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Monday, July 09, 2018

Missouri Democrats Create Alternative 'News' Site to Boost McCaskill

State Democrats launch 'The Missouri Download' to bash Josh Hawley

The Missouri Democratic Party quietly launched its own "news" website this year to pump up Sen. Claire McCaskill (D., Mo.) and bash Republicans ahead of her reelection fight.

The website, The Missouri Download, launched on March 1 and posted just five stories in its first two months, all targeting McCaskill's top Republican opponent, Missouri attorney general Josh Hawley.

The party appears to be hiding its involvement in the site as best it can while staying within legal parameters.

The launch of Missouri Download was not announced by the Missouri Democrats and is yet to be mentioned on its main website or its Twitter account. There is a miniscule disclosure of the party's involvement on the bottom of the page, written in size 5.5 font, and contained in a box about a quarter of the size of the disclosure box on the party's actual home page. (The disclosures on The Missouri Download and the Missouri Democrats websites can be seen highlighted in red in the screenshot below. Click here to see enlarged version.)

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Ellison on Running for Minnesota AG: ‘Not Looking to Climb Some Career Ladder’

Rep. Keith Ellison (D., Minn.) made a surprise announcement last month to run for Minnesota’s attorney general, and in a new interview he said he doesn't care about the "career ladder."

"I am not looking to climb some career ladder," Ellison told the Guardian in an interview published Sunday. "I don’t give a damn about that. What I care about is how can I help the most people. How can I be maximally effective in defense of people’s economic and social rights, that’s what I care about."

Ellison, who is also the deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee, is running on the promise to oppose President Donald Trump’s policies from the office of attorney general of Minnesota. He said the challenge in Congress is having enough votes to pass progressive legislation, but as attorney general he would have his desired latitude to engage in litigation.

He said he wanted to intervene in matters such as the gender pay gap and Trump ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, an Obama-era executive action protecting illegal immigrants brought to America when they were young. Ellison made it clear that he would target Trump and his policies when he announced his candidacy in June.

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McConnell Pushing Kethledge for Supreme Court to Appeal to Establishment Republicans

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is pushing for Judge Ray Kethledge to be President Donald Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court vacancy opened by the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, Breitbart News has learned.

McConnell has, in private conversations, said he is pushing Trump to pick Kethledge for the slot because he thinks Kethledge’s positions in contravention of the GOP base on certain issues like immigration would make him an easily-confirmed nominee in an election year.

“McConnell has said he does not want a SCOTUS battle in an election year,” one source briefed on McConnell’s comments to a variety of people around Washington, including at least one journalist whom the Senate Majority Leader spoke with off the record ahead of Monday’s announcement. “He thinks Kethledge would be easy to confirm because Kethledge is not a consistent conservative.”

McConnell’s argument, per sources who have heard him make it directly, is that Kethledge is non-controversial and would not face the same problems in the Senate confirmation process—meaning he would rather not have to fight than have a nominee with fewer questions about his or her conservative positions.

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Pentagon Says It’s Not Purging Immigrant Recruits, Contrary to Reports

The Pentagon said Friday that contrary to what an Associated Press report has suggested, there are no new changes to a program for immigrants to gain U.S. citizenship through military service.

The Associated Press reported on Thursday evening that some “U.S. Army reservists and recruits who enlisted in the military with a promised path to citizenship are being abruptly discharged.”

However, the Pentagon said there have been no new policies or guideline changes to prompt any discharges from the program. Rather, any discharges are based on initial SECURITY screening of each candidate.

The Army could not comment on specific persons mentioned in the AP’s story due to privacy issues and pending litigation, but released a statement on Friday in response.

“Department of Defense and Army policy require all recruits to undergo a suitability review as part of the military accessions process. One aspect of the suitability review is a security screening,” Army spokeswoman Lt. Col. Nina Hill said.

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Will #Resistance summer dampen the Democrats' big autumn?

NEW YORK — On Wednesday afternoon during the height of the Fourth of July festivities at the Statue of Liberty, Therese Patricia Okoumou began scaling Lady Liberty and held a T-shirt up with “Trumpcare Makes us Sick” on one side and “Rise and Resist” on the other.

