Our NATO alliance is still the most effective and important alliance the world has ever seen. Some NATO members have to step up their financial commitments to the alliance and stop playing games that put the alliance at risk. But the stability and safety NATO has provide for much of the world is well worth the cost and effort.
Illegal Immigration: It’s illegal and I’m opposed to it. This is crazy! We have a crisis on our border. Humanitarian, sex/child trafficking, drugs, gangs and yes, some legitimate folks seeking asylum.
Legal Immigration: It’s legal and I’m for it. We’re a country of immigrants. My parents immigrated to this great country to find their share of the American dream in an auto factory in Detroit. I only learned to speak English by the time I was 7 years old. My family stood in line and proudly assimilated, while preserving our families heritage, to be proud Americans.
America’s greatest strength is that we are a country based on the rule of law. We lose that, we lose the core value that makes us different than virtually every other country in the world. Stand tall, defend our country, our values and our way of life! Build the wall, secure our borders by whatever means possible.
Don’t Buy the B.S. Socialism Pitch: Read the article “Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez keep lying about socialism†below. VERY IMPORTANT. If it’s voluntary, it’s not socialism. If it’s voluntary, you can do that under capitalism. But these authoritarians are not offering “tips” and “suggestions.” They are demanding force, which is why they are socialists. Hat tip to Lawrence Reed for sharing.
60 Plus Weekly Newsreel: A great, short and easy to listen summary of the week’s news in a short video who just don’t want to read it all:) Please enjoy and share with friends.
-Saul Anuzis
Pompeo calls on NATO to adapt to new threats from Russia, China
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday called on NATO allies to adapt to confront emerging threats, including Russia’s military interventions in places such as Venezuela, Chinese strategic competition and cyber threats.
Pompeo issued the warning during a meeting of North Atlantic Treaty Organization foreign ministers in Washington marking the transatlantic military alliance’s 70th anniversary.
“We must adapt our alliance to confront emerging threats … whether that’s Russian aggression, uncontrolled migration, cyber attacks, threats to energy security, Chinese strategic competition, including technology and 5G, and many other issues,†Pompeo said.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Pompeo said NATO members had agreed Russian troops needed to withdraw from Venezuela, where they were deployed in support of President Nicolas Maduro, who is under pressure from a coalition of more than 50 countries, including the United States, to step down.
It’s not Congress fostering the border crisis; it’s Democrats in Congress
Unlike the 1990s – when 90 percent of the border crossers were turned around and sent from whence they came – the new migrants are families who intentionally walk up to our border agents and get released into the U.S. after simply saying the magic word “asylum.â€
So here’s the question: Why aren’t Democrats being held accountable for the border crisis or for blocking asylum reform?
Watch any media outlet discussing the crisis and invariably a talking head will point out that Congress seems unwilling to deal with the problem. Such a general characterization grossly distorts the reality of the situation. It is not Congress that is failing to act; it is specifically Democrats in Congress who are refusing to protect our national sovereignty.
Democrats need to help fix the border crisis or get out of Trump’s way
Even the most partisan Democrats are hard-pressed at this point to deny that the border crisis President Trump has long been warning about actually exists.
Yet that hasn’t stopped them from reflexively denouncing pretty much any action he takes — without suggesting any solution or ideas of their own.
Trump is threatening to close all or part of the US border with Mexico, mainly the 50 legal crossing points. (It’s been done before, by three other presidents.)
This after the White House announced plans to cut off some $500 million in aid to the Northern Triangle countries — Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador — that are the major source of what officials call an “unsustainable†flood of asylum seekers. The president is also looking at naming an “immigration czar†to manage the crisis.
More than 76,000 crossed the border in February; the March total is expected to top 100,000.
DHS can end Catch and Release by Empowering Border Patrol to Judge Asylum Claims
National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd says the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is considering a plan to allow U.S. Border Patrol agents to administer “credible fear†interviews to border crossers that would “exponentially†drive down soaring illegal immigration levels.
