House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday said there would not be any money for President Donald Trump's proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border in the deal being worked out by a bipartisan negotiating team.
"
There's not going to be any wall money in the legislation,"
the top House Democrat told reporters,
adding that more ports of entry or additional border technology was on the table for negotiation.
Trump has demanded a $
5.7 billion down payment for his promised wall.
Pelosi rejected as a "
Nonstarter"
Trump's offer of a temporary three-year protection for "
Dreamer"
immigrants in exchange for a permanent wall.
It did not include money for a wall or any type of new physical border barriers.
Pelosi criticized a series of Thursday morning tweets in which Trump said the negotiators were "
Wasting their time"
and he would build the wall on his own.
"
I've got you covered.
Wall is already being built,
I don't expect much help!"
Trump wrote.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/pelosi-no-wall-money-u-border-deal-talks-162509707--business.html
A particular line of questioning from Senator Kamala Harris stood out as she requested that Barr pledge to end the use of private prisons based on an Obama-era Department of Justice report that Barr had not yet read.Senator Harris's creative partisan interpretation of the report is a deeper issue of concern than the report itself.
Government contractors - such as private prisons,
charter schools,
and waste management services - are often vilified for factors out of their control.
Vittert asserts that the private prison industry began "
Booming in the 1980s,"
but the partnership as we know it today came about in response to overcrowding and congressional mandates when the Bureau of Prisons in 1997 began contracting with private providers to house some of the federal inmate population.
Many retirement systems,
public and private,
small and large,
have expansive portfolios invested in an array of companies and industries.
Again,
Vittert's suggestion that a "
Cycle of lobbying,
donating money to campaigns,
and getting more prisoners with longer sentences"
is the genesis for the private prison industry as we see it today is a fallacy.
Private prisons offer the programming,
training,
and post-release care to reduce recidivism,
better serving the men and women who are fulfilling their sentence and better serving our communities when they are released back into them,
which accounts for approximately 95 percent of inmates.
As the numbers continue to roll in about degrees earned,
training completed,
and inmates prepared for life on the outside,
I believe there's enough empirical data to suggest the competition between public and private has been good for the system overall.
https://townhall.com/columnists/kenblackwell/2019/01/31/publicprivate-partnerships-value-effectiveness-not-just-efficiency-n2540557
- Threats to US national security will expand and diversify in the
coming year, driven in part by China and Russia as they respectively
compete more intensely with the United States and its traditional allies
and partners, the first line of the report said, adding that
the two countries were closer than they'd been in more than
60 years and were significantly expanding their cooperation in the
energy, military, and technology spheres.
- The Wall Street
Journal's Gerald Seib did an excellent quick video titled Why Does Trump Want a Good Relationship With
Putin? It explains the issues around the globe where a good
relationship with Russia is in the United States interest.
- Since
even before his 2016 election, President Donald Trump has made
rebalancing with China a major goal, one made more difficult if the
United States must take on nuclear Russia as well.
- And
intelligence agencies, which has members who conspired to selectively
leak information in support of this conspiracy theory, helped cause the
very thing they're now lamenting driving Russia
into the arms of China.
http://thefederalist.com/2019/01/31/latest-intel-assessment-shows-how-trump-russia-hoax-has-hurt-american-interests/
The reality is that the majority of those in the ruling class are mind-numbed eternal adolescents hell-bent on pushing the boundaries of ethical and moral behavior and viewing all political and policy issues as a war between their side and their mortal enemies.
The denizens of the ruling class unleashed their out of control foot soldiers on the citizenry,
employing the tactics and weapons previously aimed at their political enemies.
Various social media platforms are being hijacked and weaponized by the mindless and radicalized brain-dead army of elite wannabes,
the ruling class chooses not to restrain,
in order to terrorize and permanently cower those in the second tier of society - the citizens who provide the primary labor and resources for the economic engine of the country.
The underlying factor of any civil war is an elite ruling class desperate to maintain power at odds with a majority of a population seeking change.
While the ruling class publicly obsesses over Donald Trump and denigrates the vast majority of the population,
they have planted the seeds,
by their actions,
for a takeover of the country by a radical element that will turn on them as they are presently doing within the Democratic Party.
