Good morning! Here is your news briefing for Friday January 3, 2020.

THE DAILY SIGNAL

Jan 03, 2020

Good morning from Washington, where degrees and elitism flourish, but, as Victor Davis Hanson argues in a new column, wisdom often doesn’t. Planning to go to church this weekend? Be glad you’re not in China, where Pastor Wang Yi has been sentenced to nine years in jail. In a letter to his congregation, Wang wrote, “The Bible teaches us that, in all matters relating to the gospel and human conscience, we must obey God and not men.” Plus: Jarrett Stepman defends the Founders, and Armstrong Williams laments our current culture. Sixty-one years ago today, Alaska officially became the 49th state in the union.

	COMMENTARYThe Dangers of Elite Groupthink By Victor Davis Hanson The Washington Post’s media critic writes that MSNBC host Rachel Maddow deliberately misled her audience by claiming the now-discredited Steele dossier was largely verifiable—even at a time when there was plenty of evidence that it was mostly bogus.MoreCOMMENTARYWhat the Founders Actually Thought About Slavery By Jarrett Stepman “The people who wrote the Constitution did not understand that slavery was a bad thing,” South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg said recently.MoreCOMMENTARYChinese Pastor Sentenced to 9 Years in Prison Amid Renewed Persecution By Olivia Enos Knowing the character of the Chinese regime, Wang Yi wrote a letter last year titled “My Declaration of Faithful Disobedience” and gave it to his congregation to publish were he ever to be imprisoned.MoreCOMMENTARYHotels Look to Government to Help Quash Airbnb Competition By Romina Boccia Instead of vying for customers by improving their facilities or service—or lowering their prices—the hotel industry has chosen a different approach: lobbying state, local, and national politicians to quash the competition for them.MoreCOMMENTARYKilling Ourselves With Hate By Armstrong Williams An ever-lengthening litany of putrid examples shows the terrible consequences of hating the “other” rather than loving in our hearts all of those created in God’s image.More

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THE WASHINGTON FREE BEACON

Trump Calls the Ayatollah’s BluffBy Matthew Continetti Manhattan DA Declines to Prosecute Anti-Semitic Attack as Hate CrimeBy Adam Kredo Media Struggle to Explain Recent Wave of Anti-Semitic Attacks Without Blaming Jews, TrumpBy Andrew Stiles Visit the All-New Free Beacon Online Store Iranian Commander Says Country Ready for War With U.S.By Adam Kredo Pentagon Chief: U.S. Sees Signs Iran or Allies May Be Planning More AttacksBy Reuters Julián Castro Drops OutBy Andrew Kugle Dem Rep Blames Withdrawal From Iran Deal for Attacks on U.S. EmbassyBy Cameron Cawthorne Sanders Campaign Manager: Biden and Buttigieg Are Kowtowing to the RichBy Elizabeth Matamoros SIGN UP FOR THE BEACON EXTRA HERE You are receiving this email because you opted in at our website.Copyright © 2020 Free Beacon, LLC, All rights reserved. To reject freedom, click here.Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser.

THE EPOCH TIMES

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“When men speak ill of thee, live so as nobody may believe them.”

PLATOGood morning,

Defense Secretary Mark Esper said that the United States is anticipating more attacks from Iran and its proxies.

Esper’s statements—in which he also said that the United States will take preemptive actions—came in response to an attack by Iran-backed groups on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

“I’m not going to telegraph what we’re going to do, but people know we have vast capability to do any number of things,” Esper said.

Read the full story here.

U-Haul Won’t Hire People Who Use Nicotine Products in 21 States

Fourth Quarter 2020 Presidential Candidate Fundraising Totals

Iran May Be Planning More Attacks on US Interests: Secretary of Defense

FDA Bans Fruit, Mint E-Cigarette Flavors in Bid to Stem Youth Vaping

Authorities said two women allegedly yelled anti-Semitic slurs to a Hasidic man in Brooklyn on New Year’s Day, with one of them being arrested for assault—the latest in a wave of violent anti-Semitic incidents. Read moreGovernment unions don’t have to refund so-called agency fees to public employees who were forced to pay them before the Supreme Court struck down such mandatory dues as unconstitutional in 2018, a federal appeals court ruled. Read moreRep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) says most mornings in his congressional office, he receives a packet of newspapers from across the United States, many of which he goes through seeking helpful facts and credible analyses of the issues of the day. Read moreActing Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf on Dec. 31 requested a review of how recent state laws allowing illegal immigrants to obtain driving licenses will affect enforcement efforts. Read moreThe outbreak of a mysterious pneumonia-like disease in central China’s Wuhan city has generated widespread alarm. State-run media confirmed on Dec. 31, 2019, that 27 people from Wuhan city had contracted an “unknown viral pneumonia”… Read more
See More Top Stories Killing Ourselves With Hate
By Larry Elder

The recent shooting inside a kosher supermarket in Jersey City, New Jersey, is one of the most recent examples that we Americans are literally killing ourselves with hatred for our neighbors. Read moreCongressional Democrats’ Recent Playbook: Blame the President and Ignore Personal Accountability
By Elad Hakim

Following last week’s tragic and senseless stabbing attack in New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) politicized the tragedy and blamed President Donald Trump. Read more
See More Opinions Why Is Bernanke Joining a Chicago Based Hedge Fund?
Valentin Schmid
(April 16, 2015)

After testing the waters with giving speeches at $200,000 a pop and becoming a fellow (and blogger) at the Brookings Institution, former Fed chairman Ben Bernanke decided it was time for something serious. Read moreAt Turning Point USA’s 2019 Student Action Summit, we sit down with conservative commentator Michael Knowles to discuss what he sees as the radical decline of free speech in America, especially on college campuses.
Michael Knowles: On Identity Politics & “Violent” Speech Copyright © 2020 The Epoch Times, All rights reserved.

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DAYBREAK INSIDER

Your First Look at Today’s Top Stories – Daybreak InsiderHaving trouble viewing this email? View the web version.SPONSORED BY DaybreakInsider.com  @DaybreakInsiderFRIDAY, JANUARY 3, 20201.US Military Kills a Terrorist, Left Not Pleased
From the story: President Trump ordered a game-changing U.S. military attack that killed Iranian Gen. Qassim Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds Force, among other military officials at Baghdad International Airport early Friday, the Pentagon confirmed (Fox News). From Noah Rothman: In a dramatic escalation, demonstrators loyal to the Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah militia laid siege to the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, trapping its diplomats and staffers in guarded safe rooms and directly threatening the American presence in Iraq. The Pentagon intercepted intelligence suggesting further Soleimani-directed attacks on U.S. diplomats were imminent. The president acted preemptively (Commentary Magazine). Trump tweeted a threat, Iran responded “you can’t do anything” (Twitter). According to the White House, “General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region” (Twitter). From the Heritage Foundation:  This strike against one of the world’s most odious terrorists is no different than the mission which took out Osama bin Laden – it is, in fact, even more justifiable since he was in a foreign country directing terrorist attacks against Americans (Twitter). The strike forced Netanyahu to shorten his Greece trip and return to Israel (Jerusalem Post). Background on Soleimani from 2013 (The New Yorker). But the Washington Post tweeted: Breaking news: Airstrike at Baghdad airport kills Iran’s most revered military leader, Qasem Soleimani (Twitchy). Actress Rose McGowan tweeted “Dear #Iran, The USA has disrespected your country, your flag, your people. 52% of us humbly apologize. We want peace with your nation. We are being held hostage by a terrorist regime. We do not know how to escape. Please do not kill us” (Twitter).

2.Conservatives Respond to Attack
From Senator Ben Sasse: “This is very simple: General Soleimani is dead because he was an evil bastard who murdered Americans” (Washington Examiner). From Dan Crenshaw: Soleimani, the world’s pre-eminent sponsor of terrorism, is now dead. He spent decades spreading death and destruction across the region, including engineering and providing IEDs to Shia militias in Iraq that were used to kill hundreds of Americans (Twitter). From Ben Shapiro: Trump’s Soleimani airstrike is utterly righteous. Soleimani was one of the worst human beings on the planet. America had to re-establish deterrence after Obama’s appeasement. This will not be the end of the story — Iran will continue to lash out. But they’re certainly on notice (Twitter). In a thread, David French explains why “separate congressional authorization was not necessary” as some have insisted and includes this: “Iranian-backed militias attacked U.S. troops lawfully present in a combat zone under valid legal authorities. Moreover, America’s military response isn’t limited to immediate self-defense or tit for tat. It can act to remove the threat. That threat includes enemy commanders” (Twitter). From Sebastian Gorka: One of the most evil men in the World is dead (Twitter). From Erick Erickson: I’m not an Iran expert, but the Ayatollahs tried to kill my dad and my family when I was a kid, so good for you @realDonaldTrump (Twitter).

Advertisement 3.Democrats Condemn Killing of Terrorist
Of those running for president, Joe Biden called it “a hugely escalatory move in an already dangerous region” (Twitter). Elizabeth Warren complained it is a “reckless move” (Twitter). Bernie Sanders called it a “dangerous escalation” (Twitter). Of those not running for president, Pelosi and Schiff, known for regularly leaking information, were upset they weren’t told ahead of time (Fox News). From Democrat Ilhan Omar: So what if Trump wants war, knows this leads to war and needs the distraction? (Twitter).

4.Castro Ends Presidential Run
From Jim Geraghty: With effort, you can feel a molecule or two of sympathy for Castro, as he did everything Democratic presidential candidates are told to do, but it never worked for him (National Review). From another story: In a crowded 2020 Democratic field originally featuring cringeworthy candidates such as Beto O’Rourke and New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, the former housing and urban development secretary still managed to run the most insufferably woke presidential campaign of this cycle (Washington Examiner). Meanwhile, Marianne Williamson has gutted her staff (Washington Times). Bernie Sanders is outraising the Democratic field (ABC News). And some people are bewildered that youth not only don’t like Buttigieg, but they appear to loathe him (Politico).

5.Anti-Semitism Grows in NYC Suburbs
And, as this story reveals, it continues on social media as thugs find encouragement in the recent attacks (Channel 4 New York). Meanwhile, from another story: The daughter of a man critically hurt in a machete attack during Hanukkah is pleading with the public to “stand up and stop this hatred” (ABC News). From David Harsanyi: There have been a number of repulsive articles over the past few weeks blaming New York’s Jews for precipitating violence that is, um, “seen by some” as anti-Semitic. Yet, this piece by NBC News, which insinuates that icky ultra-Orthodox Jews bring some of this misery on themselves by having the temerity to move to the suburbs, might be the most tone-deaf of them all (National Review).

Advertisement 6.Republicans Ask Supreme Court to Reconsider Roe v Wade
From the story:  A bloc of more than 200 Republican lawmakers on Thursday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider two of the Court’s landmark abortion rights cases, calling the current precedents unworkable, and encouraging the justices to reconsider the “right to abortion” found in 1973’s Roe v. Wade decision.

Law and Crime

7.No Charges Filed Against Father Who Beat Pedophile Caught in Toddlers’ BedroomThe Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s department decided against filing charges.

Washington Examiner

8.Article Calls for Banning Private SchoolsAn unnamed person in an article the outlet calls “views that Americans are scared to share with their friends and neighbors.”

FiveThirtyEight

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THE WASHINGTON TIMES

MORNING EDITION

Friday, January 3, 2020

Trump’s tough line on Iran put to the test in election yearPresident Trump has successfully hardened U.S. policy toward Iran since pulling out of the Obama-era nuclear deal 17 months ago, … more

The Morning Dispatch: Qassem Suleimani Is Dead

Will tensions with Iran grow hot?

Steve Hayes

Jan 3

Happy Friday.We had a whole other, entirely different Morning Dispatch ready to go for you Thursday evening, but there were some major developments in the Middle East overnight. Our analysis of Q4 fundraising numbers will have to wait!

Quick Hits: What You Need to Know

Former Mayor of San Antonio and Obama administration Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro ended his presidential campaign on Thursday, telling supporters he “determined that it simply isn’t [his] time.”
The remaining presidential contenders have begun releasing their Q4 2019 fundraising results. President Trump raised $46 million from October 1 to December 31, while Bernie Sanders led the Democrats with $34.5 million. Pete Buttigieg brought in $24.7 million, and Joe Biden rebounded from a dismal Q3 to raise $22.7 million.
The Turkish parliament voted to send ground troops to Libya as President Erdogan continues to expand his role in the region.
In a move designed to reduce youth vaping use, the Trump administration announced a ban on all non-menthol- or tobacco-flavored vape and e-cigarette cartridges. The prohibition comes just weeks after Congress raised the legal smoking age to 21.
Wall Street wrapped up its strongest year since 2013 on Tuesday, with the Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 growing at their greatest rates in more than half a decade.
David Stern, commissioner of the National Basketball Association from 1984 until 2014, died on Wednesday after suffering a brain hemorrhage last month.

A Major Escalation With Iran

On Thursday night, a statement from the Pentagon confirmed that the United States had taken “decisive defensive action” to kill Qassem Suleimani, the longtime leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Quds Force, for decades the leading facilitator of regime-supported terror operations. The Iranian general was killed as he traveled in a convoy near Baghdad International Airport with other senior officials linked to Iran’s military and external terror networks.

The Pentagon statement described the action as both retaliatory and preemptive, noting that Suleimani “was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region” and had orchestrated attacks on U.S. bases in Iraq, including the attack on December 27 that claimed the life of a U.S. government contractor. The statement also noted that Suleimani approved the attacks Tuesday on the U.S. Embassy led openly by terrorists backed by Iran.

According to sources familiar with the deliberations, discussion among senior administration officials about targeting Suleimani began immediately after the December 27 attack, which was quickly attributed to Iran-backed operatives. Trump’s national security team had debated killing Suleimani before, on several occasions, but Trump resisted advice to target the Iranian general, often described as Iran’s second most important leader. That posture changed with the attack by Kataib Hezbollah late last week, followed by the brazen and provocative attacks on the U.S. Embassy Tuesday morning, directed by Iran-backed terrorists who gave media interviews as operatives set fires. By Tuesday afternoon, top Trump advisers understood that a response targeting Suleimani was imminent.

It’s hard to overstate the significance of Suleimani’s death, both because of the terror it ends and the response it almost certainly portends.

Qassem Suleimani was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans in Iraq and beyond. The State Department puts the official figure at 603, the Pentagon slightly higher. Senior U.S. military sources tell The Dispatch those estimates are low and do not include attacks where there was any doubt about attribution. Suleimani was likewise responsible for much of the terror and instability the Iranian regime used to shape the region, including operations in Yemen, Afghanistan, Lebanon, and Syria.

The response to Suleimani’s death came swiftly. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, announced three days of mourning and promised “severe retaliation.” A former IRGC Commander promised “strong revenge” on America.

The Washington response was predictable. Trump tweeted out a picture of an American flag (and only a picture of an American flag). Republicans commended the administration’s decision as a justified response to the hundreds of American deaths at Suleimani’s hands, Democrats roundly criticized it as reckless and a potentially unauthorized act of war.

Who Was Qassem Suleimani?

In the days after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini overthrew the shah of Iran in 1979, a 22-year-old Qassem Suleimani enlisted in the Revolutionary Guard. In the ensuing conflict with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and subsequent attempts to export the revolution to the surrounding region, he quickly distinguished himself as a zealous fighter and charismatic leader.

In 1998, Suleimani took over as leader of the shadowy Quds Force, the branch of the Revolutionary Guard tasked with carrying out clandestine operations outside the borders of Iran, including by buttressing regional terror groups like Hezbollah and Hamas. It was due in large part to Suleimani’s leadership, as the head of a sweeping network of proxy organizations and political parties throughout the Middle East, that Iran managed to acquire such outsize regional influence throughout the 1990s.

“No one in Tehran started out with a master plan to build the Axis of Resistance, but opportunities presented themselves,” a Western diplomat told The New Yorker in 2013. “In each case, Suleimani was smarter, faster, and better resourced than anyone else in the region. By grasping at opportunities as they came, he built the thing, slowly but surely.”

As the U.S. presence in the region grew after the 9/11 attacks, Suleimani and his Quds Force proved a determined and deadly foe. When the U.S. invaded Iraq, the Quds were there to arm Iranian militias to fight us—killing hundreds of U.S. soldiers during that war. At times, Suleimani even set himself up as the personal adversary of the U.S. commanders in the region. In early 2008, while fighting Shiite militias in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus was relayed a text message from the Quds leader: “General Petraeus, you should know that I, Qassem Suleimani, control the policy for Iran with respect to Iraq, Lebanon, Gaza, and Afghanistan. And indeed, the ambassador in Baghdad is a Quds Force member. The individual who’s going to replace him is a Quds Force member.”

All the while, Suleimani was working tirelessly to pull off dozens of smaller-scale destabilizing actions and attacks. Some of these were direct affronts to America—such as destroying oil tankers in the Persian Gulf and shooting down a U.S. drone last year—while many more were simply attempts to project Iranian force and re-cement Tehran’s status as the region’s central power. Through it all, Suleimani maintained a reputation as a ferocious and ruthless military commander, a folk hero to the regime’s loyalists. Last April, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he viewed Suleimani as a threat on the level of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi—the ISIS commander who was slain in October.

What Precipitated This Move?

Trump often acts rashly, responding to aggressors—both real and perceived—hastily and harshly. But that’s not what happened here.

Pro-Iranian militias have been prodding the United States for months, launching rockets at American forces in Iraq. No single event triggered the killing of Suleimani; he’s been on ourradar for more than a decade (literally, intelligence agencies have tracked his location for years).

Early Tuesday morning, employees of the American Embassy in Baghdad faced an ambush from hundreds of militiamen and protesters in what Pompeo referred to in an interview with CBS’ Major Garrett as “Iranian-backed terrorism.” Although the main embassy building was not breached, the outer rim of the compound was. Windows were shattered, graffiti sprayed, fires lit.Liz Sly@LizSlyKataib Hezbollah protesters breaching the gates of the US embassy in Baghdad. They say they will stay till US troops leave. It’s the biggest US embassy in the world & supposedly secure but hard to see how diplomats can remain now December 31st 20191,647 Retweets2,094 Likes

But the siege didn’t last long. The United States responded to the unrest quickly and with strength; 100 marines and a handful of Apache helicopters secured the embassy, dispatching 750 soldiers to the region from the 82nd Airborne Division, with more potentially on the way. Although Iraqi security forces had initially failed to stop the violent protesters as they marched toward the compound, the Iraqi government later deployed forces to the embassy as part of its obligation to protect those there. The assailants were gone by Wednesday afternoon.

There was little question about who was responsible. Lucas Tomlinson@LucasFoxNews”Soleimani is our leader” written under window by Iran-backed militiamen at U.S. Embassy Baghdad, about head of IRGC’s Quds Force, responsible for special operations in Iraq and Syria January 2nd 2020392 Retweets508 Likes

“Iran will be held fully responsible for lives lost, or damage incurred, at any of our facilities,” President Trump tweeted on New Year’s Eve. “They will pay a very BIG PRICE! This is not a Warning, it is a Threat. Happy New Year!”

The protesters charging the embassy were responding to American airstrikes on Sunday that killed 24 members of Kataib Hezbollah—an Iranian-backed Iraqi militia. Those strikeswere themselves a response to a December 27 rocket attack in Kirkuk that killed an American contractor and injured several US and Iraqi service members.

But this rapidly mounting tit-for-tat between Iran and the United States stretches back much further than this week.

“The near-term cause of [the protests at the embassy] was a response to the airstrikes, but those airstrikes have to be put into context of a longer term problem, which is that the U.S. basically ceded a lot of power and influence to Iran inside Iraq.” Thomas Joscelyn, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told The Dispatch in an interview conducted prior to the Suleimani news on Thursday. “[This] was an organized effort by these Iranian-backed militias, Iranian proxies to try and gin up anger and to respond to this American airstrikes on their own people.”

Were they successful? “They caused us to scramble military assets,” Joscelyn said. “But I think at the end of the day, the actual damage they did was fairly limited and they didn’t kill any Americans or get away with anything that they certainly would like to do if they had the opportunity to.”

Tuesday’s Provocation Wasn’t Suleimani’s Only One

Over the past several months, Iraq has seen a wave of non-violent civilian protests focused largely on corruption in Baghdad. Some of those protests included explicit condemnation of Iranian influence in Iraq, with anti-Iran chants and demonstration at Iranian diplomatic outposts in Iraq.

When this discontent threatened to unseat Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi in late October, an emissary from the Iranian regime intervened to save him: Qassem Suleimani. It was a short-term reprieve. Abdul Mahdi resigned a month later after rising anti-Iran sentiment culimnated in violent demonstrations at the Iranian consulate in Najaf.

Suleimani and his allies were providing more than political help. Iran-backed militias were actively involved in putting down protests, at times resulting in the deaths of dozens of protesters. In early December, the U.S. Treasury Department designated several Iranian militia leaders for ordering the assassination of protest leaders and other human rights abuses. Among those designated last month was Qais Khazali, an Iran-backed terrorist once held by the U.S. government but freed by the Obama administration in a late-2009 hostage swap. Khazali was one of the militia leaders who helped orchestrate the violent protests at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday.

If the handling of Qais Khazali illustrates the stark differences in approach between the Obama and Trump administrations, so does the treatment of Qassem Suleimani. As a precondition to the Iranians signing on to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA, or Iran Nuclear Deal) in 2015, the Obama administration agreed in principle to lift existing sanctions on Suleimani after eight years, despite his long record of directing Iran’s terror apparatus, including lethal operations targeting Americans, provided Iran abided by the terms of the accord.

What’s Next?

In an interview with Fox News’ Mike Emanuel earlier this week, Pompeo vowed that the United States would “continue to hold the Islamic Republic of Iran accountable wherever we find their malign activity,” a general statement at the time that now reads like a specific warning.

But perhaps the most telling moment in the interview came when Emanuel asked Pompeo about the consequences of a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq.

“What do you think would happen if the United States were to leave Iraq?”

“I don’t want to engage in a hypothetical,” Pompeo responded, pledging only that the United States would make good on Trump’s promise to keep ISIS from attacking the US homeland.

There’s a reason Pompeo didn’t want to answer that question. Pompeo understands that a full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq would be catastrophic. But he also understands that Trump’s instincts pull him strongly in the other direction. The president railed against America’s foreign entanglements during his 2016 campaign and he’s made clear—in public remarks and in private meetings with his national security team—that his patience with America’s “endless wars” is running out.

Iran’s leaders have vowed to avenge Suleimani’s death. They may react quickly or they may demonstrate patience. But they will undoubtedly attempt to make good on those promises. How? Suleimani may have previewed the next wave of U.S.-Iran conflict in a provocative speech he gave in July 2018.

“We are closer to you than what you think,” he warned, boasting of the power and reach of the Quds Force. “You are aware of Iran’s power in asymmetric war.”

From The Dispatch’s David French on the Constitutionality of the Strikes on Suleimani

Twitter thread here, but we “unroll” it for readers below.

There’s much to say about the potential strategic benefits (and perils) of the decision, but make no mistake, separate congressional authorization was not necessary. This was not a separate act of war in the constitutional sense. I’ll explain why in a brief thread.

It’s very important that Suleimani was killed in Iraq. Why? Because American troops are lawfully in Iraq—there by congressional authorization and with the permission of the Iraqi government. Moreover, they have a right of self-defense. /2

And don’t forget, they were reintroduced to Iraq by the Obama administration. The present military operations are a continuation of military operations initiated by President Obama. This is Obama’s deployment as much as Trump’s. It was proper then, and it is proper now. /3
Iranian-backed militias attacked U.S. troops lawfully present in a combat zone under valid legal authorities. Moreover, America’s military response isn’t limited to immediate self-defense or tit for tat. It can act to remove the threat. That threat includes enemy commanders. /4
The true “act of war” was thus Iran’s—by putting one of its commanders, boots on the ground, in Iraq to assist in planning and directing attacks on U.S. forces. America is entitled to respond to that threat. /5
Suleimani was an evil, evil man. There is much American blood on his hands. And he was killed lawfully, in a properly constitutionally-authorized conflict. There is much risk and peril to come, but Trump’s action was constitutionally legitimate, and that matters. A lot.