Despite telling authorities she would not come down until “all the children are released," she eventually descended after a team of over a dozen highly skilled New York City police officers with the department’s emergency service unit cajoled her down from the skirts of the statue's base.

Her protest evacuated Liberty Island, turning away over 4,000 people who had planned to make a visit to arguably America’s most iconic symbol of liberty as part of their family’s celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

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Trump announces Judge Brett Kavanaugh as his Supreme Court nominee after days of speculation

President Trump nominated appeals court judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court Monday night to replace the retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy, ending a days-long guessing game that began the moment Kennedy announced his retirement on June 27.

The four finalists – Kavanaugh and fellow appeals court judges Amy Coney Barrett, Thomas Hardiman and Raymond Kethledge – were drawn from a list of 25 names vetted by conservative groups.

A clue to Kavanaugh’s nomination emerged hours before the announcement when the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a written opinion in which the judge sided with the majority. The D.C. court does not typically issue opinions on Mondays except in response to emergency petitions, suggesting that the case had to be disposed of before Kavanaugh was nominated for the high court.

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http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/07/09/trump-nominates-brett-kavanaugh-to-supreme-court.html

NBC’s Todd Confronts Durbin on SCOTUS Confirmation ‘Hypocrisy’

Illinois Democrat is angered when 'Meet The Press' host pressed him on the inconsistency of his position from 2016 to 2018

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) shifted blame for his conflicting views on swiftly confirming Supreme Court nominees under former President Barack Obama onto Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) during an interview Sunday on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”

“In a few weeks, the Supreme Court will start its new term with eight justices; we need nine. Major legal questions are hanging in limbo because the court is deadlocked on four-four votes,” Durbin said in September 2016 following the death of former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

But after Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his impending retirement this year, Durbin and his Democratic Senate colleagues urged McConnell to delay the confirmation process for President Donald Trump’s nominee until after Democrats have the chance to win back the Senate during the November midterm elections.

When NBC host Chuck Todd played the clip for Durbin, he noted, “There’s been some talk among some of your colleagues for Democrats to push for a delay until after the election. Obviously you didn’t like that in 2016. Where are you on this?”

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Kelsey Grammer: Reproductive Rights Is a ‘Dishonest’ Name for Abortion

Actor Kelsey Grammer explained why he is pro-life in an interview last week with the Times, calling out the abortion industry as “dishonest” for using the euphemism of “reproductive rights” to speak about abortion.

Grammer told the Times he has “as much respect for women and women’s issues as possible,” but said that women’s rights are not what is at stake with abortion.

It “gets a bit dishonest to call something reproductive rights when you clearly have a choice well before a baby is conceived,” Grammer noted, which is when reproduction actually happens.

The 63-year-old actor known for his role as Dr. Frasier Crain in the sitcoms Cheers and Frasier said that abortion unfairly punishes an infant for others’ actions, even in the case of rape.

“If someone has to die as a result of rape, then we should kill the rapist – not the unborn child,” he said. “It’s a dicey area, but if you have respect for life, and respect for choice, then you can’t take life away from an infant.”

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LOOK: Students Outraged Over Trump's Unannounced SCOTUS Nominee

Students at New York University recently expressed their disdain over President Trump's pick to replace Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy.

The only problem is, he hasn't announced his nominee yet.

Campus Reform Media Director Cabot Phillips, who interviewed the students, said Sunday on "Fox & Friends" that many people seek to quickly show their hatred for President Trump the moment they hear his name.

"Other people, I think they just want to go along with the flow and make themselves sound intelligent and smart," he said.

