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Trumps decision on Paris accord has lefties everywhere shitting bricks, crowed Ann Coulter. Now if they could just sh*t some rebar, we could build the wall!

By Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic/Getty Images.

As soon as Donald Trump announced that the U.S. would withdraw from the Paris climate accord, the landmark international agreement to curtail the effects of climate change, the front page of the Drudge Report lit up with celebrations. But it shouldnt come as a surprise that these werent about all the coal jobs that were saved, or that America had reasserted its interests and the world, supposedly, would not longer be laughing at America.

Instead, the Drudge Report devoted key front-page real estate exclusively to headlines about the elitist meltdown: OBAMA SLAMS AS LEGACY DISMANTLED, Big Business Begged President to Stick With Deal, DiCaprio Urged Moral Decision, and DEM SUPER DONOR: TRAITOROUS ACT OF WAR! among them. The morning afterward, Breitbarts lead story was not about the withdrawal itself but about Ted Cruz slamming Elon Musk for flying on [a] private jet while lecturing Trump about global warming. And throughout right-wing Twitter, the feeds were filled with this:

Much more than any specific policy matter, Trumps decision to withdraw from the Paris accord is seen as a right-wing victory over lecturing liberals and their holier-than-thou preaching. The right has a highly articulated philosophy of this dynamic. In right-wing circles, the term virtue signaling has been transformed from an academic term in evolutionary biology into a catchall describing any expression of angry liberal dissent to a conservative idea, particularly on social media. And the moment that the anti-Trump blogosphere erupted in anger against the presidents decision, conservatives, even the ones opposed to Trumps stance to withdraw from the agreement, couldnt help but feel a sense of vindication. At The Weekly Standard, author and Trump critic Jonathan M. Last, who himself believed that it was pointless to withdraw from the accord simply as a matter of greasing the wheels of diplomacy, could hardly suppress his glee from watching liberals go apoplectic.

Here's the thing about virtue signaling: Sure, it's an empty gesture, but usually it's an empty gesture about something real, he wrote, bringing up the social-media reactions to the Iranian revolution or Boko Haram. But the left's reaction to Trump's Paris pullout is something entirely new. It's virtue-signaling about virtue-signaling. It's like the cold fusion of virtue signaling: the moment when the reaction becomes self-sustaining.

This nuanced schadenfreude seems to be shared in the West Wing. This is religion for the political left, and our supporters are constantly being asked to change their behavior, a top Trump aide told Axioss Jonathan Swan, adding that Trump was irked at being prodded by wealthy corporate magnates who ride in fossil-fuel-guzzling planes and SUVs, then act holier-than-thou. (Elon Musk and Bob Iger withdrew their support from Trumps economic advisory council after he announced his decision.)

But Trumps climate rage extended beyond corporate activists. The Washington Post reported that Trump committed to his plan after he saw Emmanuel Macron, the newly elected president of France, openly brag about how he won their handshake-turned-international dominance contest. Hearing smack-talk from the Frenchman 31 years his junior irritated and bewildered Trump, the Post wrote, and it resulted in his controversial Rose Garden declaration: I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.

The rest is here:
Trump's Paris Withdrawal: Was Causing Liberals Pain Its Central Goal? - Vanity Fair

Kathy Griffin landed in hot water over a controversial photoshoot. Buzz60

Kathy Griffin is under fire for a photo shoot where she held a mock severed head of President Trump.(Photo: Dan MacMedan, USA TODAY)

Media bubbles. Everybody's got one and everybody thinks the other side's stinks. For those of you who may lean liberal and not know what's trending on your conservative brother-in-law's Facebook page or vice-versahere's a look at what was hot from both right and left-leaning media and commentators this week.

Of all the posts about comedian Kathy Griffin'soffensive photo shoot with decapitated Trump head,this one from Fox News Entertainment, about Griffin losing her new Squatty Potty gig, made the biggest social media splash.

"We were shocked and disappointed to learn about the image Ms. Griffin shared today, it was deeply inappropriate and runs contrary to the core values our company stands for," Squatty Potty CEO Bobby Edwards in a statement, according to Fox News. "In response, Squatty Potty has suspended its ad campaign featuring Ms. Griffin. We have acted swiftly and decisively to demonstrate our commitment to a culture of decency, civility, and tolerance."

Not familiar withthe Squatty Potty? I'll just leave this here ...

