"Dick's Sporting Goods, which announced in February it would no longer sell rifles to anyone under the age of 21, hired three Beltway lobbyists to lobby Congress for gun control, according to federal records reviewed by The Federalist.

"The lobbying records show Dick's hired two Democrats and one Republican from Glover Park Group, a DC-based government affairs firm, for '[l]obbying related to gun control.' No other policy issues were listed in the disclosure form filed by the firm. The disclosure forms show Dick's pro-gun control lobbying effort began official on April 27, 2018. The official registration form noting Dick's retention of Glover to push for gun control was filed on Monday morning. ...

"In February, Dick's CEO announced the sporting goods chain would no longer sell rifles to anyone under the age of 21, even though such sales are perfectly legal under federal law."

"Spring has sprung, and you might have noticed that gas prices have sprung a little, too.

"It's never pleasant to fill your tank and feel your wallet empty at the same time. But console yourself by recalling how much higher prices were in the spring of 2014. Things would be a lot worse today if not for America producing ever-more oil to counteract OPEC's price manipulation. ...

"North American energy independence was discussed in 2012 as a game-changer that would strengthen America in world affairs. Today, this is no longer a goal but a fact. The oil and gas industry is one that creates wealth, provides well-paid jobs and benefits without subsidies, and that reduces trade deficits.

"Oil won't last forever, but it will last a long time. The world needs American energy, and we're selling it to them. Politicians should avoid embracing extreme environmentalist ideas that won't reduce the world's thirst for energy, but would ship American oil producers' good jobs overseas."

Read entire article here.

"These are not happy days for the liberals, or progressives, or Democrats, or whatever they're calling themselves this week as, one by one, they stink up the familiar labels we've all used over the years.

"Donald Trump is so evil that good people will neither touch nor praise anything he says, does or advocate. That's in the catechism. ...

"Now Israel has discovered what looks like proof that Mr. Obama swallowed a lot of lies to collude with the mullahs for a deal with Iran to 'resolve' Iran's nuclear-weapons program. This might be the smoking gun that Mr. Trump needs to justify trashing the deal with the mullahs.

"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed Monday that his government had seized a cache of documents that proves Iran lied to the world about its nuclear-weapons program for years, even after the Obama agreement was signed in 2015. ...

"Mr. Netanyahu's disclosures rattled Capitol Hill on Monday. 'Everything the Obama administration told us about the Iranian nuclear deal program was a lie,' a source described as a senior congressional official tells the Washington Free Beacon. 'They assured us that we knew "everything about everything" about Iran's nuclear weapons program, that it was put on ice, and that the intelligence community had full insight into what was going on.'

"The disclosures were received by the usual suspects with the usual smirk and snark. The New York Times, which never meets an enemy of the United States that it can't trust (verification not necessary), sniffed that Mr. Netanyahu's presentation was 'highly theatrical' and 'without any evidence of violations.'

"Mr. Trump may never get a peace prize, but the Booby Prize is likely to go to his unhinged enemies at home, blinded by hate and disappointment. Losing hurts, and some of us just can't get over it."

"Friday's release of the House Intelligence Committee report generated much coverage over its finding of no evidence of collusion with the Russians. Receiving less attention was a small section entitled 'Finding #44,' where the committee suggested that then-Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper leaked information from the so-called Steele dossier. Even worse for Clapper, the alleged leak was made to CNN, which later hired him as a contributor.

"If true, both the national intelligence chief and then-FBI Director James Comey leaked information while denying such violations to Congress. Moreover, even if Clapper waited until shortly after leaving office, it is deeply troubling that he would confirm details of the dossier, which was under investigation.

"The report recounts how Clapper gave 'inconsistent testimony' to Congress when he denied ever 'discuss[ing] the dossier or any other intelligence related to Russia hacking of the 2016 election with journalists.' That has proven to be untrue. Clapper later admitted he discussed the 'dossier with CNN journalist Jake Tapper' and indicated he may have discussed the material with other journalists."

Read entire article here.

"Former Vice President Joe Biden recently told MSNBC's Rev. Al Sharpton that the GOP wants voter identification laws for one reason. Racist Republicans so despise blacks and are so determined to oppress them, that they seek to prevent all blacks from voting.

"Biden said: 'It's what these guys are all about, man. These Republicans don't want working-class people voting. They don't want black folks voting.' What Republicans 'are all about,' according to Biden, is the push in some states for voter ID laws, which Democrats call 'voter suppression.' Then-Attorney General Eric Holder characterized the call for voter ID laws as an example of 'pernicious' racism.

