Bail bondswoman sentenced to 3 years’ imprisonment for smuggling hundreds of aliens into the US

NEW YORK — Pursuant to an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) New York, Hema Patel, 51, a Texas-based bail bondswoman, was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for her role in smuggling hundreds of illegal aliens into the United States. Patel was also ordered to forfeit her Texas residence, two hotels, $7.2 million in bail bonds, $400,000 in cash and 11 gold bars, among other assets. On June 7, 2018, Patel pleaded guilty to alien smuggling for financial gain by fraudulently bonding illegal aliens from immigration custody and causing their release into the United States.

“In a classic example of how criminal networks exploit loopholes in our nation’s immigration system to make a profit while threatening the national security of the United States, Hema Patel and her human smuggling co-conspirators manufactured fraudulent bond documents to secure the release of undocumented aliens that were smuggled through the southwest border by an international criminal network,” stated HSI Special Agent-in-Charge Melendez. “HSI remains steadfast in its commitment to secure our nation’s legitimate travel, trade and finance by going after transnational criminal networks, their facilitators and their ill-gained assets.”

“For her personal financial gain, defendant Hema Patel arranged to have hundreds of aliens smuggled into the United States, completely by-passing the visa application and eligibility requirements,” stated Richard P. Donoghue, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. “She will now pay the price for placing the safety and security of the residents of our communities at risk. Border security is a top priority of the Department of Justice.”

From April 2015 through October 2016, Patel and her co-conspirators executed a scheme to bring undocumented aliens, primarily from India, into the United States in exchange for “fees” ranging from approximately $28,000 to $60,000 per person. Patel and her co-conspirators paid middlemen, or “coyotes,” to arrange the logistics of the aliens’ travel, either a northern route through Canada, or a southern route through Mexico. When the aliens were stopped and taken into custody by law enforcement officers at the U.S. border, they called Patel. Patel then prepared fraudulent bond documents on their behalf, including documents listing fictitious names and addresses indicating where and with whom the aliens would reside while their cases were pending. These documents and the bail bonds were then filed in United States Immigration Courts, and the aliens were released into the community. Patel used two of her hotels in Texas to temporarily harbor some of the aliens.

On Nov. 17, 2016, law enforcement agents executed a search warrant at Patel’s Texas residence, seizing thousands of fraudulent alien bonding records.

On Nov. 30, 2017, Patel’s co-defendant Chandresh Kumar Patel (not related to Hema Patel) pleaded guilty to smuggling aliens for financial gain for his role in the scheme as an alien trafficker and financial broker. At the time of his arrest, law enforcement agents recovered $80,000 from his Queens residence. On October 5, 2018, Chandresh Kumar Patel was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment.

The government’s case is being handled by EDNY’s Long Island Criminal and Civil Divisions.

Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, Sinaloa Cartel leader, sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years

NEW YORK – Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman Loera, known by various aliases, including “El Chapo” and “El Rapido,” was sentenced today by United States District Judge Brian M. Cogan to life imprisonment plus 30 years to run consecutive to the life sentence for being a principal leader of a continuing criminal enterprise – the Mexican organized crime syndicate known as the Sinaloa Cartel – a charge that includes 26 drug-related violations and one murder conspiracy. The Court also ordered Guzman Loera to pay $12.6 billion in forfeiture.

This sentence and judgement follows follows an investigation, which led to his extradition to the U.S. to face charges and eventual conviction, by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in New York and Arizona, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), with assistance from the U.S. Marshal Service (USMS), the FBI, and the New York City Police Department (NYPD). The HSI New York case was handled by its El Dorado Task Force.

Guzman Loera was convicted by a federal jury on February 12, 2019, following a three-month trial, of all 10 counts of the superseding indictment, including narcotics trafficking, using a firearm in furtherance of his drug crimes and participating in a money laundering conspiracy. The evidence at trial established that Guzman Loera was a principal leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, a Mexico-based international drug trafficking organization responsible for importing and distributing more than a million kilograms of cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine and heroin in the United States. The evidence included testimony from 14 cooperating witnesses, including Sinaloa Cartel members Rey and Vicente Zambada, Miguel Martinez, Tirso Martinez, Damaso Lopez and Alex Cifuentes; narcotics seizures totaling over 130,000 kilograms of cocaine and heroin; weapons, including AK-47s and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher; ledgers; text messages; videos; photographs and intercepted recordings that detailed the drug trafficking activity of Guzman Loera and his co-conspirators over a 25-year period from January 1989 until December 2014.

