Bannon’s Strategy Will Undermine, Not Strengthen, the Trump Agenda

Steve Bannon 

by Newt Gingrich: Former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon is on the verge of becoming Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer’s favorite person -- and Donald Trump’s worst enemy.

Bannon’s so-called “war against the GOP establishment,” is the worst strategic action Republicans could take right now. He is planning to find primary challengers for six of the seven Republican senators running for re-election in 2018. Only Senator Ted Cruz has been spared his wrath. Senator Bob Corker’s decision to not seek a third term leaves an eighth Republican-controlled seat open. As I said on Martha MacCallum’s show, “The Story”, this week, Bannon’s plan is the wrong strategy.

Every single Senator that Bannon is trying to replace has overwhelmingly supported the Trump agenda: all voted to repeal Obamacare; all supported President Trump’s Cabinet nominations; all supported the American Health Care Act; all supported the so-called Skinny Repeal of Obamacare; and all voted to confirm conservative Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch.

Data analyst Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight website has tracked how these six Republicans, and other lawmakers, have voted on legislation that supports President Trump’s agenda. While there are many conservatives, myself included, frustrated with the pace of progress in Washington, the data makes it clear that these Senators are not the ones slowing things down:



• John Barrasso - 95.9 percent

• Orrin Hatch - 95.9 percent

• Roger Wicker - 95.9 percent

• Deb Fischer - 91.8 percent

• Jeff Flake - 91.5 percent

• Dean Heller - 89.8 percentEach one of these Republicans is also very likely to vote for the Trump-Republican tax cut, as well as future legislation to repeal and replace ObamaCare. In fact, three of them have voted with Trump’s agenda just as often as Cruz has. Cruz was tracked at 93.9 percent on the FiveThirtyEight website.

At the same time, there are 23 Senate Democrats up for re-election in 2018 -- as well as two independent Senators who caucus with the Democrats.

All 25 of these left-wing Senators have opposed every attempt to repeal ObamaCare, voted against the American Health Care Act, and only three supported Gorsuch’s confirmation. Among these Democrats, only Joe Manchin and Heidi Heitkamp have supported Trump initiatives more than half the time -- largely out of fear of being voted out of office.

This leads to the key point: 10 of these Democrat-held seats (including the ones held by Manchin and Heitkamp) are in states which President Trump won in 2016. At least six are seriously vulnerable. Does Bannon really think it’s more important to get rid of people like Barrasso and Hatch (who are with the President 95.9 percent of the time) than it is to replace Jon Tester (38.8 percent), Bill Nelson (36.7 percent), or Sherrod Brown (30.6 percent)?

If we are serious about enacting the Trump agenda, we should focus our energy on replacing the Democrats voting against it, not the Republicans voting in favor of it. If Bannon invested the resources at his disposal toward this end, we could potentially gain a 56- or 57-seat pro-Trump agenda majority in the Senate next year. President Trump would then be in a much stronger position to deliver real change.

Bannon should end his war on the GOP. Now is the time to support the Trump agenda, not undermine it.
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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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Smoking Gun: Bill Clinton Sought To Meet With Russian Nuclear Official

by Daniel Greenfield: First, a little background from my previous article.
...the nuclear materials that truly interested Hillary Clinton weren’t in Russian missiles or in Iranian reactors, but in the ground in Kazakhstan. By the time Hillary showed off the ‘Reset Button’, the Clintons had been enjoying a long relationship with Frank Giustra, a Canadian mining mogul. Giustra had moved tens of millions into Clintonworld and Bill built up his profile in Kazakhstan....

Giustra’s company had been bought by Uranium One. And the Russians were sniffing around Kazakhstan. Either the Russians would get Uranium One. Or they would expose the dubious ways that Uranium One had gotten its Kazakhstan mining rights. But if Rosatom, a Russian government corporation, bought into Uranium One, it would need approval from State because such a deal would provide Russia with control over more than 20% of America’s Uranium supply...

Good thing, Uranium One and Putin had a friend in Hillary Clinton. And not just Hillary.And now to the latest piece of compelling reporting from John Solomon and Alison SpannAs he prepared to collect a $500,000 payday in Moscow in 2010, Bill Clinton sought clearance from the State Department to meet with a key board director of the Russian nuclear energy firm Rosatom — which at the time needed the Obama administration’s approval for a controversial uranium deal, government records show...

“In the context of a possible trip to Russia at the end of June, WJC is being asked to see the business/government folks below. Would State have concerns about WJC seeing any of these folks,” Clinton Foundation foreign policy adviser Amitabh Desai wrote the State Department on May 14, 2010, using the former president’s initials and forwarding the list of names to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s team.

The email went to two of Hillary Clinton’s most senior advisers, Jake Sullivan and Cheryl Mills.

The approval question, however, sat inside State for nearly two weeks without an answer, prompting Desai to make multiple pleas for a decision.

“Dear Jake, we urgently need feedback on this. Thanks, Ami,” the former president’s aide wrote in early June.

Sullivan finally responded on June 7, 2010, asking a fellow State official “What’s the deal w this?”...

Bill Clinton instead got together with Vladimir Putin at the Russian leader’s private homestead.You know that guy the Dems now claim to hate. But I bet they discussed their grandchildren. Just like with Lynch.

A few points.
1. To reiterate, Rosatom is a Russian government corporation. Its subsidiary handles Russia's nuclear weapons program. And is engaged in dealings with Iran.

2. Bill Clinton trying to meet with a top Rosatom figure, at the same time as Rosatom was trying to buy into a company that had funneled a lot of money into his pet non-profit and while his wife was in the position of deciding whether the deal should go through, stinks as badly as the Lynch meeting. It's a smoking gun as far as showing that the Clintons were involved in this.Hillary's defense is "vast right conspiracy".

Her spokesman claimed that this was, "more of the right doing Trump’s bidding for him to distract from his own Russia problems, which are real and a grave threat to our national security.”

But putting 20 percent of our uranium under Russian control isn't a threat to our national security.
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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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Tags: Vladimir Putin, Russia, Smoking Gun, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, uranium, Frank Giustra, Russian Nuclear Official, Daniel Greenfield, FrontPage Mag To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Coffee Talk on Tax Reform

Tom Balek

by Tom Balek, Contributing Author: Our national debt is now approaching $21 trillion ($231 trillion if you include unfunded liabilities like government pensions), and nobody seems to care. Most of our congressmen still want to spend more and tax less. I guess they think we can just print more money whenever we want and there is no down side. They had better hope interest rates can be artificially held to near zero for generations to come.

Everybody knows the tax code is ridiculously complex. But few understand what a drag on the economy this complexity causes. Here’s something to think about: the cost of filling out government tax forms is estimated by the IRS at $400 billion per year. At the bottom of every business tax form is a small box that asks how many hours were spent preparing this form. The preparer will write “2 hours” or “.5 hours” on the form, and the IRS rolls up this number, multiplies it by some arbitrary labor cost per hour, and comes up with $400 billion. But that’s just for filling out the form! It doesn’t include the billions of hours spent on accounting to generate the numbers to report on the form! I know some of this accounting also serves internal purposes, but much of it does not, especially in small businesses. And we aren’t even counting the cost of the IRS, the IT systems required for data gathering, or the Advils swallowed every April.

