Month: December 2018

NPR Falsely Accuses Don Jr of Lying in Senate Testimony

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by Chuck Ross   NPR published a report Friday asserting that Donald Trump Jr.’s testimony to the Senate about efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow were inconsistent with Michael Cohen’s claims about the same project in his plea deal Thursday. A transcript from Trump Jr.’s Sept. 7, 2017 testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee shows that he claimed the Trump Organization ceased pursuing a deal to build Trump Tower in Moscow by the end of 2014, NPR reported. The news organization quoted Trump Jr. as saying that the project “faded away” by “the end of ’14.” “But not in 2015 or 2016?” Trump Jr. was asked. “Certainly not ’16,” the president’s son replied. “There was never a definitive end to it. It just died of deal fatigue.” NPR asserted that the testimony would pose a problem for Trump Jr. since attorney Cohen said in his plea agreement with the special counsel’s office that he continued negotiating the building through June 2016. He also said he briefed President Donald Trump and his children that year before the deal fell through. NPR issued a lengthy editor’s note to the article five hours after publication but did not retract the piece. As…

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Former Soviet Leader Gorbachev Lauds George HW Bush for Political Abilities, Character

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  Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on Saturday expressed his “deep condolences” to the family of former U.S. President George H.W. Bush and all Americans following his death. Gorbachev worked closely with Bush to bring an end to the Cold War in the late 1980s and 1990s, and lauded the former president for his abilities as a politician and his personal character. “It was a time of great change,” he told the Interfax news agency, “demanding great responsibility from everyone. The result was the end of the Cold War and nuclear arms race.” Gorbachev said that he and his wife, Raisa, “deeply appreciated the attention, kindness and simplicity typical of George and Barbara Bush, as well as the rest of their large, friendly family.” Pavel Palazhchenko, who worked as Gorbachev’s translator during those years, said that a tireless search for common ground and mutual understanding paved the way for some of the greatest achievements in the history of U.S.-Russia relations. “Bush always took a balanced approach to things,” Palazhchenko told The Associated Press on Saturday. “He was not one to rush and took everything into account. He was always very well briefed. Gorbachev was too, and together they just looked…

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The Whole Earth Shook This November and Scientists Don’t Know Why

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by Gavin Hanson   Scientists still can’t agree on what caused a continuous and dull subterranean rumbling interrupted by regular bursts near Madagascar that shook every seismograph on Earth on Nov. 11 for 30 minutes, according to a Thursday Gizmodo report. For 30 minutes the Earth grumbled with a deep tremor that, besides enigmatically timely spurts of activity, vibrated at a constant frequency, according to a tweet from French seismologist Pablo Ampuero. The quake was centered just off the coast of Mayotte, a small island between Madagascar and Mozambique, Gizmodo’s Thursday report stated. Mayotte’s coast has been the center of a series of earthquakes since May 10 but the prolonged tremor on Nov. 11 was recorded by scientists around the entire world despite being too faint to be felt by anyone on the island itself, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported Thursday. The tremor’s duration and consistency are only complicated by a period during the event when high-frequency chimes interrupted the Earth’s groaning every minute like a “ticking clock,” according to Gizmodo. Geologists from Kenya to Honolulu have taken their hypotheses and hot takes to Twitter, suggesting explanations ranging from collapsing subterranean magma chambers to ancient sea monsters. There is no clear scientific consensus on the cause of the event yet. The cause was not…

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Commentary: Limousine Liberalism Goes Mainstream

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by Scott Yenar and Jackson Yenar   Suburbs are the battleground in American politics. Republicans continue to increase their hold on rural America and Democrats continue to dominate the cities. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), when it was clear the Democrats would retake the House, remarked, “We’ve got to address the suburban women problem, because it’s real.” Karl Rove sounded a similar alarm at the Washington Examiner’s Sea Island Summit. The new suburban problem defies the old logic of American politics, where we learned to expect the upwardly mobile to favor the lower taxes, limited government, and local control offered by the Republicans. Instead, the “suburban problem” appears to be limousine liberalism gone mainstream. In the 1970s, limousine liberals forced busing while sending their own kids to tony private schools. They willingly paid high taxes that crippled small business, among other things. Today’s limousine liberals have different policies, but signal their membership with similar hypocrisies. They define themselves by “values” more than by wealth, though they are mostly well off or, at least, better off than most. They bemoan the racism and other phobias in America while pricing the middle class and minorities out of their school districts; they drive SUVs;…

