The Serious Side - part 6

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5996747/Many-immigrant-parents-never-kids-separated-border.html

[size=34]Many immigrant parents 'are never going to see their kids again' after being separated at the southern U.S. border, former ICE official says[/size]

• Former ICE official says many immigrant parents may never see their kids again
  
  
• Some children will go into the U.S. foster care system and may be adopted out
  
  
•  Trump administration faces a court-ordered deadline today to reunify families
  
  
•  At least 462 parents have been deported without their children after separation
  
  

By VALERIE BAUMAN SOCIAL AFFAIRS REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 15:20 EDT, 26 July 2018 | UPDATED: 17:21 EDT, 26 July 2018

    


It's likely that many of the immigrant parents who have been separated from their children at the southern U.S. border will never see their kids ever again, a former senior official at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said today.
'There's a very high likelihood that a lot of these parents are never going to see their kids again and their kids are going to stay in the U.S.,' John Sandweg, former acting director of ICE, told CNN Thursday.
The news comes as the Trump administration is poised to miss a court-ordered deadline to reunify all families who have been divided by a zero-tolerance policy that the president reversed course on last month.


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John Sandweg, former acting director of ICE, tells CNN on Thursday that many of the parents who have been separated from their children will never see them again
Officials from ICE and the Office of Refugee Resettlement did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

'If they have a relative in the U.S., there's a chance that that relative will be appointed their legal guardian,' Sandweg said. 'But many of the other kids are actually going to go into the foster care system. They could become wards of the state, be subject to adoption.'
He said that there is no way that parents could have anticipated the division of their families.
'These families thought that there was very little risk that they would be separated from their children,' Sandweg said. 'They thought there was a risk for sure that they would be deported back to their home country, but they thought they were going to be deported as a family. The idea that they could be permanently separated from their children never crossed their minds.'


Another former U.S. immigration official agreed on Thursday that reuniting families that have had a parent deported would be impossible in many cases – unless the government is willing to commit resources to working with their home countries to locate the parent.
'That's just true as a matter of arithmetic,' said Leon Fresco, former deputy attorney general in charge of the Office of Immigration under President Obama, in an interview with DailyMail.com. 
'I don't know how many of the people who have been removed won't see their children again, but the problem is once the person is removed you lose accountability and track of that person,' Fresco added. 


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Migrant parents, all of whom were separated from their children by U.S Customs and Border Patrol, arrive at the Annunciation House migrant shelter in El Paso, Texas in June 2018
Many parents were misled or coerced into agreeing to deportation without their children, according to court documents filed by the American Civil Liberties Union this week. 
According to most recent numbers, at least 463 parents have been deported from the country without their children, said Michelle Brané, director of Migrant Rights & Justice during a news conference Thursday.
'We have no idea what choices those 463 parents made and what information they were given and whether they had any choice,' Brané said. 'A lot of people were given misinformation before they signed documents.'
It also remains unclear how many children were left alone after their parents were deported.
Even after being reunited, many of the children will be traumatized and may blame their parents for the weeks and months of separation, Brané said.
'We saw children who were afraid to leave their parents' side for even a moment,' she said. 


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A view of inside U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) detention facility shows children at Rio Grande Valley Centralized Processing Center in Rio Grande City, 

I have an awful feeling that this is being done deliberately to deter people from coming to the US - but it smacks of totalitarianism............

PAN - Whatever horrible feelings you have about this, multiply them by ten and you still won't close to how evil this administration is. Is this deliberate? In practice? Possibly. There were probably some people trying to do the right thing. As a policy? Definitely.

There are pundits that say Trump is only a symptom of a pre-existing, larger disease. Well, when you have a disease you get rid of the symptoms as part of the cure. It's tie we got rid of Trump. If the mid-terms don't do it.....

I've no idea how the ICE system has worked when children were separated from their parents, but if there was just a bit of bureaucracy, it would be no problem to know which child from which family was taken to which child care / foster family in which city in which state. I mean, there were flights booked, people get money to foster these kids. They can't not know the kids' names, that's incomprehensible IMO.

And have they ever thought there might be a slight chance that there are parents in impasse thinking: "Okay, we all will be dying here. So if we make it to the border and our children will be taken away, they are at least in the States and have a future. And if I explain it to them, they might understand it."

By the way: Did anyone notice that the Daily Mail said in the headline: 'Many immigrant parents 'are never going to see their kids again...'', the sub-headline said: 'Former ICE official says many immigrant children may never see their kids again", and the text using direct speech said (quote): "There's a very high likelihood that a lot of these parents are never going to see their kids again and their kids are going to stay in the U.S."
I'm no mother tongue, but these three sentences do have different meanings for me and show different chances of families being reunited.

I think there were those who did the right things ,took names made sure they kept records. But, sadly I'm sure there are those who didn't care and did what ever to get the job done. I for one feel that a few people who work for ICE feel the way Trump does so these kid's and their parent's didn't natter, They shouldn't be here so let's punish them.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5997263/Pumped-Trump-teases-unthinkable-GDP-numbers-freewheeling-trade-speech-steelworkers.html

[size=34]Pumped-up Trump teases 'unthinkable' GDP numbers in freewheeling trade speech to steelworkers where he claims he won the women's vote and there's 'a dictator or two' in NATO[/size]

• The president said Friday's GDP numbers will be 'terrific' as economists agree the numbers could be as high as 4.2
  
  
• But, they caution, it's likely a one-time thing caused by countries massively importing U.S. goods to beat Trump's tariff hikes 
  
  
• Trump also claimed he won the women's vote in 2016 (he won white women) 
  
  
• He touted his deal-making power at NATO: 'These are kings, queens, presidents, prime ministers, and a dictator or two' 
  
  
• And he falsely bragged the media cover him much more than they covered President Barack Obama or President George W. Bush 
  
  

By EMILY GOODIN, U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER and DAVID MARTOSKO FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 18:08 EDT, 26 July 2018 | UPDATED: 18:58 EDT, 26 July 2018

    




President Donald Trump is predicting Friday's GDP numbers will be 'terrific' in a freewheeling, campaign style speech that saw him brag about winning the women's vote, tout his deal-making power with NATO, and criticize one of his favorite enemies - the press.
U.S. economists do predict a huge number when the government releases data on Friday about how fast the economy grew from April to June.
Trump said at his rally in Granite City, Ill., that 'I don't know what they are but I think they'll be terrific.'


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President Trump gave a freewheeling campaign-style speech to steel workers in Illinois


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He advised the crowd to watch for Friday's GDP numbers: 'These are unthinkable numbers'


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Steel workers filled the warehouse where Trump spoke

He told a cheering crowd of steel workers: 'Great things have happened. So whatever those numbers are, watch for them. Somebody predicted today 5.3. I don't think that's going to happen. 5.3. If it has the 4 in front of it, we're happy.' 
'These are unthinkable numbers,' he bragged.
The president was touring manufacturing plants in Iowa and Illinois on a tour to brag about how well the economy is doing under his watch.
Economists believe the GDP number on Friday could be as high as 4.2, The Washington Post reported, which is double the 2 percent growth in the first quarter. 
But, they caution, this kind of growth is likely a one-time thing and unsustainable.
And Trump was likely the cause of the spike but not in the way the president would probably like to think.
Experts say the high number will be because of the unusually large increase in exports this spring that probably came about because other countries were buying U.S. goods before Trump's tariff raises kicked in. 
The strong number is not unprecedented.
During President Barack Obama's administration the GDP growth rate topped 4 percent for several quarters and hit 5.2 percent in the third quarter of 2014. 
White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow also predicted on Thursday that the GDP numbers will live up to their hype.
'You're going to get a very good economic growth number tomorrow. Big,' Kudlow told the Fox Business Network.
Trump also boasted Thursday about unemployment numbers that he said have set new records for African-Americans, Asian-Americans and Hispanics.


While jokingly apologizing for a women's unemployment rate that is 'only' at a 65-year low water mark, he repeated a gaffe from a campaign-style rally four months ago.
'I did win that women's vote, didn't I?' Trump claimed.
'Remember, they said, 'Why would women vote for Trump?' Well, I don't know, but I got more than she did! That's pretty good.'
In actuality, more women voted for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who bested the president in that category by a 54-41 margin.
Trump did, however, win a clear majority among white women.
Just 25 per cent of Hispanic women chose him over Clinton, and black women gave him a poor showing with just 4 per cent.
Even among white women, Trump's result was worse than other Republicans' in the previous three presidential elections.
The White House planned Trump's Iowa and Illinois swing as an opportunity for him to hammer home his slash-and-burn trade policy's long-term impacts on the U.S. manufacturing sector.


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The White House planned Trump's Iowa and Illinois swing as an opportunity for him to hammer home his slash-and-burn trade policies


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Ivanka Trump joined her father on his tour on Thursday where she thanked steel workers


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The crowd cheered for Trump at several points during his remarks
 But the president also got in a few digs at critics who have focused on his obsession with forcing NATO allies to spend more money on the alliance's collective military defense.
He said Jens Stoltenberg, a Norwegian politician who has been NATO's secretary general since 2014, was his 'biggest fan' and confided that Trump's international pressure alone has driven up military spending among the 28 non-U.S. member countries.
'But the press said I treated them badly, I treated them with disrespect,' Trump complained Thursday, bemoaning a media consensus that he was too ham-fisted in his dealings with his overseas counterparts.
'These are kings, queens, presidents, prime ministers, and a dictator or two,' he said, boasting that he could play at their level while declaring that at least one of NATO's leaders is a despot.
'They were the ones that actually were able to pay the easiest,' he added, in a quip that disappeared into the rafters of a cavernous steel coil warehouse in Granite City, Illinois. 
[size=18]T[/size]





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Trump touted his deal-making power at NATO: 'These are kings, queens, presidents, prime ministers, and a dictator or two'


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President Trump also criticized the media coverage of his administration
The president also tackled one of his favorite bete noires in his remarks: the media.
Trump falsely claimed the press follows him around unlike they've followed around previous presidents.
'Look at all those cameras. All of those cameras. Every stop, I got all of these cameras. This never happened to Obama. This never happened to [President George W.] Bush. This didn't happen. They just follow,' he said.
The media covered Obama's and Bush's speeches live on cable news and extensively in print and online the same way they cover Trump's. 
He did chastise the media for analyzing every word he said - which also happened to other presidents.
'Look at the bad press I'm getting,' he complained at one point in his remarks. 
'They analyze every word. They say 'Did he say that? Could it have been? Did he say something positive about Russia? I think he loves Russia,'' he said. 'These people analyze every word and follow us. You know what? The good news is, we can get the word out. We can get the word out.'
Trump isn't the only president to complain about the press. Obama often complained the media was too focused on the horse race aspect - who's winning and who's losing - rather than policy.
The president bragged the crowd was on their feet the whole time he spoke. 
'I also know that not one person in this room has sat down since I got up and started speaking. And I know that the press will say that he didn't any standing ovations. That's because they never had to sit. They were already standing,' he said as the crowd roared.
Trump also reminded the crowd - as he has done at other rallies - they don't 'get the real view from the fake news.'
'Look at the cameras back there. It's like the Academy Awards.  No difference. One of the advantages that I can say is covered live, much of it and when I say it, they can't do anything about it,' he said.
Only Fox News Channel carried his entire speech live.

I wish all the media would start covering just the news and stop covering HIM! I don't want to know his every disgusting word and tweet. If it doesn't affect reality - if it is only lies, insults and bragging - I don't see why it needs more than a one line report of "Trump kissed himself on the ass again and lied to some more voters." The rest of us don't need to be constantly subjected to his bullshit.

What is scary is how many people still knowing how horrible he is will still come out to hear him speak.

That makes me question exactly how the elections coming out will go.

As much as i could do with out all the reporting, I think there are those who need to hear the lies and realize exactly what
he is . Nothing but a liar. I hope this will wake some up eventually.

Annemarie - Not saying his lies shouldn't be covered. They should. Just that we don't have to give every snarky tweet attention as if it was important. Does it have to be a major news story whenever he has a hissy fit and starts a twitter war with a tv host? Is it really news when he goes to a fundraising rally to tell everyone AGAIN how great he s? Don't report the speech unless there is something in it other than "Trump is great" rhetoric, and then only report about the issues - not the man. And never, ever, ever run his picture if it can be avoided.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6004337/Trump-threats-shut-government-doesnt-money-wall-GOP-mulls-delay.html

[size=34]Trump threatens to shut down the government if he doesn't get money for his border wall as REPUBLICANS mull putting off the money until after November election[/size]

• Controversy over funding the president's wall could lead to a government shutdown in October
  
  
• Republicans fear that could hurt them at the ballot box
  
  
• GOP leaders Mitch McConnell and Speaker Ryan met with Trump at the White House last week to discuss government funding
  
  
• Afterward both men said funding the wall could wait until after the election
  
  
• Trump's tweet could change things, raising odds of a shut down
  
  
• Trump threatened a shutdown in March over his wall but caved and signed a omnibus spending bill to fund government
  
  
• He later indicated he regretted his decision 
  
  

By EMILY GOODIN, U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 10:01 EDT, 29 July 2018 | UPDATED: 10:54 EDT, 29 July 2018

    


President Donald Trump is threatening to shut down the government if he doesn't get funding for his border wall as members of his own party are mulling the delay in money for it ahead of the November election.
'I would be willing to 'shut down' government if the Democrats do not give us the votes for Border Security, which includes the Wall! Must get rid of Lottery, Catch & Release etc. and finally go to system of Immigration based on MERIT! We need great people coming into our Country!,' he tweeted Sunday morning. 
But after a meeting with him at the White House last week, the congressional leaders of his party said money for the controversial wall could wait until after voters made their choices in November. 
Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell said on Friday that funding for the wall would 'probably' wait until after the midterm elections. 


