Sanity prevails I guess.  It still doesn’t make a lick of sense how her name was even in consideration in the first place. Oh well.

(Via Fox)  Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has withdrawn his nominee for the Pentagon’s top civilian job after opposition from lawmakers concerned about her close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.
A senior official confirmed to Fox News that Mattis pulled the nomination of former Ambassador Anne Patterson to be undersecretary of defense for policy. The move was first reported by the Washington Post.
Patterson was U.S. ambassador to Egypt between 2011 and 2013, when that country’s president, Mohamed Morsi, was overthrown by the military. Critics opposed her selection by Mattis on the grounds that she was too accommodating to Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood during her tenure in Cairo.  (read more)

When we first saw the news reports that Defense Secretary Mattis was considering former Obama appointee Anne Patterson for undersecretary of policy we thought it was simply fake news.  However, apparently it is not.
Anne Patterson is a severely toxic entity and was considered the epicenter of dangerous political policy because she gave legitimacy to the extremists within the Muslim Brotherhood.  Specifically due to her role in supporting the Brotherhood’s former candidate turned President, Mohammed Morsi in Egypt, Anne Patterson should forever be dispatched into the waste-bin of failed mid-east policy.

No single appointment could bring more political and diplomatic damage to President Trump”s policy and diplomatic agenda around Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Saudi-Arabia, Libya and Syria than putting Anne Patterson into a leadership and policy role in the current defense department.   Good grief, what the heck is Mattis thinking?

(Via Washington Free Beacon) Opposition is mounting on Capitol Hill and in conservative foreign policy circles over Defense Secretary James Mattis’s efforts to hire a former Obama administration official who lobbied in favor of engagement with the Muslim Brotherhood and spearheaded efforts to criticize Israeli counter-terrorism efforts, according to multiple sources close to the Trump administration.

(more…)

Tomorrow President Trump will be meeting with members of the House Freedom Caucus to discuss their concerns with the ongoing Tom Price and Paul Ryan healthcare bill to repeal and replace Obamacare.
Today President Trump and Vice President Pence held a listening session with those affected by the current insurance market.
In this video President Trump listening to those who purchase health insurance on the individual market. Each of the people participating in the discussion shared their experience with the collapsing system.  Many of the stories are heart breaking.

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Hopefully the intransigent Freedom Caucus members will be listening to the voices of the average Americans who are being crushed by the ‘status quo’.
(more…)

CNN’s Fake News is going to get someone killed.

As we shared last night, CNN is promoting a highly charged false claim about new, heavily edited CCTV footage from the Ferguson Liquor Market on the night before Mike Brown was shot and killed.  We have thoroughly deconstructed the lies HERE.

CNN is promoting this fake documentary, “Stranger Fruit“,  that uses heavily edited footage of an earlier Mike Brown visit to the store.  According to the documentary Mike Brown was exchanging marijuana for store product at 1:13am the night (early morning) prior to his return and strong arm robbery of the same store.  The footage is edited to give the appearance of store employees accepting weed as barter for product.  This is false.
Secondarily, the producer of the video, Jason Pollock, is claiming the police never released the earlier in the day CCTV footage and instead tried to hide it.  Again, this is false.  All of the CCTV video was documented by the police, reviewed, included in all records that were part of the Grand Jury inquiry and given to the FBI. Including footage from the 1:13am visit. However, CNN is promoting the falsehoods by the documentary producers in an effort to stir trouble.
Well, their collective antagonism worked: (more…)

I ignored the first few dozen email notifications requesting opinion about a recent claim by activist and self-described “journalist and reporter” Jason Pollock, because, quite frankly, I’m sick of deconstructing the grievance industry’s lies and false narratives.
The obvious motivation behind “Stranger Fruit”, the Pollock documentary, is to stir up political leverage toward a fraudulent civil lawsuit against the city of Ferguson Missouri.
If Jason Pollock and Mike Brown Sr. had just kept their BS to a minimum, I would never have engaged.  Unfortunately, they didn’t – and specifically because they chose CNN as the outlet to promote their Very Fake News – enough is enough. We can deconstruct their entire narrative with a simple highlight to our previous research of December 3rd 2014.
First their claims as outlined in two segments recently aired by CNN:
New video in Michael Brown case

“Director: Police lied about Michael Brown”

Everything about those two CNN produced segments, and specifically the accusations and claims by Jason Pollock in the interview about the police, are false.
What follows below is the simple evidence that proves their lies using our earlier research dated December 3rd 2014.  The exact video Jason Pollock claims the police withheld, was actually presented to the Ferguson grand jury and the FBI who investigated the entire event.
Here’s proof.  Our outline from December 3rd 2014. (more…)

Representative Jim Jordan lays out a forceful case to destroy the RyanCare healthcare proposal.  Jordan makes a lot of good points; however, the unnerving aspect is Jordan’s response to the long-term ramifications of blowing up the Senate process:  “I don’t care” if we lose elections and end up with single-payer healthcare.
Jim Jordan is scheduled to meet again with President Trump this coming Tuesday.

