The NFL is attacking an America that has treated it very well. Time to end the tax breaks

While we glorify football players for their accomplishments on the field, they are not heroes. I recently visited with a real hero – a young Army sergeant from my congressional district who still gets body tremors when he stands. Bombs bursting in the air exploded over his unit in Afghanistan, leaving shards of metal stuck in his skull. 

When I entered his room at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, he proudly stood at full attention, brimming with nervous energy. I had come to thank him on behalf of a grateful nation, and the sergeant was as respectful as he was inspiring in his patriotism. Although he winced with pain, he would not take the meeting lying down. 

We did not discuss his injury or diagnosis. He told me how proud he was of his wife, a teacher at the local high school. And how willing he was to go back to the fight – wherever that star-spangled banner yet waves.
The teacher and the sergeant are the regular folks who make up my North Florida district, which boasts of more military bases than Starbucks, and more veterans than pelicans. These are the folks who do not understand why NFL players would disrespect our anthem or our flag or why the NFL Commissioner's office has embraced this unpatriotic conduct.

Taxpayers pay over 70 percent of the cost of stadiums. Our citizens pay more and more for tickets, and valuations of professional sports franchises have skyrocketed. Player compensation keeps growing. But the NFL Commissioner’s office can choose at any point to stop paying taxes altogether.

Our nation is increasingly diverse in thought, values, and background. Yet throughout our history, America has given proof through many nights that our flag is still here, and that freedom still reigns.
Choosing to disrespect our flag is an over-generalized indictment of the greatest nation on Earth. Kneeling for the anthem does nothing to advance solutions to racial injustice, police brutality, or any other social plight. It is a slap in the face to patriotism itself. It is a statement that America as a country is no longer worth standing for.
It is bizarre to see the NFL attacking an America that has treated it so well over the years. Taxpayers pay over 70 percent of the cost of stadiums. Our citizens pay more and more for tickets, and valuations of professional sports franchises have skyrocketed. Player compensation keeps growing. But the NFL Commissioner’s office can choose at any point to stop paying taxes altogether. Only in America, baby!
Nobody is saying pro-athletes must give up protest rights because of their job. They should simply protest on their own time, and on their own dime, like any other American. Owners who require their players to stand for the national anthem and flag should be commended, and the players who choose to play elsewhere have that right.
As for the NFL Commissioner’s office, why do they get special treatment in the tax code in the first place? Why do any professional sports leagues enjoy tax advantages unavailable to regular folks or small businesses? Special loopholes in the tax code for pro-sports leagues will shortchange the U.S. Treasury by over $150 million during the current budget window.
That money would be better spent at Walter Reed.
President Trump has called for massive tax reform to get our economy moving again. We must cut taxes for hard-working Americans, while ending the swampy loopholes crafted by special interest groups. Ending the exemption for pro-sports leagues is an obvious place to start — and President Trump agrees with that, too.
I have offered the PRO Sports Act to abolish these exemptions. Going forward, perhaps pro-athletes won’t just take a knee — maybe they will take a stand for the solutions to the social aliments they observe.
All Americans should and always must enjoy full access to First Amendment rights, but nobody has the right to expect special tax treatment while disrespecting our flag.
Republican Matt Gaetz  represents Florida's 1st congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Trump too tough on Iran, North Korea, Clinton says

Idiot

Hillary Clinton appears at a book-signing event in New York City, June 10, 2014.  (Associated Press)

With his tough talk and hardline stances on Iran and North Korea, President Donald Trump is damaging America’s credibility abroad – and could provoke a nuclear-arms race in East Asia, Hillary Clinton says.

Trump's recent threat to decertify the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, “makes us look foolish and small and plays right into Iranian hands,” Clinton said last week.

"That is bad not just on the merits for this particular situation, but it sends a message across the globe that America's word is not good," said Clinton, who spoke in advance of Trump's announcement Friday that he wants Congress and the other nations that negotiated the deal to toughen the requirements for Iran.
"This particular president is, I think, upending the kind of trust and credibility of the United States' position and negotiation that is imperative to maintain."

"This particular president is, I think, upending the kind of trust and credibility of the United States' position and negotiation that is imperative to maintain."

- Hillary Clinton

For his part, Trump says that Clinton, as secretary of state under former President Barack Obama, helped negotiate a “terrible” deal with Iran.
Getting tough on Iran is the right approach, the president said.
“We will not continue down a path whose predictable conclusion is more violence, more terror and the very real threat of Iran’s nuclear breakout,” Trump said Friday, according to the Washington Times. “Iran is not living up to the spirit of the deal.”
Clinton also denounced Trump's bellicose language toward North Korea, saying his verbal aggression has rattled U.S. allies.
"We will now have an arms race — a nuclear arms race in East Asia," Clinton predicted. "We will have the Japanese, who understandably are worried with missiles flying over them as the North Koreans have done, that they can't count on America."
Clinton stressed that a diplomatic solution was preferred, and suggested the inflammatory rhetoric played into Kim Jung Un's hands. She bemoaned Trump's public undercutting of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson when he tweeted "Save your energy, Rex" after the nation's top diplomat had suggested negotiations.
“Diplomacy, preventing war, creating some deterrents is slow, hard-going, difficult work,” said Clinton, who declined to answer when asked whether Tillerson should resign. "And you can't have impulsive people or ideological people who basically say, 'Well, we're done with you.'"
Trump on Sept. 21 signed an executive order calling for a new round of economic sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
The president said the actions were aimed at “a complete denuclearization of North Korea,” the Washington Times reported.
“North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile development is a grave threat to peace and security in our world,” Trump said. “It is unacceptable that others financially support this criminal rogue regime.”
Clinton, who recently released a book that recounts her election defeat to Trump, has been an aggressive critic of the president.
In an interview with Britain’s BBC on Friday, Clinton called Trump a “sexual assaulter.”
Clinton made the comments when asked about the allegations of sexual assault made against Democratic mega-donor and Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.
“This kind of behavior cannot be tolerated anywhere, whether it's in entertainment, politics,” Clinton said. “After all, we have someone admitting to being a sexual assaulter in the Oval Office.”
In the same interview, Clinton referred to the sexual transgressions of her husband – former President Bill Clinton – as being “clearly in the past,” Fox News reported.
Clinton’s comments on Iran and North Korea were scheduled to air Sunday on CNN. The White House did not immediately return a request to respond to her remarks.

