Friday, February 19, 2021

NEED REMINDING THAT DONALD TRUMP, THE ORANGE BABOON, IS AND HAS ALWAYS BEEN AN ASSHOLE?

 

Trump complained that he was served a smaller steak than a dining companion at his DC hotel restaurant: report

Eliza Relman
  • Trump once complained the steak he was served at his Washington hotel restaurant was too small.

  • The restaurant's ex-chef told The Washingtonian Trump said his steak was smaller than his guest's.

  • "It was the same steak. Both well done. Maybe it was a half ounce bigger or something," he said.

  • Visit the Business section of Insider for more stories.

President Donald Trump once complained that a steak he was served at his Washington, DC, hotel restaurant was smaller than the one given to his table companion, the steak house's former executive chef told The Washingtonian.

Bill Williamson, then the chef of BLT Prime at the Trump International Hotel, said the two steaks were virtually identical.

"It was the same steak. Both well done. Maybe it was a half ounce bigger or something, I don't know," Williamson said to The Washingtonian.

But after Trump's complaint, Williamson switched from serving the president a filet mignon or bone-in rib eye to a 40-ounce tomahawk, which is larger than all the other steaks offered on the restaurant's menu. The restaurant also ordered special extra-large shrimp for Trump's appetizer dish, The Washingtonian reported.

Former first lady Melania Trump was also known to be picky with her food. Williamson said she once returned a plate of Dover sole, a fish that's priced at $64 on the menu, because it was topped with chives and parsley, according to the report.

Trump always sat at the same table at the center of the dining room, which was always reserved for him and his inner circle, and ate the same meal every time he visited the restaurant, The Washingtonian reported.

Immediately after he was seated, a waiter would offer him a small bottle of hand sanitizer and ask him whether he'd like his Diet Coke with or without ice. Then the server would open the drink, according to a seven-step instruction manual The Washingtonian obtained, in front of Trump.

Donald Trump during Launch of Trump Steaks at The Sharper Image at The Sharper Image in New York City, New York, United States.
Donald Trump during the launch of Trump Steaks in New York City. Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images

The president would have two popovers, then jumbo-shrimp cocktail, his signature well-done steak, and fries. He'd sometimes have either apple pie or chocolate cake for dessert, the report said. Trump also required that an assortment of snacks and sweets, including Lay's sour cream and onion potato chips and Milky Way and Snickers bars, be laid out for him.

Trump's red-meat and fast-food-heavy diet has long attracted attention. His former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski wrote that Trump would regularly eat a 2,400-calorie McDonald's meal consisting of two Big Mac burgers, two Filet-O-Fish sandwiches, and a chocolate milkshake on the campaign trail. In the White House, Trump would often be served two scoops of ice cream with his dessert, while his guests received one scoop, Time reported.


Watch: MSNBC’s Wallace Revels in Implosion of Trump Casino — ‘Can We Play It Again?’

1:20

MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace, Wednesday on “Deadline,” played the Trump Plaza Casino building in Atlantic City being removed by a controlled implosion several times while hoping it was a “metaphor” for America being done with the former president.

Wallace said, “Tim, I saved this for you. I feel a little — well, I don’t feel bad playing it. Let me play this is the implosion of a Trump property.”

While the video played, Wallace said, “There it goes. Is that a metaphor? Tim, are we done? Is this Trump and all that he ushered in? Are we done? Is it imploding?”

Panelist Tim Miller said, “I’m just bathing in this for a second, Nicolle just let me enjoy it.”

Referencing President Joe Biden’s saying he doesn’t want to talk about Trump, Wallace said, “Right? Can we play it again? I never say stuff like this, but control room, can we play it again? Is this a metaphor, are we done? I thought Joe Biden said it last night for a reason. This is not a White House that sort of speaks without thinking. And they’re done talking about Trump. Called him the former guy.”


Trump Is Surrounded by Criminals

https://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-fall-of-donald-trump-final-days.html


“The legal ring surrounding him is collectively producing a historic indictment of Trump's endemic corruption and criminality.” 

                                      JONATHAN CHAIT

Trump leaves office facing mounting debt, devalued assets and scarcity of willing lenders


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTNQUOOznG


Noam Chomsky: Where the Left Goes After Trump (2021 Interview)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Huy82PVaCzs


Rudy Giuliani No Longer Donald Trump’s Personal Lawyer

President Donald Trump speaks as Rudy Giuliani, an attorney for President Donald Trump watches, during an event Trump National Golf Club, Friday, Aug. 14, 2020, in Bedminster, N.J., with members of the City of New York Police Department Benevolent Association. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
AP Photo/Susan Walsh
1:20

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is no longer a lawyer for former President Donald Trump, an aide confirmed Tuesday.

