Daily Archives: April 2, 2017

Forbes

GOP Centrists, Not Freedom Caucus, Are Blocking Deal To Replace Obamacare Forbes The conventional wisdomrepeated by President Trumpis that the right-wing House Freedom Caucus is singlehandedly blocking Republican attempts to repeal and replace Obamacare. In fact, Freedom Caucus members have been reaching out to the ... Trump aide urges defeat of Freedom Caucus memberHonolulu Star-Advertiser Trump aide keeps up Twitter attacks on Freedom Caucus' AmashCNN Why The Freedom Caucus Shouldn't Worry About Primary Threats From President TrumpNPR Fox News -CNNMoney -Townhall all 2,523 news articles »

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GOP Centrists, Not Freedom Caucus, Are Blocking Deal To Replace Obamacare - Forbes

There were plenty of girls on the floor Saturday who are continuing their basketball careers at the next level.

That didnt stop Freedoms Meckenzie Herman from swiping the spotlight, however.

The senior guard poured in a game-high 16 points to pace the East all-stars to a 56-49 victory over the West in the Via All-Star Basketball Classic at Northampton Community College.

Herman, who will continue her academics at Penn State University, knocked down four 3-pointers, including a buzzer-beater at the end of the second quarter that had her holstering imaginary pistols as she walked back to the bench.

Its an all-star game, the Patriot said. I was just going to play to my talents and what Im good at. I just came out and shot the ball well.

Northamptons Aja Blount knocked down a pair of free throws to bring the West within 47-46 in the fourth quarter.

Eastons Olivia George responded with a 3-pointer, however, for the East. Her classmate, Shelby Stocker, then rattled off six straight points to put the game away.

We all played well together, obviously, Herman said. We came away with the W.

Herman was joined by teammate Kaitlyn Swint at the Via competition. Both Patriots were grateful to get back on the court and create a positive memory, after the heartbreak of losing to Parkland in the District 11 Class 6A quarterfinals.

It was a way better ending to my senior career, said Swint, who will play at East Stroudsburg University. Its good to see where Im at now and I cant wait to see where I am next season.

Despite the untimely ending, Freedom halted two playoff droughts this winter by making districts for the first time since 2010 and leagues for the first time since 2006.

We inspired the juniors, who are hopefully going to carry the team forward next year, Herman said. We were hoping to get a little bit further than we did. That didnt play out the way (we wanted), but were still really happy.

Blount, the Via Girls Basketball Player of the Year, tallied 15 points. Parklands Emily Piston added nine points for the West.

Stocker, another player signing off from organized basketball, finished with 12 points for the East.

Herman had mixed emotions about her last high school hoops competition, but she couldnt have any complaints about her performance.

It was good to go out with a bang in my last game wearing a Freedom uniform, she said. Its very sad Kaitlyn and I, were just such good teammates, being captains at Freedom, it was just nice to play with her one last time.

West 16 12 11 10 49

East 12 19 9 16 56

WEST ALL-STARS (49)

Emily Piston (Parkland) 3 0-0 9, Devon Saul (Northampton) 1 2-2 4, Rachel Medlar (Parkland) 3 0-0 6, Joyce Sullivan (Pleasant Valley) 2 0-0 6, Jackie Garner (Catasauqua) 0 0-0 0, Jade Biviano (Catasauqua) 1 2-2 4, Kalla Borden 0 0-0 0, Brielle Rigo (Northampton) 1 0-0 2, Devyn Anderson (Parkland) 1 1-2 3, Natalia Salmon (Pleasant Valley) 0 0-0 0, Aja Blount (Northampton) 3 7-8 15. Totals: 15 12-14 49.

