Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

-PC Follies

Bette Midler Unleashes Xenophobic Tweet Storm on Melania Trump: 'She Still Can't Speak English!'

2020-08-28

[PJMedia] Anti-Trump singer/actress Bette Midler was so triggered by first lady Melania Trump’s speech on Tuesday night that she went on a blatantly xenophobic Twitter rant.

"She can speak several words in a few languages. Get that illegal alien off the stage!" she tweeted. [Links to Tweets follow]

Midler’s ranting continued with the tweet, "Why are they promoting this awful person, #melania? Was it in her contract?'

But the worst came in her next tweeet, when she lamented, "Oh, God. She still can't speak English."

Link

-Obits-

Billionaire David Koch, Who Used His Wealth to Reshape U.S. Politics, Dies at 79

2019-08-24

[WSJ] David Koch, the billionaire libertarian who gave more than $1 billion to charitable causes but was better known for using his money to reshape U.S. politics, died Friday. He was 79 years old.

His family released a statement Friday saying, "While we mourn the loss of our hero, we remember his iconic laughter, insatiable curiosity, and gentle heart." According to a statement from Koch Industries Inc., Mr. Koch fought various illnesses over many years.

Mr. Koch, whose net worth of about $50.5 billion tied him with his brother as the world’s 11th-richest person in Forbes magazine rankings, gained most of his wealth from a 42% stake in Wichita, Kan.-based Koch Industries, which has interests ranging from oil to beef to paper and is the second-largest closely held U.S. company.

A longtime New York resident, Mr. Koch was until retirement in June 2018 an executive vice president of the family company.

Though he was a liberal on social issues like abortion and same-sex marriage, Mr. Koch used his fortune to support conservative causes that favor lowering taxes, free trade and fewer regulations. He was the Libertarian Party’s 1980 vice-presidential candidate.

With his surviving older brother, Charles Koch, the chairman and chief executive of Koch Industries, Mr. Koch created a network composed of like-minded wealthy donors brought together to back conservative causes.

They were credited with helping finance the limited-government Tea Party movement that helped Republicans win control of the House in 2010 during President Obama’s first term.

Their support of conservative causes became a lightning rod for Democrats, raising the ire of then-Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, who in 2014 called Mr. Koch and his brother "un-American" and accused them of "trying to buy America" through campaign cash.

The network the brothers built includes more than 700 donors who give $100,000 or more a year, as well as a group called Americans for Prosperity that has chapters in 36 states. In terms of its influence on the conservative agenda in the U.S., the network is rivaled only by the Republican Party.

Megadonors such as the Kochs were able to grow their influence after the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, which allowed unlimited spending, both directly and indirectly, by outside groups.

The Koch brothers didn’t back Donald Trump in his 2016 campaign for president, but their political network has lauded his administration’s efforts to loosen regulations. The Kochs, though, have been critical of the president’s policies on trade and immigration.

Mr. Koch’s significant philanthropy to nonpolitical causes was widely lauded. A one-time college basketball star, he literally loomed large‐at 6-foot-5-inches tall‐over New York society as a fixture at splashy galas and as one of the city’s most generous philanthropists.

He donated more than $1.3 billion of his fortune to charity, including gifts to the State Theater of New York at Lincoln Center‐renamed the David H. Koch Theater‐New York-Presbyterian Hospital and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, all in Manhattan.

Diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1992, Mr. Koch had in recent years suffered from deteriorating health, according to the letter announcing his retirement from business and political activities. Over decades, Mr. Koch funneled some of his largest donations to cancer research, most notably to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan and to his alma mater, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., for the founding of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research.

In speaking of his philanthropy, Mr. Koch described himself in interviews with The Wall Street Journal as a "sugar daddy" for charitable causes with a "moral obligation" to give. He preferred to donate his money to outstanding institutions rather than "use it on buying a bigger house or a $150 million painting," he said. "I really want to put my money to work making the world a better place."

Link

Home Front: Politix

Harry Reid Loses Another Fight With A Big Rubber Band

2019-04-06

[Fox News] - Former Sen. Harry Reid loses civil lawsuit over exercise-device injury
Former alleged Pederast, Spittoon-washer and sheet changer at Searchlight Cat House, "The Searchlight Strangler"
After about an hour of deliberations Friday, a jury in Las Vegas rejected former U.S. Sen. Harry Reid’s lawsuit against the maker of an exercise band that Reid claimed was responsible for injuries he suffered in January 2015.