lynch and clinton cartoons

Hillary Clinton calls Trump 'sexual assaulter' in BBC interview, but says Bill's behavior 'in the past'

Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton referred to President Trump in an interview Friday as a “sexual assaulter” before dismissing the past allegations of sexual impropriety against her husband as old news.  (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Hillary Clinton moved to take the heat off Harvey Weinstein Friday by outright calling President Trump a “sexual assaulter” – while roundly dismissing past allegations of sexual impropriety against her husband as old news.

Clinton made the comments during an interview with BBC's Andrew Marr, who asked about the allegations of sexual assault made against Democratic mega-donor and Hollywood producer Weinstein. 

“This kind of behavior cannot be tolerated anywhere, whether it's in entertainment, politics,” Clinton said. “After all, we have someone admitting to being a sexual assaulter in the Oval Office.”
Marr responded by pointing out Clinton has dismissed allegations made by women against her husband, former President Bill Clinton, that Trump highlighted during the hard-fought presidential campaign.
“That has all been litigated,” Clinton replied. “That was subject of a huge investigation in the late '90s and there were conclusions drawn. That was clearly in the past.”
CLINTONS NOT SPEAKING TO EACH OTHER AFTER FIGHT, AUTHOR SAYS
Clinton, in her accusation against Trump, was referring to the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape of Trump in 2005 in which he said he can “do anything” to women as a star, including grabbing “them by the p----.” Trump later apologized for his comments and called it “locker room talk” but has never admitted to sexual assault.
After the video surfaced in October 2016, Trump held a press conference with Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey and Juanita Broaddrick, who had all accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct in the past.
In the latest interview, Clinton expressed disappointment the "Access Hollywood" tape didn’t sink Trump in the campaign.
“The really sad part of the campaign was how this horrific tape, what he said about women in the past, what he said about women during the campaign, was discounted by a lot of voters,” she said.
Clinton, who is on a tour promoting her memoir about the campaign, also said she was “really shocked and appalled” at the recent revelations about Weinstein.

Hillary Clinton said she was “really shocked and appalled” at the recent revelations about Harvey Weinstein.  (REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni)

“He's been a supporter -- he's been a funder for all of us, for Obama, for me, for people who have run for office in the United States,” she said. “So it was just disgusting and the stories that have come out are heartbreaking. And I really commend the women who have been willing to step forward now and tell their stories.”
Weinstein has raised thousands for the Clintons.
A White House spokesman did not return a request for comment.
But earlier this week, White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway called Clinton a "hypocrite" on women's issues.
“She needs to not be a hypocrite about women’s empowerment and what it means to be pro-woman,” Conway told Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom.” “She is on a book tour talking about herself and a campaign she lost—not talking about women’s empowerment, she’s not trying to help victims of sexual assault.”
Conway also blasted Clinton for taking five days to release a statement condemning Weinstein: "I felt like a woman who ran to be commander-in-chief and president of the United States, who talks about women’s empowerment, took an awfully long time to give support to these women."

Judicial Watch says FBI has found Clinton-Lynch tarmac meeting documents

Conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch said Friday that the FBI has uncovered 30 pages of documents related to the controversial 2016 tarmac meeting between former President Bill Clinton and former Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

The newly uncovered documents will be sent to Judicial Watch by the end of November in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, a spokesman for the group told Fox News.

Judicial Watch originally filed a FOIA request in July 2016 -- which the Justice Department did not comply with -- seeking “all records of communications between any agent, employee, or representative” of the FBI for the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server use, and all records related to the June 27, 2016 meeting between Lynch and Bill Clinton.
“We presume they are new documents. We won’t know what’s in them until we see them, unfortunately,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton told Fox News in an email Friday. “The fact they just ‘found’ them is yet another scandal.”
JUDICIAL WATCH CLASHES WITH DOJ OVER 'TALKING POINTS' FROM LYNCH-CLINTON TARMAC MEETING
The FBI initially did not find any documents or records related to the tarmac meeting, according to an FBI letter reviewed by Fox News, but in a related case this summer, the Justice Department recovered email correspondence regarding the meeting.
“Upon further review, we subsequently determined potentially responsive documents may exist,” the FBI wrote to Judicial Watch in a letter on Aug. 10. The FBI wrote that the request had been “reopened” and is “currently in the process of searching for any responsive material.”
The tarmac meeting fueled Republican complaints at the time that Lynch had improperly met with the husband of an investigation subject, just before the probe into Hillary Clinton's personal email use was completed with no charges filed.
Fired FBI Director James Comey, in Senate testimony in June, described that tarmac meeting as problematic.
COMEY SAYS LYNCH TARMAC MEETING, DIRECTIVE TO DOWNPLAY PROBE PROMPTED HIM TO GO ROGUE ON CLINTON CASE
Congressional Republicans have called for a second special counsel to investigate Comey, Lynch and Clinton.

