President-Elect Trump and 1,100 Happy Families

by Newt Gingrich: We have a successful President-elect before he is even sworn in. We have 1,100 excited families looking forward to a happy Christmas when for weeks they had been sick with worry about their futures. And we have a news media unable to report on success.

How? President-elect Donald Trump convinced Carrier to keep 1,100 jobs in the United States. He was helped by Vice President-elect Mike Pence who had additional interest in and leverage over this decision because he is Governor of Indiana where Carrier is located.

The people employed at Carrier are ecstatic.

They were about to face a gloomy Christmas. Now they have their jobs and they are thrilled that the President-elect intervened decisively and successfully.

This was actually Trump’s second intervention. (He earlier convinced Ford not to move one of its assembly lines to Mexico.) But because the media focused so much on the 1,100 jobs, and because Carrier’s management had been so much more public about its determination to move to Mexico, the Carrier case has acquired much more intensity and importance than Ford.

There are several important points about this achievement.

First, this was pure Trumpism. Don’t wait to be inaugurated. Don’t spend a lot of time with staff studying the issue. Don’t delegate to someone else and hope for the best.

Trumpism includes intuitive decisions followed by rapid, personal intervention to force success. Its clearest predecessor in style was President Theodore Roosevelt. Trump is similar to Roosevelt in the sheer exuberant energy with which he lives out each day.

Winston Churchill had slips of paper in World War II that read “Action this Day”. He clipped them to important items in an effort to force the bureaucracy to move faster. Trump is a living example of “Action this Day”.

Second, Trump understands that winning the right symbolic victories early can have very big consequences. Scott Adams wrote brilliantly on this technique. Millions of Americans who worry about their jobs feel better today knowing that Donald Trump cared enough to act before he was even sworn in. While the propaganda media (formerly the news media) and the critics may think this was a small achievement, it was symbolically and emotionally a big achievement.

Third, Trump understands that winning is always better than losing. Americans have watched Barack Obama fail to save jobs. In fact, he mocked Trump and publicly asked if he was going to wave a “magic wand” to save jobs at Carrier. Now it is Obama who looks impotent and incompetent – and Trump looks like maybe he has a magic wand.

In history, winning increases the likelihood of winning. Losing increases the likelihood of losing. Today, President-elect Trump looks like a winner.

Finally, Trumpism is transforming the roles of our two political parties. While Democratic elitists are mocking the Carrier achievement and minimizing its importance, millions of blue collar Americans are glad someone finally cares about them. The isolation of the Democrats into a left-wing club of clueless and out-of-touch elitists continues. The transformation of the Republican Party into the party that cares about families and jobs moves forward.
Eleven hundred happy families at Christmas is a big deal.

This year it is Donald Trump’s deal. It is quite an achievement seven weeks before being sworn in as President of the United States.
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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.

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Gitmo Prisoners Asked for Sedatives After Trump Victory

PJ Media Staff: It wasn't only the mainstream media that freaked out over Donald Trump's presidential victory. The prisoners at Gitmo “thought it was the end of the world” and "many" detainees asked for tranquilizers because they were so "distraught."
One of the prisoner's lawyers shared with CBS correspondent Margaret Brennan his client's description about election night.

“He said that many detainees thought that it was the end of the world and felt terrible and that many detainees asked for tranquilizers, sleeping pills because they were so distraught.

Gitmo

”
Obama has been emptying out the prison during his term as president and now prisoners are afraid they will not be released with the election of Donald Trump.

“Well, the pace of prisoner releases has picked up in recent months,” Brennan said. “But Donald Trump’s campaign pledge to stop this prison from closing has left the fate of many prisoners in limbo.”

Too bad.
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PJ Media  Staff

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Thank You Tour, Carping About Carrier, Mattis For Defense, Bias In Your Breakfast

by Gary Bauer, Contributing Author: Thank You Tour - President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence kicked off a "Thank You" tour last night with a huge rally in Cincinnati, Ohio. The whole event was incredible.
Here are some excerpts of Trump's remarks that I want to share with you.

On putting America first, Trump said this:"From now on, it's going to be America first. . . For too long, Washington has tried to put us in boxes. . . We spend too much time focusing on what divides us. Now is the time to embrace the one thing that truly unites us. You know what that is? America. America. It's America. . .

"You hear a lot of talk about how we're becoming a globalized world. But the relationships people value . . . are local -- family, city, state, country. . . There is no global anthem, no global currency, no certificate of global citizenship. We pledge allegiance to one flag, and that flag is the American flag."As much as I applaud Trump's patriotism and desire to unite us, far too many on the left do not share our love for our country. That's why they burn our flag, praise our enemies and attack our values.

The Trump Administration will be fought tooth-and-nail by left-wing activists and left-wing bureaucrats every step of the way. And we will be right in the thick of it, fighting with the Trump/Pence team for faith, family and freedom!

Trump also talked about rebuilding our cities and "getting the rust out of the Rust Belt." He talked about creating a better future for our children, including, "a future where every American child is fully included in the American dream."

Given his support for overturning Roe v. Wade, I look forward to working with the Trump/Pence team to restore the right to life so that every American child has a future and the right to realize their dreams.

As it has done to every conservative since Ronald Reagan, the left attempted to viciously smear Trump as a bigot. Last night, Trump declared, "We condemn bigotry and prejudice in all of its forms. We denounce all of the hatred. . . We're going to come together."

On immigration, an issue the left has exploited to undermine the rule of law and to divide the country, Trump said his administration would seek a "truly inclusive society, where we support each other, love each other, and look out for each other."

Then Trump turned the left's rhetoric against it, saying, "And that means that people coming into our country have to be people that have the potential to love us, not to hate us."

That is precisely the point I have been making for years. Our immigration policies do not require us to import hate and must not put our homeland security at risk. That is not bigotry. It is just common sense.

Why It Matters - Here's why immigration reform is so important. America is a free, open and tolerant society, but not all cultures share those values.

A new survey finds that 43% of Muslims in Great Britain support some aspects of Sharia law. There have been similar findings among Muslims in America. But Sharia law is incompatible with our Constitution and Western values of religious liberty and free speech.

This is why we need "extreme vetting." That is also why we need an administration that will stop doing idiotic things like taking in refugees other countries won't accept.

Believe it or not, the Obama Administration has agreed to bring into America 2,500 refugees who the Australians refused to take. If Australia won't take them, why should we?

When the chairmen of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees demanded answers, the Obama Administration classified details about the refugees, claiming it had a secret deal with the Australian government.

