The Democrats are playing political hardball. They clearly don’t care if there is a wall or is not a wall. They voted FOR it before. They just want to inflict as much political pain on President Trump as the can.
I think its backfiring on Democrats. No offers of compromise, running off to Puerto Rico to party with lobbyist while federal employees start to feel the pain. Its a game folks, and the Democrats should pay a price for it at the polls.
Border security only makes common sense. Building a wall where it counts only makes common sense. Just saying “no†is pure politics.
Secure our Borders & Build The Wall: It’s all politics for the Democrats. Virtually ALL the Democrats voted for similar border security measures in the past. President Trump on behalf of the Border Agents are asking for ONLY 234 miles of new wall/fencing, half of what most Democrats supporter before President Trump was President. This is all about trying to deny the President another win.
And let us remember, the cost to taxpayers and society of NOT building the wall far exceeds the cost of building it.
I guess they are tired of have President Trump winning:)
Serial Liar Michael Cohen now Says: BuzzFeed reports, later admitting it hasn’t seen any of the “evidenceâ€, that serial and self confessed liar Michael Cohen says Trump told his to lie?!? Quoting anonymous sources about and accusation Cohen has made that the president has committed a felony is pretty risky stuff. Fake news and the mainstream media may suffer a big, black eye on this one if they can’t substantiate any of these charges and it’s just one more “hit job†on the president.
And then special counsel Mueller releases a statement that BuzzFeed’s assertions are “not accurateâ€.
How low will the “resist†movement go? Who can you trust? Sad day in America.
Politically Weaponizing the FBI: Law enforcement and the FBI in particular should bend over backward not to be dragged into political campaigns. The weaponization and now apparent cover up is more damaging and dangerous to our Republic and democracy than anything some Russian hackers/social media clowns may have pulled off.
If we can’t trust our law enforcement agencies to be “fair†than the premise that really does make this country great…the rule of law…is under siege.
-Saul Anuzis
Trump’s Reelection Chances May Be Better Than You Think
Whether or not they like Trump, millions of voters still think the president is all that stands between them and socialism, radical cultural transformation, and social chaos.
What are Donald Trump’s chances for reelection in 2020?
If history is any guide, pretty good.
In early 1994, Bill Clinton’s approval rating after two years in office hovered around a dismal 40 percent. The first midterm elections of the Clinton presidency were an utter disaster.
A new generation of younger, more conservative Republicans led by firebrand Newt Gingrich and his “Contract with America†gave Republicans a majority in the House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years. Republicans also picked up eight Senate seats in 1994 to take majority control of both houses of Congress…
…Democrats can continue their hard-left drift and nominate socialist Bernie Sanders, or they can try again to elect the first female president, either Kamala Harris or Elizabeth Warren, both of whom represent the far left.
But going to extremes did not work well in 1972, when leftist Democratic Senator George McGovern was crushed by incumbent Richard Nixon. The Republicans learned that lesson earlier when they nominated Senator Barry Goldwater in 1964 and were wiped out.
CNN Analyst: Many Americans Will Dismiss Media as ‘Leftist Liars’ Over Disputed BuzzFeed Story
CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin fretted Friday that many Americans would dismiss the news media as a “bunch of leftist liars” in the wake of the BuzzFeed News story called “not accurate” by special counsel Robert Mueller’s office.
BuzzFeed set off a Washington firestorm on Thursday with its report that President Donald Trump had directed longtime lawyer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. However, on Friday night, a spokesman for Mueller’s office said the report was “not accurate.”
“BuzzFeed’s description of specific statements to the Special Counsel’s Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen’s Congressional testimony are not accurate,” the spokesman said in a statement.
The story had dominated political discussions throughout the day on Friday, with multiple Democrats saying the report, if true, could merit impeachment proceedings against Trump. The rare comment by Mueller’s office calling the report inaccurate caused the left-leaning Toobin to worry it would further diminish the media’s reputation with the public.
One Solution to the Shutdown? Give More Power to the States
Federal shutdowns, like the one we are currently dealing with, aggravate me. This seemingly perennial game of chicken between federal leaders costs states like Utah, where I serve as governor, millions of dollars because we end up footing the bill to keep our national parks open—thus protecting our local tourist economies—and because we serve as a backstop for federal social programs administered through the states.
