SENATE REPUBLICANS WARN ADMINISTRATION POTENTIALLY VIOLATING EXEC. AMNESTY INJUNCTION WITH CRYSTAL CITY FACILITY

Senate Republicans are pressing the Obama administration on its newly revealed plans to use a facility initially leased to house employees who would process executive amnesty — currently blocked by a court injunction — as a general immigration service center without consulting Congress.

As Breitbart News reported Thursday, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has confirmed that it will be using the building leased in Arlington, Virginia’s Crystal City neighborhood to process executive amnesty workloads to instead process other immigration benefits not held up in the courts.

In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, Office of Management and Budget Director Shaun Donovan and General Services Administration Acting Administrator Denise Turner Roth, Republican Members of the the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committees, express concern about the unilateral decision and warn it could violate the ongoing injunction blocking executive amnesty.

“It appears USCIS intends to circumvent Congress yet again, this time by not consulting with Congress or the public regarding the designation of a new Service Center.  Following the passage of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) established four Service Centers in California, Texas, Nebraska and Vermont to process benefits applications arising from that legislation.  The Service Centers were established as a direct result of Congress passing a legalization program and expanding benefits to a certain defined class.”

Via: Breitbart

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Malkin: Why America Hates The GOP-Obamatrade Deal

Constitutional conservatives don't like it. Trade unions abhor it. Obama critics hate it. Environmentalists despise it.

Outside the Beltway bubble, a broad coalition of voters from the left, right and center opposes the mega-trade deal getting rammed through Congress this week by the Republican establishment on behalf of the White House. Here's why.

The Obama administration, House GOP leader John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have sold out American sovereignty. Their so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership Commission will have sweeping authority over trade, immigration, environmental, labor and commerce regulations.

As alert watchdogs U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., chairman of the Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest and U.S. Rep Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., warn: "By adopting fast-track, Congress would be formally authorizing the President to finalize the creation of this Pacific Union and will have surrendered its legislative prerogatives. Before a word, line, paragraph, or page of this plan is made public, Congress will have agreed to give up its treaty powers. ... In effect, one of the most sweeping international agreements seen in years will be given less legislative scrutiny and process than a Post Office reform bill."

The Obama administration, House GOP leader John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have sold out legislative transparency. Boehner smugly asserts that so-called Trade Promotion Authority puts Congress in charge and promotes "more openness" on trade talks. Nonsense. Under the Boehner/Obama plan, Congress gives up its ability to amend any trade deals under fast track, severely limits the ability to debate and lowers the vote threshold in the Senate from 61 to 51. The 11 international parties negotiating with Obama on TPP refuse to sign their dotted lines until Congress agrees to pre-agree to behemoth global trade pacts -- sight unseen.

As Obamatrade cheerleader and Big Business crony Sen. Orrin Hack, I mean Hatch, admitted, "I don't know fully what's in TPP myself."

The secretive wheeling and dealing on the massive 29-chapter draft (kept under classified lock-and-key and only a tiny portion of which have been publicly disclosed through WikiLeaks) make the backroom Obamacare negotiations look like a gigantic solar flare of openness and public deliberation. Fast-track Republicans, who rightfully made a stink when Nancy Pelosi declared that "we have to pass the [Obamacare] bill so that you can find out what is in it," now have no transparency legs to stand on.

Via: Truth Revolt

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Republicans Watch With Bewilderment As Democrats Flounder on Trade

June 12, 2015 It's a new vantage point for Republican leaders. After nearly five years of intra-party squabbling of their own, Republicans are watching Democrats erupt into disarray over their own president's trade bill.

Friday morning, President Obama made his final pitch to the caucus, travelling to the Hill to do so. But, the president's only one of many messengers. Unions and other progressive groups have been lobbying members to vote against Trade Promotion Authority, which limits Congress to an up or down vote on future trade deals, as well as Trade Adjustment Assistance, a Democratic priority that provides resources for workers displaced by future trade deals. Democratic leaders had largely stayed neutral on the trade package, leaving the whip operation to the Obama administration.

