Father of College Student Released From N. Korea Doesn’t Buy Explanation for Son’s Coma

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North Korea returned a young college student [Otto Frederick Warmbier] detained for over a year this week. He’s in a coma, and his parents don’t believe a word of North Korea’s explanation . . .

Warmbier returned to Cincinnati Tuesday and is now being treated at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. The comatose student’s condition is stable, but he suffered a “severe neurological injury,” according to a spokesperson from the medical facility where Warmiber is receiving care.

He reportedly fell into a coma shortly after his trial, and no one had heard anything from Warmbier for fifteen months.

“Even if you believe their explanation of botulism and a sleeping pill causing the coma, and we don’t, there is no excuse for any civilized nation to have kept his condition secret and deny him top-notch medical care for so long,” his father, Fred Warmbier, said at a press conference Thursday.

The U.S. recently obtained intelligence reports suggesting that North Korean authorities brutally beat Warmbier while in custody, a senior American official told The New York Times. There were actually serious concerns that the young student was dead. Some American officials suspect that Warmbier’s current condition is the result of his treatment. (Read more from “Father of College Student Released From N. Korea Doesn’t Buy Explanation for Son’s Coma” HERE)

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Why Conservatives Put Trust in Trey Gowdy as House’s Corruption Fighter

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Conservative leaders say they’re confident the new chairman of a House of Representatives panel that targets corruption will dedicate himself to reviewing executive branch actions, including during the Obama administration.

Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., assumed the chairmanship of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee after his confirmation Tuesday. He takes the reins from Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, who will leave Congress on June 30.

The oversight committee, which works to expose abuse, waste, and fraud, seeks to ensure the “efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability of the federal government and all its agencies,” according to the panel’s website.

“I think there are opportunities for accountability for misconduct in the Obama administration that should be taken advantage of,” Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, a conservative legal oversight organization, said of Gowdy in an interview with The Daily Signal.

Gowdy, 52, first elected to Congress in 2010, was chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, which investigated and produced a report on the 2012 terror attacks in Benghazi, Libya.

Prior to joining Congress, Gowdy worked as a federal prosecutor in South Carolina on cases that included narcotics trafficking rings, child pornography, and the murder of a federal witness. He also held the post of 7th Circuit solicitor, directing 25 attorneys and 40 other employees in an office that represents South Carolina in certain local criminal cases.

Fitton said he hopes Gowdy will investigate corruption that occurred during Barack Obama’s presidency.

“I think he should work to get the attention of the White House to expose what went on during the Obama administration, even on things that everyone thinks are over, such as Benghazi and the IRS and, you know, even Fast and Furious,” Fitton said.

Besides the terrorist attacks in Benghazi that left U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three others dead, Fitton was referring to the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of tea party groups under IRS division chief Lois Lerner before the 2012 elections. Lawmakers recently asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions to re-examine the Lerner case.

Fast and Furious, a secret operation of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives authorized by the Obama Justice Department, funneled guns to illegal buyers close to the Mexican border because agency officials wanted to follow them back to Mexican drug gangs.

Weapons from the Fast and Furious program were found on Dec.14, 2010 at the scene of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry’s slaying, The Daily Signal previously reported.

Jordan Sekulow, executive director of the American Center for Law and Justice, a legal group, said in a statement provided to The Daily Signal that Gowdy will be an unbiased chairman.

“Congressman Gowdy brings valuable prosecutorial skills to this critical role,” Sekulow said. “He understands as well as anyone in Congress how to gather evidence, question witnesses, and separate truth from spin. He is an excellent choice for the position.”

Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Signal in an email that Gowdy could use his position to probe illegal payments to third-party organizations.

On June 7, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the federal government no longer will make settlement agreements with any person or organization not directly involved in a legal dispute.

Von Spakovsky said of Gowdy:

I think one of the first things he could look at, in conjunction with AG Sessions having just ended the DOJ practice of having settlement funds in litigation being paid to third-party groups, is using his oversight powers to compile a list of all of the organizations that were paid off by the Obama Justice Department, with the amounts they received.

Chaffetz, first elected to Congress in 2008, announced April 19 that he would not seek re-election in 2018. He officially resigned Tuesday as chairman of the oversight committee, and said his last day in Congress would be June 30.

As committee chairman, Chaffetz, 50, became known for his investigation into Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email account and server to conduct official business when she was secretary of state during Obama’s first term.

Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, a group of conservative lawmakers, said in a statement provided to The Daily Signal that he is confident that Gowdy will be a competent watchdog.

“Having worked with him on the Oversight Committee since I arrived in Congress, I can tell you there are few men in Washington more dedicated to holding government accountable than Trey Gowdy,” Meadows said, adding:

He is an honest broker who has consistently demonstrated a commitment to truth and integrity above partisan politics. He’ll make an outstanding chairman and I look forward to working with him.

Anthony L. François, a senior attorney at the Pacific Legal Foundation, told The Daily Signal in an interview that he expects Gowdy will hold the executive branch accountable.

“There is an overarching purpose to what the committee does, and especially Mr. Gowdy’s responsibility [in] the chair, in making sure that the government that American citizens get is the one that their elected representatives have enacted, not a different one that unaccountable bureaucrats would prefer to impose,” François said.

Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C., chairman of the Republican Study Committee, the largest caucus of GOP lawmakers in the House, told The Daily Signal in an interview that he hopes Gowdy will use his oversight position to ensure government accountability.

Walker said:

As far as specific areas that we hope that he will look into, when it comes to government accountability I think there is a lot of room. Some of the agencies that have run amok, that have operated in some of the careless behavior, I believe that is part of his goal and part of his heart to continue to peel back some of the abuse, the overspending. And I think he’s the guy to do that, and I support this decision 100 percent.

(For more from the author of “Why Conservatives Put Trust in Trey Gowdy as House’s Corruption Fighter” please click HERE)

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The Shameful Response of the Left to Attempted GOP Massacre

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Maybe I’m just too naïve.

I’d expected that liberals would eventually turn to talk of gun control after Wednesday’s violent, horrible shooting targeting GOP lawmakers.

This was an attack that left House Majority Whip Steve Scalise in critical condition as of Wednesday night, according to the hospital treating him, as well as wounding three others–a lawmaker’s aide, a Capitol Police officer, and a lobbyist. One of them, lobbyist and former Capitol Hill aide Matt Mika, also is in critical condition, according to reports.

I’d thought liberals would at least react with sympathy and sorrow that innocent people had been targeted by former Bernie Sanders volunteer James Hodgkinson, the man police say was the shooter, and allow some time to pass before switching to gun control.

Now, of course, neither Griffin or “Julius Caesar” director Oskar Eustis is at all responsible for the shooter’s decisions—but, just as I would hope no conservative would have done such things to President Barack Obama, it’s reasonable to ask the left to behave better, to not forget that Donald Trump, too, is a person. (And yes, it was inappropriate when a 2012 version of “Julius Caesar” starred an actor resembling Obama.)

And of course some, perhaps even most, on the left have been acting in a respectful way.

But there’s been some glaring exceptions.

The New York Times, rightly, is getting pilloried for its editorial, published Wednesday, that insinuated Sarah Palin’s target map was to blame for the shooting of Gabby Giffords. Here’s the language from the original editorial (via National Review):

Was this attack evidence of how vicious American politics has become? Probably. In 2011, when Jared Lee Loughner opened fire in a supermarket parking lot, grievously wounding Representative Gabby Giffords and killing six people, including a 9-year-old girl, the link to political incitement was clear. Before the shooting, Sarah Palin’s political action committee circulated a map of targeted electoral districts that put Ms. Giffords and 19 other Democrats under stylized cross hairs.

The New York Times has since corrected the piece, noting: “An earlier version of this editorial incorrectly stated that a link existed between political incitement and the 2011 shooting of Representative Gabby Giffords. In fact, no such link was established.” Indeed.

National Review’s David French dismantled the argument, writing: “In its zeal to create moral equivalencies and maintain a particular narrative about the past, the Times flat-out lied. There is simply no ‘link to political incitement’ in Loughner’s murderous acts. The man was a paranoid schizophrenic who first got angry at Gabby Giffords years before Palin published her map.”

And CNN’s Jake Tapper, no conservative, similarly disputed the Times account:

You know what wasn’t mentioned in that Times editorial, which noted their grief in 2011 at “vicious American politics”? Kathy Griffin wasn’t mentioned nor was the “Julius Caesar” play. Oh, sure, the Times offered a pablum take on civility, writing:

Conservatives and right-wing media were quick on Wednesday to demand forceful condemnation of hate speech and crimes by anti-Trump liberals. They’re right. Liberals should of course be held to the same standard of decency that they ask of the right.

