Tuesday, September 19, 2017
Emmys ratings crater; Trump-bashing to blame?
Idiot |
How low can the Emmys go?
It looks like the 69th annual Emmy
Awards are heading into sub-basement territory in terms of ratings after
host Stephen Colbert spent much of Sunday’s event attacking President
Trump.
It turns out American viewers may not have been as into
Trump bashing as Hollywood would like them to be, as the 8.2 overnight
rating among metered market households is down 2.4 percent from the 2016
edition, which would make it the lowest rated Emmy telecast ever.The reason it’s hasn't been officially labeled the lowest-rated Emmys yet is because six of the 56 markets are in Florida have not reported, as Hurricane Irma is still holding up the process in areas that were severely impacted by the storm.
DOLLY'S RACY EMMY MOMENT
“The Emmys are a Hollywood bubble show," Media Research Center vice president Dan Gainor told Fox News. "Actors and directors get to pretend they are important because they are doing such insightful takes on life in America, when they have zero idea what life in America is for the other 330 million people."
Yet despite the cratering viewership, Gainor doesn’t think the Emmys will shy away from bashing Trump anytime soon.
“Hollywood won’t walk away from politics. The left wants to force politics into every single aspect of our lives -- from sports to movies to the food we eat. They won’t be satisfied until we are all appropriately woke to their struggles du jour,” Gainor told Fox News.
NICOLE KIDMAN BREAKS DOWN IN TEARS
Trump was attacked from Colbert’s opening monologue through the end of the three-hour program. Alec Baldwin won an award for portraying Trump on “Saturday Night Live,” and used his speech to mock the president for not winning an Emmy during his time hosting “The Apprentice.”
Ex-White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer even made an appearance to poke fun at his tenure, but many viewers are even upset that CBS allowed the award show to normalize a former member of the Trump administration. Apparently it’s OK to laugh at Trump and his surrogates, but not with them.
Academy Awards prognosticator Steve Pond called the event “the most political Emmys show ever” and said voters even decided winners based on politics, opting for programs with a political agenda such as “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “Atlanta” over less-polarizing shows such as “Stranger Things.”
WAS ACTRESS REALLY A SORE LOSER?
“Voters made it clear: They were sending a message,” Pond wrote.
Gainor agrees. “The Emmys celebrate shows that almost no one either watches or cares about," he said. "No ordinary Americans care about ‘The Handmaid’s Tale.’ No ordinary Americans watch ‘Veep.’ The only show the Emmys were honoring that most people even recognize was ‘Saturday Night Live.’”
The Emmys went head-to-head against NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” which presumably didn’t help viewership, but the awards have now hit new ratings lows for three straight years. Perhaps some viewers want to enjoy the awards show as an escape from politics, or perhaps some viewers simply don’t agree with everything the Hollywood elite has to say. Colbert and the event’s producers didn’t seem to care that roughly half the country wouldn’t be amused by non-stop attacks on Trump.
“Entertainment Tonight” anchor Kevin Frazier appeared on “CBS This Morning” on Monday to proclaim that “politics took center stage,” and the “recurring punchline was Donald Trump.” The CBS morning show co-hosts seemed to approve, with Norah O’Donnell calling it “one of the best shows ever,” but that was before the dismal rating came out.
Gainor asked, “Why would anyone who isn’t a die-hard liberal watch?”
Senate Republicans consider a trillion-dollar-plus tax cut for budget
Senate Republicans are considering writing a budget that would allow for up to $1.5 trillion in tax cuts over the next decade, said two people familiar with the discussions.
Budget talks are continuing and no final decision has been reached yet.
A budget that creates fiscal room for a $1.5 trillion tax cut, if adopted, would then be followed by a tax bill that would specify rate cuts and other policy changes that don't exceed that figure. Calling for a tax cut in the budget would let Republicans lower tax rates while making fewer tough decisions on what tax breaks to eliminate to help pay for the cuts.
Such a plan would assume that tax cuts would boost economic growth and generate revenue to help pay for themselves, but it would also likely mean that Republicans would need to make some of the tax cuts expire after 10 years, leaving decisions to a future Congress they may not control.
Republicans had talked earlier this year about tax proposals that would fully pay for themselves but they have been gradually shifting toward a tax plan that doesn't explicitly pay for itself in the first decade. Budget Committee member Mike Crapo (R., Idaho) said on Monday that the tax cut should be "as big as we can get."
