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One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics
is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. -- Plato
(429-347 BC)
Friday, July 22, 2016
2016: Lady and the Trump
Tony Perkins
by Tony Perkins: Donald Trump has spent his career in real estate, and yesterday he became the sole owner of the GOP's most valuable property: the Republican nomination for president. Late last night, delivering a speech few thought possible, the question of Hillary Clinton's opponent was formally settled, after what will almost certainly go down as one of the most unpredictable seasons of presidential politics in history.
Just before midnight, balloons and confetti rained down on stage, closing out a significant two-week stretch for the GOP.
To the relief of conservatives, it was a stretch that included the strongest statement of principles by a Republican platform to date. Against all odds (and even more Establishment money), a coalition of pro-family groups led by FRC Action beat back the attacks on our values and emerged with a document more clear and compelling than any in party history.
Regardless of what the media might make out of this week's program, the GOP platform -- not the Convention's speakers -- is what guides the party, and we were proud to help lead the charge in firmly planting the flag for life, marriage, and religious liberty in the planks of the GOP's governing document. Long after the streamers are cleaned up and the delegates have gone home, that will be the legacy of this Convention. And thanks to your support, we helped shaped that legacy. As even the New York Times pointed out, these past two weeks would have been very different had we not been involved.
But the GOP platform wasn't the only place where social conservatives played a prominent role. On the final night of festivities -- while some were beating the tired drum of evangelicals' waning influence -- I was invited to speak. Despite the obituaries the press continues to write about our movement, it was a visible reminder that pro-family conservatives continue to influence the Republican Party by being a witness for transcendent and unchanging truths. It was such a significant moment, in fact, that The Hill included it in its five reasons for the Convention's success. After leading the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance, I had the opportunity to talk about what makes that tradition so meaningful.
From the Christian Post to the Washington Times, the media agreed: offering evangelicals such a primetime spot on the program spoke volumes about the direction of the party. "Christianity Takes Center Stage at the Start of the Final Night of Trump's Convention," the Daily Caller headline read. We will continue to work to ensure the concerns and values of families across this nation remain a key part of the policies, debates, and months leading up to November.
-------------- Tony Perkins is President of the Family Research Council . This article was on FRC Action and as a DISCLAIMER: Tony Perkins was speaking in his personal capacity and not on behalf of any of the nonprofit organizations he leads. Tags:Tony Perkins, speaker, 2016, National Republican Convention, GOP Platform, pro-family conservatives, life, marriage, religious liberty, planks of the GOP's governing documentTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
by Newt Gingrich: Wednesday night, I was honored to speak at the Republican National Convention, on a topic that is critical to the future of our country: how to keep America safe.
Keeping America safe is the first responsibility of the American president.
There have been many fascinating things to watch about the extraordinary, historic rise of Donald Trump.
But the most significant has been Donald Trump’s courage to tell some important truths about our national security.
For example:
We are at War.
We are at War with Radical Islamists.
They are determined to kill us.
They are stronger than we admit
And there is NO substitute for victory.
In contrast to Donald Trump, our national security and foreign policy elites, led by Hillary Clinton, are incapable of speaking with such honesty.
While they lie about the threat, we need to tell the truth about the danger.
If our enemies had their way, not a single woman in this room could define her future.
If our enemies had their way, gays, lesbians and transgender citizens would be put to death—as they are today in the Islamic State and Iran.
If our enemies had their way, every person on earth would be subject to conversion by the sword and to a cruel and violent system of law.
There would be no individual liberty.
There would be no equality.
There would be no freedom.
If you doubt we are at war…
If you doubt that this threat is as real as I say…
Let me refresh your memory: On Monday, an Afghan refugee in Germany used an axe and knives to slash and wound train passengers while shouting “Allahu Akbar.”
Last week, ISIS claimed responsibility after a Tunisian man drove a cargo truck into crowd in Nice, France. He murdered 84 people, including at least 10 children and three Americans, and injured over 300 others.
Two weeks ago, almost 300 people were killed and more than 200 were wounded in bombing attacks in Baghdad.
Two days before that, radical Islamists in Bangladesh killed 20 hostages, including 3 American college students.
A few days before that, at the Istanbul airport in Turkey, ISIS attackers armed with guns and bombs killed 44 people and injured hundreds more.
Last month, a radical Islamist in Paris stalked a French police officer to his home, where he murdered the officer and tortured his wife to death in front of their three-year-old son, while streaming it all on social media.
He was pondering whether to kill the three-year-old when he was killed by police.
Two days before that, an attacker pledging allegiance to ISIS killed 49 people in an Orlando nightclub and wounded dozens more.
All this in just the past 37 days.
We cannot let ourselves grow numb to these accumulating atrocities.
One analysis estimated that since January of 2015, some 30,000 people have been killed at the hands of terrorists.
Donald Trump is right.
We are at war with radical Islamists, we are losing the war, and we must change course to win the war.
Let me be very clear, because I know the news media will do their best to distort this.
We have nothing to fear from the vast majority of Muslims—in the United States, or around the world.
The vast majority are peaceful. They are often the victims of the violence themselves.
They are people we would be happy to have as our friends and neighbors.
The challenge is, when even a small percentage of a billion, six hundred million people support violence against those who disagree with them, that is still a giant recruiting base.
For example, Pew Research finds that just 9 percent of Muslims in Pakistan view ISIS favorably.
Unfortunately, 9 percent is 16 million people.
And that’s just one country.
So the truth is, although we are losing the war with radical Islamists, we have been very lucky.
The danger we face is much worse than the horrors that happened in Germany on New Year’s Eve, when twelve-hundred women were assaulted.
It’s worse than what’s happening in France, where there are stabbings of Jews in the streets and the nation’s security chief warned recently that France is “on the brink of civil war.”
It’s worse than what’s happening in Israel, where average citizens fear for their lives whenever they leave their homes.
The danger is even worse than September 11th, when 19 hijackers murdered almost 3,000 Americans.
The worst case scenario is losing an American city to terrorists armed with weapons of mass destruction.
Instead of losing 3,000 people in one morning, we could lose more than 300,000.
Instead of losing 2 great buildings, we could lose block after block after block to a nuclear event.
That’s not just my view. Back in January of 2001, the Hart Rudman Commission warned that terrorists, “will acquire weapons of mass destruction…and some will use them. Americans will likely die on American soil, possibly in large numbers.”
15 years later, the dangers are even greater.
