53percenter's Blog

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) said in a statement on Saturday that President Donald Trump “captured the moral high ground” in his speech proposing a compromise between Republicans and Democrats on the border wall fight.

During a speech on Saturday, President Trump proposed a border security solution that provides $5.7 billion in funding for his proposed border wall, gives more resources to Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officers, while providing a three-year amnesty to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) illegal aliens.

Sen. Cramer, a freshman Republican senator who championed Trump’s America First agenda during the 2018 midterms, cheered the president’s proposal, charging it gave him moral leadership on the issue.

Cramer tweeted on Saturday, “@POTUS has captured moral high ground, and @SpeakerPelosi is an incompetent liberal if she doesn’t join him. #EndTheShutdown #BuildTheWall.”

.@POTUS has captured moral high ground, and @SpeakerPelosi is an incompetent liberal if she doesn’t join him. #EndTheShutdown #BuildTheWall https://t.co/9qjOmdqusc

— Sen. Kevin Cramer (@SenKevinCramer) January 19, 2019

During the speech, Trump announced the that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) will bring the announced deal before the Senate this upcoming week.

McConnell said in a statement on Saturday:

This bill takes a bipartisan approach to re-opening the closed portions of the federal government. It pairs the border security investment that our nation needs with additional immigration measures that both Democrat and Republican members of Congress believe are necessary. Unlike the bills that have come from the House over the past few weeks, this proposal could actually resolve this impasse. It has the full support of the President and could be signed into law to quickly reopen the government.

Sen. Marxha Blackburn, another conservative freshman GOP senator, said that we must deliver for the American people by securing the southern border.

“The president has once again shown he is willing to work with Democrats to end this shutdown and find a compromise that will secure our border,” said Blackburn. “This proposal that has bipartisan support would provide the much-needed $5.7 billion for a border barrier.”

“The border patrol agents have repeatedly asked for three items: a physical barrier, more technology, and more agents and officers. As members of Congress, we must deliver for them,” Blackburn added.

The federal government shutdown has presented a unique opportunity for President Donald Trump to clear out the deadwood in the federal bureaucracy, saving U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars in salaries, perks, and rented office space for people who aren’t doing anything productive.

At the same time, Trump can get rid of dozens, possibly even hundreds of Deep State operatives in the government, handpicked by Barack Obama and Bill Clinton for their loyalty to the Democratic Party, not their country or the law.

These people leak like a screen door in a submarine, mainly to CNN and MSNBC, the twin headquarters of Trump-hatred on cable TV.  Peter Strzok and Lisa Page were choreographing their leaks to the media via text messages.  Even though Strzok was fired and Page resigned, it’s clear there are many others.  They actively resist Trump and the Republicans at every opportunity.  This is the core of the Resistance.

A high-ranking Trump administration official wrote four days ago in the Daily Caller that the shutdown enables Trump to get rid of people like this.  As members of the Senior Executive Service, many of them can’t be fired unless they’re convicted of a felony, or of committing some flagrant misconduct.

This is indeed Trump’s chance to “smoke out the Resistance,” but he must do it carefully.  Thomas Lifson has published two columns in the American Thinker, here and here, explaining that SES employees cannot be furloughed (laid off) under normal circumstances, but they can be removed during a Reduction in Force (RIF) when their positions are found to be unnecessary.

In the D.C. article, our unnamed administration official explains that roughly 80% of the federal work force in many departments, including his own, simply don’t do anything.  They plan shopping trips and vacations.  They send out résumés for better-paying positions, perhaps without realizing that any new employer might expect them to actually get some work done.

My experience in employment law teaches me that all federal employees are working under some kind of written contract, whether it’s a collectively bargained contract with a union or an individual employment contract.  As of today (January 18), the shutdown is in its 28th day.  At 30 days, even SES executives loyal to the Democratic Party become vulnerable to the RIF monster.

Lifson believes, and I also suspect, that Trump suckered the Democrats into a battle royale over the southern border wall Trump has proposed.  By refraining from declaring a national emergency and then building the wall (with Department of Defense funds saved from the withdrawal from Syria), Trump can simply bypass Congress.  He can order the Army Corps of Engineers to build it.

I believe that by making that threat and repeating it, but not following through on it, Trump has created a lingering atmosphere in which Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer feel compelled to stop him at any cost.  In political terms, they’re willing to die on this hill.

