me. Angry, there was a little anger back there,” the president said. “We’re the ones who should be angry.”
The documentary maker who invoked Karl Marx during her Oscars acceptance speech by saying 'workers of the world unite' was previously nominated for an Academy Award for a film about communism. Julia Reichert, who is battling terminal cancer, took to the Dolby Theater stage in Hollywood on Sunday to accept the award for Best Documentary for American Factory, which is the first film to be released by Barack and Michelle Obama's new production company Higher Ground. Her speech was among the many political statements of the evening. 'Our film is from Ohio and China. 'But it really could be from anywhere that people
According to Reuters, “President Trump will propose cutting billions of dollars in U.S. foreign aid spending in his fiscal 2021 budget, while seeking to boost funding to counter developing economic threats from China and Russia.”Trump’s latest budget proposal was released at 12:30 p.m. ET Monday.Last year, Trump sought in his budget proposal to slash foreign aid but faced steep resistance from Congress and did not prevail and this most recent budget is also expected to be quickly dismissed by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives.In the proposal, “Trump will seek to make a 21% cut in foreign aid which seeks $44.1bn in the upcoming fiscal year compared with $55.7bn
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (D) has surpassed Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and sits in third place nationally, a Quinnipiac University poll released Monday showed. Quinnipiac’s results, taken February 5-9, 2020, among 665 Democrat and Democrat-leaning independent voters, show a “dramatic shift” in the Democrat primary race, with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) leading Joe Biden (D) by eight percentage points — 25 percent to 17 percent. Most notably, Bloomberg, who made a late entry into the race and has yet to participate in a single Democrat debate, has risen to third place nationally with 15 percent support. The billionaire edged out Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA),
Barr acknowledges Justice Dept. has created ‘intake process’ to vet Giuliani’s information on Bidens
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Attorney General William P. Barr acknowledged Monday that the Justice Department would evaluate material that Rudolph W. Giuliani, President Trump’s personal attorney, had gathered from Ukrainian sources claiming to have damaging information about former vice president Joe Biden and his family — though Barr and other officials suggested Giuliani was being treated no differently than any tipster.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., couldn’t resist the urge to boo former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when her name came up during a Sen. Bernie Sanders event in Iowa on Friday evening, three days before the Iowa caucuses.
NEW YORK — Without a host or a great deal of pizzazz, ABC’s telecast of the Academy Awards reached its smallest audience ever of 23.6 million viewers. The Nielsen company said Sunday night’s audience was down 20 percent from a year ago. The previous low-water mark for the Oscars was the 26.5 million people who watched in 2018. The Academy Awards honored “Parasite” as best picture. While that made history as the first-ever foreign language film to win the top award, it was clearly not an audience-grabber. The Oscars were held sooner in the year than usual, and that may have prevented the show from building buzz.
WASHINGTON - Americans increasingly rate this as the best economy since the late 1990s, with a recent surge in optimism, even though many economic metrics show striking similarities to the final years of the Obama administration.
Fifty-nine percent of Americans say they are better off financially today than they were a year ago, the highest since 1999, according to a Gallup survey released last week. And nearly three-quarters predict they will do better a year from now, the most optimistic reading that Gallup's annual "Mood of the Nation" survey has ever recorded.
Monday on CBS’s “This Morning,” 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful former Vice President Joe Biden slammed President Donald Trump personal attorney Rudy Giuliani for going after his son, Hunter Biden, and his dealings in Ukraine.
Biden laughed at the idea of Giuliani possessing information about his son, later calling him a “thug” who is the only person accusing his son of doing anything wrong.
“I expect Trump to do the same exact thing he’s been doing,” the former vice president stated. “Why’s he been attacking me from the beginning? Why did he risk — and he should have been impeached — why did he risk getting convicted by going to a foreign leader
Barr announces sweeping new
sanctions, 'significant escalation'
against left-wing sanctuary cities replies
sanctions, 'significant escalation'
against left-wing sanctuary cities replies
Charging that so-called "sanctuary" cities that protect illegal immigrants are jeopardizing domestic security, Attorney General Bill Barr announced a slew of additional sanctions that he called a "significant escalation" against left-wing local and state governments that obstruct the "lawful functioning of our nation's immigration system."
Speaking at the National Sheriff’s Association 2020 Winter Legislative and Technology Conference in Washington, D.C., Barr said the Justice Department would immediately file multiple lawsuits against sanctuary jurisdictions for unconstitutionally interfering with federal immigration enforcement, and implement unprecedented national reviews of left-wing sanctuary governments and prosecutors.
