The flawed case for firing Kellyanne Conway

Monica Showalter  "In a weird case of uneven enforcement, the Justice Department's Office of Special Counsel recommended that President Trump's presidential advisor, Kellyanne Conway, be fired for making political statements in a violation of the Hatch Act. Here's the Washington Examiner's listing of her supposed 'violations':

Specific violations listed by Kerner related to Conway's comments during interviews about several 2020 Democratic candidates. For instance, she insinuated Sen. Cory Booker was “sexist” and a “tinny” “motivational speaker.” She castigated former Rep. Beto O'Rourke “think[ing] the women running are good enough to be President" and said Sen. Elizabeth Warren was "lying” about her ethnicity and “appropriating somebody else’s heritage.”

Townhall Toon added by TD

 . . . Which is kind of weird, given that it pretty well posits that no one, not even a political appointee, is allowed to have an opinion of any kind once in the White House. And by the way, the press asked for these opinions, Kellyanne didn't just give them.

"It also implies by default that no one in the Obama White House ever had or gave an opinion, which is laughable. Hello, Valerie Jarrett? Hello, Ben Rhodes. Double standard anyone? Spotty enforcement? And how is this not giving a political opinion, even without words? Shouldn't all the creatures in that picture have been slapped with the Hatch Act, too? There was some politicking in that opinion, too, by the Special Counsel's standard.

"Thirdly, it suggests that everyone can have an opinion at whatever level, even the level of a political appointee in an advisory role, but they need to keep the public in the dark about it. Which doesn't sound too good for transparency.

"The criticizing office, as the Examiner notes, is not affiliated with Robert Mueller's special counsel, but it is led by a Trump appointee, responding to complaints from leftists, and then going one further by attempting to micromanage President Trump's personnel decisions. (When Julian Castro was found in violation for the exact same thing, nothing but nothing happened to him, and he certainly wasn't fired.)" . . .

Trump on ‘Fox & Friends’: I will not fire Kellyanne Conway after watchdog rebuke

. . . Trump, though, said: “It looks to me like they’re trying to take away her right of free speech.”
He even suggested he would not counsel Conway to tone it down.
“It doesn’t work that way,” Trump said, arguing that Conway was merely responding to political attacks against him. “A person wouldn’t be able to express themselves, and I just don’t see it.”
Trump noted that he will be getting a briefing on the findings.

There is a tiny bit of sanity in California

They want to impeach Governor Newsom, the de Blasio of the West

Reform California

. . . "Reform California achieves its mission in two ways:

• Launching Our Own Campaigns: Reform California has filed, qualified, and passed numerous citizen ballot initiatives to impose reform on state and local government. Reform California also organizes campaigns in opposition to bad initiatives proposed by politicians such as tax increases.
• Helping Campaigns of Other Reformers: Reform California provides a wide variety of direct and indirect support to organizations and candidates who are reform-minded. By working collaboratively with these partners, we can maximize limited resources in the fight against the well-funded forces behind big government.

"Given that California is currently dominated by one political party with a supermajority – and the other political party has shown itself largely ineffective in its opposition role – Reform California seeks to be the counterbalance to extreme and misguided policies that are costing taxpayers and hurting working families in our state."

They seek funds to dump the Governor

Fair is fair:  California's Gavin Newsom: Impeach Trump!

Impeach Gavin Newsom
"Governor Newsom has already promised free health care to everyone and anyone in California legal resident or not. Nothing is free. Working people and the businesses that support them will bear the cost. This will cause businesses and their employees to leave the state, adding to that growing trend."


California Gov. Gavin Newsom seeks to add more illegal immigrants to state health care plan  "Newly sworn-in California Gov. Gavin Newsom, vowing to provide “sanctuary to all who seek it,” has proposed extending state health care coverage to more illegal immigrants living within the Golden State’s borders.
"Hours after assuming office, Mr. Newsom released sweeping health care proposals to raise the age limit for illegal aliens covered by Medi-Cal from 19 to 26, which would make California “the first state in the nation to cover young undocumented adults through a state Medicaid program,” according to a Monday release from the governor’s office." . . .

Max "Boot compares Trump to Josef Stalin, to Benito Mussolini, and. . . to the Roman emperors Caligula and Nero." Oh, and Hitler.

