Good morning! Here is your news briefing for Tuesday December 31, 2019
THE DAILY SIGNAL
| Dec 31, 2019 Good morning from Washington. Once again, misguided liberal policies are making things tough for Californians, as Jarrett Stepman writes. Do “real” pro-lifers want government-run health care? Dr. Kevin Pham says absolutely not. Plus: Mike Gonzalez on the roots of the term Hispanic, and Air Force veteran John Venable on what the branch needs to be able to defeat a formidable enemy. Raise a toast to bid farewell to 2019 and say hello to 2020 tonight: On this day in 1759, Arthur Guinness signed the lease for his famous brewery. COMMENTARYCalifornia’s Latest Act of Idiocy: Killing Freelance WorkBy Jarrett Stepman A new California law set to go into effect in the new year is the latest example of misguided legislation hurting the very people it was aimed to “protect” in the Golden State.MoreCOMMENTARYThe Invention of HispanicsBy Mike Gonzalez America’s surging politics of victimhood and identitarian division did not emerge organically or inevitably, as many believe.MoreCOMMENTARYSupporting ‘Medicare for All’ Isn’t Pro-LifeBy Kevin Pham Pro-life advocates are called hypocrites for opposing presumably life-saving health insurance plans fully paid by the government.MoreCOMMENTARYThe Air Force Needs More Aircraft NowBy John Venable The National Defense Strategy directed all services to prepare for a large-scale, high-intensity conventional war with China or Russia, and shortly thereafter the Air Force released a report identifying the capacity and capabilities it would need to do just that.MoreCOMMENTARYClimate Change Protesters’ Traffic Tie-Ups Are No Way to Win Friends or Influence PeopleBy Peter Parisi For more than seven hours, hundreds of “Shut Down DC” coalition environmental activist demonstrators lived up to their billing, snaking through Washington, blocking intersections with their bodies, banners, and other props, and forcing traffic to be diverted and detoured.More The Daily Signal is brought to you by more than half a million members of The Heritage Foundation. Donate to The Daily Signal Find us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter How are we doing? We welcome your comments, suggestions, and story tips. Please reply to this email or send us a note at comments@dailysignal.com.The Daily Signal 214 Massachusetts Avenue, NE Washington, DC 20002 (800) 546-2843 Add morningbell@heritage.org to your address book to ensure that you receive emails from us.You are subscribed to this newsletter as rickbulow1974@gmail.com. If you want to receive other Heritage Foundation newsletters, or opt out of this newsletter, please click here to update your subscription. |
DAYBREAK INSIDER
| Your First Look at Today’s Top Stories – Daybreak InsiderHaving trouble viewing this email? View the web version.DaybreakInsider.com @DaybreakInsiderTUESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 20191.Decade Ends with a Bang And 2020 begins with hope. From Hugh Hewitt: That opposition to Trump has never relented and has indeed grown frequently frenzied and often incoherent. And it has never deterred Trump in the least. Arguably, he fed off it, drew energy from it, shaped his unique brand of politics from it. Later: It has taken a decade of shocks, but the West is finally positioned to see the world and its central challenges clearly. Just in time (Washington Post). Jim Geraghty looks at a poll showing 80 percent of Americans believe their lives are getting better (National Review). The Wall Street Journal looks at the booming economy of 2019 (WSJ). 2.Trump and Obama Tie as Most Admired Man in 2019 According to a Gallup poll. Independents preferred Obama by 2 points. The story notes “Trump’s popularity grew enough this year to allow him to tie Barack Obama as the most admired man, but not to end Obama’s streak of 12 first-place finishes. The results reflect the significant party divide in the U.S., with Republicans overwhelmingly naming Trump and Democrats Obama, and few other men garnering significant mention” (Gallup). And a new Zogby poll has Trump at 50 percent approval (Washington Examiner). Advertisement 3.Biden Suggests Putting Fossil Fuel Execs “In Jail” Over ClimateHis way of “holding them liable for what they have done, particularly in those cases where your underserved neighborhoods and … you know the deal” (Daily Caller). Buttigieg took a shot at Biden, saying he would not have wanted his son on a Ukrainian board (Star Tribune). 4.Cop Who Claimed McDonald’s Worker Wrote Vulgar Message Exposed as FraudAnd he has been fired. Unfortunately for the tainted cop, McDonald’s had footage of the coffee cup and saw no evidence of an employee writing the message (NBC News). This New York Post story that came out before the cop’s “resignation” discusses the McDonald’s in question and how they couldn’t find any evidence that one of their employees was involved (NY Post). 5.GOP States Gaining Congressional SeatsAs some liberal states, including California and New York, are losing them. WSJ Advertisement 6.Anti-Semitic New York Woman Again Released Without BailIt was her second attack since Friday (Daily Wire). From Andy Ngo: Tiffany Harris, the woman who was released without bail for assaulting 3 Jewish women this week, was arrested one day later for assaulting another woman in Brooklyn. NYC’s new bail reform law allows suspects charged w/violent crimes to be quickly released (Twitter). 7.Man Who Killed Texas Shooter is Running for County Commissioner With the slogan “Make sure your vote is on target” (Washington Examiner). Despite the 71-year-old’s heroics, he said “I don’t see myself as a hero” (Yahoo). Then comes this: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton told Fox News Monday that he hopes the gun law that prevented further carnage at a Fort Worth-area church over the weekend will be a model for other churches and states (Fox News). 8.Stocks Set for Best Year Since 2013 From the story: An improving economic outlook, progress between the U.S. and China on trade negotiations and three interest-rate cuts by the Federal Reserve have boosted investors’ confidence that the expansion can continue. WSJ Advertisement 9.New Oregon Law: Bicyclists Can Roll Through Stop SignsSo cars must follow the rules of the road, but not bikes. KATU 10.Man Calls Cops on Roomba Vacuum CleanerWhich he thought was an intruder at the time. NY Post You Might Like Copyright © 2019 DaybreakInsider.comSUBSCRIPTION INFO This newsletter is never sent unsolicited. It is only sent to people who signed up from one of the Salem Media Group network of websites OR a friend might have forwarded it to you. We respect and value your time and privacy. Unsubscribe from The Daybreak Insider OR Send postal mail to: The Daybreak Insider Unsubscribe 6400 N. Belt Line Rd., Suite 200, Irving, TX 75063 Were you forwarded this edition of The Daybreak Insider? Get your own free subscription Copyright © 2019 Salem Media Group and its Content Providers. All rights reserved. |
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
| Tuesday, December 31, 2019 |
| Losing our Religion: Houses of worship face younger generations drawn to ‘cultural agnosticism’Why are millennials and Generation Z shunning religious denominations? It’s a central question as churches, temples, mosques and other houses … more |
| Top News Read More > |
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| Beware the miserable, regressive, leftist government central planners High marks for the Trump economy Bernie Sanders can be the Democratic presidential nominee |
| Politics Read More > |
| Chris Christie forms pro-Trump advocacy group Right Direction America Senate gridlocked by impeachment proceedings Two government investigations leave Steele dossier in shambles |
| Special Reports for Times Readers Special Report – Infrastructure 2019Special Report – Energy 2019Special Report – Free Iran Rally 2019 |
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THE RESURGENT
| The Resurgent’s Morning Briefing for December 31,2019View this email in your browserShareTweetForwardGood morning, Here is all the news conservatives need to know to start their day. At 4pm ET, you can catch me on radio to bring you up to speed on developments throughout the day. You can listen live here. 2020: The Feel When The New Normal Is Pretty AbnormalWe have entered the time of politics by the feels–the ‘TFW’ age. The feel when you care more about owning the other party by trashing all your own principles. The feel when you condemn hatred from your political enemies but defend it from your own tribe. The feel when nothing matters but winning–except the other guy losing.The post 2020: The Feel When The New Normal Is Pretty Abnormal appeared first on The Resurgent. Read in browser » Obamacare still isn’t working, part 3,957With impeachment and the 2020 election moving to the fore, less and less media attention is being paid to actual policy. That’s unfortunate, because policy matters – including and maybe even especially policy that Democratic front runner Joe Biden personally helped put on the books. Biden called Obamacare a “big &*$%^@# deal” when his boss […]The post Obamacare still isn’t working, part 3,957 appeared first on The Resurgent. Read in browser » Recent Items:Watching The Movies: ‘Knives Out’ Yes, The “Man Gets Pregnant By Female Sperm Donor” Story Affects You Meet the Press Got This Wrong Chinese Tourists Vandalize Pro-Hong Kong Crosses at Lithuania’s Hill of Crosses Jews Must Be Armed and ReadyRemember, you can listen to the Erick Erickson Show anytime and anywhere via WSB Radio, iTunes, Stitcher, and Soundcloud. As always, you can find pretty much anything and everything I’m writing about throughout the day via The Resurgent. Thanks for reading and tuning in. Erick EricksonTHE RESURGENTFacebookTwitterInstagramCopyright © 2019 The Resurgent Media Group, LLC, All rights reserved. unsubscribe from this list update subscription preferences |
THE WASHINGTON POST MORNING HEADLINES
| Sign up for this newsletterRead onlineThe morning’s most important stories, curated by Post editors. (REUTERS)Hundreds of Iraqis protesting airstrike converge on U.S. Embassy shouting ‘Death to America’The Kataeb Hezbollah group says the group plans to lay siege to the embassy in Baghdad until it closes down, in response to US airstrikes that killed and injured dozens of its membersBy Mustafa Salim and Liz Sly ● Read more » Initial U.S.-China trade deal’s big hole: Beijing’s massive business subsidiesSubsidies, in the form of discounted loans, cheap land, inexpensive electricity and more, are marbled throughout China’s state-led economy. This edge often makes it difficult for U.S. businesses to compete.By David Lynch ● Read more » What’s McConnell’s endgame in shaping the Senate trial to benefit Trump?Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has many reasons to make this as political as possible.IMPEACHMENT | Analysis ● By Amber Phillips ● Read more » Texas law protecting armed churchgoers debated after congregant kills gunman at Sunday serviceThe state legislature passed a measure allowing armed volunteers in places of worship after a 2017 shooting left 26 people dead at a Texas church.By Abigail Hauslohner, Deanna Paul and Kim Bellware ● Read more » ‘We are just destroying these kids’: Overburdened foster care systems placing kids in detention centers, other perilous spotsA surging number of biological parents are falling into the grips of drug addiction, and child welfare systems are struggling with a shortage of foster parents. So case workers and courts have been funneling children into crowded emergency shelters, hotels and youth prisons.By Emily Wax-Thibodeaux ● Read more » ADVERTISEMENT OpinionsIt’s up to voters to prevent four more years of institutional vandalismBy Michael Gerson ● Read more » Here are four suggested New Year’s resolutions for the mediaBy Catherine Rampell ● Read more » China persecutes a genuine people’s leader on utterly baseless chargesBy Editorial Board ● Read more » Trump’s threat to democracyBy Joe Scarborough ● Read more » ADVERTISEMENT It took a decade of shocks for the West to finally see the world clearlyBy Hugh Hewitt ● Read more » Why electric cars still don’t live up to the hypeBy Charles Lane ● Read more » More News Ex-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn flees to Lebanon, slams Japan’s justice systemIt is unclear how the ousted auto executive managed to leave Japan, where he was on bail on charges of financial misconduct and had surrendered his passports.By Simon Denyer ● Read more » For New York’s Orthodox Jews, a fearful present brings up echoes of the violent pastOrthodox Jews in New York thought they had created havens for themselves. But a string of anti-Semitic attacks in Brooklyn and a stabbing in the suburbs have rattled the community.By Julie Zauzmer ● Read more » A New York Times columnist set out to praise ‘Jewish brilliance.’ The result was another viral controversy.To bolster his argument, Bret Stephens cited and linked to a 2005 study that argued in favor of a genetic hypothesis for the allegedly superior intelligence of Ashkenazi Jews.By Paul Farhi ● Read more » A Syrian American risked everything to help rebuild the country of her birthFor Ghadir Taher, serving her adopted country as an interpreter with U.S. troops while also helping her war-torn homeland, a place she had left as a 10-year-old girl, was a double honor. But the Syria she had once known no longer existed.By Missy Ryan ● Read more » Sharon Stone was kicked off Bumble because users thought she was impersonating Sharon Stone“Looks like our users thought you were too good to be true,” the dating app wrote to Stone on Twitter.By Brittany Shammas ● Read more » We think you’ll like this newsletterCheck out Lean & Fit for expert advice on how to eat right, get lean and stay fit, including curated healthy recipes every Wednesday. Sign up » |
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CAFFEINATED THOUGHTS
| Connect: Facebook Twitter YouTubeView this email in your browser“He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end,” (Ecclesiastes 3:11, ESV).Pete Buttigieg, Our Founding Fathers, and SlaveryBy Shane Vander Hart on Dec 30, 2019 07:37 pm Shane Vander Hart: Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg said in 2014 that our founders “did not understand that slavery was a bad thing.” He’s wrong. Read in browser » Recent Articles: Iowa Secretary of State Makes Refers Nine for Criminal Investigation Into Double Voting Iowans Want Tax Cuts Sooner Rather Than Later 2019: A Year of Historic Judicial Confirmations Jesus, Tax Collectors, and Trump Rand Paul Airs Wasteful Government Spending Grievances In Annual Festivus RantLaunched in 2006, Caffeinated Thoughts reports news and shares commentary about culture, current events, faith and state and national politics from a Christian and conservative point of view. Caffeinated Thoughts P.O. Box 57184 Des Moines, IA 50317 (515) 321-5077 Editor, Shane Vander Hart Connect: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.ShareTweetShareForwardCopyright © 2019 Caffeinated Thoughts, All rights reserved. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list. |
LIBERTY NATION
| Daily BriefingCONSERVATIVE NEWS | LIBERTARIAN NEWS | COMMENTARYVISIT LibertyNation.com FROM OUR NEWSROOMA New Year’s Eve Message from Liberty NationBy Liberty Nation StaffWishing you all a very Happy New Year.Click Here What America’s Thinking72% of American adults think 2020 will be at a minimum a good year.With a presidential election coming in November, it’s interesting to note that Republicans are a lot more enthusiastic about 2020 than Democrats are.38% of likely U.S. voters think the country is heading in the right direction, down one point from last week.Just 15% think 2020 will only be a fair year, while 6% think it will be a poor one. The Left’s 2019 Legacy: Down With OK, Up With Library Drag QueensBy Andrew MoranMark your scorecard: Up With Antifa, Down With the Salvation Army.Click Here Washington WhispersComing down the pipeline:Uber and other companies have reportedly sued California in federal court over a new law creating restrictions on classifying employees as independent contractors. They argue that it is unconstitutional.Chuck Schumer has renewed his call for key Trump administration figures to testify during the Senate impeachment trial.Bernie Sanders has released letters from three doctors stating that he is healthy enough to run for president.President Trump lauded Texas gun laws that allowed an armed parishioner to take down the active shooter in his church. Liberty Nation GenZBy Liberty Nation StaffClick Here Your Daily Political DevotionalA Glimpse at What’s Hot in the PolitisphereWith almost the entire mainstream media against him, President Trump has surprisingly tied with Barack Obama in a “most admired man” poll of 2019. Both men received exactly 18%. Other top ten contenders included Bernie Sanders, the Dalai Lama, and Elon Musk, none of whom scored more than 2%. Does this signify that Americans have dug into their trenches in terms of who they rate as admirable? If Obama (presumably representing the political left) is still the left’s top dog, what does this tell us of the public’s feelings about Joe Biden? 2019 Dem Presidential Wannabe Moments That Point to 2020 DisasterBy Joe SchaefferAn unimpressive field made many missteps, but some cut deeper than the rest.Click Here News RoundupWe’ve Surfed The Web for YouBernie Has Always Had A Path To Victory. The Media Missed It (Again)The ‘Douchebag Of The Year’ AwardButtigieg: I Wouldn’t Want My Son on Burisma’s BoardSchumer calls for witness testimony at impeachment trial, says new ‘revelations’ a ‘game changer’‘The Mandalorian’ Closes Out With Thrilling And Touching Final Episode The Cream of the Crop – Media and Culture in 2019By Liberty Nation StaffThe very best that 2019 had to offer.Click Here WATCH NOWFEATURED LNTVLNTV: Democrats’ Post-Impeachment Blues – WATCH NOW!LNTV: Philadelphia is Changing How Heroin is Treated in the USA – WATCH NOW!LNTV: Virginia is Privatizing Public Roads – WATCH NOW ! The Uprising Podcast: Audit The Audit Check out one of our podcasts!Subscribe and get notified of new arrivals.SUBSCRIBELNTV: Virginia is Privatizing Public Roads – WATCH NOW ! Check out one of our videos!View the latest Liberty Nation videos on YouTube.WATCH NOW |
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CONSERVATIVE DAILY NEWS
