Chuck Schumer withdraws his offer of money for Trump's border wall.

Courtesy of Politico:  

Chuck Schumer is taking his big spending boost for Donald Trump’s border wall off the table. 

The Senate minority leader, through an aide, informed the White House that he was retracting the offer he made last week to give Trump well north of the $1.6 billion in wall funding Trump had asked for this year, according to two Democrats. And now they say Trump will simply not get a better deal than that on his signature campaign promise. 

Schumer “took it off,” said Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat. “He called the White House yesterday and said it’s over.” 

After the publication of this story, a spokesman clarified that the wall offer was retracted Sunday, rather than Monday. Schumer told reporters that he withdrew his suggestion, offered midday Friday, because it was meant to be part of a broader package that would have averted a government shutdown.

Yeah, makes sense.

Especially since Trump agreed verbally to the deal put forward by the Democrats, only to do a 180 when pressured by the conservative anti-immigration Republicans.

Of course this irritated Trump who took to Twitter to complain.

Cryin’ Chuck Schumer fully understands, especially after his humiliating defeat, that if there is no Wall, there is no DACA. We must have safety and security, together with a strong Military, for our great people!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 24, 2018

"Cryin' Chuck Scumer?" Seriously?

It is looking more and more as if we are not going to have a deal before this next deadline on February 8th.

Which means this temporary stopgap to avoid a government shutdown may be very temporary indeed.

But hey, at least the Democrats were able to get the CHIP program back up and running.

Good news! Your government is back up and running. Well at least temporarily.

Republican Sen. Susan Collins: "Today is a day to celebrate because we have shown that a determined group of senators working together across the aisle can result in positive action" https://t.co/xXFLArURok

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) January 22, 2018

Courtesy of CNBC: 

Senators were optimistic they had the votes to end the government shutdown Monday after leaving meetings more confident about a compromise deal to allow Congress to pass a short-term funding bill. 

On Monday afternoon, the chamber advanced a stopgap bill to keep the government open through Feb. 8 by a comfortable 81-18 margin. The chamber still needs to approve its final passage. 

"We will vote today to reopen the government," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. 

Schumer said Democrats have received assurances that the Senate will take on immigration issues, such as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. Earlier Monday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he intends to allow debate on immigration before Feb. 8.

Oh Democrats, Democrats, Democrats, when will you ever learn?

Mitch McConnell is never going to keep that promise, and if he does, he is guaranteed to sabotage the process.

Senator Dick Durbin defends his report about Trump's "sh*thole" comments, while the Donald calls him a liar.

Sen Durbin this morning stands by his previous comments about what Pres Trump said in DACA meeting pic.twitter.com/AAgCEfBCJW

— Tony Arnold (@tonyjarnold) January 15, 2018

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

While speaking to reporters, Durbin called on the White House to release the tapes of a White House meeting in which Trump reportedly referred to African nations as “shitholes”. 

Durbin also pushed back against some Republicans who claim that Trump used the term “shithouse” instead of “shithole.” 

“I know what happened,” Durbin said, noting that he attended the Oval Office meeting on immigration reform. “I stand behind every word that I said.” 

“I don’t know that changing the word from ‘hole’ to ‘house’ changes the impact,” the Illinois Democrat observed. “I don’t think a majority of Americans agree with the president whichever word that he used. I don’t believe that a majority of the Republican Party agrees with the president, whichever word that he used.” 

Durbin said that he is “stunned that this is their defense.” 

“I don’t know if there was some other recording device in use within the Oval Office,” Durbin added. “If there was, I just want to call on the White House right now, release whatever you have.”

There is no recording device, because I can guarantee that Trump does not want a permanent record of the things he says behind closed doors.

And in what universe is referring to a country as a "shithouse" more acceptable than calling it a "shithole?"

Apparently these remarks irritated the  Tangerine Fuhrer and he took to Twitter to respond. 

Senator Dicky Durbin totally misrepresented what was said at the DACA meeting. Deals can’t get made when there is no trust! Durbin blew DACA and is hurting our Military.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 15, 2018

So let me get this straight.

It now hurts the military when people call Trump out for being a racist?

Or did I read that wrong?

Federal Judge smacks down Trump's attempt to repeal DACA.

In the middle of the intense political fight about the DACA program for dreamers, a federal judge in California just issued a nationwide injunction ordering the administration to start the program back up again, saying the decision to kill it was improper. pic.twitter.com/Op9zneahWy

— Michael D. Shear (@shearm) January 10, 2018

WOW: Federal judge orders the Trump administration roll back its rescission of #DACA. Basically, to put it back on the books!

