Senator Kamala Harris Cartoons

Sen. Kamala Harris backs out of commencement speech at UC Berkeley

APRIL 5: Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., holds a town hall meeting in Sacramento.

U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., is heeding a boycott call by striking University of California employees and announced Monday that she will not be commencement speaker at UC Berkeley ceremonies.

Harris said she "regretfully" won't attend Saturday's spring commencement due to the labor dispute and the call for a university-wide speaker boycott. Instead, UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ will deliver the keynote address.

Harris says she wishes the estimated 5,800 students "success for the future."
Thousands of UC custodians, security guards, gardeners and other service workers began a three-day walkout on Monday to address gender pay inequalities and demand higher wages.
The Associated Press reported that officials at UC Davis Medical Center were forced to reschedule more than 100 cancer exams and 150 radiology exams.
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299 called for the strike, according to The San Francisco Chronicle. The union includes 25,000 service workers.

Senator Kamala Harris to miss UC Berkeley’s spring commencement due to ongoing labor dispute: https://t.co/V2zEmTybDT @SenKamalaHarris @KamalaHarris

— UC Berkeley (@UCBerkeley) May 7, 2018

The report said medical workers sympathetic to the strikers are set to join walkouts set for the next few days. Essential patient care will be provided, the report said. Hundreds of surgeries, however, were rescheduled.
Claire Doan, a spokesman from the UC system, said the service workers are already paid at or above the market rate and now demanding an almost 20 percent pay increase over three years.
"A disruptive demonstration will change neither UC's economic situation nor the university's position on AFSCME's unreasonable demands," Doan said.

Newt Gingrich: The ‘experts’ were wrong in 2016; they could be wrong in 2018 too

As you watch the 2018 campaign being analyzed by pundits on TV, in newspapers, and in blogs, just remember how wrong they all were in 2016.
They were wrong about candidate Donald J. Trump all through the primaries.
They were wrong about the impact of the Republican and Democratic conventions.
They were wrong throughout the fall campaign – and they kept telling us why each new headline signified the end of Trump’s candidacy.
Finally, they were wrong on Election Day, up until the actual results gave them no alternative but to accept the reality that Trump had won as a total outsider and defeated the ultimate insider – a former first lady, U.S. senator, and secretary of state.
Since then, the national media have remained ignorant of political realities. Their thinking is clouded by their hostility to the Trump presidency, their incestuous and incessant gossip about what they define as important, and their isolation from the Americans who voted for and continue to support President Trump.
At the end of last year, the elites told us there was going to be a blue wave in 2018 and that the GOP could lose the House and might lose the Senate.

Democrats unanimously voted against the tax bill. As the economy improves, they look more and more like the party of food stamps, welfare, and higher taxes.

Now, we are seeing the blue wave may be shrinking to a blue ripple. The generic congressional ballot has tightened, and the leads Democrats averaged in the December polls have been cut nearly in half. One national expert told me last week that if the election were held now, the GOP would keep control. His research indicated the GOP was leading the generic ballot in seven of the 12 Senate races.
As the benefits of the Republican tax cuts, deregulation, and growing business and consumer confidence have taken effect, approval of President Trump and support for Republicans has grown. When combined with the president’s successes in both foreign policy and trade, Americans have significantly increased their support for his presidency and agenda.
With African American unemployment at a historic low, Trump’s approval among black men jumped from 11 percent to 22 percent in the last week of April. While 22 percent is still a minority, it is a huge improvement over traditional Republican support in the black community. As the facts and the conversation continue, do not be shocked if President Trump’s reputation as the “jobs President” drives his support among African Americans significantly higher.
A lot has been made of Republican House retirements (43 at this time) but ironically, as a percentage, the Senate has a higher retirement rate among Republicans this election. Three out of eight (or 37.5 percent of) Republican senators in seats up for re-election are retiring. In fact, 88 of the 235 current GOP House members would have to retire to meet the Senate GOP percentage. At the same time, the huge number of vulnerable Senate Democrats (10) means they are also in worse shape than House Democrats (who have three leaders with a combined age of 233 years –-78-78-77).
The developing patterns reflect Democratic weaknesses as well as Republican strengths.
Democrats unanimously voted against the tax bill. As the economy improves, they look more and more like the party of food stamps, welfare, and higher taxes. Furthermore, as Hillary Clinton describes a substantial part of her party’s base as socialist, it is important to remember the Venezuelan nightmare of deprivation, the Cuban economic decay, and the deterioration of the British government-run health system are all creating a burden for advocates of socialism.
The Democratic National Committee Deputy Chair, Keith Ellison, has been associated with the openly anti-Semitic activist, Louis Farrakhan.
Other Democratic House members have launched what is essentially an atheist caucus, which will further marginalize their party. As Democrats become increasingly anti-gun, anti-male, anti-white, anti-Christian, and anti-work, it gets increasingly harder for them to build a majority.
The current, obvious Democratic Senate strategy of putting partisanship above patriotism and blocking a substantial number of Trump appointments ultimately makes most Americans very uneasy.
The hostility of the left is so extreme that it pushes people away. After the vicious attack on White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, a friend of mine commented “they are becoming the movement of hate and the party of hate.”
In California, the Democrats have passed a $0.12 gas tax increase even though they have a budget surplus. They also declared the entire state a “sanctuary state,” starting an open rebellion by a number of counties and cities. The California Democrats may be on the edge of rebuilding the state GOP through their extremism.
There are also signs of unique local Republican strengths.
The most popular governor in the country is Massachusetts Republican Charlie Baker. In fact, all of the top ten most popular governors are Republicans.
Barry Casselman, a shrewd observer of midwestern politics, has been writing for months that Minnesota is becoming competitive and former Governor Tim Pawlenty’s decision to run for his old office may create a Republican wave in the state. You can follow Casselman’s analysis here.
Under President Obama, the Democrats lost over 1,000 state and federal posts, which included congressional and state legislative seats, in addition to governorships, and of course, the presidency. That has dramatically weakened the Democratic base at the state and district levels and given Republican incumbents advantages for re-election.
This may be an amazingly volatile year.
No one knows how North Korea, Iran, or Syria will work out.
No one knows if the economy will continue to set records.
No one knows if the deep state legal assault on President Trump will end with a bang or a whimper.
Just remember this: None of the confident “experts” know either.
My sense is that Republicans will gain four to six seats in the Senate, keep control of the House, and continue to pick up governorships. This is only a guess, but one that could very much turn into a reality.
Newt Gingrich is a Fox News contributor. A Republican, he was speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. Follow him on Twitter @NewtGingrich. His latest book is "Understanding Trump."

