Friday, December 22, 2017

Illegal Voter Cartoons





Trump says he's not firing Mueller, but the media keep insisting he might


The media are constantly warning that President Trump might fire Robert Mueller, triggering a political firestorm and a constitutional crisis.
There is, however, a small problem with this story line: Trump and his top aides keep denying it.
Not that journalists are letting that spoil the fun.
A reporter asked the president days ago if he was considering firing Bob Mueller.
"No I'm not," Trump said.
On "America’s Newsroom" yesterday, Sarah Huckabee Sanders said: "We have no intention of firing Bob Mueller. We are continuing to work closely and cooperate with him. We look forward to seeing this hoax wrap up very soon."
Now an investigation that has led to an indictment of Trump’s former campaign manager and a guilty plea from his former national security adviser is not exactly a hoax. But Sanders was unambiguous on the firing question.
Still, the pundits keep pounding away. On MSNBC’s "Morning Joe" yesterday, John Heilemann told Republican Sen. Bob Corker: "I want to ask you personally what your reaction would be if the president did try to fire the special prosecutor."
Corker said "there would be an uprising and a revolt."
In fairness, Heilemann was reacting in part to a Senate floor speech by Democrat Mark Warner, who declared that any attempt by Trump to dump Mueller or shut down the Russia probe "would be a gross abuse of power" and that these were "red lines" that could not be crossed.
Was Warner just taking a partisan shot? He gave no indication that he believes such a move is in the works.
Now no one can say it's impossible that Trump won't change his mind and try to get rid of Mueller. The prosecutor could bring new charges or make sweeping demands for evidence that would anger the president and prod him into action.
But the administration isn't sending such signals. In fact, the firing would have to be carried out by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who recently testified that he thinks Mueller is doing a good job and could only be removed for valid reasons.
So at the moment, all this amounts to an orgy of speculation.
The Washington Post, jumping on Warner’s remarks, ran a story yesterday titled "The Growing Specter of Robert Mueller’s Firing." The article declares that “the environment for attempting to fire Mueller is clearly improving.”
Here’s a Bloomberg piece titled "What Might Happen If Trump Orders Mueller Fired."
The media mindset was perfect captured by a Chicago Tribune column with the headline: "Trump Says He Won’t Fire Bob Mueller. Don’t Believe Him."
Why not? Eric Zorn wrote that "the big reason is that I simply don't believe it, just as I didn't believe Trump’s assurance that he had a plan to provide 'great health care, at a tiny fraction of the cost.' I didn’t believe him when he said super-wealthy people wouldn't benefit from a Republican tax overhaul, that it would personally cost him a fortune and that someday he'd release his tax returns."
In other words, he doesn't trust the guy and disagrees with his policies.
The media will have every right to go bonkers if Trump tries to oust the prosecutor investigating him. But for now, it may be the most overcovered hypothetical question in politics.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m.). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington. Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz. 