“The agency action was not in accordance with law because it was based on the flawed legal premise that the agency lacked authority to implement DACA.” https://t.co/W3e5PrS9ls

— Cristian Farías 🍮 (@cristianafarias) January 10, 2018

This is big as Trump has been using DACA as a negotiating tool to manipulate the Dems into supporting that stupid border wall of his.

This news of course pissed Trump off big time.

It just shows everyone how broken and unfair our Court System is when the opposing side in a case (such as DACA) always runs to the 9th Circuit and almost always wins before being reversed by higher courts.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018

Actually I am not convinced that even with Trump's newly placed Supreme Court judge that they will support Trump's repeal of this law.

And even if they do that is still many months down the road, and the 2018 elections are coming soon. 

Host on conservative cable network suggests that Donald Trump should use DACA info to target parents of the Dreamers.

"We should be able to use this database as a way to go after the parents and deport the parents. At least we should start there." pic.twitter.com/MMf9nikgTt

— Media Matters (@mmfa) September 18, 2017

Courtesy of Media Matters:  

GRAHAM LEDGER (HOST): Well, here's the way that I look at this [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] issue, the 800,000 that, quote, "came forward out of the shadows and signed up for the program." I think we ought to take that list and use it as a road map to go after their parents. Not these DACA recipients, but the parents because, as the president just said, and the Democrats have been saying ad nauseam through no fault of their own, so whose fault is it? Well, it's the parent's fault. So we should be able to use this database as a way to go after the parents and deport the parents. At least we should start there, don't you think? Kind of makes sense. 

You may remember this One American News Network as the wannabe Fox News station that gave Sarah Palin a short term gig as host.

It has grown since then and is now competing with Fox to be the go to waiting room conservative propaganda network.

Fucking heartless is what they are.

It appears the Democrats may have popped the champagne cork a little early on DACA.

Courtesy of CNN: 

President Donald Trump is moving closer to a deal with Democrats that would protect hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants from deportation and put off funding for his marquee campaign promise of a border wall along the US-Mexico border. 

The bombshell developments, which were first announced in a statement Wednesday night by Democratic leaders Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi and reiterated by Trump himself Thursday morning, were met with immediate outrage from conservatives and put pressure on the President's Republican allies in Congress. 

The two Democratic leaders announced that following a dinner at the White House, they had "agreed to enshrine the protections of (the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program) into law quickly, and to work out a package of border security, excluding the wall, that's acceptable to both sides."

Yesterday when this news first broke I saw a number of pundits looking not all convinced that this was actually going to happen. Rachel Maddow in particular talked about "getting it in writing."

And it appears they were right to be cautious, because these were Trump's tweets from this morning.

No deal was made last night on DACA. Massive border security would have to be agreed to in exchange for consent. Would be subject to vote.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 14, 2017

The WALL, which is already under construction in the form of new renovation of old and existing fences and walls, will continue to be built.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 14, 2017

The lesson here is that nobody should take this asshole at his word EVER.

However it does appear that Pelosi and Schumer may have managed to move him just a little.

Does anybody really want to throw out good, educated and accomplished young people who have jobs, some serving in the military? Really!.....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 14, 2017

...They have been in our country for many years through no fault of their own - brought in by parents at young age. Plus BIG border security

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 14, 2017

So MAYBE there is a little room to negotiate, but then again maybe not.

It really depends on who Trump talks to next, because his opinions seem to be based on who he talked to last. 

Breitbart celebrates Trump's decision to repeal DACA while the rest of the country recoils in disgust.

Oooh, a brown skinned person! How'd he get in here?

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon is still notching policy wins after his return to the right-wing website Breitbart. President Donald Trump’s decision to end Obama-era protections for undocumented immigrants brought as children to the U.S. by their parents is a major victory for Bannon and Breitbart — and they know it.

“This is a huge step in the right direction for the Trump administration, and for Breitbart as we cover the stories that most of the rest of the media ignore on immigration like crimes committed by illegal aliens including so-called Dreamers, the economic and cultural effects on American workers of large scale legal and illegal immigration, and the forgotten man and woman President Trump honed in on during the 2016 race and in his inauguration speech,” a senior Breitbart editor who was not authorized to speak on the record told HuffPost. 

