A federal appeals court Friday blocked President Trump’s “remain in Mexico” policy, ruling it went beyond the boundaries of federal law — and eliminating the most important tool Homeland Security used to stem last year’s border surge.
Officially known as the Migrant Protection Protocol, the policy was used to push migrants who showed up at the U.S.-Mexico border back across the boundary, where they were told to wait for their immigration court dates in the U.S.
But the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said federal law doesn’t allow for such a blanket return policy, and upheld a preliminary injunction.
“The court forcefully rejected the Trump administration’s assertion that it could strand asylum seekers in Mexico and subject them to grave danger,” said Judy Rabinovitz, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union who argued the case against the government. “It’s time for the administration to follow the law and stop putting asylum seekers in harm’s way.”
Some store shelves in the UK, Australia, the Czech Republic and South Korea are beginning to empty as coronavirus panic buying increases and people begin to hoard products.
As we previously highlighted, Italy experienced panic buying at some supermarkets in affected regions after hundreds of people were infected with coronavirus in just a few days.
Now similar concerns are leading to empty shelves in other countries around the world.
In the UK, supermarkets in the town of Cheltenham all ran out of antibacterial hand gel.
“Tesco in Tewkesbury Road, Sainsbury’s in Gallagher Retail Park and Morrisons in Up Hatherley have all got empty space where the antibacterial hand gel should be,” reports Gloucestershire Live.
It’s a similar situation in Sydney, Australia, where shelves have been stripped of medicine and toilet paper. Longer lasting food supplies are also running out.
“Customers were greeted with near empty aisles when they arrived at the supermarket giant’s Bondi store in Sydney on Thursday night,” reports the Daily Mail. “The grocery store appeared to be struggling to keep the shelves stocked with paracetamol, toilet paper, tea, milk, pasta, oats and rice crackers.”
Meanwhile, in South Korea, “mass hoarding” of instant noodles led to manufacturer Nongshim’s warehouse sitting empty.
“People nationwide are rushing to buy hand sanitizers, instant noodles and rice amid growing fears that the coronavirus will become a global pandemic and could lead to grocery shortages,” reports the Korea Times.
People in the Czech. Republic are also emptying supermarket shelves over concerns the coronavirus is about to cause shortages. Customers are buying bottled water, cooking oil, flour, meat and canned food.
“We sold a weekly quantity in two days,” said one supermarket spokesperson.
“Rice, pasta, canned food, frozen food, but also all disinfectants, baby food, and drinks are sold out,” reports Prague Morning, adding that the Deputy Mayor of Prague Petr Hlubucek is considering imposing purchasing controls.
Meanwhile, borders across Europe remain completely open even as the virus continues to accelerate towards a potential global pandemic.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Mondayreleaseda fact sheet explaining how he will fund his “major” multitrillion-dollar campaign proposals — the Green New Deal, free college, housing for all, etc. — and revealed that he will pay for them through a combination of cutting military spending, creating new taxes, and enacting penalties on the fossil fuel industry in the form of lawsuits.
While Sanders has released a suite of lofty plans with the promise to improve the lives of middle class and low income Americans, critics have repeatedly asked the socialist senator to explain how his administration will pay for his grandiose proposals.
His campaign released a fact sheet on Monday listing each of his “major plans” and providing a line on how he will make it a reality.
His $16.3 trillion Green New Deal plan, perhaps one of his most prolific proposals, will be paid for, he claims, through a variety of methods including slashes in military spending and lawsuits against the fossil fuel industry.
He is calling to reduce defense spending by $1.215 trillion “by scaling back military operations on protecting the global oil supply.” His campaign claims he will raise $3.085 trillion by “making the fossil fuel industry pay for their pollution, through litigation, fees, and taxes, and eliminating federal fossil fuel subsidies.” He expects to garner another $6.4 trillion “from the wholesale of energy produced by the regional Power Marketing Administrations.”
“This revenue will be collected from 2023-2035, and after 2035 electricity will be virtually free, aside from operations and maintenance costs,” his website states.
