President Trump Is Housecleaning at DHS, It Is Also Time to Clean the Democrat House of Corruption

IT'S SPRING CLEANING TIME AT DHS, BUT WHEN WILL HILLARY & CO CRIMES BE SPRING CLEANED? Since Congress is offering no help, President Trump is beefing up his Department of Homeland Security to deal with the southern border invasion -- it's his obligation as Commander-in-Chief. • • • KIRSTJEN NEILSEN OUT AT DHS AND KEVIN McALEENAN IS IN. The Daily Caller reported : "President Donald Trump announced Sunday that Kirstjen Nielsen is resigning as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, bringing an end to an at-times rocky relationship between the two. Trump said on Twitter that Kevin McAleenan, the current commissioner of US Customs and Border Protection, will take over as acting homeland security secretary. The announcement came shortly after Nielsen met with Trump privately at the White House to discuss her future. Trump and Nielsen have battled behind the scenes over the administration’s immigration policy and efforts to build a wall on the southern border. That tension reached its breaking point in the days after Trump abruptly pulled the nomination of Ronald Vitiello to head US Immigration and Customs Enforcement." • Nielsen has been in the administration since Trump’s inauguration, first serving as chief of staff to John Kelly, the first homeland security secretary. Nielsen served as Kelly’s deputy when he joined the White House as chief of staff. She was confirmed as DHS secretary on Dec. 6, 2017. • The Daily Caller says : "Commissioner Kevin McAleenan is a veteran border official, according to the Associated Press." Fox News reported : "Administration officials told Fox News on Sunday that Nielsen’s background in cybersecurity made her a poor fit to handle border issues, while McAleenan best fits Trump’s requirement of being the 'toughest cop' on the frontier. Sources told Fox News that Nielsen had been viewed as resistant to some of the immigration measures pushed by the President and his aides, specifically related to protected status for some refugees and policies at the border. A senior administration official told Fox News that National Security Advisor John Bolton long felt that Nielsen was not the right person for the job....On Friday, Trump confirmed he had withdrawn the nomination of acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Ron Vitiello to become the permanent head of the agency, telling reporters that 'Ron’s a good man, but we’re going in a tougher direction, we want to go in a tougher direction.' Administration sources tell Fox News that the withdrawal of Vitiello's nomination was the first step in Trump's plan to control the border crisis. The second step was asking for Nielsen's resignation." • The Washington Examiner had this to say about Kevin McAleenan on Monday : "Homeland Security Department officials who served during the Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations say President Trump’s pick to temporarily oversee the agency, Kevin McAleenan, is the best possible fit for the job. Citing McAleenan's unique background as a career law enforcement official and lawyer who is not prone to make rash decisions, five DHS officials who served in top positions from the early 2000s to 2017 described his demeanor as a good counter to that of Trump....David Lapan, DHS press secretary at the start of the Trump administration, described McAleenan as a “consummate professional” who is 'even-keeled,' 'measured,' and 'smart.' 'His demeanor is much more indicative of his background as a lawyer,' Lapan told the Washington Examiner....McAleenan earned a juris doctor degree from the University of Chicago Law School and practiced in California until 2001. He applied to join the FBI after the September 11 terrorist attacks but was recruited as director of a new office, US Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Antiterrorism. He worked his way up through CBP during the Obama administration, spent two years in the private sector, and returned to government shortly before being nominated to his post atop CBP in 2017. Thomas Winkowski, a former acting CBP commissioner and acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement director who served in the George W. Bush and Obama years, said that McAleenan has strong credibility with Congress because he has already been confirmed and has a sound reputation. 'I think he’s very capable from the standpoint of maneuvering through difficult problems and difficult issues,' Winkowski said. 'There’s no doubt in my mind that the issues that face the new acting secretary are daunting, but I think he certainly is the right choice to begin the process to bring some fresh eyes to the department and looking at these problems.' David Danelo served as executive director of policy and planning for CBP during President Barack Obama’s tenure and worked alongside McAleenan. Danelo described McAleenan as the 'most practical security professional that has ever led DHS in terms of his level of experience' in law, trade, and security operations. Danelo said the incoming DHS leader has the knowledge to focus on counterterrorism issues 'more effectively' than any previous secretary. Danelo said McAleenan also understands DHS does not create immigration laws, it carries them out." Former acting ICE Director Tom Homan worked directly with McAleenan during the 2014 unaccompanied minor surge at the southern border. He said McAleenan has a “great” relationship with Mexico and believes he might be able to get Mexico to do more to help Central American migrants trying to pass through the country for the US. • David Lapan, according to the Examiner, warned that "one area of concern is McAleenan being only well versed in customs and border operations, while a DHS secretary must oversee cybersecurity, disaster response, federal protection, citizenship and visa applications, the Secret Service, and Coast Guard. However, he said being that Trump’s focus is border security, promoting a border expert to the top of the department makes sense." • The number of employees who report to McAleenan as acting secretary would essentially quadruple from 60,000 to 240,000. Given that employee load, and the sprawling list of radically different areas that have been fed into DHS, perhaps it is time to seriously reconsider what the DHS mission really is and outsource to other executive departments the areas that don't fit that mission. For example, why not send the secret Service back to the Treasury Department? The Secret Service has been limping along in DHS. Now would be a good time to put it back where it belongs. • • • THE HEAD OF SECRET SERVICE ASKED TO STEP DOWN. As part of his Spring Cleaning at DHS, President Trmup has asked US Secret Service Director Randolph Alles to step down. Fox News reported on Monday that : "Randolph Alles was reportedly told to have an exit plan in place as part of a leadership transition at the Department of Homeland Security....Sources told Fox News on Monday that Alles was notified 10 days ago to 'prepare an exit plan,' in a signal that a transition in leadership at the Department of Homeland Security was imminent. Alles was told that he should be prepared to leave his post as head of the Secret Service as part of that transition. 'United States Secret Service director Randolph 'Tex' Alles has done a great job at the agency over the last two years, and the President is thankful for his over 40 years of service to the country,' White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a brief statement Monday....A law enforcement official told Fox News that, inside the agency, the news of Alles' departure came as a surprise. Alles’ departure comes on the heels of Nielsen’s resignation and, according to a source, has nothing to do with the recent Mar-a-Lago incident, in which a woman was arrested at the President’s Florida property after allegedly carrying two Chinese passports and malware." • Newsmax wrote on Monday that President Trump, seeking re-election in 2020, "has taken a hard line toward immigration since becoming president in January 2017, and the issue may be a central theme in next year's election." • • • THE PRESIDENT'S GUTSY CALL ON VITIELLO. The Washington Times reported on Monday : "President Trump’s move to dump his pick to lead ICE surprised lawmakers on Capitol Hill and some officials at the Department of Homeland Security, but it’s drawing glowing praise from a key group of employees who say the President’s decision showed courage. The National ICE Council, the labor union that represents 6,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation officers, had tried to sink Ronald D. Vitiello’s nomination to be the agency’s director. It appeared Mr. Vitiello was going to see Senate action, until Mr. Trump stepped in late last week and pulled the nomination, saying he wanted to go in a tougher direction. The decision caught many in Homeland Security by surprise -- including, reportedly, Mr. Vitiello himself. But the ICE Council said the President made the right call and 'demonstrated integrity and a personal commitment to fixing problems within our failing federal agencies rarely if ever seen in the D.C. swamp. When Ronald Vitiello clearly demonstrated an inability to effectively lead the agency, President Trump stepped in and made a change. That’s how it’s supposed to work. That’s leadership. That’s how Americans want their government to work,' the ICE Council said Monday." • • • ANOTHER GUTSY CALL -- BY DEVIN NUNES -- AS THE CLEAN-UP OF THE ANTI-TRUMP ILLEGAL CABAL STARTS IN EARNEST. Liberty Headlines wrote on Monday : "Representative Devin Nunes, R-Calif., the ranking minority member of the House Intelligence Committee, said he has prepared eight criminal referrals for Attorney General William Barr. Nunes didn’t specify whom he had named, but he did note that five of the referrals were for direct attempts to mislead or lie to Congress. The other three were more complicated, he said, referring to them as 'conspiracy' crimes -- like lying to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court, leaking classified information and manipulating intelligence. 'We think they’re pretty clear, but as of right now this is, this may not be all of them, but this cleans up quite a bit,' he said. It’s likely these referrals are for individuals involved in the Russian collusion hoax debunked by the recent Mueller Report. As chairman of the Intelligence Committee under the previous, Republican-led Congress, Nunes headed the investigation into corruption at the Justice Department, FBI and other intelligence agencies. Last year, under threat of subpoena, he referred more than 40 people for public testimony -- including Fusion GPS founders Glenn Simpson and Thomas Catan, and former FBI agent Daniel Jones. Many of those on the list were tied directly to a Clinton smear campaign via the infamous Steele Dossier -- a collection of 17 memos full of unverified claims about President Donald Trump’s ties to Russia. • Why did Nunes wait to make the referrals? He said former Attorney General Jeff Sessions‘s recusal in the investigation hindered the ability to advance the cases : “ 'We couldn’t really send these criminal referrals over without an attorney general in place,” he told Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures. 'So we are prepared this week to notify the attorney general [Barr] that we are prepared to send those referrals over and brief him if he wishes to be briefed.' " • Liberty Headlines says : "Originally commissioned as opposition research by Hillary Clinton’s law firm, the Steele Dossier’s salacious allegations found their way through back-channel communications to the upper echelons of the FBI, which used them to justify investigating and eavesdropping on Trump campaign staffers. Left-leaning outlets such as the New York Times, CNN and BuzzFeed also were tipped off to the classified investigation and reported on it in January 2017. Former FBI Director James Comey later acknowledged leaking information to the media in the hopes of triggering the special-counsel investigation. Obama-era CIA Director John Brennan and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper also have fallen under recent scrutiny over possible media leaks." • Western Journal Conservative Tribune focused on Comey, Rosenstein, Yates, and McCabe : "Ever since the release of Attorney General William Barr’s synopsis of the Mueller report, Representative Devin Nunes -- the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee -- has been talking about criminal referrals for acts committed during the 2016 presidential campaign and its aftermath. Now, the California congressman is making it clear just how many people he’s going after -- and former FBI Director James Comey is just one of those who has a reason to sweat. In an appearance on Fox News on Sunday, Nunes said he’d sent eight criminal referrals to Barr, the latest sign that high-level Republicans were going on the offensive in the wake of the Mueller report. Nunes told Fox News he’d been working on the referrals for over two years : "“There are three (referrals) that I think are more complicated....So, on the first one, is FISA abuse and other matters. We believe there was a conspiracy to lie to the FISA court, mislead the FISA court by numerous individuals that all need to be investigated and looked at that, and we believe the (relevant) statute is the conspiracy statute.” Conservative Tribune says : "That likely referred to the use of the 'Trump Dossier' -- assembled as opposition research funded by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee -- to obtain a warrant in a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court against a Trump campaign official. Nunes later said that “we’ve had a lot of concerns with the way intelligence was used” in the probe into the Trump campaign and possible collusion with the Russians. • Nunes then explained to Fox News : "The second conspiracy one is involving manipulation of intelligence that also could ensnarl many Americans. The third is what I would call a global leak referral. So, there are about a dozen highly sensitive classified information leaks that were given to only a few reporters over the last two-and-a-half-plus years. So, you know, we don’t know if there’s actually been any leak investigations that have been opened, but we do believe that we’ve got pretty good information and a pretty good idea of who could be behind these leaks.” Conservative Tribune stated : "The 'horrific' leaks Nunes referred to involved Trump’s conversations with major world leaders as well as the transcripts of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn’s phone calls. 'I think it’s impossible to ignore,' Nunes said. 'If the Mueller team was busting people for lying to the FBI -- there are some pretty simple times when people lied to Congress for the sole purpose of obstructing our investigation.' The criminal referrals also might involve more than one person. In fact, Nunes said that a conspiracy referral could ensnare 'a dozen, two dozen people.' ” • According to Conservative Tribune : "There are a few individuals we can possibly guess will be among those referred. Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen is being investigated for lying to Congress....House Intelligence Committee Chairman Representative Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, who was suspected by Donald Trump Jr. when it came to leaking his closed-door testimony before the committee. Fox News reported that in January, Trump Jr. said 'there’s a 99.9 percent chance (House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff is) the guy' who leaked the 2017 testimony, adding that he 'came out of testimony 8 at night and CNN is running quotes from noon on about my testimony, you know, in the House Intelligence Committee. I mean, that has to say something about what is going on and who they are. Since (Schiff has) never met a camera he didn’t love, I would bet a lot of money that it was him.' ” BUT, Conservative Tribune says : "The FISA warrant, however, might be of more concern to Democrats, particularly when it comes to Comey....Others who have reason to sweat? Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. They all signed FISA warrant applications." • • • OBAMA-ERA CORRUPTION HANGS OVER THE SWAMP LIKE A FOG. On Tuesday, WND reported that Judicial Watch "has released 422 pages of FBI documents showing evidence of 'cover-up' discussions related to Hillary Clinton’s unauthorized email system within the company that managed it : "A Platte River Networks email sent in December 2014 says : 'Its [sic] all part of the Hillary coverup operation I’ll have to tell you about it at the party.' The documents obtained by Judicial Watch also show Intelligence Community Inspector General Charles McCullough forwarding 'concerns' about classified information contained in the Clinton emails. Judicial Watch also obtained Clinton’s 2009 classified information Non-Disclosure Agreement bearing her signature. And documents show Platte River Networks’ use of BleachBit on the Clinton server to delete files. The program was downloaded on March 31, 2015, according to a computer event log. Over the next half hour it was used to delete the files on the server at a time when they were under subpoena." • WND quotes emails and handwritten notes written in June and July 2015 from the Office of the Intelligence Community Inspector General discuss 'concerns' over classified information on the server : "A redacted sender writes to State Department Official Margaret 'Peggy' Grafeld that “inadvertent release of State Department’s equities when this collection is released in its entirety -- the potential damage to the foreign relations of the United States could be significant. ICIG McCullough forwards the concern, saying: ‘Need you plugged in on this.' The sender writes : 'While working with this inspector, I have personally reviewed hundreds of documents in the HRC collection. I can now say, without reservation, that there are literally hundreds of classified emails in this collection; maybe more.' ” • The Gateway Pundit reported on March 28 about findings in a transcript of Nellie Ohr's testimony that was released by Representative Doug Collins : "In December 2017 the head of opposition research firm Fusion GPS admitted in a court filing that his firm paid Nellie Ohr, the wife of senior Justice Department official Bruce Ohr, to help dig up damaging information on then-candidate Donald Trump. The connections between Nellie Ohr and the ‘Spygate’ scandal were hidden at a distance for months. As noted previously at TGP, Nellie Ohr is a Communist sympathizer connected to Russia as well as a corrupt Never-Trumper. Author Diana West at the American Spectator posted an article on Nellie Ohr last year. Nellie Ohr is 'the 'Dossier' spying scandal’s woman in the middle.' : 'To one side of Ohr, there is the Fusion GPS team, including fellow contractor Christopher Steele. To the other, there is husband Bruce Ohr, who, until his 'Dossier'-related demotion, was No. 4 man at the Department of Justice, and a key contact there for Steele.' What’s more revealing about Nellie Ohr is the men in her life are protecting her involvement in the Russia scandal : 'Notably, the 'Dossier' men in her life have tried to shield Ohr from public scrutiny, even at professional risk. Her husband, as the Daily Caller News Foundation reports, failed to disclose his wife’s employment with Fusion GPS and seek the appropriate conflict-of-interest waiver, which may have been an important factor in his demotion from associate deputy attorney general late last year. Under Senate and House questioning, Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson consistently failed to disclose Nellie Ohr’s existence as one of his firm’s paid Russian experts, let alone that he hired her for the red-hot DNC/Clinton campaign Trump-Russia project. Even Christopher Steele may have tried to keep Nellie Ohr 'under cover.' Steele, put forth as the 'Dossier' author ever since its January 2017 publication in BuzzFeed, does not appear to have let on to his many media and political contacts that he had 'Dossier'-assistance from at least two fellow Fusion GPS Russian experts, Nellie Ohr and Edward Baumgartner. Baumgartner, interestingly, was a Russian history major at Vassar in the 1990s when Nellie Ohr taught Russian history there.' It appears that the men in Nellie’s life did all they could to prevent Nellie Ohr from being outed for being involved in the Dossier because she also has links to the CIA and therefore to John Brennan." • Fox News also covered the revelations in the Collins-released Nellie Ohr testimony transcript : "March 28. Nellie Ohr, the wife of Justice Department official Bruce Ohr, did extensive opposition research on Trump family members and campaign aides while working for the firm behind the salacious anti-Trump Dossier in 2016, according to a newly released transcript of her closed-door interview with Congress....While she largely did not work on the Dossier itself, her research included looking into alleged relationships between then-candidate Donald Trump and Russian organized crime, the interview shows. She revealed that she was also instructed to conduct research on members of the Trump family, as well as individuals associated with the Trump campaign : 'I was asked to research Trump’s family broadly in connection with any -- any Russian connections,' Ohr stated, adding that she 'did some research on all of them, but not in much depth.' Ohr explained that she researched Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, specifically their 'travels.' She added that she was looking 'to see whether they were involved in dealings and transactions with people who had suspicious pasts, or suspicious types of dealings.' Ohr also testified that she was asked to research members of the campaign including former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, former campaign aide Carter Page and former national security advisor Michael Flynn. Ohr noted that, in her research, she found that Page traveled to Moscow to speak at a university about 'better relations' between Russia and the US. With regard to the research on Flynn, Ohr said she was asked to look into 'any relationships he might have with Russia.' Ohr said that through her research, it 'became evident that he had a relationship with Turkey as well.'....Ohr also testified that when she was hired by the firm’s co-founder Glenn Simpson, he was aware that her husband was a high-level Justice Department official. Bruce Ohr was a key contact inside the Justice Department for ex-British spy Christopher Steele, who authored the anti-Trump Dossier, which was commissioned by Fusion GPS and funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee through law firm Perkins Coie....Meanwhile, the transcript also confirmed details Fox News reported earlier this year -- that Ohr, her husband, and Steele met at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC, the day before the FBI launched its counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign." • The President in late March vowed to release the full and unredacted FISA warrants and related documents used by the FBI to probe his campaign and Page : “I have plans to declassify and release. I have plans to absolutely release," Trump said during an exclusive interview on 'Hannity'..."I have some very talented people working for me, lawyers, and they really didn't want me to do it early on....A lot of people wanted me to do it a long time ago. I'm glad I didn't do it. We got a great result without having to do it, but we will. One of the reasons that my lawyers didn't want me to do it, is they said, if I do it, they'll call it a form of obstruction." Trump added : "At the right time, we will be absolutely releasing." • DC Whispers reported on April ' that : "OBAMA Kept The Scheme Going overseas. House lawmakers are zeroing in on a meeting that German chancellor Angela Merkel held with President Obama at a key moment as one of the FISA warrants against Trump was set to expire. Lawmakers are aware of the role of foreign governments in collaborating with US intelligence agencies in the Trump investigation as recently as 2017 -- see above. Germany provided information beginning in 2015 to aide British spies and the Obama administration in compiling the Christopher Steele 'Dossier.' Obama had been called out by the Drudge Report for visiting foreign leaders in Europe in the spring of 2017 right before President Trump visited those leaders in Europe. It turns out that one of those Obama meetings is now under scrutiny on Capitol Hill. Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein gave a redacted document to Representative Devin Nunes, showing two major redactions about the creation of the Trump 'Dossier' and the launch of FISA warrants and Robert Mueller’s investigation during the 2016 campaign. The redactions were : 'the name of a country and the name of a foreign agent who supplied information.' Now we know: the country is Germany and the foreign agent was either Angela Merkel or someone who worked for Angela Merkel in foreign intelligence. 'The redacted sections will be referencing one of the European countries and agents that share SIGINT (signal intelligence) to US Intelligence,' says Chuck Marler, a longtime agent of the FBI Special Surveillance Group under Robert Mueller, who is an official whistleblower in this case. SIGINT countries were involved in sharing information that helped the Christopher Steele Dossier to come together. The Guardian reported in an amazingly under-covered article: “Over the next six months, until summer 2016, a number of western agencies shared further information on contacts between Trump’s inner circle and Russians, sources said. The European countries that passed on electronic intelligence -- known as sigint -- included Germany, Estonia and Poland. Australia, a member of the 'Five Eyes' spying alliance that also includes the US, UK, Canada and New Zealand, also relayed material, one source said.” • • • DEAR READERS, we are also getting the first revelations from topnotch investigative reporter John Solomon about how Vice President Joe Biden's son was active in Ukraine and the Vice President shut down Ukriane investigations relating to his son's business ventures there. NOW, we find out from Western Journal Conservative Tribune on Monday that John Solomon has new Ukraine information : "Kostiantyn Kulyk is a Ukrainian prosecutor. He says that money was illegally spent by a former Ukrainian president on donations to Democrats. He’d like to present his evidence in the United States. The problem, according to Kulyk, is that the United States won’t let him in. In a commentary piece published Monday by TheHill, investigative journalist John Solomon reports that Kulyk told him about 'evidence of wrongdoing by American Democrats and their allies in Kiev, ranging from 2016 election interference to obstructing criminal probes. But, they say, they’ve been thwarted in trying to get the Trump Justice Department to act,' Solomon wrote. 'We were supposed to share this information during a working trip to the United States,' Kulyk said in an interview. 'However, the (US) ambassador blocked us from obtaining a visa. She didn’t explicitly deny our visa, but also didn’t give it to us.' The State Department apparently isn’t terribly interested in hearing Kulyk’s evidence, which Solomon wrote implicates businessmen in the orbit of former pro-Russian Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych in illegal spending on American elections with 'money spirited unlawfully out of Ukraine and moved to the United States.' The businessmen, according to Kulyk, 'authorized payments for lobbying efforts directed at the US government,' Solomon wrote. 'In addition, these payments were made from funds that were acquired during the money-laundering operation,' Kulyk told Solomon. 'We have information that a US company was involved in these payments.' Solomon wrote that Ukrainian officials believe that company is linked to 'one or more prominent Democrats.' Kulyk also said that the country’s anti-corruption authority covered up payments made to a Democrat, according to Solomon. 'In the course of this investigation, we found that there was a situation during which influence was exerted on the (anti-corruption authority), so that the name of (the American) would not be mentioned,' Kulyk said, according to Solomon. Accepting money from a foreign power, of course, is illegal for American politicians. The report by Solomon comes after a report last week in which Solomon detailed the fact in 2015 and 2016, then-Vice President Joe Biden put pressure on Ukrainian officials to fire a prosecutor who was investigating a natural gas company that had Biden’s son, Hunter, serving on its board. 'Ukraine is infamous for corruption and disinformation operations; its police agencies fight over what is considered evidence of wrongdoing. Kulyk and his bosses even have political fights over who should and shouldn’t be prosecuted. Consequently, allegations emanating from Kiev usually are taken with a grain a salt,' Solomon wrote in that report. As if to prove the point, Kulyk himself has come under investigation for allegedly enriching himself illicitly while in office, according to a report by the London Post, a 5-year-old UK news outlet that, judging by its headlines and news slant, has a decidedly leftish take." BUT, according to the Conservative Tribune : "That the investigation didn’t prevent Kulyk from being promoted might say a lot about how serious the grounds for it are -- or how serious Ukraine’s corruption problem really is, it’s tough to tell. However, judging by Solomon’s reports, the evidence in the case of the 2016 election seems to be much stronger than Ukraine internal politics, or inter-office backstabbing. '(M)any of the allegations shared with me by more than a half-dozen senior Ukrainian officials are supported by evidence that emerged in recent US court filings and intelligence reports,” Solomon wrote last week. That evidence includes '(s)worn statements from two Ukrainian officials admitting that their agency tried to influence the 2016 US presidential election in favor of Hillary Clinton,' including 'leaking an alleged ledger showing payments to then-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.' There was also evidence that Ukrainian contacts had passed dirt on Donald Trump to Democrats in Washington during the 2016 campaign, Solomon wrote. This isn’t surprising, either, inasmuch as a portion of the 'Trump Dossier' assembled by the political research firm Fusion GPS and paid for by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee came from a member of Ukraine’s parliament, according to a Daily Caller report in February. Ukraine prosecutors say that they would prefer to come to the United States to present the evidence of the allegations than to hand them over to the FBI, in part because it’s believed the FBI is in league with anti-corruption officials in Ukraine, Solomon wrote in Monday’s piece. 'It is no secret in Ukrainian political circles that the NABU (the Ukraine anti-corruption agency) was created with American help and tried to exert influence during the US presidential election,' Kulyk told him. Apparently, though, no one at the Departments of State and Justice is interested. 'It’s like no one at DOJ is listening. There is some compelling evidence that should at least be looked at, evaluated, but the door seems shut at both State and Justice,' one American lawyer familiar with the case told Solomon. As for the State Department, it told Solomon it couldn’t comment on whether the visas had been held up. 'Visa records are confidential under US law; therefore, we cannot discuss the details of individual visa cases,' a State Department spokesperson said. Solomon’s article is a compelling read, and it’s the second piece in as many weeks to indicate troubling ties between Ukraine and American politicians, particularly on the left side of the aisle." • It is past time to investigate all the tentacles of the Obama administration's and Hillary Clinton's anti-Trump criminal cabal. Whatever Paul Manafort did in Ukraine, it is now strongly suggested that the Obama administration did much worse things. Investigations by career bureaucrats, some of whom are suspects in the cabal, cannot get to the bottom of the corruption by Democrat politicians during the Obama era. Devin Nunes is doing hugely important work and being inordinately courageous in calling out these criminal acts. He deserves our full support.

