University of California-Berkeley Cry Baby Cartoons

Milo Yiannopoulos: Berkeley riot 'self-defeating for the social justice left'

Milo: Left can't tolerate anyone who doesn't agree with them

Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos said Wednesday that the riot that canceled his planned speech at the University of California-Berkeley was "heavily ironic and very, I think, self-defeating for the social justice left."
Yiannopoulos' planned talk was scrapped after violent protesters hurled smoke bombs, broke windows and started a bonfire outside the student union where he was to appear.
"No one’s safety is at risk from different opinions," Yiannopoulos told "Tucker Carlson Tonight" in a phone interivew. "No one’s physical safety is endangered by political ideas from a speaker on campus, but universities have sort of allowed this stuff to happen, and even in some cases encouraged it."
The Berkeley appearance was to be the 32-year-old's last stop on a nationwide college tour that has sparked protests and occasional violence. Yiannopoulos told Carlson that he believes the protesters view him as a proxy for President Donald Trump, whom he vocally supports.
"I annoy the feminists and the Black Lives Matter guys probably almost as much as Trump does, certainly on college campuses," Yiannopoulos said. "So, they go for the next best thing. They go for  ... the person they think they can scare. Well, they don’t scare me. I will continue to give college talks until the day I drop dead."
Yiannopoulos has made remarks in the past that have been criticized as racist, misogynist, and anti-Muslim.
Of his opponents, Milo said, "They never want to debate because they’re scared of losing. They don’t have the facts on their side and for 30 years the left has been able to bully people into silence by name-calling and they’ve forgotten how to argue."

Sean Hannity: Trump's Supreme Court pick is a home run, and a promise kept

President Trump's choice of Judge Neil Gorsuch to fill the late, great Justice Antonin Scalia’s seat on the Supreme Court is yet another example of the new commander-in-chief keeping promises to the American people.
Trump announced the choice in a prime time appearance, and noted that Gorsuch’s impeccable resume and originalist approach to the Constitution showed he was following through on his campaign pledge, a novel concept in Washington.
“When Justice Scalia passed away suddenly last February, I made a promise to the American people,” Trump said. “If I were elected president, I would find the very best judge in the country for the Supreme Court.
“Today, I am keeping another promise to the American people by nominating Judge Neil Gorsuchm” he also said.
During the campaign, I asked then-candidate Trump several times what he was looking for in a justice. He said above all, he wanted a justice who will strictly adhere to the original meaning of the words of the Constitution. And he offered up a list of several accomplished jurists who fit that bill and checked other boxes he believed were crucial.
“I want great intellect,” he said. “These people are all of very high, high intellect.  They're pro-life.”
President Trump was adamant about nominating a justice who believes in coequal branches of government, separation of powers, not somebody who will legislate from the bench, who will read and interpret the U.S. Constitution the way our Founding Fathers and framers intended.
Judge Gorsuch is only 49 years old. He clerked for several prominent judges, including Supreme Court Justices Byron White and Anthony Kennedy. In 2006, he was nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, where he currently serves, and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in a unanimous voice vote.
Judge Gorsuch is also known for being a strong defender of religious liberty. In his key rulings, he sided with Hobby Lobby and Little Sisters of the Poor in their case against the Obama administration's contraception mandate.
Consider what he said on originalism during a lecture about Justice Antonin Scalia just last year.
“It seems to me that an assiduous focus on text, structure and history is essential to being a good judge,” he told law students at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. “That, yes, judges should be in the business of declaring what the law is using the traditional tools of interpretation, rather than pronouncing the law as they might wish it to be in light of their own views, always with an eye on the outcome, engaged, perhaps, in some Benthamite calculation of pleasures and pains along the way.”
An originalist, intellectual and patriot for the Supreme Court. And a home run for President Trump.

Senate confirms Tillerson as secretary of State, in GOP push to fill Trump Cabinet