Spokesman Jason Miller told the Daily Mail that Giuliani was no longer representing Trump in legal matters.

Miller said that Giuliani remained a friend of the president.

“The mayor remains an ally and a friend,” he added, adding that there was “no split or divorce or anything of the sort.”

Giuliani prominently represented Trump in his legal fight to contest the results of the 2020 election and also in the Democrats’ Russia investigations.

The former mayor spoke at the rally to protest the election in Washington, DC, on January 6th — which resulted in rioters storming Capitol Hill.

Both Trump and Giuliani were sued by Rep. Bennie Thompson, (D-MS), and the NAACP on Tuesday, accusing them of conspiring with extremists to storm the Capitol.

Miller defended the president in his statement.

“President Trump did not plan, produce, or organize the Jan. 6 rally on the Ellipse,” he said. “President Trump did not incite or conspire to incite any violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6.”

Andrea Bernstein: The Trumps, The Kushners and American Greed
Kushner, Inc: Vicky Ward on How Jared and Ivanka’s Greed & Ambition Compromise U.S. Foreign Policy
No, It Wasn’t a Coup Attempt. It Was Another Trump Money Scam.
The president knew he couldn’t prevail in the courts but he understands how to make money by failing. He did it with casinos and he’s doing it again.
by Robert J. Shapiro
President Trump’s post-election machinations are not a bungled coup attempt; they add up to a scam to enrich himself. A coup would require broad collaboration from the courts and, failing that, from the military. The evidence suggests that Trump may not even be serious about election fraud. If he were, he would have recruited serious election law experts in the states he has contested. Instead, Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell blanketed the country with a blizzard of lawsuits, offering fever dreams from the dark web as their legal justification and evidence.
The president’s post-election campaign demonstrates his singular talent for taking care of himself even when he loses. It is a momentous historic attack on the democratic process, on the order of Reconstruction. But for Trump, as Michael Corleone put it, “it’s just business.” Ultimately, Trump’s goals are to remain a star, make money, and solidify his clout. The corrosive effects on democracy are collateral damage.
Donald Trump has always craved fame, a drive common to national politicians. But he alone honed his approach to politics through his stint as a reality TV star. That’s where he learned how he could weave a narrative around his personality that tapped into the fantasies of a national audience. His quixotic claim to have won an election that he knows he lost rests entirely on his curated public persona. And as long as he pursues his claims, he is the center of attention instead of an ignored, sad, lame duck.
Trump’s intrigues embody his drive to come out ahead whether he succeeds or fails. His campaign hardly touched on the pandemic, the economy, or even his signature complaints about immigrants. Instead, he offered a narrative about systemic voter fraud and a stolen election. The strategy was smarter than Trump’s consultants and most media understood. It strengthened his connection to Americans who feel vulnerable to powerful shadowy forces beyond their reach, sufficient to drive nearly enough of them to reelect him.
This approach also laid a foundation for Trump to come out on top again, albeit not as president, and monetize the loss. Soon after the polls closed, his campaign announced an “Official Election Defense Fund” to help pay for his election challenges – with much of the proceeds diverted to his personal PAC, Save America. And by mobilizing his millions of true believers around a false narrative that his enemies have cost them their leader, Trump secured an enormous fan base for whatever he does as an ex-president. Millions will pay to attend more rallies or perhaps subscribe to a new Trump streaming service or cable network.
The strategy will give Trump a global stage to spotlight his inevitable grievances with President Joe Biden. It could become a means to mobilize public pressure against ongoing criminal investigations and possible indictments. Even from Mar-a-Lago, he could keep officeholders aligned with his interests, even as an ex-president.
Ensuring that Trump benefits even when he loses—and so never appears to fail – is an approach he has honed over his career. It nearly always involves making himself richer. He forged the strategy in Atlantic City. When he issued $100 million in junk bonds to bail out the failing Trump Plaza casino in 1993 temporarily, he used half of those proceeds to cover his personal debts. When his three casino hotels went bankrupt, he collected $160 million in management fees from the time the hotels declared Chapter 11 to the inevitable moment, years later, when he had to surrender them to his creditors.
