The Storm Brewing at the Border

by Newt Gingrich: A perfect storm is brewing in the Southern Hemisphere and making its way north to the United States.

Heroin, fentanyl, and other opioids already pour through America’s southern border and this infiltration is one of three elements that will feed the perfect storm. Every day, 115 Americans die from opioid overdoses and tainted drugs passing through our southern border.

The second element is MS-13, the brutal gang that is a drug courier of choice to the Mexican drug cartels for distribution of these drugs within the United States.

When these two elements are mixed with the third element – the caravan of 7,000 to 10,000 people, mostly men, seeking to break through our southern border – you complete a toxic combination leading to a perfect storm. MS-13 gang members have already been found in the mass migration (although some have claimed they are no longer affiliated with the gang). It is not hard to spot them with their MS-13 tattoos. It is only a small leap in logic that MS-13 will be using the caravan as a cover to increase their drug and human trafficking operations.

This combination magnifies the threat to America’s national security. A border wall is needed more than ever. This must not be the partisan issue that some have made of it. Saving our children’s lives from the scourge of deadly drugs is not a partisan issue. Imagine one airliner crashing every day and killing 115 passengers. This would be a national emergency that would eclipse partisanship. The death of 115 Americans by overdose every day should also eclipse partisanship.

As Marlon Miller of the Department of Homeland Security explained to the House Committee on Homeland Security on June 19, “[a] significant quantity of bulk Mexico-sourced heroin, and Chinese-sourced fentanyl transiting through Mexico, . . . is smuggled across the shared border with Mexico via the land border ports of entry.”

According to The San Diego Union-Tribune, in March 2017, 18 kilograms of fentanyl hidden in a semi-truck load of bell peppers was seized at a checkpoint in Sonora, California. Later that year, another semi-truck traveling to Tijuana from Mexico City was seized carrying 30,000 fentanyl-laced pills and 63 kilos of powder containing the drug. U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized 355 kilograms of fentanyl in fiscal year 2017 at San Diego ports of entry alone. In April of this year, Nebraska state troopers seized 118 pounds of fentanyl, enough to kill more than 26 million people, during a routine traffic stop.

To have lasting effects against the opioid crisis, we must cut off the supply chain — and this means securing our borders. But it’s not the drugs alone we need to stop. The criminals who control this drug trade are some of the worst, most brutal gangsters ever to come into our country. MS-13 and drug cartels are made up of violent criminals who are not striving to achieve the American dream — they are trying to kill it. It is widely reported that members of these gangs rape, behead, and bury their victims. These gangs move into a neighborhood or city and take control. They get their victims hooked on drugs and keep them coming back for more.

MS-13 has roughly 10,000 members in at least 42 states and the District of Columbia, according to the most up-to-date FBI estimates. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has even asked for the gang to be labelled a terrorist group, with polling suggesting that the American public supports this reclassification.

Of course, securing the border, alone, will not solve the opioid crisis. This is why President Trump recently took an important step by signing the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act. This is a bipartisan piece of legislation that passed the Senate 99-1. It takes a multi-faceted approach that is necessary for solving this crisis, one that deals with treatment and recovery, interdiction, and deterrence.

Yet, securing our border remains the biggest step we can take to ensure that illicit opioids never enter our communities in the first place. I am not talking about completely shutting down immigration for all refugees, migrant workers, and other people who try to immigrate legally. In fact, I have championed legislation to welcome such hardworking and law-abiding immigrants. I am talking about keeping out gang members and criminals who want to destroy lives and entire communities. If we are serious about this issue, we need to stop talking about abolishing ICE and start securing the border.

We need to stop the caravan. We need to build the wall.
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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, Storm Brewing, Invasion, at the border To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Extraordinary Measures: Voters Tackle 155 Issues Nov. 6

by Tony Perkins: Congress is important, but it’s not the only thing at stake next Tuesday! On November 6th, voters have the chance to cut out the middleman on key policies like abortion, health care, gender-free bathrooms, gambling, marijuana, and so much more. By Tuesday night, Americans will have weighed in on 155 ballot measures – directly deciding issues that, in at least three states, could save thousands of lives.

Instead of turning the questions over to legislators, voters in Alabama, West Virginia, and Oregon will be the final say on taxpayer-funded abortion, post-Roe v. Wade policy, and the rights of unborn children. As Michael New points out, these opportunities don’t come along every day. “Since the Roe v. Wade decision, pro-life activists have made relatively little use of direct democracy. The costs of qualifying a proposal for the ballot and running an effective campaign has discouraged many state and local pro-life groups from using the initiative process.”

Fortunately, some people refuse to be discouraged. In Alabama, voters have the chance to pass Amendment 2, a measure that would help outlaw abortion if the Supreme Court ever strikes down abortion-on-demand. Hopefully, the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh makes that an even likelier scenario. If the justices did return the issue to the states, Alabamans would be well on their way to protecting life, because they’ll have made it explicitly clear in this language that an unborn child is a person.

Out in Oregon and West Virginia, voters could do what Congress has not: stop taxpayer-funded abortion. Like Alabama, the Mountain State’s Amendment 1 makes it clear that “nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion” and adds “or requires the funding of abortion.” Likewise, Oregon’s Measure 106 would change its constitution to ban public funds from being spent on abortion “except when medically necessary or as may be required by federal law.” As Nichole Bentz, a pro-life spokeswoman for Yes on 106 says, “It doesn’t stop anyone from choosing abortion, but it gives people the freedom from having to pay for them.”

And that’s a popular idea no matter which side you’re on. The latest Marist poll on the subject showed that even 45 percent of people who say they’re “pro-choice” reject taxpayer-funded abortion. “Public funds,” Bentz argues, “shouldn’t be going to that controversial, that personal of a choice when they’re not medically necessary.” Not surprisingly, Planned Parenthood doesn’t agree. The country’s biggest abortion business -- which enjoys more than a half-billion tax dollars a year -- wants to keep the money flowing. According to the Oregon Elections Commission, the group has spent piles of cash – well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars -- trying to stop Measure 106.

Like pro-lifers, they understand just how significant the moment is. In terms of actual lives, Michael New explains just how impactful the laws could be. “In Oregon, taxpayers have paid for over at least 3,300 abortions every year since 2002… In West Virginia, the number of Medicaid funded abortions has risen dramatically in recent years. Between 2013 and 2017, the number of Medicaid abortions more than tripled, going from 502 to 1,560.¿ Some have speculated that part of this increase may be due to the state’s Medicaid expansion which was subsidized by the Affordable Care Act.¿ As such, both Measure 106 and Question 1 have the ability to save hundreds of innocent lives every year.”

