Obama Idiot Cartoons

Trump's White House transition also aims at party unity, mending fences

President-elect Donald Trump’s White House transition effort is starting to look like a 2016 GOP presidential primary reunion, with former rival Rick Perry scheduled for talks Monday as part of an apparent effort to mend fences and build party unity ahead of Inauguration Day.
On Sunday, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a primary rival-turned Trump backer, was part of a parade of officials who visited the president-elect, who moved his transition team's headquarters for the weekend from Manhattan to Trump’s private golf club in Bedminster, N.J.
The most high-profile visit this weekend was the arrival Saturday of former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who during the 2016 campaign called Trump a “fraud” and publically backed several of the other 16 major candidates whom Trump vanquished in the primary.
Trump, a first-time candidate, in turn called Romney a “choke artist” for his failed 2012 White House bid against President Obama. Both men suggested their roughly 90-minute meeting went well. But it remains unlcear whether apologies were exchanged or if Romney is interested in the secretary of state post.
“They did have some private time together, and you can ask either one of them what they talked about,” Vice President-elect Mike Pence told “Fox News Sunday.”
However, Pence did confirm the widely-held assumption that Romney is indeed being considered to run the State Department, as Trump attempts to fill dozens of Cabinet-level posts and other high-level jobs.
He also said that Trump "wants to focus out of the gate" on repealing "ObamaCare" -- a plan that new Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York acquaintance of Trump’s, told “Fox News Sunday” that he’ll strongly oppose.
Other contenders for secretary of state are said to be former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who met with Trump on Thursday.
Trump on Saturday also met with retired Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis, a possible candidate for defense secretary. He later said on Twitter that Mattis was “very impressive” and called him a “true General's General!"
Also Sunday, Trump met with billionaire investor Wilbur Ross, a possible secretary of commerce; former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who is also purportedly in the running for secretary of state; and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach.
Kobach served as an adviser to the Trump campaign on immigration issues and has a background in designing laws cracking down people who are here illegally.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a finalist in the hard-fought GOP primary, last week visited Trump at Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan.
“I think we had a very good and productive conversation about how we can work together to really deliver on the promises made to people,” Cruz said afterward on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends.”
On Friday, Trump picked Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions for attorney general and Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo to head the CIA, signaling a sharp rightward shift in U.S. security policy as he begins to form his Cabinet.
Trump also named retired Lt. Gen Michael Flynn as his national security adviser. A former military intelligence chief, Flynn has accused the Obama administration of being too soft on terrorism and has cast Islam as a "political ideology" and driver of extremism.

Some in the media dig in against 'normalizing' Donald Trump

This is not normal.
Many in the media, mostly on the liberal side, have come up with a verb that captures their disgust at the man who will be America’s 45th president.
It’s a word that clearly signals that they will remain in opposition, in a state of perpetual outrage, that, in truth, they don’t fully accept the results of the election.
Donald Trump, they say, should not be normalized.
To be “normalized” would be to be treated as just another president-elect putting together his Cabinet and White House staff. A normalized process would involve skeptical coverage, aggressive coverage, but would fit within the template of previous transitions.
What those who decry the normalization of Barack Obama’s successor are really saying is Trump is not a legitimate president, and doesn’t deserve to be treated as such.
And the reason I find this troubling is that there’s an echo of what some opponents did to the nation’s first black president. He was unfit, he wasn’t legitimate, he was a Muslim, he wasn’t born here, and we had to “take back our country”—that became a very common rallying cry.
But somehow it’s now okay to say that Trump isn’t normal?
Look, I get that Trump was part of a divisive and polarizing campaign, and that some Hispanics, blacks, Muslims, women and others felt insulted by his candidacy. No one’s saying they suddenly have to love the guy.
But Trump won the election fair and square, despite his sometimes inflammatory tone. Sixty million Americans voted for him. For those who were angry when Mitch McConnell said his top priority was to defeat Obama, doesn’t Trump deserve a shot at a normal presidency? Don’t we all have a stake in his success?
That doesn’t mean refraining from criticizing his policies or personnel picks. But does aggressively covering a president in the same fashion as previous presidents really amount to normalizing him?
Slate is a leader in the non-normalization camp:
“When Donald Trump won the presidency, our vocabularies didn’t bulge to accommodate the reality that this ignorant geyser of hate had ascended to the world’s yugest leadership position. We’re left pressing the same worn-out words into service, paradoxically reminding each other: This is not normal.
"In an essay for the New York Times Magazine, Teju Cole wrote, of the days following Trump’s win, ‘All around were the unmistakable signs of normalization in progress. So many were falling into line without being pushed. It was happening at tremendous speed, like a contagion.’ David Remnick told CNN, ‘We’ve normalized [the results] already. Less than a week after the election is over, suddenly Washington is going about its business talking about who’s going to get what jobs. You would think that Mitt Romney had won. It’s a hallucination.’… ‘He is not normal,’ insisted John Oliver over the weekend. ‘He is abnormal.’ Shouts of ‘normalization’ have become normalized.
“The frame we’re putting around the president-elect emphasizes how freakishly outside the mainstream his views and behavior lie. That’s useful, up to a point. But in appealing to what’s typical rather than what’s right or true, we’re missing an opportunity to make a stronger statement. Trump himself aims to center white men as ‘normal’ and push everyone else to the periphery.”
Ah, now we get to the real agenda: It’s racial. It’s about putting white men back in charge and the hell with everyone else.
Salon is on the same page: “Oprah Winfrey, in an interview with Entertainment Tonight, said Trump’s recent visit to the White House gave her ‘hope’ and suggested he has been ‘humbled’ by the experience. The Guardian’s Simon Jenkins told his readers to ‘calm down’ and that Trump wasn’t the ‘worst thing.’ His college, Nouriel Roubini, insisted the Oval Office will ‘tame’ Trump. People magazine ran a glowing profile of Trump and his wife Melania (though a former People writer accused Trump of sexual assault).
The New York Times’ Nick Kristof dubiously added that we should ‘Grit our teeth and give Trump a chance.’ The mainstays—Washington Post, New York Times and CNN—while frequently critical, are coving Trump’s transition as they would any other. President Obama, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have all issued statements recognizing Trump’s legitimacy and pleading we give him a chance.
“Overall there’s a creeping sense that we’re stuck with Trump and we should make it ‘work’ in some type of do-goody liberal appeal to patriotism.
“But this is wrong, both tactically and ethically. Trump isn’t normal and he should never be treated as such, regardless of what President Obama and Clinton and Sanders say.”
Wow. Even saying give the guy a chance is considered a failure. Who appointed Salon as the arbiter of normality?
The Boston Globe’s Renee Graham views Trump more as a vessel:
“Ever since the election that shook up the world, one refrain in columns, commentaries, and social media posts has been incessant: ‘Now that Donald Trump is the president-elect, we cannot allow him to be normalized.’ It’s a defiant, noble stance, but it overlooks a very crucial point: Had racism, bigotry, and sexism not been normalized for centuries, Trump would not be weeks away from becoming the 45th president of the United States.
“Make no mistake: Trump’s election is as disastrous as an Old Testament plague. His election has sparked anger and anxiety, driving thousands nationwide into the streets in protest. Between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. last Wednesday, when Trump’s victory was inevitable, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline recorded a 250 percent spike in calls. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate crimes, has logged more than 200 reports of harassment and intimidation since Election Day.”