Video
http://insider.foxnews.com/2018/07/08/supreme-court-pick-president-trump-students-outraged-over-unannounced-selection

Justice Antonin Scalia, Justice Clarence Thomas, Theodore Roosevelt

"In the eyes of government we are just one race here. It is American."
-- Justice Antonin Scalia
(1936-2016) American jurist, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
Source: Adarand v. Pena
http://libertytree.ca/quotes/Antonin.Scalia.Quote.179E
"Government cannot make us equal; it can only recognize, respect, and protect us as equal before the law. That [affirmative action] programs may have been motivated, in part, by good intentions cannot provide refuge from the principle that under our Constitution, the government may not make distinctions on the basis of race."
-- Justice Clarence Thomas
(1948- ) U.S. Supreme Court Justice
Source: Adarand v. Federico Pena
http://libertytree.ca/quotes/Clarence.Thomas.Quote.9C21

"There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism."
-- Theodore Roosevelt
(1858-1919) 26th US President
http://libertytree.ca/quotes/Theodore.Roosevelt.Quote.7292

Coming To A Border Near You


Big Labor Hit with Another Class Action Suit

Janus decision spurs Washington State suit seeking back wages

The fallout from the Supreme Court's landmark Janus ruling continued as Washington state workers filed suit to recover their lost wages from forced unionism.

Several home health aides are suing Service Employees International Union Local 775 and the state to recover money deducted from Medicaid reimbursements designed to fund the care of disabled or elderly people. The state government automatically sent more than 3 percent of the provider payments to the union, despite the fact that workers never agreed to become members. The practice, according to the suit, violates both the U.S. and state constitutions.

"Plaintiffs and class members are not union members and never consented for the union or the state to withdraw union dues or dues equivalent fees from their wages, yet the state deducted such fees from their pay," the suit says. "Defendants conspired to deprive Plaintiffs and class members of their First Amendment rights by deducting union fees from their wages without their clear, prior, affirmative consent."

For years Washington state forced such providers, many of whom are caring for relatives, to pay a portion of those reimbursements to the union. The practice only stopped when the Supreme Court declared a similar policy in Illinois unconstitutional. That 2014 ruling led to the Supreme Court's June decision declaring mandatory payments to public sector unions, including SEIU, an unconstitutional violation of free speech in Janus.

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The Least Diverse Place in America

Is It Racist To Question WHY?


China’s Wanda buys Dick Clark Productions for $1 billion

China’s Dalian Wanda Group announced on Friday its $1 billion acquisition of Dick Clark Productions, the TV company that produces the Golden Globesand the “Miss America” pageant.

One of China’s most important conglomerates, Wanda already owns AMC Theatres and bought Legendary Entertainment for $3.5 billion in January. It also announced a movie partnership in September with Sony Pictures.

Wanda’s push into the U.S. entertainment industry has raised alarm among some American lawmakers concerned about creative freedom and the promotion of Chinese propaganda. A group of legislators in September asked the U.S. Government Accountability Office to review Chinese takeovers.

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Lots of Rescues Today In Ocean City

We are making a lot of rescues today. If you hear the lifeguards whistle look to see if there are trying to tell you something. They might be directing you away from a rip current. When the lifeguards call everyone to their stand they have important safety information. feel free to ask them any questions that you may have

Drama behind the Miss America Organization

A war is brewing behind the scenes of the Miss America Organization under new chair Gretchen Carlson — and a battle over the swimsuit competition was just the beginning.

Two former Miss Americas and two former state titleholders have left the board, after just months on the job.

Kate Shindle (now president of the Actors’ Equity Association), Laura Kaeppler Fleiss (who married “Bachelor” whiz Mike Fleiss), Jennifer Vaden Barth and Valerie Crooker Clemens posted a message to a private Facebook group claiming that Miss America’s account of their departures was inaccurate.

Barth and Clemens claimed, “Neither of us resigned voluntarily” and that “pre-signed” resignation letters they’d had as interim members were used.

Fleiss wrote, “I stepped away from a board that I felt had become incredibly toxic.”

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The State Of New Jersey Just Signed Its Own Death Warrant

You would think New Jersey would have learned its lesson...

Two years ago, New Jersey’s richest resident – hedge fund billionaire David Tepper – decided to move himself and his business to Miami Beach.

Tepper, who personally earned more than $6 billion from 2012-2015, was tired of paying New Jersey’s top income-tax rate of 8.97% for the 20 years he lived there, in addition to the country’s highest property taxes, the estate tax and inheritance tax.

By moving to Florida, a state with ZERO income tax, Tepper stood to save hundreds of millions of dollars each year. And, as an added bonus, he’d be living in the Sunshine State.

