Anti-Trump media manages to spin electoral victories into defeats

Candidates supported by President Trump did well in a special congressional election in Ohio and in primaries Tuesday, although some races remained too close to call. But the anti-Trump media did their best to paint the outcome of the voting as bad news for the president.
Journalists worked hard to spin a pro-Democratic narrative before the voting. For example, CNN anchor Don Lemon said Republicans are “people who will lie, steal, and cheat, lie to their mother, lie to themselves about what's right of this country, about truth and facts.” Neutral objective journalism, right?
Journalists also talked a lot about a “blue wave” and “a major sign of trouble for Republicans” before the votes were counted. Politico wrote of “Democrats surging.” Sort of like what they predicted back in 2016 when they said President Hillary Clinton would be occupying the Oval Office in January 2017.
They were wrong this time, too.
That didn’t stop the typical spin. CNBC’s John Harwood used Twitter to say winning was a sign the GOP was going to lose in November. He retweeted a comment saying, “it’s hard to remember when so many victories were such a bad omen going into November.” Harwood even claimed the “GOP has a corruption problem in mid-term elections.”
Election season makes people say stupid things. That’s why Democratic socialist media darling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez compared a request that she debate to “catcalling.” The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro made the invitation and even offered to pay $10,000 to her campaign or a charity of her choosing.
The result was just the latest public relations disaster for the lefty candidate. (You know it’s a bad move when even The New York Times makes you look bad for your comment.)
Incredibly, Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan gave a one word support of Ocasio-Cortez, writing simply: “Preach.” Apparently, even asking a liberal millennial woman to debate is now a #MeToo moment.
One final point about the media’s post-election distortions. It’s widely known and little reported (now) that midterms are typically bad for the party in power. Here’s NPR back in 2014 explaining: “History tells us that midterm elections are bad – sometimes very bad – for the party that controls the White House.”
So, yes, the rules say the GOP is supposed to lose seats in Congress in November. But journalists want to treat the voting as a referendum on President Trump and not politics as usual. It’s almost like they’re whistling past the graveyard of their predictions. Maybe that’s why Don Lemon is now thanking politicians who even watch CNN.
2. Are They Press or Suppress? Imagine the news coverage if the son of a popular evangelical pastor was arrested for training children to be school shooters in an underground desert compound. Imagine what would happen if the remains of a dead child were also found at the site. And envision that the father had been an unindicted co-conspirator in a terrorist trial.
Journalists would turn it into the crime of the century. With good reason.
Only that wasn’t the story. One of the people arrested was the son of Brooklyn Imam Siraj Wahhaj, “an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing,” according to The New York Post. The Islamic connection was so uncomfortable for the press that ABC and CBS censored it entirely for two straight nights.
CNN tried the same lack of disclosure. “CNN, for example, did not mention the words ‘Muslim’ or ‘extremist’ in a Tuesday article about the discovery of the 11 missing children, wrote The Daily Caller’s Amber Athey
CNN also got flamed by Twitchy for not referring to occupants of the compound as “extremist of the Muslim belief.’” That reference was actually removed from a story.
3. Journalists Are Neutral? The news media now face more allegations of liberal bias than ever before. Naturally, journalists want to fend off that criticism, especially from President Trump, with calm, rational journalism.
Nahhhhhhh.
Instead, a Boston Globe editor is trying to organize the press into one might super PAC (Sen. Marco Rubio, this Bud’s for you!) against the president – to prove it’s not biased.
Marjorie Pritchard, deputy managing editor for the editorial page of The Boston Globe, got commitments from 70 different newspaper editorial pages to do what they would do anyhow – attack President Trump.
“The newspaper's request was being promoted by industry groups such as the American Society of News Editors and regional groups like the New England Newspaper and Press Association,” according to The Associated Press.
And the proposal “suggested editorial boards take a common stand against Trump's words regardless of their politics.” Because fighting the president of one political party isn’t “politics,” apparently.
4. NBC? Them, too: So much for NBC clearing NBC of sexual misconduct allegations. Mediaite is reporting that NBC has another firestorm getting ready to strike – this one courtesy of the Daily Beast.
Here’s the Mediaite take: “The story involves varying allegations against senior NBC News executives, and relates to alleged misconduct from years ago as well as more current allegations against network brass. One source told Mediaite that executives at NBC News are ‘panicked’ by the reporting. NBC News did not provide comment.”
On its own, that might be bad. But context matters and NBC has been embarrassed by #MeToo revelations. Think back to the Variety report that cost “Today” host Matt Lauer his high-paying network job.
Variety reported: “As the co-host of NBC’s ‘Today,’ Matt Lauer once gave a colleague a sex toy as a present. It included an explicit note about how he wanted to use it on her, which left her mortified.”
That story got worse: “On another day, he summoned a different female employee to his office, and then dropped his pants, showing her his penis. After the employee declined to do anything, visibly shaken, he reprimanded her for not engaging in a sexual act.”
The Peacock Network also passed on the sexual misconduct investigation by contributor Ronan Farrow that has had extensive impact throughout the industry. NBC also dropped the contract of political analyst Mark Halperin after sexual misconduct allegations against him surfaced.
Media outlets like Esquire continue to dig through the disastrous way NBC has handled such situations. These latest claims could further undermine the network’s waning credibility.

