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For Sunday, Dec. 31, 2017
All Gave Some~Some Gave All
There’s something different about the Trump administration. Look no further than this viral photo to see the difference:
For the last twenty or so years, presidents have been delivering the same-old, same-old to the American people. They make promises, get elected, and renege on those promises once they get power.
Trump once said that, with his leadership, we would no longer surrender the United States to the “false song of globalism.” On many counts – his stern rebuke to the UN last week, the Muslim travel ban, a sharp drop in illegal immigration, and destroying ISIS – Trump has followed through.
DOJ slams Obama administration for sexual harassment and disturbing scandals
Marc Nozell / CCLAs more information regarding the apathy and incompetence of the Barack Obama administration continues to emerge, his legacy is being chipped away piece by piece. As with most liberals, former-President Barack Obama consistently spoke about protecting women in the workplace, while purposefully ignoring the plight of those under his command.
On Tuesday, a report released by a government watchdog group found a “systemic” issue in how the Obama Justice Department handled sexual harassment complaints: employees that behaved inappropriately did not receive a proper reprimand and, in some cases, were reportedly promoted instead of punished.
The lack of action taken by the Obama administration is in direct contrast to its rhetoric and supposed advocacy for women.
Do As I Say, Not As I Do
Obama’s record was already under fire after it was revealed that his administration allowed the Islamic militant group Hezbollah to smuggle drugs into the United States and destroyed ten years of undercover work to appease the Iranians so they would sign the Iran nuclear deal. Now another scandal has threatened to upend Obama’s legacy as a protector of women and women’s “rights.”
According to the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General, the level of sexual harassment in the Department of Justice (DOJ) has drastically risen in the last five years and requires “high-level action.” Justice Department Inspector General (IG) Michael Horowitz elaborated on the extent of the problem in Washington, which has become endemic:
We’re talking about presidential appointees, political appointees, FBI special agents in charge, U.S. attorneys, wardens, a chief deputy U.S. marshal, a U.S. marshal assistant director, a deputy assistant attorney general.
Apparently, the most troubling cases occurred in the Justice Department’s Civil Division. The Hill reported:
In one instance, a top lawyer in the division reportedly groped the breasts and buttocks of two female trial attorneys and also made sexual comments to them at an office. He had previously been disciplined and demoted for sending sexually oriented emails to colleagues.
The “top lawyer,” Victor Lawrence, receive no punishment or reprimand for his reprehensible actions. In fact, his conduct was so egregious that the IG’s report stated that the situation “presented potential criminal assault violations, yet we found no evidence in the case file that a referral was made to the [Inspector General] or any other law enforcement entity.”
There have been 17 more sexual harassment claims from DOJ employees that have surfaced since this summer, though it is unclear when those incidents occurred.
Them, Not Us
Some of the accused under the Obama administration went on to receive commendations and performance awards, while their victims were left baffled and ashamed. One woman who was sexually harassed stated she was “terrified” to get in an elevator for fear that her harasser would be there.
This was apparently a systemic problem in the DOJ, but President Donald Trump, along with Attorney General Jeff Sessions, seem to be taking aggressive measures to clean house to ensure these problems get resolved quickly and fairly.
The Trump Justice Department has declined to comment on the details of any of the allegations but described the problems under the previous administration. Ian Prior, a spokesman for the Trump administration, stated:
The Department does not discuss specific employee disciplinary actions or comment on personnel actions or matters that may impact personal privacy. That said, the Department was very disappointed with the issues that occurred in the Obama administration and strives for a workplace free of harassment and other misconduct for all of our 115,000 employees. That is why the Civil Division has implemented additional safeguards and systems to ensure that all misconduct allegations are handled appropriately going forward.
The veneer on President Obama’s record on human rights, foreign policy, and protecting women seems to be crumbling. He should have spent more time putting his rhetoric into action instead of lecturing the country about its perceived shortcomings.
'Chain migration' choking US, record 1.8 million immigrants in 2016, 14 million since 2006
by Paul Bedard
Immigration in 2016 matched a record high, 600,000 more than at the height of the 1920s great migration through Ellis Island in New York harbor. (AP Photo)Long-standing “chain migration” policies that encourage legal immigrants to bring dozens of family members into the U.S. led to an explosion of entries in 2016, 53 percent higher than in 2011, according to a new analysis of Census Bureau data.
With an estimated addition of 1.8 million legal and illegal immigrants, 2016 is tied with 1999 for seeing the most enter, about 600,000 more than at the height of the great migration through New York’s Ellis Island in the 1900s.
