Fighting Cowardly Institutional Tyranny

by Newt Gingrich: The anonymous op-ed published by The New York Times Wednesday is the most stunning proof we have seen so far of the liberal media’s aggressive bias and the very real efforts by parts of the institutional establishment to undermine the President, the U.S. Constitution, and the will of the American people.

In its fervor to attack the White House – and influence the midterm elections – The New York Times happily eschewed basic journalistic standards and offered its page and waning credibility to a nameless, disgruntled, elitist coward who seems to believe he or she has the moral authority to ignore and undermine the elected leader of the free world.

The paper’s editorial board clearly said it granted the writer anonymity to “deliver an important perspective” to readers and to protect the writer from losing his or her job. This is a naked endorsement of the subversive efforts described in the piece – The New York Times wants the author to keep it up.

The collusion between this supposed senior administration official (who could be one of thousands of minor-but-experienced appointees) and the newspaper (which is the standard bearer of elite media power) is also clear evidence that members of the old guard, institutional establishment are working to protect old Washington power structures and prevent the changes that the American people elected President Trump to bring to our country.

In the op-ed, the writer even describes him- or herself as a member of “the steady state.” That’s a catchy name for group of would-be mutineers. In my New York Times bestselling book Trump’s America: The Truth About Our Nation’s Great Comeback, I called them orderly institutionalist wing of the Anti-Trump coalition.

Don’t be fooled by their self-proclaimed patriotism, the members of this group are working on behalf of institutional processes – not the American people.

This op-ed is also a perfect depiction of the competing alternate reality the anti-Trump forces are trying to impose on the country.

If the President is so unhinged and incapable, why has North Korea said it wanted to work toward truly denuclearizing the peninsula? How is Trump and the Republican Party so close to seating a second constitutionally-focused Supreme Court Justice? How is the economy in its best shape in decades?

This coward who is hiding from the American people that pay his or her salary would have us believe the members of the so-called “steady state” are the ones achieving these goals – despite the fact that they’ve likely been in Washington for decades and were apparently incapable before President Trump took office.

This is egotistical, elitist Washington baloney.

Let’s be clear: This anonymous op-ed will do nothing to change anything about which its author complained. It will do nothing to quiet concerns that some Americans may have about the direction of the country. It will do nothing to help strengthen America on the world stage. It will only help fuel excitement for Democrats in November.

It is nothing but an extraordinary statement of arrogance from someone who didn’t run for office and won’t even tell the American people his or her name.

The only honorable, lawful course of action for the author is to publicly resign.

If this supposed patriot wants to steer our country’s future, he or she should ask the American people for permission first.
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Newt Gingrich is a former Georgia Congressman and Speaker of the U.S. House. He co-authored and was the chief architect of the "Contract with America" and a major leader in the Republican victory in the 1994 congressional elections. He is noted speaker and writer. The above commentary was shared via Gingrich Productions.

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Tags: Newt Gingrich, commentary, cighting, cowardly, The New York Times, institutional tyranny To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Desperate Democrats Trot Out Children to Testify Against Kavanaugh

A.J. Kramer, Aalayah Eastmond, Rebecca Taibleson
& Jackson Corbin are sworn-in before the Senate Judiciary
Committee during the confirmation hearings for Supreme
Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Friday, Sept. 7, 2018.
(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais via PJMedia)

by Paula Bolyard: If you want proof that our system is broken, you need only look at today's hearing on the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, where children who aren't old enough to vote testified against the nominee. The great sages of the Democratic Party are kids who know little-to-nothing about the role of the Supreme Court, as their testimonies demonstrated today.

First up was Parkland shooting survivor Aalayah Eastmond. "I am very concerned since learning Brett Kavanaugh’s views on guns, and how he would strike down any assault weapons ban," she explained — an opinion no doubt informed by her close reading of his opinions on the matter as well as her knowledge of precedents on the Second Amendment. (Or were they informed by her activist handlers on the left.) She also took the time to call out "Second Amendment extremist groups" and "other domestic terrorists."

"Like many of my brothers and sisters of color, I am not comforted by deputies with handguns, let alone assault rifles," she opined, which leads one to wonder whether Miss Eastmond and her media coaches have really thought through what would happen in, say, Chicago, if we disarmed the police.

Eastmond was followed by two children with chronic health problems, both of whom have apparently been led to believe that if Kavanaugh is confirmed, they will be banned from seeking treatment for their conditions and forced to breathe dirty air. Hunter Lechance, a 15-year-old asthma sufferer, warned that if Kavanaugh is confirmed it would mean "more air pollution, more asthma attacks, and more premature deaths for the millions of Americans unfortunate enough to be afflicted with asthma like me."

Jackson Corbin, a 13-year-old afflicted with Noonan Syndrome, begged senators not to "destroy protections for pre-existing conditions" that would leave him and others like him "without care or without the ability to afford our care – all because of who we are."

Unborn victims of Roe v. Wade were not available to testify at the hearings.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) followed their testimony with fear-mongering a solemn warning to the children that they're up against powerful and terrifying "forces" in the Republican Party who want dirty air and dirty water and who aren't afraid to parade phony scientists before the Senate to make sure people die from pollution. He also fingered the NRA, a shadowy organization that, in Whitehouse's opinion, is running a shadow government within the United States. Or something.

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) followed up by asking Eastmond what p0licies she would like to see enacted — again, highlighting how far off-track these hearings have gone. Rather than focusing on Kavanaugh's judicial philosophy and his legal opinions, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have chosen to focus on legislative issues that are the purvue of Congress — not the Supreme Court. They've paraded their personal legislative hobby horses before the cameras, suggesting that it's the role of a Supreme Court justice to craft legislation from the bench.

These children have every right to share their stories on their own terms and even have the right to petition the government to address their concerns. Their stories are heartbreaking and these kids need our prayers and our compassion.

But that doesn't mean we should listen to them, at least as far as the Supreme Court confirmation process is concerned.

They're children, after all, and their feeling and experiences should not determine who gets confirmed to the highest court in the land. But feelings and experiences are all the progressive left have at this point. The American people continue to reject the socialist-progressive model of government they're selling, so they rely on children, using them as props and rhetorical human shields to stir up emotions and evoke fear in the hearts of their constituents.

Aristotle, of course, famously said, "The law is reason free from passion," but for the modern left, there is no separation. "Passion," "emotions," and "experiences" — even those of children — are valued over and above reason, jurisprudence, and even the law in some cases.

