Posts on Thursday, April 11, 2019
HOUSTON-For space industry experts and enthusiasts alike, Thursday´s successful takeoff was another step toward the goal of launching American space missions with American astronauts from America."Bringing it from American soil is the right thing to do because we have so much more control," retired astronaut Clayton Anderson said. Anderson spent 30 years at NASA.That includes two space shuttle missions to the International Space Station. Anderson said current and past NASA professionals are playing an important role at SpaceX as the public and private sectors of space travel inevitably end up overlapping."We have mission control people involved, we have flight directors
Swalwell: ‘I Expect’ Trump to ‘Meddle,’ or Try to ‘Indirectly Tamper With’ Jurors in Assange Case
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On Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” 2020 presidential candidate Representative Eric Swalwell (D-CA) said he expects President Trump “will probably continue to meddle, or attempt to indirectly tamper with the jurors” in Julian Assange’s case.Swalwell said Trump’s reaction to Assange’s arrest “is what you would expect from my toddler when I find that he colored on the walls. He says, oh, I don’t know nothing about nothing, essentially. He doesn’t commend the Department of Justice for working so hard on this case, doesn’t commend the British for working with us to extradite Mr. Assange. Instead, he says something that’s
The month before he launched his Senate campaign against Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke offloaded an El Paso, Texas, apartment complex that he valued in financial disclosures at between one and five million dollars. The buyers were Patricia “Isha” Rogers and her husband, Steve Santamaria, public records show. Rogers is an old family friend and campaign donor for both Beto’s and his father’s political campaigns. O’Rourke and his mother became co-owners of the building following the death of his father, former El Paso County Judge Pat O’Rourke, in 2001. Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show
The new director of the state ethics commission plans to subpoena bank records from the campaign of 2018 Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams and groups that raised money to help her in last year’s nationally watched race. Former Douglas County prosecutor David Emadi, who started his new job Monday, also said his office will soon decide whether to prosecute the campaigns of Atlanta mayoral candidates.Emadi’s predecessor, Stefan Ritter, was accused of stalling investigations after the commission audited campaign reports from the organizations last year. Ritter, who was also accused of watching porn at work, resigned earlier this year.
2019 Masters Par 3 Contest coverage: Jordan Spieth´s trick shot, UCLA amateur´ ace among highlights
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The Par 3 Contest once again provided highlights and great memories for golfers and patrons alike during the annual Wednesday tradition at Augusta National. The event was won by first-time Masters participant Matt Wallace, who beat out Sandy Lyle on the third-hole of a playoff after both finished the 9-hole event at 5-under. All but 20 of the Par 3 Contest participants were ineligible to win, but for all the most fun reasons. With significant others and children walking alongside the groups in full caddie outfits, the Par 3 Contest is a family affair all the way to letting the
Attorney General William Barr is “being as forthcoming as he can” about special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia report, said Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.Although Barr provided a four-page summary of the report and said that he would release a redacted version this month, Democrats want Mueller´s full report.“He’s being as forthcoming as he can, and so this notion that he’s trying to mislead people, I think is just completely bizarre,” Rosenstein said, according to the Wall Street Journal. Mueller was investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin.“It would be one thing
AUGUSTA, Ga. — The Latest on the Masters (all times local): 7:40 p.m. Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau each shot a 6-under 66 and are tied for the first-round lead at the Masters. Koepka and DeChambeau followed a similar path Thursday, making the turn at 1-under before scorching the back nine of Augusta National. Koepka played a bogey-free round, making birdies on five out of six holes on Nos. 10, 12, 13, 14 and 15. He had a chance to move to 7-under on 18, but his putt curved just right of the hole. DeChambeau ended his round with six birdies
‘Beautiful Afternoon In The Oval Office’— President Trump Keeps His Promise To 95-Year-Old WWII Vet
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President Donald Trump hosted four World War II veterans at the White House on Thursday, keeping a promise made to 95-year-old Allen Jones last June. “Beautiful afternoon in the Oval Office today with a few great American HEROES!” Trump tweeted Thursday afternoon, along with a video showing his June conversation with Jones. (Tweet\Video) “I’m going to be 95 years of age on April 11 of next year,” the retired sergeant told the president while appearing with him at a Kansas City VFW event in June. “Hopefully, you will allow me to bring my family into the Oval Office to meet you.”
