Trump EPA to rescind Obama 'Waters of America' power grab

Rick Moran  "The Trump administration EPA announced that they will rescind one of the biggest power grabs by a federal agency in US history.

"In 2015, the Obama EPA finalized a rule that would have brought almost all "navigable" waters in the US under federal government control. The "Waters of the US" rule targeted creeks, streams, and inland rivers even if they were on private property.

"The rule would have given the EPA jurisdiction not only over the water, but over much of the surrounding land as well. 

"But one of the first acts of the Trump administration was to order a review of the rule with the intent of repealing it.

. . . 

"The WOTUS rule was spectacular overreach. It would have massively interferred with agriculture, not to mention overturning the entire concept of private property. The gains in drinking water cleanliness would have been minuscule at the cost of a blizzard of paperwork for businesses and farmers.

"The Obama EPA sought to use the Clean Water Act for purposes it was not remotely intended to address. It was a power grab by the EPA that would have weakened private property rights while exercising stifling regulatory control. While it won't receive a lot of publicity, rescinding this rule represents one of the biggest roll backs of federal power in history. 

"The dream of greens is that eventually, the EPA will exercise control over every inch of land, every drop of water in the US - a nightmare scenario that was well on its way to becoming reality until the Trump EPA stepped in." 

Liberal sites word the action thus:

Think Progress: RIP, Obama’s Clean Water Rule

Trump plans to ditch Obama’s protection for small wetlands and waterways

New Low: CNN Uses Sesame Street's Elmo to Attack Trump's Travel Ban

Daily Wire

"Proving once again that there is no place you will find a happier leftist than in that influential sweet spot between parent and child, proving once again that during a month of extraordinary lows, CNN will always find a new barrel bottom, in the wake of President Trump's 9-0 Supreme Court triumph, the leftwing cable news network decided to use popular Sesame Street puppet Elmo as a propaganda tool against President Trump's temporary travel ban.

Popular “Sesame Street” character Elmo sympathized with refugee kids in an interview Monday with CNN, remarking that they are just like kids in America.Elmo was part of a panel including CNN reporter Clarissa Ward, Sherrie Westin from Sesame Workshop, and David Miliband from the International Rescue Committee.“Did you find that the Syrian little girls and little boys were a lot like your friends here in America?” Ward asked Elmo.“Yeah, they really were,” said the “Sesame Street” character. “It was very interesting because they like to play and learn just like Elmo and all of his friends at Sesame Street.” . . .

Saving the planet, one gathering at a time

Friends of Ryedale Gas Exploration Glastonbury, enjoyed by tens of thousands of eco warriors, environmentalists and some anti fracking campaigners, all saving the planet.

Video: True friends of the earth  "We made this video to show the people of Ryedale what life is like when protesters start showing their true colours. There is NO peace, just abuse of our police force and the targeting of local people and businesses who dare to stand up in favour of shale gas. People can be forgiven for thinking that they are just a bunch of thugs who think bullying will win the day, they are. These are the types of people and behaviour that the leaders of frack free Ryedale and frack free North Yorkshire are encouraging to come into our beautiful area. The protests inevitably end up being far from peaceful and far from respectful of our police. It is to be noted that when anyone tries to remove these 'locked on' protesters they suddenly start screaming and crying that they want the police to save them. Would you bust a gut to help them?"

Obama Attracts Liberal Criticism After String of Luxury Vacations

"These trips are the lifestyles of the rich and famous," Caddell said.
While Obama had already been accused of being out of touch with the American people during his presidency, HBO comedian John Oliver told Seth Meyers on "Late Night" that Obama should "kick back a little less."
. . .  Obama has not only taken luxury in vacations, but has also charged hefty fees for speeches to prominent Wall Street firms.

Weasel Zippers

"Does he ever stop vacationing? But on the positive side, perhaps the longer he is out of the country, the less involved he is in messing in our government. Notice how in the picture, everyone else knows how to wear their helmet, except Obama.