Liberal outlet The Guardian reported Feb. 10 that conservative donor Sheldon Adelson is allegedly gearing up to spend $100 million to help boost President Donald Trump and Republican candidates this fall. Yet, Adelson, at this point, is tied for 43rd in contributions to outside spending groups, according to Open Secrets. In fact, current data reveal that the top four liberal donors dwarf the spending of the top 39 donors to conservative outside spending groups combined. So why is The Guardian in its piece focusing on money that has been allegedly promised, while ignoring millions that have already been spent?
It's the most powerful greenhouse gas known to humanity, and emissions have risen rapidly in recent years, the BBC has learned. Sulphur hexafluoride, or SF6, is widely used in the electrical industry to prevent short circuits and accidents. But leaks of the little-known gas in the UK and the rest of the EU in 2017 were the equivalent of putting an extra 1.3 million cars on the road.
A 21-year-old woman was charged over the weekend with stabbing a cab driver in Jefferson County. Ajla Zekan was arrested on Saturday during a traffic stop in St. Louis County, authorities say. Police had been searching for her since Tuesday when, they say, she attacked the driver "without notice," stabbing him eleven times. She had apparently been grocery shopping that night at the Dierbergs Market off of Tesson Ferry Road, near Mercy Hospital South.(Snip) The cab was parked when Zekan, who was seated behind the driver, pulled out a four- to six-inch knife and began stabbing the man,
A new Quinnipiac University poll released Monday shows Bernie Sanders leading former Vice President Joe Biden nationally, giving the Vermont senator front-runner status in a national poll for the first time.
Released in the wake of the botched Iowa caucuses and a day before the first-in-the-nation primary in New Hampshire, the poll shows Sanders overtaking Biden with 25 percent of the vote among Democratic voters and independent voters who lean Democratic. Biden, meanwhile, garnered 17 percent.
The biggest flop of the award show season? The award show itself. The Oscars made history for the smallest audience the award show has ever received after a night of predictable wins and polarizing acceptance speeches. About 23.6 million people watched the 92nd installment of the show, which showered Bong Joon Ho with awards including Best Director and Best Picture for his widely acclaimed social horror film “Parasite.” And while it was the most-watched show of the awards season, even the promise of a hostless show couldn’t hoist up Hollywood’s big night amid repeat wins by actors who already took home Golden Globes, SAGs and BAFTAs.
Former Mayor Pete Buttigieg has long drawn the ire of progressives, particularly the young and online subset. But with his strong showing in Iowa and surge in New Hampshire, he's now attracting sustained attacks from across the ideological spectrum. (Snip) Young progressives, many of whom support Sen. Bernie Sanders, take issue with his centrist approach to healthcare policy, college debt, and federal spending. They argue his alleged "outsider" status is fraudulent, as he's the child of academics, and a product of the Ivy League, Oxford, and the consulting firm McKinsey. They credit much of his rapid rise to a strategy
The 21-year-old college student who was jokingly called a “lying, dog-faced pony soldier” by Democratic presidential candidate Joseph R. Biden in New Hampshire on Sunday said after the now-viral moment that she doesn’t believe the former vice president has what it takes to win. Madison Moore asked Mr. Biden during a campaign event in Hampton how he expected to gain momentum following an embarrassing 4th-place finish in the Iowa caucuses. “How do you explain the performance in Iowa, and why should voters believe that you can win the national election?” Ms. Moore asked. Mr. Biden said it was legitimate question
MANCHESTER, New Hampshire - For the past year, Democratic voters have been anxious to settle on a savior capable of defeating President Donald Trump. The first week of primary balloting was supposed to speed the winnowing of an outsized field of candidates and showcase Democrats’ readiness to take back the White House in November. But an embarrassing meltdown in the Iowa caucus vote count, and a dismal showing by Joe Biden, once seen as the safest choice to unseat the Republican incumbent, have only heightened fears among some Democrats that their party isn’t up to the task. The early strength
Thank You, “Unhyphenated American” and Canada Free Press columnist LWe needed to hear ‘Thank the Lord Rush Limbaugh’s on’ back in 2013 when the parody song made its debut. But we need it more than ever now when the Deep State’s coming up with one hoax after another to try to Crown America with Communism.
Marcus is heartrendingly right on in calling Rush “a courageous peerless voice of truth” and “that is why millions of Americans love him.”
Even facing advancing cancer, King of Talk Radio Rush Limbaugh is
At the New Hampshire 2020 Democratic presidential primary debate on Friday, Democrats failed when questioned on whether they would have authorized the U.S. military strike which killed Qassem Soleimani.
