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Monday, April 23, 2018

James Comey Under Fire for Leaking Classified Memos

Former FBI Director James Comey has questions to answer, after a report on Friday revealed he leaked at least two memos documenting his conversations with President Trump that contained classified information.

Comey leaked at least two memos with classified information to his friend, former federal prosecutor and Columbia University Professor Daniel C. Richman, documenting his private conversations with President Trump, according to the Wall Street Journal.

His leaking of classified information is currently under investigation by the Justice Department’s internal watchdog.

According to the report, Comey himself redacted elements of one of the memos that he “knew to be classified” before handing it over to Richman.

He reportedly determined that the other memo contained “no classified information,” but after he left the FBI, officials upgraded it to “confidential.”

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Jeb Bush: Voters Have to Stop Rewarding Reality TV 'Racist Language,' 'Bad Behavior'

Wednesday at Elmhurst College in Oak Brook, IL, former Gov. Jeb Bush (R-FL) called on voters to stop rewarding politicians who used derogatory characterizations “to make themselves look better.”

Bush said, “Here is the dirty secret, politics is embedded in our culture. We are our culture. The interaction of all of us together defines our culture and our culture is more vulgar then it once was. Our culture allows people to act in ways that thirty years ago would never be allowed in politics. Our culture is more reality TV based, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that our politics is that way.”

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For The First Time Ever, Millennials With Student Debt Have Negative Net Wealth

On Thursday, Young Invincibles released a troubling update to their report, “The Financial Health of Young America: Measuring Generational Declines Between Baby Boomers & Millennials.” This report includes a cross-generational study of the financial well-being of Millennials today versus Baby Boomers when they were in their adolescence. The update covers the economic challenges facing millennials age 25 to 34 between 2013 and 2016.

Despite the fact that this is the second most extended economic expansion/central bank induced channel of financial capital into speculation and financialization, the update reveals how the millennial generation has transformed into the lost generation, as their financial security has eroded late in the business cycle.

For the first time, young adults age 25 to 34 with college degrees and student loans have a median net wealth of negative $1,900, said the advocacy group.

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DNC: Fundraising woes tied to 2016 conspiracy

The Democratic National Committee, in a lawsuit filed Friday, blamed the party’s fundraising woes during the 2016 presidential race on an nefarious plot, engineered by the Trump campaign, Russian officials and WikiLeaks, to disrupt the election.

The Trump campaign countered that lawsuit is a “sham” attempt to makeup for their lackluster fundraising.

Filed in federal court in Manhattan, the lawsuit says the “illegal conspiracy” between the three groups undercut the party’s message and “sowed discord within the Democratic Party at a time when party unity was essential to electoral success.”

“At the same time, Defendants’ conduct resulted in a dramatic drop in donations to the DNC,” the lawsuit says. “The dissemination of hacked information heightened donors’ concerns that confidential information disclosed through their contributions might be publicly disseminated.”

The Trump campaign fired back.

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Trump taunts Democrats over Russia collusion lawsuit

President Trump needled the Democratic Party Saturday over its multimillion-dollar lawsuit claiming damages for an alleged conspiracy between Wikileaks, the Russian government, and the Trump campaign to swing the 2016 presidential election.

“So funny, the Democrats have sued the Republicans for Winning,” Trump goaded in a 2:52 pm tweet. “Now [the] R’s counter and force them to turn over a treasure trove of material, including Servers and Emails!”

The threat of a Republican counter-suit followed Trump’s initial tweet on the topic, which hailed the DNC lawsuit as “good news.”

“We will now counter for the DNC Server that they refused to give to the FBI, the Debbie Wasserman Schultz Servers and Documents held by the Pakistani mystery man and Clinton Emails,”he posted Friday night.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller has been investigating alleged connections between Russia and the Trump campaign since May.

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Black Coffee: The Starbucks Story Is Trash

This is a country of 325-million people. If two guys getting tossed out of a coffee shop is news, then things in Donald Trump's America must be going pretty damned well.

But if the story were only meaningless trash, it would just be typical of American journalism. But it's pernicious trash meant to advance a false left-wing narrative, which is — oh yeah! — typical of American journalism. In fact, this particular story is a textbook example of why our journalism needs reform.

American journalism is a largely Democrat affair. About 7% of journalists identify as Republicans. About 28% identify as Democrats. About 50% identify as independents but they are lying and are also Democrats. Although many news outlets don't permit their reporters to donate to political campaigns, of those reporters who did donate in the last election, 96% donated to Hillary Clinton.

Now. Ever since Barack Obama diverted attention from his failed presidency by race baiting, the majority of Democrats have come to feel that America is a racist country. (The majority did not feel this way before Obama. Strange, no?).

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Former President George HW Bush hospitalized

President George H.W. Bush is recovering in a Texas hospital where he was admitted and placed in intensive care after suffering an infection, it was revealed on Monday.

