Oregon Defies Logic With Statewide Rent Control

It is often said by cynical economists and political commentators, usually of the right or libertarian persuasion, that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. There is no more odious and damagingeconomic policy that comes from the heart than rent control. For years, limiting the cost of living spaces was done at the local level, but one West Coast state aims to be the first to implement statewide rent controls.

Oregon’s Proposed Rent Controls

Oregon is set to pass SB 608, legislation that prohibits landlords from raising rents in the first year of a resident’s tenancy. The bill would also cap future rent hikes at 7% annually, plus inflation. This will target all rental properties 15 years or older but exempt units that are a part of a government housing project.

It should be noted that SB 608 does not have vacancy controls, which means buildings can jack up the rent by any amount once the tenant gives his or her notice. Because of this, the legislation bans no-cause evictions, so any landlord must offer a government-approved excuse for evicting a tenant.

With Democratic supermajorities in both chambers of the legislature, SB 608 is likely to pass, making Oregon the first state with statewide rent control.

Gov. Kate Brown (D-OR) is proud of the move, saying in her inaugural address:

“We also need to help Oregonians who have homes but are struggling with the high cost of rent. We can help landlords and tenants navigate this tight housing market. Speaker [Tina] Kotek and Sen. [Ginny] Burdick have innovative proposals that will give renters some peace of mind.”

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10 Best Superfoods to Protect Your Eyesight

Tens of millions of Americans suffer age related losses in at least one of their senses, according to a recent University of Chicago study. And experts warn that once you start losing any of your senses, including vision, you increase your risk of developing dementia.

“People are living longer than ever before in history and with these extended life expectancies comes the likelihood of sensory decline,” Dr. Gary Small, director of the UCLA Longevity Center and author of “The Mind Health Report” newsletter tells Newsmax.

“Sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste diminish in many older adults. In addition to impinging on the quality of life for these seniors, these losses also increase the risk for cognitive decline because less sensory input means less mental stimulation.”

According to the American Optometric Association, many adults begin to have problems with their vision beginning in their early to mid-40’s. These issues may be affected by health conditions such as high blood pressure or diabetes, a family history of macular degeneration or glaucoma, or certain medications such as antihistamines.

These foods may help protect your sight:

Conservatives Are Drinking The Kool-Aid

After Abysmal January Sales, Car Dealers Are Overflowing With Unsold Cars

We recently discussed the dismal sales start for the US automobile industry in 2019. Now, a follow up by the WSJ paints an even more pessimistic picture for the start of February.

According to the report, dealers are starting 2019 with a growing surplus of inventory of unsold vehicles, which will likely pressure them to cut output: there were 3.95 million vehicles in lots at the end of January, a 4% increase from December and up nearly 3% from last January.

And even though seasonality exists in the industry and the winter is traditionally slower for automotive sales, the inventory build up could be problematic because dealers are starting the year with more unsold inventory than they had when auto sales peaked three years ago. Back then, 17.55 million cars were sold and now, while the latest estimates expect less than 17 million vehicles to be sold in 2019.

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Racist Lynch Mob-Leading Virginia Governor Getting His Just Deserts

After a tumultuous weekend in which high-profile Democrats demanded that Virginia governor Ralph Northam step down after old photos of him in blackface surfaced, it is difficult to imagine the politician surviving the same vile race-baiting gotcha culture he and his fellow left-wing Democrats have fostered for years.

Oddly, Northam is being done in by leftist identity politics and not by the Kermit Gosnell-style infanticide he coldly supports.

Many conservatives believe that the sickening irony here is that Democrats are fine with snipping the spine of a nearly born black baby but go insane over blackface, an offensive practice that doesn't actually kill anyone.

The Left's current anti-blackface fetish is relatively new. Amos 'n' Andy, which ended in 1960, is one of the most successful sitcoms of all time despite its stereotypical depiction of blacks in Harlem that would today offend many Americans. But even the passage of decades did little to stigmatize the use of blackface.

Until fairly recently, left-wingers were fine with blackface and offensive stereotypical depictions of black Americans. No one protested Robert Downey, Jr.'s use of blackface in the 2008 movie Tropic Thunder or the blackface employed by Sarah Silverman, Jimmy Kimmel, or Howard Stern.

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No Kneeling During Super Bowl LIII National Anthem, but Still Plenty of Talk

ATLANTA — Dr. Bernice A. King, the youngest child of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, was brought out to midfield for the coin toss before Super Bowl LIII. She was joined by two other titanic civil rights leaders, Ambassador Andrew Young and Representative John Lewis.

Before the game began, the N.F.L. also played a video in the stadium that included images of Dr. King and other civil rights leaders, interspersed with images of N.F.L. players doing charity work.

On television, CBS ran a public service announcement that showed Commissioner Roger Goodell and other league executives touring the Ebenezer Baptist Church and other landmarks associated with Martin Luther King Jr.

For the many Super Bowl viewers who do not closely follow the league, and perhaps many who do, such imagery probably came across as proper and right for a game played in Atlanta, known as the cradle of the civil rights movement.

