The Trump Republican Party

by Newt Gingrich: The biggest takeaway message from Tuesday’s primaries and the Ohio special election is that the Republican Party is becoming President Trump’s Party.

In fact, the degree to which pro-Trump Republicans prevailed is the fifth major achievement of the Trump presidency’s first year and a half.

First, he and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have placed a record number of conservative, constitutionally-minded judges on the federal bench.

Second, he has moved power out of Washington and liberated businesses to accelerate economic growth through his historic deregulation effort.

Third, he succeeded in working with congressional Republicans to pass a massive tax cut, which has created jobs and grown the economy much faster than any of the elites thought possible.

Fourth, he has begun to rebuild the American military after the Obama administration spent eight years deliberately undermining it.

Now, the President has begun to grow a Trump Republican Party. The examples from Tuesday are striking, but this growth started earlier. In primary after primary, President Trump has proved to be a decisive voice. I saw this firsthand in Georgia, when his endorsement of Secretary of State Brian Kemp turned what was expected to be a close primary race into a one-sided victory for the Trump candidate. Similarly, on Tuesday the Trump endorsed candidates won the GOP nomination.

This is a very important long-term development because it means that in 2019 and beyond the President will have a Republican Party substantially more favorable to his policies. It also means that the never-Trumpers will gradually decline into a less noisy, less relevant part of American politics. The never-Trumpers are like the Bourbon monarchy, which “had learned nothing and forgotten nothing” (an apocryphal quote from Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord describing the Bourbons’ behavior after the abdication of Napoleon). Because of their inability to change, the Bourbons gradually disappeared as the French Republics created new patterns.

This shrinking and then disappearing process is nothing new.

When former President Theodore Roosevelt left the Republican Party in 1912, he took a generation of progressives with him. The conservatives consolidated their grip on the Republican Party, and many of the progressives became Franklin Delano Roosevelt Democrats. Likewise, when FDR turned out to be much more liberal than expected, his close friend and ally Al Smith, the former Governor of New York and Democratic Presidential nominee of 1928, started supporting Republicans in opposition of the New Deal.

In more recent times, President Ronald Reagan dominated the GOP in the 1980s and dissenters, like Senator Bob Packwood who started off skeptical but was later convinced to lead the tax reform fight. Similarly, loyal Democrats like former Senators Zell Miller and Joe Lieberman found the increasing radicalism of the Left so unacceptable that they became very pro-Republican (with Miller endorsing President George W. Bush at the 2004 convention and Lieberman seriously considering running as the vice presidential candidate with John McCain in 2008).

In addition to dominating the primaries, President Trump proved to be very effective in turning out the Republican vote in the Ohio special election. There were a lot of Washington’s so-called experts questioning whether he would help or hurt turnout. While there are still provisional and absentee ballots to count, the results so far indicate that the Republican vote surged on the days leading up to the election and put the GOP nominee over the top. The warning to Democrats and the media for this fall should be pretty direct: If President Trump spends September and October defining the election on his terms, the outcome in 2018 might be as shocking to the Left as 2016’s was.

The most amazing thing about the Trump effect is how efficient it is.

Simple tweets have helped nominate the GOP candidates for governor or congressional seats in state after state.

With this kind of economy of effort, it is no wonder President Trump is doing so many things in parallel.

In the process, he is growing a Trump Republican Party which will turn the never-Trumpers into a fossilized remnant of bitter-enders that attract smaller and smaller audiences who pay less and less attention.

In short, this is what a political revolution looks like.
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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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Florida Dems Attempt To Kill ‘Stand Your Ground’ Fails

by Tom Knighton: As I’ve said before, Stand Your Ground laws shouldn’t be controversial. All they do is remove any duty to retreat from a threat, allowing people to act faster in a self-defense situation as they don’t have to look around to see if they can get away. It speeds up the decision-making process, thus saving lives.

It doesn’t excuse people shooting when it’s not justified, and it never has.

But that doesn’t stop anti-gun Democrats from hating the law and working to repeal it. In Florida, they had their best chance to do just that. In the wake of a controversial shooting in Clearwater, Florida, Democrats in the state legislature thought it was their time.

They were wrong.


Florida Democratic lawmakers have failed to force the Republican-controlled Legislature to repeal the state’s contentious “stand your ground law.”

Democrats asked Secretary of State Ken Detzner to poll legislators on whether they would support holding a special session to amend or repeal the law. The law allows people to use deadly force without retreating if they believe they are in imminent danger of death or great bodily harm.

The move required three-fifths of House and Senate members to vote yes.Whoops.

Honestly, from a political standpoint, this was a rookie mistake. You don’t force a vote unless you can win it, and you should know you can win it otherwise.

Now, all the pontificating in the world won’t change the fact that anti-gun lawmakers don’t have the votes to change Florida’s gun laws. All they have are hopes and wishes, and everyone knows that’s not enough.

Had they not tried to force the vote, they could have continued deluding the masses into thinking there was all this broad support for repealing the Stand Your Ground laws. They could have pretended that it was just a matter of time, maybe gin up more support in the public and potentially pressure lawmakers to side with them.

But they didn’t.

Instead, they decided to grandstand, force a vote, and they lost. Now they have to rebuild political capital while having shown the world that they didn’t have the support they thought they did.

Meanwhile, it’s a good thing they lost.

Stand Your Ground laws get a lot of bad press, but they don’t make anything legal that would otherwise be illegal except not requiring people to look to run away from an attack. The truth is, Stand Your Ground laws aren’t just smart law, they’re moral laws. They remove the onus on the victim of a violent crime to try and look for an out. People should be able to act to defend themselves without fear of prosecution because some DA somewhere says there was a way they could get away.

That’s what the laws do.

A bad shoot is still a bad shoot. The law doesn’t justify gunning someone down in cold blood. It doesn’t justify using lethal force on a purse snatcher. It doesn’t do anything of the sort.

Instead, these laws are the victim of a media smear campaign designed to turn public sentiment against a law that almost no one outside of the firearm community seems to understand.
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Tom Knighton is a Navy veteran, a former newspaperman, a novelist, and a blogger at Bearing Arms. He lives with his family in Southwest Georgia.

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Dumping On U.S. Again, Join Me In D.C.

Gary Bauer

by Gary Bauer, Contributing Author:  Dumping On U.S. Again - The dog days of summer are here, and we’re getting daily reminders of the growing hostility to our shared symbols of American patriotism.

This week an Atlanta charter school announced plans to dump the Pledge of Allegiance from its morning agenda. Predictably, the school said the change was being made in the name of “inclusiveness.” That’s nuts.

Perhaps the elites running the school temporarily forgot what state they’re in. There was tremendous backlash from the patriotic citizens of Georgia.

