The Left’s Linguistic War

by Newt Gingrich: One of the key lessons of the 2018 elections is that the Left is waging – and winning – a linguistic war.

The Left claims and occupies more and more linguistic ground with each new fight.

Defense of the Founding Fathers becomes defense of white, racist, slaveowners.

Defense of American identity becomes an act of white male domination.

Racism is so commonly used by left-wing news media and politicians to describe conservative positions that one poll shows that 61 percent of Democrats believe Republicans are racist/bigoted/sexist (a study of CNN’s and MSNBC’s use of the word racist to describe conservative and Republican positions would be breathtaking).

Wanting to obey the law in counting votes becomes an effort to suppress votes and disenfranchise poor people, minorities, and immigrants.

The presumption of Democrats winning is so great that Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown said, “[I]f Stacey Abrams doesn’t win in Georgia, they stole it, it’s clear.”

Every day, we are watching Democrats break and stretch the law for the sole purpose of winning, while they attack Republicans for wanting an honest count of legal voters.

Democrats and their liberal media allies know that if they repeat something often enough it begins to be accepted as truth.

However, the Left’s interest in winning the language war is only the first step toward legitimizing real threats and mob behavior.

Once they win the language fight, they can claim moral superiority. Once they have gained moral dominance, they can do anything to their opponents because they will be presumed right, and their opponents will be presumed wrong.

This is how Tucker Carlson’s wife found herself home alone, facing a mob that was pounding at her door so hard they cracked it.

The most recent example of the left-wing fascist threats and their impact comes from Seattle, where an independent candidate has been intimidated into withdrawing from a city council race by left-wing thugs.

As the former candidate, Christopher Rufo, wrote to his supporters:

“I had hoped that this would be a campaign of ideas, but I quickly discovered that there are some activists in this city who have no interest in ideas. Since the campaign launch, they have harassed and threatened my family nonstop. I was prepared to take the heat, but unfortunately, they have focused their hatred on my wife and children. They’ve made vile racist attacks against my wife, attempted to get her fired from her job, and threatened sexual violence. They even posted hateful messages to my 8-year-old son’s school message board. I know that as the race progresses, they will ratchet up their hate-machine and these attacks will intensify significantly…

“I know in my heart that our cause is just and our ideas would make Seattle a better place. But my primary responsibility is to make sure my family is healthy, happy, and safe. That’s not possible in our current political climate, which has been overtaken by polarization and the ever-present threat of violence.

“I’ve learned that our problem here in Seattle is much deeper than the city council’s policies—we have created a culture of intolerance that is deeply destructive to the common good.”

We are entering a dark period where freedom of speech becomes intimidation by the Left, where freedom of association becomes mobs threatening violence, where the very meanings of words are twisted to browbeat conservatives into silence.

The efforts to steal the governorships of Georgia and Florida and the Senate seat in Florida are only the tip of the iceberg of illegality and hostility that the Left now practices routinely.

Conservatives must develop new strategies, approaches, and skills to defeat the linguistic war of condemnation, hatred, and intimidation being waged every day by the Left.

This is a new era with new requirements. The skills and strategies of the past will simply fail.

Developing the conservative solution to the Left’s linguistic war is a major step toward winning in 2020 – and preserving our society.
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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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Gov. Cuomo’s Shameless War on the NRA

 NRA has sued Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D-N.Y., and New York's
Dept of Financial Services for allegedly threatening banks
and insurers into severing business ties with the association.

by John-Michael Seibler : Recently released documents from a lawsuit involving the Obama administration’s Operation Choke Point are casting more light on federal financial regulators’ unlawful shakedown of disfavored businesses and their financial institutions.

The documents also show how tempting and easy it could be for state bureaucrats to launch similar operations, so long as their legislatures empower them with broad regulatory authority.

Now, just such a scheme is coming to light in New York, where the National Rifle Association has sued Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state Department of Financial Services for allegedly threatening banks and insurers into severing business ties with the association.

While the Justice Department deserves credit for denouncing Operation Choke Point in August 2017, it will be interesting to see how the Operation Choke Point and NRA lawsuits proceed and whether the courts will rein in the various regulators’ abuses of power.

During Operation Choke Point, Obama administration officials targeted disfavored businesses, including firearms dealers and short-term money lenders, by disparaging them and intimidating banks with whom they did business.

In a memo, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., an independent agency tasked with maintaining “public confidence in the nation’s financial system,” listed those lawful businesses as “‘elevated-risk’ merchants.” And in 2013, Justice Department officials mailed that list to financial institutions, along with administrative subpoenas, to “warn” them of those “high-risk merchants/activities.”

In 2014, an industry coalition of payday lenders sued the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., claiming that it violated their due process rights through intimidating their business partners, even threatening “some banking officials with criminal prosecution if they persisted in banking payday lenders. And when the banks inevitably yielded to this unbearable pressure,” the lenders argued, “the [Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.] then immediately demanded that the decision be portrayed as a voluntary action to whitewash the agency’s backroom pressure tactics.”

In August 2017, Stephen E. Boyd, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Office of Legislative Affairs, told House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., “[that] initiative is no longer in effect, and it will not be undertaken again.”

