53percenter's Blog

Just when it seems impossible for the mainstream media to embarrass itself any further, CNN jumps into action.

The network that treated the release of American Army deserter Bowe Bergdahl in a swap for five Taliban leaders like it was a national holiday when former President Barack Obama was in the White House did its best this week to smear what should have been a truly joyful moment — the return of American hostages from North Korea — with snide attacks on President Donald Trump.

But Americans viewing the disgraceful scene weren’t fooled at all.

For the men who were freed, there was no question about their feelings. They summed it up in a hand-written note they gave to Vice President Mike Pence.

CBS News Margaret Brennan managed to post a picture of the note to Twitter:

The power of those words sums up a moment of pure bliss. But for the CNN “journalists” it was a different story entirely.

Filling the time on air before Trump greeted the arrival of the freed hostages at the Joint Base Andrews military facility in Maryland, CNN journalist John Vause asked the network’s senior White House correspondent Jeff Zeleny if maybe the hostages’ freedom was serving as a distraction for Trump from the troubles that Democrats are obsessing over.

What does the freedom of three innocent Americans matter to CNN when there’s Russia and Stormy Daniels to blather about?

“The president is there,” Vause said. “He knows that this is a feel-good moment and there is some reporting out there that maybe, you know, Donald Trump believes that this success in the foreign policy field might be enough, you know, to distract attention away from the Robert Mueller investigation into Russia, the criminal investigation of his own personal attorney, you know, the Stormy Daniels affair …”

Zeleny, of course, agreed.

“There is no question that all of these weighty matters here are indeed giving the president something to focus on. The Mueller investigation is indeed alive and well, but the White House officials and supporters of the President actually hope he can focus on something substantive like the release of these three Americans.”

Naturally, CNN had a Clinton administration talking head around to weigh in, too.

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Philip Yun, an adviser on East Asian and Pacific affairs in the State Department from 1994 to 2001 and a regular contributor to the Clinton News Network, was essentially sneering at the events.

“Well, this is Donald Trump as a TV — TV moment for him. If nothing else he knows how to get publicity, how to a bleed a lot of drama. The lead up to this has been teasers through Twitter. So, this is very consistent with what he does and as was said earlier this is pretty unusual.”

Check it out here:

 

A TV moment? Trump knows how to “bleed a lot of drama”? Considering that the last American to be freed from North Korea – Otto Warmbier — was comatose, brain-damaged and on the brink of death, the safe return of these three American hostages in good health should have been an event treated as joyfully as the freed prisoners’ “we were like men who dreamed” note.

And considering that Obama staged a full-blown Rose Garden ceremony in 2014 with the parents of a man who was captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan only after deserting his fellow soldiers in the face of the enemy, Trump’s decision to meet three innocent men being returned at an airport at 2:30 a.m. seems downright restrained.

Social media users pounced on the disrespect.

#FakeNews CNN ABC MSNBC relentlessly criticize Trump for welcoming hostages from North Korea in televised ceremony.

Interesting we heard none of those nasty comments when Obama had Rose Garden ceremony with Bergdahl parents.#MAGA#PatriotsFight#resist the #resistance pic.twitter.com/O73i6AWOS0

— Տᗩᑎᗪᖇᗩ ن (@SandraTXAS) May 12, 2018

If they hadn’t televised it, the same #FakeNews hacks would be criticizing President Trump for ignoring the hostages’ return.

— Covfefe Old Biddy (@WhipperSnacker) May 12, 2018

When the “POTUS who cannot be named” was in Hawaii on vac and the American journalist was killed, (we all remember how the murder was done) I didn’t hear a lot of criticism when he jumped off his golf cart, said a few words got back on, and started giggling with his friend again.

— Diane 1956 ~ ~ (@dediane1956) May 12, 2018

Who cares was MSNBC CBS CNN on the any other fake news outlets think we the American people the United States of America appreciate our president welcome home Three prisoners even a 3 in the morning he’s on the job thank you mr. President

— steve@takingbackusa (@Stakingbackusa) May 12, 2018

That last one sums it up.

Ensuring the safety of Americans in a dangerous world is the No. 1 job of the presidency going back to George Washington.

The Founders gave Congress and the judiciary power over the country’s domestic affairs, but when it comes to foreign policy, the president runs the show.

And even Trump critics have to see that Trump is accomplishing more on the job — within 15 months of active presidential leadership — than the Obama administration did in its eight years of flaccid appeasement.

