At first blush, it would appear that ethically challenged House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings, hasn’t a prayer in getting his hands on First Daughter’s White House correspondents along with her personal email and phone records, simply because of “executive privilege.”
Regardless of the 23 to 16 vote resolution passed on Thursday by the House to subpoena those documents from Ivanka Trump.
The resolution authorizes House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings to subpoena “records relating to the Committee’s investigation into the use of non-official electronic messaging accounts by non-career officials at the White House.”
The Washington Post reported in 2018 that Ivanka Trump inadvertently sent hundreds of emails regarding government business over the course of 2017 using her own personal email account rather than her work account.
Which she had acknowledged to White House counsel in 2018, who had reviewed the issue with Ivanka, and noted within a lengthy statement that the First Daughter at the time did not understand the rules governing private email use during the beginning of her tenure in the administration.
“While transitioning into government, after she was given an official account but until the White House provided her the same guidance they had given others who started before she did, Ms. Trump sometimes used her personal account, almost always for logistics and scheduling concerning her family,” the White House counsel concluded.
Fast forward three days after the embarrassing Mueller hearings and another corrupt Democratic leader namely Elijah Cummings. is once again attempting to harass another Trump, with a bogus demand for documents.
The embattled Maryland congressmen who’s currently facing his own ethics probe regarding allegations stemming from the congressmen’s wife regarding a charity and a for-profit consulting firm she owns and her alleged financial dealings that has drawn the attention of the IRS, along with a potential perjury charge, and the congressmen’s potential “pay for play” malfeasance mixing those chartable donations with the same individuals Cummings currently does business with in congress…which is both a conflict of interest along with an ethics violation
However that hasn’t stopped Cummings from harassing the First Daughter stating in a Thursday statement that the Committee “obtained direct evidence that multiple high-level White House officials have been violating the Presidential Records Act.”
Adding, that the Presidential Records Act “establishes public ownership of all presidential records and defines the term presidential records” and “requires that the President and his staff take all practical steps to file personal records separately from presidential records.”
Then in an ironic twist, considering what awaits Cummings the corrupt politician states “What we do not yet know is why these White House officials were attempting to conceal these communications.”
Adding “I don’t know how to say this any differently: We have laws, and the laws say we keep official records.”
“The Democrats are no closer to their goal of impeaching the President — in fact; I think they’re farther away. … But they don’t waste any time. … Now they’re going to go after the emails of the first family in an attempt to create an appearance of some type of controversy,” Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the Oversight Committee, said Thursday.
What’s seems clear is that the Mueller hearings although they proved disastrous for Democrats, hasn’t curtailed their insatiable appetite to impeach the President, regardless of what the latest polls say.
Democrats will lick their wounds, and press forward waiting for another controversy to once again gin up their radical base of malcontents to demand impeachment hearings, right up until they lose the White House, the Senate, and the House in 2020.
After weeks of speculation, allegations, and accusations, the Defense Department finally released the assailants in action, responsible for attacking several oil tankers within the last month steaming their way through the narrow and strategic Strait of Hormuz.
The indisputable evidence presented by the U.S., is a brief black and white surveillance video of an Iranian gunboat removing an unexploded mine that had been previously attached to a Japanese owned oil tanker seriously damaged as it steamed in international waters within the Gulf of Oman early Thursday morning.
Moreover, the visual captures an Iranian sailor alongside the hull of the damaged “Kokuka Courageous” standing in the gunboat and carefully removing the unexploded mine, before speeding off.
The surveillance video was taken on board the USS Bainbridge, a guided-missile destroyer which rescued 21 sailors from the stricken Japanese-owned tanker.
This region of the world is perhaps one of the most politically sensitive regions on earth, a vital oil route and merchant shipping lane, responsible for 1/3 of the world’s oil exports.
A U.S. official told Fox News an Iranian gunboat approached the Kokuka Courageous later in the day and removed the unexploded triangular-shaped limpet mine, the same type of mine used to damage four other tankers in the Gulf of Oman last month.
