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A band of exasperated Republicans — including 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney, a handful of veteran consultants and members of the conservative intelligentsia — is actively plotting to draft an independent presidential candidate who could keep Donald Trump from the White House. Those involved concede that an independent campaign at this late stage is probably futile, and they think they have only a couple of weeks to launch a credible bid. But these Republicans — including commentators William Kristol and Erick Erickson and strategists Mike Murphy, Stuart Stevens and Rick Wilson — are so repulsed by the prospect of Trump...

Greg Nash Mitt Romney, the GOP’s 2012 nominee, is among those courting prospects for a possible third-party bid to keep Donald Trump from the White House, according to a Washington Post report . Among those prospects are Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), one of Trump’s most vocal Republican critics, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who suspended his presidential campaign in early May. Kasich’s chief strategist John Weaver said the governor isn’t interested in running an an independent. A Sasse spokesman declined to comment. But it’s not looking to good for a late in the game third-party bid, according to the...

A Republican congressman has introduced legislation that would block the District of Columbia government from spending its local tax dollars without approval by Congress. Rep. Mark Meadows, a North Carolina Republican who is chairman of the subcommittee on government operations, introduced the bill Thursday, according to a copy of the legislation. It seeks to clarify the requirement that the District submit its local budget to Congress, as it has during more than 40 years of self-rule. …

As almost everyone is aware by now, The Washington Post –via recorded commentary from Bob Woodward– officially announced their intents to assign 20 reporters to take down the threat to their preferred candidate, Hillary Clinton. Before he died Andrew Breitbart spoke of this time of inevitable conflict. The ultimate battle between a center-right nation and the Cultural Marxists occupying the left-wing “Democrat Media Complex”. We might not have known the timing, but we all knew this war was coming. It’s here.

Sen. Lindsey Graham paused for five full seconds and stumbled over his words pondering the question: When is the last time he split with fellow Republican Sen. John McCain on a major issue? “I don’t know, let me think about it,” Graham (S.C.) finally said of his closest Senate friend. “There have been several. I just can’t recall right now, right off the top of my head.” Yet that’s what has happened in the wake of Donald Trump’s ascendancy to presumptive Republican nominee for president. In the Republican civil war over Trump, this is perhaps the most glaring example of...

The main gate at Joint Base Andrews is currently on lockdown after a "security incident" reported at the Visitor Control Center, JBA said. A federal official said a woman walked onto the base and claimed to have an explosive device.

U.S. Border Patrol officials are opening up the Texas border to let 4,000 Cubans in, taking about an hour to interview them and check their criminal background, before letting them enter the United States on their own where most will stay for life. Aware that Panama had airlifted nearly 250 of 4,000 Cubans to the Mexican border near El Paso, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency said it stands ready to process the new immigrants with speed, in fact faster it takes many Americans to get a drivers license or buy a gun.

Mr. Trump Goes To Washington… Posted on May 12, 2016 by sundance Lets be politically and intellectually honest. At the scheduled meeting today between Donald Trump and Paul Ryan, Speaker Ryan needs Trump more than Nominee Trump needs Ryan.A strong argument can be made Ryan set up last weeks media construct, including the call to Jake Tapper requesting a CNN interview, to retain his own relevance.Against a growing electoral insurgency openly dismissing the Omnibus version of conservatism represented by Ryans’ inept and ineffective and self-centered leadership, Lyin’ Ryan could soon to be seated at the pouty table if he doesn’t...

NEW YORK CITY, New York — Ahead of presumptive 2016 GOP presidential nominee billionaire Donald Trump’s meeting with House Speaker Paul Ryan on Thursday in Washington, D.C. on Capitol Hill, the real estate magnate told Breitbart News that he looks forward to the meetings and expects great things will come of them.

Management of the New York City area’s three major airports is fed up with long lines at security check points, and they have given the Transportation Security Administration an ultimatum: Either shorten the lines or we’ll find someone else to do it. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, tasked with running John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark airports, is threatening to privatize the process of screening passengers before boarding their flight, according to a document sent from the Port Authority to TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger. “We can no longer tolerate the continuing inadequacy of the TSA passenger...

