'Commitment to America' Is a Loser

 

It’s been difficult to find commentary critical of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s useless “Commitment to America” policy / platform announcement – and most commentaries are behind a paywall.  Sadly, even Newt G is singing its praises.

At the Spectator, Jed Babbin commented that

McCarthy’s ‘Commitment to America’ Is a Loser

He should reread Gingrich’s “Contract with America” —
and take notes this time instead of just ripping off the title.

Good point.  But Babbin’s full article is behind a paywall. 

As far as I can tell, “Commitment to America” is your typical RINO/Uniparty babblefest before upcoming midterms.  Daniel Horowitz at The Blaze said as much:

The recent “Commitment to America” document released by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is beautifully written … to achieve the GOP’s interminable goal. Republicans seek to indulge the broad talking points of their base in a general, shallow, and superficial manner – just enough to appear as if they are on their side without, of course, actually committing to anything transformational that offends their donors and puppet masters. On that score, the document was a home run. Otherwise, not so much.

. . . However, when you consider what is omitted from the document, it quickly becomes clear that even what is in the text is a vacuous platitude that will never be followed through on with ironclad commitments to see the outcomes of those policies to fruition.

. . .

There is no recognition whatsoever that this is the Fourth Reich, the economic collapse is not by accident, and that we have suffered through the greatest tyranny and civilization destruction of all time. That is to say, the biggest omission from this document is COVID fascism. It’s as if the past two and a half years never occurred. . . .

Read Mr. Horowitz’s analysis here. Screenshot of the document is at the end of the column.  Discouraging, to say the least.

# # #

Big Tech – and now Huawei

The censorship on Facebook, Twitter, and Google is bad enough. Yesterday, Gordon Chang (a regular guest on Lou Dobbs) has somber warnings on another front -- Huawei:

China, with control of 5G, will be in a position to remotely manipulate the world's devices. In peacetime, Beijing could have the ability to drive cars off cliffs, unlock front doors, and turn off pacemakers. In war, Beijing could paralyze critical infrastructure.

There is no mystery to how Beijing thinks it will grab control.... The Chinese will use Huawei Technologies.... Huawei is a dagger aimed at the heart of America, and as the unnamed adviser... suggests, the threat is a mortal one.

. . .

"A prominent Republican who advises President Donald Trump called America's 5G strategy 'the biggest strategic disaster in U.S. history,'" wrote China-watcher David Goldman recently.

Many people will regard that as an exaggeration, but America's failure to have a 5G strategy will almost certainly prove to have historic consequences.

"5G" is shorthand for the fifth generation of wireless communication.

"In the very near future, dominating the wireless world will be tantamount to dominating the world," wrote Newt Gingrich in Newsweek in February. That is not an exaggeration.

Why not? With speeds 2,000 times faster than existing 4G networks, 5G will permit near-universal connectivity to homes, vehicles, machines, robots, and everything plugged into the Internet of Things (IoT).

Full article is here.

# # #

Lee Smith’s The Plot Against the President

I’m on Newt Gingrich’s e-mailing list, but his column is also online here.

Lee Smith has written a book so important and so revealing that every American who cares about the future of our Republic should read it.

The Plot Against the President is a remarkable history of our times. It captures what historian Edward Luttwak called “the paper coup.”

Luttwak is a famous historian who wrote an authoritative study of governments being overturned by coups. Entitled Coup d’etat a Practical Handbook, it established Luttwak’s credentials when he analyzed the post-election war against President Trump.

As Smith reported: “The ‘anti-Trump operation,’ says Luttwak today, ‘was a very American coup, with TV denunciations by seemingly authoritative figures as a key instrument.’ The plot against Trump was a bureaucratic insurgency waged almost entirely through the printed word. It was the ‘Paper Coup.’"

Smith’s book is built around the courageous hard work of Congressman Devin Nunes and his team of Republicans at the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Living through the last four years, it has been easy to confuse what was going on and who to trust and distrust.

Smith captures it all in one clear sentence: “Without the big titles and the national security bureaucracy’s legalistic self-defense mechanisms, the story was pretty straightforward: The Clintons hired a bunch of con men who got their dirty cop friends to frame Trump. The press and a corrupt prosecutor handled the cover-up."