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Trump is threatening to shut down the government if he doesn't get his wall


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Trump threatened to shut down the government in March if he didn't get his wall funded but caved and signed a deal


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Members of a family reunite through the border wall between Mexico and United States, during the 'Keep our dream alive' event, in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, Mexico on December 10, 2017
'Probably, and that's something we do have a disagreement on,' McConnell told a Kentucky radio station when asked if funding for the border wall would wait until after November, according toThe Hill newspaper.

McConnell and Speaker Paul Ryan met with Trump at the White House on Wednesday to work on a plan to avoid a shutdown ahead of the November midterm elections.
Trump made it clear in the meeting he wanted $5 billion to fund his border wall, according to a report in Politico, but he signaled to the congressional leaders he'd be willing to wait until after the midterms.
'The president's willing to be patient to make sure that we get what we need so we can that done,' Ryan said after the meeting, adding that funding the wall was 'not a question of if, it's a question of when.'  


But Sunday's tweet could change things and raises the odds the government will close in October. 
Funding Trump's controversial wall could paralyze budget talks. Estimates say it would take $25 billion to build it. Democrats don't want to give any kind of down payment without a guarantee for Dreamers, the illegal immigrants who came to the country as children. 
Funding for the government runs out at the end of September. 
The Senate is working to finish nine of its 12 annual spending bills by the end of next week while the House only passed six of its annual funding bills before it left on its August recess.
The House version of the spending bill includes Trump's request but Senate Democrats are unlikely to agree to it — meaning any attempt to fund the Department of Homeland Security, which is where the money would come from, could lead to a shutdown.


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Speaker Paul Ryan said funding the wall is a when not an if


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Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said funding the wall could wait until after November


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Relatives separated by the border wall between Mexico and the United States meet, during the 'Keep our dream alive' event, in Ciudad Juarez in December 2017
Trump is trying to kick blame for any shutdown to the Democrats but Republicans control both Congress and the White House, sparking fears a government closure could come back to bite the GOP at the ballot box.
The president also tweeted he wanted to get rid of the immigration lottery - the Diversity Immigrant Visa program, also known as the green card lottery, makes available 50,000 visas annually to diversify the immigrant population in the United States, by selecting applicants from countries with low numbers of immigrants in the previous five years. 
As of 2017, around 20 million people apply for the lottery each year.
Democrats are unlikely to want to end it.
This is not the first time the president has made threats about a government shutdown. 
Trump made a similar threat in May during an interview with 'Fox & Friends.'
He also threatened to shutdown the government in March if he didn't get his wall but eventually caved and signed a budget deal put together by a bipartisan group of Congressional leaders.
But, after signing the budget deal, Trump showed his anger and regret.
He vowed never again to sign a budget without the authority to do a line-item veto, which would let him go in and cross out individual items instead of the entire piece of legislation
'I say to Congress: I will never sign another bill like this again. I'm not going to do it,' he said.
The government briefly shut down in January over immigration.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6008685/Barack-Obama-Joe-Biden-stop-veteran-run-bakery-order-ham-cheese-sandwiches-lunch.html

[size=34]Bros reunited: Joe Biden and Barack Obama stun customers and patrons at a veteran-run bakery in DC and order ham and cheese sandwiches on their lunch date[/size]

• Barack Obama and Joe Biden stopped for lunch at a Washington DC bakery 
  
  
• The bakery, located in Georgetown, is run by a nonprofit which provides military veterans with civilian work experience 
  
  
• The former president and vice president were caught on camera ordering lunch  
  
  

By MAXINE SHEN FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 18:48 EDT, 30 July 2018 | UPDATED: 19:26 EDT, 30 July 2018

    


Barack Obama and Joe Biden caused a lunchtime stir when they unexpectedly stopped by a Washington, DC, bakery for a bite.
The former president and vice president were caught on camera Monday morning as they rolled up to the counter at Georgetown's Dog Tag Bakery and placed their lunch orders like it was no big deal.
The bakery — a nonprofit which provides veterans and their families with civilian work experience — posted a picture of the duo on Twitter after the presidential visit and thanked Obama and Biden for 'for supporting our mission of empowering veterans with service-connected disabilities, military spouses, and military caregivers!'



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Former president Barack Obama and his vice president Joe Biden surprised the staff at Washington, DC's veteran-run Dog Tag Bakery when they stopped in for lunch Friday
In a video, which was posted to the bakery's Facebook page Friday at 11:39am, a casually-dressed Obama and Biden can be seen mulling over menu choices and joking with each other, while bakery patrons on line behind them capture the moment for posterity with their phones.  

Biden, who'd bellied up to the counter first, can be seen receiving a sandwich on a plate. As he's asking the bakery staff if they have any mustard, Obama pops up and peers at the plate, saying, 'Hold on, hold on, what'd you get here?' 
'I got one of these whatever the hell they're called,' Biden responds.  
'"Whatever the hell they're called?"' Obama repeats as he wanders over to the display case to look at what the food options are. 
Biden then lifts his plate into the air, examines the sandwich and proclaims that it's ham and cheese, at which point Obama says, 'Yeah, that looks pretty good, I think I've gotta have one of these, too.'
'Give the boss one of those, too,' Biden says, as Obama adds a fennel salad to his order.


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The bakery thanked Obama and Biden for their visit. While there, the duo spoke with the veterans working there, shook hands and took selfies


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After speaking with a veteran who is a bakery employee and learning that she wants to become a yoga teacher, Obama showed off his tree pose to the amusement of those around him


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When they left the bakery, they were greeted by a round of applause from the crowd that had gathered. They were also stopped by a man who asked them to take a selfie


It appears that it's Biden's turn to treat, as he's seen holding a stack of cash.  
Word of their presence had gotten out by the time they were done eating. 
As they left the restaurant, each holding to-go bags, they were greeted by a crowd of people who applauded them.
The applause was captured in a video that Ashley Hart posted on Instagram. She also captured the moment when a man handed his cell phone to Biden, so that Biden could use it to take a grinning selfie with Obama. 
Hart also posted pictures of Obama, accompanied by what appear to be his Secret Service agents, getting into a black SUV. 
Dog Tag Inc. CEO Meghan Ogilvie told the Washingtonian that Obama and Biden's visit 'was a total surprise' and noted that 'honestly everyone freaked out.'
Ogilvie said that the duo shook everyone's hands and happily took selfies, while also recognizing each of the baker's veteran service members. At one point, when one of the service members said she wanted to be a yoga instructor, Obama showed off his tree pose, much to the delight of those around him. 
She revealed that the duo ordered ham and gruyere and turkey with brie sandwiches and a fennel salad. For dessert, they ordered a mint-basil olive oil cake, a chocolate chip cookie and a brownie. 
ADVERTISEMENT

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6009249/Bob-Woodward-writing-inside-account-Trump-White-House.html

[size=34]Woodward takes aim at Trump: Legendary journalist announces excoriating new book that will lift the lid on the 'harrowing life' inside the White House and how the president uses 'fear' to command respect[/size]

• Journalist Bob Woodward has written a new book on Donald Trump's presidency 
  
  
• The celebrated journalist of Watergate fame announced his new book, 'Fear: Trump in the White House', on Monday
  
  
• Woodward has drawn on 'hundreds of hours' of interviews, as well as notes, files and diaries to give an inside account of Trump's White House
  
  
• It will provide an in-depth look at how Trump makes decision on major foreign and domestic policies
  
  
• Woodward has written best-selling accounts of several administrations over the last 40 years 
  
  

By EMILY CRANE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 22:05 EDT, 30 July 2018 | UPDATED: 23:14 EDT, 30 July 2018

    

• 
  

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Famed investigative reporter Bob Woodward has written a new book that is set to lift the lid on the 'harrowing life' inside Donald Trump's presidency
Famed investigative reporter Bob Woodward has written a new book that is set to lift the lid on the 'harrowing life' inside Donald Trump's presidency.
The celebrated journalist of Watergate fame announced his new book, 'Fear: Trump in the White House', on Monday.
Woodward has drawn on 'hundreds of hours' of interviews, as well as notes, files and diaries to give an inside account of Trump's White House dysfunctions, according to his publisher Simon & Schuster.

The book, which is coming out on September 11, will provide an in-depth look at how Trump makes decisions on major foreign and domestic policies.
It will also give a glimpse into the President's thoughts on a wide range of issues, including Russian collusion, the Charlottesville white supremacy rally and national security. 
'Fear brings to light the explosive debates that drive decision-making in the Oval Office, the Situation Room, Air Force One and the White House residence,' the publisher says. 
The 75-year-old's new book has been kept a secret for the 19 months it has taken him to write. 


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The book, which is coming out on September 11, will provide an in-depth look at how Trump makes decision on major foreign and domestic policies
While Trump was not interviewed by Woodward specifically for the book, its title comes from a remark Trump made in an interview with Woodward and Washington Post reporter Robert Costa when he was a presidential candidate in 2016.
He was asked to comment on one of Barack Obama's statements in which he said: 'Real power means you can get what you want without having to exert violence.'
According to Woodward, Trump somewhat agreed, saying: 'Well, I think there's a certain truth to that. . . . Real power is through respect' before he added: 'Real power is, I don't even want to use the word: 'Fear.' '
Over the past 40 years, Woodward has written best-selling accounts of several administrations. 
He and fellow Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein teamed up on two classics about President Richard Nixon, 'All the President's Men' and 'The Final Days.'
'Fear' also renews a Woodward tradition that had been on hold for several years: a book about the sitting president, released during an election year.

That's a book I can't wait to read. Woodward's analysis of Trump should be very revealing. I hope it gets a lot of media coverage.

WOW!
I hope it will be translated because I'm not sure I would understand every nuance.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6011583/Trump-mulls-cutting-super-rich-Americans-taxes-100-billion-WITHOUT-Congress.html

[size=34]Trump mulls cutting super-rich Americans' taxes by $100 billion WITHOUT Congress by changing how they calculate capital gains[/size]

• The Treasury Department is investigating if they have the authority to make such a change without congressional approval
  
  
• Secretary Steve Mnuchin said the department is studying the issue
  
  
• Experts say a change in capital gains tax calculations would benefit the wealthy
  
  
• Such a move by Treasury would likely result in a lawsuit
  
  
• The George H.W. Bush administration examined a similar move but concluded they did not have the authority to do so without Congress 
  
  

By EMILY GOODIN, U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 11:23 EDT, 31 July 2018 | UPDATED: 12:20 EDT, 31 July 2018

    


President Donald Trump's administration is mulling a $100 billion tax cut for the super wealthy that would bypass the congressional approval process.
The Treasury Department is examining whether to allow investment income, known as capital gains, to be adjusted for inflation in a way that protects more of it from being taxed.
'If it can't get done through a legislation process, we will look at what tools at Treasury we have to do it on our own and we'll consider that,' Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told The New York Times, emphasizing that he had not concluded whether his department had the authority to act alone on the issue. 


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A change in capitol gains calculations by President Trump's administration would benefit the super rich


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Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said his department is studying if such an action is possible without congressional approval


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National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow is a longtime supporter of changing capital gains calculations
'We are studying that internally, and we are also studying the economic costs and the impact on growth.'

In addition to Mnuchin, National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow is a longtime supporter of the plan, according to The Washington Post.  
Most capital gains taxes are paid by wealthy Americans, who are, by large, the holders of investment portfolios. And cutting them would fulfill a lifetime dream of the super rich. 
To make such a change, the Treasury Department is examining whether it can use its regulatory powers to allow investors to account for inflation in determining capital gains tax liabilities.
If the department changes the definition of 'cost' in calculating capital gains, it would allow taxpayers to adjust the initial value of the investment for inflation when it's sold.   


But a move like this - done by Treasury without congressional approval - would be unusual, controversial, and probably result in a lawsuit.
The George H.W. Bush administration studied a similar regulatory action but rejected the idea because it was seen as outside of Treasury's scope and in need of congressional approval.
Currently, capital gains taxes are calculated by subtracting the original price of an asset from the price it was sold and taxing the difference - usually at 20 percent.
So, if a stock was purchased for $100,000 in 1980 and sold for $1 million today, taxes would be owned on $900,000. But, if the stock was adjusted for inflation, then taxes would only owed on $700,000. That $300,000 difference saves a person $40,000 in taxes.
Steve Moore, a close friend of Kudlow's, told The Post there is an active debate within the Treasury Department over whether to try to make the change.
And some believe Trump would risk a lawsuit over the issue. 
'The thing is, Trump is so gutsy, he's doing so many of these things administratively, and he's the kind of person I could see who would instruct the Treasury to do it,' Moore said. 'That would be gigantic with the economy. . . . There's a big robust debate going on within the Treasury Department about whether or not to do this. It's definitely in the mix.'
Republicans passed a package of tax cuts late last year that benefited Americans across the board although they helped the wealthier end of the spectrum a bit more. Capitol gain taxes, however, were not touched in that package.


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Steve Mnuchin and his wife, Louise Linton, recently had dinner with Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump


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Should Steve Mnuchin's Treasury department make such a move, a lawsuit would likely result
Republican lawmakers are struggling to convince middle class voters of those tax benefits a head of the November election.
Democrats were critical of the idea. 
'At a time when the deficit is out of control, wages are flat and the wealthiest are doing better than ever, to give the top 1 percent another advantage is an outrage and shows the Republicans' true colors,' Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer told The Times. 'Furthermore, Mr. Mnuchin thinks he can do it on his own, but everyone knows this must be done by legislation.'
Researchers estimate that 97 percent of the benefits from changing capital gains tax calculations would go to the top 10 percent of income earners and nearly two-thirds of the benefits would go to the super wealthy — the top 0.1 percent.