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Republicans Call for Investigation Into Google After Bombshell Report

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by Evie Fordham   A Republican lawmaker and lawmaker-elect called for an investigation of Google Friday morning after Thursday’s revelation that the tech giant’s employees debated burying conservative media outlets in the company’s search function as a response to President Donald Trump’s election. Republican Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar called on the Department of Justice to investigate Google, and Republican Missouri Sen.-elect Josh Hawley called for Google execs to explain themselves “under oath.” “So what do we have here? Looks like a monopoly scheming to use its market power to silence news [and] viewpoints it doesn’t like. Starting to see a pattern here,” Hawley wrote on Twitter Friday. “Google execs need to explain what is going on here. Under oath.” So what do we have here? Looks like a monopoly scheming to use its market power to silence news & viewpoints it doesn’t like. Starting to see a pattern here. https://t.co/Up1KyJDXeN — Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) November 30, 2018 The senator-elect linked to an exclusive story about anti-conservative bias at Google by The Daily Caller News Foundation in the tweet. Gosar also linked to The DCNF’s article. “Google has a virtual monopoly as far as search engines go. It’s past time @DOJPH [sic] investigate this and it’s time Congress…

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Tennessee GOP Votes To Close Primaries

Laura Baigert

FRANKLIN, Tennessee – The State Executive Committee (SEC) of the Tennessee Republican Party voted overwhelmingly at its organizational meeting to require party registration in order to vote in a party’s primary election, more commonly known as closing the primaries. The SEC has a potential of 66 seats consisting of one committeeman and one committeewoman for each of Tennessee’s 33 Senate districts. In a roll call vote, there were 45 votes in favor of closing the primaries, 14 for the primaries to remain open and one abstention. Two SEC members were absent with no proxy present, and four seats are currently vacant. The resolution will be provided to the Tennessee General Assembly with the expectation of getting a bill passed by the Republican-controlled Senate and House to address voter registration during the upcoming legislative session which will begin in January, thereby putting an end to the perceived finger-pointing as to whether it is the SEC or legislature that must close the primaries. A press release issued shortly after the vote and meeting adjournment on Saturday titled “TNGOP Passes Election Resolutions,” stated that the Tennessee Republican Party’s State Executive Committee voted to approve a resolution that asks the 111th General Assembly “to…

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Kid Rock Is Out As Grand Marshal of Nashville Christmas Parade After Calling Joy Behar Derogatory Word

Jason M. Reynolds

Kid Rock is out as the grand marshal of the Nashville Christmas Parade after he called Joy Behar a word that starts with “b,” according to ABC News. The colorful singer appeared on “Fox & Friends” Friday morning, live from Nashville, and made the remark about Behar of “The View.” Parade organizers instead invited James Shaw Jr., the hero who wrestled a gun away from the Waffle House shooter in April. Nashville Mayor David Briley and Councilman Freddie O’Connell had threatened to boycott the parade over Kid Rock, according to Fox 17 News. “If Kid Rock is still the grand marshal tomorrow, the mayor is inclined not to participate,” the mayor’s office said in a statement Friday. O’Connell said, “I will not be participating in tomorrow’s Nashville Christmas parade. The choice of Grand Marshal evokes neither the spirit of Christmas nor the inclusivity I think represents the best of Nashville.” In the “Fox & Friends” interview, Kid Rock also bemoaned political correctness, Townhall said. Rock said everyone deserves love, minus one person in particular – Behar. He then used the derogative term. “No, no, no, no,” host Steve Doocy interrupted. “You cannot say that. We apologize for that.” “I mean…

