Justice Ginsburg to skip State of the Union, signals she has no plans to retire

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will not be attending President Donald Trump's State of the Union address on Tuesday.

Instead, she will be at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island, for a talk that was announced in August, the Providence Journal reported.

Ginsburg, 84, also has sent signals recently that she intends to keep her seat on the bench for years to come.
When asked how long she intends to serve, she said she will stay as long as she can go “full steam,” drawing inspiration from her model, Justice John Paul Stevens, who stepped down in 2010 at age 90.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of Ginsburg's nomination by President Bill Clinton and her confirmation as the second woman on the court -- following former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who was nominated by President Ronald Reagan in 1981.
“She is so spry,” said friend Ann Claire Williams, a newly retired federal appeals court judge, adding that Ginsburg’s mind is also sharp and her recall on cases “extraordinary.”

The eldest Supreme Court justice has produced two of the court’s four signed opinions so far this term. She’s even hired law clerks to take her through June 2020, just months before the next presidential election.
Ginsburg also did not attend last year’s presidential address, after attending to all eight of former President Barack Obama’s addresses, the Hill reported. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas also didn’t attend President Trump’s address last year.
Other justices have skipped out on the annual address, so the practice is not abnormal, the report said.

Anti-Trump celebs plan 'People's State of the Union'

Democrats are not interested in Border Safety & Security or in the funding and rebuilding of our Military. They are only interested in Obstruction!

They do not care if America is great again.

They do not care if America is great again.

Actor Mark Ruffalo, center, is among the celebrities participating in an evening of speeches and music in New York City on Monday, Jan. 29, 2018, a day before President Trump's State of the Union address.  (Associated Press)

A cabal of Hollywood elites, progressive groups and social activists are planning a “People’s State of the Union” as a “public alternative” on the eve of President Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address.

Notable participants in Monday's scheduled event in New York City include filmmaker Michael Moore, actors Mark Ruffalo, Alyssa Milano, Rosie Perez and Whoopi Goldberg.

They'll congregate at the Town Hall in Manhattan, the venue where suffragists met in the 1920s. Singer Andra Day and rapper Common will be performing the song, “Stand Up for Something,” from the biopic film "Marshall," about the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
Tickets were still available Saturday at $47 each.
The event, coordinated by unions, organizers of the Women’s March and Planned Parenthood, is being marketed as a celebration of the “resistance,” closer to “the people’s point of view,” USA Today reported.     
Ruffalo, an inveterate progressive and vocal critic of President Trump, told People magazine, “I think it’s important because we have a president who has a difficult time with the truth, who has a radical, divisive agenda, and spends an enormous amount of time focusing on the negative and hopelessness and despair.”
Monday’s event also will serve as a platform for the launch of "We Stand United," the lead organizing group of the "People’s State of the Union."
The group’s campaign director, Julia Walsh, said, “We’re all going to work together across all different movements to make sure that we win back Congress in 2018 and hold this president in check.”

Cher Cartoons

Pres. Trump Backs Long-Term ‘Strong Dollar’ Policy

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin showing his wife, Louise Linton, a sheet of new $1 bills, the first currency notes bearing his and US Treasurer Jovita Carranza’s signatures.

The U.S. dollar bounces back after a two day slide as President Trump says he backs the “strong dollar” policy.
The president said he supports a longer-term strength of the dollar against its major competitors.
He added, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin’s “weaker dollar” comments have been misunderstood, suggesting there’s no disagreements within the administration over the economic policy.
The president made his remarks in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Previously, Secretary Mnuchin said short-term dollar weakness will boost U.S. economy.
“We are doing so well, our country is becoming so economically strong again, and strong in other ways too, by the way, that the dollar is going to get stronger and stronger, and ultimately I would wanna’ see a strong dollar,” said President Trump.
Following the president’s comment, the dollar bounced-back from its three year slide against the Euro.

Ex-chairman of Missouri Democratic Party pleads guilty in corruption case

A former Democratic Party chairman and prosecutor in Missouri was convicted of wire fraud Friday after admitting he exploited campaign funds for personal use, such as trips to California's wine country and Las Vegas.

