The Patriot Post® · Monday Top Headline Summary
With friends like these… “Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar ripped former President Barack Obama in an interview published Friday, belittling his ‘pretty face’ and saying his agenda of hope and change was an illusion,” the New York Post reports. “She cited the ‘caging of kids’ at the Mexican border and the ‘droning of countries around the world’ on Obama’s watch — and argued that he wasn’t much different from President Trump.” Fox News adds, “The broadside delivered at Obama is highly unusual for any Democrat, especially one who has been in the House for two months and has already ticked off party elders with her outspokenness.”
According to The Washington Post, “President Trump on Monday will propose major spending cuts across a range of domestic government programs while seeking a large increase for the Pentagon, a budget plan that’s already encountering withering opposition from Democrats who control the House, as well as some Republicans. … Even with deep spending cuts, the president’s plan would not balance the budget until the mid-2030s.” Reuters says Trump also “will ask the U.S. Congress for an additional $8.6 billion to help pay for the wall he promised to build on the southern border with Mexico to combat illegal immigration and drug trafficking.”
“A federal judge in California who ordered the Trump administration to reunite more than 2,800 migrant families separated at the southwest border says potentially thousands more could be affected by his ruling. U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw of San Diego said in a preliminary ruling issued late Friday that parents who were separated from their children on or after July 1, 2017, should be included as part of a class-action lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union. … Sabraw said he will hold a hearing later this month to decide whether the government will have to identify and reunite the additional families.” (NPR)
“Ethiopian Airlines temporarily grounded its fleet of Boeing 737 Max 8 planes Monday, a day after one of them crashed shortly after takeoff, carving a gash in the earth and killing all 157 people on board. Thirty-five countries had someone among the dead, including the United States. There were at least eight Americans on the aircraft. There was no immediate indication why the plane went down in clear weather while on a flight to Nairobi, the capital of neighboring Kenya, but the crash was strikingly similar to that of a Lion Air jet that went down in the sea off Indonesian last year, killing 189. Both accidents involved Max 8s.” (CBS News)
“Generation Z has a more positive view of the word ‘socialism’ than previous generations, and — along with millennials — are more likely to embrace socialistic policies and principles than past generations, according to a new Harris Poll,” Axios reports. Among these two generations, 73.2% believe in taxpayer-funded universal health care; 67.1% believe in taxpayer-funded college; and 49.6% would rather live in a socialist country.
Speaking of socialism… “Furious Venezuelans lined up to buy water and fuel on Sunday as the country endured a fourth day of a nationwide blackout that has left already-scarce food rotting in shops, homes suffering for lack of water and cell phones without reception. Authorities have managed to provide only patchy access to power since the outage began on Thursday in what President Nicolas Maduro called an act of U.S.-backed sabotage, but critics insist it is the result of incompetence and corruption.” (Reuters)
“‘Empire’ actor Jussie Smollett has been indicted on 16 felony counts following his Chicago attack allegations. … The indictment — eight counts from what he told the officer who responded to the report of the attack and eight for what he later told a detective — comes a little more than two weeks after prosecutors announced one felony count of the same charge.” (Fox News)
“A lawyer representing Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann said … that Sandmann plans to sue CNN for at least $250 million. … ‘CNN was probably more vicious in its direct attacks on Nicholas than The Washington Post. And CNN goes into millions of individuals’ homes. It’s broadcast into their homes,‘ [attorney L. Lin] Wood told [Mark] Levin. … 'You have a situation where CNN couldn’t resist the idea that here’s a guy, a young boy, with a "Make America Great Again” cap on. So they go after him.’“ (The Hill)
"The [Trump] administration is drawing up demands that Germany, Japan and eventually any other country hosting U.S. troops pay the full price — plus 50 percent or more for the privilege. That may see some nations asked to cough up five to six times as much as they do now. If the plan gets traction it could prove to be a paradigm shift for U.S. foreign policy and its relationships around the world. It risks fanning debates in some countries about whether they even want U.S. troops and creating a vacuum that might give the advantage to the likes of China and Russia.” (Bloomberg)
“The Trump administration signaled Friday it intends to implement a ban on transgender people serving in the military after a federal court struck down the last injunction against the policy the previous day. … Former Defense Secretary James Mattis laid out a policy in March 2018 that would allow transgender people to serve if they do so ‘in their biological sex.’” (The Hill)
Policy: The Heritage Foundation’s Michaela Dodge says, “The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee demonstrated a scary lack of understanding of nuclear weapons policy Wednesday during a hearing seeking outside perspectives on the U.S. nuclear posture. Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., jumped at the opportunity to attack the U.S. fleet of intercontinental ballistic missiles, known as ICBMs, calling them unnecessary for deterrence and easily identifiable targets. Smith misunderstands the value that ICBMs bring to U.S. national security and that of our allies, which is scary given the importance of the role he plays.”
Policy: Three doctors in Congress — Reps. Scott DesJarlais, Paul Gosar, and Andy Harris — diagnose the problems with Medicare for All (The Daily Signal)
For more of today’s editors’ choice headlines, visit In Our Sights.