But documents released last month in the payday lenders’ ongoing lawsuit are cause for continued concern because they show how personal Operation Choke Point was for the government officials who were involved.

One email from a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. regional director read, “I literally cannot stand pay day lending.” Another letter read, “Any banks even remotely involved in payday [lending] should be promptly brought to my attention.”

Another regional director wrote, “[W]e have generally found that activities related to payday lending are unacceptable for an insured depository institution.”

According to the Community Financial Services Association of America, “Despite contentions that Operation Choke Point is no longer running, the culture it created persists, and some businesses previously targeted are still seeing their banking relationships terminated without cause.”

In the National Rifle Association’s ongoing lawsuit against Cuomo, it seems that the culture not only persists, but has spread to at least one state financial regulator.

Last year, the New York Department of Financial Services opened an investigation into the NRA’s Carry Guard legal-services insurance program—as well as the insurance companies Chubb Ltd. and Lockton Affinity LLC, which underwrite and administer the program—for potential violations of state insurance laws.

The NRA claims that Cuomo and the Department of Financial Services were not merely seeking to enforce state law, but were coercing banks and insurers into ending their business relationships to chill the NRA’s pro-Second Amendment speech.

Is this Operation Choke Point 2.0?

Last week, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York allowed the NRA’s lawsuit to proceed, finding that “allegations of direct and implied threats to insurers and financial institutions because of these entities’ links with the NRA, and the allegations of resulting harm to the NRA’s operations, are sufficient to make out plausible First Amendment freedom-of-speech claims.”

Among the “direct and implied threats” is one contained in a press release Cuomo issued in April stating, “I am directing the Department of Financial Services to urge insurers and bankers statewide to determine whether any relationship they may have with the NRA or similar organizations sends the wrong message.”

The point, he continued, was that “working together, we can put an end to gun violence in New York once and for all.”

In the same month, New York Department of Financial Services Superintendent Maria T. Vullo released a guidance letter titled “Guidance[s] on Risk Management Relating to the NRA and Similar Gun Promotion Organizations.”

In it, she wrote, “the department encourages its insurers to continue evaluating and managing their risks, including reputational risks, that may arise from their dealings with the NRA or similar gun promotion organizations.”

Cuomo then tweeted, “The NRA is an extremist organization. I urge companies in New York State to revisit any ties they have to the NRA and consider their reputations, and responsibility to the public.”

After firing those warning shots, the Department of Financial Services fined Chubb Ltd. and Lockton Affinity LLC for violating state insurance laws and also prohibited them from “enter[ing] into any agreement or program with the NRA to underwrite or participate in any affinity-type insurance program involving any line of insurance.”

What was true for Operation Choke Point appears true of Cuomo & Co.’s targeting of the NRA’s business partners.

As Heritage Foundation scholars have written elsewhere: “Regulators have no legal authority to direct private financial services away from government-disfavored but fully legal activity. Such actions promote unfair, legally disparate treatment of commercial actors.”

The Operation Choke Point and NRA cases are symptoms of the same disease, which James Madison warned about in Federalist No. 47: “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many … may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”

So long as Congress and state legislatures delegate broad regulatory power to agency officials—who are too often empowered to write, interpret, and enforce the law—we should not be surprised to discover more “Choke Points.”

These cases are providing more strong evidence that state and federal lawmakers should reconsider major regulatory reform before the disease spreads further.
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John-Michael Seibler (@JSeibler) is a legal fellow in the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation. Shared by The Daily Signal.

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ICE Queen: Harris Compares Immigration Workers to KKK

by Tony Perkins: A normal job interview is stressful, but one before the U.S. Senate? Democrats can make that downright painful. A parade of President Trump's nominees -- from the budget office to Supreme Court -- have had to endure character assassination, ridicule, faith smears, and now, comparisons to the Ku Klux Klan.

As the migrant caravan inches closer to the U.S. border, Senate leaders are trying to make sure a key component is in place if and when they arrive: a new chief for the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Under the circumstances, anyone in the running for the office has to be made of tough stuff. With the immigration debate at a fever pitch -- and Democrats doing everything they can to undermine the administration's work -- any nominee would have their hands full.

But for Ronald Vitiello, his confirmation hearing was good practice for the kinds of attacks he'll face for enforcing the law. Senator Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), who could have another job as a professional agitator after the latest string of nomination hearings, decided to take a shot at everyone working to secure America. "Are you aware of the perception of many about how the power and the discretion at ICE is being used to enforce the laws and do you see any parallels [with the KKK]?," she asked a stunned Vitiello.

"I do not see a parallel," he fired back, "between what is constitutionally mandated as it relates to the law" and a white supremacist group. Undeterred, Harris pushed on. "No, I'm very specific about what I'm asking you. Are you aware of a perception that the way--" "I see no perception that puts ICE in the same category as the KKK. Is that what you're asking me?" a visibly offended Vitiello replied. "I'm not finished," Harris snapped. "I see none," he said again. "I'm not finished," she told him angrily. "Are you aware that there's a perception that ICE is administering its power in a way that is causing fear and intimidation, particularly among immigrants -- and specifically immigrants from Mexico and Central America...?

