With the background checks bill stalled in the Senate, the New York Times was surprised to learn that it may largely be due to the determined and noisy efforts of a pro-gun advocacy group less than one-tenth the size of the National Rifle Association (NRA) –
Tag Archives: John McCain
NY Times Calls 38-Year-Old Pro-Gun Group an “Emerging Upstart”
- Monday, 07 September 2020 08:54
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Trump Waffles on Ending ObamaCare Subsidies to Insurance Companies
- Monday, 07 September 2020 08:54
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Wednesday, October 18, 2017:
For a moment there, it looked like the president was going to follow through on his promise to cut off the illegal and unconstitutional ObamaCare subsidies to health insurance companies providing coverage. But it turns out it was just a ploy, a negotiating strategy, to get liberal politicians from both parties to cobble together something in the middle. Said the president after his announcement, “If the Democrats were smart, what they’d do is come and negotiate something where people could really get the kind of health care they deserve.”
If the threat had been carried through, those subsidies, called “cost-sharing reduction payments,” which go to insurance companies to offset their costs of reducing out-of-pocket expenses such as deductibles and co-pays for low-income customers, would end. Under ObamaCare, however, those insurance companies would still be on the hook to provide coverage for those customers, forcing them to increase premiums. As the New York Times noted ruefully,
Globalist Trump Advisor Gone, Will Americanist Take His Place?
- Thursday, 08 March 2018 06:18
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Wednesday, March 7, 2018:
Gary D. Cohn, FORMER Trump advisor
Following the president’s decision to impose tariffs on aluminum and steel imports, Donald Trump’s chief economic advisor, Gary Cohn, announced his resignation on Tuesday. Cohn had led a team pushing Trump not to impose those tariffs, but lost out to another team pushing to keep America first.
Wall Street took the news poorly, thinking that those tariffs could lead to a trade war. But the Wall Street Journal intimated indirectly in its coverage that something much different, and vastly more important, is at stake.
Arizona Senator Jeff Flake Calls it Quits, Blames Trump
- Wednesday, 25 October 2017 11:27
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Wednesday, October 25, 2017:
It took Arizona’s junior Republican Senator Jeff Flake 17 minutes in a speech to the Senate on Tuesday to say that he’d had enough: “I have decided that I will be better able to represent the people of Arizona and to better serve my country and my conscience by freeing myself from the political considerations that consume far too much bandwidth and would cause me to compromise far too many principles. To that end, I am announcing today that my service in the Senate will conclude at the end of my term in early January 2019.”
Flake said he plans to continue to snipe at the president: “We must be unafraid to stand up and speak out … I plan to spend the remaining fourteen months of my senate term doing just that.”
Initially one might have thought that Flake was attacking the far left — BLM, George Soros, the members of the radical congressional caucuses — blaming them for many of America’s current difficulties: “We must never regard as ‘normal’ the regular and casual undermining of our democratic norms and ideals. We must never meekly accept the daily sundering of our country: the personal attacks, the threats against principles, the reckless provocations.”
But no,
Trump’s Pardon of Sheriff Joe Arpaio Sends a Message: There’s a New Sheriff in Town
- Monday, 28 August 2017 09:56
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This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Monday, August 28, 2017:
Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio
There’s little doubt that sheriffs in counties on or near the country’s southern border have been watching, and waiting, for a signal from the Trump administration about its views on enforcing immigration laws. Those would especially include those who consider themselves “constitutional” sheriffs.
That signal arrived late Friday with President Trump’s pardon of Maricopa County Arizona’s Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Before Friday, all those sheriffs had to go on was hope – hope that they wouldn’t be targeted for enforcing the law the way Arpaio was. Now they can rest easier knowing they have a friend in the White House and not an enemy. And the net effect will be stronger enforcement of the country’s immigration laws.
For Arpaio it was a long-awaited victory over the Obama administration. For the citizens of the United States it is also a victory over illegals committing crimes without consequences.
Said Trump:
Trump’s Pardon of Sheriff Joe Arpaio Sends a Strong Message
- Saturday, 26 August 2017 19:48
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Saturday, August 26, 2017:
President Trump pardoned former Maricopa County (Arizona) sheriff Joe Arpaio (shown), the White House announced Friday evening: “Throughout his time as Sheriff, Arpaio continued his life’s work of protecting the public from the scourges of crime and illegal immigration,″ the statement said. “Sheriff Joe Arpaio is now eighty-five years old, and after more than fifty years of admirable service to our Nation, he is worthy candidate for a Presidential pardon.”
