Liberal Safe Haven Cartoons

Politically motivated hotel opening in D.C. to be safe haven for liberals

The Trump International Hotel in D.C. is housed in the Old Post Office building down the street from the White House, has seen a burst of activity since opening its doors last fall.

An anti-Trump themed hotel marketing itself as a safe haven for liberals is planning to open in late spring 2018 in Washington, Bloomberg reported.

Boasting itself as the world’s first politically motivated hotel, the Eaton Workshop chain of hotels will be built around community engagement and integrating a liberal philosophy into every aspect of the guest experience. The Washington Hotel, Eaton’s flagship location, with subsequent sites planned in Hong Kong, San Francisco, and Seattle by 2019.

Katherine Lo, the founder of Eaton Workshop, told Bloomberg that the Washington location will include amenities that cater to public activism including TED Talks-inspired fireside chats and lectures, co-working space for progressive startups, activists, and artists, a writer’s residency, where investigative reporters can pursue stories and a multimedia studio where artists can create short films, podcasts, and other content in line with Eaton’s philosophy.
The lobby of the hotel will contain footage from the presidential elections of 2012 and 2016 posing the question: “How did our country get where it is today?” The minibar will include an activist toolkit that will include information on how to contact your congress member as well as material for making posters for demonstrations, Newsweek reported.
“And if we’d been open during this year’s Women’s March, I could have seen us putting poster boards and markers in the rooms,” Lo said.
Lo says that messages will be suited to each property. In Hong Kong, for instance, she wants to replace Bibles in nightstand drawers with copies of the U.N. Declaration for Human Rights.
Staff will be hired based not only for their experience in the service industry, but also for their track records in activism.
But despite proclamations of fostering diversity, Lo admits that Eaton Workshop isn’t for everyone. Lo told Bloomberg that, “the goal isn’t to bring together left and right.” Rather, the hotel will represent the antithesis of the Trump hotel, only a few blocks away from Eaton’s planned DC location.

Sessions directs prosecutors to 'evaluate certain issues' involving Uranium One and Clinton, leaves door open on special counsel

Attorney General Jeff Sessions directed senior federal prosecutors to evaluate “certain issues” requested by congressional Republicans, involving the sale of Uranium One and alleged unlawful dealings related to the Clinton Foundation, leaving the door open for an appointment of another special counsel.

In a letter first obtained by Fox News, the Justice Department responded to July 27 and September 26 requests from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and other committee members, who called for the appointment of a special counsel to investigate the matters in question.

The letter comes on the eve of Sessions’ testimony before the same committee, scheduled for Tuesday.
“The Attorney General has directed senior federal prosecutors to evaluate certain issues raised in your letters,” Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd wrote.
“These senior prosecutors will report directly to the Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney General [Rod Rosenstein], as appropriate, and will make recommendations as to whether any matters not currently under investigation should be opened, whether any matters currently under investigation require further resources, or whether any matters merit the appointment of a Special Counsel,” Boyd wrote.
The Justice Department does not ordinarily confirm or deny investigations, and Boyd wrote that “this letter should not be construed to do so.”
The Justice Department’s letter specifically said that some of the topics requested by Goodlatte and other committee members were already being investigated by the department’s Inspector General’s office.
The letter specifically mentioned allegations related to the FBI’s handling of the Clinton email probe, including allegations that DOJ and FBI “policies or procedures” were “not followed in connection with, or in actions leading up to or related to” then-FBI Director James Comey’s public announcement to close the Clinton email “matter” on July 5, 2016, or the letter he sent lawmakers on October 28, 2016, about newly discovered Clinton emails, and that those “investigative decisions were based on improper considerations.”
“The Department has forwarded a copy of your letters to the IG so he can determine whether he should expand the scope of his investigation based on the information contained in those letters,” Boyd wrote. “Once the IG’s review is complete, the Department will assess what, if any, additional steps are necessary to address any issues identified by that review.”
While the Justice Department did not confirm or deny an ongoing investigation into Clinton matters, administration officials pointed Fox News to the attorney general’s testimony at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in January, raising questions over whether he would recuse himself from this investigation.
“With regard to Secretary Clinton and some of the comments I made, I do believe that that could place my objectivity in question,” Sessions said in response to committee Chairman Chuck Grassley’s, R-Iowa, asking whether he could approach a Clinton investigation “impartially.” Sessions added at the time, “I believe the proper thing for me to do would be to recuse myself from any questions involving those kind of investigations that involve Secretary Clinton and that were raised during the campaign or to be otherwise connected to it.”
Former FBI Director Robert Mueller was appointed in May as a special counsel to investigate accusations of collusion between Russia and officials close to President Trump.

Blaming GOP establishment, Bannon speech warns of 'brutal 2018' race

In a blistering assault on the Republican establishment and President Donald Trump’s political adversaries, former White House advisor Steve Bannon predicted there will be an effort to impeach the president if Republicans lose the House.