Throughout all the confusion, Nunes and the courageous group he assembled kept pursuing the truth through what was an ocean of lies, obstruction, and resistance. In his book, Smith describes a pattern of senior US intelligence officials systematically undermining and targeting people seeking the truth – even one of Nunes’s own investigators, who was a former Department of Justice lawyer.

At the same time, instead of upholding the law, Mueller perverted it. The clear signal Americans got from the spectacle around the Mueller investigation was that the elites in this country were determined to smear the President, even though he’d done nothing wrong.

In fact, Smith writes that the Mueller investigation in fact just became an extension of the larger effort to oust the elected president, and Mueller was a “fixer” to cover-up that the effort was happening.

Nunes understood how Mueller had perverted his role. Smith explains: “Nunes had described ...Mueller produced a perfect feedback loop: intelligence leakers spin a false story to the media, the media publishes the story, Mueller cites the story, and the media and the Democrats then fake outrage at Mueller’s findings. It was as if Nunes were guiding a tour of the underworld."

The news media was so dedicated to the anti-Trump coup attempt that it was impossible to deal with them. Smith describes how Jack Langer, Nunes’s communications director, slowly realized that talking to the mainstream media was actually hurting the truth-finding effort rather than helping inform the public. It didn’t matter what Langer would tell the press because reporters, editors, and producers had already made up their minds about the substance of the story. Talking to Republicans was just a ploy to retain a whiff of objectivity.

At the same time that much of the media was skirting its traditional role, the very nature of the FBI-intelligence community war against Trump made it even harder for legitimate news media to be neutral. In order to get scoops, reporters had to agree to protect anonymous sources – and print what they were told. If they didn’t, they would lose access.

Smith describes the cumulative effect of the bureaucratic corruption and news media collusion (the real collusion story), and it is devastating.

Sadly, we had seen this kind of bureaucratic-news media corruption before, in 2003. It involved some of the same players – including former FBI Director Jim Comey. That time, they tried to destroy Vice President Dick Cheney by framing his chief of staff, Scooter Libby, and forcing Libby to bargain for his freedom by selling out his boss.

However, Libby refused to lie about the Vice President and accepted a totally framed punishment. President George W. Bush commuted his sentence. The Washington Bar Association reinstated him for having been the victim of prosecutorial malpractice. President Donald Trump pardoned him completely.

As Smith writes: "the Libby case had been a baseless media-driven scandal, a press frenzy that had resulted in a miscarriage of justice. Mueller 2017 was a replay of Fitzgerald 2003. The latter went after Cheney, the former Trump.”

The current sickness in the Justice Department is deeply rooted. In addition to Smith’s book, informed citizens should read Sidney Powell’s Licensed to Lie. Powell is currently defending General Mike Flynn and challenging the entire case against him as an illegal frame by willfully dishonest prosecutors.

When you read The Plot Against the President, you will realize there is a lot more going on – and a lot of people may end up in jail for having attempted to destroy an elected president.

Every citizen should read it to understand how sick the system has become.

# # #

Another cycle of Media Madness

art credit: cresincorporated.com

Newt Gingrich on “Mueller Media Madness”:

Watching the first wave of reaction to Attorney General Barr’s Press Conference and the release of the Mueller Report led me to conclude America is trapped in a cycle of media madness.

This media madness is crippling the country, maximizing partisan divisions, and absorbing so much time and energy that it cripples America in trying to come to grips with dangers that could destroy us.

Mueller reported after a nearly two-year effort which involved 19 lawyers, 40 staff, more than 2,800 subpoenas, nearly 500 search warrants, and around 500 witnesses. The investigation spent more than $25 million.

If the Mueller team could have found President Trump guilty, they would have. After all, Mueller recruited as his legal team – 14 Democrats, 12 of whom have contributed to Democrats. Of these lawyers seven were Clinton donors, one attended Clinton’s election night party, and one represented the Clinton Foundation and Hillary Clinton herself.

. . .

