Why Is Everyone in the Private Sector Held Accountable While DC Runs Wild?

Democrat Kathleen Rice is as fed up with Washington D.C. as the rest of the country.
During an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper Wednesday night, Rice fumed about the double standard between the private sector and taxpayer funded politicians being protected on Capitol Hill.
"It's that kind of response that leads everyday Americans to say, 'What is going on in Washington? Why is everyone in the private sector held accountable and yet when the same kind of behavior is exposed in Washington D.C., they circle the wagons and protect their own?'" Rice said. "I for one am not going to be in that position.
While men like Harvey Weinstein, Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose and a long list of others have been fired for bad behavior, albeit maybe belatedly, politicians like Rep. John Conyers and Senator Al Franken get to stay and make their own decisions about resignation.
Yesterday Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi held a meeting to discuss sexual harassment with members. Rice walked out, saying she "doesn't have time for meetings that aren't real." She has introduced a bipartisan bill with Republican Rep. Barbara Comstock that would require sexual harassment training for all members of Congress, in addition to an overhaul of the reporting system on Capitol Hill.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2017/11/30/kathleen-rice-why-is-it-that-everyone-in-the-private-sector-is-held-accountable-and-dc-is-running-wild-n2416222

The Social Cost of Obama-Era Climate Calculations

More than 200 cities and 12 states have pledged to uphold the Paris climate accord, even after President Donald Trump announced his administration would withdraw the United States from the agreement. These pledges have led four states — Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York — to enact climate and energy policies based on the Obama-era social cost of carbon (SCC) calculations, which attempt to quantify the long-term economic damages associated with emitting one ton of carbon dioxide into the air. The Obama administration concluded for every ton of carbon dioxide released, $36 worth of damage occurs.

The SCC is based on flawed scientific and economic assumptions. As a result, the dozens of regulations imposed on the energy sector that were based on these calculations significantly and needlessly increase the cost of electricity without delivering any measurable environmental benefits.
The SCC overestimates how much warming will occur from increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the air because it is based on outdated estimates from 2007. These figures were derived from a study that concluded doubling the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would warm the planet by between 1.72 degrees Celsius and 7.14 degrees C, with their “most likely” estimate to be 3 degrees C.
More than a dozen scientific studies have since found the range of possible outcomes for global warming is much smaller than the scenario relied upon in the SCC calculation. For example, a study by a group of climate modelers who conducted analyses for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2013 found a much smaller range of potential outcomes; they concluded there is a low-end estimate of 1.2 degrees C and a high-end estimate of 4 degrees C, with a “best guess” of 2 degrees C. Other studies have found the best estimate to be a 1.64-degree C increase, if accompanied by a doubling of atmospheric carbon-dioxide concentrations.

https://spectator.org/the-social-cost-of-obama-era-climate-calculations/ 

The DEA and the Opioid Crisis

It’s difficult to know how the Drug Enforcement Administration is adjusting tactics following media scrutiny about a new law’s impact on its regulatory authority, namely what is called “immediate suspension orders.” These orders allow the agency to freeze suspicious shipments of prescription opioids involving manufacturers, distributors, pharmacies, and doctors.
The Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act of 2016, enacted last year requires a higher standard before DEA can issue these orders, raising questions about how such a measure sailed through Congress and was signed into law by President Obama in the middle of a raging drug epidemic. While some see red flags, with the drug industry exerting undue influence in getting the measure passed, others say immediate suspension orders vested too much authority in federal law enforcement powers, citing civil liberty and due process concerns.
Nevertheless, an October Washington Post – “60 Minutes” investigation highlighting DEA whistleblowers prompted Tom Marino, President Trump’s drug czar nominee, to withdraw his name from consideration, and now Congress is considering bills to restore powers under the Controlled Substances Act to freeze more suspicious opioid shipments. 
Communicating with the public, press, and Congress in a clear and complete manner will go a long way to restoring confidence that there is a strong law enforcement response to the worst drug crisis in our nation’s history. Despite the increased scrutiny of the opioid epidemic, and more recently the inner workings of the DEA, there are more questions than answers at this point.

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/11/the_dea_and_opioid_regulation.html#ixzz4zwdN0S4z

We're Going to Release Names of Lawmakers Who Used 'Hush Fund'

Americans were rightfully outraged when they learned that members of Congress had used taxpayer dollars to pay settlement claims to alleged victims of sexual harassment.
They were even more outraged when they saw the numbers. The secret payouts for harassment claims, of which there have been more than 200, amounted to more than $17 million. There's no telling so far how much of that money went to silence sexual assault accusers.
Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) is seeking to release the names of lawmakers who used this "hush fund." She's a co-sponsor of the Congressional Accountability and Hush Fund Elimination Act, which would require full disclosure of the settlements within 30 days.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/cortneyobrien/2017/11/30/blackburn-were-going-to-release-names-of-congressmen-who-used-hush-fund-n2416191 

Does Religion Make People Moral?

Over the past 15 years, my country, Turkey, has gone through a colossal political revolution. The traditional secular elite that identifies with the nation’s modernist founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, has been replaced by religious conservatives who, until recently, were largely powerless and marginalized. The religious conservatives have by now come to dominate virtually all institutions of the state, as well as the media and even much of the business sector. In short, they have become the new ruling elite.

This political revolution has had an inadvertent outcome. It has tested the ostensible virtues of these religious conservatives — and they have failed. They have failed this test so terribly that it raises the question of whether religiosity and morality really go hand in hand, as so many religious people like to claim.

The religious conservatives have morally failed because they ended up doing everything that they once condemned as unjust and cruel. For decades, they criticized the secular elite for nepotism and corruption, for weaponizing the judiciary and for using the news media to demonize and intimidate their opponents. Yet after their initial years in power, they began repeating all of the same behavior they used to condemn, often even more blatantly than their predecessors.

