PrairiePundit

Marc Theisen:
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Case in point: A few weeks before the Alexandria shooting, Hillary Clinton gave a commencement speech at Wellesley College where she declared that Trump’s budget is “an attack of unimaginable cruelty on the most vulnerable among us, the youngest, the oldest, the poorest” (emphasis added). No, it is not. Using nerve agent on the innocent is “an attack of unimaginable cruelty.” Putting a hapless college student into a coma is an “attack of unimaginable cruelty.” Reducing the growth of government spending is not.

Think for a moment what Clinton was saying: It’s not simply that Democrats and Republicans have an honest disagreement about how best to help the most vulnerable among us. In Clinton’s telling, Republicans are waging war on the vulnerable. That is toxic.

No doubt, Trump has contributed mightily to our descent into the culture of contempt. (For example, the media is not the “enemy of the American people,” Mr. President). But since Trump’s election, the scope and…

Washington Post:
Beyond opposing Trump, do Democrats have a message?

Perhaps Democrats thought things would be easier because of Donald Trump’s rocky start. His presidency has produced an outpouring of anger among Democrats, but will that be enough to bring about a change in the party’s fortunes? Some savvy Democratic elected officials doubt it. Their anti-Trump fantasies are not working for them.  Anger is not a plan or a policy.  It only feeds those they already had and does not expand their base.  If anything, it further alienates them from voters they need.  This is because they not only hate Trump, they also hate those who voted for him.  "I hate you because you did not vote for me" is a tough sale.

Washington Post:
Could Trump’s White House tapes ruse get him in legal trouble?

Legal experts doubt the president would actually be accused of witness tampering. But some of them said it could feed into the obstruction of justice case. There are several things wrong with this "analysis."  What Trump said was not a definitive statement that there were tapes.  He said something that he believed would force Comey to tell the truth about their conversations and it apparently worked.  After Comey testified Trump felt exonerated.

How could getting a witness to tell the truth be considered witness tampering?  That is absurd on its face.  It is a technique used by trial lawyers in cross-examinations from time to time.  Even Abraham Lincoln is said to have used it.

Why is the Washington Post even giving credence to such a ridiculous theory?  There seems to be no limit on what the left and the media will stoop to in their attempt to justify a coup against the President.

NY Times:
A U.S. Destroyer Failed to Dodge a Cargo Ship. Why?
Lookouts and radar operators on the Fitzgerald should have spotted the freighter it collided with, and the captain should have been alerted. But none of that happened, and seven sailors died. While the radar system should have alerted the crew, a person on watch should have been able to identify the potential collision by seeing the running lights on the cargo ship.  They should have been able to see the port side red lights on the ship as it approached.  The Navy needs to determine if the watch was distracted by something internally on the destroyer or was asleep at the wheel.

Reports indicate the cargo ship was on autopilot.  I suspect the Fitzgerald was too.  But both ships should have had a watch posted and both had a responsibility to avoid a collision.

Shoebot.com:
Secret Documents Reveal A Grand Conspiracy Behind Qatar And Turkey For A Muslim Brotherhood Takeover What I do not understand is why the US State Department is insistent on supporting this Islamist organization even against the allegations of other Muslims.  The claim that labeling them a terrorist organization will alienate Muslims seems to be belied by the fact that so many Muslims reject the group.

CTV News:
Healthcare wait times hit 20 weeks in 2016: reportA survey by the Fraser Institute found a median wait of 20 weeks for “medically necessary” treatments and procedures in 2016 – the longest-recorded wait time since the think tank began tracking wait times.
... There is more.

This is what you get with the single payer system the Democrats are pushing.  This is not to mention the loss of innovation in medicine that is created by the single payer system that free rides on US pharmaceuticals where most of the new drugs are created.

Red States:
Trump Supporter Savagely Attacked At Sanctuary City Protest In California

We’re barely six months into the so called #RESIST movement and the Left has already engaged in more violence than they ever falsely accused the Tea Party of committing. In California a demonstration over the sanctuary cities issue ended with a man being run down and stabbed nine times in what certainly looks like another racially or politically motivated attack. At this rate, left wing extremists are going to be a bigger security threat than ISIS.
... Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident.  It has become routine especially in California where the left controls all the levers of government and it seems to have no interests in going after violent fellow travelers.  It appears opponents of liberalism are the victims of hate crimes in that state.

