DHS: 7-Year-Old Migrant Who Died Was Not Ill Upon Initial Screening

/0 Comments/in , /by

By The Daily Caller. The Department of Homeland Security claimed in a statement Friday that the 7-year-old migrant girl who died in their custody was not ill upon an initial screening and was offered food and water.

The story of the young girl from Guatemala exploded on Thursday after The Washington Post reported that she died of dehydration shortly after Border Patrol took custody of her and her father, who entered the country illegally. WaPo’s headline suggested that Border Patrol bore responsibility in the child’s death, but the Department of Homeland Security is now disputing that characterization.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed that the child died last week approximately eight hours after she was taken into custody. Her father reportedly told Border Patrol agents that the child had not had anything to eat or drink in days.

The father and daughter, identified by a Guatemalan official as Nery Caal and Jakelin Caal, crossed the U.S. border into New Mexico in a remote location 90 miles from the nearest Border Patrol station.

The Washington Post’s initial report noted that they were not aware of any provisions offered to the family when they were first taken into custody. (Read more from “DHS: 7-Year-Old Migrant Who Died Was Not Ill Upon Initial Screening” HERE)

____________________________________________

7-Year-Old in Good Health, Border Agents Said; Then She Died

By AP. Just 7 years old, Jakelin Amei Rosmery Caal Maquin was picked up by U.S. authorities with her father and other migrants this month in a remote stretch of New Mexico desert. Some seven hours later, she was put on a bus to the nearest Border Patrol station but soon began vomiting. By the end of the two-hour drive, she had stopped breathing.

Jakelin hadn’t had anything to eat or drink for days, her father later told U.S. officials. . .

According to the form, the girl showed no sign of illness. She was not sweating, had no tremors, jaundice or visible trauma and was mentally alert. (Read more from “7-Year-Old in Good Health, Border Agents Said; Then She Died” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Federal Judge Rules Obamacare Unconstitutional

/0 Comments/in , /by

In a significant ruling Friday, a federal judge in Texas declared the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, to be unconstitutional in its entirety, citing a key change in the law implemented by Republicans in their big tax reform bill last year.

U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor, a conservative George W. Bush-appointee, issued the ruling on the eve of the deadline for signing up for Obamacare coverage. His ruling is expected to be appealed, which means the conservative-majority Supreme Court, with newly appointed Justice Brett Kavanaugh, will have a chance to reassess the constitutionality of the law.

The lawsuit was brought by conservative Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, 18 other Republican attorneys general, and one governor, the Denver Post reports. The plaintiffs argue that the law in its entirety is invalid because the removal of the penalty tax nullifies the argument used by Chief Justice John Roberts in 2012 upholding the law on the premise that the ACA is ultimately a tax and thus falls under the authority of Congress, which has “the power to impose taxes,” in this case “on those without health insurance.”

“Once the heart of the ACA — the individual mandate — is declared unconstitutional, the remainder of the ACA must also fall,” states the lawsuit, the Post notes. Democrats countering the suit claim that even though the tax is reduced to $0.0, it still remains a hypothetical tax.

In his ruling Friday, O’Connor agreed with Republicans that with the tax aspect of the law scheduled for elimination starting January 2019, the 2012 ruling’s defense of the law is invalidated, making the entire law unconstitutional. (Read more from “Federal Judge Rules Obamacare Unconstitutional” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Planned Parenthood Admits Unborn Are Babies — in Preschool Sex Ed

/0 Comments/in , /by

By National Review. The nation’s largest abortion provider described an unborn human being as both a “pregnancy” and as a “baby.” The only difference was in the audience: The former was the term used for women seeking an abortion, while the latter was for preschoolers.

Planned Parenthood used the b-word in a November 14 video for parents. The three-minute animated film — “How Do I Talk With My Kid About Where Babies Come From?” — has gone largely unnoticed by the media, even though an earlier video for parents about gender made headlines recently. This one proved just as newsworthy, if only because of Planned Parenthood’s discrepancy.

