Former Canadian PM says she's 'rooting for a direct hit' of Hurricane Dorian on Mar-a-Lago

Former Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell said Thursday that she wished for Hurricane Dorian to make a "direct hit" on President Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.
The strengthening storm churned over the warm, open waters of the Atlantic on Thursday, upgrading to Category 2 strength late in the day, with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph, the National Hurricane Center reported.
Forecasts showed Dorian tracking toward Florida's east coast — prompting Trump to warn Dorian "will be BIG!"
Forecasters believe the storm will strengthen into a Category 3 hurricane by Friday, and stay well east of the southern and central Bahamas before making a turn toward Florida by Sunday afternoon.
At that time, the latest NHC forecast is for the storm to make landfall Monday as a Category 4 storm.
However, Campbell saw a silver lining in the potential damage that could be caused by the massive storm.
"I'm rooting for a direct hit on Mar a Lago!" she tweeted on Thursday.
The president often makes visits to Mar-a-Lago when he's not in Washington D.C. It has been reported that the resort is the hurricane's path.
Campbell, who served fewer than five months as Canada's prime minister following the resignation of Brian Mulroney in 1993, faced backlash for the tweet, many calling it "embarrassing" and "disgusting."
Campbell doubled down amid the criticism, telling her critics to "get a grip."
"As there are in Puerto Rico- sorry you don’t get snark- but Trump’s indifference to suffering is intolerable!" Campbell said to a critic who pointed out "real people" live and work in and around Mar-a-Lago. "We'd also help if he tackled climate change which is making hurricanes more destructive! Instead, he will remove limits on methane! Get a grip!"
Fox News' Travis Fedschun contributed to this report.

MSNBC Fake News Cartoons

Missouri's gun law should allow cities to require permits, St. Louis mayor says

Mayor Lyda Krewson, a Democrat Idiot

The mayor of St. Louis said Wednesday she’s asking Missouri lawmakers and the state’s Republican governor to reverse a 2017 law that makes it legal for gun owners without a felony record to carry guns without a permit in the state, according to a report.
Mayor Lyda Krewson, a Democrat, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch she asked Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, to support new legislation that would allow some cities over a certain size — or at least St. Louis --- to require concealed weapons permits. She added that a measure at least partially reversing the 2017 law would benefit the St Louis Police Department and its officers.
“This is for our police department. Our police don’t have the tools they need to take guns off the street,” Krewson told the newspaper Wednesday. Krewson also brought up the law at a monthly board planning meeting between St. Louis area political leaders earlier this month. After the meeting, she told the Post-Dispatch: “Having a permit to carry a gun is really not a big ask. It’s for our police officers.”

“Having a permit to carry a gun is really not a big ask. It’s for our police officers.”
— St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson

Her remarks Wednesday came a day after Parson rejected a request from the Missouri Legislative Black Caucus to hold an emergency legislative session to address gun violence following a bloody weekend in St. Louis that left three children dead within 48 hours. At least 13 children have been killed in shootings in St. Louis this year as the city grapples a rising homicide rate, the newspaper reported.
Parson, who voted as a state senator to loosen concealed carry requirements, did not address whether or not he’d work with Krewson in reversing the 2017 statute, saying during a Wednesday news conference that he’s leaving that up to legislative branch. He said he would consider allocating resources from the Missouri State Highway Patrol to help combat gun violence in St. Louis.
“I talked to the mayor about this --- we’ve got to find out some solutions to these kids getting shot in the streets of St. Louis, and Kansas City, or wherever it is in the state of Missouri,” Parson said. “We all better put our best game on right now to find a solution to this problem.”

"We’ve got to find out some solutions to these kids getting shot in the streets of St. Louis, and Kansas City, or wherever it is in the state of Missouri."
— Missouri Gov. Mike Parson

The leader of the state's GOP-run Senate addressed St. Louis gun violence Monday but failed to propose a feasible solution to combatting the issue.
“Obviously, anytime we see a rise in this kind of violence it is a problem,” state Senate President Pro Tem Dave Schatz, a Republican, told the Post-Dispatch. “But I don’t know if anything is on the horizon. I don’t know if anyone has the answer.”
Also Wednesday, the St. Louis comptroller slammed Krewson for allegedly delaying the launch of an emergency crime prevention program within the city. The city’s budgets allocated $500,000 to hire an outside organization to run a crime prevention program under a one-year contract.

“Only after a public outcry did the mayor’s office feel compelled to address the people’s concerns ... another week has passed, and the Comptroller’s Ofc has not received a contract for Cure Violence,” Comptroller Darlene Green wrote on her personal Twitter account.
On Aug. 20, Krewson wrote Comptroller Darlene Green asking her office to bypass the city’s lengthy contract selection process and fast-track a contract for Cure Violence, a Chicago-based non-profit dedicated to crime reduction. Krewson’s office said they submitted a proposed contract to the non-profit for review and are waiting for a response before sending it to the comptroller.