Rep. Jim Jordan and Rep. Mark Meadows:
Former FBI Director James Comey misled the American people during last year’s presidential campaign when he referred to the Clinton email scandal as a “matter,” not an investigation. He did it willfully. He did it intentionally. And he did it at the direction of Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

Mr. Comey misled the American people in the early weeks of the Trump administration by furthering the perception that President Trump was under investigation, when in fact he was not. He again did this willfully and intentionally.

Comey recently admitted that, after being fired from the FBI, he had a friend leak an internal FBI document to the New York Times detailing a conversation Comey had with President Trump. Comey testified under oath that he ordered the leak to help create public momentum for the appointment of a special counsel, which we now know is Comey’s mentor and predecessor, Robert Mueller.

The American people want justice to be blind. They w…

Andrew McCarthy:
The “collusion” narrative was a fraud, plain and simple. We know that now. Hopefully, it won’t take another six months to grasp a second plain and simple truth: Collusion’s successor, the “obstruction” narrative, is a perversion.The Left loves narrative. The ever-expanding story manipulates time, space, and detail to fit a thematic framework. Political narrative has some surface appeal, but it is deeply flawed. It obscures plain and simple truth.So let’s stick with the plain and simple: The essence of obstruction is to frustrate the search for truth. Its antithesis is to demand the exposure of fraud.Donald Trump’s political enemies are trying to build an obstruction case on the antithesis of obstruction: the president’s insistence that the collusion fraud be exposed.
... There is more.

The Democrats have been engaged in the politics of fraud and they keep getting caught.  But rather than shrinking from their scheme they double down with another preposterous assertion an…

CNN:
California adds 4 states to travel ban for laws it says discriminate against LGBTQ community I suspect the ban may breach the constitution prohibition on interference with interstate commerce.  But it would be interesting to see if California would damage the ability of state school sports programs to compete.

Reuters:
Saudi security forces foil attack on Grand Mosque in Mecca - state TV

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Al Arabiya said security forces had found two groups of terrorists in Mecca and a third group in the city of Jeddah. The foiled attack targeted worshipers at the mosque, it said.
... This sounds like an ISIS operation, but the Saudis have also recently foiled plots by Iran too.   If they managed to capture the plotters whey will likely find out who was behind the operation.

There is an Islamic civil war going on and the terrorists are not limiting their attacks to non-Muslims.

There were apparently eight people in the room beside the witness.  He eliminates two counting himself which suggests the leaker was one of six congressmen.  I suspect the list can be further narrowed to who among the six were Democrats.

Reuters:
In today's U.S. shale fields, tiny sensors attached to production gear harvest data on everything from pumping pressure to the heat and rotational speed of drill bits boring into the rocky earth.

The sensors are leading Big Oil's mining of so-called big data, with some firms envisioning billions of dollars in savings over time by avoiding outages, managing supplies and identifying safety hazards.

The industry has long used sophisticated technologies to find oil and gas. But only recently have oil firms pooled data from across the company for wider operating efficiencies - one of many cost-cutting efforts spurred by the two-year downturn in crude oil CLc1 prices.

ConocoPhillips (COP.N) says that sensors scattered across its well fields helped it halve the time it once took to drill new wells in Eagle Ford shale basin of South Texas.

By comparing data from hundreds of sensors, its program automatically adjusts the weight placed on a drill bit and its speed, accelerating…

Washington Post:
Obama’s secret struggle to punish Russia for Putin’s election assault

In political terms, Russia’s interference was the crime of the century. It was a case that took almost no time to solve and was traced to Russian President Vladimir Putin. But because of the ways President Barack Obama and President Trump handled it, the Kremlin has yet to face severe consequences. Through interviews with more than three dozen current and former U.S. officials, The Post tells the inside story of how the Obama administration handled the Kremlin’s meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. The story buries the real lead near the end of the story where they admit that the "crime of the century" had no effect on the outcome of the election.   This appears to be another attempt by the media to keep the Russian angle alive in their complicity in a coup attempt against Trump since their collusion narrative has been totally discredited.

Apparently, Obama was a source for some of the mater…

Mary Katherine Ham:
Aftermath Of Alexandria Shooting Showed The Left’s Cultural Bullying At Its Worst

The behavior of many on the Left this week sent a message that not only do they not 'get' the other half of the country, they don’t want to. That's a recipe for losing elections.
...

