Sunday, January 21, 2018
Government shutdown to prevent US troops overseas from watching NFL playoff games
The Military is not going to be able to watch the NFL. Is this the same NFL that disrespects them by taking a knee on the field during the The Star Spangled Banner? |
U.S. troops stationed overseas found out Saturday
that the government shutdown might have an unexpected impact on them: It
might block them from seeing telecasts of Sunday’s NFL conference
championship games.
Servicemen and women took to Twitter to share an unusual message on their TV screens provided by the American Forces Network.
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The network enables U.S. service members around the
world to watch American TV, but with the government shutdown underway,
the service was cut off.AFN has received complaints because service was not cut off during the 2013 government shutdown, the New York Daily News reported.
The NFL has stepped in to offer free access to the games for the troops using NFL Game Pass.
Brian McCarthy, NFL public relations director, tweeted out where military members could access the service. But it may offer only a partial solution to soldiers' football craving: The USO centers where it will be provided are not accessible to all troops, Yahoo Sports reported.
Women’s March -- Are we watching a movement or just group therapy for Trump haters?
One year ago
this weekend, liberal women flowed into our nation’s capital and other
cities across America for a march to protest the inauguration of
President Trump. And on Saturday, women and some male supporters again gathered
in Washington and hundreds of cities to protest against the president
and in support of protection for illegal immigrants and other liberal
causes.
While the Saturday protests were
underway, Congress was trying to figure out how to reach agreement on a
spending bill to end the government shutdown that began Saturday
morning.
Donning pink hats
resembling women’s sacred body parts suddenly exposed for all to see,
protesters last year expressed fury that against all odds a white, male
Republican who never before held public office somehow bested their
longtime feminist-in-chief Hillary Clinton. How dare he stop Hillary
from shattering the glass ceiling!The glass ceiling the protesters had envisioned shattering entirely was instead left in shards that got under their skin – deep under their skin.
After much public dialogue over the last year, the questions must now be asked: What exactly has the Women’s March accomplished and are the protesters capable of turning their angst into action? Will Saturday’s protests accomplish anything more, or just serve as a self-affirming feel-good moment for President Trump’s opponents?The glass ceiling the protesters had envisioned shattering entirely was instead left in shards that got under their skin – deep under their skin.
While the Women’s March last year certainly served as an outlet for liberals to gather and share their “election depression,” there was no real call to action. There was no plan for attendees to return to their respective hometowns, run for office, nor do anything differently than they had done before the 2016 election. Quite frankly, without that kind of action the Women’s March risks becoming nothing more than annual group therapy.
Whether the protesters can now turn their angst into action remains to be seen. Thus far, the Women’s March already falls short on tangible results when compared to other recent populist movements.
By comparison, the Tea Party movement that sprang in the spring of 2009 accomplished far more in their inaugural year than the Women’s March has.
In record speed from the moment the movement was invoked on February 19, 2009 from the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange – to the ensuing raucous Tea Party rallies that played out on the steps of cities from coast to coast – Americans watched as their government was taken back by the people.
However, the Tea Party movement didn’t stop at the rallies. They quickly rolled up their sleeves and got to work, putting aside their differences with their own party and often volunteering at local GOP headquarters, signing up for campaigns, knocking on doors and mobilizing “Get Out the Vote” efforts.
Unlike the Women’s March, the Tea Party movement’s swift action yielded instantaneous results that were impressive; record-breaking, in fact.
In 2010, just one year after launching, the Tea Party movement helped Republicans regain control of the House of Representatives. Credit was widely given to the Tea Party, which staged vigorous protests of Congress members’ town hall meetings back in their home districts, successfully shined a light on House races and made ObamaCare a central issue.
In 2014, the Tea Party movement helped Republicans win the U.S. Senate and win the largest Congressional majority in American history. With the staggering loss of 50 seats in Congress, Democrats suffered their largest defeat in decades.
And in 2016, in arguably a continuation of the populist revolution, the Tea Party helped put Donald Trump in the White House in what Politico called the biggest upset in American history.