Great. Another of Obama's secret deals. That alone suggests it is a bad deal for America.

Carping About Carrier - Some of Trump's critics on the left and the right are carping about his intervention in the Carrier plant closing, which saved 1,000 jobs. There were more attacks today, this time on CNBC, the network that presents itself as THE business network.

I couldn't help noticing that for much of the past year, most of its so-called business experts seemingly favored the party of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren over the successful capitalist. Now these experts are raising concerns about government involvement in business decisions.

Here's something to think about. The gutting of our manufacturing base has contributed to high unemployment in many areas, increased welfare, drug addition, suicides and failing schools. There are social costs to losing jobs and whole industries, which often leads to bigger government involvement in other ways.

What is better from a free market perspective? Is it better to stay on the path we're on, turning more Americans into dependents? Or is it better to have leaders who will remind American businesses that they are American businesses and should have an obligation to American workers?

Mattis For Defense - The transition team that is supposedly in a perpetual state of turmoil continues to be ahead of schedule in making key appointments. Last night, Donald Trump announced his selection of retired General James Mattis to be secretary of defense.

There is some concern that Gen. Mattis embraced Obama's fiction that Jewish "settlements" -- homes for Jews in Judea and Samaria -- are impediments to peace between Israelis and Palestinians. But we know Trump rejects that.

We also know that Mattis views Iran as the main impediment to peace in the Middle East. We know he doesn't like war, but he knows when you are in one, you must win it. That is what we need.

And that is why Trump said last night, "We are going to appoint 'Mad Dog' Mattis as our secretary of defense. He's our best. They say he's the closest thing to General George Patton that we have."

Dump Kellogg's Cereals

Bias In Your Breakfast - Do you like a little bias in your breakfast? I'm not talking the morning talk shows. I mean your cereal.

Cereal giant Kellogg apparently doesn't like conservatives. It announced this week that it was going to stop advertising on one of the leading conservative news sites, Breitbart.com. Evidently, Breitbart doesn't align with the company's values, which apparently include exploiting child labor.

Rather than caving to the left, the company simply should have said: "We sell cereal, not politics. And we will advertise wherever cereal consumers can be found."

ACTION ITEM: If you would like to share your thoughts about Kellogg's disrespect for conservatives, call the company's comment line at 1-800-962-1413. You can also use this web form to send a message online.
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Gary Bauer is a conservative family values advocate and serves as president of American Values and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families

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Op-Ed Insists Half the Nation’s Guns Are Owned By Just 3% Of Americans

by Bob Owens: When I want to learn about firearms in the United States, I do what anyone on the editorial board of the Los Angeles Times would do: I turn to an androgynous philosophy professor at a tiny art school in Maryland who has probably never seen a gun in person.  This “expert”  Firmin DeBrabander, PhD, hysterically insists that no one really owns guns, that they’re wildly unpopular, and that just 3% of Americans own half of them.To the exasperation of its opponents, the National Rifle Assn. has expanded its influence in recent years and pushed an increasingly radical agenda. States have expanded open-carry laws, thanks to NRA pressure, as well as the number of public places where people can carry guns — such as university campuses. Since 2004, 10 states have enacted so-called campus carry measures, with Kansas set to do so next year. The NRA has also pushed 23 states to pass stand your ground statutes in the past decade; these expansive self-defense laws effectively allow gun owners to escalate confrontations and turn them into deadly affairs. More recently, the NRA has pushed permitless carry, which, as the term suggests, allows people to carry firearms in public with no permit — and no safety training.Nevertheless, this radical gun rights agenda sits on an increasingly shaky house of cards thanks to demographic change.

Half the guns in the U.S. are owned by 3% of adults. So says a revelatory new study on the demographics of gun ownership by Harvard Public Health researchers. These “superowners,” as some have dubbed them, own on average 17 guns apiece. The study also points out that the share of Americans who own a gun has fallen from 25% to 22% in the last 20 years, even as the population as a whole has grown and gun sales have boomed. Clearly a lot of the same people keep buying guns.

Gun ownership in the U.S. is highly concentrated, and the trend promises to continue. The most recent General Social Survey, released in 2015, revealed that gun ownership among young adults has fallen to 14% from 23% in 1980. This is a considerable drop among what should be the NRA’s future membership.This “revelatory new study” from “Harvard Public Health researchers” is—unsurprisingly—not published in any refereed journal that requires peer review, but was instead leaked to a radically anti-gun foreign paper and an American gun control group.

The General Social Survey’s data on firearms ownership has likewise always been viewed as farcical by firearms retailers who see their sales year in and year out in direct conflict with what the GSS claims.

Larry Keene of the National Shooting Sports Foundation seems quite amused by the self-evidently absurd claim that gun ownership is somehow declining, even as gun and accessory sales, participation in shooting sports, the number of people engaging in beginner, intermediate, and advanced firearms training, and the number of people obtaining permits for firearms and firearms carry are all skyrocketing and spreading across a much wider demographic range.The long-term growth in firearms sales, more Americans choosing to exercise their right to keep and bear arms since the landmark Heller and McDonald Supreme Court decisions and increased participation in the shooting sports are demonstrable trends that drive the professional gun control community and their mainstream media allies to nearly apoplectic states.

These long-term trends are inconvenient facts that mess up the preferred anti-gun narrative. Central to their communications strategy, as we have seen time and again, is the story line that fewer, aging, mostly white Americans have for many years been buying nearly all of the guns being produced and then, apparently, stuffing them into their overflowing gun safes.

We know that argument is ridiculous, as any visitor to a retailer or range could quickly confirm.

Gun control organizations are constantly trying to minimize the size of the gun-owning American public as a way of trying to make the adoption of more laws and regulations appear more likely or even inevitable. That they are insulting our intelligence or even that of the American people as a whole doesn’t seem to bother them.

And their strawman opponent in their selfless efforts to bring more “reasonable gun safety” measures into being is, all together now, THE GUN LOBBY, which is really all of us in this industry. Make no mistake. They want to put us out of business.

The news that stock prices fell for the publicly-traded companies in our industry for a few trading sessions immediately following the results of last week’s election is the latest grist for their propaganda mill. Now, you see, there will be no reason for this small number of gun-buying Americans to want to buy more firearms because they no longer fear control by anti-gun political leaders, as a Bloomberg.com columnist opined.

So, in this latest scenario, the anti-gun groups and media see another opportunity to begin writing the industry’s obituary. Talk about a leap in logic.-----------------
Bob Owens is the Editor of BearingArms.com. A long-time shooting enthusiast, he began blogging as a North Carolina native in New York. His personal blog i bob-owens.com, and he can be found on Twitter at @bob_owens.