Breitbart was a primary source of the push to repeal DACA, which covers approximately 800,000 people. The site has sometimes published multiple stories per day promoting repeal and praising DACA opponents, while attacking Democrats and Republicans who support the program. At one point on Tuesday, nine of the site’s 10 most popular stories were about Trump’s DACA repeal (or, in one case, about Hillary Clinton’s DACA support). It’s no surprise that Breitbart sees a victory here: The site has served for years as the most prominent platform for anti-immigration organizations and politicians to promote their views.

However while Steve Bannon and the racist visitors to Breitbart are partying like it's 1899, the rest of the country is having a completely different reaction.

Courtesy of Politico:  

Voters overwhelmingly support allowing undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children to stay in the country, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll, placing President Donald Trump’s decision to wind down the controversial Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program at odds with public opinion. 

A majority of voters, 58 percent, think these undocumented immigrants, also known as Dreamers, should be allowed to stay and become citizens if they meet certain requirements — a sentiment that goes well beyond the existing DACA program. Another 18 percent think they should be allowed to stay and become legal residents, but not citizens. Only 15 percent think they should be removed or deported from the country.

I guess most of these folks are not fans of Breitbart.

And then there were the protests: 

Thousands marched across the Brooklyn Bridge Tuesday evening in protest after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the Trump administration is ending the DACA program. 

At least 13 were arrested, including one New York council member, adding to the 34 who were arrested hours earlier outside Trump Tower. 

Earlier in the day, hundreds of immigrants and advocates from across the tri-state demonstrated in Manhattan and in Washington, D.C. 

There were also other protests in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, just to name a few.

But what be most troubling to Trump is that this decision has created a rift between him and many of his evangelical supporters.

Courtesy of the Washington Post:  

Religious leaders, including some of the evangelicals who have remained steadfast in their support for Trump, expressed their disappointment that Trump would reverse the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. 

In a strongly worded statement, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops called the decision “reprehensible.” 

“Now, after months of anxiety and fear about their futures, these brave young people face deportation,” they wrote. “This decision is unacceptable and does not reflect who we are as Americans.” 

The Catholic Church’s ties to dreamers are direct. About 1 in 4 U.S. Catholics are foreign born, and 34 percent of all Catholics are Hispanic, according to Pew Research Center. Still, the overall Catholic vote in 2016 was split between Trump and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, though Hispanic Catholics overwhelmingly supported Clinton. 

The criticism was echoed by local Catholic leaders, including Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the archbishop of Washington, who has a close relationship with Pope Francis. He called the decision “very regrettable and harmful.” 

The United Methodist Church was even sharper in its rebuke, calling the efforts to “rescind these protections, not only unconscionable, but contrary to moral work and witness.” The Evangelical Lutheran Church, a major mainline Protestant denomination, wrote that its members would “pray today for those that will suffer undue repercussions due to the end of this program.” 

Even some of the faith leaders closest to Trump urged him not to end the protection for young immigrants. Some prominent evangelicals signed joint letters compelling Trump to leave the program in place while Congress works on a more permanent legislative solution.

This decision has essentially only satisfied the most racist fringe of Trump's base, the neo-Nazi/KKK branch if you will.

No wonder Trump sent Jeff "The Keebler Elf"  Sessions out to make the actual announcement, while Trump himself hides under his bed.

It almost seems as if Trump is trying to get as many people as possible to hate him before he leaves office. 

Barack Obama's statement on Trump's repeal of DACA.

Courtesy of Obama's Facebook page: 

Immigration can be a controversial topic. We all want safe, secure borders and a dynamic economy, and people of goodwill can have legitimate disagreements about how to fix our immigration system so that everybody plays by the rules. 

But that’s not what the action that the White House took today is about. This is about young people who grew up in America – kids who study in our schools, young adults who are starting careers, patriots who pledge allegiance to our flag. These Dreamers are Americans in their hearts, in their minds, in every single way but one: on paper. They were brought to this country by their parents, sometimes even as infants. They may not know a country besides ours. They may not even know a language besides English. They often have no idea they’re undocumented until they apply for a job, or college, or a driver’s license. 

Over the years, politicians of both parties have worked together to write legislation that would have told these young people – our young people – that if your parents brought you here as a child, if you’ve been here a certain number of years, and if you’re willing to go to college or serve in our military, then you’ll get a chance to stay and earn your citizenship. And for years while I was President, I asked Congress to send me such a bill. 

