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              dummycrats-Democrats are clearly seeking to exploit this as a political tool for the coming midterms. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) echoed scumbag/clown-Schumer’s talking points, insisting that Kavanaugh’s nomination was “tainted with illegality.” And the always hyperbolic dummycrats-Democrat senator from New Jersey, Cory Booker, demanded that Kavanaugh’s confirmation process be halted until Robert Mueller’s investigation is concluded because of “the matter of the president being credibly implicated, or alleged to be a criminal co-conspirator” in crimes related to campaign-finance law. Booker, after all, would like to make his own appointment after 2020.
               It’s almost comical how predictable thedummycrats- Democrats are in so quickly jumping off their Trump/Russia collusion conspiracy just as soon as the opportunity to use another completely unrelated crime presented itself. It’s their “get Trump at all costs” policy. And yet in this instance, Schumer’s argument finds no support in historic precedent. Back in 1998, while the House was proceeding with impeachment hearings against liar-Bill Clinton, the Senate had no qualms about confirming his nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
               Like we mentioned earlier, dummycrats-Democrats’ rhetoric is merely intended as a means of pandering to their political base for the midterm elections, as dummycrats-Democrats know full well they won’t be able to stop the confirmation hearings.

~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/57822?mailing_id=3695&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.3695&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body

             More on that in a minute, but first…Those of us who supported his election over liar-Hillary Clinton had no illusion that Trump had the character of George Washington or Ronald Reagan. But as Nate Jackson noted yesterday, Trump’s considerable character issues were “baked into the 2016 election cake.” We knew what we were getting. It is unfortunate that Republicans have to defend a current president by comparing his failings to past   dummycrats-Democrat presidents, but that is the degraded reality of contemporary politics.
               Frankly, I have been surprised at how effective Trump has been as, to put it mildly, an “unconventional president.” A review of his first year MAGA accomplishments, and adding numerous legislative, judicial, regulatory, and economic accomplishments thus far in his second year, is remarkable. No conventional president has done more to turn the country back toward Liberty in his first 18 months in office than Donald Trump.
               Writing recently about the epidemic of Trump Derangement Syndrome afflicting the Left, I noted the reason why: “The day Trump arrived in DC, he dropped a bomb on the status quo in Congress and its special interests. He dropped a bomb on the regulatory behemoths and their bureaucratic bottlenecks. He dropped a bomb on the trade and national security institutions and alliances that failed miserably over the previous eight years. And he dropped a bomb on all the pundits and mainstream media outlets.”
               Trump’s “style” has caused more political consternation resulting in more uncivil discourse than any president in the last century. But as seasoned political observer Walter Williams notes, sometimes men of high character make bad presidents, while sometimes men of low character make good presidents.
               Enter the Russia collusion setup — orchestrated by former CIA Director scumbag/commie-John Brennan, former FBI Director scumbag-James Comey and, of course, liar-Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
                scumbag-Comey, by his own admission, released details of the fake Russian dossier (which became a Trump investigation centerpiece based on a questionable FISA memo) in order to prompt the appointment of a special prosecutor. That was a masterful play to keep Trump on the ropes through the 2018 midterms.
               It was clear that the appointment of Robert Mueller and his team of liar-Clintonistas would open up the proverbial “can of worms” in regard to all things Trump, and those connected to him, despite the fact there has been and likely will be no evidence of Russian collusion. To date, Mueller has not indicated any investigation into the genuine 2016 election collusion between Team liar-Clinton and the Russians to set Trump up for a takedown.
               And that brings us to this week, which featured the convictions of Trump associates Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen. Nothing in those convictions and plea deals have anything to do with “Russian collusion,” but again, the worms are out, and in the case of Cohen, so much for “lawyer-client privilege.”
               For starters, all the analysis from Right and Left notwithstanding, the biggest concern for Trump right now is not what Manafort and Cohen have been convicted of thus far. Manafort has an upcoming trial that pertains to his past dealings with Russian companies. But a much greater threat to Trump is what Cohen has yet to tell prosecutors about Trump. As his former attorney, Cohen knows where, on Trump’s behalf, he hid corporate and personal legal skeletons.
               As for the current charges against Cohen related to “hush money” paid to a couple of women with whom Trump had some salacious involvement long ago, the Left is trying to spin that into “high crimes and misdemeanors” for a faux impeachment proceeding.
               Trump insists, of course, that he has broken no laws. “Michael Cohen plead guilty to two counts of campaign finance violations that are not a crime. … The only thing that I have done wrong is to win an election that was expected to be won by Crooked liar-Hillary Clinton and the dummycrats-Democrats.”
               In regard to these latest Trump troubles uncovered by Mueller, my money is on the most cogent analysis from dummycrats-Democrat Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz.
               On the hush money, Dershowitz concluded: If Mr. Trump the candidate contributed several hundred thousand dollars to his own campaign to pay hush money to women who were either truthfully or falsely alleging against him, that is not a crime. The candidate can contribute as much as he wants. … The election laws are a morass of misdemeanors, felonies, crimes, non-crimes, with exceptions, so you have to get over the legal barrier first. Then you have to get over the credibility barrier. The only evidence that the president did anything that might be unlawful even arguably comes from a man who has admitted to be a liar, had a lawyer-client privilege with the president. There are a lot of barriers to what Cohen said … in court. Remember, there has been no indictment, grand jury, only a statement, an elocution, by a man who has admitted to criminal conduct. So we are far away from impeachable offense or a criminal offense against the president.
               On Trump’s asking Cohen to make the payments: Cohen would be acting for Trump as Trump’s representative, and the campaign contribution would be lawful as long as [the candidate] paid for it. … So the prosecutor is in a “catch-22.” If he believes Cohen, that the president directed him to do it, then it’s not a crime at all. If he doesn’t believe Cohen, then Cohen has committed the crime. The legal pundits who are saying that if Cohen admits a crime, that makes Trump and “un-indicted co-conspirator,” they are just wrong as a matter of basic criminal law.
               Asked by Bret Baier why Cohen would plead guilty to this campaign finance violation: This was an add-on. They had him dead to rights on the medallions, on the taxes — they threw this in … in order to give him an opportunity to say something negative about Donald Trump. Look, they’re not interested in Cohen, they’re interested in Trump. Judge Ellis said that in the Manafort case. So they threw in the campaign contribution law in order to find a connection to Trump. Medallions have no connection to Trump. Taxes have no connection to Trump. This is the only alleged crime that has a connection to Trump.
               Regarding absurd comparisons to Watergate, Dershowitz declared: It’s not even a close question. That is so over the top. It’s just not a crime to contribute to your own campaign. … I challenge any of those saying it’s a crime to find anything in criminal law that would make it a crime for a [candidate] to pay someone [to benefit] his own election. It’s not against the law. … The Rule of Law requires that when you say something is a crime, show me the statute. There is no statute that would make that a crime. It might be a misdemeanor for the campaign to fail to report that payment, but that would be the campaign, not the candidate.“
               And on the Left’s political impeachment rhetoric: If you are talking about high crimes and misdemeanors, that’s absurd. That’s not the kind of thing the Framers had in mind. … You need a high crime and misdemeanor. Every campaign has violated some technical election law. Thedummycrats-Democrats are going to run on "Give us the House and we’ll impeach the president.” … They’re not going to get close on an impeachment track. They are not going to find the crime. … The candidate is entitled to contribute a million dollars to his own campaign.
               Predictably the dummycrats-Democrats are using the latest Trump troubles to insist a delay in the confirmation hearings for U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Brett Kavanaugh, an outstanding choice to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy.
               Moving on, we will see what else Cohen has to say.

