Speaking to the media at Thursday’s press conference, President Donald Trump made some comments about Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy that completely contradict the hard-on-illegal-immigration message that helped win him the election.
When asked what would become of DACA (which grants amnesty to illegal immigrants who entered the country as minors) under his administration, Trump said that this is a “very, very difficult subject” for him, adding that he wants to “deal with DACA with heart.”
“I love kids,” he said. “I have kids and grandkids. And I find it very, very hard doing what the law says exactly to do.”
Trump went on to clarify that he wasn’t “talking about new laws,” but the “existing” immigration laws established by Congress.
Trump says most DACA beneficiaries are "incredible kids" and hints that there will be some kind of amnesty for them.
This will undoubtedly come as (very, very bad) news to Americans who voted for Trump with the hope that he would fight to end amnesty-granting programs like DACA.
Just last month, Trump vowed to “end” DACA as one of his first actions as president.
Trump to @SimonRadio1776 on DACA (1/20/16): It’ll be gone very quickly. One of the 1st things I’ll do is end that particular executive order
If this all sounds familiar, it’s because Trump has made worrisome statements regarding illegal immigration in the past. Back in August, he suggested that non-violent illegal immigrants should have able to “pay back-taxes” in lieu of facing deportation. And if that sounds familiar, it’s because it is the same amnesty policy established in the notorious Gang of Eight bill. Further, Trump’s former campaign rival, Jeb Bush, was hotly criticized by conservatives for adopting the very position the president is now asserting.
The Trump administration has yet to officially comment on what will ultimately become of DACA. But if Thursday’s press conference was any indication, Pres. Trump is going to have some serious explaining to do. (For more from the author of “‘I Love Kids’: Did Trump Just Cave on Amnesty?” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/25653047910_84d8af663d_b.jpg6831024Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-02-17 23:32:232017-02-17 23:33:42‘I Love Kids’: Did Trump Just Cave on Amnesty?
Before he was the chief election officer for his state, Wayne Williams was the El Paso County, Colorado, clerk and saw firsthand how even a small amount of voter fraud can thwart the public will.
“As clerk, I saw two school board races decided by a single vote,” Williams told The Daily Signal. “I oversaw a municipal tax question that failed on a tie vote. So, yes, a single vote can make a difference. If someone is saying, well, it doesn’t happen a lot so it doesn’t matter, they’re just wrong, because it can make a difference. Even a single instance of an illegal vote causes an undermining in the confidence and diminishes turnout.”
Williams, now the Colorado secretary of state, was in the District of Columbia, for the winter meeting of the National Association of Secretaries of State, which included a panel on election integrity.
The panel discussed the pending voter fraud commission that President Donald Trump has said he would appoint, to be headed by Vice President Mike Pence.
Trump has alleged that 3 million to 5 million illegal votes could have been cast in the November 2016 election, which he previously said might have cost him the popular vote against Hillary Clinton. In his pre-Super Bowl interview with Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, Trump said he would appoint Pence to head the probe.
Trump administration officials have cited an Old Dominion University study about noncitizens voting, and a Pew Research Center study that found millions of people listed on voter rolls across the country are listed in the wrong address, live in a different state, or in some cases are dead.
Williams, a Republican, thinks state and local election officials will play a major role in assisting in the probe.
“I welcome a process that’s designed to look at how we make the system better,” Williams said. “That’s true as a clerk, as secretary. I believe we ought to have that dialogue and explore ways we can clean up the process.”
Even as several speakers at the conference said that voter fraud doesn’t happen on a massive scale, Williams stressed that’s no reason to ignore it.
“Voter fraud is like bank robbery. It doesn’t happen most of the time, but it’s absolutely critical to take precautions against it,” Williams told The Daily Signal. “So, even though someone doesn’t rob a bank every day, they don’t put the money out in a pile and say, ‘Just take however much you like.’ It’s the same sense for we as elections officials. Most people who are voting accurately. They are eligible. But we have to have processes in place to protect against it. I know most people vote appropriately, but they need to have confidence their vote counts.”
During a panel on election integrity, Miles Rapoport, a senior fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, warned secretaries of state to be ready to answer questions from the Trump administration.
“We don’t know what will happen, but it’s entirely possible there will be a major commission on the subject of voter fraud,” Rapoport, a former head of liberal groups such as Demos and Common Cause, told the assembled secretaries.