The school surrendered and announced it was reinstating the Pledge. They blamed “miscommunication” for the initial ditching of the Pledge. But let’s be honest about the true cause – which is the left’s growing efforts to tear down the symbols of America’s heritage.

We see it in the demands to topple memorials to America’s heroes and founding fathers. We see it in the continuing protests against the American flag and national anthem. At NFL pre-season games last night, several players kneeled or raised clenched fists during the “Star-Spangled Banner.”

These are all symptoms of a leftist ideology that says that America is an evil country.

Until recently, Americans saw their country as a “shining city on a hill,” a beacon of light and hope and an example for the world to follow. Now, a growing share of the population seems to see America as a garbage dump that we all ought to be ashamed of and constantly be apologizing for. Well, I am still proud of our country and I know you are too.

I have a question for all the America-haters: If America is such an unwelcoming place, why is half the world trying to get in?

And here’s another question: If this is such a terrible country to live in, why don’t more of these America-hating leftists simply leave? I am willing to raise the funds to pay for a one-way ticket to whatever socialist "paradise" they want to live in.

Join Me In D.C. - Join me in our nation's capital September 21st – 23rd for the 2018 Values Voter Summit!

Vice President Mike Pence said, "The Values Voter Summit [is] the greatest gathering of conservative pro-family Americans in the nation." And he is absolutely right!

That is why American Values, my non-profit public policy organization, has been a proud sponsor of the Summit every year.

This year's Summit features an incredible lineup of speakers, including:

David & Jason Benham
Dr. Bill Bennett
Gov. Matt Bevin
Brigitte Gabriel
Dr. Sebastian Gorka
Rep. Mark Meadows
Lt. Col. Oliver North
Dr. Everett Piper
Rep. Steve Scalise
And Many More!

There will be educational and informative breakout sessions, as well as a gala dinner honoring my good friend former Congressman Frank Wolf for his years of leadership on religious liberty issues.

American Values will be hosting a special luncheon Saturday, September 22nd.

Seats are going fast, so register today.

I look forward to seeing you there!
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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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Father Of New Mexico Islamist Compound Leader Is Linda Sarsour's 'Mentor'

. . . Training camp for child terrorists has chilling connection to top Democratic Party operative.

by Leo Hohmann: Siraj Ibn Wahhaj Jr., 40, of Clayton County, Georgia, was arrested along with his two sisters and two other adults last Friday in New Mexico on charges of felony child abuse for holding 11 starving children in an underground trailer hidden from view in a compound described as "overflowing" with weapons and ammunition.

But there is more to this story that is not appearing in the nightly news accounts we've all been following.

Nobody is talking about Wahhaj's well-connected father, Siraj Wahhaj Sr., a radical Brooklyn imam who is the spiritual adviser to Democratic Socialist and Bernie Sanders supporter Linda Sarsour.

The elder Wahhaj also has ties to the two most prominent U.S. Muslim organizations -- the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, and the Islamic Society of North America, or ISNA -- and he was an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

Sarsour, co-chair of the Women's March on Washington, has become the face of ISNA. She spoke at an ISNA conference in Chicago last summer in which she praised Wahhaj Sr. as her "favorite person" and called on U.S. Muslims to wage political jihad against the Trump administration. Since that time she has been working to elect far-left Democrats to public office such as Dr. Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, Alexandria Ocasia-Cortez in New York, and Stacy Abrams in Georgia.

Siraj Wahhaj Jr., according to court documents, was training the malnourished kids to carry out school shootings. Essentially, it was a jihad training camp for child terrorists.

Clothed in rags and reduced to skeletons, the children were living with five adults at the compound in Taos County, a remote area of northern New Mexico. Police found the body of a toddler on the grounds which they believe to be that of Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj, the 3-year-old son of Wahhaj Jr. and grandson of Wahhaj Sr. According to court documents, Wahhaj Jr. also faces abduction charges for allegedly kidnapping his son from his mother's home in Georgia. While focused on the boys' military training, he neglected their basic needs while leaving them malnourished and living in horrific conditions described by police as "Third World."

But the media seems reticent to bring up this Muslim "extremist's" family's ties to Sarsour, a darling and rising star in the Democrat Party, as it tilts more to the extreme left to placate its base in the age of Trump. Nor are they posing the question: If Wahhaj Jr. holds "extremist" views, where did he get them from? Could it have been from his imam father?

Father schooled in Wahhabi Islam in Saudi Arabia
The 40-year-old Wahhaj Jr. is the son of Siraj Wahhaj Sr., 68, a black Muslim convert who went on to become a well-known and politically-connected Saudi-trained imam. Wahhaj Sr. was an honored guest at the Clinton State Department and the Obama White House. He was the first Muslim to lead prayer at the U.S. House of Representatives in 1991. He once predicted in a widely available sermon that U.S. democracy would "crumble" and be conquered from within by Islam, and also said it is "our duty as Muslims to replace the U.S. Constitution with the Quran."

Wahhaj has called for death to all homosexuals and lesbians, citing Islamic law.

Wahhaj Sr., speaking at a fundraiser for the Benevolence International Foundation, said:I pray Allah will bless us to raise an Army, and I'm serious about this. We were very close, recently. We had made intention to raise an army of 10,000 men in New York City. Muslim men to fight in the way of subhanahu wa ta'ala. And this is serious.So this is the father of the guy who has a compound stocked with military-grade weapons and floor-to-ceiling ammunition in the remote New Mexico desert, where he was training young boys to fight in the way of Allah.

Wahhaj Jr. had lived near Atlanta in Clayton County and none of the information that led to his capture would have come to light were it not for the fact that one of his wives, Hakima Ramzi, filed a missing child report late last year regarding her 3-year-old son. Ramzi said her husband, Wahhaj Jr., took the boy to the park in Clayton County and never came back.

The local sheriff told New Mexico media his department had "suspicions" that Wahhaj and the boy were present at the compound in Taos, but they did not have enough evidence to get a warrant.

That didn't happen until last week, when someone inside the New Mexico compound got word to police that they were starving.

If Siraj Wahhaj Sr. is not already being investigated by the FBI for any possible knowledge of his son's criminal activities, we can only hope that such an investigation will be forthcoming.

It's not as if Wahhaj Sr. has a pristine reputation. He has already been linked in court documents to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and testified on behalf of the notorious "Blind Sheikh" Omar Abdel-Rahman, who was convicted for masterminding the bombing.

Wahhaj Sr. also serves as the leading spiritual mentor to Sarsour, who last year called on Muslims to wage jihad against the Trump administration and exhorted them not to assimilate into U.S. society.