FBI cites black extremists as new domestic terrorist threat

In a leaked FBI counterterrorism report, "black identity extremist" or BIE are described as a domestic threat for motivating attacks against law enforcement. Critics say the government report is racist, targeting African Americans, while the FBI stands by its findings.

The 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., has spawned a violent domestic threat from “black identity extremists” who have stepped up attacks on police, according to an explosive new report by the FBI’s counterterrorism division.

The warning, first reported by Foreign Policy magazine, says that “it is very likely BIEs proactively target police and openly identify and justify their actions with social-political agendas commensurate with their perceived injustices against African Americans ...”

Brown, an African-American 18-year-old, was shot in August 2014 after struggling with white police officer Darren Wilson. Although Brown's supporters claimed it was a deadly case of police brutality, Wilson was cleared of wrongdoing and resigned in November 2014.

Hours before Michael Brown's fatal confrontation with a police officer in Ferguson, Mo., he was seen on a surveillance camera in a nearby store.  (Reuters)

Police officials said that Wilson stopped Brown after getting a call about a robbery at a convenience store in which the clerk was strong-armed after the suspect – with whom Brown was a match -- attempted to leave.
Wilson and Brown got into a scuffle as Brown reportedly reached for the police officer’s gun, and Wilson then gave chase, shooting him. Brown's family said he had his hands up when he was shot, police said it was untrue.
The shooting led to protests in Ferguson that then spread to other parts of the country. It gained added momentum after subsequent racially charged police shootings, spurred on via social media and the group Black Lives Matter.
The FBI report said that the agency previously had analyzed the potential for violence of black identity extremism, a term that was unfamiliar before it appeared in the document. What has changed, according to the report, is that violence has now actually occurred and is 'likely" to continue.

Micah Johnson killed five law enforcement officers in Dallas on July 7, 2016, during a protest over two fatal police shootings of black men.  (Associated Press)

“It is very likely that BIEs’ perceptions of unjust treatment of African-Americans and the perceived unchallenged illegitimate actions of law enforcement will inspire premeditated attacks against law enforcement over the next year,” the report said. “It is very likely additional controversial police shootings of African-Americans and the associated legal proceedings will continue to serve as drivers for violence against law enforcement.”
Attacks in which police officers are targeted have been on the rise in recent years. The most high-profile such incident occurred last year in Dallas, when a gunman named Micah Johnson hid in a parking garage and fired on 11 police officers, killing five of them, during a protest against officer-involved shootings. The FBI report noted that Johnson referred to anger over police shootings and toward whites as what drove him to kill the five police officers.

Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson said he believes a new FBI report represents racial profiling.  (Associated Press)

The FBI report drew accusations of racial profiling.
DeRay Mckesson of Black Lives Matter told The Guardian the terrorism report echoes the days when the FBI tracked activist groups including the NAACP and those that opposed wars.
“We knew that we were likely being watched,” said Mckesson, a longtime critic of government monitoriing of protest groups. “This is confirmation that the work of social justice continues to threaten those in power.”
The Guardian also quoted an unnamed source it described only as a former senior official from the Department of Homeland Security saying that the category "black identity extremist" was troubling.

Police officer Darren Wilson during his medical examination after he fatally shot Michael Brown, in Ferguson, Mo.  (The Associated Press)

"This is a new umbrella designation that has no basis," the source is quoted as saying. "There are civil rights and privacy issues all over this."
But others say that the FBI is correctly sounding an alarm about a serious trend.
"It's not racial profiling, it's violence profiling," Scott Walter, president of Capital Research Center, a conservative think tank, told Fox News. "Identity politics can kill, whether it's white identity politics, which killed in Charlottesville, or black identity politics, which kills cops."
"We have to be able to distinguish between free speech and violence," Walter said. "[Many] longtime [black] activist groups were not obsessed with violence."

Randy Sutton, a former Las Vegas law enforcement official who now is the national spokesman for Blue Lives Matter, told Fox News that the FBI report makes official what he and others in police work have been observing in recent years.
"Nobody is saying anything negative about protests," Sutton said, "Protesting is everyone's right. This is about commiting acts of violence. Many Black Lives Matter protests call for violence against police, with chants like 'What do we want?' and 'Dead cops!' It's terrorism, and it's no different than Islamic terrorism."
Sutton said the rising number of ambush attacks on police has had a chilling effect on how they do their jobs.
"Police are not being as aggressive because of the political climate," he said. "There's been a dramatic decrease in proactive policing."

Haqqani captors killed child, raped wife, Canadian ex-hostage says

After landing in Canada with his family Friday night, Canadian ex-hostage Joshua Boyle told reporters some frightening news about his family's ordeal in Afghanistan.

He said the Haqqani network, which held him and his wife captive for five years, had killed his infant daughter in captivity and raped his wife.

Boyle landed in Canada late Friday with his American wife and three young children.
The couple was rescued Wednesday, five years after they had been abducted by the Taliban-linked extremist network while in Afghanistan as part of a backpacking trip.
Coleman was pregnant at the time and had four children in captivity. The birth of the fourth child had not been publicly known before Boyle appeared before journalists at the Toronto airport.

"The stupidity and evil of the Haqqani network's kidnapping of a pilgrim and his heavily pregnant wife engaged in helping ordinary villagers in Taliban-controlled regions of Afghanistan was eclipsed only by the stupidity and evil of authorizing the murder of my infant daughter," he said.
Boyle said his wife was raped by a guard who was assisted by his superiors. He asked for the Afghan government to bring them to justice.
He said he was in Afghanistan to help villagers "who live deep inside Taliban-controlled Afghanistan where no NGO, no aid worker and no government has ever successfully been able to bring the necessary help."

