PrairiePundit

Politico: Majority of voters believe White House is in chaos While the administration does continue to function it seems to be creating too much drama in the process.  Hopefully Gen. Kelly can create a more comforting atmosphere for the country.

The Hill: President Obama’s intelligence chief issued revised procedures in 2013 that made it easier for executive branch officials to “unmask” the names of lawmakers or congressional staffers caught up in intelligence intercepts overseas, according to interviews and documents reviewed by The Hill. Procedures issued by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper in March 2013 formally supplanted a 1992 set of rules that made the dissemination of names of intercepted lawmakers or congressional aides an act of last resort. The new standard allowed for a lawmaker’s or staffer’s name to be unmasked if “an executive branch recipient of intelligence” believed that learning “the identity of the Member of Congress or the Congressional staff is necessary to understand and assess the associated intelligence and further a lawful activity of the recipient agency,” according to a memo released earlier this month by the DNI's office with little public fanfare. Under the previous rul...

South China Morning Post: China will have the world’s worst problem with ageing solar panels in less than two decades, according to a recent industry estimate. Lu Fang, secretary general of the photovoltaics decision in the China Renewable Energy Society, wrote in an article circulating on mainland social media this month that the country’s cumulative capacity of retired panels would reach up to 70 gigawatts (GW) by 2034. That is three times the scale of the Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest hydropower project, by power production. By 2050 these waste panels would add up to 20 million tonnes, or 2,000 times the weight of the Eiffel Tower, according to Lu. ... Alternative energy has many drawbacks and this is another one of them.

Wall Street Journal: U.S. Companies Post Profit Growth Not Seen in Six Years Strong earnings come as tax and infrastructure initiatives that were expected to spur economy have been sidetracked amid Washington infighting I suspect deregulation has something to do with the increased profits.  That is the one thing Democrats have not been able to stall.  They still will grow even more if Trump's tax cuts are put in place.

Washington Post Editorial: The man who may disenfranchise millions Democrats must be desperate to keep vote fraud as an option because they are so desperate to not even investigate it.  The media seems to have taken their side in whether vote fraud should be investigated.  But why cover up vote fraud?  Why ignore it?  Why continue to facilitate it? This investigation has never been about disenfranchising legal voters.  Never.  The only reason to pretend otherwise is to facilitate cheating.

NY Times: Putin’s Bet on a Trump Presidency Backfires Spectacularly If the sanctions passed by Congress last week sent any message to Moscow, it was that Mr. Trump’s hands are tied in dealing with Moscow, probably for years to come. The Times still does not get how it has been played by Putin along with the Democrats.  What Putin was trying to do is create questions about whoever won the election and the media seems complicit in fulfilling Putin's desires. The sanctions will hamstring diplomatic efforts of the Russians and the US in dealing with each other for years.  What the Times still does not get is Putin was trying to foment trouble for whoever won the election.  He was using Fusion GPS to go after both sides.

Mackubin Owens: ... As usual, the press reported Dunford’s response as show of resistance to the policy change and as military “pushback” to the president, something liberals approve only when it is directed against a Republican. And it is doubtful that his memo indicates the military’s disagreement with changing the policy. A recent poll found only 12 percent of military personnel viewed allowing transgenders to serve in the military as “helpful,” while 41 percent found it “hurtful.” If anything, the memo was only a reminder that since a presidential tweet does not constitute policy; the current approach will remain in place until such time as the president orders the secretary of defense to formally revoke the Obama policy; and the secretary of defense issues guidance on how to implement the new rules. What can we say about the plan to revoke Obama-era transgender policy? For one thing, it violates no one’s “rights.” Transgender people continue to possess all of the rights of th...

Roger Kimball: At last, I am in a position to help the New York Times. It’s a good feeling. As anyone who has stumbled upon their website knows, our former paper of record, underscoring its insatiable appetite to provide the public with all the news that fits its agenda, prominently features a solicitation for hot tips: Got a confidential news tip? it asks. Click and amaze the world. I have a tip, an important one, though I cannot in truth call it “confidential.” Over the last few days, in fact, it has been blazoned across the samizdat press, outlets that your typical Times reader may never have heard of, or, if he has, that he reflexively discounts. What’s it all about, Alfie? Computer hacking. A senior political figure threatening law enforcement officials. Destruction of evidence. Collusion with foreign powers. Financial corruption. Incompetence. Maladministration. Hot stuff. Russia? Trump, Sr., Jr., or both? Nope. It’s U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), former h...

