Jerry Jones gives Cowboys players ultimatum: Stand for anthem or sit for game

Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys, wants his team to stand for the national anthem.  (AP)

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said Sunday any player who disrespects the flag will not play.

Jones’ comments, the strongest made on the anthem controversy, came after he was asked about Vice President Mike Pence leaving the game in Indianapolis early after several San Francisco 49ers players took a knee during the national anthem.

"I know this, we cannot ... in the NFL in any way give the implication that we tolerate disrespecting the flag," he said following the Cowboys’ 35-31 loss to the Green Bay Packers. "We know that there is a serious debate in this country about those issues, but there is no question in my mind that the National Football League and the Dallas Cowboys are going to stand up for the flag. So we're clear."
Jones and the rest of the team knelt arm-in-arm before the national anthem before a game against the Arizona Cardinals two weeks ago, days after President Trump reignited the anthem-protest controversy.
Dallas players have stood on the sideline, many with hands over their hearts, during the anthem ever since former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick started kneeling last season in protest of what he believed were instances of racial injustice in the U.S.
Jones said showing respect for the flag and the anthem is more important to him than any potential issues of team unity.
"There is no room here if it comes between looking non-supportive of our players and of each other or creating the impression that you're disrespecting the flag, we will be non-supportive of each other," Jones said. "We will not disrespect the flag."
Jones said he wasn't aware of whether any of his players had raised a fist at the end of the anthem before the Green Bay game.
"I don't know about that," Jones said. "But if there's anything that is disrespectful to the flag, then we will not play. OK? Understand? If we are disrespecting the flag, then we won't play. Period."
Additionally, Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross said he changed his view on how his team should handle the national anthem. Ross said because Trump made standing for the national anthem about “patriotism,” he evolved the way he looks at the protest, according to the Miami Herald.
Ross now wants all of the Dolphins players to stand for the anthem. Three Dolphins players – Kenny Stills, Julian Thomas and Michael Thomas – remained off to the sideline during the anthem Sunday.
The NFL has said the game operations manual distributed to teams includes a reference to players standing for the anthem, but that it's a policy and not a rule. The league has said it doesn't plan to punish players over anthem protests.
"The league in mind should absolutely take the rules we've got on the books and make sure that we do not give the perception that we're disrespecting the flag," Jones said.

Hollywood Hypocrite Cartoons

James Woods retires from acting after saying he's blacklisted because he's conservative

Just weeks after James Woods said he was blacklisted in Hollywood because of his conservative views, the Oscar-nominated actor said he was retiring from the industry.

Woods tweeted this summer that he had “accepted the fact that” he was blacklisted from Hollywood because of his views. He has said being conservative has made it tough to find work in Hollywood the past few years.

The “Casino” actor has twice been nominated for an Academy Award and has won an Emmy Award three times.  His movie credits include “Salvador (1986)” and “Ghosts of Mississippi (1996),” both of which earned him a nomination for an Oscar. He's also played H.R. Haldeman in Oliver Stone's "Nixon (1995)," starred alongside Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford in Sydney Pollack's "The Way We Were (1973)" and was also in Martin Scorsese's epic crime drama "Casino (1995)."

James Woods with Sharon Stone in the 1995 epic crime drama "Casino."

Woods was a Hollywood favorite -- and a Democrat -- until at least 1998, when he broke ranks with the party after former President Bill Clinton's impeachment.
He said on Twitter that he switched parties because of his disgust with the former president.
"Every single #Democrat without exception stood behind a convicted perjurer," he wrote on Twitter this summer. "That was the end."
His luck in Hollywood turned sour soon after he became a Republican. He has not had a major role in a film in at least a decade.
The news of his retirement was included in a press release issued by Woods' real estate agent offering Woods' Rhode Island lake house for sale.

Woods was recently in a Twitter feud with actress Amber Tamblyn, who accused him of trying to pick her up when she was 16.  (AP)

Allen Gammons said Friday that Woods is 70 and wants to relax. He says the actor's brother and mother recently died, and he hopes to spend more time on passions including photography, antiquing and poker.
Gammons said Woods' decision was not political.
The announcement comes after Woods was in a Twitter feud with actress Amber Tamblyn, who last month accused him of trying to pick her up when she was 16. Woods called it a lie. Gammons said Woods declined to comment Friday when asked about Tamblyn's accusation.
Woods has said there are many conservative stars who didn’t speak up because “the blacklist against conservatives in Hollywood is very real.”

The Harvey Weinstein scandal: Why are so-called feminists defending this creep?

Harvey Weinstein

Lisa Bloom and Wendy Walsh

Harvey Weinstein should go sign up for the dating website OkCupid and make sure he gets that pink ribbon on his profile, branding him a feminist and supporter of Planned Parenthood. The media mogul is the ultimate bro-choicer, an adoring donor to the Democratic Party, defended by some of the left’s most powerful women.

