Out-of-staters may have won New Hampshire for Clinton, data suggest

New data suggest that more than 5,000 people who cast ballots in New Hampshire in the 2016 U.S. presidential election might not have been residents of the state.

These voters likely used out-of-state driver’s licenses and have not since obtained an in-state license or registered a vehicle.

New Hampshire House Speaker Shawn Jasper, a Republican, released the data Thursday following his inquiries to the state’s Department of State and the Department of Safety, which supervise elections.
The new figures could potentially call into question the validity of the New Hampshire results for Nov. 8, when Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton outpolled Republican nominee Donald Trump by a mere 2,736 votes.
Conservatives have long criticized certain practices of voter registration, such as same-day registration, claiming lax rules invite fraud and abuse of the electoral system, the Washington Times reported.
In February, White House adviser Stephen Miller came under fire for suggesting that nonresident Democratic Party voters arrived in droves to New Hampshire to vote for Clinton.
Miller told ABC in February: “Having worked before on a campaign in New Hampshire, I can tell you that this issue of busing voters into New Hampshire is widely known by anyone who’s worked in New Hampshire politics. It’s very real. It’s very serious. This morning, on this show, is not the venue for me to lay out all the evidence.”
The Washington Post described Miller’s claim as “the same bogus talking points that have been repeatedly shown to be false.”
The figures obtained by Jasper, however, reveal the potential abuse of the voting procedure. According to the data, 6,540 people registered to vote, and voted in the New Hampshire election, provided just out-of-state license.
Only 15 percent, roughly about 1,014 of the voters, have since obtained the in-state license, while 200 other people had since registered a vehicle in the state.
Despite New Hampshire law mandating that drivers acquire a state driving license within 60 days of becoming a resident in the state, more than 80 percent of people who registered to vote with out-of-state licenses still had not received their in-state license or registered a new vehicle – nearly 10 months after the election.
In addition, 196 people were under investigation for voting in two states.
Recently, three elections in New Hampshire were won by fewer than 5,000 votes, the Concord Patch reported. Clinton won against Trump by 2,736 votes, Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan beat U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte by 1,017 votes and U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter won against incumbent U.S. Rep. Frank Guinta by 4,900 votes.
Democrats have fired back at the new data, calling it an attempt to use “selective data and misinformation” to justify claims made by the White House about the voter fraud.
State Democratic Party Chairman Raymond Buckley claimed Jasper “selectively requested information about voters who registered with out-of-state licenses, an entirely legal and normal practice. They can easily be accounted for by college students and other new Granite Staters who deferred acquiring an in-state license or don't intend to drive in the state,” WMUR9 reported.
State Senate Democratic Leader Jeff Woodburn seconded: “Using cherry-picked data in order to support a false claim is dangerous and irresponsible. Today’s release of information by Speaker Jasper’s office fans the flames of misinformation in order to further suppress our citizens’ right to vote.”
Jasper addressed the criticism that the figures can be accounted with just college students, claiming there were multiple people who “did not comply with the law.”
“College students are eligible to vote if they declare domicile here, but anybody who does that then has to comply with the laws of the state,” he said, according to WMUR9. “If someone is domiciled in New Hampshire (and has a vehicle), then within 60 days, they need to obtain a driver’s license. I think we will find that within that 5,000, there will be many who did not comply with the law.”
The two state agencies that issued the data to Jaspers also released an explanation of why certain people could have voted without having an in-state driving license or have registered the vehicle even 10 months later after the election.
“It is likely that some unknown number of these individuals moved out of New Hampshire, it is possible that a few may have never driven in New Hampshire or have ceased driving, however, it is expected that an unknown number of the remainder continue to live and drive in New Hampshire. If they have established their residence in New Hampshire, they may have failed to obtain a New Hampshire driver’s license,” wrote Safety Commissioner John Barthelmes and Secretary of State Bill Gardner.
The letter does not suggest all people who voted with out-of-state driving licenses voted illegally.

Southern Poverty Law Center Cartoons

China agrees more U.N. actions needed against North Korea after nuclear test

Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors are seen as they arrive at Seongju, South Korea, September 7, 2017. Lee Jong-hyeon/News1 via REUTERS

