Conservatives Have To Become The Resistance

Cliff Kincaid

by Cliff Kincaid: Despite the election of President Trump, which seemed to momentarily disrupt Democratic Party plans for total control, conservatives are losing politically. Trump's basic failure was the inability to seize control of the Pentagon and intelligence agencies away from Obama and his holdovers. Conservatives that Trump tried to put in were systematically purged. He's the ultimate target. It's unclear whether he can save himself.

We see the results in the failure by Trump and his top officials to name radical Islamists as the enemy in his 9/11 speech. Homeland security analyst Ryan Mauro says, "By omitting any mention of Islamism or jihad, the Trump Administration's language is even closer to that of the Obama Administration than Hillary Clinton, who defined the enemy as 'jihadists.' President Obama refused to use any terminology associated with Islam at all." He did say, however, that "the future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam."

Trump is making deals with Democrats, ranging from debt to taxes and spending, as the national debt surpasses $20 trillion. He seems to be leaning toward some form of amnesty for DACA "dreamers" and maybe other illegal aliens. The Democrats, meanwhile, are embracing a total federal takeover of the health care system, as represented by Senator Bernie Sanders' unveiling of a "single-payer" plan to replace Obamacare. This is what happens when federal programs fail. The Marxists call for more government to "fix" the problem they created.

Of course, this is happening because the Republican Congress failed to repeal and replace Obamacare, and is now moving on to something else.

What's happening is a phenomenon that writer Vic Biorseth calls "Obamunism," the "American" brand of communism that marches on. Obama is out of office, but not out of power.

Considering the failures of the Trump Administration and the Republican Congress, conservatives are the ones who should be leading the resistance. They did so, at one time, and it was called the Tea Party movement. It helped elect a Republican Congress, despite the efforts of the Obama IRS to stifle and strangle this grassroots movement of conservatives dedicated to individual freedom, private property rights, and small government.

But now we learn that the Trump Justice Department has abandoned any effort to hold the IRS accountable for its political persecution of the Tea Party movement. Lois Lerner, the IRS official at the center of the scandal over targeting of Tea Party groups, will not be prosecuted.

Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said, "I have the utmost respect for Attorney General Sessions, but I'm troubled by his Department's lack of action to fully respond to our request and deliver accountability. Today's decision does not mean Lois Lerner is innocent. It means the justice system in Washington is deeply flawed."

Yet the Department of Justice describes itself as leading the nation "in ensuring the protection of all Americans while preserving their constitutional freedoms."

Republicans say Obama's guy, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, was "repeatedly uncooperative and misled congressional investigators" during the scandal. But's he's still there.

Some conservatives are so troubled by what's going on that they are circulating information from marijuana enthusiast Roger Stone that Trump has been drugged by a globalist satanic cabal. Someone wrote to me, "Trump is incrementally being poisoned through his ice tea or other foods and needs an independent third-party doctor to examine him."

What we are witnessing does not require a sinister conspiracy theory. This is the growth of government, including the swamp that Trump said he would drain. But what is the swamp?

The decision to keep Koskinen and protect Lerner demonstrates the corruption that characterizes the nature of the swamp. But the Justice Department appointment of former FBI Director Robert Mueller as Russia-gate Special Counsel is another example.

Nobody likes to talk about it, but Mueller covered up the nature of the real perpetrators of the post-9/11 anthrax attacks. The evidence indicates that the anthrax was stolen from a U.S. lab by an al Qaeda operative. Instead, Mueller led an investigation that blamed a series of innocent American scientists, eventually forcing one to take his own life. He followed up by ordering FBI training materials to ignore the role of the Islamist ideology that inspires the enemy. Judicial Watch said Mueller thus became an agent of a broader Islamist "influence operation" aimed at "our government and Constitution." These forces still exist, as evidenced by Trump's failure to name the enemy on 9/11.

The corruption is so deep that even one of Mueller's own FBI investigators, Kenneth Lambert, sued him for the job he did relating to the anthrax case. Now, a former State Department analyst who has followed the case is suing the DOJ and the FBI for documents that are still being improperly withheld.

The FBI seems hopelessly corrupt. But despite all the talk about Mueller's successor, James Comey, failing to properly investigate Hillary Clinton, it is President Obama who should have been investigated. In a dump of documents (189 pages of "investigative notes") from the FBI last September, it was noticed by a few journalists that Obama, like Clinton, was described as using a non-secure private email address. They communicated through these accounts. What's more, Obama used a pseudonym. What was he hiding? Who else was he communicating with?

If the FBI suddenly investigated Obama because he and Hillary were guilty of the same crimes, that would have not only derailed Hillary's campaign but raised questions about why the FBI did not conduct a CARL test (Character, Associates, Reputation, and the Loyalty) of Obama when he ran for office. The FBI had to know of Obama's communist connections because the bureau had monitored his communist mentor, Frank Marshall Davis, for 19 years.

It is fascinating that federal employees have to fill out a background investigation form (Standard Form 86) for national security positions, but Obama and members of his Congressional Progressive Caucus do not. Meanwhile, Special Counsel Mueller and his FBI agents are going through every nook and cranny of President Trump's personal, political, and financial life, in order to make a case against him and force his resignation from office.

It's important to remember that Trump's election was a major setback for the identity politics of the left, as white people finally reacted to the "Brown is the New White" electoral strategy that Obama and Hillary were depending on to win. The author of a book by the same name, Steve Phillips, has a history of involvement in Marxist politics, just like his friend, Barack Obama. They had counted on the workers to carry the Obama revolution forward. The white working class deserted the Democrats.

As Obama emerges again on the national and global scene, the Trump victory gives conservatives the opportunity to understand what happened under our first Marxist President and how it can be reversed. The lesson, eight months into the Trump presidency, is that conservatives have to become the resistance. They have to revolt against the Republican establishment while continuing to pressure the Trump Administration to fulfill its campaign promises.

Until and unless Obama is investigated by the Trump Department of Justice (with a new FBI director by the name of Christopher Wray), there is no hope for our country.

The problem is that, according to his bio, Wray in 2003 served as assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Criminal Division and that, in addition to overseeing criminal matters, he "played a key role in the evolving national security mission of the Department." That means he had to know that Mueller's probe of the post-9/11 anthrax attacks was badly mishandled and that the real culprits got away. Wray has to know that Mueller's objective is to take down Trump.

A full-scale probe of the former president and his involvement in a communist network that stretches from Havana to Moscow to even the Vatican in Rome may be the only way for Trump to truly save his presidency. It would fulfill his central campaign promise to "drain the swamp." He must fire Mueller and then urge his supporters to be the "resistance" to Marxist identity politics and government corruption.