Weinstein has been accused in a lengthy New York Times story of doing some truly horrendous things to women, totally unsolicited − also known as sexual harassment − over a period of nearly three decades. His alleged victims were talented young actresses and other women who had the potential to build successful careers on their own without some ugly, creepy man coercing them into giving him a massage or worse. 

FILE -- Producer Harvey Weinstein and wife, designer Georgina Chapman, arrive at the 2015 Vanity Fair Oscar Party in Beverly Hills, California February 22, 2015.  (Reuters)

Gross.
But this is Hollywood, and the feminists are the women who defend creeps like Weinstein.
Anita Dunn, a close associate of President Obama who became his communications director for a time at the White House, has been reported to have counseled Weinstein after the allegations broke in the media.
Even more troubling is that celebrity women’s advocate attorney Lisa Bloom is representing Weinstein. This is a woman who has represented victims in high-profile sexual harassment cases. Throwing that legacy away, she agreed to represent Weinstein, whom she said she has counseled that “times have changed” and he “needs to evolve into a higher standard.” Really?
Bloom’s reasoning regarding Weinstein gets better, though: “He has acknowledged mistakes he has made. He is reading books and going to therapy. He is an old dinosaur learning new ways. He wants to reach out to any of the women who may have issues with him to talk to them in a respectful, peaceful way, with me present if that is acceptable to them.”
I hope Bloom has a better answer for the women who Weinstein is accused of sexually harassing and forcing to look at him half-clothed or with no clothes at all, with tears in their eyes, as he emotionally blackmailed them for sex.
But this is Hollywood. This is Hugh Hefner’s world. This is the liberal paradise of promoting equal rights and justice for women, yet defending the men who use them for their own satisfaction, discarding them for younger versions every year, and then complaining about it years later when the women finally have the courage to say “enough!”
This is not true feminism. Supporting men who tear down women for their own use, supporting free access to taxpayer-funded abortion so men can cover up their own conduct, and mistreating women for decades is nothing for women to get behind.
These powerful women, these self-proclaimed feminists, are only hurting women when they stand up for and promote men who proudly use their own power to harass and demean women.
Penny Young Nance is president and CEO of Concerned Women for America, the nation’s largest women’s public policy organization. She is the author of the book "Feisty and Feminine: A Rallying Cry for Conservative Women" (Zondervan 2016).

Kim Jong Un promotes sister to North Korea's ruling politburo, reports say

Kim Yo Jong

North Korean state media reported Sunday that leader Kim Jong Un had promoted his sister, Kim Yo Jong, making her an alternate member of the country’s top decision-making body, the politburo.

Kim’s appointed of his 28-year-old sibling was viewed as a move to further consolidate his power.

An image of Kim Yo Jong, younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, is seen on a TV screen at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Nov. 27, 2014.  (Associated Press)

The sister reportedly replaces Kim Jong Un's aunt, Kim Kyong Hee, who was a key decision maker when Kim’s father – the late Kim Jong Il – ruled the country, Reuters reported.
The promotion was announced Saturday, at a meeting in which Kim also described North Korea’s nuclear weapons program as a “powerful deterrent” that guaranteed the nation’s sovereignty, Reuters reported, citing the state media report.
Kim Yo Jong, a vice director of propaganda for North Korea’s ruling Workers Party, was sanctioned in January -- along with six other North Korean officials -- by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control for “human rights abuses and censorship activities,” Bloomberg reported.
But the sister has appeared more prominently in public in recent months, Bloomberg reported.
“She’s been recognized for the work she’s done in the past year to idolize Kim Jong Un,” said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at South Korea’s University of North Korean Studies, the news agency reported. “Kim Jong Un is extending his father and grandfather’s practice of empowering family members.”
In other appointments Saturday, Kim promoted Kim Jong Sik and Ri Pyong Chol -- two of the three men behind Kim's banned rocket program, Reuters reported.
And North Korea's foreign minister, Ri Yong Ho was named a full member of the politburo, Reuters reported.

At Saturday’s meeting, Kim Jong Un said his country’s nuclear weapons were a “powerful deterrent firmly safeguarding the peace and security in the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia” against “protracted nuclear threats of the U.S. imperialists.”
The report of Kim’s remarks came hours after U.S. President Donald Trump asserted that “only one thing will work” in negotiations with the Hermit Kingdom, Reuters reported.
Trump’s remark seemed to suggest that the president was thinking about possible military action.
In recent weeks, North Korea has launched two missiles over Japan and conducted its sixth nuclear test.

Trump willing to pursue 'temporary deal' on health care

President Donald Trump speaks about healthcare in the Blue Room of the White House in Washington, July 24, 2017.  (Associated Press)

Looking to break the logjam in Washington on repealing and replacing ObamaCare, President Donald Trump said Saturday evening that he was willing to pursue “a temporary deal” to get a new health care plan in place.

In remarks on the South Lawn of the White House before leaving for a fundraising trip to North Carolina, the president referred to a popular GOP proposal that would have the federal government turn over money for health care directly to states in the form of block grants.

