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Thursday, Mar. 1, 2018
All Gave Some~Some Gave All
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Billy Graham, rest in peace...
Obama Admin Official Who Helped Anti-Trump Dossier Author Was Exec at Lobbying Firm for Russians Who Bought Uranium One
Boycott Backfire: Record Attendance at Florida Gun Show Amid Calls for Weapons Ban
By Trey Sanchez
The manager that ran last weekend’s Florida Gun Show in Tampa said he’s never seen a larger crowd. On Saturday, a record-breaking 7,000 people were in attendance and more came on Sunday.Trump Stopping a Mugging Resurfaces After Liberals Mock Him
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People are mocking Trump for saying he'd run into the school to stop the shooter today... BUT in 1991, he had his driver pull over his car to run out of it to stop a mugging.
From the New York Daily News:
A story from the early ’90s has resurfaced, involving Donald Trump stopping an active and violent mugging on the side of a New York City street, just hours after liberals mocked him for suggesting he would have run into the Florida high school where 17 people were killed.
The President earlier this week was responding to reports that Broward County deputies and a school resource officer remained outside the Parkland school, hiding behind vehicles while the onslaught took place at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High.
“You don’t know until you test it, but I think, I really believe I’d run in there, even if I didn’t have a weapon,” Trump stated. “And I think most of the people in this room would have done that too.”
Naturally, liberals didn’t think the President could have ever engaged in such a heroic act and the mockery ensued.
Seth MacFarlane showed a clip of Trump shying away from an ornery eagle as proof that he’d never run into the building … or something.
But a story from 1991 resurfaced in the wake of the liberal jokes, and it involves Donald Trump witnessing a violent crime and running toward it, even though he didn’t have a weapon – exactly as he had claimed he would do today.
In the article printed by the New York Daily News, somebody in the former real estate mogul’s limo noticed the mugging, to which Trump told his driver “stop the car because it was brutal-looking.”
The assailant had a baseball bat. Trump had, well … Trump.
“The guy with the bat looked at me, and I said, ‘Look, you’ve gotta stop this. Put down the bat,'” Trump told the reporter, who found out about the story through his own research. “I guess he recognized me because he said, ‘Mr. Trump, I didn’t do anything wrong.’ I said, ‘How could you not do anything wrong when you’re whacking a guy with a bat?’ Then he ran away.”
The future president had no way of knowing whether the man he was confronting had a weapon other than the bat. He had no way of knowing he wouldn’t use the bat on him.
He just ran after him, ‘even though he didn’t have a weapon.’
And just like that, those liberal jokes and another narrative went down the drain.
Meet Trump's New Campaign Manager
by: Donny Bomenabori
ia Wikimedia CommonsPresident Trump made a major announcement on Tuesday, saying he would indeed run for President in 2020, The cool backstory though is the new guy at the top of the Trump campaign. Trump's new campaign manager, Brad Parscale, turns out, isn't so new.
Parscale describes himself as a "farm boy from Kansas" and in 2016 as the Trump campaign's "plumber". While Bannon and Manafort were handling the political details, he was the implementer of the digital strategy, which saw the most advanced digital campaign to date in American politics. The Trump campaign paid his company $94 million in the 2016 campaign and was a critical component to the President's election effort.
Parscale started his firm from scratch in 2004, linking up with the Trump organization to market Trump's business ventures in 2012. With Lewandowski's departure in the summer of 2016, came Parscale's time to shine: “In 2016 and going forward, the thing that a campaign does every day is largely digital. The guy or gal who runs digital is, therefore, de facto in charge of the campaign,” Gerrit Lansing, a former chief digital officer of the Republican National Committee told Forbes.
As Parscale told WIRED shortly after the election, "Facebook and Twitter were the reason we won this thing. Twitter for Mr. Trump. And Facebook for fundraising." In the new frontier of digital politics, Parscale is a guide to otherwise unfamiliar terrain, shifting investment away from tv and radio, which Hillary wasted upwards of $52 million on in 2016. The President knows what the future holds in political technology, which is why he's behind Parscale, who was indispensable in 2016.
Parscale describes himself as a "farm boy from Kansas" and in 2016 as the Trump campaign's "plumber". While Bannon and Manafort were handling the political details, he was the implementer of the digital strategy, which saw the most advanced digital campaign to date in American politics. The Trump campaign paid his company $94 million in the 2016 campaign and was a critical component to the President's election effort.