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Iran Issues Threats As US Senate Votes To Extend Sanctions

Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Movahedi Khamenei

by Julianne Geiger: Iran issued fighting words on Friday after the United States Senate passed a bill with a 99-0 vote to extend the Iran Sanctions Act (ISA).

“Nothing but hostility is expected from the U.S., but as said before, now it’s time for retaliation,” Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Movahedi Khamenei, said in a Friday prayer service.

The ISA was set to expire at the end of 2016, but the legislation that was unanimously passed today extended it another ten years.

Although the extensions did not specifically violate the current nuclear agreement that Iran has with Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia, and the United States, the Ayatollah Khamenei warned a few weeks ago that extending the sanctions against Iran would be tantamount to violating the nuclear agreement.

"If this extension is implemented and comes into force, it will certainly be a violation of the nuclear deal and they should know that the Islamic Republic of Iran will certainly show reaction.”

That nuclear agreement included a tit-for-tat agreement that had Iran scale back its nuclear program in exchange for the six other parties lifting sanctions on Iran’s banking and energy sectors. This is the deal that President-Elect Trump has called “one of the dumbed ideas ever,” vowing to make the deep sixing of that agreement one of his top priorities.

And while the President-Elect’s cabinet choices to date seem to share his hardline stance against the Iran nuclear agreement, his campaign trail promises may be all for naught, with Iran making it clear that extending sanctions will be seen through its eyes as violating that agreement.

According to the Fars News Agency, the Khamenei said that the Islamic Republic of Iran was unafraid, because it relies on divine power, as well as the power of the people’s presence and support.
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Julianne Geiger authored this article contributed by James Stafford the editor of OilPrice.com, the leading online energy news site, to the ARRA News Service.

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JW Asks Court to Find Government Misconduct in Clinton Email Scandal

Tom Fitton, Judicial Watch: The Clinton email scandal is more than about the conduct of Hillary Clinton.  It is about the lawlessness of the Obama administration, especially the State Department.

That’s why our Judicial Watch attorneys recently asked a federal court, on the grounds that the documents relate to government misconduct, to reject the State Department’s secrecy claims over certain Clinton email-related documents.

We argue that the agency should release 30 emails currently being withheld under various “deliberative process,” “attorney client,” and “attorney work product” privileges.

Our lawsuit was originally filed in May 2015. It seeks “all emails sent or received by former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in her official capacity as secretary of State, as well as all emails by other State Department employees to Secretary Clinton regarding her non-‘state.gov’ email address”  (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:15-cv-00687)).

We make the sensible argument that Clinton’s email practices at the State Department constitute misconduct:

The U.S. federal government has produced two State Department Inspector General reports and a report following an FBI investigation, which collectively support the conclusion that, at a minimum, the unofficial server arrangement was misconduct even if it was not a prosecutable violation of criminal law or one that will necessarily result in civil liability.  Secretary Clinton herself has called the unofficial server arrangement a ‘mistake’…The State Department’s descriptions of the documents show that it may have misled the public about the Clinton email scandal:The Vaughn  [withholding index] description of these records appears to show, at least in part, a public relations campaign orchestrated by [the Obama State Department] to create a false equivalence between Secretary Clinton’s unofficial server and the records management practices of former Secretaries Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, and Madeline Albright.  No one believes that Madeline Albright used an unofficial server located at her residence for government communications.  Nor did Colin Powell hold 30,000 government records in his possession for two years after he left the State Department.  Accordingly, it would appear that one purpose of the withheld discussions in this case was to manage the public messaging about government misconduct so as to mislead the public about its severity.We asked the court to reject the State Department’s efforts to shield documents under the “deliberative process privilege,” among other asserted privileges, in order to protect the confidentiality of internal deliberations:In this Circuit, the government misconduct exception to the deliberative process privilege applies in two circumstances.  First, the “deliberative process privilege disappears altogether when there is any reason to believe government misconduct occurred.”  And second, “where there is reason to believe the documents sought may shed light on government misconduct, the privilege is routinely denied on the grounds that shielding internal government deliberations in this context does not serve the public’s interest in honest, effective government.” … Both exceptions apply to the 30 documents in question here, for the reasons already elaborated.The State Department has been producing Clinton emails recovered by the FBI under a September 23, 2016, court order issued by U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg. The State Department confirmed in September that the FBI turned over to it at least 15,000 new Clinton emails as a result of Judicial Watch’s litigation seeking all of Clinton’s work-related emails.

Hillary Clinton has repeatedly stated that she believes that the 55,000 pages of documents she returned to the State Department in December 2014 included all of her work-related emails. In response to a court order in other Judicial Watch litigation, she declared under penalty of perjury  that she had “directed that all my emails on clintonemail.com in my custody that were or are potentially federal records be provided to the Department of State, and on information and belief, this has been done.” The emails found by the FBI are also at odds with her official campaign statement suggesting all “work or potentially work-related emails” were provided to the State Department. The full history of this case can be found here.

The Obama State Department is abusing the Freedom of Information law in order to keep the American people in the dark about its cover-up of the Clinton email scandal.  The courts should hold the Obama agency accountable for this lawlessness.

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Top 5 Financial Regulations Trump Should Repeal

by Justin Sykes: Throughout his campaign Donald Trump pledged to repeal and “dismantle” burdensome financial regulations such as the Department of Labor’s (DOL) “fiduciary rule” and regulations enacted under the Dodd-Frank Act. Now that President-elect Trump has clinched the Whitehouse and has the backing of a Republican House and Senate, he now has the ability to act on his campaign pledge.

Looking ahead to 2017, there are five financial reforms that Trump can undertake to relieve the burdensome and costly regulatory impact left over from the Obama administration.