Jesse Richman, a political science professor at Old Dominion University, did research extrapolating on a previous study that found 800,000 people may have voted in the 2016 presidential election. That’s significant, though well short of Trump’s alleged 3 million to 5 million illegal votes.
Because voter fraud is such a volatile issue, Richman said the commission must be transparent.
“Any result they find of significant or substantial levels of fraud will almost certainly be attacked,” Richman told The Daily Signal after speaking at a Judicial Watch forum on voter fraud.
Richman continued:
I think they should use the full range of data the federal government already has, as well as soliciting cooperation and collaboration with states, to try to address various aspects of election integrity and try to get a sense of magnitudes because magnitudes are really important. If we are trying to get a sense of a few thousand illegal votes cast by noncitizens across the country, that’s still potentially politically significant in a close race, but it’s not as big a problem as if we are talking about 100,000 or 200,000 or more. So I think it is important to get a sense of magnitude because stopping voter fraud is very costly and we want to figure out the least costly ways in terms of various kinds of cost to go about addressing the challenges.
The nation’s secretaries of state reached out to the administration, but haven’t received any response on details of the commission probe, said Connecticut Secretary of State Denise Merrill, chairwoman of the National Association of Secretaries of State.
“We have very little indication of exactly what they’re going to be doing thus far. I gather it will focus perhaps on lists, the accuracy of lists, the integrity of the eligibility of voters. It’s kind of hard to tell where they are going at this point,” Merrill, a Democrat, told The Daily Signal. (For more from the author of “Here’s Why State Election Officials Think Voter Fraud Is a Serious Problem” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/Voter_ID-2.jpg7681024Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-02-17 23:31:042017-02-17 23:31:04Here’s Why State Election Officials Think Voter Fraud Is a Serious Problem
When I learned that President Trump had apparently changed his mind on protecting religious business owners and schools from government harassment and legal persecution, I’ll admit that I was angry. As Maggie Gallagher explained, with a stroke of his pen, Trump could reverse executive orders and policies made by Barack Obama, who knew that there weren’t the votes in Congress to add “sexual orientation” or “gender identity” to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
So Obama declared that the federal government would henceforth play make believe, and act as if religious objections to homosexuality, and rational insistence that there are just two human sexes, were covered in the original law. (Which was passed back when sodomy was still in crime in most of those legislators’ states, when what happens in “sex change” operations was still called “castration.”) I guess Obama had seen the Supreme Court cram contemporary mores between the lines of the Constitution often enough, that he wanted to get in on the act when it came to federal law. This legal hijacking law is so blatant, you almost have to admire Obama’s chutzpah. It’s as if he dressed up Rev. Martin Luther King in drag like Tyler Perry, and got away with it.
Rumors suggest that it was Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son in law Jared Kushner who convinced him to go back on his promise to conservative Christians. I wondered why orthodox Jews would favor distortions of the law that could harm their co-religionists — who also follow the Hebrew Bible on this point. Then I remembered all those Biden-sniffing Jesuits at Georgetown, and felt a sickly kind of peace. “Everyone is insane,” I reflected.
Was Ivanka worried about all the “fabulous”parties she would be disinvited from back in Manhattan, if her father stuck up for Christians? She needn’t worry. Those hostesses are already furious at her, afraid that her father will deport their illegal nannies. What the Trumps need to realize is that they will be treated as pariahs for simple, sane policies like enforcing our country’s borders and laws. They might as well go ahead and protect religious freedom too.
Let me try to break it down another way.
Dear Mr. President:
Evangelical Christians, the people whom you promised to look out for until you were talked you out of it, make up 20 percent of voters, and 50 percent of voters in Republican primaries. In November, 80 percent of them voted for you.
Coming from New York City, you might not realize this, but gays make up a whole 2 percent of the electorate. For all you did to win them over, with Peter Thiel’s speech at the Convention and your waving the rainbow flag, what percentage of that 2 percent do you think voted for you — or would vote for you in four years in the blue states where most of them live? Sure they have a lot of money. Do you think they were contributing it to you?