Exclusive: Democrats Can’t Win Based on Their Ideas, So They Want to Change the Rules of the Game
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One of the biggest criticisms of President Trump is that he violates so-called “democratic norms.” Leading Democrats, think tank officials, and newspaper columnists have continuously wrung their hands over how everything from Trump’s tweets to his legitimate criticisms of the mainstream media somehow threatens American governing institutions. “Trump has assailed essential institutions and traditions…” claims a left-wing outfit in a report issued this year. Yet these same groups are conspicuously silent on Democrats’ blatant and unapologetic attempts to subvert U.S. founding institutions in their lust for power that they cannot achieve through the existing governing framework. In recent weeks, Democrats
The theme of the House Democrats´ annual retreat this year is "fighting for the people," but they needed a pair of Ivy League professors and a Hollywood power couple to explain to them just who those people are, according to an agenda for the event. The opening event of the House Democrats´ three-day retreat at Virginia´s Lansdowne Resort was headlined by Harvard´s Raj Chetty and Yale´s Jennifer Richeson and titled, "Who Are The People?" The introductory event was followed by a dinner headlined by celebrity couple John Legend and Chrissy Teigen, who advised women to say "f**k you" more often
Ocasio-Cortez: Criticism Of Omar ´Is Incitement Of Violence Against Progressive Women Of Color´
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Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) continued to go to bat for Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-NY) on Thursday after Omar trivialized the 9/11 terrorist attacks as "some people did something," claiming that she and Omar were both victims of the political Right. (Video) Ocasio-Cortez, who defended Omar by mocking war hero Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) on Twitter, also falsely claimed that criticism of her and Omar "is an incitement of violence against progressive women of color.""The levels to which Republican and conservative groups, whether they are official party apparatuses, sending out emails, calling me and others domestic terrorists, or whether it’s
Months after repeatedly dismissing and mocking President Trump’s claim of a national emergency at the Southern U.S. border, the mainstream media are grappling with reality, with no less than The New York Times declaring the border crisis at “breaking point.” Yet as recently as February, a New York Times fact-checker of Trump´s State of the Union speech tweeted: “President Trump described illegal border crossings as a ´urgent national crisis.´ This is false." MEDIA ´VILIFY´ BORDER AGENTS AND ´ROMANTICIZE´ ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS, SAYS NATIONAL BORDER PATROL COUNCIL PRESIDENT The Washington Post’s editorial board said “there is no crisis” at the border and
Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger rebuked social media companies like Facebook and Twitter during a ceremony in which he was being honored with a humanitarian award on Thursday. The billionaire executive, whose company reportedly considered a purchase of Twitter as recently as October 2017, seems to have had a major change of heart about Big Tech platforms. “Hitler would have loved social media,” Iger said, according to Variety, upon receiving the Simon Wiesenthal Center´s Humanitarian Award. “It’s the most powerful marketing tool an extremist could ever hope for because by design social media reflects a narrow world view filtering
Talk radio host Rush Limbaugh said it seems like more than a coincidence that the very morning after Attorney General William Barr’s testimony that he thinks Donald Trump was spied on, Julian Assange was arrested in London.“Is it too much to ask if maybe it’s a big coincidence that, all of a sudden, authorities found their way inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London and pulled out of there Julian Assange…?” asked Limbaugh. “They used to love Julian Assange, folks,” he told his listeners. “The Drive-by media, the Democrat Party used to love this guy.”Not anymore. CNN, Limbaugh pointed out, didn’t seem
Well, this was coming, folks. If you attack Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) disgusting and idiotic remarks about the 9/11 attacks, you’re a racist. Or better yet, you’re just not ready to hear how women of color, specifically Muslim women, discuss the issues. Yeah, that’s a liberal ethos we don’t have to respect at all. Islamic terrorist thugs attacked our nation, they murdered nearly 3,000 of our citizens, and there’s no other side to that, unless you want to defend terrorism. In Omar’s case, she described the horrific attack by saying, “some people did something” at a CAIR event last month.
Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo on Thursday announced four new appointees to leadership positions in the department. Those appointments were: Amelia Huffman, 5th Precinct Inspector; Kathy Waite, Deputy Chief of Patrol; Kevin Pulphus, 4th Precinct Inspector; and Katie Blackwell, Commander of the Training Unit.
Nick Bosa on Deleting Pro-Trump Tweets: ‘I Had to, There’s a Chance I Might End Up in San Francisco’
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Top NFL Draft prospect Nick Bosa, admits that he felt compelled to put an end to his pro-Trump tweets for fear that teams like the San Francisco 49ers would not draft him. Or, possibly to avoid criticism from San Francisco-based media after getting drafted there.“I had to,” Bosa told the stringer cameras from TMZ. “There is a chance I might end up in San Francisco.” The possible number one draft pick from Ohio State had become known for his personal conservative political positions, but recently those political posts suddenly stopped. In the past, Bosa had posts criticizing the film Black Panther,
Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., submitted a criminal referral notification to the Justice Department on Thursday, targeting individuals tied to the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation. In a brief letter, Nunes informs Attorney General William Barr he and Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, want to meet to discuss eight criminal referrals, which are ready for consideration, as part of the House Intelligence Committee´s years-long examination of alleged misconduct during the Russia probe. “As part of that investigation, Committee Republicans identified several potential violations of the law,” Nunes, R-Calif., wrote in the letter to Barr on Thursday. Nunes said his staff will contact
Brennan Spooked–Attacks Bill Barr For Saying Obama Admin Spied on Trump’s 2016 Campaign (Video)
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Former CIA Chief John Brennan, who is up to his eyeballs in Spygate, attacked Attorney General Bill Barr over his ‘spying’ allegation. John Brennan was spooked after Attorney General Bill Barr said in a Senate hearing that the “upper echelon” of Obama’s Intel agencies spied on Trump’s 2016 campaign.Yes, that includes John Brennan, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency – no wonder why he’s panicking. Bill Barr sent the Democrats, the Swamp dwellers and their stenographers in the media into a tailspin on Wednesday when he said Trump’s 2016 campaign was spied on. “I think spying did occur,”
Inglewood has come a long way since Dr. Dre proclaimed in the ’90s that it was “always up to no good.” A surge of economic development is wiping away its reputation as a battle zone for rival gangs and promises to remake the city not only into a sports and entertainment mecca but also a cultural destination. But now that Inglewood is on the come up, longtime residents and city officials face a different challenge: Many who have weathered decades of hardship no longer can afford to live there and are being left out of the economic renaissance.
