WATCH: Plane Erupts in Flames With 196 People Aboard

Moments after landing, a plane full of passengers in Egypt erupted in flames, but a speedy emergency response and an ample amount of luck averted tragedy.

The Ukrainian SkyUp flight was taxiing across the tarmac at Sharm el-Sheikh Airport on Saturday when the left landing gear caught fire, The Sun reports. Apparently, hydraulic fluid leaked onto the brakes, which were still hot.

At the time, there were 196 people on the plane, including passengers and crew. . .

Emergency crews quickly arrived to douse the fire, and there were no reported injuries. (Read more from “Plane Erupts in Flames With 196 People Aboard” HERE)

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WATCH: Drag Queen Crashes Impeachment Hearing

A drag performer showed up to Washington D.C. on Wednesday for the start of the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.

Pissi Myles from Asbury Park, New Jersey could be seen sporting a blonde wig while entering Longworth House Office Building to watch the hearing, according to NBC News.

“It’s a crazy day in Washington! I’m flipping my wig over the high-energy proceedings today,” Myles said to NBC News. “Tensions are high, and the bar for who’s allowed in the Longworth House is very, very low.”

Myle’s website describes him as “an accomplished drag comedian, singer, and hostess” and “cycle 4 winner of Philly Drag Wars and was voted Best Drag Hostess in Philadelphia at the Beacon Light Awards.”

(Read more from “Drag Queen Crashes Impeachment Hearing” HERE)

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William Barr Says Release of FISA Report Is ‘Imminent’

Attorney General William Barr said Wednesday that the release of an inspector general’s report on FBI’s surveillance of the Trump campaign is “imminent.”

Multiple news outlets reported Tuesday that Michael Horowitz, the Justice Department inspector general, has invited witnesses interviewed in connection with the investigation to review portions of the forthcoming report. The step is routine in investigations conducted by inspectors general, and typically signals that the release of the report is near. . .

Horowitz has been investigating whether the FBI followed the law and bureau guidelines when applying for four Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

The FBI relied on information from Christopher Steele, a former British spy, to argue in the FISA applications that there was probable cause to believe that Page was an agent of Russia. Steele worked for an opposition research firm hired by the Clinton campaign and DNC in 2016 to investigate Trump’s possible links to Russia.

The special counsel’s report said that prosecutors found no evidence that Page or anyone associated with the Trump campaign acted as an agent of Russia. The report also said that there was not evidence that the Trump campaign conspired with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election. Steele alleged in his dossier that Page and other Trump associates conspired with Kremlin operatives. (Read more from “William Barr Says Release of FISA Report Is ‘Imminent’” HERE)

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WATCH: Ocasio-Cortez Makes Stunning Admission About Impeachment During Interview

Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) admitted during a Wednesday night interview on CNN that impeachment was about unifying the different factions of the Democrat Party and “preventing a potentially disastrous outcome from occurring next year.”

Ocasio-Cortez joined CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on “The Situation Room” where she made the remarks shortly after the Democrats kicked off their public impeachment inquiry hearings on the House Intelligence Committee.

“At the end of the day, we have to be able to come together as a caucus and if it is this Ukrainian allegation that is what brings the caucus together, um, then I think we have to run with however we unify the House,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

“We also need to move quite quickly because we’re talking about the potential compromise of the 2020 elections,” Ocasio-Cortez continued. “And so this is not just about something that has occurred; this is about preventing a potentially disastrous outcome from occurring next year.”

Ocasio-Cortez’s stunning admission that the impeachment inquiry is about Democrat partisan politics flies in the face of what she said over the weekend in an interview with ABC News where she said it was the Republicans who were making impeachment a partisan issue. (Read more from “Ocasio-Cortez Makes Stunning Admission About Impeachment During Interview” HERE)

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Foreign Service Officer Claims Trump Canceled Navy Operation Near Ukraine – Here’s the Truth

On Monday, as part of Congress’ impeachment inquiry into whether President Trump withheld military support for Ukraine, legislators released testimony from Christopher Anderson, who served as a top aide for Kurt Volker, the former U.S. special representative for Ukraine negotiations. Anderson stated that President Trump had asked the U.S. Navy to cancel a routine “freedom-of-navigation” operation in the Black Sea, near Ukraine, earlier this year.