Wesley Pruden passes at 83 after remarkable six decade career

Wesley Pruden would have undoubtedly wanted to spend his final hours at his keyboard, deftly deflating the pompous, entitled and arrogant of the political establishment, and he came awfully close.

The venerable Washington Times editor, columnist and journalism institution was found dead Wednesday morning at his home, his passing coming hours after putting in a full day at the newsroom on New York Avenue in Northeast, where he had worked since 1982, four months after the newspaper’s founding.

He was 83. His remarkable career began 67 years ago as a teenage copy boy in Arkansas, making him among the few old-school newsmen whose sharp political acumen, elegant writing style, and keen sense of the absurd allowed him to remain as relevant in the digital age as he was in the days when the rumpled shirts of newsmen were splattered with ink.

After stepping down as editor-in-chief in 2008, Mr. Pruden assumed the title of editor emeritus, writing staff editorials, helping edit the Commentary section, and filing his twice-weekly column, “Pruden on Politics,” a must-read for decades in Washington, D.C.

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Harris, Blumenauer, Lofgren, Griffith, Dingell, Bishop Introduce Medical Marijuana Research Act of 2019

United States House of Representatives

***PRESS RELEASE***

Washington, DC – U.S. Representatives Andy Harris, M.D. (R-MD), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), H. Morgan Griffith (R-VA), Debbie Dingell (D-MI), and Rob Bishop (R-UT) today introduced the Medical Marijuana Research Act of 2019. This bill addresses burdensome processes that currently impede legitimate medical research on marijuana. This bipartisan piece of legislation would amend the Controlled Substances Act to establish a new, separate registration process to facilitate research with marijuana for medical purposes.

“As a physician who has conducted NIH-sponsored research, I cannot stress enough how critical this legislation is to the scientific community. Our drug policy was never intended to act as an impediment to conducting legitimate medical research. If we are going to label marijuana as medicine, we need to conduct the same rigorous scientific research on efficacy and safety that every other FDA-approved treatment undergoes. This legislation will facilitate that research by removing the unnecessary administrative barriers that deter qualified researchers from thoroughly studying medical marijuana,” said Dr. Harris.

“47 states have legalized some form of cannabis, yet the federal government is still getting in the way of further progress on the potential for research,” said Rep. Blumenauer. “We owe it to patients and their families to allow for the research physicians need to understand marijuana’s benefits and risks and determine proper use and dosage.”

“While the definitive medical benefits of marijuana remain largely uncertain, it is important we remove the bureaucratic barriers which stand in the way of legitimate research,” said Rep. Bishop. “Many important questions remain unanswered. This legislation allows scientists and researchers to get at those answers in a responsible manner that isn’t hindered by unnecessary roadblocks.”

“There is evidence of marijuana’s potential medicinal benefits in treating conditions including cancer, epilepsy, and glaucoma,” said Rep. Griffith. “In order to move forward in evaluating the medicinal value of medical marijuana and determining its accompanying side effects, it is critical that we remove barriers to research. To that end, I am pleased to join in reintroducing this bipartisan legislation. The Medical Marijuana Research Act constitutes common sense legislation that could open the door to treatment that can substantially improve the quality of patient care.”

“This common-sense legislation would take the necessary step of advancing the Federal government’s scientific and medical research into the potential benefits and harms of medical cannabis for patients who need it,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren.

“We all know marijuana has medical benefits, but the Federal government has continued to get in the way of further medical research that would help us better understand the effects,” said Dingell. “Removing barriers that prevent research will help improve our understanding of medical marijuana and provide additional treatment options for millions of patients.”

Letters and quotes of support from a wide coalition of organizations can be found here.

The Medical Marijuana Research Act of 2019 addresses two major barriers currently faced by researchers who wish to conduct legitimate medical research with cannabis, a Schedule I drug. First, it creates a new, less cumbersome registration process specifically for marijuana, reducing approval wait times, costly security measures, and additional, unnecessary layers of protocol review. Second, once researchers have been approved to conduct this research, this bill makes it easier for those researchers to obtain the cannabis they need for their studies through reforms in both production and distribution regulations. To this end, the bill also allows for the private manufacturing and distribution of cannabis solely for research purposes. Currently, the only marijuana available to be used in research legally comes from a single contract the National Institute on Drug Abuse holds with the University of Mississippi.