"Via Free Beacon:

Former President Barack Obama is causing frustration among Democrats by going on a plethora of luxury vacations following his exit from the White House.
Obama has taken his family on a series of tours of millionaire and billionaire luxury retreats in the last few months, according to Democrats and activists who spoke to Fox News.
Fox News listed some of the more memorable vacations the Obama family has enjoyed in 2017:
Visiting actor Marlon Brando’s private island
Four Seasons in Bali, where rooms cost $2,000 per night minimum
A Palm Springs Estate
Sir Richard Branson’s Necker Island
Mid Pacific Country Club in Oahu, Hawaii

Keep reading…

Theater That Put On Trump Assassination Play Gets New $100,000 Grant From National Endowment For The Arts

Weasel Zippers   Via Washington Free Beacon:

Did the FBI retaliate against Michael Flynn by launching Russia probe?

Circa  "The FBI launched a criminal probe against former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn two years after the retired Army general roiled the bureau’s leadership by intervening on behalf of a decorated counterterrorism agent who accused now-Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe and other top officials of sexual discrimination, according to documents and interviews.

"Flynn’s intervention on behalf of Supervisory Special Agent Robyn Gritz was highly unusual, and included a letter in 2014 on his official Pentagon stationary, a public interview in 2015 supporting Gritz’s case and an offer to testify on her behalf. His offer put him as a hostile witness in a case against McCabe, who was soaring through the bureau’s leadership ranks.

"The FBI sought to block Flynn’s support for the agent, asking a federal administrative law judge in May 2014 to keep Flynn and others from becoming a witness in her Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) case, memos obtained by Circa show. Two years later, the FBI opened its inquiry of Flynn."

by John Solomon and Sara Carter

by John Solomon and Sara Carter

Tennessee’s Scathing Response To California Travel Ban: Keep Your ‘Unfounded Moral Judgment’ To Yourself

"Tennessee's law allows state-licensed therapists to deny treatment to members of the LGBT community based on the counselor's personal beliefs. Alabama's newly enacted law allows adoption agencies to follow faith-based policies, including the option to not place children with gay couples."

Weasel Zippers

"California, the land of nuts. Update to this previous story.

"Via AL Com:

. . . Whereas, the United States Constitution provides for a strong federal government for the common defense, but the Tenth Amendment grants the several states sovereignty in addressing issues solely within their jurisdiction, and all states should respect this most basic precept of American government; andWhereas, if states such as California persist in banning travel to Tennessee as a punitive action for this body conducting its constitutionally mandated duties as its members see fit, our state leaders should consider strong reciprocal action in banning state sponsored travel to those misguided states; now, therefore,BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED TENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE, THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES CONCURRING, that we urge and encourage the Governor, the Speaker of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives to ban state -sponsored and state funded travel within their respective jurisdictions to any state of the Union that has banned state – sponsored travel to Tennessee in a selective way, so that the other states feel the pain and not Tennessee

Here's a neat little kicker at the end, with emphasis gleefully added:

"BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that we urge the other forty-eight states to refrain from imposing their unfounded moral judgment on their sister states as California has done in order to prevent escalating foolishness."

SCOTUS Travel Order ruling was “slap down” of lower courts and progressives

Kudos to Justice Ginsburg for placing the law above her dislike for President Trump. The 9th Circuit Court seems to have nobody who will do that. TD

Legal Insurrection  "Progressives who “were popping champagne corks … with these lower court decisions, they got slapped down by all nine Justices, including Ruth Bader Ginsburg' ”

. . . Nine Justices agreed on this. Nobody said the 4th and 9th Circuit injunctions should continue in full force and effect. Not a single Justice said that. The only question was how much of a slap down they were going to give to the 4th and 9th Circuits, and I think they gave a substantial one….”