Trump had figured out how to win while losing other people’s money. The final collapse of his Atlantic City properties also became personal paydays: He walked away with $916 million in tax losses based on $3.4 billion in defaulted debts owed to the banks and junk bondholders that actually put up the capital. To make it legal, Trump had assumed personal liability for the loans. But that was at the heart of the scam: Since he had not put up his own money, he couldn’t claim the losses without putting himself technically “at-risk” for the loans.
As president, Trump continues to profit from losing other people’s money. He owns 16 golf courses, all financed by accommodating lenders who put up the money to buy and operate them. As any real estate operator knows, golf courses are notorious money losers. Here too, Trump is personally “at-risk” for those loans – because otherwise, he couldn’t write off their annual losses. Based on the tax returns described in the New York Times, he claimed $15.3 million in those tax losses in 2017, his first year in the White House. For that year, he also reported personal income of nearly $14.8 million from branding deals, income tied to his old reality TV show, and revenues from favor seekers joining Mar-A-Lago and taking suites at his hotels. The losses Trump claimed for ventures paid for with other people’s money enabled him, even as president, to avoid paying personal income tax on all of his $14.8 million income.
Winning by failing has been Donald Trump’s signature business strategy, and now it is his political strategy.  Since he couldn’t force the Justice Department to arrest Biden or coerce the courts to overturn the election results, he is left to enrich himself and maintain his influence with his fans and GOP elected officials. Thankfully for democracy, Americans now face not a coup d’état but yet another scam from Donald Trump – and probably not his last.
Robert J. Shapiro
Robert J. Shapiro, a Washington Monthly contributing writer, is the chairman of Sonecon and a Senior Fellow at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. He previously served as Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs under Bill Clinton and advised senior members of the Obama administration on economic policy.
Peter Schweizer, author of “Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends,”
#1 New York Times Bestseller!
Peter Schweizer has been fighting corruption―and winning―for years. In Throw Them All Out, he exposed insider trading by members of Congress, leading to the passage of the STOCK Act. In Extortion, he uncovered how politicians use mafia-like tactics to enrich themselves. And in Clinton Cash, he revealed the Clintons’ massive money machine and sparked an FBI investigation.
Now he explains how a new corruption has taken hold, involving larger sums of money than ever before. Stuffing tens of thousands of dollars into a freezer has morphed into multibillion-dollar equity deals done in the dark corners of the world.
An American bank opening in China would be prohibited by US law from hiring a slew of family members of top Chinese politicians. However, a Chinese bank opening in America can hire anyone it wants. It can even invite the friends and families of American politicians to invest in can’t-lose deals.
President Donald Trump’s children have made front pages across the world for their dicey transactions. However, the media has barely looked into questionable deals made by those close to Barack Obama, Joe Biden, John Kerry, Mitch McConnell, and lesser-known politicians who have been in the game longer.
In many parts of the world, the children of powerful political figures go into business and profit handsomely, not necessarily because they are good at it, but because people want to curry favor with their influential parents. This is a relatively new phenomenon in the United States. But for relatives of some prominent political families, we may already be talking about hundreds of millions of dollars.
Deeply researched and packed with shocking revelations, Secret Empires identifies public servants who cannot be trusted and provides a path toward a more accountable government.
Kushner, Inc.: Greed. Ambition. Corruption. The Extraordinary Story of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump Hardcover – March 19, 2019
Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Press (March 19, 2019)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1250185947
ISBN-13: 978-1250185945