Carolhathaway - It probably will be translated into several languages. Woodward is a well known and respected journalist and Simon & Schuster is a large and well established publishing house. He has enough political experience and insight to do a great in-depth analysis of Trump. A lot of people will want to read this book.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6012135/Trump-says-government-shutdown-small-price-pay-border-security.html

[size=34]Trump says government shutdown is 'very small price to pay' for border security as he dares Dems to block border wall funding and promises 'Prosperous America' if he gets it[/size]

• Donald Trump says he wants funding for his border wall and he's willing to force a government shutdown to get it
  
  
• The president called that a 'small price to pay' for what he has promised will be improved national security and a stronger economy if his wall is completed
  
  
• Trump also called conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh a 'great guy'
  
  
• 'Fox & Friends' played a clip of Limbaugh praising Trump's tough talk and said the GOP supports the president on the issue
  
  
• A prominent Republican senator said Trump has 'privately' agreed to postpone any border wall shutdown fights until after November's election
  
  
• Republicans fear a shutdown could boomerang back on them and cost them seats in Congress 
  
  

By DAVID MARTOSKO, U.S. POLITICAL EDITOR  and EMILY GOODIN, U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 14:06 EDT, 31 July 2018 | UPDATED: 15:59 EDT, 31 July 2018

    

• President Donald Trump demanded on Tuesday that congressional Democrats yield to his demands to fund a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, and said he doesn't mind shutting down the federal government to make his point.
  

'I don’t care what the political ramifications are, our immigration laws and border security have been a complete and total disaster for decades, and there is no way that the Democrats will allow it to be fixed without a Government Shutdown,' the president tweeted. 
'Border Security is National Security, and National Security is the long-term viability of our Country. A Government Shutdown is a very small price to pay for a safe and Prosperous America!'
Hours earlier, Trump praised conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh for fawning over his tough talk, even as a prominent Republican senator said the president has 'privately' agreed to put off that battle with Congress until after the election. 

'Rush Limbaugh is a great guy who truly gets it!,' the president wrote on Twitter.


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President Trump said Tuesday that if he has to push the federal government's 'off' button to win a staring match with Demorcats over funding for his border wall, it's a 'very small price to pay'


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Trump says 'I don’t care what the political ramifications are' – but a senior Republican senator insists the president has privately agreed to postpone the fight until after the November elections


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Trump has ordered the construction of prototypes for new wall construction to cover massive gaps in America's 1,900-mile southern border
'Fox & Friends,' Trump's favorite morning cable news show, played a clip of the broadcaster praising him for threatening to push the federal 'off' button if he doesn't get 'great border security.'
'Trump is showing he is not afraid of a government shutdown which, believe me, the base of this party loves,' Limbaugh said.
And that base now belongs to Trump, he said. A recent Gallup poll showed 85 percent of Republicans approve of the job the president is doing, a number higher than any of the last 10 presidents' at this point in their first terms.
Limbaugh said it was Trump's tough talk and uncompromising positions that Republicans liked.
'They hate this cowering before the Democrats in the media over government shutdowns. They hate giving up every policy idea in the face of the blackmail of a government shutdown. So they love Trump saying he would be willing to do this because the issue of immigration is what got him elected,' Limbaugh said.   


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FOX & friends

@foxandfriends





[ltr]Rush Limbaugh: The issue of immigration is what got President Trump elected (via ‘The Rush Limbaugh Show’)[/ltr]


6:40 AM - Jul 31, 2018

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Trump praised Rush Limbaugh after 'Fox & Friends' played a clip of the radio host fawning over the president 
Trump has been threatening a government shutdown over border security, specifically the building of his $25 billion wall.
The president said Monday he'd 'certainly be willing to consider' a shutdown if he doesn't get 'border security.'
Speaking at a press conference with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, Trump railed against illegal immigration, saying America is the 'laughing stock of the world' with the 'worst' immigration laws. 
'I would have no problem doing a shutdown. It's time we had proper border security. We are the laughing stock of the world,' Trump said. 'We have the worst immigration laws anywhere in the world.'
But John Cornyn, the Number Two Republican in Senate leadership, is noting the president has 'privately' agreed to hold off any confrontations with Congress until after November's election, where Republicans are trying to hold onto their control of the legislative branch.
'President Trump has privately agreed to put off a potential shutdown or any fight over border wall funding until after midterm elections,' Cornyn tweeted.
He shared a link to a Wall Street Journal article that reported, citing administration sources, that Trump has agreed to postpone a shutdown or any fight over funding his border wall until after the midterm elections.
The president discussed the budget in a meeting last week with Republican Congressional leaders – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker Paul Ryan – and his aides.


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Trump wants his border wall funded and a visa lottery program for immigrants ended


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Limbaugh said the GOP base is tired of politicians giving in on policy issues to avoid a shutdown
He supported a plan to avert a shutdown through a short-term spending patch and passing the less-controversial funding bills.  
'The president made it very clear to the leadership that a fight was coming and he's done putting it off,' an administration official told the Journal. Still 'he understands the political practicalities of having to put it off until after the election but it's coming in early November and early December.' 
He added: 'The president sees merit in having this battle after the election.'
Discussions are underway to couple some modest immigration proposals to these bills to show progress on the issue before the election. 
Trump said at his news conference on Monday he didn't have a 'red line' in the negotiations but just wanted 'great border security.' 
And the president seemed open to making a deal with Democrats, who don't want to give any kind of down payment for the border wall without a guarantee for Dreamers, the illegal immigrants who came to the country as children.
'I'll always leave room for negotiation,' he noted.
The president first opened the door to a government shutdown in a tweet on Sunday and has continued to press the issue since then.
He has returned his focus to the immigration issue in recent days as the Russia investigation heats up around him. 
His former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, goes on trial Tuesday and his former attorney Michael Cohen is reported to have said Trump knew about the infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting when it happened. 
But he may have the toughest fight over a shutdown with members of his own party, some of whom fear it could boomerang back on the party and cost them seats in Congress.
Republicans are trying to hang on to control of the House as more and more independent political prognosticators predict Democrats could retake the speaker's gavel in November. 
The party is also defending its scant 51 seat majority in the upper chamber.


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John Cornyn in the Number Two Republican in the Senate


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Rush Limbaugh said the immigration issue helped Trump get elected
House Republican leaders have tried and failed to pass Trump's immigration reform demands.
In June, a compromise bill between hard-line and moderate Republicans that would have given an additional $23.4 billion for border security – including the long-sought border wall – ended the visa-lottery program and established a system of merit-based immigration went down in flames when not enough members of their own party would vote for it. A separate bill by conservatives also failed.
Democrats opposed both measures.  
The Senate failed to pass a series of immigration bills earlier this year.
Sen. Cornyn said the president's threat was part of his negotiation tactic. 
'I was a little surprised that [Mr. Trump] brought it back up again, but I know it's really a burr under his saddle,' Cornyn told the Journal. 'The president negotiates in his own unique fashion and I assume that's part of what's going on here, but there's no interest in shutting down the government.'
Funding for the government runs out at the end of September. A battle over spending could also distract the Senate from confirming the president's Supreme Court nominee Bret Kavanaugh. 
The Senate is working to finish nine of its 12 annual spending bills by the end of this week while the House only passed six of its annual funding bills before it left on its August recess.
The House version of the spending bill includes Trump's request but Senate Democrats are unlikely to agree to it – meaning any attempt to fund the Department of Homeland Security, which is where the money would come from, could lead to a shutdown.
Trump is trying to kick blame for any shutdown to the Democrats but Republicans control both Congress and the White House, sparking fears a government closure could come back to bite the GOP at the ballot box.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6014163/Danish-ban-face-covering-garments-enters-force.html

[size=34]Denmark's burqa ban comes into force: Protests take place over new law against Islamic face veil that could see repeat offenders jailed for six months[/size]

• Hundreds of Danes have rallied in Copenhagen after burqa ban came in to effect
  
  
• Muslim community hits back at government: 'We will not bow to discrimination' 
  
  
• New restrictions on Islamic face veils were approved by MPs in Denmark in May 
  
  
• Repeat offenders risk fines of up to £1,200 or a jail sentence of up to six months
  
  

By JULIAN ROBINSON and JORDAN BARNES FOR MAILONLINE and AFP
PUBLISHED: 03:52 EDT, 1 August 2018 | UPDATED: 15:13 EDT, 1 August 2018

    



Protesters wearing niqab and body-length burqas have marched in Denmark after the country's ban on wearing face veils in public was put into action.
Hundreds of demonstrators, most with children, marched in solidarity with Muslim women despite risking fines of 1,000 kroner (£120) or jail time. 
Non-niqab-wearing Muslim women and non-Muslim Danes with faces masked or covered also took part. 


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Hundreds of demonstrators, most with children, marched in solidarity with Muslim women despite risking fines of 1,000 kroner (£120) or jail time


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Ayah, 37, a wearer of the niqab weeps as she is embraced by a police officer during a demonstration against the Danish face veil ban in Copenhagen


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Police officers stand guard as masked demonstrators surround the Bellahoj Police Station in Copenhagen as part of the protest against Denmark's face veil ban


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Danish women wore niqabs, hijabs and burqas, risking a fine of 1,000 kroner (£120) or jail time for those caught wearing the face veil in public


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A line of protesters link arms in Copenhagen, including non-Muslim men and women who covered their face in solidarity with women no longer allowed to wear the niqab
'We need to send a signal to the government that we will not bow to discrimination,' student Sabina, 21, told Reuters. 

She said the law that could see repeat offenders jailed for up to six months 'specifically targets a religious minority'. 
A 30-year-old Muslim woman interviewed in daily Berlingske, identified only as Sarah, said she had 'lost faith in the system'.
Born and raised in Denmark by parents who emigrated from Turkey, she has worn the niqab since she was 18.
'I've realised that democracy doesn't work. Politicians boast of freedoms and rights when they are making fun of Muslims and when they are drawing caricatures of the prophet. 
'But when it comes to me, they take away my right to choose how I want to dress,' she said.


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Denmark's face veil ban will affect Muslim women who argue the controversial law 'specifically targets a religious minority'


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 A student (not pictured) told reporters: 'We need to send a signal to the government that we will not bow to discrimination'


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The centre poster reads 'Keep your hands of my niqab', as Muslim women in Denmark protest
'I have come to the realisation that Muslims don't have the same rights as others. So much of politics is hypocritical.'
A smaller demonstration arranged by 'For Frihed' (For Freedom), which is pro face veil ban, also took place.
Restrictions on Islamic face veils were approved by MPs in May after being brought forward by the country's centre-right coalition, known for tightening asylum and immigration rules in recent years. 
But as the law took effect today, making Denmark the fifth European nation to outlaw full-face veils, supporters and opponents of the ban clashed verbally.


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'My clothes my choice': The march started at the Danish capital's central district of Norrebro to Bellahoj police station on the outskirts of the city
First-time offenders risk a fine of 1,000 kroner (£120). Repeat offenses could trigger fines of up to 10,000 kroner (£1,200) or a jail sentence of up to six months.
Anyone forcing a person to wear garments covering the face by using force or threats can be fined or face up to two years in prison. Austria, France and Belgium have similar laws.
Marcus Knuth of the ruling liberal party Venstre, says the dress worn by some conservative Muslim women is 'strongly oppressive.'
Sasha Andersen of the 'Party Rebels' activist group, is planning a protest against what they called a 'discriminatory' measure against a minority group. Activists that back the ban also plan to rally. 


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A smaller demonstration arranged by 'For Frihed' (For Freedom), which is pro face veil ban, also took place in Denmark
This morning, Amnesty International's Deputy Europe Director Fotis Filippou said all women 'should be free to dress as they please and to wear clothing that expresses their identity or beliefs'. 
'This ban will have a particularly negative impact on Muslim women who choose to wear the niqab or burqa,' Filippou said.
'Whilst some specific restrictions on the wearing of full face veils for the purposes of public safety may be legitimate, this blanket ban is neither necessary nor proportionate and violates women's rights to freedom of expression and religion.


'If the intention of this law was to protect women's rights it fails abjectly. Instead, the law criminalises women for their choice of clothing - making a mockery of the freedoms Denmark purports to uphold.'
Other European countries have similar bans, claiming they are not aimed at any religion in particular, and don't ban headscarves, turbans or the traditional Jewish skull cap.


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Denmark's new face veil ban is likely to apply to the niqab and burqa - not the hijab and chador
Danish lawmakers voted 75-30 in favour of the legislation in a bid to uphold 'secular and democratic values'. 
Popularly known as the 'Burqa Ban,' it is mostly seen as being directed at the niqab and burqa. Few Muslim women in Denmark wear such full-face veils.
The law allows people to cover their face when there is a 'recognisable purpose' like cold weather or complying with other legal requirements, such as using motorcycle helmets required under Danish traffic rules.
Under the law, police will be able to instruct women to remove their veils or order them to leave public areas. 
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Restrictions on Islamic face veils were approved by MPs in May after being brought forward by the country's centre-right coalition, known for tightening asylum and immigration rules in recent years
Justice Minister Soren Pape Poulsen said officers would fine them and tell them to go home. 
As of 2017, non-Western immigrants account for 8.7 percent of Denmark's 5.7 million population. 
Around half a million are from Muslim backgrounds, a group that swelled with Afghan, Iraqi and Syrian refugees crossing Europe.
 In 2016, Denmark also adopted a law requiring newly arrived asylum-seekers to hand over valuables such jewelry and gold to help pay for their stays in the country.
ADVERTISEMENT

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6019537/Ivanka-breaks-fathers-immigration-policy-family-separations.html

[size=34]Ivanka breaks with her father's immigration policy saying separating illegal immigrant families at the border was a 'low point' because she is 'vehemently against' it[/size]

• Government has been separating children from men and women who illegally bring them across the border because it's illegal to house kids in adult jails
  
  
• Ivanka Trump has long been opposed to the four-month-old policy but has spoken publicly about it only once
  
  
• On Thursday she declared that seeing desperate parents and inconsolable children was 'a low point' in her White House tenure
  
  
• 'I am very vehemently against family separation and the separation of parents and children' 
  
  
• Ivanka's mother, the president's first wife Ivanka, came to the U.S. from Commuinist Czechoslovakia, but entered the country legally 
  
  

By DAVID MARTOSKO, U.S. POLITICAL EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 09:52 EDT, 2 August 2018 | UPDATED: 11:39 EDT, 2 August 2018

    


Ivanka Trump appeared to split with her father's administration Thursday on the thorny topic of what to do with children who cross the border as part of illegal immigrant family units.
The Justice Department has been prosecuting all adult border-jumpers since April, with the exception of many asylum-seekers, leaving their children in the hands of Health and Human Services caseworkers because minors can't be held in adult jails.
Ivanka, the president's daughter and senior adviser, said during an event for the Axios news website that seeing the aftermath – desperate mothers and distraught children – was 'a low point for me.'    



