PrairiePundit

Daily Mail: Americans silenced by the PC police: Majority now think discussion has been destroyed by politically correct intolerance and 58 per cent are too scared to share their real opinions in public – especially Republicans  The usual political arguments at Thanksgiving dinner may be silenced this year thanks to America's polarizing political climate. A new survey by the Cato Institute shows that most Americans no longer feel comfortable talking abut their political beliefs. According to the survey 71 per cent of Americans 'believe that political correctness has silenced important discussions our society needs to have.' Meanwhile, 58 per cent of Americans believe the 'political climate prevents them from sharing their political beliefs'. This also explains why the polling missed the support for Trump in the election and is probably missing it in today's polling.  The fascist left by be stifling debate, but it is not stifling the vote at this point, it ...

Daily Mail: Facebook says Russia-linked ads that reached millions of Americans continued to 'sow division' and undermine Trump - not Hillary - even AFTER the 2016 election Facebook told Congress that ads representing 'foreign interference' in America's election system continued after Donald Trump won the White House - and appeared designed to hurt him By pursuing a vendetta against Trump the Democrats are helping the Russians achieve their main objective.

Fox News: At least eight people are dead after a driver barreled into a bike path and crashed a rental pickup truck into a crowd in Lower Manhattan Tuesday afternoon, shouting "Allahu Akbar," law enforcement sources tell Fox News and The Associated Press. Another nine people were injured, authorities said. Police tweeted that one person -- who police shot twice -- has been taken into custody and is expected to survive. Police added that there are "no others outstanding." Mayor Bill de Blasio, speaking at a press conference Tuesday evening, called the incident "an act of terror." Governor Andrew Cuomo said that at this point in the investigation, there is no evidence to suggest that there was a wider plot. FBI officials confirmed to Fox News that they have agents responding to the situation "with NYPD." A bomb squad is also on scene examining a vehicle. A law enforcement source said the suspect had two weapons, believed to be a paintball...

NY Times: Russian Influence Reached 126 Million Through Facebook Facebook and Google, ahead of congressional hearings, disclosed details about “insidious” Russian efforts to sow discord in the U.S. The new information reveals the scope of the agents’ use of their platforms. If whatever they were doing on Facebook reached anyone it was probably fleeting.  I probably put in more time on Facebook than Twitter during the campaign, mainly because I could not stand the level of vitriol directed at all candidates.  I voted against Hillary Clinton based on following her career and political statements since she ran as the non-cookie making spouse of Bill Clinton who was in charge of Bimbo eruptions.  I watch her first health care fiasco and her "vast right-wing conspiracy" theories to explain away Bill's indiscretions with an intern.  I voted against because she wanted to continue Obama's control freak policies that throttled economic activity in this co...

CNBC: Consumer confidence hits highest level since December 2000 Consumer confidence rose to 125.9 in October, according to the Conference Board. The rating is at the highest level since December 2000. This accounts for Americans' views of current economic conditions and their expectations for the next six months. I suspect the jobs created as a result of Trump's deregulation effort is largely responsible for this growth.  If Trump were governing in a less hostile environment this would be big news.  Liberals are trying to bury it with artificial scandals and their own Trump hatred.

Washington Post: ‘This is a nothing burger’: How conservative media reacted to the indictments In the highly politicized environment, where news is increasingly targeted to partisan audiences, the story played out very differently on sites such as Fox News, Breitbart and the Daily Caller. Currently it is not much, but it is just the first inning in Mueller's game.  The indictments of Manafort and Gates are aimed at extorting testimony from them against Trump and the campaign.  Mueller is threatening to bankrupt them with legal bills and long prison sentences in hopes that they will deliver the prize the anti-Trump left is hoping for. The indictments against Papadopoulos is interesting for what it did not charge.  His actions were not that different from that of the Clinton campaign, its lawyer and Fusion GPS and Steele.  But they did not charge him for his actions, but for lying about them.  It shows a double standard by Mueller when it comes to the act...

NY Times: The Dangerous Myth of the Judicial ‘Resistance’ Denouncing judges who rule against the president is an attack on the independence and integrity of the entire judiciary. How many Middle Eastern refugees choose to live in Hawaii?  It had to be somewhere between zero and a handful, yet Democrats choose a federal judge who was a friend of Obama in a remote state in where appeals went to the Ninth Circuit a notorious liberal outlier when it comes to judicial opinions.  It is the most overturned circuit court in the US.  To people in states that actually receive the bulk of the refugees, it looks like a liberal plot to hurt the economies and endanger the citizens of more conservative areas.  That is why liberals now argue "judicial independence" when there is an objection to this obscene abuse of the court system.   The same can be said for refugees who are moving into Nancy Pelosi's district in San Francisco. The fact is that most refugee...