A statement from Bush’s office said that the 41st president went to the hospital on Sunday shortly after the funeral for former first lady Barbara Bushand that he is recovering.

“President Bush was admitted to the Houston Methodist Hospital yesterday morning after contracting an infection that spread to his blood,” the statement read.

“He is responding to treatments and appears to be recovering.”

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The Most Dangerous Democrat in America

Imagine a combination of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and you've got Kamala Harris, the current seat-warming senator from California who, like Obama, is using the World's Greatest Deliberative Body as a resume-puncher before swiftly moving on to bigger things: the 2020 Democrat presidential nomination. Even as a nobody senator, she's been the subject of dozens, perhaps scores of speculative stories about her future, so now -- lest they build her up too quickly -- Politico and other Democrat cheerleaders are cautioning her to get her ducks in order before heading out on the hustings:

Kamala Harris has been called “the female Barack Obama.” She’s built a national following with her outspoken criticism of Donald Trump and prolific fundraising for fellow Democrats. But the California senator’s rapid rise — she’s just 15 months into her first term — has created an awkward issue: Even as progressives tout her as one of the top 2020 contenders, Harris remains something of a mystery back home.

Her approval ratings are solid, but not stratospheric. And 28 percent of California voters say they don’t know or have no opinion about Harris, according to a recent Morning Consult poll — placing her in the bottom 10 of name recognition among U.S. senators in their home states. A Berkeley IGS Poll in September found California voters — by a more than 2-to-1 margin, 49 percent to 22 percent — would rather Harris stay in the Senate than run for president in 2020.

That disconnect could be a problem with California preparing to host an early presidential primary just after Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. “There’s an old saying: ‘You’ve really got to secure your base before you start wandering off to do other things,” said Larry Stone, a longtime Democratic fundraiser in California.

As Americans have seen during various Senate hearings, she's a fairly nasty piece of work:

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Unpublished CDC Study Confirms over 2 Million Annual Defensive Gun Uses

An unpublished Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study confirms Florida State University criminologist Gary Kleck’s findings of more than two million defensive handgun uses (DGUs) per year.

Since the early 1990s, Kleck has maintained that there is a minimum of 760,000 DGUs annually. That is his low estimate; Kleck and research partner Marc Gertz have contended the actual number is closer to 2.5 million.

Kleck reaffirmed his numbers on February 17, 2015, explaining that while plenty of naysayers have criticized his findings, none have been able to offer empirical evidence to counter them.

Now, a CDC study conducted on data from 1996, 1997, and 1998 has been uncovered. The study, which was never released to the public, shows approximately 2.46 million DGUs per year.

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Mitt Romney LOSES Utah GOP nomination to try and replace Sen Orrin Hatch

Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney faced a setback in his bid to become the next United States senator for Utah.

Romney, 71, went up against 11 other candidates Saturday seeking Utah's GOPnomination to succeed retiring Sen. Orrin Hatch, 84.

The former Massachusetts governor was presumed to be the front-runner but failed to secure the nomination for Senate.

In the final round of voting at the Republican party's convention, Romney had won only 49.12 per cent of the votes, the Hill reports.

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Verlaine Laguerre on the run just before hes found guilty of murder

An Atlanta man who was convicted of murdering a 19-year-old made a run for it out of the courthouse before his verdict could be read, and now the police have launched a manhunt for him.

In October of 2011, Verlaine Laguerre, now 26, got into a fight with Matthew Hardeman, who was a 19-year-old college student at the time of his death. Laguerre, along with accomplice Prentice Baker, now 28, came back with guns and shot him 50 times in total.

During Friday's lunch break at the Fulton County Courthouse, just before the verdict was read, Laguerre bolted, according to Fox 5.

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Airmen in 'Dino Puppet' Re-Enlistment Video Fired, Reprimanded

The Air Force is sending a clear message: re-enlisting with a dinosaur puppet on your right hand isn't funny.

Three Tennessee Air National Guard individuals involved in a viral dinosaur puppet re-enlistment video have been removed from their posts -- one immediately retired with a demotion -- and reprimanded for undermining the gravity of the oath of enlistment, officials said Wednesday.

The Air Force has removed the senior noncommissioned officer at the center of the controversy from her position in the Tennessee Guard's joint public affairs office and is weighing further administrative action, according to a statement Wednesday from Maj Gen. Terry M. Haston, the adjutant general for the Tennessee Guard.

The announcement was made on the Tennessee Air National Guard's official Facebook page.

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Breaking News: Nine people were killed and 16 injured when a man driving a van plowed down pedestrians on a Toronto street. "Pure carnage," an official said.

The driver was taken into custody after a dramatic confrontation with the police that was captured on video. “Shoot me in the head,” he yelled before he was detained.

It was one of the worst mass killings in the modern history of Canada.

"Unapologetically American" Green Beret Explains "Why We Need Guns"

The Green Beret, who is "just unapologetically America" had a message - in words and images - that many Americans should pay attention to...