In a world where Pakistan has nuclear weapons…
where North Korea has nuclear weapons…
and where Iran–the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism–is close to having nuclear weapons…this, a catastrophic attack on innocent Americans, is a very real threat.
Which brings us to the heart of the matter.
We are sleepwalking through history as though this is All About Politics.
It is not.
It is about our safety and our survival as a country.
We cannot keep in place the people and the systems that have brought us to this point and that LIE to us every single day about the threat.
That is why every American should be terrified at the prospect of a Hillary Clinton presidency.
Hillary Clinton has been right at the center of this dishonesty.
We know this administration and its allies lied to us about the Iran nuclear deal. We know it because they openly bragged about it to the New York Times.
We know that Hillary Clinton lied to us knowingly about the terror attack on our Benghazi consulate.
We know that Hillary Clinton and President Obama lie to the American people when they say they can safely screen the Syrian refugees. They cannot. And yet Hillary wants to increase the number by 500 percent.
So when you hear about Hillary’s dishonesty, or the emails, or taking millions from the Saudis and other Middle Eastern dictatorships–remember: this is not about politics.
The cost of Hillary’s dishonesty could be the loss of America as we know it.
The first step forward to safety is electing a leader who will be truthful with the American people about the realities we face.
Only then will we understand, support, and demand the strategies required to confront this threat.
---------------------- Newt Gingrich 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. The above commentary was shared via Gingrich Productions. Tags:Newt Gingrich, commentary, speech, Cost of Dishonesty About Our Security, dishonesty, America, security, To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
by Michael McDonald: What killed the dinosaurs? It's a question as old as – well the dinosaurs themselves, and one that everyone from school children to scientists have been asking for decades. Movies like Jurassic Park and the Land Before Time only heighten that sense of wonder and raise the stakes behind that question. Now according to a new scientific study, it seems that black gold may have been the source of the dinos' demise.
Japanese researchers at Tohuku University and the Meteorological Research Institute authored a recent study in the research journal Scientific Reports suggesting that a meteor impact 66 million years ago on an oil rich region of Yucatan Peninsula led to the death of the dinosaurs. When the asteroid hit the vast oil deposits of Mexico, it sent thick black smoke into the atmosphere, changing the climate around the world. That soot blocked out the sun leading to a significant cooling of the planet. Equally importantly, it also led to a substantial drought around the world.
The asteroid in question was roughly 6 miles wide and its impacted created the 110 mile wide crater that exists in the Yucatan today – the third largest crater on Earth. The impact was the equivalent of roughly 1 billion atomic bombs of the equivalent power to what struck Hiroshima at the end of World War 2.
The researchers calculate that the amount of soot released would have lowered sunlight exposure by 85 percent and reduced rainfall by 80 percent. That would have had a significant impact on plant growth, which in turn would have limited food options for most dinosaurs. In addition, the soot cooled the Earth by 16 degrees Celsius (about 28.8 degrees Fahrenheit) over the course of just 3 years. Think of the event as the reverse of global warming – and on steroids.
Against this backdrop it is not surprising that dinosaurs all died out. Only smaller mammals that could live underground would have survived. In fact, the fossil record suggests that only 12 percent of the pre-asteroid life was able to survive after the impact. It was not just dinosaurs that died either, contrary to myths about the Ice Age – around 93 percent of mammal species were killed off as well, according to a separate research study by scientists at the University of Bath. The largest animals that would have survived the extinction event were about the size of a house cat.
Still, life bounced back “fairly quickly” researchers say, with about twice as many species existing 300,000 years after the event versus before it. Of course, given that the course of human history only goes back around 25,000 years, three-hundred thousand years is still a long period of time. It reflects the reality that the asteroid strike had a significant enough impact that its effects took tens of thousands of years to dissipate. It was the adaptability of mammals after the strike versus various reptiles that led the mammals to ultimately come to dominate the planet. Dinosaurs were in decline for millions of years before the asteroid strike, but that event aided by the oil rich soil of the Yucatan finished them off.
It's ironic that oil, so fundamental for modern human life was ultimately the catalyst that wiped out the dinosaurs. Had the asteroid stuck in a less oil rich region, back of the envelope calculations suggest its impact would have only been around one-third as devastating. It's impossible to say if that would have allowed any of the dinosaurs to live or not, but it is at least a possibility. Perhaps if not for the existence of oil, none of us would have cars, but maybe we would all have a pet brontosaurus.
---------------- Michael McDonald authored this article contributed by James Stafford the editor of OilPrice.com, the leading online energy news site, to the ARRA News Service. Tags:Oil, Dinosaurs, Michael McDonald, James Stafford, Oilprice.comTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
by Gary Bauer, Contributing Author: "Make America Great Again" - Last night, Donald J. Trump formally accepted the Republican Party's nomination for president of the United States. In doing so, he becomes the first major party nominee without elected political experience since General Dwight Eisenhower won the Republican nomination in 1952.
I have been to many conventions. And this one was unlike any other. The convention hall last night was electric. Trump delivered his speech in his usual extravagant style, but his message was controlled and disciplined.
The left-wing media's reaction was predictable. "Dark." "Vengeful." "Extreme." "Incendiary." "Toxic."
Given recent events -- terrorist attacks and police assassinations -- the public is in no mood for happy talk. According to a recent Gallup survey, just 17% of Americans are satisfied with the state of the country.
But here's something to consider: An instant reaction poll by CNN found that 75% of those who watched Trump's speech had a positive reaction to it, and 73% said the policies he outlined would move America in the right direction.
The American people want real change and real hope. The left-wing media might be happy with the direction of our nation, but most voters know we are on the wrong track. They are sick and tired of politicians and their platitudes. They want to make America great again!
Reaching Main Street, U.S.A. - I felt Trump's address last night was an incredibly effective, populist message aimed at the great swath of Americans -- the "silent majority" who work hard, play by the rules, love their country, but who have been left behind by the globalist, corporatist agenda.
Trump made it clear he was speaking to these Americans when he said:"My message is that things have to change and they have to change right now. Every day I wake up determined to deliver a better life for the people all across this nation that had been ignored, neglected and abandoned.
"I have visited the laid-off factory workers, and the communities crushed by our horrible and unfair trade deals. These are the forgotten men and women of our country, and they are forgotten, but they will not be forgotten long. These are people who work hard but no longer have a voice. I am your voice!"Expanding The Base - Trump also made several direct appeals to minority voters. He slammed Obama's failure to deliver on "hope and change," saying:"This administration has failed America's inner cities. Remember, it has failed America's inner cities. It's failed them on education. It's failed them on jobs. It's failed them on crime. It's failed them in every way and on every single level." While some in the left-wing media are decrying his law and order message as a "racist dog whistle," minority communities suffer the most from crime.