| CDN’s Daily News Blast delivers the day’s news first!View this email in your browserCDN Daily News Blast12/31/2019Excerpts:Schiff-Faced – A.F. Branco CartoonBy A.F. Branco -A hangover without the party.Schiff-Faced – A.F. Branco Cartoon is original content from Conservative Daily News – Where Americans go for news, current events and commentary they can trust – Conservative News Website for U.S. News, Political Cartoons and more. Read on » Joe Biden Suggests Coal Miners Should Learn To CodeBy Peter Hasson -Former Vice President Joe Biden suggested Monday that displaced coal miners should learn to code. “Anybody who can go down 3,000 feet in a mine can sure as hell learn to program as well,” Biden said at a New Hampshire event Monday. He added later: “Anybody who can throw coal …Joe Biden Suggests Coal Miners Should Learn To Code is original content from Conservative Daily News – Where Americans go for news, current events and commentary they can trust – Conservative News Website for U.S. News, Political Cartoons and more. Read on » Here’s How Obsession With Impeachment Is Allowing Big Tech To Build A China-Like Surveillance StateBy Chris White -Lawmakers are too busy wrestling with matters related to President Donald Trump’s impeachment to address issues related to the government’s deployment of facial recognition technology. Big tech is selling such technological know-how to police agencies and embedding it in smartphones while lawmakers remain distracted, Politico reported Monday. Other issues are …Here’s How Obsession With Impeachment Is Allowing Big Tech To Build A China-Like Surveillance State is original content from Conservative Daily News – Where Americans go for news, current events and commentary they can trust – Conservative News Website for U.S. News, Political Cartoons and more. Read on » President Donald Trump’s Schedule for Tuesday, December 31, 2019By R. Mitchell -President Donald Trump has no public events on his schedule for New Year’s Eve. The president and first lady are spending the holiday at Mar-a-Lago. Happy New Year everyone. Keep up with Trump on Our President’s Schedule Page. President Trump’s Itinerary for 12/30/19 – note: this page will be updated …President Donald Trump’s Schedule for Tuesday, December 31, 2019 is original content from Conservative Daily News – Where Americans go for news, current events and commentary they can trust – Conservative News Website for U.S. News, Political Cartoons and more. Read on » Former ICE Chief Predicts ‘Out-Of-Control’ Border If Democrats Win In 2020By Jason Hopkins -Tom Homan, the former acting secretary of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), predicted dire consequences for the U.S.-Mexico border if Democrats emerge victorious in the 2020 elections. Homan, who led the agency for the first year-and-a-half of President Donald Trump’s term, appeared on Fox News’ “The Next Revolution” on Sunday …Former ICE Chief Predicts ‘Out-Of-Control’ Border If Democrats Win In 2020 is original content from Conservative Daily News – Where Americans go for news, current events and commentary they can trust – Conservative News Website for U.S. News, Political Cartoons and more. Read on » The Dems Railroading Trump Will Destroy Themselves in The EndBy Jim Clayton -They want impeachment so the American people won’t interfere with the next election—Caller to Rush Limbaugh’s radio show. The above statement might seem humorous at first, but when you think about it there is a strong air of truth to it. Especially when the perpetually angry Rep. Al Greene stated …The Dems Railroading Trump Will Destroy Themselves in The End is original content from Conservative Daily News – Where Americans go for news, current events and commentary they can trust – Conservative News Website for U.S. News, Political Cartoons and more. Read on » Democrat Candidates Misjudge The Electorate: Everyone Wants To Be Rich, Not Poor And On The DoleBy Dave King -While the millionaire, radical, Democrat presidential candidates make hand-wringing speeches about how much the poor, starving American population needs their help to raise themselves from the throes of poverty, Americans are doing just fine under President Trump‘s leadership, thank you, and what American citizens need is for government to get …Democrat Candidates Misjudge The Electorate: Everyone Wants To Be Rich, Not Poor And On The Dole is original content from Conservative Daily News – Where Americans go for news, current events and commentary they can trust – Conservative News Website for U.S. News, Political Cartoons and more. Read on » See all breaking news, conservative commentary, political cartoons and more posted to CDN at our Home Page. Follow on TwitterFriend on FacebookAdd on Google PlusCopyright © 2019 Conservative Daily News, All rights reserved. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list |
THE HILL TIPSHEET
| View in your browser Five questions for Trump’s 2020 hopesBY NIALL STANAGE Voters will decide whether to give President Trump a second term in just 11 months. What are the big questions that will affect Trump’s chances?Read the full story here Hanukkah attack highlights disturbing rise of anti-Semitic violenceBY LAURA KELLY The shocking attack on a Jewish community celebrating Hanukkah in suburban New York on Saturday brings to a close a deadly year for Jews in the U.S.Read the full story here US airstrikes take tensions with Iran to new levelBY REBECCA KHEEL Retaliatory U.S. airstrikes against an Iranian-backed militia in Iraq and Syria have injected a volatile new element into the already tense relations between Washington and Tehran.Read the full story here Giuliani associate to turn over iPhone data, documents to House committeeBY JUSTINE COLEMAN Lev Parnas, an associate of President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, plans to turn over his iPhone data and other documents to the House Intelligence Committee, his lawyer announced Monday.Read the full story here Judge tosses suit over impeachment testimony of former Bolton aideBY JOHN KRUZEL A federal judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit over the testimony of Charles Kupperman, a former deputy to then-national security adviser John Bolton, saying House Democrats’ decision to withdraw a subpoena for Kupperman’s testimony had rendered his case moot.Read the full story here Susan Collins says she’s ‘open’ to calling witnesses in Senate impeachment trialBY JORDAIN CARNEY Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said on Monday that she is “open” to calling witnesses as part of the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump but stressed that it is still too early to decide who, if anyone, should be called. Read the full story here Trump praises ‘heroes,’ Texas laws for saving lives in church shootingBY JOHN BOWDEN President Trump credited Texas gun laws with stopping further carnage during a shooting in a White Settlement, Texas, church on Sunday.Read the full story here Trump to hold rally in Wisconsin as Democrats debate in IowaBY JONATHAN EASLEY President Trump will hold a reelection rally in Milwaukee, Wis., on the same night next month that Democratic White House hopefuls gather in Des Moines, Iowa, for a debate.Read the full story here Trump vaping ban could be back on the tableBY NATHANIEL WEIXEL A possible ban on flavored e-cigarettes appears to be back on the table, as the White House is currently reviewing a new guidance from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).Read the full story here Democrats to put renewed focus on health care in new yearBY JULIEGRACE BRUFKE Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Monday that Democrats will prioritize getting health care legislation signed into law when lawmakers return to the Capitol next week.Read the full story here Will Justice Roberts call balls and strikes at the impeachment trial?BY ALLAN LICHTMAN Opinion | The idealistic vision of impartial justice held by Roberts will be sorely tested when he presides over the deeply partisan impeachment trial of Trump. Ironically, Roberts has never before served as a trial judge. Before the Supreme Court, he served as a judge only on the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. By constitutional authority, and affirmed by precedent, Roberts has the power, just like any trial judge, to rule on all motions and procedural matters presented at trial. But his power is sharply limited by the constitutional provision that grants the Senate sole authority over impeachment trials. Senators are both jurors who will decide the fate of the president and also like judges empowered by majority vote to set the trial rules and override any decisions of the Supreme Court chief justice.Read the full story here Pelosi’s half right constitutional claim leaves the House all wrongBY JONATHAN TURLEY Opinion | Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe has penned an editorial column in support of the refusal of Speaker Nancy Pelosi to submit House articles of impeachment to the Senate for trial. Tribe declares this strategy is not just constitutional but also commendable. That view may be half right on the Constitution. However, it leaves Pelosi all wrong on her unprecedented gaming of the system. The withholding of the articles is not only facially inappropriate. It shatters the fragile rationale for the rush to impeach.Read the full story here The Wall Street Journal: Presidential candidates use Spanish ads, events to court Latinos in primary raceBy Sabrina Siddiqui and Emily Glazer Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s campaign translates some Nevada events from English to Spanish in real time to engage with Spanish-speaking audience members. Organizers for South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg routinely hand out materials targeting Latino voters at naturalization ceremonies.Read the full story here NBC News: Places of worship debate solutions to violenceBy Daniella Silva A shooting at a church in Texas and a stabbing at a rabbi’s home during a Hanukkah celebration in New York over the weekend have renewed calls for increased security and the right to be armed in places of worship.Read the full story here The Associated Press: Ex-Nissan boss Ghosn in Lebanon, left Japan over ‘injustice’By Yuri Kageyama TOKYO — Nissan’s former Chairman Carlos Ghosn said Tuesday from Lebanon that he was not fleeing justice but instead left Japan to avoid “injustice and political persecution” over financial misconduct allegations during his tenure leading the automaker.Read the full story here ABC News: President Trump’s tariffs have hurt US manufacturers, Fed study saysBy Ben Gittleson WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Donald Trump’s tariffs and the retaliation by countries he has targeted have resulted in job losses and higher costs for U.S. manufacturers, negatively affecting them overall, a federal study recently found.Read the full story here CNN: Trump’s latest call with Putin raises more questions than it answersBy Kevin Liptak WEST PALM BEACH, Florida — When news arrived early Sunday that President Donald Trump had spoken to his Russian counterpart, it didn’t come from the White House.Read the full story here Did a friend forward you this email?Sign up for The Hill Tipsheet Forward this Tipsheet You Might Like Privacy Policy | Manage Subscriptions | Unsubscribe | Email to a friend | Sign Up for Other Newsletters The Hill 1625 K Street, NW 9th Floor, Washington DC 20006 ©2019 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc. |
DESERET NEWS
THE BLAZE
TOWNHALL
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NOQ REPORT
- The 30-second Trump campaign ad that every American needs to see
- President Trump responds as protesters attempt to storm U.S. Embassy in Baghdad
- The gun control narrative is failing and Shannon Watts is making it worse
- Creeping Dystopia: How China’s social credit score is spreading, even to America
- New census data contradicts conclusion that red states will lose seats in 2020
- Joe Biden said he would consider Republican VP. Leftists rage.
- We need more people like Jack Wilson… everywhere
- How Jake Tapper is wrong about the ‘Muslim ban’
- What Joe Biden’s subpoena flip-flop tells us about him
- Star Trek: Shadow Prime Book I Chapter 7
| The 30-second Trump campaign ad that every American needs to seePosted: 31 Dec 2019 04:56 AM PSTThis Trump campaign ad from September is even more relevant today. Democrats have convoluted the impeachment debacle so much, many have forgotten that this is a political ploy to protect the real abuser of power: Joe Biden. Behind all do the hearsay witnesses and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s attempt to withhold Articles of […]The post The 30-second Trump campaign ad that every American needs to see appeared first on Conservative Christian News. |
| President Trump responds as protesters attempt to storm U.S. Embassy in BaghdadPosted: 31 Dec 2019 04:23 AM PSTPresident Trump called on the Iraqi government to protect the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad as dozens of protesters gathered outside. They have breached the outer walls and attempted to storm the Embassy itself, smashing through the main door and setting a fire inside the courtyard. U.S. forces responded with tear gas and firearm warning shots. The Ambassador […]The post President Trump responds as protesters attempt to storm U.S. Embassy in Baghdad appeared first on Conservative Christian News. |
| The gun control narrative is failing and Shannon Watts is making it worsePosted: 31 Dec 2019 03:56 AM PSTThe gun control debate thrives off the news cycle. In fact, there is no other major issue in America that is more driven by what does and doesn’t happen in the news than gun control. It’s an ebb and flow depending on the circumstances of the latest shooting and how heavily it was covered by mainstream media. […]The post The gun control narrative is failing and Shannon Watts is making it worse appeared first on Conservative Christian News. |
| Creeping Dystopia: How China’s social credit score is spreading, even to AmericaPosted: 30 Dec 2019 11:37 PM PSTAt first glance, many Americans who hear the details of China’s social credit score program dismiss it. This is the type of program that could never reach the western world, and even if it did creep into nations run by authoritarian governments like France, it could never make it to the United States, right? Except, […]The post Creeping Dystopia: How China’s social credit score is spreading, even to America appeared first on Conservative Christian News. |
| New census data contradicts conclusion that red states will lose seats in 2020Posted: 30 Dec 2019 10:42 PM PSTJust over a week ago, reports started streaming in that census data was indicating a sharp shift in congressional seats from red states to blue states. At the time, the analysis by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) showed a net gain in blue states as high as 24 seats, which would have dramatically hampered the […]The post New census data contradicts conclusion that red states will lose seats in 2020 appeared first on Conservative Christian News. |
| Joe Biden said he would consider Republican VP. Leftists rage.Posted: 30 Dec 2019 04:04 PM PSTIt seems that former Vice President Joe Biden may have spun into general election mode a little too early. When a nomination is locked up, candidates often turn to the opposite side to try to appeal for votes from in the middle. But he doesn’t have the Democratic nomination for president locked up, yet, making […]The post Joe Biden said he would consider Republican VP. Leftists rage. appeared first on Conservative Christian News. |
| We need more people like Jack Wilson… everywherePosted: 30 Dec 2019 11:08 AM PSTJack Wilson is a hero. If you’re on social media and following any patriots, you’re going to see those words or something similar popping up on your screen regularly today. The 71-year-old is credited with taking down the gunman at West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement, Texas. His story is exceptional and it’s sad […]The post We need more people like Jack Wilson… everywhere appeared first on Conservative Christian News. |
| How Jake Tapper is wrong about the ‘Muslim ban’Posted: 30 Dec 2019 09:17 AM PSTBelieve it or not, I used to like Jake Tapper. Despite being at a network that clearly wanted Hillary Clinton to win the 2016 election, he refrained from being purely partisan and seemed to be as fair as a reporter could be at left-wing CNN. That was over three years ago. Today’s version of Jake […]The post How Jake Tapper is wrong about the ‘Muslim ban’ appeared first on Conservative Christian News. |
| What Joe Biden’s subpoena flip-flop tells us about himPosted: 30 Dec 2019 07:38 AM PSTJoe Biden was against honoring a Senate subpoena before he was for it. The change happened on the same day, a day that started with him declaring he would not appear before the Senate if subpoenaed. But that answer didn’t sit well with many, including prominent Democrats, who accused him of doing what President Trump […]The post What Joe Biden’s subpoena flip-flop tells us about him appeared first on Conservative Christian News. |
| Star Trek: Shadow Prime Book I Chapter 7Posted: 30 Dec 2019 07:08 AM PSTWelcome to the next exciting installment of Star Trek: Shadow Prime Book I. If you’ve ever wondered what Star Trek would be like as a modern, Tom Clancy-esque techno-thriller, you’ve come to the right place. Just in case you’ve missed the previous installments, you can find them here: Star Trek: Shadow Prime Book I – Prologue Star […]The post Star Trek: Shadow Prime Book I Chapter 7 appeared first on Conservative Christian News. |
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REDSTATE
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JUDICIAL WATCH
| Because no one is above the law!Dec 30, 2019 |
| Today’s Top Stories |
| Judicial Watch Sues CIA and DOJ for Communications of CIA AnalystCiaramella is widely reported as the person who filed the whistleblower complaint that triggered the impeachment proceedings. His name reportedly was “raised privately in impeachment depositions, according to officials with direct knowledge of the proceedings, as well as in at least one open hearing held by a House committee not involved in the impeachment inquiry.”READ MORE |
| Public University Sued for Banning Conservatives Erects Palestinian Terrorist ShrineWhile public universities across the nation ban conservative speakers or permit students to violently protest them, one of the offending colleges has erected a Palestinian terrorist shrine. The University of California Berkeley, successfully sued for discriminating against speakers with conservative views, has allowed a student group at the taxpayer-funded institution to construct a display honoring distinguished female terrorists from Palestine.READ MORE |
| Judicial Watch Sues Rep. Schiff and the House Intelligence Committee for Phone Subpoenas Targeting Trump“Adam Schiff abused his power to secretly subpoena and then publish the private phone records, in potential violation of law, of innocent Americans. What else is Mr. Schiff hiding?” asked Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Schiff and his Committee ran roughshod over the rule of law in pursuit of the abusive impeachment of President Trump. This lawsuit serves as a reminder that Congressman Schiff and Congress are not above the law.”READ MORE |
| U.S. Gives Haiti $21 Million to Bear “Socio-Political Impasse” After Billions in Aid VanishIt appears that no amount of documented fraud, waste or corruption in Haiti will deter the U.S. government from sending the poverty-stricken Caribbean island huge sums of money. After the 2010 earthquake Congress approved billions of dollars to help the country bounce back but that never materialized, and no one really knows what happened to the money.READ MORE |
| DOJ Refuses To Release Records On Imran Awan, Citing ‘Technical Difficulties’ And A Secret Case, Court Docs ShowThe Daily CallerThe Department of Justice is withholding documents about the Imran Awan cybersecurity scandal by saying there is an ongoing, secret case related to the matter, according to court papers. Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit Nov. 7, 2018, for 7,000 pages of Capitol Police records related to the cybersecurity investigation, and Aug. 2, the DOJ agreed to begin producing records by Nov. 5.READ MOREWatchdog Sues Feds over Impeachment ‘Whistleblower’ Communications with ‘Spygate’ StarsBreitbartFinding communications that connect Ciaramella to the original Spygate scandal could very well be particularly damning for the Democrats’ case against Trump. The FOIA lawsuit filed by the conservative watchdog group suggested the alleged “whistleblower” worked with various “Obama Spygate” actors to bring down or at least sabotage the Trump presidency in an act that could be called a coup.READ MOREFarrell: Pelosi Snubs the Constitution with Senate ObstructionThe Daily CallerDemocrats believe that delaying sending articles of impeachment to the Senate gives them enhanced leverage over the Senate’s trial process. Pelosi seems delusional with “power,” since she is simply holding back something the Senate never wanted to deal with in the first place. Maybe she could enhance her posture by also denying senators all the nutty legislation her caucus pushes through, that’ll show ‘em!READ MORETom Fitton: Why the Senate Should Hold Adam Schiff Accountable For Misconduct over Anti-Trump CoupWATCH NOWChris Farrell: ‘‘Curious Connections Among Various Persons” Involved in DeepState Targeting of TrumpWATCH NOWTom Fitton: Pelosi Wants to Ensure a Scam Show Trial in Senate over Trump ImpeachmentWATCH NOWCLIPSTom Fitton: Pelosi Trying to Overthrow Senate in Trump Attack?Tom Fitton: Inspector General was ‘Late to the Game’ on Probing #SpyGate Abuses Targeting TrumpTWEETS@NYTIMES, a leftist advocacy group pushing for @RealDonaldTrump’s removal from office, pushes out a piece to advance coup cabal push for Mulvaney Senate trial testimony.4:01 PM · Dec 29, 2019One of the big lies of the Left is that America has too many criminals in jail or prison. In fact, America has an under-incarceration problem.1:48 PM · Dec 29, 2019 |
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AXIOS
Skip to contentAxios AMSubscribeBy Mike Allen
🎊 Happy New Year’s Eve! Thank you for starting your busy life with Axios AM.
