Wednesday, November 8, 2017

The Daily Brief: Wednesday, November 8th



The Daily Brief: Wednesday, November 8th (Short Form)


1. Democrats End Losing Streak - Washington Free Beacon

Democrat Ralph Northam defeated Republican Ed Gillespie in Tuesday's election to determine Virginia's next governor. Northam was declared the winner by the Associated Press at 8:12 p.m, just about an hour after the polls closed. Northam was leading by about four percentage points when the race was called. Northam, currently Virginia's lieutenant governor, emerged from the election's primary phase as the clear favorite, but the polls had tightened in recent weeks.

The win comes after a long string of defeats for Democrats that followed their crushing losses last November, when Republicans maintained control of both chambers of Congress and took the presidency.

The win further solidifies Virginia as a blue state: Democrats there have now won two straight gubernatorial elections, carried the state in three straight presidential elections, and have held both the state's Senate seats since 2009. In 2016, failed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton carried Virginia by five points. (Read more)

- Father, we pray for Governor-elect Northam, that he would truly govern the state of Virginia well and advocate for the concerns of all Virginians. We pray for the people of Virginia, to continue in their freedom to live peacefully and grow in their relationship with You.

- I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity. This is good and pleases God our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth. (1 Timothy 2:1-4)


2. Democratic LGBT, minority candidates see historic wins but long-term impact on diversity unclear - ABCNews.com

As Democrats nabbed two major gubernatorial races, Election Day Tuesday was also a historic night for a number of minority and LGBT candidates. Former journalist Danica Roem became the nation's first openly transgender woman elected to a state legislature. Roem unseated Virginia delegate Robert Marshall, who described himself as "chief homophobe" and reportedly referred to Roem during the campaign with male pronouns.

"No matter what you look like, where you come from, how you worship, who you love, how you identify, or any other inherent identifier that you have ... that if you have good public policy ideas, if you're well-qualified for office, bring those ideas to the table because this is your America too," she said in her victory speech Tuesday night. Roem added, "Discrimination is a disqualifier."

Andra Gillespie, a political scientist at Emory University in Atlanta, cautioned that such victories in an off-year election might not have an immediate effect on the 2018 midterms. "These elections are notable and noteworthy but it's going to be years before we know what the long-term impact is on diversifying the candidate pool," Gillespie told ABC News today. (Read more)

- "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34)

"Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter." (Isaiah 5:20)


3. Comey draft statement on Clinton emails called her actions 'grossly negligent,' new memos show - Fox News

Newly reported memos to Congress released Monday showed that language was softened between an early draft and the final copy of former FBI Director James Comey's statement closing out the Hillary Clinton email case. Originally Comey accused the former secretary of state of being "grossly negligent" in handling classified information in a draft dated May 2, 2016, but that was modified to claim that Clinton had been "extremely careless" in a draft dated June 10, 2016. Comey stuck to that modified language when he announced in July 2016 that there would be no charges against Clinton.

Federal law states that gross negligence in handling the nation's intelligence can be punished criminally with prison time or fines, according to The Hill, which first reported on the memos. "There is evidence to support a conclusion that Secretary Clinton, and others, used the email server in a manner that was grossly negligent with respect to the handling of classified information," one of Comey's earliest drafts states. (Read more)

- Father, we pray for increasing pressure upon our government officials to disclose all backroom deals and malfeasance. We pray for justice and accountability for those who have abused their power.

- Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust. (Luke 20:18)


4. Fusion GPS official met with Russian operative before and after Trump Jr. sit-down - Fox News

The co-founder of Fusion GPS, the firm behind the unverified Trump dossier, met with a Russian lawyer before and after a key meeting she had last year with Trump's son, Fox News has learned. The contacts shed new light on how closely tied the firm was to Russian interests, at a time when it was financing research to discredit then-candidate Donald Trump.

The opposition research firm has faced renewed scrutiny after litigation revealed that the DNC and Hillary Clinton's campaign paid for that research.

Congressional Republicans have since questioned whether that politically financed research contributed to the FBI's investigation of Russian collusion with the Trump campaign - making Fusion's 2016 contacts with Russian interests all the more relevant.

The June 2016 Trump Tower meeting involving Donald Trump Jr. and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya occurred during a critical period. At that time, Fox News has learned that bank records show Fusion GPS was paid by a law firm for work on behalf of a Kremlin-linked oligarch while paying a former British spy Christopher Steele to dig up dirt on Trump through his Russian contacts.

