Month: December 2019

Census: California to Lose Congressional Seat for First Time in History

New figures from the U.S. Census ahead of the 2020 decennial count suggest that California could lose a seat in Congress for the first time in its history. While other “Sun Belt” states stand to gain congressional representation, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday, citing U.S. Census Bureau figures on state population changes through July 1, California — once a symbol of the nation’s westward growth — will likely lose a congressional seat. The Journal reported that California will join the cold states of the Northeast and Midwest in losing political clout: Based on Monday’s figures, Texas is poised to gain two congressional seats, and Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina and Oregon are expected to gain one. Eight states are expected to lose one seat: California, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and West Virginia. The actual reapportionment calculation will take place by December 2020, with its details worked out in 2021. Each state will redraw its legislative maps, and those that have more than one congressional seat will redraw districts as well. The shift of political power away from the Northeast and Midwest toward the Southeast and Southwest is the result of residents flocking to states with warm weather, strong job growth, cheaper housing and, in some cases, lower taxes. The likely loss in representation would come despite California helping to lead the “resistance” to President Donald Trump’s proposal to add a question to the Census asking respondents if they are U.S. citizens. California and other states feared that they could lose congressional seats if they were subsequently apportioned based on the number of citizens rather than the number of residents; California is a prime destination for immigrations, including illegal ones. The Court ruled against the administration — one of the few times it has done so. California may lose a seat anyway. Losing one of its 53 seats “would also mean the loss of one vote in the electoral college” to determine the presidency, Capitol Weekly noted earlier this year.

Tomi Lahren: Why Dems don’t want to talk about the Texas church shooting

Sunday morning’s Texas church shooting is proof for why Americans need the Second Amendment, Fox Nation host Tomi Lahren said Tuesday. Appearing on “Fox & Friends” with hosts Dean Cain, Griff Jenkins and Rachel Campos-Duffy, Lahren said that the only way to “root out evil” is for “good people to stand up, step up, and do what they have been trained to do.” Two men were killed when a gunman opened fire Sunday at West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement, Texas. More than 240 parishioners were inside. Within seconds, he was shot to death by two congregants who fired back. “It’s not just for hunting. It’s not just for recreation. It’s for incidents just like this,” said Lahren. “Well, you have a lot of Democrats and a lot of anti-gun rights advocates being very quiet right now because they don’t want to talk about what happened in Texas,” she noted. “Because they know that it’s a win for the Second Amendment and they know that it’s exactly why gun rights advocates talk about the Second Amendment and how important it is.” Lahren said that Democrats don’t want to “fess up” and “own that” because “they know it doesn’t do anything to their anti-gun narrative that they’re going to be pushing all through this election cycle.” She added that states’ gun-free zones neuter law-abiding citizens like the Texas churchgoers, adding that bad guys don’t care about laws. “If they cared about your laws, they would respect the laws in the book and not carry a shotgun into a church to destroy innocent lives,” she told the “Friends” hosts.

Exactly!  And well said, Tomi.  What happened in that church in Texas completely undermines the Dem, anti-gun narrative.  Good guys with guns neutralized a bad guy within 6 seconds…SIX SECONDS, and countless other lives were saved.  Period.  Those two law abiding gun owners stopped a bad guy and demonstrated the value of owning a firearm for personal protection.  That was the lesson/take-away from that incident.  And, the anti-gun Nazis are doing everything they can to downplay this event, because they know it undermines their narrative as we get ready to go into an election year.  Kudos to those two church parishioners in Texas for standing up and doing the right thing without giving it a moments thought.

Farmers to feed cows seaweed to cut down on gas emissions

Coastal Maine has a lot of seaweed, and a fair number of cows. A group of scientists and farmers think that pairing the two could help unlock a way to cope with a warming world. The researchers — from a marine science lab, an agriculture center and universities in northern New England — are working on a plan to feed seaweed to cows to gauge whether that can help reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. About a quarter of the methane in the country comes from cattle, which produce the gas when they belch or flatulate. The concept of feeding seaweed to cows has gained traction in recent years because of some studies that have shown its potential to cut back on methane. The reduction might be because the seaweed interrupts the process of production of the gas in the animals’ guts. One of the big questions is which kinds of seaweed offer the highest benefit to farmers looking to cut methane, and the researchers hope to find out, said Nichole Price, a senior research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in East Boothbay, Maine, and the project’s leader. “What on that list has the ability to do two things — not just reduce methane emissions, but have some health benefits for the cow that have a cost savings or cost efficiency for the farmer?” Price said. The researchers plan to conduct feeding trials with cows in Maine and New Hampshire in 2020 and 2021 to see whether seaweeds that can be used as cattle feed can cut the methane. They also intend to screen seaweeds for compounds that make them useful as cattle feed additives. The lab work to determine whether the seaweeds succeed in reducing methane will take place at University of Vermont.