EAST ALL-STARS (56)

Olivia George (Easton) 1 0-0 3, Meckenzie Herman (Freedom) 5 2-2 16, Kaitlyn Swint (Freedom) 1 0-0 2, Neelam Ferrari (Moravian Academy) 0 0-0 0, Gabby Bloshuk (Easton) 1 0-0 3, Tessa Brugler (Nazareth) 2 1-2 5, Jessica Durnin (Nazareth) 3 0-0 6, Cailee Murphy (Notre Dame) 0 0-0 0, Shelby Stocker (Easton) 5 2-2 12, Cecily Redfern (Moravian Academy) 1 2-4 4, Mackenzie Miers (Easton) 2 1-2 5. Totals: 21 8-12 56.

3-pointers: Piston 3, Sullivan 2, Blount 2; Herman 4, George, Bloshuk.

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Gallery: 2017 Via All-Star Basketball Classic: Girls games

Kyle Craig may be reached atkcraig@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter@KyleCraigSports. Find Lehigh Valley high school sports on Facebook.

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Herman lights it up in Freedom jersey for last time at Via classic - lehighvalleylive.com

The Critics, a painting by Henry Scott Tuke, included in the exhibition Queer British Art 1861-1967 at Tate Britain. Photograph: Warwick District Council (Leamington Spa, UK)

It is not just the beauty of art, it turns out, that lies in the eye of the beholder, but also its queerness. Tate Britain is preparing its first show dedicated to queer art, a term long understood by art historians but which still has the power to bring the museum-going public up short. Does queer art, some ask, refer to a specific school of protest? Is it designed for a particular audience? And do paintings that might be described in this way really have a different perspective to offer? On the evidence of the work coming together for this landmark show, the answer is yes, all of this and more.

When the doors opento Queer British Art 1861-1967, almost 50 years since the decriminalisation of male homosexual acts in England and Wales, the curator of the exhibition, Clare Barlow, believes these difficult questions will all be tackled. Perhaps surprisingly, Barlows choices even include some works that originally had no clear position on gender or on sexuality, but simply came to be celebrated as gems of gay subculture.

We have works which demonstrate lots of different attitudes, from anxiety to celebration, Barlow told the Observer, adding that other items came to acquire notoriety by accident. Walter Cranes languorous 1877 painting, The Renaissance of Venus, is a good example. Cranes wife did not want him viewing or drawing nude women, so instead he used a well-known young male model, Alessandro di Marco, to stand in for the goddess of love, said Barlow. But the ruse fell apart when fellow painter Frederick Leighton saw the work at the Grosvenor Gallerys first exhibition that year and called out But my dear fellow, that is not Aphrodite, that is Alessandro!, supposedly adding that, in the Italian sunlight, the boy did pass for Venus. So the painting gained its salacious reputation due to the very primness of an era that had frowned on women posing for male artists.

Whats more, Barlow argues, the audience for new paintings often did at least half the work for the queer artist. A bronze statue like Leightons own The Sluggard, which simply shows a nude man stretching, is not overtly sexual, but for some was pure erotica. People saw different things, said Barlow, who worked on the show with assistant curator Amy Concannon. And there was frequently anxiety about how much was being implied. With Henry Scott Tukes painting The Critics, with its young men sitting on the waters edge, some just could not see it. For others, homosexuality was there and they loved it.

All the same, the queer theme has been tricky for the mainstream Tate because the word is now seen, including by many gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, as having derogatory connotations. Even among those who have come across the broad strand of cultural study known as queer theory, it can be contentious. When Tate announced the show last year some questioned the need for an exhibition under this banner. Our obsession with sexuality dims our ability to simply respond to and enjoy great art for what it is, wrote Janet Street-Porter in the Independent.

Yet Tate Britains title has a precise historical meaning: it focuses on a moment of rapid social change and creative awakening; a time when the term queer was in increasing, if covert, use. The art is drawn from the period between 1861, when sodomy in England and Wales was no longer punishable by death, and 1967, when private sex between two consenting men over 21 stopped being a crime.

This period is so crucial because until this point gender and sexuality remained almost undefined socially, or at least without label, said Barlow. And then, through the first world war, new names and labels arrive, although of course, it is often still causing anguish. But it becomes a core facet of identity. This flowering identity was either claimed and explored with relish, as in the case of the Pre-Raphaelite painter Simeon Solomon, or was the subject of vexed doubt, as it was for the self-taught artist Keith Vaughan, who Barlow explains was constantly fearful that his work gave away too much of his desires.