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Illegal Entry by Caravan Migrants into Texas ‘Will Not Be Tolerated,’ Says DHS

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kirstjen M. Nielsen said illegal entry into Texas by the most recent Central American migrant caravan “will not be tolerated.” The secretary also called on Congress to stop its “inexcusable failure to fully fund a needed physical barrier.”

“Approximately 2,000 aliens have arrived in northern Mexico as part of a ‘caravan’ seeking to cross the border into Texas,” Secretary Nielsen said in a written statement. “Illegal entry will not be tolerated and we stand ready to prevent it.”

Monday night, Breitbart News’ Editor in Chief Brandon Darby and border journalist Ildefonso Ortiz reported that nearly 2,000 Central American migrants were headed to the Mexican border cities of Piedras Negras, Coahuila, and Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas. The border region consisting of hundreds of miles of the Rio Grande River has zero miles of physical border barriers.

“The Department of Homeland Security has been working with the Departments of State, Defense, and Justice to ensure all possible resources are available to address this lawless caravan,” Secretary Nielsen explained. “DHS will take all steps to ensure the safety and security of law enforcement personnel on the front lines.”

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Sharifa Alkhateeb Talks About Using Public Schools to Convert America to Islam

The late managing editor of the International Institute for Islamic Thought's American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, Sharifa Alkhateeb, talks about using U.S. schools to proselytize Islam & about making the state Islamic.

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Feast your eyes on this: Dark chocolate sharpens vision, study finds

Is there nothing chocolate cannot do? According to a new study in JAMA Ophthalmology, eating dark chocolate resulted in small improvements in visual acuity and contrast sensitivity for at least 2 hours.

“Contrast sensitivity and visual acuity were significantly higher 2 hours after consumption of a dark chocolate bar compared with a milk chocolate bar, but the duration of these effects and their influence in real-world performance await further testing,” wrote authors led by Jeff C. Rabin, OD, MS, PhD, professor and chief, Visual Neurophysiology Service, Rosenberg School of Optometry, University of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio, TX.

Other studies have suggested that flavanols in chocolate may enhance blood flow to the central and peripheral nervous systems, and improve cardiovascular function. For this crossover study, 30 participants (9 men, 21 women; mean age 26 years) were “dosed” a 47-g dark chocolate bar with 316.3 mg of flavanols. Later in the study, they ate a 40-g milk chocolate bar with 40 mg of total flavanols—8 times less than the dark chocolate bar.

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Bipartisan Support Builds For Israeli Sovereignty Over Golan Heights

As The Daily Wire has reported, Republican Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Tom Cotton (R-AR) have been actively calling for the United States to formally recognize Israel's annexation of the strategically sensitive Golan Heights region. The Golan Heights, which Israel first acquired in 1967's existential Six Day War defensive fight and formally annexed in 1981, has nonetheless languished since 1981 as a matter of formal U.S. recognition.

As The Daily Wire's Hank Berrien reported on December 18, the joint Cruz/Cotton Senate resolution thoroughly traced the modern history of the Golan's legal status, from 1967 through the bloody years-long civil war raging in Syria through the present day:

The resolution points out that "until 1967, Syria controlled the Golan Heights and used the topographical advantage it provided to attack Israeli troops and civilians"; that "in the Six Day War of 1967, Syria intensified its attacks against Israel from the Golan Heights, and Israel captured the area in a defensive war"; that "in October 1973, the Golan Heights provided Israel with critical strategic depth to repel a surprise attack by Syrian forces; that on September 1, 1975, President Gerald Ford offered a diplomatic assurance to Israel that 'the U.S. will support the position that an overall settlement with Syria in the framework of a peace agreement must assure Israel’s security from attack from the Golan Heights'"; and that "'the U.S. has not developed a final position on the borders. Should it do so, it will give great weight to Israel’s position that any peace agreement with Syria must be predicated on Israel remaining on the Golan Heights.'" ...

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News Alert: Mexico deploys militarized police to block 2,000 migrants from entering Texas

Hundreds of militarized Mexican police officers were standing guard Tuesday at the border between Piedras Negras, Coahuila, and Eagle Pass, Texas, to prevent nearly 2,000 Central American migrants from illegally crossing into the U.S.

Buses dropped off the migrants in Piedras Negras, a city of around 250,000 residents, late Monday. By Tuesday morning, federal police in full military gear were lined up in two long parallel rows outside of the facility to keep them from leaving the country, according to tweets from Mexican officials.

Read the full story here.

Nolte: 50% Of Virginia Democrats Still Back Blackface Northam

What exactly does a Democrat have to do to lose favor with Democrat voters?

Hang out with a domestic terrorist? Nope.

Have his photo taken with Louis Farrakhan? Nope.

Have sex with a 21-year-old intern in the Oval Office just a few feet away from his wife and daughter? Nope.

Leave Americans to die in Benghazi? Nope.

Put Japanese Americans in internment camps? Nope.

Launch the war in Vietnam? Nope.

Lose a won war in Iraq? Nope.