The official went on to say that the Iranian vessel did not bear any military markings, flags or identifiable uniforms, however the class of vessel reordered on the video, is well known by the U.S. military called a fast inshore attack craft (FIAC), the same type of ship used by Iran in recent years to harass American warships in the Persian Gulf.
In another incident Thursday, a Norwegian-owned vessel called the “Front Altair,” was also attacked in the Gulf of Oman, and perhaps even more ominous, its crew (according to U.S. officials), is now being held in Iran.
Cmdr. M. Kathryn Devin, the USS Bainbridge’s commanding officer, said of the rescues. “This is what we’re out here for, our mission is to ensure maritime safety and to answer the call for aid when we can.”
In a news conference on Thursday afternoon, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo addressed the escalating and unprovoked attacks on merchant oil tankers by Iran, calling the attacks a “blatant assault.”
Adding, “This assessment is based on intelligence, the weapons used, the level of expertise needed to execute the operation, recent similar Iranian attacks on shipping, and the fact that no proxy group operating in the area has the resources and proficiency to act with such a high degree of sophistication.”
On Friday President Trump continued where Secretary of State Pompeo left off in an interview with “Fox & Friends,” the President armed with the video evidence once again condemned the terrorist régime stating, “We don’t take it lightly.”
Adding, “Iran did do it and you know they did it because you saw the boat,” he said, before pointing to a video that showed an Iranian vessel removing an unexploded mine attached to a Japanese-owned oil tanker.
The President continued, “They’re a nation of terror and they’ve changed a lot since I’ve been President, I can tell you.”
The terrorist régime, of course, denies the attacks, in a news release at Iran’s U.N. Mission the régime rejected the claims made by the U.S., despite the video evidence stating, “Iran stands ready to play an active and constructive role in ensuring the security of strategic maritime passages as well as promoting peace, stability and security in the region.”
The Trump Administration is sending out a clear and decisive message when it comes to our commitment on the world stage, that this isn’t the Obama Administration, of obfuscating our responsibility as the “ONLY” superpower on earth.
No longer do we ignore, appease or apologize for our embrace of “nationalism,” rather then in the pursuit of “globalization.” The policy of appeasement practiced badly under the last administration has taken our advisories awhile to adjust. The bad actors like North Korea, Iran, Russia, and China have all tried to test the Trump Administration, hoping that the failed policies of the past administration to weaken our status on the world stage would somehow continue.
The latest “wake-up” call is currently being played out in the South China Sea near a number of small islands claimed and seized by China in 2014, to the surprise of the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Japan regional countries much closer to the islands then China’s 500 miles.
Ironically the Obama Administration had warned China in 2012 not to carry out any “reclamation works” as they have done elsewhere because the islands are part of international territories; however Obama once again ignored the threat, giving little more then lip service, which in turn singled to the Chinese Obama’s incompetence and timidity to actually confront international aggression, thus allowing China to claim the islands for themselves two years later, beginning construction of an airport and turning the islands into a strategic military installation, while Obama purposely looked somewhere else.
Much like everything Obama touched, the Trump Administration has had to clean up. For the second time this month the U.S. destroyer Preble sailed near islands claimed by China in the disputed South China Sea while the two countries engage in a trade fight.
Reuters reported that the operation was carried out on Sunday, citing that the Commander for the 7th fleet sailed 12 nautical miles off Scarborough Reef “in order to challenge excessive maritime claims and preserve access to the waterways,” the commander said.
The 7th fleet kept a watchful eye, as naval ships from India and Singapore performed drills within international waters. Those drills are expected to last until May 22. The U.S. has frequently criticized China for what it regards as the country’s militarization of the South China Sea, while China, in turn, has regarded the U.S. conduct in the region as a provocation.
Recent incidents surrounding the disputed islands within the South China Sea has the potential of becoming a flashpoint for an unintended confrontation if the players aren’t extremely careful within this high-density waterway.
On May 15th, 2019, Captain John Driscoll, commanding officer of the U.S. Coast Guard National Security Cutter Bertholf told reporters two Chinese Coast Guard ships were spotted off the South China Sea while they were conducting the joint exercise with Philippine Coast Guard.