Rowan Scarborough: Former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos was trying to do what the Democratic-financed dossier writer also wanted: Dirt on the other candidate. And they both worked out of London and looked east, to Moscow. Mr. Papadopoulos , 30, an unpaid low-level adviser, was in contact with a Kremlin-connected professor in March-April 2016 who promised dirt on then-candidate Hillary Clinton, according to a filing by Special Counsel Robert Mueller released Monday. That same year, the Democratic Party and the Clinton campaign financed British ex-spy Christopher Steele . He used the money to buy dirt from Kremlin sources on then-candidate Donald Trump and his aides Mr. Steele produced a 35-page unverified dossier filled with charges of lawbreaking and collusion against Mr. Trump and his people. Some of his charges made their way into the election debate via the Clinton campaign and the news media. Since then, Mr. Steele ’s work has been cited by Democrats and liberal...

Mirror: North Korea nuclear disaster kills at least 200 after tunnel collapse at Kim Jong-un's base It's understood that 100 people were trapped in underground tunnels, and a further collapse occurred during the rescue operation, suggesting that a total of 200 people may have been killed These people are probably seen as collateral damage in their push to build weapons to kill millions.  Their only concern would be for losing some of their nuclear scientists.

Daily Wire: EXCLUSIVE: DNC Official Says She Doesn't Want To Recruit 'Cisgender Straight White Males' They don't want more individuals in the "majority" having jobs within the party ... White males who happen to be normal are they only group that it is apparently legal to discriminate against.   The DNC does accept contributions from them, but their kind is not welcome when it comes to jobs.

Marine Corps Times: Marines will soon have a Star Trek phaser-like new green laser that can reach out and “warn or visually suppress” opponents without firing a round. The Ocular Interrupter System is essentially a green light with a combined laser range finder that gauges shooter-to-target distance then adjusts the light to deter, but not blind, personnel, said Ryan Smith, team leader for force protection programs at Marine Corps Systems Command. It can be mounted on a the M16/M4 rail system or used separately with a pistol grip, Smith said. The Glare Recoil nonlethal Hail and Warning device was developed as a commercial off-the-shelf product by B.E. Meyers & Co., Inc., based in Redmond, Washington. It is a $49 million contract, according to the company’s website. Marine requirements wanted a system to operate up to 500 meters. Company spokeswoman Grace Strong said in an email that the gear, “provides immediate and recognizable visual warning quite a bit farther than the...

Bill Gertz: This October, the US government for the first time imposed economic sanctions on a Chinese company for providing vehicles for transfer North Korean road-mobile missiles. The Treasury Department’s little noticed October 13 announcement of sanctions on the Wuhan Sanjiang Import and Export Co. Ltd., focused on the company’s sale of equipment to Iran, however. It only mentions the launcher transfers in passing – a symptom of Washington’s aversion to calling out Beijing on its covert support for the regime in North Korea. ... From at least as early as 2014, Wuhan Sanjiang sold missile-related gyrocompasses, specialty sensors and other electronics to Iran’s military and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the shock troops used to support terrorist groups around the world. The Chinese equipment is likely incorporated in Iran’s Fajr and Zelzal short-range missiles that were transferred by Tehran to the Hezbollah terrorist group in Lebanon and have been fired against Israel o...

Medium: Fox News is reporting that a White House source has informed John Roberts (Fox News White House Correspondent) that the indictment against George Papadopoulos is based on emails provided to the special counsel by the White House / Trump campaign. This includes a series of emails where Papadopoulos urged the campaign to take a meeting with Russian government agents. These request for a meeting were ignored by senior campaign officials. Papadopoulos was brought in to branch out relations to Greece, NOT Russia. His role in the campaign was minor and the evidence provided to the special counsel, again came directly from the White House. This shows the White House has been cooperating fully with the special counsel and has nothing to hide. ... That is an interesting spin on the Trump campaign's association with Papadopoulos.  It also raises questions about what information Papadopoulos could have provided to Mueller during his cooperation efforts as part of a plea deal.

