Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Why Sally Yates Had to Go

National Review ^ | 01/31/2017 | The Editors 

It is a very simple proposition. Our Constitution vests all executive power — not some of it, all of it — in the president of the United States. 

Executive-branch officials do not have their own power. They are delegated by the president to execute his power. If they object to the president’s policies, their choice is clear: salute and enforce the president’s directives, or honorably resign. There is no third way.
No one knows this better than high-ranking officials of the Department of Justice. That is why President Trump was right to fire Acting Attorney General Sally Yates.
Over the weekend, President Trump issued an executive order temporarily restricting the admission into the United States of aliens from various Muslim-majority countries, as well as aliens from Syria and elsewhere who are claiming refugee status. Naturally, this has triggered protests by Democrats and the Left. They erroneously claim that Trump’s executive order violates the Constitution, statutory law, American tradition, and human decency.
For inexplicable reasons, the new president left Yates in place to run the Justice Department in anticipation of the confirmation of Senator Jeff Sessions. A faithful Obama-appointed progressive, Yates obviously knew which way the political wind was blowing in her tribe.
Like most Democrats, Yates objects to the president’s executive order. Fair enough. But she is not a political operative, she was a Justice Department official — the highest such official. If her opposition to the president’s policy was as deeply held as she says, her choice was clear: enforce the president’s policy or quit.
Instead, she chose insubordination: Knowing she would be out the moment Senator Sessions is confirmed, she announced on Monday night that the Justice Department would not enforce the president’s order. She did not issue this statement on the grounds that the order is illegal. She declined to take a definitive position on that question. She rested her decision, rather, on her disagreement with the justice of the order. Now, she’ll be a left-wing hero, influential beyond her heretofore status as a nameless bureaucrat. But she had to go.
To make an analogy, there are many federal judges who oppose abortion. They apply Roe v. Wade even though they disagree with it intensely, because their duty is to obey superior courts. As every official in the Justice Department knows, if one disagrees with the law one is called upon to apply, or the policy one is bound to enforce, one is free to resign. Staying on while undermining government policy is not an act of courage. It is an act of sabotage.
It was foolish of President Trump to leave officials such as Acting Attorney General Yates in place. The president has issued a raft of executive orders in his first eight days. His obvious intent is to change governance significantly, which means he needs entirely new personnel. Yates never should have been in the position to undertake her grandstanding in the first place — but at least that particular error has now been corrected.

Think of all the things Chuck Schumer didn't cry about

American Thinker ^ | 01/31/2017 | Jack Hellner 

When illegal immigrants are released by sanctuary cities and by a president who ignores existing laws, there is little if any empathy by Hollywood, the media, and Democrats when they kill or commit other heinous crimes. There are no protests to protect the citizens of communities, and I have never seen Chuck Schumer shed a tear for the victims. Where have the Hollywood fundraisers been to help the victims?
When an American facility was under attack in Libya and the president, secretary of state, and others did not lift a finger to save the Americans, I did not see any protests, outrage, or empathy from the media, Hollywood, or Democrats – nor when Obama, Hillary, and others concocted alternative facts instead of telling the truth. Instead of the media calling the president and Hillary the liars they were, they went after Republicans for trying to get to the truth.
I did not see Schumer shed a tear for the families of those who died. At the 2013 SAG and other awards shows, did Streep or anyone else tear into Obama for lying? We still don't know what Obama did the night of September 11, 2012, and the media has not been curious.
When Planned Parenthood (PP) was caught selling leftover human body parts for an obvious profit (in violation of the law), there was no sympathy or outrage by the media, Democrats, or Hollywood for what they were doing. Instead, they went after the reporters for telling the truth. Again, Schumer did not shed a tear for the human beings who died.
In the 1990s, when Bill Clinton vowed to crack down on illegal immigration and enforce the laws that existed, I did not see or hear the protests from Hollywood, Democrats, or the media. Instead, Clinton was supported.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...

Six of the seven countries on Trump's 'Muslim ban' list also bar visitors based on nationality!

The Telegraph ^ | 31 January 2017 | Gavin Haines 

Six nations listed on Trump’s controversial executive order, which prohibits citizens of seven countries from visiting the US, also impose travel bans of their own.

According to information supplied by IATA, the International Air Transport Association, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Iraq, Yemen and Libya all forbid Israeli passport holders from entering their countries, along with 10 other nations: Algeria, Bangladesh, Brunei, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Oman, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Furthermore, eight of those counties – Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Yemen and Libya – do not accept passports that contain Israeli visas.

Libya also enforces a separate ban on Iranian, Syrian and Palestinian visitors.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...

Is President Trump Doing Management Wrong?

Scott Adams' Blog ^ | January 31, 2017 | Scott Adams 

I made the mistake of turning on CNN yesterday and saw all the hypnotized pundits trying to work the secret persuasion word “chaos” into every comment about President Trump. That’s your tell that none of the pundits are offering independent opinions. They are part of the hive mind led by some uncredited persuader on their side. Someone told them to say “chaos” a lot, and so they do. This might signal the return of Godzilla. Reminds me of “dark,” their hive-mind word for the summer of 2016.


It appears that Trump’s counter-persuasion for “chaos” involves framing his administration as “disruptive.” That’s a good persuasion move because it doesn’t deny the observations. A disruption looks a lot like chaos from the outside. Two movies on one screen.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.dilbert.com ...

Starbucks’ Announcement to Hire 10,000 Refugees Illegal

e-headlines ^ | January 31, 2017 | Kristie McDonald 

FAKE NEWS and FAKE TEARS! Liberals across the country were in uproar after 109 of 325,000 foreign passengers were detained at US airports over the weekend. You could almost smell the hypocrisy as Iraqi refugees for six months in 2011 and Democrats said nothing. Obama also Refused 91 Refugees – Sent Them Back to Castro’s Hell-Hole.

Starbucks Corp CEO Howard Schultz announced on Monday that the company plans on hiring 10,000 refugees over the next five years to ease the company’s conscience. Bloomberg reported:

Starbucks Corp. Chief Executive Officer Howard Schultz, who wrote he had a “heavy heart” over U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration order, said the company plans to hire 10,000 refugees over five years around the world.

Trump issued an order on Jan. 27 suspending the admission of refugees into the U.S. for 120 days and banning citizens from seven predominantly Muslim countries for 90 days. The directive has been criticized by U.S. allies Canada and Germany.
(Excerpt) Read more at eheadlines.com ...

