Cherokee Elizabeth Warren headed to Sioux City for important meeting of the tribes

Americans should ask Democrat Ilhan Omar, MN-5, whether she's a victim of Muslim female genital mutilation

Suddenly Obamacare is not much of a muchness to Democrats, a mere stepping stone to the socialist future

The next development will be Republicans arguing, as Paul Ryan did in 2012 about Medicare, that conservatism means we must preserve Obamacare for future generations. 

Terry McAuliffe on 2020 Democratic Candidates: "We All Support Medicare For All"

Lindsey Grahamnesty points out that the Gang of Eight bill was tougher on border security than Trump is now

Suddenly the Gang of Eight bill is conservatism. Trump is now to the left of the entire Republican primary field of 2016 on immigration, begging for just $5 billion and willing to take less.

What suckers he takes us for.

Lindsey Graham: "The Wall Has Become A Metaphor For Border Security," Democrats Supported In The Past:

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM: What I can tell you is Democrats have voted for 700 miles of the Secure Fence Act that had double-layered fencing. Call that whatever you'd like. In the Gang of Eight bill we had $42 billion for border security, including $9 billion for physical barriers. 

The wall has become a metaphor for border security. And what we're talking about is a physical barrier where it makes sense. In the past, every Democrat has voted for these physical barriers. It can't be just about because Trump wants it we no longer agree with it. 

There is nothing immoral about a physical barrier along the border in places that make sense. There will never be a deal that doesn't have money for the physical barriers that we all in the past have agreed we need.

Laugh of the Day: Trump calls Elizabeth Talking Bull crazy without calling her crazy

The president has this part of politics down pat. Too bad the follow through on policy utterly escapes him.

From the transcript here:

HEGSETH: She says she’s in the fight all the way, Mr. President. Do you really think she believes she can win? 

TRUMP: Well that I don’t know. You’d have to ask her psychiatrist. But honestly, I just, you know --

(LAUGHTER)

H. Ross Perot's $13/hr factory jobs going to Mexico in 1992 should pay $27/hr today adjusted for inflation but pay only $18

The giant sucking sound clip from 1992 is here.

Perot characterized factory wages in 1992 as typically paying between $12 and $14 per hour.

Adjusted for inflation the $13 job in 2017 would pay nearly $27 per hour. The reality is it pays a lot less than that. Factory work in Michigan today basically starts at $15, up only 25% not 107%. The average manufacturing job paying $21+ is composed of a lot of such lower paying positions.

The reality is in Michigan that the top eventual $18/hr advertised wage is the equivalent of less than $9/hr in 1992.

The jobs have gone out of the country, expanding middle classes abroad while impoverishing our own at home.

Oakland California mayor Libby Schaaf, let's lock her up

OK, let's be honest: Racism is so yesterday when unpatriotic Republicans and Democrats get rich and get votes off cheap foreign labor

Republicans specialize in spending money on putting Americans out of work, by importing cheap foreign labor and giving tax breaks to job-exporting corporations

Democrats specialize in spending money on things which don't work, like welfare recipients, not on things which do, like walls

Outgoing Trump Chief of Staff General John Kelly attacks Jeff Sessions, was just one in the retinue opposing Trump's policies whom Trump himself appointed

That's rich, attacking the only guy in the administration who tried to implement the policies the candidate ran on.

Good riddance!

John Kelly blames Jeff Sessions for 'zero tolerance,' family separations along border:

“What happened was Jeff Sessions, he was the one that instituted the zero-tolerance process on the border that resulted in both people being detained and the family separation,” Kelly said. “He surprised us.” ... “The president still says ‘wall’ – oftentimes frankly he’ll say ‘barrier’ or ‘fencing,’ now he’s tended toward steel slats," Kelly said. "But we (moved away from) a solid concrete wall early on in the administration, when we asked people what they needed and where they needed it.” ... “Illegal immigrants, overwhelmingly, are not bad people,” Kelly said. “I have nothing but compassion for them, the young kids.” ... He said the job was arduous and he often clashed with Trump over policy. But he was determined to stay through the 2018 midterm elections.

Trump already compromised on The Wall, and that's the problem

Trump gave away 80% of what he wanted without getting anything in return.

It's political malpractice. 

Even worse, he's shut down the government now over the remaining 20% at the most politically inopportune time, having nothing left to bargain with.

The time to have done this was when Republicans were in control of Congress, in January 2017, or February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December, January 2018, February . . ..

Forgive us for thinking he was never serious about The Wall, at all.