I’ll bet the cost of reporting taxes easily exceeds a trillion dollars. Think about it: our annual GDP is $20 trillion. Ask any business owner what percentage of the labor hours in his business are spent punching computers, gathering data and doing accounting. A conservative average might be 25%. That would be $5 trillion of bookkeeping per year. Imagine what our economy could do if we didn’t spend a quarter of our time bean-counting instead of making something useful.

OMB Director Mick Mulvaney knows that there is terrible waste in government, and we could cut a huge chunk out of the federal budget without causing any pain for Americans. And while he is making the effort to cut spending as best he can, it won’t work. “Too slow,” says Mulvaney, an honors scholar and holder of advanced degrees in international economics, commerce, and finance. “The only way to turn the ship around is to grow the economy.”

Mulvaney believes 3% GDP growth, which has been fairly common in our history, would grind down our debt and reduce the drag on the economy, but only only if we could muster some restraint in the growth of spending. It’s encouraging and discouraging at the same time. It’s definitely do-able. But our elected class has learned that they can get elected and re-elected by promising to give everybody somebody else’s money.

The purpose of taxes is to fund the government. Collecting taxes should be simple: Here is the budget for next year (say $1 trillion). Add up the total wages of all adult citizens ($33 trillion). Divide – the answer is 3%. Ask each citizen to send a check for 3% of their wages to the swamp.

That might be a little bit too simple – for example, all business and investment profit would need to be distributed as personal income, not retained. But our tax code has grown to over 75,000 pages, and that’s because it is used for much more than just funding the government. It’s all about controlling our behavior. Most tax laws were put in place to reward some of us with tax breaks, or to punish some of us with higher taxes, or to encourage (or require) all of us to act in a certain way.

If you think the government should have less control over your daily life, you should want the tax code to be severely simplified, and the corrupt IRS whittled down to reflect its core mission.
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Tom Balek is a fellow conservative activist, blogger, musician and contributes to the ARRA News Service. Tom resides in South Carolina and seeks to educate those too busy with their work and families to notice how close to the precipice our economy has come. He blogs at Rockin' On the Right Side

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Perspective

by Gary Bauer, Contributing Author: I know it's Friday. Perhaps you are burned out from the work week and maybe you've already tuned out as well. But I would really like your attention today.

In yesterday's report, I referenced the remarks of White House Chief of Staff John Kelly (White House video below) in defense of President Trump. General Kelly said he was "stunned" and "brokenhearted" by efforts to politicize the president's call to a grieving widow. But there was so much more to what he said, and I want to focus more on his remarks.

In my four decades in Washington, a city that revolves around the getting and keeping of power, I have seen a lot of press briefings. For the most part, they are routine, mundane and unremarkable -- and that's generally considered a good thing. If a press briefing makes news, it is usually because something terrible was said at the podium.

General Kelly's briefing yesterday was newsworthy not because he said anything terrible, but because his remarks were so profound. He put everything into its proper perspective.

You've probably seen the photo of the four soldiers who were ambushed in Niger -- Staff Sgt. Jeremiah Johnson, Staff Sgt. Dustin Wright, Sgt. La David Johnson and Staff Sgt. Bryan Black. They look like America. They gave their lives fighting evil.

General Kelly knew all the details of how their remains were handled. He knew that because he lost his own son in Afghanistan. You can watch him explain those details here.

General Kelly knows the seriousness of that sacrifice, the pain experienced by parents and family members. His tone yesterday was pained, almost as if he was delivering a eulogy. Hopefully, it was not a eulogy for America, but Kelly is clearly very concerned about the state of our union today.

In a particularly poignant moment, he talked about how much things have changed in America, and not always for the better. He talked about how women are objectified by the popular culture, how life is no longer sacred, how faith is disrespected.

General Kelly was talking about the America I grew up in. He was talking about the America my father, Spike Bauer, loved and fought for in the Pacific. He was talking about the America that elected Donald Trump.

Not surprisingly, General Kelly had some words for Rep. Frederica Wilson of Florida. He referred to her as an "empty barrel" that makes a lot of noise. She certainly is making a lot of noise. In fact, she's laughing about how much attention she is getting.

"You mean to tell me that I’ve become so important that the White House is following me and my words?" Wilson joked. "This is amazing. . . That is absolutely phenomenal. I'll have to tell my kids that I'm a rock star now."

She's so excited that she has made the rounds on all the talk shows for having politicized a soldier's death. What a sorry cackling excuse for a representative of the United States. Is any Democrat leader going to demand that she back down?

How dare she! Wilson is laughing about how important she has become because she listened in on the most private, most painful phone call from the president of the United States to a grieving widow.

Sadly, our soldiers can't even die in peace without these jackals trying to use their deaths to pull down our government.

In a healthy America, we would not be reading about restaurants harassed to the point of closing because they think millionaire football players should stand during the national anthem.

Instead, we should be reading about how this politician was forced to resign due to overwhelming outrage from veterans and the Americans who support them.

Men like those who died in Niger preserve America. Politicians who exploit their deaths are doing everything they can to destroy America, whether they realize it or not.

Closing his remarks yesterday, General Kelly said this:

"As I walk off the stage, understand there's tens of thousands of American kids, mostly, doing their nation's bidding all around the world. They don't have to be in uniform. You know, when I was a kid, every man in my life was a veteran -- World War II, Korea, and there was the draft. These young people today, they don't do it for any other reason than their selfless sense of devotion to this great nation.

"We don't look down upon those of you who that haven't served. In fact, in a way, we're a little bit sorry because you'll never have experienced the wonderful joy you get in your heart when you do the kinds of things our service men and women do -- not for any other reason than they love this country. So just think of that."

I hope the millionaires who have been taking a knee during the national anthem will think about that before the games this weekend. How wonderful it would be to see them all standing in honor of Staff Sgt. Jeremiah Johnson, Staff Sgt. Dustin Wright, Sgt. La David Johnson and Staff Sgt. Bryan Black.

I know many of you share our daily reports. Please go the extra mile on this one. Let's fight back against the left-wing media smears against President Trump. (Be certain to remove the "unsubscribe" link at the bottom before you forward the report.)

Make sure your friends and family members hear what White House Chief of Staff John Kelly had to say yesterday. We've posted several clips on Facebook and Twitter so you can share them on social media.

God bless you, my friends, as we strive to make America great again!
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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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Budget Passage In The Sentate: ‘Major Step Forward’ . . .

