By Niall Stanage. The demise of Trump’s candidacy has been predicted by centrist Republicans and the media alike virtually since the day it began. But there is no empirical evidence at all to suggest it is happening.
Last month, the liberal ThinkProgress collated more than 30 predictions of the business mogul’s imminent demise. One typical example was The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart, who discerned “the beginning of the end of Trump” in mid-July, soon after the mogul criticized the Vietnam War record of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)
Despite all that, Trump has led the RealClearPolitics (RCP) polling average in a virtually unbroken spell for four months. The only person to briefly wrest the lead away from him, Dr. Ben Carson, appears to be fading. And numerous polls show Trump drawing double the support of his closest establishment-friendly rival, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.)
Add to all this the fact that Trump’s lead over the rest of the GOP field has expanded since the terrorist attacks in Paris, and it becomes clear why anxiety among his many Republican critics is reaching new heights.
“He has a real shot at this. He is the clear front-runner,” said Ron Bonjean, a consultant and former aide to GOP leaders on Capitol Hill. (Read more from “GOP Establishment Terrified that Trump Could Win; Now Group of Black Pastors Preparing to Endorse” HERE)
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Group of Black Pastors to Meet With Donald Trump Monday, May Endorse
A New York Times article this week suggested that 100 black pastors were meeting with Donald Trump this Monday and would endorse him. However, a number of participants have vocally disagreed with that prediction.
A pastor slated to attend from Los Angeles, for example, posted on Facebook that, “I am not officially endorsing ANY candidate and when I do you will NOT need to hear it from pulpitting courtjesters who suffer from intellectual and spiritual myopia.”
The organizer of the conference, Pastor Darrell Scott, confirmed that not all of the invited pastors had agreed to endorse Trump but that he and many others would.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-11-28 03:55:222016-04-11 10:55:41GOPe Nearing “Full-Blown Panic” Over Trump; Now Major Group of Black Pastors Expected to Endorse
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has a problem. The political organization he sits at the head of, designed to protect incumbent Republican senators, is losing power. And so, in this year’s omnibus spending bill, which is considered “must pass” in order to keep the government running, he plans to give the National Republican Senatorial Committee and other party-aligned groups even more extraordinary privileges in the political process.
McConnell is preparing to attach a rider that would eliminate all coordination limits for the National Republican Senatorial Committee and other national party committees run by Washington insiders, such as the Republican National Committee and National Republican Congressional Committee. McConnell’s ploy would give party groups an incredible leg up over outside organizations that are barred from coordinating with candidates.
Should there be any coordination or giving limits? Of course not. It’s all unconstitutional. But what McConnell proposes is no principled reform. McConnell is abusing the legislative process to protect his diminishing political power. He wants more big donor money, with more power to spend it how he wants, and is granting himself a giant loophole to do it.
Nevermind that McConnell could be using the must-pass spending bill to defund Obamacare, defund Planned Parenthood, stop President Obama’s executive amnesty, or pause the Syrian refugee program; he has his own priorities. McConnell is using the precious opportunity to give himself more political power and protect his position as Majority Leader.
This isn’t a debate over leveling the playing field between the parties and Super PACs. McConnell wants the NRSC to be more powerful than multi-candidate PACS, such as the Senate Conservatives Fund, and individual candidate campaigns, say like, “Ted Cruz for Senate.”
According to current law, a single donor may give $33,400 to a party organization, such as the NRSC.
And the NRSC already has much more latitude to use those funds than any other groups. Although the amount varies from state to state based on the voting age population, the NRSC can spend anywhere from $96,000, in the sparsely-populated state of North Dakota, to more than $1 million for the state of Texas on coordinating activities.
McConnell’s coordination rider would remove all coordination limits for the NRSC and other party groups. Every single penny of a donor’s $33,400 contribution would be able, through the NRSC, to be used in direct coordination with the candidates. The NRSC may also, on top of coordinating funds, contribute up to another $46,800 to candidates.
Meanwhile, the limits placed on donations to other organizations are much, much more stringent.