Kids directly impacted by #RoevWade unavailable for comment, @TheDemocrats? #prolife https://t.co/QiAlrPcpms

— PJ Media (@PJMedia_com) September 8, 2018

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Paula Bolyard ( @pbolyard) is the supervising editor at PJ Media. She is co-author of Homeschooling: Fighting for My Children's Future.

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Tags: Desperate Democrats, Trot Out Children, to Testify Against, Justice Kavanaugh, Paula Bolyard, PJ Media To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Jobs Boom, Cooper vs. Booker, Deep State Update

Gary Bauer

by Gary Bauer, Contributing Author: Jobs Boom - The Trump economy created 201,000 new jobs in August, exceeding economists' expectations, and the unemployment rate remains historically low at 3.9%. Equally important, wages went up by 2.9%. Today's news comes on the heels of reports that weekly jobless claims hit a 49-year low. This is great news, my friends.

I know things must seem crazy in Washington right now. But the craziness isn't coming from the White House. It's coming from the left, which will do almost anything to try to stop the duly-elected president of the United States. (See next item.)

The media are trying to give you the impression that the White House is in complete meltdown, that the president is unfit for office, and that the West Wing is wracked by infighting and paranoia. That's fake news!

Earlier this week, I had dinner with Vice President Pence and a handful of conservative leaders. I can tell you that the vice president is optimistic and excited about the future.

Last week, I joined a hundred Christian leaders for a dinner in the West Wing with the president, first lady, and a dozen top White House officials. President Trump was confident, committed and looking for ways to fulfill the promises he made to the American people.

So take heart. And don't fall for the media's false narrative. The Trump/Pence team is committed to securing the border, slashing regulations, appointing conservative judges, and growing our economy.

Again, please pray for all of the people who are working hard to make America great again. And please, be certain that you cast your ballot this November to protect these hard-fought gains. But you can't vote unless you are registered, and many state deadlines are approaching fast.

Here's a final thought: The two big attacks against Trump this week were Bob Woodward's book and the anonymous New York Times op-ed.

What is so significant is that neither the book nor the op-ed allege any violation of the law or the Constitution by President Trump. Both are obsessing over style. In other words, both are much ado about nothing.

We've had a string of presidents in the past three decades whose style was impeccable. Anyone happy with politics as usual?

Style is not nearly as important as substance. And when it comes to policy, President Trump has done virtually everything that conservatives could have dreamed of.

Cooper vs. Booker - Here's a good example of the left-wing craziness. New Jersey Senator Cory Booker went on CNN yesterday for what he likely expected to be a softball interview. Instead, Anderson Cooper threw him a few curveballs over his performance in the Kavanaugh hearings.

Cooper grilled Booker for his publicity stunt of allegedly breaking the Senate rules when he released some of Kavanaugh's old emails, documents which had in fact been cleared for release.

You see, Booker is posturing for the 2020 campaign and trying to make himself into a hero of the left by being a "bad boy" or a martyr for the cause. But Cooper didn't seem to appreciate Booker's grandstanding.

Yet as I watched Booker repeatedly insist that he was so proud to have broken Senate rules, I kept asking myself, "What is he so proud of? When did rule-breaking become an admirable character trait among our politicians?"

I also thought about Judge Kavanaugh's children having to be taken out of the hearing room because of the left's outrageous antics. Yet, what if your child happened to walk into the room when this CNN interview was on? What kind of example is Booker setting with his bragging about breaking the rules?

Again, my friends, I just want to repeat a crucial point here: While we all bemoan the breakdown of civility and the acrimonious state of our union today, the left has led the charge in the coarsening of our culture in every conceivable way.

As I noted earlier this week, Donald Trump did not set the tone of the Robert Bork hearings.

Trump did not set the tone of the Clarence Thomas hearings.

Hundreds of conservatives did not disrupt the hearings when Barack Obama nominated Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.

Nor do conservatives shout down speakers and assault innocent people attending public rallies.

Conservatives do not protest our police officers or attempt to thwart the duly-enacted laws of this country.

Conservatives were not the ones in the streets in the 1960s, and they are not the ones violently "occupying" the streets today.

There are valid reasons why nearly 60% of Americans fear left-wing violence.

It is the left, not Donald Trump, that has taken America to the brink of anarchy.

Electing more left-wing extremists to Congress this November is definitely not the prescription for what ails America today.

Can you imagine a Congress dominated by Cory Bookers? That thought should compel every conservative to vote this November.

Deep State Update - There have been several developments in recent days that have largely flown under the radar amid the Labor Day holiday, the Kavanaugh hearings and the anonymous op-ed nonsense.

Fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is facing a grand jury investigation for perjury.

Rep. Mark Meadows is calling for a formal investigation into Justice Department official Bruce Ohr's contacts with British ex-spy Christopher Steele and the FBI. The Russia-collusion investigation had nothing to do with Ohr's job, and he had a serious conflict of interest given that his wife, Nellie, worked for Fusion GPS, which was paid by the Clinton campaign and had contracted with Steele to produce the infamous dossier. Yet it seems Ohr abused his position at Justice to steer the FBI's investigation in the direction that the Clinton campaign desired.

The Hill offers more details about Ohr's efforts to influence the investigation. In addition, there are reports that the FBI currently has "highly classified" information related to the George Papadopoulos case that is "indisputably exculpatory," meaning it could prove his innocence.

A dozen members of Congress held a press conference yesterday calling on President Trump to declassify records related to the secret FISA warrants used to spy on Carter Page, as well as FBI reports that contain "exculpatory evidence regarding Carter Page and others."

Joe diGenova said that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is also under investigation.

Two prosecutors, who assisted with Robert Mueller's indictments against Russian hackers for the 2016 election meddling, have recently left Mueller's team without a cloud of controversy. Some speculate that their departures may suggest that the Trump/Russian collusion investigation has run its course.Now if this much news related to Trump/Russian collusion had broken over the course of a few days, there would be non-stop coverage, and I guarantee you would know about every one of these stories. But because it is all about deep state collusion against Trump, the so-called "mainstream media" are obsessing about a book and an anonymous op-ed.