Sarsour last summer addressed the annual convention of the Islamic Society of North America or ISNA. She had glowing words for her "mentor," Siraj Wahhaj Sr., who was sitting in the audience:
And to my favorite person in this room, that’s mutual, is Imam Siraj Wahhaj, who has been a mentor, motivator, and encourager of mine. Someone who has taught me to speak truth to power, and not worry about the consequences. Someone who has taught me that we are on this earth to please Allah and only Allah, and that we are not here to please any man or woman on this earth. So I am grateful to you Imam Siraj, and you might think this is weird, but every once in a while, when I get into that deep dark place, Imam Siraj comes and talks to me. And he helps me to emerge out of those places, so I’m grateful to you Imam Siraj, and may Allah bless you and protect you for a long time for our community, because we need you now more than ever.Wahhaj Sr. is known for his stridently anti-American views, a theme that Sarsour has parroted in her speeches, though the politicians who openly cavort with her are rarely called into question for associating with her.

"In time this so-called democracy will crumble and there will be nothing, and the only thing that will remain will be Islam," Wahhaj Sr. said, according to a 2003 Wall Street Journal article.

Sarsour posted to her Facebook page (above) on March 5 a picture of herself with Siraj Wahhaj Sr. and CAIR leaders Dawud Walid and Nihad Awad, among others, at an anti-Trump protest rally in Washington, D.C.

Sarsour was known as the de facto campaign manager for Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, who finished second in the Democrat gubernatorial primary Tuesday, Aug. 7, in Michigan.

Sarsour has also endorsed the candidacy of Democrat primary winner Stacy Abrams for governor of Georgia, who had her picture made with Sarsour in January and tweeted "Proud to stand with activist organizer and @womensmarch national co-chair LSarsour."

Mideast scholar Daniel Pipes wrote in his book Militant Islam Reaches America that Wahhaj Sr. represents Muslims who both despise the United States and ultimately wish to transform it into a Muslim country."

Wahhaj Sr. grew up Jeffrey Kearse in a Baptist family. He converted to the Nation of Islam as a young man and later converted to orthodox Sunni Islam. In 1978, he attended a class in Naperville, Illinois, with 50 African-American Muslims consisting of 40 days of intense training on the Quran. He later traveled to Mecca for more training. He returned to the U.S. and started his own mosque in 1981 and has been, since the early 1990s, one of the most popular circuit-riding imams in the U.S., traveling around the country preaching hatred against America and Israel.

One of his more telling quotes, from a sermon, is as follows:
Islam is better than Democracy. Allah will cause his deen, Islam, to prevail over every kind of system. And you know what? It will happen.Philip Haney, a retired Homeland Security investigator and author of the book "See Something, Say Nothing," said he wonders if the FBI has been tracking Wahhaj Jr. given the notorious activities of his father. And if there were, why didn't they raid the compound in New Mexico sooner?

Haney said he has been following the preaching career of Wahhaj Sr. closely for years.

"His father is definitely connected to the Muslim Brotherhood. ... This has been going on way too long when Siraj Wahhaj goes around the country preaching hatred and sharia law in our mosques," Haney said. "I've been tracking his career for some time and it's well past time that this information gets laid out on the table."

Haney said Wahhaj Sr. has known ties to the radical ADAMS Center mosque in northern Virginia, and Dar al Hijra mosque in Washington, D.C., as well as past affiliations with Anwar Al-Awlaki, and the "Blind Sheikh."

"Now that this has come out, it shows the American people were really smart not to nominate Dr. Abdul El-Sayed for governor of Michigan," he said. "Imagine if you had nominated this guy with all this new information coming out about CAIR and ISNA, the face of whom is his buddy Linda Sarsour."

(Photo: Linda Sarsour, second from right, poses at an anti-Trump rally in Washington in March with Siraj Wahhaj Sr., far left.)
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Leo Hohmann is a news editor for WorldNetDaily. He has been a reporter and editor at several suburban newspapers and FrontPage Mag. His latest book is " Stealth Invasion: Muslim Conquest Through Immigration And The Resettlement Jihad.

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Opposed & Embarrassed

by John Porter, Contributing Author: A few days ago I overheard a conversation between two gentlemen concerning President Trump.  One of the men said, "I'm opposed to him and I want him gone, he is an embarrassment."

I've heard others use those two words when referring to the president. I realize it is quite a challenge to write about this without coming across as political, but I'm going to honestly try. I am addressing it from the "opposed" perspective, because some things which embarrass one may not embarrass another and they are actually two separate issues.  Besides, embarrassment and its results have little if anything to do with what is good for a nation and the well being of its people. Where, on the other hand, his actions (policy wise) and their results can and do have a profound effect on the nation and the people, presently and into the future.

With that in mind, let's together examine the results of some of President Trump's policies, and efforts of his work, over a period of less than two years since November, 2016.  Please, for a few minutes let's lay aside differences in political party affiliation and the bias they bring out and ask ourselves only as American citizens, except for that which embarrasses me, considering only records of fact, "just what is it I am opposed to"?

Is it(1) an economy which, by all measurements officially used, especially GDP is growing at an astounding rate (4.1% last quarter)?
(2) Americans unemployed, 3.9% lowest in 45 years?
(3) Number of Americans employed in July, 2018: 156,000,000, highest number in our history?  Over 400,000 new jobs in the manufacturing industry alone?
(4) Black Americans unemployed lowest in nation's history?
(5) Hispanic and Asian Americans unemployed lowest in history?
(6) American women unemployed lowest in 65 years?
(7) Lowest unemployment of America's war Veterans in 18 years?
(8) Presently more jobs available than workers to fill them?
(9) 3,500,000 fewer Americans on food stamps, much lower poverty level?
(10) Most American citizens taking home more money because of the reduction of personal and corporate income taxes? Median household income in 2016: $56,516; in March, 2018: $61,227.
(11) The beginning of the returning of American soldiers lost in Korea?
(12) Appointing of Federal judges who will uphold our Constitution, including the Supreme Court?
(13) The fact that in dealings with all foreign nations, friend and foe alike, he puts the interests of the American people first?
(14) Keeping us safe from foreign enemies by building our military complex, (those who protect and defend our freedom and sovereignty) to the most powerful on the planet?
(15) Trying to secure our nations borders from uninvited intruders, as we all do our homes and businesses? Now place these results on one side of a pair of scales of what's best for America and the things he does which embarrass you on the other and see which way it tips.

Ask yourself again, "just what is it I am opposed to?" I could have listed more, but for now sit quietly somewhere alone and consider for yourself one at a time which of the above action and policy results of President Trump's would you change or reverse and how would you do it and why would you do it and when.
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John Porter is an Americans first, constitutional conservatives second. His allegiance is to the Constitution. He seeks to help save America from the grips of socialism and an all powerful, intrusive government, and from the evil of Islam. He is a contributing author to the ARRA News Service.