But without naming names or calling out any specific instances, that’s a pretty toothless take.

And when I went to The Slot, an offshoot of my favorite liberal site Jezebel, I found this comment on the article about the Scalise shooting:

Yeah, f— these people. Scalise voted for the AHCA [American Health Care Act] and got a good chunk of change from insurance and pharmaceutical companies and health professionals. [Republican Rep. Mo] Brooks is a Freedom Caucus member, so he can go to hell, too. Worst thing they’ll have is a traumatic memory, but they have insurance that allows them to get PTSD treated. Scalise will probably have a scar on his hip. No sympathy for these people. (Note: Language edited for decency, in both screenshot and quote.)

This comment was liked 156 times.

And while many Democrat politicians seem to be acting with humanity (including the wonderful display of Democrat lawmakers praying at a Washington, D.C. baseball field when they heard about the shooting), some almost immediately brought up gun control after the attack at the baseball field in Alexandria, Virginia, just outside Washington.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, had this to say Wednesday: “I think we need to do more to protect all of our citizens. I have long advocated — this is not what today is about — but there are too many guns on the street. We lose 93 million Americans a day to gun violence.”

McAuliffe, who clarified he meant 93 Americans a day after a reporter asked, said those words just a few hours after the shooting.

And Rep. Don Beyer, the Democrat who represents the district that includes the baseball field (and is, sadly, my House member), sent his constituents an email Wednesday afternoon that concluded with this sentiment: “I believe strongly that our nation should rethink its policies regarding gun violence, and I will have more for you soon on that issue.”

While I’m certainly aware of how fast the news cycle moves, could McAuliffe and Beyer maybe have held on to these hot takes, for oh, a whole 24 hours? After all, as of Wednesday night, Scalise was still in critical condition.

Never let a crisis go to waste, indeed.

Let’s refresh: The shooter was a former Bernie Sanders volunteer, who lawmakers said started shooting after confirming those on the field were Republicans, and whose social media use shows a clear liberal tilt.

Hogkinson’s alleged violent actions are his own responsibility, and nobody else’s.

But would it have been so crazy for the left to have taken a step back and reflected on their overheated rhetoric of the past few months, their willingness to depict Republicans and conservatives as monsters who want to hurt minorities and LGBT Americans and take away everyone’s health care? (Instead of people who have different views on appropriate discrimination policies, religious freedom, and the best way to ensure everyone has access to health care, not just insurance.)

No. It wouldn’t have been crazy.

It would have been refreshing.

But unfortunately, that’s not the America we live in today. (For more from the author of “The Shameful Response of the Left to Attempted GOP Massacre” please click HERE)

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Trump’s Airport Reform Could Lead to Lower Ticket Prices

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President Donald Trump has announced plans to privatize the United State’s air traffic control system, which he said could lead to lower ticket prices.

“We are taking the first important step to clearing the runway for more jobs, lower prices, and much, much, much better transportation,” Trump said last week.

Air traffic control, which monitors and guides aircraft activity, falls under the Federal Aviation Administration’s authority, and is directed by Federal Aviation Administrator Michael Huerta.

Huerta is expected to serve out his full term through January 2018.

There has been no announcement as to who will replace Huerta, according to Michael Sargent, a policy analyst for transportation and infrastructure at The Heritage Foundation.

Trump’s plan to privatize air traffic control would include a board of directors, Sargent said, with “people representing the airlines, the pilots, the airports [and] general aviation.”

The board of directors would also include a CEO and representatives from the government.

Trump said his initiative will help America reclaim its influence in travel.

“America is the nation that pioneered air travel, and with these reforms, we can once again lead the way far into the future. Our nation will move faster, fly higher, and soar proudly toward the next great chapter of American aviation.”

In a statement outlining his plans, the Trump administration highlighted that privatizing air traffic control will prioritize safety, national security, and access for consumers.

Trump also said that privatization will improve service.

“We’re proposing reduced wait times, increased route efficiency, and far fewer delays,” Trump said. “Our plan will get you where you need to go more quickly, more reliably, more affordably and, yes — for the first time in a long time — on time. We will launch this air travel revolution by modernizing the outdated system of air traffic control. It’s about time.”

Previous transportation secretaries voiced support for Trump’s announcement.

“I applaud President Trump for his leadership in putting forth a bold plan and vision for moving [Air Traffic Control] out of [Federal Aviation Administration] and creating a more efficient and effective Air Traffic Control,” Ray LaHood, who served as transportation secretary from 2009-2013, said in a statement.