That bill never came. (It is important to point out here, because I see even visitors to this blog who seem confused, that President Obama did not just suddenly decide to introduce DACA, He tried for quite some time to get Congress to pass a reasonable immigration policy, and when that did not happen he took it upon himself to do something.) And because it made no sense to expel talented, driven, patriotic young people from the only country they know solely because of the actions of their parents, my administration acted to lift the shadow of deportation from these young people, so that they could continue to contribute to our communities and our country. We did so based on the well-established legal principle of prosecutorial discretion, deployed by Democratic and Republican presidents alike, because our immigration enforcement agencies have limited resources, and it makes sense to focus those resources on those who come illegally to this country to do us harm. Deportations of criminals went up. Some 800,000 young people stepped forward, met rigorous requirements, and went through background checks. And America grew stronger as a result. 

But today, that shadow has been cast over some of our best and brightest young people once again. To target these young people is wrong – because they have done nothing wrong. It is self-defeating – because they want to start new businesses, staff our labs, serve in our military, and otherwise contribute to the country we love. And it is cruel. What if our kid’s science teacher, or our friendly neighbor turns out to be a Dreamer? Where are we supposed to send her? To a country she doesn’t know or remember, with a language she may not even speak? 

Now Donald Trump is attempting to shift the blame for his decision to repeal DACA onto whoever is handy.

Congress, get ready to do your job - DACA!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2017

Actually most of Congress, all of the Democrats, and the majority of the Republicans, do not want anything to do with repealing DACA.

After all it was not THEIR campaign promise that Trump is attempting to keep.

But now that it is time deliver on that promise, Trump is choking like a little league player terrified of baseballs.

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

For months, an anxious and uncertain President Trump was caught between opposing camps in the West Wing prodding him to either scrap or salvage an Obama-era program allowing undocumented immigrants brought to the country as minors to remain in the United States. 

Last week, with a key court deadline looming for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, Mr. Trump, exasperated, asked his aides for “a way out” of a dilemma he created by promising to roll back the program as a presidential candidate, according to two people familiar with the exchange. 

Mr. Trump’s chief of staff, John F. Kelly, who had wrestled with crafting a compromise in his previous job as the president’s homeland security secretary, began consulting with Republican lawmakers and staff members for a quick fix, according to three officials familiar with the situation. He finally arrived at an inelegant solution to an intractable problem: Delaying a decision on the final fate of about 800,000 “Dreamers” covered by President Barack Obama’s executive action for six months, and putting it on Congress to come up with a legislative solution to the problem.

In fact Trump is such a complete panty waist that he does not even have the balls to deliver this message in person.

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Attorney General Jeff Sessions will hold a news briefing Tuesday morning at the Department of Justice to discuss the fate of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, an Obama-era executive action that protects young undocumented immigrants from deportation. Trump is reportedly planning to shutter the program after a six-month delay. 

President Donald Trump, an obsessive television viewer and master of the medium, is not scheduled to face the cameras. In fact, the only public event on the president’s schedule on Tuesday is a photo op before a meeting with GOP congressional leaders on tax reform. 

Jesus he's a pussy!

When will the Republican voters learn that these idiots who talk tough and swagger are invariable the same candy asses who will run and hide under their beds when the going gets tough?

If Donald Trump goes after the Dreamers, Barack Obama may go after him.

Don't make me come back here.

Courtesy of Politico:

Former President Barack Obama plans to speak out if President Donald Trump declares his intention to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, according to a person close to Obama. 

Trump is expected to announce on Tuesday that in six months, he will terminate the Obama-era DACA initiative, which grants two-year work permits to undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children and stayed out of trouble. POLITICO first reported the news. 

Obama’s current plan is to post a statement on Facebook and link to it on Twitter, where the former president has more than 94 million followers. In his final presidential press availability, he suggested that he would speak out if Trump went after the Dreamers — and that it was one of the few issues where he would feel morally compelled to do so. He said he would not remain silent in the face of “efforts to round up kids who have grown up here and for all practical purposes are American kids, and send them someplace else, when they love this country.”

Yes my headline is a little hyperbolic, as it really reflects how I wish Obama would respond, rather than the measured and careful statement that he is certain to issue.

I know who Obama is, and I admire him immensely for the fact that he is forever the grownup in the room, the steadying presence, the man who keeps his head when all about him are losing theirs. (With apologies to Rudyard Kipling.)

And we will welcome his words, share them with others, and cling to them for the wisdom that they hold.