- 🇷🇺 Today marks 20 years since Vladimir Putin became Russia’s president — on Dec. 31, 1999. Check out Axios World editor Dave Lawler’s special report, Part 1 and Part 2.
If you love Axios AM/PM, please get your friends to sign up here.
⚡ 1 big thing: U.S. embassy in Baghdad attacked, evacuated
Protesters set fires in front of the U.S. embassy in Baghdad. Photo: Khalid Mohammed/AP
The U.S. ambassador to Iraq and other staff were evacuated from the Baghdad embassy for their safety, Iraqi officials said, as thousands of protesters and militia fighters thronged the gates in fury at U.S. airstrikes in Iraq, Reuters reports.
- A few embassy protection staff remained.
- “Outside the embassy, protesters threw stones at the gate while others chanted, ‘No, no, America! … No, no, Trump!'”
An AP reporter at the scene saw flames rising from inside the compound and at least three U.S. soldiers on the roof of the main embassy building.
- There was a fire at the reception area near the parking lot of the compound.
- A man on a loudspeaker urged the mob not to enter the compound, saying: “The message was delivered.”
“Iraqi special forces were deployed around the main gate to prevent [protesters] entering the embassy,” Reuters added.
- “A few hours into the protest, tear gas was fired in an attempt to disperse the crowd.”
The U.S. embassy wall is splattered with graffiti. Photo: Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP via Getty Images
The context: The embassy attack follows deadly airstrikes Sunday that killed 25 fighters of the Iran-backed militia in Iraq, the Kataeb Hezbollah, per AP.
- The U.S. military said the airstrikes were in retaliation for last week’s killing of an American contractor in a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base that it had blamed on the militia.
- Why it matters: The developments represent a major downturn in Iraq-U.S. relations that could further undermine U.S. influence in the region and also weaken Washington’s hand in its maximum pressure campaign against Iran.
🐦 President Trump tweeted: “Iran killed an American contractor, wounding many. We strongly responded, and always will. Now Iran is orchestrating an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Iraq. They will be held fully responsible. In addition, we expect Iraq to use its forces to protect the Embassy, and so notified!”
Photo: Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP via Getty Images
2. We’re moving less
Data: Census 2019 Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement. Chart: Danielle Alberti/Axios
Fewer than 10% of Americans moved to new places in the 2018-2019 year, the lowest rate since the Census Bureau began tracking domestic relocations in 1947, writes Kim Hart, mayor of Axios Cities.
- Why it matters: Despite a strong economy, more people are feeling locked in place.
- Young adults, who have historically been the most mobile, are staying put these days thanks to housing and job limitations.
- So are aging adults who are reluctant to (or can’t afford to) make a move.
The share of Americans who moved in the past year is about half the number in the 1950s, when about one-fifth of the population moved each year. That number is now 9.8%, the first time it’s dipped below 10%.
- Only 20% of people aged 20-24 moved this past year, down from 29% in 2005-2006.
- Of those in their late 60s, only 4% moved in the past year.
💭 William Frey, a Brookings demographer, said: “[T]he continued decline since the Great Recession and the housing crunch is driven by the millennial population.”
The big picture: Decades ago, job markets were more interchangeable and diverse, so it was easier for people with most occupations, from factory workers to bankers, to find jobs in a variety of places that were relatively affordable.
- Now, though, industries are clustered in specific regions, middle-class jobs have declined, and housing prices are rising in many prosperous areas.
What’s next: Immigrants are contributing significantly to population growth.
- Frey predicts first- and second-generation immigrants may drive a future increase in mobility.
Get Axios Cities, Kim Hart’s weekly newsletter.
3. “Markets in 2019: You Couldn’t Lose Money If You Tried”
Graphic: AP
This was the rare year when a simple investing strategy would have worked: Buy almost anything, the N.Y. Times’ Matt Phillips points out (subscription).
- “The S&P 500 index was up 28.5 percent, through [yesterday], its best performance since 2013 and one of the best in decades.”
- “Broad indexes of the American bond markets are up nearly 9 percent.”
- “Gold jumped 18.5 percent and silver nearly 16 percent, and other commodities were also up. (Futures prices for hogs, in case that had been your pick, gained about 18 percent.)”
4. Pics du jour: Before the drop
Photo: Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images
Times Square, on New Year’s Eve eve.
Photo: Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images
🚨 5. Ballooning tax cut to foster crippling deficits
Following a lobbying blitz that kept Treasury officials in constant meetings, the “tax bills of many big companies have ended up even smaller” than expected when President Trump signed the tax cut, the N.Y. Times’ Jesse Drucker and Jim Tankersley report (subscription).
- Why it matters: “[T]he federal government may collect hundreds of billions of dollars less over the coming decade than previously projected.”
- The context: “The budget deficit has jumped more than 50 percent since Mr. Trump took office and is expected to top $1 trillion in 2020, partly as a result of the tax law.”
6. Trail quote of the day
A dog named Yipyip greets Joe Biden at a town hall in Exeter, N.H., yesterday. Photo: Brian Snyder/Reuters
Joe Biden, asked by a voter in Exeter, N.H., if he’d consider a Republican as a running mate:
- “The answer is, I would, but I can’t think of one now.”
7. Trump counterprograms Dem debate
President Trump will hold a campaign rally in Milwaukee on Jan. 14, countering a Democratic presidential debate set for the same night in Iowa, per AP.
- CNN and The Des Moines Register are sponsoring the first Democratic presidential debate of 2020 that night at Drake University in Des Moines.
- The rally at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena will be Trump’s second in less than a week. His first 2020 rally is in Toledo, Ohio, on Jan. 9.
The context: All three events could unfold against the backdrop of Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate.
8. Satellite eye: Houston flooding, before and after
Satellite images: Maxar Technologies via AP
A new view of one of the decade’s top U.S. events: Here’s Simonton, Texas (west of Houston), on Nov. 20, 2016, and on Aug. 30, 2017, after Hurricane Harvey’s landfall, as seen in satellite images provided by AP.
- Harvey killed 68 people and set a U.S. record for amount of rain recorded from a storm: 60.58 inches.
- Harvey’s $120 billion in damages ranks as the second-costliest U.S. storm behind only Katrina in 2005.
Worthy of your time: Check out an AP satellite package showing the aftermath of wildfires, earthquakes, oil spills and glacial melting — plus God’s-eye views of the Rohingya exodus, Arab Spring protests and Islamic State territory loss.
9. Data du jour: U.S. growth slowing
Graphic: Census Bureau
42 states and D.C. had fewer births in 2019 than 2018, the Census Bureau reported yesterday, with a steady decline in U.S. births over deaths for the past decade.
- The nation’s population was 328 million in 2019, growing by 0.5% between 2018 and 2019, or 1.5 million people.
Go deeper: See Stef Kight’s great lead of yesterday’s Axios PM (with Axios graphic), “Census data projects shift in states’ congressional power.”
10. 🎥 1 fun thing: Netflix most popular
Photo: Scott Yamano/Netflix
“Taking the No. 1 spot on Netflix’s [2019] overall ‘most popular’ list — which includes film and TV — is ‘Murder Mystery,’ the feature comedy that stars Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston as unwitting tourists who get wrapped up in a complicated murder plot,” per The Hollywood Reporter.
- “After the movie’s June release, Netflix reported 30,869,863 accounts viewed ‘Murder Mystery’ in its first three days, … the biggest opening weekend ever for a Netflix film.”
Here are the Netflix top 10 most popular releases of 2019:
- “Murder Mystery”
- “Stranger Things 3”
- “6 Underground”
- “The Incredibles 2”
- “The Irishman”
- “The Witcher”
- “Triple Frontier”
- “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile”
- “The Umbrella Academy”
- “The Highwaymen”
🧠 Netflix measures “popularity” as the number of subscribers who watched at least two minutes in the first 28 days of release.
📬 Thanks for reading! Please tell a friend about AM/PM.
ARRA NEWS
- Meet the Trump Supporter Who Gunned Down an Active Shooter in a Church Sanctuary
- Stupid White Man
- Trump’s ‘Failures’
- Extinction Rebellion Founder Confirms That Global Warming Is Voodoo Science
- Should Racists Get Health Care?
- Politicians & Pain
- Eddie Gallagher’s Attorney Says He’ll Sue NY Times, Claiming ‘Fake Reporting’
- How Liberals Rewrite the History of the Clinton Impeachment
- How Liberals Rewrite the History of the Clinton Impeachment
- In 2020, These 5 Things Will Make Big Nnews
- The Hellish Dingell Legacy
- Iran’s Undivided and Indivisible Regime
- Protester Yells At Biden During Campaign Event: ‘Don’t Touch Kids, You Pervert!’
