Month: August 2018

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Report: Trump eager to strip more people’s security clearances

Eager, but probably not so eager that he’ll nuke all of them at once. Gotta save those revocations for rainy-day news cycles.

I doubted that Trump had held off on Brennan’s nuking until he needed it to distract from the Omarosa news for the simple reason that there really isn’t much “Omarosa news.” All of her recordings are duds. Somehow this person spent months inside the Trump White House recording people secretly and got nothing truly scandalous on tape. (Which may be the real Omarosa “scandal.”) If you believe WaPo, though, it’s true. Trump and his team have been ready to revoke Brennan’s clearance for awhile; this week, with his former apprentice’s book in the news, they finally found an opportune moment.

Inside the West Wing, Trump is eager to move against others on the security clearance review list and could act soon, according to the White House officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

Trump believes he has emerged looking strong and decisive in his escalating feud with Brennan, the aides said, adding that he shows a visceral disdain for the former CIA director when he sees him on TV…

White House aides confirmed that Trump made his decision weeks ago about Brennan, who serves as an NBC News contributor. Senior advisers, including Sanders, recommended to the president that they announce the action Wednesday amid an onslaught of news coverage from former Trump aide Omarosa Manigault Newman’s new book, which accuses Trump of having made racist remarks, the aides said…

Although advisers cautioned the president that some people on the list — including Comey and McCabe — had already lost their security clearances when they were fired, Trump insisted that they be included anyway, the senior officials said.

You would think they’d want to make this look like something more sophisticated than a pure enemies list, just in case Brennan sues and Trump gets an unfavorable judge. That would mean omitting Comey and McCabe since they have no clearances to begin with and leaving off Michael Hayden, who’s been out of government for nearly 10 years. POTUS would have been better off not announcing a “list” at all, in fact, and instead just announcing revocations piecemeal if and when he decides to do them. That would have made his case against Brennan somewhat stronger: Although everyone would have understood it as politically motivated, he could at least have gone into court and argued that Brennan’s own particular professional deficiencies required extraordinary action. He lied to Congress! He doesn’t deserve a clearance.

But instead POTUS went the enemies list route. It reminds me of his progression on the travel ban, which began with a call during the campaign to bar all Muslims from entering the U.S., was eventually refined for legal purposes to focus on a few particular Muslim countries, then was further refined to include a few non-Muslim countries so that the DOJ could argue in court that the policy wasn’t motivated by religious discrimination. That turned out well for him ultimately but not before a bunch of setbacks in lower courts. Surely he’d win in SCOTUS (if not in the Ninth Circuit) on his power to revoke security clearances willy nilly too, no?

Maybe not, argues David French. It’s true that the president has massive power over national security and that courts typically will defer to him, but not as an absolute rule. He has massive power over the military too but if he tried to bar Muslims from enlisting he’d get nuked on Equal Protection grounds. Brennan’s case is interesting because it’s such a clear case of the president penalizing someone, however mildly, for his political viewpoint. Normally viewpoint discrimination is an absolute no-no under the First Amendment. But since a security clearance is a privilege, not a right, and since POTUS’s natsec power is so enormous, would the Supreme Court really step in to stop him?

Generations of precedent suggest that the president does not possess entirely unreviewable authority over the substance of security-clearance determinations. Though he does enjoy broad discretion, it’s clearly bounded by limits, even if they haven’t yet been fully defined by the courts. One of those limits should be that presidents cannot dispense or revoke the security clearances of private citizens (such as contractors or former government employees) in retaliation for the exercise of constitutionally protected political expression, short of evidence of disloyalty to the United States, instability, or vulnerability to improper influence. A security clearance is not a reward for good political behavior, and treating it as such has negative consequences for American national security. Does anyone doubt that John Brennan would still have his security clearance if his Twitter comments were just as frothy and erratic, but were instead aimed at the so-called witch hunt rather than the Trump administration?

One reason a court might give more thought to a lawsuit by Brennan than everyone expects is that Brennan’s not ultimately the target of the revocation policy. His career’s over already and he has a lucrative future raking in ResistanceBucks as an anti-Trump martyr a la Comey, McCabe, and Strzok. The real targets are randos who’ve worked in government, since departed for natsec jobs in the private sector, and now depend on their clearances for their livelihoods. If Trump can nuke Brennan’s clearance for criticizing him, he can nuke theirs. Should your qualification for a clearance by the U.S. government depend on your political opinions about one man? Should a tea partier with a clearance have had his revoked circa 2010 for criticizing Obama’s tax-and-spend policies? The president’s power to use state privileges to tamp down personal criticism of him would be on a judge’s mind. Which is not to say it’d be decisive.

