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Monday, July 30, 2018

The Danger of Dirty Dems

As stupid as they may at times seem, I often wonder if the Dirty Dems will ever become rational enough to realize that the underlying theme of their message — the fundamental transformation of America — will never again get them voted into power. Too many people who were taken in by the hype that gave us Barack Obama now realize that it was a carefully orchestrated scam.

After being lulled into a white-guilt slumber by the exciting idea of electing America’s first “black” president, millions of voters now regretfully understand the wisdom in the idiom “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” They are what the social media crowd refers to as “woke.”

These people may be embarrassed by being taken in by the Marxist hyperbole of a shiftless community organizer, they may even be ashamed by it, but they seem determined not to be fooled again. As a pretty smart fellow once said, you can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you can’t fool all the people all the time.

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Obama's Dying Vision: The Only Card in the Democratic Deck

As the Democratic Party continues to scrum ahead of the 2018 midterm elections – and ultimately the 2020 presidential election – Democrats of all stripes are eager to see who will be squeezed out of the pack and step up to articulate some kind of unified Progressive vision to challenge the Trump presidency.

Yet, even at this late date, Democrats appear rudderless and out of ideas – still clinging to their relentless intifada of resistance to shake off Donald Trump's occupation of the American government. As this approach hasn't proven to be an altogether winning strategy, recently, the DNC brain trust announced their intention to enlist the advice of Hollywood writers, directors, and producers to craft Tinseltown-style messaging in the hope of generating Democratic victories. Given the four-letter tirades of Robert De Niro, the vulgar tweets of Peter Fonda, the nightly broadsides of talk show hosts, and the rallying cries and rants of entertainment elites everywhere, the Hollywood message is loud and clear and can be reduced to two words: F--- you!

What Democrats don't seem to understand is that Hollywood is not a "messaging" apparatus, nor is parading Trump-hating celebrities into the spotlight a winning substitute for a clear enunciation of what the Democratic Party stands for and whom it represents. Let us not forget the bawdy conga line of Hollywood royalty who stepped up noisily during Hillary's 2016 campaign – and delivered nothing. Employing a "long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." approach to a TV political ad or get-out-the-vote appeal bereft of a lucid, straightforward liberal message is, as former Democratic Texas governor Ann Richards once remarked, like this: "you can put lipstick on a hog and call it Monique, but it is still a pig."

The truth is, the Democrats have no message. There is no vision. There is no agenda. There is no Democratic counter to "Make America Great Again." Nor is there a leader to voice such a vision and stamp it with his imprimatur if there were one.

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Americans' Intentions To Buy A Car Collapse As High Rates Crush Home-Buying Plans

We hate to be the ones to steal the jam out of President Trump's donut but UMich consumer sentiment slumped to six-month lows in June, despite the surging economic growth, as trade anxiety weighed on current conditions.

The headline sentiment index eased to 97.9 (est. 97.1) from prior month’s 98.2 as current conditions gauge, which measures Americans’ perceptions of their finances, fell to 114.4 from 116.5 in June (but the expectations measure increased to 87.3 from June’s 86.3).

“Consumers who had negative concerns about the tariffs voiced much more pessimistic economic outlook,” Richard Curtin, director of the University of Michigan consumer survey, said in a statement.

“These negative economic expectations could quickly disappear if the trade issues with Europe are promptly settled and immediately followed by agreements with China, Canada, and Mexico.”


Additionally, it seems the poor are feeling worse and the rich slightly better...

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'That's ... Ridiculous': Florida Domestic Violence Chief Earns $761,000

Tiffany Carr runs the state's top domestic violence organization, a nonprofit that uses public money -- state and federal -- to finance shelters and other essential services. And she makes a good living.

How good? In a June 30, 2017 report, the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence disclosed she is paid $761,560 annually, a salary that is approved by its board. She hit that mark after receiving pay raises totaling $313,475 over a two-year period.

"That's -- it's ridiculous," said Dan Ravicher, a professor at University of Miami School of Law who focuses on nonprofits, business and social entrepreneurship. "We're talking almost 2 percent of the budget being paid to one person. That's pretty unusual."