AFP: A defiant Iran vowed on Saturday to press ahead with its missile programme and condemned new US sanctions, as tensions rise after the West hardened its tone against the Islamic republic. In the latest incident, Tehran and Washington accused each other's naval forces of provocative manoeuvres in the Gulf that culminated in a US helicopter firing warning flares. The US Navy said it had reacted to unresponsive vessels belonging to the Revolutionary Guards closing in on American ships at high speed, a charge denied by Iran which described the American move as unprovoked. ... On the political front, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said Tehran condemned new US sanctions against its missile programme, which US President Donald Trump is set to sign into law, and vowed to press on. "We will continue with full power our missile programme," he said. "We consider the action by the US as hostile, reprehensible and unacceptable, and it's ultima...

Tablet: ... If taking money from repressive kleptocracies is an ugly business, an even uglier story emerges when you start connecting the dots. Add Fusion GPS’s contracts with Russian and Russian-linked entities together with the company’s role in compiling and distributing a defamatory dossier sourced to the Kremlin, and the idea that the Trump Dossier was a Kremlin information operation becomes quite plausible—with much of the U.S. media serving as the delivery mechanism for a poison dart aimed at the legitimacy of the American democratic system. But wait: How could the Kremlin be targeting Donald Trump, at the same time as it was trying to elect Trump by hacking John Podesta’s emails and spreading them on Wikileaks, and running anti-Hillary Clinton conspiracy stories on Russia Today? The answer is that the purpose of Russia’s interventions in the 2016 election wasn’t to elect either Clinton or Trump, for a traditional quid pro quo. Information operations don’t work that way; th...

Daily Caller: ... We know that Putin is fanatically committed to expanding Russia’s sphere of influence and strengthening her economic position. We know the risk U.S. fracking poses to Russia’s economy, and we know of direct Russian ties to firms that contribute tens of millions of dollars to environmental extremists. As Democrats and their media friends continue to obsess over Trump surrogates’ ties to Russia, it’s incumbent on everyone else to further examine Russia’s ties to anti-fracking groups. After all, we wouldn’t want a foreign power to influence our public policy. Or elections. This is a long piece that details the direct and indirect ties to the environmentalist groups by Russia in hopes of stopping the shale revolution in the US.  I suspect they are ignoring it because it does not fit their preferred narrative about Trump's victory.

Fuel Fix: After years of questioning scientific research showing carbon dioxide emissions from human activity is causing the temperature of the planet to rise, Texas Congressman Lamar Smith has a new question on climate change. What if climate change isn't such a bad thing? In an essay entitled " Don 't Believe the Hysteria Over Carbon Dioxide," Smith, a San Antonio Republican, poses the theory that higher temperatures and carbon dioxide levels could have a variety of benefits from increased crop production to opening up shipping lanes in the Arctic. "Greater vegetation assists in controlling water runoff, provides more habitats for many animal species, and even aids in climate stabilization," Smith writes. "Also, as the Earth warms, we are seeing beneficial changes to the earth's geography. For instance, Arctic sea ice is decreasing. This development will create new commercial shipping lanes that provide faster, more convenient, and less costly...

Daily Caller: The opposition research firm behind the infamous Trump dossier, Fusion GPS, worked with several prominent media outlets to spread dirt on President Trump’s alleged ties to Russia. Those same media outlets, which have enthusiastically pounced on every new detail regarding the Russia investigation, have been oddly disinterested in probing into the crucial role of Fusion GPS. The British spy Fusion GPS hired to craft the dossier, Christopher Steele, leaned on anonymous Russian sources in crafting the dossier for Fusion GPS. Steele’s lawyers revealed in court filings that, in September 2016, Steele briefed reporters from The New York Times, The Washington Post, Yahoo! News, The New Yorker and CNN on behalf of Fusion GPS. Steele later held another meeting with reporters from the NYT, WaPo and Yahoo. The lawyers said that Fusion GPS attended these meetings with reporters and Steele, as TheDC’s Chuck Ross pointed out . Fusion GPS, which is headed up by former Wall Street J...

