Good morning! Here is your news briefing for Friday October 4, 2019.

WASHINGTON FREE BEACON

Pelosi’s Impeachment Bank Shot By Matthew Continetti Constitutional Scholars: Warren’s Lobbying Tax May Violate Constitution By Yuichiro Kakutani Tlaib to Detroit Police Chief: Hire Only African American Analysts By Graham Piro GOP Slams Top Dem Governor for No-Bid Contract By Yuichiro Kakutani Beto Rips Buttigieg for Refusal to Support Gun Buybacks By Graham Piro Virginia Doctor Gets 40 Years for Prescribing Half a Million Opioid Pills By Charles Fain Lehman Once-Relevant Candidate Appears on Cover of Once-Relevant Magazine By Andrew Stiles Tlaib: Democrats Looking Into How to Arrest Trump Officials By Graham Piro Climate Activists Trying to Spray Building With Fake Blood Lose Control of Hose By David Rutz You are receiving this email because you opted in at our website. Copyright © 2019 Free Beacon, LLC, All rights reserved.  To reject freedom, click here. Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser.

THE DAILY SIGNAL

Oct 04, 2019

Happy Friday from Washington, which President Trump left behind to bolster Medicare at a Florida retirement community. Fred Lucas reports on that and, from his recent trip to Poland, the rise of a strong NATO ally. New York’s outlawing of the term “illegal alien” violates the Constitution, Hans von Spakovsky writes. He visits the podcast to talk about that and Democrats’ impeachment inquiry. Plus: Elizabeth Slattery and Mike Gonzalez on the worrisome court victory for Harvard’s admissions policy, and Victor Davis Hanson on getting wise to China’s goals. On this date in 1955, the Soviet Union launches Sputnik, the first artificial satellite. Have a great weekend.

	Commentary What’s Wrong With New York’s $250K Fines for Saying ‘Illegal Alien’ The propaganda, surveillance, and censorship of Big Brother in George Orwell’s novel “1984” has now arrived in New York. More News How a Former Warsaw Pact Nation Became an Example for NATO Allies NATO policy requires member nations to spend at least 2% of their gross domestic product on defense. Poland does that now, and plans to spend 2.5% by 2030. “This is the lesson we learned hard, that you really have to invest in your own security,” says the Polish ambassador to NATO. More Analysis The Whistleblower, Impeachment, and New York’s Orwellian Speech Policy “There’s nothing in [the Ukraine] phone call that indicates the president violated any federal law, and I don’t see anything in that letter that would warrant impeachment of the president,” says Hans von Spakovsky. More News Democrats’ Health Care Plan Would ‘Totally Obliterate Medicare,’ Trump Says Over the past two years, 1,200 more Medicare Advantage plans have been created, President Trump says, adding that premiums have plummeted by 28% and are at their lowest level in more than a decade. More News EPA Lowers Boom on San Francisco for Violations of Clean Water Act “There have been instances of sewage flowing in the streets and entering people’s homes,” Michael Stoker, head of EPA’s Region 9 district, wrote to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. More Commentary How China Finally ‘Woke’ America The domestic winners in the appeasement of communist China were the two American coasts—the New York financial industry, the Washington political lobbying nexus, Silicon Valley’s high-tech companies, and the coastal mega-research universities such as Harvard, Stanford, and Yale. More Commentary A Judge’s Wrongheaded Ruling Saves Harvard’s Non-Colorblind Admission Policy Harvard’s discriminatory program—which is hardly an outlier among Ivy League institutions—appears to be heading to the Supreme Court. More

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THE EPOCH TIMES

View this email in your browser “Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person.” ALBERT EINSTEIN Good morning,  John Durham, the special prosecutor examining the origins of the investigation of the Trump campaign, will be questioning former CIA Director John Brennan.  “I am supposedly going to be interviewed by Mr. Durham as part of this non-investigation,” Brennan said on MSNBC. Public statements made by Brennan before Congress and in the media have indicated he played a crucial role in the launch of the investigation.  Read the full article here   Apple Rejects App that Tracks Hong Kong Protesters and Police Federal Court Upholds FCC’s Rollback of Net Neutrality Regulations North Korea Says Underwater-Launched Missile Test Succeeded Police Officer Suspended for Turning Illegal Alien Over to ICE Will Return to Full Duty   The United States military aid to Ukraine was sent as scheduled, according to a spokesperson for the White House Office of Management and Budget, putting in context a key claim by an anonymous intelligence community whistleblower whose complaint was followed by a Democrat-led impeachment inquiry. Read more A teacher in Virginia fired for refusing to use masculine pronouns for a female high school student said to identify as male is suing the local school board for wrongful dismissal. Read more Two Chinese men have been detained for making online comments lamenting that the National Day military parade in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square wasn’t interesting to watch. Read more Two senators want to know why officials with the Federal Retirement Thrift Savings Board plan to invest nearly $50 billion saved by U.S. civilian and military government employees in a Wall Street index fund that includes Chinese firms known to be tools of Beijing’s communist regime. Read more The lawyer to Joseph Mifsud, one of the central figures of the 2016 Russia investigation, said his client had until recently lived in Italy, but that Mifsud went into hiding again after the release of the final report by special counsel Robert Mueller. Read more President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at improving and protecting Medicare with a focus on the nation’s seniors, as he criticized the health care platform touted by Democrats. Read more   See More Top Stories A Wicked Idea Came to China: Communism By James Gorrie This week marks the 70th anniversary of the Communist Party’s takeover of China. Befittingly, the Chinese Communist Party is observing this milestone in ways that are bereft of humanity, reflecting only the mob coarseness of the Communist Party. Read more The Party of ‘Impeach!’ By Larry Elder The Democrats’ purported outrage about President Donald Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky might be taken seriously by the Republicans were it not for the Democrats’ drive to oust Trump from the moment he won the presidency. Read more   See More Opinions Only in China: Companies Become Banks to Solve Financial Difficulties By Valentin Schmid (August 3, 2016) China is desperate to solve several problems it has due to its debt to GDP ratio being north of 300 percent. It may have found a pretty unconventional one by letting companies become banks… Read more At the 48th Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Council, we sat down with popular meme smith Carpe Donktum. We discuss how he started making memes, how he finds humor in politics, and why he took on the name Carpe Donktum. The Art of Political Meme-Making in the Age of Fake News Copyright © 2019 The Epoch Times, All rights reserved. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can unsubscribe from this list or remove my account.

THE FLIP SIDE

View this email in your browser Friday, October 4, 2019 Gun Control Forum “Democratic presidential candidates reiterated their call for gun control Wednesday in a forum hosted by MSNBC.” AP News, YouTube Also on Wednesday, former Vice President Joe Biden unveiled a gun control plan which would ban the manufacture and sale of assault weapons and high capacity magazines. Joe Biden From the Left The left supports stricter gun control laws, but is divided over how far to go. “The

[gun licensing]

process… takes about three weeks. Background checks take an average of 108 seconds. If someone is going through a suicidal episode or is a domestic abuser without a record, they could get a gun very quickly and harm themselves or others. With licensing, that person would be delayed and possibly deterred from getting a gun…

“When Connecticut established a licensing law in 1995, it was associated with a 40 percent drop in gun homicides and a 15 percent drop in gun suicides. Missouri had a licensing law for decades but repealed it in 2007. That change was associated with a 17 to 27 percent increase in gun homicides and a 16 percent increase in gun suicides. Background checks are supposed to stop bad people from getting guns, but they often don’t. Licensing picks up that slack.”
Madeline Marshall, Vox

At the MSNBC forum on Wednesday, “[Cory Booker] pointed out that in states with stronger gun laws, most of the firearms used in crimes come from states with much weaker laws. In 2017, half of guns traced by police in Boston had out-of-state origins… The same trend — or worse — has been found elsewhere, from Chicago to New York to Mexico… ‘We’ve created a system where you’re only as safe as the state near you with the least restrictive gun laws’… 

“The biggest divide at the forum came when Democrats discussed mandatory buyback programs… A mandatory buyback program in Australia, paired with a ban on automatic and semiautomatic rifles and shotguns, was linked to drops in homicides and suicides. But even if a mandatory buyback for assault weapons were implemented in the US, it’s not clear that it would do much to reduce gun violence. Shootings with rifles, including assault rifles, make up less than 3 percent of gun homicides in the US. More than 70 percent of gun homicides are instead carried out with handguns… Still, there is some evidence that restricting access to assault weapons might reduce the lethality of mass shootings. For now, though, Democrats are deeply divided on the issue.”
German Lopez, Vox

“Some Democrats—who for years had assured voters that no one wants to confiscate their weapons—worried that [Beto O’Rourke’s recent comments about mandatory buybacks] had gone too far… But according to some veterans of past legislative fights over background checks, unapologetic attempts to push the gun control envelope are exactly what is needed… ‘Nobody who ever got half a loaf asked for half a loaf’… ‘If we really wanted universal background checks, we’d be talking about an assault weapons ban. If we really wanted an assault weapons ban, we would be talking about a constitutional amendment.’”
Kara Voght, Mother Jones

“The White House and Congress have made clear that 40,000 deaths [from gun homicide and suicide] each year — roughly 100 fatal shootings every day — doesn’t strike them as a national emergency or something particularly worthy of their time… [But] 83 percent of adults support universal background checks. 72 percent of adults support ‘red flag’ laws. 72 percent of adults support gun licensing. 57 percent of adults support banning semi-automatic assault rifles…

“The cynical view on gun reform is that little progress has been made. But there is a real silver lining: The battle for the hearts and minds of voters has already been won… What’s stopping reform isn’t public will, it’s the politicians who stand in the way of reform.”
Emma González and Tyah-Amoy Roberts, NBC News

Critics note that “almost every candidate who spoke [at the forum] has promised some kind of executive action to bolster gun control… The popularity of executive action in both parties began growing years ago, analysts say, driven by a growing tension between voters demanding dramatic change and a Congress increasingly paralyzed by partisanship and polarization… Presidents often say they’re being forced to act because of Congress’s paralysis. As the Senate and House have become more polarized, they have struggled to enact major bills — prompting presidential edicts on issues such as immigration and health care. The result can be a whiplash, where each new president enacts sweeping policies only to have them abruptly reversed when the opposition takes over… 

“Many Democrats consider the Trump presidency a crisis that requires an emergency response, and they’ve been frustrated as the president uses his powers to do things such as transfer funds to build a U.S.-Mexico border barrier or enact rules aimed at weakening the Affordable Care Act… The Democrats’ policies would not amplify presidential power to the extent that Trump has sought to, but they do reflect a more president-centric approach to governing, a feature that’s become central to Trump’s tenure.”
Chelsea Janes, Washington Post

From the Right The right is critical of Biden’s plan and stricter gun control in general. “Biden wants to create a national gun registry. This is where he is sure to meet the most resistance, and rightly so. The reason is that no sane gun owner will want his or her name on a gun registry after listening to this year’s Democratic candidates on the trail… specific Democrats, Beto O’Rourke especially, have clarified and confirmed the real reason for creating such registries. A gun registry is the precursor to a mass gun confiscation. Gun owners are not paranoid for taking Democrats’ promises literally on this topic… Gun violence in the U.S. is a small and ever-diminishing problem, but the media give the opposite impression. Last year, according to the FBI, there were approximately 10,265 gun murders in the U.S., down 6% year over year.” Editorial Board, Washington Examiner “Biden is trying to have it both ways. By endorsing a plan that establishes a backdoor confiscatory regime for assault-style weapons without explicitly calling for such a regime, he risks alienating both gun-rights voters and Democrats for whom no gun safety measure is too extreme.” Noah Rothman, Commentary Magazine Dated But Relevant: “In 1995, the Canadian government passed Bill C-68, requiring Canadians to obtain a license to keep (or purchase) their firearms and then register each gun with the government. It took the Canadian government six years to implement the 1995 legislation with fewer than 2 million gun owners signing up for licenses as of 2001. Worse yet, the [Canadian police] later reported error rates of 43 to 90 percent in firearm applications and registry information… 4,438 stolen firearms were successfully reregistered without alerting authorities. Despite the promises of Allan Rock, then the justice minister, that the firearms program would cost only C$2 million, the cumulative total had ballooned to more than C$2.7 billion by 2012 — the year the registry was discontinued.” Vincent Harinam & Gary Mauser, National Review Biden’s plan also “contains provisions that would bankrupt gun manufacturers for the crime of selling fully functional, legal firearms. It would ban the sale of the most popular rifles in America and the standard-capacity magazines made for America’s most commonly used handguns… If a terrorist uses an SUV in a ramming attack or puts a bomb in a van, it’s not the automaker’s fault. Why should it be the gun-maker’s fault [if] an evil man uses a lawful product unlawfully?…  “Let’s be clear — what the Biden plan calls ‘weapons of war’ are not the weapons that our soldiers carry into combat. Instead, AR-style rifles are among the most popular civilian firearms in the United States. They are extraordinarily useful for self-defense, and they’re rarely used to commit crimes… the heart of the plan is a direct attack on the gun industry and on the inherent right to self-defense of America’s law-abiding citizens.” David French, National Review “Rifles play a small role in crime. Rifles, of which ARs are only a subset, were involved in 403 (2%) of the 15,129 murders committed in 2017, according to the FBI. They were used far less often than handguns (7,032) but also less often than knives (1,591) or blunt objects (467) or even hands and feet (692). ARs have, of course, been used in a number of high-profile attacks, but they are not the most common guns used in mass shootings, and some of the worst attacks we’ve seen have been perpetrated with handguns and shotguns, making it questionable at best that confiscating them would prevent mass shootings…  “[Furthermore] New Zealand is halfway through its gun confiscation effort, which is supported by nearly every politician in the country, and its government has seized under 20,000 firearms. That’s a compliance rate of just 10%, according to the New Zealand Herald. A similar compliance rate in the U.S. would leave more than 14 million ARs and AKs in circulation…  [And] It’s fanciful to think a country with [Americans’] ingrained commitment to guns would accept a confiscation scheme when New Zealand, a place where such a scheme was passed with near-unanimous support, is having trouble implementing it.” Stephen Gutowski, Washington Examiner Some point out that “The only reason that there was any discussion of an expanded background check bill standing a chance was that Trump was talking about approving it. Even then, background checks weren’t going to be an easy sell… And all of these Democrats who are meeting in Vegas are [now] left in the position of having to basically say, you’re a horrible person who needs to be impeached right now. And oh, by the way… would you mind supporting our gun control bill that’s going to enrage your base?… Asking him for a favor right after saying you’re going to try to throw him out of office might not turn out to have been the wisest strategy.” Jazz Shaw, Hot Air

On the bright side… Nine-year-old enters 5km race … and accidentally wins 10km [adult] event. The Guardian Our volunteer team spends hours each night scanning the news, fact-checking, and debating one another, so your 5 minutes each morning can be well spent. If you’ve found value in our work, we welcome you to help sustain our efforts and expand our reach. Any support you can provide is greatly appreciated!

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THE RESURGENT

The Resurgent’s Morning Briefing for October 4,2019 View this email in your browser Share Tweet Forward Good morning, Here is all the news conservatives need to know to start their day.  At 4pm ET, you can catch me on radio to bring you up to speed on developments throughout the day.  You can listen live here.   Apple is Helping the Communist Chinese Undermine Hong Kong Protestors Someone came up with an app in Hong Kong that lets people avoid protests, tear gas, and police activity. It got quite popular. Apple is now banning the app. Apple has been remarkably compliant with the communist Chinese regime and continues to do business in a country that operates actual concentration camps and actually persecutes […] The post Apple is Helping the Communist Chinese Undermine Hong Kong Protestors appeared first on The Resurgent.  Read in browser » Google steps in it again on privacy; kills own “good news” day with Ivanka Today was supposed to be a “good news” day for Google. The Internet behemoth has been plagued by ongoing allegations of infringing users’ privacy, turning a blind eye to obvious intellectual property rights violations, and alleged discrimination against conservatives. In an apparent effort to reset the narrative and appease the right, Google’s CEO joined Ivanka […] The post Google steps in it again on privacy; kills own “good news” day with Ivanka appeared first on The Resurgent.  Read in browser » Beto Stands Alone on Forced Gun Buybacks America’s favorite rad 40-something dude is the only Democratic candidate who supports forcing Americans to give up their “weapons of war.” The post Beto Stands Alone on Forced Gun Buybacks appeared first on The Resurgent.  Read in browser » Rashida Tlaib: Willing Dupe She never met a hate crime hoax she didn’t like. The post Rashida Tlaib: Willing Dupe appeared first on The Resurgent.  Read in browser » LIVE: The Erick Erickson Show The post LIVE: The Erick Erickson Show appeared first on The Resurgent.  Read in browser » A Burning Light In The Absence of Grace The burning flame of grace is a reminder to all of us that justice is only found in God. It burns all the brighter when we notice we’ve all been living in darkness for so long. The post A Burning Light In The Absence of Grace appeared first on The Resurgent.  Read in browser »   Recent Items: I Support the President Please Pray for the ERLC Today This Is How Trump Will Go NY Times Leaves Out KEY DETAIL About Adam Schiff’s Coordination With Whistleblower Remember, you can listen to the Erick Erickson Show anytime and anywhere via WSB Radio, iTunes, Stitcher, and Soundcloud. As always, you can find pretty much anything and everything I’m writing about throughout the day via The Resurgent. Thanks for reading and tuning in. Erick Erickson THE RESURGENT Facebook Twitter Instagram Copyright © 2019 The Resurgent Media Group, LLC, All rights reserved. unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences

THE WASHINGTON POST MORNING HEADLINES

Sign up for this newsletter Read online The morning’s most important stories, curated by Post editors.       Trump wanted Ukraine to launch probes before meeting with Zelensky, texts show The texts, which former special envoy Kurt Volker provided to investigators on Thursday, reveal that officials felt President Trump would not agree to meet with the Ukrainian president unless there was a promise to launch the investigations. By Karoun Demirjian, Rachael Bade, Josh Dawsey and John Hudson ● Read more » Trump publicly calls on China to open investigation into Bidens The president’s brazen request seemed to make a mockery of the charge that he abused his office by pressing Ukraine’s leader to examine unfounded allegations of corruption by the Bidens. By Philip Rucker, Rachael Bade and Colby Itkowitz ● Read more » Trump’s removal would need GOP dissidents. But those who speak out are targeted. The experience of Sen. Mitt Romney, who criticized the president’s interactions with Ukraine and was attacked with viral disinformation, serves as a case study. By Isaac Stanley-Becker ● Read more » IRS whistleblower is said to have reported concerns that Treasury appointee attempted to interfere in audit of Trump or Pence The IRS official who filed the complaint told The Post that he is alarmed by recent attacks on government whistleblowers. EXCLUSIVE ●  By Jeff Stein, Tom Hamburger and Josh Dawsey ● Read more » Hong Kong leader invokes colonial-era emergency powers to ban masks as protests swell The announcement has already provoked a fresh wave of anger on Hong Kong’s streets, and critics say it represents an erosion of the territory’s freedoms.  By Shibani Mahtani and Timothy McLaughlin ● Read more »   ADVERTISEMENT Radical climate change in Siberia leaves millions on unstable ground Russia’s “sleeping land” is among the fastest warming spots on Earth. And as its vast permafrost thaws, the farming and herding cultures that have long sustained the millions of people who live here are rapidly disappearing. 2°C: Beyond the Limit ●  By Anton Troianovski and Chris Mooney  ● Read more »   Opinions Trump is now publicly abusing his oath of office By Editorial Board ● Read more » ​​Democrats, stop criticizing John Durham and wait for the facts By Marc Thiessen ● Read more » The United States is missing in action in Libya By Josh Rogin ● Read more » ADVERTISEMENT Asian Americans are angry about racism. Reducing diversity isn’t the answer. By Jeannie Park ● Read more » Under Trump, the integrity of government research is in shambles By Preet Bharara and Christine Todd Whitman ● Read more » This might be the worst impeachment news of all for Trump By Karen Tumulty ● Read more » More News Rick Perry planning to step down as energy secretary by year’s end The former Texas governor, who has touted fossil fuels but also research into alternative energy,will likely return to the private sector. By Juliet Eilperin and Josh Dawsey ● Read more » Supreme Court term to begin with blockbuster question: Is it legal to fire someone for being gay or transgender? It’s among the most consequential issues facing the justices, with more than 70 friend-of-the-court briefs dividing states, religious orders and members of Congress. By Robert Barnes ● Read more » CNN won’t run two Trump campaign ads, citing ‘demonstrably false’ claims The network said that the ads disparage the network’s journalists, make “demonstrably false” claims and push unsubstantiated allegations of corruption against Joe Biden. By Hannah Knowles ● Read more » Why ‘Joker’ became one of the most divisive movies of the year The Joaquin Phoenix film about the Batman villain has faced blowback for its portrayal of violence. By Michael Cavna ● Read more » The story of Hunter Biden’s dealings in Ukraine Michael Kranish looks into Hunter Biden’s dealings in Ukraine. Julie Zauzmer rides along with two pastors working to revive shrinking churches. Plus, Jemar Tisby on the burden of forgiveness for black Americans. Post Reports | Listen Now ●  By The Washington Post ● Read more »     We think you’ll like this newsletter Check out By The Way for tips and guides that will help you travel better and make you feel like a local wherever you go. Delivered every Thursday. Sign up »

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POLITICO PLAYBOOK

POLITICO Playbook: The smoking texts

By ANNA PALMER and JAKE SHERMAN 

10/04/2019 05:50 AM EDT

Presented by

DRIVING THE DAY

HERE’S WHAT WE CAN SAY DEFINITIVELY: President DONALD TRUMP is bending the machinations of the U.S. government toward taking down JOE BIDEN. Senate and House Republicans are helping him by sticking by his side. That’s not an opinion; it’s a fact.

TRUMP’S ADMINISTRATION IS BROWBEATING U.S. ALLIES — Australia, Italy, Ukraine, the United Kingdom — to investigate the origins of the Mueller probe.

THE ONLY DIFFERENCE OF OPINION NOW is not over the facts, really. Republicans say there’s nothing to see here; it’s just Trump trying to root out corruption. And Democrats say his own words are evidence that the president is deeply unfit for office and deserves to be impeached.

EVIDENCE: A NUMBER OF STORIES dropped Thursday night that confirm this thesis, including a batch of text messages that look damning for the administration.

— WSJ: “Trump Ordered Ukraine Ambassador Removed After Complaints From Giuliani, Others,” by Rebecca Ballhaus, Mike Bender and Vivian Salama: “President Trump ordered the removal of the ambassador to Ukraine after months of complaints from allies outside the administration, including his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, that she was undermining him abroad and obstructing efforts to persuade Kyiv to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, according to people familiar with the matter.”

— NYT: “Trump Envoys Pushed Ukraine to Commit to Investigations,” by Ken Vogel and Mike Schmidt: “Two of President Trump’s top envoys to Ukraine drafted a statement for the country’s new president in August that would have committed Ukraine to pursuing investigations sought by Mr. Trump into his political rivals, three people briefed on the effort said.

“The drafting of the statement marks new evidence of how Mr. Trump’s fixation with Ukraine began driving senior diplomats to bend American foreign policy to the president’s political agenda in the weeks after the July 25 call between the two leaders.

“The statement was drafted by Gordon D. Sondland, the United States ambassador to the European Union, and Kurt D. Volker, then the State Department’s envoy to Ukraine, according to the three people who have been briefed on it.”

— NBC: “U.S. ambassadors pushed Ukraine to investigate as condition for White House visit, texts show,” by Josh Lederman: “‘Heard from White House – assuming President Z convinces trump he will investigate / ‘get to the bottom of what happened’ in 2016, we will nail down date for a visit to Washington,’ former U.S. special representative for Ukraine negotiations Kurt Volker wrote the top Zelenskiy aide on July 25, just before Trump spoke by phone to Zelenskiy. That phone call led a U.S. intelligence official to file a whistleblower complaint that set off a cascade of fast-moving events, ultimately leading to an impeachment inquiry into the president.” The texts between Sondland and Volker

SUCCESS … @JonahFisherBBC: “BREAKING: Ukraine’s current prosecutor general says his office is going to review up to 15 cases that involve Burisma – the company that Joe Biden’s son Hunter worked for.”

AND THEN THIS … CNN: “Trump raised Biden with Xi in June call housed in highly secure server,” by Kylie Atwood, Kevin Liptak, Pamela Brown, Jim Sciutto and Gloria Borger: “During a phone call with Xi on June 18, Trump raised Biden’s political prospects as well as those of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who by then had started rising in the polls, according to two people familiar with the discussion. In that call, Trump also told Xi he would remain quiet on Hong Kong protests as trade talks progressed.

“The White House record of that call was later stored in the highly secured electronic system used to house a now-infamous phone call with Ukraine’s President and which helped spark a whistleblower complaint that’s led Democrats to open an impeachment inquiry into Trump.”

— ALSO WILD: “In that call, Trump also told Xi he would remain quiet on Hong Kong protests as trade talks progressed.”

Good Friday morning. UGH … THE WASHINGTON NATIONALS lost 6-0 to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday night. They kept it close for much of the game, but couldn’t get anything going. This is their first loss in 10 games.

A message from Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women:

For more than 10 years, Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women has trained and empowered women entrepreneurs in developing economies around the world. We’ve also been committed to telling their stories.

IMPEACHMENT CLIP PACKET …

— STAKEOUT ALERT: Intelligence Community Inspector General MICHAEL ATKINSON is scheduled to testify this morning in closed session to House Intel.

— NEW: SCALISE STEPS UP … House Minority Whip STEVE SCALISE (R-La.) held a call with members of his whip team Thursday afternoon to discuss impeachment. He talked about what he considers an abuse of norms in the process. Rep. STEVE CHABOT (R-Ohio), who was a manager during the Bill Clinton impeachment, detailed what lawmakers could expect.

SCALISE will begin a series of briefings the week Congress comes back into session to discuss messaging and to get the GOP on the same page with strategy.

— House Minority Leader KEVIN MCCARTHY and other Republican leaders feel like they have a winning political argument in the impeachment procedure Speaker NANCY PELOSI is employing. GOP leadership sources tell us that they believe Pelosi’s decision to not hold a vote to start an impeachment proceeding — like other Congresses have — will play poorly for Dems on the campaign trail.

— THE DCCC IS WHACKING MCCARTHY, pointing out that many of the things he said in his “60 Minutes” interview are “wildly out of step with the American people.” Memo from the DCCC

— MEL ZANONA and BURGESS EVERETT: “Republicans prep formal rebuke of Schiff to defend Trump”: “House Republicans will force a vote to formally condemn Rep. Adam Schiff when they return from recess, their most aggressive offensive yet as the GOP fumbles for a strategy to beat back impeachment efforts.

“The largely symbolic move, which won’t get approved by the Democrat-controlled House, is backed by the House’s highest-ranking Republicans and some of President Donald Trump’s close allies on Capitol Hill: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.).

“‘We’re going to exercise the limited tools we have in the minority, and we’re going to fight to get the truth out and hold [Schiff] accountable for falsehoods,’ Scalise said in an interview.” POLITICO

— MIAMI HERALD: “Pelosi says impeachment ‘doesn’t need too much inquiry’ at Venezuela event in Florida,” by Bianca Padró Ocasio and Alex Daugherty: “About 300 miles south from where President Donald Trump was speaking with supporters in Central Florida, the Democratic leader who backed a process of impeachment in the House of Representatives last week said Thursday the congressional probe wouldn’t ‘need too much inquiry.’