“If we could do a one-year deal or a two-year deal as a temporary measure, you'll have block granting ultimately to the states, which is what the Republicans want,” he said. “That really is a repeal and replace.”
Meanwhile, in an interview taped earlier this week and aired Saturday night on Trinity Broadcasting Network, the president assured host Mike Huckabee that “We'll have health care before the election.”
Earlier Saturday, Trump said he had spoken with the Senate's Democratic leader on Friday to gauge whether the minority party was interested in helping pass "great" health legislation.
Democrats said they willing to hear his ideas, but were not willing to scrap the 2010 Affordable Care Act, also known as ObamaCare.
Trump's latest overture to Democrats followed GOP failures so far to fulfill the party's years-long promise to repeal and replace the ACA, despite controlling the White House and Congress since January.
The president tweeted that he called Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on Friday to discuss the ACA, which Trump said was “badly broken, big premiums. Who knows!”
Trump said he wanted “to see if the Dems want to do a great HealthCare Bill.”
Schumer said through a spokesman Saturday that Trump "wanted to make another run at repeal and replace and I told the president that's off the table." Schumer said if Trump "wants to work together to improve the existing health care system, we Democrats are open to his suggestions."

President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, to board the Marine One helicopter, Oct. 7, 2017  (Associated Press)

Trump has suggested before that he would be open to negotiating with Democrats on health care, but there have been no clear signs of a compromise between the two parties.
Schumer said a starting point could be negotiations led by Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., who have been discussing a limited bipartisan deal to stabilize state-level markets for individual health insurance policies. People covered under the health law represent about half of those who purchase individual policies.
Trump irritated GOP leaders in Congress when he reached a deal with Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on a spending bill and the debt ceiling. The president has referred to those two Democrats as "Chuck and Nancy."
But the Trump administration announced Friday that it would allow more employers to opt out of no-cost birth control to women by claiming religious or moral objections. The move was one more attempt to roll back Obama's health overhaul, prompting Democrats to question whether Trump is committed to avoiding sabotaging the law.
Trump floated the potential talks as he approved an emergency declaration for a large part of Louisiana and ordered federal assistance for the state as Hurricane Nate approached the central Gulf of Mexico.
The president headlined a fundraiser on Saturday night in Greensboro, N.C., to benefit his Trump Victory joint fundraising committee with the Republican National Committee. The event was expected to raise $2 million, with donors paying up to $35,000 per couple to serve as co-hosts.

Obama Judge Derrick Watson Cartoons

Pres. Trump: U.S. Will Not Lift Sanctions on Cuba ( Photos of the real Cuba )

The Real Cuba.

The Real Cuba.

The Real Cuba.

President Donald Trump talks with audience members during a Hispanic Heritage Month event in the East Room of the White House, Friday, Oct. 6, 2017, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Trump is sticking to his word, saying the U.S. will not lift sanctions on Cuba.
He made the comments from the east room of the White House Friday as he hosted a celebration for Hispanic Heritage Month.
This comes after the Trump administration ordered to expel 15 Cuban diplomats from the Washington embassy following unexplained attacks on U.S. diplomats in Havana.
The president says sanctions will continue until Cuba gives political freedom to its people.
“The same failed communist ideology that has brought oppression to Cuba has brought nothing but suffering and misery everywhere and every place it has been anywhere in the world,” President Trump stated. “Communism is the past. Freedom is the future.”
The president went on to stress the importance of the Hispanic community, and specifically praised Hispanic business owners for their contribution to our economy.
He also highlighted recovery efforts in Puerto Rico, and said America will not rest until Puerto Rico is back on its feet.

Hawaii wants to challenge third version of Trump travel ban ( Yes he's the same Democrat puppet of Obama that bans everything Trump.)

U.S. District Court Judge Derrick Watson ( Yes he's the same Democrat puppet of Obama that bans everything Trump.)

HONOLULU –  A federal judge on Friday said he would give Hawaii an opportunity to make its case that it should be allowed to challenge the Trump administration's latest travel ban.

U.S. District Court Judge Derrick Watson said Hawaii would have until Tuesday morning to file a new motion. The government will have until Saturday, Oct. 14, to respond.

The latest travel ban removes Sudan from the list of affected countries and adds Chad and North Korea, along with several officials from the government of Venezuela. It's scheduled to take effect Oct. 18.

"Hawaii fought the first and second travel bans because they were illegal and unconstitutional efforts to implement the president's Muslim ban," Hawaii Attorney General Doug Chin said in a statement. "Unfortunately, the third travel ban is more of the same."

The motion said the new version of travel ban "flouts the immigration laws' express prohibition on nationality discrimination, grossly exceeds the authority Congress delegated to the president, lacks any rational connection to the problems it purports to address and seems to effectuate the president's promise to ban Muslims from the United States."

