Trump tells Chinese president US will honor 'one China' policy

President Donald Trump told China President Xi Jinping the U.S. would honor the “one China” policy months after Trump suggested he might use American policy on Taiwan as a bargaining chip between the two sides.
Trump “agreed at the request of President Xi,” to honor the policy, the White House said in a statement late Thursday.
The one China policy had been a source of friction between the U.S. and China since Trump’s election in November. Trump had questioned Washington’s policy on Taiwan, which shifted diplomatic recognition from self-governing Taiwan to China in 1979. He said it was open to negotiation.
China bristled at the comments Trump made. Trump told The Wall Street Journal in January that “everything is under negotiation, including ‘one China.’” The interview indicated at the time that Trump intended to shake up the relationship between Washington and Beijing, particularly on Taiwan.
Beijing was initially rattled over Trump’s call with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, the first time an American president or president-elect had publicly spoken to Taiwan’s leader in nearly four decades.
Trump then said in a television interview that he didn't feel "bound by a one China policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade."
Chinese media also went on the attack after Trump’s one China policy comments, calling the then-president-elect “as ignorant as a child.” The Global Times published a Chinese-language editorial headlined: "Trump, please listen clearly: 'One China' cannot be traded."
The White House sought to break the ice with China, saying Wednesday Trump wrote to President Xi wishing the Chinese people greetings for the new year and the Lantern Festival.
"President Trump stated that he looks forward to working with President Xi to develop a constructive relationship that benefits both the United States and China," the statement said.
China said it appreciated Trump’s holiday greeting. When asked if Xi felt snubbed that Trump called other world leaders, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said, “This kind of remark is meaningless.”
Up until Wednesday, Trump had been the only U.S. president in recent years not to have issued greetings when the holiday fell on Jan. 28, triggering speculation in China as to whether it was an oversight or an intentional slight.

Elizabeth Warren Cartoons

Stephen Miller: Coverage of Trump travel ban 'dishonest,' 'false,' and 'wrong'

White House policy director Stephen Miller ripped media coverage of President Donald Trump's travel and immigration ban Wednesday night, saying it "frankly contemptible the way that false statements have been made about the president’s lawful, necessary and fully constitutional action."
"This is the apex of presidential power, delegated to the president by Congress and the Constitution to suspend the entry of aliens into the United States,"Miller told Fox News' Sean Hannity.
WHITE HOUSE FIRES BACK AT IMMIGRATION ORDER CRITICS WITH LIST OF TERROR ARRESTS
Miller spoke hours after the White House released a list of terrorism cases involving suspects who came to the U.S. from the seven countries mentioned in the order: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
"We’ve seen example after example ... of individuals becoming radicalized and joining terrorist groups," Miller said. "The reality ... is that it is a daily feature of life for law enforcement officials and federal investigators all across this country to be investigating, interdicting and preventing terrorist acts that are only being conceived of ... because we let these individuals into our country in the first place."
Miller also slammed U.S. District Court Judge James Robart's decision last week to issue a temporary restraining order, which halted the enforcement of Trump's executive order, as "judicial activism."
"An unelected judge does not have the right to remake the immigration laws and policies for the entire United States of America," Miller said. "This was an issue put before 300 million American citizens and they voted ... to put in place new, tough vetting measures so that we don’t end up [spending] hundreds of billions of dollars long-term dealing with the effects of an immigration system that is not properly controlled."

Trump reaches out to China's Xi in letter instead of phone call

President Donald Trump has issued belated well-wishes to China for the Lunar New Year, the most important holiday in the world's most populous nation, saying he hoped to work with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to build a "constructive relationship."
Trump had been the only U.S. president in recent years not to have issued greetings when the holiday fell on Jan. 28, triggering speculation in China as to whether it was an oversight or an intentional slight.
A statement from the White House late Wednesday said Trump wrote to Chinese President Xi Jinping wishing the Chinese people greetings for the new year and the Lantern Festival that falls on Saturday.
"President Trump stated that he looks forward to working with President Xi to develop a constructive relationship that benefits both the United States and China," the statement said.
China said it appreciated Trump’s holiday greeting. When asked if Xi felt snubbed that Trump called other world leaders, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said, “This kind of remark is meaningless.”
Trump has accused Beijing of unfair trade practices and currency manipulation, criticized China's military buildup in the South China Sea and accused Beijing of doing too little to pressure neighbor North Korea over its nuclear and missile programs.
He also upended four decades of diplomatic protocol by speaking by phone with Tsai Ing-wen, the president of Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory.
Beijing decried the phone call with Tsai and has rejected the other accusations. China has in fact been spending heavily from its pile of foreign currency reserves to prop up the value of its currency, which would make its exports less competitive.
Nick Bisley, an international relations expert at La Trobe University in Australia said Trump’s decision not to call Beijing is a sign of “bad times” ahead.
“China is very much being lined up by Trump’s people as not quite enemy number one but something approximating that,” Bisley said.
The prospect of a military confrontation over the South China Sea had also been raised by Trump's chief strategist Steve Bannon when he hosted the conservative Breitbart News Daily radio show in 2015 and 2016.
Bannon said he envisioned the possibility of a U.S.-China war over the strategic waterbody within five to 10 years. China, which claims the sea virtually in its entirety, has been building man-made islands in the area and equipping them with airstrips and military installations.
Despite Trump's confrontational image, Chinese internet users were warmed by a brief video clip of Donald Trump's granddaughter singing in Chinese that circulated on the web earlier this month.