"I do not see a parallel," he said again, "between the power and authority ICE has to do its job and the agents who do it professionally and excellently with lots of compassion-- " Interrupting him, Harris demanded to know how he could "be the head of an agency and be unaware of how your agency is perceived by certainly communities?" To his credit Vitiello looked her straight in the eye and said there are a "lot of perceptions in the media and the public that are incorrect..."

The clip of Harris infuriated the man Vitiello would be replacing, Thomas Homan, who retired this summer. "I wanted to throw up," he told Fox News's Shannon Bream. "[We] disagree on a lot of things... [but] what she did today was disgusting. She put her political ambitions to be the president ahead of truth and ahead of the dignity of the men and women who serve this country." Others piled on, calling out Harris for slurring the thousands of brave men and women working to protect America's border. "Like lazy trolls who call cops Nazis, it is grossly irresponsible to compare anything other than violent racist terrorists to the #KKK. Kamala Harris is way too savvy to be so intellectually lazy. She should apologize to #ICE agents now." GOP spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany also took deep offense on behalf of the brave people in uniform. "What utter, complete & horrifying disrespect for our law enforcement officers. I get she's auditioning for 2020, but come on."

To a lot of liberals, ICE represents what Democrats have come to despise: the rule of law. Whether it's abortion, religious liberty, or immigration, extremists are having trouble adjusting to an administration that respects the democratic process. That's quite a contrast to Barack Obama, who treated U.S. immigration policy with the same disregard he had for every law that hindered his makeover of America. "We've arrived," Jonathan Tobin argues in National Review, "at a point when the law and policy arguments about how best to enforce it have become irrelevant." When ICE agents are refashioned as fascists and illegal aliens become default martyrs then "there is no more middle ground."

In the end, it's nothing personal. ICE is just one in a long line of institutions the Left would like to abolish in its pursuit of complete and utter anarchy. Their vision is a world where laws are like gender: whatever you want them to be.
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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 Council, ICE Queen, Harris compares. immigration workers, KKK NSERT TAGS To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Public Service Report: Tick Diseases Hit Record Levels . . .

. . . U.S. Unprepared to 'Control These Threats,' Warns CDC

by Bridget Johnson: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said tickborne diseases, fueled in part by weather patterns, are at record levels and "the United States is not fully prepared to control these threats."

New data released this week by the CDC showed 59,349 reported cases of diseases spread by tick bites last year, including 42,743 confirmed and probable cases of Lyme disease, 7,718 cases of anaplasmosis/ehrlichiosis, 6,248 cases of spotted fever rickettsiosis, 2,368 cases of babesiosis, 239 cases of tularemia, and 33 cases of Powassan virus, which can cause severe encephalitis and has no vaccine or antiviral treatment.

All totals for the individual diseases rose from 2016 numbers, when there were 48,610 reports of tickborne disease in the U.S. Back in 2004, that number was 22,527; since then, seven new tickborne pathogens that infect people have been discovered.

The CDC compiles its figures based on reports from state and local health departments. But the 2017 data "capture only a fraction of the number of people with tickborne illnesses," the CDC said Wednesday, as "under-reporting of all tickborne diseases is common, so the number of people actually infected is much higher."

The reason behind the record-setting number of tick-caused illnesses is "unclear," the CDC said, but "a number of factors can affect tick numbers each year, including temperature, rainfall, humidity, and host populations such as mice and other animals." The number of reports can also be influenced by healthcare providers' awareness of tickborne disease.

Disease from ticks, fleas and mosquito bites tripled from 2004 to 2016, and the CDC recently determined that "about 80 percent of vector control organizations lack critical prevention and control capacities."

"More proven and publicly accepted mosquito and tick control methods are needed to prevent and control these diseases," the department said.

The Northeast and Great Lakes region have seen the highest number of tickborne disease cases from 2004-16.

The CDC recommends using EPA-approved insect repellents outdoors, treating clothing and gear with products containing 0.5% permethrin or buying pre-treated items, checking your body and clothing for ticks upon return from potentially tick-infested areas including one's own backyard, and showering within two hours of coming indoors to reduce the risk of Lyme disease.
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Bridget Johnson is a veteran journalist whose news articles and opinion columns have run in dozens of news outlets across the globe. Bridget first came to Washington to be online editor at The Hill. She is the Washington Editor for PJ Media.

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Tags: Public Service Report, Tick Diseases, Hit Record Levels, U.S. Unprepared to Control, Threats, Warns CDC To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Stoking Division, Bashing Law Enforcement, Media Notice

Gary Bauer

by Gary Bauer, Contributing Author: Stoking Division - Do you recall during the final 2016 presidential debate when Donald Trump was asked to preemptively surrender by accepting the results of the presidential election if he lost? Trump said it would depend on the circumstances. In other words, he wasn't going to accept cheating.

Democrats and their media allies were shocked and outraged. Hillary Clinton accused Trump of "denigrating" and "talking down our democracy."

Well, Democrats were shocked again on November 8, 2016, when they lost the presidential election. Hillary Clinton refused to accept the results on Election Night. She sent her campaign chairman, John Podesta, out to tell the crowd to go home.

And almost immediately, Clinton's top campaign officials met and plotted out a narrative to undermine the legitimacy of Trump's election by promoting the idea that he colluded with the Russians.