A top American military commander says U.S. Air Force jets patrol the South China Sea daily to foster freedom of over-flight, although they’re not as visible as Navy patrols in the disputed waters.
“We fly on a daily basis in and around the South China Sea and really all across the region,” Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., commander of U.S. Pacific Air Forces, told a news briefing late Thursday in Manila.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman for Lu Kang said the American ships had entered waters near the shoal without China’s permission, and the Chinese navy had warned it to leave.
“I must stress once again that the U.S. warship’s relevant actions have violated China’s sovereignty and undermined the peace, security and good order in the relevant sea areas. China is firmly opposed to this,” Lu told a daily news briefing.
Obama’s reluctance to confront China’s aggression seizing islands within international waters, and strategically changing the balance of power in the South China Sea, is yet another example of Obama’s pathetic foreign policy of appeasement.
The divide between moderate Democrats and the party’s radical Left has widened over the latter’s desire to abolish ICE – and may either SPLIT the party in two or force moderate Democrats to submit to the demands of their party’s hijackers. The assault against ICE began months ago from radical left-wing activists and journalists pushing the open borders narrative, labeling the agency as cruel and heartless for “ripping children away from their mothers.”
The propaganda gained momentum as the mainstream media continued their assault on the agency – with images of children being held in detention areas while their parents were being processed for entering the United States illegally. When many of those pictures were proven to be taken during the Obama presidency or were staged by protesters, the strong rhetoric and calls for abolition did not change.
More than 150 “Democratic” elected officials across the country signed an open letter calling for the elimination of ICE.
“As one of our newest federal agencies, ICE spends more time destroying communities than it does keeping communities safe while violating basic civil and human rights. The experiment that is ICE has failed, and must be ended as soon as possible,” the letter states.
For the record, this is the same agency that ventured into dangerous neighborhoods in New York City recently and arrested 114 fugitives during an 11-day operation focused on sex trafficking.
The arrests netted ICE 82 illegal aliens with criminal records, including many with prior convictions for sex crimes, drug offenses, and fraud. Others had pending criminal charges, including assault, larceny, sexual exploitation of a minor – and one a manslaughter conviction.
Thomas Decker, field office director for Enforcement and Removal Operations in New York, said at the time, “Our nation has a proud history of immigration, but we are also a nation governed by laws specifically designed to protect its citizens and residents. ERO deportation officers are committed to enforcing the immigration laws set forth by our legislators.”
Concluding, “Of those arrested during this operation, nine were released from New York custody with an active detainer, which poses an increased risk to the officers and the community.”
When President Trump was asked recently by Fox’s Business’ reporter Maria Bartiromo about the Democrats’ proposed abolition of ICE, the president’s response said it all:
“I hope they keep thinking about it, because they’re going to get beaten so bad, you know these are the guys that take out MS-13, because they’re much tougher then MS-13, by a factor of 10. You get rid of ICE you’d be afraid to walk out of your house, I love that issue if they’re actually going to do that, they’re seriously talking about.”
The President pauses a moment and continues, “Between Maxine Waters, Nancy Pelosi, and getting rid of ICE, and having open borders, if that’s going to be their platform, I think they’ll never win another election, so I’m actually quite happy about it.”
Who could ever have imagined that the “CITY OF BROTHERLY LOVE” where the First Continental Congress convened on September 5th 1774, at Carpenter’s Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has apparently become an indoctrination camp for pint-sized future terrorists?
A chilling video just uncovered shows young children wearing Palestinian attire singing “Jihadist” songs, in one disturbing lyric, the children perhaps about ten years of age and younger praise the “blood of martyrs,” a reference to suicide bombing. In another passage, the children sing in harmony about “chopping off heads,” martyrdom and “defending Palestine with our bodies.”
The disturbing video came to light (since deleted), after the Middle East Research Institute (MEMRI), reported it on Friday appearing on the Facebook page of the Muslim American Society Islamic Center showing children wearing Palestinian garb and singing Jihadist songs.