At the film’s beginning, a female narrator recommends that parents “keep it simple and direct” with younger children. A parent might say that a “baby grows in a parent’s belly and comes out their vagina.” Or, if that’s not enough information for little ones, parents can add that “if sperm and egg meet, they can grow into a baby.”

But while the narrator was ready and willing to mention birth — and even birth-control — in the video meant for children’s education, she didn’t mention the issue of abortion.

Online, in its resources for pregnant women, Planned Parenthood calls abortion the “ending of a pregnancy.” But for children, abortion would be the ending of a “baby” if they learn, as Planned Parenthood instructs, that it is a baby that grows inside their mother’s belly. (Read more from “Planned Parenthood Admits Unborn Are Babies — in Preschool Sex Ed” HERE)

___________________________________________

Planned Parenthood Urges Holiday ‘Presents’ for Mike Pence

By Breitbart. Abortion vendor Planned Parenthood, which considers Mike Pence to be among its most fervent enemies, has released a list of suggested holiday presents for the pro-life vice president.

Among the items on the list is the ever-popular “donation to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund in Pence’s Name.”

Donations to America’s largest abortion provider in Pence’s name have been trendy among abortion rights advocates since Pence was governor of Indiana. The practice, however, reached its peak in November 2017, when actress Mila Kunis told Conan O’Brien, while appearing on his talk show, she donates to Planned Parenthood in Pence’s name to protest his pro-life policies. (Read more from “Planned Parenthood Urges Holiday ‘Presents’ for Mike Pence” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

University Student Investigated for Border Patrol Halloween Costume

/0 Comments/in , /by

By Daily Wire. On Tuesday, in the middle of final exam week, a student from West Virginia University was sent an emailed letter from an assistant dean notifying him that he is “the subject of an investigation regarding alleged prohibited conduct.”

In the letter (attached below), Assistant Dean LiDell Evans informed Joseph Cortese, a fourth-year student, that he was required to attend a meeting on Friday concerning an investigation about a photo he posted on Instagram of himself dressed as a Border Patrol agent for Halloween.

“This letter serves to put you on notice that pursuant to section 9.2 of the Student Conduct Code and Discipline Procedure for the Main Campus of West Virginia University, you are the subject of an investigation regarding alleged prohibited conduct,” Evans wrote. . .

The photo, which Cortese agreed to share with The Daily Wire…, shows him handcuffing a female student who dressed up with him for Halloween. Cortese is wearing an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement black hat and a Border Patrol T-shirt, while the female is wearing what Cortese says is an alien costume with a piece of paper attached to her shirt that reads “illegal.” . . .

“The West Virginia University Office of Student Conduct received a complaint claiming the student was posting ‘vulgar hateful Instagrams’ but did not single out what was ‘vulgar’ or ‘hateful’ about them,” WVU said in a statement to The Daily Wire. “The Office followed standard procedure, including the timing, to follow up on the complaint and talk with the student. The Office tries to wrap up any matters before students leave campus at the end of each semester. No charges or disciplinary action was taken and the matter is now closed.” (Read more from “University Student Investigated for Border Patrol Halloween Costume” HERE)

_____________________________________________

West Virginia U. Student Investigated for Wearing ‘Border Patrol’ Outfit

By The College Fix. . .The letter stated Cortese was to attend a meeting about the matter today (he did), but if he could not do so it was imperative he contact Evans’ office.

The penalty for non-compliance could have been his student account being put on “hold.” (Read more from “West Virginia U. Student Investigated for Wearing ‘Border Patrol’ Outfit” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

The Republican Congress Is Breaking Spending Records With Almost No Spending Cuts in Sight

/0 Comments/in , /by

The Republican-controlled federal government is setting new records for blowing out the national debt, and substantial spending cuts don’t appear anywhere on the outgoing Congress’ radar. This week the government released two different statistics showing how rapidly the federal deficit is still growing.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office’s monthly budget review for November 2018 found that that the first two months of fiscal year 2019 have yielded a deficit of $303 billion. On Thursday, the latest monthly report from the department of the Treasury showed that the deficit for the month of November 2018 alone was $205 billion — over $66 billion more than the same time last year.