This is not, or should not be, a racial issue. Every American -- black, white, Hispanic, Asian -- wants and deserves safe streets so their kids can walk to school and play.
Trump was 100% right when said, "The most basic duty of government is to defend the lives of its citizens. Any government that fails to do so is a government unworthy to lead."
On this point, Democrats have big problems. Portions of their coalition despise the police and our military. It took Clinton hours to issue a statement after three Baton Rouge police officers were killed. What on earth were they debating?!
Nevertheless, some of the speakers at next week's Democrat convention indicate that Hillary and her allies are all in on the left's anti-cop agenda. And the police union in Philadelphia is furious!
Trump also championed school choice, a popular idea with minority voters, saying, "We will rescue kids from failing schools by helping their parents send them to a safe school of their choice."
And while his immigration message is falsely bashed as "anti-Hispanic," Trump framed it the right way, saying:"Decades of record immigration have produced lower wages and higher unemployment for our citizens, especially for African-American and Latino workers. We are going to have an immigration system that works, but one that works for the American people."Speaking To Values Voters - Of particular interest to values voters, Trump clearly reiterated the kind of judges he would appoint. He said:"We are also going to appoint justices to the United States Supreme Court who will uphold our laws and our Constitution. The replacement of our beloved Justice Scalia will be a person of similar views, principles and judicial philosophies. Very important. This will be one of the most important issues decided by this election."Again, he is absolutely right!
That issue alone -- control of the Supreme Court and everything that entails for religious liberty, the sanctity of life, the Second Amendment, separation of powers -- should have every conservative rushing to the polls on November 8th to vote for the only candidate who can keep Hillary Clinton out of the Oval Office.
And that candidate is Donald Trump!
Trump pointedly thanked evangelicals for their "amazing support." To my surprise, he added, "And I'm not sure I totally deserve it." To me, those remarks demonstrated some welcome humility. And there was more.
Trump brought up the 1954 IRS amendment, passed by then-Senator Lyndon Johnson, that muzzled the ability of pastors to speak freely from the pulpit. This isn't the first time Trump has raised this issue, which, frankly, too few of our friends in Congress ever talk about. Trump is making it a real cause and seems to feel strongly about it.
Of course, values voters care deeply about life and religious liberty. These issues will be decided by the judges he appoints, and he is trying to expand religious liberty by overturning that amendment.
But values voters also love America, support the rule of law and are very patriotic people. They dislike globalism and the trend toward international law overriding our Constitution.
Many evangelical churches often pray for our soldiers and our men and women in law enforcement. Some have special services devoted to our men and women in uniform. We do that in our church.
Trump is hitting a lot of themes that resonate with values voters -- an important part of the electorate, especially within the GOP coalition.
Lastly, I would point out that actions speak louder than words. And that is why I was so encouraged -- and believe every conservative voter should be as well -- by his selection of Indiana Governor Mike Pence, a solid, articulate, pro-family, pro-life conservative Christian, to be his running mate.
------------- Gary Bauer 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, Donald Trump, Vows, To Make America Great AgainTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
Church Fights State Over What It Preaches, Practices on Sexuality and Gender Identity
Fort Des Moines Church of Christ tries “to be faithful
to God’s Word and call on our lives,” its website says.
(Photo courtesy Alliance Defending Freedom)
by Leah Jessen: A small Iowa church has entered a legal battle with the state government over what the congregation considers censorship of biblical teaching on human sexuality.
The dispute began with a brochure published by the Iowa Civil Rights Commission about state law’s protections for sexual orientation and gender identity. The document explained how the law applies to places of public accommodation—and included churches among places such as restaurants and hotels.
In the brochure, the state agency interpreted the Iowa Civil Rights Act “to apply to churches anytime that they hold worship services that are open to the public, as all worship services are,” Christiana Holcomb, a lawyer with Alliance Defending Freedom, said.
The Christian legal aid group represents Fort Des Moines Church of Christ. It filed a federal lawsuit July 4 on behalf of the church, located in the state capital of Des Moines.
As defendants, the suit names officials at the Iowa Civil Rights Commission, the attorney general of Iowa, and the city of Des Moines.
“No American, no citizen, has to wait for the government to enforce an unconstitutional law against them,” Holcomb said.
The commission’s interpretation of the civil rights law “does basically two things,” Holcomb said:One, it tells the church that you’re not allowed to teach or do anything, including what a pastor preaches from the pulpit, if it would make anyone feel uncomfortable based on their gender identity. A logical extension of that would mean that a pastor couldn’t preach about God’s design for human sexuality and biological sex.
The second component … is that a church that holds a worship service open to the public would no longer be allowed to have sex-designated sensitive areas like restrooms and locker rooms and shower and changing facilities.‘Able to Choose What We Believe’
Alliance Defending Freedom’s motion for a preliminary injunction, filed July 14, asks a federal court to stop the state commission from using the law against the church while the lawsuit progresses.
Fort Des Moines Church of Christ, pastored by Michael Demastus, believes and teaches that God created each person either male or female, the lawsuit says.
“We can agree or disagree with what Fort Des Moines Church of Christ believes about the issues of gender identity and sexual orientation, and that’s fine,” Holcomb said. “In a diverse marketplace of ideas, we should each be able to choose what we believe.”
“But the real problem in Iowa is … you have a government trying to come in and dictate to a church what it believes and how it uses its house of worship.”
Peter Kirsanow, a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, wrote a letter on July 13 to Angela Jackson, chairman of the Iowa commission, arguing that her agency’s approach “plainly violates both the free exercise clause and the establishment clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.”
Fort Des Moines Church of Christ, Holcomb said, “discovered that an unelected commission in the state of Iowa had published this brochure” explaining the civil rights law.
The Iowa Civil Rights Commission revised its brochure July 8, four days after the church sued, clarifying that churches are generally exempt from the state law “unless the place of worship engages in nonreligious activities which are open to the public.”
Another church, Cornerstone World Outreach in Sioux City, Iowa, and its senior pastor, Cary Gordon, took legal action against the state commission for similar reasons, as The Daily Signal previously reported.
Holcomb said the state agency not only has the authority to interpret the Iowa’s civil rights law, but to enforce it, so it could use the statute to “infringe on a church’s religious freedom.”