A donor may only give $2,700 directly to a candidate.
A single donor may only give $5,000 to a multi-candidate PAC and that PAC may only donate $5,000 per candidate, with no coordination.
Donors may give freely to Super PACS, but the Super PACs are prohibited from coordinating.
See how attractive it would become to give to the NRSC? Bigger checks, more coordination, which allows for more seamless, smarter campaigns. Although multi-candidate PACS closely resemble national party committees in the way they seek to support and elect candidates, they are being explicitly disenfranchised.
The NRSC, and other Washington party groups, want to control the elections and McConnell is changing the rules to make the DC establishment more powerful than PACs and individual campaigns.
Remember, McConnell has made no secret of his hatred for conservative groups who dare challenge his stature in Washington. He once said organizations such as the Senate Conservatives Fund, which proudly backed candidates the NRSC spurned, such as Marco Rubio, Mike Lee, Rand Paul, and Ted Cruz, “need a punch in the nose.”
Just as the NRSC has done in the past, these new powers will be used to unfairly protect establishment senators who should have lost their previous primary elections, such as Thad Cochran, Lisa Murkowski, and others.
Inside Washington, McConnell uses these funds to control members as well. Members who vote the way Speaker McConnell wants them to vote are rewarded with monetary support from the NRSC. Members who don’t are left to fundraise on their own.
Without question, there should be campaign finance reform. But it should pass a simple test: Either the reform applies to everyone or it applies to no one. Fair is fair.
If McConnell wants to eliminate coordination limits for the NRSC he should, at the very least, be willing to do it for multi-candidate PACS that have even smaller contribution limits.
National party committees and multi-candidate PACs should be playing by the same rules. For all donations from individual donors, for all contributions to candidates, and for all coordination activities.
McConnell’s coordination rider is not reform. It’s cronyism at its worst.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-11-28 03:52:562016-04-11 10:55:41GOP Establishment Trying To Increase Power of NRSC So Lisa Murkowski, Other RINOs Can Be Reelected
Photo Credit: APA school in Wisconsin has abruptly dropped what critics suggested was a stealth plan for a promotion about transgenderism after parents objected – and called in a team of lawyers to help them fight off a plan that was being sprung on them with only a day’s notice.
The decision was made by the Mount Horeb Elementary School in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, to withdraw plans to promote the pro-transgenderism book “I Am Jazz” to grade-school students after school officials were warned by officials with Liberty Counsel that the district’s claim it had a student with a “girl brain and a boy body” was “completely at odds with the rationale for equality between the sexes: there is no difference between male and female brains or mental abilities, and this this idea fosters gender stereotypes.”
Further, the team of lawyers at Liberty Counsel told the district its plan to support a student with gender confusion by requiring students to call a boy “her” and “she” … “infringes upon the other students’ rights to tell the truth, in accordance with their religious convictions, and reality.”
“No one has a moral right to compel others to participate in a fiction (including compelling teachers and others to use pronouns that do not correspond to objective biological sex),” the letter from Liberty Counsel to the district said.
Officials with Liberty Counsel said an alert parent of a student at the Wisconsin elementary school told the organization about a notice from the school that officials planned to promote “I Am Jazz” by LGBT activist Jessica Herthel to young students. (Read more about how parents convinced this school to reverse its transgenderism indoctrination of students HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-11-28 03:51:262016-04-11 10:55:41How to Fight Back: School Reverses Plan to Indoctrinate Students About Transgenderism
NOAA appears to pick and choose only data that confirms their bias. NOAA then disseminates this incomplete data to the media who manufacture alarming headlines but ignore the uncertainty of the conclusions.
Earlier this year, NASA issued a news release stating that 2014 was the warmest year on record. Few media acknowledged the footnote: Scientists were only 38 percent sure this was actually correct. That is less than 50-50.
NOAA fully understands margins of error and works with them on a daily basis. But where are these details in their news releases? While NOAA’s monthly projections usually warn of increased warming, they ignore satellite data that refutes their alarmist statements.