Ex-hostage Joshua Boyle speaks to reporters after arriving in Toronto, Oct. 13, 2017. Boyle, his wife Caitlin Coleman, and their three children landed in Canada after being held hostage in Afghanistan.  (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via Associated Press)

On the plane from London, Boyle provided a written statement to the Associated Press saying his family has "unparalleled resilience and determination."
Coleman, who is from Stewartstown, Pa., sat in the aisle of the business class cabin wearing a tan-colored headscarf.
She nodded wordlessly when she confirmed her identity to a reporter on board the flight. In the two seats next to her were her two elder children. In the seat beyond that was Boyle, with their youngest child in his lap. U.S. State Department officials were on the plane with them.
The handwritten statement that Boyle gave the AP expressed disagreement with U.S. foreign policy.
"God has given me and my family unparalleled resilience and determination, and to allow that to stagnate, to pursue personal pleasure or comfort while there is still deliberate and organized injustice in the world would be a betrayal of all I believe, and tantamount to sacrilege," he wrote.
He nodded to one of the State Department officials and said, "Their interests are not my interests."
He added that one of his children is in poor health and had to be force-fed by their Pakistani rescuers.

The family was able to leave from the plane with their escorts before the rest of the passengers. There was about a 5- to 10-minute delay before everyone else was allowed out.
Dan Boyle, Joshua's younger brother, said outside the family home in Smith Falls, Ontario, that he had spoken to his brother a few times in the past few days.
"He's doing very well. He sounds a lot like how he sounded five years ago. He sounds like he had his head on his shoulders and his wits about him," he said.

The Canadian government said in a statement they will "continue to support him and his family now that they have returned."

Linda and Patrick Boyle, parents of Joshua Boyle, speak to reporters outside their home in Smiths Falls, Ontario, Oct. 12, 2017.  (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press via Associated Press)

"Today, we join the Boyle family in rejoicing over the long-awaited return to Canada of their loved ones," the Canadian government said.
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesman Nafees Zakaria said the Pakistani raid that led to the family's rescue was based on a tip from U.S. intelligence and shows that Pakistan will act against a "common enemy" when Washington shares information.
U.S. officials have long accused Pakistan of ignoring groups like the Haqqani network, which was holding the family.

A U.S. national security official, who was not authorized to discuss operational details of the release and spoke only on condition of anonymity, said the U.S. obtained actionable information, passed it to Pakistani government officials, asked them to interdict and recover the hostages -- and they did.
On Friday, President Donald Trump, who previously warned Pakistan to stop harboring militants, praised Pakistan for its "cooperation on many fronts." On Twitter, he wrote that the U.S. is starting to develop "a much better relationship with Pakistan and its leaders."

The operation appeared to have unfolded quickly and ended with what some described as a dangerous raid, a shootout and a captor's final, terrifying threat to "kill the hostage." Boyle told his parents that he, his wife and their children were intercepted by Pakistani forces while being transported in the back or trunk of their captors' car and that some of his captors were killed. He suffered only a shrapnel wound, his family said.

U.S. officials did not confirm those details.

A U.S. military official said that a military hostage team had flown to Pakistan on Wednesday prepared to fly the family out. The team did a preliminary health assessment and had a transport plane ready to go, but sometime after daybreak Thursday, as the family members were walking to the plane, Boyle said he did not want to board, the official said.

Boyle's father said his son did not want to board the plane because it was headed to Bagram Air Base and the family wanted to return directly to North America. Another U.S. official said Boyle was nervous about being in "custody" given his family ties.

He was once married to Zaynab Khadr, the older sister of former Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr and the daughter of a senior al-Qaida financier. Her father, the late Ahmed Said Khadr, and the family stayed with Osama bin Laden briefly when Omar Khadr was a boy.

The Canadian-born Omar Khadr was 15 when he was captured by U.S. troops following a firefight and was taken to the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay. Officials had discounted any link between that background and Boyle's capture, with one official describing it in 2014 as a "horrible coincidence."

The U.S. Justice Department said neither Boyle nor Coleman is wanted for any federal crime.

U.S. officials call the Haqqani group a terrorist organization and have targeted its leaders with drone strikes. But the group also operates like a criminal network. Unlike the Islamic State group, it does not typically execute Western hostages, preferring to ransom them for cash.

The Haqqani network had previously demanded the release of Anas Haqqani, a son of the founder of the group, in exchange for turning over the American-Canadian family. In one of the videos released by their captors, Boyle implored the Afghan government not to execute Taliban prisoners, or he and his wife would be killed.

U.S. officials have said that several other Americans are being held by militant groups in Afghanistan or Pakistan.

They include Kevin King, 60, a teacher at the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul who was abducted in August 2016, and Paul Overby, an author in his 70s who had traveled to the region several times but disappeared in eastern Afghanistan in mid-2014.

The family had left Pakistan on a commercial flight after Boyle reportedly balked at taking a U.S. plane out of Pakistan, fearing that his background could land him in the American detention center at Guantanamo Bay.

Steve Bannon recruiting rabble-rousers to take on GOP establishment

"Nobody's safe," former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon says about the Republican Party establishment. "We're coming after all of them." Bannon is pictured in the White House, Jan. 28, 2017.  (Reuters)

When Steve Bannon left the Trump administration in August, he said he could do more to shake up Washington from outside the White House than from inside.

