Listen up, UN -- Trump means what he's telling you

To all you besuited, bespectacled, and soon-to-be bewildered diplomats slogging around the United Nations General Assembly this week, try to understand this: Donald Trump means every word of what he's going to tell you. Which is: the United States is done with being blamed for everything that goes wrong in the world, and then paying to fix it.

For decades since the UN's founding in 1945, ambassadors and their ever-sprawling staffs have lived, eaten and parked at taxpayer expense, enjoying a life far beyond the means most of them could ever hope to afford in their homelands. 

The UN has become a symbol of globalist elitism, of willful ignorance about real world conditions. It has passed resolutions condemning Israel for its policies toward Palestinians, while failing to note that Palestinian terror is still an everyday threat to Israelis. It has given lip-service to condemning North Korea's escalating nuclear ambitions, but been unable even to agree on a way to freeze the millions in assets of its unhinged boy-king, Kim Jong Un.
It has chided the United States -- a democracy whether far-left Democrats think so or not -- for voting irregularities in some of its elections, but failed to inquire how Vladimir Putin got twice as many votes as his nearest rival in a country whose economy is tanking or how Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro just neutered his country's national legislature.

The assembled multitude at the UN this week will get to hear first-hand what Trump means where he talks about making America Great Again and America First. The only things threatened by those twin dogmas are the status quo that has long ignored or scorned U.S. leadership and values.

For those same decades, American presidents have taken the podium of the General Assembly in September and temporized, telling their audiences what fine chaps and ladies they are, how the United Nations is doing important work, and how proud they are to be standing in its hallowed headquarters on the East River of Manhattan.
President Trump will deliver no such encomiums. He has already demonstrated a signature willingness to insult his hosts, lecturing fellow NATO leaders on their failure to pay their fair share for defense, in pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord despite some chilly Gallic stares directed at him, or in demanding that the NAFTA free trade agreement be renegotiated in a way more advantageous to the U.S.
Speaking of paying a fair share, Trump is also likely to remind his listeners that the United States coughs up an outsize 22 percent of the UN's overall budget and 28 percent of its peacekeeping funds. He may also allude to the fact that some of those so-called peacekeepers are guilty of rape, another topic too sensitive for the refined world body to act upon.
Trump won't even feel out of place. After all, New York is as much his town as it is the UN's home, although there are probably as many New Yorkers who wish he'd get out as would like to say farewell to the hundreds of diplomats lucky -- or corrupt -- enough to live there.
Trump will meet with leaders of so-called allies like Britain and Germany, even though both Prime Minister Teresa May and Chancellor Angela Merkel have recently, and publicly, rebuked him for his policies and statements.
Perhaps most important, the assembled multitude this week will get to hear first-hand what Trump means where he talks about making America Great Again and America First. The only things threatened by those twin dogmas are the status quo that has long ignored or scorned U.S. leadership and values, and the hope that no one would notice that a so-called global economy works in favor of some nations like China and India, but not the United States.
Donald Trump won election last year promising to change that. His opponents -- and he has many -- should pay close attention to what he says this week. He means it.
John Moody is Executive Vice President, Executive Editor for Fox News. A former Rome bureau chief for Time magazine, he is the author of four books including "Pope John Paul II : Biography."