The budget is an essential first step to the major tax bill Republicans want to pass this year. If the House and Senate agree on a budget, they can fast-track a tax bill through the Senate on a simple-majority vote through a process known as reconciliation, rather than seek a bigger 60-vote majority that would require support from Democrats.
Continue Reading Below
The budget sets the maximum size of any tax cut over the next 10
years, making it a crucial fiscal marker in this fall's tax debate. A
budget with a tax plan that is revenue-neutral would effectively pay for
itself, meaning any reduction in tax rates would be offset by reducing
breaks or other revenue-raising measures. A budget with $1.5 trillion in
tax cuts wouldn't be revenue-neutral.
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Republicans face internal tension in trying to bridge the gap between those warning about large federal debt levels and the desire of many to cut taxes. The Senate Budget Committee, led by Mike Enzi (R., Wyo.) hasn't yet scheduled a committee vote or released a draft budget.
Sen. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.), a Budget Committee member, said in an interview Monday that he has been advocating a $2 trillion tax cut. Mr. Toomey's preference is partly based on arguments that the tax bill, which is still being written, would generate significant economic growth that would yield additional tax revenue on its own and make the actual hit to the budget from tax cuts smaller.
'Eyes Wide Shut' actress: Reaction to my 'coming out as a conservative' story was absolutely shocking
Julienne Davis is an American actress, singer and model. |
A few weeks ago I wrote an op-ed
for Fox News about some of my difficult experiences as a conservative
in liberal Hollywood. I never expected it to have much impact – but I
was wrong.
As people started reading and
commenting in greater and greater numbers and thousands of personal
messages started pouring in to me, one thing became abundantly clear: my
experience of being attacked for holding conservative beliefs resonated
with many people.
Sadly, bigotry and even hatred directed at
conservatives remains politically correct among progressives. It is one
of the few socially acceptable forms of prejudice still around. My op-ed sparked so much reaction not because of who I am – a mostly unknown actress with some minor credits to my name, most prominently for acting in the film “Eyes Wide Shut” in 1999.
I’m convinced that my op-ed drew attention because it mirrored the experience of so many other conservatives in our daily lives. The response I got to the essay opened my eyes to just how common attacks on conservatives are in our country today.
Being conservative or a supporter of President Trump in America today invites attacks and insults from the left. We are shunned, unfriended, shamed, vilified, ridiculed and sometimes we even lose work. It seems we are considered part of a new Axis of Evil.Being conservative or a supporter of President Trump in America today invites attacks and insults from the left. We are shunned, unfriended, shamed, vilified, ridiculed and sometimes we even lose work. It seems we are considered part of a new Axis of Evil.
I have received messages from fellow conservatives – not just in the U.S. but from around the world – telling me their own stories of being attacked and offering their prayers and support. I was humbled to know I was clearly not alone.
Judging from all the positive messages, I hope that in some small way I have empowered other conservatives to stand up for what they believe and not be bullied into silence by progressives and the media and entertainment elites.
But in addition to messages of support, I got plenty of messages from the haters. The overwhelming response from them was basically: “Who are you?” As if to say that because I’m a “nobody” I’m irrelevant and what I have to say is also irrelevant.
Such irony, coming from progressives who claim to be for the underdog, the victimized and the oppressed. Apparently, the oppression of conservatives and conservative thought doesn’t count in this case.
I also got a dishonorable mention on “Real Time with Bill Maher” on HBO, complete with cutaways to others laughing at my “lack of fame” and my “irrelevance.”
Those like Maher, who see themselves as some kind of cosmopolitan liberal elite, are only too ready to sneer at the culture that worships fame. And yet, when someone who isn’t famous contradicts their worldview, their first response is: “Who is this person? They aren’t famous, why should we listen to anything they say?”
Rather than discuss what I said, these elites just sneered at the fact that I’m not a top-grossing film star with a shelf full of Academy Awards who is mobbed by fans everywhere I go.
I wonder why we value this thing called “fame” anyway. I learned with my small moment in the limelight that “fame” in and of itself has no real value. Looking at some of the personal train wrecks in Hollywood over the years, it’s sadly clear they took the fame game to heart.
Let me pose some questions to every successful “famous” leftist pundit and celebrity:
How are you using your voice? For a good cause, or just to burnish your brand, draw more fame and make more money? Are you trying to end the hate and the polarization in our country or increase it?