Congress is poised to pass a bill that would hand a major policy victory to the for-profit tax preparation industry, just in time for Tax Day in America. The bill, titled the Taxpayers First Act, is a wide-ranging bill that includes a provision that would ban the US government from developing a free electronic tax filing system, and is supported by companies like Intuit, the maker of TurboTax, and H&R Block. Those companies have lobbied Congress for years now to block the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from developing a free system to help taxpayers file online and would compete
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been arrested after being kicked out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London...finally. For media who have spent the fast few years focused on the narrative, Assange was seen as the face that symbolized the threat posed to the United States by Russia, second only to Vladimir Putin. However, it wasn´t always that way. Before the hacking of the DNC during the 2016 Campaign, WikiLeaks was responsible for many document dumps that harmed American national security, the most infamous case involving a U.S. Army private then known as Bradley Manning. WikiLeaks also put at risk the
WASHINGTON- Two new polls from the states that will be the first to weigh in on the Democratic field next year show former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders continue to stand ahead of the rest of the field, and provide the best evidence yet that the small group of candidates standing just behind those two includes South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg. A Monmouth University poll of likely Democratic caucusgoers in Iowa, out Thursday, finds Biden at the top of the pack with 27% support, Sanders at 16%, Buttigieg at 9%, Sens. Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren at
4/11/2019 5:45:03 PM
#NeverPence. It took me some time to figure out what it is that Pete Buttigieg is doing. The South Bend, IN Mayor is having a wonderful presidential run; he´s going to make his official announcement sometime next week. The media and social media are fawning all over him: He’s cool, he´s calm, he´s collected. Obama-esqe, you could say. And, he´s got a unique strategy. #NeverPence.
Wide headline edited by staff.
Wide headline edited by staff.
Michael Avenatti has been hit with a 36-count federal indictment which alleges that for almost a decade, the loud-mouthed lawyer has been stealing from clients, hiding money from the IRS and lying. The new charges were brought on Thursday by federal prosecutors in Los Angeles and make the prospect of Avenatti spending the rest of his life in prison a more realistic one. They include 10 counts of wire fraud, 19 counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and four counts of bankruptcy fraud, the oldest of which stems from 2010. Combined, they carry a maximum prison sentence
Julian Assange was dragged kicking and screaming from his Ecuadorian Embassy bolthole this morning before being bundled into a van by seven officers as he wildly protested his innocence. The WikiLeaks founder was met by seven officers at around 10am, and tried to barge past them so he could return to his private room. But he was eventually restrained and carried from the embassy’s front door while screaming ´this is unlawful´ and ´UK, you must resist´.The handcuffed fugitive, with his hair tied into a ponytail and sporting a long grey beard, was then put in a van and driven off
A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted Greg Craig, a prominent Democratic attorney who worked for two presidents, charging him with false statements and concealing material information in connection with work he performed for Ukraine. An indictment in the case against Craig, which originated in special counsel Robert Mueller´s investigation, has been expected for several weeks,(Snip) Craig, 74, is the highest-profile Democrat to be indicted in a matter stemming from Mueller´s work, which resulted in charges against numerous Republicans connected to President Donald Trump. The case is being handled by the US Attorney´s office for the District of
Socialists and strongmen
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Socialists know that one way they can get their preferred candidate into office is to frighten people until they will do anything in order to feel safe. It is human nature to prefer a stable and predictable environment so that plans can be made for the future, whether it is tomorrow or ten years from now. Chaos produces increased fear. A calm, steady leader who promises to produce a stable and safe environment is going to get a following. Current Democratic candidates for the presidency may think they are promising a stable and morally superior society, sans walls and reducing
The arrest of Julian Assange presages a free-speech debate that we’ve been avoiding for the seven years he was living in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London: Can Assange be lawfully prosecuted for somehow facilitating illegal theft of classified information? Or is the organization he founded, WikiLeaks, protected by the First Amendment when it publishes documents supplied by others, like the New York Times when it published the Pentagon Papers? Current law is not especially clear on this question. The actual 1971 Pentagon Papers case, New York Times v. United States, wasn’t about punishing the Times after the fact.
Do not be surprised when college presidents say, "I oppose free speech on college campuses," or law deans say that President Trump’s executive order to require free speech on campuses is "unconstitutional." The reason is simple: college and university administrators and professors do not believe in free speech and do not wish to hear it in their institutions. The opposition to free speech is a consequence of a different classification of speech in higher education: There is correct speech, and there is hate speech. Correct speech is about gender, racial, sexual, and ethnic oppression and victimhood, and the "social justice"
Truly Awful People
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There isn’t a week that goes by where liberals don’t find new ways to demonstrate just how awful they are and why they should not be anywhere near the levers of power. This week has been full of so many examples that it’s worth looking at a few. When Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen was fired the sharks immediately started swarming. Think what you will of how she did on the job, there was definitely a lot of room for improvement, she’s an American who served in government who deserves to return to private life just like anyone else.
LOS ANGELES— Attorney Michael Avenatti has been charged in a 36-count federal indictment alleging he stole millions of dollars from clients, did not pay his taxes, committed bank fraud and lied in bankruptcy proceedings, federal prosecutors in California said Thursday. Avenatti, 48, was indicted late Wednesday by a Southern California grand jury on a raft of additional charges following his arrest last month in New York on two related counts and for allegedly trying to shake down Nike for up to $25 million. “These four areas of criminal conduct alleged in the indictment are all linked to one another because money
Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s inquiry into links between Russia and the president’s campaign could have turned out so much worse for Donald Trump. It almost seemed certain that it would. But it didn’t. The end of the Mueller investigation has now made hollow the maximalist charges of collusion against Trump and his team. The collusion claim was an indirect—or direct—way of saying that Donald Trump was illegitimately elected. For Mueller’s team to stop short of concluding that collusion had occurred, then, was the best possible result for American democracy.
