Posts on Saturday, May 25, 2019
Gillette’s latest ad shows a dad teaching his transgender son how to shave.“Whenever, wherever, however it happens – your first shave is special,” Gillette said in the caption to the video posted to their official Facebook page.“Growing up I was always trying to figure out what kind of man I wanted to become and I’m still trying to figure out what kind of man I want to become,” Samson Brown said. “I always knew I was different — I didn’t know that there was a term for the type of person that I was.”The father is seen encouraging his transgender son to be confident while shaving,
Donald Trump is on a golf outing with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo. The president arrived by helicopter at the Mobara Country Club Landing Zone in Chiba on Sunday morning. He shared a quick handshake with his counterpart, who he was seeing for the first time since he arrived the evening before.He said in a tweet, ‘Going to play golf right now with @AbeShinzo. Japan loves the game. Tremendous fans of @JackNicklaus, @TigerWoods, and @PhilMickelson — I said what about @GaryPlayer, they said we love Gary too!’ During their game, Abe tweeted a selfie showing him and the president smiling during their game.
Barack Obama’s youngest daughter Sasha attended her High School Prom on Friday – confirming that both of the former president’s beloved daughters are now all-grown-up.The former first daughter looked flawless in a classic black dress as she posed for photos before the big evening in Washington, ahead of her graduation from the Sidwell Friends High School next month. Standing arm-in-arm with her tux-clad date, Chris Milton, the pair left admirers gushing on social media saying what a 'cute couple' the teenagers make. Thankfully for Milton, the 44th US President was nowhere to be seen, as he has a well documented history of making tongue-in-cheek threats towards his daughters'
United States President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump are visiting Tokyo, Japan, in the first state visit of a foreign leader in the country’s Reiwa era. The Reiwa Era began on 1 May 2019, the day on which Emperor Akihito’s elder son, Naruhito, ascended the throne as the 126th Emperor of Japan. President Trump will meet with Emperor Naruhito and attend a sumo wrestling tournament during their visit. In honor of the US President’s historic visit Japan lit up the famous Tokyo Skytree in stars and stripes.
During a House Budget Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) engaged with the Deputy Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Mark Hadley, and expertly dissected several of the major negatives of a single-payer health care system.CRENSHAW: I think it is time to put to rest [the] many false promises of Medicare-for-all and single-payer systems. Mr. Hadley, I want to start with talking about supply. On page 22 of the report from the CBO, you say, "Studies have found that increases in provider payment rates lead to a greater supply of medical care whereas decreases in payment rates lead to a lower supply." Is this correct?HADLEY: That’s correct.
Elizabeth Warren is climbing in
polls, and it may be because of
her plan to cancel student loan debt replies
polls, and it may be because of
her plan to cancel student loan debt replies
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., whose presidential candidacy languished for the first few months of her campaign, is starting to climb in polls, and her proposal to cancel most student loan debt may be a major reason why. On April 22, the day Warren released her plan for free college and canceling student debt, she was down in sixth place for the Democratic nomination in the RealClearPolitics average. I criticized the plan at the time, but also noted that the political logic was clear. Free college proposals only benefit people who are in or near college, or parents of kids in
DENVER — Authorities said Friday they raided hundreds of black market marijuana operations in Colorado that flouted the state's cannabis law by growing tens of thousands of plants in Denver-area homes and selling it out of state. (Snip) State and federal officials said the nearly 3-year investigation showed that illegal marijuana trafficking mushroomed after voters approved recreational use in 2012. Dunn said Colorado has become the epicenter for a nationwide black market in marijuana. Brauchler warned that Colorado is becoming "the wild wild West of weed." He said the provision in the law that allows small-scale home marijuana cultivation opened
There have been darker days for the House of Cheney.
In 2008, Vice President Dick Cheney left office amidst two imprudent wars and a capsizing economy. A decade on, the times are surprisingly kind to a family once among the most controversial in American politics. Dick’s daughter, Rep. Liz Cheney, is looking at a Senate run.
‘She’s got pretty good foreign policy, national security chops,’ Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said unironically earlier this month. ‘She’d be a great addition.’