Leave a woman to die under the water in your car? Nope.

Run all your State Department emails through a secret, unsecured server located in your bathroom? Nope.

And now we come to my two favorites…

What if a Democrat politician is into blackface and baby killing? Nope, nope, nope.

According to a Morning Consult poll taken after Gov. Ralph Northam (R-VA) was hit with two wowser scandals, his support with Virginia Democrats only dropped from 70 percent to 50 percent.

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Roberts' Obamacare decision looked more political than judicial

The mystery of why Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts switched positions on the constitutionality of Obamacare continues. But switch he did, in a way that looks more political than judicial. The switch still does not speak well of him.

These reflections come, it must be said, from a third-hand report. The March issue of the Atlantic will feature a review by liberal Chicago lawyer Michael O’Donnell of a forthcoming biography of the Supreme Court leader. The book, titled “The Chief: The Life and Turbulent Times of Chief Justice John Roberts,” is by CNN legal analyst Joan Biskupic. It sounds like a good one. For now, what’s most interesting in the review, and what is certain to get the most attention when the book comes out, is Biskupic’s reporting on Roberts’ role in salvaging Obamacare.

Biskupic’s biography will confirm the original, contemporary reporting of CBS’ Jan Crawford, to the effect that in conference, Roberts eventually sided with the four other justices who found Obamacare’s individual mandate unconstitutional. Then, just as Crawford had reported, he changed his mind and decided that what had once been a bit of a side argument – that the mandate was a “tax,” and thus (due to some logical somersaults) allowable after all – was indeed one he could hang his hat on, and one that could save the health law.

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LA Goes 'Medieval', Suffers Outbreak Of Flea-Borne Disease Typhus

Residents and officials in the city of Los Angeles, California are horrified that their city has descended into a third world hellscape of poverty and disease. The typhus outbreak raging through the city is a flea-borne disease often reserved for socialist and poverty-stricken dystopias such as Venezuela.

But that’s modern Los Angeles. Typhus is spread by fleas hitching a ride on rats. While the general population struggles under the weight of the government (local, state, and federal in LA’s case) and the homeless population continues to climb up, the same cannot be said for the rats that carry fleas the cause typhus. The rat population in LA is doing just fine, however, as piles of garbage dot the cityscape, making it Thanksgiving Day every day for the city’s fat, happy rodents, wrote the American Thinker.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention‘s website, Murine typhus, is also called endemic typhus or flea-borne typhus, is a disease caused by a bacteria called Rickettsia typhi and it is spread to people through contact with infected fleas. People will get sick with murine typhus when infected flea feces are rubbed into cuts or scrapes in the skin. In most areas of the world, rats are the main animal host for fleas infected with murine typhus. Murine typhus occurs in tropical and subtropical climates around the world where rats and their fleas live. Yet now, it seems that the disease is taking over and spreading, along with Hepatitis A, through Los Angeles thanks to the socialist policies that enrich the political elite and enslave and impoverish everyone else.

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WashPost: Warren ID'd Herself for Texas Bar as 'American Indian'

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., identified herself on a 1986 registration card for the State Bar of Texas as an "American Indian" — a previously undisclosed example of her claiming an Indian heritage, The Washington Post reported.

Using an open records request during a general inquiry, the Post obtained Warren's registration card that was filled out by hand in blue ink, signed and dated April 1986 — the first document to surface showing Warren making the claim in her own handwriting, the Post reported.

The Texas bar registration card is significant, among other reasons, because it removes any doubt Warren directly claimed the identity. In other instances, Warren has declined to say whether she or an assistant filled out forms, the Boston Globe reported.

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Democrats Are the Party of Destruction

The first image that came to mind after viewing the 2019 expression of exultant joy by New York Democrat representatives when Governor Cuomo called for a constitutional amendment to shore up abortion for New Yorkers was the 1939 jubilation by the German Reichstag when Hitler asserted that the end of world Jewry was his ultimate goal.

In both cases, the elation was about death. It is not really surprising, since it is becoming patent that the "D" in Democrat stands also for "destruction." Democrats may couch their destructive tendencies in euphemisms like "social justice" and "women's rights," but one thing is clear: there is no objection from any Democrats as the party embraces the most radical left-wing ideology, meant to result in the demise of America. Success is to be destroyed; advancement is to be suppressed. Babies are expendable. Hubris under the cloak of social justice slogans runs amok.

It extends to each issue the Democrats embrace. Every city that has come under Democrat control is proof positive that instead of raising the standard of living for the occupants, the city falls to crime, gangs, and drugs. In fact, "America is awash with troubled, dysfunctional cities that have been electing Democratic mayors for decades."

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Catholic Clergy: Making Themselves Irrelevant

The beliefs of the Catholic Church are defined by two thousand years of careful writings and a slow process of understanding the revealed truths. This has brought us our Catechism, our Creed, encyclicals such as Humanae Vitae, and other solid references which provide a foundation for living well, especially in stressful times. One role of the clergy is to guide us Catholics in these teachings.