The sad truth is that so many who mount hysterical, hateful and almost nonstop attacks on conservatives and President Trump are fanning the flames of division that pit Americans against each other. Instead of seeking to bridge differences, they seek to accentuate them.
Our great country is called the United States of America – but so many are trying to make us the Divided States of America, filled with citizens who reject cooperation and embrace confrontation.
People with some measure of fame – whether from appearing in films or on TV – have the power to change minds and hearts. Yet instead, too many look lovingly at their bank balance and huge estates, and ignore the hypocritical monsters they have made of themselves and cater to the groupthink trolls they’ve created. It’s so ugly.
It was also telling that, in my case, the haters who attacked me rarely if ever were willing to engage in actual debate on the issues I raised. Sadly, they stuck to small-minded, petty, ad hominem insults on my character, my looks, my intelligence, my talent, and even my name.
And all the attacks on me came from a place of smug, egotistical, self-righteousness. En masse bullying, basically. But, oh, how I must have struck a nerve! Otherwise, why would they bother attacking me at all?
Moving forward, we are all still faced with the same dilemma: What do we do about this war of ideologies. Progressives can demonize and insult conservatives around the clock if they wish. Conservatives can even choose to respond in kind.
But what does this war of words accomplish? It reminds me of children on the playground, yelling insults at one another as they throw temper tantrums that are a sign of their immaturity.
My advice to conservatives is not to play dirty and return ad hominem insults with the same snarky smugness. This accomplishes nothing.
Instead, we need to bypass the insults, engage in rational discussion and serious debate, and not allow our egos to get in the way. And we need to invite our progressive critics to join us on the high road – if they are willing to act like mature adults. After all, what is the alternative?
Non-STEM professors reportedly push for boycott of UC Berkeley 'Free Speech Week'
Citing the threat to the student
body’s “physical and mental safety,” 177 professors at the University of
California, Berkeley, have signed an open letter calling for a boycott
of the campus’ so-called “Free Speech Week.
The speakers scheduled for the week—from Sept. 24 to 27— reportedly include Milo Yiannopoulos, Steve Bannon and Ann Coulter.
The San Francisco Chronicle described the event as “four days of rallies and speeches.”The report said that—even without the boycott—it is unclear if the event will go through. Organizers did not pay for the facilities, the report said. The price tag for such an event is expected to be exorbitant. It cost $600,000 to secure a recent speech by conservative Ben Shapiro.
The letter from the professors said the event forces some students to risk their “physical and mental safety in order to attend class.”
A spokesman for the school told the paper that faculty members can decide where or when to teach their classes.
The Daily Californian, the student newspaper, reported that only five professors who teach STEM courses on campus signed the letter.
Michael Cohen, a co-author of the letter, said the amount of STEM professors on the letter does not show any differences of opinions. The letter was released last week, and they could still join. He told the paper that the humanities buildings are near where these protests often take place.
Kristie Boering, a chemistry professor, told the student paper that she plans on holding her class as planned.
“I have a job to do,” she said.
Monday, September 18, 2017
Pres. Trump Takes Pride in Strong U.S. Stock Market, Massive Job Growth
In a tweet Saturday, the president says a great deal of good things are happening in the U.S including jobs and the stock market, which are seeing all time highs.
Since taking office the president has helped create more than one million new jobs.
The stock market has also seen record highs, including the Dow Jones which hit over 22,000 in August for the first time ever.
Additionally, the nation’s unemployment rate fell to 4.3% last month matching a 16 year low.
NY Times reporter slammed after saying boy mowing White House lawn sends bad signal on child labor
Steven Greenhouse, left, tweeted
that the lawn-mowing gig was 'not sending a great signal on child labor,
minimum wage & occupational safety.'
(REUTERS/Carlos Barria)
A former New York Times labor
reporter has been slammed on social media for a snarky tweet hitting the
White House for letting an 11-year-old boy mow the Rose Garden lawn
last week.
Steven Greenhouse, who worked for the
Times for 31 years and still writes for the paper on occasion, took
issue with the feel-good story of the boy, Frank Giaccio, of Falls
Church, Va., who showed up at the White House Friday to cut the grass at
the invitation of President Trump.
“Not sending a great signal on child labor, minimum
wage & occupational safety >> Trump White House lets a
10-year-old volunteer mow its lawn,” Greenhouse, who covered unions for
much of his time at the newspaper, tweeted.The Daily Wire website slammed Greenhouse’s tweet as the “dumbest” ever posted on Twitter.