~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/alexander/57826?mailing_id=3695&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.3695&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body

             As The New York Times reports, “Microsoft Corporation said that it detected and seized websites that were created in recent weeks by hackers linked to the Russian unit formerly known as the G.R.U. The sites appeared meant to trick people into thinking they were clicking through links managed by the Hudson Institute and the International Republican Institute, but were secretly redirected to web pages created by the hackers to steal passwords and other credentials. Microsoft also found websites imitating the United States Senate, but not specific Senate offices or political campaigns.”
               Of course, no one should be flabbergasted by Russia’s perpetual meddling. The Times correctly points out that “the shift to attacking conservative think tanks underscores the Russian intelligence agency’s goals: to disrupt any institutions challenging Moscow and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.” Case in point: The Wall Street Journal reports, “The Russian hacking group has launched a number of attempted digital intrusions in recent months, Microsoft said. Missouri Democrat Sen. Claire McCaskill last month disclosed that her office had been a target of a phishing scam.” In other words, both dummycrats-Democrats and Republicans are prey.
               However, not everyone wants you to think so. Whereas the Times headline was clearly unambiguous — "New Russian Hacking Targeted Republican Groups, Microsoft Says" — The Washington Post was far more insinuating: “Microsoft says it has found a Russian operation targeting U.S. political institutions.” “Republican Groups,” “U.S. political institutions” — same unequivocal meaning, right?
               According to Hudson Institute spokesman David Tell, “We are not surprised by this. There can’t be an even peripherally involved office in politics in Washington that does not routinely get emails ending in .ru with weird attachments in them.” And according to International Republican Institute President Daniel Twining, “It is clearly designed to sow confusion, conflict and fear among those who criticize Mr. Putin’s authoritarian regime.” For his part, Microsoft President Brad Smith stated, “These attacks are seeking to disrupt and divide. There is an asymmetric risk here for democratic societies. The kind of attacks we see from authoritarian regimes are seeking to fracture and splinter groups in our society.”
               All of these points should lead to the same conclusion: Whatever “collusion” narrative the Left keeps chasing, the fact of the matter is that Russia is willing and able to interfere wherever, whenever, and with whomever it deems necessary. Our bickering over unsubstantiated “collusion” has the Russians grabbing the popcorn in amusement as they watch their master plan come to fruition.
               As the Washington Examiner’s Tom Rogan writes, a  counter punch is warranted: “While the U.S. government has condemned those attacks as a grievous assault on democracy, it has not imposed adequate consequences for them. These latest attacks mean U.S. deterrent credibility is not-so-slowly perishing. In turn, Russia has added reason to believe it can conduct aggressive operations in other areas. Putin must be educated to his error.”

~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/57778?mailing_id=3692&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.3692&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body