NY Post Editorial: Palestinian Authority now uses half of all foreign aid to reward terror US and other countries should cut off aid to this group.  At a minimum, the aid should be cut in half.

NY Times: After Sanctions, Putin Orders U.S. to Cut 755 Embassy Staff Speaking in a television interview, President Vladimir V. Putin said that the number of workers at American diplomatic posts in Russia must be cut by Sept. 1. The decision escalated tensions between Washington and Moscow, as the Kremlin was fighting against new U.S. sanctions. These appear to be sanctions that will inconvenience both countries in their diplomatic interactions.  The real sanctions that will harm the Russian economy will do the most damage and it will be hard for Russia to hurt the US economy with sanctions on business.

Fox News: The U.S. and its allies are prepared to use “rapid, lethal and overwhelming force,” if necessary, against North Korea, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Air Forces warned Saturday night. The statement from Gen. Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy, U.S. Pacific Air Forces commander, came after the militaries of the U.S., South Korea and Japan spent 10 hours conducting bomber-jet drills over the Korean Peninsula. The training mission was a response to North Korea’s recent ballistic missile launches and nuclear program, and part of the U.S. regular commitment to defending its allies in the Asia-Pacific region, the general’s statement said. “North Korea remains the most urgent threat to regional stability,” O’Shaughnessy said. “Diplomacy remains the lead,” he said. “However, we have a responsibility to our allies and our nation to showcase our unwavering commitment while planning for the worst-case scenario. “If called upon,” he added, “we are ready to respond with rapid, letha...

Washington Post: U.S. police chiefs blast Trump for endorsing ‘police brutality’ Police departments across the country moved quickly to denounce President Trump's comments condoning “roughing up” people who have been arrested. During the campaign, Trump made a joke about Hillary Clinton's missing emails by suggesting the Russian hackers could find the ones she attempted to destroy.  Democrats and the media saw this joke as some kind of admission of "collusion."  I thought it was a pretty clever way of pointing out her illegal destruction of evidence that was under a subpoena. I suspect that what Trump was talking about in this case was his support for a more vigorous prosecution of a brutal gang.  But the media and his political enemies are always eager to interpret his remarks in a way to make him look "out of control."  It is one of the downsides to his unscripted style.

Houston Chronicle: The Chinese solar panel industry, flooding U.S. markets with cheap solar panels, has a engaged in a musical chairs-type effort in recent years to avoid tariffs on their products by periodically shifting production to Malaysia, Thailand and other Southeast Asian nations. So far, the U.S. government has held back on further tariffs as it has tried to balance the competing interests of American panel makers struggling to survive the Chinese onslaught against rooftop installers and solar farm developers that are prospering from cheap panels as they expand the nation's solar energy capacity. But the prospect that the pro-fossil fuel, "America first" President Donald Trump could upend the status quo has solar developers and environmentalists increasingly worried as the White reviews a series of trade and energy policies. ... There is much more. I find this case ironic since the Democrats who pushed the solar energy business claimed that it would not i...

Hot Air: Samantha Power Almost Confirmed As Being Behind All The Unmasking Last Year? ... You can read the letter here , but Nunes isn’t leaving much to the imagination. He’s referring to one of only three individuals from the Obama administration who may have requested the unmasking of individual Americans in hundreds of cases and who “has no apparent intelligence-related function.” ... There is much more.  The piece suggests that Powers was the likely source for several unmaskings that may have gone into the hundreds focused almost entirely on identifying people in the Trump campaign.  As the UN Ambassador, she would normally not have been in the loop for such documents and the scandal may also implicate some people in the intel agencies that provided the material.

Observer: Corruption Scandals Are Piling Up for Democrats Incidences of dirty politics on every level overwhelm It is a compilation of current known Democrat scandals including the arrest of Debbie Wasserman Schultz's IT "expert."   The scandals are across several levels of government and are rather amazing when you consider how many seats the Democrats have lost in the last 10 years.  I think the Russian election scandal is also beginning to blow up in their pants.

BizPac Review: More winning: US GDP soars past $19 trillion for first time in American history Under Trump, the economic growth appears to be catching up with the deficit Obama created.