Anyone with some common sense would have at least acknowledged the possibility that a guy like Tepper would consider moving to save a few hundred million bucks.

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Against Packing the Courts

Democrats have learned nothing from Merrick Garland

More than any other single political event — including the Watergate scandal — the dishonest and morally indefensible attack on Robert Bork led by Teddy Kennedy and Joe Biden created the rancorous procedural and political maximalism that defines life in Washington today. Senators Kennedy and Biden — the guilty, sodden conscience of the Democratic party and its second-rate brain, respectively — did more than any two elected leaders in modern American history to cheapen consensus, render compromise unprofitable, and derail long-term cooperation between the major national political parties and, more important, between the two dominant American political tendencies for which they stand. This is Joe Biden’s America, and its politics are crippled.

Republicans, of course, are driven by the same self-interest that drives any ordinary politician, and unilateral political disarmament was never a serious option for them. Republicans will use every tool at their disposal, something the Democrats ought to keep in mind when they consider establishing new political precedents, as with the current boomlet in support of packing the Supreme Court — expanding the number of justices on the Court beyond the current nine and filling those bonus seats with reliable Democratic hacks on the model of Justices Kagan and Sotomayor — as soon as the opportunity presents itself.

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Police Arrested a Black Teen Who Was Reportedly Selling Water Outside the Philadelphia Zoo

A video depicting the arrest of a black teenager outside the Philadelphia Zoo on Thursday, July 5, has gone viral, with many people questioning the police officers' behavior, as well as the reasoning behind the arrest.

The clip, which has been shared many times on both Facebook and Twitter, shows an exchange between the teen and a Philadelphia police officer who throws him to the ground before arresting him. In the background, a woman's voice yells "Don't do that! Don't do that!" A crowd gathers around them, including what appears to be two zoo employees arguing with one another. One of the employees is heard asking: "Is this what you want?"

Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross told local FOX affiliate WTXF that they are trying to "ascertain what prompted this whole incident," adding that they received reports of "kids running out into traffic" and selling water in the street.

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Study: U.S. Makes List of Top Ten Most Dangerous Countries for Women

A study is circulating that purports to make the United States out as the tenth most dangerous country for women to live. Tenth, ahead of countries like China, Iran, and Iraq. The Thomson Reuters Foundation performed the study and it has caught the eye of progressives and media alike, particularly on social media.
Here's the top ten list:
  1. India
  2. Afghanistan
  3. Syria
  4. Somalia
  5. Saudi Arabia
  6. Pakistan
  7. Democratic Republic of Congo
  8. Yemen
  9. Nigeria
  10. USA
As if the talking points aren’t bad enough, a closer look shows the "study" isn’t based on any empirical data of any kind, but, rather, was biased and skewed from the start — or at the least, hardly scientific. First, the Foundation admits it conducted a “global perception poll of experts” and they did this by contacting “548 experts focusing on women’s issues, aid and developmental professionals, academics, health workers, policymakers, non-government organization workers, journalists and social commentators.” These “experts” gave their “perception” about six key areas: healthcare, discrimination, cultural traditions, sexual violence, non-sexual violence, and human trafficking.

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‘Don’t You Dare Touch Roe!’ — Judicial Confirmation Silly Season Begins

Roe probably won’t be overturned because it probably won’t come up; Casey is the center of abortion law nowadays.

It was my honor to befriend Judge Robert Bork in the last years of his life. Not surprisingly, I don’t find much amusement in the cesspool that judicial-confirmation politics has become since his name became a synonym for slander in 1987 — a debacle that changed history for the worse in more ways than the woodenly whimsical Anthony Kennedy’s assumption of what should have been the Bork seat.

Still, I admit to chuckling over the musings of Senator Susan Collins of Maine, a “moderate” Republican in the Kennedy mold. With the justice announcing his retirement after 30 years on the Court, a confirmation battle royale is shaping up over his successor, whom President Trump is expected to nominate on Monday. On cue, Senator Collins has let it be known that she would look askance at any nominee who has “demonstrated hostility [towards] and an eagerness to overturnRoe v. Wade.”

