How To Solve The Palestinian Problem . . .

. . . and bring peace to the Middle East.

by Daniel Greenfield: In 1990, there were half as many Palestinians as Kuwaitis in Kuwait. Two years later there were almost none.

With the support of the international community, some 700,000 Kuwaitis expelled hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their country. If they had not done it, basic arithmetic shows that the Palestinians would have outnumbered Kuwaitis in Kuwait in a generation.

The Palestinians of Kuwait were kidnapped, tortured and killed. "Kill a Palestinian and Go to Heaven,” became the slogan. When Kuwait was “liberated”, tanks and armored vehicles were sent into the Hawally suburb of Kuwait City known as Little Palestine. Half the buildings were knocked down by bulldozers. Some detained Palestinians were buried in mass graves. The vast majority, including those who had been born in Kuwait, were deported or forced to flee a land they had lived in for a generation.

The violent ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians went mostly unremarked. While the Kuwaitis were ethnically cleansing their Palestinians, they continued to fund Palestinian terror against Israel and condemn Israel for violating the human rights of those they were deporting.

And the world shrugged.

President George H.W. Bush defended Kuwait’s actions. “I think we're expecting a little much if we're asking the people in Kuwait to take kindly to those that had spied on their countrymen that were left there,” he said. This was in the same press conference in which he condemned Israeli “settlements.”

A year later, Israel expelled 400 Hamas members. Every human rights organization was outraged. The State Department “strongly” condemned Israel. And Israel was forced to take them back.

The Kuwaiti Nakba isn’t much remembered. There are no rallies full of old women clutching house keys to lost homes in Hawally. They had made a bad bet by backing Saddam Hussein. And paid the price for it.

Kuwait refused to allow Palestinian Authority leader Abbas to visit until he apologized for supporting Saddam. And apologize he did. "Yes, we apologize for what we have done," the terror boss whined.

The PLO has yet to apologize to Israel for the Muslim settler role in the attempted 1948 genocide of the indigenous Jewish population and the thousands who were maimed and murdered by its terrorists.

Israel, like Kuwait, should have demanded an admission of guilt from Abbas for the PLO’s crimes.

The Kuwaiti Nakba has much in common with what took place in Israel. Palestinians had arrived in both Kuwait and Israel as a cheap labor force to take advantage of the economic boom of a feudal economy becoming industrialized. The “Palestinians” of Israel were not some ancient people but a mass of migrants, mostly from Israel’s neighbors, but occasionally from as far away as Sudan and Senegal in Africa, who were seeking economic opportunity. The existence of the Afro-Palestinians makes it quite clear that they are not a distinct ethnic or national group, but migrants who came from outside Israel.

Over half of the so-called “Palestinian” population lives outside Israel. Many continue to be economic migrants. That is what brought them to Kuwait. And the Kuwaitis were not the only ones to kick them out. Nor are the “Palestinians” the only migrating group that got caught without a country when the game of national musical chairs ended with a lot of new countries with old names dotting the map.

“Palestinians” embraced an imaginary and ahistorical identity because they had been locked out of every other political setup by new governments and tribal arrangements. And that’s not unique.

Kuwait’s other stateless group are the Bedoon. Like the Palestinians, the Bidoon were migrants. The Kuwaitis chose not to recognize them as citizens. There is one Bidoon for every ten Kuwaitis. But that is typical in a region where large nomadic groups around the region exist outside governmental structures.

In this century, hundreds of thousands of people were displaced in Iraq, Libya and Syria. Many of the countries in the region are on the verge of similar civil wars between quarreling ethnic and religious groups. The mass flow of migrants into Europe is an extension of the migratory nature of the region.

All of these problems have a single cause. That cause is the failure of the Arab Muslim nation state.

This century exposed how fragile and artificial most of the countries whose existence we take for granted, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon and Libya, really are. A little instability and they collapse into quarreling tribes. These tribal conflicts have the same root cause as the “Palestinian” problem.

The Palestinian problem can’t be solved without resolving the problem of the Arab Muslim nation state.

The civil wars in Syria and Iraq, the flow of migrants into Europe and the latest itineration of the failed Palestinian peace process all stem from the conflict between the natural tribe and the artificial nation state. The Arab Muslim nation state is incapable of resolving these tribal conflicts.

That is the source of the tyranny, instability and violence in the Middle East.

No amount of concessions or negotiations by Israel will do anything except create more instability. Decades of Israeli concessions have only led to terrorism, violence, death and misery. If Israel ceased to exist tomorrow, the place where it was would be as much of a disaster area as Yemen or Syria.

It’s often pointed out that the Palestinians are a fictional national identity. But the Iraqis, Syrians and many others are equally artificial; historical names attached to fake countries. We weren’t the first Westerners to think that we could fix the Middle East by making them just like us. Before we tried exporting democracy, the British and the French exported nationhood with all the trimmings of flags, constitutions and anthems. Just like Arab Muslim democracy, the Arab Muslim nation state is a farce that spreads misery, instability and violence.

We can best fix the Middle East by ending all the failed efforts to turn it into Europe and America. And reversing them. Stop recognizing Arab Muslim countries that have incompatible populations. They’re dictatorships on the verge of a civil war. And that civil war will eventually drag us in as Iraq and Syria did.

Whenever possible, deal with tribal and other organic regional leaders, not fake national governments. In Iraq, that means an end to the failed policy of only dealing with the Shiite puppet regime in Baghdad while ignoring the Sunni tribal leaders and the Kurdish authorities. That policy helped create ISIS.

We should recognize discrete regions based on the settlement of natural ethnic, religious and tribal identities. There will inevitably be conflict between these tribal territories, but they will claim far fewer lives than Saddam’s efforts to suppress the Shiites and the Marsh Arabs did. Tribes will kill fewer people than a tribal nation state striving to stamp out rivals and competitors with a powerful domestic military.

Borders should not be viewed as permanent. The Middle East is migratory. It is not Europe. An Arab Muslim who moves from Iraq to Syria or flees Kuwait for Jordan is not a refugee. When you start defining every migrant in a region with an extensive nomadic history as a refugee, the end result is the absurdity of the Palestinian refugee cities of Jordan or the million migrants showing up in Europe.

If you go back far enough, everyone in the Middle East is a refugee.

Instead of trying to resettle fake refugees, we should encourage the settlement of discrete territories with natural borders that create physical and defensible divisions between different groups. That rules out any of the lunatic peace schemes for a Palestinian state with a capital in Jerusalem and a territory that cuts through Israel. These plans have failed and will go on failing for the same reason that Iraqis are still killing each other despite our best efforts to talk, bribe and bomb them out of it.