L'Shanah Tovah - To all of our Jewish friends and supporters, Carol and I wish you a happy Rosh Hashanah!
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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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The Democrats’ Political Theater

A Look Back at Democrats’ Conduct During Judge Kavanaugh’s Confirmation Hearings
“[F]rom liberal protesters caterwauling to Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) urging Kavanaugh to suspend his own hearing … one has to wonder: Was the chaos merely political theater? There’s plenty of evidence that it was, starting with a call that Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, allegedly placed to Democratic members of the committee over the weekend, encouraging them to join together in a mutual (but most likely futile) effort at obstruction.” (Damon Linker, “The Grandstanding Theatricality Of The Kavanaugh Hearings,” The Week, 7/05/2018)

Senate Democrats Cheered On The Protests And Disruptions…
SEN. DICK DURBIN (D-IL): “What we’ve heard is the noise of democracy.” (U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing, 9/04/2018)

“@SenWarren stopping by Hart atrium to thank protesters” (Demand Justice’s Diana Bowen, @DianaBowen, Twitter, 9/04/2018)

Sen. Gillibrand also met with protesters to thank them: SEN. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND (D-NY): “And I appreciate the fact that you are wearing those t-shirts that say ‘I am what is at stake’ …” (Sen. Gillibrand, @gillibrandny, Twitter, 9/04/2018)

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT): “I want to thank the many, many Americans who are paying attention to this hearing, not only in this room but also across the country. I want to thank them for their interest and indeed their passion. That is what sustains democracy … There is a t-shirt worn by a number of folks walking around this building. It says, ‘I am what’s at stake.’” (U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing, 9/04/2018)

“[Winnie] Wong [senior adviser to the Women’s March] said that she felt like her group had advocates in the hearing room on the dais, mentioning specifically Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris of California and Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii.” (“Meet The Protesters Interrupting Brett Kavanaugh’s Confirmation Hearing,” CNN, 9/05/2018)

…And Did Some Of Their Own Protesting And Disrupting
“Spoiling for a fight, some Democratic senators weighing 2020 presidential campaigns seized upon the opening moments of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s Senate confirmation hearings on Tuesday … One by one, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, including Kamala Harris of California, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Cory Booker of New Jersey, demanded that Republicans delay Kavanaugh’s hearing …” (“Potential 2020 Democrats Seize On Kavanaugh Senate Hearings,” The Associated Press, 9/04/2018)

• “[T]here is no time like a stately, nationally televised Supreme Court nomination hearing to grab the attention of the news media and amass valuable footage for future campaign commercials.” (“Democrats Grilling Kavanaugh Have Their Eyes on 2020,” The New York Times, 9/06/2018)

NBC’S KASIE HUNT: “Democrats plotted coordinated protest strategy over the holiday weekend and all agreed to disrupt and protest the hearing, sources tell me…. Dem leader @chuckschumer led a phone call and committee members are executing now” (NBC’s Kasie Hunt, @kasie, Twitter, 9/04/2018)

• “[Sen. Chuck] Schumer [D-NY] objected to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) request that the Judiciary Committee be allowed to continue its confirmation hearing … Such requests are usually granted routinely, but Schumer balked … McConnell decided to adjourn the Senate for the day to get around Schumer’s objection.” (“Democrats Force Senate To Adjourn To Protest Kavanaugh,” The Hill, 9/05/2018)

“Democratic senators opened Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing with an aggressive approach Tuesday, pushing to postpone the hearing and repeatedly interrupting the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman …” (“How Democrats Coordinated A Tense Start To Kavanaugh Hearing,” CNN, 9/04/2018)

• “Democrats continued to insist on a vote on their motions as the hearing veered seriously off track for more than an hour …” (The Washington Post, 9/04/2018)
• “[Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck] Grassley hadn’t even introduced Kavanaugh by name when [Sen. Kamala] Harris [D-CA] interjected … As Grassley tried to introduce Kavanaugh, [Sen. Amy] Klobuchar [D-MN] called for the hearing to be postponed as the two senators attempted to talk over each other. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., jumped in, asking that the hearing be adjourned, prompting loud cheers and applause in the room….” (“Potential 2020 Democrats Seize On Kavanaugh Senate Hearings,” The Associated Press, 9/04/2018)

‘A Nationwide Campaign To Disrupt The Confirmation Process’
Around 70 people were arrested ‘for outbursts and disruptions’ during each of the first 3 days of the Judiciary Committee hearing on Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination. “Protesters Urged To Disrupt Brett Kavanaugh Hearings: ‘These Are Not Normal Times,’” USA Today, 9/05/2018; “Capitol Police Arrest 73 In Kavanaugh Protests Wednesday,” Washington Examiner, 9/05/2018; “69 Protesters Arrested on Day 3 of Kavanaugh Hearing,” Roll Call, 9/06/2018)

“The protesters are part of a nationwide campaign to disrupt the confirmation process…. "My goal is for this nomination to not go through," said Alison Dreith, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri, who was one of the people arrested Tuesday…. Dreith acknowledged that the numbers are on Kavanaugh’s side but said she and other protesters are hoping to bolster Democrats on the committee …” (“Shout, Arrest, Repeat: Inside The Kavanaugh Hearing Protests,” The Associated Press, 9/05/2018)

• “A coalition of groups opposing Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination urged protesters to travel from throughout the U.S. to disrupt his Senate confirmation hearings this week …” (“Protesters Urged To Disrupt Brett Kavanaugh Hearings: ‘These Are Not Normal Times,’” USA Today, 9/05/2018)
• “Soon after the Kavanaugh hearings were scheduled, the Center for Popular Democracy Action worked with other advocacy groups, including the Women’s March, Ultraviolet and NARAL, to urge supporters to flood the capital, Epps-Addison said…. Rachel O’Leary Carmona, chief operating officer of the Women’s March, confirmed that her group had coordinated a plan to disrupt the hearings. That included offering lodging to traveling protestors and ‘jail and bail support,’ if necessary.” (“Protesters Urged To Disrupt Brett Kavanaugh Hearings: ‘These Are Not Normal Times,’” USA Today, (9/05/2018)
• “Wong also advised there are approximately 20 groups present here in DC -- and emphasized that the groups are getting along and coordinating and supporting one another…. The group has been organizing around these Supreme Court hearings for about a month, she estimated.” (“Meet The Protesters Interrupting Brett Kavanaugh’s Confirmation Hearing,” CNN, 9/05/2018)
• “‘This is well-organized and scripted. This isn’t chaos,’ Wong said outside the hearing rooms.” (“Meet The Protesters Interrupting Brett Kavanaugh’s Confirmation Hearing,” CNN, 9/05/2018)
• “Carla from Silver Spring, Maryland, who did not share her last name, donned her red cape and white bonnet on Tuesday and Wednesday to protest Kavanaugh’s nomination. She told CNN that their group was organized by Demand Justice, a liberal advocacy group…. She indicated that later in the day she planned to take off her outfit to go inside the hearing room to protest. ‘I’m hoping I get arrested,’ she said.” (“Meet The Protesters Interrupting Brett Kavanaugh’s Confirmation Hearing,” CNN, 9/05/2018)
• “For her part, Wong was arrested Monday along with Women’s March co-founders Linda Sarsour and Bob Bland. She recounted what she yelled from the back of the room …” (“Meet The Protesters Interrupting Brett Kavanaugh’s Confirmation Hearing,” CNN, 9/05/2018)