Don Surber  "What about the Holodomor, Mister Boot?"

 . . . "Calling Trump Hitler is a disservice to the victims of Nazism, but victims of communism can pound salt, eh? The 6 million Ukranians starved to death died for the greater good, right comrade?

"Ceaser also wrote, "Boot’s story is as surprising as it is disheartening. Since Trump’s advent, he became and has steadfastly remained a convinced Never Trumper. Among the right-of-center intellectuals who have gone this way, no one has been so unsparing in opposition to the President unless it be his fellow Post columnist, the Bush II speechwriter Michael Gerson. As for Boot, he devotes column after column and tweet after tweet to warning of Trump’s failures and the dangers he poses to American democracy. He has exhausted the English language in condemning his adversary for demagoguery, narcissism, bigotry, xenophobia, racism, sexism, and authoritarianism. The President is a charlatan, an ignoramus, and a fascist.' " . . .

US women embarrass themselves at Women's World Cup

Rapinoe idolizes Kaepernick

Power Line  . . . "However, some of the celebrations that followed the add-on goals were ridiculous, both on their face and judged by the norms of the sport. To take the most egregious example, in 40 years of watching men’s soccer, I can’t recall any celebration of a late goal in a rout that compares with Megan Rapinoe’s over-the-top celebration of goal number nine, which you can watch here.

"The absence (or virtual absence) of precedent for Rapinoe’s display demolishes Abby Wambach’s attempt to defend her former teammate. Wambach tweeted:

For all that have issue with many goals: for some players this is there first World Cup goal, and they should be excited. Imagine it being you out there. This is your dream of playing and then scoring in a World Cup. Celebrate. Would you tell a men’s team to not score or celebrate?

"For one thing, Rapinoe’s goal was not her first in the World Cup. She has scored frequently at the tournament. Moreover, you wouldn’t need to tell members of a men’s team not to celebrate as Rapinoe did after scoring in a rout. Few, if any, men would think about a celebration of that nature. For that matter, few women would think of it.
"It’s not surprising that Rapinoe showed so little class. As I wrote in 2016:

I’ve seen enough of the U.S. team to know that if there’s an act to get into, Megan Rapinoe, the flamboyant star midfielder, is probably going to get into it. Thus, it wasn’t surprising when she decided to emulate Colin Kaepernick and disrespect America by refusing to stand for the National Anthem.

"When Rapinoe was thwarted in her attempt to call attention to herself and to disrespect her country (the anthem was played before the players took the field), she whined about it, calling the move “[expletive] unbelievable.” She then accused the owner who thwarted her attention-grab of being “homophobic” (Rapinoe is a lesbian).
"This is an athlete who is obsessed with calling attention to herself. Once again, she has succeeded in this objective, but only by making herself look ridiculous and entirely unsympathetic."

Rapinoe's hero

VICTORY OVER COMMUNISM! TEXAS DECRIMINALIZES LEMONADE STANDS

Power Line "I know I wrote here several years ago now about how the modern culture of bureaucracy—the imperatives of the administrative state—had filtered all the way down to most local governments, as seen by the number of instances where little kids’ lemonade stands were shut down for bureaucratic reasons. Police in Coralville, Iowa, for example,

Pritchett's Pen

shut down 4-year-old Abigail Krstinger’s sidewalk lemonade stand because she lacked a $400 city permit—a feat duplicated in Midway, Georgia; Appleton, Wisconsin; McAllen, Texas, and more than three dozen other cities across the country that were reported in the media.Some parents were slapped with $500 fines for allowing their kids to sell lemonade without the proper (expensive) permits.  Local bureaucracies have even restricted or stopped annual Girl Scout cookie sales drives.

"So guess which state has stepped up to decriminalize Susie and Johnnie’s lemonade stand? Of course you don’t need to ask:

Great news, children of Texas: Your unlicensed lemonade stands soon won’t be criminal enterprises.Gov. Greg Abbott late Monday signed a bill that prohibits cities and neighborhood associations from enacting rules that block or regulate children trying to sell nonalcoholic drinks like lemonade on private property. The law targets local health codes and neighborhood rules that intentionally or unintentionally ban the stands or require permits for them to operate.Support for such a law in Texas began to grow in 2015, when police in the East Texas town of Overton reportedly shut down a lemonade stand by two young siblings who were trying to earn money to buy a Father’s Day present.