White House fires back at immigration order critics with list of terror arrests

The White House moved Wednesday to counter critics who claim President Trump’s travel ban goes too far, circulating a list of terror cases involving suspects who came to the U.S. from the seven countries in question.
The list, obtained by Fox News, gave 24 examples of refugees and other immigrants from Somalia, Sudan, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Syria and Libya who have been arrested on terror-related charges; most have been convicted.
Those seven, mostly Muslim countries were singled out in Trump's executive order, which suspended immigration for 90 days from those nations.
The document of terror arrests appears to be, in part, a rebuke to Seattle U.S. District Judge James Robart who, in questioning a Justice Department lawyer last week about the number of post-9/11 arrests of foreign nationals from those countries, incorrectly asserted: “Let me tell you … The answer to that is none, as best I can tell.”
Robart halted the rollout of the executive order. The case is now before the San Francisco-based 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals, where Justice Department lawyers are arguing for the restoration of the measure.
The White House document itself names 10 individuals from Somalia, six from Iraq, one from Yemen, two from Sudan, two from Iran, two from Libya and one from Syria. The cases span the last eight years, and include most recently a case in June in which two Somali refugees were jailed for conspiring to commit murder in Syria on behalf of ISIS.
It also includes a case from March of last year, where a Yemeni native who became a U.S. citizen was sentenced to 22 years in prison for attempting to provide “material support” to ISIS and planning to shoot and kill members of the U.S. military who had returned from Iraq.
The dossier also cited a case from January 2016, in which a Palestinian who was born in Iraq and came to the U.S. as a refugee allegedly tried to provide material support to terror groups abroad. The dossier cites media reports that he told his wife, “I want to blow myself up … I am against America.”
Earlier in the day, Trump defended his order at a meeting with local police chiefs and sheriffs in Washington, D.C., and hinted that he thought the court case was being politicized.
"I don't ever want to call a court biased, so I won’t call it biased and we haven’t had a decision yet, but courts seem to be so political," he said. “It would be so great for our justice system if they were able to read a statement and do what’s right and that’s to do with the security of our nation, which is so important.”
He warned that until the issue was resolved, the nation's security would be at risk.
"I think it's sad, I think it's a sad day," he said. "I think our security is at risk today and it will be at risk until such time as ... we get what we are entitled to as citizens of this country."
While the rollout of Trump's order, signed just days into his presidency, was marred by confusion over its application to green-card holders and others, critics have argued more broadly that it amounts to a discriminatory "Muslim" ban.
Washington state Solicitor General Noah Purcell argued in a court hearing that Trump campaign statements reveal "shocking evidence" of intent to discriminate.

Protests erupt outside Phoenix ICE office after arrest of illegal immigrant

Hard to take back our country when it's been taken over by Illegals.

The detention of an illegal immigrant sparked a protest Wednesday outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs office in Phoenix that resulted in seven arrests as crowds  blocked ICE buses on nearby streets.
Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos, 36, arrived at the office for her routine check in, but instead of being released--under President Trump's illegal  immigration crackdown-- she was detained.
Garcia de Rayos, 36, was considered a “low priority” for deportation under the Obama administration and had to check in with ICE officials every six months following a 2008 conviction for felony identity theft for having false papers, The Los Angeles Times reported.
She was joined Wednesday by her husband and son--both U.S. citizens-- and supporters, some of whom cried when she was taken in to custody, The Arizona Republic reported.
The family reportedly fears she could be deported to Mexico.
“Ms. Garcia de Rayos is currently being detained by ICE based on a removal order issued by the Department of Justice's Executive Office for Immigration Review which became final in May 2013,” and ICE statement read.
News of her detainment spread quickly and protesters were seen attempting to block the ICE van Garcia de Rayos was believed to be inside. Some protesters chanted, "Shame on you."
Puente Arizona Director Carlos Garcia said the arrest was in direct result of Trump’s illegal immigration crackdown.
“We all knew something could be different this time with the new administration,” Garcia told the Los Angeles Times. “She went in with the lawyer and didn’t come out. That was pretty much all there was.”
Police posted on Twitter that they arrested about seven protesters, but added that the demonstration was mainly peaceful.
"Besides the few people engaged in criminal acts, most people out here are peaceful and exercising their rights properly," police said. "Everyone remains safe so far. Hoping for continued cooperation and no more criminal conduct."
By 1 a.m. Thursday, less than two dozen protesters stood in the dark outside the building talking quietly, with just a handful of police looking on.
The protesters said they initially succeeded in stopping the vehicles from leaving, but said they later left the grounds by another exit. They didn't know if Garcia de Rayos had still been aboard.
Trump’s Jan. 25 executive order expanded deportation priorities to any illegal immigrants who had been convicted of a crime, regardless of its severity. The Obama administration previously prioritized violent offenders.
Puente Arizona had filed a stay in Garcia de Rayos’ removal, but it was denied.

Global Warming Cartoons

Federal scientist cooked climate change books ahead of Obama presentation, whistle blower charges

A key Obama administration scientist brushed aside inconvenient data that showed a slowdown in global warming in compiling an alarming 2015 report that coincided with the White House participation in the Paris Climate Conference, a whistle blower is alleging.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in a major 2013 report, concluded global temperatures had shown a smaller increase from 1998 to 2012 than any similar period over the past 30 to 60 years. But a blockbuster, June 2015 paper by a team of federal scientists led by Thomas Karl, published in the journal Science in June 2015 and later known as the “pausebuster" paper sought to discredit the notion of a slowdown in warming.

