Iran Nuke Deal Cartoons,Thanks to Obama.

Iran protests turn deadly as 2 killed amid warnings from the regime

The growing unrest over the economic woes plaguing Iran turned deadly overnight as two protesters were killed at a rally amid warnings from the country’s government that anyone who disrupts order and breaks the law “must be responsible for their behavior and pay the price.”

The deaths were the first of the demonstrations, which began Thursday and appear to be the largest to strike the Islamic Republic since the protests that followed the country's disputed 2009 presidential election.

"On Saturday evening, there was an illegal protest in Dorud and a number of people took to the streets responding to calls from hostile groups, leading to clashes,” said Habibollah Khojastehpour, the deputy governor of the western Lorestan province, according to Sky News. “Unfortunately in these clashes two citizens from Dorud were killed."
Khojastehpour told state television that "no shots were fired by the police and security forces” and “foreign agents” and “enemies of the revolutions” were to blame.

Dec. 30, 2017: The protests have spread to Iranian's capital of Tehran.  (Reuters)

A Revolutionary Guards Telegram channel blamed the deaths on "people armed with hunting and military weapons" who "entered the protests and started shooting randomly toward the crowd and the governor's building,” according to Sky News, adding that six people also were wounded.
Videos circulating on social media late Saturday appeared to show fallen protesters in Doroud as gunshots sounded in the background, although the footage could not be independently confirmed.
The killings came as interior minister Abdolrahman Rahmani Fazli warned Iranians about participating in the protests.
"Those who damage public property, disrupt order and break the law must be responsible for their behavior and pay the price," Sky News quoted Fazli as saying early Sunday on state television.
TRUMP REDOUBLES SUPPORT OF IRAN PROTESTS, SAYING THE 'WORLD IS WATCHING'

Dec. 30, 2017: In this photo taken by an individual not employed by the Associated Press and obtained by the AP outside Iran, anti-riot Iranian police prevent university students from joining other protesters in Tehran, Iran.  (AP)

The CEO of the popular messaging app Telegram, which protesters have used to plan and publicize demonstrations, according to the Associated Press, also said Sunday that Iran has been "blocking access... for the majority of Iranians." Iranians said the app is now inaccessible by mobile phone networks.
Thousands have taken to the streets of cities across Iran, beginning on Thursday in Mashhad, the country's second-largest city and a holy site for Shiite pilgrims.
At least 50 protesters have been arrested since Thursday, authorities said Saturday. State TV said some protesters chanted the name of the U.S.-backed shah, who fled into exile just before Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution and later died, according to the Associated Press.
The protests have also spread to Iran’s capital of Tehran, and on Saturday, tens of thousands of government supporters marched in cities to show their support for the regime, Sky News reported.
On Sunday, the semi-official ILNA news agency reported that authorities have arrested some 80 protesters in the city of Arak, some 173 miles south of Tehran.
President Donald Trump tweeted Friday that Iranians are “fed up with [the] regime’s corruption [and] its squandering of the nation’s wealth to fund terrorism abroad.”
Texas Rep. Will Hurd said a day later that the “Iranian regime is of course trying to suppress the fact that protests against their tyrannical reign are popping up across Iran.
“The Ayatollahs are out of touch with their citizens and are exporting terror abroad,” the Republican congressman wrote in a message on his Facebook page. “We should support a free and peaceful Iran. We should support the people of Iran who have had enough.”
But Iran has dismissed American support for the protests.
“Iranian people give no credit to the deceitful and opportunist remarks of U.S. officials or Mr. Trump," Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said Saturday, according to a state television report.
Iran's economy has improved since its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which saw Iran limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the end of some international sanctions. Tehran now sells its oil on the global market and has signed deals to purchase tens of billions of dollars' worth of Western aircraft.
That improvement has not reached the average Iranian, however. Unemployment remains high, and official inflation has crept up to 10 percent again. A recent increase in egg and poultry prices by as much as 40 percent, which a government spokesman has blamed on a cull over avian flu fears, appears to have been the spark for the economic protests.
While the protests have sparked clashes, Iran's hard-line paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and its affiliates have not intervened as they have in other unauthorized demonstrations since the 2009 election.
Some analysts outside of Iran have suggested that may be because the economic protests initially just put pressure on the administration of President Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate whose administration struck the nuclear deal.

Merkel calls for unity as nearly half of Germans want her gone

German Chancellor Angela Merkel

German Chancellor Angela Merkel lamented her country's social divisions in a New Year’s address Sunday, but emphasized her commitment to forming a unified government in 2018.  

Merkel’s comments came three months after her party suffered major blows at the polls, in which the centrist "grand coalition" between the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU), which has run Germany since 2013, fell apart.