. . . ‘To Overhaul The Tax Code’

SEN. MIKE ENZI (R-WY): “This budget resolution is the first step to pro-growth tax reform, as it will provide the fiscal headroom needed for the tax-writing committees in the Senate and the House to produce tax reform legislation… Hardworking families deserve a system that works for everyone in order to provide higher wages and more jobs.  Pro-growth tax reform can help U.S. businesses and their workers compete in the global marketplace, spur investment and job growth here at home, and free Americans to make their own decisions about how to spend their hard-earned money. Hardworking Americans want and deserve a more effective and efficient government. And a big part of that is making the tax code work for all American families and small businesses.” (Sen. Enzi, Press Release, 10/19/2017)

SEN. ORRIN HATCH (R-UT): “Tonight’s action sends a strong signal to the American people that Congress is unified in its effort to advance a comprehensive tax overhaul that will shift the nation’s economic landscape and provide relief to middle-class families. Under the leadership of Chairman Enzi, the Budget Committee produced a strong budget with a reconciliation instruction that will give the Finance Committee the headroom it needs to develop the best pro-growth policies to achieve our goal.” (Sen. Hatch, Press Release, 10/19/2017)

SEN. MITCH McCONNELL (R-KY): “… we completed the first step towards replacing our broken tax code by passing a comprehensive, fiscally responsible budget that will help put the federal government on a path to balance. ... We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to replace a failing tax code that holds Americans back with one that actually works for them.  To middle class families across America, we have a simple message: we want to take more money out of Washington's pockets and put more in yours.” (Sen. McConnell, Floor Remarks, 10/19/2017)

PRESIDENT TRUMP: “Great news on the 2018 budget @SenateMajLdr McConnell - first step toward delivering MASSIVE tax cuts for the American people!” (President Trump, @realDonaldTrump, Twitter, 10/19/2017)

• “President Donald J. Trump applauds the Senate for passing its FY 2018 Budget Resolution today and taking an important step in advancing the Administration’s pro-growth and pro-jobs legislative agenda. This resolution creates a pathway to unleash the potential of the American economy through tax reform and tax cuts, simplifying the overcomplicated tax code, providing financial relief for families across the country, and making American businesses globally competitive.” (White House Statement, 10/19/2017)

‘Crucial,’ ‘Significant,’ ‘Major,’ ‘Clearing A Huge Hurdle’ For Tax Reform
NEW YORK TIMES: “The Senate took a significant step toward rewriting the tax code on Thursday night with the passage of a budget blueprint that would protect a $1.5 trillion tax cut from a Democratic filibuster.” (“Senate Approves Budget Plan That Smooths Path Toward Tax Cut,” The New York Times, 10/19/2017)

WALL STREET JOURNAL: “Senate Republicans adopted a budget for the next fiscal year, clearing a critical hurdle in the GOP push to overhaul the tax code.” (“Senate Passes Budget Proposal Primarily On Party Lines,” The Wall Street Journal, 10/20/2017)

WASHINGTON POST: “The Senate approved the Republican-backed budget Thursday night, a major step forward for the GOP effort to enact tax cuts.” (“Senate Approves Budget In Crucial Step Forward For Republican Tax Cuts,” Washington Post, 10/19/2017)

POLITICO: “Senate Republicans on Thursday passed a budget measure that will unlock the route to a sweeping tax overhaul…” (“Senate Passes Budget, Clearing Path For Tax Reform,” Politico, 10/19/2017)

BUSINESS INSIDER: “The Senate passed its fiscal-year 2018 budget resolution Thursday, opening the door for the passage of Republican leadership's massive package to overhaul the tax code. The resolution passed by a vote of 51-to-49…” (“The Senate Passes Its Budget, Clearing A Huge Hurdle For Trump's Tax Plan,” Business Insider, 10/19/2017)

AP: “The Senate on Thursday passed a Republican budget resolution that would pave the way to use a special procedural rule to consider tax reform later this year. The $4 trillion budget blueprint passed 51-49, with all Democrats and Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky voting against it. It sets the stage for debate later this year to dramatically overhaul the U.S. tax code, cutting rates for individuals and corporations while clearing away trillions of dollars' worth of deductions and special-interest tax breaks.” (“Senate Passes $4 Trillion Budget Bill, Paving Way for Tax Reform Effort,” AP, 10/19/2017)

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White Flag Waiver . . .

. . . NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell surrenders to the NFL players who continue to disrespect the U.S. Flag.

Editorial Cartoon by AF "Tony" Branco

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Is Liberalism a Dying Faith?

Suicide of the West

by Patrick Buchanan: Asked to name the defining attributes of the America we wish to become, many liberals would answer that we must realize our manifest destiny since 1776, by becoming more equal, more diverse and more democratic — and the model for mankind’s future.

Equality, diversity, democracy — this is the holy trinity of the post-Christian secular state at whose altars Liberal Man worships.

But the congregation worshiping these gods is shrinking. And even Europe seems to be rejecting what America has on offer.

In a retreat from diversity, Catalonia just voted to separate from Spain. The Basque and Galician peoples of Spain are following the Catalan secession crisis with great interest.

The right-wing People’s Party and far-right Freedom Party just swept 60 percent of Austria’s vote, delivering the nation to 31-year-old Sebastian Kurz, whose anti-immigrant platform was plagiarized from the Freedom Party. Summarized it is: Austria for the Austrians!

Lombardy, whose capital is Milan, and Veneto will vote Sunday for greater autonomy from Rome.

South Tyrol (Alto Adige), severed from Austria and ceded to Italy at Versailles, written off by Hitler to appease Mussolini after his Anschluss, is astir anew with secessionism. Even the Sicilians are talking of separation.

By Sunday, the Czech Republic may have a new leader, billionaire Andrej Babis. Writes The Washington Post, Babis “makes a sport of attacking the European Union and says NATO’s mission is outdated.”

Platform Promise: Keep the Muslim masses out of the motherland.

To ethnonationalists, their countrymen are not equal to all others, but superior in rights. Many may nod at Thomas Jefferson’s line that “All men are created equal,” but they no more practice that in their own nations than did Jefferson in his.

On Oct. 7, scores of thousands of Poles lined up along the country’s entire 2,000-mile border — to pray the rosary.

It was the centennial of the Virgin Mary’s last apparition at Fatima in Portugal in 1917, and the day in 1571 the Holy League sank the Muslim fleet at Lepanto to save Europe. G. K. Chesterton’s poem, “Lepanto,” was once required reading in Catholic schools.

Each of these traditionalist-nationalist movements is unique, but all have a common cause. In the hearts of Europe’s indigenous peoples is embedded an ancient fear: loss of the homeland to Islamic invaders.

Europe is rejecting, resisting, recoiling from “diversity,” the multiracial, multicultural, multiethnic and multilingual future that, say U.S. elites, is America’s preordained mission to bring about for all mankind.

Indeed, increasingly, the indigenous peoples of Europe seem to view as the death of their nations and continent, what U.S. liberal elites see as the Brave New World to come.

To traditionalist Europeans, our heaven looks like their hell.

Thus Poles fall on their knees to pray to the Virgin Mary to spare them from threats of an Islamic future, as their ancestors prayed at the time of Lepanto, and of Vienna in 1683, when the Polish King John Sobieski marched to halt the last Muslim drive into the heart of Europe.

