WATCH: Ocasio-Cortez Gets Asked How She’ll Pay for Her Programs. It Was a Disaster.

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Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was again unable to explain how she intends to pay for $40 trillion in far-left big government programs during a Sunday interview on CBS News’ “60 Minutes” with host Anderson Cooper.

This marks the second time that Ocasio-Cortez was unable to explain how she would pay for the programs that she wants the government to pay for, with the other instance occurring during an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper. . .

“We only ask how we pay for it on issues of housing, healthcare and education,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “How do we pay for it? With the same exact mechanisms that we pay for military increases for this Space Force. For all of these– ambitious policies.”

“There are Democrats, obviously, who are worried about your affect on the party,” Cooper responded. “Democratic Senator Chris Coons, said about left-leaning Democrats, “If the next two years is just a race to offer increasingly unrealistic proposals, it’ll be difficult for us to make a credible case we should be allowed to govern again.” . . .

“We pay more per capita in health care and education for lower outcomes than many other nations,” Ocasio-Cortez answered, as she still could not provide an answer about how to pay for her programs. “And so for me, what’s unrealistic is– is what we’re living in right now.” (Read more from “WATCH: Ocasio-Cortez Gets Asked How She’ll Pay for Her Programs. It Was a Disaster.” HERE)

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WATCH: Women’s March Leader Took Part in Anti-Israel Demonstration in Nazareth

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Years before Carmen Perez became a nationally-known co-chair of the Women’s March on Washington, she was part of a delegation of black liberation activists who promoted a Palestinian-led drive targeting the State of Israel. . .

While in Nazareth, commonly known as “the Arab capital of Israel,” Perez participated in a solidarity demonstration calling for the boycott, divestment and sanctions against that country. A video documenting the flash mob-style spectacle shows her performing the dabke – a traditional Palestinian folk dance – along with Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors and other allies which Perez described as “my revolutionary freedom fighters.”

The ceremony began with participants being smudged with sage to rid the space of negative energy followed by a monologue from Marc Lamont Hill – a former CNN pundit who was let go by the network in November after making controversial comments about Israel.

“We came here to Palestine to stand in love and revolutionary struggle with our brothers and sisters,” Hill said in the video. “We come to a land that has been stolen by greed and destroyed by hate. We come here, and we learn laws that have been co-signed in ink but written in the blood of the innocent, and we stand next to people who continue to courageously struggle and resist the occupation.” . . .

Perez represented a task force she co-founded in 2013 called Justice League NYC. It is part of The Gathering of Justice network, where Perez serves as executive director. Fellow Women’s March co-chairs Tamika Mallory and Linda Sarsour were also part of that organization.

(Read more from “WATCH: Women’s March Leader Took Part in Anti-Israel Demonstration in Nazareth” HERE)

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Investigation Into Drive-By Shooting of Child Takes a ‘New Direction’

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Investigators are now calling the shooting of 7-year-old Jazmine Barnes a case of mistaken identity after witnesses believed a white man in a red pickup truck was responsible for her Dec. 30 murder, but officials said Sunday that two different men have been taken into custody and one has been charged with capital murder.

Barnes was killed while sitting in the backseat of her mother’s car with her three sisters as they drove out of a Walmart parking lot in northeast Houston on Dec. 30. Her mother, LaPorsha Washington, was also shot when a car pulled up and began spraying bullets.

The case garnered national attention after Washington said she believed the case to be a hate crime after she and her family identified the shooter in the apparently random attack to be a white male. . .

Authorities originally reported the suspect to be a white man driving a red pickup truck based on accounts of the shooting from Barnes’s family, but the Harris County Sheriff’s Office tweeted late Saturday that the investigation had “taken a new direction.”

Homicide investigators subsequently filed a capital murder charge against Eric Black Jr., 20, according to a statement from the sheriff’s office, who had been identified as a suspect based on a tip. He later admitted to taking part in the shooting.

