Ajit Pai and Maureen Ohlhausen of the FCC and FTC say No, Republicans didn’t just strip away your Internet privacy rights – The WaPo calls this an “opinion” yet it has a lot of explaining and very little opining.

April Fools’ Day came early last week, as professional lobbyists lit a wildfire of misinformation about Congress’s action — signed into law Monday by President Trump — to nullify the Federal Communications Commission’s broadband privacy rules. So as the nation’s chief communications regulator and the nation’s chief privacy enforcer, we want to let the American people know what’s really going on and how we will ensure that consumers’ online privacy is protected.
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During the Obama administration, the FTC concluded that “any privacy framework should be technology neutral” because “ISPs are just one type of large platform provider” and “operating systems and browsers may be in a position to track all, or virtually all, of a consumer’s online activity to create highly detailed profiles.”
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The FCC’s regulations weren’t about protecting consumers’ privacy. They were about government picking winners and losers in the marketplace. If two online companies have access to the same data about your Internet usage, why should the federal government give one company greater leeway to use it than the other?

The FTC is in here because privacy in Trade is their bailiwick. The FCC got involved in order to make ‘special distinctions’ to go after perceived villains. The effort now is to level the playing field and put Trade practices in the FTC and communications technology practices in the FCC.

Tammy Bruce is all too real concerning Trumpmageddon – “The Democrats’ fever dream is doomed to fail.”

It’s not clear how long liberals will be able to keep up their perpetual Trump outrage, but a clever entrepreneur should immediately establish sanatoriums within which Hollywood types, Democratic operatives and “activists” receive the care they need when they collapse from exhaustion.

It’ll be rehab for bullies
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The media, Hollywood and smug liberals are getting a lesson from a president who isn’t swayed by screams or threats or even polls. He’s focused on making things in this country better. Mr. Trump does have a challenge, though, and that’s making sure his message is communicated clearly and strongly enough to make sure the malevolence of his opponents is barely audible like the old, dead leftist echo that it is.

Cheryl K. Chumley notes the elevated insanity in The left’s lunatic plagiarism sling at Gorsuch – “The left-leaning media, working in concert with Democratic will, have launched an all-out last-minute attack on Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, accusing him of plagiarism.”

It’s bogus, by independent accounts. But this is how the left works: Smear, disgrace, tear down, defame and defile. Anything to keep him from being confirmed, it seems.

The judge has penned literally thousands upon thousands of pages of documents and rulings as a judge — but the left, led now by Buzzfeed and Politico, apparently have found three instances where his writings seemed suspect.
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One person Gorsuch is accused of plagiarizing actually flatly denies he plagiarized.
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And another, emeritus professor Jon Finnis of Oxford University, said similarly.
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But this, from Buzzfeed … And this, from Politico, a separate headline: “Gorsuch’s writings borrow from other authors.”
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The White House has fired back.
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The left’s concerted attack against all-things-President Donald Trump marches on. But this latest instance, an attempted assassination of a well-regarded and esteemed member of the judiciary, however, is a new and despicable level of low, even for the left.

Rd Whelan has more on these Bastardized Charges – “Surprise, surprise. Another desperate 11th-hour smear, something that appears to have become a rite of passage for Republican Supreme Court nominees.”

If you want to see another form of Trump Derangement Syndrome, check out Jonah Goldberg at National Review. The President Is This Presidency’s Worst Enemy – “The administration doesn’t suffer from a failure of ideas, but a failure of character.” One of the first clues that you’re not dealing with someone fully in charge of his bias is Goldberg bringing up the “Why so much chaos, then?” There are other clues such as his citations and a priori assumptions not to mention the thing about Tweets.

