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Thursday, January 10, 2019

Just the facts

Fact Check: Trump Correct, Border Wall Pays for Itself

Fact Check: Trump Correct, Black Americans Hurt Most by Illegal Immigration

Fact Check: Yes, Democrats Once Supported Walls on the Border

Fact Check: Pelosi Incorrect, MS-13 Routinely Poses as Children at Border

Fact Check: Pelosi Incorrect, Walls Have Proven Effective on Border

Fact Check: No, Southern Border Cannot Be Secured Without a Wall

Goodwin: Refusal to budge on border wall shows Dems still hung up on 2016

After watching the dueling prime-time speeches last night, it was easy to come away with the idea that the dispute is simply over the president’s demand for wall funding and the partial government shutdown. As such, it should be easy for the president and Dems to cut a split-the-difference deal and move on to the next problem.

After all, isn’t that why they were hired?

If only things were as simple as they appear. In fact, the Democrats’ refusal even to consider any kind of border barrier and other serious measures illustrates that the dispute is merely a proxy for the real issue dividing the nation: 2016.

Like generals fighting the last war, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are fixated on the last presidential election. Their refusal to let it go and get on with governing in a divided Congress is a shameful sign of how radical their party has become since Trump’s election.

More


https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/michael-goodwin-refusal-to-budge-on-border-wall-shows-dems-still-hung-up-on-2016

Pelosi, Schumer spark laughs on social media for 'angry parents' rebuttal

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., triggered plenty of laughs on social media Tuesday night for their rebuttal to President Donald Trump’s address from the Oval Office.

During his address, Trump called the conflict at the southern border a “crisis of the heart and the crisis of the soul” and repeated his request for $5.7 billion for a steel barrier. Meanwhile, Pelosi and Schumer stood firm with their position that the government shutdown must end in order to continue talks about border funding.

However, folks on Twitter drew more attention to the serious tone of the Democrats’ remarks and had some fun at their expense.

Many compared Pelosi and Schumer to “disappointed” parents.

More here


https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pelosi-schumer-see-social-media-mockery-for-angry-parents-rebuttal-to-trump-address

Russian Patriarch Warns ‘Antichrist’ Will Control Humans Through Gadgets

The leader of the Russian Orthodox Church has said that humans’ dependence on modern technology will result in the coming of the Antichrist.

In an interview with Russian state media, Patriarch Kirill explained he does not entirely oppose gadgets, but warned against “falling into slavery” to smartphones.

Patriarch Kirill said that the collection of user data including “location, interests and fears” will make it possible for humans to be controlled by external forces.

“Control from a single point is a harbinger of the coming of the Antichrist,” Kirill told the state-run Rossia-1 TV network on Orthodox Christmas Monday.

More here

College Students Fare Worse In Classes That Permit Phone Use — Even If They Don’t Use Them

College students hoping to start the spring semester off on the right foot ought to consider keeping their phones in their dorm rooms during class. A new study finds that students perform worse on final exams if they are allowed access to a smartphone or tablet for non-academic purposes during lectures, compared to students who don’t have access to mobile devices.

In fact, researchers from Rutgers University say students who didn’t use mobile devices during lectures where they were permitted phone use still performed worse than pupils in mobile-restricted lectures. The finding shows just how the mere presence or availability of phone can be detrimental.

For the study, the researchers performed an in-class experiment to quantify the detriment of dividing one’s attention between electronic devices and the instructor during class on college students’ performance on in-lecture tests and end-of-term exams.

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EXECUTIVE BOB CULVER ANNOUNCES WARMING UP WICOMICO

Salisbury, MD ...During the winter months, we realize there are so many people outside in the cold weather without ample clothing items to keep warm. Therefore, County Executive Bob Culver is pleased to announce the program WARMING UP WICOMICO. We will be having a cold weather clothing donation drive January thru February from 8 AM-4 PM.

Donations will be distributed to cold weather shelters and Wicomico County homeless.

Drop off locations:

Government Office Building at 125 N. Division Street
Wicomico Civic Center at 500 Glen Avenue

City Council Work Session Cancellation

Please note that the Tuesday, January 22, 2018 Salisbury City Council Work Session has been canceled. Council will convene in a Work Session immediately upon the adjournment of the regularly scheduled Legislative Session on Monday, January 14, 2019 (both sessions to be held in Council Chambers)

The Public is invited to attend.

January 11 Grilled Pork Chop Dinner at Delmar VFW

The public is invited to join the Delmar VFW Auxiliary for a Grilled Pork Chop Dinner from 5 to 8 p.m. on Friday, January 11, at the VFW Post,200 W. State St., Delmar, MD.

The menu includes a large savory grilled pork chop marinated for 24 hours, a tossed salad with choice of dressings,a seasoned baked potato with sour cream and/or butter,choice of succotash or broccoli with or without melted cheese, and a dinner roll. Cost is $12 per person. Desserts will also be available.

