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Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Democrats Now Regret Forcing Al Franken Out Of The Senate

Six former and current Senate Democrats and one Senate Independent have expressed regret over calling for former Democratic Minnesota Sen. Al Franken’s resignation in 2017 following multiple allegations of sexual misconduct.

Democratic Sens. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Bill Nelson of Florida, and Tom Udall of New Mexico as well as Independent Sen. Angus King of Maine all told Jane Mayer of The New Yorker that they regretted their roles in forcing Franken out of the Senate in an article published Monday

Leahy referred to his decision to call for Franken’s resignation as “one of the biggest mistakes I’ve made” during his 45 year Senate tenure, Merkley referred to the situation as a “rush to judgement,” while King called it “the political equivalent of capital punishment.”

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Troopers Arrest Felton Man for Rash of Thefts- Sussex County

Bridgeville/Greenwood – The Delaware State Police have arrested 32-year-old James M. Carey of Felton, DE in connection with multiple thefts.
The Delaware State Police began investigating a rash of ATV and lawn mower thefts between mid June 2019 and early July 2019. Over the course of three weeks, a trailer, a tow dolly, three ATV’s, four riding mowers and a push mower were stolen from yards in the Bridgeville/Greenwood area.
Through investigative measures, Carey was developed as a suspect. On July 15, 2019, Property Crimes Detectives responded to Carey’s last known address on Hills Market Road, Felton.  A stolen flatbed trailer and a car dolly were recovered, however Carey was not there.
Through further investigations it was learned that Carey was staying at a residence in Federalsburg, MD. With the assistance of the Maryland State Police (Easton Barracks) and Caroline County Sherriff’s Office, a consent to search was provided and Carey was located inside the residence. Carey was taken into custody without incident.
On July 22, 2019 Carey was extradited back to Delaware where he was charged with the following:
  • Theft-Felony (6 counts)
  • Theft (2 counts)
  • Criminal Trespass 3rd (8 counts)
Carey was arraigned before the Justice of the Peace Court and committed to the Sussex Correctional Institution on $1,500.00 cash only bond.
Some of the stolen property has not been recovered at this time.  Anyone who believes they might have received/purchased any of this property is asked to contact Troop 4, Detective Coleman at 302-856-5850.   Information may also be provided by calling Delaware crime stoppers at 1-800-TIP-3333 or via the internet at http://www.delaware.crimestoppersweb.com

‘I Saw the Crisis at the Border with My Own Eyes -- Congress Can Fix It’


For the past few months, a number of far-left Democrats in Congress have chosen to politicize America’s border crisis rather than help President Donald J. Trump fix it.

“Earlier this month, I joined Vice President Pence and a group of Senate Republicans to see firsthand the humanitarian and security crisis at our southern border,” Rep. Tom Rice (R-SC) writes for Fox News. “If the reports and rhetoric from my colleagues across the aisle were true, the facilities we toured would have been dirty and unlivable. That was not the case,” he says.

“Everyone at both of these facilities had access to food, water, hygiene items, and medical care . . . The first facility housed family units, and everyone we spoke to said they were being treated well. The second facility we visited housed single men who were apprehended crossing into our country illegally, many of whom had criminal records or had been deported previously.”

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Maine and Nevada Show Why the Electoral College Helps Small States, Not Red States

Last month, both Maine and Nevada did what was in the best interests of their states: They rejected bills that would have enrolled their states in the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, an unwise effort to override the Electoral College.

In Maine, it was killed by legislators in the state House after it passed Maine’s Senate. In Nevada, Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak vetoed the bill that had been passed by members of his own party in the Legislature.

The National Popular Vote compact, which is an agreement between states, requires a participating state to award all of its electoral votes to the presidential candidate who receives the most votes across the nation, not to the candidate who actually won the vote in that state.

