Can you guess what time it is?
IT'S POP CORN TIME!
RINOs coming out of the wood work.
Twice this has happened, once with Gaetz, and now again with Kash.
Patel Pick Draws Fire From Democrats, Some Republicans
https://www.newsmax.com/politics/kash-patel-opposition-democrats/2024/12/01/id/1189973/
President-elect Donald Trump's pick of Kash Patel as FBI director has drawn the ire of Democrats and some Republicans.
Trump announced the nomination Saturday evening on Truth Social, prompting a wave of responses from lawmakers across the political aisle, ranging from either vehement opposition or a light skepticism.
On Sunday, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., told NBC News that over Thanksgiving, he received bomb threats and that he was "concerned" Patel would protect only Republicans.
Other Democrats expressing skepticism included Sen. Dick Durbin, the Senate's majority whip. According to CBS News, Durbin in a letter urged his colleagues to reject Patel.
"We already have a FBI director," Durbin wrote, adding the president-elect wants to "replace his own appointee with an unqualified loyalist." Trump appointed FBI Director Christopher Wray during his first term in office.
"The Senate should reject this unprecedented effort to weaponize the FBI for the campaign of retribution that Donald Trump has promised," Durbin wrote.
Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., told ABC News' "This Week" that he has no complaints about Wray and thinks Trump "picked a very good man to be the director of the FBI when he did that in his first term."
"The president has the right to make nominations, but normally these are for a 10-year term. We'll see what his process is, and whether he actually makes that nomination.
"And then, if he does, just as with anybody who is nominated for one of these positions, once they've been nominated by the president, then the president gets, you know, the benefit of the doubt on the nomination. But we still go through a process, and that process includes advice and consent, which for the Senate means advice or consent sometimes," he said.
John Bolton, former national security adviser to Trump, compared Patel to Soviet Union leader Josef Stalin's head of secret police, Lavrentiy Beria, on CNN.
"Trump has nominated Kash Patel to be his Lavrentiy Beria. Fortunately, the FBI is not the NKVD [People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs]. The Senate should reject this nomination 100-0," Bolton said.
Vice President-elect J.D. Vance responded to Bolton's statement on X, writing: "John Bolton has been wrong about everything so I guess Kash must be pretty awesome."
OMG! A democrap actually said this?
Colo. Dem Gov. Polis: Biden Put Family Ahead of US With Pardon
https://www.newsmax.com/us/pardon-biden-family/2024/12/02/id/1190014/
President Joe Biden "put his family ahead of the country" when he issued a full pardon to son Hunter Biden, Colorado Democrat Gov. Jared Polis lamented Sunday.
Biden on Sunday pardoned his son, Hunter, sparing the younger Biden a possible prison sentence for federal felony gun and tax convictions and reversing his past promises not to use the extraordinary powers of the presidency for the benefit of his family members.
Polis, considered a potential contender in the Democratic Party's 2028 presidential race, used social media to rip the president for Hunter's pardon.
"While as a father I certainly understand President @JoeBiden's natural desire to help his son by pardoning him, I am disappointed that he put his family ahead of the country," Polis wrote Sunday night at X. "This is a bad precedent that could be abused by later presidents and will sadly tarnish his reputation. When you become president, your role is Pater familias of the nation.
"Hunter brought the legal trouble he faced on himself, and one can sympathize with his struggles while also acknowledging that no one is above the law, not a president and not a president's son."
Hunter Biden was convicted in June of three gun felonies and pleaded guilty in September to $1.4 million in tax fraud on income from Chinese and Ukrainian relationships in which he repeatedly involved his father.
The fallout continues on!
Fmr Clinton Staffer Mark Penn: 'Disgraceful Pardon'
https://www.newsmax.com/us/pardon-hunter-joe-biden/2024/12/02/id/1190006/
A former Democrat strategist said President Joe Biden granting son Hunter full immunity from prosecution was "disgraceful" and selfish.
Biden on Sunday pardoned his son Hunter, sparing the younger Biden a possible prison sentence for federal felony gun and tax convictions and reversing his past promises not to use the extraordinary powers of the presidency for the benefit of his family members.
Mark Penn, a former adviser to President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, tore into Joe Biden for issuing the pardon.
"Disgraceful Pardon," Penn wrote Sunday night on X.
"This was not a pardon of just Hunter Biden but of Joe Biden himself as his son ran a scheme with Joe's brother to shakedown adversaries of over $20 million and then didn't even pay taxes on it. And the loot was distributed even to grand children.
"And this is yet another of the many issues the American public was shamefully gaslighted over.
"Biden of course falsely claimed he would not pardon his son, and so what else was Biden falsely saying before the election that he would have done had he been elected? We will never know but we sure can guess …"
Joe Biden has been using tariffs as well apparently.
US Sets Tariffs for Solar Panels From SE Asia
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/u-s-solar-panels-tariffs/2024/11/29/id/1189791/
U.S. trade officials announced a new round of tariffs on solar panel imports from four Southeast Asian nations after American manufacturers complained that companies there are flooding the market with unfairly cheap goods.
It is the second of two preliminary decisions that President Joe Biden's Commerce Department is making this year in a trade case brought by Korea's Hanwha Qcells, Arizona-based First Solar Inc. and several smaller producers seeking to protect billions of dollars in investments in U.S. solar manufacturing.
Announced Friday, this is the latest chapter in a more than decade-long trade war with Chinese companies over their solar dominance. Chinese manufacturers have responded to U.S. solar tariffs by moving their massive operations to nations where they will not face duties — including Southeast Asia.
The group, the American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee, accused big Chinese solar panel makers with factories in Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand of causing global prices to collapse by dumping products into the market. The Hanwha-led group has sought antidumping duty rates of between 70.35% and 271.45%, depending on the country, to offset the unfair pricing. It also has sought tariffs to combat unfair subsidies in those nations, and the Commerce Department imposed preliminary antisubsidy duties last month.
On Friday, the department issued a range of preliminary rates for panels from the four countries. Its final determinations are set for April 18, 2025, with the ITC set to finalize its determinations the following June 2 and final orders expected June 9.
Most solar panels installed in the United States are made overseas, and some 80% of imports come from the four nations targeted in the Commerce Department probe.
Tariffs would increase prices for companies that import panels to install on rooftops or build solar power plants, but the United States over more than a decade has shown a willingness to impose duties on the sector in a bid to bolster the small U.S. clean energy manufacturing industry.
The Biden administration this year raised the alarm over China's massive investment in factory capacity for clean energy goods. Biden's landmark climate change law, the Inflation Reduction Act, includes incentives for companies that produce clean energy equipment in the United States — a subsidy that has prompted a flurry of plans for new solar factories.
President-elect Donald Trump has called the Inflation Reduction Act too expensive, but also has said he plans to slap hefty tariffs on a range of sectors to protect American workers.
Dumping occurs when a company sells a product in the United States at a price below its cost of production or lower than what it charges in its home country.