‘Four Horsewomen Of The Apocalypse’ — Sen. John Kennedy Rips Squad ‘Whack Jobs’

Louisiana Republican Senator John Kennedy defended President Donald Trump from accusations of racism stemming from a series of tweets, then blasted the four members of the “so-called ‘Squad'” as “whack jobs” who are “destroying the Democratic Party.”

On Tuesday night’s edition of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” the Louisiana Senator expressed his belief that the president is not a “racist” while acknowledging that the tweet was “a poor choice of words” which “he clarified.”

“What he has said now in clarification is that this is not China,” Kennedy said. “This is America, and in America, if you hate our country, you are free to leave. Now he said that in response to the behavior of the four congresswomen that you are talking about, the so-called ‘squad.'”

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People Lose Medicaid While Awaiting Trial in Jail. Sheriffs Want Congress to Let Them Keep It.

County officials and sheriffs from around the U.S. are ramping up an effort to press for changes to a federal policy that strips Medicaid coverage and other federal health care benefits from people who are in jail but who have not been convicted of crimes.

Counties and their local taxpayers end up covering medical expenses for people locked up pretrial. But the federal government and states share the cost of people on Medicaid, which provides health coverage for low-income Americans

Those involved in a new initiative focused on the issue say they’re not only concerned about money. The federal policy, they say, is also disruptive for the people it affects—who are disproportionately poor, minorities, or coping with mental illness and substance abuse.

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Parsons Cemetery Pictures

Parsons Cemetery suffered damage from last night’s storms. Fortunately all is in the process of getting cleaned up and repaired while cemetery operations continue.

Historic Parsons Cemetery is owned and operated by Saint Peters Episcopal Church in Salisbury Maryland but is open to all. This is both an operational and historical cemetery with its history intertwined with the history of Salisbury itself. This cemetery, gifted in 1873 by Benjamin Parsons, is a mid-18th century garden type cemetery filled with beautiful old trees and shrubs.

As a non-profit, the Parsons Cemetery Perpetual Care Endowment Fund is managed by the Community Foundation of Eastern Shore (CFES).

More information can be found on Parson’s Website : http://www.parsonscemetery.com/home.html

Click 'READ MORE' below to see photos.

Gun-controlled Chicago: Police 'are losing the streets' to major eruptions of violence

Chicago’s new mayor is taking issue with the city's police department as the city continues to see far more homicides than New York and Los Angeles, as well as major eruptions of other violence.

“One weekend does not make a trend,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Tuesday, according to Fox 32. “But we've now had a couple weekends where it feels like we are losing the streets.”

The mayor made the comments while in New York to attend the opening of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, which is funded by billionaire former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg "to equip [mayors] with the tools and expertise to effectively lead complex cities."

Lightfoot's comments also came off the back of one of the city's bloodiest weekends so far this year, in which more than 40 people shot, nine of them fatally.

Right before Independence Day, 50 people were shot. And despite the deployment of an extra 1,200 officers in the city, at least 43 people were shot over Memorial Day weekend, seven of them fatally.

More here

https://www.foxnews.com/us/chicagos-mayor-police-are-losing-the-streets-to-major-eruptions-of-violence

Prager: ‘Our Target Audience Is Young People,’ but Google Restricts PragerU in Schools and Libraries

Radio host Dennis Prager told Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) during a Senate committee hearing that he feels as though he is in a comedy skit after listening to a Google VP’s explanation as to why a PragerU video on the ten commandments has been placed on YouTube’s “restricted” list along with pornographic and violent videos. The “restricted” listing by Google prevents schools, libraries, and others from showing PragerU videos to young people — which Prager noted is PragerU’s target audience.

Dennis Prager said during Tuesday’s committee hearing that he has never gotten an explanation from Google as to why PragerU videos are being placed in the “restricted mode” category, that is, until Karan Bhatia delivered what Prager referred to as a comedic explanation during Tuesday’s hearing.

The Google executive noted that a PragerU video on the ten commandments had been placed in “restricted mode” due to mentions of murder.