Tuesday Is Election Day in Israel

TUESDAY IS ELECTION DAY IN ISRAEL. And, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's, and very possibly Israel's, political future is riding on the results. • • • PRESIDENT TRUMP SAYS IT WILL BE CLOSE. Israel Hayom, a left-leaning Israeli media outlet whose parent company's principal shareholder is the Adelson family, reported on the President's remarks, made at the annual meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas. President Trump said the election will be close and also warned that a Democrat victory in 2020 could "leave Israel out there." • Israel Hayom and the Associated Press wrote on Sunday : "Speaking at the annual meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition, Trump touted his precedent-shredding actions to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv and recognition last month of Israeli sovereignty over the disputed Golan Heights, a strategic plateau that Israel seized from Syria in 1967." Leftist media are the same worldwide, with a political position that does not bend for mere facts, such as the historical possession of the Golan Heights, as we discussed last week in a blog. Bur, Israel Hayom did report that President Trump told the Republican Jewish Coalition audience : "We got you something that you wanted” [the embassy move], adding, “Unlike other Presidents, I keep my promises.” The group, backed by GOP donor Sheldon Adelson, supported Trump’s 2016 campaign and is preparing to spend millions on his 2020 effort. The President recognized this : "I know that the Republican Jewish Coalition will help lead our party to another historic victory. We need more Republicans. Let’s go, so we can win everything.” • Israel Hayom said American Jewish voters have traditionally sided heavily with Democrats -- "and are often ideologically liberal" -- but Republicans "are hoping to narrow the gap next year, in part as Trump cites actions that he says demonstrate support for Israel." • The Jewish Democratic Council of America disagrees. It said on Saturday, according to Israel Hayom : "American Jews leaving the Democratic Party are a Republican fantasy. Trump’s presidency has only solidified the fact that the Democratic Party has been, and will remain, the political home of the American Jewish electorate,” JDCA Executive Director Halie Soifer said in a statement. “This is because Trump’s policies and rhetoric are antithetical to Jewish values and because anti-Semitism has increased to unprecedented levels due to Trump’s divisive words, policies, and willful blindness.” The Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA), which defines itself as "the voice for Jewish Democrats and the socially liberal, pro-Israel values," was announced in August 2017 and officially launched in November 2017. JDCA was incorporated in Washington, DC, in June 2017. The JDC endorsed 58 candidates including, Michigan’s Haley Stevens, Dianne Feinstein, and Max Rose, and invested more than six-figures in the 2018 midterm elections. They applauded Democrats on their "historic and monumental election win." • BUT, at the Republican Jewish Coalition, President Trump received standing ovations for mentioning the embassy move and the Golan Heights recognition. Before President Trump’s appearance, Israel Hayom reported that people assembled for the event carried signs with “We are Jews for Trump” and “Trump” written in Hebrew. Dozens of men and several women wore red yarmulkes with “Trump” in white that were distributed at the event. The President also noted that he has eliminated hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinians and has pulling the US out of several UN organizations -- the UN Human Rights Council and UNESCO -- citing anti-Israel bias in their agendas. President Trump also criticized some 2020 Democrats who have suggested they would re-enter the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, from which Trump withdrew the United States. Israel Hayom said : "The agreement was fiercely opposed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has cheered as Trump reimposed stringent new sanctions on the country that Israel regards as an existential threat. Trump is aligned with Netanayu, who’s seeking to re-election in Tuesday’s national election. Trump predicted that the election is 'gonna be close,' adding it features 'two good people,' seemingly referring to Netanyahu and his chief threat, former IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz....Stuart Weil, a Jewish man from Fresno, California, said Americans have traditionally been very supportive of Israel but 'the progressive, liberal wing of the Democratic Party' is changing that. Weil, who wore a blue Trump-style hat that read, 'Making Israel & America Great Again,' says he’s a Republican because of the party’s strong stance on Israel." • However, President Trump still has a lot of work to do with US Jewish voters. Israel Hayom reported : "According to AP Votecast, a survey of more than 115,000 midterm voters and 3,500 Jewish voters nationwide, voters who identified as Jewish broke for Democrats over Republicans by a wide margin, 72% to 26%, in 2018. Over the past decade, Jewish voters have shown stability in their partisanship, according to data from Pew Research Center. Jewish voters identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party over the Republican Party by a roughly 2-1 ratio." • • • THE WASHINGTON INSTITUTE ANALYZES THE ISRAELI ELECTION. The Washington Institute scholars and visiting experts specialize in the Middle East and Israeli affairs. Here is what a panel of TWI political observers havez to say about each campaign and what a victory by either side might mean for Israeli policy. The panelists -- Ehud Yaari, Tal Shalev, and David Makovsky -- addressed a Policy Forum at The Washington Institute last Thursday. Yaari is the Institute’s Lafer International Fellow and an award-winning commentator for Israeli television. Shalev is the chief political correspondent for the Israeli web portal Walla News. Makovsky is the Institute’s Ziegler Distinguished Fellow and director of its Project on Arab-Israel Relations. The following is a summary of their remarks provided by notetaker Basia Rosenbaum at the Forum. (1) EHUD YAARI : "Israel’s April 9 elections are about one thing : a referendum on the leadership of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, whose weaknesses have become the main strength of his opponent, former military chief of staff Benny Gantz. Rather than presenting a detailed platform of its own, Gantz’s Blue and White Party is running largely on the disgust that many voters feel for the prime minister. Netanyahu’s presumed intention is to see what happens after the elections and, if tasked with forming the next government, try to enact pending legislation (the so-called “French Law”) that would give him immunity from prosecution on a looming corruption indictment. Alternatively, he could seek a plea bargain. To remain prime minister, Netanyahu does not need his Likud Party to win the most votes. More important are the half a dozen right-wing parties teetering near 3.25% of the national vote, the threshold required to enter parliament. If they fall short of that mark, the prime minister’s planned coalition could lose hundreds of thousands of votes. The direction of major Israeli foreign policy issues is not at stake in these elections. Rather, the outcome will determine whether right-wingers can fulfill their intention to reverse the judicial revolution that has recast courts as a check on parliament, a movement instigated by former Supreme Court justice Aharon Barak. The best outcome may be a grand coalition that includes Netanyahu and Gantz, but it is unclear whether Blue and White would be willing to join. Such an alliance would allow more initiative on the Palestinian issue. Netanyahu himself advocated for this result before the pending indictment was announced in February. If a narrow right-wing government emerges instead, Israel will drift further toward a nationalistic approach, including limits on judicial power and unilateral moves in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. For Blue and White to prevail, the party would need to woo at least some right-wing Jewish voters and moderate Arab factions. Much uncertainty persists, with polls indicating that as many as 35% of Israelis still do not know how they will vote." (2) TAL SHALEV : "This election has featured two important developments : the creation of Blue and White and the preliminary indictment against Netanyahu. Neither development appears to have significantly hurt Netanyahu’s chances of winning, however. Gantz’s transformation into a top candidate in three months is impressive, as is his formation of an all-star security team capable of undermining one of Netanyahu’s key strengths. More than any other opponent in recent years, the general has gotten close to being deemed just as 'suitable' for the office of prime minister as Netanyahu. Yet the vast majority of Blue and White voters are from the center-left; few have been pulled from the right. As for the indictment, Netanyahu’s base seems willing to forgive. He has also been strengthened since the previous elections by President Trump’s actions....Many people -- even those who do not support the prime minister -- believe Netanyahu is in a different league from Gantz in terms of cultivating such close relationships with world leaders. Leading up to election day, Netanyahu has been running a vicious but brilliant campaign. Early on, Blue and White stumbled for a couple weeks as its campaign team learned how to work together. The party has since emphasized the need to garner the largest share of the vote and convince left-wing Israelis to choose a centrist government instead of casting ballots for leftist parties. Yet this strategy will be fruitless unless Blue and White can cobble together a bloc with enough seats to form the next government. Party leaders believe that if they defeat Netanyahu’s Likud by more than five seats, then aftershocks will ensue, since it would be the first time in a decade that such a gap has opened. The prime minister therefore has to be careful, closing this gap without wasting votes from smaller right-wing parties poised on the 3.25% threshold. Key things to watch for immediately after the election include the results for Moshe Feiglin, a former Likud member who has become a Netanyahu enemy and has run on a platform of legalizing marijuana, pursuing a harsh libertarian agenda, and rebuilding a temple in a Jerusalem location where mosques now stand. If Netanyahu wins, he will do everything he can to keep Feiglin out of his coalition. The Netanyahu camp is also concerned about President Reuven Rivlin, who is responsible for choosing which candidate gets to form the government after the elections. Usually, this decision is based on which candidate is most capable of assembling a majority coalition, but Rivlin can use a different metric if he so desires." (3) DAVID MAKOVSKY : "The main subtext of these elections is that not many people are moving between the right and left blocs, with the exception of Feiglin. Thus, the large number of undecided voters may not be very significant if these individuals hail from within a given bloc rather than the narrow margin between the right and center. The right/left divide in Israel has transitioned to a right/center divide since the second intifada. In 1992, the two main left-wing parties, Labor and Meretz, won 56 seats, but polls indicate they will win only 18-19 this year. In contrast, the lowest tally for the center-left in recent years was 53 seats, and Blue and White is currently projected to win 58. At the same time, this means that even after forming an all-star team and watching the attorney-general announce a preliminary indictment against Netanyahu, the party has only managed to boost the center-left by five seats. Meanwhile, Netanyahu has refashioned the Likud and eliminated its more liberal elements. Taking advantage of demography and the declining number of secular Israelis, he has broadened Likud’s base by casting it as a coalition of outsiders. Specifically, he has fostered antagonism toward the old elite, particularly