Trump brings the same glandular, impulsive style to meetings and interviews as he does to social media. He blurts out ideas or claims that send staff scrambling to see them implemented or defended. His management style is Hobbesian. Rivalries are encouraged. Senior aides panic at the thought of not being part of his movable entourage. He cares more about saving face and “counterpunching” his critics than he does about getting policy victories.
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It’s true that Trump has racked up some wins — a few relatively easy executive orders and the Supreme Court nomination of Neil Gorsuch, who’ll wind up taking the late Antonin Scalia’s seat one way or another.

Such a diatribe should make for a good classroom exercise about finding logical fallacies. There is the ad hominem, of course, then the appeal to authority, then the minimizing of counter arguments, … it’s a rich source but very typical of those who haven’t come to grips with the Trump reality. Just how far those ‘relatively easy’ wins and such have to mount up to make an impression is going to create a scale for the depth of the derangement and dissonance.

The IBD gets into a result of the Propaganda machine and the dissonance expressions such as Goldberg’s. Trump’s 34% Approval In IBD/TIPP Poll Is Nothing To Cheer, Or Ignore – “The reaction to the latest IBD/TIPP poll showing President Trump’s approval ratings taking a big hit has been, well, depressing.”

Clearly, the left’s total war against Trump has taken its toll. Every day it is wall-to-wall attacks in news, entertainment, academia and every other corner of daily life. Rather than argue and debate Trump’s policies — about which the public is largely in agreement — they’ve resorted to their favorite weapon: the politics of personal destruction.

So, congratulations, Trump haters. You’ve managed to drive down his numbers before he’s had a chance to actually get much done.

This is not to say that Trump hasn’t contributed to his own poor ratings with his ill-conceived tweets, newbie administration mistakes, and a seeming lack of focus on the issues that got him elected. But nothing Trump has done justifies the level of hatred and vitriol being thrown at him.
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For now, however, the results are what they are. Reality sometimes can be uncomfortable or unpleasant. But just as celebrating Trump’s low approval is wrong, so is denying it altogether.

It is early yet and the vitriol has been unprecedented both in its quantity and in it’s depths of depravity. As Tammy Bruce wonders about above, the question is really about how long the Left can keep it up. Alicia Colon notes something the Left, and people like Goldberg, miss. It is something that does and will surface and won’t have the kind of stench that the many Obama scandals that are surfacing right now have. The Very Presidential Donald Trump; What A Surprise! –

My Democrat relatives were in complete agreement as were the NeverTrumpers in the GOP who ranted about the arrogant New York native as not being presidential material.

They dragged out every single negative Trump news item and when that didn’t dissuade us; they simply made up fake ones. They had no idea whom they were dealing with.
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The truth is that on a superficial level, Donald Trump may be arrogant, boastful, a tad narcissistic and he tends to fly off the handle with maddening tweets.

But what I have come to believe since his election is that he is a brilliant strategist who loves this country.

In other words, what you see in Trump tends to be more a reflection of yourself. That is why it is important to understand one’s self first and to be aware that perceptions do not necessarily truly reflect reality. Check your feelings and if you find anger or other negative emotion, be particularly careful.

On those smelly things that are surfacing, see Katie Pavlich about Bribery: New Documents Show IRS Targeting Scandal Was More Expansive – “New documents obtained by government watchdog group Judicial Watch show the IRS targeting scandal was more expansive than previously known.”

the documents show IRS officials essentially bribed groups and offered tax exempt status in exchange for limited political activity. In other words, limiting opposition to President Obama’s agenda.

“No wonder the Obama IRS has been hiding these records. The new smoking-gun documents contain admissions by the Obama IRS that it inappropriately targeted conservative groups,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement. “But the records also show that the abuse continued – as the Obama IRS tried to force conservative applicants to give up their First Amendment rights in order to finally get their applications granted.”

Another one also has revelations summarized by Ace citing Andy McCarthy: The Russia Story Finally Yields a Watergate-Sized Scandal, But Not the One the Leftist Media and Democrat Party (BIRM) Were Expecting – Worth reading in full.

