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TERMS OF USE | PRIVACY POLICY

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Three Things You Need to Know – March 6, 2018

March 06, 2018
 Staff

WRITER

Political Dumpster Fire

If you’ve ever been curious what a dumpster fire looks like, all you had to do was tune in to MSNBC or CNN yesterday and watch the two networks interview former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg. What progressed throughout the day is hard to describe. It was almost as if Nunberg was having a complete and total meltdown, the media was aware of it, and they put it on display just to show everyone how crazy this former Trump aide actually is.

Nunberg has, let’s just say, a little bit of history with the Trump team. He’s been hired by the campaign, fired, then rehired, fired again, and he’s had public squabbles with Trump staffers like Corey Lewandowski and Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Some might say, when it comes to Donald Trump, he has a dog in this fight.

Nunberg was questioned by Muller’s investigators recently as part of the Russia investigation, and he did what anyone with an axe to grind or a dog in the fight would do… he ran straight to the mainstream media. What followed was one of the most sensationalized crap shows I’ve seen in a long time. At no time did he give any evidence, but - in interview after interview - he implied that Muller quote “may have” something on President Trump, BUT - and this really makes his point strong here - quote “I don’t know that for sure.”

Hmm, ok Sam, if you don’t know then why say anything at all? Maybe because all this is some crazy drunken sideshow? He pressed on with Jake Tapper. If you were hoping for something more substantial to back up his allegations, you - instead - got this doozy of a statement: “They know something on [Donald Trump] … I don’t know what it is, and perhaps I’m wrong, but he did something.”

What?! They know something… I don't know what… maybe I’m wrong… but uh yeah, he totally did something.

This was a total meltdown. In between making wild baseless accusations, Nunberg took personal shots at members of the Trump team, AND voiced his intention to ignore a subpoena from Robert Muller. Now, how does that make sense? If your goal is to hurt Trump and his team, wouldn’t you be all onboard cooperating with the Russia investigation? Of course he would, and the media knows this. They knew exactly what they were doing in putting this guy on the air all day yesterday.

Nunberg had no business being interviewed. His accusations were baseless, he had clear motive to want to hurt Trump - who in his words said “treated me like crap” - , and his wild bravado about defying Muller was obviously meant to grandstand. The media knew this, but they ate it up like a kid eating lucky charms on Saturday morning. They weren't looking to report any news. All they wanted to do was livestream a public meltdown from a guy that used to work for the President.

If Nunberg dodges Muller’s subpoena, throw his butt in jail. And to the media - and I feel like I have to say this every day - I’ve just about had enough of you.

Thad Cochran Will Resign April 1st... No Joke

Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi has announced he is retiring at the end of this month due to health issues. He is 80-years-old and the tenth longest-serving Senator in U.S. history. He has been a Senator since 1978, when he was the first Republican to win a statewide election in Mississippi in over a century.

Cochran’s retirement means both Mississippi Senate seats will now be up for grabs this November. If Cochran had been a strong conservative, his longevity might be a good thing. Unfortunately, he has been a classic, big government, spendthrift Republican instead. And to make it worse, he is Chairman of the Appropriations Committee.

For conservative voters interested in replacing establishment Republicans with actual conservatives, a Mississippi state senator named Chris McDaniel provided a spark of hope when he almost beat Cochran in 2014. McDaniel is currently running a primary challenge against the junior Mississippi Republican senator, Roger Wicker (who is another old-school establishment guy). The timing of Cochran’s announcement stinks for McDaniel, and true conservatives, because McDaniel might have a better shot at winning the special election to replace Cochran than he would in unseating Roger Wicker.

By waiting until yesterday to announce his resignation, Cochran basically forced McDaniel to race against Wicker. Still, it’s possible McDaniel could switch races and run for Cochran’s seat.

Now, Republican Mississippi governor, Phil Bryant, has ten days to appoint an interim senator to replace Cochran in April. Conservatives shouldn’t get their hopes up – those close to Governor Bryant are already saying he won’t pick Chris McDaniel to be Cochran’s temporary replacement.

President Trump and Mitch McConnell are encouraging Governor Bryant to appoint himself as the interim senator. They’re paranoid about a race with McDaniel turning out like the Alabama Senate special election last November, in which a reliably Republican senate seat was lost to Democrat Doug Jones.

Then again, Cochran did set his resignation date as April 1st – so maybe he’s just trolling Chris McDaniel for April Fools.

SuperShe Island

How would you like to go on an exclusive wellness retreat off the coast of beautiful Finland?

There is a private island where you can escape your daily worries, the daily grind of life, oh and of course, the male gaze and toxic masculinity.

It’s called “SuperShe Island.”

Owner Kristina Roth has just created the ultimate “female only” island.

Kristina bought the island to offer a safe space for women to network and learn from each other without the critical male eye watching their every move.