‘Complementary Halves of Humanity’
According to its website, Fort Des Moines Church of Christ is a nondenominational congregation that is “simply trying to be faithful to God’s Word and call on our lives.”
“The church believes that God intentionally and purposefully created males male and females female, and that these two complementary halves of humanity reflect God’s image,” the lawsuit says.
Church policy for sex-specific private spaces states that restrooms and showers may be used only by members of the designated biological sex, according to the lawsuit.
While the commission has not taken action against Fort Des Moines Church of Christ, Holcomb said, the church was “deeply concerned” the agency could start enforcement proceedings.
Saying it wanted to get clarity for Iowa churches, Alliance Defending Freedom filed the lawsuit as a pre-enforcement challenge to the law.
Kristin H. Johnson, the state commission’s executive director, declined to comment to The Daily Signal.
In a prepared Jul 8th statement, Johnson said the commission “has not done anything to suggest it would be enforcing these laws against ministers in the pulpit, and there has been no new publication or statement … raising the issue.”
The Des Moines church’s lawyers argue that the law bans expressing any views on sexuality that would “directly or indirectly” make individuals “unwelcome” based on their gender identity. In its description of the case, Alliance Defending Freedom writes:The speech ban could be used to gag churches from making any public comments—including from the pulpit—that could be viewed as unwelcome to persons who do not identify with their biological sex because the commission has stated that the law applies to churches during any activity that the commission deems to not have a ‘bona fide religious purpose.”‘It Could Flip-Flop Again’
The civil rights law was amended in 2007 to include gender identity and sexual orientation as classes protected from discrimination at places of public accommodation, Johnson said in the prepared statement.
“The commission regrets the confusion caused by the previous publication,” Johnson said, and “has never considered a complaint against a church or other place of worship on this issue.”
Alliance Defending Freedom’s Holcomb said “cosmetic changes” to the commission’s brochure aren’t enough and highlight “the underlying vagueness of the state law at issue.”
“The commission could change its mind tomorrow about the brochure and reissue the old one,” Holcomb said, “or a month or a year down the line, it could flip-flop again on this issue.” She added:It just highlights that the commission has too much power, too much authority to try to apply the law to churches, which are not places of public accommodation. They are places of worship and should enjoy full and robust freedom under the First Amendment.
Who gets to decide what is or is not a religious purpose? Is that something that’s being left in the hands of unelected bureaucrats, or is that something that the church gets to determine?--------------- Leah Jessen (@_LeahKay_) is a news reporter for The Daily Signal. Tags:Church Fights State, Over What It Preaches, Practices, Sexuality, Gender Identity, The Daily Signal, Leah JenssenTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
by James Phillips: The steady drip of disturbing revelations about President Barack Obama’s Iran nuclear agreement continues unabated. On Monday, the Associated Press reported that key restrictions on Iran’s uranium enrichment activities will significantly ease after 10 years, long before those restrictions expire after 15 years.
The AP acquired a confidential document, leaked by an anonymous diplomat involved in the Iran nuclear issue, which it described as an add-on agreement in the form of a declaration submitted by Iran to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The document, the Joint Comprehensive Plan for Action, details Iran’s plans for expanding its enrichment activities and makes it clear that some of the most restrictive provisions of the nuclear agreement are relaxed after only 10 years, although they will function as more permissive constraints for up to 15 years.
The published text of the nuclear agreement was vague on the exact timing of what happens to Iran’s uranium enrichment program after 10 years.
But the new document indicates that after 10 years, Iran plans to start replacing its current centrifuges with thousands of more advanced models that would be up to five times more efficient than the 5,060 centrifuges that it is allowed to operate currently under the agreement.
This concession could allow Tehran to enrich at more than twice the rate that it is now doing, even if the total number of operating centrifuges are reduced. This is a major concern because if the enrichment rate doubles, the time Tehran would need to stage a nuclear breakout would be reduced from the 12 months promised by the Obama administration to six months or less, much earlier than the administration had advertised when it was trying to sell the nuclear deal.
Fred Fleitz, a veteran analyst who has monitored Iran’s nuclear program for many years at the CIA, State Department, House Intelligence Committee, and Center for Security Policy, warned that although the permissive nature of the agreement was not news:What is news is that the Obama administration is a party to another secret side deal to the [Joint Comprehensive Plan for Action] that explicitly recognizes Iran’s plan to greatly expand its uranium-enrichment program. Other secret side deals include one that allows Iran to inspect itself on possible nuclear-weapons-related work and another that possibly weakened IAEA reporting on Iran’s nuclear program.The International Atomic Energy Agency secret side deal that allowed Iranian personnel to inspect a suspected nuclear research site was exposed last year only after Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., traveled to the agency’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria, to ask questions about the nuclear agreement.
Cotton, a leading congressional opponent of the Iran nuclear deal, charged that the latest news about Iran’s declaration to the agency demonstrated that “the administration misled the American people about Iran.”
State Department spokesman Mark Toner denied that the new document was “secret” since it was known to the countries negotiating the deal, but he acknowledged that the details had been kept away from the public.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was much more enthusiastic about the newly revealed document. Yesterday, he crowed that it was created by Iran’s “negotiators and industry experts” and was a “matter of pride.”
Indeed, he should be proud. The document outlines how Iran plans to escalate its uranium enrichment efforts with the blessing of the Obama administration until it reaches the point where a nuclear breakout would require only a few weeks of work.
------------------------- James Phillips is the Senior Research Fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs at the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies a The Heritage Foundation. Tags:Iran Nuclear Deal, Continues to Unravel, James Phillips, The Heritage FoundationTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
“The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference – they deserve a place of honor with all that’s good” ~ George Washington
by Jim Mullen, Contributing Author: The anti-Second Amendment Marxist, Barack Obama, relies upon attacks by terrorists or crazed lunatics to bring cries for bigger, more powerful government to protect us. It’s the same incessant cry always heard from tyrants; give up more freedom in exchange for a promise of security. Every leftist in the country follows Obama’s lead and shamefully exploits tragic events by madmen and terrorists. Consequently, to further their political agendas they do what they do best; attack lawful American gun owners and innocent people by grandstanding and self-aggrandizing.
They use manipulative hyperbole, and emotional rhetoric to push for legislation that has proven repeatedly not only ineffective, but fatally destructive. Like vultures, these zealots immediately circle every despicable shooting by an outlaw, insane person, or terrorist, and use the tragedy and suffering of others to gain an upper hand in implementing their anti-gun tyranny.
These organized attacks are not just on firearms; they are indeed, personal attacks on every American’s freedom who dares defend themselves, their families, and their homes.