They have convinced a sizeable percentage of the country that the president was not duly elected, that the election was stolen from them. They further undermined the confidence of the same portion of country that is already inclined to violence.

As I have noted before, the left has been engaging in political violence for decades. It subsided for a time, but came roaring back with the Occupy Wall Street movement in the Obama years and then with the rise of Antifa.

One recent poll found that as many as 35% of Americans feel it is okay to engage in violence to pursue political ends.

Fast forward to 2018. Once again, Democrats are the ones refusing to accept the results of the elections and "talking down our democracy."

Lawyers representing Stacey Abrams, the Democrat nominee for governor of Georgia, are preparing to go into court to demand a new election. She is being encouraged by top Democrats, all possible 2020 contenders, who are stoking the fires on the fringe left by suggesting that the Georgia race was "stolen" from Abrams.

At a financial summit on Tuesday, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker said, "I think that Stacey Abrams' election is being stolen from her, using what I think are insidious measures to disenfranchise certain groups of people."

That same evening, Hillary Clinton told an audience in Austin, Texas, "If [Abrams] had a fair election, she already would have won."

And speaking to Al Sharpton's group Wednesday, Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown said, "If Stacey Abrams doesn't win in Georgia, they stole it. It's clear. It's clear. I say that publicly."

Ironically, they are saying this when it seems more and more races are being stolen by the left. By the way, all three federal judges who have been dragging out the election disputes in Florida and Georgia are Obama appointees!

Bashing Law Enforcement - Earlier this year, months before the election, many Democrats were calling for ICE to be abolished and comparing ICE agents to the Gestapo. But as we got closer to Election Day, that rhetoric stopped. That's not surprising since very few Americans support the left's radical open borders agenda.

But now that the election is over, the left is back to bashing law enforcement.

During a Senate hearing yesterday, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) compared ICE to the KKK, once again undermining law enforcement in America. As a reminder, the KKK was started by Democrats after the Civil War. For decades, blacks in the South were harassed, physically assaulted and sometimes killed by this domestic terrorist group.

Harris compared the men and women of ICE, a large percentage of whom are veterans and minorities, to the KKK because illegals fear ICE. Well, yes, criminals fear law enforcement and people in the country illegally will fear law enforcement.

While Harris was denigrating the men and women of law enforcement, President Trump was once again doing his best to hold up our heroes in uniform.

He went the Marine Corps barracks on Capitol Hill yesterday and praised them for running into a flaming building recently to save elderly residents.

The contrast between Harris and Trump could not be more stark.
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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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Whereabouts of Alleged Illegal Immigrant Who Killed Tennessee Woman Unknown

by Chris Butler: The current whereabouts of a man who allegedly drove drunk and killed a 29-year-old Bedford County woman and was taken into custody for it last month are unknown, even to Bedford County Sheriff Austin Swing.

That man, Omar Edgar Torres-Rangel, is an illegal immigrant, according to sources.

District Attorney Robert Carter, meanwhile, refused to answer when asked if he knows Torres-Rangel’s present location.

Officials with the Tennessee Highway Patrol worked the crash scene the night of Oct. 21. Torres-Rangel sustained critical injuries. According to numerous sources, authorities transported Torres-Rangel to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.

What happened to him afterward is a mystery.

Vanderbilt Medical Center spokesman Craig Boerner told The Tennessee Star the hospital had no patient by that name as of Wednesday. Boerner said he could provide no other information.

Keri King was the woman who died in the crash. Her brother, Willie King, said no one in law enforcement can give him or his family any answers.

“He was an illegal, and he just walked out of the hospital, and now they are looking for him. I don’t know how that happened. Those are answers we are trying to get,” King said.

“How did I find out he walked out (of Vanderbilt)? We just kept asking questions and found out he’s not there anymore. We don’t know exactly how he got out of there. He’s not in jail. We’ve already checked that.”

For his part, the sheriff confirmed he is not in the county jail.

“I guess Vanderbilt or the Tennessee Highway Patrol don’t have an obligation to tell me where he is. After all, it was a wreck worked by the THP and not us,” Swing said.

Swing said he had not asked either Vanderbilt or the THP what became of Torres-Rangel.

‘They don’t seem to know anything’

King said THP officials “have been more helpful than anybody” in getting information back to the family.

“As for the sheriff’s department, they don’t seem to know anything,” King said.

“The Tennessee Highway Patrol, at least they talk to us a little bit.”

When contacted, THP spokesman Chris Dye said he didn’t know where Torres-Rangel was as of Wednesday.

“It’s not uncommon for an individual to not be arrested the night of (a crash) because of the whole collections process, the evidence procedures, the toxicology. There are a lot of factors from the time of the crash to the time of presentment to a grand jury if that’s the decision the district attorney wants to go to,” Dye said.

“There are two specific paths the criminal justice goes on on a vehicular homicide or a traffic crash resulting in a death and that is charges the night of or a direct presentment to the grand jury.”

THP officials, Dye added, “always go under the direction of the district attorney.”

To that, Dye referred all other questions to Bedford County District Attorney Robert Carter.

When contacted, Carter said there is an ongoing investigation into the vehicular homicide and there are warrants out on Torres-Rangel.