UPI: North Korean agents who attempted to assassinate Kim Han Sol were arrested in Beijing, according to a South Korean newspaper. The JoongAng Daily reported Monday Chinese authorities have detained a group of North Koreans connected to a plot to kill Kim following the assassination of Kim's father, Kim Jong Nam, at an airport in Malaysia. A source familiar with the matter told the JoongAng the members of "the North's reconnaissance squad had infiltrated [China] with the aim of eliminating Kim Han Sol, but some of them were arrested last week by Chinese national security, and are currently under investigation at special facilities outside Beijing." The agents, seven in total, were divided into "support, action and blocking" groups and had identified Kim's location in China and the routes Kim used to travel, according to the report. ... Kim Han Sol may represent a genuine threat to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. As the nephew of Kim Jong Un...

CBS News: ... Before launch, North Korea filed a Notice to Airmen and Mariners, warning them that debris may fall from the sky in a designated area. The South Koreans, in turn, knew exactly where to go in an attempt to recover the debris for intelligence purposes. To block the South Koreans from collecting their debris, the North Koreans rigged the rocket with explosives that were supposed to detonate after boosting the satellite into orbit, Griffiths says. The rocket was meant to self-destruct, rendering its parts unrecognizable. But that system failed, says Griffiths, leaving the South Koreans with a debris field to collect and analyze. "This was a gold mine," correspondent David Martin says. "You just get this in-depth, excruciatingly detailed understanding of how these missiles work." Investigators could also trace where the parts came from. Some parts had a manufacturer's logo and serial numbers on them, allowing investigators to trace the origin a...

Telegraph: North Korea has been conducting rare mass evacuation and black out drills throughout the country in preparation for war, it emerged this weekend. Multiple sources told NK News that the drills have taken place in secondary and tertiary cities and towns, particularly along the east coast, but not in the capital city, Pyongyang. The revelation comes during a time of heightening tensions between the hermit state and the US after a series of nuclear and missile tests, including an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of striking mainland America. The threat of nuclear missile attack by North Korea is accelerating, US Defence Secretary James Mattis said on Saturday during a trip to the South Korean capital, Seoul, to meet his counterpart, Defence Minister Song Young-moo. “North Korea has accelerated the threat that it poses to its neighbours and the world through its illegal and unnecessary missile and weapons programmes,” he said, adding that US-South Korea...

Reuters: Seven Palestinian militants were killed on Monday when Israel blew up what it said was a tunnel being dug underneath the Gaza Strip border. Hamas said Israel had made a “futile attempt to sabotage efforts to repair Palestinian unity”, a reference to the reconciliation agreement it reached with Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, earlier this month. However, neither Israel nor Hamas seemed eager to seek escalation. Israel was at pains to point out that its action against the tunnel was carried out on its own side of the border. “The IDF (Israel Defence Forces) does not intend to escalate the situation but stands prepared for a variety of scenarios,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesman. “The working assumption is that this is not the only tunnel that Palestinian terrorist organizations are trying to dig.” The tunnel was being dug from the Gaza town of Khan Younis across the border, where it was blown up, Con...

NY Times: Manafort Is Charged With Tax Fraud and Money Laundering Paul Manafort and his business partner, Rick Gates, both surrendered to federal authorities on Monday. They are the first to be charged in a special counsel investigation that has cast a shadow over President Trump’s first year in office. In answer to my question, I think that maybe the purpose of the indictments.  The case so far has nothing to do with the campaign or collusion with the Russians.  It relates to work he once did with some people in Ukraine.  Mueller has gathered around him people who have abused the prosecutorial process in the past and this may fit that pattern.

Kurt Schlichter: As Jeff Flake joins Bob Corker in America’s political gimp box, perhaps our betters in the Grand Old Party should reflect on how two of their own came to this sorry end. Well guys, there’s this thing called “loyalty,” and out in America we kind of expect it. You DC dwellers should investigate that concept in depth, not only in order to improve your characters – you guys love babbling about “character,” right? – but to save your useless hides from the electoral accounting that’s coming. Let me break it down in simple terms so you don’t have to go get one of your minions to explain the big words. Stop taking sides with the enemy against us or we are going to throw you out of your nice, comfy offices. Clear enough for you? Let’s understand what “loyalty” is and isn’t when it comes to our elected officials. Loyalty is not a requirement for slavish agreement or utter acquiescence – those who either don’t want to be loyal or wish to excuse it in their favored pols will...