Shutdowns also reveal a disheartening failure of federal leaders to accomplish their most basic responsibility to pay their obligations. They represent a special kind of dysfunction that simply doesn’t happen at the state level. In statehouses across the country, Republicans and Democrats manage to work through disagreements, balance budgets and keep the lights on.
I don’t presume to suggest a way out of the current gridlock, but the increasing frequency of federal shutdowns—this is the third one in the past year— should tell us that the problem is deeper than a disagreement over immigration or health care or the debt ceiling. If we accept that federal shutdowns are likely to continue to occur, then we should consider long-term strategies to mitigate their scope and severity—including the return to a robust federalism that leaves more policymaking power to the states.
Youngest Black Legislator In America Won on a Platform of ‘God, Guns, and Babies’
The West Virginia House of Delegates convened Wednesday with a record-setter in its midst – freshman Del. Caleb L. Hanna, who became the nation’s youngest black legislator following his election at age 19 in November 2018.
“I always knew that I was not satisfied with the leadership I was getting within my own house district,†Hanna told The Daily Caller News Foundation in an interview. “I told myself if I ever had my opportunity to take that, I would give it my shot.â€
At first, his small Republican campaign was designed to push Democratic incumbent Dana Lynch to be “more proactive in the legislature,†Hanna told TheDCNF. But things shifted when Hanna realized he could win the Republican primary — even if he was running his campaign from his dorm room at West Virginia State University, where he studies economics.
Leading up to the general election, Hanna faced doubts about his age and experience, a shoestring budget and one instance of racist flyers he reported to law enforcement. But Hanna defeated Lynch by roughly 25 points in West Virginia’s House of Delegates District 44 in November, with results reported as 60.3 to 35.7, according to Ballotpedia.
Congress Is Not a Coequal Branch of Government — It’s Supreme
When Nancy Pelosi was sworn in as speaker of the House earlier this month, she promised the American people renewed congressional vigor. Congress, she solemnly declared, is “coequal to the presidency and judiciary,†and House Democrats would act accordingly. Democratic partisans masquerading as public intellectuals have similarly rediscovered the virtues of legislative power, touting the importance of Congress as a coequal branch of government.
Congress is not coequal. It is superior. The notion of coequality of the branches is a myth that has been popularized over the past half century, during the rise of the imperial presidency, as a way to boost the executive’s standing in the eyes of the public.
There are three main reasons that Congress is supreme. First, Congress can get itself involved in the actions of the other branches. It can override presidential vetoes. It can deny appointments to the executive and judicial branches. It can impeach officers of the executive and judicial branches. It can set legislative and judicial pay. It also has wide discretion in determining the size and shape of the executive and judicial branches. Every executive department and indeed every officer except the president and vice president are creations of Congress. And Congress also has total authority to design the court system as it sees fit. While there are aspects of foreign affairs it cannot attend to, it can basically govern the domestic affairs of the country by itself. Indeed, it actually did this during the period 1867–69, when Radical Republicans in Congress acquired a veto-proof majority over President Andrew Johnson. The main domestic power that Congress cannot exercise by itself is amending the Constitution — for that, it needs the assent of the state legislatures.
Second, the other branches are largely incapable of interfering with Congress. Members of Congress are immune from arrest when they are conducting legislative business. They set their own pay. Each chamber determines its own rules. Each branch also decides who does and who does not get to sit as a member. And no member is allowed to take a job in the executive department while serving in Congress. The Founders were so serious about this that they established a capital city apart from the states, and under the jurisdiction of Congress, to make sure that some local potentate could not use geography to boss the legislature around.
DOJ official Bruce Ohr shared intel from dossier author in 2016 with prosecutors now on Mueller team
Details about Justice Department official Bruce Ohr’s meetings with the author of the salacious anti-Trump dossier were shared by Ohr with his expansive circle of contacts inside the department — including senior FBI leadership and officials now assigned to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, Fox News has learned.
Ohr gave a closed-door transcribed interview last August sharing details of his 2016 meetings with British ex-spy Christopher Steele, who authored the dossier later used to secure a surveillance warrant for a Trump campaign aide. The interview was part of the Republican-led House Oversight and Judiciary Committee probes.