“‘The president has confessed to his violation of his oath of office, and right there, there it is. So it doesn’t need too much inquiry,’ said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at a roundtable with local Venezuelan leaders in Weston. ‘But that’s up to the committee,’ she added.” Miami Herald

— MARC CAPUTO in Weston, Fla.: “Pelosi: ‘I’m very worried’ about whistleblower’s safety”: “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday she was ‘worried’ about the safety of the whistleblower who first reported that President Donald Trump tried to pressure Ukraine into investigating one of his Democratic rivals, Joe Biden. …

“‘What happened in China is just about as bad as what happened with Ukraine,’ Trump said. Pelosi said Trump essentially admitted to an impeachable crime. ‘The president has confessed to his violation of his oath of office,’ Pelosi told reporters when asked about Trump’s request that China also investigate the Bidens.

“‘Our founders were very suspicious of foreign interference in our government,’ Pelosi said, ‘and to ask a foreign government to assist in our election undermines the president’s oath of office and threatens the integrity of our electoral system and it is wrong.’” POLITICO

— TOWN HALL DISPATCH … L.A. TIMES’ JEN HABERKORN in Rhinebeck, N.Y.: “Peter Plavchan Sr. put on his red Make America Great Again hat Tuesday night and settled into the front row of a town hall meeting with his new congressional representative, Democrat Antonio Delgado, in the rural Hudson Valley.

“When his time came to speak, Plavchin didn’t hold back. ‘I can’t quite say you represent me,” he told Delgado in a packed room of about 100 people, citing the impeachment inquiry that both Delgado and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) formally supported last week. ‘I would like you to identify tonight the exact crimes that you think have been committed, the crime that caused you to [support] impeachment.’ But in a 70-minute meeting, that was the only time a constituent raised the issue.” LAT

LOTS OF WHISTLES BEING BLOWN … WAPO: “IRS whistleblower said to report Treasury political appointee might have tried to interfere in audit of Trump or Pence,” by Jeff Stein, Tom Hamburger and Josh Dawsey: “An Internal Revenue Service ­official has filed a whistleblower complaint reporting that he was told that at least one Treasury Department political appointee attempted to improperly interfere with the annual audit of the president’s or vice president’s tax returns, according to multiple people familiar with the document.

“Trump administration officials dismissed the whistleblower’s complaint as flimsy because it is based on conversations with other government officials. But congressional Democrats were alarmed by the complaint, now circulating on Capitol Hill, and flagged it in a federal court filing. They are also discussing whether to make it public.” WaPo

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POLITICO SCOOP … BEN LEFEBVRE and THEO MEYER: “Energy Secretary Rick Perry eyeing exit in November”: “Energy Secretary Rick Perry is expected to announce his resignation from the administration by the end of November, according to three people familiar with his plans.

“Perry, who had been Texas’ longest-serving governor before joining President Donald Trump’s Cabinet in 2017, has largely avoided the controversies that felled others in the administration. But his travels to Ukraine lately have embroiled him in the impeachment inquiry engulfing Trump and his inner circle, even though two of the people called the scandal unrelated to Perry’s departure, which they said he has been planning for several months.” POLITICO

RBG SPEAKS — BOSTON GLOBE: “Justice Ginsburg’s assessment of today’s political climate: ‘an aberration,’” by Laurie Loisel in Amherst: “Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg may be known for thoughtful, finely honed legal opinions, but when asked Thursday what historians will see when they look back on this period in US history, she offered up a terse, two-word answer.

“‘An aberration.’ Apart from the warm standing ovation that greeted Ginsburg when she took to the Amherst College stage, that was the only time during her talk that the capacity crowd of 1,600 broke into applause.” Boston Globe

VARIETY: “Dana Bash to Produce Political Drama Series ‘The Hill’ in Development at NBC”: “[T]he series is described as a character drama that lives at the supercharged intersection of media and Capitol Hill where everything is transacted: information, sex, love, fame and power. The series focuses on the people who make this world home.”

2020 WATCH …

— ALEX ISENSTADT: “Trump campaign to drop bomb on Biden in early voting states”: “President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign is preparing an avalanche of TV ads targeting Joe Biden in early primary states — its most aggressive step yet to meddle in the Democratic nomination contest.

“Starting this weekend, the reelection effort will air over $1 million in anti-Biden commercials in Iowa, South Carolina, New Hampshire and Nevada, according to two people familiar with the move. The spots focus on Trump’s claim that the former vice president and his son engaged in corruption in Ukraine.” POLITICO … The spot

— LACKLUSTER Q3 FOR BIDEN: “Biden raises $15 million during third quarter,” by Maggie Severns: “Joe Biden raised $15.2 million during the past three full months of his presidential bid, less than his rivals Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg and $7 million less than his own campaign raised during the previous fundraising quarter.”

— “Sanders’ heart procedure spotlights age of Democratic front-runners,” by David Siders

THE JUICE …

— JESSE LEE is returning to Pelosi’s office as senior adviser in her communications operation. Lee, who served as Pelosi’s new media adviser during her first speakership, most recently worked at the Center for American Progress. The hire comes as Pelosi’s communications team recalibrates to deal with the impeachment inquiry and need for increased message coordination.

A message from Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women:

Empowered women lift their entire communities, and we believe that creating opportunity leads to more opportunity.

TRUMP’S FRIDAY — The president will leave the White House at 10:30 a.m. for Walter Reed, where he will meet with wounded warriors. He will leave at 11:50 a.m. to return to the White House. At 4:30 p.m., he’ll deliver remarks at the Young Black Leadership Summit 2019 in the East Room.

SUNDAY SO FAR …

• FOX “Fox News Sunday”: Panel: Karl Rove, Julie Pace, Josh Holmes and Juan Williams. Power Player of the Week: Kennedy Center President Deborah Rutter.
• CNN “State of the Union”: Panel: Linda Chavez, Mitch Landrieu, Amanda Carpenter and Karen Finney.
• ABC “This Week”: Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) … Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). Panel: Matthew Dowd, Terry Moran, Yvette Simpson and Alice Stewart.
• CBS “Face the Nation”: Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) … Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) … Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) … Bob Woodward and Peter Baker. Panel: Ramesh Ponnuru, Susan Page, Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Jamelle Bouie.
• CNN “Inside Politics”: Julie Hirschfeld Davis, Jeff Zeleny, Seung Min Kim and Toluse Olorunnipa.

PLAYBOOK READS

CANADIAN TICK TOCK — “How the Trudeau campaign scrambled to sidestep political disaster,” by Reuters’ David Ljunggren in Ottawa

AP: “Hong Kong leader bans masks in hardening stance on protests”: “Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam banned protesters from wearing masks Friday in a hardening of the government’s stance on the territory’s most disruptive crisis since it reverted to Chinese rule in 1997.

“Lam announced the ban at an afternoon news conference where she decried a recent escalation of violence after four months of anti-government demonstrations.

“The mask ban, imposed under a colonial-era Emergency Ordinance, takes effect Saturday and applies to people at ‘illegal’ gatherings who use violence and exempts those who wear masks for ‘legitimate need.’ Lam said she would go to the legislature later to get legal backing for the rule.”

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VALLEY TALK — “Barr Pushes Facebook for Access to WhatsApp Messages,” by NYT’s Julian Barnes, Katie Benner and Mike Isaac: “The Justice Department has renewed its fight for access to encrypted communications, arguing that it is a vital crime-fighting tool even as technology companies and advocates have countered that it will threaten individual privacy.

“Attorney General William P. Barr took aim at Facebook’s plan to make WhatsApp and its other messaging services more secure, pressing its chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, to create a loophole to that goal of full encryption. The Justice Department said that investigators needed lawful access to encrypted communications to fight terrorism, organized crime and child pornography.

“‘Companies should not deliberately design their systems to preclude any form of access to content even for preventing or investigating the most serious crimes,’ Mr. Barr, joined by his British and Australian counterparts, wrote in a letter to Mr. Zuckerberg that was reviewed by The New York Times and dated Friday.” NYT

— “Mark Zuckerberg leaks his own meeting,” by The Verge’s Casey Newton

A message from Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women:

MEDIAWATCH — Juan Pérez Jr. will be a K-12 and higher education reporter at POLITICO Pro starting in November. He currently is a reporter covering education, government and politics at the Chicago Tribune.… Emily Atkinson was named executive producer of CNN’s “The Situation Room.” She previously was senior broadcast producer of the show.

— “Layoffs Hit HuffPost Video In 2nd Round Of Newsroom Cuts This Year,” by HuffPost’s Andy Campbell: “Among the cuts were five managers, video producers, camera operators, on-screen talent and several branded shows the department was working on. A company spokesperson released a statement, saying HuffPost was ‘realigning its video strategy.’”

— “Bob Woodward interviewed the ‘She Said’ authors at a book event. Things got tense. Then there was heckling,” by WaPo’s Lisa Bonos and Emily Yahr: “[A]bout 20 minutes in, things got awkward. As Woodward repeatedly interrupted the authors to ask questions or clarify facts, audible murmurs rippled through the crowd. Eventually, one attendee yelled, ‘You’re interrupting her!’ as many applauded in agreement.

“The audience grew increasingly frustrated, particularly when Woodward told Twohey and Kantor that they were ‘dodging’ his question about what might have motivated Weinstein’s alleged abuse. ‘STOP!’ several crowd members yelled at Woodward as he continued to press the topic. Some people heckled and hissed; others left early.”

PLAYBOOKERS

Send tips to Eli Okun and Garrett Ross at politicoplaybook@politico.com.

SPOTTED: Former acting ICE Director Thomas Homan on a flight from Denver to Charlotte on Wednesday, speaking on the phone before takeoff about the NYT article detailing Trump’s ideas for the border. … John Boehner sitting in a corner table at Trattoria Alberto on Thursday night.

OUT AND ABOUT — via Ryan Heath: Was it a metaphor for Brexit, or just a coincidence? German and British soft power faced off in Washington on Thursday night, via Germany’s national day celebration and the launch of The Spectator magazine … and this time Germany won narrowly.

Anyone who had anything to do with Germany — more than 2,000 in total — was at the German ambassador’s residence for what amounted to a kind of Disneyland for Germanophiles. A dozen food tents, tiered gardens, Bauhaus styling, and all the way down to a Berlin Wall step and repeat, and stalling Trabant car. Ambassador Emily Haber and Tom Brokaw were mobbed wherever they went across the residence’s palatial grounds; nostalgia for the glory days of the fall of the Berlin Wall was the theme. Guests danced until late to the tune of Max Impact, the top U.S. Air Force band, covering David Hasselhof, Guns N’ Roses and other ’80s tunes.

Over at Fathom Gallery near Logan Circle, The Spectator’s U.S. launch party (featuring a cover story on how America turned against Meghan Markle) was underway. Guests drank Lucien Albrecht Crémant d’Alsace wine and enjoyed duck bites and brie puffs.

SPOTTED: Andrew Neil (publisher, chairman and BBC icon), “Speccie” editor Freddy Gray, Tucker Carlson, Matt Kaminski, Tara Palmeri, Christina Hoff Sommers, Anne Applebaum, Danielle Frum, Janet Donovan, Jon Sopel, Christian Caryl, Hugo Gurdon, Toby Harnden, Alexandra Phillips MEP, Josef Palermo, Jamie Kirchick, Neil Grace, Nikki Schwab, Raheem Kassam, Josh Glancy, Grover Norquist, John Hudson, Jacob Heilbrunn, Danielle Crittenden, John Fund, Meridith McGraw, Aidan Barclay, Andrew Ferguson, Chris Caldwell, James Hohmann and Emily Purser.

— SPOTTED at the grand opening of the Hudson Institute’s new office space on Pennsylvania Avenue on Thursday night: USTR Robert Lighthizer, Tom Donohue, Ken Weinstein, H.P. Goldfield, Kimberly Reed, John Walters, Arjun Mody, Frederick Hill, Ann Marie Hauser, Brianna Manzelli, John Fund, Andrew Ferguson, Jeff Werner, Russell Pennoyer, Wally Stern, Sarah Stern, Margaret Whitehead and Joel Scanlon.

TRANSITIONS — Phil Bongiorno will be VP of policy and government relations for the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy. He previously was executive director of the Home Care Association of America. … Samantha Osborne is now director of national sales at Scripps. She previously was senior director of strategy at Advoc8. … Raffi Williams is now a spokesman at the Federal Housing Finance Agency. He previously was a deputy assistant secretary at HUD.

BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Steve Capus, senior adviser and strategist at the U.S. Agency for Global Media. A trend he thinks doesn’t get enough attention: “The conventional wisdom is that younger people are not interested in ‘the news.’ But I find younger generations fully engaged and focused, especially on issues that shape their lives and world. Environmental concerns seem to be front and center. The wired, connected world has brought people together to keep close watch on pressing issues, including: diminishing polar ice shelves to Hong Kong’s protests to presidential primary battlegrounds.” Playbook Q&A

BIRTHDAYS: Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) is 38 … Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-Mass.) is 39 … Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.) is 33 … Katie Waldman and Katie Purucker of VP Mike Pence’s office … Norm Pearlstine, executive editor of the L.A. Times, is 77 … former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is 73 … retired Navy Adm. Mike Mullen is 73 … Brynne Craig, campaign manager of Beyond Carbon (hat tip: Team GSD) … Mirian Saez (h/ts Teresa Vilmain) … Sonya McNair … Todd Malan … AP’s Holly Ramer … Patrick Wilson … Kelsi Daniell, comms director for Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) … Annie Osborne … Santina Leuci … Dana Mayber … Bill Gray of Issue One … Rob Shapiro … Sean Hackbarth of the U.S. Chamber … Wes McClelland … Scott J. Frein … Miles Halpine of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate … Charlotte Clay …

… Pervaiz Shallwani, senior editor and writer at The Daily Beast … Edelman’s Trisha Pascale … Tim Sparapani is 45 … J Strategies’ Francisca Cruz (h/t Adam Morey) … Chris Walton … Pete Davis is 3-0 … Eliza Adelson … Bridget Reed Morawski, reporter at S&P Global Market … Rachel Berman … Nick Binzoni … Liz Wolgemuth of the Senate HELP Committee … BBC’s Kasia Madera … Elizabeth Bonner … Ronald Tschetter … Will von Meister … Matt Roberts … Margaret Hillmann … Julianna Rennie … Dane Waters … Douglas McCain … Ryan Donmoyer … Maria Carrillo … Paul Seymour … Kristen Askin … Ted Miller … Drew Willison … Phyllis Graham

A message from Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women:

“When a woman is empowered, the truth is she doesn’t think of herself first. She thinks of the person next door, she thinks of her family, she puts everybody before herself. And you can imagine if everybody had that mindset… you can just imagine what the world would be like.” — Ayodeji Megbope, 10,000 Women graduate

10,000 Women graduates are growing and leading their businesses all over the globe—and creating a ripple effect of impact in the communities around them. The 10,000 Women program provides women entrepreneurs a business education, access to capital, a peer network, and the tools they need to strengthen their small businesses. And now, the business education course is accessible for free, online, through our partnership with Coursera.

• Anna Palmer @apalmerdc
• Jake Sherman @JakeSherman

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

View In Browser October 4, 2019 chicagotribune.com Daywatch 1.) The Museum of Science and Industry is getting a new name after Chicago billionaire Ken Griffin donates $125 million FRIDAY, OCT 4 The Museum of Science and Industry will rename itself after Chicago philanthropist Ken Griffin, who is making the largest donation in the institution’s history, the museum announced.The sprawling science, tech and business museum on the city’s South Side will become the Kenneth C. Griffin Museum of Science and Industry after the museum’s board voted to accept Griffin’s $125 million donation and the name change Thursday morning. It’s a major change in the Chicago cultural landscape, prompted by one of the largest cash donations ever to a local cultural institution. Ken Griffin, founder of the hedge fund Citadel, has been one of the most prominent and active donors to cultural and educational organizations through his Kenneth C. Griffin Charitable Fund, with giving that now totals over $1 billion. Editorial: Ken Griffin gets his name on the door for a generous gift. All of which is good for Chicago. Chicago is upset about the name change. Here are our favorite reactions 11 big recent cultural gifts, by Ken Griffin and others in Chicago 2.) Jury convicts Dwright Doty of acting as gunman in 2015 gang revenge slaying of 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee FRIDAY, OCT 4 After a long day of impassioned closing arguments, a jury convicted Dwright Doty of acting as the gunman in the revenge killing of fourth-grader Tyshawn Lee in broad daylight on an unseasonably warm afternoon in November 2015, a crime that shocked a city hardened by seemingly unending gang violence. Just minutes before, a separate jury deciding the fate of co-defendant Corey Morgan was sequestered for the night after deliberating for more than six hours without reaching a verdict. It will resume deliberations Friday morning.   3.) It’s no small feat to travel with 208 people and a ton of Gatorade. Here’s how the Bears will get it all from Chicago to London. FRIDAY, OCT 4 It’s tough to coordinate a transatlantic flight with 208 people. NFL teams are accustomed to travel, but the Bears’ 7-plus-hour trip to London tonight presents unique circumstances.“There are so many things … What do you do when you get there? How does your mind react to the sleep, no sleep?” coach Matt Nagy said. Team officials have worked for months to prepare everything from the stadium locker room to the hotel breakfast. Not to mention transporting all the heavy equipment and food — and Gatorade — the players need for their stay. Here’s how the Bears will get their people and equipment to England.  4.) 2020 FAFSA questions: Do I need to register for the draft?FRIDAY, OCT 4The 2020 Free Application for Federal Student Aid is available now. The FAFSA is your first step toward pursuing federal aid programs such as Pell grants, work-study and student loans. It also is commonly used to qualify students for state and institutional financial aid dollars to help pay for college. Filling out the form can be a challenge. The Tribune created a guide with advice from local experts to help you get through it. The 2020 FAFSA is out: Here’s what you need to know about applying for college financial aid   5.) Uniform testing of CBD products could be coming to Illinois. Here’s why that matters. FRIDAY, OCT 4 The CBD products that populate shelves at Walgreens, gas stations and other retailers in Illinois could be subject to lab testing under a bill introduced in the Illinois legislature.The bill, from Rep. Bob Morgan, D-Deerfield, would require all CBD products sold in the state to meet testing requirements that would be developed by the Illinois Department of Agriculture. This legislation would give the Department of Agriculture the ability to step in to make sure we are selling products that are safe for people to use,” Morgan said. Number sickened by vaping illness surpasses 1,000, CDC says Mayo Clinic researchers link vaping illnesses to toxic inhalation — akin to breathing industrial fumes — after first-ever biopsy exams 6.) ‘Joker’ review: Joaquin Phoenix creates an interior world of pain. His movie is a pain, period. FRIDAY, OCT 4 “A grim party trick, performed by a clown on the edge of bloody psychosis,” writes Tribune critic Michael Phillips in his review of the highly anticipated film “Joker.”’The Laundromat’ review: Meryl Streep gets hoodwinked out of insurance money by Antonio Banderas, Gary Oldman   7.) Sunday morning brunch is the new Saturday night out FRIDAY, OCT 4 Sunday brunch in Chicago has evolved into a lively, boozy scene that serves as an extension of — and even a substitute for — Saturday nightlife. What was once a staid, relaxed brunch culture dominated by big-scale buffets, traditional menus and families has transformed into a highly informal meal-service period dominated by young singles, varied menus and bottomless mimosas. It makes sense. At brunch, one can hang with friends, drink for hours and still be home by 5 p.m.First Look: Try street food from around the world at new Andersonville restaurantReview: Rooh’s progressive Indian cooking embraces tradition while defying it Rick Bayless to debut Tortazo restaurant in Willis Tower food hall 8.) Column: Trump fights off impeachment by flexing his stupidity muscle: The Week in Review FRIDAY, OCT 4 This week was quite a month. As the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump grew increasingly bonkers, the president’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, did the opposite of helping by running around to cable news shows like a rabid badger on PCP. It all left columnist Rex Huppke so, so tired and once again wondering: “What the (BLEEP) just happened?” advertisement Unsubscribe   |   Newsletters   |   Privacy Policy   |   Terms of ServiceCopyright © 2019 | Chicago Tribune | 160 N. Stetson Ave., Third Floor, Chicago, IL 60601ABOUT THIS EMAIL You received this email because you are following the Daywatch newsletter.

AXIOS

Axios AM

By Mike Allen

🌅 Happy Friday!

• To help Axios better serve you, please take this short survey to tell us a little about yourself — it should take less than 5 minutes.

1 big thing: Trump’s red wall

Every time President Trump seems to tempt fate — like inviting China on-camera yesterday to investigate the Bidens — remember that he’s counting on a red wall in the Senate to save him even if he’s impeached, Axios’ David Nather and Jim VandeHei write.

This visual shows just how strong that wall is: 51 Republican senators from states Trump won in 2016.

• Why it matters: He only needs 34 to save him from being convicted and removed from office if the House impeaches him.
• So if Mitt Romney or Ben Sasse feel like voting to convict, they can and it wouldn’t make a difference.
• The red wall doesn’t include Susan Collins or Cory Gardner, the two Republican senators from states that voted for Hillary Clinton (Maine and Colorado). Both are up for re-election next year.
• They could vote to convict too, and it still wouldn’t matter.

Remember that impeachment, which only takes a majority vote in the House, doesn’t end Trump’s presidency.

• That only happens if two-thirds of the Senate votes to convict and remove him — 67 senators if they all show up.
• The catch: The wall gets weaker if you factor in Trump’s approval ratings. They’re negative in some of the states he won in 2016.
• But even if all of those senators jumped ship — which is a stretch — he’d still have more than enough votes to block conviction.
• That would only change if he started to lose senators from states where he’s still popular, too.

By the numbers:

• 36 Republican senators represent Trump states where he’s still popular. 15 of them are up for re-election.
• 15 Republican senators represent Trump states where his approval ratings are underwater, but only 4 of them are up for re-election.
• Trump could lose 17 senators from his red wall — or 19 Republicans if Collins and Gardner were in the mix — and still stay in office.

The bottom line: Trump believes the combination of right-wing media backing, plus GOP senators’ fear of crossing Trump voters will save him.

• Right now, there are few noticeable cracks in this wall.

Share this graphic.

2. Trump’s impeach-me strategy

President Trump answers questions on the South Lawn yesterday. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images

President Trump is going all in: He declared he has the “absolute right” to call for foreign nations to investigate political rivals — and he plans to ask Democrats to vote on starting impeachment or get stonewalled. 

• Trump said on the South Lawn yesterday: “China should start an investigation into the Bidens, because what happened in China is just about as bad as what happened with Ukraine.”
• As Axios first reported, the White House plans to send Pelosi a letter as soon as today that dares her to hold a vote on an impeachment inquiry rather than simply declaring it. Trump wants to force votes by vulnerable House Dems.

Why it matters: It now seems increasingly inevitable the House will impeach Trump. Think about it this way: Imagine a Democrat who called for impeachment before the China comment voting against impeachment after it. 

Image via documents released by House Democrats

⚡ Some of the day’s most explosive news broke at 10:30 p.m.:

• Three House committees released dozens of texts between U.S. diplomats in Ukraine discussing how to handle a response to Trump’s demands that the country launch an investigation into Joe Biden’s family.
• In one text exchange, former Ukrainian envoy Kurt Volker and EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland discussed a draft statement in which the Ukraine government would announce an investigation into the 2016 U.S. election and into a company whose board Biden’s son served on. (AP)

🎵 And now there’s Whistleblower II … WashPost front page: An IRS official “filed a whistleblower complaint reporting that he was told that at least one Treasury Department political appointee attempted to improperly interfere with the annual audit of the president’s or vice president’s tax returns.”

3. New overnight: Hundreds of accused priests get no oversight

Nearly 1,700 priests and other clergy members that the Roman Catholic Church considers credibly accused of child sexual abuse are living under the radar with little to no oversight from religious authorities or law enforcement, an Associated Press investigation by Claudia Lauer and Meghan Hoyer has found.

• These priests, deacons, monks and lay people now teach middle-school math. They counsel survivors of sexual assault.
• They work as nurses and volunteer at nonprofits aimed at helping at-risk kids. They live next to playgrounds and day care centers.
• They foster and care for children.

Keep reading.

4. A warning of nuclear war over Kashmir

India and Pakistan are sliding toward potential nuclear war, according to the president of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, writes Axios World editor Dave Lawler.

• The warning comes as Pakistan attempts to rally global outrage against its neighbor and rival after India revoked the constitutional autonomy of the state it controls within the disputed territory in August, instituting a lockdown and communications blackout.

The big picture: Pakistan is attempting to focus the eyes of the world on Kashmir in part by framing it not just as a human rights issue, but also a global security threat, Michael Kugelman of the Wilson Center tells Axios.

• International criticism of India so far has been focused on the lockdown rather than the constitutional change, and hasn’t come with pressure for negotiations on Kashmir’s long-term status.
• And President Trump effectively gave a green light to India’s crackdown at a rally in Houston on last month when he praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s efforts on “border security.”

5. Computers increasingly call the shots in financial markets

Courtesy The Economist

“Funds run by computers that follow rules set by humans account for 35% of America’s stock market, 60% of institutional equity assets and 60% of trading activity,” The Economist writes in its cover story.

• What’s new: “New artificial-intelligence programs are also writing their own investing rules, in ways their human masters only partly understand.”
• Why it matters: “Industries from pizza-delivery to Hollywood are being changed by technology, but finance is unique because it can exert voting power over firms, redistribute wealth and cause mayhem in the economy.”

6. Political ads become 2020 flashpoint

Tech giants, TV networks, and even transit companies are all struggling to figure out how to manage political ads ahead of the 2020 election, Axios media trends expert Sara Fischer reports.

• Why it matters: Absent strict government regulation of political ads across all media, the decision over how to manage those ads is left to companies.
• And while most firms have faced this dilemma for years, the hyper-political environment leading up to 2020 is shining a stronger spotlight on their decisions.

TikTok, the Chinese-owned viral karaoke app, said Thursday that it would ban political ads because they don’t fit the company’s goal of creating an “entertaining, genuine experience” for users.

• That position is unusual compared to its Big Tech competitors in the U.S.
• Political ad experts expect well over $1 billion to be spent on digital ads alone this campaign cycle. So far, presidential campaigns have spent more than $60 million on Google and Facebook this year. About $1.2 million has been spent on political ads on Snapchat since last June.

It’s not just Big Tech that’s grappling with these decisions.

• CNN refused to air two Trump campaign ads that push misleading claims and suggest the network’s anchors are the Democrats’ “media lapdogs,” The Daily Beast reported.

7. Sneak peek: Stephen Miller’s secret think tank

Cover: Simon & Schuster

Stephen Miller “was running a sort of secret immigration think tank out of the West Wing,” the N.Y. Times’ Julie Davis and Mike Shear report in “Border Wars: Inside Trump’s Assault on Immigration,” out Tuesday:

The group, which usually met on Fridays, was part of a quiet but methodical effort, … to seize control of the machinery of government and use it to make good on the president’s immigration agenda … Miller moved his task force’s meetings to his small office on the top floor of the West Wing, jamming fifteen or twenty people around a conference table …

They scribbled their plans on large white flip charts, and the list of what they had to do grew longer and longer. They discussed overhauling the way the United States admits skilled workers, revamping ICE’s enforcement priorities and strategies for enhancing visa security. One early assignment from Miller was for the group to scour the immigration statutes and look for grounds of in-admissibility that were not being enforced.

Another target was an old but ill-defined standard that said the country did not have to admit anyone who was likely to become dependent on the government for survival. That one would ultimately become an obsession for Miller.

Preorder here.