National media covered the incident voraciously for several hours, but within a day, most had moved on to another leak in the Russia story. Less than 48 hours after a multiple assassination attempt on members of Congress, there were no media vans or cameras at the Alexandria baseball field where it occurred. Just for perspective, when Republican staffer Elizabeth Lauten committed the offense of writing something critical of President Obama’s daughters on her private Facebook page, news cameras were camped on her parents’ lawn staking her out for the better part of a week.
...

Less than a week after the shooting, there was a high-profile House election in Georgia—the most expensive House race in…

Washington Post:
‘Meanness at the core:’ Obama jumps back into fray to criticize Trump, GOP on health care

Barack Obama had pledged to recede from the limelight, but in defending his White House legacy he is setting up a high-stakes confrontation between a former and current president that is virtually unprecedented in modern times. This is from a guy who probably has not read the bill he is criticizing.   The meanness at the core of Obamacare required him to use lies to sell it.  It imposed great burdens on small business and especially on people in the individual market where healthcare premiums for lousy insurance went through the roof so Obama could bestow his generosity on Democrat voters.

He drove up the cost by mandating coverage of crap people did not want or need.  It was one of the worse laws ever passed and earned the wrath of the voters who rejected the Democrats who supported the travesty.

NY Times:

Shifting Dollars From Poor to Rich Is a Key Part of the Senate Health Bill The bill is aligned with long-held Republican values, jettisoning Obamacare taxes. But it would also reduce funding for the care of low-income Americans. This story appears to be written to suggest that allowing some people to keep their own money is a wealth transfer when it is just the opposite.

What Obamacare did was impose new burdens on small business and on people in the individual market whose rates skyrocketed in order to help pay for those who were not paying for their own healthcare insurance.

It was a very unfair system that attacked mainly middle-class people who did not have employer-provided healthcare insurance.

The media and the Democrats continue to show a lack of empathy for those seriously harmed by Obamacare.

The Washington Post has another example of this false narrative:
Senate Republicans ready themselves for a massive theft from the poor In fact, Obamacare was making people in th…

Washington Times:
House intelligence committee sources say career officials at the National Security Council are slow-walking the delivery of subpoenaed records on former National Security Adviser Susan E. Rice’s handling of classified information and the “unmasking” of Trump campaign workers — material from the Russian hacking probe that middle-level NSC managers claim was transferred to President Obama’s library and could “remain closed to the public for five years.”

One source, speaking only on the condition of anonymity, called the transfer curious and appeared to reflect an effort by former administration officials to obscure evidence on whether Ms. Rice and other top officials in the Obama White House illegally tried to identify which Trump campaign and transition aides had been caught up in the U.S. intelligence intercepts of Russian interference in the presidential race.

The two high-level intelligence committee sources told The Washington Times that they are confident the panel…

Power Line:
Yesterday’s big New York Times romp was the inflammatory hit piece “Despite concerns about blackmail, Flynn heard CIA secrets.” The story carried the byline of Matt Apuzzo, Matthew Rosenberg and Adam Goldman.

The thesis of the story was obviously spoonfed to the Times by Senator Ron Wyden (as is pointed out below). The story is based in part on public testimony, but in relevant part I believe it fails to cite a single on the record source. As usual, it seems to draw on classified information. Its apparent purpose is to kneecap CIA Director Mike Pompeo while finding yet another pretext to emit the fog of “collusion.”

Senator Tom Cotton addressed the Times story in a series of 10 tweets. He undermined the story in the first seven and returned with three more for good measure.

Senator Cotton persuades me that there is less to the Times story than meets the eye. And Senator Cotton’s last point — that certain Times reporters “need time to explain to FBI investigators their reveali…

Alan Dershowitz:
My academic and political colleagues who insist that President Trump has obstructed justice point to his allegedly "corrupt motive" in firing former FBI Director James Comey after telling him that he "hoped" he would end his investigation of retired Gen. Mike Flynn. They concede – as Comey himself did – that the president has the constitutional authority to fire the director and to order him to end (or start) any investigation, just as he has the authority to pardon anyone being investigated. But they argue that these constitutionally authorized innocent acts become criminal if the president was "corruptly motivated."

This is a dangerous argument that no civil libertarian should be pressing. Nor would they be pressing it if the shoe were on the other foot.