Expand / Contract

Karl was director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Environmental Information when the report was published. (NOAA)

"Our new analysis suggests that the apparent hiatus may have been largely the result of limitations in past datasets, and that the rate of warming over the first 15 years of this century has, in fact, been as fast or faster than that seen over the last half of the 20th century," Karl, who was at the time director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Environmental Information, said at the time.

Expand / Contract

Smith, R-Texas, questioned the timing of the report.

The report argued that evidence shows there was no “hiatus” in rising global temperatures and that they had been increasing in the 21st century just as quickly as in the last half of the 20th century.
Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, chairman of the House Science Committee, questioned the timing, noting the paper was published just before the Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan was submitted to the Paris Climate Conference of 2015.
"In the summer of 2015, whistleblowers alerted the Committee that the Karl study was rushed to publication before underlying data issues were resolved to help influence public debate about the so-called Clean Power Plan and upcoming Paris climate conference," Smith said in a statement. "Since then, the Committee has attempted to obtain information that would shed further light on these allegations, but was obstructed at every turn by the previous administration’s officials."
Karl denied the paper was released to boost the plan.
Karl’s neglect of the IPCC data was purposeful, according to John Bates, a recently retired scientist from the National Climactic Data Center at the NOAA. Bates came forward just days ago to charge that the 2015 study selectively used misleading and unverified data – effectively putting NOAA’s thumb on the scale.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, Bates said Karl was “insisting on decisions and scientific choices that maximized warming and minimized documentation… in an effort to discredit the notion of a global warming pause, rushed so that he could time publication to influence national and international deliberations on climate policy.”
For example, Karl allegedly adjusted temperature data collected by robot buoys upward to match earlier data from ocean-going ships. That was problematic, Bates said, because ships generate heat and could cause readings to vary.
“They had good data from buoys,” Bates told the Daily Mail. “And they threw it out and ‘corrected’ it by using the bad data from ships. You never change good data to agree with bad, but that’s what they did – so as to make it look as if the sea was warmer.”
Bates, who could not be reached for comment, but has published some of his allegations in a blog, claims to have documentation of his explosive charges and indicated more revelations are coming.
A NOAA spokesman, in an email to The Washington Times, said NOAA “stands behind its world-class scientists” but also that it “takes seriously any allegation that its internal processes have not been followed and will review the matter appropriately.”
Bates is not the first to question Karl’s conclusions. A paper by Canadian climate modeler John Fyfe questioned the 2015 study. As he put it, in a 2016 article from the journal Nature Climate Change, “there is a mismatch between what the climate models are producing and what observations are showing. We can’t ignore it.”
Climate scientists have closed ranks around Karl. A study published last month in Science Advances, by Zeke Hausfather of University of California Berkeley and five others, claims to confirm Karl’s findings.
In addition, climate scientist Peter Thorne, who has worked with the NOAA, said Bates wasn’t involved in the work that he’s criticizing. Bates disputed the assertion.
While Karl, and other scientists who believe man-made climate change poses a major threat had the ear of the Obama administration, President Trump has shown signs of skepticism. It remains to be seen from which scientists he will take his cue.

Cotton: Immigration system 'does not serve the interests of American citizens'

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark. told Fox News Tuesday that his proposed legislation to halve the number of green cards issued to legal immigrats was "in keeping with historic norms" and "very generous."
COTTON, PERDUE UNVEIL BILL TO CUT LEGAL IMMIGRATION 'IN HALF' 
"What I simply think we need to do is get a legal immigration system that works for American workers," Cotton told Martha MacCallum on "The First 100 Days." "Over the last several decades, we’ve seen wages stagnate for blue collar workers. At the same time, we’ve had record high numbers of unskilled and low-skilled immigration. I think those two things are directly connected."
Cotton, who has been among President Donald Trump's most loyal supporters on Capitol Hill, said that Trump's victory in last year's presidential election was a signal from the American people to lawmakers to fix the country's immigration system.
"But the single issue on which he campaigned above all others and set himself apart was immigration and refocusing our immigration system on working Americans," he said.
The proposed legislation would also end the Diversity Visa Lottery, which Cotton called "outdated," as well as cut down on the number of refugees admitted to the U.S.
"Only about one in 15 immigrants coming in today is coming in because they have demonstrated skills or because they fill a demonstrated economic need," Cotton said. "That means that they directly compete with high school graduates and people that don’t have a high school degree. Of course, that means there are going to be fewer jobs for those American citizens and lower wages."

Justice Department argues for restoration of Trump travel ban

The Justice Department argued Tuesday that a federal appeals court should overturn a district court judge's order halting President Trump's executive action suspending travel to the U.S. from seven majority-Muslim nations.
The hearing before the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals judges was the greatest legal challenge yet to the travel ban, which has upended travel to the U.S. for more than a week and tested the new administration's use of executive power.
Several states have fought the ban on travelers from seven predominantly Muslim nations — Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Yemen — and insisted that it is unconstitutional.
Justice Department attorney August Flentje asked the court to restore Trump's order, contending that the president alone has the power to decide who can enter or stay in the United States, as well as suspend classes of aliens when their entry to the country is otherwise detrimental to national security.
"That's what the president did here," Flentje argued.
The government described the executive order as a "90-day pause" needed to ensure adequate standards were in place for visa screening, which Flentje called "plainly constitutional."
Judge Michelle T. Friedland, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, asked whether the government has any evidence connecting the seven nations to terrorism.
Flentje cited a number of Somalis in the U.S. who, he said, had been connected to the al-Shabab terrorist group terror group after judges asked for evidence. Flentje added that the case was moving fast and the government had not yet included additional evidence to support the ban.