8. Pompeo’s view on IG envelope

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets with Pope Francis at the Vatican yesterday. Photo: Vatican Media via Reuters

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo never promised Rudy Giuliani he’d investigate the contents of an envelope that the State Department’s inspector general delivered to Congress on Wednesday — or anything related to Ukraine — a source with knowledge of Pompeo’s discussions tells Axios.

• The only Ukrainian project Pompeo oversaw was ex-envoy Kurk Volker’s work to reduce corruption and fight Russian aggression, the source says.

9. 🎓 New Varsity Blues outrage

“Some parents who have pleaded guilty in the admissions fraud case are turning to consultants and doctors in an effort to secure lenient sentences.” (N.Y. Times)

10. 1 family thing

“Matt Lieberman, an entrepreneur who is the son of former U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, became the first Democrat to enter the race for retiring Republican Johnny Isakson’s seat,” The Atlanta Journal Constitution’s Greg Bluestein reports.

• A political newcomer who’s been in Georgia for 15 years, Lieberman said he expects his father, 77, to serve as an informal adviser.

📱 Thanks for reading Axios AM. Please invite your friends to sign up here.

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 up-early co-creators. Find us @asimendinger and @alweaver22 on Twitter and CLICK HERE to subscribe!

President Trump escalated his complaints about former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden on Thursday and called on Ukraine and China to investigate them despite growing concerns about the president pushing a foreign power to investigate a political foe. “I would think that if they were honest about it they’d start a major investigation into the Bidens,” Trump told reporters at the White House when asked what he wanted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to do about the Bidens following the July 25 call between the two leaders. “I would say that President Zelensky, if it were me, I would recommend they start an investigation into the Bidens. Because nobody doubts they weren’t crooked.” “China should start an investigation into the Bidens,” Trump said before leaving for Florida, echoing unsubstantiated allegations that the Bidens engaged in corrupt behavior (The Hill). House investigators teed off on the president’s remarks, with House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) saying that Trump broke his oath of office by asking the Chinese to open a probe into Biden (Reuters).  The president’s comments came as the fight continues to escalate between his administration and Democrats on Capitol Hill. House Democrats took their latest step on Thursday by bringing Kurt Volker, the former U.S. special envoy for Ukraine, before the committees leading the impeachment inquiry into the president.  According to The Washington Post, Volker told congressional investigators during hours of voluntary testimony that he warned Rudy Giuliani, the president’s lawyer, that the former New York City mayor was “receiving untrustworthy information from Ukrainian political figures” about the Bidens, citing two people familiar with his testimony. Among those providing information to Giuliani was Yuri Lutsenko, Ukraine’s former top prosecutor, who Volker argued was an unreliable source.  Volker also reportedly handed off encrypted text messages he exchanged between two U.S. diplomats regarding U.S. military aid the president wanted to see withheld from Ukraine, a decision Bill Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat to Ukraine, called “crazy.” Late Thursday night, House investigators released those messages, plus others that paint a troubling picture for the administration (ABC News). In the Sept. 9 exchange, Taylor expresses concerns to Gordon Sondland, the United States Ambassador to the European Union, who tells Taylor that the charge is “incorrect.” “I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign,” Taylor said.  “Bill, I believe you are incorrect about President Trump’s intentions. The president has been crystal clear no quid pro quo’s of any kind,” Sondland wrote. In other texts, officials believed that the president would not meet with Zelensky unless the new Ukrainian leader publicly launched investigations. “heard from White House — assuming President Z convinces trump he will investigate / ‘get to the bottom of what happened’ in 2016, we will nail down date for visit to Washington,” Volker texted Andrey Yermak, Zelensky’s aide, on July 25, hours before the Trump phone call, which was released last week as a White House transcript (The Washington Post). The Wall Street Journal: Trump ordered Ukraine ambassador removed after complaints from Giuliani, others. Reuters: Biden campaign: Trump is “melting down” with request to Ukraine, China to investigate the former vice president and his son. Niall Stanage: Trump’s rage may backfire on impeachment. Meanwhile, Giuliani told NBC News that he gave Secretary of State Mike Pompeo a trove of unverified documents alleging impropriety by the former vice president, which the State Department said it would investigate. The documents were handed over to the State Department’s inspector general, who included them in a 79-page packet to lawmakers on Wednesday.  With Volker’s testimony completed, House investigators shift their focus today. The House Intelligence Committee will hear from Michael Atkinson, the intelligence community’s inspector general, who will testify behind closed doors about a whistleblower complaint filed in August and a delay in the administration’s release to Congress. Also today, the State Department is expected to officially respond to a subpoena from the key House committees for documents. Pompeo early this week set the stage for executive branch resistance or perhaps negotiations.   The president says he continues to take heart with support from Republicans as the impeachment drama continues. Vice President Pence came to his aid on Thursday while traveling in Arizona, saying that the situation involving the Bidens is “worth looking into,” dodging a question about whether the president’s call for foreign nations to investigate the former vice president was appropriate.  Trump also continues to benefit from support among Senate Republicans, who would play central roles if articles of impeachment are voted out of the House and come up for trial in the upper chamber. As Alexander Bolton writes, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is signaling that he’s prepared to dispose quickly of articles of impeachment against Trump, if approved by the House, and that any trial convened by the Senate would differ from the 1999 impeachment trial and acquittal of former President Clinton. Democrats would need to sway 20 Republicans in order to convict the president, a mountain likely too steep heading into an election year, based on current evidence.

© Getty Images

LEADING THE DAY

POLITICS: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who underwent emergency heart surgery days ago and is recuperating at a Las Vegas hospital, will return to the campaign trail and join 11 other contenders at the Oct. 15 Democratic primary debate scheduled in Ohio, his surrogates announced on Thursday. For the next few days, the candidate expects to rest, according to his wife, Jane Sanders. “Bernie will be discharged and on a plane back to Burlington before the end of the weekend,” she said, describing the senator as recovering without complications. “He’ll take a few days to rest, but he’s ready to get back out there and is looking forward to the October debate.”

© Getty Images  Sanders blew past the competition on Monday to report his campaign raised $25.3 million in the third fundraising quarter. His haul turned out to be $10 million more than Biden reported raising during the same period. Biden’s campaign raised $15.2 million from July through September, compared with the $22 million raised in the second quarter as he launched what he hoped would remain a front-runner’s campaign. South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg reported raising $19.1 million in the third quarter, also outpacing Biden. The former vice president, aware that Democratic supporters and donors are closely watching whether his momentum begins to sag in the current political climate, expects his team to invest in field operations and a $6 million television and digital advertising buy in early primary states, his campaign manager announced (The Hill). More political news: Former Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas), who lost last year to Democrat Colin Allred in Texas’s 32nd District, announced on Thursday he’ll run to succeed retiring Rep. Bill Flores (R-Texas) in the 17th District, which includes Waco (The Hill). … Matt Lieberman, a small business owner and the son of former Connecticut Democrat and Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman, is jumping into politics to compete for the open Senate seat in Georgia (The Hill). … Author and Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson reported raising $3 million in the third quarter and says she plans to stay in the race despite struggling to get on the debate stage this month (The Hill). … Seeking to defeat Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Democrat Jaime Harrison reported raising $2.1 million in the third quarter, the most raised in a single quarter by a Democratic challenger in a Palmetto State Senate race, breaking the $1.5 million record Harrison himself set this spring (Charleston Post and Courier).

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

INTERNATIONAL: North Korea: Pyongyang on Thursday said it successfully test-fired a new submarine-launched ballistic missile from the sea to contain external threats and bolster self-defense, ahead of nuclear talks with the United States. The launch on Wednesday was the most provocative since North Korea resumed dialogue with the United States in 2018. It serves as a reminder by Pyongyang of the weapons capability it has been aggressively developing, including intercontinental ballistic missiles, according to analysts (Reuters). > China: Trump on Thursday said a delegation from Beijing will arrive in Washington next week for trade talks ahead of an Oct. 15 deadline the administration set for potentially higher U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods. The president said U.S. negotiators have “a lot” of options. “We have tremendous power,” Trump said (Reuters). The U.S.-China discussions are expected to take place Oct. 10-11. > Hong Kong: Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s Beijing-backed leader, instituted a ban to begin at midnight on face masks worn at public demonstrations by protesters who try to hide their identities from authorities. Lam ordered the crackdown as part of emergency powers announced today as pro-democracy protests continued in the semi-autonomous territory. “We’ve seen that almost all protesters who carried out vandalism and violence covered their face,” she said. “We believe the prohibition on face covering regulation will be an effective deterrent to radical behavior and it will also help the police in enforcing the law.” Before the mask-ban was officially confirmed, protesters pushed back across the Asian financial hub as hundreds of office workers donned masks and gathered to march (NBC News). > U.S. tariffs and Europe: The Trump administration’s trade office told industry there will be no grace period for goods that are still in transit when new U.S. tariffs on European Union imports take effect on Oct. 18, the Cheese Importers Association of America said on Thursday (Reuters). Cheese-loving U.S. consumers will pay about $2.50 more per pound for Italian parmesan cheese because of duties announced by the administration, the association complained (Reuters). Perhaps more alarming to many American consumers who enjoy affordable, drinkable wines from France: New U.S. tariffs will result in a sharp rise in prices on French wine sold in America (Reuters). The bulk of new U.S. tariffs on $7.5 billion of European products are poised to hit imports from France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom -— four of Europe’s five largest economies (CNN).

© Getty Images

OPINION

Only a serious response will reverse Iran’s growing aggression, by Gen. (Ret) Keith B. Alexander and Jamil N. Jaffer, opinion contributors, The Hill. https://bit.ly/2LHBdQk  California is making the NCAA extremely angry. Good, by The Washington Post Editorial Board. https://wapo.st/2oOiYje

WHERE AND WHEN

Hill.TV’s “Rising” at 9 a.m. ET features Republican presidential candidate Mark Sanford, a former congressman and ex-South Carolina governor, talks about the 2020 race and challenging Trump; Joe Dinkin, campaign director with Working Families Party, discusses Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s plan for labor; and The Hill’s editor-in-chief Bob Cusack analyzes news this week with his DeBrief segment. Find Hill.TV programming at http://thehill.com/hilltv or on YouTube at 10 a.m. The House meets for a pro forma session at 10 a.m. and anticipates its next roll call votes will take place on Oct. 15 at 6:30 p.m.  The Senate convenes today at 4:30 p.m. for a pro forma session. The president visits recovering soldiers being treated at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., along with their families at 11 a.m. He will return to the White House and speak at the Young Black Leadership Summit at 4:30 p.m. Vice President Pence joins Trump at the leadership summit in the East Room this afternoon.  Pompeo is visiting Montenegro, a NATO ally, where he met this morning with President Milo Djukanovic in Podgorica, along with Prime Minister Dusko Markovic and Foreign Minister Srdjan Darmanovic. The secretary and the prime minister gave a joint news conference. Pompeo drops in to see staff and families at the U.S. embassy in Podgorica at midday, followed by afternoon meetings with North Macedonia President Stevo Pendarovski, North Macedonia Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and cabinet ministers. The secretary and Prime Minister Zaev will deliver joint statements. Pompeo is scheduled to visit Holy Mother of God “Peribleptos” Monastery Complex in Lake Ohrid, North Macedonia at 4:45 p.m., after which he meets with staff and families at the U.S. Embassy Skopje at 6:10 p.m. Pompeo expects to travel to Greece this weekend before returning to Washington on Sunday. Economic indicator: The Bureau of Labor Statistics at 8:30 a.m. will report on the employment picture in September. Concerns about slowing U.S. growth during the remainder of 2019 mean analysts are closely watching unemployment, wages, the manufacturing sector and consumer spending, among other indicators. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell gives opening remarks at 2 p.m. at the central bank’s event, “Perspectives on Maximum Employment and Price Stability.”

ELSEWHERE

➔ Las Vegas shooting settlement: MGM Resorts agreed to pay up to $800 million to victims of the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting. A heavily armed gunman took aim at victims from a suite in one of MGM Resorts’s hotels (The New York Times). ➔ Higher education: Highly selective and well regarded universities worldwide have accepted at least $60 million in donations over the past five years from the family that owns the maker of OxyContin, even as Purdue Pharma became embroiled in lawsuits related to the opioid epidemic, financial records examined by The Associated Press show. At least nine schools accepted gifts since 2018, when states and counties across the country began efforts to hold members of the Sackler family accountable for Purdue’s actions. ➔ Medicare: Trump flew to a senior community in central Florida on Thursday to criticize Democrats’ “Medicare for All” ideas while also signing an executive order he said would strengthen Medicare Advantage, the branch of Medicare administered by private insurers and targeted for extinction in proposals advocated by some Democrats seeking to defeat Trump next year (The Hill).  ➔ State Watch: State legislatures across the country are racing to follow California’s lead to allow college athletes to earn money through endorsement deals. It has emerged as a surprisingly fast-moving bipartisan consensus around the country. Congressional legislation is expected by the end of the year (The Hill).

THE CLOSER

And finally … Kudos to winners of this week’s Morning Report Quiz about the reunification of East and West Germany, which officially began 29 years ago on Oct. 3, 1990. Of the several dozen quiz-takers who wrote to us, William Chittam and Patrick Kavanagh correctly identified all four tidbits tied to German history. George H.W. Bush was the former U.S. president who hailed Germany’s newly signed unity agreement during a White House event, saying, “When East Germans were punished for dissent, we shared your spirit of defiance. And when German people were shot for attempting to flee to freedom, we shared your outrage. And when West German leaders dared to hope for a Germany united in freedom, we shared your dream.” “All of the above” is the correct answer to our quiz question about the iconic images we associate with the reunification of Germany: The fall of the Berlin Wall began in late 1989 when East Germans authorities, overrun by crowds who had been told they could leave the East, opened sections of the wall to create more crossing points between East and West Germany. Exultant “wall peckers” and demonstrators used hammers and chisels to deface the wall and take home pieces. And the long, slow demolition of miles of wall between East and West Germany began and in Berlin, took a year to complete.  German Chancellor Angela Merkel lived and worked as a young woman in East Germany at the time of unification. Our question about her occupation during that period proved to be tricky for quiz respondents. Merkel earned her doctorate in 1986 and worked as a chemist, but she was drawn to politics. In 1989, she joined the newly founded Democratic Awakening and in February 1990 became the party’s press spokesperson. East Germany held its first and only free election in March 1990, and Merkel became deputy spokesperson for the government of Lothar de Maizière, East Germany’s last leader. His party merged with its western counterpart days before the official reunification of Germany in October 1990.  East Germans feared the state intelligence service known as the Stasi. After reunification, files and materials about millions of citizens became the Stasi Records Agency in Berlin, which welcomes researchers and allows citizens to inspect their personal files on request.

© 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 HERE To 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 Newsletters The Hill 1625 K Street, NW 9th Floor, Washington DC 20006 ©2019 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc.

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Daily Briefing Conservative News | Libertarian News | Commentary VISIT LibertyNation.com     FROM OUR NEWSROOM Do Latest Texts Exonerate Trump? By Mark Angelides Despite media spin, the “damaging” texts may actually be the proof of leftist lies. Click Here   What America’s Thinking Anti-Trumpers are more likely than President Trump’s supporters to say an impeachment vote will drive them to the polls next year. But voters in general still rank illegal immigration ahead of Trump’s impeachment as an action item for Congress. 45% of all Likely U.S. Voters believe the impeachment of Trump would be good for the country. Slightly more (46%) say it would be bad for the country instead. The president earned a monthly job approval of 48% in September, up one point from 47% in August. Most voters think America is a good place for blacks and other minorities, and a sizable number suspects that many alleged hate crimes here are hoaxes like the one allegedly staged by black TV actor Jussie Smollett. To read more on this story, click here.     Newseum Dies in Funding Darkness By Joe Schaeffer The costly edifice on the National Mall to journalistic ego is going out of business. Click Here   Washington Whispers Coming down the pipeline: With Mitch McConnell suggesting that if articles of impeachment were brought forward he would dispose of them as quickly as possible, is the GOP looking to call a Democrat bluff? Is the US media starting to realize that there is no impeachment inquiry? With no House vote and no subpoenas (only strongly worded letters), it appears this is little more than the Democrat 2020 campaign theater. The stories that Adam Schiff had earlier contact with the Ukraine Call whistleblower just won’t fade away, leaving more and more voters questioning whether this is just a partisan stunt. Biden is spending big in early primary and caucus voting states in an effort to take the wind out of Warren’s sails.   Liberty Nation GenZ By Liberty Nation Staff Click Here   News Roundup We’ve Surfed The Web for You Dem Rep. Sherrill: Trump ‘Going Against Our Election Law’ Fellow US diplomat clarified Trump’s intent after top envoy to Ukraine called president’s plan ‘crazy,’ texts show ‘Possible political bias’ of whistleblower mentioned by inspector general was that he is a registered Democrat Trump and his Supporters are the Real Whistleblowers By Brian C. Joondeph Dem Rep. Sewell: Seems Like Trump Is Illegally Having Foreign Govt’s Do Opposition Research   Mad Maxine’s Anti-Trump Rant Is Comedy Gold in the Heartland By Sarah Cowgill Mad Maxine strikes again! Click Here     WATCH NOW FEATURED LNTV

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THE BLAZE

Having trouble viewing this email? Click here Trending now Glenn Beck reveals bombshell audio from Ukraine that repudiates impeachment narrative   Energy Secretary Rick Perry reportedly plans to resign his post next month       More from TheBlaze Trump calls Ocasio-Cortez a ‘Wack Job’ over viral video of supporter yelling about ‘eating babies’ at AOC rally   LIVE: Glenn Beck presents ‘Ukraine: The Democrats’ Russia’     Watch: Kamala Harris rhetorically asks whether America is ready for her presidency. Crowd shouts back, ‘No!’   Closed door testimony blows a ‘massive hole’ in Democrats’ impeachment narrative, says Rep. Zeldin   more stories One last thing… Joe Biden says his scandal-plagued son, Hunter, will join him on the campaign trail Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden says his son, Hunter — who has been plagued by scandals for years and whose business dealings in Ukraine and China have drawn outrage from Republicans — will be joining the former vice president on the campaign trail.What are the details?The Reno Gazette Journal reported Thursday that the elder Biden said… Read more Share Tweet Email

DESERET NEWS

View this email in your browser Friday, Oct. 4, 2019 It’s killing dogs and cattle. It’s making people sick. It’s spreading throughout the country. And answers remain elusive The Christian case against socialized health care Should presidential candidates be able to keep medical records private? Mobile unit, Saturday appointments increase low mammography screening rates to save more lives (Sponsored) McAdams still won’t say if he supports impeachment inquiry Utah Jazz players are raving about Bojan Bogdanović’s shooting abilities. What else does he bring to the court? MORE NEWS Your Weekend: Jerry Seinfeld returns to Utah — not that there’s anything wrong with that In our opinion: Brandt Jean’s show of forgiveness is what the country needs right now How to attend, watch or listen to the 189th Semiannual General Conference this weekend Copyright © 2019 Deseret News, All rights reserved. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

CONSERVATIVE DAILY NEWS

CDN’s Daily News Blast delivers the day’s news first! View this email in your browser CDN Daily News Blast 10/04/2019 Excerpts: President Donald Trump’s Schedule for Friday, October 4, 2019 By R. Mitchell – President Donald Trump will travel to Walter Reed Medical Center to visit with wounded warriors. In the afternoon, the president will receive his daily briefing and speak at the Young Black Leadership Summit. Keep up with Trump on Our President’s Schedule Page. President Trump’s Itinerary for 10/4/19 – note: this  … President Donald Trump’s Schedule for Friday, October 4, 2019 is original content from Conservative Daily News – Where Americans go for news, current events and commentary they can trust – Conservative News Website for U.S. News, Political Cartoons and more. Read on » ACLU Sues To Make Trump Administration Pay Migrant Families Separated At Border By Jason Hopkins – The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on Thursday, demanding the federal government pay damages to migrant families who were separated under the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy. The lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court in Arizona, calls for punitive and compensatory damages from the Trump … ACLU Sues To Make Trump Administration Pay Migrant Families Separated At 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. Read on » Pelosi Falsely Says Adam Schiff’s Interpretation Of Ukraine Transcript Was ‘The President’s Own Words’ By Shelby Talcott – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi falsely claimed that Rep. Adam Schiff’s “dramatic interpretation” of President Donald Trump’s transcript with Ukraine was “the president’s own words” in an interview on ABC News Thursday. Pelosi spoke to ABC News host George Stephanopoulos on “Good Morning America” Thursday and discussed the now-released July 25 … Pelosi Falsely Says Adam Schiff’s Interpretation Of Ukraine Transcript Was ‘The President’s Own Words’ is original content from Conservative Daily News – Where Americans go for news, current events and commentary they can trust – Conservative News Website for U.S. News, Political Cartoons and more. Read on » GOP Senators Ask IC IG About Classified Leaks Of Whistleblower Complaint By Chuck Ross – Two Republican senators are asking the Intelligence Community Inspector General whether he is investigating leaks of classified details of the whistleblower complaint against President Trump, as well as leaks for news stories published about the Trump-Russia investigation. “As you are aware, there have been a number of leaks of highly … GOP Senators Ask IC IG About Classified Leaks Of Whistleblower Complaint is original content from Conservative Daily News – Where Americans go for news, current events and commentary they can trust – Conservative News Website for U.S. News, Political Cartoons and more. Read on » ROFL: CNN Won’t Air Trump’s Ad On Biden’s Ukraine Troubles, Saying It Mocks Anchor Chris Cuomo By Chris White – CNN is reportedly refusing to air a Trump campaign advertisement slamming former Vice President Joe Biden and the media for supposedly defending the Democratic presidential front-runner’s past activities in Ukraine. The channel won’t promote the ad because it mocks CNN personalities Chris Cuomo, Don Lemon, and Jim Acosta, The Daily … ROFL: CNN Won’t Air Trump’s Ad On Biden’s Ukraine Troubles, Saying It Mocks Anchor Chris Cuomo is original content from Conservative Daily News – Where Americans go for news, current events and commentary they can trust – Conservative News Website for U.S. News, Political Cartoons and more. Read on » Faux News – Grrr Graphics – Ben Garrison Cartoon By Ben Garrison – I watched Trump’s press conference the other day and he vigorously put an end to the grandstanding by reporters who wanted to endlessly harass him about a non-existing event. The president was doing his job when he asked the Ukrainian president about preventing corruption, but the Democrats and their media … Faux News – 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. Read on » Watch Live: President Trump Delivers Remarks and Signs an Executive Order By R. Mitchell – President Trump Delivers Remarks and Signs an Executive Order concerning health care. Content created by Conservative Daily News and some content syndicated through CDN is available for re-publication without charge under the Creative Commons license. Visit our syndication page for details and requirements. Watch Live: President Trump Delivers Remarks and Signs an Executive Order is original content from Conservative Daily News – Where Americans go for news, current events and commentary they can trust – Conservative News Website for U.S. News, Political Cartoons and more. Read on » The Trump Administration Will Expand DNA Collection Of Migrants By Jason Hopkins – The Trump administration is moving forward with its plan to dramatically expand its DNA testing of illegal migrants at the southern border, a move intended to help control the immigration crisis. Border Patrol agents will soon have the ability to collect DNA samples of migrants apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border, … The Trump Administration Will Expand DNA Collection Of Migrants is original content from Conservative Daily News – Where Americans go for news, current events and commentary they can trust – Conservative News Website for U.S. News, Political Cartoons and more. Read on » Biden Once Warned Impeachment Would Become ‘Partisan Attacks On The President, Charged With Animosity’ By Mary Margaret Olohan – 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden warned in 1998 that the impeachment process could turn into “partisan attacks on the president, charged with animosity.” Biden is now calling for President Donald Trump’s impeachment, saying, “Donald Trump will leave Congress no choice, in my view, but impeachment.” WATCH: Content created by The … Biden Once Warned Impeachment Would Become ‘Partisan Attacks On The President, Charged With Animosity’ is original content from Conservative Daily News – Where Americans go for news, current events and commentary they can trust – Conservative News Website for U.S. News, Political Cartoons and more. Read on » Liz Cheney Says Democrats Are Using A Pseudo Scandal To Set Trump Up For Impeachment By Jim Clayton – Rep. Liz Cheney suggested that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is using a pseudo-scandal to set up President Trump for impeachment. The Republican congresswoman expressed doubt about the House speaker’s motive in a Monday tweet. Cheney tweeted out a clip of Pelosi’s appearance on 60 Minutes, in which Pelosi spoke about … Liz Cheney Says Democrats Are Using A Pseudo Scandal To Set Trump Up For Impeachment is original content from Conservative Daily News – Where Americans go for news, current events and commentary they can trust – Conservative News Website for U.S. News, Political Cartoons and more. Read on » Democrats Begging for More Members in their Exclusive Liar’s Club By Amanda Alverez – If anyone thinks the ‘Trump Deranged Syndrome’ is a bogus mental condition, how is it possible to justify those lining up to join the Democrat’s ‘Liar Club?’ Only months ago, one would have never wanted to be branded as a habitual liar, but today’s Democrats wear their membership as a … Democrats Begging for More Members in their Exclusive Liar’s Club is original content from Conservative Daily News – Where Americans go for news, current events and commentary they can trust – Conservative News Website for U.S. News, Political Cartoons and more. Read on » ‘It’s Disgusting’: Former ICE Chief Reacts To Cop’s Suspension For Reporting Illegal Alien By Jason Hopkins – A Fairfax County Police officer was suspended for turning an illegal alien over to federal immigration authorities, renewing debate over how police should cooperate with ICE.  Former ICE acting Director Tom Homan said the suspension was “disgusting,” and noted that ICE has worked to keep criminals off the streets of … ‘It’s Disgusting’: Former ICE Chief Reacts To Cop’s Suspension For Reporting Illegal Alien is original content from Conservative Daily News – Where Americans go for news, current events and commentary they can trust – Conservative News Website for U.S. News, Political Cartoons and more. Read on »       See all breaking news, conservative commentary, political cartoons and more posted to CDN at our Home Page.       Follow on Twitter Friend on Facebook Add on Google Plus Copyright © 2019 Conservative Daily News, All rights reserved. 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CAFFEINATED THOUGHTS

Connect: Facebook Twitter YouTube View this email in your browser “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,” (1 Peter 1:3, ESV). The Truth About Semi-Automatic “Assault” Weapons By Donald Bohlken on Oct 03, 2019 05:04 pm Donald Bohlken: These are not “weapons of war” in the modern world. No wars have been fought with purely semiautomatic AR-15s or AK-47s. Read in browser » Recent Articles: Brandt Jean to Amber Guyger: “I Forgive” Protecting At-Risk Children Saying “Free Speech Is Important” Is A Fox News Talking Point? Trump Congratulates China on 70 Years of Communism Miller-Meeks Announces 4th Run in Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District Launched in 2006,  Caffeinated Thoughts reports news and shares commentary about culture, current events, faith and state and national politics from a Christian and conservative point of view.  Caffeinated Thoughts P.O. Box 57184 Des Moines, IA 50317 (515) 321-5077 Editor, Shane Vander Hart Connect: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Share Tweet Share Forward Copyright © 2019 Caffeinated Thoughts, All rights reserved. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

MORNING EDITION

Friday, October 4, 2019

Pelosi faces serious legal challenges to ‘casual’ impeachment inquiry House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s declaration of an impeachment inquiry is barely a week old, and it’s already running into serious … more

