“America Will Never Be A Socialist Country”; “We Were Born Free And We Will Stay Free”

President Trump said the United States will never become a socialist country in his 2019 State of the Union address.

“We stand with the Venezuelan people in their noble quest for freedom — and we condemn the brutality of the Maduro regime, whose socialist policies have turned that nation from being the wealthiest in South America into a state of abject poverty and despair,” Trump said Tuesday night.

“Here, in the United States, we are alarmed by new calls to adopt socialism in our country,” the president said. “America was founded on liberty and independence – not government coercion, domination, and control. We are born free, and we will stay free.”

[RELATED: CNN Instant Poll: 76% Of Viewers Approved Of Trump State Of The Union]

“Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country,” Trump declared.

[RELATED: CBS News Instant Poll: 72% Approve Of Trump’s Immigration Ideas]

The Expansion of Socialism

One hundred years ago most people of the world were laborers. Hard working people naturally looked for ways to rise above their humble circumstances, and in America that meant innovating and giving extra effort. Not all nations afforded their working classes the opportunities preserved to Americans by the U.S. Constitution.

Revolutions

In 1776 Americans declared their independence from the tyranny of the British Crown. In 1917 the Russian peasants and working classes revolted against the government of Tsar Nicholas II, led by Vladimir Lenin and a group of revolutionaries called the Bolsheviks. In the 1920s the Chinese Red Army led the revolution and marched across China killing anyone who had an education or who owned more than 1 acre of land. NAZIs came to power in Germany and marched across Europe.

The Difference

Americans enjoyed the liberties guarantied by their Constitution, and they were free to apply themselves, and work harder or smarter than their competition, and earn more than their parents had ever dreamed. The free-trade economy catapulted America from a backwater British colony to a world power in mere decades. Russia and China invoked socialism, which is government control of production and distribution. This form of government promises “fairness” among all of its citizens, asserting that none will rise above others (presumably at the expense of others). Socialism comes in various forms: Democratic Socialism, Communism and Fascism (where socialist government officials control the economy through corporations).

Socialism Has Murdered 100 Million

Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Kim Jong-un, Kim Jong-il have ordered the extermination of millions of their citizens, totaling around 100,000,000 in the 20^th Century. Why? Because socialism is about power and control. It is anti-liberty. When power to redistribute wealth is given to government, it must exercise that power to force its citizens to live under its edicts. Because socialism guaranties equal receipt of goods and services, regardless of effort or risk, socialist economies always stall from lack of innovation. They wither and die—without exception.

Socialism Today

Venezuela is the latest victim of socialism. What was an oil-wealthy growing economy just 10 years ago has become another victim on the ash heap of socialism. To quote a Venezuelan woman featured on a CNN report the other day, “This socialist utopia has left nearly all stomachs hungry.” Indeed, in a nation rich in oil those who can scrape together a box of rapidly devaluing currency must wait in gasoline lines from 3 days and nights to fill their tanks. This is the natural course of socialism.

Before Venezuela it was Cuba, and the USSR, and Communist China. Each of these nations enslaved their working people and plunged them into poverty, while elites who ran the government lived lavishly. It was only as each country began to allow capitalism to take root and expand that the economies grew and the people began to thrive.

What About Democratic Socialism in Scandinavia and Europe?

We have heard American socialists point to socialism “successes” in Europe as they espouse such economic schemes for the U.S. They tell us that countries like Denmark and Sweden enjoy a high standard of living while guaranteeing equality among their citizens. To a lesser extent, other European nations have moved sharply left toward socialism.

Here is the reality. Scandinavian countries are small, with homogenous populations. Because they are defended by America’s military, they spend very little on defense, and divert that money to social welfare programs. They are in “voluntary agreement” socially that none will rise above the rest, and agree to high tax rates to support this philosophy. Unfortunately, the era of being defended by America is abruptly ending, and President Trump is demanding that Europe increase defense spending (rendering him quite unpopular in Europe). Also, millions of Muslims have moved into Europe and overwhelmed the social welfare systems, crashing them and draining their semi-capitalistic economies.

Democratic-socialism only survives when it is it supported by the economic engine of capitalism. As UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher observed, however, “The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.” Indeed, when democratic socialism has drained the resources of the capitalist engine, it leaves its people waiting in long lines for scarce food and other resources—many of which will not arrive in time.

Why Do Democrats Love Socialism?