The huge growth in immigration comes as President Trump is succeeding in cutting illegal entries and rounding up criminal illegals for deportation.
It points to the impact of chain migration and the surge in legal immigration through the loophole, one Trump recently vowed to kill.
A new analysis of the Census numbers by the Center for Immigration Studies said chain migration has vast costs for taxpayers.
Steven Camarota, the center’s director of research and co-author of the report said, “Our generous legal immigration system allows in a huge number of immigrants and then permits them to sponsor their relatives causing a multiplier effect. This chain migration has contributed to nearly 14 million immigrants settling here between 2006 to 2016.”
He added, “The numbers have profound implications for American schools, taxpayers, workers as well as our culture and national security. Yet the whole system is allowed to run largely on autopilot with few asking whether any of this makes sense for our country.”
Recently, immigrants brought into the U.S. by their legal family members have been linked to crime and terrorism, notably last week’s shooting rampage in Harrisburg, Pa. and the arrest of a Pakistani on terror charges.
Those cases prompted Homeland Security Spokesman Tyler Q. Houlton to tweet, “These incidents highlight the Trump administration’s concerns with extended family chain migration. Both chain migration and the diversity lottery program have been exploited by terrorists to attack our country. Not only are the programs less effective at driving economic growth than merit-based immigration systems used by nearly all other countries, the programs make it more difficult to keep dangerous people out of the United States and to protect the safety of every American.”
Camarota’s numbers are stunning considering the Trump administration’s efforts to curb illegal immigration and reverse former President Obama’s open border policies. From his report:
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More than one million new immigrants (legal and illegal) settled in the country in the first six months of 2016. This represents a 13 percent increase over the same period in 2015, a 24 percent increase over 2014, and a 53 percent increase over the first half of 2011.
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Based on past patterns, it seems almost certain that when data becomes available for all of 2016 it will show 1.8 million new immigrants arrived in 2016, matching 1999 —the highest level of new immigration in a single year in American history.
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The 1.8 million immigrants who likely came in 2016 and the 1.6 million who came in 2015 are a continuation of a dramatic rebound in immigration since 2011. In 2014, 1.5 million came, in 2013 1.3 million arrived, in 2012 it was 1.2 million and in 2011 1.1 million new immigrants settled in the country.
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Regions showing the most dramatic increase in new arrivals between 2011 and 2015 are Central America (up 132 percent), South America (up 114 percent), the Caribbean (up 64 percent), and the Middle East and South Asia both up 52 percent. South Asia includes Indian, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
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Mexico remains the top sending country, with 190,000 immigrants (legal and illegal) settling in the United States in 2015, and 216,000 likely coming in all of 2016. While the number of new arrivals from Mexico has roughly doubled since 2011, the number coming remains well below the annual level more than decade ago.
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The dramatic increase in new immigrants settling in the United States in recent years is primarily driven by the nation’s generous legal immigration system, both long-term temporary visa holders (e.g. guest workers and foreign students) and new permanent residents (green cards).
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There is also evidence that the arrival of new illegal immigrants may have also rebounded in the last few years. The number of new less-educated younger immigrants arriving each year from Latin American roughly doubled between 2011 and 2016. However, the level remains well below what it before the recession.
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The decision to admit large numbers of unaccompanied minors at the southern border, along with the adults traveling with them, likely accounts for some of the increase in new illegal immigration, particularly from Central America.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at pbedard@washingtonexaminer.com
NINE YEARS AGO… Al Gore Predicted North Pole Would Be Completely Ice Free by Today
by Jim Hoft
NINE YEARS AGO THIS MONTH—
Al Gore predicted the North Polar Ice Cap would be completely ice free in five years.
I guess old Al goofed.
Newt Gingrich: Underestimate Trump at your peril
By Newt Gingrich| Fox News
Would you believe that during his first year as commander in chief, President Trump hosted 43 world leaders at the White House. In total, he engaged or met with 149 world leaders in 2017. In 183 calls, the president spoke with leaders from 51 countries. Not exactly the lack of connectivity his critics expected a year ago.
When Trump won the election, his critics expressed great concern about his apparent lack of preparation and experience in foreign policy and national security.
Even Republicans in the foreign policy and national security establishment were deeply opposed to the Trump presidency because they believed he lacked sufficient knowledge to lead.
As I pointed out in my #1 New York Times best seller “Understanding Trump,” it is easy to underestimate the speed at which Trump learns. He listens constantly (I tell folks he always listens, but he doesn't always obey). He is endlessly curious about virtually everything. He built a worldwide corporate system, which includes hotels, office buildings, golf courses, books, wine, and a successful reality show. That took constant curiosity as he stretched again and again beyond the real estate skills his father taught him back in Queens.