She’ll only take 10 applicants at a time. She says she will pick attendees based on their personality—and of course, their reproductive organs.

She says, "The number one thing that's important for me is that you have an amazing personality — like upbeat, cool personality — because you're on an island. That's what's going to make it fun and exciting for everyone."

I don’t think Kristina understands what happens when you put a bunch of girls on an isolated island. I’m going to take a guess that it’s not going to be all sunshine and lollypops.

Incredibly, Kristina’s SuperShe Island is getting bashed for not being truly feminist.

Some are bashing the retreat as “a rich white woman’s island just for rich white women.” What about minorities and trans people?

Kristina responded by claiming, “If you identify as a woman then that’s great. We’re not exclusive.”

So, men technically can apply.

But why would anyone ever want to?

Men and women have coexisted since the beginning of time. Quite frankly, we need to continue if we want the human species to survive. It’s unhealthy, unfair, and dare I say sexist, to promote the idea that men and women should literally isolate themselves from each other.

MORE 3 THINGS

This compromise is an abomination

Zach Gibson/Getty Images

Three decades ago, "The Art of the Deal" made Donald Trump a household name. A lot has happened since then. But you can trace many of Trump's actions back to that book.

Art of the Deal:

In the end, you're measured not by how much you undertake but by what you finally accomplish.

People laughed when he announced that he was running for President. And I mean that literally. Remember the 2011 White House Correspondents' Dinner when Obama roasted Trump, viciously, mocking the very idea that Trump could ever be President. Now, he's President.

You can't con people, at least not for long. You can create excitement, you can do wonderful promotion and get all kinds of press, and you can throw in a little hyperbole. But if you don't deliver the goods, people will eventually catch on.

This empire-building is a mark of Trump.

RELATED: 'Arrogant fool' Jim Acosta exposed MSM's dishonest border agenda — again.

The most recent example is the border wall. Yesterday, congress reached a compromise on funding for the border wall. Weeks of tense back-and-forth built up to that moment. At times, it seemed like neither side would budge. Trump stuck to his guns, the government shut down, Trump refused to budge, then, miraculously, the lights came back on again. The result was a compromise. Or at least that's how it appeared.

But really, Trump got what he wanted -- exactly what he wanted. He used the techniques he wrote about in The Art of the Deal:

My style of deal-making is quite simple and straightforward. I aim very high, and then I just keep pushing and pushing and pushing to get what I'm after.

From the start, he demanded $5.7 billion for construction of a border wall. It was a months' long tug-of-war that eventually resulted in yesterday's legislation, which would dedicate $1.4 billion. It would appear that that was what he was after all along. Moments before the vote, he did some last-minute pushing. A national emergency declaration, and suddenly the number is $8 billion.

Art of the Deal:

People think I'm a gambler. I've never gambled in my life. To me, a gambler is someone who plays slot machines. I prefer to own slot machines. It's a very good business being the house.

In a rare show of bipartisanship, Senate passed the legislation 83-16, and the House followed with 300-128. Today, Trump will sign the bill.

It's not even fair to call that a deal, really. A deal is what happens when you go to a car dealership, fully ready to buy a car, and the salesman says the right things. What Trump did is more like a car dealer selling an entire row of cars to someone who doesn't even have a licence. When Trump started, Democrats wouldn't even consider a wall, let alone pay for it.

Art of the Deal:

The final key to the way I promote is bravado. I play to people's fantasies. People may not always think big themselves, but they can still get very excited by those who do. That's why a little hyperbole never hurts. People want to believe that something is the biggest and the greatest and the most spectacular. I call it truthful hyperbole. It's an innocent form of exaggeration—and a very effective form of promotion.

He started the wall on a chant, "Build the wall!" until he got what he wanted. He maneuvered like Don Draper, selling people something that they didn't even know they wanted, and convincing them that it is exactly what they've always needed.

How congress can restore justice through judicial discretion

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

As the nation soaks in the victory of the recent passing of the historic First Step Act, there are Congressmen who haven't stopped working to solve additional problems with the criminal justice system. Because while the Act was impactful, leading to the well-deserved early release of many incarcerated individuals, it didn't go far enough. That's why four Congressmen have joined forces to reintroduce the Justice Safety Valve Act—legislation that would grant judges judicial discretion when determining appropriate sentencing.

There's a real need for this legislation since it's no secret that lawmakers don't always get it right. They may pass laws with good intentions, but unintended consequences often prevail. For example, there was a time when the nation believed the best way to penalize lawbreakers was to be tough on crime, leading to sweeping mandatory minimum sentencing laws implemented both nationally and statewide.

RELATED: If Trump can support criminal justice reform, so can everyone else

Only in recent years have governments learned that these sentences aren't good policy for the defendant or even the public. Mandatory minimum sentences are often overly harsh, don't act as a public deterrent for crime, and are extremely costly to taxpayers. These laws tie judges' hands, preventing them from using their knowledge and understanding of the law to make case relevant decisions.