The Church is not defined by whatever a priest in Paducah happens to say on Tuesday, and its faithful are under no obligation to take direction from misguided clergy. But how do we determine when to ignore? For Catholics using their rational minds and their God-given free will, it’s been happening for centuries. Some (unfortunately) leave the church altogether, some walk to the next parish over, and some simply ignore the bad advice and view their priest as just a delivery vehicle for the sacraments. Sadly, what we’re seeing now is an unprecedented amount of incompetence, and it exists at all levels of the church.

Let’s start at the top. Pope Francis continues to astound the Catholic faithful with his ridiculous, fact-denying comments, from global warming as the world’s most pressing problem, to his undying support of soul-deadening socialism/communism, to his purge of pro-life advocates within the Vatican, to his intentionally nebulous writings on serious matters of faith, to his most recent act of squelching the U.S. bishops in their efforts to address the child abuse problem within their ranks. Some could argue we’re expecting too much from this man, given the stellar theological minds which occupied his position the prior 30 years. But I disagree -- we’re simply asking for several logical statements, based on fact, not feelings, which can hold up to the scrutiny of an intelligent high-school senior. His inability to hit this low bar drives Catholics to ignore him.

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General: U.S. Has Funded Excellent Border Security--in Jordan

Gen. Joseph Votel, commander of the U.S. Central Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that Americans would be "very proud" to see the kind of border security their tax dollars have produced -- in Jordan.

"Last week I was in Jordan. I had an opportunity to visit the border -- up along the border between Jordan and Syria. And I had an opportunity to witness the investments that our country has made in their border security initiatives -- equipment, training, command and control for this. And what I witnessed there I think would make any member of Congress or indeed, any American, very proud to see.

"It was extraordinarily professional, it was very effective; they had very good situational awareness and understanding of what was happening along their border. And everything that they were doing was sustainable."

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32 Religious Groups on Probation for Alleged Discrimination at University of Iowa

The University of Iowa has placed 32 campus religious groups on probation because they are supposedly in violation of the school's anti-discrimination policy. The public became aware of the list during arguments in federal district court last week involving a Christian student group initially kicked off campus.

Business Leaders in Christ (BLinC) brought together students for weekly discussions centered on prayer and biblical messages. The mission of the group is to form future business leaders who integrate the values of their faith into their work. BLinC's group leaders are expected to share its Christian faith.

In February 2017, a member of BLinC filed a complaint with the university after he was denied the chance to serve as the group's vice president because he was openly gay and disagreed with the group's views on marriage and sexuality. The student was told he could remain as a member but could not serve in a leadership role. Group leaders must affirm a statement of faith, which says they "embrace, not reject, their God-given sex" and support marriage between a man and a woman only.

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Liberal Operative David Brock Pitches More Dirt on Howard Schultz

A group led by liberal operative and Hillary Clinton loyalist David Brock is frantically compiling and pushing opposition research hits on former Starbucks chief executive Howard Schultz, as Democrats fear the billionaire could ensure Donald Trump's re-election if he enters the 2020 presidential race.

American Bridge 21st Century, a Washington, D.C.-based political action committee with an affiliated foundation, began digging into Schultz as soon as he floated a potential presidential bid and started pitching the research to publications.

The Daily Beast reported last week that Bridge sent the publication a file hitting the former chief executive on his family foundation, mainly focused on $400,000 the foundation had spent on furniture and a $21,000-per-month salary its executive director collected during the 2016 tax year, an annual salary of $252,000.

Despite Bridge criticizing the salary of the executive director at Schultz's foundation, Brock himself collects more than that amount from almost every foundation he oversees, including American Bridge.

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Debate judge disqualifies students for citing 'white supremacists' Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro

A viral video of a high school debate contest last month in Arizona shows Utah students being disqualified for citing statements by conservative commentator Ben Shapiro and Canadian psychology professor Jordan Peterson, whom the judge calls “white supremacists.”

The Jan. 5 incident at the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication Invitational at Arizona State University in Tempe has evoked criticism of anti-conservative, pro-liberal bias in academia, where conservative speakers have been silenced and shouted down in recent years.

“This is just another absurd example of people foisting views on those with whom they disagree for purposes of demonization,” Mr. Shapiro, former editor-in-chief of Breitbart News, told The Washington Times in an email. “The judge is a joke, pure and simple.”

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Hannity: Democrats don't want you to know about their racist past

As of Monday, most Democrats have called on Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam to resign over his alleged appearance in a racist photo showing two people, one in a KKK costume and the other in blackface, that appeared on his page in his medical yearbook more than 30 years ago.

But Northam was once endorsed by all of his party's key political players, including Sens. Mark Warner, Tim Kaine and Clinton hack Terry McAuliffe. He was even endorsed by President Obama, who claimed Northam would put an end to "divisive politics."

While Republicans are proud to represent themselves as the party of Abe Lincoln -- the Emancipation Proclamation, the 1960s civil right movement -- Democrats don't want you to know anything about their past conduct.