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‪I’ll go ahead and state the obvious. 24 y/o Larry Woodruffe doesn’t fit the description offered by the 4 different witness statements or composite sketch. Accordingly, this tip was difficult to believe. Assuming the confession elicited is reliable— it is possible the previously identified suspect seen fleeing by several independent witnesses was a bystanader attempting to escape the shooting. To observers, however, he appeared to be the shooter himself. ‬More information will have to be drawn out before there is a conviction. Nonetheless, the community is collectively responsible for obtaining evidence that has led to a credible arrest and we are closer to answers. That much is laudable.

A post shared by S. Lee Merritt, Esquire (@leemerrittesq) on

(Read more from “Investigation Into Drive-By Shooting of Child Takes a ‘New Direction'” HERE)

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Actress Wants Fat-Shaming To Be Considered Hate Speech

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“Body positivity” has been a rallying cry for many celebrities and women’s organizations that claim being overweight is not unhealthy. Now one celebrity in particular wants to make “fat-shaming” — remarks intended to make someone feel bad over their weight — to be considered “hate speech.”

Actress Jameela Jamil from “The Good Place” announced last week that she would start a company based on her Instagram account, “I Weigh,” which focuses on body positivity. She announced her new company in a tweet last Wednesday and said one of the company’s “main goals is to work towards a policy change that means this way of talking about people’s bodies is considered hate speech.”

The tweet was a response to one from another Twitter user who posted photos from a tabloid depicting two female celebrities in bathing suits with captions. In one photo, Rebel Wilson wears a one-piece bathing suit with the caption: “The stand-up comedian, 29, made a big splash in Pitch Perfect, and does the same when she hits the surf!”

One might not necessarily see this as cruel, but the comment is made among other photos mocking celebrities for their looks, including Tara Reid’s “botched surgery.”

Another photo posted by the account shows “Glee” actress Lea Michele in a bikini bending over with the caption: “The 28-year-old singer’s most famous role was on Glee, but her biggest rolls are…” the photo cuts off. The image includes a circle around her torso and the words “roll player.”

(Read more from “Actress Wants Fat-Shaming to Be Considered Hate Speech” HERE)

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Jihadist Beheader in Oklahoma Cleared for Execution

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This fall, the U.S. Supreme Court essentially cemented the execution of America’s least known Islamic terrorist. Jihadist convert Alton Nolen is now set to be put to death in Oklahoma, likely by nitrogen gas inhalation.

The Supreme Court’s October 1, 2018 rejection of Nolen’s final death penalty appeal went unremarked upon by news media so, partly as a result, I missed it. But the Nolen case is very much worth remembering, along with all terror attacks that occur on U.S. soil, if not just for the victims and their survivors but for lessons that can and must be learned.

The September 24, 2014 attack in Oklahoma is somewhat notable in the annals of many officially uncalled terrorist strikes in that Nolen emulated a favorite ISIS death tactic no doubt learned online: he fully beheaded a co-worker—the beloved wife, mother, and grandmother Colleen Hufford—inside the Moore, Oklahoma food processing plant where they both worked. Shouting “Alluah Akbar” throughout the attack, Nolen used the same oversized butcher knife on the neck of a second co-worker, Tracy Johnson, when the company’s chief operations officer, a reserve law enforcement officer named Mark Vaughn, burst in with an AR-15 rifle. He shot and wounded Nolen as Nolen disengaged from his second victim and charged at him with the bloody knife.

Such an attack must generate a particular horror in its witnesses and, when Nolen is finally put to death, one should keep in mind what Hufford must have experienced in her last moments. . .

This attack and its repercussions warrants our full national attention and should be properly memorialized until all related matters are finally resolved, not least for any comfort this can still bring the victim, survivors, and witnesses. Terrorism acknowledgement and media treatment can encourage the nation to comfort those who were there and help them close the emotionally important loop of knowing why loved ones and innocents died, who did it, and for what cause. (Read more from “Jihadist Beheader in Oklahoma Cleared for Execution” HERE)

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The Syria Controversy Is a Proxy War Over America’s Foreign Policy

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The great game never ends, but the American people are tired of playing. While members of the foreign policy establishment (or experts, as they prefer to be called) continue the work of empire, with its interests, alliances, and intrigues around the globe, the people they are supposedly working for want out. This divergence, exemplified by the debate over Syria, imperils the legitimacy, as well as the efficacy, of American foreign and military policy.