Theresa May: Good riddance
replies
The U.K.'s long national nightmare is finally over. Prime Minister Theresa May is finally getting out. But not without dragging it out, which is what she does. CNN reports:
UK Prime Minister Theresa May finally gave in to the intense political pressure over her failure to secure Britain's withdrawal from the European Union, announcing her resignation in an emotional address to the nation on Friday.
Standing at a lectern in Downing Street, May said she deeply regretted not being able to deliver Brexit,
BERKELEY, Calif. —This eccentric Northern California enclave was a sanctuary long before the designation became a must-have merit badge for any left-leaning city. Berkeley politicians proclaimed the place a refuge for Navy sailors resisting deployment to the Vietnam War nearly a half-century ago. It was the birth of a movement to protect the outcast — and, in some cases, the outlaw — from rules that this beat-of-its-own-drum city and its followers found immoral, most recently the deportation of undocumented immigrants.
But California’s housing crisis is testing whether Berkeley can remain that kind of place. Faced with sharp criticism from a
Early on the April morning when Joe Biden announced his latest presidential run, Barack Obama’s spokeswoman issued a rare statement. The message praised the former vice-president’s “knowledge, insight, and judgment,” and highlighted the pair’s “special bond.” But it stopped short of endorsing Biden’s campaign. Just a few days earlier, Biden had responded to a reporter’s question about his ideology by categorizing himself as an “Obama-Biden Democrat, man,” and when he launched his campaign, his political team — having discussed the plan with Obama’s staff to lean on this message and imagery — posted a photo to Instagram of Biden laughing with Obama and plastered Facebook
The United States of America has flummoxed socialists since the nineteenth century. Marx himself couldn't quite understand why the most advanced economy in the world stubbornly refused to transition to socialism. Marxist theory predicts the immiseration of the proletariat and subsequent revolution from below. This never happened in America. Labor confronted capital throughout the late nineteenth century, often violently, but American democracy and constitutionalism withstood the clash. Socialist movements remained minority persuasions. When Eugene V. Debs ran for president in 1912, he topped out at 6 percent of the vote. Populist third-party candidates, from George Wallace in 1968 (14 percent)
On Thursday, President Donald Trump issued a memorandum directing the intelligence agency heads to comply and cooperate with “a review of intelligence activities relating to the campaigns in the 2016 Presidential election.” The memorandum also gave Attorney General William Barr the authority to declassify information pertaining to the investigation.
For several years, government officials from the Obama administration had alleged in anonymous leaks to friendly reporters that Trump was a traitor who had colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election from Hillary Clinton. After nearly a year of investigation at the FBI, which included the use of wiretaps, national security letters, and overseas intelligence assets deployed against the campaign,
Buttigieg Criticizes Trump for Not
Serving in the Military While
Defending NFL Anthem Protesters replies
Serving in the Military While
Defending NFL Anthem Protesters replies
Democrat presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg took a swipe at President Donald Trump while coming to the support NFL anthem protesters such as former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. On the heels of saying that Kaepernick has a right to protest against the U.S.A., Buttigieg took a swing at Trump for not serving in the military.(Video) “The way I feel about it is the flag that was on my shoulder when I served represented, among other things, our right to free speech,” the Navy veteran and long-shot candidate
First Lady Melania Trump jet-setted out of Washington, D.C. for Memorial Day weekend to fly with her husband, President Trump, to Tokyo, Japan in a charming postcard dress.
On Friday, Mrs. Trump stepped out of the White House to board Air Force One in an eclectic Americana Italian silk shirt dress by Calvin Klein. This particular shirt dress was from one of Raf Simons’ last collections for the brand before announcing his departure. It’s the quintessential high fashion travel ensemble, adorned in an array of postcards with silk so smooth that it blows in the wind as if Mrs. Trump was walking a catwalk in Saint-Tropez.
