National Populist Newsletter
December 10th-17th
News:
United States
Immigration
Arizona’s Democrat Gov. Katie Hobbs ordered National Guard troops to the border with Mexico, saying the U.S. federal government's recent decision to close a legal port of entry in her state "has led to an unmitigated humanitarian crisis." Hobbs notably mocked Republicans in the 2022 election over their concerns about the border and took down the makeshift border barrier the previous governor erected. (Reuters)
CBS News reported that The White House is contemplating new executive orders to tackle the border crisis. The provisions include Title 42 style expulsions, mandatory detention, expedited removal that allows immigration officials to deport migrants without court hearings if they don't ask for asylum or if they fail their initial asylum interviews, and strict new asylum standards. The White House always had this power but never enforced the border. This is all to persuade Congressional Republicans to fund Ukraine, but I doubt it’s moving the needle.
Congress
The Senate is moving forward on a bipartisan framework on a Ukraine/Israel/Border bill with Sens. Tillis, Lankford, and Schumer, but negotiations are barely moving. According to Punchbowl News, Democrats aren’t giving in much on the border and are hoping that war hawks in the GOP will fold with just the minimum amount of border security. Yet even Graham and Romney announced their opposition to the bill unless it has significant reforms regarding the border, it seems unlikely. That says nothing of the House, which is demanding Democrats support H.R. 2. Tillis seems frustrated, but Senate sources told me that they think Democrats will cave soon on significant concessions. I doubt it.
Congress voted to approve the NDAA last week by a pretty significant margin. In the House, only 73 Republicans and 45 Democrats opposed the measure, while it passed 87 to 13 in the Senate. The only Senate Republicans to oppose the measure were Braun, Hawley, Lee, Lummis, Paul, and Vance.
Tucked neatly in the bill was a provision banning a president from withdrawing from NATO without Congressional approval. This is in apparent preparation for Donald Trump’s return to the White House and fears that he will flee from international agreements unilaterally. While it’s unsurprising that hawkish legislature members would do this to protect NATO, the question remains in what else they’ll do to stop Trump should he win next November and how to thwart his agenda. (The Washington Post)
Sen. JD Vance brought a unanimous consent vote to increase the tax on university endowments to 35 percent, up from 1.4 percent today. Sen. Wyden (Oregon) opposed the vote. To date, it’s one of the few times Congressional Democrats voted to stop a tax increase on billionaires. (The New York Sun)
Despite Republicans holding a majority in the House, most significant bills that landed on the President’s desk had a minority of House Republicans supporting it. In other words, Democrats and moderate Republicans moved legislation forward while conservatives in the House mainly were left in the dust. (Axios)
Economy
About 653,000 people in America are now homeless, up 12 percent from last year and the most since the country began using the yearly point-in-time survey in 2007. This is nearly 75,000 more homeless people than in 2020. Blacks and Latinos make up 70 percent of homeless Americans. (Associated Press)
Homelessness is exceptionally high in blue states and blue metropolitan areas. There are more homeless in Los Angeles County than in Florida and Texas combined.
General Motors will be laying off more than 1,300 workers right after the Christmas holiday. This comes directly after GM raked hundreds of millions of dollars from the state’s taxpayers through deals with Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. (Breitbart News)