For those who question the inclusion of the Vatican in this list, consider that George Neumayr's new book, The Political Pope, identifies a communist mentor for Francis as well and argues the case that the Marxist-oriented pope is "abandoning conservatives" so Rome can be included in a post-Christian New World Order.

The corruption in the U.S. intelligence community threatens our national survival. It explains not only the timid treatment of radical Islam, but why the Obama Administration failed to stop North Korea's acquisition of nuclear weapons, why it made a deal to virtually assure that Iran would get them as well, and why the U.S. is still bogged down in a no-win war in Afghanistan. National survival requires a winning strategy that identifies our enemies.

An investigation of Obama is absolutely critical to safeguarding the national security of the United States and evicting traitors from the swamp. What the Justice Department and the FBI should be doing is probing Obama's operations as a foreign agent for anti-American interests ranging from the Muslim Brotherhood to the Russians and the international communist movement. That's the case we make in our two recent books, Comrade Obama Unmasked and Red Star Rising.

However, on his way out of office, in a clever dialectical maneuver, Obama launched Russia-gate to divert attention from his own background and curious and controversial foreign connections.

It was a classic communist propaganda technique. As the Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security explained in a 1967 study on The Techniques of Soviet Propaganda, "Soviet propaganda uses as a fundamental psychological stratagem the ancient and familiar ruse of crying 'thief' to divert attention from its own thievery."

By design, Russia-gate is missing the real Russian agent – Obama himself. This is the worst cover-up of all time, concealing from the American people that their first Marxist President was a security risk possibly being blackmailed by Russia.

Our upcoming November 10 conference, "How the Russia-gate Conspiracy Theory Has Set the Stage for Obama's Return to Power," will take place from noon to 5:00 pm, Zenger Room, National Press Club, 529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor, Washington, DC 20045. Please go to usasurvival.org for more information.
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Cliff Kincaid is a veteran journalist and media critic and writes for Renew America.

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Tax Cuts for Small Business Would Change GOP Trajectory

by Newt Gingrich: Time is running out for Republicans if they want to keep their governing majority in 2018.

After 238 days of having control of the White House and both houses of Congress, the GOP has only one major legislative achievement – the Senate confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch.

This is, in part, because Republicans tried to run before they could walk. Attempting to immediately repeal and replace Obamacare without an iron-clad strategy for success was a mistake driven by post-election excitement and inexperience. Remember, many current House Republicans have never served when there was a Republican in the White House, and our Senate majority is still too slim to pass transformative conservative legislation.

But while early mistakes are to be expected, it is not too late to change the Republican trajectory.

Before we can fully bring our country out of the liberal, big government, dependency model, Republicans need to develop an economic-growth-focused strategy, build legislative momentum on the floor of Congress, and gain full support from the American people.

The key to achieving these goals – and growing our majority in both the House and Senate next year – is to pass simple, popular, tax cut legislation by this year’s end – preferably by Thanksgiving.

The cornerstone of this legislation must be a serious tax cut for small businesses so they can expand, create more jobs, and revive the middle class.

Small businesses represent 99 percent of our country’s employers, employing nearly half of our country’s private sector workers and creating three out of every four new jobs. However, instead of paying the corporate tax rate, more than 90 percent of these businesses report their income through their owners’ individual income tax filings.

Despite what some on the Left assert, these are not “the rich” or “the top 1 percent” – far from it. Most small businesses are truly small.

U.S. Treasury <data and a report by the National Federation of Independent Business show only 2.4 percent of small businesses report incomes in excess of $250,000 a year. In fact, 88 percent of income tax returns by small business owners show adjusted gross income of less than $200,000. Seventy-one percent of such returns show adjusted income that is less than $100,000 a year.

On the high end, the Tax Foundation reports that the top earning small businesses pay marginal federal tax rates as high as 44.6 percent (when you combine the individual rate, the self-employment tax, and the net investment income tax). Adding state income taxes to the mix means these small business owners face tax rates that approach 50 percent.

This must change.

Republican lawmakers should create a graduated system that caps the tax rate on the highest small business incomes at no more than the corporate rate of 38.92 percent, drastically reduce the individual income tax rates, or both.

Relieving small businesses of this enormous tax burden will allow them to buy more equipment, expand their operations, hire more people, raise workers’ wages, and generate massive economic growth.

Despite a slow start for the Republican-led government, Gallup reported on Wednesday that 51 percent of Americans approve of the way President Trump has handled the economy. This is higher than the economic ratings Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton each received during their eighth month in office. Only George W. Bush in 2001 had a higher economic approval rating, at 72 percent.

It is not surprising that Americans approve of how President Trump has been handling the economy. Since taking office, the stock market has been booming. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 12.25 percent; The Nasdaq Composite Index is up 22.92 percent; and the S&P 500 is up 11.49 percent.

Tax cuts on small business and the middle class will provide an enormous boost to the already improving economy. This will result in even more jobs, higher take home pay, and stronger growth.

When voters head to the polls on November 6, 2018, if they have been experiencing a robust American economy that is dramatically stronger than the slow-growth economy during the previous years of Democratic leadership, then they will elect more Republicans to office.

But Republicans must pass serious tax cuts for the middle class and small businesses by Thanksgiving to make that happen. It’s that simple.
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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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Tags: Newt Gingrich, commentary, Tax Cuts, income taxe, small business, bhange GOP trajectory To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Tax Reform: ‘Focused Squarely On Helping The Middle Class’

Tax Reform: ‘Focused Squarely On Helping The Middle Class’
Tax Relief Means ‘Means Quality Jobs, Higher Wages, And Growth In Our Communities’

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah 

SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN ORRIN HATCH (R-UT): “[W]e are focused squarely on helping the middle class, and recent proposals to reform the individual tax system reflect that… Tax reform, if it’s done right, can … provide much-needed relief and opportunity for millions of middle-class families.  That, once again, is our goal in tax reform – it is, in fact, a driving force behind our efforts.  ” (U.S. Senate Finance Committee, Press Release, 9/14/2017)

• SEN. HATCH: “One idea that has been central to a number of tax frameworks is a significant expansion of the standard deduction, which would reduce the tax burden for tens of millions of middle-class families and eliminate federal income tax liability for many low- to middle-income Americans. I’ll note that this is not only a Republican idea. In fact, a few years back, our Ranking Member introduced legislation that would have nearly tripled the standard deduction. This is the very definition of middle-class tax relief, and it goes beyond direct tax and fiscal benefits.” (U.S. Senate Finance Committee, Press Release, 9/14/2017)

SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE RANKING MEMBER RON WYDEN (D-OR): “Nothing would be more satisfying and enjoyable … than to work with you, Mr. Chairman, and all of our colleagues … towards building an updated tax system that works for the days ahead, rather than being a relic of yesteryear.” (U.S. Senate Finance Committee Hearing, 9/14/2017) SEN. DEAN HELLER (R-NV):/u> “I know everybody has the same goal. That’s to expand the economy, simplify the tax code, and to give the middle class some tax relief…. Nevadans have been waiting for a fairer, simpler tax code for way too long.” (U.S. Senate Finance Committee Hearing, 9/14/2017)

• SEN. HELLER: “To me, relief means letting the middle class keep more of their hard-earned paychecks, making our tax code easier to understand … It also means quality jobs, higher wages, and growth in our communities.” (U.S. Senate Finance Committee Hearing, 9/14/2017)

SEN. PAT TOOMEY (R-PA): “I think we’ve all agreed that we’d like for tax reform to provide tax relief for working class and middle income families.” (U.S. Senate Finance Committee Hearing, 9/14/2017)

SEN. ROB PORTMAN (R-OH): “…we’re concerned about the middle class squeeze—higher expenses for everything, especially for health care for most middle class families, and then flat wages, which is generally true over the last couple decades—this is, I think, the single best thing to do.” (U.S. Senate Finance Committee Hearing, 9/14/2017)

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Tags: Orin Hatch, US Senate, Tax Reform, Middle Class, Quality Jobs, Higher Wages, Growth, Communities To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Don't Miss Rice, Shapiro Speaks, Manning Honor Revoked

Gary Bauer

by Gary Bauer, Contributing Author: Don't Miss Rice - ​No, that's not a dinner suggestion. Lost in all the furor over a potential DACA deal yesterday was the news that former Obama National Security Adviser Susan Rice admitted to House investigators that she unmasked or disclosed the names of senior Trump campaign officials.

Apparently, President Obama felt snubbed that the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates came to the country and did not meet with him or inform the U.S. government that he was here. But the crown prince was here to establish relations with the incoming Trump Administration. Moreover, the UAE was upset by Obama's appeasement of Iran.

Why was Susan Rice so interested in this particular meeting? At a minimum, it proves that President Trump was right about the Obama Administration spying on Trump Tower. As Judge Andrew Napolitano said on Fox News last night:
"Susan Rice knew, and presumably President Obama knew, that President-Elect Trump and his people were being surveilled in Trump Tower in the era before he was the president of the United States. And she knew how to take advantage of that."​Napolitano noted that this unmasking took place "about the same time" that portions of Michael Flynn's phone conversations with the former Russian ambassador were leaked to the Washington Post. These and other leaks, many of them false, severely damaged the new Trump Administration, and continue to hobble it to this day.

Jugde Napolitano suggested that Special Counsel Mueller should be looking into whether the Obama Administration abused our national security apparatus to "make it look like there was involvement between the transition team and the Russians."

Every American should be deeply concerned by Rice's actions. Is this really an acceptable way to run our constitutional republic? Would the left ever tolerate the Trump/Pence team spying on Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren?

We face many foreign dangers. But numerous commentators have noted that free societies frequently collapse from the rot within rather than from external threats.

The spying on the Trump team, the entire so-called "Russia scandal," has only exacerbated the polarization of America. The left feels cheated and the right feels like the media and the deep state are trying to destroy a populist president committed to putting America first.

Kim Does It Again - Kim Jong-un test-fired another ballistic missile this morning. Once again, it flew over Japan, putting innocent lives in jeopardy.

With each provocation from the Stalinist regime, I hear more and more commentators suggest that we must simply learn to live with a nuclear North Korea. They always say how horrible a military confrontation would be and that we just can't go there.

I don't mean to minimize the horrors of war. But every time the pundits and politicians say that it is unthinkable, they signal to Iran and other enemies that we are weak and willing to accept nuclear blackmail. If war is never acceptable, there are not many options other than servitude to tyrants.

Shapiro Speaks - Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro spoke at the University of California Berkeley last night. Antifa protestors were there, but law enforcement was ready for them this time. Nine protestors were arrested, including at least three who possessed banned weapons.

While Shaprio spoke to students, Antifa thugs chanted outside, "No Trump! No KKK! No fascist USA!" As Shapiro noted, that chant proves Antifa's protest has nothing to do with him and everything to do with its own intolerance for conservatives.

To begin with, Ben Shapiro is no Trump fan. And comparing him to the KKK and fascism is disgusting and offensive because he is a Jew.

It is astonishing to witness the radicalization of the progressive left. In the 1960s, the left was all for unbridled freedom and the right to speak and protest. The "free speech movement" began in Berkeley. Today, the left is all about suppressing speech and the rights of those it disagrees with.

Don't believe me? Consider these headlines:

"Poll: Most California Democrats What To Restrict Free Speech"

"Antifa Activists Say Violence Is Necessary"

The secession movement is gaining ground in California. Sadly, the poll above shows just how much it has succeeded already. California progressives have separated themselves from the founding principles of this country -- religious liberty and free speech. They increasingly embrace anti-American ideas.

California certainly has come a long way since the days when Ronald Reagan was governor. What explains this dramatic shift? Well, there may be serveral explanations, but it is worth noting that among all the states, California has the highest percentage of foreign born residents.

What logical conclusion can you draw from that? As more people come from countries that do not understand or value our history and traditions, and as their children are subjected to an educational system that rejects Western Civilization and finds chants of "USA!" offensive, it is not surprising that more and more people begin to reject basic tenets of Americanism.

Other News

• After a severe backlash, Harvard University has revoked its invitation to convicted traitor and transgender activist Bradley "Chelsea" Manning to be a Visiting Fellow.
• The Senate appears to be inching closer to a major overhaul of Obamacare.
• Responding to this morning's terrorist attack in London, President Trump tweeted, "The travel ban into the United States should be far larger, tougher and more specific." He also wrote: "Loser terrorists must be dealt with in a much tougher manner."​​​

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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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Newly Exposed Clinton Emails Reveal More Mishandling of Classified Info and Pay to Play

by Debra Heine: Newly disclosed emails from Clinton aide Huma Abedin's unsecure account have brought to light additional examples of mishandling of classified information and "pay to play" at the Clinton State Department.

The State Department this week turned over 1,600 emails from Abedin's account to the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch in response to the group's Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

BREAKING: JW uncovered even more #Clinton emails showing pay-for-play & mishandling classified info.🔎 #WhatHappenedhttps://t.co/YBgJMr0zlR

— Judicial Watch 🔎 (@JudicialWatch) September 14, 2017

Judicial Watch says the documents reveal "numerous additional examples of classified information being transmitted through the unsecure, non-state.gov account of Huma Abedin, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, as well as many instances of Hillary Clinton donors receiving special favors from the State Department."