Andrew Joyce, PhD: ... ... With depressing regularity the mainstream media, politicians, and cultural personalities ascended into the airwaves like insects disturbed from a nest, all carrying the same poison. To be sure, no-one dared express surprise at the latest Muslim atrocity - we are, perhaps fortunately, getting to the point where that particular affront has exhausted its viability, although faux expressions of 'shock' continue to reverberate. Instead, the narrative advanced by these elites was based around the idea that terrorism “should not divide us.” Quite apart from the fact that a multicultural society means that there is no longer any ‘us,’ and the fact that terrorism aims to terrorize rather than ‘divide’ a population, the statement itself should be read as containing a subliminal message: “Do nothing.” It is an enjoinder to pacifism - to surrender. There is nothing noble about refusing to be moved or motivated by terrorism. If a man broke into my home and as...

Daily Mail: Trump threatens to STOP subsidies for Obamacare health insurance policies in move that 'could increase premiums by 36%' In a series of tweets he hinted that he would put an end to the payments, known as Cost Sharing Reduction (CSR), if the repeal and repair bill wasn't passed in the house. The courts have already ruled that the subsidies were unconstitutionally imposed by Obama without Congressional authorization.  This may come to be called the "Trump Card" in negotiations with Congress on this horrible law.

Zero Hedge: NASA Confirms Falling Sea Levels For Two Years Amidst Media Blackout ... This data clearly contradicts the false narrative of rapid, never-ending rising ocean levels that flood continents and drown cities. The narrative is climate alarmists key element of the climate change fear mongering fiction that’s used to scare gullible youth into making Al Gore rich. Global warming alarmists might say this is only a “pause” in the rising ocean levels, and that the long-term trend is clearly in the direction of rising oceans. However, these people wildly exaggerate the degree of ocean level increases to the point of absurdity and have been caught red-handed completely fabricating data to continue scaring the public into supporting a non-issue. ... The media would rather push stories of fish being found in flooded streets than the facts about what is actually happening to the sea level.

KGW: A man accused of breaking into a 65-year-old woman's home, sexually assaulting her and stealing her car was arrested after allegedly assaulting another woman and running from police. Sergio Jose Martinez, 31, was caught July 24 after officers chased him through a neighborhood . According to court documents filed in March 2017, Martinez has a history of illegal entry into the United States. He has been a transient in the Portland area for more than a year and has been deported 20 times. Martinez has at least five probation violations for re-entering the United States. His most recent removal was in November 2016, according to the March court documents. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lodged an immigration detainer against Martinez, asking authorities to notify them before releasing Martinez to allow ICE to take him into custody. The Department of Homeland Security said a detainer was requested for Martinez in December 2016, but he was released into the community an...

Washington Free Beacon: FDIC Ordered to Turn Over Documents in Operation Choke Point Lawsuit 'With discovery granted, it’s probably smart for some former DOJ and FDIC officials to lawyer up' ... "‘Operation Choke Point' is an Obama Administration initiative that encourages federal financial services regulators to harass and intimidate banks and financial institutions that work with firearm and ammunition retailers," the National Rifle Association said in February 2016. "By leaning on the banks, regulators hoped to bring an end to those relationships thereby choking off their cash flow and forcing them out of business. A 2015 Congressional Investigation revealed that ammunition and firearm sales and dealers had, in fact, been targeted." ... The Obama administration was trying to do a backdoor attack on industries they disapproved up but lacked the political ability to get laws passed to support their agenda.  It is also questionable whether any s...

Washington Post: Health-care vote exposes key divide between McCain and McConnell Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell counts success almost entirely through political victories. But Sen. John McCain is done with winning for the sake of winning. He wasn't done with winning for the sake of winning when he lied and told voters he would lead the fight against Obamacare in his campaign ads.  It was a close election and if he had told the truth he would have lost.  He betrayed the voters and not just his Republican colleagues.  That the liberals in the media are praises him only makes his betrayal all the more disgusting.  They are praising the politics of fraud.

