The Front Page Cover
The Events of the Week -- Featuring:
Pro-Israel evangelicals
are escaping AIPAC's shadow
by Eli Lake
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Tom Cotton Takes on Immigration — Illegal AND
Legal
Arnold Ahlert: In a straightforward New York Times op-ed column, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) made it clear that Donald Trump intends to make our immigration system work for the people most affected by the current chaos. "For too long, our immigration policy has skewed toward the interests of the wealthy and powerful: Employers get cheaper labor, and professionals get cheaper personal services like housekeeping," Cotton states. "We now need an immigration policy that focuses less on the most powerful and more on everyone else."
Cotton makes it clear that both illegal and legal immigration are part of the reform mix, noting that Trump "has a clear mandate not only to stop illegal immigration, but also to finally cut the generation-long influx of low-skilled immigrants that undermines American workers."
There is a tepid move toward accommodating the new reality. Last Wednesday, co-sponsors Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Rep. Scott Peters (D-CA) introduced the "Protect and Grow American Jobs Act," aimed at revamping the H-1B visa system American corporations have used to hire foreign workers willing to work for lower wages than their American counterparts.
The new proposal addresses a loophole created by Congress in 1998 when it simultaneously approved a visa cap increase, but prohibited American worker displacement if a firm employed 15% or more foreign workers. Congress also required companies to show "good faith" effort to hire American workers. But the bill undercut that effort: if a visa-holding foreign worker had a master's degree, or was paid at least $60,000, he could replace an American employee. Issa's bill raises the pay threshold to $100,000 indexed to inflation, and eliminates the master's degree exemption completely.
The tepid aspect? There are three levels of H1-B workers, ranging from level 1 beginners to the level 3 prevailing wage earners this bill addresses. Yet those level 3 workers represent the 50th percentile of all workers — meaning plenty of the low-skill, low-wage workers Cotton wants to rein in remain unaffected by the legislation. During his campaign, Trump promised to take on companies "importing low-wage workers on H-1B visas to take jobs from young college-trained Americans."
So what's going on? Issa, et al, represent those interested in the appearance of H-1B visa reform. Trump wants genuine reform. How this ultimately plays out will be a great indication of who will prevail in a power struggle between Republicans who remain beholden to the wealthy and powerful, and a president-elect who has promised to drain the swamp and put Americans first.
Bet on Trump for the simplest of reasons: millions of Americans are fed up with the odious status quo, and this is his signature issue. He is not about to jeopardize his standing among the public to accommodate the Ruling Class aspirations of either party.
Cotton eviscerates that segment of the GOP and their industry allies who bemoan the shortage of low-skilled labor, and insist the problem can only be solved with immigrants. "These same industries contend that stricter immigration enforcement will further shrink the pool of workers and raise their wages," Cotton states. "They argue that closing our borders to inexpensive foreign labor will force employers to add benefits and improve workplace conditions to attract and keep workers already here. I have an answer to these charges: Exactly."
It's critical to note that, for far too long, the game being played in Washington, DC, has been about tradeoffs. As columnist Mark Krikorian so aptly explains, the GOP has used the "'legal good/illegal bad' fallacy" to champion a faux reform consisting of tough border enforcement "accompanied by support for huge increases in immigration."
Why? Americans have heard it all before. Low-skill legal and illegal immigrants are purportedly doing the jobs "Americans refuse to do" which is partially true, and legal, higher skill immigrants are alleviating a shortage of American STEM workers, which is a bold-faced lie.
With regard to the former assertion, one suspects a substantial majority of Americans would abide a pecking order consisting of hiring Americans who won't refuse any job, followed by able-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWDs) being required to work as a condition of getting their welfare state benefits, with legal immigrants picking up the slack. With regard to the last group, putting some genuine teeth in Issa's bill would be a great place to start.
"Our country, like any country, needs borders and must decide who and how many can cross those borders," Cotton explains. "We must make this decision with the well-being of all our citizens in mind. Today, that means a large reduction in legal immigration and a reorientation toward ultra-high-skill immigrants."
Unsurprisingly, Democrats will reflexively fight all of it, because their quest for unassailable power depends on massive levels of immigration by foreigners who heavily favor big government. Thus Trump and the GOP should expect the usual accusations of racism, xenophobia and heartlessness arising from the Democrat/Leftmedia complex.
Ignore them. From 1965 to the present, America abided a legal immigration policy that benefited the immigrant, not our nation. It also abided a virtual free-for-all with regard to illegals.