European peoples and parties are today using democratic means to achieve “illiberal” ends. And it is hard to see what halts the drift away from liberal democracy toward the restrictive right. For in virtually every nation, there is a major party in opposition, or a party in power, that holds deeply nationalist views.

European elites may denounce these new parties as “illiberal” or fascist, but it is becoming apparent that it may be liberalism itself that belongs to yesterday. For more and more Europeans see the invasion of the continent along the routes whence the invaders came centuries ago, not as a manageable problem but an existential crisis.

To many Europeans, it portends an irreversible alteration in the character of the countries their grandchildren will inherit, and possibly an end to their civilization. And they are not going to be deterred from voting their fears by being called names that long ago lost their toxicity from overuse.

And as Europeans decline to celebrate the racial, ethnic, creedal and cultural diversity extolled by American elites, they also seem to reject the idea that foreigners should be treated equally in nations created for their own kind.

Europeans seem to admire more, and model their nations more, along the lines of the less diverse America of the Eisenhower era, than on the polyglot America of 2017.

And Europe seems to be moving toward immigration polices more like the McCarran-Walter Act of 1950 than the open borders bill that Sen. Edward Kennedy shepherded through the Senate in 1965.

Kennedy promised that the racial and ethnic composition of the America of the 1960s would not be overturned, and he questioned the morality and motives of any who implied that it would.

So, why is liberalism dying?

Because it is proving to be what James Burnham called it in his 1964 “Suicide of the West” — the ideology of Western suicide.

What we see in Europe today is people who, belatedly recognizing this, have begun to “rage, rage, against dying of the light.”
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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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Shadow Boxing with "Nazis"

by Paul Jacob, Contributing Author: Voltaire’s prayer, “make my enemies ridiculous,” has been granted to Ben Shapiro.

The New York Times has graced its pages with the writings of one Jane Coaston, who, in The Hollow Bravery of Ben Shapiro, accuses the brilliant intellectual pugilist Mr. Shapiro for “shadow boxing meant to pander to his conservative fans.”

And while she admits the truth that “campuses tend to be hostile places to conservatives like Mr. Shapiro, Charles Murray and Heather Mac Donald,” she insists that “the notion that they are the cultural underdogs is bogus.”

Failing to back up her “cultural underdog” thesis in any way, Coaston’s essay wanders off, evading the street and campus violence by leftist activists who, until recently, were given de facto license by mayors and college administrators to shout down, beat up and “de-platform” people they called “fascists.”

By just glossing over all this, Ms. Coaston is pandering to her audience — certainly not challenging it, which is precisely what she accuses Mr. Shapiro of doing.

Amusingly, I noticed this journalist arguing earlier this year that “you should punch Nazis in the goddang face.”

But Antifa and other “Nazi-punchers” aren’t in the habit of sending out questionnaires before planting fist to face or bike lock to noggin.

Which brings us to the ridiculous. She minimizes the extent to which Ben Shapiro and others have been threatened (and their fans violently attacked) by mobs shouting against “fascism” and “Nazis.” And yet she provided not merely the intellectual ammunition for this practice, she provided the declaration of war.

Maybe she has a career in politics.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Paul Jacob 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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Was The Real Russian Collusion The Uranium One Deal?

by Natalia Castro: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is calling upon Attorney General Jeff Sessions to assist him in ridding the federal government of the corruption the Obama Administration perpetuated. After recent news stories surfaced highlighting an ethically questionable business deal which gave the Russian nuclear industry significant control over the U.S. uranium supply, Grassley wants Sessions to allow an FBI informant alleging that a Justice Department prosecution of a Russian company engaged in bribery was slowed down to grease the wheels of the Uranium One deal.

In a breaking news story this week published in The Hill this week, John Solomon and Alison Spann explain, “Rather than bring immediate charges in 2010, however, the Department of Justice (DOJ) continued investigating the matter for nearly four more years, essentially leaving the American public and Congress in the dark about Russian nuclear corruption on U.S. soil during a period when the Obama administration made two major decisions benefiting Putin’s commercial nuclear ambitions.”

The deal allowed a Russian state-owned corporation to acquire 20 percent of the U.S. uranium supply — and funneled millions to the Clinton Foundation. Consider the timeline.

It began on June 8, 2010, when Uranium One announced their intention to broker a deal with the United States to acquire notably more uranium supply. Just a day later on June 9, 2010, husband to the serving Secretary of State and former President Bill Clinton was hired to give a speech for $500,000 to the Russian bank Renaissance Capital, which occurred on June 29, where he talked up uranium markets and even promoted Uranium One stocks.

As the New York Times of April 2015 reported, “As the Russians gradually assumed control of Uranium One in three separate transactions from 2009 to 2013, Canadian records show, a flow of cash made its way to the Clinton Foundation. Uranium One’s chairman used his family foundation to make four donations totaling $2.35 million. Those contributions were not publicly disclosed by the Clintons, despite an agreement Mrs. Clinton had struck with the Obama White House to identify all donors publicly. Other people with ties to the company made donations as well.”

As Sarah Carter explains in her comprehensive article investigating the matter, “The deal which required approval by [the Committee on Foreign Investment] CFIUS, an inter-agency committee who reviews transactions that leads to a change of control of a U.S. business to a foreign person or entity that may have an impact on the national security of the United States. At the time of the Uranium One deal the panel was chaired by then-Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and included then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and then-Attorney General Eric Holder.” The committee is supposed to ensure transactions that lead to a change of control of a business to a foreign person or entity does not negatively impact national security of the United States.

While the transaction moved forward, there was one problem. By 2010 when the deal was in its infant stages, the FBI informant claims the agency already had more than enough evidence to halt the transaction for obvious corruption and bribery.

The case was being led by some familiar faces: Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein, who now serves as Trump’s deputy attorney general, and Assistant FBI Director Andrew McCabe, who is currently the deputy FBI director, led the investigation.

In the three-year period, while the investigation was oddly stalled, the Clinton foundation was fueled.

This transaction clearly generated some unanswered questions, but the individual with the answers is being silenced.

The FBI informant who produced information to Carter and Solomon cannot testify before Congress because of a nondisclosure agreement and threats he received from the Obama Administration, Grassley is encouraging Sessions to lift this gag order to give the informant a chance to testify.

The informant’s lawyer, Victoria Toensing, has been speaking on his behalf encouraging Sessions to life the order as well, she explains, “My client has specific information about contributions and bribes to various entities and people in the United States, but he cannot go any further than that because he has not been released from his non disclosure agreement… In 2016 he filed a civil action [to lift the agreement] and he was threatened by the Loretta Lynch Justice Department ... who claimed that his liberty would be in jeopardy.”

She continues to note, “Chairman Grassley sent me a letter and said he wants my client to be interviewed, so what is the Justice Department going to do because it is unconstitutional for the executive branch to tell somebody not to give information to the legislative branch.”

The real question is why would the Justice Department block this testimony? What have they got to hide?

