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Next fight – President Donald Trump’s skinny budget. There was a media frenzy over the now-dead American Health Care Act and the supposed Russian ties of certain top Trump advisors, but the biggest news to come out of the White House since the inauguration was drowned out: the outline of Donald Trump’s first budget. Conservatives have been divided in the battle over how to repeal Obamacare, yet they can be unified on supporting a budget that slashes funding of over a dozen different departments. President Trump’s first budget is a major step toward reducing federal overreach, but the fact that...

The good news is no one can say President Trump didn’t try to persuade House Republicans that they should pass the American Health Care Act. He invited lawmakers to the White House, dispatched his key aides to Capitol Hill, worked the phones, cajoled, charmed, arm-twisted, threatened . . . He did everything short of actually attempting to understand why House Republicans didn’t want to vote for it. President Trump and Speaker Paul Ryan chose to cancel the vote on the AHCA late Friday afternoon. Earlier this week, the loudest argument from Trump was that if House Republicans didn’t pass the...

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Good Morning/Afternoon, MEGARushReadyForPostObamacareRepealDisscusionDITTOS From Biggirl!

We talked to "Matt" about all of it (he started as an unpaid protester, graduated to "Paid Protester" at the 2011 Take Back the Capitol event, and worked as an organizer for the Service Employees International Union) and he explained how a career in activism really works ...yes, there is absolutely some money floating around activism, that's inevitable in a capitalist society. But in the end, the whole "paid protester" thing is far more complicated than either side wants to admit ... kinda like every other political issue, now that we think about it.

Good Morning And Welcome To Sound Off Connecticut With Jim Vicevich!

If Israel just allowed the Palestinians to have a state of their own, there would be peace in the Middle East, right? That’s what you hear from UN ambassadors, European diplomats and most college professors. But what if I told you that Israel has already offered the Palestinians a state of their own – and not just once, but on five separate occasions? Don’t believe me? Let’s review the record. After the breakup of the Ottoman Empire following World War I, Britain took control of most of the Middle East, including the area that constitutes modern Israel. Seventeen years later,...

The detective story of our times is unspooling before us and the MacGuffin could affect all of our lives for years to come and the very nature of our republic. That mystery is "whodunit" in the great Trump Transition leak(s) scandal that actually pre- and post-dates the transition itself. Who unmasked Michael Flynn and -- so it seems now -- others and why did he, she or they do it? Who later leaked (selectively) President Trump's conversations with the leaders of Australia and Mexico? Is this the same person or are there several? More importantly, who is watching the watchers...

Representative Devin Nunes looked uneasy. Mr. Nunes, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, was struggling on Monday to elicit details from James Comey, the F.B.I. director, about his explosive revelation that the bureau is investigating whether Russia and the Trump administration colluded to sabotage Hillary Clinton’s presidential candidacy. That disclosure, Mr. Nunes said, had put “a big, gray cloud” over the White House. On Wednesday, Mr. Nunes tried to replace that cloud with a smoke screen. In a possible violation of the law, Mr. Nunes described intelligence reports that he said had suggested that American intelligence agencies incidentally intercepted...

It is unlikely that Martin Luther set out to shatter authority. Yet the Reformation, which started with the publication of his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517, set in motion a chain of events that fundamentally undermined the idea of authority itself. Luther demanded that the papacy respond to his criticisms of the Church’s moral failings. His actions did not simply call into question the moral authority of the Church. His defiant stand gave voice to a sentiment that would eventually provide legitimation for disobeying all forms of authority. Luther’s challenge to the papacy’s moral status converged with the ascendancy of secular...

Think Trump would boast about Russia’s Bolshoi Ballet performing at one of his “get out the vote” campaign rallies? Think the mainstream media might trumpet such an event as the Holy Grail, Golden Fleece and Smoking Gun of that ever-elusive “Russian collusion” with his campaign?Think Comey’s FBI might “look into it?” Especially in view of the following: “The Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) prohibits any foreign national from contributing, donating or spending funds in connection with any federal, state, or local election in the United States, either directly or indirectly. It is also unlawful to help foreign nationals violate that...