CNN can keep embarrassing itself as it did Thursday morning, but more and more Americans aren’t fooled at all.

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A new manual from the Bureau of Prisons released Friday rolled back rules that catered to transgendered inmates, according to USA Today.

The rules had been created while former President Barack Obama was on his way out the door at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., posted just two days before he left office.

That manual stated that the Bureau of Prisons should “recommend housing by gender identity when appropriate.”

Under the new rules, the bureau “will use biological sex as the initial determination for designation.”

However, the manual also states that they “will consider the health and safety of the transgender inmate, exploring appropriate options available to assist with mitigating risk to the transgender offender, to include but not limited to cell and/or unit assignments, application of management variables, programming missions of the facility, etc.”

“The (Transgender Executive Council) will consider factors specific to the transgender inmate, such as behavioral history, overall demeanor, and likely interactions with other inmates; and will consider whether placement would threaten the management and security of the institution and/or pose a risk to other inmates in the institution (e.g., considering inmates with histories of trauma, privacy concerns, etc.),” the manual continues.

“The designation to a facility of the inmate’s identified gender would be appropriate only in rare cases after consideration of all of the above factors and where there has been significant progress towards transition as demonstrated by medical and mental health history.”

The changed rules, according to the document, are “consistent with maintaining security and good order in Federal prisons.”

There were signs of other changes that might come, as well.

In a section on hormone therapy, the word “necessary” was added to “other medical treatment” in passages like “(h)ormone or other necessary medical treatment may be provided after an individualized assessment of the requested inmate by institution medical staff.”

The change might be a signal that certain treatments made possible by taxpayer dollars may no longer be available to transgender prisoners.

Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Nancy Ayers said that they balanced the “safety needs of transgender inmates as well as other inmates, including those with histories of trauma and privacy concerns, on a case-by-case basis.”

The move comes as four female inmates in Texas are suing the Department of Justice over the Obama-era regulations, claiming that the transgender prison housing rules “creates a situation that incessantly violates the privacy of female inmates; endangers the physical and mental health of the female Plaintiffs and others, including prison staff; (and) increases the potential for rape.”

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According to the Dallas Morning News, that lawsuit came after Peter Kevin Langan, the commander of the white supremacist Aryan Republican Army, was able to win transfer to Fort Worth’s Federal Medical Center, Carswell, a female-only prison. Langan has gone by “Donna” for the past 20 years; he’s currently serving a life sentence.

Langan is apparently one of only a small number of prisoners who have thus far won a transfer, with only 472 transgender men and women in federal lockup out of 180,000 total prisoners. That means the population is small enough to handle this on a case-by-case basis.

Overarching rules were ripe for abuse. Chalk this one up as a victory for common sense.

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The Show Me State may have just shown Planned Parenthood the door, at least when it comes to state funding.

Republican House Budget Committee Chairman Scott Fitzpatrick said the state’s new budget will contain “no loophole” that would allow Planned Parenthood to retain funding, The Associated Press reported.

The Republican-led legislature previously tried to stop taxpayer money from going to the organization by refusing federal dollars that required Planned Parenthood to be reimbursed if low-income Missourians used the organization for women’s services like birth control or cancer screenings.

However, the organization continued to be reimbursed with state money. That’ll change with the latest state spending plan.

On Thursday, Fitzpatrick said that “there should be no loophole that would allow abortion providers to have access” to taxpayer dollars.

According to the Kansas City Star, the language was introduced via a budget amendment by Rep. Robert Ross, who said he “simply do not want our tax dollars being spent providing for abortions, and that’s what I seek to do with this amendment.”

This isn’t the first time the legislature took a strong stand for life, either. In April, they also voted to ban abortions after 20 weeks. It didn’t take long for everyone on the left to lose their connection to reality.

“The legislature has just made a seriously politically motivated attempt to damage and discriminate against those patients,” said Missouri Planned Parenthood policy director M’Evie Mead.

Mead, using the typical Planned Parenthood tear-jerking language, noted that Missouri’s decision “could absolutely mean that the patients who are seeking care for the programs at Planned Parenthood won’t be able to get that care and that Planned Parenthood won’t be able to be reimbursed for that care.”

“Of course Planned Parenthood’s doors are going to stay open and we’re going to try to ensure that all those patients get access to care,” she added. “But the legislature has just made a seriously politically motivated attempt to damage and discriminate against those patients.”