Socialism is about power and control. It is a bait-and-switch fraud scheme. It promises “fairness.” It promises forced equality. It promises something for nothing. The reality of socialism is that it transfers the wealth and power of The People to the government, with the promise of “We will now provide for all of your needs.” The people are lured into giving up their property and personal choices under this scheme. They surrender their healthcare system to this form of government, with such false promises as “If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.” President’s weekly address, June 6, 2009: “If you like the plan you have, you can keep it. If you like the doctor you have, you can keep your doctor, too. The only change you’ll see are falling costs as our reforms take hold.” As always happens, this is a lie told by the socialist government to trick the citizens into surrendering their wealth and power. This is followed by higher taxes, higher national debt, and a proliferation of government regulation.

Socialism Devalues God and Human Life

We note that anywhere that socialism has been imposed, human life and family relationships are diminished tremendously, as is the worship of our Creator. The surrender of power to the government necessitates that nothing else compete with the state’s supremacy. An iron fist rules a socialist society, and anything that threatens the state’s authority is eliminated. Because individualism is nurtured by the family social structure and a belief in divine parentage, socialism breaks down the family structure wherever possible and eliminates God from public and private life. In socialist nations like China and the USSR, we saw atheism replace faith, and the government deciding who you could marry and how many children you could have. Human life is devalued as the state replaces deity, and concepts like abortion and Eugenics supplant love of fellow humans.

All of this is dependent on government’s ability to control every aspect of our lives, of course, so socialism controls the flow of information eliminates the ability of the citizens to protect themselves from the government through the confiscation of firearms.

Does Any of This Sound Familiar?

Of course, since the Bolshevik Revolution socialists have seen America’s individual liberty and economic success as the greatest threat to the myth of socialism, and therefore, the transfer of all wealth and power to a small group of elites. This is why socialists have focused on penetrating the American media and educational systems over the past 100 years, completely overtaking them in the past two decades. Now, our children are bombarded daily in classrooms with a steady diet of socialism, as are we with every news and entertainment program on television.

An entire political party has been overtaken by socialists, and they have become so embedded that they are now emboldened to the point of speaking openly about their socialist platform. They promise “equality” and “fairness,” asserting that someone else will pay for the benefits they are promising. Of course, even the mathematically-challenged Democrats know in their heart-of-hearts that nothing they promise is true. It is all smoke and mirrors. It is all a lie, as it has always been. There is no universal healthcare, and there is no guarantied salary or college education. Even if money grew on trees, there aren’t enough leaves on trees in America to pay for the promises being made by Democrats. They add up to hundreds of trillions of dollars. Plus, as they were imposed, our economy would crash and there would be no money for even the basics—and we would soon be just like every other people that ever embraced socialism: impoverished and enslaved.

Socialism is a Ponzi Scheme

Socialism is a farce. It is a fraud. It is the political equivalent of Big Foot. Every policy of the left is packaged to appear to give something to someone to make his life more “fair,” but in reality, it is nothing more than a scheme to transfer more power or wealth from the citizens to the ruling class. Every issue in politics and society fits within this rubric. Gun control has nothing to do with saving lives. Indeed, the places where gun control is strongest, where Democrats reign, gun violence is exponentially worse. Welfare spending does not eliminate poverty. Abortion does not improve women’s health. Taxation and regulation do not enrich the poor. Government healthcare does not increase health levels. It is all a fraud. A hoax. It is directly out of the playbook of socialism—promise what the people like to hear, in exchange for their wealth and power. Once you have taken their wealth and power, rule over them with an iron fist. This is the sum total of socialism.

Americans enjoy the highest degree of individual liberty and wealth in human history. It can’t be taken from us by force. Only fraud and deceit can convince us to surrender our superior way of life in exchange for the enslavement and poverty of socialism. The siren’s song sounds sweet, and promises such lovely things—but it is a lie, and our very existence is in jeopardy because of the encroachment of socialism in our nation. We must reject it and root it out. It is cancer. It is deadly. We must attack it with the force it deserves.

By James Thompson. James is a political commentator and professional ghostwriter.

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Democrats know it, but they want President Trump to fail.

Of all the Democrats’ arguments against a southern border wall, the shadiest is that it would not work.

According to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), President Donald J. Trump is “forcing American taxpayers to waste billions of dollars on an expensive and ineffective wall.” As he joined Pelosi in rebutting the president’s January 8 Oval Office address, Senate Democrat leader Chuck Schumer of New York decried Trump’s “ineffective, unnecessary border wall.” Schumer added: “We can secure our border without an expensive, ineffective wall.”

In fact, walls work. Love them or hate them, their effectiveness is indisputable.

• “Part of our area is covered with some fencing on our east side. That accounts for about 6 percent of our traffic,” Border Patrol chief Raul Ortiz told journalists during President Trump’s January 10 visit to Rio Grande Valley, Texas. “Where we have no fencing, over 90 percent of our traffic occurs in those areas.” A day earlier, Ortiz added, 450 people were apprehended in the unfenced sector, including 133 from such non-Latin nations as India, Pakistan, and Romania.