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — While pundits breathlessly reported this week that President Trump’s Gallup approval rating has plummeted to a historic low (dipping to 37 points), not all approval ratings are created equal. Because in American politics, geography is everything. Live in an urban, minority or college setting, and Donald J. Trump is underwater in the polls in a big way; he gets a frosty 29 percent approval rating in the cities, 35 percent approval in the urban suburbs, in the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal survey. But, live in the second ring of suburbs outside the cities, or the exurbs or...

Let's face it. This is not going to end soon and not going to end well for anyone. Congressman Devin Nunes, chairman of the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, admitted this week that he could not rule out the assertion by President Trump that Obama administration officials wiretapped or surveilled he and members of his presidential campaign. I was a guest on several radio shows in the wake of this statement where it was referred to as a "bombshell." I cautioned conservative hosts that there wasn't going to be a clear and definitive outcome to this ‘witch-hunt.'...

For strategic reasons, I have signed onto liberal newsletter eblasts, so that I can know what the enemy is doing in my state. After Speaker Paul Ryan pulled the American Health Care Act (ACHA), every Democratic lawmaker, candidate, and special interest group exulted in their victory: “Your calls made the difference!” “We did it!” “You saved health care.” Uh … no. Because Obamacare remains intact, healthcare remains in morbid free-fall. Doctors are still quitting the medical field, with premiums rising, health insurance exchanges failing, and hospitals closing. Democrats did themselves no favors in fighting against reforms. Obamacare is still an...

Economics: For those not in the know, this weekend marks the gala 60th anniversary of the formation of what eventually became the European Union. Celebrate while you can, because it might not make it to 61. The European Union will "celebrate" its 60th birthday officially on Saturday in a sad effort to make itself look still relevant. We don't mean to be snide, but it has precious little to celebrate. Starting small, the 1957 Treaty of Rome created what was then called the European Economic Community from just six countries. It should have stayed small. From those modest beginnings, it...

Fake News: If you wonder why so many of the juiciest anti-Trump stories turn out to be frauds these days, you need a lesson in economics. The insatiable demand for tales that embarrass the president is creating its own supply. Case in point is the most recent KittenFeed story. On Tuesday, the New York Observer ran an exclusive piece with the headline: "Trump Sics Lawyers on Teen for Making Silly Site Where Kittens Punch Him." It claimed that a 17-year-old girl in San Francisco had received two cease-and-desist letters from the Trump Organization. A multitude of other news sites, bloggers...

It’s fine for Democrats to be upset that Donald Trump schlonged Hillary Clinton, but the reality is that they spent the entirety of the Obama years getting their brains beaten in. When Obama first took office, they held the House and 60 seats in the Senate and controlled the majority of governorships and state legislatures. Now, the GOP has a large majority in the House, 52 seats in the Senate, and the majority of state legislatures and governorships.Democrats went from thinking they were on the verge of a permanent political ascendancy to the worst political bloodbath in American history. Put...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator and physician Rand Paul released the following statement after U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan pulled the American Health Care Act from a floor vote for the second day in a row: “I applaud House conservatives for keeping their word to the American people and standing up against Obamacare Lite,” said Dr. Paul. “I look forward to passing full repeal of Obamacare in the very near future.” Earlier this month, Dr. Paul introduced the Obamacare Repeal Act (S. 554), which is the same legislation, with an updated timeline, to repeal major components of Obamacare that...

Amid a growing frenzy in Congress over the postponed vote for the American Health Care Act is the looming threat against Speaker of the House Paul Ryan’s very livelihood. As the health care bill continues to sink, many are beginning to wonder if it is a sign that Ryan should not be at the helm in the House as well. President Trump was asked today during a brief press gaggle if he felt Speaker Ryan should remain in his position if the AHCA failed to pass. Willing to remain publicly loyal to Ryan for now, at least, Trump said “yes.”...