Worth Your Time

If you want to read more about the life and times of Qassem Suleimani, this deeply reported 2013 New Yorker profile by Dexter Filkins is a great place to start.
President Trump’s cash payouts to “our great patriot farmers” have quickly gone from being an emergency tourniquet on trade war pain to an enormous, apparently regular subsidy—more than the auto industry got in 2008!—with no end to them in sight. This NPR piece from Dan Charles breaks down how that decision has gone largely uncriticized, and created a situation in which the Trump administration is shielding itself from the political pain of its own policies.
AEI’s Nicholas Eberstadt has a new piece in The New York Times on why the North Korean nuclear crisis is, after a brief hiatus, back on and entering a new phase. “The United States’ only option for precluding this nightmare,” he writes, “is to bring down the hammer on the Kim regime before its capabilities expand even further.”
Be sure to read this moving obituary of Gertrude Himmelfarb, the prominent Victorian historian and mother Bill Kristol, from Adam Keiper in The Bulwark.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and The Athletic’s David Aldridge are out with two fantastic David Stern obituaries that highlight just how transformative force the former commissioner was not only in American sports but global business.

Toeing the Company Line

David’s got two fresh French Presses for you since we were last in your inbox on Monday. The first takes a look at the role media narratives play in how we talk (or don’t talk) about anti-Semitism, as well as how last week’s church shooting in Texas demonstrated the best of responsibly gun ownership. The second covers the aforementioned raid of our embassy in Iraq, the latest happenings in North Korea, and why “foreign policy should humble us all.”

Reporting by Declan Garvey (@declanpgarvey), Andrew Egger (@EggerDC), and Steve Hayes (@stephenfhayes).

Photo credit: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks from the State Department briefing room on June 13, 2019 in Washington, D.C., addressing attacks on two U.S. tankers by Iran in the Gulf of Oman. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

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AXIOS

Axios AMSubscribe

By Mike Allen

1 big thing: America’s war footing

This photo released by the Iraqi Prime Minister’s Press Office shows a burning vehicle at Baghdad International Airport following an airstrike early today. Photo via AP

President Trump, after warning three days ago that Iran would pay “a very BIG PRICE,” authorized a drone strike at Baghdad International Airport that killed Iran’s top general and second most powerful official, Qasem Soleimani.

From the Pentagon’s statement: “At the direction of the President, the U.S. military has taken decisive defensive action to protect U.S. personnel abroad by killing Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.”
The strike also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of the Popular Mobilization Forces, a group of Iranian-backed militias in Iraq.

Why it matters: Soleimani had cost hundreds of American lives and was among the Middle East’s most feared powers. But Iran seems certain to respond, potentially further destabilizing the world’s most volatile region.

“In killing General Soleimani,” the N.Y. Times reports, “Trump took an action that Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama had rejected, fearing it would lead to war between the United States and Iran.”

Behind the scenes: A source in close contact with Trump administration senior national security officials tells Axios’ Jonathan Swan that one scenario they are especially concerned about — and have been prepared for — is Iran launching cyberattacks.

That’s the most likely way that Iran could retaliate stateside.

The big picture: The president who wanted to bring home the troops is now engaged in the most intense conflict with Iran in recent history.

So much has changed — and so fast.
A few months ago, Trump was musing about bringing U.S. troops home from the Middle East, and to let others fight it out in the sand.
Now, he’s adding forces, and they’re necessarily on a war footing.

The bottom line: Modern wars are fought mostly with the most expensive, most difficult to recruit, train and retain: special forces.

2. What to watch

Graphic: AP

President Trump has to prepare for an extreme backlash from Iran — and likely intensified attacks on U.S. forces in the Middle East, and anywhere else within Iran’s planning reach.

It also means possible retaliation against U.S. allies, especially Israel, writes Axios contributor Barak Ravid.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cut short a trip to Greece to return to Israel to monitor the situation.
It is still unclear if the U.S. gave Israel any heads up before the strike on Soleimani.
Israeli officials tell Ravid that Israel doesn’t know if and how Iran is going to retaliate — but, right now, the decision is to keep a low profile and not get involved in the ongoing tensions in Iraq.

3. Risk of world war

CFR President Richard Haass tweets: “Make no mistake: any war with Iran will not look like the 1990 Gulf war or the 2003 Iraq wars.”

“It will be fought throughout the region w a wide range of tools vs a wide range of civilian, economic, & military targets. The region (and possibly the world) will be the battlefield.”

President Trump tweeted this wordless image last night, about 15 minutes before the Pentagon statement confirming the strike:

4. Smarter, faster: Who was Soleimani?

Illustration: Krzysztof Domaradzki for The New Yorker

To catch up quickly on why Qasem Soleimani was one of the most significant figures in the Middle East, here are five quick points from a 2013 profile by Dexter Filkins in The New Yorker, “The Shadow Commander“:

“Suleimani … has sought to reshape the Middle East in Iran’s favor, working as a power broker and as a military force: assassinating rivals, arming allies, and, for most of a decade, directing a network of militant groups that killed hundreds of Americans in Iraq.”
“His power comes mostly from his close relationship with [Iran’s ruler, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] … The Supreme Leader, who usually reserves his highest praise for fallen soldiers, has referred to Suleimani as ‘a living martyr of the revolution.’ Suleimani is a hard-line supporter of Iran’s authoritarian system.”

“In 2004, the Quds Force [that he led] began flooding Iraq with lethal roadside bombs that … began to wreak havoc on American troops, accounting for nearly twenty per cent of combat deaths,” Filkins continues.

“[H]e has remained mostly invisible to the outside world, even as he runs agents and directs operations. ‘Suleimani is the single most powerful operative in the Middle East today,’ John Maguire, a former C.I.A. officer in Iraq, told me.”
In a report to the White House, Gen. David Petraeus, then commander of coalition forces in Iraq, wrote that Soleimani was “truly evil.”

Keep reading (paywall).

5. Dems on airstrike: “stick of dynamite”

Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis (left), a commander in the Popular Mobilization Forces (Dec. 31), and Qasem Soleimani (2015). Photos: Reuters

Speaker Pelosi said in a statement that the Iraq strike “was taken without the consultation of the Congress,” and “risks provoking further dangerous escalation of violence”:

“The full Congress must be immediately briefed on this serious situation and on the next steps under consideration by the Administration, including the significant escalation of the deployment of additional troops to the region.”

2020 Dems condemn: Joe Biden said President Trump “tossed a stick of dynamite into a tinderbox” with the targeted killing of Iran’s top general, and said it could leave the U.S. “on the brink of a major conflict across the Middle East,” AP reports.

Bernie Sanders said: “Trump’s dangerous escalation brings us closer to another disastrous war in the Middle East that could cost countless lives and trillions more dollars.”
Elizabeth Warren called Qasem Soleimani “a murderer, responsible for the deaths of thousands, including hundreds of Americans.” But she said Trump’s “reckless move escalates the situation with Iran and increases the likelihood of more deaths and new Middle East conflict.”
Andrew Yang tweeted: “War with Iran is the last thing we need and is not the will of the American people. We should be acting to deescalate tensions and protect our people in the region.”

6. Ride-sharing of the future

Auto companies, counterintuitively, are trying to get people to give up their cars — by making shared transportation more appealing with vehicles that recognize you, anticipate your needs and customize your ride, Axios’ Joann Muller writes.

Why it matters: Ride-hailing apps are making urban congestion steadily worse. In San Francisco, people spent 62% more time sitting in traffic in 2016 than in 2010. Uber and Lyft admitted they’re part of the problem.

The most important carrot could be convenience: In New York, bus ridership soared after a car ban on 14th Street cleared the way for buses, shortening travel time by 30%.

Share this story.

7. The dominant Democrat of the Trump era

Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks Tuesday at Bernie’s Big New Year’s Bash, which drew 1,300 in Des Moines: Photo: Kelsey Kremer/The Des Moines Register via Reuters

Bernie Sanders’ $35 million fourth-quarter fundraising, which easily tops 2020 Democrats, is a timely reminder that the socialist senator from Vermont is the single most consistently popular and viable Democrat of the past half-decade.

Why it matters: The media rarely treats Sanders, 78, with the seriousness warranted by his sustained popularity and fundraising.
Like in 2016, Sanders has a legit shot to win the nomination — and an unshakable base to brace him.

The data:

Since 2015, Sanders has raised more from small contributions (under $200) than any other Democrat, highlighting his grassroots support.
In both the 2016 and 2020 cycles, about 57% of his total fundraising came from small contributions. Joe Biden’s share of fundraising from small contributions so far is only 35%.
Sanders’ campaign says it took in 1.8 million donations during the fourth quarter — an average of $18.53.

The bottom line: Despite his age, and even after a heart attack and the insertion of stents this past fall, Sanders is surging again.

He is now second in national polling, behind the equally resilient Biden.

Between the lines: “His anti-establishment message hasn’t changed for 50 years, and it resonates with working-class voters and young people who agree the system is corrupt,” the N.Y. Times wrote from Iowa last week.

“Sanders’s revival has reshuffled the Democratic primary race, providing a counterweight to the shift toward centrism in recent months that has elevated Mayor Pete Buttigieg.”

8. Trump’s impeachment dividend

Screenshot via MSNBC

Screenshot via MSNBC

9. Apple bets big on top Hollywood talent

Director Steven Spielberg speaks during an event launching Apple TV+ in March. Photo: Noah Berger/AFP via Getty Images

Apple’s new streaming service is only beginning to take shape, but already the tech giant has signaled that it’s willing to spend big to lure Hollywood’s top talent to be a part of it, writes Axios media trends expert Sara Fischer.

Driving the news: Former HBO boss Richard Plepler has secured a five-year exclusive deal with Apple to produce feature films, documentaries and original series for Apple TV+, his spokesperson confirmed to Axios.

10. What is 1 last thing?

Photo: Jeopardy.com

Alex Trebek, 79, says he’s already rehearsed what he’s going to say to the audience on his final “Jeopardy!” — whenever that may be.

Trebek, host of the iconic game show since 1984, announced last March that he’d been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer but would continue working, AP writes.

In an interview with ABC’s Michael Strahan broadcast in primetime last night, Trebek said he’ll ask the director to leave him 30 seconds at the end of his last taping:

I will say my goodbyes and I will tell people, “Don’t ask me who’s going to replace me, because I have no say whatsoever. But I’m sure that if you give them the same love and attention and respect that you have shown me … then they will be a success and the show will continue being a success … And until we meet again, God bless you and goodbye.”

📬 Thanks for starting 2020 with us. Please tell a friend about AM/PM.

THE HILL

© Getty Images Welcome to The Hill’s Morning Report. TGIF! Our newsletter gets you up to speed on the most important developments in politics and policy, plus trends to watch. Alexis Simendinger and Al Weaver are the daily co-creators, so find us @asimendinger and @alweaver22 on Twitter and recommend the Morning Report to your friends. CLICK HERE to subscribe! The impeachment battle is set to resume in the coming days as Congress returns to Washington amid the high stakes fight between Democratic leaders and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Even following the holidays, the freeze in Senate trial negotiations between McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) lingers. The two leaders have not spoken with one other since their meeting before the Christmas break. Adding to the troubles in negotiations, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) continues to hold onto the pair of articles of impeachment against President Trump, drawing the ire of Republicans across Congress. As Jordain Carney notes in her all-encompassing look at the situation, McConnell’s first chance to respond to Schumer and Pelosi will be today as the Senate reconvenes at noon for the first time after the holidays. Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), an adviser to the GOP leader, said this week that she had not received an update from McConnell since lawmakers left town. Asked about the negotiations, a spokesman for the GOP leader pointed to McConnell’s floor speech from mid-December saying the remarks “still stand.” “We remain at an impasse because my friend the Democratic leader continues to demand a new and different set of rules for President Trump,” McConnell said at the time. With Pelosi continuing to hold onto the articles, Senate Republicans are starting to zero in on her handling of the situation since the House voted on Dec. 18 to impeach Trump on two charges. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) brushed aside McConnell’s statements that the GOP-led Senate must hold a trial whenever it receives the impeachment articles and announced on Thursday that he will introduce a motion next week to dismiss impeachment due to “lack of prosecution” by the House (The Hill). “Dems said impeachment was URGENT. Now they don’t want to have a trial, because they have no evidence. In [the] real world, if prosecution doesn’t proceed with case, it gets dismissed. So on Monday, I will introduce measure to dismiss this bogus impeachment for lack of prosecution,” Hawley wrote on Twitter. “This will expose Dems’ circus for what it is: a fake impeachment, abuse of the Constitution, based on no evidence. If Dems won’t proceed with trial, bogus articles should be dismissed and @realDonaldTrump fully cleared.” The Hill: Pelosi faces decision on articles of impeachment. Politico: Why Democrats say they might not vote to convict Trump. CNN: All eyes on McConnell as Senate returns Friday. On the Democratic side, they zeroed in on a batch of newly-released emails concerning the president’s decision to delay handing over aid to Ukraine, saying it shows why the Senate should call top Trump administration officials to testify at the impending trial (The Hill). “The newly-revealed unredacted emails are a devastating blow to Senator McConnell’s push to have a trial without the documents and witnesses we’ve requested,” Schumer said in a statement. “These emails further expose the serious concerns raised by Trump administration officials about the propriety and legality of the president’s decision to cut off aid to Ukraine to benefit himself.” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said that the emails between officials at the Office of Management and Budget and the Pentagon are part of a trove of documents that need to be produced in order to conduct a “fair trial.” The Washington Post: Democrats seize on report to press for key witnesses in Senate impeachment trial. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) called on her Senate colleagues to support Schumer’s call for key witnesses to appear and for all Ukraine-related documents to be produced for the impending trial. The effort among Democrats will need 51 votes to prove successful, including from four GOP senators, which remains a steep climb in itself as most Republicans support a swift trial. Scott Jennings, a McConnell adviser, told The Hill that Republicans should “lock arms” behind McConnell’s floated framework of passing an initial resolution on the rules and punting the decision on witnesses until after the trial starts, similar to the Clinton proceedings in 1999. “Republicans just don’t think this is an impeachable item,” he said. “They’re just not going to throw the president out of office over it.” © Getty Images LEADING THE DAYIRAN & IRAQ: A targeted U.S. strike in Iraq on Thursday that killed the powerful commander of Iran’s Quds Force is a direct confrontation with Tehran and escalates Trump’s retaliatory posture following the death of an American contractor in Iraq last month. The Pentagon described the U.S. drone attack at Baghdad International Airport, which killed Iran’s Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iran-backed militias in Iraq and five others, as “defensive action.” In a statement, the Defense Department said Soleimani “was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region.” Middle East experts warned that Iran’s leaders are treating Soleimani’s killing as an act of war. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said a “harsh retaliation is waiting” for the United States. Iran Foreign Minister Javad Zarif called the strike “extremely dangerous and foolish.” The Trump administration said it anticipates possible retaliatory attacks by Tehran, including terrorism and cyberattacks, and was preparing. Members of Congress and Democratic presidential candidates hailed Soleimani’s death while also underscoring the deepening risks unleashed between the United States and Iran. Former Vice President Joe Biden called on the president, who is scheduled to remain in Florida and speak this evening to political supporters, to publicly explain U.S. policy with Iran as well as next steps. “President Trump just tossed a stick of dynamite into a tinderbox, and he owes the American people an explanation of the strategy and plan to keep safe our troops and embassy personnel, our people and our interests, both here at home and abroad, and our partners throughout the region and beyond,” Biden said in a statement. The Associated Press: U.S. kills Iran’s most powerful general in airstrike. The New York Times: Soleimani cast a long shadow over the Middle East. Reuters: Iran promises to avenge Soleimani’s killing. The Washington Post: Iran and its proxies may be planning fresh attacks on U.S. personnel in Iraq, according to Defense Secretary Mark Esper. The Hill: Trump’s initial reaction on Thursday to the drone strike he ordered was a tweet of the American flag. The New Yorker: 2013 profile about Soleimani by Dexter Filkins: “The Shadow Commander.” © Getty Images *** POLITICS & CAMPAIGNS: The Democratic field battled for financial supremacy on Thursday as campaigns continued to reveal fourth-quarter fundraising figures while boasting that financial prowess foreshadows success in the Iowa caucuses. Boosted by a strong couple of months and the recent downturn of Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.) campaign, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) revealed Wednesday that his campaign raised a mind-boggling $34.5 million in the final three months of 2019 and $96 million since he started his campaign in February. Emboldened by the fundraising news, Sanders went on to train his fire on Biden, perhaps his preeminent rival for the Democratic nod, taking a direct shot at Biden’s central argument for election. Sanders told The Washington Post’s Robert Costa in an interview that there is no excitement behind Biden’s campaign and that he won’t win against Trump in November. “It’s just a lot of baggage that Joe takes into a campaign, which isn’t going to create energy and excitement,” Sanders said. “He brings into this campaign a record which is so weak that it just cannot create the kind of excitement and energy that is going to be needed to defeat Donald Trump.” The remark came days after Sanders needled Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) over her “Medicare for All” plan, arguing that she wouldn’t move as fast as he would at rolling out his plan if elected in November (The Hill). On Thursday, Biden announced his strongest fundraising performance since entering the race last spring, posting $22.7 million in the last three months. His campaign team hopes his improvement over his $15 million third-quarter tally will quell voter and donor concerns heading into early voting states (The Hill). As Jonathan Easley notes, high-level fundraising by Sanders, former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Andrew Yang continues to indicate a thirst among Democratic voters for insurgents, outsiders and fresh faces in politics, part of an enduring push for disruption in Washington ahead of November. For Sanders and Buttigieg, it was the second consecutive quarter in which they topped Biden, who is still considered to be part of the establishment wing of the Democratic Party. “What people are saying with their dollars, and not just Democrats but on the Republican side too, is that they want someone who will disrupt the system, not just be a part of it,” said Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic strategist in South Carolina. “It’s easier for candidates to be against something, than to be for something, it’s quite easy to argue that Washington is a bad animal. There’s a real thirst to restore power back to the people from a grassroots perspective, and that’s what you’re seeing with these heavy hauls from the outsiders.” The fundraising numbers continued to roll in this morning as Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) announced that her team raised $11.4 million in the fourth quarter, by far her best mark of the 2020 cycle as she hopes to peak with Iowa on the horizon. Previously, Klobuchar raised $4.8 million in the third quarter of 2019, and she is one of only five candidates to have qualified for the first Democratic debate of 2020, which is set for January 14 in Des Moines (The Hill). The wait continues for other Democratic candidates, but none more so than Warren, the only top tier contender who has not released fourth quarter figures. Politico: Dems rocket into 2020 with huge donor windfall. Bloomberg News: Sanders, Buttigieg raise enough money to make 2020 a long race. NBC News: Can Amy Klobuchar pull off a February surprise? The Associated Press: As 2020 dawns, Trump looks to boost evangelical support. > Castro out: Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro announced Thursday that he is ending his primary campaign, having been unable to break through with Democratic voters during his year long bid. “I’m so proud of the campaign we’ve run together. We’ve shaped the conversation on so many important issues in this race, stood up for the most vulnerable people and given a voice to those who are often forgotten,” Castro said in a video message to supporters. “But with only a month until the Iowa caucuses, and given the circumstances of this campaign season, I have determined that it simply isn’t our time.” Castro was excluded from the December primary debate after failing to garner enough support in polls or from donors to participate. After he entered the primary contest, the former mayor made immigration the hallmark of his campaign, showcased by his sharp back-and-forth during the June debate with fellow Texan, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who dropped out of the presidential race on Nov. 1. Castro also made headlines when he called for the Democratic Party to boot Iowa from its spot as the first contest on the primary calendar, pointing to the lack of diversity in the state (The Hill). Houston Chronicle: San Antonio’s Julián Castro ends quest for Democratic presidential nomination. The Associated Press: Castro’s exit is latest blow to diversity of 2020 field. © Getty Images In other 2020 news … Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg did not file to appear on the ballot for the Nevada caucuses as he moves ahead with his plans to not compete in the first four early state primaries on the Democratic nominating calendar (Politico) … Longshot Democratic candidate Marianne Williamson laid off her entire campaign staff on Thursday, although she maintains that she is not dropping her bid for the party’s nomination (The Hill). IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKESVAPING: Following months of bold Trump pronouncements accompanied by second thoughts from the administration about how to crack down on an epidemic of teen vaping without alienating voters and businesses, the government on Thursday unveiled a limited federal ban on certain flavors of cartridge-based e-cigarettes. The regulatory action stopped short of where Trump initially told the public he intended to go to protect young people (The Hill). Last year, Trump admirers peppered the government with arguments that vaping products help adults quit smoking cigarettes. On Twitter, fans of e-cigarettes used a hashtag: #WeVapeWeVote. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Thursday it will strip the market of popular fruit and mint pod-based flavors, but not tobacco and menthol. Pod-based products, such as those manufactured by Juul and NJOY, are the most popular among teens. The announcement is perceived as a victory for free market groups and the vaping industry, which pressured the administration to change course from its earlier move toward a total flavor ban, arguing it would put independent vape shops out of business and cost jobs. Open tank e-cigarette systems, which are not as popular with young consumers as cartridge-based e-cigarettes, will be exempt from the government’s policy, even though such systems use flavored “e-liquids.” According to the FDA, companies that do not stop manufacturing, distributing and selling unauthorized flavored cartridge-based e-cigarettes other than tobacco or menthol within 30 days of the publication of new federal guidance risk enforcement actions. OPINIONIran is losing its grip on Iraq, by Ray Takeyh, opinion contributor, The Hill. https://bit.ly/2QhyQWQ Phase two of the U.S.-China trade deal will be more challenging, not less, by Nick Sargen, opinion contributor, The Hill. https://bit.ly/2sGxCLJ WHERE AND WHEN📺 Hill.TV’s “Rising” program features Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute For Responsible Statecraft, to react to Soleimani’s death; Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of Our Revolution, to discuss the media and Sanders’s presidential bid; and Aaron Maté, host of “The Pushback,” to talk about foreign policy in the 2020 campaign. Coverage starts at 9 a.m. ET at http://thehill.com/hilltv or on YouTube at 10 a.m. at Rising on YouTube. The House convenes on Tuesday with the second session of the 116th Congress officially beginning at noon today. The Senate returns to work and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is expected to speak from the Senate floor at noon. The next votes in the chamber are scheduled on Monday. The president addresses his campaign’s launch of “Evangelicals for Trump” in Miami, Fla., at 5 p.m. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit hears oral arguments at 9:30 a.m. on whether former White House counsel Don McGahn must comply with a House subpoena to testify about the Mueller investigation (C-SPAN live coverage). The D.C. Circuit also will hear oral arguments at 10:30 a.m. regarding House lawmakers’ request to unseal grand jury testimony and documents from the Mueller probe. ELSEWHERE➔ Fugitive: Nissan’s ex-chairman Carlos Ghosn, who fled his home in Tokyo in dramatic fashion to seek refuge in Lebanon to evade trial on financial misconduct charges, is now the target of an Interpol arrest warrant. Lebanese officials on Thursday suggested they plan to cooperate (The Associated Press). Japanese officials are trying to solve the mystery behind Ghosn’s getaway (CNN). Turkish authorities have questioned seven people about the former auto executive’s clandestine ability to exit Tokyo and make his way to Beirut (The New York Times). ➔ Best diets?: Shedding pounds and eating better are common New Year’s resolutions. According to diet rankings published by U.S. News & World Report and created by a panel of 25 nutrition, obesity and other experts, the Mediterranean Diet snagged the top overall spot for the third year in a row. Trimming or eliminating added sugar in foods is another sure-fire formula for better health, cognition and energy levels (The New York Times). ➔ Philadelphia: Two men wore blackface while marching in the city’s annual (and often controversial) New Year’s Day Mummers Parade, sparking sharp public criticism from City of Brotherly Love Mayor Jim Kenney. A group with whom the men apparently were affiliated was disqualified from the parade and may experience additional penalties as the controversy continued to swirl on Thursday. The men in question said their face makeup was not racist (The Associated Press). © Twitter THE CLOSERAnd finally … Brush fires have taken a harsh toll on Australia’s animal kingdom since September. Ecologists estimate that nearly half a billion animals have perished because of the infernos (The New York Post). Yet, some Australian zoo animals, including monkeys and pandas, were rescued in the nick of time, thanks to some heroic interventions by zoo administrators and staff, who turned wild animals (including one tiger) into temporary backyard houseguests to save them (The Washington Post). Key features of Australia’s disaster are under intense study, including ways to prevent such fires, climate and weather changes Down Under and the impact of the devastation on celebrated species (The Hill). Bushfires this season have killed at least 10 people, and 28 remain missing. The fires scorched more than 10 million acres of Australian bushland and destroyed more than 1,000 homes, including 381 structures that burned to the ground on the south coast this week (Reuters). © Getty Images The Morning Report is created by journalists Alexis Simendinger and Al Weaver. We want to hear from you! Email: asimendinger@thehill.com and aweaver@thehill.com. We invite you to share The Hill’s reporting and newsletters, and encourage others to SUBSCRIBE! TO VIEW PAST EDITIONS OF THE HILL’S MORNING REPORT CLICK HERETO RECEIVE THE HILL’S MORNING REPORT IN YOUR INBOX SIGN UP HERE MORNING REPORT SIGN UP FORWARD MORNING REPORT Privacy Policy | Manage Subscriptions | Unsubscribe Email to a friend | Sign Up for Other NewslettersThe Hill 1625 K Street, NW 9th Floor, Washington DC 20006©2020 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc.

