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02/28/2017 by The Doctor Of Common Sense

I Will Put The Fear Of God In Those Islamic SOB’s

Secretary of Defense James Mattis presented his preliminary plan to defeat Islamic State to the Trump administration Monday.

Mattis met with several administration principals in order to get their input, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters during a briefing.

“As you might already know, the Department of Defense presented its preliminary plan to the White House today to defeat ISIS,” said Spicer. “This plan has been delivered by Secretary Mattis, who is currently briefing the principals on the option presented today and seeking their input and feedback.”

While the exact details of the plan are currently unknown, the Pentagon hinted that it will involve multiple government agencies and will tackle the ISIS problem on a global scale.

“It will address ISIS globally, and it is not just a DoD plan,” said Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis. “We’re charged with leading the development of the plan, but it absolutely calls upon the capabilities of other departments.”

Davis noted that the Pentagon took the lead in developing the plan, but was also “working diligently with our interagency partners,” as well as the intelligence community, the Joint Staff and military commanders on the ground fighting the terrorist group.

The new plan will reportedly counter ISIS not only in Syria and Iraq, but also in Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya and southeast Asia.

Part of the plan may include the deployment of conventional ground forces to Syria, according to a CNN report earlier this month.

President Donald Trump made a campaign promise to finally defeat ISIS. He directed the Pentagon to present him with a new plan shortly after taking office.

02/28/2017 by The Doctor Of Common Sense

Illegal Immigration has had a Major Decline Since January!

Illegal immigration across the southwest border plummeted in January, compared to December, as the flow of both illegal immigrant families and children traveling alone dried up, according to numbers released by Customs and Border Protection on Monday.

The numbers are still high compared to past years — indeed, it’s the worst January in records dating back to 2012.

But total apprehensions of migrants trying to sneak across the border fell 27 percent on a month-to-month basis, to 31,575. And the number of inadmissible migrants who showed up at the southwest’s ports of entry fell 28 percent, to 10,899.

Apprehensions are deemed an indicator of the overall flow: The more people caught, the more are believed to be getting through.

The flow always decreases in the deep months of the winter, before picking up again in the spring. Last year Border Patrol apprehensions dropped 36 percent from December to January.

“Overall total migration remained at elevated levels, primarily due to family units and unaccompanied children from Central America, Haitian nationals migrating from Brazil, and Cuban nationals,” CBP said in releasing the numbers.

“CBP continues to maintain a strong security posture through background checks of all individuals encountered and ensures that each person is processed in accordance with U.S. immigration laws and DHS policy,” the agency said.

The number of Cubans showing up to demand entry fell from nearly 5,000 in December to just 1,572 in January, as President Obama’s new Cuban policy kicked in Jan. 12. Under that policy, those who are caught on U.S. soil are no longer entitled to special treatment

But the number of Haitians demanding entry ticked up in January, suggesting a renewed flow from that nationality. Tens of thousands of Haitians fled their island country over the last decade, heading to South America. But over the last year they’ve started trying to gain a foothold in the U.S., enticed by what they saw as lax enforcement policies.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/feb/27/illegal-immigration-dropped-27-percent-january/

02/28/2017 by The Doctor Of Common Sense

President Trump Will Have A Showdown With Liberals In The GOP In First Address

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump will issue a broad call for overhauling the nation’s health care system and revving up the U.S. economy when he delivers his first address to Congress Tuesday night. But he could leave anxious lawmakers with few specific guidelines for tackling the complicated legislative priorities that have divided his own Republican Party.

In one surprise, Trump may also voice support for immigration legislation, a senior administration official said ahead of the address. During a traditional pre-speech lunch with news anchors, Trump said he was open to a “compromise” bill that could include legalization for some of the millions of people living in the U.S. illegally and a pathway to citizenship for the “Dreamers” – people brought to the U.S. illegally as children. A person with knowledge of the meeting confirmed Trump’s comments on the condition of anonymity in order to reveal the private discussion.

Trump, who spent much of his election campaign railing against illegal immigration, has condemned previous legislative efforts that included a path to citizenship as amounting to amnesty.