It is easy to underestimate the speed at which Trump learns. He listens constantly (I tell folks he always listens, but he doesn't always obey).
One of the keys to the Trump learning system is his intuition about personnel. He has hired a lot of people in his life, and he has a pretty good instinct for defining what he needs. For his national security team, he brought in Marine four-star General James Mattis to be Secretary of Defense, Army three-star Lieutenant General H. R. McMaster to be National Security Adviser, and Marine four-star General John Kelly to be Secretary of Homeland Security. Kelly proved so effective, the president brought him in to be White House Chief of Staff. It would be hard to suggest that Trump has lacked competent professional military advice.
That may also explain why after years of the Obama team's failure to defeat ISIS, the new Trump team calmly and professionally destroyed its territorial base in less than a year. In fact, the Trump team was so efficient and competent, the victory has been virtually unnoticed in the anti-Trump elite media.
According to the Daily Caller, “ISIS retains historically low numbers of fighters, controls little territory and has lost much of its command and control facilities in Iraq and Syria. The vast majority of the military progress against the group occurred in 2017.”
Part of his success has been due to Trump’s ability and willingness to listen to leaders who host him when he travels. During the Arab Islamic American Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, not only did the king of Saudi Arabia meet Trump at the airport, but he was at his side any time Trump was in public during his stay. The amount of time in which they had to compare notes and discuss Iran, terrorism, and Israel was significant and historic.
At the State Department, Trump wanted a major leader as Secretary of State, and as the CEO of ExxonMobil, Rex Tillerson seemed the central casting vision of a global leader. He had routinely made billion-dollar deals, and he was comfortable and experienced in dealing with world leaders. In the first six months of the new administration, Tillerson played an important role in calming fears until people around the world got to know Trump.
When the president made his controversial decision to move the Israeli embassy to Jerusalem, he had been talking with every major American ally in the region for weeks. No one was surprised, and their approving reactions have been muted by the elite media.
Trump's growth as a foreign policy and national security leader is something which deserves major acknowledgment in every year-end review of 2017. Donald Trump is not the president his critics feared. He is adroitly learning the trade of presidential leadership at a rapid pace.
P.S. On Wednesday, I wrote about how dishonest the media has been about Trump’s achievements. On Thursday, I found more confirmation. The elite media has written endlessly about the president’s supposedly low approval ratings, yet a recent Rasmussen poll shows that Trump’s approval rating was nearly identical to Obama’s on December 28, 2009.
Newt Gingrich is a Fox News contributor. A Republican, he was speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. Follow him on Twitter @NewtGingrich. His latest book is "Understanding Trump."
Facing Record Cold Temperatures, Donald Trump Trolls Liberals on Global Warming
by CHARLIE SPIERING
WIN MCNAMEE/GETTY IMAGES
President Donald Trump mocked global warming alarmists on Thursday, pointing out on Twitter that the United States could use a little global warming after experiencing record cold temperatures.
“In the East, it could be the COLDEST New Year’s Eve on record,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming that our Country.”
Liberals are frequently infuriated when global warming skeptics use cold temperatures to refute their assertions that climate change threatens the future of the planet.
Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrumpIn the East, it could be the COLDEST New Year’s Eve on record. Perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming that our Country, but not other countries, was going to pay TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS to protect against. Bundle up!
Trump added that other countries were prepared to pay “trillions of dollars” to prevent global warming.
“Bundle up!” he wrote.
International Falls, Minnesota experienced -37 degrees and Mount Washington, New Hampshire had temperatures of -34 degrees.
Forecasts are calling for temperatures in New York City to be as cold as 14 degrees for New Year’s Eve.
Price protests turn political in Iran as rallies spread
Reuters Staff
DUBAI (Reuters) - Demonstrators chanted anti-government slogans in several cities across Iran on Friday, Iranian news agencies and social media reports said, as price protests turned into the largest wave of demonstrations since nationwide pro-reform unrest in 2009.
Police dispersed anti-government demonstrators in the western city of Kermanshah as protests spread to Tehran and several other cities a day after rallies in the northeast, the semi-official news agency Fars said.
The outbreak of unrest reflects growing discontent over rising prices and alleged corruption, as well as concern about the Islamic Republic’s costly involvement in regional conflicts such as those in Syria and Iraq.
An official said a few protesters had been arrested in Tehran, and footage posted on social media showed a heavy police presence in the capital and some other cities.
