Sunday, July 21st open thread: ‘Show Me How To Live’
“This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24 KJV)
Here is this week’s open thread. Please feel free to post links to interesting articles and to discuss whatever issues arise during the course of the day. Nothing is off-topic here.
You can subscribe to America’s Watchtower to receive email updates and you can also follow America’s Watchtower on Facebook and Twitter by clicking the links on the right.
My Son’s band, The Noise, played their first gig in several years last night and they pulled out a few cover songs, including “Show Me How To Live” by Audioslave:
Federal Judge hands Donald Trump a victory on Obamacare
Last year Donald Trump signed an Executive Order which gave Americans more healthcare options than they had under Obamacare by setting up Association Health Plans and short term insurance plans. This order allowed for cheaper non-Obamacare compliant plans to be offered to young, healthy people who did not need all of the coverage Obamacare forced insurance companies to provide in all plans.
But apparently the Democrats did not want Americans to have a less expensive option to Obamacare because they sued to stop the Executive Order, but yesterday a Federal Judge in DC came down on the side of the President.
Here is more:
D.C. District Court Judge Richard Leon upheld Trump’s expansion of short-term health insurance plans, which are less expensive compared to Obamacare plans. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in 2018 expanded short-term plans to offer Americans more affordable options.
Short-terms plans cost less than Obamacare plans because federal statute does not require the insurance plans to comply with all of Obamacare’s onerous insurance regulations, thus they serve as a good alternative for many younger and healthier Americans.
The Trump administration’s rule allowed Americans to purchase short-term plans for up to 364 days and renew the plans for up to three years. The Barack Obama administration curbed these rules to encourage Americans to purchase Obamacare
One study found that these plans could cost up to 80% less than the cheapest Obamacare plan, and by opposing this Executive Order the Democrats proved their support of Obamacare had nothing to do with making healthcare affordable to more people in the first place…
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
According to this story it looks as if Bernie Sanders is facing a bit of a revolt within his campaign because although he advocates for a $15 an hour minimum wage he refuses to practice what he preaches. Here is more:
Presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders has pledged to American workers that he would institute a $15-per-hour minimum wage if he wins the White House in 2020.
But unionized workers on Sanders’ own campaign say they wish he would start now — by paying a higher wage to them.
According to a report, members of Sanders’ staff have been using the senator’s own campaign rhetoric against him as they try to wrestle more pay from the self-described democratic socialist.
In a letter to Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir, the campaign staffers claim they “cannot be expected to build the largest grassroots organizing program in American history while making poverty wages,” the Washington Post reported.
“Given our campaign’s commitment to fighting for a living wage of at least $15.00 an hour,” the letter continues, “we believe it is only fair that the campaign would carry through this commitment to its own field team.”
“Many field staffers are barely managing to survive financially,” the union letter says, “which is severely impacting our team’s productivity and morale. Some field organizers have already left the campaign as a result.”
So his workers are making what they describe as “poverty wages” while he promises to force others to pay a living wage if he becomes President, but what did they expect? Apparently they really fell for his rhetoric, which is not surprising because they somehow feel as if this millionaire is one of the average people.
Socialists are always generous with other people’s money, but not so much with their own…
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Elizabeth Warren calls for Donald Trump’s impeachment
On the campaign trail today Elizabeth Warren pulled out all of the old, worn out slurs and stated it was time to start impeachment proceeding against the President. Here is more:
I know that Elizabeth Warren has been on the campaign trail so she probably missed the fact that just yesterday House Democrats tried to impeach the President for the third time and failed to do so.
But of course that does not matter because she is playing to her base and this is what her base wants to hear. She knows–as do all the Democrats in office–that impeachment is never going to happen, and even if the House did miraculously vote to impeach the Republican-led Senate would never vote to remove him from office.
Oddly enough the only chance the Democrats would have to impeach Donald Trump would be if he won reelection and if he loses the election impeachment would be unnecessary so it seems like running on impeachment is a total waste of time anyway. The problem is the Democrats have no other agenda.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
House resolution to impeach Donald Trump fails
Today Al Green brought his impeachment resolution to the House floor for a vote and it failed miserably. Here is more:
This is the third time Al Green has brought articles of impeachment to the House floor and the third time it has gone down in defeat, although this time he probably thought he had a little momentum after the House voted to condemn the President’s recent Tweets. But as you can see it was not even close.