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Now Monty Python Is Racist or Something

If you ask most Americans what they know about the British Broadcasting Corporation, they'll probably come up with three things: Doctor Who, boring news about countries we don't care about, and Monty Python's Flying Circus. Or, more likely, just the latter. Monty Python has transcended all barriers of class and culture, and even us lowly colonials enjoy it.* Millions of Americans won't think you're a lunatic if you randomly start shouting, "Ni! Ni!" They know that after a large meal, the last thing you want is a "waaaahfer-thin mint." They can tell you the proper response if a guy dances up to you and starts slapping you in the face with tiny fish. America has been Pythonized.

Well, okay, maybe not millions of Americans. Thousands, at least. Somebody's gotta be buying all those tickets to Spamalot.

Or at least that's how things used to be. Now it's 2018, so Monty Python stinks because they're all middle-class white males and most of them aren't LGBTQRSTUV.

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Breaking News: Four more people were rescued from the flooded Thai cave complex. A total of 8 were out as the second day of the treacherous operation wound down.

More than half of the trapped soccer team has now been rescued, the Thai Navy SEALS said on Facebook. Four people were evacuated from the cave on Monday evening in a daring rescue that seemed to defy the odds.

Summer Starts This Weekend!

If your looking for a great night out, Free Pool and THREE incredible bands, (no cover charge) come to OC Billiards @ Trader Lee's Friday night on July 20th because it doesn't get any better then this. 

This Saturday night Boogie Stew is back in the house, (formerly Loud Love). This is the band you can turn around, close your eyes and you'll truly believe you are listening to the original artists, that's how good they are and sound. Again, no cover charge. 

We at Trader Lee's have always said, summer starts after the 4th of July and so it begins. Set the dates on your calendars and we'll see you there. 

Armed Co-Worker Stops Vicious Attack on Female Restaurant Worker

Milwaukee police are seeking a male suspect who launched a vicious attack on a restaurant employee last week; the attack was thwarted when another employee pulled a gun.

TMJ4 reports that the incident occurred in a George Webb Restaurant on Milwaukee’s south side on June 29, but surveillance video of the incident was made public on July 6.

The video shows the suspect walk behind the counter and punch the restaurant’s female cook in the side of her face. She managed to stay on her feet after the punch and ran to a spot off camera. The suspect walked, as if pursuing her, but stopped when another female employee pulled a handgun and pointed it at him:

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DEM CANDIDATE ‘GIVES UP ON WHITE PEOPLE’ AFTER LOSING TO WHITE INCUMBENT

‘It’s incumbent on white people and not people of color to solve it,’ she says

After losing the Democratic primary to a white incumbent, former Colorado congressional candidate Saira Rao has decided it is time to “give up on white people.”

Rao tweeted a link to an April New York Times column asking the question “Should I Give Up on White People?.” Rao commented, “Short and long answer: YES.”

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Nolte: New York Times Calls for ‘Godfather’ Tactics to Stop Trump’s SCOTUS Nominee

The far-left New York Times editorial board is calling on Democrats to use mafia tactics from The Godfather to stop President Trump from filling a Supreme Court vacancy.

Using language that appears to not only condone, but to encourage violence, the editorial board writes:

Barring some unforeseen development, the president will lock in a 5-to-4 conservative majority, shifting the court solidly to the right for a generation. This is all the more reason for Democrats and progressives to take a page from “The Godfather” and go to the mattresses on this issue.

The term “going to the mattresses” means going to war.

The anti-Trump New York Times describes this editorial as a “call to arms” and adds that the “fire now raging against Mr. Trump and his nominees can’t be sustained indefinitely.”

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Two White Women Harassed for Wearing MAGA Hats at Howard University

There's a lot for young minds to learn about in Washington, D.C.: the memorials alone make it worth the trip, but then you can hit the Smithsonian, tour the White House, see the Capitol, and so on.

Unless, of course, you commit the accidental sin of grabbing lunch at Howard University without hiding your MAGA hat:

So a young, white woman makes the "mistake" of wearing clothing that supports the "wrong" candidate into a cafe. Does she deserve public harassment?