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Earlier on Fox Business News, House Majority Whip, Representative Steve Scalise, defended the current three-step proposal and extended the conversation into the budget ramifications and the Trump tax reform proposal.
(more…)

As more people begin seeing through the fog of political “talking points”, the next response from those suffering from battered conservative syndrome is to say: well, do nothing, and allow ObamaCare to simply self-destruct.
Unfortunately, this is not an option.  At least it’s not a reasonable option.  To understand how battered conservatives are being lead around, used and abused, it is very important to understand the abusers.  There are many.

Last week Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin informed congress it will soon be necessary to raise the debt ceiling.   Immediately, crony-constitutional conservative types, like many who assemble in the House Freedom Caucus, shouted “no way”; apparently, according to their pearl-clutching political position – it unnerves their fiscally conservative sensibilities.
Interesting.
On October 21st, 2015, the Freedom Caucus itself backed Paul Ryan for Speaker of the House of Representatives. (LINK)  A week later, October 28th, 2015, members of the same Freedom Caucus voted to approve a $2+ trillion dollar Omnibus spending bill, a massive continuing resolution, and removed the debt ceiling restrictions (link).  Two days later, October 30th, 2015, at 3:00am in the morning, the Omnibus CR bill passed the Senate (link).
This was yet another year without a federal budget, and a specific decision to fund all of Obama’s spending priorities for 2015 and 2016.  (more…)

Don’t listen to the Western media version of what Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says. It is important to listen to his words directly:

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CNN has intentionally broadcast a filtered version of this interview focusing on the “foreign invaders” perspective. However, pay close attention to the 06:15 point of the video above where Assad discusses President Trump and his policy, and how Assad (correctly) views Turkey as facilitating ISIS.

“We have hopes that this administration in the United States is going to implement what we have heard, taking into consideration that talking about ISIS doesn’t mean talking about the whole terrorism; ISIS is one of the products, al-Nusra is one of the products, you have so many groups in Syria but they are not ISIS – but they are al-Qaeda. They have the same background of the Wahhabi extremist ideology”. [ie. The Muslim Brotherhood]

Asked about cooperation with President Trump specifically, President Assad expands: (more…)

Last night President Trump had a lengthy dinner and conversation with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in advance of several upcoming foreign emissary visits to the White House, and T-Rex’s strategic trip to Asia.
Today President Trump took Secretary Kelly (DHS), Secretary Ross (Commerce), Secretary Mnuchin (Treasury), Secretary Shulkin (VA), together with their spouses to Trump National Golf Club in Virginia.
Accompanying the cabinet group was key staff: Press Secretary Sean Spicer, Senior Adviser Steve Bannon, and Chief of Staff Reince Priebus.

Clockwise from President Trump: Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Hilary Ross, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Louise Linton (engaged), Karen Kelly and DHS Secretary John Kelly, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, Senior Adviser Steve Bannon, Press Secretary Sean Spicer, Merle Bari Shulkin and Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin.

This type of exit from DC is really smart for multiple reasons.  It might be a little challenging for the convoy to drive 35 minutes, but it allows the cabinet team to synergize in a more relaxed environment with introductions and fellowship amid the spouses.
Additionally, it provides a fully private venue, with full pre-arrival security controlled by Team Trump (ie. no ears); and an escape from the toxic fumes which perpetually emanate from the DC Swamp.
(more…)

In the largest measure, the basic problem is in 2009 Harry Reid passed the ObamaCare legislation in the Senate with 60 votes.  The House then passed the exact same bill, and the Democrats moved to immediate reconciliation to remove the House concerns (Gator-Aid, Cornhusker Kickback, Louisiana Purchase etc.).
In 2017 the Republican congress are attempting to repeal and replace that ObamaCare legislation with only 52 Senate votes available, well, maybe.
Unfortunately for the GOP there are not even 52 votes for repeal.  Portman, Thune, Collins, Murkowski, Graham, McCain, Blunt, Cochran, Cornyn, Hatch, McConnell and others, are not necessarily on board; that’s 11. (Leaving only 41).
No amount of byzantine rule changes surrounding “reconciliation” are going to overcome that factual vote hurdle.  In 2009 Senator Reid started with 60 votes.  In 2017 Senator McConnell starts with 52.

So anything coming from the House of Representatives has to keep this reality in mind.  Even if support or opposition is based on ideological principle, it still has to pass – or it’s moot.
There’s no doubt the Paul Ryan proposal holds the worst U.S. CoC aspects demanded by Tom Donohue.  Heck, Donohue poured a lot of lobbying money into the entire architecture in ’09/’10 and he’s paid republicans in congress hundreds of millions to make sure his interests in keeping ObamaCare around are protected.  Ryan is big GOPe and he’s supported by the Big Club.
And, as much as Paul Ryan is beholden to Donohue to retain some form of ObamaCare, so too are the Rand Paul / Ted Cruz types paid by billionaires like Cary Katz (Conservative Review); who want an abject repeal without compromise. (more…)