This is a familiar story: The religious conservatives have become corrupted by power. But power corrupts more easily when you have neither principles nor integrity.

Notably, some of the more conscientious voices among Turkey’s religious conservatives criticize this ugly reality. Mustafa Ozturk, a popular theologian and a newspaper columnist, recently declared that religious conservatives are failing the moral test miserably. He wrote: “For the next 40 to 50 years, we Muslims will have no right to say anything to any human being about faith, morals, rights and law. The response, ‘We have seen you as well,’ will be a slap in our face.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/28/opinion/does-religion-make-people-moral.html 

The Sea Level Threat To Cities Depends On Where The Ice Melts — Not Just How Fast

The world's oceans are rising. Over the past century, they're up an average of about eight inches. But the seas are rising more in some places than others. And scientists are now finding that how much sea level rises in, say, New York City, has a lot to do with exactly where the ice is melting.
A warming climate is melting a lot of glaciers and ice sheets on land. That means more water rolling down into the oceans.
But the oceans are not like a bathtub. The water doesn't rise uniformly.
To understand why, think of the earth as a spinning top. When huge ice sheets — some are two miles thick — start to melt, it actually affects the Earth's rotation.
"What happens is when you change the mass of the ice," explains Eric Larour, who studies the frozen parts of the planet, "the modification itself makes the wobble change, and this in turn changes the shape of the ocean on the Earth."
When the wobble shifts, the oceans shift as a whole, as if you were shaking a mound of Jello at the Thanksgiving table.

That's part of the story, but something else happens too.
Many ice sheets and glaciers are so massive, they produce a significant gravitational field, almost as if they were small versions of the moon. The force is tiny, but it does attract nearby ocean water.
"So what happens when the ice melts," says Larour, "is that there is less of it, so the ocean recedes away from the mass of ice."

https://www.npr.org/2017/11/24/566280048/the-sea-level-threat-to-cities-depends-on-where-the-ice-melts-not-just-how-fast 

How to Detect When People Are Using the Truth to Lie to You

There are three types of lies: omission, where someone holds out on the facts; commission, where someone states facts that are untrue; and paltering, where someone uses true facts to mislead you. It’s not always easy to detect, but there are a few telltale signs.
A recent study, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, suggests the practice of paltering is pretty common, especially among business executives. Not only that, but the people who do it don’t seem to think they’re doing anything wrong—despite the fact that most people feel like it’s just as unethical and untrustworthy as intentional lies of commission. It’s not just execs who do it, though. If you’ve ever tried to buy a used car from a slimy salesman, been in a salary negotiation with a tough as nails boss, or watched basically any presidential debate, you’ve definitely seen paltering in action. 

https://lifehacker.com/how-to-detect-when-people-are-using-the-truth-to-lie-to-1820767005

How a House Dem accused of drunken shenanigans revealed another secret ‘hush fund’

Rep. Raul M. Grijalva quietly arranged a “severance package” in 2015 for one of his top staffers who threatened a lawsuit claiming the Arizona Democrat was frequently drunk and created a hostile workplace environment, revealing yet another way that lawmakers can use taxpayer dollars to hide their misbehavior on Capitol Hill.
While the Office of Compliance has been the focus of outrage on Capitol Hill for hush-money payouts in sexual harassment cases, the Grijalva payout points to another office that lawmakers can use to sweep accusations under the rug with taxpayer-funded settlements negotiated by the House Employment Counsel, which acts as the attorney for all House offices.
The employment counsel negotiated a deal for taxpayers to give $48,395 — five additional months’ salary — to the female aide, who left her job after three months. She didn’t pursue the hostile workplace complaint further.
The arrangement appears to run contrary to House rules that constrain severance packages, and it caught the eye of watchdogs who were already demanding answers about payouts in the wake of harassment complaints.
“It seems like all of these House bodies are designed to help cover for members of Congress,” said Melanie Sloan, an ethics lawyer in Washington. “A large part of the problem is that each member of Congress can treat their staff as their own fiefdom and also know that it will remain silent.”

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/nov/27/raul-grijalvas-secret-deal-exposes-second-hush-fun/ 

GOP Tax Plan Heads to Senate Floor for Vote Likely This Week

The Senate Budget Committee sent Republicans’ massive tax-cut bill to the full Senate for a marathon debate and vote as early as Thursday -- a major step toward getting a plan enacted by the end of this year.

The 12-11 party-line vote Tuesday came after Republican leaders addressed objections raised by GOP committee members who threatened to block it. The House passed its own tax-cut measure last month, and Senate Republicans can afford to lose no more than two votes among their ranks to pass the measure without Democratic help.

More from Bloomberg.com: These Eight Senators Can Make or Break the GOP Tax Plan

The bill would cut the corporate tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent in 2019 and reduce individual rates and double the standard deduction until 2026 -- adding $1.4 trillion to the federal deficit over a decade. The legislation also would open the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve to oil drilling.

Just one GOP senator on the panel would have had the power to block the bill given the majority’s one-vote margin in committee.  

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/gop-tax-plan-heads-senate-195835093.html?.tsrc=bell-brknews

Nancy Pelosi Has Been Enabling Sexual Predators For Decades

As Guy has thoroughly exposed, over the weekend House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi defended Congressman John Conyers as an "icon" amid allegations he fired a woman on his staff after she refused to give him sexual favors.

Over at Vox, Pelosi is being called out as the ultimate enabler of sexual harassers and abusers. "That woman." She'll also being held accountable as part of the reason why women don't come forward more often when they are victims of sexual misconduct.

Conyers is the credible one. He is an “icon,” she told Todd. The woman? “I do not know who they are. Do you?” she asked the host. “They have not really come forward.” (The woman came forward three years ago, dogging her case through an opaque process in Congress that bars her from speaking about it. She spoke to BuzzFeed anonymously.)