But hours before the Trump Tower meeting on June 9, 2016, Fusion co-founder and ex-Wall Street Journal reporter Glenn Simpson was with Veselnitskaya in a Manhattan federal courtroom, a confidential source told Fox News. Court records reviewed by Fox News, email correspondence and published reports corroborate the pair's presence together. The source told Fox News they also were together after the Trump Tower meeting. (Read more)

- Father, we pray the truth about this meeting, an apparent set-up by the Democrat party, will become fully known.

- An honest witness does not deceive, but a false witness pours out lies.
(Proverbs 14:5)


5. GOP lawmakers introduce resolution telling Robert Mueller to resign - Washington Examiner

Legislation being introduced Friday by a Florida Republican tells special counsel Robert Mueller to resign from his position looking into possible Trump campaign contacts with Russia. The resolution introduced by Rep. Matt Gaetz focuses on the alleged lack of FBI action under Mueller's leadership regarding the 2010 Uranium One deal approved by the Hillary Clinton State Department.

Mueller was FBI director from 2001 to 2013 and the legislation says "any thorough and honest investigation into the corruption of American-uranium related business must include investigating the willful blindness of the FBI and its leaders." Reps. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., and Louis Gohmert, R-Texas, are initial cosponsors on the resolution.

The Uranium One deal resulted in Russian ownership of a Canadian firm with U.S. assets. It was finalized the same year former President Bill Clinton received a $500,000 speaking fee from a Russian bank linked to the deal. The Clinton Foundation received donations from others connected to the deal. If adopted, the resolution declares "[t]hat House of Representatives expresses its sense that Robert Mueller is compromised and should resign from his special counsel position immediately." (Read more)

- Father, only You know if Special Council Mueller is truly doing his job or not. We pray this action will be successful if he is not being just and fair in the investigation.

- Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly. (Leviticus 19:15)


6. Why Donna Brazile is No Longer with Her - American Spectator

We have fascinated over the Donna Brazile hubbub, with the DNC's ex-temporary-chairperson adopting Ayn Rand's "Virtue of Selfishness," hawking her book shamelessly by disclosing that the Democrat National Committee sold whatever tidbits of soul it may have had to Hillary Clinton before the 2016 presidential primaries even got rolling. Yet the story was all there, hidden in plain sight at least a year and a half ago.

In a retrospectively startling piece that Ms. [Margo] Kidder, a naturalized American from Canada who evolved into a left-wing activist in Montana, published a year and a half ago in Counterpunch, the anti-Clinton Democrat purist broke the full story of the depraved sell-out by thirty-three separate Democrat State Committees all over the country, who each agreed to participate in a surreptitious nationwide money-cleansing scheme coordinated by the Hillary Clinton campaign.

As Ms. Kidder wrote: "Corruption is corruption is corruption no matter how many laws there are allowing it." (Read more)

- Father, we pray the corruption of the Clinton campaign will be fully exposed and prosecuted.

- All who fear the Lord will hate evil. Therefore, I hate pride and arrogance, corruption and perverse speech. (Proverbs 8:13)


7. Nikki Haley tells United Nations: You're not the boss of U.S. - McClatchy DC

The United States voted against a UN resolution condemning America's economic embargo against Cuba on Wednesday. The embargo resolution was overwhelmingly approved in the 193-member General Assembly by a vote of 191-2, with Israel joining the U.S. UN Ambassador Nikki Haley said the American people had chosen a new president and the United States would vote against any resolution calling for the lifting of the embargo "as long as the proceeds from trade with Cuba go to prop up the dictatorial regime responsible for denying those (human) rights."

Ambassador Nikki Haley blasted the United Nations Wednesday in a defiant speech to the 193-member General Assembly before it adopted a resolution calling for an end to the U.S. economic embargo on Cuba. Haley called the long-standing debate "political theater. Let's be honest about what we really see going on here," Haley said. "This assembly does not have the power to end the U.S. embargo. It is based in U.S. law, which only the United States Congress can change." (Read more)

- Father, we thank You for this renewed stand against the Cuban regime. We pray for the freedom of the Cuban people and an end to their long suffering.

- Because I suffer and am in need, let the Lord think of me. You are my help and the One Who sets me free. O my God, do not wait. (Psalm 40:17)


8. Senate Confirms Trump's Judicial Nominees Despite Democrats' Opposition - Breitbart

Senate Republicans delivered a series of victories to President Donald Trump this week, confirming four federal appeals judges and two trial judges, with more expected soon. Republicans across the spectrum continue to complain about the Senate's dysfunctional condition on a wide variety of issues, due in large part to the narrow 52-48 GOP margin in the Senate, aided by the fact that seven moderate Republican senators have proven unreliable in advancing the president's agenda and conservative priorities, for many of them reversing the positions they took during the Obama presidency.

