To John McCain: "But Senator, with all respect, you voted FOR John Brennan who had the same record on rendition and enhanced interrogation as Ms. Haspel. Respectfully, why the double standard?"

Why Is McCain Speaking Out Against Haspel Confirmation After Voting For Brennan’s?  "As we’ve been covering here at LI, Gina Haspel is President Trump’s pick to head the CIA.  She has been blasted for her role in overseeing then-legal and -authorized enhanced interrogation techniques against Islamist terrorists.

"Senator John McCain (R-AZ) has issued a statement in which he urges the Senate not to confirm Haspel due to her role in enhanced interrogation.  The problem with this, however, is that he voted to confirm John Brennan to the CIA’s top spot, knowing full-well Brennan’s role in enhanced interrogation.

"Here is McCain’s official Senate press release:" . . .

John Kelly: White House Press Corps Is ‘Vicious’

Daily Caller

"White House chief of staff John Kelly took a shot at the White House press corps in a lengthy interview aired by NPRNews Friday.

“ 'When I was working in the Pentagon at a higher level, senior level the Pentagon press corps were really good to work with. I mean they, they seldom wrote or did the story you wanted to read, naturally, but they were really professional in trying to get the accurate aspect of every story,” Kelly recounted, adding “it wasn’t personal. It was pretty professional. And I still call some of them … good acquaintances. This is vastly different. This is — it’s personal, it’s vicious.”

"Kelly relayed an anecdote from a reporter he encountered who told him “Look you were our worst nightmare. This place was a clown show before you showed up. We didn’t think this president would last a year [or] 18 months. Now that you’re here, there’s order to the place. The leaks all but went away. So, sorry but you got to go.' ”

Now Arriving: Porn Feminism

Made you look, didn't we?

Suzanne Fields  "We've entered the porn phase of feminism. You could call it the third stage. Those of the first stage, led by Susan B. Anthony and the suffragettes, wore white to proclaim their virtue and show themselves as morally superior to men who opposed them. They won the vote in 1920, despite thenPresident Woodrow Wilson's frown. 

"The second stage arrived in the 1960s, when Betty Friedan's book, "The Feminine Mystique," appealed to middle-class mothers confined to homes she described as "comfortable concentration camps." She said such women could be more profitably and psychologically rewarded in the workplace as equals to men. Second-stage feminists are the grandmothers of the #MeToo movement. 

"Now we have porn feminism, led by default by Stormy Daniels, who knows how to make it through media attention, performance onstage and offstage, and fame and fortune making fun of the president of the United States. Her act is sizzling, self-serving and salacious. She's determined to set a new less virtuous, more aggressive sexual standard for women. No victims need apply." . . .

This one STUNG: The Babylon Bee BLASTS CNN’s coverage of N. Korea hostages with HILARIOUS headline

Twitchy

We know The Babylon Bee is satire but man oh man, when they get it right they seriously GET IT RIGHT.This was an epic slam on CNN.One they more than earned.

NBC’s Hallie Jackson gets DRAGGED for claiming N. Korea hostage release was STAGED

. . . "From News Busters:

Thursday morning, Hallie Jackson, NBC’s White House correspondent, acted as if President Donald Trump had just invented political choreography, and that no previous presidential administration or politician has ever engaged in it. Jackson spent an inordinate amount of time describing the President’s greeting of the three U.S. hostages released by North Korea as a “staged production” presented by a “former reality show producer.”

"Yes Hallie, it was just reality TV. It wasn’t that the president wanted to greet the freed Americans. He figured there’d be so many people up watching TV at 3:00 a.m. and he wanted to hit that prime viewing window.  *eye roll*" . . .

UPDATE: One Of The Americans Freed From North Korean Captivity Passed Mike Pence A Note

Vice President Mike Pence‏Verified account @VP

It was an amazing moment I’ll never forget... when 3 Americans stepped onto the tarmac at @JBA_NAFW & gave me a signed personal note with Psalm 126 on the back. “When the Lord brought back the captives to Zion...” To these men of faith & courage - God bless you & welcome home!

