Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to pay $22.3 million to lease building owned by Obama bundler

Washington Examiner for full article.

The attempted CFPB coup

. . . Holman W. Jenkins, Jr., writing in the Wall Street Journal, November 29, called attention to one artful method employed by the agency: fabricating "evidence of racial disparity in auto lending to shake money out of lenders."  Jenkins noted that the agency had no authority to go after auto dealers and so put pressure on banks instead.  Jenkins referred to the appointment of English as acting director as a "power grab of the [Elizabeth] Warren junta."  Thus far, Judge Kelly has stymied this "power grab."

This May Explain Why Democrats Are So Desperate To Hang Onto Control Of CFPB

"A President has the power of appointment over agencies like the Consumer Fraud Protection Bureau. That’s why when Democrats tried to perform a coup and hold onto power there, it seemed rather odd. 
"But perhaps it’s not so strange if they’re trying to cover up things or keep their pay-for-play in motion.
"Check out this article from 2014. They were paying $22.3. million for two years for ‘temporary space’ for the bureau at a building owned by a big Democratic donor/Obama bundler. And we also paid millions extra, triple the amount estimated for ‘renovations’ to the building.
"What else might a new director discover?

"Via Washington Examiner:

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau officials will pay $22.3 million to lease temporary offices in addition to the record-breaking $145 million being spent to renovate the agency’s headquarters, according to documents obtained by the Washington Examiner.

The temporary offices to be occupied by CFPB for the next two years are being leased in a building owned by Neil G. Bluhm, a longtime friend and campaign bundler for President Obama.

Bluhm made headlines in 2010 when he hosted Obama’s 49th birthday party at his Chicago home. Admission was $30,000 per person, with the proceeds going to the Democratic National Committee.

Controversy has dogged the CFPB for more than a year for nearly tripling the initial $55 million cost estimate for renovations to the building that will serve as the bureau’s permanent headquarters. The building is across the street from the White House, at 1700 G St. NW in Washington.

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The Whiteness Protection Program

Mike Adams

(. . . There is no question about sexual orientation on the college application. However, it goes without saying that if Eric is still attracted to women when he becomes Erica, he can claim lesbian status and check off a third victim category)."

"As a criminology professor, I spend a lot of time counseling students who are getting abused in the classroom. In fact, any white male that decides to become a police officer can expect to be attacked viciously by Marxists trying to “transform” the criminal justice system indirectly through classroom indoctrination. These people aren’t criminal justice professionals. They aren’t even teachers. They are tenured bigots invading an institution they wish to destroy. They are sort of like the atheists who enter seminary just to undermine religion. 

"To make matters worse, the typical criminal justice department also requires students to take several sociology classes. In these classes, tenured white feminists routinely preach about white privilege while directing virtually all of their vitriol towards white males. Ironically, the lectures of many of these unhappy women are fueled by five-dollar white mochas. I like to call them Starbuck Stalinists. 

"Fortunately, because I spend a lot of time thinking about these matters, I have come up with a solution to protect white male students from the academic lynch mob that earns a living marginalizing them in the name of diversity and inclusion. I call it the whiteness protection program. Its potential for success depends upon the long-term viability of two recent trends in higher education." . . .

One Ivy League College is Allowing Students to Self-Identify as People of Color  . . . "This policy is said to help the university reach its goal of doubling historically underrepresented groups by 2022, the Brown Daily Herald reported.

"Out of all of the stupid liberal college policies I've heard of, this has got to be one of the stupidest.

"I'm so tired of colleges constantly trying to be diverse. They go out of their way to reward students with scholarships because of their heritage and their skin color. 

Marine's Father Lauds 'Much Better' VA Facility Since Son's Opioid Overdose

PJ Media

"After more than three years since Marine veteran Jason Simcakoski’s death, his father on Wednesday said that the pill-mill atmosphere that led to his son’s opioid overdose at the Tomah Veterans Affairs Medical Center has dissipated.

“ 'It was more like a dictatorship run when my son was there,” Marvin Simcakoski told Congress. “That atmosphere is gone by the wayside now. Now you can bring things up. … It’s definitely a much better and positive atmosphere there now.”