Parscale started his firm from scratch in 2004, linking up with the Trump organization to market Trump's business ventures in 2012. With Lewandowski's departure in the summer of 2016, came Parscale's time to shine: “In 2016 and going forward, the thing that a campaign does every day is largely digital. The guy or gal who runs digital is, therefore, de facto in charge of the campaign,” Gerrit Lansing, a former chief digital officer of the Republican National Committee told Forbes.
As Parscale told WIRED shortly after the election, "Facebook and Twitter were the reason we won this thing. Twitter for Mr. Trump. And Facebook for fundraising." In the new frontier of digital politics, Parscale is a guide to otherwise unfamiliar terrain, shifting investment away from tv and radio, which Hillary wasted upwards of $52 million on in 2016. The President knows what the future holds in political technology, which is why he's behind Parscale, who was indispensable in 2016.
Wait a minute! I thought guns were only reserved for nut jobs who like to shoot innocent people?! You mean to tell me that you can also use them for hunting, self-defense or to diffuse a situation?
Yes. That’s exactly what guns are truly used for, and one suburban Chicago man proved it on Monday.
Oswego, Ill. resident Dave Thomas witnessed a person with a knife attack another person during a heated exchange, so Thomas did what he thought was right and successfully attempted to break up the altercation because it was right outside his door at the apartment complex he lives in.
According to WGN, Thomas said the following concerning the ordeal:
I poked my head out the door. There was a pool of blood, blood was everywhere in the hall. There was still a confrontation going on, there were about three or four people involved at this point. So I ran back into my house and grabbed my AR-15. I grabbed the AR-15 over my handgun -- bigger gun, I think a little more of an intimidation factor. Definitely played a part in him actually stopping.
The knife-wielding suspect did leave the scene, only to be picked up by police shortly thereafter.
WGN also reported that Thomas does have a “valid firearm owner’s identification card and a concealed carry permit.”
Thomas told WGN of how the highly disputed ownership of AR-15’s can be a benefit to law-abiding citizens.
“The AR-15 is my weapon of choice for home protection," Thomas said. "It's light, it's maneuverable. If you train and know how to use it properly, it's not dangerous. And this is just a perfect example of good guy with an AR-15 stopped a bad guy with a knife. And there were no lives taken, so all in all it was a good day.”
It’s easy to debunk a narrative when that narrative is based in fiction.
Yes. That’s exactly what guns are truly used for, and one suburban Chicago man proved it on Monday.
Oswego, Ill. resident Dave Thomas witnessed a person with a knife attack another person during a heated exchange, so Thomas did what he thought was right and successfully attempted to break up the altercation because it was right outside his door at the apartment complex he lives in.
According to WGN, Thomas said the following concerning the ordeal:
I poked my head out the door. There was a pool of blood, blood was everywhere in the hall. There was still a confrontation going on, there were about three or four people involved at this point. So I ran back into my house and grabbed my AR-15. I grabbed the AR-15 over my handgun -- bigger gun, I think a little more of an intimidation factor. Definitely played a part in him actually stopping.
The knife-wielding suspect did leave the scene, only to be picked up by police shortly thereafter.
WGN also reported that Thomas does have a “valid firearm owner’s identification card and a concealed carry permit.”
Thomas told WGN of how the highly disputed ownership of AR-15’s can be a benefit to law-abiding citizens.
“The AR-15 is my weapon of choice for home protection," Thomas said. "It's light, it's maneuverable. If you train and know how to use it properly, it's not dangerous. And this is just a perfect example of good guy with an AR-15 stopped a bad guy with a knife. And there were no lives taken, so all in all it was a good day.”
It’s easy to debunk a narrative when that narrative is based in fiction.
CBS Poll on Armed Teachers Will Send Chill Down Democrats’ Spines
If you have been seeing a mass of videos and memes created with the sole intent of getting you to believe you’re the only one who thinks it might be a good idea to allow teachers to be responsibly-armed on school grounds, you are not alone.
You are being misinformed.
A recent CBS News poll revealed that a surprising 44 percent of Americans support the idea of more teachers being allowed to carry in schools.
It’s not a majority of Americans, but it’s a far larger portion than liberals are willing to admit.
That’s from a mainstream media group, too — the true percentage may well be higher than that.
The study further reported that 53 percent of those surveyed support the ban of the AR-15, 56 percent support a ban on bump stocks, and 75 percent support a ban on bump stocks, which further indicates to me that the results may be skewed a bit left of the political aisle.
In the wake of the Florida school shooting on Feb. 14 Democrats slammed current gun laws with demands ranging from stronger background checks to the repealing of the Second Amendment.
They were more than happy to weaponize victims of the school shooting to push their point across, as well.
