North Korea begins dismantling its main missile-engine test site, satellite images indicate

An American research group on Monday claimed that North Korea has begun dismantling its main missile-engine test site, a possible sign that Pyongyang is fulfilling the promises North Korean leader Kim Jong-un made to President Trump at the summit in Singapore last month.
According to an analysis of satellite imagery of the location by the North Korea-focused 38 North website-- between July 20 and 22--the North Korean government appeared to be dismantling the Sohae launch site.
Some facilities on the site were either razed or taken apart. The facilities included a rocket engine test stand, which is used to develop liquid-fuel engines for ballistic missiles. Another facility was identified as a space-launch vehicles and a rail-mounted processing building.
“Since these facilities are believed to have played an important role in the development of technologies for the North’s intercontinental ballistic missile program, these efforts represent a significant confidence building measure on the part of North Korea,” analyst Joseph Bermudez wrote in the 38 North report.
Bermudez said the satellite images indicate that Pyongyang took “an important first step toward fulfilling a commitment made by Kim Jong-un.”
South Korean officials have also said they detected dismantlement activities at the site, though didn’t specify the exact nature of the activities.
The supposed dismantlement of the site comes after Trump and Kim signed an agreement to work towards the goal of “complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”
Trump said last month after the summit that the North has already started “destroying a major missile engine testing site.” The president didn’t identify the exact site, sparking speculations that North Korea may not be transparent about its activities.
Media reports in recent days also claimed that Trump was frustrated by the lack of progress made by North Korea in its denuclearization efforts, the New York Times reported. The president fired back on Monday, saying he’s “very happy” with how the North has been honoring the commitments made at the summit.
But while many believe the latest presumed efforts to dismantle the site may have a positive effect on denuclearizing the communist state, experts urge caution until the North completely abandons the area.
“If North Korea goes further and dismantle the entire Sohae site, that would meaningfully reduce the country’s long-range missile capability by eliminating a facility where it could fire multiple ICBMs in succession,” said Lee Choon Geun, a missile expert at South Korea’s Science and Technology Policy Institute.
He added, however, that while the first steps in dismantling the site are important, in reality, Pyongyang is giving up little as it appears the country is content with the current long-range weapons in its possession.

Iranian President Rouhani Cartoons

Tax cuts only help the wealthy, right? American paychecks show otherwise

Like you, we are seeing something wonderful and—until recently—unusual as we enter stores: taped to the front window or hanging behind the counter is a “Help Wanted” sign.
What a welcome change from previous summers! Every month this year has posted strong jobs reports, and the unemployment rate among minorities is now at an historic low. Just last month, another 213,000 jobs were added as businesses continued the longest-running job growth trend in our history.
Since Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in December, Uncle Sam has been demanding less from us in tax payments. And as a result, American families across the country are better off now because they are benefiting from bigger paychecks and more jobs.
This year alone, the average household in Washington State’s 5th District will see a tax cut of 13 percent and an increase in take-home pay of more than $17,000 over the next 10 years, according to a new study from The Heritage Foundation. President Donald Trump promised a tax cut for the middle class, and that’s just what Congress delivered.
Meanwhile, residents of New York’s 15th District, one of the lowest income districts in America, saw their income taxes cut by about 30 percent. Next time you hear someone say that Trump’s tax cut benefits only the wealthy, remind them of the folks in South Bronx who will see their 2018 tax bill cut by a third.
The benefits of tax reform are just getting started, and we want to keep that momentum going.
Each year the new tax law is in place, American workers and their families will reap larger rewards. More than 650 companies are using the tax cuts for employee bonuses, pay increases, charitable contributions, and new investments. For example, Premera Blue Cross announced it is dedicating $40 million to community reinvestment. Hope House—a women’s shelter in Eastern Washington—will receive $1 million to help more women find permanent homes, according to a recent story.

Opponents of this conservative pro-growth agenda are mounting a campaign to roll back the tax cuts and reverse the great economic growth we are now seeing. We cannot let this this happen.