The Kansas City Star reported that Mike Sanders pleaded guilty to the federal corruption charge, along with his aide and chief of staff, Calvin Williford, who also pleaded guilty to the same charge at a separate hearing that same day.

With a guilty plea, former Jackson County Executive Mike Sanders’ downfall is complete https://t.co/a7H7bsRcyh

— The Kansas City Star (@KCStar) January 26, 2018

Williford also testified that the pair had a scheme involving a printing company that would create phone invoices and distribute the money to Williford and other workers on Sanders’ campaigns to bypass the Missouri Ethics Commission.
Sanders admitted to converting roughly $62,000 in campaign funds for personal use through a kickback scheme using an old high school friend named Steve Hill.
Hill told the Star in December that Sanders delivered checks to him for campaign work that he never performed, and would keep 10 percent while Sanders pocketed the rest for what he said was political purposes. Authorities later found that not to be the complete story, according to the paper.
For example, in one instance Sanders’ used $4,550 in kickback money he obtained from Hill in 2012 to pay his federal taxes from 2010, the paper reported.
Sanders, who served as the chairman of the Missouri Democratic Party from 2010 to 2013, cut off the checks in late 2013 after Hill told him the FBI was investigating, the paper reported. He also worked as a Jackson County prosecutor starting in 2002, prior to becoming county executive in 2007.
Williford and two other unidentified conspirators were also tied to the kickback scheme.
Both Williford and Sanders, who were released on signature bonds pending sentencing, could face up to five years in prison, as well as a fine of up to $250,000, according to the paper.

French Oil Company CEO Tells Pres. Trump Company Will Invest More Due to Tax Reform

U.S. President Donald Trump, addresses a plenary session during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 26, 2018. (Laurent Gillieron/Keystone via AP)

One of the world’s biggest oil companies is making a big investment in the U.S. in response to the new tax law.
French oil giant Total made the announcement on Thursday at the World Economic Forum.
The company’s CEO told President Trump he is working on a big project in the Gulf of Mexico, and is investing two billion dollars into the renewable energy sector.

❄️🏔 Happy to represent French companies at the #Davos diner hosted by President @realDonaldTrump. It was very interesting and casual. That’s what Davos is for: share ideas, exchange views, work on issues and make things go forward. @Total #WEF18 #WEF pic.twitter.com/HmKYUYrOBn

— Patrick Pouyanné (@PPouyanne) January 25, 2018

Total is the world’s fourth largest oil company and already invests around one billion dollars into the U.S. each year.
This comes as numbers show the U.S. economy ending 2017 on a high note, growing 2.6 percent in the fourth quarter.
The economy grew a total of 2.3 percent last year, well ahead of the 1.5 percent growth in 2016.
Economists say President Trump’s newly passed tax law will continue to create more jobs and boost economic growth through the end of this year.

Self-proclaimed feminist stars keep attacking Sarah Sanders for her looks

Iconic singer Cher made fun of White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders' fashion choices on Twitter comparing Sanders to a "sister wife." Defenders were quick to call Cher out, claiming she was hypocritical for bullying another woman.

Hollywood women have banded together like never before on issues including pay inequality and sexual harassment, declaring that women all over the world need to stick together and be supportive of one another. But experts say several stars aren't practicing what they preach when it comes to Donald Trump's press secretary, Sarah Sanders.

Self-proclaimed activist Chelsea Handler wrote in an op-ed for Thrive in Dec. 2016: "Let's stop it with the dialogue about how women look or what they wear, or if they've gained or lost weight. We are more guilty of this with each other than most men are."

Cher has often spoken out about the sexualization of women, declaring at the Women's March on Jan. 20 that she "believe[s] in this movement."
But both stars recently attacked Sanders solely over her looks.

Cher tweeted to Sanders on Tuesday to "stop dressing like a sister wife." After fans slammed Cher for the hurtful tweet, she followed up by admitting it was "kinda mean" but "so funny."
Handler has gone even further than Cher by mocking Sanders' "summer whore lipstick" and calling her a "harlot" on her Netflix show. Comedian Fortune Feimster even wore exaggerated makeup to play Sanders for a skit on Handler's now-defunct series.