“So — we have a solution, we’ll put up [a video] without ‘thou shalt not murder’ in it,” quipped Prager of his video on the ten commandments. “I feel like I’m in a Monty Python skit here, when [a Google executive] says something like that.”

“The only possible explanation for all of this is they don’t like PragerU, because we’re a very, very influential conservative voice touching a lot of lives,” affirmed Prager, “There is no other explanation.”

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Google VP: Thousands of Racist Employees Are 'Statistically Insignificant'

Google executive Karan Bhatia testified Tuesday that thousands of company employees declaring a black conservative woman’s perspective unworthy of “inclusion” was not a problem, because Google has nearly 100,000 employees worldwide.

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) asked Google VP Karan Bhatia why the company’s Artificial Intelligence advisory counsel dissolved rather than include Kay Coles James, president of the Heritage Foundation. According to Cruz, 2,500 Google employees signed a petition supporting James’ removal, stating that her opinion views are “not valid” and “not worthy of inclusion.”

Bhatia dismissed that fact by saying those thousands of people are only “two percent” of Google’s workforce — though he did not state what percentage it is more specifically within its U.S.-based workforce.

More here

Matt Drudge's 'Future' Is Now Realized, And That Has Legacy Media Enraged.

"Bringing these groups together is beyond irresponsible; it is essentially conducting a hate summit at the White House," the Southern Poverty Law Center proclaimed Monday morning regarding President Donald J. Trump's social media summit last Thursday.

Based off that line, you would think the president hosted KKK leader David Duke in the Rose Garden for a Sunday interview as if his opinions mattered.

No, actually, that was CNN who did that in 2016, but President Trump did something far worse in the eyes of the Left -- he invited citizen journalists, bloggers, and humorous people who make memes to the White House. In doing so, the president sent a loud message to America that internet pioneer Matt Drudge's vision of the world has been all but finalized thanks to social media and the power of the internet. This has legacy media, and their allies like SPLC, terrified that they are losing their power over public discourse.

In 1998, internet pioneer Matt Drudge gave a speech before the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. in which he mapped out a future. He dreamed of a national press free of editors and beholden not to corporate masters but driven by the ever industrial spirit of the American citizen reporter.

Back then, after taking the lead on the explosive Monica Lewinsky scandal, Drudge told the Press Club that "...clearly there is a hunger for unedited information, absent corporate considerations."

But despite that hunger, the beast of the internet was misunderstood by those who considered themselves "experts." But Drudge, operating out of his Hollywood bedroom, knew that the world had "entered an era vibrating with the din of small voices. Every citizen can be a reporter, can take on the powers that be."

More here

Meet Wayne King At Brew River Right Now

Alexander: The Left's 'Moderation' of Conservative Media

Sometimes I am able to plan a topic more than 48 hours ahead of my deadline. This started as one of those weeks. But as with the best-laid plans, sometimes it’s necessary to alter them. (I’ll say a bit more on that original topic at the end of this column.)

The Patriot Post has become the target of a thinly veiled effort to undermine the reach of our conservative voice. That effort was launched by one of the biggest entertainment/news tabloids on the Web, BuzzFeed, with a review claiming that we’re “the biggest mystery in conservative media” and raising questions about the team “behind one of the oldest conservative” online news organizations.

BuzzFeed’s media editor, its resident expert on “fake news” (I know, the irony is rich), has used that platform for his inquiry. When a Leftmedia outlet with a budget hundreds of times the size of our small grassroots organization targets us — a “David versus Goliath” contest, if you will — it creates a quandary.

We have a longstanding Patriot Post policy: “Don’t swap spit with a jackass.” But when the accuser has a huge platform, as one of our editors noted, “to leave misinformation uncontested is tantamount to suggesting that it’s true.” And while it’s likely that none of you, our readers, are even aware of the BuzzFeed accusations, rebut we must.

Sometimes criticism is intended to be constructive.

Last week, for example, I wrote about the rise of a new genre of digital-media arbiters of truth, in which I mentioned a new media accountability effort, NewsGuard, and explained how it worked. I further noted that whenever humans render opinions about the world around them, they inevitably bring a bias to that perspective.

However, undergoing NewsGuard’s process of evaluation was helpful to our team. It employs a battalion of professional journalists, which we have never claimed to be, and their questions and suggestions helped us improve what we do.