Chin has been battling President Donald Trump on travel bans since February, after the president sought to bar new visas for people from seven mostly Muslim countries.

The state later amended that lawsuit to add a plaintiff: the imam of a Honolulu mosque. Hawaii has roughly 5,000 Muslims.

When Trump revised the ban, Chin amended the lawsuit to challenge that version.

In March, U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson in Honolulu agreed with Hawaii that the ban amounted to discrimination based on nationality and religion.

A subsequent U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowed the administration to partially reinstate a 90-day ban on visitors from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen and a 120-day ban on refugees from anywhere in the world.

The court's ruling exempted a large number of refugees and travelers with a "bona fide relationship" with a person or entity in the U.S.

Hawaii successfully challenged the federal government's definition of which family members would be allowed into the country. Watson ordered the government not to enforce the ban on close relatives such as grandparents, grandchildren, uncles and aunts.

An attorney representing Hawaii notified the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday that the state intends to challenge the third travel ban.

Dem candidate calls female GOP rep a 'child,' says it's fair to call him 'sexist'

Democratic congressional candidate Steve Krieg

A Democratic candidate is facing calls to apologize after referring to New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, pictured, as a "child."  (Official portrait/stefanik.house.gov)

A New York Democrat running for the House of Representatives is under fire for calling the female Republican incumbent in his district a “child,” while admitting it’s fair to call him “a sexist.”

Democratic congressional candidate Steve Krieg, a member of the Plattsburgh City School Board, made the comments about New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik during a Tuesday candidate forum with others seeking the seat.

“I recognize her as a child, and it has nothing to do with her age,” Krieg said. “I see her as a child because she’s a child. She thinks like a child. She has people set things up for her. She has people put their words in her mouth and she happily repeats them.”
The Democrat added, “I apologize if that’s mean.”
In 2014, Stefanik, who was 30 at the time, became the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. She was re-elected in 2016 and is seeking re-election again next year.
Krieg previously came under fire for referring to Stefanik as a “little girl” on Facebook over the summer.
ARE DEMS FINALLY READY TO TOSS PELOSI?
"I intend to kick your stingy, money-grubbing, sniveling coward of a butt out of Congress,” he wrote in July. “Don't worry, sweetie, you're a little girl. You can always run home to Mommy and Daddy.”
Discussing that episode during the candidate forum, Krieg said, “I have been accused of being a sexist for calling Elise a little girl, and I probably deserved to be called a sexist. I think most of us, if we admit it, have some sexist in us, some of the racist in us.”
The National Republican Congressional Committee is calling on House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats to condemn the remarks.
“These comments are disgusting and sexist,” NRCC spokesman Matt Gorman said.
Stefanik responded on Twitter by thanking those who have come to her defense.
“Thank you to the many women and men standing up for our next generation of women leaders by speaking out against these remarks,” she said.

Trump administration rolls back ObamaCare contraceptive mandate

The Trump administration on Friday announced a major rollback of the ObamaCare contraceptive mandate, granting what officials called “full protection” to a wide range of companies and organizations that claim a “religious or moral objection” to providing the coverage. 

The decision swiftly ignited a new battle over the Affordable Care Act. Republican lawmakers and faith-based groups hailed the decision as a win for religious liberty, while Democratic officials and groups like Planned Parenthood accused the administration of attacking women’s rights.

By early afternoon, the American Civil Liberties Union announced it was filing a lawsuit challenging the change.
The original mandate, which already has been the subject of multiple legal challenges, required employers that provide health insurance to cover contraceptives. Under the existing policy, churches and houses of worship were exempt, while religious-affiliated groups that object had to allow a third-party administrator or insurer to handle birth control coverage. The 2014 Hobby Lobby decision expanded exemptions to for-profit “closely held” corporations.
But under the new policy unveiled Friday, the Trump administration is expanding the protections to any nonprofit group, non-publicly traded company, or higher education institution with religious or moral objections -- and making the third-party provision optional for groups with “sincerely held” religious beliefs.
Publicly traded companies also could claim an exemption if they state religious objections, though a senior Health and Human Services official said they would still have to let a third party cover contraception.
“No American should be forced to violate his or her own conscience in order to abide by the laws and regulations governing our health care system,” said HHS press secretary Caitlin Oakley. “Today’s actions affirm the Trump administration’s commitment to upholding the freedoms afforded all Americans under our Constitution.”