When almost two years of digging by this anti-Trump wolfpack could produce no signs of guilt, it is reasonable to conclude that was because there were no signs of guilt.

However, the anti-Trump news media has too much invested in hating Trump to give up just because two years of work by 14 highly motivated, aggressive Democrat lawyers found no laws broken.

. . .

Meanwhile, the reality of the Trump presidency – and the renewed strength of President Trump as a vindicated innocent man – will continue to change America in a direction the country likes and the Left hates.

Read the rest here.

# # #

Political correctness and the decline of Fox News

image credit: Flopping Aces

Fox News suspended Judge Jeanine Pirro for asking a fair question: Is Sharia Law compatible with the United States Constitution? This isn’t just about immigration or Sharia Law. It’s yet another indication that we are losing our free speech. (And Fox seems determined to circle the drain; they just hired Donna Brazile.)

Here’s some reporting from Flopping Aces:

Sharia Law may become the third rail of America politics if one is to judge by the suspension/cancellation for at least one episode of Judge Jeanine’s weekend Fox News show “Justice with Judge Jeanine. A cowardly Fox News has extended the protective canopy of political correctness apparently barring its hosts from asking the tough and obvious questions about a doctrine few non-Muslims are aware of and few Americans understand.

. . .

Pirro’s March 9 comment [was] about Rep. Ilhan Omar ( D-Minn.), who wears a hijab, a traditional head covering worn by Muslim women.“Is her adherence to this Islamic doctrine indicative of her adherence to Sharia law, which in itself is antithetical to the United States Constitution?” 

. . .

A question that deserves to be asked and answered. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has in the past observed that those who follow Sharia law can’t also be loyal to the U.S., Constitution and the Western values it represents, and either shouldn’t be allowed to enter the U.S. or should be deported from it, much less serve in its legislative assemblies.

Full report with links is here.  Fox is losing credibility, and viewers are turning the channel - sometimes to Fox Business, also to OAN. Or to talk radio. Or to the conservative blogosphere - which is also encountering censorship, de-platforming, etc. 

# # #

Nancy Pelosi's problem

Ben Garrison cartoon credit: conservativedailynews.com

Newt Gingrich’s take on the chaos in Congress:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi – and the old guard Democrats at large – are in a very difficult position.

The radical young voters the Democrats have been courting for years have finally elected like-minded radical young representatives – and Pelosi and her leadership team has no control over them.

A big reason why, as I mentioned on Hannity this week, is that there is a wide generational gap between Democratic House leadership and freshmen Democrats, such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and others.

. . .

The result is, these new Democrats are throwing a party – and the grandparents aren’t invited. Pelosi and members of Democratic leadership are simply trapped in a cycle of responding to headlines. This is how you end up with the so-called Green New Deal, which is a work of complete legislative fantasy that would utterly bankrupt the country. It’s also how the House got to a second forced public condemnation of the new Democrats’ flagrant anti-Semitism. Pelosi simply can’t control the young, radical, progressive wing, which is ardently socialist, anti-Israel, and contemptuous of America and its history. 

. . .

Already, because of Pelosi’s inability to control her caucus, the Democrats can’t do anything positive. It’s making them desperate. The most they can do is focus their efforts on their shared vendetta against President Trump and everyone in his orbit.

. . .

These divides in the Democratic Party are only going to become more pronounced as Pelosi’s grip slips further. The new Democrats’ private party will become increasingly raucous until it has lost all touch with normal Americans. Moderate Democrats will have to continue answering for their colleague’s radicalism. Pelosi and the grandparents will not be invited along, but they will still be left cleaning up the mess.

The rest of Mr. Speaker's column is here.

# # #

President's Day

Image credit: thestoryoflibertyblog.com

It’s not Feb. 22, but it is President’s Day. And here’s some thoughts about George Washington from Newt Gingrich:

What we now call Presidents’ Day was originally the national recognition of the birth of President George Washington. As a country, we have celebrated Washington’s birth since 1800 (the year after Washington died) because he played such a critical role in our country’s founding – and very survival.

. . .

