CHRISTMAS MEDITATION: As you watch this MRI scan of a 20-week-old, preborn child, ponder whether there could ever have been a single moment in Jesus’ human existence when He wasn’t fully human and fully divine. Does it not follow that life begins at conception?
ACTIVELY OPPRESSED: What a load of b.s. — Barack Obama’s administration did less than nothing for communities of color. Electing a half-black president was supposedly going to heal our national racial divide, but he actively worked to make it worse. By contrast, Donald Trump’s economic policies have produced historic lows in both black and Hispanic unemployment rates and his son-in-law’s vigorous lobbying is about to get long-needed prison reforms passed, reforms that politicians have dithered about for 20 years.
BORDER WALL: If the government won’t fund it, why don’t we do it? — Brian Kolfage, a Florida-based triple amputee veteran has created a GoFundMe page
@ https://www.gofundme.com/thetrumpwall
to raise money for President Trump’s border wall. Kolfage promises that he will make sure the United States government will be legally required to spend the donations on the wall and only the wall.
The page is on its 4th day.
- Before lunch, it was up to $4,723,496.
- At 2 pm, it had grown to $5,685,401.
- At 3 pm, it was at $6,193,909.
It’s nearly 6 pm, so I checked once more before posting.
DEPLORABLES RISING: More Trump promises kept — During the 2016 campaign, President Trump promised blue-collar and low-wage service sector workers that he would improve their lot. A new labor-market study by the Conference Board, a New York-based global business organization and think tank, found that blue-collar workers aren’t just doing better, they’re now in short supply.
LEAVING SYRIA: Welcome home, troops! — Democrats’ attitudes toward what our military does and does not do have everything to do with their progressive political agenda and nothing whatsoever to do with national security or the safety of our troops. During the 2008 campaign, Democrats and their lapdogs in the media were all crocodile tear-y about our troops. Ditto when Trump deployed troops to the border at Thanksgiving. While Obama was in office, we heard zero concern from them about any of the crap he pulled. One of the bloggers at Legal Insurrection said, “Given the level of upset from the anti-Trumpers and media about the US troops leaving Syria, I suspect this was the right move for President Trump to make. He is likely to have plans-within-plans that are better than the prolonged ‘War on Terror’ that has been going on since 2001.”
DEMOCRATS AND WALLS: I am currently bemused by the fact that two of our Democrat neighbors … the kind who put yard signs up every election season … are vocal opponents of a plan to turn our quiet, dead end street into a thoroughfare. This would involve removing the FENCE and, you know, allowing people who don’t live on our street to “migrate” through our neighborhood.
WORKFARE: Encouraging productivity instead of poverty — “Because of a permissive regulation that allows states to grant waivers to wide swaths of their populations, millions of people who could work are continuing to receive SNAP benefits. The president has directed me, as Secretary of Agriculture, to propose regulatory reforms to ensure that those who are able to work do so in exchange for their benefits. This restores the dignity of work to a sizeable segment of our population, while it is also respectful of the taxpayers who fund the program.” –– Sonny Perdue, Secretary of Agriculture
HISTORIC PRISON REFORM PASSES IN THE SENATE: From the White House — Nearly all incarcerated Americans will one day leave prison. President Trump’s goal is to make sure they never return. Once the updated bill is approved by the House—which passed an earlier version of the legislation in May—it will go to President Trump’s desk for his signature.
The First Step Act is a landmark bipartisan win for our country. It draws on the success of prison reform efforts in conservative states such as Texas and Georgia, aiming to make our communities safer by making our justice system fairer. More inmates will soon be able to gain job skills, receive drug treatment, and participate in faith-based programs. As a result, they’ll be more likely to return to society as productive citizens rather than repeat criminal offenders.
“By pushing the FIRST STEP Act over its final major hurdle, the president has upheld yet another promise to the American people,” writes Dr. Alveda King, the niece of Martin Luther King, Jr.
TRUMP ECONOMY: Optimism among U.S. manufacturers is record high — “Nearly 89 percent of the 539 companies polled by the National Association of Manufacturers in the fourth quarter held a positive outlook for their business, bringing the yearly average to 92.4 percent, the highest in the survey’s 20-year history.”
VOTING WITH OUR FEET: Where’s the exit? — New York is #1 on the list of only seven states to experience a net population decline during the past year. My state’s total “net domestic migration” loss since the 2010 census is now estimated at 1,197,600 residents.
MICHELLE OBAMA: I try not to mention her but dayum — Last night, the former first lady took the stage at the Barclay Center draped in a dress the color of creamed corn and wearing a pair of $4,000 Balenciaga, thigh-high, stilletto-heeled, holographic-glitter boots. It also looks to me as if she was not wearing a bra.
“This so-called “fashion icon” in her butter-stick frock and thigh-high heels that look like they were vomited off a 5th-grader’s Lisa Frank backpack seems to still be gracing the cover of nearly every women’s magazine on Planet Earth, while Melania Trump, who’s been the epitome of class and elegance in her nearly two years as first lady, is still being snubbed by every major publication two years into her husband’s first term. In fact, far from being crowned a queen of fashion, the former supermodel has been openly ridiculed for going so far as to wear designer heels.” — MRC’s Brittany M. Hughes
LIBERAL HYPOCRISY: They’re not generous people — A 2014 study published by The Chronicle of Philanthropy found that “red states” reported higher percentages of giving than “blue states.” The top five most generous states — Utah, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia — are solidly conservative. (In fact, the top 17 states voted for Mitt Romney in 2012.) Meanwhile, the least generous states — New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, New Jersey, and Rhode Island — are solidly liberal.
VOTER ID WIN: GOP win — North Carolina’s Republican-led Legislature out-voted Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of its photo ID bill.
MORE DEMOCRAT STUPIDITY: It was all the Roman Empire — On Thursday, Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.) complained that Trump’s immigration policies would have gotten Baby Jesus killed. “Jesus Christ who had to flee for his life with Mary and Joseph, thank God there wasn’t a wall that stopped him from seeking refuge in Egypt.” The Romans built border defenses between imperial-controlled lands and the countries beyond in those places where the natural border was not protected by geographical barrier — e.g., the Rhine and Danube Rivers.