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump are the self-styled Prince and Princess of America. Their swift, gilded rise to extraordinary power in Donald Trump’s White House is unprecedented and dangerous. In Kushner, Inc., investigative journalist Vicky Ward digs beneath the myth the couple has created, depicting themselves as the voices of reason in an otherwise crazy presidency, and reveals that Jared and Ivanka are not just the President’s chief enablers: they, like him, appear disdainful of rules, of laws, and of ethics. They are entitled inheritors of the worst kind; their combination of ignorance, arrogance, and an insatiable lust for power has caused havoc all over the world, and may threaten the democracy of the United States.
Ward follows their trajectory from New Jersey and New York City to the White House, where the couple’s many forays into policy-making and national security have mocked long-standing U.S. policy and protocol. They have pursued an agenda that could increase their wealth while their actions have mostly gone unchecked. In Kushner, Inc., Ward holds Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump accountable: she unveils the couple’s self-serving transactional motivations and how those have propelled them into the highest levels of the US government where no one, the President included, has been able to stop them.
ANN COULTER - SWAMP KEEPER DONALD TRUMP AND HIS PARASITIC FAMILY
One cautionary example is President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, whose ticket into Harvard, according to the 2006 book The Price of Admission: How America’s Ruling Class Buys Its Way into Elite Colleges, was his father’s $2.5 million dollar gift to the university. Jared got his Harvard degree, but he has been the butt of social-media taunts precisely because his daddy had to pay a fortune to get the school to admit him. The cost of a brag-worthy degree? Millions. The cost of the right- and left-brain stuff? Priceless.
THE TRUMP FAMILY FOUNDATION SLUSH FUND…. Will they see jail?
VISUALIZE REVOLUTION!.... We know where they live!
“Underwood is a Democrat and is seeking millions of dollars in penalties. She wants Trump and his eldest children barred from running other charities.”
Coulter: All Hail President Javanka!
ANN COULTER
While other reporters waste their time examining Donald Trump’s public statements, interviewing his high school classmates and poring over legal filings, investigative reporter Vicky Ward has produced the definitive book on our current president.
For example, did you know our president got breast implants in high school (Ivanka claimed she was just “curvy”), bought his way into Harvard (Jared is even dumber than you thought), and together have no books in their New York apartment? (Some dispute that there are no books, citing “a few art books” or “decorator-curated books.”) 
Ward’s recently released blockbuster, Kushner, Inc.: Greed. Ambition. Corruption. The Extraordinary Story of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, tells you all this and more about our actual commander in chief: President Javanka. 
On the bright side, Jared has stopped rolling his eyes so much about his father-in-law now that Trump is president, er, “president.” Until Trump’s nomination was a virtual lock, Jared was back in New York pretending not to be related to him. 
Only after Trump had racked up a slew of primary wins did a lightbulb go on in Jared’s head: Hey! This presidential campaign could be great for business! According to a close associate, Jared viewed the campaign as a terrific “networking opportunity.” 
In short order, Jared moved himself in, and moved campaign manager Corey Lewandowski out.
Trump’s loyal campaign manager had been with him through the “Mexican rapists” speech, Macy’s dumping Trump’s ties, the “McCain isn’t a war hero” controversy, the Muslim ban, the “hand size” embarrassment, and on and on and on. But when all was said and done and Trump was still cruising to victory, Jared and Ivanka walked in and delivered an ultimatum to Trump: “It’s Corey or us.” 
Jared would later shyly cop to being “[The Man Who] Won Trump the White House,” as a Forbes magazine cover story put it. 
And who understood the beating heart of the Trump voter like Jared and Ivanka? With Javanka in charge, the campaign schedule was soon bristling with such items as “women’s empowerment week,” “education week” and “entrepreneur week.” 
In no time, Trump was 16 points down and sinking fast. Steve Bannon was brought in, whereupon he promptly threw out all the Working Women’s Intersectional Global Warming weeks and got back to Trump’s issues. 
Jared assured Bannon that the campaign had $25 million on hand. That’s when Bannon had to explain “debits” to Kushner. The campaign had $25 million — provided you didn’t count all the unpaid expenses. When those were included, it turned out the campaign was in debt. 
As the SAT board had discovered, math wasn’t Jared’s strong suit. 
Although it has been well reported that Jared’s Harvard admission was purchased for him by his father, Ward produces a shocking new detail. Of the five tracks at Jared’s high school, he wasn’t at the bottom of track one, perhaps suitable for a lesser Ivy League with solid SAT scores. He wasn’t even in track two. Jared was in track three. But now he has co-opted the Make America Great Again movement for his own personal advancement. I guess that makes him smarter than Trump. 