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New York just became the first state to ban cat declawing

Animal advocates are celebrating a big win in New York. The state has become the first in the US to ban cat declawing, a painful procedure that involves removing bones — not just nails — from a cat’s paws.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed an anti-declawing bill into law Monday, calling the practice “archaic,” “inhumane,” and “unnecessary.” Effective immediately, pet owners who have their cats declawed could face a fine of up to $1,000.

“This is a real triumph for cats and the people who love them,” said New York state Assembly member Linda Rosenthal, who’s been championing the bill since 2015. “This has catapulted New York to a leadership position when it comes to cruelty against felines.”

She also said the ban has important implications not just for cats but for animal welfare more broadly: “Having this bill become law indicates that New York is changing the way we view animals and our relationship with them.”

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Neighbors form human chain to stop ICE from detaining man

After a multi-hour standoff between a man and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, neighbors formed a human chain to prevent him and his 12-year-old son from being detained.

The standoff began early Monday morning in Hermitage, Tennessee after the man and his son, who were in a van parked in their driveway, were blocked in by an ICE vehicle. The two refused to emerge and alerted neighbors and immigration activists who began bringing food, water, and gas to the van.

Nashville police were called by ICE, but didn’t assist with the apprehension. Rather, they stood by to “keep the peace if necessary.”

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Please Donate If You Can! Every little bit helps.

The link on this post is broken. You can go to their website and donate there.  https://communitycatscoalition.com/donate/

Illinois Lawmakers Push Property Tax Hikes To Fund Affordable Housing

Property taxes will go up to pay for affordable housing if legislation now pending in the General Assembly passes. It’s not styled as a property tax increase, but that’s exactly what it is. It’s styled as property tax caps or reductions for affordable housing, which would directly result in increases for homeowners and everybody else.
 

Two bills are pending. The first is Senate Bill 2259, sponsored by Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago). It would artificially limit increases in assessments of new or rehabilitated apartment complexes if the owner commits at least 20 percent of the building’s units to a rent cap for families that make less than a set income depending on the area. The second, House Bill 2168, goes further and would directly reduce assessments on similarly defined affordable apartments. It has nine House sponsors.

In other words, both bills would give a property tax break to owners of apartments for lower income renters. The problem is that the levy – the total amounts collected by each taxing authority – wouldn’t change. That means all other property owners pay the difference. The end result is simple and undeniable: Property owners would fund a special subsidy for affordable housing.

You’d think lawmakers had learned their lesson. In 2017, Chicago wanted a way to soften the blow of the city’s property tax increases, or at least make them look softer. Singling out the city wasn’t workable, so it got Springfield to pass increases in the homestead and senior exemptions for all of Cook County. We wrote about the dismal results for other taxpayers here, which the Chicago Tribune detailed. Other property owners got clobbered, especially in lower income areas.

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Ethics Complaint Filed Against Ilhan Omar For Alleged Fraud

Judicial Watch announced on Tuesday that it has filed an ethics complaint against Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar (MN) with the House of Representatives Office of Congressional Ethics for potential immigration, marriage, tax, and student loan fraud.

In press release posted Tuesday, the government watchdog announced that it has submitted "a hand-delivered ethics complaint to Chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Office of Congressional Ethics David Skaggs calling for a full investigation into potential crimes tied to allegations that Rep. Ilhan Omar may have married her biological brother."

Omar, who is one of the four members of the so-called "Squad" of far-left freshman Democratic congresswomen embroiled in a public feud with President Trump, has been the subject of a series of reports claiming immigration and marriage fraud.

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Rep. Ilhan Omar Wants Taxpayer Funded Abortions for Illegal Immigrants

While the Democratic Party seems to be in complete agreement about providing free health care to illegal immigrants, freshmen Representative Ilhan Omar wants to take it a step further and throw in abortions as well.

Rep. Omar was responding to a story in Vox about how illegal immigrants are not taking care of their reproductive health over fear of being deported, yet the story begins with a tale of an illegal immigrant who went and got an abortion because she was afraid the state would take away her baby.