A bunch of former natsec big-cheeses, among them David Petraeus and Robert Gates, signed a letter yesterday expressing solidarity with Brennan and warning about the so-called chilling effect on other natsec people by revoking his clearance. (“[T]his action is quite clearly a signal to other former and current officials.”) I said yesterday in the McRaven post that I don’t think Trump will care personally if members of the “deep state” start forfeiting their clearances or taking other forms of collective action to protest Brennan’s revocation, but there may come a point if they dig in where yanking clearances becomes more trouble to him politically than it’s worth. Congressional Republicans want to spend the fall talking about the economy, not this. Maybe he’ll end up holding off on any further revocations, trusting that Brennan’s example will encourage the rest of his enemies to keep quiet.

Or maybe not. Exit quotation:

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Facebook Bans Jewish-Australian Military Veteran Avi Yemini for ‘Hate Speech’

Avi Yemini, a Jewish-Australian IDF veteran, conservative political blogger and political candidate, has been banned from Facebook allegedly for publishing “hate speech.”

A popular Jewish-Australian IDF veteran, political blogger, and Australian state government candidate recently found his Facebook page banned, just 48 hours before the blacklisting of Infowars host Alex Jones. Yemini’s Facebook page boasted a follower count of approximately 175,000 but was suspended for “hate speech” according to a notification Yemini received from Facebook. Yemeni has been on the receiving end of death threats on Facebook himself based on his reporting.

Yemini appealed Facebook’s decision but was told that the page would not be taken off the blacklist. Some have accused Yemini of being banned from the platform for posting the phone number of an ABC News reporter, which they believed was doxing, but Yemini claims that the number he posted is publicly available on ABC News’ website.

Breitbart News spoke with Yemini who provided the following comment on the blacklisting of his page:

Banning my page is another example of Facebook’s political bias and is an attack on free speech. They are purging conservative pages. In this case, they are meddling in the Australian political system and therefore breaching a number of local laws.

I plan on suing them if they do not reinstate it immediately. By banning me, they are preventing me from reaching out to Australian Liberty Alliance voters, which is a form of voter suppression.

I believe I was banned because I am exposing the Islamization of Australia and how it is negatively impacting the country. Many other conservatives around the world have also been banned for speaking out about Islam.

They claim it was for ‘hate speech’ but when pressed couldn’t give me a specific post that breached any of ther terms and conditions.

Breitbart News reached out to Facebook for comment on the issue but received no response.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan_ or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com

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Washington Post Gives Nelson ‘Four Pinocchios’ for False Claim About Florida Election Hacking

The Washington Post gave Sen. Bill Nelson (D., Fla.) "Four Pinocchios," its highest level for a falsehood, for his claim that Florida’s elections systems are currently under siege by foreign entities and that Russia has access to voter rolls in Florida.

Nelson made comments to reporters before a campaign event and in an interview with the Tampa Bay Times on Aug. 8 about Russians hacking into Florida election systems and purging voters from rolls.

When asked by the Times’ Steve Bousquet if Nelson meant Russia was meddling in Florida’s systems in 2016 or "right now," Nelson responded "right now."

He further said Russian operatives "already penetrated certain counties in the state and they now have free rein to move about."

The Florida Democrat continued to speak about the issue at a campaign event on Tuesday.

"In June, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, a Republican, and the vice chair of the committee, a Democrat, Senator Burr and Senator Warner, came to Marco Rubio and me and said: ‘We have a problem in Florida, that the Russians are in the records. We think the two of you should warn the election apparatus of Florida.’ "

Nelson has not been able to back up his claims with evidence, however, and he appeared to backpedal slightly Wednesday on some of his more specific claims, saying instead it would be "foolish" to think Russians "are not continuing to do what they did in Florida in 2016."

The Post fact checker Salvador Rizzo noted top officials have questioned the basis for the senator’s claims.

The Department of Homeland Security, the top election official in Florida, and election officials in several of the most populous counties in the state have said they have no evidence that Russia has access to Florida election systems. Nelson said his information came from Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), the chairman and vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Neither senator has confirmed Nelson’s specific claim that Russia has access to Florida’s election system, though they have echoed his broader warning about the threat Russia poses to this year’s elections.