Apart from staging photo-ops, including her “princess moment” at the inaugural ball (her words), Ivanka’s first order of business upon winning the presidency was assigning White House office space. Her map showed a big office for her, a big office for Jared — and also a nice corner office, which was designated “Trump family office.” 
Transition officials, Ward reports, “were surprised that the first lady did not appear to have an office. So, too, was Melania Trump, who quickly put an end to Ivanka’s scheming.” 
Jared’s BFF, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), and the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Muhammad bin Zayed (MBZ), refer to Jared as “the clown prince.” Bone-cutter MBS assured those around him that he had Jared “in my pocket.” 
MBS and MBZ derided Jared’s Middle East peace plan as infantile, while using him to achieve their objective: war with Qatar. According to an American businessman’s leaked emails, their attitude was, “Nobody would even waste a cup of coffee on him if it wasn’t for who he is married to.” 
As one former top White House official explained: “Jared never understands the details of anything. He’s just impressed by names.” 
Following meetings at the White House and also with the Kushners over their 666 Fifth Avenue property, former Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim reported back to the emir that “the people atop the new administration were heavily motivated by personal financial interest.” 
After Ivanka’s speech introducing her father at the Republican National Convention — rivaled only by Billy Carter’s introduction of his brother, Jimmy! — she tweeted from her personal account: “Shop Ivanka’s look from her #RNC speech.” 
After the Trump family was interviewed on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” Ivanka’s company emailed out a “style alert” advertising the $10,800 diamond bracelet she’d worn on the show — “available from Ivanka Trump Fine Jewelry.” 
Ivanka has managed to win a slew of trademarks in China since her father became the Figurehead President, with several approvals being fast-tracked at about the same time Trump was hosting Chinese President Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago. 
Instead of “Make America Great Again,” the motto of the Trump presidency is, as one of Trump’s legal spokesmen put it: “The advance team for Jared and Ivanka.” 
This is not what anyone voted for. 
One cautionary example is President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, whose ticket into Harvard, according to the 2006 book The Price of Admission: How America’s Ruling Class Buys Its Way into Elite Colleges, was his father’s $2.5 million dollar gift to the university. Jared got his Harvard degree, but he has been the butt of social-media taunts precisely because his daddy had to pay a fortune to get the school to admit him. The cost of a brag-worthy degree? Millions. The cost of the right- and left-brain stuff? Priceless.
A VERY STABLE GENIUS
“This taut and terrifying book is among the most closely observed accounts of Donald J. Trump’s shambolic tenure in office to date.” - Dwight Garner, The New York Times
Read an excerpt:
‘You’re a bunch of dopes and babies’: Inside Trump’s stunning tirade against generals
THE BOOK
Washington Post national investigative reporter Carol Leonnig and White House bureau chief Philip Rucker, both Pulitzer Prize winners, provide the definitive insider narrative of Donald Trump’s unique presidency with shocking new reporting and insight into its implications.
“I alone can fix it.” So went Donald J. Trump’s march to the presidency on July 21, 2016, when he accepted the Republican presidential nomination in Cleveland, promising to restore what he described as a fallen nation. Yet over the subsequent years, as he has undertaken the actual work of the commander in chief, it has been hard to see beyond the daily chaos of scandal, investigation, and constant bluster. It would be all too easy to mistake Trump’s first term for one of pure and uninhibited chaos, but there were patterns to his behavior and that of his associates. The universal value of the Trump administration is loyalty - not to the country, but to the president himself - and Trump’s North Star has been the perpetuation of his own power, even when it meant imperiling our shaky and mistrustful democracy.
Leonnig and Rucker, with deep and unmatched sources throughout Washington, D.C., tell of rages and frenzies but also moments of courage and perseverance. Relying on scores of exclusive new interviews with some of the most senior members of the Trump administration and other firsthand witnesses, the authors reveal the forty-fifth president up close, taking readers inside Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation as well as the president’s own haphazard but ultimately successful legal defense. Here for the first time certain officials who have felt honor-bound not to publicly criticize a sitting president or to divulge what they witnessed in a position of trust tell the truth for the benefit of history.
This peerless and gripping narrative reveals President Trump at his most unvarnished and exposes how decision making in his administration has been driven by a reflexive logic of self-preservation and self-aggrandizement - but a logic nonetheless. This is the story of how an unparalleled president has scrambled to survive and tested the strength of America’s democracy and its common heart as a nation.
 