For example, 112 Democrat lawmakers voted against the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which outlawed racism against minorities. Al Gore's father, a prominent Democrat senator, voted against the Civil Rights Act. One year later, 70 Democrats voted against the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which prevented racism at the ballot box.

Hillary Clinton has said that Sen. Robert "KKK" Byrd was her mentor. Byrd was a lifelong Democrat. Before serving in Congress, Byrd was actually in the Klan. In the Senate, Byrd actually filibustered the 1964 Civil Rights Act for 14 hours.

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https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/sean-hannity-democrats-disavow-northam-but-they-dont-want-you-to-know-about-their-racist-past

WATCH: Cory Booker Tries To Trap Judicial Nominee, Embarrasses Himself

Sen. Cory 'Spartacus' Booker tried to trap President Donald Trump's nominee to replace Judge Brett Kavanaugh on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday and ended up embarrassing himself.

During the confirmation hearing, Booker pressed Neomi Rao over her stances on LGBT issues, specifically on whether she has ever hired any LGBT law clerks.

"Have you ever had any LGBTQ law clerks?" Booker asked.

Watch it here:

Obama Silent About Ralph Northam Racist Yearbook Scandal

Former President Barack Obama remains silent about Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s racist yearbook scandal despite calls from the Democrat party for his resignation.

Since the yearbook photo was released on Friday, 2020 Democrat presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris spearheaded a rush to call for Northam’s resignation. Even failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton weighed in on the issue.

“This has gone on too long. There is nothing to debate. He must resign,” Clinton wrote on Twitter Saturday.

But Obama has stayed out of the conversation despite enthusiastically endorsing and rallying for Northam in 2017.

“I know what Ralph Northam believes. I know what Justin Fairfax believes,” the former president said during a rally in October 2017. “They’ve got plans and policies that will reflect your values and your priorities.”

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Congressman Andy Harris Surrounded By Diamond & Silk

Last night Diamond went to the State of the Union and this morning both Diamond & Silk joined us for breakfast. It was wonderful to meet these women who are strong supporters of our President and hear their take on his speech and the current climate in our country.

Border Patrol Intel Chief: Human Smuggling Ring Recycled Children to Pose as Family Units

Associate Chief of U.S. Border Patrol Intel Carl McClafferty said Friday that human traffickers are using children to smuggle illegal immigrants across the border as a family unit and recycling the children back across the border to be used again.

October 2008 was the first time the Border Patrol ever had more family units than single adults apprehended, McClafferty said during a White House meeting on combating human smuggling on the southern border.

“In Yuma, Arizona, we were catching groups of Guatemalans -- family units -- turning themselves into Border Patrol, crossing around where the fence ends. And I just started looking into it and found that some of the sponsors, after they were released, were the same person, with the same address and same phone number,” he said.

“So they reached out to HSI, to Charleston, South Carolina, where these people were going. HSI looked into it. There's something going on here. ‘Why don't you come out, and we'll do this case together?’ We went up to Charleston, followed a group that actually got released. They were picked up by the sponsor,” McClafferty said.

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Comey: 'Zero Chance' Hillary Clinton Will Be Prosecuted in Email Case

Former FBI Director James Comey says there is no chance Hillary Clinton will be prosecuted in the case involving her emails.

Comey made his remarks Monday, while speaking at a town hall event in Sarasota, Florida, reports Fox 13.

"There is zero chance, zero chance, on the facts in the Hillary Clinton case, that she would be prosecuted," Comey said. "You are out of your mind if you don't think the FBI wanted to make a case if we could. The facts weren't there. Period. Full stop."

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Trump to Ocasio-Cortez: 'America will never be a socialist country'

President Trump declared in his State of the Union speech that America will "never be a socialist country," a clear rebuke of a new generation of Democrats and socialists like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.

“Here, in the United States, we are alarmed by new calls to adopt socialism in our country,” Trump told Congress Tuesday night. “We are born free, and we will stay free. Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country.”

That warning came minutes after Trump brought Ocasio-Cortez — one of the most prominent young proponents of socialism to take office this year — and other Democratic women in the chamber to their feet by noting the record number of female lawmakers serving in Congress this year. But he turned promptly to a rebuke of the insurgent ideologues, who have gained influence in the party since self-described socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders mounted a stiff challenge for the Democratic residential nomination in 2016.

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Satan’s Party: Senate Democrats Go on Record and Block Bill Prohibiting Infanticide

Senate Democrats blocked a measure on Monday night that would prohibit infanticide.

Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) tried to pass a bill that would penalize doctors who fail to “exercise the proper degree of care in the case of a child who survives an abortion or attempted abortion,” The Hill reported.

Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) blocked Ben Sasse’s legislation arguing that US already prohibits infanticide and claimed Republicans are misinterpreting the bill introduced by Virginia Democrat Delegates last week.

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Virginia's Attorney General Says He Once Wore Blackface to a College Party

(RICHMOND, Va.) — Another top Virginia Democrat has admitted to wearing blackface decades ago. Attorney General Mark Herring issued a statement Wednesday saying he wore brown makeup and a wig in 1980 to look like a black rapper during a party as an undergraduate at the University of Virginia.