Top News  Read More >

Volker testimony doesn’t advance Democratic ‘narrative,’ GOP congressmen say outside hearing         John Durham probe goes worldwide to examine spies and their Trump targets         ‘Swagger’ or stumble? Mike Pompeo, State Department under scrutiny in Ukraine furor         Michael Bennet’s charmed political career hits snag as presidential bid stalls         Watch the Trump campaign ad CNN is refusing to air         ‘Chance to thrive’: Iraqi Christians return after decades of hardship

Opinion  Read More >

Impeachment in search of a high crime         Why leakers pose such a danger to national security         Instead of advancing trade deal, Congress focuses on partisan impeachment process

Politics  Read More >

Picture of Biden, son with Ukraine business partner puts claim into doubt         Rep. Maxine Waters: Trump ‘setting some of us up to be killed’         Democrats focused on Ukrainian aid, Trump in impeachment drive

Special Reports for Times Readers   Special Report – Energy 2019 Special Report – Free Iran Rally 2019 Special Report – Qatar: What Makes America’s Great Ally Special

Security  Read More >

Sports  Read More >

Pentagon told to preserve all records on Ukraine arms package         Paratrooper breaks back, 17 others injured at Mississippi base during jump         Pakistan, Taliban push for restart of U.S. peace talks

LOVERRO: Nationals dominated in Game 1 by Dodgers         Buehler, Muncy lead Dodgers past Nats 6-0 in NLDS opener         ‘Like having surgery:’ Tom Brady has past of picking apart Redskins

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BRIGHT

Friday, October 4, 2019

Demi Lovato Apologizes After “Offending” People with Her Trip to Israel Pop Star Demi Lovato, 27, found herself apologizing to a ludicrously sensitive online hoard this week after posting pictures from her sponsored trip to Israel. Lovato, a Christian with Jewish heritage, had no stake in Middle Eastern politics and simply wanted to take advantage of a free trip sponsored by Israel for a spiritual experience. Her trip included a visit to the Holocaust Memorial of Yad Vashem, the Western Wall, a school for under-privileged children, and a baptism in the Jordan River.    Shortly after her return, however, she was met with outraged “fans” who felt that she needed to be “educated” about what was really going on in Israel and how much her kind words about her “magical” experience offended many people.    At first Demi stood her ground and asked to be enlightened on a topic she admittedly didn’t understand very well and called her followers out for not letting her think for herself. But the “fans” most excited about boycott, divestment, and sanctions and anti-Semitism in general weren’t pleased when she did not immediately condemn Israel, Zionism, and everything they stand for.    Sadly, Demi bowed to the nasty Instagram comments and issued a since deleted apology about her lack of education in the area. “Sorry I’m not more educated,” she conceded. “Sorry for thinking this trip was just a spiritual experience.”   I’m glad she had such an incredible experience in Israel and hopefully her posts about the visit, which are still on Instagram, albeit with the comments disabled, will inspire many other people to take the journey to see the Middle East’s only democracy.    More on this story from FOX News.   Robert De Niro is Getting Sued for Being a Jerk Oscar winning actor and world class a**hole Robert De Niro is on the receiving end of a $12 million lawsuit, filed by former employee Graham Chase Robinson, that claims he discriminated against her based on her gender and violated wage laws by underpaying her. The lawsuit also happens to detail several nasty comments De Niro made, including calling her a “brat” and a “bi*$%,” and cursing her out in a voicemail when she answered the phone.    De Niro also slung F-bombs on a recent Sunday morning appearance on CNN and was recorded cursing out his limo driver when he left divorce court several months ago.    Having had the personal experience of serving De Niro on several occasions in my restaurant career, I can say that the allegations in the lawsuit seem more than likely to be true.    More on this story from the Washington Examiner. Sips, Pours, and Nibbles for the Weekend SIP: Barrel-Aged Manhattans: It’s still warm but it’s time to start thinking ahead about our holiday cheer. Founder and publisher of The Federalist, Ben Domenech, created a smashing barrel-aged Manhattan recipe several years ago and my family and I still use it today. Fortunately, Ben wrote up the recipe and instructions for Ricochet where it is still available. This cocktails age for up to 2-3 months, so now is the time to get started! POUR: Oregon Pinot for Fall!: Now that it’s time to switch to red wine as the weather crisps up, my absolute favorite choice for fall is Willamette Valley Pinot Noir. Rich berries, a hint of herbs like thyme and sage, and last of season tomatoes can all be found as you swirl a delicious glass. One of my very favorite producers is Ken Wright, who specializes in single vineyard wines that all have unique character. Here is a link to “Abbot Claim” at Total Wine, my favorite of his. NIBBLE: Cassoulet!: Open up that bottle of Oregon Pinot and get the beans out, it’s time for Cassoulet. This hearty French dish is an absolute favorite and oh-so-easy to make. This recipe from Bon Appetit is absolutely fantastic and will feed you for a full week.    Friday Entertainment Center  Ryan Murphy, known best for “American Crime Story,” “Glee,” and “American Horror Story,” made his big Netlfix debut with “The Politician,” and it is…it’s okay. It’s trying very hard to be “Election” and anything by Wes Anderson. Keep your expectations low and you’ll find some joy, at least in the all-star cast. (Read this review from the Las Vegas Review Journal)   Clint Eastwood is set to direct a movie about the 1996 Olympic bomber in “Richard Jewell” which is said to take specific aim at media coverage of the attack. (IndiWire)   Eddie Murphy impresses in “Dolemite is my Name” his first biopic about the life of Rudy Ray Moore, a struggling comic with a unique sense of style and the subject of a film Murphy has been trying to make for years. He has critic’s attention. (Deadline) 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

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THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Washington Examiner’s Examiner Today Newsletter View this as website   HIGHLIGHTS Trump allies respond to impeachment with ad blitz Meet the Jay Inslee staffers who wrote ‘the next president’s’ climate plan Adam Schiff’s rocky impeachment launch fuels GOP pushback   Maybe not Trump? Never Trumpers insist they won’t back Warren Prominent “Never Trump” Republicans insist they would never back rising Democratic contender Elizabeth Warren, describing an election that pits the liberal Massachusetts senator against a president they despise as a choice between two unacceptable options.   Top US envoys drafted statement that would have committed Ukraine to pursuing investigations Following the July call at the center of a whistleblower complaint against President Trump, two top U.S. diplomats drafted a statement to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that would have committed the country to looking into Trump’s political rivals.   Ex-FISA court chief expects a ‘very fair’ surveillance report from DOJ inspector general A former top judge on the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court says he expects a “very fair” report from Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz on alleged Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuses by the DOJ and the FBI.     Biden raised less than Sanders, Buttigieg over last three months Joe Biden raised $15.3 million during the third quarter this year, putting him well behind the fundraising high-marks set by the 2020 presidential campaigns of Democratic rivals Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg.   ADVERTISEMENT ‘They think they have the state locked up’: South Carolina Democrats put Joe Biden on notice   Democrats in South Carolina are warning Joe Biden and his campaign against resting on their laurels in a key primary state where he has campaigned off-and-on for more than 30 years.   Trump-boosting former crack dealer risks return to prison as prosecutors challenge release Steffany “Stet” Frazier, a 51-year-old former crack cocaine dealer, says he “most definitely” will vote for President Trump next year if he’s not returned to prison to complete a life sentence that was ended in August under the Trump-signed First Step Act.    ‘The audience is over him’: Bob Woodward booed during event with reporters who broke Harvey Weinstein scandal Acclaimed investigative journalist Bob Woodward was booed by a crowd while interviewing two New York Times journalists who wrote a book about reporting on the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse scandal.     Amazon wants to write facial recognition rules   Amazon’s public policy team is drafting legislation that would regulate the use of facial recognition technologies, but some privacy advocates think that’s a bad idea.   ‘Egregious abuse of power’: Atheist nonprofit files complaint against judge for giving Bible to Amber Guyger A nonprofit watchdog group filed an ethics complaint against the judge who gave Amber Guyger a hug and a Bible after presiding over the former Dallas police officer’s murder trial. ‘Horrible accident’: Florida man fatally shoots son-in-law who surprised him for his birthday   A Florida man’s attempt to surprise his father-in-law for his birthday ended in tragedy.     HHS official says timely access to medical records is a right Roger Severino, the Trump administration official tasked with enforcing civil rights in medicine, knows what it’s like to overpay for healthcare.   Hurdles remain one year after California passes law mandating women in boardrooms   California led the way last year with a pioneering law requiring publicly traded companies headquartered in the state to have at least one woman on their board of directors by the end of 2019.   THE ROUNDUP Trump urges China to investigate the Bidens Volker says he warned Giuliani that Ukrainian claims were not credible Dem frontrunners get new scrutiny after Sanders surgery ADVERTISEMENT

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THE WASHINGTON POST

Sign up for this newsletter Read online Stories from all over.       Gordon Sondland, the United States Ambassador to the European Union, adresses the media during a press conference at the US Embassy to Romania in Bucharest September 5, 2019. (Photo by Daniel MIHAILESCU / AFP/Getty images) How Gordon Sondland, a wealthy hotelier turned ambassador, became the latest key player in the Ukraine inquiry Gordon Sondland, who built his wealth as a hotel magnate in Portland, was on the job as EU ambassador for less than a year when he ended up knee-deep in negotiations with the Ukrainian president to forward Trump’s interests. By Meagan Flynn ● Read more » ICE put a 17-year-old asylum seeker in an adult jail. His lawyers blame a ‘junk-science’ dental exam. His petition underscores ICE’s growing use of unreliable dental exams to determine the age of migrants, lawyers say. By Teo Armus ● Read more » ADVERTISEMENT Two former students sue James Franco for allegedly exploiting a ‘steady stream’ of young women. Two actresses sued actor James Franco and his business partners for allegedly exploitative classes at their Studio 4 acting school. By Katie Shepherd ● Read more » A hospital’s ‘Wall of Shame’ used private records to mock disabled patients. Now officials are apologizing. A collage taped inside a cabinet at St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center in Lewiston, Maine, featured the confidential medical records of mentally and physically disabled patients, according to a complaint upheld by the Maine Human Rights Commission. By Antonia Farzan ● Read more »   ADVERTISEMENT Amber Guyger was hugged by her victim’s brother and a judge, igniting a debate about forgiveness and race The two extraordinary moments would polarize just like the case that led up to them, raising fresh questions about race in a white officer’s fatal shooting of a black man. By Hannah Knowles ● Read more »   Sperm donor who discovered he fathered at least 17 kids ― most in the same area ― says fertility clinic lied Some attended the same school and church. One lives in the same Oregon town as the donor. He thought they were all on the East Coast. By Meagan Flynn ● Read more »   ‘Has anyone checked in on the president of Finland?’: Trump’s ‘off the rails’ performance turned a foreign leader into a meme “Have you ever gone over to a couple’s house not knowing they just decided to get a divorce?” one person tweeted. “That’s Finnish President Sauli Niinistö today.” By Allyson Chiu ● Read more »     We think you’ll like this newsletter Check out Plant Powered by Voraciously for our 12-week guide to cooking more plant-forward meals. Recipes, techniques and tips on Tuesdays. Sign up »

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Columnists The Truth About Impeachment Tucker Carlson and Neil Patel Trump Derangement Syndrome: Stage IV Paul Curry The Self-Congratulation in Banned Books Week Brent Bozell and Tim Graham Is China the Country of the Future? Pat Buchanan Christian Crackdown? Students Must Submit Speeches, Swear Oath to School Todd Starnes Confiscate, Ban, Register, Limit and Bust – Dems Lay Gun Control Cards Down in Las Vegas Lawrence Keane Surveys Show Many Support Climate Action, But Only If It’s Really Cheap H. Sterling Burnett Re-regulating Airlines Won’t Fly Andrew Wilford Arguments For Gun Control Are Irrational Nicholas Waddy ADVERTISEMENT Pelosi Isn’t the First Politician to Herd Voters Because ‘the Iron Is Hot’ John Kass Modernize the FAA and Keep Business Moving Harry C. Alford When It Comes To Hurricanes, Emotions Run Counter to Science Gregory Rummo New Watchdog Report Paves Way for FDA Reform Ross Marchand 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 On The Verge Of A Brexit Breakthrough More Economic Illiteracy From The New York Times Top 10 Favorite Value Stocks to Invest in Now – Paul Dykewicz HEALTH The Emotional Health Effect Sarah’s Bladder Battle Stop UTIs Without Antibiotics

Tipsheet Indiana Catholic Diocese Offers To Bury 2,000 Babies Found In Abortionist’s Home Timothy Meads Is This The Moment That Kamala Harris Realized She’ll Never Be President? Timothy Meads Alas, We Now Know The Reason For Why The Trump-Ukraine Whistleblower Was Cited For Bias Against Trump Matt Vespa EXCLUSIVE: Fairfax PD Denies FOIA Request Into Officer’s Suspension Over Illegal Alien Arrest Matt Vespa GOP Rep Challenges NPR Host to Pick Part of Transcript That Incriminates Trump Cortney O’Brien ‘Mike’s Candyshop’ Drug Dealers Arrested For Running Same-Day Narcotics Delivery Service Timothy Meads Pelosi Blatantly Lies During GMA Interview About Schiff’s Reading of Ukraine Transcript Leah Barkoukis Polling: Joe Biden Is Losing Steam in the Democratic Primary, Ukraine Scandal Is Backfiring Katie Pavlich New Poll: Trump Job Approval…Rises Amid Impeachment Swirl Guy Benson CNN Is Refusing to Air a Trump Campaign Ad About Biden and Ukraine Katie Pavlich ADVERTISEMENT Political Cartoons Bearing Arms Palm Beach Mayor, Police Chief Push For Change In FL Open Carry Law | Tom Knighton Laura Ingraham: Dems Don’t See Bearing Arms As “Real Right” | Cam Edwards NYTimes: Australia Shooting ‘Raises Questions About Gun Control’ | Cam Edwards Petition Calls For VA Police Chief’s Resignation Over Anti-Gun Comments | Tom Knighton Dems Display Contempt For 2nd Amendment At ‘Gun Violence’ Forum | Cam Edwards FL Red Flag Orders Issued To Shocking Number Of Children | Tom Knighton New WA Laws On Guns And Domestic Violence Kick In, But There Are Issues | Tom Knighton Michigan Rep Told To Take Down ‘Gun Free Office’ Sign | Cam Edwards New Poll Shows How Badly Media Has Misinformed Public On Guns | Tom Knighton Yang Thinks ‘Democracy Dollars’ Will Undermine Mythical ‘Gun Lobby’ | Tom Knighton

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LEGAL INSURRECTION

Share This         https://legalinsurrectionfoundation.salsalabs.org/youknewitwascominghousejudiciarycommitteeopensprobein_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy2_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy2_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1/4d64ff30-8667-4a1b-bd61-d5bc71657af0.png  Teacher Files Lawsuit After Being Fired for Not Using Transgender Student’s Preferred Pronouns University of Alabama Students Hold ‘Die-in’ to Highlight Struggle of ‘Marginalized Students’ Federal Judge Sides With Harvard in Discrimination Case Brought by Asian Applicants   https://legalinsurrectionfoundation.salsalabs.org/youknewitwascominghousejudiciarycommitteeopensprobein_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy2_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy2_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1/a1644ac0-a52b-4ef8-8907-cbf65f9e1dca.png William Jacobson: “19 YEARS OF SCHOOLING AND I’M WRITING STORIES ABOUT THIS: Michael Avenatti puts attorney fee lien on Stormy Daniels strip club arrest settlement” Kemberlee Kaye: “You can always count on Rep. Maxine Waters to be reasonable…” Leslie Eastman: “I knew the week was going to be a doozy when #CivilWar was trending on social media on Monday.  I could hardly imagine, however, it was going to end with #EatTheBabies on Friday.  I am so going to enjoy a hard-earned and healthy steak this weekend.” David Gerstman: “It’s a week late, but a belated Mazel Tov to Prof Jacobson for being named as one of the top 100 people positively influencing Jewish life by The Algemeiner. It has been an honor to be a contributor to the blog and the daily emails over the past six and a half years. Legal Insurrection has been a leader in fighting and debunking on-campus anti-Semitism – the BDS campaign – that is cloaked in the mantle of self-righteousness. What a wonderful way to start the Jewish New Year.” Vijeta Uniyal: “British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has laid out his final offer to the European Union ahead of the October 31 Brexit deadline. If Brussels fails to accept the proposal, the UK will leave the EU without a deal, Johnson warned. “ Stacey Matthews: “Byron York declares what the mainstream media won’t about the Democratic presidential race: Joe Biden is no longer a frontrunner” Samantha Mandeles: “I challenge all BDS supporters (looking at you, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Linda Sarsour, Zahra Billoo, etc) to tell us again about how BDS is “not anti-Semitic.” Does murder also count as “legitimate criticism of Israel” now, too?”                 Legal Insurrection Foundation is a Rhode Island tax-exempt corporation established exclusively for charitable purposes within the meaning of Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code to educate and inform the public on legal, historical, economic, academic, and cultural issues related to the Constitution, liberty, and world events. For more information about the Foundation, CLICK HERE. Donate Here!   Legal Insurrection Foundation 18 Maple Avenue #280 ​ Barrington, Rhode Island 02806  info@legalinsurrection.com Follow Us Having trouble viewing this email? View it in your web browser Unsubscribe

IJR

House Republicans Call for Investigation Into Dem Senators Who Tried to Get Ukraine to Give Info on Trump By Madison Dibble, Thursday, October 3, 2019 6:43 PM “While hypocrisy certainly isn’t a crime, it is highly unbecoming of the office of a United States Senator.” More  Comments »   Trump Woos Seniors With Order to Boost Medicare Health Program By Reuters, Thursday, October 3, 2019 3:55 PM U.S. President Donald Trump sought to woo seniors on Thursday with an executive order aimed at strengthening the Medicare health program by reducing regulations, curbing fraud, and providing faster access to new medical devices and therapies. More  Comments »   Treason! Arrest Him! The Democratic Lawmaker Who Enrages Donald Trump By Reuters, Thursday, October 3, 2019 3:47 PM For nearly three years, President Donald Trump has dismissed the investigations that shadowed almost every day of his presidency as hoaxes and witch-hunts, and the people leading them as crooks and liars. More  Comments »   Walsh Pens Letter Asking GOP Reps to Back Trump’s Impeachment: ‘Be an American First, a Republican Second’ By Madison Dibble, Thursday, October 3, 2019 2:29 PM “I don’t think we need any more evidence than this. Do you?” More  Comments »   ‘He Has No Credibility to Be a Chairman’: McCarthy Calls for Schiff to Lose Leadership Position By Madison Dibble, Thursday, October 3, 2019 2:07 PM “He has no credibility be a chairman and he has no right to be the prosecutor in this case.” More  Comments »   Bernie Sanders Will Participate in the Next Democratic Debate: Campaign By Reuters, Thursday, October 3, 2019 1:42 PM U.S. presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who was treated on Tuesday for a blocked artery after experiencing chest discomfort, will participate in the fourth Democratic debate on Oct. 15, his campaign said on Thursday. More  Comments »

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AMERICAN THINKER

View this email in your browser Recent Articles Schiff Collusion with Whistleblower the Last Straw Oct 04, 2019 01:00 am Enough already. Adam Schiff has got to go. Read More… What is the Purpose of the GOP? Oct 04, 2019 01:00 am Conservatives must continue to uphold our priorities that the nation may return to its foundational principles and beliefs.   Read More… Democrats’ Contempt for the Sanctity of Life Oct 04, 2019 01:00 am It’s not just about the unborn. Democrats show contempt for human life in all its stages. Read More… Why are California Utility Bills so High? Oct 04, 2019 01:00 am California’s unreasonable renewable power policies are greasing the chute to bankruptcy.  Read More… The Netherlands and the Holocaust Oct 04, 2019 01:00 am Netherlands comes to terms with its role in the Holocaust.  Read More… The Problem with ‘Anthropogenic Global Warming’ Oct 04, 2019 01:00 am Regular scientists rely on objective, empirical methods to test hypotheses. Climate change scientists, on the other hand, manipulate data to fit preconceived beliefs. Read More…   Recent Blog Posts Has Elizabeth Warren made Mark Zuckerberg her whipping boy? Oct 04, 2019 01:00 am Mark Zuckerberg swings at Elizabeth Warren, Warren swings right back.  Read more… Media’s alternate reality gaslights Americans Oct 04, 2019 01:00 am Only if you’re old can you see the difference.  Read more… The real CIA Oct 04, 2019 01:00 am The CIA is just tens of thousands of donut-eating Big Government employees in Northern Virginia whose votes have turned Virginia blue.  Read more… A new GOP comes out swinging Oct 04, 2019 01:00 am Donald Trump is recreating the party in his image.  Read more… Little Kamala and the cold hard world Oct 04, 2019 01:00 am One more reason why Kamala Harris should not hold public office.  Read more… Maxine Waters learns about life Oct 04, 2019 01:00 am Maxine has made her bed.  Read more… Developing countries must bail out of the climate game Oct 04, 2019 01:00 am Developing countries must revoke their commitments to the Paris agreement and revamp their domestic policies on carbon dioxide emissions.  Read more… Can they think about the country for a change? Oct 04, 2019 01:00 am At some point, serious Democrats need to stand up and stop this madness.  Read more… Hillary’s going to get in Oct 04, 2019 01:00 am It is no longer a matter of if but of when.  Read more… The Dems are doomed Oct 03, 2019 01:00 am The impeachment Hail Mary is about to be intercepted.  Read more… So the whistleblower went to Adam Schiff first, not the designated intelligence authorities? Oct 03, 2019 01:00 am Sounds like Snowden or Bradley, actually. Once again, Trump called it right: this is more like a colluding spy or traitor.  Read more… Planned Parenthood builds giant secret supercenter for industrial-scale abortions Oct 03, 2019 01:00 am …with all that money it has. Abortions on an industrial scale.  Read more… Fredo flunks Fred Fleitz flagellation Oct 03, 2019 01:00 am Dissing former White House official during an interview now looks awfully stupid. It’s Jeff Zucker’s turn to say, “Fredo, you broke my heart.”  Read more… Schiff’s lies about no advance knowledge of whistleblower complaint make the impeachment efforts look like a conspiracy Oct 03, 2019 01:00 am When people with no visible connection with each other work together in secret to accomplish some goal and then lie about their collaboration, the dreaded word “conspiracy” becomes completely appropriate.  Read more… World Trade Organization authorizes US tariffs on $7.5 billion in goods from EU over Airbus subsidies Oct 03, 2019 01:00 am Before celebrating a victory, remember that Airbus has a similar complaint, filed nine months after Boeing’s, waiting for a decision by the WTO.  Read more… View this email in your browser American Thinker is a daily internet publication devoted to the thoughtful exploration of issues of importance to Americans.

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THE FEDERALIST

Your daily update of new content from The Federalist Be lovers of freedom and anxious for the fray October 4, 2019 Joaquin Phoenix Rises To Create Devastatingly Deranged ‘Joker’ By James Dawson ‘Joker’ is such an original and immersive journey into madness that its distracting comic-book connection could be considered a drawback. Full article Federal Judge To Harvard: Racial Discrimination Is Bad, Except Against Whites And Asians By Helen Raleigh In this country where everyone is created equal, we need a color-blind college admission process. No one should be penalized or rewarded because of the color of his skin. Full article Why What You Do In The Bedroom Doesn’t Ever Stay There By Glenn T. Stanton Social science and cultural analysis reveal that sex affects everything and everybody, from the community park to the foundations of democracy itself. Full article President Trump Is Absolutely Right To Assume Federal Agencies Are Against Him By Inez Feltscher Stepman Too many of the unelected bureaucrats who staff the alphabet soup agencies seem to feel entitled to circumvent the will of the American people when it conflicts with their priors. Full article Presidents Clinton, Obama Objected To How Whistleblower Law Was Used To Get Trump By Matt Beebe Should Congress have been allowed to force the release of classified information and foreign policy secrets by manipulating the whistleblower laws in the first place? Full article Jeff Flake’s Call For The GOP To Reject Trump Shows He Has Learned Nothing Since 2016 By Nathanael Blake When Republicans praise Trump for being a fighter, it is because he is willing to aggressively challenge the left’s dishonest tactics in a way the Jeff Flakes of the GOP do not. Full article ‘Hustlers’ Is Probably Not The Movie You Think It Is By Emily Jashinsky ‘Hustlers’ is stimulating, but for reasons that have little to do with stripping. It’s a class commentary at heart, and a surprisingly neutral one. Full article Using The Oxford Comma Is A Sign Of Grace And Clarity By Kylee Zempel Nathanael Blake argued here this week that the Oxford comma is a crutch for bad writing, and I must protest. All things considered, this punctuation mark may be more divisive than partisan politics. Full article Survey: Family Health Insurance Now Averages More Than $20,000 A Year By Christopher Jacobs The average family has spent tens of thousands of dollars in higher health insurance premiums because Obamacare has not met Obama’s pledges. Full article What Desperate 2020 Democrats Are Doing To Get Media Attention By Tristan Justice Please. Somebody. Bring a TV camera over here. Hello? Full article North Carolina Energy Company Finds Solar Power Actually Increases Pollution By Donald van der Vaart If we expect to create a prosperous future fueled by low-cost clean energy, it’s time to recalibrate the way we think about renewables. Full article A Book On The Enhanced Interrogation Program That Tortures The Truth By Matthew Braun Mark Fallon’s book, ‘Unjustifiable Means: The Inside Story of How the CIA, Pentagon, and US Government Conspired to Torture,’ purports to be an exposé but only reveals his limited understanding of very controversial issues. Full article It’s Not A Crime For Trump To Ask China And Ukraine To Investigate Biden By David Marcus Today the president reiterated that he wants Ukraine and China to investigate Joe Biden. Democrats have not made clear why that is a crime. Full article Kamala Harris’ Crusade To De-Platform Trump On Twitter Is Emblematic Of A Larger Problem By Tristan Justice 2020 Democratic White House hopeful Sen. Kamala Harris of California sent an open letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey demanding the social media executive suspend President Donald Trump from the platform. Full article Reminder: Jimmy Carter Is Our Worst Ex-President By David Harsanyi No ex-president of the United States has undermined freedom around the world more than Jimmy Carter. And it’s not even close. Full article Rashida Tlaib Scolds Black Police Chief: Facial Recognition ‘Analysts Need To Be African American’ By Erielle Davidson Rep. Rashida Tlaib recently paid a visit to the Real Time Crime Center, where she said, “Non-African Americans think African Americans all look the same.” Full article IMPEACHMENT: POMPEO WAS ON UKRAINE CALL: The attempts to loop Barr and Pompeo into the impeachment process is very obvious. http://vlt.tc/3rv1 “Secretary of State Mike Pompeo acknowledged for the first time that he listened in on the phone call between President Trump and Ukraine’s leader that has resulted in a House impeachment inquiry, and said the conversation occurred in the context of normal U.S. foreign policy toward Ukraine. Read more of The Transom by signing up for a free trial today.  follow on Twitter | friend on Facebook | forward to a friend  Copyright © 2019 The Federalist, All rights reserved.  unsubscribe from this list | update subscription preferences

NOQ REPORT

NOQ Report Daily

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• Ukraine’s top prosecutor to ‘audit’ Biden-linked Burisma case
• Elizabeth Warren’s huge labor plan isn’t getting the negative press it deserves
• A response to the left’s latest attack on comedy
• The real question: What if Joe Biden wasn’t running for president?
• Enough is enough of the left’s cynical attempts at exploiting tragedy, Part I
• Climate ‘activist’ at AOC event: ‘We have to eat the babies’
• Trump campaign raised more since impeachment started than Biden raised all quarter
• Raging leftist Robert De Niro loses it in voicemail, then gets sued by long-time assistant
• Why the media has it all wrong about Trump’s calls for ‘foreign help’
• Five impeachment hypocrites: Democrats in 1998 versus now

Ukraine’s top prosecutor to ‘audit’ Biden-linked Burisma case Posted: 04 Oct 2019 05:33 AM PDT As the Ukraine corruption story heats up in the United States with the right accusing Joe Biden and his son of wrongdoing and the left engaged in an impeachment inquiry into President Trump’s “favor,” the new top prosecutor in Ukraine is taking a look at old cases. One of those cases involves Burisma, the energy […] The post Ukraine’s top prosecutor to ‘audit’ Biden-linked Burisma case appeared first on Conservative Christian News.