Inland National Bank, a regional independent community bank in Spokane, Washington, is another great example. INB announced it has shared its tax savings with its employees by raising their base pay to $15 an hour and providing bonuses.
Stories like these are being told and retold all across America. In every state, businesses have passed the benefits of the tax cuts on to their employees. And in every single congressional district, taxpayers are seeing a tax cut.
For the first time in American history, there are more jobs available than people looking for them. Rather than sitting on the sidelines, more workers are eagerly looking for work—which is readily available. A majority of the uptick in new job seekers is fueled by women, individuals with disabilities, and minorities, looking for their first job or reentering the workforce after a poor economy pushed them out many years ago.
Opponents of this conservative pro-growth agenda are mounting a campaign to roll back the tax cuts and reverse the great economic growth we are now seeing. We cannot let this this happen. Americans are better off now than they were two years ago—the economy is booming again. Since some of the tax cuts passed by Congress last year are not permanent, they instead need to be extended and made permanent.
All Americans deserve to enjoy freedom, opportunity, and prosperity. And permanently extending the 2017 tax cuts is a vital step to ensure that they—as well as their children and grandchildren—are able to do exactly that.
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers represents Washington’s 5th congressional district since 2005.
Kay Coles James is the president of The Heritage Foundation.

House Intel GOP asked Trump to declassify key parts of Carter Page FISA application

Republicans on the House intelligence committee asked President Trump last month to declassify key sections of the surveillance warrant application for ex-campaign aide Carter Page, according to a letter obtained by Fox News.
The heavily-redacted application outlining the justifications for surveiling Page, which was approved and renewed several times by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), was released over the weekend after a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
“Because DOJ (Department of Justice) and FBI continue to obstruct the Committee's investigation, it is time to put the facts in the public domain,” the letter, dated June 14, states.
The 13 Republicans on the committee, including committee chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., state in the letter that the declassification should be consistent “with the need to protect intelligence sources and methods,” adding that the declassification will “enable the public to understand the DOJ's and FBI's basis for obtaining the FISA warrant and three subsequent renewals.”
The Republicans highlight two sections of the document as key to understanding whether FBI and Department of Justice followed proper procedures when they obtained the authority to surveil Page on October 2016.
FBI TOLD FISA COURT SEVERAL TIMES THAT CLINTON-FUNDED SPY WASN'T SOURCE FOR MEDIA REPORT
A key part of the government's application to the FISC to surveil Page was an unverified dossier containing salacious allegations about President Trump. The dossier was opposition research paid for by the DNC and Clinton campaign.
“... [W]e respectfully request that you declassify and release publicly, and in unredacted form, pages 10-12 and 17-34, along with all associated footnotes, of the third renewal of the FISA application on Mr. Page," the letter states. "That renewal was filed in June 2017 and signed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein."
The letter states, that on its face, the bureau’s reliance on the dossier appears to violate strict, internal FBI rules.
“The Committee's investigative findings include DOJ's and FBI's use of an unverified dossier of memoranda that was not subjected to proper U.S. government verification and was not handled according to FBI procedures," the letter says.
It adds: “The FBI’s own Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (known as the DIOG) prohibits the FBI from using unverified material to obtain a warrant under FISA. The unverified allegations in the dossier were nevertheless presented to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to obtain a FISA warrant and three renewals on Mr. Page. DOJ also presented a news article that was sourced from the author of the dossier.”
That is an apparent reference to a September 2016 Yahoo News article about intelligence officials probing Page as a possible Russian operative.
Based on the weekend document release, the Yahoo News article was presented to the surveillance court as an independent intelligence stream justifying the surveillance of Page.
FISA DOCUMENT RELEASE SHOWS FBI MAY HAVE USED 'CIRCULAR REPORTING' TO JUSTIFY SPYING ON TRUMP CAMP
But London court records show that contrary to the FBI's assessments that were presented to the FISC, ex-spy Christopher Steele briefed Yahoo News and other reporters in the fall of 2016 at the direction of Fusion GPS -- the opposition research firm behind the dossier.
The lawmakers also advised the President they have requested the senior judge who oversees the FISA surveillance court “to conduct an investigation into DOJ's conduct in obtaining the FISA warrant and renewals."
The Justice Department and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Fox News about the letter or whether the president is considering or has rejected the request. The FBI declined to comment.
Earlier this year, the House intelligence committee also called on Trump to declassify their FISA memo summarizing the warrant application for Page and subsequent renewals, which he did.
Democrats, who later released their own memo, called the declassification a danger to national security at the time, with the FBI issuing a rare public statement that the bureau had grave concerns about material omissions, they believed, impacted the memo’s accuracy.
Rosenstein also voiced reservations on the basis of endangering sources and methods.