Nelson also has cited "classified" information. Although it’s possible that this information exists and proves his claim, it’s a tough proposition for The Fact Checker to accept, since the Department of Homeland Security has denied Nelson’s assertions, the FBI said as recently as Aug. 2 that there’s no sign of "efforts to specifically target election infrastructure," and U.S. officials probably would have shared this classified information in some form with the state of Florida, where election officials have contradicted Nelson’s claims.

Rizzo explained that while the Post doesn’t take issue with Nelson and Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.), in the July 2 letter, warning "Florida election officials to be on high alert for Russian cyber-intrusions," Nelson’s "specific and alarming claim[s]" are another story. He said there is not "a single speck of evidence" to back up the claim that "Russia currently has access to Florida’s election systems and could purge voters from the rolls."

In his letter to Burr, Florida’s top election official said the state asked DHS and the FBI whether Russia had access to Florida’s election systems and was told "they have no information that corroborates Senator Nelson’s statement." Burr replied that "any briefings or notifications about ongoing threats would, rightfully, come from those agencies," meaning DHS and the FBI. Reading between the lines, Burr seems to be contradicting Nelson’s claim.

[…]

Making matters worse, Nelson misquoted his own letter from July 2 several times (it made no mention of an ongoing breach) and inaccurately said Burr, Rubio and Warner reaffirmed his assertion that Russia has access to Florida voters’ records.

"Without minimizing the threat of Russian interference in this year’s elections, we give Nelson’s claim Four Pinocchios," the Post concluded.

Nelson is being challenged for his Senate seat by Gov. Rick Scott (R.), and most polls show Scott in the lead. The governor responded last week to Nelson’s claims by saying elections "are not something to try to scare people about."

"In our conversations with federal officials, and in public statements including from our supervisors of elections, so far, no one seems to know what Nelson is talking about," Scott said in a statement. "This cannot be swept under the rug. Bill Nelson must come clean and provide a thorough explanation. Elections are not something to try to scare people about."

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Double Standard: Dem Candidate Uses Wildly Racist Language To Insult Asian Opponent

A minor Republican primary battle in metro Detroit, Michigan, has exploded into the national consciousness after a white candidate called her Asian challenger a “ching-chong” and belittled her supporters as immigrants who didn’t belong in this country, raising serious questions about the re-emergence of racism, anti-immigrant sentiment and the dark underbelly of ethnic animosity in the era of Trump.

Wait, wait, did I say Republican? Sorry about that one; what I actually meant to say was Democrat.

Oh, and I said “white candidate” too, didn’t I? She was actually black. Can’t believe I spaced on that one, as well.

And when I said that it “exploded into the national consciousness” and is “raising serious questions about the re-emergence of racism, anti-immigrant sentiment and the dark underbelly of ethnic animosity in the era of Trump,” what I actually meant to say was “literally nothing happened and nobody outside of Michigan even gave the slightest of craps about it.” It’s just a minor Freudian slip, after all. Could have happened to anyone.

Yes, even though Michigan state Rep. Bettie Cook Scott is apparently one of the most openly racist elected officials since the days when Robert Byrd would ask the dry cleaners to use extra starch on his hood because the point seemed to droop if he got too close to the burning cross, the only non-local coverage this awful human being has gotten in the past few days consists of minor write-ups in The Washington Times and other papers of that ilk.

TRENDING: Fox News Breaks New Viewer Record, Swamps CNN’s Entire Brand

According to the Detroit Metro Times, Cook called opponent Rep. Stephanie Chang a “‘ching-chang’ and “the ching-chong” to multiple voters outside polling precincts during last Tuesday’s Democrat state Senate primary.

“She’s also said to have called one of Chang’s campaign volunteers an ‘immigrant,’ saying ‘you don’t belong here’ and ‘I want you out of my country.’”

Mephitic nativism: It’s not just for Republicans anymore. And in fact, it was never for Republicans. It was mostly for racist Democrats like Rep. Scott. But that whole movie Dinesh D’Souza just released about the racist history of the Democratic Party and liberalism is complete bunk, at least as far as the mainstream media is concerned. Right.

Do you think Bettie Cook Scott should resign?

Just to make this even more disgusting, one of the people who heard Rep. Scott’s rants involving Asian people was Chang’s husband.