“The emails show ‘what happened’ was that Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin obviously violated laws about the handling of classified information and turned the State Department into a pay for play tool for the corrupt Clinton Foundation,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said. “The clear and mounting evidence of pay for play and mishandling of classified information warrant a serious criminal investigation by an independent Trump Justice Department.”

According to Fitton, there are emails "we haven't seen before" among this latest batch, even though Clinton assured Congress that she had turned over all of her emails.

Via Fox News:
In May 2010, Clinton Foundation donor and developer Eddie Trump wrote to Doug Band, a Clinton Foundation official and former top aide to President Bill Clinton, forwarding a request for help getting the Russian American Foundation involved in a State Department program. Band forwarded the request to Abedin, asking if they can “get this done/mtg set.” Judicial Watch previously reported that the State Department paid more than $260,000 to the Russian American Foundation for “public diplomacy.”
In July 2009, Zachary Schwartz, an associate for donor Steve Bing, contacted Band requesting help on visas for Cuba for a film production crew from Bing's Shangri La Entertainment. Band forwarded the request to Abedin asking her to call Schwartz "asap." Abedin said she would. Bing reportedly donated between $10 million and $25 million to the Clinton Foundation.

Another instance was in September 2009, when chairman of futures brokerage firm CME Group and Clinton Foundation donor Terrence Duffy asked Clinton to help arrange “government appointments” in Singapore and Hong Kong. Clinton forwarded the request to Abedin, who said she would “follow up” with his secretary.

“Would like to get some more information and details so we can try to help,” Abedin wrote to Duffy’s secretary.

Duffy’s secretary replied, “We would also like some help in arranging meetings with some key govt officials in both locations, such as the Prime Minister of Singapore, and would appreciate any help you may be able to provide.”

Abedin responded on Sept. 29, 2009 that they were “happy to assist with any and all meetings” and that she had “discussed you and your trip with our assistant secretary of state for east Asia and pacific affairs.”

Duffy reportedly gave $4,600 to Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, and his company reportedly paid Clinton $225,000 for a speaking fee.

Other documents show Clinton received “proposed questions” in advance of a “Global Press Conference” in 2009 from seven foreign reporters, among other communications among Clinton, Abedin and other State Department aides.On Fox News Friday morning, Tom Fitton talked about what he called Clinton's "outrageous abuses," including the mishandling of classified information regarding the Middle East, military contributions from U.S. allies in Afghanistan, and sensitive CIA operations.

The pay to play scandal involves "email after email of Doug Band working with Huma Abedin to provide favors to Clinton Foundation donors," Fitton said.

The donors went through Band "to get access and benefits from the State Department," he explained.

Judicial Watch also uncovered an email from 2010 in which a Clinton speechwriter asked Abedin if her mother would be willing to "give him advice on talking points he was preparing for Clinton for her town hall meeting at Dar Al Hekma, a women’s university in Saudi Arabia."

Abedin’s mother is a controversial Islamist activist who has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

“Talk to my mom for sure. She will have good points for you,” Abedin replied.

Saleha Abedin ended up advising Clinton’s speechwriter to make major edits, including removing all pro-democracy references from the speech: “Do not use political terms such as ‘democracy/elections/freedom.’ Do not use the term ‘empowerment of women’ instead say ‘enabling women’ Do not even mention driving for women! Don’t sound sympathetic to ‘women’s plight’ or be ‘patronizing’ as other visitors have done and made the students extremely annoyed. They rightly consider these as in-house issues.”

Judicial Watch looked and could not find any evidence that Clinton referenced any of those topics in her speech.

"When Huma Abedin was criticized because of her mother's controversial activities on behalf of radical Islam everyone said 'well, how dare you criticize her,'" Fitton pointed out.

Indeed, in 2012, Senator John McCain took to the Senate floor to roundly condemn a group of House Republicans who had voiced concerns about Abedin's connections to Muslim extremists, including her mother. State Department spokesman Philippe Reines at the time called the accusations "nothing but vicious and disgusting lies."

"Now it looks like she had a hand in crafting Mrs. Clinton's message during a town hall to Saudi Arabia," Fitton said.

"I don't understand why the Justice Department hasn't gotten its act together and reinitiated an investigation into what went on here, because we all know Comey's investigation was a sham," he declared. "They need to restart it up."

.@TomFitton on @HillaryClinton: "The pay-to-play scandal... It's there in black and white." pic.twitter.com/MGUZ4AIr9X

— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 15, 2017

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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, PJMedia, Newly Exposed Clinton Emails, Reveal, More Mishandling, Classified Info, Pay to Play To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Keeping the Electoral College

by Jerry Cox: On Wednesday, Hillary Clinton told CNN’s Anderson Cooper the U.S. needed to abolish the Electoral College, calling it an “an anachronism that was designed for another time.”

Family Council successfully opposed two efforts to undermine the Electoral College in Arkansas — one in 2007 and another in 2009. Each of these proposals would have awarded Arkansas’ electoral votes to the winner of the nationwide popular vote in presidential elections.

The Electoral College keeps major metropolitan areas from running roughshod over rural America. It also forces candidates to consider other parts of the country besides the heavily-populated seaboards.

Below is a video by Dennis Prager about the benefits of the Electoral College.
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Jerry Cox is the founder and president of Family Council and the Education Alliance.

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Tags: Jerry Cox, Family Council, Hillary Clinton, attacks Electoral College, Electorial College, Dennis Prager, video, To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Menendez & Netanyahu

by Micha Morrison: The federal corruption trial of Senator Robert Menendez and his very good amigo, Florida ophthalmologist Salomon Melgen, is underway in New Jersey. It doesn’t appear to be going well for the prosecution.

On Tuesday, the government put Dr. Melgen’s girlfriends on the stand, and they weren’t happy about it. Senator Menendez is accused, inter alia, of exerting improper influence to obtain visas for the foreign-born women in exchange for gifts—bribes, prosecutors say—from Dr. Melgen. Svitlana Buchyk, a “model and actress,” had the courtroom “laughing at some of her answers,” Politico reported. When asked by a defense attorney how long she had spent with prosecutors preparing her testimony, she said she didn’t know, “it just seems very long when I’m around them.”

Asked if she understood why she was in court, Ms. Buchyk “let out a long, exasperated ‘no,’” Politico reported. “No, I don’t know why I’m here,” she said, indicating lead prosecutor Peter Koski. “He’s just forcing me to be here.”