On the actual vote, Democratic leadership split, with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi giving a speech just before the vote declaring her opposition. Pelosi voted against TAA while Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer would up voting for it. TAA went down by a big 302-126 margin, seriously imperilling the fate of Obama's trade deal.

Republicans pounced that Obama's inability to get members of his own party to support him was a reflection of his waning appeal on Capitol Hill.

"Democrats are caught up in a real challenge where the President of the United States has no clout with their members and they viewed it that the president has never paid attention to them, and when he came asking for something, he was out of step," said Pete Sessions, the chairman of the House Rules Committee.

Via: National Journal

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GOP Weekly Address: Troop Funding 'Most Important' Role of Government, Saturday June 12, 2015

Sen. Roy Blunt encourages the passing of bipartisan legislation as well as the importance of a bill that will provide funding for troops and their families.

President Obama and other Senate Democrat leaders say they will oppose the bill unless Congress increases spending in other areas such as the Internal Revenue Service.

“We can spend all the time we want talking about other priorities and all the other things we should be doing, but almost every American and an overwhelming number of Missourians, agree with me: the most important role of the federal government is to do the one thing we sure can’t do by ourselves – defend our country,” said Blunt.

Via You Tube

Obama Weekly Address, Saturday June 12, 2015

In this week's address, the President reiterated that his top priority is to grow the American economy and ensure that every hardworking American has a fair shot at success. It’s because of this commitment that the President has worked to enact smart new trade agreements that level the playing field for our workers, open new markets for our businesses, and hold other countries to the kinds of high standards that Americans are proud to hold ourselves to here at home. 

On Friday, Republicans and Democrats in the House took an important step by voting to help the United States negotiate and enforce high-standard trade deals. But they also failed to renew Trade Adjustment Assistance, despite the fact that it provides vital support to about 100,000 workers, and passed the Senate with bipartisan support. The President urged the House to pass TAA without delay so that more middle-class workers can earn the chance to participate and succeed in our global economy.  

Via: White House

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Obama's Ambition Threatens The Separation Of The Powers Of Government

President Obama has crossed another red line, and not one so easily erased as those smudged out by his lethargy and timidity in the Middle East. American representative government and its more important but allusive essence, democracy, have been protected in many ways over two centuries of American history. There is, of course, the written Constitution, which sets out the basic requirements of government.

But above and beyond that, there’s the role of respect — and civility — in relationships that guarantee that these words on paper will be respected, however much in the breach.

In fact, usage as well as legalism has defined the growth of American democracy. In one of the unique features of American constitutionalism — as distinguished from inheritance of British common law — the Founders embraced the separation of powers, with each of the three equal branches of government clearly defined. The Founders turned their backs on a basic principle of British government at the time, the paramountcy of Parliament over both the king and his courts.

The Founders certainly foresaw, especially the more conservative among the revolutionaries, James Madison, that no written document alone could preserve the liberties of the new country. It was Madison’s genius that he set out to balance one branch of government against the others.

But it has never been clear that the Founders, in their considerable wisdom about governments and regimes which had gone before, meant to establish what has come to be known as “judicial supremacy.” But it quickly became an obvious manifestation of the workings of the new government that, finally, in the interplay of carefully balanced legislative, executive and judicial branches, there would have to be occasional final arbitration. The Supreme Court, in Marbury v. Madison, ruled in 1803 that the Supreme Court had the authority to determine whether a law, the work of Congress and the enforcement by the president, was constitutional.

Mr. Obama has challenged this crucial tradition twice. Once he rebuked the justices of the Supreme Court to their faces at his State of the Union address in 2012, and now, at a press conference, Mr. Obama has crossed two red lines. He rebuked the court for entertaining a challenge to Obamacare, and more important, he tried to pressure the Court as it deliberates. This threatens the very interplay among the three branches. Such a threat is beneath the presidency. We suspect the president knows better. The other branches of the government dare not let him get by with it.

Via: Washington Times

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Standoff continues after Dallas Police HQ attack

DALLAS — Dallas police were in a standoff Saturday morning after suspects in an armored van opened fire on the department's headquarters before leading officers on a chase to Hutchins, about 10 miles southeast.