Nevereheless, Merkel indicated her willingness to tackle the challenges of the future by forming a new government, which means again reaching out to her former political partners, the center-left Social Democrats (SPD).
Many Germans have expressed concern over the social changes taking place within the country. The most contentious issue has been an influx of asylum-seekers that has caused many conservatives to question her leadership.
A poll released Sunday, revealed that nearly 50 percent of Germans would prefer that Merkel resign immediately.
But in Sunday's speech she pointed to falling unemployment and rapid economic growth as reasons for optimism, and cited among her priorities the need to safeguard prosperity, improve education and the use of digital technology, strengthen families and elderly care, even out regional imbalances and ensure security.
Merkel reiterated the need for Europe to work together and defend its external borders.
Addressing the increasingly tense debate in Germany that's seen some political opponents describe her as a "traitor," Merkel urged her fellow Germans to focus more on what they have in common, and to "respect each other more again."
Talks to form a new coalition government between CDU/CSU and SPD are scheduled to begin Jan. 7.

Ex-Sheriff David Clarke denies facing FBI probe, calls reports 'fake news'

Former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke accused the media of misreporting about an FBI warrant from earlier this year  (Admin)

Former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke lashed out Saturday at what he called the “lying lib media,” after multiple reports claimed he was under investigation by the FBI.

Clarke dismissed the reports as “fake news.”

According to the Washington Examiner, several news organizations reported Friday that an FBI search warrant in March allowed the agency to look into Clarke’s personal email.
Clarke, who resigned as a sheriff in August, tweeted, “BREAKING NEWS! When LYING LIB MEDIA makes up FAKE NEWS to smear me, the ANTIDOTE is go right at them. Punch them in the nose & MAKE THEM TASTE THEIR OWN BLOOD. Nothing gets a bully like LYING LIB MEDIA’S attention better than to give them a taste of their own blood #neverbackdown”
The tweet included a Photoshopped image of Clarke and President Donald Trump in a “wrestling match” against CNN. In the photo, Trump is shown restraining a wrestler who has a CNN logo for a face, while Clarke is shown kicking that face.
In another tweet, Clarke wrote, “LYING Lib media spreads FAKE NEWS about me and @realDonaldTrump to fool their liberal followers into believing LIES because as Mrs. Bill Clinton once said, ‘Look, the average DEMOCRAT VOTER is just plain STUPID. They’re easy to manipulate.’Classic!”
Despite the FBI’s search warrant in March, which related to an intimidation lawsuit, the agency’s probe closed in May, according to several news outlets.
According to the Washington Examiner, Clarke’s incendinary tweets were reported to Twitter as being in violation of its content policies, but the social media site's operators did not agree.
Clarke tweeted Saturday evening, “Winning against LYING LIB MEDIA and Whiney SNOWFLAKES again. Like @realDonaldTrump said, we’ll win so much we’ll get tired of winning. Not yet however. Diaper wearing lefty didn’t like my metaphor reference to punching LYING LIB MEDIA in the nose. Twitter said no violation. Duh.”

Trump pulls brakes on $13B Obama-backed rail-tunnel plan

An Obama-era plan to have the federal government finance half of a $13 billion rail tunnel project ran into a red light Friday from the Trump administration.

The plan, proposed under President Barack Obama in 2015, includes revitalizing a deteriorating Amtrak tunnel connecting New Jersey to New York City, repairing damage to a dual-tunnel conduit, and reconstructing the New Jersey railroad network’s aging Portal Bridge, Crain’s New York Business reported.

Amtrak, which owns most of the rail tunnels and tracks between Boston and Washington, D.C., contends that the existing tunnel connecting New Jersey and New York City is damaged and could fail within 10 to 15 years, threatening daily rail transportation in the Northeast.
The original Obama-era plan called for costs to be split among New York state, New Jersey and the federal government.
'A local project'
But in a letter Friday, the Trump administration notified New York and New Jersey that the Obama-era deal was now "non-existent" because the states recently requested that their portions be covered by loans from the federal government -- meaning Washington would supply all of the initial funding for what the Trump White House is calling "a local project."
"Your letter also references a non-existent '50/50' agreement between USDOT, New York, and New Jersey. There is no such agreement," wrote K. Jane Williams, deputy administrator of the Federal Transit Administration. "We consider it unhelpful to reference a non-existent 'agreement' rather than directly address the responsibility for funding a local project where nine out of 10 passengers are local transit riders."

"We consider it unhelpful to reference a non-existent 'agreement' rather than directly address the responsibility for funding a local project where nine out of 10 passengers are local transit riders."

- K. Jane Williams, deputy administrator, Federal Transit Administration

The letter raises questions about whether the so-called Gateway project will be included in a $1 trillion national infrastructure plan that President Donald Trump is expected to unveil in January.
Gateway Development Corp., the project overseer composed of representatives of New York, New Jersey and Amtrak, dismissed Williams' letter as "posturing," adding in a statement Friday that "we are confident that the Trump Administration will engage with us as the President turns to infrastructure in 2018."
Tens of thousands of commuters
Proponents view Gateway as crucial for revitalizing rail service in the New York City metro area, where multiple lines, including Amtrak, carry tens of thousands of commuters into the city each day -- in one of the nation's key economic regions.
They also note that having states borrow from the federal government to finance infrastructure projects is not unprecedented. Some allege that the Trump administration's action is simply a political maneuver to put pressure on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., a key supporter of the plan, Crain's reported.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is a key supporter of the $13 billion Obama-era Gateway rail-tunnel proposal.  (Associated Press)

New York business leaders have been adamant about the project's importance, on account of the region’s economy, which provides a large chunk of the U.S.’ GDP and sends hundreds of billions of tax dollars to the federal government every year.