The two moves were required together to start the conveyer belt of leaks from Rice, Clapper, and the whole gang to their co-conspirators at CNN and the Washington Post. The two work in tandem to propel the information across the national sea, like the sail that catches the wind and the mast that transfers the wind’s power into the ship itself.

And that’s why CNN is so furiously attacking a Real News story: They’re protecting their sources, and protecting their own asses as well: In any genuine criminal probe of the leaks, CNN reporters could be sent to jail on a judge’s contempt order if they refuse to reveal their sources, just as Judith Miller was ordered to jail for refusing to give up her sources in the Valerie Plame investigation.

There is a good example of how the Left deals with unpleasant reality by John Sexton who notes that 20 House Democrats request removal of Devin Nunes from Russia investigation – “A group of House Democrats led by Rep. Gerry Connolly sent a letter to Speaker Paul Ryan Tuesday asking for the recusal of House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes from the ongoing investigation into Russian influence on the 2016 election.”

The idea that Democrats are trying to rescue the House from too much partisanship is, of course, absurd. There is still no proof behind the allegations the Trump campaign colluded with Russian hackers, an allegation which is once again trotted out in this letter. The allegation itself has become a means to an end: to keep the attack on the administration going and collect as many Republican scalps along the way as possible. “This is about country, not party,” would sound less like a laugh line if Democrats would stop using these accusations as a cudgel against Republicans in the media. Instead, we have House Democrats continually talking up collusion and even impeachment in advance of any proof.

No matter how absurd or dishonest there is a solidarity and persistence to be admired. This is the battle at hand and many on the Right do not quite get it, yet. The Public may have realized this and the last election illustrates that.

John Hinderaker takes apart the AP problem with TDS saying The Associated Press Is Guilty of False Advertising – “Like other Democratic Party news outlets, the Associated Press is conducting a daily war against President Trump and his administration.”

Do you want to know what is really false advertising? The AP’s claim that its “fact checks” constitute “a look at the veracity of claims by political figures.” In reality, the AP “fact checks” only one political figure, President Trump, with occasional attacks on members of his administration. Here are the headlines for the last 25 AP “fact checks.” Judge for yourself:
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We could go on (and on), but you get the drift. The Associated Press was once a respected news service, but today it is just one more member of the Democratic Party’s press auxiliary. There is no reason why anyone should take anything from the AP seriously, if it relates to the Trump administration or to any subject of partisan controversy.

Let’s see, who is it with all the Nazi talk? Oh, yeah. Valerie Richardson notes some book burning as House Democrats urge teachers to trash book by climate scientists on global-warming dissent – “Three ranking House Democrats on Monday urged teachers to throw away copies of a book written by climate scientists challenging the catastrophic global-warming view, saying the nation’s schools are “inappropriate” forums for such a discussion.”

“My advice to Grijalva and his colleagues is that they pull their heads out of the sand long enough to read the book. Then they will understand why scientists, voters, and now the President of the United States all believe global warming is not a crisis,” said Mr. Bast. “It’s time to move on, find another fake crisis to hype to scare voters and raise campaign dollars. The global warming scare is over.”

Kelly Riddell notes another effort to squash, dismiss, and demean for even the slightest of excuses: Melania Trump’s official portrait sparks liberal outrage – “Trump Derangement Syndrome is real, folks. The latest example is the liberal reaction to first lady Melania Trump’s official portrait, which was unveiled on Monday.”

“While some commenters gushed that the first lady was ‘beyond beautiful’ and ‘gorgeous,’ others mocked the image as highly airbrushed and compared the gauzy background — a window in the White House residence — to 1990s school portrait settings,” AFP reported.
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You know what I think? So what? The picture’s gorgeous, and her ring is beautiful. She and her husband made no secret of their wealth when Mr. Trump ran for office, so why are we shocked now?

There’s no reason. Unless you’re looking to nitpick. Unless you detest Mr. Trump and his presidency so much, nothing is off limits, including his criticism of his wife. It’s called Trump Derangement Syndrome. And unfortunately, I think it’s an incurable disease for many in the media.

