#330051

Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow early Thursday morning, predicting four more years of insufferable, whiny, entitled snowflakes.

#330052

A knife-wielding man attacked French soldiers on patrol near the Louvre museum Friday in what officials described as a suspected terror attack. The soldiers first tried to fight off the attacker and then opened fire, shooting him five times, authorities said.

#330053

In its last year in office, the Obama Administration showered at least some $9.2 billion on the United Nations and its sprawling array of organizations, according to a document recently posted on the State Department website.

#330054

Mainstream media has taken a bruising from multiple fronts over the past few years. Some of the most trusted sources in the world of journalism have embarrassed themselves badly. Now the rise of fake news and the competitive nature of their business has turned the news industry into a joke. What happened?

#330055

This awards season is just getting revved up. And already, the entertainment-industrial complex, dominated by self-congratulatory leftists, hard-core exhibitionists and gazillionaires and –airesses…

#330056

http://www.bartrobley.com/ Follow me! https://www.facebook.com/bart.robley https://www.instagram.com/bartdrum https://www.youtube.com/user/bartrobley https:/...

#330057

"The issues I care about most, free speech, rights of the individual, and limited government designed to maximize liberty, have almost nothing to do anymore ...

#330058

PARIS — A French soldier shot and seriously wounded a man in a shopping mall beneath the Louvre Museum on Friday after he tried to attack them and shouted ?Allahu akbar,? officials said…

#330059

Angry violent libtards argue with peaceful Trump supporters outside of an NYU building where Gavin McInnes was speaking. A moron "Professor" has a COMPLETE M...

#330060

By Alex Dobuzinskis and Mica Rosenberg LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal judge in Los Angeles has ruled President Donald Trump's administration must allow immigrants with initial clearance for legal residency to enter the United States from seven Muslim-majority nations, despite an executive

#330061
#330062

... and we'll take it where we find it. US confidence in protection from attack lowest in over a decade http://www.military.com/daily-news/2015/12/12/us-conf...

#330063

There are claims that riot police were told to stand down during a Wednesday event at the University of California, Berkeley. Several photos circulating on

#330064

A new California climate change bill would require agencies to consider the “social cost” of greenhouse gas emissions in competitive bids for infrastructure projects.

#330065

Following Trump, Kuwait has suspended the issuance of visas for nationals of Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran.

#330066

Exclusive: Breitbart editor reflects on the riots that led to the cancellation of his speech at U.C., Berkeley, mainstream media creating environment for vio...

#330067

The federal bureaucracy increasingly acts as prosecutor, judge, and jury.

#330068

Scholar Michael Eric Dyson, author of 'Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America,' argues that white people should open individual reparations accounts...

#330069

Tucker takes on executive director of The Sierra Club over their taking on causes that don't seem to be directly tied to the environment #Tucker

#330070

The Republican-led House voted Thursday to repeal an Obama-era regulation that required the Social Security Administration to disclose to the national gun background check system information about people with mental illness.

#330071

https://www.facebook.com/libtardmedia/videos/1696171180600232/

#330072

Vice President Mike Pence will go to Capitol Hill for a potential tie-breaking vote on the secretary of education nominee, Betsy DeVos.

#330073

VIDEO: Democrat Congresswoman Val Demings Says Violent Riots At UC Berkeley Were A “BEAUTIFUL SIGHT”
Democrat Congresswoman Says The Violent Riots Were Beautiful Democratic Congresswoman Val Demings (FL) said on Thursday that the violent riots ...

#330074

There are many people to thank for the coming accession of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. Donald Trump for winning the election. Hillary Clinton for losing it. Mitch McConnell for holding open the High Court seat through 2016, resolute and immovable against furious (and hypocritical) opposition from Democrats and media. And, of course, Harry Reid.
God bless Harry Reid. It’s because of him that Gorsuch is guaranteed elevation to the Court. In 2013, as then–Senate majority leader, Reid blew up the joint. He abolished the filibuster for federal appointments both executive (such as cabinet) and judicial, for all district- and circuit-court judgeships (excluding only the Supreme Court). Thus unencumbered, the Democratic-controlled Senate packed the lower courts with Obama nominees.
Reid was warned that the day would come when Republicans would be in the majority and would exploit the new rules to equal and opposite effect. That day is here.
The result is striking. Trump’s cabinet appointments are essentially unstoppable because Republicans need only 51 votes and they have 52. They have no need to reach 60, the number required to overcome a filibuster. Democrats are powerless to stop anyone on their own.
And equally powerless to stop Gorsuch. But isn’t the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees still standing? Yes, but if the Democrats dare try it, everyone knows that Majority Leader McConnell will do exactly what Reid did and invoke the nuclear option — filibuster abolition — for the Supreme Court, too.
Reid never fully appreciated the magnitude of his crime against the Senate. As I wrote at the time, the offense was not abolishing the filibuster — you can argue that issue either way — but that he did it by simple majority. In a serious body, a serious rule change requires a serious supermajority. (Amending the U.S. Constitution, for example, requires two-thirds of both houses plus three-quarters of all the states.) Otherwise you have rendered the place lawless. If in any given session you can summon up the day’s majority to change the institution’s fundamental rules, there are no rules.
McConnell can at any moment finish Reid’s work by extending filibuster abolition to the Supreme Court.
McConnell can at any moment finish Reid’s work by extending filibuster abolition to the Supreme Court. But he hasn’t. He has neither invoked the nuclear option nor even threatened to. And he’s been asked often enough. His simple and unwavering response is that Gorsuch will be confirmed. Translation: If necessary, he will drop the big one.
It’s obvious that he prefers not to. No one wants to again devalue and destabilize the Senate by changing a major norm by simple majority vote. But Reid set the precedent.
Note that the issue is not the filibuster itself. There’s nothing sacred about it. Its routine use is a modern development — with effects both contradictory and unpredictable. The need for 60 votes can contribute to moderation and compromise because to achieve a supermajority you need to get a buy-in from at least some of the opposition. On the other hand, in a hyper-partisan atmosphere (like today’s), a 60-vote threshold can ensure that everything gets stopped and nothing gets done.
Filibuster abolition is good for conservatives today. It will be good for liberals tomorrow when they have regained power. There’s no great principle at stake, though as a practical matter, in this era of widespread frustration with congressional gridlock, the new norm may be salutary.
What is not salutary is the Reid precedent of changing the old norm using something so transient and capricious as the majority of the day. As I argued in 2015, eventually the two parties will need to work out a permanent arrangement under which major rule changes will require a supermajority (say, of two-thirds) to ensure substantial bipartisan support.
There are conflicting schools of thought as to whether even such a grand bargain could not itself be overturned by some future Congress — by simple majority led by the next Harry Reid. Nonetheless, even a problematic entente is better than the free-for-all that governs today.
The operative word, however, is “eventually.” Such an agreement is for the future. Not yet, not today. Republicans are no fools. They are not about to forfeit the advantage bequeathed to them by Harry Reid’s shortsighted willfulness. They will zealously retain the nuclear option for Supreme Court nominees through the current Republican tenure of Congress and the presidency.
After which, they should be ready to parlay and press the reset button. But only then. As the young Augustine famously beseeched the Lord, “Give me chastity and continency, only not yet.”
— Charles Krauthammer is a nationally syndicated columnist. Copyright © 2017 The Washington Post Writers Group.

#330075

The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday eased sanctions on Russian intelligence agency FSB put in place by former President Barack Obama last year over accusations that Moscow launched cyber attacks to try to influence the U.S. presidential election.
