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2 Federal Judges Block New Trump Travel Ban

Federal judges in Hawaii and Maryland blocked President Trump’s “travel ban” executive order from taking effect as scheduled on Thursday, saying that the order discriminates against Muslims.

The rulings in Hawaii late Wednesday and in Maryland early Thursday excited civil liberties groups and advocates for immigrants and refugees, who complained that a temporary ban on travel from six predominantly Muslim countries violated the First Amendment. The Trump administration argued that the ban was intended to protect the United States from terrorism, as the countries temporarily banned have the largest population of jihadists.

In Greenbelt, Maryland, U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang — who was appointed by then-president Barack Obama — called Trump’s statements about barring Muslims from entering the United States “highly relevant.” The second executive order removed a preference for religious minorities from the affected countries, among other changes that the Justice Department argued would address the legal concerns surrounding the first ban, which was also blocked in court. (Read more from “2 Federal Judges Block New Trump Travel Ban” HERE)

Trump Says He Will Submit Evidence of Wiretapping to House Committee ‘Very Soon’

President Trump discussed his tweeted accusation that President Obama ordered “wires” at Trump Tower tapped during last year’s presidential campaign in an exclusive interview with Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Wednesday.

Trump told host Tucker Carlson that the administration “will be submitting things” to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence “very soon.” The president added that he “will be, perhaps speaking about this next week” and predicted that “you’re going to find some very interesting items coming to the forefront over the next 2 weeks.”

When asked by Carlson why he tweeted about the alleged phone tap before producing evidence, Trump said his definition of wiretapping “covers a lot of different things.”

“That really covers surveillance and many other things. Nobody ever talks about the fact that [the words ‘wires tapped’] was in quotes [in the tweet], but that’s a very important thing.”

Trump defended his ongoing use of social media while in office, saying that “maybe I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Twitter, because I get such a fake press, such a dishonest press. (Read more from “Trump Says He Will Submit Evidence of Wiretapping to House Committee ‘Very Soon'” HERE)

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Hawaii Sues Trump Admin for Discrimination … but Have They Checked the Mirror?

Nate Madden of Conservative Review has outlined the problems with the latest lawsuit filed by Hawaii against President Donald Trump’s revised immigration order temporarily suspending entry from six terrorist safe havens. (Arguments are being held today in federal court.) But watching the attorney general of Hawaii, Doug Chin, condemn President Donald Trump’s revised immigration order as “blatantly discriminatory” was quite ironic, given that Hawaii is the home of a state government that constantly engages in blatant racial and ethnic discrimination.

Contrary to Chin’s outrageous claim, Trump’s new order does not discriminate against anyone, whether based on race or religion. Although Chin accused the administration of issuing an order designed to divide people into “a superior race,” it is Hawaii that blatantly discriminates to divide Hawaiian residents and create a “superior race” of Hawaiians entitled to special loans, low cost housing, and other privileges.

The state government has a special “Office of Hawaiian Affairs” (OHA). As its own website says, the OHA awards scholarship money to “Native Hawaiians,” as well as loans to “start businesses, improve homes, consolidate debts, and continue their education.” It also gives out grants and leases out land at very special, low rates to “Native Hawaiians.” To qualify, you have to prove you are a “descendant of not less than one-half part of the blood of the races inhabiting the Hawaiian Islands previous to 1778” according to the Hawaiian Home Commission Act. As Peter Kirsanow, a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, says, this is no different than the “odious ‘one drop rule’ contained in the racial-segregation codes of the 19th and early 20th centuries.”

In a highly critical 2005 report on the proposed Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act, the Civil Rights Commission said that Hawaii “is in a league by itself” when it comes to officially sanctioned discriminatory conduct. Hawaii has some nerve claiming that the revised executive order “differentiates between people based on their … national origin.” That is something the Hawaiian government does every day — differentiate between people based on their origin and whether they can trace their bloodlines back to 1778.