“In addition to people like Pablos who are deciding not to have children, doctors say many immigrants are forgoing necessary prenatal or other reproductive health care for fear that they or their families will be deported. That leads to real health disparities, from a decrease in cervical cancer screenings to an increase in labor complications,” the Vox article states.

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Mexican national in US illegally is charged with causing child's death while driving without a license

NEWARK - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers have arrested a Mexican national charged by the Egg Harbor Township Police Department for causing death while driving without a license, a 3rd degree felony, July 11, 2019. Jorge Rodriguez-Saldana, 30, was driving a vehicle that struck a grandmother and her two grandchildren, killing the seven-year-old child and critically injuring the grandmother.

He was released from local custody on a summons following the incident. Law enforcement authorities in Atlantic County did not refer the case for ICE for review. On July 13, 2019, Rodriguez-Saldana was arrested by ICE-ERO Newark Officers in Horsham, Pennsylvania for immigration violations as he was in the U.S. illegally.
“Unfortunately this is another example that makes apparent the significant public safety concerns the NJ AG Directive limiting cooperation with ICE poses,” said John Tsoukaris, field office director for ICE-ERO Newark. “Had it not been for the persistent, courageous and diligent efforts of ICE-ERO to track him down, this individual might have fled. We will continue to make public safety our highest priority despite dangerous state policies.”

Anti-Trump Republican amplifies false claim that Fox News will not air Mueller testimony

Republican political consultant Rick Wilson, appearing Monday on MSNBC, repeated a circulating false claim that Fox News will not air special counsel Robert Mueller’s testimony live.

“Fox isn’t covering the hearings,” Wilson said. “How scared they are of what could happen on this morning. It’s going to be a very interesting and consequential moment. They’re apparently not going to take them live. Everybody else is taking them live."

Wilson soon corrected himself on Twitter, writing, “I stand corrected: Fox apparently will cover the Mueller hearings. The MAGA Javerts were all aflutter.”

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Ilhan Omar Marriage Flummoxes Media Fact-Checkers

The 'baseless smear' that can't be debunked

Media outlets scrambled to prove false the accusation that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) married her brother after President Donald Trump mentioned it, but none have been able to definitively reach an answer, largely due to Omar's unwillingness to provide information.

Trump was asked about the accusation that Omar's husband, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, was also her brother during a scrum with reporters last Wednesday and said he had heard talk that she married her brother but knew "nothing about it."

National media had largely kept away from judging the merits of the accusation that she was related to her second husband, which have circulated since her entry into politics in 2016, but after Trump's comment many came to quick conclusions. CNN's Jim Acosta jumped in immediately to criticize Trump for diving in on "disgusting lies." The Daily Beast‘s Will Sommer published a lengthy piece on Friday that did little to nothing to debunk what he calls a "baseless smear."

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The Democrats’ 2020 Campaign Theme Is 'You Americans Are Terrible'

The Democrats’ 2020 theme is that you are terrible and the party’s slogan will be “Americans suck, vote for us.” The precise candidate who will employ it is not important because they all embrace the notion that punishing the essential moral failure of you and me and every other Normal American is the key goal of the Donkey Party. That goes equally for the Handsey Old Prospector, the Socialist Squaw, Crusty the Commie, Spartacus Sharpton, Starchild, the Furry, Not Ms. Willie Brown, the Unfabulous Gay Guy, and the many Unfabulous Ungay Guys.

They all agree that you are terrible because you don’t know your place, which is behind a rock pushing it endlessly uphill for the benefit of people who hate you.

Remember Animal Farm from back when you were in school and they taught it as a chilling warning about socialism instead of as a how-to manual? Remember the horse who got worked nearly to death then got sent to the glue farm?

Guess what? You’re the horse. 