Others were just as critical.
“The sanctimonious and humorless finger-wagging of nanny state progressivism in one tweet,” conservative commentator and journalist Bill Kristol tweeted.
Trump accepted the Virginia boy’s offer after he wrote to the president saying it would be his “honor to mow the White House lawn.” Frank, who was 10 when he wrote the letter but has since turned 11, also enclosed a menu of his landscaping services, including weed-whacking.
Trump spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said at the White House press briefing Friday that it was an “honor” to host Frank.
“The president has always loved go-getters like Frank,” she said.
After his initial tweet, Greenhouse engaged in a spirited back and forth with other Twitter users who disagreed with his view and let him have it. He tweeted later, “What this kid wants to do is noble, but sorry, I'm mindful of problems--I've written lots about child labor & kids being hurt by machinery.”
Listen up, UN -- Trump means what he's telling you
To all you besuited, bespectacled, and soon-to-be
bewildered diplomats slogging around the United Nations General Assembly
this week, try to understand this: Donald Trump means every word of
what he's going to tell you. Which is: the United States is done with
being blamed for everything that goes wrong in the world, and then
paying to fix it.
For decades since the UN's founding
in 1945, ambassadors and their ever-sprawling staffs have lived, eaten
and parked at taxpayer expense, enjoying a life far beyond the means
most of them could ever hope to afford in their homelands.
The UN has become a symbol of globalist elitism, of
willful ignorance about real world conditions. It has passed resolutions
condemning Israel for its policies toward Palestinians, while failing
to note that Palestinian terror is still an everyday threat to Israelis.
It has given lip-service to condemning North Korea's escalating nuclear
ambitions, but been unable even to agree on a way to freeze the
millions in assets of its unhinged boy-king, Kim Jong Un.It has chided the United States -- a democracy whether far-left Democrats think so or not -- for voting irregularities in some of its elections, but failed to inquire how Vladimir Putin got twice as many votes as his nearest rival in a country whose economy is tanking or how Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro just neutered his country's national legislature.
For those same decades, American presidents have taken the podium of the General Assembly in September and temporized, telling their audiences what fine chaps and ladies they are, how the United Nations is doing important work, and how proud they are to be standing in its hallowed headquarters on the East River of Manhattan.The assembled multitude at the UN this week will get to hear first-hand what Trump means where he talks about making America Great Again and America First. The only things threatened by those twin dogmas are the status quo that has long ignored or scorned U.S. leadership and values.
President Trump will deliver no such encomiums. He has already demonstrated a signature willingness to insult his hosts, lecturing fellow NATO leaders on their failure to pay their fair share for defense, in pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord despite some chilly Gallic stares directed at him, or in demanding that the NAFTA free trade agreement be renegotiated in a way more advantageous to the U.S.
Speaking of paying a fair share, Trump is also likely to remind his listeners that the United States coughs up an outsize 22 percent of the UN's overall budget and 28 percent of its peacekeeping funds. He may also allude to the fact that some of those so-called peacekeepers are guilty of rape, another topic too sensitive for the refined world body to act upon.
Trump won't even feel out of place. After all, New York is as much his town as it is the UN's home, although there are probably as many New Yorkers who wish he'd get out as would like to say farewell to the hundreds of diplomats lucky -- or corrupt -- enough to live there.
Trump will meet with leaders of so-called allies like Britain and Germany, even though both Prime Minister Teresa May and Chancellor Angela Merkel have recently, and publicly, rebuked him for his policies and statements.
Perhaps most important, the assembled multitude this week will get to hear first-hand what Trump means where he talks about making America Great Again and America First. The only things threatened by those twin dogmas are the status quo that has long ignored or scorned U.S. leadership and values, and the hope that no one would notice that a so-called global economy works in favor of some nations like China and India, but not the United States.
Donald Trump won election last year promising to change that. His opponents -- and he has many -- should pay close attention to what he says this week. He means it.
John Moody is Executive Vice President, Executive Editor for Fox News. A former Rome bureau chief for Time magazine, he is the author of four books including "Pope John Paul II : Biography."
Russia and China Notably Absent at UN Reform Powwow
Russia, China and several other large United Nations member states are among a small but powerful group of countries that look to be dodging Monday’s U.N. reform summit hosted by the President and Secretary-General António Guterres, according to a list of countries to be in attendance, as seen by Fox News.
