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Left-wing websites led former director's attempt to subvert WH authority Newly released emails reveal the machinations of former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Richard Cordray to appoint his own successor. The failed attempt to install Leandra English as acting director of the CFPB last year began after Cordray found the idea in two left-wing websites, which argued it was "illegal" for the president to appoint the director of an executive branch agency. Cause of Action Institute, a nonprofit oversight group, obtained internal emails through a Freedom of Information Act request between Cordray, English, and other CFPB officials during...

Universities that cry poor while entertaining themselves lavishly are finding it harder to keep up their public service facade, even in publications that would normally be sympathetic to them. "When Congress asked dozens of schools to report on their spending in 2016, for instance, Harvard declined to say exactly how much of its $37 billion endowment is paid to the people who manage it.," Neena Satija wrote in The Washington Monthly. "While most colleges did tell Congress what percentage of their annual endowment payout goes to financial aid, they generally didn't elaborate further--such as on the proportion of aid that’s...

During President Obama's second term in office, Secretary of State John Kerry, like his boss and other members of the same peapod (Samantha Power, Susan Rice, Joe Biden, Chuck Hagel, etc.), liked to warn Israel about such things as its isolation and alienation if it did not agree to Arab demands to return to its pre-'67 war, '49 armistice lines (they were never borders) which made it an over-sized ghetto, 9-15 miles wide at its waist, where most of its population and infrastructure are located. President George W. Bush commented that Texas had driveways larger than that. I don't know about driveways, but I also don't doubt...

A trial of four accused MS-13 gang members began on Thursday after a Boston judge ruled that President Trump referencing the gang during a national address did not unduly influence the jury, Reuters reported. U.S. District Judge Dennis Saylor on Wednesday denied a request by a lawyer for his client, a suspected leader of an MS-13 cell in Massachusetts, to delay the trial until March after Trump's criticism. During his State of the Union address to Congress on Tuesday, Trump condemned the "savage" gang and the "deadly loopholes" that he said allow members of the international gang to enter the...

(Screen Capture) (CNSNews.com) - The American Civil Liberties Union -- note the word "American" in its title -- complained Tuesday night about President Trump's repeated use of the word "America" in his State of the Union speech. In a written response to Trump's speech, Faiz Shakir, the ACLU's national political director, said: Tonight, President Trump said the word ‘America’ more than 80 times in his speech. Yet, after a divisive first year, we hear and feel how exclusionary that ‘America’ is, with policies that have harmed so many vulnerable American communities. The ACLU stands ready to protect these communities,...

The economy is booming, the tax reform package has spurred over 250 companies to dole out bonuses to some three million workers, more employee investments are coming, more jobs are projected to be created, and charitable donations are expected to increase from companies thanks to Trump’s tax bill. Apple’s repatriation of $250 billion, part of their $350 billion investments back into America over a five-year period is projected to create 20,000 jobs in the process. We've reached a new era, one of economic prosperity, which is what President Trump emphasized during the State of the Union Tuesday.President Trump spoke of...

With many of them clad in black, the Democrats who did show up to President Trump’s first State of the Union address Tuesday night were not happy about it. In fact, they seemed so focused on opposing everything he said they couldn’t even bring themselves to applaud things that are normally considered bipartisan.They set the tone for their behavior that evening right away, by refusing to stand to greet Trump and many even first lady Melania Trump.The resistance continued, with most Democrats also refusing to applaud:- job creation- higher wages- lower African American and Hispanic unemployment rates- bonuses for employees-...

They scowled as President Trump touted soaring jobs numbers, sat stone-faced when he honored veterans, and one even walked out after becoming triggered by a patriotic chant. Democrats at President Trump's first State of the Union, after a year of partisan rancor, showed they were in no mood to accept his call for bipartisanship. "Why are @TheDemocrats not applauding job growth, higher wages and the drop in Latino and African-American unemployment?" pollster Frank Luntz asked in a tweet. "I thought economic success is good for everyone regardless of party." Rep. Luis Gutierrez walked out after chants of "USA, USA!" erupted...

Rep. Joe Kennedy III addressed DACA recipients in Spanish during his response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address Tuesday night. Unfortunately for him, the liberal base may have found his attempts to be more offensive than they were honorable. People pointed out his lack of fluency and the obvious attempt to pander to immigrants. Multiple people noted that it could be “condescending” to assume that DACA recipients do not speak English and need to be addressed in Spanish. “News alert: dreamers speak more English than Spanish,” Father Jonathan Morris tweeted. “They came here as kids.”

