Trump cancels Singapore summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un

"Mr. Trump must be ready to walk away, as Ronald Reagan did at Reykjavik, Iceland, in 1986." Nick Eberstadt, WSJ

CNBC  "Sadly, based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement, I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting," Trump wrote in a letter to Kim, which was released Thursday morning.
. . . 
"While much of the letter was written in conciliatory terms, including praise for North Korea's recent release of three America prisoners, the U.S. president also appeared to issue a threat that conjured memories of his war of words with Kim last year." . . .

"Trump has called Un’s bluff, and walked away before the talks even commenced."

Kim must have thought Trump would be like Obama and seek a meeting at any price. Expect ridicule from Democrats, calling Trump a failure.

In Foreign Policy, Donald Trump Is The Powerful Man Barack Obama Never Could Be

The Federalist

Some men have been so consumed by jealousy that they hate ‘the man’ simply because he is what they want to be and cannot achieve.

 . . . Part of the journalistic angst that Trump is that guy comes from the fact their savior, Barack Obama, just could never be. There are two big reasons Obama’s foreign policy had all the staying power of raw shrimp in a hot car. His natural inclination to agree with foreign dictators that America is an evil place in need of “fundamental change,” as he put it, hurt him when dealing with them.

"But what hurt him the most was his rank amateur status at anything involving the real world. He never stood in a room of powerful men used to getting what they want and trying to assert their dominance. He moved seamlessly through a world of academia, liberal activism, then politics. It’s not even reasonable to expect a man to stroll off the cushy world of liberal academia into a room of wolves and expect him to perform. He got eaten alive. Conservatives joked about that video of Obama curling women’s yoga weights, but maybe the mullahs of Iran were laughing too.

"And those mullahs respect Trump. They hate his guts, but they respect him. They just recently recovered from the sore stomach muscles they got from laughing at Obama’s capitulation, just in time to have Trump take Obama’s crappy deal and rip it up in front of their faces. So, let them burn American flags and Trump posters. They do so with the knowledge they can no longer treat the American president like a piñata." . . .

Cartoons added by TD

The Trump era has exposed the dark, vindictive, and oppressive side of liberalism, but that side has always existed.

Liberalism is not the "party of the people," as it has long claimed to be: it is, rather, a despotic philosophy that because of its intention of imposing "advanced" thinking on the masses can govern only through deceit and force. 

Progressives on the Brink  . . . "No American, regardless of party preference, should fail to see the seriousness of these events.  The Watergate break-in and the cover-up that followed made for a serious crime, but it was nothing compared to what is now alleged on the part of members of the Obama administration or on the part of Obama himself.  Disclosures are at last moving forward, with House committees pressing for FBI and Justice documents and Sen. Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, requesting communications among Bruce Ohr, Christopher Steele, and others relating to the anti-Trump dossier.

"If it is true that President Obama ordered Attorney General Lynch and Director Comey to avoid bringing charges against candidate Clinton and to spy on the Trump campaign with the intention of throwing the election to Clinton, and if high officials at the FBI knowingly requested a FISA warrant on the basis of evidence known to be false, these actions will represent the most serious political crimes in the history of the country. 

. . . 

"It's also possible, and more likely, that progressives will dismiss the seriousness of whatever crimes have been committed and engage in even more desperate measures.  If that happens, only the political will of the American people will stand in their way. "  

Jeffrey Folks is the author of many books and articles on American culture including Heartland of the Imagination (2011).

Legalinsurrection

UPDATED: Secret FBI Team That Coordinated Set-Up of Trump Was Pressured by CNN – Guess Who Was CNN DOJ Reporter at the Time?

The Gateway Pundit

"Guess who started working at CNN covering the DOJ around this time?
Valerie Jarrett’s daughter Laura!"

". . . 5. January 8, 2017, 12:55 p.m. Mr. McCabe emailed then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates and then-Principal Deputy Attorney General Matthew Axelrod with the subject line “News.” Mr. McCabe wrote, “Just an FYI, and as expected, it seems CNN is close to running a story about the sensitive reporting.”
"Two days later on January 10, 2017, CNN ran the story about the unverified and salacious allegations made in the anti-Trump dossier with BuzzFeed publishing the dossier within a couple hours of CNN’s report.
"So how do you suppose James Comey knew that CNN was about to run the salacious anti-Trump dossier back in January 2017?
"And who could have been pressuring leaker James Comey with the discredited dossier?
"Guess who started working at CNN covering the DOJ around this time?

Valerie Jarrett’s daughter Laura!  

"Laura Jarrett was hired by CNN in the fall of 2016 to cover the Justice Department." . . .

UPDATE: 8 signs pointing to a counterintelligence operation deployed against Trump's campaign  "It may be true that President Trump illegally conspired with Russia and was so good at covering it up he’s managed to outwit our best intel and media minds who've searched for irrefutable evidence for two years. (We still await special counsel Robert Mueller’s findings.)

"But there’s a growing appearance of alleged wrongdoing equally as insidious, if not more so, because it implies widespread misuse of America’s intelligence and law enforcement apparatus." . . .