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President George H.W. Bush Has Died

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George H.W. Bush, the 41st president of the United States, a man born of patrician pedigree, but with a sense of honor, duty and service to his country that played out over the last 60 years of the 20th century, died Friday at age 94. In a life on the world stage and at the highest levels of the American political scene, Bush lost and won elections before becoming the American leader in 1989, and then, with a declining U.S. economy and unemployment rising, was turned out of office after four years in the White House, losing his re-election bid in 1992. He marked the start of his presidency with a sweeping inaugural declaration that “a new breeze is blowing, and a world refreshed by freedom seems reborn; for in man’s heart, if not in fact, the day of the dictator is over. The totalitarian era is passing, its old ideas blown away like leaves from an ancient, lifeless tree.” His pronouncement soon proved prophetic, with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union occurring early in his presidency. Bush met with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, their…

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Nashville’s $15 Million for Amazon is Corporate Welfare, FOP Says

Jason M. Reynolds

Nashville’s police union is criticizing the city’s plans to award up to $15 million in incentives for Amazon’s new facility, calling it “corporate welfare,” the Associated Press reported. The Nashville Fraternal Order of Police is calling for cost-of-living adjustments the city reneged on earlier this year amid budget woes. Amazon has said its total incentive package in Nashville includes up to $102 million in performance-based incentives based on creating 5,000 jobs over the seven-year timeframe, with an average wage over $150,000. Nashville Mayor David Briley gave merit raises to 20 members of his own staff even as rank-and-file city workers got shafted on the promised salary increases, The Tennessee Star previously reported in September. Two of the mayor’s staff received 6 percent increases. The city’s excuse for not giving the salary adjustments was a shaky budget. James Smallwood, president of the Andrew Jackson Lodge No. 5, issued this statement to The Star about Amazon: The Fraternal Order of Police was pleased to learn that Amazon, in their selection of Nashville as a finalist for their new facility, had recognized what Nashvillians have always known. That Nashville is a safe, vibrant and welcoming city with an enormous potential for future growth. However,…

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Stacey Abrams Voter Suppression Lawsuit Attacks Legislation She Sponsored

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by Molly Prince   Defeated Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams is suing the state of Georgia over alleged and widespread voter suppression, however, the lawsuit condemns legislation that Abrams herself helped pass. Fair Fight Action filed the lawsuit on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Fair Fight was launched by Abrams after her loss to Gov.-elect Brian Kemp to “pursue accountability in Georgia’s elections and integrity in the process of maintaining our voter rolls,” according to a press release. The suit lists curtailing the duration of early voting as among the election board’s barriers, making it more difficult for residents to vote. However, Abrams was a co-sponsor of the bill to shorten the early voting period when she was a member of the Georgia General Assembly. At the time, Abrams argued that “smaller, poorer counties could not afford the longer period,” reported The Atlanta Journal Constitution. Consequently, she sponsored legislation that reduced early voting in Georgia from 45 days to 21 days. https://twitter.com/Seth_C_Clark/status/996530204796424192 The lawsuit also re-ups a claim that Abrams made in October, accusing Kemp, in his capacity as Georgia’s secretary of state, of shutting down voting precincts in a predominately black county, leading to possible…

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Hickman County Sheriff’s Office Didn’t Use Seized Drug Money Properly, Audit Says

Chris Butler

Members of the Hickman County Sheriff’s Office aren’t following state law on how they handle money they seize from criminal drug suspects. They also aren’t following the rules on how they pay confidential informants. This, according to an audit from the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office, released Friday. Hickman County Mayor Shaun Lawson did not return The Tennessee Star’s requests for comment Friday. County Sheriff Randal Ward also did not return our messages. Auditors, though, discussed the problems in-depth. “We judgmentally selected five cash seizures for review,” auditors wrote. “All five deposits failed to comply with the state statute, because they were held from 15 to 69 business days before being deposited with the County Trustee.” Sheriff’s officers, meanwhile did not complete several forms Comptroller require to document the use of confidential funds, according to the audit. “We noted five payments to confidential informants that were missing the required second officer’s signature, one transaction where the payment receipt was missing, one transaction conducted by an agent that was not the custodian over the confidential funds, and two instances where the monthly report was not signed by the agent,” auditors said. “These deficiencies exist because management failed to provide proper oversight, which resulted…

