The Red Wave is Growing

by Newt Gingrich: Over the past few days, four building blocks have fallen into place which strengthen the case for a red wave in 2018 instead of a blue wave.

Three of these building blocks are Republican-favoring political developments in what would normally be considered safe, blue states.

First, New Jersey’s Senator Bob Menendez is a Democrat who has been deeply weakened by charges of corruption. He was tried in a long, highly-publicized trial that ended in mistrial. The government decided not to prosecute again, but the news reports about the case had already shed light on some of Senator Menendez’s actions, which were pretty indefensible. Then, the Senate Ethics Committee admonished him in April for serious corruption allegations. The result is that on Tuesday, a relatively unknown Democrat – who did not raise enough money to meet the $5,000 threshold for reporting campaign funds – earned 37.84 percent in the Democratic Primary as a protest against Menendez.

Bob Hugin, a former pharmaceutical executive, is the Republican nominee and will run a well-funded campaign. At a minimum, this puts New Jersey in play for Republicans and will draw millions of Democratic dollars away from other races to defend Menendez. At a maximum, the Democrats will lose the seat. If they lose New Jersey, there is no possibility they can win control of the Senate.

Second, the California Primary put Republican John Cox in the general election with Democratic Lieutenant Governor (and former Mayor of San Francisco) Gavin Newsom. The difference in statewide Republican turnout with a GOP candidate on the ballot for governor has been estimated at 23 percent. This turnout will make the governor’s race competitive and could be the difference between winning and losing a number of House seats. In addition, the disaster of a massive gas tax increase, the state’s sanctuary policies that protect MS-13 gang members, Newsom’s promise to raise both income and property taxes and his proposal to have government take over all healthcare combine to make California Democrats more vulnerable than they have been in a quarter century.

Third, the Minnesota Democrats went crazy last Saturday, and their state convention was taken over by the hard Left (yes, there are Minnesota activists to the left of the already liberal state’s Democratic Party). The result was that the repudiated Attorney General decided to run for governor in the primary. That created a vacuum that ultra-left-wing Congressman Keith Ellison decided he would try to fill.

This combination of personality-driven bitterness and ideological extremism has suddenly made Minnesota Democrats vulnerable. Long time Minnesota analyst Barry Casselman has written shrewdly that former Governor Tim Pawlenty is now likely to be the next governor, that two Democratic House seats are now likely to go Republican (making the possibility of a Democratic House this fall more unlikely), and if the chaos continues and the Democratic Party becomes both more radical and more splintered, even Senator Tina Smith – who was appointed to replace Al Franken – could suddenly be in trouble. All of this chaos will help Republicans and drain even more Democratic resources into a state they thought would be easy to keep.

The fourth building block that strengthens the case for a red wave in 2018 is the growing and undeniable strength of the economy. As I explain in my new book, Trump’s America, which was released this week, the real achievements of the Trump administration have been masked by the hostility and bitterness of the elite media who insist on focusing on trivial matters and ignoring big stories. However, after the most recent jobs numbers were released last Friday, even the liberal New York Times was compelled to write an article with the headline, “We Ran Out of Words to Describe How Good the Jobs Numbers Are.”

When we have the lowest Black unemployment on record in America, something big is happening.

When there are more job openings than job seekers in America, something big is happening.

When the Federal Reserve is estimating second quarter American economic growth at well over 4 percent (a Reagan era number and more than twice the growth rate of the economy under Obama) something big is happening.

Americans are beginning to conclude that their lives are getting better, and that President Trump and Republican leadership are a part of that phenomenon.

The result has been a collapse of the Democratic advantage in the generic ballot from a double-digit lead in December to some polls now showing Republicans on top. This is an enormous shift.

I will keep reporting on election patterns as they unfold, but as of now, I feel pretty good about my assertion that we are more likely to see a red wave than a blue wave in 2018.
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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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Pelosi's Prattling, Left-wing Extremism, Another Leak Plugged, Prayers For Charles

by Gary Bauer, Contributing Author: Pelosi's Prattling - House Democrat Leader Nancy Pelosi held her weekly press briefing yesterday. After listening to her remarks about the economy, I am ready to launch a GoFundMe page to ensure she has enough staff for a daily press briefing. She is so effective for our side!

When asked about the historically low unemployment rate, Pelosi was dismissive. She prattled on about boosting purchasing power, the need to increase wages and restoring consumer confidence.

She said that the attitude of most Americans to the news of low unemployment was: "Hip, hip hooray, unemployment is down! What does that mean to me in my life?"

Well, guess what, Nancy? It means that more people have jobs, which is usually better for their lives! But clearly she has also missed some other good economic news. For example:
After nearly a decade of stagnation during the Obama years, wages are rising at their fastest pace in years.

Consumer confidence is at an 18-year high. (Maybe Pelosi was high when she trashed-talked the economy yesterday, thanks to D.C.'s legal marijuana law.)

More than 300,000 manufacturing jobs have been created since Trump was elected.

More than 100 utility companies across the country are cutting rates due to Trump's tax reform plan.All of this helps to explain why, according to the latest Fox News poll, voters approve of Trump's handling of the economy by an 11-point margin – 52% to 41%.

By the way, here's something else Nancy Pelosi said at her press briefing yesterday: If Democrats take back the House, single-payer socialized healthcare will be "on the table."

Left-wing Extremism - The latest poll by Investor's Business Daily shows just how extreme the political left in America has become when it comes to immigration, and especially on the issue of sanctuary cities. I hope congressional Republicans, who are currently struggling with the issue, pay close attention to this poll.

Here are some of the results:


Americans generally oppose sanctuary city policies that protect criminal illegal immigrants by a lopsided margin of 64% to 31%.

When it comes to motivating activists and voters, intensity is always a key factor. And the poll found that 45% of Americans "strongly oppose" sanctuary cities, while just 16% "strongly supported" them.

The survey broke down the results among 41 demographic subgroups. In all but three subgroups, a majority expressed opposition to sanctuary cities. Yet even among those three groups where support was highest, opposition was also high: 38% of Liberals, 44% Democrats and 46% Millennials opposed sanctuary cities.