Ok.. Let’s get this straight… Some eco-nerd scientists from the northeast are feeding cows SEAWEED (something that is NOT part of their normal diet) in an attempt to cut back on their farting. Even IF their weird science experience bears some fruit in terms of reduced cow farting, it opens up all sorts of questions like.. What effects will it have on the cows? Will the taste of the cow’s milk or steak be altered? And, will some federal or state governmental agency (or Dem-controlled legislature) seize on this and force farmers in the Midwest to feed their cows SEAWEED?…like that’ll ever happen, lol. For more of this crazy AP story, click on the text above.

Schumer wants ‘impartial’ impeachment trial for Trump but didn’t want one for Clinton: Report

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer took a hit in the liberal media Friday when CNN reported the New York Democrat argued repeatedly during President Bill Clinton’s impeachment in the late 1990s that the Senate wasn’t an impartial “jury box.” Mr. Schumer has criticized Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in recent days for describing himself as “not an impartial juror” in advance of President Trump’s impeachment trial. “That is an astonishing admission of partisanship,” Mr. Schumer said on the Senate floor of his Republican counterpart. But Mr. Schumer campaigned for the Senate in 1998 on a pledge not to impeach or convict Mr. Clinton, CNN noted, and he gave several television interviews in 1998 and 1999 in which he described the Senate as “quite different from a jury” during impeachment trials. “We have a pre-opinion,” Mr. Schumer said on “Larry King Live” in January 1999, referring to himself and two newly elected Republican senators who had voted on impeachment as House members in 1998 and planned to vote in Mr. Clinton’s Senate trial. “This is not a criminal trial, but this is something that the Founding Fathers decided to put in a body that was susceptible to the whims of politics.” Mr. King asked him in the interview, “So therefore, anybody taking an oath tomorrow can have a pre-opinion; it’s not a jury box.” “Many do,” Mr. Schumer replied. “And then they change. In fact, it’s also not like a jury box in the sense that people will call us and lobby us. You don’t have jurors called and lobbied and things like that. I mean, it’s quite different than a jury. And we’re also the judge.” As a lame-duck member of the House Judiciary Committee in 1998, Mr. Schumer voted against Mr. Clinton’s impeachment. Then as a senator in 1999, he voted to acquit Mr. Clinton.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is such a brazen hypocrite.  Its hard to even listen to him.  He’s such a sleazy, self-serving politician.  What a tool…  For more, click on the text above.

As Veterans Affairs mental health services increase, veteran homelessness decreases

A Marine Corps veteran is crediting the decline in veteran homelessness to an increase in the Veterans Affairs’ budget and mental health services. The number of homeless veterans in the U.S. is down to 37,000, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is a decrease of 2 percent in the last year and a 50 percent decrease since 2010. Retired Gunnery Sgt. Jessie Jane Duff, co-chair of Veterans for Trump, discussed military funding on FOX Business’ “Making Money with Charles Payne” on Thursday. “The V.A. has received a budget of $86.5 billion dollars,” Duff said, referring to fiscal year 2019. “And within that, we also have mental health capability; $8.6 billion was allocated for mental health.” Duff said many cases of homelessness are associated with mental health-related issues. “You start having walk-in capability at our VA hospitals for those veterans who are seeking help,” she said. “These [services] are no-brainers that should have happened over a decade ago when we saw veteran suicides skyrocket.” Duff also pointed to veteran unemployment, which is “its lowest level ever at 3 percent.” She praised the government for allocating funds to “these real-world issues.”