I mean after all, the Second Amendment was conjured by a bunch of racist white men with a couple good ideas, right?
Should teachers be allowed to be armed in the classroom?
Now, let’s talk about this for a minute.
The Second Amendment is in place for a multitude of reasons — none of which are hunting. It allows for the defense against foreign enemies, either from a foreign government or assailants.
It also — and just as importantly — guarantees our God-given right to defend ourselves against a tyrannical government.
Liberals insist that the United States without a Second Amendment would be a death-free utopia, but we already know what a Second Amendment-less United States would look like.
Just take a look at how many crimes occur in gun-free zones.
President Donald Trump will push for armed teachers, and the media will tie themselves into knots. He very likely will beat the leftists in this conflict, ramping up public support for the idea in the process, but at the end of the day we have to remember that our right to remain armed doesn’t come from the government.
It comes from up above.
What do you think about this story? Please share this on Facebook and Twitter and let us know!
How many teachers would arm themselves, given the opportunity?
You are being misinformed.
A recent CBS News poll revealed that a surprising 44 percent of Americans support the idea of more teachers being allowed to carry in schools.
It’s not a majority of Americans, but it’s a far larger portion than liberals are willing to admit.
That’s from a mainstream media group, too — the true percentage may well be higher than that.
The study further reported that 53 percent of those surveyed support the ban of the AR-15, 56 percent support a ban on bump stocks, and 75 percent support a ban on bump stocks, which further indicates to me that the results may be skewed a bit left of the political aisle.
In the wake of the Florida school shooting on Feb. 14 Democrats slammed current gun laws with demands ranging from stronger background checks to the repealing of the Second Amendment.
They were more than happy to weaponize victims of the school shooting to push their point across, as well.
I mean after all, the Second Amendment was conjured by a bunch of racist white men with a couple good ideas, right?
Should teachers be allowed to be armed in the classroom?
Now, let’s talk about this for a minute.
The Second Amendment is in place for a multitude of reasons — none of which are hunting. It allows for the defense against foreign enemies, either from a foreign government or assailants.
It also — and just as importantly — guarantees our God-given right to defend ourselves against a tyrannical government.
Liberals insist that the United States without a Second Amendment would be a death-free utopia, but we already know what a Second Amendment-less United States would look like.
Just take a look at how many crimes occur in gun-free zones.
President Donald Trump will push for armed teachers, and the media will tie themselves into knots. He very likely will beat the leftists in this conflict, ramping up public support for the idea in the process, but at the end of the day we have to remember that our right to remain armed doesn’t come from the government.
It comes from up above.
What do you think about this story? Please share this on Facebook and Twitter and let us know!
How many teachers would arm themselves, given the opportunity?
The Westerners Who Love North Korea
It’s not just Dennis Rodman. North Korea has supporters across the world..
By Johan Nylander
By Johan Nylander
Former NBA star Dennis Rodman may be portrayed as an oddball for his unexpected friendship with North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong-Un. But he is far from the only Westerner with affection for the isolated Communist country and its political system.
All across the world, friendship associations and political lobby groups stand up for the Kim regime and its domestic and international actions. Despite being branded “naive” and “untrustworthy” by academics, the pro-North Korea groups are said to attract new members every day.
The Stockholm-based Swedish-Korean Friendship Association, a 300-strong organization founded in 1969, states that it “denounce[s] US imperialism and wholeheartedly support the Korean people’s struggle for independence and national reunification.”
Chairman Christer Lundgren joined the organization in 1975 as a reaction to reports of war crimes committed by U.S. armed forces in Korea and Vietnam. He argues that the Americans are to blame for the current turmoil in the region.
“The basics of the conflict is that the Americans are running the politics in South Korea with the aim to take military and political control of the entire Korean peninsula,” he tells The Diplomat in an interview. “The North, on the other side, has managed to maintain its independence. Our ambition is to support the North’s struggle for national freedom and peaceful reunification.”
The politically independent association regularly gathers for study meetings, conferences, rallies and exhibitions. It organizes workshops and trips to North Korea. A magazine has been published every quarter for 39 years running.
In 1983, Lundgren visited the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea – North Korea – for the first time as a journalist, meeting in Pyongyang with Kim Il-Sung. Since then, he has been to the country five times, and has taken part in mass meetings with both Kim Jong-Il and Kim Jong-Un.
“Over the years I’ve been visiting the DPRK, there has been a tremendous progress in standard of living,” he says. “You clearly see a rapid development with residential buildings, mobile phones, etc. Food security is much better and industry is on the rise. It’s very encouraging.”