Right. If America has truly gotten to the point where America’s top abortion mill is also the only place low-income women seeking cancer screenings or birth control can go to get care, we’ve truly come to an awful place. Somehow, I don’t think that’s the case.

Next to the handmaids, however, Planned Parenthood looked almost sensible.

Handmaids, you say? Yes, a group of protesters decided it was high time to dress up as handmaids from the Margaret Atwood novel and/or liberal Hulu favorite “The Handmaid’s Tale,” which is about women being forced into sexual servitude in a future dystopia. Here’s them facing off with a protester with a Gadsen flag.

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Robert Fairchild, 23, Council Bluffs, originally from Missouri Valley, got in an argument with women dressed as characters from “The Handmaid’s Tale” who were protesting VP Pence’s anti-abortion politics. Both argued. Neither backed down. pic.twitter.com/VP2k5daWxi

— Aaron Sanderford (@asanderford) March 6, 2018

Of course, the protesters were backed up by Mead and Planned Parenthood.

“And that’s what ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ is all about — what happens when a government takes control over a certain segment of women’s lives and tries to run them for their own purposes,” Mead said.

Except they’re not taking “control over a certain segment of women’s lives.” They’re just stopping a gleefully pro-abortion organization from receiving funding from the state government when the populace seems to disagree with them.

Liberal blog Crooks & Liars, meanwhile, named their article about the Missouri legislature’s bill “Handmaid Tales: Missouri Leading America Back To Reproductive Slavery.”

Yes, “reproductive slavery” is not having taxpayer money go to an abortion mill. That’s really where the left is in 2018. Nice work.

Thankfully, the Missouri legislature isn’t in the hands of the likes of Mead, or anyone who believes abortion providers should be able to use moral blackmail to force citizens who don’t agree with their mission to fund their activities.

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During the campaign, Donald Trump promised voters that “(w)e’re going to win so much. You’re going to get tired of winning. you’re going to say, ‘Please Mr. President, I have a headache. Please, don’t win so much. This is getting terrible.’ And I’m going to say, ‘No, we have to make America great again.’ You’re gonna say, ‘Please.’ I said, ‘Nope, nope. We’re gonna keep winning.’”

He isn’t sick of winning yet, and I don’t sense any sickness from his supporters, either. The media, however, is pretty sick of it.

That’s at least the takeaway from this week, when the media decided to opt out of the news that the five most wanted Islamic State officials have been captured after a mission in Iraq and 40 other leaders with the terror group were killed in an airstrike.

Yet, what did the media say? Not very much, according to Newsbusters.

There was one morning show that addressed the arrests: “CBS This Morning.”

“Five senior ISIS leaders have been captured in a joint mission involving Iraqi and U.S. backed Syrian-backed forces,” Gayle King’s report Friday stated. “Their confessions were broadcast on Iraqi state television.”

That’s pretty big news, at least from where I’m sitting. Yet, even CBS devoted far more time (two minutes and 27 seconds) to reports that President Donald Trump yelled at DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen so ferociously that she almost quit. Only 43 seconds was spent on the Islamic State group arrests.

At least CBS covered it. That can’t be said for “Good Morning America” on ABC or “Today” on NBC.

Both shows skipped out on covering the Iraq raid, but covered the Nielsen story. On ABC, one minute and four seconds were given over to speculation about the president’s alleged tirade. It only rated 37 seconds on NBC.

Yet, this was — in the parlance of our president — yuge. Big-league, even. According to The New York Times, who broke the story, it involved a three-month operation tracking the five leaders, who had gone underground in Syria and Turkey.

“Two Iraqi intelligence officials said those captured included four Iraqis and one Syrian whose responsibilities included governing the Islamic State’s territory around Deir al-Zour, Syria, directing internal security and running the administrative body that oversees religious rulings,” The Times reported.

“Iraq’s external intelligence agency published a statement confirming the arrests, but did not mention any details of the role played by the Americans or the Turks. The two Iraqi intelligence officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details that had not been made public.”

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It was kind of sadly predictable, however, that even The Times — the people who broke the story, mind you — would have a longer piece on the Nielsen kerfuffle.

Look, I totally understand if you’re a legacy media outlet and you want to report stories on the squabbles in the Trump administration. It makes for juicy reading/viewing. However, if you want to earn your outrage whenever the president decides to call you “fake news,” you probably should be reporting the actual news — like a major victory in the war on terror — as opposed to just the gossip.

I guess they must be tired of winning.

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