WHILE FUCKHEAD LAWYER TED CRUZ IN VACATIONING IN THE VERY COUNTY INVADING HIS STATE OF TEXAS, REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ IS RAISING FUNDS FOR TEXAS RELIEF!

 

Ted Cruz's Cancun Trip Could Doom His Re-Election in 2024


Ted Cruz ‘left behind’ pet poodle, Snowflake, at ‘freezing’ Texas home during Cancun trip

Gino Spocchia
<p>Texas senator Ted Cruz at Cancun’s airport </p> (REUTERS)

Texas senator Ted Cruz at Cancun’s airport

(REUTERS)

Tens of thousands of Texans were without power or running water for a fourth day as senator Ted Cruz took off for Cancun on Wednesday evening, while reportedly leaving behind the family pet poodle, Snowflake.

A picture taken by a reporter for New York Magazine on Thursday showed the pet poodle looking out of a window of Mr Cruz’s home in Houston, Texas, while the senator, his wife, and daughters were away.

Mr Cruz said he was trying to be a good father by taking his two young daughters out of the state in a written statement released after the short vacation was widely criticised on Thursday.

A security guard said he had been tasked with looking after the poodle while the family were away from the home — which appeared to have electricity restored on Thursday afternoon, according to the reporter.

“Like millions of Texans, our family lost heat and power too,” the senator said in the written statement. “[And] with school cancelled for the week, our girls asked to take a trip with friends. Wanting to be a good dad, I flew down with them last night and am flying back this afternoon.”

Mr Cruz, in an appearance on Fox News with Sean Hannity on Thursday, added that his house was “freezing” after the power went out on Tuesday night, and that he stayed at home for “two days” before travelling to Cancun.

“It was dark, we had no heat. Actually the fireplace behind me, we were all huddled around the fireplace ‘cause it was the only heat in the house,” said Mr Cruz, who also admitted to broadcaster ABC13 that with “hindsight” the vacation was a “mistake”.

After saying he always planned to return as part of a round-trip, the senator told Mr Hannity: “I had initially planned to stay through the weekend, but as I was heading down there, you know, I started to have second thoughts almost immediately because the crisis here in Texas, you need to be here on the ground.”

Temperatures reached as low as 0F (-18C) in Texas on Sunday, causing widespread power outages, burst water pipes, and wider disruption, as well as more than 20 deaths in weather-related incidents.

Democratic lawmakers have called on Mr Cruz to step down over his handling of the crisis, with some accusing the senator of failing to show leadership while thousands were still suffering.

He added on Thursday that: “My staff and I are in constant communication with state and local leaders to get to the bottom of what happened in Texas. We want our power back, our water on, and our homes warm. My team and I will continue using all our resources to keep Texans informed and safe.”

Snowflake, which appeared to be poodle or similar breed, was adopted as a rescue puppy by the Texas senator in 2014, as he wrote in a Facebook post at the time.

Read More

AOC announces that she's raised $2 million for Texas relief efforts in under 24 hours

Christopher Wilson
·Senior Writer

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has raised more than $2 million for Texas relief efforts in under 24 hours, her office told Yahoo News on Friday.

Early Thursday evening, the New York Democrat encouraged her 12.4 million Twitter followers to donate money to five Texas charities working on the frontlines there. A rare winter storm brought snow and freezing temperatures to the state this week, costing dozens of Texans their lives and knocking out power and water for millions more.

Related: How to help people in Texas battered by winter storms

According to her office, the fundraiser crossed the $2 million threshold just before 11 a.m. ET Friday, securing hundreds of thousands of donations for Family Eldercare, Feeding Texas, Houston Food Bank, ECHO (Ending Community Homelessness Coalition) and the Bridge Homeless Recovery Center. The fundraiser has since added five more groups.

U. S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks during joint announcement with U. S. Senator Chuck Schumer at 103rd Street Corona Plaza. (Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. (Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

“Team AOC is launching relief efforts for Texas starting today,” the congresswoman tweeted. “Our first effort is a partnership w/ 5 Texas orgs getting on-the-ground relief to Texans ASAP. If you’re able, please donate here - it’ll split your contribution to all 5.”

Celia Cole, the CEO of Feeding Texas, told Yahoo News that the group has been “humbled” by the donations it’s received.

Related: ‘It’s a dire situation’: Texas residents say promised changes after previous severe winter weather never came

“Feeding Texas is humbled by the outpouring of support from people across the country. Hundreds of thousands of Texans are going to need help from their food bank in the days and weeks to come, on top of the millions already struggling to feed their families during the pandemic,” Cole said.

“We are particularly grateful to our elected leaders in Texas and Washington who are helping raise money for Texas food banks. These donations are critical to helping food banks keep their communities nourished and resilient through this crisis.”

The haul is a sign of the congresswoman’s social media reach. She tweeted the call for donations at 5:42 p.m. ET Thursday and announced she had reached $1 million just four hours later.

The fundraising efforts were launched the same day Texas Sen. Ted Cruz returned early from a vacation to Cancún, Mexico. In his initial statement, Cruz said he made the trip because his daughters and their friends were out of school and wanted to take a last-minute vacation. He went back to Texas amid fierce criticism and eventually admitted the trip was a bad idea.

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) carries his luggage at the Cancun International Airport before boarding his plane back to the U.S., in Cancun, Mexico February 18, 2021. (Stringer/Reuters)
Sen. Ted Cruz at Cancún International Airport on Thursday. (Stringer/Reuters)

Cruz and Ocasio-Cortez are both prolific social media users and have repeatedly clashed since the congresswoman was elected in 2018. Ocasio-Cortez has repeatedly called on Cruz, who objected to the certification of President Biden’s victory, to resign for his role leading up to the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, telling the senator last month that “you almost had me murdered 3 weeks ago.”