And this is Trump’s fault? This is the same kind of circular reasoning that tried to blame Ferguson on Obama.
From the right, National Review's Jonah Goldberg says it's the mainstream media that normalized Trump during the primaries:
"Trump was good for ratings ... The mainstream media and numerous liberal pundits loved Trump’s impact on the GOP for the same reason bored teenagers like to throw lit matches into dumpsters: Garbage fires are fun to watch. The third reason is closely related to the second: The media thought Trump was more likely lose to Hillary Clinton."

How'd that work out for them?
If Donald Trump, with no political experience, rises to the height of the office and can compromise with competing factions, he will be a successful president. If Trump does not, his administration will fail to live up to his promises. That, to my mind, is a more normal outlook than insisting that the country just elected an abnormal businessman.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington. Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz. 

Obama says he'll speak out against Trump if he thinks US ideals are at risk

LIMA, Peru –  President Barack Obama said Sunday he doesn't intend to become his successor's constant critic -- but reserved the right to speak out if President-elect Donald Trump or his policies breach certain "values or ideals."

Offering a rare glimpse into his thoughts on his post-presidency, Obama suggested once he was out of office he would uphold the tradition of ex-presidents stepping aside quietly to allow their successors space to govern. He heaped praise on former President George W. Bush, saying he "could not have been more gracious to me when I came in" and said he wanted to give Trump the same chance to pursue his agenda "without somebody popping off" at every turn.

But Obama suggested there may be limits to his silence.

"As an American citizen who cares deeply about our country, if there are issues that have less to do with the specifics of some legislative proposal or battle or go to core questions about our values and ideals, and if I think that it's necessary or helpful for me to defend those ideals, I'll examine it when it comes," Obama told reporters.

Obama, who has consistently praised Bush for the way he's handled his ex-presidency, faces a conundrum about how to handle his own. Though he's vowed to ensure a smooth handover of power, Obama is keenly aware he's being replaced by a new president whose views on many issues are antithetical to his own.

The president spoke out vigorously throughout the campaign against Trump's calls for banning Muslim immigrants, deporting millions of people living in the U.S. illegally, reinstituting waterboarding, repealing "Obamacare" and canceling the Paris climate deal, to name a few. Those policy proposals and others like them have stoked fear for many Americans who oppose Trump and are hoping that vehement opposition from Obama and other Democrats might prevent Trump from implementing them.

Yet Obama suggested that while he might not always hold his tongue, his goal wasn't to spend his time publicly disparaging the next president.

"My intention is to, certainly for the next 2 months, just finish my job," Obama said. "And then after that, to take Michelle on vacation, get some rest, spend time with my girls, and do some writing, do some thinking."

Obama's remarks at a news conference in Lima offered some of his most specific indications to date of how he feels Democrats and Trump opponents should handle the next four years. Asked whether Democrats in the Senate should follow Republicans' example of refusing to even consider a Supreme Court nominee, Obama said they should not.

"You give them a hearing," said Obama, whose own Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, has lingered for more than half a year due to the GOP's insistence that no Obama nominee be considered. Obama said he certainly didn't want Democrats to adopt that tactic spearheaded this year by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

"That's not why the American people send us to Washington, to play those games," Obama said.