Now, it looks as if Bannon's plan is coming together.

Bannon has been recruiting and promoting challengers to GOP incumbents and the party's preferred candidates in next year's midterm elections.
It's an insurgency that could give Washington the jolt it needs to end years of stagnation and gridlock -- and get the U.S. moving again.
But it could also imperil Republican majorities in the House and Senate.
The emerging Bannon class of rabble-rousers share limited ideological ties but have a common intent to upend Washington and knock out Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., standard-bearer of the establishment.
It's a crop of candidates that unnerves a GOP that lost seats -- and a shot at the Senate majority -- in 2010 and 2012 with political novices and controversial nominees and fears a stinging repeat in 2018.
"The main thing that binds them together is a rejection of the Republican Party establishment, a rejection of the political elites, the financial elites and the media elites," said Andy Surabian, a former Bannon aide and senior adviser to the pro-Trump PAC Great America Alliance.

"The main thing that binds them together is a rejection of the Republican Party establishment, a rejection of the political elites, the financial elites and the media elites."

- Andy Surabian, senior adviser to the Great America Alliance, a pro-Trump political action committee

Bannon helped elevate twice-suspended Judge Roy Moore, who won an Alabama runoff over McConnell's pick, Sen. Luther Strange.
Moore was removed from office for refusing to remove a Ten Commandments monument from Alabama's judicial building and then suspended for insisting probate judges refuse same-sex couples marriage licenses.
Moore faces Democrat Doug Jones in a December election where polls show a single-digit lead for the Republican, a remarkable development in Attorney General Jeff Sessions' heavily GOP state.
"We don't have leadership. We have followership," Moore said Friday at the Values Voter Summit where he argued for scrapping the health care law with no replacement.
In West Virginia, the grassroots conservative group Tea Party Express endorsed Patrick Morrissey, also a Great America Alliance choice, over establishment favorite Rep. Evan Jenkins in a competitive race to unseat Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin.
Senate Republicans had been upbeat about adding to their 52-48 majority, especially with Democrats defending more seats in 2018, including 10 in states Trump won in last year's presidential election. But the Bannon challenge could cost them, leaving incumbents on the losing end in primaries or GOP candidates roughed up for the general election.
Consider Mississippi, where state Sen. Chris McDaniel lost to veteran Sen. Thad Cochran in 2014, but is weighing a bid next year against Roger Wicker, the state's other senator in the national legislature.
McDaniel misdefined "mamacita," the Spanish word for mommy as "hot mama," and said he would withhold his tax payments if the government paid reparations for slavery. He also was forced to denounce a supporter who photographed and posted an image of Cochran's bed-ridden wife.
He argued in court that his 2014 loss was due in part to African Americans fraudulently voting in the primary. He's back again and speaking in Bannon terms.
"They will do anything, they will say anything, to just maintain a hold on power," McDaniel said in an Associated Press interview about McConnell and his allies.
He's already envisioning the theme of a challenge against Wicker.
"On one side, a liberty-minded, constitutional conservative. On the other side, Wicker and McConnell," he said.
In Arizona, former state Sen. Kelli Ward, who is challenging Trump antagonist Sen. Jeff Flake, remains known for entertaining the debunked theory that jet aircraft are used to intentionally affect the weather or poison people.
In 2015, she gave conflicting answers about her beliefs after holding a public hearing she said was to answer constituents' questions. But John McCain used it to marginalize her in his winning GOP Senate primary against her, and McConnell reprised it in August in a web ad which referred to her as "chemtrail Kelli."
Former New York Rep. Michael Grimm, who spent eight months in prison for federal tax evasion, is challenging two-term Rep. Dan Donovan -- with the encouragement of Bannon.
In announcing his candidacy, Grimm was apologetic for his conviction. Still out there are viral videos of him famously telling a television reporter during an on-camera interview at the U.S. Capitol after a question he didn't like: "You ever do that to me again, I'll throw you off this (expletive) balcony."
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., is sticking with the incumbent: "I support Dan Donovan, plain and simple," Ryan said this week.
But he stopped short of suggesting Bannon stand down. "It's a free country," he said.
In Nevada, Bannon is encouraging Republican Danny Tarkanian in his challenge to GOP Sen. Dean Heller. Tarkanian, son of famed basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian, is zero-for-five in state and federal elections.
These outsiders share strong opposition to increasing the nation's debt even if it means an economy-rattling default and unsparing criticism of congressional Republicans, especially McConnell, for failing to dismantle the Obama-era health care law, an unfulfilled seven-year-old promise.
In Wyoming, Erik Prince, founder of security contractor Blackwater, is considering a Republican primary challenge to Sen. John Barrasso, a senior member of the Senate GOP leadership team. Bannon has urged Prince, brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, to run.
Bannon has given at least one Senate incumbent -- Texas Sen. Ted Cruz -- a pass, but others are in his cross-hairs.
"Nobody's safe. We're coming after all of them," Bannon said during a Fox News interview Wednesday. "And we're going to win."

Liberal Academy Awards Cartoons

Weinstein scandal has Democrats in a bind – can they afford to cut their celebrity messengers loose?

Last year at the 89th Annual Academy Awards, then-Vice President Joe Biden walked on stage to a standing ovation to introduce Lady Gaga. He gave a passionate speech on the topic of campus sexual assault, about the need to speak up and “intervene in situations when consent has not or cannot be given.”

In 2013, Michelle Obama appeared at the Oscars via satellite from the White House decked in full evening gown and flanked by U.S. military service members to announce the winner of the best picture Oscar, which just so happened to go to director Ben Affleck’s “Argo.”