Trump Trumps Hate: We the People Rising at LAX Protests

Townhall.com ^ | January 31, 2017 | Arthur Shaper 


This past week has been a whirlwind of winning. We the People—Rising!—have so much to celebrate!
Donald Trump issues executive orders (within his scope as executive, so spare me the “unconstitutional card!”).
He has signed off to protect the unborn overseas from abortions—paid for without taxpayer dollars.
He signed off on the construction of the Keystone and Dakota pipelines.
His latest executive actions have set the liberal loony left ablaze.
The Trump Administration is targeting sanctuary cities for illegal aliens. If elected officials and their police departments resolutely refuse to comply with and enforce federal law, they will lose their federal funding.
I have protested at city council meetings all over Southern California, and they clearly depend on federal money for basic operations. What a YUGE mistake it would be for them to insist on their civic virtue signaling for illegals, only to screw over the law-abiding residents and lose revenue to fund the basic public responsibilities of every city.
Of course, in California, 80% of city budgets go to labor unions and their well-connected bureaucrats. Six figure pensions have become the norm.
Please, President Trump, cut the funding, and bring down the corrupt Democratic political class which has bled this state like a starving vampire.
Hillary Clinton won California by double-digits, but she lost the country. Thank God for all of us.
Another series of executive orders have confirmed the left-wing razorblade snowflakes’ worst fears.
1. Trump is going to build the big, beautiful wall along our Southern borders.
2. He issued a temporary travel ban on seven countries in the Middle East and North Africa. Those seven states are failed states, hot beds for Islamic radicalism in full force. Refugees (in name only, in many cases) have flooded out of those countries to Europe, and 15,000  more have come to America. The Obama Administration has specifically ignored Christians, the true targets of genocide.
But not a finger, or wave of his pen, or call on the phone from Barack Obama.
Do we really want the vast break-down in social order flooding Europe coming into the United States?
I say “Hell No!” to that!
The media, as usually, lied through their teeth, their black and white headlines, and all over on social media. This is not a “Muslim ban”, since 87% of the world’s Muslims are not affected, including dubious international actors like Egypt and Saudi Arabia, as well as radicalized states like Pakistan and Afghanistan.
As for the wall …
Mexico has one along their Southern border. Israel has two, and Hungary threw up secure fences along its Eastern borders. They work—and they make good neighbors.
Trump's decisions to secure our Southern borders, and to impose a temporary ban from dangerous countries, are not xenophobic, racist, sexist, prejudiced, and whatever other illiberal epithet I left out. Our President has every right—and necessity to ensure the safety of American citizens. Is this really a hard concept for people?
Yes, it does read "bring me your poor, your tired, your hungry, your teeming masses” at the bottom of the Statue of Liberty. But even in the 1800s, the United States required a thorough vetting process—for diseases, for suitability, and for potential threats or connections with terrorist groups. Let’s not forget that PRESIDENT William McKinley was assassinated by a foreign-born anarchist.
Extreme vetting is not an extremist policy.
Now, a red voter in the midst of deep blue insanity, I noticed within two hours of Trump’s travel ban, raging anti-social injustice warriors, half of whom I am certain didn’t vote in the last election, set up a Facebook event page to protest at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).
I have one of the largest harbors as well as busiest airports within 20 minutes of my home. I was not going to let 100, 1,000 (it ended up to be about 20,000 plus) take up space all over the airport and parade a series of wicked lies for the media to lick up and spit out for the world.
Enough.
Barely 24 hours, I reached out to my fellow Trump supporters We the People Rising, and headed to LAX.
The parking was not as bad as I feared. That was the smoothest part of our counter-protest. We stationed ourselves on a sidewalk island right outside of the Tom Bradley arrival terminal. The crowds of anti-Trump protesters spread like a confetti-covered filth across the sidewalk, onto bridges, and into the streets. Signs with some of the most bigoted remarks imaginable littered the horizon.
I could only feel compassion for the travelers trying to make a flight. Two hours is the expected time to allow for an easy ride from curbside to airplane seat. Not for LAX passengers that day. These nationwide anti-Trump manifests will backfire. Average Americans who live and work are going to get tired of left-wing cry-bullies wetting themselves and trashing the streets.
Even the reporters got tired of their bigoted bullying.
The most intense moment of our counter-protest?  We stood our ground across from the terminal, but the Trump hate-mongers strangled the sidewalk. They blocked our signs. Bullhorns were blaring. Protesters flipped their middle fingers in our faces. They cursed at us. One of them unplugged my microphone and stereo. Another demon took a yellow siren and put in on full blast.
Whatever happened to “Love Trumps Hate”?
Unintimidated, we just stayed together. We held our ground. We shouted “USA!” and “Trump all the way!”
Five minutes later, the anti-Trump raging began to subside. Whatever they were doing—it wasn’t working. The LAPD, like blue-clad angels, surrounded and forced the negative protesters to gather on the other side of the street.
It was a double victory for Team Trump that day. Our President won on Election Day, and even in California Trump supporters are stepping out, speaking out and standing our ground in support of our chief executive, who is placing the needs of Americans first, and wants to Make America Great Again!

Democrats Boycott Confirmation Of Trump Nominees, Blocking Mnuchin, Price Votes

Zero Hedge ^ | 01/31/17 | Tyler Durden 

Full out war between Democrats and the White House broke out today when Senate Democrats on Tuesday refused to attend a committee vote on two President Trump’s more controversial nominees, effectively delaying their consideration. Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee boycotted votes to advance Tom Price, Trump’s pick to head the Department of Health and Human Services, and Steven Mnuchin, his selection to head the Treasury Department.
Since at least one democrat must be on present for the vote to be held, the move will effectively delay and potentially prevent the confirmation votes on Mnuchin and Price. The duo is among some of the more contentious selections to join Trump’s Cabinet.
Democrats walked out of the Senate Finance Committee hearing room, arguing that Mnuchin and Price misled senators in their testimony before the panel, and saying they could not allow a vote to proceed without more information. Minutes before the scheduled vote on the pair, democrats said they refused to enter the hearing room until they get answers to their questions about Price's stock purchase in an Australian biotechnology company.
"At a minimum, I believe the committee should postpone this vote" and have an opportunity to talk to officials at the biotech company, Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the committee, told reporters. He said they'll be willing to move forward on Price and Treasury nominee Steven Mnuchin only after their questions are answered, especially on Price, whom Wyden suggested hasn't been "straight" with the committee.
Both Price and Mnuchin had been targeted fiercely by Democrats on a range of ethical issues. Price was pressed on his investment activity in various medical companies, and whether he improperly mixed his political activity with his personal portfolio.
(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...

It’s Christmas every day for the Democrat Party as the left creates a new class of Super-Victim

The Coach's Team ^ | 1/31/17 | Doug Book 

We’ve heard a great deal recently about candidates for the Chair of the Democrat National Committee and the contempt they have for members of the White race. During the DNC Candidate Forum last week, Sally Boynton Brown, Executive Director of the Idaho Democrat Party, stated that Democrats must “train” Americans “how to be sensitive and how to shut their mouths if they are white.”
Of course it’s just possible that this attitude among Party representatives had something to do with the stunning defeat of their shoe-in candidate last year. But I won’t suggest that hostility toward some 78% of the American public necessarily makes for bad political mojo. So what if white voters are not welcome in the Democrat Party. Who needs ‘em, after all!
For Democrats, it seems, have come up with the last word in the battle to attract followers. It’s called “intersectionality.” And according to at least one elected Democrat it explains what the Party did wrong in 2016.
Speaking at the DNC Candidate Forum, Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, said “We did a poor job of communicating intersectionality.” “I’m a walking intersectionality,” decided Buttigieg. “I’m a left-handed, Maltese-American, Episcopalian, gay, war veteran.”
So what is this new recruiting tool which Democrats find so appealing? According to Wikipedia:
Intersectionality (or intersectional theory) is a term first coined in 1989 by American civil rights advocate and leading scholar of critical race theory, KimberlƩ Williams Crenshaw. It is the study of overlapping or intersecting social identities and related systems of oppression, domination, or discrimination.
Intersectionality is the idea that multiple identities intersect to create a whole that is different from the component identities. These identities that can intersect include gender, race...
(Excerpt) Read more at thecoachsteam.com ...

Trump 'put on this Earth' to be president!

Washington Examiner ^ | 1/30/17 | Eddie Scarry 

Roger Stone, a controversial political consultant and longtime confidante of President Trump's, believes divine intervention was at play in the 2016 election.


In a new book, Stone describes the moment he said it occurred to him that Trump was destined for big things.

"Donald told me he couldn't meet me because he was leaving for Atlantic City with a group of his executives by helicopter," Stone writes in "The Making of a President: How Donald Trump Orchestrated a Revolution," an early copy of which was provided to the Washington Examiner. "I convinced him to wait for me, sending the executives on ahead and having the chopper return to pick up Trump and bring him to Atlantic City later."