Among Hispanics opposition ran 57% to 39%.It isn't hard to understand why Americans might object to sanctuary city policies. As we noted yesterday, nearly 90% of the illegal immigrants that ICE agents arrest have criminal records.

What is hard to understand is how anyone could defend protecting criminals.

As you read above, the House Democrat leader is making fun of people getting their jobs back. And as you read yesterday, the Democrat mayor of Philadelphia is dancing with joy over an idea that nearly two-thirds of the country despises. Now that's extreme!

Another Leak Plugged - Kudos to Attorney General Jeff Sessions! Late yesterday the Department of Justice charged James Wolfe, the former director of security for the Senate Intelligence Committee, for leaking classified information.

Wolfe was a career staffer who worked for the committee for 29 years. He is reportedly facing a three-count indictment for lying to the FBI about passing information to at least three reporters.

According to various reports, Wolfe was romantically involved with one of them – Ali Watkins. It was Watkins who broke the story in the left-wing outfit Buzzfeed about former Trump adviser Carter Page meeting with a Russian spy in 2013, information she most likely received from Wolfe. Watkins now works for the left-wing New York Times.

By the way, the Page spy story turned out to be non-news. The Russians were attempting to recruit Page but their efforts went nowhere. Why? Because Page was fully cooperating with the FBI. He helped the government convict Russian agent Evgeny Buryakov.

Attorney General Sessions announced late last year, "We have 27 investigations open today. We intend to get to the bottom of these leaks." In March, the Justice Department indicted a former FBI agent for leaking classified information to the media.

Speaking of the New York Times, kudos to our friends at The Daily Caller for exposing the disgusting anti-American and anti-Semitic bias among some of the so-called "journalists" at the left's flagship newspaper.

Prayers For Charles - I am heartbroken to hear that Charles Krauthammer is in the final stages of a losing battle with cancer. According to his doctors, he may have only a few weeks left to live. Krauthammer broke the news in a letter to friends and colleagues. Here is a brief excerpt of his letter:

"I believe that the pursuit of truth and right ideas through honest debate and rigorous argument is a noble undertaking. I am grateful to have played a small role in the conversations that have helped guide this extraordinary nation's destiny.

"I leave this life with no regrets. It was a wonderful life – full and complete with the great loves and great endeavors that make it worth living. I am sad to leave, but I leave with the knowledge that I lived the life that I intended."

Over the years, I had the privilege of working with Charles Krauthammer on several occasions. He is fearless advocate for Western Civilization and one of the sharpest minds in the conservative movement. And very much the decent man that comes through in those poignant words above.

Please join Carol and me in praying for Charles and his family in these difficult days ahead.
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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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Illegal Immigration Is a Major Crime Problem

. . . A new DOJ report reveals that one out of five individuals in federal prisons is an illegal alien.

by Thomas Gallatin: A recently released Justice Department report reveals that an astonishing one in five individuals incarcerated in federal prisons is an illegal alien, which amounts to a $1.5 million bill every day to the American taxpayer. However, the greater expense of illegal immigration is not measured in dollars. The report notes illegal alien crime statistics from the state of Texas alone between 2001 and 2018 — more than 663,000 offenses were committed, including 1,351 homicides, 7,156 sexual assaults, 79,049 assaults and 44,882 thefts, to name but a few. Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Thomas Homan also said this week that “nine out of 10” illegal immigrants arrested have criminal records.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions responded to the report, stating, “The illegal immigrant crime rate in this country should be zero. Every crime committed by an illegal alien is, by definition, a crime that should have been prevented. It is outrageous that tens of thousands of Americans are dying every year because of the drugs and violence brought over our borders illegally and that taxpayers have been forced, year after year, to pay millions of dollars to incarcerate tens of thousands of illegal aliens. … Today’s report is yet another reminder that we must continue this [zero tolerance] policy and help fulfill President Trump’s goals of restoring lawfulness to our immigration system and ensure that immigration serves the good of this country.”

But despite President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration via his “zero tolerance” policy, the number of illegal alien border crossings has steadily climbed. And one of the primary culprits for this increase can be attributed to Democrats and their huge push for lawless “sanctuary cities” that essentially act as giant magnets attracting greater numbers of illegal aliens.

While Democrats and much of the mainstream media like to play up the plight of these illegal aliens as a justification for ignoring U.S. immigration laws, the undeniable fact is that major criminal syndicates have taken advantage of these sentiments to further their criminal enterprises. The drug trade and other nefarious criminal activity such as human trafficking exploit many migrants, often making them the biggest victims of illegal immigration. And sanctuary cities are only proving to supply these criminal organizations with more individuals to exploit — by falsely advertising protection to people who willfully break U.S. immigration law.

Regardless of how Democrats and the Leftmedia portray the issue of illegal immigration, it is first and foremost a crime problem. And the fact is that Democrats, with their sanctuary city policies, are guilty of aiding and abetting criminals. And as this DOJ report demonstrates, Trump’s rhetoric on the problem is much closer to reality on the ground than that of the MSM and Democrats.
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Thomas Gallatin is a Features Editor at The Patriot Post.

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Brotherhood-Linked Congressman Running To Be AG Of Minnesota . . .

. . . Keith Ellison would rather wage war on Trump in court than in Congress.

by Matthew Vadum: Brotherhood-linked Congressman Keith Ellison is giving up his ultra-safe seat in the U.S. House of Representatives to run for the post of attorney general of Minnesota, a risky move in a state that isn’t as radically left-wing as his home district.

The primary election is Aug. 14.

Ellison, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) deputy chairman who essentially endorsed the violent anarchists and communists of the subversive Antifa movement, claims he wants to be the North Star State’s top lawyer to litigate away in a quest for justice.

“It was attorneys general who led the fight against [President Trump’s so-called] Muslim ban,” Ellison said after filing his paperwork on the final day allowed. “I want to be a part of that fight.”

“As Attorney General, I will push for equal rights under the law, for commonsense gun safety laws, and for criminal justice reform that ends unjust policies and creates a pathway for Minnesotans to reenter as contributing members of society.”

“No one — not even a President — is above the law,” he wrote in a statement. Minnesotans “need a fighter on their side,” he added, calling himself the “People’s Lawyer.”