James H. Burnley IV, who served as transportation secretary from 1987-1989 under President George H.W. Bush, also praised the announcement.

“Air traffic control is a complex 24 hour a day business,” Burnley said in a statement, adding:

While it is very safe, government red tape increasingly impedes the installation of new technologies. As a result, the U.S. is falling ever further behind other countries, such as Canada, that have separated their systems from government constraints. President Trump’s proposal is the right solution for the 21st century.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, also was supportive.

“I think it’s a big deal that the president came out … and is leading on this issue,” Cruz said in a statement, adding:

There are over 130,000 jobs in Texas that depend on the airline and aerospace industries and by modernizing Air Traffic Control we will see an increase in safety, a decrease in waiting times, decreased costs, and improve the environment by having far less emissions. It should be a no-brainer.

Rep. Rick Nolan, D-Minn., voiced concerns about the announcement.

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., is also skeptical. “Why give away billions of dollars in government assets to an entity that will be governed in large part by the airlines,” Nelson said, according to Reuters.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., also disapproves.

Sargent said the announcement shows promise.

“It moves a vital transportation service out of the government, unshackling it from extensive bureaucracy inertia and establishes it as an independent, nongovernmental, non-profit corporation in charge of providing a service,” Sargent said. (For more from the author of “Trump’s Airport Reform Could Lead to Lower Ticket Prices” please click HERE)

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Trump Will Reverse the Damage Done by Obama’s Cuba Policy

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If “America First” means anything, it must mean preventing a virulently anti-American criminal enterprise from perpetuating its existence next door and reproducing itself throughout the hemisphere.

And since this is precisely what President Barack Obama’s opening to the Castros accomplished, President Donald Trump is duty-bound to reverse this mistake.

In fact, if The New York Times is to be believed—and on this we should, as coddling the Castros is one thing the Gray Lady has been consistent on for 60 years—the administration is about to announce it is reinstating the limits on travel and trade that Obama lifted.

This isn’t full reversion, but I’ll take it. I don’t say this very often, but let’s hope The New York Times is right.

Obama always said he was helping Cubans with his opening, and in a technical way that is true.

Alejandro Castro Espin, the ideologically unbending Leninist son of military ruler Raul Castro, is a Cuban. So is Gen. Luis Alberto Rodriguez Lopez Calleja, the economic czar in charge of the lucrative tourist trade.

Oh, Lopez Calleja is also Castro’s son-in-law and Alejandro’s brother-in-law.

U.S. recognition and sanction of the Castros helped these two Cubans enormously in their endeavor to inherit political and economic control when Castro, a spry 85-year-old man, effected a transition from one communist Castro to another in a short nine months.

Cuba’s 11 million other citizens were not helped so much.

They would have had a much better hope of a real transition to a post-communist, post-Castro, free Cuba had Obama not promised that, in exchange for nothing, the Castro dictatorship would benefit from selling their products in the United States and receiving credits to boot.

With Cuba’s international benefactor, Venezuela’s own despotic government, teetering on the brink of collapse, the Obama lifeline to the Castro family looms even larger.

People with zero understanding of Cuba have always parroted the Godfather stereotypes, so let’s put things in a language they’ll understand.

Raul is Don Corleone in this version, while Alejandro is Michael Corleone, and Lopez Calleja is Tom Hagen.

Sonny and Fredo are played by any number of Miami Cuban-Americans with business interests tied to this division of the spoils, the freedom of their former compatriots be damned.

Alejandro is widely expected to pull the strings of power when and if the nominal heir apparent, Miguel Diaz-Canel, first vice president since 2013, takes the title of president from Raul in February 2018.

There are precedents for this in the revolution and earlier Cuban history.

Cuba’s president from 1959 to 1976 wasn’t Fidel Castro, but a wealthy lawyer by the name of Osvaldo Dorticos Torrado, a nonentity who committed suicide in 1983.

From 1936 to 1940, the republic’s official head of state was Federico Laredo Bru, another wealthy lawyer whose strings were pulled by Fulgencio Batista.

Both Dorticos and Laredo Bru associated with communists and let them take part in government (yes, little-known fact: Batista was such a communist sympathizer that even Stalin’s Chilean hagiographer, Pablo Neruda, once wrote a poem to him).

But before reading these lines, had you ever heard of either of Dorticos or Laredo Bru?