In a statement, Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning urged the whistleblower’s testimony: “The first step Attorney General Jeff Sessions must take is to clear the whistleblower to testify about the corruption that he or she is alleging. Only through that testimony and subsequent thorough investigation led by Sessions, not involving any of the accused, can the interests of the U.S. government and its people be served. If the Russians exerted influence at the highest levels of the Justice Department and the FBI in order to obtain approval of the takeover of 20 percent of the U.S. uranium reserves, then that sale should be nullified and the people who facilitated it should be imprisoned.”

Grassley is taking the right steps to restore the rule of law in the country; now Sessions must follow the constitution and assist him by lifting this gag order. This will finally provide the real Russia corruption story; the story of the Obama Administration and Hillary Clinton utilizing bribery to fund their interests.
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Natalia Castro is a contributing editor for Americans for Limited Government

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Tags: Russia, Russian Collusion, Uranium One Deal,  Hillary Clinton, Bill Clnton, Natalia Castro, Americans for Limited Government To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

11 GOP Senators Ask for 24/7 Schedule to Accomplish Trump’s Agenda

ARRA News Service Editor: Where are the other Republican Senators signatures demanding to work longer to get confirmations completed so that Obama democrat appointees are not still controlling operations in the Trump administration. Copy of letter added to the below article.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky

by Ian Snively: Eleven GOP senators wrote a letter asking Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to extend the chamber’s work hours to a 24/7 schedule “ to advance the president’s agenda.”

“1,200 nominations are subject to Senate confirmation,” said Caroline Vanvick, deputy communications director to Sen. David Perdue, one of the signers of the letter, in an email with the Daily Signal. “Because of Democratic delays, if we don’t pick up the pace in the Senate, President Trump won’t have his full team in place until after his first term.”

At this time, President Donald Trump has had 172 nominees confirmed. At the same time in their presidencies, Barack Obama had 359 nominees confirmed, and George W. Bush 375, according to CNN.

Besides Perdue, the letter was signed by Sens. Steve Daines, R-Mont.; Joni Ernst, R-Iowa; Dean Heller, R-Nev.; Ron Johnson, R-Wis.; John Kennedy, R-La.; Mike Rounds, R-S.D.; Luther Strange, R-Ala.; Roger Wicker, R-Miss.; Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska; and James Lankford, R-Okla.Dear Leader McConnell:

The 115th Congress is being disrupted by sustained, partisan obstruction. We believe our conference must be willing to change how the Senate operates both by tradition and by rule.

We appreciate your acknowledging our concerns and applaud your plan to work nights and weekends when necessary to overcome this gridlock. You have our full support to turn the Senate on full time, 24/7, to advance the president’s agenda, including a meaningful health care solution, bold changes to our tax code, and funding the government by year’s end.

As you know, one glaring example of this unprecedented obstruction is the minority party’s perversion of Senate rules to undercut the confirmation process of the administration’s nominees and judicial appointments. When new presidents are elected, they have always been given an opportunity to put their team in place in short order. Historically, this is not just a common courtesy, it is an expectation of Americans to have a seamless transition of power resulting in a functioning federal government.

It is abundantly clear that the tactics employed by the minority are designed to imperil the new administration and its agenda. Overcoming this obstruction will require a real commitment on our part. An aggressive work calendar, as you have proposed, which should include nights and weekends, will enable administration and judicial nominees to be confirmed more quickly.

You have our pledge to be available for voting day and night and we offer our time to preside over the Senate when necessary to keep us on track. Given the unprecedented obstruction by our colleagues across the aisle, we hope you will also take a renewed look at the rules governing executive branch nominations.

Our conference should always remember that we are fighting for hardworking Americans. In their daily lives, when there is work to be done – whether on assembly lines, in the fields of family farms, fishing in our bountiful waters, or standing in harm’s way – everyday Americans do what it takes to get the job done. We owe them the same unrelenting effort in the job they gave us to do.
The letter was sent after McConnell, R-Ky., announced at a party lunch on Tuesday that he planned to extend the chamber’s work hours to Fridays and possibly weekends. According to Politico, the schedule was extended to give the Senate the opportunity to approve Trump’s nominees as well as pass tax reform before the end of the year.

The letter proposes an even more vigorous schedule in order “to combat partisan obstruction and get results for the American people,” according to a press release provided by Lesley Fulop, press secretary to Perdue.

This isn’t the first time GOP members have asked McConnell to extend the session time in the Senate.

“In August,” said Perdue in a statement, “we sent a letter to Leader McConnell and asked him to postpone the August state work period so we could confirm more nominees and make progress on agenda items.”

As a result, the Senate approved nearly 70 nominees.

“Now, with 36 legislative days left in the year,” said Perdue, “we have been raising these concerns again and urging Leader McConnell to turn the Senate on full-time so we can get all of our priorities done from the budget, funding the government, and tax this year.”

In the letter, Perdue and the other GOP senators accuse the Senate minority of trying “to imperil the new administration and its agenda,” and emphasize the need for the GOP to take measures to ensure their goals are met.

“Our conference should always remember that we are fighting for hardworking Americans. … We owe them the same unrelenting effort in the job they gave us to do,” the letter ends.
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Ian Snively is a member of the Young Leaders Program at The Heritage Foundation and his article was in The Daily Signal. 

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Tags: GOP Senators. letter, ask for 24/7 achedule, President Trump, nominees, confirmations, Mitch McConnell, Ian Snively, The Daily Signal To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

They Are Coming For Our Guns

Dr. Chuck Baldwin

by Dr. Chuck Baldwin: Predictably, in the aftermath of the Las Vegas shootings (which I am convinced was another government false flag involving multiple shooters) the U.S. Congress is taking aim at our guns. Specifically, at least 16 gun control bills have been filed in Congress since the Vegas shootings. Montana Shooting Sports Association (MSSA) President Gary Marbut recently sent out this summary of current gun control bills in the U.S. House and Senate.

U.S. House:

HR 3947 – Bans parts and accessories that increase the rate of fire of a semi-automatic firearm

HR 3962 – Bans online sales of ammunition

HR 3984 – Repeals the Lawful Protection in Commerce law that would allow lawsuits against FFL’s and manufacturers

HR 3986 – Would require the placement of tracking ID into ‘all’ firearms sold in America

HR 3987 – Would require a fee to purchase a firearm through NICS and use these monies to fund the CDC to conduct research on gun violence that was previously found to be biased by Congress

HR 3998 – Bans firearms for known or ‘suspected’ terrorists

HR 3999 – Bans parts that increase the rate of fire of a semi-automatic firearm

HR 4018 – Institutes a ‘3’ day waiting period nationally for purchase of handgun

HR 4025 – Expands reporting of multiple firearms sales

HR 4052 – Would ‘ban’ possession and transfer of large capacity magazines (More than 10 rounds)

HR 4057 – Expansion of Prohibition for firearms ownership for being on a Terrorist Watch List

U.S. Senate:

S. 1915 – Would require all firearms to be personalized for restricted access and use

S. 1916 – Bans parts and accessories that increase the rate of fire of a semi-automatic firearm

S. 1923 – Expands background checks of firearms

S. 1939 – Repeals the Lawful Protection in Commerce law that would allow lawsuits against FFL’s and manufacturers

S. 1945 – Would ‘ban’ possession and transfer of large capacity magazines (More than 10 rounds)

Each of these bills is an egregious assault against the Second Amendment, but the proposed bills that would “ban parts that increase the rate of fire for a semi-automatic firearm” are especially draconian.

