The Truth About Guns notes some of Fein-stein’s anti-gun bill wish list, which includes, “Universal background checks, mandatory safe storage, no transfers of existing standard-capacity magazines, no bump stocks, no folding or adjustable stocks, no large-format pistols, no pistol stabilizing braces (they hate disabled persons!), none of grips or stocks designed specifically not to violate the ‘assault weapons’ definitions.”
               In fact the legislation is so ill conceived that Jake Wagner of The Resurgent bemoans, “When we get into the specifics of what is banned, we see that everything is cosmetic. Most of it is stupid.”
               Obviously, this is par for the course with Fein-stein, as her real agenda is not to combat crime (say the 200-something annual murders committed using rifles of any type) but to effectively void Americans’ constitutional right to self-defense.
               Meanwhile, Republican Sen. John Cornyn (TX) is preparing to reintroduce the Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, which would require all states to honor one another’s gun-carry permits. Cornyn stated, “This bill focuses on two of our country’s most fundamental constitutional protections — the Second Amendment’s right of citizens to keep and bear arms and the Tenth Amendment’s right of states to make laws best-suited for their residents. I look forward to working with my colleagues to advance this important legislation for law-abiding gun owners nationwide.”  ~The Patriot Post

             One writer viewed Carlson’s commentary as announcing the death of the American Dream, while others heard him frame Americans as victims. Some argued that conservatives should reject Carlson’s “victimhood populism” because societal maladies cannot be cured by public policy, but, instead, lie in the hands of the individual. Yet another writer lauded the virtues of intervening institutions, such as the church and civic organizations, as well as the extended family as important in addressing our nation’s problems.
               Whether you subscribe to one of these opinions or another of your own, there are a few things that Carlson’s absolutely right about and that should serve as the fence posts of this debate:

• The family unit has fallen victim to public policies that incentivize individuals to avoid nuptials.

• Economies are systems that to varying degrees are structured through policies, laws, oversight, and regulations to permit generation of work, products, services, wealth, ownership, and the access to capital.

• We do live in a day that personal responsibility, for a growing population, has been replaced by entitlement, dependency, and/or apathy.

• Americans thrive when the family unit is intact; when the economy permits individuals to work, produce, own, accumulate, and spend wealth without excessive taxation, regulation, or reckless policy that threatens their earning capacity and ability to live in a self-reliant fashion; when the approach to work, play, study, and life in general is rooted in the discipline of personal responsibility and self-respect, which fosters mutual respect and hope.

It’s not that any one writer, essayist, columnist, or opinion commentator is absolutely right or absolutely wrong. It’s just that society seems to want to find a single culprit for the struggles of millions of people. Yet many times when an issue is critiqued, we discover that one simple problem is not the cause. Instead, as it seems is the case of much of our modern culture in America, many factors converged and have been multiplied by time until now we’re surrounded by the woes Tucker mentioned. That points to some common pathologies found in both urban and rural America.
               These conditions that have deviated from a healthy, highly functioning society include rampant out-of-wedlock births, despite data showing children raised in an intact family not only perform better in school but their future opportunities tend to follow the best trajectory. In both rural and urban America, the unemployment rate of able-bodied men remains too high, which doesn’t bode well for those attempting to have and maintain an intact family — not when financial problems rank as the second most common contributing factor to divorce and are often cited when the desperation of suicidal ideation is reported. In both the rural and urban communities, drug abuse is ruinous in the lives of individuals, destroying families, consuming already stretched resources, and ending one’s ability to remain gainfully employed. It’s even ending life itself for tens of thousands every year.
               The question remains unanswered. Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? Does the decay of culture result in the change in policy and politics? Does policy and politics cause the decay in the culture? Or does there exist a feedback loop where cultural decay and policy failures fuel each other and grow with weakening restraint?
               At America’s Founding, the care of the great minds who constructed our government had already faced similar issues of crumbling institutions, an overreaching government, and pursuit of an ideal for a life that was better. John Adams wrote, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” His audience were readers from the First Bridge of the Third Division of the Massachusetts Militia. In other words, the second president of the United States was not penning some devotional or speaking to a crowd anticipating a religious sermon. Instead, Adams revealed the inextricable link between individual behavior and one’s ability to follow the direction of a moral compass and the number and scope of the laws needed to govern a society.
               Adams’s premise was that for a limited government of a constitutional republic to function with restraint, its citizens must have the capacity to follow a moral code and a religious framework of decency. Conversely, as Adams warned in 1798, “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net.”
               The late Andrew Breitbart echoed Adams when he said that politics is downstream of culture. For those who misinterpret and pervert Liberty to mean license in their behavior and pursuits, the legal frameworks must be expanded, and jurisdictions enlarged. Humanity responds to conditioning. Thus, policies both effective and flawed impact behavior and culture.
               Tucker Carlson has reminded us that our markets, institutions, communities, and governments function best when both the working and governing classes are directed by a moral compass — and when the latter is employing policies that empower not government but individuals for self-reliance.  ~The Patriot Post