This is why we need guns.

Ask Hitler, Castro, Mao Tse-Tung, Stalin, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, or the countless others... if gun control worked for them.

Our forefathers did not have a glimpse into the future to know that the Second Amendment would have to protect the weapons we have today.

But they did know that governments will always be overreaching.

They wrote that beautiful constitution with the intent of limiting that power. We don’t need guns for hunting we need them for freedom.

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Gorka to Grassroots: Trump Is the ‘Kryptonite of Political Correctness’

“We as a country have been frozen over for the last 30 years. There’s a massive, thick layer of permafrost, which was called political correctness”

RICHMOND, Virginia –
President Donald Trump is the ice-breaker ship that broke through 30 years of thick permafrost, according to former Trump administration official Dr. Sebastian Gorka, who called on 200 grassroots activists to be the flotilla that keeps the ice from reforming behind him.

“We as a country have been frozen over for the last 30 years. There’s a massive, thick layer of permafrost, which was called political correctness … in media, education, in politics, even some parts of business,” Gorka told the Middle Resolution crowd in Richmond Virginia this week.

The audience was asked to think about how, under President Barack Obama, the government determined which sex can use which bathroom “and that boys could shower with girls if they felt they were a girl.”

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Got Seasonal Brain Fog?

Allergic rhinitis, or seasonal allergies, often referred to as hay fever, affect 20 million U.S. adults and more than 6 million children.1 The most common symptoms include sneezing, stuffy or runny nose, watery and itchy eyes and itching in your nose, mouth or throat, but a sizable number of allergy sufferers also experience noticeable brain fog as well.

What causes the fuzzy-headed feeling is up for debate, but many theories are out there. One of the simplest is that allergy symptoms can make it difficult to get a good night’s sleep, which in turn makes you fatigued and takes a toll on your ability to think clearly and be productive. Others, however, believe there may be more to it than that, and the inflammation triggered by allergies may be directly or indirectly affecting the brain.

How do Allergies Affect Your Brain?

Allergies are your body’s reaction to particles that it considers foreign (allergens). The first time your body encounters an allergen, your plasma cells release immunoglobulin E (IgE), an antibody specific to that allergen. IgE attaches to the surface of your mast cells, which are found in great numbers in your surface tissues, such as your skin and nasal mucous membranes, where they help mediate inflammatory responses. Mast cells release a number of important chemical mediators, one of which is histamine.

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Breaking News: The suspect in the Waffle House shooting that left 4 people dead in Nashville has been arrested after a manhunt, the police said

The police said Monday they had arrested a suspect in the killing of four people at a Waffle House in Nashville, ending a wide search that had unnerved one of the largest cities in the South.

Breaking News: About 10 people were hit, some of them feared dead, as a driver struck pedestrians at two sites in Toronto. A suspect is in custody.

Meaghan Gray, a spokeswoman for the Toronto police, said the authorities received a report at 1:30 p.m. on Monday that a white van had mounted the curb near Yonge Street and Finch Avenue West.

The driver was in custody roughly 90 minutes later, she said.

First wave of migrant caravan hits the US border as some 50 members request asylum in California

The first wave of the migrant caravan has hit the US border, with a group of about 50 seeking asylum at the Tijuana crossing into California.

The group of 50 Central American migrants who set out from southern Mexico in late March arrived in Tijuana, Mexico on Wednesday, after splintering off from the original caravan of 1,500.

'Since yesterday, some began to cross into the United States to turn themselves in from Tijuana and request asylum. We understand more of (the migrants) will do the same,' said Jose Maria Garcia, director of Juventud 2000, an organization dedicated to assisting migrants.

He said more migrants, many of whom are stranded in Mexico's central states, are expected to arrive in the coming days.

The splinter groups headed toward the US have been undeterred by President Donald Trump's threat to deploy the National Guard along the border, after Trump called California's contribution to the mission a 'charade'.

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Democrat Says He's ‘Done Apologizing’ For His Anti-Semitic Remarks And Actions

On Saturday, Washington, D.C. Councilman Trayon White (D-Ward 8) said in a video that he's “done apologizing” for his anti-Semitic beliefs after numerous reports have surfaced over the last several weeks.

“It’s definitely been a learning experience for me, but I’ve said my apologies, and I’m done with that.” White said in the video, which was in response to reports that he left the Holocaust Museum early during a tour on Wednesday. “I’m done apologizing about that. I was sincere.”

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We Shouldn't Be Surprised that Southwest's Hero Pilot Is a Christian

Facing an extremely stressful situation that could've resulted in hundreds of deaths, Southwest pilot Tammie Jo Shults safely landed her severely damaged plane in Philadelphia last week after an engine exploded. In the aftermath, the passengers on that plane as well as many in the media have hailed her as a hero, rightfully so. Turns out, Tammie Jo Shults is a committed Christian who loves sharing her faith. And we shouldn't be surprised by that.