But they will change absolutely nothing, and Trump will keep right on taking a sledgehammer to everything that President Obama worked so hard to build.

That makes me incredibly sad, and almost uncontrollably angry.

Donald Trump is a bully.

I remember bullies from my years in public school.

Everybody always told me to take the high road, to not get down on their level.

But nothing made it stop, nothing made me feel safe, until I finally had enough and knocked them on their ass.

I guess in some ways I just want Barack Obama to knock Donald Trump on his ass.

Verbally of course, I would never suggest a physical confrontation. (Though I have every confidence 44 could beat 45's big orange ass with little effort.)

Is it wrong? Probably.

Will Obama ever do anything like that? Probably not.

But that does not stop me from wanting it.

And it does not keep me from thinking that ultimately Barack Obama may be left with no choice.

Dreamer dies trying to rescue people during Texas flood, his Mexican born mother will not be allowed to attend his funeral.

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Alonso Guillen came to the U.S. from Mexico as a child. He died here, too: On Wednesday, he disappeared when his boat capsized while he was rescuing survivors of the flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey in the Houston area. 

Family members recovered his body on Sunday from a creek in Spring, Texas, according to The Houston Chronicle ― just hours before reports emerged that President Donald Trump will end the program that shielded Guillen and others like him ― so-called Dreamers ― from deportation. 

Guillen, a 31-year-old disc jockey who came to Texas from Mexico as a teenager, never became a U.S. citizen. But he had a work permit and protection from immediate deportation as part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program ― DACA ― that then-President Barack Obama established in 2012. 

Last week, he headed south from his home in Lufkin, Texas, with a borrowed boat, insisting he wanted to help rescue flood survivors. His father, a legal permanent resident, wept on the sandy banks of Cypress Creek on Sunday as his son’s body was pulled from the water, the Chronicle reported. Jesus Guillen recounted to the paper how he asked his son not to go on the rescue mission with two friends, and that he thanked God for the time he had with his son. 

As Law Newz reports Guillen's mother will not be allowed to cross the border in order to attend her son's funeral:  

While Guillen’s father is a legal permanent resident of the United States, his mother, Rita Ruiz de Guillen is currently applying for legal status here–and unable to cross the border in order to bury her son. 

She had hoped U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials would be understanding of the situation and issue a humanitarian visa so she could properly mourn, but her request was denied and the grieving 62-year-old was sent back to Me exico after reaching the U.S. border. She said, through tears: 

“I’ve lost a great son, you have no idea. I’m asking God to give me strength. When we are with God, there are no borders. Man made borders on this earth.”

I'm sorry, putting politics aside where at least is the compassion for this grieving mother? 

I mean what are they afraid she will do, leave the funeral, disappear into the crowd, and then immediately start stealing American's jobs?

Donald Trump is planning to end DACA because apparently not enough people are convinced he's a racist.

Courtesy of Politico: 

President Donald Trump has decided to end the Obama-era program that grants work permits to undocumented immigrants who arrived in the country as children, according to two sources familiar with his thinking. Senior White House aides huddled Sunday afternoon to discuss the rollout of a decision likely to ignite a political firestorm — and fulfill one of the president’s core campaign promises. 

The administration’s deliberations on the issue have been fluid and fast moving, and the president has faced strong warnings from members of his own party not to scrap the program.

Trump has wrestled for months with whether to do away with the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, known as DACA. But conversations with Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who argued that Congress — rather than the executive branch — is responsible for writing immigration law, helped persuade the president to terminate the program and kick the issue to Congress, the two sources said. 

In a nod to reservations held by many lawmakers, the White House plans to delay the enforcement of the president’s decision for six months, giving Congress a window to act, according to one White House official. But a senior White House aide said that chief of staff John Kelly, who has been running the West Wing policy process on the issue, “thinks Congress should’ve gotten its act together a lot longer ago.”

This is probably one of the most popular policy decisions that President Obama made during his two terms, so of course Trump needs to shit on it. 

And by the way the press needs to stop promoting the White House's spin that Trump has "wrestled" with this. The only thing Trump wrestles with is his pants when he struggles to slide his gargantuan ass into them in the morning.

Trump wants to erase ALL of President Obama's legacies. So of course he is going after DACA.

And even though Paul Ryan and other top Republicans are not exactly on board with this decision, they seem to believe that Congress is the place for creating immigration policy.

However I would point out that the reason Obama implemented DACA was because Congress could not get off their ass and really do anything meaningful about immigration in the first place.