Thursday, February 1, 2018

The Self-Immolation of the Los Angeles Times

The Washington Post has struggled with its growing struggle of integrity and staffing issues. They were fishing around for the worst story they could find to impugn the character of Judge Roy Moore in his special election bid for the US Senate.

Even though the hollow, hateful smears brought down his bid, the Washington Post has lost what little integrity they claimed to carry from henceforth.

Another liberal rag, the Los Angeles Times, published a hit piece against me, but in spite of their best efforts, more people came out in support for me and what I stand for. Those liberals who tried to use the story against me, would have attacked me with or without the LA Times article.

Now the Los Angeles Times is the featured story as the paper's circulation crumbles and the editorial staff gets purged.

‘Anything could happen’: Amid newsroom clashes, Los Angeles Times becomes its own story
By Paul Farhi January 26 at 6:09 PM 

The news has been frenetic lately for reporters at the Los Angeles Times. Massive wildfires swept a region just getting over a historic drought, followed by deadly mudslides, and then the explosive Turpin family child-abuse saga — a chain of events that tested the chops of the prizewinning newsroom.


They are losing staff every day. They can't keep up with operating costs, and more readers are fed up with fake news

But some of the biggest news at the Times has been coming from within its downtown headquarters. The paper — one of the largest and most important news organizations in America — has been beset by turmoil the past two weeks, prompting questions about its future.

The Tribune Company has sold off shares and interests in buildings and other real estate. They have been laying off workers, and they have cycled through one editor after another.

After decades of successful resistance by management and years of demoralizing cutbacks, the Times’s journalists voted overwhelmingly last week to unionize. Before bargaining can begin, however, reporters are concerned about a plan by the Times’s management to reorganize the way the paper produces news.

The push to unionize is a last-ditch attempt for those overpaid liberal propagandists to hold onto their jobs. What they do not realize, however, is that unionization does not guarantee a job. They are not the owners of all the resources and staffing. The company owners get to decide what they do with their printing presses, digital machines, etc.

They can choose to shut down the paper altogether, sell off all their materiel, and put all the journalists on the street.

Under a new “pyramid” structure proposed this month, a network of nonstaff contributors would produce the bulk of the information the Times publishes online. Reporters say the paper has quietly begun hiring a cadre of editors to supervise the reorganization, which would effectively create a new company within the company.

Yes, people who will not act like a bunch of entitled social justice warriors who think that the world owes them ... everything. These hacks are predominantly straight out of college, where they have been taught to see the world through a Marxist conflict-theory lens.

They don't report the news as much as promote a narrative.

The man who introduced the plan — blindsiding the newsroom when he presented it to an investor conference in New York — was publisher Ross Levinsohn, the fifth person to hold that title in the past five years. Last week, Levinsohn was suspended by the paper’s owner, Chicago-based Tronc, after NPR revealed a series of sexual harassment allegations against him in previous jobs. The company said it is investigating.

Ouch! More #MeToo

The state of play at the Times, as well as the existential dread swirling around it, was neatly summarized in a tweet this week by Matt Pearce, a Times national reporter and an organizer of the union effort: “Basically, anything could happen at this point at the L.A. Times and people in the newsroom could only be half surprised by it. We’re hiring [editors] that aren’t being announced to the newsroom, our publisher wants to turn us into a pyramid, and by the way, he’s under investigation.”

In fact, more shoes are dropping.

On Thursday, reporters protested after top editor Lewis D’Vorkin suspended Kimi Yoshino, the Times’s financial editor. His reason was unclear — neither party would comment — but Times reporters say D’Vorkin suspected that Yoshino had been a source for other media reports about the Times, including an unflattering profile of D’Vorkin in the Columbia Journalism Review, which dubbed him “LA journalism’s ‘Prince of Darkness.’ ”

Now the reporters are ratting out their editors. So much distrust, but the reporters can thank themselves for creating this hostile environment. Unions create conflict rather than resolve conflict. The pit workers against workers, and workers against management, and objective journalism is completely lost in the process.