| Meet the Trump Supporter Who Gunned Down an Active Shooter in a Church SanctuaryPosted: 30 Dec 2019 08:43 PM PSTJack Wilsonby Todd Starnes: When a gunman opened fire during a worship service at West Freeway Church of Christ, Mr. Jack Wilson drew his firearm and reportedly shot the attacker in the head. Sadly, the attacker killed two parishioners. However, Mr. Wilson’s bravery and marksmanship saved countless lives in that Texas church house. Mr. Wilson is a former reserve deputy sheriff and the long-time owner of a firearms training academy. He’s also running for county commissioner and he’s pro-Trump. “There once was a time the President was honored, police were respected, newborns were treasured, & vets were revered,” he wrote on his campaign website. “Let’s bring that back…” The 71-year-old hero offered up the following comments on facebook in the aftermath of the shooting: Tyler O’Neil at PjMedia added: —————— Todd Starnes (@toddstarnes) is A Christian Conservative, the host of Fox News & Commentary and heard daily on 250+ radio stations and on his iTune podcasts. Support material added by ARRA News Service editor. Tags: Todd Starnes, commentary, Meet the Trump Supporter, Who Gunned Down an Active Shooter, in a Church Sanctuary To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
| Stupid White ManPosted: 30 Dec 2019 08:10 PM PST. . . Michael Moore is everything wrong with the Democrat Party. by Mark Tapson: Documentary propagandist and anti-white racist Michael Moore is a one-man hate group, the kind that would be relentlessly targeted by the Southern Poverty Law Center if only his hatred didn’t align so closely with theirs. Instead, the leftist smear organization is ardently devoted to demonizing pro-American standard bearers of freedom like the David Horowitz Freedom Center, FrontPage Mag writer Daniel Greenfield, and Jihad Watch’s Robert Spencer. Meanwhile Moore is given a pass not only by the SPLC, but by the Democrat Party at large which also happens to be aligned with his divisive views. You may remember that Moore rose to prominence and wealth as a leftist activist thanks primarily to his enormously successful documentaries Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11, both wildly popular among the America-hating film snobs at the Cannes Film Festival, and both riddled with falsehoods and distortions. The late iconoclast Christopher Hitchens, for example, excoriated Fahrenheit 9/11 at Slate in his inimitable style: “To describe this film as dishonest and demagogic would almost be to promote those terms to the level of respectability. To describe this film as a piece of crap would be to run the risk of a discourse that would never again rise above the excremental.” Speaking of excremental, Moore also authored a handful of books of leftist disinformation, including the bestselling Dude, Where’s My Country? and Stupid White Men. The latter predictably laid the blame for all of the world’s ills at the feet of Moore’s titular targets. He has since gone on to turn flogging white men into a career revival now that his more recent documentaries have flopped, Donald Trump has supplanted Barack Obama in the Oval Office, and anti-white racism has become culturally acceptable, if not celebrated. In his most recent incitement of hatred against white men, Moore stated in a video interview with Rolling Stone magazine published last Tuesday that white men who voted for President Trump are “not good people” and that others “should be afraid of them.” “I refuse to participate in post-racial America,” Moore declared. “I refuse to say because we elected Obama that suddenly that means everything is OK, white people have changed. White people have not changed.” This is just pure race-baiting demagoguery. Over 40 percent of whites helped elect Obama, and those of us who voted against him did so not because he is (half-)black, but because he is a radical leftist – just as we voted against Hillary Clinton for the same reason, and not because of America’s endemic sexism, as she claims. “Two-thirds of all white guys voted for Trump,” Moore continued. “That means anytime you see three white guys walking at you, down the street towards you, two of them voted for Trump. You need to move over to the other sidewalk because these are not good people that are walking toward you. You should be afraid of them.” Imagine the apoplectic outrage if a conservative of Moore’s media stature had stated in an interview that blacks who voted for Barack Obama, or Muslim-Americans who voted for Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, were bad people and that you should cross the street to avoid being assaulted by them. But because Moore was smearing white (and therefore, presumably conservative) men, his blatant racism received no pushback from the interviewer or condemnation in the left-leaning news media. Furthermore, Trump supporters are the ones being assaulted in literally hundreds of instances all over the nation, not the ones doing the assaulting. Where is the right-wing equivalent of the fascist thugs of Antifa? Where are the liberals being attacked for wearing “I’m With Her” t-shirts or pussy hats? Where are the Progressives being hounded out of restaurants by cursing mobs? Where are the radical Progressive speakers being threatened and shouted down on college campuses? Moore knows full well that he has it exactly backwards: we should be the ones crossing the street. Not only does the mainstream media not condemn Moore for such hateful incitement to violence, it promotes his brand of white-bashing while simultaneously providing cover for it by inflating the existential threat of “white supremacists” and claiming they have a friend living in the White House. President Trump, who has unequivocally and publicly denounced racism and white supremacists, and who has done more for American blacks, Hispanics, and Jews in three years than the Democrat Party has done in the last fifty, has not emboldened white supremacists, as the activist media keep insisting. On the contrary, it is the Trump-hating media themselves who have empowered white supremacists by relentlessly exaggerating their numbers, their degree of organization, and their cultural power and influence. As I’ve written before, white supremacists are the most socially marginalized and politically impotent demographic in America. No politician would dare express public support for white supremacy. No movie or TV show would dare depict white racist characters sympathetically. When South Carolina mass murderer Dylann Roof killed nine black churchgoers in Charleston in 2015, he carried out this atrocity alone because he was unable to recruit any fellow white supremacists to participate. The news media hype racial hate crimes purportedly perpetrated by whites, most notably the Jussie Smollett debacle, but then neglect to follow up on the huge percentage of cases which turn out to be hoaxes. On campuses across the country, entire programs are devoted to indoctrinating students into believing that they are oppressed by an institutionalized web of bigoted evil called “whiteness,” which must be dismantled to make way for racial justice. This is how white supremacy gets empowered. None of this is to suggest that white supremacy does not exist; of course it does, and it is an ugliness that should not be tolerated, just as, say, Islamic supremacism should not be tolerated. Bigotry – against people of any color – like the kind in which Democrats regularly traffic, should always be called out and rejected. But contrary to the mainstream media Narrative, and contrary to Moore’s racist fear-mongering, neo-Nazis are not on the verge of establishing a Fourth Reich, and Donald Trump is not their new Hitler. If Michael Moore were just another celebrity useful idiot like actor Robert De Niro spouting identity politics talking points, he wouldn’t be so noteworthy. But the hypocritical demagogue represents everything that is wrong with today’s Democrats in general. He stands for every radical position held by the leftists who control the Party. A multi-millionaire with numerous homes around the country, he is a loud-and-proud anti-capitalist supporter of the Occupy Wall Street anarchists. He calls himself a patriot but travels the world bashing and apologizing for America to fawning foreign audiences. While claiming to be a lifelong Catholic, he responded to the 2019 Alabama law outlawing abortion by smearing the state as “Talibama” – because protecting the unborn is obviously a human rights atrocity equivalent to Afghanistan Muslims stoning women to death. Though he travels with heavily-armed guards, he opposes the Second Amendment and demonizes the National Rifle Association as a “terrorist organization” worse than ISIS, claiming that Americans have so many guns because “too many white people are afraid of black people. Period.” An open borders proponent (“There’s plenty of room here” in America, he has said stupidly), he lies about the Trump administration’s immigration policies to stoke further racial animus. Predictably, he is also a climate change hysteric. And although white himself, Moore is, as I’ve noted, one of the left’s most vocal and vicious anti-white racists. On every issue, to sum up, he is fully onboard with the platforms of the radical left, otherwise known now as the Democrat Party. A month ago, Moore himself confirmed the point. “I am the center. I am the mainstream now of the Democratic Party,” he told MSNBC, claiming falsely that most Americans agree with his positions. Most Americans do not. More and more Americans are waking up to the fact that Donald Trump is making America great again, and that Democrats like Michael Moore hate him – and his supporters – for that. ———————- Mark Tapson, a Hollywood-based writer and screenwriter, is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and the editor of TruthRevolt.com Tags: Mark Tapson, FrontPage Mag, Stupid White Man, Michael Moore To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
| Trump’s ‘Failures’Posted: 30 Dec 2019 07:46 PM PSTVictor Davis Hansonby Dr. Victor Davis Hanson: The Left, far better than the NeverTrump Right, grasped that Trump is succeeding, and that it has little traction in demanding economic, energy, immigration, trade, and regulatory alternatives. It is popular on the NeverTrump Right and everyone on the Left to claim that President Trump has “failed” as we head into an election year. But his supposed failures are instructive. Take the wall. True, Trump certainly in the last three years has not come close to building an envisioned initial phase of 1,000 miles or so of border fencing to stop the easiest access to the United States, much less made Mexico pay for it. Yet even his critics concede he relentlessly tried—and are fearful he will soon succeed. There are some considerations to keep in mind. In some sense, we have had no wall at all, given that previous chain-link and thrown-up steel barriers were hardly impediments, at least in critical free-passage zones. Trump is addressing this. A recent Economist article lamented the fact that Trump is, in fact, slowly building a wall and replacing previous makeshift barriers in a manner that supposedly will have negative results—as defined by proponents of open borders—and “irrevocably change America’s south-western border.” To move toward what the Economist believes is an existential redefinition of the border, the president has gone to court to fight constant lawsuits, scraped together almost $10 billion from previous allocations, as well as siphoning and redirecting funds from various agencies, shutting down the government from December 22, 2018 through January 25, and prompted a near-crisis with the Mexican government—and yet so far built only 66 miles of replacement walling and about nine miles of new barriers. Trump’s critics would argue his temperament needlessly caused such gridlock and stasis. His supporters would reply that no other leader would have fought on so many fronts to build a wall on the southern border—a program that is anathema to the entire Left and most of the libertarian Right. After all that fighting, the money and the momentum are turning in Trump’s favor, as border crossings have dived over the last six months. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection predicts that by the end of 2020 there will be 450 miles of new walling and another 60 miles started. The Left is beginning to worry that its intersectional doctrines cannot address increased job opportunities for entry-level African American workers when deportations of illegal aliens proceed. Again, the point is that after three years of mockery insisting Trump has not built his wall, he nonetheless has attempted almost every imaginable method to do it. And now the invective over the last few months has begun to alter. If Trump between 2017 and 2019 was mocked as an obsessive Ahab pathetically and in vain chasing his Great White Wall, he now is being redefined as a dangerous xenophobe, whose American version of the Maginot Line may soon become dangerously reified. The same ambiguity is true of many of Trump’s other “failures.” The Right Direction on Trade and China On trade, for much of Trump’s tenure, U.S. trade deficits increased and gyrated, in a pattern not much different from the latter years of the Obama administration. So far, Trump has been widely pilloried as a reckless protectionist, a mercantile Quixote jousting at Chinese windmills, without any idea of sophisticated trade theory and hopeless naïve in his effort to confront the Chinese colossus by 19th-century tariff policies and Napoleonic Continentalism. But again, recently it appears things may be changing, if only incrementally. The September trade deficit was $52 billion, and in October, $47 billion, the lowest in 17 months. That’s still far too high, but moving in the right direction without prompting the supposedly inevitable recession. So, the recent reduction cannot all be attributed to recessionary pressures that in the past have ossified trade in general. Rather the trade deficit decline occurs at a time when the United States has maintained historic low unemployment, a record-high stock market, and steady increases in workers’ wages, all during an era of low interest and low inflation. One can make the argument that trade deficits don’t matter, or that Trump’s “trade war” with China was nihilistic. But one cannot deny that, unlike during the last four administrations, the United States finally has begun questioning all of the conventional-wisdom assumptions of the prior 30-year trade relationship with China—so often characterized by Chinese patent infringement, trademark violations, technology appropriation, dumping, and currency manipulation. We currently are in the midst of a high-risk, radical recalibration with China, of which trade deficits are central, but not all that is at stake. The United States is dealing with a number of Chinese-related crises: in Hong Kong, the reeducation-camps, the Orwellian nature of the Chinese government, and the growing imperialism of the Silk Road network abroad. Under Trump, there is at least the chance that China will be forced to curb its predatory trade practices. In contrast, the prior bipartisan orthodoxy that concessions would win Chinese favor, enrich its population, and soon lead to liberalization of 1.4 billion affluent consumers was unhinged—to the degree it was sincere and not just a hackneyed circumlocution for corporate outsourcing production to China. What “America First” Looks Like U.S. energy production continues to rise, given even more federal lands have been opened up to leasing. Frackers and horizontal drillers no longer feel that they are enemies of the people, but are recognized as saviors who provide America with flexibility in foreign policy and inexpensive energy for the middle classes. In 2017, the United States became the largest producer of oil in the world. Gas prices in real dollars remain low. Abroad, most of the traditional talking points of conservatives have been reified. The U.S. embassy to Israel is now in Jerusalem. The Golan Heights are not going back to the murderous Assad regime. Hundreds of millions of dollars less in U.S. aid not being rerouted through the United Nations to a corrupt Palestinian authority. The Iran nuclear deal is toast. Iran is not growing its tentacles over Syria and Iraq, but is broke and reeling. The only irony is that those who used to demand such action blast Trump as a failure for actually turning their parlor talk into reality. Was Reagan a failure in 1983 and early 1984, as he sought to liberate the economy and break inflation—as the economy went into a tailspin? Or was he savior by election time 1984 as the economy was growing over 7 percent per year? For better or worse, we are now fundamentally recalibrating the United States—not just redressing the prior Obama transformation, but the policies of past Republican administrations as well. And no one quite knows where it will end, given that almost all our experts who swore in January 2017 that the economy would tank were wrong. They were wrong again with their prediction of a late summer 2019 recession. And they may well be wrong again that confronting China would ensure a global trade cataclysm. Never underestimate how greatly the hatred of Donald Trump can warp the mind of a Ph.D. Fear of Trump’s Success Underneath It All So we are watching a great experiment, as all of our past de facto assumptions about regulations, immigration, identity politics, trade, workers’ wages, manufacturing, the Middle East, China, Russia, and overseas interventions are all at once under sometimes chaotic reexamination. We won’t know to what degree Trump won his battles against a now hard-leftist Democratic Party, the NeverTrump Right, the media, the academic and cultural elite, Silicon Valley, Hollywood, and the Washington deep state until he finishes his first term. In 2020 the people will decide whether such risks were worth taking. But the idea that Trump has “failed,” when the economy is booming, the United States is energy independent, the border is becoming a border again, China is on notice that the past 30 years of appeasement are over, the military is far stronger, and U.S. foreign policy is being radically recalibrated is absolutely absurd. Impeachment was never about Trump’s failures, but about fears of his perceived successes. The Left, far better than the NeverTrump Right, grasped that Trump is succeeding, and that it has little traction in demanding economic, energy, immigration, trade, and regulatory alternatives. Its lunatic multi-trillion-dollar proposals ensure that it cannot attack Trump on the deficit where he is weakest. As a result, the Left rightly concluded that its only hope to save the progressive agenda is to destroy Trump before the people can vote on his agenda, which they rightly fear is succeeding. —————– Victor Davis Hanson (@VDHanson) is a senior fellow, classicist and historian and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution where many of his articles are found; his focus is classics and military history. He has been a visiting professor at Hillsdale College since 2004. Hanson was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2007 by President George W. Bush. H/T American Greatness. Tags: Victor Davis Hanson, Trump’s Failures, American Greatness To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