BEIJING/SEOUL (Reuters) – China said on Thursday it agreed the United Nations Security Council should take further actions against North Korea in the wake of its latest nuclear test, while continuing to push for more dialogue to resolve the crisis on the Korean peninsula.
The United States wants the U.N. Security Council to impose an oil embargo on North Korea, ban its exports of textiles and the hiring of North Korean laborers abroad, and subject leader Kim Jong Un to an asset freeze and travel ban, according to a draft resolution seen by Reuters on Wednesday.
Pressure from Washington has ratcheted up since North Korea conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test on Sunday. That test, along with a series of missile launches, showed Pyongyang was close to achieving its goal of developing a powerful nuclear weapon that could reach the United States.
U.S. President Donald Trump has urged China to do more to rein in its neighbor, which has pursued its weapons programs in defiance of U.N. sanctions and international condemnation.
China said on Thursday it hoped North Korea refrained from further challenging the international consensus.
“Given the new developments on the Korean peninsula, China agrees that the UN Security Council should make a further response and take necessary measures,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters, without elaborating.
“Any new actions taken by the international community against the DPRK should serve the purpose of curbing the DPRK’s nuclear and missile programs, while at the same time be conducive to restarting dialogue and consultation,” he said, using the initials of North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
China is by far North Korea’s biggest trading partner, accounting for 92 percent of two-way trade last year. It also provides tonnes of oil and fuel to the impoverished regime.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said he had an executive order ready for Trump to sign that would impose sanctions on any country that trades with Pyongyang if the United Nations does not put additional sanctions on North Korea.
THAAD DEPLOYMENT
Amid the rising tensions, Seoul installed the four remaining launchers of the U.S. anti-missile Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system on a former golf course in the south early on Thursday. Two launchers had already been deployed.
More than 30 people were wounded when around 8,000 South Korean police broke up a blockade of about 300 villagers and civic groups opposed to the THAAD system deployment, fire officials said.
“It is very unfortunate there some wounded, but it was an inevitable choice in order to protect the lives of the people in this situation made serious by North Korea’s recent nuclear test,” South Korean Interior and Safety Minister Kim Boo-kyum told reporters.
The decision to deploy the THAAD system has drawn strong objections from China, which believes its radar could be used to look deeply into its territory and will upset the regional security balance.
China said it had lodged another stern protest over the THAAD deployment on Thursday.
“We again urge South Korea and the United States to take seriously China’s and regional nations’ security interests and concerns, stop the relevant deployment progress, and remove the relevant equipment,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a regular media briefing.
“China has already lodged stern representations with South Korea over this,” he said.
MOON, ABE MEET
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in spoke at a regional meeting in the eastern Russian city of Vladivostok and agreed to try to persuade China and Russia to cut off oil to North Korea as much as possible, according to South Korean officials.
The European Union’s foreign and defense ministers will discuss further sanctions for North Korea on Thursday, the bloc’s top diplomat said ahead of an EU ministers’ meeting in the Estonian capital.
However, sanctions have so far done little to stop North Korea boosting its nuclear and missile capacity as it faces off with Trump.
China and Russia have advocated a “freeze for freeze” plan, where the United States and South Korea would stop major military exercises in exchange for North Korea halting its weapons programs, but neither side appears willing to budge.
South Korean Marines wrapped up a three-day firing drill on Thursday aimed at protecting its islands just south of the border with North Korea, while the air force will finish up a week-long drill on Friday.
North Korea says it needs to develop its weapons to defend itself against what it sees as U.S. aggression.
South Korea and the United States are technically still at war with North Korea after the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce, not a peace treaty.
For a graphic on nuclear North Korea, click: http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/NORTHKOREA-MISSILES/010031V7472/index.html
(Additional reporting by Soyoung Kim in SEOUL, Christian Shepherd and Vincent Lee in BEIJING, Steve Holland, Eric Walsh, Jeff Mason and Jim Oliphant in WASHINGTON and Gabriela Baczynska, Robin Emmott and David Mardiste in TALLINN; Writing by Lincoln Feast; Editing by Nick Macfie and Paul Tait)

Trump Admin. Urges Dreamers to Arrange, Prepare For Leaving U.S.

Dreamers Karen Caudillo, 21, of Florida is comforted by Jairo Reyes, 25, of Rogers, Arkansas as Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., accompanied by members of the House and Senate Democrats, speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2017. ( AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

OAN Newsroom

The Trump administration urges recipients of the DACA program to prepare for departure from the U.S.
Talking points distributed to GOP lawmakers Tuesday said so-called ‘dreamers’ should get their affairs in order following President Trump’s decision to rescind the program.
The Department of Homeland Security urged recipients to use the remaining time on work authorizations to prepare for leaving the U.S.
Officials say once the program expires dreamers will be in the country illegally, and lawmakers expect them to no longer remain in the states.
The sixth month grace period would allow Congress to draft new legislation to either legalize the program or do away with it entirely.

Conservatives sign letter warning media against Southern Poverty Law Center

Forty-seven prominent conservatives have signed an open letter warning the mainstream media against using data on hate groups compiled by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

The letter calls the SPLC a "discredited, left-wing political activist organization that seeks to silence its political opponents with a 'hate group' label of its own invention."

Founded in 1971, the SPLC gained fame by successfully prosecuting legal cases against white supremacist organizations, including the Ku Klux Klan. It describes its mission as "fighting hate and bigotry and ... seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of our society."
Today, the SPLC is best known for tracking hate groups, which the organization defines as having "beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristic." Currently, the SPLC says 917 hate groups are operating in the United States.
SPLC's "hate map" gained prominence in the media after last month's deadly violence at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va. However, critics say the organization has falsely slapped the "hate group" label on non-violent groups who hold traditional beliefs about hot-button issues such as gay marriage and abortion.
Last month, a prominent evangelical ministry based in Florida filed a federal lawsuit accusing the SPLC of defamation after it was labeled an "active hate group." In July, Fox News found that at least seven organizations are listed as hate groups by the SPLC despite explicitly prohibiting violence by their members.
The letter also warns that receiving the SPLC's hate group label "endangers the lives of those targeted with it." It references the 2012 shooting at the headquarters of the Family Research Council in Washington. The gunman, Floyd Lee Corkins, said he disagreed with the group's opposition to gay marriage and prosecutors said he selected the group as a target using the SPLC "hate map."
"By recklessly linking the Charlottesville melee to the mainstream groups named on the SPLC website," the letter went on, "we are left to wonder if another Floyd Lee Corkins will soon be incited to violence by this incendiary information.
Prominent signatories of the letter include Brent Bozell of the Media Research Center, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council and former Attorney General Edwin Meese III.

