Day: June 11, 2018

BREAKING: White House Economic Advisor Larry Kudlow Suffers Heart Attack

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Trump, Kudlow

Moments before meeting with North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un, President Donald Trump tweeted Monday night that his Economic Advisor Larry Kudlow – known to many as an economic and financial expert from his years on CNBC – suffered a heart attack and was currently receiving care at Walter Reed Medical Center. Our Great Larry Kudlow, who has been working so hard on trade and the economy, has just suffered a heart attack. He is now in Walter Reed Medical Center. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 12, 2018 Robert Costa, a close fried of the Costa tweeted that Kudlow was rushed to the hospital by friends. Friends of Kudlow are now rushing to the hospital, trying to reach his wife, Judy. Top WH economic adviser's exact health status is unknown. WH has not provided another update, for the moment. Will update. — Robert Costa (@costareports) June 12, 2018 Kudlow’s wife, Judy, made a rare statement to the Washington Post about her husband’s status, saying, “He’s doing fine. Doctors here are fabulous.” NEWS: Judy Kudlow to WashPost tonight. Note: she always wants to avoid being in public spotlight, but understands there is misinformation out there. "He's doing fine. Doctors here…

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President Trump Feeling ‘Very Good’ About Upcoming Summit with Kim

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New Sanctions on North Korea

by Steve Herman   President Donald Trump is in Singapore for his upcoming summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, a meeting the U.S leader says he is feeling “very good” about. After stepping down from Air Force One Sunday, Trump was greeted by Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan. Asked by reporters on the tarmac who shouted, “is the summit going to be a success?” and “how are you feeling?” Trump replied: “very good.” Ahead of his arrival, Trump acknowledged he is heading into “unknown territory” for the meeting Tuesday. WATCH: William Gallo’s video report from Singapore In response to a question from VOA News just before heading to Asia from the Group of Seven summit in Canada, Trump said “I really feel confident” about the unprecedented encounter between a sitting American president and a member of the family dynasty that has maintained iron-fist control over one of the world’s most reclusive countries for three generations. Trump added that he believed Kim, half the age of the American president, “wants to do something great for his people.” But he cautioned that Kim “won’t have that opportunity again” if the talks do not go well — describing this opportunity for…

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Supremes Poised For Blockbuster Finish As Current Term Nears Conclusion

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Supreme Court Justices

by Kevin Daley   As the U.S. Supreme Court approaches the conclusion of its 2017 – 2018 term, the justices are expected to release a deluge of decisions in the coming weeks, including marquee opinions addressing mandatory union dues, partisan gerrymandering, and President Donald Trump’s travel ban. As of this writing, there are 25 decisions outstanding. Among the remaining cases is one of the first argued this term, a partisan gerrymandering dispute arising from Wisconsin called Gill v. Whitford. It’s Maryland counterpart, Benisek v. Lamone, is also pending. Both cases ask the justices to declare politically-motivated line-drawing during the 10-year redistricting process unconstitutional. Gill involves a challenge to the entirety of Wisconsin’s state legislative district map, arguing it violates the Constitution’s First Amendment and its equal protection guarantees. The Benisek plaintiffs are challenging the boundaries of a single congressional district and make a slightly different First Amendment argument. The justices heard the Gill case in October and Benisek in March. During the Benisek argument, Justice Stephen Breyer suggested the Court package three pending partisan gerrymandering cases together and set them for re-argument next term. The request has lead some observers to speculate that the tribunal is deeply divided as to the resolution…

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Kudlow: Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau Betrayed Us, ‘Stabbed Us In The Back’

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Larry Kudlow

by Robert Donachie   White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said Sunday that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “stabbed” the U.S. “in the back” when he announced his nation will impose retaliatory tariffs against America. President Donald Trump, Trudeau and other leaders of the G7 nations — Britain, Canada, Japan, Italy and Germany –met for a two-day summit over the weekend to discuss the possibility of ending a potential trade war. “We had long night sessions. He (the president) was a participant. Not only did we play, we were in the communique. Team players, really, really, team players here to help the Western alliance and then Trudeau throws him under the bus with very harsh language,” Kudlow told Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union.”  “Jake, it was a betrayal. It was a kip diplomatic betrayal. That is not good, and we were close to negotiating a trade deal with Mr. Trudeau,” Kudlow said. Trudeau announced in a post-summit press conference that Canada is considering imposing tariffs against the U.S. if America does not back away from tariffs on steel and aluminum. “The United States has moved forward with significant tariffs on our steel and aluminum industry,” Trudeau said. “I highlighted that it was not helping in our renegotiation of…