On one hand, Washington was essential to eventually defeating the British – largely through pure determination, courage, and faith rather than specific military expertise.

. . .

Remember, Washington had spent eight years of his life fighting the strongest military in the world. He had been away from his farm, his wife, and the life that he loved. Then, he sees the country he sought to help create was in many ways tearing itself apart. Despite this, he did not want or ask for the presidency.

When his generals, who were frustrated by politics and lack of pay, wanted to over throw Congress to bring order to the new country, he put a stop to the potential rebellion. When the Continental Congress convened, he turned in his sword, resigned, and went back to Mount Vernon. It was only through strong urging from Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, and other Founding Fathers that he agreed to accept his election as our first president – and it took even more convincing from them for him to sit a second term. His fellow founders were so adamant about Washington leading the country in those early days because they knew he was the only one who could do it.

Newt’s full message is posted here.

# # #

The Blue vs Red Wave

art credit: flickr.com

Newt Gingrich has me on his mailing list; he original published “President Trump Defines the Big Choice for 2018” at Fox News here.  Here are his opening three paragraphs:

For Republicans to win in the upcoming midterm elections, they must understand – and make clear to the American people – that November represents a big choice election, wherein voters will decide between two competing alternative universes.

If Republicans maintain – or even grow – their majorities in the House and the Senate, America will be operating in a grassroots rebellion-conservative-Republican universe after November. That will mean President Trump’s agenda will continue (and possibly accelerate). More conservative judges will join the federal bench. Our taxes and unemployment figures will remain low, while our jobs numbers, wages, and economic growth will continue to increase. Finally, our borders will be secure, our military will be strong, and our nation will prosper through free, fair, and reciprocal trade practices.

If Democrats are able to take the House and gain seats in the Senate, we will be in the media-Left-Democratic Party universe. They will oppose every Trump-Republican plan that is proposed (and likely try to impeach the President at the first frivolous opportunity). Every day will be dominated by scandals and defined by identity politics. Nominated judges will sit in limbo as the federal caseload builds – delaying justice and fair trials for many. They will raise our taxes and reverse the economic gains of the Trump Administration – causing unemployment to rise and our economy to stagnate.

The rest is here. Election countdown: 54 days till November 6.

# # #

Newt's "Practical proposal to protect our children"

Photo credit: newstalkflorida.com

The other evening on Fox News, Sean Hannity proposed his solutions for security on school campuses, to prevent another Parkland shooting from taking place. His proposals mostly involved increased armed presence in halls and classrooms, security clearances at all entrances similar to checkpoints at entrances to federal buildings, and so forth. I did not much like his proposals, as they would turn our campuses into the very militarized environments that we associate with police states. 

During the Parkland shooting, ROTC training saved lives. CNN reported:

Colton Haab heard seven gunshots, and his Junior ROTC training kicked in.

The 17-year-old junior knew a gunman was on his high school campus Wednesday afternoon so he ushered 60 to 70 people to shelter in an open Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps room. At that point, he realized that the Kevlar sheets generally used for the Junior ROTC marksmanship program could come in handy.

"We took those sheets, and we put them in front of everybody so they weren't seen, because they were behind a solid object and the Kevlar would slow the bullet down," Haab told CNN on Thursday.

In his proposals, Speaker Newt Newt sets forth some alternative ideas that expand on the Junior ROTC trainee's quick thinking. The excerpt below is from his newsletter (also posted online at Fox News):

This week’s tragic attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida is a deeply painful reminder of how much we have failed to honestly confront the problem of school shootings in America.

Putting up “Gun-Free Zone” signs is not a solution. It is an act of self-deception. By definition, the determined killers carry their guns past the signs. They are not slowed down for one second by community sentiment.

The current strategies of responding to a violent threat by either freezing students in place or accelerating student evacuation both carry seeds of disaster. Freezing the students in place simply sets them up to be killed methodically by a brutal, evil, or mentally ill person. Having them flee may lead them to run right into the path of the killer.

. . .

The fact is, evil people with guns must be stopped by good people with guns.

Furthermore, the faster good people can respond, the fewer innocent people will be killed.