Flentje also noted that the executive order was based in part on a determination made by the Obama administration and Congress over the past two years that labeled the countries in question as either having a significant presence by a foreign terrorist organization or being a state sponsor of terrorism.

The final minutes of the hearing were largely devoted to whether the travel ban was intended to discriminate against Muslims.

Judge Richard Clifton, a George W. Bush nominee, asked an attorney representing Washington state and Minnesota, which are challenging the ban, what evidence he had that it was motivated by religion.
"I have trouble understanding why we're supposed to infer religious animus when in fact the vast majority of Muslims would not be affected."
He said only 15 percent of the world's Muslims were affected, according to his calculations, and said the "concern for terrorism from those connected to radical Islamic sects is hard to deny."
Noah Purcell, Washington state's solicitor general, cited public statements by Trump calling for a ban on the entry of Muslims to the U.S. He said the states did not have to show every Muslim is harmed, only that the ban was motivated by religious discrimination.
Under questioning from Clifton, Flentje did not dispute that Trump made the statements.

Washington state, Minnesota and other states challenging the ban want the appellate court to allow a temporary restraining order blocking the travel ban — which also temporarily suspended the country's refugee program — to stand as their lawsuit moves through the legal system.
Purcell said that restraining order has not harmed the U.S. government.

Instead, he told the panel, the order had harmed Washington state residents by splitting up families, holding up students trying to travel for their studies and preventing people from visiting family abroad.

Clifton said he suspected that only a "small fraction" of the state's residents were affected.

The court adjourned with Friendland promising a ruling would come "as soon as possible." Whatever the court eventually decides, either side could ask the Supreme Court to intervene.
It is also possible that the panel could make a ruling on a technical point, such as whether the lower court's order is properly classified as a temporary restraining order, rather than on the larger merits of the case.

Warren finds voice, support after formally silenced at Sessions nomination debate

Sen. Elizabeth Warren took to Facebook late Tuesday night to finish delivering her speech after being formally silenced on the Senate floor for quoting Coretta Scott King during her criticism of President Trump’s nominee for attorney general.
The dramatic scene unfolded when the Massachusetts Democrat ran afoul of the chamber’s arcane rules-- Rule XIX-- by reading a three-decade-old letter from Dr. Martin Luther King’s widow that dated to Sen. Jeff Sessions’ failed judicial nomination three decades ago.
King wrote that when acting as a federal prosecutor, Sessions used his power to ‘‘chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens.’’
Quoting King technically put Warren in violation of Senate rules for ‘‘impugning the motives’’ of Sessions, though the letter was written about 10 years before Sessions was elected to the Senate.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called her formal silencing “totally unnecessary.” Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said both sides “should be ashamed" about the atmosphere on the floor.
“This place is going to devolve into nothing but a jungle,” Hatch said.
Though silenced, Warren later posted on Twitter that, “I will not be silent about a nominee for AG who has made derogatory & racist comments that have no place in our justice system.”
Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell invoked the rules. After a few parliamentary moves, the GOP-controlled Senate voted 49-to-43 to silence Warren.
Warren is now forbidden from speaking again on Sessions’ nomination. A vote on Sessions is expected Wednesday evening. He is expected to be confirmed.
"She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted," McConnell said. Her supporters later used #shepersisted as a rally cry.
Bernice King, the daughter of Coretta Scott King and Martin Luther King wrote on Twitter, “Thank you @SenWarren for being the soul of the Senate during the #Sessions hearing.”
The Democratic National Committee said it is a “sad day in America when the words of Martin Luther King Jr’s widow are not allowed on the floor of the United States Senate.”
Warren went on to read the letter from King on Facebook, which attracted two million views, according to The New York Times, an audience likely far greater than she would have gained on C-SPAN. Supporters took to social media with the hashtag #LetLizSpeak and #ShePersisted as something as a rally cry.
Warren, 67, hasn't ruled out a future White House run but has said she is focused on the 2018 senate race.
According to an Associated Press review of Warren's latest campaign finance reports, the Massachusetts Democrat took in a hefty $5.9 million in campaign contributions from January 2015 through the end of 2016.

Muslim Cartoons

Student Bullied on School Bus for Wearing 'Make America Great Again' Hat

A 12-year-old student from the St. Louis area was bullied for wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat on the school bus.
Cellphone video obtained by KMOV shows a group of students ganging up on the boy and yelling about President Donald Trump's proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall. It appears some punches were thrown.
"I saw him being berated and bullied and beat, literally beat, because he feels strongly about the world today," the sixth-grader's mother Christina Cortina told KMOV.
Cortina said she is outraged that her son was suspended in the aftermath of the incident, though he was the victim.
A representative for the Parkway School District said all students involved in the attack have faced "consequences" following a full investigation.