Why should taxpayers in South Dakota or South Carolina have to chip in for a rail tunnel for Jersey commuters who work in New York? Pay for the damn project out of the fare box or forget it. https://t.co/KkUWq4iwzI

— Scott St. Clair (@PiperScott1949) December 31, 2017

On Saturday, Crain's noted that a "senior [Trump] administration official" clarified that the project's importance was not in dispute. The administration mostly objected to the federal government being relied upon to supply funds for New York and New Jersey's shares of the costs.
The official noted that for other projects underway in Hawaii and Maryland, federal loans compose only a fraction of the capital investment, Crain's reported.

Weiner Abedin Cartoons

DOJ not appealing transgender military ruling, but not abandoning case

The Department of Justice said it would not appeal the rejection of its stay request in the transgender military case, however, officials told Fox News the DOJ was not abandoning the case, either.

A federal judge earlier this month rejected President Trump's call to delay the enlistment of transgender people in the military, setting a date of Jan. 1, 2018 by which the military must allow enlistment.

The DOJ says it is holding its appeal until the completion of a Department of Defense study that advocates maintain will aid litigation of the case on its merits.
"The Department of Defense has announced that it will be releasing an independent study of these issues in the coming weeks," the official told Fox News. "So rather than litigate this interim appeal before that occurs, the administration has decided to wait for DOD's study and will continue to defend the President's lawful authority in district court in the meantime."
Jake Gibson is a producer working at the Fox News Washington bureau who covers politics, law enforcement and intelligence issues.

Trump administration aims to trim rules on offshore drilling

The Trump administration on Friday proposed to rewrite or kill rules on offshore oil and gas drilling that were imposed after a deadly 2010 rig explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The administration said the rules are an unnecessary burden on industry and rolling them back would encourage more energy production.

An offshore-drilling group welcomed the proposed rollback, while environmentalists said President Donald Trump would raise the risk of more deadly oil spills.
The Obama administration imposed tougher rules in response to the April 2010 explosion on a drilling rig used by BP called the Deepwater Horizon. The accident killed 11 workers and triggered a massive oil spill.
The Obama rules required more frequent inspections to prevent oil spills and dictated that experts onshore monitor drilling of highly complex wells in real time.
Randall Luthi, president of the National Ocean Industries Association, said in a statement that the Trump administration's rollback was a step toward regulatory reform. He said safety experts in the offshore energy industry would now have the chance to comment on the regulations and "assure the nation's offshore energy resources are developed safely and expeditiously."
But Miyoko Sakashita, ocean-program director for an environmental group, the Center for Biological Diversity, said rolling back drilling-safety standards was a recipe for disaster.
"By tossing aside the lessons from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Trump is putting our coasts and wildlife at risk of more deadly oil spills," Sakashita said in a statement. "Reversing offshore safety rules isn't just deregulation, it's willful ignorance."

Disputed Virginia House race may be decided Thursday

RICHMOND, Va. –  As Democrats and Republicans continued partisan sniping Friday over a House seat that could determine the balance of power in the Virginia House of Delegates, state elections officials moved to break the deadlock by scheduling a random drawing to pick the winner.
The Virginia Board of Elections said it will pick the winner's name in the Newport News-based 94th District next Thursday, unless a recount court decides to intervene.
The race between Democrat Shelly Simonds and Republican Del. David Yancey has seesawed since the Nov. 7 election. Initially, it appeared that Yancey had won by 10 votes, but a recount put Simonds ahead by a single vote.
A three-judge recount court later declared the race a tie after agreeing with the Yancey campaign that a disputed ballot was a vote for him. On Wednesday, Simonds asked the court to reconsider, but the panel has not yet responded.
The fight over the seat has been intense as Republicans try to hold on to a majority in the House after a bruising election in which Democrats erased the 66-34 advantage held by Republicans, as voters vented anger toward Republican President Donald Trump.
During a conference call with reporters Friday, GOP House Leader Kirk Cox — who hopes to become the next speaker of the House — criticized Democrats for causing "politically motivated delays" in deciding the 94th District race.
"Democrats have sought to delay and obstruct at every turn," Cox said.
"They've sought to litigate their way to victory."
Cox called Simonds' legal action a "deliberate strategy to make it more difficult for the House to organize smoothly" when the legislature reconvenes on Jan. 10.
He said that even if the winner's name is pulled Jan. 4, the House will not be able to seat the winner by the opening day of the legislative session if the loser asks for a recount. That would leave Republicans with a 50-49 majority as the session opens.
Simonds said Yancey is to blame for the delay.
"We won the recount ... it should have been over, and the next day, the Yancey team pulled a stunt. So this delay is squarely on him," she said Friday.
If Simonds ultimately wins, the House would be evenly split, 50-50, between Democrats and Republicans. If Yancey wins, the Republicans would have a 51-49 edge.
The state Board of Elections had been scheduled to pick the winner's name out of a glass bowl on Wednesday, but postponed the drawing after Simonds filed her legal challenge.
The result is one of two House races still in limbo.
A lawsuit is pending over ballots in a hotly contested race in the 28th District in the Fredericksburg area.

