We Need a Wall to Secure the Southern Border, But We Do not Need a Wall Around the House of Representatives

THE SHUTDOWN AND THE SOTU ARE HOSTAGES TO THE PROGRESSIVE DRIVE TO DESTROY AMERICA'S CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC. Of course, that's not news. Everything in America has become a hostage to the radical ProgDem agenda to transform America into a socialist 'paradise.' • • • McCONNELL ROLLS THE DICE. TheHill reported Tuesday afternoon that : "Senate leadership on Tuesday struck an agreement to vote on dueling proposals to reopen the federal government. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) set up two votes for Thursday afternoon, both of which will require 60 votes to advance. The first vote will be on President Trump's proposal to reopen the government, provide $5.7 billion in funding for the border wall and extend legal protections to some immigrants for three years. If that fails, the Senate would then vote on a three-week continuing resolution (CR). There is no guarantee that either bill can get the votes to pass and break the months-long stalemate that has closed roughly a quarter of the government. But the deal between McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is the first glimmer of progress after weeks of entrenched back-and-forth." • Senator Schumer thanked Senate Majority Leader McConnell after he set up the votes and pointed to the Democrat proposal as a way out of the funding fight : "We have a Second Amendment that could break us out of the morass we are in....For the first time, we will get a vote on whether to open the government without any decision one way or the other on border security." The Senate passed a CR by a voice vote in late December that would have funded a quarter of the government through February 8, but that bill was rejected by President Trump because it did not include extra wall funding. • MarketWatch reported on Wednesday morning that Senator McConnell is trying "to flip the script in shutdown standoff: By scheduling two votes on Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his fellow Republicans are trying to change the narrative in the ongoing partial government shutdown." MarketWatch says : "The votes look set to allow GOP lawmakers to argue that they are acting to end the shutdown after weeks in which only House Democrats have voted on such measures. The record-busting closure has now lasted 33 days. McConnell set a key vote for Thursday afternoon in the Senate related to President Donald Trump’s offer on Saturday for ending the shutdown, which has been triggered by Trump’s demand of $5.7 billion for his proposed wall at the US-Mexico border. That action then is on track to be followed by a vote on a House bill, supported by Democrats, to open shuttered agencies temporarily without providing wall money." But, as Market Watch points out : "As Republicans hold a slim 53-47 majority, neither bill is expected to achieve the usual 60-vote threshold to advance. The Thursday votes, at least, will give everyone clues as to what Senators are willing to buck their parties, said a McClatchy report." • MarketWatch also gave details of a new bill introduced by Virginia Democrat Senator Mark Warner that is aimed at avoiding shutdowns. Warner's bill is called the Stop STUPIDITY (Shutdowns Transferring Unnecessary Pain and Inflicting Damage In The Coming Years) Act. The Warner bill is similar to a bill introduced in early January by a group of Republican Senators that would create automatic continuing resolutions and automatic spending decreases until a deal is reached, BUT Warner said he aims for “automatically renewing government funding at the same levels as the previous fiscal year, with adjustments for inflation.” • • • WILL MODERATE DEMOCRATS BREAK WITH THE PELOSI-SCHUMER LEADERSHIP? TheHill reported on Tuesday that : "Senate Democrats are showing no signs of division so far....Still, the votes on Thursday could allow Republicans to argue that they are putting up proposals to end the shutdown after weeks in which the only actions to do so have been taken by Democrats in the House. After watching House Democrats pass those bills for more than four weeks, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is eager to flip the script and have Democrats vote “no” on a bill to reopen the government -- a day before federal workers impacted by the funding lapse will miss their second paycheck." • The White House and McConnell hare courting moderate Democrats by adding priorities the Democrat Party backs -- an extension of the Violence Against Women Act and more than $12 billion in disaster relief funding. • TheHill says : "Multiple polls have shown that a majority of respondents are blaming Trump and congressional Republicans for the partial shutdown, which is the longest funding lapse in modern history. In the latest The Hill-HarrisX survey, 46% of registered voters who responded and identify themselves as political independents said that Trump and the congressional GOP are primarily responsible for the government closure, a 7-point jump from a December 30-31 survey." But, it is hard to find Republicans who are breaking with the President, who shows no signs of shifting his strategy in response to polling or grumbling by moderate lawmakers. TheHill says : "The President views the battle with Democrats over the wall as too important to lose and is convinced the 33-day shutdown has helped make his case to the public why a wall is needed to end what he sees as a crisis of illegal immigration and drug smuggling at the US-Mexico border, according to a source