He declined to weigh in explicitly on whether House Democrats should stick with Rep. Nancy Pelosi as minority leader, arguing it was improper to meddle in the vote. But he said of the California Democrat, who faces a challenge for the leadership post: "I cannot speak highly enough of Nancy Pelosi."

Obama's remarks came as he concluded his final world tour as president. For Obama, it was the last time he'd take questions on foreign soil, a staple of his overseas trips that his administration has seen as an important symbol of America's commitment to a rigorous free press.

Obama said he'd avoided ethical scandals by trying to follow the spirit, not just the letter, of the law, and suggested Trump would be wise to follow his example about conflicts of interest. Though he declined to explicitly offer Trump advice, Obama said he'd been served well by selling his assets and investing them in Treasury bills.

"It simplified my life," Obama said. "I did not have to worry about the complexities of whether a decision that I made might even inadvertently benefit me."

Good government advocates have criticized Trump's decision not to liquidate his sprawling business interests, but put them in a blind trust entrusted to his children, who are playing major roles in helping him form his administration and are expected to remain involved in one capacity or another.

On his final day in Peru, Obama chatted briefly with Russian President Vladimir Putin about Ukraine and the Syria crisis. The four-minute conversation, likely the leaders' last face-to-face interaction, came amid intense speculation and concern about whether Trump's election might herald a more conciliatory U.S. approach to Russia

Putin, speaking later in Lima, said he and Obama had noted that while their working relationship had been difficult, they'd "always respected each other's positions -- and each other."

"I thanked him for the years of joint work, and said that at any time, if he considers it possible and will have the need and desire, we will be happy to see him in Russia," Putin said later.

Questions about Trump trailed Obama throughout his final overseas trip, as anxious world leaders quizzed him on Trump's stances on key issues like trade, foreign policy and the NATO alliance. Obama sought to reassure Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other leaders gathered in Peru that their longstanding ties with the U.S. wouldn't falter under Trump.

Crybaby Democrat Cartoons

Sanders has no plans to reverse Independent status

Bernie Sanders says he won’t rescind his status as an Independent, even though he’s accepted a position in Democratic Party leadership.
In an interview with the Christian Science Monitor, Sanders said that he was “elected as an Independent and I will finish this term as an Independent.”
That means that, for the next year at least, Sanders will serve as the Congressional Democrats’ chairman of outreach, in charge of bringing new and underrepresented demographics into the Democrats’ camp — though he won’t be a Democrat.
The idea, of course, is that Sanders can serve the Democratic Party by expanding its appeal to those people who joined his decidedly anti-Establishment campaign. Unfortunately for Democrats, seeking fresh blood means looking outside party ranks.

Chicago police say charges are expected in death of congressman's grandson

U.S. Rep. Danny Davis

Officials in Chicago said charges could be announced soon in the shooting death of an Illinois congressman's grandson following an argument over a pair of basketball shoes.
Officials say two juveniles are in custody and are being considered suspects in the murder of Javon Wilson, after he was shot in the head in his Chicago home on Friday.
"The detectives are continuing their interrogations and charges are expected," Officer Michelle Tannehill said on Saturday night.
Police announced earlier that the shooting occurred after a dispute over basketball shoes.
Wilson allegedly knew his attackers, but the juveniles in custody have not been identified.
The 15-year-old boy is the grandson of longtime U.S. Rep. Danny Davis.
Davis said he was told that a 15-year-old boy had traded slacks for shoes with Wilson's 14-year-old brother, but thought better of the trade and went to Wilson's house with a 17-year-old girl. He said the pair forced their way in the house and argued with Wilson before the boy pulled a gun and fired.
Davis also said that his grandson was a victim of a world where gun violence has become commonplace.
"It's almost, just the way it is. People think nothing of it," Davis said. "Youngsters invariably say, 'I know a lot of guys who've got guns. I know a lot of girls who've got guns.”
Davis added, "It becomes a part of the culture of an environment that has got to change."
Davis has been a member of the Democratic party for nearly 20 years. He was re-elected this month to his 11th term in the 7th Congressional District.
"The question becomes where does a 15-year-old obtain a gun? Who let the 15-year-old have a gun and under what circumstances?" Davis asked. "There's no answer for that except that the availability of guns is so prevalent in America to the point where you almost can't tell who has a gun" anymore.
Chicago has seen an increase in shooting and homicide numbers in recent months. August was reportedly the deadliest month in the city in nearly two decades.

Trump meets with school reformer, Democrat Michelle Rhee with education secretary post still open