The Wall is now and may always have been simply a political tool, like opposition to abortion. He stopped being serious about it in August 2016 after the immigration issue secured him the nomination, when this "advisor", Kellyanne Conway, came on board from the Ted Cruz campaign, which likewise was never serious about The Wall. Ted had one throwaway line about immigration in his entire speech announcing his candidacy, that's it. It was Trump who completely blindsided him and the rest of the Republican field with the issue. But ever since it's only red meat for the base. He never made it a priority, and fired the only person actively pursuing immigration reform in his administration, Attorney General Jeff Sessions. That's how unimportant The Wall has been to the president. 

The Wall riles up the news, keeping Trump in it, that's all.

Kellyanne Conway: Trump "Already Compromised" On Border Wall Funding, Originally Asked for $25 Billion:

I believe the president has already compromised. He originally asked for $25 billion. The House is at $5.6 billion. They did their job. The Senate has to come back. It is a modest investment.

State elections board still refuses to certify Republican Mark Harris the winner in NC-9

North Carolina seat in U.S. Congress likely to stay vacant as fraud controversy intensifies:

Harris filed an emergency petition earlier on Friday to be certified as victor of last month’s election for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. His request was rejected by a state elections board reviewing whether mail-in ballots were illegally handled in some rural counties.

But the future of that investigation was thrown into doubt by a state court ruling and newly passed law. The state elections board was disbanded on Friday, after a state court on Thursday declined to extend a stay on a previous order declaring the composition of the board unconstitutional.

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, a Democrat, said he would immediately appoint an interim board to continue the investigation until a restructured elections board was due to begin operating at the end of January under a new state law.

The US has wasted trillion$ in the Middle East if the president can't fly-in to Iraq like he can to Berlin

Laugh of the Day: WGVU's school closings page shows its most recent information dates to Dec 31, 1969, or 25.7 million minutes ago

The assholes in the media will report every illegal's rare death in custody but NEVER report on their much more numerous murders of Americans

So why did Trump appoint a Secretary of Agriculture who doesn't support The Wall?

The only other explanation than the one below is that Trump isn't really serious about The Wall and never has been, and is only interested in how he can play the politics of The Wall.

Donald Trump can fund the border wall without congressional approval:

Opposition to the wall within Trump’s own administration has prevented progress on this issue, which is wildly popular with the GOP’s conservative base and is the consequence of the president surrounding himself with establishment advisers who have worked to thwart his populist agenda from within. For example, after being briefed on the concept of selling USDA commercial paper to pay for border security, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue’s then-Chief of Staff Heidi Green shot down the idea by curtly stating, “The secretary does not want the wall.”

Of course Justin Raimondo exonerates third parties from spoiling elections, that's his party's specialty

Laugh of the Day: SECDEF Jim Mattis resigned effective Feb. 28, 2019 to ensure a smooth transition, Trump boots him effective Jan. 1 after reading what he said about him

Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis Resigning in February

After criticism, Trump pushes out Mattis sooner than planned

 

Eight House Republicans who voted against funding The Wall include Amash and Upton in Michigan, eleven others didn't even bother to vote

Funding passed the US House 217-185 with 31 not voting.

Eight House Republicans voted against funding The Wall (the question involved in this piece of sausage, Child Protection Improvements Act of 2017, is humorously described as "On Motion to Concur in the Senate Amendment to the House Amendment to the Senate Amendment with Amendment", part of politicians' perennially deliberate efforts to obscure what the hell they are doing so that we tire of tracking it):

Justin Amash, MI-3

Ken Buck, CO-4

Carlos Curbelo, FL-26 (defeated in 2018)

Will Hurd, TX-23

Erik Paulsen, MN-3 (defeated in 2018)

Ros-Lehtinen, FL-27 (didn't run in 2018, seat flipped)

Fred Upton, MI-6

David Valadao, CA-21 (defeated in 2018)

Eleven House Republicans didn't bother to vote at all on funding The Wall:

Diane Lynn Black, TN-6 (didn't run in 2018, ran for governor and lost in primary)

Barbara Comstock, VA-10 (defeated in 2018)

Jeff Duncan, SC-3

Randy Hultgren, IL-14 (defeated in 2018)

Darrell Issa, CA-49 (didn't run in 2018, seat flipped)

Lynn Jenkins, KS-2 (didn't run in 2018)

Walter Jones, NC-3

Mia Love, UT-4 (defeated in 2018)

Kristi Noem, SD (didn't run in 2018, ran for governor and won)

Peter Roskam, IL-6 (defeated in 2018)

Dave Trott, MI-11 (didn't run in 2018, seat flipped)

[Red indicates they'll be back in the US House in January 2019, to torment us.]