Sanders also claims his Green New Deal plan will create 20 million jobs, which will effectively create a new tax base and eliminate the need for $1.31 trillion in “federal and state safety net spending due to the creation of millions of good-paying, unionized jobs.”
His campaign actually argues that enacting his multitrillion-dollar climate change proposal will save the United States $2.9 trillion in the next decade, $21 trillion over the next 30 years, and $70.4 trillion over the next 80 years.
“If we do not act, the U.S. will lose $34.5 trillion by the end of the century in economic productivity,” he claims.
That is far from Sanders’ only proposal. Offering free college and cancelation of student debt will cost, according to his estimates, $2.2 trillion. Sanders claims the plan is “fully paid” for with a “modest tax on Wall Street speculation,” contending that it will raise more than enough — $2.4 million over the next decade.
Sanders says his $1.5 trillion housing for all plan and $1.5 trillion universal child care/pre-K plan will be paid for with “a wealth tax on the top one-tenth of one percent – those who have a net worth of at least $32 million.” He claims it will raise “a total of $4.35 trillion.”
His other plans rely almost entirely on new taxes on the wealthy. His vow to erase $81 billion past-due medical debt will be “fully paid for by establishing an income inequality tax on large corporations that pay CEOs at least 50 times more than average workers.”Additionally, Social Security expansion will be paid for, he says, with a tax on Americans with incomes over $250,000.
Instead of explicitly stating how Sanders will fund his Medicare for All plan, which some experts say could cost over $60 trillion over the next decade, the fact sheet simply touts a “menu of financing options that would more than pay for the Medicare for All legislation he has introduced,” which includes raising taxes on the middle class.
Per the fact sheet, those options include:
Creating a 4 percent income-based premium paid by employees, exempting the first $29,000 in income for a family of four.
Imposing a 7.5 percent income-based premium paid by employers, exempting the first $1 million in payroll to protect small businesses.
Eliminating health tax expenditures, which would no longer be needed under Medicare for All.
Raising the top marginal income tax rate to 52% on income over $10 million.
Replacing the cap on the state and local tax deduction with an overall dollar cap of $50,000 for a married couple on all itemized deductions.
Taxing capital gains at the same rates as income from wages and cracking down on gaming through derivatives, like-kind exchanges, and the zero tax rate on capital gains passed on through bequests.
Enacting the For the 99.8% Act, which returns the estate tax exemption to the 2009 level of $3.5 million, closes egregious loopholes, and increases rates progressively including by adding a top tax rate of 77% on estate values in excess of $1 billion.
Enacting corporate tax reform including restoring the top federal corporate income tax rate to 35 percent.
Using $350 billion of the amount raised from the tax on extreme wealth to help finance Medicare for All.
The release of the fact sheet follows Sanders growing frustration over the mounting questions over the costs of his massive proposals.
Anderson Cooper grilled Sanders on the costs of his various proposals during the presidential hopeful’s recent sit-down interview with 60 Minutes.
“But you say you don’t know what the total price is, but you know how it’s going to be paid for. How do you know it’s going to be paid for if you don’t know how much the price is?” Cooper asked.
“I can’t rattle off to you every nickel and every dime,” Sanders said. “But we have accounted for — you talked about Medicare for All — we have options out there that will pay for it.”
US Customs and Border Protection agents in South Texas are reportedly being given respirator face masks to deal with Chinese immigrants crossing illegally into the US through Mexico.
The agents, stationed in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley sector, on Tuesday said they’ve encountered 91 immigrants from China since start of 2020, according to Center for Immigration Studies fellow and counter-terrorism expert Todd Bensman.
Fortunately, none of the Chinese immigrants have tested positive for the Coronavirus currently wreaking havoc in China and other parts of the world.
From Bensman:
Border Patrol source: 91 Chinese migrants apprehended at Texas Rio Grande sector since Jan. 1. They are being isolated and screened for virus. Agents given respirators to deal. No virus detected as of today. Lots of Chinese still coming over there and elsewhere.
The update from the southern border comes as US health officials on Tuesday warned the virus’ spread to the United States appears inevitable as cases continue to pop up in Asia and the Middle East.