President Trump was warmly greeted by troops during a pit stop at Elmendorf Air Force Base (aka JBER) in Alaska Friday afternoon local time on his way to a state visit in Japan. (Photo) Screen image from White House video of President Trump praising troops in Alaska. (Tweet) Pool video shows Trump with a large group of airmen, posing for selfies with them and signing a red MAGA hat. One airman is seen doing a happy dance after getting her selfie with Trump. (Tweet)
I knew it! You probably did too. People generally are getting dumber. Not anyone reading or writing this post, of course. But the world population in general. IQ levels inexorably rose during the last century, about three points per decade, according to established research. Now they’re not. In fact, IQ levels are actually in decline — and not just in Congress. According to a number of studies, beginning around the turn of this century, IQ test scores were found to be declining across Britain, Germany, Scandinavia, Australia and
Repost by Request--Considering the upcoming declassification window…between Trump’s state visit in Japan (5/25 – 5/28) and the state visit with the U.K (6/3 – 6/5).
Bucket Five – Intelligence documents that were presented to the Gang of Eight in 2016 that pertain to the FISA application used against U.S. person Carter Page; including all exculpatory intelligence documents that may not have been presented to the FISA Court. Presumably this would include the recently revealed State Dept Kavalac email; and the FBI transcripts from wiretaps of George Papadopoulos (also listed in Carter Page FISA).
Former CIA Director John Brennan and former DNI James Clapper blasted President Trump on Friday night for directing Attorney General William Barr to declassify documents related to the surveillance of his campaign during the 2016 election, calling it "outrageous."
"I see it as a very, very serious and outrageous move on the part of Mr. Trump, once again, trampling on the statutory authorities of the Director of National Intelligence and the heads of the independent intelligence agencies," Brennan told MSNBC host Chris Hayes. "And it's unclear to me what Mr. Barr is actually going to do. Is he investigating a crime?
He spent nearly two years claiming he had “irrefutable evidence” of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. He then went on to make calls for impeachment (without any evidence to support such a thing) and take money from voters who believed his increasingly wild promises of “taking down Trump.”
These days Congressman Schiff is sounding a bit different, though, and a LOT more nervous…(Snip)”While Trump stonewalls the public from learning the truth about his obstruction of justice, Trump and Barr conspire to weaponize law enforcement and classified information against their political enemies,” Schiff wrote. “The coverup has entered a new and dangerous phase. This is un-American.”
Trump-Russia: The Knives Are Out
replies
Now that the Russia collusion allegations have evaporated, the long knives are out and the president’s antagonists are watching their backs. They have moved from accusing President Trump of treason to pushing revisionist narratives that try to shift the blame for the debunked probe onto others.This effort is expected to accelerate following Trump’s decision Thursday to empower Attorney General William Barr to declassify CIA, Pentagon, and Director of National Intelligence documents as necessary to access “information or intelligence that relates to the attorney general’s review” of the Russia probe.
In other words, he’s gaining the authority needed to investigate the investigators.
Hatchet-wielding thief backs down
when store clerk pulls out gun
but firearm costs employee his job replies
when store clerk pulls out gun
but firearm costs employee his job replies
Oregon authorities are seeking a would-be thief who was armed with a hatchet when he tried to rob a convenience store, only to flee when the clerk drew a gun and called 911.
However, the clerk's quick thinking cost him his job, with the president of Plaid Pantry in Oak Grove explaining to local station KOIN-TV that the chain has a zero-tolerance policy for weapons.
Repost by Request – Considering the upcoming declassification window…between Trump’s state visit in Japan (5/25 – 5/28) and the state visit with the U.K (6/3 – 6/5). (Snip)Now that we have significant research files on the 2015 and 2016 political surveillance program; which includes the trail evident within the Weissmann/Mueller report; in combination with the Obama-era DOJ “secret research project” (their words, not mine); we are able to overlay the entire objective and gain a full understanding of how political surveillance was conducted over a period of approximately four to six years.
This is why there’s panic.