1. Repeal the DOL’s Fiduciary Rule. Trump should look to repeal the DOL’s costly fiduciary rule before it takes effect April 2017. The massive rule spans over 1000 pages and reduces the ability of financial advisors to give advice to IRA and 401(k) holders. Estimates show the fiduciary rule could disqualify up to 7 million IRA holders from investment advice, and reduce the number of IRAs opened annually by up to 400,000.
2. Repeal the Durbin Amendment. The Durbin Amendment, passed as part of the Dodd-Frank Act, requires the Federal Reserve to fix the price of fees charged to retailers for debit card processing. Prior to Dodd-Frank, issuers of debit cards received a fee from the merchant to offset the cost of running the debit card system. This has increased the cost of accepting debit cards for many small businesses, which in turn pass those costs onto consumers.
3. Repeal the Volcker Rule. Passed as part of the Dodd-Frank Act, the Volcker Rule, named for former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, limits the type of trading activities that banks can engage in, specifically proprietary trading (trading for ones own accounts). Volcker has since acknowledged however proprietary trading did not lead to the financial crisis, calling the justification behind the rule into question. As a result, U.S. financial institutions have become less competitive globally, the cost of raising capital for small businesses has increased, and market liquidity has been reduced.
4. Stop or repeal the Arbitration Rule. The CFPB is currently racing to finalize the proposed Arbitration Rule before President Trump takes office in January. The proposed rule would ban arbitration clauses in consumer finance contracts such as those used by lenders and credit card companies. The rule would be a boon for trial attorneys and a burden for consumers. The CFPB’s own study found arbitration clauses result in better outcomes for consumers, with awards being given in a matter of months, while class-action awards take years and have average payouts of less than $2 per person.
5. Reform the CFPB. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is the fastest rulemaking body in the federal government. Of the nearly 50 rules the CFPB has imposed, 26 of them have directly resulted in $2.8 billion in costs and 16.9 million hours of increased paperwork. Two primary CFPB reforms Trump can focus on are subjecting the bureau to Congressional oversight and shifting CFPB leadership from one unaccountable bureaucrat to a 5-member board.

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Justin Sykes writes for Americans for Tax Reform

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SHOCK: Senate To Vote On Letting Democrats Keep Control Of The FCC

Phil Kerpen

by Phil Kerpen, Contributing Author: Multiple sources confirm that the nightmare scenario identified by ATR is indeed likely to occur: Senate Democrats have picked off enough Republicans to force a vote next week on reconfirming Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel to the FCC, resulting in at best an initial 2-2 deadlock on the committee if Tom Wheeler, the current chairman, follows precedent and resigns, leaving only four commissioners at the FCC until another is confirmed. That would delay action on President Trump’s job creation agenda at the agency, which is bad enough.

But there is an even more disturbing possibility: If Wheeler follows through on his threat not to resign, it would mean Democrats would retain control of the FCC well into Trump’s presidency.

The FCC is a huge deal economically, overseeing a portion of the economy – television, radio, the Internet, mobile – roughly equal in size to the healthcare sector.

Moreover, under Obama the FCC has been a massive weapon of regulatory control, imposing public utility-style regulation of broadband, with a serious negative impact on investment and job creation. In that and many other ways, the FCC has been politicized and corrupted under Obama Democrats.

Imposing a Democratic FCC on a Republican president is completely outrageous and no Republican should vote for it. It is inconsequential whether it is paired with Republican Ajit Pai’s renomination, because he is already slated to stay on the FCC for another year and can be easily reconfirmed next year.

Under these circumstances, a Senate vote on Jessica Rosenworcel has nothing to do with her qualifications or record on the FCC.

It is a simple referendum on one thing: should an Obama FCC be forced on President Trump and rewarded for its outrageous regulatory assault on the U.S. economy by retaining power? Every Republican must vote no.

ACTION NOW: We don’t have much time to act. Please use our action form to contact the Senate and then forward this email to your friends so we can mobilize opposition as fast as possible. The vote is coming soon, possibly within days, and your rapid response could not be more vital. TAKE ACTION and tell the Senate: Don’t Re-Elect Obama’s FCC!
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Phil Kerpen is president of American Commitment. Follow him at (@kerpen) and on Facebook. He is a contributing author at the ARRA News Service.

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Tags: Phil Kerpen, Contributing Author, SHOCK, Senate To Vote, On Letting Democrats, Keep Control, The FCC, Take Action, To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Fake News and War Party Lies

by Patrick Buchanan: “I have in my possession a secret map, made in Germany by Hitler’s government — by the planners of the New World Order,” FDR told the nation in his Navy Day radio address of Oct. 27, 1941.

“It is a map of South America as Hitler proposes to reorganize it. The geographical experts of Berlin, however, have ruthlessly obliterated all the existing boundary lines … bringing the whole continent under their domination,” said Roosevelt. “This map makes clear the Nazi design not only against South America but against the United States as well.”

Our leader had another terrifying secret document, “made in Germany by Hitler’s government. …

“It is a plan to abolish all existing religions — Protestant, Catholic, Mohammedan, Hindu, Buddhist and Jewish alike. … In the place of the churches of our civilization, there is to be set up an international Nazi Church…

“In the place of the Bible, the words of ‘Mein Kampf’ will be imposed and enforced as Holy Writ. And in place of the cross of Christ will be put two symbols — the swastika and the naked sword. … A god of blood and iron will take the place of the God of love and mercy.”

The source of these astounding secret Nazi plans?

They were forgeries by British agents in New York operating under William Stephenson, Churchill’s “Man Called Intrepid,” whose assignment was to do whatever necessary to bring the U.S. into Britain’s war.

FDR began his address by describing two German submarine attacks on U.S. destroyers Greer and Kearny, the later of which had been torpedoed with a loss of 11 American lives.

Said FDR: “We have wished to avoid shooting. But the shooting has started. And history has recorded who fired the first shot.”

The truth: Greer and Kearny had been tracking German subs for British planes dropping depth charges.

It was FDR who desperately wanted war with Germany, while, for all his crimes, Hitler desperately wanted to avoid war with the United States.

Said Cong. Clare Boothe Luce, FDR “lied us into war because he did not have the political courage to lead us into it.”

By late 1941, most Americans still wanted to stay out of the war. They believed “lying British propaganda” about Belgian babies being tossed around on German bayonets had sucked us into World War I, from which the British Empire had benefited mightily.

What brings these episodes to mind is the wave of indignation sweeping this capital over “fake news” allegedly created by Vladimir Putin’s old KGB comrades, and regurgitated by U.S. individuals, websites and magazines that are anti-interventionist and anti-war.

Ohio Sen. Rob Portman says the “propaganda and disinformation threat” against America is real, and we must “counter and combat it.” Congress is working up a $160 million State Department program.

Now, Americans should be on guard against “fake news” and foreign meddling in U.S. elections.

Yet it is often our own allies, like the Brits, and our own leaders who mislead and lie us into unnecessary wars. And is not meddling in the internal affairs, including the elections, of regimes we do not like, pretty much the job description of the CIA and the National Endowment for Democracy?

History suggests it is our own War Party that bears watching.

Consider Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Who misled, deceived, and lied about Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction, the “fake news” that sucked us into one of our country’s greatest strategic blunders?