This reminds me of when the Republicans in the House voted to repeal Obamacare a kajillion times when they knew the votes were not there. This is nothing but political posturing in an attempt to please the alt-left sky-screamers but the bottom line is impeachment is not going to happen and House Democrats know it.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
There was talk that Donald Trump was going to use an Executive Order to add the citizenship question to the census, however a few days ago he announced he was giving up the fight to add the question and would get the information he was seeking by other means.
Apparently this assurance was not good enough for a Federal Judge in New York because today he permanently blocked the citizenship question from the census and warned the President he was watching. Here is more:
A New York federal judge has issued an order definitively blocking the Trump administration from adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census in any form, despite the administration’s insistence it has abandoned plans to add a question on the census.
Judge Jesse Furman, in his two-page order, also indicated the seriousness with which the court will continue to monitor this controversial issue, saying,”The Court will retain jurisdiction in this case to enforce the terms of this Order until the 2020 census results are processed and sent to the President by December 31, 2020.”
According to the article I linked to above the Trump administration notified the courts last week that the President was dropping his challenge and would not pursue adding the question to the census so it looks like Judge Furman was trying to play tough guy and decided he would flex his muscles on an issue which was already decided.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
9th Circuit Court ruled Donald Trump can withhold Federal funding from sanctuary cities
Excluding a decision back at the beginning of July on the border wall the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has handed the Trump administration a few recent victories and it looks as if they have just handed him another one.
Back in 2017 Donald Trump signed an Executive Order which withheld some Federal grant money from cities which did not comply with Federal immigration laws and the administration was subsequently sued. On Friday the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Donald Trump’s favor.
Here is more:
The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday ruled in favor of the Trump administration, saying the Department of Justice could give preference in awarding grants to cities that would use the money to focus on illegal immigration
The City of Los Angeles sued the Department of Justice because it did not receive any funding from the Community Oriented Policing Services grant program, which is aimed at initiatives to build trust between communities and law enforcement agencies. Los Angeles chose “building trust and respect” as its focus area and did not mention illegal immigration in its application because of its policy as a sanctuary city.
The panel of judges ruled that “because DOJ’s scoring factors encouraged, but did not coerce, an applicant to cooperate on immigration matters, the panel also rejected Los Angeles’s claims that DOJ’s use of the factors infringed on state autonomy in a manner that raised Tenth Amendment concerns.”
“DOJ did not exceed its statutory authority in awarding bonus points to applicants that selected the illegal immigration focus area,” the judges wrote, arguing that “DOJ’s determination that the techniques of community policing may be used to address this public safety issue (illegal immigration) was entirely reasonable.”
Needless to say, the White House was happy:
The White House praised the court’s decision, saying in a statement Friday that it “reverses a lawless decision that enabled Sanctuary City policies, putting the safety and security of all Americans in harm’s way.”
“The ruling upholds the right of the Department of Justice to ensure discretionary grants under its control are not being used to subsidize these jurisdictions’ open assault on law-abiding Americans and their loved ones,” the statement added.
This is another major victory for the President and it comes at the hands of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. We have been saying that more and more recently and it looks like one of Donald Trump’s top priorities–remaking the lower courts–is happening right before our eyes.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Sunday, July 14th open thread: ‘Power Over Me’
“This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24 KJV)
Here is this week’s open thread. Please feel free to post links to interesting articles and to discuss whatever issues arise during the course of the day. Nothing is off-topic here.
You can subscribe to America’s Watchtower to receive email updates and you can also follow America’s Watchtower on Facebook and Twitter by clicking the links on the right.
Here is Dermot Kennedy performing “Power Over Me” live from earlier this year:
Believe it or not Donald Trump is not the first President to order the deportation of illegal immigrants and even Barack Obama ordered the deportation of 3 million illegal immigrants.
Joe Biden, who thought he was safe running as Barack Obama’s third term, is running into a little more opposition than he was probably prepared for. While all of the other candidates on the Democratic side of the aisle are promising everything from abolishing ICE to decriminalizing illegal border crossing, free healthcare and college education, and handing out lollipop and balloons, Joe Biden refuses to join the alt-left chorus. Not only is the former Vice President against decriminalizing illegal entry into the country but when confronted yesterday he refused to apologize to the 3 million illegal immigrants who were deported under Barack Obama’s watch.