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BRIGHT

Share with a friend you think would love this!Friday, January 3, 2020

California’s AB5 Goes into Effect
Despite freelancers, gig workers, and small businesses protesting the hotly contested AB5 law that demands all independent contractors become employees, the legislation went into effect at the beginning of the year. Under the law, freelance writers, like me and many others, would not be allowed to submit more than 35 articles per publication per year unless we became employees of said publication. Drivers for companies like Uber, Lyft, and Postmates, will find themselves applying for jobs they’ve already been doing and will eventually be forced to join a union or lose their right to earn through the platforms. AB5 was ostensibly created to “protect” gig workers and freelancers from being underpaid and not getting benefits but the truth is that it will cost thousands of people their livelihood. Across the political aisle, workers have clamored against the legislation that was happily signed by CA Governor Gavin Newsom last year who excitedly touted the benefit it would bring to California Unions.

Uber and Postmates filed a lawsuit last week citing violations of the 9th and 14th Amendments, as well as several other statutes. The American Society of Journalists and Authors and the National Press Photographers Association, represented by the Pacific Legal Foundation, have filed a suit as well that included an assertion that AB5 also violated the 1^stAmendment.

Nicole Russell explains in The Federalist just how these types of laws, which are also on the verge of being passed in New York and New Jersey, cost thousands of people their right to earn.

“Vox Media announced they will be cutting hundreds of freelance writers, mostly those covering sports for the SB Nation site, as the company prepares for Assembly Bill 5 (AB5) to go into effect in California at the start of the new year. Passed in September, the law requires gig economy workers to be hired as employees with benefits. While the primary sponsor, California Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, had intended to target companies like Uber and DoorDash, the law also forbids freelancers from submitting more than 35 articles per year to the same publication. As a full-time freelance writer with many friends in the business, I welcome another chance to point how just how hurtful this bill is for freelance writers, how asinine it was for this politician to push the bill while clearly ignorant of its economic effects, and how it could be repealed.”

WATCH: Deranged Trump 2020 Sign Thief in for a ‘Shock’
“Believing no one was going to catch him, a camera caught a man trespassing onto someone’s lawn in order to yank a sign planted into the ground but found a shocking surprise in store for him. I’m using the term ‘shocking’ both figuratively and very, very literally.” (RedState)

Sips and Pours for 2020! All About Champagne Edition!
Anyone who has spent any time talking to me about wine knows that I’m a fiend for Champagne. It’s possible that you’ve heard the term “Grower Champagne,” and maybe not, but I’d love to share some more about it because it is very special. You don’t have to drop $300 on a bottle of vintage Krug or Dom Perignon to have some of the very best champagne in the world. In fact, you just need to find a smaller producer who grows all of their own grapes and makes the wine they love. Only 5% of Champagne imported to the US from France actually qualifies as grower or “RM.” BUT, I’m here to tell you I found several bottles at Total Wine for NYE this year. Here’s a great guide that Wine Folly put together that explains more fully why it’s so unique and wonderful. My favorite producers are Chartogne-Taillet, Georges Laval, and Ulysse Collin.

Friday Entertainment Center
Messiah on Netflix is at times dreadfully boring and moves at a sloth’s pace but the intrigue and mystery surrounding a man claiming to be a messenger from God are enough to make it worthwhile. Think “Homeland,” but with more cults. More here from Den of Geek.

The second season of You is now streaming on Netflix as well and while it is missing the initial shock value of the first season, Joe Goldberg is back and as creepy as every with a whole new group of friends to antagonize. This season, which made the bicoastal move from NYC to LA, also offers some pretty exciting twists – it’s worth streaming. More here from IndieWire.

1917 is a technical cinematic achievement as well as a moving and haunting portrayal of soldiers risking their lives to save others in the later stages of the first World War. It will at once impress you with its nearly magical cinematography (thank you, Roger Deakins) and stir your soul with a story of selflessness and courage in the face of hell. One of the best war films I’ve ever seen. More here from FilmWeek.
BRIGHT is brought to you by The Federalist.Today’s BRIGHT Editor
Ellie Bufkin is a breaking news reporter at The Washington Examiner and a senior contributor to The Federalist. Originally from northern Virginia, Ellie grew up in Baltimore, and worked in the wine industry as a journalist and sommelier, living in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. A fanatic for movies and TV shows since childhood, she currently reviews movies and writes about many aspects of popular culture for The Federalist. She is an avid home cook, cocktail enthusiast, and still happy to make wine recommendations. Ellie currently lives in Washington D.C. You can follow her on Twitter @ellie_bufkin Copyright © BRIGHT, All rights reserved.

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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 Blast01/03/2020Excerpts:Iran Says U.S. Strikes in Iraq Killed Powerful General and DeputyBy R. Mitchell -In a stunning admission, Iran says that one of it’s most powerful generals was killed in Iraq as well as a senior deputy. An airstrike killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani, head of Iran’s elite Quds Force and architect of its regional security apparatus, at Baghdad’s international airport Friday, Iranian state television …Iran Says U.S. Strikes in Iraq Killed Powerful General and Deputy 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.
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Pros & Cons of Bernie as the Democrat NomineeBy Karen Kataline -The latest distraction for news junkies is that Democrats think Bernie Sanders could really win their Nomination for Election 2020. So, at this point, let’s do a cost/benefit analysis for the Republicans if Bernie should get the nomination he was robbed of in 2016. We could have a full-on debate …Pros & Cons of Bernie as the Democrat Nominee 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.
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Democrats Got Nuffin’ but they Keep on Bluffin’By Karen Kataline -Door-to-door salesmen sometimes survive a rough job by convincing themselves that people are desperate to buy what they’re selling. After receiving several “No’s”, they threaten to walk away when no one invited them to the door in the first place. Such is the current situation in which Nancy Pelosi has …Democrats Got Nuffin’ but they Keep on Bluffin’ 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.
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Marvel Introducing First Transgender Character: ‘In A Movie That We’re Shooting Right Now’By Mary Margaret Olohan -The president of Marvel Studios revealed Saturday that Marvel Cinematic Universe is shooting a movie that will feature the company’s first transgender character. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige discussed the introduction of LGBTQ characters into Marvel movies during a Q&A session at the New York Film Academy. “Yes, absolutely yes,” …Marvel Introducing First Transgender Character: ‘In A Movie That We’re Shooting Right Now’ 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.
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Fishy: Arkansas Judge Overseeing Hunter Biden Paternity Case Recuses Without ExplanationBy Andrew Kerr -The judge overseeing Hunter Biden’s contentious paternity case in Arkansas recused without explanation Tuesday. Independence County Circuit Judge Don McSpadden’s recusal comes shortly after lawyers for former stripper Lunden Roberts accused Biden of refusing to provide basic information about his finances. A DNA test confirmed in November that Biden, the …Fishy: Arkansas Judge Overseeing Hunter Biden Paternity Case Recuses Without Explanation 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.
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Dirt Digger – A.F. Branco CartoonBy A.F. Branco -As a last resort, Democrats weaponized impeachment hoping to lower Trump’s approval but have only damaged their own. Political Cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2020. See more Branco toons HEREDirt Digger – 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.
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Vox Editor Rings In New Year By Spreading Fake News In Viral TweetBy Peter Hasson -Vox founder and editor-at-large Ezra Klein capped off his year by spreading misinformation in a viral tweet on Tuesday. Klein tweeted out a nine-month-old Washington Post article alleging that counties that hosted Trump rallies saw massive spikes in hate crimes compared to counties that didn’t host Trump rallies. Klein’s tweet …Vox Editor Rings In New Year By Spreading Fake News In Viral Tweet 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.
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Roberts Urges Judges To Promote Public Confidence, As Divisive Supreme Court Term LoomsBy Kevin Daley -Chief Justice John Roberts lamented that misinformation is flourishing online and urged judges to conduct their work in a manner that promotes public faith in fair and impartial judging in his annual year-end report on the federal judiciary. The report pressed judges to be at the vanguard of civic education …Roberts Urges Judges To Promote Public Confidence, As Divisive Supreme Court Term Looms 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.
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Hillary’s 2020 Make Over – Grrr Graphics – Ben Garrison CartoonBy Ben Garrison -Who Wears it Scarier? For a long while I’ve predicted that Hillary Clinton would run again in 2020. I’m surprised she didn’t announce late last year, but she did have some sort of ‘procedure’ to remove many of her wrinkles. She did this to make herself appear more youthful for …Hillary’s 2020 Make Over – Grrr Graphics – Ben Garrison 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.
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Trump’s Campaign Releases POTUS’s ‘Unprecedented’ Fundraising Numbers For Fourth QuarterBy Chris White -President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign raised more than $45 million in the fourth quarter of 2019, a senior member of the campaign said Thursday. “President Trump’s unprecedented fundraising is testament to his wide grassroots support and his stellar record of achievement on behalf of the American people,” Trump’s campaign manager, …Trump’s Campaign Releases POTUS’s ‘Unprecedented’ Fundraising Numbers For Fourth Quarter 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.
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Which President Trump Accomplishment Do They Not Like???By Jim Clayton -2019 was a great year for President Trump with all his major accomplishments yet if you listen to the mainstream destroy Trump media like CNN or MSNBC you wouldn’t think the economy was great or he had any accomplishments when he’s had more than all the presidents put together. Trump …Which President Trump Accomplishment Do They Not Like??? 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.
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Trump Ends Decade With A Bang, Nixing Nearly 100 Enviro Regulations During His First Three Years In OfficeBy Chris White -President Donald Trump has nixed nearly 100 environmental regulations during his first three years in office, effectively rolling back much of his Democratic predecessor’s environmental legacy. The president rolled back more than 90 environmental rules and regulations, The New York Times reported in December. The NYT relied on an analysis from …Trump Ends Decade With A Bang, Nixing Nearly 100 Enviro Regulations During His First Three Years In Office 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.
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‘Sorry’: FBI Agent Said Andrew McCabe Apologized For Role In Media LeakBy Chuck Ross -Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe apologized to an FBI investigator after changing his story regarding a leak to the media in October 2016, according to documents released on Tuesday. McCabe was interviewed on May 9, 2017, the same day that James Comey was fired as FBI director, regarding two …‘Sorry’: FBI Agent Said Andrew McCabe Apologized For Role In Media Leak 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.
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Program That Can Quickly Process And Deport Migrants Has Expanded Along The BorderBy Jason Hopkins -The Trump administration has expanded a program that expeditiously reviews and processes asylum claims, which can also lead to the quick repatriation of migrants back to their home countries. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation on Tuesday that it has expanded Prompt Asylum Claim …Program That Can Quickly Process And Deport Migrants Has Expanded Along The Border 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.
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CAFFEINATED THOUGHTS

Connect: Facebook Twitter YouTube View this email in your browser “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near,” (Hebrews‬ ‭10:24-25‬, ESV‬‬).Eddie Mauro Says Joni Ernst Will Never Put ‘Women’s Rights’ FirstBy Shane Vander Hart on Jan 02, 2020 07:02 pm
Eddie Mauro said that U.S. Senator Joni Ernst is a ‘Republican puppet’ who will ‘never put women’s rights first’ because she doesn’t support abortion.
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Julián Castro Drops Out of RaceBy Shane Vander Hart on Jan 02, 2020 04:08 pm
Democratic presidential candidate Julián Castro, who opposed the Iowa’s first in the nation status, announced that he would suspend his campaign.
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Abby Finkenauer Endorses Joe BidenBy Shane Vander Hart on Jan 02, 2020 02:22 pm
U.S. Rep. Abby Finkenauer, D-Iowa, endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden for president becoming the first Iowa member of Congress to make an endorsement.
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Christians and Self DefenseBy Shane Vander Hart on Jan 02, 2020 01:26 pm
In light of a recent church shooting in Texas, Shane Vander Hart addresses a debate about whether the Bible allows Christians to defend themselves.
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Recent Articles:
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Pete Buttigieg, Our Founding Fathers, and SlaveryLaunched 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
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LIBERTY NATION

Daily BriefingCONSERVATIVE NEWS | LIBERTARIAN NEWS | COMMENTARYVISIT LibertyNation.com FROM OUR NEWSROOMIranian Escalation – The New Weapons of WarBy Mark Angelides Is conflict with Iran inevitable? Narrative and spin will shape the outcome more than traditional weapons.Click Here What America’s ThinkingBiden’s still ahead but losing ground among Democrats.Only 17% think Congress is doing a good job.71% believe police officers should be required to wear body cameras.72% of American adults think 2020 will be at a minimum a good year. That’s up dramatically from 54% a year ago and includes 22% who say it will be an excellent year and 20% who predict it will be one of the best years ever. Bloomberg Dodges the Inevitable Humiliation of Early PrimariesBy Graham J Noble Is skipping the early primaries Bloomberg’s way to avoid the embarrassment of crushing failure?Click Here Washington WhispersComing down the pipeline:Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam is pushing for a bill in the state legislature to replace the state’s statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that is displayed in the United States Capitol building.Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) will try to dismiss the articles of impeachment against President Trump that House Democrats have delayed sending to the Senate. He plans to submit his measure to dismiss Monday.Amazon employees are speaking out to the press about what they believe is the company’s roll in climate change, and it could cost them their jobs.According to the Pentagon, Iran may be plotting more attacks on U.S. interests in the Middle East. Liberty Nation GenZBy Liberty Nation Staff Click Here Your Daily Political DevotionalA Glimpse at What’s Hot in the PolitisphereBest-selling spiritual author and Democratic presidential primary candidate Marianne Williamson has laid off her entire campaign staff, both at her national headquarters and in the early voting states. She claims she isn’t dropping out of the race, but if she does continue, this means she’ll be campaigning alone. Despite her claims to the contrary, it might be reasonable to assume she’s the next Democrat to drop out. Heartlanders Start the New Year Right on Social MediaBy Sarah Cowgill If this week was any indication, 2020 will prove just as entertaining as 2019.Click Here News RoundupWe’ve Surfed The Web for YouJosh Hawley Introduces Measure To Dismiss ‘Bogus’ Articles Of Impeachment Trump Defends The USA, Liberals Outraged Iran’s Khamenei Taunted Trump Before Soleimani Strike: ‘You Can’t Do Anything’Ilhan Omar vows to stop Trump from creating ‘distraction’ war in Iran Trump’s 2020 vision Illegals Crime Report: The Psychiatric LoopholeBy Kelli Ballard Though he chased her into traffic, this illegal could get out of doing prison time.Click Here WATCH NOWFEATURED LNTVLNTV: Robert Kraft Now Facing Felonies In Prostitution Arrest – WATCH NOW!LNTV: Virginia’s Second Amendment Skirmishes Continue – WATCH NOW!LNTV: Democrats’ Post-Impeachment Blues – WATCH NOW! The Rabbit Hole: Missing Days, Babylonian Monsters and New Year’s Day Check out one of our podcasts!Subscribe and get notified of new arrivals.SUBSCRIBE LNTV: Philadelphia is Changing How Heroin is Treated in the USA – WATCH NOW! Check out one of our videos!View the latest Liberty Nation videos on YouTube.WATCH NOW

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THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Washington Examiner’s Examiner Today NewsletterView this as website ADVERTISEMENT
HIGHLIGHTS‘A lot of baggage’: Sanders takes shot at Biden over ‘weak’ record U-Haul says it will stop hiring smokers Jake Tapper: ‘Is it even right to call Joe Biden the front-runner?’ ‘Decisive defensive action’: Pentagon declares that US killed Qassim Soleimani on Trump’s orders The Pentagon has confirmed that United States forces killed Iranian Gen. Qassim Soleimani “at the direction of the president.” Democrats brace for long, drawn-out 2020 fight as Trump compiles big campaign cash One month out from the opening contest in Iowa, the 2020 Democratic presidential field still boasts 14 candidates, leaving open the possibility of a drawn-out nomination process. ‘Proud of President Trump’: Nikki Haley says Soleimani death ‘should be applauded’ Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley praised President Trump’s decision to kill Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani and Popular Mobilization Units leader Abu Mahdi al Muhandis during a Thursday night strike in Iraq. ‘About as big as bin Laden’: Fox’s Pete Hegseth hails death of Iranian Gen. Qassim SoleimaniFox News contributor and military veteran Pete Hegseth reacted to the death of Iran “shadow commander” Qassim Soleimani, saying his importance “cannot be understated.” ADVERTISEMENT
‘They badly miscalculated’: Marco Rubio praises Trump’s killing of Soleimani Sen. Marco Rubio defended President Trump after a U.S. military strike killed Iran’s Gen. Qassim Soleimani. ‘Would be funny’: Michael Cohen tried to set up Putin-Trump burger lunch Trump lawyer Michael Cohen claimed he tried to set up a 2015 lunch at Trump Tower between then-candidate Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin because Cohen and Trump thought it would be funny. Trump faces mounting foreign policy crises in 2020 When President Trump returns from his Christmas break at Mar-a-Lago, he’ll face an inbox full of pressing foreign policy problems. There’s the continuing fallout from his decision to pull American troops from the Syrian border with Turkey, North Korea’s accelerating rate of missile tests, and Iran’s continuing meddling in the Middle East. Omar threatens to ‘step in and stop’ Trump following Soleimani killingRep. Ilhan Omar accused President Trump of trying to create a “distraction” by killing Gen. Qassim Soleimani in an attempt to ignite a war with Iran. Republicans seek a spot on the global climate stage Conservative green groups want to break Democrats’ hold on climate policy. Sasse accuses Democratic senator who blasted Soleimani airstrike of ‘drunk partisanship’Sen. Ben Sasse took aim at Sen. Chris Murphy after the Connecticut Democrat questioned whether President Trump was authorized to kill terrorist leader Qassim Solemani. ‘I just shot Donald Trump’: Magazine sends out Christmas card depicting Trump assassination Pornographic magazine Hustler sent Christmas cards to members of Congress over the holidays that depicted a cartoon of President Trump being shot dead. ‘Probably not’: Sanders backtracks promise to release all medical records Sen. Bernie Sanders said he will likely not release all of his medical records, after promising he would after his heart attack in October. THE ROUNDUPAustralia fires intensify Ghosn might not be as safe in Lebanon as he thought Dems rocket into 2020 with huge donor windfallADVERTISEMENT

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DESERET NEWS

View this email in your browser Friday, Jan. 3, 2019U.S. divorce rates hit a 40-year low. Can divorce laws help society?The Utah all-decade dodgeball team. Yes, you read that correctly In our opinion: Look at the names of Utah’s homicide victims New in 2020: Utah’s green drivers can save by opting to pay fee per miles driven BYU’s offensive and defensive lines in 2020 will be bolstered by somewhat surprising returns of OL Tristen Hoge, DL Khyiris Tonga State report card documents the ‘turnaround’ of Midvale Elementary School MORE NEWSRudy Gobert’s game-saving defense shines in Utah Jazz win over Chicago Bulls Man arrested with 10,000 fentanyl pills, Utah troopers say ‘The Mandalorian’ cliffhanger proves the future of ‘Star Wars’ is on TV Copyright © 2020 Deseret News, All rights reserved.

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THE BLAZE

View this email in your browser January 3, 2020 Trending now US kills top Iranian military leader Qassem Soleimani in airstrike near Baghdad airport Democrats in battleground Wisconsin are fighting to block judge’s order to remove 209,000 voters from voter rolls More from TheBlaze Three mountain lions euthanized after being found feeding on a human body in Arizona GOP Sen. Josh Hawley vows to seek dismissal of impeachment articles Virginia gun sales skyrocket amid Democrats’ plans to pass gun control laws U-Haul to stop hiring nicotine users in 21 statesListen live to Blaze RadioTune in to the next generation of talk radio, featuring original content from hosts like Glenn Beck, Pat Gray, Stu Burguiere, Steve Deace and more!Start listeningOne last thing …Move over Greta Thunberg — there is a new child climate change ‘expert’ in townOn Thursday’s episode of “Pat Gray Unleashed,” Pat Gray discussed the latest climate change “expert,” Francisco Javier Vera, a 10-year-old leading Columbia’s climate fight, and following in the footsteps of climate change activist Greta Thunberg. Wat … Read more You might like … Got friends?FORWARD THIS EMAIL © 2020 Blaze Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.You are receiving this email because you opted in to receive emails from Blaze Media.Privacy Policy | Manage your preferences | Unsubscribe8275 S. Eastern Ave, Ste 200-245Las Vegas, Nevada, 89123, USA

TOWNHALL

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Columnists ‘Sub Rosa’: Censoring the Worst Kept ‘Secrets’ in Government
Jack Carr Fairfax Virginia Is Now A Marijuana Sanctuary City
Marina Medvin Rep. Bradley Byrne Warns Atheist Group: ‘Stop Forcing Ungodly, Un-American Views Down Our Throats’
Todd Starnes You Cannot Be Spontaneously Converted to Christianity by Eating a Candy Cane
Todd Starnes Trump-Hating Leftists Usher in New Year of Trump Hatred
David Limbaugh GOP Needs to Start Playing to Win
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Michael Barone Video Gov. Evers: Saying Abortionists ‘Execute Babies’ Is ‘Blasphemy’Trump blasts Schiff as ‘political hack’Pelosi’s condescension offers some laughs Pelosi open to border infrastructure INVESTING Your Paycheck In 2020 Getting the Goods on Schiff Future Wealth: The Biggest Infrastructure Boom In History Sudden Dramatic Surge In Repos: Is It QE?Elizabeth Warren Has A Bad Plan For Everything HEALTH 5 Simple Ways to Get More Energy Surprising Side Effects from Your Medications Take a Deep Breath and Relax

Tipsheet Iranian Military Leader Soleimani Killed in US Airstrike
Cortney O’Brien How Sen. Hawley Plans to Disrupt the Democrats’ Articles of Impeachment
Cortney O’Brien Former Security Contractor ‘Tig’ Teigen Explains Why Baghdad Was ‘Nothing’ Like Benghazi
Cortney O’Brien Severe Response: Defense Secretary Puts Iran on Further Notice
Katie Pavlich Border Sheriff Warns Americans to Not Visit Neighboring Mexican Town Due to ‘Intensive Shootings’
Julio Rosas Amy Klobuchar’s Effort to Flank Top-Tier 2020 Democrats Has One Big Risk
Matt Vespa The NRA Is Gearing Up to Fight Against ‘Northam’s Gun Confiscation Scheme’ in Virginia
Julio Rosas Guess Who Obama Hosted at the White House? Hint, He’s a Terrorist Connected to the Recent U.S. Embassy Attack
Katie Pavlich Andrew McCabe Lied to FBI Agents and Now…He’s Sorry? Or Just Trying to Avoid Prison?
Katie Pavlich Exclusive ‘No Safe Spaces’ Clip Highlights Attacks at Berkeley
Cortney O’BrienADVERTISEMENT Political Cartoons Bearing Arms Hong Kong Gun Arrests And The Second Amendment | Tom Knighton Marines Change Policy, Allows Law Enforcement To Carry Off-Duty While On Base | Cam Edwards NYPD Brags About Taking Blank-Firing Gun Off The Streets | Tom Knighton The Push Is On To Demonize Second Amendment Sanctuaries As “Dangerous” | Cam Edwards Sheriff Offers Free CCW Class To Churches | Tom Knighton