Putting America first isn't racist, xenophobic or heartless. It's common sense patriotism, and it's about time that mindset had unabashed support from the White House and Congress, especially the GOP majority. If not? Bet on the 2018 mid-terms being another "drain the swamp" election — for recalcitrant GOPers. ~The Patriot Post
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Iran Demands ‘Compensation’ for
U.S. Breach of Nuke Deal
by Adam Kredo
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi
{freebeacon.com} ~ Iran is demanding further “compensation” from the United States following claims America violated the nuclear agreement by passing new sanctions on the Islamic Republic... according to comments by senior Iranian officials following meetings with the liar-nObama administration in Vienna. The demand for further concessions by the liar-nObama administration comes on the heels of reports that the United States has deflated the total amount of cash, gold, and other assets provided to the Islamic Republic during the past several years. The sum is believed to be in excess of $10 billion. Iran has threatened to retaliate against the United States in recent weeks following the passage late last year by Congress of the Iran Sanctions Act, or ISA, which will continue to economically penalize Iran for the next 10 years...I agree with Rex Tillison issues with Israel and the Arab nations that Iran is their common enemy. http://freebeacon.com/national-security/iran-demands-compensation-u-s-breach-nuke-deal/?utm_source=Freedom+Mail&utm_campaign=34a14ecac3-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_01_11&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b5e6e0e9ea-34a14ecac3-45611665
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Assange: liar-nObama Administration
Destroying Documents in Final Days
by Michael Tennant
{thenewamerican.com} ~ The liar-nObama administration, in its waning days, is busily destroying public records to protect its image, charged WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange... “Past administrations of both Democrat and Republican players have engaged in mass destruction of records as they left office,” Assange said in a livestreamed press conference Monday. “We are told that destruction of records is occurring now in different parts of the liar-nObama administration in different departments or agencies.” “One understands the political motivation for it,” he explained, “but to eliminate small political risks by destroying major elements of history is, frankly, an obscenity.” One needn’t go far back in history to find examples of administrations that “lost” or destroyed documents or e-mails, often those with political implications... http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/crime/item/25113-assange-obama-administration-destroying-documents-in-final-days?utm_source=iContactPro&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=TNA+Top+Daily+Headlines&utm_content
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Meltdown Of Contemptible Left,
Hearings Disgraceful, Dishonest Theater
by Rick Wells
{rickwells.us} ~ Lou Dobbs starts the conversation with an observation of the nasty tone that has been adopted by Democrats, particularly those in the Senate, who are taking their cheap shots at Senator Jeff Sessions... Describing Senator Sessions as, “the nicest guy, the smartest guy, one of the most absolutely exemplary public servants in the country.” Tammy Bruce finds it interesting because Senator Sessions is so well like. The opposition Senators “know this man, and so they know that what they’re doing is false. They know it’s completely theater. They also know that they really won’t be able to put a glove on him, that he’s going to be confirmed and he’ll be an excellent Attorney General. On the topic of the smear being run by CNN and BuzzFeed against Mr. Trump, Dobbs is clearly going out of his way not to mention them by name on the air and provide reward them with publicity in response to their inappropriate and vile actions. He shares some of what he calls the “editorial addendum that was provided by the “editors of this outlet that carries these unverified allegations, which is really giving them more currency than they deserve.”... http://rickwells.us/dobbs-bruce-meltdown-contemptible-left-hearings-disgraceful-dishonest-theater/
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The Real Reason for the Left’s
All-Out Assault on Jeff Sessions
by J. Christian Adams
{dailysignal.com} ~ Observers of this week’s confirmation hearings for the post of U.S. attorney general might think it odd to see Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., rewind the clock to a single voter fraud case from the 1980s... Under persistent questioning, Sessions has had to defend his decision to prosecute a case of brazen voter fraud—something that was his job to do. The repeated references to this case by some senators represent just how far the civil rights industry has swerved from its honorable roots to derail a confirmation...Where were you on Eric Holders and the rest of liar-nObama's confirmation pickes? http://dailysignal.com/2017/01/11/the-real-reason-for-the-lefts-all-out-assault-on-jeff-sessions/?utm_source=TDS_Email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MorningBell&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTW1Vd056azBaV1JsTmpFNSIsInQiOiJHaUdtdUhKTFwvQVp1c2FYT21cLzFTWTFjTEpMbGE5SXZSTHdOYW5aaGhMbVFmNG1QN3d6TjhTUzdhWXNSOGU4XC82Z1NPMmtcL2lEWWpTOWZrbVRIR1ZKNUpyZk1wQUZQWmdJMFltNG85V3Nodkw0XC9nQzgxc0pyd0lzQlpONnR2anp5In0%3D
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Liberal 9th Circuit judges
side with man reading Bible
by Bob Unruh
{wnd.com} ~ The judges on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals are often considered among the most liberal in the U.S. After all, they were the ones who allowed a homosexual judge to rule that a vote by Californians against homosexual marriage should be thrown out... But now, three members of the panel have sided with a man who was arrested for reading a Bible on the sidewalk outside a state building. WND reported the state accused two men of engaging in a demonstration or gathering, illegally, outside the state driver’s license office in Hemet, California. The charges were prompted by one of the men who was reading a Bible aloud near a line of people waiting to enter. “The prosecution failed to meet its burden of proof that our clients committed a crime when they read the Bible aloud in front of a line of people,” Robert Tyler, general counsel for Advocates for Faith & Freedom, which worked on the case, said at the time... http://www.wnd.com/2017/01/liberal-9th-circuit-judges-side-with-man-reading-bible/
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Pro-Israel evangelicals
are escaping AIPAC's shadow
by Eli Lake
{jewishworldreview.com} ~ Since its founding in 2006, the country's largest evangelical pro-Israel lobby, Christians United for Israel, has been a junior partner to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or Aipac, when it comes to lobbying Congress.
