Elizabeth Warren to Run for President as Weaker Version of Every Other Democrat

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The stealth 2020 Democratic presidential primary has been underway for months, but things finally kicked into high gear Monday when Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., announced the creation of a presidential exploratory committee.

Forming an exploratory committee is the legal precursor to running for president, something Warren has been widely expected to do for years now. With her video announcement declaring that “America’s middle class is under attack,” the 2020 Democratic primary now begins in full force.

Warren is one of the first candidates to formally declare her intention to run, but she certainly won’t be the last, which raises a question about how she fits into a field that may be as large as 30 candidates.

Who exactly is Warren’s base? If she runs as an anti-billionaire populist champion of the little guy, doesn’t Bernie Sanders already fill that ideological space in the Democratic Party? She could run as a moderate or pragmatic Sanders-lite, but in its extreme opposition to President Donald Trump, the far-left Democratic base is the most active and is unlikely to coalesce around a moderate candidate. The Obama-establishment Democrats will line up behind Joe Biden’s candidacy, if he runs. And Warren’s gender identity as a woman won’t rack up enough intersectionality points against Kamala Harris, the half-black, half-Indian female senator from California. The youth vote, then? Warren is 69, and Beto O’Rourke’s young star is rising on the Left.

Warren creates problems for herself when she tries to occupy any of these spaces on the Left. In a transparent attempt at pandering to minorities, Warren labeled the entire American criminal justice system racist, drawing rebuke from law enforcement. The botched release of a DNA test that purported to show Warren has Native American heritage and counter Trump’s mockery backfired spectacularly and opened her up to attacks from the Left about faking minority heritage as a white woman. On the one hand, Warren claims she’s a “capitalist to my bones,” which upsets the socialist Left, and on the other hand she co-sponsored the nationalization of America’s health insurance system with Bernie Sanders and introduced a bill in Congress to nationalize everything else, which upsets the anti-Sanders Democrats.

Warren needs a base to win the Democratic nomination, and it has to be a bigger and more energized base than her rivals to be successful. As things stand now, it’s difficult to see where a viable base for her will come from. (For more from the author of “Elizabeth Warren to Run for President as Weaker Version of Every Other Democrat” please click HERE)

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Why You Shouldn’t Make New Year’s Resolutions

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I hate New Year’s resolutions. They are a polite conversation piece while at a party with friends and family. It is a bunch of worthless empty talk, and the worst sort of virtue signaling possible: promising something but failing to do it. . .

When we procrastinate, we are not thinking in the present tense, but stuck worrying about the past and the future. I have found that making decisions in the present as situations come up has much better results that actually stick. Instead of making New Year’s resolutions, I make resolutions year round. A more frequent habit of self-reflection makes changes more likely than assuming we can jump cold-turkey into new ways of living.

Eighty percent of us fail to keep New Year’s resolutions, says clinical psychologist Joseph J. Luciani. I am no perfect example, of course, but I have found success with making big changes throughout the year instead of once a year, such as deciding to tighten up my budget by going without air conditioning. I have also not gone back to Facebook after dropping it, and it is still glorious! . . .

The faith angle is also important. “‘Everything is permissible’ but not everything is beneficial. ‘Everything is permissible’ but not everything builds up (I Corinthians 10:23 CSB).” I am free to live differently and the goal is for my life trajectory to always be getting closer to a better ideal until I finally run across the finish line and shake hands with those who cheered me on. I still have a long race to run.

If things need to change in my life, there needs to be urgency. Waiting for New Year’s is as silly as punting the ball on a third down. Yes, passing or running the ball has risk, but you’ve got to move the ball! It is as if we set our alarm, but hit the snooze button and wonder why we are always late: this is one of this hard habits to break, but no excuses, it is no way to thrive. Today, I will do the thing that I need to change, not wait a few weeks. (Read more from “Why You Shouldn’t Make New Year’s Resolutions” HERE)

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As Warren Announces 2020 Run, This Feminist Writer Trashed Her and Virtually the Entire Democratic Field

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When it comes to feminism, you think a bunch of over-educated, humorless, eeyores that ruin almost everything with some needless lecture about how x, y, or z is a construct of the so-called patriarchy. It’s a cornerstone of the liberal elite. And yet, there are a few voices that are sick of feminism’s intellectual torpor, the man hating, and the inability to create a coherent agenda. In fact, the same could be said for the Democratic Party as they prepare for the 2020 election. Camille Paglia is a feminist, a left-winger, and is not afraid to shoot inside the ship. For one thing, as a flurry of female candidate announce their 2020 ambitions, the first being Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Paglia trashed Warren and virtually the entire 2020 Democratic field before they even made their intentions known.

