The Daily Brief: Thursday, Sept. 28, 2017

The Daily Brief: Thursday, Sept. 28, 2017 (Short Form)

1. Trump Goes Straight to the People on Tax Reform: Call Your Congressmen and Demand It - TownHall

Speaking from the Indiana State Fairgrounds Wednesday afternoon, President Trump officially rolled out his plan to overhaul the American tax system and urged voters to call their congressmen in support.

"Today I am asking all Americans, Republican, Democrat, Independent, to join with me and with each other to demand tax reform that will truly, truly, truly, make American great again," Trump said. "Call your congressmen, call your senators, let them know you are watching. Let them know you're waiting. Tell them that today is the day for decision. That now is the time to heal this self-inflicted economic room and that with their action, the future would belong to all of us."

"If you demand it, the politicians will listen. They will answer and they will act," he continued. "Tax reform has not historically been a partisan issue and it doesn't have to be a partisan issue today."

President Trump also went after Indiana's Democrat Senator Joe Donnelly, who was invited to attend the speech along with North Dakota Democrat Senator Heidi Heitkamp. Donnelly rode from Washington D.C. to Indiana on Air Force One Wednesday with the President ahead of the announcement.

"If Joe Donnelly doesn't approve it [tax reform] we will come here -- we will campaign against him like you wouldn't believe," Trump said.

During his remarks, the President reiterated details about the plan released by the White House Tuesday morning. Just before the President took the stage, the White House released the full tax reform plan. (Read more)
- Father, we pray this political momentum will get tax reform accomplished for the American people.

- Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. (2 Corinthians 8:11)

2. Taliban Tries To Kill Mattis During Surprise Afghanistan Visit - Daily Caller

The Taliban claimed responsibility for an attack on Kabul International Airport Wednesday morning targeting Defense Secretary Jim Mattis who was making an unscheduled visit to Afghanistan.

Mattis had left the airport by the time the attack started, NBC News reports, and no casualties have been reported.

The airport said two missiles were fired toward the airport at around 11:00 a.m. local time, and the U.S. embassy warns that the attack may still be ongoing.

"At 11.36 am two missiles were fired on Kabul International Airport from Deh Sabz district, damaging the air force hangers and destroying one helicopter and damaging three other helicopters, but there were no casualties," airport chief Yaqub Rassouli said according to USA Today. (Read more)
- Father, we pray Secretary Mattis and all our military personnel will be protected as they accomplish their missions overseas.

- O Lord, rescue me from evil people. Protect me from those who are violent.
(Psalm 140:1)

3. Trump cuts Obama's refugee target in half, takes more Christians than Muslims - Washington Times

President Trump, in just eight months in office, has succeeded in upending U.S. refugee policy, cutting by more than half the 110,000-refugee target that the Obama administration had bequeathed him and dramatically shifting the demographics of who is accepted.

Gone is President Obama's overwhelming focus on Muslims, and particularly on Syrians fleeing a civil war that his administration facilitated. Under Mr. Trump, the rate of Syrian refugees has been cut by more than 80 percent, and Christians have overtaken Muslims in total refugees resettled.

"It's impossible to escape the clear message that there's a new sheriff in town," said Matthew O'Brien, research director at the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates for stricter refugee controls.

The Trump changes have reverberated around the globe, with the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees drastically cutting the number of refugee candidates it submits to the U.S.

After recommending nearly 35,000 refugee candidates last year, the UNHCR submitted just 3,591 applications from January to July.(Read more)
- Thank-You, Jesus! We pray our policies will continue to admit vulnerable Christians while screening out those who would do our nation harm.

- He strengthens the bars of your gates and blesses your people within you.
(Psalm 147:13)

4. Lawmakers Set Sights on Obama Unmasking Scandal - Washington Free Beacon

Senior congressional leaders are renewing their focus on an investigation into efforts by the Obama administration to obtain highly classified intelligence information on Trump administration allies in what many allege was an effort to undermine the president and his national security team, according to conversations with multiple senior U.S officials familiar with the situation.