Education reformer Michelle Rhee defends Common Core

President-elect Donald Trump will meet Saturday with Michelle Rhee, a Democrat and former District of Columbia public schools leader who is considered in the running for secretary of education.
Rhee will meet with Trump, a Republican, at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., where he is also meeting with former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, purportedly being considered for secretary of state.
Jason Miller, Trump communications director, confirmed the Rhee meeting Saturday morning with FoxNews.com.
Like Trump, Rhee has been a supporter of school choice, backing some public money for charter schools while the D.C. schools chancellor from 2007 to 2010.
Trump’s School Choice Policy released in September calls for his incoming administration to “immediately” redirect $20 billion in federal funds to school choice -- in the form of block grants for an estimate 11 million school-age children living in poverty.
“We want every disadvantaged child to be able to choose the local public, private, charter or magnet school that is best for them and their family,” the Trump campaign said in announcing the plan. “Each state will develop its own formula, but the dollars should follow the student.”
Rhee was hired to lead D.C. schools under Democratic Mayor Adrian Fenty, who gave her essentially unprecedented autonomy to change the costly and under-performing city’s school system.
Known as a visionary education reformer, Rhee shot to national prominence after her picture appeared on the Dec. 2008 cover of Time magazine next to the headline “How to Fix America’s Schools.”
But the picture of Rhee holding a broom enraged teachers, union leaders and others who said the image made clear Rhee’s intentions to improve the school system by trying to sweep out the most experience teachers -- in her effort to pay them based on performance, not tenure.
Trump also supports merit-based pay for teachers, which he and his campaign say rewards “great teachers … instead of the failed tenure system that currently exists, which rewards bad teachers and punishes good ones.”
However, Rhee, the daughter of Korean immigrants, has in the past been a supporter of the Common Core educational standards that Trump has frequently called a “total disaster.”
During Rhee’s tenure in the District of Columbia, graduation rates and standardized test scores in math and reading improved. But she increasingly lost the support of parents and others who complained that she made such decisions as firing teachers and principals and closing schools with little public input.
Rhee unapologetically fired 241 teachers in 2010, the same year Fenty lost his reelection bid to Vince Gray and she resigned, in what many considered the city’s return to ward politics.
Trump is also scheduled to meet Saturday with Betsy Davos, a wealth donor, school choice advocate and the former leader of the Michigan Republican Party. Davos has also been mentioned as a possible education secretary candidate.
Trump met earlier this week with Eva Moskowitz, a charter school leader from New York. However, she reportedly dropped out of the competition to run the Education Department after meeting with Trump earlier this week.
Rhee is married to Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, a Democrat, and leads the board of St. Hope Public Schools, a Sacramento-based charter school group.

Retired Gen. James Mattis eyed as Trump's possible pick for defense secretary

 

In a sign that Donald Trump was zeroing in on his choice for defense secretary Saturday, a senior transition team official told Fox News the retired Marine Gen. James Mattis was a "very strong candidate" for a Cabinet post.

The retired general was one of several people who met with Trump in New Jersey during the day on Saturday. Trump wouldn't say whether he was offering Mattis a job, saying "we'll see." But as they posed for cameras before sitting down for their meeting, Trump pointed to Mattis and called him "a great man."
Earlier, an official with the transition team confirmed the retired general was under consideration to lead the Pentagon.
Mattis succeeded David Petraeus as commander of U.S. Central Command, which oversees all military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has field commander experience in Afghanistan and both U.S. wars in Iraq, and retired in 2013.
If nominated and approved, Mattis would be the highest-ranking officer to become defense secretary in more than half a century. When asked about a rule prohibiting those who served in active duty within the past seven years, the senior official told Fox News, "There are waivers around that."
Known as "Mad Dog Mattis," the retired general was credited with a string of colorful quotes over the years, including: "Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet."
Also: "You are part of the world's most feared and trusted force. Engage your brain before you engage your weapon."
The president-elect also was considering retired Army Gen. David Petraeus to serve as defense secretary, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Trump is said to have a strong interest in having a former general run the Pentagon, with the interest in Mattis coming after retired Army General Jack Keane, citing personal reasons, withdrew his name from consideration.
The Trump team is also weighing options for pairing the general with a CEO-like figure as deputy secretary, an individual who could bring needed reform to the Pentagon's spending and management systems.
Trump also met with Mitt Romney and Chicago Cubs co-owner Todd Ricketts, among others, at the billionaire's golf club in Bedminster, N.J., during the day on Saturday.
Trump signaled a sharp rightward shift in U.S. national security policy Friday with his announcement that he would nominate Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions as attorney general and Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo to head the CIA. Trump also named retired Lt. Gen Michael Flynn as his national security adviser.
A former military intelligence chief, Flynn has accused the Obama administration of being too soft on terrorism and has cast Islam as a "political ideology" and driver of extremism.
Sessions and Flynn were ardent Trump supporters during the campaign, and their promotions were seen in part as a reward for their loyalty.
In 2014, Pompeo criticized Obama for "ending our interrogation program" and said intelligence officials "are not torturers, they are patriots."