Greed and envy driving hate all the way down.

On the other side of things, the defense is getting frantic. The perp to defend in this episode is Susan Rice (again). First up is Major media spiked scoops on Susan Rice’s role in unmasking Trump’s team by Thomas Lifson – “If Mike Cernovich is to be believed (and I think he is, since nobody is denying this), the New York Times and Bloomberg knew about Susan Rice’s unmasking of Trump officials but sat on the story.”

Then there’s the Benghazi Liar Susan Rice’s Treachery Continues by Daniel John Sobieski – “Call it the tale of two National Security Advisers, Michael Flynn and Susan Rice.”

Well, isn’t that special? While Trump’s pick for this sensitive post was under scrutiny, Obama’s adviser was doing opposition research which involved data mining classified intelligence reports. Rice requested the unmasking of names, something only three people, according to Circa, were authorized to do
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Susan Rice was a key cog in both the Clinton and Obama administrations’ disinformation machines designed to keep the truth from the American people and hide what was arguably criminal negligence in the deaths of many Americans at the hands of terrorism. That she should be up to her eyeballs in this current round of corruption by Team Obama, using classified data gleaned by surveillance of Americans to sabotage an incoming president, is both unconscionable and not urprising.

The Investor’s Business Daily picks up on this and several other scandals. Is Susan Rice The Missing Piece In Obama Spy Scandal? – “While the Democrats continue to flail wildly, accusing House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes of all kinds of hypothetical misdeeds, evidence is growing that the Obama administration had an actual spying program on its domestic political opponents, namely the Donald Trump campaign. If so, it was more than just wrong — it was a crime.”

The New York Times and Washington Post have both reported on Obama administration efforts to surreptitiously keep tabs on Trump. It seems to have been an open secret in the media, largely shrugged off.

Then, As The Susan Rice Scandal Explodes, The Russia Election Hacking Story Gets Murkier – “While the momentum behind the Russia-election-meddling story chugs along, the claim that sparked the entire drama — that Russians hacked the Democratic National Committee — appears to have suffered a big blow. Does anybody care?”

The Russia connection was first made by a private cybersecurity firm whose work has been treated as unassailable — until last week, when it had to rewrite and retract statements made to support that claim.
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Normally, you’d think this would be huge news, since it gets to the very heart of the entire Trump/Russia scandal.

But the VOA’s reporting, and CrowdStrike’s decision to alter that key report, have been ignored by the mainstream press. The Washington Post, for example, hasn’t bothered to tell readers that its breathless Dec. 22 story no longer holds up.

Where people go when things are not going their way is on display: Potty Mouthed DNC Chairman Perez Doesn’t Share American Values by Chip McLean – “The head of one of the two major parties uses potty mouthed language in public…and then goes on to say he doesn’t care what people think about what he said.” Put this in context of all the disgust about Trump’s Tweets, which don’t go near so far.

The Party of the Potty Mouth is also reaping its rewards for previous anti-American rhetoric. Michael A. Thiac says Cops Going Galt – “Cops are pulling back and yes, “women and minorities” will be “hardest hit.”

Effective law enforcement is, by its nature, proactive. Cops have to go out, meet people, observe the actions on the street, know the “usual suspects” who commit most of the crime, terrorizing the people of these, mainly, minority communities. They need to concentrate their efforts on the relatively few people who do commit the crime.
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something has happened on the way to more murders and mayhem. The Eric Holder/Loretta Lynch Justice Departments, in coordination with radical groups like Black Lives Matter and the ACLU, have made the police the targets of lawsuits, interference, harassment and other efforts to stop enforcement of the law.
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cops are not trusting by their nature, and after seeing officers being lynched for doing their jobs, will not stick their necks out immediately

And, on other ‘Fake but Persistent News’ is Gender Pay Gap? What About The Workplace Death Gap? – “This huge gap has nothing to do with discrimination, of course. It has everything to do with the type of jobs men and women voluntarily choose to take.”

