Rod Rosenstein Has Botched the Mueller Probe

• Neglecting to place restrictions on the Mueller investigation is grounds for his removal.

Rich Lowry  "Rod Rosenstein is doing a star turn as principled defender of the law, but he’s performed abysmally as deputy attorney general, and President Donald Trump would be fully justified in firing him.

"The leaked questions that special counsel Robert Mueller wants to ask Trump in a prospective deposition are, if accurate, a sign that Mueller has spun out of control on Rosenstein’s watch.

"The questions (drafted by Trump’s legal team after consultations with Mueller’s investigators) suggest a free-floating investigation of the president’s motives, undertaken by a subordinate of the president. This is unlike any special-counsel investigation we’ve ever seen and represents a significant distortion of our system.

"Per the questions, Mueller wants to know how Trump reacted to news stories in the Washington Post. What he thought of FBI director James Comey during the transition. How he feels about his attorney general.

"These questions grow out of an obstruction-of-justice probe centered, as far as we can tell, on Trump’s exercise of the legitimate powers of the presidency. Mueller is out to prove that Trump had ill intentions. But this is an inherently problematic inquiry that involves a subordinate second-guessing the president on highly political questions." . . .  Full article

African-American leaders in America

On the right....

On the left....

Democrats being Democrats

Republican Michael Caputo:  “I want to know who cost us so much money, who crushed our kids, who forced us out of our home, all because you lost an election”

. . . "Caputo called for an “investigation of the investigators” and said he wanted to know who was “coordinating this attack on President Donald Trump.”

“ 'Forget about all the death threats against my family. I want to know who cost us so much money, who crushed our kids, who forced us out of our home, all because you lost an election,” Caputo said. “I want to know because God damn you to hell.' ” . . .

"Congress has been investigating alleged collusion between Trump campaign operatives and Russian agents for a year. They’ve yet to find any proof anyone knowingly or willingly worked at the behest of Russia." . . .

Here are the members of the Senate Intelligence Committee
Kamala Harris of California is one of them, you know. "Ms. Harris was ferocious in her calls for a special prosecutor to supervise the F.B.I.’s Russia investigation. Often named as a potential presidential candidate, Ms. Harris, a former attorney general of California, was assigned to the committee this year when she joined the Senate." . . .

Who will ever side with Republicans as a candidate knowing they can be destroyed financially? Recall that Democrats persecuted members of the Bush Administration for their interrogation of radical Islamic terrorists.

The Democrats' favorite sport: Ruining people . . . "Throughout his two terms, Obama appointed people who, like him, view the Constitution as an old, irrelevant document written by old white men.  The left today, like Obama throughout his administration, seeks to increasingly transform the U.S. into a socialist nation with all the abrogated freedoms that would entail." . . .

Legal Insurrection

CA Lawmaker Proposes Allowing Illegal Immigrants to Serve on State Boards  "A state senator in California is proposing legislation that would allow illegal immigrants to serve on state and local boards.
"State Sen. Ricardo Lara (D) introduced Senate Bill 174 on Monday, amid an ongoing immigration policy battle within the state.
"Fox News contributor Tomi Lahren said on "Fox and & Friends" that she actually encourages these far-left policy moves, believing they will help Republicans in the state. 
" 'Go as far to the left as you want to because people are going to speak up," she said Wednesday." . . .
But can the damage they do ever be reversible?

Actors being a synonym for Democrats:

Booming: Unemployment Drops to Lowest Level Since 2000

http://www.terrellaftermath.com/

Via Townhall:

Marketwatch reports Unemployment rate falls to 17-year low as U.S. adds 164,000 new jobs

"The numbers: The economy generated a solid 164,000 jobs in April to push the unemployment rate below 4% for the first time since Bill Clinton was president, a sign the surging labor market shows no signs ebbing.

"The increase in hiring fell short of the 188,000 forecast of economists polled by MarketWatch, but the shortfall was cushioned by upward revisions that show the U.S. created more jobs in March than originally reported.

"The unemployment rate, meanwhile, slipped to 3.9% after holding at 4.1% for six months in a row. Yet the decline owed to a shrinking labor force and fewer people saying they were unemployed instead of an increase in how many people found work.

"Despite the ultra-tight jobs market, wages for American workers still aren’t rising rapidly. Hourly pay rose 0.1% to $26.84, the government said Friday. The 12-month increase in pay was flat at 2.6% for the third month in a row. The Federal Reserve is likely to view the stable rate of pay as a sign of support for its cautious strategy of raising U.S. interest rates." . . .

Jobs Report; click to enlarge

. . . 

Read: Lack of wage acceleration is main surprise in jobs report, economists sayThat can’t continue forever. Either companies will have to pay workers more — or they’ll have to increase investment to boost production.Opinion: Why you should pay attention to this, and not to the unemployment rateThe Fed would prefer to see higher investment since it would be less likely to lead to inflation. But if the cost of labor and materials continue to rise, the central bank will feel pressure to raise the cost of borrowing in the U.S. more aggressively to prevent an outbreak of inflation.