Soleimani, commander of the covert action arm of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was killed in a January U.S. drone strike in Baghdad. President Trump authorized that strike in response to Soleimani's effort to organize attacks on U.S. interests in Iraq and the broader Middle East, and in the context of the Iranian general's historic role in killing hundreds of U.S. soldiers during the Iraq War.
But as I say, Democrats were unconvincing.
Pete Buttigieg was first to respond, and he offered platitudes.
Jackson, Miss.—The president of Jackson State University resigned Monday after he was arrested in a prostitution sting in central Mississippi. William Bynum Jr., 57, was among more than a dozen people arrested during the weekend, according to a Clinton Police Department news release. A separate news release from the Mississippi university system on Monday said Bynum submitted his resignation, and it took effect immediately. Bynum is charged with procuring services of a prostitute, false statement of identity and simple possession of marijuana. He has been president of Jackson State since 2017 after serving four years as president of Mississippi Valley State University.
I grew up in Minnesota, the heart of the Midwest: a blue state of really nice, hard-working people who love winter, lefse, and Al Franken. Starting at about 13 years old until college, I worked for my dad, a successful remodeling contractor, over school breaks.
I hated the work. Often the only female on a construction site or a hotel in the midst of remodeling, I felt awkward. I got dirty. I wasn’t good at painting or wallpapering. The hours were longer than anything I’d ever experienced, and we rarely ate out during the day. (Somehow cold granola bars just added to the laboriousness.)
I know, I sound like a wimp.
Over the past few weeks Clover Hogan has found herself crying during the day and waking up at night gripped by panic. The 20-year-old, who now lives in London, grew up in Queensland, Australia, cheekbyjowl with the country’s wildlife, fishing frogs out of the toilet and dodging snakes hanging from the ceiling. The bushfires ravaging her homeland over the past few weeks have taken their toll. “I’ve found myself bursting into tears… just seeing the absolutely harrowing images of what’s happening in Australia–it is overwhelming and terrifying.”(Snip) Psychologists warn that the impact can be debilitating for the growing number
Has anyone else noticed the similarities between Adam Schiff and Richard Milhous Nixon, our amoral 37th president of the United States?
Let’s start with that amorality. Both men showed a willingness to say or do anything in order to achieve their goals – step over any body, tell any lie — and their goals were also the same: to achieve personal political power at any cost.
More about that later, but we might take a moment to notice the more superficial similarities between the two politicians, and I’m not talking about their peculiar facial features — Nixon’s jowly face with its ski-slope nose or Schiff’s thin neck and bug eyes
A Florida teacher has been busted for trying to get drugs delivered to her while she taught at an elementary school, according to authorities. First-grade teacher Valerie Lee Prince, 43, called a dealer to bring her an eight ball of meth at Jacksonville Heights Elementary School — saying she was willing to abandon her class to collect it, according to Clay County Sheriff’s Office.
Director Rob Reiner said Sunday on MSNBC that in order to win in 2020, Democrats have to “punch” President Donald Trump in the nose.Reiner said, “When you’ve got a schoolyard bully, you got to punch them in the nose, and you got to continue to punch him in the nose. I mean, you know, we can’t be, you know, liars the way he is. He is a continual liar, and if we adopt that, then we become him. So we have to find another way do it, and we have to start thinking about this as — it is like what James Carville said back in 1992, then it was
Iran was sabotaged with an unprecedented cyber attack on the eve of its failed attempt to launch a satellite into orbit, the regime has claimed.
Last night, a rocket launch from Imam Khomeini Spaceport was scuppered due to low speeds which stopped it breaking into orbit.
It was a humiliating blow to Tehran, which the United States believes is developing rocket technology to advance nuclear capabilities.
But hours before the failure, Iran's deputy information minister Hamid Fatah had revealed the country's communications network had been hit with 'the most widespread attack in Iranian history'.(Snip) Hosseini still sought to portray the failure as a 'remarkable' achievement for its space program.
A man acquitted of terrorism in 2018 after he was arrested with a metre-long samurai sword outside Buckingham Palace has been convicted of planning an attack at tourist hotspots in London. Mohiussunnath Chowdhury, 28, from Luton, was found guilty of terrorism offences on Monday after the jury at Woolwich crown court heard he planned to kill members of the public at busy London locations including Madame Tussauds, the Pride parade and on an open-top tour bus.(Snip) He had been armed with the sword and shouted “Allahu Akbar” but his lawyer successfully convinced the jury that he had been trying to get himself killed
An outspoken blogger who routinely attacked Russia and Chechnya has been found dead in a French hotel with his throat slit and 100 stab wounds—and police suspect a “political motivation,” according to reports. Chechen blogger Imran Aliev, 44, was found late last month in a hotel bloodbath in Lille that reflected “extreme savagery,” sources told Agence France-Presse. His throat had also been slit, Business Insider said. Aliev had political refugee status and was living in Belgium under police protection “because of threats out of Russia and Chechnya over his opposition blogging,” a senior French police official told the outlet.
