Democrats Blast Trump For High Gas Prices … After They Spent Years Trying To Force Them Up

IBD  "Hypocrisy Watch: Democrats hope they've found an issue that will re-energize the fading "Blue Wave" with the recent spike in gas prices. Never mind that the increase is temporary. Or that Democrats have for years tried to force gas prices up — permanently — through various tax hikes.

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02:26

"According to the federal Energy Information Administration, average pump prices for regular gasoline hit $2.923 a gallon this week. That's up 55 cents compared with the same week last year, and the highest prices have been since November 2014.

"Sen. Minority Leader Charles Schumer and other Democrats plan to use this price spike to blast President Trump and, hopefully, improve their election chances in November.

"President Trump's reckless decision to pull out of the Iran deal has led to higher oil prices," Schumer said. "These higher oil prices are translating directly to soaring gas prices, something we know disproportionately hurts middle and lower income people."

"But Schumer, as well as the reporters covering him, should know that the high gas prices are the result of three factors that are beyond Trump's control.

"One is the fact that OPEC has tightened its production quotas to counter the huge increase in U.S. oil production thanks to the fracking revolution. Trump has been trying to boost production still more.

My fear of the American left, even at this late stage of life

Beginning in 2008, first as the "Squeaky Wheel" when Obama was nominated by the Democrat Party over fear of this party and what it had become. This fear has only worsened as I watched the vindictiveness of more and more Democrats and their effect on entertainment and news media along with academics, even into school curricula.

I'm almost seventy-nine at this posting, have lived through blackouts, air raid sirens, the Red Scare and the sixties - fearful times all. But those threats were from mostly without and capable of being stood against; now the evil is entrenched within this nation and made manifest in today's Democrats and those such as whatever Bernie Sanders is. Even the entertainment and news we watch force-feeds this anti-American cancer into our very culture.
For those reasons and more this statement has appeared at the right sidebar of the Tunnel Wall for over ten years and I have no plans as yet to remove it.  The Tunnel Dweller

From 2008: The Tunnel Wall blog  "Many of us fear the path America is being led down by our government, media and educational institutions and want to be sure they are watched fervently. It was a revelation to actually see how many Democrat elected officials have supported this massive swing to the left. One would have thought that, though liberal, they valued our free market system and

economic freedoms. It has become hard to believe the US is a right-of-center nation (as surveys claim) when the culture and its factions exert such a leftward pull on our politicians. On TV programs such as "Law and Order"- to name just one - leftist philosophies are promoted while conservative ones are debunked. Mainstream news programs are fountains of anti-Republican, -conservative propaganda.

"Foremost in memory is the shabby treatment meted out to President Bush at White House press conferences, press dinners and Hollywood functions. And of course we all know how Republicans and conservatives are the butt of late-night talk-show jokes.

"Even past noble causes and their current leaders have become withered, almost comical clones of their past heroes. Look at the regression from Dr. King to Al Sharpton. During those terrible days of black struggle to be treated as American citizens, we longed for the day an African-American could be elected president. Who wouldn't while seeing what happened to African-Americans as they merely tried to live life as others did by eating at a lunch counter or being welcome in all public places? Joan Baez and other activists would place their bodies between black children and their object-throwing taunters as they entered schools and we were stirred. We felt the day this nation elected a black President would show America had truly become America.

"But not this president; not Barack Obama.

"We envisioned a black president who would govern as an American who loved this country. One who loved America for her exceptional-ness; for having the character to overcome her worst elements; for all her economic strength that it was now possible for everyone to grasp the opportunity to share.

"But now we have some ominous dots to connect and a picture takes shape: William Ayres and his causes; Rev. Wright, Father Pfleger, Van Jones*, all preaching their hateful philosophies. We saw Cuban flags and pictures of Che Guevara on walls of Obama campaign offices; red Soviet flags flying over crowds in post-election rallies. We heard the socialist views spoken to Joe the Plumber and this administration's disdain for private enterprise. Then there is the continual ignorance displayed on foreign affairs along with a complete reversal of allies and enemies.

"The vast crowds of equally ignorant sycophants crying out in ecstasy and adoration for Barack Obama was not reassuring.

"Barack Obama's presidency has lifted a rock off the Democrat Party and revealed some ominous qualities that had long been off of our collective radar; that there are many Rev. Wrights and Bill Ayers sitting in Congress. We fear the effect these people have on our culture and nation and feel we must not let anything they do or say go unnoticed."
The Tunnel Dweller

* Add to the above list Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Maxine Waters, Hillary Clinton supporters, Kamala Harris, and well, all Democrats you saw wearing matching outfits, remaining seated at President Trump's State of the Union address. And oh, did I mention Hillary Clinton?. TD

 (Sources for the above illustrations unknown) 

Hillary carries her message

Townhall

Surprise: Congress Reacts to Summit Cancellation on Party Lines

Weekly Standard 

 . . . “ 'North Korea has a long history of demanding concessions merely to negotiate,” he said. “While past administrations of both parties have fallen for this ruse, I commend the president for seeing through Kim Jong-un’s fraud.”
"Nebraska senator Ben Sasse said much the same: “Kim Jong-un is a murderous despot and habitual liar. The president made the right call to cancel this summit. If North Korea wants diplomacy, it should know that half-measures and spin about its nuclear program won’t cut it.”
"Democrats, unsurprisingly, were not laudatory. Senator Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations panel, said the cancellation appeared the result of a lack of understanding and preparation on the part of the administration." . . .

The North Korean Summit Should Stay Cancelled   . . . "The North Koreans have been yanking our chain over the last week or so, presumably trying to establish their leverage and begin a negotiation over the negotiation. They seemed to make some progress, with Trump saying the other day that maybe we could settle for something short of complete, verifiable denuclearization, which is supposed to be our core demand. The president may have tempted the North Koreans into the gamesmanship by occasionally seeming over-eager to take credit for a stupendous diplomatic success (stripping North Korea of its nukes) that hadn’t happened yet and is unlikely to happen." . . .

Good Riddance to the North Korea Summit  "It was a bad idea from the start, and Trump must hold firm to his decision to cancel it."
. . . "Second, in tangible ways North Korea was already using the summit to leverage concessions. It was an ominous sign when the U.S. canceled a training exercise involving B-52 bombers. South Korean officials had reportedly “expressed concerns” that the exercise could raise tensions before the summit. It’s routine for North Korea to demand the cancellation of joint military exercises with South Korea. It’s not routine for the U.S. and South Korea to acquiesce to those demands." . . .

What Trump is really saying in his letter to Kim Jong Un

Politico  "President Donald Trump on Thursday canceled his planned summit with Kim Jong Un in a written letter. The cancellation of the meeting — scheduled for June 12 in Singapore — appears to be a major blow to Trump’s desire to land a legacy-making deal with North Korea to denuclearize.

"Below is the full text of the letter, annotated."

Read the full text here.

Wide open

Although some of Trump’s top advisers, including national security adviser John Bolton, believe there is almost no hope for cutting an amicable deal Kim, Trump is signaling that he’s not giving up hope for a potential Nobel Prize. It is unclear whether the possibility is still realistic. Much depends on how the North Koreans respond, presumably within the coming hours, and who wants a deal more.

So North Korea will continue to be a nation living in darkness

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/