Sep20

Trump warns Iran of ‘severe’ defeat if military conflict broke out

by Shaun on September 20, 2019 at 4:23 pm
Posted In: CURRENT NEWS, MILITARY, POLITICS, WORLD
Trump warns Iran of ‘severe’ defeat if military conflict broke out

President Trump on Friday said he believes sanctions against Iran are working but indicated he would not hesitate to order military action if necessary, saying it would amount to a “very severe form of winning” for the United States.

“We are by far the strongest military in the world,” the president said Friday afternoon during a joint press conference at the White House with visiting Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. “Going into Iran would be a very easy decision.”

Earlier in the day Trump announced the U.S. is slapping sanctions on Iran’s national bank, after the administration blamed Tehran for a recent attack on Saudi oil facilities.

“I think the sanctions work,” the president said Friday afternoon, but added that military action “would work” too.

“But that’s a very severe form of winning,” Trump said. “But we’d win. Nobody can beat us militarily. Nobody can even come close.”

Trump on Wednesday ordered Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to “substantially increase sanctions” on Iran. On Friday, Mnuchin stood by the president and said that the sanctions mean that the U.S. has now cut off all sources of funding to Iran.

“Iran could be a great country, could be a rich country, but they are choosing to go a different way,” the president said during the news conference. “There will be a point in which they will be very sorry for that choice.”

Still, Trump indicated he does not want to see war.

“I think I’m showing great restraint,” he said. “Most people thought I’d go in within two seconds. But plenty of time, plenty of time.”

Friday’s sanctions are the latest in a series of measures designed to tighten the screws and stop Tehran’s sponsorship of terrorism in the region.

The Trump administration pulled the U.S. out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal last year and has re-imposed waves of sanctions since then. The latest sanctions come after last weekend’s bombing on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities, an attack that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo described as “an act of war.”

Tensions are likely to bubble up next week at the U.N. General Assembly where both U.S. and Iranian leaders, including Trump, will be in attendance. Trump said he wants to be restrained on the question of military action against Iran and would prefer that the country reform and then to succeed on its own.

But he added: “Iran knows if they misbehave, they’re on borrowed time.”

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-warns-iran-of-severe-defeat-if-military-conflict-broke-out

Sep18

Pentagon cancels 3 border barrier projects over costs

by Shaun on September 18, 2019 at 3:58 pm
Posted In: CURRENT NEWS, POLITICS
Three GOP senators criticize diverting Pentagon money to border wall

The Defense Department has nixed three border barrier projects in Arizona over costs, according to a court document filed Monday.

The Pentagon on Aug. 26 authorized the Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to undertake the additional projects to build fencing, infrastructure and lighting at the U.S.-Mexico border, the filing said.

Costs for seven other border projects were initially determined to be lower than expected, and USACE said in August that an additional 20 miles of border barrier could be built with the money saved, Politico reported. The three new projects were slated for Yuma and Tucson.

USACE has since “determined that there are insufficient contract savings to undertake the three additional” projects, the filing stated, and the Defense Department will not pursue them.

The U.S. Supreme Court in July ruled that about $2.5 billion could be redirected from the Pentagon’s counterdrug program for border security.

Earlier this month the Pentagon said it was diverting $3.6 billion in military construction funds for projects at the southern border. This included 127 projects across 23 states and 21 countries, as well as in the U.S. territories of Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

President Trump, a fierce advocate of a wall at the southern border, in February declared a national emergency in order to secure $6.5 billion in addition to what Congress had set aside for border security.

Trump continues to battle House Democrats, who have blocked the president’s requests for more border barrier funding, over how much money should be allocated to secure the U.S.-Mexico border.

“Illegal Immigration costs the USA over [$300 billion] a year. There is no reason for this, and things are being set in motion to have this number come way down,” Trump tweeted Friday. “Democrats could end Loopholes and it would be a whole lot easier, and faster. But it will all happen anyway!”

The president has promised to have about 500 miles of wall constructed along the country’s southern border with Mexico.

