quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
^^^ As I understand it, the military has already been funded and will not be effected by this shutdown.

I assume civilian workers are funded under the defense budget. Could be wrong on that though.

Military operations aren’t directly affected but defense contracts and R&D contracts are affected. For the Navy that includes NAVAIR, NAVSEA, and the other similar groups than run the Navy - except for military war fighting ops.

Just a guess but I would imagine that AMRDEC (Army) is similarly affected on the contracts and acquisition side.

This shutdown raises the price of weapons systems development as I understand it due to the ripple effect it has on defense contractors. For each government defense employee furloughed it could impact hundreds of defense contractors as contract related activities are stopped.

The "Shutdown" means all Federal Employees will get a 4 day paid Christmas Holiday.

quote:

Originally posted by TigerDore:
I predict that the spine McConnell mysteriously discovered during the Kavanaugh hearings will be absent when this bill hits the Senate. I hope I am wrong.

Unfortunately with spineless drones like Flake and Murkowski, even if McConnell went nuke, it likely wouldn't pass either.

https://www.powerlineblog.com/...iscipline-letter.php

The Department of Education and the Department of Justice have jointly rescinded an Obama-era “Dear Colleague” letter that threatened federal action against schools whose discipline policies result in a “disparate impact” on racial minorities

Education remains the pathway to success for minority group members. The opportunity to use that pathway is undermined when unruly students disrupt the classroom.

The Obama administration’s dear colleague letter is also flawed in theory. It’s predicated on the view that if a facially-neutral policy negatively affects blacks and Hispanics at a higher rate than whites and Asians, the disparity must be due to discrimination.

But no such presumption is warranted. The sad reality is that black students as a group are more likely than white students to be undisciplined. Heather Mac Donald provides the evidence:

"Consider Duval County, Florida, which has Florida’s highest juvenile homicide rate. Seventy-three children, some as young as 11, have been arrested for murder and manslaughter over the last decade, according to the Florida Times-Union. Black juveniles made up 87.6 percent of those arrests and whites 8 percent.

The black population in Duval County—which includes Jacksonville—was 28.9 percent in 2010 and the white population 56.6 percent, making black youngsters 21.6 times more likely to be arrested for homicide than white youngsters.

Nationally, black males between the ages of 14 and 17 commit homicide at ten times the rate of white and Hispanic male teens combined; if Hispanics were removed from the equation, the black-white disparity would be much greater."

A finding of discrimination should occur only if it can be shown that teachers are disciplining white students less harshly than black students who commit the same offenses with the same frequency.

It’s unfortunate that it took Secretary of Education DeVos so long to agree to rescind the dear colleague letter — a move the Sessions Justice Department wanted all along. But the important thing is that she has agreed, and that the letter is no longer in effect.

^^^ That is awesome.

https://redrightvideos.com/mis...who-you-think-he-is/

Miss USA Warns: Donald Trump Is NOT Who You Think He Is

Her name is Tara Conner, and when she won in the Miss USA pageant 2006, her misfortune took a turn for the worse when judges discovered she had previously been a cocaine addict.

She was immediately disqualified as the winner.

However, in 2006, Trump was the owner of the Miss USA pageant and heard the controversial backstory. He was moved by her strength and story to overcome addiction to become Miss USA and for this he announced that she would still hold the crown, provided she enter rehab for the addiction.

Donald Trump showed common sense and compassion to a young vulnerable woman who had risen from the dust to become the top in America; sound familiar? 10 year later President Trump would do the same thing, against all odds, he rose to the top to become our president.

Tara Conner made one statement that rings true, the act of compassion that trump showed her, she stated Trump “made me great again.”

USA Today reported Connors statement:

I became famous as “Mess USA” when my boss — now the president of the United States — tossed me into rehab after I tested positive for cocaine. Rather than strip me of my crown or add to the negative press with a humiliation campaign, Donald Trump surprised me, and shocked the world, when he held a news conference and declared: “Tara is going to be given a second chance.”

It was 10 years ago that I got out of treatment, and I thank him for my 10 years of recovery. I will always be profoundly grateful. He saved my life and, essentially, made me great again.

My life was the perfect storm for addiction. My uncle molested me when I was 3. When I was 14, my parents’ rocky relationship ended in divorce and my grandfather, my protector who gave me unconditional love when no one else would, died.

Like mine, 90% of all substance use disorders begin before age 18. Our president understands firsthand the life-long damage of addiction and how substance use at a young age creates a destructive cycle into an adulthood of suffering and isolation. He has often courageously spoken publicly about how his brother Freddy lost his battle with alcoholism and died in 1981.

Now that is the REAL Donald Trump, don’t believe the lies that liberals try to paint because they hate the President.

Never in my 70 years have I seen a president try harder!

This President isn't perfect(none have been), but have to admit that he does LOVE the USA and is trying his very best to make it the best it can be......if only he had a little more help!!

He continues to have my full support, although I'm not happy he supported the bump stock ban.

^^^^^
I'm also pissed that he hasn't done anything to Lock Her UP!!!

quote:

Originally posted by GT-40DOC:
This President isn't perfect(none have been), but have to admit that he does LOVE the USA and is trying his very best to make it the best it can be......if only he had a little more help!!

He does. Unfortunately, a lot of times he seems like the only one in that city.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ne...rise-visit-Iraq.html

President Trump and the First Lady traveled to Iraq late on Christmas night to visit with our troops and Senior Military leadership to thank them for their service, their success, and their sacrifice and to wish them a Merry Christmas,'

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump made a surprise visit to Iraq on Wednesday — their first visit to a war zone.

quote:

President Trump and the First Lady traveled to Iraq late on Christmas night to visit with our troops and Senior Military leadership to thank them for their service, their success, and their sacrifice and to wish them a Merry Christmas,'

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump made a surprise visit to Iraq on Wednesday — their first visit to a war zone.

Must be fake news. All of the other leftist organizations are reporting that he didn't visit troops. The first President since 2002 to skip that visit.

Nice. Very nice.

The Daily Mail and Reuters scooped the MSM? shocking.

Just saw that Fox has it up on their site, begrudgingly...

“The flight to and from Iraq takes 14-odd hours to make and the president was not expected to return to the United States until Thursday, when lawmakers were also due to be back in Washington, which is currently in the throes of a government shutdown.

The secret trip came amid speculation that President Trump was not at the White House, because he had not tweeted for hours and the marine that stands guard when he's in the Oval Office was not outside the West Wing.”

That’s a good clue, alright.

Not THAT is how you spend a govt shut-down. . .