Also, the high profile visits by Google’s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt and Denis Rodman are a positive sign that the Kim regime is reaching out to the world, he says. The fact that U.S. news agency the Associated Press opened a bureau in Pyongyang and tourists and businessmen are flowing into the country are indications of the country’s development, he explains.
The negative image of North Korea portrayed in Western media, especially American and South Korean, is for the most part based on lies, exaggerations and misunderstandings, Lundgren argues.
“What you read in Western media is American war propaganda,” he says. “They try to ridicule the Korean society and undermine all possibilities of the DPRK to normalize the situation. The image is characterized by a colonial thinking, and hidden political motives.”
The Swedish group is just one of several associations across the world supporting North Korea.
The biggest group is the Korean Friendship Association, KFA, with some 15,000 members worldwide and official delegates in 38 countries, according to its website. Compared to other friendship-groups, the KFA is more radical.
Italy’s representative, Cristian Pivetta, calls Western media “scum” that are spreading lies about North Korea. “American and European press is rubbish, enslaved and financed by big business,” he says.
Mikel Vivanko, head of the Spanish group, says North Korea’s socialistic model is “working very well” and claims that the country’s gross domestic product is enjoying a staggering growth rate of 15 percent, something he says can be seen in the people’s improved daily life.
The U.K.’s representative, Dermot Hudson, who’s been to North Korea nine times since 1992, tells The Diplomat that the Western media’s reporting on North Korea is “completely surreal” and only focuses on negative news.
He recalls an event in April 2002, walking along a street in North Korea with his guide. “There were children eating ice creams and people doing karaoke on street corners. Then I remembered reading in British newspapers and the Internet that everyone in the DPRK was meant to be starving! What a lie. I told my guide and she tutted, ‘Ah, the problem of the Westerners’.”
He says that new members join the friendship association every day.
Study groups dedicated to Juche ideas – a form of political religion based on Kim Il-Sung’s ideologies – are also attracting followers internationally, especially in the developing world.
Most people, however, are somewhat less supportive of the North Korean regime. In a report released this month, the United Nations said North Korea had committed wide-ranging crimes against humanity to sustain its political system.
Crimes included “extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence, persecution on political, religious, racial and gender grounds, forcible transfer of persons, enforced disappearance of persons and the inhumane act of knowingly causing prolonged starvation.” The report also noted “a systematic and widespread attack against all populations that are considered to pose a threat to the political system and leadership.”
According to Hudson, the report is untrustworthy and biased with the aim to “slander and defame the socialist system of the DPRK.” He also accuses the North Korean defectors interviewed in the report, who are giving testimony about hellish conditions in labor camps, of being South Korean fakes.
“At the end of the day the UN is a marionette, a plaything of the U.S. imperialists,” Hudson says. “I think that to some extent it is true to say that the UN represents the 1 percent not the 99 percent.”
South Korea is also violating human rights, Lundgren points out, referring to the country’s much criticized 1948 National Security Law.
Last year, UN special rapporteur on human rights Margaret Sekaggya slammed the security act as a “seriously problematic” challenge to freedom of expression. Amnesty International has also accused South Korea of systematically abusing the security act in order to silence political opposition.
On February 17, leftwing lawmaker Lee Seok-ki was sentenced to 12 years in prison by a South Korean court for plotting an armed rebellion in support of North Korea. Lee called the trial a “witch hunt.”
Lundgren says both the North and South would be better off if the U.S. stopped its military threats and attempts to dominate the Korean peninsula.
Dr. Brian Bridges, a Hong Kong-based North Korea expert who has been researching the Korean issue for more than two decades, agrees that the U.S. is to blame. But so are the Russians, he adds. In the aftermath of World War II and Japan’s surrender, Korea was partitioned along the 38th parallel, with the north under Soviet occupation and the south under U.S. occupation. Still today, the two Koreas are technically in a state of war, even if a truce ended their 1950-53 conflict.
However, the North Korean friendship associations and political support groups aren’t really trusted and their members are “naively believing the propaganda from North Korea,” Bridges says.
“These groups have no credibility among Korea watchers or academics,” he says. “We don’t take them seriously. They have no leverage.”
Energy supply is still a big problem, especially in the countryside, he says. And although the situation has improved somewhat in Pyongyang he “just can’t believe” the overall food situation to be as rosy as the friendship associations claim. (UN’s World Food Program noted in a November report that child malnutrition has steadily declined over the past 10 years, but that 84 percent of households were having borderline or poor food consumption.)