“Because women earn less, on average, than men, they must work longer for the same amount of pay,” the NCPE says.

Leave aside the fact that his pay-gap claim — based on a comparison of median incomes for women and men in the Census data — has been repeatedly debunked because it fails to take into account various factors other than discrimination that explain the difference.
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Economist Mark Perry has for years noted that there’s an even bigger and far more consequential gender gap in the workplace — one that literally means the difference between life and death.

He notes that official government data show that men suffer almost all of the workplace fatalities that take place in a given year.

Colin Flaherty says Crime Is the New Black Entitlement –

As long as black people are permanent victims of relentless white racism, cops should not chase them, juries should not convict them, judges should not sentence them, schools should not punish them, and white victims should not complain about the black crime and violence so wildly out of proportion.
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Courtroom racism is rampant and if you do not see that, well, you know what that makes you.

That is part of the greatest lie of our generation and here is why.
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The over-policing thing was a hot topic on the Democrat presidential campaign trail last year. Berry and Hillary each tried to outdo the other with the sympathy for the plight of the black criminal
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So any difference in discipline and academic performance can be the result of one cause only: White racism.

Like the gender pay gap, the black justice gap stimulates a constructed rationale to defend against reality.

Tim Ball has a good rundown on tactics and strategy saying We Won Climate Battles, but Are Not Winning the Climate War: Here’s Why. – “Mann took it very seriously, was well prepared and exploited it for every political opportunity – he dominated the entire proceedings. He had the advantage of not caring or having to care about the truth. His performance was designed for most of the public who have no idea about what is true. He knows this works because that assumption has driven the juggernaut from the start.”

Wallace’s charge that Tim Ball, Fred Singer, and others have challenged the AGW meme to no avail is correct. This, despite all the scientific evidence presented over the years up to and including Heartland’s 12^th Conference and the recent Congressional Hearing. Little or nothing has changed. What is the solution?

Trump won in the minds of working and middle-class people, which is where the climate war must be won for lasting victory. They only need to understand enough science to know how it was corrupted, but they must know the motive. Until that happens, all the AGW proponents need to say is that Trump is acting to line the pockets of his billionaire friends. Mann demonstrated the technique in his congressional presentation.

One understanding that does seem to be gaining popularity is that the Left is playing the mind game rather than the reality game and have no compunctions in regards to honesty, morality, or ethics.

A question of lawful authority – “For liberals it’s fine to run outside the baselines when the cause is theirs” by Robert Knight provides an hypothesis for the Gorsuch opposition. The core is about something seen in Venezuela recently where its Supreme Court tried to invalidate the Parliament.

Over the years, federal courts — especially the Supreme Court — acquired an outsized role in the nation’s affairs, especially during Franklin Roosevelt’s administration. Think of the federal government as a three-bodied creature, with one of the bodies in a black robe towering over the others with a giant Nancy Pelosi gavel.
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Nonetheless, given the Court’s near-omnipotence, the central question of what constitutes lawful authority will dominate public discussion in years to come, especially if there is a conservative majority. Right now, “lawful authority” is in the eye of the beholder on many levels.
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To progressives and the lockstep media, legitimate authority means only advancing progressive causes. If so, it’s no big deal for liberal presidents or judges to run outside the baselines when they need to score some runs.

Democrats’ various ‘reasons’ look to Republicans like excuses to oppose Gorsuch for Supreme Court by Alex Swoyer

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, ticks off a long list of his objections. The latest is a complaint that Mr. Trump didn’t do enough to “consult” with Democrats before making his pick.
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“Democrats have been forced to talk about pretty much anything: President Trump, think tanks, you name it. Anything, but the nominee himself,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, said Thursday on the Senate floor, mocking the growing list of complaints.
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two months after Mr. Trump nominated Judge Gorsuch, Democrats still are searching for a consensus line of attack against him.