Little Sisters of the Poor outside the Supreme Court on March 23, 2016 after Zubik v. Burwell, an appeal brought by Christian groups demanding full exemption from the contraceptive mandate, was heard.  (Reuters)

The decision was cheered by representatives for the Little Sisters of the Poor, the religious group that took their mandate challenge to the Supreme Court -- which in turn punted the case to the lower courts last year.
“HHS has issued a balanced rule that respects all sides –it keeps the contraceptive mandate in place for most employers and now provides a religious exemption,” Mark Rienzi, senior counsel at Becket Law and lead attorney for Little Sisters of the Poor, said Friday. “The Little Sisters still need to get final relief in court, which should be easy now that the government admits it broke the law.”
“This is a landmark day for religious liberty," House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said in a statement.
Officials stressed that the impact may be limited, even though the rule changes are significant, as some large corporations were grandfathered into the policy and spared from the mandate anyway.
“Of the 165 million women in the U.S., HHS estimates these rules affect at most 120,000, leaving more than 99.9 percent of women without any impact,” an HHS official told Fox News.
An official noted the administration anticipates the groups taking advantage of the change would be those involved in legal battles pertaining to the mandate.
“There are about 200 entities that have participated in lawsuits because of the contraceptive rule, and those entities will benefit from this rule,” a senior HHS official said.
A senior HHS official said there have been more than 50 lawsuits filed against the mandate, and the new rule would provide “relief.”
But the ACLU contended the policy would allow “nearly all employers” to deny contraception coverage if they state an objection.
"This is an unacceptable attack on basic health care that the vast majority of women rely on," Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards said Friday. "With this rule in place, any employer could decide that their employees no longer have health insurance coverage for birth control."
And Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., accused the administration of "stooping to a new low."
"There is no 'exemption from having reproductive organs," Wyden said Friday. "This administration needs to end its obsession with attacking women's rights to receive the health care they deserve."
The types of contraceptives covered by the mandate are FDA-approved methods: diaphragms, hormonal methods like birth control pills and vaginal rings, implanted devices like intrauterine devices or IUDs, emergency contraception like Plan B, sterilization procedures, and patient education and counseling. The mandate is not required to cover drugs that serve to induce abortions.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, since the Obama-era rule, the share of women paying for their own birth control pills out of pocket plunged to under 4 percent, compared with 21 percent before the rule.
HHS also rolled out a guidance bulletin on Friday, underscoring the requirements of a section of ObamaCare that “segregates funds” for abortion services. The bulletin reminds employers that abortion coverage has to be kept separate from other premium payments.
In addition to HHS’ announcement, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced “20 high-level principles” on religious liberty to “guide all agencies in complying with relevant Federal law.”
“The constitutional protection of religious beliefs and the right to exercise those beliefs have served this country well, have made us one of the most tolerant countries in the world, and have also helped make us the free-ist and most generous,” Sessions said in a statement Friday. “President Trump promised that this administration would ‘lead by example on religious liberty,’ and he is delivering on that promise.”

Democrat Loser Cartoons

Va. Gov Race:Northam, Gillespie Close in Polls Month Ahead of Election

Gubernatorial candidates Republican Ed Gillespie, left, and Democrat Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam debate in McLean, Va., Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2017. The two major party candidates in Virginia’s closely watched race for governor argued in mostly cordial tones Tuesday over taxes, President Donald Trump and what Virginia should do with its numerous monuments to the Confederacy. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post via AP, Pool)

The Democratic party may be losing the governors mansion in Virginia.
According to internal Republican polling, Democrat Ralph Northam and Republican Ed Gillespie are neck-and-neck in the governor’s race.
Most public polling shows Northam barely leading his Republican rival, which has the party concerned that voters may be looking for a change.
Gillespie’s support of keeping confederate monuments is reportedly resonating with Virginia voters.
The former RNC chairman also started airing campaign ads earlier than his opponent.
Voters will head to the polls in November.

Pres. Trump Expected to De-certify Iran Nuclear Deal Next Week

FILE – In this Aug. 21, 2010 file photo, an Iranian security officer directs media at the Bushehr nuclear power plant, with the reactor building seen in the background, just outside the southern city of Bushehr, Iran. A member of Iran’s team of nuclear negotiators that struck the 2015 deal with world powers has been sentenced to five years in prison on espionage charges, a semi-official news agency reported on Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2017. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)

President Trump is expected to de-certify the Iran Nuclear Deal.
Sources say he has decided that the agreement aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear program is not in the interest of the U.S.
A speech to unveil the decision is scheduled for October 12th.
That’s three days before the deadline to decide whether to renew the Obama-era deal.
During his debut speech at the U.N. General Assembly, President Trump called the Iran deal one of the most “one-sided transactions” the U.S. has ever entered.

Moore's path to victory in Alabama: God, guns and defiance

Roy Moore wouldn't stand a chance in many Senate races after defying federal court orders, describing Islam as a false religion, calling homosexuality evil and pulling out a revolver on stage before hundreds of supporters.

But in Alabama, he's now the odds-on favorite to join the nation's most exclusive political body. Moore prevailed Tuesday in a Republican primary runoff by defeating an opponent backed by both President Donald Trump and deep-pocketed allies of Sen. Mitch McConnell.