The revelation further roils the top levels of Virginia government. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam and Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax are already facing controversies, and Herring would be next in line to be governor after those two men.

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Former police officer pleads guilty to sex trafficking minors in Annapolis, Glen Burnie

A former Washington D.C. police officer pleaded guilty to two counts of sex trafficking of a minor as he admitted to paying two teenagers for sex in the Annapolis area for several months.

Chukwuemeka Ekwonna, 29, of Glenn Dale, faces up to 20 years in prison on the two charges and will be required to register as a sex offender, the U.S. Attorney’s Office wrote in a release.

Ekwonna was charged in April 2017 with soliciting sex from a 15-year-old girl in Glen Burnie and then robbing her at gunpoint.

Anne Arundel police said Ekwonna messaged the girl on the “Tagged” social media application and the two met in the Quarterfield Cross Apartments.

The teenager performed sexual acts in exchange for money, police said, and as she tried to leave, Ekwonna pulled out a handgun and demanded his money back.

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SPLC Hires High-Powered Defamation Lawyer to Defend Its Tax-Exempt Status from Glen Keith Allen’s Powerful RICO Lawsuit

On Thursday evening, Baltimore attorney Glen Keith Allen, who is suing the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) for racketeering, wire fraud, defamation, and other claims, told PJ Media that the SPLC has hired a high-powered attorney to defend them in the case. Among other things, Allen's suit demands a court judgment against the SPLC's 501c3 tax-exempt status, which could seriously cripple the organization.

"The SPLC Defendants have engaged Chad Bowman of Ballard Spahr, a large and well-regarded D.C. law firm, as their counsel," Allen told PJ Media in an email statement. He also said that he has formally "served" the SPLC, Heidi Beirich, and Mark Potok and that they have acknowledged and received the service. In other words, it's on.

Ballard Spahr is a Philadelphia-based law firm with more than 650 lawyers nationwide. It was founded in 1885 and is highly respected in the legal field.

Chad R. Bowman is a Washington, D.C. counselor and litigator who focuses on working with new media and legacy media organizations, as well as other nonprofit and for-profits engaged in speech and public advocacy. Before joining Ballard Spahr, Bowman worked as a reporter at The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. (BNA). He has represented media clients in cases involving defamation, privacy, copyright, subpoena, access, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), and other First Amendment issues.

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Largest Christian University In U.S. Blocks Shapiro From Speaking

On Friday, Young Americans For Freedom reported that administrators at Grand Canyon University, which has been referred to as the largest Christian university in the United States, are blocking Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro from speaking on their campus.

YAF stated that the administrators said the university, which is located in Phoenix, Arizona, would not “provide a venue” for Shapiro, whose speech is part of YAF’s Fred Allen Lecture Series.

As Spencer Brown, spokesman for YAF, noted, “If this pathetic response sounds familiar, it should—that’s exactly what UC Berkeley administrators initially told students when Cal administrators tried to prevent Shapiro from speaking.”

As The Daily Wire reported in July 2017, one month before Shapiro’s scheduled speech at UC Berkeley:

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Trump signs $55 billion bill to give vets more healthcare options, VA overhaul and more

President Trump on Wednesday signed the VA Mission Act, a new bill that seeks to overhaul the Department of Veterans Affairs and provide more healthcare options to veterans.

The $55 billion bill will change how the VA pays for private care, expand a VA caregiver program for pre-9/11 vets and start the process of reviewing the overall infrastructure of the VA itself.

The bill saw overwhelming bipartisan support last month passing in both chambers of Congress, and the legislation follows through with one of Trump’s major campaign promises to allow veterans more options for healthcare in the private sector.

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Bill Maher Faces Calls to Quit HBO Show After 'Popeyes Chicken' Joke to Black GOP Congressman

Leftist comedian and HBO host Bill Maher is once again facing a barrage of criticism after making a racist joke to Rep. Will Hurd (R-TX) about black people and fried chicken.

The Texas Republican appeared on the Real Time on Friday evening to discuss the ongoing battle over the construction a wall on the southern border, an idea heopposes, leading Maher to ask why he continues to side with the “traitor” President Trump.

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Northam Scandal Gives GOP Opportunity in Virginia

In the space of one week Virginia’s Democrat Governor Ralph Northam may have managed to accomplish what years of Republican efforts have failed to do: put Virginia back in play for the 2020 presidential election.

A bastion of conservative Republican strength from the 1970s until 2000, demographic changes and the huge growth in the Northern Virginia suburbs, home to a growing number of Democrat leaning federal employees, have changed the state so that Republicans have fared poorly in statewide elections over the past decade.

The last Republican was elected governor in 2009, when Bob McDonnell, later convicted on bribery charges which were subsequently thrown out, won. Democrat Terry McAuliffe won in 2013, and Northam won in 2017.

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Feds: No impact from foreign meddling in 2018 election

Foreign governments did not sway the 2018 elections, the Justice and Homeland Security departments announced Tuesday, saying the vote came off without any evidence of the kinds of breaches that tainted the 2016 presidential vote.