The conversation with Trump, according to Stone, happened in 1989, when Stone was working as a lobbyist for Trump and had intended to inform his boss of progress on some regulatory rules.

Stone said that after arriving to meet with Trump, the superintendent of the New Jersey state police called to inform him that the helicopter had crashed, killing the executives aboard.

The crash has been reported on before, though some have doubted whether Trump was ever actually supposed to be aboard it as well.

"This was the point at which I realized that Trump had been put on Earth for this larger purpose," said Stone. "This was the point that I realized he would be president."

Stone's book is a look at his relationship with Trump, his campaign's appeal to voters and the political dynamics he believed put Trump in the White House.

Stone was a senior adviser to the campaign for a short time but resigned after, as he writes in his book, a clash with then-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.

THE LEFT’S VIEW OF REFUGEES, THEN AND NOW

Powerlineblog ^ | 01/30/2017 | PAUL MIRENGOFF 

Richard Pollock at the Daily Caller offers this flashback — one that’s not without irony:

Despite today’s outrage over President Donald Trump’s refugee executive order, many liberals in 1975 were part of a chorus of big name Democrats who refused to accept any Vietnamese refugees when millions were trying to escape South Vietnam as it fell to the communists.
They even opposed orphans.

The chorus was led by Jerry Brown who, then as now, was the governor of California. The “no to refugees” chorus also included George McGovern, the leading Democratic leftist of the day, and Joe Biden who, then as now, was wrong about nearly everything.

The sharpest opposition came from California and was led by Gov. Brown. Julia Taft, who in 1975 headed up President Ford’s Inter-agency Task Force on Indochinese refugee resettlement, recalled “our biggest problem came from California due to Brown.” The eccentric governor even attempted to prevent planes carrying Vietnamese refugees from landing at Travis Air Force Base outside San Francisco.
(Excerpt) Read more at powerlineblog.com ...

Chuck Todd Admits Media Treated Hillary with Kid Gloves!

PJ Media ^ | 1/30/17 | Michael Walsh 


If you thought there was something fishy about the way the mainstream media kept trying to tell you that Hillary Clinton's election was a foregone conclusion, you were right:
NBC’s Chuck Todd confessed that he and others in the mainstream news media played down just how despised Hillary Clinton was in the heartland due to the fear of appearing “sexist.” What’s more, he admitted, the mainstream media failed to “tell the stories of all Americans.”
“Where I think political correctness got in the way of what we all knew as reporters and didn’t fully deliver was how hated the Clintons were in the heartland,” the “Meet the Press” host admitted Thursday to former Bush White House press secretary Ari Fleischer in a interview for the “1947” podcast.
“And I think it was a fear of, ‘Oh, is it going to look like it’s sexist, anti-woman if we say that?’” he added, pointing out that on the hustings he saw numerous “Hillary for Prison” signs adorning the front yards of rural America. “I think we underplayed it a little bit out of political correctness fears,” Mr. Todd said. “No member of the press corps wants to look like they’re singling out a group and making a group feel bad, right, whatever that [group] is.
“If we sort of were straight-up honest and blunt about hey do we understand the level of hatred that’s out there and you know, all the Hillary for Prison signs that are out there, we certainly would have at least made the viewer know, hey, you know, she’s not well-liked in some places in this country in ways that’s times 10 when it comes to Trump,” he said.

Groupthink is an occupational hazard of reporting, as every reporter wants to break a story but nobody wants to be the first to tell an unpleasant truth. Todd, who began his career working on former Iowa senator Tom Harkin's DOA presidential campaign, has been a Democrat shill for his entire career, and in fact may be the most visible symbol of what the late Andrew Breitbart famously called the Democrat-Media Complex.
If this election results in nothing more than the end of MSM dominance over the public discourse, it all will have been well worth it. Instead, the lefties on the media (many of whom, like Todd, have blocked me on Twitter for the crime of publicly disagreeing with them) have continued to double down on a losing hand, thereby exposing just how very dishonest and desperate they really are.

Extreme Fretting Over Refugee Ban

American Thinker ^ | January 30, 2017 | Daniel John Sobieski 

Which part of “extreme vetting” did liberals who lost the 2016 election not understand? President Trump is doing exactly what he said he would do during the campaign -- a concept foreign to liberals -- namely, suspend immigration from countries riddled with terrorist activity. Protests have erupted as a handful of travelers from these countries have been detained at airports,
It was inevitable due to timing that there would be travelers caught en route, including diabetic grandmothers and former translators who worked with U.S. forces in Iraq caught in the transition as Trump’s executive orders was implemented. But these media “horror” stories have obscured an essential fact. No one who is not an American citizen has a right, emphasis on the word “right,” to come here. It is the right of sovereign nations to control their borders in the manner they see fit based on the criteria their national interest demands. As the Department of Homeland Security stated clearly in a statement on the ban’s implementation:

"The Department of Homeland Security will continue to enforce all of President Trump's executive orders in a manner that ensures the safety and security of the American people," the department said in an early morning statement."President Trump's executive orders remain in place -- prohibited travel will remain prohibited, and the U.S. government retains its right to revoke visas at any time if required for national security or public safety," the statement continued. "President Trump's executive order affects a minor portion of international travelers, and is a first step towards reestablishing control over America's borders and national security."…


(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...

Leftists Determined to Stop Trump from Defending America!

Frontpage ^ | 1/30/17 | Robert Spencer 

President Trump’s executive orders on the Mexican border and the temporary ban on immigration from seven countries that are hotbeds of jihad terror have the Left in an uproar that increases in hysteria by the minute, proving once again that the Left will be satisfied with national suicide and national suicide only – not anything less.

What has the Left so enraged is a simple declaration of an intention to protect and defend the United States. Trump’s executive order states that it is designed “to protect the American people from terrorist attacks by foreign nationals admitted to the United States.” How dare he! It adds: “The United States must be vigilant during the visa-issuance process to ensure that those approved for admission do not intend to harm Americans and that they have no ties to terrorism.”
It’s racism! The Nation published an article entitled, “How to Fight Trump’s Racist Immigration Policies.” Bigotry! The Detroit Free Press editorialized: “Immigrant, refugee ban reflects fear, bigotry.” Islamophobia! Vox informed us that “Trump says his refugee ban is about protecting America. It’s really about Islamophobia.”
Here is the substance of that racism, bigotry and Islamophobia, straight from the executive order:
The United States cannot, and should not, admit those who do not support the Constitution, or those who would place violent ideologies over American law. In addition, the United States should not admit those who engage in acts of bigotry or hatred (including “honor” killings, other forms of violence against women, or the persecution of those who practice religions different from their own) or those who would oppress Americans of any race, gender, or sexual orientation.
So acting to prevent people who have no intention of obeying American law and approve of honor killings, other violence against women, and the persecution of non-Muslims and gays is such an outrage that Leftists have begun nationwide protests. Meanwhile, in response to a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), federal judge Ann Donnelly on Saturday night issued an emergency stay, barring U.S. officials from deporting people who were being detained at airports. According to CBS News, “the order barred U.S. border agents from removing anyone who arrived in the U.S. with a valid visa from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen. It also covered anyone with an approved refugee application.”
However, it didn’t cover those who had not yet made the trip. The Department of Homeland Security announced on Sunday morning that it would “continue to enforce all of President Trump’s Executive Orders in a manner that ensures the safety and security of the American people. President Trump’s Executive Orders remain in place—prohibited travel will remain prohibited, and the U.S. government retains its right to revoke visas at any time if required for national security or public safety. President Trump’s Executive Order affects a minor portion of international travelers, and is a first step towards reestablishing control over America’s borders and national security.”
Trump wasn’t backing down, either, despite the Left’s treating this executive order as if it were the second coming of Auschwitz and Dachau. White House chief of staff Reince Priebus defended the executive order on Sunday on “Face the Nation”: “This is not a Muslim ban. All this is is identifying the seven countries -- and the reason we chose those seven countries is those were the seven countries that both the Congress and the Obama administration identified as being the seven countries that were most identifiable with dangerous terrorism taking place in their country. You can point to other countries that have similar problems like Pakistan and others -- perhaps we need to take it further. But for now, immediate steps, pulling the Band-Aid off, is to do further vetting for people traveling in and out of those countries.”
Priebus added: “This was a promise that President Trump had made and it’s a promise that he’s going to keep. And he’s not willing to be wrong on this subject -- we need to do our best to be vigilant and protect Americans.”
That is what makes President Trump, after just over a week in office, the recipient of even more hatred from the Left than George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan. And they’re just getting started.