Every school in America should have several teachers and administrators trained in firearms who are permitted to carry concealed weapons. The number of these “protectors of the innocent” in each school should be determined by the number of students. Agreeing to serve in this role might be encouraged with an appropriate monthly stipend. After all, in Georgia, teachers who agree to serve as coaches are paid stipends ranging from $150 to as much as $400 (and sometimes more for large football programs). Surely, we can afford to provide this type of incentive to people who want to help protect our children.

Because these protectors would have concealed weapons and not be in uniform, would-be killers would have no idea who might be capable of ending their threat by ending them.

. . .

If we are really serious about protecting our children, we must have trained and equipped protectors prepared to handle this type of situation whenever there are school activities. The Parkland school had an armed officer assigned to the campus, but the officer never encountered the shooter and was not able to respond in time. Dramatically increasing the presence of uniformed, visibly-armed security guards, however, might create an environment ill-suited for learning.

Instead, teachers and administrators serving as protectors could complement and support the dedicated officer or security personnel who are already serving in many schools. This combination of using uniformed police officers to handle standard school security challenges, while also having responsible adult protectors who are already going to be working in the school prepared to provide additional force in the case of a catastrophic emergency, like a mass shooting, is the most effective and practical way to protect our children.

Read Newt’s full column here.

We all know now that the FBI completely dropped the ball on this one. See Sundance here. It wasn’t the first failure by the FBI to act on tips of imminent danger. And it won’t be the last. Message to schools: you are probably on your own. Prepare accordingly. And I thought Newt's ideas were on the right track.

# # #

Unraveling Obamacare bit by bit

Steve Breen cartoon via strangefunnies.blogspot.com

Today, Mr. Speaker Gingrich posted at Fox and to his newsletter list his assessment of the Trump Administration’s ongoing efforts to bring down healthcare costs, chip away at what remains of Obamacare, and gradually introduce better options for all Americans. Here is part of his posting:

President Trump has also moved beyond opposing Obamacare and has begun to develop a better system for the future. What replaces Obamacare is at least as important as voting to repeal it.

Replacing Obamacare requires a lot of specific steps to return to a market-based, decentralized system in 50 different states. The Trump Administration and its Republican allies in Congress have been working diligently in that direction.

At the Department of Labor, Secretary Alexander Acosta issued proposed rules which would dramatically expand the availability of Association Health Plans. These plans could be national and regional, allowing for the sale of insurance across state lines, but critically still maintain state autonomy in regulating insurance – which will help police against fraud. Some of the details of the rules may need to be improved to prevent insurance companies from cherry-picking healthy customers, but overall this represents a potentially game-changing reform that could have huge cost saving implications for small business owners and the self-employed.

The Trump Administration has also allowed insurers to continue offering “grandmothered” plans created prior to Obamacare, maintaining these lower cost plans for long-time customers. This saved many small businesses and self-employed people a lot of money and anxiety which would have been caused by the Obamacare plan to force them into the government system even if they were happy with their current plan.

In addition, the Trump Administration fixed a number of loopholes in the Obamacare enrollment rules, which some customers had been using to game the system to avoid paying their premiums and wait until they got sick to get coverage, by claiming they qualified for a “Special Enrollment Period.” This fraud drove up prices for everyone. The Trump Administration issued new rules that fixed a number of these problems.

President Trump also made it easier for people to shop for health insurance without using the Healthcare.gov website. For 2019 enrollment, customers can fully use the insurer websites, as well as aggregators like ehealthinsurance.com. All of this increases convenience, expands choice, and makes lower costs possible.

Finally, just last week, Congress enacted a key reform which flew almost completely under the media’s radar. The Continuing Resolution passed to reopen the government this week suspended the health insurance tax for one year, the device tax for two years, and delayed the Cadillac tax until 2022, all of which were part of Obamacare. All of these taxes were simply passed on to patients in the form of higher premiums, so each of these steps will save patients money.

“Replacing Obamacare requires a lot of specific steps to return to a market-based, decentralized system in 50 different states.” So here is related news:

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Concerned about soaring health care costs, Idaho on Wednesday revealed a plan that will allow insurance companies to sell cheap policies that ditch key provisions of the Affordable Care Act.

