Is De Niro the New Jane Fonda?

For decades, the political class, as well as other influential people, have observed the maxim “politics stops at the water’s edge.” This simply means that when a president is dealing with a matter of national importance abroad, the criticism stops until the crisis is averted or, at the very least, he is back safety inside the confines of the United States.

With President Trump, that is no longer the case. The political atmosphere in Washington is so toxic that Democrats, and some members of his own party, feel free to take pot shots at him even as he deals with issues that could avert nuclear war.

However, when Robert De Niro let his distaste of this president spill over at the Tony Awards Sunday night on the eve of his summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, it not only broke the mold of civility but raised bad taste to a level unseen in prime time, even on an awards show. While De Niro’s “F – – – Trump” comment was deleted by an alert executive monitoring the program at CBS, the actor’s unscripted comment went viral prompting outrage from the right and the left. Continue reading “Is De Niro the New Jane Fonda?” →

Where are the Patriots Among the Dreamers? (We need to See them)

Monday was the latest ugly demonstration by the so-called “Dreamers,” the young people who were supposedly brought here by their illegal parents as small children and, we are told, know no other country. This one was staged to mark the passing of the deadline from President Trump to end the illegal DACA program that Obama created with a stroke of his pen.

Two activist federal judges have issued injunctions blocking his order. Now we must wait for the program to wind its way up the slow as molasses judicial system to the Supreme Court. This is cruel and completely unnecessary as President Trump offered a compromise to, not only allow those DACA recipients to stay, but untold numbers of other illegal young people, even those who snuck in on their own claiming to be teenagers. Additionally, Trump is offering to give them a way to become full-fledged U.S. citizens with all its benefits and privileges, to boot. Continue reading “Where are the Patriots Among the Dreamers? (We need to See them)” →

Dreamers, Screamers and Schemers

President Trump’s latest immigration offer is baffling to say the least. After winning a great victory over Democrats in their short-lived government shutdown, Trump appears to have caved.

Despite what the perpetual white-flag-waving Mitch McConnell said about the president’s demands for a DACA deal being unclear, they were understood by most clear-thinking Americans: amnesty for some 800,000 DACA young people in exchange for funding the border wall, and an end to chain migration and the visa lottery. All these things were enormously popular with Americans all across the political spectrum, Democrats in Congress excluded who are united on only one thing: their opposition to Trump.

So why, oh why, did Trump more than double his original offer to include, not only the DACA recipients, but another million or so who couldn’t qualify or wouldn’t bother to qualify for DACA. Furthermore, he is offering not simple amnesty: the right to stay, live and work in the greatest country on earth, but citizenship to boot. Continue reading “Dreamers, Screamers and Schemers” →

Trump’s Real Mistakes in the Immigration Debate (Hint: It Wasn’t His Choice of Words

Let’s get serious about the mistakes Donald Trump made last Thursday in the sit-down with six liberal senators, three Democrats: Durbin (IL) Bennet (CO) and Menendez (NJ) and three Republicans: Graham (SC), Flake (AZ) and Gardiner (CO). It was not his choice of words. It was that he trusted that those involved were actually serious about making a deal for the amnesty of 800,000 young people (some now in their 30s though we have no absolute proof of age) who claim to have been brought here by their illegal parents as minors.

The meeting was a farce. If these six lawmakers were truly concerned about the DACA young people, many of whom were so young when they arrived they know no other country, then they would have offered a plan that not only dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s, but also included what the president demanded in return. His Continue reading “Trump’s Real Mistakes in the Immigration Debate (Hint: It Wasn’t His Choice of Words” →

Are Dreamers not Worth $18 Billion to Democrats?

How nice of the Democrats and their pro-amnesty Republican friends! They want to help President Trump sell what they hope will be his surrender on the border wall to his supporters and the overwhelming majority of Americans who want illegal immigration stopped once and for all. Their solution to his “problem,” they claim, can be found in how he defines the word “wall.”

President Clinton tried that with the word “is.” Continue reading “Are Dreamers not Worth $18 Billion to Democrats?” →

No Honks for DACA

Traveling through downtown Phoenix last week, a city at the heart of the illegal immigration issue, I passed a small group of protesters carrying signs, “Honk if you support DACA.”

For the uninitiated that is Obama’s unconstitutional amnesty for young people illegally brought into this country by their parents. We are talking up to 30-year-old children here. Continue reading “No Honks for DACA” →

Trump and the Fire Swamp

Donald Trump went to Washington promising to drain the swamp. The swamp is winning. That’s because it is a lot more complicated than simply pulling the plug and watching the whole mess go down the drain.

No, the swamp in Washington is more like the fictional fire swamp in the movie “The Princess Bride.” Washington, like the swamp in this movie classic, has three elements: the fire (obvious), lighting sand (dryer and quicker than quicksand) and the dreaded R.O.U.S. (rodents of unusual size). Continue reading “Trump and the Fire Swamp” →