If Hillary Clinton had been elected and Republicans were investigating her for asking the attorney general to describe the investigation of her as a "matter" rather than a &qu…

Dallas Business Journal:
Financial giant Charles Schwab to begin work on new 5,000-person regional hub in Westlake Schwab is a California-based discount brokerage firm whose MO in the past is to pay its sales staff a salary rather than the more traditional use of giving them a portion of brokerage fees associated with the transaction.

They already have a large regional hub in Denver and this appears to be part of an expansion move.

Bill Gertz:
The political hysteria sweeping Washington over allegations of Russian meddling in the presidential election is reverberating in China. The communist government is worried that a similar wave of anti-China sentiment will take hold in the United States.

According to China watchers in and out of government, what Beijing fears most is that special counsel Robert Mueller, the former FBI director, will add White House dealings with China to his investigation of Russian election meddling.

One main effort of the Chinese government is trying to tamp down the fallout from news reports that first surfaced in March revealing a company owned by the family of President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was planning to sell a stake in a Manhattan skyscraper to the Chinese state-connected insurance company Anbang for $400 million.

The proposed sale of 666 Fifth Ave., reported by Bloomberg and The New York Times, has all the trappings of a Chinese influence operation designed to boost China…

Red States:
Democrat Astroturf Protests Erupt Immediately After Release Of Senate Healthcare Bill Democrats like to act like they are the party of empathy, but they have shown no empathy for the people who have been grievously harmed by Obamacare.  Instead, they use people who have no knowledge of the bill to act like victims.

Breitbart:
James Comey may have misled senators on May 3, when he testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee that he had never been an anonymous source in news reports related to the Russia investigation.

By that time, he had already leaked several private conversations he had with President Trump to his friend Benjamin Wittes, editor-in-chief of the blog Lawfare and former editorial writer for the Washington Post.

Wittes wrote in a piece on May 18, only nine days after Comey was fired, that the former FBI director had shared those conversations “over the previous few months.” He wrote:

Comey never told me the details of the dinner meeting; I don’t think I even knew that there had been a meeting over dinner until I learned it from the Times story. But he did tell me in general terms that early on, Trump had ‘asked for loyalty’ and that Comey had promised him only honesty. He also told me that Trump was perceptibly uncomfortable with this answer.

Wittes also wrote that he had lunch with …

Daily Mail:
Intelligence heads tell special counsel and Senate investigators Trump asked them to refute Russian collusion 
Two top intelligence officials told the Special Counsel's team, and senators, that President Trump asked them to refute reports of collusion between the Russians and his campaign. Trump correctly stated that there was no collusion and it is hard to see anything inappropriate in asking officials to acknowledge the fact they were already aware of.  The Democrats had been running a scam with votes claiming there was collusion and setting the record straight rather than allow the fraud to fester makes sense.

Fox News:
A Canadian sniper set what appears to be a record, picking off an ISIS fighter from some 2.2 miles away, and disrupting a potentially deadly operation by the terror group in Iraq.

Shooting experts say the fatal shot at a world-record distance of 11,316 feet underscores how stunningly sophisticated military snipers are becoming. The feat, pulled off by a special forces sniper from Canada’s Joint Task Force 2, smashed the previous distance record for successful sniper shots by some 3,280 feet, a record set by a British sniper.

"The Canadian Special Operations Command can confirm that a member of the Joint Task Force 2 successfully hit a target from 3,540 metres [2.2 miles]," the Canadian military said in a statement.

While officials would not say where the shot took place, the statement noted the command "provides its expertise to Iraqi security force to detect, identify and defeat Daesh activities from well behind the Iraqi security force front line in Mosul.&q…

Washington Post:
A terrifying threat from tropical depression Cindy: Floating masses of deadly fire ants

Floodwaters won’t kill the notoriously tough insects, which are just as dangerous when they’re wet as they are dry, according to Alabama officials. One of the best ways to deal with fire ants is to sprinkle instant grits over their mound when it is dry.  The ants eat the grits and the moisture in their stomach causes the grits to expand and kill them.

NY Times:
Democrats Seethe After Georgia Loss: ‘Our Brand Is Worse Than Trump’ A demoralizing special-election defeat has left some Democrats questioning the leadership and political strategy of Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader. Pelosi is not their main problem.  Their media cohorts are so extreme in their anti-Trump rage and agenda that it makes it difficult for a candidate in a non-liberal district to present a more nuanced message.