It's believed to be the first state to take formal steps without prior federal approval for creating policies that do not comply with the Obama-era health care law. Health care experts say the move is legally dubious, a concern supported by internal records obtained by The Associated Press.

Idaho Department of Insurance Director Dean Cameron said the move is necessary to make cheaper plans available to more people. Otherwise, he said he fears the state's individual health insurance marketplace will eventually collapse as healthy residents choose to go uninsured rather than pay for expensive plans that comply with the federal law.

Hope to see more of this. The rest of Newt’s article is here.

# # #

Mr Speaker on Fake News

Photo credit: painepubllishing.com

Speaker Newt Gingrich’s latest emailing is titled “The Republican 2018 Surprise: Victory.” A short extract:

[Scott] Adams, the author of Dilbert, has a list of 20 political opinions and predictions made about President Trump and his Administration, which were just plain wrong. He suggests if you were wrong about 15 or more of these assertions, you might quit talking about politics while Trump is in the White House. By Adams’s standard, most elite "analysts" would have to be quiet, because they have been so consistently wrong about Trump.

As I listened to the end of the year "analysts," I was struck by how little they know, how little they have questioned their own mistakes, and how mutually reinforcing their false information has been.

These are not analysts. These are liberal propagandists. Much of what they assert is just plain wrong. Fake news is, sadly, an accurate term. And the topic about which they have been the most fake is the GOP’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

Newt predicts a GOP win in the midterms. But that would not be enough. I can’t help but hope that in the process of draining the swamp, members of the UniParty, including those with an (R) after their name, are exposed as the corruptocrats that they are. 

Newt’s column is online here.

# # #

War of 1812 : Fort McHenry

art credit: star spangled music

From the Inbox: Mr. Speaker (Newt) emailed his Fox News article on the National Anthem; I suspect many pro football players do not know any of this.

Respecting the National Anthem

As the controversy over athletes boycotting the National Anthem continues, I would like to share some historical perspective.

“The Star-Spangled Banner” became part of our sports traditions for a good reason: It brought people together in times of grave national turmoil. For this reason alone, it is a tradition worth respecting.

According to MLB.com, “The Star-Spangled Banner” was first performed at a baseball game on May 15, 1862. Given baseball’s lengthy history in America, this is likely the first time it was played at a major U.S. sporting event.

The timing was significant. In 1862, the nation was embroiled in the Civil War. America was as divided as it had ever been. People were fighting and lives were being lost in battle. It was a dark time for our still young country.

So, William Cammeyer, a businessman who was opening Union Grounds park in Brooklyn, decided to do something that would bring the nearly 3,000 people in attendance at the first game together and unify them as Americans. The band played “The Star-Spangled Banner.” It wasn’t officially the National Anthem at the time, but it was still respected as a deeply patriotic, uniquely American song.

Fifty-six years later, America entered World War I, and the nation was once again thrown into turmoil. Major League Baseball had cut the season short because players had been drafted or enlisted to go fight the Great War overseas – and teams were expected to sacrifice and contribute to the war effort.

During the seventh inning stretch of the first game of the 1918 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs, “The Star-Spangled Banner” was performed.

The song had a profound impact on both the crowd and the players, as The New York Times reported September 6, 1918:

“The yawn was checked and the heads were bared as the ball players turned quickly about and faced the music. Jackie Fred Thomas of the U.S. Navy [the Red Sox’s third baseman] was at attention, as he stood erect, with his eyes set on the flag fluttering at the top of the lofty pole in right field. First the song was taken up by a few, then others joined, and when the final notes came, a great volume of melody rolled across the field. It was at the very end that the onlookers exploded into thunderous applause and rent the air with a cheer that marked the highest point of the day’s enthusiasm.”

This 100-year-old story by the Times perfectly captures why we respect Francis Scott Key’s battle hymn for the War of 1812 – and why beginning in 1916, President Woodrow Wilson ordered it to be played during military and naval occasions, and why later it was officially confirmed as our National Anthem by an Act of Congress in 1931.