Idaho State University loses weapons-grade plutonium capable of making a dirty bomb

FILE 2015: Nuclear waste is stored in underground containers at the Idaho Nation. A small amount of radioactive, weapons-grade plutonium about the size of a U.S. quarter is missing from an Idaho university that was using it for research, leading federal officials on Friday to propose an $8,500 fine. 

Idaho State University was fined last week for losing a small amount of radioactive, weapons-grade plutonium that is too small to make a nuclear bomb, but could be used in a dirty bomb, according to a regulatory commission.

Dr. Cornelis Van der Schyf, vice president for research at the university, blamed partially completed paperwork from 15 years ago as the school tried to dispose of the plutonium.

"Unfortunately, because there was a lack of sufficient historical records to demonstrate the disposal pathway employed in 2003, the source in question had to be listed as missing," he said in a statement to The Associated Press. "The radioactive source in question poses no direct health issue or risk to public safety."
The school, which reported the material missing on Oct. 13, was hit with an $8,500 fine and has 30 days to dispute the measure.
Victor Dricks, a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman, said the agency “has very rigorous controls for the use and storage of radioactive materials as evidenced by this enforcement action," he said of the proposed fine for failing to keep track of the material.
The agency said a school employee doing a routine inventory discovered the university could only account for 13 of its 14 plutonium sources, each weighing about the same small amount.
Idaho State University has a nuclear engineering program and works with the U.S. Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory, considered the nation's primary nuclear research lab and located about 65 miles northwest of the school.
The plutonium was being used to develop ways to ensure nuclear waste containers weren't leaking and to find ways to detect radioactive material being illegally brought into the U.S. following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the school said in an email to the AP.
The school searched documents and found records from 2003 and 2004 saying the material was on campus and awaiting disposal. However, there were no documents saying the plutonium had been properly disposed.
The last document mentioning the plutonium is dated Nov. 23, 2003. It said the Idaho National Laboratory didn't want the plutonium and the school's technical safety office had it "pending disposal of the next waste shipment."
The school also reviewed documents on waste barrels there and others transferred off campus since 2003, and opened and examined some of them. Finally, officials searched the campus but didn't find the plutonium.
The nuclear commission said senior university officials planned to return the school's remaining plutonium to the Energy Department. It's not clear if that has happened.
Energy Department officials didn't return calls seeking comment Friday.
Dricks, the commission spokesman, said returning the plutonium was part of the school's plan to reduce its inventory of radioactive material.
He said overall it has "a good record with the NRC."

Eric Schneiderman, powerful NY Democrat accused of violence against women and drug abuse, resigns as state attorney general