Hawaii's Ige staves off challenge, will face GOP's Tupola in November

Hawaii lawmakers applaud after Gov. David Ige, who is running for a second term in office, signed legislation in Honolulu, June 13, 2018.  (Associated Press)

Hawaii Gov. David Ige won the state's Democratic primary Saturday in his bid for a second term, overcoming sharp criticism after a false missile alert in January.
Ige defeated U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, who gave up her seat in Congress to run for governor.
"I just got off the phone with Congresswoman Colleen Hanabusa, and she wished us congratulations and more importantly, she pledged her support to make sure that we can elect a democratic governor," Ige said in a victory speech after Hanabusa conceded, according to a Hawaii News Now tweet.
The incumbent in November will face state Rep. Andria Tupola, who won the Republican gubernatorial primary.

U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, D-Hawaii, who is giving up her seat in Congress to run for Hawaii governor, talks with a guest at an event in Honolulu, April 28, 2018.  (Associated Press)

Tuopla defeated former state Sen. John Carroll for the party's nod.
Tupola told Hawaii News Now that her goal "at the end of the day is to serve the people."
Ige faced a tough primary challenge after a 38-minute delayed response to Hawaii's false missile alert. The incident was expected to loom large on voter's minds Saturday.

A small surge of voters take to the polls, Saturday, Aug. 11, 2018, at Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School, in Puhi, Kauai, Hawaii.  (The Garden Island via AP)

Officials mistakenly sent an a warning of an imminent missile attack, promising “THIS IS NOT A DRILL,” to cellphones, radios and televisions on Jan. 13.
Hanabusa used the false alarm as a key camapaign cudgel against Ige.
But the governor's handling of Kilauea volcano's latest eruption, which destroyed more than 700 homes and displaced thousands, as well as devastating flooding on Kauai improved his stature.
U.S. House primaries
In the state's U.S. House primaries, U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has won the Democratic nomination in Hawaii's 2nd Congressional District.
Gabbard will face singer Brian Evans of Maui in the general election in November. He ran unopposed for the Republican Party's nomination.
In the 1st District, former U.S. Rep. Ed Case defeated Lt. Gov. Doug Chin in the Democratic race, while candidate Cam Cavasso was leading opponent Raymond Rene Vinole by a large margin on the Republican side.
Gabbard defeated Sherry Alu Campagna to be her party's candidate to represent rural Oahu and the neighbor islands in Congress.
Campagna had criticized Gabbard for refusing to debate her, noting that Gabbard had argued in the past that candidates should participate in debates to present their positions and be held accountable for their opinions.
Gabbard was first elected to the U.S. House in 2012. She is one of the first female combat veterans to serve in Congress. She deployed to Iraq and Kuwait with the Hawaii National Guard.
Other races
In Hawaii's U.S. Senate race, Democratic incumbent Maize Hirono was running unopposed in her primary, while Ron Curtis won the Republican nod.
Hirono was first elected to the Senate in 2012. She's the country's first Asian-American female senator.
Curtis faces an uphill battle. The winner of the Democratic primary is almost guaranteed to win in the general election in Hawaii.
In the lieutenant governor's race, Democrat Josh Green is leading in the polls by a few percentage points, while Republican Steve Lipscomb leads by a small margin.
The winners of most of the Democratic Party's primary races will be the favorites to win the general election in November.