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Santa Clara University Bans Conservative Group, Saying It Makes Liberal Students Feel ‘Unsafe’

At Santa Clara University, offended leftists are doing all they can to keep conservatives off campus.
Turning Point USA advertises itself as a group promoting “fiscal responsibility, free markets, and limited government.” Some Santa Clara students went before the school’s student senate to apply to start their own chapter on campus. A small group of students made their pitch, and then students and faculty at the school delivered speeches opposing the group.
In the end, the senate rejected the proposal, saying the group would make students feel “unsafe.”
“It was a lot of repetitive stuff,” Caleb Aleva, one of the Turning Points USA activists, told The Daily Caller. “A lot of them are lying about being afraid or they are genuinely in fear because of this false sense of danger promulgated by the media that anyone who is vaguely conservative is a Nazi or a white supremacist,” he said.
David Warne, one of the student senators at Santa Clara, told The Daily Caller that the group was compared to the alt-right in a presentation. “The order of the presentation goes like this: White Nationalists—>Alt-Right—>Identity Evropa—>Richard Spencer—>Milo Yiannopoulos—>Turning Point USA,” Warne wrote. Identity Evropa recently appeared on campus, but Warne said no one believes the posters were put up by students.
A few of Turning Point’s 350 chapters around the country have helped co-host Milo events, but the group as a whole doesn’t associate with him. The group’s events at college campuses haven’t led to major demonstrations or to outbreaks of violence.
Turning Point USA spokesman Matt Lamb contacted Santa Clara’s assistant director of student organizations to find out why the group was rejected. He told The Daily Caller that the assistant director “told the club to re-apply next quarter.” He then added that “she also said that one reason the student senate likely rejected us was because of the ‘mood’ after the last election.”
The group was voted down by a margin of 16-10, and the next step for them is to appeal the decision to the judicial branch of the student senate or wait until the next quarter.

Conway: Travel ban part of Trump's 'responsibility,' 'authority' and 'duty'

Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway defended President Donald Trump's executive order halting travel to the U.S. from seven majority-Muslim nations Monday, saying that Trump "has a responsibility, the authority, and indeed, the duty to protect Americans."
Conway spoke to Fox News' "Hannity" hours after the Justice Department filed a brief with a federal appeals court seeking the ban's restoration three days after a federal judge in Washington state halted the order.
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT ASKS APPEALS COURT TO RESTORE TRUMP'S TRAVEL BAN 
Echoing the Justice Department brief, Conway argued that Friday's decision by U.S. District Court Judge James Robart was "overly broad."
"It’s a nationwide injunction," Conway said. "He referenced religion where, in fact, that has nothing to do with the executive order."
"The fact is," she added. "we don’t even know if these states that sued have standing. Individuals have standing and individuals usually need to show harm and damages."
Conway also argued that Robart was "wrong from the bench" when he stated that no one from the seven countries named in Trump's executive order — Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Sudan and Yemen — had been arrested on terror charges in the United States since 2001. An Associated Press report described Robart's statement as "a step too far."
"This is the judge who … issued a nationwide injunction," Conway said, "and was just wrong from the bench in what he said about what this type of extreme vetting would provide or would have prevented had it been in place earlier."

US court to hear arguments on Trump's travel ban

A U.S. federal  appeals court Tuesday will hear arguments over President Trump’s controversial temporary travel ban, and whether Trump’s order should be restored after last week’s federal judge’s ruling.
The filing with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals came three days after a federal judge in Washington state halted Trump's order and granted a nationwide stay.
The Justice Department said U.S. District Judge James Robart's order was "vastly overbroad" and said Trump's executive order was "a lawful exercise of the President's authority over the entry of aliens into the United States and the admission of refugees."
The appeals court refused to immediately reinstate the ban, and lawyers for Washington and Minnesota -- two states challenging it -- argued anew on Monday that any resumption would "unleash chaos again," separating families and stranding university students.
VIDEO: JUDGE NAPOLITANO'S TAKE ON THE TRAVEL BAN LEGAL BATTLE 
Oral arguments were set for Tuesday afternoon. Whatever the appeals court decides, either side could ask the Supreme Court to intervene.
It could prove difficult, though, to find the necessary five votes at the high court to undo a lower court order; the Supreme Court has been at less than full strength since Justice Antonin Scalia's death a year ago. The last immigration case that reached the justices ended in a 4-4 tie.
The president's executive order has faced legal uncertainty ever since Friday's ruling by Robart, which challenged both Trump's authority and his ability to fulfill a campaign promise.
The State Department quickly said people from the seven countries — Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen — could travel to the U.S. if they had valid visas. The Homeland Security Department said it was no longer directing airlines to prevent affected visa holders from boarding U.S.-bound planes.
On Monday in Colorado, a graduate student who had traveled to Libya with her 1-year-old son to visit her sick mother and attend her father's funeral was back in Fort Collins after having been stopped in Jordan on her return trip. She was welcomed with flowers and balloons by her husband and other children.
Two Yemeni brothers whose family has sued over the travel ban, and who'd been turned away in the chaotic opening days of the order, arrived at Dulles International Airport in Virginia, where they were greeted by their father.
"America is for everybody," Aqel Aziz said after greeting his sons.
Syrian immigrant Mathyo Asali said he thought his life was "ruined" when he landed at Philadelphia International Airport on Jan. 28 only to be denied entry to the United States. Asali, who returned to Damascus, said he figured he'd be inducted into the Syrian military. He was back on U.S. soil Monday.
"It's really nice to know that there's a lot of people supporting us," Asali told Gov. Tom Wolf, who greeted the family at a relative's house in Allentown.
The legal fight involves two divergent views of the role of the executive branch and the court system.
The government has asserted that the president alone has the power to decide who can enter or stay in the United States, while Robart has said a judge's job is to ensure that an action taken by the government "comports with our country's laws."
His Friday ruling triggered a Twitter rant by Trump, who dismissed Robart as a "so-called judge." On Sunday, Trump tweeted, "Just cannot believe a judge would put our country in such peril. If something happens blame him and court system. People pouring in. Bad!"