• Some 560,000 illegals were caught astride San Diego and Tijuana in Fiscal Year 1992, when a border wall was installed there. By FY 2017, the Border Patrol says it snared 26,086 — down 95.3 percent.

• A barrier between the Tucson, Ariz., sector and Nogales, Mexico, was erected in 2000. That year’s 616,346 arrests plunged to 38,657 in FY 2017 — down 93.7 percent.

• A fence installed at the border between Yuma, Arizona, and Los Algondones, Mexico brought apprehensions from 138,438 in FY 2005 to 12,847 in FY 2017 — down 90.7 percent.

“Crime has significantly decreased in the Yuma area,” then–acting homeland security secretary Elaine Duke wrote in USA Today in August 2017, “and smugglers now look for other less difficult areas of the border to cross — often areas without fencing.”

• A 150-mile barrier between Israel and southern Egypt cut the number of illegal-alien entrants from 17,000 in 2011 to 43 in 2013, after the fence’s completion, Israel’s Ministry of the Interior states — down 99.7 percent.

This wall “has stopped all illegal immigration,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasts. But Esteban Flores of Harvard International Review argues that “other measures enacted by the Israeli government have also been of immense importance.” He explains: “Israel has passed two laws targeting immigrants — one prohibiting immigrants from transferring money out of the country and another forcing employers to deposit 20 percent of an immigrant employee’s salary into a bank account which can only be withdrawn upon exit of the country.”

Flores unwittingly reinforces President Trump’s argument that a wall is necessary, though not sufficient, to boost border security and hinder illegal immigration. Other protections include sensors, more Border Patrol agents, extra detention space, additional immigration judges, E-Verify (to confirm employees’ legal status), and harsher penalties for employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens.

• Bulgaria erected a barrier on its Turkish perimeter in 2013. That year’s 11,000 illegal crossings dropped to 4,000 in 2014 — down 63.6 percent.

• Just as British Gibraltar dangles from Spain’s underside, Spanish Ceuta and Melilla surf atop Morocco. Multiple fences and barriers there sliced 2014’s 2,100 arrests at the Spanish-territorial/Moroccan frontier to 2015’s 100 — down 95.2 percent.

The strongest proof that walls work is that Democrats once loved them.

Former and current senators Joe Biden, Tom Carper, Hillary Clinton, Dianne Feinstein, Barack Obama, Chuck Schumer, Debbie Stabenow, and Ron Wyden were among the 26 Democrats who voted for the Secure Fence Act of 2006. It authorized 700 miles of double fence. All 54 Senate Democrats voted unanimously in June 2013 for $46 billion in border security, including 350 miles of new steel fence.

“Between 2005 and 2015, polls show that nearly half of Democrats continued to support building a border barrier of some kind,” Cato Institute scholar Emily Ekins wrote in The Federalist. “However, things changed in 2015 when Donald Trump announced his bid for the presidency,” she continued. “Democratic support shifted more swiftly starting in the fall of 2015 onward. Now only about 12 percent of Democrats support a border wall or fence.”

Meanwhile, Republicans consistently have endorsed a wall, Ekins reported: 73 percent in October 2015; 71 percent today.

Courtesy of the Cato Institute

So, Trump Derangement Syndrome actually causes Democrats’ borderphobia.

Indeed, and amazingly, Ekins elaborated, “Reuter/Ipsos found that simply telling Democrats Trump supports a policy turns them against it — even universal health care.” Normally, regarding health care, 68 percent of Democrats think “government should take care of everybody, and the government should pay for it.” However, when told that Trump believes this, Ekins wrote, “only 47 percent supported government guaranteed health care — a 21-point drop.” She concluded: “Thus, even on an issue as central to the Democratic policy agenda as government-guaranteed universal health subsidies, Trump can turn Democrats against it. So, certainly he can turn them against a border wall, too.” 17

Walls work, and Democrats know it. But they want this president to fail. So, Democrats battle effective border protection so they can “resist Trump” — national security be damned. The Democratic party truly is America’s arsenal of hypocrisy.

Michael Malarkey furnished research for this opinion piece.

One hundred years ago most people of the world were laborers. Hard working people naturally looked for ways to rise above their humble circumstances, and in America that meant innovating and giving extra effort. Not all nations afforded their working classes the opportunities preserved to Americans by the U.S. Constitution.

Revolutions

In 1776 Americans declared their independence from the tyranny of the British Crown. In 1917 the Russian peasants and working classes revolted against the government of Tsar Nicholas II, led by Vladimir Lenin and a group of revolutionaries called the Bolsheviks. In the 1920s the Chinese Red Army led the revolution and marched across China killing anyone who had an education or who owned more than 1 acre of land. NAZIs came to power in Germany and marched across Europe.