Pelosi, DCCC says petition will block Putin's visit, misleading donors: report

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was caught pushing misleading claims about blocking a presumed visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to the White House in a bid to squeeze donations from gullible donors, The Daily Caller reported.
Pelosi, in a fundraising email from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), said that with enough signatures on the petition, the Democrats will be able to block Putin’s visit, the report said.
“I will NOT allow Putin to set foot in the United States. I need 100,000 signatures to BLOCK his visit and keep our elections safe. I need you to sign before midnight,” Pelosi reportedly said in the email circulated on Sunday.
“It's obvious to me Trump is terrified of Putin, so here's what I'd like to know: Is Putin blackmailing Trump? Do Republicans know about it?” she continued. “I need 100,000 signatures before midnight to block Putin from EVER visiting the United States and attacking our November election.”

“It's obvious to me Trump is terrified of Putin, so here's what I'd like to know: Is Putin blackmailing Trump? Do Republicans know about it?”
- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi

No petition, however, could legally force Trump to back down from the possible visit by Putin later this year, the report said.
The Sunday’s fundraising email was a similar effort launched just a day before, when a DCCC email said a petition needs 50,000 signatures to bar Putin from coming to the U.S. for a visit.
The House Democrats reportedly also sent out a covert fundraising petition on Sunday, claiming that the DCCC is nearing its goal of 1.2 million signatures to “ensure protection” for Special Counsel Robert Mueller who’s investigating the alleged collusion between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign.
PELOSI CLAIMS MUELLER WAS ‘FIRED’ IN BIZARRE EMAIL TO DONORS
This isn’t the first time the top Democrat is engaging if misleading fundraising efforts. In April, Pelosi was caught fundraising off the firing of Mueller, despite him not being fired.
The California Democrat reportedly sent out an email titled “Mueller FIRED” and asked people to donate to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) amid speculations that President Donald Trump may fire Mueller in retaliation for the FBI raid on his lawyer Michael Cohen.

Trump warns Iran's Rouhani to stop the threats or suffer historic consequences

President Trump late Sunday tweeted out to Iranian President Rouhani to never threaten the U.S. again or face historic consequences.
The tweet came on the heels of Rouhani’s warning to Trump that hostile policies could lead to the “mother of all wars" with Iran.
Trump called for Rouhani to stop the rhetoric or--in caps lock-- “suffer the consequences the like of which few throughout history have ever suffered before. We are no longer a country that will stand for your demented words of violence and death. Be cautious!”
Within hours, Iranian state-owned news agency IRNA dismissed Trump's tweet, describing it as a "passive reaction" to Rouhani's remarks.
The agency, a government mouthpiece, also said Monday that Trump's comment was only mimicking and copying Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif who had in the past warned the West to "never threaten an Iranian."
Rouhani earlier warned Trump to stop "playing with the lion's tail" and threatening Iran, "or else you will regret it."
Trump earlier this year pulled the U.S. out of the international deal meant to prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon and ordered increased American sanctions.
Trump has suggested Iranian leaders are "going to call me and say 'let's make a deal'" but Iran has rejected talks.
Rouhani has previously lashed out against Trump for threatening to re-impose the sanctions, as well as for moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and banning travel to the U.S. from certain Muslim-majority countries. Rouhani also said that a peace with Tehran is like "the mother of all peace."
Sources told Reuters that U.S. officials have launched an effort to foment unrest in Tehran and put pressure on the country’s leaders to end its nuclear program.