“Beyond that I don’t think that, ethically, I can talk about what’s going on. I don’t think I can say any more than that,” Carter said.

The Star asked Carter if Vanderbilt turned Torres-Rangel loose on his own.

“I can’t answer that,” Carter said.

Does Carter know Torres-Rangel’s current whereabouts?

“That’s what I don’t think I’m allowed to speak on. I’m not going to answer that. That is an ethical call on my part as the elected district attorney. I don’t want to jeopardize not only the investigation, but if we end up on trial with this then I certainly don’t want to say anything now that will jeopardize that case.”

The Star then asked about perceptions and how people in and around Bedford County might think this seems fishy.

To that, Carter said this:

“You asked me if I knew his whereabouts, and I told you I didn’t have a comment,” Carter said.

“I will leave it at that.”

The sheriff said he understands Willie King’s frustration.

“I feel confident he will be found and arrested and when he is he will be brought back to the Bedford County Jail,” Swing said.

Willie King, meanwhile, said his sister was coming home from Murfreesboro when she died.

“A lot of people are stirred up about this,” King said.

“Our main concern was we didn’t want him (Torres-Rangel) to get loose, but it looks like that’s what has happened.”

As reported, one Bedford County commissioner, who asked that we not disclose his name, at least not now, wrote a letter to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and asked for their help with illegal immigrant activity.

In the letter, that commissioner cited the Torres-Rangel case.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star.

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Escaping the Politics of Anger

by Michael Reagan: I realize the Democrats took over the House, which is not new news.

But I’m tired of hearing Nancy Pelosi and other liberals in Congress say that now we need to start working together. Now we need bipartisanship.

Really? Where have they been for the last umpteen years?

Since at least 2016, I haven’t noticed the Democrats clamoring for compromise and cooperation in Washington or on CNN.

Suddenly Nancy Pelosi wants to practice bipartisanship? Yeah, right.

I agree with President Trump.

Now that Democrats are in charge of the House and looking under every bed for excuses to impeach Donald Trump, they also need to start writing some legislation.

No matter how “bipartisan” their bills are, of course, they probably won’t get past the U.S. Senate or the president’s desk.

In other words, for the next two years we’ll have gridlock. Nothing major will get done on issues like immigration reform or our trade deals with China.

Meanwhile, out here in California we’ve been burying the victims of last week’s mass shooting at the Borderline Bar & Grill and wondering if there’s any place left in America where we can take our families that’s safe.

When I was growing up in the 1950s all I had to worry about in school was diving under my desk once a month in case the Russians dropped a nuclear bomb on us.

Today, my son Cameron, who’s a stay-at-home dad, has to worry about sending his kids to grade schools where they are holding active shooting drills.

Who ever thought 50 years ago that we’d have to be concerned about this danger?

We now have a whole generation of parents, and grandparents too, who are worrying about where they can go without being shot down by some mad man.

A movie theater? A baseball field? A grade school? A synagogue?

Liberals, issuing their usual simplistic knee-jerk reaction, say the problem is guns and the solution to mass shootings is to get rid of all of them.

But the problem is much deeper than guns. I think America has lost its soul.

Spirituality, morality, kindness, the better part of our natures, love for your fellow humans no matter what their politics — it’s getting harder and harder to find in our daily lives.

Everyone’s angry on TV. Left or right, Fox or CNN, it doesn’t matter what side you’re on.

Social media and cable networks overflow 24/7 with hate, not calls for political compromise.

They thrive on ratings and clicks and anger — not civility and compromise — to generates their profits.

In my father’s time, in the 1970s and 1980s, we debated important political issues, but we did it without trying to destroy our opponents’ careers or reputations.

Now everything in politics is personal and nasty.

We don’t merely say we disagree with a person’s position. Instead we say, “You’re a racist. You hate women.”

There’s hardly anywhere you can go in the mainstream media to hear an uplifting spiritual message or an inspiring leader who rises above petty politics. There’s almost nowhere you can relax and make yourself feel good.

I tweeted the other day that people should turn off the news and the cable channels for a night and watch the annual country music awards.

That’s what I did. It was just country music and awards. No politics. No anger. No name calling.

It was entertaining and pleasant — an oasis of civility in our angry world. It was something all of us could all use a lot more of.
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Michael Reagan (@ReaganWorld) shared on The Patriot Post

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Let the Democrats Keep Showing Their Hand

David Limbaugh

by David Limbaugh: The Democratic Party’s emerging radical bloc is alarming, but the leftist group’s youthful intemperance could backfire and re-energize Republicans’ 2020 electoral prospects.

Even before all the hanging chads and miraculously divined ballots have been examined in Florida, newly elected leftist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is already engaging in activism in the halls of Congress. On Tuesday morning, the future representative from New York joined a protest organized by the Sunrise Movement outside the offices of Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi to demand immediate action on climate change — as if the dinosaur wing of the Democratic Party weren’t sufficiently extremist on environmental issues.

Ocasio-Cortez, who validates the maxim “youth is wasted on the young,” is part of the Justice Democrats, which promoted leftist challengers during the 2018 Democratic primary cycle. The Sunrise Movement is demanding House support of a “Green New Deal,” which contemplates forming a committee to write policies aimed at creating jobs by moving the nation off fossil fuels — as counterintuitive as that may strike you.

