The Front Page Cover
~ Featuring ~
Unanimous: New Sanctions Against North Korea
by National Security Desk
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Construction Worker Shortage Acute After Hurricanes
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Construction Worker Shortage Acute After Hurricanes
by Business Review Board: The demand for construction workers, which was already high before Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, will now become even more acute as Texas and Florida seek to rebuild. Just this past June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that there were 225,000 construction job openings — a 30% jump from last year and a 125% increase since 2012. The Associated General Contractors of America anticipates that a whopping 86% of construction firms nationwide will be seeking to hire workers.
The trouble is there’s a shortage of workers. And that shortage is not due to low pay, as construction workers and day laborers’ wages have steadily increased. In Texas, for example, carpenters’ wages have increased 55% in just three years to an average of $25 an hour. There are three primary factors that have contributed to the shortage. First, after the last housing boom and ensuing downturn, a lot of construction workers left the industry, either for other jobs or retirement. Second, there are fewer young men pursuing trade and vocational education, further depleting the pool. Third, Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration has impacted the industry.
After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, a significant amount of the cleanup and rebuilding was done by illegal alien workers. In Louisiana 29% of construction workers were illegals; in Texas it was 23% and in Florida 15%. That’s by no means a recommendation for illegal labor but rather an explanation for the shortage.
It’s estimated that around 30,000 homes were destroyed by Harvey in Houston, and the damage from Irma is yet to be assessed. Fortunately, Florida was spared greater damage by Irma’s ultimate course, but homes and businesses statewide will need repairs and the rebuilding will be going on for years to come.
First, Trump should work with Congress on an Irma disaster relief package that includes more guest-worker visas to immediately cover worker shortages. Second, more young people should be encouraged to seek vocational skills and apprenticeship programs, which can set them on rewarding career paths while avoiding higher educational debt. The truth is that college isn’t for everyone, but work is. Especially when rebuilding from hurricanes. ~The Patriot Post
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DACA Amnesty Higher Priority –
More Urgent Than Border Wall
by rickwells.us
{rickwells.us} ~ At another of the often infamous Christian Science Monitor breakfasts, an administration bureaucrat, Marc Short, took questions from the press... This is the same event where Paul Ryan once told us how good TPP was going to be for us all, so the truth is in no way a critical component of the dialogue. This time Short was sent out to sell DACA amnesty and compromise. A reporter asked Short, “Does a continuous wall along our southern border have to be part of whatever compromise is reached by the end of the year on DACA?” The assumption is now being made that there will be a compromise on amnesty and the position in support of such an amnesty bill by President Trump is also now presumed. The care with which Short chooses his words are a warning sign that they are walking a fine line. Sounding as if he is reciting the bullet points he’s been told to repeat for the “simple-minded at home,” Short says, “I think that we are most interested in getting border security and the President has made a commitment to the American people that he wants, he believes that a physical barrier is important to that equation of border security.”... https://rickwells.us/daca-amnesty-wall-trump/.
Contractors say liar-Clinton State Department
silenced them on Benghazi security lapses
by Catherine Herridge, Pamela K. Browne, Cyd Upson
{foxnews.com} ~ Security at the State Department's Benghazi compound was so dire that another contractor was brought in to clean up the mess just two weeks before the 2012 terror attack – and was later pressured to keep quiet... by a government bureaucrat under then-Secretary of State liar-Hillary Clinton, according to two men from the American security company. Brad Owens and Jerry Torres, of Torres Advanced Enterprise Solutions, say they faced pressure to stay silent and get on the same page with the State Department with regard to the security lapses that led to the deaths of four Americans... http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/09/12/contractors-say-clinton-state-department-silenced-them-on-benghazi-security-lapses.html.
