Friday, June 15, 2018

Bill Clinton 'offended' over criticism of his tarmac meeting with ex-AG Lynch

Former President Bill Clinton (right) was “offended” by the widespread criticism of his June 2016 tarmac meeting with then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch (left)  (Getty/AP)

Former President Bill Clinton was “offended” by the widespread criticism of his June 2016 tarmac meeting with then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch days before the FBI decided it would not recommend criminal charges against his wife, he told the Justice Department’s inspector general.
“I thought you know, I don’t know whether I’m more offended that they think I’m crooked or that they think I’m stupid,” Clinton told investigators, according to the report released Thursday by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz.
The long-awaited report was released Thursday afternoon, spanning nearly 600 pages and scrutinizing the actions of numerous figures who played a key role in the Justice Department and FBI's investigation. It is the product of an 18-month review, incorporating dozens of witness interviews and hundreds of thousands of documents.
IG REPORT ON CLINTON EMAIL PROBE CALLS COMEY ‘INSUBORDINATE’
In the report, Horowitz criticized Lynch’s infamous meeting with Clinton on the Arizona tarmac, calling it “an error in judgment" as the Justice Department was investigating then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for her email practices while serving as secretary of state.
“Although we found no evidence that Lynch and former President Clinton discussed the [Clinton email] investigation or engaged in other inappropriate discussion during their tarmac meeting, we also found that Lynch’s failure to recognize the appearance problem created by former President Clinton’s visit and to take action to cut the visit short was an error in judgment,” the report states.
Lynch has claimed she and Clinton spoke of only “innocuous things” during their tarmac meeting, calling it a “chance encounter.”
But it fueled Republican complaints that Lynch had met with the husband of an investigation subject improperly, just days before the probe into her personal email server was completed with no charges filed.
Ex-FBI director James Comey has publicly taken issue with the meeting, saying it was a “deciding factor” in his decision to act alone to update the public on the status of the Clinton probe.

Thursday, June 14, 2018

Berkeley's Liberal Idiot Cartoons








Democratic House candidate pepper sprays himself to promote gun control


A Democratic congressional candidate in Colorado released a campaign ad featuring him being pepper sprayed in the eyes in a bid to encourage non-lethal self-defense tools in schools to deter gun violence.
Levi Tillemann, who’s trying to woo the voters in the upcoming party’s primary in less than two weeks, criticized President Trump’s suggestion to arm school officials and teachers with guns, claiming pepper spray is a better alternative to stop potential school shooters.
“I’m calling on Congress to stop talking past each other and try something new,” Tilleman says in the video. “Empower schools and teachers with non-lethal self-defense tools, like this can of pepper spray.”
“Empower schools and teachers with non-lethal self-defense tools, like this can of pepper spray.”
“Pepper spray doesn’t cost much and it can be safely stored in a break glass in case of emergency cabinet. But it’s powerful and won’t accidentally kill a kid,” he continued. “Trust me, this will stop anybody in their tracks.”
The Democrat then proceeded to close his eyes and began spraying the pepper spray in his face. He’s later seen trying to wash off his face by dunking his head into water and spraying himself with a hose. “It’s incredibly painful, now I can’t see anything,” he said. “Wow, that’s intense.”
Tillemann, a former Department of Energy official during the presidency of Barack Obama, made gun control the key issue of his campaign, doubling-down on his website that pepper spray should be “be made widely available as quickly as possible” for teachers and school officials to combat potential school shooters.
“The time has come to move beyond apologies and half measures and fight for real solutions to gun violence in our community. Help us win this fight,” he said.
PELOSI DEFENDS HOYER AFTER AUDIOTAPE SUGGESTS INTERFERENCE IN HOUSE RACE
This isn’t the first time Tillemann caught the attention. He secretly recorded Democratic House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer back in December, who urged him to drop out of the primary race to give way to Jason Crow, who was backed by the party’s establishment.
“Yeah, I’m for Crow,” Hoyer was reportedly recorded saying at the December meeting in a Denver hotel. “I am for Crow because a judgment was made very early on. I didn’t participate in the decision.”
He added: “But it was clear that it was our policy and our hope that, early on, try to come to an agreement on a candidate that we thought could win the general, and to give that candidate all the help we could give them.”
Tillemann’s stunt is unlikely to earn him the party’s nomination as Crow remains the leading candidate in the primary race.

Berkeley declares 'climate emergency' worse than World War II, demands 'humane' population control