The American people must understand that the current ruling class will not willingly exit the stage or take on their mercenary army.
The third is comprised of those who have been betrayed by a self-serving education system and are conditioned to be totally dependent upon a government dominated by the ruling class.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/01/the_ruling_class_and_an_undeclared_civil_war.html
The Medicare for All plan backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders,
for example,
would end today's private health insurance market in a period of four years,
forcing nearly 180 million Americans off of their existing plans in the process.
After Sen. Kamala Harris,
who supports the Sanders plan,
said at a presidential town hall Monday night that she favors eliminating all private health insurance,
even for people who like their plans,
a policy staffer for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted, "
Yes,
we're going to get rid of the entire health insurance industry.
That's a feature,
not a bug."
She continues to support a plan that would make today's private health insurance plans illegal while forcing most everyone onto a government-run insurance system.
She supports alternatives as well,
presumably ideas like creating a government-run insurance plan that would be sold alongside private plans,
or allowing more people to buy into the existing Medicare system,
or something like it.
In other words,
she also supports plans that are not full-fledged single-payer,
the entire point of which is to replace all existing insurance with,
yes,
a single government-run health coverage plan.
What Harris encountered was the obstacle that has bedeviled health care reformers on both the left and the right for decades:
Although public satisfaction with the health care system writ large is often fairly low,
polls consistently find that a majority of people like their own health insurance plans and doctors,
and they recoil from plans that would cause them to lose their existing coverage arrangements.
The incredible unpopularity of any plan that openly proposes to upend current coverage for tens of millions of people is a political barrier no one has managed to overcome.
http://reason.com/blog/2019/01/30/kamala-harris-sanders-medicare-fail
A top Pentagon official testified before Congress on Tuesday President Donald Trump would not have to declare a state of emergency in order to direct the Defense Department to erect barriers at the U.S. border with Mexico.
She pointed to Title 10,
Section 284 of the U.S. Code,
which authorizes the DoD to provide support for counter-drug operations,
if requested by the appropriate federal and state authorities,
CNSNews reported.
Hartzler followed up: "
So you're saying that Congress has authorized the Department of Defense to build a fence to counter drugs?
That is already law?".
Do you think Trump should direct the DoD to build border barriers?
Brooks continued: "
Has President Trump,
to your knowledge,
ever used 10 U.S.C. 284 to direct the military to build the wall that is necessary for border security?".
Brooks then queried: "
If President Trump were to direct the Pentagon,
the United States military,
pursuant to 10 U.S.C. 284 to build such barriers as are necessary to secure our Southern border from drug trafficking and international crime cartels,
would the United States military obey that order?".
Trump concluded: "
So let me be very clear:
We really have no choice but to build a powerful wall or steel barrier.
If we don't get a fair deal from Congress,
the government will either shut down on February 15th,
again,
or I will use the powers afforded to me under the laws and the Constitution of the United States to address this emergency.
We will have great security."
https://www.westernjournal.com/dod-official-department-can-begin-wall-construction-without-state-emergency/
Trump has a '
Plan B'.... * * *
. As talks in Washington between a delegation of senior US officials led by Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and a delegation from Beijing led by Vice Premier Liu He enter their second day,
President Trump conclusively ruled out the possibility that a deal could be announced by the end of the week in a series of early morning tweets.
The president said that while the negotiations are going "
Very well,"
he said that "
No final deal will be made until my friend President Xi,
and I,
meet in the near future to discuss and agree on some of the long standing and more difficult points."
No final deal will be made until my friend President Xi,
and I,
meet in the near future to discuss and agree on some of the long standing and more difficult points.
According to the president,
the two sides are seeking a "
Comprehensive deal"
that will leave "
NOTHING unresolved"...suggesting that even the more controversial issues like US demands that China end its policy of institutionalized IP theft and cyberespionage activities will be addressed in any final deal.
The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday morning that China has proposed a meeting in China between Trump and Xi next month.
Given that Mike Pompeo last night reaffirmed that Trump had committed to meeting with Kim Jong Un next month for their second summit,
some are concerned that Trump is planning to spend most of February jetsetting around Asia meeting with authoritarian leaders.