Ocasio-Cortez has announced she will be traveling to Texas this weekend along with Rep. Sylvia Garcia, a Democrat who represents a Houston-area district. Biden said Friday he is planning to visit Texas but didn’t want to be a “burden” so he would make a decision early next week.

Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who lost to Cruz in the 2018 Senate race, has leveraged his organization in the state to reach out to senior citizens, noting that his group had made hundreds of thousands of calls to older Texans. On Thursday morning, O’Rourke told MSNBC of Cruz, “I understand he’s vacationing in Cancún right now when people are literally freezing to death in the state he was elected to represent and serve.”

“I don’t know how much we were expecting from him, to begin with,” O’Rourke told Vanity Fair in an interview. “That guy wants nothing to do with government, or at least our form of it.”


Senate GOP: Biden Amnesty Floods U.S. Workforce During Coronavirus Crisis

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) questions President-elect Joe Biden's nominee for Secretary of Defense Retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin during his confirmation before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, January 19, 2021.
Greg Nash-Pool/Getty Images
4:59

Senate Republicans are lining up to oppose President Joe Biden’s massive amnesty plan that would legalize between 11 to 22 million illegal aliens and increase legal immigration levels, all while more than 17 million Americans remain jobless.

On Thursday, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) introduced Biden’s amnesty plan to Congress, seeking to hugely inflate the United States labor market at a time when the nation faces a mass unemployment crisis.

The plan, among other things, would:

  • Put nearly all illegal aliens in the U.S. on an eight-year path to citizenship
  • Provide $4 billion in foreign aid to Central America
  • Expedite green cards for foreign relatives, otherwise known as “chain migration”
  • Potentially add 52 million foreign-born residents to the U.S. population
  • Eliminate per-country caps, ensuring India monopolizes employment green cards
  • Increase the Diversity Visa Lottery program where visas are given out randomly
  • Provide green cards to foreign students who graduate in advanced STEM fields
  • Bring already deported illegal aliens back to the U.S. to provide them amnesty

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) called the plan “a disaster.”

“It would devastate our economy by flooding our workforce with millions of new workers during a pandemic,” Cotton said. “And it does nothing to secure our borders, yet grants mass amnesty, welfare benefits — even voting rights — to over 11 million people who came here illegally. It’s a nonstarter.”

Likewise, Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) said the plan “will encourage more illegal immigration and reduce opportunities for American workers during a pandemic-induced recession when so many are already struggling to find jobs.”

“Why are we placing the interests of non-citizens over the interests of Americans?” Hagerty asked in a statement.

Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) said he is “disappointed” with Biden’s executive orders “to undo the ‘America First’ immigration agenda” that sought to boost U.S. wages by reducing overall immigration:

Between halting construction of the wall on our southern border and a partisan immigration proposal that offers American citizenship to illegal immigrants, it’s clear Joe Biden is not serious about fixing our broken immigration system that rewards illegal behavior.

Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-FL) spokesperson pointed to the lawmaker’s previous statement on Biden’s plan, where he said Congress should prioritize the Chinese coronavirus crisis, reaching full employment for Americans, and taking on China’s global dominance before negotiating an immigration deal. Rubio said weeks ago:

America should always welcome immigrants who want to become Americans. But we need laws that decide who and how many people can come here, and those laws must be followed and enforced. There are many issues I think we can work cooperatively with President-elect Biden, but a blanket amnesty for people who are here unlawfully isn’t going to be one of them.

In the House, Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) said “the economic result of granting amnesty and citizenship to illegal aliens is horrific for American citizens.”

“American workers will be pummeled as they suffer from lost jobs and suppressed wages,” Brooks said:

American taxpayers will be further burdened, inasmuch as households with illegal aliens in them are far more likely to be on welfare than are households without illegal aliens in them. American workers are already suffering the effects of tsunamis of cheap foreign labor who suppress American worker wages and take American jobs.

To pass the Senate, Biden’s amnesty plan would need the support of at least 10 Senate Republicans, as well as every Senate Democrat and those who caucus with the Democrats. While a number of Senate Democrats remain silent on the plan, many have indicated in recent votes where they may stand on the issue.

In the first week of February, eight Senate Democrats — including Krysten Sinema (D-AZ), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Gary Peters (D-MI), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Jon Tester (D-MT), and Joe Manchin (D-WV) — voted with Senate Republicans to block giving stimulus checks to illegal aliens.