Steve Forbes also writes about the regulatory deep state swamp creatures.

Edward Klein: The mainstream media’s effort to cast doubt on the existence of the Deep State has been dealt a stunning body blow by an FBI report on rogue elements within the permanent federal bureaucracy. After conducting 2,000 interviews, the FBI’s field offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Detroit, and New York compiled a 1,400-word report on the Deep State last summer for then-Director James Comey. The field report is being published for the first time in my new book All Out War: The Plot to Destroy Trump. “The Bureau has gotten actionable intelligence that there is, within the federal government, a growing and organized movement to block or interfere with administration policy decisions,” the report states. “There have been regular organized meetings of large numbers of government workers at a church in the Columbia Heights area of the District [of Columbia] where plans have been discussed to actively sabotage government programs they disagree with,” the report continues. “The...

Washington Post: After seeing the effects of flooding in Houston, residents of Sacramento wonder: Are we next? As Northern Californians recover from wildfires, officials in the state’s capital are struggling to prevent another type of natural disaster: flooding. Levee failure could submerge parts of the city under as much as 20 feet of water — a state of vulnerability that is surpassed among American cities only by New Orleans. They are starting to realize the drought was not permanent and their failure to maintain infrastructures such as dams and levees could be catastrophic.  The state is spending too much of its resources on welfare and indigent health care as well as a pension system that overpromised retirees.  It is also not doing a good job of maintaining its roads and bridges. I think Sacramento is an attractive city.  It would be a shame to see it harmed because the levees were not properly maintained.

This is an ad for a candidate for Secretary of State in Georgia who says he will keep the dead off the voting rolls.

NY Times: Democrats Attack Tax Bill as a ‘Middle-Class Con Job’ Democrats hope to turn back a Republican bill, painting it as a windfall for business and the rich, and instead work with President Trump on bipartisan legislation. Democrats are the party of government greed.  They like high taxes which they can then redistribute in vote buying schemes.  Business tax cuts lead to increased investment and increased growth in the economy which actually increases revenue to the treasury.  Democrat policies are keeping trillions in foreign banks because their policies would confiscate a significant portion of that money if brought back into this country for reinvestment.  The top 20 percent of earners in this country pay the bulk of the taxes.  If they were not having to pay those taxes they would be putting that money back into the economy by either investing it are buying stuff.  Buying stuff creates more jobs than government depende...

NY Times: Russia Wields Oil Diplomacy, Pushing In on U.S. Interests Moscow, forced by sanctions to find new spheres of investment, is building influence in places where the United States has stumbled. It has been pushing deeply into countries like Cuba, China, Egypt and Vietnam, and has made a flurry of risky loans to help Venezuela stave off debt default. Cuba and Venezuela are both failed communist/socialist states whose credit is less than stellar.  Russia's investments in Venezuela may wind up netting Moscow the ownership of assets based in the US such as Citgo which has refineries and some gas stations.  That should be a matter of concern because the likelihood of Venezuela being able to repay the loans is remote.  Cuba has been a deadbeat from the time the Castro's took over and began stealing other people's property. Egypt is a country that would like to be a US ally, but it keeps doing things that make that hard as the recent shipment of a...

Daily Mail: EXCLUSIVE: US left wing groups traveled to Germany for the G20 Summit last July to meet with Al qaeda and ISIS leaders and plot the destruction of President Trump, secret FBI investigation reveals Bestselling author Edward Klein is set to release his latest book, All Out War: The Plot to Destroy Trump, in which he reveals the FBI discovered collusion between US anarchists and terror groups. If true this should lead to charges of treason.

Washington Post: Case of suspected American ISIS fighter captured in Syria vexes U.S. The United States faces immediate legal challenges if the suspect, an American citizen who is refusing to talk and demanding a lawyer, is not released and is detained without trial. The issue threatens to reignite court battles fought during the George W. Bush administration. It looks like a prima facia case of treason.  It would then be up to the defendant to make his case that he had some other reason to be caught with the enemy.

NY Times: Sexual Misconduct in California Capitol Is Difficult to Escape Women in Sacramento complain of a culture of rampant harassment and of a system that does not seriously address their complaints. Liberal Democrats have a super majority in  California's legislature.  They also dominate Hollywood where Havey Weinstein and company also operate.  One of the other giveaways is that if this were Republicans it would be in the lead of most papers.