This is why the resignation of Defense Secretary James Mattis has been presented as a crisis. Losing a skilled, honorable man’s services due to irreconcilable differences with the president would be a blow to any administration, let alone one as chaotic as Trump’s. . .

The debate over our involvement and strategy in Syria is important in itself, but it is also a proxy for the fight over who has the authority to direct American foreign and military policy. Continued American intervention in Syria is being pushed everywhere from National Review to The New York Times. But whatever its merits as policy, it remains unpopular beyond destroying ISIS, which is largely accomplished.

Congress, sensitive to public opinion on this at least, declined to authorize the mission creep the ostensible experts favor. Although Congress has also fecklessly declined to do anything to restrain American involvement in undeclared wars, the Constitution still requires positive authorization for war, which is supposed to be declared and directed by elected officials answerable to the people.

Regardless of the wishes of the people, Congress, and even the current commander-in-chief, the foreign policy establishment has kept playing the great game, presumably on the theory that it is easier to ask forgiveness than to seek permission. These officials believe their policies are correct, and the broad strategy of maintaining American influence and protecting American interests justifies involvement in a particular crisis or hot spot. President Trump’s flaws provide them with a ready excuse for ignoring, and even subverting, political leadership. (Read more from “The Syria Controversy Is a Proxy War Over America’s Foreign Policy” HERE)

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No, Senate Apportionment Is Not White Supremacy

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This week the Atlantic ran an article by Eric Orts, arguing for a major change in how seats to the U.S. Senate are apportioned. Like many others, he believes that small states have too much power in our legislative upper body. This idea floats around a lot, especially when Republicans control the Senate. Instead, he would give every state one senator to start with, then apportion the rest based on population. California, for example, would have 12, while Rhode Island would have 1.

Let’s set aside the broad arguments about this issue, such as the fact that limiting the power of the larger, more powerful states was a feature, not a bug of the U.S. Constitution, and that in all likelihood the plan Orts lays out violates that document. Charles Cooke has a good takedown in National Review Online that is worth reading. . .

I’d like to investigate just one of the claims Orts makes. In the essay, he contends that the Senate’s two per state apportionment is a “vehicle entrenching white supremacy.” His argument is that because most small states are predominantly white, white voters are being overrepresented. He views this not only as an example of white supremacy, but one that works to ensure the permanence of white supremacy. But is that true? . . .

Unfortunately, the assumption underlying Orts’ argument is an ugly one. His claim only works if it is true that, either consciously or unconsciously, white voters favor politicians and programs that are better for white people and that this preference for white supremacy is an essential element in how they vote. If this were true, however, wouldn’t we see white voters overwhelmingly flock to the political party that best supported these supposedly white supremacist policies?

In fact, we see exactly the opposite. According to Pew, 33 percent of whites are Republicans, 26 percent are Democrats, and 37 percent are Independents. If white people really are voting based on the interests of their racial group, they certainly can’t seem to agree what positions and policies best advance them. Apparently white voters in tiny Delaware, who elected Democrats Chris Coons and Tom Carper, have very different ideas about what is best for white people than do those in Wyoming, who elected Republicans John Barrasso and Mike Enzi. (Read more from “No, Senate Apportionment Is Not White Supremacy” HERE)

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Warren’s First Week on the Stump Filled With Missteps

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Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren kicked off her 2020 presidential campaign with a series of awkward gaffes and lingering questions about her alleged Native American ancestry.

The day Warren announced she was launching an exploratory committee for a 2020 bid, she appeared on Instagram Live with her husband, Bruce Mann. In the video, Warren attempts to appear folksy as she tells viewers, “Hold on a sec, I’m gonna get me, um, a beer.” . . .

Warren’s first week on the campaign trail has also been plagued with fallout from her decision in October to release a DNA test showing she is somewhere between 1/64th and 1/1,024th Native American. The Cherokee Nation immediately slammed Warren for releasing the test, stating, “Using a DNA test to lay claim to any connection to the Cherokee Nation or any tribal nation, even vaguely, is inappropriate and wrong.”