An Open Letter to Senator Chuck Schumer

US Defense Watch ^ | January 30, 2017 | Ray Starmann 

Dear Senator Schumer,

It was quite a weekend for you. When you weren’t wallowing in your 15 minutes of self-induced fame with endless tirades against President Trump and his executive order, you flooded the airwaves with enough Crocodile Tears to fill the Hudson.

If that wasn’t enough you posed with the Islamic Walton family yesterday, to show us how we can teach the world to sing in peaceful harmony, especially with people who want nothing more than to see us graveyard dead.
You referred to President Trump’s executive order, which indefinitely barred Syrian refugees from entering the United States, suspended all refugee admissions for 120 days and blocked citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries, refugees or otherwise, from entering the United States for 90 days: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, as mean-spirited and a moral outrage, yet they bear a resemblance to an executive order issued by President Obama in 2011 and orders issued by the Department of Homeland Security last year.
In 2011, President Obama placed a six-month ban on all refugees from Iraq after a refugee was linked to the deaths of US soldiers in Iraq.
According to a DHS press release, dated, February 18, 2016:
The Secretary of Homeland Security has determined that Libya, Somalia, and Yemen be included as countries of concern, specifically for individuals who have traveled to these countries since March 1, 2011. DHS continues to consult with the Department of State and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to develop further criteria to determine whether other countries would be added to this list.
Last month, the United States began implementing changes under the Act. The three additional countries designated today join Iran, Iraq, Sudan and Syria as countries subject to restrictions for Visa Waiver Program travel for certain individuals.
Sure sounds like the same countries listed on President Trump’s executive order, doesn’t it, Senator?
Strangely, you, nor your colleagues in dishonesty and deception from the liberal media ever uttered so much as a peep about those orders signed by Mr. Obama and authorized by the DHS.
As you well know, Senator Schumer, the President’s first constitutional duty is to protect the nation from all enemies, foreign and domestic. It is not his duty to bow to the neurotic, loony whims of women on The View, naĆÆve, airhead actors at an awards ceremony or the anarchists your party has unleashed once again in big cities across the country.
The examples of terrorists who have infiltrated into the US under the guise of the refugee or visa programs are numerous. Here are just a few examples out of many:
On November 18, 2013, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, Issa Doreh was sentenced to ten years in prison for “conspiracy to provide material support to terrorist, conspiracy to provide material support to foreign terrorist organization, conspiracy to launder monetary instruments, and providing material support to foreign terrorist organization.” Doreh was admitted to the United States as a refugee from Somalia .
On January 31, 2014, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, Ahmed Nasir Taalil Mohamud was sentenced to six years in prison for conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. Mohamud was admitted to the United States as a refugee from Somalia.
On April 20, 2015, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, Abdurahman Yasin Daud, a Somalian refugee was charged (along with six others) with conspiracy and attempt to provide material support to ISIS.
On February 18, 2015, Al-Hazmah Mohammed Jawad was arrested as he attempted to board a flight to Jordan to join and fight with ISIS in Iraq. Jawad was admitted to the United States in 2013 as an Iraqi refugee and he subsequently obtained a green card.
On January 29, 2013, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, Mohanad Shareef Hammadi was sentenced to life in prison for a number of offenses related to terrorism. Hammadi is a native of Iraq who was admitted to the United States as a refugee in 2009.
In 2009, Ramadan Alwan, an al Qaeda-Iraq terrorist living as a refugee in Bowling Green, Kentucky — later admitted in court that they’d attacked U.S. soldiers in Iraq. An ABC News investigation of the flawed U.S. refugee screening system, which was overhauled two years ago, showed that the men were mistakenly allowed into the U.S. and resettled in the leafy southern town of Bowling Green, Kentucky.
Sudan was designated as a State Sponsor of Terrorism in 1993 due to concerns about support to international terrorist groups. Elements of al-Qa’ida-inspired terrorist groups remain in Sudan. Groups continue to operate in Sudan and there are frequent reports of Sudanese nationals participating in terrorist organizations.
Iran has been a financier and supporter of international terrorism since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, financing such groups as Hezbollah. Iran was implicated in the 2011 plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the US, Adel al-Jubeir. Iran consistently taunts and threatens the US military in the Persian Gulf.
Libya is a failed state that has become a training ground and recruitment center for ISIS and especially for ISIS members infiltrating into Western Europe under the cover of the EU refugee programs.
The war torn country of Syria is not only a haven for ISIS, but a training ground for future terrorists and ISIS operatives in North America and Western Europe. In a recent interview with the UK Express, an ISIS operative boasted that the group has infiltrated 4,000 people into Western Europe under the guise of posing as refugees.
In fact, one of the gunmen during the Paris attacks in 2015 had a Syrian passport on him when he was killed during the terrorist operation.
In July 2016 Mohammad Daleel, 27, blew himself up outside a wine bar in Ansbach, Germany. Fifteen people were injured. Daleel was a refugee from Syria who had arrived in Germany in 2014 seeking asylum.
You don’t know who these people are, or where they’re going, or what their motivations are, do you Senator Schumer? How is the government supposed to scrutinize the backgrounds of refugees, when laws prohibit officials from examining the social media pages of those who wish to settle in the USA?
You do know one thing though, Senator Schumer; they will eventually vote Democrat and that’s all that counts, national security be damned.
Liberals claim that the US refugee program is as solid as steel. It’s more than obvious that the US refugee program is another inept federal government operation, a house of cards ready to collapse on the nation.
Mean spirited and a moral outrage Senator?
Mean spirited is a Jihadi firing a couple hundred rounds into innocent men and women in a crowded Paris theater.
Moral outrage is an Al-Qaeda operative roaming freely around the US, with a shiny new green card and a carload of C4.
Mean-spirited is a Jihadi driving over people with a semi-truck in downtown Nice.
Moral outrage is a Somali refugee stabbing a dozen people at Ohio State University.
Mean spirited are the constant threats by Iran against the United States.
Moral outrage is a series of ISIS suicide bombs detonating in the Brussels airport, killing 32 innocent civilians.
NO ONE has a constitutional right to be here that is not an American citizen. Those who come here do so at the discretion of the President and the Congress, which represents we the people. You might want to explain that to your shrieking, naĆÆve, delusional fellow Democrats, Senator Schumer.
The President of the United States is the leader of this nation. Like all leaders, he must make decisions that are sometimes unpopular among certain groups, for the greater good of America. Strength is a trait that has all but vanished among liberals and national security is anathema to the left’s obscene world view. It is more than obvious that Democrats are willing to gamble with the lives of the American people in order to be politically correct.
Your actions this weekend, Senator Schumer, have clearly demonstrated once again that the simplest equation in the world is LIBERALISM = ABSOLUTE WEAKNESS.