Report: Cohn seen as unlikely pick for Fed chairman after Charlottesville remarks

Gary Cohn, the former Goldman Sachs investment banker and President Donald Trump's current economic adviser, is now considered an unlikely pick to lead the Federal Reserve after criticizing the White House’s response to violence in Charlottesville, Va.

Trump has openly floated the idea of nominating the former banker as the potential successor to Fed Chair Janet Yellen -- whose term ends in February – saying in July that he has “great respect” for him.

But Trump has backtracked on the idea recently in private, people familiar with the president’s thinking told the Wall Street Journal. The job prospects shifted mostly due to Cohn's comments about the president’s response to violence in Charlottesville, the sources told the paper.
Cohn issued a stark rebuttal of Trump’s comments in an interview with the Financial Times last month, where he said the administration “can and must do better” to denounce hate groups, including neo-Nazis and the KKK that marched in Charlottesville.
“Citizens standing up for equality and freedom can never be equated with white supremacists, neo-Nazis and the KKK,” he told the newspaper.
The comments were a cold shower to Trump, who did not expect such an attack from his economic adviser, prompting the president to bristle at the very mention of Cohn, one White House official told the paper.
But the chances of Cohn of being appointed the next Fed chairman were still not completely lost, according to another official. A lot hinges on tax reform.
Cohn is considered one of the smartest businesspeople close to Trump and -- along with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin -- has been working on Trump's long-awaited tax plan.
Yellen has not publicly said she would serve another term. Some of her former colleagues told the Journal that she would continue to serve if asked.
Trump was critical of Yellen while campaigning last year, saying her decision to keep interest rates low was aimed at helping the Democratic Party and President Barack Obama. His opinion appeared to change after taking office, saying in a July interview that he was also considering keeping Yellen in her position.
Others said to be under consideration for the Fed job include former governors Lawrence Lindsey and Kevin Warsh, former BB&T Bank chief executive John Allison, and Stanford University economist John Taylor, the Journal reported.
A White House spokeswoman said Cohn was “focused on his responsibilities … including a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to deliver meaningful tax reform that creates jobs and grows the economy.”

Liberal Teacher Cartoons

Russia May Reduce More U.S. Diplomats in Moscow

OAN Newsroom

Russian President Vladimir Putin is floating the idea of eliminating more U.S. diplomats in Moscow as a response to the recent closures of several Russian embassies in the U.S.
Putin said America has the right to reduce the number of foreign diplomats, but went about removing the staff members in a — quote — “boorish” manner.
Putin also said the closing of the Russian embassies was a violation of property rights, and he plans to sue the U.S. over the matter.
The Russian president made clear that he is reserving the right to reduce U.S. diplomats in Russia, but will wait to see how the situation develops.

House intel panel subpoenas for records on unverified Trump dossier

Christopher Steele Spy :-)

The House Intelligence Committee has issued subpoenas requesting records related to the FBI's relationship with a former British spy who compiled a dossier of unverified allegations about President Donald Trump's connections with Russia.

The committee subpoenaed the FBI and the Justice Department on Aug. 24, giving them until Sept. 1 to turn over information about the nature of the bureau's relationship with Christopher Steele. The panel also wants to know how much Steele was paid and to what extent the dossier was relied upon to obtain FISA warrants and launch the FBI's investigation into Russian activities during the 2016 election campaign.

The subpoenas were first reported by the Washington Examiner.
The FBI and Justice Department did not respond to the initial request for records and the committee has now given them until Sept. 14 to comply. If the records are not provided, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Jeff Sessions will be directed to appear before the committee to answer questions.
Steele compiled the 35-page dossier while working for U.S.-based Fusion GPS, an investigative firm headed by former Wall Street Journal reporter Glenn Simpson. The document was initially created as opposition research on behalf of Trump's political rivals and contained a number of salacious allegations involving Russian prostitutes. None of the allegations in the dossier have been corroborated.
However, the dossier was part of the evidence the FBI used to obtain a FISA warrant to monitor communications of Carter Page, a peripheral adviser in the Trump campaign. Former FBI Director James Comey considered the dossier so important that he insisted it be included in January's final Intelligence Community Report on Russian meddling in the election and reportedly offered Steele $50,000 to corroborate the dossier---something the bureau denies paying.

Ex-Sheriff David Clarke to join pro-Trump super PAC

Former Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke Jr. announced Tuesday he will join the super PAC devoted to electing candidates who support the Trump-Pence administration.

Both the super PAC, America First Action, and a spokesperson for Clarke announced that he would join the team as a senior advisor and spokesman.