In early December, Spectator USA did an interview with Paglia, where she said that Warren “doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell” to appeal beyond the urban and professional elites that dominate the Democratic Party. In other words, she won’t be able to beat Trump. She also felt that until the Democratic Party comes up with an agenda and a message that doesn’t center on humiliating and denigrating half the country, they’re going to be stuck in neutral:

You’ve been a sharp political prognosticator over the years. So can I start by asking for a prediction. What will happen in 2020 in America? Will Hillary Clinton run again?

If the economy continues strong, Trump will be reelected. The Democrats (my party) have been in chaos since the 2016 election and have no coherent message except Trump hatred. Despite the vast pack of potential candidates, no one yet seems to have the edge. I had high hopes for Kamala Harris, but she missed a huge opportunity to play a moderating, statesmanlike role and has already imprinted an image of herself as a ruthless inquisitor that will make it hard for her to pull voters across party lines.

Screechy Elizabeth Warren has never had a snowball’s chance in hell to appeal beyond upper-middle-class professionals of her glossy stripe. Kirsten Gillibrand is a wobbly mediocrity. Cory Booker has all the gravitas of a cork. Andrew Cuomo is a yapping puppy with a long, muddy bullyboy tail. Both Bernie Sanders (for whom I voted in the 2016 primaries) and Joe Biden (who would have won the election had Obama not cut him off at the knees) are way too old and creaky.

(Read more from “As Warren Announces 2020 Run, This Feminist Writer Trashed Her and Virtually the Entire Democratic Field” HERE)

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The Man Who Could Impeach Trump

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By Washington Examiner. Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has picked a new guiding force for Democrats investigating and potentially impeaching President Trump when they take control of the House next year.

Douglas Letter, a 40-year veteran of the Justice Department and former associate counsel in President Bill Clinton’s White House, will be appointed to the role of House general counsel, Pelosi said in a statement.

“Douglas Letter has an outstanding and highly decorated record of achievement in service of America,” Pelosi said. “He will bring deep experience and legal expertise to the House, as he counsels and represents our institution, Members and staff as House General Counsel.”

Letter, 65, served as director of the Justice Department’s Civil Division appellate staff up until February — a departure that was facilitated, sources told NPR, because of Trump’s constant criticisms of the DOJ.

He wrote in September it was “worrying” that Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani had suggested the use of executive privilege to bury Mueller’s report at the conclusion of his investigation. He said this assertion seemed “premature and misplaced.” (Read more from “The Man Who Could Impeach Trump” HERE)

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40 Years of Experience Walks out the Door of the Justice Department

By NPR. Lawyer Douglas Letter joined the DOJ in 1978. For decades, he defended controversial policies advanced by Democrats and Republicans in the executive branch. . .

Letter, 64, reflected on his long government service on a sunny morning last week at the Georgetown Law Center, where he will be working and teaching national security law.

“My father and several other people in my family were also career public servants,” he said, “so I grew up feeling like public service was a calling.”

Letter fought for the government — no matter which political party controlled it — through the Reagan and Clinton and George W. Bush presidencies. After the terrorist attacks in September 2001, his docket included cases about treatment of detainees, lethal drone strikes and more.

Asked for his proudest moments, he mentions this one, from the Obama years: “The Obergefell case,” he said. “That’s the one where the Supreme Court decided that gay marriage was constitutionally protected.” (Read more from “40 Years of Experience Walks out the Door of the Justice Department” HERE)

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IRS Has a New Plan to Investigate Tax Dodgers. Here’s How You Could Be Impacted.

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The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is trying something different. The government currently has a proposal listed on the Federal Business Opportunities website looking for a social media tool that allows IRS agents to find Americans who have dodged their tax liabilities.

Here’s what the proposal says (emphasis mine):

Businesses and individuals increasingly use social media to advertise, promote, and sell products and services. For example, taxpayers can create “online stores” on social networking sites free of cost. Much of this information is unrestricted, allowing the public, businesses and various governmental agencies to discover taxpayers’ locations and income sources.

But the IRS currently has no formal tool to access this public information, compile social media feeds, or search multiple social media sites. The IRS’s hope is that a vendor-supplied tool would help expedite IRS case resolution for existing compliance cases, providing a more efficient way of identifying resources and assisting with the collection of known tax deficiencies, leading to increased collection of revenue involving unfiled tax returns and other tax liabilities.