It’s obvious to even the densest anti-gun fanatic, that criminals ignore ALL gun-control laws. Therefore, it’s evident that the quest for additional limits on guns remains focused on disarming law-abiding citizens. The facts are irrefutable; restrictive gun legislation disarms or makes criminals of lawful Americans. In other words, gun control only restrains law-abiding Americans! Control of the people is the ultimate aim of all big governments.
Criminals rely on tyrannical government to disarm the public, thus allowing thugs and gangs unrestricted domination of our streets, neighborhoods, and cities. U.S. cities with the strictest gun laws have the highest crime and murder rates. Witness the Democrat-controlled cities of Chicago, Washington, DC, Detroit, Baltimore, and on, and on.
Americans must face reality; it’s apparent that over the last several years, the New Socialist Democrat Party is a mortal enemy of gun owners and the Second Amendment. It’s equally clear that further legislation amounts to placing a bull’s eye on the backs of innocent Americans gathered in gun-free zones, as well as those cowering in fear in their undefended homes.
None of the proposed laws by the fanatical left will reduce gun violence or murder rates in this country. However, under one plan, purchasing or selling a gun from a neighbor, friend, or relative, we would pay for a background check and hope for approval and blessing from the federal government. These extended background checks are another back door, roundabout attempt at registration that allows the government to know who owns guns, what type they are, and where to find them.
Not a word emanates from the mouths of Obama, or any Marxist about the real causes of crime and murder rates in this country. Most violence comes directly from inaction and misguided programs by federal, state, and local governments.
The free exercise of American rights under the Second Amendment does not cause violence.
Here are just a few of the shortcomings, incompetence, and corrupt bureaucracies of government that do result in lawless, senseless mayhem and murder:
Failure of the liberal courts and the justice system in general to PUNISH criminals
Failure to build more jails and prisons
Early release and catch-and-release of criminals; including violent felons, and illegal aliens
Plea-bargaining and reductions of sentences
Left-wing lawmakers, state and federal, who consistently and shamefully twist, manipulate, and distort, every societal issue to bestow the victimhood label on criminals, not on real victims; innocent citizens
Failure to address illegal aliens pouring over our border with drugs, guns, and human cargo
Overcrowding of prisons, then release of illegals and felons to reduce the overflow
A corrupt government-controlled educational system that, especially in the inner cities, fails to give young people even a rudimentary education and then dumps them on the streets without sufficient skills to compete in the world
Gun-free zones that leave unarmed groups of people at the mercy of thugs or armed terrorists
For decades, few talked about long guns of any kind, rather the national discussion was on handguns. Then came the ban on scores of long guns, and Bush let the ban expire because evidence revealed the nation was no safer and there was no increase in mass killings after ten years. To leftists, firearms represent everything that’s evil. The unvarnished truth is that they believe the very existence of the Second Amendment is malevolent.
Concealed permits are under constant attack. By declaring gun-free zones and limiting where one can legally carry a weapon, tyrants hope to make it so restrictive as to make concealed permits worthless. With one such limit, only the most naïve, ignorant, and convoluted of liberal minds could imagine and implement a system of declaring schools as “gun-free zones” to prevent shootings.
Some notable quotes from Obama, the anti self-defense President, should tell everyone where the leftist-in-chief stands:
“I am consistently on record and will continue on record as opposing concealed carry.”
“I believe in keeping guns out of our inner cities.”
“It’s a scandal that Bush didn’t renew the ‘assault weapon’ ban.”
“If you need 19 rounds to shoot a deer, you probably shouldn’t be hunting.”
Here are some notable votes by Obama:
Voted to uphold civil actions and lawsuits against gun manufacturers, distributors, dealers, and importers of guns and ammunition.
Voted to ban hundreds of common rifles and shotguns.
Voted to uphold local gun bans in Illinois.
Voted to uphold prosecution of people using guns in self-defense.
Obama and his Marxist cult know they cannot ban all gun rights at once any more than a boa can instantly kill and devour its prey. They do it slowly, one contraction at a time. It’s one more reason they must destroy our Constitution.
Little-by-little, one step at a time, Obama, and his ilk formulate their “reasonable rules.” Dictates which are, in reality, slow narrowing and constriction designed to squeeze the life from our Second Amendment and devour our guns.
Knowing what Obama said publicly, what’s in his writings, and knowing the history of the anti-gun radicals, does anyone believe them when they say, “Nobody is coming after your guns?” Disarming America is not a solution or answer for violence; rather it is one of the principal determining factors for the violence raging through the streets of this country. An unarmed nation is a nation on its knees, and that is exactly where the leftist tyrants want Americans.
The free exercise of American rights under the Second Amendment does not cause or exacerbate violence; It provides the same protection from evil-doers and dictatorial government envisioned by our Founders!
For one to see the tragic results of liberal politics and gun control that disarms lawful people, one needs to look at cities and states controlled by the New Democrat Socialist Party. Here, despots ban guns outright or restrict them as to make their right to own guns and defend themselves, a cruel joke. These areas throughout the country are microcosms of what liberals want for the rest of the country.
When liberal-progressive government is in control of peoples’ lives, they must keep citizens, disarmed, poor, uneducated, indoctrinated, and dependent. Take a stand against our government, the media, and the entertainment industry. Under no circumstances, allow them to cast their tyrannical, liberal, spell over this great land. Your personal safety is in YOUR hands; trust it to no one else!
---------------- Jim Mullen is a West Virginia conservative Republican activist writing articles at Freedom For US Now and a contributing author to the ARRA News Service. He also shared this article on TEA Party Tribune. Tags:Jim Mullen, Freedom for US Now, Spread Politeness, Reduce Crime. Arm Yourselves, gun controlTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
by Patrick Buchanan: The self-righteousness and smugness of Ted Cruz in refusing to endorse Donald Trump, then walking off stage in Cleveland, smirking amidst the boos, takes the mind back in time.
At the Cow Palace in San Francisco in July of 1964, Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, having been defeated by Barry Goldwater, took the podium to introduce a platform plank denouncing “extremism.”
Implication: Goldwater’s campaign is saturated with extremists.
Purpose: Advertise Rocky’s superior morality.
Smug and self-righteous, Rocky brayed at the curses and insults, “It’s a free country, ladies and gentlemen.”
Rocky was finished. He would never win the nomination.
Richard Nixon took another road, endorsed Goldwater, spoke for him in San Francisco, campaigned for him across America. And in 1968, with Goldwater’s backing, Nixon would rout Govs. George Romney and Rockefeller, and win the presidency, twice.