The DNA test was supposed to put to rest the rumors that Warren had embellished her Native American ancestry or somehow used it to get ahead in her career. It was also meant to silence the president’s favorite nickname for the Harvard Law professor — “Pocahontas.” Instead, months later, Warren is still answering questions about her perceived connection to tribal ancestry. . .

Despite the website’s insistence that Warren’s claims to Native American ancestry are not problematic, the senator spent her first week on the campaign trail seemingly making amends to tribal nations. On Thursday night, Warren attended a special reception ceremony for the first Native American women to be elected to Congress. (Read more from “Warren’s First Week on the Stump Filled With Missteps” HERE)

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Trump Ponders ‘Emergency’ Powers to Build Border Wall

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By Washington Times. President Trump said Friday he could declare a national emergency on the border and order his government to build fencing without needing to go to Congress for additional funding.

“I can do it if I want,” he said, adding, “I may do it.”

He said he’s still interested in trying to get a deal done with Congress on funding his border wall plans, but he made clear he hasn’t foreclosed other options for erecting the barrier he promised voters in 2016 would be built and paid for by Mexico.

Mr. Trump last month had raised the prospect of declaring an emergency and asking the Defense Department to construct barriers outside of the normal congressional appropriations process.

The Pentagon at the time said it had not developed those plans, but said it did have legal authority to build a wall if it were deemed part of a counter-drug operation or part of a national emergency. (Read more from “Trump Ponders ‘Emergency’ Powers to Build Border Wall” HERE)

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Will Troops Help Build Trump’s Border Wall? No Additional Deployments Planned Yet

By AZ Central. As a partial federal government shutdown nears its third week, President Donald Trump has refused to budge on the central issue in his dispute with congressional Democrats, funding for his proposed wall along the U.S. border with Mexico.

With the debate at a stalemate — Democrats continue to oppose additional money — reports surfaced this week about the possibility of the Trump administration requesting the deployment of additional troops to the border to help build infrastructure.

The troops would help build or upgrade 160 miles of barriers along the Arizona and California borders and would be paid by the Department of Defense, which is unaffected by the shutdown, according to NPR, which cited military sources.

Capt. Bill Speaks, a spokesman for Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan, told The Arizona Republic that “no decisions have been made on additional troops to support the Customs and Border Protection mission at the Southwest border.”

However, he added that the “additional support for CBP is something we continue to discuss with (the Department of Homeland Security),” which is directly impacted by the shutdown. But because it is a law-enforcement agency, many of the front-line agents and officers continue working, without pay. (Read more from “Will Troops Help Build Trump’s Border Wall? No Additional Deployments Planned Yet” HERE)

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Judge Extends Mueller Grand Jury

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By The Daily Caller. A federal grand jury being used by special counsel Robert Mueller received an extension on Friday, signaling that the Russia probe may be further from ending than previously thought. . .

Grand juries are initially impaneled for up to 18 months and can be extended six additional months if doing so is in the public interest.

The length of the extension is unclear, but reports have circulated that Mueller is close to ending his investigation, which focuses on possible collusion between the Russian government and Trump campaign, as well as possible obstruction of justice on the part of President Donald Trump. (Read more from “Judge Extends Mueller Grand Jury” HERE)

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Federal Grand Jury Working in Mueller Probe Is Extended

By The Washington Post. A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., working with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election has been extended, officials said, but it is not clear for how long.

The grand jury, empaneled July 5, 2017, had been set to end Saturday after an 18-month term. Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell of D.C., who oversees grand jury activities, said she approved the extension.

Howell declined to comment on how much longer the grand jury could sit. Under federal rules of criminal procedure, a grand jury may serve more than 18 months only if a judge finds an extension is in the public interest, and then generally for no more than six additional months. . .

Five aides to now-President Trump have pleaded guilty to various charges stemming from the wide-ranging probe, most recently his former personal att orney Michael Cohen in November. The others include former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, his deputy, Rick Gates, and former national security adviser Michael Flynn and campaign aide George Papadopoulos. (Read more from “Federal Grand Jury Working in Mueller Probe Is Extended” HERE)

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