Leftist Cartoons

Pence takes two wounded war veterans to Super Bowl 51

Vice President Mike Pence picked up two wounded war veterans at Andrews Air Force Base on his way to Houston for the Super Bowl on Sunday.
Marine Staff Sgt. Anthony Mannino, Jr. and Army Staff Sgt. Frederick Manning flew aboard Air Force Two on the way to the game. Mannino was wounded while serving in Iraq in 2008 and Manning was hurt in Afghanistan last year, according to The Hill.
Mannino brought along his wife Diane and Manning brought his nurse from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Army Sgt. First Class Charles Stanley. Mannino was pulling for the Patriots to win their fifth Super Bowl, while Manning was hoping the Falcons would win their first.
“We’ve got Falcons fans. We’ve got Patriot fans,” Pence said. “There’ll be a winner on this plane on the way back.”
Mannino told the Indy Star on Sunday that he thought the initial call was a mistake. Manning added that he didn’t get any sleep Saturday before the game.
“I was like, `This is the White House? Are you sure you’ve got the right person?’” Mannino said.
After the group landed in Houston, the conclave went to Pappas BBQ in Houston for a pulled pork sandwich and some BBQ sauce.
Pence gave Pappas BBQ two thumbs up as he left to go to NRG Stadium.
"It was just great," he said, rubbing his stomach. "That's some Texas BBQ.”

Federal workers turn to secret messaging to oppose Trump policies, nominees

Some federal employees are gearing up for a cyber-battle against President Trump, and they are creating a hidden messaging system to elude detection.
According to POLITICO, employees of agencies that seem on the chopping block of the new administration are setting up new email addresses and turning to encrypted messaging apps to hold group conversations with other anti-Trump staffers, and to communicate with the press.
They’re also using these cloak-and-dagger methods to work on letters that take exception to Trump policies, POLITICO reported.
Career employees at the State Department have amassed some 1,000 signatures on a memo that expresses condemnation of Trump’s executive order that imposes a travel ban on immigrants and that puts a hold on refugee admissions from seven Muslim-majority countries deemed hotbeds of terrorist activity.
Employees of other agencies, such as the Labor Department and Environmental Protection Agency, also have turned to off-the-grid messaging to urge U.S. senators to oppose Trump Cabinet nominees and warning against the president’s plans to make cuts in some agencies.
Such off-grid communication can work, and stay within legal boundaries, say experts, so long as it is done during personal time and on personal equipment.
“It could work, but it depends on whether they are using their office computers or networks,” said Jim Lewis, director of the Strategic Technologies Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, to Fox News. “If they are, they’ll be detected, even if they use encryption. If they are using private accounts or devices, it would require a warrant to find them and they aren’t violating any law if they stick to opinion.”
Lewis served as a Foreign Service officer with both the State and Commerce departments.
“Illegal surveillance would lead to a lawsuit against the [agency] that conducted it [and] the workers would win,” Lewis added. “Encryption is a problem in that it can hide communications between two people but can be a handicap if you want to share material widely.”
Some State Department employees see it as their civil duty to flag any policies or proposals that they believe will be detrimental to their agency’s role, POLITICO said.
“I think we all have to look within ourselves and say ‘Where is that line that I will not cross?’” one Foreign Service officer said about opposition toTrump's ban, according to POLITICO.
One of the most high-profile acts of dissent occurred when Acting Attorney General Sally Yates ordered the Department of Justice’s lawyers not to defend the ban order in court.
Trump abruptly fired her.
Recently, news surfaced about a Secret Service agent who last year said in a Facebook post that she would not sacrifice her life for Donald Trump if he became president.
Employees of the National Parks Service raised eyebrows when the agency’s Twitter account had a retweet of photos showing crowds at Trump’s and Barack Obama’s inaugurations.
The agency removed the retweet and described it as an error.
But so-called “unofficial resistance teams” at the park service, EPA and NASA have been apparently using alternative accounts to take jabs at Trump and his policies.
One tweet, cited by POLITICO, said: “Can't wait for President Trump to call us FAKE NEWS. You can take our official twitter, but you'll never take our free time!”
Many of the federal workers turning to under-the-radar means of communicating are using Signal, a smartphone app that can be used to send encrypted messages.
“It seems Trump is going after people who oppose things that he’s doing, so it makes sense that federal workers would be concerned about making their political ideas known,” said Jonathan Katz, director of the Maryland Cybersecurity Center at the University of Maryland.“The [Signal] app is well-designed, it’s secure, it would be difficult to collect widespread information from it,” Katz said to Fox News. “But if [the government] wants to target a specific individual, it could do that.”

Pence: Will use 'all legal means at our disposal' to reinstate immigration ban

Vice President Mike Pence said Sunday that the federal judge who halted President Trump’s temporary immigration ban “made the wrong decision” and vowed to use “all legal means at our disposal” to protect Americans.
“From the outset of his campaign and administration, the president of the United States has made it clear to put the safety of the American people first,” Pence said on “Fox News Sunday.” “We are going to win this argument.”
Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 27 that temporarily halted immigration from seven mostly Muslim nations and the United States’ Syrian refugee program. The order follows his steadfast argument that radical Islamic terrorism poses a major threat to Americans’ safety.  
On Friday, a federal judge in Seattle imposed a temporary restraining order on Trump’s ban, in response to a case filed last week by Washington state and Minnesota challenging Trump’s constitutional authority to unilaterally impose such a sweeping ban.
On Saturday night, a federal appeals court denied a Trump administration request to lift the restraining order and allow the immigration ban to continue.
“Under statutory law and under the Constitution, that authority belongs to the president,” Pence also said Sunday.
California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told “Fox News Sunday” that she has “no doubt” that the legal issue will ultimately go to the Supreme Court.
Pence also supported the new sanctions Trump imposed on Iran after the country last week launched a medium-range ballistic missile.
“They have flouted the U.N. security resolution,” he said. “What we are seeing here is a hostile action, belligerent action, taken by the Iranians. And we just are not going to put up with it anymore."