Sometimes, loyalty pays off.
About Cruz, a prediction: He will not be the nominee in 2020. He will never be the nominee. If Trump wins, Cruz is cooked. If Trump loses, his people will not forget the Brutus who stuck the knife in his back.
To any who read Allen Drury’s “Advise and Consent” or saw the movie, Ted Cruz is the Senator Fred Van Ackerman of his generation.
Yet, beyond the denunciations of Trump and disavowals of his candidacy, something larger is going on here.
The Goldwaterites were not only dethroning the East Coast liberal establishment of Rockefeller, but saying goodbye to the Republicanism of President Eisenhower and Vice President Nixon.
Something new was being born, and births are not a pretty sight.
What was being born was a new Republican Party. It would be dominated, after Nixon, by conservatives, who would seek to dump the Accidental President, Gerald R. Ford, in 1976. They would recapture the party in 1980, and help elect and re-elect Ronald Reagan.
Vice President George H. W. Bush won in 1988 through the exploitation of cultural and social issues. His Democratic rival, Gov. Michael Dukakis, opposed the death penalty, opposed public school kids taking the Pledge of Allegiance, and had a progressive program to give weekend passes to convicted killers and rapists like Willie Horton.
Once this became known, thanks to Bush campaign manager Lee Atwater, the Little Duke was done. The Dukakis tank ride in that helmet, to show his aptitude to be commander-in-chief, probably did not help.
The crisis of today’s Republican Party stems from a failure to recognize, after Reagan went home, and during the presidency of George H. W. Bush, that America now faced a new set of challenges.
By 1991, America’s border was bleeding. Thousands were walking in from Mexico every weekend. The hundreds of thousands arriving legally, the vast majority of them Third World poor, began putting downward pressure on working-class wages. Soon, these immigrants would begin voting for the welfare state on which their families depended, and support the Party of Government.
By 1991, free trade had begun to send our factories and jobs overseas and de-industrialize America.
By 1991, an epoch in world history had ended. With the collapse of the Soviet Empire, the Cold War was suddenly over. America had prevailed.
“As our case is new,” said Lincoln, “so we must think anew and act anew.” Bush Republicans did not think anew or act anew.
They were like football coaches who still swore by the single-wing offense, after George Halas’ Chicago Bears, the “Monsters of the Midway,” used the T-formation to score 11 touchdowns and beat the Washington Redskins in the 1940 NFL championship game, 73-0.
What paralyzed the Republicans of a generation ago? What blinded them from seeing and blocked them from acting on the new realities?
Ideology, political correctness, a reflexive recoil against new thinking, and an innate inability to adapt.
The ideology was a belief in free trade that borders on the cultic, though free trade had been rejected by America’s greatest leaders: Washington, Madison, Hamilton, Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.
The political correctness stemmed from a fear of being called racist and xenophobic so paralyzing, so overpowering, that some Republicans would ship the entire Third World over here, rather than have it thought they would ever consider the race, ethnicity or religion of those repopulating America.
The inability to adapt was seen when our Cold War adversary extended a hand in friendship, and the War Party slapped it away. Rather than shed Cold War alliances and rebuild our country, we looked around for new commitments, new allies, new wars to fight to “end tyranny in our world.”
These wars had less to do with threats to vital interests, than with providing now-obsolete Cold Warriors with arguments to maintain their claims on national resources and attention, not to mention their lifestyles and jobs.
With Trump’s triumph, the day of reckoning has arrived.
The new GOP is not going to be party of open borders, free trade globalism or reflexive interventionism.
The weeping and gnashing of teeth are justified.
For these self-righteous folks are all getting eviction notices. They are being dispossessed of their home.
-------------------- Patrick Buchanan is currently a conservative columnist, political analyst, chairman of The American Cause foundation and an editor of The American Conservative. He has been a senior advisor to three Presidents, a two-time candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, and was the presidential nominee of the Reform Party in 2000. He blogs at the Patrick J. Buchanan. Tags:Patrick Buchanan, conservative, commentary, Ted Cruz, the Trump Takeover, 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 Can Trump Restore Safety In One Day? Here's How:
by Herman Cain: I'm sure a determined Trump critic, or even just a committed cynic, might scoff at one of the biggest promises Donald Trump made last night - that on January 20, 2017, safety will be restored. How can one man restore safety in a single day?
Let me remind you of something from history. In 1979, the Islamic revolutionaries in Iran took 44 Americans hostage at the U.S. embassy in Tehran. For more than a year, Jimmy Carter tried to negotiate their release, and had no success. On January 20, 1981, Iran finally released the hostages. What was special about that day? Simply this: Ronald Reagan was sworn in as president. Reagan did not do anything in particular to make their release happen. He'd only been in office a couple of hours when the hostages were freed.
But the ayatollahs who ruled Iran understood that Reagan would be a very different kind of president from Jimmy Carter. They feared what Reagan might do. They had no fear whatsoever of the feckless Carter. And while Reagan never made a promise to free the hostages on his first day in office, that in fact happened because his ascendance to the presidency represented a change in the status quo. The bad guys understood that they could no longer operate as they had in the past - and things changed immediately.
Under the presidency of Barack Obama, America's police do not feel that the federal government has their backs. When police-hating radicals denounce law enforcement, our president speaks in agreement with them. When an incident takes place that might represent a police mistake, and thus requires investigation, our president tends to jump to conclusions and make irresponsible pronouncements that cast doubt on the integrity of the police.
I have heard from police officers who tell me that they are reluctant to pursue a fleeing criminal, because inevitably a news truck will show up - or maybe just a citizen with a video camera on their phone - and if the slightest force has to be used, it will be shown to the public in a way that makes the police look as bad as possible. And when that happens, no one expects the president of the United States to back the police. He won't do it. If anything, he'll sick the Justice Department on them.
What Donald Trump will do on day one is change that dynamic. The police will no longer feel that the president doesn't have their backs. They'll know that he does. They might still have to deal with angry radicals and a meddlesome media, but at least if that happens, they'll be able to count on the man in the Oval Office standing up for them.
Don't think for a minute that this won't make a huge difference. It will. It will make America's police feel that they can do their jobs as they're supposed to do it, without having to worry about being hung out to dry by the White House. That will make them much more effective at patrolling the streets and protecting the innocent. It will also allow them to be less fearful for their own lives because of an anti-police environment fomented in part by the president.