             Seriously? The only way to escape the raging flood of anti-Trump effluent from the Leftmedia propaganda machine is to completely unplug. Sports doesn’t even give us a break, as ESPN rehired Keith Olbermann despite his vicious comments about Trump and Trump supporters. Having taken a massive ratings hit though, ESPN may be starting to get the message.
               Regardless, if Trump is suppressing free speech he is doing a horrible job of it.
               CNN’s scumbag-Jim Acosta, known primarily as the idiot who screams at Trump, laughably told fellow anti-Trumper and late-night host Stephen Colbert that journalists are “not supposed to be the story.” He’s right, yet the media continues to make itself the story.
               Last week, more than 350 media outlets from around the country colluded on editorials protesting President Trump, claiming to be victims of his attacks on “fake news.” Because nothing says “we’re not coordinating negative coverage to take down President Trump” like hundreds of newspapers simultaneously printing editorials attacking Trump.
               On the matter of “fake news,” President Trump is not always articulate, but he is usually right. The evidence of intentional misrepresentation of facts by the media is impossible to miss. Examples of media bias range from selective omissions of relevant facts to editorials masquerading as news to outright lies. We don’t even have to go back far to find glaring examples.
               When Trump called fired White House employee and “Apprentice” star Omarosa Manigault-Newman a “dog” for releasing tapes she secretly recorded inside the West Wing, the media almost universally claimed it to be a racist comment. Does that mean journalists equate black people with dogs? Trump certainly doesn’t, based on the list of people he has called a “dog” on Twitter, including Mitt Romney, pasty actor Robert Pattinson, and anti-Trumpers George Will, Erick Erickson, and Bill Maher … all white.
               This same duplicitous media portrays black rapper Kanye West, a big Trump supporter, as a race traitor. Journalists ignore the fact that the Trump administration is actively working to help poor black children escape failing schools, working on criminal justice reform (which will disproportionately benefit the black community), and they largely ignore the fact that Trump’s economic policies have resulted in the lowest black and Hispanic unemployment rates ever recorded. As with the claims of Trump suppressing free speech, if Trump is a racist, he is doing a horrible job!
               And, of course, most media outlets avoid reporting Trump’s 36% approval rating among black Americans, an amazing number considering it was just 19% last year, and just 8% of blacks voted for Trump in 2016. dummycrats-Democrats must be terrified, which is why the media is ramping up the “Trump’s a racist” stories.
               The media is also attempting to spin Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani’s comment that “truth is not truth” as some Orwellian redefinition, intentionally taking it out of context to make him appear to endorse lying. Even NBC interviewer Chuck Todd admitted Giuliani was right.
               Some of the egregious examples of journalistic deceit come in what is NOT reported. For example, Trump’s ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) department is under fire from the open-borders Left for being inherently racist and for ripping illegal-alien families apart.
               So it should come as no surprise that when journalists covered the story of an illegal alien arrested by ICE as he drove his pregnant wife to the hospital, they conveniently omitted the very crucial detail that he was wanted for murder. This omission is intentionally deceitful.
               Media giants desperately try to convince us they are unbiased, but their actions reveal their dishonesty. Even before the election, major media outlets announced their intentions to destroy Trump at all cost. New York Times editor Dean Baquet openly admitted his publication would attack Trump in a way never done to any candidate before. Other rags took their cue to follow.
               By contrast, as Barack scumbag/liar-nObama attacked the free press, that same press actively colluded with scumbag/liar-nObama and liar-Hillary Clinton to protect them and influence elections. And today news outlets use high-ranking former scumbag/liar-nObama administration officials, like CIA Director scumbag/commie-John Brennan and dummycrats-DNI scumbag-James Clapper, to attack Trump, despite those two having been exposed for repeatedly lying and committing perjury.
               The Leftmedia has spent two years spewing 24/7 coverage of the alleged Trump/Russia collusion investigation despite zero evidence, yet ignores mountains of evidence of liar-Hillary’s felonious behavior, including taking bribes from Russian oligarchs.
               The public is well aware of this anti-Trump crusade, and the media is paying a price. A staggering 70% of Americans believe mainstream media outlets report stories “they know to be fake, false or purposely misleading.”
               At the end of the day, in their relentless effort to assassinate Trump, the Leftmedia is committing professional suicide.

~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/57782?mailing_id=3692&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.3692&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body

             Unfortunately, that warning proved all too prescient with yesterday’s news about Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort. More on that in a minute.
               Now don’t get us wrong — Trump may not be a good man, but he’s been a good president. He has, as Mark Alexander noted recently, “dropped a bomb on the status quo” in Washington. A desperately needed bomb. No wonder he’s a target for destruction.
               As for Trump’s (lack of) character, that was baked into the 2016 election cake. Voters knew exactly who they were electing — and that he was vastly preferable to a criminally corrupt swamp creature named liar-Hillary Clinton. Moreover, as you recall, liar-Bill Clinton had multiple accusations of rape and sexual assault, but dummycrats-Democrats rallied around him. Barack scumbag/liar-nObama lied about the murders of four Americans in Benghazi to win reelection in 2012, yetdummycrats-Democrats rallied around him. Now they care about character? Please.
               Yet it’s also true, as David French argues, “There is no universe that exists under which all the MAGA-folks wouldn’t be calling for liar-Hillary’s impeachment or resignation under similar facts.”
               Which brings us to the facts about Cohen and Manafort. Cohen, the president’s former lawyer, pleaded guilty to tax evasion, illegal campaign contributions, and making false statements to secure a loan. As part of his effort to obtain a better plea deal, he threw Trump under the bus, alleging that “a candidate for federal office” ordered and reimbursed hush-money payments to mistresses “for the principal purpose of influencing the election,” a violation of campaign-finance law because these in-kind contributions by Cohen exceeded the legal limit. That’s a serious charge, but it’s a difficult one to prove. As Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz said of the Cohen deal, “It’s not nearly as deadly lethal [to Trump] as some have portrayed it as being.”
               But Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, is a leftist who was special counsel to liar-Bill Clinton, so he knows how to protect a dummycrats-Democrat and attack a Republican.
               Manafort was targeted by Robert Mueller’s team for various crimes committed before Trump’s candidacy. The jury convicted him on eight of 18 charges — a decidedly mixed bag. None of it had to do with Trump, and none of it had to do with Russian collusion. As with Cohen, it was all related to tax and bank fraud, and anyone who thinks such sleazy behavior isn’t commonplace among campaign advisers isn’t paying attention. Recall that District Judge T.S. Ellis chastised Mueller’s team, saying, “You don’t really care about Mr. Manafort. You really care about what information Mr. Manafort can give you to lead you to Mr. Trump and an impeachment, or whatever.”
               As Mollie Hemingway points out, “One of Manafort’s associates in the whole lobbying enterprise was [ dummycrats- Democrat] Tony Podesta, who has yet to be indicted for his role.” The obvious double standard and specific political targeting actually helps Trump politically.
               Yesterday was a bad day for the GOP, not necessarily for Trump — “draining the swamp” notwithstanding. It most certainly was not, as NBC News laughably asserts, “the darkest day for the presidency since Watergate.” That assertion is being parroted across the Leftmedia spectrum. Trump uses chaos to his advantage, even if it is needlessly distracting chaos. But the House is in jeopardy of falling todummycrats-Democrats, who will then be sorely tempted to pursue impeachment proceedings. Most Leftmedia outlets seem to consider impeachment a foregone conclusion, even if a Senate conviction will never happen.
               Leftists’ sole strategy is delegitimizing Donald Trump. Driven by their own Trump Derangement Syndrome, they’ll use yesterday’s news to maximum effect in seeking to exact retribution for Trump’s only real “crime” — defeating liar-Hillary Clinton in 2016.

