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February 2017

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Secretary of Defense James Mattis held talks with Iraqi leaders on Monday where he promised them that America has not interfered with the country to take its oil. From The Wall Street Journal:
“I think all of us here in this room, all of us in America, have paid for our gas and oil all along and I’m sure that we will continue to do so in the future,” he told reporters in Abu Dhabi before arriving in Iraq on Monday. “We are not in Iraq to seize anybody’s oil.”

Former Major League baseball player Jose Canseco won't be welcoming our new robotic overlords anytime soon. Monday, Canseco published a flurry of tweets warning about the mechanization of jobs once held by humans. Don't worry, robots "won't attack and kill us like in the movies," they'll just steal all of our jerbs.

President Donald Trump has picked U.S. Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster as his new national security adviser. Acting national security adviser Keith Kellogg will remain as chief of staff to the National Security Council:
“I think that combination is something very, very special,” Trump said of the pair.

The Wall Street Journal has reported that distracted drivers on their smartphones have caused auto insurance companies to raise rates:
Costs associated with crashes are outpacing premium increases for some companies, and insurers say the use of smartphones to talk, text and access the internet while on the road is a new and important factor behind the wrecks.

Here is a story that has gone underreported in the media, but deserves so much more attention. Last September, the Indianapolis Star reported that females have accused now former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University physician Larry Nassar of sexual abuse. By November the number reached 50 women. Some of these women have spoken out about the alleged abuse, including Jessica Howard, the U.S. National champion from 1999 to 2001 in rhythmic gymnastics. Nassar veiled the alleged sexual abuse as medical treatment for her.

Despite the fact that I hold no medical degree, I don't think I am going out on a limb when I diagnose California's political class as being certifiably insane. The Golden State's legislators are bracing for the repeal and replacement of Obamacare by proposing a single-payer, government-run health care plan that includes illegal aliens.
“We’ve reached this pivotal moment and I thought to myself: ‘Look, now more than ever is the time to talk about universal health care,’” one of Senate Bill 562’s authors, Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, said in an interview Friday.

The MSM is falsely portraying President Trump as having alleged on Saturday that a "terror" attack had occurred the night before in Sweden. Take, for example, this NBC story headlined "Donald Trump Explains Sweden Terror Comment That Baffled a Nation." In addition to the misleading headline, the story includes a video clip of President Trump making his remarks. The chyron at the bottom of the screen reads "President Trump appears to refer to a non-existent terror incident in Sweden." But if you listen to the president's remarks, you'll see that he never mentioned terror. He said: "The bottom line: we've got to keep our country safe. You look at what's happening in Germany. You look at what's happening last night in Sweden. Sweden! Who would believe this? Sweden! They took in large numbers, they're having problems like they never thought possible."

In order to honor President's Day, I thought I would share five of my favorite presidential moments. I'll present them in historical, rather than "top" or favorite, order.

Abraham Lincoln: "Gettysburg Address"

Like many conservatives, I have serious reservations about much that Lincoln did, but this speech is a winner from beginning to end.

In a rare appearance on FOX News Sunday, Rush Limbaugh addressed a number of Trump related issues including the reasons for his loyal support, his battle with the media, and who's obstructing him in Washington. Here are some details from FOX News:
Limbaugh blasts news media attacks on Trump as pointless, 'kind of comical' Conservative radio star Rush Limbaugh on Sunday assailed the news media, suggesting its efforts to “destroy” Republican President Trump are “comical” and dismissing stories about Russia purportedly influencing the 2016 White House race in Trump’s favor.

It's not popular to be politically conservative at Cornell University, where I teach at the law school. A recent study by The Cornell Sun student newspaper documented that 97% of faculty donations at Cornell Univ. went to Democrats, while an analysis by The College Fix showed that eleven departments at Cornell have ZERO Republican professors. While Cornell is nowhere near as political or radical as many other Ivy League schools, such as Columbia, at the student level there is an overwhelmingly liberal and far-left bent among those students who are politically active.