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced his resignation Monday night, hours after The New Yorker magazine published allegations of physical abuse and controlling behavior by four women who had romantic relationships or encounters with him.
"It’s been my great honor and privilege to serve as Attorney General for the people of the State of New York," Schneiderman said in a statement. "In the last several hours, serious allegations, which I strongly contest, have been made against me. While these allegations are unrelated to my professional conduct or the operations of the office, they will effectively prevent me from leading the office’s work at this critical time. I therefore resign my office, effective at the close of business on [Tuesday]."
It was not immediately clear who would succeed Schneiderman, a Democrat who was seeking a third term as attorney general this November and had been tipped as a possible successor to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Schneiderman was accused in the wide-ranging report -- co-written by Ronan Farrow -- of hitting and choking women without their consent, asking to use "about half" of a woman's prescription of the anti-anxiety drug Xanax, and mocking anti-gun demonstrators including parents from Sandy Hook Elementary School, the site of the 2012 shooting massacre, as "losers."
Schneiderman, long a pillar of New York's Democratic establishment and a critic of President Trump, has cast himself as a supporter of the #MeToo movement after Farrow uncovered a long list of rape and sexual harassment accusations against the now-disgraced Hollywood titan Harvey Weinstein.
WARNING: GRAPHIC DETAILS BELOW
Two of Schneiderman's accusers, Michelle Manning Barish and Tanya Selvaratnam, spoke to The New Yorker on the record to document claims that Schneiderman nonconsensually hit and choked them. A third woman who also was involved with Schneiderman told her story to the other two women, but said she was too frightened to come forward. A fourth woman said Schneiderman slapped her when she rebuffed him, but also asked to remain unidentified. The New Yorker said it vetted the third woman's allegations, and saw a photo of what the fourth woman said was her injury.
Manning Barish told the magazine that she dated Schneiderman, now 63, between the summer of 2013 and New Year's Day 2015. According to her account, Schneiderman started abusing her weeks after their relationship became physical. Though she reconciled with him after an initial incident, Manning Barish said that Schneiderman often would slap her during sex without her consent and made critical comments about her appearance.
He "would almost always drink two bottles of wine in a night, then bring a bottle of Scotch into the bedroom. He would get absolutely plastered five nights out of seven," Manning Barish said.
In one instance, she said Schneiderman told her to get a small tattoo removed from her wrist. According to her, he said the body art was inappropriate for her if she was to be a politician's wife.
According to the article, Manning Barish said Schneiderman "would be 'shaking me and grabbing my face' while demanding that she repeat such things as 'I'm a little wh---.'" On another occasion, Manning Barish says that Schneiderman told her "If you ever left me, I'd kill you."
Manning Barish said Schneiderman often asked to to refill her Xanax prescription so that he could take "about half" the pills for himself. She also said he frequently mocked her activism on behalf of progressive causes, in once instance referring to anti-gun demonstrators as "losers."
"Taking a strong woman and tearing her to pieces is [Schneiderman's] jam," she told the magazine.
The acclaimed author Salman Rushdie, who reportedly dated Manning Barish before Schneiderman did, said she told the novelist about the alleged abuse. "She called me and told me he had hit her... She was obviously very upset. I was horrified."
Selvaratnam told the New Yorker she was involved with Schneiderman between the summer of 2016 and the fall of 2017. She said that he started physically abusing her in bed and asking her to find another woman for a threesome. Schneiderman also asked her to "call him Master, and he’d slap me until I did."
"[H]e started calling me his 'brown slave' and demanding that I repeat that I was 'his property,'" Selvaratnam told the magazine.
Selvaratnam also told The New Yorker that she met with another former girlfriend of Schneiderman in February of this year. The unidentified woman told Selvaratnam that Schneiderman had slapped, choked and spat at her and also belittled her appearance.
The woman told Selvaratnam that she had told "several friends" about Schneiderman's behavior. According to The New Yorker: "A number of them advised her to keep the story to herself, arguing that Schneiderman was too valuable a politician for the Democrats to lose."
Schneiderman, a former New York state senator who was elected state attorney general in 2010, issued a statement to the magazine saying: "In the privacy of intimate relationships, I have engaged in role-playing and other consensual sexual activity. I have not assaulted anyone. I have never engaged in nonconsensual sex, which is a line I would not cross."
After the story was published, Schneiderman posted the same statement on his official Twitter account and a representative emailed the same statement when contacted for comment by Fox News.
Schneiderman's ex-wife, Jennifer Cunningham, said in a statement that "I've known Eric for nearly 35 years as a husband, father and friend. These allegations are completely inconsistent with the man I know, who has always been someone of the highest character, outstanding values and a loving father. I find it impossible to believe these allegations are true."
New York politicians from both parties, led by Cuomo, had called on Schneiderman to resign.
"No one is above the law, including New York's top legal officer," said Cuomo, who added that he would ask for an "immediate investigation" and would "proceed as the facts merit."
Actress Cynthia Nixon, who is challenging Cuomo in the Democratic primary, tweeted that Schneiderman had made "the right decision" to resign.
"The women who came forward so courageously to tell their stories and spared others from suffering are heroines," Nixon wrote. "The investigation should continue. We need to get to the bottom of the enormous culture of silence that protects those in power. We must continue to work to end this national epidemic."
Manny Alicandro, a Republican candidate for attorney general who had entered the race hours earlier, told the Associated Press that Schneiderman was "a disgrace and wholly unfit for the role of New York State's chief legal officer. I believe the accusers. He needs to resign his office effective immediately and the New York City Police Department needs to get to work."
An NYPD spokesman said the department had "no complaints on file" related to Schneiderman.
"If the NYPD receives complaints of a crime, it will investigate them thoroughly," the spokesman said.
After the story was published Monday night, Manning Barish tweeted: "After the most difficult month of my life-I spoke up. For my daughter and for all women. I could not remain silent and encourage other women to be brave for me."
In February, Schneiderman filed a civil rights lawsuit against the board of The Weinstein Company and brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein. Schneiderman alleged that top executives at the film company were aware of Harvey Weinstein’s years of alleged sexual harassment and abuse, but did nothing.
Last month, Schneiderman praised the reporting of the New Yorker and The New York Times in the Weinstein matter, which gave rise to a worldwide conversation about sexual misconduct and accusations against powerful men in media and entertainment.
"Without the reporting of the @nytimes and the @newyorker—and the brave women and men who spoke up about the sexual harassment they endured at the hands of powerful men—there would not be the critical national reckoning underway," Schneiderman tweeted on April 16. "A well-deserved honor."
Schneiderman also has been part of several efforts to push back against some of Trump's actions in the White House, like the rescinding of protection for immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children.
Last month, he urged state lawmakers to close a loophole that he said could be used to fight state charges by anyone who has received a federal pardon for similar federal charges.

Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren Cartoons

GOP outsider Blankenship emerges as factor in West Virginia Senate race, ahead of 4 state primaries Tuesday

Candidates in West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana and North Carolina made closing arguments this weekend ahead of key primaries Tuesday -- showing in many ways how Republican hopefuls are aligning behind President Trump while Democrats move to the left in more divided paths that threaten to undermine the party.
Ahead of West Virginia’s GOP primary Tuesday to unseat Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, each of the top three candidates has claimed to be the closest in ideology to Trump. Meanwhile, Don Blankenship has taken direct aim at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell -- calling him “Cocaine Mitch.” Blankenship apparently has tried to link McConnell to a 2014 news report about drugs purportedly found on a ship owned by his in-laws.
Blankenship also has accused McConnell of creating jobs for "Chinapeople" and said his "China family" has given him millions of dollars. McConnell's wife is Trump's transportation secretary, Elaine Chao, who was born in Taiwan. Her father, entrepreneur and philanthropist James S.C. Chao, was born in China.
The leading GOP candidates are state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and Rep. Evan Jenkins. They have until recently largely ignored Blankenship -- a former coal industry executive who served a year in prison in connection with the Upper Big Branch Mine explosion in West Virginia in 2010 that killed 29 workers.

Dennis Kucinich, left, and Richard Cordray are top candidates in the Ohio Democratic primary for governor.

But this weekend, Morrisey started using “robo-calls” to potential voters saying: “Convicted criminal Don Blankenship didn’t vote for President Trump and is a resident of Nevada, where he must report to his parole officer.”
On Sunday, Morrisey moved to have Blankenship disqualified from the primary for failing to submit a financial disclosure, in violation of election law and perhaps of his probation.
Blankenship’s campaign said the candidate has already spoken to his probation officer, who wasn’t concerned about the financial disclosure.
Washington Republicans have said they thought the Manchin seat was very winnable, based in part on Trump having won the state in 2016 over Democrat Hillary Clinton by 42 percentage points.
The GOP candidates in Ohio have been pushing for change. “I’m tired of the career politicians we have in Washington. That’s why I’m running,” Mike Gibbons, a Republican businessman and first-time candidate trying to unseat Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, told Fox News’ “America’s News HQ” on Saturday.
Such talk likely sounds familiar, considering Trump, a Republican, won the 2016 White House race as a successful businessman and first-time candidate vowing to “drain the swamp” of career politicians in Washington.
Trump has, however, endorsed Ohio Rep. Jim Renacci. And the president on Saturday included the four-term congressman in a public event in Cleveland.
"He’ll be fantastic,” Trump said of Renacci. "We need his vote very badly."

Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a champion of her party's "progressive" wing, is backing Richard Cordray for Ohio governor.

Gibbons, a fundraising co-chairman in Ohio for the 2016 Trump presidential campaign, also told Fox News that the largest personal donation he ever gave to a candidate went to Trump.
Trump won each of the four states holding primaries Tuesday.
In Indiana, Republicans are set to pick from three candidates who have spent much of the race praising Trump and bashing each other, in a bid to unseat Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly.
In attempts to appeal to Trump voters, they’ve adopted the president's harsh immigration rhetoric and penchant for personal insults. The candidates have even channeled Trump by assigning derisive nicknames to one another: “Lyin’ ”Todd Rokita, Luke “Missing” Messer and “Tax Hike” Mike Braun.
Ohio also has a Democratic and Republican primary to replace term-limited GOP Gov. John Kasich.
In the GOP primary, state Attorney General Mike DeWine has a double-digit lead over Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor. Both are Trump-agenda supporters.
The top Democrats in the Ohio governor’s race are former Rep. Dennis Kucinich and Richard Cordray, a former state attorney general and onetime Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director.
Kucinich is backed by Our Revolution, the self-described “next step in the Bernie Sanders' movement.” Cordray is being endorsed by Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who helped start the federal protection bureau.
Warren is a potential 2020 presidential candidate whose efforts to regulate Wall Street have made her a champion of the party’s “progressive” wing.
Sanders, an Independent Vermont senator, ran for president in 2016 as a Democrat. The self-described Democratic socialist is weighing a potential 2020 bid and would very likely compete with Warren for the Democratic Party’s most liberal wing.
Cordray on Saturday downplayed the Warren-Sanders narrative and suggested he was more concerned about connecting with voters, citing his “kitchen table” platform aiming to address concerns such as jobs and health care.
“I don’t think it represents any big split,” he told Fox News. “We’re presenting a case to voters in Ohio.”
Polls have shown the race essentially tied or Cordray having a slight lead. Race handicappers, including the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, have rated the general election contest “lean Republican,” which means the GOP has a slight edge.
Trump won Ohio in 2016 by 8 percentage points, and the state has had a Republican governor for roughly 23 of the past 27 years.
"The far left and the far right always think they are going to dominate these elections," said John Weaver, a Trump critic and top strategist to Kasich. "You may think it's wise in a primary to handuff yourself to the president. But when the ship goes down, you may not be able to get the cuffs off."
Still, primary candidates historically must appeal strongly to their bases to win, before they often try presenting more moderate platforms to win over general election voters.
In North Carolina, GOP Rep. Robert Pittenger faces a primary challenger who almost upset him two years ago. Pittenger features Trump prominently in his campaign. Challenger Mark Harris, a prominent Charlotte pastor, has tried to turn the table, saying Pittenger is a creature of Washington who refuses to help Trump "drain that swamp."
The leading Democrat for the seat is Marine veteran Dan McCready, who has raised almost $2 million, slightly more than Harris and Pittenger combined, in a district Trump won by about 12 percentage points.
Democrats must flip about two dozen Republican-held seats to reclaim a House majority, and they must do it with Republican-run legislatures having drawn many districts to the GOP's advantage.