Conyers is the real victim. Pelosi is withholding judgment until Conyers gets “due process,” she said. But Conyers got something better than due process. Congress wrote the rules for how sexual harassment claims are handled, exempting members from requirements that most other employers must follow. The woman, meanwhile, got less. She didn’t have a right to free lawyer. She couldn’t speak about her case. And it took months. Then she couldn’t find a job on the Hill. “I was basically blackballed,” she told BuzzFeed. “There was nowhere I could go.”

But that's exactly what Pelosi is: That woman, a faux feminist who has been enabling sexual predators for decades.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2017/11/27/nancy-pelosis-history-of-defending-sexual-abusers-n2414627

Will Washington Ever Learn? Apparently Not

The messiness of the long-proverbial "mess in Washington" stands out this post-holiday week like a picked and evacuated turkey carcass. To itemize:
1) The tax debate, so-called.
2) The furor over who's to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau -- assuming you've heard of this enterprise, which is disliked by many on account of its claimed self-sufficiency and virtual non-accountability to the rest of the government.
If we didn't know before that the federal government is too big for Republicans or Democrats, either one, to bring under control, my, oh, my, we should know it now.
Let me rehearse the sorrowful record.

https://townhall.com/columnists/billmurchison/2017/11/28/will-washington-ever-learn-apparently-not-n2414876 

Robert Mueller, Agent of Willful Ignorance

It has come to light that as director of the FBI, Robert Mueller, who is currently the special counsel looking for any dirt he can find on Donald Trump, presided over the 2012 removal of all counterterror training materials of any mention of Islam and jihad in connection with terrorism. Since then, our law enforcement and intelligence officials have been blundering along in self-imposed darkness about the motivating ideology behind the jihad threat. This, it turns out, was Mueller’s doing.
In February 2012, the Obama Administration purged more than one thousand documents and presentations from counter-terror training material for the FBI and other agencies. This material was discarded at the demand of Muslim groups, which had deemed it inaccurate or offensive to Muslims.
This purge was several years in the making, and I was – inadvertently – the one who touched it off. In August 2010, when I gave a talk on Islam and jihad to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force — one of many such talks I gave to government agencies and military groups in those years. While some had counseled me to keep these talks quiet so as to avoid attracting the ire of the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the possibility of that pressure seemed to me to make it all the more important to announce my appearances publicly, so as to show that the U.S. government was not going to take dictation from a group linked to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Those who had urged silence were proven correct, however, for the Obama administration was indeed disposed to take dictation from CAIR. CAIR sent a series of letters to Mueller and others demanding that I be dropped as a counter-terror trainer; the organization even started a “coalition” echoing this demand, and Jesse Jackson and other Leftist luminaries joined it.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/268542/robert-mueller-agent-willful-ignorance-robert-spencer 

Repealing Obama's Net Neutrality a Blow for Freedom

The FCC is expected to vote and approve on December 14 Chairman Ajit Pai’s proposal to end the so-called “net neutrality” rules imposed by President Obama’s FCC in 2015. This has provoked howls from liberals and tech giants that this is a blow for Internet freedom and another boon for big business. It is exactly the opposite. It is in fact a boon for economic and political freedom as are all the other Obama-era regulations rescinded by the Trump administration that have promoted economic growth and lessened our dependency on big government. As the Washington Examiner notes:

Sometimes you have to wonder how sincere people are when they gnash their teeth and pull out their hair over President Trump blocking or reversing an Obama-era regulation.
The latest cries of distress about anarchy and market apocalypse can be heard about an announcement by the Federal Communications Commission that it will roll back “net neutrality.”
Net neutrality’s dubious value is made obvious by the misleading way Democrats and many news outlets reported the decision. “F.C.C. plans net neutrality repeal in a victory for telecoms,” wrote the New York Times. Missing from the headline or lede was that the decision was a loss for Netflix, Amazon, Google, and other corporate giants that provide content.

Liberals oppose the free flow of information they can’t control and in the name of providing equal access to all they sought to regulate the access of everybody. They., in effect, sought to put toll booths and speed bumps on the information superhighway. As the Daily Signal reported:

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/11/repealing_obamas_net_neutrality_a_blow_for_freedom.html#ixzz4zjZ2WdAS

Will House Ethics Comm. Let Conyers’ Sex Scandal Slide Like His Past Corrupt Acts?

The prominent Michigan congressman who illegally forced congressional staffers to be personal servants and work on state and local campaigns is embroiled in a major sex scandal. Various media outlets report that John Conyers, the longest serving House member and ranking Democrat of the powerful Judiciary Committee, secretly settled a sexual harassment claim by an employee with taxpayer funds from his office budget. Additionally, multiple former staff members accuse the 88-year-old lawmaker of repeatedly making sexual advances toward female staff. Democratic colleagues have already called for a House Ethics Committee probe, but there’s little hope Conyers will be punished since the notoriously remiss panel let him off the hook the last time it investigated his corrupt acts, determining that he had “accepted responsibility” for the violations. A former staffer said the legislator, a civil rights icon and founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus, is untouchable.

