Yeah, that’s not going to go well.

Via Fox News:

Former Massachusetts GOP Gov. Bill Weld has launched a committee to explore a 2020 Republican primary challenge against President Trump.

Weld confirmed the move during an address Friday at “Politics and Eggs,” a must stop in the first-in-the-nation primary state of New Hampshire for any White House hopeful.

“I think there definitely is a path to victory, but you want to test the market a bit. I look forward to talking to a variety of people. You want to make sure the motion doesn’t fail for lack of a second but it won’t,” Weld said Thursday evening in an interview with the New Hampshire Union Leader. “Everyone I have talked to says you are running as an R, count me in.”

Fox News first reported on Wednesday that Weld, a very vocal Trump critic, would likely announce at “Politics and Eggs” that he was taking a step toward launching a longshot bid to unseat the president.

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Taxpayer relief shot.

Via Navy Times:

Base security forces on Thursday morning fatally shot a man who charged at them after he crashed a stolen vehicle into a north gate barrier at Naval Air Station-Corpus Christi, officials told Navy Times.

Officials at the Nueces County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed that they have scheduled an autopsy for the unidentified dead man for Thursday afternoon.

Corpus Christi Police Department officials have traced the stolen Ford Edge crossover SUV to a carjacking at a gas station that occurred around 7 a.m. Thursday about 8 miles west of NAS Corpus Christi’s south gate.

That’s where the man entered the base about 30 minutes later, speeding and weaving to avoid NAS Corpus Christi Security forces in hot pursuit, according to three written statements sent to Navy Times by officials there.

The man drove across the base and attempted to escape through the north gate along Ocean Drive but crashed and the SUV erupted in flames, authorities said.

Bolting from the SUV, he “charged Security force personnel, who fired shots in response,” the statement said.

Emergency responders pronounced the driver dead at the scene.

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Expand background checks for illegals seeking amnesty.

Via NBC News:

A key House committee approved a bill Wednesday to require background checks for all sales and transfers of firearms, a first step by majority Democrats to tighten gun laws after eight years of Republican rule.

The House Judiciary Committee voted in favor of the bill 23-15, sending it to the House floor. If approved by the full House, the bill would be the most significant gun-control legislation approved by either chamber of Congress in at least a decade.

Democrats have pledged additional gun legislation, including restrictions on high-capacity magazines and a measure to allow temporary removal of guns from people deemed an imminent risk to themselves or others.

Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., called the background checks bill long overdue to address a “national crisis of gun violence” that claimed nearly 40,000 lives in 2017.

“Our country is awash in guns, and we have the shameful death toll to show for it,” he said.

The vote on the bill came after a contentious, daylong hearing in which Republicans offered a series of amendments, all of which were blocked by Democrats. Republicans said they were ready to offer additional amendments when Nadler shut off debate around 8 p.m., 10 hours after the hearing began.

Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia, the panel’s senior Republican, called Nadler’s action “disturbing” and said it did not bode well for the two-year congressional session.

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It was for the children. Update to this story.

DENVER (AP) — Denver teachers ended a three-day walkout and returned to their classrooms Thursday, greeted by hugs and high-fives, after their union reached a tentative deal raising their pay as much as 11 percent, the latest win in a national movement by educators to raise their wages and advocate for changes in schools.

The deal was worked out in talks that lasted through the night and signed shortly before classes started. Teachers were encouraged to return to their classrooms, even though the deal awaits ratification by the union membership.

Susan McHugh said she was prepared to return to her government and politics class with a lesson plan based on her experience — a discussion about the labor movement and the power of collective bargaining.

“This is just a really good example of what can happen when people join forces together,” she said.

More than half district’s 4,725 teachers went on strike Monday after negotiations over pay broke down. The walkout came about a year after West Virginia teachers launched the national “Red4Ed” movement with a nine-day strike in which they won 5 percent pay raises.

There have since been walkouts in Washington state, Arizona, Kentucky and Oklahoma. Most recently, Los Angeles teachers staged a six-day strike last month. That walkout ended when teachers settled on a 6 percent raise and promises of smaller class sizes and the addition of more nurses and counselors.

Teachers in Oakland recently voted to authorize a strike that could come as soon as next week if they can’t reach a deal.

In Denver, teachers would get a base pay raise of between 7 to 11 percent in the next school year and cost-of-living increases in the following two years. The deal also creates a pay scale based on experience and education more similar to other school districts and allows teachers to earn more by completing professional development courses, not just earning degrees. Starting pay will be $45,800.

However, the union compromised on incentive pay for teachers working in high poverty schools, which the district sees as key to helping disadvantaged students. Teachers agreed to raise bonuses for those working in low-income schools that the district deemed the most challenging to $3,000 a year.