Waleed Shahid, the Justice Democrats’ communications director, insists that the Democratic Party’s leadership must get serious about the climate and the economy. “Anything less is tantamount to denying the reality of climate change,” said Shahid. “The hopeful part is that we’re ushering in a new generation of leaders into the Democratic Party who understand the urgency and will help build a movement to create the political will for bold action.” Yes, they must get moving before any more of Al Gore’s hysterical doomsday predictions fail.

The adage “with age comes wisdom” is biblically based and objectively observable — except, perhaps, in the case of Pelosi and her old-guard Democrats. They have invited all types of radicals into their coalition, so they can hardly complain when the fruit of their poisonous tree begins to blossom. Accordingly, Pelosi pretended to support this presumptuous upstart’s mini-rebellion.

“We are inspired by the energy and activism of the many young activists and advocates leading the way on the climate crisis, which threatens the health, economic security and futures of all our communities,” said Pelosi. “I have recommended to my House Democratic colleagues that we reinstate a select committee to address the climate crisis. … We welcome the presence of these activists, and we strongly urge the Capitol Police to allow them to continue to organize and participate in our democracy.”

Her groveling wasn’t enough to pacify the implacable Justice Democrats, who tweeted: “Our response: Not good enough. Pelosi is reinstating a 2007 committee tasked with investigating the harms of climate change. We don’t need more investigation. We need specific plans matching the urgency and scale mandated by the UN’s IPCC report on catastrophic climate change.”

The good thing about cliches is that, usually based on human experience, they’re often true. So, the current plight of the Pelosi Democrats is that they have made their bed and now have to lie in it. For the next two years, they’re going to be lying in the same bed as the rebels — a bed that has two left sides.

The Democrats have lived by the sword of radicalism, embracing every last crazy idea of the extreme left and incorporating it into their agenda, and may they electorally die by that sword in 2020.

Democrats used to tack to the center during general election season, knowing America has been a center-right nation. But since Obama’s presidency, they’ve begun playing their left hand more openly. In the bluest of areas, they can afford to reveal their outright socialism, which explains Ocasio-Cortez’s unapologetically socialist campaign message. In other venues, such as Arizona, their radicals have to feign centrism, which explains Kyrsten Sinema’s chameleonic transformation to would-be centrist.

The developing schism in the Democratic Party is a positive sign for Republicans, who should greatly benefit from Democratic fissures, especially if they lead to the Democratic Party’s moving even further to the left and exposing its radicalism.

Though the electoral demographics seem to be shifting leftward — and though our public schools, universities and dominant media culture are indoctrinating more Americans every day — it’s unlikely the majority of the country will be comfortable with leftist extremism as soon as 2020.

But this is hardly something Republicans can rejoice over, because until they get their own act together, they won’t be able to properly capitalize on intramural conflict among Democrats. But from my perspective, anything that awakens a complacent America to the existential dangers posed by the radical left, which increasingly controls the Democratic Party, represents cause for hope and optimism.
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David Limbaugh is a writer, author and attorney. His latest book is "Jesus is Risen: Paul and the Early Church." Follow him on Twitter  @davidlimbaugh and his website at davidlimbaugh.com

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Tags: David Limbaugh, Democrats, Keep Showing Their Hand To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Sex Ethic of Jesus

by Kerby Anderson, Contributing Author: Imagine a world in which everyone followed the ethic Jesus taught about sex, marriage, and relationships. Sean McDowell asked people to consider that when he was involved in a discussion about biblical sexuality. Here is what he said:

“There would be no sexually transmitted diseases. No abortions. No brokenness from divorce. Every child would have a mother and a father and experience the love and acceptance each parent uniquely offers. There would be no rape, no sex abuse, no sex trafficking, pornography, and no need for a #MeToo campaign. Think of the healing and wholeness if people simply lived Jesus’ life-giving words regarding human sexuality.”

In a recent column, he went on to add so much more. Think about it. There would be no more sexually transmitted infections (like AIDS, herpes, or HPV). Of course, there would be no rape. There wouldn’t be any unwanted pregnancies.

The whole culture would be better. There would be no crude or degrading sexual humor. Critics wouldn’t be making fun of young people who decided to wait until marriage to have sexual relations.

Marriages would be better. There would probably be a significant drop in the divorce rate. You would have fewer deadbeat dads. You would probably have fewer men leaving their wives for young women.

Of course, you can make up your list of all the positive things that would happen if we followed the sex ethic of Jesus. God’s Word instructs us in behavior that will protect us from so many of the devastating sexual and social consequences of turning away from His instruction to us.

Let me suggest that you use this argument the next time you hear someone argue for sexual freedom or the next time you hear someone make fun of a young person who decided to remain a virgin until marriage. Sean McDowell has given us a powerful argument. I encourage you to use it.
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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, Sex Ethic, Jesus To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

High Tax Nancy . . .

. . . Nancy Pelosi may be back holding the gavel with a vengeance wanting her crumbs back from the taxpayers.