In a series of questions about his meetings with Steele, including one on July 30, 2016, and who he shared the information with, Fox News has confirmed the Ohr transcript stated: “Andy McCabe, yes and met with him and Lisa Page and provided information to him. I subsequently met with Lisa Page, Peter Strzok, and eventually (an FBI agent). And I also provided this information to people in the criminal division specifically Bruce Swartz, Zainab Ahmad, Andrew Weissmann.â€
When Did It Become the FBI’s Job to Act as a Check and Balance to the President?
I appreciate David’s response to my column on the FBI counterintelligence investigation of Trump, but unfortunately don’t find it persuasive.
David emphasizes how the regulations governing a counterintelligence investigation focus on the activity of the foreign power. Yeah, sure. But that’s why the Times story was so explosive. It reported on a counterintelligence investigation of Trump himself, who is obviously not a foreigner, but the duly elected president of the United States.
The Times story says that the FBI feared Trump might have been a witting or unwitting agent of the Russians. I’ll come back to witting, but what does an unwitting asset of Russia even mean? It sounds to me like someone who is foolishly giving cover to Vladimir Putin and inclined — even if he doesn’t usually follow through — to favor policies congenial to Russia’s interests. This is all bad and I oppose it (while welcoming all the measures Trump has taken that aren’t congenial to Russia’s interests). But what is this, at bottom, other than having flawed instincts toward Russia, which is Trump’s perfect right? I’m guessing I agree with Lisa Page’s basic view of Russia more than Trump’s, and I believe she should get a chance to act on those views just as soon as she, too, is elected president of the United States.
The proximate cause of the FBI investigation, if the Times reporting is correct, wasn’t any new information about Russia’s activity. It was Trump acting entirely within his powers to fire his FBI director. This might be the first time that a FBI counterintelligence investigation was triggered by a lawful domestic action. This is crazy. Perhaps you believe that Trump’s firing of Comey was ill-intentioned and abusive. That’s a reasonable view, but it is Congress’s job to take this up, not the job of a subordinate law-enforcement agency within the executive branch. The regulations David cites say nothing about the FBI starting a counterintelligence investigation of a president acting pursuant to his legitimate powers.
Are Democrats Testing a Future Strategy against Amy Coney Barrett?
One way to understand the Democratic opposition to the judicial nomination of Brian Buescher over his membership in the Catholic group the Knights of Columbus is as a test run in preventing their worst nightmare: the confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.
Democratic senators Kamala Harris (Calif.) and Mazie Hirono (Hawaii) targeted Buescher during his confirmation hearing and in written questions late last year, suggesting that his Catholic beliefs would lead him to rule against abortion rights, as well as that his membership in the Knights could be enough to disqualify him from serving as a judge at all. Hirono went so far as to demand that he drop his membership and recuse himself from any case on which the organization has taken a position.
At the simplest level, this is rank bigotry against American Catholics. Buescher’s opponents have pointed to no “extremist†positions that the Knights of Columbus takes, other than positions that it takes precisely because those are the positions of the Catholic Church. Opposing Buescher on these grounds implies that every Catholic who adheres to the Church’s moral teaching should be held in intense suspicion and might even be unfit for public service, especially on U.S. courts.
The Democratic focus on Buescher’s membership in the Knights is tied not to anything inherently sinister about the organization — which is wholly innocuous and, in fact, most widely known and respected for its charitable work and donations — but to their desire to use it as a proxy for his adherence to Catholicism, which they believe will lead him to rule against their pet precedents.
Drug smugglers bring 700 lbs of cocaine into US, then flee into Mexico across border with no physical barrier
Border Patrol agents said they confiscated more than 700 lbs. of cocaine on Thursday just miles from the Rio Grande river.
I’m in the area with an appointment for a ride-along with border patrol agents, who say that this particular portion of the border is especially high in illegal crossing, including by drug smugglers, due to a lack of physical infrastructure to act as a barrier on the border.
Customs and Border Protection said the suspects were seen loading “bundles of narcotics” into an off-road-style utility vehicle outside of Garciasville, a city in Texas up against the river. The suspects, apparently aware they had been seen, were able to “abruptly” drive the vehicle into the river and escape into Mexico, CBP said.