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AMERICAN THINKER

View this email in your browserRecent Articles2019: The Left Goes Over the EdgeJan 03, 2020 01:00 am
2019 was the year that the left plunged into oblivion, howling madly, engines exploding, and fuel tanks ablaze.   Read More…
An Elephant in the Room on Biden and Burisma?Jan 03, 2020 01:00 am
With Obama out to get Big Oil in the crazy years, maybe a closer look at young Hunter Biden’s doings is warranted. Read More…
The Decline and Fall of the Black American ChurchJan 03, 2020 01:00 am
The results of diluting religion with politics can readily be seen in the black community. Read More…
Why the USA Needs a Space ForceJan 03, 2020 01:00 am
While it seems as though we are now living in a science fiction world, it is easy to see, in the 21st century, why establishing the U.S. Space Force was inevitable. Read More…
Iran at the Flash PointJan 03, 2020 01:00 am
The recent uprising by millions of people throughout Iran is a clear indication that the Islamic theocracy is in irreversible collapse.  Read More…
Putin Rewrites HistoryJan 03, 2020 01:00 am
The Russian president wants to squash a European Parliament resolution insisting that the Soviet Union helped start World War II. Read More…

Recent Blog Posts

Hollywood Leftists respond to Soleimani’s death by attacking America
Jan 03, 2020 01:00 am
It’s early yet in California, but Hollywood’s Progressives have already made it clear that they oppose and fear Trump’s response to Iranian terrorism.  Read more…
Beclownings: Top 25 Ridiculous Democrat Moments of 2019
Jan 03, 2020 01:00 am
Tweets, photos, and videos of the left at its finest.  Read more…
US military strike kills major Iranian military officials UPDATED
Jan 03, 2020 01:00 am
Trump authorized a military strike against a high level Iranian general long associated with terrorism.  Read more…
Tiempo de ir a casa, Julián – Translation: Time to go home, Julián Castro
Jan 03, 2020 01:00 am
The 2020 Latino Democrat presidential candidate who focused almost exclusively on identity politics – coddling illegals and campaigning in Spanish – is taking his sombrero and exiting stage left  Read more…
Minnesota governor doubles down on ‘refugees,’ rubs constituents’ faces in it
Jan 03, 2020 01:00 am
“The inn is not full in Minnesota.”  Read more…
Democrat media works hard to spin Bernie and Buttigieg
Jan 03, 2020 01:00 am
As Bernie and Buttigieg rise in the Democrat primaries, the media starts spinning to make them more broadly appealing.  Read more…
Addressing Islam’s role in rising urban black anti-Semitism.
Jan 03, 2020 01:00 am
Although Leftists insist Trump is to blame for black-on-Jewish attacks in New York, Islam appears in to be the more likely culprit.  Read more…
There’s no harm in newly released emails about holds on Ukraine funds
Jan 03, 2020 01:00 am
Schumer desperately uses bureaucratic fussing in newly released emails as proof Trump acted illegally with Ukraine funds  Read more…
Who among them is fit to be president?
Jan 03, 2020 01:00 am
A large segment of Americans must get over this notion that any warm body with a pulse is more fit to be president than Donald Trump.  Read more…
If you want to stop wildfires, put qualified people back in charge of forests
Jan 03, 2020 01:00 am
It’s time to get sensible forest policies and professional forest managers back on the job.  Read more…
Doesn’t what Joe Biden did regarding Hunter qualify as an ‘official act’?
Jan 03, 2020 01:00 am
The former vice president can’t possibly be this dense. Can he?  Read more…
A week in January that changed our lives
Jan 03, 2020 01:00 am
It still hurts to see how much damage the communist dictatorship has done to Cuba and the people who stayed behind.  Read more…
The Democrats’ favored whipping boys
Jan 03, 2020 01:00 am
One would think that if Democrats followed through on their promises to fleece the rich, their major money stream would inevitably dry up.  Read more…
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to lose her congressional seat based on all those NYC residents fleeing socialism?
Jan 02, 2020 01:00 am
If so, it’s pretty amazing poetic justice.  Read more…
Trump signs the bill that ought to ensure his re-election
Jan 02, 2020 01:00 am
There is an excellent reason why the media largely are ignoring the bill that President Trump signed on Monday: when voters hear about it, they will want to vote for him out of sheer gratitude for improving their lives noticeably.  Read more…
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THE FEDERALIST

Your daily update of new content from The Federalist
Be lovers of freedom and anxious for the fray
January 3, 2020
Don’t Repeat The Last Two Decades Of Foreign Policy Idiocies With IranBy Sumantra Maitra
The best way to neutralize Iran is to have them overstretch. An older, forgotten grand strategy where adversaries bleed each other is in the Western interest.
Full articleWashington Post Writer Can’t Figure Out Why Trump Supporters Won’t Talk To HerBy Casey Chalk
In corporate media, conservative women are simply presumed to be bigoted, or stupid, or who cares, as long as it’s an opportunity to trivialize them.
Full articlePeople Who Play The Antisemitism Blame Game Are Part Of The ProblemBy Beth Bailey
With each new antisemitic attack, the left and right bicker about whose side is to blame for the escalation. Meanwhile, American Jews bear the brunt of our inability to unite against antisemitism.
Full articleWhy Julian Castro’s Failed Presidential Bid MattersBy John Daniel Davidson
Castro might have dropped out, but he embodies a virulent new identity politics on the left that’s trying to take over the Democratic Party.
Full articleWhy No Great Teen Movie Came Out In The Last DecadeBy Paulina Enck
From gracing the screen at countless sleepovers to serving as ideal movie-night picks, a handful of classic teen comedies have proven a lasting power. But almost none of them arrived in the past decade.
Full articleUniversities Turn Down Scholarship Donation For Poor White BoysBy Helen Raleigh
‘If Cambridge University can accept a much larger donation sum in support of black students, why can’t I do the same for underprivileged white British?’
Full articleDocumentary Unpacks How Identity Politics Is Affecting Southern Baptist TheologyBy Matthew Garnett
This Founders Ministries documentary clarifies the terms of the critical theory debate, offering a way forward for reconciliation among those who bear the name Christian.  
Full article10 Best Shows Of The Decade That Can Be Binged In A WeekendBy Paulina Enck
Here are some of the best miniseries, cancelled-too-soon gems, and shows in their early seasons of the past 10 years, all of which can be easily finished in a weekend.
Full articleDavid Ben-Gurion And The Triumph Of Israeli NationalismBy Tony Daniel
Historian Tom Segev’s new biography of the Israeli prime minister and Zionist hero, ‘A State at Any Cost: The Life of David Ben-Gurion,’ chronicles a series of important 20th-century episodes that have salience for today.
Full articleBREAKING: Iran’s Shadowy Leader Of Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force Killed By American Airstrike In IraqBy Christopher Bedford
Iran’s Qassim Soleimani and Iraq’s Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis were killed in American airstrikes near Baghdad International Airport.
Full article‘Ringleader’ Of U.S. Embassy Attack Was Invited To Obama White House In 2011By Erielle Davidson
Photos recently surfaced indicating that one of the three ‘ringleaders’ of the Iran-backed attack on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad earlier this week was invited to the Obama White House less than a decade ago.
Full articleJosh Hawley Introduces Measure To Dismiss ‘Bogus’ Articles Of ImpeachmentBy Chrissy Clark
“This will expose Dems’ circus for what it is: a fake impeachment, abuse of the Constitution, based on no evidence,” said Sen. Josh Hawley.
Full article‘Mayor Pete’ Is No Longer MayorBy Tristan Justice
Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana is no longer mayor of the mid-size midwestern city after his term expired on Dec. 31st.
Full articleIs Elizabeth Warren’s Campaign Flatlining?By Chrissy Clark
Both Iowa polling numbers and recently released ourth quarter fundraising dollars indicate the Elizabeth Warren campaign is flatlining.
Full articleJulian Castro Drops Out Of 2020 Presidential RaceBy Tristan Justice
Former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro ended his campaign for the 2020 Democratic nomination on Thursday.
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.

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IJR

Democrat Klobuchar’s Presidential Campaign Raised $11.4 Million in Fourth QuarterBy Reuters, Friday, January 3, 2020 7:36 AMKlobuchar’s polling numbers have increased in recent weeks. More Comments » Oil, Safe Havens Surge as U.S. Strikes Kill Iranian CommanderBy Reuters, Friday, January 3, 2020 7:20 AM“What is critical is how it pans out in the next few days.” More Comments » Iran Promises to Avenge U.S. Killing of Top Commander SoleimaniBy Reuters, Friday, January 3, 2020 7:18 AM“U.S. military has taken decisive defensive action to protect U.S. personnel abroad by killing Qassem Soleimani.” More Comments » Trump Seeks to Shore up Evangelical Support at ‘Prosperity Gospel’ ChurchBy Reuters, Friday, January 3, 2020 7:17 AM“First fruits are given to honor God.” More Comments » Appeals Court Weighs Trump Bid to Block Testimony Sought by HouseBy Reuters, Friday, January 3, 2020 7:15 AMThe administration has directed current and former officials not to comply. More Comments » Nike Seeks to Keep Marketing Executives out of Michael Avenatti TrialBy Reuters, Friday, January 3, 2020 7:14 AM“This narrative – which paints Nike as the villain and Mr. Avenatti as the hero -is false and illogical.” More Comments »

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CHICAGO TRIBUNE

VIEW IN BROWSERJANUARY 3, 2020CHICAGOTRIBUNE.COMDAYWATCH1Illinois’ first day of legal weed sales marks one of the strongest showings in the history of marijuana legalizationFRIDAY, JAN 3Customers spent almost $3.2 million on legal weed in Illinois on the first day of recreational marijuana sales, marking one of the strongest showings of any state in the history of pot legalization. Illinois is the 11th state to legalize recreational weed, and only Oregon had a comparable first-day performance. In Michigan, the only other Midwestern state that allows legal weed, people spent $221,000 on the first day of sales. But only three dispensaries were ready to go when sales started there. Thirty-seven dispensaries started selling recreational weed in Illinois. The state said customers, many of whom were eager to take part in the end of marijuana prohibition, made more than 77,000 purchases at dispensaries. The long lines at marijuana shops are expected to persist well through the weekend.Wondering where to buy recreational marijuana in Illinois?Here’s what the scene was like on the first day of legal sales.2U.S. airstrike ordered by Trump kills powerful Iranian general; Iran vows ‘harsh retaliation’FRIDAY, JAN 3The United States killed Iran’s top general in an airstrike at Baghdad’s international airport, an attack that threatens to dramatically ratchet up tensions in the region. The targeted killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani could draw forceful Iranian retaliation against American interests in the region and spiral into a far larger conflict. The dramatic attack comes at the start of a year in which President Donald Trump faces both a Senate trial following his impeachment by the U.S. House and a re-election campaign. It marks a potential turning point in the Middle East and represents a drastic change for American policy toward Iran after months of tensions.Who is Gen. Qassem Soleimani? A shadowy figure who became an Iranian icon by targeting U.S. forces. 3Uptown psychiatric facility dubbed ‘hospital of horrors’ loses federal funding, state license in jeopardyFRIDAY, JAN 3Facing a cutoff of federal funding and potential revocation of its state license, an Uptown psychiatric hospital plagued by allegations of safety violations is struggling to remain open. Chicago Lakeshore Hospital starts the new year in such straits following much legal wrangling and appeals as well as a November inspection that found deficiencies “so serious they constitute an immediate threat to patient health and safety.” Last month, Chicago Lakeshore officials told a judge that the hospital will “undoubtedly close” without access to federal funding. The hospital came under fire in 2018 after separate investigations by the Chicago Tribune and ProPublica Illinois that reported allegations of unsafe conditions for young patients in a building that is dedicated to teens and children.4From tech company expansions to the opening of Chicago’s third tallest skyscraper, here’s what to watch for in real estate this yearFRIDAY, JAN 3Some of Chicago’s biggest and most complicated real estate projects took flight in 2019. By comparison, 2020 is shaping up to be the year of the unknown. Left for 2020 — and perhaps beyond — are the fates of the James R. Thompson Center in the Loop, the Obama Presidential Center, and massive development parcels including the former South Works and Michael Reese Hospital sites south of downtown. The location for a proposed Chicago casino also could be determined this year, if questions over its viability are resolved. Meanwhile, investors are bracing for expected large property tax increases, as well as potential policy changes that could decrease real estate values. Here’s what to watch for in Chicago’s real estate and development scene in 2020. 5We sent a reporter to a class where school workers learn to restrain students. Here’s what it was like.FRIDAY, JAN 3While investigating the use of seclusion and physical restraint in Illinois schools, reporter Jennifer Smith Richards wanted to understand better what school employees are supposed to do during a crisis involving a student. So she signed up for a five-day training session where her class studied de-escalation techniques — how to help children calm down when they are upset — as well as practicing several types of physical restraint. The atmosphere was serious; the instructor warned the class that restraints gone wrong can be deadly. You could have heard a pin drop, Smith Richards wrote, as participants went through the positions in slow motion. For months afterward, as she continued her reporting, she remembered those silent and intense moments on the mats.6After being ousted at WXRT, Mary Dixon has landed as morning anchor at WBEZFRIDAY, JAN 3It didn’t take long for news anchor Mary Dixon to find a new Chicago radio home. Two weeks after she was ousted as morning co-anchor at WXRT-FM, Dixon has landed in a similar role at public radio WBEZ-FM. Dixon was named as WBEZ’s new morning anchor and local host of NPR’s “Morning Edition,” which airs weekdays from 5 to 10 a.m. She starts training next week and is expected to hit the airwaves in February. 7Ryan Mains served others as an Army medic and a Woodstock firefighter. Now grappling with PTSD, he’s still trying to help.FRIDAY, JAN 3Mains, 39, is a veteran of the Iraq war and a longtime Woodstock firefighter and paramedic who has been diagnosed with a severe case of post-traumatic stress disorder. He’s now getting treatment, but success is no sure thing: Unlike other states, Illinois does not treat PTSD as a “presumptive” condition, meaning firefighters must prove that their suffering is indeed the result of their work. But PTSD carries hazards greater than bankruptcy and researchers have linked the disorder to an increased risk of suicide. That grim statistic is serving as motivation for Mains. On May 30, he plans to run 1 km for every firefighter and paramedic who dies by suicide in 2019. So far, that distance works out to just over 77 miles — more than twice as far as he’s ever gone.8Heat waves. Polar vortexes. Even a double derecho. These were Chicago’s wildest weather events of the 2010s.FRIDAY, JAN 3Wondering what the wettest, warmest, or weirdest Chicago-area weather events of the 2010s were? So were the meteorologists at the National Weather Service in Chicago, who realized even they couldn’t come to a consensus because such events often are subjective. So the experts decided to instead invite weather enthusiasts to vote in a series of polls posted on social media. Here are the results.advertisement
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Sarah Palin Seeks New York Times Advertising Revenue as Libel Lawsuit Heads Toward TrialPosted: 02 Jan 2020 07:52 PM PSTComplaint filed against The New York Times by former
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin seeks financial damages
as well as any advertising revenues the paper might have
raised from an editorial that falsely linked Palin to the 2011
shooting of former Democratic Rep. Gabby Giffords.by Kevin Daley: Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin filed a complaint in her libel lawsuit against The New York Times, after the paper published an editorial that falsely linked Palin to the 2011 shooting of former Democratic Rep. Gabby Giffords.

The filing, which proceeds a jury trial that will begin in June, seeks financial damages as well as any advertising revenues the paper might have raised from the editorial.

“The Times reaped ill-gotten gains from Internet advertising on the Palin Article, which under the unique and special circumstances of this case, it should not be permitted to retain,” the complaint reads.

“The Times should not be permitted to profit from a false and defamatory column printed with actual malice and with the knowledge that because of the identity of the victim of the publication it will inevitably ‘drive viewership and web clicks,’” it adds.

Palin’s original lawsuit similarly sought disgorgement of advertising revenues the editorial might have generated. The paper countered that the governor cannot ask for those monies. Lawyers for the Times say the only remedy available in a defamation lawsuit is a financial award for reputational harms or attendant physical and emotional injuries. Palin cannot seek advertising dollars in addition to a damages award, they argued.

“There is simply no precedent for the proposition asserted in the Complaint that Mrs. Palin is entitled to disgorgement of The Times’s advertising revenue as an element of her damages in this defamation action,” The New York Times lawyers wrote at an earlier phase of the case.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals revived her lawsuit in August, after a federal trial judge in Manhattan dismissed the case in August 2017. The 2nd Circuit said the dispute “took an unusual procedural turn” that warranted reversal.

The Times subsequently appended multiple notes to the editorial conceding there is no link between Loughner and Palin’s activities, though they did not refer to the governor by name. Palin’s lawsuit followed shortly thereafter.

The paper has subsequently expressed regret for the mistake, but strongly denied accusations of bad faith.

“While a failure to retract or correct is not probative evidence of actual malice, a decision to publish corrections in this manner actually undermines any plausible claim of actual malice,” the Times’ filing reads.

The case will be tried before a jury beginning June 22, according to a case management plan the court adopted. The evidence-gathering phase will conclude April 13. The case is Palin v. The New York Times Company in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
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Kevin Daley (@kevindaleydc) is a legal affairs reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation. H/T The Daily Signal
Tags: Kevin Daley, Daily Caller News Foundation, The Daily Signal, Sarah Palin, Seeks New York Times, Advertising Revenue, as Libel Lawsuit, Heads Toward Trial To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!

Despite Increased Support, U.S. Pro-life Diplomacy Bested by EU OppositionPosted: 02 Jan 2020 07:08 PM PSTEU Supports Abortion & Me Dead!by Stefano Gennarini: Despite President Trump’s statement at the General Assembly in September, and a growing number of countries supporting U.S. pro-life diplomacy, U.S. pro-life amendments to UN resolutions adopted before Christmas failed by a wide margin.

“The U.S. cannot accept references to sexual and reproductive health or to other language that would promote abortion or suggest a right to abortion,” said the U.S. Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations. The short explanation of the U.S. position came after two U.S. amendments failed to pass during the adoption of a resolution on humanitarian assistance.

The U.S. proposed amendments to resolutions on global health and humanitarian interventions in the plenary of the General Assembly, as well as three other resolutions on girls, children and youth that were adopted before Christmas. The amendments sought to delete or replace the term “sexual and reproductive health.”

In the plenary session of the General Assembly, the U.S. received support from up to fifteen countries in 2019, a significant increase from only one in 2018. Even so, more than 100 other countries coalesced against U.S. pro-life amendments alongside the Europeans, an increase from some eighty last year.

The term “sexual and reproductive health” is widely understood to be a euphemism for abortion to give the UN cover to promote abortion. U.S. diplomats proposed amendments against such abortion-related terms in UN resolutions for the first time during official General Assembly meetings last year.

After three years of the Trump administration, most UN resolutions are unchanged. The U.S. has not yet delivered a joint UN statement in the General Assembly against abortion, though it delivered joint pro-life statements in other contexts.

The increased opposition to the U.S. amendments is a direct result of EU abortion advocacy.

The EU has emerged as a formidable rival to the U.S. when it comes to the pro-life cause. With its twenty-eight EU bloc countries and their supporters, the EU can boast an army of diplomats and ministers in New York and capitals all across Europe. The bloc exerts influence on delegations from developing countries and their capitals. While U.S. pro-life diplomacy is still in its infancy, EU abortion diplomacy is systematic, constant, and backed by financial incentives to developing countries.

Delegates told the Friday Fax that U.S. diplomats need to do more work bilaterally and in capitals to gain more support and counter the pressure coming from European countries.

The U.S. pro-life amendments were not widely discussed with other diplomats in the weeks before the vote. They were not submitted in a timely fashion or respecting UN diplomatic protocols. Other U.S. amendments in other contexts did not suffer this same fate. In the process of voting on the amendments, U.S. diplomats were not perceived as invested in their successful adoption, delegates told the Friday Fax.

When the new amendments to a resolution on global health were introduced, the justification given for the amendments seemed curt and incoherent. During the adoption of the humanitarian resolution, U.S. diplomats did not request the President of the General Assembly to say what delegation called for a vote on the U.S. amendments, which is expected when a delegation is invested in a proposal. When the amendments failed, the U.S. delegation did not appear to impose costs. Instead, the U.S. supported the adoption of the resolutions they had failed to amend.
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Stefano Gennarini, J.D is the Vice President for Legal Studies at the Center for Family and Human Rights (C-Fam).
Tags: Stefano Gennarini, Despite Increased Support, U.S. Pro-life Diplomacy, Bested by, EU Opposition To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!

Dirt Digger . . .Posted: 02 Jan 2020 06:55 PM PST. . . As a last resort, Democrats weaponized impeachment hoping to lower Trump’s approval but have only damaged their own.
Editorial Cartoon by AF “Tony” BrancoTags: AF Branco, editorial cartoon, Dirt Digger, Democrats, weaponized impeachment, hoping to lower, Trump’s approval To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!

Galli Nearly Gone, Benghazi vs. Baghdad, Progressive FascismPosted: 02 Jan 2020 06:46 PM PSTGary Bauerby Gary Bauer: Galli Nearly Gone
Mark Galli, the editor-in-chief of Christianity Today, is stepping down. He will not be Christianity Today’s editor tomorrow. He’s so yesterday. It never ceases to amaze me how so many businesses, movements and even governments become so detached from the people who created them.

Years ago, Rush Limbaugh gave me one bit of advice I have never forgotten: Always go home with the people who brought you to the dance. In other words, don’t betray the people who support you. But time and time again, we see people in business and politics stray from this simple principle.

For example, the Washington Post has three self-identified “conservative” opinion columnists, but not one writes a column that could be considered conservative. They have become creatures of Washington, comfortable in the swamp. Not surprisingly, none of them are serious entities in today’s conservative/populist movement.

Benghazi vs. Baghdad
When news of the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad broke, there was a strange reaction on the left. Many progressives seemed happy about it, almost cheering for the worst possible outcome. But what a contrast between Benghazi and Baghdad, and how two presidents dealt with a crisis at an embassy/consulate.

President Obama and Hillary Clinton allowed our diplomatic personnel in Benghazi to be brutally murdered. And then they told us a convenient lie that some guy made an anti-Islamic video that caused the jihadists to go crazy.

President Trump, Vice President Pence and Secretary of State Pompeo responded forcefully to the Baghdad crisis. They publicly identified the attackers as Iranian puppets. They immediately sent reinforcements, and more troops are on the way.

Early yesterday, there were reports that the rioters were digging in for the long haul. Tents, toilets and bedding were sent in. It looked like they were preparing for an extended siege of the embassy. Suddenly, there was a dramatic change — the pro-Iranian militias began leaving.

I suspect we may learn someday that there were stern communications between the White House and the mullahs of Iran, and we saw the results. Keep in mind, we are squeezing Iran hard. The mullahs are in great danger. There will be more Iranian outrages in the days ahead as they lash out, desperately trying to cling to power.

Here’s one final thing that should make your blood boil. The Marines guarding the U.S. Embassy and the rioters outside trying to get in are both being paid for by you, the American taxpayer.

The Marines are paid for by the Defense budget. The rioters were paid for by the Obama Administration, which gave Iran billions of dollars in sanctions relief as part of the 2015 nuclear deal. Tehran distributed this new found wealth to its terrorist proxies.

This is what happens when a great nation goes off the rails, as the United States did during the Obama years.

Progressive Fascism
As the year begins, I want to remind you of how modern day progressivism is moving toward real fascism. A perfect example is what former Vice President Joe Biden said last week about energy executives who don’t bend their knee to the progressive agenda.

Biden said that we should “hold them liable for what they have done,” adding that he would “put them in jail.” This guy is supposed to be the “moderate” candidate, but he knows which way the wind is blowing in his party.

Think of the irony here. The left is going all out in its efforts to empty the prisons. Every place where the left is in control, they are decriminalizing various actions and even doing away with bail. The results are predictable. (Here and here.)

But this same movement is now threatening the executives of important industries that have fueled our economy and our standard of living by telling them that they will occupy the empty prison cells of drug dealers, vandals and thieves. That is a very telling contrast.

Gertrude Himmelfarb R.I.P.
On December 30th, Gertrude Himmelfarb, affectionately called “Bea” by her friends, passed away of congestive heart failure. I was proud to know her. She was the wife of Irving Kristol, who passed away in 2009, and the mother of Bill Kristol, who I have known and worked with since 1983, although we now find ourselves at odds over the Trump presidency.