For his part, the veteran sheriff was grateful but called his conviction the result of unceasing efforts by the Obama administration to silence him. In one tweet, Arpaio said:
Thank you @realdonaldtrump for seeing my conviction for what it is: a political witch hunt by holdovers in the Obama justice department!
And in another:
I am humbled and incredibly grateful to President Trump. I look fwd to putting this chapter behind me and helping to #MAGA
Arizona Senator John McCain was ambivalent about the presidential pardon:
Why Can’t ObamaCare be Repealed?
- Tuesday, 01 August 2017 07:35
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This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Monday, July 31, 2017:
For more than six years Republicans have promised that, given the chance, they would repeal the odious, expensive, and unconstitutional healthcare takeover called ObamaCare. Seven times they have voted to repeal it, knowing that then-President Obama, its primary promulgator and author, would veto it.
But voters believed them and when Trump beat Democrat Hillary Clinton in November, it was going to be a shoo-in: full and total repeal at the top of the list. At least that’s what Rep. Mo Brooks, a Republican from Alabama, thought. So he prepared a bill: simple, straightforward, two sentences long:
Trump Threatens to Cut Off Insurance Company Subsidies After ObamaCare Repeal Vote Fails
- Tuesday, 01 August 2017 06:31
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, July 31, 2017:
Sounding rather testy that the Senate didn’t give him what he wanted on Thursday, President Trump tweeted on Saturday morning that he would not only punish senators and their staffs but cut off the government funding of subsidies — estimated to be $8 billion — to hungry insurance companies. He tweeted: “After seven years of ‘talking’ Repeal & Replace, the people of our great country are still being forced to live with imploding ObamaCare!” He then tweeted the not-so-subtle threat:
If a new HealthCare bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon!
He added verbal insult to the potential financial injury:
Trump Should Have Fired Sally Yates Sooner
- Thursday, 02 February 2017 06:30
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This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Wednesday, February 1, 2017:
The Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building in Washington, D.C., headquarters of the United States Department of Justice.
The first sign of trouble at the Department of Justice occurred at about 9 am on Monday when acting Attorney General Sally Yates ordered her staff not to defend Trump’s immigration order. In an email to her staff, Yates opined:
At present, I am not convinced that the defense of the executive order is consistent with these responsibilities of the Department of Justice, nor am I convinced that the executive order is lawful.
She also took exception to the Trump administration’s claim that her own department’s Office of Legal Counsel had adequately cleared the order beforehand, ruling that his order was “lawful on its face”:
[That ruling] does not address whether any policy choice embodied in an executive order is wise or just….
I am responsible for ensuring that the positions we take in court remain consistent with this institution’s solemn obligation to always seek justice and stand for what is right.
And then, sealing her fate, Yates concluded:
Trump is Taking Al Capone’s Advice
- Saturday, 24 December 2016 07:26
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This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Friday, December 23, 2016:
At the opening of the film The Untouchables, released in 1987, mobster Al Capone is sitting in a barber’s chair, surrounded by his associates and members of the press. He is saying that he is just an honest businessman, meeting the needs and wants of his customers. He then says: “A smile will get you pretty far … but a smile and a gun will get you farther.”
Trump’s “gun” is becoming increasingly obvious:
The Potomac Two-Step: How McCain Has Stayed in Office for 34 Years
- Thursday, 01 September 2016 05:40
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This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Wednesday, August 31, 2016:
It was Tom Clancy who first brought the term “the old Potomac two-step” to the public’s attention in 1990 with the publication of Clear and Present Danger. The book was turned into a movie four years later. The relevant dialogue is:
The President: “You’ll take the blame. Cutter and Ritter will take some too, but it won’t amount to much, they’ll get a slap on the wrist. Then $20,000 an hour on the lecture circuit. The rest of the blame will fall on Greer. Oh yeah, you’ll take him down with you. You’ll destroy his reputation. But that’s as far as it will go. The old Potomac two-step, Jack.”
Jack Ryan: “I’m sorry, Mr. President, I don’t dance.”
John McCain, who began his political career in 1982 in Arizona after moving there following his retirement from the Navy, does dance. So well does he dance, in fact, that
McCain’s Political Two-Step vs. Ward in Primary, Kirkpatrick in November
- Wednesday, 31 August 2016 05:29
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Tuesday, August 30, 2016:
In Tuesday’s Republican Senate primary race in Arizona, incumbent John McCain is projected to crush his opponent, Kelli Ward. And he leads his likely Democrat opponent in the general election by double digits. Lesson: It’s helpful to learn the political two-step in order to stay in office for 34 years.