In busy weekend, Trump goes to NJ to talk with Romney, Christie, others

President-elect Donald Trump this weekend moved his operation to fill top administration posts and talk with Republican party elders to his private New Jersey golf club, meeting with arch-critic Mitt Romney, who purportedly is being considered for secretary of state.
Trump, who has conducted most of the discussion -- and made a couple of Cabinet-level picks -- from Trump Tower in Manhattan, is scheduled to meet Sunday with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, two leading supporters. He’s also scheduled to meet with Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach.
A Kobach spokeswoman told The Associated Press on Saturday that Kobach was on his way to New Jersey but she did not confirm details of the planned meeting Sunday. Kobach served as an adviser to the Trump campaign on immigration issues and has a background in designing laws cracking down people who are here illegally.
Romney, a former GOP presidential nominee, said the 90-minute meeting at Trump’s private club in Bedminster, N.J., was a "far-reaching conversation." He did not respond to questions about whether he would consider joining the administration.
Trump walked Romney out at the end of the meeting and said, "It went great."
The sit-down came after an acrimonious election year. Romney was a harsh critic of Trump, calling him a "con man." Trump called Romney a "choke artist" because of his loss to President Barack Obama. Trump and Romney have been trying to mend fences since then.
Earlier Saturday, Trump met with former D.C. public schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, possibly about the secretary of education post, and took to Twitter.
On Twitter, Trump rushed to the defense of Mike Pence, after "Hamilton" actor Brandon Victor Dixon challenged the incoming vice president from the Broadway stage after the show Friday night.
"Apologize!" Trump tweeted to the actor. "Our wonderful future V.P. Mike Pence was harassed last night at the theater by the cast of Hamilton, cameras blazing. This should not happen!"
Dixon tweeted back: "Conversation is not harassment sir. And I appreciate (at) Mike -- Pence for stopping to listen."
Trump also bragged on Twitter about agreeing to settle a trio of lawsuits against Trump University, claiming: "The ONLY bad thing about winning the presidency is that I did not have the time to go through a long but winning trial on Trump U. Too bad!"
On Friday, it was announced that Trump had agreed to a $25 million settlement to resolve three lawsuits over Trump University, his former school for real estate investors. The lawsuits alleged the school misled students and failed to deliver on its promises in programs that cost up to $35,000.
Trump has denied the allegations and had said repeatedly he would not settle. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who announced the settlement, called it "a stunning reversal by Donald Trump and a major victory for the over 6,000 victims of his fraudulent university."
Trump tweeted to his 15 million followers Saturday that he settled only so that he could better focus on leading the U.S.
Trump is still weighing a range of candidates for leading national security posts.
Other contenders for secretary of state are said to be Giuliani, former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who met with Trump on Thursday.
Also on Friday, Trump picked Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions for attorney general and Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo to head the CIA, signaling a sharp rightward shift in U.S. security policy as he begins to form his Cabinet.
Trump also named retired Lt. Gen Michael Flynn as his national security adviser. A former military intelligence chief, Flynn has accused the Obama administration of being too soft on terrorism and has cast Islam as a "political ideology" and driver of extremism.
The selections form the first outlines of Trump's Cabinet and national security teams. Given his lack of governing experience and vague policy proposals during the campaign, his selection of advisers is being scrutinized both in the U.S. and abroad.
Trump's initial decisions suggest a more aggressive military involvement in counterterror strategy and a greater emphasis on Islam's role in stoking extremism.
Sessions, who is best known for his hardline immigration views, has questioned whether terrorist suspects should benefit from the rights available in U.S. courts. Pompeo has said Muslim leaders are "potentially complicit" in attacks if they do not denounce violence carried out in the name of Islam.
Pompeo's nomination to lead the CIA also opens the prospect of the U.S. resuming torture of detainees. Trump has backed harsh interrogation techniques that President Barack Obama and Congress have banned, saying the U.S. "should go tougher than waterboarding," which simulates drowning. In 2014, Pompeo criticized Obama for "ending our interrogation program" and said intelligence officials "are not torturers, they are patriots."
Asked Saturday whether more anymore announcements would be made in the coming hours, Trump said, “We'll see, could happen."
Sessions and Pompeo would both require Senate confirmation; Flynn would not.
However, potential roadblocks exist, particularly for Sessions, the first senator to endorse Trump and one of the chamber's most conservative members.
His last Senate confirmation hearing, in 1986 for a federal judgeship, was derailed over allegations that he made racist comments, including calling a black assistant U.S. attorney "boy" in conversation. Sessions denied the accusation, but withdrew from consideration.

Dumbing Down of American

Two years after super-hack of US secrets, White House agency getting worse at cyber-defense

The White House Office of Personnel Management, two years ago the focus of the worst cybersecurity intelligence breach in U.S. history, is actually regressing in its efforts to provide adequate defenses against further cyber-intrusions, according to a new report by the agency’s own Inspector General.
The report is depressing news for an agency that has been in more-or-less continuous turmoil since a devastating cyber-attack in March 2014 stole the sensitive personal information of some 25 million U.S. government employees, including millions of security clearance files, from the agency files and those of two of its important contractors. The fingerprint data of some 5.6 million of those employees was also stolen.
According to a scathing report on the break-in published two months ago by the Republican majority on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the intelligence value of the theft, carried out from China, “cannot be overstated, nor will it ever be fully known.”
What is clear, however, is that despite improvements that the Inspector General acknowledges, the agency known as OPM is still stumbling toward an adequate response to the disaster, along with other high-profile and expensive efforts to modernize its information technology and security, and has had a “significant regression” in complying with information security requirements along the way.
The latest IG report notes that the agency is still suffering from high staff turnover in sensitive info-security jobs and top management—including five Chief Information Officers in three years—as well as  longstanding failures to check security controls on computer systems to make sure they are adequate.
It is also lethargic in dealing with a variety of longstanding security weaknesses and has still not taken action on scores of security recommendations laid out in previous Inspector General reports—some made years before the catastrophic hack.
Among other things, the report notes that only two of the agency’s major computer applications comply with the government’s own standards for verifying user identities, which date back to 2012.
Among the 18 “major” computer systems that have not been given a renewed OK on their security controls, the report notes, are five that are owned by the Chief Information Officer, two that belong to the chief financial officer, and four systems that were inherited  by a newly amalgamated National Background Investigation Bureau, a reformed chunk of the bureaucracy that now operates under the Department of Defense.
One of the systems is also owned by the Office of the Inspector General.
Indeed, according to the report, OPM, despite “several initiatives underway,” still lacks a full inventory of its many servers, databases and software, let along the important issue of how they are linked with each other—fundamentals of a robust cyber-defense.
The report drily notes that lack of what it calls a “mature inventory system significantly hinders OPM’s efforts related to oversight, risk management, and securing the agency’s information systems.”
In another section, the document observes that even when OPM scanning turns up less-than-critical weaknesses, the agency does not track the efforts made to correct them,  “there is a significantly increased risk that these weaknesses will not be addressed in a timely manner, and that the systems will indefinitely remain susceptible to attack.”
To fix the problems—or at least address them—the audit report offers up a barrage of 26 recommendations, with notes alongside many of them to show they are repeats of recommendations made years before.
For its part, the agency management concurs with almost all of them, including new staffing hires and appropriate inventories.
It balked slightly, however, at a diffident suggestion that the Director of OPM—currently, Acting Director Beth Colbert—“consider shutting down information systems that do not have a current and valid [security] Authorization.”
The agency said it would prefer to make its own “risk-based decision” on whether to keep operating a system without that clearance, then forward it’s evaluation to the OPM head for “ultimate decision.”
Perhaps that is progress: the Inspector General first made the shut-down suggestion in 2014—the year of the great cyber-theft—without any apparent effect.
A spokesman for OPM declined to comment on a number of questions from Fox News about the audit and the time-table for following through on various recommendations.