the courts; criticized those who sympathize with Arabs; delinked the Palestinian issue from collaboration with other regional states; and permitted West Bank construction outside the settlement blocs. He also has the power of incumbency on his side, along with his proven ability to attract support from powerful foreign leaders such as Trump and Vladimir Putin. In contrast, the center believes that Israel must take steps to preserve the possibility of peace with the Palestinians even if negotiations are impossible at the moment. This includes prohibiting further settlements outside the West Bank security barrier. On that note, the Trump peace plan has a very steep hill to climb regardless of who wins the elections. Even if Gantz prevails, he is unlikely to back any plan that the Palestinians can easily reject, and he will presumably request consultations on the plan’s contents before it is released. If Netanyahu wins, the pending indictment process and the composition of his presumed coalition will make him beholden to the right. Accordingly, if Washington presents its peace plan and Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas immediately rejects it, Netanyahu might push for selective annexations in the West Bank [Netanyahu has since announced that he will annex West Bank Settlements if elected]....The Trump administration could go either way on peace diplomacy. If the President feels his plan is doomed to fail, he will likely stop it from being released. Alternatively, he may decide that releasing it is the best way to help create political space for a grand coalition in Israel. This summary was prepared by Basia Rosenbaum. • • • NETANYAHU AND THE SETTLEMENTS. On Monday, the left-leaning Israeli media outlet Israel Hayom reported on its interview with Prime Minister Netanyahu on Sunday. It represents Netanyahu's last words before Israelis go to the polls. • Israel Hayom wrote : "In an exclusive interview for i24NEWS-Israel Hayom’s joint election special less than 48 hours before Israelis begin casting ballots, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed not to forcefully uproot a single Israeli settler from the West Bank, a move he said would be tantamount to 'ethnic cleansing.' Netanyahu reiterated his vow that if re-elected, he would extend Israel’s sovereignty to settlements in the West Bank, but clarified he has no intention of annexing the West Bank in its entirety : 'I did not say I would annex the West Bank, I said I would apply Israeli law to Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria,' Netanyahu affirmed....Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected relinquishing Israeli military control over territory west of the Jordan River. Israel maintains full security and administrative control over the West Bank’s 'Area C,' which comprises some 60% of the territory. The prime minister’s remarks were criticized domestically as a ploy to appeal to pro-settlement right-wing voters, and internationally as a threat to the two-state solution. Many of Netanyahu’s right-wing political rivals openly call for the annexation of Area C, where most major Israeli settlement blocs are concentrated, while others call for the application of Israeli sovereignty over the entire West Bank where some 430,000 Israeli settlers live among 2.6 million Palestinians." • PM Netanyahu also talked with Israel Hayom about Gaza : "Defending his policy in the Gaza Strip, which has come under stark criticism by his political rivals, Netanyahu said that the trio of former generals heading up the main rival Blue and White party -- Benny Gantz, Moshe Ya’alon and Gabi Ashkenazi 'did not suggest anything different. They have not realized that the main lesson of Gaza is not to repeat it in Judea and Samaria,' Netanyahu said, appearing to champion his own ability to respond in a 'measured way.' He noted that over the last four and a half years, 'not a single Israeli was killed. I do not wish recreate a ‘Hamastan’ that is twenty times the size,' he said, referring to the 2005 Israeli disengagement from the coastal enclave which, following a rift with Fatah led to Hamas’ seizure of power....Netanyahu’s former coalition was thrown into chaos in November when Avigdor Liberman, who served as defense minister, quit the post and pulled his Yisrael Beytenu party from the government over, citing the premier’s policy in Gaza, which has included an agreement to allow millions of dollars of Qatari funding into the enclave in exchange for relative calm on the border. 'There was a possibility of conquering Gaza, but it would draw a lot of blood from our people, but it is not something that I can rule out completely,' he [Netanyahu] said. Netanyahu said he would continue to act 'responsibly' even if that meant there would be a political price to pay. As violence has continued to spill into Israel from Gaza in the form of weekly border riots and rockets and incendiary devices launched across the border, Netanyahu’s rivals have accused the long-serving premier of not doing enough to quell tension and abandoning Israeli citizens in the Gaza periphery region. Pressed on whether he would negotiate with Hamas, Netanyahu clarified that communication with the Islamist organization was 'not about a peace deal.' He said he would, via proxies, focus on returning captive Israeli citizens, slain soldiers and those who went missing in action in the enclave. 'Israel has to defend itself against any enemy. I don’t need international guarantees,' he said." • Israel Hayom also talked to the Prime Minister about the Trump peace plan : "As the date for unveiling a long-awaited and widely-anticipated US peace plan draws near, Netanyahu threw his weight behind his American ally. Saying he believes Washington will take Israel’s interests into account, Netanyahu said Israel should give US President Donald Trump’ so-called “deal of the century” a chance. 'We have to give President Trump a chance. I don’t know what will ultimately be presented, but I believe they respect what I have suggested,' he said. 'My guess is that coming from a friend, they will consider most of what I just said,' referring to his refusal to relinquish power west of the Jordan Valley and over a united Jerusalem. While Netanyahu expressed confidence his staunch American ally would deliver a plan that would align with the interests of the Jewish state and 'include everything we want,' he noted there was a possibility Israel would reject the offer. 'I hope we don’t have to say no,' he said....Touting his leadership capabilities, Netanyahu emphasized the importance of having an Israeli prime minister who is able to stand up to international pressure. 'If you can’t say no, then you become a little province in the corner of Asia,' he said, drawing a comparison between himself and his main election rival Gantz, whom Netanyahu said was 'incapable.' The US peace plan is expected to be released immediately after Israelis go to the polls on Tuesday." • • • PRESIDENT TRUMP MOVES AGAINST THE IRANIAN REVOLUTIONARY GUARD. If the Israel Hayom interview was PM Netanyahu's last pre-election word, President Trump got in one last big word on Monday. World media, including AP and Fox News, reported : "President Trump on Monday formally labeled Iran's Revolutionary Guard a 'foreign terrorist organization,' in Washington’s first such designation for an entire foreign government entity. The announcement, which officials said would put the military organization on the same level as terror groups like Hezbollah and Hamas, is the latest administration step to increase pressure on Iran. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, citing the IRGC's ties to terror plots, said the designation recognizes a 'basic reality. This designation is a direct response to an outlaw regime and should surprise no one. The IRGC masquerades as a legitimate military organization, but none of us should be fooled.' " Fox News reported that in his own statement, President Trump said the unprecedented move “underscores the fact that Iran’s actions are fundamentally different from those of other governments. If you are doing business with the IRGC, you will be bankrolling terrorism. This action sends a clear message to Teheran that its support for terrorism has serious consequences.” • Trump administration officials have said the step will further isolate Iran and make clear that the US won't tolerate Iran's continued support for rebel groups and others that destabilize the Middle East. But the designation may also have widespread implications for American personnel and policy in the region and elsewhere as Iran has threatened to retaliate. • Even before the Revolutionary Guard announcement was released, Israel Hayom analyzed it on Sunday : "The decision, which critics warn could open US military and intelligence officials to similar actions by unfriendly governments abroad, is expected to be announced by the US State Department, perhaps as early as Monday, the officials said. It has been rumored for years....US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has advocated for the change in US policy as part of the Trump administration’s tough posture toward Teheran. The announcement would come ahead of the first anniversary of US President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of a 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran and to reimpose sanctions that has crippled Iran’s economy. The administration’s decision to make the designation was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. The United States has already blacklisted dozens of entities and people for affiliations with the IRGC, but the organization as a whole is not [blacklisted]. In 2007, the US Treasury designated the IRGC’s Quds Force, its unit in charge of operations abroad, 'for its support of terrorism,' and has described it as Iran’s 'primary arm for executing its policy of supporting terrorist and insurgent groups.' " • Israel Hayom reported on Sunday that : "Iran has warned of a 'crushing' response should the United States go ahead with the designation. IRGC commander Mohammad Ali Jafari warned in 2017 that if Trump went ahead with the move 'then the Revolutionary Guards will consider the American army to be like Islamic State all around the world.' Such threats are particularly ominous for US forces in places such as Iraq, where Iran-aligned Shiite militia are located in close proximity to US troops. Republican Senator Ben Sasse said the move would be an important step in America’s maximum pressure campaign against Teheran. 'A formal designation and its consequences may be new, but these IRGC butchers have been terrorists for a long time,' Sasse said in a statement. • Set up after the 1979 Islamic Revolution to protect the Shiite clerical ruling system, the IRGC is Iran’s most powerful security organization explained Israel Hayom : "It has control over large sectors of the Iranian economy and has a huge influence in its political system. The IRGC is in charge of Iran’s ballistic missiles and nuclear programs. Teheran has warned that it has missiles with a range of up to 2,000 km (1,200 miles), putting Israel and US military bases in the region within reach. The IRGC has an estimated 125,000-strong military with army, navy and air units and answers to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It is unclear what impact the US designation of the IRGC as a terrorist organization might have on America’s activities in countries that have ties with Tehran, including in Iraq. Baghdad has deep cultural and economic ties with Iran and Oman, where the United States recently clinched a strategic ports deal." • • • DEAR READERS, it is clear that Iran is under President Trump's microscope and will feel more and more pressure to relax its terrorist activities around the world, as well as to provide personal freedoms to all Iranians and end political gulag-politics for those Iranians who dissent from the Ayatollahs who rule Iran with an iron fist. • And, since I'm not the US President -- who has to appear evenhanded about Tuesday's Israle election -- I will say "Good luck" and "Godspeed" to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he fights to keep Israel on the right path domestically and internationally.