Here is more:
Biden, who is facing increased criticism over the three million deportations that occurred under President Barack Obama, made the gaffe during a campaign event in New Hampshire when confronted by immigration activists.
“I want you to apologize to the three million immigrants that were deported and separated from their families under the Obama years,” a man speaking Spanish told Biden through a translator. “I want to know if you will commit to stopping all deportations and detentions if you are elected president.”
Biden, who openly smirked when asked the question, stood defiant in the face of the activists, many of whom waved signs and chanted at the former vice president.
“No, I will not halt deportations and detentions, I would make sure that every single,” Biden said, before being cut off by chants of “three million deportations” and “apologize now” from the crowd.
When allowed to finish, Biden said that deportations for a “serious felony” were warranted, while those for “a misdemeanor” were not.
“Under my administration, there will be no family separation until there is a hearing whether or not asylum is in fact warranted,” he said. “And there is no need to put anybody in a private prison, when we did it there was a court where you could have people show up for their hearings whether or not they were separated.”
Claiming that illegal migrants were “more likely to show up” to court proceedings “when they are together rather then being separated,” Biden reiterated that he drew the line between felonies and misdemeanors for deportation.
“I will not apologize for the deportation of people who have committed a felony,” he added. “I will apologize for deportations if in fact you were deported because in fact you were engaged in a misdemeanor… or your family was separated.”
The “gaffe” mentioned in the quote above was Joe Biden saying we need family separation when you can tell by the rest of the quote that is not what he was advocating so I will give him a pass on that. (Although it will be fun to see his Democratic rivals cut up the clip and use it in television commercials.)
Joe Biden used the caveat that he would apologize to people who were deported for only committing a misdemeanor but before that stated that only illegal immigrants who committed a felony were deported under Barack Obama. So Joe Biden refused to apologize to any of the 3 million people who were deported on his watch and once again reaffirmed that he would not halt deportations or detentions.
If Joe Biden thought he was going to have an easy time of it by running on Barack Obama’s record he made a serious miscalculation because Donald Trump’s election has pushed the Democrats so far to the left that even Barack Obama’s policies look moderate to the current slew of Democratic candidates and their voters.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
It has been quite entertaining watching the rift grow between Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Nancy Pelosi which culminated yesterday with the Representative from New York implying the Speaker of the House was picking on her because she is a woman of color.
Despite her claim that it is “stupidly untrue” to claim she played the race card, the truth is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez…played the race card. There is no other way to interpret what she said and I would go so far as to say I believe she tried to play the woman card as well, forgetting it would not work on Nancy Pelosi.
Now the freshman Representative from New York is taking heat from fellow Democrats for her comments. Here is more:
CBC member Rep.Lacy Clay (D-MO) took umbrage with Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks, accusing the freshman congresswoman of “using the race card.”
“What a weak argument, because you can’t get your way and because you’re getting pushback you resort to using the race card? Unbelievable. That’s unbelievable to me,” Clay told reporters on Capitol Hill. “I could care less. I could really care less. I agree with the Speaker. Four people, four votes out of 240 people, who cares.”
“It shows you how weak their argument is when they have to resort and direct racist accusations toward Speaker Pelosi… it’s very disappointing to me,” the lawmaker added.
Lacy Clay is 100% right; between this and Ocasio-Cortez complaining that Nancy Pelosi is giving her too much work she is acting like a spoiled little brat who did not get her way.
Kamala Harris also came out in defense of Nancy Pelosi:
“Listen, that’s not my experience with Nancy Pelosi. And I’ve known her and have been working with her for years,” she said. “I’ve known her to be very respectful to women of color and very supportive of them. So I have a different experience.”
And then Donald Trump, never one to miss an opportunity to troll the left, got into the action:
“I think Cortez is being very disrespectful to somebody who’s been there a long time,” the president said Friday. “I deal with Nancy Pelosi a lot and we go back and forth and it’s fine, but I think that a group of people is being very disrespectful to her,” the president added. “And you know what, I don’t think that Nancy can let that go on.”
He concluded by saying the 29-year-old congresswoman “should treat Nancy Pelosi with respect.”
I think the President was trying to throw a little fuel on the fire and why not, while the fire is burning he might as well keep it going.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
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