DEMAND JUSTICE’S BRIAN FALLON: “The protesters are all heroes.” (Brian Fallon, @brianefallon, Twitter, 9/04/2018)

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Tags: Democrats’ Political Theater, a look back, Democrats’ Conduct, Judge Kavanaugh, Confirmation Hearings To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Another Day, Another Company Severs Ties With Firearm Industry

by Tom Knighton: Once upon a time, companies didn’t think about cutting off customers. Not really.

Most companies understand that there aren’t enough customers out there where you can afford to shut out an entire segment of the population. You want to have as many customers as possible, and that means treating them well and not alienating them. Or, at least it did.

Today, companies are not just willing to alienate whole swaths of their potential customer base, but now seem to be actively shunning customers simply because of politics.


Second Call Defense serves tens of thousands of America’s gun owners. They provide support, including legal insurance to those who lawfully use their firearms to defend innocent life from criminal attack. Now, however, Second Call has joined the ranks of gun-related companies that have been victimized by corporate gun control bigots.

Without any notice to Second Call, their insurance administrator, AmWINS, mailed certified letters to all of Second Call’s members. Inside, a “Notice of Nonrenewal of Insurance” informing members that their policies would not renew in October. In one Guns Save Life member’s case, that meant his coverage would terminate on 10/13/2018.

… Insurance administrators handle the transaction processing, billing and other tasks. And in this case, AmWINS no longer has the backs of Second Call’s members or Second Call Defense.

“They [AmWINS] just decided they were not going to offer this anymore in today’s political environment,” Marquet told me. He said Second Call’s leadership had no idea of AmWINS’ decision until their members began calling with questions and concerns.The Truth About Guns reports that Second Call was caught off guard by AmWINS’s decision. Especially since they bypassed Second Call and sent the notice directly to the customers.

Here’s the problem with this, though. While AmWINS is free to do business or not do business with anyone it wants, its stunt is just the latest salvo as anti-gun companies try to hurt the firearm industry by denying them services, often services they’ve been providing for years prior without any issue.

This is contributing to the increasing divisiveness in this country. It’s a kind of economic civil war, where soon companies will have to openly wear their allegiances on their sleeves so customers can pick and choose based on politics and not price. It’s sad, but this is a precedent that will probably soon become the norm.

And the Left will, undoubtedly, become outraged when its preferred groups can’t open bank accounts or get other services they need. I mean, look at how they react over a freaking wedding cake.

But somehow this is acceptable? Well, yeah, but only because these are companies involved in the firearm industry. In other words, it’s hypocrisy. It’s fine to do this to your opponents, but if it happens to you? Whoa, Nelly.

The thing is, it will happen to them. They’re creating lines in business that shouldn’t exist. Once they’re there, however, they’re not going to be a one-way street. They’re going to feel this themselves, and when they do, I’ll be enjoying the schadenfreude.

In the meantime, though, we all need to be careful of which businesses we align with, just in case.
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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 and also contributes to PJ Media.

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Who Is Andrew Gillum?

. . . A closer look at the politics of the Democratic candidate for Florida governor.

Andrew Gillum

by Discover The Networks: A few days ago, 39-year-old Andrew Gillum – the Tallahassee, Florida mayor who proudly embraces the socialist political and economic agenda of Bernie Sanders – won his party's gubernatorial primary race in that state. This sets the stage for November, when Gillum will face Republican Ron DeSantis in the election for governor. Gillum's campaign has been endorsed not only by Sanders, but also by Our Revolution, an activist organization that explicitly promotes the Vermont senator's agenda.

Gillum has a long history of political activism that stretches back to his school days. When he was enrolled at Florida A&M University, for instance, he was very active in the Student Government Association. In early 2000, Gillum helped organize a large “March on Tallahassee” to protest Governor Jeb Bush's 1999 executive order abolishing affirmative action in state university admissions and state contracting. To reward Gillum's activism vis-a-vis this and other matters, the Center for Policy Alternatives recognized him as the nation's top student leader in 2001.

In 2002, Gillum became the Florida Field Organizer with the People For the American Way Foundation (PFAWF), spearheading its “Arrive With 5” initiative – a pro-Democrat voter-mobilization campaign whereby young people pledged to bring five additional voters with them to the polls on Election Day.

In 2003, the Florida Democratic Party recruited Gillum to serve as its interim Political Director, but before long he returned to his previous position with PFAWF. Also in 2003, Gillum was elected to the Tallahassee City Council, a post he would hold for the next 11 years.

In late 2004, Gillum, in addition to his City Council duties, became the National Deputy Director of PFAWF's “Young People For” program, a campus-based initiative designed to develop young leftist leaders across the United States. In 2006 he established the Young Elected Officials Network, which had a similar mission. The leading funder of this organization was George Soros's Open Society Institute. Soros, of course, is the multi-billionaire who has long bankrolled a myriad of far-left causes.