NASA's Parker Solar Probe blasts off on epic journey to 'touch the Sun'

CAPE CANAVERAL –  NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force station on its historic mission to the Sun.
The probe lit up the night sky as it blasted off at 3:31 a.m. EDT.
“It was a really clean launch,” Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, told reporters. “It took off like it should.”
“Everything was exactly like we thought it would be – it really was textbook,” he added.
Carried by a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket, Parker lifted off from Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 37. The launch had intially been scheduled for early Saturday, but last-minute technical glitches ate away at the launch window, prompting a 24-hour delay.
The $1.5 billion mission will take humanity closer to the Sun than ever before. Parker will be the first spacecraft to fly through the Sun’s corona, the outermost part of the star’s atmosphere. It is expected to reach the Sun in November.
NASA'S PARKER SOLAR PROBE: CAPE CANAVERAL PREPARES FOR EPIC MISSION TO THE SUN
Parker will face “brutal” heat and radiation during an epic journey that will take it to within 3.8 million miles of the Sun’s surface, according to the space agency. This is seven times closer than the previous closest spacecraft, Helios 2, which came within 27 million miles of the Sun in 1976.
The average distance between the Sun and Earth is 93 million miles.
Parker must withstand heat of nearly 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit to complete its audacious mission. To achieve this, the probe will be protected by a special 4.5-inch-thick carbon-composite shield. Safe inside the spacecraft, however, the probe’s payload will be operating at room temperature.
NASA'S PARKER SOLAR PROBE SET TO WRITE NEW CHAPTER IN CAPE CANAVERAL HISTORY
Harnessing Venus’ gravity, Parker will complete seven flybys over seven years to gradually bring its orbit closer to the Sun. On its closest approach in 2024, the probe will be traveling at approximately 430,000 mph, setting a new speed record for a manmade object.
The Sun’s corona, which can be seen during a total solar eclipse, is usually hidden by the bright light of the star’s surface. The probe, named after pioneering solar physicist Dr. Eugene Parker, will provide a wealth of invaluable data.
Scientists expect to shed new light on the Sun’s potential to disrupt satellites and spacecraft, as well as electronics and communications on Earth.
NASA'S PARKER SOLAR PROBE SET TO 'TOUCH THE SUN' ON HISTORIC MISSION
It is also hoped that the probe will provide answers to what scientists describe as “the coronal heating problem.” One of the most unusual aspects of the Sun is that its atmosphere gets much hotter the farther it stretches from the star’s surface, according to NASA.
Instruments on board Parker will study magnetic fields, plasma and energetic particles as well as imaging solar wind, a flow of ionized gases that stream past the Earth at more than a million miles an hour.
Eugene Parker first theorized the existence of the solar wind. To honor his contribution to science, the probe is NASA’s first spacecraft to be named after a living person.
WEIRD SOLAR SCIENCE: HOW NASA'S PARKER PROBE WILL DIVE THROUGH THE SUN'S ATMOSPHERE
The probe, which was designed and built by the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University, is also carrying more than 1.1 million names to the Sun. In March, members of the public were invited to be a part in the historic mission by submitting their names to be placed on a memory card that the spacecraft will take into space. In May, NASA confirmed that, over a seven-week period a total of 1,137,202 names were submitted.
The memory card also contains photos of Dr. Parker and his groundbreaking 1958 scientific paper on solar wind.

