Bill Clinton’s Former Lawyer Endorses Trump Supreme Court Nominee Kavanaugh

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While several Democratic lawmakers push for obstructing the confirmation of President Donald Trump’s second U.S. Supreme Court justice pick, judge Brett Kavanaugh has earned praise from a number of individuals who know and have worked closely with him over the years.

One such recommendation came in the form of a letter to members of the U.S. Senate judiciary committee this week.

Bob Bennett, who represented then-President Bill Clinton during a high-profile sexual harassment case, said Kavanaugh was a promising young competitor working on the other side of the courtroom.

“I first crossed paths with Brett in the mid 1990s, when we found ourselves lined up on opposite sides of the decade’s biggest legal battle,” he said.

Bennett wrote that he was “serving as President Clinton’s personal lawyer in the Paula Jones case” while Kavanaugh “had just joined the Office of Independent Counsel under Ken Starr, then investigating the president.”

Though they were vociferous foes when presenting their cases, Bennett said he took away a respect for the manner in which Kavanaugh conducted himself.

Specifically, he pointed to the ethics the attorney demonstrated in what was a highly charged partisan climate, adding that Kavanaugh was able to “avoid falling prey” to political pressures.

“Brett’s integrity quickly won me over, and we became close friends despite our differences (and the differences between the Presidents we served),” Bennett said.

Bennett praised Trump’s pick as “the most qualified person any Republican president could possibly have nominated.”

Meanwhile, many in the Democratic Party’s progressive wing have begun to rally opposition to Kavanaugh’s confirmation on Capitol Hill, as reported by HuffPost.

Several groups are backing the growing effort to press Democrats for a firm statement of their intention to vote against him. Brian Fallon, a former Hillary Clinton spokesperson, issued a statement of support through his organization Demand Justice.

“The fight against Brett Kavanaugh is winnable but only if Senate Democrats quickly unite in opposition so we can focus on pressuring a Republican to break ranks,” he said. “At this point, it is absurd that there are still more than two dozen Democrats on the fence about Kavanaugh. He is the most unpopular Supreme Court nominee in 35 years and it is time to fight his nomination with the urgency it deserves.”

Some supporters of the effort say Democratic senators should ignore tradition dictating that they refrain from sharing an opinion on a Supreme Court nominee until a confirmation hearing has been conducted.

Advocacy group Indivisible cited President Barack Obama’s pick, who was not given a hearing by a GOP-controlled Congress, in a statement from associate policy director Elizabeth Beavers.

“We should ask Merrick Garland about standard Supreme Court procedure,” she said. “That’s not what we’re operating on.” (For more from the author of “Bill Clinton’s Former Lawyer Endorses Trump Supreme Court Nominee Kavanaugh” please click HERE)

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The Story Behind Archbishop Vigano’s Polemic Against Pope Francis Just Got More Complicated

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By The Week. A letter from Archbishop Carlo Mari Vigano accusing Pope Francis of covering up disgraced former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s alleged sexual misconduct with men training to be priests was released Sunday morning, on the final day of the pope’s visit to Ireland. That was on purpose, Italian journalist and conservative blogger Marco Tosatti tells The Associated Press, saying he persuaded Vigano to go public with his allegations, helped write and edit his 11-page letter, and found conservative Catholic outlets that would publish it on Sunday morning.

Vigano claims that Pope Benedict XVI quietly ordered McCarrick to a life of secluded prayer and penance but that when Benedict stepped down, Francis rehabilitated the cardinal and lifted the sanctions until news of McCarrick’s alleged sexual misconduct became public. “Vigano called for Francis to resign over what he said was complicity in covering up McCarrick’s crimes,” AP says. “There is ample evidence, however, that the Vatican under Benedict and St. John Paul II also covered up that information, and that any sanctions Benedict imposed were never enforced.” (Read more from “The Story Behind Archbishop Vigano’s Polemic Against Pope Francis Just Got More Complicated” HERE)

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The Sneering Contempt of Pope Francis

By The Week. . .It is almost impossible to the overstate the significance of this letter. If Viganò is lying, he is guilty of one of the greatest slanders in the history of the Church. If he is telling the truth, the Eternal City is mired in filth unseen since the days of the Borgias, and Francis is among the worst wretches who has ever besmirched the Chair of Peter.