Several other videos have also been uploaded on the social media sight in celebration of a Muslim holiday called “Ummah Day, translation the word “ummah” references the worldwide Muslim community.
This particular video clip was apparently uploaded to the center’s Facebook page on April 22, along with other video’s showcasing children making presentations that represented other Muslim countries.
MEMRI downloaded the troubling video and reposted it with subtitles in English translating the Jihadist songs which encourages beheadings while praising suicide bombers.
In one passage the children sing in harmony, “Glorious Steeds Call Us and Lead Us onto Paths Leading to the Al-Aqsa Mosque – The Blood of Martyrs Protects Us”
After they sing that stanza another child then narrates; “Those who accept humiliation – what is the point in their existence? Those who reject oppression are the ones who assert their existence, and they eliminate the injustice from the land of the Arabs.”
The children once again Sing, “Rebels! Rebels! Rebels! Glorious steeds call us and lead us onto paths leading to the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The blood of martyrs protects us. Paradise needs real men!”
Another child once again narrates; “The land of the Prophet Muhammad’s Night Journey is calling us. Our Palestine must return to us. Oh Saladdin, your men are among us, shame will be washed away!”
Another young girl seen in the clip chants, “Our martyrs sacrificed their lives without hesitation.”
Moments later another girl adds, “We will defend the land of divine guidance (Palestine) with our bodies, and we will sacrifice our souls without hesitation.”
Adding, “We will chop off their heads, and we will liberate the sorrowful and exalted Al-Aqsa Mosque.”
One child wears a t-shirt showing a map of Palestine on which Israel has been eliminated.
No doubt we’ve seen these types of horrific video’s of children being exploited, learning to hate and pledging their loyalties as jihadists, however those videos originate within the those terrorist camps hidden somewhere within the Middle East not on America’s “Main Street” in the heart of Philadelphia where the Liberty Bell resides, and where our nation was born.
In a statement posted on their Facrbook page on Saturday, the Muslim American Society Islamic Center attempted to explain-away the video indoctrinating children into the world of jihad stating, “Not all songs were properly vetted.” Adding: “This was an unintended mistake and an oversight in which the center and the students are remorseful.” Later, the Center also posted a statement from the Pennsylvania chapter of the Council on Islamic Relations (CAIR), in which the organization “reaffirmed its condemnation of any and all manifestations of anti-Semitism.”
Perhaps someone from Homeland Security should pay a visit to the center and inquire what exactly was the “oversight” referenced? Putting out an anti-American indoctrination video publicly recruiting children to perhaps be the terrorists of tomorrow or being exposed as being a terrorist organization masquerading itself as a civil rights group?
Hundreds of working-class Austrians – with real roots to the nation’s culture and customs – have expressed to one of the most popular newspapers their opinions on mass migration, with many saying that they’re feeling like outsiders in their own country.
The comments came in reaction to national populist Vice Chancellor and Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) Chairman Heinz-Christian Strache’s remarks on the idea of ‘population replacement, and in response to an opinion piece in Kronen Zeitung that agreed that demographic changes are real but which disparaged Stache’s word choice as a ‘conspiracy theory’
Kronen Zeitung decided to republish a few of the comments made on that opinion article with many individuals expressing that they felt that mass migration had changed the country so much that they felt incredibly alienated.
One Kronen Zeitung reader wrote, “On the streets, in the public transport and the municipal buildings: We feel like foreigners in our home.”
Another comment read, “In our elementary school out of consideration for foreign cultures no more excursions are made, the diet is adapted to religious wishes, the violence of the foreign elementary school boys is frightening,” while another person observed, “Foreign-language parents with their children do not bother to speak our language… It’s sad, but one doesn’t feel well anymore.”
Another expressed, “The mood in our condominium has deteriorated so much that we (65 and 68) are ready to move away to finally be able to live in peace again.”
Early this year, a physician and former MP from Austrian People’s Party spoke with a local Austrian television station about Austrian girls having to wear headscarves in order to prevent street harassment and assault by male Muslim migrants.