Boston Herald: When the news broke Friday evening that a federal grand jury has approved criminal charges in relation to the special counsel’s investigation into Russian election interference, the left wing media — especially CNN — frantically launched into wall-to-wall coverage of something that’s still under seal. With three guests in-studio and seven other talking heads, CNN, which was shockingly the first to break the story, began breathlessly pushing the narrative that this was the big moment they’d been waiting for. This, surely, was the pivotal moment that would lead to the end of Trump’s presidency. And though these anti-Trump media members went on and on — late into the night — speculating about who the target could be, and what charges they could face, it was all just wild speculation. But the fact that they were all so excited to speculate tells you everything you need to know about these outlets. For all they know, the person or people facing federal charges could v...

Washington Times: When then- FBI Director James B. Comey explained to Congress last March the scope of his investigation into Donald Trump aides and Russia , his words would also fit the Hillary Clinton campaign today. Mr. Comey told the House Intelligence Committed that his agents were investigating “whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia ’s efforts.” That definition — “coordination” — would seem to make the Democrats ripe for special counsel Robert Mueller to investigate, ex- Trump aides say. What is known now that was not known in March: The Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee paid for an opposition research operation against candidate Trump that relied almost exclusively on paid Kremlin sources and Russian spies during the 2016 election. The Russians plied ex-British spy Christopher Steele with what Trump people term lies and fiction that became part of a dossier. The dossier or its contents were spread around Washington by Mr...

AP: Islamic State militants, routed from one urban stronghold after another in Syria, have recently been moving deeper into Syria’s remote desert, where experts say they are regrouping and preparing their next incarnation. The Sunni militants’ self-proclaimed “caliphate” with its contiguous stretch of land — linking major cities such as Syria’s Raqqa and Iraq’s Mosul — may have been vanquished, but many agree this territorial defeat will not mark the end of IS. Beyond the urban and inhabited areas lies the vast Syrian Desert, also known as Badiyat al-Sham, famous for its caves and rugged mountains. It encompasses about 500,000 square kilometers (200,000 square miles) across parts of southeastern Syria, northeastern Jordan, northern Saudi Arabia, and western Iraq. The desolate landscape is a perfect hideout and a second home for many IS militants from the days before the birth of their caliphate. Experts estimate that hundreds of thousands of troops would be needed to mount sear...

NY Times Editorial: Will Weinstein’s Fall Finally Reform Men? It feels as if the American workplace may be changing, at last. Here’s how to make sure it does. This is an offensive headline that seeks to denigrate half the population because of their gender.  Before retiring I worked as General Counsel for two different companies and saw no conduct by men that was in anyway comparable to that alleged about Weinstein, and if it had occurred it would not have been tolerated.  Specific policies were put in place to reinforce what conduct would not be tolerated. There may be workplaces where such conduct may have been tolerated, but I suspect they are a small minority of US businesses.  Would the NY Times tolerate such conduct by its employees?  I doubt it.  So why does it think men need reforming rather than the few who engage in such conduct? The notion that all men were sexual predators used to be restricted to a few kook professors at left-wing un...

Federalist: Obama’s Campaign Paid $972,000 To Law Firm That Secretly Paid Fusion GPS In 2016 Since April of 2016, Obama's campaign organization has paid nearly a million dollars to the law firm that funneled money to Fusion GPS to compile a dossier of unverified allegations against Donald Trump. Caleb Howe has more on the ties of Democrats and the dirty dossier. ... You’ll recognize the name Perkins Coie as that of the law firm where Marc Elias works. Elias, who sat next to John Podesta as he testified (questionably) before the Senate committee. The testimoney where Podesta claimed to have no knowledge of any relationship with Fusion GPS. Marc Elias, seated beside him, was literally the person giving Fusion the money. On behalf of the DNC and the Clinton campaign. You guys. Oh, and want to know something else about Elias? From Davis: FEC records as well as federal court records show that Marc Elias, the Perkins Coie lawyer whom the Washington Post reported was r...

Daily Caller: CNN’s reporting on the Trump-Russia dossier has left out at least one crucial fact: the close ties between the network and the opposition research firm at the center of the dossier controversy. CNN’s reporting on the dossier, led by justice correspondent Evan Perez, has been favorable to the firm, Fusion GPS, and hyped the dossier’s credibility. Left out of Perez’s reporting, which has relied largely on unnamed sources, is his personal closeness to Fusion GPS’ operatives. Fusion has repeatedly been described in Senate testimonies as a smear-for-hire operation that manufactures misleading or false media narratives for its clients. Glenn Simpson, the Fusion co-founder most often associated with the dossier, is used to working on stories with Perez. As reporters at The Wall Street Journal, Perez and Simpson regularly co-authored stories on national security. Another Fusion founder, Tom Catan, worked as a reporter for the Journal at the same time as Perez and Simpson. The...