"Is it too soon to start the Abbott 2024 campaign committee?

"Reminds me a little of 1993, when Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan remarked that the most significant achievement of Congress that year was decriminalizing babysitting.

Video: The 2020 Dems’ Apology Tour…

Weasel Zippers

AOC spokesman tweets, then deletes, F-bomb rant against potential GOP challenger

NY Post

Valdes added that he never chased Ocasio-Cortez, but simply walked over to her.

"US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s spokesman sent a profane tweet to a potential Republican challenger as he ripped him for wanting to debate his boss.

“ 'Yo @RichValdes what in the actual f–k makes you think you’re entitled to a debate with AOC,” spokesman Corbin Trent tweeted Sunday at the conservative talk radio producer who’s mulling a run against the freshman congresswoman.
"Earlier that day, Valdes said he tried to challenge Ocasio-Cortez to a debate on the merits of capitalism versus socialism as they both marched in the National Puerto Rican Day Parade. Valdes claims the democratic socialist “jetted to the other side of street”when he tried to approach her.
"Trent told The Post after the missed encounter that Ocasio-Cortez didn’t run away from Valdes, and that she “doesn’t owe anybody a debate.' ” . . .

Tony Branco

The media’s shameful PR campaign for Elizabeth Warren, our national scold

The Spectator

She needed a rebrand. The mainstream press is doing it for her

"In recent weeks, Elizabeth Warren has emerged as the mainstream media’s favorite candidate – for now, at least.

"Warren’s polling has largely been stagnant over the course of the race for the Democratic nomination, but you wouldn’t know it from the fawning coverage – coverage that just so happens to consistently echo the Warren campaign’s exact talking points. The New York Times asks ‘Elizabeth Warren is running an ideas-first campaign. Will it work?’ The Washington Post writes, ‘Warren’s nonstop ideas reshape the Democratic presidential race — and give her new momentum.’ Apparently, the ‘self-admitted policy wonk who has put her meaty policy prescriptions front and center in the campaign’ is also approaching ‘a breakout with black voters,’ and ‘she is very good on the stump.’

"Should the mainstream press be quite so adoring of a political candidate? What’s concerning is that these articles – written by supposedly objective journalists – are stuffed to the brim with barely concealed Warren campaign talking points. ‘Ideas-first,’ ‘nonstop ideas’, ‘meaty policy prescriptions’ – most campaigns can’t buy coverage like that. Either directly or indirectly, the same writers and reporters whose job it is to cover and analyze the 2020 race objectively are ingesting the Warren campaign’s messaging and regurgitating it verbatim in the pages of their publications." . . .

There's nothing that Joe Biden can't whip!

Is Joe Biden losing It?  . . . "Here are two recent headlines from RealClearPolitics:

Trump: "Sleepy Joe" Biden Is "Not Going To Be Able To Do The Job"

Trump: I'd Rather Run Against Biden, He's The "Weakest Mentally"

"It sounds like Trump is going to bat Biden around like a chew toy on the Democratic campaign trail. And this doesn't even get into the live matter of Biden's handsiness on the little girls at assorted campaign rallies in the past, something Joe says he's a reformed man on.

"Yet amazingly, Biden is the best the Democrats have to offer, the front runner, the guy who seems pegged for the number one spot. Roger Simon thinks it's so bad maybe Elizabeth Warren will eventually be the nominee, given this kind of performance. A fake Indian who gamed her way into ivy league teaching positions and now wants you to drink a beer with her.

"Bottom line, it's starting to get noticed all over that Joe Biden is an old old race horse whose better days are behind him. Maybe it's time for him to go."

Biden promises to 'cure cancer' if people elect him president  . . . "Is there anything Joe Biden can't do?

Joe Biden told an audience in Ottumwa, Iowa Tuesday that his White House would "cure" cancer should he beat President Trump in 2020.

"I've worked so hard in my career, that I promise you, if I'm elected president you're gonna see single most important thing that changes America, we're gonna cure cancer," Biden said to applause.

. . . "Presumably, Biden would also know that significant progress has been made as things are now, and there's no conservative conspiracy to halt cancer treatment or cures; conservatives are some of cancer research's top supporters. In fact, many kinds of cancer are being cured, not by government, but by talented medical practitioners on the frontiers of knowledge. No insertion of Biden into the matter is going to make a difference on that. We already know what inserting Biden does to the cancer-cure situation based on his past roles - which is zero." . . .