Occasionally such non-conformist artistic experiments provoked condemnation. In 1913 Laura Knights sensuous Self Portrait with Nude, showing her painting a nude model, was widely seen as dangerous, or even repellent. It was certainly deliberately subversive, prompted as it was by the artists experience of being banned from life drawing classes at Nottingham School of Art. The Bloomsbury Groups Duncan Grant was also accused of being a corrupting force. His murals Bathing and Football, designed for the walls of Borough Polytechnic, were suspected of having a degenerative effect on the students.

Sometimes these views reflected rumours about the lifestyle of the artist, said Barlow, pointing out an underlying suspicion of any kind of aestheticism, let alone of homosexual art. But it was never made quite clear what exactly corruption meant. It is just alluded to. Is it perhaps going to distract young men from the kind of muscular civic activity that was required from them?

The exhibition also incudes a full-length portrait of Oscar Wilde by Robert Goodloe Harper Pennington, given to the writer as a wedding present by the artist and now exhibited in Britain for the first time. Wilde had been forced to sell his work when he was declared bankrupt and needed cash for his legal fees while he awaited trial for gross indecency in 1895. With real showmanship, the portrait will be displayed alongside the prison cell door behind which Wilde was later locked up in Reading Gaol.

The Tate is not the first cultural institution to mark the coming 50th anniversary of decriminalisation. Last week saw the end of the annual BFI Flare:London LGBT Film Festival, which opened with the world premiere of Against the Law, a film starring Daniel Mays and Mark Gatiss that tells the story of Peter Wildeblood, who in 1953 had a scandalous liaison with two servicemen. The subsequent court case led to his imprisonment and eventually influenced the 1967 Sexual Offences Act. The festival, in its 31st year, is confident about its own presentation of queer cinematic art. We try to be quite open in our interpretation, said Michael Blyth, who has helped programme BFI Flare for 10 years. It can be queer film-makers, queer content or sometimes a queer aesthetic. There is something you instinctively know if a film has something to say, either to the rest of our programme, or to the audience.

For Blyth the effort to present a different cultural voice is as relevant now as it was for the visual artists the Tate is about to celebrate: We are a long way off being mainstream yet. People do ask why we need a queer festival. Well, we try to show films that might not have another immediate, obvious platform, and that is the point.

As Tate Britain unpacks the crates for its own attempt to let marginalised work from the past speak out, Barlow is adamant that the story of queer art is not all about creativity inspired by isolation or covert urges. It is true covertness was there and people were oppressed, but it was not always part of the artistic impulse because a shared sexuality in those times allowed communities to flourish and support each other. I hope we will demonstrate this in a gallery we have called Arcadia in Soho. A lot of these artists knew each other and spent time with each other.

Of equal interest are those who worked away, seemingly unnoticed, within conventional society. Hannah Gluckstein, who painted striking still lives of flowers as Gluck, was accepted by the establishment, including members of the royal family, although she was living with Constance Spry, the influential flower arranger to the aristocracy. Some artists were very good at picking their way through the art world without questions being raised, said Barlow.

To the doubters who see no need for this show, the Tate is about to try to prove that queer is a theme, just like more orthodox studies of geography, era or nationality, that lets a new light flood in on great art.

Queer British Art 1861-1967 is at Tate Britain, London SW1P, from 5 April to 1 October 2017. tate.org.uk.

Gluck (1895-1978) full name Hannah Gluckstein is known for her emotive, humanistic paintings. She was born into a wealthy British Jewish family but rebelled against her roots, becoming an artist with a string of high-profile female lovers.

Dora Carrington (1893-1932) was a British painter active between the wars. She was associated with members of the Bloomsbury Group, especially the gay writer Lytton Strachey, and had an affair with US socialite Henrietta Bingham.

John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) was a portraitist whose career peaked in the 1890s, when he painted the distinguished members of society. He never married.