But the term “People’s Lawyer” has a special meaning for left-wing radicals.

The Left likes to refer to some of its legal heroes like Sixties icon William Kunstler as “People’s Lawyers.” It’s not what you might think.

A “People’s Lawyer” – the phrase is always capitalized – is a crusading, small-c communist attorney who devotes his life to using the legal system to fundamentally transform America. As such it is a profoundly antisocial, un-American concept, so, naturally, it is embraced by the communist-dominated National Lawyers Guild (NLG).

Or so he says.

Ellison may also believe the much-hyped “blue wave” the media keeps telling us will give Democrats control of Congress isn’t coming this November. Maybe he doesn’t relish the prospect of continuing to be a powerless backbencher with little influence on the House’s legislative agenda.

Ellison, 54, jumped into the AG race after the incumbent, Lori Swanson (D), decided she’d prefer to seek the governorship.

Why should anyone care if Ellison, the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Congress, becomes Minnesota’s attorney general?

Ellison is an admirer of convicted cop killer and leftist folk hero Mumia Abu Jamal. He is also a former co-chairman of the Communist-linked Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Ellison, an in-your-face Muslim sympathetic to jihad, implicitly expressed support months ago for the use of violence against President Trump in a tweet as he posed for a selfie with the cover of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, by Mark Bray.

“At @MoonPalaceBooks and I just found the book that strike [sic] fear in the heart of @realDonaldTrump[,]” the DNC official tweeted.

Ellison’s anti-Americanism and radicalism are nothing new, but they took on added importance after he became second-in-command at the DNC. Democrats are the party that officially endorsed the violent, America-hating Black Lives Matter movement whose radical left-wing members accuse police nationwide of systemic anti-black racism and brutality against black suspects.

In 2015 hundreds of DNC delegates in Minneapolis approved a resolution that accused American police of "extrajudicial killings of unarmed African American men, women and children." In other words, since 2015 it has been official Democratic Party policy that there are roving death squads manned by police officers who specifically stalk and execute without trial black men, women, and children across America.

Activists and media types look to him. Ellison was a longtime fringe-dweller before he became a Democrat office-holder. He was a member of Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam. He described Hitler-loving Farrakhan as “a role model for black youth,” “not an anti-Semite,” and “a sincere, tireless, and uncompromising advocate of the black community and other oppressed people around the world.”

Ellison has links to Hamas. He is also a regular at events sponsored by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), two Muslim Brotherhood front groups the Department of Justice has identified as co-conspirators in terrorism financing schemes benefiting Hamas. It is also worth noting that in 2008, Ellison accepted $13,350 from the Muslim American Society (MAS), another Muslim Brotherhood Front group, to go on a pilgrimage to Mecca.

When Ellison won his first congressional election on Nov. 7, 2006, at his victory party several of his supporters shouted “Allahu Akbar!" which is the traditional battle cry of jihadists.

Are the voters of Minnesota crazy enough to elect Ellison as the state’s chief law enforcement official?

Well, yes, they certainly are.

See Gov. Jesse Ventura (1999 – 2003), U.S. Sen. Al Franken (2009 to 2018), and of course, U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison (2007 to present).

Chances are the air with be filled again with cries “Allahu Akbar!" after the ballots are counted in Minnesota’s attorney general election.
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Matthew Vadum, senior vice president at the investigative think tank Capital Research Center, is an award-winning investigative reporter and author of the book, "Subversion Inc.: How Obama’s ACORN Red Shirts Are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers." He sahred this article on FrontPage Mag.

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Tags: Brotherhood-Linked Congressman, Keith Ellison, Running, Attorney General, Minnesota To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Legislators Pocket Your Money When Lobbyists Buy Their Meals & Drinks

. . . at least under Arkansas' Plantation Politics, what about your state?

by Conduit for Action: When an Arkansas legislator goes to a legislative meeting the legislator is paid for mileage to and from home, a per diem for lodging, and a per diem for meals and incidentals (such as tips and parking) . No receipts required.

The per diem payments are paid for any day the legislator attends a session of the legislature or a legislative meeting. The legislator doesn’t even have to be a member of the committee or task force that is meeting. Legislators living close to Little Rock get reduced disbursements.

Payment for Meals and Incidental
Let’s talk about the payment for meals and incidentals. The federal Meals and Incidental Expenses (M&IE) rate for Little Rock is $59 per day. Arkansas Legislators do not have to have receipts to prove expenses for meals. To qualify for the meals payment, legislators only have to show up at a meeting, no questions asked.

What you may not realize is lobbyists provide many meals for legislators and when a lobbyist provides the freebies legislators get a nice meal and drinks and get to pocket the money you the taxpayer pay for their meals.

Here is the fun part for legislators. There are so many lobbyist-sponsored events during legislative sessions, that on many days legislators can have three very nice meals a day, plus drinks, all paid for by lobbyists. In just seventeen days of dining with the lobbyists a legislator can pocket over $1,000 of tax free state money.

The Arkansas Senate used to keep a running list of lobbyist sponsored events but in recent years they have tried to minimize ridicule by only displaying a few events at a time. In 2015 the legislature was still displaying a long list so here is an example of the list of lobbyist events as it appeared on February 2, 2015.

For some people a few thousand dollars in a year might not look like much, but for others it is a big deal. It is certainly a big deal for the new class of legislators who live off being a politician. Who does this? One example is Representative James Sturch who reported on his Statement of Financial Interest that he had no source of income over $1,000 other than his legislative salary in 2017.

An Amendment to the Constitution proposed by the legislature included a ban on gifts from lobbyists and even prohibited meals and drinks from lobbyists BUT included a huge exception. Lobbyists could keep wining and dining legislators as long as the lobbyist invites a full legislative body (House, Senate, or a committee). This allowed the big lobbyists who can afford it to buy everyone meals and drinks.

Do you care whether there is a financial incentive to get legislators to go to lobbyist events where they can be more reliably lobbied out of the public eye?

Even if you don’t like for legislators to pocket your payment for meals and eat off the lobbyist’s plate, it would be hard to change the law. To repeal the exemption requires either the people propose and pass an amendment to the Arkansas Constitution or the legislature would have to decide to take money out of their pockets by passing a repeal by a 2/3rds vote of both the House and the Senate. Changing Arkansas law to start requiring legislators to provide receipts for expenses would only require a majority vote in each chamber. But this, too, is about as likely as a cow jumping over the moon.

