h/t Gates of Vienna
Republicans on Capitol Hill lament President Trump's aggressive behavior toward them, but some people in the president's orbit are urging him to up the ante even further.
They say that, far from making nice, Trump needs to instill fear so that lawmakers do not feel at liberty to thwart him.
"Most members of Congress are arrogant, and until a scalp is actually taken they are going to continue to be defiant," longtime Trump friend Roger Stone told The Hill. "All he needs to do is punish one incumbent and I think you’d see a sea-change."
#1
I've thought such for a long time. Trump should make an effort to appear in states where he's gotten a lot of Republican push-back. Give a public relations moment or two to someone likely to primary against the Republican causing him trouble. You'll see that Republican reform, or better yet replaced without necessarily losing numbers in the midterms. Politicians only understand one thing, their phones Bologny jobs.
[Washington Examiner] The Podesta Group belatedly filed several new disclosures with the Justice Department on Aug. 17 related to work the firm completed between 2012 and 2014 on behalf of a pro-Russia Ukrainian think tank.
Back in April, the powerful Washington lobbying firm run by Clinton ally Tony Podesta filed a document admitting its work for the pro-Russia European Centre for a Modern Ukraine may have principally benefited a foreign government. New disclosures revealed dozens of previously unreported interactions the firm made with influential government offices, including Hillary Clinton's State Department and the office of former Vice President Joe Biden, while lobbying on behalf of the center. Embattled ex-Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort failed to disclose his extensive lobbying efforts on behalf of the center at the time as well.
Anyone lobbying or doing public relations on behalf of foreign governments is required to register as a foreign agent in compliance with the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The Aug. 17 filings include short-form registration statements for six Podesta Group employees and an amendment to the firm's registration statement that includes a list of political contributions made by relevant employees throughout 2013.
A review of those donations shows both parties received cash from Podesta Group lobbyists.
The individual employee filings appear to be uniform and lawyerly, each describing what their services were supposed to entail as, "Research and analyze issues related to principal's organizational mission of improving ties between Ukraine and the West counsel on activities in Congress and executive branch and developments that relate to the principal's organizational mission; and maintain contact, as needed, with legislative and executive branch officials, members of the media, and NGOs." One of the filings is for Tony Podesta himself, who was a bundler for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. Tony and his brother John--Clinton's 2016 campaign chairman--co-founded the lobbying firm in 1988.
#3
Anyone lobbying or doing public relations on behalf of foreign governments is required to register as a foreign agent in compliance with the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
How about Carlos Slim?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/28/2017 11:13 Comments ||
Top||
#4
With all the connections and inter-connections, it is like unraveling a bowl of spaghetti. Podesta bros., Paul Manafort, Hillary, Biden, a pro-Russian Ukrainian group somehow connected to promote Hillary over Trump in the election. Toss in the Deep State and you have something absolutely Machiavellian.
The Daily Mail added their own reporting to the Ay Pee feed. Who wrote which bit is pretty clear.
[DailyMail]
Hundreds of people showed up to demonstrate against alt-right group Patriot Prayer at Alamo Square park which had planned a gathering in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge but then canceled the event
Patriot Prayer planned to instead hold a press conference but this was again downgraded and an organizer for the pro-Trump group simply spoke in suburban Pacifica with a just handful of supporters
However counter-protesters showed up at Alamo Square park anyway leading to a number of scuffles breaking out among the crowd and one arrest
'My hope is to be able to talk to normal citizens without all the extremists,' Gibson, who identifies as Japanese American, said at the news conference.
Other speakers included African Americans, a Latino and a Samoan American. Several said they support Donald Trump and want to join with moderates to promote understanding and free speech.
The pivots by the group didn't deter more than 1,000 left-wing counter-protesters from descending on Alamo Square park, where they suspected right-wing supporters still might show up.
'San Francisco as a whole, we are a liberal city and this is not a place for hate or any sort of bigotry of any kind,' Bianca Harris said.
Mx Harris -- it doesn't do to make assumptions based on given name in this context -- is deep in 1984 territory here.
'I think it's a really powerful message that we're sending to people who come here to try to spew messages of hate that it's just not welcome in this city.'
A powerful message, yes. The rest of that sentence is just a series of falsehoods.