             King’s latest offense came last week, when he said, “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive? Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?”
               Western civilization is not offensive, despite leftist attempts to make it a “trigger” term, and the same goes for nationalism. But white nationalism is another matter, and white supremacism is flat-out toxic. King knows this, as he later  insisted that he “reject[s] those labels and the evil ideology that they define.”
               Nevertheless, fresh off their November defeat and still stinging from unfounded accusations of racism that have dogged the GOP particularly since the rise of Donald Trump, some other Republicans have had enough. “Action will be taken,” said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). “I’m having a serious conversation with Congressman Steve King on his future and role in the Republican Party.” The two men are scheduled to meet today.
               Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) called King’s comments “offensive and racist,” while Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said the remarks were “stupid,” “hurtful,” and “wrong.”
               Sen. Tim Scott, a black South Carolina Republican, scolded King in an op-ed. “Some in our party wonder why Republicans are constantly accused of racism,” Scott opined. “It is because of our silence when things like this are said.” He explained, “King’s comments are not conservative views but separate views that should be ridiculed at every turn possible. Conservative principles mean equal opportunity for all to succeed, regardless of what you look like or where you are from. It is maddening to see so many folks who believe this and have only good intentions in their hearts tarnished by these radical perspectives. That is why silence is no longer acceptable.”
               Former Utah Republican Jason Chaffetz likewise penned an op-ed rebuking King, saying, “There are too many [offensive] statements for any one of them to qualify as a simple gaffe.”
               Fair or not, Republicans cannot win in the future if they are successfully branded as racists by a dishonest and biased Leftmedia. It only makes that a tougher job when King confirms the bias. The fact remains that the core message of the Republican Party is that individual merit, not identity group, is what matters. King doesn’t seem to understand that.  ~The Patriot Post

            But you can’t put a new face on socialism, not matter what you call it.
               Like FDR’s New Deal, the Green New Deal expands government power while forcing taxpayers to foot the bill. Except this time around, the plan will cost trillions of dollars, gut our economy, leave millions without jobs, destroy our energy independence, and fund social justice programs. Other than that, what’s not to like?
               A little climate change doesn’t seem so bad compared to this spending splurge. But make no mistake: This is a disastrous plan, and we’d better start taking it seriously. As with any Democrat scheme, the devil’s in the details.
               The Green New Deal would have serious implications for American energy production. Advocates claim that the U.S. would be required to eliminate nuclear power and natural gas. How important is that? As National Review’s Jim Geraghty notes, “Natural gas currently provides about 32 percent of America’s energy, and nuclear power produces another 10 percent.” Additionally, he says, “The ‘Green New Deal’ would also eliminate coal, which provides almost 18 percent of America’s energy, and liquid natural gas and oil, which generates another 28 percent.” Geraghty warns that all of this would require the U.S. to “replace about 88 percent of its current energy sources” in 11 years and would result in the loss of nearly six million energy jobs.
               Still not convinced that the Green New Deal is bad for America?
               Its proponents also want to reduce our military by half. This would affect our commitments around the world and would likely result in greater global conflict in a matter of a few years, not to mention putting more than a million military personnel out of work.
               According to Reason’s Ronald Bailey, the deal also proposes, “All fossil fuel emissions should be ended by 2050. All new passenger automobiles for sale in 2030 should be zero emissions vehicles; all rail, vehicles, and aviation should be totally fossil-fuel free by 2050. Other parts of the Green New Deal include reforesting 40 million acres of public and private land by 2035, greatly expanding mass transit systems, upgrading local water supply and management infrastructure, expanding federal regulation of the waters of the U.S., and requiring that all materials be recyclable by 2040.”
               Our nation is already more than $20 trillion in debt, and we’d easily double that number by implementing the Green New Deal. Asked how she’d pay for it, commie-Ocasio-Cortez recently suggested — what else — raising the marginal income tax rate to 70% for the wealthy. But that in itself wouldn’t even make a dent in the costs.
               Notice that there’s actually very little in the way of environmental conservation in this deal. It’s really all about realizing Barack scumbag/liar-nObama’s promise of “fundamentally transforming the United States of America.” But who’d want to live in an ecofascist nation where economic slavery empowers a totalitarian elite determined to enact socialism under the guise of environmental protection?
               Investor’s Business Daily reminds us that the real problem isn’t climate change but “having enough people working and paying taxes to support all the retirees around the world and pay off hundreds of trillions of dollars of global debt. What is a problem is the nonstop fear-mongering, demands for more taxes, and dangerous socialist experiments in expanding government control of the economy, all in the name of warding off the threat of global warming.”
               All the details of the Green New Deal speak for themselves. commie-Ocasio-Cortez’s dream of using renewable energy “as the vehicle to truly deliver and establish economic, social, and racial justice in the United States of America” is a pipe dream we cannot afford to pursue.  ~The Patriot Post