“We were very upset to learn yesterday that Kimi was abruptly asked to take a leave of absence and not even permitted to return to her office to collect her belongings and turn off her laptop,” said a letter signed by Times business journalists and promptly disseminated online. “This treatment of Kimi is a serious cause for concern.”



Aww. Poor babies!

Did they forget that the newsroom belongs to the owners, not the workers? I wonder also how much money the reporters are losing because they have to pay union dues to a union which has no incentive to work for the workers.

A spokeswoman for Tronc said it could not comment on employee matters.

D’Vorkin, who took over as Times editor in November, is a controversial figure in media circles. At Forbes, he undertook some unorthodox steps to arrest the magazine’s declining fortunes — including setting up a network of outside contributors to write stories for Forbes.com, some unpaid and some compensated on the basis of how many readers their stories attracted. He also permitted ads that blurred the lines between promotional content and news stories.

OK ...

In other words, D'Vorkin recognized the shifting media market and responded accordingly. Unions will never learn.

As the Times newsroom organizing committee characterized it in a letter to Tronc’s board on Tuesday, D’Vorkin “devalued Forbes’ journalism by sullying it with unpaid contributor content, pay-for-clicks schemes and troubling presentations of advertorial.”

Such is the fate of journalism. Everyone of us can tell stories, now, that no one can silence. The corporate leaders along the coasts cannot stop the news from coming forward anymore. Times are changing, and liberal corporate media cannot adjust anymore.

Only days into his new job at the Times, D’Vorkin drew the enmity of many in his newsroom by his response to complaints lodged by the Disney Co. over a Times series that detailed Disney’s influence over city officials in Anaheim, home of Disneyland. In the face of Disney executives’ protests, D’Vorkin ordered his journalists not to promote the Times’s own stories on social media. The entertainment giant is a key advertiser as well as a news source for the Times.

Wow! Media giants have turned into media whores! But this is not really news. The Los Angeles Times has been covering for liberals and Democratic politicians for decades. They are just getting really sloppy and brazen about it.

He also declined to reveal details of his meeting with Disney executives about the issue or to publish more than a few paragraphs about the paper’s discussions with the company, which had drawn national attention. D’Vorkin declined to comment for this article, referring a reporter to Tronc’s corporate spokesman.

Newspaper journalists are turning into spokesmen trying to sell a product. Nothing more.

The non-response appears to go to the heart of one of the central complaints by people at the paper: that a company engaged in communications doesn’t communicate very well with its own employees.

Why should they? The paper has not communicated the truth with the public for decades.

“It’s frustrating to hear about plans that we weren’t consulted about,” Anthony Pesce, a Times data journalist, told The Washington Post. “This paper is comprised of smart and engaged journalists who want nothing more than to see [the paper] succeed.”

Smart? Not really, considering that one of their reporters openly advertisers her connection with rabid anti-Semite Helen Thomas:





Amid the tumult, the Times has produced some of the best journalism in its 136-year history. In addition to its penetrating series about Disney, it broke a huge scandal in July involving a former dean at the University of Southern California’s medical school. It has been a leader in revealing sexual harassment allegations against leading Hollywood figures, such as directors James Toback and Brett Ratner. And in 2016, it won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news for its coverage of the mass shooting in San Bernardino, its 44th Pulitzer.

But even those triumphs have come at a price. In August, Tronc fired the paper’s four top editors following an investigation triggered by staff complaints about the handling of major stories, including those about the USC dean.

WOW!

Tronc (the unusual new name is shorthand for Tribune Online Content) is an offshoot of the long-troubled Tribune Co., which emerged from bankruptcy protection in 2012. Tronc owns what had been Tribune Co.’s newspaper assets, including the Times, Baltimore Sun, Chicago Tribune and New York Daily News.

And these newspapers are practically giving away their online content, offering 10 weeks of unlimited access on websites for $1.