If you recall, Conyers’ wife, disgraced Detroit City Councilwoman Monica Conyers, served three years in prison for bribery. Now it’s hubby’s turn to be in the scandal limelight. Affidavits filed by four former employees and scrutinized by reputable news outlets, show an alarming pattern of sexual misconduct by Conyers. In the documents the workers say they saw the congressman repeatedly making sexual advances to women on his staff, including touching them inappropriately with leg and back rubs and requesting sexual favors. The woman who received the secret settlement filed a wrongful dismissal complaint in 2014, claiming she was fired for rebuffing the congressman’s repeated sexual advances. In 2015 she was paid $27,000 from Conyers’ taxpayer-funded office budget in exchange for silence. “His office would ‘rehire’ the woman as a ‘temporary employee’ despite her being directed not to come into the office or do any actual work,” according to the document cited in the news report that broke the scandal this week. A law clerk representing the woman described it as a “designed cover-up.”

https://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2017/11/will-house-ethics-comm-let-conyers-sex-scandal-slide-like-past-corrupt-acts/ 

'Washington cannot lead the country' in addressing sexual harassment

Anita Hill on Sunday said she doesn't believe officials in Washington, D.C., will lead the country on addressing sexual harassment, adding that she believes the recent spate of accusations against politicians and celebrities are "the tip of the iceberg."

“We have made progress, but unfortunately 26 years ago, Washington wasn’t ready to lead on this issue, and I’m afraid even today Washington cannot lead the country on this issue,” Hill said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“There seems to be too many conflicted feelings and understandings about what needs to happen when sexual misconduct occurs,” she continued.

Hill, an attorney, in 1991 accused her then-boss, Clarence Thomas, of sexual harassment after he was nominated to the Supreme Court. Her testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee became a national sensation.

http://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/361848-anita-hill-washington-cannot-lead-the-country-in-addressing-sexual 

FCC Head Ajit Pai: Killing Net Neutrality Will Set the Internet Free

In an exclusive interview today just hours after announcing his plan to repeal "Net Neutrality" rules governing the actions of Internet-service providers (ISPs) and mobile carriers, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai has an in-your-face prediction for his critics: "Over the coming years, we're going to see an explosion in the kinds of connectivity and the depth of that connectivity," he said this afternoon. "Ultimately that means that the human capital in the United States that's currently on the shelf—the people who don't have digital opportunity—will become participants in the digital economy."

Pai stressed that regulating the Internet under a Title II framework originally created in the 1930s had led to less investment in infrastructure and a slower rate of innovation. "Since the dawn of the commercial internet, ISPs have been investing as much as they can in networks in order to upgrade their facilities and to compete with each other," he says. "Outside of a recession we've never seen that sort of investment go down year over year. But we did in 2015, after these regulations were adopted." In a Wall Street Journal column published today, Pai says Title II was responsible for a nearly 6 percent decline in broadband network investment as ISPs saw compliance costs rise and the regulatory atmosphere become uncertain. In his interview with Reason, Pai stressed that the real losers under Net Neutrality were people living in rural areas and low-income Americans who were stuck on the bad end of "the digital divide."

Proponents of Net Neutrality maintain that rules that went into effect in 2015 are the only thing standing between rapacious businesses such as Comcast, Verizon (where Pai once worked), and Spectrum and an Internet choking on throttled traffic, expensive "fast lanes," and completely blocked sites that displease whatever corporate entity controls the last mile of fiber into your home or business. Pai says that is bunk and noted that today's proposed changes, which are expected to pass full FCC review in mid-December, return the Internet to the light-touch regulatory regime that governed it from the mid-1990s until 2015.

http://reason.com/blog/2017/11/21/ajit-pai-net-neutrality-podcast 

The Rise of the Beta Male Sexual Harasser

The winds of what the New York Post calls Pervnado continue to gather strength, carving a hole through the beta male worlds of NPR, PBS, Hollywood, the New Republic, Vox, the New York Times, and MSNBC, among others. What emerges from this storm of scandal is a clearer picture of a culture that trained men not to respect women but to respect feminism. In many ways, the Beta Male sexual harasser is the squalid offspring of the unhappy marriage between feminism and the sexual revolution, from whose chaotic household he learned virtue-signaling without virtue.

The growing pile of confession notes — which combine ostensible empathy and promises of sensitivity and submission with strategically placed, lawyerly denials — testifies to the grimly comic dishonesty of the Beta Male sexual harasser. He thought that he could continue to indulge his appetites as long as he adjusted his attitudes, a view that all of the prattle about “systemic change” confirms him in, insofar as it treats his misbehavior as an ideological problem rather than a moral one. Implied in many of the confession notes from the harassers is the ludicrous suggestion that with a little more “education,” with a few more training seminars, with a little more consciousness-raising, they would have behaved virtuously. This pose allows them to escape moral responsibility and painlessly join the “solution.” The sexual revolution’s massive crisis of unchastity is thus turned into a “problem of power” that can be remedied by the hiring of more female executives, the expansion of HR departments, and “better” education.

For sheer pomposity, perhaps nothing beats Richard Dreyfuss’s non-apology apology, chalking up his misbehavior to the “performative masculine man my father had modeled for me to be.” But, no worries, he is enlightened now: “I have had to redefine what it means to be a man, and an ethical man. I think every man on Earth has or will have to grapple with this question. But I am not an assaulter.”

https://spectator.org/the-rise-of-the-beta-male-sexual-harasser/ 

Morality, Not Civility, Is the Basis of the Social Order

I would like to propose a hypothesis: "If a society loses its belief in God and Judeo-Christian morality, it will go down the drain faster than you can flush a wad of toilet paper."  We shall test this hypothesis in a laboratory.

We shall have two teams of rats in cages.  In each cage, there will be four rats and two pieces of cheese.  In cage A, the rats will be allowed to fight over the cheese. In cage B, the rats are allowed to fight over the cheese but are required to say "please" before grabbing the cheese.  If our hypothesis is correct, the rats in cage A will kill each other for the cheese faster than the rats in cage B.

America is now more like cage B.  There is a minimal form of civility attempting to pass as morality.  Thus, we remain intact somewhat longer than other societies.  But the civility we mistakenly call morality is still such a futile exercise and devoid of spiritual power and enlightenment that mutual destruction is assured even if delayed.