. . . 

. . . "Chief Officer for Specialty Care for the Veterans Health Administration Laurence Meyer said that every individual situation has to be tailored differently. Back pain differs significantly from chronic headaches, for instance, he said, while explaining that the agency is trying to find ways to expand options for yoga, tai chi, acupuncture and conventional physical therapy. There is also the issue that many veterans suffer from chronic pain, as well as mental health issues, which makes each patient’s needs more specific.

"Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) discussed her own “recreational” injury, for which she went through physical therapy. She warned Meyer against capping the amount of visits a patient might get for physical therapy, which is an issue she said she witnessed firsthand while in treatment.

"Meyer said that the VA is trying to find the proper balance between avoiding the bureaucratic nightmare of approving every single physical therapy visit and writing blank checks for treatment."

Democrats Rushing To Register Thousands Of Felons To Vote Before Alabama Deadline…

Weasel Zippers

"Rushing to try to beat Roy Moore.

"Via Al.com:

Thousands of felons across Alabama have registered to vote in recent weeks, according to Pastor Kenneth Glasgow, who is heading up a statewide effort to get felons to the voting booth.

Glasgow’s goal is to get as many felons as possible signed up to vote before the end of the day Monday, the deadline to be able to cast a ballot in Alabama’s Dec. 12 U.S. Senate special election.

“In the last month, I think we registered at least five- to ten-thousand people all over the state,” Glasgow, president of Dothan’s The Ordinary People Society (TOPS) advocacy group, said Monday. “I’ve got people all over the state registering people with my TOPS branches in Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, Montgomery, Enterprise, Dothan, Abbeville, Geneva, Gordon, Bessemer, we have a lot.”

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Sex in America, Part 2

A.F. Branco Cartoon

Ann Coulter   "At least liberals are finally telling the truth about Bill Clinton -- and just 20 years after it mattered! Of course, considering it took the Democratic Party a century to discover that slavery was wrong, two decades is lightning speed for these moral paragons. 

"While edging up to admitting that Bill Clinton maybe shouldn't have raped Juanita Broaddrick and flashed Paula Jones, liberals still can't own up to their utterly hypocritical defense of a president credibly accused of repeated sexual assaults and associated felonies.

"Recently, The New York Times' Maureen Dowd tried to cover up the left's shameful response to Clinton's sleazy behavior with the "both sides" argument. According to Dowd, liberals "tried to kill off" Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas "over sex when the real reason they wanted to get rid of him was politics." And then conservatives "tried to kill off a Democratic president over sex when the real reason they wanted to get rid of him was politics."

"Here are three important differences off the top of my head:

   1) Anita Hill's accusations against Thomas involved words -- just words -- whereas Clinton was accused by multiple women of being a sexual predator on a scale to rival Harvey Weinstein. 
   2) The evidence against Thomas consisted of a single accuser, with no corroborating witnesses. The evidence against Clinton included, among other things, multiple witnesses; contemporaneous corroborating witnesses; secretly recorded confessions of the assaults and liaisons from Clinton himself (the Gennifer Flowers tape), Monica Lewinsky (Linda Tripp tapes) and Juanita Broaddrick (two separate tapes by people who wanted her to tell the truth about the rape); a DNA-stained dress; and, eventually, when he had absolutely no other choice, Clinton's own admission under oath.
   3) As Dowd says, the left was using Hill's made-up charges against Thomas to save Roe v. Wade. By contrast, it's absurd to imagine that Republicans were enraged by the policies of President Clinton -- a neoliberal, Third-Way, welfare-reform-signing, Ricky Ray Rector-executing Democrat. Clinton was the last of a vanishing breed, the moderate Democrat. That just wasn't a good enough reason to overlook his repeated sexual assaults, felonies and bald-faced lies. 

"It was liberals, and only liberals, who did an about-face on everything they supposedly believed about sexual harassment for political gain. The exact same people who had pretended to need smelling salts when told Thomas had joked about "Long Dong Silver" in the offices of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (never happened) were suddenly A-OK with a governor summoning a lowly state employee to his hotel room, dropping his pants and saying, "Kiss it.' "  . . .  Full article.

