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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION

50 STATES AND DC, CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT

Stop the Impeachment Fishing Expedition Congress has no business investigating the president for conduct that occurred before he took office. By David B. Rivkin Jr. and Elizabeth Price Foley

https://www.wsj.com/articles/stop-the-impeachment-fishing-expedition-11550188732

As William Barr begins his term as attorney general, House Democrats are aiming a “subpoena cannon” at President Trump, hoping to disable his presidency with investigations and possibly gather evidence to impeach him. Mr. Trump fired back in his State of the Union address: “If there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation.” To protect the presidency and separation of powers, Mr. Barr should be prepared to seek a stay of all congressional investigations of Mr. Trump’s prepresidential conduct.

The president is not one among many, as are legislators and judges. Crippling his ability to function upsets the constitutional balance of power. For this reason, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel has repeatedly concluded that a sitting president may not be indicted or prosecuted. The same logic should apply to congressional investigations.

Congress is targeting Mr. Trump’s actions before becoming president because there are well-established constitutional limits, grounded in separation-of-powers doctrine, on its ability to investigate his official conduct. In U.S. v. Nixon (1974), the Supreme Court recognized a constitutionally based, although not unlimited, privilege of confidentiality to ensure “effective discharge of a President’s powers.” In Nixon v. Fitzgerald (1982), the justices held that presidents and ex-presidents have absolute immunity against civil liability for official presidential acts.

Executive immunity for prepresidential activity is less clear. In Clinton v. Jones (1997), which arose out of Paula Jones’s accusation that Bill Clinton sexually harassed her while he was governor of Arkansas, the justices reasoned that Ms. Jones’s lawsuit could proceed because the burden on the presidency objectively appeared light. Specifically, because only three sitting presidents had been sued for prepresidential acts, the justices thought it “unlikely that a deluge of such litigation will ever engulf the presidency.”

The court did, however, consider the question of whether civil litigation “could conceivably hamper the President in conducting the duties of his office.” It answered: “If and when that should occur, the court’s discretion would permit it to manage those actions in such fashion (including deferral of trial) that interference with the President’s duties would not occur.” CONTINUE AT SITE

Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib and the normalizing of Jew-hatred in America By Rabbi Aryeh Spero

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/02/reps_ilhan_omar_and_rashida_tlaib_and_the_normalizing_of_jewhatred_in_america.html

Editor’s note: A powerful statement that needs to be seriously considered by all Americans has been issued by Rabbi Aryeh Spero, spokesman for the National Conference on Jewish Affairs and a prolific contributor to American Thinker.

“It is becoming more obvious by the day–even by the tweet-hour–that newly elected Congresswoman Ilhan Omar is anti-Semitic and is peddling her anti-Israel and anti-Jewishness through the well-known and effective drip-by-drip method.

It is a strategy, as we have seen from Islamists in Europe, where an anti-Israel or anti-Jewish statement is made and then partially retracted after an uproar. It is repeated multiple times, followed by multiple half-hearted retractions with the goal and effect being the slow but inevitable seepage of anti-Jewish caricatures into the country’s political discourse and into the minds of its people.

“This successful strategy has poisoned Europe’s discourse against Jews and Israel and is being imported here with the arrival into Congress of Ms. Omar and Ms. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI).

“The question today is: Do the leaders of the U.S. Congress, and especially House Speaker Ms. Pelosi, have the conviction and will to oust this never-ending shower of anti-Jewish rhetoric as they would if such was being said against other groups. Will they permanently shut this down before it metastasizes as it has in Europe and is unfolding in front of our very eyes?

“There is no question that Ms. Omar’s playing-innocent type of apologies are done in such a manner to momentarily quell the outcry against her remarks while assuring her base that she has not capitulated to the powers outside her community. Her nonchalant use of anti-Semitic stereotypes and language is furthermore disturbing for it reflects a communal comfort with and approval of anti-Semitic ideas that most Americans deem beyond the pale.

Sabotage in Queens Opponents of the Amazon deal declare victory as the company cancels its New York plans—and the city waves goodbye to 25,000 jobs. Seth Barron

https://www.city-journal.org/amazon-cancels-queens-hq

Amazon’s announcement that it will cancel its plans to build a major office complex in Long Island City is a huge defeat for Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio, who staked their political capital on the high-profile deal. The collapse of the deal is a victory, though, for the anti-gentrification, anti-development Left, which assailed the plan as a giveaway to a trillion-dollar company and its billionaire owner. They claimed that Amazon would drive up rents, destroy the local community, create noise pollution, and increase wealth inequality in New York. A typical response came from law professor and three-time loser political candidate Zephyr Teachout, who exulted on Twitter, “!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! POWER OF THE PEOPLE. Speechless. Truth to power wins!”

