Ward said the issue is significantly more complex than it has been made out to be, saying, “First of all, everyone wants one bill, one solution, and these aren’t one bill one solution issues.”

He warned that mass release was not going to be a solution, making it clear that would be a risk to “public safety.”

Ward added, “I think the bulk of any kind of prison reform is gonna be rehabilitation and alternative programming,” and suggested that outside the box approaches, such as drug rehabilitation programs, mental health initiatives and veterans courts, are the most effective means to solve the overarching problem of overpopulation.

Can this be done without massive sentencing reform? Ward says he thinks so.

“You can do this and in a way that everybody, everybody wants to be Conservative about it, but two, it can be solved in a way that doesn’t require a lot of new sentencing changes,” he advised.

There will still probably be a building of new prison capacity and that will likely be done by Kay Ivey and Kay Ivey alone.

He explained why the governor’s office could make a unilateral move, saying, “The reason they can do it without us is because they don’t need additional revenue.”

My takeaway:

How that plays out remains to be seen. Ward is right: This issue is not one that is going to be solved with one bill. It is complex and evolving and needs to be looked at from multiple angles.

The legislature will be absolutely thrilled to have the governor’s office handle a bulk of this issue on her own.

They won’t have to deal with voting to spend money on prison instead of schools, kids, healthcare, public safety and whatever other issues you care about.

She takes the heat, the prisons get built, they pass some slight reform laws and the issue goes away.

While I still think there are going to be some fights on this issue come next year, this is, for now, the best plan being suggested.

Listen here:

Dale Jackson is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 7-11 am weekdays on WVNN

• A new city ordinance has been passed by the Birmingham City Council that has created a “Health District” that prohibits smoking anywhere within the district limits. Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said he fully supports the organizations that support the ordinance.
• The area within the “Health District” includes the University of Alabama at Birmingham and UAB Medicine, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Jefferson County Department of Health, Children’s of Alabama, Cooper Green Mercy Health Services and Southern Research.

5. Mississippi is about to start selling lottery tickets; Alabama still doesn’t

• Lottery tickets will be sold for the first time in Mississippi on November 25, several days ahead of originally planned December 1 start day. Within the first year, Mississippi is expected to generate $40 million, and it’s expected to more than double within the second year.
• Mississippi will put this new revenue towards funding for education and infrastructure. Alabama, Hawaii, Alaska, Utah and Nevada are the only states that still don’t have the lottery.

4. Pence is going to Turkey

• After President Donald Trump ordered that all U.S. troops be withdrawn from northern Syria, tensions between Turkey and the Kurdish forces have heightened. Trump has threatened sanctions, so now Vice President Mike Pence will be visiting Turkey with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
• Ambassador James Jeffrey and United States National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien will also be in attendance with the goal of Turkey declaring a cease-fire. Pence will assist in negotiations between Turkey and the Kurds.

3. No impeachment vote; Republicans move to censure Adam Schiff

• U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) will not be holding a vote for impeachment of President Donald Trump any time soon, a point Trump uses to justify not cooperating, because Democrats from swing districts are not on board with actually moving forward with an attempt to remove the president.
• Meanwhile, 135 House members have co-sponsored a resolution to censure House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) for reading a “parody” version of President Donald Trump’s phone call with the president of Ukraine in July at the testimony of acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire.

2. Merrill deposited the most, Byrne raised the most this quarter

• Republican 2020 U.S. Senate candidates in Alabama have reported their third-quarter fundraising numbers, and Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill now has $738,000 cash-on-hand after bringing in $622,250, including a $250,000 bank loan, in Q3.
• U.S. Representative Bradley Byrne (R-Fairhope) led in fundraising (money raised from contributions) again this quarter. He reported that his campaign has $2,529,019 cash-on-hand and raised $408,383 in the third quarter, and former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville was in a close second in fundraising with $373,000 brought in within Q3.

1. Democratic primary debate

• Tuesday, 12 candidates participated in the 2020 Democratic primary debate in Ohio where it became clear that U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is the new frontrunner and her opponents hit her on her lack of a plan for paying for Medicare for All and her “wealth tax” plan.
• This debate also marked another poor night for former Vice President Joe Biden who was unable to handle a softball from CNN’s Anderson Cooper about his son’s unethical business dealings by deflecting it and, for some reason, U.S. Senator Corey Booker (D-NJ) bailed him out.

• Nineteen days ago, Troy King announced that he would be campaigning for the District 2 congressional seat, and now he’s announced that his campaign has raised $100,000
• King’s campaign has said that his name ID is at 88%, and he has said that his candidacy is for those “tired of the crazies who have been running Washington D.C.”

5. Toyota is partnering with the Trash Pandas

• Tuesday, the Rocket City Trash Pandas announced that their field will be named “Toyota Field” for their partnership with Toyota Motor Manufacturing Alabama, Ballcorps LLC and Madison city.
• Trash Pandas CEO Ralph Nelson announced the name, saying, “Discussions began more than two years ago, well before stadium plans were finalized, and today’s announcement reflects Toyota’s commitment to our region and unwavering support they have shown the Trash Pandas since day one.”

4. No surprise: The White House doesn’t support absurd video

• After a parody video went viral that showed President Donald Trump killing politicians and media outlets, the White House has released a statement that Trump “strongly condemns” the video.
• The video is a photoshopped parody of a scene from the movie “Kingsman,” and Trump is shown shooting and stabbing people like Mitt Romney, Maxine Waters, Hillary Clinton and news outlets like CNN, NPR and NBC.

3. Impeachment “bombshells”

• Former deputy assistant to the president Fiona Hill was testifying on Monday and sources say she told Congress she saw “wrongdoing” in the dealings with Ukraine. She also claims national security adviser John Bolton had referred to Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, as a “hand grenade” who was “going to blow everybody up,” adding his interactions were akin to a “drug deal.”
• Republicans aren’t happy about the process and the fact that U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) was removed from the hearing, which led to him asking, “What are Democrats so afraid of?” He also questioned why he wasn’t allowed to sit in on the testimony.

2. Sanctions to be issued against Turkey

• President Donald Trump has announced that he intends to use executive order to bring sanctions against Turkey for their “destabilizing” actions in Syria after Trump’s decision to withdraw all U.S. troops from northern Syria.
• Previously, Trump threatened that if Turkey did anything that he “considered to be off limits,” he “will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey.” Trump has told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Turkey needs to immediately ceasefire.

1. Byrne wants the Bidens investigated, Jones seems disinterested

• On Tuesday, U.S. Representative Bradley Byrne (R-Fairhope) will file a resolution asking three House committees to investigate Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings while Joe Biden was vice president, which Byrne announced on Monday morning while appearing on “Fox & Friends.”
• Senator Doug Jones (D-AL) attempted to tie this to President Donald Trump’s children who are still working in the fields they were working in prior to the 2016 election. Biden’s sons (yes, sons) got gigs in fields they had no business with and clearly sold access.

He added, “To me, it was inevitable that whenever America reduced its presence in the Middle East, as we should, because we cannot afford to be the police cop on every corner, that violence would break out.”

The congressman acknowledged the role that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy played in the current situation, especially in the creation of ISIS. This is the same argument Trump used in 2016 and the then-candidate promised to end our “endless wars.”