“It’s truly an honor to join the America First Action team, most importantly because we share the same values that most hard-working, law-abiding Americans do,” Clarke, who resigned last week from his post as sheriff, said in a statement Tuesday. “It gives me the chance to do what I love most—promote President Trump’s agenda, including his fierce support for the American law enforcement officer, and ensure the will of the American people who got President Trump elected is not derailed by the left or the self-serving Washington establishment.”
In June, Clarke announced that he had rescinded his acceptance of a post in the Office of Public Engagement for the Department of Homeland Security. However, the office had never confirmed that it offered him the job, in which he would have served as a liaison between DHS and state and local law enforcement.
Since his resignation last week, Clarke, who has been a loyal Trump supporter, had been rumored to take a post within the administration.
On Friday, DHS pointed Fox News to its announcement in June that “Sheriff Clarke is no longer being considered for a position within DHS.”
“His status with DHS has not changed,” a DHS official told Fox News. Also Friday, the White House told Fox News that it had “no announcement” in regards to a potential administration post for Clarke.
“David Clarke is an American patriot, and we are very proud to welcome him to America First,” Brian O. Walsh, president of the PAC, said Tuesday. “Having spent a lifetime in law enforcement –protecting and serving his community and fighting for justice and the Second Amendment –Sheriff Clarke doesn’t just believe in making America safe again; he’s devoted his life to it.”
Clarke had built a following among conservatives with his social media presence during the 2016 presidential campaign. He spoke at the Republican National Convention last July.
Clarke recently published a memoir, titled, “Cop Under Fire,” which President Trump promoted on Twitter last week.

Illinois Democrat Gutierrez: Kelly a 'disgrace to the uniform' over DACA

U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, a Democrat Idiot

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly

An Illinois congressman blasted White House Chief of Staff John Kelly — a retired Marine Corps general and Gold Star father — as a “disgrace to the uniform” Tuesday after the Trump administration announced the dismantling of the DACA program.

DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) was created by former President Barack Obama by executive action in 2012.The program gives hundreds of thousands of young people brought to the country as children protection from deportation and allows them to work in the U.S.

The Washington Examiner reported that U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, a Democrat, took personal aim at Kelly because Kelly once reportedly spoke favorably about the program. House members reported in July that Kelly told Latino lawmakers in a closed-door meeting that he was supportive of the program, but pointed out that it was probably illegal.
“He's personally for it. He thinks it will not hold up, according to the attorneys he's spoken with,” Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, told the Associated Press at the time. “He was challenged by those of us in the room, by lawmakers, to publicly announce his own position and to be a leader and to stand up and defend DACA. He said he would consider it.”
Gutierrez also said, after the July meeting, that Kelly, who previously headed the Department of Homeland Security, took credit for keeping the program alive for so long since Trump took office.
Gutierrez changed his tune after the Trump administration's Tuesday announcement.
“General Kelly is a hypocrite who is a disgrace to the uniform he used to wear,” the congressman said in a statement.
"General Kelly, when he was the head of Homeland Security, lied straight to the faces of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus about preventing the mass deportation of DREAMers," Gutierrez also said. "He has no honor and should be drummed out of the White House along with the white supremacists and those enabling the president's actions by ‘just following orders.'"
The Examiner reported that Kelly is a retired four-star general and Gold Star father. One of his sons died in Afghanistan. 

INSANE! High school teacher calls Trump shirt a "swastika" and makes stu...

Mayor de Blasio Cartoons

New York's de Blasio hints there should be a parade in his honor

Mayor de Blasio claims he’s running the city so well that “you’d assume they’d be having parades out in the streets” — and insisted he’d be more popular if it weren’t for “the time in history.”

“When I think about how crime’s gone down for four years, graduation rates up, test scores are up, more jobs than ever in our history — I think, ‘Wow, just that quick profile, any candidate anywhere would want it,’ ” he boasted to New York magazine.

“You’d assume they’d be having parades out in the streets. But that’s not the time in history we’re living in,” he arrogantly added.
De Blasio’s job-approval rating plummeted over the summer to a 50 to 42 percent margin, according to a Quinnipiac University survey released in late July.
New Yorkers are split — 46 percent to 46 percent — on whether he deserves a second term, the poll found.
The mayor admitted he had made “missteps” and had “insufficiencies as a communicator” — but said New Yorkers were simply taking out their frustrations with the current economic climate on their leaders.
“The Great Recession, specifically, but really the decades of people being economically stagnant, deeply affected people’s views, understandably,” de Blasio said. “And the increased cost of living around here.”

Cuba opens 5-month transition likely to end Castro reign

HAVANA — Cuba on Monday began a five-month political transition expected to end with Raul Castro's departure from the presidency, capping his family's near-total dominance of the political system for nearly 60 years.

Over the rest of September, Cubans will meet in small groups to nominate municipal representatives, the first in a series of votes for local, provincial and, finally, national officials.