Carry-outs may be ordered in person only after 5 p.m. Proceeds benefit the many local charities and organizations supported by the Delmar VFW Auxiliary.

'They changed their mind only after I was elected President.'


The Top 5 Democrats Who Supported Border Security Before Trump Wanted It

Americans tuning into last night's addresses heard two diametrically opposed messages on border security: President Trump stands for the safety of our nation, while the Democrats in Washington do not.

The rebuttal address delivered by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer shows just how radical the Democrat Party has become.

The Democrat Party once cared about border security and cracking down on illegal immigration, but have swiftly morphed into a party that wants to abolish ICE, believes walls are "immoral," and seeks only to placate their radical open-borders base for political reasons.

During his address, President Trump noted the humanitarian aspect of securing the border for people on both sides, referring to the conflict at the southern border as a "crisis of the heart and the crisis of the soul."

Schumer countered that "we can secure our border without an expensive, ineffective wall," while Pelosi added that "President Trump must stop holding the American people hostage" and "must stop manufacturing a crisis."

My, how their views have changed...
Chuck Schumer

Video from 2009 shows Chuck Schumer advocating for a fence along the southern border because it will be a "far more secure" means to creating a "significant barrier to illegal immigration."

"The American people will never accept immigration reform unless they truly believe that their government is committed to ending future illegal immigration," he added.

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Flashback: Remember When the Clintons Demanded a Wall?

So, Donald Trump’s assertions about protecting our southern border are being tagged as “hate speech.”

Remember when Bill and Hillary Clinton were advocating the same strong stance on immigration?

In Bill Clinton’s “State of the Union” address, he received a sustained standing ovation for the following remarks:

“All Americans, not only in the states most heavily affected but in every place in this country, are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of illegal aliens entering our country. The jobs they hold might otherwise be held by citizens or legal immigrants. The public service they use impose burdens on our taxpayers. That’s why our administration has moved aggressively to secure our borders more by hiring a record number of new border guards, by deporting twice as many criminal aliens as ever before, by cracking down on illegal hiring, by barring welfare benefits to illegal aliens.”

Much more here with video

Controversial food additive 'used in bacon makes you lazy'

A controversial additive added to bacon, sausages and fizzy drinks can make you lazy, according to research.

Tests have also uncovered evidence that phosphate, heavily consumed in the Western diet, can impair metabolism.

Scientists warn the results add to a 'growing chorus' of voices calling for levels of phosphate should be curbed in the food industry.

Estimates suggests a quarter of adults consume at least three times more of the food additive than is recommended.

Phosphates are added to an array of foods to prolong their shelf life and add flavour.

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What, Precisely, Do Democrats Want to Impeach Trump For?

Newly sworn-in Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib electrified progressives with her passionate declaration that she and her colleagues will "impeach the motherf---er" -- the "motherf---er," of course, being President Trump.

Democratic leaders were embarrassed that a high-profile freshman would speak so frankly in public. But hours before Tlaib spoke, on the first day of Democratic control of the House, another Democrat, Rep. Brad Sherman, filed a resolution of impeachment. Sherman's resolution was later co-sponsored by another colleague, Democratic Rep. Al Green.

The efforts by Sherman and Green, who filed his own articles in 2017, and another House Democrat, Rep. Steve Cohen, who also introduced articles in Trump's first months in office, are nothing new. Nor are those efforts a lonely quest. In an early 2018 procedural vote, 66 Democrats voted in favor of moving an impeachment measure forward.

But on what grounds, specifically, do the pro-impeachment Democrats intend to remove the president? The new Sherman/Green resolution, and Green's and Cohen's resolutions from last year, are not exactly a comprehensive recounting of Trump's alleged offenses.

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Hospitals ban visitors as the flu sweeps the US, killing 13 children and sickening thousands

Hospitals across the US are turning away visitors to prevent spread of the flu.

New Jersey, North Carolina, and Indiana are just a few of the states putting limits on the influx of people to their wards, with many more set to follow.

Some hospitals, including in Arizona and Rhode Island, will make visitors wear masks.

Nineteen states and New York City now have high levels of flu-like activity, with thousands of cases confirmed, at least 13 child deaths, and an unknown number of adult deaths.

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Pennsylvania High School Students Demand Repeal of Campus ‘Bible Ban’

Students at Cumberland County High School are fighting against what they say is the local Pennsylvania school district’s unconstitutional ban on distributing Bibles on campus.

The students allege that David Harris, the high school’s principal, told members of the Christians in Action Student Club that they were not allowed to pass out Bibles to their friends during lunchtime and that if they wanted to pass out Bibles after the school day, they would have to get approval from the school administration.