Now maybe you’re worried not about gay voters per se, but straight voters who watched Will & Grace for long enough that now they have pro-gay attitudes. There are a lot of people like that, especially women. How many of them do you think want to persecute Christian florists and bakers, close down wedding chapels and Catholic schools? Not many. You could sell that pro-religious freedom executive order as standing up for the little guy against tort-hungry lawyers using big government to persecute religious Americans — because that is, in fact, exactly what it is.
But these are heady arguments. So let me reach for the heartstrings. I will pull out the big guns here, and explain why you should sign the executive order protecting religious Americans using a Frank Sinatra song:
Trump, be a leader and fight,
Trump, be a leader and fight.
Trump if you’ve ever been a leader to begin with
Trump, be a leader and fight!
Trump let Christians see
What a straight shooter you can be.
I know how you treated your creditors in the 80s.
Trump shoot straight with me.
A leader never scams his voters.
It isn’t fair, it isn’t nice.
A leader doesn’t fawn on the snowflakes and snobs.
Or blow on his enemies’ dice.
Let’s keep the Party far-right,
And ruin Meryl Streep’s night.
Stick with the Deplorables who put you in the White House
Trump be a leader, and fight!
Sincerely,
The Christian Voters of America Who Nominated & Elected You
(For more from the author of “President Trump: Be a Leader and Fight (for Religious Freedom)” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/Donald_Trump_haircut_Laconia_by_Michael_Vadon_July_16_2015_cropped.jpg21112228Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-02-17 23:27:012017-02-17 23:33:31President Trump: Be a Leader and Fight (for Religious Freedom)
President Trump’s latest news conference was at once a lot of fun, and kind of frustrating. My initial reaction was telling. I couldn’t help thinking, “Gosh I wish Ted Cruz were the man behind that microphone. He would deliver devastating answers, dismantle the reporters’ logic, cite chapter and verse of their actual news stories illustrating their leftist bias, and finish the event with a thin, victorious smile — having proved in meticulous detail that he was the smartest and best-prepared man in the room.”
Instead, Trump spoke in sweeping terms, dismissing the press corps as biased. He taunted, mocked, and all but jeered at the cream of the Washington press corps. He spoke in the way that he seems to have picked up from dealing with construction workers over decades in the building trade — bluntly and emotionally, with large dollops of chest-thumping. In pop culture terms, Trump sounded like a Robert De Niro character, confronting a room full of Jude Laws and Kelsey Grammars.
Trump Understands Why We’re Frustrated
But wasn’t that a reason Trump won the nomination, and Ted Cruz didn’t? The conservative who played the game of our country’s Progressive elites by their own rules at their best schools and beat them every time on the facts, the logic, and history … didn’t win over the voters. The guy whose politics were all over the map, who was driven by a simple, gut love of the concrete reality of America, was able to turn all those blue states red. He connected with blue collar workers, frustrated family men and women, and worried patriots, because he naturally spoke their language.
Too many conservatives whose policies and ideals really would benefit the country and protect the common man speak just like our toxic elites — who view national borders as tedious nuisances to vacation travel and millions of their fellow Americans as “deplorable.” That’s the reason my mailman dad would angrily switch off National Public Radio in our apartment — even when a (rare) conservative was speaking, or an announcer was just giving straight news. “Turn off those liberal fairies,” he would say, annoyed by their accents and diction. Come to think of it, he was probably irritated by mine. Think of Martin Crane rolling his eyes when Frasier and Niles start nattering about French cheeses.
What’s Really Deplorable is the Economy
The disconnect between our preening, self-congratulatory elites and harried, struggling Americans is real and based on more than cultural resentment, as a recent fact-packed story in Commentary reveals. Go read for yourself conservative scholar Nicholas Eberstadt’s alarming analysis of the economic indicators too often ignored by economists. What he concludes is that Trump’s populism is driven not by ethnic resentment, cultural backlash, or ideology — but the concrete reality that our economic and political systems have been optimized to benefit a narrow class of highly educated people with a homogeneous, narrow set of “acceptable” cultural, political, and religious views.
For proof of that fact, remember what Trump strategist Steve Bannon said at the Vatican in 2014 about the immoral 2008 bailout of reckless bankers’ gambling on shady mortgage investments. When ordinary taxpaying workers go to Vegas and clean out their savings, or get hooked on Vicodin after an injury, there isn’t some massive federal program that will make them whole again. There’s no golden parachute. But there are, as Eberstadt points out, just enough forms of government support (i.e., disability benefits) to keep people barely surviving. And in our staggering jobs market, that’s a temptation to which far too many once hard-working Americans are succumbing.