Elizabeth Warren’s huge labor plan isn’t getting the negative press it deserves Posted: 04 Oct 2019 01:17 AM PDT It took Senator Elizabeth Warren 14-pages to detail how she intends to transform labor in America. That in itself is a possible reason why it’s not getting the negative press coverage on conservative media that it deserves. After reading it, I can tell you this with absolute certainty: It is just as crushing to the […] The post Elizabeth Warren’s huge labor plan isn’t getting the negative press it deserves appeared first on Conservative Christian News.

A response to the left’s latest attack on comedy Posted: 04 Oct 2019 12:41 AM PDT Todd Phillips drew outrage over his comments about leaving comedy because of woke culture. This came after Charlie Day made similar comments. This also came after Dave Chappelle’s Sticks and Stones, which I highly recommended in my Friday review a few weeks ago. The Leftist outlets slammed the comedy special as unfunny, sexist, and various […] The post A response to the left’s latest attack on comedy appeared first on Conservative Christian News.

The real question: What if Joe Biden wasn’t running for president? Posted: 03 Oct 2019 11:24 PM PDT Would Democrats be pushing an impeachment inquiry on President Trump if Joe Biden wasn’t running for President? Based on their accusations, the answers is clearly “no.” Everything they’re saying in regards to the Ukrainian scandal is framed against a backdrop of “influencing an election” or “attacking a political rival.” That tells us their entire case […] The post The real question: What if Joe Biden wasn’t running for president? appeared first on Conservative Christian News.

Enough is enough of the left’s cynical attempts at exploiting tragedy, Part I Posted: 03 Oct 2019 10:25 PM PDT We’ve had enough of the liberty grabber left’s assault on our inalienable human rights. They’re back at it again. Like the brainless zombies of every movie of the genre, the liberty grabber leftists are back at it, trying to eviscerate the people’s inalienable human rights. On Wednesday, they had a day long extravaganza on the […] The post Enough is enough of the left’s cynical attempts at exploiting tragedy, Part I appeared first on Conservative Christian News.

Climate ‘activist’ at AOC event: ‘We have to eat the babies’ Posted: 03 Oct 2019 05:12 PM PDT A woman at Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s town hall today took climate extremism to the next level. After saying the Green New Deal is great but it doesn’t work fast enough, she declared her own plan: eating children. Donning a t-shirt that read, “Save the Planet, Eat the Children,” the unhinged rant she delivered declared that […] The post Climate ‘activist’ at AOC event: ‘We have to eat the babies’ appeared first on Conservative Christian News.

Trump campaign raised more since impeachment started than Biden raised all quarter Posted: 03 Oct 2019 04:23 PM PDT Most of the Democratic totals for third quarter fundraising have been reported and a clear winner has emerged. President Trump is blowing away all of his competitors, but thanks to the launch of the impeachment inquiry, his fundraising has ramped up considerably. It’s noteworthy that the President’s former top-rival, Joe Biden, raised a meager $15 […] The post Trump campaign raised more since impeachment started than Biden raised all quarter appeared first on Conservative Christian News.

Raging leftist Robert De Niro loses it in voicemail, then gets sued by long-time assistant Posted: 03 Oct 2019 03:38 PM PDT Everything one might expect from an angry Robert De Niro leaving a voicemail to his long-time assistant became a reality today as the actor’s unhinged, expletive-laden rant was released to the public. The voicemail depicts his rage against someone who worked for him for more than a decade. Now that she’s suing him for $12 […] The post Raging leftist Robert De Niro loses it in voicemail, then gets sued by long-time assistant appeared first on Conservative Christian News.

Why the media has it all wrong about Trump’s calls for ‘foreign help’ Posted: 03 Oct 2019 03:06 PM PDT President Trump asked Ukraine for favors. He wanted information on the CrowdStrike servers and for them to look into the stifled investigation into Hunter Biden, the former Vice President’s son. Then yesterday, he noted to the press that China should also be looking at the younger Biden’s dealings in their country. Most mainstream media outlets […] The post Why the media has it all wrong about Trump’s calls for ‘foreign help’ appeared first on Conservative Christian News.

Five impeachment hypocrites: Democrats in 1998 versus now Posted: 03 Oct 2019 02:27 PM PDT Impeachment is all about revenge. It’s the Democrats taking vengeance against the President for winning in 2016. It’s revenge against the Republicans for winning the House in 2010 and the Senate in 2014. For Democrats who have been on Capitol Hill for over two decades, it’s revenge for the impeachment of President Clinton. And their […] The post Five impeachment hypocrites: Democrats in 1998 versus now appeared first on Conservative Christian News.

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ARRA NEWS REPORT

ARRA News Service (in this message: 16 new items)

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• Tone Deaf: CA Police Chief Says No to Charity Football Game Due to Republican Participation
• Schifty Schiff, Suspended Rights, Focus On Faith, Amazing Grace
• Trump and his Supporters Are the Real Whistleblowers
• Bernie Sanders Should Be Grateful We Don’t Have ‘Medicare for All’
• How China Woke America
• The Party of ‘Impeach!’
• New Feature Film Highlights Edchoice Board Member’s School Choice Story
• Public Education
• The Pumpkinification of Snopes
• Federal Court Trump Administration Ax Obama Era WOTUS Rule
• 2020 Going to Suck Like Never Before for Big Tech
• The Gospel of Marx: A False Religion Explained
• Sound of Silence: Teacher Fired over Trans Pronouns Sues School
• Christians Who Hate Trump
• Why Do Some Americans Lie About the Chinese Communist Dictatorship?

Tone Deaf: CA Police Chief Says No to Charity Football Game Due to Republican Participation Posted: 03 Oct 2019 09:06 PM PDT Thousand Oaks Police Chief Tim Hagel Ruins Event & Attacks Republicansby Tom Tillison: For some on the left, politics has become so toxic that they refuse to associate with Republicans, even in public settings such as a charity event. The Blue Bowl charity flag football game in Southern California has been postponed indefinitely because a police chief didn’t want Trump-supporting Republicans invited to the event, according to Fox 11 Los Angeles. Pro-Trump celebrities Scott Baio and Joy Villa were among those set to participate. The game was planned in honor of Ventura County Sgt. Ron Helus, an officer killed in a 2018 mass shooting. The goal was to raise money for his family and families of other officers killed in the line of duty, FOX 11 reported. The family had signed off on the event and the local NFL team, the Los Angeles Rams, were also taking part. Helus died when a gunman attacked the Borderline Bar and Grill in Thousand Oaks in November, killing 13 people and wounding about a dozen others. The deputy had been shot five times, but the fatal shot was friendly fire, CBS News reported. The Blue Bowl was scheduled to take place on Sunday and thousands of dollars had already been raised, but Fox 11 reported the money was being returned to donors after organizers say Thousand Oaks Police Chief Tim Hagel convinced organizations to pull out of the event. Hagel objected to Baio and Villa being a part of the event, according to organizer Mike Randall, vice president of the Fallen Officers Foundation. “He basically said over and over in the conversation, ‘This is not Trump country, that slogan ‘Make America Great’ is not favorable, popular, within 1,200 square miles,’ that we don’t want Republicans here. I could not believe it,” Randall told Fox 11. He said that Hagel added, “’The only thing,’ and I quote, ‘the only thing you [could have done to make] this worse, Mike, was to invite Dick Cheney and Sarah Huckabee Sanders.’ “And I went, ‘Wow, are you kidding me?” Randall said. The Fox affiliate said the charity event speakers list was bipartisan. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s public safety liaison was on the list, along with Baio, who went to the same church as Sgt. Helus, and Villa, who was set to sing the national anthem. According to Randall, the police chief said Democratic Assemblywoman Jacqui Irwin contacted him and was upset that a previous Republican election opponent had been invited. Hagel reportedly gave an ultimatum, ditch the Republican participants or he would tell the Venturas County Sheriff’s Department to withdraw, which is ultimately what happened when Randall refused to comply with the demand. Ventura County Sheriff’s Department and Sheriff Bill Ayub explained their decision in a statement to Fox 11: “The ‘Blue Bowl’ event was represented as a charitable flag football tournament to raise funds for the family of Sergeant Ron Helus. An event that would honor Ron’s memory and provide support to his wife Karen and son Jordan. As the event began to materialize, we became concerned with the behavior of some of the organizers of the event. Although I believe the organizers had good intentions, the event was moving in a direction we no longer felt comfortable supporting.” Politics has  affected even charity. And the family of the fallen officer will pay the price, along with other like families, being deprived of funding that is sorely needed. ——————— Tom Tillison is a Senior Staff Writer for BizPacReview Tags: Tone Deaf, CA Police Chief, Says No, to Charity Football Game, Due to Republican, Participation To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!

Schifty Schiff, Suspended Rights, Focus On Faith, Amazing Grace Posted: 03 Oct 2019 08:14 PM PDT by Gary Bauer, Contributing Author: “Shifty Schiff” As we noted yesterday, the New York Times reported that the Deep State operative, which the media falsely call a “whistleblower,” went to the Democrat staff on the House Intelligence Committee in advance and got their advice on filing his complaint. This is a blatant violation of the whistleblower law. This may explain why, long before the complaint became public, Rep. Adam Schiff attacked the president with charges that were in the complaint. More significantly, Schiff was asked two weeks ago whether he had ever communicated with the CIA operative who filed the complaint. He said, “We have not spoken directly with the whistleblower.” Mr. Schiff is perhaps the worst serial liar in Congress, and that’s saying something! A Schiff aide “clarified” last night that Schiff’s “we” really meant the full House Intelligence Committee. He had to say that because Schiff and his staff failed to inform the committee’s Republican members about what they knew. House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy is now calling on Schiff to be removed as chairman of the Intelligence Committee. Schiff’s advanced knowledge of the complaint and his “fake transcript” are more evidence that this is not an impeachment proceeding. It’s a show trial with the goal of weakening the president, depressing his supporters and ensuring a left-wing victory in 2020. Meanwhile, Fox News has received copies of affidavits from Rudy Giuliani about the former Ukrainian prosecutor, who was fired after Joe Biden complained about him. In the affidavit, the former prosecutor alleges that he was told by the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine to handle the investigation of the natural gas company (that employed Biden’s son) “with white gloves,” which he understood to mean “do nothing.” Suspended Rights? The president is insisting that he be allowed to know the identity of the CIA operative. The left claims Trump is threatening his life, which is absurd. I was reminded this week that while the president of the United States is not above the law, he is also not below the law. In this country, people accused of wrongdoing have a constitutional right to confront their accuser. It’s called the Sixth Amendment. It is insane for the left and its media allies to begin impeachment proceedings against the president without anyone knowing who this individual is, what his motivation is and whom he has worked with to orchestrate this attack on the duly elected president. Add this right to the long list of things in our Constitution that the left and the media are willing to throw overboard as they accuse Trump of being an authoritarian leader. Kudos To Graham! Senator Lindsey Graham has sent letters to the prime ministers of Australia, Great Britain and Italy urging them to fully cooperate with Attorney General William Barr’s investigation of the Deep State’s meddling in the 2016 elections. Graham sent these letters as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has oversight of the Justice Department. Graham assured the foreign leaders that Barr’s actions are legal and that the attorney general is “simply doing his job.” Brace yourself, Lindsey! Democrats will soon demand your impeachment for inviting foreign interference in our elections. Focus On Faith Focus on the Family recently announced that more than 500,000 Christian students signed up to bring their Bibles to school today. If your child, grandchild, niece or nephew is one of these 500,000-plus students, please congratulate them for me. We will never know until we’ve moved to the next life what ripples of salvation were created by the presence of these children with their Bibles in our schools. But I guarantee that some lives will be changed just by this simple act. Way back in 1963, I woke up one morning to the news that the Supreme Court had declared school prayer unconstitutional. I was shocked because every day in public school our classes began with a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance. The prayers were non-denominational. They did not turn anyone into a Christian, but they reminded kids that God is important. The Pledge did not turn anyone into a patriot, but it reminded us that love of country is important. I soon discovered that other classmates were also upset about the Supreme Court ruling, and I did something. I led a walkout, and hundreds of students walked out with me. It made the front pages of our local newspapers. Sadly, it did not change the direction of our courts, and since that day there has been a series of attacks against faith in the public square. The Ten Commandments have been torn down from courthouse walls. Valedictorians are told they cannot thank God for their success. Football coaches are told they cannot pray with their teams. War memorials are threatened with destruction because they are religious symbols representing the faith of our fallen heroes. I hope what happened in our schools today is the beginning of reclaiming America for God. After all, this country was founded on the idea that our liberty comes from Him, not government. Appalling Bigotry Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the Palestinian Muslim congresswoman from Detroit, Michigan, regularly expresses a disturbing worldview. For example, she recently introduced legislation banning the use of facial recognition technology. Facial recognition technology is an incredibly useful tool that helps law enforcement identify criminals. Detroit’s Chief of Police James Craig, who is black, invited Tlaib to come see why the technology is such a vital resource for getting criminals off the streets. Tlaib reportedly insisted that all the analysts running the system “need to be African-Americans,” adding, “I think non-African-Americans think African-Americans all look the same!” Chief Craig was stunned. Speaking on Fox & Friends this morning, Craig said, “We were appalled when she made this statement.” Amazing Grace Former Dallas Police Officer Amber Guyger was sentenced yesterday to 10 years in prison for the murder of her neighbor, Botham Jean. Guyger claimed she mistakenly entered Jean’s apartment last year and shot and killed him, believing he was an intruder in her apartment. At Guyger’s sentencing hearing, Jean’s younger brother Brandt took the stand to address his brother’s murderer. Here’s what he said: “I forgive you and I know if you go to God and ask Him, He will forgive you. . . I don’t even want you to go to jail. I want the best for you because I know that’s exactly what Botham would want . . . and the best is to give your life to Christ. . . I think giving your life to Christ would be the best thing and what Botham would want you to do.” Brandt then asked if he could give Guyger a hug, which Judge Tammy Kemp allowed. After this incredible scene concluded, Judge Kemp came down from her bench and handed Guyger the Bible she kept in her chambers. Kemp said, “You can have mine. I have three or four more at home.” “You just need a tiny mustard seed of faith.” Referring to John 3:16, Judge Kemp told Guyger, “You start with this.” Guyger hugged Kemp, who replied: “It’s not because I’m good. It’s because I believe in Christ. You haven’t done so much that you can’t be forgiven. You did something bad in one moment in time. What you do now matters.” What a wonderful story! But now for the negative part. Christ was censored from the story. Good Morning America and CBS This Morning left out the appeal to faith. NBC played only three seconds of Mr. Jean’s remarks. Our secular elites at work! ——————- 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!

Trump and his Supporters Are the Real Whistleblowers Posted: 03 Oct 2019 07:46 PM PDT by Brian C. Joondeph: “Whistleblower” is the media’s word of the week. They still working tirelessly to overturn the 2016 election. Unfortunately, it’s the wrong word to describe the deep state operative accusing President Trump of “Collusion – Part Two,” namely conspiring with Ukraine to rig the 2020 election. Instead of whistleblower, the proper term is gossiper, as this person filed a complaint, likely written by others, about something he or she had been told, but had no firsthand knowledge of. The National Whistleblower Center supports, “Efforts to expose and help prosecute corruption and other wrongdoing.” The Ukraine whistleblower is doing the exact opposite. In an ongoing, and thus far unsuccessful, effort to overturn the last presidential election, this so-called whistleblower is trying to hide corruption and wrongdoing by attempting to destroy the actual whistleblower, President Trump. Rush Limbaugh, on his radio show this past Friday, made the case that Trump is the real whistleblower in Washington, DC. I contend that his supporters are as well, as they are by extension, part of the Trump movement, taking slings and arrows from friends and family over their steadfast support of Trump’s efforts to drain the swamp. Rush played excerpts from a speech that candidate Trump gave on October 24, 2016, just a few weeks before the election. One has to search diligently for this speech as it is well camouflaged by social media search algorithms. Many call this, “The speech that got Trump elected.” Those familiar with the mysterious Q, who has gone silent for the past two months, have heard multiple references to this speech. If you are feeling down over what you hear endlessly on cable news, take five minutes and listen to the speech for an uplifting jolt of covfefe. YouTube screen grab!Trump’s speech is the ultimate whistleblower manifesto, laying out his case for draining the swamp. From the speech transcript, Trump explains the “corruption and other wrongdoing” that he plans to blow the whistle on.Our movement is about replacing a failed and corrupt political establishment with a new government controlled by you, the American People. There is nothing the political establishment will not do, and no lie they will not tell, to hold on to their prestige and power at your expense. The Washington establishment, and the financial and media corporations that fund it, exists for only one reason: to protect and enrich itself.Trump then goes on to name names.The Clinton Machine is at the center of this power structure. We’ve seen this firsthand in the WikiLeaks documents in which Hillary Clinton meets in secret with international banks to plot the destruction of U.S. sovereignty in order to enrich these global financial powers.Not mentioned are the Obamas and Bidens, as well as many other Democrats, and some Republicans, as branches of the Clinton power tree. Despite three years of Trump’s presidency, the Clintons have not been held to account for their decades of corruption and criminality. In fact, Hillary Clinton is stumbling back into the spotlight with a string of media appearances next week on friendly television shows like CBS Sunday Morning, Stephen Colbert, and The View. One might think she wants to take a third bite of the apple, trying for the Democrat nomination for president. Why not? As a presidential candidate, any criminal actions against her would be seen as overtly political, giving her protection against future Spygate or email prosecutions. As the Democrats and their media allies attempt to impeach President Trump over an innocuous phone call to the Ukrainian president, Biden’s pay-to-play corruption is being exposed. Sleepy Joe’s fortunes are fading as Rasmussen has Trump ahead of Biden now by 47 to 43 percent. Number two Elizabeth Warren has her own problems as fat cat Democrat Wall Street donors warn, “We’ll sit out, or back Trump, if you nominate Elizabeth Warren.” Bernie Sanders would fare no better as he is just a crazier version of socialist Warren. The remaining candidates are footnotes. Who would get in the way of Hillary if she wanted to run again? Ask Jeffrey Epstein what happens to those threatening the Clintons. Hillary also has the media on her side, another group Trump is blowing the whistle on.The most powerful weapon deployed by the Clintons is the corporate media. Let’s be clear on one thing: the corporate media in our country is no longer involved in journalism. They are a political special interest, no different than any lobbyist or other financial entity with an agenda. And their agenda is to elect the Clintons at any cost, at any price, no matter how many lives they destroy.The bigger the target the whistleblower threatens, the more the pushback. The whistleblower has much to lose and hence they are afforded protections. Not so for President Trump. As he blows the whistle, Democrats, the media, and NeverTrump Republicans, such as recent losing presidential ticket Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, fight back. Trump knows this and continues a battle that mere mortals would have given up or never undertaken in the first place.But I take all of these slings and arrows for you. I take them for our movement, so that we can have our country back. Our great civilization, here in America and across the civilized world, has come upon a moment of reckoning.Whistleblowers can choose to stay silent, to look the other way and avoid the scrutiny and castigation that follows blowing the whistle. Not Trump.I didn’t need to do this. I built a great company, and I had a wonderful life. I could have enjoyed the benefits of years of successful business for myself and my family, instead of going through this absolute horror show of lies, deceptions and malicious attacks. I’m doing it because this country has given me so much, and I feel strongly it was my turn to give back.This is no ordinary whistleblower action against a crooked company, but an action against the financial and political forces of the entire world. It’s a world war, without the soldiers and bombs. Actor Jon Voight recently posted a video on Twitter making the point, “War. This is war against truths. This is a war against the highest noble man who has defended our country and made us safe and great again.” Trump knew this before he was even elected. In his famous October 2016 speech, he acknowledged the reality.For them, it is a war – and for them, nothing is out of bounds. This is a struggle for the survival of our nation. This election will determine whether we are a free nation, or whether we have only the illusion of Democracy but are in fact controlled by a small handful of global special interests rigging the system.It seems as if the President is alone in this battle as most Congressional Republicans are sitting on their thumbs, afraid to defend Trump. But he is not alone. At least 65 million Americans are also whistleblowers, using their voices and votes to expose the corruption. Trump knows he needs help in this battle.The only thing that can stop the Corrupt Clinton Machine is you. The only force strong enough to save this country is you. The only people brave enough to vote out this corrupt establishment is you, the American People.The storm has arrived. But Trump is prepared. He knew this was coming long before he was elected and before he even announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination. He knew what blowing the whistle on decades of establishment corruption would mean for him and his family. Yet went forth and continues to this day. Last week at the United Nations he spelled it out, “The future does not belong to the globalists. The future belongs to patriots.” Before he was elected, he made the same declaration.This is our moment of reckoning as a society and as a civilization. We will vote for the country we want. We will vote for the future we want. We will vote for the politics we want.Trump is blowing the whistle on decades of global corruption at a level few of us can fathom. The left is in a panic because he is winning. Enjoy the show. ——————————— Dr. Brian C. Joondeph (@retinaldoctor), M.D., MPS, is a Denver-based physician and writer. Shared by Rassmussen Reports. Tags: Brian C. Joondeph, President Trump. his Supporters, Real Whistleblowers To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!

Posted: 03 Oct 2019 07:43 PM PDT by John Merline, I & I Editorial: Within hours of suffering chest pains Tuesday night, Bernie Sanders had stents inserted to relieve the blockage in an artery. He’s lucky. Because if Sanders lived under “Medicare for All,” things likely would not have gone as well. Sanders, along with every other Democrat pushing “Medicare for All” and its variants, constantly bleats about how the U.S. spends far more on health care but gets worse results than countries such as Canada or the U.K. But the quality measures – infant mortality and longevity – are notoriously unreliable for international comparisons. Infant mortality rates depend on how countries measure them, and longevity has more to do with things like obesity, crime, and drug abuse than health care. What Sanders and company never do is look at how countries handle actual health care delivery. That’s because when you do that, socialized medicine starts to look more like Hell than Nirvana. Canada and the U.K. are plagued with chronic shortages of doctors and nurses, shortages of hospital beds, shortages of the latest diagnostic tools. The result is treatment delays and outright denials. This grim reality plays out daily in the newspapers of the two countries, stories that Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and other single-payer advocates pretend don’t exist. This is as true for heart patients as anyone else. A 1995 study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that no patients needing an urgent coronary angiography test – used to reveal artery blockages – received one within 24 hours in Canada or the U.K., whereas 65% did in the U.S. Nearly two-thirds of Canadians and 94% of Brits had to wait more than three days. The same study found that while 80% of urgent coronary bypass operations occurred within 24 hours in the U.S., only 24% did in Canada and 10% in the U.K. The situation has not improved in either country since then. A dozen cardiac patients died in Quebec in just the first four months of this year while waiting for surgery. Why the delay? According to the head of the province’s cardiac surgeons association, it’s largely because “of a shortage of operating room nurses and perfusionists — the technicians who operate the heart-lung machine during the surgery” as well as a lack of hospital beds. Overall wait times for specialist care of any kind has more than doubled in Canada since the 1990s, according to the Fraser Institute, which has been tracking this. The British regularly see headlines such as “Heath patients die on waiting lists,” and “Patients are dying waiting for heart surgery.” In Wales, 152 patients died waiting for heart surgery in two hospitals over five years. Last year, the NHS reported that wait times for bypass surgery doubled in Wales to 79 days. A 2013 analysis found that the death rate for patients with congestive heart failure was three times higher in British hospitals than those in the U.S. Heart patients are hardly the only ones forced to wait for treatments in those countries. In the U.K., shortages of doctors and nurses often force cancer patients to wait so long that their survival rates are now lower than comparable countries, and far below survival rates in the U.S. Tens of thousands of Canadians come across the border each year and pay out of pocket for health care they can’t get in a timely fashion from their country’s version of “Medicare for All.” We could go on, and on, and on. The point is that these problems would inevitably emerge here if Sanders, Warren and company were allowed to impose “Medicare for All” on the country. Socialism always leads to shortages and low quality. We’re glad that Sanders got the care he needed in a timely fashion and hope for a speedy recovery. We just wish he’d embrace the (mostly) private health care system that provided him such excellent care, instead of trying to destroy it with “Medicare for All.” ———————— John Merline (@ibd_jmerline) is a senior writer at Issues & Insights (@IBDInvestors) covering health reform, tax policy, economics and regulatory policy. Tags: Issues & Insights, John Merlin, Bernie Sanders, should be grateful, don’t have Medicare for All To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!