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Communist Group Encourages Migrants to ‘Remove’ Trump

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by Luke Rosiak   The caravan of migrants that traveled from Honduras to Mexico includes foreign nationals pledging to abolish the U.S. immigration authorities, openly discussing their intent to illegally enter the U.S., and reading communist literature about overthrowing President Donald Trump, according to an in-depth report by journalists on the ground in Tijuana for the Epoch Times. It said a Los Angeles-based group called Al Otro Lado (“To the other side”) is guiding migrants and its litigation director, Erika Pinheiro, is on the scene telling the migrants how to make sure they don’t just get into the U.S., but get as many benefits from its government as possible. But she advised that criminals and previous deportees in the group can still get a different status, called “withholding of removal status,” in which “you won’t be deported but it doesn’t have many benefits.” The night many migrants rushed the border, they received a flier by a California-based Communist group known as BAMN — whose slogan is “Trump must go or be removed BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY” — saying “Open it up or we’ll shut it down! Everyone must be let in!” “Let’s organize active solidarity and defense against any nationalist or government attack,” another flier from the…

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Commentary: There’s No Such Thing as a Conservative Blue Dog Democrat

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by George Rasley   On Tuesday, the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of allegedly “fiscally responsible” House Democrats announced its new leadership team as their party is poised to retake the gavel in the 116th Congress. The Blue Dogs claim they embrace a “bipartisan approach” to legislating and are looking to play a major role in brokering compromise positions on legislation with a Republican-held Senate and President Trump. “In this new era of divided government, we Democrats must introduce bold ideas and fight for our shared values, and we must also seek bipartisan cooperation that keeps our government functioning and improves the lives of our constituents; the alternative is a partisan stalemate that brings our country to a halt,” said Florida Representative Stephanie Murphy, the Blue Dogs’ incoming co-chair for administration, reported the online news site The Well. The reality is that the Blue Dogs are, when push comes to shove, anything but “bipartisan” as their voting records show. Rep. Murphy, who represents Florida’s Seventh Congressional District, has a lifetime rating of 6 percent from Heritage Action for America. The House Democrats’ average is 8 percent, meaning Rep. Murphy is even more liberal than the average Democrat. The Blue Dogs’…

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California Democratic Chair Resigns After Sexual Misconduct Allegations

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by Hanna Bogorowski   California Democratic Party Chairman Eric Bauman announced his resignation Thursday after allegations of sexual misconduct and inappropriate work place behavior. A Los Angeles Times report surfaced Wednesday that said 10 California Democratic Party (CDP) staffers and political activists had accused him of making lewd, sexual comments to them in the workplace or that Bauman had touched them without their permission. Bauman, 59, said in response to this report that he’d be seeking treatment for health issues and alcohol abuse. “I have made the realization that in order for those to whom I may have caused pain and who need to heal, for my own health, and in the best interest of the Party that I love and to which I have dedicated myself for more than 25 years, it is in everyone’s best interest for me to resign my position as chair of the California Democratic Party,” Bauman said in a statement, according to the LA Times. The sexual misconduct allegations came after Bauman, the Democratic Party’s first openly gay chairman, was accused of unspecified misconduct and had taken a leave of absence. One female staffer recalled obscene comments Bauman made to her at a dinner in 2007, while a gay male…

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Docs Suggest a Vendetta Between Two Lawyers Might Be Fueling Climate Crusade