who requested anonymity to discuss the White House’s internal thinking." TheHill adds that President Trump is expected to meet this week with a group of conservative leaders to get input on immigration proposals and possibly push toward a broader immigration agreement if the shutdown ends. The source added that Trump does not care about the polls and is feeling no pressure to cave on his demands. • DACA decisions loom large in any shutdown compromise -- IF the Democrats finally agree to come to the table and talk. President Trump is not eliminating the possibility of supporting permanent extensions for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) as part of an immigration deal with Democrats. He tried to end the Obama-era DACA program for young immigrants but was blocked by federal judges from doing so. The Senate immigration deal -- based on the President's TV offer jast Saturday -- contains a temporary extension of the program for existing beneficiaries. TPS benefits migrants from disaster-stricken or conflict-ridden countries but Trump has sought to wind down the program for several nations. The source told TheHill that such a concession would have to be in exchange for the right package of border security measures and changes to immigration law and cautioned that President Trump is unlikely to back anything that does not have a chance to win 60 votes in the Senate, which is controlled by Republicans. • The President praised McConnell on Tuesday and pledged that he will not “cave” to the demand from Democrats to reopen the government and then negotiate. He tweeted : “Never seen [McConnell] and Republicans so united on an issue as they are on the Humanitarian Crisis & Security on our Southern Border!” And, TheHill relates that its source says if the President's offer fails to pass the Senate hurdle on Thursday, the White House is not planning to make a second offer to Democrats, indicating the WH believes it is incumbent upon Democrats to make the next move. • Senate Minority Leader Schumer said on Tuesday that the White House’s proposal is “going nowhere fast,” adding “Everyone knows the President said he would be proud to shut down the government. Everyone knows that he and Leader McConnell are the only obstacles to opening it back up. Across the board, the polling shows it.” • BUT, there are more moderate Democrat voices now being heard. West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin said over the weekend that he was “hopeful” Trump’s plan would “allow us to immediately reopen” the government. A spokesman for the centrist Democrat said Tuesday that he is undecided about how he will vote on the President’s plan. Alabama Democrat Senator Doug Jones also faces intense pressure to back the President as he runs for reelection in a state Trump won by nearly 30 points. Jones said at a town hall in Alabama over the weekend that Trump’s plan was a “hopeful sign” and that he thought he saw “movement” in the funding fight. TheHill also reported that some Democrat House freshmen in a letter to Pelosi and party leaders pressed them to promise a vote on border security measures -- including Trump’s wall -- as a condition of reopening the government. The letter, spearheaded by Representative Elaine Luria of Virginia was first reported by Politico. And on Tuesday, Representative Collin Peterson, a Minnesota Blue Dog, told a local radio station that Democrats should “give Trump the money” he wants for the border, saying the project is ultimately inevitable. “Why are we fighting over this?” he told KFGO. “We’re going to build that wall anyway, at some time.” • • • PELOSI IS KEEPING THE GOVERNMENT SHUT DOWN BUT MODERATE DEMS ARE CHALLENGING HER. Tension between Speaker Pelosi and President Trump escalated on Tuesday when the White House signaled it wants to move forward with a January 29 State of the Union speech even though he doesn’t have approval from Congress -- that is, from Speaker Pelosi to use the House chamber. BuzzFeed wrote about Pelosi on Wednesday, saying that : "Anyone who disliked her before will dislike her more after this shutdown fiasco is over. Centrist Dems who have to worry about those voters are already looking for ways to create a little distance....The group, led by Representative Elaine Luria of Virginia, is asking the California Democrat to offer Trump a vote on his border wall sometime in February if he signs a bill reopening the federal government, according to a draft copy of the letter obtained by POLITICO. In the letter, the centrist Democrats ask Pelosi to allow the appropriate panels to consider Trump’s wall request after the government is open and ask Pelosi to “guarantee” a vote for the funding package on the House floor by the end of February. The lawmakers also say the measure should be open to amendment to allow lawmakers to protect Dreamers and those currently in Temporary Protected Status -- ensuring that Democrats would be able to put their stamp on any immigration and border security measure. • But, that suggestion is not going to appeal to President Trump, who has been "burned" so often by Pleosi and the Democrat Party that he has no reason to put any faith in their "word." • BussFeed says "The point of this offer...is simply to start the wheels turning for some sort of Democratic counteroffer to Trump’s new “BRIDGE Act for wall” proposal. Democrats will vote down a clean bill that would provide money for the wall, of course, but maybe they could cobble something together via the amendment process that would mirror Trump’s offer while upping the ante...a full DREAM amnesty in return for wall