Fox News obtained a brief outline of a United States drafted 10-point plan for U.N. reform known as a “Political Declaration for U.N. Reform High Level Event,” which gives U.S. support to Guterres’s reform efforts at the world body.
On Friday, the United States U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley told reporters at the White House that the U.N. reform event being chaired by the president was “very, very important.”
“We asked other countries to sign on to their support of reform, and 120 countries have signed on and will be in attendance. That's a miraculous number,” she said.
All those 120 countries had to first sign the declaration before being allowed to attend the event. There are 193 member states of the United Nations.
Among those not attending are Russia and China — the two most powerful members of the BRICS group of nations, which has been working actively to counterbalance U.S. influence on the world monetary system. BRICS is the acronym for a group of five major emerging national economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The group is estimated to make up some 41 percent of the world population.
India is the only BRICS member that shall attend.
While Russia and Chinese hold significant influence at the world body, their contributions to the U.N. budget is but a small fraction of what the U.S. doles out each year in contributions.
“It’s not surprising that some countries, especially those who have taken on geopolitically competitive positions to the United States, would shun this initiative,” said Jonathan Wachtel, a former spokesman for Ambassador Haley and director of communications at the U.S Mission to the U.N.
“In pushing back they would probably argue that any reform agenda taken up at the U.N. shouldn’t be driven by one country but rather by all member states of the U.N.,” Wachtel said.
Russia’s Deputy U.N. Ambassador, Sergey Kononuchenko, railed against the Secretary-General’s report on advancing the U.N.’s development system, all part of Guterres’s U.N. reforms.
In a speech earlier this summer at the U.N., obtained by Fox News, the ambassador said the Secretary-General’s reform was an attempt to weaken control by member states.
“We have carefully studied the report, which, unfortunately, raises not hopes, but rather serious concerns for the future of the United Nations development system,” Kononuchenko said in response to the Secretary-General’s earlier presentation to member states.
The United States is by far the biggest contributor to the United Nations paying 22 percent of its regular budget, 28 percent of its peacekeeping budget and hundreds of millions in voluntary contributions to U.N. bodies such as UNICEF.
Wachtel told Fox News that while the Russian and Chinese governments likely agree with some of the proposed reforms, the U.S. still plays a bigger role.
“The United States, the largest single contributor to the United Nations, has every right to demand that U.S. taxpayer money is not wasted,” he said.
Questions sent to both the Chinese and Russian U.N. missions went unanswered.
Tillerson Considers Closing Embassy in Havana Where Diplomats Mysteriously Got Sick
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Sunday that the Trump administration is considering whether to close the U.S. Embassy in Havana following a string of unexplained incidents that have damaged the health of American diplomats.
“We have it under evaluation,” Tillerson told CBS News’ “Face the Nation.” “It's a very serious issue.”
At least 21 Americans have been confirmed to have
suffered some kind of medical harm in Havana. Tillerson also confirmed
the State Department has brought home some of the people affected.
He has previously called the episodes "health attacks." But the State Department now refers to them as "incidents."
Their cause and culprits have yet to be determined.
However, U.S. officials said the victims suffered from hearing loss and,
in some cases, mild brain damage, possibly from sound waves. Cuban
President Raul Castro has claimed his government had nothing to do with
it.
Tillerson spoke amid calls from some U.S. senators to shutter the embassy in Cuba’s capital.
Last week, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert
acknowledged the administration was at least considering pulling some
staff from the embassy.
Nauert said it “obviously” was a dangerous situation,
adding, “We are tremendously concerned about that. … Our folks can come
back to the United States if they wish to do so. It shows the bravery,
the hard work and the dedication of Americans, whether they are serving
in Cuba or whether they are serving anywhere across the world. … I want
to recognize them and let them know that we care, we certainly have not
forgotten about them, and that this investigation is aggressive.”
Sunday, September 17, 2017
African-American university students offended by cotton
This is a joke, right? |
Randy Lowry |
The president of Lipscomb
University issued a public apology after an untold number of African
American students were offended by a dinner table centerpiece made from stalks of cotton.
Yes, good readers – a group of college students was triggered by the fabric of our lives.
Click here for a free subscription to Todd’s newsletter: a must-read for Conservatives!Randy Lowry, president of the Christian university based in Nashville, had invited African-American students to his home for dinner last week.