Many of the people attracted to these groups, Bridges speculates, don’t necessarily fully agree with North Korean ideals and actions. Rather, it could be seen as a statement against capitalism and U.S. foreign policies. “They join their enemy’s enemy,” he says.
It’s not just Dennis Rodman. North Korea has supporters across the world.
All across the world, friendship associations and political lobby groups stand up for the Kim regime and its domestic and international actions. Despite being branded “naive” and “untrustworthy” by academics, the pro-North Korea groups are said to attract new members every day.
The Stockholm-based Swedish-Korean Friendship Association, a 300-strong organization founded in 1969, states that it “denounce[s] US imperialism and wholeheartedly support the Korean people’s struggle for independence and national reunification.”
Chairman Christer Lundgren joined the organization in 1975 as a reaction to reports of war crimes committed by U.S. armed forces in Korea and Vietnam. He argues that the Americans are to blame for the current turmoil in the region.
“The basics of the conflict is that the Americans are running the politics in South Korea with the aim to take military and political control of the entire Korean peninsula,” he tells The Diplomat in an interview. “The North, on the other side, has managed to maintain its independence. Our ambition is to support the North’s struggle for national freedom and peaceful reunification.”
The politically independent association regularly gathers for study meetings, conferences, rallies and exhibitions. It organizes workshops and trips to North Korea. A magazine has been published every quarter for 39 years running.
In 1983, Lundgren visited the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea – North Korea – for the first time as a journalist, meeting in Pyongyang with Kim Il-Sung. Since then, he has been to the country five times, and has taken part in mass meetings with both Kim Jong-Il and Kim Jong-Un.
“Over the years I’ve been visiting the DPRK, there has been a tremendous progress in standard of living,” he says. “You clearly see a rapid development with residential buildings, mobile phones, etc. Food security is much better and industry is on the rise. It’s very encouraging.”
Also, the high profile visits by Google’s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt and Denis Rodman are a positive sign that the Kim regime is reaching out to the world, he says. The fact that U.S. news agency the Associated Press opened a bureau in Pyongyang and tourists and businessmen are flowing into the country are indications of the country’s development, he explains.
The negative image of North Korea portrayed in Western media, especially American and South Korean, is for the most part based on lies, exaggerations and misunderstandings, Lundgren argues.
“What you read in Western media is American war propaganda,” he says. “They try to ridicule the Korean society and undermine all possibilities of the DPRK to normalize the situation. The image is characterized by a colonial thinking, and hidden political motives.”
The Swedish group is just one of several associations across the world supporting North Korea.
The biggest group is the Korean Friendship Association, KFA, with some 15,000 members worldwide and official delegates in 38 countries, according to its website. Compared to other friendship-groups, the KFA is more radical.
Italy’s representative, Cristian Pivetta, calls Western media “scum” that are spreading lies about North Korea. “American and European press is rubbish, enslaved and financed by big business,” he says.
Mikel Vivanko, head of the Spanish group, says North Korea’s socialistic model is “working very well” and claims that the country’s gross domestic product is enjoying a staggering growth rate of 15 percent, something he says can be seen in the people’s improved daily life.
The U.K.’s representative, Dermot Hudson, who’s been to North Korea nine times since 1992, tells The Diplomat that the Western media’s reporting on North Korea is “completely surreal” and only focuses on negative news.
He recalls an event in April 2002, walking along a street in North Korea with his guide. “There were children eating ice creams and people doing karaoke on street corners. Then I remembered reading in British newspapers and the Internet that everyone in the DPRK was meant to be starving! What a lie. I told my guide and she tutted, ‘Ah, the problem of the Westerners’.”
He says that new members join the friendship association every day.
Study groups dedicated to Juche ideas – a form of political religion based on Kim Il-Sung’s ideologies – are also attracting followers internationally, especially in the developing world.
Most people, however, are somewhat less supportive of the North Korean regime. In a report released this month, the United Nations said North Korea had committed wide-ranging crimes against humanity to sustain its political system.
Crimes included “extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence, persecution on political, religious, racial and gender grounds, forcible transfer of persons, enforced disappearance of persons and the inhumane act of knowingly causing prolonged starvation.” The report also noted “a systematic and widespread attack against all populations that are considered to pose a threat to the political system and leadership.”
According to Hudson, the report is untrustworthy and biased with the aim to “slander and defame the socialist system of the DPRK.” He also accuses the North Korean defectors interviewed in the report, who are giving testimony about hellish conditions in labor camps, of being South Korean fakes.