| Extinction Rebellion Founder Confirms That Global Warming Is Voodoo SciencePosted: 30 Dec 2019 07:32 PM PSTby J. Frank Bullitt, I & I Editorial Board: Global warming protests, past the point of absurdity long ago, have become even more extreme thanks to a relatively new group from England. The founder’s background shows exactly why the organization has chosen to engage in the mindless behavior it’s become known for. Though she has a doctorate in molecular biophysics, Extinction Rebellion architect Gail Bradbrook, called a “neo-pagan” by Britain’s Daily Mail, intentionally went down a path filled with folklore, superstition, tribal rites, and primitive hallucinogenics. She’s a “lifelong activist,” reports CNN, who has “spent decades working on an array of social justice campaigns,” though few ever lead to real change. So, “in order to bring about real, radical change, Bradbrook felt like something inside her consciousness needed to be unlocked.” In search of whatever she thought was missing, Bradbrook “traveled to the jungle-covered mountains of Costa Rica,” where she found “a psychedelic retreat.” There she gulped “a flood dose of Iboga, a tree bark used to induce visions,” consumed Kambo, “the poisonous secretion of a giant tree frog hailed for its healing powers,” and drank a “hallucinogenic brew” called ayahuasca. “All,” reports CNN, “have been used in indigenous cultures for centuries as part of Shamanic spiritual rituals.” In a story earlier this year, Bradbrook told the Daily Mail she had been focused on rabble rousing since 2010 and had “tried many things.” When “they didn’t work,” Bradbrook said she “went on a retreat and prayed in a deep way with some psychedelic medicines.” This appears to be the same event described by CNN, in which, under the influence of ayahuasca, Bradbrook sought the counsel of supernatural forces, praying for “the universe to show her the ‘codes for social change.’” Then “two years later,” says CNN, “Extinction Rebellion was born.” We imagine the “mystic ‘moon circles’” Bradbrook held with female XR colleagues “inside a tepee, at which they ingest another ‘natural’ drug, mugwort, used by ancient Celts,” as reported by the Daily Mail, probably started soon thereafter. Bradbrook’s, well, let’s call them idiosyncracies, explain a lot about Extinction Rebellion. It has employed such dopy stunts as blocking the entrance to an airport, claiming ownership of it, invading its secure areas, and climbing atop a jetliner. It once “protested” by spraying fake blood from a retired fire truck, and has blocked automobile and foot traffic in New York City, Washington, D.C., and London. Some of its dimmer members have glued themselves to government buildings, at least one train, and the ground. Bradbrook herself was arrested this fall for “criminal damage after allegedly smashing a bullet-proof window at the Home Office with a chisel and hammer,” according to the British Metro news. “In her police interview the defendant said she acted to draw attention to the cause and compared her actions to the suffragettes in smashing windows to get the vote,” Metro reported. Extinction Rebellion’s foolishness has had no impact on the climate nor greenhouse gas emissions, but it’s made life miserable for the commuters and travelers who have been the victims of XR’s tantrums. One group’s “civil disobedience” is another’s intolerable nuisance. We can hear the chirping out there, telling us that Bradbrook’s wizardry and XR’s bizarre behavior do not undercut the “science” of the global warming narrative. But they do. In fact, they confirm the observation that the global warming movement is itself a religious cult. The bible of climate alarmism defines sin (burning fossil fuels), offers absolution (going green), demands proselytization (which looks a lot like bullying) and indoctrination (teachers filling young minds with their political views), encourages zealotry (obvious to all but the zealots), and even designates a savior (Greta Thunberg). Within the alarmist belief system, there exists “absolute authoritarianism without meaningful accountability,” and zero “tolerance for questions or critical inquiry.” What a world we live in. A scientist abandons her discipline, replaces it with a witch doctor’s mysticism, and yet it’s the global warming skeptics, not the members of the Ouija board crowd, who are constantly condemned for being “anti-science.” ——————— J. Frank Bullitt writes for the Issues & Insights (@InsightsIssues) the I & I Editorial Board formed by the seasoned journalists behind the legendary IBD Editorials page. Tags: J. Frank Bullitt, Issues & Insights, I&I editorial Board, Extinction Rebellion Founder, Confirms That Global Warming, Is Voodoo Science To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
| Should Racists Get Health Care?Posted: 30 Dec 2019 07:10 PM PSTDr. Ron Paul by Dr. Ron Paul: Political correctness recently took a dangerous turn in the United Kingdom when the North Bristol National Health Service Trust announced that hospital patients who use offensive, racist, or sexist language will cease receiving medical care as soon as it is safe to end their treatment. The condition that treatment will not be withdrawn until doing so is safe seems to imply that no one will actually suffer from this policy. However, health-care providers have great discretion to determine when it is “safe” to withhold treatment. So, patients could be left with chronic pain or be denied certain procedures that could improve their health but are not necessary to make them “safe.” Patients accused of racism or sexism could also find themselves at the bottom of the NHS’s infamous “waiting lists,” unable to receive treatment until it truly is a matter of life and death. Since many people define racism and sexism as “anything I disagree with,” the new policy will no doubt lead to people being denied medical care for statements that most reasonable people would consider unobjectionable. This is not the first time NHS has withheld treatment because of an individual’s behavior. A couple years ago, another local health committee announced it would withhold routine or nonemergency surgeries from smokers and the obese. Since reducing smoking and obesity benefits both individual patients and the health care system as a whole, this policy may appear defensible. But denying or delaying care violates medical ethics and sets a dangerous precedent. If treatment could be denied to smokers and the obese, then it could also be denied to those who engage in promiscuous sex, drive over the speed limit, don’t get the “proper” number of vaccinations for themselves and their children, or have “dangerous” political views. Government bureaucrats denying care to individuals for arbitrary reasons is the inevitable result of government interference in the health-care market. Government intervention is supposed to ensure quality and affordable (or free) care for all. But, government intervention artificially lowers the costs of health care to patients while increasing costs to providers. As demand rises and supply falls, government imposes rationing to address the shortages and other problems caused by prior government interference. Rationing has been part of American health care at least since the passage of the Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1973. Every plan to expand government’s role in health care contains some form of rationing. Advocates for government intervention in health care will counter complaints about rationing by saying the related health-care decisions are being made to benefit people’s quality of life. But, claiming government officials know how medical treatment can best enhance quality of life is as absurd as claiming that government officials know the correct prices of automobiles. The only way to reverse the slide into national health care and rationing is for those who understand the economic and moral case for liberty to keep pushing to replace Obamacare and all other government intrusions into health care. Government-controlled health care must be replaced by free-market health care that empowers individuals to determine for themselves what does and does not enhance their quality of life. ————————— Dr. Ron Paul (@ronpaul), Chairman of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, is a former U.S.Congressman (R-TX). He twice sought the Republican nomination for President. As a MD, he was an Air Force flight surgeon and has delivered over 4000 babies. Paul writes on numerous topics but focuses on monetary policies, the military-industrial complex,the Federal Reserve, and compliance with the U.S. Constitution. Tags: Ron Paul, Ron Paul Institute, Should Racists Get Health Care? To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
| Politicians & PainPosted: 30 Dec 2019 07:04 PM PSTby Paul Jacob, Contributing Author: Whenever a new panic runs through corporate media and the grapevine — and especially when the lesson is supposed to be ‘we’ve gotta do something!’ — it is time to slow down. And look at the facts. The opioid crisis is one of those panics. The almost immediate reaction from politicians has been to point their quivering fingers at doctors and drug companies on the theory that doctors have been over-prescribing opiates, instigated by pharmaceutical companies. Seems a ‘round up the usual suspects’ approach to public health. Now there appears to be good research to back up our skepticism. According to Cato’s Jeffrey A. Singer, recent studies show “there is no correlation between opioid prescription volume and non-medical use or opioid use disorder among persons age 12 and over.” Nevertheless, Dr. Singer notes, “policymakers and law enforcement continue to pressure health care practitioners into undertreating patients in pain.” An under-treatment result is scarier, to me, than the desperate and dangerous self-medication problem that must lie at the core of the crisis we read about. Patients in too much pain because doctors are afraid of government harassment are pushed to unsupervised pain management . . . which looks an awful lot like a simple description of the opioid crisis itself. Singer provides confirmation of an unintended effect: the fentanyl and heroin overdose rate “continues apace” even as the opioid prescription volume plummets. “At a recent international breast cancer conference experts stated the under-prescribing of opioids to breast cancer patients in the U.S. is now comparable to treatment in third world countries,” warned Singer. One word: yikes. I am tempted to define today’s politics itself as a kind of pain mismanagement. This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob. —————— Paul Jacob (@Common_Sense_PJ ) is author of Common Sense which provides daily commentary about the issues impacting America and about the citizens who are doing something about them. He is also President of the Liberty Initiative Fund (LIFe) as well as Citizens in Charge Foundation. Jacob is a contributing author on the ARRA News Service. Tags: Paul Jacob, Common Sense, Politicians & Pain To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
| Eddie Gallagher’s Attorney Says He’ll Sue NY Times, Claiming ‘Fake Reporting’Posted: 30 Dec 2019 06:54 PM PSTNavy Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagherby Gina Harkins: Hours after a bombshell report showed Navy SEALs making damning claims against their former platoon leader, Eddie Gallagher’s attorney said he’s planning to file a lawsuit against the reporter who broke the story. Gallagher, who recently retired as a Navy chief petty officer after President Donald Trump intervened in his long legal plight, was back in the headlines Friday when The New York Times published video footage it obtained of several SEALs accusing their leader of war crimes. The footage includes serious accusations of a combat-hungry Gallagher firing indiscriminately at Iraqi civilians. One SEAL claimed Gallagher targeted women and children, according to the Times’ footage, with the chief boasting that “burqas were flying.” Gallagher’s teammates called the former SEAL “toxic” and “freaking evil.” The chief was “perfectly OK with killing anybody that was moving,” claimed Special Operator 1st Class Corey Scott, who later changed his story and testified that he, not Gallagher, was responsible for a man’s death in Iraq in 2017. The sometimes-emotional footage came from initial interviews the Naval Criminal Investigative Service conducted with members of SEAL Team 7 after allegations emerged that Gallagher stabbed an unarmed Islamic State group fighter. The New York Times published portions of the interviews as part of its documentary series called “The Weekly,” which airs on FX and streams on Hulu. But Tim Parlatore, Gallagher’s lawyer, said the Times “cherry-picked” footage, ignoring his client’s side of the story. “Fake reporting” is how Parlatore described it Friday. “We’re filing a lawsuit against Dave Philipps,” Parlatore said, referring to The New York Times reporter behind the story. Reached by email, Philipps said the Times “stands by its reporting.” He did not respond to criticism from Parlatore that Philipps ignored additional facts presented to him that didn’t make it into his coverage. “I’ve sent him so many things to make sure that he tries to get the story right, and he just willfully ignores it and refuses to print any retractions,” Parlatore said. “… He has really crossed the line on this thing.” That included examples of death threats the Gallagher family has received, the lawyer added. He called the Times’ decision to air unsworn, unchallenged videos of NCIS interviews “an embarrassment for journalism.” The SEALs’ initial claims about Gallagher didn’t hold up in court, Parlatore said, and the Times didn’t do enough to convey that in its coverage. The lawyer called the videos a “treasure trove” for Gallagher’s defense team, citing inconsistencies and other problems with the SEALs’ initial video interviews. All of that played out in the courtroom, he added, where Gallagher was acquitted of murder charges. The SEAL was found guilty only of inappropriately posing for a photo with an enemy corpse. “This is the very bedrock of our Constitution, that people have to have the right to face their accuser in court,” Parlatore said. “What Dave Philipps is asking everybody to do is to ignore the fact that Eddie Gallagher exercised his constitutional rights, faced his accusers in court, poked holes in their stories — ignore all of that and go back to the initial videos.” Gallagher’s case has been fraught with controversy, reaching the highest levels of Navy leadership and even contributing to the service’s top civilian leader being removed from his job over his handling of the situation. Trump intervened on Gallagher’s behalf several times. That included moving him to less-restrictive confinement ahead of his trial, restoring his rank to chief petty officer after his guilty verdict, and preventing the Navy from stripping Gallagher of his coveted SEAL trident pin. Trump also ordered the Navy to rescind awards given to the prosecution, which failed to secure a conviction in the SEAL’s trial and prompted a Navy- and Marine Corps-wide legal review. The lead prosecutor was also removed mid-trial after admitting to emailing tracking devices to a journalist and several defense attorneys to identify parties leaking information about the case to the media. ————————- Gina Harkins @GinaAHarkins reports on the Marine Corps, Navy and Coast Guard for Military.com. Tags: Gina Harkins, Military.com, Eddie Gallagher’s Attorney, Says He’ll Sue NY Times, Claiming ‘Fake Reporting’ To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
| How Liberals Rewrite the History of the Clinton ImpeachmentPosted: 30 Dec 2019 06:23 PM PSTby David Ditch: Amid the drama surrounding impeachment, both parties came together on one area of shared support: spending enormous amounts of taxpayer dollars and adding to the $23.1 trillion national debt. Congress had little time to properly review fiscal 2020 spending bills, which weighed in at more than 2,000 pages of clunky text. The legislation contained a multitude of flaws, including lobbyist-driven handouts and a private-pension bailout that could open the door for even larger bailouts down the line. This is a business-as-usual conclusion to an irresponsible decade. The degree to which Washington has been reckless with the nation’s finances is hard to comprehend. Since 2010, the federal government has spent $293,750 per household. Federal spending started the decade at an artificially high level due to the 2009 “economic-stimulus” package. There was a slight dip after the stimulus ended, and the tea party wave ushered in a brief period of restraint in Congress. Sadly, this flicker of responsibility was short-lived. According to the Office of Management and Budget and the Congressional Budget Office, federal spending totaled $37.6 trillion from 2010 through 2019. Spread across 128 million households (per the Census Bureau), that yields $293,750 in spending for every household. Federal spending in 2019 was equivalent to the combined economies of 16 states. In fiscal 2019, which ended Sept. 30, the federal government doled out $4.4 trillion. The full scope of that much money is virtually impossible for the human mind to grasp. One way to understand the sheer enormity is by comparing it to the size of state economies. To match the amount that the federal government spent in fiscal 2019, one would need to add the total economic output of Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, and Wisconsin. We should treat the notion that this level of federal activity is too small with deep skepticism. Spending per household is up 47% since 2000. The federal government spent $34,700 per household in 2019, which is serious money no matter what part of the country you live in. Is nearly $35,000 per household too much spending? To put it in context, we can go back to the last time the economy had a surging stock market and unemployment under 4%, the year 2000. Back then, federal spending was about $2.49 trillion after adjusting for inflation. Divided by the number of households in 2000, the government spent just $23,600 per household in today’s dollars. That means that the spending increase from 2000 to now is a staggering 47% per household, even after controlling for inflation. In real terms, the federal government is nearly half-again larger than it was less than two decades ago. The budget would balance today if spending had grown more modestly. With the federal government growing so quickly, it should come as no surprise that this year’s deficit likely will exceed $1 trillion, even if the economy remains strong. Some on the left counter that the high deficits are primarily the fault of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, signed into law just before Christmas 2017, and that the solution is funneling more taxpayer dollars to Washington. That assertion is incorrect. Once again, a comparison to 2000 is instructive. Revenue per household, adjusted for inflation, was $26,750 in 2000. Today, it’s roughly $27,000, even after the 2017 tax cut. If federal spending had grown based only on population and inflation starting in 2000, today’s trillion-dollar deficit would turn into a surplus. Policymakers should recognize that the federal government has grown far too quickly. Since there is no way to undo the past, they should take some prudent steps to return the country to sound financial footing. First, Congress should trim excessive spending that has accumulated over the years. The Heritage Foundation’s Blueprint for Balance offers hundreds of policy ideas to save money by eliminating waste, making Social Security and Medicare sustainable, and slashing perks for politically connected industries. Second, Congress should enact meaningful guardrails that rein in future spending growth. One model for reform comes from Switzerland, where the budget balances over the course of a business cycle. Closer to home, the “taxpayer bill of rights” approved by Colorado voters in 1992 limits spending based on a combination of revenue, inflation, and population growth. Such rules would create headaches for Washington by forcing big-spending members of Congress to make tough decisions, rather than all of them getting what they want by abusing the national credit card. Yet this would merely force legislators to behave the way most families do every day; namely, pay for necessities first, and only add extras if there’s cash to spare. Congress is ending the decade on a note of fiscal irresponsibility, but next year lawmakers have a fresh chance to do right by America. —————————– David Ditch (@davidaditch) is a research assistant in the Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget at The Heritage Foundation / The Daily Signal. Tags: David Ditch, Heritage Foundation, The Daily Signal, How Liberals, Rewrite, History, Clinton Impeachment To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. 