December 19, 2017

Elites are quashing presumption of innocence, due process

ALAN KEYES — The headline reads, "Kentucky State Rep. Dan Johnson dies of 'probably suicide' in Mt. Washington." The story at WDRB.com reports: "Kentucky State Rep. Dan Johnson, who was under investigation for alleged sexual molestation, died from a single gunshot wound to the head, according to the Bullitt County Coroner...."... (more)

December 18, 2017

FOX NEWS — A lawyer for the Trump presidential transition team is accusing Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office of inappropriately obtaining transition documents as part of its Russia probe, including confidential attorney-client communications, privileged communications and thousands of emails without their knowledge.... (more)

December 18, 2017

NEWSMAX — Former Rep. Michael Patrick Flanagan says President Donald Trump must clean out the bad elements of the FBI and be "brutal" about doing it. "You have a banana republic secret police whose job is regime preservation, not law and order preservation, and Trump is going to clear it out," Flanagan, an Illinois Republican who now heads a lobbying and public policy firm in Washington, D.C., told Newsmax TV's JD Hayworth on Friday.... (more)

December 18, 2017

BYRON YORK — Something is happening in the final days of 2017. People are noticing that Donald Trump has gotten a lot done in his tumultuous first year in the White House.... (more)

December 18, 2017

WASHINGTON TIMES — President Trump said Sunday that Sen. John McCain, who is battling brain cancer, would return to vote for tax reform this week if needed to pass the bill, though the senator's office later forecasted a January return to Washington. Mr. McCain had been undergoing treatment for a viral infection at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center near Washington but Sunday returned to Arizona to spend Christmas with his family, according to the senator's office.... (more)

December 18, 2017

WASHINGTON TIMES — Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked President Trump in a phone call Sunday for U.S. intelligence agencies providing a warning that thwarted a major Islamist terrorist plot against a cathedral and other sites in St. Petersburg, Russia. The White House said information that the U.S. provided had enabled Russian authorities to capture the terrorists "just prior to an attack that could have killed large numbers of people."... (more)

December 18, 2017

POLITICO — In its determination to secure a nuclear deal with Iran, the Obama administration derailed an ambitious law enforcement campaign targeting drug trafficking by the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah, even as it was funneling cocaine into the United States, according to a POLITICO investigation.... (more)

December 18, 2017

YONHAP NEWS — South Korean and U.S. forces conducted a joint training last week for infiltrating North Korea and removing weapons of mass destruction in case of conflict, military sources said. The "Warrior Strike" exercise was held at Camp Stanley, located north of Seoul, and other places from Tuesday to Friday, involving hundreds of soldiers from the two sides, they said.... (more)

December 17, 2017

ROBERT KNIGHT — I don't know how everyone else is doing, but we're ahead of the game in at least one category: watching Christmas movies. It beats fretting over the latest sex scandal, unconstitutional court rulings or whether Kim Jong-un is having a bad enough day to fire off a nuclear missile.... (more)

December 17, 2017

WASHINGTON TIMES — With Republicans set to achieve a decades-long policy goal of opening a section of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, environmentalists over the weekend launched a last-ditch effort to halt the initiative, though their efforts almost surely will be in vain.... (more)

December 16, 2017

WASHINGTON EXAMINER — A lawyer for President Trump's transition team said that special counsel Robert Mueller's obtaining of emails related to the transition was inappropriate, both on Mueller's behalf and the agency that provided them.... (more)

December 16, 2017

BYRON YORK — Yes, the release of texts sent between top FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page show that both loathed Donald Trump while they were working on investigations involving Trump as a presidential candidate and later as president. Of course, lots of federal employees loathe Trump. It would be hard for all of them to recuse themselves from government matters, although it is probably not a great idea to have them play key roles in high-stakes probes that could have a momentous effect on the presidency.... (more)

December 16, 2017

BOB UNRUH — The FBI's special investigation of "Russian collusion" with the Trump campaign during the 2016 election has been under fire in recent days over an agent, later dismissed, who apparently repeatedly protected Hillary Clinton from prosecution and in partisan fashion attacked then-candidate Donald Trump.... (more)