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by Chris White   Two of the attorneys representing various cities in climate litigation against oil companies have a history of suing and counter-suing each other over personal squabbles, according to documents obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation. Environmental attorneys Vic Sher and Matt Pawa got into a multi-million-dollar legal dispute in 2014 stemming from a lawsuit they both worked on against ExxonMobil. Sher, who was with Sher Leff at the time, alleged Pawa’s group, Pawa Law Group, failed to distribute money from a settlement in the case. Pawa, in turn, argued in a lawsuit that Sher was the one cheating him out of millions of dollars. Sher, who is now with Sher Edling, eventually paid Pawa about $6 million for the retributions, court documents show. The disagreement stems from a lawsuit New Hampshire filed in 2013 alleging Exxon negligently contaminated the state’s water ways with 2 billion gallons of MTBE, a gas additive experts believe poisons drinking water. The intrigue comes amid growing bad blood between the two sides. The state initially sued 26 oil companies in 2003 over the contamination. New Hampshire previously collected over $130 million for MTBE cleanup from the other defendants. The jury eventually awarded the state damages…

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Commentary: The Incorrigible Mr. Comey

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by Julie Kelly   As I wrote last week, the Republican Congress largely has failed to hold accountable the masterminds behind the biggest political scandal in U.S. history: The unprecedented weaponization of our law enforcement and intelligence apparatus to spy on a presidential campaign and sabotage an incoming administration. The man primarily responsible for executing the scheme, former FBI Director James Comey, exited the Trump Administration as a martyr and a hero. Republican lawmakers blasted the president for his (totally justified) firing of the deceptive FBI director in May 2017, lauding his public service and reputation even as the disturbing details of the way his agency spied on the Trump campaign and hid the probe from Congress were coming into view. After successfully escaping any accountability for his actions, it’s no surprise that Comey now is threatening to thwart Congress once again. On Thanksgiving morning, Comey responded on Twitter to a subpoena from the House Judiciary Committee: “Got a subpoena from House Republicans. I’m still happy to sit in the light and answer all questions. But I will resist a ‘closed door’ thing because I’ve seen enough of their selective leaking and distortion. Let’s have a hearing and invite everyone…

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Google Employees Debated Burying Conservative Media in Search Results

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by Peter Hasson   Google employees debated whether to bury conservative media outlets in search results as a response to President Donald Trump’s election in 2016, internal Google communications obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation reveal. The Daily Caller and Breitbart were specifically singled out as outlets to potentially bury in search results, the communications reveal. Trump’s election in 2016 shocked many Google employees, who had been counting on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton to win. Communications obtained by The DCNF show that internal Google discussions went beyond expressing remorse over Clinton’s loss to actually discussing ways Google could prevent Trump from winning again. “This was an election of false equivalencies, and Google, sadly, had a hand in it,” Google engineer Scott Byer wrote in a Nov. 9, 2016, post reviewed by The DCNF. Byer falsely labeled The Daily Caller and Breitbart as “opinion blogs” and urged his coworkers to reduce their visibility in search results. “How many times did you see the Election now card with items from opinion blogs (Breitbart, Daily Caller) elevated next to legitimate news organizations? That’s something that can and should be fixed,” Byer wrote. “I think we have a responsibility to expose the quality and…

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Corker Takes Another Dig at Trump, Tries to Limit Future Voice of America Leader’s Powers

Jason M. Reynolds

Retiring U.S. Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) is taking yet another dig at President Donald Trump while he still holds a public platform, this time by trying to undermine his choice to lead Voice of America and attacking his Yemen policy. The Washington Free Beacon reported the story Friday. Corker, the outgoing Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, this week supported a bill to force the United States to withdraw from Yemen. He also slipped through a quiet committee vote to limit the power of Michael Pack, the incoming new head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, (USAGM), which oversees the Voice of America. Corker has lobbed plenty of criticism at Trump over the past two-years plus. This summer, he had bananas on the brain as he twice likened Trump’s White House to a banana republic in reaction to the president’s removal of former CIA Director John Brennan’s security clearance. Following the 2018 midterm elections in November, in which Trump ally Marsha Blackburn won his seat, the Never-Trumper cracked open the door to challenging the president in the 2020 Republican primary. When asked by reporters if he plans to run for president in 2020, Corker said, “I have not ruled it…

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