Attorney General Doug Chin should put his own house in order before he starts accusing President Trump of discrimination. He would be better off suing his own state government to stop its flagrant discrimination and its division of Hawaiian residents into two separate classes, one of which is given special privileges not available to anyone else. (For more from the author of “Hawaii Sues Trump Admin for Discrimination … but Have They Checked the Mirror?” please click HERE)

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6 Unsettling Ways Trump’s Foreign Policy Is Headed Toward Disaster

As conservatives fight the efforts of their own party and president to promote Obamacare 2.0 here at home, there are some major problems with the direction in foreign policy of this Trump administration. We can dismiss all reports of liberal policies and leftist personnel emanating from this administration as “fake news” — or we can demand a course correction before this becomes the third term of Obama’s State Department. The choice is ours.

The final dramatic act of the Obama administration was to instigate a public feud between former Secretary of State John Kerry and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over where Jews can live in their own homeland. As conservatives, we swore to ourselves that once Trump assumed power we’d be done with the illogical and immoral Oslo Accords, along with its maniacal idea of creating a new Arab terror state.

Trump himself also promised a new direction:

The reason this issue is important is not just because of our relationship with Israel ; it’s that the obsession with a Palestinian state and the recognition of the Palestinian Liberation Organization terrorists has served as the fulcrum of our entire Middle East policy for 24 years, preventing us from acting in our own self-interests.

The failure to understand the danger of the PLO is not just bad for Israel. It’s also dangerous for America because it demonstrates that our political elites don’t understand the Islamic threat and will continue the past mistakes of both the Clinton/Obama leftists and the establishment neo-conservatives who support the nation building agenda in the Arab world.

Well, that nightmare is now upon us.

During Trump’s second week in office, I took a lot of flak for criticizing the White House’s statement on Israel’s construction in the so-called settlements. Some conservatives felt that Trump’s statement was a breath of fresh air because, while he did rebuke the construction, he implied that building within the “settlement blocks” is OK.

Obviously, as I noted at the time, this statement is nonsense. Why are we getting involved in any of this Kerry-style dictating of terms? Weren’t we supposed to break from the entire Oslo Accords? Why should we legitimize any notion of a Palestinian state and how does that put America’s interests first? Weren’t we done with nation building in terror states among existing nations, much less trying to create a new one? I warned that absent a course correction, this policy would grow legs and irrevocably suck the president into the globalist swamp of the PLO cause.

It has. Consider the following troubling observations:

This week, Trump dispatched Jason Greenblatt, his top lawyer and envoy to the Middle East, to pressure Netanyahu into halting construction, even for a city designed to house displaced Israelis who were uprooted by a very painful evacuation. As the Times of Israel is reporting, Greenblatt is now obsessing over every last neighborhood with the maniacal precision of John Kerry to prevent Israel from building even within existing “settlements.” The pressure is reportedly so strong that Netanyahu has now held off on his plans to fully annex Ma’ale Adumim, the largest suburb of Jerusalem, which has always been a “consensus” area (even to those who buy into the premise of a Palestinian state). Greenblatt later met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (whose term of office expired eight years ago!) and treated him like a peace partner.

The inimitable Caroline Glick gives a riveting account of the sharp turn of the White House on Israel — embracing the PLO, inviting Abbas to the White House, and taking an active (almost obsessive) role in promoting a Palestinian state. It’s almost as if Trump has made it his life’s mission (or, son-in-law Jared Kushner’s mission) to ram through the “peace process” even more than Obama.

My colleague, Jordan Schachtel has already reported that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson appointed a Kerry acolyte as the Israel-Palestinian policy official in the State Department. Michael Ratney was Obama’s consul to Jerusalem who “oversaw grants to OneVoice, a leftist non-profit that President Obama allegedly used to try to unseat Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel’s 2015 election.” Ratney oversaw a program the Times of Israel said was “in effect setting up an armed Palestinian militia in the consulate.” Martin Indyk — Obama’s anti-Israel apologist — praised the appointment, tweeting that Ratney was a “valued member of Kerry’s peace team.”

Trump decided to keep Obama’s National Security Council Adviser, Yael Lempert, for Israel policy. She accompanied Greenblatt on his trip to Israel, where he graciously met with Abbas and pressured Netanyahu on settlements. Lempert was literally Obama’s point person in the White House orchestrating his war against Israel. This decision is Orwellian.