Religious Freedom Advocates
Rebuke Al Franken for ‘Hate Group’ Slur
by Ken McIntyre
{dailysignal.com} ~ One of the nation’s most respected champions of religious liberty draws a line at being called a hate group by Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn... During a confirmation hearing for Amy Coney Barrett, a Notre Dame law professor nominated by President Donald Trump to a federal judgeship, Franken said Alliance Defending Freedom is a hate group and that Barrett “wasn’t truthful” in answering one of his questions about her association with the Christian legal aid organization. Franken cited talking points of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a left-wing organization that says it fights discrimination but increasingly has attacked Alliance Defending Freedom and other mainstream conservative groups that embrace Judeo-Christian tradition... http://dailysignal.com/2017/09/12/religious-freedom-advocate-rebukes-al-franken-for-hate-group-slur/?utm_source=TDS_Email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MorningBell&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWkRBMU5HVmxNelZsWW1NMiIsInQiOiJDdnpZclc4ZVNSVHNUa1JjT3NnNEJteEFHYVRnSGp5eGx2cXhMNWsxMjVTWlB2Q2NFTytMelVWMHVoOTNKM1JSK2Rtam1xeFRpMWFPekk0eDV1M2plMzY2amFibDdRM0dEeHorSE5RZVdneDJtbXZuOTAzVytlbmwxa0ZXanpuZiJ9
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US Air Force Dusts Off Old Skills to
Fight a New Kind of War in Eastern Europe
by Nolan Peterson
{dailysignal.com} ~ ÄMARI AIR BASE, Estonia—A memorial site for Soviet air force pilots is hidden in the woods just outside the gates of this NATO air base. Some of the monuments are of stone, overgrown and weathered, engraved with a Communist red star and a fallen pilot’s name... Other memorials are made from a fighter jet’s vertical stabilizer fin, adorned with the requisite red star and a small photo. Yet, at this secluded spot on a clear summer day in August, the roar of U.S. Air Force A-10 “Warthog” warplanes broke the bucolic quiescence. A little more than a quarter century ago, the noise of those American jets, at this base 160 miles from the Russian border, would have meant war. However, on this day—26 years after the Soviet Union’s breakup, and 13 years after Estonia joined NATO—those U.S. warplanes were flying as part of a NATO exercise meant to reassure Estonia, and remind Moscow, that the Western alliance is ready to defend its members with military force... http://dailysignal.com/2017/09/12/us-air-force-dusts-off-old-skills-fight-new-kind-war-eastern-europe/?utm_source=TDS_Email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MorningBell&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWkRBMU5HVmxNelZsWW1NMiIsInQiOiJDdnpZclc4ZVNSVHNUa1JjT3NnNEJteEFHYVRnSGp5eGx2cXhMNWsxMjVTWlB2Q2NFTytMelVWMHVoOTNKM1JSK2Rtam1xeFRpMWFPekk0eDV1M2plMzY2amFibDdRM0dEeHorSE5RZVdneDJtbXZuOTAzVytlbmwxa0ZXanpuZiJ9
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How to Stop Democrats From
Stonewalling Judicial Nominees
by Elizabeth Slattery
{dailysignal.com} ~ Oregon’s two Democratic senators, Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, have announced they will seek to block the confirmation of 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals nominee Ryan Bounds... Last week, the senators announced they will not return blue slips to Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, for Bounds, whom President Donald Trump nominated to a judgeship based in Portland. In a letter to White House counsel Don McGahn, the senators explained their intention to block any nominee who has not been approved by Oregon’s judicial selection committee. In essence, these senators are looking to stonewall the nomination. The Constitution gives the president the power to appoint judges, with the advice and consent of the Senate. So how is it that two senators can bring a nomination to a halt?... http://dailysignal.com/2017/09/12/stop-democrats-stonewalling-judicial-nominees/?utm_source=TDS_Email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MorningBell&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWkRBMU5HVmxNelZsWW1NMiIsInQiOiJDdnpZclc4ZVNSVHNUa1JjT3NnNEJteEFHYVRnSGp5eGx2cXhMNWsxMjVTWlB2Q2NFTytMelVWMHVoOTNKM1JSK2Rtam1xeFRpMWFPekk0eDV1M2plMzY2amFibDdRM0dEeHorSE5RZVdneDJtbXZuOTAzVytlbmwxa0ZXanpuZiJ9
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Unanimous: New Sanctions Against North Korea
Unanimous: New Sanctions Against North Korea
by National Security Desk: The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously Monday to impose new restrictive sanctions against North Korea. U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley stated, “Today we are saying the world will never accept a nuclear-armed North Korea.” Haley continued, “We are not looking for war. North Korea has not yet passed the point of no return.”
This latest round of sanctions is the most restrictive to date, covering some 90% of North Korea’s exports. Energy imports to the rogue country are significantly reduced — oil imports by 30%, capped at four million barrels annually, while natural gas imports are banned entirely. There will also be an embargo placed on all of the hermit nation’s textile trade, accounting for some $760 million in revenue last year.
It’s significant to note that this resolution was unanimously agreed upon. Both China and Russia, by far Kim Jong Un’s largest trade partners, are concerned enough about his ongoing illegal
missile and nuclear weapon development programs to side with the U.S. in seeking to stop him. Thus far China has been happy to leverage Kim’s aggressive behavior as an opportunity for covering over its own regional power grab, as well as for tipping the scales of trade with the U.S. in its own favor. Russia and China have repeatedly called for the U.S. to dismantle the missile defense system it set up in South Korea known as THAAD, which Haley called “insulting” for their false moral equivalence between the U.S. and North Korea.
But these latest sanctions, and the unanimity of the vote, should go a long way in further pressuring and isolating the rogue nation from the rest of the world, while encouraging other nations in the region. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that the resolution “raises the pressure on North Korea to an unprecedented new level and expresses the clear will of the international community that we must change the policies of North Korea.”
One thing is for certain: Donald Trump is doing everything in his power to reel in the fat tyrant, short of declaring war. We hope it doesn’t come to that. ~The Patriot Post
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