NBC Gets New Complaints About Matt Lauer As Video Surfaces Of His Lewd Comments About Meredith Vieira

Hot Air   . . . "On that note, earlier today Ed mentioned a video in which Katie Couric suggested Matt Lauer’s most annoying habit was constantly pinching her butt. This afternoon, TMZ has uncovered another Lauer video, this one apparently involving Meredith Vieira. This clip strongly suggests Lauer’s treatment of women was not much of a secret and NBC. Lauer is finishing up some work as Vieira is pulling paperwork off the table in front of him. As she leans down he says, “Pretty sweater.” Then he adds, “Keep bending over like that. It’s a nice view.” The video is more revealing than the text. Lauer isn’t smiling as he says this, he’s leering. Vieira’s voice can be heard in the clip, but if she responded to his remark, it wasn’t caught on the microphone." . . .

University demands people be warned about seeing a cross

Bob Unruh

"Soldiers in World War II were burying their fellow combatants under crosses when they were college age. So were the ground troops in Vietnam. And Korea.

"But now, one American university says that just seeing crosses can cause “emotional trauma.”

"That’s the subject of a new lawsuit by the Alliance Defending Freedom over a demand from Miami University of Ohio that pro-life students post warnings about their pro-life display of small crosses stuck in the ground.

“ 'No university official has the authority to censor student speech simply because of how someone might respond to it,” said ADF Legal Counsel Travis Barham. “Like all government officials, public university administrators have an obligation to respect students’ free speech rights.

“ 'The First Amendment secures the freedom of all students to participate in the marketplace of ideas, and it prohibits university officials from imposing trigger warnings that restrict what some students can say to spare the feelings of others.”

"The fight erupted over the Students for Life there, who since 2015 have periodically displayed a “Cemetery of the Innocents” on campus.

"It features small crosses placed in the ground to remember the lives lost to abortion.

"But when, a few weeks back, Students for Life President Ellen Wittman emailed the school to set up permission for the display, the school responded with a demand that the student group could put up the display “only if it placed signs around campus warning people about its content.' ” . . .

Does encountering a viewpoint you disagree with warrant a warning sign?

. . . "But this year, university officials told them they were not permitted to put up their display without also posting warning signs around campus, basically discouraging people from viewing the exhibit. They feared the display might cause “emotional trauma” for other students. A university official also characterized the display as “harmful for some of [the university’s] community members.' ” . . .

Shocking news: Hollywood celebrity shows courage

M. Catharine Evans   "During an advanced screening of his new movie, the celebrated black actor Denzel Washington was asked by the Grio whether blacks, in particular, can "truly makes change as things are right now."

With no hesitation, Washington stated:

It starts in the home[.] ... If the father is not in the home the boy will find a father in the streets. I saw it in my generation and every generation before me, and every one since. If the streets raise you, then the judge becomes your mother and prison becomes your home.

"Speaking specifically about the American prison complex to the New York Daily News, Mr. Washington repeated his assertions:

It starts with how you raise your children. If a young man doesn't have a father figure, he'll go find a father figure. So you know I can't blame the system…It's unfortunate that we make such easy work for them.

"This is nothing new for the two-time Oscar-winner.  Washington made similar comments in a GQ interview in 2012.  When asked what he would say to African-American readers of GQ, Washington responded:

Take responsibility. One of the things that saddens me the most about my people is fathers that don't take care of their sons and daughters. And you can't blame that on The Man or getting frisked. Take responsibility. Look in the mirror and say, "What can I do better?" There is opportunity; you can make it. ... Keep the body in tune – it's your temple. All things in moderation. Continue to search. That's the best part of life for me – continue to try to be the best man."

. . . 

Mulvaney checks out the CFPB

Will There Ever Be An Accounting On North Korea?

Power Line  . . . "President Trump inherited the North Korea mess. He told reporters today that North Korea “is a situation that we will handle.” I sincerely hope so, but I have no idea how. Is there any practical way to threaten Kim’s nuclear capability without endangering the 10 million people who live in Seoul, just 35 miles from the border with North Korea? Again, I have no idea.