Brooks went on to say that America does not need to involve itself in these issues any longer.

“I support any kind of decision to reduce our presence in these countries that do not appreciate our loss of life, our financial expenditures, in their countries,” he explained.

Brooks acknowledged this could be a situation the United States has to revisit in the future, but warned of a “war caucus that wants to be more aggressive int he Turk/Kurd fight.

“We’ve got a ‘war caucus,’ for lack of a better term, that does believe that the United States of America should be the cop on every corner of the planet, no matter the sacrifices of our men and women in uniform, no matter that every penny we spend on these efforts is borrowed money, money we can’t afford to pay back,” he advised.

My takeaway:

Again, Trump made this clear and Brooks appears to agree: We can’t afford to keep doing this forever. Even the most adamant war hawks from the post-9/11 period think we have been at this long enough. Many seem to see little more to gain from new and prolonged conflicts.

The president made it a campaign promise to end these foreign wars, and he is following through on that promise.

Like in everything else, he will be opposed by both sides of the political aisle. No matter what the president does, it has to be wrong — even if nobody else has any better solutions to offer.

But that does not make him wrong.

Do any of the Democratic presidential candidates advocate re-entering Syria if they win? How about sending more troops to Iraq and Afghanistan?

Only time will tell how this decision affects American interests. But unless something drastically changes in the region, we are better off by letting those with regional interests handle the issues in the Middle East.

Listen:

Dale Jackson is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 7-11 am weekdays on WVNN

• In a column published on Yellowhammer News, Steve Flowers said that a special session for prisons will likely be called after the regular session resumes on February 4, rather than a special session being called in October, just like was done for the gas tax session.
• Flowers said that calling a special session during the regular session will help “the governor and legislature avoid the criticism regarding the cost of a special session.” While some issues within Alabama prisons, such as understaffing, are already being worked on, the issue of overcrowding will be addressed during the special session.

5. Maybe Adam Schiff isn’t an honest guy

• House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) had contact with the whistleblower that filed the complaint that’s led to the heightened impeachment talks among Democrats, and now Schiff is saying that he “should have been much more clear” about his contact with the whistleblower.
• Previously, Schiff claimed to not have any direct contact with the whistleblower, but then that claim was later changed to Schiff not knowing the “identity of the whistleblower, and has not met with or spoken with the whistleblower or their counsel.” The whistleblower did reach out to Schiff before actually filing their complaint.

4. Further withdrawal from Syria ordered

• Syria has said that they will be moving troops to the border to help the Kurds. U.S. Defense Secretary Mike Esper announced that all American troops are withdrawing from northern Syria because forces are “likely caught between two opposing advancing armies, and it’s a very untenable situation.”
• Recent airstrikes from Turkey were targeting foreign reporters and civilians at the Syrian border, and according to a spokesman for the Kurds, at least 11 people are dead and 74 are injured.

3. There will be no Medicaid expansion in Alabama

• As much as the media and their Democrats love to talk about the issue of Medicaid expansion, you would think it would gain some traction in the state, but you would be wrong because State Senate Pro Tem Del Marsh (R-Anniston) says it isn’t happening.
• Marsh expressed that Democrats will continue talking about it but, said, “There’s no appetite whatsoever for any kind of Medicaid expansion. I can tell you that. I know the Democrats are rallying around that. I can tell you the Republicans are not for expanding Medicaid.”

2. Hunter Biden quits job he got because of his dad and won’t do it again

• Former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden has promised that he won’t work with foreign companies if his father becomes president in 2020, but President Donald Trump is drawing attention to Hunter’s absence and the media’s disinterest.
• Trump tweeted, “Where’s Hunter? He has totally disappeared! Now looks like he has raided and scammed even more countries! Media is AWOL.” While Trump didn’t specify what Hunter has done or the countries involved, he’s consistently been drawing attention to Hunter and his shady dealings.

1. Impeachment talk continues to dominate

• It is becoming increasingly clear that Washington, D.C. will be consumed with nothing but impeachment talk for the foreseeable future as Democrats continue chasing an issue that has absolutely no chance of removing the president and only serves to damage President Trump’s reelection chances.
• Much like the Russia investigation, demands for hearings, testimonies and investigations will follow mores accusations of wrongdoing being repeated while actual evidence of wrongdoing will be hard to come by, but that won’t stop the parade of talking heads declaring “this feels different” and “this could be the turning point” for months on end.

Jackson and Burke are joined by Lt. General Jim Link (U.S. Army – Retired) to discuss foreign policy matters in Syria and Hong Kong.

Jackson closes the show with a “parting shot” where he talks about how the NBA’s hypocrisy on Hong Kong will undermine all their social justice preening they do on American political issues.

Dale Jackson is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 7-11 am weekdays on WVNN.

Trump: Sessions ‘an embarrassment to the great state of Alabama’; Sessions: I’m just trying to enjoy this ‘beautiful Alabama October day’

In typical Donald Trump fashion, the comments against Sessions came entirely unprovoked.

When discussing the issue of the deep state with Daily Caller writer Sebastian Gorka, Trump’s tangent took him to voice his approval of Attorney General William Barr and then his disapproval of Sessions, his former AG.

“You look at what’s happening over at the Justice Department, now we have a great attorney general,” he outlined.

He then attacked Sessions, saying, “Whereas before that, with Jeff Sessions, it was a disaster. Just a total disaster.”

The president continued, “He was an embarrassment to the great state of Alabama. And I put him there because he endorsed me, and he wanted it so badly. And I wish he’d never endorsed me.”

Let’s be clear: Sessions is a great man and a great asset to Alabama. He does not deserve this.

Trump later added, “It would have been the greatest non-endorsement I ever had. But it’s too bad. But now we have a great attorney general.”

No. That isn’t true. Sessions gave Trump legitimacy by being the first U.S. senator to endorse Trump, giving him street cred on his main issue of immigration.

Trump was a relative unknown in the political world when he began his presidential bid. Nobody knew whether he was a joke or a legitimate contender.

He stayed with him throughout the entirety of the campaign, and into the presidency.

At the very least, Jeff Sessions helped mold Donald Trump into a legitimate political candidate and helped navigate the path to becoming the president of the United States.

At most, Sessions made Trump who he is today.

Staples of the Trump presidency, such as a border wall, tariffs on China, a need to renegotiate trade deals and a need to restructure how we use our military around the world. All were staples of former Senator Jeff Sessions long before Trump made them his own.

The president knows he owes a lot to Sessions.

Trump is still mad Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation, even though it was the right thing to do. And had Trump just let that silly nonsense play out without commenting on it every day, maybe the public outcome would be even better.

Sessions also had the Department of Justice speed up the Hillary Clinton email investigation and look into FISA abuses, both of which will eventually prove there was a built-in bias in the Deep State working against then-candidate Donald Trump.

Trump should thank Sessions. He was the MVP of the Trump administration.

And while Trump continues to rip Sessions, Sessions still refuses to speak ill of the president, seeing what a true statesman looks like and knowing he’ll never be that.

Just last week Sessions praised the president, which shows that Sessions cares more about the country than petty personal beefs and squabbles. There may be a lesson for President Trump there.

Regardless of all the petty nonsense, Trump should be thankful he had the support of Sessions.

And Alabama should be very proud of its former senator.