"I know its theoretically wrong for a Republican candidate to smack around an annoying liberal journalist, but that still doesnt mean that I care," writes Townhall columnist Kurt Schlichter about Greg Gianforte's alleged assault of Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs on the eve of Montana's special election for its open House seat. The fact that he and other conservatives don't care about the assault is the fault of liberals who "have chosen to coarsen our culture,"Schlichter says.

Their validation and encouragement of raw hate, their flouting of laws (Hi leakers! Hi Hillary!) and their utter refusal to accept democratic outcomes they disapprove of have consequences. What is itself so surprising is how liberals and their media rentboyz are so surprised to find that we normals are beginning to feel about them the way they feel about us and that were starting to act on it. If you hate us, guess what?

Were going to start hating you right back.

National Review critic Kyle Smith was less than kind in his assessment of a recent New York Magazine interview with Hillary Clinton:

The funniest episode in the protective yet revealing new Hillary Clinton profile arrives when we learn that this sad, unemployed, 69-year-old lady is so desperate to keep her self-image alive that she still employs flunkies and retainers to treat her as though she actually were the president, or the secretary of state, or a president in waiting, or at very least the leader of the opposition.

Smith was particularly disgusted with what he says is Clinton's refusal to accept any blame for the election outcome.

"Every time she draws attention to the Trumpian flaws that were conspicuous to all during the campaign, she doesnt hear the obvious rejoinder echoing in every Americans mind: Then why couldnt you trounce him?" Smith concludes.

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And in other Hillary Clinton news:

"Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that her loss to Donald Trump might suggest that Democrats have to start learning how to twist the truth if they're going to start winning elections," the Washington Examiner'sPete Kasperowicz writes. Kasperowicz refers to remarks Clinton made at a tech conference in California, where she attributed part of her loss in the 2016election to what she considers the Trump team's open embrace of "falsehoods, fake news" and "lies."

"The other side was using content that was just flat-out false and delivering it in a very personalized way, both above the radar screen and below," Clinton said.

Kasperowicz said at one point Clinton appeared to reconsider the wisdom of not using the same tactics against her opponent. He said she implied that future candidates might have to resort to lying if they want to win when she said, "I'm not rethinking it, but everybody else better rethink it, because we have to figure out how to combat this."

Citing CNBC, this post on Sean Hannity's website celebrates the private sector jobs report for May, which came in at a robust 253,000 after forecasts of 180,000.

"The Trump administration has made job creation the cornerstone of its economic plan, slashing regulations and rescinding burdensome government policies that inhibit growth," the Hannity post reports.

"Many economists believe its now possible to achieve the White Houses goal of 3% GDP growth per year," the report concludes, without providing specific examples.

President Trump dealt a "devastating setback to international efforts to curb global warming" when he announced Thursday that the US. was pulling out of the Paris climate change agreement, which the Obama administration had taken a big role in brokering, the Huffington Post reported.

The move is a particularly egregious repudiation of the international community because the Trump administration could have negotiated for lower emissions targets under the Paris Agreement, officials and the pacts advocates said. Because of that, the diplomatic fallout will likely be harsher than when President George W. Bush rejected the 1997 Kyoto climate agreement.

President Donald Trump has announced the United States will withdraw from the Paris climate agreement. USA TODAY

"We don't need additional information about the Russian covert scheme to undermine the 2016 campaign, or about the curiousinteractions between Team Trump and Russia, or about Trumppressuring and then firingFBI Director James Comey, to reach the judgment that the president of the United States engaged in wrongdoing," David Corn writes forMother Jones.

Explicit collusion may yet be proved by the FBI investigation overseen byspecial counsel Robert Muelleror by other ongoing probes. But even if it is not, a harsh verdict can be pronounced: Trump actively and enthusiastically aided and abetted Russian President Vladimir Putin's plot against America. This is the scandal. It already exists in plain sight.

The newly elected president of France, Emmanuel Macron, promised to be "demanding" in his dealings with Russia and denounced state news organizations like Russia Today as "fake news" and "propaganda" during a news conference alongside Putin on Monday. "Two weeks into his term, the 39-year-old Macron struck an assertive, principled tone that you would have expected from an American president meeting with an increasingly assertive adversary," wrote Elliot Hannon for Slate.

Macrons assertiveness is noticeably absent in American interactions with Russia, which have melted into a bizarre sycophancy. Macron, like an increasing number of European leaders, seems to have sensed the softening in Washington and has indicated he will strike an equally tough pose in his dealings with the Trump White House.