Ostensibly, these bills are aimed at banning “bump stocks.” Police in Las Vegas are telling us that “lone wolf” shooter Stephen Paddock had “bump stocks” on a couple of rifles that he used to kill 59 people from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel—a feat that was virtually impossible. If out-of-shape (in other words, FAT), untrained, inexperienced 64-year-old-Paddock could use “bump stocks” as efficiently and expertly as authorities are telling us he did—and at a distance of some 400 yards at night—the Navy SEALS and Army Rangers are wasting a lot of precious time and money enlisting and training 20-year-old musclemen and equipping them with expensive machine guns. Instead, they should be actively recruiting a bunch of old fat guys—and giving them “bump stocks.” What a joke!

The wording of these gun control bills is so vague that the ATF or a gun-grabbing judge could interpret the bills to mean just about anything. This is just a clever way of giving the government another opportunity to ban whatever it wants—including banning the semi-automatic rifle itself. This is the REAL OBJECTIVE of gun control zealots.

What many people do not realize is that folks who know what they are doing can use a rubber band or belt loop to make a semi-automatic rifle mimic a full-automatic rifle in much the same way as a “bump stock” does. I’m not kidding. Look it up for yourself. Would the bill then ban rubber bands and belt loops?

I’m telling you folks: they are coming for our guns.

Right about now I hear the Trump toadies shouting from their rocking chairs, “Donald Trump is pro-Second Amendment; he would never sign a gun control bill into law.” Are you willing to bet your AR-15 or Ruger Mini-14 on it?

It was just a few years ago when Donald Trump said that he supported banning all assault rifles (in today’s political lexicon that means semi-automatic rifles). Yes, I realize that Trump campaigned in support of the Second Amendment, but has Trump done anything to prove that he is a man of his word? Hardly. Donald Trump promised a lot of things when he was campaigning that he has reneged on since being elected.

Trump promised to draw back America’s involvement in foreign wars, but instead he has escalated America’s involvement in foreign wars. Trump has dropped more bombs and missiles on Middle Eastern countries in a comparable period of time than any modern U.S. President. Presidents Bush, Obama, and now Trump have dropped nearly 200,000 bombs and missiles on Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia. Trump’s rate of bombing eclipses both Bush and Obama; and Trump is on a pace to drop over 100,000 bombs and missiles on Middle Eastern countries during his first term of office—which would equal the number of bombs and missiles dropped by Obama during his entire eight-year presidency. He is threatening war with Venezuela and provoking nuclear war with North Korea. And he has sent over 4,000 fresh troops (meaning some 15,000 U.S. troops are now fighting in Afghanistan. Does anybody know why?) to America’s longest war: Afghanistan. So much for that promise.

Trump promised to terminate DACA, but instead he collaborated with Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer to keep many of the benefits granted under DACA and is urging Congress to pass legislation making those benefits permanent. So much for that promise. He promised to get along with Russia, but he is antagonizing Russia in ways not seen since the Cold War. So much for that promise. He promised to draw down NATO, but instead he has strengthened NATO and expanded its aggressive actions up to the very borders of Russia. So much for that promise. He promised to “drain the swamp” in Washington, D.C., but instead he has literally filled his administration with establishment swamp creatures. He even personally campaigned for establishment swamp creature Luther Strange in Alabama in an attempt to defeat staunch constitutionalist Roy Moore. So much for that promise.

He promised to get rid of Obamacare, but instead he has repeatedly supported GOP health care proposals that were actually WORSE than Obamacare. So much for that promise. He promised to bring fiscal responsibility back to the federal government but instead reached across the aisle to again cut a deal with Democrats to suspend the debt ceiling, thereby allowing the federal government to borrow without a debt ceiling of any kind until December 8 when a new one is scheduled to be set. Of course, Trump has also said he wants to remove the federal debt ceiling permanently. So much for that promise. The list of Trump’s broken promises is endless.

Anyone who really thinks that they can depend on Donald Trump to keep his word about protecting the Second Amendment is gambling their liberties on the word of a disingenuous, unsavory, and untrustworthy conniver. Cutting deals is what Trump brags that he does better than anybody. He wrote the book on it. Cutting a deal to sign another gun control bill for some favor down the road is extremely likely with Trump.

Plus, the ever compromising National Rifle Association (NRA) is providing Trump all of the cover he needs to affix his signature to another gun control bill by coming out in support of legislation banning “bump stocks.” Check the record, folks, and you will discover that virtually every gun control bill on the books—going back to the 1920’s—was put there with the approbation of the NRA. Like almost every national special interest group, the NRA exists more for the benefit of the special interest group than it does for the benefit of the cause it claims to represent.

If Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton were in the White House right now, gun owners would be on high alert. But with the professing “pro-gun” Donald Trump in the White House, a host of gun owners are sound asleep, because they believe Trump is “their” guy. If Clinton or Obama were President right now, AR-15 rifles and 5.56 NATO ammunition would be flying off the shelves. But it’s not happening. Why not? Because people are trusting Trump. BIG MISTAKE.

Instead of talking about MORE gun control—as Trump is doing—he should be starting the process of expunging existing gun control laws. The answer to gun violence is for government (federal, State, and municipal) to get rid of their life-endangering gun control bills and let the American people lawfully arm themselves. In other words, the “pro-gun” GOP White House and Congress (as well as State and local governments) should immediately eliminate America’s gun-free zones.

An armed American citizenry comprises the militia of the several states and is constitutionally authorized to provide lawful defense against any violent threat to life and liberty. It is NOT the job of police to protect us—and they never will. Police in Las Vegas did not save one single life. But what government has been doing over the past half century is denying the American people the right to defend themselves, which has cost hundreds of thousands of Americans their lives. And that’s what ANY gun control law does: it further restricts law-abiding people from being able to protect themselves.

Plus, to enact ANY gun control law is to give in to the erroneous notion that an inanimate object is the source of evil and that we must allow government to exercise dominion over our liberties in the name of protecting us from that inanimate object—whatever it is. The entire presupposition is fatally flawed. How anyone who claims to believe in liberty and the fundamental right of self-defense can swallow this illogic defies common sense.

And the above brings me to this salient point: the semi-automatic rifle is the ONLY defense tool that is capable of defending liberty.

I often hear well-intentioned people say things like, “Well, if we have to surrender our semi-automatic rifles, it doesn’t violate the Second Amendment. We still have other guns.” People who say such things prove they know nothing about the Second Amendment.

The Second Amendment was not designed so we could go target shooting, duck hunting, or deer hunting. The Second Amendment was designed to ensure that the American people always maintain their role as a citizen militia in order to defend the citizenry against armed aggressors—whether those aggressors are domestic criminals, foreign governments, or our very own government.