Japan may test every person aboard the Diamond Princess for the coronavirus after it was determined Monday that there were 66 new cases on the quarantined ship docked at a Yokohama port.
The Japan Times, which first reported the increase, said the passengers will be able to disembark after test results become available. (Snip)
The passengers have been confined on the ship for six days with limited outdoor activities. The New York Times reported that the ship is "host to the highest concentration of the coronavirus cases outside China." The report said 2,600 passengers have been holed up in their cabins, and some have spoken about their anxiety.
London - Political outsiders Sinn Fein stole the show in Ireland's general election over the weekend.
The votes are still being counted but this left-wing, Irish nationalist party has pulled off a major political upset, breaking a century of dominance by establishment heavyweight parties (Fine Gael and Fianna Fail) and changing the political landscape of Ireland likely forever.
Here's what you need to know. (Snip)Sinn Fein won the most first-preference votes in Ireland's complex single-transferable-vote electoral system, but as they only fielded 42 candidates for 160 seats in the Dail (parliament), they are unlikely to be the largest party and therefore may not get to pick a new government or
Just over a year ago, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer seemed up-and-coming in German politics. She had succeeded Angela Merkel as boss of their center-right party, the Christian Democratic Union. She even looked like Merkel’s heiress apparent as German chancellor. All that came to a screeching halt on Feb. 10, when Kramp-Karrenbauer said she would resign as party leader, thereby becoming the most notable political victim yet of a far-right party, the Alternative for Germany (AfD).
Modern Germany isn’t Weimar; the AfD isn’t the Nazi party; and German democracy isn’t in danger of failing. Nonetheless, this rupture is historical. It rips wide open the race to become the next German chancellor.
Mark Carney leaves his job as Governor of the Bank of England in March, stepping easily into several new positions: notably, U.N. Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance and special advis0r to the British Prime Minister for the Glasgow COP26 conference on climate change in November. More broadly, Carney is moving from the world of central banking and high finance into that of international political activism on climate at the highest U.N. level. That’s also a move from a world in which he had sustained success and a high reputation—
Prayers for Rush Limbaugh
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One afternoon in 1992, I visited a friend at his quarters on Tyndall Air Force Base. We ate burgers and swapped stories, and then he looked at the clock and turned on the radio. “You gotta hear this guy!” he said with a confident grin.
I doubted that. I had tired of “shock jock” DJ schtick by the time I was 20. Still, Mike was a good friend who made very good burgers, so I prepared to politely endure the performance. Mike’s grin remained as I heard, for the first time, Rush Limbaugh’s diligent employment of the talent God loaned him.
President Trump is making good on his promises to “drain the swamp” and cut Obama-era holdovers from his staffs, especially the critical and recently controversial National Security Council.
Officials confirmed that Trump and national security adviser Robert O’Brien have cut 70 positions inherited from former President Barack Obama, who had fattened the staff to 200.
Many were loaners from other agencies and have been sent back. Others left government work.
The NSC, which is the president’s personal staff, was rocked when a “whistleblower” leveled charges that led to Trump’s impeachment.
....was given a horrendous report by his superior, the man he reported to, who publicly stated that Vindman had problems with judgement, adhering
The White House has identified and will soon part ways with the “anonymous” official behind a recently released book and a “resistance” focused editorial published in the New York Times, former U.S. attorney Joe diGenova claimed Monday morning.
DiGenova made his claim on WMAL’s “Mornings on the Mall,” but senior White House officials declined to comment on the topic when asked by the Daily Caller.In the book, “A Warning,” released in November, the anonymous official states there is a group of White House staffers actively hoping for President Donald Trump’s “downfall.”
Anxiety is coursing through the Democratic Party as President Trump emerges from his impeachment proceedings as a potent threat for reelection, with party leaders and activists uncertain about how to beat the incumbent and worried about a nominating race that remains crowded and is growing more acrimonious. While Democrats see Trump as a corrosive figure and a threat to the nation, they also see the president and his well-funded campaign tailoring a reelection bid around the strong economy and visceral appeals to his ardent supporters. Trump’s robust political standing came into view this past week, as he claimed vindication from
Last week’s political trifecta—the Iowa caucus, the State of the Union, and President Trump’s impeachment acquittal—temporarily starved other stories of oxygen. Among those was the news that the inspector general’s report on FISA abuse was misleading and that redacted information contained in four footnotes contradicted sections of the lengthy expose on the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.(Snip) concerns not just a few details addressed in the IG report, but goes to the heart of the entire Crossfire Hurricane investigation: “This classified information is significant not only because it contradicts key statements in a section of the report, but also because it provides insight essential for an accurate evaluation of the entire
The first Netflix film produced by former President Obama and Michelle Obama‘s production company won an award on Sunday during the Oscars and, while accepting the award, the filmmakers recited Karl Marx’s Communist manifesto.