In 2014, Gillum was elected Mayor of Tallahassee. Two years later, he was given a platform from which to speak at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

On a variety of key political issues, Gillman:

• strongly favors the expansion of Obamacare as a step toward a government-run, single-payer, “Medicare-for-all” healthcare system;
• strongly favors government-enforced affirmative action policies designed to compensate nonwhites and women for the effects of past and present discrimination;
• strongly favors a steeply progressive income-tax structure where high earners pay disproportionately high rates, and where corporate taxes are increased significantly;
• strongly favors the implementation of a pathway-to-citizenship for illegal aliens;
• strongly favors the enactment of carbon taxes, higher CAFE standards for automobiles, and federal funding for the research-and-development of wind and solar power technology;
• strongly opposes Voter ID laws as racist schemes that are designed to suppress minority voting;
• believes that the enactment of voucher programs through which low-income parents can take their children out of substandard public schools and send them instead to superior private schools, constitutes bad public policy;
• believes that the availability of guns should be severely restricted, even for law-abiding citizens who have never been convicted of a crime, and that the 2nd Amendment does not guarantee Americans the right to possess a firearm;
• supports a complete ban on so-called “assault weapons”;
• believes that the federal government should inject large amounts of funding – in the form of cash as well as federal job-creation programs – to help the U.S. economy recover from downturns that it may experience;
• believes that the nationalization of banks and corporations is more appropriate than government bailouts of those entities when they fail economically;
• calls for a national $15-per-hour minimum wage requirement for all workers; and
• advocates the repeal of Florida’s “stand-your-ground” gun laws which permit people to use deadly force if they feel that their lives are threatened by an aggressor or assailant.

Gillum also has released a video demanding that President Trump be impeached because he allegedly “obstructed justice” by firing former FBI Director James Comey.

The two leading individual donors to Gillum's 2018 campaign have been George Soros and another left-wing billionaire, Tom Steyer. Scarcely two weeks ago, Soros, who already had contributed $1 million to Gillum’s Forward Florida political committee, announced that he was giving $250,000 more. And Steyer, who had previously funneled $500,000 to Forward Florida, pledged another $300,000. “I’m obviously deeply appreciative of Mr. Soros, as well as Mr. Steyer, both men who I’ve known them for some time,” said Gillum. The most recent Soros/Steyer donations coincided with a $3.5 million get-out-the-vote effort by a coalition of pro-Gillum leftist organizations.

In addition to his political activities, Gillum also serves as a Board of Directors member with the New World Foundation, a far-left entity that was once chaired by none other than Hillary Clinton.
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FrontPage Mag: Discover the Networks

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Kavanaugh Soars Over Keystone Kop Democrats

Ken Blackwell

by Ken Blackwell, Contributing Author: It was worthy of a Saturday Night Live skit, but Lorne Michaels probably would’ve turned it down. SNL has leaned heavily left since Donald Trump’s election, and the show’s creator and executive producer would’ve understood the humor in how clueless Senate Democrats came across during Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing – but he probably wouldn’t bring himself to showcase how awful they really looked.

Despite the Senate Judiciary Committee’s being the most politically polarized committee in Congress, there’s still usually a sense of seriousness during a Supreme Court confirmation hearing. Not this time.

Over the four days of hearings – two of which Judge Kavanaugh went well into the night answering Senators’ questions – there were well over a hundred interruptions by protesters. And when Democratic Senators did ask questions, they did their image no good whatsoever.

For his part, Kavanaugh was masterful in fielding every question, befitting a confident 12-year veteran of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals bench, the second most important court in the country. The American people saw a judge’s judge – he will fairly apply the law, he will honor the Constitution, he won’t make up law out of whole cloth or impose any kind of agenda from the bench. It’s clear, as with Neil Gorsuch, President Trump had hit another home run with a man who’ll be another great justice.

For the Democrats, it was just plain ugly. Leading the parade were two committee members who’ve made it no secret they’re running for President in 2020.

For Senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), the hearings were their own little “Kavanaugh Primary” within the primary contest for the Democratic nomination. They were expected to try and outdo each other in appealing to their party’s base, but what happened instead was a literal comedy of errors.

During his first opportunity to question Kavanaugh, Booker tried to ambush the judge with emails from the time he served in the George W. Bush White House as an associate counsel and later as staff secretary. Kavanaugh calmly kept asking Booker if he could please see a copy of the emails to which the Senator was referring – so he could accurately answer his question. But they were not provided.

Early the next morning Booker pronounced he was releasing documents, including the emails to which he had referred the day before, in what he believed to be a brazen display of flouting Senate rules for the public good. He said he was releasing confidential documents that were being withheld by the committee so the public could see them, and he would accept the consequences. He even proclaimed: “This is the closest I’ll ever get in my life to an ‘I am Spartacus’ moment.”

But it turned out Senate Democrats had gotten clearance to release them several hours prior. Spartacus had lied to us.

Not to be outdone, Harris tried to ambush Judge Kavanaugh as well. It was late Wednesday night, she was one of the last Senators to question Kavanaugh during what had been a long, grueling day. She glared at him, knowing the cameras were capturing every moment, and sprung her gotcha question: “Have you discussed [Special Counsel] Mueller or his investigation with anyone at Kasowitz Benson and Torres, the law firm founded by Marc Kasowitz, President Trump’s personal lawyer. … Be sure about your answer sir.” Cue the gotcha music: “Bumm-Pumm-PUMMMMMM.”

Kavanaugh couldn’t recall any such conversation but, as he told Harris, he was happy to have his memory refreshed if she was aware of anything. She played coy. Her staff told reporters throughout the night and into the next day of the hearings that she had it on good information such discussions had taken place.

Surely she had him, she had damning information about Kavanaugh inappropriately discussing the Mueller investigation with the President’s personal law firm, and he was the President’s pick for the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court could well hear arguments in the Mueller investigation. Game over, right?

Wrong.

When she asked him the same question directly the next night he flatly said, “no.” And then … she politely moved on. It was all made up, nothing to see here. Fishing expedition comes up empty.

Even the Washington Post noted how both 2020 aspirants “took headline grabbing but shaky steps to put their opposition to Trump and Kavanaugh on full display for the country.” Typically supportive of liberal Democratic leaders, this was the Post’s way of saying Booker and Harris looked more like Keystone Kops than contenders for the Oval Office.

Saturday Night Live’s Lorne Michaels might put it another way. When the show first started, the comedians were called “The Not Ready for Prime Time Players.”

While Kavanaugh demonstrated he was ready for the Supreme Court, these two White House wannabes showed they’re clearly not ready for prime time.
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Ken Blackwell (@kenblackwell) is a former ambassador to the U.N., a former Domestic Policy Advisor to the Trump Presidential Transition Team, and former Ohio State Treasurer and mayor of Cincinnati who currently serves as an advisor to the Family Research Council in Washington, DC. and on the boards of numerous conservative policy organizations. He is a contributing author to the ARRA News Service

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Tags: Ken Blackwell, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, SCOTUS, confirmation hearing, Keystone Kop, Democrats To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Democrats' Visions of Hand Signals From White Supremacists

Michael Barone

by Michael Barone: The highlight, at least for some television watchers, of the first day of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, came when the young woman seated directly behind the nominee rested her right hand on her opposite elbow and pressed her index fingertip against her thumb, forming a kind of circle or OK sign.