This belief that common courtesy is the equivalent of morality is supplemented by a belief that the law – our written statutes and legal system – defines social order when civility fails, such as when there are rape-murders or, in civil cases, when construction companies are paid but do not do the job they were contracted to do.  The adjudications that arise in these and a myriad of other criminal and civil conflicts restore the fairness or equilibrium that is otherwise lacking.  Egregious harm to others, while sometimes called "evil," is evil not in some religious or dogmatic sense, but in that it is far from a norm of civility that has replaced Judeo-Christian morality.

Although "evil" appears as an absolute term, it is now used in a relative sense. It is only relatively absolute.  From a logical point of view, of course "relatively absolute" makes no more sense than saying "truthful lie," but in our fluid and bereft consciousness, this seems to be where we are.

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/11/morality_not_civility_is_the_basis_of_the_social_order.html#ixzz4zYQdSI2o 

How Congress Keeps Its Sexual Harassment Hush Money Secret

Tuesday night that the office of Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) paid $27,000 to settle a previously undisclosed sexual harassment complaint against the lawmaker. The story is notable not just for the allegations against a powerful member of Congress, but for shedding light on the highly opaque process through which the House of Representatives handles such settlements—and keeps them concealed.

Amid the cascade of sexual harassment allegations ignited by The New York Times' exposé of Harvey Weinstein, Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) told MSNBC earlier this month that the House had paid out millions of dollars over the last decade to settle sexual harassment claims.

Under public pressure, the Office of Compliance, which acts as the House's rough simulacrum of a human resources department, released documents showing it had paid out $17 million since 1997 to settle a variety of workplace claims, including sexual harassment.

The details of those settlements, including their nature, are confidential. Claimants are required to sign a nondisclosure agreement to begin the lengthy mediation process.

Last week Speier introduced legislation that would prohibit Congress from requiring nondisclosure agreements in such situations and would require regular reporting of settlements.

http://reason.com/blog/2017/11/21/how-congress-keeps-its-sexual-harassment

The Looming Debt Rollover Regime

The economy has been humming since the election a year ago. GDP growth has hit 3 percent in back-to-back quarters, unemployment is way down, the stock market averages are at all-time highs, wages are growing, consumer confidence is up, and sales of new homes are the highest in a decade. Maybe -- just maybe -- it’s Morning in America again.

But just when you think that Congress might be able to finally close the gap and get back to a balanced budget, along comes a string of natural disasters that lays waste to much of Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico, and California wine country, and which will cost taxpayers billions. In addition to that, we’ve just learned that for fiscal 2017 the federal deficit was $666B. That’s not only above what had been estimated, but $228B more than the 2015 deficit (Table 1.1). By 2015, Congress had made nearly a trillion dollars of progress in reducing the deficit from its record high in fiscal 2009, but now they’re going in the wrong direction again.

Even more sobering is that FY 2018 marks 10 years since Nancy Pelosi’s first budget. It is sobering because most of the federal debt is in notes, not bonds. Notes have a maximum term of 10 years. So, the feds are now going to start rolling over the bulk of the debt incurred in the Obama era, during which time Pelosi and the Democrats ran trillion-dollar deficits.

One might think: So what, the feds are always rolling over debt. Yes, but never on this scale. One problem is that with better returns in stocks, interest rates on the U.S. securities may rise. And inasmuch as interest is an item in the federal budget, Congress may spend more than ever. Of course, they almost invariably spend more than ever, (except when Andrew Jackson was president).

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/11/the_looming_debt_rollover_regime.html#ixzz4zN9pCie4 

'Special Counsel' Mueller Is Guilty of Misconduct and Must Resign

What's a witch-hunter to do when there's no witch, and witchcraft itself turns out to be imaginary?  When even the latest accusation against the biggest scapegoat of the house is a crock?

Alan Dershowitz, a liberal in good standing with occasional fits of constitutional sanity, has called on Bob Mueller, aka "The Special Prosecutor," to resign, 'cause there's no there there. 

Professor Dershowitz points out that Trump may be guilty of sins "but not crimes."  Well, if POTUS Trump is a sinner, I hope the Lord forgives him, along with the rest of us.  But if all sinners went to Hell, there would be no room for the rest of us. 

The case against Bob Mueller and his squad of Democrat witch-hunters is much stronger than merely fraud against the taxpayer.  Purely politically motivated persecutions under color of law are major violations of the United States Constitution and English Common Law, from which our everyday laws are largely derived.  In civilized legal codes, persecutions of designated witches under color of law (any law they can find or make up) are strictly forbidden and should be punished by ABA disbarment, imprisonment, and perhaps confiscation of ill gotten gains.  This would include every single taxpayer penny spent on this enormous hoax.

This is the problem that faced the Vatican Office of the Inquisition in the 19th century, when Vatican cardinals began to wonder if burning Catholic heretics was still trendy.  In Massachusetts, the Puritan divines stopped ordering scarlet letters for women accused of adultery.  And with the rise of the political Enlightenment and the Constitution, scapegoating went out of fashion in civilized circles, with the exception of KKK lynchings in the South and numerous mobs aimed at victims of agitprop in Marxist and Hitlerite parts of the world. 

