In Alabama, a Trump miscalculation in Senate primary
HOMEWOOD, Ala. (AP) — A firebrand Alabama jurist wrested a U.S. Senate nomination from an appointed incumbent backed by millions of dollars from national Republicans, adding a new chapter Tuesday to an era of outsider politics that ushered Donald Trump into the White House yet leaves his presidency and his party in disarray.
Roy Moore’s 9-point victory over Sen. Luther Strange, backed by the White House and Republican leaders on Capitol Hill, ranks as a miscalculation and temporary embarrassment for the president; it’s a more consequential rebuke for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who Moore said should step aside as GOP floor chief.
The Kentucky Republican already is struggling to capitalize on his narrow 52-48 majority. He failed this week to deliver a long-promised health care overhaul, with equally perilous fights looming on taxes, the budget, immigration and the nation’s credit limit. Now, McConnell may also face a 2018 midterm election cycle complicated by GOP primary challengers who, like Moore, make the Senate leader an albatross for establishment candidates, including incumbents Dean Heller of Nevada and Jeff Flake of Arizona.
Moore, the famed “Ten Commandments judge” twice removed from elected judicial office for defying federal courts, declared his nomination a message to Washington leaders “that their wall has been cracked and will now fall,” though he excepted the president from his ire. “Together we can make America great,” he said, echoing Trump’s campaign slogan.
In Mississippi, state lawmaker Chris McDaniel, who nearly defeated Sen. Thad Cochran in 2014, called Moore’s win an “incredibly inspiring” blueprint that leaves him on the cusp of challenging Sen. Roger Wicker in 2018. “We know Mitch McConnell was rejected tonight — and Roger Wicker is just another part of Mitch McConnell’s leadership apparatus,” McDaniel told The Associated Press, saying he expects conservative challengers to emerge in other states, as well.
Trump and McConnell quickly closed ranks behind Moore after Strange conceded, underscoring their desire to keep the seat in Republican hands. Trump tweeted congratulations to Moore after the win. “Luther Strange started way back & ran a good race. Roy, WIN in Dec!” he said
Three tweets supporting Strange on Monday and Tuesday disappeared from Trump’s Twitter account. The White House didn’t immediately respond with an explanation. On Wednesday morning Trump sent a tweet praising Moore.
“Spoke to Roy Moore of Alabama last night for the first time. Sounds like a really great guy who ran a fantastic race,” said Trump’s tweet.
The Senate Leadership Fund, a McConnell-aligned political action committee, also pledged to support Moore after spending $9 million on Strange’s behalf.
A West Point graduate and Vietnam veteran, Moore now is the favorite over Democrat Doug Jones in a Dec. 12 special election, though Republicans quietly worry the sometimes controversial Moore could yield an uncomfortably close race to fill the seat previously held by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Trump, meanwhile, must reconcile being the president who promised to “drain the swamp” yet endorsed and campaigned alongside Strange, 64, a lobbyist-turned-politician, in lieu of Moore, a 70-year-old figure steeped in anti-establishment fervor. Adding intrigue was the fact that Strange got his Senate post by being promoted from his job as Alabama attorney general by a now-convicted former governor whom Strange’s office had been investigating for corruption.
Trump’s choice left him opposite from his campaign architect and departed White House adviser Steve Bannon, who campaigned for Moore and introduced the nominee to his supporters Tuesday night as revelers watched returns showing Moore victorious in 63 of Alabama’s 67 counties.
Bannon cast Moore’s romp as a win for Trump, regardless of the president’s Strange endorsement. “Who is sovereign, the people or the money? Alabama answered today,” Bannon said.
Mississippi’s McDaniel said conservatives never blamed Trump for taking sides. “We supported Donald Trump because he was an agent of change, and he’s still an agent of change,” McDaniel said. “In this instance, he must have been given bad advice to retain this particular swamp creature.”
And it’s worth noting that Trump turned his trip to Alabama last week into a national spectacle having nothing to do with Strange or Moore, as the president blasted professional athletes who protest during the national anthem. The fallout cemented Trump’s bond with his core supporters and raised questions about how interested Trump really was in the Alabama race.
Elsewhere in Republican ranks, there are warnings not to make the Alabama results more than one state’s choice.