The IRS emphasizes that this tool, if the agency decides to pursue the use of it, would be done to assist with previously identified tax compliance cases. The IRS respects taxpayer rights, and such a tool would not be used to search the internet or social media sites for purposes of identifying or initiating new tax audits. The IRS believes responsibly using publicly accessible information on the internet or social media sites can assist with previously identified tax cases. In addition, the IRS believes the tool can help it resolve troublesome instances related to tax-related identity theft, helping quickly identify honest taxpayers who have been victimized by identity thieves.

(Read more from “IRS Has a New Plan to Investigate Tax Dodgers. Here’s How You Could Be Impacted.” HERE)

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Trump’s Biggest Wins and Losses of 2018

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By The Daily Caller. President Donald Trump oversaw his second full year at the helm of the U.S. government in 2018 and delivered on some major promises to his supporters while also facing political setbacks in a tumultuous political climate. . .

Trump’s undoubted biggest accomplishment of 2018 was increasing the Republican majority within the U.S. Senate. The president undertook a grueling travel schedule during the 2018 midterm elections, at one point traveling to three different states per day and holding his signature rallies. Trump demonstrated his remaining ability to draw massive crowds of supporters who turned out to support his chosen candidates on election day. . .

2018 saw the extraordinary summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The results of the summit aimed at denuclearizing the Korean peninsula remain unclear, but the mere fact that it happened at all is a massive change in U.S. policy. Trump spent much of 2017 deriding Kim Jong Un as “little rocket man” while the U.S. and North Korea traded insults. North Korea lobbed several test missiles of extensive range over Japan and into the nearby ocean in an attempt to prove it’s capable of hitting U.S. soil. . .

The Senate may be Trump’s biggest win of 2018, but conversely the loss of Republican control within the House of Representatives will remain a major thorn in his side throughout 2019 and 2020. Republicans lost nearly 40 seats in the 2018 midterm elections, significantly changing the incoming political landscape in Washington. . .

Two years into the Trump presidency he still has not delivered on his signature campaign promise of a wall along the U.S. southern border. Trump frustratedly attempted to explain away his failure with the minutiae of Senate procedure, but his most ardent supporters point out that he did prompt major showdowns and fights with Democratic lawmakers over the issue until December 2018. (Read more from “Trump’s Biggest Wins and Losses of 2018” HERE)

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Trump’s Economy Not Working Way He Touted, but That May Not Be Bad

By Bloomberg. Halfway through Donald Trump’s first term, it’s getting easier to piece together an account of how his policies are supposed to drive economic growth.

And the economy is, in fact, expanding pretty fast — but not necessarily for the reasons Trump said it would. The president promised to squeeze more American growth out of businesses and foreigners. Instead it’s the government, deploying its balance sheet via deficit-spending, that’s doing the work.

The theoretical version of how Trumponomics would succeed might look something like this: After inheriting the most lopsided U.S. recovery of modern times, in which households contributed a record share, Trump would summon reinforcements from two directions. . .

Trump’s policies could deliver gains in those areas over the longer run. The latest numbers on business investment were disappointing, but it’s early to judge the effects of Trump’s fiscal policy, said Stephen Moore, the co-author of the recent book “Trumponomics” and an adviser to Trump in 2016. “I totally reject this idea that the economy is on a sugar high,” he said. “The tax cuts are just kicking in.” (Read more from “Trump’s Economy Not Working Way He Touted, but That May Not Be Bad” HERE)

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Watch: Clerk Has Extreme Meltdown Over MAGA Attire

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By The Daily Caller. A video of a Georgia vape store clerk screaming at a customer wearing Trump attire went viral on Friday.

The video, posted by Ian Furgeson via Facebook on Friday, shows Furgeson attempting to make a purchase for his wife at XHale City in Tucker, Georgia, over the protests of the clerk, who was offended by his Trump shirt and MAGA hat. . .

[Warning: video contains explicit language]

Later in the video, the clerk begins to ring the customer up but is set off again when Furgeson said, “God bless America, capitalism wins again.” . . .

After the incident, Furgeson posted another video of a different interaction between himself and a vape store employee with differing political views, but a similar outlook on how people should be treated. (Read more from “Watch: Clerk Has Meltdown Over MAGA Hat” HERE)

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Vape Store Clerk Has Meltdown Over Customer in Trump Shirt

By Breitbart. A store clerk at a vape store was fired Friday evening after he was caught on video screaming at a customer wearing a shirt that said “Trump” and a MAGA hat, demanding for him to leave and refusing to sell him anything.

“LEAVE THE STORE! LEAVE THE STORE! LEAVE THE STORE! F-CK OFF! I DON’T GIVE A F-CK, GET OUT!” the employee screamed at the customer, Ian Furgeson, who posted the video on his Facebook page on Friday afternoon.