During an exclusive interview with SiriusXM Patriot’s Breitbart News Tonight, Judd said illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border could be quickly cut and the policy of Catch and Release could be ended if DHS authorized Border Patrol agents to conduct immediate interviews with illegal border crossers claiming asylum.
As Breitbart News has reported, less than ten percent of the Central American border crossers arriving at the southern border have legitimate asylum claims, DHS previously revealed. While nearly 90 percent of Central Americans passed an initial credible fear interview, only nine percent were actually granted asylum.
How bad does border have to be for Democrats to admit it’s an Emergency?
Is there any number of illegal border crossings into the United States that would strike Democrats as an emergency?
As they resisted President Trump’s efforts to stem the flow of illegal migrants across the U.S.-Mexico border, many Democrats made the point that fewer migrants are coming today than years ago, during the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush presidencies. The implication was that today’s situation cannot be an emergency, because it used to be worse.
That doesn’t make sense, of course. One could argue that crossings were an unaddressed emergency back then, and that today’s figures, although lower, also qualify as an emergency.
But now, the border numbers are surging back to the bad old days. It appears that Customs and Border Protection apprehended more than 100,000 people in March (the precise figure has not yet been released), a pace that could mean more than 1,000,000 apprehensions this year.
For some perspective: According to Border Patrol statistics, U.S. authorities caught 1,643,679 people trying to cross the border illegally from Mexico in fiscal 2000. In 2001 the number was 1,235,718. In 2002 it was 929,809. In 2003 it was 905,065. In 2004 it topped the million mark again, with 1,139,282. In 2005 it was 1,171,396. In 2006 it was 1,071,972.
After that, due to a combination of slightly more assertive border security policies, plus, far more importantly, a massive economic downturn, the number of apprehensions began to fall. They hit a low point of 327,577 in 2011, leading many in Washington to assume that the problem — if they ever thought it was a problem — no longer existed.
The Top 5 Investigations Obstructed by the Obama Administration
With Democrats and the media licking their wounds over the Mueller Report not finding Russian collusion, they’ve been refocusing their energy on claims of obstruction of justice, even accusing Trump Attorney General William Barr of “protecting” Trump. Which is both amusing and hypocritical considering how they tolerated obstruction of justice by the Obama administration and sometimes assisted in that obstruction.
If Robert Mueller couldn’t conclude that Trump obstructed his investigation, then it’s quite clear there wasn’t any. Having written extensively about Obama-era corruption, I felt it was necessary to remind everyone that not only was the Obama administration plagued by multiple scandals but that obstructing investigations was standard operating procedure. For Democrats, Trump calling the Mueller an investigation a witch hunt is an impeachable offense, but Obama refusing to cooperate with investigations was much ado about nothing.
Despite many abuses of power during the Obama years, not once did Attorney General Eric Holder or Attorney General Loretta Lynch ever appoint a special counsel to investigate them. Instead, they’d occasionally launch their own investigations, which always exonerated them, or, when the Republican-controlled House launched their own investigations, the Obama administration refused to cooperate and obstructed their investigations.
In August 2014, 47 of 73 inspectors general wrote an open letter to Congress informing them that the Obama administration of obstructing investigations by not giving them full access to the information they need to investigate properly. Such a letter was unprecedented, and the systemic corruption and obstruction the inspectors general would have been considered an impeachable defense for almost any other president. Emboldened by the lack of outrage (thanks to lack of media attention to the scandal) emboldened the Obama administration to impose new restrictions on the investigative powers of inspectors general. Imagine President Trump trying to get away with that today?
Hispanics Rally to Trump, Boosting His 2020 Chances
Get ready for the anti-Trump “resistance†to go truly loco, because new polling data indicates Hispanic support for the president is swelling, a trend that could seal his 2020 re-election victory.
When I helped lead the Trump Hispanic Advisory Council in 2016, our effort was widely derided by skeptics certain that the narrative of Trump as anti-Latino would doom his candidacy, particularly in heavily Hispanic states like Florida. But that November, Hispanics saw through the media smears and Trump massively outperformed dour expectations, actually surpassing Mitt Romney’s 2012 percentage among Latino voters.