Rush Limbaugh: Trump needs to go to California, remind Americans what a Dem-run state looks like

Fox News  . . . "That's what conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh advised Trump to do Tuesday, saying he should start appearing periodically in California to remind Americans about the failures of Democratic policies in California.
" 'I think Trump ought to start going to California. I think he ought to go there once a month. I think the Republican National Committee ought to schedule a debate in California," Limbaugh said on his radio show. "I think the campaign should have ads showing and highlighting the homelessness in downtown Los Angeles and pointing out that this is what happens when Democrats run things with no opposition, no checks, no balances.' " . . .

Too Busy Mocking Obama To Enjoy The Joke

In any case, Obama may have thought he was addressing yet another typical Dem fundraiser Upper West Side audience desperate for gun control. He chose poorly.

Just One Minute  "Obama ran his mouth in Brazil recently, spouting nonsense about gun laws in the US:

"Some of you may be aware our gun laws in the United States don't make much sense. Anybody can buy any weapon any time. Without much, if any, regulation, they can buy it over the Internet, they can buy machine guns," Obama told the audience.

"Machine guns?!? Yeah, yeah, nonsense. 

"But here's the kicker, and let's go to the videotape! Come in at the 40 second mark. What does the crowd do after Obama says "Anybody can buy any weapon any time"? They go nuts! What, did Brazil score a goal in the World Cup?

"Not really. It turns out Brazil has very restrictive gun laws and very corrupt police. The upshot proves the old adage that when you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns. Their gun homicide rate is roughly five times that of the US.

"The public is not happy. Back in 2006 they rejected by referendum an attempt to further limit civilian access to weapons. And their current President, a former paratrooper and law-and-order candidate, ran on a "Suns out, guns out" message: . . .

From May 31, 2019: Obama Tells Multiple Lies About Guns In The U.S. To A Crowd In Brazil  . . .

 "Former President Barack Obama told multiple lies on Thursday to a crowd in Brazil while discussing gun laws in the United States — something that he repeatedly did during his presidency.' . . .'Everything stated by Obama was a blatant lie."Stephen Gutowski, a Second Amendment reporter for The Washington Free Beacon, highlighted some of Obama's in a series of tweets on Friday." 'Former President Obama just straight up lied about America's gun laws while at an event in Brazil--a country with strict gun laws and an unfathomably-high gun murder rate," Gutowski tweeted. "Former President Obama told the Brazilian crowd 'anybody can buy any weapon any time without much, if any, regulation' of our gun laws which is just plain false on its face. A complete lie.' " . . .

When did Congressional testimony become performance art?

http://www.terrellaftermath.com/

Victor Davis Hanson: Anti-Trump figures could face 'boomerang effect' as Mueller probe concludes 

. . . "Hanson recommended that President Trump in 2020 campaign heavily on the state of the economy as the post-Mueller news cycle continues."You mention the good economy," he told host Laura Ingraham. "That's something Trump needs to focus even more on.""We have a big annual deficit and Trump might be vulnerable there, but the Democrats don't have a reputation for fiscal sobriety," he added. "In areas that Trump might be vulnerable, they offer no alternative vision but the Green New Deal and reparations." . . .

When you address a committee, you are competing for attention and influence on the internet  . . . "To note that he was showboating is not meant as a criticism. Stewart has campaigned for proper health coverage for the first responders for over a decade and knows many of them personally: these were not the vainglorious platitudes of another celebrity chump.
"But it is also worth noting that Stewart did not have to – as a YouTuber might put it – ‘DESTROY’ the committee as much as he did. He could have made his points without the ‘EPIC’ anger; without all the zingers (‘al-Qaeda didn’t shout “death to Tribeca”‘); without constantly fiddling with his pen the way he used to on The Daily Show. He could – probably – have got what he wanted without making the whole process of committee hearings look dull, antiquated and inhumane." . . .

Want To Guess Which Republican Sided With Democrats On AG Barr's Contempt Vote? . . . "And now, the war between House Democrats and the Trump White House had reached a new level. Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) was the sole Republican to vote with Democrats (via NYT):