Without Sessions, there probably would have never have been a President Trump.

The president ought to show his appreciation by leaving Sessions alone.

Dale Jackson is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 7-11 am weekdays on WVNN

• The Tennessee Valley Corridor organization has sent a letter to the Secretary of Defense Mark Espy arguing that the U.S. Space Command headquarters should be located at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, instead of in other locations in Colorado or California.
• The letter stated that Redstone “is an ideal location for the new headquarters for a wide variety of reasons, including infrastructure, proximity to existing Defense Department and civilian space organizations and highly skilled workforce in space technology.” The TVC represents 12 congressional districts within Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Alabama and Virginia.

5. El Paso shooter pleads not guilty

• On Thursday, the 21-year-old who went into a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, and opened fire, killing 22 people, pleaded not guilty during an initial hearing. He’s already confessed to the shooting to Dallas police as well as saying that he targeted Mexicans.
• Prosecutors will be seeking the death penalty, and the Department of Justice called the mass shooting domestic terrorism. About two dozen people were also injured in the shooting and two of them are still in the hospital.

4. Biden is still leading, but Warren is catching up

• The latest Fox News poll shows that in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, former Vice President Joe Biden is still leading with 32 points and U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) isn’t far behind with 22 points.
• Whereas Warren has gained six points since last month’s poll, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has lost one point, putting him at 17 points, U.S. Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) only has 5 points and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg is at 4 points.

3. Zeigler vs. Ivey

• After State Auditor Jim Zeigler and Governor Kay Ivey qualified for the Place 1 delegate position on President Donald Trump’s 2020 Republican National Convention, Zeigler sent out a press release suggesting that Ivey only signed up to run after Zeigler was qualified.
• Zeigler promised in his press release that this year, the campaigns for the delegate spot will likely draw attention, and said that Ivey “has not yet challenged me to a debate,” but the Alabama Republican Party has confirmed that Ivey was actually qualified before Zeigler, and Ivey paid her qualifying fee and filled out all of her forms before he did.

2. Jeff Sessions is just trying to enjoy the day, Trump is being petty

• During an interview with Sebastian Gorka with the Daily Caller, President Donald Trump took aim at former U.S. Senator and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the first senator to endorse him, saying that Sessions “was an embarrassment to the great state of Alabama…. And I just wish he’d never endorsed me.”
• Elaina Plott from the Atlantic reached out to get Sessions’ reaction to Trump’s comments, and Sessions told Plott that he didn’t have a comment, and he’s just enjoying a “beautiful Alabama October day.”

1. Two Guiliani associates arrested

• As the president is embroiled in a Ukraine phonecall “scandal,” his personal lawyer, and a key player in that matter, Rudy Giuliani was having lunch with two foreign businessmen with ties to Ukraine hours before they were arrested at an airport in Washington, D.C. on campaign finance issues.
• The issues at hand do not involve President Donald Trump and the charges are that Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman used straw donors to donate to a super PAC to funnel money to former Congressman Pete Sessions (R-TX), who was trying to get the ambassador to Ukraine removed “after several congressional colleagues reported to me that the current U.S. ambassador to Ukraine was disparaging President Trump to others as part of those official duties.”

It is so bad that when you walk onto the University of Alabama campus in Tuscaloosa, you are transported back to 1955. There are segregated spaces — oh wait, that’s what student protesters seem to want.

Why?

Nobody, not even those marching and demanding “inclusive spaces,” seems to really know the answer to that.

The closest thing to a racial firestorm in recent history at the University of Alabama is the resignation of a dean of students. Some believe it was over some run-of-the-mill liberal Twitter posts about cops and the American flag being “racist.”

But Jamie R. Riley hasn’t even alleged that. In fact, he just disappeared and the University of Alabama has said nothing about it.

Even if the tweets led to his resignation, that still doesn’t mean the campus is racist.

We live in the “cancel culture” where everyone wants to punish their political enemies by impacting their livelihoods and shaming them into silence.

This is terrible for society, but it isn’t racist.

Trust me, if there was actual racism taking place on a college campus in the Deep South, we would all know what those issues were.

But the kids are mad and the University of Alabama feels like they need to do “something.”

They had to offer “something.” Their “something?” An advisory committee.

The administration offered a statement in which they offered this faux solution to try to appease kids that can’t express a solution to a problem they can’t identify.

These advisory committees will discuss issues related to “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”

Diversity of what? Equity in what? Inclusion of whom in what?

These are just buzzwords and silliness.

Also, don’t ask the kids protesting.

When asked what this whole thing was all about, senior Mikayla Wyatt answered, “Students are just tired.”

Of what, you might ask.

“We’re tired of administration not taking the situation seriously… tired of not being heard, not being seen and not having the spaces on campus that support minority groups,” she went on to say.

What exactly is the situation that isn’t being taken seriously?

How can you say you aren’t being heard or seen when the administration has made up a solution before you have even identified a problem?

But the kids and the school seem to agree on one thing: “Something” had to be done.

So the university tried to appease these kids, give them their participation trophy and hope they go back to playing with their Snapchat filters.

Instead, all they are doing is emboldening this insanity.

All they are gonna get is more protesting and more yelling that they aren’t doing enough.

Nobody will ever identify the problem. They will never say what they want to solve this supposed problem. The problems will never be solved.

The University of Alabama will continue to be painted as a racist hellhole and more imaginary problems will be created and more “solutions” will be proposed.

Nobody wins when you play this game.

The university needs to realize this and move on, and these kids need to go back to class.

Dale Jackson is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 7-11 am weekdays on WVNN

• Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has a history of appropriating other cultures and others’ stories for political gain, so you would think the media would be eager to highlight her continuing to do so as she runs for the presidency, but you would be wrong.
• The Washingon Post’s Eli Rosenberg wrote a story on this matter that completely absolved Warren’s lie about not getting a job due to being pregnant because other women may have suffered from a similar story even though she herself has not.

5. Some candidates are for amnesty, but not Bradley Byrne

• During the Cullman County Republican Women’s meeting, U.S. Representative Bradley Byrne (R-Fairhope) spoke on the issue of immigration, making it clear that he’s “totally opposed to amnesty for illegal aliens.”
• Byrne also said that he knows “there are some people running in this race that are for amnesty,” but the reason he’s opposed to it is partially due to everything legal immigrants go through to become naturalized citizens. He outlined, “As a matter of fairness to them, we shouldn’t give them amnesty.”

4. Turkey moves on the Kurds

• Shortly after President Donald Trump announced that he would be pulling about 150 members of the U.S. military out of northern Syria, it was speculated that Turkey would launch an assault on Kurdish forces in the region, and they have.
• International observers and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have acknowledged that 100+ Kurdish fighters have been killed in a ground assault and air attacks meant to create a “safe zone” that pushes Kurdish militias away from their border and allow the return of up to 2 million Syrian refugees.

3. Doug Jones continues to try to find a position on impeachment

• Before Senator Doug Jones (D-AL) was called out for not taking a position on the president’s impeachment, Jones said that he doesn’t “think you necessarily have to break a law” to reach the threshold for impeachment. Jones added that they’ll “see how this goes,” but he thinks it’ll “come down to an abuse of power, placing the national security at risk.”
• After Alabama Republican Party Chairman Terry Lathan called on Jones to not support impeachment and properly represent Alabama voters, Jones first responded with, “We don’t have all the facts yet,” later adding that what he’s “seen so far raises legitimate concern for our national security and there appears to be evidence of abuse of power.”

