Florida Democrat Wilson no friend of veterans, vote record shows

The Florida Democrat who criticized President Donald Trump this week for being "insensitive" toward the widow of a U.S. soldier slain in Africa might be facing similar criticism herself.

It turns out that U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson has frequently voted against measures intended to help veterans and their families, according to VoteSmart.org, a vote-tracking site whose founding board members included former presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford.

The measures that Wilson opposed included a bill that could have ensured that families of four soldiers slain in Afghanistan in 2013 received death and burial benefits.
In fact, Wilson’s voting record on veterans issues may call into question the sincerity of her recent defense of U.S. service members and their families.
Despite Wilson's claim to be “committed to honoring our service members, not only with words but with deeds,” she has voted against most bills ensuring continued funding for veteran benefits, including payments to widows of fallen soldiers, the vote-tracking site shows.
She has also opposed measures designed to improve the Department of Veterans Affairs.
In March 2013, Wilson opposed the “Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act,” which prevented a government shutdown and provided funds for the U.S. military and the VA.
The bill, which passed with bipartisan support and was signed into law by the Obama administration, provided funding to the military and the VA until the next government shutdown showdown.

U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., stands by her statement that President Donald Trump was "insensitive" toward the widow of a U.S. service member who was slain in Africa. Wilson is seen in Miami Gardens, Fla., Oct. 18, 2017.  (Associated Press)

Later in the year, Wilson again voted against a resolution aimed at ensuring benefits paid to the veterans and their families would not be affected by the government shutdown in October that year.
The motion was particularly important in the wake of reports that the families of four soldiers slain in Afghanistan in 2013 had been deprived of benefits due to the shutdown in Washington.
The families of slain soldiers were denied burial benefits and up to $100,000 to each family, among other benefits, the New York Times reported. Wilson voted against the resolution ensuring that the benefits reached the families.
Defense Department spokesman Carl Woog said the department did not have “the authority to pay death gratuities and other key benefits for the survivors of service members killed in action” due to the government shutdown.
The congresswoman also opposed numerous bills aimed at improving VA services provided the veterans and their families.
Wilson's office has not responded to a Fox News request for a comment.
The former elementary school principal, who first came to Congress in 2011, has been portrayed this week as a staunch defender of the military and military families after accusing the president of being “insensitive” toward Myeshia Johnson, widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, one of four service members who were killed last week in the African nation of Niger.
According to Wilson, Trump told the grieving widow that her husband “knew what he signed up for ... but when it happens, it hurts anyway.” But Trump, in a response on Twitter, said Wilson had “totally fabricated what I said.”
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Wednesday that Wilson’s attack on the president using the soldier’s widow was “appalling and disgusting.”
The congresswoman has stood by her account of the call.

hillary clinton and george soros cartoons

George Soros foundations now control $18 billion: reports

Investor George Soros has transferred about $18 billion, the majority of his estimated fortune, to his Open Society Foundations, making them the second largest philanthropic grant-making group in the United States, according to media reports on Tuesday.
The foundations already controlled billions of dollars, but Soros, 87, has in recent years increased the pace of transfers from his hedge fund-turned-family office, Soros Fund Management LLC, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times reported earlier on Tuesday, citing Open Society officials.
Representatives for Open Society did not respond to requests for comment from Reuters.
Open Society works globally to “build vibrant and tolerant democracies” and has given away nearly $14 billion since inception in 1979, according to its website.
Hungarian-born Soros, who made a huge profit betting against an overvalued British pound in 1992, is a vocal supporter of liberal causes and was a large contributor to the fund-raising Super PAC group backing Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton last year.
Soros early this year hired former UBS Group AG asset management executive Dawn Fitzpatrick to serve as the latest chief investment officer for New York-based Soros Fund Management, which also manages money for Open Society.
Only the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is now larger than Open Society among U.S. grant-making groups, with an endowment of about $40 billion.
Soros is worth an estimated $23 billion, according to Forbes.

Anthony Weiner laptop had 2,800 gov't documents from Huma Abedin: Report

The FBI reportedly found 2,800 government documents on disgraced former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner's personal laptop computer that were related to his estranged wife's work as Hillary Clinton's deputy chief of staff during her tenure as secretary of state.