It’s a case of throwing mud and hoping something will stick. That is not a tactic breeding effective governance. Democrats are finding that a lot of what they throw is reflecting back on them.

Cheryl K. Chumley says Another Dem boards the impeachment fantasy train – in this case, Fox News token Leftist Juan Williams.

Could the left please, please, please get it in their heads that prosecution generally follows crime — not precedes it?

And that simply believing someone’s guilty of something is not, in fact, proof positive of guilt?
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Perception is not — Not, with a capital “N” — proof. It’s not guilt. It’s not even allegation. In this case, in this polling case, it’s just really what the guy next door thinks.
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All this current talk about impeachment of Trump, whether it’s from Rep. Maxine Waters, who’s made it a personal goal of hers to boot the president from the White House, or most recently, from Williams, fact is there are no facts, no pieces of evidence and, most importantly, no charges to impeach Trump.
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And honestly, the more the left talks about it, the more irrational they seem.

The Russian Collusion Conspiracy is a big keystone for the likes of Williams. Kurt thinks The Russiagate Scam Will Blow Up In The Democrats’ Smug Faces.

If you’re stressed out about this whole Russian nonsense, relax – Donald Trump didn’t do anything wrong, and he’s not going be impeached, arrested, or ritually disemboweled. When the truth comes out and it explodes in the Democrats’ soft, girlish hands, we’ll all be laughing and toasting their humiliation with Stoli shots.

But neither absurdity of conclusions, lack of evidence, distortion of language, innuendo or anything else has made an impact. All reality does is to stimulate psychiatric defensive behaviors that get really, really, ugly and highly destructive of all in the vicinity.

John Hinderaker picks up on this saying It’s 2004 All Over Again – “Lately we’ve been hearing a lot about truth. It started with hysteria over “fake news” during the last election season. The “truth” narrative went into overdrive with President Trump’s unexpected (by most) victory.”

Actually, none of the current controversies has anything to do with the nature of truth, or whether truth is (figuratively speaking) on its deathbed. Liberal journalists are just getting the vapors because, once again, they have been found out. When Donald Trump succeeded Barack Obama as president, they went from a gaggle of slobbering groupies to a pack of baying hyenas. Some people approve of the head-snapping, 180-degree reversal, while others don’t. But everyone knows it happened.

The liberal media have a couple of problems. One is manifest bias. Another is gross incompetence. We and others have documented so many lies, and so many errors, coming from the New York Times, the Washington Post, CBS, CNN, etc., that few have any confidence in their reporting. That is as it should be.
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The crisis that we face is not epistemological, it is political. There is no shortage of evidence, and the truth is rather clear: liberal governance has failed. The country is awash in debt, its influence around the world is in decline, its social programs have mostly failed, its borders are porous, its governing class is corrupt and incompetent, and in recent years its leaders have not even tried to advance the interests of the American people.

That is the truth. That is why Donald Trump was elected president, and why Republicans now dominate at every level of government. And that is why liberal journalists are in a panic.

Another such fantasy, as illustrated by the LA Times, is described by Kelly Riddell: Mainstream media: Trump’s first 100 days worst ever. Really? “The LA Times editorial board decided to do a four-part series on our “dishonest president” starting on Sunday, writing, in part, “nothing prepared us for the magnitude of this train wreck.”

Of course, all of this is absurd — and predictably over the top from a press corps that has never approved of his candidacy, let alone his presidency.
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Mr. Trump has withdrawn from TPP, approved the build-out of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines, proposed a streamlined budget which includes a Reagan-era increase to national defense, started to enforce our immigration laws, which decreased illegal border crossing by 40 percent in his first month, and has nominated Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court — a process that has gone incredibly smooth.

The stock market has reached its highest since the early 1990s, the Dow Jones broke through the 20,000-point threshold for the first time, and manufacturing and mining jobs have rebounded in Mr. Trump’s first jobs report.