When the hospital is covered, but the doctor isn’t

AXIOS

"Vox has another installment in its series on emergency room billing, and it's (once again) a doozy. This time, a patient went to an in-network hospital for emergency jaw surgery, but received treatment from an out-of-network surgeon and thus found himself responsible for a nearly $8,000 hospital bill.

"Why it matters: Even the most responsible of patients — like this one, who made sure the hospital he was in was in-network before undergoing surgery — are getting stuck between insurers and providers who can't agree on rates, finding themselves on the hook for medical bills that the average person can't afford. 

Some eye-popping statistics, from Vox:

• One study "found as many as one in five emergency room visits led to a surprise bill from an out-of-network provider involved in the care."
• "Surprise bills are the most common in emergency room visits where the patient is ultimately admitted to the hospital for further treatment. Twenty percent of those patients end up with an out-of-network bill, often from specialists."
• "Separate data ... finds that a staggering number of Texas emergency rooms have zero in-network emergency physicians — meaning that patients are guaranteed to see a doctor who does not accept their health insurance."

THE DOOMSDAY SCENARIO: What if school walkouts don't work?

We can try the walkouts, rallies, moments of silence, media adulation, poems and fist salutes. But if the full arsenal of liberal disapprobation doesn't stop schizophrenics from going on shooting sprees, concealed carry laws will at least save a lot of lives. 

Ann Coulter "The New York Times seemed to think it was bitterly ironic that some of the students at Santa Fe High School, site of the recent mass shooting, had staged a walkout last month in support of the Parkland, Florida, students. But now, only a month later, one of the students who participated in the walkout is in the hospital from yet another school shooting. 

"I suppose we could revel in the irony, but, as a more results-oriented person, what I take from that vignette is that school walkouts are not effective deterrents to school shootings. I'm not sure the poems did much either. 

"These are hideous events that require serious proposals, not the self-indulgent mawkishness our media keep serving up. 

"Here are some news items that might help us figure out how to reduce the number of school shooting victims. 

-- May 3, 2017, Arlington, Texas: James Jones went to the Zona Caliente sports bar and began yelling incoherently. When the manager, Cesar Perez, went to talk to him and calm him down, Jones pulled out a gun and shot Perez dead, then started shooting wildly at patrons. Luckily, a concealed carry holder happened to be having dinner at Zona Caliente with his wife that night. He shot Jones dead before anyone else was hurt. 

-- Aug. 7, 2016, Linndale, Ohio: Two men getting into their car in a Dollar Store parking lot were held up by a masked armed robber. As the gunman, Varshaun Stephen Dukes, was rifling through one of the men's pockets, the other pulled out his concealed handgun and told him to stop. The robber fired at the man but missed. The concealed carry permit holder shot back, putting a .45 bullet in the robber's brain. (Naturally, he survived.) All of this was captured on the Dollar Store's surveillance camera, so no charges were brought against the armed citizen. 

-- June 26, 2016, Lyman, South Carolina: Jody Ray Thompson opened fire in the crowded Playoffz nightclub, injuring three. But before he could kill anyone, he was shot in the leg by a club patron with a concealed carry license. Police arrested Thompson without further incident and no one died.
. . . 

The Real Origination Story of the Trump-Russia Investigation

Andrew C. McCarthy

The Trump-Russia investigation did not originate with Carter Page or George Papadopoulos. It originated with the Obama administration.

 . . . "Of all the questions that have been asked about what we’ve called the “Origination Story” of the Trump-Russia investigation, that may be the most important one. It may be the one that tells us when the Obama administration first formed the Trump-Russia “collusion” narrative.  

. . . "It turned out, however, that the dossier was a Clinton-campaign opposition-research project, the main allegations of which were based on third-hand hearsay from anonymous Russian sources. Worse, though the allegations could not be verified, the Obama Justice Department and the FBI used them to obtain surveillance warrants against Page, in violation of their own guidelines against presenting unverified information to the FISA court. Worse still, the Obama Justice Department withheld from the FISA court the facts that the Clinton campaign was behind the dossier and that Steele had been booted from the investigation for lying to the FBI." . . .

https://www.conservativedailynews.com/author/afbranco/

The Trump Rationale

Victor Davis Hanson  

. . . "2) Personal morality and public governance are related, but we are not always quite sure how. Jimmy Carter was both a more moral person and a worse president than Bill Clinton. Jerry Ford was a more ethical leader than Donald Trump — and had a far worse first 16 months. FDR was a superb wartime leader — and carried on an affair in the White House, tried to pack and hijack the Supreme Court, sent U.S. citizens into internment camps, and abused his presidential powers in ways that might get a president impeached today. In the 1944 election, the Republican nominee Tom Dewey was the more ethical — and stuffy — man. In matters of spiritual leadership and moral role models, we wish that profane, philandering (including an affair with his step-niece), and unsteady General George S. Patton had just conducted himself in private and public as did the upright General Omar Bradley. But then we would have wished even more that Bradley had just half the strategic and tactical skill of Patton. If he had, thousands of lives might have been spared in the advance to the Rhine." . . .

They've blown up the Boy Scouts. What next?