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The Trump Analogy

Jack Sternnberg, M.D.

by Dr. Jack Sternberg, Contributing Author: Here’s a make believe but often real nightmare scenario. You have just received the terrible and terrifying news, “You have cancer.” After biopsying your mass, your surgeon wants to refer you to a Medical Oncologist (A cancer treatment specialist). Many are available in your area.

He then asks you, “Do you want a Medical Oncologist with a good bedside manner who is barely competent and will probably not successfully treat your cancer? Or do you want one that has little bedside manner but is extremely competent and can put you into remission thereby giving you many good years of life or even cure you? In reality, there are many who are extremely competent and also have a great bedside manner; but not in this hypothetical analogy.

Who in their right mind would choose bedside manner over competence if given the choice?

Why do I tell this hypothetical story? Because I hope it will answer the question that many liberals keep asking Evangelical Christians. “How did you ever vote for Donald Trump and why do you keep supporting him?”

Because we are realists! It would be very idealistic and even wishful thinking to believe we could find an individual who is Presidential and additionally has all the skills, ability and knowledge necessary to be a great and effective President. The closest to our ideal may have been Ronald Reagan. Those of us who support DJT see him for who he is as well as for who he is not. We have made peace with that.

As a person, most of us who support President Trump consider his personal style to be at times annoying, crude and bullish. But so what? We didn’t elect him on his ability to look and act presidential. We saw in him a man who had a vision for America that fit our vision. His personal flaws were annoying but he seemed like a man who could get things done; things we liked and wanted for America.

He was unabashedly patriotic, pro-Capitalistic, America first, anti-illegal immigration, pro-life and pro-Christianity, unwilling for America to be taken advantage of, willing to take on our enemies and not whimper in their presence and had the willingness to use hard and crafty negotiating tactics to achieve his (America’s) goals.
In the present analogy, he was and is the competent cancer doctor. To us, he is in the process of putting America into a great remission and improving its health.

Now to finish the analogy! Every great Medical Oncologist needs an equally competent team of other professionals such as surgeons, radiotherapists, Oncology nurses, physical therapists, pharmacists and I could go on and on. It’s a team effort.

Likewise, President Trump needs to have an ever increasingly competent group of advisors along with a Conservative Supreme Court and also the support of a Congress where fellow Republicans continue to have the majority and see and support his vision. With it, he can continue to “Keep America Great and Make It Even Greater.”
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Jack Sternberg, MD, is a retired medical doctor and Chairman Emeritus, Garland County TEA Party Patriots in Arkansas, and a contributor to the ARRA News Service. He also submitted this article as a letter to the editor to The Sentinel-Record in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

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Supreme Court of Puerto Rico Dismissing Challenge to Vouchers, Charters

by Leslie Hiner: Today, children in Puerto Rico won a great victory when the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico dismissed the teachers’ union challenge to vouchers and charter schools, overturning a lower court ruling. EdChoice applauds the leaders of Puerto Rico and the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico for their commitment to reforming education, by offering opportunity for children to access the education they need to succeed.

The American Federation of Teachers-Puerto Rico, backed by their national union in the United States, the American Federation of Teachers, brought a challenge to Puerto Rico’s new education reform laws, enacted this spring, which aim to provide quality education to children in the Commonwealth. The case is Asociasión de Maestros v. Departamento de Educasión.

On July 13, the Puerto Rico Supreme Court accepted the case and, in a highly unusual move, gave lawyers on both sides five business days to file briefs. The Court noted that there was a great sense of urgency to improve education in Puerto Rico, and they were not willing to wait to decide whether the most recent reforms were constitutional.

Five business days later, on July 20 the plaintiffs, defendants, intervening parents represented by our friends at the Institute for Justice, and EdChoice (as an amicus) filed briefs with the Court; two others, the ACLU-Puerto Rico and an association of teachers groups filed motions asking permission to file amicus briefs. The amicus briefs ultimately were not considered in the disposition of this case.

True to their word, the Supreme Court issued their ruling before the beginning of this next school year, with classes scheduled to begin next week.
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Leslie Hiner is Vice President of EdChoice - a national nonprofit organization that promotes state-based educational choice programs.

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The Saudi-Canada Clash: A Values War

by Patrick Buchanan: Is it any of Canada’s business whether Saudi women have the right to drive?

Well, Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland just made it her business.

Repeatedly denouncing Riyadh’s arrest of women’s rights advocate Samar Badawi, Freeland has driven the two countries close to a break in diplomatic relations.

“Reprehensible” said Riyadh of Freeland’s tweeted attack. Canada is “engaged in blatant interference in the Kingdom’s domestic affairs.”

The Saudis responded by expelling Canada’s ambassador and ordering 15,000 Saudi students to end their studies in Canada and barred imports of Canadian wheat. A $15 billion contract to provide armored vehicles to Saudi Arabia may be in jeopardy.

Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, who has been backsliding on his promises to modernize the kingdom, appears to have had enough of Western lectures on democratic values and morality.

A week after Pope Francis denounced the death penalty as always “impermissible,” Riyadh went ahead and crucified a convicted murderer in Mecca. In Saudi Arabia, homosexuality can get you a death sentence.

Neither President Donald Trump nor the State Department has taken sides, but The Washington Post has weighed in with an editorial: “Human Rights Are Everyone’s Business.”

“What Ms. Freeland and Canada correctly understand is that human rights … are universal values, not the property of kings and dictators to arbitrarily grant and remove on a whim. Saudi Arabia’s long-standing practice of denying basic rights to citizens, especially women — and its particularly cruel treatment of some dissidents — such as the public lashes meted out to (Ms. Badawi’s brother) — are matters of legitimate concern to all democracies and free societies.

“It is the traditional role of the United States to defend universal values everywhere they are trampled upon and to show bullying autocrats they cannot get away with hiding their dirty work behind closed doors.”

The Post called on the foreign ministers of all Group of Seven nations to retweet Freeland’s post saying, “Basic rights are everybody’s business.”

But these sweeping assertions raise not a few questions.

Who determines what are “basic rights” or “universal values”?

Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy that has never permitted women to drive and has always whipped criminals and had a death penalty.

When did these practices first begin to contradict “universal values”?

When did it become America’s “traditional role” to defend women’s right to drive automobiles in every country, when women had no right to vote in America until after World War I?

In the America of the 1950s, homosexuality and abortion were regarded as shameful offenses and serious crimes. Now abortion and homosexuality have been declared constitutional rights.

Are they basic human rights? To whom? Do 55 million abortions in the U.S. in 45 years not raise an issue of human rights?

Has it become the moral duty of the U.S. government to champion abortion and LGBT rights worldwide, when a goodly slice of America still regards them as marks of national decadence and decline?