This window-dressing fate awaits Diaz-Canel. Journalists are now besoiling themselves by claiming all sorts of things about him.

Six months ago, Reuters said he “has already established press and internet freedom as signature concerns.” It is often written that he’s a Beatles fan (the way Andropov liked jazz).

Probably better to listen to what Alejandro Castro says and watch what he does. This is admittedly onerous, as he’s a humorless Marxist ideologue who would apply a dialectical analysis to a doughnut.

But if you’re interested in what’s ahead for Cuba, there is, alas, no alternative.

“Cuba will never return to capitalism,” the reclusive Alejandro, officially an army colonel and the head of military intelligence, told Peruvian-Greek journalist Lasonas Pipinis Velasco in a sweeping 2015 interview.

In it, he applied “the logic of history” to everything from the serfs of the Middle Ages to John Locke, Bretton Woods and the distinction between “participative democracy” and “bourgeois representative democracy.”

(He says Cuba practices the former because it constantly holds “popular consultations.”)

A bit earlier, it was Alejandro, not Diaz-Canal, who conducted the secret negotiations on the opening with Obama’s outmatched deputy Ben Rhodes in 2014. It was also Alejandro who received the Cuban spies charged with the murder of Americans whom Obama obligingly sent to Havana in 2015.

More recently, it was Alejandro who sat next to Obama at the table when the 44th president visited Havana. And it was also him who accompanied Raul for the 2015 meeting with Pope Francis.

And again just recently, it was Alejandro again who popped up in Moscow negotiating, of all things, an agreement on cybersecurity cooperation with the head of the Russian Security Council, Nicolai Patrushev.

Known in hushed tones in Havana as “One Eye” (El Tuerto) after losing most of his sight in one eye in Angola, Alejandro has also left his feelings for the United States known in the book he wrote about America’s rise, “The Empire of Terror.”

According to The New York Times, the Trump administration is reportedly considering measures proposed by Florida Republicans Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart that would block deals between American companies and the Cuban military—measures that would hit the Castro family where it hurts.

Let’s hope it’s true. (For more from the author of “Trump Will Reverse the Damage Done by Obama’s Cuba Policy” please click HERE)

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US and Vietnam Deepen Ties During Prime Minister’s Recent Visit

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The May summit between President Donald Trump and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuân Phúc demonstrated the extent of warming relations between Vietnam and the U.S.

Over the past two decades, U.S.-Vietnam relations have been relatively stable with converging interests in economics, military affairs, and geopolitics. This relationship will prove to be particularly important as both countries contend with China’s expansion in the South China Sea.

Hours after meeting with Trump, Phúc spoke at The Heritage Foundation about Vietnamese-American relations and Vietnam’s security concerns.

During his speech, the prime minister touched on several shared U.S.-Vietnamese interests. He commended the trading of technology and produce, the signing of $15 billion in contracts, the investing of $10 billion to American projects in Vietnam, and the expanding of tourism and education.

According to U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, part of the deals included a $3.4 billion investment in goods manufactured in the U.S. that support 23,000 jobs.

The prime minister also mentioned that investments between the two countries continue to be signs of good relations, with 850 American projects already in Vietnam worth over $10 billion and Vietnam-issued licenses making way for $50 to $70-million projects in America.

Converging military interests are also bringing the two nations closer, despite their embattlement in the Vietnam War decades ago.

The White House announced that the U.S. and Vietnam pledged to strengthen defense ties under the 2011 Memorandum of Understanding on Advancing Bilateral Defense Cooperation and the 2015 Joint Vision Statement on Defense Relations.

One of the most noticeable agreements in recent months is the delivery of six patrol boats and a decommissioned U.S. Coast Guard Hamilton-class cutter. More measures to expand maritime security have also been in the talks between the two countries.

As for humanitarian issues, Phúc advocated for “accelerated humanitarian cooperation to address [the] consequences of war” through continued cooperation in areas such as decontamination, extraction of explosives, and investigation of missing soldiers.

The U.S. and Vietnam have long cooperated in the accounting for American servicemen missing from the Vietnam War.

One topic the prime minister did not address was the issue of human rights for Vietnamese citizens.

According to the State Department, Vietnam has a poor track record with its restrictive policies on speech, its poor judicial system, and inhumane police treatment.

Many Vietnamese activists urged Trump to address arbitrary arrests and beatings of citizens like bloggers defending land-rights and Catholic priests protesting the Formosa Plastics Corp. environmental disaster.