             Pushed increasingly leftward by a cadre of new members who demand it, the Democrat Party’s animus toward organized religion is becoming impossible to hide. In one of the more ugly displays of that animus, Senators lowlife-Kamala Harris (D-CA) and scumbag-Mazie Hirono (D-HI) attempted to impose their own religious test on Brian Buescher, an Omaha, Nebraska, lawyer nominated by President Donald Trump to sit on the U.S. District Court in that state. Both women asserted that Buescher belonged to an organization that promoted “extremist” views.
               The organization? The Knights of Columbus (KOC). Since its founding in 1882, the Knights of Columbus has become the world’s largest Catholic fraternal organization. In the last 10 years, its two million members have raised more than $1 billion and provided hundreds of millions of man-hours to charitable causes. Its charities include the Christian Refugee Relief Fund, Disaster Relief, Ultrasound Initiative, and Coats for Kids. KOC also partners with international charities that include the Special Olympics, the Global Wheelchair Mission, and Habitat for Humanity.
               Nonetheless, lowlife-Harris and scumbag-Hirono were incensed that a Catholic organization opposes the Left’s foremost religious “sacrament,” abortion on demand. It also opposes same-sex marriage and expressed that opposition in 2008 by supporting California’s Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage. Proposition 8 passed by a margin of 52.3% to 47.7% in the same year Barack scumbag/liar-nObama was elected president. The same Barack scumbag/liar-nObama who also opposed same-sex marriage until he, along with  scumbag/liar-Bill and scumbag/liar-Hillary Clinton, “evolved.”
               Evolution happens quite often among members of a Democrat Part with no core values other than the acquisition and maintenance of power. And once Democrats evolve, those who fail to immediately follow suit become bigots, homophobes, etc. (For those keeping track, the exact same dynamic is playing itself out with the wall. Democrats who once favored a barrier between America and Mexico now deem it “immoral” and those who favor it are racists.)
               Thus as far as lowlife-Harris and scumbag-Hirono are concerned, the Knights of Columbus is composed of anti-women homophobes whose members have no place in positions of power. Thus, scumbag-Hirono inquired if Buescher would end his membership with the Knights to “avoid any appearance of bias” and “recuse from all cases in which the Knights of Columbus had taken a position.”
               Buescher swatted scumbag-Hirono down. “If confirmed, I will abide by the Code of Conduct of United States Judges and will not affiliate with any organization in violation of the Code,” he wrote, adding that the KOC “does not have the authority to take personal political positions on behalf of all of its approximately two million members.”
               lowlife-Harris was equally obnoxious, labeling the Knights an “all-male society” that “opposed a woman’s right to choose” and “marriage equality.” She asked Buescher if he knew “the Knights of Columbus opposed marriage equality when [he] joined the organization.”
               Again, Buescher responded in stride. “I do not recall if I was aware whether the Knights of Columbus had taken a position … when I joined at the age of 18,” he wrote. lowlife-Harris also cited a statement from Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson, who said that abortion constituted “the killing of the innocent on a massive scale” and asked Buescher if he agreed. “I did not draft this language,” he answered. “If confirmed, I would be bound by precedent of the United States Supreme Court and the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals and would not be guided by statements made by others.”
               When Buescher ran as a Republican candidate for Nebraska attorney general in 2014, he described himself as “avidly pro-life.” This was too much for Sen. Cory “Spartacus” Booker (D-NJ), who asked Buescher, “Why should a litigant in your courtroom expect to get a fair hearing from an impartial judge in a case involving abortion rights?” Buescher rightly noted that there’s a difference “between taking political positions as a candidate for elective office and serving as a federal judge.” He added, “I believe a judge’s role and obligation is to apply the law without regard to any personal beliefs regarding the law.”
               Buescher also fielded other written questions regarding the Trump administration’s Title IX policies regarding abortion-clinic funding and anti-discrimination laws as they pertain to gender “identity” and sexual orientation. Again, Buescher explained that his personal opinions will not prevent him from making fear and impartial rulings based on law and precedent.
               The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board, which noted Democrat icon John F. Kennedy was also a KOC member,  spelled out what today’s “new” Democrats are all about, writing, “If Mr. Buescher is unfit to serve as a federal judge because of his Knights membership, then so is every other Catholic American who doesn’t publicly repudiate the church’s moral teaching.”
               Would that it were only the teachings of the Catholic Church. Anti-Semitic bigotry is an integral part of the party’s fabric as well. One of its newest members is Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). Fresh off her vow to “impeach the motherf —ke r” in reference to President Trump, she has accused her fellow lawmakers who support a bill that would permit local, state, and federal agencies to refrain from doing business with entities that support the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement as having “dual loyalty.” “They forgot what country they represent,” she tweeted.
               Democrats have apparently forgotten the same thing. “As a leader of black Christians, I feel particularly strongly about the Knights of Columbus,” writes Eugene F. Rivers III, a Pentecostal minister and director of the Seymour Institute for Black Church and Policy Studies. “For more than a century they bravely defended minorities. … They stood against the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s, the height of its power, helping fund the Supreme Court case that defeated the Klan-backed ban on Catholic education in Oregon.”
               That would be the same Ku Klu Klan institutionalized by the same Democrats who opposed the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution, banning slavery, guaranteeing due process and equal protection to former slaves, and granting black Americans the right to vote, respectively. The same Democrats who repeatedly elected former Klansman Robert Byrd — who led a filibuster against the 1964 Civil Rights Act — to the Senate.
               “Sens. lowlife-Harris and scumbag-Hirono are playing a game: They are engaged in selective religious profiling and sexism,” asserts Catholic League President Bill Donohue.
               It’s no game. An increasingly radical Democrat Party has made it clear that those who fail to adopt their bankrupt ideology — in its entirety and without reservation — will be targeted for destruction, by any and all means necessary.