Talk about the fox guarding the hen house? Sahar Nowrouzzadeh, the Iran director for Obama’s National Security Council, has been given the portfolio over the Persian Gulf region on the policy planning staff at the State Department. This individual was an essential figure in pushing through the Iran deal and has ties to Tehran.

Defense Secretary James Mattis wanted to appoint Anne Patterson to the No. 3 position in the Pentagon. Patterson was Obama’s ambassador to Egypt, who had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and embodied John Kerry’s foreign policy. Although conservatives successfully prevented that from happening, Mattis’ motivations, along with a number of troubling statements on policy, reveal that he fundamentally doesn’t share a conservative worldview.

Folks, this is not “deep state” sabotage of Pres. Trump’s agenda. This is Trump sabotaging himself by allowing Jared in the White House and top officials in State to promote the very worst elements of the Clinton/Bush/Obama foreign policy. And it’s not just about Israel. Anyone who believes in creating a new terror state and partnering with PLO terrorists clearly does not understand the broader Islamic threat. This could lead us into nation-building in Syria and other insufferable Arab countries, a notion Trump explicitly rejected with his popular denunciation of the Iraq war.

There is nothing to “negotiate” and nobody with which we can “cut deals.” This is not a matter of convincing Carrier to keep its plant in Indiana. Some things don’t work with negotiations; Islamo-fascists elements are one good example.

What is so disappointing is that foreign policy is the one area where the president has wide latitude to change course without the cumbersome legislative process. Almost 60 days into the new administration, there is no major accomplishment that has gotten past Congress, including the much-promised FULL repeal of Obamacare. Again, foreign policy is the one area where Donald Trump can unilaterally make his mark.

However, absent a dramatic change of course, the pink unicorn of the PLO “peace process” will ensnare President Trump into untenable diplomatic quicksand. As Caroline Glick warns, “The PLO is the Siren that drowns U.S. administrations.” Trump must understand that if he is “serious about embracing the PLO and intends to have his top advisers devote themselves to Abbas and his henchmen,” he is setting himself up “to fail and be humiliated.”

Make no mistake: The “two-state solution” is the Obamacare of foreign policy. Failure to repeal it will be as catastrophic for foreign policy as Obamacare is for domestic policy. Except this time, we won’t be able to blame a parliamentarian. (For more from the author of “6 Unsettling Ways Trump’s Foreign Policy Is Headed Toward Disaster” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Meet the Reporter Who Received Donald Trump’s Tax Returns

David Cay Johnston is the reporter who received what appears to be the first two pages of Donald Trump’s 2005 tax returns and shared them on “The Rachel Maddow” show Tuesday night.

The editor and founder of dcreport.org, which crashed Tuesday night during the 9 p.m. hour, said he received Donald Trump’s tax returns from 2005 in the mail a few days ago. The return revealed that Trump paid $38 million in federal income taxes on a reported income of $150 million in 2005.

Johnston speculated that Trump might have been the person who mailed the figures to him.

“Donald has a long history of leaking material about himself when he thinks it’s in his interest,” Johnston said. “With Donald, you never know.” (Read more from “Meet the Reporter Who Received Donald Trump’s Tax Returns” HERE)

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How the Federal Reserve Is Setting up Trump for a Recession, a Housing Crisis and a Stock Market Crash

Most Americans do not understand this, but the truth is that the Federal Reserve has far more power over the U.S. economy than anyone else does, and that includes Donald Trump. Politicians tend to get the credit or the blame for how the economy is performing, but in reality it is an unelected, unaccountable panel of central bankers that is running the show, and until something is done about the Fed our long-term economic problems will never be fixed. For an extended analysis of this point, please see this article. In this piece, I am going to explain why the Federal Reserve is currently setting the stage for a recession, a new housing crisis and a stock market crash, and if those things happen unfortunately it will be Donald Trump that will primarily get the blame.