The indigenous Jewish population and the Muslim migrants who settled in Israel are inherently incompatible. The Palestinian problem might be solved somewhere in Jordan or Syria. History and experience tells us it will never be solved in Israel.

The Israeli government should begin distinguishing between the Muslim settler population based not on artificial borders dating back to a particular war but on clan and ethnicity.

The Circassians who migrated to Israel in the 19th century from the Caucasus have not been a problem. These Ottoman military colonists are Muslims, but they serve in the Israeli military and have no interest in joining in the tribal wars of other Muslims against the Jews. The Husayni clan, which gave us Arafat and the Mufti of Jerusalem, has been a source of strife and violence in the region for far too long.

Israel doesn’t have a national problem with the “Palestinians”, it faces threats from marauding clans which dominate the leadership of Islamic terror groups such as the PLO and Hamas. No one has managed to make peace with the Husaynis yet. And they never will.

The first step to solving the Palestinian problem is to recognize that it doesn’t exist. The second is to determine which clans would be more compatible where. That is a process that must take place across the region in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Israel and beyond. And it is far more likely to bring peace than any amount of negotiations and peacekeeping missions.

The great error of Western foreign policy in the region was the belief that stability was best achieved through modernization. The Arab Muslim world is not going to turn into Europe.

We should let it be what it is. Its tribalism won’t bring peace. But it can limit the scope of its wars.
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Daniel Greenfield is Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and a New York writer focusing on radical Islam. David Horowitz is a Contributing Author of the ARRA News Service

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Markup Begins on Davis-Oliver Act That Addresses 3 Of '10 Steps to Fix Enforcement'

Chris Chmielenski

by Chris Chmielenski: It's not mandatory E-Verify, but it's a start.

The House Judiciary Committee began marking up the Davis-Oliver Act on Thursday -- a bill introduced by Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho) that would expand the ability of states and local jurisdictions to enforce federal immigration laws and would strengthen national security by beefing up vetting procedures during the visa application process.

Different versions of the bill have been introduced and passed by the Judiciary Committee in the past two Congresses, but this time is different. There's now a President in the White House who's committed to interior enforcement and, more significantly, called for the passage of this specific legislation during his major immigration policy speech last August."Another reform I am proposing is the passage of legislation named for Detective Michael Davis and Deputy Sheriff Danny Oliver, two law enforcement officers recently killed by a previously-deported illegal immigrant. The Davis-Oliver bill will enhance cooperation with state and local authorities to ensure that criminal immigrants and terrorists are swiftly identified and removed." -- Pres. Donald Trump, August 31, 2016Requiring all employers to use E-Verify remains NumbersUSA's top enforcement priority, but the Davis-Oliver Act is a step in the right direction. Thursday's markup signals that the House Committee with jurisdiction over immigration is looking to back up Trump's tough talk on enforcement with actual law. Furthermore, the Davis-Oliver Act addresses three of our "Ten Steps to Fix the Broken Immigration Enforcement System".

THREE POINTS FROM THE DAVIS-OLIVER ACT THAT ADDRESS OUR 'TEN STEPS':

• Authorizes states and local jurisdictions to:
  • pass and enforce immigration laws that are consistent with federal law, and
  • enter into agreements with the federal government to assist in the enforcement of immigration law and create a federal grant program to fund those efforts.
• Expands the list of deportable offenses and expands expedited removal.
• Blocks visas to recalcitrant countries (countries that refuse to repatriate deported aliens).

ADDITIONAL HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DAVIS-OLIVER ACT:

• Requires states and local jurisdictions to notify the feds whenever they detain an individual suspected of being in the country illegally.
• Requires the federal government to enter into agreements with states and local jurisdictions that wish to assist in immigration enforcement.
• Requires DHS to include deportable aliens in the national crime database.
• Clarifies that state and local officers have full authority to honor detainers that allow ICE to take custody of removable aliens.
• Improves the vetting process to prevent issuing visas to individuals who pose a potential national security risk.
• Authorizes the hiring of 12,500 ICE agents and provides ICE with more resources. 

Unlike some reports in the media, the Davis-Oliver Act does not require states and local jurisdictions to enforce federal immigration laws. It simply clarifies that they have explicit authority to do so and requires the federal government to assist those jurisdictions.

The only requirement for states and local jurisdictions is to notify the feds when they have an individual who is believed to be inadmissible or deportable in custody.

The bill does block certain law enforcement federal grants for states and local jurisdictions that fail to cooperate with federal immigration agents.

The House Judiciary Committee didn't complete its markup of the Davis-Oliver Act on Thursday, so it'll pick up where it left off next week.
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Chris Chmielenski is the Director, Content & Activism for NumbersUSA

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Trump Administration Announces Expansion of Pro-Life “Mexico City Policy”

Sec. of State Rex Tillerson

by Jerry Cox: This week the Trump Administration’s Department of State announced an expansion of the pro-life “Mexico City Policy.”

The Mexico City Policy was created by President Reagan in 1984. It is a good policy that prevents American tax dollars from being used to subsidize abortions or abortion counseling overseas. It generally prevents federal family planning funds from going to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who perform abortions or abortion counseling.

On Monday the Department of State announced its “Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance” program. This new program will expand the Mexico City policy to include other forms of government funding besides family planning funding–such as funding for HIV/AIDS relief, malaria, and maternal and child health.

Under the expanded policy, public funding for these global health programs will not go to NGOs who perform abortions or abortion counseling.

Ultimately this means federal funds will go to relief organizations who agree not to do abortions or abortion counseling instead of going to abortion providers like International Planned Parenthood Federation.

Many of the details of the new policy remain to be seen, but you can read a general overview of it on the Department of State’s website.
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Jerry Cox is the founder and president of Family Council in Little Rock, Arkansas.

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Slow Motion Coup, We Must Fight, No Evidence, Encouraging News

by Gary Bauer, Contributing Author: "Slow Motion Coup" - Last night, Tucker Carlson and Professor Victor Hanson Davis discussed the bizarre state of our union and the deep state efforts to delegitimize President Trump. Here's how Professor Hanson described the left's assault against the Trump Administration:"What we're seeing here . . . is sort of historically a slow motion coup, where you have a nexus of celebrities, academics, the Democratic and progressive parties, and then you have the media. And they feel they can delegitimize the president with a thousand nicks.