Michelle Obama still questioning why women voted for Trump in 2016

Former first lady Michelle Obama said Saturday that she was "concerned about us as women and how we think" in the wake of Donald Trump's victory over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.

Obama was the keynote speaker at the United State of Women Summit in Los Angeles, where she was joined on stage by "Black-ish" star Tracee Ellis Ross.

"When the most qualified person running was a woman, and look what we did instead, I mean that says something about where we are," said Obama in reference to the election, in which 41 percent of all women -- and 52 percent of white women -- pulled the lever for Trump.
"If we as women are still suspicious of one another, if we still have this crazy, crazy bar for each other that we don't have for men," Obama added, "if we're not comfortable with the notion that a woman could be our president ... then we have to have those conversations with ourselves as women."
Since leaving the White House last year, Obama has emphatically denied that she will run for elected office and did so again on Saturday.
"Change starts close to home. So looking for the next person to run ... that's been our distraction," she said. "We're just going to wait for the next person to save us."
"All of us here in the room are the answer to our own problems," Obama added. "It is not finding the one right person that we think can save us from ourselves. It's us."

Illinois counties form 'sanctuaries' for gun owners to thwart state's push for gun control

Multiple rural Illinois counties have passed resolutions establishing a so-called “sanctuary” for gun owners in a bid to thwart the state legislature’s efforts to enact stricter gun control.
At least five counties declared themselves sanctuary counties for gun rights, co-opting a word that most conservatives associate with the liberal policy of ignoring federal immigration laws.
The resolutions aim to send a message to the Democratic-controlled Legislature in the state that if it passes the proposed gun bills, such as increasing the minimum age for owning a gun or a bump stock ban, the counties will instruct their employees to ignore the new laws.
“It’s a buzzword, a word that really gets attention. With all these sanctuary cities, we just decided to turn it around to protect our Second Amendment rights,” said David Campbell, vice chairman of the Effingham County Board.

“It’s a buzzword, a word that really gets attention. With all these sanctuary cities, we just decided to turn it around to protect our Second Amendment rights."

He added that around 20 other counties in Illinois have asked for copies of his county’s resolution. He also said officials in Oregon and Washington, have also asked for copies.
County officials say it’s unlikely their symbolic move will be enough to stop the state legislators from passing new gun control measures as the legislature is dominated by lawmakers from in and around Chicago, a city with rampant gun crime.
But it might be enough to make some lawmakers worried.
“I don’t think you can say, ‘I don’t agree with the law so I won’t enforce it,’” said Kathleen Willis, a Democratic state representative from suburban Chicago who sponsored some of the gun legislation. “I think it sends the wrong message.”
Bryan Kibler, the Effingham County’s top prosecutor, claims the resolutions passed by counties aren’t much different from cities such as Chicago which refused to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
By using the language of sanctuary states, the counties also draw attention to the rural-urban political divide in the state. The “downstate” areas of Illinois voted for Donald Trump while Chicago backed Hillary Clinton.
“We’re just stealing the language that sanctuary cities use,” said Kibler. “We wanted to … get across that our Second Amendment rights are slowly being stripped away.”

WH says Gina Haspel CIA nomination ‘won’t be derailed by partisan critics’ after reports she offered to withdraw

