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Newsletter Watch: The Most Biased And Inane Items Of The Week

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Every morning, prominent news outlets like Axios, Politico, The Washington Post, and The New York Times email their newsletters to thousands of people across D.C. and beyond. And every weekend, The Daily Caller News Foundation searches for the most outrageous examples of bias in each one.

From ignoring any legal arguments against DACA, to alleging President Donald Trump is without any moral fortitude, the establishment media makes my job easier and incredibly frustrating at the same time.

Below is a list of the most egregious examples from the past week:

New York Times:

1. I still can’t figure out how a belief in limited government can be interpreted as a belief in no government at all. America was founded on a mistrust of central power.

The devastation from Harvey has prompted huge demands for federal aid, a need that collides with Texas Republicans’ mistrust of Washington.

2. TheNYT calls DACA an “Obama-era” program. It was an Obama-era constitutional breach causing even liberal constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley to recoil.

The president is also considering delaying a decision on the future of about 800,000 “Dreamers”” covered by an Obama-era program that allows undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as minors to stay.

3.  You forgot to add the word “socialist” before economic collapse. 

With Venezuela’s economic collapse, soaring prices and empty shelves are forcing people into a desperate resourcefulness.

Washington Post:

1. They are people yes. They are not “undocumented.” They are in fact documented, hence why WaPo knows how many people there are here illegally. Ironically, there here because laws were not enforced.

Today the Trump administration is expected to announce plans to end the DACA program, which has allowed nearly 800,000 undocumented people who were brought to the United States as minors to live and work in the country without fear of deportation.

2. Many of these people have been here since the Clinton administration and haven’t been deported through the subsequent two administrations. Trump didn’t say he was going to “round ’em up!” He’s merely ending executive made law, asking Congress to do it right. 

The president often said before he became a candidate that it would be unrealistic to deport people who have spent decades in the United States, especially children. “You have people in this country for 20 years: They’ve done a great job, they’ve done wonderfully, they’ve gone to school, they’ve gotten good marks (and) they’re productive,” he said in a 2011 interview on Fox News.

3. Trump’s concern for DACA recipients is hooey? How is Jennifer Rubin so sure Trump is an amoral monster?

Many commentators believe this is hooey. Some in the media take seriously the notion that he is ‘conflicted’ or ‘wrestling’ with the decision, as though Trump were engaged in a great moral debate, writes Jennifer Rubin. That would be a first for Trump, who counts only winners and losers, never bothering with moral principles or democratic norms. The debate, if there is one, is over whether to disappoint his rabid anti-immigrant base or to, as is his inclination, double down on a losing hand.

Politico Playbook: 

1. I’m not a constitutional scholar, but I’m fairly certain Article 2 doesn’t give the executive the power to legislate. Trump didn’t punt anything to Congress. The bigger story is that Obama actually took powers from them. 

“Trump’s punt to Congress on DACA threatens new GOP rift,” by Seung Min Kim and Rachael Bade: [S]ome Republicans such as conservative Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas are openly floating trade-offs to protect DACA recipients, even as Democrats insist that Dreamers aren’t bargaining chips for tougher immigration restrictions.

2. How is enforcing the law and Congress doing their job “shooting the hostages.” The law isn’t political. That’s the whole point. Eighth grade civics students, back me up here…

BEN SMITH: “Why Does Trump Always Shoot The Hostages?: The president prepares to throw DREAMers’ lives into chaos, his political goals unknown” http://bzfd.it/2gBo8Ho

3. Trump is literally 8 months into his presidency, and Politico links to a Vanity Fair hit piece on how history will judge the president. Eight months … 

VANITY FAIR – “How Will History Judge the Trump Presidency?”: Donald Trump may be a radical break from the past, but history will have its say. Six scholars of the presidency — A. Scott Berg, Robert Dallek, Jon Meacham, Edmund Morris, Stacy Schiff, and Garry Wills — put the current occupant of the Oval Office into perspective. http://bit.ly/2eN640c

Axios AM:

1. Not so smart: the Democrats used Harvey Funding as leverage to push through a short term debt ceiling. But nah, just the GOP are the immoral ones here. 

Be smart: This was a seminal moment for Republican congressional leaders. They left the Oval having watched the titular leader of their party side with Dems, right in front of them. They watched their carefully laid plans — using Harvey funding as leverage to push through a long-term debt ceiling extension — blow up in their faces.

2. Can you imagine paying for gardeners and to have your lawn mowed? You should be “smart” and do it yourself. Who cares about the livelihoods of the people that make a living off of gardening and mowing laws? Those evil rich people.  

I love today‘s N.Y. Times Quote of the Day, from Steven Gaines, who has written about Hampton excess and eccentricity (“Philistines at the Hedgerow: Passion and Property in the Hamptons”), on how professionally planted and tended vegetable gardens are another status symbol on Long Island’s East End:

“God has given you too much money when you have someone else tend your vegetable garden.”

Be smart: Mow your own lawn. You’ll feel awesome. Try it, and you’ll thank me.

3. My government knows where I am. Why can’t the government know where non-citizens are and who they are. That’s the entire point of immigration laws. 

And N.Y. Times columnist Nick Kristof tweeted: Dreamers registered their addresses under DACA, so now the government knows exactly where to go to arrest them and their parents.

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