Why Trump Will Win the Shutdown

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By The Federalist. Compromise. It’s a word President Trump used several times yesterday. He is open to compromise. In this case, that means something short of the $5 billion he wants for a border wall. He’s open to taking less, perhaps in exchange for not applying the law to younger illegal immigrants. This is clearly the easiest way out of the current debacle. But it is something the Democrats, led by “No Wall” Nancy Pelosi, have said they will never support.

This is a problem. Democrats have backed themselves up against a, well, a wall. They have created a situation in which if they give even one dollar to Trump to build a wall, or fence, steel barrier, or whatever, they have lost the political fight. Pelosi, the great speaker of the House who gets things done, has left herself no leverage to get anything done. She could ask for almost anything in exchange for wall funding, but instead, she won’t budge.

Trump is channeling his inner Michael Corleone and telling Democrats that his offer is this: nothing, not even the price of the border wall, which he would appreciate Pelosi appropriating. So here we are.

We all like to knock and mock Trump’s braggadocio claims that he is the best negotiator ever. But in this case, he really has outflanked his opponents. Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have painted themselves into a corner. They have said, “No funding for a wall.” They say this despite the fact that they have supported barrier funding in the past. So in essence they have given themselves no fallback position. . . .

A president always has an advantage in a government shutdown. The executive branch speaks with a single voice, while Congress is divided between parties. Trump is clearly pointing to and offering a solution. The House Democrats aren’t. And their intransigence is highlighted by the fact that Republican members of Congress are calling them out. (Read more from “Why Trump Will Win the Shutdown” HERE)

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Trump Urged to Temporarily Reopen Government

By BBC. A senior US Republican has urged President Donald Trump to temporarily reopen parts of the government shut down for more than three weeks.

Senator Lindsey Graham, who is close to Mr Trump, said a limited re-opening of a few weeks would allow talks to resume between Republicans and Democrats.

The partial government shutdown has now become the longest in US history.

It has left hundreds of thousands of public workers unpaid and government offices closed.

President Trump is refusing to approve a budget unless it includes $5.7bn (£4.5bn) for a wall along the Mexican border – a key campaign pledge, which the president said that Mexico would pay for. (Read more from “Trump Urged to Temporarily Reopen Government” HERE)

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Cali Wheels out Plan for New Statewide Tax on Drinking Water

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California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) wants to tax the state’s drinking water, a move he says will allow poor people access to safe and affordable water. . .

Newsom’s proposed 2019-20 budget includes the creation a “safe and affordable drinking water fund,” to “enable the State Water Resources Control Board to assist communities, particularly disadvantaged communities, in paying for the short-term and long-term costs of obtaining access to safe and affordable drinking water,” SFgate.com reported.

The Association of California Water Agencies, which represents more than 400 water suppliers across the state, swiftly rebuked the idea of a water tax. In a statement, the association said it would be “highly problematic” and not necessary due to what it calls the state’s ample budget surplus.

“The vast majority of the state’s residents have access to safe drinking water, but a small percentage of the population does not,” the association stated. “This unacceptable reality is a social issue for the State of California. ACWA believes that making access to safe drinking water for all Californians should be a top priority for the State. However, a statewide water tax is highly problematic and is not necessary when alternative funding solutions exist and the state has a huge budget surplus.”

Orange County Republican Travis Allen, who ran for governor in 2018, also blasted the idea.

(Read more from “Cali Wheels out Plan for New Statewide Tax on Drinking Water” HERE)

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OUTRAGE: FBI Began Investigation Into Whether Trump Was a Russian Agent After He Fired Comey

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By AP. Law enforcement officials became so concerned by President Donald Trump’s behavior in the days after he fired FBI Director James Comey that they began investigating whether he had been working for Russia against U.S. interests, The New York Times reported Friday. . .

The inquiry forced counterintelligence investigators to evaluate whether Trump was a potential threat to national security, and they also sought to determine whether Trump was deliberately working for Russia or had unintentionally been influenced by Moscow.