The two departments said they’ve completed a presidentially-ordered report using data compiled by the intelligence community. While the study is classified, the departments said there are no indications of successful interference.

“The departments have concluded there is no evidence to date that any identified activities of a foreign government or foreign agent had a material impact on the integrity or security of election infrastructure or political/campaign infrastructure used in the 2018 midterm elections for the United States Congress,” the departments said.

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Fairfax Hints Ralph Northam Revived Sex Assault Claim to Prevent Ouster

Democrat Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax on Monday hinted that Gov. Ralph Northam (D-VA) is responsible for the resurfacing of sexual assault allegation against him to keep his post.

The alleged incident purportedly occurred during the 2004 Democrat National Convention in Boston, Massachusettes.

The Washington Post reported Monday that it was approached by a woman accusing Fairfax in 2017 and investigated the claim, yet never published a story for lack of any independent evidence. The Post said the woman had not told anyone about it, and the account could not be corroborated while Fairfax denied it. The paper was unable to find other similar allegations against him among people who knew him in college, law school or in politics.

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Watch Gladys Knight Smile as She Takes Apart Each of Don Lemon’s SJW Questions

If you’d forgotten how great Gladys Knight was, Super Bowl Sunday was a reminder of why she’s known as the “Empress of Soul” — and you don’t get royal monikers without earning them.

It wasn’t just that the Atlanta-based R&B legend was singing the national anthem. It was she nailed it, absolutely nailed it. I may be suffering from a bit of recency bias, but I’d easily put it in the top five of Super Bowl album renditions. It wasn’t Whitney Houston in 1991 or Jennifer Hudson in 2009 — but for me, anyhow, it was close.

Sadly, even singing the national anthem is a political statement in a Super Bowl where every major performer was asked by protesters to stay away due to the fact Colin Kaepernick isn’t in the league. We could debate the merits of Kaepernick’s absence from the NFL endlessly, but the idea that every musician of note should boycott the game is a rather farcical request.

Knight had already been less apologetic and dithering than halftime headliner Maroon 5, which made her even more of a target for social justice warriors to take out their Kaepernick-related frustrations on musicians. On Friday night, she appeared on “CNN Tonight” with host Don Lemon to explain her reasoning, and it was almost as good as her version of the anthem on Sunday.

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Prager: 'We Are in a Dark Age' Because Left Controls Silicon Valley

Dennis Prager arraigned the modern era as “a dark age” created by the “left’s control of Silicon Valley, academia, and media.” Prager offered his remarks on the status quo of free speech and expression in a Friday-aired interview on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily with host Alex Marlow.

Left-wing axioms, premises, and narratives are increasingly accepted as articles of faith within a progressively censorious society, warned Prager.

“This is what we are now at in the Orwellian world that the left has created,” assessed Prager. “Any difference is not debated. It is evil. So if you say America is not racist, you are a racist.”

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Trump calls for national unity, slams ‘partisan investigations’ in State of the Union address

President Trump called on Americans to “choose greatness” over “gridlock” in his second State of the Union address Tuesday, appealing for national unity over bitter bipartisanship to face challenges at home and abroad.

“Together, we can break decades of political stalemate. We can bridge old divisions, heal old wounds, build new coalitions, forge new solutions and unlock the extraordinary promise of America’s future,” Trump told Congress and the nation in the prime-time address from Capitol Hill. “The decision is ours to make.”

Trump took a victory lap for the triumphs of his first two years in office, touting the nation’s “incredible economic success,” as well as his administration’s “ground-breaking” criminal justice reform package, passed late in 2018 with increasingly rare bipartisan support.

“After 24 months of rapid progress, our economy is the envy of the world, our military is the most powerful on earth by far and America is again winning each and every day,” he said.

At the halfway point of his term, Trump also looked forward, announcing on the international front a second face-to-face meeting with North Korean despot Kim Jong Un in Vietnam on Feb. 27 and 28.

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Terry McAuliffe: Ralph Northam 'will do the right thing' for Virginia 'soon'

Former Democratic Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe predicted Sunday his lieutenant governor and successor, Gov. Ralph Northam, will soon step down due to the controversy over a racist photo.

“Once that picture with the blackface and the klansman came out, there is no way you can continue to be the governor of the commonwealth of Virginia," McAuliffe said Sunday during an interview with CNN. “We all have made mistakes. Ralph will do the right thing for the commonwealth of Virginia. He will put Virginia first, and I think that will happen relatively soon."

Northam faces increasing pressure to resign after a racist photo from his 1984 medical school yearbook page emerged late last week, depicting a man in blackface and another wearing Ku Klux Klan robes and hood. The governor and former pediatric neurologist originally apologized for the image, but later backtracked and said he doesn't believe he is in the photograph. He did, however, admit he wore blackface when he dressed up as Michael Jackson for a dance competition during that same year. He has reiterated his intention to serve the remainder of his term.

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My Take on the SOTU!!!