Charlie Daniels: Only Two Things Protect America--
The Grace of Almighty God and the US Military replies
The Grace of Almighty God and the US Military replies
In my youth, the holiday we celebrate this weekend was known as Decoration Day, which started in 1861 when a bouquet was placed on a Civil War veteran’s grave and continued as America paid homage and tribute to the men and women who paid the ultimate price in defense of America by “decorating” or placing flowers on the graves of fallen heroes. The name was changed to Memorial Day and became a federal holiday in 1971. America has lost over one million in our combined wars,
President Trump on Sunday will award a 60-pound trophy to the next sumo champion in Tokyo, Japan. He will be the first U.S. president to present a trophy to the winner of the summer wrestling tournament while on his visit to the country. However, there has been some question over what the trophy will look like and whether it will have Trump's name on it. A Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesperson would only say that it will be a "president's cup" and a senior White House confirmed to reporters that the cup is 54 inches tall and weighs 60-70 pounds.
CNN laid off almost all of its health care coverage division Tuesday, in a move the network called a “crazy rumor” less than three weeks ago. While Dr. Sanjay Gupta is expected to keep his job, most of the rest of the division, based out of Atlanta, were released. Fox News reported: TVNewser, a media watchdog site started by CNN’s Brian Stelter, managed to get confirmation from the network — just in time for a Friday news dump. “As part of the normal course of business, our newsgathering team made a small restructure earlier this week that ultimately impacts 6-7 employees within CNN’s Health Unit,”
Following the release of Spectre — his fourth Bond film — Daniel Craig said famously that he would ‘rather slash my wrists’ than reprise the spy role.
But then, lo and behold, the gruff actor said he would take on the part again — one last time.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she's praying for the president. Well, so am I, the difference being that I really am, whereas she's cynically pretending to, to show her mock concern over his mental state.
Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the rest of the congressional Democratic cabal have treated President Trump abominably, and it's getting old. Do they assume Americans have endless patience for their ongoing investigation charade?
Consider the latest brouhaha between Trump and the Democratic leaders. They were scheduled to meet at the White House on a $2 trillion infrastructure plan when Pelosi decided to poison the punch
Actor Jon Voight expressed his support for President Trump, declaring him "the greatest president since Abraham Lincoln" in a two-part video message posted on Twitter on Friday night. (Snip) "I know that you'll agree with me when I say that our president has our utmost respect and our love," Voight began. "This job is not easy for he's battling the left and their absurd words of destruction. ... Our nation has been built on the solid ground from our forefathers and there is a moral code of duty that has been passed on from President Lincoln."
The Electoral College system is under attack as never before. With Nevada about to join the other fourteen states in joining the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, we are moving closer to both the possibility of mob rule and, unfortunately, a terrible confrontation.
Democrats were stunned by their loss in 2016. They were sure they had the election won months before it took place. People were chosen, plans were made. But, it didn’t happen. The states chose differently…by people, by
A problem for every solution
replies
As Heritage Foundation President Kay Coles James has written, "The federal budget is at the core of our political system. Everything the federal government does, from taxing, to regulating, to providing services, to protecting our very freedoms, it does through the federal budget."
Liberals might dismiss the foundation's "Blueprint for Balance: A Federal Budget for Fiscal 2020," but they shouldn't. The document is based on verifiable facts. If implemented, Heritage claims, it would save trillions of dollars compared to projections by the Congressional Budget Office and produce a budget surplus by 2025.
Everyone knows "entitlements" are the main drivers of debt
There are now, by our count, two dozen candidates in the race for the Democratic nomination for president, and it’s by far the most diverse field in modern American history. Two are black men; one is a black and Asian American woman; four are white women; there’s a Latino man, an Asian American man, a Pacific Islander woman and a white gay man. And yet, two straight white men lead the polls, and 11 others are in the race, with more joining the field seemingly every week. With shifting attitudes and demographics among the Democratic base, is a straight white
In late December, Kathy Machir called Marcela Zavala Taylor, her banker of nine years at Mexico’s Monex Casa de Bolsa, to get cash for contractors building her retirement home in San Miguel de Allende. Typically, Zavala would wire money or dispatch her assistant, Juan, on his motorcycle with an envelope full of pesos. Monex, with $5.2 billion in assets and operations in the U.S., was woven into the lives of Machir and the 10,000 other Americans who’ve moved to San Miguel de Allende. The transfer didn’t happen. Juan didn’t show, Zavala didn’t return calls, and Kathy and Jim Machir discovered
A 35-year-old woman who went missing while hiking on Maui more than two weeks ago has been found alive, the woman’s mother told Hawaii News Now on Friday.