These are just two of the most prominent examples of how closely the Obama administration – and with it, the Democratic Party – has been tied to Hollywood, using them as messengers to push their agenda out to the mass public.

The late night hosts who only last week were happy to help Chuck Schumer push the Democrats’ gun control message are suddenly mute when it comes to Weinstein. And this is exactly where the Democrats find themselves in a bind. The party has depended on celebrity messaging for eight years.

It’s also the reason why Democrats can’t easily undo their connections to the sexual assault scandal involving super mogul Harvey Weinstein that is currently rocking the foundations of the industry.
Weinstein once stated that Hollywood “has the best moral compass, because it has compassion” – and for the past eight or so years, the Democratic Party has embraced Weinstein and his philosophy on Hollywood.
The flirtations between the party and Hollywood were not simply brief cameos at awards shows. President Obama used Hollywood to push almost every social action program his administration rolled out.
On ObamaCare, he enrolled the likes of Lebron James in a promotional video, Bill Murray in an Oval Office visit, and his famous “Between Two Ferns” appearance with Zach Galifianakis. Several celebrities, including Amy Pohler, Connie Britton, Olivia Wilde and Lady Gaga, Mark Ruffalo, Alyssa Milano and Mia Farrow participated in hashtag campaigns to “#GetCovered”. Liberal news outlet Mother Jones was kind enough to cull most of them into one piece.
When Obama wanted to give the impression he was tackling prison reform, he went to HBO and Vice. On Opioid abuse, he enlisted pop rapper Macklemore and MTV to film a video at the White House. Tom Hanks wrote about the virtues of free community college for the New York Times. Christina Hendricks was invited by the White House to speak at a family values summit. Alison Janney of West Wing fame cameoed to a twitterpated White House press corps.
On the Iran Deal, Obama enlisted Morgan Freeman as well as comedian and nuclear physicist Jack Black. Saturday Night Live, which refused to address the Weinstein scandal altogether last weekend, sang “To Sir With Love” to send Obama off into the sunset after eight years of Hollywood doting. By the end of his term, Obama had gone full Hollywood, appearing with Jerry Seinfeld simply for the fun of it.
This was why, despite very few actual legislative accomplishments, Obama’s presidency always felt more relevant in the moment than perhaps it actually was. It was so intertwined with the same faces in our culture that we see on magazine stands, album covers, movie screens and sitcoms. Obama always felt fresh and cool among the Hollywood elite, despite his party being decimated out from underneath him in consecutive congressional wave elections.
Obama and his administration wanted to be as much a part of Hollywood as Hollywood wanted to be a part of him. This was his chosen path to push his agenda -- through the people in culture with the loudest microphones whom he felt could influence the largest number of people to fall in line with his ideas.
Hillary Clinton tried to mimic this same strategy with her campaign, enlisting athletes, TV stars and pop stars to help drag her over the finish line. Clinton chose high-priced Hollywood fundraisers at the homes of stars like Gwenyth Paltrow over campaign stops in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Names such as George Clooney (also a personal friend of the Obamas), Ben Affleck and Matt Damon offered public support. Clooney alone raised $1.5 million for Clinton at a fundraiser in April of last year, with such names as Spielberg and Katzenberg in attendance.
Clinton regularly appeared on the campaign trail next to celebs such as Jay Z (a personal friend of Weinstein’s) and Beyoncé. Lena Dunham appeared with her in Ohio (a state she lost), as did the cast of the long defunct “West Wing.” Katy Perry was a Clinton campaign staple, even outfitting herself in dresses with Hillary’s slogan and logos. Actress Elizabeth Banks appeared at the Democratic Convention this past year, expertly mocking Donald Trump’s strobe light spaceship entrance onto the stage.
None of this, it seems, worked against Trump – who was able to tap into the forgotten voters of the rural rustbelt. These are the voters who don’t much care what Jimmy Kimmel or Sean Penn or Leonardo DiCaprio are preaching to them about the Earth’s climate or gun control – maybe because they’re more worried about the fact that they can’t afford their health care premium and have to use money to pay for their ObamaCare tax penalty that they could have used to fix their house, or car, or take their family on a vacation instead.
In fact, it seems the more Democrats have depended on Hollywood stars to sell their message, the more that most of the middle class in the middle of the country have tuned them out as their legislative and electoral majorities shrink.
Actress Alyssa Milano and other entertainment types campaigned actively for Democrat John Ossoff, who lost a money-soaked election in Georgia’s 6^th District in June. Hollywood was also vocal in Montana’s May congressional election, where Republican Greg Gianforte coasted to victory, even after being charged for assaulting a reporter only days before.
The question now, heading into 2018 and 2020, is where does the party go without its celebrity base – which they have almost no choice but to shun in the fallout surrounding Harvey Weinstein and Hollywood’s pathetically lame (and delayed) response to the “open secret” (according to many) of his decades-long sexual exploitation of women.
Weinstein’s connections run deeper than simple campaign donations. Weinstein sold influence. He was so “in” among the Democratic Power Base that President Obama felt comfortable enough allowing his teenage daughter to intern for his film company. For the Democrats and their party, hoping to catch the coattails of the Obama cool they’ve been severely lacking since his exit, severing their connections to an industry facing a crisis of character will be easier said than done.
The late night hosts who only last week were happy to help Chuck Schumer push the Democrats’ gun control message are suddenly mute when it comes to Weinstein. And this is exactly where the Democrats find themselves in a bind. The party has depended on celebrity messaging for the better part of eight years, and were clearly planning to depend on it heading into the 2018 and 2020 elections (remember Maxine Waters appearing to raucous applause as a voice of The Resistance™ at the MTV Movie Awards?).
But the days of happy backslapping with Ben Affleck and George Clooney are coming to an end for a party that now has to distance itself from celebrity-spokespeople who were content to lecture the rest of the country about their religion, their guns or their politics – but who couldn’t seem to bring themselves to clean up their own house by calling out one of their closest friends and business colleagues for preying upon vulnerable young women – for years.