In the second electoral stage, a commission dominated by government-linked organizations will pick all the candidates for elections to provincial assemblies and Cuba's national assembly.
The national assembly is expected to pick the president and members of the powerful Council of State by February. Castro has said he will leave the presidency by that date but he is expected to remain head of the Communist Party, giving him power that may be equal to or greater than the new president's.
Cuban officials say 12,515 block-level districts will nominate candidates for city council elections to be held Oct. 22.
An opposition coalition says it expects 170 dissidents to seek nomination in the block-level meetings that began Monday. A few opposition candidates made it to that stage previously but were defeated.
The government does not allow the participation of parties other than the ruling Communist Party and has worked to quash the election of individual opposition candidates, leading critics to call the votes an empty exercise meant to create the appearance of democratic participation.
Cuban officials say dissidents are paid by foreign governments and exile groups as part of a plan to overthrow the island's socialist system and reinstall the capitalism and U.S. dominance ended by the country's 1959 revolution.
At one session Monday evening, about 400 people gathered to choose their neighborhood's candidate, meeting in front of a house adorned with photos of the late Fidel Castro and Cuban flags. Choosing between their current delegate and a young challenger, they re-nominated physician Orlando Gutierrez. Both men were praised as "revolutionary" and "honest."
"We have to be here to defend our revolution and the social gains we have won," said one voter, Ivis Garcia, who works for a state-owned real estate enterprise.
Raul Castro, 86, became president in 2008 and launched a series of slow-moving and limited socio-economic reforms after his brother Fidel stepped down due to illness. Fidel Castro died last year at age 90.
Cuba's new president has long been expected to be First Vice President Miguel Diaz-Canel, a 57-year-old career party official who has maintained a low public profile in recent years.
Many Cubans' greatest exposure to Diaz-Canel this year has been through an unusual video of the vice president speaking at a private Communist Party event, footage that was leaked to the public by an unknown culprit and widely distributed on thumb drives and online.
In the video, Diaz-Canel discusses plans for crackdowns on independent media, entrepreneurs and opposition groups trying to win municipal positions.
"We're taking all possible steps to discredit that," he says in the footage. "We're involved in this whole process."
The workings of the Cuban government are highly opaque and the public only rarely hears from high-ranking officials, with the exception of a few annual speeches and edited selections of talks at twice-a-year sessions of congress and similarly infrequent party meetings. In addition, the government maintains tight control of the media and internet use in the country and leaks of high-level meetings and speeches are highly unusual.
The Diaz-Canel video may have been leaked by the government itself to telegraph that Diaz-Canel will not accelerate the reform process started by Raul Castro, said Armando Chaguaceda, a Mexico-based Cuban political scientists.
"It could serve to send a signal of official intentions not to create any political opening, without being an official government statement," Chaguaceda said.

Congress returns to several pressing issues, with Harvey money, debt ceiling at forefront

Leaders of the GOP-controlled House purportedly plan to vote Wednesday on a $7.9 billion Hurricane Harvey relief package separate from deciding on whether to raise the federal debt ceiling, setting up a potential White House showdown and adding another twist to what will be an action-packed next several weeks on Capitol Hill.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told “Fox News Sunday” that he and President Trump wanted Congress to have a combined vote on the relief package and increasing the debt ceiling, amid concerns that they won’t have enough money to help clean up from the deadly storm that flooded much of southeast Texas, then parts of Louisiana.

However, two of the House’s most fiscally conservative groups -- the House Freedom Caucus and the Republican Study Committee -- have already balked at the White House plan.
“What happened in Texas is a tragedy and it needs an urgent Congressional response,” North Carolina Rep. Mark Walker, leader of the Republican Study Committee, said Monday. “Congress is united behind this effort, but I worry about jeopardizing an agreement with such legislative games. … The debt ceiling should be paired with significant fiscal and structural reforms.”
Meanwhile, Congress’ top two Democrats have signaled some support for the idea.
"Providing aid in the wake of Harvey and raising the debt ceiling are both important issues, and Democrats want to work to do both," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, of New York, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, of California, said in a joint statement Sunday. "Given the interplay between all the issues Congress must tackle in September, Democrats and Republicans must discuss all the issues together and come up with a bipartisan consensus."
In addition to having to raising the debt ceiling by Sept. 29 and appropriate billions to hurricane victims in dire need, Congress also must pass a separate spending resolution to avoid a government shutdown after Sept. 30.
The linking of the emergency money and the debt ceiling is just the latest in a recent series of such proposals -- including Trump vowing before the hurricane to “close down” the government if the spending resolution doesn’t include money for his campaign-promised U.S.-Mexico border wall.
The Associated Press reports the House will vote separately on the debt ceiling and the Harvey funding.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told Fox News on Monday the chamber will indeed vote Wednesday on the hurricane money. He also said he fully realizes Mnuchin’s concerns about having enough money but was not specific about whether the issues would be combined into one vote.
The GOP-controlled Senate has not said when or how it will vote on the issue.
Trump plans to meet with congressional leaders from both parties this week as lawmakers upon their return.
The government's cash reserves are running low because the debt limit has already been reached, and the Treasury Department is using various accounting measures to cover expenses.
Mnuchin originally had said that Congress would need to raise the $19.9 trillion borrowing limit by Sept. 29 to avoid a catastrophic default on the debt, allowing the government to continue borrowing money to pay bills like Social Security and interest.
But on Sunday, he said that deadline had moved up due to unexpected new spending on Harvey.
"Without raising the debt limit, I'm not comfortable that we would get the money that we need this month to Texas to rebuild," he said.
Trump's aid request would add $7.4 billion to dwindling Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster aid coffers and $450 million to finance disaster loans for small businesses. An additional $5 billion to $8 billion for Harvey could be tucked into a catch-all spending bill Congress must pass in the coming weeks to fund the government past Sept. 30.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Sunday described the federal aid package as an important initial "down payment" on Harvey relief that he expects will come to $150 billion to $180 billion.
GOP lawmakers also head into the final quarter of the year trying pass Trump’s plan to overhaul the federal tax code.
Meanwhile, Trump may be poised to throw another tricky issue Congress' way.
The White House says the president on Tuesday will decide the fate of the younger immigrants brought to the United States as kids and protected from deportation by former President Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. If Trump ends or phases out the program, there will be pressure for Congress to step in with a fix to save nearly 800,000 from the threat of deportation.
Some Republicans have even begun to talk about the possibility of a deal to protect this group in exchange for funding Trump's border wall, despite Democrats called the proposal a nonstarter.