The meaning of this gesture was not lost on certain alert viewers. "Who is she? What's up with the white power sign?" tweeted one Keith R. Dumas, quoted by the Daily Caller.

Elucidating tweets streamed in. From TV actor Kelly Mantle: "This neo-nazi is Zina Bash. She's intentionally throwin up White Power signs at a Supreme Court Justice confirmation hearing. On national TV. She works for Kavanaugh & is also one of the writers for Trump's immigration policy. This is their new Amerikkka."

Author Jamie Ford: "Zina Bash, who works for Kavanaugh, quietly flashing the white power sign. Welcome to the dystopia, folks."

Tommy Christopher, writer for George Soros-funded website: "The woman sitting behind Kavanaugh giving what appears to be a white supremacist 'Pepe' salute has been identified as Zina Bash, member of Trump's transition, domestic policy, and now SCOTUS team."

Dr. Eugene Gu: "Kavanaugh's former law clerk Zina Bash is flashing a white power sign behind him during his Senate confirmation hearing. They literally want to bring white supremacy to the Supreme Court. What a national outrage and a disgrace to the rule of law."

These people and the scores who tweeted in their support do not seem to have been deterred a bit by learning that Zina Bash is the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors and her mother is a native of Mexico. Not a likely white supremacist.

They seem not to have wondered why a white supremacist would find it necessary or useful to communicate such beliefs by an obscure hand gesture when so many other forms of communication are readily available -- and can be concealed more readily from alert eyes like their own.

They seem to find it inconceivable that not everyone knows the hand gesture recognized universally and for many years in this country as signifying OK is now recognized just as universally as signifying support of white supremacy.

In other words, they have taken leave of their senses.

Alas, this does not appear to be an isolated phenomenon. It brings to mind the weeks of anticipation and preparation by the news media for the Washington rally of the so-called alt-right on the one-year anniversary of the Charlottesville rally. Dozens of camera crews were dispatched, multiple announcements and warnings of possible violence issued. Speculation proliferated about possible clashes between white supremacists and their critics.

But when the day came, there were no more than 20 demonstrators on hand. As The New York Times' Richard Fausett noted, they were "finding themselves greatly outnumbered by counterprotesters, police officers and representatives of the news media."

Well, yes. The hearing viewers so alert to supposed white-supremacist dog whistles and the news media that overstaffed and overhyped the supposed alt-right rally are both operating on the assumption -- usually unvoiced but unquestioned despite lack of evidence -- that millions and millions of Americans are white supremacists, yearning for the days when blacks were strictly segregated and nonwhite immigrants almost entirely blocked from entering the country.

The United States, in their view, continues to be an irredeemably racist country, the message of best-selling writer Ta-Nehisi Coates. "America's progress on race has been minimal, despite pretty window dressing here and there," as Columbia University's John McWhorter summarizes this view, with "no reason to hope things will get any better." McWhorter calls the view "melodramatic and even unempirical."

The view that some large body of Americans wants to go back to something that can be called white supremacy is even more melodramatic and less empirical. It suits the emotional needs of those still unwilling to accept or be reconciled to the fact that Donald Trump won the presidential election, and who bitterly cling to a delusional belief in their own intellectual and moral superiority.

Do these people expect anyone beyond their claque to take them seriously? There are plenty of reasons to criticize Donald Trump and oppose Republican policies. These are things reasonable people disagree about. But focusing on hidden hand signals and phantom masses of white supremacists is just plain nuts. Democrats need to keep the signals from getting out of hand.
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Michael Barone is a Senior Political Analyst for the Washington Examiner and a Resident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a Fox News Channel  and co-author of The Almanac of American Politics Shared by Rasmussen Reports.

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Tags: Michael Barone, editorial, Rasmussen Reports, Democrats, Visions of Hand Signals, White Supremacists To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Booker's 'Spartacus' Circus Act

The NJ senator falsely claims to break Senate rules in order to falsely label Kavanaugh a racist.

by Thomas Gallatin: “I am going to release the email about racial profiling and I understand that the penalty comes with potential ousting from the Senate,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-2020) dramatically announced on Thursday, the final day of the hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. He further opined of these Kavenaugh records and his actions, “I hope that they will bring charges against us and I am ready to accept with full responsibility what I have done.” In what might best be described as the climax of Booker’s disingenuous theatrics, he waxed eloquent, “This is about the closest I’ll probably ever have in my life to an ‘I am Spartacus’ moment.”

Before nominating him for an Academy Award, there’s just one problem: Soon after the performance was over, the claims of Booker’s “rebellion” quickly began to fall apart.

First, regarding the “confidentiality” of the emails, a representative from the George W. Bush library records, Bill Burck, stated, “We cleared the documents last night shortly after Senator Booker’s staff asked us to.” He added, “We were surprised to learn about Senator Booker’s histrionics this morning because we had already told him he could use the documents publicly. In fact, we have said yes to every request made by the Senate Democrats to make documents public.” And the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmed that “restrictions were waived before 4 a.m. this morning and made ready for release. The senators were notified of this before speaking began this morning.” So, in short, the emails were not confidential and Booker was fully aware of this fact before he introduced them as such.

Second, Booker’s claim that the emails seemingly revealed that Kavanaugh had expressed racial bias by having approved of the practice of “racial profiling” proved to be unfounded — in fact, they showed exactly the opposite. In commenting on racial profiling following the government’s response to national security issues after the 9/11 attacks, Kavanaugh wrote, “The people who favor some use of race/natl origin [sic] obviously do not need to grapple with the ‘interim’ question. But the people (such as you and I), who generally favor effective security measures that are race-neutral in fact DO need to grapple — and grapple now — with the interim question of what to do before a truly effective and comprehensive race-neutral system is developed and implemented.” Clearly, Kavanaugh was concerned about race in profiling.