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Courtroom Chaos: Shouting Erupts as Former Judge Dragged Out of Court After Being Sentenced to Jail

Cincinnati, Ohio – Former Juvenile Court Judge Tracie Hunter went limp and was dragged out of court by a bailiff after being sentenced to jail on Monday.

Chaos erupted in the courtroom and Hunter’s supporters began shouting as the former judge was forcibly taken out of the building.

Hunter was sentenced to 6 months in prison and one year of community service after she used her position as a judge to give her brother, who was also an employee of the juvenile court and about to be fired for allegedly striking a young offender, confidential records.

Tracie Hunter was actually convicted and found guilty in 2014 and was supposed to be sentenced in 2016, but several appeals have delayed her sentencing.

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Trump Trashes 'Squad' As "Racist Group Of Troublemakers"

President Trump's ongoing effort to force 'moderate' liberals to support the most extreme leftists - somewhat tarring the entire Democratic party with the same open-borders, anti-Israel, "America's the worst" strategy - was turned up to '11' on the rhetoric scale today.

For more than a week, the president has been at the center of racism accusations after telling the group, made up of Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) and Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), to “go back” to their home countries.

And this morning he continued the attacks, calling the group of minority women a “racist group of troublemakers."
“The ‘Squad’ is a very Racist group of troublemakers who are young, inexperienced, and not very smart.”
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Video surfaces showing Nancy Pelosi advocating Republican policy on border crisis

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has objected to nearly every single proposal from Republicans and President Donald Trump meant to alleviate the ongoing border crisis.

However, newly re-surfaced video from 2008 shows that Pelosi once supported the principles she suddenly now opposes.

"We have a couple of different issues we are talking about," Pelosi said in the video posted by Independent Women's Voice. "Do we have a commitment to secure the border? Yes."

"What are the options that we have available to us? Lets make sure they work," she explained. "Because while we need to address the issue of immigration and the challenge we have of undocumented people in our country, we certainly don't want any more coming in."

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Why Can't America Fill a Pothole?

Is President Trump R.A.C.I.S.T?


SPD Press Release 7-23-19 (Gun Arrest)

New Rulemaking Brings Significant Changes to EB-5 Program

Minimum Investments, Targeted Employment Area Designations Among Reforms
WASHINGTON—U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will publish a final rule on July 24 that makes a number of significant changes to its EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program, marking the first significant revision of the program’s regulations since 1993. The final rule will become effective on Nov. 21, 2019. 
New developments under the final rule include:
  • Raising the minimum investment amounts;
  • Revising the standards for certain targeted employment area (TEA) designations;
  • Giving the agency responsibility for directly managing TEA designations;
  • Clarifying USCIS procedures for the removal of conditions on permanent residence; and
  • Allowing EB-5 petitioners to retain their priority date under certain circumstances.
Under the EB-5 program, individuals are eligible to apply for conditional lawful permanent residence in the United States if they make the necessary investment in a commercial enterprise in the United States and create or, in certain circumstances, preserve 10 permanent full-time jobs for qualified U.S. workers.
“Nearly 30 years ago, Congress created the EB-5 program to benefit U.S. workers, boost the economy, and aid distressed communities by providing an incentive for foreign capital investment in the United States,” said USCIS Acting Director Ken Cuccinelli. “Since its inception, the EB-5 program has drifted away from Congress’s intent. Our reforms increase the investment level to account for inflation over the past three decades and substantially restrict the possibility of gerrymandering to ensure that the reduced investment amount is reserved for rural and  high-unemployment areas most in need. This final rule strengthens the EB-5 program by returning it to its Congressional intent.”
Major changes to EB-5 in the final rule include:
  • Raising minimum investment amounts: As of the effective date of the final rule, the standard minimum investment level will increase from $1 million to $1.8 million, the first increase since 1990, to account for inflation. The rule also keeps the 50% minimum investment differential between a TEA and a non-TEA, thereby increasing the minimum investment amount in a TEA from $500,000 to $900,000. The final rule also provides that the minimum investment amounts will automatically adjust for inflation every five years. 
  • TEA designation reforms: The final rule outlines changes to the EB-5 program to address gerrymandering of high-unemployment areas (which means deliberately manipulating the boundaries of an electoral constituency). Gerrymandering of such areas was typically accomplished by combining a series of census tracts to link a prosperous project location to a distressed community to obtain the qualifying average unemployment rate. As of the effective date of the final rule, DHS will eliminate a state’s ability to designate certain geographic and political subdivisions as high-unemployment areas; instead, DHS would make such designations directly based on revised requirements in the regulation limiting the composition of census tract-based TEAs. These revisions will help ensure TEA designations are done fairly and consistently, and more closely adhere to congressional intent to direct investment to areas most in need. 
  • Clarifying USCIS procedures for removing conditions on permanent residence: The rule revises regulations to make clear that certain derivative family members who are lawful permanent residents must independently file to remove conditions on their permanent residence. The requirement would not apply to those family members who were included in a principal investor’s petition to remove conditions. The rule improves the adjudication process for removing conditions by providing flexibility in interview locations and to adopt the current USCIS process for issuing Green Cards.
  • Allowing EB-5 petitioners to keep their priority date: The final rule also offers greater flexibility to immigrant investors who have a previously approved EB-5 immigrant petition. When they need to file a new EB-5 petition, they generally now will be able to retain the priority date of the previously approved petition, subject to certain exceptions.
For more information on USCIS and our programs, please visit uscis.gov or follow us on Twitter (@uscis), YouTube (/uscis), and Facebook (/uscis) and Instagram (/uscis)