Apparently:
You came to an HBCU, one of the few places Black people have historically been relatively safe from racism, and openly supported a racist.
For all of Trump's sins, and they are legion, not once has he attacked the black community in any way, shape, or form. Further, he's stated his commitment to HBCUs explicitly.

In fact, some HBCU presidents think Trump is a better friend to HBCUs than Obama.

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Details emerge on Justice Department meeting with AP reporters on Manafort

Lawyers for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort are crying foul over a meeting Justice Department prosecutors held with four Associated Press reporters last year as news organizations and the FBI bore down on the longtime lobbyist and political consultant.

Manafort’s defense has argued for months that the off-the-record session on April 11, 2017, was a potential conduit for improper leaks to the press about the probe that led to two criminal cases against the former Trump campaign chief.

Now, Manafort’s attorneys have fresh evidence they say bolsters their claims: two memos written by FBI agents who attended the meeting and documented their version of what transpired.

Manafort’s legal team paints the evidence as confirmation that journalists were given inside information about the investigation in violation of Justice Department policies and, perhaps, legal prohibitions on disclosure of grand jury secrets.

“The meeting raises serious concerns about whether a violation of grand jury secrecy occurred,” Manafort's lawyers wrote in a filing Friday with U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis, who’s set to oversee an upcoming trial of Manafort on bank and tax fraud charges brought by special counsel Robert Mueller. “Now, based on the FBI’s own notes of the meeting, it is beyond question that a hearing is warranted.”

More here

DOJ Refuses To Disclose FBI Activities Prior To "Official" Trump Investigation

The Justice Department and the FBI have failed to meet deadlines for the delivery of specific documents about FBI activities prior to the official investigation into Russian meddling, reports Fox News citing a "source close to the discussions."

“The DOJ gave the committee some, but not all, of the outstanding documents, so they are not in compliance,” an Intelligence Committee spokesperson told Fox.

If DOJ records reveal that the FBI was actively working against the Trump campaign prior to events which officially precipitated Operation Crossfire Hurricane - especially during the period in which they engaged informant Stefan Halper to conduct espionage on multiple Trump aides, it will have wide ranging implications on the FBI's version of how the counterintelligence operation began. Without the documents, congressional investigators won't be able to piece together the timeline of events, or whether the FBI followed agency protocols during that period.

While FBI headquarters authorized the official counterintelligence operation on July 31, 2016 - John Solomon of The Hill reported in June that efforts to spy on and possibly entrap Trump campaign aides began much earlier.

The bridge to the Russia investigation wasn’t erected in Moscow during the summer of the 2016 election.

It originated earlier, 1,700 miles away in London, where foreign figures contacted Trump campaign advisers and provided the FBI with hearsay allegations of Trump-Russia collusion, bureau documents and interviews of government insiders reveal. These contacts in spring 2016 — some from trusted intelligence sources, others from Hillary Clinton supporters — occurred well before FBI headquarters authorized an official counterintelligence investigation on July 31, 2016.
-The Hill

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Top Democrat suggests sacrificing Senate seats to stop nomination

Just one day before President Trump is set to announce his pick to replace retiring Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy in a prime time address from the White House, a top Democratic senator suggested that stopping the nominee is more important than the upcoming midterm elections.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., acknowledged that so-called red-state Democrats may be tempted to vote for Trump's selection out of political necessity, but urged his colleagues Sunday to consider more than their political careers.

"Beyond the procedure, beyond the gamesmanship, it is a life-and-death important decision to be made by this court on so many issues," the Senate minority whip said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

"The men and women that I work with on the Democratic side really take this seriously," he added, after host Chuck Todd raised the possibility that Democrats could lose their bid to retake the Senate by opposing the nominee. "They understand it's an historic decision. It's about more than the next election. It's about what future the United States of America is going to chart."

More here


http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/07/08/on-eve-trumps-supreme-court-pick-top-dem-suggests-sacrificing-senate-seats-to-stop-nomination.html

[How many of you think Dick Durbin would sacrifice HIS Senate seat for the cause? --Editor]

Why Roe v. Wade is a travesty of constitutional law

The prospect of overturning Roe v. Wade will be at the foreground of the battle over Justice Anthony Kennedy’s replacement, and it should be.