And still it seems that most readers are not biting.

Like almost every newspaper in the United States, the Times and its parent company has been buffeted for years by a precipitous decline in advertising and the flight of subscribers. During the 1990s, the Times had more than 1,000 journalists. It now employs about 400. Still, the events of recent days seem to have left both the newsroom and its readers a bit dazed and unsure of what’s coming next.

Bankruptcy. Layoffs. Oblivion.

One Times reader conveyed the bafflement in a tweet on Friday: “I subscribe to LAT b/c I think it’s impt to support my local paper, & their journalists do great work. But what’s going on there is awful. Is it helpful or counterproductive for me to cancel my subscription?”

Helpful.

Final Reflection

I am glad to see that Los Angeles Times go up in flames, and to see the conflagration break out within its own ranks. Elected officials, conservatives, Christians, grassroots activists concerned about their communities have had to contend with the liberal Fake News media for decades. There was so little that individuals could do at the time, since newspapers were the biggest megaphones in the public sphere and they dictated what people knew and did not know.

We lost Vietnam in large part because Walter Cronkite declared that the US forced has lost Vietnam. In fact, the military expeditions were becoming successful, and it is all wrong. The media had inordinate power and little accountability. They printed a false story, and the devastating consequences lasted for months if not years. Retractions were never adequate, and in many cases, media giants were printing lies or unsubstantiated reports.

Not good.

Now the corrupt, liberal media is getting the epic comeuppance! Boy, do they deserve it,

Silly Shelly Whitehouse, Still Beating "Overturn Citizens United" Drum

US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island) has resurrected the old argument over Citizens United. The Supreme Court decision opened up the power of independent PACs to spend unlimited amounts on candidates and causes, but they could not collude with candidates to do so.

Now he's hoping that this issue will bring in donations to help him in his re-election bid, although it would seem to me that because of his corrupt stance on illegal immigration as well as fanatical push for climate alarmism, he is facing more challenges than he realized.

Check out this eblast, and tell me if you think he is as delusional as I think he is:

Whitehouse for Senate
Friends:
Eight years ago this month, the Supreme Court made a monumental decision to allow special-interest groups to spend unlimited money in political elections.
Ever since, we've watched dark-money groups throw obscene amounts of cash into election after election, with most of them backing hardline conservatives. Before the ruling, "outside" groups spent $143 million on the 2008 elections – but in 2016, they spent a whopping $1.4 billion. The current sorry state of our politics and the advance of partisan extremism owes a lot to this terrible ruling.
Enough is enough. If we let dark money decide elections, America could fall into the hands of big anonymous donors. Friends, grassroots support is the key to fighting back against the influx of dark money: Give $5 or more now to help me win reelection and keep up this fight for accountability in our politics.
A single court ruling opened the floodgates to anonymous, untraceable spending. That's why we've got to make it harder for Trump to nominate special-interest nominees to the Supreme Court. He's already begun stacking it with right-wing justices and could nominate more in the years to come.
If we want any chance of overturning Citizens United, we can't let Trump pack our highest court, so strengthening our Democratic firewall in the Senate is essentialBut I need your help to win reelection and strengthen the Democratic firewall:
Thank you,
Sheldon

NPR Puts Compassion on Trial: "DACA Teachers Face Uncertain Future"

Why do we have to hear all these sob stories about illegal aliens in our country? Men and women who were brought into this country as children have no right to demand legal status or citizenship.

The fact that previous governments have unjustly complicated the immigration problem in this country with piece-meal amnesty does not justify throwing away the rule of law and the enforcement of our country's borders and sovereignty.



National Public Radio, however, is more interested in left-wing sound bites and talking points rather than discussion the truth about illegal immigration, the negative consequences imposed by illegal aliens displacing Americans, overwhelming our country's natural resources, and putting Americans' lives at risk.

Yet we still read the sob stories.

So, about 9,000 DACA teachers are going to be laid off.

Good!