The Berkeley City Council on Tuesday night declared what it called a "climate emergency" with more global significance than World War II, and demanded an immediate effort to "humanely stabilize population" and "reverse ecological overshoot."
The resolution, which invokes the global conflict between the Axis and Allies, charges that Americans bear an "extraordinary responsibility to solve the crises" facing the environment.
"[D]uring World War II, the Bay Area came together across race, age, class, gender and other differences in an extraordinary regional mobilization, building and repairing Liberty ships, converting car assembly plants into tank manufacturing facilities," the resolution reads.
A similar effort is necessary today to confront an even greater threat, according to the document.
"[W]e can rise to the challenge of the greatest crisis in history by organizing politically to catalyze a national and global climate emergency effort, employing local workers in a mobilization effort building and installing renewable energy infrastructure," the resolution says.
More than 60 million people died during World War II, according to most estimates -- a huge portion of the global population.
But according to the Berkeley City Council, another thinning of the herd might be needed.
The resolution notes that "reversing ecological overshoot and halting the sixth mass extinction requires an effort to preserve and restore half Earth’s biodiversity in interconnected wildlife corridors and to humanely stabilize population."
UC BERKELEY CONVERTS HOMELESS, DRUG-USER HAVEN INTO STUDENT HOUSING
The resolution, introduced in the ultra-progressive city by councilwoman Cheryl Davila, then invokes Pope Francis' comment that humanity is on the verge of global "suicide" and that "God's creation" is at stake.
Davila's resolution also calls for a global climate summit in San Francisco in September and a push to "educat[e] our citizens about the climate emergency."
The document's most substantial promise is for Berkeley to become a "carbon sink" by 2030 -- a term that means the city's greenhouse gas emissions will be in the negative.
In addition to population control and a national mobilization effort, according to the Berkeley City Council, residents should avoid "consumerism" and "narcissism."

Democratic House hopeful puts out ad saying he 'won't vote for Nancy Pelosi' amid GOP attacks

Clarke Tucker, a Democrat running for a congressional seat held by Republicans in Arkansas released a new television ad saying he won’t support House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi.  (Facebook/Clarke Tucker for Congress)

A Democrat running for a congressional seat held by Republicans in Arkansas released a new television ad saying he won’t support House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi in a bid to defuse Republican attacks amid the midterm election.
Clarke Tucker, a state representative who won the party’s primary last month, is set to air the anti-Pelosi ad on all four broadcast stations in the 2nd Congressional District.
The ad follows the attacks by Republican U.S. House Rep. French Hill, who accused him of being supported by Pelosi’s allies in Washington. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) reportedly propped up Tucker as he was perceived as having the best chance to win against the incumbent Congressman.
In the ad, Tucker slams Hill and assures voters that he won’t be supporting Pelosi if he gets elected.
"Congressman Hill opened his campaign by attacking me, knowing full well that I've said from day one that I won't vote for Nancy Pelosi. We're better than that," he said.
But the Hill campaign pushed back against his opponent’s efforts to distance himself from the top party leader.

French Hill Arkansas Rep. FB
Republican U.S. House Rep. French Hill criticized his opponent for being linked to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's allies.  (Facebook)

"Clarke Tucker is the hand-picked candidate of Nancy Pelosi's liberal Washington allies because they know Clarke Tucker supports higher taxes and bigger government and that French Hill will continue to champion lower taxes and a stronger economy," said Mike Siegel, a spokesman for Hill's campaign.
Tucker previously told the New York Times in March that the victory of Democrat Conor Lamb, who also opposes Pelosi, in a special election in Pennsylvania’s deep-red district validated his approach to position himself against the leadership in Washington, D.C.
He claims to have told his party in Washington that he was “very frustrated with the leadership of the House in both parties,” noting that Lamb’s seat is “a lot like the one I’m running in.” He added: “I think voters are interested in changing the leadership in Washington."
The race between Tucker and Hill will benefit from an infusion of money from Republican groups. U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton's political action committee, the Republican Majority Fund, announced Wednesday that it will spend six figures on a campaign backing the Republican candidate. The money will include mailers, online ads linking Pelosi to Tucker and TV ads at later stages of the campaign.
Tucker’s anti-Pelosi ad was first of the kind to him as his previous ads focused on health care and veterans’ issues. Democrats are targeting Hill’s seat because they believe he’s vulnerable due to his opposition to the federal health overhaul.

Giuliani denies report that Michael Cohen may cooperate with investigation


Rudy Giuliani, an attorney for President Trump, on Wednesday  tried to put to rest claims that the president's personal attorney Michael Cohen might cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.
“It’s not so. He’s not cooperating nor do we care because the president did nothing wrong,” Giuliani told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham on Wednesday night. “I am absolutely certain of that.”
Reports indicated that Cohen might have been looking for new lawyers.
When asked if the Trump team was worried that Cohen may have tape recordings that exist without their knowledge, Giuliani was firm that the president was and is “clean as a whistle.”
“Michael Cohen I think would tell you he’s got nothing incriminating with the president,” he said. Giuliani said he would be “comfortable” if Cohen chose to cooperate with authorities.
Giuliani said a greater concern is the length and the costly investigation headed by Mueller.
Giuliani maintained that there is no evidence of collusion and that the claim of obstruction of justice is completely “negated” by the fact that “the president can fire anybody he wants for any reason he wants.”
Giuliani added that despite urging the president against it, Trump “wants to testify” because he believes he “did nothing wrong” and can stand up to any line of questioning.
Giuliani estimated that the ultimate decision on whether Trump will give his testimony to Mueller will come in the next week or two.
He further clarified that “the decision” could mean “battling over a subpoena” or preparing for a “small, tailored, limited interview” with the special counsel.
“What they are talking about is they were bitter over losing the election and some of the people right in Mueller's office were the ones crying -- crying like babies the night that Hillary lost,” Giuliani said. “They are trying to delegitimize him.”