"None of them is significant in themselves, but they coalesce to build to a narrative that Trump is inexperienced, that he's uncouth, that he's crude, that he's reckless. And each day the point is to drive his popularity down one half a point, one point until he can't function in Congress because purple state congressional representatives don't want to take the risk to further his initiatives."Professor Hanson is exactly right. And that is precisely the point I made in Wednesday's report when I wrote that the "resistance" was all about stopping Trump's conservative agenda.

We Must Fight! Former Speaker Newt Gingrich has an excellent column today that I urge everyone to read. Here's a brief excerpt:"We are today in a one-sided cultural civil war. The Left has picked the battlefield and defined the terms of engagement. If conservatives respond to this aggressive, sometimes violent hostility from the Left with confusion, uncertainty, and appeasement, we are guaranteed to lose the struggle to drain the swamp and reform Washington.

"Further, surrendering will destroy America as we know it. Far from making America great again, we will have yielded our country to left-wing thugs, liars, and intimidators.

"Those of us who truly want to make America great again have one choice: Fight."Newt is right! That is the message I am desperately trying to get our friends on Capitol Hill to understand. In fact, I said it to one top congressional leader last night.

All the negative media is intended to cow weak-kneed Republicans and demoralize conservative activists. And the media coverage is bad -- REALLY BAD. According to a new Harvard study, more than 90% of the news coverage of the Trump Administration by the big three networks has been negative. And, as we know, much of it has been biased and fake.

My good friend Foster Friess highlights an example of this fake news, surprisingly from the Wall Street Journal. A Journal headline yesterday read: "Moscow Bank Aided Trump Partner's Deal." But when you read the story, you discover that there is virtually no connection to Donald Trump at all.

What the GOP leadership doesn't fully appreciate is that when grassroots conservatives see such a lack of passion from their so-called "leaders," when they don't see any pushback against the aggressiveness of the left, the demoralization only gets worse.

Why should Tea Party and pro-life activists give their blood, sweat, tears and hard-earned money for a party establishment that won't fight for their values?

I can tell it is starting to have an effect. I have received a disturbing number of messages this week expressing frustration with the media, frustration with the GOP and asking, "What can we do?"

We must pray for strength and wisdom for those seeking to defend our values and we must act!

Find one friend or family member -- perhaps an adult child -- who is on the fence, undecided politically, and bring them our way. Don't let them fall for fake news. Share these reports with them. Encourage them to speak out. (Don't waste time on die-hard liberals.)

A recent poll found that half of white, working class Americans agreed with the statement: "Things have changed so much that I often feel like a stranger in my own country."

You're not alone, and neither are your friends. They need to know that others agree with them and that there are organizations like ours fighting for their values!

No Evidence - While the left and the media continue to obsess over Trump's alleged ties to Russia, the fact remains that there is zero evidence for all the hysteria. We've made that point before, but we will continue to hammer it home.

Yesterday, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), a senior member of the Senate Judiciary and Intelligence Committees, went on CNN and had this exchange with host Wolf Blitzer:BLITZER: The last time we spoke, Senator, I asked you if you had actually seen evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians, and you said to me -- and I am quoting you now -- you said, 'Not at this time.' Has anything changed since we spoke last?

FEINSTEIN: Well, no -- no, it hasn't. . .

BLITZER: But, I just want to be precise, Senator. . . You have had access from the Intelligence Committee, from the Judiciary Committee, all of the access you have had to very sensitive information, so far you have not seen any evidence of collusion, is that right?

FEINSTEIN: Well. . . There are all kinds of rumors around, there are newspaper stories, but that's not necessarily evidence.Even Maxine Waters, who has been beating the impeachment drum for weeks, had to concede on MSNBC yesterday that there is no evidence of collusion. Yet the left continues to embrace this delusion.

New Director? The rumor mill is buzzing that President Trump may select former Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman to lead the FBI. Lieberman could be a distraction, with Trump really considering someone else.

But what I found amusing is that Obama era Democrats are so unhinged they won't even consider one of their former colleagues as FBI Director. This ain't your father's Democrat Party!

Encouraging News -

• Remember Ahmed Mohamed, aka "Clock boy"? He was the Muslim student who allegedly built a clock that looked a lot like bomb and took it to school. After school officials called the police, his father called the media. Barack Obama invited the family to the White House. Then they sued the school for discrimination. A federal judge has reportedly dismissed the entire case.
• Last week an appeals court in Kentucky upheld the rights of a small business owner to refuse to print t-shirts promoting "gay pride." A rare win for religious liberty in the courtroom, and hopefully the beginning of a new trend.
• The Trump Administration is rolling back a radical Obamacare regulation that could force religious doctors and hospitals to perform sex changes. 

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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, Slow Motion Coup, Victor Davis Hanson, We Must Fight, Newt Gingrich. No Evidence, Encouraging News To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Sheriff Ordered to Remove “Blessed are the Peacemakers” Decals

by Todd Starnes: The peacemakers are not allowed to be blessed in Montgomery County, Virginia.

The sheriff was ordered on May 17 to remove decals bearing a portion of a well-known Bible verse from patrol cars.

The decal, which had been posted on vehicles in March, bore the words, “Blessed are the peacemakers…Matthew 5:9.”

“Our intent was, and still is, to honor our fellow brothers and sisters in law enforcement,” Sheriff C.H. Partin wrote in a statement to Fox News.

The sheriff said the decals were removed at the request of the county’s board of supervisors.

“In the midst of National Police Week, we want to focus on those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice while serving their communities,” the sheriff said. “The last thing that I want is for this to become a distraction to the men and women who serve their communities selflessly every day.”

I could not imagine any elected leaders giving such a detestable order – so I reached out to the board of supervisors to verify the report. It turns out – they really gave that detestable order.

“In my mind, there’s nothing wrong with the statement itself,” supervisor Chris Tuck told me. “Any individual can put that on your car however they would like. However, based on our legal advice, when you put, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’ and make the reference to Matthew 5:9, there are some serious concerns about the Establishment Clause and Separation of Church and State and the First Amendment.”

Mr. Tuck tells me the board made its decision after first consulting with their attorney.

Their attorney told them “the decals would be a violation of the First Amendment based on the current case law because of the reference to Matthew 5:9.”

It sounds to me like the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors is in desperate need of an attorney who understands the law.

Mr. Tuck told me they could’ve ignored their attorney’s advice – but that would’ve put the county at risk for hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees.

“I don’t believe the citizens of Montgomery County want me to get into a situation where hundreds of thousands of dollars of tax money may end up having to be given to the ACLU,” he said.

Blessed are the attorneys for they shall inherit everyone’s money…

I was curious, though – who raised a complaint about the decals in the first place?