About 300 demonstrators gathered in Kermanshah after what Fars said was a “call by the anti-revolution”. They shouted: “Political prisoners should be freed” and “Freedom or death”, and some public property was destroyed. Fars did not name any opposition groups.
The protests in Kermanshah, the main city in a region where an earthquake killed over 600 people in November, took place a day after hundreds rallied in Iran’s second largest city Mashhad to protest at high prices and shout anti-government slogans.
Videos posted on social media showed demonstrators yelling, “The people are begging, the clerics act like God”.
Fars said there were protests in the cities of Sari and Rasht in the north, Qazvin west of Tehran and Qom south of the capital, and also in Hamadan in western Iran. It said many marchers who wanted to raise economic demands left the rallies after demonstrators shouted political slogans.
PRO-GOVERNMENT RALLIES PLANNED
State television said annual nationwide rallies and events were scheduled for Saturday to commemorate pro-government demonstrations held in 2009 to counter protests by reformists.
The Revolutionary Guards, which along with its Basij militia spearheaded a crackdown against the protesters in 2009, said in a statement carried by state media that there were efforts to repeat that year’s unrest but added: “The Iranian nation ... will not allow the country to be hurt.”
Mohsen Nasj Hamadani, deputy security chief in Tehran province, said about 50 people had rallied in a square but most had left after being asked to by police, while a few who refused were “temporarily detained”, the ILNA news agency reported.
In the central city of Isfahan, a resident said protesters had joined a rally held by factory workers demanding back-pay.
“The slogans quickly changed from the economy to those against (President Hassan) Rouhani and the Supreme Leader (Ayatollah Ali Khamenei),” the resident said by telephone.
In Qom, a stronghold of the Shi‘ite clergy, footage posted on social media showed protesters attacking Ayatollah Khamenei by name. “Seyyed Ali should be ashamed and leave the country alone,” they chanted.
Protests were held also in the town of Quchan near the Turkmen border, and in Ahvaz, capital of oil-rich Khuzestan province, social media and Iranian news websites reported.
Police arrested 52 people in Thursday’s protests, Fars quoted a judicial official as saying in Mashhad, one of the holiest places in Shi‘ite Islam.
In social media footage, which could not be authenticated, riot police were seen using water cannon and tear gas to disperse crowds.
Openly political protests are rare in Iran, where security services are omnipresent.
The last unrest of national significance occurred in 2009 when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election as president ignited eight months of street protests. Pro-reform rivals said the vote was rigged.
However, demonstrations are often held by workers over layoffs or non-payment of salaries and by people who hold deposits in non-regulated, bankrupt financial institutions.
Prominent conservative cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Alamolhoda called earlier for tough action against the protests.
“If the security and law enforcement agencies leave the rioters to themselves, enemies will publish films and pictures in their media and say that the Islamic Republic system has lost its revolutionary base in Mashhad,” the state news agency IRNA quoted Alamolhoda as saying.
“DEATH TO DICTATOR”
Some social media videos showed demonstrators chanting “Death to Rouhani” and “Death to the dictator”. Protests were also held in at least two other northeastern cities.
Alamolhoda, the representative of Ayatollah Khamenei in Mashhad, said a few people had taken advantage of Thursday’s protests against rising prices to chant slogans against Iran’s role in regional conflicts.
RELATED COVERAGE
Tehran backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his country’s civil war, Shi‘ite militias in Iraq, Houthi rebels in Yemen and Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah group.
“Some people had come to express their demands, but suddenly, in a crowd of hundreds, a small group that did not exceed 50 shouted deviant and horrendous slogans such as ‘Let go of Palestine’, ‘Not Gaza, not Lebanon, I’d give my life (only) for Iran’,” Alamolhoda said.
Social media videos also showed demonstrators chanting ”Leave Syria, think about us”, criticizing Iran’s military and financial support for Assad.
Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri, a close Rouhani ally, suggested that hardline conservative opponents of the pragmatist president might have triggered the protests but lost control of them. “Those who are behind such events will burn their own fingers,” IRNA quoted Jahangiri as saying.
Rouhani’s leading achievement, a 2015 deal with world powers that curbed Iran’s disputed nuclear program in return for a lifting of most international sanctions, has yet to bring the broad economic benefits the government says are coming.
Unemployment stood at 12.4 percent in this fiscal year, according to the Statistical Centre of Iran, up 1.4 percent from the previous year. About 3.2 million Iranians are jobless, out of a total population of 80 million.