Stand Tall, MAGA Trumpers -- Support the President, the Starving Venezuelans, and the Americans Held Hostage to the Democrat Party's Open Border

PRESIDENT TRUMP IS RIGHT ABOUT IMMIGRATION. And, he is winning over Americans from every group the slice-and-dice Democrat Party believes it owns. • • • LET'S START WITH HISPANIC AMERICANS. On Saturday, American Thinker editor Thomas Lifson wrote : "Careless, lazy, and racist stereotypes about Hispanics could be as big a threat to Democrats' 2020 prospects as their indifference to the plight of the white working class was in 2016. Steve Cortes, who helped lead Trump's Hispanic Advisory Council in 2016, reports on the rise in Hispanic support for Trump at Real Clear Politics : 'Get ready for the anti-Trump 'resistance' to go truly loco, because new polling data indicates Hispanic support for the President is swelling, a trend that could seal his 2020 re-election victory." • The good news came from a McLaughlin & Associates revelation that Hispanic approval for Trump in March jumped to 50%. Lifson states : "This number matched the January Marist/NPR/PBS survey that shocked cynics with its own 50% approval finding. Even if those polls are too aggressive, February's Morning Consult/Politico poll showed Trump's Hispanic approval vaulting to a still-impressive 45%. Richard Baehr wisely cautions that these numbers are based on a small sample -- Hispanic respondents who constitute a small segment of the total sample of a cross-section of Americans being polled. But the fact that results are fairly consistent across three polls indicates that they may well be correct." • Lifson draws a reasonable conclusion from these data -- that : "Looking state-by-state at the 2020 presidential race, the groundswell of Trump's Hispanic popularity solidifies the President's re-election prospects. A Trump gain to 40% of the Hispanic vote -- a very realistic goal at this point -- could effectively seal repeat wins in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and Arizona. Winning those states means the Democratic nominee must clean-sweep the 2016 Trump states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Moreover, even that upper Midwest sweep would not be enough if Trump's ascent with Hispanics puts in play Nevada and Colorado, states with large Latino populations that Clinton won by low single digits last election." • The Democrat and #NeverTrumper assumption "that all Hispanics favor an open or laxly enforced border is at the root insulting to them. As Cortes points out, they tend to be preyed upon by rogue illegals more than other communities, for one thing. For another, Hispanics tend to have high rates of entrepreneurship and benefit from the expansion of the economy that Trump has brought about." • • • WHAT IS PRESIDENT TRUMP DOING THAT ATTRACTS HISPANIC VOTERS? American Thinker's Silvio Canto, Jr. gave one example on Saturday : "Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 280 employees at a technology repair company in Collin County, Texas, on charges of working in the United States illegally. It's the largest work site raid in the country in more than a decade, according to a Homeland Security Investigations official. 'ICE's Homeland Security Investigations division received tips that the company -- CVE Technology Group -- may have knowingly hired undocumented immigrants [sic] and that several workers were using fraudulent identification documents, said Katrina Berger, special agent in charge in HSI's Dallas office. Hiring irregularities found during an audit of the company's I-9 forms confirmed those tips....'Federal hiring laws require that employers have new hires fill out I-9 forms. The laws perform 'necessary and common sense functions,' Berger said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon. 'They ensure US citizens and legal US residents are hired for jobs in the US....They also ensure that illegal workers are not preyed upon or paid less than the going wage or otherwise coerced or cheated or subjected to unsafe working conditions without any means of complaint. Businesses that knowingly hire undocumented [sic] workers 'create an atmosphere poised for exploiting an illegal workforce." • Silvio Canto explained : "These companies are a triple threat to the Hispanic community : First, they are exploiting workers ruthlessly, from human-smuggling to document fraud. Second, these companies avoid legal Hispanic workers. Third, they make it more difficult for Hispanic-owned companies operating legally to compete in the marketplace. In other words, you cannot compete with a competitor who has a labor advantage because of illegal immigration." • If ICE was sending a message, as Canot concluded, "More raids, please!" And, as an extra benefit, Hispanic Americans see the effort of President Trump to protect them because they are American citizens. • • • PROGDEM MEDIA TRY TO CREATE FAKE NEWS ON IMMIGRATION AND THE PRESIDENT. It didn't work. Victor Rantala -- Army vet, e- intel analyst, ecommerce company founder, NRA Life Member, and crisis preparedness guru -- wrote on Saturday : "The masterful media manipulation of the day on Friday occurred when a clip of President Trump from almost a year ago surfaced. In it, he talked about the MS-13 animals who the government struggles to keep out of the country. Of course, the MS-13 reference was excluded from the clip, making it to appear he was calling all illegal aliens animals." Here is the video < @realDonaldTrump on people asking for asylum "These aren't people. These are animals." pic.twitter.com/pTKY08Obm2— Mark Elliott (@markmobility) April 5, 2019." • As Rantala noted : "Leading the leftist lemmings over the cliff is easy if you talk their language. Don’t use big words...short, basic sentence structure is best. Details and context are ill-advised since they are quickly distracted." • The rabidly anti-Trump Ana Navarro tweeted : "This is journalist, @TifaniRoberts comforting a small boy on the border. He was shot in the throat by Ortega’s thugs in Nicaragua. This little boy is seeking asylum in the United States. His name is William. Trump calls him “animal”. pic.twitter.com/avGe5mWctH— Ana Navarro-Cárdenas (@ananavarro) April 6, 2019." • Rantala pointed out the tweets of Rosanna Arquette, and Dem Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg spreading the hoax to their followers : "This is Disgusting the only animal is you mr trump.— Rosanna Arquette (@RoArquette) April 6, 2019" /// "You do not refer to human beings as animals. You just don’t.— Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) April 6, 2019" • Democrat presidential candidate Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) commented Saturday morning, “Racist language like this has led to violence throughout the world’s history. No human being is an animal. We have to be better than this.” • As Rantala said : "Clearly, there are those in power among Democrats who are using MS-13 for their own political advantage and when they are called out on it, they try like the dickens to defend MS-13 murderers as people, too. But since selling MS-13 to anyone who knows anything about the terrifying gang is a no-go, the preferred approach is to conceal facts and misdirect the lemmings." • The Gateway Pundit reports that senior White House official Mercedes Schlapp attacked the viciously Fake tweet of the year-old video of President Trump calling MS-13 gang members animals that the tweet poster, Mark Elliott, falsely captioned : “.@realDonaldTrump on people asking for asylum “These aren’t people. These are animals.” Elliott posted his tweet Friday evening as President Trump was in California inspecting new replacement border fencing. The video was picked up from a misleadingly edited C-SPAN tweet from May 16, 2018. Schlapp, an Assistant to the President serving as Director of Strategic Communications, posted Saturday afternoon, “Complete lie from @markmobility tweet. POTUS was talking about MS13 gang members as animals. Full context of Trump’s remarks shows he was responding to a complaint by Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims about California’s sanctuary laws protecting criminal illegal aliens including MS-13 gang members." • How do we suppose any American voter with Central American or Mexican roots would react to the propagandist ProgDem media trying to humanize MS-13?? • • • ABOUT THOSE "HUMAN BEINGS." BizPac Review's Frieda Powers reported on Saturday : "The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency slammed New Jersey’s 'limited cooperation' after a twice-deported man from Honduras was charged with brutally strangling a woman. Federal authorities called out the state for its stand on immigration issues in the wake of the brutal murder of a Jersey City nanny last month and the arrest of the twice-deported illegal immigrant who was charged with kidnapping, raping, and murdering her, USA Today reported. Carolina Cano’s body was found in a Jersey City lake in Lincoln Park where she was believed to have been jogging the morning of March 24, according to Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office. Jorge Rios was arrested and charged with felony murder, kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault of the 45-year-old victim, who was an immigrant from Peru living in the US for two years. According to ICE, Rios, identified by the federal agency as Jorge Alberto Rios-Doblado, was deported for immigration violations in 2003 and 2004. He could be deported a third time after serving his sentence if convicted, which could be 30 years to life for murder. • Powers tells us : "New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal issued a directive in November prohibiting state and local police departments from “assisting federal immigration on authorities with ‘civil immigration law,’ with some exceptions,' USA Today reported. ICE maintains that cooperation by local law enforcement is an indispensable component of promoting public safety,' the Newark ICE office said in a statement. 'ICE will seek taking custody of Rios-Doblado at the conclusion of his criminal proceedings, despite limited cooperation in the state.' Grewal argued Wednesday that the policy was prompted by 'overly zealous enforcement of immigration laws' that could discourage people from reporting crimes to the police. 'Our job as state law enforcement officers is to enforce the criminal laws of this state and that’s all we told our law enforcement officers through that directive,' Grewal told state lawmakers questioning New Jersey’s immigration policy. 'We don’t enforce civil immigration deportation orders.' ” • New Jersey radio host Dennis Malloy hit state officials for failing to protect citizens in the “sanctuary state” because they are “pandering” to a “crop of future voters, as reported by Powers : "Perhaps he was drawn to New Jersey due to the rhetoric of the governor and top state officials pledging not to cooperate with ICE in handing over illegal aliens in state custody,” Malloy wrote referring to Rios-Doblado in an opinion piece on New Jersey 101.5 FM. "Maybe he just thought it was a nice place to live. There are possibly hundreds, maybe thousands like Rios, who’ve been deported and have criminal records, that feel New Jersey is a safe place to hide in plain sight. Maybe leaders in this state should stop pandering to what they hope is a whole crop of future voters and concern themselves more with the safety and well-being of the legal residents of this state. What happened to Ms. Cano was horrific, despicable and totally preventable. One of the few and more important responsibilities of our elected officials both state and federal is to maintain the safety of its citizens. It’s sad that some of them have sent the message to dangerous criminals here illegally that New Jersey is a safe haven for them.” • How do we think Hispanic American voters feel about being labeled by a New Jersey Democrat Attorney General as not reporting crimes unless a 'sanctuary state' is provided for illegal alien criminals?? • • • THE CARAVANS NOW INCLUDE ILLEGALS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD. American Thinker's Monica Showalter reported on Friday : "In its story about thousands of caravan migrants encountering a slow-walk for 'humanitarian' visas of passage to the US from Mexican officials, Reuters let out a doozy of a detail way down in its story about the matter : 'At the border town of Tapachula, near the southern tip of Mexico bordering Guatemala, another group included people from Sri Lanka, Congo and Haiti, a federal official said. Some migrants said Mexican officials had slowed down the process of awarding