Popular Mechanics: Engineers and scientists in China have started up the first Chinese ship with a magnetohydrodynamic propulsion system. The system, which uses magnetic fields propel a ship through the water, promises to make quieter military submarines that are harder to detect. However, the technology is not new and has failed to catch on in the mainstream. The report in China's official military news site and mentioned by China Defense Blog , says that a ship with a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) propulsion system or "rim-driven pumpjet" drive was tested in southern China, on Hainan island. The ship, docked at the Chinese naval base at Sanya, was tested on October 18th and "then reached the designated speed." MHD propulsion systems work by using superconducting magnets to create strong magnetic fields. Generated by electric motors, these fields move seawater through an underwater shaft and past a metal rim, propelling the ship forward. MHD propulsion uses no ...

Fox News: The House Intelligence Committee said Saturday it has struck a deal to gain access to bank records from Fusion GPS, the firm behind the salacious anti-Trump dossier. The company had recently attempted to block the committee’s subpoena for its banking records. “The parties have reached an agreement related to the House Intelligence Committee's subpoena for Fusion GPS's bank records that will secure the Committee's access to the records necessary for its investigation,” the intelligence committee said in a statement released Saturday. Lawmakers for months have been trying to investigate the origin of the salacious anti-Trump dossier, which claimed the Russian government had compromising material on President Trump. It was provided to journalists and the FBI last year, when Trump was still a Republican candidate. Over the last week, it was revealed that Fusion GPS was retained last year by Marc E. Elias, an attorney representing the DNC and the Clinton campaign. Th...

NY Times: Kremlin Is Tied to Memo in ’16 Trump Tower Meeting The Russian lawyer at a June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower has denied acting on behalf of the Kremlin, but records suggest coordination. The lawyer also worked with Fusion GPS in the Russian attempt to roll back the Magnitsky  Act.  That is a crucial link to the company that was used by the Russians and the Democrats to attack Trump. It is more evidence that the Russians were trying to wound both sides and make them weaker as the President.  The Russians were clearly playing both sides, but the Trump team was apparently less gullible when it came to their "opposition research." Russia and Fusian both fooled not only the Democrats and Clinton but apparently the FBI and CIA.

NY Times: Allies Weigh Nuclear Options as North Korea Threat Looms As the North races to build a weapon that could threaten American cities, Japan and South Korea are debating whether they need their own nuclear arsenals. Some worry the United States might hesitate to defend the countries if doing so could provoke a missile launched from the North at Los Angeles or Washington. It will be difficult to keep Japan and South Korea who are both stronger technology wise than North Korea from building their own nuclear weapons if North Korea is not neutralized and denuclearized.  Both have significantly stronger economies.  They both have companies that are stronger financially than North Korea.  This reality gives China more incentive to do something to tame North Korea's nuclear ambition.  I feel certain China is aware of that possibility.  That is probably one of the reasons they have backed the sanction regime so far.  They may have to do more. ...

Washington Post: Most Americans say divisions under Trump as bad as during Vietnam, poll shows The nation’s politics have reached a dangerous low point, 7 in 10 Americans say in a new Washington Post-University of Maryland Poll, which found widespread distrust of political leaders and their ability to compromise, and an erosion of pride in the way democracy works in America. The problem is the Democrats.  They have been pushing a false narrative to explain their defeat and to avoid coming together as a nation after the election.  Their conduct has been reprehensible.  They are angry at Trump for winning and angry at him for not accepting their false narrative.

New York Times: What to Know About the Dossier of Trump Research and Who Paid for It The dossier has gained notoriety for its salacious, unproven claims about President Trump. Its research was funded by an unnamed Republican and then partly by Hillary Clinton’s campaign. This headline and lead is grossly misleading.   The dossier was wholly funded by Democrats and was not even a part of the assignment by the Washington Free Beacon .  The money for the dossier came from the Clinton campaign and the DNC and was done through the campaign lawyer in what looks like an attempt to hide their participation from the FEC.  The Times should correct the story.