Ossoff could talk a more moderate theme, but it was hard to overlook the vitriol coming from Democrats and media analyst at CNN and MSNBC.  That was enough to motivate Republicans to get out in high numbers and vote against the liberal media's favored candidate.

By casting the election as the "resistance" versus Trump they made it easier for Republicans to win.  Republicans may not be that happy with Trump, but they definitely do not want to support the agenda of the "resistance."

If Democrats are concerned about their br…

Washington Examiner:
Former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Wednesday the Democratic National Committee decided it didn't need the department's help when it was hacked by the Russians and instead opted to rely on a private cybersecurity firm.

"This was a question I asked repeatedly when I learned of [the hacking]—what are we doing? Are we in there? Are we helping them discover the vulnerabilities, because this was fresh off the OPM experience and there was a point at which DHS cybersecurity experts did get in to OPM and help them discover the bad actors and patch some of the exfiltrations, or at least minimize some of the damage," Johnson said referencing the hack at the Office of Personnel Management.

"I was anxious to know whether our folks were in there, and the response I got was the FBI had spoken to them. They don't want our help. They have CrowdStrike," he said. "That was the answer I got after I asked the question…

Eli Lake:
How Trump's Afghan Policy Is Different From Obama's

A new approach would aim to empower the government without telegraphing a withdrawal date for U.S. troops. One of the real weaknesses in the Obama policy was its artificial deadline for pulling troops out of the country.   You win a war by persuading the enemy that his cause is hopeless.  Pulling troops out before the enemy reaches that conclusion gives him hope that you will just leave.  It is the opposite of a winning strategy.

Jerusalem Post:
'IF HEZBOLLAH FIRES ROCKETS ON ISRAEL, IDF SHOULD HIT IRAN’S INFRASTRUCTURE'

Former deputy defense minister Ehpraim Sneh warned that Israel should be prepared to react to unforeseen aggression from Lebanon by hitting it where it hurts the most. While Iran probably should be a target in such a war, I would focus on more strategic targets like their weapons production facilities and their missile program.

Reuters:
Western-backed Syrian rebels holding a strategic swathe of the desert southeast stretching to the Iraqi border said they came under major attack on Tuesday from government forces and allied Iranian-backed militias backed by Russian air power.

They said hundreds of troops with dozens of armored vehicles including tanks had surged into the Bir Qassab area some 75 km (45 miles) southeast of Damascus towards the Badia region that skirts the borders with Jordan and Iraq.

Bir Qassab straddles the route to the eastern suburbs of Damascus, near the Dumeir air base, that is also a key rebel supply line towards areas they control further southeast.

Bir Qassab fell to Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels after it was abandoned a few months ago by Islamic State (IS) militants beating an eastward retreat to reinforce their urban bastion, Raqqa, against a U.S.-backed coalition offensive, and Deir al Zor province against a thrust by Syrian government forces.

Bir Qassab had given Islamic State a sp…

Peter Hack:
...
... the problem extends beyond Democrat lawmakers and party leaders. It’s also the messaging of the party’s public spokesmen in media. When a wealthy white man defeated female Hillary Clinton for the presidency, feminists were outraged. When female Karen Handel defeated a wealthy white man for a congressional seat, feminists were outraged. It belies the entire movement and Americans see it and tire of it.

And the Times itself is culpable. The day before they ran this article on Democrat seething, they ran Democrat author Jill Filipovic’s assertions that excused her party and blamed the voters:

“At what point is this not a failure of Democrats, but toxic, vindictive voters willing to elect hateful bigots?”
She really wrote that. Karen Handel is a “hateful bigot.” Why? Because she disagrees with Jill Filipovic? Because she’s a Republican? And there was more:

“Maybe instead of trying to convince hateful white people, Dems should cater to our base – ppl of color, women – t…

Politico:
Jon Ossoff was on a trajectory to defeat Karen Handel narrowly, poised to deliver a humiliating blow to the White House in a race billed as a referendum of Donald Trump’s early months in office. Then the Republican voters in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District unexpectedly showed up in droves.

Pollsters say sky-high turnout drove Handel, the GOP nominee, to a nearly 4-point victory on Tuesday, despite most pre-election surveys showing Ossoff with a small-but-shrinking lead.