Addendum: Rep. Tulsi Gabbard wrote an op-ed effectively rebuking fellow Aloha State Democrat scumbag-Mazie Hirono: “For too long in our country, politicians have weaponized religion for their own selfish gain, fomenting bigotry, fears and suspicions based on the faith, religion or spiritual practices of their political opponents.”
              scumbag-Hirono wasn’t buying it. She responded, “It is unfortunate that Congresswoman Gabbard based her misguided opinion on the far right-wing manipulation of these straightforward questions.”  ~The Patriot Post

             Notwithstanding the fact Sweden isn’t actually socialist, socialism or quasi-socialism has been implemented around the globe with detrimental effects. That includes in South Korea, which The New York Times profiled this week with surprising candidness. The Times says that President Moon Jae-in has instituted policies antithetical to Donald Trump’s. “South Korea has raised taxes and the minimum wage in the name of economic growth,” the Times explains. “So far, it hasn’t worked out as planned.”
               The Times continues: “Growth has slowed, unemployment has risen and small-business owners like Moon Seung are complaining. Mr. Moon, founder of an auto parts maker called Dasung in Incheon, an industrial town near Seoul, says his labor costs were up an extra 3 percent last year after the minimum wage rose to 7,530 Korean won, or about $6.70, an hour. That may not sound like much, but it ate into his razor-thin profit margin and prompted him to stop hiring.”
               The unemployment rate in South Korea reached as much as 4.2% in August, which is still very low but higher than at any point in the last eight years. That uptick also coincided with a minimum-wage hike, and additional hikes are in the pipeline. Moreover, third-quarter GDP registered at 2%, or .8% less than second-quarter GDP. The Times adds, “In a 2017 survey of its members by a small-business organization known as Kbiz, 42 percent said they would be forced to shed employees because of the minimum wage increase.”
               Even the senior secretary for economic affairs has admitted, “Our quality of life has been somewhat deteriorated, and income disparity has been widening. This is not the road we should continue to follow.” Yet he paradoxically added, “The path my president has suggested might be somewhat new and unfamiliar. But this is the sustainable way of running the economy.” Many South Koreans probably disagree, especially considering the president’s 84% approval rating has dropped precipitously to just 45%.
               The Times isn’t completely forthright, though. It also claims, “The discouraging early results don’t mean that Mr. Moon is wrong and Mr. Trump is right.” Furthermore, “Conservative analysts would point to Mr. Moon’s struggles as evidence against a more state-led approach to the economy. But some economists argue that it is too soon to judge Mr. Moon’s program.”
               On the contrary, there is plenty of evidence — past and present — to suggest that deregulation and low taxes form the backbone of a healthy economy. How else do you explain the superlative economy under Trump? To borrow from the Times’s logic, does near-full employment, mass deregulation, and strong GDP in the U.S. mean that Trump’s policies aren’t working? The absurdity of such a question speaks for itself. Recent volatility in the stock market has more to do with uncertainty over Democrat lawmakers’ incoming legislative onslaught that could derail economic progress.
               People like commie-Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and commie-Bernie Sanders wrongly think that the vast amount of wealth in the U.S. proves that socialism can be instilled here. But what they conveniently ignore is that our world-leading wealth is a product of capitalism. If you take that away, wealth will evaporate. And we’ll follow in the footsteps of South Korea — and eventually worse.  ~The Patriot Post