The students then asked Jeremy Samek, Independence Law Center senior counsel, to help them challenge Mechanicsburg Area School District’s “Bible ban” and appeal to administrators to lift it.

“For some reason they believe that in order to avoid an establishment clause violation, they mistakenly believe they need to treat religion like it’s toxic, and they need to eliminate it from public school wherever they find it,” Samek said, according to PennLive. “When you start doing that, you move from protecting the establishment clause to violating the free speech right of students.”

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Cher demands Pelosi end partial government shutdown, fund border wall: ‘DON’T DIE ON THIS HILL’

Liberal music superstar Cher is holding congressional Democrats’ feet to the fire amid the ongoing partial government shutdown.

It came after President Trump delivered a prime-time address from the Oval Office on Tuesday night making the case for funding the border wall, which was followed by a response from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who argued that the president must reopen the government in order to continue conversations about border security.

Cher then took to Twitter to blast the president for promising that Mexico would pay for the walland demanded him to end the government shutdown.

More
https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/cher-demands-pelosi-end-partial-government-shutdown-fund-border-wall-dont-die-on-this-hill?fbclid=IwAR0qLPZiiYeOZbLDNa_n5I8el0xZm0Eu2mbviUhoNpVNy8Ij4QSqg65fB7s

Mathias Thanks His Constituents

As I write this on my last full day as your state senator for District 38, I want to thank all my constituents and our neighbors in Somerset, Wicomico and Worcester counties for the privilege of serving you and our Lower Eastern Shore.
My 2018 campaign provided you, the voters of our district, a summary of my accomplishments, my leadership and my relationship-building across our local, state, and federal governments and agencies. Here are some of what I think are highlights:
❚ In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, I secured critical FEMA aid to
Crisfield and Somerset County residents.
❚ I protected our legacy agriculture and poultry industries.
❚ For our loved ones entrenched in a fight against cancer, my legislation offered enhanced access and more timely treatment.
❚ My legislation continued to fund the dualization of Route 113, one of the most dangerous roadways in Maryland.
❚ My work provided opportunities and respect for our veterans.
❚ I helped to protect our environment — our oceans, bays, and open spaces — that are so important
to our Shore legacy and tourism industry.
This list only scratches the surface of the accomplishments we achieved together through your efforts and support during my 12 total years as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates and Maryland Senate, as well as my 16 years spent in service to the town of Ocean City as the mayor and a member of the Town Council.
The need for effective leadership for the Lower Shore, Eastern Shore and all of Maryland continues. I remain fully committed to the successes of the people of our Eastern Shore, its legacy and its future as we establish our goals and priorities for the continued success of our families here.
All people. All Maryland. Always.

Democrats: “Uh Oh.”

Statement From Governor Larry Hogan on Senate President Mike Miller

ANNAPOLIS, MD – Governor Larry Hogan today released the following statement regarding Maryland Senate President Mike Miller's announcement he is seeking treatment for prostate cancer:

“My heart goes out to President Miller on what I know must be one of the toughest days he’s faced. I know firsthand how hard it is to receive a diagnosis like this. But I also know firsthand that Mike Miller has earned his place in Maryland political history because he’s a fighter who always gives it everything he’s got, no matter how tough things get. Mike’s tenacity, bravery, and perseverance will ensure that he wins this battle, and he has my full support.

"Yumi and I send our heartfelt prayers to Mike, his wife, Patti, and his family during this difficult time."

And the Circus Came to Town

It’s Nancy Pelosi’s smile that gets me…oh, and not in a good way. It’s a smile that is actually the opposite of what a smile is supposed to do: signal good will and good faith. Nancy’s smile is full of malice and bad faith, like the smiles on representations of Shiva-the-Destroyer and Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec sun god who demanded thousands of human hearts to eat, lest he bring on the end of the world.

It’s not exactly the end of the world in Washington D.C., but as the old saying goes: you can see it from there! It’s out on the edge of town like one of those sinister, broken-down circuses from the Ray Bradbury story-bag, with its ragtag cast of motheaten lions, crippled acrobats, a crooked wagon full of heartbroken freaks, and a shadowy ringmaster on a mission from the heart of darkness.

The new Democratic majority congress has convened in the spirit of a religious movement devoted to a single apocalyptic objective: toppling the Golden Golem of Greatness who rules in the House of White Privilege. They’re all revved up for inquisition, looking to apply as many thumbscrews, cattle prods, electrodes, waterboards, and bamboo splinters as necessary in pursuit of rectifying the heresy of the 2016 election.