The injuries included blindness in one eye for Reid, 79, a Nevada Democrat and former party leader who asserted in his lawsuit that his injuries forced him to retire early from the Senate, where he had served for three decades.

The eight-member jury’s decision followed eight days of civil trial testimony, during which Reid never proved that the device he claims he was using when he was injured was a TheraBand made by Hygenic Corp. of Ohio.

Link

-Lurid Crime Tales-

Lisa Page and the FBI: the Gift that Keeps on Giving

2019-01-16

[Victory Girls] You knew it was too good to be true. We’ve gone weeks, maybe even months, without Lisa Page being in the news. After all the liberal rhetoric about "The Wall", maybe we ought to thank The Daily Caller and The Epoch Times for giving us something else to think about. Except then we have to wonder‐yet again‐at the apparent improprieties committed by the FBI during its investigations of not only President Trump but of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Background:

Lisa Page is the former assistant general counsel at the FBI;
She testified twice behind closed doors into the actions of the FBI, the Department of Justice, CIA Director John Brennan and others regarding the investigation into President Trump;
Included in her testimony was the Steele Brief and information regarding it that Brennan gave to Sen. Harry Reid (D);
Page also testified that "DOJ refused to pursue "gross-negligence" charges against Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server to send classified information."

But there’s more.

Link

-Lurid Crime Tales-

New Texts Suggest Obama WH, CIA, FBI, And Harry Reid Colluded At Outset Of Russia Probe

2018-03-29

[Townhall] Gun control might be on everyone’s minds, or at least those in America’s newsrooms, but we have yet another development in the ongoing and increasingly comical investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians. There are new texts allegedly showing that the Obama White House, the CIA, the FBI, and top Democrats colluded at the outset of the Russia probe. FBI Agent Peter Strzok, who initiated this investigation in July of 2016, sent them to his mistress and bureau lawyer Lisa Page. That effort is now to be headed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Strzok became a centerpiece of this whole saga since his extramarital affair with Page brought the probe’s credibility in question and that of the FBI itself.

Strzok texted Page saying that certain cyber intelligence should be given to the Obama White House on August 8, 2016.

"Internal joint cyber cd intel piece for D, scenesetter for McDonough brief, Trainer [head of FBI cyber division] directed all cyber info be pulled. I’d let Bill and Jim hammer it out first, though it would be best for D to have it before the Wed WH session," he said.

Fox News reported that "D" referred to White House Chief of Staff Dennis McDonough. Later that month, on August 25, then-CIA Director John Brennan briefed Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), who then penned a letter to former FBI Director James Comey about possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. On August 29, The New York Times reported on the letter; Page sent the link to the story to Strzok saying, "here we go."

The news network noted that GOP investigators don’t want to draw any conclusions, but noted that this is enough to call for a special investigator to ensure the independence of the agencies was honored. The FBI and the CIA aren’t supposed to engage in what appears to be a coordinated political activity during an election.

Via Fox News:

Link

Home Front: Politix

[HRC tied to] Boston law firm accused of massive straw-donor scheme

2016-11-03

[CBSNews] Hillary Clinton’s campaign is returning thousands of dollars in donations linked to what may be one of the largest straw-donor schemes ever uncovered.

A small law firm that has given money to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Harry Reid, President Obama and many others is accused of improperly funneling millions of dollars into Democratic Party coffers. The program was exposed by the Center for Responsive Politics and the same team of Boston Globe investigative reporters featured in the movie "Spotlight."

The Thornton Law Firm has just 10 partners, but dollar for dollar, it’s one of the nation’s biggest political donors, reports CBS News correspondent Tony Dokoupil.

But according to the firm’s own documents ‐ leaked by a whistleblower -- days or even hours after making these donations, partners received bonuses matching the amount they gave.

"Once the law firm knew that we had these records, they didn’t deny that this was the case,"
Funny how that works.
said Scott Allen, Boston Globe’s Spotlight editor.
Nice little graphic included showing a few other recipients of the $.

Link

Home Front: Politix

US officials see no link between Trump and Russia: report

2016-11-01

[The Hill] Amid multiple reports drawing different connections between Donald Trump's campaign and Russia Monday night, the New York Times reported that FBI officials' investigations of the GOP nominee have yet to confirm ties between the two.