The conservative group Judicial Watch reported Tuesday that the State Department received the documents from the FBI after Judicial Watch sued the department when it failed to respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

The documents were sent to Weiner's computer by Huma Abedin, a revelation that came to light in the closing days of last year's presidential campaign.
"This is a disturbing development. Our experience with Abedin’s emails suggest these Weiner laptop documents will include classified and other sensitive materials," Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement. "When will the Justice Department do a serious investigation of Hillary Clinton’s and Huma Abedin’s obvious violations of law?"
Judicial Watch initially sued the State Department in May 2015, after it failed to respond to a request to produce all official emails sent or received by Abedin using a non-government address.
In a court filing, the State Department said it expected to review and produce the entire cache of 2,800 documents by the end of this year. However, the government filing also suggests that some of the material is "duplicative" of other records that have already been made public.
Last month, Weiner was sentenced to 21 months in prison after pleading guilty to sending sexually explicit texts across state lines to a 15-year-old girl. Similar indiscretions, first as a congressman and then as a candidate for New York City mayor, had scuppered Weiner's political career.
Abedin filed for divorce from Weiner earlier this year.

Gowdy wants Comey to testify again following Clinton email draft release

Following the FBI’s release of documents confirming that former FBI Director James Comey began drafting a letter on the Hillary Clinton email investigation months before completing several interviews, Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C. said Comey needs to testify before Congress again.

Gowdy, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee and a member of the House Intelligence and Judiciary Committee, told Fox News’ Bret Baier on “Special Report” Tuesday night that “for a number of reasons” Comey should return to Capitol Hill and the committees needed to further examine the FBI memos before he did.

“Whenever somebody decides to charge someone, there are lots of layers of scrutiny. When you decide not to charge someone, there aren’t that many layers of scrutiny but there ought to be at least a couple,” Gowdy said. “The media should do it but also Congress should look at this decision not to charge and whether or not it was made before you interviewed two dozen witnesses, including the target of the investigation, yeah we need to talk to him again.”
COMEY INSISTED NO ‘SPECIAL’ RULES IN FBI CLINTON PROBE – WHIEL DRAFTING ‘EXONERATION STATEMENT’
According to Gowdy, the timeline of events and some of Comey’s decisions along the way did not appear to add up. He was referring to Comey’s statement during his June congressional testimony in which he said the tarmac meeting between former Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former President Bill Clinton encouraged him to announce his findings in the email investigation.
“His ostensible reason for taking that decision away from the Department of Justice was that meeting on the tarmac but yet a month and a half earlier he is memorializing a decision he’s already made so the chronology does not add up,” Gowdy said. “His answers have been all over the map.”
Gowdy also told the Fox News anchor that he not only wants to talk to Comey, but also plans to speak to his former colleagues.
When asked whether Loretta Lynch, who is expected to be on Capitol Hill Friday concerning the Russia investigation, would be asked about Comey’s email draft, Gowdy said she would not.
COMEY DRAFTED LETTER ON CLINTON EMAIL INVESTIGATION BEFORE COMPLETING INTERVIEWS, FBI CONFIRMS
But he said there were “lots of reasons” to talk to her as well, in that she could “corroborate or contradict Comey’s recollection” about their conversation regarding his decision to make the announcement.
Baier’s interview also touched on Gowdy’s investigation into Samantha Power, the former ambassador to the United Nations during the Obama administration, and her office’s request to unmask at least 260 individuals heard on surveillance recordings.
Gowdy said during questioning, Power testified that she had not personally made all of the requests, despite them being filed under her name. He said the committee had to find out whether someone else in the intelligence community was actually behind those requests.

Report: IRS refuses to give back $59G to vet after seizing his business cash

FILE: Exterior of the Internal Revenue Service's headquarters in Washington, D.C. A military veteran reportedly said the agency took about $60G from his business in an raid that yielded no charges.  (Reuters)

The Internal Revenue Service is reportedly refusing to give back more than $59,000 to U.S. military veteran after it seized his gas station’s cash during a raid that found no evidence of criminal activity.

Oh Suk Kwon, 73, a South Korea immigrant who came to the U.S. back in the 1970s and served four years as a fleet mechanic in the U.S. army, bought a gas station in Maryland in 2007 following decades of work at an electrical plant as an auto mechanic.