Parenting magazine Baby & Family has told readers to beware of families who are “inconspicuous” and “cheerful”, as these warning signs indicate they are right wing and thus “dangerous”. Depicted with illustrations featuring solely blonde women and children, the report says ordinary parents must take action against right-wing families and make clear that their ideology has no place in the world. Asserting that the term “right wing” “stirs up anxiety” and brings to mind “burning refugee homes”, skinheads,
Shootings in the first days of April have jumped 57 percent across Chicago compared to the same period last year, with police saying warmer weather may be a contributing factor. At least 88 people have been shot within city limits in the first 10 days of April, according to data kept by the Chicago Sun-Times. Last year, 56 people were shot in the same time period. The shootings have also been more deadly — 20 people have been shot to death so far this month, compared to seven during the same period last year.
In the Day #2 transcript released today FBI chief legal counsel James Baker was asked about a specific series of Lisa Page and Peter Strzok text messages on the evening President Trump fired FBI Director James Comey. Comey was fired on May 9th, 2017. Later that night Peter Strzok and Lisa Page had the following text conversation: 5/9/17 8:14pm And we need to open the case we’ve been waiting on now while Andy is acting. 5/10/17 05:29am We need to lock in [REDACTED] in a formal chargeable way. Soon. 5/10/17 05:30am I agree. I’ve been pushing and will reemphasize with Bill [Priestap].
Senate Democrats are livid with GOP Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for forcing them to put their money where their mouth is when it comes to their radical, wildly expensive proposals. First, McConnell held a vote on the Green New Deal. Every Democratic Senator voted "present." Now McConnell has turned his attention to the Dems "Medicare for all" proposal with a view toward embarrassing them again. Politico: McConnell has not yet said whether he’ll bring the health care bill, introduced Wednesday, up for a vote, but some Republicans are hopeful he will.
What a difference a year makes. With the announcement of the 2019 Pulitzer Prizes set for next Monday, last year´s award to the New York Times and Washington Post for Trump-Russia coverage is already looking like a crumpled first draft of history lofting in a high arc to the dustbin. It´s eclipsed by the double-whammy of the Special Counsel’s finding of no collusion with the Kremlin and Attorney General William Barr´s disclosure this week that he´ll investigate spying by federal authorities on the Trump campaign. Eclipsed and how. But the deep flaws in this honored coverage, instrumental
Get ready for another migrant caravan coming up from Honduras to the U.S. border, organized by activist groups there calling for volunteers to beef up the numbers. OANN reports that the latest one taking off is 1,000 strong, and loaded with people carrying babies. Yet another migrant caravan bound for the U.S. is forming in Honduras. According to reports Wednesday, at least 1,000 migrants have joined the new caravan as it prepares to depart for the United States-Mexico border. The caravan is the fourth large group of migrants to leave Honduras since last October, and it includes families and young children.
California’s public utilities’ credit ratings are burning down after regulators determined about 70 percent of the state is now rated at high or extreme wildfire risk. California’s Democrat-controlled legislature has mastered the game of deviously nudging public utility regulators to raise fees and surcharges to pay for its progressive environmental initiatives rather than suffering the voter backlash from raising taxes. California residents, due to abundant hydro resources and being the nation’s third-largest oil producer, used to have some of America’s lowest retail electricity rates. But residents paid
Ex-Obama lawyer one big step closer to being first high-profile Dem indicted under Mueller probe
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So it begins. Greg Craig, a high-powered attorney who served as White House counsel in the Obama administration and as senior legal adviser to Bill Clinton during his impeachment investigation, is expected to be indicted for lying to DOJ investigators during the Mueller investigation. It’s possible other charges will also be leveled. As BPR reported last month, Craig will likely be the first high-profile Democrat to be charged in connection with the special counsel witch hunt. Because Craig refused a plea deal, a grand jury indictment may come as soon as today, Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Does the president’s bigotry know no bounds? During a town hall appearance on Saturday, he inveighed, “Should we want to encourage newcomers to learn the language of the country they’re moving to? Of course.” Before social justice activists could condemn the xenophobic remarks, the president expounded. “It’s not racist to say if you’re going to be here then you should learn the language of the country you just arrived at,” he insisted. “We need to have some sort of common language in which all of us can work and learn and understand each other.”
Migrants riot at Mexican immigration station, reportedly burn documents in face of deportation
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Migrants staged a riot at an immigration station in Tapachula, Mexico early Wednesday morning, multiple Mexican media outlets reported. The group of migrants, mostly from Cuba and Africa, staged the riot to prevent authorities from carrying out deportations, Mexican media outlets Noticias MVS, Milenio and Reforma reported. The migrants reportedly ransacked the building and set some documents on fire before authorities were able to regain control. Video from the riot’s aftermath shows authorities milling around outside the building, trying to corral the migrant population.