The recent admission by Obama administration National Security Adviser Susan Rice that she requested the unmasking of Trump associates named in highly classified intelligence community reports has placed renewed attention on an investigation into why this information was obtained and then leaked to the press.

In addition to Rice, former United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power and other senior Obama officials made hundreds of similar unmasking requests in what many allege was a campaign to handicap the incoming Trump administration's national security agenda, according to multiple sources familiar with the ongoing investigation into the matter. (Read more)
- Father, we pray Obama administration officials who violated the privacy of American citizens, particularly of their political opponents, will be fully exposed and prosecuted.

- How terrible it will be for those who try to hide things from the Lord and who do their work in darkness. They think no one will see them or know what they do.
(Isaiah 29:15)

5. Sessions: 'Freedom of Thought and Speech' Are Under Attack on U.S.College Campuses - CNS News

In a speech delivered at Georgetown University, Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday warned that free speech is under attack on U.S. college campuses, citing recent examples where school administrators banned speech deemed offensive, set up "cramped" free speech zones, disinvited speakers and even offered counseling ahead of planned speeches.

Sessions pointed to a survey by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education that found that 40 percent of U.S. college speech codes "substantially infringe" on protected speech.

"In 2017, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education surveyed 450 colleges and universities across the country and found that 40 percent maintain speech codes that substantially infringe on constitutionally protected speech. Of the public colleges surveyed, which are bound by the First Amendment, fully one-third had written policies banning disfavored speech," he said. (Read more)
- Father, we pray for our universities and the young people who are taught without the light of Your Truth. We pray our youth will turn from the darkness to Your marvelous light.

- But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. (1 Peter 2:9)

6. Sessions: NFL Should Require Players to Stand for Anthem - Fox News

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the National Football League should crack down on players kneeling in protest during the national anthem. Asked whether he thought the NFL should require players to stand at attention, Sessions was firm.

"I do," Sessions responded. "I think it should be a formal rule of the league. They should be able to say to the players, 'If you're on our field, in our game, paid by us, you should respect the flag and the national anthem,'" Sessions told "Fox & Friends" on Wednesday.

Players across the country and some entire teams refused to stand for the anthem over the weekend, many pushing back on President Trump's heavy criticism at a Friday rally in Alabama.

"Wouldn't you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, 'Get that son of a ***** off the field right now, he's fired,'" Trump said.

Sessions said Trump was "exactly right" to speak out against the disrespect towards the anthem. (Read more)
- Father, as this situation continues to escalate, we pray You would bring peace and civility to the conversation. We pray for leadership to emerge within the NFL to resolve this issue, showing respect for everyone.

- Show respect for all people: Love the brothers and sisters of God's family, respect God, honor the king. (1 Peter 2:17)

7. US spy chief urges Congress to renew surveillance authority - McClatchy DC

Intelligence Director Dan Coats Monday urged Congress to tread carefully as it considers imposing limitations on surveillance authorities enjoyed by the nation's spy agencies for nearly a decade.

"This is clearly a major issue for the intelligence community," Coats told a group of journalists at his office complex in suburban Virginia. "It's one of our top priorities."

The administration of President Donald Trump has called on Congress to renew and make permanent some powers under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which expire at the end of this year. Those powers permit collection of electronic communications of foreigners who are deemed potential threats to U.S. national security, a list of targets that this year topped 106,000.

A scattering of legislators from both parties have called for limitations on surveillance power, voicing concerns from libertarian and civil liberties perspectives that U.S. citizens are getting swept up in the data collection. (Read more)
- Father, we pray, as a condition of renewal, Congress will provide additional protections for citizens and place Constitutional limits on the information gathered by our intelligence agencies.