December 16, 2017

NEWSMAX — President Donald Trump has called the wife of John McCain as the Arizona senator is hospitalized for cancer treatments. The White House said Trump called Cindy McCain on Friday to send his best wishes and check on her and her husband.... (more)

December 16, 2017

WASHINGTON EXAMINER — Parents would get new federal tax breaks for sending their children to private or religious schools or teaching them at home if the final Republican tax overhaul bill becomes law. For that, they can thank Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who offered the original amendment to extend 529 college savings plans to grade school and high school, including costs for homeschooling.... (more)

December 16, 2017

NATIONAL REVIEW — Suppose you always wanted to date tall and good-looking people, and believe yourself to be tall and good-looking too. There's a club in your city called Lucky's where all the tall and good-looking people go, so you show up there. But you can't get in. The bouncer stops you.... (more)

December 16, 2017

CNBC — Facebook just admitted that using Facebook can be bad for you Facebook just admitted that using Facebook can be bad for you 3:48 PM ET Fri, 15 Dec 2017 | 00:45 Facebook admitted on Thursday that using its social network can be bad for you in some instances. Facebook's director of research David Ginsberg and research scientist Moira Burke published a post in which they addressed questions about the impact Facebook has on our moods, and revealed some compelling information.... (more)

December 16, 2017

WASHINGTON TIMES — The head of Planned Parenthood is not happy with House Speaker Paul Ryan over his call for a higher U.S. birth rate. Cecile Richards took to social media on Friday to blast the idea that male lawmakers should use their bully pulpit to discuss the national birth rate. Mr. Ryan told reporters on Thursday that entitlement programs like Social Security require more bodies than Americans are providing for the accounting to work.... (more)

December 16, 2017

YAHOO NEWS — Pope Francis is criticizing journalists who dredge up old scandals and sensationalize the news, saying it's a "very serious sin" that hurts all involved. Francis, who plans to dedicate his upcoming annual communications message to "fake news," told Catholic media on Saturday that journalists perform a mission that is among the most "fundamental" to democratic societies.... (more)

December 16, 2017

NEW YORK POST — 'Our record as journalists in covering this Trump story and the Russian story is pretty good," legendary reporter Carl Bernstein recently claimed. Pretty good? If there's a major news story over the past 70 years that the American media have botched more often because of bias and wishful thinking, I'd love to hear about it.... (more)

December 14, 2017

CLIFF KINCAID — The Alabama win for Barack Obama's candidate Doug Jones confirms our thesis that Obama is running the Democratic Party and the anti-Trump resistance. Obama, who recently compared President Trump to Hitler, recorded a robocall in support of the Alabama Democrat, calling him a "fighter for equality, for progress." His notion of progress means suppressing the white vote and inciting black voters, who now believe by a margin of 72 percent that Trump should be impeached.... (more)

December 14, 2017

BOB UNRUH — Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., used to be a prosecutor. So he's not entirely new to the concept of evidence, investigations, charges and conflicts of interest. What he apparently doesn't understand is the FBI's idea of a "conflict-of-interest-free" special counsel's office, which employed a key investigator who helped clear a political candidate he supported and later targeted one he vehemently opposed.... (more)

December 14, 2017

NEWSMAX — Attorney and political analyst Alan Dershowitz said Wednesday he would like to see a "non-partisan commission" examine special counsel Robert Mueller's team and its investigation into claims the Trump campaign colluded with Russia.... (more)

December 14, 2017

GREG COROMBOS — A top lawyer in Texas says the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller appears to be nothing more than effort to charge people with crimes unrelated to Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign. He also said recent revelations of rampant partisanship on the part of prosecutors on Mueller's team ought to be the death blow to the probe.... (more)

December 14, 2017

NEWSMAX — Former Fox News star Bill O'Reilly believes the FBI has been compromised and no longer carries the gravitas it once did. "No doubt in my mind, and I'm a big law enforcement guy as you may know . . . I've lost faith in the FBI," O'Reilly told Newsmax TV's John Bachman on "Newsmax Now."... (more)