Roe is judicially wrought social legislation pretending to the status of constitutional law. It is more adventurous than Miranda and Griswold, other watchwords of judicial activism from its era. It is as much a highhanded attempt to impose a settlement on a hotly contested political question as the abhorrent Dred Scott decision denying the rights of blacks.

It is, in short, a travesty that a constitutionalist Supreme Court should excise from its body of work with all due haste.

Roe has been commonly misunderstood since it was handed down in 1973, in part because its supporters have been so determined to obscure its radicalism. It is commonly thought that Roe only prohibits restrictions on abortion in the first trimester, when it effectively forbids them at any time, imposing a pro-abortion regime as sweeping as anywhere in the advanced world.

The confusion arises from the scheme set out in the majority opinion, written by the late Justice Harry Blackmun.

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Episcopal Church Considers A Gender-Neutral God

"Our work toward equity"

The entire Episcopal Church, not just one diocese, is now actively considering replacing all masculine pronouns referring to God such as "Father" and "Him" with gender-neutral terms.

According to Fox News, the Episcopal Church "formed a committee Wednesday to 'provide a pathway' toward revising the Book of Common Prayer to include gender-neutral language."

Church leaders were alarmed by the "overwhelming use of masculine language" throughout the book and called for immediate revisions, saying it creates a kind of spiritual exclusion.

"As long as ‘men’ and ‘God’ are in the same category, our work toward equity will not just be incomplete. I honestly think it won’t matter in some ways,” Wil Gafney, a professor of the Hebrew Bible and strong advocate for the edit, told The Washington Post.

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What's the real price of getting rid of plastic packaging?

How much would it cost to switch to plastic alternatives? Richard Gray crunches the numbers.
Walking along a short section of stony beach, Claire Waluda stoops briefly to pick up something from between the rocks. It is a brightly coloured plastic bottle top – just one of hundreds of bits of plastic that she finds washed ashore on the remote, windswept island of South Georgia.

Located in the south Atlantic, on the fringes of the Antarctic, it is nearly 1,000 miles (1,500km) from the nearest major human settlement. Yet even here Waluda, an ecologist with the British Antarctic Survey, is finding worrying signs of our throw-away attitude towards plastic. Regularly she finds seals entangled in this debris or albatross chicks coughing up bits of plastic film.

These are just a few examples of the damage our throw-away relationship with plastics is inflicting on the environment. More than 78 million tonnes of plastic packaging is produced worldwide every year by an industry worth nearly $198 billion. Just a fraction of that is recycled while the vast majority is thrown away. Plastic litter now clutters every part of our planet, from remote parts ofthe Antarctic to the deepest ocean trenches.

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Leandra English Finally Leaving CFPB

Leandra English, the Obama administration political appointee who tried to seize leadership of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is leaving the agency and dropping her lawsuit against the White House.

The Associated Press reported English would resign from the CFPB next week, and will drop the lawsuit, which had so far been unsuccessful in court.

"I want to thank all of the CFPB's dedicated career civil servants for your important work on behalf of consumers," English said.

Former Director of the CFPB Richard Cordray attempted to sidestep the executive branch by appointing his own successor at the agency when he resigned in the fall of 2017, and selected English, who was then his chief of staff. Cordray plotted to appoint English after discovering the idea on two left-wing websites.

Even the general counsel of the CFPB, who was hired by Cordray, sided with the Trump administration, arguing the president has full authority to make appointments to executive branch agencies under the Vacancies and Reform Act.

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Protesters Shut Down Major Chicago Highway; Mayor Emanuel Says Go For It, Comrades

Today, a massive movement of “anti-violence” protesters blocked traffic across a major Chicago highway in an effort to shutdown the road and call for "commonsense" gun laws. Mayor Rahm Emanuel had initially disapproved, then approved of the group’s plan to march on the Dan Ryan Highway, but Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner claims today that the group moved beyond what it was permitted to do.

The march is led by Rev. Michael Pfleger, an Illinois Roman Catholic priest who advocates liberation theology, and the left-wing Rev. Jesse Jackson. Protesters shouted “Shut it down!” as they ventured onto the roadway earlier this morning. Just yesterday, Mayor Emmanuel said the protesters “should be allowed (on the Dan Ryan), yes, because they’re going to be talking about anti-violence. And I think there’s a proper way to raise that awareness. I don’t think there should ever have been a doubt about that effort.”

