Day: January 3, 2017

Obama’s last trip to Chicago as president will be next week

President Barack Obama shown here during an address before Illinois lawmakers in the House chamber of the State Capitol in Springfield, Ill., on Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016. President Barack Obama shown here during an address before Illinois lawmakers in the House chamber of the State Capitol in Springfield, Ill., on Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016.

GOP drops weakening of ethics office, challenged by Trump

House Republicans reversed themselves Tuesday under pressure from President-elect Donald Trump, and dropped plans to swiftly gut an independent congressional ethics board. GOP drops weakening of ethics office, challenged by Trump WASHINGTON – House Republicans reversed themselves Tuesday under pressure from President-elect Donald Trump, and dropped plans to swiftly gut an independent congressional ethics board.

SpaceX Says it Figured Out Why its Rocket Exploded And Will Fly Again Within Days

Four months after an explosion tore through its signature Falcon 9 rocket during fueling, destroying the rocket and its multimillion-dollar cargo in just 93 milliseconds, SpaceX says it has isolated what went wrong and is ready to fly again. If the Federal Aviation Administration issues the company a license, likely following the completion of a full-scale engine test scheduled for Jan. 3, the company will launch 10 communications satellites for Iridium on Jan. 8, including an attempt to land the reusable first stage of the rocket on a sea-going robotic platform.

Texas to NYT: Keep On Truckin’

I know there are many Texas readers here, so perhap you can help the NY Times understand the love of truck. Twitter reacted also to the notion that it was frivolous to spend money on a truck with more power than needed.

Shocking, Shocking News: Has Been Harvard Hack Hates Trump

Or just CLICK THIS LINK to start shopping for anything. Don’t worry – anything you buy through it will pay Daily Pundit a commission! Thanks! Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said investors are being far too sanguine about the risks associated with Donald Trump’s incoming administration.

Schadenboner Watch

Liberals are panicking about the fact that President-elect Donald Trump will be able to fill four vacancies on the historically left-leaning Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals when he takes office later this month. Outgoing Sen. Barbara Boxer called the vacancies a “judicial emergency,” according to Bay Area public radio station KQED, even though there are 29 judges on the court.

Desperation

The mainstream media are abuzz with claims that House Republicans have voted to ” gut ” or ” eviscerate ” the Office of Congressional Ethics , or to strip it of its independence. Perpetual House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi claimed Republicans had ” eliminated ” the oversight body, and linked the move to President-elect Donald Trump, claiming that the House Republicans’ move represents a violation of Trump’s campaign promise to “drain the swamp” in Washington.

Obama’s Failed Presidencyby Conrad BlackLike most people, I had hoped …

We have been denied that, not by the candidates, who have been dignified, but by the outgoing administration. I have written here and elsewhere before that this has been the most incompetent administration since James Buchanan brought on the Civil War, but I had not realized how the immunity to severe criticism afforded President Obama, because of his pigmentation, had been allowed to disguise how inept this administration has been, how authoritarian and sleazy, and how the president’s demiurgic vanity has gone almost unnoticed as the toadies and bootlickers like Tom Friedman and David Remnick went into overdrive.

Friends in high places: Asa edition

WELL CONNECTED: Political consultant Jon Gilmore, leading a fund-raiser for former boss Asa Hutchinson, uses this photo on his private business page to tout his connectyions to the state’s top politician. Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson , getting out ahead of the legislative session – when campaign fund-raising has an even more fraught appearance than normal – is throwing a fund-raiser for his 2018 gubernatorial campaign Thursday at the Capital Hotel.

How to Leave Your Halfway House and Get to Work Riding DART

This morning I woke up at the halfway house to which I was released from a south Texas medium-security prison a month back and got into the back of the van that leaves every hour to take ex-convicts such as myself to the DART rail stop on Illinois Avenue. Upon arrival, I tried and failed to purchase a bus pass from the machine whose sole purpose is to sell bus passes to people who want bus passes.

NRATV Compares Former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg To Nazi Germany’s Secret Police

Grant Stinchfield, the host of the National Rifle Association’s NRATV, compared former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s gun violence prevention efforts to the work of the Gestapo, the state secret police in Nazi Germany. During the January 3 broadcast of NRATV, Stinchfield lauded Donald Trump’s election as the National Rifle Association’s “biggest victory,” before cheering that “nearly every candidate supported by Michael Bloomberg and his anti-gun Gestapo lost” : GRANT STINCHFIELD : 2016 actually shaped up pretty well for the Second Amendment — take a look.

GOP commands new Congress dogged by ethics office vote

The new Republican-led Congress lined up to be sworn in Tuesday, facing questions about a secretive move to gut an independent ethics board that drew criticism from President-elect Donald Trump over the priorities of GOP leaders. Trump, who takes office later this month, challenged the decision to immediately weaken the Office of Congressional Ethics, arguing that tax reform and health care are more important.