Where are the Republicans? Why is Mr. Trump, our President all ALONE?

Self - References You-Tube RUSH ^ | 31JAN17 | VANNROX 

I just finished listening to The Rush POD CAST. Rush is correct. Just where is all the Republicans? Trump CANNOT do all the good work alone. He needs help and strong assistance. Where is it?

I see that Sessions and McCain are so quick to stab him in the back. I see some bozo (fake) conservatives want to "reach across the isle" and pen "moderate" legislation with the losing progressives. What is all this nonsense?

Trump needs our help. This is not the time to sit on the sidelines and let one man do all the heavy lifting. He needs our support. We have to storm the halls of our representatives and demand they support him. We NEED to do this. The Media and Soros, not to mention the entrenched swamp is too deep to drain alone.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz Stands Up to Trump and Now People Are Calling for Boycotts!

The Street ^ | Jan 30, 2017 | Brian Sozzi 

Never one to refrain from speaking out on political issues, Starbucks (SBUX) CEO Howard Schultz took to his soap box on Sunday evening and fired back at the Trump administration following its controversial immigration ban.
"I write to you today with deep concern, a heavy heart and a resolute promise," Schultz said in a new blog post, adding, "We are living in an unprecedented time, one in which we are witness to the conscience of our country, and the promise of the American Dream, being called into question."
Housed in Schultz's missive were a host of interesting nuggets. Schultz said Starbucks is developing plans to hire 10,000 refugees over the next five years across the 75 countries globally where it does business. Starbucks will begin its hiring focus in the U.S. -- sending a clear message to Trump -- via those people who have served with U.S. troops as interpreters and support personnel in various countries where U.S. forces have sought support.
.....
People quickly took to TheStreet's Facebook page to voice their opinion on Schultz's comments, with some calling for a boycott.
Byron Fairchild How about hiring 10,000 Americans at home first!!!šŸ˜” Glad I only buy at Big B coffee.
(Excerpt) Read more at click.thestreetns.com ...

Trump’s Climate Plans Just Made the Media’s Heads Explode!

breitbart.com ^ | 1/31/2017 | James Delingpole 

I’ve just watched the London liberal media’s heads exploding like ripe watermelons.

It was great – a bit like that No Pressure video that the enviro-loons made a few years ago, only better because this time the victims weren’t blameless schoolchildren but grisly, puffed-up, righteously eco, Trump-and-Brexit-hating TV and newspaper Environment Correspondents, all of whom hate my guts. (They hate yours too, so don’t get smug.)

The occasion was a press conference hosted by the Global Warming Policy Foundation for Myron Ebell, head of the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency transition team. Satan’s Emissary, as liberals prefer to think of him.

Ebell had come to tell them about Trump’s plans for the environment and energy, which I won’t repeat here because you know them already. (It’s going to be beautiful, that’s all you need to remember.)

No, the reason I went wasn’t to hear what Ebell had to say but to watch how his audience reacted.

You know that scene in The Omen when Damien’s parents try to take him into a church? It was a bit like that. Or maybe the one in The Exorcist, where Regan’s head does a 360 degree spin.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...

President Trump sent FedEx courier a $10,000 check in the mail (Feel good story)

The Washington Post DC Politics ^ | January 30, 2017 | Justin Jouvenal 

The evening before his inauguration, President Trump took time to meet with a 24-year-old FedEx courier from rural Illinois. In a tent behind the Lincoln Memorial in D.C., the soon-to-be president praised Shane Bouvet for his work as a volunteer on his campaign, hugged him and then promised him an extraordinary thank you: a $10,000 check.
The unusual meeting was arranged after Trump said he read a profile about Bouvet in The Washington Post. The struggling single father had spent nights working and days volunteering for Trump, who Bouvet hoped could bring renewal to his home town of Stonington, Ill., and other corners hard hit by the decline in U.S. industry.
On Monday, the check arrived in the mail.
“Shane — You are a great guy — thanks for all of your help,” a note from Trump on presidential stationary read.
Bouvet was in disbelief at his good fortune....
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...

Report: Trump Halted $181 Billion in Regulatory Costs on First Day in Office!

Washington Free Beacon ^ | 1/31/17 | Elizabeth Harrington 

In one of his first acts as president, Donald Trump effectively halted nearly $200 billion worth of regulations, according to a new analysis.
President Trump has taken aggressive action to curb regulations in his first week, promising to cut 75 percent or "maybe more," and signing an executive order Monday to cut two regulations from the books when every new rule is introduced.
The first move came in the form of a memo to all federal agencies from Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, freezing all recently finalized and pending regulations. The American Action Forum, a center-right policy institute, found the action resulted in stopping rules that would cost the economy $181 billion.
"On day one in office, President Trump’s Chief of Staff, Reince Priebus, signed a memo to all executive agencies imposing a regulatory moratorium," wrote Sam Batkins, director of regulatory policy for the American Action Forum. "This may sound like an extraordinary action, but President Obama’s then-Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, penned an almost identical memo eight years ago."
"According to American Action Forum (AAF) research, this memo put a hold on $181 billion in total regulatory costs, including $17 billion in annual costs, and 5.5 million hours of paperwork," Batkins wrote. "This moratorium freezes 22 rulemakings with annual costs above $100 million and 16 measures with more than $1 billion in long-term costs."
The Trump administration memo stopped the publication of new rules in the Federal Register, withdrew regulations that were sent for formal publication so they can be reviewed, and postponed recently finalized regulations for 60 days.
The American Action Forum found 206 rules that are subject to the administration memo, including five major rules that will likely be scaled back or withdrawn altogether.
One rule halted was the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Department of Transportation's plan to mandate all new cars, vans, and SUVs install technology that would share their speed and brake status information with nearby vehicles.
The Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communications rule would have cost an estimated $108 billion. The regulation is in its beginning stages, with plans to finalize in 2019.
The American Action Forum said the Trump administration "will almost surely veto" any attempt to move the regulation to the final-rule stage.
Other costly regulations that were pushed through in the final days of the Obama administration are also likely to not move forward. A $12.3 billion final regulation imposing stricter energy rules for air conditioners can be withdrawn if it received opposing comments, a "virtual certainty," the American Action Forum said.
Additionally, new efficiency standards for furnaces that cost $9.2 billion, and efficiency standards for battery chargers costing $4.6 billion, have been put on hold.
A $5.7 billion rule stemming from Obamacare that includes addressing "discriminatory behavior by healthcare providers that may create real or perceived barriers to care" in rural hospitals is also likely subject to the freeze.
The Environmental Protection Agency has already frozen 30 regulations in response to the memo, including the Renewable Fuels Standard, which would have cost $1.5 billion.
The American Action Forum concluded the Trump administration's regulatory freeze could have a major impact given the record amount of rules President Obama pushed while in office and during his final days in the White House.
"The regulatory moratorium from Reince Priebus was anything but an extreme measure. It is standard operating procedure for a new president to take stock of the existing regulatory landscape," Batkins said. "What was extraordinary was that the previous administration had $181 billion in regulatory burdens, 16 billion-dollar rules, and millions of hours of new paperwork pending in the system."
"It’s unlikely the regulatory freeze lasts for longer than a few months, but it’s a certainty that the administration will scrutinize all pending major rules and determine those that adequately protect public health and safety and those that could harm economic growth," Batkins added.

