McConnell (majority leader), and Cornyn (majority whip), lost this one.

(Via The Hill) Mitch McConnell staged an epic gamble over U.S. spying powers — and lost.
The Republican leader pledged to keep senators in Washington through the weekend to finish work on expiring provisions of the Patriot Act, but Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) called his bluff.
Instead, when the smoke cleared in the early hours of Saturday morning, the 2016 presidential contender was the one with bragging rights.
The battle between the two Kentucky Republicans spilled over on the Senate floor, with Paul using procedural tactics to force the chamber into an early Saturday vote. He then used his leverage to kill off McConnell’s repeated attempts to reauthorize the expiring National Security Agency (NSA) programs — first for two months, then for eight days, then for five, then three, then two. (more…)

Tell me again what benefit there was to re-electing Mitch McConnell, or giving Republicans the victory in the Senate?

Trade Promotion Authority or TPA contains fast-track provisions would allow Congress, under strict timelines, to consider trade deals with a simple up-or-down vote without any amendments or requirements of a Senate super-majority to end debate.
This would grant new power to the executive branch and reduce congressional ability to modify of block the TPP bill itself.  Obviously this would help Obama complete the final details of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), with the other 11 nations, a bloc that represents about 40 percent of the global economy.

(Via Washington Post)  President Obama won a big victory for his trade agenda Friday with the Senate’s approval of fast-track legislation that could make it easier for him to complete a wide-ranging trade deal that would include 11 Pacific Rim nations.

A coalition of 48 Senate Republicans and 14 Democrats voted for Trade Promotion Authority late Friday, sending the legislation to a difficult fight in the House, where it faces more entrenched opposition from Democrats.

(more…)

With 100% of precincts reporting, Matt Bevin is ahead by only 83 votes… 
KENTUCKY – The race for the Republican gubernatorial election went down to the wire and then some Tuesday night.

After 214,187 votes were counted, Louisville businessman Matt Bevin held an 83-vote lead over Commissioner of Agriculture James Comer, but Comer said late Tuesday night that he owed it to his supporters to ask for a recanvass.
According to the secretary of state’s office, a recanvass will be conducted at 9 a.m. May 28. In a recanvass, printed vote totals are checked against figures sent to the state Board of Elections. No individual votes are actually recounted. (more…)

Exactly a year ago, May 2014, we shared the predictable factual activities, specific tripwires, which outline a specific path to a very specific destination.

Here’s an update:

  +    =

P2106: Florida GOP decided today that the March 15 presidential primary will be "winner take all" for the 99 delegates at stake.

— Politics1.com (@Politics1com) May 17, 2015

Any questions?
(more…)

If, like many of us, you are deep in the weeds in your understanding of the issues around Benghazi, the 2010 Arab Spring (Tunis, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Bahrain, Yemen), or the CIA operation “Zero Footprint” in Libya and the follow-up operation in Syria, you will enjoy this interview with former Panetta/Petraeus replacement Mike Morell.
Or, if you have a cursory understanding of events, this interview might spur you toward further research.  “The Benghazi Brief” – Regardless of your current level of understanding behind events of the past 7+ years, this interview is well constructed.
Bret Baier has done his homework, and in a refreshing and surprising manner you can see how Baier is able to cut through the distracting ‘talking points’ (no pun intended), and draw out the reality of what lies behind Morell and his foundational motives.

The cultural Marxists within the Senate voted 56-43 to confirm Loretta Lynch as the country’s first black female attorney general. Ignoring mountains of evidence showing her corrupt involvement in, and selective prosecution of, Wall Street Banking schemes.

To wit the usual usurpers and their ideological co-dependents joined forces.
Voting along with the Democrats you will note 10 DECEPTICONS. Those familiar with our research will immediately identify the ideology displayed.  They are: (more…)

There has been some professional parseltongue from the Rubio camp in response to their candidate being caught on camera pledging to retain Obama’s executive amnesty (DACA) if he were President.  They’ve even argued a “lost in translation” approach, and should be embarrassed.
However, this should clear it up for those who are following Rubio’s proposals, and calling him the “pragmatic” candidate.

(Via Breitbart) The chief spokesman for the presidential campaign of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said in an on-record interview with Breitbart News that the senator, if elected president, would not require a secured border before he gives legislative and permanent amnesty to recipients of President Barack Obama’s first executive amnesty, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

“No,” Alex Conant said when asked if the border would need to be secured before a President Rubio’s legislative amnesty for recipients of Obama’s 2012 DACA would replace that executive amnesty.

Rubio intends to, if elected to the White House—as he laid out in a Spanish-language interview with Univision’s Jorge Ramos this weekend and was subsequently confirmed by Conant—eventually undo DACA. But he would not do so until there is a legislative replacement that provides the legal status—or amnesty—to DACA recipients on a permanent basis.  (read more)

For what it’s worth no candidate is proposing a solution to the problem, they each are trying to find a way to navigate through the minefield of being called “heartless” etc. (more…)

Until substantive and factual information reveals something divergent I’m sticking to my initial researched opinion that Marco Rubio’s campaign bid is purely a decepticon maneuver to plow through the field, and aid his mentor Jeb Bush.
(Via Allan Wall) Republican candidate Marco Rubio, in a chat with Jorge Ramos, in Spanish, made it clear that, on this issue, any differences between a President Rubio and President Obama would be insubstantial.
Matthew Boyle of Breitbart (a valuable source on immigration issues) has written up a report on the interview:

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), a 2016 GOP presidential candidate, said he believes that President Barack Obama’s first executive amnesty for so-called DREAMers—the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)—is “important” and he won’t reverse it himself if elected president. He delivered these remarks in a Spanish-language interview he gave to Univision’s Jorge Ramos.

So here is Rubio, speaking in Spanish to Jorge Ramos, a principal proponent of the Hispanicization of the U.S., telling him this. (more…)

Florida Senator Marco Rubio has announced his official entry into the 2016 Presidential race.

Miami (CNN)—Sen. Marco Rubio cast himself as the forward-looking candidate to lead the nation toward a new American century when he announced his presidential bid Monday, framing the election as a “generational choice” for Americans.

“Grounded by the lessons of our history, but inspired by the promise of our future, I announce my candidacy for President of the United States of America,” Rubio told supporters at Miami’s Freedom Tower.

Rubio’s candidacy will lean heavily on his personal story as the son of Cuban immigrants and argue that the American Dream seems unattainable for many because “too many of our leaders and their ideas are stuck in the twentieth century.”

“My candidacy might seem improbable to some watching from abroad,” Rubio said. “In many countries, the highest office in the land is reserved for the rich and powerful. But I live in an exceptional country, I live in an exceptional country, where even the son of a bartender and a maid can have the same dreams and the same future as those who come from power and privilege.” (more…)

If you look at this picture taken during the 2013 non-shutdown government shutdown, you might think Utah Senator Mike Lee and Texas Senator Ted Cruz are two conservatives of a similar mindset – each willing to support the other.

However, if you forward the time machine a few months later you’ll find another optic.

This time it’s early 2014 and Senator Rand Paul and Senator Ted Cruz are discussing the pre-mid-term State of the Union with a rather alarming message.  Neither one of them was going to offer support to any non incumbent GOP challenger in primary races. (more…)