             But any visit from Kim to his patron state of China makes news and raises discussionabout the relationship between China and the United States. In this case, Kim used the Chinese visit to push for another summit with President Donald Trump, hoping that a second round of talks would produce “results that will be welcomed by the international community,” as Chinese state media reported after the meeting between Kim and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
               Those in the know, though, realize that one giant reason China has “tolerated” its pesky little nuclear-armed neighbor is the chaos North Korea’s nuclear ambitions created across the Pacific Ocean and the leverage that brought in China’s ambitious struggle to supplant the U.S. as the world’s superpower. Unfortunately for Beijing, Trump isn’t afraid to play hardball, so Kim’s visit to China was also meant to get China on board with North Korea’s bid for relief from the “maximum pressure” approach of economic sanctions put in place to keep Kim’s nuclear ambitions in check.
               Getting China to buy in to a softening of sanctions would leave the U.S. as the lone hawk in the game, as South Korean President Moon Jae-in told reporters he would work with the international community for a partial easing of sanctions between North and South. Moon acknowledged, however, that the U.S. would still be a valuable ally in keeping “stability and peace” both for the Korean peninsula in particular and the northeastern region of Asia in general.
               As the North Korean leader left Xi and climbed aboard his specially built train to return to Pyongyang, we can be sure that China’s leadership had its own message for Kim to pass along to Trump if a second summit, possibly conducted in Vietnam, indeed comes to pass. With a 90-day truce on tariffs reaching its halfway point this week, negotiations aimed at giving the U.S. “more balanced and reciprocal” trade have slowed to a snail’s pace, worrying the markets but — more important for the Chinese — putting pressure on their export-based economy. While nearly 90% of North Korea’s trade is with the Chinese, its paltry economy and population can’t compare to the prosperous American market and can’t begin to keep China’s factories humming.
               No one knows how long Kim will refrain from testing his missile program absent a summit with President Trump. Perhaps he’s biding his time knowing Trump faces reelection next year. But it would surprise no one if that testing hiatus ends about the time additional tariffs are put in place on Chinese imports. There’s more than one way for China to assert its strength, and if landing a spacecraft on the far side of the moonweren’t enough, what better than to have a client state threaten your enemy?
               Moreover, China needs to keep North Korea on a short leash. Andy Puzder — a onetime Trump choice for secretary of labor — stated his case in The Wall Street Journal, noting that the Chinese economy is teetering on the brink of recession because of Trump’s hardline approach to trade. “Mr. Xi’s speech was intended to reinforce the myth of an invincible Chinese dragon capable of bullying America into submission with its economic clout. The bluster is a sign of economic weakness,” wrote Puzder, adding, “President Trump’s trade strategy has exposed China’s vulnerability, demonstrating the risks of going toe-to-toe with a determined opponent that happens to be your largest customer.”
               Regardless of how this meeting of two adversaries of Liberty went, America’s leadership is resolute and its economy is growing. As always, a stronger America is bad news for communists and dictators everywhere.  ~The Patriot Post