NY Times: North Korea Tests a Ballistic Missile That Experts Say Could Hit California The missile flew on a high trajectory that, if lowered, may allow it to reach large American cities, a milestone for the North’s weapons program, experts say.  These missiles are a threat from Seattle to San Diego and to the heart of Silicon Valley.  Will those behind the California secession movement come to their senses and decide that they really need to be a part of the US and under its defense umbrella?  The liberal's opposition to missile defense has made the West Coast more vulnerable.

Resurgent: The  Trafalgar Group  has published poll results showing Kid Rock leading incumbent Dem. Sen. Debbie Stabenow 48.6 percent to 46.09 percent, with only 5.31 percent undecided. ... The singer got that name when he was working with blacks in Detroit on the music scene and someone watching said, "Look at that kid rock."  This race looks like it may be a surprisingly difficult one for a Democrat incumbent.

Power Line: ... A  new study  by the Government Accountability Institute suggests the answer. It shows that thousands of votes in the 2016 election were illegal duplicate votes from people who registered and voted in more than one state. Our friend Hans von Spakovsky, a member of the Commission on Election Integrity,  reports : The Government Accountability Institute was able to obtain voter registration and voter history data from only 21 states because while some states shared it freely, “others impose exorbitant costs or refuse to comply with voter information requests”. . . The institute compared the lists using an “extremely conservative matching approach that sought only to identify two votes cast in the same legal name.” It found that 8,471 votes in 2016 were “highly likely” duplicates. Extrapolating this to all 50 states would likely produce, with “high-confidence,” around 45,000 duplicate votes. The Government Accountability Institute wasn’t conte...

Cruz nails it.  He talks about the real people harmed by the votes of Democrats and Republicans who refused to do way with this awful law.

Andrew McCarthy: ... As you let all that sink in, consider this: Awan and his family cabal of fraudsters had access for years to the e-mails and other electronic files of members of the House’s Intelligence and Foreign Affairs Committees. It turns out they were accessing members’ computers without their knowledge, transferring files to remote servers, and stealing computer equipment — including hard drives that Awan & Co. smashed to bits of bytes before making tracks. ... This is not about bank fraud. The Awan family swindles are plentiful, but they are just window-dressing. This appears to be a real conspiracy, aimed at undermining American national security. ... A few of these arrangements appear to have been sinecures: While some Awans were rarely seen around the office, we now know they were engaged in extensive financial shenanigans away from the Capitol. Nevertheless, the Daily Caller’s Luke Rosiak, who has been all over this story, reports that, for their IT “work,” ...

Houston Chronicle: Partnerships between federal immigration agents and local police have boomed in 2017 - growing to a whopping 59 agencies in 18 states, according to a large batch of new contracts recently posted on Immigration and Customs Enforcement's website . Seventeen Texas sheriffs departments are now approved to partner in ICE's so-called 287(g) program - by far the most agencies of any state. By comparison, only three Texas departments partnered with ICE in 2016 - and Harris County, the largest of the three, dropped the program earlier this year citing costs and civil rights concerns. Officers from all of the new partner agencies - including Galveston, Montgomery and Waller County sheriff's offices in the Houston suburbs - will receive additional training and computers they can use to cross-check immigration data banks for people who are arrested and processed in local jails for anything from a traffic ticket to murder. ... Texas now has by far the most ...

Politico: Reince Priebus is out as White House chief of staff, after struggling for months to bring a sense of order to the West Wing or advance President Donald Trump's legislative agenda. Trump announced in a tweet on Friday that Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly will replace him. Two senior White House officials said Priebus had resigned on Thursday, but another senior West Wing aide said he was ousted from the position. "I am pleased to inform you that I have just named General/Secretary John F Kelly as White House Chief of Staff. He is a Great American and a Great Leader. John has also done a spectacular job at Homeland Security. He has been a true star of my Administration," Trump wrote. He added, "I would like to thank Reince Priebus for his service and dedication to his country. We accomplished a lot together and I am proud of him!" Priebus’ exit marks the most dramatic shakeup yet in Trump’s West Wing, which has been plagued by infighting...