Immediately after the averted tragedy, CNN published a piece titled "We Shouldn't Be Surprised that Southwest's Hero Pilot Is a Woman." In her article, Juliette Kayyem wrote, "Shults showed that 'nerves of steel' can have two X chromosomes."

I would imagine that only the most intransigent misogynist would doubt Kayyem's assertion. And, to be clear, Kayyem's article wasn't intended to be an editorial version of Annie Get Your Gun's Anything You Can Do." While not agreeing with her every assertion, I do appreciate Kayyem's article, both the content (some of it) and the tone. In the article, she points out that during the crisis at 30,000 feet in the air, the frightened passengers weren't thinking about the pilot's gender. Adding to that, I submit that they weren't thinking about the pilot's religion either.

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Baltimore Police Chief Apologizes for '200 Years' of Police Brutality at Rap Concert

Baltimore’s top cop Darryl De Sousa apologized for “200 years” of police brutality in front of a packed rap concert earlier this week.

It’s doubtful that hip-hop fans expected to hear an apology on behalf of the police when they crammed into the Baltimore Soundstage to hear Erik B. & Rakim. However, that’s precisely what they got from the city’s police commissioner.

“I want to take about 20 seconds to apologize for all the things that the police have done dating back 200 years,” Commissioner De Sousa said in a video posted on Instagram. “Two-hundred years ago, all the way to civil rights. All the way to the ‘80s where crack was prevalent in the cities and it affected disproportionately African-American men. All the way to the ‘90s. All the way to the 2000s when we had zero tolerance.”

“I want to take the time to apologize for what policing did and I promise you we’re going to make a change in the future,” he added.

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Obama REALLY Wanted To Take Your Guns

TIME Magazine named the left-wing survivors of the Parkland, Fla., shooting among the 100 most influential people of 2018 Friday, and former President Barack Obama wrote the article praising them.

Right-leaning survivors of the February shooting such as Kyle Kashuv were omitted in the piece. Instead, Obama praised survivors such as David Hogg and Cameron Kasky for dismissing “platitudes and punditry,” despite the pair frequently engaging in punditry themselves. Hogg is the same person whoclaimed that adults “don’t know how to use a f***ing democracy” in an interview with The Outline, and Kasky likened Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida to a mass shooter on live television at a CNN town hall.

“Our history is defined by the youthful push to make America more just, more compassionate, more equal under the law. This generation—of Parkland, of Dreamers, of Black Lives Matter—embraces that duty,” Obama wrote. “If they make their elders uncomfortable, that’s how it should be.”

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Op-Ed: Farm Bill Proposal Gets Military Food Stamp Policy Wrong

Abby J. Leibman is president and CEO of MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, a national advocacy organization working to end hunger among people of all faiths and backgrounds in the United States and Israel.

Kathy Roth-Douquet is CEO at Blue Star Families, a national, nonprofit network of military spouses, children, parents and friends, as well as service members, veterans and civilians, dedicated to supporting, connecting and empowering military families.

Tens of thousands of military families nationwide experienced food insecurity last year, and yet the new Farm Bill will make it more difficult for these families to get relief. U.S. House Committee on Agriculture Chairman Mike Conaway, R-Texas, recently released a video about the 2018 Farm Bill that ends with an echoing proclamation that, "we must get this policy right."

It's hard to see how his draft of the Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018 even comes close to achieving that goal. Instead, this bill includes proposals and provisions that threaten to pull the rug out from under millions of Americans, among them thousands of currently serving members of our nation's armed forces.

It is a harsh, underreported reality that far too many lower-ranking enlistees need help feeding their families. Military families may experience food insecurity because of financial emergencies, low pay, and crises levels of chronic unemployment or underemployment of military spouses in a society where most families need dual incomes to live.

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No Official Intel Used To Launch Russia Probe According To Controversial DOJ Document: Nunes

After waiting eight months for the DOJ to turn over the "electronic communication" (EC) - the document which the FBI used to launch the original counterintelligence investigation against the Trump campaign, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) told Fox News that upon review - the EC reveals that no intelligence was used to launch the probe.

Nunes also touched on the fact that Hillary Clinton confidant Sidney Blumenthal pushed anti-Trump memos to the Obama State Department, written by Clinton "hatchet man" Cody Shearer and passed to Jonathan Winer, former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State.

“We now know that there was no official intelligence that was used to start this investigation. We know that Sidney Blumenthal and others were pushing information into the State Department. So we’re trying to piece all that together and that’s why we continue to look at the State Department,” Nunes told Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures.”

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Democratic Donor Network Wants Reparations On Agenda By 2022

Democracy Alliance, a far-left donor club embraced by the leadership of the Democratic Party, has a vision: The way to win in 2022 is reparations to blacks for slavery.

The Alliance hosted a reception — "Way to Win: 2022 Victory Party" — which offered an insight of things to come if Democrats can win. Why they picked 2022 no one knows, but apparently they're thinking it'll take two mid-term elections plus the 2020 presidential election to get in position to control the agenda.