It is difficult to imagine a more galling demonstration of incivility than the Democrats in the room for Trump's SOTU speech. They scowled, frowned, and sat on their hands throughout the speech. They could hardly be bothered to acknowledge the heroes in the audience when they were introduced. While the Dems brought illegal immigrants, Trump invited actual paragons of American character and the families of victims of illegal immigrant crimes, as well as a victim of North Korea. It was embarrassing, like watching the anti-Semites in the UN stomp out of the room when Benjamin Netanyahu speaks. How is it any...

Self-identified "national socialist" Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) couldn't let Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D-Mass.) speak for him in the Democratic response to Donald Trump's first State of the Union address. But, in a perfect metaphor for his economic system, Sanders' own response experienced "technical difficulties." For almost a full three minutes, Sanders' response was down, and the screen read, "We will be back momentarily!" "Well, as they say, technology is great when it works, so if you're still with us, we appreciate it very much," the socialist senator said when the video started again. So long as Sanders' team doesn't...

This is what actual "smart diplomacy" looks like. Under Obama, Iran knew that it could do anything short of nuking Chicago and get away with it. Once Obama made the Iran deal the centerpiece of his foreign policy legacy, any attack on it was an attack on him. Anything that might make Iran "walk away from the table" was taboo. So Hezbollah got a blank check to smuggle drugs. Members of Congress were spied on to protect the Iran deal. (Even well before Trump, Obama was using the NSA as a tool against his political opponents.) American personnel could be...

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One reason Democrats seem so fixated on importing illegal immigrants and allowing their children to stay and become citizens may be the exodus from high-tax and traditionally Democratic states. Anecdotal evidence is usually not helpful in determining trends, but when stories begin to accumulate and sound the same attention must be paid. Two friends of mine, who are longtime California residents, recently decided to move from that highly taxed state to states with lower taxes. As much as they love California, they tell me, they can no longer afford to live there. United Van Lines' National Movers Study has for...

New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Friday that a coalition of East Coast states will sue the federal government over the Trump-signed tax overhaul, in the latest bid to undermine the law that Republicans have cheered. The states -- New York, New Jersey and Connecticut -- appear to be taking aim at a provision that limits residents' state and local tax deduction (SALT) to $10,000. While the law contains sweeping tax rate cuts for businesses and individuals, taxpayers in high-tax states like those in the Northeast are expected to take a hit from the SALT change. Cuomo called it...

Netanyahu in Davos: Not only does Iran spread terror all over the world, it openly says it will use its weapons to destroy Israel. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke on Thursday evening at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Netanyahu criticized the nuclear deal with Iran and said, "I think that the current agreement is so flawed that it promises that Iran will have everything necessary to create nuclear weapons, including the enrichment of fissile material on a huge scale.” “What they can do today, at best, is enrich uranium for one bomb. Under the current agreement, they will...

A photograph of then-Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan that was taken in 2005 at a meeting of the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington, DC, was released Saturday after a 13-year cover-up to protect Obama’s political career. Journalist Askia Muhammad told TriceEdneyWire.com that he took the photograph after Obama had engaged “in a warm conversation with constituent and fellow Chicagoan Minister Louis Farrakhan.” However, he realized that the photograph could endanger Obama’s presidential ambitions, which were already being widely discussed. Farrakhan is a black supremacist and antisemite who also holds anti-gay views. Rumors of an...

French President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday that he would not recognize Palestine as an independent state as a reaction to US President Donald Trump’s declaration of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. “I will not take any decision in reaction to any decision,” Macron told reporters in response to a Times of Israel question on the potential recognition of a Palestinian state.

ormer Secretary of State John Kerry reportedly tried to meddle in Middle East peace talks, allegedly telling a close associate of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas not to “yield to President Trump’s demands.” Israeli news outlet Maariv reported on the apparent meeting between Kerry and Hussein Agha in London, where the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee also reportedly floated a possible encore bid in 2020. But in the conversation, Kerry reportedly told Agha to share a message with Abbas – urging him to “hold on and be strong” during talks with the Trump administration and “play for time ... [and] not...

Maariv reported that former US secretary of state John Kerry met in London with a close associate of PA President Mahmoud Abbas, Hussein Agha, for a long and open conversation about a variety of topics. Agha apparently reported details of the conversation to senior PA officials in Ramallah. A senior PA official confirmed to Maariv that the meeting took place. *** During the conversation, according to the report, Kerry asked Agha to convey a message to Abbas and ask him to “hold on and be strong.” Tell him, he told Agha, “that he should stay strong in his spirit and...