Finally, the real reason behind Booker’s theatrics is his posturing for a 2020 presidential run. In an interview on Fox News, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) observed, “That’s not the Cory Booker that I know that I watched on television. That is someone that is trying to position himself as the frontrunner so he can take on Donald Trump.” This explains why in a CNN interview, Booker continued to stick to his demonstrably false narrative, repeatedly insisting, “I am breaking the rules. … I am breaking the sham rules.” You see, he needs to maintain his “street cred” as a resistance warrior or risk losing his leftist base.
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Thomas Gallatin is the editor and also writes for The Patriot Post.

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Tags: Sen. Cory Booker, Spartacus Circus Act, Thomas Gallatin, The Patriot Post   To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Regime Change — American Style

by Patrick Buchanan: The campaign to overturn the 2016 election and bring down President Trump shifted into high gear this week.

Inspiration came Saturday morning from the altar of the National Cathedral where our establishment came to pay homage to John McCain.

Gathered there were all the presidents from 1993 to 2017, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, Vice Presidents Al Gore and Dick Cheney, Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and Henry Kissinger, the leaders of both houses of Congress, and too many generals and admirals to list.

Striding into the pulpit, Obama delivered a searing indictment of the man undoing his legacy:

“So much of our politics, our public life, our public discourse can seem small and mean and petty, trafficking in bombast and insult and phony controversies and manufactured outrage. … It’s a politics that pretends to be brave and tough but in fact is born of fear.”

Speakers praised McCain’s willingness to cross party lines, but Democrats took away a new determination: From here on out, confrontation!

Tuesday morning, as Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court began, Democrats disrupted the proceedings and demanded immediate adjournment, as scores of protesters shouted and screamed to halt the hearings.

Taking credit for orchestrating the disruption, Sen. Dick Durbin boasted, “What we’ve heard is the noise of democracy.”

But if mob action to shut down a Senate hearing is the noise of democracy, this may explain why many countries are taking a new look at the authoritarian rulers who can at least deliver a semblance of order.

Wednesday came leaks in The Washington Post from Bob Woodward’s new book, attributing to Chief of Staff John Kelly and Gen. James Mattis crude remarks on the president’s intelligence, character and maturity, and describing the Trump White House as a “crazytown” led by a fifth- or sixth-grader.

Kelly and Mattis both denied making the comments.

Thursday came an op-ed in The New York Times by an anonymous “senior official” claiming to be a member of the “resistance … working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his (Trump’s) agenda.”

A pedestrian piece of prose containing nothing about Trump one cannot read or hear daily in the media, the op-ed caused a sensation, but only because Times editors decided to give the disloyal and seditious Trump aide who wrote it immunity and cover to betray his or her president.

The transaction served the political objectives of both parties.

While the Woodward book may debut at the top of The New York Times best-seller list, and “Anonymous,” once ferreted out and fired, will have his or her 15 minutes of fame, what this portends is not good.

For what is afoot here is something America specializes in — regime change. Only the regime our establishment and media mean to change is the government of the United States. What is afoot is the overthrow of America’s democratically elected head of state.

The methodology is familiar. After a years-long assault on the White House and president by a special prosecutor’s office, the House takes up impeachment, while a collaborationist press plays its traditional supporting role.

Presidents are wounded, disabled or overthrown, and Pulitzers all around.

No one suggests Richard Nixon was without sin in trying to cover up the Watergate break-in. But no one should delude himself into believing that the overthrow of that president, not two years after he won the greatest landslide in U.S. history, was not an act of vengeance by a hate-filled city that ran a sword through Nixon for offenses it had covered up or brushed under the rug in the Roosevelt, Kennedy and Johnson years.

So, where are we headed?

If November’s elections produce, as many predict, a Democratic House, there will be more investigations of President Trump than any man charged with running the U.S. government may be able to manage.

There is the Mueller investigation into “Russiagate” that began before Trump was inaugurated. There is the investigation of his business and private life before he became president in the Southern District of New York. There is the investigation into the Trump Foundation by New York State.

There will be investigations by House committees into alleged violations of the Emoluments Clause. And ever present will be platoons of journalists ready to report the leaks from all of these investigations.

Then, if media coverage can drive Trump’s polls low enough, will come the impeachment investigation and the regurgitation of all that went before.

If Trump has the stamina to hold on, and the Senate remains Republican, he may survive, even as Democrats divide between a rising militant socialist left and the Democrats’ septuagenarian caucus led by Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, John Kerry, Bernie Sanders and Nancy Pelosi.

2019 looks to be the year of bellum omnium contra omnes, the war of all against all. Entertaining, for sure, but how many more of these coups d’etat can the Republic sustain before a new generation says enough of all this?
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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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Second Civil War - 2

by Kerby Anderson, Contributing Author: Many writers have talked about the fact that America seems to be in the midst of what is often called a civil war of values. Victor Davis Hanson provides an in-depth analysis of “The Origins of Our Second Civil War.”

Globalization, he says, “had an unfortunate effect of undermining national unity.” While some became billionaires in high tech and finance, most other Americans lost out. To make matters worse, the elites blamed the losers, clingers, and deplorables for driving industries out of the country because they were too racist or xenophobic to get with the globalist agenda.

High tech, he also argues, had a way of disguising poverty. “Suddenly the lower middle class and the poor had in their palms the telecommunications power of the Pentagon of the 1970s, the computing power of IBM in the 1980s, and the entertainment diversity of the rich of the 1990s.” At the same time, the new normal was two parents at work, renting instead of buying, and an eight-year car loan instead of a three-year car loan.

Higher education helped split the country in two. But not only were universities becoming more leftwing, but they were also becoming far more intolerant than they were in the radical 1960s.

Illegal immigration changed America in significant ways. Progressives wanted a new demographic to vote for leftist politicians, while conservatives wanted a pool of cheap, unskilled labor. These waves of immigrants changed the Electoral College map and ushered in tribalism and calls for more diversity.

Victor Davis Hanson has some suggestions about what might bring the United States together. One solution he mentions is a “religious and spiritual reawakening.” Yes, there are political and economic solutions, but perhaps the most important is the need for revival. That may the most important antidote to a country headed for a “Second Civil War.”
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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, Second Civil War - 2, Victor Davis Hanson, Origins of Our Second Civil 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!

Spartacus 2020

. . . Cory Booker is exploiting the Kavanaugh Hearing to grandstand to make way for his presidential run in 2020.

Editorial Cartoon by AF "Tony" Branco

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Until the Fat Lady Offends

by Paul Jacob, Contributing Author: We live in a new Age of Offense. A whole lot of people make a whole lot of fuss about what other people say and listen to, view and experience.