That’s the kind of policy Vice President Mike Pence can get behind -- and today, at a rally with our Values Bus in Kansas City, one of the most outspokenly pro-life members of the Trump administration encouraged everyone to get out and vote on people -- and policies -- that keeping moving America forward.

The vice president, who spoke alongside Missouri Senate candidate Josh Hawley, FRC’s Lt. General William Boykin and Travis Weber, said nothing is more meaningful to him than when someone reaches out at the rally, grabs his arm, and says, “I’m praying for you.” He encouraged us to pray -- not just for a party or an election result -- but for unity, for the wellbeing of all Americans, quoting James 5:16: “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
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Tony Perkins is President of the Family Research Council . This article was on Tony Perkin's Washington Update and written with the aid of FRC senior writers.

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Tags: Tony Perkins, Family Research Center, FRC, Family Research Council, Extraordinary Measures, Voters Tackle 155 Issues, Nov. 6
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Defining the Enemy in These Final Days before the Midterms

by Lloyd Marcus: In these few days before the hugely important midterm elections, I wish to enlighten my fellow everyday, God-fearing and patriotic Americans about our enemy – the American left – regarding its members' true nature and intentions. When I speak of the American left, I am talking about 90% of the Democratic Party, 90% of mainstream media, and 90% of Hollywood. Old hippies dominating public education have indoctrinated these people into hating our Founding Fathers' divinely inspired vision for America.

As a black man who is grateful and proud be an American, I realize that my country has made mistakes. But praise God, we always try to right our wrongs. This truth is undeniable. I could name numerous incidents of our Christian roots compelling America to correct her wrongs. The most glaring example is Americans electing horrible president Barack Hussein Obama for two terms mainly because he is black. And still, the American left sells its absurd, evil, and divisive lie that very little has changed for blacks in America since slavery.

In a nutshell, the American left looks down on us. They believe they are smarter, more sophisticated, and more compassionate than everyday Americans. Please note that leftists' compassion is always about making themselves feel and look good, giving themselves brownie points for supposedly caring more than the rest of us. Leftists never really help people or find real solutions. As a matter of fact, when white commentator Bill O'Reilly brilliantly and compassionately offered solutions to black-on-black crime, black poverty, and black out-of-wedlock births, the American left gang-assaulted O'Reilly. Shut up, white boy! You don't know what it is like to be black in this horrible racist country!

A dirty little secret is that the American left loves keeping people down, dependent on government for their survival. Why? Because when government is paying your bills, government can dictate your behavior. Leftists thrive on government controlling behavior, forcing leftists' extreme agenda down the throats of the American people.

Folks, these people on the left are arrogant and mean. Actor Peter Fonda said he would like to see Trump's 12-year-old son turned over to pedophiles to be raped. Actor James Cromwell said there will be a bloodbath in the streets if Americans do not vote for Democrats in November.

Speaking of Hollywood, I am convinced that many actors and pro athletes are politically clueless. They simply repeat bogus rhetoric they hear at their elite parties. When NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers and pro-basketball player LeBron James made disparaging comments about Trump, there was no evidence backing up their statements.

During Lesley Stahl's interview with President Trump, we caught a glimpse of typical liberal media arrogance and superiority. Stahl attacked Trump for "mocking" Christine Blasey Ford at his rally. Trump said he did not mock her. Trump explained that he simply informed the American people regarding the facts of Dr. Ford's evidence-less accusation against Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Stahl replied, "But they [the audience] laughed." The tone of Stahl's comment suggested that she was saying Trump's stupid supporters laughed. Stahl also ignored Trump's truthful explanation and stuck with her fellow leftists' mantra that Trump "mocked" Dr. Ford.

I witnessed liberal media's arrogant superiority when I worked in the creative services department of the ABC affiliate TV station in Baltimore for 15 years. In general, station managers and producers looked down on the consumers of their product, thinking themselves more enlightened, smarter, and more sophisticated.

In 2016, the American left assumed that Hillary would win the W.H. and continue Obama's transforming America into leftists' pro-socialist, anti-Christian, anti-America, and anything-goes-morally utopia. Trump winning the presidency stunned the American left. These leftists are filled with rage, boldly expressing their hatred while enacting violence on all who voted for Trump. If Democrats (the American left) get a foothold back into power, such as by winning the House, the American left will launch unimaginable bullying, revenge, and tyranny upon We the People.

Our constitutional right to religious liberty will be thrown out the window. The state of Minnesota has threatened Christian filmmakers with jail time if they continue to refuse the state's demand that they include two men or two women pretending to be married in their films. This blatant demonic attack on our religious liberty will be intensified by a hundred if Democrats win control of the House on November 6th

I am a bit concerned that Democrat candidates are raising mega-millions of dollars more than Republican candidates. Democrats never run as the extreme radicals that they are. They deceive voters by pretending to be reasonable moderates in sync with mainstream American thinking.

For the past two years, my wife Mary and I have traveled to numerous states with the Conservative Campaign Committee. We campaigned in Texas for Ted Cruz versus Beto O'Rourke for U.S. Senate. I was taken aback upon learning that O'Rourke raised a whopping $70 million to flood the airwaves with lying ads. Ted's lead is slipping in the polls.

Not only must Ted Cruz-supporters vote, but they must counter O'Rourke's lies by spreading the truth to family, friends, and whomever about Sen. Cruz.

The undeniable truth about the awesomeness of Cruz's character is how he laid aside his personal issues with President Trump for the good of the country. Sen. Ted Cruz has touted Trump's unprecedented remarkable achievements for America's best interest and returning power back to We the People. Sen. Cruz is 100% on board with helping President Trump continue making America great again, building the wall, and securing our borders. That's what voters need to know about Sen. Cruz.

The American left refuses to accept our 2016 decision to elect Donald J. Trump as our president. They will never forgive us. They remain relentless in their efforts to overturn our decision. November 6, we must defeat the anti-Christian, anti-America, divisive, and evil American left – again.
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Lloyd Marcus (@LloydMarcus) is an "Unhyphenated American" and an internationally renowned conservative columnist, singer/songwriter and author. He is Chairman of the Conservative Campaign Committee Political Action Committee. He is a prominent voice of the American Tea Party movement and the singer/songwriter of the ”American Tea Party Anthem.” Marcus has been on Fox News, CNN, PJTV and more.