In the courtroom, Judge William Walls did not allow Dr. Melgen’s girlfriends to be referred to as “girlfriends,” only “friendship” was acknowledged, fooling no one. In a bizarre filing before the trial opened, the government worked hard to portray the senator and the wealthy doctor as two dirty old men living the lifestyle of the rich and famous. Dr. Melgen wanted to bring his young “foreign girlfriends to the United States to visit him,” the document notes. The women were “from Brazil, the Dominican Republic, and Ukraine.” Senator Menendez helped with the visas. Dr. Melgen arranged for Mr. Menendez and his girlfriend (oh by the way both men are married) “to stay in Punta Cana, an exclusive oceanside resort town” in the Dominican Republic.

On other occasions, the two men and their, er, friends, enjoyed vacations “at Melgen’s villa at Casa de Campo, a cloistered resort on the southeastern coast of the Dominican Republic with renowned golf courses, a spa, polo fields, a marina, restaurants and other amenities.” The trial brief describes an “enclave, venerated for its seclusion” and “frequently visited by luminaries in sports, entertainment and business, including Beyonce, Jay-Z, Jennifer Lopez, Richard Branson and Bill Gates.” Elsewhere in the brief, the government notes that with assistance for Dr. Melgen, Mr. Menendez stayed at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Paris, “one of Europe’s most elite, routinely hosting celebrities from the world over, including the likes of George Clooney and Maria Sharapova.”

It’s unclear what relation Beyonce and George Clooney have to the case, but eventually the trial will get down to narrow matters of law. As noted last month, this is where it’s likely to run into trouble with the Supreme Court’s recent McDonnell decision, which narrowed the definition of corrupt practices by public servants. But meanwhile, getting pushed around by your own witness and filing specious briefs are signs your case is in trouble.

Lavish lifestyles and big money also form the background to the travails of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu. I surveyed the complicated corruption allegations against him here. Four cases are pending, including one for accepting expensive gifts. Another case, the so-called “Submarine Affair,” took a turn for the worse earlier this month with the arrest of David Sharan, the prime minister’s former chief of staff. The case involves bribery of government officials to grease the skids for a billion-dollar submarine deal. Mr. Netanyahu is not a target of the investigation—at least not yet, at least not officially. But the net is tightening around members of his inner circle.

In a separate development, the pressure on the prime minister increased last week when the Israeli attorney general announced that he intended to bring fraud charges against Mr. Netanyahu’s wife, Sara. Mrs. Netanyahu is a lightning rod for public criticism in Israel for her allegedly high-handed ways. She is accused of improperly spending about $100,000 in restaurant and take-out food purchases, a misuse of government funds allocated to the prime minister’s residence in Jerusalem. Mr. Netanyahu has dismissed the allegations as “absurd” and Mrs. Netanyahu will have an opportunity to defend herself in court before a final decision is made on charging her.

It’s a long way from Casa de Campo to Jerusalem, but the veteran politicians have something in common: a taste for the high life. Of course this is nothing new. “Whoever loves money never has enough, whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income,” notes Ecclesiastes. But is it a crime? In New Jersey, the government’s case is off to a shaky start and McDonnell looms. In Israel, the sheer weight of the multiple cases involving the prime minister seem certain to take a toll and embolden his many parliamentary enemies.

The betting here: Menendez survives, Bibi is gone by April.
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Micah Morrison (@micah_morrison) is chief investigative reporter for Judicial Watch.

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Tags: Micah Morrison, Judicial Wath, federal corruption trial, Senator Robert Menendez, Florida ophthalmologist, Salomon Melgen To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Did Susan Rice Spy On Trump Officials For Muslim Brotherhood?

. . . Imagine if Watergate had been about the White House spying on Democrats for the KGB.

by Daniel Greenfield: After months of denials, the pretext for Susan Rice’s eavesdropping on Trump officials has finally been made public. It had been widely known that Obama’s former National Security Adviser had contrived to unmask the names of top Trump officials who had been spied on by the administration. And the same media that still treats Watergate as the Great American Scandal had claimed that there was nothing “improper” in an Obama loyalist eavesdropping on members of the opposition party.

Every time Obama Inc. was caught eavesdropping on opposition politicians, it presented its spin in a carefully packaged “scoop” to a major media outlet. This time was no different.

When Obama Inc. spied on members of Congress to protect its Iran nuke sellout, it packaged the story to the Wall Street Journal under the headline, “U.S. Spy Net on Israel Snares Congress”. The idea was that Obama Inc. was “legitimately” spying on Israel, that it just happened to intercept the conversations of some members of Congress and American Jews, and that the eavesdropping somehow meant that its victims, Jewish and non-Jewish, rather than its White House perpetrators, should be ashamed.

The White House had demanded the conversations between Prime Minister Netanyahu, members of Congress and American Jews because it "believed the intercepted information could be valuable to counter Mr. Netanyahu's campaign." This was domestic surveillance carried out under the same pretext as in the Soviet Union which had also accused its dissident targets of secretly serving foreign interests.

Obama and his minions had used the NSA to spy on Americans opposed to its policies. Including members of Congress. They did this by conflating their own political agenda with national security.

Since Obama’s spin was that the Iran Deal was good for national security, opponents of it were a “national security” threat.

And its fig leaf for domestic surveillance was that a “foreign leader” was involved.

Now get ready for a flashback.

Susan Rice’s excuse for unmasking the names of top Trump officials in the Obama eavesdropping effort was that they were meeting with the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates. The carefully packaged CNN story, which reeks of the Goebbelsian media manipulations of “Obama whisperer” Ben Rhodes, tries to clumsily tie the whole thing to the Russians. But for once it’s not about Russia. It’s about Islam.

The UAE has become best known for being the first regional Muslim oil state to turn against the Muslim Brotherhood and the entire Arab Spring enterprise. It helped mobilize opposition to the Qatari agenda. The ultimate outcome of that effort was that Egypt was stabilized under a non-Islamist president and the Islamist takeover in Libya is looking rather shaky. The Saudi coalition against Qatar, the sugar daddies of Hamas, Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood, has its origins in that effort.

When Obama Inc. spied on members of Congress before, it was to protect Iran. This time around, the gang that couldn’t spy straight was trying to protect the Muslim Brotherhood. The Iran Deal was never about stopping Iran’s nuclear program. It certainly does not do that. Nor was it ever meant to do it.

Instead the real goal of the Iran negotiations was a diplomatic arrangement with the Islamic terror state. The fruits of that arrangement can be seen from Beirut to Baghdad. They are written in blood and steel across Syria, Israel and Yemen. And that arrangement had to be protected at all costs.

Even if it meant spying on Americans. Even if it meant spying on members of Congress.