As for the idea that Mr. Trump’s first 100 is the “worst we’ve ever seen in a president”?

Lucianne also mentions the story, Our Dishonest President, as “The most astonishing editorial ever written. Be sure to read our commentary.”

On the Falsity of Climate Consensus: Judith Curry’s March 29, 2017, Testimony – “Groupthink” … “sausage making” … “bullying” … “substantial uncertainties” … “premature consensus” … These terms were used by the scholarly Judith Curry in her important, the-future-will-note Congressional testimony last week against the neo-Malthusian, nature-is-optimal natural-science community.”

Jazz Shaw dissects the propaganda on Government shutdowns: a tale of two media narratives – “The next chapter of the Resist! movement is beginning to build up a head of steam and it centers around the possibility that an impasse on spending authorization could lead to a government shutdown.”

Sounds absolutely heroic, doesn’t it? The party in power can be brought to heel if the Democrats can cleverly exercise their power.

Compare that to a different story. This one was unfolding in October of 2013.
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That seems… different somehow, doesn’t it? “Bracing” for a shutdown. Republicans are “demanding” while President Obama and Senate Democrats were heroically “refusing to give in.” The nasty old GOP “prefers keeping the government closed.”
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So if the GOP is in the minority and they obstruct the passage of a spending bill, they get the blame. But if they are in control and the Democrats are in the minority and out of the White House… the GOP gets the blame. See how that works? Get ready for more of the same as the end of April gets closer if we don’t have some sort of viable budget deal on the horizon. I just wanted to put this out there as an early stake in the ground because you can smell the narrative coming like a cow patty on a griddle.

The propaganda will likely remain the same but, if Shaw is any indication, its perfidy will be a topic for discussion and exposure for what it is.

The Weekend Pundit has wisdom on a A Purely Defensive (And Understandable) Move where the SJW crowd went hyperbolic in outrage.

I find it interesting, but unsurprising, that the Left has lost its friggin’ mind over the revelation that Mike Pence prefers not to dine alone with women who are not his wife.
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While Pence has both religious and moral reasons for doing so, many other men understand the risk entailed by doing so. Considering the hostile environment created by the various feminist groups, SJW’s, and the perpetually offended Left, it’s no wonder no sane man would want to put himself into a position that has a high risk of destroying his reputation, or worse, his career. Call it a necessary defensive move in a situation created by the very same people who are now slamming Pence for publicly stating his preferences and the reason behind them.

Just consider the recent brouhaha about due process in Colleges regarding alleged rape or the Anita Hill situation or the news about the assault on Bill O’Reilly as part of the ongoing Fox News assault. For the Left, Gender is a weapon.

Jay Caruso: Media Bias Goes Far Beyond Language – “Kellyanne Conway was profiled in New York magazine, and the photos are typical of the portrayals of conservatives.” The bread and butter of photographers is to tell a story without telling it. The picture tells it and it is a matter of the impression the photograph leaves the viewer. Caruso dissects a case study.

Recently, New York magazine published a profile piece on Donald Trump’s White House counselor and campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway. The profile itself is well written, and overall I found it to be fair and interesting. That said, when I saw the accompanying photos, I couldn’t help but be taken aback. I’ve been a photographer for over 20 years, and I’ve done editorial and corporate headshots before. What I saw in New York magazine is something I would never present to a client.