There you have 9,000 positions that will open up for Americans to take. That's the way it should be.

Here's the story from National Public Radio--the same medium in which big names have stepped down because of their own spate of sexual misconduct.

Nearly 9,000 DACA Teachers Face An Uncertain Future

Maria Rocha, a third-grade teacher at the KIPP Esperanza Dual Language Academy in San Antonio, came to the U.S. from Mexico when she was 3 years old.

Let's go one step further. She didn't come to the United States on her own. Her parents brought her here. So what? She is in the country illegally, and she needs to be sent back to her home country.

Of the 690,000 undocumented immigrants now facing an uncertain future as Congress and President Trump wrangle over the DACA program are about 8,800 school teachers.

They should have never gotten those jobs, because President Obama should have never authorized such a corrupt, unconstitutional program in the first place.

The real possibility that they'll be deported if the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program is allowed to expire has put enormous stress on them.

Too bad. What about the enormous stress placed on Americans? Our homeless, our veterans, and other at-risk populations deserve the attention of our local and state governments, not illegal aliens.

Maria Rocha, a teacher in San Antonio, Texas, says it's gut wrenching, but she's trying not to show it in front of her third-graders. Rocha has been teaching at KIPP Esperanza Dual-Language Academy for three years.

The KIPP Charter program needs to be investigated or defunded for taking those unconstitutional authorizations. THis is beyond outrageous.

It's even harder, she says, because some of her students are also at risk of being deported.

They have their parents, and those parents will return with the children to their home countries, and they can come back legally.

"It's a very touchy subject with 8-9 year olds," says Rocha. "But they're aware of this because they have family members who are undocumented themselves, so their families talk about it."

Undocumented" is not going to soft-pedal the truth that these individuals are in the country illegally, and therefore they have neither right nor entitlement to live here. The do not get to enjoy the civil rights which belong to American citizens.

Rocha says a first-grade teacher and colleague at the school self-deported late last year after her DACA permit expired. Everybody at the school took it really hard, says Rocha, but there was nothing anybody could've done.

Self-deportations are real, and they are happening all over the country. This fact stands in contrast to the lies repeated by illegal alien activists all over the country who claim that this country cannot deport all 11-16 million illegal aliens.

More of them will begin self-deporting when they realize that state and federal governments are fully enforcing our nation's laws. That will cut down on the time, costs, and resource uses which these traitors claim is such a costly hindrance to enforcement.

School districts in Texas and across the country have hired teachers covered by DACA on the condition that they renew their work permit every two years, as the program requires. But last September, after President Trump announced he was shutting down DACA, these teachers suddenly found the safety and security the program had offered up in the air.

They should have never had them in the first place. Why would the school districts hire these illegals in the first place? What an abuse of public funds. Someone needs to pass a law in Austin and every other state legislature to end the practice of hiring foreign nationals using unauthorized permits.



"I'm trying to remain positive and try to compose myself every day with my students, Rocha says, "because I talk to them about their future and yet I don't know my own."

She needs to join her colleagues and self-deport to her own country.

Rocha was a toddler when she and her grandmother left Coahuila, Mexico, and entered the U.S. illegally. In June 2012, right around the time Rocha turned 25, DACA went into effect. Rocha qualified and immediately her life changed.

How many other lives have been changed? Let's talk about Tierra Stansberry, who along four other Americans was murdered by an illegal alien "dreamer" named Johnny Josue Sanchez. Those families will never see their children again. What about their dreams?

What about Ruben Morfin, Drew Rosenberg, Jamiel Shaw Jr., Dominic Durden, Ronald de Silva, and the average of 25 Americans a day murdered by illegal aliens in our own country? Their situation is worse than deportation to another country. They are dead, and there is no longer a country on this earth for them.

"I was living in the shadows because of fear," she says. "I didn't want my family targeted because they're also undocumented. But with DACA I was no longer afraid."