Conservative Republicans, in particular, have complained bitterly about the Senate's inability to fill hundreds of positions, including, especially, nominations to serve on the federal courts. Regarding the third branch of government, the president has nominated 56 people thus far to fill more than 150 current and upcoming vacancies on the federal bench at all three levels of the judiciary, comprised of the Supreme Court, 13 appeals courts, and 94 district courts. The number of judges confirmed has jumped in a week from 7 to 13, with more than 40 nominations pending in the Senate.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is preparing to schedule additional judicial nominees for votes on the Senate floor. (Read more)

- Father, thank You for these capable jurists. We pray each will have great influence as they work to interpret and apply the laws of our nation.

- "He keeps away from sin, and is an honest judge when men argue. He walks in My Laws and is careful to obey them. This man is right and good, and will live for sure," says the Lord God. (Ezekiel 18:8b-9)


9. Trump admin cleans up another Obamacare mess - WND

The Trump administration has resolved a dispute over Obamacare's abortion mandate that the previous administration refused to address even though U.S. courts ordered it to be fixed. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Hobby Lobby case that the federal government could not force a for-profit business to subsidize abortion in health-care insurance plans in violation of the owners' religious beliefs. Later, the court ruled in the Little Sisters of the Poor case that faith-based nonprofit ministries are exempt.

The Supreme Court, pointed out First Liberty Institute, ordered the cases returned to lower courts where the Obama administration should "seek to accommodate the ministries." Instead of responding to the court, the Obama administration, in some cases, ignored the instructions.

And that left Insight for Living Ministries - the international Bible-teaching ministry of Pastor Charles R. Swindoll, the chancellor of Dallas Theological Seminary and founder of Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, Texas - on the hook. Likewise for the Christian and Missionary Alliance, a denomination serving half-a-million Americans. "The Obama administration left office without providing any relief for organizations like IFLM and CMA," said First Liberty.

"The last three years of litigation could have been avoided entirely if the Obama administration had simply recognized that the First Amendment protects the rights conscience of these religious ministries against an administration intent on coercing their obedience. We are grateful that the Trump administration has agreed to end this unnecessary and harmful assault on religious liberty," the non-profit legal organization said. (Read more)

- Father, we thank You for this important clarification and we pray religious people will never again be required to pay for procedures or medication that is immoral.

- Love the Lord, all you godly ones! For the Lord protects those who are loyal to him, but he harshly punishes the arrogant. (Psalm 31:23)


10. Tribe Living In Arctic Wilderness Says Environmental Regs Are Making Them 'Conservation Refugees' - Daily Caller

Kaktovik village tribal administrator Matthew Rexford addressed the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources in a hearing Thursday over the possibility of opening up ANWR's 1002 area to oil and gas development. "We do not approve of efforts to turn our homeland into one giant national park, which literally guarantees us a fate with no economy, no jobs, reduced subsistence and no hope for the future of our people," Rexford told the committee. "We are already being impacted by restrictions of access to the federal lands for subsistence purposes - this is really disturbing to us since we have lived here long before there ever was a refuge designated."

"Attempts to permanently block development in the 1002 - an area intentionally not designated as wilderness because of its oil and gas potential - is a slap in the face to our region and its people," Rexford said. "It's exactly the same as saying, 'it's okay for everyone else in this country to have a thriving economy, but you can't have one at all.'" (Read more)

- Father, we pray these Kaktovik voices will be heard and their petition granted - to have permission to develop the natural resources in ANWR 1002.

- In any of the towns in your land the Lord your God is giving you, if there is anyone poor among you, do not let your heart be hard and not be willing to help him. (Deuteronomy 15:7)


11. Actually we need more nominees like Scott Garrett who oppose the agency they head - Washington Examiner

Mainstream and liberal reporters think they have conservative nominee Scott Garrett in a contradiction or a flip-flop. You see, when Garrett was a congressman from Northern New Jersey, he consistently and vocally opposed the Export-Import Bank, despite having a large constituency of wealthy bankers, who are among the biggest beneficiaries of Ex-Im's subsidies.

Now Garrett is President Trump's nominee to head the Export-Import Bank. In the eyes of Ex-Im's beneficiaries, including the manufacturers lobby, this is some grave contradiction. When Garrett said it wasn't today in his hearing, reporters almost all interpreted him as flip-flopping. Ex-Im shouldn't exist. If it does exist, it should be run by Scott Garrett who will be able to reform it and possibly transform it from a corporate welfare agency to one actually focused on helping small businesses expand into new markets. (Read more)

- Father, we pray Scott Garrett will be confirmed and bring needed reforms to the Export-Import Bank.

- Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will stand before kings; He will not stand before obscure men. (Proverbs 22:29)


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