In the interview, he stated, “Speak with women on the street, speak with children, speak with young girls. I myself know fathers who, when their daughters come home in the evening when they live in the problem area, give them headscarves so they won’t be recognized as Austrians. I know this personally, in the 15th district of Vienna, this is a fact.”
In October of 2017, Kronen Zeitung reported that two classrooms in Austria – in the cities of Klagenfurt and Villach – had become the very first in the entire country’s school system to have classes were not one school child speaks German as their native language.
In 2016, going against advice from the Education Ministry, Viennese school director Andrea Walach warned of a ‘lost generation’ of migrant-background children at her school due to their difficulty learning German. Walach estimated that as many as a third of those unable to speak good German would – as a result – have their educational and future job prospects highly limited, and would thus need to rely on further financial support from the state.
But it’s not only Austrians who are feeling alienated in their own country due to mass immigration. This seems to be going on all throughout the western world.
For example, in the United States, the Washington Post and Humans of New York revealed that native English-speaking people from the country’s working class were also feeling alienated and isolated because their workplaces have become increasingly dominated by non-English speaking immigrants.
The hysteria exhibited by the unhinged left to President Trump’s use of tear-gas in dispersing a violent mob of migrants is perhaps only equal to their woeful ignorance of history – or maybe a clever attempt at rewriting history with President Trump playing the heartless villain.
The attempted infiltration of our borders was quickly repelled by a barrage of tear gas. That stopped the onrushing advance, dead-in-its-tracks, scattering the mob in all directions – thus avoiding a more lethal response.
However the images of migrants tearfully coughing and rubbing their eyes outraged committed leftists across the country, creating a firestorm of protests on social media. From a deranged Alyssa Milano going into an uncontrollable profanity-laced tirade against President Trump to an incredibly stupid remark by Democratic Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI), hypocrisy was abound.
Both of these loons have no doubt lost any semblance of basic common sense or proportionality in their unbridled contempt of President Trump. Protecting America’s national security is seen by leftists as a violation of human rights.
Obviously, what seems at play once again is “selective outrage” or perhaps a universal dose of ignorance among the progressive elites.
Back in 2010, under then President Obama, the use of 2-chlorobenzylidene or CS (another form of tear gas) was deployed 26-times – the same combination was again used in 2012 and 2013 approximately 27-times.
According to CBP officials, Obama also regularly used pepper spray (another chemical agent) over 151 times at the border in 2013.
Remarkably no one heard from the likes of Milano then, even though the Obama Administration frequently used the same tear-gas agent as President Trump, averaging a few times a month during the last few years of his term. That’s about 48-times within Obama’s last 2-years in office.
Milano is a committed progressive, an actress residing in Tinseltown along with other leftist celebrities, who has made bashing the President a cottage industry for under-employed actors looking to cash in on the anti-Trump gravy-train. Her absurd comments are actually in keeping with Hollywood’s derangement syndrome of President Trump.
Senator Schatz, by contrast, is an elected legislator, his comments should be taken seriously. His asinine tweet on Sunday, implying that the use of tear gas is a violation of international agreements governing the use of chemical weapons, simply illustrates how far down the rabbit-hole Democrats have sunk.
Perhaps realizing how absurd his tweet was, the good senator quickly deleted it.
“Anyone uncomfortable with spraying tear gas on children is welcome to join the coalition of the moral and the sane. We can argue about other stuff when we’ve got our country back.”
Adding, “I went ahead and deleted the one about chemical weapons because I just don’t know enough about what happened. Does this not strike you as excessive”?
— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) November 25, 2018
This simply shows how uninformed and historically ignorant the Hawaiian Senator must be.
If you’re an avid viewer of Fox News, especially in prime time, then you’re probably a fan of this friendly, cerebral host – who uses good humor combined with an analytical common sense approach in unmasking overbearing progressive dogma.
This ultimately leaves the unprepared guest looking for an exit door. Carlson’s unassuming and boyish persona masks a sharp intellect that cuts through the smokescreen of political talking points, to the core issues at hand.