funding. To believe that would work, though, you need to believe that (a) Trump would consider “DREAM for wall” knowing how the Coulterites would react and (b) Pelosi and Schumer are merely driving a hard bargain right now in refusing to put up money for the wall. They aren’t. They’re not trying to extract concessions from Trump. They’re not holding out for him to put DREAM on the table or whatever. The entire point of this standoff is to deny him the thing he most wants. An amendment process aimed at forging a Democratic counteroffer to “BRIDGE for wall” completely misses the point. But the centrist Dems floating it know that. This letter they’re preparing isn’t aimed at Pelosi. It’s aimed at their constituents, to show them that they really are trying everything to end the shutdown." • AND, McConnell and White House tweets set up the Thursday confrontation : "Manu Raju @mkraju McConnell is NOT supporting the House bill that the Senate will vote on Thursday to reopen the government until early February, and the WH has indicated Trump will NOT sign it. Several GOP aides say it won’t get 60. Dems have votes to block Trump plan also. Shutdown continues." 22:21 - 22 Jan 2019. • • • SOME WISER HEADS STEP UP. One is Conrad Black, who wrote a "Special to the Sun" article for the New York Sun on Wednesday. Conrad Black says : "The logjam is finally starting to loosen in Washington. Readers may recall that last week I took it upon myself to urge the President to launch a four-pronged attack on the border-security/partial-government-shutdown impasse. I presumed to recommend that he offer the endlessly bandied-about 'comprehensive immigration reform,' which has always meant doing nothing, but make it real this time, including DACA, deportation of serious offenders, and a path to naturalization for established residents with unblemished conduct. I urged that the President declare a national emergency, start building border security, and declare in advance that judgments resulting from Democrats’ forum-shopping among flaky leftist district judges would be ignored until the issue got to the Supremes (presided over by a Chief Justice who claims that all judges lose their political prejudices on arrival on the sacred bench). Plus, I suggested that he also present a measure offering 60% relief to unpaid federal workers, and that he send three brigades of Army troops to the border to back up ICE officials and ensure that the present border is finally leakproof, though with rules of engagement to avoid live fire against illegal migrants." • Black says that President Trump has taken "an important step toward the first of these has been enough to shake up the ghastly Democratic morality play, with its promise that if the President just brings everyone back to work in the federal government, they will sit down with him in a spirit of compromise but will not give more than one dollar for any sort of wall or barrier. This won’t fly. The Democrats seem to have gained about three points in the polls so far, but that is a modest return from the President’s televised utterance that he would be 'proud to own' the shutdown. It isn’t enough to spook the President’s followers in Congress. Now he can apply the pressure. Obviously, the Democratic proposal that if he surrenders and humbly reopens the unpaid sections of government, they will graciously meet with him and waste everyone’s time again, as has happened with administrations and congresses of both parties for 30 years, is nonsense." • Conrad Black sees a path forward for President Trump : "...fairly soon, some sort of special relief to alleviate extreme financial shortages for unpaid federal employees should be provided. The Democrats could not vote against it, and once it was in place, the absurdity of the state of the government would fall entirely on them, shorn of their ability continue their tear-jerking sniveling about the Bob Cratchit desperation of the government workers. Discussions with the serious Democrats will start soon, and the President’s task is to add the ingredients of amelioration of the lot of the unpaid federal employees and increased border security by executive order until the Democratic morality play ends. It will end, either because the audience has effectively mounted the stage in hot pursuit of the actors in this inane farce, or because the discussions will enable the Democrats to take what is on offer and claim victory because they always wanted border security." • Black cites the "supreme insolence of the Democrats -- not just the leadership, but their whole congressional delegation -- that they thought Speaker Pelosi, House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff, and the rest could disinvite the President from the State of the Union address in the Capitol and then embark on a week’s official tourism and nuisance-affliction on the American forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. This was the same contagion of impertinence that caused all 238 Democratic members of the House of Representatives to ignore a presidential invitation to lunch at the White House. The idea that the House speaker imagined that this was the time for her to go on a congressional junket to the Middle East must fill a great many reasonably nonpartisan Americans with the disturbing notion that the unofficial leader of the Democratic party, and second in line after the vice president to be president, is completely foolish and totally unqualified for high national office." • President Trump, says Conrad Black, "...is the President, and a very successful one. Most of his Democratic opponents