Who lied for years about an Iranian nuclear weapons program, which almost dragged us into a war, before all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies debunked that propaganda in 2007 and 2011?

Yet, there are those, here and abroad, who insist that Iran has a secret nuclear weapons program. Their goal: war with Iran.

Were we told the whole truth about the August 1964 incident involving North Vietnamese gunboats and U.S. destroyers Maddox and C. Turner Joy, which stampeded Congress into voting a near-unanimous resolution that led us into an eight-year war in Southeast Asia?

One can go back deeper into American history.

Cong. Abe Lincoln disbelieved in President Polk’s claim that the Mexican army had crossed the Rio Grande and “shed American blood upon American soil.” In his “spot” resolution, Lincoln demanded to know the exact spot where the atrocity had occurred that resulted in a U.S. army marching to Mexico City and relieving Mexico of half of her country.

Was Assistant Navy Secretary Theodore Roosevelt telling us the truth when he said of our blasted battleship in Havana harbor, “The Maine was sunk by an act of dirty treachery on the part of the Spaniards”?

No one ever proved that the Spanish caused the explosion.

Yet America got out of his war what T.R. wanted — Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines, an empire of our own.

“In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.”

So said Winston Churchill, the grandmaster of fake news.
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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.

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Tags: Patrick Buchanan, conservative, commentary, fake news, War Party Lies, damn lies To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Money For Nothin’ . . .

. . . Many are saying that the fund raising efforts for the presidential recount is a waste of money and a down right scam.

Editorial Cartoon by AF "Tony" Branco

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Tags: Editorial Cartoon, AF Branco, Money for Nothing, Hillary Clinton, recount, fund raising effort, waste of money, scam To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Decisions

by Kerby Anderson, Contributing Author: If you think about it, your life is the culmination of lots and lots of decisions. Jim Clifton, CEO of Gallup, argues that people make 10,000 to 20,000 small decisions every day. If you multiply this by the U.S. population you end up with one quadrillion decisions. This is one of the points Jeff Myers makes in his book, Understanding the Culture.

The legacy you leave is the sum of all of these decisions. Many are inconsequential. Others determine the future direction of your life. Some don’t seem important at the time, but they turn out to be some of the most significant decisions you ever made.

How should we make decisions? First, we should consult the Bible. We can know God’s will in our lives through the Bible since it is full of specific commands and principles. Second, we should pray. We can discern God’s will through prayer. Philippians 4:6 says: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”

Third, consult your conscience. If your conscience troubles you (Romans 14), then they is reason enough to stop and not proceed. Acts 24:16 says: “Christians should strive to have a good conscience before God and man.” By the way, a clear conscience isn’t always a justification for proceeding. The Bible teaches that, “The heart is deceitful above all things” (Jeremiah 17:9). We can easily deceive ourselves into sin.

Finally, seek counsel. Proverbs 15:22 says: “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.” Wisdom comes from many counselors. Share your decision with other godly men and women. Their collective response will often provide God’s direction in a matter.

As a Christian, we should strive to make wise and godly decisions about our life. How we make decisions will affect the rest of our life and leave a legacy of faith for others to follow.
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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

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Crony Carrier

by Paul Jacob, Contributing Author: Sure, I’ve complained about the over-the-top anti-Trump bias of much of the mainstream media (which may actually have improved Trump’s public standing). But, today, I enthusiastically celebrate that supercilious slant.

Why? Because it means much of the media amazingly finds itself on the right side, panning the recent deal to save 1,000 jobs at the Carrier Corporation.

Saving jobs is good per se. We want jobs to stay here in America. But, at what price?

Thus far, the deal remains secret, but according to Politico, “The agreement reportedly includes $7 million in state tax breaks over ten years offered by the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, a quasi-public entity that doesn’t require legislative approval for its deals.”

“Quasi-public entities” always make me queasy.

“Can American companies now merely threaten to go to Mexico,” asks Chris Rossini in the Ron Paul Liberty Letter, “in order to get a sweetheart deal for themselves?”

This special arrangement’s costs are not merely monetary: Special deals for some companies at the expense of others undermine the whole concept of equality under the law.

File under: crony capitalism.

Even the socialists at The Nation say the agreement “epitomizes corporate socialism at the expense of American taxpayers.”

“I certainly think that, if President Obama had done something like this, conservatives would have been freaking out,” argues Reason’s Peter Suderman.

Many are. Well, maybe not exactly “freaking out” — but vocally opposing the idea of the not-quite-yet-president picking winners and losers in the marketplace.

Crony capitalism didn’t make America great. Our revolution’s justification prompts the antithesis.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Paul Jacobs 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. Jacobs is a contributing author on the ARRA News Service.

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Climate Data Deniers Are Trying to ‘Bork’ Trump’s EPA Transition Leader

Myron Ebell 

by Nicolas Loris: President-elect Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency transition leader, Myron Ebell, is a huge threat to the green gravy train. Now, with billions of crony dollars at stake, the green slander machine is doing all it can to slime him.

Following their standard tactic, advocates of big government cronyism have picked someone to demonize as the face of small-government, pro-freedom ideals.

Ebell is that face, and he’s enduring the left’s vilification for voicing reasonable thought on climate change policy. Though he bears the burden with grace and humor, there is no excuse for the personal attacks, which are designed to distract attention from the high stakes of the debate.

What’s at stake for big green is billions upon billions of dollars taken from taxpayers and consumers and given to green crony businesses. Just for wind energy alone, grants, tax credits, loan guarantees, and other subsidies add up to at least $176 billion.

What isn’t at stake—contrary to the left’s talking points—is the Earth’s climate.

As costly as our current energy and climate policies are to the economy (they would cost the U.S. a net loss t of 400,000 jobs and up to $2.5 trillion), they are projected to have negligible impacts on global temperatures—even if you believe the questionable climate models of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

When judged by their actual effect, it becomes clear that the real goal of international climate policies is a power and money grab that no one, not even its most vocal supporters, believes will have much impact on the climate.

In fact, Christiana Figueres—until recently the executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change—noted that the goal of those policies was to rearrange the world economy:This is the first time in the history of mankind that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time, to change the economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years, since the Industrial Revolution.The big problem for the framework convention, the IPCC, renewable energy hustlers, and climate rent-seekers of all sorts is that Ebell is on to their game. So, out come the daggers of personal attacks and character assassination.

Many in the media are more than happy to abet the groups who perpetrate these attacks. The Media Research Center provides a nice sampler of these attacks and associated yellow journalism here.