. . . Whenever something good happens for Republicans or Trump, I like to watch CNN and MSNBC to see how they react. And they were both playing this as, ‘oh well, the court only partially reinstated, blah, blah, blah’.  So they were trying to downplay it. In fact, nine Justices agreed that what the lower courts did was improper, the only disagreement was how improper it was.”  . . .

 The Left’s Best Freak Outs to SCOTUS Ruling on Trump Travel EO

"In the wake of the Supreme Court reinstatement of substantially all of President Trump’s travel Executive Order, the left is responding as expected.

"Left-wing and Islamic groups are outraged and don’t seem to understand the ruling . . . or the judicial role of the Supreme Court, while lefties on Twitter are in full meltdown mode.

"The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) released a statement that appears to be premised on the 9-0 Supreme Court decision’s failure to weigh the socio-cultural climate CAIR perceives rather than the law and Constitution."

UPDATED! CNN, the most duplicitous name in news; speaking nonsense to power.

UPDATE!  CNN To Air Documentary On Trump-Russia ‘Connection’ Tonight Starring John Podesta…  "CNN will host a special documentary, “The Russian Connection: Inside the Attack on Democracy,” reported by CNN chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto on Tuesday night." I can visualize the CNN countdown clock now...

" . . .the network was just catering to what its leftist viewers want to hear:

CNN Fake News, living up to its name  "Caught in the act.

Project Veritas, the undercover news group devoted to exposing how the establishment really thinks, got a CNN producer on camera to admit that the news network's coverage of the phony Trump colluded with Russia story is a cynical effort to whip up ratings, a false narrative promoted to make money, not a bid to report the news as a first draft of history.

"Hence its wall-to-wall coverage of the Democrats' Russia narrative, despite there being no there there.  CNN has mentioned Russia 60,000 times since President Trump was inaugurated.

"Here's the thinking behind the obsession that has occupied a huge part of the Trump presidency:

. . . "So what can be said is going on?  CNN is no longer a news network – it's more a whip-up-the-left operation, to make leftists feel good about their crazed anti-Trump suspicions.  It's ratings-driven, not news-driven.  And it's interfering with what President Trump was put into office by voters to do." . . .

Trump Effect? Poll Shows CNN Brand Plummeting

Some accountability at CNN at last?  . . . "With another CNN supervising producer, John Bonifield, now probably in the hot seat for pointing out that the Russia narrative has been fake, it's worth noting that he too may be done in by Project Veritas, an activist journalism group.  It goes to show that competition tends to make news agencies honest, and the advance of the internet has created lots of new news outlets and rivals.

"It's good to see accountability showing up, whatever the reason.  News agencies seem to know that their credibility is on the line and are taking steps to preserve it.  After years of playing lapdog media to President Obama, this could not be more welcome as a development."

2011; CNN Reporter Dan Lothian asks Obama this challenging, insightful question: (Speaking bromantically to power)

 "So I'm wondering if you think that they're uninformed, out of touch, or irresponsible?" CNN's White House correspondent Dan Lothian asked President Obama in Hawaii."

"After thinking a second – probably wondering how fortunate he is to have such an unapologetic shill in the audience – Obama responded, “That’s a multiple choice question, isn’t it?”

"And this is the type of hard-nosed journalist the supposedly most trusted name in news has as a White House correspondent."

Trump-hating circuit courts get a rude awakening

"What next from the left: demands that the Supreme Court be impeached?"

American Thinker  "The Ninth Circuit, later joined by the Fourth Circuit, decided (illegitimately) to put President Trump in his place, broadly rejecting his temporary suspension on travel from six Muslim-majority states – Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen – that had previously been designated by the Obama administration as terrorism risks. 

"In an example of "what goes around comes around," the Supreme Court, in a per curiam – that is to say, unanimous – decision, gave the appellate courts their comeuppance, allowing President Trump's travel bans to be in effect as "against foreign nationals abroad who have no connection to the United States at all."