~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/57801?mailing_id=3692&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.3692&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q65KZIqay4E&feature=related

             Authorities stated that Rivera had been living in the area for the last four to seven years and that he worked at Yarrabee Farms, a local family-run farm. Yarrabee Farms issued a statement saying that Rivera had been “vetted through the government’s E-Verify system, and [he] was an employee in good standing.” The company further added, “Yarrabee Farms follows all laws related to verifying employees are legal to work in the United States, and we regularly seek outside counsel to ensure we stay up-to-date on employment law matters. We keep records on all employees and have shared that information with authorities.”
               Meanwhile, the mainstream media continued its practice of blurring the lines between legal and illegal immigrants by referencing Rivera as an “undocumented immigrant.” Yet that proves to be ironic and misleading in this case, given that Rivera was actually “documented,” though it’s clear his documentation was not legal.
               On Monday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Executive Associate Director Matthew Albence noted the danger in dummycrats-Democrat and leftist calls for abolishing ICE. “If you abolished ICE and removed the whole interior enforcement arm of immigration enforcement, you will have created the greatest pull factor this country has ever seen,” he said, adding, “Individuals south of the border will know that as long as they keep trying and keep trying to get past the border patrol, that there is no possibility that they will ever be arrested, even if they get arrested for criminal violation in this country, that there is no possibility they will ever be arrested by immigration and by ICE. Without that deterrent effect, you will have rampant crime throughout our communities.”
               Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds asserted, “As Iowans, we are heartbroken, and we are angry. We are angry that a broken immigration system allowed a predator like this to live in our community, and we will do all we can [to] bring justice to Mollie’s killer.” Texas Republican Gov. Gregg Abbott took aim at sanctuary cities, writing, “This is why so many Americans are angry about sanctuary cities. It’s why Texas banned sanctuary cities. It’s about safety.” Perhaps he was hearkening back to the last high-profile death perpetrated by an illegal alien — that of Kate Steinle in the sanctuary city of San Francisco.
               No matter how dummycrats-Democrats and open-borders proponents try to spin it, crimes like this committed by illegal aliens are on their heads. Leftists play an active role in seeking to limit effective means of securing our country’s borders, working against the enforcement of our nation’s immigration laws via the creation of “sanctuary cities” while calling for the abolishment of ICE.
               If  dummycrats-Democrats were truly concerned over the security of U.S. citizens as well as the plight of illegal aliens, they would be front and center in promoting a strong, secure border and the full enforcement of immigration laws. Doing so would go a long way in reducing the systematic and horrific abuse illegals suffer in the human-trafficking industry that thrives on lax immigration enforcement. But alas, for dummycrats-Democrats it’s all about securing their own hold on political power, not about serving their fellow Americans or even the illegals they claim to champion.

~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/57803?mailing_id=3692&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.3692&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body

             The Leftmedia quickly went to bat for dummycrats-Democrats, with the Center for American Progress predicting that scumbag/liar-nObamaCare’s “benchmark plan” would shoot up 25% next year, all because the individual mandate had been repealed by Republican tax reform. For example, CAP calculated that rates in Pennsylvania would climb 27%, Wisconsin would rise 28%, and the states of Arizona and Nebraska would increase 29%. By most estimates, dummycrats-Democrats saw the pain of skyrocketing rates as a political club to bludgeon their Republican challengers.
               However, insurers are now requesting premium increases at rates significantly less than even the CBO’s early projections. As Investor’s Business Daily explains, “scumbag/liar-nObamaCare premiums will rise a mere 0.7% in Pennsylvania, according to the state’s insurance commissioner. They will climb by just 1% in Nebraska. In Wisconsin, they’re expected to drop by 3.5%, and drop by more than 5% in Arizona.”
               It now appears that dummycrats-Democrats and their cohorts in the MSM will have to turn elsewhere to glean sparse evidence to support their message of a coming Armageddon should voters not elect them back into power. While Republicans did fail in their repeated attempts to repeal the ACA — as is almost always the case, once an entitlement program is implemented, it becomes almost impossible to repeal it in its entirety — Trump and Republicans have been successful in amending some of the most abusive aspects of the law, specifically the individual mandate. And people are going to save a little money.

~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/57758?mailing_id=3690&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.3690&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body