And if the Saudis are reactionaries whom we should join Canada in condemning, why are we dreaming up an “Arab NATO” in which Saudi Arabia would be a treaty ally alongside whom we would fight Iran?

Iran, at least, holds quadrennial elections, and Iranian women seem less restricted and anti-regime demonstrations more tolerated than they are in Saudi Arabia.

Consider our own history.

From 1865 to 1965, segregation was the law in the American South. Did those denials of civil and political rights justify foreign intervention in the internal affairs of the United States?

How would President Eisenhower, who used troops to integrate Little Rock High, have responded to the British and French demanding that America end segregation now?

In a newly de-Christianized America, all religions are to be treated equally and none may be taught in any public school.

In nearly 50 nations, however, Muslims are the majority, and they believe there is but one God, Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet, and all other religions are false. Do Muslims have no right to insist upon the primacy of their faith in the nations they rule?

Is Western interference with this claim not a formula for endless conflict?

In America, free speech and freedom of the press are guaranteed. And these First Amendment rights protect libel, slander, filthy language, blasphemy, pornography, flag burning and published attacks on religious beliefs, our country itself, and the government of the United States.

If other nations reject such freedoms as suicidal stupidity, do we have some obligation to intervene in their internal affairs to promote them?

Recently, The Independent reported:

“Since last year, hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of innocent Uighurs and other ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang region in northwest China have been unjustly arrested and imprisoned in what the Chinese government calls ‘political re-education camps.’ Thousands have disappeared. There are credible reports of torture and death among the prisoners. … The international community has largely reacted with silence.”

Anyone up for sanctioning Xi Jinping’s China?

Or do Uighurs’ rights rank below those of Saudi feminists?
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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, Saudi-Canada Clash, Values War To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Illegal Previously Deported With Long Rap Sheet Arrested for 10th Time

Sergio Nunez-Barrera

by Lucia I. Suarez Sang: A Mexican citizen who has been arrested by U.S. border agents at least nine times dating back to 2000 has been arrested for a 10th time.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection in the Great Lakes region revealed Thursday that Sergio Nunez-Barrera, a previously deported convicted felon, was arrested Tuesday on an outstanding warrant on burglary charges by the Lapeer County Sheriff’s Office.

Agents were contacted by the Lapeer Police Department to help identify a suspect as part of an ongoing investigation, according to CBP. When border agents questioned the man, he reportedly admitted that he had crossed into the U.S. illegally from Mexico in 2014.

The man was identified as Sergio Nunez-Barrera, from Mexico, and it was determined that he had been arrested by CBP nine times dating back nearly two decades.

Nunez-Barrera, whose age was not released, was convicted of improper entry by alien in September 2012 and sentenced to 30 days incarceration.

CBP said that Nunez-Barrera was turned over to the Lapeer County Sheriff’s Office and an immigration detainer was placed on him to be returned to immigration officials once he is released from the sheriff’s custody.

“This is [an] outstanding example of our law enforcement community working together and taking a criminal off the streets,” Chief Patrol Agent Douglas Harrison said in a statement.
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Lucia I. Suarez Sang (@luciasuarezsang) is a reporter for FoxNews.com.

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Tags: Nunez-Barrera, Illegal, Previously Deported, Long Rap Sheet, Arrested for 10th Time, Fox News, Lucia I. Suarez Sang To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Storm Clouds Gather Over Nation’s Largest Union

by Richard McCarty: The nation’s largest union had a run of good luck during the Obama years, but the last couple of years have been rough for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). For those not familiar with the union, SEIU claims 2 million members and is composed of janitors, security guards, child care workers, health care workers, bus drivers, social workers, grad students, and adjunct professors, among others.

During the 2016 election, SEIU vainly spent millions of dollars trying to elect Hillary Clinton. Weeks after Clinton lost, SEIU Texas declared bankruptcy, and SEIU International President Mary Kay Henry announced the union must plan for a 30 percent cut in SEIU International’s budget by the start of this year.

SEIU Texas filed for bankruptcy because it had lost a lawsuit and been ordered to pay $7.8 million to Professional Janitorial Services. The union had been angry that the company’s president refused to waive a secret-ballot unionization election so it had unfairly and maliciously attacked the company causing it to lose clients. Last summer, SEIU International bailed out SEIU Texas and confidentially settled the case.

Elsewhere, due to allegations of sexual harassment, three SEIU employees have been fired, two resigned, and another was suspended over the past year. Of these six employees, two were SEIU executive vice presidents, another was the national organizing director for SEIU’s Fight for $15 campaign, and two more were leaders of Fight for $15 campaigns in Chicago and Detroit.

In June, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in the Janus case. In its ruling, the Supreme Court found that it is a violation of government workers’ First Amendment rights to force them to pay fees to a union. The ruling also prohibits the deduction of union fees from the paychecks of government workers without their express consent. Unfortunately for SEIU, over half of its members work for the government so SEIU could lose a lot of members — and money — as a result of the decision.

In 2014, the National Right to Work Foundation (NRTWF) filed a class-action lawsuit against SEIU over the union’s burdensome requirements to opt-out of paying union fees. The suit was filed on behalf of tens of thousands of current and former California state employees. SEIU won the first round in federal district court. Undeterred by the loss, NRTWF filed an appeal with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In the wake of the Janus decision, NRTWF submitted a new filing in the case. If the plaintiffs win, SEIU could have to return over $100 million in fees collected over the past several years from workers who had not consented to paying the fees.

Last month, SEIU agreed to settle a case with an Oregon state worker who had been forced to pay union fees even though she opposes the union’s policy views. As part of the agreement, SEIU was to return nearly $3,000 to her. This could be the first of many such cases.

Finally, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have proposed rolling back an Obama era regulation that allowed union dues to be deducted from Medicaid checks sent to home healthcare providers. Many of these providers care for relatives or friends and did not wish to join SEIU. If the proposed regulation takes effect, it could prove costly to the union: SEIU has been skimming dues off of Medicaid checks for years and collects an estimated $200 million a year through this scheme.

Although it is unknown what the precise impact of these setbacks will be, it seems clear that SEIU will suffer some membership and financial losses. But don’t feel too bad for SEIU. Many of its problems are of its own making. Had it not forced workers to pay union fees and then used these workers’ money to pursue a, partisan, left-wing agenda, it might have avoided many of these problems.
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Richard McCarty is the Director of Research at Americans for Limited Government Foundation.

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Tags: Storm Clouds, Gather Over, Nation’s Largest Union, SEIU, Richard McCarty, 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!

Buying Guns

by Kerby Anderson, Contributing Author: A recent case before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals provides a window on what President Trump’s impact will be on the courts. Federal law makes it illegal to buy handguns across state lines. Several plaintiffs sued, arguing that this restriction violates the Second Amendment.