French President Emmanuel Macron hosted Russia's Vladimir Putin at the sumptuous royal palace in Versailles on Monday to talk about cooperating on fighting terror. Time

There is "glaring hypocrisy" in the Trump family's outcry over Kathy Griffin's photo shoot because of their embrace of right-wing rock star Ted Nugent, writes Aaron Rupar for Think Progress.

"Just last month, Trump invited rock star Ted Nugent to the White House for dinner, despite Nugents repeated calls for the deaths of then-President Obama and Hillary Clinton," Rupar writes.

During Trumps presidential campaign, Nugents well-documented history of racism and violent threats didnt deter Trump fromfeaturing him in his campaign adsand at his rallies.

Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters could not be more clear on his 2017 U.S. tour: He does not like President Trump. At his shows, images played on a massive screen above the stage show Trump wearing lipstick, a wig, in dominatrix leather and naked, the Daily Kos reported. There are also anti-Trump messages that flashon the screen and agiant inflatable pig with Trump's face on it that hovers over the audience. Some fans at were not thrilled at the opening show in Kansas City, according to the Daily Kos.

The fans who didnt like the anti-Trump message must have beensuper bummed out to see children on stage, sporting Resist t-shirts during Waters rendition ofAnother Brick in the Wall. I mean, the guy wrote"The Wall" for Christ sakes. What did you think that was about?

Roger Waters dedicated some of his performance to ridiculing Donald Trump at Desert Trip in Indio, Calif., Oct. 9, 2016.(Photo: Jay Calderon, The Desert Sun)

And here's what had everyone fired up last week:

What really fired up conservatives this week?

What really fired up liberals this week?

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What blew up the liberal and conservative media bubbles this week - USA TODAY

Conservative Review

Liberals are losing their minds over Trump's climate decision Conservative Review Everybody has lost their minds about Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accords. Unelected European bureaucrats say the president can't do it. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told President Trump as much at the G7 ... Liberals Pan Trump's Climate Accord Decision: 'One of the Most Ignorant and Dangerous Actions Ever Taken by Any ...CNSNews.com The Left Is Melting Down Over Trump's Climate Deal ExitFox News Insider Liberal governors team up to fight climate changeThe Hill Axios all 8,559 news articles »

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Liberals are losing their minds over Trump's climate decision - Conservative Review

As Massachusetts Democrats converge for their annual convention in Worcester this weekend, party leaders, activists, and operatives face a dispiriting challenge: blocking Governor Charlie Bakers reelection in 2018.

As Massachusetts Democrats converge for their annual convention in Worcester this weekend, party leaders, activists, and operatives face a dispiriting challenge: blocking Governor Charlie Bakers reelection in 2018.

To eject Baker, the party will have to channel fury from a new wave of party activists, emboldened by their opposition to President Trump, into a campaign to defeat a Republican governor. Baker has distanced himself from the president and a host of his most controversial policies, from climate change and immigration bans to health care and budget cuts.

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Whats more, the governors consistent record-breaking popularity in opinion polls, unprecedented fund-raising prowess, and effective use of his bully pulpit on Beacon Hill have positioned him as an affable Republican moderate and created serious political complications for the Democrats, according to Globe interviews with longtime activists, leaders, and party operatives.

But the rank and files focus on Trump and the turmoil in Washington, while ignoring the governors race, might be their toughest obstacle.

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I see much more enthusiasm among activists in getting rid of Donald Trump than in the governors race, said Janet Beyer, a veteran Democratic state committeewoman from Concord. A lot of Democrats here are more concerned about electing people around the country who can override Trump than whos running for governor, she said.

Another longtime state committee member, Tom Larkin of Bedford, said he sees that as the biggest challenge facing Democrats to harness the passion brought into the party this year by a surge of new anti-Trump activists into a campaign against a moderate Baker.

It is hard enough to get a handle on Baker as a problem, but Trump is boiling the pot, helping us keep the activists in the field, he said. Our challenge is to translate that to a Democratic race to beat Baker. I dont see how we can take advantage of it. Its tricky.

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Other party leaders and the candidates are apparently sensing that, too. Trump is the first name out of their mouths when asked about the Massachusetts gubernatorial race and the strategies to beat Baker.

Aram Boghosian for The Boston Globe/File 2017

Our focus has to be on Trump and what Charlie Baker, as the leader of his party, is going to do to stand up for the people of Massachusetts, Massachusetts Democratic Party Chairman Gus Bickford said.