Car Dealers are Flush w Unsold cars as Sales expected to drop

Car dealers are beginning 2019 with a heavier inventory of unsold vehicles on their lots, a situation that some analysts say will put pressure on them to cut factory output as U.S. auto sales are expected to cool this year.

There were 3.95 million vehicles on dealership lots at the end of January, a 4% increase from December and up nearly 3% from the prior-year January, according to data released Monday by WardsAuto.

While January is typically a slower month for new-vehicle sales, analysts say the rising stock levels are becoming problematic because car companies will start this year with more unsold inventory than they had three years ago when U.S. auto sales peaked at 17.55 million for the year. Industry forecasters and some auto executives predict sales this year will fall well below that figure, dropping to under 17 million vehicles for the first time since 2014.

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Thousands in Migrant Caravan Head to OPEN Texas Border Stretch with No Walls or Fences

Mexican authorities in two border states announced the arrival of nearly 2,000 Central American migrants who are part of a caravan headed for the border cities Piedras Negras and Nuevo Laredo. The area between those two municipalities does not feature any type of fencing or barriers like the ones a previous caravan encountered in California.

State officials in Coahuila announced the arrival of more than 1,700 members of a migrant caravan that recently left Honduras. They are slated to be ferried by bus to the Texas border. The Nuevo Leon government is preparing shelters and security.

The migrants are traveling with the intent to request asylum on U.S. soil, thus making any detention by border authorities irrelevant. The group is expected in Eagle Pass and Laredo, Texas, however, since the region lacks any fencing or physical barriers, some could successfully storm the border with little effort.

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Ralph Northam shouldn’t resign because of an old photo. He should resign because he's an idiot

Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam should not resign because he was an idiot in the past. He should resign because he is an idiot in the present.

On Feb. 1, a 35-year-old photo reportedly showing Northam dressed either in blackface or Ku Klux Klan regalia first surfaced on the right-wing news site Big League Politics.

Competing newsrooms, including the Virginian-Pilot, soon confirmed that the photo came from Northam’s page in a 1984 Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook. He was 25 years old at the time of the book’s publication. A separate yearbook unearthed this weekend also shows Northam went by a few nicknames when he attended Virginia Military Institute, including “coonman.”

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All the border walls Obama built

Are These Ralph Northam's Blackface Pants?

An undated yearbook photo appears to show Virginia Governor Ralph "Coonman" Northam sporting the same pair of pants as a man in blackface pictured in his 1984 medical school yearbook.

The photo in question features a group of boys standing in front of a car below the title "Hi-Y" (a YMCA boys-only high-school program). The caption below indicates that Ralph Northam was the group's president, while a boy standing on the right side is wearing what appears to be an identical pair of pants to the figure in blackface in Northam's controversial 1984 yearbook page.

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Asia Bibi: Pakistan's notorious case

Asia Bibi was dragged out of her house, beaten, and arrested in front of an angry mob.

Accused of blasphemy, she would never return to her village.

After a decade-long ordeal, Asia is finally free.

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"It Is Affecting My Blood Pressure" - Americans Over 60 Are Struggling With Student Debt

Though millennials catch the most flack for taking out hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loans to pay for worthless college degrees that do little to improve their financial prospects in the "real world," for older Americans who take out loans to finance their education later in life, the repercussions can be ten times worse.

While it might not seem like much compared with the overall $1.4 trillion mountain of student loan debt rattling around the American economy, according to the Wall Street Journal, Americans over the age of 60 are struggling to pay down an aggregate $86 billion in student loan debt.

Student loan borrowers in their 60s, on average, owed $33,800 in 2017, up 44% from 2010, according to data compiled by credit-reporting firm TransUnion. Total student loan debt for people aged 60 and older rose 161% between 2010 and 2017, the biggest increase of any age group.

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Thomas Gallatin: Columbus Caused Climate Change?

Researchers at University College London blame Columbus for causing the Little Ice Age.

Christopher Columbus started the Little Ice Age! That’s right — not only was that Genoese devil responsible for unleashing the scourge of Europeans upon the Americas, but now, according to a recent study released by researchers at University College London (UCL), he was also responsible for causing climate change.

You see, Columbus’s discovery of the New World brought disease from Europe that unleashed a genocide upon millions of Indigenous Peoples™ whose disappearance subsequently resulted in a massive overgrowth of vegetation across previously farmed land in Central, South, and North America. This surge in forestation tanked global CO2 levels, which in turn cooled the planet and threw it into a mini ice age.

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The Difference in How Socialism and Free Markets Work in the Real World

If the future of the nation were a function of logic, then conservatives would have a very easy job.

No debate would be needed, really. In the choice between the two competing models Judeo-Christian civilization has given us, with socialist arguments for “big government” on the one side and a market-oriented system that favors the freedoms of the individual over the powers of the state on the other, there would be no contest.

In fact, it would indeed be a formal “no contest,” as only one of the models has ever been realized in the real world in which we live.

Adam Smith, Friedrich Hayek, Ludwig von Mises, and Milton Friedman may have had impeccable credentials in terms of theory, but the whole point of their work is that it occurred within the reality of functioning free markets.

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