The case was originally heard before a three-judge panel, and the plaintiffs lost. Then they asked to have the case heard by the full Fifth Circuit Court of 15 judges. The plaintiffs lost again 8-7, but you can see how that might change in the future.

The court is supposed to have 17 seats, but at the time had two vacancies. A 16thjudge has now been confirmed, and another Trump appointee will be coming sometime in the future. You can see how they might change the vote the other way.

In previous commentaries, I have mentioned Judge James Ho. He wrote the primary dissent in the case. He reminded the court that “For decades, the Supreme Court has referred to the Second Amendment as a fundamental civil right, comparable to other provisions of the Bill of Rights.” He went on to complain that “the Second Amendment continues to be treated as a second-class right.”

He further makes the case that all of these restrictions infringe on “countless law-abiding citizens . . . to obtain a handgun.” Then he points out this discrepancy: We would never allow a law that would ban the sale of books across state lines, but apparently have no problem banning the sale of handguns across state lines. He also warned that “Law-abiding Americans should not be conflated with dangerous criminals.”

This recent case illustrates two points. First, the appointment by President Trump of additional judges on the court may change some of these rulings. Second, Judge James Ho is quickly becoming a judicial force worth watching.
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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: Buying Guns, Judge James Ho, 2nd Amendment, Buying 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!

No Other Options?

by Paul Jacob, Contributing Author:  Long I have criticized the Washington, DC, Metro — the transit authority in our nation’s imperial capital — most recently in March. But I am foursquare in support of the government body’s recent hazard warning: “Only take Metro if you have no other option.”

Good general principle.

But what’s the particular occasion? There will be “Major 24/7 Construction Activity” for 15 days in mid-August. The service is advising usage of buses and even freely-provided shuttle services to compensate for commuters stuck in the repairs.

Christian Britschgi, writing at Reason, actually dared ride one embattled line. He found what you might expect: a long history of lazy, perverse incompetence at Metro, bordering on corruption. When concrete started falling from the ceiling at one station in 2016, “an internal investigation . . . uncovered Metro safety inspectors at the station had taken to just cutting and pasting positive evaluations from prior year reports instead of actually checking for damage in some hard-to-reach areas of the station,” Britschgi explains

This is the kind of thing you expect to find in government. Why? Because we don’t allow government projects to go under, even after repeated and massive failures. Ignominy.

Should we be shocked, though? No. Spectacular non-success is close enough for government work. Markets work better because of important communication via profit and loss. Without that stick of loss, governments just take our taxes as their carrot.

Not a whole lot rides on actually serving riders.

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. Jacob is a contributing author on the ARRA News Service.

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Unsung Hero Who Financed the American Revolution, and His Lesson for Today

Robert Morris stands behind Major John Ross
as Betsy Ross sews the first American flag.
George Washington sits to the left. 

by Calvin Blaylock & Andrew P. McIndoe: The name that King George III is said to have called the “most damning name of all” on the Declaration of Independence was not that of Benjamin Franklin, John or Samuel Adams, or even John Hancock. Instead, it was businessman Robert Morris.

As the “financier of the revolution,” Morris deserves to be duly recognized for his role in the American founding.

Morris came from humble beginnings as an orphaned immigrant from England and served as an apprentice for a shipper-banker in Philadelphia. By age 24, Morris had already opened the London Coffee House while also leading a shipping and banking firm of his own. Through these endeavors, he quickly garnered wealth, influential connections, and renown in his community.

Excessive British interference in the corporate affairs of the American Colonies stirred Morris’ desire for liberty. The Stamp Act of 1765 was a particularly egregious infringement for businessmen like Morris, prompting him to assemble his fellow colonists and take to the streets in protest.

By inspiring those around him to defend their freedom, Morris’ efforts held the overreaches of the monarchy in check.

Encouraged by this success, Morris began discovering new methods to utilize his resources and connections to secure liberty. Working his way up through local governmental bodies, he found himself in the Second Continental Congress, for which he managed organizational capital and even began procuring war supplies from Europe in preparation for prospective large-scale conflict with England.

His network of distributors in the commercial shipping industry allowed him to identify and involve supporters—even those back in Europe—who were sympathetic to the budding revolution.

Despite Morris’ desire to rein in governmental overreach, he thought that talk of revolution was premature, and questioned whether the Colonies were yet in a position to govern themselves.

When the time came to vote on independence, Morris surprisingly dissented, because he thought the Colonies were not prepared for self-governance. Yet, witnessing the desire of the people to be set free, he abstained from voting for the sake of having the motion for American independence pass.

In a letter to Gen. Horatio Gates in 1776, Morris revealed that he was willing to set aside his personal thoughts on revolt because of how earnestly his fellow colonists desired it. “I am not one of those politicians that run testy when my own plans are not adopted; for I think it the duty of a good citizen to follow when he cannot lead,” he wrote.

He later gladly signed the Declaration of Independence.

George Washington liked Morris’ character and fundraising abilities so much that he maintained regular communication with him, penning more than 130 letters from 1776 to 1798.

One of Washington’s most pressing requests to Morris came as his army awaited the crossing of the Delaware for the famous Battle of Trenton. In this gloomy hour of the American Revolution, with his troops exhausted and downtrodden, Washington wrote to Morris asking for $10,000 to provide much-needed provisions for his troops.

Morris selflessly answered the call, donating $10,000 of his own funds. This provided the boost Washington needed for a decisive victory in Trenton, one that would inspire more troops to join his ranks.

Later in the revolution, during the Yorktown campaign of 1781, Morris would rise to the challenge again. The fledgling nation was fiscally faltering, so Morris decided to issue $1.4 million in notes backed by his own credit to keep the nation afloat.

As he noted in a letter to Benjamin Harrison, “My personal credit, which thank heaven I have preserved through all the tempests of the war, has been substituted for that which the country has lost … I am now striving to transfer that credit to the public.”

In fact, Morris was so highly respected that he secured many loans on behalf of the government with nothing but his integrity as collateral.

No other man single-handedly contributed more to funding the Revolutionary War. Morris truly lived out the words written in the declaration he signed, pledging his “life, fortune, and sacred honor” for the sake of his country.

His faithfulness in doing so should cement Morris as a hero in the minds of all Americans, but especially conservatives.

Our nation is once again at a crossroads between liberty and tyranny, with the ideals of the Founders challenged by the liberal left.

As Morris asserted in a letter to Col. Joseph Reed, “[I]t is the duty of every individual to act his part in whatever station his country may call him to in times of difficulty, danger, and distress.”

More than ever, we need generous conservatives to take up the mantle of Robert Morris and employ whatever skills and passions they have toward reclaiming America.
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Calvin Blaylock is a member of the Young Leaders Program & Andrew P. McIndoe is director of donor relations at The Heritage Foundation who shared in The Daily Signal.