Trump tears into Lawrence O’Donnell, media over ‘totally false’ Russia report: ‘ALL APOLOGIZE!’

President Trump on Thursday blasted Lawrence O’Donnell and the media at large after the MSNBC host was forced to retract an unverified report he shared on his show this week that tied Trump’s finances to Russia.
Calling the report "totally false," the president demanded that the media as a whole apologize for “inaccurate reporting.”
“Crazy Lawrence O’Donnell, who has been calling me wrong from even before I announced my run for the Presidency, even being previously forced by NBC to apologize, which he did while crying, for things he said about me & The Apprentice, was again forced to apologize, this time ... for the most ridiculous claim of all, that Russia, Russia, Russia, or Russian oligarchs, co-signed loan documents for me, a guarantee,” Trump tweeted.
“Totally false, as is virtually everything else he, and much of the rest of the LameStream Media, has said about me for years. ALL APOLOGIZE!” he continued.
Minutes later, he added: “The totally inaccurate reporting by Lawrence O’Donnell, for which he has been forced by NBC to apologize, is NO DIFFERENT than the horrible, corrupt and fraudulent Fake News that I (and many millions of GREAT supporters) have had to put up with for years. So bad for the USA!”
The president’s tweets come after O’Donnell and MSNBC host Rachel Maddow discussed Tuesday night how Trump was “able to obtain loans when no one else would loan him any money.”
O’Donnell then hinted that he “may have some information” that would “add understanding to that, if true.”
“I stress ‘if true,’ because this is a single source who has told me that Deutsche Bank obtained tax returns…this single source close to Deutsche Bank has told me that Donald Trump’s loan documents there show he has co-signers. That’s how he was able to obtain those loans and that the co-signers are Russian oligarchs.”
Maddow, stunned, replied: “What? Really?”
O’Donnell added “that would explain every kind word Donald Trump has ever said about Russia and Vladimir Putin if his information is accurate.”
On Wednesday morning the White House blasted the report, and later in the day Trump’s legal team penned a letter to NBCUniversal demanding a retraction and an apology for the “aforementioned false and defamatory” reporting and threatened to take legal action.
“This is one of the reasons that a majority of Americans have lost trust in the media. Instead of applying ethics and standards to their reporting, journalists and left-wing outlets have weaponized the media, using it to attack and harass people with little to no regard for the truth,” White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham told Fox News.
Later, O’Donnell kicked off his Wednesday night show by apologizing for running the unverified report, after earlier in the day walking it back and referring to it as an “error in judgment.”
"Last night on this show, I discussed information that wasn't ready for reporting," O'Donnell said.
“I did not go through the rigorous verification and standards process here at MSNBC before repeating what I heard from my source,” he continued. “Had it gone through that process, I would not have been permitted to report it.  I should not have said it on-air or post it on Twitter. I was wrong to do so.”
Fox News’ Brian Flood and Joseph Wulfsohn contributed to this report.

Cal Thomas: 'Lost' generation abandoning traditional American values

There are people in every generation who believe the generation following theirs is either going to the dogs or will ruin the country.
A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll lends credence to that way of thinking, especially where Generation Z/millennials (those born in the mid-1990s to mid-2000s) and Generation X (those born in the early-to-mid 1960s to the early 1980s) are concerned.
The poll of 1,000 adults earlier this month found that “younger generations rate patriotism, religion and having children as less important to them than did young people two decades ago.”
The poll contrasts with a similar survey conducted by the Journal 21 years ago. When asked then which values were most important, respondents sounded like their parents and grandparents, saying “hard work, patriotism, commitment to religion and the goal of having children.”
Not only will these current findings likely impact next year’s election (most of those running for president with more than single-digit polling numbers are much older men and women and thus represent a generation gap), they could also have serious implications for the future of the country.
The founders and subsequent generations — perhaps excepting the Gilded Age and the horrors of slavery — mostly believed in the virtues younger people either now reject or approach with indifference.
How can this be? What has happened between the World War II generation, which gave so much so their children and grandchildren might enjoy the blessings of liberty, and the current generation, which seems cool to what once seemed to matter most?
Generalizations are always problematic, but I have lived long enough and witnessed the general decline to make some.
Prosperity is one explanation. People who make more money than previous generations and possess a lot of stuff seem less inclined to participate in community (how many of us know our neighbors, who are here today and move tomorrow?). Stuff and the personal satisfaction of achievement lead to a decline in one’s need for God — too much money, too little purpose.
Politicians become a god-substitute and politics their religion. Creeping secularism has affected theological truth to the point where people can believe whatever they want — or nothing at all — and escape correction. Heresy, even apostasy, has infiltrated many churches.
Then there is culture. Younger people are exposed to what we collectively call “media” more than any previous generation. Most of what constitutes culture proceeds from a singular worldview that denigrates, or does not promote, patriotism, belief in God and values previous generations not only took for granted, but instilled in their children.
Unrestricted abortion has cheapened how many young people view the value of human life. For growing numbers of the young, marriage has become passé as children witness the pain of their parents’ divorce and decide that living together without a formal, legal or spiritual commitment is better than risking the cost and pain of ending a marriage. For some, children are viewed as a financial burden and an intrusion on adult lifestyles.
Sociologists and historians will tell us these things are cyclical, like weather. That has been true in the past when spiritual revivals often followed a fallow period of faithlessness and a focus on self. I’m not sure that cycle will repeat with younger people, given what they are taught at public schools and in liberal universities.
The values that shaped and sustained America through economic downturns and wars had to be taught and instilled in the next generation. Today’s younger people, as reflected in the poll, seem intent on making their own rules (if they can be called rules) and creating their own gods.
They will eventually learn the impossibility of it all as their substitutions will fail them. The question is can America survive when our moral, spiritual and patriotic foundations are destroyed? If you don’t love your country, what’s the point of having one?

MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell apologizes for unverified Trump-Russia report: 'We are retracting the story'

MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell kicked off his show Wednesday night by apologizing for running an unverified report that directly tied President Trump's finances to Russia, which he retracted.
"Last night on this show, I discussed information that wasn't ready for reporting," O'Donnell said. "I repeated statements a single source told me about the president's finances and loan documents with Deutsche Bank saying 'if true'-- as I discussed the information-- was simply not good enough. I did not go through the rigorous verification and standards process here at MSNBC before repeating what I heard from my source. Had it gone through that process, I would not have been permitted to report it. I should not have said it on-air or post it on Twitter. I was wrong to do so."
He went on to acknowledge the letter he and NBCUniversal received by Trump's legal counsel demanding a retraction and an apology for the "aforementioned false and defamatory" reporting and threatened to take legal action.
"This afternoon, attorneys for the president sent us a letter asserting the story is false. They also demanded a retraction. Tonight, we are retracting the story," O'Donnell continued. "We don't know whether the information is inaccurate. The fact is we do know it wasn't ready for broadcast and for that I apologize."
On Tuesday night, O’Donnell and fellow far-left MSNBC host Rachel Maddow discussed how Trump was “able to obtain loans when no one else would loan him any money” when he tossed out the unverified speculation.
“I may have some information, in this next hour, which would add a great deal to their understanding of that, if true, and I’ll be discussing it here,” O’Donnell said. "I stress ‘if true,’ because this is a single source who has told me that Deutsche Bank obtained tax returns… this single source close to Deutsche Bank has told me that Donald Trump’s loan documents there show that he has co-signers. That’s how he was able to obtain those loans and that the co-signers are Russian oligarchs."
A stunned Maddow leaned back in her chair and responded, “What? Really?”
O’Donnell added “that would explain every kind word Donald Trump has ever said about Russia and Vladimir Putin” if his information is accurate.
The "Last Word" host and MSNBC were widely panned by critics for running the story, calling it "grossly irresponsible." The White House blasted the report, pointing to "left-wing outlets" that have "weaponized the media.
“This is one of the reasons that a majority of Americans have lost trust in the media. Instead of applying ethics and standards to their reporting, journalists and left-wing outlets have weaponized the media, using it to attack and harass people with little to no regard for the truth,” White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham told Fox News.
O'Donnell took to Twitter earlier in the day and walked back the report, referring to it as an "error in judgment."
Fox News' Brian Flood contributed to this report.

Cartoons

President Trump nominates Eugene Scalia to Labor Secretary

OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 3:20 PM PST – Tue. August 27, 2019

Longtime Labor Attorney Eugene Scalia is officially nominated to take over the role of White House labor secretary.

Eugene Scalia in 2012. Mr. Scalia, who was a top Labor Department lawyer in the George W. Bush administration, is a partner in the Washington office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.CreditCreditStephen Voss

President Trump made the decision Tuesday, tapping the son of late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
Back in July, the president first voiced his intent to nominate Scalia to the position. The decision came in the wake of the resignation of Alexander Acosta, amid scrutiny over his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein plea deal in 2007.
Scalia was the top legal officer at the department, and a special assistant to Attorney General Barr during the George W. Bush administration.
Scalia will have his confirmation hearing when the Senate reconvenes after summer recess.