The Daily Win, DAY 11

1/31/2017 | By Laz A. Mataz 




IN ONLY 11 DAYS AS PRESIDENT,

DONALD J. TRUMP HAS:



  1. President Trump withdrew the U.S. From Climate & Environmental Accords, and cut funding to the UN by 40% via Executive Order.
  2. President Trump took it to the media (Donald Trump’s media summit was a ‘ __ing firing squad’)
  3. President Trump planned to dissolve 'Net Neutrality' (Trump transition team appointments indicate a bid to dismantle net neutrality)
  4. President Trump erased all mentions on the White House web site of “climate change” and "LGBT rights." He did that within one hour of taking the oath of office.
  5. President Trump issued an Executive order to “ease the burden of Obamacare”. He did so within hours of being sworn in.
  6. President Trump signed an Executive order withdrawing America from the widely-criticized Trans-Pacific-Partnership trade treaty
  7. President Trump returned the bust of Winston Churchill to the Oval Office
  8. President Trump issued an Executive order starting the construction of the border wall, and to strengthen immigration enforcement.
  9. President Trump ordered agencies to halt regulations until the rule is reviewed and approved by the new president's appointed agency head.
  10. President Trump announced the end of “Sanctuary cities” and the defunding of federal funds for any city that chooses to continue breaking the law.
  11. President Trump issued Executive Orders to proceed on the long-stalled Keystone and Dakota Access Pipelines.
  12. President Trump fired the State Department’s entire senior management team.
  13. President Trump announced a ban on visas from dangerous Muslim-majority countries with inadequate screening.
  14. President Trump worked with the House (who complied) to permanently ban taxpayer funding of abortions.
  15. President Trump issued an Executive order banning funding to pro-abortion groups overseas.
  16. President Trump announced his intention to withdraw From Climate & Environmental Accords, as well as cutting UN Funding by 40%.
  17. President Trump said that persecuted Christians be given priority when it comes to applying for refugee status in the United States.
  18. President Trump announced a Federal agency hiring freeze.
  19. President Trump FIRED Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director (Daniel Ragsdale) for insubordination.
  20. President Trump FIRED Acting Attorney General (Sally Q. Yates) after she defiantly refused to enforce his immigration executive order.
  21. President Trump appointed Marine Corps Gen. James “Mad Dog” Mattis for Secretary of Defense.
  22. President Trump plans to cut the Environmental Protection Agency Federal employee count in HALF.
  23. President Trump imposed an immediate gag order on the Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Department of Agriculture.

No Job!

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How can you tell?

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Obama Library

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Change the subject!

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Great Expectations

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Governor Moonbeam

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Miss Me Yet?

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Good as Gold?

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More Likely

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Hi-Ho, Hi-ho

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The Wall

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WELCOME!

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Pace yourself!

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Vetting

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Monday, January 30, 2017

These 73 sitting Democrats voted to ban visas from some Muslim countries. That law still on the books!


https://www.conservativereview.com/commentary/2017/01/these-73-sitting-democrats-voted-to-ban-visas-from-some-muslim-countries-that-law-still-exists?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=013017SeventyThreeDems&utm_campaign=crfb ^ 

These 73 sitting Democrats voted to ban visas from some Muslim countries. That law still exists!

Trump’s executive order is so modest that the foundation of it is essentially existing law. That law was passed unanimously by both bodies of Congress in 2002. In fact, it garnered the support of 16 Democrat senators and 57 Democrat House members who are still serving in their respective bodies! Following 9/11, Congress passed the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act, which addressed many of the insecurities in our visa tracking system. The bill passed the House and Senate unanimously. The bill was originally sponsored by a group of bipartisan senators, including Ted Kennedy and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. (F, 0%). Among other provisions, it restricted non-immigrant visas from countries designated as state sponsors of terror:

Protester To Daily Signal: Obama's Temporary Iraqi Ban In 2011 Was Fine "Because I Love Him"

Townhall ^ | 1/30/17 | Matt Vespa 

The Daily Signal’s Genevieve Wood ventured to Dulles Airport to interview protesters, who are railing against President Donald J. Trump’s executive order on immigration, specifically the so-called Muslim ban on travel and visa applications. The president has stressed this is temporary. He’s also well within his constitutional authority to issue this order. Moreover, they’re nations that Obama included in his 2015 revision to the visa waiver program. This isn’t a ban either, though the Obama White House seems to have laid the groundwork for Trump’s executive order by initially selecting the nations of concern. Also, three of the seven nations in Trump's executive order are designated as state sponsors of terrorism.
Again, this isn’t a Muslim ban. People from Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country, can still come here. The 1965 Hart-Celler Act does not apply because the Trump White House issued this order under a national security priority, not because he wanted to re-skew or reestablish immigration quotas from western European nations, which was the basis for the act.
Wood, who broadcasted on Facebook Live, interviewed several protesters, who were cordial—misguided—but no punches thrown. Yet, one protester towards the end of the broadcast said that the main difference between Obama and Trump is that the former didn’t ban people. Actually, he did. As Wood noted, the Obama administration stopped processing visa applications from Iraq in 2011 for six months after al-Qaeda operatives were found to have slipped through the vetting by applying as refugees and then being relocated to the U.S. a few were discovered in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
I don’t remember protesters going nuts over that moment in history. When Wood told the protester this fact, she asked her if it bothered her.
“No, I love president Obama. I wish he was still here,” replied the protester. Well, that pretty much sums up why the Left will never, even say anything bad about the man. Also, would it surprise anyone that 14 years ago, Democrats wanted to halt issuing visas to some Middle Eastern countries? Yeah, that happened too.
Full broadcast here:

Amazon Is Working With Lawmakers to Counter Trump’s Immigration Order

The Wall Street Journal ^ | January 30, 2017 | Laura Stevens 

Amazon.com Inc. Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said the e-commerce giant is working with lawmakers and state officials to explore legal options to counter President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration.

In an email to staff Monday, Mr. Bezos said the company has reached out to members of Congress to explore legislative options. The company’s public policy team in Washington, D.C., also has reached out to senior administration officials to make clear its opposition, Mr. Bezos wrote:

In one of the strongest signs of corporate disapproval of the order, Mr. Bezos said Amazon has prepared a declaration of support for a suit expected to be filed against the order by the Washington state Attorney General. “We are working on other legal options, as well,” he added.

“To our employees in the U.S. and around the world who may be directly affected by this order, I want you to know that the full extent of Amazon’s resources are behind you,” Mr. Bezos added.

Leaders from across the technology industry have criticized Mr. Trump’s temporary immigration ban on foreign nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries, expressing concern about the order’s effect on their employees, with some executives saying the ban violated their personal and company principles.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...

Here’s A Short List Of Foreign-Born Terrorists...leftist Reporters Can’t Believe it Exist

The Federalist ^ | 1/30/17 | Kyle Schideler 

When arguing with the Left about matters of national security and terrorism, one becomes accustomed to their habitual moving of goal posts and artificial construction of sample sizes that deliberately exclude relevant cases.
The most notorious example, of course, is the beloved “since 9/11…” canard, such as the oft-repeated although false claim that since 9/11 right-wing terrorists have killed more Americans than Islamic terrorists.
The recent executive order by the Trump administration on immigration led to an urgent desire to proclaim that there is no terrorism threat from immigrants. The most egregious example: A tweet from The New York Times’ White House correspondent Maggie Haberman, who is also a CNN analyst. She posed the question, “Other than San Bernardino shootings, has there been a terrorist attack involving a non-US-born attacker since 9/11?”
Of course, there is no sensible reason for excluding San Bernardino shooter Tasheen Malik, who was born in Pakistan, from a list of terror attacks. The attack killed 14 and took place only last year.
But even within the confines of such a ludicrously constructed sample, the question surprised more up-to-speed denizens of Twitter, who quickly bombarded Haberman with lists of successful and unsuccessful attacks carried out by non-U.S.-born individuals, including some of the most notorious recent terror attacks.