FBI officials said their investigations have yet to find a connection between the GOP presidential nominee and Russia.

The bureau has been investigating the Russian government’s role in the U.S. presidential election. But the FBI believes that the country was likely trying to disrupt the overall race, and not trying boost Trump’s chance of getting elected.

The Monday night report comes after CNBC reported earlier in the day that FBI Director James Comey argued against accusing Russia of interfering in the election due to the timing, and because he did not want the accusation against Russia to come from his agency.

And Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) alleged earlier in the day that the FBI has "explosive information" about a connection between the two, suggesting federal investigators have "explosive information about close ties and coordination between Donald Trump, his top advisors and the Russian government" and must make it public.

Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and critics have criticized Trump for praising Russian President Vladimir Putin. But Trump has pushed back that he has "nothing to do" with Russia and doesn’t know Putin.

The conclusions also comes amid a report from Slate that an unnamed computer scientist found a connection between a Trump organization server and two servers registered to a Moscow bank.

The FBI is also reportedly looking into former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort’s foreign business and political dealings, according to NBC.

FBI officials declined to comment for the Times story, but intelligence officials have said in interviews over the past several weeks that apparent connections between Trump aides and Moscow motivated them to open a larger investigation.

So far, no evidence that has surfaced that Trump has any links to Russia.

Link

Home Front: Politix

McConnell Rams Through Voice Vote to Fund Planned Parenthood, Defend Obama's Iran Deal

2015-07-29

[Tea Party] Here's what happened: McConnell offered to the highway bill a non-germane amendment--which was deemed germane by his colleagues this weekend--that would reauthorize the highly controversial Export-Import Bank. In response, Sens. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) offered two amendments on Sunday evening to McConnell's non-germane-to-the-highway-bill-amendment-that-was-later-inaccurately-deemed-germane.

The reason why Cruz and Lee offered amendments to McConnell's amendment--essentially second tier amendments, or amendments to an amendment--rather than to the highway bill itself is because McConnell engaged in a tactic made popular by his predecessor, former Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), called "filling the amendment tree." Doing that ensures that there is no opportunity for senators to offer any extra amendments, and it is a tactic designed to stifle open and honest debate.

Cruz's amendment would have, when it comes to President Obama's nuclear arms deal with Iran, kept sanctions on Iran until it recognized the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state and until Iran released the four Americans it is currently holding hostage in their country. Lee's amendment would have defunded Planned Parenthood--which has gotten lots of extra attention as of late, as new covert videos have emerged showing executives from the taxpayer-funded abortion-providing institution seeking to sell aborted baby body parts.

Cruz's came up first,and when he offered it, it was shot down by the chair in the Senate--the presiding officer--as non-germane to McConnell's Export Import Bank reauthorization amendment. Cruz appealed the ruling of the chair--a vote that requires just 51 Senators, or a simple majority in the Senate--and instead of actually having a recorded roll call vote, the yeas and nays, GOP leadership including McConnell and Cornyn ordered it voice voted down. Since the vote threshold to overturn the ruling of the chair is a simple majority, and there are only 46 Democrats in the Senate, it means that McConnell and Cornyn would have needed to deliver at least five Republicans to kill Cruz's motion, assuming all the Democrats voted that way. Instead, by voice voting it down--in fact, only Sens. Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Lee seconded Cruz's motion for a roll call vote, not a sufficient number to get a recorded vote--they kept themselves from having to make five Republicans walk the political plank to vote against something they say they support.

Voice voting means a whole bunch of senators just yelled out that they didn't support Cruz's effort to restrain Iran from hurting Israel, because McConnell and Cornyn didn't want evidence of which (at least) five Republican senators would join presumably all the Democrats to vote down the amendment's chances.
Bloody murdering cowards of the first order. I await the appearance of an abortion recipient who will admit being paid cash money for baby tissues. Surely someone will soon be stepping forward.
The same exact process played out a few minutes later when Lee moved to do the same.

In response to this process happening on Sunday evening, in a public statement on his website, Cruz hammered McConnell.

"We've just seen something extraordinary on the Senate floor," Cruz said in the statement. "The American people elected a Republican majority believing that a Republican majority would be somehow different from a Democratic majority in the United States Senate. Unfortunately, the way the current Senate operates, there is one party, the Washington party."
More @ link (if you can stomach it.