The arrangement that Susan Rice was protecting by spying on top Trump officials was even older and dirtier. It goes back to Obama’s Cairo speech and the resulting bloody horrors of the Arab Spring.

Both times Obama Inc. was caught spying on American officials to protect its dirty deal with Islam.

Obama officials had spied on Americans to protect Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood. That’s more than a mere crime. It’s treason. Imagine if Watergate had been about the White House spying on Democrats for the KGB. That is the sheer full scope of what we appear to be dealing with here.

Both high-level eavesdropping incidents involve an effort by Obama Inc. to protect Islamist enemies.

These efforts checked all the right and wrong legal boxes. The orders were carried out by men and women who know all the loopholes. Each decision was compartmentalized across a network. There were always pretexts. And a media eager to fight for the right of the left to spy on the right.

It is as unlikely that Susan Rice will be held accountable for pulling off a crime that makes Watergate into the gold standard of governmental ethics as it is that Hillary will ever go to jail for abusing classified information. The network, which some dub the swamp, has excelled at defending its own. That’s why current National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster protected Susan Rice’s access to classified information and nurtured all the Obama holdovers behind the leaks while purging those who tried to expose them.

It is also why Susan Rice’s testimony did not leak until CNN was able to roll out its carefully packaged spin.

Conservatives excel at zeroing in on abuses like Hillary’s email account, the Rice unmasking and the Benghazi cover-up, but falter when it comes to exposing the motives behind them. And so the investigation of the abuses quickly vanishes into a thorny thicket of alibis, technical legalities, cover-ups and licenses. And a baffled public reads about hearings that delve into acts rather than motives.

It is vital that we understand not only what Rice did, but why she did it. It is important that we expose the pattern of misconduct, not just the individual act.

Susan Rice’s eavesdropping would have remained hidden if Flynn and his appointees hadn’t temporarily obtained the keys to the kingdom. And the network quickly worked to have Flynn forced out and replaced with McMaster. And McMaster has steadily forced out Flynn’s appointees so that there are no more leaks like the one that exposed the Rice eavesdropping. The swamp looks after its own.

Unless there are fundamental changes at the NSC and beyond, we will never know the full scope of the Obama eavesdropping operation. But we still do know a great deal about what motivated it.

Susan Rice and the White House didn’t just eavesdrop on the political opposition. There was an agenda so urgent that they were willing to pull out all the stops to protect it.

Even right down to committing what has become the ultimate crime in the White House.

It was the same agenda that dragged us into a war in Libya. The same agenda that was at the heart of the diplomatic efforts of the administration over eight years. That agenda was empowering Islamists.

The Obama edition of Watergate wasn’t committed merely for domestic political gain. It was carried out for a reason that was encompassed in his address to the United Nations after the Benghazi massacre.

“The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.”

This foul slogan led to the first arrest of a filmmaker for political speech in almost a century. It led to the sordid betrayal of our national security and our allies. And to domestic espionage against Americans.

The future must not belong on those who spy on Americans to protect Islamism.
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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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A ‘Read-My-Lips’ Moment for Trump?

by Patrick Buchanan: “Having cut a deal with Democrats for help with the debt ceiling, will Trump seek a deal with Democrats on amnesty for the ‘Dreamers’ in return for funding for border security?”

The answer to that question, raised in my column a week ago, is in. Last night, President Donald Trump cut a deal with “Chuck and Nancy” for amnesty for 800,000 recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program who came here illegally as youngsters, in return for Democratic votes for more money for border security.

According to preening Minority Leader Pelosi, the agreement contains not a dime for Trump’s Wall, and the “Dreamers” are to be put on a long glide “path to U.S. citizenship.”

Trump denies this is amnesty, and says the Wall comes later.

Fallout? Among the most enthusiastic of Trump backers, disbelief, disillusionment and wonderment at where we go from here.

Trump’s debt-ceiling deal cut the legs out from under the GOP budget hawks. But amnesty would pull the rug out from under all the folks at those rallies who cheered Trump’s promise to preserve the country they grew up in from this endless Third World invasion.

Make no mistake, if amnesty is granted for the 800,000, that will be but the first wave. “There are reasons no country has a rule that if you sneak in as a minor you’re a citizen,” writes Mickey Kaus, author of “The End of Equality,” in The Washington Post.

“We’d be inviting the world. … (An amnesty) would have a knock-on effect. Under ‘chain migration’ rules established in 1965 … new citizens can bring in their siblings and adult children, who can bring in their siblings and in-laws until whole villages have moved to the United States.

“(T)oday’s 690,000 dreamers would quickly become millions of newcomers who may well be low-skilled and who would almost certainly include the parents who brought them — the ones who in theory are at fault.”

Trump is risking a breach in the dam. If the populists who provided him with decisive margins in Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania feel betrayed, it’s hard to blame them.

Why did Trump do it? Clearly, he relished the cheers he got for the debt ceiling deal and wanted another such victory. And with the rampant accusations of a lack of “compassion” for his cancellation of the temporary Obama administration amnesty, he decided he had had enough heat.

It is not easy to stand up for long to the gale force winds of hostile commentary that blow constantly through this city.

Trump’s capitulation, if that is what turns out to be, calls to mind George H. W. Bush’s decision in 1990 to raise the Reagan tax rates in a deal engineered for him by a White House-Hill coalition, that made a mockery of his “Read my lips! No new taxes!” pledge of 1988.

For agreeing to feed the beast of Big Government, rather than cut its rations as Reagan sought to do, Bush was called a statesman.

By the fall of ’92, the cheering had stopped.

Can Trump not know that those congratulating him for his newfound flexibility will be rejoicing, should Bob Mueller indict his family and his friends, and recommend his impeachment down the road?

What makes pre-emptive amnesty particularly disheartening is that the Trump policy of securing the border and returning illegal immigrants to their home countries appears, from a Census Bureau report this week, to be precisely the prescription America needs.

In 2016, paychecks for U.S. households reached an average of $59,039, up 3.2 percent from 2015, a year when they had surged.

U.S. median household income is now at its highest ever.

Yet there are inequalities. Where the median family income of Asian-Americans is above $81,400, and more than $65,000 for white Americans, the median family income of Hispanic families is $47,675, and that of African-American households far less, $39,490.

Consider. Though black Americans are predominantly native-born, while high percentages of Hispanics and Asians are immigrants, from the Census numbers, Hispanics earn more and Asians enjoy twice the median family income of blacks, which is below where it was in 2000.

Still, black America remains steadfastly loyal to a party that supports the endless importation of workers who compete directly for jobs with them and their families. Writes Kaus, “The median hourly wage (of DACA recipients) is only $15.34, meaning that many are competing with hard-pressed, lower-skilled Americans.”