Unions Facing the Trump Era

Beginning in 1979 in Seattle, WA, Jim Levitt expertly fabricated custom aircraft parts and tools, helping make the Boeing Company one of the most successful businesses in the world. But in 2013, corporate executives issued a threat: They demanded that Levitt and his fellow machinists surrender their pensions, and that Washington State political leaders hand over a record $8.7 billion in tax benefits.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Obama Hung Democrats Out to Dry for Past Eight Years. …

The Daily Beast’s Jackie Kucinich said to CNN’s Nia-Malika Henderson on Sunday that it would be interesting to see what kind of reception President Obama will receive when he meets congressional Democrats next week, adding that the president has hung his party “out to dry” during his time in the White House. Obama will meet Wednesday with Democrats on Capitol Hill to discuss ways to protect Obamacare from being dismantled by the incoming Republican majority, Politico reported Friday.

4 Iowans killed in plane crash

Authorities in southern Illinois have identified the four people who died after a single-engine plane crashed in a wooded area on New Year’s Eve. Johnson County Coroner David Rockwell says 34-year-old Curt Terpstra, 37-year-old Krista Green, 35-year-old Jordan Linder and his 26-year-old sister, Jasmine Linder, died in Saturday night’s crash.

Republicans primed for push to dismantle Obama’s policies

Members of the 115th Congress will be sworn in at noon Tuesday, setting off an aggressive campaign by Republicans who control the House and Senate to dismantle eight years of President Barack Obama’s Democratic policies. The first and biggest target is Obama’s signature health care law, which Republicans have long sought to gut and blamed as a primary cause for a economic recovery.

House GOP votes to gut independent ethics office

House Republicans have voted to eviscerate the Office of Congressional Ethics, the independent body created in 2008 to investigate allegations of misconduct by lawmakers after several bribery and corruption scandals sent members to prison. The ethics change, which prompted an outcry from Democrats and government watchdog groups, is part of a rules package that the full House will vote on Tuesday.

Bruce Springsteen questions Trump’s competence for office

In this Nov. 7, 2016, file photo Bruce Springsteen performs during a Hillary Clinton campaign event at Independence Mall in Philadelphia. During an interview on Marc Maron’s “WTF” podcast released Monday, Jan. 2, 2016, Bruce Springsteen questioned whether President-elect Donald Trump “is simply competent enough to do this particular this particular job.”

Morning Bits

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi speaks at her weekly news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington on Nov. 17. One is precedent, two is a trend . “Another way for Australia to demonstrate its unswerving support for Israel, as the Middle East’s only liberal, pluralist democracy, might be to join any move by the Trump administration to move its embassy to Jerusalem.”

In Trump’s America, Seattle workers can lead

Within the local labor movement, we often joke that they should move AFL-CIO headquarters from D.C. to Seattle, because this is where workers have learned to ask for what we really want. And it’s where workers are committed to fight until we win it.

Congress returns with aggressive conservative agenda

As a new Congress convenes Tuesday, Republicans will arrive with a long and aggressive to-do list, emboldened by majorities in the House and the Senate and the promise of President-elect Donald Trump. Working from a blueprint of the last half-decade, they’re anxious to enact the conservative policy agenda that a Democratic White House has thwarted, undoing much of President Barack Obama’s legacy in the process.

Paul Ryan expected to be re-elected as House speaker Tuesday

Paul Ryan is expected to be easily re-elected Tuesday as speaker of the House, kicking off the new Congress and marking a quiet end following a year that saw both parties questioning their congressional leadership. Ryan was re-elected by the House Republican conference in November to serve a second term as speaker of the House.

Land Trust Celebrates Latest Property Addition

A flagship property of natural habitat in northern Moore County was recently placed under the protection of the Sandhills Area Land Trust – the organization’s 100th protection effort. At 330-acres, the Seaboard, Hanson/Pleasant tract continues SALT’s Deep River Initiative.

Ex-CIA agent on Spicer: ‘What the hell is that dude talking about?’

A former CIA operative on Tuesday slammed incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer for saying there is “zero evidence” of Russian interference in last year’s election. Donald Trump Trump: ObamaCare provides ‘lousy healthcare’ Ex-CIA agent on Spicer: ‘What the hell is that dude talking about?’ Trump slams GM on Twitter MORE and his team have repeatedly dismissed the intelligence community’s finding that the Kremlin interfered in the presidential race, even after the Obama administration issued new sanctions against Moscow and the FBI and Department of Homeland Security released a report last week detailing their findings.

Power firm quashes reports of US grid breached by Russian hackers

A US power utility company confirms that the US power grid was not breached by Russian hackers as reported by some US media An electrical power company in Burlington, Vermont has quashed reports that the US power grid was breached by Russian cyber attackers. According to its website, the Burlington Electric Department scanned its systems in response to an alert by the Department of Homeland Security about Russian malware dubbed Grizzly Steppe.