If the Democrats were a smart party – and they’ve done nothing of late to suggest that they are – they would be huddling in offices around the parts of the country they lost, devising a plan of action on how to move on without Hollywood spokespeople who will do nothing but remind voters of their association with Weinstein.
Distancing themselves from Hollywood and Weinstein could, in fact, ultimately be a gift to a decimated party flailing for a message beyond symbolic resistance. It could force Democrats to get back to the dirty work of organizing at a grassroots level and focusing on a message that appeals to that big useless chunk of land between Los Angeles and New York.
But just as it was apparently evident with Harvey Weinstein, the rest of Hollywood isn’t particularly good at taking “no” for answer.

The GOP Congress needs to pass tax reform -- or face primaries. Voters have had enough

The American people are frustrated and rightly so. Tens of millions of Americans came together and elected the ultimate political outsider Donald Trump president of the United States in 2016.  This was a continuation of the message sent by voters in 2010 and again in 2014 that Washington, D.C., is broken.  

Now nine months into the reform-minded Trump administration, that feeling of frustration is palpable and growing with each day.   It’s growing because Republican leaders in Congress can’t seem to get their act together to keep their promises to the American people and pass the president’s conservative reform agenda.  The Republican majority is Congress is not enormous but it’s large enough to pass the big ticket items that virtually every member of the House and Senate caucuses has supported and campaigned on over the years.

Republicans across the board have been in agreement on the need to repeal and replace the disaster that is ObamaCare for seven years.  Now it appears that senators like John McCain would rather stab their constituents in the back than make good on a campaign promise.  John McCain doesn’t like President Trump and everyone knows it, but he let his spite get in the way of doing what is right for America.  Senator McCain’s decision to oppose Graham-Cassidy and kill Republican health care efforts smacks of a typical career Washington politician who has become a poster boy for congressional term limits. The American people are sick and tired of politicians who say one thing and do another.
I sincerely hope that history does not repeat itself with tax reform.  Republican Senator Bob Corker has long supported tax reform for his overtaxed constituents in Tennessee.  His constituents sent him to Washington to now deliver on the conservative agenda that eluded them during the Obama years.  Tennesseans delivered their electoral votes to Donald Trump with an overwhelming 61 percent of the vote.
Tennesseans want Senator Corker and the Republican majority in Congress to pass tax reform this year.  Presidents and Senators of the same party can have public spats, but at the end of the day, the agenda and promises made to the people must carry the day.  There is a direct correlation between how much of President Trump’s agenda Congress can pass with how many incumbents will face conservative primary challenges around the country in 2018.  The American people have had enough; get something done that you promised us or we’re going to find someone to take your place.  It’s common sense.
Incumbent Republicans in Congress need something to run on and I would recommend tax reform.  Your constituents demand it and will appreciate it.  This is America after all, where hard work and success are rewarded. 

John Kelly declares ‘I’m not quitting,’ in surprise briefing appearance

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly made a surprise appearance at Thursday's press briefing to assure reporters that he is "not quitting" and is "not frustrated" in the job -- in an apparent swipe at rampant media reports. 

Among them was a Vanity Fair report saying he's struggling in the position, and his relationship with President Trump is "irreparable." 

But Kelly told reporters he's staying put.
“I’m not quitting today. I don’t think I’m being fired today. I am not so frustrated in this job that I am thinking of leaving,” Kelly told reporters, adding he is “not frustrated.” “I will tell you this is the hardest job I’ve ever had.”
Kelly added that, “Unless things change, I’m not quitting. I’m not getting fired and I don’t think I’ll fire anyone tomorrow.”
The appearance was highly unusual -- as such special appearances at the White House briefings typically involve Cabinet secretaries or White House officials discussing a specific policy or emergency response effort.
Kelly told reporters that he decided not to do “too much press” until he got his “feet off the ground.”

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly takes questions from the media while addressing the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, U.S., October 12, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque - HP1EDAC1F1Q8V

He took questions from the press on a variety of issues, but repeatedly took issue with media reports on the internal tensions in the administration, even as he joked and sparred with the White House press corps.
The former Marine general and secretary of the Department of Homeland Security told reporters that his “only frustration” was reading news that is “just not true.”
“My only frustration, with all respect to people in the room, is to come to work and read about things I allegedly said or Mr. Trump allegedly said and it’s just not true,” Kelly said, echoing the president’s “fake news” mantra. “And I mean no disrespect to you all.”
Kelly went on to address reports that he is having trouble 'controlling' the president, saying he was "not brought to this job to control" Trump's tweets.
"I was not brought to this job to control anything but the flow of information to our president," Kelly said, noting that he thinks the president is a "decisive guy" and a "very thoughtful man."
"I restrict no one from going to see him," Kelly said. "I was not sent in or brought in to control him and you should not measure my effectiveness as chief of staff on what you think I should be doing."

Trump to halt ObamaCare subsidies, legal fight likely

President Donald Trump plans to halt ObamaCare subsidies, a report says. Trump is pictured after signing an unrelated executive order, May 4, 2017.  (Associated Press)

President Donald Trump plans to halt payments to insurers under the Affordable Care Act, the 2010 health care law also known as ObamaCare.