Link

-Land of the Free

Sheriffs Association director: Fed's still planning Bundy Ranch raid.

2014-04-15

[WND] The executive director of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association says his sources inside the federal government warn that Washington's weekend retreat in a dispute over grazing land in Nevada was only a move to distract attention and diffuse tensions, because a raid on the family's ranch still is planned.

And there probably would be violence involved, said Richard Mack, the former sheriff of Graham County, Ariz.

"I don't think it would be possible" to launch a raid without violence, he told WND Monday. "I don't think the Bundys would lie down and be taken."

He cited the vow by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., that the confrontation was far from over, despite the weekend's retreat by armed gunmen working for federal agencies.

Reid on Monday told KRNV-TV in Reno: "It's not over. We can't have an American people that violate the law and then just walk away from it. So it's not over."
But when POTUS and regime "violate" the law or make it up as they go, no problem.

Link

-Land of the Free

Dingy Harry Behind Ranch Rakeover

2014-04-12

The Bureau of Land Management, whose director was Sen. Harry Reid's (D-Nev.~~Senator for Life~~) former senior adviser, has purged documents from its web site stating that the agency wants Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy's cattle off of the land his family has worked for over 140 years in order to make way for solar panel power stations.

Deleted from BLM.gov but reposted for posterity by the Free Republic, the BLM document entitled "Cattle Trespass Impacts" directly states that Bundy's cattle "impacts" solar development, more specifically the construction of "utility-scale solar power generation facilities" on "public lands."

"Non-Governmental Organizations have expressed concern that the regional mitigation strategy for the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone utilizes Gold Butte as the location for offsite mitigation for impacts from solar development, and that those restoration activities are not durable with the presence of trespass cattle," the document states.

Back in 2012, the New American reported that Harry Reid's son, Rory Reid, was the chief representative for a Chinese energy firm planning to build a $5-billion solar plant on public land in Laughlin, Nevada.

And journalist Marcus Stern with Reuters also reported that Sen. Reid was heavily involved in the deal as well.

"[Reid] and his oldest son, Rory, are both involved in an effort by a Chinese energy giant, ENN Energy Group, to build a $5 billion solar farm and panel manufacturing plant in the southern Nevada desert," he wrote. "Reid has been one of the project's most prominent advocates, helping recruit the company during a 2011 trip to China and applying his political muscle on behalf of the project in Nevada."
No comment necessary. I suspected something like this.

Link

Home Front: Politix

Official Arizona GOP Body Passes Formal Rebuke of John McCain

2013-09-13

The Legislative District 26 Republican Party in Arizona has passed a formal rebuke of Sen.

John Maverick McCain
... the Senator-for-Life from Arizona, former presidential candidate and even more former foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution...
(R-AZ) for abdicating GOP principles in helping Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) secure votes to approve several of President Barack Obama's controversial nominees.

"Senator John McCain unilaterally negotiated with the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to secure Republican votes necessary to pass a number of controversial Presidential nominees," the resolution, which passed the official GOP body in the state by a 24-13 vote with four abstentions on Tuesday evening, reads.

The resolution notes that President Obama nominated "Gina McCarthy for head of the Environmental Protection Agency, an environmental bureaucrat who supports anti-job/consumer policies," "Richard Corday to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFRB), an unaccountable, unconstitutional agency created by the Dodd-Frank legislation," and "Thomas Perez as Labor Secretary who has a known record for abusing power as Maryland's Labor Secretary, handing political appointments to Big-Labor bedfellows."

It argues that McCain "provided the votes necessary for the confirmation of the above nominees," and his "'deal' was nothing more than capitulation to the Senate Majority Leader, giving him everything he asked for."

"Senator McCain claims in defense of his actions, that they were taken to prevent the Senate Majority Leader from 'going nuclear' and illegally breaking the Senate rules to pass these nominees," the GOP resolution states, adding that McCain's activity contradicted GOP principles and "the position of Legislative District 26 Republicans is that senators should call the Senate Majority Leader's bluff and force him to get the votes necessary from members of his own party."

The resolution says that given those facts, McCain must "cease deal-making and negotiations for Republican votes that undermine the Senate Republican Leader."

The resolution also argues that because of McCain's work to help Reid and Obama secure confirmation of those liberal nominees, "the conduct of Senator McCain, is unbecoming a Member of the United States Senate, weakened the Senate Republican Leader, and is hereby strongly rebuked and condemned."