The Washington Post has built a sizable army of reporters to dig into every facet of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's life under orders of new owner Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder and Democratic Party donor. Post Associate Editor Bob Woodward revealed Wednesday that the Post has assigned 20 staffers to Trump. In addition the paper plans a book. "There's a lot we don't know," he told the National Association of Realtors convention in Washington. "We have 20 people working on Trump, we're going to do a book, we're doing articles about every phase of his life," he added.

Americans, collectively, are not as angry as watching cable TV would lead you to believe. But many poorer, less-educated folks who have been left behind in the 21st century—the ones who have seen their wages stagnate, their opportunities for upward mobility disappear and their life expectancies shorten—are looking to disrupt a status quo that has not worked for them. That’s what Sanders and Trump are both promising to do. And that’s the main reason why Bernie beat Hillary Clinton in yesterday’s West Virginia Democratic primary by 15.4 points. He carried every single county in the Mountaineer State, which by every...

Donald Trump will come to Washington on Thursday for a series of meetings with Republican congressional leaders. The goal, all involved say, is to hasten the process of unifying a fractured party. The reality is that, nice words to the contrary, Trump and those party leaders are likely never to fully achieve that result.

the public pension debt for the 50 states and the District of Columbia jumped 84 percent in recent years, from $2.625 trillion in 2008 to $4.833 trillion in 2014. ... The highest pension debt/household is in Alaska, with an estimated $113,137 figure; Illinois and California are in the second and third highest rankings at more than $77,000 per household.” The lowest state pension debt per household is in Tennessee at $17,761. Illinois has the lowest “market funded ratio” (value of pension assets divided by market liability), at 23.3 percent. The other 49 U.S. states and Washington, D.C. have a market...

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy has signed up to serve as a delegate for presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump at this summer’s national convention in Cleveland. McCarthy’s move is notable in part because House Speaker Paul Ryan has said he is “not ready” to endorse Trump, even though he is the lone Republican remaining in the contest.

Washington (CNN)The Supreme Court is in the home stretch of an unexpected term, racing to issue opinions in more than 30 cases, many that were impacted by the sudden death of Justice Antonin Scalia. At the center of it all is Chief Justice John Roberts, facing perhaps one of the the greatest challenges of his 10-plus year tenure -- navigating a series of issues such as abortion access, health care, affirmative action and immigration with a court comprised of four liberal and four conservative justices. Early in his tenure, Roberts said that promoting unanimity and collegiality were a priority. He's...

From The Hill: President Obama can’t wait to take on Donald Trump. Obama has been largely sidelined in the presidential contest, a last-year officeholder with high approval ratings who has repeatedly shown he likes to spar with political foes.

Once again Donald Trump is frazzling the custodians of civil discourse....... But dismissing JFK’s assassination as a trivial subject is one mistake that Donald Trump does not make. His gambit is an old story in American culture. With his intuitive media personality, Trump is drawn, moth-like, to an eternal flame of American culture: the JFK story......... The issue facing the next president–and those who will vote for him or her– is not “Who killed JFK?” The issue in 2016 is “Who will kill JFK secrecy?” The Law::::::Within a year of taking the oath of office President Trump (or President Clinton)...

GREENSBORO — North Carolina’s two U.S. senators on Saturday called on Republicans to unite behind Donald Trump – but they had little to say about the presumptive GOP presidential nominee. Sen. Thom Tillis and Sen. Richard Burr spoke to the state Republican convention Saturday morning, offering pep talks for the coming campaigns. Tillis’ speech didn’t mention Trump by name, but he made his views clear on the Republican leaders who say they won’t support the nominee’s campaign. “Anybody who doesn’t support the Republican nominee ... is a RINO,” Tillis said, referring to the acronym “Republican In Name Only.”

The first gun range and gun store within the city limits of Washington, D.C. is scheduled to open within the next year. DC Gun Range and DC Guns and Ammo will be located under the same roof at a site on Queens Chapel Road in the city’s northeast quadrant. They will be a short distance from the National Arboretum in a neighborhood that features a number of restaurants and nightclubs. Currently, the city of more than 600,000, which has enacted some of the strictest gun control measures in the country, does not have a single gun store or public shooting...