Trump Tweet:
Congress must get together and immediately eliminate the loopholes at the Border! If no action, Border, or large sections of Border, will close. This is a National Emergency!
Donald Trump Defends Border Closure Option: Security ‘More Important’ than Trade
breitbart ^ | CHARLIE SPIERING
Posted on 4/2/2019, 6:38:20 PM by davikkm
President Donald Trump on Tuesday acknowledged that closing the Southern border would negatively affect trade but said he is willing to do it anyway for security reasons. “Sure, it’s going to have a negative effect on the economy… but to me, trading is very important, the borders are very important, but security is what is most important,” he told reporters at the White House. “Let me just give you a little secret. Security is more important to me than trade. So we’re going to have a strong border or we’re going to have a closed border.”
The president commented on the possible action during a White House meeting with the Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg of NATO.
Trump urged Democrats to negotiate a deal to help fix the crisis on the border and demanded Mexico do more to stop migrants from approaching the United States border.
But he also demonstrated his willingness to close the border or large sections of the border, noting that there are many people urging him to do so.
“I’m totally prepared to do it,” Trump said. “We’re going to see what happens in the next few days.”
He berated Democrats for ignoring the crisis, calling the current system the “worst, dumbest immigration system in the world.”
“The system is absolutely maxed out,” Trump said.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Hooray! Senate Republicans Finally Go Nuclear!
Senate Republicans used the “nuclear option” Wednesday to unilaterally reduce debate time on most presidential nominees, the latest in a series of changes to the fabric of the Senate to dilute the power of the minority. The move by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) immediately paves the way for quicker confirmation of President Donald Trump’s judicial and executive branch picks and comes amid deep GOP frustration with Democratic delays. Future presidents will benefit too, though McConnell and Trump stand to gain inordinately as they seek to fill 130 District Court vacancies over the next 18 months before the 2020 election.
Schumer asserted that he was "so sorry that my Republican colleagues have gone along with Sen. McConnell's debasement of the Senate." The New York Democrat called the change "disgraceful" and said it was a "sad day in the Senate's history.”
McConnell absorbed the criticism, cracking a smile at times as Schumer castigated him. Then he stood up and said Schumer was responsible for the quagmire, having launched filibusters of President George W. Bush's nominees.
"He started this whole thing," McConnell said, pointing at Schumer. "This is not a sad day. This is a glad day.”
Republicans first sought to cut debate time on executive nominees, with the Senate voting 51-48 to overrule existing precedent. It then did the same to judicial nominees a couple hours later with another 51-48 vote.
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/03/senate-republicans-trigger-nuclear-option-to-speed-trump-nominees-1253118
Trump reshapes long-liberal 9th Circuit, as Republican-appointed judges gain seats on court
Foxnews.com ^ | Greg Re
Posted on 4/2/2019, 5:10:07 PM by cotton1706
For the first time in more than three decades, Republican-appointed judges will soon occupy nearly half the seats on the left-leaning 9th Circuit Court of Appeals -- dealing a setback to progressive legal advocates who have long seen the court as a safe bet for favorable rulings.
The radical transformation of the San Francisco-based court is largely the result of President Trump's aggressive push to nominate conservative judges and bypass traditional consultations with Senate Democrats -- a practice that has led to repeated howls of protest from California's two Democratic senators, Kamala Harris and Judiciary Committee ranking member Dianne Feinstein. The 9th Circuit has a sprawling purview over cases arising in nine western states, including California, Hawaii, and Oregon.
Once Trump's latest picks to the 9th Circuit, including Ken Lee and Dan Collins, are confirmed as expected and remaining vacancies are filled, 13 of the 29 active seats on the key appellate court will be filled with judges picked by Republican presidents. At this time last year, 16 judges on the 9th Circuit were appointed by Democrats, with only six chosen by Republicans.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
International Organizations Can Now Be Sued! It's Constitutional!
Hello Soros! : )
The info is one month old, but not seen anywhere else. This judgement can have far-reaching consequences. This development is very positive!
https://www.ciel.org/news/supreme-court-rules-world-bank-group-immunity-jam-v-ifc/Brett Kavanaugh also kept out of it, so Trump can't be blamed. There seems to have been a change of heart in the Supreme Court:
https://voat.co/v/GreatAwakening/3134662
Supreme Court Rules that World Bank Group Can Be Sued in US Courts In Historic Decision
In a historic decision, today the United States Supreme Court decided 7-1 to overturn the International Finance Corporation (IFC)’s claim to absolute immunity from lawsuits. Under the Jam v. IFC decision, international organizations like the IFC and the World Bank can now be sued in US courts, including in relation to their commercial activities.