“The first notice we had was an inquiry by the Roanoke Times,” Mr. Tuck told me. “That was the first that the board received.”

Well, there you have it, folks. This is why people don’t like newspaper reporters. They stir up a stink when there’s no stink to stir.
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Todd Starnes (@toddstarnes) is A Christian Conservative, the host of Fox News & Commentary and heard daily on 250+ radio stations and on his iTune podcasts.

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Trump Should Keep His Promise To Cancel Obama Climate Deal

Phil Kerpen

by Phil Kerpen, Contributing Author: One of the central themes of President Donald Trump’s campaign was the need to extricate the United States from international agreements that hurt American jobs and unfairly disadvantage American companies versus foreign competitors. Another major theme was the promise to reverse Obama’s regulatory power grabs that dramatically expanded government control over our lives without the approval of Congress. Those two themes came together in a very concrete promise when Trump said: “We’re going to cancel the Paris Climate Agreement and stop all payments of U.S. tax dollars to U.N. global warming programs.”

So why hasn’t it happened yet? Public reports indicate that there is an ongoing pitched battle between the president’s top advisers on whether he should keep his campaign promise or abandon it. And my own private sources in the administration believe the promise-breakers may be gaining the upper hand.

Their argument is that America can remain in the agreement while revising its draconian emissions reduction goals in order to “keep a seat at the table.” Bad idea.

The Paris treaty effectively bans coal-fired power plants in the United States while China has 368 coal plants under construction and over 800 in the planning stage. India's coal production under the deal is allowed to double by 2020 – and they are likely to have emissions much higher than what they promised. Even Europe is allowed to build coal plants. It forces Americans to endure painful cuts while the rest of the world continues with business as usual.

Even worse, American taxpayers will be forced to cough up $100 billion in climate-related foreign aid by 2020, with the promise of much more to follow.

As Trump observed on the stump:

“President Obama entered the United States into the Paris Climate Accords – unilaterally, and without the permission of Congress. This agreement gives foreign bureaucrats control over how much energy we use right here in America.”

The idea that we could adjust how draconian the cuts are and remain in the agreement depends on a dicey matter of legal interpretation.

Article 4.11 of the Paris treaty says “A Party may at any time adjust its existing nationally determined contribution with a view to enhancing its level of ambition.”

Is easing off the energy rationing by allowing higher emissions enhancing ambition? Maybe, but I wouldn’t bet on it.

Moreover, with the EPA undertaking an effort to reverse Obama-era regulations designed to make electricity prices necessary skyrocket via draconian emissions cuts, accepting the validity of the Paris agreement will hand environmentalist groups and state attorneys general a powerful weapon that could derail the entire deregulatory effort. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, for instance, almost certainly has the issue fully briefed.

State Department lawyers insist these concerns can be ignored. White House Counsel Don McGahn reportedly disagrees and sees these as very real vulnerabilities – and who can doubt that the environmentalists and liberal state AGs are likely to find the most anti-Trump judges they can to see things their way?

Even if the agreement could be reconfigured to lessen the burden of its cuts to American energy use, it would be a huge mistake to accept the legal legitimacy of Obama’s move to enter the United States into a treaty regime identical in form and structure to previous global warming treaties without the constitutionally required advice and consent of the Senate.

Send a message to President Trump to keep his campaign promise and cancel the Paris treaty.
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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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Humanity’s Last Century?

by Kerby Anderson, Contributing Author: Seth Shostak believes this could be humanity’s last century. But don’t think he is a pessimist. He is the Director of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence and warns us about potential dangers on the horizon but also explains that our 21st century technology holds great promise.

He believes we will be able to understand biology at the molecular level. That will give humanity the ability to cure all diseases. But it will also usher in an era of “designer babies.” He believes that we will eventually produce offspring that are different from us as dogs are from grey wolves.

He also believes that we will expand into space to obtain additional resources (such as copper, zinc, and platinum). Humanity might establish colonies on the moon or Mars. We might also develop huge, orbiting habitats in space.

He also predicts that we will develop generalized artificial intelligence. This will allow machines to take over jobs normally done by humans. It is possible that in the near future, robotics will be so advanced that it might be difficult to tell the difference between who is a real human and who is a machine.

If his predictions are true (and I believe they are fairly accurate) then we will need wisdom and morality to guide us through these new advances. Put simply, we need Christian ethics and morality like never before. Unfortunately, the moral foundation behind much of these technological advances is a secular, humanistic one.

We need Christians in the fields of science and engineering to provide moral reflection. And we cannot retreat into a belief that Jesus will return before all of these technologies are developed. He may not return when we think that He might. We should not be preoccupied with His coming, we need to occupy until He comes.
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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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A Coup . . .

. . . Obama’s 3rd term? Some are now calling it a “Deep State” coup at work behind the scenes to destroy Trump.

Editorial Cartoon by AF "Tony" Branco

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Cronyism Pays

by Paul Jacob, Contributing Author: Daniel Mitchell, a senior fellow in fiscal policy at the Cato Institute, is a nice guy. But he’s sort of depressing, too.

Weeks ago, writing for the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), Mitchell offered that “The Washington, DC Gilded Class Is Thriving.” He even provided a “depressing chart” graphing “median inflation-adjusted household income for the entire nation and for the District of Columbia.”

There is a graphic divide: while “the nation’s capital used to be somewhat similar to the rest of the nation . . . over the past 10 years, DC residents have become an economic elite, with a representative household ‘earning’ almost $14,000 more than the national average.”

Dan Mitchell highlights that “the entire region is prospering at the expense of the rest of the nation.” Among the nation’s counties, the top four wealthiest are in suburban Washington, D.C. The nation’s capital region boasts nine of the country’s top 20 richest counties.

Now Mitchell’s back with another FEE column exclaiming more bad news: “The ROI for Cronyism is Huge.” (ROI is “return on investment.”)

Mitchell cites a study entitled, “All the President’s Friends: Political Access and Firm Value,” conducted by University of Illinois professors Jeffrey R. Brown and Jiekun Huang. “Using novel data on White House visitors from 2009 through 2015,” they explain, “we find that corporate executives’ meetings with key policymakers are associated with positive abnormal stock returns. . . .”

The authors find a lot evidence showing that “political access is of significant value to corporations.”

None of this should surprise. Cronyism pays, and it sticks close to power, even geographically.