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| How Liberals Rewrite the History of the Clinton ImpeachmentPosted: 30 Dec 2019 05:50 PM PSTThen-President Bill Clinton addresses the nation Dec. 19, 1998, from the White House after the House of Representatives impeached him on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. by David Harsanyi: The “striking” difference between the Bill Clinton and Donald Trump impeachments, argue MSNBC hosts and others in the media, was not only the willingness of Clinton to “show contrition,” but the willingness of his supporters to acknowledge that the president had done something wrong. Let’s not let liberals rewrite history. In the real world, Clinton, with help from the entire Democratic Party, kept earnestly lying to anyone who would listen—the media, the American people, a grand jury—until physical evidence compelled him to admit what he had done. His subsequent “contrition,” as impeachment picked up steam, was a matter of political survival. The notion that Trump engaged in “bribery” is debatable. The notion that Clinton perjured himself is not. If it hadn’t been for the Drudge Report bypassing the institutional media, in fact, Newsweek, still an influential magazine in 1998, would likely have sat on the Monica Lewinsky story until after the Clinton presidency had ended. This was probably the first time that online alternative media exposed corrupt coverage, and it certainly wasn’t the last. Then again, even after Drudge reported on Lewinsky’s semen-stained blue dress, Clinton still lied about his affair to the country, famously saying, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.” His wife, Hillary, who almost surely knew the truth, told Matt Lauer that a “vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for president” was responsible for the charges. Sounds familiar. If it hadn’t been for Linda Tripp recording her calls, Lewinsky would doubtlessly have been smeared by the Clinton janissaries like so many other women before her. These were the virtuous days before Trump hit Washington, when the White House was running a “nuts or sluts” operation to protect the president, led by James Carville, who said that Clinton accuser Paula Jones was the kind of person you found “if you drag a hundred-dollar bill through a trailer park.” Talk about projection. It wasn’t until Tripp had handed Lewinsky’s blue dress to investigator Ken Starr, who then concluded that the president had lied during sworn testimony, that Clinton finally admitted to the affair. And really, what else was Clinton going to do? Argue that it was acceptable to lie under oath and carry on sexual relationships with 23-year-old interns in the White House—sometimes while your wife and daughter and world leaders mingled in the other rooms? More significantly, what liberals ignore is that Clinton’s Starr-induced penitence was largely beside the point. Clinton wasn’t impeached for acting like a dog; he was impeached for perjuring himself and obstructing justice—on 11 very specific criminal actions—in a sexual harassment case. And any perfunctory willingness by his allies to admit wrongdoing was quickly overwhelmed by a Democratic Party rallying around the notion that Clinton had actually been the victim of “sexual McCarthyism,” a vacuous term that would be repeated endlessly on television by his supporters. Alan Dershowitz, then a Clinton defender, wrote an entire book titled “Sexual McCarthyism.” Worse, the entire country was soon plunged into an insufferably stupid debate over whether being fellated by an intern in the Oval Office should even be considered a sexual encounter. John Conyers’ testimony defending Clinton’s perjury on these grounds on the House floor makes some of today’s defenses of Trump sound like the Catiline orations. Then again, Democrats largely offered the same arguments then that the GOP does today. “The Republican right wing in this country doesn’t like it when we say coup d’etat,” said Rep. Jose E. Serrano, D-N.Y. “So I’ll make it easier for them. Golpe de estado. That’s Spanish for overthrowing a government.” “Not all coups are accompanied by the sound of marching boots and rolling tanks,” said Rep. Nita M. Lowey, D-N.Y. “I rise in strong opposition to this attempt at a bloodless coup d’etat, this attempt to overturn two national elections,” explained Rep. Eliot L. Engel, D-N.Y. “This partisan coup d’etat will go down in infamy in the history of this nation,” Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said. And on and on it went in the House. In the end, there would not be a single patriotic Democratic senator who was brave enough to stand up for the American justice system, for women, or for decency. Every single one of them chose partisan interests over their country and the cult of Clinton over the Constitution. (That’s how it’s done, right?) Now, just as it’s debatable whether Trump’s Ukrainian call rises to the level of an impeachable offense, it was debatable whether Clinton’s actions warranted it. (I tend to think not.) There’s no debate, however, that Clinton had an affair with a subordinate in the White House and then lied about that affair under oath. His partisan allies did whatever they needed to save him because the notion that rank partisanship was discovered in 2016 is nothing but revisionism. ————————— David Harsanyi @davidharsanyi is a senior editor at The Federalist and the author of “The People Have Spoken (and They Are Wrong): The Case Against Democracy.” This article was shared by The Daily Signal. Tags: David Harsanyi, The Federalist, The Daily Signal, How Liberals, Rewrite, History, Clinton Impeachment To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
| In 2020, These 5 Things Will Make Big NnewsPosted: 30 Dec 2019 05:37 PM PSTby Newt Gingrich: Don’t let the headline of this piece fool you. There are far more than five things that we need to watch closely in 2020. It’s probably closer to 40 important things we need to watch and plan for – and a great many of those would be impossible to predict now. However, there are a few pieces of news or upcoming events which will doubtlessly have a serious impact on the world. These are what I decided to focus on for this week’s episode of “Newt’s World.” But, first, there is one caveat: The truth is, no one knows what 2020 is actually going to be like – and we won’t until we are living it. In 2015, no one knew Donald Trump would be the Republican nominee. In 2016, virtually all the supposed experts in the mainstream media were certain Hillary Clinton would be president. And in 2017, all the elites believed President Trump’s policies would destroy our economy and security. Yet, now, we are living with an incredible economy, record-low unemployment, raising wages, and a much stronger military. I point this out to caution everyone against trying to predict the future, and to reiterate that I’m not going to try. With all this in mind, I did want to point out five topics that we can start with to get a good understanding as we enter 2020. Clearly, the top of the list is the 2020 presidential election and the totality of the Trump campaign. It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that this is on the list, so I’ll let you listen more to my thoughts on this on the episode. Second, I talk about the rise of Prime Minister Boris Johnson in the United Kingdom and the impact of Brexit – and how the U.S.-British and U.S.-European relationships might be affected in 2020. No one could have predicted Johnson’s rise, and so now America is facing a new, dynamic opportunity. Third, I discuss North Korea. This is a big wild card. As always, if Kim Jong Un decides to go off the deep end, then North Korea could become an explosive problem. In a matter of 20 minutes, it could be the center of the world in terms of danger and threat. Fourth, I wanted to talk about China writ large – but specifically focus on the political conflict in Hong Kong and the race to master the 5G global marketplace. These are two real breakpoints in the current U.S.-China relationship – which is one of the greatest challenges we face. Finally, I close the episode talking about the drug crisis in America and the Mexican cartels who are, in part, driving it. I think we are really underestimating how big a problem this is and how hard it’s going to be to solve. We cannot simply blame bad Mexican drug dealers. The truth is, if there weren’t a lot of Americans buying all these drugs, you wouldn’t have cartels. They wouldn’t have any money. Consider these thought-starters. 2020 is going to present even more pressing challenges and opportunities for America that we don’t yet know exist. I hope you will listen to this week’s episode of “Newt’s World,” so we can all begin 2020 prepared and ready to make sure it is a good year for America. ———————- Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) is a former Georgia Congressman and Speaker of the U.S. House. He co-authored and was the chief architect of the “Contract with America” and a major leader in the Republican victory in the 1994 congressional elections. He is noted speaker and writer. He shares commentary was shared via Gingrich Productions. H/T Fox News. Tags: Newt Gingrich, commentary, Fox News, In 2020, These 5 Things, Will Make, Big News To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
| The Hellish Dingell LegacyPosted: 30 Dec 2019 05:18 PM PSTThe Dingellsby Daniel Greenfield: A decade ago, Time Magazine unveiled an in-depth article on the death of Detroit. One of the politicians whom the article blamed for Detroit’s woes was Rep. John Dingell. The Dingell clan has held a congressional seat outside Detroit since 1932. Their 87-year tenure has not coincidentally coincided with the decline of a thriving industrial city into a post-apocalyptic wasteland. But it’s been good for the Dingells, three of whom have sat in their congressional seat since the days of Herbert Hoover, the rise of Hitler, and the radio age, and fattened their pockets on its sinecures. Dingell Sr. was the son of Polish immigrants who started out in politics as a union boss, jumped into a newly created seat, and kept it through eleven elections before passing it on to his son. Dingell Jr, outdid daddy by becoming the longest serving member of Congress in American history. Before he died, he passed on the seat to his second wife, whom he married when she was 28 and he was 55 years old. She was a GM lobbyist who married the Congressman from GM. What was good for GM was good for the Dingells. By 2014, Dingell Jr. was listed as the third richest member of Congress from Michigan with a net worth of $3.5 million. When Debbie took over for him next year, her net worth was up to $3.6 million. The salary for House members was $174,000. The median household income is $57,000 in the 12th. Not bad for a family whose business was and is the 12th district from western Detroit through Ann Arbor. Much of the Dingell money came through GM. And Rep. John Dingell had vocally fought for the GM bailout. The GM couple, which had millions in GM stock, had a lot riding on taxpayers bailing them out. Taxpayers spent billions and the Dingells got millions in an arrangement made in the depths of hell. Even though Rep. Debbie Dingell ran unopposed in the Democrat primary, and even though she was running for office in one of the most heavily Democrat districts in the country, she still raised over $1 million for that campaign, and another $1.2 million for 2018, and is already up to half a million now. Even though no one running in the 12th whose last name is Dingell could lose an election to Abe Lincoln. Where’s the money coming from? Unions, PACs, including the GM PAC, the Ford PAC, Walmart, and, insurance companies. GM, Ford, and Chrysler had also been paying her an undisclosed salary before she took over her husband’s congressional seat. It was a very neat arrangement. The Dingells take care of them and they take care of the Dingells. Everyone else can go to hell. Despite Rep. John Dingell’s motorcade pausing at the Capitol, and the gushing tributes to the “longest-serving” member of Congress, even his own party loathed him in life. In 1996, the New York Times called him a “bully”. Some years earlier, Bloomberg had accused him of the, “bullying of bureaucrats, executives, and colleagues.” “In the arrogance of his power, he terrorized individuals and institutions that he wanted to humble,” Anthony Lewis wrote in the Times. “There isn’t an industry in the country not touched by our committee,” Rep. John Dingell had bragged. That includes finance which dragged him into the BCCI scandal through a $10,000 contribution and a mortgage on a home in McLean, Virginia. After ruling the Committee on Energy and Commerce for 28 years, his own party grew tired of him and unprecedentedly forced him out in 2008. The overthrow of the corrupt “old bull” was the work of none other than Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Despite eventually becoming the longest-serving member of the House, it was his fellow Democrats who conspired to take away the privileges of his seniority. All that has been forgotten. Dingell’s descriptions of Asians as “little yellow people”, his greed, shameless abuse of power, and arrogance were replaced with empty tributes to his greatness. President Trump hasn’t forgotten. And so, at a campaign rally in Michigan, Trump recalled a phone call from Rep. Debbie Dingell on her husband’s funeral. “‘He’s looking down, he’d be so thrilled,’” He recalled her saying. “I said, that’s okay, don’t worry about it. Maybe he’s looking up, I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. Maybe. Maybe. But let’s assume he’s looking down.” The locals laughed. It was impossible to be from Michigan, to have had a front row seat to the antics of the Dingell clan which practically date back to the birth of mass automobile ownership, and imagine “Big John” in heaven. The image of the old crooked thug with wings and a harp is hopelessly laughable. It’s easy to imagine him looking up, but President Trump generously tried to assume otherwise. This isn’t the first time that Trump has gotten into trouble for bluntly poking fun at the niceties of a political industry where every crook is “honorable” and everyone pretends to believe it in public. Does Speaker Pelosi really believe that Rep. John Dingell was a saint? If she does, why did she conspire to take away his chairmanship, against precedent and the seniority rules of the road? Do the New York Times and Bloomberg want to apologize for calling him a bully? John Dingell was not a nice guy. Nobody seriously thinks he would have been traumatized by the suggestion that he might not be going to heaven. This was a man who admired a tombstone that read, “He’s done his damnedest.” There’s two ways to read that one. But Dingell never pretended to be a saint. His calling card was hauling pork back to his district and supporting local companies. Like GM. Nor did he restrain his rhetoric. “I’ve read enough of that Steele dossier to know just how risky a ‘used Trump hotel mattress’ can truly be,” he tweeted in 2018, referencing a smear by the Clinton campaign. But Trump reached out to Rep. Debbie Dingell. John got a nice funeral in Washington D.C. And Debbie responded by voting to impeach President Trump for the smears of her fellow Democrats. Nor is Debbie a nice person. At one point she inveighed against the, “the 13 white boys–sorry to say it that way–that are going to be doing this in the Senate”. So much for civility and collegiality. Was Trump really supposed to pretend that this racist, thieving clan is heavenly? The D.C. political class throws a fit every time President Trump speaks bluntly about members of the swamp. And Rep. John Dingell wasn’t just part of the swamp. He owned his own mire. In his days ruling the Committee on Energy and Commerce with an iron fist, he would define his jurisdiction by pointing at the planet. These days his ambit, wherever it may be, is a whole lot smaller. And that’s for the best. There’s a place for civility and collegiality. And had the Dingell clan sailed off into the sunset, maybe we could all remember them fondly the way we do the Hapsburgs, the Bourbons, and the Gambinos. But they’re not going anywhere. That’s what this is all about. After John Sr, came John Jr, and after John Jr. came Debbie, and after Debbie will come Christopher, currently a Michigan judge, and on and on, endless generations of Dingells, marching through the House, porking, thieving, and procuring, passing the family legacy of taxpayer money on through the ages until the Republic falls. Should President Trump or anyone else really be afraid to say it’s so? America didn’t need a single Dingell in her House. It certainly didn’t need three. If the country is to be rid of them, the chattering classes will have to accept hearing that John Dingell Jr. might not, despite his lifetime of good deeds for GM at taxpayer expense, have made it to heaven. ——————- Daniel Greenfield (@Sultanknish) is Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom. This article previously appeared at the Center’s Front Page Magazine. Tags: Daniel Greenfield, The Hellish Dingell Legacy To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
| Iran’s Undivided and Indivisible RegimePosted: 30 Dec 2019 05:01 PM PSTCaroline Glickby Caroline Glick: This week, we saw the true face of the Iranian regime at home and abroad. For forty years, Western policymakers have been lying to themselves about the nature of the Iranian regime and basing their Iran policies on the lies they tell themselves. The main lie has been that there is an ongoing, existential struggle for power and control within the ranks of the regime’s leadership. On the one hand, the fantasy goes, you have the “hardliners.” They are the ones behind all the terrorism. They are the ones working to develop nuclear weapons and the warheads to deliver them. They are the ones who call out “Death to America, Death to Israel.” Facing them are the “moderates.” If the moderates seize the reins, the Iranians will eschew terror. They will walk away from their nuclear program. And the aspiration for an Islamic global empire will become no more than a children’s fairytale. The conceptual framework for American and Western policy relating to Iran since the 1979 revolution has been that all you need to do to end the conflict with Iran and bring it back into the family of nations is to find the right mix of concessions to enable the moderates win their power struggle against the hardliners. On Monday, Reuters published a report about how the regime brutally repressed the countrywide protests last month that put paid this delusional notion. Based on accounts from four Iranian regime sources, Reuters reported that on November 17, the second day of the protests, when the demonstrations spread to Tehran, the demonstrators called openly for the regime to be overthrown and for the late Shah’s son Reza Pahlavi to return to Iran and lead a post-Khomeinist republic, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei held a meeting to discuss how to handle the demonstrations. It was attended by President Hassan Rouhani, several members of his cabinet and senior security officials. After seeing pictures of protesters burning his photo and destroying a statue of the republic’s founder Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini, Khamenei reportedly yelled, “The Islamic republic is in danger. Do whatever it takes to end it. You have my order.” Khamenei also said that “he would hold the assembled officials responsible for the consequences of the protests if they didn’t immediately stop them.” The participants at the meeting were made to understand that “those rioters should be crushed,” Reuters reported And they were. According to Reuters’ sources, within two weeks, 1,500 demonstrators, including 400 women and at least 17 teenagers were killed by regime forces. In other words, there is no epic struggle between hardliners and moderates in Iran. The leader of the “moderates,” Rouhani is just as responsible for the brutal repression of the protesters as supposed “hardliners.” They were all at the meeting. They all agreed that the protests had to be brutally crushed. Since Rouhani was first elected to the presidency in 2013, Western leaders have extolled him as the moderate we were all waiting for. The Obama administration, together with the Europeans insisted that with Rouhani at the helm of Iran, the West could make a nuclear deal that would give the regime a glide path to a nuclear arsenal inside of a decade and $150 billion in sanctions relief. Even Israel’s security chiefs embraced the dream. In an interview with the Times of London on the eve of his retirement from the Israel Defense Forces last January, then Chief of the General Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Eisenkot repeated the standard talking points. There is a “power struggle in Iran between the Revolutionary Guards faction, led by [Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem] Soleimani, who is exporting the Islamic Revolution, and the more moderate faction led by President Hassan Rouhani, who wants to invest in the tottering economy rather than wars abroad,” Eisenkot insisted. As Iran scholar Michael Ledeen wrote in response to Eisenkot’s remarks, the dynamic in Iran doesn’t involve “a power struggle between a radical and moderate faction. It’s a rejection of regime strategy by the bulk of the Iranian people.” Thanks to the Obama administration’s political, economic and military support for Iran, when President Donald Trump entered office in January 2017, Iran had effectively consolidated its control over an empire that stretched from Iran through Iraq to Syria and Lebanon. Yemen had also become an Iranian colony. With Trump’s decision in May 2018 to withdraw the US from Obama’s nuclear deal and reinstate US sanctions against Iran, the Trump administration began destabilizing Iran, at home and throughout its