But on Wednesday, the U.S. Navy dismissed Anderson’s version of events. “U.S. 6th Fleet conducted our naval operations in the Black Sea region as scheduled in January and February 2019. The U.S. Navy will continue to operate in the Black Sea consistent with international law, to include the Montreaux Convention,” Cmdr. Kyle Raines, a spokesman for Naval Forces Europe-Africa asserted, as Stars and Stripes reported.

On Monday, Politico reported that Anderson recalled an alleged early-2019 conversation in which former national security adviser John Bolton said Trump had complained about a CNN story insinuating the Navy was countering Russian aggression in the Black Sea. Anderson told legislators, “Ambassador Bolton relayed that he was called at home by the president, who complained about this news report.” . . .

Business Insider added, “Anderson said the signal to cancel the Navy operation, combined with reports at the time saying an effort was underway to review all assistance to Ukraine, left some fearing a shift in U.S. policy toward the former Soviet republic.”

Anderson stated, “We met with Ambassador Bolton and discussed this, and he made it clear that the president had called him to complain about that news report. And that may have just been that he was surprised. We don’t — I can’t speculate as to why, but that, that operation was canceled, but then we were able to get a second one for later in February. And we had an Arleigh-class destroyer arrive in Odessa on the fifth anniversary of the Crimea invasion.” (Read more from “Foreign Service Officer Claims Trump Canceled Navy Operation Near Ukraine – Here’s the Truth” HERE)

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Bottom Line: Do Illegal Aliens Matter More Than American Citizens?

Now that the Supreme Court will likely “give permission” for the president to obey immigration law and not Obama’s illegal amnesty, both parties will now clamor to enact the amnesty in a lawful manner. But there is no sense of urgency in Congress to enact immigration legislation to reinforce current laws and protect Americans from the ill effects of illegal immigration.

From reading the current media narratives, one would come away with the impression that nobody exists other than illegal alien “dreamers,” most of whom are valedictorians and the highest order of creation. As is the case with all issues, liberals isolate straw-man talking points and ignore the broader context. They present a false dichotomy: Do you empathize with those who were brought here “by no fault of their own” and are nothing but amazing assets to America? Gee, who doesn’t?

But whose fault is it? It’s not the fault of American taxpayers. It’s the fault of the immigrants’ parents and their countries of origin, particularly the country of Mexico, which has used every tool to instigate endless violations of our border integrity for decades. The forgotten people in this discussion are the American communities that are suffering from rampant crime, cartel violence, social and language problems in schools, drained health care and welfare systems, and drugs and gang activity in many parts of the country.

Let’s not kid ourselves: It’s not the 80-year-old illegal aliens who are committing most of the crimes. Common sense dictates that it will be the younger ones who are more problematic – the demographic endearingly referred to as “dreamers” by the political elites.

According to the USCIS, 53,792 DACA recipients have been arrested while in the U.S. Arrest records show some were apprehended for assault, rape, drug charges, and even murder — and yet were still given status. Thousands were arrested for drug trafficking and drunk driving, which are habitual crimes endangering our streets, yet remained in our country thanks to lawless lower courts. Shockingly, a whopping 66 percent of self-reported criminals on DACA applications were initially approved, and 33,709 or 94 percent were granted renewals.

A number of DACA recipients have turned out to be drug smugglers and MS-13 members, and UACs/“dreamers” as a whole are supplying the surge of drugs and MS-13. One disturbing fact about the USCIS data is that those who applied under the age of 14 were never even fingerprinted. Now, one might say there is no need to look at the criminal record of people that young, but this means there is no basic way of verifying their identity.

Then there is the other half of DACA. These are all of the people who came here after 2014 from Central America as a result of DACA and the driving philosophy behind it – that anyone who comes here as a child will simply escape enforcement.

It’s a simple fact that DACA caused the great surge of young teens from Central America – many of whom joined MS-13 and furthered the gang and drug problems in this country.

The Miami Herald reported at the height of the surge that “children are also being sent by families who believe they could qualify for immigration reform—if Congress ever acts on it—or for President Barack Obama’s 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program known as DACA.”

On June 13, 2014, the Washington Post, which now recognizes the problems with UACs but still obsessively supports DACA, admitted that the surge of tens of thousands of Central Americans was “driven in large part by the perception they will be allowed to stay under Obama administration’s immigration policies.”

On June 4, 2014, the New York Times reported that the “shift in the way the United State treats [illegal alien] minors,” aka amnesty and catch-and-release, “prompted” and “inspired” parents to either “hire so-called coyotes … to bring them north” or to “make the trip with toddlers in tow, something rarely seen before in this region.”