Previously, international organizations like the World Bank Group and its private lending arm, the IFC, had enjoyed absolute immunity, meaning that they could not be sued in US courts under any circumstances. Foreign governments have only limited immunity in the US, so today’s decision aligns international organizations’ immunity with that of foreign governments.
“For far too long, the World Bank Group has considered itself exempt from any form of litigation,” says Carla García Zendejas, Senior Attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), which submitted an amicus brief to the Supreme Court opposing absolute immunity. “Today’s decision is a win for communities everywhere who face tremendous obstacles seeking accountability for development projects that harm their environment, livelihoods, and rights.”
https://www.ciel.org/news/supreme-court-rules-world-bank-group-immunity-jam-v-ifc/
Gun rights are under an all out assault in Oregon.
The state senate judiciary committee, chaired by rabid anti-Constitutional rights hoplophobe Floyd Prozanski, who once fantasized about murdering someone with his own gun, took the seemingly innocuous one-page Senate Bill 978 and added 44 pages of amendments last week, then scheduled a public hearing on it. This is the old “gun and stuff” ploy.
SB 978 has it’s first “amendment”. It’s 44 pages long and turns the bill into a nightmare anti gun bill. We told you about SB 978 yesterday and assured you that this harmless looking bill was going to be gut and stuffed with draconian anti-gun language, and it has. Here is a link to the “Dash 1″ amendment to the bill. And of course we use the word amendment quite loosely. The “amendment” is 44 pages long. The “bill” was a few paragraphs. After our first review of the bill here are the elements we noticed immediately. No doubt we missed a few. If this “amendment” is adopted, the bill will: Allow gun stores to refuse to sell firearms and ammunition to young adults (As Bi-mart, Walmart and Fred Meyers have done in violation of the law.) Exonerate gun dealers who violated our anti-discrimination laws, even if they did it before this bill was passed. (Get out of jail free card for corporations that broke the law.) Require that your self defense firearms be locked up. Under this bill you can be prosecuted even if you did lock up your guns with a cable lock if someone has “access” to a device to defeat the lock. Which of course, is anyone who has access to almost any tool. Hold gun owners responsible for two years for guns they “transferred” unless they could prove the transferred gun had a trigger or cable lock. (This is one of the most inane ideas we have ever seen.) Hold gun owners responsible for crimes committed with guns that were stolen from them. Treat “80 % lowers” as complete guns requiring background checks and registration. If the lower is transferred and has no serial number, the police need a “detailed description: or the lower. Ban “undetectable firearms.” Ban “untraceable firearms” Increase CHL fees. Allows cities, counties, metropolitan service districts, airports, schools, colleges and universities to ban CHL holders from “public buildings.” Please note. The bill does NOT say buildings owned by those entities. It says “public buildings.” Under this bill a school in John Day could forbid you from carrying your firearm in a public building in Troutdale. Ban CHL holders from airports. No, not just the terminal. But the parking lots and grounds “adjacent” to parking lots. Picking up your spouse at the airport? Go to jail. This “amendment” is insane. If you can come to the capitol on April 2nd to testify against this please come. The sideshow hearing starts at 8am with sign ups to testify starting at 7.30 am in room 50 in the Capitol basement. If you cannot be there in person please upload testimony to sjud.exhibits@oregonlegislature.gov You can contact the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee here. The Senators who support your rights on that committee are: Kim Thatcher, Cliff Bentz and Dennis Linthicum. The rest are opposed to your rights. The person allowing this outrage to go on is Senate President Peter Courtney. You can, and should, contact him here. This is not the end of it. Floyd Prozanski is planning another anti-gun bill to be heard on April 8th where, no doubt he plans to take away whatever he missed on this bill. It’s essential that you get involved. NOW.
According to further Oregon Firearms Federation analysis of the bill:
While there are countless terrible provisions to the amended bill, the one that will effect ALL gun owners is the change in the definition of “Public Buildings” and the provision that would allow virtually any public entity to create rules about firearms in “public buildings” . Under the amendments, a school district could create a policy that could make you a felon simply for being NEAR a public building. You don’t even have to be on their property. In essence, it would be almost impossible for you to leave your home with a firearm without the risk of committing a felony.
The part about the cable locks would actually be regulated by the Oregon Health Authority, who couldn’t even get a webpage to work properly.