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First daughter Ivanka Trump said Thursday that seeing illegal immigrant families split apart at the U.S.-Mexico border was 'a low point' in her White Houe tenure


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The Justice Department has been prosecuting all adult border-jumpers since April, with the exception of many asylum-seekers, leaving their children in the hands of HHS caseworkers
'I feel very strongly about that, and I am very vehemently against family separation and the separation of parents and children,' she said in an event at the Newseum in Washington.


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Ivanka is pictured in 1994 with mom Ivana Trump, who emigrated legally to the U.S. from Communist Czechoslovakia in 1976
'Illegal immigration is incredibly complicated. I am a daughter of an immigrant. My mother grew up in Communist Czech Republic. But we are a country of laws. So you know, she came to this country legally,' she continued.
The first daughter cautioned, however, that going soft on illegals risks inspiring a new flood of Central Americans to make a hazardous trip through the length of Mexico in the hope of a hassle-free transition to American life.
'We have to be very careful about incentivizing behavior that puts children at risk of being trafficked, at risk of entering this country with coyotes or making an incredibly dangerous journey alone,' she said.
'These are not easy issues. These are incredibly difficult issues, and like the rest of the country I experience them in a very emotional way,' she added, showing little emotion as she said it.
Ms. Trump, 36, has largely been publicly silent about the issue since Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered the 'zero tolerance' policy in April that gave bureaucrats little choice but to house parents and kids separately.


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The conditions in which children including toddlers were processed into the government's bureaucratic system have come under fire, especially from liberals who describe it as 'cages'

[size=18]Hundreds of immigrant children still separated from families




L[/size]

She did publicly thank the president once in June after he signed an executive order aimed at ending the practice.
'Thank you @POTUS for taking critical action ending family separation at our border. Congress must now act + find a lasting solution that is consistent with our shared values; the same values that so many come here seeking as they endeavor to create a better life for their families,' Ivanka tweeted.
That executive order, however, was largely toothless: It ordered Sessions to seek a judge's exception to a two-decade-old ruling that put limits on how long the government can house illegal immigrant children.




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Ivanka thanked her father in June for signing a toothless executive order that at first appeared to end the practice of family separations
The administration had hoped a longer legal leash would permit them to find family-friendly housing for children and their parents who are awaiting court hearings to occupy together.
The judge, Dolly Gee, roundly rejected the DOJ's arguments last month. 
Hours before Ivanka's tweet, The Washington Post reported that she had pressed her father privately on the issue.
The president told congressional Republicans that day how she had described the heart-rending images of adults and children in crisis and begged: 'Can we do anything to stop this?'

This family can make excuses for anything. I'm thrilled she's disturbed by her father's policies. I'd be more thrilled if she actually did something about them.

Yep. Too little too late - how many weeks has this been going on and she's only just decided to say something!?!

Personally I think his actions are completely deliberate to deter others and waving a wand now won't make any difference. She just wants some PR

It's a pity she didn't speak up when all this was happening, but you can't risk getting on daddy's bad side. After all she just closed down her clothing company what would she do all day if she had to move back to New York and the paps weren't waiting for her to leave her house everyday.

Grow a conscience?

So Trump is averaging 7.6 lies A DAY............

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/08/01/politics/donald-trump-mistruths-analysis/index.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twCNN&utm_content=2018-08-02T02:28:17

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/02/donald-trump-un-media-press-freedom-journalist-danger

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/08/01/politics/donald-trump-mistruths-analysis/index.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twCNN&utm_content=2018-08-02T02:28:17



[size=56]Donald Trump is averaging 7.6 mistruths a day[/size]



Analysis By Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large

Updated 2330 GMT (0730 HKT) August 1, 2018






Washington (CNN)I've written -- a lot -- about how the most enduring legacy of Donald Trump's presidency, whether it lasts four years or eight years, is his unapologetic assault on facts and the idea of truth. We have simply never had a president who says as many things that aren't true as Donald Trump. Or a president who, once it's clear what he's saying isn't accurate, takes such pleasure in repeating falsehoods.
Which brings me to The Washington Post Fact Checker's running count of how many things Trump has said -- since being sworn in on January 20, 2017, that are either misleading or totally untrue. And to these two sentences in particular: "As of day 558, he's made 4,229 Trumpian claims — an increase of 978 in just two months. That's an overall average of nearly 7.6 claims a day."
The President of the United States is saying more than seven things that aren't true a day. SEVEN. 

And, what's more, his tendency toward untruth is actually picking up steam. As WaPo's Glenn Kessler, Salvador Rizzo and Meg Kelly note, Trump was averaging less than five false or misleading claims in his first 100 days. (Only five!) But, between June and July Trump is averaging -- averaging -- 16 falsehoods a day. (As a thought experiment, try to lie -- or misrepresent -- 16 times tomorrow. I bet you can't.)
It's not just the raw numbers either. Trump has ramped up his disdain and dismissiveness of all forms of communication that don't originate with him. "Just remember, what you are seeing and what you are reading is not what's happening," Trump said earlier this month. "Just stick with us, don't believe the crap you see from these people, the fake news." On Tuesday, at a campaign rally in Tampa, Florida, Trump said: "You know, polls are fake, just like everything else."

• 
  
  CNN's Chris Cillizza cuts through the political spin and tells you what you need to know. By subscribing, you agree to our privacy policy.
  
  
  
  
  

[size]
That message is getting through. According to a CBS News poll released earlier this week, 91% of strong Trump supporters say they trust the President to provide them accurate information while 63% say they trust their family and friends to do the same. Just 11% of them trust the mainstream media to provide accurate information.
The problem here is clear: Lots and lots of Americans are getting their "facts" from a person whose disdain for facts is unparalleled in American political history. And whatever Trump says is being amplified -- almost entirely without context or questioning -- by Fox News, ensuring that millions and millions of people are living in a universe composed of "alternative facts."
The Point: This set of facts might depress you. It should. But it should scare you -- no matter your political leanings -- even more.
[/size]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/02/donald-trump-un-media-press-freedom-journalist-danger


Trump's attacks on media raise threat of violence against reporters, UN experts warn
President condemned for ‘strategic’ attacks as Sarah Sanders refuses to disagree with Trump’s view of the press as the enemy

Sabrina Siddiqui and David Smith Washington
Thu 2 Aug 2018 14.52 EDTFirst published on Thu 2 Aug 2018 13.52 EDT

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• [url=https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=Trump%27s attacks on media raise threat of violence against reporters%2C UN experts warn&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fus-news%2F2018%2Faug%2F02%2Fdonald-trump-un-media-press-freedom-journalist-danger%3FCMP%3Dshare_btn_tw][/url]
  
  

 A ‘CNN sucks’ sign at a Trump rally in Tampa on Tuesday night. Trump has intensified his criticism of the media and embraced the hostile attitude among his supporters towards members of the press. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Donald Trump’s attacks on the media have been condemned by experts at the United Nations, who warned that the US president’s vitriolic rhetoric could result in violence against journalists.
In a joint statement, two experts on freedom of expression – David Kaye, who was appointed by the UN human rights council, and Edison Lanza, who holds the corresponding position at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, said: “These attacks run counter to the country’s obligations to respect press freedom and international human rights law.”
Trump’s attacks “are strategic, designed to undermine confidence in reporting and raise doubts about verifiable facts”, they added, while noting the president “has failed to show even once that specific reporting has been driven by any untoward motivations”.
“We are especially concerned that these attacks increase the risk of journalists being targeted with violence.”


[size=16]Trump blasts back after New York Times publisher decries 'enemy of the people' attacks

 
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The rebuke comes as Trump has intensified his criticism of the media and appeared to embrace the hostile attitude among his supporters towards members of the press.
The president unleashed a Twitter tirade against the media on Sunday, labeling reporters as “unpatriotic”.
“When the media – driven insane by their Trump Derangement Syndrome – reveals internal deliberations of our government, it truly puts the lives of many, not just journalists, at risk! Very unpatriotic!” Trump tweeted.
“Freedom of the press also comes with a responsibility to report the news … ...accurately,” he added. “90% of media coverage of my Administration is negative, despite the tremendously positive results we are achieving, it’s no surprise that confidence in the media is at an all time low!”

Earlier this week, the president and his son, Eric Trump, shared a video on their Twitter accounts of attendees at a Trump rally in Tampa, Florida, shouting “CNN sucks!” at journalists covering the event.
The taunts came a week after the White House was roundly criticized for banning the CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins from covering an event that was open to the press after she had repeatedly directed questions to the president about his relationship with his former attorney, Michael Cohen.
Trump’s combative approach toward the media has been emblematic of both his tenure in the White House and candidacy for president; in 2016, the Trump campaign routinely barred media outlets from covering rallies in retaliation against coverage of which they disapproved.
Trump has often used his podium to hurl insults at the press and single out reporters by name, frequently before an angry mob of his supporters, and has derided coverage he dislikes as “fake news”.


Ivanka Trump criticizes family separations but says issue is 'complex'

 
Read more


The president has also labeled the media the “enemy of the American people” – a characterization his daughter, Ivanka Trump, rejected on Thursday.
“I’ve certainly received my fair share of reporting on me personally that I know not to be fully accurate, so I have some sensitivity around why people have concerns and gripe, especially when they’re sort of targeted,” she said at an event hosted by Axios.
“But no, I do not feel that the media is the enemy of the people.”
The issue also arose during a fraught exchange at Thursday’s White House briefing. Press secretary Sarah Sanders produced a list of complaints about how she has been personally “attacked” by the media, including comedian Michelle Wolf’s mockery of her at this year’s White House correspondents’ dinner.



Facebook[url=https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=Trump%27s attacks on media raise threat of violence against reporters%2C UN experts warn&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fus-news%2F2018%2Faug%2F02%2Fdonald-trump-un-media-press-freedom-journalist-danger%3FCMP%3Dshare_btn_tw%26page%3Dwith%3Aimg-2%23img-2]Twitter[/url][url=http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?description=Trump%27s attacks on media raise threat of violence against reporters%2C UN experts warn&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fus-news%2F2018%2Faug%2F02%2Fdonald-trump-un-media-press-freedom-journalist-danger%3Fpage%3Dwith%3Aimg-2%23img-2&media=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.guim.co.uk%2F675a3aed44bdac2bbfa9c8b89e402a792b0dc3e0%2F0_283_5082_3051%2F5082.jpg]Pinterest[/url]
 Sarah Sanders at the White House on Thursday. Photograph: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images

“You brought a comedian up to attack my appearance and call me a traitor to my own gender,” Sanders said, becoming visibly emotional. “As far as I know, I’m the first press secretary in the history of the United States that’s required secret service protection.”
But Jim Acosta, the CNN journalist heckled at the Tampa rally, repeatedly challenged Sanders to publicly disagree with Trump’s view of the press as the enemy of the people.
Sanders replied: “I appreciate your passion. I share it. I’ve addressed this question. I’ve addressed my personal feelings. I’m here to speak on behalf of the president. He’s made his comments clear.”
Acosta then tweeted: “I walked out of the end of that briefing because I am totally saddened by what just happened. Sarah Sanders was repeatedly given a chance to say the press is not the enemy and she wouldn’t do it. Shameful.”

Since you’re here…

… we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading the Guardian than ever but advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. And unlike many news organisations, we haven’t put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism as open as we can. So you can see why we need to ask for your help. The Guardian’s independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our perspective matters – because it might well be your perspective, too.
The Guardian is editorially independent, meaning we set our own agenda. Our journalism is free from commercial bias and not influenced by billionaire owners, politicians or shareholders. No one edits our Editor. No one steers our opinion. This is important because it enables us to give a voice to the voiceless, challenge the powerful and hold them to account. It’s what makes us different to so many others in the media, at a time when factual, honest reporting is critical[/size]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6025083/Trump-administration-immigrant-parents-deported-without-children-judge-says.html

[size=34]The Trump administration is '100 percent' responsible for locating immigrant parents who have been deported without their children, judge says[/size]

• A federal judge ruled that the U.S. government is responsible for finding migrant parents who have been deported without their children - NOT the kids' lawyers
  
  
• The ruling comes after the Trump administration argued that duty should fall to the ACLU, which is representing immigrant children in a federal class action suit
  
  
• Judge Dana Sabraw said it was '100 percent' the government's obligation to track down the parents that it deported after separating them from their kids 
  
  

By VALERIE BAUMAN SOCIAL AFFAIRS REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 18:07 EDT, 3 August 2018 | UPDATED: 20:58 EDT, 3 August 2018

    


The U.S. government is responsible for finding immigrant parents deported without their children under the Trump administration's zero-tolerance policy, a federal judge ruled Friday.
Attorneys for the government had previously argued that the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing the children in the class action suit, should use its own resources to locate and reunite parents who were already forced to leave the country without their kids, USA Today reports.
U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw said the ACLU and a team of nonprofits and pro bono attorneys working with the organization should help locate the roughly 400 parents whose whereabouts are unknown – but the responsibility does not ultimately fall to them.


+2


Immigrant children who have been separated from their parents were housed in a tent encampment in Tornillo, Texas under the Trump administration's 'zero tolerance' policy
'The reality is that for every parent who is not located, there will be a permanently orphaned child, and that is 100 percent the responsibility of the administration,' Sabraw said. 'The government has the sole burden and responsibility and obligation to make (reunifications) happen.'