Then again, some things are enormously offensive.

One of the latest offense-takings takes place in Israel, where a classical music station played music by Richard Wagner. And so of course had to apologize.

The music played was from the final opera in Wagner’s Ring Cycle. Not my cup of tea. Or coffee. Or latte. As those who follow me on Facebook know, I have varied musical tastes, but more classic rock than classical.

Israelis who listen to classical tend to be none too fond of Wagner not because he was an especially bad composer (I’m told he is a “Great”) but because he was very much an anti-Semite, and Hitler’s favorite composer.

“While there is no law in Israel banning the German composer’s works from being played,” The Telegraph informs us, “orchestras and venues refrain from doing so because of the public outcry and disturbances accompanying past attempts.”

Understandable.

Still, some Israelis do like Wagner’s music. But since the radio station is State-owned and -controlled, the Israel Wagner Society’s president’s admonishment that “Whoever doesn’t want to hear the music can always turn the radio off,” doesn’t quite work.

That would apply only were the station owned by the Israel Wagner Society — willing to bear the loss of customers one might expect in Israel.

In America, of course, Wagner is often on the air.

And those who object . . . turn the dial.

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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3 Takeaways From Day 3 of Kavanaugh’s Confirmation Hearings

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh
answered questions from senators on
 Day Three of his confirmation hearing. 

by Thomas Jipping & Elizabeth Slattery : After a marathon 13 hours of questioning on Wednesday, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings continued Thursday with more questions from the senators.

Protesters continued to punctuate the senators’ questions throughout the day, and a dozen or so of the girls Kavanaugh has coached on basketball teams showed up in the afternoon to support “Coach K.”

Here are the key takeaways from Kavanaugh’s final day before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

1. Booker’s ‘disclosed’ documents were a nothing burger—and a publicity stunt.
The morning began with the dramatic announcement by Sen. Cory Booker, D.-N.J., that “I am going to release [an e-mail from Kavanaugh’s record] about racial profiling, and I understand that the penalty comes with potential ousting from the Senate.” That decision earned Booker a stern rebuke from some Republican senators.

It turns out, however, that the documents Booker had discussed in the hearing and “released” had already been cleared for public release the night before. He wasn’t defying anyone.

So far, more than 350,000 pages of material from or about Kavanaugh’s professional work have been made available to the public. That’s more than for the past five Supreme Court nominees combined.

This week’s discussion about documents, however, has failed to clarify that different federal statutes set rules for handling different categories of material.

The Federal Records Act, for example, governs documents from Kavanaugh’s work as an associate independent counsel, while the Presidential Records Act governs the documents from his work as an associate White House counsel.

Most documents can be made publicly available right away, while others require more review but are still made available to the committee members and staff. That’s what the label “committee confidential” means.

Booker, apparently objecting to any documents being designated “committee confidential,” took matters into his own hands and released emails from Kavanaugh’s time serving in the White House counsel’s office. Booker gave the impression that this was a dramatic, defiant, and perhaps even dangerous step, saying: “This is about the closest I’ll probably ever have in my life to an ‘I am Spartacus’ moment … [and] I’m knowingly violating the rules.”

Later in the day, Booker released more confidential documents. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, has repeatedly invited senators simply to request public release of particular documents and proven that he’s willing to do so. Given that, Booker simply could have made a request rather than make this look more like a publicity stunt.

In the emails, Kavanaugh discussed racial profiling in airport security screening following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He wrote that he “generally favor[ed] effective security measures that are race-neutral.”

Booker made it sound like the emails might somehow expose Kavanaugh as a proponent of racial profiling. It turns out the opposite was true.

In another email chain, leaked to The New York Times, Kavanaugh had reviewed a draft op-ed supporting one of President George W. Bush’s judicial nominees that stated “legal scholars across the board” agree that Roe v. Wade is “the settled law of the land.” Kavanaugh also wrote: “I am not sure that all legal scholars refer to Roe as the settled law of the land at the Supreme Court level.”

At the hearing Thursday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., asked what he meant by that, and Kavanaugh explained that he suggested deleting a line from the draft op-ed since there are plenty of scholars who do not believe that Roe v. Wade is settled.

Far from being revelatory bombshells, these emails show Kavanaugh providing straightforward advice as an attorney working for the president. Addressing those issues in that role is not at all the same as a judge addressing those issues in the context of actual cases with real parties and specific facts.

2. Feinstein earned four Pinocchios.
Two of Feinstein’s exchanges with Kavanaugh from Day Two of the hearing included some obvious factual errors. First, she claimed that between 200,000 and 1.2 million women died from illegal abortions in the 1950s-60s, pointing to a report by the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute.

But those numbers actually refer to the estimated number of illegal abortions during those years, not the number of women who died from them. The death statistic was around 200-300 per year. That’s a pretty big discrepancy.

Second, in questioning Kavanaugh about the Second Amendment, Feinstein stated that there have been “hundreds of school shootings using assault weapons.” Once again, Feinstein got her numbers wrong. As Jacob Sullum at Reason explained (citing a Mother Jones database of mass shootings), only six attacks at schools involved “assault weapons.” That’s far short of the “hundreds” Feinstein claimed.

3. Senate approved other nominees over lunch.
When the committee broke for lunch Thursday, senators made a quick detour to the Senate floor to confirm eight nominees to the U.S. District Court. Only two required a formal recorded vote (the tallies were 60-35 and 79-12).

This brings President Donald Trump’s total number of confirmations to 68 judges (including Justice Neil Gorsuch). Yet during the same time, the number of judicial vacancies has ballooned to 134. That’s nearly 30 percent higher than when Trump took office.

Grassley and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., should be commended for continuing to confirm at least some lower court nominations in the middle of Kavanaugh’s confirmation process.

With the conclusion of Day Three, Kavanaugh’s time in the hot seat has come to an end. On the final day, outside witnesses—including representatives from the American Bar Association, law professors, litigators, and former law clerks, among others—will testify before the committee.

Then, in the coming weeks, the committee will hold a vote to report his nomination to the full Senate.
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Thomas Jipping is deputy director of the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies and senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Elizabeth Slattery writes about the proper role of the courts, judicial nominations, and the Constitution as a legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Article shared on The Daily Signal.

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Tags: 3 Takeaways, From Day 3, Brett Kavanaugh, Supreme Court, confirmation hearings, Thomas Jipping, Elizabeth Slattery, The 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!