Thomas Burke: Co-opting Jesus’ Name – anything is a weapon and there are no constraints about how it is used! The foil in this case is Nicholas Kristof writing a satirical opinion piece in the New York Times: “And Jesus Said Unto Paul of Ryan…”,

The American progressive Left frequently decries the use of the name of Jesus Christ for political gain. I’ve heard this personally in conversation and read it in many articles, and the condemnation is often intense, claiming that co-opting Christ’s name or actions to argue public policy, especially by those on the Right claiming to be Christian, is plainly disingenuous and despicable.
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Another baseline: if you talk to leaders in the church about helping their communities, you may hear them speak in terms of relief versus development. … Looking at our most expansive and expensive entitlement programs in the U.S. — Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the ACA, SNAP — they are all by definition relief programs. They provide no long-term ability for their recipients to better their lives and remove themselves from the program.
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What Kristof’s column really boils down to is money. It echoes a Socialist paradigm in which the making of money is evil because money itself is evil. Kristof and others attempt to use the words of Christ to authenticate this belief.
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The irony about pieces like Kristof’s is they commit the exact offense the American Left accuses conservative Christians of committing: co-opting Jesus’s name to score political points.

John J. Vecchione: The Congressional Review Act and a deregulatory agenda for Trump’s second year – this is a Congressional tool dug out of the dust in the shed whose purpose is resolving problems with Executive over-reach. Vecchione explains what a CRA is and how it works.

Ace notes a couple of cases where Walkback is in play. Did This Clinton Campaign Worker Admit A Role in Pushing the Russia Story to Congress and the Media? – “Elizabeth Farkas is doing a lot of walking back of her March 2 comments.” That’s about the acknowledgement of the Obama WH intelligence efforts to learn about the Trump campaign. Another example is Claims that Russia Was “Defnintely” Behind Election Hacking Relies Almost Entirely on Report Commissioned by Democrats From Private (and Partisan) Firm; That Firm Seems to Be Walking Back Its Claims – “From Hot Air, Jeff Dunetz reports that the security firm “Crowdstrike” is withdrawing the report that the FBI relied so much upon.” Even Rachel Maddow is hedging her bets according to Jeff Poor.

Of course, this is because the hits keep coming. It used to be ‘Fake News’ that was the concern. Now it’s ‘Fake Outrage’ – and it’s about time this was put on the table. “Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley Strassel writes that Democrats like California Rep. Adam Schiff are conveniently “ginning up fake outrage” at Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) in order to bury the bombshell news Nunes discovered” (Breitbart.com). Then there’s Joel Pollak who posits Blue State Blues: The White House Loves the Russia ‘Scandal’ – “But the joke is on the journalists. They are spending so much time on the non-story that they are missing what President Donald Trump is actually doing.”

Ed Morrissey: McCaskill: I’m filibustering Gorsuch over his “stunning lack of humanity” – “Just two days after warning Democratic donors about the dangers of absolute obstructionism on the nomination of Neil Gorsuch, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) has decided to, er, go full obstructionist on Gorsuch anyway.”

McCaskill had this much right — Gorsuch is such an eminently qualified nominee, possessing such obviously superior judicial temperament, that a filibuster at this point only demonstrates that Democrats will abuse their minority position to block anyone from the Supreme Court. If they let Gorsuch pass, giving Republicans “a Scalia for a Scalia,” then a filibuster on the next nominee would at least carry some moral weight of having cooperated in governance on the first opening, and might have allowed them to get enough Republicans to block the Reid Option when it really matters. With this filibuster, Schumer’s throwing that away just to make the extreme activists on the Left happy. We’ll see how happy they get when Ginsburg or Breyer get replaced with William Pryor or Ted Cruz.

Related is John Sexton’s Protests in Venezuela as opposition party denounces socialist ‘coup’ – “Today there were protests in the street opposing what many are calling a “coup” and the beginning of a true dictatorship.” Where are the Democrats trying to lead when they refute and deny the established government? Venezuela is the model.

The Coyote has two up this morning worth considering. Another Reason to Discuss Government-led Local Business Development is about Flint compared to Grand Rapids in Michigan in the post WW II era. One went big and government. The other small and personal. There were good times and now …

In the other post, he explains Why I Quit Recruiting for Princeton – “it was becoming clear to me that Asians, with the same qualifications, had a much worse chance of getting in than other similar kids of other ethnicities.”