The White House would not expand on Trump’s comments beyond spokeswoman Sarah Sanders saying that the president was “open to having conversations about that moving forward.”

Trump’s address comes at a pivotal moment for a new president elected on pledges to swiftly shake up Washington and follow through on the failed promises of career politicians.

The president spent his opening weeks in office flexing his executive power but has yet to push into the complex legislative battles over health care and tax reform. The White House bungled the rollout of a sweeping immigration and refugee ban and has been plagued by persistent questions about Trump campaign advisers’ contacts with Russia during the election. The president has picked fights with the media and the intelligence community, blaming agencies he now oversees for leaking classified information that put him in a negative light.

Trump’s turbulent start has left him saddled with historically low approval ratings for a new president. Just 44 percent of Americans approve of his job performance, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey.

Trump advisers say parts of Tuesday’s prime-time speech will amount to a defense of his early actions. He’s expected to tout his decisions to withdraw the U.S. from a sweeping Pacific Rim trade pact and to order the government to start working on a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Republicans, impatient to begin making headway on legislation, hope Trump arrives on Capitol Hill armed with specifics on replacing the “Obamacare” health care law and overhauling the nation’s tax system, two issues he’s so far talked about in mostly general terms. GOP lawmakers want to act on both this year but are divided over how to proceed.

More broadly, some Republicans are anxious for the president to set aside his feuds with the media, the intelligence community and the courts, which have overshadowed party policy priorities.

“It would be nice to see a speech that kind of brought us together,” said Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho. “I’m not talking about the far left or the far right. The independents out there, middle of the roaders, those kind of people who want to see government work.”

Trump will be standing before Democrats appalled by his politics and policies, and many Republicans who were barely more supportive during the presidential campaign. However, most Republican lawmakers have rallied around him since the election, hopeful that he will act on the domestic priorities they saw blocked during President Barack Obama’s eight years in office.

Trump’s speech is technically not a State of the Union address, though newly sworn-in presidents do often address a joint session of Congress in their first weeks in office. The Supreme Court justices and members of Trump’s Cabinet will be on hand for the televised event.

First lady Melania Trump will be sitting with special guests on hand to amplify the president’s agenda, including the widows of two California police officers killed by a man living in the country illegally. The widow of former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia will also sit alongside Mrs. Trump, a reminder of the president’s well-received nomination of federal appeals court Judge Neil Gorsuch to fill Scalia’s seat.

In public, Trump has spoken about his presidency’s early days with his usual confident bluster, declaring that there’s “never been a presidency that’s done so much in such a short period of time.” But he’s privately vented frustrations to friends and associates.

In the Fox interview Tuesday, Trump gave himself an overall “A plus” for effort, but conceded, “In terms of messaging, I would give myself a C or a C plus.”

Trump recently complained to one associate that the White House was trying to do too many things at once and none of it was breaking through. He told another associate that the White House had lost control of the story surrounding Michael Flynn, who was fired as national security adviser after misleading Vice President Mike Pence and others about his contacts with Russia.

—

Associated Press writers Vivian Salama and Erica Werner contributed to this report.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TRUMP_SPEECH?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-02-27-17-0854

02/28/2017 by The Doctor Of Common Sense

Demon Witches Are Casting A Spell On Donald Trump

There have been Women’s Marches, the Day Without Immigrants and fiery town hall meetings all aimed at protesting the new president. Now, witches are galvanizing too.

A Facebook page with more than 2,000 followers said that the ritual will be the first of many “to be performed at midnight on every waning crescent moon until Donald Trump is removed from office.”

The group, which used the hashtag #magical resistance, plans to gather a minute before midnight on Friday at Trump Tower in New York, according to its event page.

But Michael M. Hughes, “an eclectic magician” who wrote the binding spell for the event, said he’s heard from people across the country who want to participate, and he’s also received messages from South Africa, Portugal, Denmark and Mexico. He said it’s difficult to estimate turnout but suggested it could reach into the thousands.

Hughes said the ritual is not a curse and is not intended to harm Trump or his administration. Instead, it’s “a way of restraining him from doing further harm,” as well as a way of helping people feel powerful against him.