State Department releases Huma Abedin emails found on Anthony Weiner's laptop

The State Department on Friday released a batch of work-related emails from the account of top Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin that were discovered by the FBI on a laptop belonging to Abedin's estranged husband, Anthony Weiner, near the end of the 2016 presidential campaign.

At least four of the documents released Friday are marked "classified."

One November 2010 document that was released shows Abedin forwarding an email to an address titled “Anthony Campaign.”
Former FBI Director James Comey said during a congressional hearing earlier this year that he believed Abedin regularly forwarded emails to Weiner for him to print out so she could give them to Clinton.
Comey famously said in July 2016 that Clinton was “extremely careless” in her handling of classified emails on a private server.
That 2010 email was a “callsheet” to Clinton about her upcoming call to Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal to warn about an imminent leak of U.S. diplomatic cables -- so-called Cablegate -- from WikiLeaks.
The rest of the document is redacted and marked classified as of August 2015.
Abedin is a longtime aide to Clinton who worked at the State Department and on Clinton’s campaign.
The emails indicate that Clinton was still invested in party politics despite her cabinet position. In one April 2011 email, Abedin informs her that Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz had been selected as chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee.
“Is she leaving the Congress?” Clinton replied.
It also shows Abedin in her role as Clinton’s gatekeeper.
“Love when people send her schedule stuff direct,” Abedin sarcastically wrote in an email to a colleague in December 2011, after someone emailed Clinton directly to ask her to speak at a conference.
At the time of the emails, Abedin was married to Weiner, a onetime Democratic congressman who began a 21-month prison sentence last month after being convicted of sexting a 15-year-old girl.
Abedin has since filed for divorce.
The Abedin emails jolted the 2016 presidential race after Comey told Congress just days before the election that FBI agents had found more of Clinton’s messages.
The emails were found on Weiner’s laptop, as the FBI investigated its sexting case against him.
The discovery of the records reopened the case against Clinton several months after Comey said he wasn’t recommending any charges be filed in the case.
HUMA ABEDIN'S COUSIN CONVICTED IN FRAUD CASE INVOLVING FAKE EMAILS
The conservative group Judicial Watch filed suit against the State Department for all official department emails sent or received by Abedin on a non-state.gov email address.
“This is a major victory,” the group’s president, Tom Fitton, said in a Friday statement. “After years of hard work in federal court, Judicial Watch has forced the State Department to finally allow Americans to see these public documents.”
Fitton added, “That these government docs were on Anthony Weiner’s laptop dramatically illustrates the need for the Justice Department to finally do a serious investigation of Hillary Clinton’s and Huma Abedin’s obvious violations of law.”

Climate Change Cartoons

Paris Climate Accord

President Trump mocked the Paris Climate Accord he rejected earlier this year in a tweet highlighting the chilly temperatures in his home region.
"In the east, it could be the COLDEST New Year’s Eve on record," Trump wrote. "Perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming that our Country, but not other countries, was going to pay TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS to protect against."

In the East, it could be the COLDEST New Year’s Eve on record. Perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming that our Country, but not other countries, was going to pay TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS to protect against. Bundle up!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 29, 2017

"Bundle up!" the president added.
Fox News Meteorologist Rick Reichmuth said New Years Eve revelers coming to watch the ball drop in Times Square will encounter a high of 20 degrees and low temperatures in the teens after sunset.
He said the conditions in the traditional security "pens" ball drop viewers must stay in could be "dangerous" as the temperatures drop.
On Wednesday, North American wind chills ranged from 19 degrees in Washington to minus-20 in Fargo, N.D. and even as low as minus-39 degrees in Yellowknife, the capital of Canada's Northwest Territories, Reichmuth reported.

Professor who blamed 'Trumpism' for Las Vegas massacre resigns

A far-left Drexel University professor -- known for making inflammatory remarks on social media -- is resigning from his teaching job, blaming a right-wing “internet mob” for alleged “harassment.”

George Ciccariello-Maher, an associate professor of politics and global studies at the Philadelphia school, will be leaving next year, he said in a statement Thursday.

He blamed “right-wing, white supremacist media outlets and internet mobs” that allegedly harassed him for nearly a year.

After December 31st, 2017, I will no longer work at Drexel University. pic.twitter.com/bAM37dbv1q

— George Ciccariello (@ciccmaher) December 28, 2017

“Staying at Drexel in the eye of this storm has become detrimental to my own writing, speaking and organizing,” he wrote.
The professor had drawn attention for a series of inflammatory remarks. Most recently, he was placed on administrative leave after he blamed the Oct. 1 Las Vegas massacre of 58 people on the “narrative of white victimization” and “Trumpism.”