are harpies, hacks, and borderline subversives. He must win this battle to reestablish a border for the United States, as he has moved to reduce American dependence on foreign oil, eliminate the exploitation of the United States by foreign exporters, reassert nuclear nonproliferation, recalibrate the alliance system, and withdraw from self-punitive climate agreements and overexposed foreign commitments. The American people, not typecasting studios, choose the President of the United States. This President must win this battle with congressional Democrats over the border security of the United States. The implications of a Pelosi-Schumer victory do not bear thinking about." • • • BORDERS AND A SANE IMMIGRATION POLICY ARE VITAL. On Wednesday, American Thinker's Eileen Toplansky wrote a long and instructive article about immigration policy axioms of President Theodore Roosevelt. It is well worth reading and you can access it at < https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/01/teddy_roosevelt_schools_nancy_pelosi_on_being_american.html#ixzz5dRsMxYBt >. • After setting out Teddy Roosevelt's ideas on immigration and patriotism, Toplansky writes : "With European countries bowing to the dictates of Islam and uncontrolled third-world migration, it is instructive that Roosevelt instinctively understood that 'it is precisely along the lines where we have worked most independently that we have accomplished the greatest results; and it is in those professions where there has been no servility to, but merely a wise profiting by foreign experience, that we have produced our greatest men.' Likewise, 'where our people have striven hardest to mold themselves in conventional European forms...they have succeeded least...' So when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pushes for a socialist America, she shows absolutely no understanding of the true American Dream that has brought so many to our shores. Finally, Roosevelt emphatically affirmed that it is critical to the health of the country to Americanize newcomers. 'We must Americanize them in every way, in speech, in political ideas and principles, and in their way of looking at the relations between Church and State.' We have no room for any people who do not act and vote simply as Americans, and as nothing else. Moreover, we have as little use for people who carry religious prejudices into our politics as for those who carry prejudices of caste or nationality. We stand unalterably in favor of the public-school system in its entirety. We believe that English, and no other language, is that in which all the school exercises should be conducted." • Yet, says Toplansky, Theodore Roosevelt he was clear that America is "opposed to any discrimination against or for a man because of his creed. We demand that all citizens, Protestant and Catholic, Jew and Gentile, shall have fair treatment in every way; that all alike shall have their rights guaranteed them." Toplansky then addresses the current Democrats : "It would behoove Nancy Pelosi and her ilk to comprehend that 'the mighty tide of immigration to our shores has brought in its train much of good and much of evil; and whether the good or the evil shall predominate depends mainly on whether these newcomers do or do not throw themselves heartily into our national life, cease to be Europeans, and become Americans like the rest of us.' So instead of insulting Americans with baseless racist charges about 'making America white again,' perhaps Nancy Pelosi should go back to school and learn about the foundation of American greatness." • • • JUDGES WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE, BUT NOT RIGHT NOW. What will happen Thursday as the Senate votes is impossible to predict. Wise heads say neither package will pass. Some see moderate Democrats who fear for their seats voting with the President. Some Democrats actually see the need for a secure border wall, but seem to be afraid to break with their leadership and its death grip on their future re-elections. • Fox News told us on Tuesday evening that the White House announced 51 judicial picks, including two for the liberal 9th Circuit. These conservative -- constitution-based -- judges will finally make a difference. But, that will be long after this 2019 debate on secure borders and border walls vs. open borders and a welcome mat for illegals who become residents of the Democrat Plantation, illegal voting cards and all. And, these nominees will ahve to run the gauntlet of the ProgDem anti-Christian anti-Catholic Democrat Judiciary Committee members like Dianne Feinstein, Mazie Hirono and Kamala Harris. In an Op-Ed this week in the Washington Post entitled "Anti-Catholic bigotry is alive in the US Senate," columnist Michael Gerson wrote that questions like the ones from Harris and Hirono were inappropriate and "scare the hell out of vast sections of the country." The White House and Senate GOP leaders have made appointing conservative judges and justices a key priority. Under the Trump administration, 85 federal judges have been installed, including Associate Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, and 30 appellate judges. Senate Democrats previously eliminated the filibuster for federal judicial nominees below the Supreme Court level during the Obama administration, meaning that each of the 51 nominees needs only a majority vote in the Senate to win confirmation. Once they claimed their current Senate majority, Republicans, in response, eliminated the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees as well. • And, yes, Chief Justice Roberts -- there