Between April and June, the Trump administration separated more than 2,500 children from their parents after the families came into the country - legally and illegally - across the southern U.S. border as part of a 'zero tolerance' immigration policy. 
The actions sparked massive public outrage, leading to Trump ending it through an executive order on June 20.
While the administration says all 'eligible' children have been reunited with their parents, hundreds more remain separated – in some cases because the government deported their parents without them.


U.S. Attorney Jeff Sessions has blamed the separation of children and families on the parents fleeing violence in Latin America for breaking U.S. immigration laws.
The efforts to reunify children have been executed under the oversite of Sabraw, who had tough words on Friday for the administration's sluggish efforts to track down deported efforts.
He ordered the Trump administration to appoint one or more people from the Department of State or the Department of Health and Human Services – which has been caring for the separated children – to lead reunification efforts.
'There has to be someone to hold to account and to supervise the entire process,' Sabraw said.
Both parties will be back in court next week for another status update on reunification efforts.


+2


Migrant parents, all of whom were separated from their children by U.S Customs and Border Patrol, arrive at the Annunciation House migrant shelter after being released from U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody on June 24, 2018 in El Paso, Texas

Friday's court decision comes as new data reveals that the Trump administration chose to prosecute parents over childless adults who were entering the country under its 'zero-tolerance' policy, according to an analysis of government data by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.
In April and May more than 24,000 adults without children were captured at the border each month, compared with about 4,500 adults with children per month during the same period. 
Despite that, only 8,298 people were prosecuted in April, and 9,216 were prosecuted in May – much less than the total number of lone adults who crossed the border.   
Only 32 percent of all adults caught during an illegal crossing actually were charged with a crime – and adults without children were apprehended in far greater numbers than adults with children. That means the government had discretion in who it chose to prosecute.
The choice officials ultimately made led to the separation of thousands of children from their parents, including the many whose mothers and fathers were deported without them.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6025693/Warren-Criminal-justice-racist-back.html

[size=34]Elizabeth Warren says the criminal justice system is 'racist' from 'front to back' and claims Trump is 'winking at white supremacists'[/size]

• Speaking at Dillard University in New Orleans, Warren delivered what she called 'the hard truth about our criminal justice system: It's racist ... front to back
  
  
• Disproportionate arrests of African-Americans for petty drug possession and state laws that keep convicted felons from voting were some examples 
  
  
• Warren was also joined by Sen. Kamala Harris of California, who picked up on the theme and said racial divisions were being exploited by Russian 'cyber warfare'
  
  
• The stop is the latest sign of Warren's effort to forge ties beyond her largely white political base in Massachusetts 
  
  

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
PUBLISHED: 00:33 EDT, 4 August 2018 | UPDATED: 02:03 EDT, 4 August 2018

    


Potential Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has a message about the U.S. criminal justice system. 
Speaking to a historically black college, she delivered what she called 'the hard truth about our criminal justice system: It's racist ... front to back.'
The Massachusetts senator identified some of the system's failures: disproportionate arrests of African-Americans for petty drug possession; an overloaded public defender system; and state laws that keep convicted felons from voting even after their sentences are complete.
She made the comments at Dillard University in New Orleans.


+5


Sen. Elizabeth Warren greets Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La, and waves to the crowd as she arrives to speak in a sit-down conversation styled event at Dillard University


+5


The stop is the latest sign of Warren's effort to forge ties beyond her largely white political base in Massachusetts. 


+5


The event was also attended by Sen. Kamala Harris of California, who picked up on the theme and said racial divisions were being exploited by Russian 'cyber warfare'
Warren later told the meeting Friday that President Donald Trump has helped wealthy corporate interests fight consumer protections, minimum wage laws and other initiatives to benefit workers by fostering racism, xenophobia and homophobia while 'winking at white supremacists.'

The event was also attended by Sen. Kamala Harris of California, who picked up on the theme and said racial divisions were being exploited by Russian 'cyber warfare.'
Harris also called for a 'tooth and nail' Senate fight to reject Trump's nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, rejecting the idea that it's a useless fight in the Republican-controlled Senate.   
'Damn right it's worth the fight,' she said. 


Democrats in the Senate plan to begin meeting with Kavanaugh when they start returning to Washington in mid-August.
A senior Democratic aide said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee tasked with holding hearings for Kavanaugh, will be among those meeting with him.
This comes after weeks that they refused to meet with him.
Only one Democratic senator, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, has met with Kavanaugh as lawmakers sparred over access to records from the nominee's time as White House staff secretary under President George W. Bush. 
The stop is the latest sign of Warren's effort to forge ties beyond her largely white political base in Massachusetts. 


+5


Warren  speaks in a sit-down conversation styled event with Rep. Cedric Richmond at Dillard University in New Orleans


+5


 Warren later told the meeting Friday that President Donald Trump was fostering racism, xenophobia and homophobia while 'winking at white supremacists'
ADVERTISEMENT

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6025815/North-Korea-not-halted-nuclear-programmes-UN-warns.html

[size=34]Kim Jong Un has NOT halted nuclear missile programmes despite Trump talks, warns UN[/size]

• New report by the UN shows North Korea still flouting international sanctions 
  
  
• Report found was 'massive increase in illicit ship-to-ship transfers' of goods
  
  
• North Korea illegally selling arms to foreign nations, and has relations with Syria
  
  

By CHARLIE BAYLISS FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 01:48 EDT, 4 August 2018 | UPDATED: 07:09 EDT, 4 August 2018

    



North Korea has not stopped its nuclear and missile production, a new report by the United Nations has warned.
A new report by the intergovernmental body said Pyongyang was violating sanctions, including 'a massive increase in illicit ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products'.
North Korea is also accused of violating sanctions by transferring coal at sea and is disregarding an arms and financial sanctions embargo, a summary of the report by experts looking into UN sanctions against Pyongyang found.


+6


Kim Jong Un visits the Pyongyang Trolley Bus Factory and the Bus Repair Factory in Pyongyang


+6


Kim Jong-un is all smiles as he visits the Pyongyang Trolley Bus Factory and the Bus Repair Factory
Experts claim North Korea has tried to sell weaponry and other military equipment via foreign intermediaries, including Syrian arms traffickers, Houthi Shiite rebels in Yemen, as well as Libya and Sudan.

Military co-operation between North Korea and Bashar al-Assad's regime were also continuing despite sanctions, they added.


Companies, individuals and other bodies are still being investigated by the UN as they try to establish who procures centrifuges for North Korea's nuclear programme.
The Security Council first imposed sanctions on North Korea following its first nuclear test in 2006. Since then, they have become tougher in an effort to clamp down on Pyongyang's reckless behaviour.


+6


Pictures of the North Korean leader at a bus factory were released around the time the UN released a new report into how Pyongyang is flouting sanctions
Diplomats have hailed the sanctions for helping to thaw relations between North Korea and South Korea, as well as with the US, although critics claim they do not go far enough. 
Ship-to-ship transfers for petroleum products, oil and coal are among some of the 'increasingly sophisticated evasion techniques' used by North Korea to side-step sanctions. 
They also include turning off Automatic Identification Systems, which are required to be on at all times under international regulations, physically disguising North Korean tankers, using small unregistered vessels, illegally changing names, carrying out night transfers and using additional vessels to trans-ship cargo, the report said.
Individuals empowered to act for North Korean financial institutions operate in at least five countries, which were not named, with 'seeming impunity'.


+6


North Korea is also using overseas companies and individuals to obscure income-generating activities for the government, the UN panel said. Pictured: Kim Jong-un talking to workers at the bus factory
Accounts closed in the European Union to comply with sanctions were simply reopened at financial institutions in Asia. 
North Korea is also using overseas companies and individuals to obscure income-generating activities for the government, the panel said. And the experts' investigation of more than 200 joint ventures and/or co-operatives turned up a number that violated UN sanctions resolutions by maintaining links with companies and entities under sanctions.
The experts said North Korean diplomats also continue to play 'a key role in sanctions evasion', including by controlling bank accounts in multiple countries and holding accounts in the name of family members and front companies. 


+6


The North Korean leader sits on a bus along with his advisors around the time news of the UN report broke


+6


Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump shake hands during their meeting in Singapore in June

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6031573/CNN-airs-C-SPAN-call-angry-man-warned-Im-going-shoot-reporters-Trump-fake-news.html

[size=34]CNN host airs chilling C-SPAN call from angry man who warned 'I’m going to shoot' reporters after Trump claimed 'fake news' could start a war[/size]

• Donald Trump said journalists are 'dangerous and sick' and 'can also cause war.' He referred to the media in the Sunday post as an 'enemy of the people' again
  
  
• CNN’s Brian Stelter aired a call in response from C-SPAN during which the caller threatened violence against the Reliable Sources host and Don Lemon
  
  
• 'Come on. Give me a break. They started the war. I see 'em, I'm gonna shoot 'em. Bye,' the C-SPAN caller said 
  
  
• Segment reflected on increased tension between the media and the president
  
  

By FRANCESCA CHAMBERS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 10:23 EDT, 6 August 2018 | UPDATED: 11:43 EDT, 6 August 2018

    



A supporter of President Donald Trump's threatened to shoot two CNN reporters during a call into a live broadcast on public television as the battle between the president and the press reached a boiling point.  
Trump in a Sunday tweet said journalists are 'dangerous and sick' and 'can also cause war.' He referred to the media in the post as an 'enemy of the people' again. 
CNN’s Brian Stelter aired a call in response from public broadcasting network C-SPAN during which the caller threatened violence against the Reliable Sources host and a colleague who Trump had derided in a separate tweet.
The man, who claimed to be from State College, Pennsylvania and identified himself as 'Don' to C-SPAN, said in the Friday call that he would shoot Stelter and CNN host Don Lemon. 


+5


A supporter of President Donald Trump's threatened to shoot two CNN reporters during a call into a live broadcast on public television as the battle between the president and the press reached a boiling point


+5


Trump in a Sunday morning tweet said journalists are 'dangerous and sick' and 'can also cause war.' He referred to the media in the post as an 'enemy of the people' again

[size=10][size=18]Chilling moment C-SPAN caller threatens to shoot CNN hosts


L[/size][/size]

Don said that tensions between the press and the president 'all started' when Stelter and Lemon called all Trump supporters racists -- something that Stelter paused the recording of the threat to dispute.
'Come on. Give me a break. They started the war. I see 'em, I'm gonna shoot 'em. Bye,' the C-SPAN caller said.
Stelter told viewers of his Sunday morning program that he's 'not asking for sympathy' and does not believe he's 'in extreme danger' while acknowledging that press colleagues are routinely threatened.
He played a clip of MSNBC's Katy Tur in which the host who covered Trump on the campaign trail read aloud a disturbing message she'd received from a critic who said 'I hope you get raped and killed.' She said the threats of violence are inherently tied to the president, with the supporter who sent the nasty note using the Trump campaign's acronym MAGA.
New York Times columnist Bret Stephens on Friday recalled a chilling voicemail he received from stranger who used a racial slur against blacks and threatened to murder journalists.
'I don’t carry an AR but once we start shooting you f***ers you aren’t going to pop off like you do now. You’re worthless, the press is the enemy of the United States people and, you know what, rather than me shoot you, I hope a Mexican and, even better yet, I hope a n***er shoots you in the head, dead,' the unidentified male voice said.
Stephens said the call came in May shortly after a column he wrote defending ABC's decision to fire Roseanne Barr for racist commentary.
He brought up a July 20 meeting at which the publisher of the The Times, A.G. Sulzberger, told the president 'his language was not just divisive but increasingly dangerous.'
Sulzberger says he told the president that his calling journalists 'the enemy of the people' is 'contributing to a rise in threats against journalists and will lead to violence.'




+5


CNN’s Brian Stelter aired a call in response from public broadcasting network C-SPAN during which the caller threatened violence against the Reliable Sources host
Stephens wrote, 'What can’t be ignored is presidential behavior that might best be described as incitement. Maybe Trump supposes that the worst he’s doing is inciting the people who come to his rallies to give reporters like Jim Acosta the finger. And maybe he thinks that most journalists, with their relentless hostility to his personality and policies, richly deserve public scorn.
'Yet for every 1,000 or so Trump supporters whose contempt for the press rises only as far as their middle fingers, a few will be people like my caller. Of that few, how many are ready to take the next fatal step? In the age of the active shooter, the number isn’t zero.' 
He warned, 'We are approaching a day when blood on the newsroom floor will be blood on the president’s hands.'
Stelter later reflected on the dispute between the White House and the press over the president's charged rhetoric toward reporters and outlets he does not like in Sunday's episode of his Reliable Sources program. 
Trump had encouraged supporters at a Tuesday rally in Tampa to disparage the media, prompting vulgar gestures from the audience toward CNN's Jim Acosta.
The CNN reporter said in a Wednesday interview that he believes the behavior of the crowds have been 'dangerous for some time' as he argued that Trump is 'essentially putting targets on our backs.'
'I was worried during the campaign that a journalist was going to get hurt, and it has been building,' he said. 'But when you refer to members of the press as the enemy of the people, you’re essentially putting targets on our backs and it’s not just some Joe Schmo on a barstool in Kalamazoo saying this.'
Acosta said: 'This is the president of the United States. And that comes with a serious force behind it. And he has a lot of people out there who are extremely angry at us.'
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told journalists earlier in the day that 'the President condemns and denounces any group that would incite violence against another individual, and certainly doesn’t support groups that would promote that type of behavior.
'We’ve been clear about that a number of times since the beginning of the administration,' she stated. 'When it comes to the media, the President does think that the media holds a responsibility — we fully support a free press, but there also comes a high level of responsibility with that.'
Rally-goers attempted to keep Acosta from doing his job in Tampa, interrupting his reporting and declaring that 'CNN sucks' live to camera.
Sanders refused to condemn their behavior during her press briefing the following day. 
'While we certainly support freedom of the press, we also support freedom of speech, and we think that those things go hand in hand,' she said.