Republicans divided on Trump's expected DACA announcement

Why did they not protest the conditions in their own country? (MEXICO)

Some top Republicans have spoken out to challenge President Trump’s expected announcement Tuesday that reportedly calls for the end of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA.

House Speaker Paul Ryan and other Republicans urged Trump to hold off on scrapping the program and allow lawmakers some time to come up with a legislative fix.

Trump’s reported plan calls for a six-month delay that would give Congress some time to pass legislation that would address the hundreds of thousands of immigrants covered by the program.
Some see Trump’s reported delay as an attempt to kick the can down the road, and putting the pressure on Congress. One vocal opponent called it “Republican suicide.”
“Ending DACA now gives chance 2 restore Rule of Law. Delaying so R Leadership can push Amnesty is Republican suicide,” Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, said on Twitter.
King, who believes that DACA is unconstitutional, warned that pushing the decision to Congress would be a mistake. "We've got enough of never-Trumpers in Congress that are undermining the president's agenda," he said last week.
Under DACA—which was created through executive action by President Obama in 2012-- people who come to the U.S. illegally when they are children are protected from deportation and granted work permits.
“It is right for there to be consequences for those who intentionally entered this country illegally,” Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., said in a statement, according to The New York Post. “However, we as Americans do not hold children legally accountable for the actions of their parents.”
Ryan, for his part, told a Wisconsin radio show that ending DACA would affect “kids who know no other country.”
Many House Republicans represent highly conservative districts, and if the president goes through with the six-month delay — creating a March deadline — the pressure is likely to be amplified as primary races intensify ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.
The New York Times reported that Trump himself will not make the Tuesday announcement. The job will reportedly be left to Attorney General Jeff Sessions at an 11 a.m. briefing. There will not be questions.
Trump—who made campaign promises of getting tougher on immigration-- has reportedly personally struggled with the issue. Ten states have already threatened to sue the administration over the issue.
“It is time for President Trump to stop breaking one of the clearest campaign promises he made,” Roy Beck, the president of Numbers USA, an advocacy group that aims at reducing the amount of both legal and illegal immigration, told The Wall Street Journal.
Todd Schulte, the president of FWD.us, a progressive immigration group, told the paper that the federal government has the contact information of every DACA recipient, which is about 800,000.
“They grew up here, they work at nearly every major company in America, serve in the military and many are working on recovery efforts in Texas,” he said. “If DACA is repealed and no permanent legislation passed, they will all be fired and our government will begin the large-scale deportation of people raised in the United States, using information they volunteered to the government with the promise it would never be used against them or their families.”
South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham said he backs Trump’s purported announcement but also suggested Congress take matters into its own hands.
“I will be supportive of such a position,” said Graham, who is part of bipartisan legislation on the issue. “I have always believed DACA was a presidential overreach.
"However, I equally understand the plight of the Dream Act kids who -- for all practical purposes know no country other than America. If President Trump makes this decision we will work to find a legislative solution to their dilemma.”

Democrats disguised as Republicans Cartoons

Hill Republicans revive ‘Dream Act’ talks as Trump decides fate of Obama program

Congressional Republicans are looking to revive legislation that could give a deportation reprieve to thousands of illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children, in turn easing the pressure on President Trump as he faces a deadline to decide the fate of a related Obama-era program.

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., is leading the charge on a conservative version of the so-called Dream Act. The talks come as Trump prepares to announce whether he’ll keep the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program – which was former President Barack Obama’s unilateral, executive-action version of Dream Act legislation.