“When I came to the United States, I had to do something for the country,” he told the Washington Post. He later became a U.S. citizen.
Following an honorable discharge, he continued pursuing the American dream, telling the paper: “My whole life was work, work, work.”
But just several years after opening the gas station, IRS investigators seized all the station’s cash – more than $59,000 – leaving the Kwon family cash-strapped, even though no evidence of criminal wrongdoing was found by the government, the paper reported.
After the IRS investigation ended, the station went bankrupt, Kwon’s wife passed away, and the IRS changed its policy regarding seizures like this; but the agency is still refusing to hand back Kwon his money.
His problems with the IRS started in 2011 when investigators showed up at his doorstep accusing him making money deposits in increments of less than $10,000 – a practice known as “structuring."
Structuring is commonly used by terror groups in order to avoid scrutiny. The government requires banks to report all transactions larger than $10,000 under the 1970 Banking Secrecy Act.

"They did it for money, and they destroyed a good and honest man. It is shameful."

- Attorney Edward Griffin

“Of all the cases I have worked on, this one stands out for me,” Kwon’s attorney Edward Griffin told The Post. “I firmly believe that the government did wrong in choosing to prosecute Mr. Kwon and seize his assets. There was no good policy purpose for the prosecution. They did it for money, and they destroyed a good and honest man. It is shameful. Which is why I am still fighting for him.”
A spokesman for the IRS said Kwon pleaded guilty to the structuring charge. Kwon said he merely followed the advice given by a local bank, which suggested making smaller deposits to avoid paperwork.
He told the paper the guilty plea ruined his life. He said he also felt shame after the investigators spoke with his neighbors, forcing later to move out of the neighborhood.
“They saw me as Korean. As a veteran,” he told The Post. “They were surprised to see me as a criminal. I will never forget that.”
It remains unclear whether he will get his money back. His attorney petitioned the IRS and Department of Justice this summer, but the request to hand back the money was not granted, citing lack of “additional information.”

New York Times Cartoons

Trump slams 'failing' New York Times reporter for ignoring successes on trade, climate

President Trump on Sunday criticized a New York Times story stating that he has failed to fulfill campaign promises on undoing key Obama administration policies, calling the newspaper “failing” and pointing to early successes like exiting the international Paris climate accord and getting conservative Judge Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court.

“The Failing @nytimes, in a story by Peter Baker, should have mentioned the rapid terminations by me of TPP & The Paris Accord & the fast ... approvals of The Keystone XL & Dakota Access pipelines” Trump said in a two-part tweet. “Also, look at the recent EPA cancelations & our great new Supreme Court Justice!”

In a story Sunday titled, “Promise the Moon? Easy for Trump. But Now Comes the Reckoning,” Baker points out that Trump, on his winning 2016 presidential campaign trail, called ObamaCare “outrageous” and the 2015 international Iran nuclear deal led by former President Barack Obama “one of the worst and one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into.”
However, nearly nine months into his presidency, Trump has yet to dismantle either, though he took steps last week to address both with or without the help of his Republican-controlled Congress.
Beyond pointing out that he exited the Paris climate deal last month, Trump, in his tweets Sunday, touted the prompt approval of the Keystone and Dakota Access pipelines, which were held up during Obama’s administration by lengthy environmental and approval processes.
Trump also pointed out that in March he ended U.S. involvement in the TPP, or the Trans Pacific Partnership, the 2016 international trade deal that he argued was unfair to the U.S.
And he pointed out recent efforts, under his orders, for the Environmental Protection Agency to roll back regulations on the domestic fossil fuel industry.
Baker is The Times’ chief White House correspondent and is billed as a straight-news reporter.
Last month, the newspaper published a Baker story titled, “A Divider, Not a Uniter, Trump Widens the Breach,” that reads like what could be considered an opinion piece.
Baker referred to  Trump as an “apostle of anger” and “deacon of divisiveness,” before noting that the president’s recent comments about athletes protesting the national anthem “distract from other matters, particularly Congress’ efforts on health care reform."
When reached by Fox News, Baker defended his comments as “analysis rather than opinion,” referring to it as “an observation” based on covering Trump for the past eight months.
The Times did not respond when Fox News asked if Baker is still considered a straight-news reporter.
The Baker article also details the groups that Trump has offended, including the media industry, the National Football League and Hollywood, among many others.
Baker previously had covered the White House for 15 years in the past, but moved out of the country in 2016 to serve as the paper’s Jerusalem bureau chief. Shortly after Trump defeated Hillary Clinton on Election Day, he was recalled to beef up the Times’ White House team during the Trump administration.
Trump has previously referred to the Times as “failing,” and many media watchdogs feel liberal bias is showing.