After Nicolas Maduro blocked humanitarian aid from entering Venezuela in February, the U.S. and others responded with sanctions. But nearly two months later, much of the aid continues to sit at the Venezuela-Colombia border. Now, Florida Sen. Rick Scott is urging the U.S. military to get involved in getting aid across the border, after unarmed trucks manned by supporters of opposition leader Juan Guaidó were blocked by Maduro on February 23. “There is only one option left to get aid to the people of Venezuela. It is something that no one is willing to talk about,” Scott said
Hey, Bibi: Return Trump´s favor
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On Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu secured a fifth term as Israeli prime minister. A master of coalition-building and political compromise, Netanyahu has earned himself a significant chapter in Israel´s history. No one should forget, though, that President Trump played a significant role in Netanyahu´s victory. Just in time for the election, Trump handed Netanyahu major policy victories that he was able to sell at home. That includes the move of the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Trump´s support for Israel´s claim of sovereignty over the Golan Heights
‘Here’s your something’: New York Post smacks Ilhan Omar over the head with ugly, brutal truth
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Muslim congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s latest bout of anti-Americanism has inspired the 217-year-old New York Post, considered to be one of the nation’s oldest continuously published daily newspapers, to dedicate its entire Thursday cover to her and her widely panned rhetoric. Featured on the cover is a photo of the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers as they had looked shortly after a band of Islamic terrorists had crashed two commercial jets into them on Sept. 11, 2001. At the top of the cover is a quote from Omar,
Starr Admits He Omitted In FBI Report That Hillary Catalyzed Vince Foster´s Suicide, Report Says
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According to Ronald Kessler, the author of “The First Family Detail,” which revolved around Secret Service agents working for various presidents, independent counsel Ken Starr omitted his conclusion that former First Lady Hillary Clinton had catalyzed the suicide of President Clinton´s Deputy White House Counsel Vince Foster in his final FBI report because Starr was mindful of Hillary Clinton’s feelings. As Kessler writes in The Daily Mail, he asked Starr last weekend at the 2019 Annapolis Book Festival why Starr had not included that information in his FBI report.
A secretive group of top liberal donors has budgeted $275 million to be injected into progressive infrastructure leading up to the 2020 elections, confidential documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon show.The Democracy Alliance, which has been pivotal in helping bankroll left-wing causes and organizations since its founding in 2005, held its annual Spring conference at the ritzy Four Seasons Hotel in Austin, Texas, last week. Members and liberal groups mapped out their goals of expanding and strengthening the progressive political base, building and supporting progressive governance at every level, and restoring and expanding structural power.The gatherings, which typically feature
FBI Counterintelligence Director Told Congress: ‘No FBI Policy That Says You Can’t Have an Affair’
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FBI Assistant Director E.W. "Bill" Priestap, the head of the FBI’s counterintelligence division, told investigators from the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees on June 5, 2018 that the FBI does not prohibit adulterous affairs. "There´s no FBI policy that says you can´t have an affair, and if you do, you´re going to be punished," Priestap said, according to a transcript of the closed-door hearing. The transcript was released last week. Priestap told the committees he heard from other people that FBI Counterintelligence Agent Peter Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page might be having an extramarital affair, but he never asked
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., wrote in 2017 that America was founded by genocide and our foreign policy smacks of “neocolonialism.”“We must confront that our nation was founded by genocide and we maintain global power through neocolonialism,” Omar said in a tweet linking a Time article titled “ Unity Will Take Generations” she wrote about the August 2017 white supremacist rally Charlottesville, Va. (Tweet) Omar elaborated on her comment more in the article.“We must confront that our nation was founded by the genocide of indigenous people and on the backs of slaves, that we maintain global power with the tenor of
Democratic Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal is demanding that Attorney General William Barr “retract his unfounded, irresponsible claim that American law enforcement ‘spied’ on the Trump Campaign.”Blumenthal made the remarks in a Wednesday tweet and insisted that “the only spies interfering in the 2016 campaign were Russian ones.” AG Barr must retract his unfounded, irresponsible claim that American law enforcement ‘spied’ on the Trump Campaign. The only spies interfering in the 2016 campaign were Russian ones. https://t.co/1sjjeX2w6W — Richard Blumenthal (@SenBlumenthal) April 10, 2019 - (Video) Barr appeared to try to clarify what kind of spying occurred on Wednesday during testimony
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar, two high-profile freshmen Democrats who engender intense emotions on the right, each spoke out Wednesday about how efforts to vilify them have made them a target of death threats. Ocasio-Cortez of New York, who has become Republicans´ preferred foil, responded on Twitter to a fundraising email solicitation from the Ohio Federation of College Republicans with the subject line: "AOC is a domestic terrorist." Dave Levinthal, the federal politics editor at the Center for Public Integrity, shared it on Twitter and noted that the term was "often reserved for the likes of Timothy
What Congresswoman Ilhan Omar said about Sept. 11 was disgraceful. She dismissed thousands of people being murdered like it was an everyday occurrence when she said “some people did something.” On 9/11/01 my son, firefighter Jimmy Riches was murdered along with close to 3,000 American citizens by Muslim terrorists.I rushed to Engine 4 in Lower Manhattan when I heard what was happening. That’s where my son worked. As I came over the Brooklyn Bridge, the towers had both already fallen. All the rigs at the firehouse were gone, so I knew they were all at the World Trade Center.