Trump is an albatross around his neck, Massachusetts Democratic Party Chairman Gus Bickford said. Our focus has to be on Trump and what Charlie Baker, as the leader of his party, is going to do to stand up for the people of Massachusetts.

The announced candidates former Patrick administration fiscal chief Jay Gonzalez, Newton mayor Setti Warren, and environmental activist and 1994 lieutenant governor nominee Robert K. Massie strongly dismiss reports that the nascent gubernatorial race is failing to generate much interest or enthusiasm at the grass roots.

While they are not creating much excitement, they are seen for the most part as credible candidates, with the beginning assemblage of campaign organizations, the development of broad themes for their candidacies, and claims of growing lists of volunteers.

But none of the three has yet to create the kind of spark that Deval Patrick had at this stage of the 2006 race. By 2005s off-year convention, he was creating a visible buzz among the grass roots.

Warren argues that it is too early to make that assessment. But his comments again highlight the point that Trump is the political bugbear at the center of the 2018 state election.

This is where we can actually push back against Trumps policies, Warren said of the race. It is going to take time to build up the grass roots, but we will get there.

The candidates are also nervously looking at a shadow boxer at the edge of the race Attorney General Maura Healey, who has a healthy $1 million in her campaign account and a strong political profile just halfway through her first term.

A Healey candidacy is the Baker camps worst fear and many Democratic leaders greatest wish, according to Republican insiders. But she is showing no signs of jumping into the race at this point. However, Democrats say that if Bakers poll numbers were to crater this fall, she would face strong and tempting urgings for her to get in the race.

Another problem for the gubernatorial contenders is the importance the party is expected to put on the US Senate race. Elizabeth Warrens reelection is the partys priority, particularly with the national Republicans threatening to pour resources into Massachusetts next year to damage her national reputation.

She needs to be our No. 1 priority going into 2018, one of the states top Democrats said. The governor race is an afterthought.

But perhaps the most difficult challenge for Democrats to unravel Bakers candidacy is his public image. Since his hard-fought election, he has crafted a profile that few dispute an affable governor who seems more focused on governing and is not banging the partisan drum or looking for battles with Democrats.

He has cultivated Democrats and set a tone that appeals to moderate voters a swing bloc that often decides gubernatorial elections, particularly for Republicans.

He never uses excitable language, said US Representative Richard Neal, a Springfield Democrat and the dean of states congressional delegation. Its very reassuring. Every word he utters is aimed at suburban independent voters.

Veterans of state politics said they see a parallel to 1994, when a very popular Republican incumbent an affable and moderate William F. Weld cruised to reelection. He crushed Mark Roosevelt, a state representative with historic political roots and a legislative record. He is Theodore Roosevelts great-grandson.

J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press/File 2017

Even Elizabeth Warrens ability to generate turnout of Democrats, political veterans argue, might not necessarily help the Democratic gubernatorial nominee.

Even Elizabeth Warrens ability to generate turnout of Democrats, they argue, might not necessarily help the Democratic gubernatorial nominee. The state has a deep history of ticket splitting. That same year, while Weld won in a record landslide, Senator Edward M. Kennedy handily beat back what at first appeared to be a serious challenge from first-time candidate Mitt Romney.

Some veterans of past campaigns dismiss the notion that partys rank and file, who rallied to Patrick and gave him a landslide victory in the Democratic primary and general election in 2006, are not ready to mount a spirited challenge to Baker. They argue that the anti-Trump fervor that is bringing overflow crowds to party conclaves and local meetings will spill into the state elections next year.

The Democrats have a much more favorable environment than 1994, says Doug Rubin, a Democratic strategist who guided Patrick from obscurity to the governors office in less that two years and in a come-from-behind reelection to beat Baker in 2010.

There is a real grass-roots excitement since the Trump election, which will carry over to the state elections in 2018, Rubin predicts. They are looking for an opportunity to push back. And Democrats win when our base is engaged and motivated.

Originally posted here:
Charlie who? Democrats focus ire toward Trump - The Boston Globe

The White House is telling federal agencies to blow off Democratic lawmakers' oversight requests, as Republicans fear the information could be weaponized against President Donald Trump.

At meetings with top officials for various government departments this spring, Uttam Dhillon, a White House lawyer, told agencies not to cooperate with such requests from Democrats, according to Republican sources inside and outside the administration.

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It appears to be a formalization of a practice that had already taken hold, as Democrats have complained that their oversight letters requesting information from agencies have gone unanswered since January, and the Trump administration has not yet explained the rationale.