The Difference

Americans enjoyed the liberties guarantied by their Constitution, and they were free to apply themselves, and work harder or smarter than their competition, and earn more than their parents had ever dreamed. The free-trade economy catapulted America from a backwater British colony to a world power in mere decades. Russia and China invoked socialism, which is government control of production and distribution. This form of government promises “fairness” among all of its citizens, asserting that none will rise above others (presumably at the expense of others). Socialism comes in various forms: Democratic Socialism, Communism and Fascism (where socialist government officials control the economy through corporations).

Socialism Has Murdered 100 Million

Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Kim Jong-un, Kim Jong-il have ordered the extermination of millions of their citizens, totaling around 100,000,000 in the 20^th Century. Why? Because socialism is about power and control. It is anti-liberty. When power to redistribute wealth is given to government, it must exercise that power to force its citizens to live under its edicts. Because socialism guaranties equal receipt of goods and services, regardless of effort or risk, socialist economies always stall from lack of innovation. They wither and die—without exception.

Socialism Today

Venezuela is the latest victim of socialism. What was an oil-wealthy growing economy just 10 years ago has become another victim on the ash heap of socialism. To quote a Venezuelan woman featured on a CNN report the other day, “This socialist utopia has left nearly all stomachs hungry.” Indeed, in a nation rich in oil those who can scrape together a box of rapidly devaluing currency must wait in gasoline lines from 3 days and nights to fill their tanks. This is the natural course of socialism.

Before Venezuela it was Cuba, and the USSR, and Communist China. Each of these nations enslaved their working people and plunged them into poverty, while elites who ran the government lived lavishly. It was only as each country began to allow capitalism to take root and expand that the economies grew and the people began to thrive.

What About Democratic Socialism in Scandinavia and Europe?

We have heard American socialists point to socialism “successes” in Europe as they espouse such economic schemes for the U.S. They tell us that countries like Denmark and Sweden enjoy a high standard of living while guaranteeing equality among their citizens. To a lesser extent, other European nations have moved sharply left toward socialism.

Here is the reality. Scandinavian countries are small, with homogenous populations. Because they are defended by America’s military, they spend very little on defense, and divert that money to social welfare programs. They are in “voluntary agreement” socially that none will rise above the rest, and agree to high tax rates to support this philosophy. Unfortunately, the era of being defended by America is abruptly ending, and President Trump is demanding that Europe increase defense spending (rendering him quite unpopular in Europe). Also, millions of Muslims have moved into Europe and overwhelmed the social welfare systems, crashing them and draining their semi-capitalistic economies.

Democratic-socialism only survives when it is it supported by the economic engine of capitalism. As UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher observed, however, “The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.” Indeed, when democratic socialism has drained the resources of the capitalist engine, it leaves its people waiting in long lines for scarce food and other resources—many of which will not arrive in time.

Why Do Democrats Love Socialism?

Socialism is about power and control. It is a bait-and-switch fraud scheme. It promises “fairness.” It promises forced equality. It promises something for nothing. The reality of socialism is that it transfers the wealth and power of The People to the government, with the promise of “We will now provide for all of your needs.” The people are lured into giving up their property and personal choices under this scheme. They surrender their healthcare system to this form of government, with such false promises as “If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.” President’s weekly address, June 6, 2009: “If you like the plan you have, you can keep it. If you like the doctor you have, you can keep your doctor, too. The only change you’ll see are falling costs as our reforms take hold.” As always happens, this is a lie told by the socialist government to trick the citizens into surrendering their wealth and power. This is followed by higher taxes, higher national debt, and a proliferation of government regulation.

Socialism Devalues God and Human Life

We note that anywhere that socialism has been imposed, human life and family relationships are diminished tremendously, as is the worship of our Creator. The surrender of power to the government necessitates that nothing else compete with the state’s supremacy. An iron fist rules a socialist society, and anything that threatens the state’s authority is eliminated. Because individualism is nurtured by the family social structure and a belief in divine parentage, socialism breaks down the family structure wherever possible and eliminates God from public and private life. In socialist nations like China and the USSR, we saw atheism replace faith, and the government deciding who you could marry and how many children you could have. Human life is devalued as the state replaces deity, and concepts like abortion and Eugenics supplant love of fellow humans.

All of this is dependent on government’s ability to control every aspect of our lives, of course, so socialism controls the flow of information eliminates the ability of the citizens to protect themselves from the government through the confiscation of firearms.

Does Any of This Sound Familiar?

