Day: June 26, 2018

Another Wave of Spin-Offs Leaves General Electric Vastly Changed

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General Electric Company

General Electric Company is shrinking again, becoming a mere shadow of the globe-spanning conglomerate that it was before the Great Recession. GE said Tuesday that it will spin off its health-care business and sell its interest in Baker Hughes, which provides drilling services to oil and gas companies. The moves were announced as GE disappeared from the Dow Jones industrial average for the first time since 1907. They underscored how radically the company has changed in less than a decade. GE traces its roots to Thomas Edison and the invention of the light bulb. The company grew with the American economy. At the start of the global financial crisis in 2008, it was one of the nation’s biggest lenders, its appliances were sold by the millions to homeowners around the world, and it oversaw a multinational media powerhouse including NBC television. Since then, the company has been selling assets, with the latest divestitures coming after a yearlong review by CEO John Flannery. “Today marks an important milestone in GE’s history,” Flannery said. He vowed to give the company more of a high-tech and industrial focus, and to make GE simpler and stronger by focusing on aviation, power and renewable energy…

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Open Borders Socialist Ousts High-Ranking Democrat Congressman in Shocking New York Primary

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Ocasio

by Julia Cohen   Incumbent New York Democratic Rep. Joseph Crowley, the fourth most powerful Democrat in the House, lost to his democratic socialist challenger Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the New York primary on Tuesday, according to the New York Times. Rep. Crowley lost with 42.4 percent of the vote to Ocasio-Cortez’s 57.6 percent of the vote, according to a Tuesday New York Times report. Ocasio-Cortez, who is 28 years old, ran on a progressive platform of Medicare for all, a federal jobs guarantee, and abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to her campaign site. Cortez is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and she praised the DSA on her Twitter page, tweeting that she is “so honored to have their endorsement” in a June 4 tweet.   – – – Follow Julia Cohen on Facebook and Twitter.                   Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].

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Supreme Court Upholds Trump’s Travel Ban

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Donald Trump

by Masood Farivar   The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday narrowly upheld the Trump administration’s travel restrictions on citizens of five Muslim-majority countries, handing President Donald Trump a victory in enforcing one of his most controversial policies. In a 5-4 decision, the court ruled that the president has the authority under U.S. immigration laws to limit travel from foreign countries on national security grounds, as the Trump administration has argued. The president “has lawfully exercised the broad discretion granted to him under (Immigration and Nationality Act) to suspend the entry of aliens into the United States,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote, delivering the majority opinion. The president has “undoubtedly fulfilled” the requirement under the law that the entry of the targeted aliens “would be detrimental to the interests of the United States,” Roberts wrote. Roberts wrote that the plaintiffs in the case — the state of Hawaii, the Muslim Association of Hawaii and three residents of the state — failed to demonstrate that the travel order “violates” the establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution, which bars favoring one religion over another. The court’s four liberal justices dissented. Under the so-called “travel ban,” issued in September after two earlier orders were…

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Marsha Blackburn Hails SCOTUS Decision Declaring Trump Travel Ban Constitutional, While Leftist Supported Phil Bredesen Appears to Duck Issue

John Bryant

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-07), the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate seat held by retiring Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), was quick to weigh in on today’s Supreme Court ruling in favor of President Trump’s travel ban on residents of foreign countries that fail to meet security screening standards challenged in court by Hawaii. #SCOTUS decision is a victory against the Left’s open borders agenda and liberal activist judges. We must be able to vet individuals coming into our country so we can keep Tennesseans and America safe! https://t.co/QlzGmc8LEr — Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) June 26, 2018 As usual, via his social media feed, Democrat Phil Bredesen is doing his best to duck the issue, one critical to many Trump-supporting Tennesseans by saying nothing at all. Were he to do that, he would risk the ire of Progressive Democrats now openly supporting his campaign against Blackburn. One far left activist, former Barack Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau, called out to his fellow travelers in Tennessee to “stop Trump from packing SCOTUS with more Trumpists is to win the Senate,” with candidates like the Democratic candidate, former Nashville Mayor Phil Bredesen, in a tweet this morning: https://twitter.com/jonfavs/status/1011619505187852288 More on today’s ruling here: In…

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Poll in Williamson County State House District 61 Shows Brandon Ogles and Bill Lee Leading in Their Primary Races