"Take a ride in our time machine to hear from the true political geniuses who made this happen," the group said in an invitation to the reception, which was held last week in the ritzy neighborhood of Buckhead outside Atlanta. "It's 2022 and we are celebrating policy victories across the nation: Medicare for All and Free College, and next on the agenda is Reparations."

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Collins: Comey Shouldn't Be Cashing In On Book Amidst Russia Investigation

Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine) attacked former FBI Director James Comey for the timing of his new book on Sunday, saying she couldn't imagine why he'd try to "cash in" in the midst of the Russia investigation.

Comey has been promoting A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership this month, which includes recounting his interactions with President Donald Trump before being fired last year and his handling of the Hillary Clinton of the email investigation.

"What do you make of James Comey … What advice you would give a future FBI director?" "Meet the Press" host Chuck Todd asked Collins.

"Well, if I were advising a future FBI Director I would say two things. One, always follow the Department of Justice's protocol and guidelines, which unfortunately James Comey did not do in the Hillary Clinton investigation," Collins said.

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Face 10 Years In Prison If You Don't Surrender Your Bump Stock in 90 Days

When Wayne LaPierre said on CBS’s Face the Nation that the ATF needed to “do its job” with respect to bump stocks, one wonders if he was asking the agency to turn thousands of law-abiding gun owners into outlaws. Because that, my friends, is exactly what is happening.

If you currently own a reciprocating stock you will soon be in possession of a machine gun. Unlawful possession of a machine gun is a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison, according to the DOJ.

This is not a joke. Attorney General Jeff Sessions published a Notice for Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) last week. (I’ve embedded it below.) If made final, possessors of “bump-stock-type devices would be required to surrender, destroy, or otherwise render the devices permanently inoperable.”

To be abundantly clear there is no grandfather clause in the NPRM. In other words, this is confiscation on a national scale, folks.

“Since the day he took office, President Trump has had no higher priority than the safety of each and every American,” said Attorney General Jeff Sessions in a statement.

“That is why today the Department of Justice is publishing for public comment a proposed rulemaking that would define ‘machinegun’ to include bump stock-type devices under federal law—effectively banning them,” he added.

Even for those of you who said, over and over: Who cares about bump stocks! They break if not the letter of the law than certainly the spirit of the law. They should be banned! Even you should take offense to this NPRM.

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Why the Authoritarian Right Is Rising

A fortnight ago, Viktor Orban and his Fidesz Party won enough seats in the Hungarian parliament to rewrite his country's constitution.

To progressives across the West, this was disturbing news.

For the bete noire of Orban's campaign was uber-globalist George Soros. And Orban's commitments were to halt any further surrenders of Hungarian sovereignty and independence to the European Union, and to fight any immigrant invasion of Hungary from Africa or the Islamic world.

Why are autocrats like Orban rising and liberal democrats failing in Europe? The autocrats are addressing the primary and existential fear of peoples across the West — the death of the separate and unique tribes into which they were born and to which they belong.

Modern liberals and progressives see nations as transitory — here today, gone tomorrow. The autocrats, however, have plugged into the most powerful currents running in this new century: tribalism and nationalism.

The democracy worshippers of the West cannot compete with the authoritarians in meeting the crisis of our time because they do not see what is happening to the West as a crisis.

Read more here

Unpublished CDC Study Confirms over 2 Million Annual Defensive Gun Uses

An unpublished Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study confirms Florida State University criminologist Gary Kleck’s findings of more than two million defensive handgun uses (DGUs) per year.

Since the early 1990s, Kleck has maintained that there is a minimum of 760,000 DGUs annually. That is his low estimate; Kleck and research partner Marc Gertz have contended the actual number is closer to 2.5 million.

Kleck reaffirmed his numbers on February 17, 2015, explaining that while plenty of naysayers have criticized his findings, none have been able to offer empirical evidence to counter them.

Now, a CDC study conducted on data from 1996, 1997, and 1998 has been uncovered. The study, which was never released to the public, shows approximately 2.46 million DGUs per year.

Kleck summarized the CDC findings:

Steve Hilton: Drain The Swamp -- Trump should fire Scott Pruitt

It became one of the best-known chants on the 2016 campaign trail, and a powerful symbol of Donald Trump’s insurgent, anti-establishment campaign: “Drain The Swamp!”

The chant caught on because it captured something that everyone feels, even if they’re not familiar with specific examples: that for decades now, public policy in America has been distorted to favor the interests of the rich, the well-connected and the insiders.

This is elitism and it has been America’s ruling ideology regardless of whether Republicans or Democrats have held power in the White House, Congress or state capitols.

What a betrayal of the world’s oldest democracy, founded on that most beautiful political principle: people power. Despite the Constitution and the institutions it underpins, who would claim that American democracy today serves “we the people?”