With numbers this high this early in the fiscal year, the federal government will post a trillion-dollar deficit for the first time in its history quite easily before the end of this fiscal year in September, as the Committee for a Responsible Federal Government predicted back in March.

Meanwhile, the national debt clock is still growing, with a total just south of $22 trillion as of Friday morning.

Yet here we are at the end of the year, and you’d be hard-pressed to find any meaningful effort to cut government spending in the upcoming spending package.

Additionally, Republican leadership has even given up on the spending-related agenda items of defunding Planned Parenthood or placing modest work requirement reforms on the federal food stamp program in the nearly $900 billion farm bill that passed this week.

At this point, it appears that the only way congressional leadership might manage to save any taxpayer money in the ongoing year-end spending negotiations is if they fail to negotiate the $5 billion in funds President Trump has demanded for a southern border wall. (For more from the author of “The Republican Congress Is Breaking Spending Records With Almost No Spending Cuts in Sight” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

‘The Media Isn’t Telling You This!’: GOP Congressman Shows What a Government Shutdown Actually Looks Like

/0 Comments/in , /by

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., on Friday tweeted out a graphic from his office showing exactly what a partial government shutdown will look like if Congress does not pass a spending bill on December 21.

“The media isn’t telling you this,” he wrote in a tweet featuring a pie chart that shows only 8 percent of the federal government will not be funded beyond Dec. 21.

Vital functions of the U.S. government including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, and the military are funded and will remain operational if the government “shuts down.”

President Trump has threatened to veto a spending bill from Congress that doesn’t appropriate $5 billion towards the construction of a border wall. Democrats have balked at this request and House Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has indicated she would rather keep the “government closed forever” than give in to Trump’s wall request.

If 8 percent of the government shuts down in two weeks, it will be all about the wall. (For more from the author of “‘The Media Isn’t Telling You This!’: GOP Congressman Shows What a Government Shutdown Actually Looks Like” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Old Socialists Should Exit the Stage — and Take the Ignorant Young Socialists With Them

/0 Comments/in , /by

Old socialist John Dingell has a plan, after serving almost 60 years in Congress and handing his seat to his second wife. He claims that the people no longer trust the government and the Constitution has become a problem.

The Atlantic recently published some excerpts from Dingell’s book, “The Dean: The Best Seat in the House.”

In December 1958, almost exactly three years after I entered the House of Representatives, the first American National Election Study, initiated by the University of Michigan, found that 73 percent of Americans trusted the federal government “to do the right thing almost always or most of the time.” As of December 2017, the same study, now conducted by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, found that this number had plummeted to just 18 percent.

Isn’t it funny how socialists never seem to think that they might be the problem? In fact, I defy you to find a socialist who will accept any fault for how his governance turns out. It’s a huge personality and ideological flaw for all communist wannabes.

Simply stated, for each of the 59 years Dingell served in Congress, confidence in the institution fell almost one percent, for a total of 55 percent according to Dingell’s own research. Seems quite instructive right there, yet Dingell doesn’t see it.

Nope, instead Dingell says that the Constitution has to be rethought. It was the same constitution in the 1950s as it is today, yet according to the socialists operating in the highest reaches of our government, it must be the reason so few people have confidence in government.

But John Dingell voted year after year for every leftist cause from the 1950s through 2014, and he claims we have to change the Constitution or we’ll never be able to keep our republic. So he suggests we abolish the Senate, get rid of the Electoral College, and only use public funds for elections. If we do all that, he believes minority factions will no longer stand in the way of legislation, and the America he wishes to see will finally prevail.