As hard as it may be to understand in liberal cities such as New York or San Francisco, Moore is widely popular across a mostly white, Christian-dominated state where voters have repeatedly embraced outsiders who campaign on embracing God and rebuffing authority.
"The things that end careers for politicians elsewhere strengthen Roy Moore," said Alabama political strategist David Mowery, who helped run a Democratic campaign against Moore for state chief justice in 2012.
After all, this is a state where George C. Wallace, who famously vowed "segregation forever" and defied court orders, won four terms as governor. President Donald Trump carried the state handily with his insurgent run for the White House. It's also a place where campaign commercials often depict politicians at a church, praying or holding a Bible.
Moore wraps all that into a single package. He was removed as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court twice after higher courts found he rejected rulings regarding Ten Commandments displays and gay marriage. He's also a horse-riding, gun-toting Vietnam veteran who has talked for his entire public career about acknowledging the God of the Christian Bible.
He lost bids for the Republican nomination for governor in 2006 and 2010, but that didn't matter in the Senate race.
In his closing argument to voters — an election eve appearance where he stood in a barn and brandished a handgun to demonstrate his support of the Second Amendment — Moore quoted both scripture and the state's motto: "We dare defend our rights."
Patricia Riley Jones of Abbeville is hooked. She joyously held up a Moore sign and American flags at his victory party.
"He's a great Christian man," she said. "He stood up for God."
Alabama is Trump country, but the fact that Trump endorsed incumbent Sen. Luther Strange didn't bother most voters one bit. They still went with Moore.
Bill Armistead, Moore's campaign chairman and a former chairman of the Alabama Republican Party, said Alabama voters have known Moore a lot longer than they have known Trump, a New York tycoon who became a reality TV star before entering politics.
"They have an opinion of Roy Moore, and they believe he is the kind of man that will go up and fight for them," Armistead said.
Starting in the mid-1990s, Moore rose to prominence while working as a circuit judge in Etowah County, where he drew challenges from the American Civil Liberties Union for opening court with a prayer and hanging a handmade Ten Commandments plaque on the courtroom wall. He was later twice elected Alabama chief justice.
His appeal isn't universal. Danny Barry, a Christian who works as a landscaper in suburban Birmingham, said he supported Strange mainly because he didn't like the way Moore ignored court rulings to display the Ten Commandments in judicial buildings.
"I don't have a problem with the Ten Commandments, but I have a problem with him having this thing in his office building where it was against the law for him to do it. And so he made a big deal out of it. To me, things like that make us look like a bunch of backwoods rednecks," said Barry, 68, of Pelham.
Moore supporters liked the idea of sending an independent firebrand, beholden to no one, to the Washington "swamp."
Skip Van Pamel, an electrical contractor from Athens, said he went to a Strange rally last week to hear Trump, but he did not support Strange.
"Roy Moore, whether you agree with his politics or not, he stands up for what he believes," Van Pamel said.
Before the election, GOP political consultant David Azbell said years of fighting for the Ten Commandments had made Moore unusually popular in Alabama.
"The perception is that Moses has endorsed Roy Moore," Azbell said.
His supporters flooded Tuesday's special GOP runoff for the Senate seat once held by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, giving him a 9-point victory over Strange, who was a lobbyist before he was elected Alabama attorney general and then appointed to fill the remainder of Sessions' term.
Now Moore must turn his attention to Democratic nominee Doug Jones, an attorney best known for prosecuting the final two Ku Klux Klansmen convicted of setting the bomb that killed four black girls at Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963.
Jones said he intends to concentrate on jobs, health care and the economy.
"After years of embarrassing headlines about top public officials in this state, this race is about the people of Alabama and about choosing a candidate with character and integrity," he said in a statement.
At a victory party in Montgomery that included hymns and a lengthy prayer, Moore showed he doesn't plan to veer from the formula that brought him this far.
"We have to return the knowledge of God and the Constitution of the United States to the United States Congress," Moore told a cheering crowd.

In speech, Donald Trump Jr. decries left's 'atmosphere of hatred'

Donald Trump Jr. lashed out against his father’s critics Thursday, saying the president has been unfairly attacked for his “both sides” comment about the August violence in Charlottesville, Va.

The president's eldest son blamed an “atmosphere of hatred” from the left that he said has been brewing on university campuses. Donald Trump Jr. spoke at an annual fundraising gala at Faulkner University, a private Christian college in Alabama.

He stood behind the president’s comment that “both sides” were to blame for violence in Charlottesville that led to the death of one counter-protesting woman and left multiple people injured.
“He condemned ... the white nationalists and the left-wingers," Trump Jr. said during a 35-minute speech. "That should not have been controversial, but it was."

Donald Trump Jr. speaks at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio U.S. July 19, 2016.  (Reuters)

In blaming liberals, Trump Jr. pointed out examples of left-wing violence, including the far-left militants calling themselves “Antifa,” who have been linked to vandalism and other disruption in Berkeley, Calif.
He also referred to James Hodgkinson, the suspect who allegedly shot Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., in June at a baseball practice in Virginia. The suspect is said to have been a Bernie Sanders supporter.
“He went out looking for Republicans to kill and we're supposed to forget that," Trump Jr. said.
Trump’s eldest son then moved on to mock the politically-correct university campus culture, sparking applause after saying students are being taught to “hate their country” and “hate their religion” all while conservative voices are being silenced.
He decried the creation of “Marxists” and “social justice warriors,” making you “less educated than when you started” at the university. "Everyone to the right of them is Hitler," he added.

