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Trump will "probably" declare national emergency absent a deal in Congress

   Trump Will "probably" declare national emergency          
                     Absent of a Deal in Congress

President Trump indicated Thursday he will likely declare a national emergency if Congress doesn't reach an agreement to fund his border wall — a move that is sure to set off challenges in the courts if he goes ahead with it. The president made the remarks to reporters on the White House South Lawn ahead of his departure to Texas to survey the southern border.

"If this doesn't work out, I probably will do it, I would almost say definitely," Mr. Trump told reporters, adding later, "If we don't make a deal, I would say 100 percent but I don't want to say 100 percent."

If Congress doesn't make a deal, Mr. Trump said "it would be very surprising" if he didn't declare such a national emergency. Declaring a national emergency, the president explained, frees up a "tremendous" amount of funds. 

Democrats, the president exclaimed, "don't give a damn" about crime, or people coming into the country and stabbing Americans. Mr. Trump said he thinks a steel barrier or wall would pay for itself every three or four months, and insisted that Mexico is paying for the wall "indirectly." 

"The only way you have a strong border is you have a wall or steel barrier," the president said. 

The president also said he will not go to the international conference in Davos, Switzerland, later this month if the shutdown continues. 

Mr. Trump's insistence on billions of dollars in funding to keep a signature campaign promise — and Democrats' insistence to fund the government without wall funding — mean the partial government shutdown is poised to be the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. Shutdown negotiations disintegrated Wednesday when Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi indicated Democrats wouldn't support funding for the wall within 30 days if the government reopens, and Mr. Trump walked out of the room and said "bye-bye." 

In McAllen, Texas, Mr. Trump visited a border patrol station where he was briefed by agents on the situation at the border. While border patrol agents there expressed support for a border wall or barrier, the border patrol agent in charge showed an image of a tunnel illegal immigrants had carved — under a wall. 

At the border, the president repeated a claim he had made earlier in the day — that he never said Mexico would write a check for the border wall. He always said Mexico would pay through trade deals, Mr. Trump insisted. 

"When I say Mexico's going to pay for the wall that's what i said, Mexico's going to pay. I didn't say they're going to write me a check for $20 billion or $10 billion. They weren't going to write a check. I said they're going to pay for the wall. And if Congress approves this incredible trade bill that we made with Mexico and Canada by the way but with Mexico in this case, they're paying for the wall many many times over."

But Mr. Trump repeatedly insisted on the campaign trail that Mexico, not American taxpayers, would pay for the wall. Using the Internet archiving tool Wayback Machine, CBS News obtained the now-deleted memo the Trump campaign posted in April 2015 describing how the U.S. would compel Mexico to make a "one-time payment" of $5 or $10 billion for the wall. 

Meanwhile, some cracks are starting to show in the Republican Party. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, posted a video to Twitter saying there is no need for the shutdown. 

But Mr. Trump insisted on Twitter Thursday morning there is "GREAT" unity in his party on Capitol Hill. 

"There is GREAT unity with the Republicans in the House and Senate, despite the Fake News Media working in overdrive to make the story look otherwise," Mr. Trump wrote. "The Opposition Party & the Dems know we must have Strong Border Security, but don't want to give "Trump" another one of many wins!"

Meanwhile, Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham, a Trump ally, said he doesn't know what the path forward here is. 

"I have never been more depressed about moving forward than I am right now. I just don't see a pathway forward. Somebody has got to get some energy to fix this," Graham said. 

Trump Grounds Pelosi For Trying To Shut Down State Of The Union

Trump Grounds Pelosi For Trying To Shut Down State Of The Union

WASHINGTON (AP) — She imperiled his State of the Union address. He denied her a plane to visit troops abroad.

The shutdown battle between President Donald Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is playing out as a surreal game of constitutional brinkmanship, with both flexing their political powers from opposite ends of Pennsylvania Avenue as the negotiations to end the monthlong partial government shutdown remain stalled.