             “You are the patriots and you are the heroes,” Trump told the assembled agents and agency personnel. “You keep us safe and you keep us free. I am honored every single day to serve as your commander-in-chief. I will never leave your side; I will never leave the fight.”
               It’s a good thing, too. Both agencies are increasingly under fire by the Left and the media as the debate simmers over illegal immigration and how the government is supposed to handle it. According to leftists, the government shouldn’t do anything at all about illegal immigration. In fact, they are calling for the outright abolition of ICE.
               Don’t underestimate the power behind that challenge. The proposal to dismantle ICE may have started as an offhand remark by commie-Bernie Sanders’s socialist padawan commie-Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but it is now a mainstream dummycrats-Democrat plank. Likely 2020 presidential candidates such as Kirsten Gillibrand, Elizabeth dinky-Warren, and Kamala Harris have all joined the call. And three House dummycrats-Democrats introduced legislation to follow through.
               Leftists claim that U.S. border policies are harsh and inhumane, and their media lackeys dutifully go along, bending stories any way they can to fit that narrative. Take, for instance, the widely reported story of the illegal immigrant picked up by ICE while taking his pregnant wife to the hospital to have her baby. Conveniently left out of the reporting by virtually every major news outlet — at least the headlines or flashing TV alerts that most people see — was that the man was ducking an outstanding warrant issued for his arrest in Mexico on homicide charges.
               Stories like this are meant to cast ICE as the villain, which then leads to further attacks against the agency. What many don’t understand, however, is that ICE is the backbone of America’s immigration enforcement. There would be (even more) chaos without it.
               ICE is the principal agency for enforcing immigration laws inside the U.S., including the apprehension of illegal immigrants who have slipped past the Border Patrol; combatting the smuggling of weapons, drugs, and people into the country; and investigating immigration fraud schemes. ICE also protects immigrant communities by cracking down on criminal activity that takes place there. Gangs and other bad guys generally commit crimes in the communities in which they reside, making legal immigrants the victims.
               There are other agencies that also handle some of these tasks, but they are already stretched beyond their limits. The sheer volume of cases is more than any single law enforcement agency can bear. Consider that last year over 700,000 people overstayed their visas. That is 300,000 more people than the number apprehended while trying to illegally cross the U.S. border with Mexico during that same period.
               Take ICE out of the picture, and the whole immigration system would quickly unravel — which is exactly what the Left wants.
               It has been said that dummycrats-Democrats and the Left care more about illegal immigrants than they do about American citizens. But even that’s a stretch because they don’t care about illegal immigrants, either. The leftist call for open borders is an attempt to break down American society by overwhelming our communities and our culture with bad people from foreign lands. Leftists discourage assimilation and the learning of English to help further that goal. dummycrats-Democrats see a fresh batch of voters they can hook onto the government dole and keep leftists in office.
               But is this a political winner for dummycrats-Democrats? Not necessarily. As W. James Antle III notes, “House Republicans brought a pro-ICE resolution up for a vote to dare dummycrats- Democrats to vote against it — just 34 did, though 133 voted ‘present’ — while Trump brings it up often on the campaign trail.”
               People need to look beyond the rhetoric that demonizes ICE and support the agency’s work to protect American communities from fraud, crime, and terrorism. Without ICE, American streets will not be safe. And that’s why Trump’s celebration yesterday was welcome.

~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/57769?mailing_id=3690&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.3690&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body

               Emanuel’s message is the point — and conservative columnist Walter Williams would surely agree — yet it’s been largely ignored by leftists for decades. In truth, a message of faith and morality needs to be repeated throughout the country’s urban corridors. After all, Chicago is hardly alone when it comes to high homicide rates. Nevertheless, Fox News reports that “Emanuel is once again coming under fire for blaming a lack of morals in predominantly black and Hispanic neighborhoods for the recent spate of violent crime.” The report adds, “Critics quickly called him out for what they dubbed tone-deaf comments, in which he seemed to be blaming the victims.” These critics are simply condoning the status quo — and worse.
               As Williams says, “What’s needed most is to get poor people to change their behavior. … If we wait for Washington to solve our problems, we’ll be waiting for a long time.” It’s rare that we can agree with Mayor Rahm “Never Let a Crisis Go to Waste” Emanuel, but alas, his remarks on Chicago violence are appropriate and long overdue. His message is great, but will he stick to it? Depends on whether he has character.

~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/57757?mailing_id=3690&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.3690&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body