Prior to the prime minister’s visit, however, the U.S. and Vietnam did hold human rights dialogues in Hanoi—something that would not be possible without a broader, positive relationship.

The United States and Vietnam have intersecting interests across a range of issue areas. The two nations should seek to develop those common interests through continued economic, cultural, military, and humanitarian engagement. (For more from the author of “US and Vietnam Deepen Ties During Prime Minister’s Recent Visit” please click HERE)

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Why the Near-GOP Massacre? Look at Bernie Volunteer’s Facebook Postings, History of Democratic Party

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Yesterday, a left-wing Democrat decided to take the Left’s vicious narrative to the next level, opening fire at a group of Republican representatives and senators practicing for a charity baseball game they hold annually with Capitol Hill Democrats. Four congressmen, staff, and security personnel were injured in the shootout at Eugene Simpson Stadium Park in Alexandria, Virginia, across the river from Washington, D.C.

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), the third-highest ranking member of the leadership in the House of Representatives, was shot, but fortunately he had two U.S. Capitol Police officers accompanying him – the only armed presence in the ballpark. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who was at the baseball practice, said that if Scalise’s security detail hadn’t been there, “it would have been a massacre.”

As of 5 p.m. Eastern time, Scalise was listed in critical condition at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. The lawmaker underwent surgery. According to updated reports, the bullet caused extensive internal damage and more surgeries will be necessary. Lobbyist Matthew Mika, who was participating in the practice, was listed in critical condition at George Washington University Hospital.

During a presser a half hour later, FBI agent Tim Slater acknowledged five people were shot, including the alleged shooter. A congressman and a Capitol Police officer suffered “secondary injuries” and were transferred to local hospitals and treated, he added.

The shooter, now identified as James T. Hodgkinson, of Belleville, Illinois, died of injuries sustained during his shootout with police. He was an ardent Democrat and Bernie Sanders supporter, who championed socialism. He volunteered on the Sanders presidential campaign last year.

Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) told reporters he encountered the man who turned out to be the shooter when he attended the practice. Hodgkinson asked him if the team there was Republicans or Democrats, Duncan said. The lawmaker says he told him they were Republicans and the man thanked him. Duncan then drove away and did not witness the shooting incident.

His wife says he had moved to Alexandria two months ago, but she did not explain why. Hodgkinson had apparently been living out of his car and reconnoitering the field since his arrival in the Virginia city. When his photo was published after the attack, Alexandria resident Stephen Brennwald recognized him as someone who regularly appeared mornings at the YMCA adjacent to the field where the attack occurred. Brennwald became suspicious of Hodgkinson, saying: “He never worked out. He never talked to anybody. He never did anything. He’d just sit there and stare at his laptop.” Brennwald said, adding that he often stared out the window, with “this kind of faraway stare.”

Shortly prior to moving, Hodgkinson’s Illinois neighbors also report that he had practiced shooting on his property but was told to stop by local police after the neighbors complained. Media reports state that Hodgkinson had been living in his personal vehicle in Alexandria.

A Facebook page in Hodgkinson’s name contained multiple posts demonizing President Donald Trump. The pages have now been removed from Facebook, but I was able to get numerous screen shots before that happened. Following is a sampling:

Earlier posts show his adamant support for Bernie Sanders and his hatred of the GOP generally and Donald Trump in particular. His most recent Facebook posts, from two days ago, suggest his mindset:

Hodgkinson’s twitter account is apparently @JTHInspections. Another one, @jimhodgkinson, may be a fake as the background photo has changed. Earlier it featured a picture of a younger Trump with Vladimir Putin photoshopped in next to him. Now it simply says “Trump is a pig.”

Are we really surprised by this attack? We shouldn’t be. The Democrats have been agitating relentlessly for just such a thing. There has been a constant, relentless drum roll of hatred toward the GOP, Trump family members, Trump cabinet members, and Trump supporters. Consider a tiny sampling of the outrageous remarks and behavior:

· Shakespeare in the Park: Donald Trump as Julius Caesar knifed in the back

· Kathy Griffin gaining notoriety with a fake beheaded Donald Trump

· Antifa communists physically attacking Trump supporters in the streets

· Leftist radicals torching UC Berkeley campus to protest Breitbart speaker, Milo Yiannopoulos

· Virginia GOP Rep. Tom Garrett and his family received repeated death threats · Arizona GOP Rep. Martha McSally, who was told “Your days are numbered,” by 58-year-old Democrat Steve Martan. “Martha, our sights are set on you”, he said, “Right between your f****** eyes.”

