People are hip to the scam.

Via Daily Caller:

When it comes to coverage of the ongoing investigation into ties between the Russia and the Trump administration, half of Americans think that the media has irresponsibly blown the story out of proportion, according to a NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released Friday.

In response to a question about the appropriateness of media scrutiny of the “Trump allegations,” 50 percent of all respondents say the coverage has been “overdramatized” or “irresponsible.”

About a third of those polled think the coverage is “proper,” while 12 percent say news outlets have been “too restrained” in their coverage of the Russia controversy.

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Another reporter from the Dan Rather and Brian Williams school of journalism.

Via Philly Com:

On Thursday evening, CNN investigative reporter Thomas Frank published a potentially explosive report involving an investigation of a Russian investment fund with potential ties to several associates of President Donald Trump.

But by Friday night, the story was removed from CNN’s website and all links were scrubbed from the network’s social media accounts.

“That story did not meet CNN’s editorial standards and has been retracted,” CNN said in an editors note posted in place of the story. “Links to the story have been disabled.”

Neither Frank or CNN immediately responded to requests for comment, and a spokesperson for the Senate Intelligence Committee wasn’t available to comment.

Frank, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist, had reported that the Senate Intelligence Committee was investigating a “$10-billion Russian investment fund whose chief executive met with a member of President Donald Trump’s transition team four days before Trump’s inauguration.”

In addition to retracting its story, CNN also apologized to Anthony Scaramucci, an adviser to Trump during the presidential campaign and a member of his transition team’s executive committee, who was mentioned in the story as having met Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) that the network said is overseen by Vnesheconombank, a state-run bank that is currently under U.S. sanctions.

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This likely means it is dead in the water.

Via Daily Caller:

Republican Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada announced Friday that he is officially opposed to the Republican healthcare plan.

Heller joins Sens. Mike Lee of Utah, Ted Cruz of Texas, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin who announced that they didn’t support the current iteration of the plan Thursday shortly after it was published.

“I’m announcing today that in this form I will not support it,” Heller said during a press conference. “It’s going to be very difficult to get me to a yes.”

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No degree holders in women’s studies or unicorn breeding were hired.

Via Breitbart:

The federal government quietly helped and rewarded companies and universities which hired roughly 330,000 cheap foreign graduates in 2016 instead of hiring American graduates, many of whom are deep in debt.

The little-known “Optional Practical Training” program has grown from 91,140 new foreign job-seekers in 2009 to 329,158 new job-seekers in 2016, according to data provided by the Department of Homeland Security. That is almost a four-fold increase in seven years — and the program is growing even larger in 2017.

There is no cap on the OPT program, which quietly and semi-automatically gives work permits lasting up to three years when requested by foreign students who graduate from U.S. universities and colleges. Companies are not required to even interview Americans before hiring OPT graduates — and they get tax breaks for hiring foreigners over Americans.

“The government is enticing employers to hire foreigners instead of Americans … it is ridiculous,” said Mark Krikorian, director of the D.C.-based Center for Immigration Studies. Even the middle-class Americans who have downplayed the impact of cheap-labor immigration on blue-collar Americans should be alarmed by the government’s discrimination against their own college-graduate children, he added.

In 2014, the OPT program provided work permits to 249,998 foreign graduates, according to the data provided to Breitbart News by the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the program. Two years later, the number of new foreign graduates entering the program had risen by 32 percent up to 329,158.

The program provides a one-year work permit to all graduates. It also provides an extra one-year permit to graduates who work in a so-called high-tech “STEM” job. In 2016, officials working for former President Barack Obama extended the STEM permits from one year to two years. If only 20,000 of the 51,672 STEM workers from 2015 used Obama’s one-year extension, they would have increased the 2016 total from 329,158 up to 350,000.

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HT: 90 Miles from Tyranny

Cornerstones of Trump plan…

Via Free Beacon:

House Republicans are hoping to move forward a pair of bills that tackle illegal immigration next week to carry out President Donald Trump’s agenda of enforcing federal immigration laws.

One of the bills would boost penalties for deported immigrants that try to re-enter the country and the other would target so-called sanctuary cities, Politico reported.

The former bill is named “Kate’s Law” after a young woman named Kate Steinle, who was shot and killed in San Francisco by an illegal immigrant who repeatedly was deported but returned. The latter bill, targeting cities and counties that do not cooperate with federal immigration officials, is called “No Sanctuaries for Criminals Act.”

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Suck it up, buttercups.

Via WBTV:

A North Carolina senator from Mecklenburg County compared the media to terrorists in a series of tweets Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

Senator Dan Bishop (R-Mecklenburg) used the term “jihad media” three times in a series of tweets about stories Wednesday night, including a story from the Raleigh News & Observer about funding cuts to the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office in the budget deal worked out by Republican lawmakers.