+5


He also played a clip of MSNBC's Katy Tur in which the host who covered Trump on the campaign trail read aloud a disturbing message she'd received from a critic who said 'I hope you get raped and killed


+5


Trump had encouraged supporters at a Tuesday rally in Tampa to disparage the media, prompting vulgar gestures from the audience toward CNN's Jim Acosta. At Thursday's White House press briefing, Acosta tried to get Sarah Sanders to walk back Trump's fiery rhetoric but she reufsed
On Thursday, Acosta was back in the briefing room, where he pressed Sanders to break with her boss and say that it is not her belief that journalists are the enemy of the people. She repeatedly declined to, instead saying, 'The media resorts to personal attacks without any content other than to incite anger.'
The very same morning the president's daughter, Ivanka, had declined to repeat her father's statements about the press during an on-camera interview with the news website Axios. 
Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Trump, also refused to call reporters the enemy of the people during an interview on CBS' 'Face the Nation' program on Sunday. 
Trump meanwhile hammered journalists in several tweets as 'fake news' as he refuted reports that he's concerned that his son Donald Trump Jr.could be in legal jeopardy in the special counsel investigation into Russian election meddling in 2016.
'The Fake News hates me saying that they are the Enemy of the People only because they know it’s TRUE. I am providing a great service by explaining this to the American People,' he said in his rant. 'They purposely cause great division & distrust. They can also cause War! They are very dangerous & sick!'
He had on Friday evening referred to CNN's Lemon in a tweet as 'the dumbest man on television.'

Impeachment is too good for Trump. I wish upon him and his family every evil, despicable thing he has unleashed upon the rest of us. As he works to destroy our country we must work to destroy him. Take away his money. Take away his power. Put them all in a Trump tower and build a wall around it so high and thick they'll never get out.

(Sorry for the rant.  It's hot, I'm cranky and I have to vent.)

Just a thought on why impeachment may not be a great idea: Mike Pence. He's much more conservative than Drumpf and light years smarter (although I could say that about a goldfish, too). If Drumpf is impeached Pence is president for at least the rest of Drump's term in office - which gives him time to solidify a base and also do a lot of damage. Best to wait until 2020 and beat them overwhelmingly at the polls.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6032729/U-S-Attorney-General-Sessions-condemns-federal-courts-decision-protect-DACA-kids.html

[size=34]U.S. Attorney General Sessions condemns federal court's decision to protect DACA kids from deportation[/size]

•  U.S. Attorney General Sessions blasted federal judge's decision to uphold DACA
  
  
• District Judge John Bates on Friday said government must resume the program, which shields immigrants from deportation who were brought here by parents
  
  
• Trump administration has until August 23 to appeal the decision, though Sessions stopped short of saying the government will pursue that option  
  
  

By VALERIE BAUMAN SOCIAL AFFAIRS REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 16:00 EDT, 6 August 2018 | UPDATED: 16:00 EDT, 6 August 2018

    


U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday condemned a federal court decision to protect a program that shields an estimated 700,000 immigrants from deportation because their parents brought them over as minors.
U.S. District Judge John Bates on Friday said the government must resume the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, though the Department of Justice has until August 23 to appeal the decision.
Sessions, a Republican, said DOJ officials 'strongly disagree' with the order that blocked the agency's attempt to end DACA – but stopped short of saying the government would appeal the decision. DOJ officials did not immediately respond to questions from DailyMail.com.


+2


Dreamers protest in front of the U.S. Capitol to urge Congress to pass the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, in December 2017 in Washington, DC
'The Department of Justice will take every lawful measure to vindicate the Department of Homeland Security's lawful rescission of DACA,' Sessions said in the statement.

He criticized the Democratic Obama administration for establishing the program in 2012 through a memorandum issued by then-Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano.
'The last administration violated its duty to enforce our immigration laws by directing and implementing a categorical, multipronged non-enforcement immigration policy for a massive group of illegal aliens,' Sessions said.


Bates, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, in April gave the Trump administration 90 days to restate its argument to end the program benefitting a class of young immigrants also known as 'Dreamers.'
In his decision Friday out of Washington D.C., Bates said the government's argument for why it should be allowed to rescind DACA 'fails to elaborate meaningfully on the agency's primary rationale for its decision: the judgement that the policy was unlawful and unconstitutional.'
Sessions said Monday that the Trump administration's actions on DACA 'simply re-established the legal policies consistent with the law.'


+2


U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday condemned a federal court decision to protect a program that shields an estimated 700,000 immigrants from deportation because their parents brought them over as minors
He asserted the government had the authority and a 'duty' to withdraw the policy laid out under Obama, which extends renewable two year grants of deferred immigration action against people who were brought to the U.S. as children.
Dreamers were only eligible if they had arrived in the country prior to their 16th birthday; attended or graduated from school; were under age 31; and had continuously resided in this country. Anyone who has been convicted of a felony or significant misdemeanour is disqualified.
Sessions sought to reverse those protections in September 2017 in a letter to the Department of Homeland Security in which he said the program was 'an open-ended circumvention of immigration laws' and 'an unconstitutional exercise of authority by the Executive Branch.'
Sessions also expressed frustration with several other non-specified recent court decisions related to immigration, saying the courts have 'improperly used judicial power to steer, enjoin, modify and direct executive policy.'
Other recent cases include an order that the government to take responsibility for reuniting immigrant families that officials had separated at the southern U.S. border.
Courts in California and New York had also previously required the federal government to continue processing DACA renewals, though the D.C. case is the only one to also apply to new applications.
Despite the decision Friday, the Homeland Security website still said it would not accept new requests from Dreamers.

The number of times I think 'I can't believe this is happening in a democratic country' is increasing by the day....................

PAN - You have no idea how much I wish I could be watching this mess fro your side of the pond.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6035635/White-House-wants-make-harder-LEGAL-immigrants-citizens.html

[size=34]Now the White House wants to make it harder for LEGAL immigrants to become citizens – if they've ever gotten welfare or used Obamacare[/size]

• The proposal would limit the number of migrants who can obtain green cards or become American citizens 
  
  
• The plan does not require Congressional approval
  
  
• It would affect immigrants who are labeled a 'public charge' - someone who depends on the government for more than half their income
  
  
• More than 20 million migrants could be affected by the change in rules 
  
  

By EMILY GOODIN, U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER AT DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 10:20 EDT, 7 August 2018 | UPDATED: 11:44 EDT, 7 August 2018

    



President Donald Trump's administration is preparing a new proposal that would make it harder for legal immigrants to become citizens if they've ever gotten a welfare check, availed themselves of food stamps, or used Obamacare.
The plan is the brain child of White House senior adviser Stephen Miller and would limit the number of migrants who can become American citizens or obtain green cards,NBC News reported.
Such a plan would not need Congressional approval and would affect migrants who get labeled a 'public charge' - someone who is dependent on the government for more than half of personal income.


+5


A new proposal from President Trump's administration would make it harder for migrants to become citizens and could affect up to 20 million immigrants


+5


White House adviser Stephen Miller is the brain child behind the new policy
Broadening the definition of 'public charge' would include those who partake of public programs such Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, nonemergency Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program [SNAP], the Women, Infants, and Children Program [WIC], and subsidized health insurance through the marketplaces created by the Affordable Care Act.

An estimated 19 percent of noncitizen adults and 38 percent of noncitizen children were enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP in 2016, the New England Journal of Medicineestimates. 
And the change in the 'public charge' definition could increase the number of uninsured people by more than 1 million, the medical journal estimates.  
Immigration lawyers estimated to NBC News that more than 20 million migrants could be affected in what would be the biggest change to immigration policy in decades.


A version of Miller's proposal has been sent to the White House Office of Management and Budget, which is the final step before the rule is published in the federal register.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, which would implement the changes, told NBC: 'The administration is committed to enforcing existing immigration law, which is clearly intended to protect the American taxpayer by ensuring that foreign nationals seeking to enter or remain in the U.S are self-sufficient. Any proposed changes would ensure that the government takes the responsibility of being good stewards of taxpayer funds seriously and adjudicates immigration benefit requests in accordance with the law.'
Miller, 32, has grown a reputation for being the most biggest immigration hawk in Trump's White House.
He played a key role in developing Trump's 'zero tolerance' immigration policy that resulted in migrant children being separate from their families. It engulfed the White House in a political firestorm that resulted in members of both parties and all five living first ladies criticizing the president for its harshness.



+5


New U.S. citizens recite the Pledge of Allegiance during naturalization ceremony at the New York Public Library in July


+5


New U.S. citizen Mosammat Rasheda Akter holds her 7 month-old daughter Fahmida as she sings the U.S. National Anthem during naturalization ceremony at the New York Public Library


+5


Stephen Miller has cultivated a reputation for being an immigration hawk
Miller said the American people were warned the president would be tough on immigration. 
'The American people were warned—let me [be] sarcastic when I remark on that—[they] were quote-unquote warned by Hillary Clinton that if they elected Donald Trump, he would enforce an extremely tough immigration policy, crack down on illegal immigration, deport people who were here illegally, improve our vetting and screening, and all these other things,' he told The Atlantic earlier this year. 'And many people replied to that by voting for Donald Trump.'
Miller also worked with former White House adviser Stephen Bannon on the travel ban, that barred travel to the United States from seven majority-Muslim countries.
In fiscal year 2016, 1.2 million immigrants obtained a green card and 753,060 became U.S. citizens, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
But information from the first quarter of fiscal year 2018 indicates the Trump administration is on track to see a 20 percent decline in green card holders while naturalized citizens will drop by 10 percent.

By contrast, here's the charming General Mattis taking an impromptu press conference today.......a true statesman.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jB_SQuL8XWU&t=233s

Yes PAN.  Mattis is an honorable man who has chosen I assume to stick it out as Defense Secretary for the sake of our country.  He handles himself with dignity and treats the press with respect.  Which is sadly saying a lot for what is otherwise a corrupt and illegitimate administration.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6037563/South-Carolina-TV-manufacturer-says-Trumps-tariffs-pushed-lay-126-134-staff.html

[size=34]TV manufacturer says Trump's tariffs on goods from China have forced them to lay off 94% of their staff at their South Carolina plant - leaving just EIGHT employees in the company[/size]

• Element Electronics shared it close its Winnsboro, South Carolina, location in October and let go of 126 of its employees
  
  
• The company claimed that 'the new tariffs that were recently and unexpectedly imposed on many goods imported from China' resulted in the news 
  
  
• Element Electronics hopes to reopen its doors in three to six months after their closing date
  
  
• A skeleton crew of roughly eight employees will stay at the facility
  
  

By MATTHEW WRIGHT FOR DAILYMAIL.COM 
PUBLISHED: 20:27 EDT, 7 August 2018 | UPDATED: 22:31 EDT, 7 August 2018

    




A TV manufacturer based in South Carolina have blamed Trump's trade tariffs for laying off 94 percent of their workforce. 
Element Electronics now has just eight employees in their company after letting 126 members of staff go.
They said the tariffs imposed on goods from China mean they can no longer buy essential components for their TVs. 
Element Electronics sent a Worker Adjustment and Restraining Notification notice on Monday to the announcing the news.

In the filing to the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce on Monday, the company shared that it would be closing its Winnsboro, South Carolina, as a result, Newsweek reports. 
Just eight of the 134 full-time employees were said to have retained their jobs, with the other 126 expected to be out of work when the plant is closed. 


+4


Element Electronics announced that it has been forced to close its Winnsboro, South Carolina, and blamed Trump's trade tariffs. They say they were forced to let go of 94 percent of their workforce. Now just eight people work at the company 
Also mentioned in the notice, was that the company did not plan on 'bumping' - meaning that all staff are at risk for being laid off at the same rate. 


+4


According to a list of the positions being let go, 64 of them come from assembler while 11 have titles associated with Warehouse Associate. Titles related to President, VP of Human Resources and VP of Finance were also listed
According to a list of the positions being let go, 64 of them come from assembler while 11 have titles associated with Warehouse Associate. Titles related to President, VP of Human Resources and VP of Finance were also listed. 
Element Electronics hopes to reopen its doors in three to six months after their closing date. 
A skeleton crew of roughly eight employees will stay at the facility.  
On Facebook, the company released a statement claiming that it was working to get the issue resolved.   
'As we are the only USA assembler of televisions, we believe the inclusion of our parts on the list of affected products is accidental and resolvable,' they said in the post.
'Element is working hard to have our parts removed from the tariff list and we remain hopeful that the closure of our South Carolina factory will be avoided. 
'Until then, everyone at Element, especially the potentially impacted teammates at the factory, are completely committed to business-as-usual at an otherwise thriving Element.
South Carolina's job market - a state that voted for President Donald Trump with 54.9 percent and 9 electoral votes -  has taken a beating since the tariffs were implemented.




+4


'Element is working hard to have our parts removed from the tariff list and we remain hopeful that the closure of our South Carolina factory will be avoided,' the company said in a Facebook post on Tuesday
Element Electronics had been Fairfield County's largest employer, following a Walmart closing in 2016, The Slate reports. 
The announcement of the lay offs comes just a year after the last remaining local textile mill closed and lost 200 jobs. 
Volvo announced that plans may have to halt for the hiring of 4,000 employees for a new plant in South Carolina. German automaker BMW also said - in a message to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross - that 45,000 jobs are at risk in the state because of the tariffs.   


+4


South Carolina's job market - a state that voted for President Donald Trump with 54.9percent and 9 electoral votes - has taken a beating since the tariff

And your point is....? If you think this will make a bit of difference to his base", I think you're wrong. They could be dropping dead of starvation in the streets and would still believe the Liar-In-Chief "has a plan". He does, but it has nothing to do with helping them - just himself.

Don't forget helping his friends.

This is very interesting!

https://www.kansas.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/pivot-point/article216336740.html

Mr Kobach also appears to be the head of department in charge of elections!