What has “truth to power” won? It’s not as though Amazon was preventing the rise of sustainable, green, unionized, and well-paying manufacturing jobs in Long Island City, or stopping the construction of affordable low-income housing, along with schools and parkland. The area where the company planned to build its secondary headquarters has been the focus of economic development plans for decades. It is presently the site of parking lots, storage units, and empty, city-owned land. Now it will stay that way. Amazon was planning to rent 1 million square feet in the Citigroup Tower in Long Island City, which is largely vacant of tenants, and will now remain so.

Graham Demands McCabe Testify to Explain DOJ’s ‘Bias against Trump’ By Jack Crowe

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/lindsey-graham-demands-andrew-mccabe-testify-to-explain-dojs-bias-against-trump/

Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) demanded Thursday that former deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe appear before the panel to address “bias against Trump” within the Department of Justice.

Graham’s call for McCabe to testify came hours after CBS aired an interview clip in which McCabe claimed he’d discussed the prospect of recruiting cabinet members to declare President Trump unfit for office with top DOJ officials shortly after the president fired FBI director James Comey in May 2017.

“After Mr. McCabe’s 60 Minutes interview, it is imperative that he, and others, come before the Senate Judiciary Committee to fully explain how and why a FISA warrant was issued against Carter Page and answer questions about what appears to be, now more than ever, bias against President Trump,” Graham said in a statement issued Thursday.

In the statement, Graham referenced a longstanding concern among conservative lawmakers that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant authorizing the surveillance of then-Trump campaign adviser Carter Page was obtained through FBI officials’ misleading a federal judge regarding the partisan source of the evidence against Page.

Trump Looks to Uproot Numbers-Only Bias Test Widely Used in U.S. see note please

https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2019/02/14/trump_looks_to_end_numbers-only_bias_theory_governing_american_life.html

This will be a courageous move by the administration. Quotas are contrary to democracy….rsk

In what would be one of the Trump administration’s most far-reaching moves regarding race relations, top White House officials are planning a sharp pullback from federal efforts to correct imbalances in outcomes for minorities in everything from housing to hiring. On the table: a ban on the use of a controversial numbers-focused racial-bias theory known as “disparate impact.”

Federal regulators and lobbyists familiar with the change say the White House management and budget office is reviewing a proposed executive order, originally drafted by two conservative Washington think tanks, that would prohibit the use of “the disparate-impact approach in the enforcement or application of any civil-rights law.”

A catalyst for the move is White House budget director Mick Mulvaney, who is currently also serving as interim White House chief of staff and who, while serving in Congress, was a longtime critic of disparate impact. It is not clear whether President Trump has decided to issue the executive order, which would repudiate the underlying rationale for scores of regulations and thousands of government lawsuits alleging racial discrimination, resulting in billions of dollars in fines. Doing away with it would engender fierce opposition from Democrats.

As The Russia Hoax Begins To Unravel, The Gaslighting Begins The media has started backing away from the Russia collusion hoax. Many seem to know a reckoning is coming. by Adam Mill

http://thefederalist.com/2019/02/14/russia-hoax-begins-unravel-gaslighting-begins/

In episode 171 of “Seinfeld,” George Costanza makes up a story about having a house in the Hamptons in order to avoid attending an event with his dead fiancée’s parents, the Rosses. He soon learns they know of his deception but the Rosses nevertheless accept an invitation to the fictitious house.

George picks them up and begins driving towards a house that doesn’t exist. Both the Rosses and George maintain the pretense until George drives to the end of island past the last house in the Hamptons. George silently pleads for the Rosses to put an end to the charade. The lie’s momentum took on a life of its own as the players all continued acting their parts long after the truth was known.

The episode comes to mind as the media has started backing away from the Russia collusion hoax. Like Costanza, many of the media perpetrators seem to know a reckoning is coming. Politico warned Trump haters, “Prepare for disappointment.” Other examples of expectation managing can be found, such as here, here, here, and here. Mueller’s longtime top deputy at the FBI recently warned, “A public narrative has built an expectation that the special counsel will explain his conclusions, but I think that expectation may be seriously misplaced.”

Most recently, the Senate Judiciary Committee announced that after almost two years of investigation, it has uncovered no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Attorneys assigned to the Mueller team have quietly begun to slip away before the outcome of the investigation is made public (here, here, and here).