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Tags: Defining the Enemy, Final Days, before the Midterms, elections, Lloyd Marcus To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Videos Reveal Arizona’s Sinema & Florida’s Gillum Anti-Gun Deceptions

by NRA-ILA: In the last decade, gun control groups have tried to get more sophisticated with how they market their unpopular ideas. Some gun control advocates have gone so far as to partner with high-profile public relations firms to create messaging guides for their anti-gun allies. The overarching aim of these efforts is to obscure the gun control movement’s radical goals in order to appeal to a wider swath of the electorate.

A spate of hidden camera videos released by journalist James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas shows that many anti-gun candidates are all too eager to carry out gun control organizations’ deceptive strategy.

Arizonans respect the Second Amendment and this is reflected in the state’s commendable gun laws, which include the Right-to-Carry for self-defense without a permit. Despite this fact, as a U.S. Representative, Democratic senate candidate Kyrsten Sinema voted against Right-to-Carry reciprocity legislation that would have increased respect for the rights of Arizona Concealed Weapons Permit holders, while leaving state policy unaffected.

Despite some public anti-gun positions, in her ongoing Senate race Sinema has been careful to avoid talking about certain gun control measures, including a ban on commonly-owned semi-automatic firearms. Sinema Campaign Manager Michelle Davis explained to an undercover Project Veritas reporter that this is a deliberate tactic.

Davidson stated, “I mean, I think you have to look, and this is why I think Kyrsten’s approach is so, I think important. We can’t be talking about an assault weapons ban.”

When Sinema donor Steve Andrews was asked about the candidate’s position on a semi-automatic ban, he replied “voting I’d have to assume she’ll be okay,” adding “she won’t support assault weapons, I don’t think.”

Denigrating her potential Second Amendment-supporting constituents, when Sinema was asked by a Project Veritas reporter about California’s gun bans she stated that if you express support for such a ban in Arizona “They’ll actually shoot you.”

In Florida, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum hasn’t minced words about his hatred for NRA. The Tallahassee Mayor frequently boasts about his support for an unenforceable city ordinance that restricts residents’ Right-to-Carry and a resulting legal battle with NRA.

However, statements made by those working on Gillum’s campaign to Project Veritas suggest that it still behooves the candidate to downplay his more radical anti-gun positions for the statewide race.

A Project Veritas journalist asked Broward County Commissioner Dale Holness, who also works on the Gillum campaign, “Mr. Gillum is going to get rid of all those crazy guns on the street? What’s going on with that? Those crazy people there’s too many of them.”

Holeness responded, in part,

There ought to be at least a three day waiting period for everybody and a full background check for everybody…. And we need to, and these automatic guns with 60 rounds a minute, they ought to not be on the streets either, so that’s his plan.

Pressed further about Gillum’s plan to ban “assault rifles,” Holness replied, “small steps and all that.”

With an earlier Project Veritas investigation uncovering Sen. Claire McCaskill’s (D-Mo.) deception on the gun issue, and another showing the gun control lobby’s role in hiding Democratic New York congressional candidate Tedra Cobb’s support for severe gun restrictions, the 2020 election cycle has exposed the widespread duplicity of anti-gun groups and politicians’. Such behavior will justify gun owners’ legitimate skepticism of any further firearms restrictions for years to come.

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Tags: James O’Keefe, Project Veritas, Gun Control, extremists, Andrew Gillum, Kyrsten Sinema, Claire McCaskill, anti-gun To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Georgia Gubernatorial Candidate Stacey Abrams Reiterates Support for Semi-automatic Ban

by NRA-ILA: During a recent segment on ABC’s The View, Stacey Abrams reiterated her support for a ban on commonly-owned semi-automatic firearms.

During an interview with the candidate, host Meghan McCain, daughter of longtime U.S. Senator John McCain, asked Abrams,

You have been endorsed by Everytown, which is an anti-gun organization. Michael Bloomberg’s anti-gun group as well. You say you are proud to have an ‘F’ rating from the NRA. Michael Bloomberg and others like him, in the wake of what happened in Pittsburgh, support taking away the AR-15, which is the most popular rifle in America, away from people.

Do you, like Everytown, support banning the AR-15?

After contending that she is not “anti-gun,” Abrams responded with a decidedly anti-gun statement.

Abrams expressed her support for criminalizing the private transfer of firearms and for a mandatory three-day waiting period. Abrams went on to mischaracterize commonly-owned semi-automatic firearms, stating, “I do not believe that weapons of mass destruction, like the AR-15, belong in civilian hands.”

McCain continued to press Abrams, asking, “I assume that by banning it you would be rounding them up. It’s the most popular gun in America… Would we be rounding them up from civilians in Georgia that own it?”

Abrams refused to answer the confiscation question directly, instead embarking on a non sequitur about her purported support for the Second Amendment.

McCain’s questions were an important means of eliciting Abrams’s radical anti-gun positions for the benefit of The View’s audience, but ultimately unnecessary to determine Abrams’s policy positions.

In 2016, as a member of the Georgia House of Representative, Abrams sponsored legislation to ban and confiscate commonly-owned semi-automatic firearms.

The Abrams-supported House Bill 731 would have defined several common models of firearms by name and semi-automatic rifles (including a standard configuration AR-15), handguns, and shotguns with certain features as “assault weapons.” The legislation stated that “No person shall possess, distribute, transport, transfer, or sell any assault weapon.” The bill also defined “large capacity magazine” as one that is capable of holding more than ten rounds of ammunition and prohibited possession of such magazines.

In order to enforce the gun and magazine ban, the legislation provided,

any person who possesses any assault weapon or large capacity magazine on July 1, 2016, shall have until October 31, 2016, to accomplish any of the following actions without any prosecution under the law:

(1)Modify such assault weapon or large capacity magazine to render it permanently inoperable or such that it is no longer an assault weapon or large capacity magazine; or

(2) Surrender such assault weapon or large capacity magazine to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for destruction pursuant to this part.

The bill also included the following language,

Notwithstanding any other provision of the law, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation shall seize and take possession of any assault weapon, large capacity magazine… as provided for under Code Section 35-3-8. Any such assault weapon, large capacity magazine… taken by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation shall be destroyed, and a record of such destruction shall be maintained by such bureau.

Following McCain’s dogged questioning of Abrams, several anti-gun news outlets tried to spin the encounter as some sort of victory for the candidate. However, Abrams’s repeated desperate and fraudulent assertions about her support for the Second Amendment give away the game. It’s clear from Abrams’s own efforts to distract from her well-documented anti-gun record that anything that brings attention to her fanatical positions is a detriment to her candidacy.