             Winner was arrested on June 3, 2017 for disseminating classified information to The Intercept, which published a story two days later on a classified NSA report regarding Russian hackers and the 2016 election. She was caught when the online news publication called the NSA to confirm the story.
               Despite the fact that Winner’s crime carries a maximum sentence of 10 years, federal prosecutors believe the 63-month sentence they recommended will be sufficient to deter other government workers from leaking sensitive information.
               The 27 ongoing investigations into leaks of classified information revealed by Attorney General Jeff Sessions at a House Oversight Committee meeting in 2017 suggest otherwise.
               Regardless, prosecutors cited prior cases to justify their recommendation. In 2013, former FBI explosives expert Donald Sachtleben received a prison sentence of three years and seven months for leaking classified information, including intel he supplied to the AP about a 2012 U.S. operation in Yemen aimed at thwarting a plot to blow up a U.S.-bound airliner. That same year, CIA veteran John Kiriakou received two and a half years in prison for disclosing a covert officer’s identity to a reporter who subsequently disclosed it to an investigator working with a Guantanamo detainee’s attorney. And in 2015, CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for leaking details of a secret mission to undermine Iran’s nuclear objectives.
               Unsurprisingly, Winner’s attorneys argued her conduct was less egregious than those who got lighter sentences, “including cases where the factual conduct, and information leaked, was arguably worse,” they stated.
               Government prosecutors insisted they gave Winner a deal to avoid exposing government secrets in a court room. “The Intelligence Community assessed that this further disclosure of the Intelligence Report and explaining its contents would compound the exceptionally grave harm to national security already caused by the defendant,” their court filing said.
               Maybe. Or maybe what would have been exposed is just how deep the Deep State rot really goes. Here is a list of statements Winner posted on Twitter under the pseudonym Sara Winners:
—"since @realDonaldTrump clearly believes in time machines, why don’t you go back to Nazi Germany" —Oct. 19, 2016
—#notmypresident#Recount2016" —Nov. 29, 2016
—"When we deploy ‘All Lives Matter’ as to correct an intervention specifically created to address anti-blackness,, [sic] we lose the way in which the state apparatus has built a program of genocide and repression mostly on the backs of Black people — beginning with the theft of millions of people for free labor—and then adapted it to control, murder, and profit off of other communities of color and immigrant communities.“ —Jan 15, 2017
—”#TrumpIsAC-nt,“ Jan, 30, 2017
—"There are many Americans protesting US govt aggression towards Iran. If our Tangerine in Chief declares war, we stand with you!” —Feb. 7, 2017
—"the most dangerous entry to this country was the orange fascist we let into the white house" —Feb. 11, 2017
               How do we know Sara Winners is Reality Winner? Each of the above posts contained her picture, removing any doubt that someone else posted the messages. And while Winner, like every other American, has a constitutional right to say virtually whatever she wants, she doesn’t get immunization from the *consequences *of doing so.
               And therein lies the damnable and highly likely possibility regarding what the NSA is really trying to prevent the public from seeing: according to a timeline of Winner’s activities published by Axios and corroborated by CNN, she was assigned to a U.S. government agency facility at Fort Gordon, a U.S. Army post near Augusta Georgia, and given top security clearance on February 13, 2017.
               Thus, every one of the above tweets was posted before the NSA granted her top security clearance, and before she was granted access to some of the nation’s most sensitive classified intelligence.
               How does a Trump-bashing, Caucasian-condemning, radical leftist who believes “white terrorist” America is engaged in genocide and repression of minorities not only get security clearance but maintain it, right up to the point she is indicted by a grand jury?
               How does anyone procure any job after publicly disseminating statements demonstrating utter contempt for one’s future boss?
               Are Americans supposed to believe NSA vetting procedures are so lax an agency that can ostensibly access more information than any other entity on the planet missed Winner’s social media posts? Or are those who vetted her — along with those further up the chain of command — of the same ideological mindset?
               It gets worse. During the grand jury hearing, the judge denied Winner bond because prosecutors revealed she was a flight risk. “Based on evidence seized from her home, federal prosecutors detailed Winner’s alleged plans to burn down the White House and travel to Afghanistan, pledging her allegiance to the Taliban,” WSB-TV reported in June 2017.
               Moreover, prosecutors recorded jailhouse calls between Reality and her sister, during which Reality revealed she would attempt to manipulate the court “by playing a cute white girl with her cute little braids and perhaps shedding some tears,” assistant U.S. attorney Jennifer Solari explained.
               The breathtaking lack of maturity demonstrated by the tweets, her addled ideas about burning down the White House, etc., and the obliviousness demonstrated by the fact it didn’t occur to her jailhouse phone calls might be recorded, brings us back to that uncomfortable question: How does someone with such obvious shortcomings get a job with the world’s foremost intelligence-gathering institution?
               In the midst of what looks increasingly like a coordinated deep-state effort to delegitimize a duly-elected president, the public deserves answers. Prosecutorial assertions about avoiding a trial to prevent compounding the harm to national security ring as hollow as similar — and already debunked — assertions made by the FBI and DOJ.
               There is no greater threat to national security than an NSA run by unelected, wholly unaccountable zealots. Zealots who remain protected by unverified assertions of the damage exposing the machinations surrounding Winner’s hiring would ostensibly engender.
               NSA Director Mike Rogers needs to get to the bottom of those machinations for the simplest of reasons: If someone as transparently radical as Winner can get hired, then the hiring process is corrupt. Corrupted by whom?

~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/57736?mailing_id=3688&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.3688&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body

             Some of the most effective teams benefit from members’ manifold talents that function in a complementary fashion — to add to an organization or group and to make it better. These effective teams can be found in sports, the military, business conglomerates, schools where a block of teachers function as a unit, health care facilities where sub-specialists work synergistically, and so on.
               But in politics, diversity is employed as a tool for division. First, to be of value to the political Left, you’re given an identifier: woman, black, Hispanic, disabled, gender fluid, victim of white privilege, atheist, whatever. Then, according to that identifier, your status is the priority, not your individual rights or Liberty as an American.
               One’s status is the preeminent driver of the issues discussed and, therefore, your value to the political Left is to be a victim in need of an intervening agency, such as the government, to be your protector, your provider, your equalizer, your defender, your insert-function-here. Thus, dummycrats-Democrats love “diversity” for the purpose of having a variety of needy subjects. And, yes, “subjects” is the right term.
               Some leftists advocate no more citizens of sovereign nations, shouting, “No borders, no wall, no USA at all.” To eradicate borders is to abandon the need for citizenship. To abandon citizenship means that the government rules over wards (or subjects) of the state.
               While the true purpose of diversity is to ensure that talent, skill, human ingenuity, opinion, and experience should add value to an organization or group, dummycrats-Democrats carry the banner of diversity to appear morally superior while using it to bludgeon both majority whites and America as a whole. Though he made a lame attempt to walk back his comments, that’s what dummycrats-Democrat New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo meant when he said American “was never that great.”
               The diversity club has been used against Trump, too. In recent months, the open-borders crowd has become “woke” to a policy that was used by George W. Bush and strengthened in Barack scumbag/liar-nObama’s last term due to human trafficking — the separation of children from their law-breaking parent/adult/trafficker. As with other adults who break the law in every other aspect of law enforcement, children are removed to safety until legal proceedings provide a remedy. Trump’s zero-tolerance approach to this policy’s enforcement was due to the massive influx of illegal immigrants seeking safe harbor in sanctuary cities, coupled with the true obstinance of bothdummycrats-Democrats and some Republicans to allocate funding for a wall and enforcement of America’s southern border.
               Additionally, there was Trump’s travel ban. Trump took the list of nations associated with terrorism itemized during scumbag/liar-nObama’s tenure and paused travel into the U.S. from these nations until adequate vetting and documentation could occur. But that wasn’t “diverse” enough.
               In his April lecture to the Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar, California State University professor Edward Erler asserted, “If [the travel ban had been] signed by any president other than Trump, there would therefore be no constitutional objections.” That’s not based on any material changes of the proposal, but because of the assumed racist intent assigned to Donald Trump by the biased media and rabid Left.
               Following the arguments presented bydummycrats- Democrats, Americans must accept all who come to the United States for the supreme attainment of diversity as a defining moral trait that supersedes the value of citizenship or national security. Instead of the greatness of America and any exceptionalism, as Dr. Erler posited, the political Left wants universal persons to live in a homogenous world-state with global interests prevailing. It’s ironic that, using the ideal of diversity, America would be embracing sameness in a borderless society absent the foundations of freedom, right?
               In November 2016, Americans supported the candidate who loudly rejected the Left’s attempt to define our American culture as some universal slog of sameness with no exceptionalism based on some manufactured morality of diversity as constructed by dummycrats-Democrats. A constitutional government serves those with a shared desire for independence, self-reliance, and rights that exist not from the State but from one’s being a responsible, decent part of humanity. A constitutional form of government empowers its citizenry that is naturally diverse in its geographic divisions and cultural mix.
               America needs and must welcome immigrants. Our nation is great with its diverse culture that varies “from sea to shining sea.” Yet the idea that a constitutional government can truly exist without assimilation to a shared culture is not just foolhardy but impossible.
               Those highly functioning teams that lead in health care, sports, the military, business, and every area of life possess individuals of various talents, skills, ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status. Yet without a shared commitment to the stated mission of each team, they fail. Diversity is good when valued as part of a culture devoted to common goals. Diversity for the sake of itself and the advancement of politically correct indoctrination is the uniform destruction of America.