Dr. Himmelfarb was a neoconservative Jewish intellectual and Victorian scholar. But conservatives of all stripes admired her because of her cogent work on the importance of the “moral order” to the survival of Western Civilization.

She was a critic of the 1960s moral breakdown and condemned radical feminism, abortion and the sexual revolution. I highly recommend her 2000 book, “One Nation, Two Cultures,” as well as her essays and other writings.

Rest in peace, Bea. You will be missed.
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Gary Bauer (@GaryLBauer) is a conservative family values advocate and serves as president of American Values and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families
Tags: Gary Bauer, Campaign for Working Families, 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 Trump Administration’s Record Bodes Well for 2020Posted: 02 Jan 2020 06:24 PM PST. . . Success with the economy, judiciary, military, and immigration mark his first three years.
by Nate Jackson : The new year is always a good time to reflect on blessings of the past and hope for the future. In that spirit, here’s a highlight reel of good stuff resulting from the Trump administration’s policy achievements.
Jobs are plentiful. The White House says seven million jobs have been created since Donald Trump’s election. Record numbers of Americans are employed, and wages are rising as employers compete for workers. The headline unemployment rate is at its lowest in 50 years, with minorities in particular enjoying the fruits of this labor.The stock market has continued to break records, yielding benefits for the investment and retirement accounts of more than half of all Americans. The Dow Jones average rose 22% in 2019, while the S&P was up 29% and the NASDAQ climbed 35%. When Trump was elected, the market was pretty volatile, and New York Times economist Paul Krugman predicted, “If the question is when markets will recover, a first-pass answer is never.” Boy was he ever wrong.Consumer optimism is reflected in year-end retail sales. Gary Bauer notes, “Retail sales surged 3.4% over last year, led by record online spending. The period between Thanksgiving and Christmas is a critical time for the economy. According to Reuters, sales during these few weeks can account for up to 40% of all annual sales for many retailers.”Regulations reduced. Economic growth comes when government gets out of the way, contrary to the “stimulus” philosophy of the last administration. The White House says, “Since taking office, President Trump has rolled back nearly 8 regulations for every new one, saving American taxpayers more than $50 billion in the process — with bigger savings still to come.” That includes rolling back a lot of his predecessor’s environmental controls. The Daily Caller reports that Trump “nixed nearly 100 environmental regulations during his first three years in office.”Not only has Trump cut red tape, he’s been slow to add new regulations. According to The Washington Times, “The Trump administration issued the fewest new regulations during 2019 than in any year since the government began keeping track more than four decades ago.” All three of the lowest regulation totals belong to President Trump.Judicial appointments. Not all of Trump’s success has been economic. An astounding 20% of the federal judiciary is now composed of Trump appointments after the Republican-controlled Senate has confirmed 187 of his nominees. For the pace of that success, Republicans at least owe a wink and nod to former Democrat Senate Leader Harry Reid, who nuked the filibuster for judges in 2013. Judges were a big reason for millions of conservative votes in 2016, and Trump has delivered.Defeating terrorists. After Barack Obama fomented the rise of the Islamic State, Trump has spent three years fighting back. It hasn’t been free of controversy, but it’s hard to argue with success like the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.Other gains include military funding and rebuilding, immigration policy, and — we hope — trade.Not bad for a guy Democrats have been hell-bent on impeaching. Meanwhile, 2020 is, of course, an election year and Americans will choose whether or not they want to stay this positive course.
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Nate Jackson is managing editor at The Patriot Post.
Tags: Nate Jackson, The Patriot Post, Trump Administration’s Record, Bodes Well for 2020 To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!

Fair & Reciprocal Trade Will Be President Trump’s Legacy As Economy Continues To BoomPosted: 02 Jan 2020 06:06 PM PST Editorial Cartoon by AF Brancoby Rick Manning: As we embark upon 2020, with the third year of Donald Trump’s presidency in the can, the American economy is as good as it has been in at least 70 years, and after what many economists predicted would be a mid-year downturn, 2019 has turned into a boon year for all Americans.

Three economic drivers over the past year will be examined, the labor market, American consumer spending power and the state of international trade as the first two directly reflect the economic situation over the year and the latter sets the stage for the economic environment which our nation will compete in for the future.

The Labor Front by the numbers
The unemployment is at a 50-year low of 3.5 percent. The January, 2019 unemployment rate was 4.0 percent, meaning the unemployment rate has continued dropping even as some economists claimed that the country was at full employment.

7.3 million jobs were available in Oct. 2019 according to the Dec. 20 released report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

5.8 million unemployed Americans are in the workforce seeking job. In January, 2019, there were 6.535 million unemployed, meaning that there are approximately 720,000 fewer Americans unemployed at the end of 2019, than there were at the beginning of the year.

Note that there are 1.5 million more jobs available then people looking for jobs, and while the skills required and location of the available jobs and workers don’t match evenly, the 1.5 million

1.4 million more Americans are employed in Nov. 2019, than were employed in January 2019.

1.2 million more Americans entered the labor force between Jan. 2019 and Nov. 2019. This means that more people got jobs in 2019 than entered the workforce.

Why these matter?
Many economic doomsayers were predicting that demand for workers would diminish as the economy inevitably slowed, yet over the course of 2019, we have seen the unemployment rate dive to the lowest rates since the Vietnam War was raging and Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.

Fewer Americans are unemployed than at any time since Dec. 2000, when there were 21 million fewer people in the workforce.

In practical terms, the number and percentage of people who are unemployed reflects the economic anxiety in the country. When neighbors and family members are unemployed and struggling to find work, those who have jobs worry that they too may be in jeopardy of financial hardship. Conversely, when everyone you know has a job and there are help wanted signs up all over town, you feel secure not only in your job but in the idea that you can risk quitting your job to get a better one if you want.

This is the liberating effect of the current economic situation, and the fact that the number of unemployed Americans dropped by 720,000 since Jan. 2019 tells a story of historic levels of job security as we 2020 gets underway.

What happened to wages and spending power in 2019?
The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis released personal disposable income information for the third quarter of 2019 which ended on Sept. 30. Since Sept. 30, 2018, Americans’ disposable, after tax, income has gone up by $1,811 to $50,184.

The Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that average hourly earnings continues to grow at 3.1 percent with real earnings, which account for the bite that inflation takes out of a paycheck, continue at 1.1 percent in November. The net effect is that wage increases are outpacing inflation allowing American workers to have more real disposable income at the end of November than they had in Jan. 2019.

The old adage that the harder I work, the further I get behind was driven by high inflation rates combined with minimal wage growth, so the only way to even keep even was to work longer hours to offset the hidden tax bite of higher prices at the grocery store, gas pump and elsewhere. This was turned on its head in 2019 as on average, people earned more money in November than they did in January, and the increased earnings were only partially offset by a stable, low inflation rate.

While the real raises are not astronomical, they are a welcome respite from the hamster wheel feeling that has afflicted Americans for a generation, where no matter how hard you run, at best, you end up in the same place.

2019 has been dominated by trade talk, has Trump’s focus on trade mattered?
President Donald Trump’s legacy will be determined by his trade agenda. The President has not been shy rhetorically on trade, but 2019 marked major progress in not just undoing 75 years of outdated policy, but in creating 21st century trade deals which put America’s interests first.

Negotiating a trade deal with Japan has been at the top of many administrations’ agenda, President Trump announced the first phase of an agreement with the Japanese had been agreed to in October, which includes increased U.S. farm sales to Japan at low to no tariff levels, and a digital section which should increase U.S. exports of digital products to Japan.

The U.S. Trade Representative office notes that the digital section of the first stage Japanese agreement, “meets the gold standard on digital trade rules set by the USMCA.”

And while the House of Representatives was playing smoke and mirror games on impeachment, they finally passed the U.S.-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) trade agreement replacing the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). USMCA not only has digital protections in it, but creates both an intellectual property barrier and transparency rules against currency manipulation which has the effect of driving the costs of U.S. produced goods higher vis-à-vis foreign made goods.

The intellectual property protection provisions of USMCA are one of the foundational changes that is the benchmark of the Trump trade agenda, and can be expected to be replicated and even strengthened in future negotiations with Japan, South Korea, Australia, Chile, the United Kingdom, EU, India and Brazil.

The goal is simple. Recognizing intellectual property rights is a fundamental aspect of capitalism, after all, if a person doesn’t own the product of his/her own mind than any other case for private property ownership pales. By creating a IP trade wall around China, President Trump will force the Chinese to choose whether to accept private property rights in their country, and abandon communism, or return to living in economic isolation behind their “Great” wall while the rest of the world’s economies thrive.

The much talked about China trade deal is an initial foray into this decision, but the tariff increases of 2019 merely set the stage for future discussions as the Chinese government is unlikely to follow the agreement to any great degree.

However, as Brexit and other world events unfold, the Trump trade plan will take center stage and the finely honed globalist trade system will be replaced by a mutually agreeable one between countries determined to meet their citizen’s interests. However, the President must win a second term to finish this job and create a capitalist trade wall which resets the global trading partnerships for the next fifty years.

A great American jobs economy makes reconfiguring the world’s trade economy a possibility as the Trump team negotiates from a position of strength, and 2019 will be marked as the year when the Trump promises became the world’s reality.

Only a non-politician who builds structures where no one else dreamed they might be could tackle and remake the global economy to benefit American citizens. President Trump’s entire presidency will be judged for generations on whether he succeeds or fails in making this vision of fair and reciprocal trade a reality.
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Rick Manning is the President of Americans for Limited Government.
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Rick Manning (@rmanning957) is President of Americans for Limited Government (@LimitGovt). Article also on The Hill.
Tags: Rick Manning, Fair & Reciprocal Trade Will Be. President Trump’s Legacy, Economy Continues To Boom To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!

Explainer: How Impeachment Works and Why Trump Is Unlikely to Be RemovedPosted: 02 Jan 2020 05:47 PM PST by Jan Wolfe and Andy Sullivan: The U.S. Senate is due to hold a trial to consider whether President Donald Trump should be removed from office, after the House of Representatives voted in December to impeach him for pressuring Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a potential rival in the 2020 presidential election.

What happens next and why is Trump unlikely to be removed from office?

WHY IMPEACHMENT?
The founders of the United States feared presidents abusing their powers, so they included in the Constitution a process for removing one from office.

The president, under the Constitution, can be removed from office for “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

High crimes and misdemeanors have historically encompassed corruption and abuses of the public trust, as opposed to indictable violations of criminal statutes.

Former President Gerald Ford, while in Congress, famously said: “An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history.”

No president has ever been removed as a direct result of impeachment. One, Richard Nixon, resigned before he could be removed. Two, Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, were impeached by the House but not convicted by the Senate.

HOW DOES IT WORK?
Impeachment begins in the House, the lower chamber, which debates and votes on whether to bring charges against the president via approval of an impeachment resolution, or “articles of impeachment,” by a simple majority of the body’s members.

The Constitution gives House leaders wide latitude in deciding how to conduct impeachment proceedings, legal experts said.

The House Intelligence Committee investigated whether Trump abused his power to pressure Ukraine to open probes that would benefit him politically, holding weeks of closed-door testimony and televised hearings before issuing a formal evidence report.

The House Judiciary Committee used the report to draft formal charges and voted 23-17 along party lines to approve charges against Trump of abuse of power and obstructing House Democrats’ attempts to investigate him for it.

The Democratic-controlled House approved both of those charges on Dec. 18 in votes that fell almost completely along party lines.

That set up a trial in the Republican-controlled Senate.

WHAT WOULD A SENATE TRIAL LOOK LIKE?
House members act as the prosecutors; the senators as jurors; the chief justice of the United States presides.

Historically, the president has been allowed to have defense lawyers call witnesses and request documents.

Beyond that, parameters of the trial are uncertain at this point. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer is pressing for four Trump aides to testify, including Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, and John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has thrown cold water on that idea, saying House Democrats should have secured the testimony of Bolton and Mulvaney during their investigation.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has delayed sending over the impeachment articles to the Senate in a bid to pressure McConnell. The two sides appear to have made little progress toward an agreement.

CAN THE SENATE REFUSE TO HOLD A TRIAL?
There is debate about whether the Constitution requires a Senate trial. But Senate rules in effect require a trial, and McConnell has publicly stated that he will allow one to proceed.

Republicans could seek to amend those rules, but such a moveis politically risky and considered unlikely, legal experts said.

WHAT’S THE PARTY BREAKDOWN IN CONGRESS?
The House comprises 431 members at present. Only three of the chamber’s 233 Democrats voted against one or both articles of impeachment; one voted “present” and another did not vote. Among Republicans, 195 voted against both articles and two did not vote. Independent Justin Amash, a former Republican, voted for both articles.

In 1998, when Republicans had a House majority, the chamber also voted largely along party lines to impeach Clinton, a Democrat.

The Senate now has 53 Republicans, 45 Democrats and two independents who usually vote with the Democrats. Conviction and removal of a president would require a two-thirds majority.

That is highly unlikely in this case. No Senate Republicans have indicated they may vote to convict the leader of their party. Should all 100 senators vote, at least 20 Republicans and all the Democrats and independents would have to vote against him.

WHO BECOMES PRESIDENT IF TRUMP IS REMOVED?
In the unlikely event the Senate convicts Trump, Vice President Mike Pence would become president for the remainder of Trump’s term, which ends on Jan. 20, 2021.
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Jan Wolfe and Andy Sullivan write for Reuters. Article shared by IJR.
Tags: Jan Wolfe, Andy Sullivan, IJT, Reuters, Explainer, How Impeachment Works, Why Trump Is Unlikely to Be Removed 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 Officials Must Face Justice for Crimes against HumanityPosted: 02 Jan 2020 05:27 PM PSTKen Blackwellby Ken Blackwell: Iran unleashed its proxies in Iraq to attack the US Embassy in Baghdad on the last day of 2019. That speaks volumes about the nature of Tehran rulers. President Trump correctly held them accountable. The ayatollahs’ conduct at home and abroad has been utterly malign. Period. They stand out as one of the most pressing challenges the international community faces as we enter 2020.

In November, major protests broke out in Iran. The regime’s response was unprecedentedly brutal. International rights group Amnesty International condemned “the frequency and persistence of lethal force” deployed against peaceful demonstrations. Astonishingly, the death toll has now surpassed 1,500. Over 4,000 have been injured, and more than 12,000 are in prisons and at risk of torture. Some reports have indicated that a number of detained protesters have already been tortured or killed. Yet, the world community is not holding the regime’s officials accountable for these crimes against humanity.

There are harrowing accounts. In the city of Mahshahr, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) arrived with tanks and armored vehicles. After unarmed protesters came under fire and fled into a nearby marsh, the IRGC surrounded them and used truck-mounted machine guns to massacre as many as 100 people.

In other cities, IRGC agents fired into crowds from the roofs of government buildings. And videos show IRGC and other security forces shooting some fleeing protesters in the back. The UN’s top human rights official, Michelle Bachelet, said last Friday that the forces in question were unmistakably “shooting to kill.”

What makes the entire episode more chilling is that the Iranian regime cut off all internet access for roughly the first week of demonstrations. It clearly had the intent of massacring as many people as possible to prevent the spread of protests.

The leading opposition group, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), was the most active movement on the ground in Iran. In addition to sending out videos and credible news, its “Resistance Units” also led and guided the protests. On December 15, it said that 1,500 protesters had been killed. Since then, various news agencies and US State Department officials have cited the MEK’s reported figures as their sources.

After the resumption of internet access, in just a few days, upwards of 20,000 messages reached the US State Department, according to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

The MEK, along with its parent coalition the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), have also emphasized that the protests are not over. Some regime officials have acknowledged that arrests are still being made, while “leaders” of the uprising are still being identified.

The NCRI says thousands of detained protesters are under excruciating conditions. The regime’s suppressive forces have reportedly transferred many of the wounded out of hospitals and placed them under torture. Many of the detainees, including those in Shiraz, are being pressured to take part in televised “confessions” and speak out against the uprising and the MEK. Amnesty International has called for those arbitrarily arrested to be released.

Suppression is now virtually the only factor forestalling the mullahs’ overthrow. Regardless of whether Western policymakers think it is worthwhile to put pressure on Tehran or support the change of this regime by the Iranian people, there should be no question about their responsibility to halt a massacre if they are able to do so. When it comes to defending the Iranian protesters and defending them against the ayatollahs’ brutality, Europe should stand shoulder to shoulder with the US.

Some governments may think they have dodged this responsibility simply by waiting out the unrest. They must be reminded that both the protests and the regime’s crackdowns are far from over. And even if the nationwide uprising were brought to heel, it wouldn’t mean that the participants in that uprising were suddenly safe. Iran’s jails are already over capacity, and the regime has threatened to execute those deemed responsible for the unrest. It’s a safe bet that as soon as the world’s attention is focused elsewhere, Tehran will make good on that promise.

This is why the international community must offer a permanent response to the present situation. As Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi has urged, the world community should demand that the regime grant free access to the country for UN human rights experts and other monitors who are committed to safeguarding the rights of protesters throughout the world. US can play a leading role to this effect.

Until the international community can effectively guarantee that Tehran’s repressive policies are a thing of the past, no free, democratic nation should willingly engage in trade or diplomatic exchanges with Iran. The regime cannot refuse this ultimatum without affirming its intent to continue murdering its own people.

It is an affront to humanity and a serious shirking of moral responsibility to for the international community to remain silent in the face of the crimes being committed against humanity in Iran. The UN must act now to send a fact finding mission to Tehran to investigate the regime’s crimes. Tehran’s leaders must face justice, lest more crimes against humanity continue unabated.
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Ken Blackwell (@kenblackwell) is a conservative family values advocate. Blackwell is a former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Commission, a senior fellow at the Family Research Council on matters of Human Rights and Constitutional Governance. He is also a contributing author to the ARRA News Service.
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Elizabeth Warren Anoints Herself GodPosted: 02 Jan 2020 05:14 PM PSTElizabeth Warrenby Star Parker: The Pew Research Center reports among its major findings in 2019 a dramatic drop in Americans identifying as Christian.

In 2019, 65% of Americans identified as Christian, down from 77% in 2009. The percentage who identify as religiously unaffiliated — that is, atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” — stood at 26% in 2019, compared with 17% a decade ago.

I think this shift reflects less belief in God, rather than what God Americans choose to worship.

Take, for instance, Democratic presidential contender Elizabeth Warren.

There does not appear to be a single aspect of human existence for which she doesn’t have her own answer. Warren thinks she’s God, and a shockingly high number of Americans seem ready to line up and worship her.

Warren knows what is just and unjust, how much wealth is too much for any particular individual and how much is not enough. And she feels totally empowered to take from one and give to the other to make the world what it is supposed to be.

Needless to say, in her exalted, divine wisdom, she is ready to deliver the last word on sexual identity, marriage, family and, of course, life and death.

I’m focusing on Elizabeth Warren because she is the most unabashedly outspoken and detailed in her views representing the American left. But she is really the American left itself.

At a recent Democratic debate, Warren said: “I believe abortion rights are human rights. I believe they are also economic rights.”

I wonder when candidates make these declarations why the moderators never ask, “How do you know that?” It would give Warren the opportunity to clarify by saying, “I know because I am God.”

Warren said that abortion is a “hard decision” but “the one entity that should not be in the middle of that decision is the government.”

This appears to be the only area in all of American life where Warren does not believe the government should be involved.

The Wall Street Journal recently surveyed “60-some policy papers” from Warren’s campaign, which show that no details of the life of every American will escape government dictate.

There is the wealth tax; the “Medicare for All” tax; the corporate surtax; higher capital gains taxes; higher income taxes on “the wealthiest individuals and giant corporations”; the overturning of “right to work laws” to shore up unions; the end of federal funding for charter schools; the vast expansion of government management of our currency, our jobs and our industry; a $3 trillion Green New Deal; the break-up of the big high tech companies, etc., etc.

Let me make a few distinctions between the God of my beautiful leather Bible that I read every day and the self-anointed God Almighty Elizabeth Warren.

The God I worship made man in His image and gave free choice and personal responsibility. My God made man a free, responsible, creative agent.

My God issued a commandment against envy. What others have is not our business. Our business is conducting our own affairs and building our own life. We must care about those in need, but individuals make this decision, not government or a self appointed God-politician.

There is also a commandment against theft. In the universe created by my God, there is private property, and there is sin and punishment in stealing what belongs to others.

Politicians who think they are God, mobilizing power by inspiring sinful envy of what others have legally achieved and then using political power to legalize theft to steal the property of some in order to redistribute to others, is not only not Christian but also not American.

In the universe created by my God, life is sacred, as is property. This provides the basis for a free and prosperous country.

As we enter the new year and continue rebuilding our great country, I pray for a rebirth of American Christianity.
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Star Parker (@UrbanCURE) is an author at and president of CURE, the Center for Urban Renewal and Education. CURE is a non-profit think tank that addresses issues of race and poverty through principles of faith, freedom and personal responsibility.
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Democrats Peddle Doom, but the Middle Class Never Had It So GoodPosted: 02 Jan 2020 05:01 PM PSTStephen Moore, Economistby Stephen Moore: These days, when you listen to the gloom of the media and many of the presidential candidates, you have to wonder what country these Debbie Downers are talking about.

Former Vice President Joe Biden recently declared, “The middle class is getting crushed. And the working class has no way up.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders stews that President Donald Trump’s policies have brought “handouts for billionaires and hunger for the poor.”

Mayor Pete Buttigieg claims that many working families are struggling so much financially they don’t have enough income to be able to “afford a two-bedroom apartment.”

The Washington Post says that Americans are awash in debt they can’t repay.

Time out for a dose of reality. If things are so bad, how is it that a new poll from CNN — hardly a network friendly to Trump — finds 3 of 4 Americans rate the economy as pretty good or really good.

We have become so rich as a nation that even most poor families can buy dolls and baseball bats and $100 Nike basketball shoes for their kids, as well as cellphones that have more computing power than every computer used to put a man on the moon.

It is nonsense to say the poor and the middle class are worse off than they were 20 or 30 or 50 years ago.

Go to any neighborhood Walmart or Target, and you will see average and even low-income Americans — blacks, whites, Hispanics, Asians, teenagers, mothers with three kids, and seniors — filing out of the store with sometimes two or three shopping carts overflowing with toasters, winter coats, flowers, games, dog food, stuffed animals, potato chips, video games and every conceivable piece of merchandise — all stuffed in the back of the minivan.

The rich are doing better for sure. Our wealth as a nation has now topped $100 trillion, and the rich have a big slice of that. But well over half of all Americans own stock through 401(k) plans and other retirement savings. When the Dow Jones rises by 10,000 points in three years, it isn’t just Warren Buffett who feels the wealth effect.

This past year, median family income adjusted for inflation rose to $66,000 for the first time ever. Think about that. In 90% of the world, an income of $66,000 is rich, rich, rich. The average household income in China — which is our major challenger for global supremacy — is less than $15,000. That’s less than one-fourth of the level in America. There is an old saying that is true now more than ever: If you have to be poor, America is a good place to be poor.

For all of the constant talk about stagnant wages for the middle class since the 1970s, the average middle-income household today has access to technology, entertainment, household appliances and health care that even rich people couldn’t buy in the 1960s. The folks at The Heritage Foundation have found that even poor families today are more likely to have access to things like air conditioning, dishwashers, televisions and laptop computers than middle class families did 50 years ago. These are the dividends from our free market capitalist economy.

As our old friend Arthur Laffer wisely reminds us, people don’t work to pay taxes. They work and earn income so they can buy things — for themselves and for others. And we are doing just that. Barron’s just reported another blockbuster Christmas shopping season. So much for all the gibberish a few months ago about a recession. We are all spending more — because we have more.

Yes, of course, I know money can’t buy love or happiness. But let’s face it: More money is a lot better than too little. Prosperity is a wonderful thing.
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Stephen Moore, (@StephenMoore) is a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation and an economic consultant with Freedom Works. He is the co-author of “Fueling Freedom: Exposing the Mad War on Energy.” Moore encouraged the ARRA News Service editor at SamSphere Chicago 2008 to blog his articles. His article was in Rasmussen Reports.
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Colleges Dupe Parents and TaxpayersPosted: 02 Jan 2020 04:51 PM PSTDr. Walter Williamsby Dr. Walter E. Williams: Colleges have been around for centuries. College students have also been around for centuries. Yet, college administrators assume that today’s students have needs that were unknown to their predecessors. Those needs include diversity and equity personnel, with massive budgets to accommodate.