Of course, since the Bolshevik Revolution socialists have seen America’s individual liberty and economic success as the greatest threat to the myth of socialism, and therefore, the transfer of all wealth and power to a small group of elites. This is why socialists have focused on penetrating the American media and educational systems over the past 100 years, completely overtaking them in the past two decades. Now, our children are bombarded daily in classrooms with a steady diet of socialism, as are we with every news and entertainment program on television.

An entire political party has been overtaken by socialists, and they have become so embedded that they are now emboldened to the point of speaking openly about their socialist platform. They promise “equality” and “fairness,” asserting that someone else will pay for the benefits they are promising. Of course, even the mathematically-challenged Democrats know in their heart-of-hearts that nothing they promise is true. It is all smoke and mirrors. It is all a lie, as it has always been. There is no universal healthcare, and there is no guarantied salary or college education. Even if money grew on trees, there aren’t enough leaves on trees in America to pay for the promises being made by Democrats. They add up to hundreds of trillions of dollars. Plus, as they were imposed, our economy would crash and there would be no money for even the basics—and we would soon be just like every other people that ever embraced socialism: impoverished and enslaved.

Socialism is a Ponzi Scheme

Socialism is a farce. It is a fraud. It is the political equivalent of Big Foot. Every policy of the left is packaged to appear to give something to someone to make his life more “fair,” but in reality, it is nothing more than a scheme to transfer more power or wealth from the citizens to the ruling class. Every issue in politics and society fits within this rubric. Gun control has nothing to do with saving lives. Indeed, the places where gun control is strongest, where Democrats reign, gun violence is exponentially worse. Welfare spending does not eliminate poverty. Abortion does not improve women’s health. Taxation and regulation do not enrich the poor. Government healthcare does not increase health levels. It is all a fraud. A hoax. It is directly out of the playbook of socialism—promise what the people like to hear, in exchange for their wealth and power. Once you have taken their wealth and power, rule over them with an iron fist. This is the sum total of socialism.

Americans enjoy the highest degree of individual liberty and wealth in human history. It can’t be taken from us by force. Only fraud and deceit can convince us to surrender our superior way of life in exchange for the enslavement and poverty of socialism. The siren’s song sounds sweet, and promises such lovely things—but it is a lie, and our very existence is in jeopardy because of the encroachment of socialism in our nation. We must reject it and root it out. It is cancer. It is deadly. We must attack it with the force it deserves.

By James Thompson. James is a political commentator and professional ghostwriter.

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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Friday that the state has discovered 95,000 non-citizens on the voter rolls going back to 1996, 58,000 of whom have voted in at least one Texas election  — an announcement likely to raise fresh concerns about the prospect of voter fraud.

Texas has some of the toughest voter ID laws in the nation and has been one of the main battlegrounds in the Republican-led fight against alleged voter fraud. The office, in a statement, said that 33 people were prosecuted for voter fraud last year, and 97 were prosecuted between 2005-17. There are 16 million people in Texas registered to vote.

“Every single instance of illegal voting threatens democracy in our state and deprives individual Texans of their voice,” Paxton said in a statement.

The New York Times reported that the findings were a result of of an 11-month investigation into records at the Texas Department of Public Safety. Gov. Greg Abbott praised the findings and hinted at future legislation to crack down on voter fraud.

“I support prosecution where appropriate. The State will work on legislation to safeguard against these illegal practices,” Abbott tweeted.

The revelation is likely to have national consequences and stir debate and the role of voter fraud. President Trump created a commission in 2017 to investigate allegations of voter fraud in the 2016 election. But it was eventually dismantled by Trump after the group faced lawsuits, opposition from states and in-fighting among its members.

Trump said at the time that Democrats refused to hand over data “because they know that many people are voting illegally.” Democrats have dismissed claims of voter fraud and accused Republicans of trying to disenfranchise minority voters with tight voter ID laws.

Dallas state Rep. Rafael Anchia told The Associated Press that “because we have consistently seen Texas politicians conjure the specter of voter fraud as pretext to suppress legitimate votes, we are naturally skeptical.”

Paxton’s office noted that there have been a number of convictions of voter fraud in the state in recent years, including a charge against a non-citizen this month for illegal voting in Navarro County.

Fox News’ Kaitlyn Schallhorn and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the Pentagon to restrict military service for transgender individuals while the Trump administration’s policy is litigated in the lower courts.

The ruling reversed the orders implemented by lower courts, which had prevented the Pentagon from proceeding with the plan.

The decision came after the Justice Department requested that the Supreme Court bypass the lower courts and decide the issue—a request the high court rejected on Tuesday, instead directing the case to work its way through the appeals and lower courts.

The Department of Defense had barred military service by transgender people until former President Barack Obama’s administration began to allow transgender people already in the military to serve openly. The Obama administration also moved to set an official date for transgender people to be able to enlist in the U.S. Armed Forces.