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Tags: Robert Morris, Unsung Hero, Who Financed, the American Revolution, Calvin Blaylock, Andrew P. McIndoe, Heritage Foundation, 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!

‘America First’ Must Mean - Never Allowing Other Nations to Take Advantage of Us

Yes, Please!

by Seton Motley, Contributing Author: Donald Trump became President for a couple of fundamental reasons.

Immigration was certainly a key component. Building a border wall and enforcing our laws – resonated.

Putting an end to the US getting robbed over and over again by nations the world over – in awful trade deals, in Intellectual Property (IP) theft,… – resonated.

Engaging in massive regulations reduction and tax reform – all to make our companies more globally competitive – resonated.

The theme underlying all these victorious campaign tenets – was and is “America First.”

We no longer wish to be the world’s open house and welfare state.

We are no longer wish to cut awful, anti-US deals that suck trillions of dollars and millions of jobs out of our country.

We are no longer wish to sit idly by when outright thieves like China rob our IP creators blind – to the tune of trillions of dollars more.

And we are going to have DC engage in policy that actually helps our nation’s companies – rather than hampers their global efforts.

DCs decades-long imposition of “America Last” – was to end.

To get to America First – we must attend to things both great and small. This is the international-policy-version – of “Broken Windows” crime policy:
“(V)isible signs of crime, anti-social behavior and civil disorder create an urban environment that encourages further crime and disorder, including serious crimes.

“The theory thus suggests that policing methods that target minor crimes such as vandalism, public drinking and fare evasion help to create an atmosphere of order and lawfulness, thereby preventing more serious crimes.”Broken Windows works – because it is in tune with human nature. If you look unserious about the small things – where the required attention and effort is small – the bad guys will very quickly begin pushing the big things.

The bad guys will view as weak – as a push-over. Exactly against what Trump campaigned.

Internationally, Broken Windows application looks very much like this:

Malaysia Illegitimately Seized Jho Low’s Yacht:
“A lawyer for Low Taek Jho is criticising the Malaysian government for ‘illegitimately’ seizing Equanimity, the fugitive businessman’s luxury yacht.

“(A) spokesman for Low, also known as Jho Low, said the seizure of the US$250mil (RM1bil) yacht by the Malaysian authorities was against court rulings in Indonesia and the United States.

“The seizure showed ‘just how quickly the rule of law had disappeared….’

“‘It is a violation of an Indonesian law and court decision by a politically motivated Malaysian government bent on advancing its own political agenda with little regard to existing court rulings or basic legal rights….’”The yacht in question – was in the possession of US international law enforcement. And the Malaysian government – just took it.

Ok – some background on the yacht in question and its seizure.

The Story of Malaysia’s 1MDB, the Scandal That Shook the World of Finance:
“Malaysia’s state-owned investment fund, 1MDB, was supposed to attract foreign investment. Instead, it has spurred criminal and regulatory investigations around the world that have cast an unflattering spotlight on financial deal-making, election spending and political patronage under former Prime Minister Najib Razak….

“The U.S. Justice Department says more than $4.5 billion flowed from the fund, through a complex web of opaque transactions and fraudulent shell companies, to finance spending sprees by corrupt officials and their associates. Swiss investigators say up to $7 billion flowed through 1MDB and one of its units.

“The U.S. alleges that a small coterie of Malaysians, led by a businessman known as Low Taek Jho, diverted money from 1MDB into personal accounts disguised to look like legitimate businesses, and kicked back some of those funds to officials.

“Some of the money is alleged to have ended up with Najib and his family. That includes $681 million that landed in Najib’s personal bank account, according to U.S. prosecutors. Malaysia’s then attorney general, backed by Saudi authorities, said in 2016 the $681 million was a donation from the Saudi Arabian royal family, much of which was returned. U.S. investigators say the money instead came from, and was returned to, an offshore entity allegedly controlled by Low.”The US Justice Department is involved in prosecuting this mess – because US interests were a part of the fund’s giant web of corruption. Which means US interests lost giant coin.

Goldman Sachs Is Said to Be Under U.S. Scrutiny in Malaysian Inquiry

And we were the ones who – in the process of our prosecution of our case – seized Jho Low’s yacht. Which can – upon Jho Low’s conviction – be sold as a way to start making ripped off Jho Low victims…less ripped off.

And then the Malaysian government – took the boat from us.

Which means when this happens – we should say something.

US Secretary of State Pompeo Calls on Malaysia PM Mahathir: “‘The visit provides a great opportunity for both Malaysia and the United States of America to discuss a wide range of bilateral, regional and international issues of mutual interest,’ said a Wisma Putra statement.”

It also provides the US with a great opportunity – to demand Malaysia return the boat.

Mahathir – comfortably ensconced in the Prime Minister’s palatial digs in Kuala Lumpor – is probably enjoying a good laugh at our expense.

Look – we’re not here to prosecute the gigantic fund fraud case.

We’re here to say – there is no way the Trump Administration should allow Malaysia’s brazen act to stand.

We should immediately demand the Malaysian government return the yacht. And then immediately make sure they do.

An almost $1 billion yacht – is a really nice yacht. But in the grand scheme of the case – it’s relatively small.

But our allowing Malaysia to take and then keep it – sets a REALLY bad precedent.

It’s a Broken Window. If we allow Malaysia’s theft to stand – it says to nefarious actors the world over that Trump talked a good America First game…but didn’t so much mean what he said.

America First – must be enforced the way the Roman Empire enforced Civis Romans. As aptly described on TV’s “West Wing”:
“Did you know that a thousand years ago a Roman citizen could walk across the face of the known world free of the fear of molestation? He could walk across the Earth unharmed. Cloaked only in the words ‘Civis Romanus’ – ‘I am a Roman citizen.’

“So great was the retribution of Rome – universally understood as certain – should any harm befall even one of its citizens.”To prove he is serious on the big things – Trump must ensure enforcement of the small things.

Like getting back this yacht from Malaysia.
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Seton Motley is the President of Less Government and he contributes to ARRA News Service. Please feel free to follow him him on Twitter   /   Facebook.

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Tags: Seton Motley, Less Government, America First, Never Allowing, Other Nations, Take Advantage, USA, Malasya, stolen yacht To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Alex Jones, The NFL and Freedom Of Speech

by David Thornton: Activists on both sides want the government to referee freedom of speech.

The conservative world – or at least the right-wing world – was rocked this week with the news that Facebook, Apple and Spotify would ban Jones and his Infowars podcasts from their sites. Much of the right-wing reaction has focused on the question of freedom of speech and whether the internet giants have a duty to provide access to Jones’ conspiratorial ramblings.