Trump Derangement Syndrome Cartoons

Watergate tapes decision may have been wrong, Kavanaugh said in 1999

Among the documents that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee ahead of his confirmation hearing is a 1999 magazine article that includes some of his toughts on presidential authority.
For example, according to the article, Kavanaugh suggested in a roundtable discussion with other lawyers that the 1974 high court ruling that forced President Richard Nixon to turn over the Watergate tapes, leading to the end of his presidency, may have been wrongly decided.
Kavanaugh's belief in robust executive authority has become a focal point in his nomination by President Donald Trump to succeed retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy.
"[M]aybe Nixon was wrongly decided — heresy though it is to say so,” Kavanaugh said. “Nixon took away the power of the president to control information in the executive branch by holding that the courts had power and jurisdiction to order the president to disclose information in response to a subpoena sought by a subordinate executive branch official," Kavanaugh said in a transcript of the discussion that was published in the January-February 1999 issue of the Washington Lawyer.
Kavanaugh was among six lawyers who participated in the discussion in the aftermath of independent counsel Kenneth Starr's investigation that led to the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. Kavanaugh had been a member of Starr's team.
Philip Lacovara, who argued the Watergate tapes case against Nixon and moderated the discussion, said Kavanaugh has long believed in a strong presidency.
"[I]t was surprising even as of 1999 that the unanimous decision in the Nixon tapes case might have been wrongly decided," Lacovara said.
The 1999 article was among a pile of material released in response to the committee's questionnaire. Kavanaugh provided information about his career as an attorney and jurist, his service in the executive branch, education, society memberships and more.
Kavanaugh has written some 300 rulings as an appeals court judge and has a record in the George W. Bush White House as well as in Starr's probe of Clinton.
Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the committee chairman, said the questionnaire was "the broadest and most comprehensive" ever sent by the committee and he welcomed "Judge Kavanaugh's diligent and timely response."

Mainstream media deliver most outlandish and hyperbolic reactions to Trump since election night

A raging epidemic of Trump Derangement Syndrome broke out among reporters covering the summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, as journalists gave the American president hellish reviews for his performance in Helsinki at a joint news conference.
No reporters knew what actually transpired in the main event of the day – the private meeting between the two presidents. So journalists put themselves in the position of critics, grading President Trump’s news conference performance.
The critics provided the most outlandish and hyperbolic reactions to Trump since election night 2016 – making the president sound like he was following in the footsteps of the despised Revolutionary War turncoat Benedict Arnold.
Yes, unbelievably, the newest charge against President Trump was treason.
Treason, by the way, is defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary as: “the offense of attempting by overt acts to overthrow the government of the state to which the offender owes allegiance or to kill or personally injure the sovereign or the sovereign's family.”
So President Trump was trying to overthrow the government he leads or trying to kill or injure himself or his family?
USA Today reported in a front-page story: “Every nation has an infamous traitor. … And now, after a news conference Monday in Finland, the term is being used in relations to the 45^th president of the United States. Donald Trump, master of the political insult, finds himself on the receiving end.”
The New York Daily News screamed "OPEN TREASON” on its cover page with a cartoon showing Trump holding Putin’s hand and holding a gun in his other hand and shooting Uncle Sam in the head. Really.
CNN host Fareed Zakaria wasn’t satisfied with “treason” as a descriptor. “I feel like treasonous is too weak a word, because the whole thing has taken on an air of such unreality,” he said.
Zakaria had lots of company: CNN analyst Max Boot, MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace, and, of course, former CIA Director John Brennan, who now works for NBC and MSNBC.
CNN presidential historian Douglas Brinkley said “the spirit of what Trump did is clearly treasonous,” and declared that the president “came off as being a puppet of Putin.”
MSNBC brought on presidential historian Jon Meacham and he agreed that, with the Russia connection, “the definition it meets is the first word of the impeachment article in the Constitution, which is, treason, bribery and high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Even when news organizations weren’t talking treason, they were still hyperventilating about America going to hell in a presidential handbasket. Check out this video of highlights of anchors and commentators on MSNBC and CNN erupting with anti-Trump fury.
CNN was Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 level panicked, devoting 87 percent of its evening coverage (more than seven hours) across three nights to fire-and-brimstone reports designed to inflame its viewers.
The network’s team responded just as the boss wished. CNN anchor Anderson Cooper called the Trump news conference “perhaps one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president at a summit in front of a Russian leader certainly that I've ever seen.”
And CNN anchor Chris Cuomo – the son of one New York Democratic governor and the brother of another who may seek his party’s presidential nomination to run against President Trump – continued his longstanding feud with the president by claiming a Trump tweet bashing the media was an “admission that you hate your country.”
MSNBC’s Mike Barnicle let his anger take over. He called for a complete abandonment of the republic. “Rewrite the Constitution and have another president take over right now,” he told the audience, failing to explain just how that happens without a military overthrow of the government.
MSNBC legal expert Jill Wine-Banks piled on the outlandish historical comparisons, actually claiming Trump-Putin news conference “will live in infamy as much as the Pearl Harbor attack or Kristallnacht.” She added it was the same as “Cuban missile crisis in terms of an attack, or the 9/11 attack.”
Even ABC wanted a ride on the “Highway to Hell.” Anchor George Stephanopoulos, who used to work for President Bill Clinton before becoming a “newsman,” urged retiring GOP Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona to back his criticism of Russia “with action.” Stephanopoulos wanted the anti-Trump Flake to withhold his vote to support the president’s nominee to the Supreme Court, Judge Brett Kavanaugh. This no doubt thrilled Team Clinton.
“The View” co-host Joy Behar bedeviled Trump by comparing his actions to ignoring “when they bombed Pearl Harbor in World War II.” (She also said it “rises to the level of treason,” but that was hardly original at that point.)
The hellish outrage over the Helsinki news conference had its desired effect … for now. Newsweek posted a story on an opinion poll that declared: “According to a new Ipsos poll, 49 percent of Americans said Trump was “treasonous” during the summit and ensuing press conference, with only 27 percent disagreeing.”
2. Tomorrow Is Another Day: Even in a hot summer made hotter with fiery politics, things can always get worse. Remember, we are less than four months to the midterm elections. And when those finish, the presidential election heats up.
That also means the More Stupid Than Usual Season is upon us. (It’s like a leap season that only happens election years.) Despite several Democrats calling to “abolish ICE,” the broadcast networks weren’t interested when a vote on ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) took place.
None of the three – ABC, CBS and NBC — covered Democrats doing their best “Run away!” Monty Python impersonations. This, even though lefty Vox was critical of the fact that Democrats weren’t “ready to actually vote for an ‘Abolish ICE’ bill.”
Since it is political season, you’d think media outlets would send their A-listers to do the top stories. You’d be … completely wrong.
The New York Times assigned a massive, 8,700 word magazine piece on the left’s own Daddy Warbucks (Daddy Globalist Bucks?) George Soros to a guy who writes about tennis and wine. Author Michael Steinberger is also a blatant liberal partisan who voted for Hillary Clinton, freaked out election night when Trump won and called the president the “Orange Menace.”
CBS used some seasoning itself as host Gayle King (the Democratic donor) defended possible Democratic 2020 presidential nominee Joe Biden against President Trump’s criticism. She whined that Trump’s attacks were “nasty,” “condescending,” and “hurtful,” while downplaying one of the biggest gaffes in Biden’s career.

