LH 🇺🇸

I want to apologize for not responding to any of the 22 thousand comments my last post inspired. I’ve been filming all week and just noticed my observations about Jimmy Kimmel and a former plumber named Markwayne Mullin have gone viral. I've also noticed that many of the comments are from people who genuinely seem to believe that Jimmy wasn’t belittling plumbers at all, but was instead, simply trying to point out that Mullin is not qualified to lead the DHS. Here's a small smattering... Roger Bicknell... Mikey stop. Kimmel wasn't making fun of plumbers he was making fun of Mullin. Rebecca Piatt Gonzalez... Dearest Mike, it's not anything to do with his being a plumber. It's him NOT being skilled in Homeland Security. Patrick Wise... Being a plumber qualifies you to be a plumber. Period. The issue Jimmy and the rest of us at the adult table recognize is that jobs require certain training and experience and being a plumber does not qualify you to be Sec of DHS. Had Roger, Rebecca, Patrick and all the others who rushed to Jimmy’s Kimmel’s defense actually read what I had written, they would see that I did not suggest - even remotely - that a plumber was inherently qualified to hold a cabinet position. What I said was that being a plumber should not disqualify a person from holding such a position. Big difference. Doctors, lawyers, veterinarians, fireman, and university professors are no more or less qualified to run the DHS than plumbers, electricians, or carpenters – but should they all be dismissed as “unqualified” simply because they made a living in some other vocation? As I wrote in my original post, credentials and diplomas are great ways to bolster a person’s credibility, especially if we’re talking about mastering a specific skill. I think we can all agree that plumbers, accountants, mechanics, and surgeons should all have to prove themselves competent before hanging out a shingle. But what do their credentials and diplomas have to do with their actual competency? Are we not already surrounded by a legion of perfectly qualified experts who don't know what the hell they're doing? Moreover, what do credentials and experience have to do with wisdom, honesty, common sense, integrity, courage, the ability to lead, or any other virtue we’d like to have in our elected officials? There are plenty of legitimate reasons to question Mullin’s suitability for this role. But there’s no legitimate reason to disqualify him simply because he used to be a plumber. Just as there was no legitimate reason to dismiss AOC because she used to tend bar. As for the joke itself, here’s an honest question. If Senator Mullin was a retired doctor instead of a retired plumber, do you believe he would have would made the same joke? Roger, Rebecca, Patrick...be honest. Do you really think Jimmy would have said to his audience, "So, now we have a DOCTOR in charge of protecting us from terrorism? Hey – it worked for Dr. Suess – maybe it’ll work for Markwayne!" Personally, I don't. Not in a million years. Why? Because no one would have found it funny, that’s why. Even though doctors are no more “qualified” to protect us from terrorists than plumbers are, Jimmy knows that doctors are widely respected in society, and that plumbers are not. He knows that medical degrees and doctorates are aspirational credentials, whereas plumbing certificates are not. The entire premise of his joke was based on a personal bias that he knew his audience shared – a bias that presupposes plumbers are uneducated, one-dimensional workers who never made it to college, and are therefore "unqualified" to do anything but plumb. Jimmy is entitled to his opinion, along with anyone else who believes that Mullin is unqualified to lead the DHS. The Constitution, however, says otherwise, and so does the Senate. Likewise, reasonable people can disagree as to what is funny and what isn’t. Frankly, I couldn’t care less. What I do care about, is the extraordinary shortage of plumbers and electricians our country is facing, and the longstanding stigmas and stereotypes that continue to discourage people from considering a lucrative career in the skilled trades. Jimmy’s joke – and his audience’s reaction to it – is proof positive that those stigmas and stereotypes are alive and well. PS. We have a lot of money set aside to help train the next generation of plumbers. Apply for a scholarship at mikeroweworks.org Who knows? Could be the first step on your road to President..

Great article from @emilyjashinsky who first broke the news last year on how Punchbowl works.

tl;dr The U.S. Navy can reopen the Strait of Hormuz. It just won’t happen until Europe sits down, shuts up, and lets our kids cook…

🚨 UNITED PASSENGER CATCHES INSANE NASA ROCKET LAUNCH FROM PLANE WINDOW — FLIGHT ATTENDANT LOSES IT MID-AIR A United flight just turned into a front-row seat to history. A woman captures the exact moment NASA’s Artemis II rocket launches… straight from her window at 30,000 feet. And then you hear the flight attendant: “15 years of flying… I’ve been praying to see something like this.” • Rocket blasting through the clouds • Crew calling it a “once in a lifetime” moment He said he flew to Florida multiple times just to see a launch… Canceled. Every time. And then this happens midair. What are the chances you randomly look out your window… and see history taking off?