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Tags: Georgia, Governor, candidate, Stacy Abrams, supports, Semi-automatic Ban, banning AR-15 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, Border Battles, Where's Robert?

Gary Bauer

by Gary Bauer, Contributing Author: Jobs Boom - Fueled by pro-growth tax cuts and record regulation cuts, America's economy is firing on all cylinders! More than 250,000 new jobs were created last month, beating economists' expectations of 190,000. More than 30,000 new manufacturing jobs were created too.

Again, my friends, never forget what the so-called "experts" were telling us in 2016 -- that wage stagnation and weak economic growth were the "new normal," that Trump was crazy to think we could achieve 3% growth and that manufacturing jobs were "never coming back."

Under President Trump:

• Wages posted their biggest gains in a decade.
• Median household income hit a new record.
• The economy is growing at 3.5%.
• And 434,000 manufacturing jobs have been created since Trump took office.
• U.S. energy production is also soaring. In fact, the U.S. is now the world's leading oil producer!

Donald Trump and the Republican Congress are making America great again!

And don't forget that every single congressional Democrat opposed the Trump tax cuts. They have fought him every step of the way. But the results speak for themselves.

Who wants to go back to the Obama malaise days?

This election is a choice between Republican results versus Democrat resistance.

Border Battles - President Trump delivered a very strong address yesterday from the White House outlining his plans to secure the border as multiple migrant convoys are marching north. If you missed his remarks, you can watch them here.

Predictably, the radical open borders crowd is fighting back. Believe it or not, a lawsuit was filed yesterday in a Washington, D.C. federal court seeking to block the president's efforts. The suit alleges that President Trump is violating the constitutional rights of migrants before they have even stepped foot on U.S. soil!

I'm not sure how that is possible, but I have no doubt some left-wing judge will agree.

We have pictures of migrants marching under the Mexican and Honduran flags. I have not seen them waving the American flag, but I did see them burning one.

What is going on in Europe and here in the U.S. is a battle for the survival of sovereign nation states against those committed to globalist international governance. Anyone who does not get this is sleepwalking through one of the most important issues of our time.

But there's more. . .

One hundred and eight Democrats sent a letter to Secretary of Defense James Mattis yesterday objecting to the deployment of U.S. troops to the border. I don't get it: What is the U.S. military for if not to protect the borders of our nation?

So just think about this: Multiple caravans of thousands of people are marching toward our border. We know there are bad people among them. We know they will overwhelm the court system and that many will disappear into the country once they get here.

Future efforts by any administration to find and deport them will be roundly condemned by the same left-wing forces who don't want us to stop them from entering the country in the first place.

This is one huge scam and it totally exposes the left's open borders agenda!

The American people overwhelmingly oppose that radical agenda. For example:

• 76% of voters oppose open borders.
• 73% of voters said the migrant caravans should be deported from Mexico or stopped there. Only 27% said they should be allowed to enter the U.S.
• 57% of voters support deploying U.S. troops to secure the border.

Here's the bottom line: If the left takes the House and/or the Senate Tuesday, these caravans and many more will enter the United States. It would not be at all surprising if they are greeted and celebrated at the border by several left-wing 2020 contenders and those who signed the letter to Secretary Mattis.

If conservatives expand their majority in the Senate and hold the House, there is a decent chance that these caravans will start melting away and future caravans will be discouraged from coming.

The president and conservatives are trying to do everything they can to stop illegal immigration. The left is doing everything it can to ensure that hundreds of thousands of poor, low-skilled migrants continue to stream into the country.

If the Democrat candidate, congressman or senator in your state says they are serious about border security or won't support Nancy Pelosi for speaker, ignore them. It is an elaborate ruse.

Once they are here, they will do what the party leadership tells them to do, and their leaders are all in on open borders, just as that letter to Mattis proves.

Where's Robert? Have you noticed what has been missing from the news lately? Where is Robert Mueller?

Where are the daily leaks attacking the president with claims of Russian collusion? Is it possible all that disappeared because people were concerned that if the House and Senate flip next week, Democrats will rush to impeach President Trump?

Well, a new Harvard poll has some devastating news for Democrats and their Deep State allies on that issue.

• 58% say the investigation is hurting the country.
• 52% want the investigation ended in the next 90 days.
• 54% believe the FBI was biased against Trump.
• 62% support the appointment of a special counsel to investigate abuses by Deep State anti-Trump operatives.

There are rumors that I have not been able to confirm that a major legal battle is taking place behind the scenes between Trump and Mueller. If that became big news, it could spur turnout by pro-Trump voters.

By the way, who else has been missing from the news lately? Rudy Giuliani, one of the president's top legal advisers. If he is tied up in closed court proceedings, that could explain why we haven't seen him lately.

Please make every effort this weekend to reach out to like-minded friends and family members. Urge them to vote.

From the economy to border security, from Kavanaugh and the courts to the Deep State and impeachment, the stakes are enormous.

If you voted for Donald Trump in 2016, you MUST VOTE for his Republican allies this Tuesday.

If you voted against Hillary Clinton in 2016, you MUST VOTE against the radical open borders, pro-abortion, tax-hiking, anti-American Democrats this Tuesday.
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Gary Bauer is a conservative family values advocate and serves as president of American Values and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families

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Tags: Gary Bauer, Campaign for Working Families,. Jobs Boom, Border Battles, Where's Robert? To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

156,562,000: Record Employment for 12th Time Under Trump

by Susan Jones: The economy is the second most important issue for registered voters as the midterm election nears, a new Gallup Poll says. And there was very good economic news on Friday, as the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics rolled out the October employment report -- the final one before next week's midterm election.

The number of employed Americans has never been higher. The 156,562,000 Americans employed in October is the twefth record set under President Donald Trump.

In October, the number of employed men age 20 and up -- 80,405,000 -- set the 12th record since Trump took office; and likewise, for the 12th time, the number of employed women age 20 and up set a record, reaching 70,909,000 in October.

The unemployment rate held at 3.7 percent, the same as September, which is the lowest it's been in decades -- since the end of 1969. And the Hispanic unemployment rate, 4.4 percent, has never been lower.

The unemployment rate for African-Americans, 6.2 percent, remained near the all-time low of 5.9 percent set in May.

On top of those numbers, the economy added a whopping 250,000 jobs last month. After revisions, job gains have averaged 218,000 over the past 3 months.

("Wow!" Trump tweeted on Friday morning. "The U.S. added 250,000 Jobs in October - and this was despite the hurricanes. Unemployment at 3.7%. Wages UP! These are incredible numbers. Keep it going, Vote Republican!")