“Donald Trump is a blunt force instrument,” Bannon said.

In a wide-ranging speech that touched on the rise of China, the dangers of Turkish President Recep Erdoğan and the threat from radical Islamic terrorism, the controversial political advisor said he thinks Trump’s opponents simply are working to throw him out of office.
“When I left the White House the very first thing I said is that I’m going after the Republican establishment, because they are trying to nullify this as much as the left.”
He warned that the political battle will play out through next year.
“The constitutional struggle that we are going to have in 2018 and the lead up to it, is going to be brutal, a brutal midterm election. It is going to be something unprecedented in American history,” Bannon predicted.
“If we get crushed, the first thing that they are going to do in the House of Representatives, they are going to impeach Donald J. Trump, I don’t care what they say.”
Bannon spoke at a New York City luncheon event sponsored by the Gatestone Institute, a “non-partisan, not for profit international policy council and think tank, dedicated to educating the public about what the media fails to report,” it says.
“Mr. Bannon seems concerned about international threats facing America,” said Gatestone’s President Nina Rosenwald, who invited him as part of the group’s fall lecture series. “We thought he might bring up topics that need addressing that nobody else is looking at.”
“We have the ability to put together a coalition that can govern for 50 years,” Bannon told the audience, but warned of a potential G.O.P. defeat because he believes that the ruling-party powers are not connected to average Americans.
“The establishment is not prepared, they don’t have a sense of urgency, and they don’t understand the working class people in Pennsylvania, in Wisconsin, in Michigan, in Minnesota and in Iowa and Ohio. What we did we can replicate. We can replicate it, though, with hard work, and wisdom. And if we blow this, we are never going to get it back. You have to understand, it is never coming back. We have the ability to change this country.”
Bannon, who is supporting some insurgent candidates in upcoming Republican primaries, did not delve into the growing sexual misconduct allegations surrounding Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore. Bannon supported Moore over President Trump’s primary pick, the incumbent Senator Luther Strange, and only mentioned the controversy briefly. He cited it as an example of what he considers the establishment’s panic. 
“They’re petrified of the opposition party. You know what my super power is? I don’t give a damn. I could care less what they say about me. I could care less. It’s about action. The Republican Party and the leaders of the Republican Party are cowards. You are writing your checks to cowards. Understand this. They are there for you when it’s easy. They are there to take your check. But when something comes up like the Iran situation, they will flip the Constitution of the United States so they can have some sort of conscience for voting for that — it’s outrageous.”
He said that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell “owes his job to Donald Trump,” noting that it was Trump’s wins that swept the G.O.P. into the Senate majority.
“Wisconsin, Missouri and North Carolina were all dead in the water. They were brought across the goal line by Donald Trump. Mitch McConnell had a terrible track record of picking people to run.”
Bannon also used his Gatestone appearance to remind the attendees of the Trump administration success against ISIS, both on the battlefield and squeezing the financial pipeline that supports terrorism.
“We crushed the Caliphate of ISIS ... in 2014, the ISIS Caliphate was eight million people. It had oil fields, it had wheat fields, it had taxation, and was recruiting actively in Europe and recruiting actively in the United States. He has physically destroyed the Caliphate. If you listen to the morning talk shows, you would think that all President Trump is doing is just following Obama’s plan. It couldn’t be farther from the truth. He told General Mattis, not a war of attrition, I want a war of annihilation. I want to physically destroy the Caliphate in Mosul, in Raqqa and other cities. He’s done that, and I don’t think he’s gotten the credit.”
“The region is starting to clean up the element in the region that works with, supports and finances exporting radical Islamic terrorism to Western Europe and the United States.”
He also warned that the U.S. has to face Iranian expansion in the Middle East.

Adelson, Bannon have reportedly broken ties over GOP direction

Las Vegas Sands Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson and his wife Miriam Ochsorn. Adelson reportedly disagrees with Stephen Bannon on key GOP elections.

Sheldon Adelson, the Las Vegas billionaire and GOP megadonor, has reportedly broken ties with Stephen Bannon over President Trump’s former chief strategist’s campaign of challenging Republican incumbents in 2018.

Bannon pledged to oust Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., from his leadership role while Adelson is “supporting Mitch McConnell 100 percent,” Andy Abboud, a spokesman for Adelson, told Politico.

The report comes out as Bannon has been seeking donors to contribute to his efforts to unseat members of the party whom he deems part of the “Republican establishment.”
Last month, Bannon told Fox’s Sean Hannity that “no one is safe.”
Bannon aides told Politico that they were not surprised by Adelson's decision, because of Adelson’s history of supporting mainstream Republicans rather than outsiders.
Bannon praised Adelson on Sunday night at the Adelson-funded Zionist Organization of America's annual dinner.
But Adelson and his wife Miriam did not attend the event. A person close to the couple told Politico that Adelson did not attend the event because he feared an appearance with Bannon could be perceived as an endorsement his 2018 efforts.