The White House is standing behind President Trump's nomination of Gina Haspel to run the CIA, saying Sunday that “partisan critics” would not torpedo the president's pick.
The administration's response came after multiple reports said Haspel offered to withdraw her nomination Friday. Fox News could not independently verify those reports.
Raj Shah, a White House spokesman, called Haspel a highly qualified nominee. “Her nomination will not be derailed by partisan critics who side with the ACLU over the CIA on how to keep the American people safe,” he said.
A senior White House official also said Sunday that Haspel will not withdraw her nomination. Meantime, a former senior intelligence official said there had been a lack of visible support from the White House until this weekend. Her confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee is set for Wednesday.
Haspel, who would be the first woman to lead the CIA, is the first career operations officer to be nominated to lead the agency in decades. She served almost entirely undercover and much of her record is classified. Many Democrats have said she should be disqualified because she was the chief of base at a covert detention site in Thailand where two terrorism suspects were subjected to waterboarding, a technique that simulates drowning.
“There has been a fascinating phenomenon over the last few weeks. Those who know the true Gina Haspel — who worked with her, who served with her, who helped her confront terrorism, Russia and countless other threats to our nation — they almost uniformly support her. That is true for people who disagree about nearly everything else. There is a reason for that,” CIA spokesman Dean Boyd told Fox News on Sunday. “When the American people finally have a chance to see the true Gina Haspel on Wednesday, they will understand why she is so admired and why she is and will be a great leader for this Agency.”
Also backing Haspel’s nomination recently was former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, during an appearance last week on “Fox and Friends.”
“If you were not in a position of authority on September 11th, you have no idea the pressures that we faced to try and make sure that this country wasn’t attacked again,” Rice said.
On the opposing side are groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union, which says she should have stood up against the interrogation practices then.
Chris Anders of the American Civil Liberties Union lamented last week: “If confirmed, Gina Haspel would be the first and only person confirmed by the Senate — we believe in its entire history — with a known operational role in using torture.”
Haspel’s vow to fight any attempt to resurrect the previous CIA program puts her in the same camp as Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who has advised Trump that he doesn’t think torture is an effective interrogation tactic. But it’s at odds with Trump, who spoke in the campaign about toughening the U.S. approach to fighting extremists and vowed to authorize waterboarding and a “hell of a lot worse.”

Al Gore Global Warming Nobel Prize Cartoons

A Nobel Prize nomination for Trump? One more nonsensical reason for the media to attack him

This past week, 18 Republican members of Congress nominated President Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to “end the Korean War, denuclearize the Korean peninsula, and bring peace to the region.” You’d think the media would applaud this potential honor – right?

Strangely enough, no.

The left-wing New York Daily News headlined its article: “Republican stooges push for Trump to win Nobel Prize as critics bash the idea.”
Lefty Splinter News ran its own tastefully understated anti-Trump headline: “Some Dumb--- Congressmen Nominated Donald Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize.”
CNN ran a piece in a similar vein: “Trump’s possible Nobel Prize nomination mocked.” It began with National Correspondent Jeanne Moos sarcastically asking, “Trump, Nobel laureate?” She then cut to comedian Dana Carvey humorously impersonating Trump during his acceptance speech: “I love prizes, I love Cracker Jacks.”
Moos followed with anti-Trump comedian Seth Meyers commenting that Trump supporters chanting “Nobel,” was “like going to a monster truck rally and chanting Pulitzer.”
CNN clearly was not pleased.
Neither was Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank, doing his impression of the better Dana – Carvey. Milbank wrote up his version of the Trump acceptance speech, but delivered it via column, without the same voice or wit. “I love Norwegians!” he wrote. “I want more immigrants from Norway and others who have the same merit-based complexion that Norwegians have.”
Everyone wanted a piece of the joke. Conan O'Brien told his TV audience: “A group of House Republicans has nominated president Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize. Yeah. As evidence they pointed out that Trump has managed to avoid an all-out war with North Korea and Melania.”
Of course, all of this quasi-news and comedy downplays a very real fact – President Trump accomplished something important.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in was among those who supported the idea of the peace prize for President Trump, saying: “It’s really President Trump who should receive it; we can just take peace,” The New York Times reported.
Back when President Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, even some in the media were stunned. “Today” Co-Host Matt Lauer (pre-scandal) called it out: “We’re less than a year into the first term of this president and there are no – I'm not trying to be, you know, rude here – no major foreign policy achievements, to date.”
Lauer was right. Obama won the Peace Prize shortly after taking office. The reason? The prize was for something he hadn’t done, "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." He was the fourth U.S. president to receive the award. Presidential wannabe Al Gore also won in 2007.
2. Brokaw Story Gets Worse: Sexual misconduct allegations escalated against former NBC anchor and current Special Correspondent Tom Brokaw. First he denied the allegations in a letter that “couldn’t be stronger,” according to The Washington Post’s Erik Wemple.
But Wemple followed by detailing the disturbing charges. He noted: “The 20-plus-year anchor of ‘NBC Nightly News’ isn’t on trial here.” Then he added, “NBC News, however, enjoys no such casual luxury.”
NBC has a major problem with transparency, a word often demanded from politicians by journalists. It had the same problem with the demotion of anchor Brian Williams. There is an identical issue involving the disastrous Joy Reid investigation at sister network MSNBC.
Brokaw was hit with back-to-back exclusives about the alleged support he received from women.
The New York Post reported how “NBC staffers felt pressured to sign letter defending Brokaw.”
Variety broke its own story about the support letter. Headlined: “NBC News Urged Its Anchors to Report on Supportive Tom Brokaw Letter.” The combination undercut any support Brokaw received from it. A third woman also said Brokaw “gave her an unwanted ‘French kiss’ some 50 years ago.”
3. Just Desserts: The 2018 White House Correspondents Dinner will long be remembered for crossing the line. The April 28 media event went mostly as planned. Predictably liberal comedian Michelle Wolf was also predictably anti-Trump. She made the first of 25 references to “Trump” just 36 words into her pathetic monologue with a porn star joke that attacked all men, not just the president.
It was like watching reruns of “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.” (Heaven help you.) For three years running, the so-called neutral White House Correspondents Association plucked its comedians from Comedy Central, the land of little-known, anti-conservative comics. Wolf was deservedly obscure, so much so that the journalist association that hired her apparently didn’t even do a background check and missed numerous offensive tweets.
When she hit the stage, journalists realized she went too far. Her attacks on White House women seemed particularly tone deaf for the #MeToo era. ABC Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl was critical. Karl is the 2019 president of the association and he called the jokes “mean-spirited.”
But this is 2018 and anti-Trump comments always have media supporters. Seth Meyers and Noah soon chimed in on Wolf’s side. Stephen Colbert joined them.
A common theme of the defense of Wolf was echoed by NBC’s “Today” Co-host Savannah Guthrie, who quoted defenders arguing that “the president has said much worse.” Of course, the president is also a partisan and Wolf was hired by so-called neutral journalists.
4. It’s Porn Star Time: The only thing CNN likes more than a porn star is her lawyer. The network spent 41 minutes ogling a strip club performance by alleged former Trump paramour Stormy Daniels in March.
The CNN reporter team rained 1,500 words and maybe a lot of dollar bills in pursuit of their “journalism.” “Screens around the club advertised Daniels' performance with revealing photos and the slogan ‘#MAGA – Make Adult Great Again,’” said reporter Hadas Gold.
If Daniels raked in the cash performing, her lawyer Michael Avenatti raked in the media coverage. Avenatti appeared on March 7 for the first time and has visited the supportive CNN team 59 times total – in just about two months. Anderson Cooper’s program accounted for 19 of those appearances.
CNN wasn’t quite done with Daniels, however. The CNN Politics Twitter account commented Thursday: “President Trump makes no mention of the porn star payment storm at the National Day of Prayer.” Neutral journalism doesn’t have a prayer some places.
CNN Editor-at-large Chris Cillizza followed up the Thursday press conference by saying President Trump “is a boss no one should be willing to work for. That includes Sarah Sanders.” His piece was headlined: “Why Sarah Sanders should quit.”
As a side note about how the media really work: Avenatti isn’t shy in the self-promotion department, allegedly pushing MSNBC for a job after the court battle is over. Interestingly, he’s had eight appearances on MSNBC in just four days.
5. Harassing a High School Student: One of the most idiotic stories of the week came courtesy of a Twitter war. Utah teen Keziah Daum was criticized for “cultural appropriation” for wearing a Chinese-style dress to her high school prom.
Twitter user Jeremy Lam gathered more than 40,000 retweets and 176,000 likes for his whine about what she wore. “My culture is NOT your g------ prom dress,” he posted. That set in motion a mob frenzy of attacks and stories, many of which got the most basic elements of the issue wrong.
The New York Times wrote: “Teenager’s Prom Dress Stirs Furor in U.S. – but Not in China.” Like many media outlets, The Times seemed to blame Daum for wearing the dress rather than Lam for his bullying reaction to what a high school student wore to prom. Yahoo wrote a similar headline: “Teen defends Chinese prom dress that sparked cultural appropriation debate: 'I would wear it again.'”
The dress didn’t “stir” or “spark” anything. That’s victim-blaming.
Cosmo, theoretically a pro-women site but really a pro-loon site, was worse. “Girl Slammed on Twitter for Culturally Appropriating Her Prom Dress Says She Would Wear it Again.” Even the Chinese admit it was “cultural appreciation, not appropriation.”
That was a point so clear that ABC’s lefty Anchor George Stephanopoulos got it right, saying: “It seems like, to me, I don’t know, on the right side of the line.”
When George thinks the left has gone too far, it’s hard to argue otherwise.