Instead, our democracy serves The Swamp. Political legitimacy comes not from votes, but from money and influence.

As I wrote in my book “More Human: Designing a World Where People Come First”: “America, where the rich and powerful literally buy the outcomes they want from the political system, is no longer in any proper sense of the word a democracy, it is a donocracy.”

But The Swamp is about more than corrupt politicians and their donors. Much of the policy that affects our lives is not made in Congress or state legislatures but in the dreary offices of administrative agencies without even the pretense of democratic accountability.

Anonymous bureaucrats make countless decisions that seem dispassionately technocratic to them, but are make-or-break for those directly affected.

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http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/04/21/steve-hilton-drain-swamp-trump-should-fire-scott-pruitt-and-throw-out-lobbyists.html

Yeti Coolers Cuts Ties with NRA Foundation

Yeti Coolers, a go-to for sportsmen around the country, is cutting ties with the NRA Foundation without explanation or prior notice.

The NRA Foundation is a charitable organization.

The separation comes although Yeti products have long been a staple at Friends of NRA Foundation Banquets and functions.

NRA-ILA quoted NRA past president and USF executive director Marion Hammer saying, “Suddenly, without prior notice, YETI has declined to do business with The NRA Foundation saying they no longer wish to be an NRA vendor, and refused to say why. They will only say they will no longer sell products to The NRA Foundation.”

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Bathroom doors removed at Maryland high school to curb smoking, vaping

A high school in Maryland has removed the doors leading into several bathrooms to discourage students from discreetly smoking and vaping, drawing complaints from pupils who say the decision is detrimental to their privacy.

School officials removed the doors to nearly half the bathrooms this week at Broadneck High School in Annapolis, Maryland, in response to students increasingly smoking and vaping inside, local media reported Friday.

“Broadneck High School has experienced an increasing number of violations of the Code of Student Conduct in bathrooms,” Anne Arundel County Public Schools said in a statement. “In response, the school installed doorstops two weeks ago and propped doors open ONLY on bathrooms where to do so would not invade student privacy. Those doorstops were unfortunately kicked off, so the school earlier this week removed doors on those bathrooms.”

“It’s unfortunate that it came to that,” said Bob Mosier, the county schools spokesman, The Capital Gazette reported.

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Where to Donate, Sell or Recycle Furniture and Electronics

Before you visit a landfill, consider one of these ecological ways to repurpose your furniture and electronics

The process of redecorating your home can be exciting, but it also means figuring out what to do with your old stuff. Where do you sell, donate or recycle your used sofa, saggy mattress or old fold-out metal bed frame? Before you put those items out on the street hoping that someone might adopt them, consider an equally likely outcome: Your castoffs could end up in a landfill. Since that isn’t a great option for any of us, here are some other ways you could dispose of your old home furnishings and electronics.
Where to Donate Old Furniture and Electronics

If your furniture is in decent condition, chances are good that you can donate or sell it. There are even plenty of charitable organizations willing to pick up items directly from your home.

The Salvation Army accepts clothing, furniture, household goods and appliances, and you can use the nonprofit’s website to schedule a pickup of your items. The Salvation Army also has a wide network of locations that accept mattresses.

Nonprofit Goodwill Industries International accepts furniture, clothing, electronics and a variety of household goods. Some locations accept mattresses in good condition, but this depends on local regulations, so call your local Goodwill ahead to find out.

Abbas: Palestinians Won’t Allow Any Country to Open Embassy in Jerusalem

The Times of Israel reports: The Palestinians will not allow US President Donald Trump or anyone else to say that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday.

The Palestinians, Abbas said, will continue to fight Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital as they have been doing for the past few months. “The Palestinians will not allow any country to move its embassy to Jerusalem before there’s a solution [to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict],” Abbas said, during a meeting with Arab delegates attending a conference in Ramallah on laboratory medicine.

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Liberal Civil War

Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains is fighting a unionization attempt from Service Employees International Union, despite the labor giant's emphatic support for the nation's largest abortion provider.

In November the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the agency in charge of union elections and settling workplace disputes, granted SEIU Local 105's petition to hold an election for joining the union at several abortion clinics in Colorado. Planned Parenthood objected to the organization campaign and appealed to the Republican-controlled board. It disputed the fact that SEIU was attempting to organize a micro-unit and improperly excluded Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains (PPRM) clinics in Nevada and New Mexico in an effort to tilt the scales of the vote.

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‘Sanctuary county’ declared for Illinois gun owners

An overwhelming majority of board members in Effingham County, Illinois, decided to “flip the script” this week and declare itself a “sanctuary” for gun owners.

Effingham County State’s Attorney Bryan Kibler and board member David Campbell called a barrage of gun-control bills working their way through the Illinois House and Senate a clear signal that it’s time to “take a stand.”

The men joined “Fox & Friends First” on Thursday to discuss a new Second Amendment resolution that passed along an 8-1 vote.