The news was officially reported late Friday afternoon on the Findamanda page on Facebook, which is run by friends and family members.
A short time after she was found, Eller was reportedly flown by helicopter to the Maui Memorial Medical Center and has since been reunited with her family.
Republican Texas Rep. Chip Roy responded to Democratic California Rep. Ted Lieu on Friday after Lieu accused the Texas congressman of harming Americans who were impacted by disasters solely to make a political point.“Dear [Chip Roy] Hey man, why are you hurting disaster victims to make a point about congressional procedure?” Lieu asked on Twitter. “Do you feel all mighty [and] powerful that you stopped a bipartisan disaster relief bill?” “On behalf of disaster victims in my district [and] across the US, we think you suck,” Lieu added: Dear @ChipRoyTX: Hey man, why are you hurting disaster victims
Friday on MSNBC’s “Deadline,” network host Al Sharpton said “sexist” President Donald Trump was intimidated by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) during a discussion about the president tweeting a manipulated video which was slowed down to make it appear Pelosi is slurring her words.Host Nicolle Wallace said, “I wanted to cover it without furthering his smear of Nancy Pelosi, which had the intent of doing exactly what he did to Hillary Clinton, who fell ill at an event, on 9/11 I think, in New York. This is part of the sexism of Donald Trump where he makes a woman look feeble,
An online friend who must remain anonymous has been musing about what those ostensible conservatives who despise President Trump must now approve of, if they seek to defeat his re-election bid, and thereby hand the presidency to the Democrats’ nominee. This is the implicit set of values and goals that they must now embrace:1) Abortion on demand is a good thing; 2) Infanticide is a good thing;3) Letting Iran get a nuclear bomb is a good thing;4) Higher tax rates are a good thing;5) More regulation on businesses, big and small, is a good thing;
President Trump might be openly hostile to the mainstream media, but it was the Obama administration that was engaged in a widespread effort to thwart the media. Which do you think is more harmful to a free press?
The full extent of Obama’s actions against the press are only now coming to light.
The Columbia Journalism Review reports on a newly released government document showing that the Obama Justice Department engaged in a far more sweeping effort to spy on the Associated Press than previously believed.
In our nation’s history, more than 1 million American servicemembers have been killed in U.S. wars. For the past 151 years on the fourth Monday of May, we have honored the great soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen who have fallen.
Much has changed, but the generations of brave men and women willing to make the ultimate sacrifice in the name of freedom have endured, and the sanctity with which we regard these individuals has remained.
Federal district judges aren't emperors for the whole United States. Congress and the Supreme Court should both remind them of that reality.
By issuing putatively national injunctions, Attorney General William Barr said in a May 21 speech to the American Law Institute: “One judge can, in effect, cancel the policy with the stroke of the pen. No official in the United States government [rightly] can exercise that kind of nationwide power, with the sole exception of the president. And the Constitution subjects him to nationwide election, among other constitutional checks, as a prerequisite to wielding that power.”
The subject arises because, on issue after issue, liberal district judges
John Fonte is probably the leading American critic of what he calls “the Europe of Brussels.” Thus, his is a voice worth listening to in connection with the European parliamentary elections now being held.
John discusses what’s at stake in these elections in an article for “American Greatness” called “The Virtues of Patriotism.” The election, says John, represents a “war of ideas between the ‘Europe of Nations’ and the ‘Europe of Brussels’ — between national democratic sovereignty and supranational authority.”
John is making a critical distinction.
Today’s lesson in political double standards: bankruptcies.
When Donald Trump is involved in any brushes with bankruptcy, it just proves what a con man he is, a deadbeat and a scam artist, using his white privilege and toxic masculinity to rip off victims of the evil capitalist system.
But now that it turns out the fake Indian, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, may have made millions as a lawyer in assorted corporate, Trump-like bankruptcies, somehow it’s become a wonderful, positive experience.