Learning to Talk Trump
Rather than dryly repeat them, let me sum up Eberstadt’s conclusions in terms that my dad would have gotten, and offer the kind of response that he and millions of Trump voters likely would have.
Rich investors are doing better than ever, but ordinary people are struggling to live as well as their parents did.
Unemployment is down, but that is only true because that number doesn’t count the tens of millions who have given up looking for jobs. (But we keep on importing a million unskilled workers every year — so the snooty people whose jobs are safe can feel good about themselves, and have lots of ethnic restaurants to choose from.)
Economic growth has slowed, and its benefits have narrowed to those social classes best at lobbying for their interests or shaping our institutions to protect themselves. (Yeah, the rich get richer, and the snobs rig the system. What else is new?)
What’s valuable about Eberstadt’s essay is that it repeats in sober prose and alarming fact the grim truths that Donald Trump talks about in fiery Tweets and angry exchanges with cosseted reporters. There’s a very good reason that millions of people saw the need to “Make America Great Again,” and it had nothing to do with preserving “white cis-gendered heterosexual privilege.”
Whether Trump and his team can overcome the massive institutional resistance to his proposals, and craft policies that actually change things, only time will tell. We don’t know if he has the answers. But at least he could hear the questions. (For more from the author of “Trump Bashing the Media Channels America’s Disgust With Its Own Elites” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/jjj.jpg638960Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-02-17 23:21:332017-02-17 23:25:31Trump Bashing the Media Channels America’s Disgust With Its Own Elites
There is only one thing more appalling than the Washington Supreme Court’s 9-0 ruling against religious liberty today. It is the silence of Christian leaders across America, leaders who choose convenience over confrontation, leaders who would rather be popular than prophetic, leaders who prefer the favor of people over the favor of God. Shame on these silent leaders. Today is a day to stand.
There are, of course, the handful of expected Christian voices protesting the court’s outrageous decision, as these justices ruled unanimously against florist Barronelle Stutzman, claiming that she discriminated against a longtime gay customer (named Robert Ingersoll) when she told him she couldn’t make the floral arrangement for his upcoming gay “wedding,” despite the fact that she had served him for years and despite her recommending three other florists who could do the arrangements for his wedding.
Instead, the court ruled that this 72-year-old grandmother who had employed gay workers and served gay customers for years, was required by law to participate in a gay wedding, even though this constituted a direct violation of her religious beliefs — beliefs which have been consistent and almost universally held among Christians for the last 2,000 years.
Not only so, but the court upheld the attack on her personal assets as well — her house, her savings, her retirement funds — by requiring her “to pay the attorneys’ fees that the ACLU racked up in suing her,” fees which could reach as high as one million dollars.
Previously, when Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, an aggressive liberal who brought the suit against Barronnelle, “announced he would accept $2,000 in penalties, $1 in fees and costs, plus an agreement not to discriminate in the future and to end further litigation,” Barronnelle rejected the proposed settlement.
She explained,
Your offer reveals that you don’t really understand me or what this conflict is all about. It’s about freedom, not money. I certainly don’t relish the idea of losing my business, my home, and everything else that your lawsuit threatens to take from my family, but my freedom to honor God in doing what I do best is more important. Washington’s constitution guarantees us “freedom of conscience in all matters of religious sentiment.” I cannot sell that precious freedom. You are asking me to walk in the way of a well-known betrayer, one who sold something of infinite worth for 30 pieces of silver. That is something I will not do.
I pray that you reconsider your position. I kindly served Rob for nearly a decade and would gladly continue to do so. I truly want the best for my friend. I’ve also employed and served many members of the LGBT community, and I will continue to do so regardless of what happens with this case. You chose to attack my faith and pursue this not simply as a matter of law, but to threaten my very means of working, eating, and having a home. If you are serious about clarifying the law, then I urge you to drop your claims against my home, business, and other assets and pursue the legal claims through the appeal process.
Today, on my radio show, shortly after the ruling was announced, and with the full weight of the state’s ruling hanging over her head, she told me she would do the same thing again (stating that when God changes His Word, she will change her mind) — also stating without the slightest trace of bitterness that she would gladly serve Robert Ingersoll should he come into her store today.