We at Conduit For Action do not have an answer for every ethics issue, but we think you deserve to know how your state government actually operates.
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Conduit for Action promotes freedom and free enterprise policies by effective action that will create a better life for all Arkansas citizens.

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Tags: Plantation Politics, Arkansas, Legislators, Pocket Your Money, Lobbyists, Buy Their Meals & Drinks Conduit for Action To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Parents Fight Pornographic Sex Ed Policy for Grade Schoolers

by Todd Starnes: San Diego parents are disgusted over what they are calling pornographic lessons that are part of the school district’s new state-mandated sex education program.

The California Healthy Youth Act has been described as “the most robust comprehensive sexual health law in the country.” Click here to read some of the graphic material.

“The materials they’re teaching are graphic and pornographic and go well beyond the law,” attorney Dean Broyles told the San Diego Union Tribune.

“Parents are shocked, “ Karin De Jauregui told ABC San Diego. “Parents are appalled by this curriculum. The law states that parents have the ultimate authority in impacting values to their children, not the schools.”

The curriculum teaches sixth graders about sexual pleasure and promotes sexual experimentation.

“I don’t think you need to give kids more explicit content in order for them to make good choices. We just want it to be age appropriate,” one parent told ABC News. “We don’t think talking about oral, anal, and vaginal sex in the sixth grade is entirely appropriate or telling middle schoolers you can use a flavored condom.”

The outrage captured the attention of Franklin Graham, president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

“There’s an agenda in California and every other state to target the minds and hearts of children. The agenda is to lure them into promiscuity and condition their minds to accept lifestyles that are against the teaching of God’s Word,” Graham wrote in a Facebook post.

“Using smutty language and imagery to taint the minds of elementary school children—or any age students for that matter— is wrong,” he wrote. “Teaching 6th graders about sexual pleasure and how to go to websites to learn to ‘ask for consent in a sexy way’ should not be happening.”

NBC News San Diego reported that some of the material meant for children was too racy to be shown on television. They literally had to pixilate some of the images.

“The curriculum talks about things like self-pleasuring, so to have an adult cross that line and talk to children about pleasure, highly inappropriate,” parent Ashley Bever told the television station.

However, not everyone is opposed to the graphic sex education program. The San Diego LGBT Community Center praised the curriculum.

“Our LGBT youth deserve schools that are safe, and they deserve schools that give the comprehensive information they need to make healthy choices now and in their bright futures,” spokesperson Caroline Dessert told the Union Tribune.
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Todd Starnes (@toddstarnes) is A Christian Conservative, the host of Fox News & Commentary and heard daily on 250+ radio stations and on his iTune podcasts.

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Tags: Todd Starnes, Parents, fFight, Pornographic Sex Ed Policy, Grade Schoolers To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Is Mayor de Blasio an Anti-Asian Bigot?

by Patrick Buchanan: “Though New York City has one of the most segregated schools systems in the country,” writes Elizabeth Harris of The New York Times, until now, Mayor Bill de Blasio “was all but silent on the issue.”

He was “reluctant even to use the word ‘segregation.'”

Now the notion that the liberal mayor belongs in the same basket as Southern governors in the ’50s and ’60s like Orval Faubus of Arkansas and Ross Barnett of Mississippi seems a bit of a stretch.

For what Harris means by “segregation” is that in the city’s eight most prestigious schools, like Stuyvesant High School and the Bronx School of Science, where admission is by written test, the makeup of the student body does not remotely resemble the racial diversity of the city.

“Black and Hispanic students make up nearly 70 percent of the city’s public school students,” writes Harris, “but they received just 10 percent of offers for seats at specialized schools this fall.”

“About 27 percent of the offers went to white students who make up 15 percent of the student system; 52 percent went to Asian students, who up make 16 percent.”

Harris later adjusted her numbers. Asians are 62 percent of students. At Stuyvesant, only 10 of 900 students being admitted this fall are black.

At Stuyvesant, The Wall Street Journal writes, “2.8 percent of students are Latino and 0.69 percent are black. But 72.9 percent are Asian-American.”

Harris decries this as “extreme school segregation.”

De Blasio now demands change: “We must be sure that the very best high schools are open to … every kind of New Yorker.” The student bodies at the elite public schools “need to look like New York City.”

Translation: We must have more Hispanic and black students, and if that means throwing out the entrance exam to cut the numbers of Asians and whites, throw out the exam.

Soo Kim, president of the Stuyvesant alumni association, is having none of it: “Correct me if I’m wrong, but they’re saying these schools are too Asian, so there must be something wrong. … Am I the only one who looks at that and says, ‘I don’t understand how that’s even legal.'”

Councilman Peter Koo took it straight to the mayor:

“The test is the most unbiased way to get into a school. … It doesn’t require a resume. It doesn’t even require connections. The mayor’s son just graduated from Brooklyn Tech and got into Yale. Now he wants to stop this and build a barrier to Asian-Americans — especially our children.”

“I’m not sure if the mayor is a racist,” says Kenneth Chiu, chairman of the New York City Asian-American Democratic Club, “but this policy is certainly discriminatory.”

As Asians demonstrated this week against changing admissions standards to reduce the number of Asian students, schools chancellor Richard Carranza gave them the back of his hand: “I just don’t buy into the narrative that any one ethnic group owns admissions to these schools.”

Yet it is Carranza and De Blasio who are claiming an entitlement to seats at the schools based on race. The Asian protesters are insisting on maintaining merit and performance, measured by tests, as the standard of admission.

This issue is not confined to New York. It has gone national and pits Asian-Americans who believe in and benefit from a meritocracy in education against egalitarians who embrace race quotas and affirmative action to bring about a greater equality of rewards.

That Asians are the new victims of race discrimination seems undeniable. In August, the Times reported:

“A Princeton study found that students who identify as Asian need to score 140 points higher on the SAT than whites to have the same chance of admission to private colleges, a difference some have called ‘the Asian tax.’

