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Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:

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Originally posted by Sigmanic:
Trump is considering firing special counsel Mueller, friend says

I can only imagine that resulting in some stiff political penalties (consequences).

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Originally posted by Gustofer:
If I ever get the chance to meet Kamala Harris...

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Where's the meteor

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Originally posted by 6guns:

Not so fast! Mr. Donald Trump is our President!

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Originally posted by Tn226:
And, of course, the msm and social media idiots are singing her praises "she handed Sessions his ass". She "showed a room full of old white men how it's done". "Strong black woman" On and on ad nauseum. My god you'd think she's Obama.

Where's the meteor

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Originally posted by PASig

Well, they clearly are beginning to position her as the next Obama, female version, don't you think?

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"you couldn't have assumed that question would be asked?"..

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Trump Is Beating the Media at Its Own Game
GEORGE NEUMAYR
February 22, 2017, 12:04 am

The left’s own politics by shorthand is now being turned against it.

Once asked by an aide to respond to a letter to the editor from one of his critics, Vladimir Lenin refused, saying: “Why should we bother to reply to Kautsky? He would reply to us, and we would have to reply to his reply. There’s no end to that. It will be quite enough for us to announce that Kautsky is a traitor to the working class, and everyone will understand everything.”

That has been the modus operandi of the left for decades. It doesn’t respond to arguments with arguments but with stigmatizing names designed to end debate. As the communications arm of the left, the media conforms perfectly to Lenin’s method. Instead of rebutting the arguments of conservatives, it has found it easier to brand them as “enemies” of science, women, minorities, the poor, and so on.

Whenever editors say that they refuse to acknowledge “two sides” on such matters as “marriage equality” or Darwinism or climate change, they are paying homage to Lenin’s devious politics by shorthand. They pay homage to it whenever they substitute their opinions of the news for actual reporting of the news. Even the squabbling among journalists recently over whether or not to suspend “conventional reporting” in Trump’s case, or whether front-page stories should declare his misstatements “lies,” is a tacit acknowledgment of that politics. With Lenin, the Christiane Amanpours have no use for the peskiness of precise responses. Just call Trump a “liar,” their attitude goes, and “everyone will understand everything.”

But that demagogic shorthand only works as long as Republican politicians defer to it. For years journalists opined self-servingly under the guise of objectivity and got away it because Republicans were too afraid to shatter that illusion of objectivity. They permitted the media to serve as the arbiter of what qualifies as “mainstream,” “extremist,” “racist,” and so forth, and made sure to stay within the media-determined parameters of any discussion.

Donald Trump has blown up that absurd arrangement and is beating the media at its own game. He labels reporters in the same way that they label him. He upends their dishonest framing of debates by treating them as what they are, liberal partisans. His exchange last week with April Ryan, a correspondent for the American Urban Radio Network, captured that perfectly. She asked him a loaded question not as a neutral reporter but as a water-carrier for the Congressional Black Caucus. So he treated her that way. “I’ll tell you what, do you want to set up the meeting?” the president said to her, after she asked if he would meet with the CBC. “Do you want to set up the meeting? Are they friends of yours?” Of course, they are friends of hers and she was trying to score a partisan point for them. Had Trump not deconstructed that for the audience, her question might have done him damage. Instead, it fell flat and looked unserious.

Reporters are thrown by a president who questions them as aggressively as they question him. And they resent that he refuses to accept as “facts” what is nothing more than their biased interpretation of the facts.

Everything they accuse Trump of is on display in their own coverage. One can only laugh at the eruptions of prissy sanctimony over Trump’s tweet calling reporters an “enemy of the people,” given the invective in which they have indulged over the last year. Having called him a despot and worse, who are they to scold anyone on intemperate language?

From ill-mannered reporters come lectures on manners. From partisans come demands for non-partisanship. Almost all of the complaints of the press can be boiled down to one demand: that its conservative targets unilaterally disarm. We fight, you surrender — that is the media’s idea of civility.

So expect the squeals of the media to grow in proportion to Trump’s exposure of its fraudulence. Bret Stephens and company can pompously say that Trump is an opponent of “objectivity itself.” But all that means is that he rejects their phony claims of objectivity and impedes their partisan wishes. In the end, it just means he is not a chump who is going to let them control politics by passing off liberal propaganda as “news” before which all must genuflect.

Contrary to the whining of Jake Tapper at CNN, last week’s press conference was not a distraction from his governance but an essential component of it. He recognizes that his agenda can only move forward if the people tune out the media’s distortions of it. Were Trump to take the media’s advice, he couldn’t govern. The more he neutralizes the media, the more successful he will be.

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[Go to URL to view photo]Attorney General Jeff Sessions gathers his papers as he prepares to depart on Capitol Hill. Alex Brandon AP

JUNE 13, 2017 6:14 PM
Dems rebuff skeptics: We will keep talking about Russia
BY ALEX ROARTY

Democrats have a blunt message for colleagues worried the party has become dangerously obsessed with Russia: Get over it.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ testimony Tuesday put Democrats in a familiar position, reacting to news about President Donald Trump and the ongoing investigation into his campaign’s alleged Russia connections. To skeptics, the story is a distraction from bread-and-butter issues that voters actually care about, like the unpopular Republican-backed health care bill, and a sign the party is already over-reaching well before the midterm congressional elections.