Just before 9 a.m., police executed a planned detonation on the vehicle as the standoff reached roughly eight hours. The armored van was "disabled" by police at 5:40 a.m.

Sources told News 8 that the suspect in the armored van may have been injured in the initial shootout Saturday. Police had not communicated with the suspect for quite some time, as of 8:30 a.m.

Police were using robots to examine the suspect's vehicle.

The South Side on Lamar apartment complex in the 1400 block of South Lamar was evacuated as a precaution after one or more bombs were discovered outside police headquarters.

Just after 6 a.m., Dallas Police Maj. Max Geron said on Twitter that officers were clearing the station.

"Not 'evacuating' but getting officers to clear in service from the station," he said in response to a tweet.

The area around Dallas police headquarters was sealed off after suspicious packages were found following a shootout. (Photo: WFAA)

Dallas police Chief David Brown said four suspicious bags were found outside the building. Two explosive devices were found and detonated, while the other two ended up being trash, according to Maj. Geron.

Via: WFAA

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For Democrats split on trade, the fight is getting personal.

President Obama's feeling the heat -- from Democrats ahead of Friday's vote on trade legislation. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Democrats feel backed into a corner on today's high-stakes vote on Obama's trade deals. And they're letting it show.

The House of Representatives is expected to take a very important vote Friday on legislation known as fast track. It would give Obama leeway to negotiate two massive deals with Pacific Rim nations and Europe. Broadly speaking, Republicans support the plan. Democrats, not so much.

[The congressional trade deal explained, in 6 factions]

Labor unions, those well-funded foundations of all that is good for the Democratic Party, absolutely hate the trade deals. Unions have promised to spend cash, lots of it, to take out any Democrat who supports Friday's vote.

So as Obama works with House Republican and Democratic leaders to shove fast-track legislation through on what's expected to be a razor-thin vote, most of the 188 House Democrats feel their career hanging in the balance.

And they're increasingly attacking not just the trade deal, but their own president.

Obama arrives on the Hill for trade vote(0:35)

President Obama made an 11th-hour appeal to dubious Democrats on Friday in a tense run-up to a House showdown on legislation to strengthen his hand in global trade talks. (AP)

The vitriol started with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). As the Senate prepared to vote on fast track last month (it passed 62 to 38), the liberal darling was so vocal about the secrecy surrounding Obama's Trans-Pacific Partnership deal with 11 other countries that she earned a rare diss from Obama.

Via: Washington Post

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U.S. Agrees to Let Iran Keep Nuke Secrets

The Obama administration will agree to let Iran bypass questions about its past nuclear military work under any final deal signed in the coming weeks, according to reports.

Western officials were quoted as telling the Associated Press on Friday that the United States has given up a major concession to Iran on the military front.

While senior U.S. officials, including Secretary of State John Kerry, have long insisted that Iran will immediately have to submit to wide-ranging inspections and disclosures regarding its past nuclear work, the new reports indicate that this demand has been cast aside as world powers work to strike a final deal with the Islamic Republic by the end of June.

According to the AP report:

After a November 2013 interim accord, the Obama administration said a comprehensive solution “would include resolution of questions concerning the possible military dimension of Iran’s nuclear program.”

But those questions won’t be answered by the June 30 deadline for a final deal, officials said, echoing an assessment by the U.N. nuclear agency’s top official earlier this week. Nevertheless, the officials said an accord remains possible. One senior Western official on Thursday described diplomats as “more likely to get a deal than not” over the next three weeks.

Via: WFB

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Civil Rights Activist Who Marched With Martin Luther King Posts Blunt Billboard About ‘Black Lives Matter’

“Black lives matter. So let’s quit killing each other.”

One man feels so strongly about that message that he put it in big bold letters on a Memphis, Tennessee, billboard, just steps from where he goes to work everyday.

Image source: WMC-TV

“We’re going to have to wake up. We’re going to have to say to ourselves that black lives matter, and we’re going to have to refrain from killing each other out of our own frustration,” civil rights activist Fred Davis told WMC-TV.