“A lawsuit cites Harvard’s Asian-American enrollment at 18 percent in 2013, and notes very similar numbers ranging from 14 to 18 percent at other Ivy League colleges, like Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Princeton and Yale.”

Now, compare the numbers from California:

“In the same year (2013), Asian-Americans made up 34.8 percent of the student body at the University of California, Los Angeles, 32.4 percent at Berkeley and 42.5 percent at Caltech.”

Among possible reasons for the racial disparities: In 1996, by voter referendum, Californians outlawed racial preferences.

What the Ivy League is doing may be criminal in the Golden State.

In 1965, in words written by Richard Goodwin who died last month, and delivered at Howard University, LBJ declared:

“This is the next and the more profound stage of the battle for civil rights. We seek not just … equality as a right and a theory but equality as a fact and equality as a result.”

In today’s clash in liberalism’s citadel over which races have too many seats at Brooklyn Tech and Stuyvesant, and which races have too few, we get a glimpse of America’s future.

It appears to be a future of endless collisions and conflicts over who deserves and who gets what — based upon ethnicity and race.
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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, Mayor de Blasio, Anti-Asian Bigot To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Number Two . . .

. . . Philadelphia Eagles are number one when it comes to football but something much lower when it comes to being a good sport with President Trump.

Editorial Cartoon by AF "Tony" Branco

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Marketplace of Ideas

by Kerby Anderson, Contributing Author: When the Apostle Paul made it to Athens, he was able to present the Gospel to the Greek philosophers in a place known as the Areopagus. The Romans referred to it as “Mars Hill.” It was a place where various perspectives and ideas could be expressed. Today we call it the marketplace of ideas.

When I was in Athens, I was struck by the fact that you could see the Parthenon from this adjacent hill where Paul spoke to these philosophers about “the unknown God.” In fact, there is a plaque affixed to the hill that actually contains Paul’s message in Greek for all to read and consider.

Centuries later John Milton gave a famous speech known as the Areopagitica in which he defended the right of freedom of speech and expression. Those principles formed the basis for the modern justifications for free speech and a marketplace where various views and ideas can be expressed. The name of his speech was derived from the place where the Apostle Paul preached as recorded in Acts 17.

Following Milton were philosophers like John Locke and John Stuart Mill who expressed the idea of a marketplace of ideas. They understood that truth could only be discovered if all views and opinions were considered. They rejected the idea of censoring viewpoints and banning topics and perspectives from an open, robust discussion.

Why the brief history lesson? I do so to remind us of the long and valuable tradition of a marketplace of ideas. That is not what you find on very many college campuses today. That is not what you find in some social media platforms. The academic elite and the media elite are quick to censor divergent views (especially Christian views). I think it is time for them to go back and learn the history of providing a marketplace of ideas.
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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, Marketplace of Ideas, John Milton, Mars hill, Athens To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Congress Must Exercise Its Article I Power, Or It Will Be Deemed Irrelevant

by Printus LeBlanc: When the framers created the government, it was split into three coequal branches; the Congressional, Executive, and Judicial branches. Articles I through III describe the duties, responsibilities, and powers assigned to each branch of the government. However, one of those branches seems to be the redheaded stepchild of the government lately.

If you’ve been paying attention to the news over the last several years, you know the House of Representatives, and more recently the Senate, have been engaged in a fierce battle with executive branch agencies over documents about congressional investigations. The agencies routinely ignore requests from Congress or flat out lie when questioned under oath. Unfortunately, this is nothing new.

In 2013, the IRS admitted it was guilty of targeting conservative groups when it apologized for the act. Members of Congress were furious and immediately launched investigations. The IRS employee at the center of the targeting scandal, Lois Lerner, pled the Fifth Amendment right to non-incrimination when called before committees. The committees were left with no alternative but to subpoena documents.

In a pattern that has become all too familiar, the requested documents were destroyed after the subpoenas were issued. The IRS said the emails were lost when, mysteriously, the exact hard drives containing the emails requested crashed, and the IRS destroyed the hard drives. Once it became known there were back up tapes of the emails, Congress asked for the backup tapes.

But as is the usual modus operandi for these agencies, the backup tapes were destroyed despite being given a subpoena to keep them. What is most aggravating about the issue is the backup tapes were erased eight months after Congress requested the documents. This is not like Congress issued the order and the next day the tapes were burned by an employee that didn’t get the message. The IRS deliberately ignored Congress and the Inspector General for the Treasury Department says so stating, “The IRS did not put forth an effort to locate and preserve the backup tapes.”

Did Congress impeach any IRS employee for the targeting people for their political belief? No. Did Congress impeach any employee for destroying evidence? No. The IRS ignored Congress and looked them in the eye and said, “you don’t matter,” and got away with it. Is it any wonder why the executive branch looks down on Congress?

Another scandal in which Congress was ignored was the Fast and Furious debacle. Between 2006 and 2011 the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms and Explosives (ATF) allowed firearms dealers to illegally sell weapons to customers they knew were taking the weapons to someone else. This is known as a straw purchase. The ATF wanted to “follow” the weapons in hopes the illegally purchased weapons would lead them to Mexican drug cartel leaders. This led to thousands of illegal weapons flooding the streets of Mexico.

During the course of the operation, the ATF lost track of over 2,000 weapons, and one of them was used to kill a U.S. federal law enforcement officer, Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. A whistleblower came forward to tell the Senate what was really happening, federal agent John Dodson. From there the scandal exploded, and committees on both sides Congress commenced hearings.

Despite the fast start to the Congressional investigations, things would quickly grind to a halt. The impediment was the executive branch. The Department of Justice (DOJ) and ATF were refusing to cooperate with Congress. Committees would ask for documents, as part of its constitutionally mandated job, and the committees would get heavily redacted documents or nothing at all.

The House would eventually hold then-Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt for refusing to cooperate. Despite the bipartisan vote, no charges were filed, no salaries were docked, nor was Holder or anyone else at the DOJ or ATF impeached. The Obama administration got away with spitting in the face of Congress.

Now once again Congress is struggling to get documents from the DOJ about the ongoing investigation into Russia collusion that appear to implicate the Obama administration in using the surveillance tools of the federal government against the opposition party, the Trump campaign, in an election year. Will all the documents be preserved this time?