Where are the Christians?
Friends, what we are witnessing today is a breathtaking abuse of power, an extreme overreach by the government, a shocking example of LGBT activism out of control. Yet, over the next 7 days, church services will come and go without a word being spoken, and over the next 48 hours, the Christian blogosphere will remain relatively quiet. How can this be?
In the aftermath of the Holocaust, courageous Christian leader Basilea Schlink rebuked the silence of Christians immediately after Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass (Nov. 9, 1938), when the Nazis set synagogues on fire and vandalized Jewish places of business, also killing and beating some Jewish victims as well. And while I am not comparing gay activists and their allies to Nazis, and I am not comparing the Washington court’s ruling to Kristallnacht, I am comparing the silence of Christians then and now.
Please stop and read these words carefully.
Schlink wrote,
We are personally to blame. We all have to admit that if we, the entire Christian community, had stood up as one man and if, after the burning of the synagogues, we had gone out on the streets and voiced our disapproval, rung the church bells, and somehow boycotted the actions of the S.S., the Devil’s vassals would probably not have been at such liberty to pursue their evil schemes. But we lacked the ardor of love — love that is never passive, love that cannot bear it when its fellow men are in misery, particularly when they are subjected to such appalling treatment and tortured to death. Indeed, if we had loved God, we would not have endured seeing those houses of God set ablaze; and holy, divine wrath would have filled our souls. … Oh, that we as Germans and as Christians would stand aghast and cry out ever anew, “What have we done!” At every further evidence of our guilt may we repeat the cry. (From her book Israel, My Chosen People: A German Confession Before God and the Jews.)
What adds to the tragic irony of the moment is that in recent weeks, designers have said they will no longer work with Melania Trump and stores have dropped Ivanka Trump product lines, not because of deeply held religious beliefs, which are explicitly protected by the First Amendment, but because of political differences. And these companies and individuals are being praised by liberal Americans for standing on their convictions. But when a Christian florist politely declines a gay couple’s request to design the floral arrangements for their “wedding” ceremony, she is taken to court and threatened with the loss of her business and all her personal assets.
Where is the righteous Christian indignation? And where are the bleeding-heart liberals who claim to care about the persecuted underdog? (Remember: The ACLU with its massive resources is leading the charge against Barronnelle.)
I can respect Christian leaders who try to stay out of the culture wars because they don’t want to drive their LGBT neighbors and friends away from the gospel — as long as they speak up at times like this, when our fundamental liberties are being trashed and when a gracious Christian grandmother is being savaged by the state. But should they remain silent at a time like this, the next time they raise their voices on behalf of the LGBT community (and against the conservative evangelicals they so frequently attack) they will be shouting one message to the world: “I am a hypocritical coward!”
Let me urge you, then, to do three things: 1) share this article with others to help spread the word; 2) make a statement about this gross injustice however you can (on social media; to your family; from your pulpit — I’m urging every pastor reading this column to say something to your flock the next opportunity you have); 3) go to this website to stand with Barronnelle and her team; 4) pray for God to awaken the Church of America.
Will you take a stand today? (For more from the author of “Shame on the Silent Christian Leaders Who Refuse to Stand Against Government Tyranny” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/Unhappy-Adult-Man-Sitting-Depressed-Hoodie-Sad-390340.jpg536960Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-02-17 23:17:472017-02-17 23:17:47Shame on the Silent Christian Leaders Who Refuse to Stand Against Government Tyranny
What do we really know about the sudden death of an exiled North Korean princeling? Aside from heated media speculation and an instant “it’s-gotta-be-Pyongyang” reaction from Seoul’s spy agency, not much.
As the investigation continues, the mystery of just what happened to the half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as he waited for a flight in a Malaysian airport only deepens. Was Kim Jong Nam poisoned? Are the two female suspects trained killers or dupes? How can we be sure that North Korea, which seems the obvious culprit, was even involved?
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service — no friend to Pyongyang — and eager reporters across Asia have assembled a dramatic, almost cinematic profile of the last hour of Kim’s life. But there’s still a surfeit of unanswered questions. (Read more from “Mystery Deepens in North Korea Princeling Assassination” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/question-mark-1927457_960_720.jpg600960Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-02-17 22:31:302017-02-17 22:31:30Mystery Deepens in North Korea Princeling Assassination
In just eight years, the Obama administration was responsible for creating 22,700 new burdensome regulations on the American people.