Utah representative Ben McAdams, a Democrat, warned ominously this week that a “day of reckoning is coming”. It’s the kind of sober language typically used to describe a climate crisis which – if we continue on with business as usual – could end human civilization as we know it. McAdams, though, was describing a decidedly less grave threat, if it can be considered a threat at all: the federal deficit. He and 26 other members of the so-called Blue Dog Coalition – centrist and fiscally-conservative Democrats – are pushing for a constitutional amendment
WASHINGTON — Sen. Bernie Sanders launched a revamped "Medicare for All" plan on Wednesday, highlighting a divide among Democrats over one of their bedrock 2020 campaign issues — the future of health care in America. As before, the Democratic presidential candidate´s signature proposal would replace job-based and individual private health insurance with a government-run plan that guarantees coverage for all with no premiums, deductibles and only minimal copays for certain services. In this latest version, Sanders added coverage for long-term care. Some Democratic 2020 hopefuls point to their support of Medicare for All to prove their progressive bona fides.
In his testimony Wednesday before a Senate Appropriations Committee subcommittee, Attorney General William Barr made statements that were so clearly correct, they should be no more controversial than asserting that the sky is blue. The fact that they are causing consternation is what should alarm people. Barr told senators that “I think spying did occur” in the Trump-Russia investigation conducted by (among others) the Justice Department and the FBI during the 2016 presidential campaign.
LOS ANGELES — California is in an earthquake drought. It has been almost five years since the state experienced its last earthquake of magnitude 6 or stronger — in Napa. Southern California felt its last big quake on Easter Sunday 2010, and that shaker was actually centered across the border, causing the most damage in Mexicali. (Snip) One reason for the urgent alerts: Memories of a truly destructive quake in many urban areas have faded. And with that, some fear, the urgency of pushing seismic safety has also faded. Experts say California ignores these realities at its own peril.
House Financial Chair Maxine Waters thoroughly humiliated by bank execs she was determined to vilify
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In 2010 then-President Barack Obama signed a bill that ended a longtime program under which private-sector entities such as banks had provided government-guaranteed student loans to young college students in exchange for federal subsidies. By doing so, Obama essentially nationalized student loans.“By cutting out the middleman, we’ll save the American taxpayers $68 billion in the coming years,” Obama proudly announced at the time. “That’s real money.” Though every media outlet covered the then-president’s paradigm-changing move at the time, for some reason House Financial Services Committee chair Maxine Waters just learned about it Wednesday. Her startling discovery occurred during a House
A Man for This Season
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Disclosure requires at the outset that I mention Victor Davis Hanson wrote a very generous foreword to my book on President Trump, though from a somewhat different angle. I would have declined this assignment if it required, in all honesty, to write a less than favorable review. That is not a problem. This is, and as any Hanson reader would expect, an excellent book. The title is in some respects misleading, as the author does not make the case for Trump as an advocate; he neutrally presents the reasons why an adequate number of Americans, conveniently distributed electorally, chose him
Thursday on Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) acknowledged that it was his view “full socialism” was on display in the Democratic Party, especially among that party’s 2020 presidential hopefuls. McConnell was asked about a proposal by his colleague Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to make Medicare available for all. The Kentucky Republican said that was a sign of just how the Democratic Party has embraced socialism. “Not as long as I’m majority leader. It ought to be called Medicare for none because as the setup piece pointed out 180 million American’s would lose the private health insurance
William Barr Confirms Breitbart News, Mark Levin on Obama Administration ‘Spying’ on Trump Campaign
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Attorney General William Barr told the Senate on Wednesday that he believed the Obama administration did, in fact, spy on President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Democrats and their media allies howled in outrage and derision. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said that Barr “is going off the rails.” NBC News’ Chuck Todd said that Barr “gave credence to a factless conspiracy theory.” But Barr merely confirmed what is already known. As conservative radio host Mark Levin and Breitbart News pointed out in March 2017, based solely on reporting by the mainstream media itself (using leaks from law enforcement and
British police have further arrested WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange on behalf of United States authorities under an extradition request, according to the U.K’s Metropolitan Police.In an update, the Metropolitan Police posted that Assange has been “further arrested on behalf of the United States authorities, at 10:53hrs after his arrival at a central London police station. This is an extradition warrant under Section 73 of the Extradition Act. He will appear in custody at Westminster Magistrates’ Court as soon as possible.” (Tweet) In June last year, Vice President Mike Pence pressured the Ecuadorian government on the status of Assange following demands
How pathetic: A member of Congress can’t acknowledge what happened on one of the most horrific days in US history. In a March 23 speech, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) complained of “the discomfort of being a second-class citizen” before claiming the Council on American-Islamic Relations “was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something, and [Muslims] were starting to lose access to our civil liberties.” Some people did something? Wow. What a way to describe the heinous surprise attack on America that claimed 3,000 lives. Especially when Omar’s focus was Muslim rights:
Wow! Thousands Line Up to Cheer President Donald Trump as He Rides into Crosby, Texas (Video)
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Thousands of Trump supporters lined the roads today in Crosby, Texas to cheer President Donald Trump. (Photo/Tweet) The video is just amazing! This president continues to hold strong support from his base despite the disappointments from the Republican Congress. (Tweets)
And the madness continues. All but one Democrat in the House signed on to co-sponsor legislation that would require - require - schools to allow men who identify as transgender to compete on female athletic teams. Daily Caller: Democrats’ Equality Act would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to make “sexual orientation and gender identity” protected characteristics under federal anti-discrimination law. Among other things, the bill would force public schools to expand female athletic teams to include biological males who identify as transgender girls. Sarah Warbelow, director of the left-wing Human Rights Campaign, praised the bill’s impact on high school
The anchor has parlayed a combative style and a "both sides" approach into the top-rated broadcast on the third-place network. He´s still not satisfied.Late in January, around 4 a.m. one Saturday, a small platoon of local and state police officers descended on Chris Cuomo´s house in the Hamptons. There´d been a call reporting a "possible shooting and hostage situation." But, when the cops arrived at the picturesque 3,000-square-foot beach house, all they found was a groggy CNN anchor and his none-too-pleased spouse."I´ve got to move because it spooked my f***ing wife," Cuomo says, describing how the "SWATing" — the practice
New Zealand’s governor general on Thursday formally signed into effect sweeping gun laws outlawing military style weapons, less than a month after a man used such guns to kill 50 people and wound dozens at two mosques in Christchurch. Governor General Patsy Reddy signed the bill as police said a gun buyback program will be announced to collect the now-banned weapons. The weapons will be illegal starting at midnight, but police said a brief amnesty program will be in effect until details of the buyback are announced. “For people who find themselves now in possession of a prohibited firearm,
Former Obama administration White House counsel Greg Craig expects to be charged in a foreign lobbying investigation spun off from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, his lawyers said.“Mr. Craig is not guilty of any charge and the government’s stubborn insistence on prosecuting Mr. Craig is a misguided abuse of prosecutorial discretion,” the attorneys, William Taylor and William Murphy, said in a statement Wednesday.