“At the end of the day the UN is a marionette, a plaything of the U.S. imperialists,” Hudson says. “I think that to some extent it is true to say that the UN represents the 1 percent not the 99 percent.”
South Korea is also violating human rights, Lundgren points out, referring to the country’s much criticized 1948 National Security Law.
Last year, UN special rapporteur on human rights Margaret Sekaggya slammed the security act as a “seriously problematic” challenge to freedom of expression. Amnesty International has also accused South Korea of systematically abusing the security act in order to silence political opposition.
On February 17, leftwing lawmaker Lee Seok-ki was sentenced to 12 years in prison by a South Korean court for plotting an armed rebellion in support of North Korea. Lee called the trial a “witch hunt.”
Lundgren says both the North and South would be better off if the U.S. stopped its military threats and attempts to dominate the Korean peninsula.
Dr. Brian Bridges, a Hong Kong-based North Korea expert who has been researching the Korean issue for more than two decades, agrees that the U.S. is to blame. But so are the Russians, he adds. In the aftermath of World War II and Japan’s surrender, Korea was partitioned along the 38th parallel, with the north under Soviet occupation and the south under U.S. occupation. Still today, the two Koreas are technically in a state of war, even if a truce ended their 1950-53 conflict.
However, the North Korean friendship associations and political support groups aren’t really trusted and their members are “naively believing the propaganda from North Korea,” Bridges says.
“These groups have no credibility among Korea watchers or academics,” he says. “We don’t take them seriously. They have no leverage.”
Energy supply is still a big problem, especially in the countryside, he says. And although the situation has improved somewhat in Pyongyang he “just can’t believe” the overall food situation to be as rosy as the friendship associations claim. (UN’s World Food Program noted in a November report that child malnutrition has steadily declined over the past 10 years, but that 84 percent of households were having borderline or poor food consumption.)
Many of the people attracted to these groups, Bridges speculates, don’t necessarily fully agree with North Korean ideals and actions. Rather, it could be seen as a statement against capitalism and U.S. foreign policies. “They join their enemy’s enemy,” he says.
It’s not just Dennis Rodman. North Korea has supporters across the world.
Next Up In House Russia Probe Parade: Hope Hicks
ED MORRISSEY
Will she or won’t she? Hope Hicks has been part of Donald Trump’s team since he first starting putting his team together in early 2015. Hicks made herself indispensable on the campaign trail and eventually in the White House as well, taking on the formal role of communications director last September but has been a member of the inner circle for far longer.
That status has drawn the attention of House investigators probing Russian interference in the election. Hicks will talk with Intel Committee investigators in private today, but the Washington Post warns readers that she may not have much to say without Trump’s permission:
Hope Hicks, one of President Trump’s closest aides and advisers, is scheduled to speak behind closed doors Tuesday with the House Intelligence Committee in a meeting lawmakers fear could deepen their standoff with the White House over witnesses refusing to answer questions.
Rep. K. Michael Conaway (R-Texas), who is running the panel’s Russia investigation, said in an interview Monday that he “would not be surprised” if Hicks followed the example of other close Trump aides and advisers who have simply refused to answer certain questions, arguing that the president might want to invoke executive privilege at some point in the future.
Rep. K. Michael Conaway (R-Texas), who is running the panel’s Russia investigation, said in an interview Monday that he “would not be surprised” if Hicks followed the example of other close Trump aides and advisers who have simply refused to answer certain questions, arguing that the president might want to invoke executive privilege at some point in the future.
Conaway shouldn’t be surprised by this, because executive privilege is a legitimate exercise of the office, absent the commission of any crimes. So far, no crimes have been publicly alleged or even suggested, other than the oft-bandied term of “collusion” and some allegations of obstruction of justice related to the firing of James Comey. However, there is a very serious issue with charging obstruction for a lawful exercise of the office, and presidents have the authority to fire FBI directors.
However, that’s not what interests the investigators. They want to ask Hicks about … a press release:
Hicks currently works as the White House communications director, but her proximity to Trump and long history of working with the Trump family make her testimony potentially valuable to the panel’s ongoing probe of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections. In particular, Hicks is likely to face questions about a statement she helped draft on Air Force One addressing a June 2016 meeting that the president’s son Donald Trump Jr., his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and then-campaign manager Paul Manafort held with a Russian lawyer in Trump Tower. The misleading statement has raised questions about whether there was a deliberate attempt to obstruct justice surrounding the meeting.