The Times reports that FBI agents and some top officials became suspicious of Trump’s ties to Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign but didn’t launch an investigation at that time because they weren’t sure how to approach such a sensitive and important probe, according to the sources. But Trump’s behavior in the days around Comey’s May 2017 firing, specifically two instances in which he seemed to tie Comey’s ousting to the Russia investigation, helped trigger the counterintelligence part of the investigation, according to the Times’ sources. (Read more from “Outrage: FBI Began Investigation Into Whether Trump Was a Russian Agent After He Fired Comey” HERE)

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F.B.I. Opened Inquiry Into Whether Trump Was Secretly Working on Behalf of Russia

By The New York Times. In the days after President Trump fired James B. Comey as F.B.I. director, law enforcement officials became so concerned by the president’s behavior that they began investigating whether he had been working on behalf of Russia against American interests, according to former law enforcement officials and others familiar with the investigation.

The inquiry carried explosive implications. Counterintelligence investigators had to consider whether the president’s own actions constituted a possible threat to national security. Agents also sought to determine whether Mr. Trump was knowingly working for Russia or had unwittingly fallen under Moscow’s influence.

The investigation the F.B.I. opened into Mr. Trump also had a criminal aspect, which has long been publicly known: whether his firing of Mr. Comey constituted obstruction of justice.

Agents and senior F.B.I. officials had grown suspicious of Mr. Trump’s ties to Russia during the 2016 campaign but held off on opening an investigation into him, the people said, in part because they were uncertain how to proceed with an inquiry of such sensitivity and magnitude. But the president’s activities before and after Mr. Comey’s firing in May 2017, particularly two instances in which Mr. Trump tied the Comey dismissal to the Russia investigation, helped prompt the counterintelligence aspect of the inquiry, the people said. (Read more from “F.B.I. Opened Inquiry Into Whether Trump Was Secretly Working on Behalf of Russia” HERE)

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Tucker: Criticizing FBI Could Get You Investigated

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Trump Trolls Acosta to His Face. It’s Hilarious.

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Back in the Oval Office on Friday after his trip to the Southern border, President Trump was confronted by a number of reporters, one of whom just happened to be CNN’s Chief White House correspondent James Acosta, who inadvertently did Trump a favor when he also traveled to the border, posed next to the wall, and noted there “were no migrants trying to rush for this fence,” adding “matter of fact, it’s pretty tranquil down here.”

Trump trolled Acosta to his face, asserting, “Good job yesterday. I appreciate your salesmanship. I appreciate your salesmanship. … Some people are dumb.”

On Thursday, Acosta had posed at the wall from McAllen, Texas, reassuring Americans that there wasn’t “anything resembling a national emergency situation.”

(Read more from “Trump Trolls Acosta to His Face. It’s Hilarious.” HERE)

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After 18 Employees Skip Work to Attend Immigration Rally, They Receive Brutal Lesson From Their Boss

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By The Blaze. After 18 employees at a Tennessee-based painting company skipped work this week to attend a pro-immigration rally, they received a brutal lesson about right-to-work laws they won’t soon forget.

According to KTNV-TV, 18 employees at Nashville’s Bradley Coatings were fired after they informed their supervisors on Wednesday they were missing work the next day to attend the nationwide protest, “A Day Without Immigrants.”

The protest sought to show the significance that immigrants play in the U.S. workforce while protesting President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.

However, on Thursday when the employees didn’t show up to work, they learned that they had been terminated. . .

He added, “I would tell [my boss] he was unfair, after working for them for so many years, giving him our best. They could not understand that it was just one day. We were going to make up that day on a Sunday, but they didn’t understand that, and it was not the best way. They didn’t give us an opportunity and just told us we were fired.” (Read more from “After 18 Employees Skip Work to Attend Immigration Rally, They Receive Brutal Lesson From Their Boss” HERE)

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Company Fires 18 Employees After They Participated in ‘a Day Without Immigrants’

By KTNV. A total of 18 people were fired from a Tennessee business after joining the nation-wide protest “A Day Without Immigrants.”