Because legislation surrounding criminal law is often very touchy and difficult to change (especially on the federal level, where bills can take multiple years to pass) mandatory minimum sentences are far from being done away with—despite the data-driven discoveries of their downfalls. But in order to solve the problems inherent within all of the different laws imposing sentencing lengths, Congress needs to pass the Justice Safety Valve Act now. Ensuring its passing would allow judges to use discretion while sentencing, rather than forcing them to continue issuing indiscriminate sentences no matter the unique facts of the case.

Rather than take years to go back and try to fix every single mandatory minimum law that has been federally passed, moving this single piece of legislation forward is the best way to ensure judges can apply their judgment in every appropriate case.

When someone is facing numerous charges from a single incident, mandatory minimum sentencing laws stack atop one another, resulting in an extremely lengthy sentence that may not be just. Such high sentences may even be violations of an individual's eighth amendment rights, what with the imposition of cruel and unusual punishment. It's exactly what happened with Weldon Angelos.

In Salt Lake City in 2002, Weldon sold half a pound of marijuana to federal agents on two separate occasions. Unbeknownst to Weldon, the police had targeted him because they suspected he was a part of a gang and trafficking operation. They were oh-so-wrong. Weldon had never sold marijuana before and only did this time because he was pressured by the agents to find marijuana for them. He figured a couple lowkey sales could help out his family's financial situation. But Weldon was caught and sentenced to a mandatory 55 years in prison. This massive sentence is clearly unjust for a first time, non-violent crime, and even the Judge, Paul Cassell, agreed. Judge Cassell did everything he could to reduce the sentence, but, due to federal law, it wasn't much.

The nation is facing an over-criminalization problem that costs taxpayers millions and amounts to the foolish eradication of individual liberties.

In cases like Weldon's, a safety valve for discretionary power is much needed. Judges need the ability to issue sentences below the mandatory minimums, depending on mitigating factors such as mental health, provocation, or physical illness. That's what this new bill would allow for. Critics may argue that this gives judges too much power, but under the bill, judges must first make a finding on why it's necessary to sentence below the mandatory minimum. Then, they must write a clear statement explaining their decision.

Judges are unlikely to risk their careers to allow dangerous criminals an early release. If something happens after an offender is released early, the political pressure is back on the judge who issued the shorter sentence—and no one wants that kind of negative attention. In order to avoid risky situations like this, they'd use their discretion very cautiously, upholding the oath they took to promote justice in every case.

The nation is facing an overcriminalization problem that costs taxpayers millions and amounts to the foolish eradication of individual liberties. Mandatory minimums have exacerbated this problem, and it's time for that to stop. Congresswomen and men have the opportunity to help solve this looming problem by passing the Justice Safety Valve Act to untie the hands of judges and restore justice in individual sentences.

Molly Davis is a policy analyst at Libertas Institute, a free market think tank in Utah. She's a writer for Young Voices, and her work has previously appeared in The Hill, TownHall.com, and The Washington Examiner.

New gadget for couples in 'the mood' lets a button do the talking

Photo by Matt Nelson on Unsplash

Just in time for Valentine's Day, there's a new romantic gadget for couples that is sure to make sparks fly. For those with their minds in the gutter, I'm not talking about those kinds of gadgets. I'm talking about a brilliant new device for the home called "LoveSync."

This is real — it's a simple pair of buttons for busy, modern couples who have plenty of time for social media and Netflix, but can't quite squeeze in time to talk about their... uh... special relationship.

Here's how it works. Each partner has their own individual LoveSync button. Whenever the mood strikes one partner, all they have to do is press their own button. That sets their button aglow for a certain period of time. If, during that time window, their partner also presses their own button, then both buttons light up in a swirling green pattern to signal that love has "synced"...and it's go time.

According to the makers of LoveSync, this device will "Take the Luck out of Getting Lucky." It brings a whole new meaning to "pushing each other's buttons." It's an ideal gift to tell your significant other "I care," without actually having to care, or talk about icky things like feelings.

If you find your significant other is already on the couch binge-watching The Bachelor, no problem! You can conveniently slink back to your button and hold it in for four seconds to cancel the desire. No harm, no foul! Live to fight another day.

Have fun explaining those buttons to inquiring children.

No word yet on whether LoveSync can also order wine, light candles or play Barry White. Maybe that's in the works for LoveSync 2.0.

Of course, LoveSync does have some pitfalls. Cats and toddlers love a good button. That'll be a fun conversation — "Honey, who keeps canceling my mood submissions?" And have fun explaining those buttons to inquiring children. "Yeah, kids, that button just controls the lawn sprinklers. No big deal."

If you've been dialing it in for years on Valentine's Day with flowers and those crappy boxes of chocolate, now you can literally dial it in. With a button.

Good luck with that.