The declaration amounts to a new level of partisanship in Washington, where the president and his administration already feels besieged by media reports and attacks from Democrats. The idea, Republicans said, is to choke off the Democratic congressional minorities from gaining new information that could be used to attack the president.

"You have Republicans leading the House, the Senate and the White House," a White House official said. "I don't think you'd have the Democrats responding to every minority member request if they were in the same position."

A White House spokeswoman said the policy of the administration is to accommodate the requests of chairmen, regardless of their political party. There are no Democratic chairmen, as Congress is controlled by Republicans.

The administration also responds to all non-oversight inquiries, including the Senates inquiries for purposes of providing advice and consent on nominees, without regard to the political party of the requester, the spokeswoman said. Multiple agencies have, in fact, responded to minority member requests. No agencies have been directed not to respond to minority requests.

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Republicans said that President Barack Obamas administration was not always quick to respond to them and sometimes ignored them. However, the Obama White House never ordered agencies to stop cooperating with Republican oversight requests altogether, making the marching orders from Trumps aides that much more unusual.

What I do not remember is a blanket request from the Obama administration not to respond to Republicans, said a former longtime senior Republican staffer.

There are some exceptions to the Trump administration order, particularly from national security agencies, Democrats and Republicans said. Agencies will also comply if a Republican committee chairman joins the Democratic requests, but ranking members oversight requests are spurned.

Congressional minorities frequently ask questions of the administration intended to embarrass the president or garner a quick headline. And Democrats have fired off requests they surely knew the administration would not answer, such as asking the White House in March to make visitor logs of Trump Tower and Mar-A-Lago publicly available.

But House and Senate lawmakers also routinely fire off much more obscure requests not intended to generate news coverage. And the Trump administrations plans to stonewall Democrats is in many ways unprecedented and could lead to a worsening of the gridlock in Washington.

Austin Evers, a former Obama administration lawyer in the State Department who runs a watchdog group called American Oversight, said the Trump administration has instituted a dramatic change in policy from Reagan-era congressional standards in which the government provided more information to committee chairman but also consistently engaged in oversight with rank-and-file minority members.

Instructing agencies not to communicate with members of the minority party will poison the well. It will damage relationships between career staffers at agencies and subject matter experts in Congress, Evers said. One of the reasons you respond to letters from the minority party is to explain yourself. It is to put on the record that even accusations that you find unreasonable are not accurate.

One month ago, Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.) and other Democrats sent a letter to the Office of Personnel Management asking for cybersecurity information after it was revealed that millions of people had their identities compromised. The letterasked questions about how cybersecurity officials were hired, and in Rices view, it was not a political letter at all.

"The answer we got back is, We only speak to the chair people of committees. We said, That's absurd, what are you talking about? Rice said in an interview. I was dumbfounded at their response. I had never gotten anything like that The administration has installed loyalists at every agency to keep tabs on what information people can get.

At a House Appropriations hearing in May, Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.) asked acting General Services Administrator Tim Horne about a briefing House Oversight Committee staffers had received from the GSA, in which they were informed that the GSA has a new policy only to respond to Republican committee chairmen.

The administration has instituted a new policy that matters of oversight need to be requested by the committee chair, Horne responded.

In February, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) asked for information on changes to healthcare.gov from the Health and Human Services Department. Theyre still waiting for an answer. In early May, Murray and six other senators asked the president about why Vivek Murthy was dismissed as surgeon general. There was no response, and her staff said those are just a couple of the requests that have gone unanswered.

Its no surprise that they would try to prevent Congress from getting the information we need to make sure government is working for the people we represent, Murray said when asked about the lack of cooperation.

The Senates Homeland Security and Government Accountability Committee, the primary investigator in that chamber, has received some responses from the Trump administration but has seen several letters only signed by Democrats ignored. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) wrote Education Secretary Betsy DeVos asking for help addressing the challenges of rural schools and joined with Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) to question the security of Trumps use of a personal cell phone as president. Neither was answered, an aide said.

A senior Democratic aide said that of the Senate Democrats 225 oversight letters sent to the Trump administration since January asking for information, the vast majority have received no response.

When it comes to almost anything weve done at a federal agency, very close to 100 percent of those we havent heard anything back. And at the White House its definitely 100 percent, said a second senior Democratic aide. This is rampant all over committee land.

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White House orders agencies to ignore Democrats' oversight requests - Politico