So yes, it is possible for something so big to change in a single day. Donald Trump can restore safety on his first day in office, not by any particular thing he will do, but because of what the police will know about whose side he is on.
Theirs. And yours.
----------------- Herman Cain is a conservative radio host of CainTV, a 2012 GOP presidential primary candidate with over 40 years of experience in the private sector as an analyst for Coca-Cola, an executive at Pillsbury, a regional Vice President for Burger King, and CEO of Godfather's Pizza. Cain served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and a supervisory mathematician for the Dept. of the Navy. Tags:Herman Cain, conservative, radio host, CainTV, Donald Trump, restore safety, here's howTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
by Kerby Anderson, Contributing Author: Recently conservatives concerned about an accurate view of American history won a victory at the College Board. The College Board is a massive non-profit organization responsible for the Advanced Placement Exam as well as the SAT. The College Board is in the midst of revising the various AP tests.
Last year the College Board published new guidelines for the AP history test. Daniel Henninger says: “They read like a left-wing obsession with identity, gender, class, crimes against the American Indian and the sins of capitalism.” Stanley Kurtz complained that: “The College Board is turning itself into a national school board.” He added that: “The current controversy is not just about the U.S. history exam, as important as that is. It’s about who is in charge of teaching our children.”
To understand the significance, consider that more than 2,600 colleges (including most Christian colleges) offer credit to students who do well on the AP exams. It also operates as a de facto monopoly by setting the agenda for the tests that are administered.
The current guidelines are very different from the ones posted last year. Why? Many of the states began to push back against what some have called “neo-Marxist guidelines.” The College Board would lose lots of money and prestige if the states began to replace the tests with their own course material.
The success in pushing back came in part because the liberal progressives pushed too far and too fast. Some conservatives argue that even the revisions are hostile to American ideals and ignore the positive impact of religion in America. But at least this is a small and significant victory for truth and teaching American history with an appreciation for the good as well as the bad chapters in our history.
----------- Kerby Anderson is a radio talk show host heard on numerous stations via the Point of View Network endorsed by Dr. Bill Smith, Editor, ARRA News Service Tags:Kerby Anderson, Viewpoints, Point of View, College Board, AP Exams, SATTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
by Rick Manning: Donald Trump's acceptance speech showed America two important things: that he is not the standard issue Republican candidate standing above the workers hoping they will vote for him, and that the GOP has unified behind his candidacy.
The ugly truth is that Republicans have lost the popular vote in five of the six past presidential elections, and have lost the Electoral College vote heavy rust belt states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin in all six of those general election tests. That is twenty-four years of failure in states that have each had Republican governors and state legislatures in the past two years.
Trump's heartfelt personal, job and national security message not only puts the rust belt in play, but resonates with all Americans who have seen their ability to make a living threatened or lost, watched dumbfounded as violence against the police has been seemingly accepted by our nation's leaders, all the while being horrified by the terrorist attacks and beheadings that are seemingly the new normal under the Democrats, even as those same leaders attack every American's constitutional freedoms and beliefs.
Trump speaks directly to these voters, who have found that the Democrat Party that many of them once felt represented them, has completely abandoned them. Tonight, Donald Trump looked those voters in the eye and promised to be their voice. A voice that will tell the truth rather than subtle lies couched as political correctness. Trump promised to be a voice that will stand for them and against the corporate cronies who have fixed the system against them. And he promised to be a voice for them by restoring common sense governance that encourages a safe environment for their families to thrive and their opportunities to grow.
Rather than run a failed wash, rinse, repeat campaign, Trump's appeal to put America first in trade deals, restore law and order, enforce our borders and protect our national security demonstrates that he is going to fight for traditional blue collar, Democrat and Independent voters in the Great Lakes states and beyond against a corrupt opponent saddled with a globalist record that is despised by these voters. The political brilliance of changing the electoral map from one where the GOP candidate had no margin for error to one where there are more big, battleground states in play automatically puts Hillary on the defensive in traditional Democrat strongholds like Pittsburgh, where it is Trump's rhetoric that is much more familiar and popular.
Trump's recognition that the rule of law must be restored through the appointment of Scalia-like Supreme Court Justices and that our tax and burdensome regulatory systems have hobbled the U.S. economy resulting in the hollowing out of America's manufacturing sector and has hamstrung our energy sector to the detriment of workers.
Ironically, in a bygone era much of Trump's rhetoric could have been delivered by a labor state Democrat, but today it is the GOP nominee who is speaking for the workers' aspirations, while the Democrats have the ultimate corporatist insider candidate beset by her personal avarice and corruption as their standard bearer.
Trump is a political risk for the GOP, because some of his rhetoric diverges from the beaten path, but failure to attract a majority in five of the past six presidential elections proves the need to take that chance. His speech demonstrates that he will speak to the positive aspirations of Americans who are tired of being taken for chumps by the politicians they send to D.C. And not being a politician by trade, Trump's rhetoric is believable, because it isn't the empty words of a pandering senior citizen carrying hot sauce and playing Pokemon Go to appear to be cool, but rather the words of someone who is dedicated to restoring our nation's economic and military strength. A man who believes the words he says and seeks the office of the Presidency not for personal aggrandizement but to use his talents to help redirect a nation that has lost its way.
As a limited government advocate there were some areas of Trump's speech that raised concerns, but when compared to Hillary Clinton's anti-First, Second, Fifth and Tenth Constitutional amendment positions, it was clear that Republican Convention attendees had decided that any differences needed to be put aside to focus on beating Hillary Clinton.
The Republican Party has united around Donald Trump even as his acceptance speech was an open invitation to Independent and Democrat voters to join him in his fight to make America great again. The next few months will determine if Obama's policies will be cemented and expanded through both legislative and judicial appointments, or if America's legacy of individual freedom will be protected and restored. In Cleveland, Donald Trump showed that he understands the enormity of the stakes.
The fight for America has been joined, and the battleground will be blue collar voters, a massive voting bloc that Hillary Clinton wishes would just go away.
--------------- Rick Manning (@rmanning957) is President of Americans for Limited Government. This article was also shared on the ALG blog. Tags:Rick Manning, Americans for Limited GovernmentTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
by Ken Blackwell, Contributing Author: We all claim to hate the “establishment.” And why not? Look at the mess around us. It’s obvious that the folks in charge haven’t done a very good job.
But who is the establishment? The term gets tossed around a lot as an insult these days – even by some people who sure appear to be part of it.
There’s a lot that can go into being a member. Education, job, philosophy, position, mindset. All matter. But attitude trumps experience.