colonies. The protests, which began in Lebanon and Iraq in October and spread last month to Iran, are rooted in economic privation and dislocation fomented in large part by the US sanctions. The regime’s brutal repression of last month’s protests – like its repression of the protests in Iraq where its forces and proxies have reportedly killed nearly 500 anti-Iranian demonstrators – show that in lieu of money, the Iranians – fake moderates and hardliners alike – are perfectly willing to rule through the jackboot. The implication of this bitter, but the obvious truth is that the only goal that should guide Iran’s foes – and first and foremost, Israel and the US – is the goal of overthrowing the regime. That doesn’t mean that Israel or the US needs to send an invasion force into Iran tomorrow. But it does mean that all efforts in relation to Iran should have a component that destabilizes the regime both at home and throughout its empire. This then brings us to Lebanon. This week, the mask came off in Lebanon twice. Whereas the myth that has guided Western policymaking regarding the regime in Iran has been the existence of a power struggle between moderates and hardliners, the myth relating to Lebanon has been that the government of Lebanon and the Lebanese Armed Forces are moderate actors that are independent and opposed to Iran’s Lebanese proxy Hezbollah. Over the past week, this myth has been exposed as a lie twice. First, the Hezbollah-controlled Lebanese parliament elected Hezbollah’s candidate, Hassan Diab, to serve as Lebanon’s next prime minister and form its next government. Diab is entirely controlled by Hezbollah. There is no way that a government he leads will act independently of Hezbollah. Second, following airstrikes against Iranian assets and personnel south of Damascus this week that were attributed to Israel, Khamenei’s top security adviser Ali Akbar Velayati threatened to respond by waging war against Israel from Lebanon. In his words, “The Zionist entity will regret its actions. We will respond sooner or later with the resistance in Syria and Lebanon. Hezbollah will harm Israel in its territory if it dares to strike in Lebanon.” In other words, Iran said – and not for the first time – that it controls Lebanon. Through Hezbollah, it can and will attack Israel from Lebanon. Since the first Iranian war against Israel from Lebanon in 2006, US policy has been to pretend that the Lebanese Armed Forces and the Lebanese government are independent entities that oppose Hezbollah and operate independently of Hezbollah. The fact that Lebanese military forces provided logistical and targeting assistance to Hezbollah forces during the 2006 war made no impression on then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice when she announced and began implementing a policy of massively funding, arming and training the LAF. The fact that the Lebanese government served throughout the war as Hezbollah’s foreign ministry also made no impression as the US massively expanded its economic assistance to the Lebanese government. Indeed, the US increased its funding of the Lebanese government after Hezbollah won the 2007 elections and began exercising formal control over the Lebanese government following its mini-coup in 2008. Israel, for its part, recognizes that Lebanon is controlled by Hezbollah and also recognizes that the goal of its actions against Iran must play on and exacerbate the destabilization of the regime’s grip on power at home and throughout its colonial possessions. In a speech on Wednesday, Eisenkot’s successor Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi set out Israel’s plan for fighting Lebanon in the next war with Iran. He made clear that Lebanese infrastructure and urban centers would be targeted because they serve Hezbollah’s war machine. Israel’s military goal in its operations in Syria has apparently shifted in recent weeks. Until now, the purpose of Israel’s military operations in Syria was to prevent the shipment of advanced, precision-guided munitions to Hezbollah. But now, judging from public statements and the reported attacks on Iranian assets, Israel’s policy in Syria is a combination of aggressive strikes and attrition aimed at turning Syria into Iran’s Vietnam. Israel’s concept is right. But it may be alone in recognizing the nature of the challenge that Iran poses at home and through its proxies. The Europeans support Iran to all practical purposes. Despite the fact that Iran has now enriched twice the amount of uranium it is permitted to enrich under the nuclear deal, and has opened its heavy water reactor at Arak in material breach of the agreement, the Europeans refuse to restore UN sanctions even though, under the nuclear deal, they were supposed to automatically “snap back” the minute Iran breached the deal. The Americans for their part are divided. The official position of the Trump administration – restated this week by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin at a conference in Doha – is that the US seeks to negotiate a better deal with the regime. So too, last week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ordered the release of $130 million in economic aid to the Hezbollah-controlled Lebanese government. Dennis Ross, an elder statesman of Washington’s fantasy-based foreign policy elite, penned an article in Foreign Policy this week where he recommended that the Democratic Congress budget massive aid to Lebanon to show the Lebanese people that America has their back and Iran doesn’t. For Ross, the fact that Iran controls the Lebanese government that would receive all that money is neither here nor there. Israel is the only one fighting Iran militarily today. It can manage alone, but only so long as the Americans don’t go wobbly and the Europeans feel pressured to change course on Iran. Along these lines, it is imperative that Israel ensure the Americans and Europeans understand the significance of Rouhani’s involvement in the repression of last month’s protests, Diab’s election, and Velayati’s threat this week to wage war against Israel through Lebanon. The Iranian regime is unified in its commitment to maintain its control over Iran and its empire. If they consolidate their Obama-era gains and complete their nuclear weapons program, it will be a strategic disaster for Israel and the world as a whole. Iran must be fought relentlessly on all fronts until its regime is consigned to history. ———————- Caroline Glick is the Senior Contributing Editor of Israel Hayom and the Director of the David Horowitz Freedom Center’s Israel Security Project. For more information on Ms. Glick’s work, visit carolineglick.com. Tags: Caroline Glick, Israel Hayom, Iran, Undivided and Indivisible Regime To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
| Protester Yells At Biden During Campaign Event: ‘Don’t Touch Kids, You Pervert!’Posted: 30 Dec 2019 04:41 PM PSTby Ryan Saavedra: A protester at a rally for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden yelled at the former vice president on Sunday, telling him not to touch kids and calling him a “pervert.” Biden and the protester, who is out of view in the video, go back and forth for several moments, with Biden saying, “Alright, I agree with you man, I agree, nice talking to you.” The man shouted back at Biden, “Don’t touch kids, you pervert!” Biden laughed. WATCH: “Don’t touch kids, you pervert!” shouted a heckler to Joe Biden at his NH campaign event. pic.twitter.com/9VW10JcO2v— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) December 30, 2019ABC News reporter Molly Nagle tweeted about the incident, writing: “Wow—quite the start to @JoeBiden’s second event in NH. A man from the back of the room calls Biden a ‘pervert’ and accuses him of touching women and children, before a second man asks Biden where the money is he and his son ‘earned from Ukraine’ from the other side of the room.” Wow—quite the start to @JoeBiden’s second event in NH. A man from the back of the room calls Biden a “pervert” and accuses him of touching women and children, before a second man asks Biden where the money is he and his son “earned from Ukraine” from the other side of the room— Molly Nagle (@MollyNagle3) December 29, 2019Biden has been called out for a long time over for inappropriately touching kids and women, including in a campaign ad from April 2019 from The Great America PAC. The Daily Wire reported at the time:The Great America PAC, according to The Hill, dumped six figures into the ad titled “Creepy Joe.” The minute-long video showcases children watching a television screen of Biden accuser former state Sen. Lucy Flores (D-NV) explaining the “mortifying” interaction she had with the then-vice president during an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper. As the audio of the interview continues, the ad cuts to images of Mr. Biden touching young girls’ faces, arms, and shoulders, and pressing his face up against them and kissing their head.WATCH: Biden’s inappropriate touching of kids and women has drawn strong criticism from the political Left in wake of the #MeToo movement. Here are just a few of the headlines that have been written about Biden from left-wing publications: The Washington Post: “What are we going to do about Creepy Uncle Joe Biden?”Daily Beast: “Dear Lord Would Joe Biden Be a Terrible Candidate for These Times”Huffington Post: “Joe Biden 2020 Is A Terrible Idea In A Post-Weinstein America”VICE: “Joe Biden Is the Last Person the Democrats Should Run in 2020”Biden has been accused by multiple women of inappropriate touching, as The Cut detailed in a report that outlined allegations from Lucy Flores, Amy Lappos, D.J. Hill, Caitlyn Caruso, Ally Coll, Sofie Karasek, Vail Kohnert-Yount, and Alexandra Tara Reade. The first woman to accuse Biden was Flores, who described the incident with Biden in an essay published at The Cut. Flores wrote:Just before the speeches, we were ushered to the side of the stage where we were lined up by order of introduction. As I was taking deep breaths and preparing myself to make my case to the crowd, I felt two hands on my shoulders. I froze. “Why is the vice-president of the United States touching me?” I felt him get closer to me from behind. He leaned further in and inhaled my hair. I was mortified. I thought to myself, “I didn’t wash my hair today and the vice-president of the United States is smelling it. And also, what in the actual f**k? Why is the vice-president of the United States smelling my hair?” He proceeded to plant a big slow kiss on the back of my head. My brain couldn’t process what was happening. I was embarrassed. I was shocked. I was confused. There is a Spanish saying, “tragame tierra,” it means, “earth, swallow me whole.” I couldn’t move and I couldn’t say anything. I wanted nothing more than to get Biden away from me. … … By then, as a young Latina in politics, I had gotten used to feeling like an outsider in rooms dominated by white men. But I had never experienced anything so blatantly inappropriate and unnerving before.—————————— Ryan Saavedra (@realsaavedra) is a reporter at @realDailyWire. Tags: Ryan Saavedra, Protester, Yells At Biden, During Campaign Event, ‘Don’t Touch Kids, You Pervert!’ To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
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THE FEDERALIST
| Your daily update of new content from The Federalist Be lovers of freedom and anxious for the fray December 31, 2019 5 Predictions For The Next Five Years Of Global Power StrugglesBy Edward Chang If these predictions come to pass, their fulfillment will have lasting effects upon America in the 2020s and beyond. Full article2019 Caps Yet Another Decade Of Endless, Fruitless Foreign WarsBy Bonnie Kristian Three years gone, thousands of lives lost, tens of billions in debt-funded spending, and we’re right back where we started, with a permanent entanglement in the longest war in U.S. history. Full articleHow Gender Fluidity Wrecks Both Feminism And TransgenderismBy Georgi Boorman First transgenderism destroyed the meaning of womanhood. Now, gender-fluidity and non-binary have destroyed the meaning of transgender. Full articleWhy Supporting Gun Rights Is Pro-LifeBy Ryan Moore Instances of defensive gun use save lives every day, but the stories get very little news coverage and the negative gun use instances are often covered by the national news media for days on end. Full articleThe Best Movies Of The 2010sBy Emily Jashinsky Let’s enjoy what Hollywood produced the decade before streaming giants really disrupted the landscape. Full articleWhy I Try To Furnish My Home Like I Furnish My MindBy Nathanael Blake Conservatives proclaim the important of the Permanent Things. We should also, in a throwaway culture of plastic and particle board, value permanent things. Full articleThe Best Reality TV Moments Of The 2010sBy Emily Jashinsky From ‘Dance Moms’ to ‘Here Comes Honey Boo Boo’ to ‘Duck Dynasty’ and ‘Chrisley Knows Best,’ the 2010s were an embarrassment of riches for viewers who can’t help but be amused by trashy TV. Full articleNo, Hallmark Movies Are Not ‘Fascist Propaganda’By Katya Sedgwick Contrary to what feminist writer Amanda Marcotte says, stories of heterosexual monogamous courting, like Hallmark movies, are the exact opposite of fascism. Full articleThe Best Pop Songs Of The 2010sBy Emily Jashinsky From bubblegum bops like ‘Call Me Maybe’ to grittier songs like ‘Ho Hey’ to the SoundCloud stylings of ‘Old Town Road,’ the 2010s were packed with memorable pop music. Full articleGun Control Activist Promotes False Data To Uphold Anti-Gun PropagandaBy Chrissy Clark In light of the shooting in Texas, gun control activists are blaming gun access and conceal-carry laws for the rise in gun deaths in the United States. Full articleAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez: ‘We Do Not Live In An Advanced Society’By Tristan Justice Freshman Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez argued earlier this month that the United States still does not enjoy an advanced society. Full article‘The Mandalorian’ Closes Out With Thrilling And Touching Final EpisodeBy Brad Jackson The final episode in season one of Star Wars’ “The Mandalorian” features an Imperial Flame Trooper, Baby Yoda on a speeder bike, and a shootout to end all shootouts. Full articleIRS Goes After Hunter Biden For Over $112,000 In Unpaid TaxesBy Chrissy Clark According to a new report, the IRS placed a tax lien on Hunter Biden, and his ex-wife Kathleen Biden, for a whopping $112,805 in unpaid taxes. Full article MERRY CHRISTMAS! On Christmas Eve 1941, in Washington on a diplomatic mission to organize the support of Britain’s American allies in the efforts to stop the Nazi menace, Winston Churchill was offered the opportunity to address the American people from The White House. America as a nation had been attacked like never before just weeks earlier, and the horrors of Pearl Harbor were on the minds of every patriot. Read more of The Transom by signing up for a free trial today. follow on Twitter | friend on Facebook | forward to a friend Copyright © 2019 The Federalist, All rights reserved. unsubscribe from this list | update subscription preferences |
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CHICAGO TRIBUNE
| VIEW IN BROWSERDECEMBER 31, 2019CHICAGOTRIBUNE.COMDAYWATCH1Expect a shortage of marijuana once legal weed sales start this weekTUESDAY, DEC 31With about 24 hours to go until marijuana shops open their doors to the public, operators are figuring out what to do if they run low on weed. For months, dispensaries have been bracing for a shortage. Nearly every state that allows recreational marijuana has had stores run out or run low during the first days of sales. As Illinois dispensaries await their final shipments of marijuana before sales start Jan. 1, many are preparing to limit how much customers can buy as a way of managing supply.Here’s how, where and what you’ll be able to buyAnd here’s a look at which Chicago-area towns will allow recreational marijuana sales on Jan. 1 — and where it’ll still be prohibited2Illinois lost population for a 6th straight year — and lost more residents than any other state this decadeTUESDAY, DEC 31Illinois’ population went down by an estimated 51,250 people in 2019, or 0.4%, marking the sixth consecutive year the state has lost residents, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Since the turn of the decade, Illinois has lost more residents than any other state, with a drop of about 159,700 people, or 1.2% of its population. Only three other states have shrunk since 2010: Connecticut, Vermont and West Virginia.The Tribune Editorial Board asks: Will a 6th year of population loss jolt voters? 3An MSU student was killed while home in Chicago for winter break. Prosecutors say her boyfriend shot her while playing with a gun.TUESDAY, DEC 31Lyniah Bell, a Michigan State University student home for winter break, was shot and killed by her boyfriend as he played with a revolver in a South Side apartment, prosecutors said Monday.Lafayette Hodges, 18, held his hands to his head as he appeared in court on charges of involuntary manslaughter in the death of 19-year-old Bell, whom he had dated for nine months. During the court hearing, prosecutors said Hodges had been playing with a revolver that he thought was unloaded. He pointed it at a friend, then himself and then Bell, pulling the trigger and hitting Bell, prosecutors said. “This is a tragedy that could have been avoided,” Judge Arthur Wesley Willis said.4Sued over alleged sex assault, River North bar El Hefe raises potential defense that woman as much as 50% at faultTUESDAY, DEC 31A River North restaurant and nightclub, responding to a lawsuit by a woman who alleges she was sexually assaulted in an alley outside the business, has raised a potential defense in court papers that the woman was as much as 50% or more at fault for what happened.In its response, El Hefe argued the woman, identified only as “Jane Doe” in the lawsuit, became “overly intoxicated” and didn’t take “adequate and proper steps necessary to protect her own safety” at the restaurant on the night of Oct. 18. The woman’s attorney said that El Hefe’s response amounted to victim blaming. 5Chicago Trolley & Double Decker Co. plans to shut down after New Year’s EveTUESDAY, DEC 31Chicago Trolley & Double Decker Co. will offer its last ride Dec. 31. The company, founded in 1994, took visitors on sightseeing tours of local landmarks. The trolleys operated a “hop on hop off” service where riders could board and get off at 12 different locations downtown. The company also rented its vehicles out for events and parades. The trolleys have played a role in many iconic Chicago moments.63 months after the Cubs fired Joe Maddon, the Wrigleyville restaurant named after him has closedTUESDAY, DEC 31Life moves pretty fast, as they say. That is especially true in the lucrative world of pro sports, and perhaps even more so in the hyper-competitive hospitality industry. To that end, the closing of Maddon’s Post after only seven months of business seems fitting.The Wrigleyville restaurant was a joint venture between former Cubs manager Joe Maddon and former Spiaggia chef and founder Tony Montuano. The Cubs fired Maddon in October and Montuano announced in December that he would be moving to Italy for the foreseeable future. 7Illinois is getting more than 250 new laws and taxes on Jan. 1. Here’s what you need to know.TUESDAY, DEC 31Legal recreational marijuana isn’t the only new law going into effect in Illinois on Wednesday. There are more than 250 new laws and taxes, which include changes from higher costs for drivers, more money for minimum wage workers and more diaper changing stations in mens’ restrooms. Here are the highlights.8Here are the 24 best things we ate and drank in Chicago restaurants in 2019TUESDAY, DEC 31Food & Dining reporters stepped out all over Chicagoland in 2019, discovering, tasting and writing about hundreds of dishes. It was no easy task to pick their favorites, but here they are.advertisement UNSUBSCRIBE | NEWSLETTERS | PRIVACY POLICY | TERMS OF SERVICECopyright © 2019 | Chicago Tribune | 160 N. Stetson Ave., Third Floor, Chicago, IL 60601ABOUT THIS EMAIL You received this email because you are following the Daywatch newsletter. |
POLITICO PLAYBOOK
POLITICO Playbook: What the embassy attack in Iraq means
12/31/2019 08:55 AM EST
Presented by The U.S. Chamber of Commerce
DRIVING THE DAY
BREAKING OVERNIGHT — The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad was attacked and its outer walls were breached — purportedly by protesters angry over recent U.S. airstrikes. That compound was designed as a modern-day fortress. But it’s a pretty alarming development, and it shows the risks inherent in the Trump team’s showdown with Iran.