~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/57747?mailing_id=3688&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.3688&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body

             The news was welcomed by Hal Quinn, president and chief executive of the National Mining Association, who noted that scumbag/liar-nObama’s Clean Power Plan “was a major impediment for our industry going forward in terms of what our markets look like.” Quinn added that the EPA’s action today “removes that pressure.”
               The EPA noted that the decrease in coal-powered plants has created “tremendous strain on the power infrastructure even without the added pressures of an EPA mandate to further shift away from additional coal-fired generation.” The Trump administration argues that coal is an important fuel source and that its continuing decline threatens the electricity supply to the nation’s businesses and consumers.
               The EPA’s plan would scrap most of scumbag/liar-nObama’s Clean Power Plan, leaving the authority for determining power-plant regulations up to individual states. The EPA will also deemphasize the scumbag/liar-nObama-era obsession over climate change, instead focusing on balancing concerns for both the environment and the economic importance of thriving industry.
               Environmental groups and leftists were quick to cry foul, insisting Trump’s actions are illegal and will endanger the environment. There is little doubt that the courts will be heavily involved going forward. But, for now at least, Trump is delivering yet another win for American industry and energy.

~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/57770?mailing_id=3690&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.3690&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body

             The deleted video in question had no graphic content, bad language, or calls for violence warranting Facebook’s own parameters for its “hate speech” designation. So why were these videos censored? This is now the second instance of PragerU being “erroneously” censored on social media over the false designation that its conservative political content was “hate speech.”
               On Friday morning, Facebook issued a lame apology: “We mistakenly removed these videos and have restored them because they don’t break our standards. This will reverse any reduction in content distribution you’ve experienced. We’re very sorry and are continuing to look into what happened with your Page.” However, the question remains, how could this mistake happen, especially given the fact that PragerU is a well-known and vetted media organization to which millions of people intentionally subscribed for news and opinion?
               Much of the answer lies in the obvious leftist bias of those running these social-media giants. In a recent interview on CNN, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey admitted as much, stating that those at Twitter do indeed have a “left-leaning” bias. Left-leaning? At the same time, he claimed that their bias did not affect how they handled “political ideology or viewpoints.” Dorsey added, “We do not look at content with regards to political viewpoint or ideology. We look at behavior.”
               His answer is sly for its presumption of separating ideological content from behavior. Social media exists solely for the public sharing of various thoughts, viewpoints, and ideologies, no matter how trivial or mundane. Yet the social-media gatekeepers have a certain ideological bent that impacts how judgments are made as to what user content constitutes appropriate or inappropriate behavior. Thus, Dorsey’s assertion that his and his employees’ leftist bias doesn’t have an impact on decision-making is dubious at best.
               Back to Facebook. Giving no other explanation other than it was a mistake only serves to increase speculation that the pervasive leftist bias within the company was the primary culprit. It’s increasingly clear that Facebook’s post-2016 algorithms are tilted against conservative perspectives, which are too easily flagged by trolls as content containing “fake news” or “hate speech.” As long as millions of Americans seek to get their news from social media, this filtering by the thought police is going to be hugely problematic.

~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/57751?mailing_id=3688&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.3688&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body

            On Wednesday, FBI agents from the Joint Terrorism Task Force arrested an Iraqi national who had fought for the Islamic State and had murdered an Iraqi policeman prior to entering the U.S. as a refugee in 2014. Omar Abdulsattar Ameen was an ISIS jihadi in Iraq in 2012 and later fled to Turkey, where he applied for and was able to secure refugee status with the U.S. in June 2014. Upon getting permission to enter the U.S., Ameen first traveled back into Iraq, where he joined a group of ISIS fighters who attacked and murdered an Iraqi police officer. Ameen was the one who fired the fatal shot. Then in November 2014, Ameen traveled to the U.S. as a refugee, where he subsequently applied for a green card and did not disclose to U.S. authorities his ties to terrorism.
               “This is just one example of how raising the bar on our security standards has directly increased our ability to protect and secure our nation from terror groups abroad,” Department of Homeland Security press secretary Tyler Houlton said in a statement. Houlton explained, “Soon after her confirmation, Secretary Nielsen directed further improvements to close identified security gaps and to make it harder for terrorists, criminals, and fraudsters to exploit our humanitarian system. Tighter screening and tougher vetting in the refugee program have already started to make Americans safer at home.”