Sessions well-documented praise of Rosa Parks belies 'racist' claims

When President-elect Donald Trump picked Jeff Sessions for attorney general Friday, critics zeroed in on racist remarks Sessions allegedly made decades ago – but the Alabama senator's 20-year history of honoring black civil rights icon Rosa Parks may not square with efforts to paint him as a bigot.
Sessions, 69, who advised Trump on immigration during the campaign, was U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Alabama from 1981 to 1993 before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 1996. He was re-elected to a fourth term in 2014 and is known for his hardline stance on illegal immigration in particular.
However, the pick was immediately blasted by opponents of Trump, who condemned Sessions as a backwards bigot who would harm the causes of immigrants and African-Americans.
TRUMP TAPS LOYALISTS FOR CABINET PICKS
“If you have nostalgia for the days when blacks kept quiet, gays were in the closet, immigrants were invisible and women stayed in the kitchen, Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions is your man,” said Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill. in a fiery statement Friday.
“Senator Sessions’ record suggests that he will carry on an old, ugly legacy in this country’s history when civil rights for African-Americans, women and minorities were not regarded as core American values,” the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) President and CEO Cornell William Brooks said in a statement.
Critics revisited his failed 1986 nomination to a federal judgeship, which was shut down by the Senate Judiciary Committee after it heard testimony that Sessions had made racist remarks and called the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) “un-American” and “communist-inspired.” His failed prosecution of three civil rights workers on a tenuous case of voter fraud was also raised as a disqualifying issue.
Sessions was also accused of calling an African-American lawyer “boy” and was also alleged to have said Ku Klux Klan members were “okay," until he "learned they smoked marijuana.” Sessions said the comment was made in jest.
Many of Sessions’ modern-day critics have used the controversy to brand Sessions as a racist, with Gutierrez saying Sessions ran for the Senate “because he was deemed by the Senate Judiciary Committee as too racist to serve as a federal judge.”
“Thirty years ago, a different Republican Senate rejected Senator Sessions' nomination to a federal judgeship. In doing so, that Senate affirmed that there can be no compromise with racism; no negotiation with hate,” added Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
Yet, the narrative of Sessions as an unapologetic racist is complicated somewhat by his repeated advocacy for black civil rights hero Rosa Parks.
In 1999, Sessions called successfully for the Alabama native to be given the Congressional gold medal. In doing so, Sessions made a passionate call for lawmakers to renew the principle of equality under the law.
“As legislators, we should work to strengthen the appreciation for this fundamental governing principle by recognizing those who make extraordinary contributions towards ensuring that all American citizens have the opportunity, regardless of their race, sex, creed, or national origin, to enjoy in the freedoms that this country has to offer,” Sessions said, before calling Parks a “living embodiment of this principle.”
A year later, Sessions attached an amendment to an appropriations bill that gave $1 million to Alabama for the Rosa Parks Library, Museum and Learning Center at Troy State University Montgomery Campus as a way of memorializing the Montgomery Bus Boycott, for which Parks’ protest was the impetus.
In 2005, after Parks’ death, Sessions gave a passionate tribute to her on the floor of the Senate, saying “history will remember Rosa Parks for shaking America's conscience and changing the course of our Nation for the better.”
In 2012, Sessions introduced a resolution to the Senate floor, along with Michigan Democratic senators Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow, to observe the 100^th anniversary of Parks’ birth.
“Her courage ignited major changes in our nation and lead a revolution in race relations. Mrs. Parks will always be remembered as a courageous individual, who confronted injustice head-on and, in so doing, changed our nation. Her legacy continues to endure,” Sessions said.
The Trump transition team, responding to the backlash against Sessions, noted Friday both Sessions’ advocacy of Parks, as well as his record as a senator and U.S. attorney in advancing civil rights.
“You know, when Senator Sessions was U.S. attorney, he filed a number of desegregation lawsuits in Alabama and he also voted in favor of the 30-year extension of the Civil Rights Act,” communications director Jason Miller said in a conference call. “He also voted to confirm Attorney General Eric Holder and even spearheaded the effort toward giving the Congressional Gold Medal to Rosa Parks.”
 “So we feel very confident that Senator Sessions has the background and the support to receive confirmation,” Miller said. 