California's Orange County may play key midterm election role

David Hernandez, left, Genevieve Peters, center, and Jennifer Martinez celebrate after the Orange County Board of Supervisors voted to join the U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit against the State of California's sanctuary cities law, March 27, 2018.  (Associated Press)

Once coveted as a conservative bastion in liberal California, Orange County has become a last stand for the state's Republicans.
Chased out of much of California by Democrats who hold every statewide office and a 39-14 advantage in U.S. House seats, the state's GOP is trying to hold its ground in a historically Republican stronghold.
Republican elected officials in a string of cities and two counties — Orange and neighboring San Diego — have passed ordinances or taken other actions in opposition to the state's so-called sanctuary law, enacted by the Democratic-run Legislature in response to Trump's calls for more deportations and a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
"Orange County is undergoing the biggest political challenge we've ever had," Republican National Committeeman Shawn Steel, who lives in the county, told volunteers at the GOP headquarters.

"Orange County is undergoing the biggest political challenge we've ever had."

Ten years ago, the GOP held a 13-point edge in Orange County, but that's shriveled to 3 points while the number of independents, who tend to vote like Democrats in California, has climbed to 25 percent.
National Republican leaders, hoping to retain control of the House, have opened a 10,000-square-foot war room in an office tower near John Wayne Airport, filled with computers and phones in a last-ditch attempt to reach potential voters in the June 5 primary election.
It's in suburbs that "we are going to either hold the majority in '18, or lose the majority," said U.S. Rep. Steve Stivers, who heads the party's campaign arm in the House.