Trump: Leaked transcripts of Mexico, Australia calls 'disgraceful'

President Trump on Saturday denounced the leaks of transcripts of his telephone conversations with leaders of Australia and Mexico as “disgraceful” and said his administration was searching “very, very hard” for the leakers.
Trump, speaking exclusively to Fox News, accused “Obama people” of giving news organizations embarrassing details of his recent tense phone conversations with his Australian and Mexican counterparts, and said that the holdovers from the Obama administration still serving on his White House and National Security Council staff were being replaced.
“It’s a disgrace that they leaked because it’s very much against our country,” Trump said, without stating why he believed that career civil servants who work in Democratic and Republican administrations were the source of the leaks. “It’s a very dangerous thing for this country,” he said.
Trump said that media reports of what appeared to be angry exchanges between him and the two foreign leaders had been mischaracterized, and insisted that he had “positive” relations with both countries and their leaders.
Meanwhile, hours before a federal judge in San Francisco turned down the Trump administration’s request to reinstate travel restrictions on refugees and foreign travelers, President Trump defended his administration’s travel ban, saying the temporary halt was needed while the administration reviewed vetting procedures to prevent “people with bad intentions” from entering the country.
“I just want a safe country, and you can’t have a safe country with open and weak borders…you can’t,” he said.
Trump said that the FBI had informed him that the bureau had “1,000 investigations” ongoing into potential terrorist threats and lacked sufficient manpower to pursue them all.
Finally, he disputed press reports which characterized the sanctions he imposed last week on Iran as weak and ineffective. He said that punishing Tehran for violating United Nations Security Council restrictions on ballistic missile testing was “the right thing to do,” and argued that the sanctions were already beginning to constrain Iranian aggression. Iran, he said, was trying to undermine and destabilize U.S. allies by exporting sensitive technology to countries “around the world” and that such aggressive conduct had to be countered. The sanctions were already working, he asserted. “Have you noticed they’ve been very quiet in the last two days?”
Trump made these and other comments in a conversation with three journalists whom he had invited to join him after the 60th annual International Red Cross ball, a fundraiser for the charity that was held this year at his club, Mar-a-Lago.
In his first trip back to his home in Palm Beach since becoming president, Trump answered several questions on wide-ranging topics from this reporter, Christopher Ruddy, founder and chief of Newsmax Media, and Melanie Dickinson, president and publisher of the South Florida Business Journal, an online and print business publication. Trump and his wife Melania lingered on after the ball to mix with admirers and some of the estimated 800 Red Cross supporters attending the black-tie event at Mar-a-lago, which has become known as “The Winter White House.”
While wealthy supporters of the charity rubbed shoulders with one another and clustered around the table occupied by Trump and his wife, eager to congratulate him and take photos with First Couple, some 4,000 people turned out for an anti-Trump march in West Palm Beach. Hundreds of protesters made their way from Trump Tower in West Palm Beach to a staging area near Palm Beach on Bingham Island, and then to the entrance of the exclusive club, where they shouted anti-Trump slogans and yelled chants against the new administration’s policies. Many of the protesters, most of whom were peaceful, carried placards criticizing Trump, his immigration and other policies, and several of his wealthy Cabinet nominees. The protest was among the largest, if not the largest, in recent Palm Beach county history.
Inside the huge ornate ballroom, Trump seemed particularly insistent on disputing the notion that his travel restrictions now being challenged by several courts were unpopular. “They’re very popular,” he insisted. But, he added, he would have imposed them whether or not Americans approved of them. “I’m not doing it for popularity. I’m doing it because our country is like a sieve for people coming in,” he said.
He said that he had learned in his meetings with FBI officials that the bureau was having a difficult time staffing the more than 1,000 investigations it was conducting into potential threats to the country. “There’s no manpower to do them.”
Calls to FBI headquarters regarding the number of ongoing terror investigations were not returned on this Super Bowl Sunday. But last summer, James Comey, the FBI director, testified that the bureau had about 1,000 open terror-related investigations in 2016 and at least one in all of the 50 states. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., who follows counter-terrorism efforts closely, confirmed that senior FBI officials have spoken of nearly 1,000 ongoing investigations. John Pistole, the former FBI deputy director, told Fox News last summer that the FBI lacked the resources and legal authority to maintain investigations “on everybody they talk to,” he said. The FBI had perpetrators of the terror attacks carried out in Orlando, San Bernardino, and Boston under surveillance for a time, but closed out their inquiries before the attacks.
Trump said Saturday night that many Americans did not realize the danger posed by America’s “open” borders and insufficient vetting. “You don’t realize it,” he said.
However, groups helping asylum seekers, refugees, and other civil and human rights groups point out that no Americans have been killed in domestic terror attacks by asylum seekers and refugees from the seven Middle Eastern countries with majority Muslim populations who would be barred from entering the U.S. for 120 days while the administration reviews its immigration and vetting policies.
Under Trump’s executive order, refugees from Syria would be permanently barred, exclusions whose legality several civil rights and civil liberties experts and groups have challenged. They also argue that political refugees are already among the most heavily vetted of all immigrants.
“I’m doing this because our country is like a sieve for people coming in,” Trump said.
One former CIA official said that while the administration’s implementation of its executive order was “clumsy, the concerns behind it are real.” But the constitutionality of the executive order seems headed for a Supreme Court challenge.
The FBI also did not return calls for comment Sunday on whether it was conducting an investigation into the leaking of transcripts of the president's telephone calls with foreign leaders. While White House press spokesman Sean Spicer recently said that the president had asked his team to “to look into this because those are very serious implications," Trump had not previously discussed his own view of the embarrassing leaks. His comments Saturday underscored his concern about what has become widespread early on in his administration — the unauthorized distribution of material highlighting numerous exaggerations and false statements by him and senior members of his White House and other incidents that seem to reflect incompetence or inexperience.
Trump seemed particularly anxious to reinforce his spokesman’s descriptions of his conversations with the leaders of Australia and Mexico as “candid," but respectful. Spicer noted that both leaders have disputed some of the details as reported.
Based on the transcripts, the Washington Post and several media outlets, for instance, reported that Trump hung up on Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull after an angry discussion of a refugee swap negotiated by former President Obama. In a recent interview, Turnbull called his discussion with Trump “frank” but said that Trump had agreed to abide by the refugee swap negotiated by former President Barack Obama. In one interview, he said it had been a "good week" for Australia.
In an earlier call with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, Trump apparently threatened to send the U.S. military to Mexico to stop drug cartels -- according to a transcript published by a Mexican news organization and the Associated Press. The White House later said the comments were intended to be “lighthearted.”