The sign was put up at Airways Boulevard and Park Avenue southeast of downtown. Davis said he wanted to get the message across to people because he was a part of the history.

“I think that gives me a license as an experienced observer to push and to advocate to the black community – let’s stop it,” Davis added.

Image source: WMC-TV

Davis is an Army veteran who served in France for two years. He was also the first black man to receive a masters of business administration degree from the University of Memphis, the first black chairman of the Memphis city council, and walked alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when the iconic civil rights leader made his last march in Memphis in 1968, the year of his assassination.

Today, Davis has his own insurance agency at the same intersection where he put up the billboard.

Via: Brave

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NPR Reporter: 'Pugilistic, Mean-Spirited' Fox News May Be Watered Down by Murdoch Sons

When it came to assessing Rupert Murdoch’s decision to cede more control of his empire to his sons James and Lachlan, PBS and NPR turned to David Folkenflik, who as NPR’s media reporter is a Murdoch obsessive and author of the book Murdoch’s World: The Last of the Old Media Empires.

On Thursday’s PBS NewsHour, Folkenflik surely pleased liberals by floating the idea that eventually Fox News would move to the center and be “a little more measured” in its point of view once Rupert and Roger Ailes fade from the scene. 

James Murdoch was said to be significantly involved in the decision by 21st Century Fox to invest a decent chunk of change in VICE, the multi-platform, multi-outlet entity that it’s own kind of pirate, renegade media outfit run by Shane Smith in Brooklyn here in New York. [Renegade? Or Obama-Kool-aid?] And that’s not something you would have thought of Fox News as investing in kind of outfit.

There has been a significant distrust and ill will between the Murdoch sons and Roger Ailes, of course, the chairman and CEO and guiding creative spirit at Fox News. I don’t think you are going to see Ailes sidelined immediately. But he is in his mid-70s. He’s not in particularly good health. And the actuarial tables favors the boys.

The question is, how can they shift it to be a little bit more measured, a little bit more like Sky News in the U.K., Australia, and elsewhere that is lively, peppy, sometimes strong voices on the air, but not itself taking a strong point of view, in the way that Fox seems to by its selection of stories and guests. So, those are some real significant indications of where things could go.

When PBS anchor Judy Woodruff asked for the legacy of Rupert, Folkenflik suggested he was creative – but he was also “destructive,” with his media properties projecting a “pugilistic, often mean-spirited character.” 

Via: Newsbusters

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State Department Has No Record of Clinton IT Security Training

The State Department has no record of former Secretary Hillary Clinton or her two top aides receiving IT security training while Clinton led the department, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.

In response to a Freedom of Information request filed by the nonprofit Competitive Enterprise Institute in March, State said it could not locate any record of Clinton, chief of staff Cheryl Mills, or deputy chief of staff Huma Abedin undergoing any sort of IT security training.

“One former, senior executive branch personnel official contacted me to point out the requirement that appointees take this training, and that if Mses. Clinton, Abedin or Mills had deigned to follow the law, a record of this would exist,” explained CEI senior fellow Chris Horner, who filed the FOIA request.

“He also noted, however, that if anyone was to turn up their noses and refuse the training—and be permitted to—these are the folks.  We now know this to be the case,” Horner said in an email.

The request also asked for “all separation documents … completed or submitted” by Clinton, Mills, or Abedin. State returned no responsive documents to that request.

The department previously stated that it had no record of Clinton signing such separation documents, designed to ensure that former employees do not retain confidential information after their departure. State’s reply appears to confirm that neither Clinton nor her top aides submitted those documents.

Cybersecurity experts say Clinton, Mills, and Abedin should have undergone IT security training at State, and that their apparent failure to do so is part of a systemic problem.

“She should have done it, but the data point that she did not is sadly unsurprising,” said Steve Bucci, the director of the Heritage Foundation’s Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign and National Security Policy.

Via: WFB

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Extra Interviewer Thanks Obama: You ‘Saved My Finances and My Life’

At the top of what has to be one of President Barack Obama’s all-time friendliest interviews,Extra correspondent Jerry Penacoli thanked the president for the Affordable Care Act. Seated in the White House Rose Garden, the interviewer declared, “You pretty much saved my finances and my life.”