Looking closer at the Census Bureau figures, Trumpian economic nationalism would appear to have its greatest appeal to the American working class, a huge slice of which is native-born, black and Hispanic.

The elements of that policy?

Secure the border. Halt the invasion of low-wage workers, here legally and illegally, from the Third World. Tighten the labor market to force employers to raise wages in our full-employment economy. Provide tax incentives to companies who site factories in the USA. Impose border taxes on the products of companies who move plants abroad.

Put America and American workers first.

Will any amnesty of undocumented workers do that?
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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, ‘Read-My-Lips’ Moment for Trump, illegals, DACA To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Hot Air Update . . .

. . . Let no crisis go to waste Liberals are quick to blame the recent but rare and hurricanes on Global Warming.

Editorial Cartoon by AF "Tony" Branco

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Tags: Hot Air Update, liberals, crisis, blame, rare, hurricans, global warming, editorial cartoon, AF Branco To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Crazy Like a … Spoiler

by Paul Jacob, Contributing Author: Seven Republican members of Congress — three in the last two weeks — have announced their retirement.* The Democrats, needing 24 additional seats to gain a majority, see an opening.

Steve Kornacki, MSNBC’s national political correspondent, calls these seven “pure retirements.” That is, these politicians aren’t seeking another office, they suffer from no scandal, and are “pretty good at getting re-elected”; they’re “just deciding to leave.” Kornacki notes that the GOP had eight pure retirements in 2006 when they lost the House, and the Democrats had eleven when their majority was destroyed in 2010.

On his MSNBC program, The 11th Hour, an exasperated Brian Williams complained, “On top of all that, since down is up and up is down, Bannon [is] threatening to — to use the verb of the moment — primary incumbent Republicans! Which is crazy.”

Williams refers to Steve Bannon, late of the Trump administration and now back at the helm of Breitbart News. Bannon is now working, as CNN reported, with “conservative mega-donor Robert Mercer, who is prepared to pour millions of dollars into attacks on GOP incumbents.” Incumbent Republicans thwarting Trump, that is.

“I don’t think anyone should be surprised,” remarked Ned Ryun, American Majority’s CEO. “It’s a natural reaction by the base to what they’ve perceived as a perhaps intentional inability to pass any Trump agenda items.”**

Ah, more spoilers! This week we’ve talked about Libertarian spoilers; now, pro-Trump spoilers. And, for years, non-profit groups such as the Club for Growth and U.S. Term Limits have helped a challenger against an incumbent, and been dubbed dangerous to Republican hegemony for their trouble.

Seems what connects all these anti-establishment folks is a commitment to principle over power.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

* The retiring Republicans are Rep. Sam Johnson (R, TX-3), Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R, KS-2), Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R, FL-27), Rep. John Duncan Jr. (R, TN-2), Rep. Dave Reichert (R, WA-9), Rep. Charlie Dent (R, PA-15), and Rep. Dave Trott (R, MI-11).

** Steve Kornacki responded to Brian Williams: “Absolutely unheard of for a nominee in either party to have that complete lack of support from Capitol Hill and then go out there and win the nomination [for president]. . . . You have this element where all these members of Congress, even though it’s a president of their party on paper, don’t really feel they’re part of this presidency.”
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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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Tags: Paul Jacob, Common Sense, Spoiler, principle over power To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Trump Needs To Kill AT&T-Time Warner Merger

by Rick Manning: America’s media monopolies pose a threat to democracy. Most people know that President Donald Trump has engaged in a very public war of words with a variety of biased media outlets, like CNN, over their advocacy journalism which shreds any semblance of objectivity.

In the waning weeks of the 2016 campaign, the President regularly went directly to the voters bashing CNN and other outlets for presenting fake news designed to influence the election outcome. This recognition of the power of the media monopolies over what the people learned about him and his campaign led the President to unequivocally state on Oct . 22 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania that news organizations were trying to, “suppress my vote and the voice of the American people.”

President Trump recognized the impact that the conglomerate media companies were having on the electorate when in the same Gettysburg speech, he equated the consolidation of media into giant corporations by citing the proposed merger between AT&T and Time Warner, “As an example of the power structure I’m fighting, AT&T is buying Time Warner and thus CNN, a deal we will not approve in my administration because it’s too much concentration of power in the hands of too few.”

Trump was right in October of 2016, and now his Justice Department has the power to stop the AT&T and Time Warner merger in its tracks, and that is exactly what they should do.

The continued consolidation of media exposes the obvious problem where one entity can impose a political or cultural point of view on society as a whole simply by making it normal, acceptable, or seemingly outside the mainstream, on every entertainment outlet that people watch.

This inordinate power to control the information that flows onto our computers and through entertainment and advocacy news outlets that the consolidation of media has created highlights the dangers of allowing the AT&T-Time Warner merger to proceed.

Currently, AT&T owns the number 1 Pay TV company (26M subscribers), the number two wireless company with 134 million subscribers, the number three Internet Service Provider with 16 million subscribers and was the world’s largest telecommunications company by revenue with $163 billion in revenue in 2016 alone.

For its part, Time Warner owns CNN, one of the world’s largest news networks, three of the top five general entertainment cable networks in TBS, TNT and Adult Swim, HBO – the leading premium cable provider and the number two movie studio by box office revenue in Warner Bros.

If approved, AT&T’s powerful reach into consumer’s televisions, computers, and mobile devices means they could easily increase the power of their own offerings – like CNN. They could also make it more difficult or impossible for consumers to find conservative or more balanced news alternatives. The last thing we need is a corporate giant that makes CNN and other networks it owns even more powerful.

President Trump clearly stated that under his administration the AT&T/Time Warner merger would be stopped because it was not in America’s interest. Now, he needs to keep his promise by telling his Justice Department to kill the deal as a bad, bad deal for free speech in America.
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Rick Manning is the President of Americans for Limited Government.

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Tags: Robert Romano, Americans For Limited Government, President Trump, Kill, AT&T, Time, merger To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Buying and Selling Becoming Harder For Christians

by Kerby Anderson, Contributing Author: Will orthodox, Bible-believing Christians find it harder and harder to buy and sell in America? If you asked that question a few decades ago, people would think you lost all rationality. But that is a question Rod Dreher rightly asks in a recent editorial.

He points to the decision by Vanco Payment Solutions to cut off services to a Christian ministry because it is listed on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s “Hate Map.” The Ruth Center is a Catholic nonprofit located in Louisiana that was flagged because the service company believed it promoted “hate, violence, harassment, and/or abuse.”