The Senate on Wednesday confirmed Rex Tillerson as secretary of State, as part of a fast-paced day for majority Republicans who also pushed past Democratic resistance to advance three other President Trump Cabinet picks to a final vote.
The vote to confirm the former ExxonMobil executive as the country's top diplomat was 56-43.
Trump, during Tillerson's swearing in in the Oval Office, said that it is "time to bring a clear-eyed focus to foreign affairs." He also praised Tillerson's background, telling him, "Your whole life has prepared you for this moment."
Earlier in the day, Senate Republicans, frustrated by Democrats’ attempts to delay other Cabinet confirmations, moved swiftly to advance three nominees to a final vote.
On the most contentious nomination, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted along party lines, 11-to-9, to approve Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., for U.S. attorney general.
The move came after Democrats dragged out proceedings a day earlier. The committee advanced Sessions to the floor on an 11-9 vote.
“No doubt we have the votes” to confirm Sessions, said Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, a committee member. “It’s going to get done.”
Senate Democrats have attempted to hold up several of Trump’s Cabinet picks over concerns about their records, as well as Trump's new policies and recent executive orders on immigration.
Also on Wednesday, the Republican-led Senate Finance Committee sidestepped Senate Democrats' efforts to slow Trump’s picks for secretaries of Treasury and Health and Human Services by boycotting the votes.
Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, suspended committee rules on the number of members required to vote, to allow Republican members to vote in favor of Steve Mnuchin as Treasury secretary and Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., to serve as Health and Human Services secretary.
Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, the committee’s top Democrat, argued that Hatch broke the rules.
“What you had was a rump group that met in violation of Democratic values to confirm two ethically-challenged nominees,” he told Fox News. “There’s no question about that.”
Mnuchin, Price and Sessions will almost certainly get the required simple majority needed for confirmation because Republicans have 52 senators and Democrats have 48.
Still, Democrats temporarily thwarted a Senate confirmation vote on Trump's pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, by again boycotting a key committee meeting.
Senate Environment and Public Works Committee rules require at least two members of the minority party be present for a vote to be held.
Committee Chairman John Barrasso, R-Wyo., called the move “political theatre” and vowed to "do what is necessary" to advance Pruitt's nomination, raising the possibility the GOP majority may seek a rules change like the one Hatch got to push a vote before the full Senate.
Republicans created their own challenges Wednesday toward confirming Besty DeVos as Education secretary.
GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski, Alaska, and Susan Collins, Maine, said they won't vote for DeVos in the final Senate vote.
That would create a 50-to-50 tied. But Republicans remain optimistic, considering GOP Vice President Mike Pence would cast the deciding vote in favor of DeVos.
On Tuesday, Democrats had refused to attend the meeting to consider Mnuchin and Price, demanding more information about the nominees.
Hatch called the Democrats’ decision to boycott the vote “the most pathetic thing.”
“We took some unprecedented actions today due to the unprecedented obstruction on the part of our colleagues,” he also said Wednesday.
The rule requires at least one Democrat be present for a vote. With the rules lifted, the committee advanced the nominations to the floor.
“They should be ashamed,” he said. “The only thing missing was a member from the minority side,” Hatch continued.  But, as I noted, they, on their own accord, refused to participate in this exercise.
Hatch said he made the move after getting an OK from the Senate Parliamentarian Office and that every Republican member of the committee was present and voting, exceeding the one-third requirement for a so-called “quorum.”

Trump reportedly accuses Australian PM of seeking to export next ‘Boston bombers’

President Trump reportedly had a fiery conversation over the weekend with Australia’s prime minister over a refugee deal agreed upon under the Obama administration.
Trump reportedly blasted the agreement as “the worst deal ever” and accused Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull of seeking to export “the next Boston bombers.”
The call went so badly, Trump told Turnbull that he had spoken to Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and Russia’s Vladimir  Putin and their call was his “worst so far.”
The Washington Post, citing unidentified senior U.S. officials, reported that Trump cut their first call short with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull after the conversation turn to a deal that would allow mostly Muslim refugees rejected by Australia to be resettled in the US.
Trump reportedly called the agreement “the worst deal ever” and accused the prime minister of seeking to export “the next Boston bombers.”
Turnbull also would not say whether Trump had abruptly ended the expected hour-long conversation after 25 minutes as the Australian attempted to steer the conversation to other topics. Trump was reportedly joined by chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, national security adviser Michael Flynn and White House press  secretary  Sean Spicer.
"It's better that these things -- these conversations -- are conducted candidly, frankly, privately," Turnbull told reporters.
Turnbull said the strength of the bilateral relation was evident in that Trump agreed to resettle refugees from among around 1,600 asylum seekers, most of whom are on island camps on the Pacific nations of Nauru and Papua New Guinea.
Trump tweeted Wednesday night, “Do you believe it? The Obama Administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal.”
The Washington Post story immediately shot to the top of trending topics on Twitter in Australia. It was plastered across the top of Australia's major news sites, and the nation's news networks launched into lengthy, running commentaries on it.