2. Everyone agrees that it’s time to hold the vote

• To no one’s surprise, former Vice President Joe Biden supports impeachment, former U.S. Representative Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) said that the House needs to hold the vote so the White House can’t use it as a talking point and U.S. Representative Bradley Byrne (R-Fairhope) said that Democrats need to start the impeachment process if that’s the path they want to go down, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) seems unmoved.
• As impeachment talk escalates and the White House pressures Pelosi to hold a full House vote to approve the impeachment inquiry, a new Fox News Poll shows an even higher percentage of people support President Donald Trump being impeached and removed from office, with 51% in support. Only 40% in the poll are opposed to impeachment and removal.

1. Ukrainian president says there was nothing inappropriate on his phone call with President Trump (again)

• The incident that sparked this entire impeachment conversation was a phone call between President Donald Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. The media and their Democrats say Trump acted inappropriately but Zelensky says he didn’t.
• Zelensky noted, “There was no blackmail,” and added, “They blocked this money and nobody asked us [for] anything.”

Sen. Warren has taken the lead in overall polling for the 2020 Democratic presidential field, according to the latest RealClearPolitics aggregate of polling data. https://t.co/v5OjnXRBOx

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) October 9, 2019

As Democrats are trying to take down the current president, Biden’s previous dealings are coming into the limelight.

Did he attempt to force Ukrainian officials to fire a prosecutor or the United States would withhold funding?

The media says, “No.”

Facebook denied a request from @JoeBiden's campaign to take down a video ad by President Trump's reelection campaign that falsely accuses the former vice president of corruption for his role in Ukraine policy during the Obama administration. https://t.co/iqhlOrxZz5

— Sarah Mucha (@sarahmucha) October 9, 2019

Biden’s words say, “Yes.”

MUST WATCH: Here's Joe Biden in 2018 bragging about using his power to hold up $1 BILLION in U.S. loans unless Ukraine fired the prosecutor investigating Burisma – a corrupt Ukrainian oil company paying his son $50,000 a month.

Biden needs to explain his conflict of interest! pic.twitter.com/bDhaKjFNZN

— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) September 25, 2019

So, Biden is desperate. Now, he wants his potential opponent tarnished with the stain of impeachment.

Democrat Joe Biden says Donald Trump must be impeached. https://t.co/F5SuzG04Zv pic.twitter.com/vl8hiNj7Sy

— Miami Herald (@MiamiHerald) October 9, 2019

But it’s not just “Quid Pro Joe.” His fellow 2020 “contender” and former Congressman Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke (D-TX) wants Trump impeached, too.

Beto O’Rourke: House Should Formally Vote to Open Impeachment Inquiry to 'Remove That' as WH Talking Point https://t.co/pI0tyYg2sd

— Mediaite (@Mediaite) October 9, 2019

U.S. Representative Bradley Byrne (R-Fairhope) appeared on WVNN in Huntsville on Wednesday to discuss the matter.

He said if Democrats want to go down this impeachment path they should do so at their own peril, but they should actually hold the vote to start the official process. Byrne argued on “The Dale Jackson Show” that this isn’t happening because the polling in moderate districts is not good for Democrats in the House.

This follows U.S. Representative Mo Brooks’ (R-Huntsville) appearance on “Guerrilla Politics” where he stated the way the Democrats are going with an impeachment right now is illegitimate. He added if they want to go down this path they should actually hold a vote so Republicans can participate.

But here’s the kicker to all of this: The president of the United States apparently wants to force House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to hold an actual vote authorizing an official impeachment inquiry.

BREAKING: White House notifies House that Trump administration will not participate in impeachment probe, which it calls “illegitimate.” https://t.co/uLkLPYBWcU

— The Associated Press (@AP) October 8, 2019

That means if they do an official inquiry, the White House will be more willing to participate. Whether that is true or not remains to be seen.

So, the media, the people, the leading presidential candidate, also ran presidential candidates, members of Congress from Alabama and the president of the United States himself all have signaled that they want impeachment?

Good. I’m glad we can all agree. Now, let’s have the vote and get these hearings underway.

Let’s have witness called from all sides, let’s give Republicans and Democrats the opportunity to ask questions of the witnesses being brought before Congress, let’s do it on TV and let’s give the American people the entire picture of what is happening here.

The current coverage of impeachment is solely being dictated by the accusations of partisan Democrats alone. The media and their Democrats want to keep this game rigged and out of sight of the American people.

Those who oppose voting on a formal start to impeachment hearings right now while they rush towards cameras to make accusations are showing America who they are and we should take their word for it.

Dale Jackson is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 7-11 am weekdays on WVNN

• Customs and Border Protection has announced that in September they made 52,546 apprehensions at the border, which is 18% less than the 64,000 apprehensions in August and 65% less than the 144,000 apprehensions in May.
• Acting CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan said, “This represents the fourth month in a row of a steady decline in apprehensions,” and labeled this “an unprecedented achievement.”

5. Byrne is over impeachment

• U.S. Representative Bradley Byrne (R-Fairhope) has laid out the current impeachment efforts by the Democrats and pointed out how the latest allegations lack credibility, beginning with how U.S. Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) has lost credibility since making vague promises of a “bombshell” during the Mueller report days.
• Byrne said that the impeachment issues due to President Donald Trump’s phone call with the president of Ukraine “is just the latest impeachment flavor of the week after earlier attempts fell flat.” He mentioned how the Department of Justice found no criminal behavior in the case already, and he urged, “We must stand up during tough times like these.”

4. Expel Pelosi from Congress

• U.S. Representative Ralph Abraham (R-LA) introduced a resolution to expel House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) from Congress because her “vicious crusade against our lawfully-elected President is nothing more than a politically-motivated witch hunt and it must be stopped.”
• Since the House has a Democrat majority, there’s no chance that the resolution will actually pass, but it’s instead symbolic of how frustrated some Republicans have become with the Democrats’ relentless attempts at impeachment.

3. The IG investigation into the 2016 election is growing

• While the NYC/DC media bubble froths over impeachment talk, the investigation into the origins of the investigation against then-presidential candidate Donald Trump seems to be growing larger, and now it includes the post-election timeframe including the appointment of a special counsel.
• For all the talk of foreign interference in elections because President Donald Trump asked Ukraine and China to investigate corruption, missing from that larger conversation is that Attorney General William Barr and investigator John Durham traveled to Italy to talk to law enforcement officials there about the probe and have also held conversations with officials in the U.K. and Australia about the investigation.

2. Doug Jones urged to represent Alabama voters

• During a press conference with the Republican National Committee, Alabama Republican Party Chairwoman Terry Lathan called on U.S. Senator Doug Jones (D-AL) to properly represent his constituents by not supporting impeaching President Donald Trump.
• Lathan noted the multiple times that Jones has “sided with radical Democrats in his party, whether it’s obstructing President Trump’s policies or voting against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation,” and she went on to ask whether Jones would vote against impeachment to represent the way Alabama supports Trump. Jones replied, saying “there appears to be evidence of abuse of power [by the president].”