Washington State deputy fired after photo shows her wearing shirt with Proud Boys logo: report

A man, seen in this file photo, is wearing a shirt supporting the Proud Boys conservative group and makes a hand sign as he takes part in a May Day protest, Monday, May 1, 2017, in Seattle.  (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)

A Washington state sheriff’s office said one of its deputies was “released from employment” this week. The decision reportedly came after she was allegedly seen in a photo wearing a shirt with a logo tied to a far-right-leaning organization, which itself has alleged connections to white nationalist rhetoric.
The Clark County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Friday in a news release that Deputy Erin Willey was fired Tuesday, after more than a year on the force, amid the results of an internal investigation.
The department did not divulge what the probe concerned, though a statement from Sheriff Chuck Atkins said, “Law enforcement officers are peacekeepers whose core mission is to protect and safeguard the community.
"My expectation is that my employees do not engage in activities or associations that undermine or diminish our role as peacekeepers,” the statement continued.
The Columbian of Vancouver, Wash., reported that the investigation stemmed from a photo, obtained by the newspaper, of Willey sporting a black sweatshirt. The shirt bore a logo said to be connected to a group called the Proud Boys.
The photo of the shirt, published by the outlet, appears to show a weapon and a tube of lipstick crossing one another with a white heart underneath and the letters P, B and G in the other three corners. The letters reportedly stand for "Proud Boys’ Girls."
An additional photo of the former deputy also appeared on a Twitter page connected to the group, the Columbian reported.
The Southern Poverty Law Center identifies the group as "self-described 'western chauvinists' who adamantly deny any connection to the racist 'alt-right,' insisting they are simply a fraternal group spreading an 'anti-political correctness' and 'anti-white guilt' agenda."
The statement from the sheriff’s office describes the firing as a “personnel matter” and says the office will not be releasing further information. The sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to a Fox News request for confirmation of the newspaper’s report.
Attempts by Fox News to reach Willey were unsuccessful. The Columbian said she did not return their request for comment.