Americans are living in the shadows today because our needs, our concerns for public safety are not being met. Police officers are ordered to stand down when Antifa thugs attack innocent civilians.

Before then, Rocha had been working as a housekeeper while holding down two other jobs to pay for her college education.

Most Americans have been unable to get work because illegal aliens have been undercutting the job market, forcing down wages with the abundance of labor.

When she graduated with a teaching degree from the University of Texas-San Antonio, it was the fulfillment of a childhood dream — to be a teacher.

Now she can be a teacher in Mexico or any other country where she can legally immigrate too. Nothing is necessarily preventing her dreams. She can still pursue them in Mexico. What about our American Dreamers?

"I just purchased my first car in December," says Rocha. "We've done things the right way. We were told to go to school, make a career. But now we're at the mercy of the stroke of a pen."

Blame Barack Obama for leaving you at the mercy of a pen. He had no right to authorize that corrupt executive order in the first place. It's not the fault of the American public that Mexico turned into a failed state, and that therefore citizens in that country have refused to take up arms and fight back.

Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg of the Legal Aid and Justice Center, an advocacy group in Virginia, says that if lawmakers don't restore DACA, Rocha and people like her will be forced to recede back into the shadows.

They should be forced to return to their home countries. Rocha herself just reported that her colleagues self-deported. The New York Times followed the story of a handful of illegals in different states, and all of them packed up their lives and moved to their home countries. They managed just fine.



"We're talking about huge numbers of people with work permits, who've built a solid working class or middle class existence," he says, "who will immediately be punched into poverty."

No they have not. Illegal aliens commit disproportionately more crimes. They are heavily dependent on government benefits.

Some legal experts say the courts could still intervene. Teachers unions and the National School Boards Association for example are backing a lawsuit filed last month in New York that could prevent school districts from firing teachers whose DACA permits expire.

Not going to happen. The DOJ already fast-tracked their appeal against a San Francisco district court ruling, and they will do the same with a New York state challenge, too.

Maria Rocha says she survived before DACA and she'll survive after DACA.

Exactly. She needs to get busy making her life ready for herself in her home country. She can make it.

Rocha says she's thought about quitting her graduate studies. "Why continue to work if my work permit is going to expire? But no one is ever going to un-educate me."

"Mama dice que es ser bendecida," Rocha says in Spanish: My mom says I'm blessed, because of DACA.



Now, the question is, will lawmakers in Washington see it that way?

Nope, especially the Democratic Party, which has no other interest than perpetuating their power at the expense of everyone else.

Final Reflection

It's time for Congress to cut government funding to National Public Radio.

CNN: DACA Deal is DOA

When even Clinton News Network acknowledges that Democrats are losing the fight ..

They are losing the fight.

For the past 30 years, The Democratic Party has demagogued in full fashion the illegal immigration issue. They created piecemeal offers and amnesties to create this class of people in limbo, so that Democrats could continue to exploit the emotional issue.

Jimmy Kimmel tried to do that on his talk show two nights ago, and for greater intents and purposes, his efforts fell flat:



In spite of the most endearing "best case" scenario, the guests on the program (including myself) held our ground and insisted on enforcement of our immigration laws.

CNN is now reporting that any kind of DACA is looking DOA, dead on arrival:


Washington (CNN)After months of rhetoric and negotiations on immigration with the parties barely any closer to each other, the reality is beginning to dawn that there may be no deal to be had.

The Democratic Party cannot agree to a wall. Cryin' Chuck Schumer even admitted that he would authorize construction of a wall because in his view it would never get built.

Stakeholders working toward a deal on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, likely including border security, are not giving up hope. But the White House's and some Republicans' insistence on adding new restrictions to legal immigration and the left's opposition could be an insurmountable gap.

Exactly. Trump has made his end of the bargain so secure, that the left cannot budge. They simple cannot get over the idea of a wall along our country's southern border. They do not want to solve the problem, but rather want to ensure the perennial conflict to shame Republicans and win sympathy votes.