Stupid Liberal Judge Cartoons

Two-time world heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman sounded off on President Trump, saying he has to keep fighting in order to continue his "winning" streak.
Foreman compared Trump's battles with the many opposition groups to the numerous boxing matches he participated in over the years.
"When you're in something like this, you just have to fight," he said.

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Hannity: President Trump Is Showing the World There's a New Sheriff in Town
Federal Judge Halts Enforcement of Trump's Travel Ban Nationwide
'Of Course I Want to Punch Him in the Face': De Niro Still Doesn't Like Trump

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He advised Trump not to listen to his detractors and stay on message, saying that while "in the ring" he would not listen to the "boos" from the crowd until he was home watching the match on tape.
"Sometimes people win because they're winners," he said.
Regarding a moment in a White House meeting when the Rev. Darrell Scott told Trump that Chicago gang leaders reached out to him in hopes of communicating with the president to improve the city, Foreman said he hopes that the commander-in-chief effectively drops a "mountain of social workers" there to help quell the violence.
"Make [Chicago] a good place again," he said.

Trump calls judge’s halt on immigration 'ridiculous;' says will be 'overturned!'

President Trump made clear Saturday that the White House will fight a recent judge’s ruling that effectively stops his immigration ban.
A federal judge in Seattle late Friday imposed a nationwide hold on Trump's temporary ban on travelers and immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim countries.
“The Constitution prevailed today,” Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson said in a press release. “No one is above the law — not even the President.”
“The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!,” Trump tweeted Saturday morning.
U.S. District Judge James Robart, a George W. Bush apointee, ruled that Washington state and Minnesota had standing to challenge Trump's executive order on immigration. So he issued the temporary, nationwide restraining order based on his opinion that the states showed their case is likely to succeed.
Trump issued the temporary ban following his winning campaign promise to further protect Americans from radical Islamic terrorism.
“When a country is no longer able to say who can, and who cannot, come in & out, especially for reasons of safety & security -- big trouble!” Trump said in two other tweets Saturday. “Interesting that certain Middle Eastern countries agree with the ban. They know if certain people are allowed in its death & destruction!”
The State Department confirmed Saturday that it has reversed the executive order’s provisional revoking of visas, saying, “Those individuals with visas that were not physically cancelled may now travel if the visa is otherwise valid.”
The agency said it also is working closely with the Department of Homeland Security and their legal teams and will provide further updates as soon as information is available.
A purported 60,000 people from the affected countries have had their visas cancelled since the ban took effect last weekend.
The New York Times first reported Friday night that airlines have been told by the government to begin allowing these travelers on planes to the United States.
And Qatar Airways announced on its website Saturday that it has been directed by the U.S. government to permit formerly banned passengers to board U.S.-bound flights, as a result of the judge’s ruling.
Trump’s tweet about the ruling being “overturned” follows White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer releasing a statement late Friday saying the administration "will file an emergency stay of this outrageous order and defend the executive order of the president, which we believe is lawful and appropriate."
Soon after, the White House sent out a new statement that removed the word "outrageous."
"The president's order is intended to protect the homeland and he has the constitutional authority and responsibility to protect the American people," the statement said.
Trump's order last week sparked protests nationwide and confusion at airports as some travelers were detained. The White House has argued that it will make the country safer.
Washington became the first state to sue over the order that temporarily bans travel for people from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya and Yemen and suspends the U.S. refugee program.
Ferguson, a Democrat, said the travel ban significantly harms residents and effectively mandates discrimination. Minnesota joined the lawsuit two days later.
Federal attorneys had argued that Congress gave the president authority to make decisions on national security and immigrant entry.
The two states won a temporary restraining order while the court considers the lawsuit, which aims to permanently block Trump's order. Court challenges have been filed nationwide from states and advocacy groups.
Justice Department lawyers say about 100,000 visas -- not 60,000 -- had been revoked.
The State Department clarified that the higher figure includes diplomatic and other visas that were actually exempted from the travel ban, as well as expired visas.