Some guy gave up his first class seat for a uniformed soldier. People are thanking him. I'm trying not to vomit or yell about Mosul.

— George Ciccariello (@ciccmaher) March 26, 2017

In another instance, Ciccariello-Maher in March said he wanted to “vomit or yell” after seeing an airline passenger giving up a first-class seat to a U.S. military service member. On Christmas Eve last year, he said that all he wanted for the holidays was a “white genocide.”
The constant controversy created a backlash for the university, prompting an inquiry into the professor's behavior after donors started reconsidering their partnership with the institution.
The university’s provost reportedly wrote to Ciccariello-Maher that "at least two potential significant donors to the university have withheld previously promised donations” while a number of prospective students reversed their decisions to attend Drexel.
In the resignation announcement, Ciccariello-Maher said that “we are at war” and accused conservatives of “targeting campuses with thinly veiled provocations disguised as free speech.”
He added: “In the face of aggression from the racist Right and impending global catastrophe, we must defend our universities, our students, and ourselves by defending the most vulnerable among us and by making our campuses unsafe spaces for white supremacists.”
Drexel previously defended the professor’s right to free speech, but stressed that his views did not reflect those of the institution.

Huma Abedin's cousin convicted in fraud case involving fake emails

A first cousin of Huma Abedin, a former aide to presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and soon to be ex-wife of disgraced former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, was convicted Tuesday in a fraud case involving fake emails.

Omar Amanat, 44, and his colleague Kaleil Tuzman face more than a decade in prison after a jury in New York City found the pair guilty of cooking the books and defrauding shareholders of the technology company Kit Digital between 2010 and 2012.

Amanat’s brother, Irfan Amana, was also arrested in the United Arab Emirates and faces charges of fraud with the same tech firm, the New York Post reported.
Judge Paul Gardephe revoked Amanat’s bail after Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea Griswold said he was a flight risk, and chastised the father of six children for his "disregard and a disdain for the courts and legal process."
"The evidence of their criminal schemes was so overwhelming that Amanat actually tried to fool the jury by introducing fake emails into the record as exculpatory 'evidence' in this trial," Acting Manhattan U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim said in a release. "Unfortunately for Tuzman and Amanat, the jury saw through their tangled web of lies, convicting them on all counts."
Evidence against Amanat that involved him telling a government informant of his relation to Abedin was withheld from the jury after his defense lawyers successfully argued it could unfairly influence the jurors.
"Again, particularly in New York, jurors are likely to have strong opinions regarding the Clinton campaign and certain individuals connected to the campaign," the lawyers wrote. "Both supporters and those politically opposed to Secretary Clinton could have reasons to be prejudiced against Mr. Amanat based on his indirect connection to her."
According to the Post, the mothers of Abedin and Amanat are sisters.
Amanat was a successful tech entrepreneur and owned stakes in a film studio that produced Hollywood blockbusters such as the “Twilight” movies.
In November, Abedin's estranged husband, Weiner, began serving a 21-month sentence following his conviction of sending sexual texts to a 15-year-old girl.

Trump rails against North Korea and China, says Mueller will be 'fair,' during wide-ranging interview

President Trump railed against "nuclear menace" North Korea and fumed at the reports China illegally delivered oil to the Hermit Kingdom, exclaiming "That wasn't my deal!" during a wide-ranging interview Thursday with an outlet he's long derided.

During an impromptu talk with a New York Times reporter, Trump said his stance on trade with China has “been soft” in order to encourage the country to help bring an end to the North Korean nuclear threat.

But after a South Korean report Wednesday said U.S. spy satellites caught Chinese ships illegally sending oil to North Korean boats dozens of times since October, Trump told The Times that sort of transaction wasn't acceptable, adding “the only thing more important to me than trade is war.”
“Oil is going into North Korea. That wasn’t my deal!” Trump said. “If they’re helping me with North Korea, I can look at trade a little bit differently, at least for a period of time. And that’s what I’ve been doing. But when oil is going in, I’m not happy about that.”
He added: “We have a nuclear menace out there, which is no good for China."
The comment followed a tweet from Trump earlier Thursday saying: “Caught RED HANDED – very disappointed that China is allowing oil to go into North Korea. There will never be a friendly solution to the North Korea problem if this continues to happen!”
In addition to China and North Korea, Trump spoke to The Times about several other topics that have shadowed his first year in the White House, including special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe. Trump said he believed he was “going to be treated fairly” by Mueller and ultimately be vindicated.

Special counsel Robert Mueller is heading the investigation into possible Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.  (AP)

"I can only tell you that there is absolutely no collusion," Trump said. "Everybody knows it. And you know who knows it better than anybody? The Democrats. They walk around blinking at each other."
He added he believed the investigation was meritless, calling it a “ruse” devised by members of the Democratic Party “as an excuse for losing an election,” and lamented the inquiry made “the country look very bad."
“It makes the country look very bad, and it puts the country in a very bad position,” Trump said. “So the sooner it’s worked out, the better it is for the country.”
Regarding the investigation and Attorney General Jeff Session’s recusal -- an event that ultimately led to Mueller's appointment -- Trump unexpectedly touted his predecessor’s attorney general, Eric Holder, to The Times. In what appeared to be a veiled shot at Sessions, Trump praised Holder for his “loyalty” to former President Barack Obama, saying Holder “totally protected him.”