They wanted to eliminate the retention bonuses completely because they say they do not prevent teacher turnover. The union thinks increasing overall funding for those schools, like paying for smaller class sizes and social workers, is a better approach. Both sides agreed to study what leads teachers to leave or stay in those schools and revisit the issue later.[…]

The district said some of the extra money being put into teacher pay will come from cutting about 150 jobs in the district’s central office and eliminating bonuses for those staffers.

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Via Charlotte Observer:

One of North Carolina’s bears was caught in the act of eating trash on Wednesday, after it got stuck in a garbage truck headed to the landfill, according to the Windsor/Bertie County Chamber of Commerce.

A photo posted by the chamber on Facebook showed the pitiful bear perched on the top of the truck’s trailer, trapped by the netting used to keep trash from blowing out.

TV station WTKR reported authorities in Bertie County got a call from a motorist at 7:20 a.m. Wednesday, reporting “a bear was hanging off of a dump truck” headed north on US 17 to the Bertie County landfill. The county is in eastern N.C., on the Albemarle Sound.

Chamber of Commercial spokesman Lewis Hoggard told the Virginian-Pilot a deputy stopped the truck and then the bear “stuck his head up” out of the trailer.

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Democrats don’t care if it actually hurts the people they claim to care about.

Via Daily Caller:

Immigration hawks are flagging major concerns about the border deal reached by Congress to avoid a second partial government shutdown, multiple experts and former immigration enforcement officials tell The Daily Caller.

The concerns center on broader protections for illegal immigrants within the U.S. and the expansion of the Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program.

“More kids will be smuggled, more kids will be molested, more kids will die” as a result of the expanded protections for illegal immigrants, former Acting ICE Director Thomas Homan told The Daily Caller.

The nearly 1,200-page bill was released Wednesday in the midnight hours and will be voted on Thursday by the House of Representatives. The bill is the result of a conference committee chaired by Democrats and Republicans with a mandate to deliver funding for President Donald Trump’s proposed wall along the U.S. southern border and avoid another partial government shutdown.

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BREAKING:Police raided the home of two persons of interest in Jussie Smollett case last night. Both men are of Nigerian decent and have appeared as extras on the show. Police took bleach, shoes electronics and more.Officers asked family if they knew #Jussiesmollett. @cbschicago pic.twitter.com/PDSFtf5jwb

— Charlie De Mar (@CharlieDeMar) February 14, 2019

It’s all unraveling.

Via Twitchy:

As Twitchy told you earlier, Chicago Police confirmed that they have tracked down the two persons of interest in the alleged “MAGA country” hate crime against “Empire” star Jussie Smollett. According to Fox 32 reporter Rafer Weigel, police identified the men as an “Empire” extra and his friend.

Well, given the way this story has progressed over the past several weeks, this will probably come as a huge shock to you, but it gets weirder still. CBS Chicago reporter Charlie De Mar has more.

Huh. So both men were extras on the show? And not random white Chicago rednecks?

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Update:

Police are pushing on the reports it was a hoax, they’re not ready to say that yet.

Obama was already doing whatever he wanted without calling it that.

Via Daily Caller:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned President Donald Trump on Thursday that a future Democratic president could declare a national emergency to achieve an agenda, such as gun control policy.

Responding to the president’s announcement that he will declare a national emergency related to the U.S. southern border, Pelosi maintained that “Democratic presidents can declare emergencies as well. So the precedent that the president is setting here is something that should be met with great unease and dismay by the Republicans.”

Speaker Pelosi told reporters at her weekly press conference, “You want to talk about a national emergency? Let’s talk about today, the one-year anniversary of another manifestation of the epidemic of gun violence in America. That’s a national emergency. Why don’t you declare that emergency, Mr. President?”

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Not shocking.

Via Fox News:

Former Vice President Joe Biden is almost certain to run for president in 2020, a source with direct knowledge told Fox News on Thursday.
The source said the timing of an announcement is still up in the air. With such a crowded field of Democratic hopefuls, Biden wants to keep big donors and potential staffers with him, and has been conducting outreach to former colleagues, grassroots activists and contributors, the source said.

Fox News also confirmed through two sources that California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein met privately Thursday morning with Biden. The sources said Feinstein expects Biden to run.

A “Friends of Joe” group, which has been inactive since 2016, has been busy with a flurry of emails, conversations and activities, the source said. The group comprises longtime aides, donors, supporters and friends.

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Dumber than a box of rocks. She doesn’t understand that giving someone a tax break isn’t fungible money, it can’t be used elsewhere.