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Bill Lee, Brandon Ogles

A new poll conducted among likely GOP voters in the Nashville suburbs of Brentwood and Franklin by Triton Polling shows good news for State House candidate Brandon Ogles and Gubernatorial candidate Bill Lee, along with some warning signs for Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn in her bid for the U.S. Senate. The survey of 361 likely Republican Primary voters was conducted June 18-22, 2018 and has a margin or error of 5.1%. In the GOP primary race for Governor, the poll showed Williamson County native Bill Lee leading the field with 32.4% of the vote, followed by Diane Black with 21.3%, Randy Boyd with 16.1%, Beth Harwell with 14.9% and 15.4% undecided. Other polling has indicated that Lee is seeing a recent surge in support in Middle Tennessee, where he, Black and Harwell all have a significant base of support. Many political observers believe that Lee’s gains come at the expense of Black, and may help Boyd in a statewide race due to his primary base of votes coming from East Tennessee, where he appears to have a significant lead over the other three candidates who all come from Middle Tennessee. In the House primary race to fill the vacancy created by…

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Rep. Dana Rohrbacher Endorses Judd Matheny in 6th Congressional District GOP Primary

Tennessee Star Staff
Dana Rohrbacher

NASHVILLE, TN–In an exclusive interview with The Tennessee Star on Monday, Rep. Dana Rohrbacher (R-CA), a leading member of the House Freedom Caucus and former aide to Ronald Reagan, explained why he is endorsing State Rep. Judd Matheny (R-Tullahoma) in the Republican primary in Tennessee’s 6th Congressional District. “Our country is in trouble. There is a fight going on in Washington right now that will determine whether or not America remains the great country that our Founding Fathers invested their fortunes and their lives and their blood in order to create,” Rohrbacher said. “Judd is a patroit. Judd is courageous. Judd knows how to get things done. He’s not just a philopsher, he’s not just some guy looking for prestige,” the former Reagan speechwriter added. “He’s looking to help save our country, and he’s got the courage to do it,” he continued. “This is not an easy job. I have been there and seen people come and go in Washington. Having met Judd, having discussed his principles–deep felt principles–that I know will carry him through the Swamp Land in the District of Columbia,” Rohrbacher noted. “I am very pleased to be here to support him, to join me, because I…

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Has a New Civil War Already Begun and What Side Is Phil Bredesen On?

John Bryant
Phil Bredesen

In a Glenn Reynolds (aka Instapundit) op-ed published at The Tennessean, the law professor and argues that said civil war is already underway: Is America headed toward a civil war? Sanders, Nielsen incidents show it has already begun Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Kirstjen Nielsen experiences at restaurants suggest a ‘soft’ civil war is well underway. It will get worse unless we learn to stop hating each other. The other day, author Tom Ricks asked whether we’re heading toward a civil war. “I don’t believe we’re to Kansas of the 1850s yet. But we seem to be lurching … in that direction,” he wrote. Ricks was commenting on “What Democratic rage would look like,” a Bloomberg opinion column that quotes political scientist Thomas Schaller as saying, “I think we’re at the beginning of a soft civil war. … I don’t know if the country gets out of it whole.” That sounds pretty serious. The column by Francis Wilkinson presents a catalog of things Democrats are mad about — from the existence of the electoral college to Trump’s “propaganda apparatus” — and predicts that if Democrats lose the midterm elections, there will be hell to pay. (And Republicans, you know, could make a…

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Democrats Split on Decorum of Confronting Off-Duty Trump Staffers

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Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters, Donald Trump

Opposition Democrats are divided on whether it is acceptable to confront officials with President Donald Trump’s administration while they are in restaurants and other venues. Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, who is the leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives, is disagreeing with another California delegation member who has called for supporters to take any opportunity to personally harass administration officials. “Trump’s daily lack of civility has provoked responses that are predictable but unacceptable,” Pelosi said on Twitter on Monday. “As we go forward, we must conduct elections in a way that achieves unity from sea to shining sea.” In the crucial months ahead, we must strive to make America beautiful again. Trump’s daily lack of civility has provoked responses that are predictable but unacceptable. As we go forward, we must conduct elections in a way that achieves unity from sea to shining sea. https://t.co/vlpqOBLK4R — Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) June 25, 2018 Her tweet included a link to a CNN story about Representative Maxine Waters encouraging harassment of Trump administration officials. Trump, on Monday afternoon, responded to Water’s remarks, saying on Twitter that the congresswoman — whom he referred to as an “extraordinarily low IQ person” — had called for…