Asked on Sunday whether the accusations were true or false, Francis demurred. “I will not say a single word about this.” He then smugly invited the journalists who were present on the papal airplane to investigate the facts for themselves, as if he were a philosophy professor teaching a seminar to a roomful of eager graduate students instead of the Vicar of Christ. This is the same man who, despite endless PR about his commitment to victims, his hatred of clericalism, and his belief in treating gay and lesbian people with dignity, only a few months ago dismissed complaints made about his handling of sexual abuse allegations in Chile as the worthless gossip of “left-wingers,” a word that, according to Viganò, is synonymous in the pope’s vocabulary with gay people. It is not surprising that even churchmen named alongside Francis in the dossier have responded with what amount to non-denials that make no attempt to defend Francis. Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the archbishop of Washington, D.C., has said Viganò has provided no “objectively verifiable proof” of his claims.

Whatever the truth of Viganò’s numerous accusations — and the detailed chronology and references to documents in his letter mean that sooner or later it will be possible to prove or disprove them definitively — there are other truths that require facing now. This is true especially for those of us who have defended the Holy Father against slander and caricature in the past. Francis has revealed himself as an old-fashioned clericalist who views the faithful with contempt. It is not my place as a layman to tell the Holy Father his business, but I can make no secret of the fact that I long for an end to his gaslighting pontificate. (Read more from “The Sneering Contempt of Pope Francis” HERE)

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Texas Police Search for Mystery Woman Recorded Ringing Doorbell in Only a T-Shirt and What Appears to Be Restraints

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A neighborhood in Texas has been consumed with mystery after a security camera recorded a barefoot woman wearing only a T-shirt and what appears to be wrist shackles frantically ringing the doorbell of a home in the early hours of the morning.

The incident, which occurred after 3 a.m. on Friday, was captured by a doorbell cam recently installed at a home in the Sunrise Ranch subdivision, according to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office. The unidentified woman, seeming somewhat panicked, appears suddenly out the bushes and rings the bell a few times before the seconds-long clip cuts out.

The home’s resident later reviewed the footage from a private security system and passed it along to authorities, who are now working to find and identify the woman, according to the Houston Chronicle.

Another homeowner in the area, who did not wish to be identified, said her doorbell rang at least 20 times Friday night, prompting her husband to make his way downstairs and to their front door. . .

Since authorities shared the footage — which was also published on the neighborhood’s Facebook page over the weekend — they’ve received numerous tips suggesting the woman could be a missing person in various cases, some of them as far away as Canada, Montgomery County Sheriff’s Lt. Scott Spencer told the Chronicle. (Read more from “Texas Police Search for Mystery Woman Recorded Ringing Doorbell in Only a T-Shirt and What Appears to Be Restraints” HERE)

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Establishment Media Reams Ivanka Over Kindness to Jacksonville Victims

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Ivanka Trump led with her heart Sunday and wound up once again being the target of abuse on social media.

“As we await further details, our hearts are with Jacksonville and all those affected by today’s tragic mass shooting,” the first daughter — a mother of three — tweeted even as most of America was waiting for details to emerge about the shooting that took place in Florida, the New York Post reported.

That call for humanity ignited more than 3,000 comments, many directed against President Donald Trump for his position on gun rights, CBS reported.

In the incident, David Katz, 24, of Baltimore, Maryland, shot 12 people, killing two, before killing himself, CNN reported. The guns were legally purchased in Maryland.

The criticism Ivanka Trump received for her tweet was covered by multiple major media outlets, such as Newsweek, which headlined its report, “Ivanka Trump Slammed for Jacksonville Shooting Tweet: ‘Vapid Heartless Nonsense.’”

Some voices fired back.

One commentator noted that the hatred directed at both Ivanka Trump and first lady Melania Trump misses the point that both routinely disagree with the president both privately and publicly.

“Unfortunately, because of the polarizing nature of political discourse, and because both women openly support Trump in other areas, their individual moments of dissent are not widely appreciated,” wrote Kimberly Ross in an Op-Ed posted by the Washington Examiner. “Those who feel that standing against the president should occur more often within his inner circle are sure to be disappointed. While I routinely differ from Ivanka Trump’s personal and professional political stances, I admire this stand of hers.”

Ross pointed to Ivanka Trump’s difference of opinion with her father about the media as evidence that they do not think in lockstep.