I’ll say it straight out: the semi-automatic rifle is EXACTLY what the Second Amendment was talking about. The semi-automatic rifle is the preeminent defense tool in the modern world. Even fully automatic rifles do not compare to it.

Sadder still, I constantly hear pastors say, “Well, if government demands that we give up our semi-automatic rifles, as Christians we should submit and surrender those arms.” Hogwash! Christians are given no such instructions—except by these sorry, squeamish, sissified, sheepish slaves-of-the-state preachers.

When Jesus told His disciples, “He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one” (Luke 22:36 KJV), He was instructing them to obtain the preeminent defense tool of its day: the Roman sword. The Greek word translated “sword” in English in Luke 22:36 & 38 that speaks of the sword carried by the individual is the same word that speaks of the sword carried by government in Romans 13:4.

Nineteenth century Bible scholar Albert Barnes (1798 - 1870) wrote this regarding Luke 22:36:But it should be remembered that these directions about the purse, the scrip, and the sword were not made with reference to his “being taken” in the garden, but with reference “to their future life.” The time of the trial in Gethsemane was just at hand; nor was there “time” then, if no other reason existed, to go and make the purchase. It altogether refers to their future life. They were going into the midst of dangers. The country was infested with robbers and wild beasts. It was customary to go armed. He tells them of those dangers - of the necessity of being prepared in the usual way to meet them. This, then, is not to be considered as a specific, positive “command” to procure a sword, but an intimation that great dangers were before them; that their manner of life would be changed, and that they would need the provisions “appropriate to that kind of life.” The “common” preparation for that manner of life consisted in money, provisions, and arms; and he foretells them of that manner of life by giving them directions commonly understood to be appropriate to it. It amounts, then, to a “prediction” that they would soon leave the places which they had been accustomed to, and go into scenes of poverty, want, and danger, where they would feel the necessity of money, provisions, and the means of defense. All, therefore, that the passage justifies is:

1. That it is proper for people to provide beforehand for their wants, and for ministers and missionaries as well as any others.

2. That self-defense is lawful.

Men encompassed with danger may lawfully “defend” their lives. It does not prove that it is lawful to make “offensive” war on a nation or an individual.

(Barnes, Albert (1884) [1832]. Frew, Robert, ed. “Notes on the New Testament: Explanatory and Practical. Vol. II - Luke and John.” London: Blackie and Son.)The ubiquitous and egregious misinterpretation of Romans 13—especially as it relates to gun control—is why my constitutional attorney son and I wrote these two books:“Romans 13: The True Meaning Of Submission.”

To Keep Or Not To Keep: Why Christians Should Not Give Up Their GunsI’m telling you, folks, they are coming for our guns. And if we sit back and trust Donald Trump to stop it, we are committing national suicide. We should be just as passionate and fervent and alert and vigilant to defend our gun rights when a Republican is in the White House as we are when a Democrat is in the White House. Anything less is a dereliction of duty on our part.

In the meantime, if you do not possess a semi-automatic rifle, I strongly urge you to get one. RIGHT AWAY. If you already own one, go buy another one. RIGHT AWAY. Every capable adult who cares about the lives and safety of their loved ones and who cares about the preservation of liberty should own a semi-automatic rifle (along with plenty of ammunition for it), know how to use it, and be prepared to use it when needed.

There is no reason for ONE additional act of gun control. Each mass shooting that takes place in this country is proof that gun control laws do not work and that gun-free zones do not work. Instead of talking about additional gun control, the American people should be demanding that Congress and the White House (along with their State and local governments) expunge existing gun control laws—and gun-free zones—and recognize their God-given right to defend themselves. And the shootings in Las Vegas in particular highlights the specific need of the American people to have their own semi-automatic rifles at hand with which to defend themselves.
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Dr. Chuck Baldwin is the Pastor of Liberty Fellowship in Kalispell, Montana. Dr. Baldwin is Talk Radio Show Host for Chuck Baldwin Live.  He addresses current event topics from a conservative Christian point of view.and is a writer/columnist whose articles and political commentaries are carried by a host of Internet sites, newspapers, news magazines and the ARRA News Service.

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Tags: guns, gun restrictions, Second Amendment, House bills, Senate bills, Chuck Baldwin, Coming For Our Guns To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Origins of America’s Opioid Epidemic Revealed

by Andrea Rogers : “People are dying. They’re dying,” DEA whistleblower Joe Rannazzisi repeatedly stated in a recent interview with 60 Minutes’ Bill Whitaker.

The former high-ranking agent of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) recently revealed on the CBS program that America’s opioid epidemic has been fueled not only by the pharmaceutical industry, but by Congress.

Whistleblower and ex-DEA senior executive agent Joe Rannazzisi reported that during his time in the agency, he worked hard to uphold the law, but was pushed out by members of Congress and an industry campaign that he says has resulted in a weakening of the nation’s drug laws at a time of “unprecedented crisis”.

“America’s largest drug distributors and some of the nation’s most senior politicians colluded to fuel the country’s opioid epidemic, leading directly to thousands of unnecessary deaths”, Rannazzisi explained, adding, “This is an industry that’s out of control. If they don’t follow the law in drug supply, and diversion occurs, people die. That’s just it, people die.”

Rannazzisi is now advising lawyers suing the opioid industry.

To make matters more difficult, a law signed by former president Barack Obama last year has made it even more challenging for the DEA to crack down on the illegal distribution and sale of prescription painkillers such as OxyContin and Vicodin.

The law in question, the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act, was championed by Republican congressman Tom Marino and—according to Rannazzisi’s interview—largely written by D. Linden Barber, a former DEA lawyer who went on to work for the drug companies.

The law was supposed to aid enforcement by improving ties with industry. However, it made a crucial change to the standard required for the DEA to freeze drug shipments that it suspected were finding their way to addicts in opioid-ravaged communities. For four decades, the DEA could freeze shipments that posed an “imminent danger,” but the law changed that to “a substantial likelihood of an immediate threat.”

Rannazzisi says the law places an impossible burden of proof on the DEA, Rannazzisi concluded, “There’s no way that we could meet that burden.”

According to the US. Senate Lobbying Act database, more than $106 million was given to support the bill’s passage, led by Pharmaceutical Research and Manufactures of America, who spent $40.8 million, followed by CVS Health, who gave $32.8 million. The data base shows that big pharma spent more than $740 million collectively, in state and federal lobbying efforts over the last decade.

In a recent study published in the Marquette Law Review, DEA Chief Administrative Judges John J. Mulrooney II and Katherine E. Legel conclude, “If it had been the intent of Congress to completely eliminate the DEA’s ability to ever impose an immediate suspension on distributors or manufacturers, it would be difficult to conceive of a more effective vehicle for achieving that goal.”