"Today's conservative speech is violence. Unprovoked liberal violence is self-defense."

"Today's conservative speech is violence. Unprovoked liberal violence is self-defense," Trump Jr. said, pointing out that conservatives are often denied speaking opportunities or their appearances are met with protests.
"Words have lost their meanings,” he added. “'Hate speech' is that America is a good country ... that we need borders ... anything that comes out of the mouth of the president ... the moral teaching of the Bible.”
The speech ended with an attack on universities’ efforts to foster diversity, mocking the concept of “safe spaces” for women, LGBT students or minorities.
The college has confirmed that Trump Jr. was paid for the speaking engagement but declined to disclose the sum. Trump Jr.'s speaking agency, which books his appearances, says on its website that the president's son's fee is typically “$50,001 and above.”

U.S. Budget Deficit Cartoons

U.S. budget deficit could obstruct Trump’s tax cut plan

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks after meeting with police at the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department in the wake of the mass shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., October 4, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

The U.S. budget deficit is proving to be a major obstacle to the tax reform plan being offered by President Donald Trump and top congressional Republicans, with one leading Senate hawk saying a week after the plan was introduced that any enlarging of the fiscal gap could kill his support.
From proposed infrastructure enhancements to a military build-up, the deficit long ago put the brakes on major new federal spending programs; now Trump’s tax-cut proposal is threatened.
“It looks to me like the administration’s already running for the hills. It looks to me like some of the tax-writing chairmen are already running for the hills … I’m disheartened by the lack of intestinal fortitude I’m seeing,” Sen. Bob Corker said.
The main problem is that the federal government is swimming in red ink with an annual deficit of $550 billion and a national debt — the accumulation of past deficits and interest due to lenders to the U.S. Treasury — exceeding $20 trillion.
The Republican tax plan unveiled last week calls for as much as $6 trillion in tax cuts that would sharply reduce federal revenues. No commensurate spending cuts have been proposed. So, on their own, the tax cuts being sought by Trump would hugely expand the deficit and add to the debt.
The administration has said two things must happen for the revenue losses to be offset. One is for economic growth to generate new tax revenues. Forecasts for that vary, with Republicans projecting much stronger economic growth and unusually large revenue gains resulting from tax cuts.
“While policymakers are gearing up to address tax reform this fall, some have advocated for abandoning true reform and instead focusing solely on tax cuts. To combat arguments that such cuts will balloon the national debt, tax cut advocates have argued that the cuts could pay for themselves, largely through faster economic growth,” said the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a Washington balanced-budget advocacy group.
“However, this claim is false,” the group said in a statement.
The other way to prevent expanding the deficit is for the U.S. Congress to find new revenues for the government by closing certain tax breaks to offset Trump’s proposed deep tax cuts for corporations, small businesses and wealthy Americans.
At least $4 trillion in new revenue needs to be raised this way, said lawmakers, but every tax break on the federal books has a special interest protecting it and that is a challenge.
For example, Republicans proposed ending or limiting the individual tax deduction for state and local income taxes paid. Closing the tax break would bring in $1.3 trillion in revenues.
But high-tax states would be hit harder than low-tax states by such a move. Lawmakers in New York and California, which have among the highest state tax levels in the country, were resisting the proposal to repeal the deduction, eroding support for the plan, even among Republicans, said lawmakers and aides.
Corker has vowed that he will not support a tax plan that adds to the federal deficit. As a result, he is firm about what needs to be done to win his support for tax cuts.
“There’s no way to do permanent tax reform, no way, without … loophole closing,” said the Tennessee Republican, who announced recently that he will not run for reelection in November 2018.
Analysts said the $20 trillion national debt is already on an unsustainable upward path as the government pays for the medical and retirement costs of the aging Baby Boom generation.
That would worsen if rising government debt undermined future economic growth by pushing interest rates higher and choking off private sector access to credit, they said.
An administration official said the White House is inclined to let Congress lead on the state and local tax deduction.
House and Senate Republicans need to agree on a budget resolution if they intend to pass a tax bill before January and without broad bipartisan support from Democrats. The House was set to vote on its version of a budget resolution on Thursday.

Illinois GOP Gov. Rauner faces conservative fury for expanding taxpayer-funded abortions

Illinois GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner’s decision to expand taxpayer-funded abortions has sparked outrage from state and congressional Republicans who say he flip-flopped on the issue and are now hinting at a primary challenge.

The backlash built last week after the first-term governor signed a bill allowing state health insurance and Medicaid coverage for abortions. It spread this week to Capitol Hill, where the state's entire House Republican delegation blasted the decision. 