1. The White House won’t comply with an impeachment inquiry

• In an eight-page letter sent to Pelosi and top Democrats, the White House explained that they won’t comply or participate in the “illegitimate and unconstitutional” impeachment inquiry. The letter also rejected the “baseless, unconstitutional efforts to overturn the democratic process.”
• The letter stated that the press conference held by Pelosi last month wasn’t enough to begin an impeachment inquiry, and the House has failed to formally vote to open an impeachment inquiry. Pelosi has stood by her claim that there’s no “House precedent that the whole House vote before proceeding with an impeachment inquiry.”

The DNC wants the Alabama Democratic Party to become more “diverse”.

But what does diverse mean?

For most in America, diversity means a mix of races, genders and other things that make us different. Ideally, the diversity of groups will be determined by the coalition of people willfully assembling together to make a group with simial goals and ambitions.

Democrats hate that idea. They insist diversity be forced and manufactured. They also want to be able to set the rules of what “diversity” is.

The bylaws in place currently have a Minority Caucus, which is used to ensure African-American representation on the State Executive Committee.

The national party argued this wasn’t enough because it did not force the party to include other minority groups to be represented.

At Saturday’s meeting, the newly adopted bylaws to ensure “diversity” for Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans, young people, LGBTQ individuals and those with disabilities will on the State Executive Committee.

As a result, the African-American wing of the Alabama Democratic Party is afraid that their influence will wane.

They may be correct because the previous rules were so tilted in their favor that any change will hurt them.

But how ridiculous is it that we are even having these discussions?

Let me propose an idea for the state Democrats and for all of politics in general: Hold your elections and let the chips fall where they may.

If black voters hold a majority, so be it.

If black voters hold all the seats, so be it.

If there is a mix of Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans, young people, LGBTQs and individuals with disabilities, so be it.

If basic white girls with pumpkin spice lattes rule the day, so be it.

If a coalition of transgender asexuals who identify as bullmastiffs with Cambodian heritage is able to win enough seats to control the Alabama Democratic Party, so be it.

Could they do a worse job?

This idea that we need to somehow manufacture and force diversity is contrary to the purpose of electing representatives.

This isn’t about electing representatives. It is about two sides arguing who gets to determine what diversity is, and it should not be taken seriously.

The media and their Democrats have made quotas and forced diversity their top issues. It’s why reparations, made-up gender pay gaps, open borders and fake Native Americans are so important to the message of the national Democrats and so detrimental to state parties in red and purple states.

It has cost Alabama Democrats dearly. The Alabama Republican Party has had a fair number of scandals and failures in the last few years and all the Democrats have gained from that is a caretaker junior senator named Doug Jones, who is all but guaranteed to lose in 2020.

Why? Because real human beings do not really care about this stuff and the Alabama Democratic Party will continue to be an absolute joke if they keep this up.

Most Americans don’t go to the polls wanting black or white leadership, brown or yellow leadership, gay or straight leadership. They just want competent leadership and Alabama Democrats have failed on that count spectacularly.

Dale Jackson is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 7-11 am weekdays on WVNN

• State Senator Cam Ward (R-Alabaster) has officially announced that he’ll be campaigning for the Place 1 associate justice position on the Alabama Supreme Court. Ward is currently the president of the Alabama Law Institute and the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman.
• While announcing his candidacy, Ward said that he understands the role of being an Alabama Supreme Court justice, and his “judicial philosophy will be easy to understand.” He added, “As a judge, my role will be to interpret the law exactly as it is written, not write new ones.”

5. Trump granted subpoena hold after ruling

• Despite a federal judge ruling against President Donald Trump’s lawsuit, which then allowed the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office to subpoena Trump’s tax returns, Trump’s attorney’s then filed an emergency appeal, which was granted.
• The hold on the subpoena will only be effective while the case is being reviewed, but Trump attorney Jay Sekulow said that they “are very pleased that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2^nd Circuit has issued a stay of the subpoena issued by New York County District Attorney Cy Vance.”

4. Let’s start this Senate fight already

• Currently, former Auburn Football coach Tommy Tuberville is leading the pack in the 2020 U.S. Senate primary race, according to the latest poll from the Alabama Farmers Federation. In second place is former Judge Roy Moore following 21 points behind Tuberville, but the race has been uneventful so far.
• Even when Tuberville said that President Trump’s tariff increase put a noose around farmers’ necks, it seemed that almost no one in Alabama covered his comments. AL.com didn’t write anything about his comments until five days later, so it seems as if after Tuberville was endorsed by ALFA, everyone else is just going to give him the nomination.

3. Trump’s decision on Syria was a campaign promise fulfilled

• As much as establishment Republicans, the media and their Democrats are wringing their hands over President Donald Trump’s decision to remove troops from northern Syria, much of what is being missed is the fact that this is exactly what the president said he would do if elected.
• Not only did Trump say he “was elected on getting out of these ridiculous endless wars,” he also warned Turkey about messing with the Kurds, stating, “If Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey.”

2. Jones is going after Trump but unsure about impeachment

• After President Donald Trump announced that American troops would be withdrawn from northern Syria, U.S. Senator Doug Jones (D-AL) has criticized Trump’s decision, pointing out on Twitter that “Kurdish fighters have been invaluable partners in our mission to defeat the Islamic State and added that withdrawing troops “leaves a vacuum for a resurgence of IS in the region,” and that this move “sends the exact wrong message to our allies.”
• Jones also commented on the impeachment process but wants to see more information. He outlined, “Where I sit is, let’s get the facts. Let’s get the facts and put all the facts out not only in front of the House, potentially the Senate, but we don’t know that yet, but certainly in front of the American people.”

1. Democrats undercut their impeachment fantasies with super-secrecy

• If the facts against the president of the United States are so damning, why in the world don’t the Democrats and their media want the world to know about them and why is there the need for constant secrecy like we saw last week?
• The answers seem pretty clear as the facts show House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) has been less than honest, the selective leaking about former Ukraine special envoy Kurt Volker’s testimony has been revealing, Democrats want to use voice modification to mask those who testify from Republican members of Congress and independent voters may be shifting towards Trump.

ALFA, who recently endorsed Tuberville, had the former Auburn football coach 21 points ahead of his nearest competitor in a poll.

To make things worse, it turns out that the nearest competitor is Judge Roy Moore, setting up a potential Tuberville-Moore runoff in March.

Even with a former football coach dominating the polls, and a disgraced former politician who handed the Senate seat to a Democrat in second, those aren’t the most shocking things about this race.

The real shocker is that nobody seems to want to do anything to change how the race is going.

Just this past week, Tommy Tuberville told Talk 99.5 in Birmingham that President Trump was putting a noose around farmers’ necks with his tariffs.

The story was picked up nationally by The Hill. But do you know where it received minimal coverage? The state of Alabama.

His opponents did not comment and the local media shrugged for five days.

5 days later… bang up job as always, @aldotcom.#alpolitics https://t.co/MtOWlnQeOY

— Dale Jackson (@TheDaleJackson) October 5, 2019

Do any of the campaigns out there even still care?

Tuberville is at 36% of the vote, and that was before receiving ALFA’s endorsement.

If Congressman Bradley Byrne (R-Fairhope), Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill or former Judge Roy Moore don’t start hitting Tuberville when he fumbles, this race may be over soon.