NY Times: A Sick 10-Year-Old Moves to Center of Immigration Debate The case of a girl with cerebral palsy, who was brought illegally to Texas so she could get medical care, goes to the heart of the immigration debate. Where is the limiting principle when it comes to questions like this about illegal immigration?  What if a million sick people show up and demand treatment?   It is the same question that should be asked of the open borders advocates.  Would a billion illegals be OK with you?  How about 10 million?  Why are they never asked this question when they make their play for empathy for those breaking US immigration law?

NY Times Editorial: A Deadly Ambush’s Great Mystery: What Are We Doing in Niger? So many questions, left unanswered, lead to a fundamental one on the mission of the troops in Africa. The question was asked and answered at Gen. Kelly's news briefing in response to the controversy over a condolence call to one of the widows of a Green Beret killed in Niger.  The mission was authorized by the Obama administration.  It is to help these governments fight a common enemy so that the US does not have to deploy thousands of troops to destroy an enemy that is trying to sponsor mass murder attacks against the US. This was clear to me when Obama authorized the mission and when the question was asked of Gen. Kelly.  Did the Times editorial board consult with their reporter at the news conference?  Did they report the Obama authorization?

Bloomberg: ... Democrats were indignant when it turned out that Donald Trump Jr., the candidate's son, was willing to accept damaging information about Clinton from a Russian source. No dirt was forthcoming in that case, though: Instead, a suburban Russian lawyer fighting for the interests of her client, sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act in the U.S., came to see Trump campaign officials to lobby against the law , not to share intelligence. In the Clinton case, Fusion GPS, the firm working on the Trump opposition research, paid Steele, a foreigner, with the campaign's money. The U.K., of course, is a U.S. ally; Russia is an adversary. But the information Steele produced came mainly from Russian sources. Unlike lawyer Natalya Veselnitskaya, who once did legal work for the FSB domestic intelligence in a minor property dispute, these sources were really well-connected, if Steele is to be believed. They included, according to the version of his dossier published by Buzzfee...

Fuel Fix: Exxon Mobil and Chevron on Friday reported surging third-quarter profits and plans for accelerated growth in prolific West Texas oil fields as crude prices stabilize and drillers recover from a downturn that wiped out thousands of jobs. In the Permian Basin, the center of the U.S. oil industry's lopsided recovery, Exxon plans to increase its fleet of drilling rigs from 20 to 30 by the end of next year and begin drilling horizontal wells that run sideways for three miles, in an effort to boost the amount of oil and gas it pumps by 20 percent by 2025. RELATED: Conoco swings to profit Meanwhile, Chevron's multibillion-dollar push into the Permian has lifted oil production there by 30 percent over the past year, recently put its 15th rig to work in the field and expects its returns to double its investments over the life of its wells there. "It's a very good use of your money," Chevron Chairman and CEO John Watson told investors. That the two largest U.S. ...

Telegraph: ... One document describes a person who sent a letter to Johnson in December 1963 stating "you're doomed." The document says: "Interviewed 1/23/64; friendly. Said letter was a joke. Not dangerous. Attending 5th grade." ... Why did it take 50 years to release this tidbit?

This is actually pretty funny.

Kimberley Strassel: The confirmation this week that Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee paid an opposition-research firm for a “dossier” on Donald Trump is bombshell news. More bombshells are to come. The Fusion GPS saga isn’t over. The Clinton-DNC funding is but a first glimpse into the shady election doings concealed within that oppo-research firm’s walls. We now know where Fusion got some of its cash, but the next question is how the firm used it. With whom did it work beyond former British spy Christopher Steele ? Whom did it pay? Who else was paying it? The answers are in Fusion’s bank records. Fusion has doggedly refused to divulge the names of its clients for months now, despite extraordinary pressure. So why did the firm suddenly insist that middleman law firm Perkins Coie release Fusion from confidentiality agreements, and spill the beans on who hired it? Because there’s something Fusion cares about keeping secret even more than the Clinton...

Paul Bedard: OMB: Top 20% pay 95% of taxes, middle class 'single digits' They are talking about income taxes which are in play for tax cuts. 

Washington Post: Trump to shrink Bears Ears National Monument, a sacred tribal site in Utah The 1.3 million-acre protected site, which contains tens of thousands of cultural artifacts, is prized by many tribal leaders but opposed by several state and federal Republican officials. Native American tribal groups said they weren't surprised by the move: “We generally expected the president to make the wrong decision.” It is funny how liberals see some real estate as sacred but reject the ability of Christians to object to participating in a gay wedding by baking cakes and providing flowers.   They are OK with Muslim real estate worship in Jerusalem too but Christian religious beliefs are deemed to be prejudicial and bigoted.  I don't think they understand or appreciate what freedom of religion means.