Julia Reichert of “American Factory” received the award and said: “Working people have it harder and harder these days – and we believe that things will get better when workers of the world unite.”
The term “workers of the world unite,” comes directly from the communist manifesto and was widely noticed by media critics. Obama praised them, writing on Twitter, “Congrats to Julia and Steven, the filmmakers behind American Factory, for telling such a complex,
Surviving our own secrets
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Imagine if you could see a bullet coming for hours but never noticed in time to dodge it. My post on Dec 27, 2004 about the Indian Ocean tsunami is as true of the 2019-nCoV as it was about the big wave. (Snip) For hours the giant wave traveled hundreds of miles towards unsuspecting victims but the warning systems of the time were too slow to alert those in its path. It hit Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand. It killed as far as Kenya. "According to the U.S. Geological Survey a total of 227,898 people died. Measured in lives lost, this is one of the ten worst earthquakes
Melania Trump absolutely turned heads Sunday when she stepped out in a stunning sleeveless black gown at the Governors’ Ball at the White House. (Photos) The first lady looked just as striking as ever in the floor-length number that had a sparkling trim along the neckline as she joined President Donald Trump who spoke to the group gathered in the East Room for the annual celebration. (Photos) She completed the terrific look with loose hair and high heels. To say she looked perfect would be a serious understatement.
On Friday, the Democrats in the Virginia legislature took the first step toward a sweeping gun ban and confiscation scheme that they plan to put into effect on July 1st. (Just in time for the 4th of July. How patriotic.) The House Public Safety Committee approved a ban on AK-47s and AR-15 style rifles, as well as all suppressors and magazines holding 12 rounds or more. There was a last-minute concession made to allow rifle owners to grandfather their weapons legally purchased before the ban goes into effect. There is no such grandfather clause for magazines or suppressors.
"American Factory," the first Netflix film from former President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama's production company, is officially an Oscar winner.The film won the Academy Award on Sunday for "Best Documentary Feature."The project from filmmakers Steven Bognar, Julia Eichert and Jeff Eichert followed the story of an Ohio factory after it was reopened by a Chinese billionaire.The 44th president and first lady didn't appear on the Oscars stage to accept the award, but Bognar and the Eicherts thanked the Obamas' production company, Higher Ground, during their acceptance speech.
FORT WORTH
Every pro-life group opposes abortion.
But not every pro-life group is as extreme as Texas Right to Life.
The West-Texas-funded activist group has been visiting Fort Worth lately, first to take up for a very sick infant whose own doctors at Cook Children’s consider her case to be hopeless, then to endorse political candidates.
We took note of Texas Right to Life two years ago, when Texas’ Roman Catholic bishops formally distanced from the group after a campaign “scorecard” opposed a state lawmaker with a 100-percent anti-abortion voting record.
Impeachment has backfired far beyond the worst nightmares Democrats could have imagined. In its aftermath, President Donald Trump’s approval rating is actually now at its highest ever.
For them, it is the fourth quarter and the clock is getting close to zero, with Election Day nine months off. Joe Biden is fading, the party asking to take over health care can’t count votes in a modest-sized state, and its leader in Congress is so unglued she rips up Trump’s State of the Union speech. But is there a Hail Mary pass some prominent figure on the left could attempt, to
So another coup attempt has failed.
Fact: The Russia investigation known as Spygate did not arise because the FBI and CIA thought it likely that Trump colluded with Russia -- everyone knew that was bullshit. The Russia probe and the resultant Mueller investigation were based on a false dossier paid for by the DNC. The FBI, CIA, and DoJ used these documents -- knowing full well that they were fraudulent -- in order to spy on and undermine the Trump administration. It was a coup attempt, plain and simple.
Fact: The impeachment did not arise because a principled whistleblower spontaneously came forward with a tale of a Ukraine phone call.
Former one-term Republican congressman and radio host Joe Walsh recently withdrew from running against Trump in the Republican primary. He apparently got the message that his candidacy was dead when the Iowa caucus crowd responded with raucous cheers for Trump to his comment "if you want four more year of the Donald Trump show" and roundly booed his claim that the president "makes every day about himself."