The number of Americans not in the labor force dipped to 95.8 million, down from last month's record high; and the labor force participation rate increased two-tenths of a point to 62.9 percent, a move in the right direction.

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (3.5 percent), adult women (3.4 percent), teenagers (11.9 percent), Whites (3.3 percent), Blacks (6.2 percent), and Asians (3.2 percent) showed little or no change in October.

In October, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 5 cents to $27.30. Over the year, average hourly earnings have increased by 83 cents, or 3.1 percent.

In October, the nation’s civilian noninstitutionalized population, consisting of all people age 16 or older who were not in the military or an institution, reached 258,514,000. Of those, 162,637,000 participated in the labor force by either holding a job or actively seeking one.

The 162,637,000 who participated in the labor force equaled 62.9 percent of the 258,514,000 civilian noninstitutionalized population, the same as August.

The higher the participation rate, the better, but economists expect this percentage to remain stagnant and decline in the years ahead as an increasing number of baby boomers retire.

President Trump highlghted the booming economy at his rally in Missouri yesterday, telling voters that next week's election "will decide whether we build on an extraordinary prosperity," or whether Democrats "will wipe it all away."

"The unemployment rate just fell to the lowest level in over 50 years," the president said. "More Americans are working now than any time in history. Think of that...So today, right now, we have more Americans working than at any time, any time in the history of our country. That's pretty good," he said. "That's pretty good!"
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Susan Jones writes for CNSNews a division of the Media Research Center, a not-for-profit 501 (c)(3) organization.

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Tags: Susan Jones, CNSNews, Record Employment , 12th Time, Under Trump To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

San Francisco Treats Illegals, Tricks Citizens

. . . California’s “motor voter” scheme may be sending one million illegals to the polls.

by Lloyd Billingsley: On Tuesday, San Francisco will become the largest city in the nation to allow noncitizens to vote, and the city has spent $310,000 on a “new registration system” specifically aimed at illegals. As the San Francisco Chronicle reports, the plan is the first in the state and follows Proposition N, a 2016 ballot measure allowing votes by noncitizens over the age of 18, reside in the city, and have children under age 19.

By the count of the Chronicle, only 49 noncitizens have signed up to vote on Tuesday, which works out to $6,326 for every illegal voter, but there’s more to the story. City officials are worried that voting could expose illegals to ICE, who might come looking and possibly deport somebody. So supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer, a backer of Proposition N, urged the city to spend $500,000 to warn the illegals.

Whatever San Francisco spends, their effort pales in comparison with the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles. The DMV’s 2015, “motor voter” law allowed the DMV automatically to register as voters those who get driver’s licenses. Secretary of State Alex Padilla claimed that protocols and “firewalls” would keep ineligibles from voting, but there was room for reasonable doubt.

After the 2016 election, Padilla refused to release any information to a federal probe of voter fraud, which he called a “false and debunked” claim. In 2015, on the other hand, Padilla told the Los Angeles Times, “at the latest, for the 2018 election cycle, I expect millions of new voters on the rolls in the state of California.” True to form, by March, 2018, the DMV had given licenses to more than one million illegals.

In September, the DMV announced 23,000 “erroneous” registrations, but it quickly emerged that from April to August, the DMV had registered 182,000 “new voters.” Some legislators pushed for an audit but that is being handled by the department of finance, under the control of governor Jerry Brown, who supports the state’s sanctuary legislation.

Californians could be forgiven for believing that the “erroneous” registrations are a dodge and that one million or more illegals will be going to the polls on Tuesday. That could tip the scales in several key races.

In June, Democrat Ammar Yasser Najjar changed his name to Ammar Joseph Campa-Najjar. He is the grandson of Palestinian terrorist Muhammad Yusuf al-Najjar, of the 1972 Munich massacre, and seeking to unseat Rep. Duncan Hunter in San Diego. The Democrat’s father, Yasser al-Najjar, has served as a de-facto ambassador for the Palestinian Authority. His son Ammar worked for the reelection of POTUS 44 in 2012 and at this writing the race with Hunter is tight. Illegal votes could make the difference.

In Orange County, Democrat Gil Cisneros vies with Republican Young Kim for the seat of retiring Ed Royce. Navy veteran Cisneros won $266 million in the California lottery in 2010 and decided to go into politics. The lucky guy supports DACA and opposes President Trump’s immigration policies. Kim holds a slight edge but “new voters,” code for illegals, could tip the race.

Back in 1996, 642 illegals voted for Democrat Loretta Sanchez, who defeated Republican Robert Dornan by fewer than 1,000 votes. As a State Department investigation discovered, false-documented illegals have been voting in local, state, and federal elections for decades. Now San Francisco is up front about it and funding the illegal voters.

The noncitizens will be allowed to vote only for school board members, but that limitation is temporary. As school commissioner Shamann Walton told the Los Angeles Times, “Trump will not always be president,” and “hopefully we’ll have leaders who are inclusive and really believe that if you are a resident of this country, you should have the same rights as other people.”

Those “other people,” as it happens, are legitimate citizens and legal immigrants. As they might note, California gives illegals welfare, driver’s licenses, and in-state tuition. In college admissions California even prefers illegals over out-of-state American students, a violation of state law, the 1996 Proposition 209.

California’s sanctuary state law gives protection to violent criminal illegals such as racist Mexican Luis Bracamontes, who in 2014 gunned down police officers Danny Oliver and Michael Davis in Sacramento. In 2014 San Francisco released criminal illegal Garcia Zarate, or whatever his real name is, rather than hand him over to federal immigration authorities. In short order, the repeatedly deported Mexican national gunned down Kate Steinle on a San Francisco pier. Governor Jerry Brown was rather quiet about that.

In Mendota, near Fresno, the criminal illegals of MS-13 have imposed a reign of terror, hacking people to death, as ruling Democrats look the other way. That’s the way it is in California, where Democrats have made false-documented illegals a privileged, protected class. Those “other people” should not be surprised if more than a million illegals return the favor by showing up at the polls on Tuesday.
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Lloyd Billingsley is an author at the David Horowitz Freedom Center's FrontPage Mag and author of Bill of Writes: Dispatches from the Political Correctness Battlefield and Hollywood Party: Stalinist Adventures in the American Film Industry.

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Voters Head to the Polls to Relitigate 2016

Michael Barone

by Michael Barone: On Tuesday, Democrats and Republicans will compete for the 42nd time in a nonpresidential-year contest -- a rivalry that goes back to 1854. That's the oldest such partisan competition in the world.