U.S. Rep. Steve Stivers heads the GOP's campaign arm in the House.  (Associated Press)

The risks are plain for Republicans in the state that is home to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi: Democrats dominate California politics, and midterm elections generally favor the party not in control of the White House.
President Donald Trump lost the state by more than 4 million votes in 2016.
Political observers say recent Democratic victories in Pennsylvania and Alabama, and House Speaker Paul Ryan's decision to retire at the end of the term makes likelier the prospect of Democrats gaining the 23 seats needed to take control of the chamber.

Rosie O'Donnell's donations to Dems exceeded limit: report

Rose O'Donnell exceeded the legal limit for campaign contributions to individual candidates, a report says.  (Associated Press)

Liberal comedian and inveterate Trump adversary Rosie O’Donnell exceeded the legal limit with campaign donations to five Democratic candidates, a new report finds.
Federal Election Commission rules dictate that an individual candidate may not receive more than $2,700 from any one person per election. (The limit applies separately to primaries, runoffs and general elections.)
The star appeared to put the onus on the candidates, not herself, to correct the alleged errors.

I don’t look to see who I can donate most to … I just donate assuming they do not accept what is over the limit

“If 2700 is the cut off – [candidates] should refund the money,” O’Donnell wrote in an email to the New York Post. “I don’t look to see who I can donate most to … I just donate assuming they do not accept what is over the limit.”

“If 2700 is the cut off – [candidates] should refund the money. I don’t look to see who I can donate most to … I just donate assuming they do not accept what is over the limit.”
- Rosie O'Donnell, in an email

O’Donnell told the paper that donating to anti-Trump candidates eases her anxiety.
U.S. Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala., who defeated accused child molester Roy Moore, disclosed receiving $4,700 in campaign donations from O’Donnell.
According to filings, O’Donnell donated $3,600 to Conor Lamb, a Democrat who in March won a special election to fill a U.S. House vacancy in Pennsylvania. O'Donnell donated an additional $1,000 for Lamb’s current campaign for a different congressional district, because of Pennsylvania's redrawn congressional map.
O’Donnell has also donated $2,950 to U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, and  $4,200 for the primary campaign of Lauren Underwood, a candidate for a U.S. House seat in Illinois.
She also donated $3,450 to Omar Vaid, a congressional candidate in a district that covers parts of Staten Island and Brooklyn in New York City, fillings cited by the Post show.
O’Donnell told the Post she donates through the online liberal fundraising platform ActBlue, which, she assumed, “limits donations to the max allowed.”
Filings show that O’Donnell has donated more than $90,000 to 50 different federal candidates and committees during the 2017-18 election cycle. 

Sarah Sanders touts Trump CIA pick Haspel, blasts 'hypocrite' Dems who oppose nominee

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted Saturday that any Democrat who doesn’t support CIA director nominee Gina Haspel is a “hypocrite.”  (Associated Press)

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders forcefully entered the debate over President Donald Trump's choice for CIA director Saturday, tweeting that any Democrat who doesn’t back nominee Gina Haspel is a “total hypocrite.”
“There is no one more qualified to be the first woman to lead the CIA than 30+ year CIA veteran Gina Haspel,” Sanders tweeted. “Any Democrat who claims to support women’s empowerment and our national security but opposes her nomination is a total hypocrite.”
Beginning Wednesday, Haspel faces a contentious confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee, ahead of what the White House acknowledges will likely be a close confirmation vote on the Senate floor.
Debate over Haspel's nomination is split between those who praise her experience and those who want her disqualified because of her role in the CIA’s harsh interrogation of terror subjects and destruction of videotapes showing waterboarding after 9/11.
Also backing Haspel's nomination recently was former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, during an appearance last week on “Fox and Friends.”
“If you were not in a position of authority on September 11^th, you have no idea the pressures that we faced to try and make sure that this country wasn’t attacked again,” Rice said.

“If you were not in a position of authority on September 11th, you have no idea the pressures that we faced to try and make sure that this country wasn’t attacked again.”

If Haspel's nomination advances to the Senate, she would need backing from at least 50 senators. In the event of a tie, Vice President Mike Pence -- in his role as president of the Senate -- would cast the deciding vote.
With the likely absence of U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who is battling brain cancer and recuperating in Arizona after recent surgery, Republicans hold a 50-49 advantage in the Senate.
McCain, 81, who was tortured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, was instrumental in getting Congress to prohibit harsh interrogation techniques, including those used on terror suspects after 9/11, and has said that any CIA nominee must pledge to uphold the ban.
Meanwhile, Sanders' Saturday tweet drew some criticism, including from U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., who objected to Sanders' linking of the Haspel vote to women’s empowerment or national security.
“Dear @PressSec: Perhaps I missed it, but I don’t see being complicit in torture as part of the agenda for either women’s empowerment or our national security.”
Walter Shaub, a former director of the U.S. Government Office of Ethics, tweeted a middle-ground response.
“@PressSec @morgfair Seems to me that people can legitimately object to her role in torture while also encouraging this administration to increase the diversity of its appointees,” Shaub tweeted.
Haspel, 61, is the first woman nominated for the CIA director position. If confirmed, she would replace former CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who was recently confirmed as U.S. Secretary of State.
Haspel, who joined the CIA in 1985, is currently the intelligence agency’s acting director.

Democrat Hypocrite Cartoons