Congress has options at its disposal to rectify the situation but refuses to use them. It is no accident Article I is about Congress and not the other two branches. Congress was given the “power of the purse” for a reason. Congress can defund a department or office that is ignoring requests. Congress can Holman Rule or impeach individual federal employees that are not cooperating with investigations or are bad actors. But Congress has so far refused to use the weapons to reclaim the Constitutional power the framers gave it.

The most recent example came last night when the House was give the opportunity to support an amendment by U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) to H.R. 5895, Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2019 that would reduce the salary of Mark Gabriel, the Administrator of the Western Area Power Administration, to $1. Gabriel was insubordinate and to make matters worse, on his watch federal employees used federal credit cards to buy $6.8 million of personal items. But the House did nothing, with the vote failing, 139 to 276.

If Congress wants to be treated as an equal branch of government, as the Constitution intended, it should start acting like it. Members of the executive branch have lied, misled, and ignored Congress for decades. Has Congress held anyone responsible? No. How can Congress expect the rest of the government, let alone the taxpayers, to take it seriously if they cannot fulfill their basic constitutional duties? At this point, Congress is nothing more than an ATM for a corrupt, out of control and unaccountable bureaucracy.
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Printus LeBlanc is a contributing editor at Americans for Limited Government.

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Crony Developments

by John Stossel: "Are you on the take?"

When I tried to get Edgewater, New Jersey, politicians to answer that question, the mayor wouldn't discuss it, ultimately telling me, "You may sit down."

The town of Edgewater is right across the Hudson River from Manhattan. Anyone fortunate enough to live there gets a spectacular view of New York City's skyline.

But the Edgewater city government wants to seize a choice piece of waterfront land for itself.

The spot in question is owned by a developer, the Maxal Group. Maxal bought the property for about $26 million and then spent millions more to clean it up. They planned to build apartments and, to please the town, parks, a school and a ferry stop for commuters.

"This whole pier would be open to the public," says Thomas O'Gara of the Maxal Group, showing off the spot in my latest YouTube video.

In addition, Maxal's development would generate about $12 million a year in taxes for Edgewater.

Sounds good to me, or at least good enough to see how the market responds. But Edgewater's politicians just said no. Now they're using eminent domain law to try to seize the property and spend taxpayer dollars to put Edgewater's Department of Public Works there -- a department of just thirteen people.

Why would they do that?

"The unsuccessful bidder is a fellow named Fred Daibes," says Maxal's lawyer. After Maxal bought the property, "Daibes told us, 'you will never be able to develop this property!'"

Apparently, Fred Daibes knew something they didn't.

Daibes is the biggest apartment developer in the area. He told a reporter, "You can't be in Edgewater and not be affiliated with me."

I suspect that means that Daibes controls Edgewater's politicians.

A lawsuit filed by Maxal Group says four city council members got loans from a Daibes-controlled bank, and Mayor Michael McPartland pays below-market rent to live in a Daibes apartment building. (The mayor told a reporter that he doesn't pay below-market rent.)

Of course, the politicians give a different reason for seizing Maxal's land. They said Maxal's project was too big.

But they approved an even larger project nearby! That one happens to be controlled by -- you guessed it -- Fred Daibes. Daibes' development will have 250 more apartments than Maxal's and buildings twice as tall.

I tried to ask Daibes about all this, but he declined to be interviewed.

Edgewater's mayor and the city council would not agree to talk either.

So I went to the Edgewater city council meeting and asked, "Are you on the take ... rejecting one building in favor of the one owned by the guy where you live?"

A town lawyer quickly spoke up, "Mr. Mayor, as your legal counsel, I'm going to suggest and recommend that you don't answer the question from this gentleman ... certainly not with that tone, that objectionable tone."

I asked, "Is it true that four of you are getting loans from Mr. Daibes' bank, and is it true that you (Mayor McPartland) get a discounted apartment in Mr. Daibes' building?"

The lawyer spoke up again, "Mr. Mayor, I don't think it's appropriate." Eventually the mayor, without answering my questions, closed the meeting. The lawyer said, "He's done."

And that was that.

Maybe we'll get more answers from Edgewater after my video about this circulates.

People everywhere should ask questions of politicians who hand out favors to well-connected big shots.

A great thing about capitalism is that the only legitimate way to get rich is to serve your customers well. Customers have choices. To make money, businesses must offer something better than competitors offer. Developers can't tell other developers "you can't build here" because they cannot use force.

Unless they have cronies in government. Governments can use force. They have the power to ban some developments while approving others. They can use eminent domain law to seize property.

That's what's happened in Edgewater.

When politicians favor their friends, that's not capitalism, that's crony capitalism. Crapitalism. Corruption.

Maxal's lawsuit alleges "corrupt transactions" by Edgewater's politicians.

I think Maxal is right.
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John Stossel is author of "No They Can't! Why Government Fails -- But Individuals Succeed." Article shared by Rasmussen Reports 

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So Apparently Darwin Was Wrong. Really, Really Wrong.

by Peter Heck: The dissenters from Darwin were right all along. But don’t expect his fans to admit it, even as their ship is submerged.

For decades an increasing number of highly-educated scientists have been mounting challenges to the now embarrassing Darwinian assumptions at the heart of modern biological understanding. In essence, these scientists see modern biology as ship whose entire hull is the Darwinian ideology – and it is springing leaks so large, so rapidly, that the time for trying to credibly plug them all has come and gone. It’s time to abandon ship.

Their arguments aren’t likely to lose any momentum after bombshell reports from a massive genetic study have been revealed. Some of the revelations from this study don’t just poke holes in the SS Darwin; they tear it open Titanic-style:
Landmark new research that involves analyzing millions of DNA barcodes has debunked much about what we know today about the evolution of species.

In a massive genetic study, senior research associate at the Program for the Human Environment at Rockefeller University Mark Stoeckle and University of Basel geneticist David Thaler discovered that virtually 90 percent of all animals on Earth appeared at right around the same time.

More specifically, they found out that 9 out of 10 animal species on the planet came to being at the same time as humans did some 100,000 to 200,000 years ago.