While there were a few times when the group pushed issues independent of AIPAC, for the most part it has followed the more established lobby's lead in Washington. With Donald Trump about to be sworn in as president, this is beginning to change.
David Brog, the founding executive director of Christians United for Israel, or CUFI, and an active member of its board, told me last week that his organization is better positioned to drive the pro-Israel agenda in Trump's Washington than AIPAC, which has embraced a bipartisan approach for decades to its lobbying for the U.S.-Israel relationship.
This is important because AIPAC is on the record in support of a two-state solution. CUFI, on the other hand, does not take a position on the matter. And while AIPAC has opposed President Barack liar-nObama's efforts to publicly pressure Israel to end settlement activity in the West Bank, it has not supported legislation, for example, to defund the Palestinian Authority. CUFI on the other hand does support such proposals.
"AIPAC's assets were most important during the liar-nObama administration, unfortunately we learned the limits of those assets during the liar-nObama administration too," Brog said. "We believe we have great assets that will be most valuable during a Trump administration, this is not only connections, but speaking for a critical base. I can't think of anyone else on this issue that better represents a base that voted for Trump."
On this, Brog has a good point. CUFI claims 3.3 million members, most of whom are evangelical Christians. The evangelicals supported Trump early in the Republican primaries and came out in large numbers for him in the general election.
CUFI also has strong personal ties to the incoming administration. Gary Bauer, who runs CUFI's Washington lobbying arm, is a personal friend of Vice President-elect Mike Pence. His son is a senior aide to Pence. In 2014, Pence traveled to Israel with a CUFI delegation. Trump's incoming adviser for international negotiations, Jason Greenblatt, left the Republican convention this summer to address CUFI's annual meeting.
AIPAC is a bipartisan organization and it has Republican members who have influence within the party. It is also the best funded foreign policy lobby in Washington. Between Aipac and its sister organization, the American Israel Education Foundation, it has revenue in excess of $125 million annually in recent years. CUFI doesn't release its financial figures, but officials with the group say its budget is a fraction of AIPAC's. Add to this AIPAC's stable of seasoned lobbyists, who often understand the history of legislation and policies effecting Israel better than legislative staffers and members of Congress.
Yet sources within the Trump transition team tell me the group is not favored inside the president-elect's inner circle. This is in part because AIPAC issued a statement following Trump's address to its annual policy conference in March that distanced the organization from what it said were the candidate's ad-hominem attacks against President Barack liar-nObama. But this is also because many Republicans have grown frustrated with AIPAC's handling of the Iran issue. In 2015, every Republican voted against the Iran deal in Congress, but AIPAC only persuaded four Democratic senators to join them. Ultimately, Congress failed to stop the deal that was bitterly opposed by Israel's government.
Brog told me that he expects Trump's approach to Israel policy will break away from what he called "a model that pays excessive homage to bipartisanship and even fetishizes it."
In this sense, Brog expects Trump will be less beholden to the orthodoxy of the two-state solution, a policy supported by both parties since the early 1990s when the Oslo peace negotiations began. "Whatever one's position on the two-state solution is, most Israelis and pragmatists recognize it's not something that can be implemented today. We will see in the Trump administration, an administration that recognizes that reality," he said.
Brog said he appreciates AIPAC's efforts in Washington. He credited the group for helping persuade more than 100 Democrats last week to break with liar-nObama and support a measure condemning the U.N. Security Council resolution the U.S. declined to veto last month that negated Israel's claims to East Jerusalem.