the visas or denied them outright without providing any explanation. A small group lashed out at border officials in Tapachula on Tuesday over the delays, throwing rocks and breaking windows of a local migration institute building." • Showalter note that it seems obvious that any illegal alien wannabes coming to Guatemala to join caravans heading to the southern US border must have a lot of money "for plane flights to places like Mexico along with cartel smuggler fees, therefore they are accustomed to such service. In fact, they are convinced they are entitled to it, same as they get at the Hertz counter. When they don't, they resort to road rage-style brick-throwing." • As Showalter rightly points out : "What it suggests is that the caravans have gone global. They've been marketed in the press and by its NGO allies and by the Catholic Church as a Central America thing, but they're now attracting far more than Central Americans. The world was watching closely as President Trump dealt with the border debacle with the arrival of the first Central American caravan late last year -- and everyone could see that leftist judges and congresspeople defeating him every time, unable to keep the illegal migrants out. And, with Europe cracking down on the big migrant waves and sending the boats back to Libya and elsewhere, the migrants with money have decided they'll come here through Mexico, too. They've concluded it's a can't-lose proposition. They represent a far bigger migrant market -- and cartel profit center -- than just the entire Central American bloc. So, instead of 1.5 million migrants from Central America expected to arrive here this year -- the number can swell enormously higher. These global migrants can see the loopholes that enabled people such as ungrateful Honduran 'Lady Frijoles,' recently charged with assault with a deadly weapon in Dallas, to come here scot-free. Asylum claims give any asker at least three free years of working in the US as they await a judge's decision about their claims, meaning being sent back still yields three free years of working in America, and with instant customer service from US officials, all at zero cost." • If we compare this approach to entering the US with legal immigration -- "ten years of waiting in line for service, thousands of dollars of costs, lots of lost paperwork from US officials, and no free time working in America as they await claims" says Showalter -- it is crystal clear that with : "Europe's pulling up the drawbridge," the best game in town is America that is "letting everyone in for free." • How do we think Hispanic Americans feel about being labeled as "open border" voters when they, like all Americans, see illegal immigrants using their tax dollars to hitch a ride on the Uncle Sam Express?? Anyone with a brain -- that excludes ProgDems -- can see that the Democrat stonewalling against any Trump-led effort to secure the US southern border, and the critically important cooperation they receive from Obama's Leftist judges, had to end with America taking up the destination slack left when Chancellor Merkel finally used her German brain to close the EU border she had opened. As Showalter says : "Build an open border -- and they will come." • • • VENEZUELANS AND PRESIDENT TRUMP. We note another American Thinker article by Silvio Canto, Jr., who wrote on Sunday : "Many years ago, a friend in school asked me about Cubans and the GOP. I explained that our attitudes toward the GOP and Democrats had a lot to do with the Bay of Pigs. It looks as if foreign policy may be once again creating 'Republicanos' -- or, in this case, 'Republicanos Venezolanos.' This is from Fox : 'For the first time in 60 years, South Florida's political magnifying glass is on a country other than Cuba. The unfolding humanitarian crisis in Venezuela has pulled it to the forefront of the political conversation not just in the Sunshine State, but across the country. As the country's problems worsen, Democratic Venezuelan-Americans question whether their party's actions go far enough. A growing number of exiles say they feel forgotten by a new generation of outspoken, progressive Democrats, leaving them less beholden to a party they had long supported. Issues that for years were hotly debated in an area of Miami known as 'Doral-zuela' due to its vibrant Venezuelan community, have made their way to the ears of some of the most powerful lawmakers in Washington, DC. The Venezuelans are angry that, as the country continues to spiral, some Democrats keep calling on the US to pull out of Venezuela and lift all sanctions against the government. 'This is where the Democrats have consistently dropped the ball...they have never felt like it was an important issue...it's very difficult to feel and coexist in the same party that is saying these things that are so ignorant about my homeland,' said Venezuelan immigrant Helena Poleo." • Silvio Canto honestly reports that he doesn't know "how big an electoral factor this Venezuelan vote is yet. Nevertheless, we did see Governor Scott and Representative DeSantis win close elections for the US Senate and the governorship. Furthermore, my guess is that any naturalized Venezuelan is going to show his support for President Trump in 2020. It's hard to see any of the current crop of Democrats inspire much confidence in South Florida. And if Senator Sanders wins the nomination, then all that the Trump campaign has to do is run those videos praising Castro and Ortega's Sandinistas. At one time, you could count on Democrats to stand against socialism. Not anymore, and that's something making a lot of Venezuelans very mad." • But, as Monica Showalter pointed out in a Saturday American Thinker piece on Elliott Abrams : "President Trump appointed the famously NeverTrump Elliott Abrams into his Venezuela point man job to scare the hell out of Maduro. Why is he helping the Venezuelan dictator sleep more soundly at night instead? The conservative-libertarian PanAm Post's Orlando Avendaño lays it out forcefully : 'Elliott Abrams, the United States envoy to Venezuela, has surrendered : 'I do not think Europe, Latin America, Canada and the United States are thinking, at this moment, of a military reaction.' It was his response to concern about whether interim president Juan Guaidó should request a military intervention, or cooperation, through the activation of Article 187, Section 11 (which establishes that the National Assembly can authorize foreign military missions in Venezuela). 'I think it's premature. I think it's not the right time...My advice would be that at this time it would not be very useful,' he stressed in an interview with Caracol Radio [Note: This is a major broadcaster in Colombia]. The United States has thus neutralized, with Abrams' statements, the credible threat. He has just uncocked a loaded revolver, pointing at Maduro. And the dictator can breathe a sigh of relief." • We all know Elliott Abrams as a GOP elite insider. Why President Trump appointed him to any post is a mystery. And, Abrams has repaid the President with a canon blast from the maindeck. Showalter calls Abrams' statement "positively Obamaesque." Abrams, affirms that Elliott Abrams is as we all know him : "a NeverTrump...initially rejected for a State Department job based on his record of neo-con nation-building and NeverTrump grandstanding. Yet in January, he was put there, seemingly incongruously, by President Trump, presumably to scare the hell out of Maduro. He was useful that way; there was no other reason to appoint him." BUT, says Showalter : "To be fair, it may not be him alone. We already know that President Trump is no fan of military intervention. Abrams spoke on Caracol Radio, which is a huge Colombian broadcaster, so these don't seem to be off the cuff remarks, for one -- they may have been well coordinated with President Trump from the top. Second, notice Vice President Mike Pence's words on Venezuela as he announces another round of sanctions on the Chavistas -- and they were made after Abrams' remarks : 'Those looking on should know this : All options are on the table. And Nicolas Maduro would do well not to test the resolve of the United States of America...The United States will continue to exert all diplomatic and economic pressure to bring about a peaceful transition to democracy." • Showalter gives one possible reason for Abrams' remarks : "[It] may be that the US has failed to rally the region's allies. As I noted on Trump's meeting with Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro, the latter looked rather glum and Trump didn't seem that happy, either. Was there a conflict of visions on whether to enact military intervention on Venezuela? Maybe there was. The same scenario seemed obvious in Colombia, the other pillar of Maduro resistance. President Trump made the seemingly bad move of calling out Colombia's new conservative president, Ivan Duque, for not solving the entire drug war in his first seven months of office. Was that based on Duque not being willing to militarily play ball on getting rid of the Maduro regime and just wanting the US to take care of the matter, or worse still, not offering logistical support? Maybe. Whatever it is, it's not a good look for us. Russia is strengthening its hand. The U.S. seems to be retreating. One can only hope that if we're going to take military intervention off the table, we have something even scarier in store for Maduro. I don't know what that can be, but that's the nature of surprises." • • • DEAR READERS, in a 1939 speech, Winston Churchill said : "Meeting jaw to jaw is better than war." That comment is also reported as “to jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.” Whatever Churchill said, the message on the eve of World War II was clear -- better to talk than to fight prematurely. • I have to wonder if this is what is at work in Venezuela right now. However, in our last blog I said : "It seems incredible that the United States would be so passive in the face of Russian military and diplomacy threatening a South American nation with language that is outrageous coming from a Eurasian power -- 'The illegitimate use of military force against Venezuela by other states that support the opposition will be interpreted by the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation only as an act of aggression against a sovereign State and a threat to international peace and security...' This Russian diplomatic threat is accompanied by Russian military in Venezuela and Russian military jets overflying Colombia territory. If that is not a challenge to the Monroe Doctrine, there never will be one. Has the US decided to cede South America to Russian influence?? Has the US decided that South America is no longer part of the Western Hemisphere?? What is going on here?? On January 24, Moscow said external forces led by the US are fuelling chaos by supporting Guaido and the Venezuelan democrats and warned the US against military intervention in Venezuela, saying that if US officials had any sense they would withdraw their own diplomats from Caracas. On March 12, the US announced that it will withdraw all remaining diplomats from its embassy in Venezuela because of worsening conditions in the country. Then, on March 27, President Trump demanded that Russia remove its troops from Venezuela and said again that he was not ruling out military action to topple Madura. Russia is playing for keeps -- that is, to keep Venezuela and its petroleum as a Russian satellite. Is the US willing to step up and halt this Russian move before more of South America is lost to Russia?? " • If the US is letting the Russian military entrench itself in Venezuela as a diplomatic thrust against unwelcome Colombia policies -- it is, I fear, misplaced. No disagreement between any South American government and the United States is sufficiently important to serve as the vehicle for the permanent implantation of Russian military anywhere in South America. • This may be one of those times when President Trump is getting bad advice or letting his distaste for war overpower his need for military action short of war. • AND, perhaps, has always been the case in the past two years, President Trump is right and, as Monica Showalter says, the President has something "even scarier in store for Maduro. I don't know what that can be, but that's the nature of surprises." • Let's hold tight to our MAGA caps and pray for the President, for the suffering and starving Venezuelans, for the Americans who live on the southern border, and for all Americans who are being held hostage to the radical Democrat Party's open-border policy meant to cement their future election.