Tuberville lends himself to criticism. He has no problem saying what he thinks, even when it could hurt him.

If Byrne, Merrill or Moore want to be the next senator from the great state of Alabama, they need to start seriously setting themselves apart from Tuberville.

That means highlighting his stumbles and talking about his deficiencies on policy. A big part of his campaign is that he is “not a politician” and his statements make that clear.

Perception is everything, and right now the perception is that Tuberville is going to win easily and none of the other candidates appear to care.

If there are not some serious moves made soon, this race might already be over.

Dale Jackson is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 7-11 am weekdays on WVNN

• On November 7, Donald Trump, Jr. will be in Birmingham for a meet and greet for his upcoming book, “Triggered.” Trump said that he’s “looking forward to coming to Birmingham to spend time with some of the most patriotic Americas in the country.”
• Trump also stated that people from Alabama were some of the first to realize that the “left was using every dirty trick in the book to smear and silence conservatives.”

5. Mo Brooks explains the Democrats’ game

• U.S. Congressman Mo Brooks (R-Huntsville) appeared on “Yellowhammer TV’s Guerrilla Politics” over the weekend where Brooks plainly stated that Democrats are going about impeachment the way they are “to prevent the Republicans’ or President Trump from calling witnesses that may shed a different light on the story.”
• Now, according to two sources that reported to Axios, until House Speaker Nancy Pelosi holds a vote to approve an impeachment inquiry, “President Trump and his team can ignore lawmakers’ demands.”

4. U.S. bails on Kurdish allies

• Following through on a previously stated position, 100 to 150 United States military personnel deployed are withdrawing from a portion of northern Syria, declaring, “The United States Armed Forces will not support or be involved in the operation, and United States forces, having defeated the ISIS territorial ‘Caliphate,’ will no longer be in the immediate area.”
• Turkey is apparently preparing an assault on the region with the blessing of the U.S., which will place a NATO-ally, a current U.S. ally (The Kurds) and multiple terrorist groups in conflict with each other and open the door for a more radical group, like ISIS, to emerge.

3. Alabama Democrats think they have a way to move forward but it’s going to court

• The Alabama Democratic Party attempted to adopt new bylaws as part of their attempt to comply with orders from the Democratic National Committee to rectify their issue with the representation of non-black minority groups including young people, LGBTQ groups, people with disabilities, Hispanics, Asians and Native Americans.
• The meeting was boycotted by Alabama Democratic Party chair Nancy Worley and vice-chair for minority affairs Joe Reed, who have made it clear they view this as an attempt to weaken the power of black voters in the Alabama Democrat Party.

2. Tuberville soaring in new ALFA poll

• A few weeks after receiving a surprise endorsement from the Alabama Farmer’s Federation, former Auburn head football coach and 2020 U.S. Senate candidate in the GOP primary Tommy Tuberville shared a poll from the group showing him with a substantial lead over his challengers.
• Tuberville declared the poll showed him “at an all time high” with 36% followed, surprisingly, by former judge Roy Moore with 15% and Congressman Bradley Byrne (R-Fairhope) at 13%.

1. Another whistleblower

• There are now “multiple” whistleblowers, and boy are these the serious ones. Some have already spoken to the intelligence community’s inspector general and claim to have “first-hand” information about President Donald Trump’s phone call with the Ukraine president.
• This, of course, comes after the first whistleblowers account has been called under scrutiny and questions have been raised about the veracity of the original whistleblower, but the media and their Democrats will spend this week trying to take another bite at the impeachment apple without actually having a vote or real hearings.

Jackson and Burke are joined by Congressman Mo Brooks (D-Huntsville) to discuss the current impeachment fight in Washington, D.C.

Jackson closes the show with a “parting shot” where he tells Alabama lawmakers to prepare for a day when college football programs in Alabama may need to compete against programs that allow their players to obtain endorsements.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=521535395300817

Dale Jackson is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 7-11 am weekdays on WVNN.

When asked why Democrats were doing things the way that they are, Brooks responded, “[T]o prevent the Republicans or President Trump from calling witnesses that may shed a different light on the story.”

Those on the right have long argued that this process is political and has nothing to do with finding the truth, and polling indicates that 55% of the American people also feel the same way.

Yesterday, Axios reported that Trump would send a letter to Nancy Pelosi, effectively daring the Democrats to hold a vote on impeachment and putting many vulnerable Democrats on record with an official vote.

“The White House is planning to send Speaker Nancy Pelosi a letter as soon as Friday arguing that President Trump and his team can ignore lawmakers’ demands until she holds a full House vote formally approving an impeachment inquiry,” two sources familiar with the letter reportedly told Axios.

The president and Brooks are on the same page with this. They both understand the unprecedented nature of what Democrats are trying to do.

“They are using a process that denies us on the defense side the ability to call witnesses. This may be the first time in history it’s ever happened,” said Brooks.

Now, all across the country, Republicans in Congress have joined the White House to start fighting back against the circus that impeachment has already become.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) also sent a letter to Pelosi, highlighting the need to follow precedent and calling her actions reckless.

“Unfortunately, you have given no clear indication as to how your impeachment inquiry will proceed – including whether key historical precedents or basic standards of due process will be observed,” McCarthy explained in his letter to Pelosi. “In addition, the swiftness and recklessness with which you have proceeded has already resulted in committee chairs attempting to limit minority participation in scheduled interviews, calling into question the integrity of such an inquiry.”

Brooks also made it clear that he believes the president has done nothing wrong.

When asked by Dr. Waymon Burke whether Trump sought a political favor from Ukraine, Brooks quickly responded, “He didn’t.”

Brooks went on to argue that the bar for impeachment has already been historically set and that even if Trump had done what he is being accused of, it does meet that bar.

“If you believe in the 14th Amendment’s equal protection that everybody should be treated equally before the law, then quite clearly what the Democrats are accusing him of is not an impeachable offense because it is much, much much less severe then what the Senate acquitted Bill Clinton of in his impeachment,” Brooks remarked.

It is clear that Brooks and other Republicans will continue to try to expose the truth out of this charade, even with the media and their Democrats seemingly content to continue playing games with this process.

Watch here (full episode airs all over Alabama this weekend):

Dale Jackson is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 7-11 am weekdays on WVNN

• A day after saying President Donald Trump placed a noose on farmers’ necks, former Auburn football coach and 2020 U.S. Senate candidate Tommy Tuberville did some messaging clean-up on the radio when he suggested that Trump is “probably the best president of our time,” and that’s part of why the far-left doesn’t like him — because he’s “disrupting their little game up.”
• Tuberville then compared Trump to an offensive line as he is “the only thing standing between socialism and this country…He’s trying to knock them out, keep them out of the backfield…and they keep coming. They make stuff, and they lie.”

5. The Bidens likely made millions and influenced investigations

• More documents have been released that suggest Hunter Biden made “millions” while working on the board of a Ukrainian natural gas firm. Also, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey R. Pyatt told Ukrainian prosecutor Victor Shokin to handle an investigation into the firm “with white gloves.”
• Shokin was also told not to investigate Burisma by former Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko since “it was not in the interest of Joe and/or Hunter Biden,” and that Joe held “up to one billion dollars in U.S. aid to Ukraine” due to the investigation.