Historically, “The Star-Spangled Banner” has been part of the shared story of all Americans – a strand of common thread that stitches our nation together. In times of danger, times of pain, and times of triumph, we come together, stand, and sing, because despite our differences, we are all Americans.

But day-by-day, the Left tries to undermine and destroy the things that have historically unified this country. The NFL National Anthem controversy is just the latest example of this.

My fear is that the NFL will succumb to pressure and try to side-step the problem by no longer performing the National Anthem before games. This would be the worst path to take.

As a nation, we need to have a serious debate: Will we renew our patriotism and respect our shared history, or will we allow our American institutions to decay? Are we going to ignore our traditions out of fear of ridicule from the Left, or are we going to proudly continue to be “the land of the free and the home of the brave?”

Francis Scott Key wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner” in 1814 for an America that was worth fighting for and defending.

It still is. We need to defend it.

# # # 

Newt: The President Owes the News Media Nothing

art credit:  Australian National Review

I subscribe to any number of newsletters, alert lists, and daily update links. Today, Speaker Newt Gingrich posted a piece at Fox News and then sent his op-ed to his e-list. I am copying it below in full, especially for those who may miss the Speaker's frequent guest slots on Hannity and other prime time news programs. The media continues to astonish in its capacity to sink to new lows--  to undermine, sabotage, and attempt to de-legitimatize the Trump administration. Say what you like about Newt, he hits the nail on the head calling out the corrupt media class and its dishonest coverage of President Trump:

Note: I wrote this before the latest despicable, dishonest smearing of the President, but that incident simplify magnifies my case.

Here is what National Security Adviser Lieutenant General H. R. McMaster said Monday in response to the latest Washington press corps hysteria:

"There's nothing that the president takes more seriously than the security of the American people. The story that came out tonight as reported is false. The president and the foreign minister reviewed a range of common threats to our two countries including threats to civil aviation. At no time, at no time were intelligence sources or methods discussed. And the President did not discuss any military operations that were not already publicly known. Two other senior officials who were present, including the secretary of state, remember the meeting the same way and have said so. Their on-the-record accounts should outweigh anonymous sources. And I was in the room, it didn’t happen."

This simply reinforces the following, which I wrote earlier this week.

After almost four months of watching the news media’s unending dishonesty, hostility, and contempt toward the Trump administration, it is time to have a blunt conversation.

The President owes Americans the defense of the United States Constitution.

The President owes the American people a sound job as commander in chief, protecting the country.

The President owes the American people a dramatically stronger economy with more jobs, better take home pay, and increased opportunities for investment growth; which will help people prepare for retirement, strengthen pension funds, and guarantee Social Security’s solvency.

The President owes the American people a better health system with greater access, lower costs, and better health outcomes.

Indeed, the President owes the American people many things.

But the President does not owe anything to the Washington press corps and the left-wing hypocrites who dominate today's news media.

I first learned this rule after reading the transcript from President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s opening press conference with the White House Press Corps on March 8, 1933. During FDR’s inaugural meeting with the press, no one was permitted to directly quote the President except via a prepared quote from his office. The vast majority of the conversation was either without attribution or completely off the record. The purpose of the meeting was for the media to understand what was going on – not for them to play gotcha or win clever attacks disguised as questions. Those were the rules.

Since Watergate, the news media has acquired a steadily more arrogant attitude and has moved further and further to the left. Today, they are adversarial opponents of conservatives– especially the Trump administration.

I learned the hard way as Speaker of the House that I could not regularly meet with reporters on camera. It set up an arena for gotcha questions. Reporters gained imaginary points for finding stupid, narrow, often irrelevant things to argue over. Instead of being an opportunity for a genuine public dialogue, the daily on-camera briefings became a bloody battleground – totally to my disadvantage. Within a few weeks, we were forced to stop.

President Trump's instinct to radically overhaul his relationship with the media is exactly right.

When reporters behave like picadors in daily briefings, trying desperately to taunt and embarrass Sean Spicer rather than listen to and report on what he’s saying, it undermines our free society's right to accurate information. The daily briefing may draw big audiences as a reality television spectacle, but it does not serve the country or President Trump well.