Russia and China Notably Absent at UN Reform Powwow

Russia, China and several other large United Nations member states are among a small but powerful group of countries that look to be dodging Monday’s U.N. reform summit hosted by the President and Secretary-General António Guterres, according to a list of countries to be in attendance, as seen by Fox News.
Fox News obtained a brief outline of a United States drafted 10-point plan for U.N. reform known as a “Political Declaration for U.N. Reform High Level Event,” which gives U.S. support to Guterres’s reform efforts at the world body.
On Friday, the United States U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley told reporters at the White House that the U.N. reform event being chaired by the president was “very, very important.”
“We asked other countries to sign on to their support of reform, and 120 countries have signed on and will be in attendance. That's a miraculous number,” she said.
All those 120 countries had to first sign the declaration before being allowed to attend the event. There are 193 member states of the United Nations.
Among those not attending are Russia and China — the two most powerful members of the BRICS group of nations, which has been working actively to counterbalance U.S. influence on the world monetary system. BRICS is the acronym for a group of five major emerging national economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The group is estimated to make up some 41 percent of the world population.
India is the only BRICS member that shall attend.
While Russia and Chinese hold significant influence at the world body, their contributions to the U.N. budget is but a small fraction of what the U.S. doles out each year in contributions.
“It’s not surprising that some countries, especially those who have taken on geopolitically competitive positions to the United States, would shun this initiative,” said Jonathan Wachtel, a former spokesman for Ambassador Haley and director of communications at the U.S Mission to the U.N.
“In pushing back they would probably argue that any reform agenda taken up at the U.N. shouldn’t be driven by one country but rather by all member states of the U.N.,” Wachtel said.
Russia’s Deputy U.N. Ambassador, Sergey Kononuchenko, railed against the Secretary-General’s report on advancing the U.N.’s development system, all part of Guterres’s U.N. reforms.
In a speech earlier this summer at the U.N., obtained by Fox News, the ambassador said the Secretary-General’s reform was an attempt to weaken control by member states.
“We have carefully studied the report, which, unfortunately, raises not hopes, but rather serious concerns for the future of the United Nations development system,” Kononuchenko said in response to the Secretary-General’s earlier presentation to member states.
The United States is by far the biggest contributor to the United Nations paying 22 percent of its regular budget, 28 percent of its peacekeeping budget and hundreds of millions in voluntary contributions to U.N. bodies such as UNICEF.
Wachtel told Fox News that while the Russian and Chinese governments likely agree with some of the proposed reforms, the U.S. still plays a bigger role.
“The United States, the largest single contributor to the United Nations, has every right to demand that U.S. taxpayer money is not wasted,” he said.
Questions sent to both the Chinese and Russian U.N. missions went unanswered.

Tillerson Considers Closing Embassy in Havana Where Diplomats Mysteriously Got Sick

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Sunday that the Trump administration is considering whether to close the U.S. Embassy in Havana following a string of unexplained incidents that have damaged the health of American diplomats.

“We have it under evaluation,” Tillerson told CBS News’ “Face the Nation.” “It's a very serious issue.”

At least 21 Americans have been confirmed to have suffered some kind of medical harm in Havana. Tillerson also confirmed the State Department has brought home some of the people affected.

He has previously called the episodes "health attacks." But the State Department now refers to them as "incidents."

Their cause and culprits have yet to be determined. However, U.S. officials said the victims suffered from hearing loss and, in some cases, mild brain damage, possibly from sound waves. Cuban President Raul Castro has claimed his government had nothing to do with it.

Tillerson spoke amid calls from some U.S. senators to shutter the embassy in Cuba’s capital.

Last week, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert acknowledged the administration was at least considering pulling some staff from the embassy.

Nauert said it “obviously” was a dangerous situation, adding, “We are tremendously concerned about that. … Our folks can come back to the United States if they wish to do so. It shows the bravery, the hard work and the dedication of Americans, whether they are serving in Cuba or whether they are serving anywhere across the world. … I want to recognize them and let them know that we care, we certainly have not forgotten about them, and that this investigation is aggressive.”

liberal college professor cartoons

African-American university students offended by cotton

This is a joke, right?

Randy Lowry

The president of Lipscomb University issued a public apology after an untold number of African American students were offended by a dinner table centerpiece made from stalks of cotton.

Yes, good readers – a group of college students was triggered by the fabric of our lives.