Via Fox News:

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is taking a victory lap after delivering the goods in her fight against Amazon.
The star freshman Democrat – along with other lawmakers – had strongly criticized the planned opening of Amazon’s second headquarters in New York.

So, after Jeff Bezos’ tech giant announced Thursday it was pulling the plug on its proposed Long Island City location, the Bronx native had something to celebrate.

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Hey, @AOC – The $3B was in tax subsidies.
A reduction in taxes *paid* by @Amazon. Now that they're not in NYC, the amount of taxes will be reduced by … wait.
There will be ZERO TAX REVENUES or JOBS enjoyed by NYC residents.#Bravo Little Miss Hissy Fit! https://t.co/5IVQgyppKv

— Sandy (@RightGlockMom) February 14, 2019

As a #LIC resident, I agree. All of my neighbors agree. Everybody who was protesting @Amazon did not live in the neighborhood. Politicians and activists are using this to serve their own causes. Real people will be hurt by their actions.

— Rusty (@jahbreeze) February 14, 2019

.@fox32news has learned from @Chicago_Police that the 2 persons of interests they are talking to were an extra on #Empire and his close friend. They were picked up at the airport and are the ones in surveillance video.

— Rafer Weigel (@RaferWeigel) February 14, 2019

This just took a wild twist.

Via Twitchy:

As Twitchy reported, “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett appeared on “Good Morning America” Thursday morning to talk about the alleged racist and homophobic attack on him in Chicago, where he claimed assailants put a noose around his neck and yelled, “This is MAGA country.”

Police also reported that they’d tracked down those two persons of interest who appeared in a surveillance video.

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Payback for electing her.

Via CR:

Newly elected Rep. Ilhan Omar will jet off to Los Angeles next month to keynote a fundraiser for the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), a terror-tied organization that was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terrorist financing case in U.S. history.

On March 23, Omar will speak at CAIR-Los Angeles’ 4th Annual Valley Banquet, where tables will cost $500.

“CAIR-LA is honored to have Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-MN) as the featured speaker for the 4th Annual Valley Banquet,” reads a press release from the Los Angeles chapter of the group that was formed as a Hamas support network in the United States.

She will deliver her address alongside CAIR-Florida director Hassan Shibly, according to a CAIR flier promoting the event. Shibly is a dedicated Islamist and bigoted gay basher. A fan of radical clerics, he has routinely refused to categorize U.S.-designated terror groups Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist organizations, according to the Clarion Project. Moreover, Shibly regularly takes to social media to demonize the U.S. military as equivalent to the jihadi terrorists that they are fighting.

The director of CAIR-Los Angeles is Hussam Ayloush, who, like many CAIR executives, has disturbing Islamist views. Following the tragic San Bernardino terrorist attacks, Ayloush suggested that the United States was “partly responsible” for the ISIS-led attack on innocents in California. “Let’s not forget that some of our own foreign policy, as Americans, as the West, have fueled that extremism,” he added. Ayloush has in the past described U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan as part of a campaign to instill “fear of the Muslims.”

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No wonder vegans are constantly butthurt.

Via Daily Mail:

They are touted as a healthy alternative to traditional meat patties.

Yet some vegan burgers contain up to 10 times the amount of saturated fats found in their carnivore-friendly counterparts.

The shock discovery undermines the purported benefits of a plant-based diet and runs contrary to advice from NHS England, which urges people to avoid the cholesterol-raising fats.

Frequently found in butter, lard and cheeses, saturated fat is closely linked to an increased risk of heart and circulatory disease.

They are touted as a healthy alternative to traditional meat patties.

Yet some vegan burgers contain up to 10 times the amount of saturated fats found in their carnivore-friendly counterparts.

The shock discovery undermines the purported benefits of a plant-based diet and runs contrary to advice from NHS England, which urges people to avoid the cholesterol-raising fats.

Frequently found in butter, lard and cheeses, saturated fat is closely linked to an increased risk of heart and circulatory disease.

Tesco’s Beyond Burger, which is also available at All Bar One, fares slightly better with 5g saturated fat, but this is still more than leading meat versions.

In comparison, a McDonald’s Big Mac – one of the chain’s most popular products – contains 9.5g, while their classic hamburger has just 3.3g.

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MORE: Press sec. Sarah Sanders: “President Trump will sign the government funding bill…He will also take other executive action – including a national emergency – to ensure we stop the national security and humanitarian crisis at the border." https://t.co/RtDFa4wWqt pic.twitter.com/LxQSKqTopq

— ABC News (@ABC) February 14, 2019

Build the wall.