Immigrants, when they gain the right to vote for the first time, almost always vote for Democrats.  A recent Yale-MIT study reveals that the actual number of illegal aliens in the U.S. is 22 million, which is roughly the populations of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland combined.  The largest landslide in U.S. presidential history (Reagan vs. Dukakis Mondale, 1980) was 17 million.  And the Democrats want all 22 million to have amnesty, citizenship, and voting rights as quickly as possible.

So Chuckie and Nancy want no wall.  They want no ICE.  They may not have openly expressed the latter sentiment, but several prominent younger voices in their party have done so clearly.

The longer-term goal of a vastly larger, mostly Latino U.S. voting population would be an enormous gain for the Democratic Party, but Trump may bait them into losing their Deep State network of loyal Democratic Party operatives in the bureaucracy.

As Lifson explains, and Michael Roberts explains at The Balance Careers here, on Day 30 of the shutdown, a clause is triggered in these federal employment contracts that enables RIF.  The Office of Personnel Management oversees the RIF process.

A downsizing plan must be presented to OMB on Day 31.  Trump’s team needs to act fast.  The plan must include all of the people who just sit around texting each other about their next leak to MSNBC, or planning their next protest march in a pink hat.  It will take another 30 days to implement the plan.  Roughly 800,000 federal employees could be permanently removed under this plan, with an annual savings of roughly $80 billion in salaries alone.  Including the pensions; the government vehicles; and the rented office space, furniture, and equipment, it could be $150 billion.

In particular, removing the SES employees and their hefty salaries represents a huge savings.  After the massive RIF, Trump could go ahead with Plan B, declare an emergency, and send that order to the Corps of Engineers.  The Democratic Party will be faced with a Hobson’s choice: lose the Latino vote, or lose the Deep State.  I suspect that when presented with this possibility, Chuckie and Nancy will immediately cave in (they aren’t that stupid).

At that point, Trump should raise the stakes.  ”Approve all of my judicial nominees immediately, or the shutdown continues, and the RIF takes effect.  Then I declare an emergency, and I get my border wall anyway.”

Since the Latino vote isn’t a sure thing, they’ll choose to keep the Deep State, and they’ll cave in.  The Latino population will gradually go from mostly pro-Democrat to independent, or even Republican, as so many Latinos in the Rio Grande Valley have done.  Most people outside Texas don’t know this, but Governor Greg Abbott (R-Texas) won with a plurality of the Latino vote – and a slender majority (50%-49%) of Latino males.  If we can duplicate that in the rest of the country, the Democratic Party is finished.

We didn’t hire Trump to go to church with us.  We hired him to clean house.  This is the best chance to get it done.

The federal government shutdown has presented a unique opportunity for President Donald Trump to clear out the deadwood in the federal bureaucracy, saving U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars in salaries, perks, and rented office space for people who aren’t doing anything productive.

At the same time, Trump can get rid of dozens, possibly even hundreds of Deep State operatives in the government, handpicked by Barack Obama and Bill Clinton for their loyalty to the Democratic Party, not their country or the law.

These people leak like a screen door in a submarine, mainly to CNN and MSNBC, the twin headquarters of Trump-hatred on cable TV.  Peter Strzok and Lisa Page were choreographing their leaks to the media via text messages.  Even though Strzok was fired and Page resigned, it’s clear there are many others.  They actively resist Trump and the Republicans at every opportunity.  This is the core of the Resistance.

A high-ranking Trump administration official wrote four days ago in the Daily Caller that the shutdown enables Trump to get rid of people like this.  As members of the Senior Executive Service, many of them can’t be fired unless they’re convicted of a felony, or of committing some flagrant misconduct.

This is indeed Trump’s chance to “smoke out the Resistance,” but he must do it carefully.  Thomas Lifson has published two columns in the American Thinker, here and here, explaining that SES employees cannot be furloughed (laid off) under normal circumstances, but they can be removed during a Reduction in Force (RIF) when their positions are found to be unnecessary.

In the D.C. article, our unnamed administration official explains that roughly 80% of the federal work force in many departments, including his own, simply don’t do anything.  They plan shopping trips and vacations.  They send out résumés for better-paying positions, perhaps without realizing that any new employer might expect them to actually get some work done.

My experience in employment law teaches me that all federal employees are working under some kind of written contract, whether it’s a collectively bargained contract with a union or an individual employment contract.  As of today (January 18), the shutdown is in its 28th day.  At 30 days, even SES executives loyal to the Democratic Party become vulnerable to the RIF monster.

Lifson believes, and I also suspect, that Trump suckered the Democrats into a battle royale over the southern border wall Trump has proposed.  By refraining from declaring a national emergency and then building the wall (with Department of Defense funds saved from the withdrawal from Syria), Trump can simply bypass Congress.  He can order the Army Corps of Engineers to build it.