The Women’s March has no such scalps on the wall. In fact, the movement hasn’t yielded any new stars.
Whereas the Tea Party movement spawned stars such as Republican Senators Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Joni Ernst of Iowa – both leaders in their respective classes today – no one has wanted to attach themselves to the Women’s March.
However, leaders of the Women’s March may have realized their risk of falling into political oblivion, because the organization announced new components to Saturday’s marches.
The protesting women are launching a nationwide voter registration campaign to recruit more women to vote, and aim to affect the midterm elections in November.
The strategy just might work as the Women’s March has joined forces with Rock the Vote, a movement that registered youth to vote in the 1992 presidential election and impacted the presidential race in favor of the saxophone-playing, boxers-or-briefs-clad Bill Clinton.
If the Women’s March is able to recruit talented people from Rock the Vote who succeeded in previous voter registration outreach campaigns, the group has a chance to deliver on its promise.If the Women’s March is able to recruit talented people from Rock the Vote who succeeded in previous voter registration outreach campaigns, the group has a chance to deliver on its promise.
As the new year unfolds and the midterm elections loom, the Women’s March has a real opportunity to shift from “protest” to “pragmatism.”
Whether or not the Women’s March can make the transition will determine whether the movement is a force to be reckoned with, or will simply go down in history as a passing fad worth not much more than the cheap yarn from which its pink hats were spun.
Jen Kerns has served as a U.S. presidential debate writer for FOX News. She previously served as a GOP strategist and spokeswoman for the California Republican Party, the Colorado Recalls over the Second Amendment and the Prop. 8 battle over marriage and religious liberty which went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Pence makes diplomatic trip to Middle East, meets with Egypt's el-Sissi first
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence
shakes hands with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, right, at
the Presidential Palace in Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, Jan. 20, 2018.
(AP)
Vice President Mike Pence met with
Egyptian leader Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi in Cairo on Saturday on the first
leg of a trip to the volatile Mideast.
Meeting at the presidential palace in Cairo, the two leaders discussed ways to combat the growing terror threat in the region.
Pence listened as el-Sissi cited the need to address
"urgent issues," including "ways to eliminate this disease and cancer
that has terrified the whole world."Pence said that "we stand shoulder to shoulder with you and Egypt in fighting against terrorism," and that "our hearts grieve" for the loss of life in recent terrorist attacks against Egyptians, referring to a December attack against Christians where at least nine people were killed, and a November attack at a mosque in Northern Sinai where another 311 people were killed.
"We resolve to continue to stand with Egypt in the battle against terrorism," Pence said.
Pence arrived in Cairo hours after Congress and President Donald Trump failed to reach agreement on a plan to avert a partial federal closure. Pence went ahead with his four-day trip to the Middle East, citing national security and diplomatic reasons.
Pence is set to meet with Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Sunday and visit with U.S. troops in the region. He will also travel to Israel but he is not expected to meet with Palestinian officials.
His visit to the region came more than a month after Trump announced his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, a step that's enraged Palestinians. El-Sissi identified "the peace issue" as one of the most important issues in their discussions.
"We heard President el-Sissi out," Pence said. "He said to me about what he said publicly about a disagreement between friends over our decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel."
Pence said he assured el-Sissi that "we're absolutely committed to preserving the status quo with regard to holy sites in Jerusalem, that we have come to no final resolution about boundaries or other issues that will be negotiated. ... I reminded President el-Sissi that President Trump said that if the parties agree, we will support a two-state solution. My perception was that he was encouraged by that message."
McConnell promises vote on ending shutdown by 1 a.m. Monday
Day One of a government shutdown, filled with
increasingly angry finger pointing from both Democrats and Republicans,
appeared to produce little Saturday in terms of a potential solution for
the impasse on how to fund the government.
But Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell insisted that a vote to break a Democratic filibuster on a
short-term spending bill to reopen the government would happen by 1 a.m.
Monday.