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Green Socialism

Upon taking control of the U.S. House of Representatives the first thing America’s Marxist Party did was to propose a Soviet-style, communistic destruction of American capitalism labeled a “Green New Deal.” The Party chose as its spokesperson for this totalitarian venture a young woman named Sandy Ocasio who grew up in one of the wealthiest enclaves in America, Westchester County, New York, but who decided to lie about this to get into politics by calling herself “Alex from the Bronx.” Sandy sounds like a poorly-educated-but-well-indoctrinated young communist with a ninth-grade mentality. She proudly labels herself a “democratic socialist” but as Ludwig von Mises explained, there really is no difference between communism and socialism: they are both attacks on private property and economic freedom. She seems clueless about just about everything she talks about in public, whether it is the Constitution, especially the economy, the structure of government, history, etc. This is the person the American Marxist Party has chosen as its front person in its proposal to destroy American capitalism, prosperity, and the American dream forever—and to give itself totalitarian control over virtually all aspects of American life.

The first thing to understand about the proposed “Green New Deal” is that the first New Deal not only failed to end the Great Depression but made it more severe and longer-lasting. Its only “success” was in creating endless patronage opportunities and levers of political bribery and extortion for the Democratic Party, opportunities that the Republican Party happily embraced whenever it could to expand its own power and wealth in the succeeding decades. The proposed Green New Deal would do the same, only many orders of magnitude worse.

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Pelosi's MSM 'Wrap-Up Smear' Collusion Against Trump

Media bias is nothing new, but in concert with the Democrat Party’s most vociferous gang of socialist deniers and the ability to reach virtually every American 24/7/365, that bias is a more formidable threat to Liberty than at any time in our history.

Remarkably, the Democrats’ primary tactic for mastering that threat was inadvertently outed by then-Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi a month after Trump took office — but received little attention at the time.

In a March 2017 interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Pelosi outlined the “wrap up smear” tactic that has become the Demo’s political black bag go-to strategy to undermine the Trump administration. She did so by framing the smear tactic as something Republicans used against Barack Obama.

According to Pelosi: “It’s called a wrap-up smear. You make up something. Then you have the press write about it. And then you say, ‘Everybody is writing about this charge.’ It’s a tool of an [authoritarian regime] to just have you always be talking about what you want them to be talking about.”

The problem with Pelosi’s explanation is that even those with the most rudimentary brainstem activity know that Republicans can’t “have the press write about” whatever they dictate, and then use that as bona fide to make their point. That tactic belongs exclusively to the Democrats, whom the media have long favored.

In June, during a House Minority Leader Weekly Briefing recorded by C-SPAN, Pelosi went into more detail about the “wrap-up smear” strategy:

Supreme Court could hear 'eugenics statute' suit challenging Roe v. Wade

The Supreme Court is expected to announce as early as next week whether it will hear a case challenging the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide.

The case is an appeal from Indiana that seeks to enforce a 2016 state law that makes it illegal for women to have an abortion on the basis of race or sex or because they learn they will otherwise give birth to a baby with Down syndrome.

If taken up, the case will be the first direct challenge to abortion rights since conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined the Supreme Court. The justices privately reviewed the case on Friday, and at least four need to agree to accept a case for it to be taken up.

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Democrat Congresswoman Calls Out Fellow Democrats for ‘Religious Bigotry’

Representative Tulsi Gabbard, a Democrat from Hawaii, published an op-ed in The Hill yesterday, implicitly criticizing two of her fellow Democrat congresswomen for subjecting a judicial nominee to a religious test as a result of his Catholic faith and his long-time membership in the Knights of Columbus.

Though she doesn’t mention them by name, Gabbard was referring to Democrat senators Kamala Harris (Calif.) and Mazie Hirono (Hawaii), both of whom have targeted federal judicial nominee Brian Buescher for his Catholicism, and the latter of whom has demanded that he drop his membership in the Knights and recuse himself from any case on which the organization has taken a position.

Gabbard does explicitly cite the controversial comments of Senator Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.), who in the fall of 2017 questioned circuit-court nominee Amy Coney Barrett about her Catholic faith during her confirmation hearing, saying, “The dogma lives loudly within you, and that’s of concern.” Feinstein’s remark received significant backlash from the right, and from Catholics in particular, who rightly noted the senator’s obvious implication that practicing Catholics are not suited to serve on U.S. courts as a result of their faith.

“While I oppose the nomination of Brian Buescher to the U.S. District Court in Nebraska, I stand strongly against those who are fomenting religious bigotry, citing as disqualifiers Buescher’s Catholicism and his affiliation with the Knights of Columbus,” Gabbard went on.

More from her op-ed:

9/11: Finally the Truth Comes Out?

Although the United States is allegedly a democracy with a rule of law, it has taken 17 years for public pressure to bring about the first grand jury investigation of 9/11. Based on the work of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth led by Richard Gage, first responder and pilots organizations, books by David Ray Griffen and others, and eyewitness testimony, theLawyers’ Committee for 9/11 Inquiry has presented enough hard facts to the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York to force his compliance with the provisions of federal law that require the convening of a federal grand jury to investigate for the first time the attacks of September 11, 2001.