Any birdbrain knows that Trump makes every day about us and the U.S. The only reason he has had to talk about himself is because he's been under constant attack, and Democrats demanded his head.
As I have gotten older, I have been enlightened about so many things from honest, genuine, conscience-driven journalists and other Democrats. Of course, to accept what I have learned, I had to check my common sense at the door.
I learned in 2008 that McCain was a despicable racist who would be a terrible President. Later, I learned how beloved, smart and honest he was as long as he was trashing Trump. He was deeply respected when he died and had been in high demand by genuine journalists who only care about the truth.
In 2012, as I supported Romney, I learned that he was deplorable, greedy and stupid.
Thank Goodness: Joe Biden Believes in ‘Rational’
Gun Policy – Like Not Having ’50 Clips in a
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Gun Policy – Like Not Having ’50 Clips in a
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You know what kind of gun policy is super boss?
The rational kind.
Thankfully, that’s exactly what Joe Biden’s serving up.
The 2020 hopeful explained on Sunday that a “rational policy” means y’all can’t have “50 clips in a weapon.”
Got that? You know how you’ve been stuffing 50 clips into your rifle? Well it’s rationally time you stopped.
I’d like to add:
Immediately cease shoving 50 guns into one holster.
You look ridiculous.
Yet more philosophical waxing on the campaign trail from the former VP:
“An AK-47 wouldn’t protect you from a tyrannical government.”
#Comforting
Team Sanders certainly has good reason to be angry with the DNC as they once again try to sabotage his path to the nomination.
They changed the rules to make way for latecomer Michael Bloomberg to participate in the Nevada Democratic debate. They tried to prevent CNN and The Des Moines Register from releasing polling data which showed Sen. Sanders (I-VT) leading the pack just days before the caucuses.
And House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may or may not have had Sanders in mind when she held back the Articles of Impeachment for a month which had the affect of keeping Sanders,
There was a time when many on the Right and the Left found Joe Biden’s antics charming and amusing. He would do something disturbingly weird like grope a biker chick and everyone would just gloss over the fact that he was one heartbeat away from the presidency and just say, “Well, that’s just Joe.”
I was never one of those people. I’ve always thought that his odd behavior was disturbing, not charming. He’s a skeevy creep who shouldn’t be left alone in charge of a goldfish, let alone the most powerful nation on Earth.
During this presidential campaign he has gotten progressively (pun intended) more bizarre.
The Week When Trump
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Was Reelected replies
Santa was late coming down the White House chimney, but this week a sack of reelection Christmas presents belatedly arrived under the Trump Christmas tree. Face it, Christmas was a downer for President Trump and his supporters. The House rammed through two articles of impeachment and promptly skipped town, much like kids leaving a flaming bag of dog poop at someone’s front door before running away. (snip) Even the Trump-hating Washington Post acknowledges that it’s been, “A bad week for Democrats.” Meaning a great week for Trump, perhaps the week when Trump all but assured his reelection. And as Trump himself said, “The best is yet to come.”
Actor Joaquin Phoenix gave a bizarre leftist speech as he accepted an award at the Oscars for his role in the movie “Joker,” suggesting that humans use the resources that cows provide because humans believe that they are superior to cows.“I’ve been thinking a lot about some of the distressing issues that we are facing collectively, and I think at times we feel or are made to feel that we champion different causes,” Phoenix said. “But for me, I see commonality. I think whether we’re talking about gender inequality or racism or queer rights or indigenous rights or animal rights,
The overarching Democratic strategy for winning the 2020 general election is based on the assumption that outrage over President Trump’s personality and policies will motivate their rank-and-file voters to turn out in record numbers to defeat him. If Iowa was a portent of things to come, and it usually is for the party of Jefferson and Jackson, this “anyone but Trump” plan will fail. Many questions remain about how those caucuses were so comically mismanaged, but one fact is indisputable. The Democrats hoped for an Iowa turnout comparable to the 2008 record of 240,000 but fell short of that goal by 28 percent. Why aren’t their voters more motivated?