The White House on Thursday released its proposed framework for a deal on DACA, a program that protected young undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children that President Donald Trump is terminating as of March 5 but pushing lawmakers to replace.

President Trump is not "pushing" anyone to do anything. Congress is elected to pass laws. That is their job. We the People push our elected legislators to pass laws, to authorize spending, and to direct the President and his executive staff to enforce those laws.

The proposal did have some concessions to Democrats, including a path to citizenship for an estimated 1.8 million undocumented immigrants, but also included aggressive cuts to legal immigration and a push for enhanced enforcement powers, along with upwards of $25 billion for a wall and other border security. The framework also ends family migration beyond spouses and minor children and abolishes the diversity visa lottery.

These are proposals which Americans have been clamoring for for decades. We need to control legal immigration as well as illegal immigration. Our federal government needs to put Americans First, to safeguard the sovereignty of this nation

The proposal was panned by the left and the right. Groups who support restricting immigration slammed it as "amnesty." Democratic lawmakers and immigration advocates rejected it as a "massive, cruel and family-punishing overhaul of our current legal immigration system," as New Jersey's Sen. Bob Menendez phrased it.

Bob Menendez should talk, right? I mean, he's been under investigation and indictment for corruption for the past three years. Menendez the blue-state mafioso from New Jersey wants more third-world immigrants.



The framework, plus Trump's earlier rejection of an offer from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to authorize upwards of $20 billion for a wall and a vulgar rejection of a bipartisan proposal from the Senate "Gang of Six," could mean that the only option left is a temporary extension of DACA with no future certainty. Some lawmakers have even started mentioning the latter option.

An extension of DACA would be beyond foolhardy. There should be no extension whatsoever. The DACA program must sunset for good, and all illegals, regardless of their age, background, or circumstances must leave the country and come back legally, through the front door, righteously in accordance with our immigration laws.

For now a permanent solution for DACA is "dead," said Leon Fresco, an immigration attorney who led immigration negotiations for Schumer in 2013.

You bet, and whose fault is it? The Democratic Party. I can't wait to see the Democrats on Capitol Hill shut down the government a second time for illegals. I wonder how the public will take to that.

"Thursday pretty much lined it up as the final verdict," Fresco said. "When Trump proposed something that in orthodoxy was not possible in the Democrat world and got criticized by the right, that was the end of the deal, because how can Trump agree to something more liberal now? ... For both sides, the deal is completely unacceptable, so that's what makes this very complicated."

Exactly. It's not possible. Democrats have been overrun by chronically angry, abusive illegal aliens who demand full amnesty with no enforcement. These illegals and their open border enablers don't realize that they no longer have the upper hand. The major pillars of our culture are in full decline, no longer able to prop up the false narratives of compassion for young illegals.

The American people are not getting taken for a ride any longer. We want our American children, elder, veterans, homeless taken care of, not illegal aliens.

One longtime lobbyist on the issue, Randel Johnson, who recently left the US Chamber of Commerce to join the law firm Seyfarth Shaw as a partner, wasn't quite ready to give up but did acknowledge that neither side may be able to come far enough toward the other to reach a deal.

The American People should not have to barter and deal for our government to do its job. Simple as that. The voters, the taxpayers in this country owe the illegal aliens in this country nothing. They have no right to demand anything from the public, nothing from our government. I am surprised that the elected officials and their staffers have refused to call ICE on the protesters and have them arrested. DACA recipients cannot break any laws as a condition of receiving the unconstitutional permit at the outset.

"I think the danger is both sides begin posturing to their respective bases and both sides will walk away earning brownie points with their bases and get nothing done," Johnson said.

The American people of all backgrounds are more than just a base. This is our country.

Advocacy groups who have been a constant presence on the left pushing for a deal have been disheartened by the lack of success even when they have accepted some concessions.
According to two sources familiar with a meeting of the groups last week, the mood among the pro-immigrant base -- even before the White House proposal -- was to be in a "fighting mode," especially after the rejections of proposals they had thought were compromises.