Click here for a free subscription to Todd’s newsletter: a must-read for Conservatives!
Randy Lowry, president of the Christian university based in Nashville, had invited African-American students to his home for dinner last week.
One student who attended the gathering posted a diatribe on Instagram – along with a photo of the “offensive” centerpiece.
“We were very offended,” the student wrote. “My friend … asked why there was cotton on the table as the centerpiece. His response was that he didn’t know, he seen it before we did, he kind of thought it was ‘fallish’, THEN he said, “it ISNT INHERENTLY BAD IF WERE ALL WEARING IT.”
Continue reading at ToddStarnes.com.
Todd Starnes is host of Fox News & Commentary. His latest book is “The Deplorables’ Guide to Making America Great Again.” Follow him on Twitter @ToddStarnes and find him on Facebook.

College puts professor who tweeted about teaching 'future dead cops' on administrative leave

If this guy is the type of person our colleges are hiring to teach our young we're up the you know what creek!

 

A New York professor who tweeted that teaching “future dead cops” is a “privilege” – provoking outrage from the city’s police leaders – was placed on administrative leave on Saturday by his employer.

Michael Isaacson, an adjunct professor at CUNY’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice and self-proclaimed anti-fascist activist, was disciplined because of the three-week-old tweet that caught fire after Isaacson’s Thursday appearance on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” His Aug. 23 tweet said:

Some of y'all might think it sucks being an anti-fascist teaching at John Jay College but I think it's a privilege to teach future dead cops
“Michael Issacson harbors total disdain for the active and future police officers that he teaches at John Jay College,” Patrick Lynch, president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, said in a Friday press release.
John Jay College President Karol V. Mason called Isaacson’s comments “abhorrent” and the “antithesis” of an academic institution that trains future law enforcement in a statement. Although she said that professors have a right to free speech and academic freedom, “expressions of hate or intimidation are not welcome in that civil discourse.”
WATCH: TUCKER TAKES ON ANTIFA PROFESSOR ABOUT FREE SPEECH
As Fox News previously reported, Roy Richter, president of the NYPD Captains Endowment Association, said the tweet is “an abdication of the professor’s responsibility as a civilized human being” and “disgusting.”
“I am appalled that anyone associated with John Jay, with our proud history of supporting law enforcement authorities, would suggest that violence against police is ever acceptable,” Mason said in her statement.
Mason also said that faculty members and students had been threatened as a result of Isaacson’s tweet, and he was placed on leave for safety reasons.
In an email to The Washington Post, Isaacson said he “unequivocally” supports the college’s decision “in the interest of public safety,” and he apologizes to faculty members and his students for placing them at risk.
Isaacson will remain on administrative leave while school officials review the matter, Mason said.
Other law enforcement officials also weighed in.

Another Obama, Clinton donor joins Mueller's legal team investigating Trump campaign

The newest lawyer to join Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible Trump campaign team collusion with Russia gained notoriety for her conduct in defending former President Obama's immigration orders, Politico reported Saturday.

Besides her work for Obama, Kyle Freeny, now the 16^th member of Mueller’s legal team, Federal Election Commission records show she donated in each of the past three presidential elections to Democratic nominees, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Freeny and her colleagues came under judicial fire while defending a lawsuit in which Texas and 25 other states contested Obama’s executive order in 2014 on immigration. The federal judge hearing the case, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen, blasted Freeny and her colleagues for misleading him when the litigation began by indicating that none of the changes Obama had ordered had taken effect. In actuality, one major change, to issue longer work permits, had already begun.
Hanen said the government lawyers had engaged in “misconduct” that was “intentional, serious and material,” according to Politico
“In fact, it is hard to imagine a more serious, more calculated plan of unethical conduct,” wrote the judge, who eventually dropped plans to impose sanctions on the government lawyers.
Freeny is one of nine attorneys on Mueller’s team who has donated to Democrats a total of nearly $65,000, according to The Daily Caller.
She had been working in the Justice Department’s money-laundering unit where she helped lead an effort to seize profits from the “The Wolf of Wall Street” film because it was allegedly financed with assets looted from Malaysia’s government. Read another report on Kyle Freeny below: 

 

Names Of DOJ Attorneys Who 'Misled' Judge In Immigration Case Scrubbed From Court Doc

 The U.S. Department of Justice won't release the names of attorneys whose conduct in a high-profile immigration case was called "unseemly and unprofessional" by a federal judge, or whether those attorneys will face internal disciplinary action.