But early in his presidency, President Trump sought to restrict service to those who do not seek to undergo gender transitions — after initially announcing a ban.

Earlier this month, a federal appeals court sided with the Trump administration, ruling that it was wrong to block the Pentagon from implementing plans to block the service of transgender individuals. The appeals court ruling said the military’s plan appears to rely on the “considered professional judgment” of “appropriate military officials.” It noted that the plan “appears to permit some transgender individuals to serve in the military.”

By Brooke Singman, Bill Mears | Fox News

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

This week marked the first time Ruth Bader Ginsburg has missed oral arguments since the associate justice joined the Supreme Court in 1993.

The 85-year-old, who is recovering from recent cancer surgery, has repeatedly said in the past that she would retire from the nation’s highest court only when she can no longer “do the job full steam.”

The court’s public sessions are set to resume Monday. No date has been set yet for when Ginsburg will return to the bench, a court spokesperson said.

Ginsburg underwent lung surgery last month to remove cancerous growths, and is continuing to recover. After weeks out of public view, she was spotted Wednesday morning leaving her Washington, D.C., apartment, TMZ reported.

But Ginsburg’s recent absence has stirred speculation on whether she was considering retiring, given her previous comments on the topic.

The justice, dubbed “the Notorious RBG” by supporters, has said at least since 2013 that she would continue to serve on the court as long as she can, as pointed out by the Washington Examiner. Supreme Court appointments are for life, though many justices over the years have chosen to retire at some point.

“As long as I can do the job full steam, and that, at my age, is not predictable,” Ginsburg told the New York Times in 2013.

Three years later she told NPR that she would “retire when it’s time. And when is it time? When I can’t do the job full steam.”

“I will retire when it’s time. And when is it time? When I can’t do the job full steam.”— Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

As recently as last year she repeated that she would remain on the court as long as she can be fully engaged.

“As long as I can do the job full steam, I will be here,” she said during an event at the Adas Israel Congregation in Washington.

“I said I will do this job as long as I can do it full steam,” she said last month at the premiere of a movie about her early career.

But Ginsburg’s absence from the court and participation from home is also not unprecedented. The late Chief Justice William Rehnquist also worked from home and even authored several opinions while undergoing cancer treatment from 2004-05.

Ginsburg also has already hired clerks for the term that extends into 2020, suggesting possible retirement isn’t being planned.

By Lukas Mikelionis |The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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After a year plagued by privacy scandals, hate speech controversies, the viral spread of disinformation and the public airing of his company’s internal communication, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg used his year-end note to focus on the positive ー drawing the scorn of critics who blasted the billionaire as “tone deaf” and “out of touch.”

As he looked back on a year that saw his company’s stock price drop and scores of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle calling for new, strict privacy regulations in the wake of Cambridge Analytica, Zuckerberg spent a chunk of his note boasting that 2 billion people now use one of Facebook’s services and the tech giant has empowered countless small businesses.

“I’m proud of the progress we’ve made,” he wrote in the letter, which notes that Facebook now employs 30,000 people who focus on safety, but does not dwell on the specifics of any particular challenge or scandal.

Zuckerberg wrote that Facebook is a “very different company” than it was two years ago and has “fundamentally altered [its] DNA” to prioritize the prevention of harm. He also wrote that he learned a lot in the last year, but a range of critics took issue with the tone of his note.

“When read as a whole, the post simply confirms one thing about Facebook. No change has affected (or is designed to affect) the leading cause of Facebook’s problems ー the business model,” wrote Paul Armstrong, a tech adviser, in Forbes. “Without this, Facebook is doomed to become irrelevant to other platforms or become extremely dangerous and be broken up.”

Armstrong’s advice to Facebook for 2019 includes banning all political advertising, “atomic bombing” Facebook’s algorithm-driven Newsfeed and verifying all “news sources” on the network.

Mark Zuckerberg “is a bit out of touch with people’s perception,” Mark Douglas, CEO of digital advertising platform SteelHouse, told Cheddar. “It’s going to be a rocky year, that’s clear.”

Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer and founder of Facebook Inc. attends the Viva Tech start-up and technology gathering at Parc des Expositions Porte de Versailles on May 24, 2018 in Paris. (Getty Images)

“They are the least trusted company in tech. They are going to have to rebuild the trust with the users or they are going to lose those users,” Douglas explained.

Although Facebook has continued to see its monthly active users increase globally, the company is confronting flat growth in parts of North America and decreased growth in Europe. Besides that fact that it was harnessed by Russia to meddle in the 2016 presidential election, Facebook confronted a series of false rumors on WhatsApp, which it also owns, that led to more than 20 people being lynched in India.