Trump praised former Attorney General Eric Holder telling The New York Times that he "totally protected" former President Obama.  (Reuters)

“And I have great respect for that, I’ll be honest," Trump said.
Regarding his administration’s success’ during the year, Trump hailed his recently-passed tax bill, boasting he knows “the details of taxes better than anybody” and knows “the details of health care better than most.”
When asked about Alabama Republican Roy Moore’s recent failed Senate bid, Trump told the outlet he felt he had to give his endorsement “as the head of the party.”
Trump added he believed he’d “win another four years” in the White House, and that news outlets would eventually back him because otherwise “their ratings” would go “down the tubes.”

Hollywood Cry Baby Cartoons

Trump, top Republicans to plot road map for more legislative victories in 2018

September 5, 2017: House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., left, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., right, listen as President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Congressional leaders and administration officials on tax reform, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington.  (AP)

President Donald Trump and top Republican congressional leaders will plot the 2018 political agenda in January, gearing up for more legislative achievements in the wake of the successful passage of the tax reform.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., will be hosted by Trump at the at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland early January, the White House said.

The focus will be on the possible legislative initiatives in 2018 before the political winds shift to the midterm elections, potentially disrupting the legislative process amid fierce all-out elections across the country.
The gathering follows the first big legislative achievement for the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress who passed the $1.5 trillion tax plan this month that decreased individual tax rates for the middle class and axed taxes on corporations.
It is expected that health care reform will dominate the talks in January, as the passed tax cut bill repealed only the requirement, as part of the Obamacare, that all Americans buy health insurance or pay a fine – while leaving other features of the health care law still in place.
Republicans tried to repeal the Obamacare twice this year – both times coming up short with the votes in Congress to pass the legislation and breaking the promise of swift repeal once the White House is occupied by a Republican.
Already juggling a delicate majority in the Senate, Republicans’ efforts to repeal the law were met with unanimous opposition from the Democrats. But the president expects both sides on the aisle “will eventually come together” to work on creating a new health care plan.
“Based on the fact that the very unfair and unpopular Individual Mandate has been terminated as part of our Tax Cut Bill, which essentially Repeals (over time) ObamaCare, the Democrats & Republicans will eventually come together and develop a great new HealthCare plan!” Trump tweeted earlier this week.
Other possible ideas for 2018 include an infrastructure bill aimed at upgrading aging roads, bridges and other transportation. The White House reportedly said Trump will release his infrastructure plan in January.
Ryan, meanwhile, might raise the issue of overhauling Medicaid and Medicare and other welfare program, although McConnell was skeptical of such reforms unless they have the support of the Democrats. Trump has signaled that he is open to pursue “welfare reform” next year as “people are taking advantage of the system.”
But as the White House and Republican congressional leaders plot the 2018 agenda, Congress will face a backlog from 2017.
By the end of January, Congress has to agree on a government funding bill to avoid a partial government shutdown. Politicians in Washington will also have to agree on sending additional aid to support the hurricane victims, lifting the debt ceiling, reviving the children’s health insurance program, and coming up with a legislation for the so-called “Dreamers” who were brought to the country illegally as children.

It's Mueller, his team and the FBI who are overdue for an investigation says Florida's Rep. Rooney

If anyone thought the week between Christmas and New Years might provide respite in the war between President Trump and his myriad critics, Rep. Francis Rooney, R-Fla., has just opened a new and important offensive.

“It’s been very frustrating that the truth about what’s going on with this investigation into President Trump isn’t coming out,” he told me from his hometown on the Gulf Coast.

The topic to which Rooney was referring is Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s increasingly broad, unfocused — and taxpayer funded — probe into what Trump, first as a candidate, then as president-elect, was doing, and who he and his coterie of advisors were  talking to, and about what.
Rooney, like many voters who elected Trump, thinks the investigation has, as he said on MSNBC Tuesday, gone “off the rails.”
The problem is, almost no one who agrees with him watches MSNBC.
To set the record straight, the first-term congressman — and former Ambassador the the Vatican — told Bellwether he thinks a thorough investigation is overdue — but of Mueller, his staff, and the FBI, not the president.
He is particularly alarmed by the negative comments from FBI agent Peter Strzok — whom Mueller had to fire — and Justice Department official Bruce Ohr were texting and saying about Trump, while pretending to be impartial.
In terms as strong as any used so far, Rooney says there are real questions about whether Mueller and the FBI can be trusted to do their jobs in a fair manner.
Mueller’s staff, for instance is composed of individuals who contributed by a 12-1 ratio for Hillary Clinton’s campaign over Trump’s.
That has given rise to suspicions that a so-called “deep state” of Obama-era holdovers in positions of authority is determined to hound Trump out of office.
“I would say maybe the deep state is more pervasive than Mueller realized, and as a result he is having a hard time finding the proper people,” Rooney told me.
He also lauds Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s pledge to investigate Mrs. Clinton’s complicated, and possibly improper, campaign contributions.
A supporter of Trump’s tax bill and his rollback of excessive regulations, Rooney concedes that the president’s bombastic public style both enrages and emboldens his critics, some of whom have called — less than a quarter of the way through his term — for his impeachment.
“It’s very unsettling that they are talking in these careless  terms about impeachment,” Rooney laments. “All they’re doing is continuing to undermine faith in our great American institutional solidarity.”
Such strong language from a freshman congressman is both unusual and welcome. If Rooney thought his time at the Vatican put him in closer contact with the Divine, he may soon conclude his current gig is more about encountering just the opposite.