It’s a simple fact that illegal immigration is all driven by incentives, and immigrants come here to the degree that we encourage them. This is why the border crossings surged precisely during the periods of executive amnesty under Obama and judicial amnesty under Trump, while they ebbed when Trump began enforcing the law. Ironically, with border numbers down again, they are still up in one state: Arizona. Why Arizona? That is the one state where the DHS has not implemented the “return to Mexico” policy.

It’s time we finally implement the laws on the books to protect Americans from the fiscal, social, security, and identity theft problems from illegal aliens before implementing yet another amnesty. It’s time to finally fulfill the promise of current law on sanctuary cities and deportations. It’s time to finally combat identity theft. It’s time to finally implement the border security promise codified into law – to “achieve and maintain operational control over the entire international land and maritime borders of the United States.”

But there is no impetus from almost anyone in Washington to embark on an aggressive fight to punish sanctuary cities, like Montgomery County, that release illegal alien child molesters.

Ultimately, the question is who matters more in American politics: the citizen or the illegal alien? For the political elites – from the business world and media to the political and legal cabals – it’s a no-brainer. Indeed, the “Americans last” mindset of amnesty advocates and their utter disregard for the social problems created by their advocacy is the crux of what makes Washington a swamp. We are strangers in our own land. (For more from the author of “Bottom Line: Do Illegal Aliens Matter More Than American Citizens?” please click HERE)

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Removing Trump by Senate Secret Ballot Would Be a Disaster for Our Republic

Could the United States Senate use a secret ballot to remove President Donald Trump from office? Possibly, but it would be an absolutely terrible idea.

An article published Tuesday at Politico Magazine floats the idea, noting that Senate procedure allows the upper chamber to set its own rules for trying impeachment and that a bloc of just three Republicans could potentially force the issue.

The article — written by a former adviser to Republican politicians — argues that “the Senate’s role in an impeachment is analogous to a U.S. jury, where secret ballots are often used” and that Trump would “benefit in the long run” by being able to “focus his energies on his post-presidency.”

The appeal for some in the upper chamber seems obvious; those tired of the Trump presidency or who just can’t stand the man himself get to vote to remove the president from office and replace him with Vice President Mike Pence without having to face certain backlash from their own party and their constituents. But unlike jurors, senators are not selected at random. They are selected by the people with the knowledge that the person elected may have to sit for an impeachment trial, along with approving treaties and voting on the president’s nominees. Senators are accountable to the voters.

To seriously suggest removing this president from office via secret ballot — which has never been done before — could almost pass for bad satire at this point in the current impeachment process. (For more from the author of “Removing Trump by Senate Secret Ballot Would Be a Disaster for Our Republic” please click HERE)

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Horrific ‘Knockout’ Murder Shows Need for Mandatory Sentencing Targeting ‘Pack’ Crimes

It’s one of the worst nightmares of any family. You are walking either alone or with your kids and are surrounded by a belligerent mob of “teens,” or young adults, often in packs as large as 15-20. They are not even looking for money; they are looking for blood. At its core, this is the most important job of government: to protect people’s freedom of movement so they are never confronted with such danger. Yet this is what is happening all too often because citizens are disarmed while criminals, particularly violent juveniles and young adults, are not deterred. The latest horrific pack knockout murder took place in increasingly violent Minneapolis.

A 75-year-old man was exiting a bus at a metro stop last Wednesday when 23-year-old Leroy Davonte Davis-Miles, who was together with a bunch of belligerent companions, punched the man. The victim hit his head hard on the pavement and remained in critical condition until he died Tuesday.

Minneapolis, with its plummeting prison population and proliferation of jailbreak policies, has seen a spike in violence, particularly on local public transportation. The Twin Cities are likely to break the record for annual homicides this year.

However, there is something particularly horrific about this knockout trend. These are often young males with massive rap sheets who cycle in and out of jail and never face serious consequences. But people die from these sudden attacks. In September, a man was surrounded by a pack of teens at the Frederick County, Maryland, fair and was knocked out, resulting in his sudden death in front of his family members. The perpetrators were only charged as juveniles, a fact that disgusted the local sheriff, Chuck Jenkins, who discussed the knockout trend on my podcast several weeks ago.

Often, these people serve little or no time, even though these attacks can lead to serious injury or death. Furthermore, the cowardly perpetrators will often have only one person initiate the attack, but they are surrounded by 5-15 friends who ensure that the victim has no way of defending himself. Those who play this support role never face any consequences whatsoever.