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/11/mueller_is_guilty_of_misconduct_and_must_resign.html#ixzz4zN9deelK 

Items that really make us wonder what is happening

The fake media has no compunction to lie when convenient about personages they regard as sacred and beyond reproach.  This item is an unbelievable attempt to sanctify one of the most corrupt politicians in our nation's history.  Quote: "The Fake Media Campaign To Protect Hillary Clinton Ramps Up To Full Force."     http://dbdailyupdate.com/index.php/2017/11/15/the-fake-media-campaign-to-protect-hillary-clinton-ramps-up-to-full-force/

These people are enemies of a free American Republic and are seeking a global progressive/socialist earth with them in charge. Quote: "Members of the Democracy Alliance, a secretive dark money liberal donor network, appear to have moved to increase security presence and alter its schedule at its fall donor summit following a Washington Free Beacon report released Friday morning based off the group's internal documents.The high-dollar progressive donors, who each vow to direct at least $200,000 in funding to approved left-wing groups of the alliance, are currently gathered at the posh La Costa Resort located in Carlsbad, Calif., for its three-day fall investment conference to plot their 2018 "resistance" and game plan."  And, "Friday's headliners include liberal billionaire George Soros, who was introduced by a video message from Sen. Kamala Harris (D., Calif.), and House Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who is scheduled to speak at the network's dinner. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.) also delivered a video message to the group."    http://freebeacon.com/issues/secretive-liberal-donor-summit-increases-security-changes-itinerary-following-free-beacon-report/

Crimes against whites is on the rise according to the FBI.  This is the progressive/Democrat left in action.  They seek divisiveness, chaos and destruction.   http://americanactionnews.com/articles/fbi-anti-white-hate-crimes-skyrocketing

This entertainer was a guest at the Obama white house several times. His language and song lyrics are far worse than anything Trump has said. Nontheless Michelle said was "repulsed" at Trumps locker-room language caught on tape. Hardly she heard much worse from Jay-z. No problem.  He is one of them.  He has permission. Such are the ethics/religious views of a huge percentage of people of the political left.  Given their behavior and actions we can recognize their Satanist or atheist behavior towards people having differing views.  Little of it good, decent, respectful or civil.   http://www.libertyheadlines.com/jay-z-satan-true-lord-idiots-believe-jesus/?   I would far rather be an idiot as he suggests than embrace the views/beliefs he holds dear.

Misfits, criminals and rioters use to demand police wear cameras so they could prove that they were being abused.  Now they don't want them on police so they can get away what turns out to be a bunch of false claims.  Their wish backfired.    http://www.dailywire.com/news/23740/remember-when-civil-rights-groups-wanted-police-hank-berrien? 

The mainstream media and some members are becoming painfully aware of the damage their permissiveness of gross behavior by political and Hollywood icons has meted out to society.  Some are belatedly trying to join with those lamenting these sins.  My guess is it is cover and/or trying to seem contrite.  See what you think. http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/11/bill_clinton_the_media_and_sexual_harassment_armageddon.html

Sound reasoning in the face of irrational and irresponsible Democrat and Rino rhetoric. Quote: "We are, Cohen concludes, clearly at a fateful crossroads in US-Russian relations and in the history of the American presidency as an institution. The crux should be American national security in the fullest domestic and international respects, not whether we are Trump supporters or members of the “Resistance.” Reckless denunciations make the two crises worse. The only way out is nonpartisan respect for verified facts, logic, and rational civil discourse, which “Russiagate” seems to have all but vaporized, even in once-exalted places."     https://www.theburningplatform.com/2017/11/17/russiagate-zealots-mainly-democrats-have-become-a-major-threat-to-us-national-security/

And the Democrats really wanted this woman to be our president.   Quote: "In an interview with Mother Jones, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that any investigation into her by the Trump administration represents a “politicization” of the U.S. justice system and is an unconstitutional “abuse of power.”   http://www.dailywire.com/news/23692/watch-hillary-says-she-cant-be-investigated-ryan-saavedra?    In other words she is above the law.  She cannot be investigated for criminal activity.  She says to do so is unconstitutional.  And this woman has a law degree??????

Cyber attacks on the rise. Quote: "Cyber attacks by foreign nations and criminals against both government and private sector networks are increasing in both sophistication and scale, a senior National Security Agency official said Wednesday. Jonathan L. Darby, deputy chief of NSA's cybersecurity operations group, said in a speech that recent cyber attacks against Ukraine's power grid, malware strikes in Saudi Arabia, the Equifax data breach, and global ransomware attacks are the latest examples of the kind of attacks that are growing more dangerous and that will increase in the future."  http://freebeacon.com/national-security/nsa-cyber-attacks-becoming-sophisticated-aggressive-disruptive/?   

The leftist mainstream media and politicians are working as hard as they can to focus attention on their made up crimes committed by Donald Trump and Roy Moore in order to avoid covering the wide spate of real news of Democrats, media, academia and Hollywood disasters being exposed every day.  This item covers just a little of what is real that they do not want you to know. http://www.libertyplanet.com/articles/sexual-assault-claims-the-media-is-trying-to-ignore/  And consider this regarding Democrat Al Franken.  Will the senate seek to unseat him???https://www.nationalenquirer.com/photos/al-franken-sexual-assault-claims/  More on Al Franken.  Al Franken (D-MN) once joked about drugging and raping journalist Lesley Stahl, an article in New York magazine reported at the time.     Think about this.  Leftist icons get special treatment?  Remember Ted Kennedy?  How about John and Bob Kennedy?  And get this, the secret service says they had to routinely protect women from Vice President Biden.  https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/comments/7cyaw1/breaking_former_joe_biden_secret_service_agent_we/  Then we can never forget our former serial sexual predator president, Bill Clinton.   The left is finally turning against the man who caused so much trouble for a so many people and has never really paid the price.  And, there are so many others.  Yet if a conservative has a lapse or is charged with one, he is crucified. The righteous ones foolishly seek quick justice without the facts far too often and hide or ignore piccalillis from their side.  Consider recently revealed facts regarding  Moore.   https://conservativetribune.com/moore-move-investigators/?