According to a recent poll just released on Tuesday by the Morning Consult Survey, Tucker Carlson leads all Republican pundits with a favorability rating of plus 31.
The other leading contenders viewed as the five most popular hosts among Republicans also happened to be Fox News hosts, including Laura Ingraham, Ainsley Earhardt, Dana Perino and Chris Wallace.
The Morning Consult Survey poll sampled 895 Republican adults between Nov. 6th and 7th, with a margin of error of 3%.
Carlson’s sudden move into prime time began with some understandable reservations in attempting to fill the legendary shoes of Fox’s media icon Bill O’Reilly.
However, Murdoch’s gamble paid off – Carlson’s show is number one in his time slot, far outdistancing the competition on both CNN and MSNBC.
This did not stop the left wing mob who recently targeted the host’s private home. At least one protester went all the way up to Carlson’s front door and rang the doorbell, shouting “racist scumbag, leave town!” and “Tucker Carlson, we will fight! We know where you sleep at night!”
The group “Smash Racism DC” posted video footage to Twitter showing one of the mob’s ringleaders leading the crowd: “No borders! No walls! No USA at all!”
“Tucker Carlson, you cannot hide from the people you hurt with your rhetoric, your lies, and your hate,” the group wrote on Twitter, adding the hashtag “#KnockKnockTucker.”
In another shameful incident, Carlson’s 19-year old daughter was verbally harassed and assaulted in a restaurant, at a country club in October.
After the incident was verified and reported, The Daily Caller News Foundation attempted to interview the alleged assailant, a Board of Directors member for The Women’s Initiative, named Juan Manuel Granados.
The woman’s group refused the multiple phone calls regarding Granados alleged remarks at Carlson’s daughter, calling her a whore” and a “f**king c**t.”
Sadly, the price nowadays for being a recognized and popular conservative comes with a warning label, especially if you’re the spouse of that well known conservative and home alone. Be prepared to defend yourself…because the next rabid leftist loon that comes to your front door may not be ringing the bell to harass you – he may attempt to assault you.
The White House announced on Tuesday that U.S. troops stationed along the United States-Mexico border have just been authorized to come to the aid of U.S. Border Patrol Agents if they should come under attack by illegal migrants attempting to force their way through the fortified border.
The President’s decree came only days after the President witnessed a mob of Hondurans and other Central American migrants attempting to overpower Mexican police dressed in riot gear trying to hold the line in the border town of Tijuana over the weekend.
In that incident, Tijuana residents aided the police in holding the line, driving back the rock throwing migrants.
The order for the military to engage runs counter to the previous request to only defend themselves and not intervene if a border agent is attacked or overran by a surging mob.
Although the Department of Homeland Security did not confirm or deny the President’s decree, they stressed the importance of safety for those individuals tasked with manning and protecting the homeland from a hostile foreign assault.
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Kate Waldman told ABC News, “As Secretary Nielsen has said, we will not allow our frontline personnel to be in harm’s way.”
Adding, “We will do everything we can to protect those who defend our nation’s sovereignty and secure our border. We appreciate the Department of Defense stepping in to assist the Department of Homeland Security as needed.”
Defense Secretary James Mattis at first rejected the new directive by the President after Customs and Border Protection (CBP) asked for assistance by the military in crowd control – and if needed riot control. Both functions are considered by the Pentagon to be law enforcement applications. Moreover, active duty troops are prohibited by federal law from performing law enforcement activities unless specially ordered by Congress or the president.
The brief video clip on Sunday highlighting Tijuana residents congregated around a monument in an affluent section of the city protesting the marauding horde of Central American migrants converging on their capital seems to have awakened many within the Mexican community regarding a nation’s sovereignty.
“Hundreds of Tijuana residents gathered today to protest the thousands of Central American migrants who have arrived via caravan hoping to seek asylum in the U.S.”