The ability to remain independent of political consideration seems like a minimum requirement for an agency that should provide unbiased scientific information. But NOAA’s habit of picking and choosing data raises serious questions about the agency’s independence. In fact, it shreds NOAA’s credibility.
As a self-proclaimed “environmental intelligence agency,” NOAA’s reports should be based only on the best available science that takes into account all sources of data. Unfortunately, NOAA continues to rely upon biased science in pursuit of a predetermined outcome. That’s not good science, it’s science fiction.
(Read more from “NOAA’s Climate Change Science Fiction HERE)
High-strength cannabis may damage nerve fibres that handle the flow of messages across the two halves of the brain, scientists claim. Brain scans of people who regularly smoked strong skunk-like cannabis revealed subtle differences in the white matter that connects the left and right hemispheres and carries signals from one side of the brain to the other.
The changes were not seen in those who never used cannabis or smoked only the less potent forms of the drug, the researchers found.
The study is thought to be the first to look at the effects of cannabis potency on brain structure, and suggests that greater use of skunk may cause more damage to the corpus callosum, making communications across the brain’s hemispheres less efficient.
Paola Dazzan, a neurobiologist at the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London, said the effects appeared to be linked to the level of active ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), in cannabis. While traditional forms of cannabis contain 2 to 4 % THC, the more potent varieties (of which there are about 100), can contain 10 to 14% THC, according to the DrugScope charity. (Read more from this story concluding that marijuana damages brain HERE)
By Cory Bennett. Policymakers are searching for ways to defend the nation’s power grid from a major cyberattack, amid concerns the industry’s digital defenses are dangerously lagging and underfunded.
Security experts warn that energy companies, while attuned to the threat, are scrambling to play catch-up, leaving the all-important power grid exposed to hackers.
On Capitol Hill, the threat of a major power grid hack has mostly gone with little notice, sidelined by the bold cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment, a series of hacks across the health insurance industry and the devastating intrusions at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), thought to be the largest ever digital theft of government data. . .
National Security Agency (NSA) Director Adm. Michael Rogers acknowledged in a congressional hearing that China and likely “one or two” other countries are currently sitting on the grid, with the ability to literally turn out the lights if they wanted to.
Rogers said these states, which likely include Russia and possibly Iran, “are deterred only by the fear of U.S. retaliation.” (Read more from this story about how Congress has failed to respond to other countries being able to shutdown US grid HERE)
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State Department: 80% of Attacks from China, Hacking Will Continue
By Bill Gertz. American companies doing business in China will face a continuing threat to their intellectual property under Chinese President Xi Jinping’s security policies, according to a State Department security report.
China’s large-scale information hacking is not limited to recent incidents like the theft of Office of Personnel Management records on 2.1 million federal workers, according to the report by department’s diplomatic security office produced for the Overseas Security Advisory Council.
Hacking is part of a much broader trend with an estimated 80 percent of all cyberattacks against Americans coming from China, the report says, noting that, despite the recent agreement by Mr. Xi to curb intellectual property theft, “threats to [intellectual property] are unlikely to disappear soon.”
The report adds, “Visitors to China should have no expectations of privacy. Taxis, hotel rooms, and meeting spaces are all subject to on-site and remote technical monitoring. Furthermore, the Chinese government’s access to infrastructure means that all forms of communication, including phone calls, faxes, emails and text messages, as well as Internet browsing history, are likely monitored.” (Read more from this story HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-11-28 02:29:532016-04-11 10:55:42NSA: China, Other Countries ALREADY Can Shutdown US Grid; Congress Unable to Deal With Threat
By John J. Xenakis. Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev alleged on Wednesday that Turkish officials were benefiting from ISIS oil sales, while Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said it was no secret that “terrorists” use Turkish territory.
Russia’s president Vladimir Putin on Thursday renewed his accusation that Turkey’s officials were “accomplices of terrorists” for supporting the so-called Islamic State (IS or ISIS or ISIL or Daesh). Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has furiously denied such accusations of several occasions.