This puts the US Justice (sic) Department in an extraordinary position. Every informed person is aware that elements of the US government were involved either in the perpetration of the 9/11 attacks or in a coverup of the attacks. There will be tremendous pressures on the US Attorney’s office to have the grand jury dismiss the evidence as an unpatriotic conspiracy theory or otherwise maneuver to discredit the evidence presented by the Lawyers’ Committee, or modify the official account without totally discrediting it.

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Report: Migrants Still Heading for Border

Central American minors and members of their families keep making their way toward the U.S. border despite President Donald Trump’s moves to stop caravans, USA Today is reporting.

According to data released by U.S. Customs and Boarder Protection, agents apprehended 27,518 members of family units in December – the highest monthly total on record.

USA Today pointed out that Democrats have accused President Donald Trump of using the caravans as a political tool in trying to get funding to build a wall on the southern border.

Meanwhile, another caravan, estimated at up to 15,000 people, is reportedly set to depart from Honduras in mid-January.

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Pelosi plans to resurrect failed cap-and-trade bill from a decade ago

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday that she plans to resurrect something similar to the failed cap-and-trade bill that the House passed nearly a decade ago but that the Senate couldn't muster the votes to pass.

“We couldn’t pass in the Senate our climate bill, and we’ll be returning to that,” Pelosi said on Friday at as part of MSNBC’s “The Speaker” town hall broadcast.

Pelosi is referring to the bill named after former Reps. Henry Waxman and Ed Markey, who is now a senator. The bill put in place a cap on carbon dioxide emissions, while offering emission credits to the power plant operators, which they would have to purchase in order to meet the cap. The price of the credit would adjust as an incentive to reduce emissions.

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Planned Parenthood President: Abortion Is ‘Our Core Mission’

The new president of Planned Parenthood took to Twitter Tuesday to finally confirm her organization’s “core mission” is abortion.

Dr. Leana Wen tweeted her irritation with what she viewed as an inaccurate headline by BuzzFeed News following an interview with her that was published on Monday.

“I am always happy to do interviews, but these headlines completely misconstrue my vision for Planned Parenthood,” Wen posted.

In the interview focused on Planned Parenthood developing its non-abortion services, Wen seemed to be suggesting Planned Parenthood would be beefing up its menu of basic healthcare services. A logical assertion, since a primary reason the physician was hired to head up the abortion vendor was to tout Planned Parenthood’s role as a basic healthcare provider. In her short tenure thus far, Wen has already mentioned many times that Planned Parenthood provides “lifesaving care.”

But, after the interview was published, Wen tweeted:

“First, our core mission is providing, protecting and expanding access to abortion and reproductive health care,” she said. “We will never back down from that fight – it’s a fundamental human right and women’s lives are at stake.”

More here

The Left Will Make 2019 A Dark Year

I rarely make predictions — whether of election results or anything else. My policy has always been to say what I believe should be done, not what will be done.

I am making an exception with regard to America in 2019.

2019 will be a dark year in America.

Thanks to the left's control of the House of Representatives and the news media, Americans will be kept in a fevered state throughout 2019 — with innumerable hearings, exposes, criminal investigations and possible indictments of those around the president and the president himself. Truth will not be the point. Defamation will. Anything that might muddy the president, no matter how spurious, no matter how thin the evidence, will be pursued with gusto. The media will drop "bombshell" after "bombshell." If lives and careers are ruined, so much the better; no one should be associating with this president anyway, as far as the left is concerned. The Robert Mueller investigation into alleged "collusion" between the Trump campaign and the Russian government — which has led to guilty pleas and imprisonment of people around President Trump for offenses having nothing to do with such collusion — is a preview of what lies ahead.

The goal of the left to weaken, disable and impeach the president is the heart of its mission to undo the 2016 presidential election. If the Republicans had done anything comparable during the Obama administration, the Democrats and the media would not only have charged Republicans with racism — as they labeled all criticism of Barack Obama — they would have howled "fascism." And, for once, they wouldn't have been far from the truth. The misuse of government institutions for political ends is indeed a fascist tactic. But because most media serve as the propaganda arm of the Democratic Party, there will be no protest from the media, only support.

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Study: Describing Breastfeeding as ‘Natural’ Is Unethical Because It Reinforces Gender Roles

It’s “ethically inappropriate” for government and medical organizations to describe breastfeeding as “natural” because the term enforces rigid notions about gender roles, claims a new study in Pediatrics.

“Coupling nature with motherhood… can inadvertently support biologically deterministic arguments about the roles of men and women in the family (for example, that women should be the primary caretaker,” the study says.