Matt Papke, the third vice chair of the body, told Breitbart News that "McCain is the poster child for term limits."

"His back room dealings, insatiable war drum, and eroding base call to question why this man is our Senator," Papke, who is also a candidate for Tempe, AZ, City Council, said in an email. "It is my hope that Senators McCain and Flake work to reestablish their relationships with the boots on the ground members of Legislative District 26 Republicans."

This latest rebuke comes on the heels of the Maricopa County GOP blistering McCain in recent web literature, and his increased distance from Republicans in the state, including the House GOP delegation, as Breitbart News has reported.
Contentious town hall video at link.

Link

Home Front: Politix

Harry Reid: Regulations have nothing to do with killing jobs

2012-11-16

Sen. Harry Reid, in a floor speech Tuesday:

Republicans have yet to produce a single shred of evidence that the regulations they hate so much do the broad economic harms they claim. Thats because there is none, said Reid, the Senate majority leader from Nevada.

In a Senate speech, Reid said the Bureau of Labor Statistics has concluded only a tiny fraction of layoffs have anything at all to do with tighter regulation.

Last year, only three-tenths of 1 percent of people who lost their jobs were let go principally because of government regulation or intervention, Reid said. On the other hand, a quarter of them were laid off because of lack of business.

The Heritage Foundations James Gattuso explains the statistic:

The numbers come from the Labor Departments Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which, in cooperation from state authorities, tracks mass layoffs, defined as layoffs of 50 or more workers for 31 days or more. In each case in which such a mass layoff is identified, state authorities interview the employers involved, asking them (among other things) the reason for the layoffs. For the third quarter, BLS reported that 0.3 percent of respondents listed governmental regulations/intervention as the reason

It appears to be a simple process, but its actually quite tricky. The first problem is that economic hardship does not come with labels. Employers know if their costs are rising but not necessarily whether it is due to new burdens imposed on their suppliers or other factors. They may know that they didnt get the capital they needed but not if it was because investors had better opportunities or because of government financial rules. They will know if demand has slumped, but its not so clear whether it was because their product is valued less by the marketplace or because government rules choked off demand from customers. The actual causes are likely to be mixed.

But even if government interviewers could identify with precision the reasons for mass layoffs, that would tell us little about why unemployment is so high. Mass layoffs are only part of the job loss picturejob losses dont always come 50 or more at a time. Most small businesses dont even have 50 employees.

But where Reid and others really miss the mark, however, is in assuming that job losses are the problem, rather than a lack of job creation. As argued by my colleague James Sherk, layoffs spiked early in the recession but then they fell sharply. Since late 2009, gross job losses in the economy have actually been below their pre-recession levels. In fact, in 2010 there were fewer gross job losses than any time since the government began tracking these figures in 1992. Unemployment remains high because the economy has not been creating jobs. Last September, for instance, employers hired only 4.2 million new workersa million fewer monthly new hires than before the recession.

Lets lay aside the fact that it is job creation thats most of our problem and that all the layoffs weve been hearing about lately seem to be Obamacare regulation-related.

Sen. Harry Reid, meet the people you think dont exist. A boutique, local, organic, artisan maker of cured meats is closing in Denver thanks to a USDA regulation that would require him to taint his all-natural, Old World methods for making his product in order to comply:

In August, the USDA imposed additional requirements on Il Mondo Vecchios production methods. After two months of sharing information and collaboration back and forth between Il Mondo Vecchio and the USDA as well as various attempts to modify the production methods, the owners announced, Il Mondo Vecchio has determined that the impact of the regulatory requirements on dry cured sausage products was detrimental to the quality of the product and therefore, Mark and Gennaro are forced to close the[ir] doors.

This conflict between modern regulations and traditional methods is something DeNittis thought for a time he could navigate.

We adhere to Old World techniques of natural process while following New World regulations, Il Mondo Vecchios website states.

When it comes to Old World methods, I think it would be hard to find a better example of a traditional, conscientious, sustainable, and local producer than Il Mondo Vecchio.

The product has, of course, never sickened anyone or faced any complaint, and Denver foodies will count it a loss to their community. This is, literally, the war on bacon.

And, one mans dream, his livelihood, his community, and his employees are poorer for it. But by all means, keep piling them on, Harry

Link

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