 

2018’s Best & Worst States to Be a Police Officer

WalletHub  "Law enforcement is a career that is always in the public eye, whether it’s for heroic reasons or scandal. It’s a profession that more than 900,000Americans hold, knowing full well the hazards associated with their occupation. In the past 10 years, for instance, more than 1,500 police officers, including 129 in 2017 alone, died in the line of duty. Tens of thousands more were assaulted and injured.

"Because of such risks, law-enforcement agencies must offer enough incentives to attract and retain officers. So what qualities define a good place to live and work for police? To start, there’s a $62,960 mean annual wage that exceeds the $50,620 for all occupations. On top of that, there’s typically a generous benefits package can include retirement-contribution matches, tuition assistance, ample leave time, a take-home vehicle, and access to health and fitness facilities. Officers also may begin drawing full retirement benefits as early as age 40, depending on when they entered the force.

"Beyond financial perks, officers are more likely to be attracted to police departments that steer clear of scandal and corruption and that are transparent with their communities. Public opinion on police remains divided, with younger people and minorities rating them much less positively than older caucasians. Naturally, police departments that have better relations with the areas they patrol are more attractive to new officers.

"In order, therefore, to determine the best states in which to pursue a law-enforcement career, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 25 key indicators of police-friendliness." . . .

Source: WalletHub

The Obama Legacy Deserves to Be Destroyed

National Review: The Obama Legacy Deserves to Be Destroyed  "It’s strange that a president who had such a transformative effect on our national discourse will leave such a negligible policy legacy. But Barack Obama, whose imperial term changed the way Americans interact and in some ways paved the way for the Trump presidency, is now watching his much-celebrated and mythologized two-term legacy be systematically demolished. This, in many ways, tells us that American governance still works.

"When President Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, he was able to do so without much difficulty because the agreement hinged on presidential fiat rather than national consensus. Obama’s appeasement of Iran was only one in a string of unilateral norm-busting projects that deserve to be dismantled." . . .

That’s fine, too. It means that if Trump engages in similar legislative efforts through the executive office, his agenda will also be dismantled one day. That’s as it should be.

The agreement was a non-binding agreement, you know. Obviously Stephen Colbert is not aware of that.

Republican senators are predicting that President Trump will be able to force European allies to cut off investment with Iran through the threat of “secondary sanctions” . . .

NY Post: Iran strikes prove Trump’s nuke-deal move is already a win  "President Trump’s decision to scrap the Iran nuke deal had a lot to do with Tehran’s decision to fire missiles at Israel late Wednesday.
"First, the Iranians likely timed the attack to make it seem that the president had instantly made things worse in the region. That also explains why Iran’s Houthi proxies in Yemen shot missiles into Saudi Arabia hours after Trump’s nuke-deal news.
"Second, Iran’s power in Syria and Yemen is itself in good part the result of Team Obama’s policies, including the nuke deal — which left Washington with few ways to respond to Tehran’s non­nuclear outrages while freeing up billions in cash to fund Iranian adventurism." . . .

Donald Trump vs. Barack Obama: Veni, vidi, vici  . . . "The detestable Iran deal that gave U.S. tax dollars to a rogue, anti-Israel, anti-America regime with nuclear weapons’ designs? Gone, tossed on the trash heap of Bad Ideas Borne By Bad Politicians.

"The cool-to-cold relations between historical friends and allies America and Israel? Gone, replaced by a new U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, not Tel Aviv — and a staunch defense of the Jewish state that has gone viral, so to speak, and led to the transfer of other countries’ embassies to Jerusalem, notably, Paraguay and Guatemala." . . .

American Thinker

Sarah Palin says hearing John McCain say he regrets picking her as his running mate in 2008 is a 'perpetual gut-punch' – and claims he's told her the opposite k

Palin told DailyMail.com that she will 'choose to remember the good times with him' even though he appears to have turned on her.

UK Daily Mail  "Former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin says hearing that Sen. John McCain now regrets choosing her as his 2008 running mate is 'like a perpetual gut-punch' every time she hears about it.

And the latest verdict from the ailing 81-year-old Arizona Republican, she said, is perplexing because McCain has told her very different things over and over in person.

" 'That's not what Sen. McCain has told me all these years, as he's apologized to me repeatedly for the people who ran his campaign – some who now staff MSNBC, the newsroom there, which tells you a lot,' Palin said.