- We talked about this problem because some false believers had come into our group secretly. They came in like spies to overturn the freedom we have in Christ Jesus. They wanted to make us slaves. (Galatians 2:4)

8. GOP Controls Labor Board - Washington Free Beacon

Republicans hold majority on the nation's top federal labor arbiter for the first time since 2007 after the Senate confirmed Trump nominee William Emanuel on Monday.

The Senate voted 49-47 to confirm Emanuel, a management-side labor attorney at Littler Mendelson and member at the conservative Federalist Society, to fill the final vacancy at the National Labor Relations Board, which oversees workplace disputes and union elections.

Emanuel's appointment marks the first time Republicans have controlled the five-member board since 2007 and follows the confirmation of chief counsel of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission Marvin Kaplan in August. The 3-2 GOP majority comes as the agency considers challenges to several controversial decisions made under the Obama administration.

Emanuel won praise from conservative think tanks, as well as business groups, which frequently criticized the NLRB for disregarding precedent to advance the interests of organized labor.

Trey Kovacs, a labor policy expert at the pro-free-market Competitive Enterprise Institute, said that a Republican majority could undo the NLRB's approach to micro-unions, holding parent companies and contractors liable for labor practices of franchisees and subcontractors, as well as union election practices.

"It's essential that the NLRB start to undo the harm caused during the Obama administration, when the board put out numerous job-killing decisions and rules that weaken worker choice," Kovacs said in a statement. (Read more)
- Father God, we thank You for filling this position with William Emanuel and pray Your blessing upon him as he shifts the NLRB to pursue policies that enhance job growth and improve business.

- The righteous man walks in his integrity; His children are blessed after him. (Proverbs 20:7)

9. Critics: State Department Delaying Aid Congress Provided to Yazidis, Christians in Iraq - Washington Free Beacon

Human rights activists and Catholic groups are questioning why the State Department still appears reluctant to direct money Congress appropriated to assist Christians, Yazidis, and other persecuted religious minorities in Iraq but this week quickly dispatched $32 million to help a majority Muslim group fleeing violence in Burma.

The State Department on Thursday announced it would provide a humanitarian aid package worth nearly $32 million to the Rohingya, a persecuted minority group in Burma, most of whom are Muslim. More than 400,000 Rohingya have fled Burma, a majority Buddhist nation, for Bangladesh over the past month to escape wide-scale violence that the United Nations' top human rights official has labeled ethnic cleansing.

The aid package came the day after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spoke with Aung San Suu Kyi, the de facto leader of Burma, and urged the Burmese government and military to "address deeply troubling allegations of human rights abuses and violations." (Read more)
- Father, we pray these actions will expose those in the State Department who are malevolently withholding funds from the people who need it most.

- God will judge those on the outside; but as the Scriptures say, "You must remove the evil person from among you." (1 Corinthians 5:13)

10. Kurds Threatened With Starvation For Independence Vote - Daily Caller

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to seal his border with Iraqi Kurdistan Tuesday after the regional government held an independence referendum.

Iraqi Kurds rely on an oil pipeline running through Turkey to reap profits and gets much of its food supplies from its neighbor, but have long sought an independent state. Kurds turned out in large numbers Monday in a likely vote to separate from the Iraqi government, threatening to vault much of the region into chaos.

Erdogan's threat comes as the country conducts military exercises along the Kurdish border in another signal of its disapproval with the decision to hold the referendum.

"This referendum decision, which has been taken without any consultation, is treachery," he blustered. Turkey has long battled a Kurdish insurgency within its own country and likely fears that the independence vote may spark increased tensions within its own country.

Turkey and Iran issued a joint statement before the referendum foreshadowing his Monday threat of "counter-measures" if the country took any move at independence too quickly. Iran also has a large Kurdish population. (Read more)
- Father, we pray for the Kurdish people and lift up their desire to have a homeland. They have been persecuted from all sides and need Your help, Lord. We pray Turkey, Iraq and Syria would not be able to cut them off.

- The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance. (Psalm 16:6)