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve is expected to hike interest rates, and there is even the possibility that they will call for an acceleration of future rate hikes…

Economists generally believe the central bank’s median estimate will continue to call for three quarter-point rate increases both this year and in 2018. But there’s some risk that gets pushed to four as inflation nears the Fed’s annual 2% target and business confidence keeps juicing markets in anticipation of President Trump’s plan to cut taxes and regulations.

During the Obama years, the Federal Reserve pushed interest rates all the way to the floor, and this artificially boosted the economy. In a recent article, Gail Tverberg explained how this works…

With falling interest rates, monthly payments can be lower, even if prices of homes and cars rise. Thus, more people can afford homes and cars, and factories are less expensive to build. The whole economy is boosted by increased “demand” (really increased affordability) for high-priced goods, thanks to the lower monthly payments.

Asset prices, such as home prices and farm prices, can rise because the reduced interest rate for debt makes them more affordable to more buyers. Assets that people already own tend to inflate, making them feel richer. In fact, owners of assets such as homes can borrow part of the increased equity, giving them more spendable income for other things. This is part of what happened leading up to the financial crash of 2008.

But the opposite is also true.

When interest rates rise, borrowing money becomes more expensive and economic activity slows down.

For the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates right now is absolutely insane. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s most recent projection, GDP growth for the first quarter of 2017 is supposed to be an anemic 1.2 percent. Personally, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if we actually ended up with a negative number for the first quarter.

As Donald Trump has explained in detail, the U.S. economy is a complete mess right now, and we are teetering on the brink of a new recession.

So why in the world would the Fed raise rates unless they wanted to hurt Donald Trump?

Raising rates also threatens to bring on a new housing crisis. Interest rates were raised prior to the subprime mortgage meltdown in 2007 and 2008, and now we could see history repeat itself. When rates go higher, it becomes significantly more difficult for families to afford mortgage payments…

The rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage reached its all-time low in November 2012, at just 3.31%. As of this week, it was 4.21%, and by the end of 2018, it could go as high as 5.5%, forecasts Matthew Pointon, a property economist for Capital Economics.

He points out that for a homeowner with a $250,000 mortgage fixed at 3.8%, annual payments are $14,000. If that homeowner moved to a similarly-priced home but had a 5.5% rate, their annual payments would rise by $3,000 a year, to $17,000.

Of course stock investors do not like rising rates at all either. Stocks tend to rise in low rate environments such as we have had for the past several years, and they tend to fall in high rate environments.

And according to CNBC, a “coming stock market correction” could be just around the corner…

Investors are in for a rude awakening about a coming stock market correction — most just don’t know it yet. No one knows when the crash will come or what will cause it — and no one can. But what’s worse for most investors is they have no clue how much they stand to lose when it inevitably happens.

“If you look at the market historically, we have had, on average, a crash about every eight to 10 years, and essentially the average loss is about 42 percent,” said Kendrick Wakeman, CEO of financial technology and investment analytics firm FinMason.

If stocks start to fall, how low could they ultimately go?

One technical analyst that has a stunning record of predicting short-term stock market declines in recent years is saying that the Dow could potentially drop “by more than 6,000 points to 14,800″…

But if the technical stars collide, as one chartist predicts, the blue-chip gauge could soon plunge by more than 6,000 points to 14,800. That’s nearly 30% lower, based on Friday’s close.

Sandy Jadeja, chief market strategist at Master Trading Strategies, claims several predicted stock market crashes to his name — all of them called days, or even weeks, in advance. (He told CNBC viewers, for example, that the August 2015 “Flash Crash” was coming 18 days before it hit.) He’s also made prescient calls on gold and crude oil.

And he’s extremely concerned about what this year could bring for investors. “The timeline is rapidly approaching” for the next potential Dow meltdown, said Jadeja, who shares his techniques via workshops and seminars.

Most big stock market crashes tend to happen in the fall, and that is what I portray in my novel, but the truth is that they can literally happen at any time. If you have not seen my recent rant about how ridiculously overvalued stocks are at this moment in history, you can find it right here. Whether you want to call it a “crash”, a “correction”, or something else, the truth is that a major downturn is coming for stocks and the only question is when it will strike.

And when things start to get bad, most of the blame will be dumped on Trump, but it won’t primarily be his fault.