It’s not at all clear what the name-callers mean when they call Ebell a “climate denier,” but in a bizarre semantic twist, they appear to mean that he is not a hysterical climate data denier.

Like most skeptics, Ebell recognizes the basic carbon dioxide science: Adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere may somewhat increase warming. But he also recognizes the much more important question: How much is this “somewhat”?

Ebell and those following the numbers know that the Earth’s warming to date is much less than the IPCC models predicted and that the actual data don’t point to a climate catastrophe.

In addition, the unhinged claims of ever-worsening, extreme climate events don’t square with the data either. There are no upward trends in droughts, floods, tornadoes, or hurricanes.

Because knowledge of these facts is such a threat to the climate-industrial complex, anyone who dares to expose the truth comes under threat of personal destruction.

In 1987, “Borking” became a term for getting shot down after the U.S. Senate torpedoed Robert Bork’s nomination to the Supreme Court. We should not allow green activists to make “Ebelling” a synonym for “Borking.”
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Nicolas Loris (@NiconomistLoris), an economist, focuses on energy, environmental and regulatory issues as the Herbert and Joyce Morgan fellow at The Heritage Foundation.

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President-Elect Trump To Nominate General James Mattis For Sec. of Defense

Leftists foam at the mouth and gnash their teeth.

by Matthew Vadum: Obama foe and retired Marine Corps Gen. James "Mad Dog" Mattis will be the nation’s new Secretary of Defense if President-elect Donald Trump gets his way.

“I will not tell you that one of our great, great generals — don’t let it outside of this room,” an impish Trump told a Cincinnati audience last night. “We are going to appoint 'Mad Dog' Mattis as our secretary of defense … but we are not announcing it until Monday, so don’t tell anyone. He’s great.”

"They say he’s the closest thing to Gen. George Patton that we have and it’s about time."

The president-elect previously praised Mattis. On Nov. 20 he tweeted, “General James ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis, who is being considered for Secretary of Defense, was very impressive yesterday. A true General's General!”

James Norman Mattis was born Sept. 8, 1950 in Pullman, Washington. He is a political Independent. In addition to the “Mad Dog” moniker, the nickname “Warrior Monk” has been applied to him. His reported radio call sign was "Chaos." Mattis co-wrote the military's counterinsurgency manual along with retired Army Gen. David Petraeus who is also under consideration for a post in Trump’s cabinet.

Eminently quotable, he is known for his many “Mattis-isms.” Among them are "Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet," and "I don't lose any sleep at night over the potential for failure. I cannot even spell the word."

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) hailed the cabinet selection, describing Mattis as “without a doubt one of the finest military officers of his generation and an extraordinary leader who inspires a rare and special admiration of his troops.”

Mattis “has a clear understanding of the many challenges facing the Department of Defense, the U.S. military, and our national security,” and the nation “will be fortunate to have General Mattis in its service once again.”

Mattis seems unlikely to be a yes-man in Trump’s cabinet. He repeatedly criticized Trump during the recent election campaign.

Mattis said Trump’s proposal to ban Muslim immigration makes U.S. allies think “we have lost faith in reason.”

“They think we’ve completely lost it," he said. "This kind of thing is causing us great damage right now, and it’s sending shock waves through this international system.”

But Mattis has also suggested that “political Islam” needs to be combatted. He said last year that Islamic State's strategy rests on the belief that "the Americans will not ask one fundamental question: … Is political Islam in the best interest of the United States?" He continued: "I suggest the answer is no, but we need to have the discussion. If we won't even ask the question, how do we even recognize our side in this fight?"

Mattis is somewhat of a contrarian. He questions the current organization of the country’s nuclear arsenal, which now consists of submarines, bombers, and land-based missiles. "Is it time to reduce the Triad to a Diad, removing the land‐based missiles?" he said at a congressional hearing last year.

The selection of the distinguished 66-year-old veteran delighted conservatives and defense wonks but some Democratic lawmakers don’t like him. Obama gave Mattis the boot as head of Central Command and the general has been an outspoken critic of the president ever since.

The top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee Subcommittee on Personnel, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, vowed yesterday to fight the nomination.

“While I deeply respect General Mattis’s service, I will oppose a waiver,” she said, referring to a law that prevents commissioned officers in the U.S. military from taking the top Pentagon post less than seven years after leaving the service.

“Civilian control of our military is a fundamental principle of American democracy, and I will not vote for an exception to this rule.”

Always the moral poseurs, Democrats could don convenient moral garments by pretending they oppose Mattis because they suddenly care about civilian control of the military.

Gillibrand’s hostility to the Mattis pick could be a signal to the Left and foreshadow confirmation problems for the general. Critics says Gillibrand is a “mini-me” to apparent incoming Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, also from New York, and follows him in lock-step.

So does this mean Schumer is planning to rain on the Mattis parade? We’ll find out soon enough.

But with all the electoral shellackings Democrats have received in the last few national elections, early in the new year the Left may need a confidence boost. Who better to vilify than a deadly serious career soldier, the kind of man Daily Kos readers hold in contempt because he actually wants America to win wars?

And while Trump may liken Mattis to Patton, he may also be the closest thing to a comic book super-villain in the new president’s cabinet for legions of perpetually outraged Democrats who would prefer that U.S. soldiers function as social workers. They may want to take out Mattis as a nominee or make his life difficult to help MoveOn and boost the coffers of the DNC and Democrat fundraising shops.

The “waiver” to which Gillibrand referred is needed because Mattis faces an unusual statutory hurdle on the road to the Pentagon: he hasn’t been away from military service long enough.

The National Security Act of 1947, which reorganized the military and intelligence agencies in the wake of the Second World War, forbade anyone from becoming secretary who in the preceding 10 years had been on active duty as a commissioned officer in the armed forces. The thinking at the time was apparently that it was important to guarantee civilian control over the military, a longtime cornerstone of American governance.

The statute was amended in 1950 to allow Army General George C. Marshall to become defense secretary. The legislative language was changed again in 2008. Section 903(a) of the National Defense Authorization Act reduced the waiting period to seven years.

Mattis, who is very popular in military circles, only left the service three-and-a-half years ago in May 2013 after serving as commander at U.S. Central Command, which covers the Middle East.

CNN spoke to Arnold Punaro, a former staff member of the Senate Armed Services Committee who helped write the current law. He said that a waiver from both houses of Congress shouldn’t be a problem.