Republican pollster Whit Ayres, who has worked for Senate campaigns across the country, said Trump learns the same lesson his predecessor, Barack Obama, learned watching Democrats lose control of Congress and then seeing Trump defeat his chosen successor, Hillary Clinton. “You can’t just transfer the popularity of your brand to another candidate,” Ayres said.
As for Strange, Ayres noted the freshman senator was facing voters for the first time since being appointed by a governor who eventually resigned in disgrace. “No other Republican Senate incumbent will carry that baggage,” Ayres said.
In defeat, Strange did not directly confront those variables, telling a subdued crowd in suburban Birmingham he was proud of his team’s effort and grateful both to Trump and his Senate colleagues, but befuddled by the campaign he’d just concluded.
“We’re dealing with a political environment that I’ve never had any experience with,” Strange said. “The political seas and winds in this country right now … are very hard to navigate, very hard to understand.”
___
Chandler reported from Montgomery, Alabama.
TRUMP REMINDS MEXICO, NO REAL WALL, NO E-VERIFY, NO ENFORCEMENT AND NO LEGAL NEED APPLY!!!
Trump Thinks Getting Pelosi And Schumer To Bite On The RAISE Act Is Impossible, Why Not Go To The Mat For mandatory E-Verify in American businesses? He’s got a supermajority on his side. Make the Democrats choke by opposing it.
GOP Senators To Introduce Bill That Would Offer Up To 2.5 Million DREAMers A Path To Citizenship
There are only 800,000 or so DACA enrollees. A bill legalizing three times as many people would be quite an amnesty indeed.
Wait, did I say “amnesty”? The co-sponsors, Thom Tillis and James Lankford, are adamant that this isn’t that even though it specifically imagines permanent residency and eventually citizenship for DREAMers who hold down a job and avoid getting into criminal trouble. That’s a vintage Republican distinction when pitching legalization plans for illegals. So long as legalization isn’t given unconditionally then it can’t be called amnesty.
Look at it this way: If we’re probably going to end up amnestizing all DREAMers eventually, not just the group that signed up for DACA, we might as well rip the band-aid off and do it in one bill.
[U]nlike other merit-based immigration proposals that limit new immigrants from entering the country based on their job skills, this proposal would limit who can remain in the country based on their years of American education, work experience or military service…All applicants will have to pass a medical examination and be “extreme vetted.” The vetting will include three separate rounds of security and background checks to ensure they have no criminal history and pose no national security threat. The first check would happen when the immigrant enters the program followed by a second check after five years. The third check comes after 15 years, if and when the immigrant applies to become a citizen…The proposal would grant high school graduates without a serious criminal record conditional immigration status for a five-year period. During that time, if they earn a higher-education degree, serve in the military or stay employed, they could apply for permanent residency and, eventually, citizenship.
So, sounds like you get five years of legal status to prove that you can hold down a job, get your college degree, or enlist. Do one of the three and you’re eligible for permanent residency. Keep your nose clean and, 10 years after that, you can become a citizen. That’s the Tillis/Lankford timeframe, anyway; Democrats will insist on something more accelerated. I assume we’ll end up with an eight- to 10-year citizenship path if this were to become law.
It’s … odd that the party in charge of the White House, the Senate, and the House is the first to ante up on a big DREAMers-for-security deal. You would think the minority party would be under pressure to dangle security concessions to the majority, in order to get them to come to the table on an amnesty that’ll be painful to some of their base. Maybe these numbers help explain the dynamic:
It’s an amazing, appalling fact about the American public that support for legislation *drops* when you propose adding generic border security improvements to DACA. ABC doesn’t provide partisan splits on that question but we can guess which party’s driving the opposition. As for the 86 percent who support “DACA,” that comes with an asterisk. ABC asked, “Do you support or oppose a program that allows undocumented immigrants to stay in the United States if they arrived here as a child, completed high school or military service and have not been convicted of a serious crime?” That’s a basic summary of what DACA does, but it omits the core constitutional objection that Obama had no power to unilaterally amnestize a class of illegals without Congress’s acquiescence. Even so, the number here (which includes 75 percent support among Republicans) shows you how much support there might be for a *legislative* amnesty for DACA enrollees, especially if Trump gets behind it.