You can go to the ministry’s website and see that it does not even come close to promoting anything like that. People in the ministry believe what the Roman Catholic Church teaches about homosexuality. And because they support traditional marriage and biblical sexuality, the SPLC tagged then as a hate group.

The Washington Free Beacon has been looking into the SPLC and found that it has become a fundraising powerhouse by expanding its list of domestic hate groups. It recorded more than $50 million in contributions and $328 million in net assets. The group also has “financial interests” in the Cayman Islands, British Virgin Island, and Bermuda.

An article in Politico says that you might imagine the SPLC as “a handful of scrappy lawyers in a dingy office suite somewhere. In fact, it boasts 250 staffers and offices in four states” and its main office “is the most architecturally striking structure in downtown Montgomery.”

At one time the SPLC provided a necessary function of identifying true hate groups. Today it slaps the label indiscriminately on ministries and organizations like the Ruth Center that do not deserve it. This, in turn, makes them a target and they lose vital services.
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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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Tags: Kerby Anderson, Viewpoints, Point of View, Buying and Selling, Christians, Ruth Center, Catholic non-profit, SPLC,  Southern Pverty Law Center To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Lt, Gov. Griffin: Tax Cuts Will Depend On Transformation Savings

by Caleb Taylor: Savings will need to be found in state government spending in order to achieve tax cuts in the near future, according to Arkansas Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin.

Griffin is a member of Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s Transformation Advisory Board; the board advises Hutchinson on possible savings and efficiencies in state government.

Griffin said in an interview with Talk Business that he’s optimistic that the Legislative Tax Reform and Relief Task Force will come up with real solutions on reforming and lowering state taxes.

Griffin said:
It’s good that they’re having the discussion about what we ought to do. I think a lot of good ideas will come out of it. The degree to which we can lower taxes will depend in large part on how much savings we can find. The savings are the key. What you’re doing then is you’re creating a government that runs better but costs less to run.For an example of tax reform gone wrong, one need look no further than Kansas’s recent attempt at tax reform that featured tax cuts (good!) but no reduced spending (bad!). Kansas also never got around to eliminating loopholes in the tax code. If tax reform and relief is going to happen in Arkansas, it won’t be through legislators emulating the Kansas model.

Griffin said he hopes that the transformation board’s efforts will make tax reform and relief more likely to become a reality — through finding savings in state government.

Griffin said:
The way you get to that and have the flexibility to lower taxes, rearrange taxes and do all that the way you really want to do it…the way you get there is you’ve got to find savings. If government is spending what government is taking in, then there’s no surplus money to lower taxes with. Transformation is the key that unlocks the door to tax reform, highways and infrastructure…to whatever it is that you think money should be going to. We’re spending extra money to do things the old way.While there’s a lot of work left to do on this front, there has been progress made by state agency heads in recent years. Many state agencies have found ways to root out inefficiencies and reduce staffing while meeting their obligations to the public. This has led to significant taxpayer savings. For more on this topic, read our previous four stories about these efforts.
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Caleb Taylor writes for The Arkansas Project an outreach of the Advance Arkansas Institute.

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Tags: Arkansas, Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin, Tax Cuts, depend upon, transformational savings, Caleb Taylor, The Arkansas Project 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 Mythical Constitution

by Joseph Postell: The nation marks the 230th birthday of our Constitution this weekend. On Sunday, many Americans of all political persuasions who are aware of Constitution Day will praise the Framers of that document and express gratitude that they live under its protections.

They will celebrate the fact that we have a representative democracy, where the laws are written by people who must stand for re-election at regular intervals.

They will praise our system of separated powers, where no person has the power to be lawmaker, investigator, prosecutor, judge, jury, and executioner. And they will cheer for the Bill of Rights, which guarantees our freedoms from searches without probable cause and from self-incrimination, and secures our rights to due process.

One problem, though.

That Constitution—the one taught to students in high school civics classes—doesn’t really exist anymore. Nowadays, American government follows a process that barely resembles the basic principles established in our fundamental law.

Of course, we haven’t parted with the Constitution officially.

Congress still enacts laws from time to time, and we still elect its members. The president’s election is independent from Congress, unlike many parliamentary systems, and federal judges are independent of the legislative and executive branches because of their tenure during good behavior and their fixed salaries. It would be incorrect to say that today’s system is completely unconnected to the Constitution’s structure.

The problem is that our textbook description of American government conceals the reality of the administrative state. Most of the rules that govern our behavior are made by administrative agencies, not by Congress. Administrative agencies also investigate, prosecute, and enforce violations of these rules.

The agencies have the power to “adjudicate” disputes stemming from their rules, in what Columbia law professor Philip Hamburger calls “miniature courts” within the agencies themselves. Administrative judges and administrative law judges are new features of our political system, so that even the judges are no longer independent.

In many cases, the Bill of Rights itself has been considered inapplicable.

Unlike traditional law enforcement, many bureaucrats have power to search private property without a particular warrant. In administrative proceedings, the right to avoid self-incrimination is frequently dispensed with. The right to trial by jury, guaranteed by the Seventh Amendment, is not always recognized, even in administrative decisions where millions of dollars of fines are on the line.

This amounts, in essence, to a policymaking process that exists in limbo, somewhere outside the normal constitutional process and the normal constitutional constraints. Almost everyone paying attention acknowledges that the existence of this administrative state raises important constitutional questions. But to many, it seems like bureaucratic government is just one of those things that we’re stuck with as a necessary part of modern life.

This is not the path we had to take.

Regulation and administration have existed throughout American history. There were building codes, environmental, health, and safety rules, and plenty of regulatory programs during the first years of our nation. The difference is that those regulations were enacted by elected representatives passing laws, or by judges who applied the principles of common law to resolve disputes among citizens.

The regulations were merely enforced, and carried out, by the administrative agencies that today are often the lawmakers, investigators, judges, juries, and executioners. We had administration, but not an administrative state.

It was more difficult, admittedly, to regulate through these constitutional mechanisms. But people agreed that the Constitution’s principles were important enough to accept the inconvenience of following them. Looking back at how they managed to enact regulations within the Constitution’s boundaries is something we should be doing today.

For several years, Congress has taken a closer look at reforming this administrative state that has grown up around the Constitution and threatens its core principles. But thus far, very little has been completed.

The path back to constitutional government will be long and difficult from this Constitution Day, but many good ideas have been offered for bringing our administrative behemoth back into the constitutional framework.

It is the responsibility of Congress to rein in the administrative state and begin the slow, arduous task of rebuilding constitutional government.
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Joseph Postell is associate professor of political science at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs and visiting fellow in American political thought in the B. Kenneth Simon Center for Principles and Politics at The Heritage Foundation.

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