According to Minding the Campus, Penn State University’s Office of Vice Provost for Educational Equity employs 66 staff members. The University of Michigan currently employs a diversity staff of 93 full-time diversity administrators, officers, directors, vice provosts, deans, consultants, specialists, investigators, managers, executive assistants, administrative assistants, analysts and coordinators. Amherst College, with a student body of 1,800 students employs 19 diversity people.

Top college diversity bureaucrats earn salaries six figures, in some cases approaching $500,000 per year. In the case of the University of Michigan, a quarter (26) of their diversity officers earn annual salaries of more than $100,000. If you add generous fringe benefits and other expenses, you could easily be talking about $13 million a year in diversity costs. The Economist reports that University of California, Berkeley, has 175 diversity bureaucrats.

Diversity officials are a growing part of a college bureaucracy structure that outnumbers faculty by 2 to 2.5 depending on the college. According to “The Campus Diversity Swarm,” an article from Mark Pulliam, a contributing editor at Law and Liberty, which appeared in the City Journal (10/10/2018), diversity people assist in the cultivation of imaginary grievances of an ever-growing number of “oppressed” groups. Pulliam writes: “The mission of campus diversity officers is self-perpetuating. Affirmative action (i.e., racial and ethnic preferences in admissions) leads to grievance studies.

Increased recognition of LGBTQ rights requires ever-greater accommodation by the rest of the student body. Protecting ‘vulnerable’ groups from ‘hate speech’ and ‘microaggressions’ requires speech codes and bias-response teams (staffed by diversocrats). Complaints must be investigated and adjudicated (by diversocrats). Fighting ‘toxic masculinity’ and combating an imaginary epidemic of campus sexual assault necessitate consent protocols, training, and hearing procedures — more work for an always-growing diversocrat cadre. Each newly recognized problem leads to a call for more programs and staffing.”

Campus diversity people have developed their own professional organization — the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education. They hold annual conferences — the last one in Philadelphia. The NADOHE has developed standards for professional practice and a political agenda, plus a Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, which is published by the American Psychological Association.

One wonders just how far spineless college administrators will go when it comes to caving in to the demands of campus snowflakes who have been taught that they must be protected against words, events and deeds that do not fully conform to their extremely limited, narrow-minded beliefs built on sheer delusion.

Generosity demands that we forgive these precious snowflakes and hope that they eventually grow up. The real problem is with people assumed to be grown-ups — college professors and administrators — who serve their self-interest by tolerating and giving aid and comfort to our aberrant youth. Unless the cycle of promoting and nursing imaginary grievances is ended, diversity bureaucracies will take over our colleges and universities, supplanting altogether the goal of higher education.

“Diversity” is the highest goal of students and professors who openly detest those with whom they disagree. These people support the very antithesis of higher education with their withering attacks on free speech. Both in and out of academia, the content of a man’s character is no longer as important as the color of his skin, his sex, his sexual preferences or his political loyalties. That’s a vision that spells tragedy for our nation.
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Dr. Walter Williams (@WE_Williams) is an American economist, social commentator, and author of over 150 publications. He has a Ph.D. and M.A. in Economics from the UCLA and B.A. in economics from California State University. He also holds a Doctor of Humane Letters from Virginia Union University and Grove City College, Doctor of Laws from Washington and Jefferson College. He has served on the faculty of George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, as John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics, since 1980. Visit his website: WalterEWilliams.com and view a list of other articles and works.
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The Russians Used the Media to Influence an Election for the LeftPosted: 02 Jan 2020 04:39 PM PST. . . The media wouldn’t know a Russian asset if it went out and voted for one.
by Daniel Greenfield: A funny thing happened on the way to the Kremlin.

Before the UK election, Hillary Clinton took her book tour to the UK, where she joined the chorus of false claims accusing Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Conservative party of being Russian stooges. Christopher Steele, the British operative hired by her campaign to smear Trump as a Russian asset, had already paved the way with yet another report accusing Johnson of being cultivated by the Russians.

The media began falsely claiming that the Tories were covering up this damning report.

“I find it inexplicable that your government will not release a government report about Russian influence. Inexplicable and shameful,” Hillary Clinton huffed to the BBC. “Every person who votes in this country deserves to see that report before your election happens.”

The BBC did not bother to inform its viewers that Hillary had been paying one of the report’s sources.

The Steele 2.0 report was obsessed with Russian influence on the Brexit referendum and the previous election. But then the Russians actually shaped Labour’s entire election strategy in this election.

And they used the media to do it.

With Jeremy Corbyn’s numbers tanking due to everything from his support for terrorists to his anti-Semitism and general unpleasantness, the leftist leader unveiled documents claiming to show evidence of a secret deal with the United States over Britain’s failing socialized medicine NHS.

“We have now got evidence that under Boris Johnson the NHS is on the table and will be up for sale. He tried to cover it up in a secret agenda and today it has been exposed,” Corbyn whinged. “We are talking here about secret talks for a deal with Donald Trump after Brexit.”

Corbyn was blatantly lying about the documents and what was in them. The false claims about an NHS sellout became the central thrust of Labour’s political campaign in the 2019 election.

But what was more interesting was where those documents had come from.

The documents had first appeared on Reddit. In early December, Reddit announced that in coordination with law enforcement and experts, the accounts behind the leak were taken down as part of a Russian disinformation campaign. The sources of these claims, Graphika and the Atlantic Council, were the same as the ones that had been used by the media as credible sources on previous Russian campaigns.

And it wasn’t Johnson and the Tories the Russians were trying to help, but Corbyn and Labour.

A Twitter account using the same name as the Reddit account had even tagged Corbyn in a link to the materials from the Russian disinformation campaign.

When Labour refused to state how they received the documents, the media just shrugged.

The repeated refusals of Labour figures associated with Corbyn to explain the source of the documents was as good as an admission that they had not obtained them from legitimate sources.

Asked in an interview where the documents came from, Corbyn insisted that it didn’t matter and then claimed that the documents leaked by the Russians showed “why the prime minister has refused to release the report on Russian interference in British politics.”

The Russian interference in British politics wasn’t in the report, it was in his own house.

The Russian campaign calculatedly tried to stir up animosity between the US and the UK in order to sabotage Brexit, prevent a trade deal between the US and the UK, and help Corbyn perform well enough to retain his leadership role in Labour. Why the Russians might have wanted those things is obvious.

A dysfunctional EU serves Moscow’s purposes better than an independent UK able to set its own defense and foreign policies. Frustrated leavers would become radicalized, making them useful targets for provocateurs with ties to Moscow. And Corbyn’s Momentum was part of a British Left that had longstanding ties to the Soviet Union whose old KGB operatives were now running Russia. And were eager to tap into the old networks of fellow travelers that had been cultivated in the Communist days.

The Russians hadn’t been cultivating Johnson. They had been cultivating Corbyn for a long time.

Last year, Ján Sarkocy, a Cold War Czech spy working in the UK under cover as a diplomat, had come forward to accuse Corbyn of being a paid informant who had supplied information to the enemy.

“He was our asset, he had been recruited. He was getting money from us,” Sarkocy said.

Documents substantiated contacts between Corbyn and Sarkocy. Corbyn’s codename allegedly had been COB and had allegedly tipped off the Communists to actions by British intelligence.

Worse still, Sarkocy claimed that Corbyn had been recruited “under Russian supervision.”

“All the information we received, not only from him but also from another, supporting source, was regarded in Moscow as first-rate,” Sarkocy claimed.

Unlike Steele, Sarkocy had been in a position to actually know what he was talking about. But the media hurriedly rushed to clear Corbyn of the charges even as they went on insisting that the secret Steele influenced report would prove that Johnson was a Russian asset. While the charges against Johnson were farfetched, like Bernie Sanders, Corbyn’s sympathy for the Soviet Union was no secret.

Corbyn had appeared at the 40th Congress of the Communist Party of Great Britain to urge disarmament in the face of the Soviet Union. More recently, the alleged Marxist had claimed that “NATO was founded in order to promote a Cold War with the Soviet Union.” And, keeping the special relationship alive, he blamed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on American expansionism.

His roster includes Andrew Murray, a former member of the Communist Party, and his chief strategist, Seumas Milne, had mourned the fall of the Berlin Wall, and defended its leaders against claims of atrocities, arguing that, “Communism in the Soviet Union, eastern Europe and elsewhere delivered rapid industrialisation, mass education, job security and huge advances in social and gender equality. It encompassed genuine idealism and commitment.”

And the Communists had announced that they wouldn’t run candidates, but try to help Labour win.

After Corbyn’s extensive ties to Communists, allegations by a former spy that he was a paid informant, the Russians tried to help Corbyn with a disinformation campaign and leaked documents, and the media insisted that the Russians couldn’t have been trying to help Corbyn. And that Corbyn knew nothing.

The same media outlets smearing Trump and Johnson as Russian assets based on nothing, who had falsely claimed that Trump’s victory and Brexit were the work of the Russians based on deliberate misrepresentations about Russian ad campaigns, refused to make the obvious connections between an alleged former Russian asset, his circle of former Communists, and a Russian campaign to help them.

The media wouldn’t know an actual Russian asset if it went out and voted for one.

After years of entertaining us with scary stories about Russian election interference, when it actually happened, the outlets that had cried wolf, actually helped the Russians, and then tried to cover it up.

A funny thing happened on the way to the Kremlin, the Russian election interference was helping the same old Marxists that the old KGB men running Moscow had built longstanding relationships with.

In the UK, Russian election interference had been meant to aid Momentum’s Labour Party takeover. Meanwhile in the US, after the collapse of Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and his clique of socialists has a real shot at taking over the Democrat Party. Whom did the leaked emails help in the 2016 election? It wasn’t Trump. Voters didn’t care about internal Democrat dirty laundry in the national election.

But Bernie and his people used the fallout to gain influence in the DNC. He now polls at number two.

The internal Democrat conflict between Clintonites and Sandernistas, different factions of the Left, was used to frame Trump and Republicans when the real beneficiaries were Bernie Sanders, Keith Ellison, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, her squad and the rest of the Corbynized inner circle of Berniestan.

The Sanders and Corbyn campaign share the same stable of activists. If the Russians were helping Corbyn, it’s a good bet that they were helping the socialist who honeymooned in the USSR.

How much support could Sanders expect from Moscow if he becomes the nominee?

The media can spot Russian election interference from a mile away when it isn’t there. It won’t touch actual Russian election interference even when it’s up to its eyeballs in the real thing.
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Daniel Greenfield is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer at FrontPage Mag focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.
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Tags: Daniel Greenfield, FrontPage Mag, Russians, Used the Media, to Influence an Election, for the Left 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 Dangers of Elite GroupthinkPosted: 02 Jan 2020 04:08 PM PSTVictor Davis Hansonby Dr. Victor Davis Hanson: Knowledge can be found at all ages, and in all places. And ethics has nothing to do with degrees or pedigrees.

The Washington Post recently published a surprising indictment of MSNBC host, Stanford graduate, and Rhodes scholar Rachel Maddow.

Post media critic Erik Wemple wrote that Maddow deliberately misled her audience by claiming the now-discredited Steele dossier was largely verifiable — even at a time when there was plenty of evidence that it was mostly bogus.

At the very time Maddow was reassuring viewers that Christopher Steele was believable, populist talk radio and the much-criticized Fox News Channel were insisting that most of Steele’s allegations simply could not be true. Maddow was wrong. Her less-degreed critics proved to be right.

In 2018, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Devin Nunes (R., Calif.), and the committee’s then-ranking minority member, Adam Schiff (D., Calif.), each issued contrasting reports of the committee’s investigation into allegations of collusion between Russia and Donald Trump’s campaign team and the misbehavior of federal agencies.

Schiff’s memo was widely praised by the media. Nunes’s report was condemned as rank and partisan.

Many in the media went further. They contrasted Harvard Law graduate Schiff with rural central Californian Nunes to help explain why the clever Schiff got to the bottom of collusion and the “former dairy farmer” Nunes was “way over his head” and had “no idea what’s going on.”

Recently, the nonpartisan inspector general of the Department of Justice, Michael Horowitz, found widespread wrongdoing at the DOJ and FBI. He confirmed the key findings in the Nunes memo about the Steele dossier and its pernicious role in the FISA application seeking a warrant against former Trump-campaign adviser Carter Page.

In contrast, much of what the once-praised Schiff had claimed to be true was proven wrong by Horowitz — from Schiff’s insistence that the FBI verified the Steele dossier to his assertion that the Department of Justice did not rely chiefly on the dossier for its warrant application.

When special counsel Robert Mueller formed an investigatory team, he stocked it with young, progressive Washington insiders, many with blue-chip degrees and résumés.

The media swooned. Washington journalists became giddy over the prospect of a “dream team” of such “all-stars” who would demolish the supposedly far less impressively credentialed Trump legal team.

We were assured by a snobbish Vox: “Special counsel Robert Mueller’s legal team is full of pros. Trump’s team makes typos.”

Yet after 22 months and $32 million worth of investigation, Mueller’s team found no Russian collusion and no evidence of actionable Trump obstruction during the investigation of that non-crime. All the constant media reports that “bombshell” Mueller team disclosures were imminent and that the “walls are closing in” on Trump proved false.

Mueller himself testified before Congress, only to appear befuddled and almost clueless at times about his own investigation. Many of his supposedly brightest all-stars, such as Lisa Page, Peter Strzok, and Kevin Clinesmith, had to leave his dream team due to unethical behavior.

In contrast, Trump’s widely derided chief lawyers — 69-year-old Ty Cobb, 78-year-old John Dowd, and 63-year-old radio and TV host Jay Sekulow — stayed out of the headlines. They advised Trump to cooperate with the Mueller team and systematically offered evidence and analyses to prove that Trump did not collude with the Russian to warp the 2016 election. In the end, Mueller’s “hunter-killer team” was forced to agree.

When the supposed clueless Trump was elected, a number of elites pronounced his economic plans to be absurd. We were told that Trump was bound to destroy the U.S. economy.

Former Princeton professor and Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman insisted that Trump would crash the stock market. He even suggested that stocks might never recover.

Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers said Trump would bring on a recession within a year and a half.

The former head of the National Economic Council, Steven Rattner, predicted a market crash of “historic proportions.”

In contrast, many of Trump’s economic advisers during his campaign and administration, including outsider Peter Navarro, pundit Steven Moore, former TV host Larry Kudlowm and octogenarian Wilbur Ross, were caricatured.

Yet three years later, in terms of the stock market, unemployment, energy production and workers’ wages, the economy has been doing superbly.

The point of these sharp contrasts is not that an Ivy League degree or a Washington reputation is of little value, or that prestigious prizes and honors account for nothing, or even that supposed experts are always unethical and silly.

Instead, one lesson is that conventional wisdom and groupthink tend to mislead, especially in the age of online echo chambers and often sheltered and blinkered elite lives.

We forget that knowledge can be found at all ages, and in all places. And ethics has nothing to do with degrees or pedigrees.
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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 National Review.
Tags: Victor Davis Hanson, The Dangers, Elite Groupthink, National Review To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!

Will War Derail Trump’s Reelection?Posted: 02 Jan 2020 03:11 PM PST by Patrick Buchanan: If there are IEDs on Trump’s road to reelection, they may be found in the Middle and Near East, land of the forever wars, and North Korea. Not infrequently, foreign policy has proven decisive in presidential years.

“It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future,” Yogi Berra reminded us.

But on “The McLaughlin Group,” the TV talk show on which this writer has appeared for four decades, predictions are as mandated as was taking Latin in Jesuit high schools in the 1950s.

Looking to 2020, this writer predicted that Donald Trump’s great domestic challenge would be to keep the economy firing on all cylinders. His great foreign policy challenge? Avoiding war.

When one looks at the numbers — unemployment at or below 4% for two years, an expansion in its 11th year, the stock market regularly hitting all-time highs — Trump enters his reelection year with a fistful of aces. One has to go back half a century to find numbers like these.

Moreover, the opposition shaping up to bring him down seems, to put it charitably, not up to the task.

Joe Biden, 77, with 45 years in electoral politics, has lost more than a step or two and his most memorable Senate vote was in support of George W. Bush’s decision to take us to war in Iraq, the greatest blunder in U.S. diplomatic history.

Biden’s challengers are a cantankerous 78-year-old democratic socialist who just had a heart attack and a 37-year-old mayor of a small town in Indiana who claims that his same-sex marriage is blessed by the Bible.

Tom Steyer and Mike Bloomberg are white male billionaires who are dumping scores of millions into TV ads to buy the nomination of a party that professes to stand on principle against white male privilege, wealth inequality and the noxious effects of big money in politics.

While Trump is facing an impeachment trial, an acquittal by a Mitch McConnell-run Republican Senate seems a pretty good bet.

And the coming report of U.S. Attorney John Durham into the origins of the Russiagate probe is expected to find political bias, if not conspiracy, at its root. Trump could emerge from the Mueller Report, Horowitz Report and Durham Report as what his allies claim him to be — the victim of a “deep state” conspiracy to fix the election of 2016.

If there are IEDs on Trump’s road to reelection, they may be found in the Middle and Near East, land of the forever wars, and North Korea.

Not infrequently, foreign policy has proven decisive in presidential years.

The Korean War contributed to Harry Truman’s defeat in the New Hampshire primary and his 1952 decision not to run again. When General Eisenhower, architect of the Normandy invasion, declared, “I shall go to Korea,” his rival Adlai Stevenson was toast.

Lyndon Johnson saw his party shattered and chances vanish with the Tet Offensive of 1968, Eugene McCarthy’s moral victory in New Hampshire, and antiwar candidate Bobby Kennedy’s entry into the race.

Jimmy Carter’s feckless response to the seizure of U.S. hostages in Iran consumed the last year of his presidency and contributed to his rout by Ronald Reagan.

The critical foreign theaters where Trump could face problems with his presidential re-election include Afghanistan, Iran and North Korea.

As of Dec. 30, Kim Jong Un’s “Christmas gift” to Trump had not been delivered. Yet it is unlikely Kim will let many weeks pass without making good on his warnings and threats. And though difficult to believe he would start a war, it is also difficult to see how he continues to tolerate sanctions for another year without upgrading and rattling his nuclear arsenal.

Trump is eager to make good on his promises and remove many of the 14,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan before Election Day. Yet such a move is not without risks. Given the strength of the Taliban, the casualties they are able to inflict, the inability of the Afghan army to hold territory, and the constant atrocities in the capital city of Kabul, a Saigon ’75 end to the Afghan war is not outside the realm of the possible.

Nor is a shooting war with Iran that rivets the nation’s attention.

Yesterday, U.S. F-15s, in five attacks, hit munitions depots and a command center of the Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah militia in Syria and Iraq, a retaliatory raid for a rocket attack on a U.S. training camp that killed an American contractor and wounded four U.S. soldiers.

“For those who ask about the response,” warns a Kataib Hezbollah spokesman, “it will be the size of our faith.” One has to expect Iran and its militia in Iraq to respond in kind.

They have a track record. During 2019, with its economy choked by U.S. sanctions, Iran and its allies sabotaged oil tankers in the Gulf, shot down a $130 million U.S. Predator drone, and shut down with missiles and drones half of Saudi Arabia’s oil production.

In former times, a confrontation or shooting war often benefited the incumbent, as there was almost always a rallying to the flag. Those days are gone. This generation has had its fill of wars.
——————–
Patrick Buchanan (@PatrickBuchanan) is currently a blogger, conservative columnist, political analyst, chairman of The American Cause foundation and an editor of The American Conservative. He has been a senior adviser to three Presidents, a two-time candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, and was the presidential nominee of the Reform Party in 2000.
Tags: Patrick Buchanan, conservative, commentary, Will War, Derail Trump’s Reelection? To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!

Schiff-Faced . . .Posted: 02 Jan 2020 03:01 PM PST. . . Nancy Pelosi is facing the new year 2020 with little to celebrate and no proof of a crime in their Impeachment case.

Editorial Cartoon by AF “Tony” BrancoTags: AF Branco, editorial cartoon, Schiff-faced, Nancy Pelois, year 2020, To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!

Stranger Things 2019Posted: 02 Jan 2020 10:49 AM PST by Paul Jacob, Contributing Author: On Tuesday, I seconded George F. Will’s judgment that the biggest story of 2019 was the Hong Kong protest movement.

In America, though, 2019’s top news story must be how the anti-Trump movement morphed from Russiagate, which fizzled upon release of the Mueller Report, to the quasi-impeachment bit over the most yawn-inducing scandal of all time, Trump’s Ukraine Phone Call.

It is certainly a strange story, but there are stranger big stories from last year. I am tempted to assert that the year’s biggest news is actually the Biggest Non-Story: trillion-dollar deficits and ever-increasing debt.

No protest over that enormity. Getting anyone to talk about it is like getting the government to come clean on . . . UFOs.

Which brings us to the absolutely weirdest story of 2019. During this last swing ‘round the sun, multiple sources associated with (and inside) the federal government, admitted that, within the corridors of our un-beloved Deep State, artifacts from crashed ‘and landed’ UFOs were being studied.

After decades and decades of ridicule, eye-rolls, stonewalling, lying, and disinformation about ‘flying saucers,’ several important government bodies — including the Army and Navy — now admit that they almost regularly encounter astounding . . . crafts . . . that are not part of our nation’s official sea and air technology inventory.

These admissions amount to ‘disclosure.’ But it is not an information dump — disclosure is just a trickle, so far.*

Why? Perhaps the idea is that we cannot handle the truth.

Or perhaps they can’t.

Which isn’t really unlike ever-increasing deficits and debt, now that I think about it.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

* Still, even with a mere handful of official and near-official admissions of retrieved UFO tech, the story looms large indeed.
——————
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, Stranger Things, 2019 To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!

Top 10 Hits and Misses of Foreign Policy in 2010sPosted: 02 Jan 2020 10:50 AM PSTRevelers gather at the fence at the White House.
President Obama announces
the death of Osama bin Laden – May 1, 2011by James Carafano: What a difference a decade makes.

In 2010, we got the Arab Spring and Obamacare. Neither turned out as well as we had hoped.

We got iPads, iPhone 4, and Angry Birds. Tech has definitely moved on.

What about America’s foreign policy? It had its ups and downs. Here is a list of the top 10 foreign policy hits and misses of the decade.

1. Hit. Sticking It Out in Afghanistan (2010)
After coming into office, one of President Barack Obama’s first big foreign policy challenges was to decide what to do about the war in Afghanistan. In 2010, he surged U.S. forces, turning around a rapidly deteriorating situation. Equally important, he started a transition from an American-led effort to building an Afghan military that could take up the responsibility for defending the Afghan people.

President Donald Trump has followed through, and after this next drawdown, U.S. force levels in Afghanistan will be about what they were when Obama left office.

Overall, the U.S. effort in Afghanistan has served American interests well. The region is far more stable now. The Taliban are not winning, and the Afghan government seems in no danger of collapse. The likes of al-Qaeda and ISIS no longer can use it as a sanctuary or a platform for global terrorism. As long as this condition prevails, we win.

2. Miss. Pulling Out of Iraq (2011)
You could make a case that invading Iraq was the wrong move. And there’s an even stronger case to be made that the subsequent occupation—poorly planned and sloppily executed—was even worse. Yet the situation Obama inherited there in 2008 was at least manageable. Unfortunately, he made it worse.

He made no serious effort to get a status of forces agreement to keep U.S. troops in the country. Instead, he rapidly withdrew American forces and influence in 2011, triggering a free-for-all that ended in political fragmentation, the rise of ISIS, the near-collapse of the Iraqi military, and a surge of Iranian meddling. We are still coping with the aftermath.

3. Hit. Killing Bin Laden (2011)
Obama deserves full credit for taking out the mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and effectively capping the war on global terrorism. No, the threat of global Islamist terrorism isn’t eradicated completely. But the U.S. has continued to deal with that threat effectively throughout the decade.

4. Miss. Bungling Benghazi (2012)
After abandoning his famous “red line” in Syria, Obama planned to save face with a lead-from-behind campaign to liberate Libya. So enamored with his light-touch foreign policy, his administration refused to acknowledge, let alone address, a spiraling security situation that resulted in the tragic and needless death of Americans, including the U.S. ambassador. The debacle seemed to make the Obama administration even more risk-averse when it came to standing up for America’s interests around the world.