One student who attended the gathering posted a diatribe on Instagram – along with a photo of the “offensive” centerpiece.
“We were very offended,” the student wrote. “My friend … asked why there was cotton on the table as the centerpiece. His response was that he didn’t know, he seen it before we did, he kind of thought it was ‘fallish’, THEN he said, “it ISNT INHERENTLY BAD IF WERE ALL WEARING IT.”
Continue reading at ToddStarnes.com.
Todd Starnes is host of Fox News & Commentary. His latest book is “The Deplorables’ Guide to Making America Great Again.” Follow him on Twitter @ToddStarnes and find him on Facebook.
College puts professor who tweeted about teaching 'future dead cops' on administrative leave
If this guy is the type of person our colleges are hiring to teach our young we're up the you know what creek! |
Michael Isaacson, an adjunct
professor at CUNY’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice and
self-proclaimed anti-fascist activist, was disciplined because of the
three-week-old tweet that caught fire after Isaacson’s Thursday
appearance on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” His Aug. 23 tweet said:
Some of y'all might think it sucks being an
anti-fascist teaching at John Jay College but I think it's a privilege
to teach future dead cops“Michael Issacson harbors total disdain for the active and future police officers that he teaches at John Jay College,” Patrick Lynch, president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, said in a Friday press release.
John Jay College President Karol V. Mason called Isaacson’s comments “abhorrent” and the “antithesis” of an academic institution that trains future law enforcement in a statement. Although she said that professors have a right to free speech and academic freedom, “expressions of hate or intimidation are not welcome in that civil discourse.”
WATCH: TUCKER TAKES ON ANTIFA PROFESSOR ABOUT FREE SPEECH
As Fox News previously reported, Roy Richter, president of the NYPD Captains Endowment Association, said the tweet is “an abdication of the professor’s responsibility as a civilized human being” and “disgusting.”
“I am appalled that anyone associated with John Jay, with our proud history of supporting law enforcement authorities, would suggest that violence against police is ever acceptable,” Mason said in her statement.
Mason also said that faculty members and students had been threatened as a result of Isaacson’s tweet, and he was placed on leave for safety reasons.
In an email to The Washington Post, Isaacson said he “unequivocally” supports the college’s decision “in the interest of public safety,” and he apologizes to faculty members and his students for placing them at risk.
Isaacson will remain on administrative leave while school officials review the matter, Mason said.
Other law enforcement officials also weighed in.
Another Obama, Clinton donor joins Mueller's legal team investigating Trump campaign
The newest lawyer to join Special
Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible Trump campaign team
collusion with Russia gained notoriety for her conduct in defending
former President Obama's immigration orders, Politico reported Saturday.
Besides her work for Obama, Kyle Freeny, now the 16th
member of Mueller’s legal team, Federal Election Commission records
show she donated in each of the past three presidential elections to
Democratic nominees, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
Freeny and her colleagues came under judicial fire
while defending a lawsuit in which Texas and 25 other states contested
Obama’s executive order in 2014 on immigration. The federal judge
hearing the case, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen, blasted Freeny and
her colleagues for misleading him when the litigation began by
indicating that none of the changes Obama had ordered had taken effect.
In actuality, one major change, to issue longer work permits, had
already begun.Hanen said the government lawyers had engaged in “misconduct” that was “intentional, serious and material,” according to Politico
“In fact, it is hard to imagine a more serious, more calculated plan of unethical conduct,” wrote the judge, who eventually dropped plans to impose sanctions on the government lawyers.
Freeny is one of nine attorneys on Mueller’s team who has donated to Democrats a total of nearly $65,000, according to The Daily Caller.
She had been working in the Justice Department’s money-laundering unit where she helped lead an effort to seize profits from the “The Wolf of Wall Street” film because it was allegedly financed with assets looted from Malaysia’s government. Read another report on Kyle Freeny below:
Names Of DOJ Attorneys Who 'Misled' Judge In Immigration Case Scrubbed From Court Doc
The U.S. Department of Justice won't release the names of attorneys whose conduct in a high-profile immigration case was called "unseemly and unprofessional" by a federal judge, or whether those attorneys will face internal disciplinary action.
The DOJ says it "emphatically" disagrees with Judge Andrew Hanen's May order in State of Texas, et al. v. United States of America, et al., in which he wrote that he was “disappointed” that the court even had to address the subject of lawyer behavior when it has “many more pressing matters on its docket.”Hanen concluded that DOJ attorneys “effectively misled” the plaintiff states into foregoing a request for a temporary restraining order or an earlier hearing on a motion for an injunction.