Schumer Cartoons

Sen. McConnell: 'We're going to get the judge confirmed'

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., vowed Tuesday night that President Donald Trump's Supreme Court pick would be confirmed by the Senate.
When asked on Fox News' "Special Report with Bret Baier" whether he would use the so-called "nuclear option" to force Judge Neil Gorsuch's confirmation by a simple majority vote, McConnell said, "I’m not going to answer that. Let me just tell you, we’re going to get this judge confirmed."
"But isn't that answering?" host Bret Baier pressed.
"We’re going to get the judge confirmed," McConnell repeated.
"So you would?" Baier asked again.
"We're going to get the judge confirmed," said McConnell, who later pointed out that six Senate Democrats had already come out against filibustering against Gorsuch's appointment.
"The Democrats seem to want to fight over everything these days, but this is a fight worth having," the Majority Leader said. "We’ve got a great nominee and we intend to win"
McConnell, who successfully kept the late Justice Antonin Scalia's seat open following the jurist's death last year, told Baier that he hoped to have the Senate confirm Gorsuch "before April" as part of a larger effort to help enact Trump's agenda.
"I believe we have an excellent chance this year to get through repealing and replacing ObamaCare, confirming the Supreme Court justice, and doing comprehensive tax reform," McConnell said. "All of that would make the first session of this Congress extremely productive."

Ted Cruz reportedly says nuclear option is on table in Supreme Court pick

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said in an interview Tuesday that “all procedural   options are on the table” when it comes to confirming a strong conservative to replace Justice Scalia on the Supreme Court.
President Trump nominated federal Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court on Tuesday, choosing a jurist widely seen by conservatives as a fitting successor to the late Scalia – and touching off what is sure to be a fierce confirmation battle with Senate Democrats already vowing resistance.
“The Democrats are not going to succeed in filibustering the Supreme Court nominee,” Cruz told Politico. “All procedural options are on the table. The bottom line is we will confirm a strong conservative to replace Justice Scalia.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., will oppose any nominee outside the mainstream. He will likely decide whether to try to lead an effort to block, or filibuster, based on the nominee's performance in confirmation hearings and feedback from his Democratic caucus, including the 10 senators who are up for re-election in states that Trump won last year.
The advantages of trying a filibuster are clear - make Republicans work to find the 60 votes needed to end it, including at least eight Democrats, and as a result, delay or block the nomination. Republicans hold a 52-48 majority.
But there are also downsides. Democrats running for re-election next year in states Trump won in 2016 could face political consequences for their party's attempted obstruction. And if Republicans change the rules and eliminate the filibuster altogether, Democrats would have lost their most powerful weapon in future Supreme Court fights.
Republicans did not try to filibuster either of former President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominees. The only filibuster attempt in the past few decades was by Democrats against Justice Samuel Alito, nominated by former President George W. Bush. The effort failed and Alito was confirmed.
If Republicans are unable to secure enough Democratic votes for Trump’s pick, they can change the rules and curb the filibuster.
Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., did that for lower court nominees and other nominations in 2013.
Trump has called on McConnell to kill the filibuster if Democrats resist his pick, but McConnell said the decision is not up to Trump.
"That’s not a presidential decision. That’s a Senate decision," McConnell told Politico.

Schumer seeks 60-vote bar for Trump’s court pick, as Dems brace for fight

Anyone ever see the wizard of oz :-)