At a news conference on Thursday, Putin said that Russian spy planes had witnessed trucks carrying “industrial scale” amounts of oil from ISIS sources crossing the border from Syria into Turkey. He said it was “theoretically possible” that Ankara was unaware of oil supplies entering its territory from ISIL-controlled areas of Syria but added that this was hard to imagine. . .
In addition to accusations that Turkey’s officials were “accomplices of terrorists” and that Turkey was buying oil from ISIS, Russia says that it will adopt a set of economic sanctions having to do with trade, transport, and tourism:
•Big energy projects, including a gas pipeline and cooperating in building Turkey’s first nuclear plant, may be canceled.
•Civilian flights to and from Turkey will be limited. In addition, tourism to Turkey will “obviously” be curtailed, because of the danger of terrorism.
•Food safety checks on agricultural imports from Turkey will be increased. Every shipment will now have to be inspected, which will result in substantial delays. (Read more from “Russia Accuses Turkey of Aiding Terrorists” HERE)
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Putin Says Russian Su-24 Shot Down Because of United States
By Jennifer Newton, Will Stewart and Corey Charlton. Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan has warned Russia ‘not to play with fire’ after Vladimir Putin suggested the Su-24 jet was shot down after the U.S passed on details of its flight path. . .
Moscow has threatened Ankara with economic retaliation for the incident and Putin even accused the U.S of leaking information about the flight to Turkey after they gave them prior warning of the mission. . .
[Putin] vowed to join France in coordinating bombing campaigns against ISIS forces and agreed to share intelligence information.
He told a press conference yesterday: ‘The American side, which leads the coalition that Turkey belongs to, knew about the location and time of our planes’ flights, and we were hit exactly there and at that time.
‘Why did we pass this information to the Americans? Either they were not controlling what their allies were doing, or they are leaking this information all over the place.’ (Read more from “Russia Accuses Turkey, U.S.” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-11-28 01:14:502016-04-11 10:55:42Russia Accuses Turkey of Buying Terrorist Oil; Turkey Warns Russia: Don’t “Play With Fire”; Russia Blames U.S. For Jet Loss
By Faith Karimi. Pope Francis celebrated a historic Mass in Kenya on Thursday before delivering a stern environmental warning just days ahead of a key climate change conference in Paris.
“It would be sad, and I dare say even catastrophic, were particular interests to prevail over the common good and lead to manipulating information in order to protect their own plans and projects,” the Pope said, urging nations to reach an agreement over curbing fossil fuel emissions.
He urged politicians to work together with the corporate and scientific worlds, and civil society leaders in finding solutions to stop environmental degradation.
No country, he said, “can act independently of a common responsibility. If we truly desire positive change, we have to humbly accept our interdependence.” (Read more from “Pope Makes Radical, Ridiculous Global Warming Claims” HERE)
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Pope Francis in Kenya Hits out at Land Grabbing
By BBC News. Pope Francis has criticised private developers for grabbing land from poor people, during his visit to Kangemi, a slum area of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.
He referred to an incident earlier this year when police fired tear gas at children protesting against developers trying to take over their playground.
The pontiff later made an impassioned plea against corruption, saying: “Corrupt people don’t live in peace.”
To take a stand against tribalism, he got his audience to hold hands.
“If you don’t dialogue with each other, then you’re going to have a division like a worm that grows in society,” he told a large crowd of young people who had gathered in Nairobi’s Kasarani stadium to hear him. (Read more from “Pope Francis in Kenya Hits out at Land Grabbing” HERE)
US President Barack Obama Thursday delivered a Thanksgiving message in which he compared modern refugees to the pilgrims whom the holiday celebrates, urging Americans to open their arms to the potential immigrants.
“Nearly four centuries after the Mayflower set sail, the world is still full of pilgrims — men and women who want nothing more than the chance for a safer, better future for themselves and their families,” Obama said in his weekly address, referring to the boat on which the pilgrims arrived in the New World.
Thanksgiving was first celebrated by the group after fleeing religious persecution in England. For many Americans, it has become a family-oriented day marked with an enormous meal of roast turkey, an assortment of side dishes and a slice or two of pie.