Not to overquote Andy McCarthy, but the premise behind this theory is absurd. If issuing misleading press releases constituted obstruction of justice, then we might as well put bars around the Capitol building and hire wardens for both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. The clumsy and ill-advised press release that followed the exposure of the highly foolish meeting in the Trump Tower certainly is fodder for political criticism, much of it well-founded, but it’s not testimony. Nor is it a statement to investigators in a legal sense, where obstruction could be charged. Hauling Hicks before the committee’s investigators looks more like an attempt to exploit it into a political beating for Trump in the guise of an investigation.
Investigators may well be curious about the inner workings of the White House. That doesn’t give them carte blanche to intrude on executive discussions and advice unless they have a specific crime to investigate and reasonable cause to suspect that a conspiracy to further that crime took place during those specific discussions. Congress has looser rules on this than law enforcement does, but then again, the White House as a separate branch of government can also choose not to cooperate with Congress if they push too far outside the norms.
That has been the pattern in this investigation, which has prompted some in Congress to demand contempt charges for former aide Stephen Bannon. That’s certainly a point of leverage that Congress can use to push for cooperation, but it’s not likely to mean much. Just ask Eric Holder how a contempt charge from Congress impacted his life.
Overall, this seems like a very weak thread to pull. If there’s something to be had on that track, why not have Robert Mueller pull it instead? The consequences for potential witnesses are more dire in that direction, although Mueller has the same hurdles to overcome as Congress when it comes to executive privilege. Note well that while Mueller has thrown the book at another of the Trump Tower meeting attendee, Paul Manafort, none of the charges have anything to do with the campaign, let alone the meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya.
If there’s a charge that will come out of the Trump Tower meeting, it won’t rise or fall on Hope Hicks’ wordsmithing of a press release months afterward — and absent a charge from the meeting itself, there seems to be little reason to discuss the press release at all. Except, of course, to remind everyone of how foolish it was to take that meeting at all, and then also to try to pretty it up with a misleading statement that was easily rebutted. And we can discuss those failings without Hicks’ testimony anyway.
Florida Lawmakers Reject ‘Assault Weapons’ Ban
by AWR HAWKINS
Florida’s House Appropriations Committee voted Tuesday against adding an “assault weapons” ban to legislation currently being considered.Every Republican except State Rep. Bill Hager (R-89) voted against the ban.
In #Florida the House Appropriations Committee voted Tuesday against adopting the assault weapons ban as an amendment to a gun bill moving through the Legislature. #DefendtheSecond http://ms.spr.ly/6010r0uHp
The Herald-Tribune reports that committee’s action represents the second time in as many weeks that Florida House members have rejected an “assault weapons” ban. A ban was rejected by the full House last week.
Other gun controls that are still making their way through the Florida House include increasing the minimum purchase age for long guns to 21-years and requiring a three day waiting period on long gun purchases.
On February 23 Breitbart News reported that Gov. Rick Scott (R) supports increasing the minimum purchase age and implementing a waiting period. He is also pushing gun confiscation laws, similar to those in California, and other gun controls.
Barack Obama: ‘We Didn’t Have a Scandal that Embarrassed Us’ in My Presidency
by CHARLIE SPIERING
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/AFP
Former President Barack Obama denied that his administration had any scandals that embarrassed him or his team.
It is unclear why Obama clarified that there were no scandals “that embarrassed us.”
“There were mistakes,” he admitted. “We’d screw up, but there wasn’t anything venal during eight years. I know that seems like a low bar, but you look at the presidency; that’s no small thing.”
Conservatives remember the Obama years differently, citing the Fast and Furious scandal, the IRS scandal, wiretapping journalists, the terror attacks in Benghazi, delivering pallets of cash to Iran, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s illegal use of a private email server for government emails.
The former president also insisted there was not much drama either, thanks to his leadership and organization skills.
“Typically speaking, you didn’t hear about a whole lot of drama inside our White House, and that was also rare,” he said.
But Obama failed to mention reports of his press secretary Robert Gibbs’s cursing at Valerie Jarrett and first lady Michelle Obama. Gibbs left the administration soon after.
Obama admitted there were arguments among his “team of rivals” in the White House but said it was more about people trying to solve tough issues.
“I did have a strong bias towards people who just wanted to get things right, get things done, as opposed to people who were obsessed with ‘I want to be right. I want to prominent. I want to have my name in the headlines,’” he said. “And if you can create that culture, then you are more likely to be successful.”
Florida shooter called 911 – on himself – months before shooting
By Carmine Sabia
Carmine Sabia Jr. is a staff writer for Conservative Institute. He specializes in covering political news and current events. He has contributed to BizPac Review and co-hosts Para Bellum Radio Mondays at 5 p.m. on WNJC1360 in Philadelphia.