On the other hand, sometimes criticism is intended to be destructive. With BuzzFeed, and the leftist academic social-media “expert” who pointed them at us with a clear agenda, their intent was something other than constructive.

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Congress Courageously Sticks US Taxpayers WIth A $6 Trillion Liability

There seems to be an unwritten rule with lawmakers that, every time they create a terrible piece of legislation, they give it the most noble-sounding name.

The USA PATRIOT Act from 2001 was a great example. It sounds great. Who wouldn’t love a law named for Patriots?

And yet that was easily among the most freedom-killing laws ever passed in US history, giving the federal government nearly unlimited authority to wage war and spy on its own people.

There are so many other examples– the USA FREEDOM Act from 2015 (which renewed many of the worst provisions of the PATRIOT Act).

Or the HIRE Act from 2010, which created some of the most heinous tax rules of the last fifty years.

The names of these laws all sounded wonderful. But their effects were absolutely terrible.

The new SECURE Act will likely be no different.

If you haven’t heard of SECURE, it’s a new piece of legislation aimed at ‘fixing’ the US retirement system.

SECURE stands for “Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement”, which is pretty clever when you think about it.

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Excessive Heat Warnings and Watches

If you think today was hot, Friday will be even hotter with Heat Index values above 105 degrees, with places in SE VA and NE NC seeing readings above 110. This dangerous heat will cause heat stroke quickly so take frequent breaks and make sure to check on your neighbors!

While today will be quite warm and muggy, conditions will become even hotter for Friday and the weekend. Be sure to check the forecast details at www.weather.gov/phi regarding the Excessive Heat Warnings and Watches.

Disneyland has become a ‘ghost town’

To say that Disneyland’s new Star Wars-themed Galaxy’s Edge land is a big deal would be an understatement. The highly anticipated $1 billion, 14-acre immersive expansion was the biggest in park history. As of its June opening, visitors can pilot the Millennium Falcon, build lightsabers and drink blue milk. The hype over the new attraction’s products has even caused people to steal branded sporks, of all things.

To ensure that the park wouldn’t be mobbed with Star Wars fans, Disneyland wisely put some crowd-control measures in place; Galaxy’s Edge was only accessible to those with reservations until June 23. But it seems that the measures worked too well, depending on whom you ask.

This week, long after the reservation embargo, the park is empty. Well, empty for Disneyland.

That’s right — if you visit Disneyland right this minute, you’ll find a scene out of your theme park dreams: Pulling up to your favorite ride and hopping right on with little to no wait. It’s even being called a “ghost town” by some visitors.

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Va. Baptist Church Sign: 'America: Love or Leave It'

A Virginia Baptist church has resurrected a more than half-century old conservative turn of phrase amid President Donald Trump's war of words with four progressive women lawmakers, posting a sign this week declaring: "America: Love it or Leave it."

The admonition was placed outside Friendship Baptist Church in Appomattox, Virginia, on their signboard after Trump's attacks on the group of minority congresswomen — and remarks the so-called "squad" is "free to leave" if they want to.

"I thought I was going to make some remarks regarding the situation in Washington," Pastor E.W. Lucas told the local ABC affiliate. "It just came to me . . . America, I love it. If you don't love it, leave it."

The pastor was not the first to think it up...

USSSA Eastern National Championship arrives on Maryland’s Eastern Shore

Salisbury, MD – Over 5,250 softball players will make their way to the Lower Eastern Shore over the next three weeks for the United States Specialty Sports Association (USSSA) Eastern Nationals. 

This year’s Eastern Nationals will be held from July 17-Aug. 3. The event draws over 350 girls’ softball teams from 19 states and Canada to the region over three weeks. States represented include Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia.

The Eastern Nationals are divided into three tournament weeks:

Week 1: July 17-21 - 10U Open, 12U Open

Week 2: July 23-28 - 14U Open, 14U B

Week 3: July 29-Aug. 3 - 16U Open, 18U Open, 18U B
*‘U’ abbreviation for under.

Week one of the event brings 100 teams to Delmarva The tournament schedule, brackets and results can be found online at http://www.usssa.com/fastpitch/event_gameCenter/?divisionID=1857197.

Tournament play begins on Thursday. Games are open to the public with no admission fee charged. For more information on the Eastern Nationals, please visitwww.WicoSports.org.