During this time, federal agencies seized more power than ever in creating laws on their own, going largely unchecked by Congress.
Regulatory overreach became a hot-button issue during the 2016 election as the American people grew tired of unelected bureaucrats regulating their lives from Washington.
That’s when Donald Trump hit the campaign trail with a message that resonated. Trump told his supporters in September 2016, “I will eliminate all needless and job-killing regulations now on the books.”
Four months later, Trump followed through with his promise. In January, the Trump administration put a freeze on “new and pending” regulations and issued an executive order requiring federal agencies to get rid of two regulations for every new one issued.
A president willing to work toward ending the modern administrative state is a breath of fresh air in Washington. Trump has done his part. Now, it is time for Congress to contribute by utilizing the Congressional Review Act.
Passed into law in 1996, the Congressional Review Act allows Congress to invalidate an agency rule by passing a joint resolution of disapproval, not subject to a Senate filibuster, that the president signs into law.
Many conservatives see the Congressional Review Act as Congress’ most valuable tool in dismantling costly regulations dating back to the mid-1990s.
However, in the four weeks Republicans have controlled both the executive and legislative branches, the House of Representatives has introduced only 24 joint resolutions and passed just six of them over to the Senate for approval.
Of those six, the Senate has only passed three to be signed into law by Trump. He has signed all three.
>>>See Paul Larkin’s full explanation of the reach of the Congressional Review Act.
The question begging to be answered here is, what’s the hold up?
For what it’s worth, the Senate has been brought to a grinding halt due to the unprecedented obstruction Senate Democrats have imposed on Trump’s Cabinet nominees. But that should not detract Senate leadership from making deregulation a legislative priority in 2017.
As soon confirmation battles are finished, Congress should move swiftly to begin regulatory reform, a $120 billion yearly expense on the taxpayer.
Due to the Congressional Review Act’s unique structure and ability to evade obstruction, there are a few steps the Senate should take to start voting on these joint resolutions at a more consistent rate.
Perhaps one of the most important components of the Senate is time. Time is allocated to both the minority and majority party to debate legislation. The minority party often uses debate time to drag out the legislative process in order to slow down the opposition’s agenda.
Thankfully, the Congressional Review Act removes the filibuster from being used to block regulations from being overturned. Instead, debate is limited to 10 hours, and then the resolution overturning the rule can be passed with only a majority vote.
However, a little-noticed provision in the statute allows for those 10 hours to be even further reduced—again, only with a majority vote. Assuming all Senate Republicans voted together, that means the Senate could pass resolutions disproving troves of Obama-era regulations, with minimal debate and only a simple majority vote.
In addition, the Senate has yet to take up the Midnight Rules Relief Act, which passed the House with bipartisan support on Jan. 4, 2017. This legislation would allow the House to batch up several of the Obama administration’s “midnight regulations” to be repealed in one resolution.
If passed and signed into law, the House would be able to speed up the process exponentially.
The House has already shown it is willing to do its part. It is simply waiting on the Senate to take action.
For a Congress looking to undo the damaging regulatory legacy of President Barack Obama, the Congressional Review Act is a gift. It just needs to be used. (For more from the author of “Dismantling Obama Regulations Will Require Resolve in the Senate” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/US_Congress_02-4.jpg15362048Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-02-17 21:29:212017-02-17 21:29:21Dismantling Obama Regulations Will Require Resolve in the Senate
The U.S. House of Representatives sent a loud and resounding rebuke this week to a last-minute Obama abortion rule that forced states to fund Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers.
H.J. Res. 43, a congressional resolution “[p]roviding for congressional disapproval” of a rule dealing with funding of abortion providers under Title X passed in the lower chamber by a vote of 229-188. It would overturn an 11th-hour Obama rule that created a major roadblock for GOP promises to strip Planned Parenthood of taxpayer dollars.
The lame-duck policy issued in mid-December equated to a “parting gift” to the abortion industry and “was in keeping with his Administration’s actions over the last eight years,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List.
“Planned Parenthood which, according to their latest annual report, performed 323,999 abortions in a single year, does not need or deserve taxpayer dollars,” Dannenfelser added. “Obama’s legacy of forcing Americans to finance the abortion industry is being steadily dismantled by our new pro-life President and the pro-life Congress.”