"Where we agree we are thrilled to partner with AIPAC, they are the best of partners," he said. That feeling is mutual. An AIPAC spokesman, Marshall Wittman, told me over the weekend, "We work with CUFI very cooperatively and productively and believe they make an invaluable contribution to strengthening the U.S.-Israel relationship."
Nonetheless, Brog also said CUFI will push for issues in Congress even when AIPAC does not. "Where we disagree, we will go it alone," he said.
This is already beginning to play out. Last month, CUFI launched a new campaign to lobby for legislation from Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham to defund the Palestinian Authority. Consider it the group's declaration of independence from AIPAC.
While there were a few times when the group pushed issues independent of AIPAC, for the most part it has followed the more established lobby's lead in Washington. With Donald Trump about to be sworn in as president, this is beginning to change.
David Brog, the founding executive director of Christians United for Israel, or CUFI, and an active member of its board, told me last week that his organization is better positioned to drive the pro-Israel agenda in Trump's Washington than AIPAC, which has embraced a bipartisan approach for decades to its lobbying for the U.S.-Israel relationship.
This is important because AIPAC is on the record in support of a two-state solution. CUFI, on the other hand, does not take a position on the matter. And while AIPAC has opposed President Barack liar-nObama's efforts to publicly pressure Israel to end settlement activity in the West Bank, it has not supported legislation, for example, to defund the Palestinian Authority. CUFI on the other hand does support such proposals.
"AIPAC's assets were most important during the liar-nObama administration, unfortunately we learned the limits of those assets during the liar-nObama administration too," Brog said. "We believe we have great assets that will be most valuable during a Trump administration, this is not only connections, but speaking for a critical base. I can't think of anyone else on this issue that better represents a base that voted for Trump."
On this, Brog has a good point. CUFI claims 3.3 million members, most of whom are evangelical Christians. The evangelicals supported Trump early in the Republican primaries and came out in large numbers for him in the general election.
CUFI also has strong personal ties to the incoming administration. Gary Bauer, who runs CUFI's Washington lobbying arm, is a personal friend of Vice President-elect Mike Pence. His son is a senior aide to Pence. In 2014, Pence traveled to Israel with a CUFI delegation. Trump's incoming adviser for international negotiations, Jason Greenblatt, left the Republican convention this summer to address CUFI's annual meeting.
AIPAC is a bipartisan organization and it has Republican members who have influence within the party. It is also the best funded foreign policy lobby in Washington. Between Aipac and its sister organization, the American Israel Education Foundation, it has revenue in excess of $125 million annually in recent years. CUFI doesn't release its financial figures, but officials with the group say its budget is a fraction of AIPAC's. Add to this AIPAC's stable of seasoned lobbyists, who often understand the history of legislation and policies effecting Israel better than legislative staffers and members of Congress.
Yet sources within the Trump transition team tell me the group is not favored inside the president-elect's inner circle. This is in part because AIPAC issued a statement following Trump's address to its annual policy conference in March that distanced the organization from what it said were the candidate's ad-hominem attacks against President Barack liar-nObama. But this is also because many Republicans have grown frustrated with AIPAC's handling of the Iran issue. In 2015, every Republican voted against the Iran deal in Congress, but AIPAC only persuaded four Democratic senators to join them. Ultimately, Congress failed to stop the deal that was bitterly opposed by Israel's government.
Brog told me that he expects Trump's approach to Israel policy will break away from what he called "a model that pays excessive homage to bipartisanship and even fetishizes it."
In this sense, Brog expects Trump will be less beholden to the orthodoxy of the two-state solution, a policy supported by both parties since the early 1990s when the Oslo peace negotiations began. "Whatever one's position on the two-state solution is, most Israelis and pragmatists recognize it's not something that can be implemented today. We will see in the Trump administration, an administration that recognizes that reality," he said.
Brog said he appreciates AIPAC's efforts in Washington. He credited the group for helping persuade more than 100 Democrats last week to break with liar-nObama and support a measure condemning the U.N. Security Council resolution the U.S. declined to veto last month that negated Israel's claims to East Jerusalem.
"Where we agree we are thrilled to partner with AIPAC, they are the best of partners," he said. That feeling is mutual. An AIPAC spokesman, Marshall Wittman, told me over the weekend, "We work with CUFI very cooperatively and productively and believe they make an invaluable contribution to strengthening the U.S.-Israel relationship."
Nonetheless, Brog also said CUFI will push for issues in Congress even when AIPAC does not. "Where we disagree, we will go it alone," he said.
This is already beginning to play out. Last month, CUFI launched a new campaign to lobby for legislation from Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham to defund the Palestinian Authority. Consider it the group's declaration of independence from AIPAC.
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