Last week he posted a video showing progress on the border wall, saying, “The Wall is going up very fast despite total Obstruction by Democrats in Congress, and elsewhere!”

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/us/pentagon-cancels-border-projects

Sep13

Red flag law proposals raise stakes in gun reform debate

by Shaun on September 13, 2019 at 5:12 pm
Posted In: CURRENT NEWS, POLITICS
IMay 23, 2018: Seattle Police Crisis Response Team Sgt. Eric Pisconski displays guns seized from people deemed to be a danger to themselves or others. Since the Feb. 14, 2018 mass shooting at a Florida high school, states have seen a surge of interest in laws intended to make it easier to disarm people who show signs of being violent or suicidal. Washington voters approved such a law overwhelmingly in 2016. (Greg Gilbert/The Seattle Times via AP)
May 23, 2018: Seattle Police Crisis Response Team Sgt. Eric Pisconski displays guns seized from people deemed to be a danger to themselves or others.
(Greg Gilbert/The Seattle Times via AP)

The latest debate on gun control has raised red flags on both sides of the political aisle.

Late Tuesday evening, the House Judiciary Committee passed three bills aimed at quelling the epidemic of gun violence in the United States. Among the bills was a national version of a mandate of extreme risk protection orders (ERPOs), which already is being used in 13 states.

Also known as “red flag” laws, ERPOs allow local authorities or family members to take away weapons, through a court order, from any individual who is a potential threat toward themselves or others. While the law was passed by Congress, it will likely stall on the Senate floor.

The proposals have ignited a debate about whether red flags laws are effective.

“ERPOs are an incredibly valuable tool for keeping guns out of the hands of people intent on causing harm,” said Kristen Ellingboe, who is with the Alliance for Gun Responsibility, which supports red flag laws, to Fox News. “They are effective in preventing mass shootings and suicide, in particular.”

Others warn that a lack of data does little to help prove that red flag laws have been effective in the 13 states that have passed them.

“It’s hard to judge which way the numbers really are going,” said one official within the National Rifle Association (NRA). “If the trend already shows a decline in these states before the laws were put in place, is it actually because of red flag laws or is it because the trends were already there?”

The White House is even considering a proposal recently presented by a longtime friend of President Trump — former NBC chairman Bob Wright — who suggested that a new research arm called the Health Advanced Research Projects Agency (HARPA) be developed to tackle health issues and problems in the same way that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) does for the military issues.

Included in Wright’s proposal was a program dubbed SAFEHOME, an acronym for Stopping Aberrant Fatal Events by Helping Overcome Mental Extremes, which would look into technology–including smartphones, watches and health trackers–to help detect when mentally ill people are about to turn violent.

While the technology has not been developed as of yet, the mere mention of the possibility of using people’s devices to monitor their potential for violence has left many troubled by the prospects.

You can read more at the Source here: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/red-flag-law-proposals-raises-stakes-in-gun-reform-debate

Sep11

9/11 anniversary: Trump says day is ‘seared into our soul’ as nation remembers 18 years later

by Shaun on September 11, 2019 at 5:00 pm
Posted In: CURRENT NEWS
View image on Twitter

Eighteen years after the Tuesday morning President Trump says “is seared into our soul,” the nation paused to solemnly mark the events of the 9/11 terror attacks and the nearly 3,000 people who were lost – but never forgotten.

Morning ceremonies were held Wednesday at Ground Zero, the Pentagon, and at the Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville, Pa. And this year is the first time the names of each are being read in the presence of a new, bittersweet section of the 9/11 Memorial — one honoring the growing list of first responders who’ve passed away from illnesses diagnosed in the aftermath of the attacks.

“For every American who lived through that day, the September 11 attack is seared into our soul,” Trump said during a ceremony at the Pentagon. “It was a day filled with shock, horror, sorrow and righteous fury.”

He added: “For the families who join us, this is your anniversary of personal and permanent loss. It’s the day that has replayed in your memory a thousand times over: the last kiss, the last phone call, the last time hearing those precious words ‘I love you’.”

Trump, a native New Yorker, said he and first lady Melania Trump are “united” with the survivors “in your grief.”