It’s time for lawmakers in the various states to begin pushing for anti-knockout legislation. It’s time to deter predatory pack attacks and take them as seriously as the evil they bring on our neighborhoods. Conservatives should push legislation in state legislatures to create mandatory minimum sentences for predatory attacks and mandate that juveniles engaged in these attacks be charged as adults. Furthermore, there needs to be some punishment for those who join in the packs that engage in violence. It’s time to take the game out of the knockout game.

Unfortunately, there is a reason why there is no effort in the states to deter these crimes. The new focus is all on de-incarceration. This relentless focus on criminal justice deform in places like Minneapolis has transformed the once peaceful “Minnesota nice” atmosphere of the Twin Cities into violence and anarchy. Violence is increasing now every month, threatening to reverse the two-decade trend of reduced crime. Homicides are up 32 percent over last year, and violent crime in general is up 13 percent. Property crimes are up 15 percent. These numbers reflect disturbing trends we are seeing in many cities across the country. The obvious culprit is the jailbreak mentality up and down the criminal justice system, which now views incarceration as the problem, rather than crime itself. In the case of Leroy Davonte Davis-Miles, he had numerous arrests for violent offenses and for drugs and theft over the past few years, according to Hennepin County court records. Yet he barely served a day in prison.

According to the Vera Institute of Justice, the Minnesota incarceration rate dropped 6.4 percent just from 2017 to 2018. However, that is not enough for the Left. The ACLU is pushing ideas it believes will cut the prison population in half. The safety of the communities is simply not a factor in its agenda. (For more from the author of “Horrific ‘Knockout’ Murder Shows Need for Mandatory Sentencing Targeting ‘Pack’ Crimes” please click HERE)

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Adam Schiff Threatens Republicans Over Whistleblower; Schiff Reveals Trump’s ‘Potentially Impeachable Offenses’

By Townhall. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff is threatening Republican lawmakers ahead of the first public impeachment inquiry hearing on Wednesday and warning that any criticism of the whistleblower could prompt an Ethics Committee investigation. Schiff is also going out of his way to protect the Bidens from scrutiny.

“As explained in my November 9, 2019, response to the Ranking Member, it is important to underscore that the House’s impeachment inquiry, and the Committee, will not serve as venues for any Member to further the same sham investigations into the Bidens or into debunked conspiracies about the 2016 U.S. election interference that President Trump pressed Ukraine to undertake for his personal political benefit,” Schiff wrote in a memo to the Committee laying out the rules for the hearing.

(Read more from “Schiff Threatens Republicans Over Whistleblower” HERE)

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Adam Schiff: Trump’s Potentially Impeachable Offenses Include Bribery

By Breitbart. On Tuesday’s broadcast of NPR’s “Morning Edition,” House Intelligence chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said there was a clear argument to be made that President Donald Trump committed “bribery.”

Schiff said, “I don’t think any decision has been made on the ultimate question about whether articles of impeachment should be brought. But on the basis of what the witnesses have had to say so far, there are any number of potentially impeachable offenses: including bribery, including high crimes and misdemeanors. The basic allegations against the president are that he sought foreign interference in a U.S. election, that he conditioned official acts on the performance of these political favors — and those official acts include a White House meeting that the president of Ukraine desperately sought with President Trump, as well as hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded military assistance for a country that is at war with Russia and a country that the United States has a deep national security interest in making sure it can defend itself.” (Read more from “Adam Schiff: Trump’s Potentially Impeachable Offenses Include Bribery” HERE)

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DACA Protesters in Country Illegally Promise to Stay in U.S. Regardless of High Court Decision

Protesters gathered at the United States Supreme Court on Tuesday as oral arguments were taking place inside the chamber about the fate of Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA). They vowed to stay in the United States no matter what the High Court decides next summer.

Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, told protesters that they should not have to leave regardless of the court’s ruling. . .

Greisa Martinez Rosas, who is deputy executive director of United We Dream, an organization founded and populated with youth that are in the country illegally, addressed the protesters who held signs that read “No human is illegal” and “Stop the Wall.”

“Today thousands of undocumented youth & allies are walking out to defend #DACA,” Martinez Rosas tweeted with the hashtags SCOTUS #Heretostay #HomeIsHere

“I’m undocumented and unafraid,” Martinez Rosas said. “I’m queer and unashamed.”

(Read more from “DACA Protesters in Country Illegally Promise to Stay in U.S. Regardless of High Court Decision” HERE)

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