"If it is 'pernicious' racism, apparently a lot of people failed to get the memo. Blacks want voter ID laws, too. A 2016 Gallup Poll found: 'Though many of the arguments for early voting and against voter ID laws frequently cite minorities' voting access, nonwhites' views of the two policies don't differ markedly from those of whites. Seventy-seven percent of nonwhites favor both policies, while whites favor each at 81 percent.' This has not stopped the Democrats from turning the legitimate concern about the integrity of voting into a full-on attack against blacks.

"Biden, of course, is a skilled veteran at playing the race card. Recall how then-Vice President Biden, in 2012, somehow turned then-GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney's opposition to the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform bill into a racial issue. '(Romney) is going to let the big banks once again write their own rules, unchain Wall Street,' Biden said at a campaign event in Danville, Virginia. 'He is going to put y'all back in chains.'

"Without the 90-plus percent black vote, the Democratic Party, at the national level, is in deep trouble. This explains why they race-bait. Constantly."

Read entire article here.

"The country is about to witness an investigatory train wreck.

"In one direction, special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation train is looking for any conceivable thing that President Donald Trump's campaign team might have done wrong in 2016.

"The oncoming train is slower but also larger. It involves congressional investigations, Department of Justice referrals and inspector general's reports -- mostly focused on improper or illegal FBI and DOJ behavior during the 2016 election.

"Why are the two now about to collide? ...

"The more Mr. Mueller searches for hypothetical lawbreaking, the more he is inadvertently underscoring that actual lawbreakers must be subject to the same standard of justice. Ironically, Mr. Mueller's investigation has reminded America that it is past time to call Mr. Comey, Mr. McCabe, and a host of Obama-era DOJ and FBI officials to account.

"For over a year, we have had two standards of legality when there can only be one.

"A reckoning is near."

"Did you know that defensive gun use is happening more regularly in the United States than gun crimes?! Probably not!

"Why? Because the Centers for Disease Control never publicized it.

"The agency sat on this information for years. The unpublished CDC Study confirms there are nearly 2.5 million defensive gun use situations per year. A lot higher than 100,000, which is the low-ball number leftists have been throwing around recently."

Read entire article here.

"The percentage of voters who believe that President Trump should receive a second term is nearly identical to the percentage of voters who thought the same about former presidents Obama and Clinton at the same time in their presidencies, according to Gallup.

"37 percent of registered voters believe Trump should be reelected, per Gallup's April 9-15 poll. 37 percent believed President Obama should be reelected and 38 percent thought President Clinton should be reelected at the same point in their first terms.

"Trump's job-approval rating currently sits at 39 percent, according to Gallup. Clinton and Obama enjoyed slightly higher approval ratings in the springs of their respective second years in office, but by the time of those years' November midterms, their numbers had sunk to where Trump's are now."

"It's not just Hillary Clinton who can't quit Russia. The whole Democratic Party keeps going back to 2016.

"In a move that reeks of desperation, the DNC filed a civil suit Friday against President Trump's campaign, Russia and WikiLeaks, alleging a vast (right wing!) conspiracy to tip the election to Trump.

"The suit's flamboyant charges made headlines, but that only served to obscure the real meaning. Namely, that top Dems are giving up their fantasies that special counsel Robert Mueller will deliver them from political purgatory by getting the goods on Trump.

"The trashy suit is their way of trying to keep impeachment and Russia, Russia, Russia alive for the midterms in case Mueller's probe comes up empty."

"Americans are well aware and focused on the need to protect our Southern border. But little thought has been given to the need to protect the border with Canada. ...

"An enormous, robust, and illegal opioid drug supply is streaming across our border with Canada, killing and poisoning tens of thousands of our citizens each year. Just last month, Canadian authorities busted a huge smuggling ring headquartered in Calgary that was producing an astonishing amount of counterfeit pharmaceutical drugs -- 120,000 pills a day. That's nearly 160 million pills a year from just one source!

"Canada has become a pipeline for the smuggling of Canadian fentanyl, a drug that is intentionally made to look identical to the legal Oxycodone, and which is more than 100 times more potent than morphine. Responsible for more than 50 percent of the more than 20,000 deaths of Americans from opioid-related drugs in 2016, fentanyl has become a major killer in the U.S. And 2018 will undoubtedly prove much worse. Sadly, Congress and its policy leaders in Washington remain silent, totally unconcerned, refusing to hold the Canadian government responsible, while thousands more Americans die each year.

"Currently, Congress is debating whether to legalize the importation of modified or newly reformulated pharmaceutical drugs. They would soon be released upon an unsuspecting U.S. population under the guise of affordable prescriptions from abroad, but in many cases they could in fact be deadly counterfeits."

Read entire article here.