President Trump Deals with Hot Spots All over the Globe -- Yemen, Venezuela, the Golan

WHILE THE DEMOCRATS CONTINUE THEIR CABAL, PRESIDENT TRUMP HAS THE WORLD TO DEAL WITH . Yemen, Venezuela, the Golan, Chinese spies. • • • CONGRESS STOPS MILITARY SUPPORT FOR YEMEN WAR. TheHill reported on Thursday that : "The House passed a resolution Thursday to end US military support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen, sending it to President Trump’s desk and likely forcing him to issue the second veto of his presidency. The resolution passed 247-175, with 16 Republicans siding with Democrats. Thursday's vote was the first time since the War Powers Act was passed in 1973 that both chambers of Congress passed a resolution using that law and was the culmination of a years-long effort propelled in recent months by lawmakers’ fury at Saudi Arabia over the killing of US-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The resolution, which would require Trump to withdraw US military forces in or 'affecting' Yemen unless they are fighting al Qaeda, gained considerable momentum after Khashoggi’s killing last year in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul." • The White House "has threatened to veto the resolution," saying in a statement that it raises “serious constitutional concerns” and is based on an “erroneous premise.” TheHill says : "Opponents of the measure argue it is unnecessary since the Trump administration suspended the US military’s aerial refueling of Saudi coalition aircraft in November. They further argue it would embolden Iran." • Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the House Foreign relations Committee last week : "I hope everyone who cares about the people of Yemen understands that the legislation, in the past, did not remotely benefit them. Indeed, it will work to their detriment.” • According to TheHill : "A handful of lawmakers have been sounding the alarm for years about Riyadh’s behavior in the 4-year-old civil war in Yemen, where Saudi Arabia is leading a coalition against Iran-backed Houthi rebels. Coalition airstrikes have been blamed for thousands of civilian deaths, as well as exacerbating a cholera epidemic and the risk of famine. The United States supports the coalition with logistics, intelligence sharing and arms sales. The Senate first passed the resolution in December in the aftermath of Khashoggi’s death, but the GOP-controlled House did not take it up. When Democrats took back control of the House in January, they made the Yemen resolution a priority and passed it in February. But, Republicans successfully added an amendment denouncing anti-Semitism, a response to a separate controversy over comments from Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). The anti-Semitism language slowed the bill when it came back to the Senate after the parliamentarian ruled it was no longer privileged, the mechanism that allowed supporters to force a vote and pass it with a simple majority. That meant Senators had to reintroduce a clean version of the bill, which passed 54-46 and went back to the House for Thursday’s vote. Fearful of killing the resolution forever by forcing it to go back to the Senate yet again, Democrats rejected a Republican amendment opposing the anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement Thursday in a 194-228 vote. 'I strongly condemn the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, economic warfare against the state of Israel, and there is no one in this chamber, no one, who would question my commitment to opposing BDS or rejecting anti-Semitism or supporting our ally Israel,' said Representative Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), who is Jewish. 'But I also strongly reject, I strongly reject, I strongly reject what my colleagues are doing here today....This is not a [motion] about BDS. We’ve seen this play out before the last time this resolution came up.' ” • The Yemen resolution did not pass either the House or the Senate with sufficient votes to override President Trump’s likely veto. Nevertheless, supporters of the resolution hail Thursday’s passage "as a significant victory that sends a strong message to Saudi Arabia that its behavior is unacceptable, as well as a historic moment for Congress asserting its war-making authority," ways TheHill. • Is this Congress "cutting off its nose to spite its face" -- that is, punishing Saudi Arabia for an alleged murder by jeopardizing the fate of the Arabian Peninsula, whose southern tip should be occupied by an Iranian surrogate if the Houthis win the civil war in Yemen. • • • A CHINESE WOMAN SLIPPED INTO MAR-A-LAGO. It happened last Saturday morning while the President was in residence there. American Thinker's Chriss Street reported on Thursday : "The arrest of a Chinese woman at Mar-A-Lago carrying four cellphones, external drive and malware-infected USB drive comes as the US and China negotiate a final trade deal. With President Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday morning, Yujing Zhang talked her way past a Secret Service agent at the checkpoint outside the President’s Palm Beach resort by using a member name and showing a passport that the club manager assumed meant she was a member’s daughter. Zhang (32) pretended to be from Taiwan, have limited English skills, and indicated she came to her event early to take a few pictures and familiarize herself with the venue. But once inside the gate, she used perfect English to pass by three roving Secret Service agents and clear another security checkpoint before entering the main clubhouse. Her story fell apart inside the clubhouse when she gave conflicting statements to staff and Secret Service agents about attending a nonexistent United Nations Chinese American Association meeting and produced a fake invitation written in Chinese. After becoming argumentative when confronted, Zhang was taken in for questioning. Zhang then changed her story to coming from Shanghai to meet an online acquaintance named 'Charles' that she instant messaged with through China’s ‘WeChat’ app. Zhang was arrested on a criminal charge of lying to a Secret Service agent and signing a false affidavit; plus both passports were from the communist People's Republic of China." • Chriss Street wrote : "The malware was not identified in the criminal complaint, but Geopolitical Futures reported that China's intelligence apparatus, the Ministry of State Security (MSS), in 2017 recruited an employee of a French aerospace company that supplies NATO and gave him a USB drive containing the Sakula 'backdoor' malware. The Sakula 'trojan' has exclusively been used by China’s Shanghai cyber-espionage unit named Deep Panda (also known as APT19) for nation-state cyber-espionage campaigns. Its most famous hack is the 2014 and 2015 theft of over 21 million government employees records from the US Office of Personnel Management. Once Sakula is plugged into a government or company laptop, it will install malware across the target’s network. Cyber-penetration includes not only database information, but Sakula can access other devices for clandestine live or recorded audio or video." • Street said : "Given that venues for important meetings are vulnerable to surveillance bugs, the Secret Service undoubtedly used technical security countermeasure (TSCM) sweeps ahead of President Trump’s morning meetings at Mar-a-Lago. But Zhang was able to freely enter the resort and roam the grounds for hours without being searched. President Trump’s most effective trade negotiations tool has been the unpredictability of his next move. Having real time cyber-access to US computers and other electronic devices at Mar-a-Lago would allow China to understand if Trump is bluffing or how much pushback the administration is receiving from domestic lobbying groups." • This week, a Chinese vice premier met with President Trump at the White House to report from China's President XI Jinping that trade talks have made "substantive" progress. The US and China are putting together final enforcement rules that should lead to Presidents Xi and Trump signing a very high-visibility trade agreement at Mar-a-Lago sometime in June. Stock markets are rallying this week in anticipation of the deal being completed soon. • Stay alert, Secret Service, stay alert. America depends on you. • • • RUSSIAN MILITARY IN VENEZUELA. American Thinker's Monica Showalter wrote on Wednesday that : "Less than two weeks ago, Russia shifted the balance of power in Venezuela, sending in 100 crack troops, ostensibly to repair Russian-made military aircraft damaged in Venezuela's massive blackout. According to the Washington Post : 'Two planeloads of roughly 100 Russian military personnel landed in Venezuela. The stated reason for their arrival was to help service Venezuela’s Russian-purchased S-300 air defense systems, which may have been damaged amid the country’s increasingly frequent blackouts. The news followed earlier reports of Russian mercenaries or private military contractors already operating as security for the embattled regime.' Venezuela's neighbors, including the US, and Venezuela's own people expressed deep dismay, because it appeared that Russia would be propping up Venezuela's brutal failed socialist regime to ensure that Venezuela's democrats could never dislodge dictator Nicolas Maduro. The gambit appeared to be part of a replay of what the Putin regime did in Syria to prop up its ally, dictator Bashar al-Assad, [according to] Annika Hernroth-Tothstein at the Daily Beast....Russia nevertheless downplayed the the whole thing, and National Security Advisor John Bolton's warning, calling Russia's dispatch of troops to Venezuela 'a direct threat to international peace and security in the region' came and went without much notice." • Showalter noted that : "One of Russia's ambassadors passed on a letter from Russia's equivalent of the Senate to Colombia's Senate, warning the neighbor to not dare violate Venezuelan airspace, or there would be hell to pay.....here is El Tiempo of Bogota's report...[in] a Google translation of what the Russians said : 'The communication, signed by the Russian ambassador in Bogotá, Sergei Koshkin, and dated March 28, explicitly states that any type of incursion into Venezuela, which is supported by the countries that have supported the opposition to the regime of Nicolás Maduro -- As is the case of Colombia -- will be interpreted by Moscow as a threat to peace and international security. 'The illegitimate use of military force against Venezuela by other states that support the opposition will be interpreted by the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation only as an act of aggression against a sovereign State and a threat to international peace and security,' reads the communication signed by the ambassador.' Colombia read that as the unprovoked threat it was, according to El Tiempo : 'For [Colombia's legislative president, Alejandro] Chacón, the communication is 'extremely serious and important,' since the Constitution provides (in its articles 173 and 212) that it is the Senate that must approve the passage of foreign troops and any declaration of war that Colombia makes. 'It is a warning to Congress, because finally we are the ones who allow the government whether or not any kind of military intervention is made in foreign territory, clearly a direct threat to the State of Colombia, that is why we are confirming why direct to the Capitol and not through diplomatic channels,' Chacón told EL TIEMPO. Is it a threat? Yes, the way 'nice house you have there, be a shame if anything should happen to it' is. It came out of the blue, for one. What's more, as the Colombian legislator said, it targeted the right people, meaning, they are watching how things work closely. Most important, it was completely unprovoked. There has been zero rhetoric out of Colombia about militarily intervening in Venezuela (in fact, there's pretty much the opposite kinds of statements coming out), despite the fact that more than a million refugees from Venezuela have poured into that country. The latest news is that starving Venezuelans are now breaking down the Maduro dictatorship's border barriers intended to pen them in, and flooding into Colombia, a crisis that all by itself is for Colombia a casis belli. The other cassis belli is that Russian military jets have lately been violating Colombia's airspace, the latest instance happening last December, which makes Russia's threat even more of a doozy." • It seems incredible that the United States would be so passive in the face of Russian military and diplomacy threatening a South American nation with language that is outrageous coming from a Eurasian power -- "The illegitimate use of military force against Venezuela by other states that support the opposition will be interpreted by the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation only as an act of aggression against a sovereign State and a threat to international peace and security..." This Russian diplomatic threat is accompanied by Russian military in Venezuela and Russian military jets overflying Colombia territory. If that is not a challenge to the Monroe Doctrine, there never will be one. Has the US decided to cede South America to Russian influence?? Has the US decided that South America is no longer part of the Western Hemisphere?? What is going on here?? On January 24, Moscow said external forces led by the US are fuelling chaos by supporting Guaido and the Venezuelan democrats and warned the US against military intervention in Venezuela, saying that if US officials had any sense they would withdraw their own diplomats from Caracas. On March 12, the US announced that it will withdraw all remaining diplomats from its embassy in Venezuela because of worsening conditions in the country. Then, on March 27, President Trump demanded that Russia remove its troops from Venezuela and said again that he was not ruling out military action to topple Madura. Russia is playing for keeps -- that is, to keep Venezuela and its petroleum as a Russian satellite. Is the US willing to step up and halt this Russian move before more of South America is lost to Russia?? • Canada Free Press's Dr. Alexander Nussbaum wrote about his father and Russia on Wednesday : "My late father had the privilege of living in a socialist paradise, Stalin’s Soviet Union. He had many stories of the wonders he saw. Unfortunately I was young and stupid and did not record all of them. He could go on for literally hours, and I thought I would have a father forever. I remember only four, which I will relate. For while Liberals refuse to acknowledge an objective past, Conservatives carefully learn its lessons. Comrades trying to survive a brutal Russian winter were not provided enough wood to keep themselves warm. A beautiful new wooden fence was built, slave labor of course. At night everybody passing by would, under penalty of death, remove a plank. The piece of wood provided enough heat to keep them alive a little longer. Soon the fence was gone....Toilet paper was too good for the comrades. My father’s family, his parents and siblings, were already exterminated by the Germans (with the complicity of all of Europe) by this point. He was with his closest living 'relative,' an uncle by marriage. Paper in any form was not available, but the official communist writings, attributed to Stalin, were sold very cheaply. This man got the idea to buy a bunch of these pamphlets and use them as toilet paper. Except the authorities got suspicious why he was buying so much. They called him in for questioning, Of course if the true reason came out, he would be executed. Using quick wits, he said he bought them to distribute to children and survived....The town had a minor league bully who would extort people for money. One day the NKVD (the secret police) came, apprehended him, and took him to the town square. They forced everybody in the town gather around, They made him kneel, a policemen put a gun to his temple, and blew the violator’s brains out with everybody watching. A valuable lesson that in socialism only the government is allowed to steal. The body was then thrown in a truck, and the NKVD went on its way....Under Stalin everybody had to have a portrait of the beneficent leader in their home, a shrine. (Communism is not atheistic, it just has, well, a different God from the Judeo-Christian one). A little child not knowing better scribbled on the picture of Stalin. The police took the child away for execution, and the parents were afraid to ever speak of the child again." • As Dr. Nussbaum so rightly points out : "This is the future of your children and grandchildren in Ocasio-Cortez’s 'peoples republic.' We are rapidly heading toward being Venezuela. Of