Bishop, whose district stretches across most of Mecklenburg County, confirmed that he purposely used a word commonly associated with terrorists to characterize the media in a subsequent tweet Wednesday night.

But, even as he confirmed he intended to compare reporters to terrorists, Bishop also claimed he was using a different definition of ‘jihad’, tweeting that the word can also mean “any vigorous, emotional crusade.”

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Trump may get 2 picks in a year.

Via AP:

The Supreme Court enters its final week of work before a long summer hiatus with action expected on the Trump administration’s travel ban and a decision due in a separation of church and state case that arises from a Missouri church playground.

The biggest news of all, though, would be if Justice Anthony Kennedy were to use the court’s last public session on Monday to announce his retirement.

To be sure, Kennedy has given no public sign that he will retire this year and give President Donald Trump his second high court pick in the first months of his administration. Kennedy’s departure would allow conservatives to take firm control of the court.

But Kennedy turns 81 next month and has been on the court for nearly 30 years. Several of his former law clerks have said they think he is contemplating stepping down in the next year or so. Kennedy and his clerks were gathering over the weekend for a reunion that was pushed up a year and helped spark talk he might be leaving the court.

“Soon we’ll know if rumors of Kennedy’s retirement are accurate,” one former Kennedy clerk, George Washington University law professor Orin Kerr, said on Twitter Friday.

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They had the perfect cover until they got greedy.

Via Palm Beach Post:

An early-morning raid broke the relative quiet of a large Florida retirement community that turned up drugs, weapons and — in a distinctly Florida twist — evidence of a golf cart chop shop.

Sumter County deputies said undercover deputies had bought drugs at the residence three different times, according to Villages-News.com. Deputies also said the residence also had spurred multiple complaints from neighbors after the theft of several golf carts.

Once inside, investigators found numerous parts of golf carts, including windshields, wheels, seat cushions and tires. But deputies say they have not been able to tie any of the recent thefts to the five people who were arrested in the bust.

According to WFTV, an older man owns the home, but investigators say he didn’t know what had been going on. Kathleen Unrath, the man’s niece and one of the five who was arrested, had moved in and allowed others into the house.

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HT: Wirecutter

Very sweet!

Via Biz Pac Review:

President Donald Trump and the first family took a break from politics to celebrate on Thursday, but the President didn’t forget about two special guests who’ve been suffering.

The family attended its first Congressional picnic and had a great time on the White House South Lawn, which was decorated to look like New York City’s Central Park, the Daily Mail reported.

The Trumps had a ball, with first lady Melania Trump kissing babies and mingling with guests while Ivanka Trump played with her daughter, Arabella Kushner, in the Rose Garden.

‘Angry black woman’ flips out when she spots ‘General Lee’ car at festival, event officials instantly cave

The president spoke to the attendees briefly and made sure to mention his “thoughts and prayers” were with Rep. Steve Scalise who was injured in an assassination attempt by a former Bernie Sanders volunteer.

President Trump has kept in close contact with his friend Scalise and his progress since the shooting, and sat with him bedside in the hospital while he was still in critical condition.

Scalise and his family are pictured below as prayers across the country went out to him and his recovery:

Trump made sure to give Scalise’s two children special treatment at the picnic for all they’ve been through.

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It isn’t Republicans trying to assassinate Democrats on a baseball field…

Via The Hill:

Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton dubbed the GOP “the death party” on Friday.

She blasted Republicans in a tweet over the Senate GOP’s recently unveiled bill to repeal and replace ObamaCare. “Forget death panels,” Clinton tweeted. “If Republicans pass this bill, they’re the death party.”

Clinton’s jab follows an earlier tweet urging her followers to “speak out” against the Senate GOP’s bill.

“[President] Obama is right. This is a critical moment about choosing people over politics,” Clinton tweeted. “Speak out against this bill.”

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What’s worse, he appears to have been taped as blackmail to help support another Democrat in her own controversy over what she said about Scalise. These people are just disgusting and they’re all very sick…

Via Daily Caller:

An official in the Nebraska state Democratic party has been removed from his position after an audio recording surfaced of him saying that he wished Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise had been killed last week when he was shot by a Democratic gunman during a congressional baseball practice.

Party chairwoman Jane Kleeb removed Phil Montag as chairman of the technology committee after an audio recording surfaced earlier this week of him saying that he was “glad” that Scalise was shot and that he wished “he was fucking dead.”

Scalise was seriously wounded after being shot by James Hodgkinson, a 66-year-old Illinois political activist who had volunteered for Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign.