We “decided it’s time for someone to take a hard stand,” Mr. Campbell told the network.

The resolution reads: “If the Government of the State of Illinois shall infringe upon the inalienable rights granted by the Second Amendment, Effingham County shall become a ‘sanctuary county’ for all firearms.”

Mr. Kibler said that Effingham’s move, while “mostly symbolic,” was drafted to articulate the high level of discontent among its population.

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BREAKING NEWS: Major Fire In Berlin

Berlin, OC, Ocean Pines, Showell, Bishopville, Snow Hill requested for a ladder truck commercial building fire on Main St. in Berlin. All roads closed. Heavy fire showing. More to come...

Location: Attics of my life. The old Donoway Furniture store across from Main St. Deli

Boy Hit by Truck During School Walkout on Guns

EL PASO, Texas - University Medical Center has announced a memorial for the Parkland Middle School student struck and killed Friday.

Police say 11-year-old Jonathan Benko was taking part in Parkland Middle School's organized walkout when he and a group of students left the designated walkout area. Police say around 10:30 Friday morning, the group crossed Loop 375 then attempted to cross it again. Benko was the last in the group to cross and was struck by a Ford F150.

Benko sustained serious injuries and was taken to UMC where he died.

Officials say Benko's mother works as a Registered Nurse in UMC's Emergency Department and his uncle, Michael Benko, is also an employee at UMC, where he works as a Respiratory Therapist.

“All of us at UMC are heartbroken by the loss of a child belonging to one of our Associates, especially a child as young as Jonathan,” said Jacob Cintron, UMC President & CEO. “As a father, I can only imagine how hard this must be for Ashley and her family. She is also one of our family at UMC. Our support, thoughts and prayers are with her and her family throughout this difficult time.”

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Parents Say, ‘Enough’ to Planned Parenthood’s ‘Pornographic’ Sex Ed

Parents in cities across the U.S. as well as Canada, Australia, and now, the U.K. are pulling their children out of schools Monday to protest what they view as “pornographic,” “gender-bending” sex ed curricula conducted and promoted by taxpayer-funded Planned Parenthood.

“A few of us moms were disgusted by the evidence we were seeing on social media of graphic sex ed in the schools and the stories about gender transition parties and teaching kids to question their gender,” Sex Ed Sit Out organizer Elizabeth Johnston – the “Activist Mommy” – tells Breitbart News. “So we decided to stop griping about it and actually do something about it.”

The protest has taken off from Charlotte, North Carolina, to about 15 other cities, including Austin and San Antonio, Texas; Spokane, Washington; Garden Grove and Sacramento, California; Evansville, Bloomington, and Indianapolis, Indiana; Decorah, Iowa; and Martinsburg, West Virginia.

“We had no resources, so initially, we were just going to do it in Charlotte because we thought we could manage just one event,” Johnston explains. “And there was such a cry from parents across the globe to help them push back against the graphic gender-bending sex ed in their schools that we just had to step out and keep the ball rolling.”

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Gorka: Grassroots, ‘You Have a Job To Do’

National security strategist and former Trump administration official Dr. Sebastian Gorka encouraged 200 grassroots activists this week to trust President Donald J Trump, but also remember “You have a job to do.”

The Middle Resolution hosted Gorka for the Richmond, Virginia event where the former deputy assistant to the President gave the crowd a look behind the veil of Trump as well as encouragement to get behind 2018 candidates and be part of the solution.

“It’s compassion that drives this President because he didn’t do it for the money. Nor did he run for President for fame,” Gorka told the crowd. “There’s no public persona and then a private persona,” he continued, “just the two of you in the Oval Office is exactly the same as he is on the campaign trail.”

“Donald J. Trump won the presidency to become the most powerful man in the world despite the GOP, not because of the GOP,” explained Gorka. “This is something the GOP needs to understand, especially before November.”

“Donald Trump is a reaction to the failure of both parties,” said Gorka..

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Socialist Venezuela’s State-Owned PDVSA Oil Company Near Total Collapse

Socialist Venezuela’s state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) is close to collapse, beset with an ever-growing array of new and growing problems.

Venezuela’s oil refineries worked at 31 percent of their capacity in the first quarter in 2018, well below 2017 levels. Venezuela has not seen such low levels of oil production since the 1980s. Average oil production declined dramatically over the past two years, by 12 percent in 2016 and again by 13 percent in 2017. Production in December 2017 was 27 percent lower than a year earlier.

Late last year, Venezuela’s Socialist president Nicolás Maduro appointed a military man, Major General Manuel Quevedo, head of PDVSA, with a mandate to increase production and rid the company of corruption. Quevedo and his team of military officers had no experience in the oil industry and replaced long-time experienced employees with soldiers. According to an executive, “The military guys arrive calling the engineers thieves and saboteurs.”

There has been a stampede of PDVSA workers resigning from the company.

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Knife control movement crosses Atlantic

The knife control movement has crossed the Atlantic.