“The hatred that a fair amount of individuals on the left have for these two women is palpable. Neither is an elected official and both are quite limited in how much influence they have on this administration. By publicly objecting to certain attitudes within the Trump White House, and doing so with a measure of grace, they show that civil discourse is possible,” Ross wrote. (For more from the author of “Establishment Media Reams Ivanka Over Kindness to Jacksonville Victims” please click HERE)

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Trump Unloads on ‘Rigged’ Google, Threatens Action

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President Donald Trump was awake early Tuesday morning and once again took aim at the perceived bias of Silicon Valley with a pair of tweets aimed at Google.

The search-engine giant had been the subject of an investigation by one conservative website that found a majority of news results related to Trump were from “liberal” media sites.

That designation was itself lifted from a “media bias chart” compiled by journalist Sharyl Attkisson. Major media properties including CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post appear on the left-leaning side of that chart.

Apparently referencing that PJ Media report, the president began by tweeting that Google’s behavior could be against the law.

Google search results for “Trump News” shows only the viewing/reporting of Fake New Media. In other words, they have it RIGGED, for me & others, so that almost all stories & news is BAD. Fake CNN is prominent. Republican/Conservative & Fair Media is shut out. Illegal? 96% of…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 28, 2018

….results on “Trump News” are from National Left-Wing Media, very dangerous. Google & others are suppressing voices of Conservatives and hiding information and news that is good. They are controlling what we can & cannot see. This is a very serious situation-will be addressed!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 28, 2018

He claimed the tech giant had “RIGGED” the system against him and his supporters while artificially amplifying the voices of his detractors in the media.

“Google search results for ‘Trump News’ shows only the viewing/reporting of Fake New Media,” he wrote. “In other words, they have it RIGGED, for me & others, so that almost all stories & news is BAD.”

While keeping the focus on Google, Trump denounced “Fake CNN” as a “prominent” news outlet within the search engine’s results.

“Republican/Conservative & Fair Media is shut out,” he wrote. “Illegal?”

As his statement ran into a second tweet, Trump hinted that his administration could take action against the company, though he did not elaborate on what crime he believes Google might have committed.

“96% of…….results on “Trump News” are from National Left-Wing Media, very dangerous,” the president tweeted at about 5:30 a.m. Eastern time. “Google & others are suppressing voices of Conservatives and hiding information and news that is good.”

Trump concluded by insinuating that Google’s influence is so great that it can effectively silence some voices on the internet.

“They are controlling what we can & cannot see,” he wrote. “This is a very serious situation — will be addressed!”

In a statement later Tuesday morning, the president’s economic adviser confirmed his team would be determining whether the government should step in to regulate what users find when they search for content online using Google.

“We’ll let you know,” Larry Kudlow said. “We’re taking a look at it.”

Earlier this month, Trump tweeted similar criticism of the nation’s leading social media firms, which have been accused of exhibiting political bias in removing or restricting access to certain content.

“If you are weeding out Fake News, there is nothing so Fake as CNN & MSNBC, & yet I do not ask that their sick behavior be removed,” Trump wrote. (For more from the author of “Trump Unloads on ‘Rigged’ Google, Threatens Action” HERE)

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Designer of 3D Printed Gun Will Distribute Gun Plans Despite Court Order

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The designer of a 3D printed gun said he will distribute his designs despite a court order that sought to bar him from doing so. . .

Cody Wilson plans to sell the designs for 3D printed guns through his company Defense Distributed, based in Austin, Texas. While it’s illegal to distribute plans for an entire 3D printed gun online, Wilson circumvented this by selling parts instead of a complete gun.

On July 10, the U.S. Department of Justice reached a settlement with the Second Amendment Foundation on behalf of Defense Distributed, under which plans for the guns could be distributed freely online.

Wilson announced at a news conference on Tuesday that he had figured out a work-around, and would be selling flash drives with the plans on them instead of making them available for download. He will also limit sales to the United States instead of making the plans available internationally. . .

Trump is no fan of Wilson’s. In July, shortly after the settlement, Trump tweeted that does not think that 3D guns should be sold to the public.

(Read more from “Designer of 3D Printed Gun Will Distribute Gun Plans Despite Court Order” HERE)

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More Than Two-Thirds of School Shootings Reported to Feds in 2015-16 Never Happened

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. . .This spring the U.S. Education Department reported that in the 2015-2016 school year, “nearly 240 schools … reported at least 1 incident involving a school-related shooting.” The number is far higher than most other estimates.

But NPR reached out to every one of those schools repeatedly over the course of three months and found that more than two-thirds of these reported incidents never happened. Child Trends, a nonpartisan nonprofit research organization, assisted NPR in analyzing data from the government’s Civil Rights Data Collection.