The 18 employees at Bradley Coatings, Incorporated in Nolensville, Tennessee told their supervisors on Wednesday they’d be taking part in the nationwide movement. Then, on Thursday, they were told they no longer had jobs.

“We are the team leaders directly under the supervisors and they informed us last night that we could not go back to work and the boss said we were fired,” one employee said. . .

“Tennessee is an employment-at-will state which basically means an employer can end your employment at any time without reason or cause. Of course there are a lot of different stipulations, civil rights issues that could stop them from doing that,” Department of Labor and Workforce Development spokesman, Chris Cannon said. (Read more from “Company Fires 18 Employees After They Participated in ‘a Day Without Immigrants'” HERE)

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Democratic Rep. Says She Knows the Real Secret Goal That Trump Wants, and It’s Not a Border Wall

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Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal (Wash.) told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes that a deal could not be made with President Donald Trump to reopen the government because his real secret goal was to clear the U.S. of all immigrants and people of color.

Jayapal enthusiastically agreed to Hayes’ claims about Trump’s true goal for the border wall while referring to a statement made about “white supremacy” by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa).

“Donald Trump is at the border,” said Hayes, “and shutting down the government over this entirely ridiculous enterprise because he almost certainly correctly thinks his political fortunes are dependent on the Steve Kings of the world and the people who love him.”

“People animated by bigotry and fear,” Hayes continued, “people who have come to view their identity as existentially under threat from desperate Honduran moms in flip flops. Those people cannot be appeased, because what they want is not policy, what they want is an ethnically pure America, and thats why this impasse can’t be solved in any normal deal-making terms.” . . .

“He actually could have gotten funding a couple of years ago,” she explained, “or a year ago, for a wall, it was part of a deal that was proposed, not all of us agreed with that deal, but it was proposed to him and he turned it down because his ultimate goal, as you said, to make America pure in the sense of not having immigrants, not having folks of color here, and shutting down every form of legal immigration.”

(Read more from “Democratic Rep. Says She Knows the Real Secret Goal That Trump Wants, and It’s Not a Border Wall” HERE)

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Ocasio-Cortez Campaign Just Slammed With a Fine

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Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s 2018 congressional campaign was fined by the state of New York for failing to provide the proper workers’ compensation coverage to campaign staffers.

“The employer did not have the required workers’ compensation coverage from March 31, 2018 to April 30, 2018,” Melissa Stewart, the spokeswoman for New York’s Workers Compensation Board, told The New York Daily News. “[It] was issued a final penalty of $1,500, which was paid.” . . .

The self-proclaimed Democratic socialist has been portraying herself as a champion for workers’ rights. During her campaign, she advocated for a $15-an-hour minimum wage and a Federal Jobs Guarantee because according to her website, “anyone who is willing and able to work shouldn’t struggle to find employment.” . . .

“Ocasio-Cortez’s desired ‘living wage’ of $15 an hour has been a living hell for many small business owners in New York, who’ve been unable to offset the cost through higher prices,” Employment Policies Institute Managing Director Michael Saltsman said in response to the closure. “It’s fine to mourn the impending closure of your former employer — it’s better to understand the misguided minimum-wage mandates that contributed to that closure.” (Read more from “Ocasio-Cortez Campaign Just Slammed With a Fine” HERE)

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Is Michelle Obama Plotting to Take the White House in 2020?

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By Townhall. Recently, the mainstream media gleefully reported something that many at first dismissed, quickly passing it off as nothing more than a transient morsel of cultural trivia, if not fake news.

Allegedly, a recent Gallup Poll not only bestowed upon Michelle Obama the honor of being The Most Admired Woman in 2018,but also thereby declared her to be more popular than Hillary and Oprah!

I would suggest this news might represent an ominous bellwether of measurable import to all of us who are hoping to see President Trump elected to a second term.