Their names, following a court order, were redacted from the department’s response to the judge's order.
Their misrepresentations, the judge said, also “misdirected” the court as to the timeline involved in the implementation of a 2014 Department of Homeland Security directive, which included amendments to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
DOJ attorneys said Obama's three-year amnesty plan wasn't being implemented, but the judge says it actually was - and more than 100,000 aliens were to be affected.
The Justice Department declined to release a complete list of all those attorneys involved, and their salaries, to Legal Newsline.
Many DOJ lawyers are listed as participating in the case. They are James Gilligan, Daniel Hu, Adam Kirschner, Jennifer Ricketts, Daniel Schwei, John Tyler, Kathleen Hartnett, Bradley Cohen and Kyle Freeny.
California lawmakers approve 'sanctuary state' bill ( Bringing Down America )
Bringing Down America |
Twenty-two out of 24 Latino legislative members are Democrats. Latinos now constitute nearly 40% of California’s population, surpassing the white, non-Latino population. |
Lawmakers in California on Saturday passed
“sanctuary state” legislation even as President Trump and his
administration have vowed to crack down on jurisdictions that do not
cooperate with federal immigration agents.
The bill approved early Saturday
limits police cooperation with federal immigration authorities and is
intended to bolster protections for illegal immigrants in the state.
But the acting director of the U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement on Saturday warned of “tragic consequences,” saying
the policy “will make California communities less safe.”“By passing this bill, California politicians have chosen to prioritize politics over public safety,” Thomas Homan, the acting director of ICE, said in a statement. “Disturbingly, the legislation serves to codify a dangerous policy that deliberately obstructs our country’s immigration laws and shelters serious criminal alien offenders.”
Homan said ICE wants to work with local law enforcement to prevent “dangerous criminal aliens” from being released back onto the streets.
The legislation will now be considered by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, who announced his support after the top state Senate leader agreed to water down the bill and preserve authority for jail and prison officials to cooperate with immigration officers in many cases.
The bill that passed Saturday prohibits law enforcement officials from asking about a person's immigration status or participating in immigration enforcement efforts.
SANCTUARY CITIES: WHAT ARE THEY?
It also prohibits law enforcement officials from being deputized as immigration agents or arresting people on civil immigration warrants.
The legislation follows Trump’s vow to crack down on sanctuary cities. Such policies limit just how much local law enforcement officials cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
The debate about sanctuary cities intensified in July 2015 when Katie Steinle, 32, was killed as she strolled along the San Francisco waterfront with her father. Steinle was fatally shot by a man with a criminal record who had slipped into the U.S. multiple times illegally.
On Friday, a federal judge in Chicago has ruled Attorney General Jeff Sessions can't withhold public grant money from so-called sanctuary cities for refusing to follow federal immigration policies.
U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber made the ruling Friday, in which he granted Chicago's request for a temporary "nationwide" injunction.
The ruling means the Justice Department cannot deny grant money requests until Chicago's lawsuit against the agency is concluded. Leinenweber wrote that Chicago has shown a "likelihood of success" in its arguments that Sessions overstepped his authority with the requirements.
The city of Chicago sued the Trump administration in August after it threatened to withhold funds from sanctuary cities, and refused to comply with the Justice Department's demand that it allow immigration agents access to local jails and notify agents when someone in the U.S. is about to be released from custody.
At least seven cities and counties, including Seattle and San Francisco, have refused to cooperate with new federal rules regarding sanctuary cities.
Saturday, September 16, 2017
GOP Rep. Dana Rohrabacher: Violence in Charlottesville Was Masterminded by Dems
Republican U.S. Representative Dana Rohrabacher. |
California Representative Dana Rohrabacher explained his views in an interview Thursday.
He believes it was an attempt to — quote — “put our president on the spot.”
Rohrabacher believes Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders hired Civil War re-enactors to defend the Confederate statue and pretend to be white nationalists.
The California lawmaker currently faces nine challengers in the 2018 election.
His district in the state traditionally votes Republican, but flipped for Clinton in the last election, making it a focus for Democrats trying to retake the House.
Chelsea Clinton tweets false story claiming Michigan passed bill allowing EMTs to deny gay patients treatment
Just like her mommy :-) |
Chelsea Clinton falsely tweeted Friday that the
Michigan House of Representatives had voted to allow emergency medical
providers choice in treating patients, specifically giving EMTs the
option to deny treatment to gay patients.