Because of this,
some US allies are demanding that Trump brief them after the meetings...which would make the trip a "
Very long one"
for Trump.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-31/trump-says-no-final-deal-trade-until-he-meets-xi
The Trump administration,
to date,
has significantly outpaced its recent predecessors in winning Senate confirmations to the U.S. Courts of Appeal.
Federal appellate courts are the courts of last resort in far more cases than will ever find their way onto the Supreme Court docket.
Trump's nominees to federal district courts have been confirmed relatively less quickly.
In his 12-year tenure on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals-the appellate court most responsible for reviewing the decisions of federal administrative agencies-Kavanaugh has authored multiple opinions limiting the growth of the federal administrative state.
Dissenting justices in the case denounced Willett's position as reviving doctrines of a bygone era-namely,
the Supreme Court's pre-1937 economic-liberty jurisprudence-but Willett refused to back off: "
Some observers liken judges to baseball umpires,
calling legal balls and strikes,
but when it comes to restrictive licensing laws,
just how generous is the constitutional strike zone?
Must courts rubber-stamp even the most nonsensical encroachments on occupational freedom?
Are the most patently farcical and protectionist restrictions nigh unchallengeable,
or are there judicially enforceable limits?".
The administration's early successes in winning confirmations to the Courts of Appeals haven't yet reshaped many of the critical circuits along the Atlantic and Pacific seaboards,
where Democratic senators opposed to Trump have successfully stalled nominations in their home states.
Through the end of November,
Trump had successfully nominated only two judges to the massive 29-judge Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals,
which comprises the nine westernmost U.S. states and regularly generates the most Supreme Court cases;
only one judge to the important 11-judge D.C. Circuit,
the locus of federal administrative-law decisions;
one to the 13-judge,
New York-based Second Circuit;
and none to the Massachusetts-based First Circuit.
https://www.city-journal.org/html/toward-less-dangerous-judicial-branch-16471.html
Fox News announced yesterday that it is putting former South Carolina Congressman Trey Gowdy on contract as a paid contributor.
First,
you have Brown do an interview admitting all right after she kicks off her campaign,
and then the fake news media steps in to declare it "
Old news"
and attack anyone who tries to bring it up in the future.
See,
you're a sexist if you try to hold a Democrat woman to the exact same standards as the fake news media holds any Republican.
From today forward,
anyone criticizing Harris for having her career facilitated by her illicit lover will be assaulted by the fake news media using Hesse's line of reasoning.
You probably thought the ongoing efforts by leftist activists in and out of our fake news media to normalize pedophilia in the American mind was as low as they could go.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo got the whole thing started last week when,
upon signing a bill that allows for killing of infants even as the mother is in the throes of labor,
he and New York City Governor Bill DeBlasio ordered the top of Freedom Tower to be lit up in pink as a celebration.
Not to be outdone in this ghoulish race to define deviancy down even further,
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam - who our fake news media hilariously describes as a "
Moderate"
Democrat - told a radio interviewer Tuesday that he favors a proposed bill that would allow for a born infant to be "
Made comfortable"
and set on a table while the mother and "
Doctor"
talk about whether or not to murder it.
https://dbdailyupdate.com/index.php/2019/01/31/the-depravity-of-the-democrats-is-destroying-americas-soul/
Good thing Pennsylvania isn't a crucial state in national elections.
A top Pennsylvania lawmaker called on the state Wednesday to immediately expunge the names of 11,198 noncitizens whom the state confirmed are registered to vote,
despite not being eligible.
State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe,
a Republican and former chairman of a House government oversight panel,
said the administration of Gov. Tom Wolf,
a Democrat,
belatedly acknowledged the large number of noncitizens in communications over the past two months.
"
I believe that we need to take action and have those people removed immediately from the rolls,"
Mr. Metcalfe told The Washington Times.
"
They were never eligible to vote."
The media will insist that it's all a hoax and that voter fraud isn't an issue.
Then by 2024,
will be arguing that of course non-citizens have voted and should be entitled to vote in all elections.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/272738/11000-non-citizens-voting-rolls-pennsylvania-daniel-greenfield