“Ultimately, we expect we will see community spread in the United States,” a top scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday. “It’s not a question of if this will happen but when this will happen and how many people in this country will have severe illnesses.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Democratic socialist from Vermont who is now the frontrunner for the 2020 presidential nomination, released a new plan Monday to give away $1.5 trillion in taxpayer cash.
Under the plan, Sanders plans to provide universal child care and pre-K, spending $1.5 trillion over a decade for the “free” program. All Americans would guaranteed child care through age 3 followed by free pre-kindergarten education.
“As president, we will guarantee free, universal childcare and pre-kindergarten to every child in America to help level the playing field, create new and good jobs, and enable parents to more easily balance the demands of work and home,” Sanders said in a statement.
Sanders says he would fund the program through his “tax on extreme wealth” over $32 million. His campaign claims that tax would bring in some $4.3 trillion over 10 years.
The socialist has a slew of “free” programs that cost trillions. He supports a single-payer “Medicare for All” system, wants to cancel all student debt and make public college free, and raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour. And Sanders advocates providing free breakfast, lunch and dinner to all students, regardless of income level.
“Exact cost projections on all of Sanders’ proposals aren’t available, in part because he hasn’t fully fleshed out some of the ideas he’s embraced (such as universal pre-K and child care),”CNN reported in January.
But a wide variety of estimates put the likely cost of the single-payer health care plan he has endorsed around $30 trillion or more over the next decade. Depending on the estimates used, including projections from his own campaign, the other elements of the Sanders agenda — ranging from his “Green New Deal” to the cancellation of all student debt to a guaranteed federal jobs program that has received almost no scrutiny — could cost about as much, or even more than, the single-payer plan. That would potentially bring his 10-year total for new spending to around $60 trillion, or more. …
“I think if the price tag for the Sanders agenda was [better] known … voters would blanch — even Democratic primary voters would blanch,” said Jim Kessler, executive vice president for policy at Third Way, a centrist Democratic group. “The truth of the matter is in primary elections both in 2016 and so far in this one, he’s allowed to skate. He gets graded on a curve. But if he were the nominee, the curve is over. The Republicans will spend a billion dollars picking apart every one of his plans.” …
The sheer size of Sanders’ spending agenda dwarfs the proposed tax increases he has offered to pay for it, economists across the ideological spectrum agree. Brian Riedl, a former Senate Republican budget aide who’s now a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute, has calculated that at most Sanders’ existing proposals to raise taxes on the wealthy, Wall Street and corporations would raise about $23 trillion over the next decade.
“There is nowhere near enough resources that you can credibly collect to pay for spending of this size [from the rich],” agrees MacGuineas. “When you are talking about a doubling in the size of the government, you are talking about significant tax increases on the middle class.”
In addition, Sanders supports a plan offered by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez she has dubbed the “Green New Deal.” The cost for that program: $93 trillion.
Obama-appointed judge hands down 40-month sentence
2/20/2020
Supporters of Trump confidant Roger Stone criticized the 40-month sentence handed down by Obama-appointed Judge Amy Berman Jackson Thursday.
On Twitter, many pointed to the fact Stone’s sentence was harsh compared to violent criminals, including convicted pedophiles, despite Stone’s alleged offenses being victimless crimes.
Pro-Trump duo Diamond and Silk claimed illegal alien murderers are treated better than Stone.
Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk highlighted the biased forewoman on Stone’s jury, which should have resulted in a mistrial.
Others highlighted Stone’s supposed crimes were minor in comparison to the Deep State’s flagrant coup attempt.
Amid a lengthy statement, Judge Jackson defended the sentence claiming it was in line with the rule of law, and that Stone attempted to protect the president via a “cover-up.”
“He was not prosecuted, as some have complained, for standing up for the president, he was prosecuted for covering up for the president,” Judge Jackson told Stone at a U.S District Court in Washington, D.C.
“The truth still exists, the truth still matters. Roger Stone’s insistence that it doesn’t … are a threat to our most fundamental institutions,” Jackson stated.