             Another positive development to note is the impact the GOP tax cuts have had on American drug companies. The Wall Street Journal writes, “Recall how U.S. drug makers a few years ago sought to exploit lower rates abroad with corporate inversions. The GOP corporate tax reform, which cut the U.S. rate to 21% from 35% and allowed businesses to repatriate overseas profits tax-free, has given U.S. drug makers more cash to invest. Now they’re acquiring companies to advance innovation rather than engage in tax arbitrage as they did pre-reform.” Allowing drug companies to keep more of their earnings has freed them to invest more capital into drug research and development within the U.S., which in turn is creating better and broader cancer-treatment options for all Americans. Despite the documented flaws of pharmaceutical companies, this is prime example of how capitalism trumps socialism in meeting the needs of a nation across a vast spectrum of individuals.
               America’s health care system certainly has its problems, but it’s still the best in the world.
               Meanwhile, House Democrats are continuing in their march for a government takeover of the American health care industry. As Investor’s Business Daily reports, “Last week, House Speaker Nancy Pulosi agreed on hearings for ‘Medicare for all,’ which would effectively outlaw all private insurance in favor of a single, government-run plan.” IBD further notes, “The cost to taxpayers for all this ‘free’ health care? More than $32 trillion in the first decade — which is a lowball estimate. … There is no country on earth that has gone this far. Even so-called socialist countries typically rely to some extent on private insurance and out-of-pocket spending to cover a share of the health costs.”
               So while there is good news for Americans on new drug developments and the decreasing number of deaths due to cancer, Democrats seem determined to disrupt this progress by insisting on a government-controlled single-payer socialist system that has proven to fail everywhere it has been implemented.  ~The Patriot Post

             As Mark Alexander says, “So let’s review what they consider a ‘manufactured crisis’: ICE officers made 266,000 arrests of aliens with criminal records, including those charged or convicted of 100,000 assaults, 30,000 sex crimes, and 4,000 violent killings. The need to secure the border and stop the criminal gangs, drug smugglers, and human traffickers is imperative. Thousands of Americans have been brutally killed by those who illegally entered our country, and thousands more lives will be lost. Last month, more than 20,000 migrant children were illegally brought into the United States, many being used as human pawns by vicious coyotes and ruthless gangs. One in three women are sexually assaulted on the dangerous trek up through Mexico. Women and children are the biggest victims of the lack of a secure border and broken immigration policies supported by Democrats. Illegal migration puts enormous strains on public resources and drives down jobs and wages, especially for black and Hispanic Americans. More Americans will die from drugs this year than were killed in the entire Vietnam War — many of those drugs are ‘imported’ from south of the border.”
               Don’t believe us? How about an authority on the actual situation on the ground at the border? Despite being fired one day after Trump took office, Barack scumbag/liar-nObama’s Border Patrol chief, Mark Morgan, confirmed that Trump is correct: “I was briefed every single day about the men and women who are risking their lives every day and they’re apprehending murderers, rapists, pedophiles, other violent offenders and gang members. That’s not manufactured; that is real … and it’s still happening today.” Moreover, Morgan continued, “127 Border Patrol agents have died. They didn’t die playing Monopoly. They died … being the front-line defenders of our borders. … I wonder if you asked their families if this is a manufactured crisis?”
               In another instance, Morgan argued, “The [wall] issue is political, so we have to be honest about that. The substantive issue is what is important. It doesn’t matter whether it’s called the Secure Fence, Secure Wall, or Secure Barrier Act. The reason it was approved on a bipartisan front is because it was needed. What changed is that at one point it was wanted and needed, and now, because we call it a wall, it’s ‘immoral.’ Really? That’s what we’re talking about now? The size and width of the barrier is the delineation of what is moral or not?”
               Finally, Morgan said, “I’m outraged that we haven’t fixed this problem. I’m outraged. Who can say that this is a manufactured crisis? Anyone? … I don’t care who it is — anyone that says this is a manufactured crisis — they are absolutely lying to the American people.”  ~The Patriot Post