While there remain some serious, historically-minded reporters, they are unfortunately becoming more of a rarity. Instead, much of the Washington press corps has become an incestuous collection of voyeurs who watch, judge, and attack without knowledge or responsibility. This creates a hostile, propagandistic, and distorted version of news coverage.

A visit by Egyptian President el-Sisi to the White House last month led to a young American woman being released from an Egyptian jail. Had Obama achieved this, it would have been lauded by the press as a major sign of leadership and compassion. However, because it was President Trump, the media mostly ignored it.

Similarly, when the new relationship between President Trump and the Chinese President Xi Jinping directly resulted in a trade breakthrough for American beef, natural gas, and certain financial services, ending a 13-year period in which the Chinese refused to buy American beef, we heard very little from the media. It should bring billions of dollars into the United States, yet the media felt it wasn’t important enough to cover.

The recent jobs numbers – manufacturing, in particular – have been remarkable. But, of course, most Washington reporters treat the release of these numbers as non-events. After all, this would mean they have to report good news, and in the left-wing newsrooms in which they are all so deeply embedded, positive news related to the President is simply not permissible.

The President’s upcoming trip to Saudi Arabia, Israel, the Vatican, Brussels, and the G-7 in Sicily is a remarkable tour for a new president – especially one who the media insisted knew nothing about international relations. But, of course, the Washington news media wants to trivialize the trip with a discussion of White House gossip and whether the diplomatic journey will have a big domestic effect – as they define it.

If you review the first four months of news coverage – much of which is based on unnamed sources – it becomes obvious how overwhelmingly negative, hostile, gossipy, and focused on undermining and weakening President Trump and his team the press corps truly is.

Given a choice between writing a story about a big historic accomplishment and a petty piece about infighting in the White House, the Washington press corps will go for the dirt every time. If Washington is the swamp, the media is the muck.

I challenge anyone to analyze the last four months of news coverage of President Trump and come to the conclusion that it is unbiased, serious, or focused on important topics.

My guess is, that you will unfortunately come to the same conclusion that I have. In this instance, President Trump should take a note from FDR to remind the Washington press corps that he works for the American people – not the elite media.

For the latest on the smear that Trump asked Comey to end the investigation of Michael Flynn, check this out.

# # #

Fake News and the Propaganda Media

Bill Whittle's Firewall video says it all (and in just over 5 minutes):

Via YouTube

According to Newt, today's "propaganda media . . . has no relationship with the news. It’s aligned with a Washington establishment which is corrupt and dishonest” (via Gateway Pundit).

And the mainstream/lamestream media wonders why President-Elect Trump is bypassing them so often by using Twitter.

# # #

Newt Gingrich, Van Jones to debate at Baldwin Wallace University

photo credit: mrc.org.

You see Van Jones all the time on CNN, but some of us still can't get past his role as President Obama's Green Czar. Jones resigned over the Labor Day weekend in 2009 following criticism and outrage over his radical positions. (Here's the archived report on Politico.)

From cleveland.com today:

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Two prominent political commentators will take a quick hiatus from cable TV next week to debate the election at Baldwin Wallace University instead.

Newt Gingrich, the former U.S. House Speaker who has emerged as a prominent supporter of Republican nominee Donald Trump, and Van Jones, the former environmental adviser in President Barack Obama's White House who now supports Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, are scheduled to appear at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 29 at BW's Ursprung Gymnasium, 136 E. Bagley Rd. in Berea.

The two, who previously co-hosted "Crossfire" on CNN, will discuss the impact Clinton and Trump's policies could have on Ohio and its economy, according to university officials.

The university booked the two to appear last year as part of the BW School of Business Leadership Lecture Series. It just so happened that both have emerged as prominent voices on this year's election, particularly Gingrich, who was discussed as a possible vice-presidential candidate for Trump.

. . .

The university already has distributed 2,000 tickets — the gymnasium has room for about 1,500 more people. Tickets are free, but are limited to four per person.

To register, click here, or visit https://app.arts-people.com/index.php?show=67441.

# # #