Here are my observations on items in the news.
WHERE WERE YOU JUDGE? When Ninth Circuit Judge William Alsup issued an injunction blocking President Trump from reversing former President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), the media was so elated that it failed to ask him where he was when the former president initially signed his unconstitutional executive order. ABC, CBS and NBC news anchors could barely disguise their delight in announcing the judge’s anti-Trump decision.
While the left likes to refer to President Trump as a fascist, it was President Obama, who in effect became a fascist by exceeding his enumerated powers and establishing an unconstitutional policy. Even Obama’s advisors expressed concern about the legality of DACA and his taking action without Congress.
Where were you, Judge, when Obama broke the law?
Critics are referring to the main Obama Presidential Center as a Chinese takeout container.
YOU JUST KNEW IT WOULD BE DIFFERENT – For some reason, I missed the unveiling of the planned Obama Presidential Center in Chicago’s Jackson Park last year and thought maybe you, too, weren’t paying attention. “It will have a children’s play garden, sledding hill, green spaces for picnics and outdoor gatherings, basketball courts (of course) and even a recording studio,” the Chicago Tribune reported.
What it won’t have will be the former president’s manuscripts, documents, letters and gifts he collected during his time in office. Access to those materials will be via on-line means, unlike most presidential libraries.
Incidentally, architecture critics are saying the main building resembles a Chinese takeout container. A photo of the design accompanies this piece. Judge for yourself.
THERE SHE WAS, Nancy Pelosi, one of the richest women in Congress, continuing to slam the recently passed tax reform bill by calling the wage increases and bonuses “crumbs.” She also called the bonuses and wage increases being announced, “pathetic.” You may recall that she warned of “Armageddon” last month.
WHY NOT? – Why shouldn’t able bodied, working-age Americans be required to work to be eligible for Medicaid? It makes sense. President Trump’s moved on Thursday to allow states to impose work requirements on citizens to gain Medicaid. They would require recipients to prove they are working, in training for a job, or volunteering in their community.
As ten states have already proposed adding a work requirement, liberals say it will leave many Americans without health care. President Obama denied state efforts to impose work requirements.
About 40 percent of nonelderly, non-disabled adults who have Medicaid coverage are not working, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis, citing that many of them are either in school or providing home care for a family member.
VERY INTERESTING – Amid all of the hub hub over the Wolfe book, talk of immigration and all of those investigations, we learn that President Trump will go to Davos later this month. I wouldn’t be surprised If you’ve never heard of Davos.
It’s a small community in Switzerland, where The Wall Street Journal referred to it as the annual “confab of global elites,” and reports that “Mr. Trump is choosing to enter the sanctum sanctorum of the ‘globalists.’ (where) the ratio of Trump haters to merely Trump agnostics on hand will approximate the ratio of Democrats to Republicans on the Stanford faculty.”
So, the president will go where no U.S. president has gone since Bill Clinton went in 2000. “Give Mr. Trump credit for meeting his many international doubters head on,” writes the WSJ editorial board.
While the list of attendees is still in the works, the forum is attended by industry CEOs, academics, philanthropists, royalty and government ministers.
BORDER WALL FLASHBACK – During an appearance in El Paso, Texas on May 10, 2011, President Obama declared that the fence along the Mexican border was “now basically complete.” Trying to be humorous, he predicted that his Republican opponents won’t be satisfied. “They’ll want a higher fence,” he said, “Maybe they’ll need a moat. Maybe they want alligators in the moat.”
While declaring the fence completed, those close to the plan knew that wasn’t true. Legislation passed in 2006 called for a 700-mile double-layer border fence, but when Obama spoke, just five percent (about 36 miles) of the double-layer fencing was complete.
Although there were a number of changes made in the original Secure Fence Act of 2006, dealing with the different needs dictated by the terrain, Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, said “The president’s (Obama) claim that the job is done is misleading.”
After reviewing the issue, Politifact issued a rating of “Mostly False” on President Obama’s claim.
AND LET’S NOT FORGET that some of those same Democrats who helped pass the Secure Fence Act of 2006 – 26 of them, including Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer – now oppose the wall, most likely because it was a campaign promise of President Trump. Resistance.
Speaking on the floor of the Senate at the time, then Sen. Barack Obama praised the legislation, saying it would provide “better fences and better security along our border,” adding that it would “help stem some of the tide of illegal immigration in this country.”
AND FURTHER BACK TO 1986, need I remind you how Congress failed to keep its promise to President Reagan to increase border security and workplace enforcement in exchange for a limited amnesty? Reagan once revealed that signing that bill was the biggest mistake of his presidency as more than half of the five million illegal immigrants in the country were granted amnesty. Nearly one third of the amnesties given were based on document fraud.
Reagan was persuaded by some of the leaders of his own party that it would only affect a small number of illegals, and that they would follow through with more vigorous enforcement of immigration laws. And between 1994 and 2000 amnesties grew to 5 million. Border security didn’t follow. Six months after signing the bill, illegal immigration broke all records, rising to 800,000 per year.
I trust that there are sufficient numbers in Congress, who recall this sad period in our history, and will be sure that we are not again taken to the cleaners by the open borders crowd.