~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/57729?mailing_id=3688&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.3688&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body

Even if you strongly oppose President Donald Trump and want to see him defeated in 2020 or impeached before then, you should hope his presidential campaign succeeds with its legal action against Omarosa Manigault Newman alleging she violated a nondisclosure agreement. And if she broke any laws, you should want her prosecuted.
               Manigault Newman — a fired presidential aide and earlier a member of the Trump campaign staff — has set a dangerous precedent by her secret recording of conversations with Trump and White House and campaign aides. The New York Times reported Thursday that Manigault Newman “is believed to have as many as 200” recordings of such conversations.
               If Manigault Newman suffers no penalty for making her secret recordings — and instead uses the recordings to boost sales of her virulently anti-Trump book “Unhinged,” as she is clearly doing now for maximum media exposure — future White House employees will be tempted to follow in her footsteps.
               While it is common for White House staffers to write books about the president they served after he has left office, it is far less common to see books coming out while a president is still serving. Whether the disclosures and allegations in “Unhinged” violate the nondisclosure agreement Manigault Newman signed while working on the Trump campaign is a matter still to be determined.
               And I know of no previous White House aides who secretly recorded conversations and then released them to the media. Further investigation is needed to determine if any of these recordings violated the law — and if they did, Manigault Newman deserves to be prosecuted.
               There’s no question that Manigault Newman’s disclosures will hinder the ability of the current president, future presidents, and their aides to candidly communicate.
               The issue at stake here is good governance — not politics. If liar-Hillary Clinton had been elected president in 2016 and her aide Huma Abedin secretly recorded conversations in the White House and released them, the action would be just as objectionable as what Manigault Newman did. However, you can bet that dummycrats-Democrats and the media would be far angrier at someone betraying a dummycrats-Democratic president.
               So far, Manigault Newman has released recordings of her conservations with Trump, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, presidential daughter-in-law Lara Trump, and staffers on the Trump campaign. Politico reports that “Manigault Newman has told friends and associates that she has tapes of private phone calls from first daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, according to two sources with whom she has discussed the recording.”
               Manigault Newman recorded Kelly in the White House Situation Room when he fired her. Located in the White House basement, the Situation Room is run by the National Security Council. It is equipped with a secure communications system and used primarily for managing domestic and foreign crises.
               Cellphones and other recording devices are not allowed in the Situation Room — a prohibition Manigault Newman ignored, by her own admission. Even if a staff member does not knowingly use a cellphone as a recording device, hostile forces can hack into the phone and turn on its microphone to transmit conversations that spies can record. This can pose a grave national security risk.
               Now that White House officials know they’ve been secretly recorded, they — and staffers for future presidents — know they can be taped again, and that could have a very harmful chilling effect on their internal discussions.
               Effective management of the White House — or any government office or business — requires frank discussions among all parties. Presidential advisers must feel free to share all information that can help a president assess the nature and severity of a problem, all possible options for dealing with it, and the political, social, and public relations ramifications of every possible action or nonaction.
               The president, in turn, must have confidence that these candid discussions will remain confidential. This is particularly true when it comes to national security and foreign policy threats, where leaks could endanger lives or severely damage our interests abroad.
               No president — dummycrats-Democrat or Republican — should have to worry about secret recordings being made inside the White House. How important is it to preserve the confidentiality of presidential communications? Important enough that it is enshrined in the constitutional doctrine of executive privilege.
               George Washington didn’t have to worry about recording devices. But he first asserted executive privilege in 1792 when Congress demanded internal White House documents about a failed military expedition. Most recently, executive privilege was reasserted by the scumbag/liar-nObama administration to deny Congress access to Justice Department documents regarding Operation Fast and Furious, a failed investigation of illegal gun trafficking.
               In 1974, the U.S. Supreme Court discussed “the valid need for protection of communications between high Government officials and those who advise and assist them in the performance of their manifold duties” in U.S. v. Nixon, the seminal case on executive privilege. This was the case in which the Supreme Court ruled that President Richard Nixon had to turn over tapes he secretly recorded of his Oval Office conversation.
               While that ruling went against Nixon, the high court said in its decision the importance of preserving confidentiality between the president and those he speaks with “is too plain to require further discussion. Human experience teaches that those who expect public dissemination of their remarks may well temper candor with a concern for appearances and for their own interests to the detriment of the decision-making process.”
               The Supreme Court ruling went on to say: The expectation of a President to the confidentiality of his conversations and correspondence … is the necessity for protection of the public interest in candid, objective, and even blunt or harsh opinions in Presidential decision-making. A President and those who assist him must be free to explore alternatives in the process of shaping policies and making decisions and to do so in a way many would be unwilling to express except privately. These are the considerations justifying a presumptive privilege for Presidential communications. The privilege is fundamental to the operation of Government and inextricably rooted in the separation of powers under the Constitution.
               Manigault Newman acted dishonorably and dishonestly in secretly recording confidential White House conversations. But the far bigger problem with this kind of behavior is that it threatens the ability of any president to get the unfiltered information and robust debate among his advisers needed to reach the best possible decisions.
               This violation of protocol and betrayal of trust is on par with the leaks from White House insiders that have come to plague all modern presidents. Future presidential candidates would be well-advised to require nondisclosure agreements from the individuals who assist them as part of their transition teams and who end up working in the White House.
               The perils of modern technology — such as button and pen cameras — combined with Washington’s pervasive “leak culture,” leave would-be presidents little choice. Otherwise, the odds of them getting their advisers’ “candid, objective, and even blunt or harsh opinions” are close to nil. And it’s precisely that kind of input presidents need when making decisions about vital issues that affect the health, safety, and prosperity of our nation and the American people.

~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/opinion/57735?mailing_id=3688&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.3688&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body