Julian Assange has been arrested by British police today after being hauled out of the Ecuadorian embassy in London following an extradition request by the US. The Wikileaks founder, sporting a scruffy beard and unkempt hair, was dragged out of the building head-first in handcuffs by a group of seven men as his stunned supporters watched on as he screamed out ´the UK must resist´. Shortly after, British authorities confirmed that the whistleblower was being held on behalf of the US authorities, as well as for breaching bail conditions following rape allegations in Sweden dating back to 2010.
"There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact." -Sir Arthur Conan Doyle At the hearing of the Oversight Committee on Tuesday, Attorney General William Barr was grilled about the Mueller report: When will it be released? Will they see an unredacted version? Has he (Barr) discussed it with the president? etc. The questions were redundant, mostly stupid. All of those asked by the Democrats were accusatory. Since Special Counsel Robert Mueller announced there would be no charges of collusion against the president or anyone in or of his campaign,
Making monkeys more smart and human-like, scientists have used gene-editing to insert human brain gene in a monkey. For the first time, a team of Chinese scientists made use of gene-editing techniques to make monkey brains more human-like. By the end, the monkeys, rhesus macaques, got smarter and had superior memories as compared to the unaltered monkeys. Researchers edited the human version of a gene known as ‘MCPH1’ into the macaques. The gene made the monkeys’ brain develop along a more human-like timeline. The gene-hacked monkeys showed better reaction times and improved short-term memories in comparison to their unaltered peers,
LONDON, April 11 - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested by British police on Thursday after they were invited into the Ecuadorean embassy where he has been holed up since 2012. "Julian Assange, 47, has today, Thursday 11 April, been arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) at the Embassy of Ecuador," police said. Police said they arrested Assange after being "invited into the embassy by the Ambassador, following the Ecuadorean government´s withdrawal of asylum." Assange took refuge in Ecuador´s London embassy in 2012
Senate Republicans are waving President Trump off from nominating Kris Kobach, a favorite among conservatives who want tougher enforcement of immigration laws, to serve as the next secretary of Homeland Security. GOP lawmakers are already scrambling to contain the controversy surrounding two potential nominees to the Federal Reserve Board — Stephen Moore and Herman Cain — and they don’t want to find themselves in another political fight with the White House over the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Before I actually went to see the film Unplanned, I read the review in Variety by Owen Gleiberman, who called it effective propaganda (if you’re part of the choir). He writes: “Unplanned” isn’t a good movie, but it’s effective propaganda — or, at least, it is if you belong to the group it’s targeting: those who believe that abortion in America, though a legal right, is really a crime. It’s hard to imagine the movie drawing many viewers outside that self-selected demographic. “Unplanned” preaches to the pro-life choir, and it does so by making a case
Assange arrested in London
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London’s Metropolitan Police said Thursday that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was arrested at the Embassy of Ecuador on a warrant for failing to surrender to the court. The 47-year-old “has been taken into custody at a central London police station where he will remain, before being presented before Westminster Magistrates´ Court as soon as is possible,” officials said in a statement.
Democrats and some in the media expressed shock and outrage when Attorney General William Barr said Wednesday that "spying did occur" on the Trump campaign during the 2016 election. Barr "must retract his statement immediately or produce specific evidence to back it up," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said. "Perpetuating conspiracy theories is beneath the office of the attorney general." Barr has gone "off the rails," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. "The attorney general must retract his unfounded, irresponsible claim," said Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal. Cable news commentators called Barr´s statement "stunning" and appeared baffled that th
To use a term from Greek philosophy, the telos (purpose) of government has been misplaced. Instead of designing laws and methods to enhance the dignity and freedom of the individuals living in our society, the government has been designing laws and projects that are either (1) guided exclusively or primarily by utilitarian goals of the greatest good for the greatest number, or (2) by socialistic goals that government expansion is the greatest good in itself, or (3) by identity politics where the good of identity collectives is more important than the good of individuals.