In dramatic fashion, Trump issued a letter to Pelosi on Thursday, just before she and other lawmakers were set to depart on the previously undisclosed trip to Afghanistan and Brussels. Trump belittled the trip as a “public relations event” — even though he had just made a similar warzone stop — and said it would be best if Pelosi remained in Washington to negotiate to reopen the government.

“Obviously, if you would like to make your journey by flying commercial, that would certainly be your prerogative!” concluded Trump, who had been smarting since Pelosi, the day before, called on him to postpone his Jan. 29 State of the Union address due to the shutdown.

Denying military aircraft to a senior lawmaker — let alone the speaker, who is second in line to the White House, traveling to a combat region — is very rare. Lawmakers were caught off guard. A bus to ferry the legislators to their departure idled outside the Capitol on Thursday afternoon.

The political tit-for-tat between Trump and Pelosi laid bare how the government-wide crisis has devolved into an intensely pointed clash between two leaders both determined to prevail. It took place as hundreds of thousands of federal workers go without pay and Washington’s routine protocols — a president’s speech to Congress, a lawmaker’s official trip — became collateral damage.

Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said the speaker planned to travel to Afghanistan and Brussels to thank service members and obtain briefings on national security and intelligence “from those on the front lines.” He noted Trump had traveled to Iraq during the shutdown and said a Republican-led congressional trip also had taken place.

Trump’s move was the latest example of his extraordinary willingness to tether U.S. government resources to his political needs. He has publicly urged the Justice Department to investigate political opponents and threatened to cut disaster aid to Puerto Rico amid a spat with the island territory’s leaders.

Some Republicans expressed frustration. Sen. Lindsey Graham tweeted, “One sophomoric response does not deserve another.” He called Pelosi’s State of the Union move “very irresponsible and blatantly political” but said Trump’s reaction was “also inappropriate.”

While there were few signs of progress Thursday, Vice President Mike Pence and senior adviser Jared Kushner dashed to the Capitol late in the day for a meeting with Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. And the State Department instructed all U.S. diplomats in Washington and elsewhere to return to work next week with pay, saying it had found money for their salaries at least temporarily.

For security reasons, Pelosi would normally make such a trip on a military aircraft supplied by the Pentagon. According to a defense official, Pelosi did request Defense Department support for overseas travel and it was initially approved. The official wasn’t authorized to speak by name about the matter, so spoke on condition of anonymity.

The official said the president does have the authority to cancel the use of military aircraft.

Rep. Adam Schiff of California slammed Trump for revealing the closely held travel plans. “I think the president’s decision to disclose a trip the speaker’s making to a war zone was completely and utterly irresponsible in every way,” Schiff said.

Trump’s trip to Iraq after Christmas was not disclosed in advance for security reasons.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump wanted Pelosi to stay in Washington before Tuesday, a deadline to prepare the next round of paychecks for federal workers.

“We want to keep her in Washington,” Sanders said. “The president wants her here to negotiate.”

The White House also canceled plans for a presidential delegation to travel to an economic forum in Switzerland next week, citing the shutdown. And they said future congressional trips would be postponed until the shutdown is resolved, though it was not immediately clear if any such travel — which often is not disclosed in advance — was coming up.

Trump was taken by surprise by Pelosi’s move to postpone his address and told one adviser it was the sort of disruptive move he would make himself, according to a Republican who is in frequent contact with the White House and was not authorized to speak publicly about private conversations.

While he maintained a public silence, Trump grew weary of how Pelosi’s move was being received on cable TV and reiterated fears that he was being outmaneuvered in the public eye. Trump was delighted at the idea of canceling Pelosi’s trip, believing the focus on the resources needed would highlight her hypocrisy for cancelling his speech, according to the Republican.

Trump has still not said how he will handle Pelosi’s attempt to have him postpone his State of the Union address until the government is reopened so workers can be paid for providing security for the grand Washington tradition.

Pelosi told reporters earlier Thursday: “Let’s get a date when government is open. Let’s pay the employees. Maybe he thinks it’s OK not to pay people who do work. I don’t.”