John Merline: Murkowski and McCain Saved ObamaCare Just Months After Promising Voters They'd Repeal It Obamacare has the unique distinction of having been sold by lies and saved by people who lied about their position on it. ... Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, for example, wrote multiple op-eds for her hometown papers decrying what ObamaCare had done to her state, and vowing to repeal it, in the run-up to her 2016 re-election. In one she wrote that "the Affordable Care Act has unfortunately become one of the most ironically named pieces of legislation for Alaska in history." In a floor speech in May 2016, she claimed that "I have consistently supported full repeal of the ACA and have voted to do so on several occasions. I have recognized that it is going to be difficult, if not impossible, to do so with this administration." She voted for the repeal bill in 2015. But this week, Murkowski voted against every single version of ObamaCare repeal. She even vote...

NY Times: Scaramucci Stirs Up White House With Uncensored Rant Using vulgar language in a call with a New Yorker reporter, Anthony Scaramucci, the White House communications director, disparaged Reince Priebus and Stephen K. Bannon. The Times reporters present an accurate picture of a potty mouth juvenile attack on co-workers.  Did Scaramucci attend the Duarte school of communications?  Insults are the weakest form of argument and this guy is supposed to be smart.  This was not a smart thing to do.

NY Times: Defeat Derails 7-Year Campaign by the Republicans Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski also broke Republican ranks. The vote may spell the end of the party’s efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act anytime soon. These people are disgusting.  They are willing to keep a failing system that has done great harm to millions.

Ross McKitrick: In the fight between Rick Perry and climate scientists — He’s winning ... But the meteorological society leapt to condemn Perry for a cautious response to an awkward question. Perry could not reasonably have agreed with the interviewer since the concept of a “control knob” for the Earth’s temperature wasn’t defined. Doubling CO2 might, according to models, cause a few degrees of warming. Doubling the size of the sun would burn up the planet. Doubling cloud cover might trigger an ice age. So which is the “primary control knob”? The meteorological society letter ignored the odd wording of the question, misrepresented Perry’s response and then summarily declared their position on climate “indisputable.” Perry’s cautious answer, by contrast, was perfectly reasonable in the context of a confusing question in a fast-moving TV interview. Furthermore, Seitter’s letter invites skepticism. It pronounces confidently on causes of global warming “in recent decades” even thoug...

Washington Free Beacon: Congress Could Halt Spy Authorization Over Obama Aides’ Anti-Trump Leaks Pressure mounts to investigate top Obama aides Rhodes, Rice, Power, and others The Hill is also reporting that top Obama aides made hundreds of requests for intel on the Trump campaign.  This is a scandal that is Nixonian in its scope and actually far worse than what brought Nixon down.

Fox News: Defense Secretary Jim Mattis wants to overhaul military education and training to “regain” the art of warfighting following complaints by thousands of service members that their time is being wasted by hours of mandatory training, according to a new memo obtained by Fox News. The training that is the subject of complaints covers everything from alcohol use to active shooters to sexual harassment to stress management. Addressing the service secretaries and chiefs of the Armed Forces, Mattis has ordered the formation of a new working group to “determine changes to military personnel policies” to “equip more ready and lethal forces.” The working group will include the second in command of each branch of the U.S. military and report to the deputy secretary of defense and vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The secretary wants each service to examine its military education to “regain a concentration on the art and science of warfighting” and look into the hours of ...

The Drive: It sounds like something straight out of Call of Duty video game sequel, James Bond movie, or Batman comic. Troops call in an air strike, but instead of high explosives, the pilots employ a weapon that screws with the enemy’s electronics, disabling them or making them catch fire or even explode, becoming little bombs in of themselves. But it’s not a plot device from a Hollywood blockbuster or video game. It’s a detail passed along from a journalist in Syria – and what’s more, some part of the report might be true. We've seen at least one similar rumor emanating from a modern battlefield in the past. The new report emerged on July 7, 2017, when Jenan Moussa, a “roving reporter Arabic Al Aan TV,” an Arabic-language satellite television network with its headquarters in the United Arab Emirates, wrote on Twitter that members of the U.S.-supported Syrian Democratic Forces told her American warplanes sometimes dropped an “electricity bomb.” The SDF fighters added that when...

Daily Beast: ISIS Turns its Guns—and Propaganda Machine—on Iran With terror attacks, recruiting efforts, and slick, gruesome propaganda the so-called Islamic State is trying to take its fight to the ayatollahs. This is a fight where there are no good guys.  It is one group of terrorists against another.