Andrew McCabe Admits Top NatSec Officials Plotted Coup Against Trump By Madeline Osburn

http://thefederalist.com/2019/02/14/andrew-mccabe-admits-top-natsec-officials-plotted-coup-trump/
After the James Comey firing, McCabe discussed removing Trump from office and began a counterintelligence investigation of Trump’s alleged ties to Russia.
February 14, 2019 By Madeline Osburn

Former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe publicly admitted that after the firing of James Comey, national security officials strategized on invoking the 25th amendment to remove President Trump from office.

“There were meetings at the Justice Department at which it was discussed whether the vice president and a majority of the cabinet could be brought together to remove the president of the United States under the 25th Amendment,” Scott Pelley said he learned in his “60 Minutes” interview with McCabe.

Pelley described the top bureaucrats as “counting noses,” and speculating on where various cabinet members might stand on the question of the president’s removal.

“These were the eight days from Comey’s firing to the point that Robert Mueller was appointed special counsel. And the highest levels of American law enforcement were trying to figure out what to do with the president,” Pelley said.

Schumer Defends Opposing Border Wall After Voting for Secure Fence Act of 2006 By Nicholas Ballasy

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/schumer-defends-opposing-border-wall-after-voting-for-secure-fence-act-of-2006/

“The lack of faithfulness in saying the border ought to be secured is appalling to me,” says Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.).

WASHINGTON – Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) defended his vote in favor of the Secure Fence Act of 2006 and his opposition to President Trump’s proposed wall for open areas along the border.

In addition to Schumer, Democrats including former Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Joe Biden (D-Del.) voted for the Secure Fence Act but the fencing that the bill called for was not fully completed. Trump, who originally called for a concrete wall that was blocked by Congress, says his current border security plan would install “see through” steel barriers at open portions of the border that currently lack fencing. According to the Border Patrol, drug smugglers and human traffickers have cut more than 1,700 holes in the fencing along the border in San Diego since 2015.

PJM asked Schumer, “You voted for the Secure Fence Act in 2006. Will you support additional barriers on the border?” The Democratic leader replied, “No wall – didn’t have it then and doesn’t have it now.”

This Detroit Imam and Rep. Omar are Using the Same Anti-Semitic Stereotypes Daniel Greenfield

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/272870/detroit-imam-and-rep-omar-are-using-same-anti-daniel-greenfield

It’s not about Israel. That’s just an excuse.

If you want to really understand where Rep. Omar is coming from, enjoy a few minutes of anti-Semitic ravings from this Detroit Imam.

On January 27, 2019, an antisemitic lecture by Michigan-based Shi’ite Imam Bassem Al-Sheraa was uploaded to the YouTube channel of the Al-Zahraa Islamic Center, which is in Detroit.

That means stuff like this.

Following the [Babylonian] captivity, when Nebuchadnezzar exiled them and destroyed the Temple, the Jews said: ‘Money and women are our most powerful weapons.’…

“So they would amass gold and money, and they would spread usury. Usury constitutes a peculiar Jewish philosophy… Even in the modern world, global banks are based on the culture of usury, which is a Jewish concept.

As Rep. Omar would say, it’s all about the benjamins.

These are commonplace beliefs within the Muslim sphere. And also the leftist sphere.

“What is the worldly religion of the Jew? Huckstering. What is his worldly God? Money. Money is the jealous god of Israel, in the face of which no other god may exist… The god of the Jews has become secularized and has become the god of the world.” Karl Marx

Poll: ‘Medicare for All’ Support Craters When Voters Told It Eliminates Private Market By Jack Crowe

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/poll-medicare-for-all-support-craters-when-voters-told-it-eliminates-private-market/

When self-described supporters of a Medicare-for-all health-care system were told that the policy would eliminate the private insurance market entirely, more than half of them rescinded their support, according to a Politico/Morning Consult poll released Wednesday.

Of the 50 percent of total respondents who said they supported a generic Medicare-for-all proposal, 51 percent rescinded their support when answering a subsequent question that included a definition of the policy as eliminating the private insurance market, with 22 percent retreating completely to “don’t support” while another 29 percent reverted to “don’t know.” Previous polls measured support for a generic “Medicare for All” proposal but did not define the policy.

The poll, which surveyed 1,991 voters from February 7-10, found that net support for a generic “Medicare for All” plan also fell 15 percentage points since January 19. The decrease was more significant among Republicans at 21 percentage points, but the policy’s popularity also suffered an 11 percent net decrease among Democrats.