The timing for a Trump announcement has been fluid. In the most recent guidance, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said the decision will be made next Tuesday.
Trump initially had said the call could come as early as Friday or this weekend, without going into detail. Asked if ‘Dreamers,’ or those affected by the policy, should be worried, Trump told reporters: "We love Dreamers. We love everybody."
One official told Fox News earlier that Trump ultimately is expected to end DACA, while allowing those in the country who qualified under the program to stay until their work permits expire.
Such a move would infuriate Democrats – as well as some moderate Republicans. However, if lawmakers can draft legislation that accomplishes similar goals, it could give Trump some leeway to end DACA without significant impact.
A senior administration official suggested Friday that the onus was back on Congress to pursue a legislative solution.
"Congress has to do this,” the official told Fox News.
Some Republicans support the goals of Obama’s DACA but think the former president committed an overreach by doing it through executive action. Tillis’ office pointed to this distinction in describing his legislative effort.
“Regardless of the policy itself, DACA is an executive overreach that sets immigration policy through executive order instead of the proper channel—legislation,” Tillis spokesman Daniel Keylin told Fox News. “It’s the responsibility of Congress, not the President to offer a long-term legislative fix.”
Congress has been considering legislation to shield young illegal immigrants from deportation for years, dating back to the George W. Bush administration. Lawmakers tried again to pass a bill during the Obama administration, but couldn’t muster the votes amid flagging Republican support. The Obama administration announced the DACA policy in 2012.
According to Keylin, Tillis will be working with Republicans on “conservative legislation” to address the “long-term uncertainty” undocumented minors face. Kelyin told Fox News that they needed to create a “fair but rigorous process” for legal status, requiring individuals 18 or older to either be “employed, pursue post-secondary education, or serve in the Armed Forces.”
While the legislation is still being drafted, McClatchy reported that Tillis' bill is expected to be similar to one introduced by Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla. Curbelo’s bill, the “Recognizing America’s Children Act,” would offer an eventual path to U.S. citizenship to immigrants who entered illegally before Jan. 1, 2012 and were 16 years old or younger, according to the Miami Herald.
“The White House has sent a very strong message by preserving the executive order that protects these young people,” Curbelo said in an interview with the Miami Herald in March. “We know that they’ve been very aggressive when it comes to immigration policy, so it certainly stands out that they have left the DACA executive order untouched.”
On Friday, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said he supported a legislative solution to protect undocumented minors, but also urged the president to reconsider scrapping DACA.
"I actually don't think he should do that and I believe that this is something that Congress has to fix," Ryan said on radio station WCLO in Janesville, Wis., Friday. "President Obama did not have a legislative authority to do what he did."
Ryan added: "There are people who are in limbo. These are kids who know no other country, who were brought here by their parents and don't know another home. And so I really do believe that there needs to be a legislative solution."
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, also weighed in on the issue, calling on the president to halt rescinding DACA, saying it would “further complicate a system in serious need of permanent, legislative solution.”
Hatch added that the “solution must come from Congress,” and that he will be working with colleagues and the administration to pass “meaningful immigration reform” and provide a “workable path forward for the Dreamer population.”
Then-candidate Trump promised to terminate DACA during the 2016 presidential campaign, but since taking office has weighed whether to preserve components of it.
Looming in the background is the threat of potential legal action by state attorneys general led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and nine other AGs who oppose DACA. Paxton said Thursday that his office would stick to a previously determined Sept. 5 deadline set by officials from Texas for a decision.
Fox News’ John Roberts, Chad Pergram and Kelly Chernenkoff contributed to this report. 
Brooke Singman is a Politics Reporter for Fox News. Follow her on Twitter at @brookefoxnews.

DACA: Trump expected to end 'Dreamers' immigration program

President Donald Trump is expected to announce the end of an Obama-era program that allowed undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children stay and contribute to the country, sources told Fox News late Sunday.

An official announcement to the end of the program will be on Tuesday, the sources said. After the announcement, Congress will have a six-month window to act.

The program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, was established in 2012. DACA, as it is usually referred to, protected young immigrants who came to the U.S. as children without legal status.
About 800,000 people have signed up to be part of the program. Many people have protested the end of the program and discussed fear of deportation.
According to a report from the Center for American Progress and FWD.us, ending DACA will have a massive economic impact.
The report said 91 percent of DACA recipients are employed and removing them from the work force would put 700,000 people out of jobs. For all those who would lose their jobs, it would cost $3.4 billion to replace them.
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan said Friday that he believes Trump should keep the program and let lawmakers decide. Several Republican lawmakers, including Sen. Marco Rubio, have said they hope “we can work on a way to deal with this issue and solve it through legislation.”
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said on Friday Trump is "in the process of finalizing and will make a decision Tuesday of next week," Sanders said. "He loves children and wants to make sure this decision is done correctly."
The decision to end the program, Sanders said, is not one Trump "takes lightly." The President, Sanders said, "takes time and diligence to make sure he goes through the process," adding that the choice he will make "is weighing on him, certainly."
Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez tweeted shortly after the AP report, saying, “Democrats are going to fight tooth and nail for DREAMers, today, tomorrow, and every single day. 

In rare move, Trump slams South Korea's approach to North Korea

President Trump on Sunday appeared to rebuke South Korea for its “talk of appeasement” with North Korea prior to this weekend’s huge nuclear test, saying Pyongyang only “understands one thing.”

“South Korea is finding, as I have told them, that their talk of appeasement with North Korea will not work, they only understand one thing!'' Trump said on Twitter.

Some questioned Trump's jab at an important U.S. ally.
Patrick Cronin, an Asia expert with the Center for a New American Security, said Trump's comment on South Korea was probably "intended to stiffen the spine of an ally." He said he agreed with the intention.
"I think Washington is very serious about showing some unexpected resolve," he said. "We need our ally and we need to remain ironclad. But at the same time, we can't afford South Korea to go weak in facing down this growing danger."
Kim Jong Un's regime on Sunday claimed "perfect success" in an underground test of what it called a hydrogen bomb. It was the North's sixth nuclear test since 2006 — the first since Trump took office in January — and involved a device potentially vastly more powerful than a nuclear bomb.
Ely Ratner, a national security official in the Obama administration, told The New York Times that the U.S. is going to need “close cooperation with not only South Korea but China as well, he’s coming out swinging at all of them rather than trying to build support and coordination.”
Trump also suggested putting more pressure on China, the North's patron for many decades and a vital U.S. trading partner, in hopes of persuading Beijing to exert more effective leverage on its neighbor. Trump tweeted that the U.S. is considering "stopping all trade with any country doing business with North Korea." Such a halt would be radical. The U.S. imports about $40 billion in goods a month from China, North Korea's main commercial partner.
Ratner told The Times that this weekend’s test may have a “chance of pushing China into a place it’s never been before.”
Trump warned last month that the U.S. military was "locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely" and that the U.S. would unleash "fire and fury" on the North if it continued to threaten America. The bellicose words followed threats from North Korea to launch ballistic missiles toward the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam, intending to create "enveloping fire" near the military hub that's home to U.S. bombers and other aircraft.
The U.S. has about 28,000 troops stationed in South Korea and is obliged by treaty to defend it in the event of war.
In South Korea, the nation's military said it conducted a live-fire exercise simulating an attack on North Korea's nuclear test site to "strongly warn" Pyongyang over the latest nuclear test. Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the drill involved F-15 fighter jets and the country's land-based "Hyunmoo" ballistic missiles. The released live weapons "accurately struck" a target in the sea off the country's eastern coast, the JCS said.
"Denuclearization is not a viable U.S. policy goal," said Richard Fontaine, president of the Center for a New American Security, but neither should the U.S. accept North Korea as a nuclear power. "We should keep denuclearization as a long-term aspiration, but recognize privately that it's unachievable anytime soon."