“The various off-color remarks were heard by multiple people connected with Chang, including Chang’s husband, who spoke with Metro Times,” the paper reported. 

“Sean Gray says after overhearing Cook disparage Chang outside a precinct on the east side of Detroit, ‘I … asked her not to speak about my wife in that manner.”

After realizing Chang’s husband was in earshot, Cook apologized and said she didn’t mean  … sorry, no, my mistake; why do I keep on getting these things wrong? She told Gray his wife could go back to China, the dirty interloper.

“At that time she said to the voter that ‘these immigrants from China are coming over and taking our community from us,’” Gray told reporters.

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I mean, at least you can give her credit for not going telling him, “Is she from Japan? Vietnam? Korea? Whatever, they’re all the same anyway.” Right?

Oh wait, no, you can’t, because she actually ended up saying worse stuff. “Gray, who is black, says Scott then went on to call him a ‘fool’ for marrying Chang.” Scott also said that it “disgusts her seeing black people holding signs for these Asians and not supporting their own people.’”

It wasn’t just Chang’s husband, either. Kalaya Long, a volunteer with Voices of Women to Win, says she heard Scott telling another voter, “Thanks for voting for me, you don’t need to vote for that ching-chang.” She would later allegedly tell Chang’s campaign staff, “I called them ching-chongs. That’s what they are!”

“As an African-American woman, I’ve been called the N-word before in my life and you never forget it,” Long said. “Each time it’s shocking and appalling and disgusting, so when you hear someone that’s a minority and a woman using slurs against another minority that’s a woman, it’s just mind boggling and it just felt dirty.”

“These comments are offensive to all Asian-Americans,” Rep. Chang told the Metro Times. “It isn’t about me. It’s about an elected official disrespecting entire populations, whether they be Asian-American, immigrant, or residents of Sen. District 1 or (Cook’s) own current house district.”

At least Cook won’t be getting a promotion. Chang easily won the primary with 49 percent of the vote. Scott, meanwhile, couldn’t muster enough racial animosity to get beyond 11 percent, good for third place.

Now, where’s my point in all of this — other than Democrats can be (and often are) flagrant racists, and that the popular theory that African-Americans can’t be racist is very clearly wrong?

To demonstrate, I’m going to come up with a hypothetical minor Republican politician who serves on the city council in Pocatello, Idaho. We’re going to name that hypothetical minor Republican politician Joey Buttafuoco, because I think the intervening 25 or so years has made us forget just how giggle-worthy the name Joey Buttafuoco is and I think that’s wrong.

Councilman Buttafuoco isn’t a racist. However, he goes to Bob Evans with his family one Sunday morning and receives terrible service. He gives no tip. The waiter happens to be African-American and posts about it online. All of a sudden, Councilman Buttafuoco is one of the most hated men in America. His support for Donald Trump comes under scrutiny and Chris Hayes openly wonders if this is the kind of thing we’re going to see more of now that Donald Trump has ripped the curtain away from America’s ugly racism. Vox releases at least four videos impugning the councilman’s motives. John Oliver devotes 22-and-a-half minutes to the scandal. The original Joey Buttafuoco expresses outrage that Councilman Buttafuoco has besmirched his brand and changes his name to James Gunn.

Rep. Bettie Cook Scott will almost certainly keep her position and you will never hear this woman’s name again after next week. This is in spite of the fact that she affects the entire state of Michigan and not just the people of Pocatello.

At least Rep. Scott apologized, because at this point why the heck not? However, see if you can notice the subtext in the passage I’ve highlighted below, because it adds to the inherent hilarity of this entire dumpster nuclear test.

“I humbly apologize to Representative Chang, her husband, Mr. Gray, and to the broader Asian American community for those disparaging remarks,” Scott (or one of her PR flaks) wrote. “In the divisive age we find ourselves in, I should not contribute further to that divisiveness.“

“I have reached out to Representative Chang to meet with her so that I may apologize to her in person. I pray she and the Asian American community can find it in their hearts to forgive me.”

“In the divisive age we find ourselves in, I should not contribute further to that divisiveness.” If you read between the lines in even the most desultory manner, you should be able to parse that pretty easily: The only reason Rep. Bettie Cook Scott is a racist is because Donald Trump and conservatives made her that way! Brilliant!