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

Keep your Friends Close and Your Enemies Closer Cartoons





Trump's Singapore summit, a first step, being trashed by many pundits


On this, perhaps, we can all agree: It is better that President Trump is talking to Kim Jong Un than exchanging threats over nuclear war.
And so the Singapore sitdown, the first ever between the leaders of America and North Korea, was a step in the right direction.
There are all kinds of legitimate criticisms to be leveled at the process. But I've really been struck by the relentless negativity of many liberal commentators. On MSNBC, Rachel Maddow and Chris Matthews went off on Trump moments after the first handshake, because he dared put his hand on Kim's back. Jeremy Bash, an Obama aide turned NBC commentator, pronounced the display of U.S. and North Korean flags "disgusting."
This much is undoubtedly true: If Barack Obama had held a groundbreaking summit with the leader of North Korea, the liberal precincts of the media would be nominating him for another Nobel Prize.
We don't have to guess about that, since they largely supported Obama's nuclear deal with Iran, from which Trump recently withdrew. (That admittedly had a whole regimen of inspections and verification, but Trump and Kim are just starting out).
And they cheered Obama's meeting with Fidel Castro and resumption of diplomatic relations with Cuba, despite the repressive nature of that regime.
Trump may have been a bit too fulsome in his praise, but there's really no dispute that Kim is an awful human being who kills and jails his opponents.
When ABC's George Stephanopoulos, scoring the first broadcast-network interview with Trump in a year, asked about Kim's "police state," with "forced starvation, labor camps, he's assassinated members of his own family," the president replied: "George, I'm given what I'm given. Okay?"
The fact is, American presidents negotiated with the old Soviet leaders, who crushed human rights, and continue to meet with China, which is also a repressive dictatorship. The world is full of bad guys. That doesn't mean the United States should refuse to engage.
The online and print coverage has followed a similar pattern. "It sure looks as if President Trump was hoodwinked in Singapore," wrote New York Times columnist Nick Kristof. "Trump made a huge concession — the suspension of military exercises with South Korea ... In exchange for these concessions, Trump seems to have won astonishingly little."
The criticism didn't all come from the left. While Salon called Singapore "Trump and Kim's Big Nothing Summit," The Weekly Standard's headline was "A Summit About Nothing": "In reality, the meeting in Singapore was no negotiation. Nor was it ever going to be one: You don't hash out the end of a 60-year conflict and the elimination of a complex nuclear weapons program over the course of 45 minutes."
That's true. It's also true that you don't eliminate a complex nuclear program without the negotiations starting somewhere.
It's easy to feel uneasy about Kim's intentions, the horrifying nature of his regime, and whether he'll ever give up his nukes. But the approaches of the last 30 years haven't worked either.
Nate Silver, the left-leaning data analyst, had a striking observation on Twitter: "90% of the punditocracy's commentary on the Singapore summit seems to be constructed with the goal of convincing people that Trump shouldn't get any credit for it—rather than rationally analyzing the merits and demerits of the 'deal.'"
Perhaps, along with a skeptical, wait-and-see attitude, the press might give the president the benefit of the doubt before pronouncing the effort a failure.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m.). He is the author "Media Madness: Donald Trump, The Press and the War Over the Truth." Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz.

California 'three states' plan OK'd for November ballot


An initiative to divide California into three states has received enough signatures to qualify it for the November ballot, the California secretary of state's office confirmed Tuesday.
The three-states campaign, dubbed “Cal-3,” submitted more than 600,000 signatures.
Tim Draper, a billionaire Silicon Valley venture capital investor, sponsored the ballot measure to divide America’s most populous state into three jurisdictions, the Mercury News of San Jose, Calif., reported.
-- California would be made up of six mainly coastal counties, including Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.
-- Northern California would include 40 counties from Santa Cruz to the Oregon border, including San Francisco and Sacramento, the state’s current capital.
-- Southern California would comprise 12 counties, including Fresno, Kern, Orange and San Diego counties.
“California government has rotted,” Draper told the Mercury News last month. “We need to empower our population to improve their government.”
“California government has rotted. We need to empower our population to improve their government.”
However, the ballot measure faces long odds.
A SurveyUSA poll found that 72 percent of registered California voters opposed the proposal, while only 17 percent support it, the report said.
Even if voters approved the plan, it would still require approval from the California Assembly and Senate, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Then the plan would have to overcome likely court challenges -- and still win approval from Congress, the Hill reported.
Steven Maviglio, a Democratic political consultant who opposes breaking up the Golden State, told the Mercury News that Draper’s initiative was taking the wrong track.
“Splitting California into three new states will triple the amount of special interests, lobbyists, politicians and bureaucracy,” Maviglio said in an email. “California government can do a better job addressing the real issues facing the state, but this measure is a massive distraction that will cause political chaos and greater inequality.”
If passed, it would be the first division of a U.S. state since 1863 when West Virginia was created, the Times reported. California, admitted to the Union on Sept. 9, 1850, has faced more than 200 attempts at boundary reconfiguration, divisions and even secession over the course of its history, the report said.
Draper previously proposed splitting the state into six separate states in 2012 and 2014, but election officials invalidated many of the signatures his campaign collected, the Hill reported.