“In a reversal of long-standing Illinois policy, Governor Rauner has let down Illinois taxpayers and the unborn by signing” the state bill, GOP Reps. Peter Roskam, John Shimkus, Randy Hultgren, Rodney Davis, Adam Kinzinger, Darin LaHood and Mike Bost said in a statement.
The lawmakers issued the statement Tuesday, the same day they and other Republicans in the GOP-controlled House voted overwhelmingly to impose criminal penalties on anybody who performs or attempts to perform an abortion on a fetus after 20 weeks -- with exceptions for incest, rape and saving the mother’s life.
HOUSE PASSES 20-WEEK ABORTION BAN
The pushback from state Republicans to the governor's decision was more immediate and visceral. Illinois state GOP Rep. Peter Breen argued that Rauner, in signing the bill, double-crossed voters, GOP state legislators and even Chicago's Cardinal Blasé Cupich. Rauner reportedly had pledged earlier to oppose the measure.
“I mean, you lied to a priest,” Breen told a local radio station. “This guy is done.”

'Governor Rauner has let down Illinois taxpayers and the unborn.'

- Statement from Illinois' U.S. House Republicans

Breen said the bill signing was “the straw, for me, that broke the camel’s back” and claimed it has badly damaged Rauner’s credibility and political future.
He also suggested a Rauner primary challenge in 2018 was “inevitable” but that he doesn’t plan to mount one, in liberal-leaning Illinois.
State Rep. Jeanne Ives said she “wouldn’t rule out” running against Rauner, who is seeking a second term, according to Politico.
Rauner campaign spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski issued a statement saying voters know Rauner "is leading the effort to overcome [Speaker] Mike Madigan's political machine and deliver more jobs, better results for taxpayers and term limits."
Rauner, a former venture capitalist with a massive reelection war chest, also upset conservative and other critics in August when he signed a plan that limits the role local and state police play in cooperating with federal immigration authorities.
And in July, the Democratic-controlled General Assembly overrode his gubernatorial veto to allow a multibillion-dollar tax increase, further upsetting conservative critics .

Judge dismisses case against pardoned Arpaio

A federal judge in Phoenix Wednesday formally dismissed the criminal case against former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, accepting President Donald Trump's pardon of the controversial lawman.

U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton dismissed Arpaio's conviction with prejudice, meaning the matter cannot be tried again. Bolton held off on ruling on Arpaio's request to throw out all orders in the case, including a blistering 14-page ruling in which the judge explained her original reasoning in finding that Arpaio was guilty of a crime.

Arpaio was convicted in July of criminal contempt for what Bolton described as "flagrant disregard" of a 2011 court order to halt traffic patrols that targeted immigrants.
Trump pardoned Arpaio Aug. 25, setting off a firestorm of criticism from legal advocates and congressional Democrats, more than 30 of whom asked Bolton to declare the pardon invalid and move forward with sentencing.
Arpaio attorney Mark Goldman described the attempted intervention by lawmakers as "despicable."
"What are our Democrat congressmen doing?" asked Goldman, who described the lawmakers as "narcissistic idiots ... making a statement where they have no standing to make any statement whatsoever."
The former sheriff, who didn't attend Wednesday's hearing in federal court, was accused of continuing the patrols for 17 months so that he could promote his immigration enforcement efforts in a bid to boost his successful 2012 re-election campaign.
Bolton's ruling cited television interviews and news releases in which the sheriff made comments about keeping up the patrols, even though he knew they were no longer allowed.
Arpaio, who endorsed Trump and appeared alongside him at rallies during the 2016 campaign, has acknowledged prolonging the patrols, but insisted his disobedience wasn't intentional and blamed one of his former attorneys for not adequately explaining the order's importance.

Critics say the pardon removed the last chance at holding Arpaio legally accountable for a long history of misconduct, including a 2013 civil verdict in which Arpaio's officers were found to have racially profiled Latinos in the sheriff's immigration patrols. The order that Arpaio acknowledged violating was issued by U.S. District Murray Snow in the profiling case.

Prosecutor John Keller said it was appropriate to dismiss the case against Arpaio.

"This prosecution is over," Keller said. "The defendant will never be held accountable for his contempt of Judge Snow's injunction."

Bolton has previously said case law suggests a pardon doesn't erase a recipient's underlying record of conviction and instead is aimed at lessening or canceling punishment. The pardon had previously led the judge to cancel Arpaio's sentencing hearing.

Lawyers who won the racial profiling verdict against Arpaio had argued earlier that the decision explaining the guilty verdict should remain intact to serve as a rebuke of the sheriff's actions and as a deterrent to other politicians who might want to disobey a judge's orders.

Since the pardon, Arpaio has said he did nothing wrong, criticized Bolton as biased and called the offense behind his conviction a "petty crime." Arpaio, who was defeated last year in the same election that sent Trump to the White House, is now talking about getting back into politics.