Border wall contractors face growing boycotts from Dem-led cities



As President Trump pushes forward with his promised U.S.-Mexico border wall, companies competing for the chance to work on the multi-billion-dollar project are facing mounting boycotts from local Democratic lawmakers moving to blacklist the border builders.
Coordinated efforts have been launched in California, Arizona, Illinois, New York and Rhode Island that would prohibit cities and towns from doing any official business with the companies as part of a larger resistance strategy to delay construction of the controversial wall.
Most recently, Berkeley’s City Council in California approved an ordinance that would ban it from contracting with companies involved in the construction.
The proposal, drafted by Mayor Jesse Arreguin and Councilmembers Ben Bartless, Sophie Hahn and Cheryl Davila, argues that the wall would harm California’s prosperity.
Arreguin called the border wall a “highly impractical response to America’s broken immigration system, and a symbol of hatred that will only further demonize the people of Mexican and Latin American descent.”
This follows a March measure approved by the council that would vet contracts to avoid business with border wall-affiliated companies. Earlier this month, the council expanded the policy to prohibit investment with companies involved in the “designing, building or financing” of the wall. The latest ordinance formalizes those rules.
'This is the worst kind of populism.'
“Our divestment policy is a message that we don’t want to do business with companies that seek to profit off of separating families, degrading the environment and heightening tensions with long-time partners such as Mexico,” Arreguin told Fox News.
Berkeley’s new mandate comes on the heels of a similar economic boycott that passed in Oakland last month.
In that case, the Oakland City Council barred the city from entering into new or amended contracts with companies that work with the federal government to build the border wall.
Construction, engineering, planning and information technology businesses are all subject to the ban. So are subcontractors and financial institutions.
Councilmember Abel Guillen said it is important to put “our dollars where our values are.”
People pass border wall prototypes as they stand near the border with Tijuana, Mexico, Thursday, Oct. 19, 2017, in San Diego. Companies are nearing an Oct. 26 deadline to finish building eight prototypes of President Donald Trump's proposed border wall with Mexico.
Companies involved in a planned U.S.-Mexico border wall are facing boycotts in several cities.  (AP)
A December committee proposal in Los Angeles -- still under consideration -- requires anyone wanting to do business with the city to disclose any bids they have made. However, it does not prohibit the city from entering into contracts with border builders.
It so happens that some of the cities boycotting these contractors have the kind of 'sanctuary' policies that the Trump administration is aggressively fighting.
"It's just amazing to me why any city would not want to rid itself of criminals who are also in the country illegally," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said earlier this month.
The Associated General Contractors of America told Fox News it has gone to the White House and Sessions, asking that they apply pressure and sue states and localities trying to deny contractors work based on their involvement building the border wall.
“This is the worst kind of populism,” Brian Turmail, spokesman for the AGCA, said. “Given the fact that this administration has been aggressively pursuing sanctuary cities, this seems like an easy slam dunk.”
He also accuses ambitious state and local lawmakers of trying to score political points off of contractors and says it sets a dangerous precedent.
“Today, it’s you don’t like the border wall while tomorrow you could have an anti-war mayor who refuses to work with defense contractors,” Turmail said.
At the center of the sanctuary city debate is California, which has also considered going after border wall companies at the state level.
Earlier this year, three Democratic state senators introduced a bill that would require California’s pension funds to divest from any company involved in building the wall. It would also require the California Public Employee Retirement System and the California State Teachers Retirement System to liquidate any investments in companies that aid in construction.
“This is a wall of shame and we don’t want any part of it,” Assemblyman Phil Ting said in a written statement. “Californians build bridges not walls.”
Nearly 100 of the roughly 600 companies interested in bidding on the border project are based in California.
On the East Coast, Rhode Island state Rep. Aaron Regunberg introduced legislation in May requiring the state divest any funds from companies involved in Trump’s border wall.
“We’re saying he shouldn’t be creating this symbol of xenophobia and hate using Rhode Island state dollars,” Regunberg said.
During a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Trump said he might soon head to San Diego where six construction companies have built eight border wall prototypes for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
“I may be going there very shortly to look at them in their final form,” Trump told members of his Cabinet.
It remains unclear when the wall might actually go up. Trump campaigned on building it and set an ambitious timetable for construction. But aside from potential funding and political complications, there have been court challenges from geologists.
Critics also say the barrier would be ineffective and costly. On the campaign trail, Trump said Mexico would pay for the bill. That’s not happening. He also said the cost to build the wall would be $4 billion. Estimates have ranged wildly, but have since soared as high as $70 billion, though the actual cost is not clear.

Trump administration considering to separate families who illegally cross U.S.-Mexico border


Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen speaks during a news conference, after a US-Mexico bilateral meeting on disrupting transnational criminal organizations at State Department in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 14, 2017. ( AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
The Trump administration is weighing a policy that would separate families who are caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally as a way to discourage more arrivals, the Washington Post reported Thursday.
The policy, developed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Officials and other Department of Homeland Security agencies, would place children in protective custody or with an approved sponsor while their parents would be placed in a detention facility to await deportation, officials told the Post.  
“People aren’t going to stop coming unless there are consequences to illegal entry,” a DHS official told the paper.
Under current policy, families caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally are held together at detention centers or released with a court date while awaiting a decision on their deportation.
The idea to separate families had been circulating earlier this year in the DHS, but was canned after the proposal received backlash and illegal migration levels dropped. 
According to Customs and Border Protection, when Trump took office in January, the number of people illegally crossing the border dwindled to the lowest number in 17 years.
But the controversial measure is being considered once again after the number of illegal border crossings has climbed back up. In November, immigration authorities apprehended 7,000 family units and 4,000 unaccompanied minors – a 45 percent increase from the previous month according to DHS statistics.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has final approval power, however. DHS officials told the Post that Nielsen has not yet signed off on the plan. 

Jill Stein says Americans need to 'see the evidence of Russian culpability' in election meddling


Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein told Fox News Thursday night that Americans "have yet to see the proof" that Moscow meddled in last year's election.
Stein confirmed earlier this week that the Senate Intelligence Committee had contacted her campaign to request documents, including emails, as part of its investigation into Russian activities and alleged collusion between campaigns and foreign interests.
"I think there are legitimate aims here in the investigation," Stein told Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight." "Interference in our election is much bigger than the Russians and ... I would like to see the evidence of Russian culpability here."
Stein compared the Russia investigation to the run-up to the Iraq War, saying, "We didn’t get to really see the evidence [then] ... We are still paying that price -- $5.5 trillion and counting. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me a gazillion times, shame on all of us."
Stein also addressed her attendance at a now-infamous dinner in Moscow marking the 10th anniversary of RT, a Russian state-run news and propaganda channel. She was photographed sitting at a table with Russian President Vladimir Putin and future national security adviser Michael Flynn, who is now cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.
"The dinner ... was really a non-event," Stein said. "At one point, Putin came in with a couple of guys that I assumed were his bodyguards. Turns out they were actually his inner circle, but you would have never known it. Nobody was introduced to anybody ... At one point, Putin made a very rapid turn around the table and shook everybody’s hand, but without any exchange of names, so that’s about as significant as this was."

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