Cesar Sayoc, who stands accused of sending 13 pipe bombs through the mail to a range of prominent Democrats and critics of President Trump, trafficked in conspiracy theories, white supremacy and anti-Semitism on his Facebook profile. And the Menlo Park, Calif. company stands accused of furthering “ethnic cleansing” in Myanmar, where the military has targeted the country’s mostly Muslim Rohingya minority group with severe violence.

A number of critics called on Zuckerberg to step down or take a break from leading the company.

Leslie Miley, former CTO of the Obama Foundation, said the 34-year-old Silicon Valley executive should “resign and find a pursuit that will teach him humility and help him find his moral compass.”

The executive director of Color of Change, a racial advocacy group that has tangled with Facebook over its treatment of minorities, told the Guardian that Zuckerberg “desperately needs to begin implementing systemic solutions, in a way that is transparent, rebuilds the public trust and provides a safer platform for all people.”

The head of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit digital rights organization, told the Guardian that Zuckerberg should find a new job in 2019, while TechCrunch called the CEO’s letter “tone deaf.”

Some other critics were not as harsh.

“It means personally committing to a Facebook that doesn’t accidentally make decisions that aid violent regimes, white supremacists and other bad actors,” Dia Kayyali, program manager at Witness, told the Guardian. “Above all, it means simply being honest about Facebook’s largely detrimental role in global society. That would be the biggest challenge of all”

Facebook has managed to make enemies on both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill, with Democrats calling for more regulation and some Republicans claiming the network is biased against them, and it faces FTC and FBI probes.

“2019 is not starting out better, that’s for sure,” Douglas said.

Christopher Carbone covers technology and science for Fox News Digital. Tips or story leads: christopher.carbone@foxnews.com. Follow @christocarbone.

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Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg fractured three ribs after a fall at her office Wednesday evening, the court said in a news release.

Ginsburg, 85, later experienced discomfort and was admitted to George Washington University Hospital “for observation and treatment.”

Tests showed the justice fractured three ribs on her left side. The justice broke two ribs in a fall in 2012. She has had two prior bouts with cancer and had a stent implanted to open a blocked artery in 2014.

The justice, who studied at Harvard Law School, was nominated to the highest court in the land by former President Bill Clinton. She was the president’s first Supreme Court appointment.

Ginsburg is the court’s oldest member and there has been much speculation on her retirement. She is one of the four liberal justices that sits on the bench.

Ginsburg has became a liberal icon and has appeared on late night television shows including the “The Late Show” with Stephen Colbert where she showed him her workout routine.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Kathleen Joyce is a breaking/trending news producer for FoxNews.com. You can follow her at @Kathleen_Joyce8 on Twitter. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

 

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OP ED by President Donald J. Trump.

For many Americans, the Great Recession brought dark days we will never forget – and never want to repeat. It wasn’t long ago that economists told us sluggish growth and flat wages were here to stay.

Pundits talked about a “jobless recovery.” And politicians promised hope and change but never delivered.

But now, thanks to Republican leadership, the United States has the best economy in the history of our country – and hope has finally returned to cities and towns across America.

Since I was elected, we have created 4.5 million new jobs. In the last month alone, we added another 250,000 jobs, and nearly a half-million Americans returned to the workforce. We have added nearly 500,000 manufacturing jobs to our economy – jobs that many self-proclaimed experts said would never return.

The unemployment rate just fell to the lowest level in nearly 50 years. More Americans are working today than ever before. And wages are now rising at the fastest rate in a decade.

Today, if you want a job, you can get a job. If you want a better job, you can get a better job. African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, and Asian-Americans have the best job prospects in history. The employment outlook for women is the best in more than 65 years.

Students graduating from high school and college are entering the workforce with an abundance of opportunities.

These things didn’t happen by accident. They happened because Republicans are putting American workers and families first.

To reclaim America’s competitive edge, Republicans passed the largest package of tax cuts and reforms in American history. In addition to saving the average family $2,000 per year, our tax cuts kicked off a growth boom as businesses expanded and hundreds of billions of dollars in foreign profits flooded back into our country.

By doubling the child tax credit, providing a $500 tax credit for non-child dependents, and lowering tax rates, Republicans delivered the tax relief that working families need and deserve.

Republicans have waged the largest regulatory reduction campaign in our history – eliminating unnecessary regulation after unnecessary regulation that killed jobs and drove businesses overseas.

We have unleashed American energy resources. We ended ObamaCare’s punitive individual mandate and created new, affordable health-care options with lower premiums for families and businesses. And we are fixing broken trade deals and cracking down on foreign trading abuses that have, for decades, plundered America’s wealth.

Democrats adamantly, aggressively and hysterically opposed every one of these policies.

The top Democrat in Congress even predicted our tax cuts would lead to “Armageddon.” But here we are, two years later, and America has never been more prosperous or more optimistic.