I believe that by making that threat and repeating it, but not following through on it, Trump has created a lingering atmosphere in which Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer feel compelled to stop him at any cost.  In political terms, they’re willing to die on this hill.

Immigrants, when they gain the right to vote for the first time, almost always vote for Democrats.  A recent Yale-MIT study reveals that the actual number of illegal aliens in the U.S. is 22 million, which is roughly the populations of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland combined.  The largest landslide in U.S. presidential history (Reagan vs. Dukakis Mondale, 1980) was 17 million.  And the Democrats want all 22 million to have amnesty, citizenship, and voting rights as quickly as possible.

So Chuckie and Nancy want no wall.  They want no ICE.  They may not have openly expressed the latter sentiment, but several prominent younger voices in their party have done so clearly.

The longer-term goal of a vastly larger, mostly Latino U.S. voting population would be an enormous gain for the Democratic Party, but Trump may bait them into losing their Deep State network of loyal Democratic Party operatives in the bureaucracy.

As Lifson explains, and Michael Roberts explains at The Balance Careers here, on Day 30 of the shutdown, a clause is triggered in these federal employment contracts that enables RIF.  The Office of Personnel Management oversees the RIF process.

A downsizing plan must be presented to OMB on Day 31.  Trump’s team needs to act fast.  The plan must include all of the people who just sit around texting each other about their next leak to MSNBC, or planning their next protest march in a pink hat.  It will take another 30 days to implement the plan.  Roughly 800,000 federal employees could be permanently removed under this plan, with an annual savings of roughly $80 billion in salaries alone.  Including the pensions; the government vehicles; and the rented office space, furniture, and equipment, it could be $150 billion.

In particular, removing the SES employees and their hefty salaries represents a huge savings.  After the massive RIF, Trump could go ahead with Plan B, declare an emergency, and send that order to the Corps of Engineers.  The Democratic Party will be faced with a Hobson’s choice: lose the Latino vote, or lose the Deep State.  I suspect that when presented with this possibility, Chuckie and Nancy will immediately cave in (they aren’t that stupid).

At that point, Trump should raise the stakes.  ”Approve all of my judicial nominees immediately, or the shutdown continues, and the RIF takes effect.  Then I declare an emergency, and I get my border wall anyway.”

Since the Latino vote isn’t a sure thing, they’ll choose to keep the Deep State, and they’ll cave in.  The Latino population will gradually go from mostly pro-Democrat to independent, or even Republican, as so many Latinos in the Rio Grande Valley have done.  Most people outside Texas don’t know this, but Governor Greg Abbott (R-Texas) won with a plurality of the Latino vote – and a slender majority (50%-49%) of Latino males.  If we can duplicate that in the rest of the country, the Democratic Party is finished.

We didn’t hire Trump to go to church with us.  We hired him to clean house.  This is the best chance to get it done.

(CNSNews.com) — At the 46th annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. on Friday, Jan. 18, Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) announced he had formed the first pro-life caucus in U.S. Senate history.

“I’m very proud to announce that I have founded the first ever pro-life caucus in the United States Senate,” Daines said, to loud cheers from the crowds gathered on the National Mall.

“This pro-life caucus, and our new expanded pro-life majority – thank God in November we sent more pro-life senators to the United States Senate – and that’s thanks to you – that will allow us to accelerate the momentum of the past two years in protecting and defending life,” he said.

Sen. Daines’s announcement came just minutes after President Donald Trump announced his intention to veto any legislation that attempted to weaken pro-life protections.

Sen. Daines joined tens of thousands of Americans who were gathered in the nation’s capital to peacefully protest legalized abortion. On Jan. 22, 1973, the Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade legalized abortion across-the-board throughout the United States.

Each year since 1974 Americans have gathered on the steps of the Supreme Court to support life. This year, the official theme of the March for Life is “Unique from Day One: Pro-Life is Pro-Science.”

The congressman also reaffirmed his belief in the science behind the pro-life movement.

“I’m the only chemical engineer in Congress, and if you want to have a debate on the science, I’m ready to have it,” Sen. Daines said. “The science is clear. Life begins at conception. And because of that, every life must be valued, and every life must be protected.”

The nauseatingly controversial Bob Costas, an eight-time National Sportscaster of the Year award winner, is leaving NBC. The New York Post’s Andrew Marchand reports it is difficult for Costas and the network to find projects he feels passionate about and which fit into NBC’s current properties. No wonder. Costas has, over his four decades with the network, demonstrated his passion is political lecture. He’s worn out his welcome among sport fans who tune into sports broadcasts for sports and prefer that politics be left to the newscasters.