The study notes that in recent years, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the World Health Organization, and several state departments of health have all promoted breastfeeding over bottle-feeding, using the term “natural.”

“Referencing the ‘natural’ in breastfeeding promotion… may inadvertently endorse a set of values about family life and gender roles, which would be ethically inappropriate,” the study says.

Unless such public-service announcements “make transparent the ‘values and beliefs that underlie them,’” they should quit describing breastfeeding as “natural.”

But the study’s authors, Jessica Martucci and Anne Barnhill, clearly have in mind an alternative set of “values and beliefs,” about which which they are not transparent.

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Laos Cracks Down on Christianity

Laos has been tightening restrictions on Christian practice as an unwelcome Western influence, mirroring the situation of other Asian communist nations.

During the Christmas holidays, incidents of arrests, harassment, and censure of expressions of the Christian feast were reported around the country.

Nine police officers raided a Nakanong Village Christmas service on December 29 and arrested three church leaders on charges of illegally gathering for worship in the country’s southern Savannakhet province without government permission.

After taking the church leaders to the Phin district police station, officers returned to the village and arrested four more Christians and took them to the station as well. The officials later destroyed the stage and sound system at the village church and cut off its power, as well as seizing three cell phones.

Earlier in December, authorities arrested five other Christians in the Non Soung village of the Phin district after a group of Christians invited a pastor from a neighboring village to organize a Christmas celebration for them.

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Michael Goodwin: Democrats keep proving how detached they are from reality

In its common definition, the job of president of the United States is to deliver peace and prosperity. Donald Trump is doing well on both fronts, so let’s impeach the bastard!

As insane as it sounds, that and only that is what many Democrats have in mind. Impeachment, or death by a thousand investigations, is the heart of their plan.

For proof, eliminate their desire to remove Trump from office and see if you can pinpoint anything else with broad Dem support. Some advocate for open borders, others for tax hikes or Medicare-for-all, but ending the Trump presidency ASAP is the glue holding the party together.

It unites the leadership with the rank and file, including many of the socialist-leaning newcomers. Its migration from the far-out fringe to a daily talking point among party faithful and their national media lapdogs represents a breathtaking development.

The implications are staggering — and a potential disaster for America.

More
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/michael-goodwin-democrats-keep-proving-how-detached-they-are-from-reality

Woman Bagged $200K in Food Stamps While Running $1M Business

A Pittsburgh-area woman is facing criminal charges for allegedly bagging $200,000 in food stamps while she operated a business that received $1.24 million from Pennsylvania’s Department of Human Services.

Authorities charged Kimberly Coleman, 35, of Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania, with three counts of welfare fraud, the Associated Pressreported.

Each count carries a penalty of up to seven years in prison, meaning Coleman could spend a maximum of 21 years behind bars if convicted on all counts.

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Thiessen: Trump started the shutdown but Democrats are about to own it

President Trump did something Tuesday night that he has rarely done since taking office: He used the presidential bully pulpit to reach beyond his hardcore base of supporters to make his case to the American people as a whole.

Speaking from the Oval Office for the first time during his presidency, Trump embraced our country's tradition as a nation of immigrants, declaring "America proudly welcomes millions of lawful immigrants who enrich our society and contribute to our nation." He then offered a cogent explanation for why he believes we face what he called "a humanitarian crisis -- a crisis of the heart and a crisis of the soul" along our southern border.

He pointed out the human cost of our broken system to illegal migrants themselves, expressing compassion for the "children [who] are used as human pawns by vicious coyotes and ruthless gangs" and the "women [who] are sexually assaulted on the dangerous trek up through Mexico." He shared heartbreaking stories of Americans killed by criminal aliens who had no right to be here -- including a police officer in California who was murdered, a 16-year-old girl who was brutally stabbed in Maryland, and an Air Force veteran who was raped and beaten to death.

More here


https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/marc-thiessen-trump-started-the-shutdown-but-democrats-are-about-to-own-it

Democratic Reps. Pictured With Anti-Semite, Alleged Muslim Brotherhood Sympathizer On First Day In Office

Far-left Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) embraced anti-Semite and alleged Muslim Brotherhood sympathizer Linda Sarsour this week on their first day in Congress.

The photos came from Sarsour's verified Facebook account where she praised both freshman Democrats.

"These past two years have been difficult," Sarsour wrote in a post that featured herself and Omar. "So much heartache, exhaustion, pain, losses, drama, bad policy after bad policy YET today was all worth it. Today was JOY. Today was PRIDE. Today was full of laughter and tears. For every lil girl, especially lil girls of color - this is for you. You are our future congresswomen. You are because they were."

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Virginia Threatened With Lawsuit Over Non-Citizen Voter Roll Maintenance

The Virginia Department of Elections is being threatened with litigation over its procedures to remove non-citizens from voter rolls by an election integrity group that says the state's procedure is resulting in the wrongful removal of eligible citizens from its registrations.

The Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), a group that litigates to protect election integrity, sent a notice to the Virginia Department of Elections on Dec. 12 warning that it could face a lawsuit unless it corrects its voter roll maintenance procedures. The department has yet to respond to the group nearly one month after the notice was delivered, according to its spokesman.

The PILF released a report in 2017 that detailed how state election officials removed 5.556 non-citizen voters from rolls between 2011 and 2017. Of the 5,556 non-citizens removed, 1,852 cast a total of 7,474 ballots in elections.

The December notice from the election integrity group said that some U.S. citizens also have been removed from its rolls and cited separate litigation in which several current and former Virginia residents who are citizens were named in non-citizen cancellation reports from the Commonwealth.

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Elizabeth Warren loses voice after a day in Iowa: 'Too much time with little people'

DES MOINES, Iowa — Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., began to lose her voice Saturday night after she began her campaign swing through Iowa 24 hours earlier.

Speaking to an overflow crowd in Iowa's capital city, the Massachusetts Democrat told the crowd that she got a cold before delivering an abbreviated version of her stump speech.

"I have a piece of bad news: I have a cold," Warren said through an audibly hoarse voice. "Too much time with little people," she added. A spokesperson for Warren said the senator was referring to her grandchildren with whom she had spent the holidays.

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While Democrats push government healthcare, Canadians wait nearly 5 months for treatment

Last year, Canadians waited a median of almost 20 weeks to receive specialist treatment after being referred by a general practitioner, according to a new report from The Fraser Institute. In practical terms, that's the equivalent of getting a referral this week and waiting until May for treatment.

Such waits are endemic to government-run healthcare systems.

Canada's single-payer system, which prohibits private insurance for medically necessary procedures, is a prime example of the pitfalls of total government control. Twenty weeks of waiting is bad enough. But some areas in Canada fare even worse. The median wait for treatment from a specialist following referral from a GP in New Brunswick is nearly a year.

The story is much the same in the United Kingdom's government-run healthcare system. As of September, more than 4 million people were waiting for routine treatments. That's a drastic increase from 2011, when 2.6 million patients were waiting.

These wait times are exacerbated by the nation's shortage of qualified medical personnel.

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Illegal immigrant activist detained by ICE in Maryland

Deportation officers on Tuesday took a prominent Maryland illegal immigrant activist into custody in preparation for sending her home to El Salvador, sparking an outcry from other activists who said she was being unfairly targeted.

Roxana Orellana Santos showed up for a regular check-in with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as she had before, but this time officers took her into custody, her supporters said.

They said she fears being sent back to El Salvador, which she fled last decade, and said she’s made a home in Frederick County for her children, some of whom were born here and are citizens

Activists then tried to block the route they thought ICE would use to transport Ms. Santos, leading to arrests of four people.

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The WWI Conspiracy - Part One: To Start A War

Each year, we lay the wreath. We hear “The Last Post.” We mouth the words “never again” like an incantation. But what does it mean? To answer this question, we have to understand what WWI was.

WWI was an explosion, a breaking point in history. In the smoldering shell hole of that great cataclysm lay the industrial-era optimism of never-ending progress. Old verities about the glory of war lay strewn around the battlefields of that “Great War” like a fallen soldier left to die in No Man’s Land, and along with it lay all the broken dreams of a world order that had been blown apart. Whether we know it or not, we here in the 21st century are still living in the crater of that explosion, the victims of a First World War that we are only now beginning to understand.

What was World War One about? How did it start? Who won? And what did they win? Now, 100 years after those final shots rang out, these questions still puzzle historians and laymen alike. But as we shall see, this confusion is not a happenstance of history but the wool that has been pulled over our eyes to stop us from seeing what WWI really was.

This is the story of WWI that you didn’t read in the history books. This is The WWI Conspiracy...

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US Consumer Credit Hits All Time High Amid Surge In Student And Auto Loans

After a surprising slump in the use of revolving debt in September, when US consumers unexpectedly paid down a total of $23 million (revised)on their credit cards, followed by a sharp rebound in credit card usage in October, moments ago the Fed reportedthat in November, the surge consumer credit continued, rising by $22.1 billion, above the $17.5 billion expected, after October's whopping $25 billion increase as non-revolving credit surged by the most since December 2017. The surge in borrowing in November brought the total to $3.979 trillion, new all time high, largely on the back of a newfound love with auto and student loans.

After a brief, one-month dormancy in credit cards usage in September, American consumers have clearly returned to doing what they do best - spending money they don't have - with revolving credit jumping by $4.8 billion, one month after it surged by $9.3 billion. The latest monthly increase brought the total credit card debt to a new all time high of $1.042 trillion.