"Hearing the opposite on TV, she said, was unnerving.

" 'It's not a real fun thing that part of my job is the requirement – is having to read the news every day,' Palin lamented.

"The onetime Alaska governor spoke to DailyMail.com in Washington before headlining a fundraising event for a Trump-friendly political action committee.

"That's because the Obama years 'opened a lot of people's eyes to the trajectory of our country,' she said, hastening the Trump era into place.

"Palin took issue with the way President Trump has treated McCain, a war hero who was tortured for years in North Vietnam after his plane was shot down – and famously refused to accept an early release unless the men he commanded were allowed to come out of the infamous 'Hanoi Hilton' with him." . . .

Thomas Lifson commented: 

Instead [of] reconciliation and forgiveness, Senator John McCain is choosing score-settling and cruelty as the theme for the final chapter of his life.  And in so doing, he is inflicting emotional pain:

Incivility, Media, and the Left

Steve Feinstein  . . . "Can anyone seriously doubt that if some marginal, third-tier comedian like Kathy Griffin had held a picture of the severed head of Barack Obama, that that person would not immediately be shunned and held in utter, unsparing contempt by the national media? Yet only after the conservative grassroots backlash began against Griffin did the major liberal media follow suit, reluctantly, in the days following. CNN took the minimum obligatory action and removed Griffin from hosting an upcoming New Year’s program. Yet within the year, she was back on “The View,” proudly proclaiming to the delight of the show’s liberal hosts, “I rescind my apology! I take it back!” followed by a classless two-word expletive, the kind never, ever said in public by a high-profile conservative about a liberal president. But not only did she say it, everyone cheered*, and no corner criticized her for it." . . .

*"Game shows, talk shows, sitcoms..they either have "laugh, clap, Ahhh and booing, cheer" signs or actually pay someone to stand by the stage to coach the audience."

California Demands That Christians 'Evolve'

We know whose expression this bill is designed to curtail. Leftist legislators were not subtle. One assembly member spouted that it is time for legislation to nudge the “faith community” to “evolve with the times.”

L. Brent Bozell & Tim Graham  "California has a hallowed but questionable reputation as being the birthplace of the radical Free Speech Movement on the University of California, Berkeley campus. Today, they’re not just shutting down conservative speakers on the campus. The state’s Democrats may pass a law to shut down religious speech and create a statewide LGBT “safe space.”

"There’s a new legislative proposal banning all conversion therapy as a fraudulent business practice — by not just mental health providers but anyone. Since the “independent fact-checkers” are quick to swarm around conservative “misinformation,” FactCheck.org, PolitiFact and Snopes have all cried “False” at the idea that this bill is a threat to the sale of the Bible.

"They declared that a threat against Bible sales is nowhere in the text of California Assembly Bill 2943, offered by gay assembly member Evan Low. That is correct … on its face. It doesn’t mention the Bible.

"However, the bill would amend the state Consumer Legal Remedies Act, adding the ability to sue for damages for “advertising, offering to engage in, or engaging in sexual orientation change efforts with an individual.” Any efforts to change someone’s sexual orientation “in a transaction intended to result or that results in the sale or lease of goods or services to any consumer are unlawful.” That’s more than therapy. It’s any kind of an argument." . . .

Inside Trump's shock and brawl strategy with foreign leaders

Axios

"President Trump isn't afraid to punch on foreign turf, even after getting the red carpet.

"The big picture: As the White House prepares for the summit with North Korea in Singapore on June 12 ("a once unimaginable encounter," the N.Y. Times calls it), we've put together a look at President Trump handles foreign leaders when the doors are closed:

• Trump wound up U.S. Trade Representative Bob Lighthizer and let him go to town in Beijing when meeting with President Xi Jinping and a whole bunch of Chinese representatives in November.
• In fact, Trump egged Lighthizer on. POTUS asked Lighthizer leading questions at the table in the bilateral meeting, which included Xi and the U.S. and Chinese delegations.
• Trump: "Bob, why don't you walk them all through what our trade deficit is and [how] all these dialogues have produced nothing? ... Take them through the history." Lighthizer was all too happy to do it.

"Trump likes to walk into a meeting with a head of state and throw out the protocol, which he believes throws rivals off balance." . . .