Editorial Cartoon by AF "Tony" Branco

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Tags: High Tax Nancy, Nancy Pelosi, may be back, holding the gavel, with a vengeance, wanting her crumbs back, from the taxpayers To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

A Long List Of Accomplishments

‘[T]he Coast Guard Legislation Was Just The Very Latest Installment In A Long List Of Bipartisan Successes Passed By This Senate’
SENATE MAJORITY LEADER MITCH McCONNELL (R-KY): “[This week], we passed legislation to reauthorize the Coast Guard by an overwhelming bipartisan majority. The Senate took action to reaffirm the critical security, interdiction, and rescue missions that keep Americans safe, and to streamline duplicative regulations at the same time. The provision to clarify the regulation of vessel incidental discharge delivered a much-needed victory for the communities and small maritime businesses, including so many in my state of Kentucky, that rely on America’s inland waterways for livelihood.” (Sen. McConnell, Remarks, 11/15/2018)

• SEN. McCONNELL: “[T]he Coast Guard legislation was just the very latest installment in a long list of bipartisan successes passed by this Senate, in this Congress, on behalf of the American people…. [T]he Senate has proven to be fertile soil for bipartisan work. It’s made life better for the American people in tangible ways. We should all take real pride in this. And we’ll need to keep up this momentum for the remainder of this year, as we consider more legislation and confirm more nominees. And we will need it throughout the next Congress.”
  (Sen. McConnell, Remarks, 11/15/2018)

Accomplishments Of The 115^th Congress Include:

ü  COAST GUARD REAUTHORIZATION: Improved the U.S Coast Guard’s capabilities, equipping it for current and future missions. Reformed and simplified vessel incidental discharge regulations to streamline commerce on America’s waterways.

ü  WATER INFRASTRUCTURE: Answered President Trump’s call to address the nation’s water infrastructure by authorizing the Army Corps to construct, expedite, modify, or study more than 100 water resource projects - that will grow the economy, cut red tape, and keep communities safe.

ü  TAX REFORM: Reformed America’s tax code for the first time in 31 years - putting more money in the pockets of American families and creating more opportunity for them and their children.

ü  TRANSFORMING THE COURTS: Confirmed President Trump’s judicial nominees at a historic pace –69 total, including Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, 26 circuit judges, and 41 district court judges.

ü  APPROPRIATIONS: Provided certainty to the American people with a restored regular order appropriations process by passing 9 of 12 appropriations bills through the Senate and sending 5 of those bills to the President’s desk – enacting the most on-time appropriations bills in 22 years and funding 75% of the government on schedule.

ü  FAA BILL:  Passed a five-year authorization bill to modernize airport infrastructure, improve service for the flying public, enhance transportation safety and security, and boost aviation industry innovation.

ü  LANDMARK OPIOID LEGISLATION: Combatting the nation’s worst public health crisis with a package of proposals, including stopping fentanyl at the border and spurring development of new non-addictive painkillers.

ü  FUNDING TO COMBAT OPIOID ABUSE: Enacted ‘a multibillion-dollar boost’ to combat a nationwide epidemic.

ü  DRUG PRICE TRANSPARENCY: Passed legislation to ban the use of “gag clauses,” an industry practice that concealed lower prescription drug prices from patients at the pharmacy and caused consumers to needlessly overpay.

ü  FARM BILL: Working to provide farmers and ranchers with the certainty and predictability they deserve with Senate passage of a critical Farm bill.

ü  DEFENSE: Restoring America’s defense with the greatest investment in the military in decades, including the largest troop pay raise in nearly ten years, to help further modernize the U.S. military.

ü  VETERANS: Delivered real reform and real choice to American veterans with the VA MISSION Act, modernized the veterans appeals process, reformed G.I. bill benefits and further improved VA accountability.  Also provided the largest funding increase in history for veterans care and services, and to modernize the VA’s electronic health record system.

ü  SAFE MEDICATIONS: Reauthorized the FDA programs that ensure safe and effective medications can help patients by getting to market.

ü  REGULATORY REFORM: Used Congressional Review Act (CRA) a record-setting 16 times to roll back Obama-era regulations.

ü  EDUCATING AMERICA’S WORKFORCE:  Enacted a law to provide better education and training to help expand career opportunities for American workers.

ü  ENERGY: Opened one of the largest untapped conventional oilfields in North America, in Alaska, to help keep energy affordable.

ü  BANKING REFORM: Provided Main Street borrowers and lenders relief from burdensome Dodd-Frank red tape for the first time.

ü  HOPE FOR THE TERMINALLY ILL: Provided terminally ill patients access to experimental treatments (Right to Try legislation).

ü  FIGHTING SEX TRAFFICKING: Enacted the Stop Enabling Sex Trafficking Act (SESTA) to combat trafficking.

ü  OBAMACARE: Repealed the individual mandate tax that forced Americans to buy something many didn’t want or couldn’t afford, and ended IPAB.

ü  FIGHTING TERRORISM: Enacted the Taylor Force Act to disincentivize payments to terrorists.

ü  SANCTIONS: Imposed on Iran, Russia, and North Korea.

ü  REINING IN THE REGULATORS: Changed the balance of numerous boards and commissions from Democrat to Republican control, including the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

ü  HEALTHCARE FOR CHILDREN: Enacted the longest S-CHIP extension in history.