We may not have seen the last of Costas yet, but here’s a review of his most disgusting political lectures and controversies.

Costas Wins Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism (awarded by the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University)

You don’t win this award for objective reporting. It’s a who’s who award that goes to the left-stream media’s heaviest hitters, including: Anderson Cooper, Gwen Ifill, Scott Pelley, Bob Schieffer, Christiane Amanpour, Diane Sawyer, Brian Williams, Tom Brokaw, Helen Thomas, Al Michaels and Ben Bradlee, among others.

Sunday Night Football and Gun Control

During NBC’s Sunday Night Football halftime show December 2, 2012, Costas advocated for gun control. He raised the topic because Jovan Belcher, a linebacker for Kansas City, had shot and killed his girlfriend, Kasandra Perkins, then drove to the Chiefs’ practice facility and fatally shot himself. Costas said it was likely that neither would have died if he didn’t have a gun.

Among the critics were Lou Dobbs, then Republican presidential candidates Herman Cain and Mike Huckabee and others. Washington Post reporter Erik Wemple defended Costas for taking advantage of the opportunity to speak on the issue. In the following week, Costas went on MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence Donnell (see photo of Costas above) and denied he was advocating for repeal of the Second Amendment or gun control. But his denial of the obvious was befitting of former President Bill Clinton’s famous word parsing:

“What I was talking about here, and I’m sorry if that wasn’t clear to everyone, was a gun culture. I never mentioned the second amendment, I never used the words ‘gun control’. People inferred that.

“Now, do I believe that we need more comprehensive and more sensible gun control legislation? Yes I do. That doesn’t mean repeal the second amendment. That doesn’t mean a prohibition on someone having a gun to protect their home and their family. It means sensible and more comprehensive gun control legislation. But even if you had that, you would still have the problem of what Jason Whitlock wrote about, and what I agree with. And that is a gun culture in this country.”

George W. Bush’s “Failed Presidency”

On his May 26, 2007 radio program, Costas said the course of the Iraq War and President George W. Bush’s other mis-steps led him to conclude Bush’s presidency had “tragically failed.” Even if you’re a conservative Republican and you’re honest about it, you have to conclude this is a failed administration, he said.

Winning GLAAD’s Gold Medal Award For Condemning Russia’s ‘Homophobic’ Winter Olympic Games

The 2014 Winter Olympics took place in Sochi, Russia, which Costas and Vladimir Pozner deemed the homophobic games because of the host nation’s “anti-LGBT” stance. Their commentary earned them the Gold Medal awarded by GLAAD, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

Ross Murray, senior director of the GLAAD Media Institute, wrote that “Costas didn’t waste any time, opening NBC’s Olympic coverage of the games by mentioning Russia’s anti-LGBT and human rights violations. Hopefully other sports commentators will follow his lead.” Here’s a transcript of their discussion:

Costas: “What is the likely practical effect, if any, on athletes and visitors, of the anti-gay propaganda law?

Pozner: I think zero. No effect at all. I don’t see anything happening. In fact, I think that they, the powers that be, are going to be super careful to see that nothing happens to any gay athletes or guests during the Olympics.

Costas: What about gay Russians and their supporters after the Olympics pack up and leave?

Pozner: Gay Russians have a very tough time. I’ve known some who have been on the brink of suicide. Others who want to leave the country. This is a homophobic country. I would guess that 85% of the population is really, really anti-gay. I mean, it can be physical. They are in a very difficult situation. And the law that was passed, although it is a law to protect minors from gay propaganda, in fact, plays into the whole homophobic mentality.

Football Critic

By expressing skepticism about the future of football, Costas did nothing to endear himself to the NFL and pro football fans. He also turned off fans by opposing the Redskins’ nickname and by supporting the NFL players who kneeled during the national anthem. Newsbusters’ Curtis Houck posted this highly objectionable Costas quote in 2017:

“Now, if you want to make the point that the National Anthem is about something more than the nation’s flaws and shortcomings, it’s also about its ideals and that people can see some texture to what the National Anthem means, and you might prefer that people protest or make their point outside of the National Anthem, that’s something that can be argued. But the idea this doesn’t have something to do with race is preposterous.”

It was all in 40 years’ work on NBC since Costas started there in 1979. As Newsbusters’ Matt Philbin wrote last August, with Costas gone NBC is about to become “a lot more watchable” because the network “seems to have caught on: people don’t tune in to a football game to receive political lectures.”