In politics, 2020 is but a blink away, and who will be anointed by the Democrats to challenge President Trump is being decided right now. And I promise you, they are considering Michelle Obama a possibility.

Back in May 2016, I published an op-ed entitled: Overlooking the Obvious, if Hillary is Indicted? In that editorial, I attempted to alert people in the late spring of that election year to the possibility that —in the event Hillary Clinton was indicted for the felonies she committed in connection with her infamous private email server— Michelle Obama stood an excellent chance of becoming the candidate who would be chosen by the DNC to replace Hillary at their National Convention in July. (Read more from “Is Michelle Obama Plotting to Take the White House in 2020?” HERE)

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Michelle Obama wins America’s ‘Most Admired Woman’ in Gallup poll

By CNBC. Former U.S. first lady Michelle Obama has been named America’s “Most Admired Woman” in 2018, ending Hillary Clinton’s 17-year winning run.

The lawyer, author, and activist won the 2018 poll convincingly, securing 15 percent of the mentions among the 1,025 of people surveyed. . .

Michelle Obama 15

Oprah Winfrey 5

Hillary Clinton 4

(Read more from “Michelle Obama wins America’s ‘Most Admired Woman’ in Gallup poll” HERE)

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Remember When Starbucks Caved and Opened Their Bathrooms to Non-Customers? Here’s How That Worked Out.

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There are so many contrived outrages in a given week, let alone a year, that it can be hard to recall any individual instance of outrage after it has already passed. But the infamous Starbucks bathroom outrage was so phony, so absurd, and so disconnected from anything resembling logic or reason, that it deserves to be remembered.

In case you need a refresher course: a Starbucks manager at a location in Philadelphia came under heavy fire last spring after refusing restroom privileges to two non-customers. The men, who happened to be black, asked to use the restroom but were informed that only paying customers were granted access to the facilities. This was not a policy she invented on her own. At the time, many Starbucks locations enforced this rule, just as many other restaurants and stores enforce similar rules. . .

Fast forward a few months. Certain Starbucks locations, less than a year after announcing this enlightened new restroom philosophy, now must install special disposal boxes for used heroin needles. They’ll also be removing regular trashcans from some bathrooms after employees expressed concern about getting pricked with needles while changing out the bags. There have been reports of condoms, alcohol bottles, and blood stains on the floors. Indeed, this bathroom free-for-all has made bathrooms ironically less accessible as some Starbucks restaurants have had to close their stalls for extended periods due to, says the New York Post, “prolonged cleaning.”

It may be fairly pointed out that Starbucks probably had many of these problems even before the new policy. Yes, and that’s exactly the point. That’s why the policy existed in the first place. A spacious, private, single-stall bathroom at a Starbucks in an urban area is an attractive place for drug addicts, drunks, vagrants, and other assorted characters. Most businesses are not interested in becoming de facto homeless shelters or halfway homes. Historically, that’s why they reserve their bathrooms and their tables for people who are actually interested in purchasing their products. It’s not a fail-proof plan, but it’s relatively effective. There’s a reason why these needle disposal boxes only became necessary after they changed the policy. (Read more from “Remember When Starbucks Caved and Opened Their Bathrooms to Non-Customers? Here’s How That Worked Out.” HERE)

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WATCH: Trump Turns Question Around on Reporter Who Can’t Answer It

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President Donald Trump turned a question around on a “one-sided” reporter on Wednesday in the Oval Office, which left the reporter fumbling for words and unable to answer the question.

ABC News White House correspondent Jonathan Karl pressed Trump about signing bills so government workers who are being furloughed could be paid. . .

“I mean, I watch your one-sided reporting,” Trump continued. “Do you think I should do that? Hey Jon, no, seriously, Jon: Do you think I should just sign?” . . .

“I’m asking you: Would you do that if you were in my position?” Trump said. “Because if you would do that, you should never be in this position. Because you’d never get anything done.”

(Read more from “WATCH: Trump Turns Question Around on Reporter Who Can’t Answer It” HERE)

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