"This conclusion is very surprising," says Thaler, "and I fought against it as hard as I could."That’s an interesting statement from Thaler. Why would he fight so hard against it? Two reasons: 1. He knows how much modern biology relies on the Darwinian assumptions accepted and promoted now for a century and a half. 2. He knows what this study does to those assumptions.

One of the reasons scientists have continued pushing the age of the earth, and the age of our universe back further and further is because they recognize a desperate need for massive amounts of time to sustain their faith in all life evolving from a singular ancient ancestor. The branches of Darwin’s tree of life need inordinate amounts of time to slowly develop, or the whole thing falls apart. When Darwinian scientists are asked today, “Why don’t we see one kind of animal turning into another now?” the standard response is, “It is happening, but it happens so slowly you can’t see it.” Time. You have to have time for this Darwinian model to work.

What Thaler fought against was evidence that there was one thing that natural history does not give us for the development of species: time. If 90% of creatures all originated at roughly the same moment in history, there simply isn’t time for amphibians to slowly become reptiles, then birds, and then mammals. And notice the evidence demonstrates that these animals are coming into existence at the same time as man. None of this remotely fits the Darwinian model. Meaning, the assumptions upon which all of modern biology have been constructed are faulty. Down goes Darwin.

To be clear, none of this proves that the Bible is correct in its account of the origin of life. But Biblical scholars have long suggested that rather than what Darwin promoted – a tree of life with all branches coming from the same common ancestor – archaeology and the fossil record bear witness to an orchard of life. Amphibians, reptiles, mammals, fish, bacteria, and birds did not all come from the same single organism. They arrived on the planet separate and distinct, and then have all evolved within their various kinds.

That explanation fits far better with the fossil record, as even Darwin himself acknowledged. In the Origin of Species, Darwin noted that the lack of transitional fossils (that is, the half-reptile, half-bird) was catastrophic to his theory. But he explained it away by saying we just weren’t good at digging through rocks yet to find them all. Well, we’re really good at digging in rocks now, and we still haven’t found them. We find distinct creatures, separated into their kinds, fully-formed in the fossil record. That evidence is indicative of an orchard of life with separate organism trees, not a singular tree of life.

Now we can add to that a massive DNA study indicating that those creatures were all here at roughly the same time. Again, that demands an orchard explanation, not a singular tree that saw creatures slowly evolve from one another.

The dissenters from Darwin have had it right all along. But don’t expect his fan club to admit it, even as their ship is breaking apart beneath them.
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Peter Heck writes for The Resurgent and PeterHeck.com.

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Why Kanye West and More Black Americans Are Supporting Trump

Kanye West surprised the American music scene by
dropping a single, “Ye vs. The People,” in which he and
fellow rapper T.I. go back and forth about their political views. 

by Derrick Hollie: Kanye West surprised the American music scene by dropping a single, “Ye vs. The People,” in which he and fellow rapper T.I. go back and forth about their political views.

Some are calling his vocal support of President Donald Trump nothing more than a publicity stunt. But even if that’s true, West is bringing attention to some very important issues.

At what point did Trump become such a villain and the blame for everything and everyone’s problem?

An article from Revolt TV points to over 35 positive rap references to Trump, including Jay Z, Ice Cube, Fat Joe, Lil Kim, Nicki Minaj, and Meek Mill. You get my point.

FiveThirtyEight did a study on 266 hip hop songs and lyrics referencing Trump and Hillary Clinton. From 1989 until 2015, Trump was positive and represented money, power, and what many strive to achieve, including “Listen I ain’t from the slums, I fought my way up out the slum / Arrogant rich n—-, we might vote for Trump,” Cam’ron rapped on “Dope Spot” in 2015.

Most references to Clinton were negative, including “Never Put Your Trust in Hillary Rodham.”

Even some of the most recognized black leaders, including Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton praised Trump for his diversity efforts. Trump endorsed Jackson in his failed attempt to run for president years ago.

So something besides just ideological differences has to be going on here, right?

Is it Trump? Is it the Republican Party? Is it the policies he represents? Most people I ask give reasons that are personal, as well as what they’ve heard through liberal media.

In the song West said, “See that’s the problem with this d— nation / All Blacks gotta be Democrats, man, we ain’t made it off the plantation.”

And while I wouldn’t put it quite the same way, I do believe many of the policy priorities so strongly supported by the left do more to keep people poor than they do to lift them out of poverty.

According to Forbes, “Welfare offers short-term help and long-term poverty.” The first failure of government welfare programs is to favor help with current consumption while placing almost no emphasis on job training or anything else that might allow today’s poor people to become self-sufficient in the future.

It’s hard to argue against policies that will reduce energy poverty for black and minority communities, or to defend why you dislike Betsy DeVos and K-12 education policy under this administration promoting school choice when your child attends private school.

Opportunities to pursue the American dream without worrying that an occupational license scheme will keep you from starting your own business have become a cornerstone of conservative policy, and the opportunity to receive justice under the law and take mental health into consideration is getting more and more attention every day.

These are policy priorities of the Trump administration and issues I was in favor of long before Trump became a candidate. These are issues that most African-Americans and other minorities believe in.

I rode a bike and delivered newspapers every morning from sixth through 12th grade and earned a football scholarship.

I’ve also been a small business owner under Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Trump. These and other experiences have allowed me to see life through a different lens.

For me, there’s no comparison. We’ve been more successful as a small business and family under these Republican administrations than under the Obama administration. That’s why I believe in opportunity over handouts, and empowerment over entitlements.

When it comes down to it, it’s about opportunity, and that’s something we should all get behind. However, like many other blacks who have spoken out in support of the Trump administration, I’ve been called names, lost friends, and gotten all sorts of clapback because I see things differently.

I’m a husband and father whose children are taught to respect everyone’s point of view—even if you don’t agree. But more and more, those who don’t follow the narrow box built for us by the left are written off as crazy.

However you choose to vote, we should all be able to agree to respect each other. Just because we disagree doesn’t mean we’re enemies. So, do you, Kanye West! And props for speaking your truth. We should all feel comfortable doing the same.
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Derrick Hollie (@DJHollie) is president of Reaching America and host of Reaching America on Demand podcast. The organization addresses complex social issues impacting African-American communities. H/T The Daily Signal.