Updated: Sorry, Liberal Media, But You Own Michelle Wolf

David Limbaugh   "Michelle Wolf is not the first so-called comic to maliciously insult conservatives and Republicans at a White House Correspondents' Association dinner, but she was intentionally mean-spirited, and even after the blowback, she's unrepentant. 

"Members of the liberal mainstream media have expressed disapproval over some of Wolf's comments, saying she went too far. But I'm not buying it. This is what passes as liberal humor these days. Just watch Jimmy Kimmel, Bill Maher and Stephen Colbert and tell me their humor is less malevolent. 

"But hold on, you say. There's a difference between late-night TV and a formal dinner pregnant with self-important dignitaries of the Washington press corps. Perhaps, but the point is there is a receptive constituency for this kind of bile. The organization had to have known what to expect from Wolf, and she admits she was just being herself that night. "If you've seen any of my comedy, you know that I don't -- I'm not (nice)," said Wolf. "I don't pull punches. I'm not afraid to talk about things." 

"Revealingly, comedian Tina Fey said, "When you invite a comedian into that place, where that tone is set, they're going to give it to you straight, and I think that's pretty much what she did." Whoa! In one line, Fey defends Wolf's nastiness, confirms that the association should have known what it was getting with her and fixes her stamp of approval on Wolf's calling White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders a liar. 

"The unapologetic Wolf, however, denies she was ridiculing Sanders' looks. But in her indignant denial, she admitted something just as damning: "I think if you listen to the joke, you'll understand that it's about the fact that she lies, and if it's taken another way, I think you should go back and listen to it again.' "  . . .

Updated. Klavan pegged the MSM way back in 2010.

What Trump Should Say on Cinco de Mayo

Heritage

"Their only interest is in making you into victims; I want to make you victors."

President Donald Trump is famously difficult to write speeches for, and his relationship with Mexican-Americans has been strained by comments made, so any speechwriter crafting an address for Cinco de Mayo would have a challenge. Having worn this hat at the State Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission during the George W. Bush administration, this is the advice I’d give him:

. . . "So be the disrupter you have been so far and reject the worn-out models that have failed. Don’t try “outreach” to Hispanics, Latinos, and even less Latinx (whatever on God’s green earth that is). To Cuban-Americans, Puerto Ricans, Argentines, and so forth, Cinco is as alien as Bastille Day (you see, Mr. President, the federal bureaucracy created the “Hispanic” panethnicity). If they celebrate it they’ll do so as Americans, not because it is their holiday." . . .More here.

Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at The Heritage Foundation, is a widely experienced international correspondent, commentator, and editor who has reported from Asia, Europe, and Latin America. He served in the George W. Bush administration, first at the Securities and Exchange Commission and then at the State Department, and is the author of"A Race for the Future: How Conservatives Can Break the Liberal Monopoly on Hispanic Americans." Read his research.

The Atlantic: Hillary ‘Really Does Need To Stop’

Hot Air 

"It’s really nothing new that someone is suggesting Hillary needs to take a step back and stop whining about why she lost the 2016 election. People on the right have been doing that for more than a year. Even Democrats are gingerly saying the same thing out loud these days (or not so gingerly in some cases). Hillary’s own former campaign manager was pretty openly hinting she should dial it back a couple months ago. But this piece published by the Atlantic yesterday signifies a turning point. The left’s response to Hillary’s refusal to leave the stage is no longer a subject of piecemeal complaints. It’s now a kind of conventional wisdom which right and left both share. Simply put, Hillary’s endlessly blame-shifting and rehashing of 2016 has become broadly ridiculous even on her own side of the aisle.

What’s so wrong with Clinton’s letting off a little steam? For starters, she’s bad at it—by which I mean she too often winds up making herself look bad. Whenever she talks about What Happened, her recent book recounting her experience as a presidential candidate, Clinton comes across as self-pitying and self-justifying, in large part because she cannot resist bringing up all the other folks and forces she considers at fault. This has reached the level of bad political joke. (In October, Newsweek compiled a handy list of “Every Excuse Hillary Clinton Has Given for Her 2016 Election Loss.”)

 Full article here.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders Has Classy Response to Questions About Michelle Wolf Jokes

Townhall

"White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders responded Thursday to Michelle Wolf’s controversial jokes about her at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

" 'I think that evening says a whole lot more about her than it does about me," Sanders told "Fox and Friends."

" 'The people that were my friends before that evening are my friends today, and I am going to continue doing the job that I came here to do every single day,” she continued. “I am very proud of the fact that I work in this administration for this president, and we're going to keep pushing forward, doing everything we can to make America better.' " . . .