Investor Tim Draper believes six Californias is better than one. (Reuters)
Tim Draper previously proposed splitting California into six states.

Last summer, Draper formally submitted the three-states proposal.
“Three states will get us better infrastructure, better education and lower taxes,” Draper told the Times in an email. “States will be more accountable to us and can cooperate and compete for citizens.”
Analysts from the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics predict that the new California and Northern California would be Democratic-leaning, while Southern California would be a swing state.
"This measure would cost taxpayers billions of dollars to pay for the massive transactional costs of breaking up the state, whether it be universities, parks, or retirement systems,” Maviglio told the Times.
Meanwhile, Shaun Bowler, a political science professor at the University of California at Riverside, told the Mercury News that “this isn’t as easy or straightforward as its supporters want to make out.”
But Draper remains optimistic.
“These three states,” Draper told the Mercury News last month, “create hope and opportunity for Californians.”

Republicans push for House vote to force DOJ to release documents on Trump investigation


Republican lawmakers on Tuesday said that they will be pushing for a vote on a resolution that compels the Department of Justice to cease the delays and finally release all remaining documents related to the Trump campaign probe.
Reps. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., and Jim Jordon, R-Ohio, both members of the House Freedom Caucus, told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham that they will push for a vote on the resolution, which will be filed on Wednesday, that would encourage Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to comply with their requests at the House intelligence committee.
“It's all about compelling DOJ to turn over documents so we could do proper oversight. If they have nothing to hide, turn over the documents,” Meadows said on “The Ingraham Angle.”
"It's all about compelling DOJ to turn over documents so we could do proper oversight. If they have nothing to hide, turn over the documents."
Jordan said the resolution is different from other the committee requests because it would come from the entire Congress.
“[It’s] one thing for us to say, one thing for the chairman of subpoena – it's another thing if the House of Representatives would actually go on record and say, 'Mr Rosenstein, we as the House, a majority of the House, say you're not giving us the information we need,” he said.
ROSENSTEIN THREATENED TO ‘SUBPOENA’ GOP-LED COMMITTEE IN ‘CHILLING’ CLASH OVER RECORDS, EMAILS SHOW
The resolution comes in the wake of a bombshell report that Rosenstein threatened to “subpoena” emails, phone records and other documents from lawmakers and staff on a Republican-led House committee during a meeting earlier this year.
The reviewed emails recalled a January 2018 closed-door meeting involving senior FBI and Justice Department officials and members of the House Intelligence Committee.
“The DAG [Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein] criticized the Committee for sending our requests in writing and was further critical of the Committee’s request to have DOJ/FBI do the same when responding,” the committee's then-senior counsel for counterterrorism Kash Patel wrote to the House Office of General Counsel. “Going so far as to say that if the Committee likes being litigators, then ‘we [DOJ] too [are] litigators, and we will subpoena your records and your emails,’ referring to HPSCI [House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence] and Congress overall,” the email added.
The Republican-led intelligence committee is seeking a vast array of documents related to the potential abuses of intelligence and memos that kick-started the investigation into the Trump campaign and whether it colluded with the Russian government.
NUNES SETS DEADLINE FOR DOJ TO PROVIDE DOCUMENTS ON ALLEGED FBI INFORMANT, CLAIMING ‘OBSTRUCTION’
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., sent a letter last week to Rosenstein demanding to the requested documents concerning the FBI's alleged informant looking into any Russian ties to President Trump's 2016 campaign.
"DOJ continues to obfuscate and delay its production using an array of tactics, such as incorrectly categorizing the requested documents as Gang-of-Eight-level material in order to limit access," wrote Nunes, referring to an April 30 subpoena for the documents.
The so-called Gang-of-Eight refers to Republican and Democratic leaders in both houses of Congress as well as top lawmakers from the intelligence panels. "Such conduct by DOJ is unacceptable because the Gang-of-Eight is a legal fiction that has no basis outside of the confines of Presidential approval and reporting of covert actions.”

Trump-basher Mark Sanford, who president called 'nothing but trouble,' ousted in key South Carolina primary


Incumbent Republican South Carolina Rep. Mark Sanford, a frequent Trump critic who the president lambasted earlier in the day as "nothing but trouble" and "very unhelpful," was ousted in Tuesday night's primary by state Rep. Katie Arrington.
On a key primary night with elections also held in Maine, Virginia, Nevada and North Dakota, the results in South Carolina were an unmistakably positive referendum on President Trump's tenure.
Arrington's shock win was also a dramatic rebuke of Sanford's heated "Never Trump"-style rhetoric and scandal-pocked career. It signaled that the president's base in the state remains solidly behind him ahead of November's midterm elections, despite withering criticism from both inside and outside the Republican party.
State Rep. Katie Arrington, a relative political newcomer who secured Trump's backing, repeatedly bashed Sanford for deriding the president and even ran advertisements featuring video clips of Sanford's Trump criticisms.
ALSO ON TUESDAY: PRO-TRUMP FIREBRAND WINS IN VIRGINIA SENATE PRIMARY