Under the pro-abortion extortion policy, every state receiving Title X funding is subject to losing those monies if their legislatures dared redirect public funds away from abortion clinics in any form or fashion.
“It’s scandalous for taxpayers to fund a private organization that performs a procedure regarded as murder by half the country.” wrote Conservative Review senior editor Daniel Horowitz of the rule in December.
“Even those who call themselves ‘pro-choice’ should at least respect the moral issues involved to the point that the taxpayers shouldn’t have to fund it … To now take this immorality a step further and block individual states from cutting off state funding is beneath contempt.”
According to recent statistics, Planned Parenthood shows that it and its affiliates receive over half a billion taxpayer dollars annually, while providing over 300,000 abortions and spending tens of millions on pro-abortion political causes.
Meanwhile, public funding of abortion at the federal level remains up in the air, as the Republican Congress — elected on an extremely pro-life platform — gears up for a budget fight. Despite the promises, congressional conservatives are concerned that it might not happen anytime soon.
“We’re also hearing that the defund Planned Parenthood language may not stay in” the upcoming budget bill, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio (A, 96%) recently told CNN. A congressional aide also told the outlet that, as legislators work out the details of the spending package, such language “would be one of the first things to go.” (For more from the author of “Obama’s Last-Minute Abortion Extortion Is on the Congressional Chopping Block” please click HERE)
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Over the past two weeks, we’ve gotten a taste of the social transformation without representation that is confronting us at every turn. Conservatives can fight to win a bitter election — resulting in control all three branches of the federal government and an overwhelming footprint in state governments — yet it is meaningless.
The unelected bureaucrats are continuing to promote Obama’s policies, and the unelected courts are destroying our Constitution beyond what previous generations of Americans could have ever feared in their worst nightmares. Blue states are allowed to violate the Constitution with impunity while red states have been denuded of their right to self-govern in accordance with the Constitution and federal law.
The courts are ravaging this country and contorting the very foundation of its existence as a sovereign and free nation. The Bastards on the BenchTM are bastardizing the First and 14th Amendments to mean the exact opposite of their intent.
Sharia-adherent Islamists in Somalia and Iraq have been granted an affirmative religious liberty right to immigrate, yet Americans have no right to run their own business and property in accordance with their Christian or Jewish beliefs, deeply rooted in our founding.
Our founding monuments are uprooted by the courts under the guise of not establishing a state religion, yet the courts are coercing individuals to service the sexual identity movement against their conscience — the very essence of what the Establishment Clause sought to prevent.
Red states are being prevented from protecting their sovereignty from illegal immigration, their franchise from the disenfranchising corruption of voter fraud — all under the corrupted misinterpretation of the 14th Amendment — yet blue states are allowed to violate the property, religious, and civil rights of business owners by forcing them to engage in involuntary servitude for something that even Obama opposed until the end of his first term as president.
The case with Baronelle Stutzman in Washington is the one legitimate manifestation of a violation to both the 14th and First Amendments (the entire preamble of the Declaration), yet this is one state injustice the federal government allows to stand.
Blue states are allowed to nullify federal immigration law, harbor illegal aliens, and demand Sharia refugees, yet Arizona is forced to give driver’s licenses to illegal aliens amnestied by someone who is no longer president.
The cultural Marxists have successfully launched a decapitation strike against our founding. Our rights no longer come from God; they come from the courts. State and federal respective powers no longer stem from the Constitution; they stem from the courts. Hence, the courts are able to turn those rights and powers diametrically opposed to their self-evident truths. We are caught between the rock and hard place of the Rainbow Jihad and the Islamic jihad.
The cultural Marxists don’t merely win political battles; they enshrine their ethos into the most immutable constitutional rights of our nation so that they no longer need to win politically to succeed. Their agenda lives on past their electoral losses.
And what about those political victories? We have a Republican Party that is every bit as socially liberal as Democrats. Yet they run as social conservatives so that they cannot be replaced during primaries, thereby serving as offensive linemen who transform into defensive lineman to thwart every play we make or block us from making the tackle against the plays of the Left.