Opinion/Analysis: Trump economic strategy will lead to even more market wins in 2020

We’re heading into a new year on track for another economic win. Job growth is soaring, wage growth for average earners is soaring, our stock market is soaring and the president is reworking trade deals at a record pace to benefit American workers. Meanwhile, who knew that two critical components of our economy, capital and labor, would improve simultaneously? Imagine that. I mean, if you listen to traditional Democrats, they’ll try to tell you these two things are effectively mutually exclusive. The left spouts rhetoric that puts business at odds with workers. And, yet, consider this: on Dec. 18, the evening of the president’s impeachment, he spoke to thousands of workers — his supporters — in Battle Creek, Michigan … as traders on Wall Street prepared to send the market to a new record close the next day. In other words, with the proper economic policy in place, everyone succeeds. The success of U.S. markets and the growth in our economy and wages tells you: no one cares about the “Schiff show.” As such, I suspect we are witnessing a generational realignment of the Republican and Democratic parties. Union bosses, who have shelled out big bucks to Dems, haven’t had a clue how to manage the growing threat of globalism and, as such, the very candidates they supported gave them policies like NAFTA! The U.S. lost an estimated 800,000 jobs as a result of that policy. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka called NAFTA, “the worst agreement that ever happened” and said, “Everybody knows that the NAFTA model hasn’t worked.” So why did he support candidates that supported it? Meanwhile, the Senate has the opportunity to vote USMCA into place, which would help American workers keep their jobs … and yet, Bernie Sanders doesn’t want to sign it. Elizabeth Warren isn’t sure. President Trump has proven and will continue to prove in the year ahead that free-market capitalism and American “prosperity for all” — including every coal miner in Pennsylvania, every factory worker in Michigan — and American capital markets can go hand and hand.

Agreed, and well said Trish!  Economist Trish Regan over at the Fox Business network is the author of that piece.  Excellent!!    🙂

Trump campaign offers online class in how to debate ‘snowflake’ relatives

President Trump’s campaign offered a gift of sorts to supporters in time for Christmas, with a new website geared toward helping them win arguments with “snowflake” relatives while they’re home for the holidays. The site, SnowFlakeVictory.com, explores 12 issues with the intent of showing readers “how to win an argument with your liberal relatives.” Topics include the economy, immigration and Trump’s border wall, health care, trade deals, impeachment, Joe Biden and the Green New Deal. “Family holidays. Full of love. Full of laughter. And full of the inevitable conversations with the family liberal who just does not want to believe how great America is doing with President Trump in office,” one message says. Trump campaign national press secretary Kayleigh McEnany discussed the initiative Wednesday morning on “Fox & Friends,” and how it counters similarly themed tip guides from the left aimed at prepping readers for dealing with a Trump-supporting family member. “Those articles operate from a position of fear. You know, you fear that MAGA uncle,” McEnany said. “Well, this is empowering. This is supposed to say, hey if you encounter a liberal snowflake, don’t back down, here are the facts, the facts much of the media won’t share with you.” On a more serious note, the White House sent out an official Christmas message from the president Wednesday morning, paying respect to military service members and more. “As we celebrate Christmas, we remember the precious religious liberties our forefathers so righteously fought to secure. We also pause to pay tribute to those courageous men and women of our Armed Forces who continue to fight for our cherished freedoms. As Commander in Chief, I salute them for their service and thank their family members for their shared sacrifice in this noble mission, especially during the holiday season,” Trump said in the message.

Retailers Make Historic $34.4 Billion During Super Saturday Sales

Shoppers gave retailers a massive boost Saturday by making it the biggest sales day in U.S. retail history. Super Saturday sales reached $34.4 billion thanks to a booming economy and more jobs, according to retail research firm Customer Growth Partners. “Paced by the ‘Big Four’ mega-retailers — Walmart, Amazon, Costco and Target — Super Saturday was boosted by the best traffic our team has seen in years,” said the firm’s president, Craig Johnson. Johnson noted that stronger household finances have “put consumers in a buying mood this season,” adding that more of them are shopping online, which has accounted for a 58 percent sales growth compared to last year. The weekend record beat out Black Friday’s $31.2 billion and Cyber Monday’s $19.1 billion, a Fox Business report said. In November, incomes rose by half a percentage point, which caused consumer spending to rise at a 0.4 percent annual rate, according to Breitbart News’s John Carney.