It was the Federal Reserve that created this massive financial bubble, and they will also be responsible for popping it. Hopefully we can get the American people to understand how these things really work so that accountability for what is coming can be placed where it belongs. (For more from the author of “How the Federal Reserve Is Setting up Trump for a Recession, a Housing Crisis and a Stock Market Crash” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Senate Judiciary Demands All Records on FBI Plan to Pay British Ex-Spy Who Made ‘Russia Dossier’ on Trump

Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to FBI Director James Comey demanding that his agency turn over all records of its reported plan to pay the British ex-spy — who compiled a salacious and unsubstantiated dossier on Donald Trump just prior to the election – to continue investigating the president.

The “Russia Dossier,” which claimed that Trump engaged in perverted sex acts in a Moscow hotel and allegedly was in collusion with the Russians, was published by the online site Buzzfeed. The disturbing allegations in the document were not substantiated. Famed author and Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward called the dossier a “garbage document.”

In his letter to FBI Director Comey, Chairman Grassley notes that the Washington Post “reported that the FBI reached an agreement a few weeks before the Presidential election to pay the author of the unsubstantiated dossier alleging a conspiracy between President Trump and the Russians, Christopher Steele, to continue investigating Mr. Trump.”

“The article claimed that the FBI was aware Mr. Steele was creating these memos as part of the work for an opposition research firm connected to Hillary Clinton,” said Grassley.

“The idea that the FBI and associates of the Clinton campaign would pay Mr. Steele to investigate the Republican nominee for President in the run-up to the election raises further questions about the FBI’s independence from politics, as well as the Obama administration’s use of law enforcement and intelligence agencies for political ends,” said Grassley. (Read more from “Senate Judiciary Demands All Records on FBI Plan to Pay British Ex-Spy Who Made ‘Russia Dossier’ on Trump” HERE)

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Watch: Popular Rapper ‘Shoots’ Trump in Music Video

Snoop Dogg stars in a new politically-charged music video that sees the rapper pull a gun on and “shoot” a parody clown version of President Donald Trump.

Visuals for “Lavender,” a song that first appeared on BADBADNOTGOOD and Kaytranada’s IV, show a clown-faced President “Ronald Klump” holding a press conference where he announces a plan to “deport all dogs.”

“The ban that this motherf*cker tried to put up; him winning the presidency,” Snoop says is what inspired the concept of that part of the video, Billboard reports.

The dog deportation plan spurs Snoop Dogg and a gang of armed men to ambush the parody President Trump. Snoop points a gun at Trump’s head and pulls the trigger. A giant “BANG” flag pops out.

Snoop says he’s not worried about what his critics might say of the controversial scene. (Read more from “Watch: Popular Rapper ‘Shoots’ Trump in Music Video” HERE)

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Judge: Obama ‘Went Outside Chain of Command,’ Used British Spy Agency to Surveil Trump

The Justice Department on Monday asked lawmakers for more time to gather evidence related to President Trump’s claim that former President Obama ordered wiretaps on Trump Tower’s phones during last year’s presidential campaign . . .

On “Fox & Friends” this morning, Judge Andrew Napolitano said that even if the Obama administration did spy on Trump, there may never be a way to prove it . . .

“Three intelligence sources have informed Fox News that President Obama went outside the chain of command,” Napolitano said. “He didn’t use the NSA, he didn’t use the CIA, he didn’t use the FBI, and he didn’t use the Department of Justice.”

Instead, Napolitano said, Obama used GCHQ, a British intelligence and security organization that has 24-7 access to the NSA database.

“There’s no American fingerprints on this,” Napolitano said. “What happened to the guy who ordered this? Resigned three days after Donald Trump was inaugurated.” (Read more from “Judge: Obama ‘Went Outside Chain of Command,’ Used British Spy Agency to Surveil Trump” HERE)

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Listen: President Trump Is Not Safe in the White House

In this episode, I address the disastrous security failure at the White House this weekend and what can be done to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

I also discuss the Trump budget and the reasons liberals, and interest groups, are fighting it.

(For more from the author of “Listen: President Trump Is Not Safe in the White House” please click HERE)

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