“We come here in the knowledge that we cannot erase the pain or reverse the evil of that dark and wretched day, but we offer you all that we have: our unwavering loyalty, our undying devotion and our eternal pledge that your loved ones will never, ever be forgotten,” he said.

This morning, the names of each victim at the Pentagon were read aloud, followed with the ringing of a bell. Former President George W. Bush is also expected to lay a wreath at the Pentagon this afternoon, while Vice President Pence will attend a ceremony at the Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville, Pa.

Following the annual reading of names in Manhattan, the Port Authority — the owner of the original World Trade Center — will be holding an interfaith remembrance service at nearby St. Peters’ Church.

Farther north, the largest free-flying American flag in the world, which weighs 450 pounds and measures 60 by 90 feet, will be greeting drivers on the George Washington Bridge. And in the evening, the Tribute in Light beams that emanate from near Ground Zero will be visible up to 60 miles away.

The 9/11 Memorial Glade, which opened in late May, pays tribute to the more than 2,000 firefighters, police officers, federal agents and other first responders who have died after inhaling toxic fumes during recovery efforts and when clearing rubble at the scene.

The exhibit – just steps away from the reflecting pools — features six granite monoliths, each weighing 13 to 18 tons, inlaid and bound with strips of World Trade Center steel. The stones point skyward, crafted to look bruised, not broken, as a testament to the strength of the human spirit after the tragedy, the architects told Fox News earlier this year.

“Here we honor the tens of thousands / From across America and around the world / Who came to help and to heal / Whose selflessness and resolve / Perseverance and courage / Renewed the spirit of a grieving city / Gave hope to the nation / And inspired the world,” reads an inscription at one end of the Glade.

It opened on May 30 — the 17th anniversary of the official end of the rescue-and-recovery efforts that followed the 9/11 attacks.

You can read more at the Source here: https://www.foxnews.com/us/9-11-attacks-eighteenth-anniversary

Sep06

Trump blasts ‘totally illegal’ DACA order, says Obama didn’t have the right to sign it

by Shaun on September 6, 2019 at 3:24 pm
Posted In: CURRENT NEWS, POLITICS
Top Dems say Trump usurped authority of Congress by diverting funds to border wall

President Trump on Friday said that the Obama-era executive order granting protections to some immigrants who came to the country as minors was a “totally illegal document” that former President Obama never had the right to sign.

“President Obama never had the legal right to sign DACA, and he indicated so at the time of signing. But In any event, how can he have the right to sign and I don’t have the right to ‘unsigned.’ Totally illegal document which would actually give the President new powers,” he tweeted, after quoting analysis from Immigration Law Institute’s Christopher Hajec calling the program “unlawful.”

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was signed by Obama via executive order in 2012 and gave more than 700,000 immigrants that activists call “Dreamers” a renewable two-year reprieve from deportation and the ability to gain a work permit.

“DACA will be going before the Supreme Court. It is a document that even President Obama didn’t feel he had the legal right to sign – he signed it anyway!” Trump tweeted.

Trump, who campaigned on repealing DACA in 2016, announced a plan in 2017 to phase out the program, but was blocked by federal courts that ruled that the phase-out could not apply retroactively and that the program should be restarted. The White House fought back on those decisions, saying the president has broad authority over immigration enforcement policy.

DACA proponents have also argued that Trump’s planned termination of the program violates federal law requiring adequate notice-and-comment periods before certain federal rules are changed, as well as other constitutional equal protection and due process guarantees.

The case is now headed to the Supreme Court, where justices will begin hearing oral arguments in October. A ruling will likely come in 2020 and could galvanize activists on both sides of the political spectrum in the middle of an election year.

The Justice Department submitted a brief to the court last month saying that Trump acted lawfully when he ended the program.

However, on Friday Trump also renewed his calls for Congress to pass an immigration deal that includes a DACA fix, something the White House has expressed openness to before.

“Rest assured that if the SC does what all say it must, based on the law, a bipartisan deal will be made to the benefit of all!”

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-blasts-totally-illegal-daca-obama