But Democratic operatives are arguing that the party has no choice but to launch these attacks. A weekly barrage of breaking news has forced their hand, demanding Democrats seize on an issue some of them now believe has increasing relevance beyond the Beltway anyway.

“Democrats aren’t driving this. Reality is driving it. And occasionally Trump’s Twitter is super-charging it,” said Jesse Ferguson, a veteran Democratic strategist. “But Democrats are along for the ride, and we better not fall asleep.”

Communication with voters, he added, is “about winning the fights that you are confronted with.”

Discussion about the ongoing investigation — and Trump’s handling of it — reached a crescendo last week, when former FBI Director James Comey in testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee said the president lied. The hearing, watched by millions, had Democrats crowing that an investigation into whether the president himself obstructed justice could be a political game-changer.

Sessions’ testimony failed to produce similar fireworks. But Democrats eyeing Trump’s approval ratings think the damage has already been done: His numbers hit new lows in a Quinnipiac poll released this month, and the share of Americans who disapprove of his presidency hit a new high Tuesday in Gallup’s daily tracking poll (60 percent).

Trump’s sinking numbers explain why Democrats think focusing on Russia is a good idea, even as Senate Republicans consider controversial health care legislation. Its chances of passage drop, the thinking goes, as the president takes on more water even from something otherwise politically unrelated.

“Why would anyone think that voters would be happy with a health care agenda from a president under FBI investigation for colluding with a foreign hostile power?” Ferguson asked.

Some Democrats also see an unexpected upside in talking about Russia: It gives them a new issue to use against Republicans.

The party could benefit from a fresh approach after years of attacks — many of them unsuccessful — against the GOP’s plans for the budget, Medicare, and Social Security, they say.

“We can't keep campaigning on the same tired messages we've been using since 2010,” said one Democratic strategist, who requested anonymity to speak candidly. “In case people haven't noticed, we keep losing."

Critics have charged that everyday people don’t care about the Russia story because it doesn’t affect their personal finances. Because of that, they say Democrats would be much better off focusing on the health care bill.

“The average person is like, ‘OK, what about my life out here today in the country?’” said RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of National Nurses United.

She called the focus on Russia a “strategic error” that Democrats have resorted to because it distracts from their own lack of an agenda.

“It is political fighting that has very little to do with their everyday lives,” said DeMoro, a stalwart liberal advocate who has been openly critical of the Democratic Party.

Other strategists echoed those concerns, arguing that although they think Russia is a damaging issue for the GOP, it’s not yet at the forefront of voters’ concerns.

“A year from now, there’s certainly an open possibility this could be a bipartisan and important concern for voters,” said one Democratic strategist involved with Senate races. “Right now, what we know is there is a plethora of data that the Republican health care agenda is incredibly unpopular with the kinds of voters who compromise crucial elements of the midterm electorate in battleground states.”

But many Democratic strategists see the two issues working in concert.

“Democrats should absolutely continue to press on Russia in Congress and in the national press,” said Josh Schwerin, spokesman for Priorities USA, which has conducted research on the effectiveness of both attacks. “It’s a critical issue for our country and democracy around the world and has helped drive Trump’s numbers down to their current abysmal levels.”

Schwerin added that the two messages can exist in different places, with Democrats talking about the Russia issue in the media while deploying TV ads on health care.

“The wall-to-wall coverage on Russia and Trump’s firing of Comey also makes it even more important for Democrats and progressive allies to be communicating directly with voters about health care and similar issues that impact people’s lives,” he said.

Alex Roarty: 202-383-6173, @Alex_Roarty

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Trump’s pledge to wipe out MS-13 gang paying off in NY
By Kaja Whitehouse June 14, 2017

[Go to URL to view photo] LatinContent/Getty Images

President Trump’s pledge to wipe out the notoriously violent MS-13 gang is gaining traction — at least in the Empire State.

Federal officials have rounded up close to 40 accused members of MS-13 in New York City and Long Island in the 30 days following vows by Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions to crack down on the gang, known for terrorizing immigrant communities.

Of the 45 N​ew ​Y​ork​-area gang arrests over the last month by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security, 39 were affiliated with MS-13, which has been blamed for a string of recent murders in normally placid Long Island, the feds said.

Those who are not charged with crimes will be processed for deportation, the feds said.

ICE and HSIA announced the arrests Wednesday as part of a newly formed operation aimed at combating MS-13 in N​ew ​Y​ork​ and Long Island.

The agencies formed “Operation Matador” last month — together with the NYPD, the Suffolk County Police Department and the Nassau County Police Department — following a high-profile visit by Sessions to Long Island to address the suburban enclave’s growing concerns about MS-13 violence. ​​

Treasury Department officials labeled MS-13 a “transnational criminal organization” in 2012, noting that its members have been involved in drug trafficking, kidnapping, human smuggling, murder and sex trafficking in the US and several other countries.

Like the Italian Mafia, MS-13 members follow a strict code of conduct, including beating in increments of 13 seconds for members who break the rules and a “green light” to kill, on sight, any government cooperators.

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Originally posted by lbj:
After this latest shooting incident, I think many democrats and leftists will be forced to tone their rhetoric down a bit.