DEA officials have spoken out after the interview’s airing, claiming that the agency is doing everything it can to fight the opioid epidemic. “During the past seven years, we have removed approximately 900 registrations annually, preventing reckless doctors and rogue businesses from making an already troubling problem worse,” a DEA spokesperson said in a recent statement. CBS also reported that the Justice Department did not dispute any of the 60 Minutes interview.
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Andrea Rogers writes for the Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC) Daily News

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Tags: Origins, America’s Opioid Epidemic, Revealed, Andrea Rogers, AMAC Daily 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!

Senate Completes First Step Toward Tax Reform: Passing Budget

ARRA News Service: This evening the U.S. Senate passed H.Con.Res.71 - FY18 Budget Resolution by a vote of 51-49.  This is the first successful vote towards passing tax reform!

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) then made the following remarks on the Senate floor regarding passage of the budget for Fiscal Year 2018:“Tonight we completed the first step towards replacing our broken tax code by passing a comprehensive, fiscally responsible budget that will help put the federal government on a path to balance. This budget also gives us the tools we need to strengthen our economy after years of stagnation under the previous administration. We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to replace a failing tax code that holds Americans back with one that actually works for them. To middle class families across America, we have a simple message: we want to take more money out of Washington's pockets and put more in yours.

“Now, with this budget, we are on the path to delivering much-needed relief to American individuals and families who have borne the burdens of an unfair tax code for entirely too long. I want to thank Chairman Enzi, the Members of the Budget Committee, and its staff for their extraordinary work on this budget.”Other related votes on senators' amendments and a House Resolution filed:Udall #1553 (re: Payment in lieu of taxes program) -- Adopted, 58-41
Lee #1428 (re: Rewriting formula for payments in lieu of taxes program) — Not adopted, 50-50
Paul #1404 (re: Change tax relief rec instructions from $1.5t to $2.5t in lower revenue) — Not adopted, 7-93
Lee #1429 (re: Prohibiting federal regulation of intrastate species) — Not adopted, 49-51
Fischer #1552 (re: Keeps tax code progressive) — Passed, voice vote
Cantwell #1301 (re: Block oil and gas development in ANWR) – Not adopted, 48-52
Enzi #1561 (Budget enforcement provisions) – Adopted, 52-48
Perdue/Whitehouse #1167 (re: significantly improving the budget process) — Passed by voice voteIn closing out the evening, Majority Leader McConnell also filed cloture on H.R. 2266, the House-passed Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Bill.

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Tags: U.S. Senate, passes, FY18 Budget Resolution, related votes, amendments To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Griefgate, Left-wing Fascism, Promoting Life

Gary Bauer

by Gary Bauer, Contributing Author: Griefgate - I can't think of a more horrendous thing for any parent than to lose a child. It must be unbelievably painful to raise a child and send him off to war young and vital only to have him come home in a flag-draped casket.

President George W. Bush regularly visited wounded warriors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. On one occasion, a grief-stricken mother, whose son was dying, screamed at the president and blamed him for her son's condition. I don't recall anyone trying to politicize that event at the time.

I won't dignify the current "Griefgate" controversy involving President Trump by revisiting the accusations against him.

But here's one salient fact that is being overlooked in virtually all of the media's coverage: White House Chief of Staff John Kelly was in the room when the president made that call. At a press conference today, Gen. Kelly said he was "stunned" by the description of the president's words and "brokenhearted" by attempts to politicize the call.

Incredibly, the Associated Press, CBS, the Washington Post and other media outlets are now hounding Gold Star families to find out which ones Trump has called. To its credit, the Post notes, "No White House protocol demands that presidents speak or meet with the families of Americans killed in action. . . But they often do."

Sadly, there is nothing leftists won't use -- even the death of a soldier -- to punish President Trump whom they hate so much.

Why would the left politicize this phone call? In their more lucid moments they understand that they have a huge problem with veterans, law enforcement, men, blue collar workers and, more generally, patriots.

They are trying to undercut one of Trump's great strengths -- his connection with Americans who love God & Country, who want to make America great again.

That is why we only hear about Gold Star families when it is a Muslim couple committed to savaging Trump. We did not hear about the Gold Star families when the NFL kneelers disrespected them. Big media did its best to ignore the parents of the brave men killed in Benghazi.

A few weeks ago, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) called Gen. Kelly "a disgrace to the uniform." Kelly served 46 years in the military. He lost his son in Afghanistan. Gutierrez never apologized because no leading Democrats or media figures demanded he do so.

Left-wing Fascism - The media have been hyperventilating for days about a speech this afternoon at the University of Florida. Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency and mobilized hundreds of state and local law enforcement officers. The university has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on additional security because the speaker is one of the racist leaders involved in the Charlottesville, Virginia, riots.

As vile as his views are, at least the university recognized that he has a First Amendment right to speak. And I am confident his speech will be poorly attended, thanks to the decency of the vast majority of Floridians.

That said, there is growing fascism in America, and it is coming from the left. Here are just three recent examples:

The fascist wing of the progressive left recently shutdown a meeting of the College Republicans at the University of California-Santa Cruz.​​

An Arizona restaurant was forced to close after the owners posted a message expressing their support for President Trump, our military, standing for the national anthem and first responders. The message went viral and the owners started receiving death threats. Vicious calls flooded into the restaurant, including threats to burn it down.

Dana Loesch, a spokeswoman for the NRA, has been forced to abandon her home and move with her children because of vicious threats from intolerant leftists, including one who threatened to rape her to death.Whether its academics like Charles Murray, columnists like Ann Coulter or a kid wearing a MAGA hat, the circumstances are different but the theme is always the same. Anyone expressing traditional conservative ideas and values now has to question whether they are willing to risk physical violence. Not surprisingly, this political intimidation is affecting what people are willing to say to pollsters.

Sadly, too few voices on the left have been willing to speak up and denounce those so-called "progressives" who insist that violence is necessary.

Promoting Life - Here's another reason why the 2016 election was so important. President Trump's Department of Health and Human Services is revamping its strategic plan for the years ahead. I am pleased to report that the document takes a number of pro-life positions. Here are some examples:

"HHS accomplishes its mission through programs and initiatives that cover a wide spectrum of activities, serving and protecting Americans at every stage of life, beginning at conception."

"While we may refer to the people we serve as beneficiaries, enrollees, patients, or consumers, our ultimate goal is to improve health care outcomes for all people, including the unborn, across health care settings."

"A core component of the HHS mission is our dedication to serve all Americans from conception to natural death, but especially those individuals and populations facing or at high risk for economic and social well-being challenges, through effective human services."

When the left is in power, the bureaucracy does everything it can to advance the left-wing agenda. Now that the Trump/Pence team is in power, they are taking steps to reverse the pro-abortion legacy of the Obama Administration.

Make no mistake about it, my friends: The left is pro-abortion. If they get power again, abortion-on-demand will be a central element of their socialized healthcare scheme.

​Stand with CWF now so we can elect more pro-life, pro-Trump conservatives to Congress in 2018!

Economy Gaining Strength - As President Trump slashes regulations and pushes tax reform, the economy is gaining strength. The stock market set another record this week and jobless claims fell to their lowest level since 1973.
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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, Griefgate, Left-wing Fascism, Promoting Life To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!