Trump declined to address the stalemate over the speech during a visit Thursday to the Pentagon, simply promising that the nation will have “powerful, strong border security.”

Pelosi reiterated she is willing to negotiate money for border security once the government is reopened, but she said Democrats remain opposed to Trump’s long-promised wall. “I’m not for a wall,” Pelosi said twice, mouthing the statement a third time for effect.

In a notice to staff, the State Department said it can pay most of its employees beginning Sunday or Monday for their next pay period. They will not be paid for time worked since the shutdown began in December until the situation is resolved, said the notice.

The new White House travel ban did not extend to the first family.

About two hours after Trump grounded Pelosi and her delegation, an Air Force-modified Boeing 757 took off from Joint Base Andrews outside Washington with the call sign “Executive One Foxtrot,” reserved for the first family when the president is not traveling with them. It landed just before 7 p.m. at Palm Beach International Airport, less than two miles from the president’s private club.

A White House spokesperson did not answer questions about the flight.

Article By -TJ Addis

When Someone Asks How Does TCP Compare here is my answer

Review of “Commission Funnel”: A Manual Traffic Exchange

Review of “Commission Funnel”:       A Manual Traffic Exchange

Have you ever thought of running your own referral contest? Or maybe you want to offer your own upgrade lottery to new referrals. You can do this with Commission Funnel. When you upgrade, you automatically get one of these sponsor credits. Or you can go to the Referral Sponsor page, and buy additional upgrades to give to your referrals.

Commission Funnel is a fairly new manual traffic exchange from Brian Jones, who is probably best known for his TE-JVtraffic co-op and for owning the Ventrino traffic exchange script. If you are already familiar with traffic exchanges, you know that they can be a good source of advertising for whatever online opportunity or website you wish to publicize. And you also know that there are a lot of them out there. So what makes Commission Funnel stand out from the crowd? With so many traffic exchanges to choose from, why should you choose to join and use Commission Funnel?

Reasons to Choose Commission Funnel:

• 100% Commissions!
• Immediate commission payments
• Referral lottery
• Ability to buy (not rent) referrals
• Personal promo codes
• Upgrade your downline
• Reward your downline
• Contact your downline
• Built-in traffic, text ad, and banner co-ops
• Clean surfing experience

I have to admit that I didn’t even know about all of these features when I joined. Just the first 4 were enough to motivate me to join and upgrade (watch for the Lifetime VIP one-time offer). When I learned about the other features, well, I felt even smarter.

Upgraded Members Get 100% Commissions!

Upgraded members at Commission Funnel receive 100% commission on all referral purchases. There are 2 different upgrade levels, and lifetime or monthly options, but all upgrades entitle you to the 100% commissions.

This means, of course, that if only a single referral upgrades, it could pay for 100% of your upgrade. In fact, if you took the $49.95 Lifetime VIP OTO and your referral chose the $99.95 Lifetime Account offered inside, that one commission would be double your cost. (The $49.95 upgrade does include fewer monthly credits than the $99.95 Lifetime offer inside.)

Free members earn 35% commissions, which is higher than the 10% or 20% offered free members at most traffic exchanges.

Immediate Commission Payments

Most traffic exchanges, as well as any other online businesses, pay commissions weekly, monthly, or perhaps only when you request them. I recently discovered that I had over $25 in commissions sitting in a traffic exchange that I hadn’t visited for over a year. Apparently, one of my referrals had upgraded, but I had never been notified. If I hadn’t requested payment, I would never have received that money–MY money. (Now I regularly check my commissions by visiting TE Command Post, which reports my commissions from nearly all traffic exchanges.)

Commission Funnel pays commissions immediately into my Paypal account.

Referral Lottery  

Each day that you view 50 or more sites at Commission Funnel, you are entered into a lottery for a free referral. These are verified referrals, and you earn commissions from them just as you do from those you refer personally.