The White House, though, has downplayed the plan’s potential lack of support among swing state Democrats who face tough re-elections in 2022 and 2024. About 28 vulnerable House Democrats, for instance, have stayed mostly quiet on whether they would support or oppose the plan.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here

Migrant Rescues Continue in Freezing Conditions Along Border in Texas

Big Bend Sector Border Patrol agents rescued numerous migrants from freezing conditions near the Texas border. (Photo: U.S. Border Patrol/Big Bend Sector)
Photo: U.S. Border Patrol/Big Bend Sector
3:07

Border Patrol agents in South and West Texas continue to rescue migrants as human smugglers push them across the border during the record winter freeze.

“Big Bend Sector Border Patrol Agents have risked their own lives in the on-going effort to patrol the sector despite the winter weather,” Border Patrol officials said in a written statement. “Agents have successfully rescued over 200 people in recent days from dangerous conditions in the area, saving life and limb.”

Officials said 10 migrants were admitted to regional hospitals due to exposure, frostbite, and other serious medical conditions.

“Many people rescued by Big Bend Sector agents were found to have been abandoned by alien smugglers with some calling 911 operators seeking help or flagging down motorists as they reached area highways,” officials stated. “Family members have reported their loved-ones missing to Border Patrol resulting in additional searches and lives saved.”

In the Laredo Sector, agents rescued 40 migrants from freezing conditions in the past two days, Laredo officials stated. In one incident, agents rescued 7 migrants who crossed the border south of Laredo, Texas.

“The individuals stated they were lost and in distress due to the rainy conditions and temperatures that were near 31 degrees Fahrenheit with a wind chill factor of 23 degrees,” officials stated.

In a separate incident, Laredo West Station agents responded to another 911 call from a lost migrant. Agents responded to the area located about 30 miles northwest of Laredo and found the man, a Mexican national illegally present in the U.S., officials stated.

The agents said the man was not properly dressed for the frigid temperatures. They provided first aid to the man and determined he did not require additional medical attention.

“Despite the difficult weather conditions, our agents remain steadfast in their commitment to protecting our country and saving lives.  I am proud of their lifesaving work and the sacrifices they endure to carry out these often dangerous rescues,” said Chief Patrol Agent Matthew Hudak in a written statement.

Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s Sunday-morning talk show, What’s Your Point? Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX, Parler @BobPrice, and Facebook.


THE CONSPIRACY TO SABOTAGE HOMELAND SECURITY 

The Democrat Party’s secret agenda for wider open borders, more welfare for invading illegals, more jobs and free anything they illegally vote for…. All to destroy the two-party system and build the GLOBALISTS’ DEMOCRAT PARTY FOR WIDER OPEN BORDERS TO KEEP WAGES DEPRESSED.

https://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2018/11/frontpage-hidden-agenda-of-pueblo-sin.html

Demonstrably and irrefutably the Democrat Party became the party whose principle objective is to thoroughly transform the nature of the American electorate by means of open borders and the mass, unchecked importation of illiterate third world peasants who will vote in overwhelming numbers for Democrats and their La Raza welfare state. FRONTPAGE MAG


Surge in Illegal Aliens, 500% Increase in Some U.S. Ports of Entry

 

Judicial Watch Corruption Chronicles, December 30, 2015

The agency’s own statistics certainly contradict that, showing that the southern border region is as porous and vulnerable as ever. Other entry ports that saw large hikes in Central American illegal immigrants during the first two months of this fiscal year include Del Rio, Texas (269%), El Centro, California (216%) and Rio Grande Valley, Texas (154%). The Border Patrol breaks the stats down by “family unit” and illegal immigrants under the age of 18, referred to as “Unaccompanied Alien Children” or UAC. The Rio Grande Valley port of entry topped the list in both categories with 8,537 family units and 6,465 UACs during the two-month period. In all, the nation’s nine southern border crossings saw an average of 173% increase in family units and a 106% increase in minors during the short period considered.

Some of the illegal immigrants are Mexican nationals, but the overwhelming majority comes from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. The government records show that somehow 4,450 family units from El Salvador evaded our topnotch border security and entered the United States in a period of only two months. Guatemala and Honduras had 3,934 and 3,203 respectively. Mexico had 538 family units. Of interesting note is that, during this period, the Border Patrol reports 35,234 apprehensions in the region of foreigners labeled by the government as “Other Than Mexican” or OTM. This is a term used by federal authorities to refer to nationals of countries that represent a terrorist threat to the U.S.
. . .
http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2015/12/surge-in-illegal-aliens-500-increase-in-some-u-s-ports-of-entry/