This item takes a look at the potential fall out resulting from the massive sexual assault fracus.   And the Democrat and mainstream media's approach to using it to take down Trump. http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/11/al_frankens_career_is_collateral_damage_for_the_dems_on_the_way_to_getting_trump.html

Now consider this.  Roy Moore is under the gun right now.  Meanwhile athletes get away with crime after crime.  Our country and especially super sensitive politicians and media types need to get a grip. http://patrioticviralnews.com/articles/republican-congressman-moves-to-end-taxpayer-subsidy-for-nfl-stadiums/    Do they have a right to receive differing standards than the rest of us?  That seems hypocritical to me

If you think the mainstream media has any ethics, consider their blindness to this one of so many, many more Democrat creeps.  A goodly number of which have been shared in this and previous notes.  http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/11/msm_ignoring_dem_candidate_for_congress_emarrestedem_for_stalking_a_woman.html   But, boy do they have the time and energy to go full bore after Moore.

These data should convince anyone that people in power positions are prone to misuse that power. The Congressional Office of Compliance has released data that shows the payouts made to compensate victims of legislative branch  http://www.libertyheadlines.com/congressional-office-releases-breakdown-sexual-harassment-settlements/?

This person knows Judge Moore well.  Here is his assessment of the man that many Alabama voters have said they want to be their senator.  Hypocrites need to stop their antics because they do not want him seated.    https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/judge-roy-moores-former-chief-of-staff-never-once-did-i-see-anything-suspic?

After dealing with all the trash covered above this piece provides a good point that all of us need to consider before pointing fingers at anyone.    https://newswithviews.com/judge-roy-moore-and-give-us-barabbas/ 

Democrats are incredibly stupid.  A handful of Democrats are filing impeachment charges against President Trump.  They have nothing to base them on but they will foolishly do so anyway.  Meanwhile Trump is fixing the humongous messes made during Obama's eight years by Democrats and RINOs in congress and his loyal media hacks.  Many examples of Trump successes, despite an obstructive congress have been shared - which Democrats and the mainstream media foolishly ignore.  Here are thirteen states who are glad he is in office.  Here is what Obama never did.  Compare it to Obama's massive unemployment numbers.   http://trumptrainnews.com/articles/maga-trump-breaks-economic-record-across-the-country    Past items have included the fact of a good number of unethical, irresponsible and even illegal actions were committed by Obama and his administration. One such item detailed 20 potential impeachable acts.  No Democrat found any of them cause enough to raise impeachment claims. To be expected by Democrats.  For clearly racial reasons the Republicans were too chicken to do anything knowing full well what the consequences would be if they did.  So, he got a pass...but, enough has been exposed that legal actions may yet follow, and they should.    

This is a prime example of the total absence of common sense that possesses the political left/Democrats.   Quote: "Is there any real difference between lying on a voter registration form about one’s citizenship or lying on a federal firearms form about one’s mental health? Ask why Democrats are so vehemently defending one and demanding changes to the other? If one is wrong and needs to be changed, then so should the other. This is why background checks don’t always work and why there is such a need for valid photo IDs in order to register to vote and to cast a vote. Consider how many millions of Americans have died or been wounded defending the right to vote. It should be a right that is vigorously protected from any and all forms of fraud."   http://americannewsupdate.com/common-factor-between-church-shooting-in-texas-and-democrat-voter-fraud/

This comedian speaks the unvarnished truth regarding the political left.  Quote: "In this video, Owen Benjamin delivers a thoughtful and deeply personal speech on what is so wrong and dangerous about the current state of the far left. From encouraging toddlers to change their gender to demonizing white men no matter what the content of their character is, Owen highlights the various ways the left have endangered our society and put us on a path to destruction. He pulls no punches, minces no words, and in the end highlights just how desperate our situation has become."    http://patrioticviralnews.com/articles/comedian-owen-benjamin-why-i-hate-the-left/.

This man is called a hero by Democrats because he apparently beat the system.  Notwithstanding the mistrial, his well established dishonesty and lack of ethics will likely go unpunished.    http://www.libertyheadlines.com/mistrial-corruption-case-nj-sen-menendez-not-acquittal/?   People like him in government is one reason why we are in the trouble we are.

And, this Democrat is a total disgrace.  His politics are dishonesty and manipulation for political gain.  He cannot be considered a real politician. His incessant lies bely his claim to this responsibility. He can be considered an unethical socialist provocateur.    http://trumptrainnews.com/articles/washington-post-calls-out-crying-chuck-for-lying-about-tax-reform

Anyone who still watches CNN needs to reconsider.  Quote: "As many people know by now, CNN has been struggling with a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome, the symptoms of which include highly exaggerated or sometimes entirely made up hit pieces on the president. This behavior has earned them the infamous moniker of “FNN,” or “Fake News Network” from President Trump himself. CNN’s bias was even stronger than usual on Tuesday, however, when the network issued a report on President Trump’s visit to Japan, in which he poured fish food into a koi pond with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Although the president was only following Abe’s lead, the headlines and stories ran to make him look like an incompetent, childish national embarrassment."    https://libertywriters.com/2017/11/cnn-just-got-caught-second-huge-lie-week-will-viewership-plummeting/    It is their childish and unethical antics that render them unwatchable.  More evidence of CNN's total disregard for journalistic integrity.    https://conservativetribune.com/cnn-altered-yearbook-signature/?