5. Miss. Iran Deal (2013)
Obama brokered the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, claiming it would solve the problem of Iran as a nuclear threat and instigator-in-chief of Middle Eastern instability. It didn’t.

Armed with boatloads of cash and the chaos wrought by ISIS in Syria and Iraq, Iran mobilized its surrogates—Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Houthi rebels in Yemen, Hezbollah, and the Shia militias in Iraq. As a result, the entire region was far worse off when Obama left office than when he was sworn in. And the problems weren’t just in the Middle East. A rising China, a restive Russia, and a belligerent North Korea were also threatening vital U.S. interests—and they continue to do so today.

6. Miss. Playing Pals With Putin (2018)
In 2016, it was hard to make sense of Trump’s “America First” pledge. It may have worked as a campaign slogan, but it told us nothing about his foreign policy. In 2017, he published a sound national security strategy addressing all the big problems, yet folks debated whether the president supported his own foreign policy blueprint.

He did himself no favors with his first NATO meeting and a subsequent press conference with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin. Afterward, the administration spent weeks reassuring people that the U.S. wasn’t leaving NATO, lifting sanctions on Russia, or selling out Ukraine.

Folks had a hard time distinguishing between “Showman Trump,” who made all kinds of outrageous public comments for all kinds of reasons, and “Serious Trump,” who delivered sound decisions and policies in America’s interests.

7. Hit. Crushing the Caliphate (2018)
Trump showed there was a serious leader behind the showman when he doubled down on defeating ISIS as decisively and quickly as possible. So long, risk-averse foreign policy; hello, self-assured, decisive action. The U.S. continues to press a global campaign against Islamist terror threats, most notably by hunting down Baghdadi, the head of the crushed caliphate, and bin Laden’s son.

8. Hit. Withdrawing From INF (2019)
By pulling out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, Trump served notice that the U.S. was now committed to facing the world’s problems rather than turning a blind eye to them. The Obama administration had tried to ignore Putin’s cheating; Trump just pulled the plug.

It wasn’t the only stiff-arm the U.S. gave Russia. Trump gave arms to Ukraine, increased military support to Europe, kept up the sanctions on Moscow, and backed NATO enlargement. He did exactly everything Putin hated.

That tough love approach carried over elsewhere—from Iran to North Korea (“maximum pressure”) to Beijing (trade war and more). His basic message was simple: America is a pushover no more. After three years, it was clear Trump had a solid plan for dealing with problems around the world.

9. Miss. Explaining Syria (2019)
While Trump’s policies had more hits than misses, not so his rhetorical talents. His explanation of the U.S. response to Turkey’s incursion in Syria created chaos. While the predictions of disaster were proved wrong, much of the outrage and anxiety could have been avoided by responsible explaining.

10. Hit. NATO’s London Meeting (2019)
You know that Trump rocked it at the NATO meeting because the best his detractors could muster was “small ball” carping. In contrast, his accomplishments were real: promoting increased investment in NATO, focusing attention on the China threat, and emphasizing the strategic importance of space.

Trump has pressed our allies to do more, even as he has led the U.S. to strengthen our own military and increase military sales to allied and friendly nations—in every key theater.

Adding up the plus and minuses, it is hard to argue the U.S. isn’t better off than when the decade began. While Trump doesn’t earn Obama’s style points, he has done more to keep America free, safe, and prosperous—and it doesn’t look like impeachment is slowing him down.
————————–
James Carafano (@JJCarafano) is one of the nation’s leading experts in defense and homeland security, directs The Heritage Foundation’s Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies. Carafano is an accomplished historian and teacher as well as a prolific writer and researcher on a fundamental constitutional duty of the federal government: to provide for the common defense.
Tags: Top 10, Hits and Misses, Foreign Policy, 2010s, James Carafano, Heritage Foundation 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 Beijing Controls Chinese Citizens Through Family, Education, and SpeechPosted: 02 Jan 2020 10:16 AM PSTPortrait of former Chinese Communist Party
leader Mao Zedong marking 70th anniversary
– founding of the People’s Republic of Chinaby Lee Edwards & Paul Mosimann: You may have read about China’s practice of foot-binding. It’s an ancient custom dating back to the supposedly pleasing aesthetic sense of the 10th century.

To improve their marriage prospects, women would bind their feet with bandages from an early age to stunt the growth of them.

The tradition was damaging to the development of the body, yet was accepted and practiced. Fortunately, the practice has since been condemned and discontinued.

But communist China has adopted other methods of suppressing the growth of the individual by attacking three bedrock institutions of society; namely, the family, the school, and free speech.

In 1980, communist China announced a “one child” policy to prevent a population “crisis.” Chinese families were limited to only one child or faced severe penalties. The punishments included heavy fines, forced sterilizations, forced abortions, or even infanticide.

Throughout the 35 years of the one-child policy, there were a recorded 196 million sterilizations and 336 million abortions. (That 336 million figure is greater than the entire population of the United States.)

Since 2015, communist China has amended the policy to allow another baby to be born without the Chinese Communist Party intervening. The abortion rate, however, remains above 24.2 for every 1,000 babies born.

Communist China also controls the populace through its school system. The Communist Party has complete power over education, so much so that school principals are either members of the party or operate under the direction of a party member.

This close monitoring of schools allows communist China to indoctrinate children at a young age into Communist Party propaganda.

Lenora Chu, author of “Little Soldiers,” writes that Chinese classrooms for grade-school students resemble barracks more than learning centers.

The curriculum is so strict that students fear speaking out of line. They “learn” to parrot Chinese Communist Party guidelines as gospel.

As if to underscore the point, the founder of a communist grade school in Henan stated in an interview: “Maoist thought is God.”

Chu says that the government explicitly bans “discussion of democracy, freedom of speech, and past mistakes of the Communist Party.” Other bans include Google, Facebook, Instagram, The Wall Street Journal, and The Economist.

There seems to be no limits to the censorship. Both “South Park” cartoons and “Winnie the Pooh” children’s stories are forbidden—the former for criticizing the Chinese government; the latter for vaguely resembling President Xi Jinping.

Nothing seems to lie outside the Communist Party’s grasp. Suppression has become oppression.

Yet, in Hong Kong, the people demonstrate.

The demonstrations forced the government of Hong Kong to take a full-page advertisement in The Wall Street Journal proclaiming that Hong Kong remains a “free society.” It lists nine different freedoms, ranging from freedom of speech and freedom of the press to freedom of religious belief.

Hong Kong may comfort itself with ads, and it might comfort others. But the truth is that its freedoms are under serious threat.

It’s under threat from the communist government in Beijing, which is worried and weak, and whose tools of oppression will not work in Hong Kong the way they worked 30 years ago in Tiananmen Square.

Beijing is reduced to hoping that Hong Kongers eventually will tire of their protests. That’s a baseless hope, however, because it doesn’t recognize the innate desire for freedom that exists within every human being and inspires the brave people of Hong Kong to demonstrate until their city is fully free.
—————-
Lee Edwards is the distinguished fellow in conservative thought at The Heritage Foundation’s B. Kenneth Simon Center for Principles and Politics. Paul Mossiman is a graduate of the Young Leaders Program at The Heritage Foundation.
Tags: Lee Edwards, Paul Mosimann, How Beijing Controls Chinese Citizens, Through Family, Education, Speech 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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Dear Iran: Rose McGowan tries to be today’s Hanoi Jane, gets obliterated on TwitterPosted: 03 Jan 2020 05:14 AM PSTWhen I was first assigned this story, I expected it to be another “leftist Hollywood star says something dumb on Twitter” article. After reading what actress Rose McGowan has been posting since the killing of terrorist mastermind Qasem Soleimani, I can only feel sorry for her. She’s clearly misguided, which is normal in Hollywood, but […]The post Dear Iran: Rose McGowan tries to be today’s Hanoi Jane, gets obliterated on Twitter appeared first on Conservative Christian News.

No, John Bolton, it’s not time to force regime change in IranPosted: 03 Jan 2020 04:07 AM PSTI like John Bolton. I disagree with many of his neoconservative stances but I believe his heart’s in the right place. In the wake of the successful killing of the terrorist mastermind behind hundreds of Americans killed in recent years, Qasem Soleimani, Bolton chimed in with a call for the start of regime change in […]The post No, John Bolton, it’s not time to force regime change in Iran appeared first on Conservative Christian News.

While American leftists mourn Soleimani’s death, Iraqis are dancing in the streetsPosted: 02 Jan 2020 09:24 PM PSTThe American left has never been more exposed as the anti-Trump hacks that they are than the night of January 2, 2020. It was the night an unambiguously positive and righteous move was made that killed terrorist leader Qasem Soleimani, second only to Osama bin Laden in the number of American deaths on his hands. But […]The post While American leftists mourn Soleimani’s death, Iraqis are dancing in the streets appeared first on Conservative Christian News.

Babylon Bee: Media disappointed to learn armed citizen stopped mass shootingPosted: 02 Jan 2020 07:49 PM PSTSatire is the art of using humor to highlight a hidden truth, such as how the left loves to exploit tragedy for its political gain. The Babylon Bee is one of the best humour sites on the web, partly because they are willing to go after both sides of the political aisle, unlike another site […]The post Babylon Bee: Media disappointed to learn armed citizen stopped mass shooting appeared first on Conservative Christian News.

Message delivered: Iranian leaders Qasem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis killed in BaghdadPosted: 02 Jan 2020 06:06 PM PSTUpdate 2: The people of Baghdad are celebrating in the streets following news of Qasem Soleimani’s death. While American leftists mourn Soleimani’s death, Iraqis are dancing in the streets Unlike our progressive countrymen who put partisan politics over patriotism, the people of Iraq are reacting to the news as it affects them personally. Their reaction […]The post Message delivered: Iranian leaders Qasem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis killed in Baghdad appeared first on Conservative Christian News.

Julian Castro’s departure shows 2016 Republicans were more Latino-friendly than 2020 DemocratsPosted: 02 Jan 2020 07:57 AM PSTJust as the new year is beginning, Julian Castro has dropped out of the Democratic presidential nomination race. He was the only Latino running for the nomination, leaving only Cory Booker and Andrew Yang as the only viable non-Caucasian candidates left in the race. Deval Patrick entered late and hasn’t made a dent in the […]The post Julian Castro’s departure shows 2016 Republicans were more Latino-friendly than 2020 Democrats appeared first on Conservative Christian News.

UK’s ‘grooming gangs’ thrive because too many fear being labeled ‘Islamophobic’Posted: 02 Jan 2020 07:05 AM PSTChild rape is the most heinous crime short of murder. In the United Kingdom, “grooming gangs” have been widespread for years, kept quiet until explosive reports finally surfaced of widespread crimes in 2012. They didn’t start in 2012. They were first acknowledged as being widespread that year. But they were widespread for many years prior. […]The post UK’s ‘grooming gangs’ thrive because too many fear being labeled ‘Islamophobic’ appeared first on Conservative Christian News.

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REDSTATE

Sen. Chris Murphy (D) Leaves Us With an Incredible Shot and Chaser After He Responds to Soleimani’s Death

READ STORY

Liberals Lose Their Minds After Trump Kills Iran’s Qassem Soleimani

    READ STORY    For Pelosi, Schiff and the Media, the Killing of Soleimani is Just Politics; Nevermind What He was Doing There

    READ STORY    Iranians, Iraqis Are Celebrating Trump Taking Out Soleimani, but WaPo Calls Terrorist Leader ‘Most Revered’

    READ STORY    GOP Senator Puts Nancy Pelosi on Notice; No Articles by Monday, He Will Introduce Measure to Dismiss – Update

    READ STORY

Democrats Support Foreign Intervention in Our Elections

    READ STORY    Ted Cruz Levels CNN Opinion Writer for Suggesting He and Marco Rubio Are Ashamed of Their Hispanic Heritage

    READ STORY    Watch: Deranged Leftist Tries to Steal Trump 2020 Sign and Gets a Shocking Surprise

    READ STORY    US Carries out an Apparent Decapitation Strike on Iranian Proxy Militias in Iraq

    READ STORY

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REALCLEARPOLITICS

01/03/2020Share: Carl Cannon’s Morning NoteIran Crisis; Trump’s Vulnerabilities; Quote of the Week

Good morning. It’s Friday, Jan. 3, 2020, the day of the week when I unearth a quote meant to be inspiring or evocative. Today’s comes from H.L. Mencken, the “Sage of Baltimore.” First, I’d point you to RealClearPolitics’ front page, which presents our poll averages, videos, breaking news stories, and aggregated opinion pieces spanning the political spectrum. We also offer original material from our own reporters, columnists, and contributors, including the following:* * *Trump’s Iran Policy Game-Changer. Susan Crabtree assesses the president’s decision to order an airstrike that killed Iran’s most powerful general.In New Crises, Our Enemies See How Vulnerable We Are. A.B. Stoddard writes that the airstrikes against Iranian-backed militias further rattle President Trump’s shaky standing in the world and at home.After Soleimani: Confronting Iran’s Dangerous Regime. In RealClearWorld, Charles Lipson weighs in on the latest developments.“Trump and His Generals.” In RealClearDefense, Neil Hassler has this Q&A with Peter Bergen about his new book, subtitled “The Cost of Chaos.”When the 737-Max Returns to the Skies, It Will Fly Full. In RealClearMarkets, Arnold Barnett explains why the public’s hesitation will evaporate.Five Facts: The USMCA Trade Deal. In RealClearPolicy, No Labels has this primer on the agreement.* * *With each passing year, H.L. Mencken is increasingly remembered as a caricature. Cigar-smoking “curmudgeon,” he is invariably called. “Elitist” is another label, as is “snob.” A respected biographer described him as “heartless.” He was certainly a Germanophile, which was problematic politics before and during World War II, although no one at the time considered Mencken an anti-Semite, which became a prevailing depiction 30 years ago.These descriptions and debates over his legacy obscure a simple historic fact, however: In the 1920s, Henry Louis Mencken was the most towering figure in American letters. It is also true that neither Mencken’s style nor his antipathy toward Big Government transitioned easily to the 1930s. Iconoclasm was no longer the currency during the Great Depression. The unwashed hoi polloi Mencken loved to ridicule valued government action over cynical social commentary. And even those who shared Mencken’s skepticism about the New Deal couldn’t fathom how he clung to his isolationist views after Pearl Harbor.As Americans steeled themselves to fight a two-ocean war, Mencken maintained his rhetorical attacks on a president he despised, the popular Franklin Roosevelt. By the end of the 1940s, after both voices — FDR’s and Mencken’s — were stilled, the latter’s reputation was besieged by the academic types he was so fond of ridiculing. He was also undermined by a weapon he handed his critics posthumously: a lengthy private journal containing petty criticisms of his friends and ethnic insensitivities, including unflattering references to Jews.In 1989, when a large portion of the diary was published by a Baltimore library (against Mencken’s explicit instructions), his enemies took their revenge. Even those who knew better didn’t show much restraint. Writing about “Mencken’s dark side,” The Washington Post not only called him mean-spirited, but “a paternalistic racist.”The newspaper had only to read its own files to know better.And if it seems uncharitable to let the words a lonely old widower wrote in his diary outweigh his lifelong advocacy on behalf of African Americans — especially black writers — well, it seems that way to me, too.Perhaps out of guilt, the editor of those diaries, Charles A. Fecher, pointed out in the book’s introduction that Mencken last column was headlined “Equal Rights in Parks.” Appearing in the Baltimore Evening Sun on Nov. 9, 1948, two weeks before the stroke that would incapacitate him until his death seven years later, Mencken wrote with his familiar bluntness. “It is high time,” he wrote, “that all such relics of Ku Kluxry be wiped out in Maryland.”It was a fitting end to his career: Mencken had come full circle.The historical event that got me thinking about Mencken this week was the publication on this date in 1950 of “The God That Failed,” a powerful repudiation of the Soviet Union by six famous writers, all former members of the Communist Party. One of the two American essayists was Richard Wright, the foremost African American novelist of his generation. As he began a migration that would ultimately land him in France for the last 14 years of his life, Wright trekked from his native Mississippi to Memphis. From there, he went to Chicago, where he made his name and joined — and quit — the Communist Party, and then New York. It was while he was in Memphis, however, and only 19, that he encountered his first piece by H.L. Mencken.Immediately galvanized, he persuaded a nonplused but willing white man to lend him a library card, and forged a note requesting the librarian allow this boy to “have some books by H.L. Mencken.”To say that no white writer was approaching race relations — often called the “Negro question” in the press — the way Mencken was is to engage in bland understatement. “The white man,” Mencken wrote, “looks ridiculous even to me, a white man myself. To a Negro, he must be a hilarious spectacle, indeed. Why isn’t that spectacle better described? Let the Negro sculptors spit on their hands. What a chance!”You can see how young minds like Richard Wright’s were inspired by such words. But the Sage of Baltimore did more than inspire black writers — the “sculptors” in his metaphor. In his role as editor of the American Mercury, a literary magazine, Mencken personally encouraged them, edited them, and published them, a total of 54 articles by black writers, including W.E.B. Du Bois and future NAACP President Walter White, whom Mencken urged to write a novel.Twenty-five years ago, Johns Hopkins University Press published a fine exploration of Mencken’s influence on the Harlem Renaissance. The book was written by University of Arizona professor Charles W. Scruggs. I highly recommend it.Toward the end of his life, H. L. Mencken apparently came upon his own pre-written obituary in the files of the Baltimore Sun. To the relief of its author, Mencken deemed it sufficient before asking puckishly for one sentence to be added: “As he got older, he got worse.”It’s a funny line, but on the issue of race, it really wasn’t true, irrespective of his churlish and decidedly less witty private journal. The real Mencken was captured in a pithy observation he made in middle age, one in which he adopted his familiar pose as a misanthrope:Personally, I hate to have to think of any man as of a definite race, creed or color; so few men are really worth knowing that it seems a shameful waste to let an anthropoid prejudice stand in the way of free association with one who is.And there’s your quote of the week.Carl M. Cannon
Washington Bureau Chief
RealClearPolitics
Twitter: @CarlCannon

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POLITICO PLAYBOOK

POLITICO Playbook: Trump just made his most consequential decision as president

By JAKE SHERMAN and ANNA PALMER

01/03/2020 08:57 AM EST

Presented by The U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Protesters burn a U.S. flag during a demonstration over the U.S. airstrike in Iraq that killed Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, in Tehran, Iran, Jan. 3, 2020. — Protesters burn a U.S. flag during a demonstration over the U.S. airstrike in Iraq that killed Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, in Tehran, Iran, on Jan. 3. | Vahid Salemi/AP Photo

DRIVING THE DAY

THE U.S. HAS KILLED QASSEM SOLEIMANI, the mastermind of Iran’s strategy of asymmetric military and political conflict in the Middle East. Soleimani was meeting his Iraqi allies at the Baghdad airport, where his convoy was on the receiving end of American airstrikes of some kind.

TO STATE THE OBVIOUS, this is a hugely consequential decision by President DONALD TRUMP that could color the remainder of his presidency, shake up the 2020 campaign and reshape the Middle East for decades. It’s a big deal.

THE PENTAGON’S STATEMENT announcing responsibility lays out a legal and national security rationale that surely will be hotly debated in the coming hours and days: This was necessary to prevent imminent threats to Americans, and it was authorized because Soleimani headed a designated terrorist group.

“AT THE DIRECTION OF THE PRESIDENT, the U.S. military has taken decisive defensive action to protect U.S. personnel abroad by killing Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization,” the statement reads. “General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region.”

HERE’S HOW the NYT described the potential impact: “General Suleimani was the architect of nearly every significant operation by Iranian intelligence and military forces over the past two decades, and his death was a staggering blow for Iran at a time of sweeping geopolitical conflict.”

THERE IS NO DOUBT this is a massive gamble, as our colleagues Nahal Toosi, Daniel Lippman and Wesley Morgan lay out in this piece. Few are mourning the death of Soleimani, but many are wondering about what might come next. Will Iran seek to strike back at U.S. interests in the region or inside the homeland? Tehran is already vowing revenge.

AND, THE LARGER QUESTION for Washington that TRUMP and his administration will have to confront is this: What is the larger strategy? Administration officials told us this morning that the strategy is to get Iran back to the negotiating table through defensive actions.

— THE PRESIDENT this morning at 7:44 a.m.: “Iran never won a war, but never lost a negotiation!”

FURTHERMORE, Congress is already wondering why it was left in the dark — many members were told after the attack, and before the statement came out confirming his death. Does Congress need to consider a new Authorization for Use of Military Force, something it has talked a lot about but has been scared to do for more than a decade?

WHAT MIKE POMPEO IS SAYING: “WE DON’T SEEK WAR with Iran,” the secretary of State said on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends.” … POMPEO on CNN’s “New Day” said that SOLEIMANI was planning an imminent attack that could’ve killed dozens if not hundreds of lives. He said the threat was in the region, not the U.S. homeland.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-S.C.)on “Fox and Friends” on Iran: “THEY WILL NOT LET THIS go unanswered.”

— FWIW: Graham said he was briefed on the operation when he was in Florida recently.

WHO SOLEIMANI WAS, according to Ali Soufan’s analysis in West Point’s counterterrorism journal:“Although revered in his home country and feared on battlefields across the Middle East, Soleimani remains virtually unknown in the West. Yet to say that today’s Iran cannot be fully understood without first understanding Qassem Soleimani would be a considerable understatement. More than anyone else, Soleimani has been responsible for the creation of an arc of influence … extending from the Gulf of Oman through Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon to the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea.”

— THE NEW YORKER’S DEXTER FILKINS’ 2013 PROFILE: “The Shadow Commander”

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.

MEET THE NEW GUY: Iran has already named Soleimani’s replacement. According to the official Tasnim News Agency, it’s Gen. Esmail Qaani, who was tapped by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the new head of the elite Quds Force. Qaani, who was Soleimani’s deputy, has been described as lacking his former boss’ charisma but perhaps making up for it somewhat in hardened battlefield experience.

ADVICE WORTH TAKING: The U.S. Embassy in Iraq issued a revised “security alert” for Americans stuck in Baghdad or considering travel there. The guidance: “U.S. citizens should depart via airline while possible, and failing that, to other countries via land. … Do not travel to Iraq … Avoid the U.S. Embassy … Monitor local and international media for updates.”

— QUESTIONS ON THE LEFT … SEN. @ChrisMurphyCT: “Soleimani was an enemy of the United States. That’s not a question. The question is this – as reports suggest, did America just assassinate, without any congressional authorization, the second most powerful person in Iran, knowingly setting off a potential massive regional war?”

— JOE BIDEN: “No American will mourn Qassem Soleimani’s passing. He deserved to be brought to justice for his crimes against American troops and thousands of innocents throughout the region. He supported terror and sowed chaos. None of that negates the fact that this is a highly escalatory move in an already dangerous region. … President Trump just tossed a stick of dynamite into a tinderbox.” Full statement

— PRAISE ON THE RIGHT … @SenTomCotton: “Qassem Soleimani masterminded Iran’s reign of terror for decades, including the deaths of hundreds of Americans. Tonight, he got what he richly deserved, and all those American soldiers who died by his hand also got what they deserved: justice.”

— CONGRESSIONAL REAX, via NYT’s Catie Edmondson

Good Friday morning.

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THIS SEN. JOSH HAWLEY TWEET — in which he says he will introduce a motion to dismiss the impeachment charges against TRUMP — caught fire on Twitter on Thursday. Our sources tell us that moving legislation to dump the charges is not a realistic strategy at the moment — but it does show the potential perils of the hold-the-articles strategy. This wouldn’t pass at this point — it might not even make it to the floor — but in a few weeks if the articles don’t end up in the Senate, this could gain steam, our sources tell us.

NEW … FOR YOUR RADAR: Senate Majority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL and Senate Minority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER will both speak on the Senate floor today. The floor opens at noon, so expect it around then.

HMMM … “Why Democrats say they might not vote to convict Trump,” by Marianne LeVine and Burgess Everett: “Senate Democrats are expected to almost unanimously declare President Donald Trump guilty at the end of his impeachment trial. But senators across the party’s spectrum insist they haven’t made up their mind.

“It’s a bid to entice a handful of Senate Republicans to join their push for new documents and witnesses involved in the president’s Ukraine scandal, particularly those who have expressed dismay with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s vow to coordinate closely with the White House.

“It’s also a long-shot appeal to Trump, who maintains he’s done nothing wrong and had a ‘perfect’ call with Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky when he asked for a probe of former Vice President Joe Biden.