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Commentary: Congress Must Exercise Its Article I Power, Or It Will Be Deemed Irrelevant

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Capitol building

by Printus LeBlanc   When the framers created the government, it was split into three coequal branches; the Congressional, Executive, and Judicial branches. Articles I through III describe the duties, responsibilities, and powers assigned to each branch of the government. However, one of those branches seems to be the redheaded stepchild of the government lately. If you’ve been paying attention to the news over the last several years, you know the House of Representatives, and more recently the Senate, have been engaged in a fierce battle with executive branch agencies over documents about congressional investigations. The agencies routinely ignore requests from Congress or flat out lie when questioned under oath. Unfortunately, this is nothing new. In 2013, the IRS admitted it was guilty of targeting conservative groups when it apologized for the act. Members of Congress were furious and immediately launched investigations. The IRS employee at the center of the targeting scandal, Lois Lerner, pled the Fifth Amendment right to non-incrimination when called before committees. The committees were left with no alternative but to subpoena documents. In a pattern that has become all too familiar, the requested documents were destroyed after the subpoenas were issued. The IRS said the emails were…

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Got ‘Scam?’ – Dairy Farmers Are Getting Milked By The USDA’s Checkoff Program

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Dairy Cow

by Andrew Kerr    – Dairy farmers are forced to pay a tax that funds nonprofits dedicated to boosting dairy sales  – One dairy farmer says the nonprofits are doing a “pretty piss poor job”  – The nonprofit that takes the most pays its top executives salaries so lavish they may violate IRS rules Pennsylvania dairy farmer Brenda Cochran has weathered over $600,000 in losses to her mid-sized farm from a nearly 40 percent drop in milk prices since 2014. Further compounding Cochran’s financial strain is her forced participation in the Department of Agriculture’s dairy checkoff program, which siphons up to $4,000 from her bottom line each year to fund a network of nonprofit organizations tasked with promoting the dairy industry through advertisements and the development of new products. The organizations that receive her federally-mandated checkoff payments told Cochran that the program has had a “huge impact” on boosting dairy sales, primarily through the creation of new products for major fast food chains. But Cochran isn’t buying it. She says the organizations she’s forced to fund are doing a “pretty piss poor job” doing anything to support struggling dairy farmers. The nonprofit that receives the largest share of dairy checkoff dollars has used the funds to…

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Top Clinton Ally: Matt Drudge Is ‘Evil Incarnate’

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Neera Taden

by Peter Hasson   Influential news aggregator Matt Drudge is the embodiment of evil itself, according to the head of a top liberal think tank. Center for America Progress President Neera Tanden, a close ally of failed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, leveled the accusation while appearing on a National Review podcast, The Jamie Weinstein Show. “Evil incarnate,” Tanden said when asked her opinion of Drudge, who runs the eponymous Drudge Report. Drudge was the first to report in 1998 on former President Bill Clinton’s affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Tanden also described former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon as “smart but evil.” Tanden’s organization has had its own sexual misconduct issues, BuzzFeed reported in April. Tanden later shocked Center for America Progress employees when she outed a sexual harassment victim in an all-staff meeting, according to another BuzzFeed report. Tanden, who advised Hillary Clinton during her failed 2016 presidential campaign, was slated to be secretary of Health and Human Services if Clinton had won the election. – – – Peter Hasson is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation. Follow Hasson on Twitter @PeterJHasson.                       Content created by The Daily Caller News…

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Unthinkable: Democratic Congressman Backs Trump in Trade Dispute with Canada’s Trudeau

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Raja Krishnamoorthi

by Henry Rodgers   Illinois Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi joined President Donald Trump and White House advisers in blasting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for feuding with Trump during the G7 summit, in a statement released Sunday. “While I have serious concerns about President Trump’s approach to trade talks with Canada, Prime Minister Trudeau has placed our trade relationship with Canada at risk by publicly feuding with President Trump on the world stage,” Krishnamoorthi said in a statement posted on his website. The Democratic congressman said Trudeau is “sabotaging” world leaders to fight instead of getting things accomplished. Krishnamoorthi’s comments come as Trudeau criticized Trump after he left the G7 summit, saying that Canada would retaliate if the U.S. does not remove the recently implemented tariffs. Trudeau trashed Trump’s decision to place tariffs on steel and aluminum from U.S. allies, calling it “insulting.” “Prime Minister Trudeau is sabotaging that cause by driving both sides into their corners instead of encouraging a more diplomatic dialogue. Prime Minister Trudeau may reap some political benefit through feuding with President Trump, but by engaging with the President on the terms he has so far, instead of on mutually productive ones, he is imperiling the economic well-being of millions of Canadians and Americans,” Krishnamoorthi’s…