4. Alabama’s prisons have no easy fix

• The third meeting of the Governor’s Study Group on Criminal Justice Policy focused on the adequate funding of programs to keep offenders out of prison but under surveillance while noting the number of paroles has slowed after a parolee murdered three people last year.
• Interestingly enough, the percentage of violent and serious offenders in prison goes up as the population goes down over the last five years and there are currently only 536 people in jail for drug possession (although few are first time offenders). However, that gets a lion’s share of media coverage.

3. Byrne wants Schiff censured

• Alabama U.S. Representative Bradley Byrne (R-Fairhope) took House Judiciary Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) to task for his attempts to deceive the American people and a disinterested media, saying, “Adam Schiff’s scheme to mislead the American people through lies and deception is just a further example of why this whole impeachment charade is a sham.”
• Schiff is under fire for his failure to disclose his committee’s contact, his knowledge of the whistleblower complaint and withholding that complaint from his colleagues.

2. Alabama Republicans (and Americans) pound Biden

• Every election is going to be nationalized if there is a real attempt to impeach President Donald Trump. Alabama Republicans are more than willing to jump into the fight by pointing out the flaws of former Vice President Joe Biden.
• While the media and their Democrats demand you accept that there is nothing to see with Hunter Biden, Joe Biden, Ukraine and Russia, double the amount of Americans think there is something worth investigating versus there being nothing there.

1. Trump: Impeach me

• The White House is expected to send a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) all but daring her to hold a vote by telling her that his administration will ignore Democrat lawmaker’s demands until they formally vote on his impeachment, which further pushes the point that he believes vulnerable Democrats will pay a price for this impeachment.
• Another issue at hand is whether Republicans can participate in the investigation if there is not a formal vote on the matter. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) says Republicans have been shut out of the process by design, saying, “The swiftness and recklessness with which you have proceeded has already resulted in committee chairs attempting to limit minority participation in scheduled interviews, calling into question the integrity of such an inquiry”

• Most Alabama 3rd graders aren’t reading very well, but some educators want to move them forward regardless, which could affect 52% of all students.
• The actual standard for the pass/fail metric has not been set yet. It will be set once the 2020 testing is complete, but educators are already sounding the alarm on this issue and some superintendents are concerned the standard could be set really low to limit the number of students who are held back.

5. Birmingham could be a different type of sanctuary city

• While Decatur has been in the news over the past few days for their quasi-0sanctuary policies, pastors in Birmingham want that city to be considered “a sanctuary for preborn children” and they have now announced their opposition to a new Planned Parenthood facility.
• Reverend Harry Reeder III, pastor of Briarwood Presbyterian Church, says the closing of all abortion clinics in Birmingham over the last 20 years has been a huge positive development in the city and they want to keep it that way, but it still appears the Planned Parenthood facility will be finished by the end of this year.

4. Trump’s opponents are his biggest asset

• According to the New York Times’ reporting, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, U.S. Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA), has been less than truthful about his interactions with the whistleblower Democrats have used to escalate the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.
• Apparently, officials in the intelligence community wondered why Schiff was so eager to jump in front of cameras instead of holding closed-door conversations before he could have known the details of the complaint, but it turns out he knew all along and was just being dishonest because, like with the complaints against now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, key Democrats had early warning and gamed the system to their advantage.

3. Tuberville’s hits Trump on the trade war

• While discussing tariffs and the ongoing trade war with China, former Auburn football head coach and candidate in the GOP U.S. Senate primary Tommy Tuberville said President Donald Trump is “putting a noose around their neck a little bit in terms of choking them out and keeping that price down.”
• Tuberville has heaped an incredible amount of praise on President Trump during his campaign and he has made his support of Trump his core issue to voters.

2. Another group has joined the fight against Alabama’s census lawsuit

• The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) has filed a lawsuit against Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, the Commerce Department and the Census Bureau asking that it be declared that apportionment is only decided by the entire population, therefore excluding the citizenship question on the 2020 Census.
• Previously, Alabama has filed a lawsuit against the Census Bureau and the Commerce Department, arguing that not including the citizenship question on the 2020 Census grants an unfair advantage to those in the country illegally. MALDEF president and general counsel Thomas Saenz said that their lawsuit is meant to “prevent the federal government from voluntarily doing what Alabama seeks to compel.”

1. Trump’s approval rating is up following impeachment talks

• A new poll by Hill-HarrisX released on Wednesday has the president’s approval rating higher than it has been in a year, which is noteworthy as it comes from polling done during an impeachment firestorm and the non-stop negative media coverage surrounding it.
• The political nature of this impeachment, the already low approval numbers, the baked-in tribal polarization and the continuous drumbeat of impeachment talk from Democrats over the last 2+ years will probably limit the political fallout from this month’s political drama, barring some major actual crime being committed by President Trump being exposed.

The difference between the original policy and the new policy is minuscule at best.

The new policy still forbids officers from working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) without the permission of the chief of police unless there is active violence going on in the street or violence is expected.

Even that decision is cloaked in legal language:

5. Additionally, DPD may assist ICE agents when they anticipate or encounter violent resistence and/or with the approval of the Division Commander and Chief of Police.

The chief of police? The guy who wrote the first policy that all but forbid it?

OK, sure.

The rest of the document leaves all the discretion in these matters up to the “Division Commander and Chief of Police.”

When Decatur Mayor Tab Bowling was discussing this on WVNN radio in Huntsville Wednesday morning, he made it clear that he was not happy with the original policy but found the revision of the policy to be within the law and something he could live with.

He was also asked if under this new policy would lead to a situation that mirrors a current controversy in Virginia where a police officer was suspended for turning a suspected illegal immigrant to ICE. Bowling acknowledged reporting the illegal immigrant to ICE would be a violation of policy for the City of Decatur.

FOX News: Virginia police officer suspended after turning in suspected undocumented immigrant over to ICE… https://t.co/x3XLXnP88U pic.twitter.com/W0cPweGxyG

— Rankstr (@rankstr) October 2, 2019

My takeaway: 

The end result of this new policy is pretty simple to understand. The city has not forbidden their officers from cooperating with ICE, they just discourage it.

So while Decatur may not be a “sanctuary city” like San Francisco, the current policies forbid officers from being proactive on this issue of identifying and reporting illegal immigrants who are committing crimes in their community.

Decatur, Alabama, is still a sanctuary city by another name.

Listen:

Dale Jackson is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 7-11 am weekdays on WVNN

• While the investigation is still ongoing, it’s known that the 36-year-old shooting victim went to the 33-year-old suspect’s house to confront him about a bullying issue at the school both of their children attend.
• After the victim visited the suspect’s house, he returned to his own home where the suspect then came and confronted him. The 33-year-old then allegedly shot the victim in the arm.

5. Money previously used for abortions is filling gaps for clinics across the country

• The $33.6 million that previously went to Planned Parenthood to help fund abortions is now going to health clinics across the country through supplemental grants.
• The grants will “allow them to expand family-planning services and increase protections for women and children at risk of (or victims of) child abuse, child molestation, sexual abuse, rape, incest, intimate-partner violence, and sex trafficking,” according to Health and Human Services Department Director of External Affairs Mia Heck.