— ABC News (@ABC) November 19, 2018
Another post on social media described how the migrants overran the tiny border town:
“They accused the migrants of being messy, ungrateful and a danger to Tijuana. They also complained about how the caravan forced its way into Mexico, calling it an ‘invasion.’ And they voiced worries that their taxes might be spent to care for the group.”
— Cameron Gray (@Cameron_Gray) November 19, 2018
Perhaps the most important post came from the Commander-in-Chief himself, monitoring the situation.
“The Mayor of Tijuana, Mexico, just stated that “the City is ill-prepared to handle these many migrants, the backlog could last 6 months.” Likewise, the U.S. is ill-prepared for this invasion, and will not stand for it. They are causing crime and big problems in Mexico. Go home!”
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 18, 2018
The massive outbreak of raging wildfires in California drew a series of eye-opening tweets from President Trump criticizing state officials about their environmental regulations and water management policies.
Experts have now gone on record declaring that the California wildfires currently raging across the state are the worst ever recorded in California.
The President’s criticism of California’s progressive policies began long before this series of wildfires, back several months ago, with several tweets warning state officials to take aggressive actions in combating fires.
“California wildfires are being magnified & made so much worse by the bad environmental laws which aren’t allowing massive amounts of readily available water to be properly utilized. It is being diverted into the Pacific Ocean. Must also tree clear to stop fire spreading!”
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 5, 2018
The next day, the President once again took to social media and again warned the governor:
“Governor Jerry Brown must allow the Free Flow of the vast amounts of water coming from the North and foolishly being diverted into the Pacific Ocean. Can be used for fires, farming and everything else. Think of California with plenty of Water – Nice! Fast Federal govt. approvals.”
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 6, 2018
No doubt the left will argue that climate change is to blame for the epidemic rise in fires across California. While the science is being debated, it’s worth reminding all that during the 1930’s an extended period of severe droughts and poor farming techniques created an environmental disaster dubbed the “Dust Bowl.” The ecological crisis lasted a decade – destroying the agriculture industry.
The fundamental differences between the natural devastation of the 1930’s and the decade-long wildfires gripping California today can best be summed up in one word: “politics.”
A recent Reason Foundation study noted that wildfires were considerably better controlled in the early part of the 20th century when the U.S. Forest Service was exclusively tasked with the responsibility of maintaining successful fire prevention methods that were arbitrarily abandoned when politically motivated environmental activists began challenging those methods.
Randal O’Toole, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute, noted that the Forest Service became more costly and less effective as it increasingly “rewarded forest managers for losing money on environmentally questionable practices.”
During a congressional hearing held in May of 2018, Republican Congressman Tom McClintock addressed the growing crisis: “Forty-five years ago, we began imposing laws that have made the management of our forests all but impossible.”
The congressmen went on to explain how federal authorities have failed in reducing the number of deadly fires annually.
“Time and again, we see vivid boundaries between the young, healthy, growing forests managed by state, local, and private landholders, and the choked, dying, or burned federal forests,” McClintock said. “The laws of the past 45 years have not only failed to protect the forest environment, but they have also done immeasurable harm to our forests.”
McClintock went on to address the reason for the devastating increase in wildfires, pinning the blame of poor forest management and bad 1970s laws, like the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act.
Since the beginning of the year, 47,700 wildfires have burned 8 million acres across the country, with the majority of the devastation in California and Montana.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke addressed what the Trump Administration is planning to do.
“This Administration will take a serious turn from the past and will proactively work to prevent forest fires through aggressive and scientific fuels reduction management to save lives, homes, and wildlife habitat. It is well settled that the steady accumulation and thickening of vegetation in areas that have historically burned at frequent intervals exacerbates fuel conditions and often leads to larger and higher-intensity fires.”
Zinke continued, “These fires are more damaging, more costly, and threaten the safety and security of both the public and firefighters. In recent fire reviews, I have heard this described as ‘a new normal.’ It is unacceptable that we should be satisfied with the status quo. We must be innovative, and where new authorities are needed, we will work with our colleagues in Congress to craft management solutions that will benefit our public lands for generations to come.”
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