Bernie Sanders Should Be Grateful We Don’t Have ‘Medicare for All’ Posted: 03 Oct 2019 07:13 PM PDT by John Merline, I & I Editorial: Within hours of suffering chest pains Tuesday night, Bernie Sanders had stents inserted to relieve the blockage in an artery. He’s lucky. Because if Sanders lived under “Medicare for All,” things likely would not have gone as well. Sanders, along with every other Democrat pushing “Medicare for All” and its variants, constantly bleats about how the U.S. spends far more on health care but gets worse results than countries such as Canada or the U.K. But the quality measures – infant mortality and longevity – are notoriously unreliable for international comparisons. Infant mortality rates depend on how countries measure them, and longevity has more to do with things like obesity, crime, and drug abuse than health care. What Sanders and company never do is look at how countries handle actual health care delivery. That’s because when you do that, socialized medicine starts to look more like Hell than Nirvana. Canada and the U.K. are plagued with chronic shortages of doctors and nurses, shortages of hospital beds, shortages of the latest diagnostic tools. The result is treatment delays and outright denials. This grim reality plays out daily in the newspapers of the two countries, stories that Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and other single-payer advocates pretend don’t exist. This is as true for heart patients as anyone else. A 1995 study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that no patients needing an urgent coronary angiography test – used to reveal artery blockages – received one within 24 hours in Canada or the U.K., whereas 65% did in the U.S. Nearly two-thirds of Canadians and 94% of Brits had to wait more than three days. The same study found that while 80% of urgent coronary bypass operations occurred within 24 hours in the U.S., only 24% did in Canada and 10% in the U.K. The situation has not improved in either country since then. A dozen cardiac patients died in Quebec in just the first four months of this year while waiting for surgery. Why the delay? According to the head of the province’s cardiac surgeons association, it’s largely because “of a shortage of operating room nurses and perfusionists — the technicians who operate the heart-lung machine during the surgery” as well as a lack of hospital beds. Overall wait times for specialist care of any kind has more than doubled in Canada since the 1990s, according to the Fraser Institute, which has been tracking this. The British regularly see headlines such as “Heath patients die on waiting lists,” and “Patients are dying waiting for heart surgery.” In Wales, 152 patients died waiting for heart surgery in two hospitals over five years. Last year, the NHS reported that wait times for bypass surgery doubled in Wales to 79 days. A 2013 analysis found that the death rate for patients with congestive heart failure was three times higher in British hospitals than those in the U.S. Heart patients are hardly the only ones forced to wait for treatments in those countries. In the U.K., shortages of doctors and nurses often force cancer patients to wait so long that their survival rates are now lower than comparable countries, and far below survival rates in the U.S. Tens of thousands of Canadians come across the border each year and pay out of pocket for health care they can’t get in a timely fashion from their country’s version of “Medicare for All.” We could go on, and on, and on. The point is that these problems would inevitably emerge here if Sanders, Warren and company were allowed to impose “Medicare for All” on the country. Socialism always leads to shortages and low quality. We’re glad that Sanders got the care he needed in a timely fashion and hope for a speedy recovery. We just wish he’d embrace the (mostly) private health care system that provided him such excellent care, instead of trying to destroy it with “Medicare for All.” ———————— John Merline (@ibd_jmerline) is a senior writer at Issues & Insights (@IBDInvestors) covering health reform, tax policy, economics and regulatory policy. Tags: Issues & Insights, John Merlin, Bernie Sanders, should be grateful, don’t have Medicare for All 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 China Woke America Posted: 03 Oct 2019 06:43 PM PDT by Dr. Victor Davis Hanson: In these times of near civil war, Americans agree on almost nothing. Yet sometime in 2019, almost all of America finally got “woke” on China. For years, our leaders had yawned about Silk Road neo-imperialism in Africa and Asia, and gross abuses of human rights against Chinese religious minorities and political dissidents. Almost every assumption Washington made, both by Democratic and Republican administrations, was logically flawed at best. And at worst, these calculations were a weird mix of conservative commercial greed, liberal political correctness and shared screwball Naivete. American trade and political appeasement were never interpreted by Beijing as magnanimity to be reciprocated, but always as weakness to be exploited. It was always ludicrous to think that the more concessions on trade and human rights the United States gave, the more China would Westernize and begin to resemble America or an EU nation. Even sillier was the old shibboleth that China’s embrace of capitalist reforms — as if by some unwritten, determinist economic law — would lead to constitutional government. But the ability to buy a new cellphone never ensures the right to vote for a candidate of one’s choice. Instead, all China did was auction off large sections of its new and more efficient economy to crony communist pseudo-capitalists and corrupt provincial officials in order to modernize the country, beef up the military, warp the international trading system — and make itself very rich. Why did America act in such a suicidal way on China? Cheap Chinese labor and lax American laws motivated hundreds of U.S. corporations to shut down their domestic assembly plants and relocate to China. At least at first, they were free to pay substandard wages and were mostly unregulated. Once American businesses got hooked on mega-profits, the Chinese government slowly started stealing their technology, infringing on copyrights and patents, dumping their own merchandise on the world market at prices below production costs, running up huge trade surpluses and manipulating their currency. But by then, American corporations were so addicted to laissez-faire profit-making that they turned a blind eye and paid their hush money. Universities cashed in too, both by setting up lucrative satellite campuses in China and admitting tens of thousands of Chinese citizens. These Chinese students paid full tuition (and sometimes premiums and surcharges), turning once cash-strapped campuses into profitable degree mills. Most college deans and presidents simply ignored the dreadful human rights record of China, not to mention occasional expatriate espionage rings designed to steal engineering and high-tech research. If profits had blinded corporations to exploitive Chinese partnerships, political correctness conveniently offered academia and the media political cover — as if a mostly monoracial China was a 1.3 billion-person diverse “other” with historical grievances against a supposedly racist America. The result was that everyone profited and all remained willfully blind to the ascendant cutthroat and dictatorial colossus. The domestic winners in the appeasement of Communist China were the two American coasts — the New York financial industry, the Washington political lobbying nexus, Silicon Valley’s high-tech companies, and the coastal mega-research universities such Harvard, Stanford and Yale. Suddenly, the intellectual and informational classes could sell their wares in a new global market, and they profited enormously. Few cared about the “losers” in the now-hollowed-out Midwest and in rural America. For corporate America, domestic muscular labor could be easily and cheaply replaced by millions of Chinese workers. Outsourcing and offshoring pulled investment capital out of America and put it overseas, as Chinese-assembled products brought far greater profits. Academics could not have cared less that the deplorables and the working classes were being wiped out, given their politically incorrect social and cultural views. What finally woke America up were two unforeseen developments. First, the Chinese overreached and systematically began militarizing neutral islands in the South China Sea. They derided international commercial treaties. In racist fashion, they treated Asian and African countries as if they were 19th-century colonies. And they unapologetically lifted technology from America’s biggest and most powerful corporations to turn China into something akin to George Orwell’s “1984.” Meanwhile, Beijing began rounding up dissidents, cracking down in Hong Kong and “re-educating” millions of Muslims in detention camps. All that brazenness finally drove the left to drop its multicultural blinders and accept the truth of renegade Chinese oppression. Second, Donald Trump got elected president, all the while screaming that the Chinese emperor had no clothes. The cheerleaders finally listened and admitted that China had been buck naked after all. Now we will learn whether America woke up just in time or too late. Either way, no one will credit the loud Trump for warning that China was threatening not just the U.S. but the world as we have known it. ————————- Victor Davis Hanson (@VDHanson) is a senior fellow, classicist and historian at the 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 Jewish World Review Tags: Victor Davis Hanson, How China Woke America 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 Party of ‘Impeach!’ Posted: 03 Oct 2019 06:33 PM PDT Via Elder’s article in the Jewish World Reviewby Larry Elder: The Democrats’ purported outrage about President Donald Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky might be taken seriously by the Republicans were it not for the Democrats’ drive to oust Trump from the moment he won the presidency. CNN’s Van Jones, with zero proof, attributed Trump’s victory to “whitelash.” Trump received 57% of the white vote, actually a lower percentage of the white vote than the 59% received by Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential candidate in 2012. In 2008, Democrat Barack Obama received a greater percentage of the white vote than John Kerry did four years earlier. Obama also received 95% of the black vote. None dared call it “blacklash.” Stunned, angry and bewildered by Trump’s win, some Democrats urged the Electoral College to refuse to certify his victory. In a Washington Post op-ed, John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, said, “The (Obama) administration should brief members of the electoral college on the extent and manner of Russia’s interference in our election before they vote on Dec. 19 (2016).” Nearly 70 Democratic lawmakers vowed to boycott Trump’s inauguration. Nearly a dozen Democrats refused to attend Trump’s first State of the Union address. In explaining his refusal to attend, Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., said, “This is a presidency that has been built on racism, stupidity and lies, which has already wasted enough of America’s time and I will not waste any more of mine.” Trump’s refusal to turn over his tax returns provoked claims of corruption. Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., said: “What’s unprecedented is (Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin) refusing to comply with our lawful, Article I request. What’s unprecedented is a Justice Department that again sees its role as being bodyguard to the executive and not the rule of law. What’s unprecedented is an entire federal government working in concert to shield a corrupt President from legal accountability.” There was the bill introduced in April 2017 by Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., with 67 co-sponsors, to determine whether to invoke the 25th Amendment, under which a president can be removed if “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” About his bill, Raskin told Vanity Fair last month: “It is still very much on my mind and the time will come. I don’t think of it as an alternative remedy for impeachment. They address different problems. The core of the concern of impeachment is high crimes and misdemeanors committed by the president. The core problem addressed by the 25th Amendment is the mental or physical incapacity of the president.” Then there was the outcry over Trump’s payments to former mistresses. About the payments, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said: “The president is a criminal. … This criminal must be brought up by the Congress of the United States for impeachment.” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said from “day one” Trump committed and impeachable for allegedly violating the emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits all persons holding federal office from accepting “any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.” Last year, Ocasio-Cortez said about Trump: “I think that there are serious grounds in violations of the emoluments clause from day one. I think that is, first and foremost, one of the basic elements and violations. And then, once again, it’s hard to predict what’s going to happen over the next few months. There are one or more investigations happening. But I think from day one we have had violations of the emoluments clause with the presidency.” In July, Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, wanted Trump impeached for his “racist tweets” that attacked several Democratic freshman House members known as “the squad.” Green tweeted: “(Trump’s) racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, and Islamophobia can no longer be tolerated or ignored. We must impeach.” One can only marvel at how, with a straight face, Democrats call Trump “racist” while embracing as “kingmaker” the race card-hustling Rev. Al Sharpton and refusing to denounce anti-Semitic Minister Louis Farrakhan. Of course, for 2 1/2 years, special counsel Robert Mueller investigated allegations of Russian “collusion,” and he drilled a dry hole. On the issue of obstruction of justice, he punted. Before the Mueller report came out, House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff, D-Calif., claimed there was “direct evidence (of collusion) but … also abundant circumstantial evidence.” If Congress impeaches Trump, the Senate will not convict. Meanwhile, all this Ukraine business just places attention on Joe’s Biden’s son. Hunter Biden received a lucrative monthly fee to sit on the board of director a Ukrainian energy company, despite his lack of energy expertise or his inability to speak the local language. Joe Biden’s candidacy will be irreparably harmed, increasing the odds that hard-left Elizabeth Warren will win the Democratic nomination. Trump, post-impeachment, can credibly call himself a victim of a political vendetta and ride that narrative to victory in 2020. Well played, Speaker Pelosi. ————– Larry Elder (@larryelder) is a best-selling author and radio talk-show host, an American lawyer, writer and radio and television personality who is also known as the “Sage From South Central.” To find out more about Larry Elder. Visit his website at LarryElder.com for list of other articles. Tags: Larry Elder, commentary, The Party of ‘Impeach!’ To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. 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New Feature Film Highlights Edchoice Board Member’s School Choice Story Posted: 03 Oct 2019 06:02 PM PDT by EdChoice (@edchoice): This weekend marks the opening of Miss Virginia, a new feature film starring Uzo Aduba based on the true story of EdChoice board member Virginia Walden Ford, who became a national school choice advocate after struggling to find the right schooling option for her son in Washington, D.C. “We are immeasurably proud of Virginia and all that she’s accomplished as an advocate for school choice in Washington, D.C., and across the country,” said EdChoice President and CEO Robert Enlow. “This movie captures her story beautifully, and it should serve as a constant reminder that parents have to be the driving force behind educational change.” As she was raising her three children in Washington, D.C., Walden Ford realized that her youngest son needed a different educational option than he was getting under the traditional model. She overcame tremendous obstacles to find a private school that would work for him—and she was fortunate to find private financial support for that choice. Miss Virginia Stars Emmy® winner Uzo Aduba“Virginia got lucky, but she turned that luck into advocacy because she believed—as we do—that no family should have to rely on luck to gain access to educational opportunity,” Enlow said. In 1998, Walden Ford took action, forming the grassroots organization D.C. Parents for School Choice, where she joined with other volunteers going door-to-door recruiting and training more parents to get involved. In 2003, with the support of national education organizations and lawmakers, they found success: Walden Ford’s groups of parent advocates convinced Congress and then-President George W. Bush to enact the nation’s first-ever Opportunity Scholarship Program for low-income children, a program that set into motion a complete overhaul of Washington, D.C.’s educational system. “In today’s cynical political world, Virginia’s story is a reminder that one person—one motivated mom who knew the system was rigged against her—can change the course of history,” Enlow said. ABOUT THE MOVIE Based on a true story, MISS VIRGINIA stars Emmy® winner Uzo Aduba as a struggling single mother who is losing her fifteen-year-old son to the rough streets of Washington, DC. Unwilling to see him drop out and deal drugs, she places him in a private school. But when she can’t afford tuition, she launches a movement to change the system that is destroying him and thousands like him. Attacked and threatened by those who don’t want change—from corrupt politicians to the local drug lord—Virginia must discover depths of strength she never knew she had. OFFICIAL TRAILER SCREENING DATES AND LOCATIONS October 4, 2019 – New York, NY October 7, 2019 – Washington, DC October 10, 2019 – Philadelphia, PA October 14, 2019 – Little Rock, AR October 16, 2019 – Bentonville, AR Tags: New Feature Film, Highlights, Edchoice Board Member, Virginia Walden School Choice Story To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!

Public Education Posted: 03 Oct 2019 03:59 PM PDT by Kerby Anderson, Contributing Author: One of the most powerful critiques of public education came nine years ago in the film, “Waiting for Superman.” The documentary told the story of five students trying to get out of a rotten public-school system and be accepted into schools that might give them a chance for success. It was powerful because people with liberal values were the ones who produced it. George Packer is a staff writer at The Atlantic and would also describe himself as a liberal. That’s is why his latest article on “When the Culture War Comes for the Kids” is so powerful. He begins his article by describing the challenges of getting his young son into a private school. Then his prospects improve when he is informed that his son made it off the wait-list for his preferred public school. If you don’t want to read the 25 pages in his story, you might read the insightful summary by Matthew Continetti with the appropriate title: “George Packer Gets Mugged by Reality.” George Packer and his wife are excited to put their son in what he called a “liberal white family’s dream.” At first, they were pleased with the school. Then, to use his words, “Things began to change.” Actually, that’s an understatement. Leftist perspectives quickly changed the direction of the school. Rage and indignation about Trump and societal injustice became part of the curriculum. Parents opted their children out of standardized tests because they were deemed to be biased and racist. Boy and girl bathrooms were changed to gender-neutral bathrooms. Families split into warring factions. It got ugly. I might mention that George Packer isn’t reporting anything that many of my radio guests haven’t already been describing for decades. But they were conservative and thus easier to dismiss. He is a liberal and now sees how the Left and the culture war are ruining education. ——————- Kerby Anderson (@kerbyanderson) is a radio talk show host heard on numerous stations via the Point of View Network (@PointofViewRTS) and is endorsed by Dr. Bill Smith, Editor, ARRA News Service. Tags: Kerby Anderson, Viewpoints, Point of View, Public Education 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 Pumpkinification of Snopes Posted: 03 Oct 2019 03:47 PM PDT by Paul Jacob, Contributing Author: Satire exaggerates not just for a laugh, often employing the reductio ad absurdum for cutting effect — casting our attention on human follies and crimes. While the classic literary satires include Seneca’s Apocolocyntosis (divi) Claudii — “The Pumpkinification of (the Divine) Claudius” — and Jonathan Swift’s 1729 “Modest Proposal for preventing the children of poor people in Ireland from being a burden on their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the publick,” we nowadays often turn to humor websites, like The Onion. Or, increasingly, The Babylon Bee. Last week, as I set out for the Far East, the Bee story that topped the page was “New Genderfluid Dolls Emit Blast Of Pepper Spray, Alert Authorities When Children Use Wrong Pronoun.” On the same date I caught “Man Sure Is Glad He Switched From E-Cigs To Regular, Healthier Cigarettes.”* And laughed until I coughed. Worthy of The Onion, sure, but better than most recent Onion efforts. How did the Bee leap to the forefront of modern satire? Well, it’s a Christian site, actually, which seems to help. The Bee’s writers do not accept any dominant strain of contemporary culture as an admirable norm — like today’s “woke comics” must — so it is easier to find the absurdities in this current epoch’s conflicted and contradictory politics and culture. The Bee so effectively lampoons dominant culture that snopes.com, the progressives’ most popular (putative) fact checking site, warned that the Bee’s great Chick-fil-A satire confused some readers because it “altered some details of a controversial news story.” Satire is funny. Not getting satire? Priceless. The Babylon Bee’s biggest competition may not be The Onion. This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob. * Nick Gillespie of Reason mentions some titles that caught his attention: “‘Trump Is Being Influenced by The Russians, Screams Communist!’ and ‘Woke Polar Bear Apologizes for Being White.’ Classics include ‘Trump Proves He’s Not A Racist By Showing His Rejection Letter From The KKK’ and ‘Local Christian Would Do Anything For Jesus Except Believe Things That Are Unpopular.’” —————— 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, Pumpkinification of Snopes To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!

Federal Court Trump Administration Ax Obama Era WOTUS Rule Posted: 03 Oct 2019 03:24 PM PDT by Dr. Bonner R. Cohen: One of the most far-reaching regulatory initiatives ever undertaken by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been struck down by a federal court in Georgia and withdrawn by the Trump administration. Expanding Authority The 1972 Clean Water Act (CWA) prohibits the discharge of pollutants into “navigable waters” without a permit. Under the CWA, the EPA shares regulatory jurisdiction over “waters of the United States” with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Over time, the federal government expanded the definition of the types of waters protected by CWA to include ephemeral waters and wetlands, including land that is only seasonally wet and physically distant from and not directly feeding into navigable waterways. This brought non-transportation bodies of water such as isolated ponds and abandoned gravel pits under the federal government’s regulatory authority. In two separate cases, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down such expansive definitions of navigable waters. In doing so, the Court refused to provide a strict definition of the limits to the government’s CWA authority. In 2015, the EPA under President Barack Obama created the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule, removing the limiting word “navigable” from the federal government’s CWA definition. States, property owners, and farm and business groups challenged WOTUS in court, and in August 2015 the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati issued a nationwide stay on WOTUS, only to have its decision overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in January 2018, with the Court ruling the matter properly belongs before district courts. States, Industries Challenged WOTUS After the Supreme Court threw WOTUS back into the district courts, eight states, led by Georgia, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia to have WOTUS overturned. Joining Georgia were Alabama, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, South Carolina, Utah, and West Virginia. Several business groups joined the lawsuit as well. The plaintiffs argued the Obama administration’s definition of “waters of the United States” was overly broad and “unconstitutionally vague.” Having published notice in the Federal Register on February 14, 2019 it was replacing WOTUS with a different rule, the Trump administration chose not to defend the rule in court. ‘Must Comply with the Law’ Judge Lisa Godbey Wood, who heard the case for the U.S. District Court in Georgia, agreed with the plaintiffs, ruling WOTUS went beyond the EPA’s legal authority to regulate ephemeral bodies of water. “Congress has delegated the important role of protecting the nation’s waters to the Agencies, but in fulfilling that role, the Agencies must comply with the law,” Wood stated in her ruling. “Here, they have failed to do just that. The WOTUS Rule extends the Agencies’ delegated authority beyond the limits of the CWA.” Godbey’s August 21 decision sent the rule back to the EPA for reworking. It was the second legal setback for WOTUS in four months. In May, a federal court in Texas reached a similar judgement, blocking enforcement of WOTUS in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. ‘Ignored the Law’ The American Road and Transportation Builders Association welcomed the court’s decision. “The decision is a win for the nation’s transportation construction industry, which is fighting the regulation because it could subject roadside ditches to federal regulations, causing delays and driving up project costs,” the group, a co-plaintiff in the suit, stated in a press release. In developing WOTUS, the Obama administration followed previous presidential administrations’ bad examples in failing to follow the law, says Daren Bakst, a senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation. “For decades, EPA and the Corps have struggled to come up with a definition for WOTUS because they have ignored the law,” Bakst said. “So, what did the Obama administration do? They ignored the law. “Instead of learning lessons from past errors, the Obama administration compounded those errors, creating a grossly overbroad and vague rule,” said Bakst. “The district court’s opinion thoughtfully addresses one issue that isn’t getting enough attention: that the rule violated the law even under Justice [Anthony] Kennedy’s ‘significant nexus’ test, which itself would cover far too many waters, making this decision a really important victory against the Obama rule.” Overreach Blocked The district court’s decision represents a reversal of executive overreach, says Craig Rucker, president of the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT). “The court’s decision is a setback for the administrative regulatory state,” said Rucker. “Political appointees to the Obama administration arrogated to themselves powers the court now says they never had to begin with.” ‘Greater Regulatory Certainty’ In the aftermath of the district court rulings blocking WOTUS enforcement, the Trump administration completed its plans to scrap the Obama administration’s rule, announcing on September 12 it was returning to standards put in place in 1986 until it could develop alternative water regulations more in line with Supreme Court rulings on the subject. “Today, EPA and the Department of the Army finalized a rule to repeal the previous administration’s overreach in the federal regulation of U.S. waters and recodify the longstanding and familiar regulatory text that previously existed,” EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said in a press release. “Today’s Step 1 action fulfills a key promise of President Trump and sets the stage for Step 2: a new WOTUS definition that will provide greater regulatory certainty for farmers, landowners, home builders, and developers nationwide.” Joining the states as co-plaintiffs in the District Court lawsuit were business groups and trade associations whose members would be directly affected by the rule, including the American Farm Bureau Federation, American Forest & Paper Association, American Petroleum Institute, American Road and Transportation Builders Association, National Alliance of Forest Owners, National Association of Home Builders, National Association of Manufacturers, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, National Mining Association, National Pork Producers Council, National Stone, Sand, and Gravel Association, and the Public Lands Council. ——————- Bonner R. Cohen, Ph.D. is a senior fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research and a senior policy analyst with CFACT. Article via THe Heartland Institute. Tags: Federal Court, Trump Administration, Ax Obama Era, WOTUS Rule To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!