Since then, prospects have only improved – most importantly for the overall well-being of America’s Hispanic citizens, but also for the political prognosis of President Trump. So much good news erupted last week for the president with the conclusion of the Mueller inquiry that stunning new polling data was largely glossed over.
McLaughlin & Associates revealed that Hispanic approval for Trump in March jumped to 50{ef3b36ba7c11cac64d81b79cc51b0b7cc80daf5ccfa9ea032b2ab3ebe6b0c4c9}. This number matched the January Marist/NPR/PBS survey that shocked cynics with its own 50{ef3b36ba7c11cac64d81b79cc51b0b7cc80daf5ccfa9ea032b2ab3ebe6b0c4c9} approval finding. Even if those polls are too aggressive, February’s Morning Consult/Politico poll showed Trump’s Hispanic approval vaulting to a still-impressive 45{ef3b36ba7c11cac64d81b79cc51b0b7cc80daf5ccfa9ea032b2ab3ebe6b0c4c9}.
What explains this stunning trend? I see three key factors:
Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez keep lying about socialism. Here’s the truth.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., have amassed a huge following among millennials by propagating the myth that the only way to solve society’s problems is to seize wealth and property away from law-abiding citizens so that the federal government has significantly more power over all of our lives.
However, history has proven repeatedly that the collective ownership and management of property eventually leads to death, destruction, coercion, and tyranny. More than 167 million people have been killed, exiled, or imprisoned by socialist and communist regimes in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. That’s comparable to more than 50,000 attacks as deadly as those that occurred on September 11, 2001.
Whenever socialism is tried, it fails miserably – whether it’s in China, Nazi Germany, North Korea, Russia, Venezuela, or Zimbabwe. Yet, despite the mountains of evidence against collectively owning and managing property, Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez continue to allege that anyone who argues against socialism is nothing more than an untrustworthy right-wing propagandist and that all people like Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez really want is to tweak the current system to make things better for the poor.
Off Duty Cop Attacked For Wearing MAGA Hat. This Is His Response.
I had just finished working my third double of the week. Most people would be complaining. But I’m going to be straight up with you, I was considering myself blessed.
Just three years ago, they didn’t think I’d ever be able to work as a police officer again. I took a bullet just below my vest. Doctors told me I might not walk again and I’d DEFINITELY never be a cop again.
I didn’t accept that. Policing was everything I’ve ever known. It’s how I provide for my family. There wasn’t a choice – I would overcome it.
And I did. So to be able to be back on the road earning that overtime for my family was a blessing.
Trump’s Trade Policies Remade GOP Base
McCotter approved of the Trump administration’s challenges to China’s hegemonic ambitions.
“The agenda, in trade — which I think the president is right on — is challenging communist China, who is not our friend,†said McCotter. He described China as “a mercantilist state gutting [America’s] manufacturing industry and putting our people out of work†while violating “the rules of international trade.â€
McCotter stated, “So the president is right on that, but those types of policies were advocated year-in and year-out by many Republicans, not only for the effect on Michigan workers but throughout the entire Midwest and anyone in manufacturing.â€
He added, “The Republican Party with President Trump’s coalition is so hard for establishment Republicans to understand, and good, if you can’t understand, there’s nothing you can do about that.â€
Saudi Arabia’s Princess Ambassador: Progress or Symbolism?
It was hard not to be optimistic when Saudi Arabia appointed Princess Reema bin Bandar, a former business executive and philanthropist who lived in the United States for decades, to be its next ambassador to Washington.
Reema’s pedigree is impressive. Her father, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, was the longest tenured Saudi ambassador to the United States in history, serving for 22 years until 2005. Like her father, Reema was educated in America, graduating from George Washington University in 1999. Here’s more from her bio:
After returning to the Kingdom in 2005, and spending time as the CEO of Harvey Nichols in Riyadh, the princess launched a handbag brand in 2013, before founding a private equity fund and a women’s day spa. She is a member of the World Bank’s Advisory Council for its Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative, is vice president of women’s affairs at the General Sports Authority, and is a founding member of the Zahra Breast Cancer Association in Riyadh. In August 2018 she was also appointed to the International Olympic Committee.