Mark Sanford, a frequent Trump critic, went head-to-head in Tuesday's South Carolina primary with Trump backer Katie Arrington, a relative political newcomer.  (Sanford state portrait, Arrington campaign photo)

Earlier Tuesday, as the ballots were being counted, Sanford acknowledged in an interview that his criticisms of Trump had hurt him in the primary.
“Well I think it has probably hurt me in this race," he said. "But again, there are no free lunches in life.  I think there are times I have had to oppose the president because of stands I have had for a long time."
The coastal 1st Congressional District is Republican-leaning, but contains sizable liberal pockets such as Charleston County, which went for Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Sanford has warned that Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs will be "disastrous," called the president intolerant and untrustworthy, and even appeared to blame him for the shooting at a Republican congressional baseball practice last year.
"I would argue that the president has unleashed — it's partially, again, not in any way totally — but partially to blame for demons that have been unleashed," Sanford said, after gunfire from a disaffected progressive loner nearly took the life of Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La.
Even before Trump took office, Sanford said the billionaire businessman should “just shut up” and “quit responding” to anyone critical of him on a personal or professional level.
Sanford resigned as governor in 2011 after finally acknowledging that he was having an extramarital affair. In June 2009, he disappeared from public view for six days and later claimed that he had been hiking on the Appalachian Trail.
He later admitted that he had in fact traveled to Argentina to meet a woman with whom he was having an extramarital affair.
But he staged a political comeback in 2013, winning the House seat in the district he had earlier represented for six years.
As voters headed to the polls Tuesday, Trump reminded them of Sanford's rhetoric, as well as the affair.

TRUMP MOCKS 'VERY UNHELPFUL' SANFORD, SAYS HE'S 'BETTER OFF IN ARGENTINA'
"I fully endorse Katie Arrington for Congress in SC, a state I love," tweeted Trump, who was traveling aboard Air Force One on the way back from his historic one-on-one meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. "She is tough on crime and will continue our fight to lower taxes. VOTE Katie!"
By contrast, Trump said that Sanford "has been very unhelpful to me in my campaign to [Make America Great Again]. He is MIA and nothing but trouble. He is better off in Argentina."
Other key races in NV, VA, and SC
Voters in Virginia also handed a big win Tuesday to pro-Trump Senate candidate Corey Stewart, the firebrand who has vowed to wage a "vicious" and "ruthless" fight against incumbent Sen. Tim Kaine.
Stewart said he plans to campaign like Trump and appeal to blue collar voters.

Corey Stewart, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate and Chairman of Prince William County Board, addresses his supporters at the Electric Palm restaurant on election night in Woodbridge, Va., Tuesday, June 12, 2018. Republicans chose Stewart, an outspoken supporter of President Donald Trump and defender of Confederate monuments, as their nominee for the state's U.S. Senate race on Tuesday, while Democrats picked an establishment favorite to run in Virginia's marquee U.S. house race. (Calla Kessler/The Washington Post via AP)
Corey Stewart, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate and Chairman of Prince William County Board, addresses his supporters at the Electric Palm restaurant on election night  (Washington Post via AP)

Chants of "lock her up" rang out at Stewart's victory speech Tuesday night.
TRUMP-BACKED CANDIDATE WINS IN NEVADA GUBERNATORIAL PRIMARY
Also in Virginia, voters decided that state Sen. Jennifer Wexton will take on vulnerable Republican Rep. Barbara Comstock in November in the northern Virginia congressional district. Wexton, who won a six-way primary, routed her well-funded competition in a race called early in the evening.
Comstock fought off a challenge from Shak Hill, who attacked the two-term incumbent as insufficiently conservative and weak in her support of President Donald Trump.

FILE - Nov. 4, 2014: Then-Virginia Republican Congressional candidate, now Rep.-elect Barbara Comstock is seen at her election night party in Ashburn, Va.
Barbara Comstock is one of the GOP's more vulnerable representatives in Congress; she will face state Sen. Jennifer Wexton in November.  (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Comstock's district is considered a prime target for Democrats as they hope to retake the House in November.
Voters in Virginia also decided that former CIA officer Abigail Spanberger will face hard-right conservative Representative Dave Brat in November. Hillary Clinton carried Comstock's district by nearly ten points in 2016, and Trump's win in Brat's district was relatively narrow.
Meanwhile, Archie Parnell has won the Democratic nomination in a South Carolina congressional district despite revelations from a divorce filing last month that he beat his wife more than 40 years ago.Parnell's win sets up a rematch with U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman. Parnell lost by just 3 percentage points in a special election last year.
In Nevada, Trump-backed candidate Danny Tarkanian, the son of legendary UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian, defeated Scott Hammond and television reporter Michelle Mortensen.
Tarkanian, a businessman, had been running in the primary against GOP Sen. Dean Heller, when Trump reached out and asked him to switch races so that Heller could run without intra-party opposition.
Elsewhere in Nevada, Sharron Angle, the conservative who once ominously threatened to "take out" then-Sen. Harry Reid, lost her race against Rep. Mark Amodei.