Sean Hannity: Fanning flames instead of calling for calm is classic Obama

Given the chance to speak out on the world stage against the anti-democratic, alt-radical left protests against President-elect Donald Trump, President Obama on Thursday incredibly chose instead to encourage the out-of-control behavior.
“I would not advise people who feel strongly or are concerned about some of the issues that have been raised during the course of the campaign -- I wouldn't advise them to be silent,” Obama said, in a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Well, some of these protests have been violent, and the situation cries out for leadership from the White House. But the lack of condemnation falls in line with everything that President Obama stands for. I tried to warn the country and everyone back in 2008 that Obama was a disciple of the alt-radical left, pointing out that he embraces the Saul Alinsky “Rules for Radical” tactics.
TOUGHEN UP, CRYBABIES, TRUMP IS YOUR NEXT PRESIDENT
All the signs were there: He palled around with unrepentant domestic terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, starting his political career in their living room. For 20 years, he sat in the pews of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the man who told his congregants “God d--- America.”
Since the president now refuses to speak out against these anti-democratic agitators, let me remind him about what has been going on:

• In the president's hometown of Chicago, a man was severely beaten by an angry mob after a traffic incident because they thought he was a Trump supporter.
• A  mother in Texas is under investigation after allegedly kicking her 7-year-old son out of the house because he voted for Donald Trump in a mock election at school.

These are just two of many examples. We've also seen continual protests all across the country that have resulted in the destruction of property, unlawful behavior and arrests.
Consider President Obama’s predecessor, President George W. Bush. He stayed out of the political arena, and he let Obama do his job. President Bush never responded to President Obama's relentless blaming and name calling. Instead, he took the “high road” Democrats often speak about but rarely travel.

FOUR ESSENTIAL THINGS DOUGLAS MACARTHUR WOULD TELL PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP

“I don't think it's good for the country to have a former president undermine a current president,” Bush told me in an interview a few years back, explaining why he didn’t respond to criticism from his successor. “I think it's bad for the presidency, for that matter.”
Why do I suspect President Obama will never show the same amount of grace and respect when it comes to Donald Trump and his presidency? Here's my prediction: President Obama will not be able to contain himself, and he will go after Mr. Trump every single chance he gets once Obama is out of office.
And here's another thing. After Donald Trump's sweeping victory, President Obama has been in complete and utter denial that the election had anything to do with him or his failed policies. The facts say otherwise. Since 2009, Democrats have lost 13 U.S. Senate seats, 64 U.S. House seats, 13 governorship and 33 statehouses.
Wow! What a legacy.
Our next president, Donald Trump, has been handed a huge mess. It is almost beyond repair, thanks to President Obama, and that's why this election was so important. But Republicans now have control, and no excuses for not fixing things.
President-elect Trump needs to keep in mind that the media is never going to like him, especially after WikiLeaks exposed that CNBC, MSNBC, CNN, The New York Times and many others were openly colluding with the Clinton campaign.
The president-elect also needs to understand the Republican establishment is not going to be his friend, either. He needs to stay focused and remember the promises he made to you, the American people. And unlike President Obama, when Trump takes office, he must call out lawless behavior disguised as protests when it threatens the lives and property of U.S. citizens.
Adapted from Sean Hannity's opening monologue on "Hannity" Nov. 17, 2016
Sean Hannity currently serves as host of FOX News Channel's (FNC) Hannity (weekdays 10-11PM/ET). He joined the network in 1996 and is based in New York. Click here for more information on Sean Hannity. 

High school students' mock Trump assassination highlights post-election bullying, harassment

We parents should be embarrassed as we have raised a nation of Idiots. 

A skit performed in a south Texas high school English class that portrayed the assassination of Donald Trump is just one of the latest cases of K-12 election hysteria.
Officials at San Antonio’s Marshall High School claim they took "appropriate action" following the skit, in which a student dressed as Trump was shot by a classmate, complete with gunfire sound effects from a cellphone. But some parents say harsher punishment was warranted, and critics worry that political polarization has found its way into schools.
STUDENTS TAKE UP TODDLER THERAPY AFTER TRUMP WIN
“Honestly I have run out of words to describe how angry I am and how shocked I am that they’re still in school today,” parent Melinda Bean told the San Antonio Express-News.
The misguided skit was just one in a slew of controversial acts happening across the country in the wake of Trump’s win over Democrat Hillary Clinton on Election Day.
Most media coverage following Trump’s victory has focused on sometimes violent protests in cities around the country, but it is now clear the election's reverberations are being felt all the way down to elementary schools.

• Students at a Detroit-area middle school reportedly chanted "build the wall" last week, in an apparent reference to Trump's call for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
• White students at a central Pennsylvania technical high school reportedly chanted “white power” in the hallways and referred to students of other races as their slaves.
• A 15-year-old Maryland boy wearing a Trump “Make America Great Again” hat was reportedly beaten by a group of high school students.
• Last week, a California high school student was also attacked after she expressed her support for Trump, in an attack captured on cellphone video.