ü  SCHOOL SAFETY: Enacted Fix NICS and STOP School Violence Act to help protect America’s children from gun violence.

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Tags: U.S. Senate, Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, Long List Of Accomplishments To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Trump Should Look to Peru

by Paul Jacob, Contributing Author: Democracy can degrade into other things, even strong-man rule. To avoid such degradation, we have a ready prophylactic. Term limits. Which hamper would-be dictators-for-life, including entrenched oligarchs in the legislature.

Many countries illustrate the point. But take Peru, where the new head of state, Martin Vizcarra, has been combatting political corruption by supporting a referendum to impose term limits and other reforms on Peru’s Congress. Voters weigh in on December 9.

The congressional term limit would be a ban on consecutive terms. Peru’s presidency itself is limited, too weakly in my judgment, by a ban on consecutive terms. A former president may run again after a term out of office. But this is much better than having no presidential term limits.

Vizcarra got the top job early this year when his predecessor resigned because of corruption charges. The former vice president wasn’t very popular at first. But Vizcarra’s fight against corruption and for legislative term limits has changed things. The new guy now enjoys a 61 percent approval rating.

May I offer a suggestion to our own head of state?

Americans, too, are heartily sick of corrupt incumbents.

We, too, would love to see congressional term limits.

Instead of voicing only occasional strong support for efforts to impose them, President Trump could make it a crusade. Push for the idea as loudly and eloquently as he can, day in, day out. The future of the country is at stake.

And it would boost his approval ratings.

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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Tags: Paul Jacob, Common Sense, President Trump, Martin Vizcarra, Peru To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

We Have an Identity Problem

Dr. Walter E. Williams

by Dr. Walter E. Williams: According to a recent report in The New York Times, Health and Human Services Department officials have been circulating a proposal to define sex. Their memo says, “Sex means a person’s status as male or female based on immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth.” They add, “The sex listed on a person’s birth certificate, as originally issued, shall constitute definitive proof of a person’s sex unless rebutted by reliable genetic evidence.” I think the latter statement lacks complete rigor. It’s chromosomes, not what’s on a birth certificate, that determine one’s sex. Therefore, if a fetus has XX chromosomes, a female is born, and if a fetus has XY chromosomes, a male is born.

What’s an open-and-shut case in biology can become confused in the political/social arena, particularly when one’s sex is referred to as one’s gender. By the way, before modern times, the term gender was used solely when referring to the grammar of some languages, such as French, in which nouns and pronouns are masculine, feminine or neuter and require words syntactically associated with them. Gender has become completely disassociated with biological reasoning. For example, in the past when a person signed up for a Facebook account, “male” and “female” were the only options. In 2014, Facebook introduced 50 gender options, including intersex, gender nonconforming, non-binary and androgynous.

In addition to the muddying of waters about one’s sex, race has become muddied. Sen. Elizabeth Warren has long claimed that she has Native American heritage. Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania saw her as making a contribution to their law schools’ racial diversity agenda by being on their faculties. Recently, many doubted her heritage and lampooned and harangued the Massachusetts Democrat as “Pocahontas.” (She also has been dubbed Lieawatha.) Warren’s recent effort to settle the issue through DNA analysis blew up in her face. She is only between 1/64th and 1/1,024th Native American.

This new liberal agenda allowing flexibility in determining one’s identity was used by Rachel Dolezal to land a job as president of the Spokane, Washington, office of the NAACP and to become a professor of Africana studies at Eastern Washington University. Dolezal was born Caucasian but chose to be a black person; she was outed by her white parents. The NAACP defended Dolezal, saying, “One’s racial identity is not a qualifying criteria (sic) or disqualifying standard for NAACP leadership.” By the way, as far as Dolezal is concerned, she’s still a black person. She has a new legal name, Nkechi Amare Diallo, which means “gift of God” in Ibo.

You might ask, “Williams, what’s the problem? This is America, and people are whomever they say they are.” Here’s something for you to consider: For males between the ages of 17 and 21 to pass the Army’s fitness test, they must do 35 pushups, do 47 situps and run 2 miles in 16 minutes, 36 seconds. Females in the same age group pass the fitness test by doing 13 pushups, doing 47 situps and running 2 miles in 19 minutes, 42 seconds. Would it be OK for males who cannot meet the male requirement to claim that they are females?

Suppose a man is convicted and sentenced to a 10-year term at California State Prison, Corcoran. Should he be able to claim that he is a woman and be allowed to serve out his sentence at the California Institution for Women? Before the U.S. Supreme Court is the case Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard. The plaintiffs allege that the university’s admissions office discriminates against those of Asian descent. Those Asian students, with off-the-charts SAT scores, could have easily avoided anti-Asian discrimination simply by claiming that they were black or Hispanic. Who at Harvard would have dared challenge their racial claim? After all, it’s politically incorrect on college campuses to suggest that one’s skin color, one’s eye shape or the sound of one’s voice indicates his or her race.

With privileges being determined by race and sex, we need something like South Africa’s apartheid-era Population Registration Act of 1950 to define in clear terms who belongs to what race and what sex and thereby prevent race and sex fraud.
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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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