Comedian Fortune Feimster portrays Press Secretary Sarah Sanders on Chelsea Handler's Netflix show.  (Netflix)

And "Saturday Night Live" took a similar swipe at the press secretary's outfits by putting the show's Sanders character in a revealing outfit to dance provocatively to a pop song in a November 2017 episode.

Aidy Bryant as White House Press Secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders during "Press Conference" on Saturday, November 4, 2017.  (NBC)

The show has also dressed the Sanders character, played by Aidy Bryant, in a bright pink dress to mock the press secretary's frequent color choice.
Penny Nance, President and CEO of Concerned Women for America, told Fox News Cher's recent insults proves Hollywood feminists don't play by their own rules when it comes to conservative women.
"Cher's attack on Sarah is yet another example of how liberal women in all types of powerful positions stand up for only those women who adhere to their ideology," Nance told Fox News. "If you're a conservative woman, prepare to be thrown out of the feminist tent. Their message is that some women will be supported. That some women will be empowered. That some women will [be] trusted. But they don't support all women and especially those of us who support life."

"They don't just attack her for being conservative. They dare to treat her as if she's not a woman"

Dan Gainor, vice president of business and culture at the Media Research Center, echoed Nance's comments adding that the recent attacks on Sanders' looks are "especially offensive."
"They don't just attack her for being conservative. They dare to treat her as if she's not a woman. They blast her clothes and say she dresses like a 'sister wife,'" Gainor said. "...Chelsea Handler called her a 'harlot' with 'summer whore lipstick.' And these are women doing this. Imagine the media outrage if conservatives dared to treat a liberal woman with such disgust."
He added, "Liberals hate anyone who doesn't side with them."

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders speaks to members of the media on July, 21. 2017.  (AP)

Branding and public relations expert Scott Pinsker told Fox News these stars are hurting their brands by attacking Trump's press secretary.
"An awful lot of women in America look more like Sarah Sanders than the Hollywood starlets who are bashing Trump and his supporters on all the award shows," Pinsker explained. "If you want to disagree with Ms. Sanders' political positions, that's perfectly legitimate, but mocking her for being normal-looking isn't exactly empowering to women."

FBI Hillary Cartoons

FBI officials worried about being too tough on Hillary Clinton during email investigation, texts show

FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page were concerned about being too tough on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during the bureau’s investigation into her email practices because she might hold it against them as president, text messages released on Thursday indicated.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley released new messages between bureau officials Page and Strzok, who were having an affair and exchanged more than 50,000 texts with each other during the election.

“One more thing: she might be our next president,” Page texted Strzok on Feb. 25, 2016, in the midst of the presidential campaign, in reference to Clinton.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley released new messages between bureau officials Lisa Page and Peter Strzok, who were having an affair and exchanged more than 50,000 texts with each other.  (Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

“The last thing you need [is] going in there loaded for bear,” she continued. “You think she’s going to remember or care that it was more [DOJ] than [FBI]?”
Strzok replied that he “agreed” and he had relayed their discussion with someone named “Bill.”
Strzok not only worked on the Clinton case, but was assigned to the special counsel’s probe into Russia and the Trump campaign after a number of anti-Trump texts were discovered on his phone. Page also briefly worked on the special counsel investigation.
DOJ RECOVERS MISSING TEXT MESSAGES BETWEEN ANTI-TRUMP FBI AGENTS STRZOK AND PAGE
Grassley, an Iowa Republican, said Thursday in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray that the exchange, among others, concerned him.
“The text messages that were provided raise serious concerns about the impartiality of senior leadership running both the Clinton and Trump investigations,” Grassley said.

FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page were concerned about being too tough on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during the bureau’s investigation into her email practices because she might hold it against them as president, newly released text messages indicate.