@itslinklauren Or Judge Jeanine Pirro! She’d be great!

Let’s get my position on the Republican Party crystal clear. I’ve been a registered Republican since Bill Clinton turned the Oval Office into his own personal brothel. Now that Senate Majority John Thune refuses to protect election integrity, I am disgusted with my party. I will NEVER vote for a Democrat in my life, but the RINO elements destroying the Republican party are a disgrace. I am a devout follower of President Trump, and as a registered Independent will continue to vote with Republicans when they stand behind this great President and act like Republicans again. Democrats, the ragtag band of con artists and grifters that they are, manage to work together in lockstep, but getting Republicans to accomplish anything is like herding cats. It’s absolutely infuriating.

@DataRepublican @DataInterpretr @JoelValdezDOW Congratulations!

Officially credentialed Pentagon press corps as of today, alongside my interpreter @DataInterpretr. First Deaf journalist to hold the badge. Thank you @JoelValdezDOW for moving mountains to make this unique arrangement possible. Naturally, the legacy media is invited to congratulate the Department of War on their commitment to press corps inclusiveness. This wouldn't have been possible without you. Every $3 subscription and every engagement opened this door. Now I'm going to use it. Military institutional capture research starts today.

PHEW No, Jonathan the tortoise is not dead despite claims that the world's oldest land animal had died at the age of 193. A spokesperson for the St Helena government confirmed to Guinness World Records that Jonathan is "alive and well".

Do you support banning birthright citizenship in the United States? Please retweet for a larger sample size.

I've seen birth tourism up close. It's a total abuse of the system. Think about it -- someone like me, who was not born in the U.S. but has lived here since I was a 6 years old, will never be able to run for President. But a child born here through birth tourism, then taken back and raised in their parents' country, never growing up with American values, somehow can. American citizenship is not an "insurance policy."

Dang dude--you nailed this. The EO is carefully crafted to fit inside existing laws, is the bottom line. Everyone should read.

@SpeakerJohnson @LeaderJohnThune This isn’t a win! You caved like the @GOP has done for the last 30+ years! The difference, everyone knows it now!

My joint statement with @LeaderJohnThune on DHS funding: We appreciate and share the President’s determination to once and for all bring an end to the Democrat DHS shutdown.   In the coming days, Republicans in the Senate and House will be following through on the President’s directive by fully funding the entire Department of Homeland Security on two parallel tracks: through the appropriations process and through the reconciliation process.   We appreciate that Senator Graham and the Senate Budget Committee have already initiated the process of developing a budget resolution that will ensure border security and immigration enforcement will be funded for the balance of the Trump Administration and insulated from future attempts by the Democrats to defund those agencies.   We operated under a belief that while our country is in the midst of an international armed conflict, Democrats might finally come to their senses and understand that defunding our homeland security agencies is beyond reckless and very dangerous. While we hoped they would accept the 60-day CR to fund the Department entirely so that bipartisan negotiations could continue, it is now abundantly clear that Democrats place allegiance to their radical left-wing base above all else — including their own power of the purse — which means open borders and protecting criminal illegal aliens. That is not acceptable to Republicans in Congress, nor is it to the American people. We cannot allow Democrats to any longer put the safety of the American public at risk through their open border policies, so we are taking that off the table.   In following this two-track approach, the Republican Congress will fully reopen the Department, make sure all federal workers are paid, and specifically fund immigration enforcement and border security for the next three years so that those law-enforcement activities can continue uninhibited. In return, Democrats will once again demonstrate to the American people their support for open borders and keeping criminal illegal immigrants in America.

🚨 NEW: Fox’s Dana Perino takes down Jessica Tarlov by TORCHING the Democrat narrative: “Everybody knows. It’s pretty disingenuous to suggest it’s the Republicans’ fault. The Democrats are the ones who wanted this in the first place, Jessica.” They voted 11 times and got every change they asked for. Secretary of Homeland Security? Gone. Tom Homan? In. Body cameras? Done. And still they blame Republicans? “We all know the reason it happened. It’s because Chuck Schumer does not want to be primaried by AOC.”

Proud to have played a small role supporting the research behind this with @ItsYourGov . For too long, policy analysis has flowed from captured institutions in one direction. We're only beginning to build our own.

TMZ flips the script and does real reporting. They finally call out Democrats and say EVERYONE in congress needs to be voted out They have evidence of Congress partying like they’re on Spring Break while everyone else has to deal with the shutdown “It's not the other party, it's both parties and we are kind of sick of the way they are patronizing us and that's why we're doing this. Something has to change” “We have talked about what we call the outer movement, OWTA out with their asses, voting everybody out, even the ones you like to reset things and make it clear to the next group. Here is our expectation that you will keep the government open, that federal workers will get paid. And if you don't do that, we're gonna throw you out. Like we threw your predecessors out. So that seems to be the only maybe last resort of regaining some power”

@johnkonrad It’s a mistake most every working American has made! Your time and effort as well as the others you mentioned are so appreciated! There will be a next time for us to look forward too!