Ability to Buy Referrals

Recently I have seen a number of sites offering to rent referrals on a monthly basis. Commission Funnel does them one better, allowing you to buy unassigned, verified, active referrals. The Referral Boost page offers groups of 3, 5, or 10 referrals along with a package of credits and banner credits. And again, if these referrals upgrade or make a purchase, you earn commission.

Personal Promo Codes

People are always looking for promo codes, which is why so many sites offer them. Commission Funnel allows you to buy your own custom promo code so that you can offer a package of website and banner credits to encourage people to sign up as your referrals.  This is a great way to get more people interested so they will at least stop and take a look at the site.

Upgrade Your Downline

Have you ever thought of running your own referral contest? Or maybe you want to offer your own upgrade lottery to new referrals. You can do this with Commission Funnel. When you upgrade, you automatically get one of these sponsor credits. Or you can go to the Referral Sponsor page, and buy additional upgrades to give to your referrals. The cost to you is just $24.95, so half of the OTO price.

Here are a few ideas on how you might use these gift upgrades.

1. Increase your referrals. Advertise a chance to win an upgraded membership. Anyone who joins by the end of the month, say, has a chance to win.
2. Build your list. Offer a lottery. Anyone who signs up to your list gets a chance at winning an upgraded membership.
3. Reward your downline from another program. For example, any downline member who buys 3 adpacks at TrafficMonsoon during the next month gets a free upgraded membership at Commission Funnel.

Reward Your Downline

In addition to upgrades and promo codes, you can also transfer some of your credits to members of your downline. This is another good way to reward your active downline members or encourage them to be more active.

Contact Your Downline

Commission Funnel allows you to send emails either to individual downline members or to the whole group. This is a nice feature, so be sure you don’t abuse it. Bombarding your downline with requests to join other programs will be considered spam and could get you banned from using it.

Built-In Traffic, Banner, and Text Ad Co-ops

In my opinion, people waste a lot of time by joining and then surfing too many traffic exchanges. I have been guilty of this myself. It is much more efficient to focus on a few select traffic exchanges, then to use traffic co-ops if you want more breadth. Commission Funnel has built-in traffic and banner co-ops, thus serving three purposes at once. Note: If you find you have too many credits of one type, you can use the Convert Credits page to convert back and forth between website credits, banner impressions, and text ad impressions.

Traffic Co-op

With the traffic co-op, you earn credits and get your site displayed in whatever traffic exchanges other members are using. To use it, simply advertise the Credit Rotator link: http://bit.ly/comfun1. Be sure to first enter your websites on the My Websites page so that your sites will display when other members use the credit rotator link.

Banner Co-op

To participate in the banner co-op, you go to the Earn Banner Credits page. There you find a piece of html code to display a 468×60 banner on your website or blog. Then when people view your website, you earn banner credits. At the same time, your banner will showing on other members’ websites.

Text Ad Co-op

For the text ad co-op, open the Earn Text Credits page. There you choose the color and size of ad to display on your website or blog. Then click Create Code and copy that code to your website. When people visit your website, you will earn text ad credits and your text ads will display on other people’s websites.

Clean Surfing Experience

The trend recently has been for traffic exchanges to try to entertain their members by adding more and more games. I understand why site owners do this, and I even participate in some of these games, but many sites have taken this too far. There are times when I just want to see what other people are advertising–and earn credits, of course–without all the interruptions. Commission Funnel offers that clean, smooth viewing experience, a welcome relief from all the delays and distractions that too many sites now present. The only “game” is a letter search that shows up every 15 or so pages.

Conclusion

This is a long review because there is a lot to say about Commission Funnel. I have never seen this collection of useful, innovative features anywhere else. With the ability to earn 100% commissions, create your own promo codes, give away upgrades, contact your downline, etc., Commission Funnel treats you as if you are the owner. That might be a good way to think of it. Have you ever wanted your own traffic exchange without all the hassles of creating and administering it? Commission Funnel gives you the chance for that rewarding ownership experience.

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