Pencil spent years suffering from a variety of ailments that required expensive treatment, including melanoma and thyroid cancer. The lifetime limits on his health insurance meant that he would have had to pay a large portion on the cost out of pocket — until Obamacare passed and outlawed those limits.

“One of the goal for the Affordable Care Act was not just to help people get insurance for people who didn’t have it, it was to give better protections to those who already had insurance,” Obama told Penacoli on Thursday. “You were a perfect example of someone who could be caught with debilitating bills, or, alternatively, not being able to get the care you need.”

RELATED: Obama: I Respond to People Who Write In Just to Call Me an Idiot

Throughout the discussion, Obama continued to use Penacoli’s story as a prime example of why the Affordable Care Act should be kept intact pending this month’s Supreme Court decision. The two men also discussed such hard-hitting topics as what it’s like to raise teenage daughters and who Obama is rooting for in the NHL Stanley Cup (“Blackhawks!”) and NBA finals (“both teams are playing incredible basketball.”).

Via: Mediaite

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Scott Walker Eyes Marco Rubio as His Running Mate

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is talking positively about a Republican presidential ticket — potentially announced even before the first nomination balloting — that would include Sen. Marco Rubio as his running mate. 

In a Bloomberg Politics interview Thursday, the likely candidate also expressed agreement with President Barack Obama on the pressing issue of fast-track trade legislation.
Walker, 47, isn't expected to formally enter the race until early July, after his state has completed a two-year budget plan. Still, he's apparently given some consideration and had discussions already about a potential running mate, with the focus on Rubio.

"I've actually had quite a few people, grassroots supporters, donors, and others who have made that suggestion," he said when asked about a Walker-Rubio ticket.

"For now, you know, Marco is a quality candidate," Walker said. "He's going to be formidable in this race as things progress. And if we were to get in, we'd be as well, and we'll see where things take us."

Walker was in Utah to meet with potential financial supporters and to speak at a summit hosted by 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney that's attracted six declared and likely presidential candidates. The full interview can be seen on BloombergPolitics.com.
Walker said he and Rubio often hear the suggestion that they should combine forces, potentially even before the first nomination voting in Iowa in February 2016, as a way to stand out amid a crowded field. "We'd just probably have to arm-wrestle over who would be at the top of the ticket," he said.

Some who have talked privately to Walker about a possible pairing with Rubio say they have been surprised by how seriously the Wisconsin governor seems to be taking the prospect. At this phase of presidential campaign, the norm would be for a White House hopeful to summarily dismiss such a move, in public and in private.

Via: NewsMax

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[VIDEO] Obamacare: It’s Still Unaffordable, Unworkable and Unfair

Earlier this week, President Obama taunted the Supreme Court for taking up a challenge to Obamacare and boldly declared that his health care law is a success.

“What’s more, the thing is working,” Obama boasted to reporters. “I mean, part of what’s bizarre about this whole thing is we haven’t had a lot of conversation about the horrors of Obamacare because none of them come to pass.”

In reality, the president is willfully disregarding the facts and ignoring mounting evidence about the Affordable Care Act’s failures. Obamacare remains unaffordable, unworkable and unfair to the American people.

The Heritage Foundation decided to set the record straight for the president. This new video chronicles the problems playing out in states across America—many of which will be impacted by the Supreme Court’s upcoming ruling in King v. Burwell.

Via: The Daily Signal

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PALIN SLAMS OBAMATRADE AS ANOTHER ‘DON’T PASS IT ’TIL WE KNOW WHAT’S IN IT!’

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is sharing Breitbart News’story on Facebook, following the close Rules vote ahead of Friday’s final vote on the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) that would grant President Obama fast-track authority to finish his trade negotiations.

She also posted her reaction to the non-transparency this administration has shown in handling the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, which is keeping part of the draft in a secret room on Capitol Hill.