If you haven’t heard, and even if you have, Jimmy Kimmel said this about Markwayne Mullin, former Senator from Oklahoma, and our newest Secretary of Homeland Security: “We have a plumber now protecting us from terrorism.” Apparently, there has been some backlash. Plumbers were offended, obviously, as were parents of plumbers, spouses of plumbers, children of plumbers, and millions of people who have had a plumber show up when they needed one. Comedians were also offended, (the funny ones, anyway,) along with a surprising number of terrorists - especially those with access to hot and cold running water. However, in spite of the ensuing kerfuffle, @jimmykimmel doubled down. “I’m not upset that the head of Homeland Security was a plumber,” he said, “I’m upset that he isn’t still a plumber." He further elucidated by adding, "I wouldn't put a plumber in charge of Homeland Security for the same reason I wouldn't call a five-star general to pull a rat out of my toilet, OK? We all have our areas of expertise.” Being offended is always a choice, and I don’t choose to be offended by a joke, even one that comes at the expense of the skilled tradespeople my foundation tries to elevate. But I am a tad butt hurt by the suggestion that skilled workers should never evolve into something new, and that competence is somehow limited to one vocation. Obviously, expertise and skill are important. If I need a new kidney, I’d prefer a doctor do the surgery, not a late-night talk show host. But if the doctor in question used to host a talk show, why would I hold that against him? Ten years ago, during one of the presidential debates, @MarcoRubio answered a workforce-related question by arguing that America needed to get shop class back into high schools. He concluded by saying, “What our country needs are more welders and fewer philosophers.” A lot of people on this page commented that Rubio and I were singing from the same hymnal, but in fact, we weren’t. At least not entirely. Because I don’t think the current shortage of welders has anything to do with an overabundance of philosophers. In fact, I think it’s a mistake to promote one vocation at the expense of the other. What we really need in this country, are more welders who can talk intelligently about Aristotle, and more philosophers who can run an even bead. More Generals, in other words, who can fix their own toilets, and more plumbers who can hold a powerful government job. This is what Mullin did. He was a private citizen who mastered an essential skill and then turned that skill into a multi-million-dollar company that employed a lot of people and served a lot of customers. That gave him the freedom to do other things with his life, including a career in public service which got him into Congress, where he’s spent the last eleven years doing whatever Congressmen do. Now, he has a very consequential position in the Cabinet of the current administration. Is that not the embodiment of the American Dream? I get that Jimmy Kimmel might have a problem with Mullin’s politics, but what possible objection could he have about the trajectory of his career, or his desire to do more than one thing with his life? The only sensible thing to do in the wake of a moment this tone deaf, is remind America that the skills gap is wide, and getting wider. The shortage of skilled tradespeople is now headline news and closing it is nothing less than a matter of national security. This year, my foundation has set aside $10 million dollars to help train the next generation of plumbers, and lots of other essential workers. I'm talking about hundreds of thousands of AI-proof, six figure jobs that don't require a four-year degree, waiting to be filled. The money is currently available to anyone who wants to master a useful skill at mikeroweworks.org. Apply today. As for those of you genuinely offended by Kimmel's comments, consider expressing your disappointment with a modest donation to mikeroweWORKS. Our work ethic scholarship is making a real difference, and your money will be well spent, I promise. The donate button is big and red and hard to miss, at mikeroweworks.org I’d love to chat but I’ve gotta pull a rat out of my toilet…

This video says it all. It also explains why John Thune’s scuttling of the SAVE America Act is the most treacherous gambit since RussiaGate. We citizens will lose our nation in the midterms, and we will never get her back.

Vote and share ... I am really curious.

🚨 HOLY SMOKES. Iranian woman goes BERSERK on a smug white liberal who is supporting the Islamic regime "Convince me of WHAT? Of R*PE?! Of women not having rights?! I am Iranian, I've been imprisoned by that regime!" "Iranians are ASKING for the bombs! Iranian youth are asking to be bombed, and you are standing here SUPPORTING a terrorist regime! What are you DOING supporting a terrorist regime?!" *Lib spouts off about Palestine* "This has NOTHING to do with Palestine. This is about a terrorist regime in MY COUNTRY." "I can't even go see my father's grave!!" Mad props to this woman! White liberals are clueless, all over the world. H/t @patriot_apranik