... in the end, the Georgia contest represented yet another election in which the Democratic candidate either led or was tied in public polls — and was overtaken by the Republican when all the votes were counted.

Unlike in some other races, however, it wasn’t because Democratic voters didn’t show up. More than 259,000 votes have been tallied as of Wednesday afternoon, considerably more than the 193,000 votes in the first round of voting in April.

In fact, turnout was much higher than for other off-year s…

Washington Times:
Nearly 30 percent of the illegal immigrant children the U.S. is holding in its dormitories have ties to criminal gangs, the government revealed Wednesday, suggesting that the Obama-era surge of Central Americans has fed the country’s growing problem with MS-13 and other gangs.

Federal officials refused even to guess at the true scope of the problem, telling the Senate Judiciary Committee that they can give only small snapshots of what they see. But they said the devastation on communities across the country is clear: killings and chaos, particularly among other immigrants — both legal and illegal.

The Border Patrol identified 160 teens who were known or suspected gang members when they first showed up at the border, but whom the Obama administration said it had to admit under U.S. law.

Meanwhile, a spot check this month of 138 teens being held by the federal Health and Human Services Department identified 39 with gang ties. Four of them were forced into cooperating w…

The GOP put this montage together so you would not have to stay up and listen to it.  There are lots of sad faces.

Tall Bloke:
Study: Tesla car battery production releases as much CO2 as 8 years of driving on petrol It looks like California's war on CO2 has a new villain and it is not Big Oil.

The Drive:


Though the concept has yet to find its big break, defense contractors continue to expand on the idea of highly mobile weapon systems that meet the size and weight restrictions of standard shipping containers. Now, Israel has tested such a system and says it has buyers already in line.

On June 20, 2017, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) said it had successfully test-fired its Long-Range Artillery (LORA) system from a containerized launcher on the back of a truck sitting on the deck of a cargo ship. The state-operated firm first unveiled the mobile ballistic missile back in 2006. The experiment, which destroyed a pre-planned target, was part of final trials ahead of “several deals that involve the system,” according to a press release.
... There is much more.

This is a weapon that could be used to launch an attack on Iran from a cargo ship in the Persian Gulf.  If terrorists were able to adapt this technology it could cause havoc.

Paul Sperry:
Next up: a special counsel to probe Team Obama’s obstruction of justice It is so obvious that it is surprising that people are just getting around to noticing it.  I would go further and investigate why no cases were brought dealing with Fast and Furious and the IRS abuse scandal.

Holman Jenkins:
...
Which brings us to today’s question: How did it become widely believed in the first half of 2017 that a U.S. president committed treason with Russia?

Consider what has passed for proof in the media. Tens of thousands of Americans have done business with Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union, not to mention before.

In 2009 President Obama made the first of his two trips to Russia with a gaggle of U.S. business leaders in tow.

Of these many thousands, four were associated with the Trump campaign, and now became evidence of Trump collusion with Russia.

Every president for 75 years has sought improved relations with Russia. That’s what those endless summits were about. Mr. Trump, in his typically bombastic way, also promoted improved relations with Russia. Now this was evidence of collusion.

Russian diplomats live in the U.S. and rub shoulders with countless Americans. Such shoulder-rubbing, if Trump associates were involved, now is proof of crime.

The Alar pes…

NY Times:

Dueling Realities for Democrats: Big Gains but Large Obstacles in 2018
This year’s generally positive special elections results for Democrats are still a reminder that it will be difficult to win in G.O.P. territory next year. With the media almost totally on their side and hostile stories about the President a daily feature and Democrats outspending Republicans by substantial amounts they still could not sell the dog food, the Democrats have been trying to shove down our throats.  Democrats are losing because they are Democrats and they cannot hide it with glitzy ads and celebrity endorsements.  To suggest they have made big gains is delusional.  But keep it up and keep going left Democrats.  It tells voters who you really are.

NY Times:
Flynn Heard C.I.A. Secrets Despite Blackmail Worries
Intelligence officials overwhelmingly agreed that Michael T. Flynn was vulnerable to blackmail, yet Mike Pompeo, the new C.I.A. director, continued to deliver sensitive intelligence briefings in his presence. I still find it hard to believe that Flynn's perfectly legal conversations with the Russian ambassador could have led to blackmail.  That has always seemed like an overblown excuse by Democrats and others who were hostile to his point of view to get him fired.