“Bankruptcy law is about coming up with the fairest outcome possible in a difficult system,” the fake Indian’s campaign gushed Wednesday, “and trying to help individuals and businesses get a fresh start.”
The Secret of Bernie’s Millions
replies
BURLINGTON, Vt.—Early on in his eight years as the mayor of this city, when he typically dressed in a tieless ensemble of work boots and corduroys, Bernie Sanders one day left City Hall and found a ticket on the windshield of his rusty Volkswagen Dasher. The offense: This was the mayor’s spot, and, surely, a cop had thought, this was not the mayor’s car. But it was. It matched perfectly with both Sanders’ image as a scrappy advocate of the little guy and his own shaky financial reality. It was the beginning of the 1980s, and he was approaching 40, a single father of a not-quite-teenage son,
Should rural and small-town Americans be reduced to serfdom? The American Founders didn’t think so. This is one reason why they created checks and balances, including the Electoral College. Today that system is threatened by a proposal called the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, or NPV.
Rural America produces almost all our country’s food, as well as raw materials like metals, cotton and timber. Energy, fossil fuels but also alternatives like wind and solar come mostly from rural areas. In other words, the material inputs of modern life flow out of rural communities and into cities.
This is fine, so long as the exchange is voluntary — rural people choose to sell
Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez is creating a lottery system to determine which Democratic candidates stand on stage during the party’s initial two-day debate, The Hill reported Friday.
Perez told The Hill the party has not determined the methodology of the random draw, but he did promise the process would be transparent for all the candidates. The ultimate goal is to avoid the perception that the Democratic Party is intent on giving any one candidate an advantage, he added.
“We wanted to make sure we didn’t have our thumb on the scale,” said Perez, who previously served as an attorney inside the Obama administration.
Government documents that will soon be made public will reveal stunning information about former U.N. ambassador Samantha Power's voluminous unmasking efforts in 2016, according to multiple sources.
On Thursday, President Trump gave Attorney General William Barr the authority to declassify documents from multiple agencies related to surveillance of the Trump campaign in 2016.
According to investigative journalist Sara Carter on Fox News' Hannity, last night, some of the documents will reveal that FBI "informant" (spy) Stefan Halper recorded both George Papadopoulos and Carter Page, and there is exculpatory evidence on those tapes. In addition to that, according to Carter, one of the biggest revelations will pertain to Power's unmasking efforts.
Two men were killed on Friday when they attempted to “jump” a drawbridge in Louisiana by speeding their car off the ramp, police said.
Alejandro Cazares, 23, and Roberto Alejandro, 32, went “airborne” on the Black Bayou Bridge about 6 miles south of Lake Charles at 2 a.m. and landed in the water — sinking to the bottom, according to Louisiana State Police.
The men initially pulled up to the gate arm of the bridge before one of them got out of the 2016 Chevrolet Cruze and moved the arm, cops said.
Fraudsters are dipping their toes in the water by making mysterious — yet familiar — charges on users' credit and debit cards Opens a New Window. .
Recently, more scammers Opens a New Window. have been using iTunes as a disguise to make fraudulent purchases. According to financial site MoneyTips Opens a New Window. , the charge looks something like this: "APL*ITUNES.CON/BILL 866-712-7753 CA."
The majority of the charges start out small (so small, the cardholder likely won't notice them at first glance).
CNN now the 'hate Trump' network,
ex-contributors say: Network
'openly despises conservatives' replies
ex-contributors say: Network
'openly despises conservatives' replies
Several conservative commentators who were previously employed by CNN are now speaking out against the network, claiming its current identity is "anti-Trump" instead of neutral, as it claims to be. One claims the network "openly despises conservatives."
"Most of us got squeezed out involuntarily,” Jack Kingston, a former Georgia congressman who appeared on the network, told Mediaite. “I was there for two years and was certainly willing to continue. It was clear to me in the end that the Republicans they prefer are anti-Trump Republicans.”
"Most of us got squeezed out involuntarily. I was there for two years and was certainly willing to continue. It was clear to me in the end