But, today, Gov. Rauner says that the situation escalated from the original agreement and the protesters “chose instead to cause chaos.” He also tweeted he disappointed in the Mayor and called upon him “take swift and decisive action to put an end to” the protest.

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White Feminist Goes Apoplectic over Black Man Supporting Gun Rights

White feminist Kimberley Johnson went apoplectic after seeing a black man driving a car with an NRA sticker on it.

On Thursday she tweeted about how confounded she was, then deleted the tweet after receiving backlash on Twitter.

The Daily Mail copied Johnson’s tweet before it was deleted and published it: “Out on the road the other day I saw an affluent black man driving a BMW with two bumper-stickers. One was pro-NRA and the other one was a Tea Party sticker that read, ‘Don’t tread on me.’ This left me very confused.”

Amid a social media backlash Johnson tried to explain her tweet by suggesting she simply could not understand how a black person could support the Republicans and/or Republican positions while President Trump was in office.

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A 'Constitutional Violation': Pastor Under Fire From Atheists for High School Football Devotional

A pastor who recently came under fire by a nonprofit organization that "educates the public on matters relating to non-theism" appeared on "Fox & Friends" Saturday to explain his situation.

Konnor McKay, a pastor in the Waldron, Arkansas community, was invited to his former high school to speak at a football summer camp about teamwork and leadership.

The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) deemed McKay's speech, which invoked scripture, a "constitutional violation," and asked that the school district "not allow its football program to be used as a captive audience for evangelists."

McKay -- who also played football at Waldron -- said Saturday that he felt it was important for the players in the camp to know the value and importance of teamwork.

In a letter to Waldron High School's superintendent, the FFRF asked for the steps, in writing, that the school will take to not promote religion in the future.

“Parents send their students to football camps to become better players, not to be brainwashed. Public school students should not have to pray to play,” FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor also said.

"This is another example of this group from Wisconsin that goes out-of-state seeking school districts across the country that they can bully and intimidate. Waldron, Arkansas is just another example," said First Liberty Attorney Michael Berry.

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http://insider.foxnews.com/2018/07/07/konnor-mckay-waldron-arkansas-pastor-under-fire-freedom-religion-foundation-high-school

Rap Sheet: **202** Acts of Media-Approved Violence and Harassment Against Trump Supporters

When not calling Trump supporters “Nazis” as a means to dehumanize us, the establishment media like to whine about the lack of civility in American politics, even as they cover up, ignore, downplay, or straight-up approve of the wave of violence and public harassment we are seeing against supporters of President Trump.

It is open season on Trump supporters, and the media is only fomenting, encouraging, excusing, and hoping for more… The media are now openly calling Trump supporters “Nazis” and are blaming Trump for a mass murder he had nothing to do with. This, of course, is a form of harassment because it incites and justifies mob violence.

Here is the list, so far, and remember that if any one of these things happened to a Democrat, the media would use the story to blot out the sun for weeks. But what we have when it comes to Trump supporters is a media eager to normalize harassment and violence.

And while the media openly encourage this violence against us, they also campaign to disarm us, to take away our Second Amendment right to defend ourselves.

Here is a video channel dedicated to documenting the dozens and dozens of assaults against Trump supporters.

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Immigration is the top issue for U.S. voters

Immigration tops the economy and healthcare as the most important issue determining Americans’ vote ahead of the midterm elections in November, a new Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll shows.

The poll, conducted between June 28 and July 2, found:

- Fifteen percent of U.S. registered voters said immigration was the top issue determining how they will cast their ballot in November, while 14 percent said the economy was their biggest concern.

- Twenty-six percent of registered Republicans cited immigration as the most important issue likely to determine their vote, up 14 percentage points from a similar poll conducted at the beginning of June.

- Healthcare remains the top issue for registered Democrats (16 percent), followed by the economy (14 percent), the Reuters/Ipsos poll shows. Seven percent of Democrats cited immigration as their top concern.

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