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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Immigration Arrests Jump Nearly 40% Under Trump

by Will Racke: Immigration arrests climbed yet again in April as federal agents continued to track down both criminal and noncriminal aliens in far greater numbers over the first 100 days of the Trump administration than they did under former President Barack Obama a year ago.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations deportation officers administratively arrested 41,318 illegal immigrants on civil immigration charges between Jan. 22 and April 29, according to agency data released Wednesday. That was a 38 percent jump over the 30,028 arrests made in the same time period in 2016, the final year of the Obama administration.

ICE says it has averaged about 400 arrests per day since President Donald Trump signed executive orders in January authorizing stepped-up immigration enforcement.

“Agents and officers have been given clear direction to focus on threats to public safety and national security, which has resulted in a substantial increase in the arrest of convicted criminal aliens,” ICE acting Director Thomas Homan said in a statement. “However, when we encounter others who are in the country unlawfully, we will execute our sworn duty and enforce the law.”

The arrest data show a continuation of a trend that became apparent in the first two months of Trump’s presidency. ICE arrested 21,362 illegal immigrants from Inauguration Day through March 13, about 33 percent more than the number of immigration arrests made in same period in 2016.

The growing number of arrests is partly due to the fact that ICE has been authorized to arrest all removable aliens, not just those convicted of serious crimes. The agency has recorded more than 10,800 arrests of noncriminal aliens so far in 2017, compared with about 4,200 in the first four months of 2016.

“While these data clearly reflect the fact that convicted criminals are an immigration enforcement priority, Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly has made it clear that ICE will no longer exempt any class of individuals from removal proceedings if they are found to be in the country illegally,” ICE said in its report.

Despite the wider enforcement focus, immigration authorities are still prioritizing criminal aliens, according to ICE data. About 75 percent of those arrested during the period were convicted criminals, with offenses including homicide, sexual abuse, and drug-related charges. ICE has arrested 30,473 criminal aliens this year—20 percent more than the 25,786 arrested over the same period a year ago.

Illegal immigrants convicted of violent crimes such as homicide, rape, kidnapping, and assault accounted for more than 2,700 arrests, ICE said.
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by Will Racke (@hwillracke) is a reporter for The Daily Caller News Foundation and provides articles to The Heritage Foundation's The Daily Signal.

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James Dobson: Want Your Daughters Forced Into Combat?

by Bob Unruh: WND reported last month when Dr. James Dobson, the pioneering radio voice of Christian and family values for tens of millions through Focus on the Family and now Family Talk, called for his supporters to flood the telephones lines of a few key U.S. lawmakers and the secretary of defense to protest plans to impose the military draft on women.

Now he’s saying the villain is at the door, and all Americans should be calling their members of Congress to fight the plan.

In his April newsletter, Dobson listed the office telephone numbers for several players, including Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., who now is working with Dobson on the effort to derail plans to draft young women.

His Family Talk noted that Hunter had joined forces “in an effort to fight for American families and protect our daughters from combat.”

“Please weigh in on what is happening here. Contact the … ‘players’ and tell them you will not stand for this intrusion into America’s young womanhood. Pull no punches. Irreversible decisions could be made at any minute,” he said at the time.

Dobson asked parents then: “Do you want your daughters engaged in combat situations during national emergencies?”

He expanded that request Wednesday.

“There is much work to be done on Capitol Hill regarding the ‘Draft America’s Daughters’ legislation that I wrote to you about in my April newsletter,” he said. “I met with Sen. Ted Cruz and numerous congressmen, including Rep. Duncan Hunter of California concerning the tragic implications for our families if Congress and the Supreme Court require 18 to 26-year-old girls to register for the Selective Service.

“As unbelievable as this may sound, I am saddened to report that this initiative is what Sen. John McCain and his nine-member committee have been promoting behind closed doors.

“Parents beware! Do you want your daughters to be conscripted into combat service and placed in harm’s way in future wars? If not, then you must call or write your representatives and senators to let them know you do not support the ‘Draft America’s Daughters’ bill!”

His link is to an online database that identifies for constituents their members of Congress.

“Don’t delay, contact them today!” he concludes.

In his earlier call to action, he said it was improper for those who want to draft women to try “to ram this policy down the throats of American families.”

The expansion of the roles for women in the military accelerated under President Obama. He also moved down a path of promoting homosexuality and transgenderism in uniform.

A proposal to move forward with a draft for women has been changed into a study. But the study still is expected to recommend that women serve in any position in the military.

That, Dobson said at the time, just isn’t right.

“Imagine women being disembarked in Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944, when 17 or 18-year-old boys, many coming straight out of high school, fought, bled and died for their country. These fellows slogged through wet sandy beaches under a staggering load and into the face of withering machine gunfire and treacherous mines. Then, exhausted and terrified, they fought their way up heavily defended bluffs from which crack German troops rained down hell upon them.”

He continued: “Two thousand of them perished that first day. … That trauma went on for 11 months. Some units didn’t have a single survivor when it was over.”

Yet, he said, the “hoary-headed senior officers in the Pentagon pretended that women were as equipped as men to withstand physical and psychological deprivations, and then fight to the death against hardened troops with high octane testosterone surging through their veins.”

He quoted the 27th Commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. Robert Barrow, who testified to Congress when the issue first arose years ago.

Barrow told activist lawmakers then: “This is not about women’s rights, equal opportunity, career assignments for enhancement purposes for selection to higher rank. It most assuredly is about combat effectiveness in the next conflict, and so we’re also talking about national security.

“Those who advocate change have some strange arguments. One of which is [the meaning of combat]. That women have been shot at, they’ve heard gunfire, they’ve been in areas where they could have been hit with missiles. Well, exposure to danger is not combat.”

He turned to the topic at hand.

“Combat is a lot more than that. It’s a lot more than getting shot at or even getting killed. Combat is finding and closing with and killing or capturing the enemy if you’re down in the ground combat scheme of things. It’s killing, that’s what it is. And it’s done in an environment that is often as difficult as you can possibly imagine – extreme[s of] climate, brutality, death, and dying. It’s uncivilized! And women can’t do it, nor should they be even thought of as doing it.”

Challenged by senators regarding his experience, he stated: “I was in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. I commanded in all three. And I found nowhere in my mental exploration any place for women to be down in the ground combat element.”

He cited one of America’s great military battles, the battle of Chosin Reservoir in Korea.

“First Marine Division confronting eight Chinese divisions spread out along 35 to 40-mile linear disposition … in extreme cold, minus 25. Winds out of Siberia bring[ing] the wind chill factor down to God knows what. Mountains, constant attacking, they were attacking us, we were attacking them, for days, night and day.