It’s a blueprint for mob rule, and it makes leftists salivate. Remember, Dingell famously said that the Obamacare mandate was necessary to “control the people.”

Abolish the Senate, Dingell holds, is a great “slogan” and a great and noble cause. After all, why should ill-populated Wyoming have two senators and over-populated California have two? Dingell says that the arrangement causes minorities to circumvent the will of the majority.

The socialist Democrats spend all their time gathering minorities for their majority, claiming all the while that the “people united will never be defeated,” only to cut minority representation and usher in iron-fisted government.

But what Dingell is truly suggesting is the loss of states’ rights. In this, he not only attacks Article I of the Constitution, but also the Bill of Rights. Dingell and his band of socialists hate that it was the states that created the federal government and it’s the states that check its power.

Rather than abolish the Senate, we should repeal the 17th Amendment, which changed the Constitution to prescribe electing senators by popular vote instead of by state legislatures. The closest representatives of the people housed in each state legislature are more apt to reflect the will of the electorate than senators who come home once every six years seeking support.

Dingell also wants to be rid of the Electoral College, like every socialist, to silence the voices of the minority.

In order for socialism to take hold, no matter what anybody says, whether Dingell or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the minority must be silenced. Never forget that. It plays out on social media, where leftists own the platforms: They silence the minority. It will play out in our nation unless government is taken back by the people who are uniquely qualified to govern themselves.

The only way this nation has a future is with open-minded defenders of the Constitution and the Founding of this nation. The future of an America to be proud of rejects socialism and communism and the power of the federal government. The future of America guided by divine Providence champions God-given freedoms and rejects the iron-fisted government that the socialists need to thrive.

Sixty years of striving toward a socialist nation and failing to clinch it have inspired John Dingell to simultaneously give lip service to our Founding while attacking its very core. He may exit the stage and take his ignorant young re-warmed leftovers like Ocasio-Cortez with him. (For more from the author of “Old Socialists Should Exit the Stage — and Take the Ignorant Young Socialists With Them” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Former FEC Chief: Actually, Those ‘Hush Money’ Payoffs Were Not Campaign Finance Crimes

/0 Comments/in , /by

Let’s begin with an astonishingly weak political argument, albeit not a legal one, from Rudy Giuliani. Trump critics are dunking on the former New York City Mayor over his latest comment, but let’s face it: He basically posterized himself with this one — especially given the conspicuous “law and order” campaign rhetoric from his boss, and his own adherence to the “broken windows” theory of law enforcement that helped animate the city’s dramatic turnaround on his watch. That was then. This is now. Yikes:

. . .

Part of the reason I believe this is because in order to successfully prosecute this sort of crime, the government would have to prove that Trump willfully and knowingly intended to break the law. (Some crimes, like Hillary’s Espionage Act violations, do not require proof of intent). Given his sordid dealings over many years, I cannot imagine Trump is a stranger to seedy deals and payments to keep certain things quiet. “Fix this and protect me” is almost certainly not a mindset that first emerged when Trump was a candidate for federal office; I suspect it’s been a way of life for quite some time. His motivations may have been selfish, and the acts he sought to cover up (and has lied about) do not speak well of his character. But it’s entirely plausible that Trump and his lousy lawyer did not realize that such par-for-the-course personal pay-offs became illegal once he was running for office. I realize that viewpoint isn’t exactly a snappy sound byte, but it’s still a hell of a lot better than, ‘no one died, so what’s the big deal?’ Which brings me to the next point: Is it actually true that the ‘hush money’ payments constituted crimes? Michael Cohen pleaded guilty, so it would seem so, right? Not so fast. Former Federal Elections Commission Chairman Bradley Smith makes a pretty compelling case that Cohen copped to acts that were never criminal acts:

The law — following our common sense — tells us that the hush-money payments outlined by the U.S. Attorney are clearly not campaign expenditures. There is no violation of the Federal Election Campaign Act…To reach the opposite conclusion, the U.S. Attorney is placing all his chips on the language “for the purpose of influencing an election.” Intuitively, however, we all know that such language cannot be read literally — if it were, virtually every political candidate of the past 45 years has been in near-constant violation. The candidate who thinks “I need to brush my teeth, shower, and put on a nice suit today in order to campaign effectively” is surely not required to report as campaign expenditures his purchases of toothpaste, soap, and clothing. When he eats his Wheaties — breakfast of champions, and surely one cannot campaign on an empty stomach — his cereal and milk are not campaign expenses. When he drives to his office to start making phone calls to supporters, his gas is not a campaign expense.

(Read more from “Former FEC Chief: Actually, Those ‘Hush Money’ Payoffs Were Not Campaign Finance Crimes” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

84-Year-Old Veteran Died After Nursing Home Staff Ignored His Infected, Rotting Genitals

/0 Comments/in , /by

By Military Times. An 84-year-old U.S. Army veteran’s pressing medical needs were blatantly ignored by a Jacksonville, Florida, nursing home staff last year — and he died shortly after.

York Spratling first checked into Consulate Health Care in December 2016 while suffering from diabetes, his nephew, Derwin Spratling, told the Naples Daily News. The veteran’s health was declining. Walking and feeding himself was a struggle, making living on his own impossibly unrealistic.

Less than three months after being admitted to Consulate Health, Spratling’s condition took a terrible turn for the worse, and on Feb. 24, 2017, he was carried out of the nursing home on a stretcher and rushed to the emergency room. . .

Shortly after Spratling’s admission to the hospital, the doctor came into the waiting room to talk to family who had gathered.

There, Derwin Spratling received the shocking news: His uncle needed surgery to remove dead tissue from his genitals, which had been infected with gangrene. (Read more from “84-Year-Old Veteran Died After Nursing Home Staff Ignored His Infected, Rotting Genitals” HERE)

_______________________________________________

York Spratling Died After Genitals Became Infected at Consulate Health Care of Jacksonville

By Naples Daily News. Family members would sometimes see problems with the care York Spratling received and bring it to the attention of the Consulate Health Care of Jacksonville nursing staff, Derwin Spratling said. . .

Derwin Spratling recalled being in a waiting room when the doctor came out to explain that his uncle needed surgery. His genitals were infected with gangrene and the dead tissue needed to be removed.

“He said he had never seen anything like that before, especially in this day and age,” Derwin said of the conversation with the doctor. “It really freaked us out.”

York Spratling died soon after the surgery. . .

A U.S. Army veteran, Spratling was admitted to Consulate Health Care of Jacksonville in December 2016, according to a Florida Department of Children and Families death review report. (Read more from “York Spratling Died After Genitals Became Infected at Consulate Health Care of Jacksonville” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

WATCH: Trump’s Next Chief of Staff Called Him ‘a Terrible Human Being’ Just Before He Was Elected President

/0 Comments/in , /by

Mick Mulvaney, the Office of Management and Budget Director who President Donald Trump tweeted Friday would serve as acting chief of staff after John Kelly departs in January, has been a loyal Trump supporter — he just didn’t always like it so much.

During a debate with his then-congressional challenger, Democrat Fran Person, on Nov. 2 of 2016, less than a week before Trump was elected president, then- congressman Mulvaney was blunt with those gathered at York Middle School in York, South Carolina.

After decrying the Democratic nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as a liberal who would take the country in the wrong direction, Mulvaney said he was supporting Trump, essentially by default.

“Yes, I am supporting Donald Trump, but I’m doing so despite the fact that I think he’s a terrible human being,” he said, according to a report in The State newspaper.

(Read more from “Trump’s Next Chief of Staff Called Him ‘a Terrible Human Being’ Just Before He Was Elected President” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.