"Never-Trump commentators would do well to reflect on the following statement in the per curiam ruling: "To prevent the Government from [suspending travel by] foreign nationals unconnected to the United States would appreciably injure its interests, without alleviating obvious hardship to anyone else."  Clearly, the lower courts, in their zeal to injure the Trump presidency, gave no thought to whether a "foreign national" has a connection to the United States.  Excessive, unwarranted, and unfair allegations against President Trump were persuasive at the Ninth Circuit.

"How will the media, which lauded the appellate decisions for their anti-Trump bias, respond to the following, which reflects the views of liberal as well as conservative members of the Court?" . . .

Staying Woke: Angry Trump Supporters Lay Siege to Welfare Queen Maxine

Townhall

"Congresswoman Maxine Waters, aka Welfare Queen Maxine, held her second town hall. 

"This woman has taken out­-of-­touch insanity to a whole new level. She still demands the impeachment of our president, even though the fired FBI Director admitted that he was leaking classified data to the press, and both sides of the aisle now acknowledge (Republicans knew it all along) that Trump and Russia never colluded to fix the election. 

"But that has not stopped Waters from lying repeatedly to her constituents. Nor has she stopped taking on the moniker of “Auntie Maxine” to wayward millennials. They realize that Barack Obama was using them for the last eight years, sticking them with the largest national debt in history, combined with diminished job opportunities and exorbitant student loan and healthcare costs. The millennials are our latest lost generation, and they need any elderly figure ready to ride high on the lies that more government is the answer to all their problems.

" What will they think when Bernie Sanders and wife face investigations for the socialist steering big money to help her firm? Come to think of it, Waters had done something similar for her husband. She complains about two scoops, but she has passed only three bills. She’s also been ranked four times as the "most corrupt" in Congress. “Stay woke!” Auntie Maxine assures her supporters.

"And yet, in Gardena, CA, the Freeway City where local Republican leadership balanced budgets and welcomed small business, Waters didn’t find the groundswell of support she had been hoping for.. . . Waters’ maniacal hatred for President Trump and her rampant disregard for citizens and our Constitution have gone unchecked for too long." . . . 

Top 10 Outrageous Maxine Waters Quotes  This came after we saw Reginald Denny beaten close to death by Waters' voters, his wallet being taken in full view of TV cameras:   

During the “Why can’t we all just get along” riots in her congressional district, Waters excused the wonton(sp) violence, as her constituents were intent on burning down the city.   The Los Angeles Times quoted her saying:   “If you call it a riot, it sounds like it was just a bunch of crazy people who went out and did bad things for no reason.   I maintain it was somewhat understandable, if not acceptable. So I call it a rebellion.”

Nancy Pelosi, the Face of the Sinking Democratic Brand

Her open threats to rivals epitomize the old-school gutter politics that are integral to her party’s problems.

 National Review  "Pelosi’s performance at her press conference on Thursday was epic in its demonstration of both her enormous self-regard and her complete confidence that nothing and no one will remove her from her powerful perch. While no one really expected that comments from a few stray dissident members of the House caucus would cause her to resign, her contempt for those critics and her willingness to threaten them publicly takes your breath away. She didn’t just mock them for “having fun on TV.” She pointedly reminded them that “every action has a reaction . . . every attack provokes a massive reaction.” 

"Pelosi’s honesty here is a refreshing spectacle, if not a particularly edifying one. It reminds one more of President Trump than of any Democrat. Not every politician — let alone one who operates on a national stage, like Pelosi — is willing to brandish her brass knuckles in public with a smirk, confident that she wouldn’t suffer from doing so. Nor would even the greatest egotists working with her in a Capitol overflowing with egomaniacs be able to keep as straight a face as she managed in her presser when she praised herself publicly as a “master legislator” and an “astute leader.' ” . . .Read more

Remember her mocking the anti-Obamacare TEA Partiers, walking past them with her oversize gavel?