“Death all about, frostbite, inadequate clothing. I said, ‘Suppose we had 15 percent women, 20 percent women.’ My supposition led me to say I wouldn’t be here. I guess Kim Il Sung would be taking care of my bones along with everyone else’s.”

At the Center for Military Readiness, President Elaine Donnelly posted a report in December on McCain’s establishment of a commission to study and promote his aim: “Draft America’s Daughters.”

“Chairman McCain has long been a passionate advocate of national service mandates that would commandeer the lives of both young men and women,” she wrote.

The plan that was crafted apparently by McCain “authorizes an 11-member, politically divided commission that will have as long as three years … to spend up to $15 million per year” to work on a recommendation.

She pointed out the commission was stacked from the beginning, with “advocates of mandatory military or national service” in the majority.

In fact, she said, the report “could very well be prepared in advance.”

“If the focus were placed on military readiness, not politically correct social goals, an objective discussion would conclude that calling up equal numbers of men and women, knowing that only a small minority of women would be minimally qualified, would paralyze the system. Such a policy would hurt readiness at the worst possible time.”
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Bob Unruh joined World Net Daily in 2006 after nearly three decades with the Associated Press, as well as several Upper Midwest newspapers.  Dr. James Dobson is one of America’s most respected expert on marriage, parenting and the family, offers a biblically based resource to help those seeking to build healthy, God-honoring families.

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Tags: James Dobson, your daughters, women, military combat, Bob Unruh, WND, World News Daily To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

The OPEC Meeting Reminds US: Pursue True Energy Security

by J. Kenneth Blackwell, Contributing Author: This week, the energy ministers of petrostates around the world gather—yet again—in Vienna for the semi-annual OPEC meeting—an absurd confab in which the holders of the world’s cheapest and largest oil reserves discuss how they can manage global oil supply to their benefit. Let this meeting serve as a reminder to us in the United States that although our energy security has improved, there is far more to be done to protect us from the machinations of this cartel, and the other economic and security consequences of our oil dependence.

In the short amount of time since he took office, President Trump has stayed true to the commitment he outlined in his America First Energy Plan to maximize the use of American resources. Through the Executive Orders to reverse offshore drilling and revive key pipeline projects, among others that tackle overregulation and prioritize infrastructure, President Trump has strengthened the hand of U.S. oil producers in the global market. Given the strategic value of oil, these measures bolster both our economy and national security.

These achievements will open up more sites from which we can produce oil, as well as ensure domestic petroleum is transferred swiftly to the refining hubs where it is most needed—particularly through vital pipeline projects such as Dakota Access. These actions will not only maintain America’s status as a major global oil producer, but also assure our status as a leader in the petrochemical industries that turn petroleum into products that power our modern lives.

The White House is making the right moves, but to fulfil the second part of its America first energy pledge to free us from dependence on foreign oil, we must seize the opportunity to achieve a goal voiced by every president since the 1973 OPEC oil embargo and sever this dependence for good. This requires us to not only examine the supply side that feeds our energy dependence, but also focus on policies that reduce our demand. Nowhere is this demand more keenly felt than in our vast transportation system, 92 percent of which currently relies on oil.

Although the current low oil prices are kind to consumers, the price crash of recent years—driven in part by OPEC’s effort to undermine shale and boost its market share—hit the U.S. energy industry hard, with hundreds of companies entering bankruptcy and thousands of jobs lost. In addition, the low prices worldwide cooled investment in future production that maintains oil supplies. This lack of investment gives many industry watchers cause for concern. Investment fell by an unprecedented $300 billion across 2015 and 2016 leading to what some analysts are already calling a “decade of disorder” in the 2020s, amid supply-demand mismatches and a wave of potential geopolitical uncertainties that could exacerbate them.

President Trump’s orders to reopen offshore drilling and revive key pipelines are positive steps toward mitigating this disorder, as they will give the U.S. more supply options and improve the country’s delivery capacity going forward. But they are not enough. Oil is a globally-priced commodity, meaning that no matter how much oil we produce, America will always remain vulnerable to oil price volatility—especially as the U.S. consumes one-fifth of the world’s daily supply.

To counter our reliance on oil, and the unfree market for petroleum, we must not only bolster our supply but also be open to innovative ways to reduce our economy’s utter dependence on this commodity. Fuel economy standards can help us to get more out of the oil we do consume. The Trump administration’s decision to revisit the standards locked down at the last minute by Obama and his team gives us a chance to do that, but they are complicated by competing and conflicting regulations as well as the fact that emerging vehicle technologies like driverless cars aren’t measured by current rules. If all stakeholders, including California, the car companies, and President Trump, can collaborate on designing the future of these standards, we can have the regulatory certainty the automakers want while reducing our oil dependence more effectively, and insulating ourselves from OPEC and petrostates.

Second, continuing America’s proud tradition of producing cutting-edge research and innovation must remain a priority. Research and development for advanced American fuels, such as electricity, natural gas, or hydrogen, will lower costs, improve their scalability and give consumers choice in how they fuel up.

It is these alternatives that will help the U.S. limit its exposure to the oil market and volatile prices, which can be affected by any number of disruptions, ranging from hurricanes at home to violent uprisings in oil-producing countries. Working to reduce our dependence on oil will ensure we finally have a transportation system that serves our national interest, without depending on oil supplies from countries that don’t share our interests to keep our economy moving.
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Ken Blackwell (@kenblackwell) is former Domestic Policy Advisor to the Trump Transition Team and an advisor to Securing America’s Future Energy. He is a Fellow at the National Academy of Public Administration in Washington, D.C.
He is also a former ambassador to the U.N., and former Ohio State Treasurer and mayor of Cincinnati and currently serves on the board of numerous conservative policy organizations. He is a contributing author to the ARRA News Service

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Tags: Ken Blackwell, OPEC Meeting, Reminds, US, Pursue True Energy 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!

Surrender or Fight

by Newt Gingrich: Republicans, in particular the Trump administration, are approaching a historic decision that will shape America for generations to come.

The endless hostility of the Left, exemplified by violent fascists on college campuses, thugs in the streets, determined disrupters at town hall meetings, and the dishonest elite media are all part of their efforts to defeat the reforms and changes that President Trump was elected to implement.

The constant, anonymous leaks from disgruntled federal bureaucrats aim to provide ammunition for the propaganda news media to press the attack.

The Left’s dance of destruction is stunningly choreographed.