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TDOT Commissioner Says Nashville Transit Plan Would Have Helped No One

Jason M. Reynolds
John Schroer

TDOT’s leader said Nashville’s transit plan failed at the ballot box because it “had no bearing on regional traffic” and would not help anyone, the Nashville Business Journal reports. John Schroer made the comments at a town hall meeting last week at Williamson Inc., the Williamson County Chamber of Commerce. He is commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Transportation. “It wasn’t going to help anybody, it was going down through the main corridors in Nashville,” the Journal said, quoting the Brentwood Home Page website. “Those were all state roads, and they had to get our approval … in order to do what they were going to do, but no one ever asked us about it.” Schroer referred to the $9 billion Nashville transit plan that failed in a May 1 referendum by a massive ratio of 64 percent against vs. 34 percent in favor. The Brentwood Home Page story quoted Schroer as saying Tennessee’s interstates are being used at only 20 percent of their capacity. “If you look at downtown Nashville, that’s not our issue. We do have traffic, we know we have traffic, but it can be better managed,” Schroer said. Technology and use of flexible work schedules can…

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Nashville Metro Council Asks Citizens to Critique Future Budgets

Jason M. Reynolds
Nashville Budget

Nashville residents soon will have a voice in Metro Council’s spending habits. Metro Council voted 34-4 to create a “Blue Ribbon Commission” like a popular one in Atlanta in which private citizens may critique the budget, Nashville Public Radio WPLN reports. The commission will form by October. Councilman Fabian Bedne said he doesn’t want to see the effort turn partisan as people do not always agree on spending. Councilman John Cooper suggested the commission. The commission’s recommendations will be just that — recommendations. “This is a statement from us as a council that we recognize … our budget process is somewhat broken. That we do need fresh eyes,” said Councilwoman Angie Henderson. WPLN also reports that Metro Council members, who were dissatisfied with the surprise budget shortfall, also voted to cut funding by $103,000 for the city’s Finance Department. Those funds will provide a finance expert to work directly for the council to help them handle the budget. Betsy Phillips of The Nashville Scene reports that move will help the council hold the Finance Department accountable — since the department answers to the mayor. Phillips compares the mayor’s office’s control of the complicated budget to The Labyrinth of Greek myth:…

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Democrat PAC Uses Fear Mongering and Deception to Malign Conservative Legislators, Praises Governor Haslam On Gas Tax Increase

Laura Baigert
billboard

LEBANON, Tennessee – A newly launched Political Action Committee (PAC) commissioned a billboard with a scandalous message attacking two conservative middle Tennessee lawmakers, former State Senator Mae Beavers (R-Mt. Juliet) and current State Senator Mark Pody (R-Lebanon), for their votes against Governor Haslam’s gas tax increasing IMPROVE Act. The IMPROVE Act – Improving Manufacturing, Public Roads and Opportunities for a Vibrant Economy – also dubbed “2017 Tax Cut Act,” passed the Tennessee General Assembly in April 2017. On the eve of the next installment of the IMPROVE Act’s additional $0.01 per gallon gas tax and $0.03 per gallon diesel tax increases set to go in effect on July 1, 2018, and nearing the highpoint of election season, the billboard appeared on the northbound side of Highway 109 in Wilson County. Beavers is running in a hotly contested race for Wilson County Mayor against eight-year incumbent Randall Hutto. Meanwhile Pody is seeking re-election to the District 17 State Senate seat encompassing Wilson County which was vacated by Beavers when she decided to run for Governor. Pody, a sitting State Representative at the time, narrowly won the seat against Democrat opponent Mary Alice Carfi in a special election held in late 2017…

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Commentary: Rep Jim Jordan Exposes Speaker Paul Ryan’s Dirty Little Secret on Amnesty Vote