In July, Ward ran an old Romney attack ad against McCain which claimed that
GOP Platform: Repeal the “Johnson Amendment” Inhibiting Pastors’ Free Speech
- Monday, 25 July 2016 12:36
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, July 25, 2016:
The week before he was to give his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland last Thursday, Donald Trump phoned the president of Liberty University to tell him that the GOP’s platform called for repeal of the “Johnson Amendment.” Said Jerry Falwell, Jr.:
Elon Musk: Once an Entrepreneur, Now a Crony Capitalist
- Friday, 10 June 2016 05:48
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Thursday, June 9, 2016:
In the early days, Elon Musk (shown above) made his fortune the usual way: by creating products and services that people could use, which they paid for using their own money, to improve their lives. Today, however, he has found a better way: using taxpayer guarantees to help fund his new ventures and reduce his risks while he enjoys the profits if they succeed.
In simple terms, Elon Musk has become a welfare queen on steroids,
Trump Takes New York, Closer to Shutting the Door on Cruz
- Wednesday, 20 April 2016 23:11
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Wednesday, April 20, 2016:
As expected, both leading candidates in the Republican and Democratic primaries in New York on Tuesday extended their leads over their rivals. Hillary Clinton took 135 delegates to Sanders’ 104, all but cementing into place her nomination at the Democrat convention in July. Donald Trump extended his lead over his nearest rival, Ted Cruz, by running the board, taking 89 delegates to none for Cruz.
What was unexpected was the
Several Sources Highlight Federal Misspending After “Wastebook” Author Retires
- Thursday, 03 December 2015 06:34
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Wednesday, December 2, 2015:
Former Senator Tom Coburn
Before retiring from Congress as Oklahoma’s junior senator, Tom Coburn issued an invitation to others in office to take up where he left off in bringing to light outrageous federal boondoggles. As the editor of Wastebook, Coburn delighted in exposing preposterous examples of government waste, and using them to embarrass the various agencies responsible.
One of those taking up the cudgel is Oklahoma Senator James Langford, who just issued his first edition of Federal Fumbles,
GOP Folds, Helps Democrats to Pass the CRomnibus bill
- Thursday, 18 December 2014 05:40
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This article first appeared at The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Wednesday, December 17, 2014:
If the Guinness Book of Records had a category for “political taradiddles,” this from Barbara Mikulski, a Democrat from Maryland and the Senate’s Appropriations Committee Chairman, would certainly qualify for its top ten. After all was said and done, after all the back-room deals had been completed, after Senator Ted Cruz’s last minute attempt to stall the vote by claiming that the CRomnibus bill would unconstitutionally fund Obama’s immigration executive order without debate was quashed 74-22, Mikulski exulted:
It is remarkable in today’s era of slam-down politics that we, working on this committee, have been able to set aside our differences, work across the aisle, work across the Dome, to find a way to compromise without capitulation on principles.
The only word with validity that she used was “capitulation” – total and complete surrender – by the Republicans, the party still perceived by many to be the party of small government, fiscal responsibility, and personal liberty. The sell-out was nearly complete,
Voters Finally Learn What’s in the CRomnibus Bill Passed by the Senate
- Wednesday, 17 December 2014 07:01
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This article first appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Tuesday, December 16, 2014:
Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, the leader of the Republican sellout
The so-called CRomnibus bill (a combination of a Continuing Resolution and an omnibus spending bill covering dozens of federal agencies) was passed by the Senate late Saturday night, 56-40, approving government spending through next September.
Passage, although delayed slightly by complaints from Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) that it funded President Obama’s illegal immigration executive order without debate, was guaranteed when 24 Republicans, including every GOP leader, voted for it. This allowed some Democrats the opportunity to vote against it as a sop to constituents or to build their resumes in contemplated runs for the White House in 2016. They included newly inducted Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.), along with Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Amy Klobucher (D-Minn.), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.).
Others whom Republicans bailed out with their “yea” votes included naysayers
Omnibus Bill Passes House, Funds Government Through September
- Saturday, 13 December 2014 06:54
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This article first appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Friday, December 12, 2014:
President Barack Obama holds a conference call with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, in the Oval Office
At the very last minute, with time and funding for government agencies running out, the House voted 216-206 to pass the so-called “omnibus” bill on Thursday, opening the way for the Senate to pass it on Friday. President Obama has promised to sign it before the day is out.
It was sausage-making at its finest. Even Arizona Republican John McCain said “I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it” with many expecting him to vote for it on Friday anyway.
Instead of attempting to create and muster support for a temporary bill which would have left the heavy lifting to the newly elected incoming congress in January, House Speaker Boehner (R-Ohio) and President Obama decided that
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