"He would not in any way undermine or erode civilian control of the military, and it would be hard to find someone who would be less likely to be pushed around by the military and he is now a civilian and would be firmly in charge," said Punaro, adding Mattis was a "stellar choice."

Another retired general seemed to agree with Punaro.

"Waivers are waivers," said retired Army Lt. Gen. Mick Bednarek, who was senior U.S. military adviser in Iraq until last year. "In the case of Jim Mattis, that would not be too contentious. The real issue is his views and perspectives."

If Senate Democrats believe fighting the Mattis nomination will benefit the Left, history suggests they’ll do it and make excuses up for their behavior as they go along.
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Matthew Vadum, senior vice president at the investigative think tank Capital Research Center, an author at the David Horowitz Freedom Center's FronPage Mag, an award-winning investigative reporter, and author of the book, Subversion Inc.: How Obama’s ACORN Red Shirts Are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers.

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Tags: President-Elect, Donald Trump, nominate, retired, Marine Corps, General James "Mad Dog" Mattis, Secretary of Defense To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Now Is The Time For Immigration Deal

Fence History Failure: A multibillion-dollar "virtual
fence" along the southwestern border promised for
completion in 2009 to protect the U.S. from terrorists,
violent drug smugglers & a flood of illegal
immigrants  ~ The Washington Times - 3/1/2010

by Dave Albo: With the election over and Republicans keeping control of Congress while also securing the White House, our nation has an opportunity to finally fix our broken immigration system, secure our borders, and deal with those living in the United States illegally.

To date, both sides have refused to budge on their positions, resulting in no compromises—and neither side getting anything they want. Continued failure to solve this problem will put an unacceptable and unnecessary financial burden on state governments, local governments and taxpayers, who absent congressional action are the ones who pay for education and social services for illegal residents in their communities. (Just educating children not lawfully present in my County of Fairfax, Virginia costs our school system well over $100,000,000/yr!)

After more than a decade of discussion with nothing to show for it, without compromise, nothing will happen. (Note: Just because there is a House and Senate controlled by Republicans does not mean that a “Republican only” solution can be passed. A bill needs 60 votes in the Senate and the Republicans only have 52 Senate seats).

The time to act is now. I say this as a Republican with a clear record of fighting against amnesty.

Not only was I the first legislator in the U.S. to pass a law requiring people to be legally present in order to get a driver’s license, I also carried the law in Virginia that requires adults to be legally present in the U.S. to qualify for non-emergency taxpayer benefits. In addition, I sponsored the Virginia law that requires all people arrested for crimes to be checked for legal status, and was the primary force behind Virginia’s e-verify law.

So I am no “softie” when it comes to immigration reform.

However, I am also a realist. Practically speaking, it would be impossible to deport all of the 12 million illegal immigrants living in our nation. At the same time, it is equally impossible that we leave our borders unsecure. I believe that lawmakers and citizens of both parties can find common ground on this issue, if both are willing to compromise on certain aspects of their positions. From the conservative point of view, such a compromise must be predicated on two conditions:

1. Our borders must be secure (via a physical wall, virtual wall, or any other effective solution).
2. Those with criminal records must be deported.

Only when these two conditions are met — and verified by agreed-upon metrics — should we consider allowing some of those not lawfully present in our country (e.g. those who have paid taxes and/or children who grew up in the US) to remain and acquire some type of legal status. Such a solution is not perfect from either side’s perspective, but it could actually pass Congress in 2017. Under this scenario, everyone wins—those here illegally who are law abiding and pay taxes can come out of the shadows, our borders will finally be secure so the tide of illegal immigration will be halted, and criminal illegal immigrants will no longer be allowed to live among us.

You can tell from my record of leadership on fighting illegal immigration, that if I had my way, we would have a wall, the criminal illegal immigrants would, after serving their prison time, be deported and barred forever from re-entry into the US, and all 12 million illegal immigrants would somehow be deported and have to re-petition under the rule of law to get back in. But I don’t want to complain. I want a solution! So I am willing to compromise in order to secure our borders and kick out criminal illegal immigrants. Now, I am sure that as soon as this article is published there will be Republican nay-sayers who attack this idea because they refuse to accept anything other than 100% of what they want.

But their lack of finding a solution that will actually pass Congress is creating the exact opposite of what they want: de facto amnesty and porous borders. The same thing goes for the inevitable Democrat nay-sayers who will attack this article. Their demand for nothing but open borders and amnesty for everyone leaves the hard working and otherwise law abiding illegal immigrants nowhere. Like the Republican nay-sayers, the Democrat nay-sayers refusal to find a solution that will pass is preventing citizens who want to get their loved ones into this country from ever being able to have their children, spouses or parents be legally in the US.

Further delay is unacceptable. And without a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, Republicans have little chance of passing a bill of their own. Compromise is necessary in order for our nation to be preserved. No nation can survive without borders. The time for action is now.
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Dave Albo authored this article for the Jefferson Policy Journal. He is an attorney from Springfield, Virginia. He is a member of the Virginia House of Delegates and serves as Chairman of the House Courts of Justice Committee.

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Navy Veteran's House Torched in Florida, Vandalized with Anti-Trump Graffiti

by Debra Heine: A Navy veteran's house in Plant City, Florida, was torched and vandalized with anti-Trump graffiti Monday night while the family was spending the night with relatives.

Matthew Smith told Fox 13 News that his home was targeted because he is a Donald Trump supporter."It's not what I expected out of America," says Smith. "It should be us figuring problems out together."Smith flies three flags in front of his house: the American flag, the POW flag, and the Navy flag.

"We supported Trump from when he started running for office," says Matthew's wife Brittany. "We never made it public. We never had a sign in our backyard, so no one really knew we were pro Trump."

But Matthew says he's been very active on Facebook, with posts supporting Trump, the Second Amendment, and other conservative causes.Investigators are looking into possible connections with anti-Trump graffiti that was sprayed on two mobile homes near Mango, Florida, earlier this month. One of those homes was set on fire, too.The Smiths, who have two young children, say times have been hard recently. They say their home is in foreclosure and they have no insurance to cover the belongings that burned. Brittany says it doesn't make sense to her.

"We were always nice to everyone," she said. "It's very odd, very odd."Odder still -- the the media continues to push a false narrative that hundreds of hate crimes are being committed by Trump supporters, even though there's very little evidence to support the claims. Indeed, based on verifiable evidence, the exact opposite seems to be happening.

PJ Media chronicled eleven cases of actual assaults on Trump supporters since the election, here and here.