Tuesday, June 12, 2018

Democrat Cartoons





Larry Kudlow, National Economic Council director, hospitalized after suffering heart attack, Trump says


Larry Kudlow, the National Economic Council director, has been hospitalized after suffering a heart attack, President Trump said Tuesday from Singapore.
"Our Great Larry Kudlow, who has been working so hard on trade and the economy, has just suffered a heart attack," Trump tweeted ahead of his historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. "He is now in Walter Reed Medical Center."
Kudlow, 70, a conservative commentator, had replaced Gary Cohn who resigned in March.
“Earlier today National Economic Council Director and Assistant to the President Larry Kudlow, experienced what his doctors say, was a very mild heart attack," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.
"Larry is currently in good condition at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and his doctors expect he will make a full and speedy recovery," Sanders continued. "The President and his Administration send their thoughts and prayers to Larry and his family."
Kudlow has long been known as a respected business and economics commentator, getting his own CNBC show in 2011. Since then, he’s hosted a variety of shows on the network, including “The Kudlow Report” and “Kudlow & Cramer.”
He also served as associate director for economics and planning in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) during the Reagan administration. A former chief economist for a Wall Street firm, Kudlow battled addiction and took time off from Bear Stearns for a stint in drug rehab.
His commitment to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings reportedly was a contributing factor in why he ultimately ruled out a Connecticut Senate bid in 2016.
In recent days he has been a vocal critic of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his interactions with Trump during the G7 summit following a debate between the two leaders over tariffs.
He called Trudeau's post-summit press conference, in which he said Canada wouldn't be “pushed around” by the U.S. after Trump had already left the meeting, a “sophomoric, political stunt for domestic consumption.
“Karen and I are praying for our dear friend @Larry_Kudlow tonight,” Vice President Mike Pence tweeted in reply to the president's announcement.

Teachers reportedly fearful after MS-13 infiltrates Maryland school


The violent gang MS-13 has infiltrated a predominantly Hispanic school in Maryland, bringing terror and the campaign to recruit young students, with teachers calling the situation a “ticking time bomb.”
William Wirt Middle School in Riverdale has reportedly become a battleground after the gang established its presence at the school.
Fighting, drug dealing, pro-MS-13 graffiti and attempts to recruit immigrant children from Central America have become an everyday occurrence, The Washington Post reported.
“We now have two to three fights per day. At this point, it’s completely out of control.”
“We now have two to three fights per day,” one school employee told the paper, who didn’t reveal his name over fears to lose the job or be targeted by the gang. “At this point, it’s completely out of control.”
School teachers claimed at least a dozen of members of the gang are in the school. The violent activities prompted the school to call the police over 70 times in the 2017-2018 school year.
In one alleged incident, an eighth-grader claimed to have been raped by a schoolmate who was in the gang. The alleged assault took place off of school grounds and she initially reported the crime to the police, but later backtracked out of fear of retaliation by the gang.
The authorities concluded the alleged crime was unfounded, but told The Post that the girl lives now in fear the gang will physically attack her.
MS-13 is the notorious El Salvadorian street gang started in Los Angeles in the 1980s. It has since expanded and includes Hondurans, Guatemalans, Mexicans and other Central and South Americans.
The gang’s motto is “rape, control, kill” and gained notoriety after numerous brutal crimes across the U.S.
“Teachers feel threatened but aren’t backed up. Students feel threatened but aren’t protected. The school is a ticking time bomb.”
- A William Wirt Middle School educator
Officials at the school deny the problem of gang activity.
“The principal is aware of concerns about gangs in the community, but has not experienced any problems in school,” John White, a school spokesman told The Post.
But there are reportedly signs of the gang’s presence.
According to the police, ten MS-13 members clashed with a gang rival in February in the woods between William Wirt Middle School and Parkdale High School, another school in the area suffering from gang activity. The rival was hit in the head with a baseball bat and stabbed three times in the stomach.
Two months earlier, the two schools were on lockdown following a shooting between the gang rivals.
The situation has left teachers fearful of being alone with students. They reportedly informed the school officials of incidents involving suspected members of the gang, but they were ignored by the administrators, the report added.
“Teachers feel threatened but aren’t backed up. Students feel threatened but aren’t protected,” one educator said. “The school is a ticking time bomb.”