"The North Korea problem has been brewing for a long time. In 1994, the Clinton administration to provide two nuclear reactors and deliver heavy fuel oil to North Korea in exchange for the country giving up its nuclear weapons program. The reactors were never built, but Kim nevertheless snookered Clinton, as North Korea accelerated rather than giving up its nuclear program.

"Subsequently, American administrations have kicked the Korean can down the road. Most blameworthy was Barack Obama. Just a few months into Obama’s administration, the North Koreans detonated a series of nuclear devices. President Obama responded with a policy of “strategic patience,” a euphemism for doing nothing and hoping that disaster wouldn’t strike until he was out of office. This was classic Obama: as the increasingly insane North Korean regime drew ever closer to an offensive nuclear capability, he did nothing. Now President Trump is stuck holding the bag.

"Millions of lives could be lost because of this feckless history. Meanwhile, our news media have mostly ignored the North Korea issue, preferring to obsess on Roy Moore’s purported 40-year-old failings, whether Press Secretary Sarah Sanders baked a Thanksgiving pie, Al Franken’s tortured meditations on how easy it is to grasp a woman’s bottom by accident, and so on. Will our inept reporters and editors ever bestir themselves to report on how Barack Obama and, to a lesser extent, his predecessors allowed the Kim regime to become such a threat to millions of human lives?" . . .

pinterest.

Federal Judge Knocks Down “The Resistance” on CFPB Power Grab

Independent Sentinel  "The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was created by the Obama Administration under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. CFPB’s stated purpose is: “to ensur[e] that all consumers have access to markets for consumer financial products and services and that markets for consumer financial products and services are fair, transparent, and competitive,” Writes Thaya Brook Knight, a finance expert from the Cato Institute, in The Hill. “The CFPB, however, strays well beyond this purpose and, in many cases, frustrates its own mission by limiting consumer access to needed products.”

"One instance is the Bureau’s recent issuance of a rule that “will all but eviscerate the payday lending sector. These loans, while expensive, often fill a gap and can be lifelines for vulnerable people,” writes Knight.

"She also charges that the Bureau invaded areas that have nothing to do with consumer finance. An example is: “It attempted to investigate the accreditation process for for-profit colleges, issuing a subpoena for documents.”

"This was knocked down by an appeals court." . . .

"The court decided to remedy that constitutional defect by requiring that the director serve at the will of the President. See page 10 of the decision:

We therefore hold that the CFPB is unconstitutionally structured….

To remedy the constitutional flaw, we follow the Supreme Court’s precedents,… and simply sever the statute’s unconstitutional for-cause provision from the remainder of the statute. Here, that targeted remedy will not affect the ongoing operations of the CFPB. With the for-cause provision severed, the President now will have the power to remove the Director at will, and to supervise and direct the Director.  . . .  

General counsel for the CFPB disagrees with Elizabeth Warren on agency head replacement

Acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney Holds Brilliant Press Conference . . . "The CFPB is the product of far-left progressives, specifically Elizabeth Warren, initially setting up a financial control agency that operates without congressional oversight. The Bureau construct was challenged in court and ruled ‘unconstitutional’.  That’s the backdrop for this press conference today with Acting Director Mick Mulvaney." . . .

ISIS Threatens Times Square…

Weasel Zippers

"Morons.

"Via PJ Media:

An ISIS supporter released a poster of Santa Claus on the group’s social media haunts. The poster shows Santa overlooking Times Square with a case of dynamite at his side.

In the image, the New York streets are filled with pedestrians at nighttime and Santa carries a bulky red sack.

“We meet at Christmas in New York… soon,” reads the text on the image.

It follows propaganda posters making holiday threats toward Europe, with a hand holding a bloody knife before a market in the neighborhood of the Eiffel Tower and a black-clad jihadist standing over Santa on London’s Regent Street.

The threat also comes as the ISIS-supporting Wafa’ Media Foundation has released numerous threats against the holiday and against the Vatican. In a message to fellow jihadists last week, the group noted that “the crusaders’ feast is approaching.”

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