Yep! And the one who decides how much it will cost his opponent if he calls for a recount. Kobach should recuse himself. I wonder if he will.

I knew the person calling for a recount had to pay for it, but I didn't know how the amount was determined or who determined it. I don't know if it's the same in every state. Honestly, I'm too lazy to look it up. I do know that I've been inundated with emails begging for money to help Danny O'Connor in Ohio.The race is so close there probably will be a recount but I've reached my limit. I hope he wins, but I can't afford another donation right now. (There are probably at least 20 other candidates and organizations sending urgent emails begging for donations. If I sent them all money Id be broke!)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6044693/Court-EPA-violated-law-harmful-pesticide-orders-ban.html

[size=34]Court orders EPA to ban widely used pesticide linked to brain damage in babies and slams the Trump administration for endangering public health by keeping it on the market[/size]

• EPA told to remove chlorpyrifos from sale in the United States within 60 days 
  
  
• Environmental groups sued last year after ex-EPA chief reversed Obama ban
  
  
• Court ruled Scott Pruitt violated federal law by ignoring scientists' warnings
  
  
• 2012 found 87 percent of umbilical-chord blood samples had levels of pesticide
  
  
• Chlorpyrifos have similar chemical structure to Nazi-era chemical warfare agent 
  
  

By RORY TINGLE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM  and ASSOCIATED PRESS
PUBLISHED: 13:58 EDT, 9 August 2018 | UPDATED: 18:38 EDT, 9 August 2018

    




A federal appeals court ruled on Thursday that the Trump administration endangered public health by keeping a widely used pesticide on the market despite extensive scientific evidence that even tiny levels of exposure can harm babies' brains.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to remove chlorpyrifos from sale in the United States within 60 days.
A coalition of farmworkers and environmental groups sued last year after then-EPA chief Scott Pruitt reversed an Obama-era effort to ban chlorpyrifos, which is widely sprayed on citrus fruit, apples and other crops. 


+3


A coalition of farmworkers and environmental groups sued last year after then-EPA chief Scott Pruitt (pictured on Capitol Hill on May 16) reversed an Obama-era effort to ban chlorpyrifos, which is widely sprayed on citrus fruit, apples and other crops 
The attorneys general for several states joined the case against EPA, including California, New York and Massachusetts.

In a split decision, the court said Thursday that Pruitt, a Republican forced to resign earlier this summer amid a raft of ethics scandals, violated federal law by ignoring the conclusions of agency scientists that chlorpyrifos is harmful.
'The panel held that there was no justification for the EPA's decision in its 2017 order to maintain a tolerance for chlorpyrifos in the face of scientific evidence that its residue on food causes neurodevelopmental damage to children,' Judge Jed S. Rakoff wrote in the court's opinion.
Michael Abboud, spokesman for acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, said the agency was reviewing the decision, but it had been unable to 'fully evaluate the pesticide using the best available, transparent science.'


EPA could potentially appeal to the Supreme Court since one member of the three-judge panel dissented from the majority ruling.
Environmental groups and public health advocates celebrated the court's action as a major success.
'Some things are too sacred to play politics with, and our kids top the list,' said Erik Olson, senior director of health and food at the Natural Resources Defense Council. 
'The court has made it clear that children's health must come before powerful polluters. This is a victory for parents everywhere who want to feed their kids fruits and veggies without fear it's harming their brains or poisoning communities.'


+3


The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to remove chlorpyrifos from sale in the United States within 60 days. Pictured: A farm worker spraying pesticides onto crops in a field
The attorneys general of California and New York also claimed victory.
'This is one more example of how then-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt skirted the law and endangered the health of our children - in this case, all because he refused to curb pesticide levels found in food,' Attorney General Xavier Becerra of California said in a statement.
Chlorpyrifos was created by Dow Chemical Co. in the 1960s. It remains among the most widely used agricultural pesticides in the United States, with the chemical giant selling about 5 million pounds domestically each year through its subsidiary Dow AgroSciences.
Dow did not respond to an email seeking comment. In past statements, the company has contended the chemical helps American farmers feed the world 'with full respect for human health and the environment.'
Chlorpyrifos belongs to a family of organophosphate pesticides that are chemically similar to a chemical warfare agent developed by Nazi Germany before World War II.
As a result of its wide use as a pesticide over the past four decades, traces of chlorpyrifos are commonly found in sources of drinking water.
A 2012 study at the University of California at Berkeley found that 87 percent of umbilical-cord blood samples tested from newborn babies contained detectable levels of the pesticide.
Under pressure from federal regulators, Dow voluntarily withdrew chlorpyrifos for use as a home insecticide in 2000. EPA also placed 'no-spray' buffer zones around sensitive sites, such as schools, in 2012.
In October 2015, the Obama administration proposed banning the pesticide's use on food. A risk assessment memo issued by nine EPA scientists concluded: 'There is a breadth of information available on the potential adverse neurodevelopmental effects in infants and children as a result of prenatal exposure to chlorpyrifos.'
Federal law requires EPA to ensure that pesticides used on food in the United States are safe for human consumption - especially children, who are typically far more sensitive to the negative effects of poisons.


+3


Chlorpyrifos belongs to a family of organophosphate pesticides that are chemically similar to a chemical warfare agent developed by Nazi Germany before World War II
Shortly after his appointment by President Donald Trump in 2017, Pruitt announced he was revering the Obama administration effort to ban chlorpyrifos, adopting Dow's position that the science showing chlorpyrifos is harmful was inconclusive and flawed.
In June 2017, Pruitt announced his agency's reversal on chlorpyrifos just 20 days after his official schedule showed a meeting with Dow CEO Andrew Liveris.
At the time, Liveris headed a White House manufacturing working group, and his company had written a $1 million check to help underwrite Trump's inaugural festivities.
Then-EPA spokeswoman Liz Bowman said that March 9, 2017, meeting on Pruitt's schedule never happened. 
Bowman said the two men had instead shared only a 'brief introduction in passing' while attending the same industry conference at a Houston hotel and that they never discussed chlorpyrifos.
However, internal EPA emails released earlier this year following a public records lawsuit filed by The Sierra Club suggest the two men shared more than a quick handshake.
Little more than a week after the conference and before Pruitt announced his decision, the EPA chief's scheduler reached out to Liveris' executive assistant to schedule a follow-up meeting.
'Hope this email finds you well!' wrote Sydney Hupp, Pruitt's assistant, on March 20, 2017. 
'I am reaching out today about setting up a meeting to continue the discussion between Dow Chemical and Administrator Scott Pruitt. 
'My apologies for the delay in getting this email into you - it has been a crazy time over here!'
Subsequent emails show Hupp and Liveris' office discussing several potential dates that the Dow CEO might come to Pruitt's office at EPA headquarters, but it is not clear from the documents whether the two men ever linked up.
Liveris announced his retirement from Dow in March of this year.
Pruitt resigned July 6 amid more than a dozen ethics investigations focused on such issues as outsized security spending, first-class flights and a sweetheart condo lease for a Capitol Hill condo linked to an energy lobbyist.
Bowman, who left EPA in May to work for GOP Sen. Joni Ernest of Iowa, declined to comment on her earlier characterization of the March 2017 interaction between Pruitt and Liveris or what 'discussion' the internal email was referring to.
'I don't work for EPA anymore,' Bowman said.
ADVERTISEMENT

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6044835/Judge-threatens-hold-Jeff-Sessions-contempt-deporting-asylum-seeker-daughter.html

[size=34]'Turn the plane around!' Judge threatens to hold Jeff Sessions in contempt after Trump administration tries to deport asylum-seeker and her daughter during their lawsuit hearing[/size]

• ACLU was arguing new lawsuit Thursday on behalf of asylum-seekers who were turned down on the basis of AG Jeff Sessions' revised standards
  
  
• Both sides' lawyers agreed to pause deportation of one plaintiff and her daughter; word reached the courtroom that she was on her way out of the U.S.
  
  
• Judge Emmet Sullivan went ballistic that the woman was being 'spirited away while her attorneys are arguing for justice for her'
  
  
• Sullivan ordered the government to halt and 'turn the plane around' if needed, and threatened to hold Sessions in contempt of court 
  
  

By DAVID MARTOSKO, U.S. POLITICAL EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 15:30 EDT, 9 August 2018 | UPDATED: 15:30 EDT, 9 August 2018

    






+4


Judge Emmet Sullivan halted an apparent deportation in progress Thursday and threatened to hold Attorney General Jeff Sessions in contempt after learning the Trump administration tried to remove a woman and her daughter while a hearing about their asylum requests was underway
A federal judge hit the roof on Thursday after learning that the Trump administration may have deported a mother and daughter while they were appealing a decision that denied them asylum in the U.S.
'Turn the plane around!' ordered Judge Emmet Sullivan, saying the government's behavior 'is not acceptable.'
'This is pretty outrageous,' he lectured Justice Department lawyers, threatening to hold Attorney General Jeff Sessions in contempt of court. 'Someone seeking justice in U.S. court is spirited away while her attorneys are arguing for justice for her?'

The Washington Post reported on the courtroom clash, which came during a hearing in a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union.
The liberal group, by now accustomed to representing illegal immigrants and asylum-seekers in court, had struck a deal with the DOJ to halt proceedings against the woman, known only as 'Carmen,' until midnight Thursday.
But during a court recess, ACLU lawyers found out that the woman and her daughter had already been moved from the South Texas Family Residential Center – the nation's largest detention facility for illegal immigrants and other potential deportees.


+4


Sessions in June dramatically pared back the criteria for granting asylum in the U.S., excluding people whose claim was based on gang or domestic violence – and saying those problems were for their home governments to address


+4


Women fleeing poverty and violence arrive in the U.S. daily with their children, seeking asylum based on 'credible fear' of returning home; there are more than 700,000 pending asylum cases, more than twice the number when Barack Obama took office in 2009 (stock photo)
From there, they learned, she may already have been taken to the San Antonio airport and put on an 8:15 s.m. flight back to Central America.
Carmen and her daughter were not separated when they crossed the border, but their chances of remaining in the U.S. were slim after she failed a 'credible fear' test designed to determine whether her asylum claim could be honored.
Successful applicants typically enter the country to flee persecution because of their race, religion, nationality or political views.
Membership in what bureaucrats described decades ago as a 'particular social group' also qualifies.
But Sessions dramatically limited that category in June, ruling out border-crossers who claim asylum because they are victims of domestic abuse or gang violence – unless the brutality originates with their home governments.
Otherwise, the attorney general argued, protected 'social groups' include only people who share a 'common immutable [unalterable] characteristic.'



+4


The South Texas Residential Facility in Dilley, Texas is where the ACLU's plaintiff and her daughter were being held, and from which they apparently were taken en route to a deportation flight on Thursday
Sessions' unexpected announcement negated a comparatively more vague 2014 Board of Immigration Appeals ruling that married women in developing countries 'who are unable to leave their relationship' can be considered a 'particular social group' for asylum purposes.
The Obama administration argued at the time that the woman's gender was 'immutable.' And because she was a Roman Catholic from predominantly Catholic Guatemala, her married status was also beyond her control to reverse.
All 12 of the ACLU's lawsuit plaintiffs would have been permitted to stay under the old rules. One said she was repeatedly raped by a former boyfriend who also physically beat her daughter severely enough to cause a miscarriage.


Others say they fled violent drug gangs who killed their relatives and, in one case, took over their homes.
The Trump administration has argued that traffickers see the 'credible fear' test as a loophole that allows them to get their human cargo into the United States, so long as they can memorize the right things to say.
From there, Sessions has argued, asylum-seekers are typically released into the interior of the country while they await hearings, often years away. Many disappear instead of showing up.





In changing the standards for seeking asylum, Sessions said in June that 'the mere fact that a country may have problems effectively policing certain crimes, such as domestic violence or gang violence, or that certain populations are more likely to be victims of crime, cannot itself establish an asylum claim.'
ACLU attorney Jennifer Chang Newell declared this week in a statement that changing the standard was 'a naked attempt by the Trump administration to eviscerate our country's asylum protections.'
'It’s clear the administration's goal is to deny and deport as many people as possible, as quickly as possible,' she said.
There are about 700,000 backlogged asylum cases crawling through federal courts, according to the DOJ. That number is more than triple what it was when Barack Obama became president in 2009.

Three cheers for Judge Sullivan! 

I’ve  never seen so much corruption and such lack of regard for people and the environment as I’ve seen from this joke of an administration.

And yet his base still loves him. If I hear one more Evangelical "Christian" say they don't care what Trump does - they can forgive him - as long as he does away with abortion and closes our borders, I'm going to scream. Jesus must be weeping! I'd love to be a fly on the wall when these hypocrites try to explain their "Christianity" to St .Peter at the pearly gates.

Yep, Lizzy.

Very good to see that George and Amal are doing their bit to support those acting on behalf of the immigrant children..............

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6048029/Trump-aligned-governor-hopeful-says-hell-let-certify-not-hes-won.html

[size=34]Kris Kobach says he WILL recuse himself from overseeing recount in his own knife's-edge race[/size]

• Kris Kobach is an immigration hard-liner who Republicans fear could lose in Nov.
  