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An Interview With Tucker Carlson on What Makes Trump a ‘Political Genius’

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Tucker Carlson, Rob Bluey

by Rob Bluey   Tucker Carlson, host of the popular Fox News show “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” spoke to Daily Signal Editor-in-Chief Rob Bluey at The Heritage Foundation’s 41st annual Resource Bank meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Carlson received the prestigious Salvatori Prize, recognizing his work to uphold and advance the principles of America’s founding. The full video, plus an edited transcript of the interview, is below.   Rob Bluey: It is a true honor to celebrate the work that you’ve done, and I want to begin with the advice that you left this audience on how conservatives can take back the culture. You had two pieces of advice. Tell us about them. Tucker Carlson: Well, have more children. I grew up in a world where it was considered embarrassing to have more than two children. I don’t think that’s the case now among middle-class, upper middle-class people, but it was. [ The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution. Find out more ] First of all, it’s the most rewarding, greatest, most fun thing you can do. But it’s also the most profound thing. If you don’t like the direction of the country,…

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UK’s Theresa May Orders Retreat to Sort Out Brexit Details

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Theresa May

Reuters   Prime Minister Theresa May will gather together squabbling British ministers gather country residence after this month’s European Union summit to settle on details of a much-anticipated Brexit policy paper. May has yet to agree on some of the fundamental details of what type of trading relationship she wants to have with the European Union after Britain leaves next March. As a result, talks with the EU have all but ground to ahalt, raising fears among businesses and in Brussels that Britain could end up crashing out of the bloc without an agreed-upon deal. “There’s going to be a lot happening over the next few weeks. You know, people want us to get on with it, and that’s exactly what we’re doing,” May told reporters on her way to a G-7 summit in Canada. May will look to the June 28-29 EU summit as a chance to pin down some of the most troublesome details of Britain’s exit agreement and pave the way for more intensive talks on the all-important future economic partnership between the world’s fifth-largest economy and the world’s biggest trading bloc. But senior ministers are still at odds about what type of post-Brexit customs arrangement will be…

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Commentary: The Absurdity of Keynesian Economics

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John Maynard Keynes

by Roger W. Garrison   The economics of John Maynard Keynes as taught to university sophomores for the last several decades is now nearly defunct in theory but not in practice. Keynes’s 1936 book, The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, portrayed the market as fundamentally unstable and touted government as the stabilizer. The stability that allegedly lay beyond the market’s reach was to be supplied by the federal government’s macroeconomic policymakers—the president (with guidance from his Council of Economic Advisers), the Congress, and the Federal Reserve. The acceptance in the economics profession of fundamentalist Keynesianism peaked in the 1960s. In recent decades, enthusiasm for Keynes has waxed and waned as proponents have tried to get new ideas from the General Theory or to read their own ideas into it. And although the federal government has long since become a net supplier of macroeconomic instability, the institutions and policy tools that were fashioned to conform to the Keynesian vision have become an integral part of our economic and political environment. A national income accounting system, devised with an eye to Keynesian theory, allowed statisticians to chart the changes in the macroeconomy. Dealing in terms of an economy-wide total, or aggregate, policy…

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Phil Bredesen and Tyson Foods Helped Shelbyville Become an Employment Magnet For Somali Refugees

Chris Alto
Phil Bredesen

From the inception of the federal Refugee Admissions Program in 1980 until 2003, the first year of Phil Bredesen’s first term as governor of Tennessee, only a handful of Somali refugees were resettled in Tennessee by the federal government. That all changed in 2003. Between 2003 and 2011, Bredesen’s last year as governor, 1,866 Somali refugees were resettled in Tennessee by federal resettlement contractors. During that same time period over 9,000 refugees of multiple ethnicities were brought to Tennessee by federal contractors. The numbers do not, however, account for secondary migrants who are first resettled in other states or other parts of Tennessee but then relocate to follow friends, relatives or jobs and join the growing ethnic enclaves in a different location. “[T]he simple action of offering hundreds of job openings at the local chicken processing plant” according to former Shelbyville Times-Gazette reporter Brian Mosely, explains in part, what drew Somali refugees to his hometown. Increasing the supply of Somalis and other refugee workers was facilitated by then governor Phil Bredesen’s treatment of Tennessee’s refugee resettlement program. In 2007, Mosely wrote a five-part, award-winning series about the arrival of Somalis to Shelbyville.  One of the stories connecting Somalis to the town’s Tyson Foods plant…

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