Weeping Dennis Rodman praises Trump's meeting with friend Kim Jong Un, blasts Obama for ignoring him


NBA star and friend of Kim Jong Un, Dennis Rodman, sobbed through an interview with CNN while reacting to the summit between President Trump and the North Korean dictator.
Dennis Rodman, the former NBA star and longtime friend of Kim Jong Un who has visited North Korea several times, broke down in tears during a televised interview early Tuesday as President Trump and Kim held a historic meeting in a hotel on Singapore's Sentosa Island.
In a dramatic interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo that quickly became emotionally charged, Rodman, wearing a red "Make America Great Again" hat, blasted former President Barack Obama for not taking the North Korean leader seriously.
Five years ago, Rodman said, Kim told Rodman "certain things" to relay to Obama concerning potential negotiations, but the former president "didn't even give me the time of day -- he just brushed me off, but that didn't deter me."
Rodman, who admitted he was "naive" when he first visited the rogue regime, then started weeping and repeatedly dabbed away tears from his eyes as he recounted the blowback he received in the U.S. for visiting Kim.
"When I went back home, I got so many death threats," Rodman said, visibly shaking and crying. "And I believed in North Korea, and I couldn't even go home. I couldn't even go home, for thirty days. But I kept my head up."
It was a sharp turn in an interview that started with Rodman offering some advice to Trump in the form of an anecdote about trust.
"President Trump should understand the fact that the reason the Marshal of North Korea [Kim Jong Un] respects Dennis Rodman is the fact that he trusts me, and I gave him something for his birthday -- and I thought I couldn't pull this off -- and I said the day before his birthday, I'm gonna give you a present."
Rodman said he promised to bring a professional basketball team to North Korea, "even though I knew I couldn't do it."

But Rodman said he quickly realized that he needed to make good on his promise, or there would be a "problem."
After helping train North Korean basketball players and arranging to bring ex-NBA players to the country, according to Rodman, Kim approached him to say, "Dennis, you know, this is the first time someone ever kept their word to me in this country."
The moment was emotional, Rodman said. He encouraged Trump to show his "heart" to Kim -- a dictator who Rodman described as a "big kid" who just wants to have "fun."
Rodman then gave a hasty shout-out to Potcoin, a digital currency that caters to the cannabis industry and community, for sponsoring his trip to Singapore.
"If Trump can pull this off, more power to him."
"If Trump can pull this off, more power to him," Rodman said.
Trump reached out to Rodman before the summit through a secretary to tell Rodman he is "very proud" of him, the basketball star claimed.
"We don't need a miracle, but we need the doors to be open so we can start fresh," Rodman said of the historic meeting between the two leaders.
"I just wanna bring sports to North Korea," Rodman said, before saying he'd like to be involved in bringing sports to North Korea. "That's it, sports. ... I'm just so happy to be here, man," he added, calling it "the world's day."
"Donald Trump should take a lot of credit for this. He went out the box and made this happen," Rodman added.
Rodman previously has spoken fondly of the North Korean dictator, even calling Kim “misunderstood” despite admitting that the despot is probably a “madman.”
Rodman frequently visited Kim in North Korea starting in 2013, when he held the despot’s newborn daughter who has never been seen in the public.
Rodman’s history with Trump is fairly brief. He’s twice appeared on “Celebrity Apprentice” and he gave a copy of Trump’s “Art of the Deal” to the North Korean sports minister during a visit to Pyongyang last June. Rodman has hoped to be the one to facilitate a relationship between Trump and Kim.
Cuomo and Rodman previously sparred four years ago in a heated confrontation, when Cuomo began asking questions about North Korea that Rodman said were inappropriate. Rodman began using profanity live on-air.

North Korea agrees to ‘complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula' after Trump-Kim summit


President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a document on Tuesday stating that Pyongyang would to work toward "complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula"— a historic concession, which was one of the requirements the U.S. sought at the summit in Singapore.
The historic agreement came after the two leaders held several meetings throughout the day. Trump was asked by a reporter if Kim agreed to denuclearize and he said, “We are starting that process very quickly.”
Trump did not refer to the document as a treaty or agreement. Trump said at a press conference that he will be ending joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea. He also said Kim agreed to destroy a 'major' missile testing site, but did not offer specific details.
The joint declaration states that the U.S. has committed to providing "security guarantees" to Pyongyang. 
It's unclear exactly what Trump has promised Kim in terms of security. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declined to say Monday whether guarantees might include withdrawing U.S. troops from the Korean Peninsula.
Kim, who was sitting alongside Trump, said through a translator, “We had a historic meeting and decided to leave the past behind and we are about to sign a historic document.”
A reporter asked Trump if he would be willing to invite Kim to the White House and he responded, “Absolutely I would.”
Trump was asked by reporters in Singapore during his final appearance with Kim on Tuesday what surprised him most during their meetings.
Trump says Kim has a "great personality" and is "very smart. Good combination."
Trump also says he learned Kim is "a very talented man" and "loves his country very much."
Trump and Kim did not respond to a reporter who asked if they discussed Otto Warmbier.
Warmbier was an American student arrested in North Korean in January 2016 for stealing a propaganda poster and sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor. He was was sent home from North Korea in a coma and died soon after.
Trump said he is willing to meet with Kim "many times" in the process.
The summit marked the first between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader.
In the run-up to the talks, Trump had hopefully predicted the two men might strike a nuclear deal or forge a formal end to the Korean War in the course of a single meeting or over several days. But in a briefing with reporters Monday, Pompeo sought to keep expectations for the summit in check.
"We are hopeful this summit will help set the conditions for future productive talks," the secretary of state said.
Kim has since left the island.