The Senate Judiciary Committee held the hearing this morning, and it was packed with gun rights supporters. One attendee tells The Gateway Pundit there were 200-300 people who showed up, all lined up at the list opposing the bill. “Penny Okamoto [director of anti gun Ceasefire Oregon] came around the corner and looked at our line of people in opposition to this bill with the most distraught look on her face,” our source tells us. “There was not one person at the ‘for’ table when Penny arrived.”
There were so many up in arms over this proposed legislation that overflow rooms were opened.
Congressional candidate Joey Nations put out this quick video from the event:
Get here!! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 Posted by Joey Nations For Congress on Tuesday, April 2, 2019
According to the official sign up list, which is public record, the anti gun side (in support of the gun control bill) only had three pages of people, while the opposition (pro 2nd Amendment) side had 14 pages, which totaled 188 people. And those are just the people who signed up to testify. There were many people who showed up after the sheets filled up and knew they weren’t going to get a chance to actually speak, so they didn’t even bother putting their names down. In fact, of those 188, an attendee tells there were only about 20-25 who were called up to speak, and even then they were limited to only two minutes.
Three overflow rooms had to be opened, with two of those rooms were filled with pro gun people.
Floyd Prozanski has scheduled a “work session” on the bill for Monday of next week. At the work session, he can choose to amend the bill however he wants, then put it to a vote of the committee. Or not.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/04/hundreds-of-oregon-gun-owners-rally-at-state-capitol-over-dangerous-gun-ban-bill/
SOLAR MINIMUM IS A TERRIBLE TIME TO BLOW UP A SATELLITE:
Note to space powers: If you're going to blow a satellite to bits, solar minimum is a terrible time to do it. India is grappling with this important truth today as debris from their March 27th anti-satellite weapons test spreads through space. As many as 6,500 pieces of the Microsat-R Earth observation satellite are now circling Earth, according to a simulation created by Analytical Graphics Inc.:
During solar minimum--happening now!--Earth's upper atmosphere cools and contracts, sharply reducing aerodynamic drag that causes satellites to decay. Indeed, in 2019 the temperature of the thermosphere is close to a Space Age record low. This could double or triple the time required for fragments of the shattered satellite to sink into the atmosphere and disintegrate. Small fragments in high orbits may remain aloft for years, circling the planet like tiny bullets traveling 17,000 mph.
This event brings to mind a Chinese ASAT test in 2007, which also occurred near solar minimum and created a significant debris field of more than 35,000 pieces. That test occured at an altitude of 865 km, with particles ultimately spreading between 200 km and 4000 km. At least one Russian satellite was unintentionally damaged by the debris.
India's test at 300 km altitude has created an upward spray of debris that could threaten the International Space Station only 100 km overhead, according to statements made by NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine during an April 1st town hall meeting in Washington DC.
"That is a terrible, terrible thing, to create an event that sends debris in an apogee that goes above the International Space Station," he told NASA employees.
Officials say there are 60 trackable fragments of Microsat-R measuring 10 cm across or larger. Of that total, 24 ended up in orbits with high points, or apogees, above the 400 km altitude of the ISS. Low solar activity, which could last for years as the solar cycle ponderously swings through its minimum phase, will help keep these fragments aloft, prolonging their threat to other satellites.
http://spaceweather.com
For a short and very cool visual simulation see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pzhtc-rFbvM 1:39 seconds in length She won the Minority Race and Sex card Jackpot!
CNN ^ | Mar. 2, 2019
Posted on 4/2/2019, 7:15:18 PM by Rennes Templar
(CNN)Lori Lightfoot has been elected the next mayor of Chicago, according to the Associated Press, becoming the first African-American woman picked to lead the country's third-most populous city.
Lightfoot faced a historic runoff Tuesday against Toni Preckwinkle, who is also an African-American woman. "This may not be the outcome we wanted but while I may be disappointed, I'm not disheartened," Preckwinkle told supporters after she called Lightfoot to congratulate her. Mayor Rahm Emanuel was not in the race, as he was not seeking a third term. Lightfoot, 56, a former assistant US attorney, describes herself as "an out and proud black lesbian." When she is sworn in, she will be the first mayor in the Windy City who identifies as a lesbian.
In the wake of the Laquan McDonald scandal -- in which a white police officer, Jason Van Dyke, shot the black teenager 16 times as he walked away from police -- Lightfoot was appointed by Emanuel to head the newly created police accountability task force.
And more at cnn.com ...