  
• He led Trump's now-shuttered commission on voter fraud, which found none
  
  
• Kobach is leading by about 0.004 per cent in GOP primary race for governor
  
  
• 311,000 Kansas Republicans cast ballots on Tuesday and Kobach leads by 121, with between 8,000 and 10,000 provisional ballots still outstanding
  
  
• As Kansas secretary of state, Kobach would be in charge of certifying a recount
  
  
• But now he says he'll recuse himself from that role in a 'symbolic' move; his office's job is limited to receiving totals from county officials 
  
  
• He will also get to decide how large a bond his opponent must post before recounting can start
  
  

By DAVID MARTOSKO, U.S. POLITICAL EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 11:35 EDT, 10 August 2018 | UPDATED: 11:56 EDT, 10 August 2018

    




Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach said Thursday night that following a request from his oppponent in Tuesday's gubernatorial primary, he will delegate his responsibility to oversee an inevitable statewide recount of votes. 
The Trump-backed conservative holds a meager 121-vote lead against incumbent GOP governor Jeff Colyer, a stunningly small margin in a race where more than 311,000 Republicans cast ballots.
That could change when officials count between 8,000 and 10,000 provisional ballots, which are typically issued when voters show up at the wrong polling place or try to vote in person after requesting absentee ballots. 
No matter which candidate ends up on top, it will be close enough to allow the loser to ask for a recount. And after saying Wednesday on the Fox News Channel that he had no objection to letting someone else certify the result, he said a day later on CNN that he would take the 'symbolic' step.

'There's really no point to doing it, because the secretary of state actually has no role in the counting of provisional ballots, or any recount,' Kobach said. 'But I said if my opponent wishes me to, I'd be happy to.'


+11


Trump ally Kris Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state, is leading by about 0.004 per cent in his state's GOP primary race for governor; he's decided to step back from his job's responsibility for certifying what will be an inevitable recount


+11


Kansas Governor Jeff Colyer is fighting to avoid being swept aside by the more conservative Kobach; it will be days before the race is settled, and his 121-vote deficit could easily vanish


+11


Kobach is leading by 0.004 per cent after Tuesday's primary; as Kansas secretary of state, he would be in charge of certifying the recount – but now he's recusing himself from that duty
'It's purely symbolic," he added 'I don't think [Colyer] understands the process.'
Kobach had said on Fox that recounts are carried out by county election officials: 'All the secretary of state does is just receive the numbers from the counties ... [but] if my opponent insists I recuse, so that the numbers are sent to somebody else, we can certainly do that.' 
The Trump ally hasn't said if he will recuse himself from deciding the potential price tag for a vote counting do-over.
If the margin ends up closer than 0.5 per cent – a total of 1,555 votes at the moment – the state will pay for it.
And were the result to flip, the candidate who issued the challenge wouldn't be on the hook for the expense no matter how wide the margin was to begin with.
But if Colyer should end up trailing by more than 0.5 per cent, Kobach would be responsible for securing a bond from his opponent to cover the costs in the event that he lost a second time.
Kobach would also be allowed to name that price.
Election attorney Mark Johnson told The Kansas City Star that Kobach 'should not decide that. That is a conflict, in my opinion.'
'He could set the bond so high that no one could afford that,' Johnson explained. 


+11


Kobach told Fox News on Wednesday that there's no reason for him to recuse himself from the recount procedure that could ultimately benefit him, but he said a day later that he would take the 'symbolic' step anyway

No matter the circumstances, a recount could take weeks. That will give Democratic nominee Laura Kelly, a state senator, a head-start on November.
But the eventual GOP candidate will have a natural advantage in the deep-red state: Republicans outnumbered Democrats more than 2-to-1 at the polls on Tuesday.
Kobach's lead in the tight contest was 191 after Tuesday night, but election officials in two counties have since revised their numbers. One awarded Colyer 100 votes that he was originally denied. Recalculations from the other enlarged Kobach's edge by 30.
No Kansas law requires Kobach to step aside and delegate the bond-setting and vote certification to a deputy.
And while Kobach acknowledged that he may end up in second place, he plans to start battling against Kelly right away.
'It is imperative that we begin running, understanding that this is a tentative victory,' he told the Star, 'and that I am carrying the baton for this first week with the full knowledge that I may hand the baton to Jeff if the provisional ballots change the outcome.'
President Donald Trump left no doubt about his leanings on Monday, disregarding aides' advice and tweeting that Kobach had his 'full & total Endorsement!'




+11


Kobach won President Donald Trump's endorsement Monday in the Republican primary contest for governor


+11


Trump, pictured last week at a Pennsylvania rally, is loyal to Kobach, who was in the running to be Homeland Security secretary; but Republican Party insiders fear the right-winger could lose to a Democrat in November


+11


The president said this week that Kobach had his 'full & total Endorsement'
Kobach led the president's 2017 voter fraud commission, which disbanded in January after identifying no evidence to support Trump's post-election claim that millions of people had voted illegally.
He had wasted no time in late 2016 backing Trump's unsubstantiated claim that 'millions' of people had illegally cast votes for Hillary Clinton.
This year the self-styled ballot purity crusader attracted a more direct pushback over the same issue in his home state.
A federal judge raked him over the coals in March for his defense of a state law requiring Kansans to prove they were U.S. citizens before registering to vote.
That stood in conflict with the 1993 federal 'motor-voter' law, which allows for voter registration wherever driver's licenses are issued, without any extra paperwork.
A 2016 federal appeals court ruling struck down similar requirements in three states.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the League of Women Voters have both successfully argued in court that proving U.S. citizenship during voter registration prevents some eligible voters from exercising their franchise.
In this year's trial, Kobach could only prove 11 people successfully cast ballots despite not being U.S. citizens.
The lightning-rod politician insisted in court that it was just the 'tip of the iceberg.' Chief District Judge Julie A. Robinson called it an 'icicle' instead.
A month later Kobach missed Robinson's deadline from two years earlier, failing to send postcards to eligible voters who had been prevented from registering because they didn't prove they were citizens.


+11




+11



U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson (left) delivered one legal setback after another to Kobach in a case about whether the state could require prospective voters to prove when they register that they are legal U.S. citizens


+11


Kobach became a national punchline a few weeks after the 2016 election when he left a meeting with Trump while allowing photographers to see the policy proposals under his left arm


+11


The document showed a raft of ideas about border security along with a proposal to amend the National Voter Rights Act to require proof of citizenship in the future
Robinson held him in contempt of court, closing the book on just one in a series of unforced errors. Last week she fined him more than $26,000 to cover the ACLU's legal fees in arguing the contempt motion.
Kobach, a Yale-educated lawyer and former law professor who represented his own office at trial, had tried to present some pieces of evidence in court that he hadn't shared with his opponents; and others that the judge had ordered couldn't be shown.
He also filed a brief without deleting a side-note that one of its claims was 'probably not worth arguing.'
This time Robinson ordered him to take 6 hours of remedial legal education concerning 'federal or Kansas civil rules of procedure or evidence.'
She had already fined him $1,000 in 2017 for misleading her about the nature of a document he was photographed carrying under his arm after a meeting with then-President-Elect Trump just weeks after the election, at a time when he was being vetted to lead the Homeland Security Department.
One of Kobach's written proposals to Trump read: 'Draft Amendments to [the] National Voter Registration Act to promote proof-of-citizenship requirements.'
Only the first five words were visible in news photos. Robinson ultimately demanded the document and saw the full context.
In her final ruling, a stinging defeat for Kobach, she slammed him for having a 'well-documented history of avoiding this Court’s orders.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6049431/Authorities-ban-skateboards-bats-rocks-Charlottesville-rally-GUNS-permitted.html

[size=34]EXCLUSIVE: ‘If someone turns up with a loaded AR-15 they will be allowed in': Authorities ban skateboards and bats from Charlottesville rally but GUNS are permitted as police descend on city a year after Unite the Right protest[/size]

• Items including bats and sticks will be banned from Charlottesville this weekend
  
  
• However, there is nothing to stop anyone bringing an actual gun to the city
  
  
• ‘Under Virginia law we cannot regulate firearms,’ a city spokesman said 
  
  
• Virginia city is approaching anniversary of last year’s deadly Unite the Right rally
  
  
• Heather Heyer, 32, was killed when she was mowed down close to the park
  
  

By MARTIN GOULD IN CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA, FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 21:53 EDT, 10 August 2018 | UPDATED: 00:07 EDT, 11 August 2018

    




No paintball guns, no skateboards, no bats, sticks or clubs. And don’t even think about bringing bear spray or flying a drone into the center of Charlottesville this weekend.
But while those items — and many more — are banned from the on-edge Virginia city as it marks the anniversary of last year’s deadly Unite the Right rally, there is nothing to stop anyone bringing in an actual gun, even an AR-15, the weapon of choice for mass killers throughout the United States.
‘Under Virginia law we cannot regulate firearms,’ city spokesman Brian Wheeler told DailyMail.com.
A handful of other cities in the state have that right, Wheeler said. Following last year’s violence, Charlottesville applied to be added to the list but was turned down.

‘It certainly does strike me as sensible, but it’s the law,’ he said.


+7


The spot where Heather Heyer, 32, was killed last year has been renamed Heather Heyer Way


+7


The spot is covered with flowers and anti-hate chalk messages as the anniversary of her death approaches

Charlottesville city elders issued a list of items that will be banned from an 18-block area in the city center all weekend just as hundreds of state police officers descended on the university town, determined to prevent a repeat of last year’s violence.
‘Lengths of lumber or wood’ are among the items included on the banned list — without specifically saying how long a length is. ‘Metal beverage or food cans or containers’ are also forbidden, as are glass bottles.'
But the only mention of guns was ‘BB guns, pellet guns, air rifles or pistols, paintball guns and stun guns.’ There was no mention of the real thing.


AR-15 semi-automatic rifles, the type of weapon which was used to kill 58 people and in last year’s Las Vegas shooting, 49 revelers at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in 2016, 20 first-graders and six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Connecticut in 2012 and 14 students and three faculty members at a high school in Parkland, Florida in February are not mentioned.
Handguns and rifles are equally nowhere to be found.
‘If someone turns up with a loaded AR-15 they will be allowed in,’ said Wheeler.
The full list of prohibited items issued by the city reads: ‘BB guns, pellet guns, air rifles or pistols, paintball guns, nunchucks, tasers, stun guns, heavy gauge metal chains, lengths of lumber or wood, poles, bricks, rocks, metal beverage or food cans or containers, glass bottles, axes, axe handles, hatchets, ice picks, acidic or caustic materials, hazardous or flammable or combustible liquids, skateboards, swords, knives, daggers, razor blades or other sharp items, metal pipes, pepper or bear spray, mace, aerosol sprays, catapults, wrist rockets, bats, sticks, clubs, drones, explosives, fireworks, open fire or open flames, and any other item considered an “implement of riot.”’
People wearing masks and hoods will also be stopped from going inside the city center.


+7


Hundreds of state police officers descended on the university town, determined to prevent a repeat of last year’s violence


+7


Buses containing police are pictured arriving at the University of Virginia Basketball stadium ahead of the anniversary


+7


Heather Heyer, 32, (pictured) was protesting the racists was killed when she was mowed down close to the park

[size=18]Shocking aerial footage of car attack in Charlottesville in 2017




Loade[/size]






Charlottesville authorities say they are doing all they can to keep the city safe. Some 700 state police and 300 members of the Virginia National Guard have been brought in to bolster the city’s own police department.
Dozens of state police cars were driving round the University of Virginia campus where the extra cops are housed in the John Paul Jones basketball arena, and a state of emergency was declared.
‘It’s like they have every cop this side of the Mississippi in town,’ local resident Marybeth Collins told DailyMail.com as she walked in Emancipation Park, the epicenter of last year’s rally.
The retired teacher said she feels there will be no repeat of last year’s violence which was sparked by a rally to protest the proposed removal of a 26-ft. high bronze statue of Robert E. Lee on horseback, the centerpiece of the park — which was known as Lee Park until June last year.
‘Obviously they weren’t prepared last year. This year I think they are.’
John Kessler, the organizer of last year’s rally, has been denied a permit this year. But he has won the right to hold a protest close to the White House, in Washington, D.C. on Sunday.
Wheeler said Kessler has the right to turn up in Charlottesville so long as he does not organize a rally of more than 50 people. ‘We just don’t know whether he will be here.’
The city spokesman said he expected around 1,000 protestors in town, but admitted that figure could be way off.
The Lee statue — which is on the National Register of Historic Places — still stands in the park. Following last year’s violence, the city ordered it to be shrouded in black while legal maneuvers to remove it were worked out. But in February this year a judge ordered the shroud to be lifted.
Last year’s rally led by white supremacist Richard Spencer attracted many more counter-protestors than demonstrators. 


+7


‘It’s like they have every cop this side of the Mississippi in town,’ local resident Marybeth Collins (pictured) told DailyMail.com as she walked in Emancipation Park, the epicenter of last year’s rally. She is seen in front of the 26-ft. high bronze statue of Robert E. Lee on horseback
Heather Heyer, 32, who was protesting the racists was killed when she was mowed down close to the park. Alleged Nazi sympathizer James Fields, 21, is still facing trial charged with her murder along with dozens of federal hate crimes.
The rally became etched in the public’s consciousness after President Donald Trump insisted there were ‘very fine people on both sides.’
His remarks were condemned by all sides, including many leaders from his own Republican Party. Senior Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, whose brother was killed in action in World War II tweeted: ‘We should call evil by its name. My brother didn't give his life fighting Hitler for Nazi ideas to go unchallenged here at home.’
The spot where Heyer, 32, was killed — a section of 4th Street, now renamed Heather Heyer Way — was bedecked with flowers and anti-hate chalk messages as the anniversary of her death approached.
Four months after last August’s violence the city’s police chief retired after just 18 months in the job.
Many in the city feel that the extra police presence will maintain the peace this year. George Hudson, a friend of Heyer’s told DailyMail.com; ‘It’s sad that they’ve basically had to close the town down.
‘And really I don’t think anything major will happen.’
But the extra police presence has brought criticism from local activists. ‘Last year I was terrified of violence from the Nazis, and this year I’m terrified of violence from the police,’ Black Lives Matter organizer Lisa Woolford, an English professor at the University of Virginia told the Daily Progress.
‘We are seeing an overwhelming show of force to compensate for last year’s negligent police inaction,’ Woolford added. ‘For black and brown folk and other marginalized people, we know this police presence only increases our risk.’ 


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A sign is seen close to the 26-ft. high bronze statue of Robert E. Lee ahead of the anniversary of last year’s deadly Unite the Right rally
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