Yet Reema has never served in any diplomatic post or job. Traditionally, Saudi ambassadors are required to have experience in some prior diplomatic post. But Reema is a loyalist to the Al Saud clan, so apparently that requirement has been scuttled.
Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper Tells CNN Obama Ordered the Trump-Russia Spying Operation (VIDEO)
On Monday former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper went on with CNN’s Anderson Cooper to discuss the Mueller Report after its release on Sunday.
After two years of investigation Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his team of angry Democrats did not find any collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Mueller also did not find any evidence of conspiracy after President Trump fired crooked leaker FBI Director James Comey.
Clapper defended the Obama administration’s spying on their political opposition during the election.
And then Clapper appeared to put blame on Barack Obama for spying on his opponent during the 2016 presidential election.
What Progressives Should know About Trump Voters
Progressives wonder how in the world could anyone still support President Donald Trump. So here are ten reasons why more than 40{ef3b36ba7c11cac64d81b79cc51b0b7cc80daf5ccfa9ea032b2ab3ebe6b0c4c9} of the electorate probably does — and will.
Voters appreciate that the economy is currently experiencing near record-low peacetime unemployment, record-low minority unemployment, and virtual 3{ef3b36ba7c11cac64d81b79cc51b0b7cc80daf5ccfa9ea032b2ab3ebe6b0c4c9} annualized GDP growth. Interest and inflation rates remain low. Workers’ wages increased after years of stagnation. The US is now the world’s largest producer of oil and natural gas. And gasoline prices remain affordable.
The President continues to redress asymmetrical trade with China, as well as with former NAFTA partners and Europe. He jawbones companies to curb offshoring and outsourcing. The current economic recovery and low consumer prices have uplifted millions of middle-class Americans who appreciate the upswing.
UCI Student ‘Accidentally’ Invents a Rechargeable Battery That Lasts 400 Years
A University of California Irvine student may have stumbled upon an invention to end your phone-charging woes for good. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg of where that could take us as a society. Forget about your phone; the world would be a different place without ever having to worry about replacing car batteries, and imagine the uses that it could have in space exploration. Technology is the ultimate wildcard.
A battery that lasts a whole lifetime is now one step closer to becoming a reality thanks to Mya Le Thai, a PhD student who’s been researching how to make better nanowire rechargeable batteries. In theory, her discovery could lead to a battery that lasts centuries—as long as 400 years.
She made the discovery while studying the properties of gold nanowire for commercial batteries. Typically, the gold filaments lose their integrity (and the battery dies) after 5,000 to 6,000 recharge cycles—“seven thousand at the most,†adds Reginald Penner, head of the chemistry department, who called Thai’s discovery “crazy.â€
Nanowire is thousands of times thinner than a human hair; the increased surface area of the microscopic wire allows greater storage and transferring capacity for electrons. Researchers have been trying to use the material for a long time.
The world’s 7.5 billion people, in one chart
Which countries do people live in, globally?
It’s a very simple question, but it’s also hard to get an accurate sense of the answer by browsing through a lengthy table of country-level population data.
That’s because there are close to 200 countries spread around the globe, with populations ranging from near 1.4 billion (China or India) to countries a mere 0.001{ef3b36ba7c11cac64d81b79cc51b0b7cc80daf5ccfa9ea032b2ab3ebe6b0c4c9} of that size. How is it possible to do the mental math in interpreting such a wide range of data points simultaneously?
Visualizing the world’s population
Today’s data visualization comes to us from PopulationPyramid.net, a fantastic resource for data on global population numbers.
It allows us to see the location of the world’s 7.5 billion people by resizing countries based on their populations and then coloring and organizing them by region.
This simple application of data visualization makes it more intuitive to comprehend where people live around the globe, as well as how different countries compare in size.