Yes, Foreign-Born Immigrants Have Committed Terrorism

Among such individuals: the Tsarnaev brothers of the Boston Marathon bombing, who were both born abroad. Tamerlan was born in Kyrgyzstan in 1986, and Dzhokhar was reportedly born in Dagestan.
The 2015 Chattanooga Recruiting Center shooter, Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez, was born in Kuwait and lived in Jordan before migrating to the United States at the age of six. He killed five people.
Ohio State University attacker Abdul Razak Artan, who ran over several fellow students with a car before attacking them with a butcher knife, was a refugee born in Somalia who had only been in the United States for two years.
Ahmad Khan Rahimi, born in Afghanistan, detonated a bomb near a 5K run event, then another in downtown Manhattan in October of last year.
Dahir Adan, a Somali born in Kenya who immigrated to the United States as a child, launched a mass stabbing attack at a St. Cloud Minnesota mall in 2016. And these are only a few recent examples.

Let’s Just Define Away Counterexamples

While it might be amusing to imagine that a mainstream media figure of some note is totally oblivious to any of the details of recent terror attacks, it’s almost beside the point. Had Haberman known better, perhaps she’d have simply constructed a question that did meet what appears to be her preformed opinion that foreign-born individuals are nearly incapable of representing a threat.
That was the position CNN took in its piece on the Trump administration’s executive order. The piece moved the goal posts yet again, insisting that no refugee had carried out a fatal terror attack in the United States. That’s surely cold comfort to the families of those killed by Waad Ramadan Alwan and Mohanad Shareef Hammadi, two Iraqi refugees settled in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
After their fingerprints were discovered on Iraqi IEDs, the two Iraqi refugees were caught in an FBI counterterrorism investigation, where Alwan bragged about using a sniper rifle to kill American troops abroad. The two plotted to kill returning U.S. troops as well. An IED constructed by Alwan is believed to have killed four Pennsylvania National Guardsmen in 2005.
That case resulted in a six-month freeze on Iraqi refugee resettlement in 2011 as U.S. authorities attempted to clamp down on serious screening problems. But, according to CNN’s twisted logic, these Iraqi refugees were never a threat. Ironically, the more attacks American law enforcement successfully prevent or mitigate, the less of a threat there is, according to the CNN model.
If one were truly interested in whether there is a terror threat from individuals born abroad, one would examine the totality of activity, not a narrowly constructed definition aimed to minimize it. That’s what senators Ted Cruz and Jeff Sessions did last June when they examined 580 individuals successfully prosecuted on terrorism offenses from September 2001 until 2014. According to the senators, 380 were foreign-born and at least 40 were refugees. While not all of those cases involved successful or attempted terror attacks, all involved cases that were terrorism-related.
Haberman’s offhand tweet is a snapshot of the willingness of the mainstream media to engage in reflective self-censoring, a kind of doublethink, where reporters seem to remain proudly unaware of key evidence that would contradict their pre-established conclusions. Unfortunately for The New York Times correspondent, not everyone on social media was inclined to play along.

Justice Dept. will not defend executive order on travel restrictions (guess what her race is)


CNN ^ | January 30, 2017 | Evan Perez and Jeromy Diamond 

Acting Attorney General Sally Yates has told Justice Department lawyers not to make legal arguments defending President Donald Trump's executive order on immigration and refugees, according to sources familiar with the order.

The move sets up a dramatic clash between the White House and Yates, who was appointed by Obama and is set to serve until Sen. Jeff Sessions, Trump's nominee for attorney general, is confirmed.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...

People Are Boycotting Starbucks After CEO Announces Plan To Hire Thousands Of Refugees (and zero Americans)!

Business Insider ^ | 1-30-2017 | Kate Taylor 

Some Starbucks customers are threatening to boycott the coffee giant after its CEO took a stand against President Donald Trump's executive order barring immigrants from seven majority-Muslim countries from entering the US.

On Sunday, Starbucks announced it planned to hire 10,000 refugees worldwide in the next five years.

"We are living in an unprecedented time, one in which we are witness to the conscience of our country, and the promise of the American Dream, being called into question," CEO Howard Schultz wrote in a letter to Starbucks employees about the plan.

While many customers were immediately supportive of Starbucks' actions on social media, others threatened to boycott after the letter's release.
"Upon hearing about your decision to hire 10000 refugees instead of Americans I will no longer spend any money at Starbucks," one such Facebook user wrote on Starbucks' page.

(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...

Media hysteria designed to sow fear and division

Canada Free Press ^ | 01/30/17 | Herman Cain 

Move on, snowflakes. The rest of America already has.

When irresponsible reporting is combined with irrational reactions, it instills fear and confusion in people’s minds. That’s what the liberal media are doing to some people, because both are still stuck in a state of bitterness.

Irresponsible reporting nowadays is well recognized as media bias. Some reporters and news outlets will slant the news, omit parts of a story or flat-out lie to make the story fit the political narrative they want to present.

Rep. John Lewis and Top Aide Hit With Ethics Complaint

freebeacon.com ^ | 1/30/17 | Lachlan Markay 

A watchdog group is asking congressional ethics officials to investigate Rep. John Lewis (D., Ga.) and his chief of staff over apparent violations of House ethics rules, according to a letter released on Monday.

The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust's letter is asking the Office of Congressional Ethics to probe Lewis chief of staff Michael Collins' dual roles in the congressman's Washington office and as the treasurer for his 2016 reelection campaign.

Ethics rules bar senior House staff from serving in any fiduciary role for a political organization, and specifically mentioned campaign treasurers as a prohibited position for such staffers.

FACT's complaint doesn't just target Collins; it claims that Lewis himself is culpable for ethics violations by his top staffer.
(Excerpt) Read more at freebeacon.com ...

Feds Blame “Lapse in Vetting” for Admitting Syrian Refugees with Terrorist Ties into U.S.

Judicial Watch ^ | JANUARY 26, 2017 | Judicial Watch 

Dozens of Syrian refugees already living in the Unites States may have ties to terrorism and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is downplaying it, claiming federal agents missed “possible derogatory information” about the immigrants due to “a lapse in vetting.” Among those who slipped through the cracks is a man who failed a polygraph test after applying to work at a U.S. military installation and another who communicated with an Islamic State leader.
Information about this scandalous security lapse comes from federal agents with firsthand knowledge of the situation. They spoke to a mainstream newspaper on condition of anonymity, as many Judicial Watch sources who expose delicate information do, out of fear. This is the type of case the government works hard to keep quiet and consequences could be serious for those who blow the whistle. The news article reveals that federal agents are now “reinvestigating the backgrounds” of the dozens of Syrian refugees because somehow DHS discovered that the lapse in vetting allowed refugees with “potentially negative information in their files to enter the country.” The newspaper attributes the information to “U.S law enforcement officials” who were not authorized to discuss the matter.
Coincidentally, on the day this story broke a national newswire service reported that President Donald Trump drafted an executive order to stop accepting Syrian refugees. The president also plans to suspend issuing visas for citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries—Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Under President Barrack Obama’s lax immigration policies, large numbers of terrorists from some of these nations entered the U.S., including members of ISIS and other radical Islamic groups. They include individuals who have engaged in or attempted to engage in acts of terrorism, conspired or attempted to conspire to provide material support to a terrorist organization or engaged in criminal conduct inspired by terrorist ideology. Some have been convicted and sentenced in American courts.
Additionally, the Obama administration was very generous in granting citizens of Muslim nations special amnesty protections and residency benefits in the U.S. During a five-year period, Obama’s DHS issued around 680,000 green cards to foreigners from Muslim countries, according to the agency’s figures. Somalia, Yemen, Syria and Libya were among the nations. In 2015 Judicial Watch reported on a special “humanitarian” amnesty program offered to illegal aliens from Yemen, an Islamic Middle Eastern country well known as an Al Qaeda breeding ground. Yemen is the headquarters of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and the State Department has revealed that AQAP militants carried out hundreds of attacks including suicide bombers, vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs), ambushes, kidnappings and targeted assassinations.
Circling back to Syrian refugees, as Obama let thousands settle in the U.S. his own intelligence and immigration officials admitted that individuals with ties to terrorist groups used the program to try to infiltrate the country and that there is no way to properly screen them. In 2015 the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) confirmed that individuals with ties to terrorist groups in Syria tried to gain entry to the U.S. through the refugee program and that the program is “vulnerable to exploitation from extremist groups seeking to send operatives to the West.” Before that the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Matthew Emrich, admitted during a congressional hearing that there’s no way to adequately screen Syrian refugees because the Syrian government doesn’t have an intelligence database to run checks against.
Additionally, FBI Assistant Director Michael Steinbach conceded that the U.S. government has no system to properly screen Syrian refugees.