Never-Trumpers Cartoons

73% of Americans Want Democrats to Dump Nancy Pelosi, According to Recent Poll

 

OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 12:41 PM PT — Fri. August 10, 2018

According to recent poll, registered voters do not want Nancy Pelosi to remain as the Democrat leader in the House of Representatives.
The American Barometer poll — released Thursday by The Hill — shows 73-percent of those surveyed say the Democrats need to dump Pelosi.
The poll also found Democrats are almost evenly split when asked whether Pelosi should remain in party leadership, while 79-percent of independents said Democrats need to find a new leader.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

While Republicans overwhelmingly support Pelosi’s ouster, pollsters say there’s more to the midterms than campaigning against Pelosi.
“Nancy Pelosi is the minority leader, Donald Trump is the president, Ryan is the Speaker of the House, McConnell is the majority leader — running against Nancy Pelosi is like running against George W. Bush in 2010, which Democrats tried to do, it didn’t work,” stated republican pollster Jim Hobart.
Pelosi, who has been in Congress for more than 30-years, has been the Democrats leader in the lower chamber since 2002.
Despite a growing number of Democrat congressional candidates opposing her leadership, Pelosi said she will run for speaker if her party takes back the House.

Anti-Russian hysteria isn't in America's national interest

Anti-Russian hysteria appears to be replacing calm calculations of our national interest as the basis for U.S. foreign policy toward Russia – and that’s a big mistake.
The hatred and fear of all things Russian has reached a fever pitch in America today. Indeed, so powerful are the emotions and concerns over Moscow’s interference with the 2016 presidential election that many have asserted that America must aggressively wage a Second Cold War until Russian President Vladimir Putin is forced from power.
One consequence of this anti-Russian feeling came Wednesday, when the Trump administration announced it will impose new economic sanctions on Russia in response to Moscow’s use of a nerve agent to try to kill former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, who now live in England. The two survived the attack.
The new sanctions were prompted by a 1991 law that requires the U.S. to act against countries responsible for a chemical or biological weapons attack.
The sanctions will go into effect on about Aug. 22. They will bar U.S. companies from selling technology and other items with national security implications to companies funded or owned by the Russian government, affecting 70 percent of the Russian economy.
America and our European allies previously expelled 100 Russian diplomats over the poisonings and applied an earlier round of sanctions. But there is a very important difference in the new U.S. economic sanctions against Russia from earlier sanctions that are still in force.
While the new sanctions include many items already banned under the earlier ones, they also include a provision that requires Moscow to give “reliable assurances” that it will no longer use chemical and biological weapons – and allow international inspections to verify this.
If Russia refuses to provide these assurances and allow inspections, nearly all U.S. trade with Russia will be cut off. This would include banning Russia’s flagship airline Aeroflot from flying to America. And there is talk that other countries would face sanctions for doing business with Russia as well.
Drastic action like this is sure to worsen U.S.-Russian relations and make it harder to avoid the kind of escalation spirals and war-scares witnessed during the first Cold War.
The fact of Russian interference in America’s 2016 elections cannot be denied. However, regardless of what the probe of that interference by Special Counsel Robert Mueller concludes, the fact remains that Russia is a nuclear power that the U.S. is currently locked in a fierce political struggle with, including several proxy wars.
Putin is a geopolitical rival and a very clever tactician. He's not a friend of America, but he's not an immediate national security threat who must be destroyed at all costs either. His regime is distasteful, but so was the Soviet Union, Mao Zedong's China, and Vietnam – each of which America had to eventually learn to live with.
Ultimately, America still needs a clear-headed policy towards Russia that properly assesses the threat from Moscow and the risks of various responses. Washington's policy must be based on American interests and not on a blind desire to cause as much harm to Russia as possible. The catch with nuclear powers is to deter them while also making sure to never put them in too tight of a corner.
Therefore, it is perfectly reasonable for America to argue that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) should refocus on defending against Russia. Washington should also refuse to tolerate election interference by Moscow, while also trying to de-escalate tensions.
The hard lesson learned from Europe's endless holy and civil wars – in which nations tried to impose their ways of life and political systems on each other – is that countries shouldn't interfere in each other's domestic affairs. That is how wars get started.
The Cold War and mutually-assured-destruction taught the world not to go too far when playing chicken. No matter how outraged Americans are over recent events, these are vital lessons no one can afford to forget.
Moscow’s actions, including the seizure of Crimea from Ukraine and the Skripal poisoning, necessitated a response from Washington. The question is how far does America go and how well do these latest sanctions advance U.S. interests?
Recognition of both American and Russian core interests of sovereignty and security are important because it helps each great power avoid triggering the other's red lines. This is also why NATO’s expansion to include Montenegro is a bad strategy and ignores the historical role of the Balkans as a tinderbox.
At his recent summit with President Putin in Helsinki, President Trump should have insisted that he will always pursue America's interests and that if they happen to overlap with Russia, then both countries will try and work together. This could mean cooperation on anti-terrorism, improving communication between both militaries to avoid any accidents, and taking another look at arms control agreements such as extending the New Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty.
All the while, despite President Trump dragging his feet on imposing previous sanctions, his administration has generally implemented policies against Russia’s interests.
Sanctions are still in place. President Trump hasn’t tried to exert his full force to browbeat Congress into lifting those sanctions. He has, for all his bluster, so far reinforced America’s commitment to NATO and hasn’t ordered the withdrawal of U.S. forces in Europe.
The Trump administration expelled 60 Russian diplomats over the poisoning of the Skripals. In Syria, U.S. airstrikes killed 200 unofficial Russian forces fighting American-backed rebels.
Finally, America is still training Ukrainian soldiers to resist Russia. And President Trump authorized the delivery of Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine – something President Obama never did.
Russia isn’t as powerful or stable as China. It is a weak, struggling former empire with an economy smaller than Italy’s and only slightly bigger than South Korea’s. Moscow is not a threat that requires Washington to push back on every front and admit every single former Soviet satellite nation into NATO.
Diplomacy and grand strategy are about the pursuit of the national interest – about what is best for America. This means being realistic about threats and correctly seeing alliances, such as NATO, as a tool to advance the national interests of security and prosperity. Wise leaders match means to national ends and do not act out of anger. Fools confuse means for ends and will take action simply out of spite.
This is why NATO cannot endlessly expand and also why America needs to harden its election infrastructure and tell Russia that both countries must respect each other’s domestic affairs and sovereignty. This is also why it is unclear what imposing more sanctions is meant to accomplish beyond punishment.
New sanctions will weaken Russia and could distract Putin from near-term military adventurism, but will also make it harder for him to back down overall. Sanctions will also hurt any effort to get the Russians to cooperate with the U.S. on arms control or Iran.
Sanctions are better used as a threat to deter action, rather than as a punishment of unclear duration that is only imposed after another country has done something America doesn’t like.