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Gun Ownership Surges In Europe Amid Wave Of Terror Attacks, Migrant Crime

For decades, European countries have historically maintained some of the heaviest restrictions on civilian gun ownership, leaving the rate of firearms in circulation far below comparable levels in the US and South America. But following a string of high-profile terror attacks in recent years, the number of people applying for legal gun ownership in countries including Germany and Belgium has surged, as European citizens become increasingly concerned about personal security in the face of a wave of Islamic terror and an unchecked migration crisis that has led to a surge in crime.

As the Wall Street Journal reported, in Germany, the number of legally registered weapons rose roughly 10% to 6.1 million during the five years through 2017, the most recent year for which data from Germany’s National Weapons Registry was available. Furthermore, permits to carry arms outside of shooting ranges more than tripled to 9,285 during the same period.

Meanwhile, applications for shooting licenses in Belgium almost doubled following the massacre at a Paris concert venue in November 2015, which was followed four months later by an attack in Brussels, offering "a clear indication of why people acquired them,” according to Nils Duquet of the Flemish Peace Institute, who spoke with WSJ for its story.

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Fact Check: Real Crisis, Real Victims

During the Democrat response to President Trump’s Oval Office address, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) accused the president of “manufacturing a crisis” at the United States-Mexico border.

In a fact check by Breitbart News, Pelosi’s statement is incorrect. A review of the crime at the southern border, cartel warfare, drug epidemic, deaths from an open border, asylum fraud, and costs to American taxpayers reveal a startling crisis at the border.

Some of that data was cited by Trump in his address, where he noted the American suffering at the hands of illegal aliens nationwide:

In the last two years, [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] officers made 266,000 arrests of aliens with criminal records – including those charged or convicted of 100,000 assaults, 30,000 sex crimes and 4,000 violent killings. Over the years, thousands of Americans have been brutally killed by those who illegally entered our country, and thousands more lives will be lost if we don’t act right now. [Emphasis added]

In the last year alone, ICE agents arrested more than 6,600 convicted murderers and convicted sex offenders who were in the United States illegally.

Of that total, 4,975 of the illegal aliens arrested were convicted sex offenders. The other 1,641 illegal aliens had been convicted of homicide. Another 1,913 illegal aliens that were arrested by ICE had pending sex offense charges against them, while 387 illegal aliens had pending murder charges against them.

For each one of these crimes, there are at least one or more American and legal immigrant victims.

Trump also touched on the country’s vast drug epidemic that has crippled regions of the U.S., the vast majority of which has been the direct result of an open border:

Mia Love joins CNN, the outlet her campaign ripped for reporting 'grossly exaggerated' stats

Former Rep. Mia Love has joined CNN — the same network her 2018 campaign criticized for reporting on "grossly exaggerated" campaign finance figures.

Love, who lost last year's re-election bid in a close contest, announced her career move in a tweet Monday.

"A new year brings new opportunities for elevated conversations about the issues that matter. My time in Congress has ended, but the chance to engage Americans is only beginning — I’m excited to join CNN to offer a different, principled, and unleashed perspective," she said.

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Salinas: Many Latinos ‘Buying’ Trump’s Arguments Against Illegal Immigration

Former longtime Univision anchor María Elena Salinas revealed on Tuesday evening that many Latinos are buying the arguments President Donald Trump is making about illegal immigration.

Salinas, whom the New York Times once described as the “voice of Hispanic America,” told CNN host Don Lemon after Trump’s Tuesday evening Oval Office address that she is saddened that Latinos “are buying some of these arguments against undocumented immigrants” that Trump has been making.

“And it’s very sad to see that our own people, who are immigrants themselves, are attacking these immigrants that are trying to come in, knowing themselves how difficult the situation is in a lot of these Latin American countries,” she continued. “And, you know, they’re buying it, and some people, just like some other Trump supporters, are saying, well, you know, so what if he tells lies, as long as we have lower unemployment among the Latino community.”

“It strains public resources and drives down jobs and wages,” Trump said of illegal immigration. “Among those hardest hit are African-Americans and Hispanic Americans.”

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Been There, Done That...


PHOTOS: Top Democrat Donor Ed Buck With His Democrat Pals and His Black Male Prostitutes -- 2 Dead Now!

Top Democrat donor Ed Buck with: Governor Jerry Brown, Rep. Ted Lieu, In a T-shirt, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, Rep. Adam Schiff, and Hillary Clinton.

The body of another young black gay escort was found at the West Hollywood home of Ed Buck, a top Democrat donor and political activist.

Sheriff’s deputies are investigating after an African-American male was found dead early Monday morning at the Laurel Avenue apartment belonging to one of Hillary Clinton’s donors, Ed Buck.

There will be a rally tonight at the home of Ed Buck to call on LAPD to arrest Buck, according to WEHOVille,

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