Reuters: Iran successfully tested a rocket that can deliver satellites into orbit, state television reported on Thursday, an action the United States said breaches a U.N. Security Council resolution because of its potential use in ballistic missile development. Iranian state television showed footage of the firing of the rocket, mounted on a launchpad carrying pictures of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic, and Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The rocket launch violated United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on Thursday. That resolution, which endorsed a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, calls upon Iran not to undertake activities related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such technology. It stops short of explicitly barring such activity. ... It is no surprise that Iran cannot be trusted.  This only confirms how bad...

Kimberley Strassel: ... What if, all this time, Washington and the media have had the Russia collusion story backward? What if it wasn’t the Trump campaign playing footsie with the Vladimir Putin regime, but Democrats? The more we learn about Fusion, the more this seems a possibility. We know Fusion is a for-hire political outfit, paid to dig up dirt on targets. This column first outed Fusion in 2012, detailing its efforts to tar a Mitt Romney donor. At the time Fusion insisted that the donor was “a legitimate subject of public records research.” Mr. Grassley’s call for testimony has uncovered more such stories. Thor Halvorssen, a prominent human-rights activist, has submitted sworn testimony outlining a Fusion attempt to undercut his investigation of Venezuelan corruption. Mr. Halvorssen claims Fusion “devised smear campaigns, prepared dossiers containing false information,” and “carefully placed slanderous news items” to malign him and his activity. William Browder, a banker...

Houston Chronicle: Nearly a decade ago, Duke Energy placed several weather towers along the Gulf Coast to measure winds coming off the Gulf of Mexico. Duke's engineers were soon struck by one particular characteristic of the sea breezes: They blow like clockwork. This realization helped spur the development of a rapidly growing energy source that is beginning to challenge, or at least cut into, the dominance of West Texas wind farms, which account for more than 70 percent of the state's wind energy. While the generating capacity along the coast is still a fraction of that in West Texas, and wind speeds are far lower, Gulf wind is becoming more important to the state's energy mix because it blows more reliably and when the power grid needs it most, during high demand periods in the morning and afternoon. The well-timed supplies can help ease price spikes in wholesale markets on hot summer days and lower customer bills. "The nice part about the Gulf Coast wind ge...

Ed Rogers: The quest to prove collusion is crumbling Every time the media has thought they found a smoking gun it has fallen apart in their hands.  Now with Sen. Grassley focusing on Fusion GPS which was hired to do the dirty dossier and it appears they were working on behalf of the Russians too .

NY Times: Gas Prices Could Rise if U.S. Adds to Venezuela Sanctions President Trump has promised tougher measures against the oil-exporting country if it goes through with elections on Sunday. But that could raise gas prices in America. Venezuelan exports to the US make up about eight percent of the total and could be easily replaced by a world awash in oil.   There are plenty of alternative sources for oil in today's market, including US oil.  One thing the US does need to do is convert its refining capacity to work with the light crude being produced by the shale wells.  If that took place the US would need even less imported oil.

James Freeman: Have You Heard about Fusion GPS? A Thursday Senate hearing promises to complicate the Trump-Russia media narrative. ... So the same firm that generated rumors about the Russians having damaging information on President Trump—a project funded by Mr. Trump’s American political opponents, according to the Washington Post’s Josh Rogin—was also working for the Russians? ... I think Sen. Grassley has kicked over the Russian conspiracy theories and the Democrats are not going to like the facts that are coming out.  It is well worth reading the whole thing.

Washington Times: New Orleans bilks federal taxpayers of $2 billion in Hurricane Katrina repairs: Audit New Orleans had been failing to repair is sewer and roads well before the storm yet billed FEMA for the work after the storm.

Ben Shapiro nails the nuttiness and circular logic of the left in suppressing free speech.

Circa: EXCLUSIVE: FBI General Counsel James A. Baker is purportedly under a Department of Justice criminal investigation for allegedly leaking classified national security information to the media, according to multiple government officials close to the probe who spoke with Circa on the condition of anonymity. FBI spokeswoman Carol Cratty said the bureau would not comment on Baker and would not confirm or deny any investigation. Baker did not return comment when Circa attempted to reach him through the FBI. This comes as Department of Justice Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he would soon be making an announcement regarding the progress of leak investigations. A DOJ official declined to comment on Circa’s inquiry into Baker but did say, the planned announcement by Sessions is part of the overall "stepped up efforts on leak investigations." Three sources, with knowledge of the apparent investigation, told Circa that Baker is the top suspect in an ongoing leak invest...