Fox News: ... Victoria Toensing, the attorney representing the FBI informant, said there's "on-the-record quid pro quo" surrounding the deal, with Bill Clinton receiving a $500,000 speaking fee from a Russian bank and the Clinton Foundation getting tens of millions of dollars from people interested in the Uranium One deal. "My client can put some meat on those bones and tell you what the Russians were saying during that time," Toensing said. Bill Hemmer said this all sounds "nefarious," but he asked if any of this is actually illegal. "To pay bribes and kickbacks? Yes! It certainly is," Toensing said. "The other thing that's against the law is the quid pro quo of whether the Clintons benefited - and we know that they did. And that would be up for a jury to look at it and say, 'Well, was there evil intent?'" She said these accusations are similar to the corruption and bribery charges that Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N...

Quartz: Even as some people would like to see a rebirth of the coal industry in the US, it’s renewable energy that keeps generating good news. Over the next decade, jobs for solar panel installers and wind turbine technicians will grow twice as fast as any other occupation, according to a Bloomberg analysis of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics’s biennial employment projections released yesterday. ... Renewable produce the least amount of energy per worker.  They currently employ more people than the fossil fuel business yet produce between 5 and 10 percent of the energy and at a greater cost, with less reliability or the ability to scale to meet demand.  To taught their job creation potential is like digging a canal with spoons rather than more efficient tools.

Washington Post: U.S. economy grew at 3 percent rate in third quarter despite impacts from hurricanes, a win for Trump Economists call such growth in the third quarter a healthy rate, especially after damage from Hurricane Harvey affected oil refineries. When the Trump administration presented a budget which projected growth of 3 percent, Democrats argued that it was unrealistic because it barely grew at 1 percent under President Obama.  The Trump deregulation effort and the promise of tax cuts has put people back to work and gotten many businesses more profitable.

Washington Post: ‘I don’t want to sit on your lap,’ she thought. But, she alleges, Mark Halperin insisted. The Post spoke with nine women who said they were aware of or had directly experienced unwanted contact by the political analyst over a period dating back to the mid-1990s. Halperin is the most high-profile media figure in Washington to be accused recently of harassment. In all my years of working in an office the thought of having someone sit on my lap never crossed my mind.   I did see occasional episodes of what I would call innocent flirting which appeared to be a two-way thing. Sometimes people would exchange "dirty" jokes, but they seem to be careful about doing it with someone who might take offense.  Even that took place less often after we wrote guidelines for avoiding sexual harassments. As General Counsel, I would review those guidelines and make sure anyone who felt harassed knew who they should contact about it so it could be dealt with....

NY Times: CREDIT How the Epidemic of Drug Overdose Deaths Rippled Across America Drug deaths have surged in nearly every U.S. county.  Notice the blue in the center of the country.  While it appears that the drug infestation is continuing to encroach on it, the majority of the deep red is in areas were the economy has been weakest.  It appears to be tied to the loss of jobs and a way of life as a result of globalization policies where especially blue states failed to deal with a changing economy.  Drugs used to be concentrated in urban poor areas, but they have expanded into rural poor areas now too. It is not an exclusive problem though.  Energy companies are constantly testing employees in the oil patch for drug addiction and unfortunately are finding it.  For some, the stress of working long hours may be as difficult as the stress of not having work. Drugs are a form of escapism that are especially prevalent for tho...

Washington Examiner: ... “Democrats are scrambling, forming a circular firing squad. The DNC knows nothing and blames the Clinton camp. The Clinton camp blames the DNC,” Blakeman said. A source familiar with the congressional investigation into the dossier said the revelation that Clinton and the DNC funded the research behind it could dramatically shift the direction of the Russia story. “This absolutely changes the narrative,” the source told the Washington Examiner. That source said the next step in the investigation is a crucial one: determining whether the FBI or the Justice Department ever used parts of the dossier to justify investigations into the Trump campaign, or ever used claims in the dossier to obtain wiretaps on Trump’s associates. The House Intelligence Committee had issued subpoenas for documents from both the FBI and the Justice Department, but both requests had stalled until this week, the source said, describing the agencies’ agreement to hand over record...