North Korea reportedly appears to be readying for new launch

What a shame that one IDIOT is going to end up getting his whole nation destroyed.

North Korea appears to be preparing to launch a ballistic missile-- possibly an ICBM, South Korean media reported Monday.

South Korea's Defense Ministry said North Korea appeared to be planning a future launch to show off its claimed ability to target the United States with nuclear weapons, though it was unclear when this might happen.

Chang Kyung-soo, an official with South Korea's Defense Ministry, told lawmakers that Seoul was seeing preparations in the North for an ICBM test but didn't provide details about how officials had reached that assessment.
Following U.S. warnings to North Korea of a "massive military response," South Korea on Monday fired missiles into the sea to simulate an attack on the North's main nuclear test site a day after Pyongyang detonated its largest ever nuclear test explosion.
The heated words from the United States and the military maneuvers in South Korea are becoming familiar responses to North Korea's rapid, as-yet unchecked pursuit of a viable arsenal of nuclear-tipped missiles that can strike the United States.
The most recent, and perhaps most dramatic, advancement came Sunday in an underground test of what leader Kim Jong Un's government claimed was a hydrogen bomb, the North's sixth nuclear test since 2006.
Chang also said the yield from the latest nuclear detonation appeared to be about 50 kilotons, which would mark a "significant increase" from North Korea's past nuclear tests.
In a series of tweets, President Trump threatened to halt all trade with countries doing business with the North, a veiled warning to China, and faulted South Korea for what he called "talk of appeasement."
South Korea's military said its live-fire exercise was meant to "strongly warn" Pyongyang. The drill involved F-15 fighter jets and the country's land-based "Hyunmoo" ballistic missiles firing into the Sea of Japan.
The target was set considering the distance to the North's test site and the exercise was aimed at practicing precision strikes and cutting off reinforcements, Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
Each new North Korean missile and nuclear test gives Pyongyang's scientists invaluable information that allows big jumps in capability. North Korea is thought to have a growing arsenal of nuclear bombs and has spent decades trying to perfect a multistage, long-range missile to eventually carry smaller versions of those bombs.
Both diplomacy and severe sanctions have failed to check the North's decades-long march to nuclear mastery.
In Washington, Trump, asked by a reporter if he would attack the North, said: "We'll see." No U.S. military action appeared imminent, and the immediate focus appeared to be on ratcheting up economic penalties, which have had little effect thus far.
In briefs remarks after a White House meeting with Trump and other national security officials, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters that, “We are not looking to the total annihilation of a country, namely North Korea,” U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said after meeting Trump and his national security team. “But as I said, we have many options to do so.”
Mattis said the U.S. will answer any threat from the North with a "massive military response -- a response both effective and overwhelming."
Mattis also said the international community is unified in demanding the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and that Kim should know Washington's commitment to Japan and South Korea is unshakeable.

Cleveland Browns National Anthem Cartoons

Cleveland police, EMS unions won't hold flag for NFL's Browns after players knelt for anthem

Bailey: "I will not be going to or watching on television the football games of any team that have players that will not stand for the national anthem of America".

Cleveland police and emergency services unions have declined an invitation from the NFL's Cleveland Browns to hold an American flag for the team's season opener after some Browns players knelt for the national anthem during a preseason game.

EMS union president Daniel Nemeth told Fox 8 Cleveland on Friday that the offer to participate in a pregame ceremony sounded great until a dozen Browns players refused to stand for the anthem, in support of free agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

Kaepernick, a former member of the San Francisco 49ers, started a firestorm last season when he decided to kneel for the playing of the anthem before games as a protest against mistreatment of blacks and other minorities in the U.S.
"This hit home with me. I am a veteran, an 8-year veteran with the U.S. Marine Corps. So, to disrespect the flag by taking a knee is not something I was going to be a part of," Nemeth said.
Steve Loomis, the Cleveland police union president, told the station his officers will not participate either.
“ … if the ownership of the Browns and the league are going to allow that type of stuff to happen, and then come to us and say, ‘We want you to help us with the flag,’ that’s hypocritical. We’re not gonna participate.”
The Browns organization has not commented on the decision by the unions to not hold the flag for the first game of the season, but has supported its players in their decision to sit out the playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner."
“As an organization, we have a profound respect for our country’s national anthem, flag and the servicemen and servicewomen in the United States and abroad,” the team said last month. “We feel it's important for our team to join in this great tradition and special moment of recognition, at the same time we also respect the great liberties afforded by our country, including the freedom of personal expression.”
The Browns are scheduled to open the NFL season Sept. 10 against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Ryan Gaydos is a homepage editor for FoxNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @RyanGaydos.