Via KRTV:

Methamphetamine is the second most common illegal drug being distributed in large quantities into Montana, with marijuana being the first. It comes by way of the interstate system and directly from Mexican drug cartels.

“They are making it in super labs,” said Lt. Brandon Wooley with the Billings Police Department.

“So you are getting high purities 98 percent, 99 percent pure meth,” he said.

Montana communities are seeing the impacts of the drug trade first-hand, leaving local law enforcement left to deal with an increase in crimes associated with meth.

It’s something the city of Billings and law enforcement know all too well.

Violent crimes across the state of Montana have increased 34 percent from 2010 to 2016, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In Billings alone, violent meth-driven crimes have increased by 75 percent from 2010 to 2017, according to the Billings Police Department.

The Eastern Montana High-Intensity Drug Task Force

For over two years, Wooley served as commander of the Eastern Montana High-Intensity Drug Task Force, or HIDTA, working undercover and in sometimes less than ideal conditions, to gain information that could dismantle and take down drug organizations coming into Montana.

Today, he’s moved on from that position and is able to speak candidly and openly about the drug scene in Billings.

“We’ve done search warrants in literally every neighborhood in this community. In neighborhoods that you would go and see a couple of million-dollar homes, and here we are executing search warrants related to drug trafficking in these neighborhoods,” said Wooley.

Billings serves as the host agency for HIDTA ,but it’s a multi-jurisdictional task force composed of local officers from city, county and federal organizations such as the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Homeland Security. The task force is federally funded through grants from the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

In 2017, the drug task force kicked into high gear with over 56 pounds of meth and $300,000 in bulk cash seized off the streets.

“Just this year alone, to date, there are over 120 pounds of meth and over $600,000 in bulk cash seizures,” said Wooley.

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Gun confiscation is the goal not accountability.

Via The Federalist:

I live nine miles from Parkland, Florida. Weeks after a young shooter murdered 14 students and three staffers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, I wrote that Democratic policies had helped enable the atrocity. One year later, few have been held accountable, but the Democrat anti-gun cult has strengthened.

Most of the same dysfunctional officials in charge at the time of the shooting are still running the show in Broward County, which is Florida’s version of New York City and San Francisco. There is one positive exception: Broward sheriff Scott Israel was removed last month from his post by newly elected Gov. Ron DeSantis. Israel, whose monthly salary was $16,000, will appeal his exile.

Parkland was a perfect storm of collective failure: the FBI failed to follow-up tips on the shooter on several occasions; Obama school discipline rules, enacted without Congress’s approval and designed apply discipline policies unequally to minority students, peddled lax disciplinary standards for troubled students; the Broward County Public Schools were aware, for more than a year, of the eventual murderer’s school-shooting obsession; and Israel’s deputies not only failed to act on several tips about the shooter’s alleged violent tendencies, they also failed to act the day of the massacre. Post-Parkland, Israel proclaimed himself an “amazing” leader.
Democrats’ Tragedy Rorschach Test

In the aftermath of such a shocking event, it is somewhat difficult to imagine how it happened in real time, as law enforcement and Parkland officials were receiving tips and statements from the shooter’s classmates. Although in a smaller scale than the September 11, 2001, radical Islamic terrorist attacks, the same questions were asked about Parkland: what went wrong, and how do we prevent this from happening again?

It’s accurate that local law enforcement were somewhat limited in their ability to stop the shooter, due to state laws that make it difficult for police to arrest those who make threats against non-family members, or non-specific targets (there is proposed legislation to broaden law enforcement’s preemptive powers).

How Democrats respond to tragedies is their Rorschach test. The legacy of Broward’s schools, its Superintendent Robert Runcie, and Israel is that they’ve attempted to cover up their egregious incompetence by exploiting the tragedy to further infringe upon our God-given, constitutionally guaranteed Second Amendment rights. Runcie claimed he was unaware of the young man’s threats to shoot up the school, an astounding admission considering that Broward schools have the highest rate of students who brandish weapons on school grounds amongst all South Florida school districts.

Some Parkland parents allowed their traumatized kids to jump into immediate political activism, and fed them the usual Democrat Media Industrial Complex lies, myths, and conspiracy theories. The sycophantic media fawned all over them. We shouldn’t be angry at the kids. They’ve been duped into believing they’re gun policy and Bill of Rights experts, who really know what James Madison meant when he penned the Second Amendment.

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She persisted.

Via BPR:

What is Sen. Elizabeth Warren thinking?

The Massachusetts Democrat made a surprise appearance at a luncheon on Tuesday honoring Native American women.

Does she know that this is a glaring reminder of her perpetual lie to the American public? Does she think these little pow-wows will make things better?