“I’ve been touched by the generosity of the Americans who’ve written me letters and emails in recent weeks, offering to open their homes to refugees fleeing the brutality of ISIL,” Obama said, referring to the Islamic State group.
Immigration has taken center stage as an important issue ahead of the 2016 presidential race but reached fever pitch following the deadly Paris attacks earlier this month. (Read more from “Obama Compares Syrian Refugees to Pilgrims in Thanksgiving Address” HERE)
By Cathy Burke. A National Review commentator is blasting an attack ad from GOP presidential contender Gov. John Kasich that links front-running rival Donald Trump to Nazi Germany.
The 60-second spot, titled “Trump’s Dangerous Rhetoric,” features retired Air Force Col. Tom Moe, a prisoner of war in Vietnam, paraphrasing Protestant pastor Martin Niemöller, who spoke out against the Nazi regime and spent years in Nazi concentration camps, as images of Trump’s controversial remarks flash on screen.
Conservative blogger Jim Geraghty writes in his National Review newsletter “Morning Jolt” that there are more indications “the country is sliding into a fascistic direction” elsewhere.
“We can argue about whether Trump and his style are good for American politics, but it’s not like he’s appearing … out of nothing,” Geraghty writes. “If you fear the country is sliding into a fascistic direction, cast your gaze wider.”
“If you really fear the leader of an angry mob roughing up reporters, suppressing all dissent, and making far-reaching, unrealistic demands that their ideology rule everywhere… don’t look to a Trump rally,” Geraghty warns. “Look to a college campus.” (Read more from “Why Would Loser-John Kasich Use Campaign Funds to Attack Trump, Compare Him to Hitler?” HERE)
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John Kasich Web Video: Donald Trump Is Pretty Much a Nazi, Right?
By Jim Geraghty. We still don’t know whether Donald Trump really wants Muslims to register with the government. He’s never directly proposed it. He’s given a half-distracted, loosely-worded affirmative answer to a reporter when it was first brought up by the reporter. Every time he’s asked since, he gives an answer about Syrian refugees. Chances are this is a deliberate strategy. When the media writes denunciatory headlines about his comments, Trump wins over the support of the Americans who think a national registry of Muslims would be a good idea. But he also has plausible deniability, as he’s never actually proposed it or explicitly said he supported it.
Mr. Moe himself engages in frustrating verbal slipperiness, claiming Trump says he’s “going to round up all the Hispanic immigrants” when he’s done nothing of the sort. He’s proposed rounding up illegal immigrants of every race, creed and color. We deport illegal immigrants every year and deported roughly 400,000 in 2012 – a policy that is Constitutional, legal, and morally justifiable. Trump is proposing an expansion of existing law – nothing Nazi-ish about that.
Moe charges, “Donald Trump says it’s okay to rough up black protesters.” Here’s Trump’s comment: “Maybe he should have been roughed up, because it was absolutely disgusting what he was doing,” Trump said on the Fox News Channel on Sunday morning. “I have a lot of fans, and they were not happy about it. And this was a very obnoxious guy who was a troublemaker who was looking to make trouble”. . .
We can argue about whether Trump and his style is good for American politics, but it’s not like he’s appearing ex nihilio, out of nothing. If you fear the country is sliding into a fascistic direction, cast your gaze wider. We’ve seen our government jail filmmakers after blaming terrorist attacks on him; one party push for a Constitutional limit on political speech around elections; an NSA metadata collection program that ignores the Fourth Amendment; political targeting from the IRS; promotion of the elimination of due process on college campuses, and now, the promotion of eliminating the Constitutional rights of Americans on “terror watch lists” — lists that have no judicial review, no appeal, little sense of how an American ends up on it and even less idea of how to get off it if you’re wrongfully accused. . . (Read more from “John Kasich Web Video: Donald Trump Is Pretty Much a Nazi, Right?” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-11-27 02:34:192016-04-11 10:55:42Why Would Loser-John Kasich Use Campaign Funds to Attack Trump, Compare Him to Hitler?