Veteran Climbs Flag Pole to Secure Loose American Flag

A veteran in Virginia Beach, Virginia, took it upon himself to climb a flag pole at a Navy SEAL monument to secure an American flag that had broken loose on Thursday.

Dom Raso, who is a former Navy SEAL, said he had just finished his morning run when he saw that the flag flying at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront Navy SEAL monument was out of place.

“Flag needed to be fixed at the Navy SEAL monument this morning,” he wrote in a Facebook post. “After a 3.5 mile run and smoked from the previous attempts, This was my 4th attempt at trying to get up and fix the flag.”

“I couldn’t go by this flag this morning and not give it everything I had,” Raso wrote on Instagram. “The gold stars on this monument and the sacrifice that has been made for us all was something I wasn’t just going to pass by. This flag pole climb reminded me about EVERYTHING in life.”

Check it out here

Wife of Chantilly man killed by Maryland homeowner says it was a 'horrible mistake'

CHANTILLY, Va. — "It was a horrible, horrible mistake," said Joanne Espinosa, the wife of "Gary" Gerardo Alberto Espinosa, 46, of Chantilly, who was shot and killed by a homeowner in Woodbine, Maryland early Monday morning.

"Gary is the best husband, father. Wonderful person. Not violent," she said. She believes her husband went to the wrong house and thought it was their friend's house he was trying to enter.

Charles Dorsey, 56, shot and killed Espinosa as he was trying to get inside Dorsey's home, according to Howard County Police. No charges have been filed at this time, but the incident is under investigation.

Joanne Espinosa said she and her husband had gone to visit good friends who had recently moved to Maryland and were having a pool party. They planned to spend the night. She said she went to bed around midnight while her husband stayed up with two of the men.

The shooting happened around 1:00 a.m. Joanne said she did not know her husband had been killed until 7:30 when she woke up. She said she went outside and found police officers who showed her a picture of her husband taken from a doorbell video and asked if that was her husband.

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Cardin: Release Asylum Seekers in 1-2 Days

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) was among a group of Democrats who visited the Southwest border on Friday, and he said he was "disappointed" with what he saw.

"These are families that are very desperate," Cardin told "Sunday Morning Futures" with Maria Bartiromo.