And despite the complaints of today's Democrats that the Constitution is biased against them, Democrats have won Senate majorities 16 times -- versus 10 times for Republicans -- since senators started being elected by popular vote in 1914.

Similarly, in the 164 years of midterm Republican-Democratic House contests, Democrats have won control of the House 24 times, compared with 17 for Republicans. In other words, over the long run of history, both parties have adapted to changes in opinion and issue focus in multiple realignments.

But over that time, each has retained its basic character. The Republican Party has been centered around a core of people thought to be typical Americans but who are never a majority -- e.g., Northern Protestants in the 19th century, married white Christians now.

The Democratic Party has been a coalition of disparate groups not thought to be typically American but who together have often formed an American majority -- e.g., white Southerners and Irish immigrants in the 19th century, blacks and gentry liberals today.

Donald Trump's candidacy in 2016 jumbled the partisan lies a bit. His stands on immigration and trade differed from both parties' nominees over the past 60 years, and his brash demeanor and disdain of polite norms cost him the support of some upscale Republican voters and won over similar numbers of downscale Democrats. But the number of switchers was not large by historical standards.

Opinion today seems to stand much where it did two years ago. Trump got 46 percent of the popular vote then; his job approval today is 44 percent. Good economic numbers have made little difference to an electorate with no memory of the Great Depression but with seething grievances stoked by culture war politics.

Republicans seem poised to gain seats in the Senate, and Democrats are likely to win enough House seats to gain a majority there. But that's more a matter of the political lineup than of changed opinion.

Newton's third law of motion says that for each action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The enthusiasm of downscale voters that switched 100 mostly Midwestern electoral votes to Trump in 2016 has been mirrored by the enthusiasm that impelled dozens of Trump detractors to run for Congress and thousands of contributors, big and small, to send them record amounts of money.

The result is that Democrats, after long decrying money in politics, have become the party of big money. (Note how they'd like to repeal the Republican-imposed limits on deductibility of state and local taxes, which benefits only those with incomes over $350,000.) They're outspending Republicans in almost every seriously contested race. Shrewd spending (and record Republican retirements) has made them competitive in districts that have long been safely Republican.

Today, The Cook Political Report lists 100 Republican-held House seats as competitive. That's almost half the 241 seats Republicans won in 2016. With Republican enthusiasm increasing to Democratic levels since the Brett Kavanaugh nomination, it seems both sides will have robust turnout. Democrats probably won't reach the usual wave-year mark of winning half the seats they've targeted, but they only need a net gain of 23 for a majority.

Still, prognosticators Charlie Cook, Nate Silver and Larry Sabato and the betting markets believe there's an outside chance they won't win a majority. That's evidence of the continuing strength of the partisan lines that have mostly prevailed since 1994 and were altered only marginally in 2016.

The likely Republican Senate gains are more a function of which states' senators are up for re-election than any change in opinion. Democrats are defending 26 seats, including 10 in Trump states; Republicans are defending only nine -- and just one in a Hillary Clinton state.

Democrats are running two attractive senatorial candidates in Trump states -- former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen, a genuine moderate, and Rep. Beto O'Rourke of Texas, the liberal skateboarder whose rapturous journalistic profiles somehow fail to mention that his father-in-law is a billionaire real estate developer. But both seem unable to overcome the partisan tide.

Republicans are in good position to pick up Senate seats in South Dakota, Missouri and Indiana, and they also may do so in Montana and Florida. They have two vulnerable seats; they're leading narrowly in Nevada polls and trailing narrowly in Arizona.

There will be a tendency to project Tuesday's results into the future. But these midterm elections look more like an attempt, by both parties, to relitigate 2016.
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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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Democratic-Controlled House

Dr. Walter E. Williams

by Dr. Walter E. Williams: Democrats are hoping the coming election will give them a majority in the House of Representatives. Republicans and much of our nation dread that prospect. My question is: What would a House majority mean for the Democrats? Let’s look at it.

To control the House of Representatives, Democrats must win at least 218 seats, which many predict as being likely. To control the Senate, Democrats must win enough seats to get to 51, which many predict is unlikely. Let’s say the Democrats do take the House.

If they were to pass a measure that Republicans in both houses didn’t like and President Donald Trump didn’t like, either, he could use his veto pen. To override Trump’s veto, Democrats would need to meet the U.S. Constitution’s requirement that they muster a two-thirds vote in the House of Representatives (290 votes) and a two-thirds vote in the Senate (67 votes). Neither would be likely.

It’s quite a challenge to override a presidential veto. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was the veto king, with 635 vetoes. Only nine of them were overridden. President Grover Cleveland vetoed 584 congressional measures and was overridden only seven times. If the House Democrats were to do all that they promise to do and if President Trump were to marshal the guts of Presidents Roosevelt and Cleveland — both Democrats, I might add — the next two years would be a sight to behold.

But wait! Democrats are pushing for the elimination of the Electoral College and having presidents chosen by majority rule. Might they call for the same for all political decisions? That way, it would require only a simple majority vote, rather than two-thirds, to override a presidential veto.

The Founding Fathers had utter contempt for majority rule. They saw it as a form of tyranny. In addition to requiring a supermajority to override a presidential veto, our Constitution has other anti-majority provisions. Proposing an amendment to the Constitution requires a two-thirds vote in each house of Congress or two-thirds of state legislatures to vote for it. On top of that, it requires three-fourths of state legislatures for ratification of a constitutional amendment. Election of the president is done not by a majority popular vote, much to the disappointment of the left, but by the Electoral College.

Having two houses of Congress places another obstacle to majority rule. Fifty-one senators can block the wishes of 435 representatives and 49 senators. As mentioned earlier, our Constitution gives the president veto power to thwart the wishes of a majority in each house of Congress. It takes two-thirds in each house of Congress to override the president’s veto.

The Founders recognized that we need government; however, they also recognized that the essence of government is force and that force is evil. To reduce the potential for evil, they thought government should be as small as possible. They intended for us to have a limited republican form of government wherein human rights precede government and there is rule of law.

Ordinary citizens and government officials are accountable to the same laws. Government intervenes in civil society only to protect its citizens against force and fraud; it does not intervene in cases of peaceable, voluntary exchange. By contrast, in a democracy, the majority rules either directly or through its elected representatives. The law is whatever the government deems it to be. Rights may be granted or taken away.

For those Americans who see majority rule as sacrosanct, ask yourselves how many of your life choices you would like settled by majority rule. Would you want the kind of car you own to be decided through a democratic process? What about decisions as to where you live, what clothes you purchase, what food you eat, what entertainment you enjoy and what wines you drink? I’m sure that if anyone suggested that these decisions should be subject to a democratic process wherein majority rules, we would deem the person tyrannical.