"Absolutely appalling," the former
First Daughter tweeted, "Michigan House Passed Bill Allowing EMTs To
Refuse Treatment To Gay People."
The story Clinton cited was from a website for the
LGBT New Now Next Awards, and was posted in 2014. When followers pointed
out the story was old, Clinton deleted her tweet.Not only was the story old, but the actual premise was deeply flawed. What the Michigan House actually passed was a garden variety Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which would have exempted religious individuals from laws that infringed on their religious beliefs.
Like most state RFRAs, the Michigan bill contained a clause that allows the state to infringe on religious beliefs when there's a "compelling government interest." The preservation of human life is widely considered to qualify, according to legal experts.
Newt Gingrich: Tax cuts for small business would change GOP trajectory
Time is running out for Republicans if they want to keep their governing majority in 2018.
After 238 days of having control of
the White House and both houses of Congress, the GOP has only one major
legislative achievement – the Senate confirmation of Supreme Court
Justice Neil Gorsuch.
This is, in part, because Republicans tried to run
before they could walk. Attempting to immediately repeal and replace
ObamaCare without an iron-clad strategy for success was a mistake driven
by post-election excitement and inexperience. Remember, many current
House Republicans have never served when there was a Republican in the
White House, and our Senate majority is still too slim to pass
transformative conservative legislation.But while early mistakes are to be expected, it is not too late to change the Republican trajectory.
Before we can fully bring our country out of the liberal, big government, dependency model, Republicans need to develop an economic-growth-focused strategy, build legislative momentum on the floor of Congress, and gain full support from the American people.
The key to achieving these goals – and growing our majority in both the House and Senate next year – is to pass simple, popular, tax cut legislation by this year’s end – preferably by Thanksgiving.
The cornerstone of this legislation must be a serious tax cut for small businesses so they can expand, create more jobs, and revive the middle class.
Small businesses represent 99 percent of our country’s employers, employing nearly half of our country’s private sector workers and creating three out of every four new jobs. However, instead of paying the corporate tax rate, more than 90 percent of these businesses report their income through their owners’ individual income tax filings.
Despite what some on the Left assert, these are not “the rich” or “the top 1 percent” – far from it. Most small businesses are truly small.
U.S. Treasury data and a report by the National Federation of Independent Business show only 2.4 percent of small businesses report incomes in excess of $250,000 a year. In fact, 88 percent of income tax returns by small business owners show adjusted gross income of less than $200,000. Seventy-one percent of such returns show adjusted income that is less than $100,000 a year.
On the high end, the Tax Foundation reports that the top earning small businesses pay marginal federal tax rates as high as 44.6 percent (when you combine the individual rate, the self-employment tax, and the net investment income tax). Adding state income taxes to the mix means these small business owners face tax rates that approach 50 percent.
This must change.
Republican lawmakers should create a graduated system that caps the tax rate on the highest small business incomes at no more than the corporate rate of 38.92 percent, drastically reduce the individual income tax rates, or both.
Relieving small businesses of this enormous tax burden will allow them to buy more equipment, expand their operations, hire more people, raise workers’ wages, and generate massive economic growth.
Despite a slow start for the Republican-led government, Gallup reported on Wednesday that 51 percent of Americans approve of the way President Trump has handled the economy. This is higher than the economic ratings Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton each received during their eighth month in office. Only George W. Bush in 2001 had a higher economic approval rating, at 72 percent.
It is not surprising that Americans approve of how President Trump has been handling the economy. Since taking office, the stock market has been booming. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 12.25 percent; The Nasdaq Composite Index is up 22.92 percent; and the S&P 500 is up 11.49 percent.
Tax cuts on small business and the middle class will provide an enormous boost to the already improving economy. This will result in even more jobs, higher take home pay, and stronger growth.
When voters head to the polls on November 6, 2018, if they have been experiencing a robust American economy that is dramatically stronger than the slow-growth economy during the previous years of Democratic leadership, then they will elect more Republicans to office.
But Republicans must pass serious tax cuts for the middle class and small businesses by Thanksgiving to make that happen. It’s that simple.
Newt Gingrich is a Fox News contributor. A Republican, he was speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. Follow him on Twitter @NewtGingrich. His latest book is "Understanding Trump."
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