Trump's Heartland Voters Shrug Off Global Uproar Over Immigration Ban!

Reuters ^ | 1-30-2017 | Laila Kearney 

Many of President Donald Trump’s core political supporters had a simple message on Sunday for the fiercest opponents of his immigration ban: Calm down.
The relaxed reaction among the kind of voters who drove Trump’s historic upset victory - working- and middle-class residents of Midwest and the South - provided a striking contrast to the uproar that has gripped major coastal cities, where thousands of protesters flocked to airports where immigrants had been detained.
In the St. Louis suburb of Manchester, Missouri, 72-year-old Jo Ann Tieken characterized the president as bringing reason into an overheated debate.
“Somebody has to stand up, be the grown up and see what we can do better to check on people coming in,” she said. “I’m all for everybody to stop and take a breath … Just give it a chance.”
By executive order on Friday, Trump banned immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries – Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen – and temporarily halted the entry of refugees.
In the electoral strongholds for Trump, residents seemed nonplussed about the uproar flashing across their television screens. They shrugged off concerns about botched execution, damage to foreign relations and legal challenges across the country.
In New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and other cities, Trump's action set off an outpouring of anger.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, evoked an image of the Statue of Liberty weeping. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York teared up himself on camera as he seethed over the “mean-spirited and un-American” immigration ban.
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...

It's legal. It's temporary. obama did it. Carter did it. Get over it!


Flopping Aces ^ | 01-30-17 | DrJohn 


He did it. He said he would do it and he did it.

The liberal establishment has lost its mind over Donald Trump's making good on a campaign promise to institute "extreme vetting" of immigrants seeking refuge in this country.

The stupid is deep and profound. barack obama did the same thing in 2011. Jimmy Carter did much the same thing. Sean Davis pointed it out and then WaPo's fact checker shoves both feet in his own mouth trying to defend the press's dereliction.

Kessler then opened his mouth

And proves that the press has been on its knees for 8 years


Now for the good part. For years I have said that liberals have zero long term memory, especially for actions by liberals.
It's time to crank up the Wayback Machine. To absolute astonishment of liberals, Donald Trump is making good on his campaign promises. He did promise he would enact "extreme vetting." Let's look at the responses back then:
PoliticoThe case for extreme vetting
The many filters that have been used throughout American history to determine who will and will not get an entry visa have an obvious purpose. Yes, some of them, in the hindsight of history, seemed to have had no constructive purpose. But for the most part, they helped to strengthen the social and political fabric of our country and they helped to define the common set of values that distinguishes us as Americans. Or to quote Alexander Hamilton again: “The safety of a republic depends essentially on the energy of a common National sentiment; on a uniformity of principles and habits.”So, regardless of what you think about the Trump candidacy, the next time you hear that Trump’s proposal for immigrant vetting is un-American, the correct response is that it is American to its core. And the next time you hear that Trump’s proposal is crazier than crazy, the correct response is that—given the mess the world is in—it is the notion that we should not vet immigrants more carefully that is certifiably insane.
Washington ExaminerImmigrants agree with Trump's 'extreme vetting' plan, terror nation ban
A new survey of immigrants shows that more than six in 10 agree with Donald Trump's call for "extreme vetting" of foreigners coming to America, and even more older immigrants back his plan to stop migration from terrorist nations until the U.S. comes up with a better vetting scheme.
Washington PostTrump’s ‘extreme vetting’ is harsh, but it would be legal
But in advancing a litmus test for entry, a President Trump would be claiming the same unilateral authority so willingly yielded to Obama on immigration over the past eight years. Obama has asserted sweeping, unilateral authority in his opposition to state laws seeking to force deportations. Democrats, including Clinton, enthusiastically supported Obama’s assertion of such unilateral powers in exempting undocumented immigrants from deportations. In doing so, they have laid the foundation for Trump to push for the inverse of those policies. It would be difficult, now, for Clinton to claim that Trump cannot use the same unilateral powers to reduce entries as opposed to deportations.
It is opined that legal challenges to Trump's extreme vetting will quickly fail:
The Congress carved out protection only for a limited class of aliens: those who qualify for an immigrant visa. Even here, the only limits are race, sex, nationality, but no limits on the presidential power to exclude based on religion, terror designations, poor vetting documentation or anything that can be called a matter of “procedure.” All refugees can be legally excluded. All Muslims can be legally excluded. All Sharia law supporters can be legally excluded.
Thus, the federal court is likely to dismiss the CAIR case, as the issues raised go mostly beyond the jurisdiction of the court, a political question in which the Court is the wrong venue for CAIR’s complaints. Another liberal lawsuit loss likely awaits. Maybe the lawsuit lovers would benefit from what former President Obama once reminded us all: elections have consequences.
If Trump haters bristle at Trump's actions, they have one person to blame- barack obama. He made it all possible:
(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net ...

Connoisseur of Chaos

City Journal ^ | Winter, 2017 | Stefan Kanfer 

The dystopian vision of George Soros, billionaire funder of the Left
When the dust was cleared and the debris swept away, he stood revealed as Hillary Clinton’s most generous billionaire donor. Yet his name rarely surfaced during the presidential campaign—and that’s generally the way he likes it. Dark Money, Jane Mayer’s book about covert political funding, refers to the Koch brothers more than 300 times in its excoriation of the “radical right” but mentions progressive icon George Soros just six times; three are footnotes.
One of the planet’s richest men, his past marred with crimes and misdemeanors, the 86-year-old billionaire skates on. More than a decade ago, he moved his financial headquarters to CuraƧao, a tax-free haven in the Caribbean designed for monied hypocrites who talk one game and play another. The place is not bulletproof; on occasion, Soros has been accused—and even convicted—of insider trading. A French court found him guilty of that crime and levied a fine of $2.3 million. In the parlance of the billionaires’ club, that was small change. Investigative journalists, a dwindling cadre, show little interest in him. They prefer to scrutinize safer, softer targets.
If they took even a cursory look, though, they would see that Soros’s global reach and influence far outstrip those of the Koch brothers or other liberal bogeymen—and that underlying it all is a vision both dystopian and opportunistic. “The main obstacle to a stable and just world order,” Soros has declared, “is the United States.” Ergo, that constitutional republic must be weakened and its allies degraded. The Sorosian world order—one of open borders and global governance, antithetical to the ideals and experience of the West—could then assume command.
George Soros has been an escape artist since his adolescence in Budapest, when Nazi occupiers gave him his first life lessons.
(Excerpt) Read more at city-journal.org ...

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