The clerk can be seen taking a swing at Furgeson in the video and accusing Furgeson of being racist. The clerk makes a phone call, telling someone that Furgeson was wearing “some Trump bullsh-t.” . . .

The store, XHale City in Tucker, Georgia, posted on Facebook late Friday an announcement of the clerk’s firing:

“To our friends and customers,” it read. “Tonight, we had an employee act improperly toward a customer. Xhale City does not tolerate this kind of behavior from its employees. When we identified the employee at fault, we fired him immediately. We’ve also spoken to the customer and apologized. We value our clients and treat them with respect and dignity, regardless of their political views.” (Read more from “Vape Store Clerk Has Meltdown Over Customer in Trump Shirt” HERE)

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Biologically Male Transgender Inmate Moved to Women’s Facility

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On Thursday, attorneys for 27-year-old Deon “Strawberry” Hampton announced that their client, a biological male who identifies as a female and is serving a ten-year prison sentence for residential burglary, would be transferred from a men’s correctional facility to a women’s correctional facility.

Hampton filed a lawsuit against the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) in late-November 2017, demanding to be moved to a women’s prison following 16 months of hormone therapy.

The lawsuit alleged that Hampton was the target of physical and sexual abuse at the hands of correctional officers at multiple facilities — first at Pinckneyville Correctional Center, then at Menard Correctional Center. The lawsuit also claimed that when Hampton “reported this abuse [at Pinckneyville], the officers retaliated” with beatings and “false disciplinary charges … that resulted in segregation time and [the] transfer to Menard.” . . .

As to the fact that Hampton still possesses male genitalia and might therefore pose a threat to biological female inmates, the lawsuit quoted a psychiatrist who is an alleged “expert in providing transgender healthcare.” He claimed that because of the ongoing hormone therapy, Hampton “is functionally chemically castrated.”

After further legal issuances and allegations of abuse, Hampton was transferred twice — first to Lawrence Correctional Center, then to Dixon Correctional Center, both of which are men’s facilities. (Read more from “Biologically Male Transgender Inmate Moved to Women’s Facility” HERE)

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Trump Personally Intervened to Pay Coast Guard in Shutdown

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Concerned about U.S. Coast Guard forces losing a paycheck in the partial government shutdown, President Trump personally urged his team to find a solution that would allow the administration to make this week’s $75 million payroll, according to officials.

Trump stepped in on Wednesday, calling on top lawyers and staffers to determine if the Coast Guard could make payroll despite being included in the shutdown that has impacted about 25 percent of the government, including the Department of Homeland Security, which houses the Coast Guard.

Military personnel under the Department of Defense are not included in the shutdown, because their appropriations were approved earlier in Congress. . .

At his urging, the Office of Management and Budget, DHS and the Coast Guard determined that the rules governing pay to Coast Guard forces requires it be made through the end of the year. To make it, the lawyers said that unused funding could be tapped for pay. The service had a bit more than the needed $75 million left over from its past continuing resolution appropriation, enough to make this month’s last payroll check. . .

The administration also sped up check writing in other cases and was able to deliver this week a payroll check to furloughed federal employees for time worked up to the shutdown, which began Dec. 22. (Read more from “Trump Personally Intervened to Pay Coast Guard in Shutdown” HERE)

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Graham’s ‘Solution’ to the Border Wall Funding Is Sure to Find Objections From Conservatives

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Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) believes he has a solution to the border wall funding fiasco that resulted in a shutdown of the federal government. He proposes giving President Donald Trump the $5 billion he’s asked for to build the wall along the southern border. In exchange, DREAMers would be given legal status, something Democrats have been pushing for. He detailed his solution on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.

“The one thing I know for sure is nothing will get out of the Senate without wall/border funding and Democrats are not going to give us money for a wall/border security without getting something themselves,” Graham explained. “So here’s what I think might work: $5 billion for wall/border security – Democrats have voted for more than that in the past – married up with the BRIDGE Act, which Sen. Durbin and I wrote, a three year, one-time renewable work permit for the DACA population, about 700,000.”

Graham also said those living in the U.S. under Temporary Protected Status (TPS), like those fleeing civil war or hurricane wreckage, could also receive temporary, renewable status to stay in the United States. . .

Here’s the thing though: conservatives are tired of continually compromising on illegal immigration, especially when it comes to DREAMers. We continually go through this immigration fight and what always happens? We allow some kind of amnesty to take place, although Republicans are very careful not to use that word. In exchange for receiving border wall funding we have to make exceptions that allow people who are already here to stay. (Read more from “Graham’s ‘Solution’ to the Border Wall Funding Is Sure to Find Objections From Conservatives” HERE)

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