Some of those campaigning against the establishment assume that anyone holding office is a member. That’s a big mistake. Many of the most courageous warriors for liberty were elected to something. After all, if the government is the problem, then you’ve got to get into it to fix it.
Consider Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. The first was a U.S. senator. The second was a two-term governor—of California! Yet Goldwater helped spawn the conservative movement that made Reagan president. For these two political giants, getting elected was part of the solution.
And that remains the case. There are many good men and women of principle who serve in Congress and state office across America. One of the ways they prove their worth every day is by working against their colleagues to fight for a free society, traditional values, the rule of law, limited government, and so much more that is in such short supply in Washington. Just try to imagine how much worse it would be if we didn’t have these folks battling behind enemy lines.
Some grassroots activists also exhibit a reverse snobbery about education. If you went to an elite school, you must be part of the establishment. Certainly many people who go to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and the like are part of a well-connected moneyed and intellectual elite. But normal folks of extraordinary ability also attend those schools. Indeed, that kind of mobility has characterized America from its beginning.
The issue isn’t lineage either. Sometimes a family epitomizes establishment. The Kennedys and Bushes, for instance. But there’s often a member who breaks the mold. Imagine Winthrop Rockefeller becoming governor of Arkansas and Jay Rockefeller being elected senator from West Virginia! Maybe they still counted as the establishment, but most of us imagine the Rockefellers ruling over New York State, Wall Street, big banks, oil conglomerates, and the like.
Having money certainly doesn’t make one part of the establishment. We often think of “old money” in that way. But the rich aren’t united over much of anything. Stewart Mott and Peter Thiel, to name just two, broke with ideological orthodoxy and pushed idiosyncratic ideas. Pete du Pont, scion of the family that owns the world’s best known chemical manufacturer, champions conservative ideals, including Main Street economics. They don’t fit what most people think of as “the establishment.” What matters most is mindset, beliefs and worldview.
First, do the candidates for establishment status believe they have been chosen to govern? It doesn’t really matter who does the choosing. Do they imagine that their position is ordained by something higher—God, evolution, nature, civilization, government, progressive values, or whatever?
Second, do the establishmentarians believe the people must be saved from themselves? While most of us occasionally roll our eyes at public opinion, we don’t believe that beneficent social engineers will make things better. But, members of the establishment do.
Third is the common belief that those out of step with history, meaning the advance of liberal opinion, must be forced into line with their more perceptive neighbors. There is no room for live and let live. Political differences are seen as fundamental moral failings that must be remedied. While government cannot reach into us—well, at least, not yet—to reprogram our beliefs, it should, in the view of establishment members, insist that we live as progressives.
Fourth, uncomfortable with the will of the people, members of the establishment see government, particularly the federal government, as the most important mechanism of social change. It knows best and its ability to coerce makes it a tool of righteousness: it can force the greedy, myopic, prejudiced, ignorant and foolish to do what’s right – according to progressive doctrine. Error is simply the small price we pay for a more just society.
Finally, in the eyes of the establishment, the only legitimate role for the “loyal opposition” is to debate the manner and speed with which liberal values should be imposed. Democrats are supposed to set the agenda—increase spending, redistribute wealth, socialize health care, and the like. Republicans, in the view of establishment members of both parties, are supposed to debate and arrange the details.
People who believe in and act on these tenets can properly be called members of the establishment. Anyone who believes that “rulers and ruled” are “we and them” fairly belongs in that group. These people – the ones with a vested interest in government – are the ones the public should hasten into retirement.
------------------ Ken Blackwell is a former ambassador to the U.N., Ohio Secretary of State and mayor of Cincinnati and Policy Board member and Senior Fellow for the American Civil Rights Union. He is a contributing author to the ARRA News Service. Tags:Ken Blackwell, The EstablishmentTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
Closing Out Day 4 of 2016 GOP Convention; Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump!
Bill Smith, ARRA NEWS SERVICE: Day 4 of the 2016 RNC Convention in Cleveland is over and Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump closed out the convention with a speech to both the convention and to the Nation.
The theme acknowledges America’s serious challenges at home and the threats we face abroad. In order to turn our challenges into opportunities and keep America secure, we need leadership that will focus on what unites us, not what divides us. Donald Trump and Mike Pence will move our country beyond the divisive identity politics that have been holding us back by restoring leadership, building trust, and focusing on our shared love of country and our common goal of making America great again.
The program highlighted the Republican Party’s vision for bringing Americans together and creating the conditions that will allow everyone – young people, working families, and entrepreneurs from all walks of life – to pursue their aspirations.
Donald Trump addressed the delegates, the Nation and the world and formally accepted the delegates nomination as the Republican Presidential Candidate. While numerous speaker detailed below were introduced and shared about Donald Trump, it was the Donald Trump that packed the convention center last night which broadcast his speech nationwide. While we do not know the future, I can say it was one of the best speeches he has given to the Nation. I am sure the liberal pundits on all networks will "pick over Mr. Trump's speech today. Video
To watch the full video of the evening with all the speakers:
Tags:2016, GOP Convention Program, Cleveland, OH, Thursday, July 22, Make America One Again, Donald J Trump, Republican Candidate for PresidentTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
Star Parker: How Conservatives Can Attract More African Americans
by Star Parker: I'm in Cleveland at the 2016 Republican Convention and was interviewed by EWTN. They saw my report where I mentioned there are only 18 black delegates on the floor of the RNC Convention. In 2004, there were 164 black delegates!
I address that conservatives need to reach out to more blacks with conservative, Christian values.
After listening to my explanation for the steep loss, please let me know what you think!
Your foot-soldier for freedom.
------------ Star Parker is an author and president of CURE, the Center for Urban Renewal and Education. CURE is a non-profit think tank that addresses issues of race and poverty through principles of faith, freedom and personal responsibility. Tags:Star Parker, Center for Urban Renewal and Education, CURE, interview, EWTN, To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
Tags:AF Branco, editorial cartoon, Ted Cruz, sore loserTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
Ken Blackwell on Fox Business Network - 2016 RNC Convention!
by Ken Blackwell: is a former ambassador to the U.N., Ohio Secretary of State and mayor of Cincinnati. He is also a senior fellow at the Family Research Council, numerous other conservative organizations and he is a contributing author to the ARRA News Service.
On Fox Business Network, Ken Blackwell joins in discussing the future of the Republican Party with Donald Trump as its presidential nominee.
Tags:Ken Blackwell, Fox Business Network, 2016 RNC ConventionTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
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