Don’t overlook the support for E-Verify in that graph, either. Seventy-nine percent in favor of verifying a job applicant’s legal status before hiring him is nothing to sniff at, and unlike generic “border security,” it would be a meaningful improvement in reducing illegal immigration. If Trump thinks getting Pelosi and Schumer to bite on the RAISE Act is impossible, why not go to the mat for mandatory E-Verify in American businesses? He’s got a supermajority on his side. Make the Democrats choke by opposing it.
THE MEXICAN INVASION, OCCUPATION AND LOOTING IN AMERICA'S OPEN BORDERS:
THE MEXICAN INVASION, OCCUPATION AND LOOTING IN AMERICA'S OPEN BORDERS:
“That Washington-imposed policy of mass-immigration floods the market with foreign labor, spikes profits and Wall Street values by cutting salaries for manual and skilled labor offered by blue-collar and white-collar employees. It also drives up real estate prices, widens wealth-gaps, reduces high-tech investment, increases state and local tax burdens, hurts kids’ schools and college education, pushes Americans away from high-tech careers, and sidelines at least 5 million marginalized Americans and their families, including many who are now struggling with opioid addictions.” ---- NEIL MUNRO
Report: GOP Senators Push Amnesty for 2.5 Million Illegals
GOP Senator and outsourcing-advocate Sen. Thom Tillis will introduce legislation on Monday offering citizenship to more than 2. 5 million illegal immigrants who gain jobs, university places or military slots sought by young Americans, according to the McClatchy news service.
The legislation is being backed by Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford, despite broad public opposition to cheap-labor amnesties, and would allow the 2.5 million Democratic-leaning illegals to become citizens in 10 years.
The bill reflects Tillis’ hard-nosed push for greater use of foreign workers, in both the blue-collar H-2B program and the white-collar H-1B program. Many North Carolinacompanies, such including universities, are importing foreigners for white-collar jobs sought by young American graduates. In 2016, for example, companies in Charlotte, N.C., asked for almost 2,200 H-1B visas to import white-collar outsourcing workers. Tillis has repeatedly said he wants to let companies hire more cheap-labor blue-collar and white-collar contract workers. He was quoted by an Indian newspaper saying that any foreigners who get an advanced degree in the United States should be allowed to become citizens and compete against Americans for jobs.
Before being elected in 2006, he worked as a manager at IBM and at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Both firms are heavily involved in the white-collar outsourcing business.
A July poll showed Tillis’ approval as low as 29 percent in his home state, according to McClatchy. Tillis is up for reelection in 2020. Lankford was elected in 2016, so he will not face the voters until 2022.
A rival amnesty proposal, which is dubbed the Dream Act, is being pushed by the Democratic leadership. It would offer fast-track citizenship to 3.3 million younger illegalsin as little as five years, and allow the new citizens to win green cards for their at-home relatives. The 3.3 million number includes the roughly 690,000 current beneficiaries of the expiring “DACA” amnesty.
The Lankford-Tillis legislation does not require funds for a border wall, and it does not implement any of the wage-boosting immigration-cutbacks which are included in the popular, wage-boosting RAISE Act, which was drafted Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton and Georgia Sen. David Perdue, and is backed by President Donald Trump.
According to McClatchy:
Sen. Thom Tillis will introduce his “conservative Dream Act” on Monday that would provide a pathway to citizenship for as many as 2.5 million young undocumented immigrants, but one that is long and involves “extreme vetting.”
The North Carolina Republican and cosponsor James Lankford, an Oklahoma Republican, will pitch the plan as “merit-based” relief that must be earned — and, critically, not “amnesty,” according to Republican talking points obtained by McClatchy. But unlike other merit-based immigration proposals that limit new immigrants from entering the country based on their job skills, this proposal would limit who can remain in the country based on their years of American education, work experience or military service.
The amnesty legislation included many apparent tests, steps, and requirements for the illegal immigrants to help counter the public’s election-tested opposition to amnesty. However, the McClatchy report does not say if these tests are different from normal immigration reviews, it does not provide details on which agency will oversee the tests, and it does not say if illegals who fail the tests will be sent home.
According to the report:
All applicants will have to pass a medical examination and be “extreme vetted.” The vetting will include three separate rounds of security and background checks to ensure they have no criminal history and pose no national security threat. The first check would happen when the immigrant enters the program followed by a second check after five years. The third check comes after 15 years, if and when the immigrant applies to become a citizen.