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Jim Jordan, Paul Ryan

by CHQ Staff   Principled limited government constitutional conservative Representative Jim Jordan was on CBS News’ Face the Nation on Sunday morning and he exposed a dirty little secret that the establishment would like to hide from the 70+ percent of Americans who want the strict immigration enforcement that President Trump promised during the 2016 campaign. What Rep. Jordan said was this: “…if our leadership had put the same whip effort behind that immigration legislation, Chairman Goodlette’s legislation, it would have passed.” The legislation to which Jordan referred is H.R. 4760, the Securing America’s Future Act often referred to as “the Goodlatte bill.” The bill was introduced in January by Chairman Goodlatte, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas), House Judiciary Committee Immigration and Border Security Subcommittee Chairman Raúl Labrador (R-Idaho) to bolster enforcement of existing immigration law, makes important reforms to our legal immigration programs, secure the border, and provide a legislative solution for the current beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The Goodlatte bill was far from perfect, but it earned the support of many conservatives because it came the closest to covering all four pillars of President Trump’s immigration reform plan: building the Wall, ending chain…

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Supreme Court Lifts Ruling on Christian Florist Barronelle Stutzman, Who Refused to Decorate Same-Sex Wedding for Long-time Customers

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Barronelle Stutzman

Reuters   After siding with a baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday sent back to lower courts a similar dispute over a florist who declined to create flower arrangements for a same-sex wedding based on her Christian beliefs. The justices threw out a 2017 ruling by Washington state’s Supreme Court that Barronelle Stutzman, owner of Arlene’s Flowers in the city of Richland, about 200 miles (320 km) southeast of Seattle, had violated the state’s anti-discrimination law and a consumer protection measure. The court ordered the top Washington state court to revisit the case in light of its ruling on June 4 in favor of Colorado baker Jack Phillips, who similarly cited his Christian beliefs in refusing to make a wedding cake for a gay couple. Stutzman in 2013 refused to provide the arrangements to Robert Ingersoll and Curt Freed, who were getting married after the state legalized same-sex marriage the prior year. She was hit with a $1,000 fine and directed to make floral arrangements for same-sex weddings if she does so for opposite-sex weddings. In the baker case, the court ruled that a Colorado state commission had…

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Illegal Aliens Get In-State Tuition in Five States That Also Allow Them to Practice Law

Chris Alto
Sergio Garcia

California, New York, Florida, New Jersey and Connecticut all provide the in-state tuition benefit for illegal aliens in their states and all permit illegal aliens who graduate from law school, to apply for and obtain a license to practice law. Last week Connecticut became the fifth state to change its rules and license eligible illegal aliens to practice law. Prior to the rule change, Connecticut required lawyers to either be a U.S. citizen or “an alien lawfully residing in the United States.” The rule now includes anyone “authorized to work lawfully in the United States.” The rule change was proposed by Denia Perez, a grantee of Obama’s unconstitutional DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) administrative amnesty program. Illegal aliens trying to get a license to practice could potentially have an easy path in Tennessee, especially as explained below, if proponents of the in-state tuition bill are successful during the next legislative session. State Sen. Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga) and State Rep. Mark White (R-Memphis) who last session sponsored the bill for its fourth run, are likely to try again in 2019. Unlike Connecticut and California before they changed their rules, Tennessee’s rules about who is eligible to be granted a law…

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China Scrambles To Blunt The Force Of Trump’s Tariffs With Over $100 Billion Injection

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Xi Jinping

by Hannah Bogorowski   China’s central bank announced late Sunday that it is planning to unleash nearly 700 billion yuan ($107.5 billion) into the financial system by cutting the amount of cash some banks must hold as reserves by 50 basis points. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said on Sunday that the latest reduction in some banks’ reserve requirement ratios (RRRs), currently 16 percent for large banks and 14 percent for smaller banks, will take effect on July 5, according to CNBC. “This move will help support the real economy and stabilize financial markets. We’ve seen rising debt defaults and funding strains on small firms, as well as a sharp adjustment in the capital market,” Beijing’s chief economist at Zhongyuan Bank, Wang Jun said. Sunday’s announcement followed the worst weekly loss in the country’s stock market since February, as President Donald Trump’s threatening trade war looms over the country. China’s net exports were already lagging in growth for the first quarter, according to analysts at CNBC, emphasizing the need for strong and stabilized economy before the tariffs hit. This latest RRR cut will take effect a day before the awaited tariffs will be applied, as China and the United States are…

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Commentary: It Is Time to Fire the Swamp!