“Trump has said he wants to hear from his own array of witnesses in the trial. Democrats hope his efforts to clear himself translate to Republican senators agreeing to seek testimony from figures like acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and former national security adviser John Bolton.” POLITICO

PREVIEW … GABBY ORR on TRUMP’S event today in Miami: “Trump works to avoid evangelical defections in 2020”

NEW … JOE BIDEN is cycling three new ads into his $4 million Iowa ad buy. It’s a six-figure buy that will run in the Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Quad Cities and Sioux City media markets. The first ad is “Soul,” which reiterates Biden’s message that the fabric of American society will change if TRUMP has another four years in office. “Integrity” has testimonials from people about Biden’s character. They also have a 15-second spot, “Enough,” which has a Des Moines firefighter praising Biden.

MORE 2020 …

— WAPO’S JOSH DAWSEY and MICHELLE YE HEE LEE: “Trump and the RNC raised almost half a billion dollars last year — and still had nearly $200 million heading into 2020”

— THE BIG MONEY PICTURE: “Dems rocket into 2020 with huge donor windfall,” by Maggie Severns and Holly Otterbein

— “Klobuchar posts personal-best $11.4 million fundraising quarter,” by Elena Schneider

— BERNIE VS. JOE … WAPO’S BOB COSTA in Des Moines: “Ascendant Bernie Sanders turns his focus to Joe Biden as Iowa nears”

— TOM STEYER has hired Obama alum Jeff Berman as a senior strategic adviser. He will run delegate strategy.

— MARIANNE WILLIAMSON laid off her campaign staff, but said in a release that she’s not dropping out. “In the meantime, it’s amazing what you can do with volunteers,” she said. OK.

— UPDATE: In Thursday’s Playbook, we said Andrew Yang’s campaign raised $12.5 million in the fourth quarter. That figure is actually $16.5 million, according to a release from the campaign.

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.

SUNDAY SO FAR …

FOX“Fox News Sunday”: Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). Panel: Josh Holmes, Donna Edwards, Michael Anton and Mo Elleithee.
CBS“Face the Nation”: Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) … Ronna McDaniel … Tom Perez.
NBC“Meet the Press”: Panel: Kasie Hunt, Pat McCrory, Jeh Johnson and Betsy Woodruff Swan.
CNN“State of the Union”: Panel: Rick Santorum, Jen Psaki, Amanda Carpenter and Wajahat Ali.
CNN“Inside Politics”: Panel: Margaret Talev, Jonathan Martin, Abby Phillip, Dan Lamothe and Heather Caygle.
ABC“This Week”: Panel: Chris Christie, Matthew Dowd, Rahm Emanuel, Alexi McCammond and Julie Pace.
Gray TV“Full Court Press with Greta Van Susteren”: Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) … Christine Levinson.
Sinclair TV“America This Week with Eric Bolling”: Rudy Giuliani.

TRUMP’S FRIDAY — THE PRESIDENT will leave Mar-a-Lago at 3:30 p.m. Eastern for Miami Executive Airport, where he’ll land before heading to King Jesus International Ministry. At 5 p.m., he will speak there for the launch of the “Evangelicals for Trump Coalition.” At 6:15 p.m., he’ll head back to the airport to fly back to Mar-a-Lago.

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

Australia wildfires — **PHOTO DU JOUR:** Boats are pulled ashore as smoke and wildfires rage behind Lake Conjola in Australia, on Thursday, Jan. 2. | Robert Oerlemans via AP Photo

WSJ’S BRODY MULLINS: “When the Party’s Over: Washington’s Premier Social Connector Fades From View”

— JIM COURTOVICH posted this bit from the story on his Instagram feed: “Mr. Courtovich wasn’t accused of wrongdoing in these matters. And each time, he bounced back.”

RYAN HEATH: “Foreign diplomats brace for 4 more years of Trump”: “POLITICO spoke to more than a dozen European diplomats and State Department officials about the possibility of a second Trump term. And while none would go on the record, for fear of drawing White House ire, they were unanimous in their prediction that four more years of Trump would represent a notch up on the Richter scale, making the last few years of instability feel like a light tremor in comparison.” POLITICO

BECAUSE IT’S NEVER TOO EARLY … POLITICO MAGAZINE’S BILL SCHER: “Who’s Winning 2024?”

AUSTRALIAN INFERNO UPDATE … SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: “Extreme conditions threaten to push major fire fronts into more heavily populated parts of [New South Wales] on Saturday, including parts of outer Sydney, amid warnings that the bushfires could move ‘frighteningly quick’ due to high winds and soaring temperatures.

“With 11 deaths from the bushfires in NSW and Victoria since Monday, tens of thousands of people made a final attempt to flee devastated areas ahead of the worsening conditions on Saturday.” SMH

— CAPITAL WEATHER GANG: “Amid bush fire crisis, this weekend may bring Australia its most dangerous weather for blazes”

IMMIGRATION FILES — “U.S. Begins Returning Asylum Seekers at Arizona Border to Mexico,” by WSJ’s Michelle Hackman and Alicia Caldwell: “U.S. Customs and Border Protection for the first time Thursday began turning around migrants seeking asylum in Arizona and sending them to Nogales, Mexico, to await U.S. court hearings that they now will need to get to on their own.

“The move expands the controversial Migrant Protection Protocols or ‘Remain in Mexico’ program, which the U.S. adopted a year ago to deal with a surge of Central American migrants at the southern border. Immigrant and human-rights advocates have criticized the policy for effectively requiring migrants to live in dangerous Mexican border cities, often for months, where the U.S. warns its own citizens to avoid traveling.” WSJ

A message from The U.S. Chamber of Commerce:

The House voted for a bill that could eliminate over 700k American jobs. Learn more.

ICYMI — “Exclusive: Unredacted Ukraine Documents Reveal Extent of Pentagon’s Legal Concerns,” by Just Security’s Kate Brannen (a POLITICO alum): “Last month, a court ordered the government to release almost 300 pages of emails to the Center for Public Integrity in response to a FOIA lawsuit. It released a first batch on Dec. 12, and then a second installment on Dec. 20, including [OMB official Michael] Duffey’s email, but that document, along with several others, were partially or completely blacked out.

“Since then, Just Security has viewed unredacted copies of these emails, which begin in June and end in early October. Together, they tell the behind-the-scenes story of the defense and budget officials who had to carry out the president’s unexplained hold on military aid to Ukraine.

“The documents reveal growing concern from Pentagon officials that the hold would violate the Impoundment Control Act, which requires the executive branch to spend money as appropriated by Congress, and that the necessary steps to avoid this result weren’t being taken. Those steps would include notifying Congress that the funding was being held or shifted elsewhere, a step that was never taken. The emails also show that no rationale was ever given for why the hold was put in place or why it was eventually lifted.

“What is clear is that it all came down to the president and what he wanted; no one else appears to have supported his position.” Just Security

MEDIAWATCH — “BuzzFeed Edges Closer to Profitability After Tough Year,” by WSJ’s Lukas Alpert: “BuzzFeed has spent the past 12 months working to stabilize itself after a tumultuous start to 2019 in which it was forced to lay off 250 people after posting a loss the prior year that people familiar with the matter said was greater than $50 million.

“The onetime digital-media darling is edging closer to profitability thanks to staff cuts and efforts in recent years to generate new revenue streams, such as launching its own line of kitchenware and investing in a chain of stores selling quirky toys.” WSJ

— PAGE SIX’S EMILY SMITH: “Stephanie Ruhle has been promoted to senior business correspondent for NBC News and will appear across their flagship shows including ‘Today’ and ‘NBC Nightly News,’ Page Six has exclusively learned.” Page Six

— ABC’S @jonkarl: “This is a big deal — At this year’s @whca Dinner we will be awarding the new $25,000 Collier Prize for State Government Accountability to the best statehouse reporting. Deadline: January 31.” More

— Jessica Taylor is joining the Cook Political Report as Senate and governors editor, taking over the role from Jennifer Duffy. Taylor currently is a political reporter for NPR. Announcement … Renuka Rayasam is now a Texas policy and politics reporter for POLITICO. She previously was a health care reporter for POLITICO. … Jessica Meyers is joining Global Press Journal as news director. She previously was Asia correspondent for the L.A. Times, based in Beijing, and is a Boston Globe and POLITICO alum. …

… Manori Ravindran will be international editor at Variety, based in London. She previously was editor of Television Business International. Variety … Boris Kachka will be books editor at the L.A. Times. He currently is books editor at New York magazine.

TV TONIGHT — Bob Costa sits down with NYT’s Michael Crowley, PBS NewsHour’s Lisa Desjardins, WaPo’s Toluse Olorunnipa and USA Today’s Susan Page at 8 p.m. on PBS’ “Washington Week.”

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: Kellyanne Conway on a Southwest flight from Ft. Lauderdale to BWI on Thursday. Pic

TRANSITIONS — Lindsey Kolb is now director of digital engagement at DDC Public Affairs. She previously was digital director at the Education Department. … Ed Bedrosian will rejoin Orrick to lead its gaming regulatory practice. He is currently executive director of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission. … Martha Spieker is now press secretary for Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii). She was most recently press secretary for Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.).

ENGAGED — Chris Ortman, SVP and chief spokesperson at the Motion Picture Association, proposed to Tomoko Takai, an assistant producer for Warner Bros., at a family gathering in Denver on Christmas Eve. They met in college at Xavier University and reconnected in Los Angeles. Pic

— Scott Garfing, a lawyer at Covington and Burling, proposed to Danielle Paquette, WaPo’s West Africa bureau chief, in front of the Lincoln Memorial. They met at the Passenger in Shaw. Pic

WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Christian Robinson of the Specialty Equipment Market Association and Molly Robinson of Children’s National Hospital welcomed Lyle Pierce Robinson on Wednesday.

BIRTHWEEK (was Thursday): Fox Business Network’s Elizabeth MacDonald … Ben Sheffner (h/t Tim Burger) … Anna Lee, senior director of marketing for Morning Consult (h/t Olivia Petersen) … Alice M. Greenwald

BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Brad Parscale, campaign manager for the Trump reelect, is 44. A fun fact about him: “I have only gone on one job interview in my life, at Clarke American. They turned me down for not enough web experience. Because of that I started my own company.” Playbook Q&A

BIRTHDAYS: Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) is 46 … Rep. Marc Veasey (D-Texas) is 49 … Greta Thunberg is 17 … Daniel Fisher of the White House … WaPo’s David Fahrenthold (h/t Annie Lewis) … former Treasury Secretary W. Michael Blumenthal is 94 … “Chef” Geoff Tracy is 47 … Betty Rollin is 84 … Marcie Ridgway Kinzel … David Margolick is 68 … Noam Levey, national health care reporter for the L.A. Times’ D.C. bureau … Jenna Golden, founder and president of Golden Strategies … Thomas Walton-Cale … L.D. Platt, VP for external affairs communications at UnitedHealth Group … Neal Zuckerman of Boston Consulting Group … POLITICO’s Matt Woelfel and Maggie Chan …

… Al Cardenas, senior partner at Squire Patton Boggs … Tony Chauveaux … Richard Ben-Veniste is 77 … Erik Larson … POLITICO Europe’s Laura Kayali … BBC’s Justin Webb is 59 … Michele Soresi … Tim Rieser … Zach Gates of Rep. Ann Wagner’s (R-Mo.) office … Chris DeBosier, VP of federal government affairs for Verizon … NYT’s Marc Tracy … Melanie Garunay, director of content and creative for Elizabeth Warren’s campaign … Sarah Lenti … Carolyn Fiddler, communications director at Daily Kos … Joe Lenoff … Romina Boccia … Igor Volsky, founder and executive director of Guns Down America, is 34 … McKinsey’s Jonathan Spaner … James Hunter … Taylor Bolton

A message from The U.S. Chamber of Commerce:

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CBS

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Eye OpenerThe U.S. kills one of Iran’s top military leaders in a surprise drone strike on Iraqi soil. Also, Australia launches a massive evacuation by land, air and sea to save thousands of residents and tourists from the deadly wildfires. All that and all that matters in today’s Eye Opener. Your world in 90 seconds.Watch Video +

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Ex-CIA boss: “There will be dead Americans” after Iran general killedRead Story + Former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn may have escaped arrest in double bass caseRead Story +

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MANHATTAN INSTITUTE

January 3, 2020Featuring the latest analysis, commentary, and research from Manhattan Institute scholarsHIGHER EDPhoto: SARINYAPINNGAM/iStockTeam Trump’s Big Blow to the College Cartel“[The] Trump administration is trying to use market forces to restore a measure of bargaining power to consumers — and strike a blow against the cartel.”
By James Piereson, Naomi Schaefer Riley
New York Post
January 3, 2020
Photo: peterscode/iStockHow Social Justice Is Destroying Objectivity, Excellence, Due Process, Science — and Much More“Social-justice ideology is turning higher education into an engine of progressive political advocacy, according to a new report by the National Association of Scholars.”
By Heather Mac Donald
The College Fix
January 2, 2020
Adapted from City Journal
CULTURE & SOCIETYPhoto: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty ImagesAnti-Semitism TodayOn being Jewish in Paris and New York
By Guy Sorman
City Journal Online
January 2, 2020
IN MEMORIAMPhoto: Otto Herschan Collection/Hulton ArchiveThe Last Victorian SageGertrude Himmelfarb, 1922–2019
By Myron Magnet
City Journal Online
January 2, 2020
UNITED KINGDOMPhoto: Lindsey Parnaby – WPA Pool/Getty ImagesNo Final VictoriesMusings on the recent British elections
By Theodore Dalrymple
City Journal Online
January 2, 2020
PODCASTPhoto: Milan Marjanovic/iStockChild Welfare in CrisisNaomi Schaefer Riley joins City Journal editor Brian Anderson to discuss the state of the American child-welfare services, and describes and what some nonprofits are doing to improve foster care across the country.
CIVIL SOCIETY AWARDSNominations are open for the Manhattan Institute’s 2020 Civil Society Awards. This fall, four winners will each receive a $25,000 award for their efforts to keep our social fabric from fraying, assist those who need it most, and help people change the course of their lives. Nominate an outstanding nonprofit by March 20, 2020. Learn more at civilsocietyawards.com.SUBMIT A NOMINATIONSUPPORT MI Manhattan Institute’s Year-End President’s UpdateRead highlights of our scholars’ work in 2019 in our Year-End President’s Update.
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NATIONAL REVIEW

WITH JIM GERAGHTYJanuary 03 2020 Iran’s Indispensable Man Is DeadThis is one of those mornings where there’s just one big issue: Last night, the U.S. military killed Qasem Soleimani, the second-most powerful man in Iran — and the Middle East will probably never be quite the same.Qasem Soleimani Is Killed, and We Wake Up to a Different World This MorningThe good news is that after decades of abominable acts and wanton cruelty, the United States just surprised everyone by walking up to the biggest bully in the Middle East and punching him harder than he’s been punched in about forty years. The bad news is that the bully isn’t incapacitated and now has a chance to hit back.Yesterday morning, Qasem Soleimani was commander of the Quds Force, benefactor of Hezbollah and Hamas, the personification of Iranian foreign policy and support for terrorists, the architect of Iran’s ambitions for the entire Middle East, the hardliner among the hardliners, the force behind the killing of several hundred American military personnel, and one of the most important Iranians on earth — the country’s “indispensable man” as Andrew Exum put it … READ MORE

ADVERTISEMENT TRENDING ON NATIONAL REVIEW1. McConnell’s Supreme Court Tactics: Politics 1012. Will the EU’s Genetic Flaw Lead to Its Demise?3. The 15th Annual Better-Than ListTOP STORIESSCOTT CULLINANE AND RYAN MEILAKA New Year’s Resolution for the Transatlantic CommunityAmerica and Europe may have their differences, but they must stand firm against the threats from China and …NR PLUSTrump Just Avoided Making a Huge Mistake on VapingTake a long drag and get ready for the next battle. MONA CHARENGertrude Himmelfarb, Rest in PeaceShe argued that Victorian virtues were actually more democratic and more beneficial to the working classes than …NEWSBiden Scolds Trump for Recklessly Escalating Tensions with Iran by Killing SoleimaniBiden voiced fears the “administration has not demonstrated at any turn the discipline or long-term vision …ANDREW C. MCCARTHYThe Impeachment Article for Obstructing Congress Is FrivolousWe want our presidents to be elected democratically and to serve out their terms, with impeachment reserved for …JAY NORDLINGERThe problem with Made in China, &c.On the PRC, Iran, anti-Semitism, James Harden, Indiana, and …NEWSTrump Administration Expands ‘Remain in Mexico’ PolicyBorder Patrol has reported apprehending 33,000 migrants along the southern border in November 2019, down from …WHAT NR IS READINGThe Case for Nationalism: How It Made Us Powerful, United, and FreeBY RICHARD LOWRY“A fascinating, erudite—and much-needed—defense of a hallowed idea unfairly under current attack.” — Victor Davis HansonLEARN MOREPODCASTSEpisode 184: The Best and the Worst of 2019 Episode 279: Virtue Politics by James Hankins PHOTOSLondon Zoo Animal Count Top Shots VIDEOKim Jong Un Says US Must End Hostile Policy Against North Korea Netanyahu Kicks Off 2020 With Request For Immunity From Knesset NRPLUS ARTICLESBoris Johnson’s Victory and the Political Realignment Shaking Western Democracies This Will Be Our Year Getting All Your NR?National Review subscribers get the full National Review.SEE MY OPTIONSADVERTISEMENTFollow Us & Share 19 West 44th Street, Suite 1701, New York, NY, 10036, USA
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HOT AIR

Tucker Carlson on Soleimani strike: We appear to be lumbering towards a new Middle Eastern warAllahpundit#TEMS Special: Hollywood Year in Review with Christian TotoEd MorrisseyHot Air’s top 50 countdown in 2019: The Top Ten of 2019!Ed MorrisseyDamn right Trump ordered the Code Red, says Haley … and McGurk?Ed MorrisseyADVERTISEMENT Pompeo: We took out Soleimani to stop an “imminent attack”Ed MorrisseyNational tragedy: Marianne Williamson may be dropping outJazz ShawThe Worst Actions From Our Media Complex in 2019 Brad SlagerGamechanger: Quds Force supreme commander Qassem Soleimani reported dead in U.S. airstrike in IraqAllahpunditOn Her Majesty’s Secret Service is 50 years old and my favorite James Bond film John SextonHillary Clinton found a job: Chancellor of Queen’s University, BelfastKaren TownsendHot Air’s top 50 countdown in 2019: 11-20Ed MorrisseyJosh Hawley: I’ll introduce a resolution on Monday to dismiss the impeachment charges against TrumpAllahpunditThere was another anti-Semitic attack in New York on New Year’s DayJohn SextonDem rep: One reason to hold the articles of impeachment is in case new evidence against Trump comes outAllahpunditMason-Dixon: Trump’s more popular than most Dems in these “key swing states” Ed MorrisseyMcCabe apologized to FBI agents after changing his story on leakJohn SextonC’mon, AOC won’t be redistricted out of her House seat. Will she?AllahpunditToday’s hot #TEMS topics: New Year talk, NYC’s hate-crimes balk, impeachment gawk, Biden’s learn-to-code mock, and more!Ed MorrisseyElizabeth Warren doesn’t want to talk about Medicare for All anymoreJohn SextonIsraeli victim attorneys: Manhattan DA will refuse to charge hate crime over anti-Semitic subway attack; Exclusive update: DA office reconsidering?Ed MorrisseyDem Rep. Al Green: The genesis of impeachment was when Trump was running for office AllahpunditOxford historian on the 1619 Project: ‘A preposterous and one-dimensional reading’ of American historyJohn Sexton2020 is “the year of the perp” in New York City Jazz ShawTrump: US-China Phase One to be signed on Jan 15; China: …Ed MorrisseyJulian Castro: I’m outAllahpunditIraqi PM steams: Soleimani attack “flagrant violation” of US-Iraq operating agreement Ed Morrissey

LATEST HEADLINESDaily Mail Biden, Sanders hit Trump over Soleimani strikeThe Week Trump repeatedly predicted Obama would “attack Iran” to “get re-elected”Matthew Walther Marianne Williamson was on the side of the angelsNBC Pelosi says Trump carried out strike on Soleimani without authorization and she wants detailsJamie Ross “You, like Lindsey Graham, have never met a war you didn’t like”Fox News “Maybe Americans don’t all want to learn how to code”Amber Phillips Four ways the McConnell-Pelosi impasse over a Senate trial could endCNN U.S. military warns anyone who attempts to overrun Iraq embassy “will run into a buzz saw”Megan McArdle Has J.K. Rowling figured out a way to break our cancel culture?WaPo Bernie: Biden’s record is too “weak” to create the excitement needed to defeat TrumpWaPo Iran vows “crushing” response to Soleimani killingCNBC U.S. Embassy urges Americans to flee Iraq “immediately” following Soleimani killingYascha Mounk Which candidate would like to have a beer with you?Brigit Katz Is Notre-Dame too fragile to be saved?Lee Siegel Why is America so depressed?Damon Linker Four lies about America’s perpetual wars of choiceRonald Radosh Yes, Bernie could be the nominee — and it’d be an epic nightmare for DemocratsV.D. Hanson Why Trump will win again in 2020Olga Khazan Why opioids are “an everything problem”AP Iraqi state TV: Quds Force commander Soleimani killed in U.S. airstrikeADVERTISEMENT

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TWITCHY

‘We’re happy he’s dead’: ‘Dear Rose’ trends as both Iranians and Americans call Rose McGowan OUT for insane ‘Dear Iran’ tweet Read Story ‘Murphy is the same guy who…’: Ari Fleischer shares an example why Trump-triggered Dem senator is a ‘bloviator’ of the highest degree Read Story Worst. Apology. EVER: Rose McGowan tries backpedaling on her repugnant ‘Dear Iran’ tweet and only makes things WORSE
Read Story ‘CNN is intentionally LYING’: Imam of Peace corrects TF out of CNN and their reporting on who #Soleimani really was
Read Story ‘Sorry about your BFF’: Ilhan Omar gets all big and bad after Soleimani death claiming she’ll stop Trump and it goes SO wrong
Read Story ‘You do NOT apologize for ME’: Rose McGowan dragged like we’ve never seen dragged before for off-the-charts INSANE ‘Dear Iran’ tweet
Read Story PHOTO: Hustler magazine sent out a Christmas card featuring the assassination of President Trump Read Story ‘Shameless’: Sen. Chris Murphy did a FAST one-eighty on his criticism of Trump’s response to Iran aggression after reports Soleimani killed in airstrike Read Story Conservative blogger Jennifer Rubin’s tweet from Thursday afternoon has not aged well Read Story Journo compares shock value of Soleimani’s death to ‘taking out Lincoln, Washington and Captain America all in one’Read Story Never change: Washington Post notes death of Iran’s ‘revered military leader’ Qasem Soleimani Read Story Huge if true: Quds leader reported assassinated in US airstrike, Ben Rhodes hardest hit Read Story Woman arrested for attacking Jewish women in Brooklyn arrested for third time in a week Read Story Andrew McCabe apologizes for lying to agents investigating source of Wall Street Journal leak Read Story Hot take: Democrats should sue Trump after he’s acquitted to prevent him from rigging the election Read Story

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"The New Media is picking up where the Old Media has failed" - Andrew Breitbart

NEWS BRIEFING – JANUARY 3, 2020

The Morning Dispatch: Qassem Suleimani Is Dead

Will tensions with Iran grow hot?

Quick Hits: What You Need to Know

A Major Escalation With Iran

Who Was Qassem Suleimani?

What Precipitated This Move?

Tuesday’s Provocation Wasn’t Suleimani’s Only One

What’s Next?

From The Dispatch’s David French on the Constitutionality of the Strikes on Suleimani

Worth Your Time

Toeing the Company Line

1 big thing: America’s war footing

2. What to watch

3. Risk of world war

4. Smarter, faster: Who was Soleimani?

5. Dems on airstrike: “stick of dynamite”

6. Ride-sharing of the future

7. The dominant Democrat of the Trump era

8. Trump’s impeachment dividend

9. Apple bets big on top Hollywood talent

10. What is 1 last thing?

POLITICO Playbook: Trump just made his most consequential decision as president

DRIVING THE DAY

POLITICO Playbook newsletter

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