During the campaign, the FBI investigated Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. Then-FBI Director James Comey decided against recommending prosecution, but faulted Clinton and her associates for being “extremely careless” with classified information.
“It's clear that [Strzok and Page] did not want her charged,” Rep. Trey Gowdy, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, told “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” He added, “They wanted her to be the president of the United States.”
Republicans, arguing some top officials at the FBI are politically biased against Trump, have seized on the texts, including one where Strzok and Page spoke of a “secret society” within the Department of Justice and the FBI and Strzok spoke of an “insurance policy” against a Trump win.
“The fix was in even before they interviewed the target of the investigation,” Gowdy, R-S.C., said.
New texts released by Grassley on Thursday also indicated that FBI officials believed FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe should be recused from the Clinton investigation because of his family’s ties to Virginia Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who is close with the Clintons.
In an October 28, 2016 text exchange, Page told Strzok that then- FBI Chief of Staff James Rybicki thought McCabe should not have participated in the probe.
“Rybicki just called to check in,” she wrote. “He very clearly 100% believes that Andy should be recused because of the ‘perception.’”
“God,” Strzok replied.

New texts released by Grassley on Thursday also indicate FBI officials believed FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe should be recused from the Clinton investigation because of his family’s ties to Virginia Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who is close with the Clintons.

Asked by Page why McCabe should be recused now, if not before, Strzok said: “I assume McAuliffe picked up.”
McCabe eventually recused himself from the Clinton probe one week before the election.
“If McCabe eventually recused himself one week before the election, why did he not do so sooner?” Grassley asked Wray in the letter.
Grassley also told Wray he was concerned that Page and Strzok were transmitting government records on personal systems inappropriately. In a June 2017 message, Strzok wrote of typing a document on a “home computer.”
The senator said Page and Strzok also referenced other conversations “via iMessage, presumably on their personal Apple devices.”
“It appears that Strzok and Page transmitted federal records pertaining to the Clinton investigation on private, non-government services,” Grassley said. “It is important to determine whether their own similar conduct was a factor in not focusing on and developing evidence of similar violations by Secretary Clinton and her aides.”
The new messages surfaced the same day the Justice Department’s inspector general said he recovered a number of missing text messages between Strzok and Page.
Fox News has learned from U.S. government officials that the inspector general recovered the texts by taking possession of "at least four" phones belonging to Strzok and Page.

Congressional Black Caucus tried to bury 2005 Obama-Farrakhan photo, photographer says

Obama with Farrakhan in 2005: The hidden pic

Photojournalist Askia Muhammad released a photo this week showing former President Barack Obama and the controversial Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan from Obama's years as a state senator -- and the photographer revealed Thursday that the Congressional Black Caucus had pressured him for more than a decade to keep it hidden.

Muhammad told the Trice Edney News Wire last week that he believed that the image “absolutely would have made a difference” in the 2008 presidential campaign had it been made public.

The image taken in 2005 at a Congressional Black Caucus meeting on Capitol Hill showed then-Senator Obama, a young Democrat from Illinois, smiling side-by-side with Farrakhan.
Muhammad told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson that the same day he snapped the photo, the CBC contacted him.
“A staff member from the black caucus called me and said ‘we have to have the picture back,’ and I was kind of taken aback. And we talked a couple of times on the phone after that, and I said ‘Okay, I will give the picture back to Minister Farrakhan’s chief of staff,’” he said on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
He added that after he gave the original copy to Farrakhan’s staff, he kept his own copy but remained quiet.
“I gave the original disk to him and in a sense swore myself to secrecy because I had quietly made a copy for myself,” Muhammad said. “It’s my picture, it’s my art, and it’s my intellectual property. I owned it and I wanted to keep it.”
He said the CBC called him  while he was still on Capitol Hill and he believed that it was because “they sensed the future.”
“Minister Farrakhan and his reputation would hurt someone trying to win acceptance in the broad cross-section,” he said, referring to the possibility at the time that the young senator was being considered for a presidential run.
Muhammad also said that Obama had, at some point, people from the Nation of Islam working on his staff and in his offices.
“In fact he had people from the Nation of Islam working on his staff and in his office in the Chicago, his Senate staff. The members of the Nation of Islam helped him in his Senate campaign and on the South Side of Chicago.”
The Congressional Black Caucus did not immediately reply to Fox News’ request for a comment.