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Government shouldn’t pick winners and losers.

Via TWS:

On May 29, Texas governor Greg Abbott signed a law creating a statewide regulatory framework governing ridesharing services. The impetus for the law was clear—overriding the city of Austin’s onerous ordinances that prompted the sector’s leaders, Uber and Lyft, to stop operating in the state capital last year.

In the few weeks since Uber and Lyft returned to Austin, the results speak for themselves. RideAustin, one of the more popular local ridesharing services that popped up when the big guns left, saw its ridership plummet 62 percent. “One element that we routinely hear, of course, is that we are more expensive than Uber/Lyft and this is the No. 1 criteria for many riders,” RideAustin noted in a Facebook post. “As a result, we are now going to match Uber/Lyft mile/minute pricing.” Another service, Fare, announced it was abandoning Austin altogether rather than try to compete.

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Now please don't read anything into this, but

tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick pic.twitter.com/fc0By0CWqK

— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) June 6, 2017

Now that Trump was forced to admit there are no tapes, Comey is going to drop the lie?

Via Daily Caller:

A longtime friend of James Comey is teasing what could be a bombshell story about the former FBI director and his interactions with President Trump.

Benjamin Wittes, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, posted an ominous message on Twitter on Friday: “TICK TICK TICK TICK TICK TICK.”

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Some of these people look awful. Like they just woke up.

Calling your representative to support @PPFA is easy — watch these celebs show you how pic.twitter.com/dZKY3sxhvT

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) June 23, 2017

HT Washington Examiner

I have images of Richard Kiel as a woman getting a huge whack. Sometimes justice is right on target.

Via Conservative Tribune:

She was known as “crocodile jaws” because she bit hundreds of women who violated the Islamic State Group’s harsh modesty laws; that is, until assailants knocked out her teeth in a swift act of justice.

According to U.K.’s Daily Mail, unknown attackers ambushed the woman outside her house in the Iraqi town of Hawija, Kirkuk. During the attack, the assailants knocked out the woman’s teeth in revenge for her actions.

“Crocodile jaws” was aptly named. Her job was to sink her teeth into the hands of any woman who dared to violated the jihadists’ strict moral and modesty code.

Keep reading..

Get her under oath in a public session. Boy, that would be a barn burner!

Via Politico:

The leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee have officially launched their investigation into former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, trying to get to the bottom of whether she assured the Hillary Clinton campaign that the FBI probe into Clinton’s emails wouldn’t go too far.

The Judiciary panel announced Friday it had sent letters to Lynch and other officials — the opening bid in what Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said last week would be separate investigations into the firing of former FBI Director James Comey and whether the Obama administration attempted to influence FBI investigations.

The letters announced Friday are signed by Grassley and his Democratic counterpart, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, along with leaders of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism, Chairman Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and ranking Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.

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No problem there, let’s talk about Russian collusion more…

Via Daily Wire:

Among the thousands of emails hacked from Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign chairman John Podesta and published by Wikileaks, one stated that officials from the government of Qatar gave the Clinton Foundation $1 million to celebrate Bill Clinton’s 65th birthday, funds which the foundation did not report to the State Department.

That would seemingly violate an ethics agreement Hillary Clinton signed when she became Secretary of State in 2009, in which she promised the foundation would notify the State Department’s ethics official if a new foreign government wanted to donate or “increase materially” its contributions.

Qatari officials pledged the money in 2011; in April 2012 Amitabh Desai, the Clinton Foundation’s foreign policy director, sent an email acknowledging the Qataris wanted to meet Bill Clinton “for five minutes” in New York City.

Keep reading…

According to Debbie Wasserman Schultz, DHS knew the Russians were in the server for a year and did nothing. So either you didn’t think it was important and it only became important to blame after losing. And/or the Obama admin was complicit.

Via Daily Caller:

Some senior Obama officials lament that they did not do enough to stop Russian attempts to influence the 2016 election, The Washington Post reported Friday.

Former President Barack Obama’s handling of the response to Russia’s attempts have come under intense scrutiny from Republicans and Democrats. The only public warning of the Russian governments’ efforts came in an Oct. 7 memo from the Director of National Intelligence ascribing Democratic National Committee hacks to Russia.

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Nice!

Via Free Beacon:

President Donald Trump on Friday signed into law legislation giving the Department of Veterans Affairs more power to fire failed employees and protect whistleblowers who uncover wrongdoing at the agency.

The Veterans Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act passed the house by a 368-55 vote earlier in June, CNN reports. It passed the Senate by a unanimous voice vote.

“One of my greatest honors and joys during the presidential campaign was the time I spent going all across the country with our nations really and truly incredible veterans,” Trump said.

Keep reading…