“The secretive, hugely impacting Obamatrade deal is another behind-closed-doors fast-tracked D.C. deal that screams “don’t pass it ’til we know what’s in it!” Yet politicians are going along to get along, supporting Obama’s pet project while ignoring the public’s right to know what’s in this monumental international trade deal. This, despite the President’s track record proving he hasn’t got it in him to put American workers first,” Palin posted.

“If Congress hands this secretive deal to Obama on a silver platter, admitting to not even reading it first, then shame on us for letting another one slide. This is fast-tracked, friends. Like Obamacare, when we sounded warning bells but too many were too busy to pressure their employees (your elected politicians) to do the right thing and learn it first. Since when is Congress able to halt any bullying administration’s fast-track deals? They never have before. Didn’t we learn last time?”

The vote on TPA is expected Friday afternoon.

Via: Breitbart

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Boeing 787 Dreamliner performs near-vertical takeoff

Via: Fox News

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The White-est of All Guilt

SPOKANE, Wash. — Controversy is swirling around one of the Spokane region’s most prominent civil rights activists, with family members saying the local leader of the NAACP has falsely portrayed herself as black for years.

Rachel Dolezal is president of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP, chair of the city’s Office of Police Ombudsman Commission, and an adjunct professor at Eastern Washington University.

The Spokesman-Review reported Thursday that questions have arisen about her background and her numerous complaints to police of harassment. The story was first reported by the Coeur d’Alene Press.

Dolezal’s mother, Ruthanne, says the family’s ancestry is Czech, Swedish and German, with a touch of Native American heritage.

Dolezal has identified herself in application materials as white, black and Native American.

Police say they have found little evidence of racial harassment.

On Twitter and sometimes here, I like to talk about how ridiculous “Tumblr Culture” is. It’s Tumblr and places like it that have allowed kids with no clue of how the world works to claim they are transabled, have “headmates” (if you are unclear as to what this term means, forget you’ve ever seen it because only sadness comes from looking it up), and other signs of either too much imagination or mental distress.

Well, at some point, along came an Internet troll with a great idea: Let’s create “transethnicity” to up our trans game. And, so, it happened as a joke. With Dolezal, it no longer appears to be a joke.

Via: Red State

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Scott Walker and the Fate of the Union

In Wisconsin, where the labor movement took root a century ago, a campaign by the governor has broken its power. His political allies hope he can take a similar campaign nationwide.

On his first day of work in three months, Randy Bryce asked his foreman for the next day off. He wanted to go to the Capitol in Madison, Wis., and testify against a proposed law. Bryce, a member of Milwaukee Ironworkers Local 8, was unloading truckloads of steel beams to build a warehouse near Kenosha, and he needed the job. He has an 8-year-old son, his debts were piling up and a 10-hour shift paid more than $300. But the legislation, which Republicans were rushing through the State Senate, angered him enough to sacrifice the hours. Supporters called it a “right to work” bill, because it prohibited unions from requiring employees to pay dues. But to Bryce, that appealing name hid the true purpose of the bill, which was to destroy unions.

The next morning, Bryce, who is 50 and has close-­cropped black hair and a horseshoe mustache, woke up at 5:30, got dressed in his usual jeans, hoodie and Local 8 varsity jacket with an I-beam and an American flag stitched on the back and drove 90 miles to Madison in his gray Mustang. Despite the February chill, crowds had begun to gather in the square outside the Capitol. The scene was reminiscent of a similar one that played out four years earlier, in 2011, when thousands of people occupied the Capitol’s rotunda for more than two weeks to protest Act 10, a law that demolished collective-­bargaining rights for nearly all public employees. The protests in Madison were the first significant resistance to the ascendant Tea Party and helped set the stage for Occupy Wall Street. For Wisconsin’s governor, Scott Walker, it was the moment that started his conservative ascent. “The Republican Party has a demonstrated, genuine hero and potential star in its ranks, and he is the governor of Wisconsin,”Rush Limbaugh said last year. The unions, Democrats and other perceived enemies, he continued, had “thrown everything they’ve got at Scott Walker, and he has beat them back without one syllable of complaint, without one ounce of whining. All he has done is win.” Walker is expected to announce in the next few weeks that he is entering the 2016 presidential race.

Via: NYT

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