"They are escaping danger in their host countries. In many cases, they were young children whose parents are concerned of their children's safety.

"So, what we saw were families that are desperate, that are trying to find a better life for themselves. And we saw people who just want to get on with their lives. It takes less than a day for the immigration people to process, from the point of view to make sure they are who they say they are, that they haven't violated laws.

"They should be released at that point, pending their asylum hearings. And that is not happening."

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Arizona Dem Kyrsten Sinema joins GOP in push for program that would quickly deport migrants without valid asylum claims

Freshman Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., was one of a number of Democrats to join Republican colleagues this week who called for the implementation of a pilot program that would work to quickly identify and deport migrants at the border who are judged not to have a valid asylum claim.

Sinema, along with Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Doug Jones, D-Ala., joined Republicans in writing to President Trump urging the implementation of Operation Safe Return -- a Department of Homeland Security pilot program that that would focus on quickly identifying, processing and returning family units who do not have valid asylum claims in the U.S.

“Through this program, we expect that we can meet our commitments to humanitarian protections while ensuring proper efficiency, timeliness, order, and fairness in the credible fear screening process,” the letter said. “We also expect that Operation Safe Return will help us examine current process deficiencies, identify required increases in capacity, and understand the drivers of migration.”

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https://www.foxnews.com/politics/sinema-program-remove-migrants-asylum

Lamborn Blasts Colorado State University for Declaring Word ‘America’ Offensive

Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO) hit back hard against Colorado State University’s claim that the words “America” and “American” are offensive.

Breitbart News reported last week that officials at the public Colorado State University were telling students that the words “America” and “American” were offensive. The university’s “Inclusive Language Guide” argues that the words erase other cultures and depicts the United States as the dominant American country.”

The “Inclusive Language Guide” also asks students to avoid the label “straight” as a synonym for heterosexual because it allegedly implies that those who are not straight are “not normal” or “crooked.”

Colorado Congressman Doug Lamborn blasted Colorado State University in a tweet week, arguing that all Americans should be comfortable expressing pride in their country.

More here

Trump's Leaner White House 2019 Payroll Has Already Saved Taxpayers $20 Million

President Donald Trump’s White House payroll has 418 employees, that's 36 fewer staffers than Barack Obama at the same point in their presidencies.

There was 26-percent turnover in the key, top-paid “assistants to the president” from last year. Across the entire staff, there was 36-percent turn-over, as of June 30, 2019.

During the president’s first three-years, Trump spent $19.8 million less on White House payroll costs than Obama, adjusted for inflation.

Comparing First Lady staff headcount: Melania Trump (12 staffers) versus Michelle Obama (24 staffers).

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WCSAO: Darrell Mainor Convicted Of Home Invasion, Sentenced To Forty Years


Georgia state Rep. Erica Thomas wants man arrested over alleged racist confrontation

Georgia state Rep. Erica Thomas said she wants police to charge the man who she claims told her to "go back to where you came from."

Thomas told WSB-TV about her demand that Eric Sparkes be charged after a press conference in which she said she was "not backtracking" her initial claim.

The Georgia Democrat originally claimed Friday that Sparkes had confronted her in a Publix grocery store checkout line and told her to "go back to where you came from."

Thomas appeared initially to backtrack the claim on Saturday, saying in an interview: "I don't know if he said 'go back,' or those types of words ... I don't know if he said 'go back to your country' or 'go back to where you came from,' but he was making those types of references is what I remember."

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Political Funnies






Tuesday Morning Funnies







Omar Has Another Far-Fetched Opinion About Trump's Take On Minorities And Muslims

President Donald Trump has had an ongoing feud with members of "The Squad," made up for Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rashida Tlabid (D-MI) and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA). On Friday evening, Omar, once again, responded to President Trump's claim that if "The Squad" doesn't like living in America, they are more than welcome to leave.

Omar interpreted that as Trump wanting every black and brown person in America to be deported and for Muslims to be banned.

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