Some in the intelligence community have never forgiven him for being right about the dangers of ISIS when Obama and Central Command were pushing a false narrative about the group being a junior varsity team.

I am not excusing his failure to be candid in speaking with the Vice President which resulted in his being asked to resign, but this jihad against him seems over the top.  I am just not buying the insinuation that he was some kind of a traitor.

Fuel Fix:
Energy Secretary Rick Perry defended President Donald Trump's proposal to slash funding for energy research programs Tuesday as necessary to reduce the government's budget deficit.

During a budget hearing with members of the House Appropriations Committee, Perry said the budgets cuts were necessary to preserve spending for modernizing the nation's nuclear weapons arsenal and other "key missions."

"This budget proposal makes some difficult choices, but it is paramount we execute our fiduciary responsibility to the American taxpayer," Perry told the Subcommittee on Energy and Water Tuesday.

RELATED: Trump's budget a mixed bag for the energy sector

The Trump administration is proposing an 18 percent cut to research programs at the Department of Energy, with renewable energy and energy efficiency facing more than 60 percent cuts. The Advanced Research Projects Administration-Energy, which funds a number of research projects at Texas A&M and ot…

Chris Queen:
A Tale Of Two Venezuelas: While The Vast Majority Struggle, The Rich Live High This has always been the case.  If communism were to true its ideology, the government officials would all make the same as a garbage collector.  They would all eat the same grub.

Scout Warrior:
Unlike the first two of 11-planned America-Class Amphibs built with an aviation focus without a well-deck, LHA 8 will be built to accommodate both air and surface amphibious assault missions.

The Navy is acquiring early materials, working on systems engineering and starting detailed design work for a new America-Class Amphibious Assault ship which re-introduces “well-deck” surface attack technology to prepare the service for future amphibious warfare.

Construction of the ship, LHA 8 (Bougainville), is scheduled to commence in late 2018 with delivery planned to occur in 2024, Colleen O’Rourke, spokeswoman for Naval Sea Systems Command, told Scout Warrior in a written statement.

“Over the past year, efforts have focused on advanced system engineering and production planning,” O’Rourke said.

Unlike the first two of 11-planned America-Class Amphibs built with an aviation focus without a well-deck, LHA 8 will be built to accommodate both air and surface amphibious assault missio…

Washington Times:
Iran has increased production and testing of ballistic missiles since the 2015 nuclear deal with the U.S. while playing permanent host to scientists from North Korea, which has the know-how to build and launch atomic weapons, a leading Iranian opposition group said Tuesday.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran issued a white paper that the dissidents say identifies and documents work at 42 missile centers operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the regime’s dominant security force.

A dozen sites had never been disclosed before, said the council, which operates a spy network that has exposed Iran’s hidden nuclear program.

Tehran views expertise from North Korea as being so critical that it has established residences in Tehran for Pyongyang’s scientists and technicians, according to the white paper. North Koreans have shown Iran how to dig tunnels and build “missile cities” deep inside mountains to prevent destruction by airstrikes, among other projects.

“O…

streiff:

...

Via The Hill

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said Tuesday that Senate Republicans are using the investigation into Russian election meddling and last week’s shooting at a congressional baseball practice as “cover” to try to move their healthcare bill.

Murphy said news of the Russia controversy and the shooting that left House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) seriously wounded were crowding out coverage of the Senate’s healthcare debate and that the GOP was using this as an advantage.

“There’s been a lot of coverage of the Russia investigation, obviously focused last week on the devastating shooting here in Washington,” he said on CNN’s “New Day.”

“Republicans have used all that news as cover to try to move a bill to the Senate floor that is deeply unpopular,” he said.
This is beginning to get into Alex Jones and chem trails territory.

Somehow I really find in hard to believe that the GOP are using all of this stuff as cover for moving an ObamaCare bill. In particular, I re…

Breitbart:
CNN cut away from Karen Handel’s victory speech after the Republican won the special election in Georgia’s 6th congressional district on Tuesday night, just as she was about to begin describing the issues that defined her agenda.

A few minutes earlier, CNN had aired the speech of Democrat Jon Ossoff until it ended. Ossoff was expected to win by most observers, and carried the hopes of the so-called “#Resistance,” which hoped that Tuesday would mark the beginning of the end of the GOP majority in the House of Representatives and of President Donald Trump himself.