Now America faces a critical choice: whether to build on the extraordinary prosperity that Republican policies have delivered for our nation – or whether to allow Democrats to take control and take a giant wrecking ball to your economy and your future.

If House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., take control of Congress, they will drag America back into the economic abyss we struggled so hard to climb out of.

The Democrats have promised to raise taxes, restore job-killing regulations, restrict American energy production, and impose socialism through a government takeover of your health care that would bankrupt our country with a $32 trillion price tag.

Put simply, the Democrats will pursue economic policies that are the exact opposite of the successful policies that Republicans have implemented. Democratic economic policies will drive our factories overseas, destroy the American health-care system, and obliterate American jobs, American wages and American wealth.

We have already tried the Democratic way – and it produced the worst so-called economic recovery on record. Why would we ever go back?

Instead, I am asking you to vote for a Republican House, a Republican Senate, and Republican governors so we can continue the incredible economic success that families across the nation are now enjoying.

America’s red-hot economy is the envy of the world, and it is only getting stronger every day. A strong jobs economy helps working Americans lift up the people they love: children, parents, friends, and neighbors.

A strong jobs economy also means that our government can protect the American people with the strongest military in the world, protect Medicare and Social Security for our great seniors, protect Americans with pre-existing conditions, and protect our borders.

With your vote for Republican candidates, we can keep our economy growing and our nation on the right track.

With your vote, we will keep lifting millions of our citizens from welfare to work, dependence to independence, and poverty to prosperity. And together, we will build a future of safety, security, prosperity, and freedom for all our citizens.

 

Donald J. Trump is president of the United States.

 

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President Trump said in a newly released interview he plans to sign an executive order ending so-called “birthright citizenship” for babies of non-citizens born on U.S. soil — a move that would mark a major overhaul of immigration policy and trigger an almost-certain legal battle.

Birthright citizenship allows any baby born on U.S. soil to automatically be a U.S. citizen.

The policy, which stems from a disputed but long-recognized interpretation of the 14th Amendment, has given rise to what Trump considers abuse of the immigration system. Trump told “Axios on HBO” that the U.S. is the only country in the world “where a person comes in and has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the United States … with all of those benefits.”

Despite Trump’s claim, the U.S. is not the only nation to have birthright citizenship, but the policy is rare outside of the Americas. Trump called birthright citizenship “ridiculous” and said that “it has to end.”

Under current policy, anyone born in the U.S. – regardless of whether they are delivered by a non-citizen or undocumented immigrant – is considered a citizen. The interpretation has been blamed for so-called ‘birth tourism’ and chain migration.

The 14th Amendment states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

Trump, should he pursue the executive order, would face court challenges, and it remains unclear whether he could prevail. Many legal scholars would argue such a change requires a constitutional amendment. But some conservatives argue the existing amendment holds room for interpretation.

Michael Anton, a former national security adviser for Trump, pointed out in July that “there’s a clause in the middle of the amendment that people ignore or they misinterpret – subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”

“What they are saying is, if you are born on U.S. soil subject to the jurisdiction of the United States – meaning you’re the child of citizens or the child of legal immigrants, then you are entitled to citizenship,” Anton told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson in July. “If you are here illegally, if you owe allegiance to a foreign nation, if you’re the citizen of a foreign country, that clause does not apply to you.”

The interview was released after Trump told Fox News that Central American migrants who are approaching the U.S.-Mexico border in caravans are “wasting their time” and vowed, “they are not coming in.”

Trump spoke to “The Ingraham Angle” hours after the Pentagon announced it would deploy some 5,200 troops to the southern border in what the commander of U.S. Northern Command described as an effort to “harden the southern border” by stiffening defenses at and near legal entry points.

“When they are captured, we don’t let them out,” Trump told host Laura Ingraham. “We’re not letting them out … We’re not catching, we’re not releasing … We’re not letting them into this country.”

Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals judge James C. Ho, who was appointed by Trump, has argued that it would be “unconstitutional” to change how the 14th amendment was written and that the line subject to debate applies to the legal obligation of all foreigners and immigrants to follow U.S. law, Axios reported.

 

/Benjamin Brown is a reporter for Fox News. Follow him on Twitter @bdbrown473./Fox News’ Samuel Chamberlain contributed to this report

 

 

 

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It was an amazing moment in the Oval Office Thursday when pop culture icon, rapper extraordinaire Kanye West, met with President Trump before the cameras and unleashed a 10-minute monologue in which he explained his love of all things MAGA.

“You know, people expect that if you’re black you have to be Democrat,” West said. “You know, they tried to scare me to not wear this (red MAGA) hat, my own friends. But this hat, it gives me power in a way.