The 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful, who has infamously falsely claimed to be of Native American heritage, was welcomed at the National Indian Women’s ‘Supporting Each Other’ lunch in Washington D.C., the Huffington Post reported.

Tribal leaders and other Native American attendees gave Warren a standing ovation as she was introduced at the event held during an annual meeting of the National Congress of American Indians. She spent time praising Native American women though she did also call on Congress to address more issues like housing, health care and addiction among Native Americans as well as “the alarming number of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls.”

New Mexico Democratic Rep Deb Haaland, who is actually of Native American heritage, called the Massachusetts senator “a great friend to Indian Country.”

“Indian Country needs strong allies like Elizabeth Warren, whose unwavering commitment to Native communities and Native American women and children is needed in this political era,” Haaland said, introducing Warren at the event.

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3 Democrats voted Yes.

Via The Hill:

The Senate voted Thursday to approve William Barr as attorney general, giving the Justice Department its first confirmed chief since President Trump ousted Jeff Sessions last fall.

More than 50 senators voted for Barr’s nomination, giving him enough support to be confirmed. The vote caps off a relatively low drama fight over Trump’s second nominee for the post. Barr was largely on a glide path after he cleared the Judiciary Committee and a procedural vote without any missteps that threatened GOP support for his nomination.

Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) appeared to be the only Republican who would vote against Barr on Thursday, while Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Doug Jones (Ala.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) broke with their party and supported him.

Democrats have 47 seats in the Senate. With Manchin, Jones and Sinema voting earlier in the week to advance Barr’s nomination, Democrats would have needed to flip six Republicans in addition to Paul to sink his nomination.

But Republicans largely rallied behind Barr, who previously served as attorney general under former President George H.W. Bush and is returning to the helm of a department that has been at the center of Trump’s longtime criticism over the federal Russia probe.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, characterized Barr as an “outstanding” pick to lead the agency, which has been under the leadership of Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker since Sessions was ousted in November.

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Pain or butthurt?

Via The College Fix:

Some universities respond to sudden outrage over decades-old building names and campus symbols by hastily caving to pressure and promising to rename or remove them.

The University of Southern California wants to be ahead of the curve. That’s why it’s creating a task force that will recommend a process for tossing problematic figures down the memory hole.

In a memo Monday, Provost Michael Quick said the community is “having important conversations about the names of certain buildings, monuments, and symbols” that “may evoke views and practices that we no longer support.”

These elements of campus also “may cause pain for members of our community,” interfering in the private university’s quest to be “a national leader in equity and inclusion” and create a “safe, welcoming, and supportive campus,” Quick wrote.[…]

According to the Daily Trojan, one of the top targets of student ire is the Von KleinSmid Center. It’s named after the university’s fifth president, Rufus B. Von KleinSmid, “an active member of the eugenics movement who advocated for forced sterilization practices.”

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Via Fox News:

Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, speaking out in a new book and TV interview, detailed the central role he played in the bureau’s Russia probe and the eventual appointment of a special counsel — while reportedly describing Justice Department meetings where officials discussed ousting President Trump.

McCabe, who was fired from the bureau in March 2018 by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions after it was determined he lied to investigators about a leak, spoke to “60 Minutes” ahead of the release of his new book, “The Threat.” CBS News’ Scott Pelley revealed parts of the interview Thursday morning.

The excerpts detail the eight days between the firing of former FBI Director James Comey and the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller. After Comey’s firing, McCabe was acting director of the FBI.

“I was speaking to the man who had just run for the presidency and won the election for the presidency and who might have done so with the aid of the government of Russia, our most formidable adversary on the world stage. And that was something that troubled me greatly,” McCabe said in one excerpt, referring to a phone call he had with Trump on May 10, 2017.

McCabe, who also detailed that phone call in his book, took the call from the president while members of the bureau’s Russia team were in the room. The call, according to an excerpt from McCabe’s book published in The Atlantic Thursday, largely focused on Trump celebrating the firing of Comey and saying he was getting positive feedback for the decision.

Pelley went on to ask, “How long was it after that that you decided to start the obstruction of justice and counterintelligence investigations involving the president?”

“I think the next day, I met with the team investigating the Russia cases,” McCabe confirmed. “And I asked the team to go back and conduct an assessment to determine where are we with these efforts and what steps do we need to take going forward.”

He added: “I was very concerned that I was able to put the Russia case on absolutely solid ground in an indelible fashion that were I removed quickly and reassigned or fired and the case could not be closed or vanish in the night without a trace. I wanted to make sure that our case was on solid ground. And if somebody came in behind me and closed it and tried to walk away from it, they would not be able to do that without creating a record of why they’d made that decision.”

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