I don't know if this is true or not.  But, it would not surprise me if it is true.  Quote: "The NY Post reports that according to The American Journal of Political Science, liberal political beliefs are in fact linked to psychoticism. Who would have thunk it? The only thing that makes this even better, is that the study was released as an update to an original erred study they released, which stated that Conservatives were psycho….boy did they eat some serious crow with this one. The correction read, “The interpretation of the coding of the political attitude items in the descriptive and preliminary analyses portion of the manuscript was exactly reversed,” it continued, “The descriptive analyses report that those higher in Eysenck’s psychoticism are more conservative, but they are actually more liberal; and where the original manuscript reports those higher in neuroticism and social desirability are more liberal, they are, in fact, more conservative.”    https://eaglerising.com/48689/ny-post-reports-science-says-liberals-are-psychotic/

 

This is truly a sad commentary on the current state of decay we find our country in.  Quote: "What do we do when the whole of our civilization and social construct is built upon the graveyard of human virtue? History has shown us that all corrupt civilizations eventually erode and collapse from the inside out.  This one will be no different.  We are not animals.  We are material and spiritual beings who have been emotionally enslaved within the machinations of human weakness and ignorance.  The crown of the beast is upon our heads. We need to stop acting like animals.  This is not who we are.  Remember, and come forth to reclaim the dream of our ancestors."    https://www.theburningplatform.com/2017/11/16/we-went-to-sleep-for-generations/  

Socialists are so very thoughtful, understanding and generous.  If you believe that...  Quote: "WOW! Socialist students at Kent State University in Ohio can’t put their political views aside for even a moment to work on a canned food drive with Conservative students. That is absolutely pathetic! I guess socialists really do enjoy watching people go without food!"    https://eaglerising.com/48701/college-socialist-club-refuses-to-work-on-can-food-drive-with-conservative-students/

This is a sample of feminist bias and absolute hypocrisy.  Certain behavior by a leftist is okay but if someone on the right does the same thing it is wrong.    http://trumptrainnews.com/articles/feminist-writer-delegitimizes-franken-accuser-because-she-supported-trump

This is what decency and respect for others looks like.  This is a far cry from the antics of radical leftists.  Quote: "Creating space for Jack to live out his convictions shows what a pluralistic society should look like. It would demonstrate what it means to have the freedom to disagree yet to be tolerant amidst those disagreements," wrote Kristen K. Waggoner, general counsel and senior vice president of U.S. legal advocacy at ADF."  Waggoner continued: "That is why so many supporters of same-sex marriage filed briefs supporting Jack before the Supreme Court. It's also why Jack has had so many customers tell him that even though they disagree with him on marriage, they support his right to live out who he is.   They understand that if we want freedom for ourselves, we must extend it to others." https://www.christianheadlines.com/blog/colorado-christian-baker-receives-support-from-gay-community.html

It should be clear by now that these are bad people.  That's all I am going to say.  http://freebeacon.com/politics/resistance-royalty-pelosi-soros-headline-lefts-biggest-dark-money-conference/?

George Burns

Joe Biden Apparently Made a Locker Room Promise to Make Sure Anita Hill’s Testimony was ‘Very Quick’

Joe Biden made a promise in the Senate men’s gym to keep Anita Hill‘s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee “very quick,” according to former U.S. Representative Pat Schroeder.
That promise was apparently made to then-Senator John Danforth of Missouri, a Republican. Danforth was Clarence Thomas‘ chief sponsor during Thomas’ 1991 Senate confirmation hearings.
In a wide-ranging interview with the Washington Post on November 16, Hill and five of her biggest congressional boosters–all former or current female Democratic politicians–sat down to reflect on the strenuous ordeal that Hill went through during those hearings.
Without fail, each of the six women heavily criticized the process–both explicitly and implicitly laying a great deal of the blame at Biden’s feet as he was the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman at the time.
Biden’s status among the center-left–and women’s rights advocates in particular—has deteriorated in recent years as his role in the character assassination of Anita Hill has been revisited.

https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/joe-biden-made-a-locker-room-promise-to-make-sure-anita-hills-testimony-was-very-quick/ 

The Russia Scandal Just Got Much Worse … For Hillary Clinton And Barack Obama

Corruption: Shortly after the Uranium One story broke, various news reports claimed that it was much ado about nothing. But a review of a huge cache of newly available documents shows that, if anything, it was worse than previously thought.
The Hill broke the bombshell story last month, which summed up goes like this: While the Obama administration was approving the controversial 2010 sale of Uranium One to a state-owned Russian energy giant — which gave it control of one-fifth of U.S. uranium supplies — the FBI was actively investigating that company for extensive criminal activity designed to expand Russia's footprint in the U.S. uranium business.
This raised questions about who in the Obama administration was aware of the FBI's evidence — which included bribery, extortion and racketeering — before greenlighting the sale. Officials involved denied knowing anything about the investigation at the time.
Now a cache of documents 5,000 pages long, which were reviewed by The Hill, sheds new and more troubling light on this story.

https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/russia-scandal-uranium-one-clinton-foundation/

Liberal Millionaires Group Seeks to ‘Fundamentally Reset’ America’s Ideology and Economy

A group of deep-pocketed progressive millionaires seeks to "fundamentally reset" America's ideology and economy and "expose the dogma of free enterprise, limited government, and traditional family values," according to a brochure obtained by the Washington Free Beacon at a secretive progressive dark money donor conference.

The group, called Patriotic Millionaires, is a Washington, D.C.-based organization that consists of wealthy liberals with an income of at least $1 million. The organization initially formed in 2010 to "demand an end to Bush tax cuts for millionaires" and has launched a recent campaign against the Republican tax cut plan.

Patriotic Millionaires's newest organizational overview, which is not the same brochure that is currently available on its website, was obtained by the Free Beacon at the Democracy Alliance's fall investment conference held last week at the swanky La Costa Resort in Carlsbad, Calif. Each Democracy Alliance member vows to steer hundreds of thousands in funding to approved left-wing organizations the group supports.

The group is led by Morris Pearl, a former managing director at BlackRock, one of the world's largest investment firms, and identifies its core values as pushing for "equal political representation," a "livable minimum wage," and a "fair tax system" that rejects free enterprise, limited government, and traditional family values.

http://freebeacon.com/politics/liberal-millionaires-group-seeks-fundamentally-reset-americas-ideology-economy/