Duncan Grant (1885-1978) was a painter, textile and theatre designer and a central member of the Bloomsbury Group.

David Hockney (born 1937) is considered one of the most influential British artists of the 20th century. His work broke new ground by documenting gay love and lust.

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Tate Britain celebrates 50 years of gay freedom - The Guardian

Trump targeted conservative House members within his own party in a tweet Thursday morning that told his supporters "we must fight" the House Freedom Caucus as well as Democrats next year.

Later Thursday, the President called out individual Freedom Caucus members in several tweets.

The tweets represented a bold strike against the most conservative members of the House GOP coalition, who often come from safe districts and are frequently impervious to pressure from party leaders.

It comes at the same time Ryan, who has had multiple conversations with Trump since the failure of the health care bill on how to move their joint agenda forward, has attempted to instill fear in his members through a more gentle, but no less subtle threat: if members stand in Trump's way, he'll ditch them -- and conservative principles entirely -- and go looking for Democratic help.

"It is very understandable that the president is frustrated that we haven't gotten to where we need to go because this is something we all said we would do," Ryan told CNN Thursday when asked about Trump's tweet.

Trump's message wasn't subtle -- nor was it random.

It came shortly after Ryan made clear in an interview on "CBS This Morning" that if his party can't unify, Trump will likely turn toward Democrats for future legislative deals.

Speaking to reporters later Thursday, Ryan amplified Trump's comments.

"I understand the frustration," Ryan said. "I share (the) frustration."

Ryan repeated that "90%" of his caucus is for the health care measure, but would not commit to a timeline on holding another vote.

In tandem, the messages form a dual-pronged campaign to try and emphasize -- and raise the stakes -- of the risks of remaining a divided party, according to sources familiar with the effort.

As the health care debate reached its final days, and in the wake of its failure, Trump and Ryan have taken pains to preserve and improve their relationship, speaking by telephone multiple times a day, in an apparent acknowledgment that their hopes for a substantive common agenda rest on remaining united.

The dynamics of the House GOP conference -- and how to try and bring it together -- have been a repeated topic of conversation, sources tell CNN.

The idea that Trump could turn away from his own party at this stage is, to a degree, theater designed to spook the far-right of the party into line. It was a message echoed by Trump administration officials the weekend after the health care failure and repeated Thursday by Ryan, multiple people involved say.

Trump's tweets, showing an increasingly aggressive and hard-edged view of the Freedom Caucus, represent his own unfiltered take on a group that is viewed inside the White House as threatening ambitious agenda.

The President tagged on Twitter caucus chairman Mark Meadows, and members Raul Labrador and Jim Jordan.

For the moment, there's limited evidence that real work towards wrangling Democrats for Trump's agenda is taking place and even less evidence enough Democrats exist to make any effort along those lines worthwhile.

But, sources say, it's a threat that could eventually ring true if the Freedom Caucus doesn't change its tune. After all, the President is not particularly tied into conservative orthodoxy. So while the most recent comments fit into a loosely designed deliberate campaign of sorts now, there's no question it could become very real if Trump decides it's the only way to strike any kind of deal.

Ryan enforced that message in the CBS interview, suggesting that Trump's patience was not infinite and he could be tempted to work with the other side if Republicans refuse to implement his agenda.

"What I am worried about is ... that if we don't do this then he will just go work with Democrats to try and change Obamacare -- that's hardly a conservative thing," Ryan said.

"I'm going to let the tweet for itself," White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters.

Freedom Caucus member Rep. Justin Amash said Trump has surrendered to the Washington swamp he promised to fight.

"It didn't take long for the swamp to drain @realDonaldTrump. No shame, Mr. President. Almost everyone succumbs to the D.C. Establishment," the Michigan Republican, tweeted.

Meadows, uncharacteristically declined to weigh in on Trump's tweet.

"I don't have anything to say at this point. No comment," he told CNN. "No comment. I try to always be accessible, but no comment."

Rep. Dave Brat, a Freedom Caucus member from Virginia, told reporters that he's not going to weigh into drama.