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and his Democratic colleagues wasted no time Tuesday night voicing “serious doubts” about President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, signaling a tough battle ahead for Judge Neil Gorsuch as the New York senator insisted he garner 60 votes for confirmation.
“The Senate must insist upon 60 votes for any Supreme Court nominee,” Schumer said. “Make no mistake, Senate Democrats will not simply allow but require an exhaustive, robust and comprehensive debate on Judge Gorsuch's fitness to be a Supreme Court justice.”
The statement raises the specter of a filibuster, though it’s not yet clear whether Schumer or any of his fellow Democrats would take the procedural step to force Gorsuch to clear the 60-vote hurdle.
If they do, Gorsuch would need at least eight Democrats to join Republicans in supporting him, unless GOP leaders take the potentially risky step of lowering the threshold for confirmation.
Republicans have 52 senators and Democrats have 48. If confirmed to the court, Gorsuch would restore the 5-4 conservative tilt that existed before Justice Antonin Scalia’s death in early 2016. The court has been split along ideological lines for nearly a year.
But after Republicans refused to consider then-President Barack Obama’s nominee, some Democrats are already vowing to oppose Gorsuch.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said in a statement that Trump “failed” to pick a “consensus nominee.”
“Based on the long and well-established record of Judge Gorsuch, I will oppose his nomination," she said.
The call by Schumer -- the top Democrat in the Republican-controlled Senate that will vote on Gorsuch’s nomination --  to insist on a 60-vote bar extends the rising backlash to what Trump critics consider his extreme policies, namely last week’s executive order on refugee and immigration policies.
“A little more than a week into the Trump presidency, the new administration has violated our core values, challenged the separation of powers and tested the very fabric of our Constitution in unprecedented fashion,” Schumer said. “It is clear that the Supreme Court will be tried in ways that few courts have been tested since the earliest days of the Republic.”
Gorsuch, an appeals judge in the Denver-based 10th Circuit, would fill the seat left open by Scalia’s death.
“The qualifications of Judge Gorsuch are beyond dispute,” Trump said in announcing his nominee.
The high-stakes Washington fight over a Trump pick began well before the Republican president announced Gorsuch.
The conservative group Judicial Crisis Network said Tuesday night that it has already started a $10 million, multi-media ad campaign in support of Gorsuch.
Meanwhile, several progressive groups, including People for the American Way, in the days and weeks ahead of Trump’s announcement touted campaigns to oppose any of his nominations.
“The burden is on Judge Neil Gorsuch to prove himself to be within the legal mainstream,” Schumer also said. “Given his record, I have very serious doubts about Judge Gorsuch's ability to meet this standard.”
Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden, who has already been critical of Trump’s Cabinet nominees, said the Gorsuch nomination “represents a breathtaking retreat from the notion that Americans have a fundamental right to constitutional liberties and harkens back to the days when politicians restricted a people’s rights on a whim.”
He argued in part that Gorsuch’s opposition to so-called “right to die” or “death with dignity” laws suggests that his Supreme Court decisions will further erode Americans’ individual rights.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, though, joined numerous other GOP senators in hailing the president’s choice -- as he called on Democrats to treat him fairly.
“He has an impressive background and a long record of faithfully applying the law and the Constitution,” said McConnell, R-Ky. “I hope members of the Senate will … show him fair consideration … with an up-or-down vote on his nomination, just like the Senate treated the four first-term nominees of Presidents Clinton and Obama.”

Conservatives hail Trump's Supreme Court pick

Republican lawmakers and conservative groups hailed President Trump's nomination of federal appeals judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court Tuesday night, even as Democrats questioned whether the nominee has sufficient "respect for constitutional values of liberty, equality and justice for all."
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who kept the late Justice Antonin Scalia's seat open through the presidential election, said Trump had made "an outstanding decision."
"Like Justice Scalia, [Gorsuch] understands the constitutional limits on the authority of a federal judge and that the duty of a judge is to apply the law even-handedly, without fear or favor, and not to rule based on one’s empathy with a party in a case," McConnell said in a statement.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said Trump had "fulfilled his [campaign] pledge to nominate a judge who has a demonstrated loyalty to the Constitution and a strong commitment to life." Ryan added that Gorsuch was a "phemonenal" choice by the president.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who unsuccessfully challenged Trump for the Republican nomination last year, echoed the speaker, saying that Trump had satisifed his promise, "and the rule of law will be all the better for it."
Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., a frequent critic of Trump, tweeted his approval of the nomination, calling Gorsuch "a tremendous pick."
By contrast, and in an apparent preview of the bitter confirmation fight ahead, the Democratic National Committee said Gorsuch's nomination "raises some very serious questions about whether he would be a Supreme Court Justice who believes the Constitution protects all of us, not just the wealthy, and whether he can approach each case with an open mind to make fair decisions based on the merits."
The DNC statement questioned whether the nominee has the "utmost respect" for constitutional values.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said he was "skeptical that [Gorsuch] can be a strong, independent Justice on the Court." Schumer added that Gorsuch had previously "sided with corporations over working people [and] demonstrated a hostility toward women’s rights."
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., went even further, saying Gorsuch's nomination was "a breathtaking retreat from the notion that Americans have a fundamental right to Constitutional liberties, and harkens back to the days when politicians restricted a people’s rights on a whim.
"No Senator who believes that individual rights are reserved to the people, and not the government, can support this nomination," Wyden added.
The nomination of Gorsuch was also praised by several conservative groups. Marjorie Dannenfelser, the head of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List, described the judge as "distinguished jurist with a strong record of protecting life and religious liberty, as evidenced by his opinions in the Hobby Lobby and Little Sisters of the Poor cases."
Tea Party Patriots President Jenny Beth Martin added that Gorsuch "has a distinguished record that demonstrates he will be fair to all Americans, no matter their background or beliefs."