I have been overseas for the last three days, and it has been sickening to see so many foreigners terrified because they unknowingly believe the news media’s false reports and vicious attacks. The only version of President Trump they know is the one portrayed in the 24-hour cesspool of CNN and the daily acrimony of the New York Times. Sadly, our own nation’s news media is doing more to undermine America’s image than Al Jazeera or Pravda combined.

As the media continues to serve as a megaphone for the nameless federal employees who have axes to grind, remember that 95 percent of 2016 campaign donations from federal employees went to Hillary Clinton. At the State Department, 99 percent of employees who gave supported Clinton, and that figure is 97 percent at the Department of Justice.

Congressional Republicans are rapidly approaching a crossroads. Some have already surrendered by giving up on town hall meetings. Others have accepted the news media’s false narrative as the truth. Republicans must decide if they are going to fight for what they believe in or retreat to the tenuous safety of the beltway bubble
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The Trump White House faces an even greater challenge. Trying to reason with, placate, or even respond to the Washington news media is a losing game. Each day, the opposition media is fiercely committed to either magnifying a supposed problem or inventing a new one.

We are today in a one-sided cultural civil war. The Left has picked the battlefield and defined the terms of engagement. If conservatives respond to this aggressive, sometimes violent hostility from the Left with confusion, uncertainty, and appeasement, we are guaranteed to lose the struggle to drain the swamp and reform Washington.

Further, surrendering will destroy America as we know it. Far from making America great again, we will have yielded our country to left-wing thugs, liars, and intimidators.

Those of us who truly want to make America great again have one choice: Fight. Our situation is similar to President Lincoln’s in 1861. He had to make the choice between fighting until he won or giving up on the idea of the United States. Once again, our country is at stake.

Senate Republicans are well-positioned because there are 10 Democratic senators up for re-election in states President Trump won last November. These Democrats should be made to carry the burden of the collapsing Obamacare system and the pain it is causing in their states. They should be made to own every strand of expensive red tape they vote to keep and every Homeland Security measure they oppose. They should be held accountable for every crime in their states committed by criminal aliens protected by sanctuary city laws.

If Senate Republicans implement an all-out campaign, they could pick up all 10 seats and have the largest GOP majority since the election of 1868.

House Republicans have a more difficult challenge. Political polarization, compounded by a number of incumbents retiring, make it harder for them to expand their majority. But here are some numbers for perspective:

• 12 congressional districts carried by President Trump are currently represented by Democrats.
• These Democrats won by an average of six percent, or just 19,000 votes.
• Four won by less than two points.

On the other hand:

• 23 Republicans are in districts won by Secretary Clinton.
• They won their races by an average of 12 percent, or 37,000 votes.
• Only one Republican in a Clinton-won district won by less than 2 points.

Defeating the Left’s attacks will require House Republicans to engage in significantly more training and planning than they are used to. Most House Republicans have spent their congressional careers in a safe majority. Very few lived through the disaster of 2006, and only a handful of current members were in the so-called permanent minority before 1994.

This House GOP has never faced an all-out political war like this. House Republicans must dramatically reorganize their thinking and restructure their activities – or resign themselves to accepting Speaker Pelosi and the impeachment effort of 2019 (which will be the Democrats’ first priority, should they gain control of the House).

House Republicans must change now. Fighting to retain a majority is far easier than fighting to reclaim it. Remember, before the Contract with America, House Republicans had been in the minority for 40 years.

The Trump White House, however, faces the biggest decisions. Members of the Trump team have used harsh words but timid tactics when dealing with the unending, dishonest, and vicious assaults by the left-wing media.

The President seems to understand how serious and how bad the situation is. He has said:

“As you know I have a running war with the media. They are among the most dishonest human beings on earth.” January 21, 2017

“But there are some terrible, dishonest people, and they do a tremendous disservice to our country and to our people. A tremendous disservice. They are very dishonest people, and they shouldn’t use sources. They should put the name of the person. You will see stories dry up like you’ve never seen before.” February 24, 2017

“The Washington media is part of the problem. Their priorities are not my priorities, and they’re not your priorities.” April 29, 2017

When your opponents are “among the most dishonest human beings on earth,” “do a tremendous disservice service to the country,” and are “part of the problem,” then you need a strategy and system that is built around that analysis.

The next few months will see one of the greatest decisions in American history. Do we fight to make America great again, or do we surrender to those who claim the elitist power to dictate to the rest of us?

There is no middle ground.
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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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Rosenstein Joins the Posse & Sandbagged President Trump

by Patrick Buchanan: “With the stroke of a pen, Rod Rosenstein redeemed his reputation,” writes Dana Milbank of The Washington Post.

What had Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein done to be welcomed home by the Post like the prodigal son?

Without consulting the White House, he sandbagged President Trump, naming a special counsel to take over the investigation of the Russia connection that could prove ruinous to this presidency.

Rod has reinvigorated a tired 10-month investigation that failed to find any collusion between Trump and Russian hacking of the DNC. Not a single indictment had come out of the FBI investigation.

Yet, now a new special counsel, Robert Mueller, former director of the FBI, will slow-walk his way through this same terrain again, searching for clues leading to potentially impeachable offenses. What seemed to be winding down for Trump is now only just beginning to gear up.

Also to be investigated is whether the president tried to curtail the FBI investigation with his phone calls and Oval Office meetings with FBI Director James Comey, before abruptly firing Comey last week.

Regarded as able and honest, Mueller will be under media pressure to come up with charges. Great and famous prosecutors are measured by whom they convict and how many scalps they take.

Moreover, a burgeoning special counsel’s office dredging up dirt on Trump and associates will find itself the beneficiary of an indulgent press.

Why did Rosenstein capitulate to a Democrat-media clamor for a special counsel that could prove disastrous for the president who elevated and honored him?

Surely in part, as Milbank writes, to salvage his damaged reputation.

After being approved 94-6 by a Senate that hailed him as a principled and independent U.S. attorney for both George Bush and Barack Obama, Rosenstein found himself being pilloried for preparing the document White House aides called crucial to Trump’s decision to fire Comey.

Rosenstein had gone over to the dark side. He had, it was said, on Trump’s orders, put the hit on Comey. Now, by siccing a special counsel on the president himself, Rosenstein is restored to the good graces of this city. Rosenstein just turned in his black hat for a white hat.

Democrats are hailing both his decision to name a special counsel and the man he chose. Yet it is difficult to exaggerate the damage he has done.

As did almost all of its predecessors, including those which led to the resignation of President Nixon and impeachment of Bill Clinton, Mueller’s investigation seems certain to drag on for years.