This is not about granting a better life for illegal aliens. The whole fight has been about getting votes for the Democratic Party. They don't even care about illegal aliens. The Democratic politicians want the power base. The RINO Republicans want to please their Corporate, crony Big Business masters.

We need elected officials to respect the needs and concerns of American citizens once again.

The only acceptable option from here out, the consensus was, is a clean DACA-border security trade, and there was resolve to make clear to lawmakers and key players that groups will reject any deal that tries to include aggressive immigration measures in exchange for DACA.
Fresco said there was a "miscalculation" by those on the right that Democrats would swallow changes to the legal migration system in this deal because they had passed previously in broader, comprehensive negotiations.

Any trade is not a "clean" option. I cannot believe how little this CNN reporter understands this situation. The pro-illegals want a clean DREAM Act, which means citizenship is offered up to every illegal alien in the country, and nothing else. No trades, no deals, no enforcement.

That is a total non-starter.

But without all of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants being legalized, he said, it's not on the table.

Then there will be no deal.

"There's nothing about what the Republicans are seeking that can't be obtained in a comprehensive deal," Fresco said. "They can get everything they want, they just have to accept that everybody who's here gets to stay. That's the price of admission."

Uh ... NOPE! Illegal aliens are NOT here to stay. American citizens have been taking back their government one city council at a time, one county at a time, one state at a time. We are not going to sit back and settle for illegal aliens demanding open borders and unfettered amnesty for criminals, lawbreakers, and dependent migrants.



Oklahoma's GOP Sen. James Lankford said he would back the plan Trump set out last week.

Lankford told CNN he hopes the framework will put to bed concerns that the President could change his positions and policies at any moment -- something he acknowledges has been a concern for lawmakers of both parties.

Too bad! Lankford spent his political capital on this issue, and he is going to come up empty-handed. There will be no deal.

"Obviously, he just put it on paper. This wasn't just a statement at a press conference offhand," Lankford said. "If he's putting it on paper, that means not only has he signed off on it, his team has signed off on it."

Actually, not really.

One remaining option that looks increasingly likely is for Congress to pair a temporary extension of DACA with government funding, perhaps with some border security, and punt a longer-term deal into an indefinite future.

How much more punting will elected officials tolerate?

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, told reporters January 8 that if a deal can't be reached, lawmakers would find another way, according to Roll Call.

"We'll probably extend the DREAM Act kids, the DACA kids, for a year," Graham said.
Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, told reporters last week that a deal will be "temporary for temporary, permanent for permanent" -- meaning if Democrats can't agree to massive border security, the DACA deal won't be permanent, either.

"If you want an annual appropriation then I think you'll get a one-year extension of the DACA status," Cornyn said.

Frank Sharry, an advocate with America's Voice Education Fund who has spent decades negotiating immigration in Washington, said he's not giving up hope -- yet. But he acknowledged that on immigration there's a "sweet spot" that seemed pretty close to the "Gang of Six" bill the White House rejected.

The Gang of Six was beyond unacceptable. Lindsey Graham is all but banned from the White House discussion on immigration at this point.

"I'm not prepared to declare this dead at all, because we're far from dead," Sharry said. "When the White House realizes this is going nowhere and Republican leadership is going to be left holding the bag, they may say, 'Let's do something narrow and do it quick.' And it'll be border security and a DACA fix."

Final Reflection

The media have been tying to shame the public into buying into the compassionate sob stories for the poor illegals. It's total nonsense. I have spoken with contracting employers throughout Southern California, and they have told me that arrogant, adamant demands of illegal labors. They won't settle for anything less than $160 a day, which is more than most legal contract workers will ask for. The money that illegals get is not taxed, and they sign up for government benefits, too.

The illegal alien, cheap labor racket is anything but cheap.We pay for their benefits, we endure the cost of their crimes, especially identity theft and fraud. Illegal immigration must cease, and we as Americans must demand a decrease in legal immigration levels, too.