It’s the latest effort in the president’s bid to ultimately “repeal and replace” what’s considered the signature legislation of his White House predecessor.

Word of Trump’s latest plan came from two people familiar with the decision, who spoke to the Associated Press. They requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
The White House said in a statement that the Department of Health and Human Services has determined there is no appropriation for cost-sharing reduction payments to insurers under the Obamacare law.
Trump's decision was expected to rattle already-unsteady insurance marketplaces. The president has previously threatened to end the payments, which help reduce health insurance copays and deductibles for people with modest incomes, but remain under a legal cloud.
Trump has privately told at least one lawmaker that the payments may continue if a bipartisan deal is reached on heath care, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Pushback expected
The president's action will likely to trigger a lawsuit from state attorneys general, who contend the subsidies to insurers are fully authorized by federal law, and the president's position is reckless. Xavier Becerra, California’s attorney general, called the decision “sabotage,” and promised a lawsuit.
After the president’s intentions were disclosed, leading Democrats in Congress were quick to criticize the plan.
In a statement, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., predicted that Trump’s expected action would increase Americans’ health premiums by 20 percent or more.
"If these reports are true,” the Democrats said in the joint statement, referring to the president’s plans, “the president is walking away from the good-faith, bipartisan Alexander-Murray negotiations and risking the health care of millions of Americans.”
The Democrats were referring to bipartisan talks being led by Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., to seek a bipartisan agreement for funding ObamaCare subsidies and stabilizing health insurance markets.
Order to lower premiums
Earlier Thursday, Trump predicted that “millions and millions of people” would benefit from an executive order he signed Thursday to make lower-premium health insurance plans more widely available.
But the changes Trump hopes to bring about could take months or even longer. That's according to administration officials who outlined the order for reporters. The proposals may not be finalized in time to affect coverage for 2019, let alone next year.
White House domestic policy director Andrew Bremberg said that Trump still believes Congress needs to repeal and replace the Obama-era Affordable Care Act. The White House described the order as first steps.
Trump signed the order in the White House's Roosevelt Room surrounded by Vice President Mike Pence, members of his Cabinet and Congress.
Trump employed the executive order because the Republican-controlled Congress has been unable to pass a plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare.
Trump says the health care system "will get better" with his action, and the action will cost the federal government nothing.
The president says he still wants Congress repeal and replace the Obama health care law. But he says his order will give people more competition, more choices and lower premiums.

Antifa Cartoons

Conservative groups demand McConnell step down as Senate GOP leader

The leaders of several conservative groups called Wednesday for Mitch McConnell to step down as Senate majority leader, arguing the Kentucky Republican and the rest of his team should be ousted from their posts because they have not implemented the conservative agenda they promised. 

“We call on all five members of the GOP Senate leadership to step down, or for their caucus to remove them as soon as possible,” Ken Cuccinelli, the former attorney general of Virginia who now leads the Senate Conservatives Fund, said at a Wednesday press conference on Capitol Hill.

All the leaders come from anti-Republican establishment organizations with ties to the Tea Party movement. They have long been thorns in McConnell’s side and have backed conservative challengers to Republican incumbents in Senate races. They include representatives from FreedomWorks, the Tea Party Patriots and For America.
“If this was a football team, and you’d lost this many times, you’d start seriously considering firing the coaches,” said David Bozell, the president of For America.
They distributed a letter sent to McConnell, where they outlined their criticism of the GOP leadership. Some of the groups have called for McConnell’s ouster before.

The leaders of conservative groups on Wednesday called for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to step down as leader. Pictured from left to right: David Bozell, Adam Brandon, Jenny Beth Martin, Ken Cuccinelli and Brent Bozell.  (Alex Pappas/Fox News)

“You and the rest of your leadership team were given the majority because you pledged to stop the steady flow of illegal immigration,” the letter states. “You have done nothing. You pledged to reduce the size of this oppressive federal government. You have done nothing. You pledged to reduce, and ultimately eliminate the out-of-control deficit spending that is bankrupting America. You have done nothing. You promised to repeal Obamacare, ‘root and branch.’ You have done nothing. You promised tax reform. You have done nothing.”
The leaders said they aren’t backing specific lawmakers to replace McConnell and his deputies. But they offered praise to several current senators.
“If I had to pick someone, I’d love to draft like Pat Toomey maybe,” FreedomWorks President Adam Brandon said of the Pennsylvania senator. “There’s a lot of different people out there who I think could unite this caucus and actually lead on some issues.”
Asked about Georgia Sen. David Perdue, Jenny Beth Martin of Tea Party Patriots suggested she could support him as leader. “I’m from Georgia, so I’m not opposed to him,” Martin said, praising his background as a CEO before being elected to the Senate.
“Who would I select?” said Brent Bozell of the Media Research Center. “I’m not going to name a name. But I’ll tell you. It’s on one hand those that I feel comfortable with who are real conservative leaders today.”

'If this was a football team, and you’d lost this many times, you’d start seriously considering firing the coaches.'

- David Bozell, president of For America

The groups also expressed frustration with McConnell’s endorsement and support for incumbent Alabama Sen. Luther Strange in the state’s recent Republican primary. They supported Roy Moore, the former Alabama chief justice, who defeated Strange in last month’s run-off.
A spokesman for McConnell did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News.
McConnell was first elected to the Senate in Kentucky in 1984. Rising through the Republican leadership, McConnell became Senate majority leader after Republicans won control of the chamber in 2014.