“Spying on a political campaign is a big deal,” Attorney General William Barr told a Senate committee on Wednesday morning. Barr’s comments came in the context of potential Justice Department reviews of the Trump-Russia investigation and how it began in 2016. While it is important that the top law enforcement in the United States publicly acknowledged that the Obama administration and its intelligence agencies surveilled its domestic political opponents during the heat of a presidential election, it is what he said next that was most startling: that the CIA and other federal agencies
When Attorney General William Barr stated "spying did occur" against the 2016 Trump campaign, most attention was focused on the FBI´s surveillance of former junior foreign policy aide Carter Page. But the spying Barr was thinking of, and which he said may or may not have been legally authorized, is more likely to be that carried out by Stefan Halper, a former Republican operative and White House aide who became a foreign policy academic with close ties to both American and British intelligence. One could be forgiven for believing Halper was a creation of the spy novelist John Le Carré.
Being ‘Not-Trump’ is not enough
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For all that progressives hate Donald Trump’s policies, his tax cuts and his travel bans, nothing has been more outrageous to them than his personality: his boorishness; his bullying; his unshakeable satisfaction with his white, male, wealthy self. That’s why Democratic candidates have approached the next presidential election with the single-minded purpose of not being Donald Trump. Their policies are not like his, but more significantly they are not like him. If he is insulting they are civil. If he is obnoxious they are respectful. If he is reactionary they are progressive. If he is uncaring they are empathetic.
Former Secretary of State John Kerry got called out this week on Capitol Hill over whether he was qualified enough to testify on climate change — with one Kentucky congressman condemning his Yale degree as a “pseudo-science.” “How do you get a bachelor of arts in a science?” asked Rep. Thomas Massie, of Kentucky’s northern 4th District, during a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing on Tuesday. “Well, it’s [a] liberal arts education and degree — it’s a bachelor,” Kerry said. “OK, so it’s not really science,” replied Massied.
SAN YSIDRO, Calif. — It was never like this before. The migrants come now in the middle of the night or in the bright light of day. Men and women arrive by the hundreds, caked with dirt, with teens and toddlers in tow. They jump the small fences in remote parts of Texas, and they gather on the hot pavement at the main border crossing in California. Tired and fearful, they look for the one thing that they pray will allow them to stay in the United States, at least for a while: a Border Patrol agent.
For over six years, California has had a top marginal income tax rate of 13.3 percent, the highest in the nation. About 150,000 households in a state of 40 million people now pay nearly half of the total annual state income tax. The state legislature sold that confiscatory tax rate on the idea that it was a temporary fix and would eventually be phased out. No one believed that. California voters, about 40 percent of whom pay no state income taxes, naturally approved the extension of the high rate by an overwhelming margin. California recently raised gas taxes by 40 percent
Before this story has played out to its conclusion, I will figure out how to turn it into a fine powder and snort it. Ingesting it in dribs and drabs over the course of the day simply isn’t enough. (Snip)History may record that the single most glorious populist triumph of this era was Trump’s DOJ sending Aunt Becky down for 5-10 for handing out fat envelopes to get her dumb kids into their dream school. Or, rather, her dream school.If I were Trump, I’d run on it next year. “She has been in complete denial
LOS ANGELES – Embattled lawyer Michael Avenatti was the subject of a federal warrant Wednesday that resulted in the seizure of his private jet, worth about $4.5 million. A U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman, Thom Mrozek, confirmed to Fox News that federal agents seized a Honda HA-420 twin-engine jet from Santa Barbara Airport about 10 a.m. after a federal judge issued a warrant. The plane was originally scheduled to be flown Wednesday to Orange County on Avenatti´s behalf, but pilots had to file a new flight plan to San Bernardino County.
President Donald Trump signed a pair of executive orders aimed at speeding up oil and gas pipeline permitting, including limiting the ability of activists and states to block key energy projects. Trump signed the orders Wednesday at an International Union of Operating Engineers’ training center near Houston. Some labor unions have pushed back against Democrats’ anti-fossil fuel agenda, including the recently introduced Green New Deal. Trump ordered federal agencies to speed up permitting for pipeline projects, including asking the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to curtail state authority to block projects under the Clean Water Act (CWA).
Trump administration preparing to roll out Kushner´s Israeli-Palestinian ´peace plan´: Sources
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With Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu´s reelection victory secured, the Trump administration is preparing to roll out Jared Kushner´s "peace plan" as early as this month, sources familiar with the plan tell ABC News. President Donald Trump has been briefed on the plan, which Kushner and a small "peace team" have been quietly working on for months. The text itself remains a closely guarded secret -- even within the White House -- and has only been seen in its entirety by four people within the administration, the sources said. The text hasn´t even been shared with allies,
For the past 12 days, the political media has been focused on “handsy” and “creepy” former Vice President Joe Biden and his penchant for making unwanted contact with women seemingly wherever he is. While these allegations deserve their fair share of attention, the mainstream media may be missing -- or more likely ignoring -- the real Biden story that’s staring them in the face. When I served as the chief investigator for the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight during the Clinton Administration, I regularly worked with journalists on investigations they were covering for weeks and even months.
Tens of millions of people use smart speakers and their voice software to play games, find music or trawl for trivia. Millions more are reluctant to invite the devices and their powerful microphones into their homes out of concern that someone might be listening. Sometimes, someone is. Amazon.com Inc. employs thousands of people around the world to help improve the Alexa digital assistant powering its line of Echo speakers. The team listens to voice recordings captured in Echo owners’ homes and offices. The recordings are transcribed, annotated and then fed back into the software as part of an effort