In closing, I’d like to point out that this is all fun and games until someone like Bettie Cook Scott is contributing unsigned editorials to The New York Times. That someone is Sarah Jeong, who we’ve all mostly forgotten about in relatively short order in spite of the fact that she tweeted, inter alia, that white folk “are only fit to live underground like groveling goblins.”

If Rep. Scott was a bit savvier, she could have just told all of us conservatives getting hyped up about her racism that we didn’t get the “context,” the same way that nobody got the fact that Jeong wasn’t really talking about “white people” when she said racist stuff about “white people.” After all, “ching-chong” is, to paraphrase Vox’s Zack Beauchamp, “the expressive way anti-racists and minorities talk about Asians.”

If only Rep. Scott had a little more foresight, forget about state senator — she could have been Michigan’s next U.S. senator. Instead, she’s just going to have to settle for not having anything happen to her at all. And isn’t that the real tragedy?

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Colorado is going after Jack Phillips again, this time because he won’t bake a transgender cake

Colorado is going after Jack Phillips again, this time because he won’t bake a transgender cake
Just in case you thought Colorado would stop attacking religious freedom because the Supreme Court told it to: Nope.

Mere weeks after being smacked down by the U.S. Supreme Court for its oppression of Christian baker Jack Phillips, the state is coming after Phillips again. The first time it was because he wouldn’t bake a gay wedding cake. This time it’s because, in an obvious setup, someone demanded that he bake a cake celebrating transgenderism.

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Pentagon: China’s army ‘likely training for strikes’ against US targets

China has increased its military spending and capabilities in recent years and is probably conducting exercises designed to train the army for strikes against U.S. targets, according to a report from the Pentagon.

What are the details?

On Thursday, the Office of the Secretary of Defense released its annual report to Congress regarding military and security developments involving the People’s Republic of China. The assessment states:

“Over the last three years, the [People’s Liberation Army] has rapidly expanded its overwater bomber operating areas, gaining experience in critical maritime regions and likely training for strikes against U.S. and allied targets.”

The Defense Department also warned of China’s efforts to expand its air strike range in the region.

“The PLA may continue to extend its operations beyond the first island chain, demonstrating the capability to strike U.S. and allied forces and military bases in the western Pacific Ocean, including Guam,” according to the report.

China is also focusing more on military spending, the report said. Currently, the country dedicates an estimated $190 billion to its annual defense budget, which is roughly a third of what the U.S. spends. DOD officials expect China to increase its defense budget to $240 billion over the next decade.

China is also rapidly expanding its space program “despite its public stance against the militarization of space,” according to the report.

Has China responded to the report’s claims?

An op-ed published in China’s state-run Global Times on Friday took issue with the Defense Department’s assessment. Titled, “U.S. report on China’s military reveals its guilty conscience,” the editorial states, “The U.S.’ technical analysis of the PLA capability is one thing, the Pentagon’s publication of the analysis to hype the ‘China threat’ is another.

“As big a power with by far the biggest defense budget in the world, the U.S. does not hold moral ground allowing it to hype the military threat of other nations. When the U.S. appears so bold to hype the threat, it proves Washington has totally lost its moral ground and conscience.”

But the piece also confirmed that China is working to expand its military prowess, saying “the PLA will surely develop its air force with long-range strike capability,” and “China is developing its strategic nuclear capability.”

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Medical investigator confirms remains found at NM compound belong to missing Georgia toddler

The decomposed child remains discovered at the New Mexico compound last week have been identified as belonging to the toddler who went missing from Jonesboro, Georgia, last year.

“The Office of the Medical Investigator has positively identified the remains found earlier this month at the compound near Amalia, N.M., in northern Taos County as belonging to Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj,” according to the Taos County Sheriff’s Office.

Investigators discovered the child’s remains wrapped in a sheet inside a tunnel on the remote property last week, on what would have been the boy’s fourth birthday. Abdhul-Ghani’s mother, Hakima Ramzi, last saw her son in December.

On Dec. 1, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, the child’s father, told Ramzi he was taking the toddler to the park but he never returned with the boy.

Two weeks ago, authorities arrested Siraj Ibn Wahhaj and four other adults, during a raid at the Amalia compound near the Colorado border. Eleven children, ages 1 to 15, were found starving and living in squalid conditions. Authorities also say they found evidence that the children housed there were being trained to commit mass murders at schools.

How did the boy die?

The cause of death has not yet been determined, according to the OMI at The University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center.