Journalism and vulgarism  . . . ""For many in the left-wing media circles who presently vent opprobrium for the nightmare that is President Trump, the Joys refers to the era of Camelot for them, which naturally reached its zenith under Obama but nevertheless remained in the ascendant under Bush, in which was still possible that some loutish comedian like Stephen Colbert might be able to elicit a few cackles from that most elite reception of Washingtonian luminaries at the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner." . . .

Associated Press omits Democratic party affiliation from report on anti-Semites in DC government

Washington Examiner

"An Associated Press report said that "anti-Semitic conspiracy theories" are rampant in "DC city government" did not state that all of the lawmakers identified for anti-Jewish remarks in the story were members of the Democratic Party.

The story, published Wednesday and authored by Ashraf Khalil, bore the headline "Anti-Semitic conspiracy theories roil DC city government."

"It mentioned City Councilman Trayon White, who posted a video on social media claiming that Jews control the weather; Mayor Muriel Bowser, who was present for a meeting with lawmakers including White, wherein he claimed the "Rothschilds" controlled the World Bank; D.C. Public Housing Authority board member Josh Lopez, who organized a rally to support White; and Councilman Jack Evans, who is quoted in the story as also offering words of support for White.

"All four officials are registered Democrats, something the story never pointed out. Josh Lopez, the Housing Authority board member, resigned on Tuesday.

"The lack of party identification in the story is of note because some recent reports have suggested there is a correlation between a supposed rise in anti-Semitism across the country under President Trump, a Republican."

Dem Rep Refuses to Give Trump Any Credit for North Korea Negotiations

Free Beacon

"Gregory Meeks says South Korea deserves credit for the possible release of American prisoners"

. . . "CNN’s Poppy Harlow brought up the pending release of detained U.S. citizens in North Korea, which the administration has said is "imminent," and Meeks said the credit for their release goes to Moon. Harlow and John Berman repeatedly asked Meeks why he would not commend Trump’s actions at all, but the congressman maintained Moon is the driving force of the negotiations.

. . . " 'It seems like you're doing everything you can to not say the president deserves credit," Harlow replied. "Is he doing a better job, for instance, than the Obama administration did or the Bush administration or the Clinton administration, handling North Korea right now?"

"Meeks did not answer the question, preferring to describe how Moon has taken the lead in starting a "dialogue" with the North.

" 'President Moon got elected based upon the fact that he wanted a better relationship with North Korea, and he went about doing it at the same time that President Trump was calling [Kim] ‘rocket man,’" Meeks said.

"The hosts asked Meeks a total six times whether Trump deserved any credit for the negotiations. After Meeks answered for the final time, Berman noted "Trump was part of the equation.' "

I must praise CNN for Ms. Harlow's efforts to pin down this Democrat for his shameful efforts at sheer propaganda.

What The Teacher Of The Year Wore To Meet Trump Proves Exactly Who The Real Tolerant One Is

Daily Caller

. . . "Trump made no mention of the political statement Manning was sending with her pins and kept the comments at the event politics-free. Trump said, “To Mandy and all of the amazing educators here today: Your tireless dedication doesn’t just inspire your students, it inspires all of us. And I can tell you, it very much inspires me. We honor you and every citizen called to the noble vocation of teaching.' ” . . .

Christians' Munich Moment in California

Fay Voshell  "Scarcely any moment in American history is as important for America's Christians as the developing crises over religious freedom now happening in California.

"The legislature of Sacramento not only is underhandedly banning books opposed to the doctrines of the transgender religion (including the Bible), but also has threatened Christians' rights to free assembly and freedom of speech.

"According to its website, Summit Ministries, an organization devoted to advising Christian youths on how to live out a Christian worldview, has canceled its scheduled appearances at Biola University in Los Angeles "due to concerns that California will forbid some of what it teaches."

"Summit's concern is real." . . .

. . . "Summit apparently preferred the Munich solution. It preferred peace in our time.  But by capitulating to the state's threat, Summit Ministries has made the battles California's Christians face even harder.  The heat will inevitably be turned up on churches and ministries that teach Christian morality.

The truth is that Summit's capitulation almost ensures there will be no peace for Christians in California.  Unfortunately, the next battles to be won or lost also will have the odor of Summit's capitulation and defeat, no matter which state Summit flees to for refuge.

Alas, the Christian church in America is generally as weak as Summit has shown itself to be in the face of opposition to its God-given constitutional rights.  She is almost constantly capitulating while preoccupied with attacking other Christians.  She is far too subject to think herself safe in her subculture bubble, constantly retreating into a non-relevance auguring the first step into nonexistence.  Meanwhile, she is too often leaving the mighty but outnumbered 144,000 to fight the onslaught alone.

The American church, for the sake of the Christians among her and for the sake of those outside her walls – their freedoms are also threatened – must wake up and take up the motto, "We have not yet begun to fight."