Four Letter Words<\/p>\n
WALL<\/p>\n
The President tweeted this morning \u2013 no surprise there.<\/p>\n
\u201cRepublicans should stop wasting their time on immigration until after we elect more Senators and Congressmen\/Women in November.\u00a0 Dems are just playing games, have no intention of doing anything to solve this decades old problem. We can pass legislation after the Red Wave.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n The Republican controlled House failed to reach any solutions to the immigration issue this week.\u00a0The Goodlatte Bill, considered a conservative response to the issue, included a legal status for Dreamers, an end to child separation at the border, and the full $25 Billion funding for the President\u2019s Wall.\u00a0 Every Democrat voted against the bill, but the bill\u2019s fate was decided by the Republican Freedom Caucus.\u00a0 Forty-one Republicans voted against the bill, including many of the hardline caucus members.<\/p>\n The key complaint of the Freedom Caucus \u2013 an eventual path to citizenship for the Dreamers.<\/p>\n A second, more moderate Republican alternative was pulled from consideration by Speaker Paul Ryan.\u00a0The Freedom Caucus has united to stop it, and even though there would probably be enough Democratic votes to overcome the block, outgoing Speaker Ryan is unwilling to violate the unwritten \u201cHastert Rule.\u201d The Republican rule states that if the bill cannot pass with Republican votes alone, the Speaker will not put it on the floor for consideration.\u00a0The unwritten code puts a group like the Freedom Caucus, with enough members to prevent a Republican majority, in control.<\/p>\n Ryan is unwilling to risk revolt in his last few months as Speaker by negotiating with Democrats for needed assistance.<\/p>\n And while the Senate is considering some narrowly written bills regarding child separation, the House is unlikely to vote on any of them without getting their Wall funding.\u00a0 This failure marks the end of the \u201cZero Tolerance Maneuver\u201d strategy from the White House, who hoped by creating the crisis on the border, they could force through immigration legislation.\u00a0 While the policy may continue on the border, its prime goal has failed.<\/p>\n DON\u2019T<\/p>\n I Really Don\u2019t Care \u2013 Do U?<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em>First Lady Melania Trump, rumored to have influenced the President\u2019s decision to end the \u201cchild separation\u201d strategy, went to visit a care center in Texas yesterday.\u00a0 The optics of the visit were great, as she asked significant questions of the care workers, and showed great concern.\u00a0 Yet the carefully crafted message of a \u201ccaring\u201d First Lady was completely blown up by a bizarre jacket choice.\u00a0 Mrs. Trump, on a humid eighty-degree day, wore a $39 raincoat with a large-writ message on the back:\u00a0 \u201cI really don’t care \u2013 do U?\u201d\u00a0 While she took the coat off upon arrival in Texas, it was back on for the flight back to DC.<\/p>\n So the question is:\u00a0did the First Lady want to send the message that she didn\u2019t really care about the kids?\u00a0 The President later tweeted that she didn\u2019t care about the \u201cfake news media,\u201d but that seems like a convoluted means of sending that message.\u00a0Perhaps she was sending a message to the President, but whatever the thoughts were; the jacket definitely overshadowing her intended message.<\/p>\n She obviously knew what she was doing \u2013 just the fact the former fashion model was wearing a \u201ccheap\u201d jacket proves that.\u00a0 So either there was a huge staff controversy about her decision prior to the trip, or someone on the staff needs to be fired.\u00a0 Maybe they were the same staffers who plagiarized Michelle Obama\u2019s text for her \u201cBe Best\u201d book, or the convention speech.\u00a0 They should definitely hear the President\u2019s trade-marked phrase.<\/p>\n CAMP<\/p>\n \u201cSince more illegal immigrants are rushing the border, more kids are being separated from their parents and temporarily housed in what are essentially summer camps, or as the\u00a0San Diego Union-Tribune described them today as looking like basically boarding schools,\u201d \u2013 Laura Ingraham<\/em><\/p>\n Fox commentator Laura Ingraham decided that since there were tents and cafeteria-style meals served, the detention facilities for the children taken at the border were \u201csummer camps.\u201d \u00a0This as contrasted to:<\/p>\n Senator Jeff Merkley \u2013 concentration camps<\/p>\n First Lady Laura Bush \u2013 internment camps<\/p>\n Attorney General Jeff Sessions \u2013 concentration camps is an exaggeration.<\/p>\n So if they are like summer camps, except for the fences and the detention, then Laura wouldn\u2019t mind if parents could get their kids back? \u00a0No job consequences were announced for Ingraham.<\/p>\n WOMP<\/p>\n