On Sunday's Face the Nation, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told CBS host Margaret Brennan the media's "so in the tank" on the Biden scandal in Ukraine. It came right on the edge of a commercial break, when Brennan felt compelled to add the usual in-the-tank disclaimer that "nothing" has been "substantiated" on Biden corruption. Graham made the obvious point: the media make zero or near-zero effort to substantate the Biden scandal, and then say tsk-tsk that it's unproven. (Video)
The Once and Future Scandal
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Now that the four-and-a-half-month-long Ukraine impeachment bookend to the 22-month Mueller charade is over, it clearly accomplished nothing other than substantially raising the polls of both Donald Trump and the Republican Party. The public was reminded that Representative Gerald Nadler (D-N.Y.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) are every bit as childish, peevish, and absurd as Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).So, we are now back to the existential issue of the entire Trump phenomenon: to what degree did the Hillary Clinton campaign collude with high-ranking Obama officials, and the top echelons of the FBI, CIA, and the national intelligence apparatus, to surveil, defame, and hope to derail
The Chinese government would have the world believe that the coronavirus is under control and the risks of it spreading to the rest of us is minimal. But foreign governments and intelligence agencies believe that China has been lying about the extent of the epidemic and continues to deny the truth about the numbers of dead and infected.
Judging by leaked videos on social media that purpotedly show the dead lying untended in the street, bodies wrapped in sheets lying on benches and crematoriums working 24/7 with bodies unceremoniously stuffed into ovens with no burial rites, millions of Chinese people appear to agree with the foreign assessments.
This was quite the metaphor. The Joe Biden campaign bus broke down today on a New Hampshire highway. It stalled out. After Biden made headlines today for calling a woman a “lying dog-faced pony soldier” his bus broke down on the road. The media was forced to take vans to their next stop.This comes after Joe Biden took 4th place in the crooked Iowa caucuses and is looking at a 4th place in New Hampshire.
The Oscars 2020 proved the cement shoes for Netflix’s “The Irishman.” The downturn began on Jan. 6, when viewers tuned into the 2020 Golden Globe Awards expecting to hear a few familiar names: Marty, Pesci or perhaps Pacino. The Hollywood icons were seated at a table smack-dab down front, stage right, so it would be easy for the living legends to take the stage at the Beverly Hilton Hotel quickly when they inevitably won. But those seats would only become warmer and warmer as the night went on, because instead we heard different people called up: Sam Mendes, Brad Pitt and, most improbably, “1917.”
A top NYPD official has warned officers not to wear their police uniforms or department logos in public following back-to-back assassination attempts on cops in the Bronx.
Hazel Jennings, chief of the Department of Corrections, issued a memo on Sunday night essentially urging officers to hide their police affiliation to avoid being targeted. The memo came after a career criminal carried out two separate attacks on officers in the Bronx in the span of just 12 hours, leaving two officers injured. Robert Williams, 45, was taken into custody on Sunday after he allegedly opened fire on a police station in the Bronx shortly before 8am
With Democrat dreams of a soft coup now a heap of smoldering wreckage, and no need to play Mr. Nice Guy to please prissy softcons on Capitol Hill, President Trump is finally free to channel his inner Michael Corleone. It’s about time to re-christen Don Jr., and use that opportunity to take out the heads of the five families.
Trump already tossed mealy-mouthed ambassador Gordon Sondland out on his Nadler. Then military Twitter started buzzing with delight – well, not Blue Falcon Twitter but the one with vets who aren’t half-stepping weasels – at the news of That’s Lieutenant Colonel to You Bratwurst and his brother
Other Democratic presidential primary contenders may push the Green New Deal, but Michael R. Bloomberg is advancing his climate change agenda behind the scenes with the help of one Democratic state attorney general at a time.
Since its founding in 2017, the billionaire’s State Energy & Environmental Impact Center at New York University School of Law has quietly planted climate lawyers — paid by the center — with Democratic attorneys general in nine states and the District of Columbia despite alarm over what Republicans call his “liberal mercenaries.”
The next state may be Michigan. A cache of emails obtained by Energy Policy Advocates showed the office
Professor Jonathan Turley of Georgetown University Law School wrote in The Hill of the Speaker’s State of the Union behavior, “Pelosi has shredded decades of tradition, decorum and civility that the nation could use now more than ever.” He also described her with the words “petty,” “distempered,” and “inappropriate.” She failed to introduce the President properly, and then was particularly out of line when she tore up his speech after grimacing and showing petulant expressions throughout the President’s speech. Turley asserted that she should resign from office as the Speaker as her breaches of decorum at the State of Union were the worst of all those
Somewhere in the darkness, where private thoughts can be snuffed out before spoken out loud, there is a Democrat who understands that President Trump is now legend. After the State of the Union, one woman in Carthage, North Carolina said it clearly: "We need to put a cape on his back, an 'S' on his chest, and call him Superman. No mortal man could take what he has took in the last three years and do what he has done." The entire diner where she was being interviewed exploded in enthusiastic cheers. She seemed to have expressed a feeling that others were feeling, too.