The crux of the issue is that Facebook and the other companies are private entities. Because they are not part of the government, the First Amendment does not apply. The First Amendment only protects freedom of speech from being infringed upon by Congress, not private corporations.

In Facebook’s case, the waters are muddied by CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s claims that the social media giant is “a platform for all ideas” and that he is trying to “root out” bias in the company. If the company truly welcomes all ideas, then it should allow Jones to post his ideas, as reprehensible as they are, unless he violates the site’s terms of service.

Facebook should also set an objective standard to determine what is and isn’t “hate speech” and “bullying,” the vague terms that were used to justify Jones ouster from the site. The standards should be applied to both sides of the political spectrum. The list of political leftists who use hate speech is long and filled with people who are rarely held accountable for their words. Sarah Jeong is only the most recent example.

If freedom of speech is endangered by the left, many on the right are happy to attack the free speech rights of their political opponents as well. The most glaring example is the NFL kneeling controversy. President Trump overstepped his authority last year by calling on NFL team owners to fire players who kneeled to protest during the National Anthem. Many conservatives supported the president without stopping to think that the NFL, like Facebook, is a private organization.

In either case, the appropriate action for people who disagree with how the owners of Facebook and the NFL run their businesses would be to fire them. No one is forced to have a Facebook account or watch the NFL. If enough people vote with their wallets and stop sending their money to leftist companies, these policies may eventually change. The one thing that conservatives should agree on is that the government should not tell private companies how to run their business or what they should allow.

The idea that Big Government should referee the freedoms of speech and press is not new to the left, but should be an anathema to small government conservatives. At the very least, Republicans in favor of restricting speech should be aware that the government’s powers of censorship would almost certainly be turned against conservative outlets – or conspiracy sites like Infowars - by the next Democratic administration.

Where Voltaire famously said, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Modern Americans of all political stripes say, “What you say offends me, so you must be silenced.” The First Amendment applies to me, but not you.

Justice Louis Brandeis had a better idea. Noting that “Those who won our independence were not cowards” who feared political speech, Brandeis said that, for the problem of dangerous and evil speech, the “remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.” That’s a solution that all Americans should get behind.
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David Thornton (@captainkudzu) is a contributor to The Resurgent.

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Tags: David Thornton, The Resurgent, Alex Jones, The NFL, Freedom Of Speech To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Profiles in Treason: John Brennan

John Brennan, EX-CIA Director

by John Velisek, Contributing Author: CIA officials, including the upper echelons, are required to be apolitical. The main purpose of the CIA is to gather intelligence on America’s enemies and guarantee the safety and security of the citizens of this country. The administration of CIA chief John Brennan came nowhere near meeting this standard. Brennan used the CIA to lies for political ideological goals. This has been shown earlier when Brennan used the CIA to conduct illegal surveillance of the Senate Intelligence Committee and then lied about it.

This is the same Brennan who coerced the FBI into investigating this sham of Trump-Russia collusion using the unverified Steele dossier. In Brennan’s own words “Just because it is unverified doesn’t mean it isn’t true. This is the same Brennan that lied about NSA surveillance of American citizens and only avoided a perjury trial because he resigned, and the statute of limitations ran out because of obfuscation from the Obama administration. Brennan even had the audacity to proclaim he just gave the “least untruthful answer”. For anyone else, a lie like this would land them in jail. But the Obama administration and the sycophantic media ignored this crime, once again.

The administration of the CIA under the orders of Brennan operated as an offshoot of the Hillary campaign. Using spies and connections in England and Estonia, Brennan weaponized the CIA with the phony intelligence obtained through these sources in his attempt to delegitimize the Trump candidacy, to try and cause maximum political damage on the conservatives, and led a multiagency smear campaign that has led the government to end up in a sham of a Special Council investigation being used by the leftists to affect the midterms.

It was John Brennan who proudly admitted voting for Communist Party leader Gus Hall, and even now supports such fellow progressive socialists as Andrew McCabe, James Comey, and his partner in crime at the highest level, James Clapper. In March of 2016 The Moscow Times reported the John Brennan, still, head of the CIA made a secret visit to Moscow. At the time he met with the FSS the successor of the KGB, of which the man being demonized by Brennan, Vladimir Putin was a part.

His background and sympathies for the Muslim outlook was also a primary reason for the intense dislike he felt for Michael Flynn. It was Brennan who instigated the investigation of Michael Flynn after he had already been cleared by the FBI. It was Brennan who released the confidential transcripts of Flynn’s conversations with the Russian ambassador and made sure the press, long in Brennan’s pockets because of earlier leaks, to spread the supposed lies to Mike Pence by Flynn.

The latest unhinged tirade from this Muslim/socialist sympathizer is laughable. This self-important narcissist now claims “America will triumph over you…”

Brennan also sent an aggressive threatening tweet to both Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell claiming they will bear the “responsibility of the harm done to our democracy is President Trump does not stop his disastrous path”. First, we are a Republic, not a democracy, a difference any competent CIA Director would understand. Second, the path President Trump is following, less government control, lower taxes, and border security, is the one the majority of Americans back and understand. His tweet pertained to the definitive proof that the FBI had an informant in the Trump campaign.

He has already called for the executives in the Trump administration to refuse the orders of the President if they didn’t agree with the order. There is no doubt that Brennan and the others will continue to move forward in the adolescent ranting of impeachment and a coup to lead to civil war. It is all they have.

There is so much more to this web that Brennan has achieved. Passing the information to Harry Reid, who then wrote an open letter to James Comey which also happened to end up with the New York Times filled with lies and unverified innuendo. Or other agents and intelligence officials who were invested in a Clinton victory like former deputy of the CIA Mike Morell.

30 years CIA field operations officer Gene Coyle has said that “Brennan is known as the greatest sycophants in the history of the CIA and a big supporter of Hillary Clinton. What has not been made clear is that John Brennan, along with a multitude of others, is no longer part of any governmental decision process, and as such should have the clearances they are still using to leak to the press dismissed.

Thinking they are our betters, they understand that the media and those still in place will do the best they can to protect them. Drawing out the Mueller sham of an investigation until after the midterms will allow the progressive socialists to shut down the investigations in Congress. Then the Stalinist “show trials and investigations will begin. The impeachment process based on the banshee caterwauling of Mad Mouthy Maxine Waters will move forward if these slimy animals are allowed to take over Congress.
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John C. Velisek, retired Navy, retired Navy, is a California conservative and contributing author to the ARRA News Service. You can follow John's work on @sjspecialist on Twitter, One Patriots Opinion on Facebook.

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Tags: John Brennan, ex-CIA Direcor, Profiles in Treason, John C. Velisek, Intellectuaal Conservative To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!