Former Secret Service agent and GOP candidate Dan Bongino says, “The Left has gone mad with rage… If it’s normalizing violence against him, if it’s using outrageous, outlandish language, if it’s making up false crimes against him like the Trump/Russia fairy tale, the conspiracy theory; they don’t care. They’ve lost any moral bedrock.”

Hodgkinson’s Facebook page contains one photo of himself. Interestingly, the one comment the photo received was from Lindy Lee, a former candidate for Congress, who gave the photo a thumbs-up.

Lee’s Facebook pages display a who’s who of the Democratic Party:

While there is no indication that Lee had any inkling of Hodgkinson’s intentions, and none is implied here, there is nothing new about mainstream Democrats aligning themselves with violent extremists. Indeed, as James O’Keefe proved in a series of undercover videos last year, violence and subversion is part and parcel of the Democrats’ game plan. Jamie Glazov of the Glazov Gang has produced a documentary about this propensity for violence entitled, ” United in Hate: The Left’s Romance With Tyranny and Terror.”

The most notorious case involves Jim Jones, an avowed communist and cult leader in the jungles of Guyana who in 1978 murdered his 909 followers (including 303 children), a U.S. congressman and four others before committing suicide himself. Prior to taking his “People’s Temple” into the jungle, he was endorsed by Democrat heavyweights. This included first lady Rosalynn Carter, Vice President Walter Mondale, HEW Secretary Joseph Califano, California Gov. Jerry Brown and his lieutenant governor Mervyn Dymally, five members of the U.S. Senate, 11 members of the House of Representatives, the mayor of San Francisco and one of the city’s former mayors, and the mayor of Gary, Indiana.

The fake news was at it even then, describing Jones as a religious extremist. In an article titled “When Religious Beliefs Become Evil: 4 Signs,” CNN characterized Jones as “a gifted speaker who built an interracial church in San Francisco that did much good in the community.” CNN never mentioned his avowed communism, atheism, and his close connection to the Democratic Party. Until his behavior became politically inconvenient, however, Jones was a leftist hero.

Forget introspection. True to form, the Democrats wasted no time in turning today’s shooting into a political issue. Terry McAuliffe, the serially corrupt governor of Virginia, offered a pitch for gun control, throwing in some massively dumb whoppers along the way. A mere two hours after the shooting CNN recorded him saying:

“There are too many guns on the street…”

and, are you ready for this?

“We lose 93 million Americans a day to gun violence…”

93 million!

Then he goes on to mention the need for “background checks” [Editor: we already have them], “shutting down gun show loopholes” [Editor: there is no such thing]… And he repeats the 93 million people a day claim again before ending. A reporter helps him by suggesting 93 million is a big number. McAuliffe corrects himself, saying it’s actually 93 a day.

If we want an explanation for today’s violence, look no further than the Democratic Party and its leftist agitators, attempting as we speak, to, in their own words, “make America ungovernable.” Their constant provocations and vilification create a justification in the minds of the many unstable among them who are already inclined to take matters into their own hands.

While Democrats have rapidly disassociated themselves from today’s events, their daily barrage of hatred virtually guarantees this kind of thing will happen again. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which specializes in fomenting hatred for conservatives, acknowledged today that the shooter “liked” their Facebook page. SPLC hyped a fake news story about Scalise and the KKK. This recalls Floyd Corkins, the homosexual activist that used SPLC “hate” rhetoric against the Family Research Council as an excuse for his attempted shooting rampage. FRC is still on SPLC’s Hatewatch list and SPLC has not apologized for its smear of Scalise. So much for Democrat contrition.

(The above article is exclusive to Restoring Liberty but a version of this report first appeared at Bombthrowers.com)

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HuffPo Pulls Article Calling for ‘Ultimate Punishment’ of Trump

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The Huffington Post pulled a piece calling for the “execution” of President Donald Trump published Saturday by contributor Jason Fuller.

Fuller’s piece contained rhetoric and imagery that seems tasteless, particularly after Wednesday’s events. Fuller boldly declares in the title that “Trump must be prosecuted — if convicted in a court of law — executed.” Fuller doesn’t stop there, however, as he insists that “impeachment isn’t enough” to “drain the swamp,” and to do so means doling out the “ultimate punishment [execution]” in order to fully restore the moral compass of the U.S.