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The Swamp

By Natalia Castro   Americans were ignited to head to the polls when President Donald Trump traveled the country in 2016 promising to “drain the swamp,” but the only group that can truly do this is the swamp itself in Congress.  Civil service reform rarely gets the media attention that health care, immigration, or other issues receive; Washington D.C. politicians know that and use it to prevent real change from coming. To fix our broken bureaucracy, the American people must demand a more efficient and effective federal workforce. During the Obama administration, news broke of poor performing Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) employees placing veterans on extensive waiting lists, causing hundreds to die without receiving care. The story continued to turn heads when after two years several senior VA officials identified as causing the veteran deaths were still on the job. Americans rallied behind the news in support of our veterans and, as a result, Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fl.) led the passage of the VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act through Congress to increase management’s ability to remove poor performing employees. According to data retrieved from the Office of Personnel Management’s FedScope, the VA has maintained a firing rate of less than 1 percent…

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National Poll: Over Half Of Americans Happy With Economy Under Trump

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Donald Trump

by Michael Sandoval   A majority of Americans approve of the economy under President Trump despite controversial immigration policies, according to a CNBC poll released Monday. CNBC’s All-American Economic Survey found 51 percent approve of the economy, an increase of six points since March. Fifty-four percent of Americans rated the economy as either good or excellent, the highest CNBC has recorded in 10 years. While many of those surveyed disagreed with Trump’s strict immigration enforcement, it had little to no effect on holding positive views on the strong economy. Only 36 percent of the public were unsatisfied with the economy. The poll comes as Trump pushes for policies to keep jobs in America, contributing to the lowest unemployment rates in 20 years. In the past year, 223,000 jobs were created and the gap between black and white unemployment reached an all time low since the release of the numbers in the 1970s. Eight hundred people were surveyed between June 16-19, during Trump’s push for “zero-tolerance” policies toward illegal immigration. The margin of error for this survey was plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. – – – Michael Sandoval is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.               …

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Following Portland, San Diego, and New York, ICE Protesters Set Up Camp In Front Of LA Detention Center

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Anti-ICE camp

by Julia Cohen   A group who calls itself “L.A. Against I.C.E.” has set up a camp in front of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Los Angeles detention center, according to the group’s twitter account. https://twitter.com/LAagainstICE/status/1010910647717003270 The group have been outside of the center since Friday, according to a tweet retweeted by L.A. Against I.C.E’s account on Sunday. The group’s twitter feed is urging supporters to bring supplies to the camp that may foreshadow potential violence, including 16C batteries, bandages and mechanical pencils. The group also tweeted it has some “really great stuff planned” Monday. The group suggested making large banners to drop across a Los Angeles freeway on Sunday. The LA camp comes in the wake of several other protests at ICE facilities last week, including a protest at ICE’s headquarters in Portland, Oregon, that shut down the office for almost a full week. ICE employees went back to work Monday in Oregon for the first time since June 19 , according to a report from The Oregonian Monday. ICE protesters are also in Pittsburgh Monday demonstrating in front of an ICE office, according to a tweet from KDKA radio. The movement to abolish ICE has gained traction among left-wing extremist groups and more mainstream politicians alike. New York Democratic gubernatorial…

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Phil Bredesen Silent on Harassment of Republican Women by Left Wing Activists Who Are Giving Him Money

John Bryant
Phil Bredesen

While Democrat Phil Bredesen was quick to accuse President Donald Trump of “child abuse” for simply enforcing current immigration law, he doesn’t seem to have a problem with his prominent Democrat friends like Rep Maxine Waters calling for Republicans and conservatives to be harassed in public simply because of who they are. Staffers and allies of President Donald Trump face a new normal in today’s heated political environment: the potential for harassment and protests anywhere they show their faces — both in their public and private lives. Democratic California Rep. Maxine Waters shocked political observers over the weekend by encouraging liberal mobs to harass Trump officials at restaurants, gas stations and even at home. “Already you have members of your cabinet that are being booed out of restaurants,” We have protesters taking up at their house who are saying, ‘No peace, no sleep. No peace, no sleep,’” Waters told a liberal crowd on Saturday, pledging to “win this battle.” “If you see anybody from that cabinet in a restaurant, in department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd,” the congresswoman added. “And you push back on them. Tell them they’re not welcome any more,…

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