are Trump judges and Obama judges. They are everywhere -- the most flagrant example, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, sits on your Supreme Court, or mails it in, as she is now too ill to come to Washington BUT will not resign while Donald Trump is President. Marc Thiessen wrote in the Washington Post last November that Americans know this, even if you do not : "The American people know that Roberts is wrong. In the 2016 election, exit polls showed that 70% of voters said Supreme Court appointments were either the most important or an important factor in deciding their vote. And polls show that Republicans expanded their Senate majority in 2018 in large part because conservative voters were angered over the left's brutal campaign of character assassination against Kavanaugh." • President Trump is right, says Theissen : "that the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit is a disgrace. This is the court that ruled that the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance was unconstitutional, that the Second Amendment doesn't recognize an individual right to bear concealed arms and that bans on assisted suicide are unconstitutional. This is why it is so important that Trump has nominated, and the Senate has confirmed, a record number of district and circuit court judges -- and why liberals are aghast at the pace of Trump's judicial confirmations. As former Hillary Clinton advisor Ronald Klain complained, 'Trump's judicial nominees will be deciding the scope of our civil liberties and the shape of civil rights laws in the year 2050 -- and beyond.' Everyone, left and right, knows that Roberts is wrong." • So, while judges in America are independent, they do reflect one of two opinions about the Constitution -- either it is an open-ended document that can be added to by any group that has the Senate muscle ot vote their judge in OR it is a precise document that can not be stretched out of shape to satisfy every 'issue majority' in every generation of American 'issue majorities.' • • • DEAR READERS, Pelosi was at it again on Wednesday, telling President Trump that she will not open the House chamber for his State of the Union message next Tuesday. TheHill reports : "In a letter to Trump, Pelosi said she would not move forward with the legislative steps needed for the address to take place. 'The House of Representatives will not consider a concurrent resolution authorizing the president's State of the Union address in the House chamber until government has opened,' she wrote. By refusing to schedule a vote on the resolution, Pelosi is preventing Congress from meeting in a joint session for the purpose of hearing Trump’s address. The Speaker said she would invite the President to deliver his speech 'on a mutually agreeable date' but only 'when government has been opened.' " • President Trump, in a letter to Pelosi earlier on Wednesday, said he has been assured by national security officials there are “no security concerns regarding the State of the Union address” and “therefore, I will be honoring your invitation. It would be so very sad for our country if the State of the Union were not delivered on time, on schedule, and very importantly, on location!” White House pres secretary Sarah Sanders released the President's letter and it is available at < pic.twitter.com/B4QN9hDJnv >. The White House released Trump’s letter after a top Democrat said earlier Wednesday that it was all but certain party leaders would prevent Trump from delivering his address next week if the government remains partially closed. Representative Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), the head of the House Democratic Caucus, told reporters in the Capitol : “I can say that unless the government is reopened, it’s highly unlikely that the State of the Union is going to take place on the floor of the United States House of Representatives.” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Wednesday that Pelosi’s request for a delay is reasonable,” since affected law enforcement officers will not be paid. But he also stressed that Democrats are confident that prominent figures expected to attend the State of the Union would be protected. “The Capitol Police [and] Sergeant-at-Arms have assured us that we’ll be fully prepared if, in fact, there is a State of the Union address on the 29th,” Hoyer said during a press briefing in his Capitol office, shortly before Trump issued his letter to Pelosi. Hoyer also seemed to endorse the idea that, if the President wants to speak on Tuesday he should be permitted to do so -- shutdown or none : “He’s the President of the United States. So if the President of the United States wants to speak to the Congress, the question was, ‘Was I willing to hear him?’ And the answer was, ‘Sure,’ ” Hoyer said. • Pelosi's move to bar President Trump from the House chamber is risky, since she is facing calls from some rank-and-file Democrats to take steps to end the shutdown. But many others in her party have backed her willingness to take a hard line against the President and Democrat lawmakers quickly began lining up in support of Pelosi’s decision. • The President quickly promised to hold an "alternative" event and contended that the California Democrat, Speaker Pelosi, is "afraid of the truth." • Yes, when President Trump's "constitutionalist" judges are in place, it seems certain that the Republic's borders will be secure and the wall will be built and doing its job. But, for now, we have to deal with the wild-eyed and radical Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her gang of subversives.