2020 Going to Suck Like Never Before for Big Tech Posted: 03 Oct 2019 02:59 PM PDT by Resurgent Insider: Here’s the secret reason why. Big Tech is under fire in Washington, D.C. like never before. But come January 2020, the amount of scrutiny of the industry could vastly increase, thanks to action planned by Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC). Tillis chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Intellectual Property. In that capacity, he’s been telling lobbyists for Big Tech firms – and their critics – that 2020 will be an especially busy year. And the lobbyists and Big Tech firms are not happy. Tillis is said to be planning a minimum of two hearings a month on topics relevant to intellectual property. That’s bad news for Big Tech, especially Google which owns YouTube and is persistently the target of accusations that it allows rampant piracy on its platform – a subject squarely within the jurisdiction of Tillis’ subcommittee. Two hearings a month might not sound like anything interesting or noteworthy to those who have not worked on Capitol Hill or as lobbyists or CEOs interfacing with legislators. But it will require a massive input of time on the part of companies facing enhanced scrutiny, and also present the possibility that many more problematic business practices come to light. It will also make it harder for Big Tech CEOs to get away with the occasional hearing where they bluster while Senators who are less than tech-savvy ask questions that avoid Big Tech truly being put on the spot and held accountable, with that cycle set indefinitely to wash, rinse, repeat. While Google has vastly more problems when it comes to issues of intellectual property rights protection, that trend could be seriously bad news for Facebook, too. Its chief, Mark Zuckberg, is widely regarded in Washington, D.C. as the least likable, relatable, open and cooperative Big Tech executive. Rumors also abound that since the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook’s lobbyists and other consultants have been effectively barred from doing their jobs, as the company attempts a strategy that some have compared to self-flagellation and public penitence in the expectation that the company will eventually be given credit for by regulators and legislators and allowed to operate free of scrutiny and criticism moving forward. Tillis’ schedule-setting could mean the end of clueless legislators trying to muddle their way through complex issues as they are forced to learn more and be fully prepped for more hearings. And it could be the end of Big Tech getting a pass through intermittent testimony, running out the clock, and use of jargon and technical terms with luddite Senators who critics say have up until now largely botched oversight of the sector. —————- Resurgent Insider anonymously writes for The Resurgent. Tags: Resurgent, 2020, going to suck. like never before. for Big Tech 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 Gospel of Marx: A False Religion Explained Posted: 03 Oct 2019 02:27 PM PDT Karl Marx, the founder of Communism,  author of “Das Kapital,” & along with co-author Friedrich Engels, “The Communist Manifesto.” by Daniel Davis: Karl Marx once called religion the opium of the people—an imaginary coping mechanism that makes suffering in this world more bearable. His vision was a secular, atheistic one. But my guest today argues Marx’s vision was still intensely spiritual. In fact, he says Marx hijacked key themes from Christianity to create a false religion. Theology professor Bruce Ashford joins me in today’s episode. We also cover these stories: Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., undergoes heart surgery after chest discomfort.Secretary of State Mike Pompeo calls for religious freedom around the world at Vatican symposium.Students and parents plan to appeal after a federal judge sides with Harvard University in their discrimination suit.The Daily Signal podcast is available on Ricochet, iTunes, Pippa Google Play, or Stitcher. All of our podcasts can be found at DailySignal.com/podcasts. If you like what you hear, please leave a review. You can also leave us a message at 202-608-6205 or write us at letters@dailysignal.com. Enjoy the show! Daniel Davis: I’m joined now in the studio by Dr. Bruce Ashford. He is the dean of faculty and provost at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary down in North Carolina, where he also serves as a professor of theology and culture. He also blogs at “Christianity for the Common Good.” And as a note of personal disclosure, he is a professor of mine. I’m a part-time student at Southeastern. Bruce, thanks for swinging by the studio. Bruce Ashford: Yeah, it’s great to be on the podcast today. Thank you. Davis: Bruce, you’re an interesting blogger and writer because on the one hand, you’re kind of like waist-deep in historical theology and philosophy and writing the journal articles and all of that. But you’re also writing contemporary books for your audience, which is largely Christian, and you’re also blogging about contemporary political issues. And one of those issues that’s come up already is that socialism is a recurring theme, with [Rep.] Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and [Sen.] Bernie Sanders and others bringing that back to the fore. You’ve written about not just socialism, but the Marxist underpinnings of it. You write about how Marxism as an ideology is actually a false religion. And I think that’s an interesting angle. I think a lot of folks, even conservatives, think of Marxism as just a set of bad ideas, but you’re saying it’s actually false religion and even idolatry. Why do you frame it that way? Ashford: Yeah. And so you know, I’m not the first person to bring this up. The great French philosopher Raymond Aron, who’s a contemporary of [Jean-Paul] Sartre, explored this in a book that he wrote called “The Opium of the Intellectuals,” which is a play off of Marx’s “opium of the masses.” He argued that structurally and existentially, Marxism functions more like a religion than just kind of a mirror ideology that’s been picked up on by some contemporary political scientists and philosophers like David Koyzis and Peter Kreeft. The critique is really Augustinian, and Augustine argued that any time you take some aspect of the natural order and elevate it to a level of ultimacy, absolutize it, you’ve got yourself an idol or a false religion. And I think Marx did that with material equality. What happens is when you take any one aspect of reality and you elevate it that high, you absolutize it, it becomes a cudgel with which you beat down other good aspects of reality. And we can talk about this later, but that’s exactly what Marxism has done, is taken this drive for material equality and beat down other good aspects of reality. It induces poverty and decreases liberty. Davis: Lay out for us the basic Marxist paradigm. We hear the word so often, but what actually is the worldview of Marxism? Ashford: We’ll start with his philosophy of history. He was an economic determinist, or something very close to a determinist, that believed the logic of human history can be traced by tracing economic struggles, class struggles. So he divided the world into five eras and he argued that in each of these eras, you can see that human beings are essentially laborers and that their labor conditions determine who they are and determine the happiness of their life. First is Asiatic, the hunter-gatherer stage, and this is where human beings were at the mercy of nature. The second era is the ancient era, and this is the slave master era where the slave is oppressed by the master. Then on the heels of that, you’ve got in the medieval era, the feudal system, and this is sort of the lord-peasant era and it’s a little bit better than the ancient era. Marx argued that owners began to realize the problem with slavery is that your property can get sick or die, and your property usually wants to run away. In the lord-peasant era, the peasants at least had some ownership of what they did. They got to keep their crops and so forth. They were less likely to run away. Then we have capitalism, which is the owner-worker relationship, where he argued that the wealthy, the owners oppressed the workers. And he lived in an era of serious crony capitalism, the industrial era where there were immoral market agents who were working young children and adults 16 hours a day, things that we would never agree with—unhealthy forms of the free market. And he just assumed that that’s what capitalism was and he was wrong. Then finally, the fifth era that he’s pushing toward is he believed that definitely and inevitably, the working class would disappear. They’d be replaced by machines and that they would rebel and that a few wealthy people would help them to overthrow the wealthy class, and that there would be a socialist utopia. Eventually, and this is just laughable, he believed that under the Marxist paradigm, the state would wither away. And we’ve seen something like the opposite of that happen every time Marx’s thought has been instantiated in actual society. Davis: That’s interesting, isn’t it? Ashford: If you take Marx’s benchmark, which is history, Marxism fails under that benchmark in the most utterly devastating way, repeatedly. So that’s his philosophy of history. His anthropology, this is important—he believed that human beings are essentially laborers. That’s who we are. It determines who we are. And because he was a determinist and because he believed that people’s way of thinking was determined by their economic class, he believed that people couldn’t really be reasoned with. The problem with that, and we see this in contemporary society, [is] people take Marx’s thought and translate it to gender, sex, and race theory. The problem is that if people can’t be reasoned with, the only thing that’s left is coercion. They can be bullied—and we see in Marxist societies, imprisoned, assassinated. That’s his anthropology. So that’s a brief summary of his thought. Davis: That’s interesting. It’s really evocative of the identity politics—you’re in this group but you’re in that group. And you’ve got certain interests and that’s all you are and you can’t rise above that. You can’t think beyond that. It makes you wonder about Marx himself. Did he see himself as somehow above all of these people and able to get to the truth? Ashford: That’s a great critique … and that’s another one of the many ironies that you’ve got. Davis: Because wasn’t he a traitor to his own class? He was kind of raised in what he would call the bourgeois, the wealthy. Ashford: Yeah. His father was a lawyer and he was sent to Berlin and didn’t have to pay for any of it. [He was at the] University of Berlin studying under the greatest minds. Just last week I spoke at a College Republicans kickoff at a university in North Carolina and had a bunch of progressive activists show up and their activism, it was a Marxist form of activism. They treated me as a worthless piece of crap who could not be reasoned with and so they used kind of verbal forms of intimidation to try to bully me. I’m not easily bullied, but I tried to engage them in good faith and about half of them ended up responding to me as a human being, but the other half didn’t. They treated me under Marx’s view. I was determined by my gender, sex, race, and economic class, and I’m somebody to be bullied rather than talked with. It’s a problem that so many of our college students are being taught that sort of the Alinsky method and kind of the Marxist view of one’s social and political opponents. Davis: That’s sad to hear. Unfortunately, [it’s] more and more common. Before we get too much into that, though, I want to ask you about Marxism as an antithesis to Christianity. You write about this in your blogs and how Marx was putting forward an alternative to Christianity, but in many ways actually mirrored it. Talk about that. Ashford: Marx converted to Christianity or early on, he was Jewish and converted to Christianity briefly. [He] even wrote some relatively beautiful prose about Christianity before he became an atheist. And when he became an atheist, he began writing his theory, you can tell it’s almost as if he had the Bible at his elbow. So for every major Christian doctrine, he built a Marxist doctrine that was the inverse or the converse of it. For example, in Marxism, you’ve got a god and the god is material equality. You’ve got an evil, and the foremost evil is material inequality and the class struggle that exists because of that. Then you have a salvation. Salvation is Marxist ideology and revolution. And if I can stop there for just a minute, Marxist revolution is not political revolution. Political revolution is something limited. That’s when you replace one political arrangement with another. But the socialists, most of them, to the extent that they’re like Marx, don’t want merely a political revolution. They want a social revolution, which is an entire upending, an overthrow of the social order. And that doesn’t go well. That never goes well. When you clear the decks and try to start over again, there’s no one person or no group of people as brilliant enough and persuasive enough to overturn an entire social order and for it to go well. And that’s what Marx wants to do with the salvation he provides. You’ve got Marx’s version of church and that will be pockets of classless people in the midst of the capitalist world. When I was in Russia, I lived in Russia right after the fall of the Soviet Union, and the Russians told me that they would have in their communist youth group meetings … a little Bible— Davis: They had communist youth group? Ashford: Yeah. Their youth group meetings. And they had a little green book that looked just like a Bible called “The Atheist Table” and they sang songs about how God doesn’t exist and how Jesus wasn’t God. It’s very similar. Davis: Do they have any atheist altar calls or something? Ashford: Yeah, I don’t know. Davis: Baptism? Ashford: Yeah, catechisms and so forth. The priesthood in Marx’s system is the Communist Party, and now here’s an important one, the ethic. So the Christian ethic is a principled ethic. There are certain things that are wrong in and of themselves and you never do them, ever. Davis: Like murder, stealing, rape. Ashford: Rape, murder, yeah. But the Marxist ethic is utilitarian and under the Marxist system, the good is whatever helps achieve the socialist utopia. The bad is whatever hinders it. And that’s why Marxist societies have been so easily able to justify assassinations. You had 800,000 executions in the first three decades of communism in Russia and it’s why they could imprison in the Gulag, I think, 1.7 million people in the first three decades in the Soviet Union. And those are the Soviet numbers. Those aren’t American numbers. That’s a fact. So you’ve got a utilitarian ethic that ends up undermining human dignity. You have an end times. Christians talk about … We believe that Christ will return one day, set the world to rights, install the one-world government, the one-party system and justice will roll down like the waters. Well, Marx said his version of that and that is that once his revolution had happened, there would be such material abundance. That’s funny, isn’t it? There’d be so much material abundance, people would be so happy, they’d be frolicking, and in the midst of abundance the state would wither away. And we know, of course, that the opposite happens in the Marxist system. The state doesn’t wither away, it becomes like a giant octopus that swells to enormous proportions and reaches its tentacles into every sector of society in every sphere of culture. And then finally, the Christian view of history is that history is linear. It’s proceeding toward something that would be Christ’s return. And that history is not a closed system, that there’s something that transcends us as a transcendent moral framework and there’s a God who underpins that. But for Marx, history is a closed system and the meaning of life is found within history, not without. So that’s a summary of the way that Marxism functions as a false religion. And we can, if you want to in a little while, we can talk about what happens when you build an ideology, the functions of false religion. Davis: Well, let’s do that. Ashford: OK. Davis: You talked about living in the post-Soviet world in Russia. You saw, I assume, the disastrous consequences of a whole half-century of communism. But talk about how that came about and why building a system on what you call an idol is what was really problematic. Ashford: I was born in the ’70s, all right? So I’m an old guy and I remember— Davis: Gen X. Ashford: Exactly. Davis: The last good generation, as they say. Ashford: I hope so. I hope we’re a good generation. But when I was a kid … I remember watching Ronald Reagan on television talking about the evils of communist society. And I remember my parents received a bulletin four times a year from Voice of the Martyrs, and it would have photographs of Russian pastors and Christians who had been put in the Gulag in the concentration camps and it would tell their story and they almost always died of starvation within a few months or they were assassinated or killed, executed. It got my imagination going. So, in the ’90s, I moved to a Central Asian corner of Russia and lived there for awhile. And I saw and talked to the people who lived under that regime. And it was absolutely devastating. So here’s how we put it: When you take an aspect of the natural world and elevate it to the level of a god and make it a god, it’s always going to go badly. It’s going to distort and warp reality. It’s going to beat down other good aspects of reality. So let’s talk about how that happened. And we’ll just use Russia as our examples, or the communists, the Soviet Union. We could do the same thing with the People’s Republic of China. And if it’s called the People’s Republic, it’s probably not the people’s republic. We do the same thing with Cuba. Davis: Venezuela, today. Ashford: Yeah, Venezuela. But we’ll focus on the Soviet Union. I know those numbers the best. Marxism fails by its own benchmark, which is history. So, historically, the abolition of private property has not led to liberation. It’s led to oppression. Think about it. If you don’t have private property, you only have one thing left, which is your own soul, right? Your own inner freedom, freedom of conscience. And that’s something that nobody can ever take away. But other than that, you have nothing. If you don’t have private property, the government can take absolutely everything away from you. They’ve got you in an iron grip. You can’t even go home. You can’t even go home to your house and be with your family, because you don’t even have that. Historically, … the state has not withered away. It’s actually become enormous and oppressive. So to give some numbers in the USSR—the Communist Party used systematic terror, because remember, you can’t reason with people, right? People are historically determined. If somebody is an opponent of the government and they can’t be reasoned with, and if you have utilitarian ethic, then the good thing to do is to get rid of those people. Just from 1921 to 1953, 1.7 million Soviet citizens died in the Gulag, 800,000 were executed, 400,000 died from forced resettlement and the starvation and so forth that occurred from that kind of a resettlement. Anthropology, Marx did believe in human dignity, not in the same way that I do, but his system undermined human dignity. … For those of you listening, you really ought to read Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s “The Gulag Archipelago.” There’s an abridged edition. That’s a very good edition. And in that, he talked about how the Soviet leaders viewed the Soviet citizens as swarming lice, that they didn’t have any inherent value or dignity. They only had instrumental value. And if you were for the revolution, they were good with you. If you are against the revolution, you could be eliminated. Human beings also were essentially robots or animals in this theory, and I think that’s a negative. I think another problem with Marxism, and we see this in contemporary forms of Marxism, is that it misunderstands human nature and … it misunderstands evil and it locates evil either exclusively or primarily in systems. Christianity doesn’t do that. Christianity recognizes that evil is, on the one hand, located in the human heart and rooted in the human heart, and that’s why we believe in bringing justice to individuals who have flouted the law. We do believe in what people call today systemic evil, that institutions, if you have enough individuals who are unjust, then their sin coalesces at the social level to warp institutions. But if you get rid of systemic injustice, you don’t get rid of evil. The problem with Marxists is that they aim almost exclusively at institutions and don’t realize that you can get rid of the institutions and evil will still be there, rooted in the human heart. A couple of other negative consequences is that a Marxist historic determinism led to moral relativism. We’ve touched on that a little bit, but that’s part of the corruption of society in the Soviet era, is moral relativism from stem to stern. Then the last thing is … when I hear somebody like AOC or some of the socialists today talking about the 1%, sometimes I’ll laugh, sometimes I get upset about it because it’s so false. We look at what Marx did in the USSR. The Communist Party, the KGB bosses were enormously wealthy and everyone else in the country was poor. Everyone else was poor. There wasn’t a 1%, there was a 1000th of 1% who was enormously wealthy and everybody else was poor. So if you’d like to help the U.S., let’s embrace a reality-based politic like you’ve got here at [The Heritage Foundation]. Socialism is not a reality-based politic. It’s grand utopian promises that can’t be backed up. Davis: Given all that history you just laid out, economic Marxism has been devastating for country after country after country. Why do you think

[socialism is]

making this resurgence in American politics if it’s got such a bad track record? Is it just because we’re not educated or do you think there’s something more?

Ashford: Good question. I’ll give it my best shot at answering it. I think on the one hand, with younger Americans—millennials and Generation Z—there is a lack of awareness, historical awareness. They didn’t grow up exposed to the utter horrors of the Soviet Union, People’s Republic of China, the atrocities in Cuba. There’s not a kind of existential and historical awareness, so that’s part of it. But you’ve got older people, you’ve got Bernie, you know, crazy Bernie up there …

Davis: Who spent his honeymoon in the Soviet Union.

Ashford: And that woman stayed with him. And I don’t understand that, but I think people are drawn to utopia. I think we all are. We want, especially idealistic people, people are idealistic and are drawn to utopia. And there’s nothing wrong with that in and of itself, but we can’t usher into utopia. And the reason is, their evil is rooted in the human heart, not in systems.

So no amount of clearing the deck socially and starting over with new institutions will ever bring that utopia. So we’re going to have to settle for something more realistic. And for me, I think the realistic thing is to have as minimal of a government as possible. Government’s going to have to expand a little bit sometimes and step in and fix some things. But the government should set the conditions where human beings can flourish.

When there’s immoral market agents, then we can step in and correct those immoral market agents. But we can’t do this sort of grand utopian revolutionary politics, it’s just not going to work out well.

Davis: Marxism, in its economic form, as you were talking about, is clearly devastating and a lot of folks on the left have said, “Yeah, maybe that doesn’t work. We’ll adopt like a softer capitalism, but we’re going to apply Marxism in all these other areas, in sex, gender, race.”

Talk about that transition and how Marxism lives on even in countries that are capitalist.

Ashford: If you’d asked me 20 years ago, 15 years ago even, I would’ve said, “Marxism is dead. It is absolutely dead. It will never make a comeback.” But it has made a comeback. And you’re right, not just in the economic dimension.

Marx’s historic determinism has been taken and applied not just to economics, but to gender, race, and sex. You as a person, Daniel, are a white male, middle class, upper-middle class, I don’t know what you are, but you’re determined—

Davis: Definitely lower-middle class.

Ashford: … You’re determined by that and you’re not a person who can be reasoned with. Right? You are a person who should be shouted down, mocked, insulted, kind of intimidated, bullied a little bit.

Davis: Just incapable of an original thought.

Ashford: Yeah, that’s right. So you have identity politics based on identities. And I do think that identity politics defined as seeking the good of your own tribe at the expense of the common good is the death of democracy. It is a way to burn down the house that our Founding Fathers built.

So we want to promote a view where people are independent agents, that we’re not completely independent, we’re interdependent on other people, but we are able to think freely.

People can change their way of thinking like Marx did—[he] went from being a Jew to a Christian to an atheist, right? He changed his thought. He wasn’t so determined historically. And we want to treat other people with that kind of respect. I want to ascribe human dignity to them, and reason with them or persuade them instead of engaging in coercive forms of activism.

Davis: When you’re engaging with people, say they’re college students or someone else who thinks that you’re just part of your identity group and not to be reasoned with, to be shunned, are you ever able to succeed in breaking through to them?

I know you mentioned some college students earlier where you did, but how do you do that and how do you meet them at a mental level where you can actually have a conversation so that they’re not so tied to their ideology that they keep shunning you?

Ashford: It’s a great question. I started as an opinion writer about four years ago and mostly for Fox, but I’ve written some for The Daily Signal, The Daily Caller. When I would link to those articles on my Facebook author page, I would get all sorts of comments, as you can imagine, from activists.

I started an experiment then that I’ve continued, not just electronically, but sort of in-person engagement with progressive activists. And the good thing is that these people are human, they’re human. And that means that there’s a good chance that if you enter into a good faith conversation with them, they’re going to respond decently.

On average I would say about half of the folks do, if you work at it, end up responding decently and you have a good conversation … You don’t usually come away agreeing. You’re not going to win them over on the spot. But you come away with it having been a good engagement. And the other half of the folks I think on average have been so … so overwhelmed by ideology that their humanness doesn’t come out. But I think we need to be careful not to respond in kind.

Davis: Right, because I would imagine … it is easy for some on the right to also fall into that identity politics mindset where it’s like, “OK, you’re just going to hate me for who I am, then I’m just going to hate you for who you are.”

Ashford: Yeah. It’s a temptation. I’ve fallen into that trap plenty of times in my life. When you’re being kind of mocked and insulted and treated like a worthless piece of trash, you want to give it back to them. And I think it is OK to sometimes poke some fun at it or to push back really hard.

But we’ve got to remember not to respond in kind. And if we can do that, I think we’ll be able to win the day.

Davis: Well, Bruce, this is a fascinating discussion. I hope our listeners have enjoyed it. I understand you have some books on the market. What should our listeners check out on Amazon?

Ashford: If you’re out there and you’d like some reading, I’ve got a couple books recently you might like. I published a book called “One Nation Under God: A Christian Hope for American Politics,” it is a gift-size book, very small.

And then I published one recently called “Letters to an American Christian.” It was a fun book. I wrote it as a series of hypothetical letters, 27 brief letters to a hypothetical college student at an elite university, encouraging him not to be seduced by his secular progressive professors.

It’s a fun read. It’s kind of a book meant to be read at the beach or in an easy chair, if you’d like. It addresses all the hot-button issues, every hot and button issue that I can imagine that book addresses. So if you’d like to read it or buy one for a friend of yours who’s headed to college or who wants to think through political issues, I think that would be one that’s easy to read and gives some good talking points.

Davis: Fantastic. Bruce, thanks for your time today.

Ashford: Thanks. It’s been great to be on the show with you.
———————-
Daniel Davis (@JDaniel_Davis) is the commentary editor of The Daily Signal and co-host of The Daily Signal podcast.

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Tags:Daniel Davis, The Daily Signal, podcast, Dr. Bruce Ashford, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, The Gospel of Marx, A False Religion ExplainedTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!

Sound of Silence: Teacher Fired over Trans Pronouns Sues School

Posted: 03 Oct 2019 01:43 PM PDT

by Cathy Ruse: West Point High School French teacher Peter Vlaming is a soft-spoken man who was well loved by his students. He wasn’t looking for a fight. He was just looking to do his job. But when the school demanded that he use male pronouns for a biological girl student who had decided to identify as a transgender boy, Mr. Vlaming was faced with the choice: follow his beliefs and potentially lose his job — or violate his beliefs and keep it.

Mr. Vlaming explained to the school that, as a Christian, he believes that God made humans male and female, and that a girl cannot become a boy. He tried to work with the school. He agreed to call the student by her new masculine name. He asked permission to avoid pronouns altogether when speaking about the student in her absence. (Remember, third-person pronouns “he” or “she” are used when the person is absent, so this could not be said to be a failure of courtesy.)

But to use a false pronoun was to deny God’s purposeful design, and that he could not do. “I did agree to use the new masculine name [and] to avoid female pronouns,” said Vlaming, but “I won’t use male pronouns with a female student.”

The school board fired him by unanimous vote. For insubordination.

Peter Vlaming was fired not for saying the wrong thing, but for refusing to say the wrong thing.

He was punished for remaining silent.

Haven’t we been down this road before?

In the 1943 case on whether a school could force someone to salute the American flag, the Supreme Court wrote in strong, clear terms: “If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, religion or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.” (West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette).

More recently, the court affirmed the First Amendment right not to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. And just last year, Justice Anthony Kennedy explained that, “it is not forward thinking to force individuals to ‘be an instrument for fostering public adherence to an ideological point of view [they] find unacceptable.'” (Concurring opinion, NIFLA v. Becerra).

So citizens can remain silent during the Pledge of Allegiance, and even to refuse to salute the American flag, but this Christian teacher cannot remain silent when school officials demand that he pronounce a false pronoun?

“He wasn’t fired for something he said,” the lawsuit reads. “He was fired for what he didn’t say.” And this week, he’s decided to do something about it — suing school officials and the school board for violating his right to free speech and religious freedom. Vlaming’s lawsuit seeks $1 million in damages.
——————-
Cathy Ruse is a Senior Fellow in Legal Studies at the Family Research Council . Her article was on Tony Perkin’s Washington Update.

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Tags:Ruse, Senior Fellow, Family Research Center, Sound of Silence, Teacher Fired, over Trans Pronouns, Sues SchoolTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!

Christians Who Hate Trump

Posted: 03 Oct 2019 01:12 PM PDT

Mario Murillo

by Mario Murillo: There are Christians who hate Trump. Let’s call it for what it is: hate. It is their hate—which is very strange for those who name the name of Jesus—that dulls their ability to see the inaccuracy of their comments and their myopic views.

One sanctimonious ranting Christian said, “There’s nothing Biblical about Trump.” Actually, there’s nothing Biblical about that statement. The prophet Daniel served Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel recognized the role that this pagan king played in God’s unfolding drama. The church’s ability to work with Trump is totally Biblical.

Now, I must clarify something, lest I incur the wrath of Trump supporters. I am not calling Trump a pagan king—I’m sure he is much more moral than his enemies realize—I am saying that if Daniel could work with the Nebuchadnezzar how much more can we work with the Donald.

I have tried very hard to figure out what causes believers to hate Trump. Our side won a long overdue and miraculous victory at the polls, and yet these believers choose to aid and abet the other side. Is it because their favorite “Christian” didn’t win? Is it a case of sour grapes?They didn’t require any President to be a squeaky clean pastor, until Trump.

Yes, his tweets can be a bit much. And okay, President Trump is not as smooth as Reagan…but, we don’t need smooth right now.

Here is something else that is really strange, (hypocritical is more like it): why didn’t these guardians of morality speak out against Obama? Franklin Graham was attacked for questioning Obama’s Christian Faith. They told him not to judge a brother. Hold that thought as we explore another question…

How could you not question Obama’s Christianity? Obama begged the question by dropping the Christian-card whenever it suited him (something Trump never does). Meanwhile, Barack fought for same sex marriage, late term abortion, gave billions to Iran, and was the most Biblically hostile President in our history.

Click on this link to see a list of 89 acts of hostility toward Christians.

So why do so many Christian leaders—who said it was wrong to judge Obama—judge Trump?

Trump is not a pastor. He is a businessman who loves America. As far as his faith? I am not qualified to determine his spiritual depth, since I’ve never had the chance to meet the man. But there are many photos of Christian leaders laying hands on the President, praying for him, and he is cooperating.

“He is like Hitler and the church is being fooled,” said another comment. At this time, those of you who are wearing tinfoil hats, please remove them, and listen. Hitler never had 98% of the media against him. Trump has never called for a new constitution. Hitler never tried to protect Israel. I could go on and on.

Maybe if Trump had addressed the March for Life. Maybe if he had chosen an on fire born-again Vice President. Maybe if he had rescinded executive orders that banned federal funds from Christian organizations. Maybe if he overruled the Johnson Amendment that banned the free speech of pastors. Maybe if he had moved the American Embassy to Jerusalem, and shown himself to be a true supporter of Israel. Maybe if he had put someone on the Supreme Court who helped Christian bakers to exercise their right to freedom of religion. Maybe then you would support him. Oh wait…he did all those things…

God has done a miracle and the enemy wants to make short work of the amazing breakthroughs we are witnessing by dividing the church. Instead of being a religious outlier you should be thanking God, praying for and supporting the President. And voting for righteousness, and against the enemies of freedom.

1 I exhort therefore, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men, 2 for kings and all who are in high office, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dedication (to God). 3 This (is) good and acceptable before God our Savior, 4 Who wishes all men to be saved and to come to a full knowledge of (the) Truth. – 1 Timothy 2:1-4
——————————-
Mario Murillo is an evangelist and blogger.

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Why Do Some Americans Lie About the Chinese Communist Dictatorship?

Posted: 03 Oct 2019 12:25 PM PDT

Chinese President Xi Jinping

by Newt Gingrich: A major challenge in developing a long-term strategy for America to deal with the Chinese Communist dictatorship has been the remarkable amount of confusion about the nature and goals of the regime itself.

As I outline in my new book, Trump vs China: Facing America’s Greatest Threat, there has been a long period of American elites kidding themselves about the Chinese dictatorship.

We were treated to a classic example of this self-deceiving approach this week when former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told Firing Line host Margaret Hoover that Chinese President Xi Jinping is “not a dictator.”

Bloomberg said that “the communist party wants to stay in power in China, and they listen to the public” and Xi “has to satisfy his constituents, or he’s not going to survive.”

As Graham Piro with The Washington Free Beacon pointed out, these comments follow Bloomberg’s announcement that he is holding a major economic event in Beijing in November. No doubt, he wants the forum to be well covered and attended.

So, in Bloomberg’s fantasy world, apparently the Tiananmen Square massacre never occurred. In his land of make believe, police have not been violently suppressing protests in Hong Kong for months – and this week police did not shoot a peaceful protestor who was seeking to keep Xi and the Chinese Communist Party from eroding Hong Kong’s fragile autonomy. Apparently the more than 1 million Uyghurs currently in concentration camps in Xinjiang are satisfied citizens to whom the Chinese Communist Party is listening. (As one senior Chinese leader told me, we are to think of them as boarding schools so they can learn to be better Chinese. For me, this was not easy to listen to with a straight face.)

Bloomberg apparently does not grasp the implications of the ABC Australia news report about last week’s International Industry Fair in China – in which the country unveiled a new 500 megapixel camera with artificial intelligence and facial recognition that will enable the Chinese Communist Party to identify and track dissidents among crowds of tens of thousands of people. As one of the camera’s designers explained to reporters, “it can detect and identify human faces or other objects and instantly find specific targets even in a crowded stadium.”

This kind of sophisticated technology of repression fits in precisely with the development of the Chinese Communist Party’s social credit system, which will enable Xi and party leaders to punish and repress Chinese people who do not follow the party line en masse.

Given all these facts, it is hard to understand Bloomberg’s assertions.

In a sign that Bloomberg has learned none of the tragic lessons of the 20th century dictators he asserted: “You’re not going to have a revolution. No government survives without the will of the majority of its people.”

I’m certain Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Adolph Hitler, Mao Zedong, and Fidel Castro would all have loved exploiting Bloomberg’s naiveté and gullibility.

Remember this: Xi is General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Chairman of the Military Commission (the Army reports to the Party not the government), and President of the People’s Republic of China — in that order.

The fantasy China Bloomberg is conjuring is just that – a fantasy.

Xi is running a ruthless police state dictatorship with the help of Western billionaires who have their own reasons for lying to themselves about the nature of the regime. Sadly, this makes it harder for the rest of us to develop sound policies based on reality.

And it betrays the millions who are struggling to be free in Hong Kong, Tibet, Xinjiang and across all of China.
———————-
Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) is a former Georgia Congressman and Speaker of the U.S. House. He co-authored and was the chief architect of the “Contract with America” and a major leader in the Republican victory in the 1994 congressional elections. He is noted speaker and writer. This commentary was shared via Gingrich Productions.

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NBC

From NBC’s Chuck Todd, Mark Murray and Carrie Dann

FIRST READ: Here’s your quid pro quo

It was always going to be difficult for Democrats to lay out their impeachment case against President Trump using his rhetoric alone, even when he’s caught on camera asking Ukraine and China to help him against Joe Biden.

But the text messages that House Democrats released Thursday night – from envoy Kurt Volker – provide the potentially tangible evidence that the president of the United States was using the power of his office to extract re-election help from another country.

AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana

Politico calls them “the smoking texts,” and it’s hard to disagree.

* The exchange that’s received most of the attention:

Ukraine embassy official Bill Taylor on Sept. 9: “As I said on the phone, I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.”

U.S. Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland (a major Trump donor): “Bill, I believe you are incorrect about President Trump’s intentions. The President has been crystal clear no quid pro quo’s of any kind. The President is trying to evaluate whether Ukraine is truly going to adopt the transparency and reforms that President Zelensky promised during his campaign I suggest we stop the back and forth by text.”

Note that Sondland reply came nearly FIVE hours later. (Did he get a tip that the correspondence by text was problematic?)

But even if you think that Sondland’s reply provides a defense that there was no quid pro quo, it’s important to see all of the text messages that came BEFORE that final exchange.

* Volker’s text to Sondland on July 19 (six days before Trump’s phone call with Zelensky)

“Good. Had breakfast with Rudy [Giuliani] this morning — teeeing up call with [Zelensky adviser] Yermak Monday. Must have helped. Most impt is for Zelensky to say that he will help investigation — and addresss any specific personnel issues — if there are any.”

* Taylor’s exchange with Sondland on July 21 (four days before the call)

Taylor: “Gordon, one thing Kurt and I talked about yesterday was Sasha Danyliuk’s point that President Zelensky is sensitive about Ukraine being taken seriously, not merely as an instrument in Washington domestic, reelection politics.”

Sondland’s reply: “Absolutely, but we need to get the conversation started and the relationship built, irrespective of the pretext. I am worried about the alternative.”

*Volker’s text with Yermak on the morning of Trump’s call with Zelensky

“Good lunch – thanks. Heard from White House — assuming President Z convinces trump he will investigate/”get to the bottom of what happened” in 2016, we will nail down date for visit to Washington. Good luck! See you tomorrow- kurt.”