Reporting by Dubai newsroom; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Gareth Jones
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
‘Death to the Dictator! Death to Rouhani!’: Thousands Protest the Government in Iran
by JOHN HAYWARD
517
One brave woman expressed her defiance by standing up without a veil or headscarf:
Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of Iran over the past few days, speaking out against both the “hardline” government of the ayatollahs and the supposedly “moderate” secular government of President Hassan Rouhani.
“Death to the dictator!” and “Death to Rouhani” are chants heard in at least eight Iranian cities, and the movement appears to be spreading.
The UK Daily Mail reports protesters surrounding an Iranian mullah, a powerful member of the theocratic ruling class, and changing “Mullahs, be ashamed and leave Iran!” in his face.
One of the big protests was held in Mashhad, which is considered one of the holiest sites in Iran and in all of Shia Islam, as it contains the shrine of a revered 9th Century imam.
On Friday afternoon there were reports of protesters filling the streets of Qom, Iran’s spiritual center, and chanting: “We don’t want an Islamic republic!” Another protest chant, “Iran is haphazard without the Shah,” seems calculated to annoy the mullahs and ayatollah. These are remarkable gestures of defiance against Iran and the revolution of 1979, which is officially regarded as a sacred event.
One brave woman expressed her defiance by standing up without a veil or headscarf:
An unveiled woman in Iran stands defiantly at anti-government rally. We must keep the international eyes focused. There have been brutal crackdowns in recent past by state. We cannot let that happen again. RT using #Iranprotests
Maryam Namazie ✔@MaryamNamazieOne of the iconic photos of yesterday's protest was a young woman with her compulsory hejab on a stick... What a wondrous site. Viva the protesting people of Iran. Long Live!
Iran’s military and foreign adventures are a major cause of the protesters’ anger, which is remarkable considering how hard the Iranian government has worked to portray its interventions as sacred causes and military leaders like Quds Force commander Gen. Qassem Soleimani as national heroes.
And yet, the protesters cry “Not Gaza! Not Lebanon! My life for Iran!” and “Leave Syria, think about us!” They are even criticizing the Iranian government’s activism on behalf of the Palestinians.
The initial cause of the protests was reportedly public anger over rising prices for food, a generally high inflation rate, and high unemployment. The governor of Mashhad dismissed the protest in his city as an “illegal No to High Prices gathering” at first.
Rouhani campaigned on economic renewal, including the benefits accruing to Iran from its nuclear deal with the Obama administration, and while progress has certainly been made – Iran’s inflation rate is a little under 10 percent today, compared to about 40 percent when Rouhani took over from his deranged predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – the crowd appears to be profoundly dissatisfied with the standard of living, and displeased that Iran is funneling so much money into foreign mischief and imperial ambitions instead of meeting the public’s needs at home. Despite Rouhani’s promises, the standard of living for average Iranians has declined about 30 percent over the past ten years.
Corruption and mismanagement of vital resources have also been proposed as reasons for the protest, combined with a debt crisis choking the Iranian banking sector.
Iranian officials, including the governor of Mashhad, gave their police forces much credit for a “tolerant” response at first, but tolerance quickly thinned as the mullahs demanded a stronger crackdown.
Meanwhile, Rouhani allies are floating conspiracy theories that the hardliners are behind the protests, in a bid to weaken Iran’s “secular” government and increase theocratic power. “When a social and political movement is launched on the streets, those who started it will not necessarily be able to control it in the end,” Rouhani ally and Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri reportedly said.
The Daily Mail has photos of tear gas in the streets:
Protesters threw stones as water cannon came out in the city of Kermanshah, according to footage from members of the anti-Ayatollah group the National Council of Resistance in Iran (NCRI):
Angry protesters hurl stones as the #Iran'ian regime's suppressive forces bring in the water cannons. Protest against poverty & the government's mismanagement of the economy today in Kermanshah, via the MEK's social network. Chants of "Bread, Work, Freedom". #FreeIran #No2Rouhani
The protests reached Tehran on Friday as the movement gained support from workers upset by unpaid back wages. The crowd in Tehran was small, estimated at around 50 people. Several arrests were nevertheless reported, perhaps intended as a warning shot against Tehran residents tempted to join in.
A storm of viral videos and photographs is rising on social media. Iranian dissidents are talking about an “uprising” that may be more significant than the “Green Revolution” of 2009, and perhaps more difficult for the government to suppress with violence, especially since some of the demonstrators have indicated a willingness to fight back, or to stand their ground in the face of police and militia action.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s response to the protests has been uncharacteristically subdued, leading some to sense weakness or cowardice in the face of public demands for accountable government.
G’ day…Ciao…
Helen and Moe Lauzier
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