“I just want to let the fake news media know… that I’m gonna watch the process, I’m going to watch it very closely, and at some point I’ll make a determination, but Roger Stone and everybody needs to be treated fairly and this has not been a fair process,” the president stated.
Contender Anna Paulina Luna has been exposed as a RINO.
By Shane Trejo
Congressional candidate Anna Paulina Luna is running in Florida’s 13th District as a constitutional, pro-Trump Republican, and she is touting her Latina heritage and military credentials to get the seat.
“Extreme leftists push more government and less freedom, while career politicians — in both parties — are more beholden to special interests than their constituents,” Luna’s campaign wrote. “Anna took an oath to defend our country in the Air Force. She’s now ready to take that oath to Washington.”
Luna, who works as the Chairwoman of Hispanic Initiative at PragerU, has gained endorsements from Congressman Matt Gaetzand Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.
“Anna is a true fighter for our country! We need more like her! Check out her run for Congress, critical to help patriots like her,” Kirk wrote in an announcement earlier this month.
However, video has emerged showing that Luna is a RINO who supported amnesty for illegal aliens before attempting to remake herself as an “America First” Republican.
Media Right News unearthed the video that the Luna campaign has tried to scrub from the internet.
Candidate for Congress running as a Republican in Florida endorsed by @mattgaetz supports making DACA recipients citizens: pic.twitter.com/I40ktWSEz5
The Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC) is calling out Luna as a RINO for her support of amnesty for illegal aliens.
“While Anna Paulina Luna does oppose Obama’s unconstitutional and illegal DACA Amnesty, she supports giving green card or citizenship Amnesty to illegal aliens,” ALIPAC wrote in their press release.
“Most Americans oppose any pathway to citizenship and voting rights for illegal aliens who will vote 90% Democrat in future elections handing full control of the all three branches of the US Government to the left forevermore,” they added.
ALIPAC has chosen to endorse Luna’s competitor, George Buck, who believes he has the right credentials and fundraising prowess to win back the district in November. Buck raised $220,667.38 in the 4th quarter of 2019, according to FEC filings.
“None of the donations were from swamp PACs or lobbyists, they came from average every day Americans and Floridians who want to take this country back,” Buck said.
“I am proud of that and I won’t let my donors and voters down. We are almost at half a million raised and this is the kind of fundraising prowess needed to defeat Turncoat Charlie Crist. Charlie has done nothing while in Congress other than vote to impeach President Trump during the sham witch hunt. I can do better,” he added.
Crist is believed to be vulnerable after voting in favor of the impeachment of President Trump. In addition to Luna and Buck, Amanda Makki, Anna Luna, Sharon Newby, Matt Becker, and Shelia Griffin are also running for the seat.
Biden’s assertion shows the utterly reversed priorities of the globalist ruling class, who fail to understand the concept of national sovereignty in the slightest. In his mind, American nationality is dictated by his own political preferences, without any consideration for American tradition, citizenship, or naturalization laws.
Biden made the striking claim in the midst of an appeal to provide legal status for all of the “DACA students,” as he put them. Not every one of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals is a student, obviously, but that isn’t preventing the septuagenarian former Vice President from framing the issue in the manner most politically convenient to you.
Joe Biden is possibly resorting to dramatic language on immigration as a result of his struggling campaign. The once-frontrunner suffered a dismal fourth place finish in Iowa, and is looking for a win in South Carolina as a possible lifeline to a campaign on life support.
The possibility of calling Americans less American than those who entered the country illegally alienating lawful citizens doesn’t seem to concern him, judging from his Nevada remarks.
DACA is an extralegal amnesty program created by an Obama executive order in 2012. It creates legal residency for a selected population of younger illegal immigrants brought to the United States by their parents as children, essentially providing a back door around the legal residency and citizenship process without congressional approval.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered DACA to be terminated in 2017. Litigation over the amnesty program’s cancellation has continued, and it’s probable that a Supreme Court decision will determine the fate of the executive program in 2020.
Tom's Blog 