             scumbag/clown-Schumer promptly accused him of a “temper tantrum,” with Pulosi chiming in that he’s a “petulant president.”
               On the contrary, Vice President Mike Pence argued, “He left the room today because Speaker Pulosi said that even if he gave her what she wanted, she would never agree to the border-security priorities that we have on the table.” Trump wants $5.7 billion. House Democrat legislation countered with $0.
               Trump also reiterated Wednesday, “I have the absolute right to [declare a] national emergency” to build more of the wall. “My threshold will be if I can’t make a deal with people that are unreasonable.” scumbag/clown-Chuck and Nancy, as he likes to call them, are the definition of unreasonable. Moreover, they are so intractably opposed to anything Trump wants these days that it has — surprise! — a few Republicans in Congress already caving.
               After the meeting, Pulosi made emotional appeals about the government workers either furloughed or working without pay. The president “thinks maybe they can just ask their father for more money,” she asserted. “But, they can’t.” It’s true that the situation isn’t easy for government workers and their families. But Trump has declared that all furloughed government workers will receive back pay.
               And Pulosi can spare us the crocodile tears and  scumbag/clown-Schumer  the feigned outrage. To Democrats, this isn’t about furloughed workers or fiscal management, and they certainly care little for the plight of Americans suffering the myriad consequences of illegal immigration. Democrats’ barrier to the wall is about votes and winning elections, plain and simple.  ~The Patriot Post

             As National Review’s Jim Geraghty reminds us, there are thousands upon thousands of important federal employees who are still putting in hours despite being furloughed. It’s they who are keeping broad disruption at bay. But that task becomes harder the longer the shutdown continues.
               Says Geraghty: “You’re seeing some conservatives argue that the American government is functioning fine during the shutdown, demonstrating that the ‘nonessential’ workers are genuinely unneeded and that this proves that there’s no real need to bring the shutdown to an end. This is a pretty poorly informed reaction. Some of the most important duties of the federal government are continuing to function because hundreds of thousands of federal employees are working without pay and hoping that they get paid for their labor once the shutdown ends.”
               Consider the number of furloughed or soon-to-be-furloughed workers from these various departments:

• U.S. Customs and Border Protection: 55,000

• U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement: 16,000

• Citizenship and Immigration Services: 17,000

• Federal Emergency Management Agency: 15,000

• U.S. Coast Guard: 42,000

• Transportation and Security Administration: 55,000

• Department of Justice: 36,000

• Federal Bureau of Prisons: 35,000

• Drug Enforcement Agency: 7,600

• U.S. Marshals Service: 4,600

• Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives: 4,200

There are other considerations as well. As Geraghty goes on to note, “Zookeepers are still taking care of the animals … without pay. About 95 percent of NASA’s employees aren’t going to work — just the folks who have to show up and keep NASA people and property safe. … Whether or not you like the Department of Housing and Urban Development, if we’re going to have public housing, we probably should have safety inspections. Those are suspended until further notice. Some contract workers in federal buildings such as custodians and security officers are effectively laid off until the government reopens.”
               “Just about any institution can temporarily get by with the minimal staff,” Geraghty adds, “but after a while the duties pile up and become unmanageable — whether it’s a waitress trying to serve too many tables, supermarkets with one cash register open, or public bathrooms with only one stall working.” In other words, shutdowns — and workers — are subjected to a compound effect.
               None of this should be confused with why we have a government shutdown, which is a completely separate issue. But we can both criticize Big Government while at the same time sympathize with diligent workers who are affected. Some lawmakers have suggested furloughing their own salaries during government shutdowns. That’s not a bad idea — they surely deserve the money less than these thousands of workers who make our way of living safe and secure.  ~The Patriot Post