CNN: A coalition of border state lawmakers and moderates are looking to take charge of the wall debate -- offering their own plan to build a "smart" wall that draws from the insight of Silicon Valley and virtual reality entrepreneur Palmer Luckey. The move seeks to balance between President Donald Trump's aggressive push for border security and reticence by moderates in Washington to commit to an expensive show of force that experts at the border question will actually be productive. The "Secure Miles with All Resources and Technology Act," or SMART Act, will be introduced Thursday morning by Republican Rep. Will Hurd, whose Texas district has more than 800 miles of the Southern border, one-third of the total border with Mexico and more than any other single lawmaker. To back up the bill, Hurd has been using the estimates and insights of Anduril Industries, a Silicon Valley-based defense technology company founded by Luckey, who also founded Oculus VR. H...

CNS News: Texas, the nation’s second most populous state, had the fastest growing economy in the nation in the first quarter of this year with its state GDP growing at a real annual rate of 3.9 percent, according to data released today by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. By contrast, California, the nation’s most populous state, ranked 42nd out of 50 states for first quarter economic growth, with its GDP growing at a real annual rate of just 0.1 percent. ... The Texas economy, according to BEA, was driven up by a boom in the mining sector and by a large increase in manufacturing. California’s economy was dragged down by the arts, entertainment and recreation sector; finance and insurance; retail trade; and agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting. ... There is much more.  California still has a very large economy, but it is not growing.  It is a state where regulation and taxes act as a disincentive to expansion.

Washington Post: These college students lost access to legal pot — and started getting better grades The Netherlands unintentionally created a perfect laboratory for studying marijuana effects, and it produced troubling results for legalization advocates. I suspect that pot tends to make some people lackadaisical.  Like many drugs, it tends to be an escape from reality.

NY Times: How a Ruling on Texas Districts Could Help Reshape Congress Republican lawyers raised the possibility of “Armageddon” — a map that endangered a half-dozen G.O.P. districts. Democrats are not winning seats in Congressional races because there are fewer Democrats now in Texas.  Just look at the results of statewide elections.  They have not won a race in over 20 years.  It is their bad policies that are keeping them from winning and not how district lines are drawn.  There are plenty of examples of Hispanics and black Republicans winning races in statewide races as well as in congressional districts. Democrats are losing because they support policies that hurt the economy and pander to special interest groups rather than the population as a whole.

Washington Times: Long-awaited projects in Alaska — including the potentially life-saving King Cove road and oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge — are now in jeopardy as President Trump reportedly looks for revenge on the state and Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski in particular after her vote against the GOP health care bill earlier this week. The Alaska Dispatch News reported late Wednesday night that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke phoned Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan, a Republican, and delivered a “troubling message” on Wednesday afternoon. “I’m not going to go into the details, but I fear that the strong economic growth, pro-energy, pro-mining, pro-jobs and personnel from Alaska who are part of those policies are going to stop,” Mr. Sullivan told the outlet. “I tried to push back on behalf of all Alaskans. … We’re facing some difficult times and there’s a lot of enthusiasm for the policies that Secretary Zinke and the president have been talking about with regard to our...

Mark Moyer: Not since Teddy Roosevelt occupied the Oval Office have students of history featured so prominently in the U.S. government as they do today. National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster holds a Ph.D. in history and is the author of the highly acclaimed Vietnam War history, Dereliction of Duty . Secretary of Defense James Mattis has relentlessly studied and applied history during four decades as a Marine Corps officer and since, amassing an enormous library. Both have long championed the use of history in tackling contemporary national security challenges. “It’s better to learn from somebody else’s mistakes than from your own,” Mattis routinely tells the troops when exhorting them to study the past. This interest in history would have been less noteworthy 50 years ago, when the nation still required all of its citizens to know the history most pertinent to national security: military and diplomatic history. Since the 1960s, those fields have been squeezed out of the academi...