course some states will arrive there sooner than others, and the first will be New York State, which is dominated by New York City, AKA the festering third world Marxist sewer. In the years roughly from 2008 to 2012, I attended many humanist events. There I was among New York City’s 'cultural elite,' lawyers, professors, programmers, engineers, executives. I learned a lot of things, like Stalin was a great man, and it was the Soviet Union that defeated Nazi Germany, the United States having nothing to do with it. And Palestinian terrorists, er, freedom fighters, should be admired for their courage in fighting the Zionist occupier. Especially admirable were suicide bombers. Most of all, I heard what a great man Hugo Chavez was, the greatest man alive, and that Venezuela was the model nation for the world, superior to the United States in every way. Basically what was being taught in colleges. New York has long being the Mecca of Marxism....However, from 2015 to 2018, Republicans controlled the New York State Senate and were able to prevent the most egregious Castro-style bills from passing. But since the November 6, 2018, election debacle, it is 'democratic socialists' in total power in New York State and it is Venezuela full speed ahead....Plastic bags!? The proletariat only deserve to carry their moldy bread in their bare hands. By 2030 all waste in New York State will have to be recyclable. No longer will anything be disposable, just like in the middle ages. Fitting, as by then Sharia law will reign." • It makes our hearts ache to hear Dr. Nussbaum say : "I am going to die in this God forsaken hell, but everybody with still a few dollars to their name is going to flee. I mean God forsaken literally. I do not believe a state and city can elect those of the ilk of de Blasio, Cuomo, Ocasio-Cortez and Speaker of New York City council Corey Johnson (google him) unless they truly have forsaken God. And all those who have the ability to, will forsake this state. When refugees from the Vampire State go to the last of America, a state where Trump and Washington are admired, not Stalin, Castro and Ocasio-Cortez, they’re going to receive their purchase in a plastic bag. A precious plastic bag! And like refugees to America for 200 years, upon seeing a luxury not available to them in their miserable former land, they will lift their eyes to heaven and shout loudly 'Only in America!' ” • • • THE US RECOGNIZES ISRAEL'S SOVEREIGNTY OVER THE GOLAN HEIGHTS. Canada Free Press has published an article by Shlomo Brom of INSS (Institute for National Securities Studies)? INSS is an external institute of Tel Aviv University, it maintains a strong association with the academic environment. In addition, it has a strong association with the political and military establishment. Shlomo Brom writes : "At his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on March 25, 2019, President Donald Trump signed a presidential proclamation recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights. This occurred more than 37 years after the Knesset ratified a bill in December, 1981, extending Israeli jurisdiction over the Golan Heights, a measure that notwithstanding the denials by then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin was tantamount to annexation of the Golan Heights to Israel. A few days later, the Security Council passed Resolution 497, stipulating that the annexation had no international significance. In the decades since, no significant actor in the international arena has recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, and the international community has consistently endorsed the opening principle of Security Council Resolution 242 regarding 'the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war.'....The application of Israeli jurisdiction to the Golan in 1981, when Syria was better positioned militarily against Israel, did not have immediate security ramifications, and presumably Syria will avoid direct military confrontation with Israel now as well....perhaps the American measure will push the regime to lend greater support to efforts by Hezbollah and other Shiite militias to build an infrastructure for attacks on the Golan Heights, to be be used if required. Such action, should it happen, would be cautious, and aim to avoid serious escalation with Israel. Iran and its proxies are already engaged in a limited military confrontation with Israel on Syrian soil, and it does not appear that President Trump’s measure will have an impact on the balance of its calculations regarding action against Israel. The same applies to the Palestinian arena : it is unlikely that the American move regarding the Golan Heights will affect decision making by organizations involved in terrorism against Israel or individuals who might be considering taking action against Israel." • Brom states : "There has been sweeping international opposition to the American measure. For example, the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry declared that any change to the status of the Golan Heights that circumvents the Security Council represents a direct violation of UN resolutions....that in accordance with Security Council Resolution 497, Russia’s position is that the Golan belongs to Syria. Russia even tried to question why the United States, if it does not recognize these resolutions, is not prepared to recognize Russian sovereignty in the Crimean Peninsula. In a press release of March 27, 2019, the European Union affirmed : 'The position of the European Union as regards the status of the Golan Heights has not changed. In line with the international law and UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 497, the European Union does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights.' Similarly, France and Germany rejected Trump’s remarks. The French Foreign Ministry asserted that Israeli sovereignty on the territories of the Golan Heights contravenes international law. The spokeswoman for the Berlin government said : 'If national borders should be changed it must be done through peaceful means between all those involved.' Middle East countries friendly to Israel, along with hostile states, share this position. Egypt... the Jordanian Foreign Minister....the Gulf states, led by Saudi Arabia....Iran’s Foreign Ministry....Turkey...[all] condemned the move and announced its intention to take the matter up in international forums....For the Arab world, the American measure will make it even more difficult to promote overt cooperation with Israel, be it among the countries that have peace treaties with Israel or those, like the Gulf states, that have informal ties with it....These countries guard their nation-state structure and their borders, even if chaos reigns within. The opposition in principle to changing borders through force has been preserved, as was the case in 1991, when Saddam Hussein’s occupation of Kuwait united the Arab world against him, and as happened in 2017, when the drive by the Kurdish autonomous region in Iraq to achieve independent statehood was crushed by the Iraqi government with the backing of the entire Arab world. The Arab world is not prepared to let Israel compromise the sovereignty of an Arab state." • Brom says : "As for political ramifications, Syria is unlikely to mount a response to the American measure by attempting actions against the disengagement agreement between it and Israel, or arresting the process it has already begun to restore the presence and operations of the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF). Nor does it seem that this American measure would hinder a possible future renewal of Israeli negotiations with Syria on a peace treaty, should there be an Israeli government interested in renewing negotiations (clearly this is not a scenario for the foreseeable future)....President Trump’s measure bolsters the current administration’s image as standing unconditionally behind Israel and adopting its positions vis-à-vis the Arab countries....This image will likely detract from the Trump administration’s ability to mediate between Israel and the Palestinians and enlist the Arab states in marketing the 'deal of the century.' However, the chances of the deal of the century bringing about progress on the Palestinian issue were slim at best even before the measure. In Israel, the American measure may encourage political elements who have considered annexing Palestinian territories to try to implement these ideas after the election, arguing that the American administration will not stand in the way." • While Shlomo Brom's points are reasoned and deal with the issue as if the Middle East were a rational region, we know that, sadly, that is not the case. What US recognition of Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights does in the real world is provide Israel a buffer against Syrian and terrorist attacks against Israel's vulnerable cities and villages. Reuters wrote on March 21 that the Golan Heights is a hilly 1,200 square kilometer (460 square mile) plateau that also overlooks Lebanon and borders Jordan. Reuters explains : "The Golan Heights were part of Syria until 1967, when Israel captured most of the area in the Six Day War, occupying it and annexing it in 1981. That unilateral annexation was not recognized internationally, and Syria demands the return of the territory. • NOTE that what the international community refuses to acknowledge is that according to the Bible, the Children of Israel conquered the Golan from the Amorites. The Bible says that the area immediately to the east, known as Bashan, was inhabited by two Israelite tribes during the time of Joshua, the tribe of Dan and Manasseh. The city of Golan was a city of refuge. In fact, the Golan continued being part of Israel after the split between Israel and Judah and was part of the Second Temple era Judea. The British gave the Golan to France's Syrian colony in 1923. Syria attacked Israel in 1967 and lost the Golan. Syria tried to regain the Heights in the 1973 Middle East war, but was stopped again by Israel. Israel and Syria signed an armistice in 1974. Reuters says : "In 2000, Israel and Syria held their highest-level talks over a possible return of the Golan and a peace agreement. But the negotiations collapsed and subsequent talks also failed. Israel says that the civil war in Syria demonstrates the need to keep the plateau as a buffer zone between Israeli towns and the instability of its neighbor. Israel’s government says it also fears that Iran, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, is seeking to establish itself permanently on the Syrian side of the border in order to launch attacks on Israel. Before the outbreak of the civil war in Syria in 2011, there was an uneasy stand-off between Israeli and Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad....Assad’s forces are now back in control of the Syrian side of the Quneitra crossing, which reopened in October 2018, while United Nations forces are still carrying out refurbishment works to positions they were forced to leave years ago. Although Israel signaled that it would not impede the Syrian army’s return to Quneitra, it has repeatedly expressed concern that Assad may defy the UN armistice, or let his Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah allies deploy there....Between the Israeli and Syrian armies is a 400-square-km (155-square-mile) 'Area of Separation' -- often called a demilitarized zone -- in which the two countries’ military forces are not permitted under the ceasefire arrangement." • President Trump’s Proclamation recognizing Israel’s sovereignty in the Golan Heights -- and the condemnation issued by the United Nations Security Council in response is just one more indication that the UN is the world’s center for rabid Jew-hatred. The Jews and Israel do have ancient, historic and legal claims to sovereignty in the Golan Heights that cannot be dismissed by a UN statement titled “Security Council Members Regret Decision by United States to Recognize Israel’s Sovereignty over Occupied Syrian Golan.” • • • DEAR READERS, since we are ending today's blog with an Israel report, let's turn away from the Golan and look at British Prime Minister Theresa May. I have not said much about Mrs. May's valiant effort to honor the vote of a majority of the British people to leave he European Union -- the horrendous Brexit mess. Mrs.May has stood almost alone as a defender of the democratic expression of the British people that they wish to withdraw from the entanglement that is the EU. What does this have to do with Israel? Consider this. The JTA (Jewish Telegraphic Agency) wrote a sort of thank-you to Theresa May on Wednesday, stating : "Deeply unpopular among voters, May has faced successive defeats in the Parliament, where even members of her own Conservative Party oppose her deal for Britain leaving the European Union. The deadline for the divorce is April 12. She is so desperate to pass her deal that last week she offered to resign if it passes in the Parliament. So far it’s still a no-go. But for many British Jews, one thing is certain : If May goes, her departure will mean goodbye to one of the friendliest prime ministers that the Jewish community has had in the kingdom’s history. 'Prime Minister May followed a line of what you might consider leaders who are attentive and friendly to the Jewish community, as well as to Israel,' said Jonathan Arkush, the previous president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews. Yet May, he added, 'distinguished herself' even against that background. Under May, the United Kingdom has taken unprecedented positions in favor of the Jewish people and Israel. Her Cabinet led the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Agency’s definition of anti-Semitism, which some anti-Israel activists reject for the way it addresses how hate speech about the Jewish state sometimes cloaks anti-Jewish sentiments. It also has blacklisted the entire Hezbollah group rather than just its military wing. And the United Kingdom under May in 2017 said it would vote against a permanent article against Israel on the United Nations Human Rights Council. Last month, the rest of Europe followed in Britain’s footsteps in this regard. Last year, Prince William ended a decades-long unofficial perceived boycott on official visits to Israel by senior members of the British Royal House. May’s government had a central role in facilitating the visit. May has even clashed with the Foreign Office over Israel, imposing her own policies and successfully 'diluting its institutional hostility toward Israel,' said Jonathan Hoffman, a North London-based blogger and former vice chair of the Zionist Federation of Britain. Diverging from the Foreign Office’s attempts to appear impartial on the Balfour Declaration -- a seminal document in the history of Zionism -- May embraced it openly during the statement’s centennial anniversary in 2017. But one of her greatest gifts to British Jewry may have been what she appeared careful not to do : Namely, attempt to use the anti-Semitism crisis raging with the opposition Labour Party for the benefit of her own Conservative Party. Accusations of anti-Semitism directed at Labour officials exploded following the 2015 election of the far-left politician Jeremy Corbyn to lead the party. It was a traumatic turn of events for many British Jews, who had considered Labour their political home. Corbyn is an anti-Israel stalwart who has defended an anti-Semitic mural and said British-born 'Zionists' don’t understand irony. He attracted thousands from the far left to join Labour. Discourse within the ranks became so toxic that many Jews left the party, including prominent Jewish lawmakers. Through it all, May resisted the temptation to exploit the issue for political gain, Arkush said. 'It would have been very harmful had the fight against anti-Semitism become some sort of pawn,' he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. But as the ruling party, the Conservatives would have been wrong to ignore the problem altogether, Arkush said. 'We felt May had our back without leveraging the issue,' he said." • In a statement that echoes the inexplicable situation in the US where a majority of Jewish Americans vote for Democrats who abuse them and favor Islam, British Jewish community leaders “traditionally support left-wing positions,” Hoffman said. “This prevents them from embracing May and the Conservative Party wholeheartedly.” • Politics DOES indeed sometimes make strange bedfellows. But, the Republican Party in America and the Conservative Party in Britain have Israel's and Jewish people's best interests at heart -- whether or not Jewish citizens in the US and UK vote for their political friends and allies.