"I don't get involved in any of that drama business," he said.

He maintains members had and "artificial time line" of three weeks to digest a major part of the economy, and he's still committed to repealing more regulations than the House bill did.

Rep. Scott DesJarlais, a Tennessee Republican, was an early supporter of Trump and he said he still has a good relationship with the White House and that getting him out of office might only be worse for Republicans trying to move legislation through.

"In my district, we're very conservative so If he gets me out of office, he's going to get someone more conservative than me," DesJarlais said.

"I think what happened needed to happen," he added. "We were pressured under what looked to be a bad deal, we walked away, and now cooler heads are prevailing. We're discussing this the way we should without a deadline, and we'll bring it back when its right."

DesJarlais said he's not worried about Trump's Twitter account.

"I know what my relationship with the White House is with Tom Price is, Mick Mulvaney, Mike Pence and Donald Trump so I am not gonna get all hung up about a tweet," he said.

CNN's Stephen Collinson contributed to this report.

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Trump calls out Freedom Caucus members in tweetstorm - CNN

Conservative groups that played a major role in destroying the recent Obamacare repeal-and-replace effort fired more shots Friday morning at President Trump and Republican leaders in whats becoming a civil war over health care.

It is absolute suicide for the Republican Party to follow the course theyre embarking on right now, said Brent Bozell, chairman of ForAmerica. Paul Ryan and the leadership in the Senate will own Obamacare after this.

[Trump threatens hard-liners as part of escalating Republican civil war]

In a call with reporters, Bozell and leaders of conservative groups including Heritage Action for America, FreedomWorks and the Family Research Council expressed sharp indignation at Trump, who on Thursday blasted the House Freedom Caucus for refusing to support House Speaker Paul D. Ryans plan to replace some elements of the Affordable Care Act.

The House Freedom Caucus, for the past several weeks, have been the grown-ups in the room, said Michael Needham, chief executive of Heritage Action.

After promising for seven years and through four national elections to repeal the health-care law, Republicans and conservatives now find themselves crippled by seemingly unresolvable conflicts over how much of the law can be repealed and what to replace it with.

After the Houses failure to advance Ryans bill, factions within the Republican Party spent the week finger-pointing. Moderates, who disliked how the bill rolled back Medicaid expansion, and Trump heaped blame on House conservatives for refusing to support the bill. Conservatives contended that the legislation left too much of Obamacare in place.

Needham and other leaders sought to toss the blame back toward GOP leadership, the moderates and Trump. They predicted that Republicans will face lossesin the 2018 election for failing to follow through on a repeal of Obamacare. They said Senate Republicans should be stepping up. And they argued that Trump is severely underestimating how important conservatives are to his future goals.

The House Freedom Caucus is Donald Trumps number one ally in draining the swamp, said FreedomWorks President Adam Brandon.

Said Bozell, Theyll be the ones front and center taking the arrows for him, so its very, very shortsighted to be attacking them.

[The Daily 202: How Trumps threats against the Freedom Caucus may backfire]

Heritages Needham sought to portray conservatives as the ones willing to compromise on the issue, saying they would have stomached policies they dont prefer such as insurance subsidies for low-income Americans and more grants to states if the bill had only ditched the laws big insurance regulations. Many Capitol Hill policymakers believe those elements could not have been included in the budget reconciliation bill being used to repeal the law.

The House Freedom Caucus was willing to ignore all the flaws in this bill if it repealed Obamacare, ripped out the architecture that causes premiums to go up, Needham said.

While some Republicans spoke hopefully this week about resurrecting efforts toward repealing Barack Obamas health-care law, Trump soured things further by tweeting that he would oppose Freedom Caucus members in the next election if they didnt fall in line.

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Freedom Caucus allies blast GOP leadership, White House - Washington Post

BISMARCK, ND - With RV's out front, guns across the hall, and a floor full of beautiful bikes the Freedom Riders Motorcycle Classic brought together fans of the road from across North Dakota.