Image Source: ScreenshotIt has been more than a week since the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas School in Parkland, Florida that left 17 dead, and every day we find out more ways in which the Broward County police were incompetent.
Not only have we learned that the police received at least 45 calls involving Cruz or his family, we now know that one 911 call came from Cruz himself just after Thanksgiving last fall.
911 call
In a 911 call recording, Cruz is heard describing to Palm Beach county dispatchers how he had gotten into a fight and was upset about losing his mother. “The thing is I lost my mother a couple weeks ago, so, like, I’m dealing with a bunch of things right now,” he told a 911 dispatcher.
Cruz flew into a rage after he lost a picture of his recently deceased mother, according to a police report dated Nov. 28, 2017, The Sun-Sentinel reported.
He punched walls and broke things in the mobile home he was staying at in his fit of anger, according to the report. When police found him later at a neighborhood park he apologized for what he had done.
The dispatch center sent deputies to Cruz’s location.
Dangerous
Roxanne Deschamps, with whom Cruz and his brother were living for a short time after their adoptive mother died, told police that he was dangerous and said she thought he might have guns buried in her backyard.
“He got pissed off and then he came in the house and started banging all the doors and banging in the walls and hitting the walls and throwing everything in the room,” Deschamps said. “And then my son got in there and he said, ‘Stop it,’ and he didn’t want to stop.”
She told police that he had punched her 22-year-old son, Rock Deschamps, and she was afraid he was going to come back with a gun to get revenge on the family.
“He put the gun on the head of his brother before, so not the first time, and he did that to his mom… It’s not the first time he’s put a gun on somebody’s head,” she said.
“That’s all he wants is his gun,” she continued. “And that’s all he cares about is his gun. He bought tons of bullets and stuff and I took it away from him.”
Red Flags
It was not the first time that the police had been called about Cruz. Buzzfeed reported last week that the Broward County Sheriff’s office had responded to at least 45 calls involving the shooter or his family since 2008, according to call records.
Broward County sheriff’s officials said in a statement late Saturday that they responded only to 23 calls involving suspected Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz or his family over the years, but records obtained by BuzzFeed News show at least 45 responses since 2008.
The number of calls made over the years involving Cruz or his family, according to the call records, are nearly twice the number publicly disclosed by the department.
The number is far higher than the “23 calls” that Sheriff Scott Israel insisted they had responded to.
Broward County’s progressive sheriff faces increasing pressure to resign under criticism of how his department has handled both the red flags about the shooter and the actions taken during the event, but so far, he’s fighting back.
Israel insisted to CNN’s Jake Tapper during a contentious interview Sunday, “Of course I won’t resign.”
The number of calls made over the years involving Cruz or his family, according to the call records, are nearly twice the number publicly disclosed by the department.
The number is far higher than the “23 calls” that Sheriff Scott Israel insisted they had responded to.
Broward County’s progressive sheriff faces increasing pressure to resign under criticism of how his department has handled both the red flags about the shooter and the actions taken during the event, but so far, he’s fighting back.
Israel insisted to CNN’s Jake Tapper during a contentious interview Sunday, “Of course I won’t resign.”
Report: More Than 100,000 Non-Citizens Are Registered Voters in Pennsylvania
Eric Thayer/AFP/Getty
More than 100,000 non-U.S. citizens are registered voters in Pennsylvania, according to testimony contained in a lawsuit demanding that the state admit its problems when it comes to non-citizen voting.
The Public Interest Legal Foundation argued that non-citizens have been voting in Pennsylvania for decades, and that problem has been evident in other states the organization has worked with—including New Jersey and Virginia.
But the state has not granted PILF’s open records requests to access the data at the root of the problem, the organization said in the lawsuit filed in federal court in Harrisburg.
“For months, Pennsylvania bureaucrats have concealed facts about non-citizens registering and voting — that ends today,” PILF President and General Counsel J. Christian Adams said.
Adams said the state already admitted that it allowed non-citizens renewing their driver’s licenses to have the opportunity to register to vote.
Pennsylvania officials, however, declined to comment on the lawsuit or the more than 100,000 non-citizen voters.
“We’re not going to comment on anything related to litigation,” said Wanda Murren, director of communications and press at the Pennsylvania Department of State.
Of the more than 100,000 non-citizen voters in Pennsylvania, one city commissioner found in September that at least 90 of those non-citizens registered to vote cast ballots in Philadelphia. Hundreds more non-citizens who did not vote were also on the voter rolls.
The PILF also went after a county in Texas for failing to release non-citizen voting records back in December.
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