Joe Biden’s hard-hitting new ad targeting Pete Buttigieg is drawing a lot of attention, in part because a number of commentators–Ann Althouse is one–detect a tinge of homophobia. See if you can spot it:(Snip for video)To me, the ad is an appropriate attack on Buttigieg’s obvious lack of experience. I would criticize it for grossly exaggerating Biden’s own importance; throughout his political career, he has been a mediocrity at best.
The alleged homophobia consists of the ad’s repeated use of the word “decorative” (also “colorfully”) in describing Buttigieg’s achievements as Mayor of South Bend. It got by me, but maybe there are dogs out there who will hear a whistle.
There are new major developments in the case against three-star General Michael Flynn. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington has proposed delaying "a number of approaching deadlines," Fox News reports, "that would ultimately make his sentencing unlikely" on February 27, as was the original plan.
The prosecutors conducting the witch hunt against one of America's most heroic and important generals of the last few decades want Gen. Flynn's former attorneys to testify against him. They argue that the general waived his attorney-client privileges in his communications with Covington & Burling by arguing that he received ineffective assistance from them.
Settling All Family Business?
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Friday Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman was escorted from the White House where he had served on the National Security Council. His twin brother, Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman, was also dismissed from the NSC.
Alexander had testified against President Trump in the House impeachment proceedings. He had listened in on the President’s telephone call with Ukrainian President Zelensky and testified that Trump had abused his office by withholding aid to the Ukraine until it announced investigations of his political opponents. Reportedly Alexander is believed to be the primary source of information for alleged whistleblower Eric Ciaramella.
Although Yevgeny did not testify, there are unconfirmed reports
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on this week’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday” accused President Donald Trump of possibly not understanding the difference between communism and socialism.
In a video clip, President Trump said, “I think he is a communist. I think of communism when I think of Bernie. You can say socialist. Didn’t he get married in Moscow?”
Sanders said, “It gives me no pleasure to say this, we have a president who is a pathological liar. He lies. No, I did not get married in Moscow. I participated in creating a sister city program.”
He continued, “Obviously, I am not a communist. I presume the president knows the difference.
Nancy Pelosi looked like a malfunctioning Stepford wife as she sat behind President Trump during his State of the Union Address last week. Her lower face twitched, she muttered to herself, shook her head, smiled inappropriately, gazed around, chewed her lip or remained glued to her seat during standing ovations in honor of special guests.
It was a bizarre enough performance before she rose to her feet and dramatically ripped up her copy of the president’s speech in what will go down in history as the most unseemly display of partisanship in this partisan era.
Them the People
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Iain Murray grew up reading and writing by candlelight, not because he lived in premodern times but because he lived under democratic socialism.
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and other contemporary American advocates of democratic socialism lean heavily on the democratic part, which is at least in part a matter of marketing. To take their talk of democratic principle seriously requires forgetfulness and credulousness: During the last great uprising of democratic socialism in the English-speaking world — in the United Kingdom in the 1970s, where young Iain Murray, now a fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, was doing his homework by the light of coals and candles —
Trump budget would cut $4.4T in
spending, boosting defense while
slashing safety nets, foreign aid replies
spending, boosting defense while
slashing safety nets, foreign aid replies
The White House on Sunday unveiled a $4.8 trillion budget proposal that would slash spending dramatically on foreign aid and social safety nets, while including $2 billion for a southern border wall and substantially boosting funding to NASA, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Homeland Security.
Fox News has confirmed the details of the budget, which The Wall Street Journal first reported. The package, set to be formally announced on Monday, as-is stood little chance of passage in the House of Representatives, which the Democrats have controlled. Still, it served as a signal of the president's priorities as Republicans
A gust of 209 mph was recorded atop a California peak on Sunday, a potential record that wowed forecasters monitoring a cold storm moving south through the state.
The blast of wind was captured around 7:45 a.m. by an instrument at 9,186 feet on Kirkwood Mountain south of Lake Tahoe, said National Weather Service forecaster Alex Hoon.
He and his colleagues at the NWS office in Reno, Nevada watched in surprise as wind speeds across the crest of the Sierra Nevada hit 150 mph and kept rising.
“It went up and up,” Hoon said. It could take months for state climatologists to verify the record, he said.
The first of 2020's official presidential preference polls to be conducted by adults happens here in New Hampshire (N.H.) on Tuesday. This short essay describes two micro-polls conducted Thursday.
I live in southeastern N.H., the Exeter area, which is fairly blue like the adjacent state of Taxachusetts. Thursday was errand day: a stop at a local business and then groceries at a local supermarket. As I drove, I counted yard signs. One each for Bernie, Joe, Tulsi, and Trump. No Amy, no Yang. Two for Warren. And seven for Mayor Pete, the kid from Indiana who shows a modicum of sense.