On social media, conservatives mocked the downcast faces of CNN’s political journalists, analysts and contributors as they struggled to digest yet another disappointment. Handel’s victory was just the latest in a long string of special elections that the Democrats had expected to win, and it was the one district they felt was well within their grasp. It proved too much for CNN’s Don Lemon, who evidently could not be…

Times of Israel:
Israeli sources: Iran missile strike a ‘flop,’ with most missing target

Israeli analyst says security sources ‘amazed’ at poor performance: 3 missiles fell in Iraq, and only one hit its target Iran fired seven missiles and six missed their target.  Of the missiles that made it to Syria, there were no reported casualties.

Bill Gertz:
House Democrats are continuing to block testimony from about a dozen witnesses who sought to appear before the intelligence oversight panel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Congressional officials said one of the key witnesses, former informal adviser to the Trump campaign Carter Page, was scheduled to testify at a closed hearing of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

But Democrats on the committee blocked the testimony, asserting they needed more time to prepare.

"He's the guy that many Democrats have been pointing to as the supposed mastermind and you would think they were interested hearing his story," said one Capitol Hill official.

Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.), the committee's Democratic leader, did not respond to emails seeking comment on the blocked testimony.

Schiff has asserted in the past that evidence of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign is "more than circumstantial," contrary to ot…

The liberal fascists trying to suppress the speech they do not agree with were targeted.

Independent Journal Review:
YAF: Number Of Conservative Events Disrupted By Protestors Has Tripled Since Trump's Election It has gone from around 15 percent to 46 percent since Trump took office.  Liberal fascism is on the march.

Heat Street:
From Nancy Pelosi to George Takei, the Left’s Reaction to Scalise Shooting Has Been Insane

...
Less than 24 hours after Scalise was declared by Medstar surgeons to be in critical, life threatening condition, Nancy Pelosi used her press conference to go full “They started it.” When Pelosi was asked by a reporter if she believed the coarsening political dialogue was afflicting both sides of the political aisle, Pelosi said no.

“It didn’t use to be this way. Somewhere in the 90s, Republicans decided on a politics of personal destruction as they went after the Clintons, and that is the provenance of it, and that is what has continued,” Pelosi said. Pelosi came to congress 29 years ago, so maybe she just wasn’t paying attention to her party’s treatment of Robert Bork one whole year prior but that somehow doesn’t explain her amnesia of her party’s treatment of Clarence Thomas two years later. Speak to your loved ones about Alzheimer’s.
... Nor did they stop with their ridiculous…

NY Times:
On the Mexican Border, a Case for Technology Over Concrete Using surveillance equipment adapted from military use in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Border Patrol is creating what some experts call a “virtual wall.” Whatever works to stop the illegal entry into the country should be used.  One of the advantages of the high-tech method is that it would not block the ranchers' access to water from the Rio Grande which their cattle need to survive in the arid conditions.  This would also deal with some of the political opposition to a physical wall by residents on the border.

NY Times:
Court Case on Gerrymanders Could Reshape Politics in U.S.
The Supreme Court will consider whether partisan gerrymandering violates the Constitution, which could lead to limits on a practice that dates to the early days of the Republic.While the high court has struck down voting districts on racial grounds, it has never disallowed a legislative map drawn along partisan lines. It should be noted that the Supreme Court stayed the lower court's ruling against the redistricting, and the liberals on the court voted against the review of the lower court ruling.  That suggest a good chance that ruling favoring the Democrat case will be reversed.  What they should consider is whether it is all right to pack racial and ethnic groups into a district in order to ensure elections of people from those groups.

Judicial Watch:
Judicial Watch today announced that the National Security Council (NSC) on May 23, 2017, informed it by letter that the materials regarding the unmasking by Obama National Security Advisor Susan Rice of “the identities of any U.S. citizens associated with the Trump presidential campaign or transition team” have been removed to the Obama Library.

The NSC will not fulfill an April 4 Judicial Watch request for records regarding information relating to people “who were identified pursuant to intelligence collection activities.”

The agency also informed Judicial Watch that it would not turn over communications with any Intelligence Community member or agency concerning the alleged Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election; the hacking of DNC computers; or the suspected communications between Russia and Trump campaign/transition officials. Specifically, the NSC told Judicial Watch:

Documents from the Obama administration have been transferred to the Barack Obama …