It's good to see that even the liberal, anti-Trump media have crumbled in the face of this stark reality: There will be no DACA deal.



I Asked, They Answered: SCF Endorses John James for US Senate

The Senate Conservatives Fund is an attentive independent political force. In August 2017, they endorsed the perfect candidate to replace Jeff Sessions in Alabama: Congressman Mo Brooks. The outcome of the first GOP primary did not work out as we wanted, but it certainly set the stage for future primary fights that our candidates need to be conservative and electable, i.e. doing the necessary work to win and overcome the evil attacks from the regressive Left.

I received a map of open US Senate seats for Election 2018. So far, SCF has endorsed four candidates. I then wondered aloud: "When will the endorse Patrick Morrisey in West Virginia?"

Sure enough, the next day the SCF sent out an eblast announcing their endorsement for the West Virginia Attorney General to replace Joe Manchin.

I then looked into the other US Senate races, like Michigan, where President Trump pulled off an epic win, even if by a slim margin, as the first Republican in thirty years to win the Wolverine State. So far, one clear-cut conservative is running against out-of-touch Debbie Stabenow: John James.

As soon as I found out about him, I tweeted to James, Ken Cuccinelli, and the Senate Conservatives Fund Twitter handle to endorse John James.

The next day, Lo and Behold!

I think that the Senate Conservatives Fund is going to enjoy some significant wins this November.

Senate Conservatives Fund
John James for Senate

Arthur:

Senate Conservatives Fund (SCF) was founded to build a conservative Senate by helping conservative outsiders compete with establishment candidates who had connections and money. SCF was built to be a powerful tool to help the grassroots elevate outstanding candidates who could win if they only had the resources.

Each election, we find candidates who fit this founding mission. This year, John James (R-MI) is one of those candidates. He's never run for office, but he has all of the characteristics we look for in a candidate – he's a true conservative, he has grassroots support, and he can win if he gets his message out.

That's why we are proud to endorse John James for the U.S. Senate in Michigan against Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI).

Please join us by making a generous contribution to the John James for Senate campaign today.
John James for Senate

John James is a husband, a father, a combat veteran, and a businessman. He graduated from West Point and served in Iraq as a Ranger-qualified aviation officer, logging over 750 flight hours and leading two Apache platoons.

After eight years in service to our country, he returned to Michigan to work in the family business. Under his leadership, the company has rapidly expanded and created over 100 new jobs.

John James is a rock-solid conservative who is passionate about our country and the principles of freedom that make it great. He's a pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, pro-free markets conservative who has demonstrated energetic and effective leadership.

Please watch this video and join conservatives in Michigan and across the nation in supporting John James for Senate.
John James for Senate

SCF will pay all processing expenses and transfer 100% of your donation directly to his campaign.

Donating to John James through SCF is the best way to support him. He saves money on fundraising costs and will know the support is coming from committed conservatives who will stand with him in the fight for our principles and values.

Let's work together to replace one of the Senate's most liberal politicians with a true conservative that we can count on.

Thank you for supporting this outstanding candidate and for doing so much to promote conservative leadership in Washington.

Sincerely,
Ken Cuccinelli II
Ken Cuccinelli II
President
Senate Conservatives Fund
@KenCuccinelli / @SCF



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New Hampshire GOP Celebrates Tax Reform Victories for Granite State Residents

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Arthur, 
 
Tax Reform is getting things done for the Granite State, and people are paying attention!
 
Over the last month, tax reform has shot up in popularity - this month, more people will start to benefit from it!
 
Meet Jack from Colebrook. Jack is a New Hampshire business owner who started his own business in the 1980s - and he knows that tax reform means more for his business!
 
 
The message of President Trump's leadership helping Granite Staters needs to be told. Will you help us by retweeting and sharing the video on your social networks?
 
Sincerely,
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Jeanie Forrester
NH GOP Chair
 
 
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