Roy Moore challenges Alabama Senate election defeat, alleges rampant voter fraud

Roy Moore filed an election complaint late Wednesday, claiming voter fraud altered the outcome of Alabama’s Senate race, paving the way for Democrat Doug Jones’ victory.

The Moore campaign said in a statement that the purpose of the complaint is to delay the certification of the election results until “a thorough investigation of potential election fraud, that improperly altered the outcome of this election, is conducted.”

The request came just a day before the State Canvassing Board is scheduled to meet and certify the results of the election.
“This is not a Republican or Democrat issue as election integrity should matter to everyone,” Moore said. “We call on Secretary of State Merrill to delay certification until there is a thorough investigation of what three independent election experts agree took place: election fraud sufficient to overturn the outcome of the election.”
The statement cites three Election Integrity experts saying that “with a reasonable degree of statistical and mathematical certainty … election fraud occurred” and noted the irregularities in 20 precincts alone could reverse the results of the election.
According to the results from earlier this month, the Republican candidate lost the election to Jones by a margin of 21,000 votes. Jones became the first Democrat in over two decades to win a U.S. Senate seat in Alabama, the deep-red state that Trump carried by about 28 points during the 2016 presidential election.
The election complaint also includes an affidavit from Moore saying that he underwent a polygraph test and confirmed that the allegations of sexual misconduct with underage girls are “completely false.”
Moore’s reluctance to concede the election prompted an intervention by President Donald Trump, who backed the Republican candidate, urging him to concede the election.
"I think he should (concede)," Trump said earlier this month. "I want to support the person running. We need the seat. We'd like to have the seat."

Trump ends 2017 with big wins on economy, taxes, ISIS and more

When congressional Republicans joined President Trump for a tax bill celebration at the White House just before Christmas, a triumphant Mitch McConnell began ticking off the president’s first-year accomplishments. 

The boasts from the Kentucky Republican, who's had a rocky relationship with Trump at times, underscored how – despite the internal squabbles that captivated the media – the Trump administration has given his party plenty to crow about in 2017.

From the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch to regulation rollbacks to Wall Street gains to the passage of the tax bill and the routing of ISIS in the Middle East – as McConnell put it, “This has been a year of extraordinary accomplishment for the Trump administration.”
To be sure, there have been plenty of campaign promises that Trump did not fulfill in his first year: a wall has not yet been built on the border with Mexico, ObamaCare hasn’t been repealed (though the individual mandate has) and an infrastructure package hasn’t yet passed in Congress. Meanwhile, Trump's White House has been hampered at times by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation and daily drama, often the result of tweets fired off by the president himself.

“This has been a year of extraordinary accomplishment for the Trump administration,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said.  (AP)

But Republicans inside and outside of the White House contend that the media, which hammer Trump on every misstep, aren't giving him due credit for the 2017 gains his administration has made in a combative political environment.
A senior administration official said that while tax reform has been widely described as Trump’s first major legislative win, they have counted 81 pieces of Trump-backed legislation that are now law.
“That's in addition to 15 congressional review acts whereby the president took a look at laws that were passed without the benefit of congressional review, and decided to reverse or undo them,” the official said.
Before leaving for Florida for the holidays, Trump took to Twitter to tout his administration's “long & beautiful list” of accomplishments. He predicted the “Fake Mainstream Media will NEVER talk about our accomplishments in their end of year reviews.”
Here’s a look at some of the president’s biggest policy victories in his first year in office:
TAX CODE OVERHAUL
With just days left in the year, Congress handed Trump his biggest legislative win by sending a $1.5-trillion tax package to his desk. He signed it in the Oval Office just before leaving Washington for the holidays. Trump, who had been traveling the country for months calling on Congress to act on taxes, calls it “the largest tax cut in the history of our country.”
WHAT THE TAX OVERHAUL MEANS FOR YOU

President Trump signed the tax bill in the Oval Office just before leaving Washington for the holidays.  (AP)