All that time, there will be a cloud over Trump’s presidency that will drain his political authority. Trump’s enemies will become less fearful and more vocal. Republican Congressmen and Senators in swing states and marginal districts, looking to 2018, will have less incentive to follow Trump’s lead, rather than their own instincts and interests. Party unity will fade away.

And without a united and energized Republican Party on the Hill, how do you get repeal and replacement of Obamacare, tax reform or a border wall? Trump’s agenda suddenly seems comatose. And was it a coincidence that the day Mueller was appointed, the markets tanked, with the Dow falling 372 points?

Markets had soared with Trump’s election on the expectation that his pro-business agenda would be enacted. If those expectations suddenly seem illusory, will the boom born of hope become a bust?

A White House staff, said to be in disarray, and a president reportedly enraged over endless press reports of his problems and falling polls, are not going to become one big happy family again with a growing office of prosecutors and FBI agents poking into issues in which they were involved.

Nor is the jurisdiction of the special counsel restricted to alleged Russia interference in the campaign. Allegations about Trump’s taxes, investments, and associates, and those of his family, could be drawn into the maw of the special counsel’s office by political and business enemies enthusiastic about seeing him brought down.

More folks in Trump’s entourage will soon be lawyering up.

While it’s absurd today to talk of impeachment, that will not deter Democrats and the media from speculating, given what happened to Nixon and Clinton when special prosecutors were put on their trail.

Another consequence of the naming of a special counsel, given what such investigations have produced, will be that Vice President Pence will soon find himself with new friends and admirers, and will begin to attract more press as the man of the future in the GOP.

A rising profile for Pence is unlikely to strengthen his relationship with a besieged president.

In the United Kingdom, the odds are growing that Trump may not finish his term.

So how does he regain the enthusiasm and energy he exhibited in previous crises, with such talk in the air?

A debilitating and potentially dangerous time for President Trump has now begun, courtesy of his deputy attorney general.
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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, Rod Rosenstein, the Possee, sandbagged, President Trump To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Special Counsel, Reaction, Double Standard

Is Past Democrat Hypocrisy & Double
Standard a Predictor of the Future?

by Gary Bauer, Contributing Author:  Special Counsel Takes Over - Late yesterday afternoon there was yet another big development in a week of big developments. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced the appointment of a "special counsel" -- former FBI Director Robert Mueller -- to take over the investigation of Russian influence in the election and possible campaign collusion.

In a statement, Rosenstein said:
"My decision is not a finding that crimes have been committed or that any prosecution is warranted. I have made no such determination. What I have determined is that . . . a Special Counsel is necessary in order for the American people to have full confidence in the outcome."Rosenstein empowered Mueller with broad authority to investigate "any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump" as well as "any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation." The order further states, "The special counsel is authorized to prosecute federal crimes arising from the investigation of these matters."

Reaction - Responding to Mueller's appointment, President Trump said last night:
"As I have stated many times, a thorough investigation will confirm what we already know -- there was no collusion between my campaign and any foreign entity. I look forward to this matter concluding quickly. In the meantime, I will never stop fighting for the people and the issues that matter most to the future of our country."The initial reaction on Capitol Hill was largely positive, with Mueller earning praise as a dedicated patriot and public servant. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) said that Mueller "has sterling credentials and is above reproach." Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer said, "Former Director Mueller is exactly the right kind of individual for this job."

Former federal prosecutor and National Review columnist Andrew McCarthy wrote that Mueller "is a straight shooter, by the book, and studiously devoid of flash." Rep. Louie Gohmert, however, is not a fan.

During an interview on Fox News last night, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, expressed concerns. "I don't think they should have actually appointed somebody," Chaffetz said. "I have not seen any evidence of actual collusion. Where is the actual crime that they think they need a special prosecutor to prosecute?"

Chaffetz is right. This special counsel was appointed to investigate something for which there is not one scintilla of evidence, which the deputy attorney general alluded to in his statement.

Even former top Obama officials and congressional Democrats have publicly stated that there is no evidence of collusion.

Chaffetz also expressed concerns that Democrats would "politically exploit" the investigation, which is unlikely to conclude quickly.

Various reports indicate that Mueller is being given 60 days just to draft a budget for his investigation. That means it will be mid-July at the earliest before his investigation begins, a year after the FBI launched its investigation.

I am not at all optimistic that Mueller will wrap up before the end of the year, meaning this is likely to drag on into the 2018 elections.

The Double Standard - You have to hand it to the left -- it knows how to drive a narrative. Democrats have been demanding a special counsel. And, thanks almost entirely to the constant drumbeat of their biased media allies, they got one just 116 days into the Trump presidency. I guarantee you will see that in a campaign ad next year, if not next week.

As President Trump noted this morning, the double standard is disgusting.

Where was the special prosecutor for the IRS scandal?

Where was the special prosecutor for the VA scandal?

Where was the special prosecutor for the Fast and Furious scandal?

Where was the special prosecutor for Hillary Clinton's "extremely careless" and scandalous mishandling of national security secrets?

Where was the special prosecutor for the highly unethical tarmac meeting between Bill Clinton and Loretta Lynch?

Where was the special prosecutor for the Clinton Foundation's collusion to sell our uranium to the Russians?

So many times over the past eight years, scandals would erupt and many people would think, "This might result in a special prosecutor." Sadly, those of us who have been around the block a few times, knew better. There was no way that Barack Obama's Justice Department would ever allow it and the fawning left-wing media would never demand it.

But once conservatives are in power, the entire left-wing media/political establishment goes to war. And there is no doubt that the D.C. swamp is at war with Donald Trump.

Kudos to Rush Limbaugh for reminding his listeners yesterday why there is such opposition to President Trump. He said that in the minds of the media and the progressive left, Trump's "crime" was defeating Hillary Clinton and stopping the left's fundamental transformation of America. But there was more. Rush said that Trump declared war on the D.C. establishment when he said this in his inaugural address:
"Today's ceremony, however, has very special meaning. Because today we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another, or from one party to another -- but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C. and giving it back to you, the American people.

"For too long, a small group in our nation's Capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost. Washington flourished, but the people did not share in its wealth. . . The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country.

"Their victories have not been your victories; their triumphs have not been your triumphs; and while they celebrated in our nation's capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land.

"That all changes starting right here, and right now, because this moment is your moment: it belongs to you."Of course, Democrats immediately vowed to resist Trump. But they weren't the only ones opposed to the new president's agenda.

Former President George W. Bush seemed baffled by what he heard. And, as we have seen from the very beginning, some of the most vociferous anti-Trump opponents have been the "Never Trumpers" in the GOP.
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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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