Photo added by TD

Lloyd Marcus  "Minutes after awakening this morning, my wife Mary read me this disturbing headline from her phone, "Condoms Required at Scouts' 24th World Jamboree."  My mind immediately went back years ago to when LGBTQ activists demanded that the Boy Scouts of America accept openly homosexual leaders.  LGBTQ activists claimed that homosexuals did not intend to change the Scouts.  They simply wanted to be included.  I remember a deceived parent on Facebook saying if the Boy Scouts did not surrender to permitting openly gay Scout masters, she would remove her son from the intolerant, bigoted hate group.

"Mary read out loud from the article that, outrageously, the rules demand that condoms be distributed to the underage kids during the 12-day camping event.  My thoughts went to the movie Planet of the Apes at the end, when Charleston Heston's character said, "You maniacs!  You blew it up!  Damn you...damn you all to hell!" 

"In 1910, Lord Robert Baden-Powell founded the Boys Scouts Association.  In his book, "Scouting for Boys," Baden-Powell stated his purpose for the organization. 

" 'We aim for the practice of Christianity in their everyday life and dealings, and not merely the profession of theology on Sundays[.]' " . . .

What great Christian institution, traditional value, or principle will LGBTQ leftists target next for destruction?The good news is, I am seeing signs of more Americans pushing back against LGBTQ leftist bullying. 

Full Article

James Woods RIPS Kamala Harris’ Support of MS-13 with EPIC Tweet!

But first: MS-13 Gang Member Nicknamed ‘Animal’ Sentenced for Stabbing Boy to Death

. . . "In September 2015, Martinez told a federal informant that he stabbed 15-year-old Irvin Depaz three times and left him for dead on the street in order to be fully inducted into the MS-13 gang." . . .

Rightwire  "With one epic tweet that is breaking the internet, conservative actor James Woods exposed the ridiculous hypocrisy of Democrat Senator Kamala Harris." . . .

From BPR
James Woods’ meme mocking DNC’s 2018 campaign slogan is going to send Kamala Harris into meltdown mode  "Conservative actor James Woods tweeted a brutal meme that perfectly captured the unenviable position Democrats put themselves in when they opted to defend vicious members of the violent MS-13 gang in their zeal to attack President Donald Trump.

" 'Targeting Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., Woods tweeted an image of the lawmaker posing with an MS-13 gang member, along with the slogan that steals from Hillary Clinton: “Stronger Together. Ms-13 & DNC.' "

. . . "Of course, his meme prompted the sharing of similar memes floating around online:"

Hillary Still Ain't Over It

Claiming that Hillary Clinton’s candidacy was a step forward for women is like claiming that Donald Trump’s candidacy was a step forward for men. Come on, ladies: You couldn’t find somebody better to represent you? Anybody?

Jim Treacher

"I'm trying to remember a failed presidential candidate before now who made a second career out of whining about losing an election. Sure, Al Gore cried into his Hostess snack cakes for a while after his devastating loss, but then he found much greater success by appointing himself President of the Environment. John Kerry managed to weasel his way into an office for which he was even less suited than his predecessor. John McCain went back to the Senate. And Mitt Romney has had to settle for being incredibly rich and absolutely right about everything he said during the 2012 campaign.

"They all moved on with their lives. They all stopped mewling like a baby who didn't get a cookie before bed. But not Hillary Clinton. The first female major party candidate is also the first to make a job out of losing. She still hasn't forgiven you, America, for rejecting her.

"She spoke at the DNC Women's Leadership Forum this weekend, because of course she did. And she said something truly remarkable.  Nicole Sganga, CBS News:" . . .

Mr. Treacher suggests one certain woman worthy of all the praise and adulation Clinton somehow receives:

I cannot visualize this happening on Ambassador Haley's watch:

Can you picture Ambassador Haley doing this?

More on the shifting of blame for Benghazi to the comic video: 

Bernard Lewis RIP – “First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people”

Legal Insurrection
"His understanding of Islamism continues to shed light on the war against Jews and Christians: “Both the Saturday people and the Sunday people are now suffering the consequences”' 

"This 2006 profile at The Weekly Standard also provides good background, The Last Orientalist:

IT IS OFTEN SAID THAT the United States isn’t easy on its scholars and public intellectuals–that they are not accorded the prestige and respect that they are given in the Old World. This complaint, usually made by left-wingers struggling against the tide in the United States, isn’t totally without merit. A good literary scholar or classicist in the United States perhaps doesn’t quite have the same social cachet as would a similarly accomplished scholar at Oxford or the Sorbonne. But when scholars do make it in the United States–and there certainly seem to be vastly more European scholars hoping to make it in America than Americans trying to snag a sinecure in Europe–there is simply no comparison in the eminence, influence, and renown that they can achieve. Since arriving in the United States in 1974, the British historian of the Middle East Bernard Lewis has become one of America’s–and thus the world’s–most famous academics." 

"For those of us seriously interested in the Middle East–and since 9/11 that has become a rather large crowd–Lewis, who will celebrate his 90th birthday on May 31, has attained a stature in the field and with the general reading public unrivaled by any historian, living or dead, of the Middle East and Islam."  . . .