Judge: Trump Hush Money Probe Tied to Cohen Is Over

Prosecutors have concluded their investigation into whether anyone at Donald Trump’s company worked with his former lawyer Michael Cohen to pay hush money to his alleged mistresses, ending a potential legal threat to the president’s business and executives close to him.

Prosecutors in Manhattan notified U.S. District Judge William Pauley in a filing on Monday that the probe was over, according to an order issued by the judge Wednesday. Pauley said investigative materials related to the case must be made public, although he allowed the identity of an “uncharged third party” to remain under wraps. The unsealing of the evidence suggests there will be no further charges.

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Children grow up happier with grandparents by their side

Having grandparents living nearby has always been a source of great social wealth.

Today, more than ever, both for children and for their parents, grandparents are precious because, in addition to the affectivity they transmit, they are a reliable source of free and responsible help in the daily management of their grandchildren.

A study confirms that children who are lucky enough to have grandparents who live nearby, grow up more serene and happy.

This is because grandparents are present and loving. And moreover, they often delegate to the parents the more educational part of raising their grandchildren.

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I Will Attend The Meet & Greet At Brew River Tonight

As all of you can imagine just how busy I am these days, I will take the time to attend this very important gathering tonight at 6 PM at Brew River.

While I have no political connection or aspirations I have invested 15 years into trying to make Salisbury a better place to live, grow up and ultimately retire. 

Wayne is a great guy willing to step up to the plate and he is looking for your support. I believe in the man, hence my taking the time tonight to be there. 

So come visit us at Brew River and give the guy the chance to introduce himself. Se you there.

The Exceptional Trump

Donald Trump, unlike Barack Obama &Company, loves talking about America’s “exceptional” qualities, but we tend to overlook the importance of the exceptional qualities of Trump himself.

No, this will not be a suck-up exercise about the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

A serious discussion of President Trump and his record should not neglect Trump’s faults and mistakes, but it must honestly assess how Trump’s own background has shaped events in America and the world.

In many respects, Trump is a fulfilment of the vision of America by the French historian Alexis De Tocqueville, who studied and described American exceptionalism almost 200 years ago, and his words are still accurate.

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God Bless the USA

American workers have waited long enough

“NAFTA’s shortcomings were evident when signed,” then-Sen. Barack Obama said on the campaign trail in 2008. “We must now amend the agreement to fix them.”

He didn’t. Instead, Washington continued its long tradition of paying lip service to American workers—and then turning around and standing up for global capital instead.

President Donald J. Trump kept his promise. Now it’s time for Congress to keep theirs.

Last November, President Trump joined our North American allies in signing the new U.S.–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA), a trade deal that modernizes NAFTA while securing stronger protections for American labor. Last month, Mexico’s legislature became the first to overwhelmingly pass the new deal into law. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau traveled to Washington the very next day, urging Democrat leaders in Congress to join President Trump in making USMCA a reality. 

American workers have waited long enough for Washington to fix NAFTA. “That outdated trade deal has hurt middle-class Americans, stifled innovation and left entire communities shuttered as jobs and opportunity have moved south of the border,” Vice President Mike Pence wrote in The Washington Post over the weekend.

USMCA guarantees the strongest labor protections of any U.S. trade agreement. It ensures fair wages in all three countries and gives Mexican workers real collective bargaining rights—a move that finally puts American unions on a level playing field.

The new deal also eliminates the NAFTA loophole that allows foreign car companies to buy auto parts from China or Europe, assemble them in Mexico, and then sell those vehicles duty-free in the United States. With USMCA, “we will require at least 75 percent of a car to be built with parts genuinely made in North America for it to be sold duty-free,” the Vice President writes.

“And for the first time ever, we will require at least 40 percent of a duty-free car to be made by workers earning at least an average of $16 an hour.”

In addition to factory workers, USMCA will boost America’s farmers, ranchers, energy producers, digital and technology workers, and other middle-class families.

“For years, members of Congress have demanded a replacement for NAFTA. Now they finally have the best replacement that they could ever even imagine,” President Trump told workers in Wisconsin last Friday.

“So on behalf of our nation’s loyal, hardworking citizens, I’m calling on Congress to pass USMCA and send it to my desk immediately for signature. We shouldn’t be playing around.”