Fuller’s “ultimate punishment” is not only reserved for the president, but also for “everyone assisting in his agenda,” including Republican Reps. Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan and White House strategist Steve Bannon. Fuller claims that “all must face justice” by being tried, convicted and ultimately executed for treason. (Read more from “HuffPo Pulls Article Calling for ‘Ultimate Punishment’ of Trump” HERE)

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Reversal: Trump Sells Fighter Jets to Terror-Supporting Qatar

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After taking credit for a Mideast-wide initiative to shine a light on the terror-supporting activities of the government of Qatar, President Donald Trump has done a dramatic reversal and will sell Doha up to 36 U.S. military jets.

Bloomberg reported Wednesday afternoon that the Qatari defense minister will meet with Defense Secretary James Mattis at some point later that day to officially sign the agreement.

On June 6, the president tweeted about Qatar’s support for terrorism:

Now, just over one week later, as evidenced by the fighter jet sales, he appears to have little concern with the country labeled by some as the foremost supporter of the Islamic State and other jihadist groups like al-Qaida and Hamas.

Over the past couple weeks, several Middle Eastern countries have imposed boycotts on Qatar, citing its support for terrorist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. The Arab states also remain gravely concerned about its diplomatic endeavors with the regime in Iran, which views most Sunni states as enemy nations.

The Trump administration has sent mixed messages about its policy toward Qatar, with some White House officials calling for an end to hostilities, and others calling for Doha to do more to stop support for terror. While the State Department has pushed for conflict resolution, White House officials often point to Qatar’s long-suspected terror financing.

The Qatari government has long solicited favor in Washington, D.C., by dumping millions of dollars into lobbying governments, past state officials, and prominent think tanks and universities. Doha recently signed a $15 million deal with the Brookings Institution, arguably the most prominent left-of-center think tank in the U.S. The Gulf state also donated $1 million to the Clinton Foundation while Hillary Clinton was serving as secretary of state.

In addition to the White House deal with Qatar, the administration has signed $100-plus billion mega-deal with Saudi Arabia to sell American military equipment to the Gulf monarchy. Like Qatar, Saudi Arabia has been accused of financing and arming terrorist networks in the Middle East. An effort led by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., to block the arms sale failed in the Senate Tuesday by a vote of 47-53. (For more from the author of “Why Yesterday’s Near-Massacre? Look at Bernie Volunteer’s Facebook Postings, History of Democratic Party” please click HERE)

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REALLY MSM!? Special Edition: Scalise DESERVED It?

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RUSH TO LINK SCALISE TO “WHITE SUPREMACY” …

After Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., was shot this morning by a man who reportedly loved Bernie and hated the GOP, many in the media wasted little time in trying to link Scalise to white supremacists like David Duke. Ashley Rae Goldenberg noticed the disturbing trend and pegged the number of stories at “almost 1,000 recent results” on .

Here are some of the stories:

NY Post: Steve Scalise once defended himself against links to David Duke

Esquire: Some Background on Steve Scalise, the Republican Congressman Who Was Shot This Morning (Bonus points for calling Scalise a “hard-line conservative.”)

CNN: Who is Steve Scalise?

Washington Post: Who is Steve Scalise, the congressman shot at a baseball practice?

That’s just a small, but disturbing sample.

As Scalise remains in critical condition, news organizations see fit to highlight something Scalise apologized for doing, as if it had anything to do with why he was shot.

How about we take a step back – and not try to push a narrative – when someone is in the hospital?

MORE FROM THE MEDIA IN REACTION …

On the whole, media reaction to this shooting has been surprisingly mild in its overall tone. But, of course, there have been some absurd moments.

It’s the AR-15’s fault ­­… The U.K. Telegraph is quickly focused on a gun, not the person using the gun. They offered an explainer on the AR-15’s “long and bloody history in America.” Here’s more coverage from CR on the Left focusing on the gun.

Humanizing the alleged shooter … Much like after a terrorist attack, the media rushed to humanize the attacker. Multiple cable networks used this bizarre statement from an acquaintance of the shooter to do so.

WHAT HAVE YOU SEEN?

Let me know if you’ve seen something outrageous in the coverage by emailing me at [email protected].

(For more from the author of “REALLY MSM!? Special Edition: Scalise DESERVED It?” please click HERE)

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