Thanks to their utter insouciance to the cultural Marxist onslaught, the Left is able to win 50 years’ worth of culture battles overnight without firing a shot. And there is no outrage our counter movement. The social conservative political establishment is dead.
Yet we are not even asking for a socially conservative agenda; merely a socially libertarian agenda, one that does not downright criminalize religion, abrogate property rights, and banish our heritage from the public and even private square. Every Republican with a lever of power is to the left of where Democrats were on these issues before Obama took office.
During the ‘90s — and even during the Bush years — Republicans successfully passed (with overwhelming bipartisan support) immigration enforcement statutes with provisions stripping the courts of jurisdiction. Now, even conservatives won’t raise a red flag as the courts violate those very statutes.
When the courts assaulted life, the Pledge of Allegiance, and the Ten Commandments, the House held hearings on judicial reform and passed bills kicking the courts out of those issues (failed in the Senate). Yet the entire GOP establishment — and indeed almost the entire conservative movement — has stood idly by while the courts have redefined marriage, criminalized our founding religious values, and erased our national sovereignty.
And it’s not like Republicans are any more conservative on fiscal issues either. Obamacare has destroyed the job market, nationalized one-sixth of our economy in the worst mix of venture socialism and a zombie “private” sector, and has ensured that no choice, competition, and innovation could ever emerge in the most important part of our economy — all leaving American families unable to afford basic needs without unsustainable government subsidies. Yet, not a single powerful Republican can even articulate a vision for free markets and repeal this corrupt program, except for Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Mike Lee, and a handful of Freedom Caucus House members. Indeed, economic Marxism is the logical outcome of a party and a “movement” that is now at peace with cultural Marxism.
We keep waiting for the inflection point to come — when our time will come to take back our government. Many voters thought the election of President Trump was that moment. But if conservatives don’t begin to break out of the existing paradigm, look beyond the stale and failed institutions on the Right, and think beyond the existing intellectual ghetto of Republican politicos, we will continue the social and fiscal death spiral to the pits of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Sure, this sounds very gloomy, but I did not dedicate my life to fighting for our values so that we can despair, rather so we can find solutions. And the first step to finding a solution is being brutally honest about the severity of the problem.
All is not lost just because of a rough first month. But to succeed over the next four years and beyond, we need to build a new movement dedicated to confronting today’s challenges not just in theory, but in practice. We need a conservative media that is not just “anti-liberal media” and ironically follows the lead of their daily narratives (all Russia all the time) while Rome burns.
We need to chart a new path by harnessing timeless values and putting them into practice. We need to be prepared for these inflection moments and leverage points to strike with full force for our just values the same way the Left never lets a genuine crisis go to waste in pursuit of their immoral, illogical, and unlawful agenda. We need to get donors to stop funding failed causes that at best waste money and at worst undermine their stated causes, particularly on civilization issues. We need to build the case for long-term systemic reforms to the entire practice of our prevailing (unlawful) system of governance, and we must champion the Convention of the States to create momentum outside of Washington for change within the capitol.
Every generation has its challenges and is called upon to fight for what is just. Ours is unique in that the challenges strike to the core of the most self-evident truths of nature and the most basic common sense values of men and nations. Whether we succeed or not is up to us and our faith in God. But one thing is certain: If we fail to break out of the existing paradigm and look beyond the R vs. D binary race to the bottom or the lesser of two evil ideas, strategies, and leaders, we will never even rise to the challenge much less overcome it. (For more from the author of “This Is the Cultural Marxist Hellhole Our Country Has Become. What Now?” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/american-flag-1448031957k8m.jpg324615Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-02-17 21:08:322017-02-17 21:08:32This Is the Cultural Marxist Hellhole Our Country Has Become. What Now?
In a wide-ranging, and at times contentious, press conference lasting over an hour, President Donald Trump gave an update on his administration’s progress and answered questions from the media.
The news conference was called to announce the president’s selection of Alexander Acosta to lead the Labor Department, after the previous nominee Andrew Puzder withdrew his name from consideration Wednesday. But the topics addressed ranged from accomplishments made by the administration in the first four weeks, to the resignation of national security adviser Michael Flynn, and the dishonesty of the media.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/25602642832_4ae1e69452_b-4.jpg6831024Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-02-17 21:02:282017-02-17 21:02:28The Donald Strikes Back: 8 Must-See Moments From the Most Trump Press Conference Ever