The McClatchy report did not offer any expected price tag for the Tillis bill. However, Breitbart has calculated that cost of the Dream Act cost $115 billion in the first ten years, just for Obamacare costs. Costs would rise further when the illegals say on Obamacare, and when they sponsor their foreign relations to become U.S. citizens.
The Tillis-Lankford bill is based on the Recognizing America’s Children (RAC) Act, introduced by Florida Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelo. According to McClatchy:
The proposal would grant high school graduates without a serious criminal record conditional immigration status for a five-year period. During that time, if they earn a higher-education degree, serve in the military or stay employed, they could apply for permanent residency and, eventually, citizenship.
The Curbelo bill is lauded by the industry-boosted Niskanen Center, which strongly supports companies’ easy use of foreign workers. The center claims Curbelo’s matching legislation would offer citizenship to 2.5 million illegals. The extra workers would expand the size of the economy by $79 billion after ten years, according to the center, which does not say if the extra labor will help employed and unemployed Americans win higher wages and salaries.
The McClatchy report also says the TIllias-Lankford legislation is backed by the New American Economy business group. Three members of the group’s six-member leadershipwere Democratic politicians, and the other three are the chairmen of Marriott Hotels, Walt Disney, and News Corp.
Four million Americans turn 18 each year and begin looking for good jobs. However, the government imports roughly 1 million legal immigrants to compete against Americans for jobs.
The government also hands out almost 3 million short-term work permits to foreign workers. These permits include roughly 330,000 one-year OPT permits for foreign graduates of U.S. colleges, roughly 200,000 three-year H-1B visas for foreign white-collar professionals, and 400,000 two-year permits to DACA illegals.
That Washington-imposed policy of mass-
immigration floods the market with foreign
labor, spikes profits and Wall Street
values by cutting salaries for manual and
skilled labor offered by blue-collar and white-
collar employees. It also drives up real estate
prices, widens wealth-gaps, reduces high-
tech investment, increases state and local tax
burdens, hurts kids’ schools and college
education, pushes Americans away from high-
tech careers, and sidelines at least 5 million
marginalized Americans and their families,
including many who are now struggling
with opioid addictions.
immigration floods the market with foreign
labor, spikes profits and Wall Street
values by cutting salaries for manual and
skilled labor offered by blue-collar and white-
collar employees. It also drives up real estate
prices, widens wealth-gaps, reduces high-
tech investment, increases state and local tax
burdens, hurts kids’ schools and college
education, pushes Americans away from high-
tech careers, and sidelines at least 5 million
marginalized Americans and their families,
including many who are now struggling
with opioid addictions.
Americans tell pollsters that they strongly oppose amnesties and cheap-labor immigration, even as most also want to favor legal immigrants, and many even sympathize with illegals.
Amid the huge inflow of new workers, wages for men have remained flat since 1973, and the percentage of working Americans has declined steadily for the last few decades.
Digital Enforcement: Effects of E-Verify on Unauthorized Immigrant Employment and Population
By Pia Orrenius and Madeline Zavodny
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Special Report, September 2017https://www.dallasfed.org/-/media/Documents/research/pubs/everify.pdf?la=en
By Pia Orrenius and Madeline Zavodny
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Special Report, September 2017https://www.dallasfed.org/-/media/Documents/research/pubs/everify.pdf?la=en
JEFF SESSION’S LONG BATTLE FOR THE AMERICAN WORKER He is the only one in the country that has consistently spoken out for the AMERICAN WORKER!
Sessions should keep dragging Trump out of his amnesty closet and build the wall against NARCOMEX!
Los Angeles’ Mexican tax-free underground economy is estimated to be in excess of $2 BILLION PER YEAR.
JOE LEGAL v LA RAZA JOSE ILLEGAL
Here’s how it breaks down; will make you want to be an illegal!
JOBS FOR LEGALS?
95 MILLION LEGALS GIVE UP HOPE FOR A JOB IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY.
A Nation unravels and Mexico invades, occupies and loots
AMERICA: NO LEGAL NEED APPLY
REPORT: The assault to finish off the American middle-class is NOT over
“The report noted that many illegals don't have jobs or have difficulty in landing good jobs because of local laws.”
“However, it identified several states that have begun easing employment laws so that illegals can get a job.”
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