Vice President Pence: Congress must pass the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

Rep. Cleaver: I Was Embarrassed to Remain as Chair Presiding

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver explained on Wednesday why he abandoned the chair while presiding over a resolution the night before to condemn President Donald Trump's recent tweets as racist, telling CNN’s “New Day” that the entire episode was embarrassing to the House of Representatives.

"Frankly, I was embarrassed to remain as the chair presiding," said the Missouri Democrat. ”Here we were in the House of Representatives, and every person who spoke violated the House rules."

When asked to expand on what was embarrassing, Cleaver said, “I don't know if anybody can look at what's going on here on Capitol Hill and think that it's OK and think that it's the normal way in which legislators conduct themselves.”

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Dr. Ben Carson Defends Trump’s ‘Go Back’ Tweet: ‘He’s Not a Racist’

Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson on Wednesday said President Donald Trump is not racist, nor were his “go back” comments directed at four far-left congresswomen.

“I have an advantage of knowing the President very well and he’s not a racist,” Carson told the Fox News Channel’s America’s Newsroom.”His comments are not racist, but he loves the country very much. And he has a feeling that those who represent the country should love it as well.”

Carson pointed to how the President’s policies have helped minorities benefit from the roaring U.S. economy.

“I think you can see what the President means by looking at his accomplishments,” he said. “Look at his policies. Under this President you see the rising tide lifting all boats. You see low unemployment — record low — for blacks, for Hispanics, for all the demographics of our nation.

“When you have somebody spending this much time and this much effort trying to elevate those who are vulnerable and who are suffering in our society, I think we should pay a lot more attention to what they are doing than to what anyone is saying,” he added.

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List of Racist Statements by Members of the ‘Squad’ (So Far)

President Donald Trump tweeted Tuesday that “I don’t have a Racist bone in my body!” and challenged his critics to “Get a list of the HORRIBLE things” that the four Democrat congresswomen of the so-called “Squad” have said.

It is worth noting that all four — Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) are members of a group called the “Justice Democrats.” The group is specifically devoted to backing primary candidates against Democrat incumbents seen as being too moderate and too white.

Last November, the Justice Democrats launched a campaign called “#OurTime,” aimed at recruiting candidates to challenge “Democrat incumbents who are demographically and ideologically out-of-touch with their districts.”

From the start, the “Squad” devoted itself to an explicitly race-based political effort.

Then there are their statements.

Trump kicks Turkey out of F-35 program in historic NATO rupture

President Trump is kicking Turkey out of the F-35 fighter jet program over the NATO ally’s insistence on purchasing Russian-made anti-aircraft defenses, the White House announced.

“Unfortunately, Turkey’s decision to purchase Russian S-400 air defense systems renders its continued involvement with the F-35 impossible,” said White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham. “The F-35 cannot coexist with a Russian intelligence collection platform that will be used to learn about its advanced capabilities.”

The announcement came amid a steady stream of Russian military planes delivering the advanced anti-aircraft defense systems to Ankara this week. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has insisted on his right to deploy the warplanes alongside Russia’s technology, resulting in a standoff that could have far-reaching consequences for the transatlantic alliance.

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Ilhan Omar invokes boycott of Nazi Germany in resolution supporting Israel boycotts

Rep. Ilhan Omar introduced a resolution in support of the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions movement saying it was in a long tradition of U.S. boycotts.

"Americans of conscience have a proud history of participating in boycotts to advocate for human rights abroad including ... boycotting Nazi Germany from March 1933 to October 1941 in response to the dehumanization of the Jewish people in the lead-up to the Holocaust," Omar said in the resolution introduced Tuesday.

The 1930s boycott by the U.S. Jews of German goods came during the lead up to Holocaust starting in part with Germans boycotting Jewish businesses.

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Majority of Mexicans favor deporting migrants waiting to enter US

More than half of Mexican nationals are not sympathetic to migrants traveling through the country on their journey to the United States and support the deportation of unauthorized persons waiting to gain entry to America, according to a new study.

The study, conducted by the Washington Post and Mexican newspaper Reforma, found “more than 6 in 10 Mexicans say migrants are a burden on their country because they take jobs and benefits that should belong to Mexicans.”

Additionally, more than half of the those same Mexican citizens are in favor of deporting migrants living in the country illegally.

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