The DOJ says it "emphatically" disagrees with Judge Andrew Hanen's May order in State of Texas, et al. v. United States of America, et al., in which he wrote that he was “disappointed” that the court even had to address the subject of lawyer behavior when it has “many more pressing matters on its docket.”
Hanen concluded that DOJ attorneys “effectively misled” the plaintiff states into foregoing a request for a temporary restraining order or an earlier hearing on a motion for an injunction.
Their names, following a court order, were redacted from the department’s response to the judge's order.
Their misrepresentations, the judge said, also “misdirected” the court as to the timeline involved in the implementation of a 2014 Department of Homeland Security directive, which included amendments to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
DOJ attorneys said Obama's three-year amnesty plan wasn't being implemented, but the judge says it actually was - and more than 100,000 aliens were to be affected.
The Justice Department declined to release a complete list of all those attorneys involved, and their salaries, to Legal Newsline.
Many DOJ lawyers are listed as participating in the case. They are James Gilligan, Daniel Hu, Adam Kirschner, Jennifer Ricketts, Daniel Schwei, John Tyler, Kathleen Hartnett, Bradley Cohen and Kyle Freeny.

California lawmakers approve 'sanctuary state' bill ( Bringing Down America )

Bringing Down America

Twenty-two out of 24 Latino legislative members are Democrats.
Latinos now constitute nearly 40% of California’s population, surpassing the white, non-Latino population.

Lawmakers in California on Saturday passed “sanctuary state” legislation even as President Trump and his administration have vowed to crack down on jurisdictions that do not cooperate with federal immigration agents.

The bill approved early Saturday limits police cooperation with federal immigration authorities and is intended to bolster protections for illegal immigrants in the state.

But the acting director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Saturday warned of “tragic consequences,” saying the policy “will make California communities less safe.”
“By passing this bill, California politicians have chosen to prioritize politics over public safety,” Thomas Homan, the acting director of ICE, said in a statement. “Disturbingly, the legislation serves to codify a dangerous policy that deliberately obstructs our country’s immigration laws and shelters serious criminal alien offenders.”
Homan said ICE wants to work with local law enforcement to prevent “dangerous criminal aliens” from being released back onto the streets.
The legislation will now be considered by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, who announced his support after the top state Senate leader agreed to water down the bill and preserve authority for jail and prison officials to cooperate with immigration officers in many cases.
The bill that passed Saturday prohibits law enforcement officials from asking about a person's immigration status or participating in immigration enforcement efforts.
SANCTUARY CITIES: WHAT ARE THEY?
It also prohibits law enforcement officials from being deputized as immigration agents or arresting people on civil immigration warrants.
The legislation follows Trump’s vow to crack down on sanctuary cities. Such policies limit just how much local law enforcement officials cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
The debate about sanctuary cities intensified in July 2015 when Katie Steinle, 32, was killed as she strolled along the San Francisco waterfront with her father. Steinle was fatally shot by a man with a criminal record who had slipped into the U.S. multiple times illegally.
On Friday, a federal judge in Chicago has ruled Attorney General Jeff Sessions can't withhold public grant money from so-called sanctuary cities for refusing to follow federal immigration policies.
U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber made the ruling Friday, in which he granted Chicago's request for a temporary "nationwide" injunction.
The ruling means the Justice Department cannot deny grant money requests until Chicago's lawsuit against the agency is concluded. Leinenweber wrote that Chicago has shown a "likelihood of success" in its arguments that Sessions overstepped his authority with the requirements.
The city of Chicago sued the Trump administration in August after it threatened to withhold funds from sanctuary cities, and refused to comply with the Justice Department's demand that it allow immigration agents access to local jails and notify agents when someone in the U.S. is about to be released from custody.
At least seven cities and counties, including Seattle and San Francisco, have refused to cooperate with new federal rules regarding sanctuary cities.