Hughes said he practices a variety of magical traditions, including Greco-Egyptian, folk, African-allied and contemporary rituals. The binding spell he crafted for this event, which is making the rounds online, involves an awkward Trump photo, a Tower tarot card, orange and white candles, a pin or nail, water, salt, feathers, fire and an ashtray or a dish of sand. The instructions also include an incantation.

Some parts of the spell—like the ones referencing the four elements—are traditional. Others, like the Tower tarot card, Hughes chose for symbolic effect. “The orange stubby candle—I think that goes without saying,” he said.

Hughes said that magic is partially symbolic, and that in that sense, the spell is already working, if the interest in this week’s rituals serves as any indication. He compared Friday’s gatherings to the Yippies’ 1967 effort to levitate the Pentagon. But Hughes said it could also have real-life effects.

“Trump could get stuck in Air Force Once, where the door won’t open or something,” Hughes said, also suggesting maybe the spell would result in a court ruling or an ACLU lawsuit.

Heat Street called Enchantments, known as the oldest witchcraft store in New York City to get their take on Hughes’ binding spell. A sales rep said that although the store wasn’t “doing anything in particular to bind Donald Trump,” they have had several people coming in seeking supplies for the weekend’s ritual.

Catland, “Brooklyn’s premier metaphysical boutique,” is hosting an anti-Trump ritual Thursday night. The shop invites people to “join us in binding this monolith of hatred.” Catland said on its Facebook page that although anyone can attend, including first-timers, “this is not a spectator ritual. Anyone attending that portion of the evening will be expected to participate.” Catland suggests a $5 donation, saying that half of its proceeds will go to Planned Parenthood.

When a feminist coven and performance collective called W.I.T.C.H. gathered in Chicago last weekend, they gathered in a circle, holding hands.

Video shows the feminist coven and performance collective called W.I.T.C.H. Chicago gathered in a circle. They carried signs reading, “We usher in the demise of imperialism” and “we usher in the demise of white supremacy,” according to a Facebook post for the group.

http://heatst.com/politics/witches-gather-in-new-york-to-cast-a-spell-on-trump/

02/27/2017 by The Doctor Of Common Sense

Common Sense Is Back! Under Trump, ICE Agents Actually Feel Free To Do Their Jobs

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents say that under the new Trump administration, they’ve been empowered to carry out their jobs, instead of being punished for insubordination and told not to arrest illegals.

The New York Times interviewed 17 ICE agents across the country to talk about how the new atmosphere created under the Trump administration has allowed them to properly deport illegals. The Times described the agency under Trump as a “whirlwind of activity.”

“Before, we used to be told, ‘You can’t arrest those people,’ and we’d be disciplined for being insubordinate if we did,” said one ICE agent, who had worked with the agency for 10 years. “Now those people are priorities again. And there are a lot of them here.”

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Tuesday that the Trump administration’s goal was to “take the shackles off” agents.

02/27/2017 by The Doctor Of Common Sense

No $15 an Hour At Wendy’s! 1000 Self-Ordering Kiosks Being Installed

DUBLIN, Ohio —

Wendy’s says it plans to install self-ordering kiosks at about 1,000 locations by the end of the year.

A typical location would have three kiosks, The Columbus Dispatch reported. Higher-volume restaurants will be given priority for the kiosks.

Wendy’s chief information officer, David Trimm, said the kiosks are intended to appeal to younger customers and reduce labor costs. Kiosks also allow customers of the fast food giant to circumvent long lines during peak dining hours while increasing kitchen production.

Trim estimates the company will see a return on its investment in less than two years.

“They are looking to improve their automation and their labor costs, and this is a good way to do it,” said Darren Tristano, vice president with Technomic, a food-service research and consulting firm. “They are also trying to enhance the customer experience. Younger customers prefer to use a kiosk.”

Kiosks are also valued by the Dublin, Ohio-based company for their ability to provide data about customers.

“This move puts them at the forefront of the kiosk and tech movement,” Tristano said.

http://www.wmur.com/article/wendy-s-plans-self-ordering-kiosks-at-1-000-locations/8982165

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