“There is no update at this time on cause or manner of death. The Taos County Sheriff’s Office is the lead agency in this case and questions regarding the investigation should be directed to the sheriff’s office,” Alex Sanchez, public information officer at UNMHSC, said in a release.

“Our thoughts and prayers go to Wahhaj’s family. We certainly understand the heartbreak this news will cause and want to stress our commitment to investigating this death to serve the living. The condition of the body made identification difficult, and investigators had to use several means to finally make a positive identification,” the release said.

What did the boy’s mother say?

M. Khurram Baig, the lawyer representing Abdul-Ghani’s mother, issued a written statement to TheBlaze in response to the identification of her son’s body.

Ms. Ramzi is grateful for the efforts of law enforcement and the medical examiner’s office in providing her with some sense of closure in this matter.

Her attention will now turn toward giving her son a proper burial in accordance with Islamic traditions.

If called upon by law enforcement to assist in their investigation into how Abdul-Ghani passed away, she is prepared to cooperate

What else?

Authorities charged the five adults with 11 separate accounts of child abuse, among other charges. Some of the rescued children, who are now in foster care, had alerted investigators that Abdhul-Ghani had died earlier this year at the compound.

You can read more about the case here.

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WATCH: 100-Year-Old WWII Vet Gets Special Letter From The White House

Isaac "Ike" Fabela is a member of The Greatest Generation. And now a member of an even more exclusive club.
The Michigan native was born in 1918 and served in World War II from 1944 to 1946. He nearly saw action during D-Day — he was taken off a boat bound for Normandy on June 6, 1944, his 26th birthday, one of his eight daughters, Lolie, told Fox News.

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Federal Judge Flips Trump Order, Reinstates Obama’s ‘Waters Of The United States’ Rule

Pen and Phone Obama ‘governed’ largely unconstitutionally, by rule that violated the Constitution. Trump tries to correct it and he gets stopped by activist federal judges.

Via Daily Caller:

A federal judge in South Carolina issued an injunction against the Trump administration Thursday, lifting a stay on an Obama-era rule that expanded federal authority under the Clean Water Act.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized the “waters of the U.S.” (WOTUS) rule in 2015, giving the agency the authority to regulate seasonal and relatively insignificant bodies of water as “navigable waters” under the Clean Water Act. President Donald Trump issued an executive order in February 2017 to review and rewrite the WOTUS rule to constrict its application “consistent with the opinion of Justice Antonin Scalia in Rapanos v. United States.”

Former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt followed up on Trump’s executive order in January, beginning the review process and staying the WOTUS rule until 2020. Thursday’s injunction lifts Pruitt’s order to stay the rule in 26 states, or every state in which a district judge has not already ordered the rule stayed, E&E News reports.

Keep reading…

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GOP Buys Cuomo One-Way Ticket To Canada After US Greatness Comment

Take off, eh. Update to this story.

Via Tristate:

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s political opponents on the right and left seized Thursday on his comment that America “was never that great,” with Republicans buying him a bus ticket to Canada and intra-party rival Cynthia Nixon accusing him of trying and failing to sound like a progressive.

The Democratic governor’s allies, meanwhile, rallied around Cuomo, saying his comment was merely an acknowledgement of the country’s history of racism, sexism and intolerance.

The remark was made Wednesday at a bill signing in Manhattan as the two-term governor was criticizing Republican President Donald Trump and his “Make America Great Again” slogan.

“We’re not going to make America great again – it was never that great” said Cuomo, who is running for a third term this November. “We have not reached greatness. We will reach greatness when every American is fully engaged.”

Cuomo’s staff later said that Cuomo does in fact think America is great, but that he was arguing the country must look forward to greater equality, not backward to a time of less opportunity for many Americans.

The explanation did little to stanch the flow of enthusiastic outrage from his critics.

“No matter what the governor’s radical leftist advisers want him to say, America was, is, and always will be great,” said state Senate leader John Flanagan, R-Long Island.

The state Republican Party bought Cuomo a $55 one-way ticket to Montreal – valid only for travel on Friday. Late Wednesday night, Trump himself tweeted that Cuomo was having a “total meltdown!”

Cuomo’s spokesman declined to comment when asked whether the governor’s remarks were a part of the prepared speech or an addition.

Nixon, the liberal activist and former “Sex and the City” star, said Cuomo’s remarks were an attempt to connect with his party’s liberal base – one that fell flat. Her campaign joked that Cuomo “makes America cringe again.”

Keep reading…

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