James Madison wrote, “Democracies … have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.”
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Walter Williams (@WE_Williams) is an American economist, social commentator, and author of over 150 publications. He has a Ph.D. and M.A. in Economics from the UCLA and B.A. in economics from California State University. He also holds a Doctor of Humane Letters from Virginia Union University and Grove City College, Doctor of Laws from Washington and Jefferson College. He has served on the faculty of George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, as John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics, since 1980. Visit his website: WalterEWilliams.com and view a list of other articles and works.

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Mass Migration: Mortal Threat to Red State America

by Patrick Buchanan: Among the reasons Donald Trump is president is that his natural political instincts are superior to those of any other current figure.

As campaign 2018 entered its final week, Trump seized upon and elevated the single issue that most energizes his populist base and most convulses our media elite.

Warning of an “invasion,” he pointed to the migrant caravan that had come out of Honduras and was wending its way through Mexico. He then threatened to issue an executive order ending birthright citizenship.

As other caravans began to assemble in Central America, Trump said he would send, first 5,200 and then 15,000, troops to the border.

State of Emergency:
The Third World Invasion
and Conquest of America

This ignited the predictable hysteria of the media elite who decried his “racism,” his “lying” and his “attack on the 14th Amendment.” Trump, they railed, is sending more troops to the Mexican border than we have in Syria or Iraq.

True. But to most Americans, the fate and future of the republic is more likely to be determined on the U.S.-Mexican border than on the border between Syria and Iraq.

Moreover, in challenging birthright citizenship, Trump has some constitutional history on his side.

The 14th Amendment, approved in 1868, was crafted to overturn the Dred Scott decision of 1857 and to guarantee citizenship and equal rights under law to freed slaves and their children.

Did it guarantee that everyone born on U.S. soil is a U.S. citizen?

No. In the 1884 Elk v. Wilkins decision, the Supreme Court ruled that John Elk, a Winnebago Indian born on a reservation, had not denied his constitutional right to vote, as he was not a U.S. citizen.

Not for 56 years, when Congress passed the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, did Native Americans become U.S. citizens.

Also, the 14th Amendment confers citizenship on those born in the U.S. and “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” Children of foreign diplomats, though born here, are not citizens.

Most legal scholars do not think Trump can, by executive order, determine who is or is not a citizen under the 14th Amendment.

Yet should Trump issue an executive order and lose in the Supreme Court, the controversy could raise public consciousness and force Congress to enact legislation to clarify what the 14th Amendment precisely means.

Only Canada and the United States, among advanced nations, have birthright citizenship. No European country does. And the Conservative Party in Canada is moving to end it. Does it make sense to grant all the honor, privileges and rights of lifetime U.S. citizenship to anyone who can fly to the U.S. or evade the Border Patrol and have a baby?

Nor is this a small matter. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that 6 percent of U.S. births (250,000 per year) are to undocumented immigrants.

Yet that 250,000 is a drop in the bucket compared to the total number of immigrants now coming. In 2016, President Obama’s last full year, 1.75 million legal and illegal immigrants arrived, a record.

With two months to go in 2017, the estimated arrivals of legal and illegal immigrants is 1.61 million.

Thus, in two years, 2016 and 2017, the United States will have absorbed more migrants, legal and illegal, than all the people of the 13 states when we became a nation.

According to the Center for Immigration Studies, there are 44.5 million immigrants in the U.S. today, legal and illegal, a number that far exceeds the total U.S. population, North and South, at the time of the Civil War.

While almost all of our immigration before 1965 was from Europe, only 1 in 10 immigrants now comes from the Old Continent.

Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean provide a plurality of migrants, legal and illegal. They have displaced East Asia and South Asia — China, Korea, the Philippines, India — as the primary contributors to the burgeoning U.S. population.

We are assured that the greater the racial, ethnic, religious and cultural diversity we have, the stronger a nation we shall become. Whether true or not, we are going to find out.

For the European population of America, 90 percent of the country in 1965, will have fallen to about 60 percent by 2020, and whites are headed for minority status about 20 years after that.

Of America’s most populous states — California, Texas, Florida and New York — the first two are already minority-majority and the latter two are not far behind.

Yet the gaps between Asian and white Americans, and Hispanic and African-Americans — in income and wealth, crime rates and incarceration rates, test scores and academic achievements — are dramatic and are seemingly enduring.

To the frustration of egalitarians, the meritocracy of free and fair competition in this most diverse of great nations is producing an inequality of rewards and a visible hierarchy of achievement.

Politically, continued mass migration to the USA by peoples of color, who vote 70-90 percent Democratic, is going to change our country another way. Red state America will inevitably turn blue.
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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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Angels in Disguise . . .

. . . The mainstream media is trying to put a good face on much of the criminal element illegally coming across the border.

Editorial Cartoon by AF "Tony" Branco

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Pentagon Girds for Audit Backlash That May Echo $435 Hammer Era

David L. Norquist
Under Sec, of Defense (Comptroller)

by Tony Capaccio & Roxana Tiron: The results of the Pentagon’s first-ever audit could generate public backlash against boosting defense spending, according to Comptroller David Norquist.

After years of congressional and public criticism, the Defense Department is conducting an audit of its more than $2.4 trillion in assets. The audit findings will be released on Nov.15 or Nov. 16, Norquist said.

The audit is widely expected to find significant problems. Defense Secretary Jim Mattisearlier this year dared investigators to find problems and said Pentagon officials are committed to fixing them.

Still, Norquist said there’s a “legitimate concern” that the publicized problems could generate an uproar akin to the mid-1980s $435 claw hammer that became a symbol for runaway, bloated defense spending during President Ronald Reagan’s first-term military buildup. Annual national security spending, the vast majority of which is comprised of Pentagon outlays, has more than doubled since the September 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

PUBLIC SCRUTINY
“The way to prevent a $435 claw hammer in the first place is the knowledge that something like that will be revealed to public scrutiny,” Steve Ellis, Vice President of Taxpayers for Common Sense, said in an e-mail. “Costs to get the Pentagon to a more fiscally transparent and accountable place will reap savings down the road.”

“I hope people understand, when you’re the team that said `hey, we’re going to go look, it’s because of our commitment to being good stewards,’” Norquist said Oct. 29 at the Professional Services Council federal budget outlook conference.

While Norquist said worry about public reaction may have been an argument to forgo an audit, he also said, from the taxpayers’ point of view, “it’s a very dangerous way to look at the world, which is — ‘they might find something that is sufficiently of a problem that it would look bad to show it.’”