Experts in child development and psychology say that this type of bullying has occurred in the past, this year it has taken on a more ominous tone and been seen a greater scale given how divisive the presidential campaign season was.
“This election was unusually nasty,” Judith Myers-Walls, a professor emerita of human development and family studies at Purdue University told FoxNews.com. “It was in many ways at a child’s level with the candidates at times acting like they were in pre-school.”
Myers-Walls said that with the pervasive media coverage and constant presence of the candidates on television, the Internet and social media, it is no wonder that young students picked up slogans – “Build the Wall” and “Lock Her Up” are just two examples – without even truly grasping what they mean.
It’s important, Myers-Walls said, that both parents and educators talk to students when they see them expressing these types of behavior and it’s even more important to know when to introduce them to what’s going on in regards to politics.
“You need to get a sense of where they are and what they feel about certain issues,” she said. “A lot of times children have some ideas that adults wouldn’t even think about.”

Vice President-elect Mike Pence booed at 'Hamilton'

Vice President-elect Mike Pence was booed on Friday night as he attended the Broadway musical “Hamilton” in New York.
The cast had a message for Pence after the show as he was walking out saying, “We sir, we are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir.”
Some audience members took to twitter to report that the show was paused several times as the crowd booed Pence at certain lines of the show.
Cast member Brandon Dixon delivered the statement on behalf of the cast encouraging the audience to tweet and record the message.

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Dixon added, “We truly hope this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and work on behalf of all of us."
Dixon continued to say the show was “told by a diverse group of men, women of different colors, creeds and orientations."
The remarks were met with cheers from the audience in response.
Outside, many protesters jeered, including one woman who held up a sign with a line from the musical that always gets a cheer: "Immigrants, we get the job done."
Dixon's speech ended with a plea to donate to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
Lead producer Jeffrey Seller said he hopes Pence would share the show's message of empathy saying, "I hope that maybe it inspires him to feel for those not like him."

Ford Mexico Cartoons

Obama to anti-Trump protesters: March on

President Obama, speaking at a press conference in Germany, passed up the opportunity Thursday to tamp down the anti-Donald Trump protests back home -- urging those taking part not to remain "silent."
The president fielded a question on the protests during a joint news conference in Berlin alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
"I suspect that there’s not a president in our history that hasn’t been subject to these protests," he answered. "So, I would not advise people who feel strongly or who are concerned about some of the issues that have been raised during the course of the campaign, I wouldn’t advise them to be silent."
He added: “Voting matters, organizing matters and being informed on the issues matter.”
Protests have broken out in cities across the country since Trump's upset victory last Tuesday. Some have been peaceful, but there have been incidents of violence -- and a demonstration last Thursday in Portland escalated into a destructive riot.
Trump's campaign manager Kellyanne Conway repeatedly has called for Obama to speak out on the unrest.
“I am calling for responsibility and decency. I hope President Obama says, ‘Cut it out,'" she told "Fox News Sunday."
Obama, though, so far has not done so, speaking mostly in generalities.
"Whenever you have got an incoming president of the other side, particularly after a bitter election like this, it takes a while for people to reconcile themselves with that new reality. Hopefully, it's a reminder that elections matter and voting counts," he told reporters on Monday.
Asked about the president’s reaction to those carrying “He’s Not My President” signs, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the freedom to protest should be “exercised without violence” but that “it's not surprising that people are disappointed in the outcome, but it's important for us to remember, a day or two after the election, that we're Democrats and Republicans, but we're Americans and patriots first.”
While he expressed cautious optimism Thursday that Trump would be an ally to Europe, Obama advised the president-elect to avoid simply taking “a realpolitik approach” with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Obama also suggested Trump not “cut deals when convenient,” and he urged him to stand up to Putin when Russia’s values "differ from international norms."
Obama also argued social media can erode a democracy, after a campaign in which the candidates' Twitter accounts -- especially Trump's -- acted as their own broadcasting outlets.
“If we are not serious about facts and what is true and what is not. Particularly in an age of social media when people are getting their information in soundbites and snippets ... if we cannot discriminate between serious arguments and propaganda, then we have problems,” he said.

Ford chairman tells Trump Lincoln SUV production to remain at Kentucky plant

The Ford Motor Company said late Thursday that it would continue producing its Lincoln MKC SUV at a plant in Kentucky after President-elect Donald Trump incorrectly implied in a tweet that the plant had been close to moving to Mexico.
Trump said that Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford had called him with the news "that he will be keeping the Lincoln plant in Kentucky - no Mexico."
In a second tweet, Trump said that he had "worked hard with Bill Ford to keep the Lincoln plant in Kentucky. I owed it to the great state of Kentucky for their confidence in me!"
Ford had planned to move the Lincoln MKC out of an assembly factory in Louisville so it could make more Ford Escapes there. Despite the implication of Trump's tweet, Reuters reported that Ford cannot close any U.S. plant until 2019 at the earliest under the terms of its collective bargaining agreement with the United Automobile Workers union (UAW).
In a statement, Ford said the company "confirmed with the President-elect" that it would continue producing Lincoln MKCs at the Louisville plant and added that it was "encouraged that President-elect Trump and the new Congress will pursue policies that will improve U.S. competitiveness and make it possible to keep production of this vehicle here in the United States."
Trump has been feuding with Ford over plans to move small-car production from suburban Detroit to Mexico. On the campaign trail, the real estate mogul promised that he would he would not let the company open a new plant in Mexico and would levy 35 percent tariffs on any Ford vehicles made there.
In response, Bill Ford called Trump's plan "infuriating" and "frustrating."