Russia is a country that needs to be told not to mess with American elections again. It is also a nation that the United States needs to grudgingly live with because it has nuclear weapons.
It is possible to warn off Moscow from harming U.S. interests or from using biochemical weapons in NATO countries, while also concluding that relations with Russia must not deteriorate further. The catch is having a Congress and president who will work together to make this a priority.
John Dale Grover is a fellow at Defense Priorities and a writer for Young Voices. He is also currently a graduate student at George Mason University’s School of Conflict Analysis and Resolution. His articles have appeared in Forbes, The National Interest, and Real Clear Defense.

Kansas Gov. Colyer hires lawyer for contested GOP primary

Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer dug in for a legal fight over this past week’s Republican gubernatorial primary, hiring an outside lawyer for the vote-counting process with Secretary of State Kris Kobach leading the incumbent by less than a tenth of a percentage point.
The Colyer campaign has hired Todd Graves, a Kansas City attorney who works on election law.
“Governor Colyer is confident that Todd Graves’ experience as a U.S. Attorney and, in particular, his expertise in election law will be a valuable asset as we navigate this process,” Kendall Marr, a spokesperson for Mr. Colyer, wrote in an email.
Mr. Colyer has ramped up pressure on Mr. Kobach as election officials continue to review the vote count and tally the remaining ballots. Mr. Colyer in a letter Thursday asked Mr. Kobach to recuse himself from advising county election officials on the matter, saying it had come to his attention that Mr. Kobach was making statements that “may serve to suppress the vote.”
Mr. Kobach, who was endorsed by President Trump, formally recused himself Friday from his duties as secretary of state until the end of the primary process and designated assistant secretary of state Erick Rucker to fulfill his election responsibilities—a move that the Colyer campaign said was still insufficient. Mr. Kobach declined Mr. Colyer’s request to transfer responsibility for the election to the Kansas attorney general.