Police closed the park early in the day and looked on in riot gear as the demonstrators gathered around its perimeter waving signs condemning white supremacists and chanting, 'Whose streets? Our streets!' Hundreds of others took to the streets in the Castro neighborhood. "Not nobody else's streets!"
The city has banned a long list of items from the park, including baseball bats, dogs and skate boards. People at the park are also not allowed to cover their faces with scarves or bandanas.
That last was less than completely enforced, according to the photos.
#1
I said this a couple weeks ago. The right should plan events in liberal cities to draw Antifa in and then cancel at the last minute. Antifa will still show up and it is in their nature to destroy. It becomes hard to blame the right for violence when they aren't even there.
[Daily Caller] The board of directors of the Orpheum Theatre Group in Memphis, Tennessee has decided to end a 34-year tradition of screening "Gone with the Wind" because the board says the movie is now "insensitive."
Board members announced the plan to remove the 1939 epic from The Orpehum’s 2018 summer movie series on Friday, reports Memphis CBS affiliate WREG-TV.
"As an organization whose stated mission is to ’entertain, educate and enlighten the communities it serves,’ the Orpheum cannot show a film that is insensitive to a large segment of its local population," board members said in a statement.
"While title selections for the series are typically made in the spring of each year, the Orpheum has made this determination early in response to specific inquiries from patrons," the statement also said.
The Orpheum -- a 2,308-seat theater in downtown Memphis -- held its final screening of "Gone with the Wind" on Aug. 11.
Since the early 1980s, the Orpheum has generated massive amounts of revenue showing the 238-minute epic about the complex love life of a plantation owner’s daughter during the Civil War era.
[Townhall] So, in the land of progressivism that is the state of California, the legislature could be imposing a tax on drinking water aimed at repairing the state’s public water works. It will be 95¢ a month that is projected to generate $2 billion in revenue over the next 15 years. Surprisingly environmentalists and farmers have forged an alliance on this issue. The farmers want contaminated water cleaned due to the runoff from their farms. Farms will face fees that will total $30 million in revenue annually to help with the needed repairs. This is still going to be a fight in the state legislature, however. And the water companies don’t seem too keen on becoming the state’s tax collector on this issue. Kate Murphy of The Mercury News has all the details about this new measure:
#6
California is going to run out of money. The California government will have to betray the environmentalists and allow fracking, or they will have to betray the Unions and admit they can't fund the gov pensions.
This tax on water is a delaying tactic and politically so stupid that if it goes through and shoots up water bills will cause every politician to be replaced.
#7
What happens to the poor that can no longer afford vital WATER.
What happens to landlords that rent others but that don't have individual meters on each unit? They have to up rents big time?
This is a direct attack on the poor and if the Republicans don't use this tax as a cudgel to beat the Democrats out of Sacramento they truly are the STUPID party.
They are already out of money. They are borrowing and using sleazy book tricks to keep it from looking as bad as it is. They are trying to raise taxes on everything to stop the leaks, but people and businesses keep leaving. One of the reasons they are so hell bent on keeping illegals is it means more federal funding for schools and medicaid. Cut that off and they are completely screwed.
#9
Next: air. What other basics of human existence can they tax?
Amazingly, they haven't legalized 'it' like Nevada. If it legal, you can tax it. I guess the matriarchy is still a ladder rung above tax collecting in the hierarchy of power and authority in CA.
#11
We are witnessing a rerun of the 1996 classic "Escape from L.A." featuring Snake Plissken--now the mass jailbreak from the rest of California. Taxes on everything have a way of turning people into conservatives unless they are on receiving end of the taxes or are ideologically too hard-wired.
#13
or they will have to betray the Unions and admit they can't fund the gov pensions.
The betrayal is not adequately funding the pensions at every point between when the promises were made and now. The betrayal has already happened, it's just that the politicians and union leadership have avoided publically admitting it.
To be fair, this is a general problem, not specific to the government entities in California; as those chickens settle sequentially on their various roosts, the political results will be very interesting, indeed.
#18
If the thingy result in the birth of a child, tax them heavily. If it doesn't result in the birth of a child, you get of scot-free. Abortions get taxed at two/three times the "birthing" tax rate. All such taxes must be paid immediately!