We were able to confirm just 11 reported incidents, either directly with schools or through media reports.

In 161 cases, schools or districts attested that no incident took place or couldn’t confirm one. In at least four cases, we found, something did happen, but it didn’t meet the government’s parameters for a shooting. About a quarter of schools didn’t respond to our inquiries. . .

The Education Department, asked for comment on our reporting, noted that it relies on school districts to provide accurate information in the survey responses and says it will update some of these data later this fall. But, officials added, the department has no plans to republish the existing publication. (Read more from “More Than Two-Thirds of School Shootings Reported to Feds in 2015-16 Never Happened” HERE)

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California Eliminates Bail System so That ‘Rich and Poor Alike Are Treated Fairly’

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California will no longer have a bail system for suspects awaiting trial beginning next year, after Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a bill aiming to treat suspects more equally, according to The Hill.

Senate Bill 10 will go into effect in October 2019 and replace the current bail system with a “risk assessment” procedure that will determine whether a suspect is released.

“Our path to a more just criminal justice system is not complete, but today it made a transformational shift away from valuing private wealth and toward protecting public safety,” said state Sen. Bob Hertzberg (D-Van Nuys), who authored the bill along with Assemblyman Rob Bonta (D-Alameda). “Thanks to the collaboration of the governor, chief justice and the Legislature, we are creating a system that is fairer for all Californians.” . . .

Nonviolent misdemeanor suspects will be released within 12 hours after being booked, with exceptions being made for people with recent violent felony convictions, failures to appear, or domestic violence allegations.

For other suspects, local courts will conduct a risk assessment. Those found to be at a low risk of further criminal activity or fleeing will be released. Medium-risk suspects may be released at the discretion of the court, and high-risk suspects will be detained. (Read more from “California Eliminates Bail System so That ‘Rich and Poor Alike Are Treated Fairly’” HERE)

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About 1 in 7 U.S. Adults Reported Using Marijuana Last Year, and Many Believe It Has Health Benefits

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Nearly 15 percent of adults in the U.S. reported using marijuana last year, according to a study recently published in the Annals of Internal Medicine journal.

Researchers found that 1 in 7 adults used some form of cannabis in 2017, up slightly from 13 percent in 2016. In states where marijuana is legal for recreational use, the rate of users was as high as 20 percent.

The survey of the 9,003 adults found that Americans have a more favorable view of marijuana than existing scientific evidence supports, the study’s authors wrote. . .

Thirteen percent of adults in the U.S. reported using pot in 2016, according to a Gallup poll published earlier this month. In 2013, only 7 percent said they used it.

Sixty-six percent of respondents perceived pain management to be the most common benefit of marijuana use, followed by treatment for diseases such as epilepsy and multiple sclerosis (48 percent). Forty-seven percent believed it treats depression and anxiety. (Read more from “About 1 in 7 U.S. Adults Reported Using Marijuana Last Year, and Many Believe It Has Health Benefits” HERE)

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Mother Alleges That ICE Is Responsible for Her Toddler’s Death

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Jazmin Juarez, 20, and her 18-month-old daughter, Mariee, came to the U.S. from Guatemala via the Rio Grande in March. They were detained by ICE and placed in the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas. Mariee soon developed a respiratory infection which “went woefully under-treated for nearly a month,” according to Juarez’s lawyers. Facility workers reportedly gave her Tylenol to alleviate her symptoms, but it did not help. The toddler died six weeks after the family’s release.

“A mother lost her little girl because ICE and those running the Dilley immigration prison failed them inexcusably,” the lawyers told CNN. “We are working with Yazmin and her family to obtain justice for the failures by ICE and others, and to ensure that no other family suffers such a needless and devastating loss.”

They provided a timeline of Mariee’s deteriorating condition.

But her lawyers say Mariee’s symptoms became worse, losing weight, vomiting as well as developing fever and diarrhea. During their nearly three weeks at the facility, Juarez sought medical attention for Mariee at least five times, according to her attorneys. During her time there, Mariee received various other diagnoses that included acute bronchiolitis and an ear infection.

“After it became clear that Mariee was gravely ill, ICE simply discharged mother and daughter. Yazmin immediately sought medical care for her baby, but it was too late. Mariee died following six agonizing weeks in the hospital after leaving Dilley,” according to her lawyers. (Read more from “Mother Alleges That ICE Is Responsible for Her Toddler’s Death” HERE)

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