Newt Gingrich: The Trump Republican Party is arising out of a political revolution

The biggest takeaway message from Tuesday’s primaries and the Ohio special election is that the Republican Party is becoming President Trump’s party.
In fact, the degree to which pro-Trump Republicans prevailed is the fifth major achievement of the Trump presidency so far.
First, the president and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., placed a record number of conservative, constitutionally minded judges on the federal bench.
Second, President Trump moved power out of Washington and liberated businesses to accelerate economic growth through his historic deregulation effort.
Third, the president succeeded in working with congressional Republicans to pass a massive tax cut that has created jobs and grown the economy much faster than any of the elites thought possible.
Fourth, the president began to rebuild the American military after the Obama administration spent eight years deliberately undermining it.
Now President Trump has begun to grow a Trump Republican Party. The examples from Tuesday are striking, but this growth started earlier. In primary after primary, President Trump has proved to be a decisive voice.
I saw this firsthand in Georgia, when his endorsement of Secretary of State Brian Kemp turned what was expected to be a close primary race into a one-sided victory for the Trump candidate. Similarly, on Tuesday the Trump-endorsed candidates won GOP nominations.
This is a very important long-term development because it means that in 2019 and beyond the president will have a Republican Party substantially more favorable to his policies. It also means that the never-Trumpers will gradually decline into a less noisy, less relevant part of American politics.
The never-Trumpers are like the Bourbon monarchy, which “had learned nothing and forgotten nothing” (an apocryphal quote from Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord describing the Bourbons’ behavior after the abdication of Napoleon). Because of their inability to change, the Bourbons gradually disappeared as the French Republics created new patterns.
This shrinking and then disappearing process is nothing new.
When former President Theodore Roosevelt left the Republican Party in 1912, he took a generation of progressives with him. The conservatives consolidated their grip on the Republican Party, and many of the progressives became Franklin Delano Roosevelt Democrats.
Likewise, when President Franklin Roosevelt turned out to be much more liberal than expected, his close friend and ally Al Smith – the former governor of New York and Democratic presidential nominee of 1928 – started supporting Republicans in opposition of the New Deal.
In more recent times, President Ronald Reagan dominated the GOP in the 1980s and dissenters like Sen. Bob Packwood or Oregon, who started off skeptical, came on board. Packwood was convinced to lead the tax reform fight.
Similarly, loyal Democrats like former Sens. Zell Miller of Georgia and Joe Lieberman of Connecticut found the increasing radicalism of the left so unacceptable that they became very pro-Republican. Miller endorsed President George W. Bush at the 2004 Republic National Convention and Lieberman seriously considered running as the vice presidential candidate with Sen. John McCain of Arizona in 2008.
In addition to dominating the primaries, President Trump proved to be very effective in turning out the Republican vote in the Ohio special election. There were a lot of Washington’s so-called experts questioning whether he would help or hurt turnout. While there are still provisional and absentee ballots to count to finalize the result, the results so far indicate that the Republican vote surged in the days leading up to the election and the GOP nominee leads in the current vote count.
The warning to Democrats and the media for the November elections should be pretty direct: If President Trump spends September and October defining the election on his terms, the outcome in November might be as shocking to the left as 2016’s was.
The most amazing thing about the Trump effect is how efficient it is.
Simple tweets have helped nominate the GOP candidates for governor and congressional seats in state after state. With this kind of economy of effort, it is no wonder President Trump is doing so many things in parallel.
In the process, the president is growing a Trump Republican Party that will turn the never-Trumpers into a fossilized remnant of bitter-enders that attract smaller and smaller audiences who pay less and less attention.
In short, this is what a political revolution looks like.
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 "Trump’s America: The Truth About Our Nation’s Great Comeback.”