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The Korean War on Faith

by Tony Perkins: If President Trump manages to meet with Kim Jong Un next week, the two men will have plenty to talk about. And while denuclearization will probably top the list, there's also the matter of the regime's other weapons -- against faith.

Kim Hak Song, one of the Americans released by North Korea last month knows exactly how oppressive the government there can be. Thrown into prison for the "crime" of praying, Kim says he was spared some of the horrors the others experienced. At one point during his captivity, he took the risk of sharing the gospel with a regime official -- a decision that could have cost him his life. "I was grateful and thankful that at this time I was able to share God's message to this person."

But it is a message the country does not tolerate. For that reason, a coalition of religious liberty advocates -- including FRC -- sent a letter to President Trump, urging him to bring up the dictator's hostility toward faith in the list of topics the two discuss.

"We applaud and support your efforts to secure the release of American citizens," they write. "We also implore you to recognize that there are tens of thousands of other men, women, and even children -- most of them North Korean citizens and many of them Christians -- being brutalized by Kim and his regime. For decades, North Korea has been in effect a national torture chamber. There is nowhere on earth more dangerous for dissenters of conscience, especially those who believe in God."In particular, they ask the following list to be included in any sort of agreement the two countries reach:

• As a good-will gesture, the immediate release of substantial numbers of prisoners of conscience."
• "Within one month of any agreement, access to all prisons by the International Red Cross and the members of the U.N. Commission of Inquiry."
• "The setting of quotas for voluntary emigration of released prisoners and their families, and for other applicants, to be administered and overseen by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees."
• "Agreement that the U.S. Ambassador for International Religious Freedom, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, and the U.N. Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in North Korea may visit North Korea within three months of the agreement and have free access to any part of the country."

At this point, even having the meeting would be considered a success. But Americans should all be in prayer for an even greater victory for the persecuted in North Korea -- and beyond.
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Tony Perkins is President of the Family Research Council . This article was on Tony Perkin's Washington Update and written with the aid of FRC senior writers.

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Bad News At The Border, Trump Pardons Great-Grandmother

Gary Bauer

by Gary Bauer, Contributing Author: Bad News At The Border - There is bad news at the southern border. Here's how the Washington Post puts it:

"U.S. border agents made more than 50,000 arrests in May for the third month in a row. . . an indication that escalating enforcement tactics by the Trump administration . . . [have] not had an immediate deterrent effect."

First, let's take a moment to digest the facts of that statement before we consider the politics of it.

On the plus side, apprehensions are up because President Trump is taking steps to improve security, such as deploying National Guard troops to the border.

Nevertheless, 50,000 people attempting to cross our southern border were arrested last month. That's just the ones we caught. We have to assume that many more got in.

And it wasn't just a "one-off." It was the "third month in a row" that we have arrested at least 50,000 people at our southern border. So now we're up to 150,000 people arrested in recent months, and who knows how many more actually slipped through.

Why would anyone be okay with this?

Clearly, President Trump is not okay with it, which is why he sent National Guard troops to the border and why he is demanding a border wall. But it is absurd for the Post to suggest that the president's efforts are failing.

What Is Responsible - In the early months of the Trump Administration, the number of illegal immigrants attempting to enter the country plummeted to historic lows. Many commentators attributed the dramatic decline in illegal crossings to Candidate Trump's toughness on border security, which dominated the news throughout 2015 and 2016.

But in the past year, illegal immigrants have heard and seen something else and something very different. They have seen the left in America resist everything Donald Trump has tried to do to secure the border. And so far the left seems to have the upper hand.

They saw Senate Democrats block funding for the border wall -- even after President Trump offered amnesty for the so-called "Dreamers."

They have seen left-wing federal judges repeatedly block President Trump's efforts to secure our borders.

They have seen liberal mayors tip off illegal immigrants about impending law enforcement actions. (By the way, nearly 90% of the illegal immigrants that ICE agents arrest have criminal records.)

They have seen multiple cities led by left-wing politicians blatantly defy federal law by declaring themselves to be sanctuary cities.

Check out this video of Philadelphia Mayor James Kenney doing a jig after a judge upholds Philadelphia's sanctuary policies. Imagine how parents who have lost children to the "animals" of MS-13 must feel as Kenney "dances" on their graves.

It couldn't be more obvious. Powerful left-wing forces are acting as a lobby for open borders and for illegal immigrants. They are also lobbying against the vast majority of Americans who want to control our borders.

For example, a new poll finds that 56% of likely voters say that the current high level of immigration is making life in their area "worse." Only 17% think immigration is making life in their community "better."

Trump Pardons Great-grandmother - President Trump is tough on crime. He unapologetically stands with the police and made support for law enforcement a central plank in his campaign. And he has taken flak from the left for going after MS-13 so hard.

Yet, he also has a very strong sense of justice. Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz said on Fox News this morning:

"This president has a real gut for justice. When you can persuade him that there has been an injustice, he'll say, 'We are going to do something about it.'"

And yesterday President Trump did do something to correct a serious injustice. He commuted the sentence of Alice Marie Johnson.

The 63 year-old great-grandmother was serving a life sentence after her 1996 conviction for money laundering and conspiracy in a major drug case. Johnson does not deny her guilt. "I believe that I deserved some time, I really do," she said during an interview with NBC News.

But many people felt that a life sentence for a first-time, non-violent offense was excessive. More than 270,000 people had signed a petition calling for her release.

While in jail, Johnson was a model inmate, and the warden of the prison where she was held strongly supported her release. Now into her 60s, she's hardly a danger to society.

Johnson's family appealed to President Barack Obama three times for clemency, but he never approved her request. (Somehow Chelsea Manning got Obama's attention.)

During an interview with CBS News, Johnson was asked if she had a message for President Trump. Here's what she said:

"I would tell President Trump, 'Thank you so much. . . I am going to be that one that is going to make you so proud.' And I hope that my life encourages him to do this for others too."

By the way, one of the strongest conservatives I have ever known was Chuck Colson. He went to prison after the Watergate break in, and later devoted his life to prison reform and to bringing the Gospel to inmates.
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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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