Just days after the mayor of London, where stabbings have surged in recent years, tweeted that anyone caught with a knife “will feel the full force of the law,” a Texas mother who lost her son in a knife attack is taking action.

PJ Media reported Lori Brown said the suspect who allegedly attacked her son “should have not been allowed to have an illegal knife on him and use it to murder somebody.”

She is lobbying Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott for more restrictions on knives.

“As with gun control, she seems focused more on restricting access to the weapon the murderer used than on enabling victims to defend themselves,” the report said.

Her son, University of Texas at Austin student Harrison Brown, died in a stabbing attack on campus in May 2017.

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[Next: screwdrivers, scissors, and hammers. --Editor]

Kanye's embrace of a black Trump supporter not well-received

Hip-hop artist Kanye West was criticized by the left for his support of Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential race. But anyone who thought that would lead him to walk away from conservative ideas found out recently that he instead may be doubling down.

Less than a week after returning to Twitter, following a nearly year-long break, the rapper who once claimed that then-President George W. Bush did not care for black people because of his much-criticized response to Hurricane Katrina in 2015 appeared to endorse a pro-Trump conservative who regularly criticizes Black Lives Matter.

Candace Owens is a conservative activist turned communications director for Turning Point USA, a nonprofit that has gained prominence for spreading right-leaning values on college campuses and for its proximity to the Trump White House. Owens earlier oversaw the group's "urban engagement."

But for Owens, engaging urban communities has at times meant attempting to dismantle arguments about white privilege put forward by black activists and the Democratic Party.

When Black Lives Matter activists protested a speech she gave Friday at the University of California at Los Angeles, she accused them of embracing victimhood by focusing on slavery and the systemic racism of the past:

"It's embarrassing. You're not living through anything right now. You're overly privileged Americans."

She later tweeted about the protesters: "They're a bunch of whiny toddlers, pretending to be oppressed for attention."

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To My Dear Friend Donna... May You Rest In Peace

Together we fought some incredible challenges. Together we stood our ground and fought for what we believed in. Together we supported multiple candidates and while we may have separated right here on SBYNews as a team, we've remained friends and I always admired her independence and firm stance on politics. Donna was one of  "The Dirty Dozen". Our dear friend Donna passed away Sunday morning.

Ladies & Gentlemen, Donna Ennis was fighting a major battle outside the political arena, this time it was for her own life. Donna battled cancer. Please keep her Family in your thoughts and prayers. Donna was a  Patriot who served our country in the Coast Guard as well as the Republican Party right here on the Eastern Shore. 

R.I.P. my dear friend.

Cartel Gunmen on Jet Skis Open Fire on Cancun Tourist Beach

Two cartel gunmen on jet skis opened fire on a mobile food vendor on a crowded beach in Cancun. The attack caused panicked tourists including children to flee and take cover.

This incident occurred behind the Hotel Riu in Cancun’s tourist zone, popular with international and local tourists on April 19. According to local media reports and Breitbart Texas’ law enforcement sources, the two gunmen approached the beach on jet skis and opened fire on a mobile food vendor. The vendor managed to flee without injuries. The gunfire caused immediate panic forcing beachgoers to flee from the beach. Officials reported no injuries and the gunmen managed to evade capture.

According to local media, state, municipal and tourist police all responded to the scene and located several shell casings at the beach—the investigation will continue.

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PUBLIC ENEMY #1: Reports Suggest CNN Helped Orchestrate Setup Of Trump

Memos written by former FBI director James Comey reveal that CNN may have helped orchestrate a possible setup of then-president-elect Donald Trump.

According to multiple published reports, the memos seem to indicate that a meeting Comey had with Trump was prompted by pressure from CNN and then was used to launch the media frenzy over the anti-Trump dossier, which was funded by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. Mollie Hemingway at The Federalist writes:

In multiple memos, Comey specifically mentioned that CNN had the dossier and wanted a “news hook” that would enable the network to report on its most salacious allegations even though they had not been verified.

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James Comey corners himself with foreboding Loretta Lynch talk, and the Left hammers him for it

Ex-FBI Director James Comey has placed himself in a bind with his foreboding talk of former Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

Conservative media have fixated on it. Consider what Comey's self-professed "good friend,"Benjamin Wittes, said about a Fox News interview request he received.

In a series of tweets Sunday, he shared an excerpt of an email showing what the network wanted him to discuss.

"Reaching out to see if you might be available join us on the show this evening. We were hoping to expand on your thoughts from your recent piece, Behind James Comey's 'A Higher Loyalty'. We were specifically hoping to speak with you about Loretta Lynch with relation to the Clinton email investigation," the email read.

"Note that of all of the things I have said about @Comey's book, the one thing Fox wants to talk to me about concerns not Donald Trump, not the gross abuse of law enforcement taking place right now, not what I have called the crisis of our time, but ... Loretta Lynch," Wittes said about the email, adding, "That actually says a lot."

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