[POWERLINEBLOG] Coral Ridge Ministries Media, Inc., which does business as D. James Kennedy Ministries, has sued the Southern Poverty Law Center, Amazon and Guidestar in federal court in Alabama. The complaint is here. The case arises out of SPLC’s designation of the Kennedy Ministries as a "hate group" because, consistent with Christian doctrine, it opposes gay marriage. Because of that designation, Amazon has barred Kennedy Ministries from its Amazon Smile program for nonprofits, and Guidestar has republished SPLC’s smear in its guide to nonprofits, which is heavily relied on by donors.
I love to see SPLC get sued, and it would be great if they lost. They deserve it. Amazon, too. But I doubt that this case has much of a chance. There are some more or less clever theories in the complaint‐the Lanham Act, and a Civil Rights Act claim against Amazon predicated on the theory that it is a public accommodation since it sells movies and songs‐but the core claim is defamation, and the central defendant is SPLC.
Of course, SPLC won’t want this case to get anywhere near a jury. It won’t try to mount a truth defense, but will argue that as a matter of law its statement that Kennedy is a "hate group" is an opinion and therefore cannot be the basis of liability. As I understand it, SPLC hasn’t asserted any facts about Kennedy Ministries that could be shown to be false, but has merely included the organization on its "hate map." If that is correct, the opinion defense is destined to prevail.
Still, it is heartwarming to see someone go after one of the most detestable organizations in America. And the politically correct Amazon, too. Even if unsuccessful, the litigation may alert more people to what an unreliable, partisan organization SPLC is.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2017 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The SPLC is not the moral compass of this country. If it is, we are in trouble.
#2
The real threat to our republic is the Orwellian Antifa
No, the real threat is the entire corrupt, radical left-wing media/government/education complex. ALL OF IT.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
08/28/2017 10:23 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Dave D. has a point. To me, the scariest part of the whole Charlottesville mess was the refusal of the MSM to even mention Antifa. That's the Ministry of Truth in action and it is truly chilling.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/28/2017 11:09 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Scary, yet entirely predictable. The preferred media narrative is "violent, racist right-wing Republican extremists go on another horrific rampage" and pointing out Antifa's role in the violence doesn't fit neatly into that story. So they ignore it. And a significant chunk of our population is dumb enough to believe the propaganda.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
08/28/2017 11:27 Comments ||
Top||
[NYPOST] Roosevelt Island should be renamed because of FDR’s "racist" decision to send Japanese-Americans to internment camps during World War II, a new petition demands.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt -- who led the nation through the Great Depression and WWII and told Americans they had "nothing to fear but fear itself" -- is nevertheless unworthy of having his name on the 147-acre island that is home to 9,700 New Yorkers, those behind the petition claim.
"To add injury to insult, the name was taken away from the Native American people who were slaughtered by the American settlers," said Margarita L., who started the petition.
The petition, which has a goal of 1,000 signatures, was posted Aug. 19 on the online petition site Care2Petitions.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2017 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
...Stopped clock, and all that.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/28/2017 5:35 Comments ||
Top||
#2
There's a pretty new statue in DC they can dislodge. Go for it! Who's going to stop you?
Roosevelt Island should be renamed because of FDR’s "racist" decision to send Japanese-Americans to internment camps during World War II, a new petition demands.
BTW, ignore the 1995 release of the Japanese diplomatic traffic which indicated they had friends in the communities. Or that they only moved those who resided near 90% of American aircraft production sites, then in Seattle and the LA basin.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Daily Caller] The board of directors of the Orpheum Theatre Group in Memphis, Tennessee has decided to end a 34-year tradition of screening "Gone with the Wind" because the board says the movie is now "insensitive."
[POWERLINEBLOG] Coral Ridge Ministries Media, Inc., which does business as D. James Kennedy Ministries, has sued the Southern Poverty Law Center, Amazon and Guidestar in federal court in Alabama. The complaint is here. The case arises out of SPLC’s designation of the Kennedy Ministries as a "hate group" because, consistent with Christian doctrine, it opposes gay marriage. Because of that designation, Amazon has barred Kennedy Ministries from its Amazon Smile program for nonprofits, and Guidestar has republished SPLC’s smear in its guide to nonprofits, which is heavily relied on by donors.