“The answer is ‘if they found it, we need to fix it,’” he said.

Norquist said the audit will include “a laundry list of problems we are trying to solve.” But he said people should distinguish between accounting questions that may be raised and other types of issues. Accounting errors that relate to the production of financial statements, “which is different from our operations,’’ could produce numbers “that sound very dramatic but have zero effect on operations,’’ he said.

The Pentagon Inspector General will summarize the overall findings in a single audit, Norquist said, but the department will be broken down into 24 pieces, with each getting a stand-alone audit. “So if you work with Defense Logistics Agency, they actually have three audits,’’ he said.

DECADES OF PRESSURE
The Defense Department has failed for decades to conduct a full audit. One of the Pentagon’s most outspoken critics on the topic, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), has called the agency’s failure “26 years of hard-core foot-dragging,” that “shows that internal resistance to auditing the books runs deep.”

The Pentagon was expected to spend close to $1 billion to carry out its first expansive audit and start fixing problems the auditors identify, Norquist told the House Armed Services Committee in January.

The Pentagon’s negative audit findings, and ensuing criticism, can be mitigated “to a certain extent by pointing out that the job of an audit is to find problems so they can be fixed,” Todd Harrison, a budget expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said in an email. “The alternative would be to continue blindly and allow problems to persist.”
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Tony Capaccio and Roxana Tiron are reporters for Bloomberg Government.

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The Green in the Evergreen State

by Paul Jacob, Contributing Author: We’re told of the scientific consensus on global warming. Whatever you may say about that consensus (I’ve expressed extreme skepticism), no such consensus exists for what steps would be best to take to deal with the identified problem — which is usually understood in terms of the “carbon footprint,” of carbon put into the atmosphere in excess of what is taken out.

Most proposals for curbing carbon emissions have been shown to be far more costly than efficacious.

Nevertheless, without such a consensus, activists in Washington State are pushing Initiative 1631, a measure to tax carbon.

They had pushed a very similar measure two years ago, as science writer Ronald Bailey notes at Reason. The measure failed, however, because environmental lobbies opposed it. You see, the collected funds were given back to taxpayers. Environmental groups didn’t get a cut of the action.

This time that defect has been alleviated, and those groups are on board.

Ah, money, money, money!

The Evergreen State, indeed.

Would the tax be effective? The goal of the measure is “to reduce, by 2035, [the state’s] emissions by 25 percent below their levels in 1990,” Bailey explains. The state had “emitted about 88 million metric tons that year, so that implies a reduction of around 22 million tons by 2035. Assuming today’s emissions, that would mean that Washington State’s planned reductions would amount to 0.42 percent and 0.06 percent of U.S. and global emissions respectively.”

Not much bang.

Sure, the measure may win on hope . . . and bucks.

But will it do any appreciable good? I mean, other than creating a constituency with the green of dollars.

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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Trump Energizes Battleground States With Rallies Down The Midterm Stretch

by Natalia Castro: President Trump is leaving no stone unturned in the battle for Congressional control. The President is spending the last days leading up to the midterms visiting key battleground states in an attempt to persuade voters to come to the polls and vote Republican. As he rallies voter enthusiasm, he could push the closest races over the finishing line.

Between Thursday, Nov. 1 and Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 6, Trump will visit Missouri, West Virginia, Indiana, Montana, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, and Ohio, with double appearances in Missouri and Indiana.

These are all critical states for Republicans hoping to maintain control of the House and the Senate in the 116th Congress.

Real Clear Politics, a group which aggregates non-partisan polling data, identifies Florida, Indiana, Missouri, and Montana as “toss up” states for control of the Senate. West Virginia is considered a left leaning toss up and Tennessee a right leaning toss up. If all of these states went red, Republicans could garner at least 58 seats in the Senate — an historic achievement.

If anyone is interested in making history, it is President Trump.

A Harris Poll conducted by Harvard University last month found that 46 percent of registered Republicans associate with Trump, while 25 percent associate with the GOP itself. The Republican Party is now the party of Donald Trump, and his advocacy is necessary for pushing candidates to victories.

Senior Policy Director with America First Policies, Curtis Ellis told ALG President Rick Manning in an interview, “[President Trump] is doing what he did in the final days of the 2016 election cycle. He is flying nonstop, racking up frequent flyer miles, visiting every battle ground possible and mobilizing voters… It is the Trump voters that will be decisive in this election in the next few days… Trump understands that and that is why he is going out and hitting the voters that need to be hit.”

By visiting these critical states just days before the election, President Trump is reminding voters that voting Republican is voting for the America First agenda.

It might be working, too. NBC News now reports that Republicans hold a 2-point lead in early voting nationwide, 43 percent to 41 percent against Democrats, in what can only be described as potentially ominous sign for Democrats, who had been banking on a Blue Wave on Nov. 6.

In Florida, Republican Senate candidate Rick Scott appears to be trailing Democrat Bill Nelson by a mere two points. And Republican Governor candidate Ron DeSantis is trailing Democrat Andrew Gillum by three. Voter turnout on Election Day itself could determine the election.

Particularly in the panhandle, a right leaning area where Hurricane Matthew continues to displace residents and possibly prevent them from voting. To energize voters to still make it out to the polls, the President will be visiting Pensacola this weekend.

Indiana, a state which Trump won by 20 points in 2016, now leans toward Democrat Tim Donnelly by less than a point. Trump also won Missouri by over 20 points, but Democrat Josh Hawley leads Republican Claire McCaskill by two points. But President Trump’s decision to visit these states twice just days before voters head to the polls can energize the base enough to propel a Republican victory.

While Georgia does not have a key Senate race in the midterms, the Governor’s race has caught national attention and pulled in the President to visit. President Trump won the state by a slimmer margin than other victories, and Republican Gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp only leads the polls by just over 1 point — making it one of the tightest races.

This race has also become a symbol of ideological division as Kemp — an NRA and Trump endorsed candidate battles against Stacey Abrams — who has been endorsed by Bernie Sanders, former President Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton.

These races are simply too close to ignore and while previously candidates have cooled off campaigning in the days leading up to the election, President Trump has only ramped up his efforts, laying it all on the line. President Trump attracted many new members to the Republican Party in 2016 and it is clear he must continue to sway people to the right in order for a “red wave” to take place.

Over the next few days, Trump’s rallies will liven the Republican base and continue to give them a reason to vote on November 6.
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Natalia Castro is the multimedia director at Americans for Limited Government.

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