Thankfully, nobody seems to have died, but it raises the obvious specter of a Benghazi-style disaster. And it raises doubts about the future of the American presence in Iraq, a country Iran has sought to dominate since the ill-starred U.S. invasion of 2003. It also is likely to fuel questions about whether the administration’s “maximum pressure” strategy toward Iran is working as intended. Video
— @realDonaldTrump: “Iran killed an American contractor, wounding many. We strongly responded, and always will. Now Iran is orchestrating an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Iraq. They will be held fully responsible. In addition, we expect Iraq to use its forces to protect the Embassy, and so notified!”
The NYT’s story from Baghdad: “Thousands of protesters marched into Baghdad’s heavily guarded Green Zone on Tuesday after prayer services for the militia fighters killed in the American strikes. While few of them were armed, many were members of Kataib Hezbollah and other groups that are technically overseen by the Iraqi military. The militia is separate from the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon, although both groups are backed by Iran and oppose the United States.
“At the United States Embassy, protesters broke security cameras, covered the compound walls with anti-American graffiti and lit a guardhouse on fire. After breaking open a compound entrance, dozens of men entered and lit more fires inside while embassy security guards fired tear gas.
“The demonstrators did not break into the embassy buildings, but their ability to storm the most heavily guarded zone in Baghdad prompted speculation that they had received at least tacit permission from Iraqi security officials sympathetic to their demands.”
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6 TAKEAWAYS FROM THE NEW CENSUS NUMBERS — The Census Bureau released new estimates of population trends in the United States on Monday, and they have some pretty interesting implications for politics. With the help of William Frey, a demographer at Brookings who shared his projections with us, here are a few nuggets to chew on:
- California is on track to lose a congressional seat for the first time in history. If trends hold through next April, not only will America’s largest state go down to 52 districts as its population growth slows, but two of its red-state rivals — Texas (+3) and Florida (+2) — will gain seats. Arizona, Montana and North Carolina are also due to pick up one seat each. Republicans argue that heavy taxes and regulation drive people and jobs away from states run by Democrats, and deep-blue California — which lost 203,414 residents through domestic migration between 2018 and 2019 — is their favorite whipping boy.
- America’s old industrial centers are still shrinking. Three of the Midwestern states that delivered the presidency for Trump in 2016 will lose one seat each: Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. As will several blue states: Illinois, Minnesota, New York and Rhode Island. Democrats are likely to pick up seats in Colorado and Oregon, however.
- The South is growing. Where are all those people going? Between 2018 and 2019, the South was the fastest-growing region in the country, gaining around a million people due to natural growth and migration from elsewhere. This isn’t necessarily a long-term win for Republicans, though. As Frey notes, “the underlying demographics of gains for Texas, Florida, Arizona and North Carolina — Hispanics, blacks and white migrants from bluer states — could change the politics there in the next decade.”
- America’s population growth is at a historic low. At just 0.48%, the U.S. hasn’t grown this slowly since 1918, on the tail end of a world war and a flu pandemic. Today, the U.S. is contending with an aging population, crawling fertility rates and declining immigration. The Census Bureau highlighted the news that the annual rate of natural increase — the number of births minus deaths — has fallen below 1 million for the first time in decades.
- Immigration has plummeted. Net international migration fell to less than 600,000 between 2018 and 2019, down from more than a million in 2016. Since Trump’s election, it’s been going down every year amid new laws and rules discouraging it. Democrats will likely argue that this is especially misguided at a time when America needs an influx of workers and talent.
- AOC could be a target. With New York likely to lose at least one congressional seat, the district held by Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez could be broken up, forcing her to find a new winning coalition. There’s little love for the disruptive young upstart in Albany, and many state lawmakers would like nothing more than to redraw her out of office. Ocasio-Cortez seems aware of the threat, as she’s been promoting Census sign-ups in her district to ensure that her constituents are fully counted. More from Ally Mutnick
FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH — “Schumer seizes on new reporting in calls for trial witnesses,” by Marianne Levine
Happy Tuesday. Blake Hounshell here, filling in for Jake and Anna. Over the holidays, Eli Okun and Garrett Ross compiled the most popular books and trends named by Playbook readers in these pages. The results are pretty interesting! Check it out.
A message from The U.S. Chamber of Commerce:
The House of Representatives passed harmful legislation, H.R. 3, that imposes government set price controls on prescription drugs. This legislation could eliminate over 700k American jobs. Tell Congress: You don’t have to destroy American jobs to lower drug costs. Learn more.
2020 WATCH …
— ALEX THOMPSON: “Warren confronts ghost of Howard Dean”: “Liberals swooned. The Democratic establishment was on its heels. Powered by small donors and grassroots energy, in late 2003 Iowa seemed Howard Dean’s for the taking.
“But then came the attacks … The surge became a stall. On caucus day, the Vermont governor came in third and never recovered.
“Elizabeth Warren is trying to avoid the same fate. While the Warren campaign has stuck to its corruption-centric message, it has noticeably shifted tactics in recent weeks. The Massachusetts senator changed her stump speech and is now taking many more audience questions. She’s drawing sharper contrasts with opponents after months of trying to stay above the fray. There are more big, thematic campaign speeches, and more off the record chats with reporters.” POLITICO
— “A Biden-G.O.P. Ticket? He’s Open to It, but Doesn’t See Options,” by NYT’s Thomas Kaplan in Exeter, N.H.: “Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. is accustomed to fielding questions from voters about picking a running mate. But on Monday, he was asked a particularly provocative one: Would he consider choosing a Republican as his vice president?
“‘The answer is I would, but I can’t think of one now,’ Mr. Biden said at a town hall-style event in Exeter, N.H., drawing laughter from the crowd.
“Mr. Biden then elaborated on what he meant. ‘There’s some really decent Republicans that are out there still, but here’s the problem right now of the well-known ones: They’ve got to step up,’ he said.
“Mr. Biden has emphasized the need for a future Democratic president to work with Republicans, stressing the importance of consensus in order to get things done. That viewpoint has been criticized by some liberals who see it as an unacceptable embrace of the status quo and think Mr. Biden is naïve about trying to work with Republicans. But choosing a Republican to be his running mate would be a far more grievous act in the eyes of many Democrats, something many party officials and both liberal and moderate activists would oppose.” NYT
— The Biden campaign announced two new staff hires this morning, with an eye on Super Tuesday: Fernando Mercado as Virginia state director and Travis Brimm as North Carolina state director.
A message from The U.S. Chamber of Commerce:
The House voted for a bill that could eliminate over 700k American jobs. Congress: Don’t destroy American jobs to lower drug costs. Learn more.
TRUMP’S TUESDAY — Nothing on the president’s public schedule. The weather in Palm Beach is cloudy today, with a projected high of 75 and no chance of rain.
POLITICO TECH AT CES – We are bringing a special edition of the POLITICO Tech newsletter to CES 2020. Written by Nancy Scola and Cristiano Lima, the newsletter will take you inside the largest and most influential technology event on the planet, featuring every major and emerging industry in the technology ecosystem gathered together in one place. The newsletter runs from Jan. 6 – 10 and will focus on the public policy related aspects of the gathering. Sign up today to receive exclusive coverage of the Summit.
PLAYBOOK READS
JUST READ THIS. You won’t regret it.
THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION — “Immigration Official Tweets, Then Deletes, Accusation Against Monsey Suspect,” by NYT’s Zolan Kanno-Youngs: “Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, a top immigration official for the Trump administration, faced blowback on Monday after saying the man accused of stabbing five Orthodox Jews in New York was the son of an ‘illegal alien’ and came from a family lacking ‘American values.’
“Little was known about Grafton Thomas, the suspect in the attack in Monsey, N.Y., when Mr. Cuccinelli, the acting director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, took to Twitter to say that Mr. Thomas’s father came to the country illegally but gained amnesty under a far-reaching immigration bill signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1986.
“‘Apparently, American values did not take hold among this entire family, at least this one violent, and apparently bigoted, son,’ Mr. Cuccinelli wrote in a tweet that was deleted shortly after its posting. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Citizenship and Immigration Services, did not answer questions seeking clarity on the source or accuracy of the information or the purpose of releasing it.” NYT
LITTLE ROCKET MAN — “North Korea’s Kim to unveil ‘new path’ in New Year speech after U.S. misses deadline,” by Reuters’ Hyonhee Shin in Seoul: “North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is set to make a closely watched New Year address on Wednesday which is likely to offer a glimpse of a ‘new path’ he has vowed to take if the United States fails to meet his deadline to soften its stance over denuclearization.”
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TRADE WARS — “Initial U.S.-China trade deal has major hole: Beijing’s massive business subsidies,” by WaPo’s David Lynch
BEYOND THE BELTWAY — “West Virginia Governor Approves Firings of Jail Workers in Nazi Salute Photo,” by WSJ’s Joe Barrett: “West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said Monday that he approved the firing of three state instructors and 34 jail-guard cadets who showed the Nazi salute in their graduation photo.
“The firings were recommended by Jeff Sandy, cabinet secretary of the state’s Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety, based on an investigation by the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The probe began after the photo was made public by the state earlier this month, drawing widespread criticism.” WSJ
WILD STORY — “Team Trump’s Furious Hunt to Find Out Who ‘Liked’ a Chelsea Clinton Tweet,” by The Daily Beast’s Erin Banco and Asawin Suebsaeng
A message from The U.S. Chamber of Commerce:
The House voted for a bill that could eliminate over 700k American jobs. Learn more.
CLIMATE WATCH — “‘We Were Freaking Out.’ Terrifying Fire Season Takes a Bad Turn in Australia,” by WSJ’s Mike Cherney and Rachel Pannett in Sydney: “About 4,000 people trapped by raging wildfires in an isolated holiday town took shelter on the shore and in boats, with the sky turning red and raining embers, as an already devastating fire season took a turn for the worse in Australia.
“Macey Ellison, 18, and her family, who were holidaying in Mallacoota, in the southeastern state of Victoria, took cover in a friend’s small boat for more than four hours as the fire threatened the town. Ms. Ellison said they thought the boat was the safest option because they could go out on the water if needed, though they stayed at a jetty the entire time. They carried water, snacks, blankets and sweaters on board.” WSJ
CLICKER — “Politico Magazine’s 19 Top Reads of 2019”
MEDIAWATCH — “Alex Jones and InfoWars Ordered to Pay $100K in Court Costs for Sandy Hook Case,” by The Daily Beast’s Will Sommer: “A Texas judge has ordered Alex Jones and his InfoWars hoax website to pay more than $100,000 in court costs and legal fees, marking the latest court victory for a Sandy Hook family suing Jones for his promotion of conspiracy theories about the 2012 shooting.
“Jones and InfoWars are being sued by Neil Heslin, whose six-year-old son was killed in the Newtown, CT shooting. On Dec. 20, Travis County Judge Scott Jenkins granted a motion for sanctions and legal expenses against Jones and InfoWars, ordering them to pay $65,825 for ignoring a court order about providing documents and witnesses. In another ruling issued that same day in Heslin’s case, Jenkins denied an InfoWars motion to dismiss the case and ordered Jones and InfoWars to pay an additional $34,323.80, for a combined total of $100,148.80 levied against Jones and InfoWars in a single day.
“Added to an earlier October order against InfoWars, Jones and his outlet have been ordered to pay $126,023.80 over the case, even before it reaches trial.” Daily Beast
— JACK SHAFER, THROWING THE HEAT: “Bret Stephens and the Perils of the Tapped-Out Column”
— John Duber will be a director for various dayside MSNBC programs starting Jan. 6. He previously was director of CNN’s “New Day.”
COMING SOON – GLOBAL TRANSLATIONS NEWSLETTER: POLITICO’s man about town Ryan Heath leverages the world’s biggest politics newsroom in Global Translations, a weekly newsletter that unpacks essential global news, trends, and decisions. From the most important gatherings of global influencers to hot button issues around the world, you’re not going to want to miss out on this fun and enlightened read. SUBSCRIBE TODAY.
PLAYBOOKERS
Send tips to Eli Okun and Garrett Ross at politicoplaybook@politico.com.
SPOTTED at a birthday celebration for Dave Wilezol, chief speechwriter for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, at District Commons on Monday: Jessica Andrews, Riley Barnes, Zach Tyree, Marlon Bateman, Will Fleeson and Kristina Baum. Pic
ENGAGED — Regan Page, of Ralston Lapp Media, and Paul Tencher, of World War Zero and a Joe Donnelly, Gary Peters, Evan Bayh and Ed Markey alum, got engaged Monday in Paris. They met in 2014 at the DSCC. Instapic
WEEKEND WEDDINGS — Will Allison, a senior consultant at FTI Consulting and a House Budget Committee, Thom Tillis, Ron Johnson and Bruce Rauner alum, and Ally Manley, former scheduler for Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), got married Saturday in Houston, with a reception at the Houstonian with music from Uptown Drive. Pic … SPOTTED: Emily Wilkinson and Pete Holland, Erin Collins and Ben Voelkel, Katherine Cooksey and Kyle Noyes.
— Juliana Darrow, senior adviser in the Global Affairs Office at HHS, and Sam Richardson, senior consultant at the Kenrich Group, got married Saturday at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colo. Pic… SPOTTED: Thomas Alexander, Alex Titus, Saagar Enjeti, Marshall Kosloff, Pi Praveen, Ryan Richardson, Jonathan and Paige Bronitsky, Olivia Webb, Daniela Lozano, Alex Entz, Madeline and Connor Osburn, Jillian McGrath and Tim Rodriguez.
BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Karina Cabrera Bell, co-founder of OpenAccess. A trend she thinks doesn’t get enough attention: “Gender equity. Women continue to be underrepresented in leadership positions. Pay inequity endures, especially for women of color. Too many workplaces are still unfriendly to families. To me that is pretty outrageous. We can’t just wait for gender equity to solve itself. It requires more attention and action. And we can do more today.” Playbook Q&A
BIRTHDAYS: Josh Rogin, celebrating with Ali at Nobu … Donald Trump Jr. is 42 … Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is 4-0 … Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) is 82 … Jeff Flake is 57 … David Wilezol, chief speechwriter for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo … Pete Souza is 65 … Brian Danza, co-founder of Foxbat Media, is 39 (h/t Tim Burger) … WaPo’s Joel Achenbach and Naftali Bendavid … former Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) is 48 … Mark Ein, chairman and CEO of Capitol Investment Corp and Venturehouse Group, is 55 … Dick Short … Karina Cabrera Bell … Betsy Barrett … John Davis … Henry Hunter (h/t Jon Haber) … Bloomberg’s Simon Kennedy … Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud is 84 … Shelby Hartley … Ronnie Cho is 38 … POLITICO Europe’s Jillian Deutsch …
… Robyn Bryan, press secretary for Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) … Rick Bosh, Washington producer for MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” (h/t wife Kristin Donnelly) … Michela Greco (h/t fiance Alex LePore) … APCO Worldwide’s Wayne Pines … Nathan Martin is 33 … Jim Long is 55 … Travis Wolfe (h/t Tammy Haddad) … WaPo alum Martin J. Kady is 74 … Wade Atkinson … CyberScoop’s Shannon Vavra … Shelby Hodgkins … Danny Shea, chief brand officer at Thrive Global … Reuben Johnson is 31 … Meeghan Prunty … former Obama WH photographer Lawrence Jackson … Becca Brukman … Jeff Milstein … Marni Karlin … Darren Reisberg … Andy Sere … Bob Dietz … John Francis Kucera is 6-0 … Meg Boland … Chris Donesa is 53
A message from The U.S. Chamber of Commerce:
The House of Representatives passed harmful legislation, H.R. 3, that imposes government set price controls on prescription drugs. This legislation could eliminate over 700k American jobs, reduce spending on cutting-edge medical research, and negatively impact our world-class economy. Tell Congress: You don’t have to destroy American jobs to lower drug costs. Learn more.
- Anna Palmer @apalmerdc
- Jake Sherman @JakeSherman
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