4. President Donald Trump has raised $125 million with the RNC

• Including this third quarter haul of $125 million, Trump’s 2020 campaign has now raised over $308 million with $156 million currently in the bank. In comparison, President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign had raised $70 million by this point.
• Brad Parscale, Trump’s campaign manager, tweeted out the fundraising news, and said, “President Trump has built a juggernaut of a campaign raising record amount of money at a record pace.”

3. A majority of Americans think impeachment is political

• While the headlines will scream that a majority of Americans support impeachment, which is true, they seem to leave a couple of other facts out of the story that paints a broader picture of what the public actually thinks and the latest stories on CBS News’ poll leaves a lot to be desired.
• Yes, a majority of those polled (55%) support impeachment, but a majority (55%) also believe impeachment is being pursued to “[p]olitically damage Donald Trump’s presidency and his reelection.” A majority (58%) also believe that Trump does not deserve to be impeached or that it’s “too soon to say” over the phone call to the Ukranian president.

2. Governor Kay Ivey has appointed a registrar with a voter fraud conviction

• When Governor Ivey was tasked with appointing a member of the Hale County Board of Registrars, she chose someone who pleaded guilty a decade ago to one misdemeanor count of possession of a forged instrument when she was charged with four felony counts of absentee voter fraud and one felony count of possession of a forged instrument in 2007.
• Rosie Lyles, 79, was appointed with no background check. Background checks are not normally done in these instances, and although someone can serve in this position with her recod, she can also be removed by Secretary of State John Merrill, who says he is investigating the situation.

1. Decatur changes its sanctuary city policy, kinda

• After outrage following a change in policy regarding illegal aliens in Decatur and its status as a quasi-sanctuary city, the city announced it has changed its policy on the issue again to further clarify the policy for cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
• The changes still forbids Decatur’s police officers from undertaking “any immigration-related deportation or detainer investigation unless said operation involves an individual who has committed crime(s) directly related to public safety” and requires approval from a “Division Commander or the Chief of Police” to assist ICE or to notify ICE of the status of a criminal in the country illegally.

And even though the law won’t take effect until January 1, 2023, a number of states have considered passing similar bills to allow athletes to make money while still competing in college.

Unfortunately for Alabama players, don’t expect a bill of this kind to be passed here anytime soon.

House Majority Leader Nathaniel Ledbetter (R-Rainsville) issued a statement making it clear that as of now the legislature isn’t even considering anything like this.

He said, “There has been no discussion about similar legislation among the leadership, nor am I aware of any member working to propose it. Certainly, the fact that such legislation violates the most basic NCAA rules and eligibility requirements should be of deep concern, especially in a state like ours, where Alabama and Auburn routinely compete for national championships.”

During the 2016-2017 season, the NCAA made over $1 billion in athletic revenue.

The University of Alabama brought in over $177 million dollars in athletic revenue for 2017-2018 while Auburn brought in over $147 million while the discussion for the NCAA in recent years has largely been about whether student-athletes deserve a cut.

This law doesn’t touch that discussion. It would allow athletes to sell themselves to car dealers, bars, bookstores, radio stations or strip clubs.

Will the top student-athletes abandon championship contender programs to make money immediately?

Yes.

Will top prospects from the West Coast like Najee Harris, Tua Tagovailoa, Anders Carlson decide that chasing a title at Alabama or Auburn isn’t worth giving up the chance to stay close to home and make a ton of money now?

Yes.

We’ll have to wait and see if the Alabama legislature decides to keep up or risk falling behind.

But here is the real question: What should Alabama do?

Simple. The Alabama legislature should follow California’s lead.

The legislature should pass a law that allows students to earn money off their likeness. They should make it go into effect if the NCAA loses its battle with the state of California or allows students to make money off their likenesses.

When asked about this idea, Ledbetter told WVNN radio’s “The Dale Jackson Show” that he wouldn’t support it at this time, but he said we have to see what happens with the NCAA, California and the Southeastern Conference.

Ledbetter also noted that if Alabama head football coach Nick Saban wanted this to pass that would change the conversation.

My takeaway:

Not doing so will severely hamper Alabama’s football programs, which generate untold revenue across the state of Alabama.

Listen:

Dale Jackson is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 7-11 am weekdays on WVNN

• You wouldn’t know it based on media coverage, but the murder rate is down 7% from 2017 to 2018.
• To further put this in perspective, the total number of homicides is down, the homicide rate is down, rifles accounted for about 3% of murders, fewer people were killed by rifles in 2018 than in 2017 and five times as many people were stabbed to death than were murdered with a rifle.

5. Stop The Madness

• As of Monday, the Republican National Committee had begun its new campaign, “Stop the Madness,” in an effort to fight the Democrats on their impeachment inquiry. RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said that this new impeachment push shows the Democrats aren’t actually interested in reaching “across the aisle and work with President Trump and Republicans.”
• McDaniel said that this new effort by the RNC is to “hold Democrats accountable for their ridiculous charade and remind voters that their Democrat representative turned their back on them.” The RNC has also launched stopthemadness.org in an effort to gather more support against the impeachment inquiry.

4. The clown show continues at the University of Alabama

• A group of disgruntled students are planning a “die-in” on the Tuscaloosa campus because they are “dying for answers” as to why a dean of students resigned last month after numerous run-of-the-mill social media posts were exposed by Breitbart and other media outlets.
• Showing a complete lack of self-awareness, Alabama senior Mikayla Wyatt told AL.com, “We’re tired of administration not taking the situation seriously… tired of not being heard, not being seen and not having the spaces on campus that support minority groups.” AL.com quoted a professor from the University of Richmond, who said, “Black students need safe spaces on predominantly white campuses where they can have a reprieve from anti-Black racism.”

3.  California’s law allowing college athletes to get paid will impact Alabama

• California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed a bill that will allow college athletes to profit from endorsements even though the NCAA has warned that the bill in “unconstitutional” and will lead to a legal fight from the organization.
• Alabama may eventually follow suit on this issue if it doesn’t get blown up in court, but it won’t do so now according to House Majority Leader Nathanial Ledbetter (R-Rainsville), who said there are currently no plans to pass a law that will allow athletes in Alabama to profit off of their likeness while playing college sports.

2. Decatur is a sanctuary city

• A policy from the Decatur Police Department that went into effect on September 25 instructs that the department won’t comply with Immigration Customs Enforcement within the Decatur jurisdiction, specifically stating that they won’t detain or arrest people based on immigration issues.
• The policy was brought forth by Police Chief Nate Allen, but now Mayor Tab Bowling has responded to the policy, making it pretty clear that Bowling didn’t know about the decision before Chief Allen announced it to the department, but now Bowling is working to rescind the policy.

1. Everything is impeachable at this point

• President Donald Trump tweeted a quote from Pastor Robert Jeffress that stated Trump’s impeachment “will cause a Civil War,” but according to a Harvard Law School professor, just tweeting that is an impeachable offense.
• Professor John Coates replied to Trump’s tweet by saying, “This tweet is itself an independent basis for impeachment – a sitting president threatening civil war if Congress exercises its constitutionally authorized power.” It’s clear that Trump wasn’t “threatening” civil war. instead, he was giving an example of how people feel that impeachment could be incredibly divisive, but reason doesn’t matter anymore apparently.