The tax bill cuts the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent and reduces the rates for most of the seven individual tax brackets.
While critics panned the law as a big tax break for the wealthy and corporations, the overhaul doubles the standard deduction, which the Trump administration argues is a boon for the middle class.
TRUMP PREDICTS MANDATE REPEAL WILL KILL OBAMACARE
The legislation also allows Trump to say he’s working to dismantle ObamaCare: the bill includes a repeal of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate requiring Americans to buy health insurance or face a penalty.
REGULATORY ROLLBACK

President Trump holds up a chart on highway regulations during an event on federal regulations in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Thursday, Dec. 14, 2017, in Washington.  (AP)

Gridlock in Congress has not stopped the president from unraveling former President Barack Obama’s executive action legacy, especially through regulatory rollbacks.
“You've ended the overregulation of the American economy,” McConnell told him during the White House celebration.
Trump's EPA has moved to roll back the Clean Power Plan and he has used the Congressional Review Act, an obscure rule-killing law, to wipe out a wave of last-minute regulations pushed through before he took office.
STUDIES BEHIND OBAMA REGS UNDER FIRE
After taking office, the president signed an executive order mandating that two regulations must be eliminated for every one created. The White House says the administration has surpassed that ratio, claiming to have eliminated 22 regulations for every new regulation.
Trump has taken other actions to please conservatives, including moving to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, green-lighting the Dakota Access and Keystone XL oil pipelines and withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
PACKING THE COURTS

Trump often cites his successful nomination of Supreme Court Justice Gorsuch when discussing his accomplishments as president.  (AP)

Trump often cites his successful nomination of Supreme Court Justice Gorsuch when discussing his accomplishments as president. Gorsuch had been on the list of potential nominees that Trump released during the campaign, after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.
TRUMP MAKES HISTORIC MARK ON FEDERAL BENCH
But Republicans are also thrilled about his nominations to lower courts. The Trump administration has been intentionally choosing young conservative judicial nominees who could stay on the bench for many years to come. As of mid-December, 19 of Trump's 66 total nominees this year have been confirmed by the Senate.
“We've cemented the Supreme Court right-of-center for a generation,” McConnell said. “Mr. President, thanks to your nominees, we've put 12 circuit court judges in place -- the most since the circuit court system was established in 1891.”
DECIMATING ISIS

In this Nov. 9, 2017 photo, aerial view of the damaged hospital complex and surrounding areas in Mosul, Iraq. The complex, located in Mosul’s al-Shifaa neighborhood, was the main medical center for the Islamic State group during its rule and was heavily damaged during fighting when Iraqi forces wrested Mosul back from the militants.  (AP)

As the Islamic State orchestrated terror attacks and established a caliphate in Iraq and Syria during the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump famously promised during to “bomb the sh-t” out of ISIS.
The gains cannot be ignored.
U.S. military officials said this week that ISIS has lost 98 percent of the territory it once held -- with half of the terror group's "caliphate" having been recaptured since Trump took office. The latest American intelligence assessment says fewer than 1,000 ISIS fighters now remain in Iraq and Syria, down from a peak of nearly 45,000 just two years ago.
ISIS HAS LOST 98 PERCENT OF ITS TERRITORY, OFFICIALS SAY
In October, after the liberation of Raqqa in Syria, the president boasted that “more progress” had been made “against these evil terrorists in the past several months than in the past several years.”
Earlier this month, Iraq’s leaders declared victory over ISIS.
The White House recently credited Trump’s “leadership” in noting that ISIS has “lost nearly all of its territory and its most important cities and towns in Iraq and Syria, including Mosul and ISIS’s declared capital in Raqqa.”
ECONOMY GROWING

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has hit record highs more than 60 times during Trump’s presidency.  (AP)

Trump is never shy about taking credit when the stock market is doing well, and closed the year by predicting the tax bill will spur another year of growth in 2018.
"Will be a great year for Companies and JOBS! Stock Market is poised for another year of SUCCESS!" he tweeted Tuesday.
The Trump administration has indeed been good for Wall Street: the Dow Jones Industrial Average has hit record highs more than 60 times during Trump’s presidency.
The White House cites statistics saying more than $5 trillion in wealth has been added to the U.S. economy since Trump’s election.
Other indicators show the economy has improved under Trump.
The country’s 4.1 percent unemployment rate is the lowest since December 2000.
And the economy grew 3.2 percent from July through September, the highest quarterly economic growth in three years.
CONSERVATIVE-PLEASING MOVES

Trump has pleased his base by appointing conservatives like EPA administrator Scott Pruitt.  (AP)

Trump has pleased his base by appointing people like Attorney General Jeff Sessions, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, Education Secretary Betsy Devos and Energy Secretary Rick Perry to high-profile government positions. In a less than a year, these officials have enacted conservative policy at departments and agencies after eight years of liberal governance under the Obama administration.
The president also officially recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital earlier this month, following through on a promise to put in place a plan to move the United States embassy to the holy city.
He pardoned ex-Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio in June, a move that was welcomed by supporters of a tough stance on illegal immigration.
In October, Trump decertified the 2015 Iran nuclear deal -- though did not kill it -- calling it “one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into.”