* Sondland’s exchange with Volker on August 17 regarding a proposed Ukrainian statement on the 2016 election and Burisma

Sondland: “Do we still want Ze to give us an unequivocal draft with 2016 and Boresma?”

Volker: “That’s the clear message so far… “

A clear message indeed…

TWEET OF THE DAY: The linkage

Time to focus more on those ellipses

Given those text exchanges, it’s now worth asking if those ellipses in the transcription memo of Trump’s July 25 call are much more meaningful than we first thought.

I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it. I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike… I guess you have one of your weal thy people… The server, they say Ukraine has it.


And:

The other thing, there’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it … It sounds horrible to me.


Maybe the biggest remaining mystery is whether they are more words from that July 25 conversation we don’t know about.

2020 VISION: Bernie’s looking forward to the debate, per his wife

Yesterday, Bernie Sanders’ wife, Jane, released a statement about his health, saying “he’s ready to get back out there and is looking forward to the October debate.”

“Bernie is up and about,” she said in the statement. “Yesterday, he spent much of the day talking with staff about policies, cracking jokes with the nurses and doctors, and speaking with his family on the phone.”

She added, “His doctors are pleased with his progress, and there has been no need for any additional procedures. We expect Bernie will be discharged and on a plane back to Burlington before the end of the weekend. He’ll take a few days to rest, but he’s ready to get back out there and is looking forward to the October debate.”

What Jane Sanders DID NOT say: what caused the emergency heart procedure in the first place.

Nor was there any actual statement from Sanders’ doctors.

Photo by MARK RALSTON/AFP via Getty Images

On the campaign trail today: Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Julian Castro and Cory Booker all attend an SEIU presidential forum in Los Angeles… Jill Biden stumps for her husband in Iowa… Amy Klobuchar also is in the Hawkeye State… Pete Buttigieg keynotes an NAACP fundraiser in Indianapolis… And Tom Steyer is in South Carolina.

Dispatches from NBC’s embeds: Pete Buttigieg suggested that Vice President Mike Pence could be implicated in the president’s controversy with Ukraine. While campaigning in his hometown of South Bend, Ind., Buttigieg said, “Well certainly credible allegations to suggest that the vice president has been in the middle of this abuse of power. And it’s one of the things that Congress will need to look into. There’s no question that an abuse like this doesn’t happen with just one person, especially when you move into how it was covered up,” per NBC’s Priscilla Thompson.

Kamala Harris held her second “Dude Gotta Go” event in Reno, Nevada where, “for an event that was sponsored by the College Dems, most of the room was older white people, with some students standing in the back,” NBC’s Deepa Shivaram observes. Harris said that there’s a pretty “tight case” for President Trump’s impeachment: “What we’re looking at right here on that TV in these last few days is the confession of a crime and attempt to cover up a crime putting that stuff in that other computer – right? And consciousness of guilt sister, and consciousness of guilt. Which is why on this path to impeachment, I’m a tell you guys, I don’t think it’s gonna take very long because it’s pretty tight case. Looks like a pretty tight case.”

DATA DOWNLOAD: And the number of the day is … $15.2 million

$15.2 million.

That’s how much Joe Biden raised in the third fundraising quarter, according to his campaign.

The haul is a dip from last quarter, and it puts him well under at least two lower-polling candidates, including Bernie Sanders, who raised more than $10 million *more* than Biden in the same amount of time.

Here’s where the fundraising numbers we know stand, compared with each candidate’s fundraising in the second quarter.

Sanders: $25.3 million (up from $18 million in the 2nd Q)
Buttigieg: $19.1 million (down from $24.9 million)
Biden: $15.2 million (down from $22 million)
Harris: $11.6 million (down from $11.8 million)
Yang: $10 million (up from $2.8 million)
Booker: $6.0 million (up from $4.5 million)
Williamson: $3 million (up from $1.5 million)
Bennet: $2.1 million (down from $2.8 million)

THE LID: Saturday Night Fever

Don’t miss the pod from yesterday, when we checked in on the Louisiana governor’s race.

ICYMI: News clips you shouldn’t miss 

Here’s Josh Lederman’s look at everything we know about those text messages between U.S. diplomats about Ukraine.   

An IRS whistleblower says he was told that at least one political appointee at the Treasury Department tried to interfere with the annual audit of the president or the vice president’s tax returns.

To remove Trump, Republican lawmakers would have to break with him. Life hasn’t been easy for those who have.

Bernie Sanders’ campaign says he’s looking forward to the October debate after his hospitalization.

Thanks for reading.

If you’re a fan, please forward this to a friend. They can sign up here.

We love hearing from our readers, so shoot us a line here with your comments and suggestions.

Thanks, 

Chuck, Mark, and Carrie

LEGAL INSURRECTION

Share This Michael Avenatti puts attorney fee lien on Stormy Daniels strip club arrest settlement Maxine Waters: Trump “needs to be imprisoned & placed in solitary confinement” Warren Goes All In for Unions: Eliminate Right-to-Work, ‘Remake’ Federal Courts   Brexit: Boris Johnson Makes Take-it-or-Leave-it Offer to the EU   Happiness: Red Meat Turns Out to be Healthier Than “Settled Science” Suggested   Teacher Files Lawsuit After Being Fired for Not Using Transgender Student’s Preferred Pronouns University of Alabama Students Hold ‘Die-in’ to Highlight Struggle of ‘Marginalized Students’ Federal Judge Sides With Harvard in Discrimination Case Brought by Asian Applicants     William Jacobson: “19 YEARS OF SCHOOLING AND I’M WRITING STORIES ABOUT THIS: Michael Avenatti puts attorney fee lien on Stormy Daniels strip club arrest settlement” Kemberlee Kaye: “You can always count on Rep. Maxine Waters to be reasonable…” Leslie Eastman: “I knew the week was going to be a doozy when #CivilWar was trending on social media on Monday.  I could hardly imagine, however, it was going to end with #EatTheBabies on Friday.  I am so going to enjoy a hard-earned and healthy steak this weekend.” David Gerstman: “It’s a week late, but a belated Mazel Tov to Prof Jacobson for being named as one of the top 100 people positively influencing Jewish life by The Algemeiner. It has been an honor to be a contributor to the blog and the daily emails over the past six and a half years. Legal Insurrection has been a leader in fighting and debunking on-campus anti-Semitism – the BDS campaign – that is cloaked in the mantle of self-righteousness. What a wonderful way to start the Jewish New Year.” Vijeta Uniyal: “British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has laid out his final offer to the European Union ahead of the October 31 Brexit deadline. If Brussels fails to accept the proposal, the UK will leave the EU without a deal, Johnson warned. ” Stacey Matthews: “Byron York declares what the mainstream media won’t about the Democratic presidential race: Joe Biden is no longer a frontrunner.” Samantha Mandeles: “I challenge all BDS supporters (looking at you, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Linda Sarsour, Zahra Billoo, etc) to tell us again about how BDS is “not anti-Semitic.” Does murder also count as “legitimate criticism of Israel” now, too?”   Legal Insurrection Foundation is a Rhode Island tax-exempt corporation established exclusively for charitable purposes within the meaning of Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code to educate and inform the public on legal, historical, economic, academic, and cultural issues related to the Constitution, liberty, and world events. For more information about the Foundation, CLICK HERE. Donate Here!   Legal Insurrection Foundation 18 Maple Avenue #280 ​ Barrington, Rhode Island 02806  info@legalinsurrection.com Follow Us Having trouble viewing this email? View it in your web browser Unsubscribe

SEAN HANNITY

– View in a Browser – Fri, October 04 SCHIFF WITHHELD INFO? // PELOSI BACKFIRE  NUNES: Adam Schiff ‘Withheld Info’ from House Intel Committee, American People on Ukraine Call Rep. Devin Nunes slammed House Intel Chair Adam Schiff on social media this week; saying the lawmaker intentionally withheld information from his committee regarding President Trump’s phone call with the leader of Ukraine.“We learn from the press today that Chm Schiff had prior knowledge and involvement in the WB complaint. He withheld this… READ HERE BACKFIRE: Trump Approval Hits Highest Point This Year AFTER Pelosi’s Impeachment Push President Trump’s approval rating popped to its highest level this year; hitting 49% in a Hill-Harris poll just days after Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi officially endorsed an impeachment inquiry against the Commander-in-Chief.“Despite the launch of impeachment proceedings, the president saw a 2-point increase from a poll a month ago, according to… CONTINUE READING OUT OF CONTROL: Brooklyn Synagogue Vandalized, Woman Attacked on Jewish Holiday A Brooklyn synagogue was vandalized during the Rosh Hashanah holiday this week and a woman was assaulted during the Jewish Holiday; with police officers seeking the public’s help to find the group behind the incident.“Two separate crimes, both on Rosh Hashana, targeted Jewish people in Brooklyn, according to police. In the first incident,… CONTINUE READING HERE HILLARY’S ADVICE: Clinton Instructs Trump Officials to ‘Tell the Truth’ in Impeachment Inquiry Twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton offered her personal advice to senior Trump officials this week; saying they should “tell the truth” during any potential impeachment proceedings.“Many in the Nixon administration concluded that the right thing to do was tell the truth. Tell the truth. That would be advice that should be given to… CONTINUE READING Recommended Reading: Promoted Content   PO BOX 7298, Van Nuys, CA 91409-7298 US © 2019 The Sean Hannity Show Unsubscribe   |   Sign Up   |   Terms & Conditions   |   Privacy Policy

REDSTATE

Fake News Media is Really Going to Hate Clint Eastwood’s New Movie     READ STORY

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CBS

Adding new momentum to Democrats’ impeachment push Email Not Displaying? Click Here

Eye Opener Newly revealed text messages show how the Trump administration pushed Ukraine to investigate the Bidens, as President Trump publicly calls on China for help. Also, a massive legal settlement will compensate victims of the Las Vegas massacre and their families. All that and all that matters in today’s Eye Opener. Your world in 90 seconds. Watch Video +

Trump calls on China to investigate Joe Biden Watch Video +

Man who says clinic used his sperm for 17 kids: “It’s overwhelming” Read Story + Susan Rice warns our “democracy is under assault” and that attack is coming “from within” Watch Video +

Felicity Huffman’s sentence “set the floor” in college admissions scam, lawyer says Read Story + “CBS This Morning” launches “World of Motion” series Watch Video +

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THE TIMES OF ISRAEL

Visit timesofisrael.com for 24/7 updates

The Daily Edition Friday, October 4, 2019

Australian Jewish boy forced to kiss Muslim classmate’s shoes, drawing outcry By JTA and TOI staff Photo of incident widely condemned; in separate case, 5-year-old boy in Melbourne called a ‘Jewish cockroach’; both students leave schools after anti-Semitic bullying

From our partner / ‘They don’t want to call it antisemitism’: Ignored abuse at an Australian school By REBECCA DAVIS   From our partner / Minister calls to investigate anti-Semitic incidents at Australian schools

Russian journalist arrested in Tehran on suspicion of spying for Israel By TOI staff Yulia Yuzik could face 10 years in prison if found guilty of working for Israeli intelligence agencies

Reporter’s notebook Maybe there was no mass suicide at Masada? Top archaeologist questions a legend By Amanda Borschel-Dan

Thousands of Arab Israelis march, block roads to protest deadly crime wave By TOI staff On 2nd day of rallies, community leaders demand police action to stem violence; Joint List’s Odeh urges Jews to join struggle, says society free of firearms should be shared goal

20,000 join rally as Arab Israelis strike to protest deadly crime wave By AP and TOI staff

What it was like growing up as a hidden Jew in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq By Ben Sales

People of the Pod LISTEN: Zelensky and the Trump call — good for the Jews? By TOI staff Episode #5: JTA’s Cnaan Liphshiz delves into the Jewish angle to the current US crisis * Sole US blood libel case * Delving into powerful Yom Kippur prayer Kol Nidre’s pull

US diplomats pushed Ukraine to investigate Bidens, dangled Trump visit By LISA MASCARO, Eric Tucker and MARY CLARE JALONICK   Doubling down, Trump calls for China to investigate Bidens By Jill Colvin and Zeke Miller

Top Ops

Yossi Klein Halevi Israel is singing The pulse of Israel beats in the rejuvenated musical tradition of prayer poems, an ingathering of hip-hop, devotional music, the Yom Kippur service, and clapping for unity   Shari Sarah Motro That time I saved my elderly neighbor’s life It was Yom Kippur and I was meditating on Bible Hill, when I remembered the gift I meant to send Barbara in recognition of who she is and how she lives with joy   Yardaena Osband Transitions Moses’s parting command moves the people from acute dependence on God to daily life – no wonder it is read on Shabbat Shuvah, at the horizon of a new year (Vayelech)   Jonathan Sacks The Torah as God’s song The 613th commandment of making the Torah new in each generation means the text is more than history and law; it must speak to our emotions (Vayelech)

In pivot, Netanyahu considers proposal to set Likud primary for next year By TOI staff Amid criminal probes and challenge from rival Sa’ar, PM urged by party colleagues to avoid flash leadership vote, with ministers warning he has much to lose and little to gain

Likud appears to back away from leadership primary, hours after floating idea By TOI staff   As Likud girds for possible snap primary, Regev, Katz line up behind Netanyahu By Raoul Wootliff and TOI staff

Explainer TOI staff Ambition revealed, ambition stalled, but still no path to coalition Netanyahu faces a rival challenge, Lapid puts aside his prime ministerial hopes, but a great deal still hinges on another would-be PM: Avigdor Liberman

Israel media review / On your mark, get set, just kidding: 7 things to know for October 4 By Joshua Davidovich   Former IDF chief Ashkenazi takes helm of Knesset’s powerful defense committee By TOI staff

Riffing on Elvis, Netanyahu warns of ‘heavy price’ if no unity government By Raoul Wootliff PM does not mention possible Likud leadership contest or Lapid unity offer in speech to newly sworn-in Knesset; says Iran working to wipe out Israel

At Knesset swearing-in, Rivlin urges lawmakers to shed politics of division By TOI staff, Jacob Magid and Raoul Wootliff   Netanyahu hearing may be extended as his lawyers fail to wrap up arguments By TOI staff

Iraqi PM addresses the nation, urges protesters to go home; death toll at 33 By Qassim Abdul-Zahra Thousands of anti-government demonstrators have clashed with riot police in mass rallies across the country

Thousands protest across Iraq for third day as death toll tops 30 By Agencies

So fetch Israeli military marks ‘Mean Girls Day’ by trolling Iran on Twitter By TOI staff IDF photoshops supreme leader, Hezbollah chief and Iran general into scene from 2004 hit teen comedy, calls them ‘mean girls of the Middle East’

Interview Joaquin Phoenix dishes on ‘Joker,’ dramatic weight loss, and De Niro By Lindsey Bahr Actor widely praised for Oscar-worthy portrayal of man who goes on to become the iconic comic book villain

Happy now? Everyone is talking about ‘Joker’ By Lindsey Bahr

More Headlines

Police identify woman stabbed to death in suspected murder, attempted suicide   Israeli officials warn of damage to Australia ties over Leifer sex abuse case By Jacob Magid and TOI staff   Supreme Court delays release of sex abuse suspect Leifer to mull appeal By Jacob Magid   Teen allegedly attacks Jewish woman in Brooklyn, pulling off her wig By JTA   James Franco’s ex-students sue, allege sexual impropriety By ANDREW DALTON   Bernie Sanders still hospitalized but expected to be at next debate By Michelle L. Price   Joe Lieberman’s son throws hat in ring for Georgia Senate seat By AP   In first, Moroccan soccer team plays in West Bank, Saudis next By Hossam Ezzedine   Israel unveils first-ever carpool lanes in bid to ease crippling congestion By TOI staff   Holocaust denial not a human right, European court rules By AFP   From Tel Aviv to Oxford, schools took in millions from OxyContin maker By Collin Binkley and JENNIFER McDERMOTT   Jews join fight against Swedish party’s call to ban circumcisions By TOI staff

AMERICAN SPECTATOR

COME JOIN THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR AT OUR 2019 GALA:  NOVEMBER 7th AT THE TRUMP INTERNATIONAL HOTEL CALL US AT 703-807-2011 FOR DETAILS! Today’s Top News October 4, 2019 CrowdStrike and the Impeachment Frenzy On June 12, 2016, WikiLeaks announced that it would soon release stolen computer files that pertained to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Two days later, CrowdStrike, which was working for the DNC, announced that it had detected Russian malware on the DNC’s computer server. The next day, a self-described Romanian hacker, Guccifer 2.0, claimed he was a WikiLeaks source and had hacked the DNC’s server. By: George Parry  ______________________ The Trumping of John Bel Edwards Perhaps Edwards’ camp can rebound from a disastrous first four days of early voting. But on Saturday, Vice President Mike Pence arrives in the New Orleans area to rally the troops for the final day of early voting, and Election Week starts next week with Donald Junior arriving in the state to keep up the momentum. The president himself is on the way later, though probably not until the runoff election begins. By: Scott McKay ______________________ Impeachment Through Swamp Colored Glasses Unfortunately for the country — this one and Ukraine — Joe Biden used his office in a way that benefited his family’s financial interests. He withheld a billion dollars in aid in way that ensured his son’s millions flowed. Worst of all for him, he bragged about this in front of television cameras. By: Daniel J. Flynn  ______________________ Unmask the Whistleblower In other words, the Constitution clearly stipulates that impeaching a president means the president is being accused of “high crimes.” And the Sixth Amendment clearly stipulates that in “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right … to be confronted with the witnesses against him.” Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Congressman Adam Schiff, by hiding the identity of the whistleblower, are denying President Trump his Sixth Amendment right to confront his whistleblower accuser. By: Jeffrey Lord  ______________________ Pelosi’s Price-Control Prescription Would Cost American Lives Most industrialized nations other than the U.S. impose price-control regimes on prescription drugs. As a result, patients in those countries have less access to newer medicines and lifesaving benefits than patients in America. Unfortunately, if Speaker Nancy Pelosi has her way, we will soon import a similar price-control system. By: David Hogberg ______________________ Donald Trump’s Art of the Strategy Trump is emotionally bulletproof. As Victor Davis Hanson has observed, after three years of vicious attacks, the wonder is not merely that he’s still president; it’s that he’s still standing. Trump’s opponents hate him with a passion. They hate him because he threatens their most cherished obsessions. By: Ron Ross ______________________   The American Spectator is now on Flipboard, a user-friendly and customizable news-aggregation website. Please give us a follow today! You Might Like       Read More

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NATIONAL REVIEW

October 04 2019

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Trump Calling for China to Investigate Hunter Biden Doesn’t Appear to Make Sense Jim Geraghty Making the click-through worthwhile: Trump talks about the Bidens and China, mangling what ought to be a clear and compelling argument; a diagnosis of the reporters covering the Democratic primary and which candidate reminds them the most of themselves; and David Brooks’s “Flyover Man” tells the New York Times readership things that they don’t want to hear. Mr. President, Why Would China Want to Investigate Hunter Biden? President Trump, speaking to reporters yesterday: REPORTER: Mr. President, what exactly did you hope Zelensky would do about the Bidens after your phone call? Exactly. THE PRESIDENT: Well, I would think that, if they were honest about it, they’d start a major investigation into the Bidens. It’s a very simple answer. They should investigate the Bidens, because how does a company that’s newly formed — and all these companies, if you look at — And, by the way, likewise, China should start an investigation into the Bidens, because what happened in China is just about as bad as what happened with — with Ukraine Later: THE … Read More ADVERTISEMENT Top Stories Boris Johnson Is Stymied, but So Are His Opponents John O’Sullivan Johnson’s enemies in the anti-Brexit coalition are equally stymied. They can’t win an election if they vote Brexit down, and they can’t vote Brexit down without winning an election. NYC Is Now Going After Food Delivery Services Katherine Timpf I, for one, would prefer to continue surviving off of food that is brought to my door — so leave these businesses, and me, alone.  Trump Promised Chinese Silence on Hong Kong amid Trade Talks: Report Tobias Hoonhout President Trump assured Chinese president Xi Jinping during June phone call that the U.S. would avoid taking a position on the protests in Hong Kong. ADVERTISEMENT The Democrats Are Partially Right about Wealth and Corruption Chris Edwards What Warren and Sanders do not understand is that wealth inequality is not good or bad by itself — it entirely depends on what caused it. Inequality may reflect crony capitalism, or it may reflect innovation in a growing economy that is lifting all boats. Pain and Glory Is a Profound and Joyful Meditation on Life Armond White “Pain and Glory” dramatizes the battle of experience — of despair versus perseverance and triumph. Mallo keeps looking back, comparing fond memories with regret, while enduring the infirmities of aging. Devil In the Red Hat: What the Bridgeport Diocese Abuse Report Can’t Say Michael Brendan Dougherty The problem can’t be treated separately from the larger moral culture of the clergy. The Telling Taciturnity of Trump Staffers Mona Charen Those surrounding Trump have taken to subterfuge but they do not protest loudly. Supreme Court to Hear Louisiana Abortion Case with Potential to Reverse 2016 Precedent Tobias Hoonhout The Supreme Court announced Friday it will review a challenge to a Louisiana law that requires doctors at abortion clinics to have admitting privileges. ADVERTISEMENT WHAT NR IS READING Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead Jim Mattis and Bing West Call Sign Chaos the #1 national bestselling book by General Jim Mattis and Bing West, is a clear-eyed account of Mattis’s lifelong dedication to America, and his journey from marine recruit to four-star general to Secretary of Defense! LEARN MORE Photo Essays TWA Hotel at JFK Battling on Bicycles ADVERTISEMENT Follow Us & Share 19 West 44th Street, Suite 1701, New York, NY, 10036, USA Your Preferences | Unsubscribe | Privacy View this e-mail in your browser.

REALCLEARPOLITICS

10/04/2019 Share: Carl Cannon’s Morning Note Sly Move or Recklessness? Inbox ‘Civil War’; Quote of the Week Good morning. It’s Friday, Oct. 4, 2019, the day of the week for parsing an inspirational historical quotation. Today’s comes from Walt Kelly, the prolific virtuoso who penned the “Pogo” comic strip that graced U.S. daily newspapers with sly social and political commentary for a generation after the end of World War II. In Thursday’s newsletter I wrote about “Peanuts,” Charles M. Schulz iconic comic strip featuring almost exclusively children and their pets. With help from one of my most loyal readers, I got to thinking about Walt Kelly, who used swamp creatures — animals who lived in an actual swamp, not Washington, D.C. — to comment on the absurdities of life. He especially liked to poke fun at the pompous. Using the title character, Pogo Possum, and his many friends (including Albert Alligator, Howland Owl, Porky Pine, and a mud turtle named Churchy LaFemme) allowed Kelly more leeway than he might have otherwise enjoyed. Yet, on May 1, 1953, when Kelly premiered a shotgun-toting wildcat named “Simple J. Malarkey,” it was a pretty obvious caricature of Sen. Joseph McCarthy. Even some liberal newspaper editors were uncomfortable with it, but the artist was uncowed. When one such editor threatened to drop “Pogo” if the McCarthy character again showed his face, Kelly subsequently drew a paper bag over Malarkey’s head, one that looked suspiciously like Klansman’s hood. I’ll have more on Walt Kelly’s politics and art — along with his most memorable quotation — in a moment. First, I’d point you to RealClearPolitics’ front page, which presents our poll averages, videos, breaking news stories, and aggregated opinion columns spanning the political spectrum. We also offer original material from our own reporters and contributors, including the following: * * * Trump’s Plea to China on Biden: Sly Move or Reckless One? Philip Wegmann reports on fallout from the president’s comments yesterday that further stirred opponents eager to impeach him. What’s Going On in the Intelligence Community IG Office? GianCarlo Canaparo and Thomas Jipping see contradictions in how the whistleblower complaint was handled. The “Civil War,” as Viewed From My Inbox. Myra Adams has this follow-up to her “Difficult Time to Be a Republican” commentary last week, which prompted some heated responses. Authorities Were Allowed to Fix Things in ’08. Not This Time. In RealClearMarkets, Jeffrey Snider writes that the acrimony between the president and the Federal Reserve could have serious consequences. Insurers Shouldn’t Be Only Voice in Surprise-Billing Debate. In RealClearHealth, Leif M. Murphy argues that patients and their doctors are being left out as insurers push a “Trojan horse” bill through Congress to supposedly create more transparency. * * * Born in Philadelphia in 1913 and raised in Bridgeport, Conn., Walter Crawford Kelly Jr. worked as an illustrator and writer for a local newspaper before heading to California in pursuit of a young love who would become his first wife. A gifted animator, he found gainful employment in Walt Disney’s studios in 1935, working on “Dumbo,” “Fantasia,” and other early Disney classics. After Pearl Harbor, poor health prevented him from soldiering, so Kelly spent the war illustrating U.S. Army foreign language manuals. Pogo was created during this time, first appearing in Dell’s “Animal Comics.” After the war, Kelly took the character with him to the New York Star, a short-lived radical newspaper that folded in early 1949. By now, he had merged his art with commentary, and was hired by the Hall Syndicate, which launched Pogo and Kelly to fame and fortune, respectively. Although he came to be viewed as a man of the left, the author’s politics were subtle and not easily classified. He once provided a brief description of his own political philosophy as being opposed to “the extreme right, the extreme left, and the extreme middle.” This was a pretty good working definition of a mainstream American in the 1950s, but it was insufficient. Although he’d dabbled in socialism as a young man, Walt Kelly today might be described as having libertarian impulses. Mainly, he seems to have disliked bullies and hypocrites. Politicians predisposed to totalitarianism were frequent targets. Nikita Khrushchev showed up in “Pogo” as a boorish pig; Fidel Castro as a scruffy goat. If anything, Kelly’s only misgivings about his parodies may have been that he was unfair to the animals. Then again, like Charles Schulz, what Kelly was really doing with his comic strip was showing the good and bad that exist in human beings, the most complicated animals of all. In 1953, in the foreword to a book about Pogo, he addressed this idea. “Some nature lovers may inquire as to the identity of a few characters here portrayed. … Specializations and markings of individuals everywhere abound in such profusion that major idiosyncrasies can be properly ascribed to the mass. Traces of nobility, gentleness and courage persist in all people, do what we will to stamp out the trend. So, too, do those characteristics which are ugly. It is just unfortunate that in the clumsy hands of a cartoonist all traits become ridiculous, leading to a certain amount of self-conscious expostulation and the desire to join battle.” By the end of the 1960s, Kelly’s brand of commentary was ebbing. But a new generation of Americans was introduced to him on the first Earth Day, in April 1970, with a wildly popular environmentalist movement poster featuring Pogo saying, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Kelly liked the attention, and promptly reprised it in a strip. The line, in which the cartoonist is satirizing famed U.S. naval war hero Oliver Hazard Perry (“We have met the enemy and he is ours”) was not new, even in 1970. It was indeed from Walt Kelly, however, and not so much in a political context but rather in a very human one. In that same 1953 foreword to his book of cartoons, Kelly wrote this: “There is no need to sally forth, for it remains true that those things which make us human are, curiously enough, always close at hand. Resolve, then, that on this very ground, with small flags waving and tinny blasts on tiny trumpets, we shall meet the enemy, and not only may he be ours, he may be us.” And that is our quote of the week.  Carl M. Cannon   Washington Bureau chief, RealClearPolitics @CarlCannon (Twitter) ccannon@realclearpolitics.com Having trouble viewing this email? | [Unsubscribe] | Update Subscription Preferences  Copyright © 2019 RealClearHoldings, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email becuase you opted in at our website. Our mailing address is: RealClearHoldings666 Dundee RoadBldg. 600Northbrook, IL 60062 Add us to your address book

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