More great news in this Trump economy!  For more, click on the text above.       🙂

‘Awakening’: Black voters ‘abandoned’ by Democrats warm to Trump

Former NFL player Jack Brewer once raised campaign money for President Barack Obama, but now he’s among the increasing number of black voters who support President Trump. “There is an awakening going on right now in the country,” Mr. Brewer said of black voters who traditionally support Democrats. “I’m going to take the guy who’s actually putting in the policies that are going to make life better for my young black son and my young black daughter, versus somebody who gives me lip service — like, unfortunately, the Democrats have done for our community for years.” Mr. Trump and his reelection team are aggressively courting black voters amid a strong economy that has reduced black unemployment to 5.5%, lowest in history. The Trump campaign launched its “Black Voices for Trump” coalition in Atlanta last month. “The Democrats have let you down,” Mr. Trump told black supporters at the time. “They’ve dismissed you. They’ve hurt you. They’ve sabotaged you for far too long.” The campaign also has paid for full-page, full-color advertisements promoting Mr. Trump in 11 local black newspapers across the nation, and radio spots on urban radio stations nationwide. There’s some evidence that the president’s policies and campaign outreach are making inroads with black voters. Three polls in November showed Mr. Trump’s job-approval rating among black voters in the 30% to 35% range, a significant increase over other surveys that have generally shown black voter support of less than 10%. “I’ll remind you, the president received 8% of the black vote in 2016,” said a senior Trump campaign official. The president and his campaign advisers know that poll numbers and approval ratings don’t always translate into votes, but they think Mr. Trump has a good chance to significantly increase the level of support he receives from black voters in 2020. “If you look at how they attacked him for being a racist during the [2016] campaign, I think his policies have [produced] results for the black community that have been extraordinary,” the campaign official said during a recent briefing. Said another Trump adviser, “One thing the president’s done is to try to govern for everybody. Even those who didn’t vote for him in the last election are now seeing a lot of results in their communities, and we’re seeing the poll numbers amongst all those groups grow in a way that creates a lot of opportunities.” Trump advisers point to other policies that are helping, such as criminal justice reform that lets more offenders win early release from prison and a second chance, and increased funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Mr. Brewer, a lifelong Democrat and entrepreneur who played for three NFL teams, said Mr. Trump is working much harder than any Republican candidate in his lifetime to reach out to black voters. “Donald Trump will get over 20% of the black vote,” Mr. Brewer said in an interview. “That is what’s going to win the election. Why? Because there hasn’t been a Republican to even try to go in and talk to the black community. They don’t go there. They don’t even try. I think he’s trying, finally.”

US to send Mexican migrants to Guatemala as part of asylum deal

The Department of Homeland Security announced Thursday that Guatemala has agreed to take Mexican nationals seeking asylum as part of a “safe third country” agreement signed with the U.S. earlier this year that sees migrants sent to the Central American country to claim asylum. “The United States and the Government of Guatemala are working closely together to continue implementation of the Asylum Cooperative Agreement,” Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf said in a statement. “We are building protections that will be available to the region’s vulnerable populations closer to home — eliminating the need to make the dangerous journey north and lining the pockets of transnational criminal organizations.” “As we fully implement the agreement, all populations are being considered, including Mexican nationals,” he said. The agreement, negotiated earlier this year, is part of a series of regional agreements with countries by the Trump administration in order to stem the flow of migrants to the southern border. DHS has also secured agreements with Mexico and El Salvador in recent months. The agreement with Guatemala has been phased in since November, when flights began sending migrants from Honduras and El Salvador to the country after the U.S. established that its asylum policies meet the criteria of having a “full and fair” asylum system. DHS officials previously told Fox News that no migrants would be forced to go to Guatemala, instead being given the option of being sent back to their home countries or waiting in Mexico under the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) — whereby migrants wait in the country while their U.S. asylum claims are processed. The new expanded agreement with Guatemala now gives officials another avenue for Mexican asylum seekers who could not be placed in MPP because they claim a fear of persecution or violence if they were to be returned to Mexico. Instead of them then being allowed to await their hearings in the U.S., they could now be sent to Guatemala. Migrant rights groups and humanitarian groups have expressed concern about the Guatemala deal and other such agreements, claiming they could send vulnerable migrants into dangerous countries that do not have the capacity to keep them safe. The U.N.’s refugee agency said last month that the approach was “at variance with international law” and said that it was in touch with the government to express their concerns. Guatemalan Interior Minister Enrique Degenhart told reporters last week that so far 24 people have been sent to the country under the program — but that only two ultimately requested asylum there. Reuters reported that officials have also been told not to send some groups there, such as unaccompanied children or migrants with valid U.S. documents. Despite protests from humanitarian groups, the administration has hailed the agreements as part of a collection of policies that have led to a dramatic decrease in migrant flows to the border, and a drop in detentions there. Numbers released by the administration this month show that the number of apprehensions at the border has plummeted by more than 70 percent since May.