This family friendly event brings in thousands of all shapes, sizes, and ages.

"We love our community, we love our veterans, and we're here, we're doing it," said Derick Roller, Bike Show Chairman.

The Freedom Riders 37 Motorcycle Classic is a place for camaraderie and some well-made rides.

"We do this because we love our community. We've been a club now for 40 years, and we try to get together and do stuff for our community every year, and for the last 37 this is one of the biggest things we can do to give back to the community," said Roller.

The Show included 56 bikes from the BisMan community on display.

"The one that we have behind us, The Indian, another beautiful motorcycle. I can't say enough about the iron that we have in the show, and what a great job the community does in getting their bikes up to speed, in shape, and cleaned up for this show. It's just amazing," said Damian Bean, the President of the Freedom Riders.

Proceeds from the show are going towards Disabled American Veterans and other local charities.

"They help veterans with medical things, housing, with scholarships. They help disabled vets get around, get to medical appointments out of the city and in other areas. Every penny that we donate to them, it goes to their cause and they use it," Roller says.

In the last decade the Bike Show has raised more than $350,000 for the organizations that it supports.

For those that missed out today, the bike show will run from 10-2 tomorrow, and will include the award ceremony for the machines.

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Freedom Riders Motorcycle Classic roars into Bismarck - KFYR-TV

The most telling feature of Melissa Mackenzies post about the decision of House Speaker Ryan and President Trump to reopen negotiations with the 100-Percent-Of-Nothing caucus is the New York Times report to which she refers. The Times claims, House Republican leaders and the White House, under extreme pressure from conservative activists, have restarted negotiations on legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act. This is Orwellian BS.

It isnt the GOP leadership or Trump that have been under extreme pressure. It is, rather, the capricious members of the House Freedom Caucus who have been feeling the heat. The President has been hammering them on Twitter with jabs like this : The Republican House Freedom Caucus was able to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. If you dont believe this kind of pressure is having an effect, I invite you to watch HFC ringleader Mark Meadows squirm when ABCs George Stephanopoulos pressed him on Sunday morning about a similar Trump tweet.

And the President is by no means the only Republican who has condemned Meadows and the HFC. Rep. Ted Poe resigned from the caucus and told CNN, Theres some members of the Freedom Caucus, theyd vote no against the Ten Commandments if it came up for a vote. Other disgruntled members of the HFC, like Rep. Brian Babin, are also thinking about resigning: I worked very hard to get President Trump elected. And listen, we have a president that will sign our legislation now. So we need to support that agenda.

Poe and Babin are not moderate Republicans. They are conservatives in good standing. Members of another conservative caucus, the Republican Study Committee, are also grumbling about the HFC. The Washington Examiner reports that RSC member Rep. Barry Loudermilk implied that the RSC dealt with the President more honestly in their negotiations with the President, We lived up to our word.

Republican Rep. Austin Scott was less diplomatic than Loudermilk when he tweeted, Mark Meadows betrayed Trump and America and supported Pelosi and Dems to protect Obamacare. Another Republican, Rep. Doug Collins was incensed that the HFC let Planned Parenthood off the hook: I am unable to understand how many of my colleagues allowed political myopia to prevent them from supporting the opportunity to defund Americas largest abortion peddler.

The list goes on and on, but the point is this: If the House Freedom Caucus adheres to any core set of actual principles, the President, many of their House colleagues, and even some if the groups own members are unable to detect them. The HFC is, as Andrew Malcolm phrased it, a rump pack of Republicans themselves whove shown a keen interest in policy-strutting but none in the actual teamwork of governing.

Mark Meadows and his pompous accomplices have been hearing this from all sides, and that is why they are back at the table. It has nothing to do with pressure on the President or the GOP leadership. The members of the HFC, like Caesars assassins, expected to be greeted as heroes for their perfidy. Now that they have been disabused of this hubristic fantasy, they are suddenly willing to talk.

See more here:

Why the Freedom Caucus Has Reopened Repeal Talks with Ryan and Trump - American Spectator