Also very odd, a teacher in San Antonio allowed high school kids to stage a mock assassination of Donald Trump in the classroom. The San Francisco teachers' union offered an anti-Trump lesson plan for schoolchildren. And Southern Methodist University disinvited the daughter of a fallen Dallas police officer to hit the honorary first serve in a volleyball game because in light of the election of Donald Trump, her presence was somehow deemed "insensitive."

The left is not taking the election of Donald Trump very well at all.

When Republicans lose elections, they look inward and try to assess what they did wrong. When Democrats lose, they double down on their mistakes, blame their loss on poor messaging, and demonize the people who didn't vote for them. In too many cases, their minions are taking it to the next level with vandalism, arson, and physical attacks.
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Debra Heine is a Catholic, mom of six and long time political pundit. She has written for PJ Media and several blogs including her own, Nice Deb!

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Tags: Debra Heine, PJ Media, Navy Veteran, House Tourched, Plant City, Florida. Vandalized, anti-Trump, graffitiTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Immigration As A Weapon, Hope & Change, Democrats Debate Future

by Gary Bauer, Contributing Author: Immigration As A Weapon - Monday's attack in Columbus, Ohio, by a Somali Muslim whose family migrated to Pakistan and then to America once again demonstrates that we are not adequately vetting immigrants. This is not an insignificant issue.

As we have noted before, two-thirds of those convicted on terrorism-related charges since 9/11 were foreign born. In other words, tighter border controls could dramatically reduce the danger our homeland faces from radical Islamic supremacists.

Donald Trump is right to demand "extreme vetting" of new immigrants and refugees coming from areas infested with Islamic extremism. However, there is no vetting adequate enough to sort out which Muslim immigrants may at some future point have their hearts stirred by the call to jihad.

Regardless of what our politically correct cultural and political elites tell us, jihad for the sake of Allah -- waging war for the sake of Allah -- is a consistent pattern of Islam's history. Why would this surprise anyone? The founder of the faith was a warrior.

While Christianity is not pacifistic, and the concept of just war is well-accepted within Christian theology, Christ never advocated taking up the sword to spread his message. For Mohammad, holy war and the subjugation of defeated enemies into slavery or dhimmitude was an accepted practice.

To deny this is wrong, and people are dying as a result.

But radical Islamists are well aware that they have other weapons at their disposal than bombs, bullets, cars and butcher knives. One way to defeat the militarily superior West is to use our immigration policies against us.

In a new book"He said the terror attacks were good, but the 'practical' way to defeat America was through immigration and by outbreeding non-Muslims. He said jihadi-minded brothers would immigrate into the United States, taking advantage of the welfare system to support themselves while they spread their jihadi message. They will wrap themselves in America's rights and laws for protection, ratchet up acceptance of Sharia law, and then, only when they were strong enough, rise up and violently impose Sharia from within. . . 'Eventually,' KSM said, 'America will expose her neck to us for slaughter.'"Those familiar with the Holy Land Foundation trial will recognize that Khalid Sheik Mohammed was not necessarily articulating a new thought. Look at the problems mass migration have caused in Europe -- from the New Year's rapes to terrorism.\.

Recently, an Arabic translator working in German refugee camps decided to expose the "pure hatred" she experienced from Muslims toward Christians. Once again, I have to ask what public policy purpose is being served by importing such hatred into our own country?

It is well past time for our elected leaders to confront this reality. And I promise you, we look forward to working with a new administration that is committed to putting America first and serious about border security.

Hope & Change - By complete coincidence, I am in Indianapolis for a meeting arranged weeks ago. But today Vice President-elect Mike Pence and President-elect Donald Trump are coming to town. I really wish you all could be here. The change in the air is really palpable. There is tremendous hope and for good reason.

Trump and Pence are going to the United Technologies Carrier plant, where I can confidently predict they will be greeted as heroes. Everyone I have talked to in this quintessential Mid-Western city is excited and optimistic about the future with a new administration that won by unapologetically promising to put America first and to restore American greatness.

Evidently, they are not the only ones. After the election, consumer confidence soared to the highest level since 2007. It seems Americans are eagerly looking forward to real hope and change.

This morning, I heard a black employee at the Carrier plant tell a reporter what it felt like when he heard the news that the Carrier plant would be saved. He said, "It meant we could maintain our jobs, keep our homes and take care of our families again."

I'll let the pointy-headed academics in their ivory towers and the TV talking heads debate whether this is appropriate economic policy. No doubt some libertarians will be offended by what they perceive as government intervention in the economy.

But the bottom line is that the greatest proponent of liberty in the world is the United States. Unless we thrive and prosper, this experiment in liberty will fail. The policies we have been following in recent years are leaving millions of Americans behind, and you can't be a great nation if you don't build things.

Democrats Debate Future - House Democrats huddled together yesterday to debate their future. Amid growing concerns that theirs is increasingly a regional party confined to the Northeast and the Left Coast, House Democrats decided to embrace that vision by reelecting San Francisco's Nancy Pelosi as their leader. Senate Democrats will be led by New York's Chuck Schumer.

There's another debate raging for control of the Democrat National Committee. A leading contender for DNC chairman appears to be Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, who burst onto the political scene in 2006 by becoming the first Muslim elected to Congress.

The media went to great lengths this past year to portray Donald Trump as an extremist. They brought up alleged radical connections over and over again, whether it was David Duke or other people no one had ever heard of. The charges were absurd, as were the attempts to smear Steve Bannon and the Breitbart media outlet. After Trump won, the media resurrected decades-old slanders against Jeff Sessions.

But when it comes to someone on the left, there's silence. For example, why aren't the media talking about Ellison's well-established links to the raving anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan and his Nation of Islam?

Given all the media's hyperventilating about "white nationalism" and the "alt-right," why aren't they asking about Ellison's past call for a black state?

As Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz recently noted, Ellison's voting record is distinctly hostile to Israel. Among other things, Ellison refused to support a resolution recognizing Israel's right to self-defense. He was also among a group of delegates at the Democrat National Convention who tried to further weaken the party's position on Israel.

Earlier this week, Ellison defended Fidel Castro, saying his legacy was "a mixed bag" and it was "all wrong" to suggest the brutal communist dictator was "all bad."

You'd think the media would be eager to expose and challenge a politician with such radical connections and bizarre views. But when it comes to scrutinizing Republicans and Democrats, the media have a clear and disgusting double standard.
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Gary Bauer is a conservative family values advocate and serves as president of American Values and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families

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Tags: Gary Bauer, Campaign for Working Families, Immigration As A Weapon, Hope & Change, Democrats Debate Future To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!