Monday, June 11, 2018

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Liz Peek: Negative Nancy Pelosi bummed out by booming Trump economy


Is Nancy Pelosi a secret agent for the Republican Party? Sometimes you have to wonder.  Her latest outburst, in which she derides the accelerating economy and declining unemployment, is so nonsensical that it demeans Democrats’ credibility, shows them to be remarkably out of touch with average Americans and underscores the poverty of their competing platform. It isn’t the first time Pelosi has given GOP candidates rich fodder for ridicule; remember how she compared thousand-dollar bonuses to “crumbs?” That’s a clip that will show well in midterm campaign ads.
Pelosi’s latest Twitter sensation came amidst her weekly press conference, at which she scorned the improving jobs situation. Here’s a direct quote: "(P)eople say, ‘Oh my goodness, ... people are saying the unemployment rate is down, why isn’t my purchasing power increasing? So, this isn’t just about the unemployment rate, it’s about wages rising in our country, so that consumer confidence is restored.”
Unhappily for Nancy, but happily for the U.S., consumer confidence doesn’t need “restoring” – it is actually booming. The Conference Board reported just this week that its Consumer Confidence Index rose 2.4 points in May, and reached its highest reading in more than 17 years. Lynn Franco, the Conference Board’s Director of Economic Indicators, said in a press release, “Overall, confidence levels remain at historically strong levels and should continue to support solid consumer spending in the near-term.” Take that, Nancy!
The Conference Board survey echoes other such measures, all of which point towards continued growth and nearly all of which moved sharply higher after Donald Trump was elected president. In December 2016, the confidence index rose to 113.7, the highest level since July 2007, beating expectations by a wide margin.  At the time, Franco noted that the so-called “expectations” part of the survey “hit a 13-year high.” The December 2016 report from the University of Michigan, which also tracks consumer sentiment, showed the highest optimism level since August 2001.
Those figures are impressive. Note that at no time during Barack Obama’s presidency did consumers feel similarly upbeat, despite the president’s personal popularity and his promises of “hope and change.” He delivered plenty of change; hope, not so much. Certainly the financial crisis helped keep optimism in check. But the recovery began, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, in June 2009. For the next seven and a half years the country was subdued by a thin overhang of anxiety and caution; that cloud lifted on November 8, 2016, and there has been no turning back.
Nancy Pelosi has probably not looked for a job for a very long time, so the good news on hiring may not matter much to her.
Confidence is key. With consumer spending accounting for 70 percent of the economy, how people feel about their prospects guides their decisions to buy a house or a car, whether to invest or to save. Instilling optimism about their personal outlook is essential to an expanding economy.
A recent Pew survey indicates that 58 percent of the country thinks the economy is doing well, the most since before the financial crisis, and up from 44 percent last year. That’s the biggest jump ever seen in this series, and only the second time that a majority of respondents said they were satisfied with the economy.  The assessment is shared almost equally by Republicans and Democrats. Recent polls show that, increasingly, Americans give Trump credit for the roaring economy, which has boosted his approval ratings.
What’s got people feeling more positive? Gallup reports that 67 percent of Americans think it is a good time to find a quality job, the highest in 17 years of polling on this topic and up 25 points since Trump was elected. That reading is not surprising, except to Nancy Pelosi apparently. All the indicators point to a tightening job market. For the first time ever there are more job openings than people looking for work. The vacancies are especially high in manufacturing, which is gratifying since for years liberal economists such as those who guided Obama’s economic policies have been telling us the U.S. could no longer compete as a producer. Over the past year, we’ve added 259,000 jobs in manufacturing.
Pelosi is concerned that wages are not rising. In fact, take-home pay is going up, above the rate of inflation, and more quickly than it did under Obama. Hourly wages rose 2.7 percent year-over-year in May, while average weekly income rose 3 percent. With inflation running at about 2 percent, that constitutes real growth, which is augmented by lower tax bills for most Americans. Part of the reason that wage gains have been sluggish is that we have seen little increase in productivity over the past decade. Higher output per worker allows wages to rise; that increase depends in part on capital investment by businesses.
Under Obama, businesses lacked confidence to invest for the future, so assaulted were they by onerous and costly regulations. Today, with tax cuts that encourage spending and Trump’s aggressive reduction in regulations, business spending has started to rise. It was up 9.2 percent in the first quarter, after a 6.9 percent increase in last year’s final three months. Productivity gains will surely follow, boosting wages.
Democrats have no response to the accelerating economy. They are relying on attacks on President Trump to retake the House this fall, a meager strategy. Republicans running for office will warn voters that the booming jobs market will disappear should Democrats take power, thanks to promises from Nancy Pelosi and her colleagues to raise taxes on businesses and the rich, and to revert to Obama’s anti-business playbook. They will ask themselves – are we better off than we were?
Nancy Pelosi has probably not looked for a job for a very long time, so the good news on hiring may not matter much to her. After all, she has served in Congress for 30 years. At some point, Democrats embarrassed by her slipping grip on our economic reality, may decide that’s quite long enough.
Liz Peek is a former partner of major bracket Wall Street firm Wertheim & Company. A former columnist for the Fiscal Times, she writes for The Hill and contributes frequently to Fox News, the New York Sun and other publications. For more visit LizPeek.com. Follow her on Twitter @LizPeek.

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