"I asked for consent to move up a vote on this
bipartisan solution and end this craziness. The Democrats objected,"
McConnell said late Saturday, Roll Call reported. "That won't work forever. If they continue to object, we cannot proceed to a cloture vote until 1 a.m. Monday."But I assure you," McConnell added, "we will have the vote at 1 a.m. Monday, unless there is a desire to have it sooner."
After ending talks Saturday, the Senate planned to reconvene at 1 p.m. Sunday, Roll Call reported.
The shutdown kicked in late Friday into Saturday after Senate Democrats blocked a 28-day resolution to keep the government open. The bill would have funded the government, and included a six-year extension of funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). But Democrats rejected it, as it did not include a legislative fix for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
That Obama-era program, which offered protection for illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, was repealed by President Donald Trump in September, with a March deadline for Congress to come up with a fix. While separate bipartisan immigration talks had been underway, Democrats demanded a DACA fix as part of the continuing resolution (CR) -- requiring Republicans to try in vain to cobble together the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster.
The subsequent 50-49 vote broke largely along party lines, with five Republicans voting no, and five Democrats voting yes.
On Saturday, although both the House and the Senate were in session, both sides seemed more focused on pushing their respective narratives about who was to blame for the crisis.
When McConnell, R-Ky, addressed lawmakers Saturday evening, he urged his Democratic counterpart, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, to withdraw his filibuster so that members could pass the short-term spending bill and reopen the government.
McConnell said the shutdown was not a crisis, but rather a “manufactured crisis” by the Senate Democrats.
Democrats are holding our Military hostage over their desire to have unchecked illegal immigration. Can’t let that happen!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., took aim at Trump, saying he had earned an F for "failure in leadership." She said Republicans are "so incompetent and negligent that they couldn't get it together to keep the government open."
“Happy anniversary, Mr. President,” Pelosi said. “You wanted a shutdown. The shutdown is all yours.”
Schumer said on the Senate floor that in a White House meeting Friday, he offered Trump funding for a border wall with Mexico in exchange for a DACA fix. He claimed that Trump seemed open to a deal but that the president made further demands hours later that Schumer said were "off the table."
“Republican leadership can't get its tumultuous president on board with anything,” Schumer said. “The breakdown of compromise is poisoning this Congress and it all comes down to President Trump.”
Republicans, for their part, blasted Democrats for what they saw as holding the government “hostage” over illegal immigration. White House Legislative Affairs Director Marc Short accused Democrats of having a “2-year-old temper tantrum.”
Trump accused the Democrats of “holding our Military hostage” over their desire for “unchecked illegal immigration.”
What's more, the White House pushed back against Schumer's account of the Trump meeting. Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said at a briefing that Schumer had in fact offered only $1.8 billion in funding for the wall, far short of the roughly $20 billion Trump wanted. Mulvaney said Schumer still told Trump that he was giving him everything he wanted.
“Does it even become profitable to work with someone like that?” Mulvaney asked reporters.
A sign of the bitterness of the blame game came from the White House comments line, where a voicemail blamed Democrats for users being unable to use the line.
“Thank you for calling the White House, unfortunately, we cannot answer your call today because congressional Democrats are withholding government funding, including funding for our troops and other national security priorities, hostage to an unrelated immigration debate. Due to this obstruction, our government is shut down,” the voicemail said.
As evening rolled around, there seemed to be little sign of a break. Fox News was told that a Senate Democratic caucus meeting resulted in a caucus more unified and locked in, with Democrats only willing to support a CR that would fund the government for a few days.
On the Republican side, Fox News was told that there was a good chance McConnell would try a vote on a CR that would fund the government to Feb. 8 -- less time than the initial 28-day CR.
The White House also buckled in, saying it would not negotiate on DACA until the government was funded.
“The White House position remains the same, that we will not negotiate the status of 690,000 unlawful immigrants while hundreds of millions of taxpaying Americans, including hundreds of thousands of our troops in uniform and border agents protecting our country, are held hostage by Senate Democrats,” Short said.
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