Carr's coalition, a nonprofit that reports its top salaries on annual Internal Revenue Service forms called 990s, is one of many private organizations that receive state funds to provide social services. In addition, the coalition operates as a pass-through, awarding public funds to smaller domestic violence organizations.

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Chicago Funnels A Third Of Property Taxes To Mayor-Managed Slush Funds

Nearly a third of property tax revenue in Chicago is diverted into 143 TIF districts controlled by the mayor, nearly half of which are located in affluent neighborhoods.

Tax increment financing, or TIF, districts in Cook County generated a record $1 billion in 2017, up nearly 18 percent from 2016,according to the Cook County clerk. Chicago accounted for most of these gains by generating $660 million, an 18 percent increase from 2016. As long as these TIF districts exist, however, struggling school districts in those districts won’t see a dime of this revenue. This comes at a time when Cook County and Chicago face budget shortfalls up to $95 million and $812 million, respectively, by 2020.

In theory, TIFs are a mechanism used to revitalize “blighted” neighborhoods by providing economic incentives for developers to invest in the area. TIFs freeze the Equalized Assessment Value, or EAV, of all properties in a designated TIF district and divert all property tax revenue above that EAV into a private TIF fund. The amount of property tax revenue collected by individual taxing bodies within a TIF district – school districts, libraries, et cetera – is effectively capped at the frozen EAV.

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ICE Banned From Using Philadelphia Arrest Database

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney announced Friday that the city will stop sharing their real-time arrest database with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) following protests at City Hall, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

“I cannot in good conscience allow the agreement to continue,” the Democrat mayor said, adding "We’re not going to provide them with information so they can go out and round people up."

Kenny's decision means the city will not renew a contract with the agency that expires at the end of August.

The decision comes after months of consultation with community groups, lawyers and immigrant advocates, and follows weeks of tumultuous protests by anti-ICE demonstrators, who on Wednesday took over and held a City Hall stairway.

A formal announcement is scheduled for Friday afternoon at City Hall. ICE officials were informed Thursday in an emailed letter from City Solicitor Marcel Pratt.

Kenney said he had grown increasingly concerned that ICE was using the database “in inappropriate ways,” including to conduct investigations of undocumented immigrants in Philadelphia who had not broken any other laws. -Philly.com

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"There's No Way To Make This Work" Martenson Warns "A Big Reset Is Locked In"

Futurist and economic researcher Chris Martenson says we are not at the end of a business cycle but “. . . at the end of a credit cycle.”

Martenson warns, “Here’s why people need to be concerned. Credit cycles, when they blow up, are really, really destructive..."

"2008 to 2009 was very destructive. Instead of realizing the error of their ways, they went for a third. This is the most comprehensive credit cycle that we have seen. Remember, bubbles have two things that they need. Number one, a good story that people can believe in and, of course, it’s a false story. Number two, ample credit. That’s what the Fed and central banks of Japan and Europe have done. They just flooded the world with credit. Now, we have bubbles everywhere. When these burst, it will be the worst bursting in anybody’s lifetime because we have never seen anything like this.”

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College Course Disputes Idea That Hetersosexual Sex Is "Natural"

Eugene Lang College, part of The New School in Lower Manhattan, will offer a course next semester for students who wish to fight “heterosexist” explanations of animals and nature.

Taught by Heather Davis, “Queer Ecologies” is a four-credit course offered by the school’s Culture and Media department for students who wish to “disrupt prevailing heterosexist discursive and institutional articulations of sexuality and nature.”

According to the professor, these "heterosexist" explanations of sexuality and nature often involve referring to male/female animals.

According to the course description, students will be taught to “reimagine evolutionary processes, ecological interactions, and environmental politics in light of queer theory” by drawing from research in fields such as feminist science studies and environmental justice.

Students will also “draw important connections between the material and cultural dimensions of environmental issues, and examine the ways in which sex and nature are understood in light of multiple trajectories of power and matter,” the description adds.

During an interview with Campus Reform, Davis explained that queer ecologies is an “interdisciplinary field that examines the relationship between sexuality and nature, thinking beyond the boundaries of assuming that heterosexuality is the norm or standard.”

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Domestic Surveillance Being Conducted On Americans By TSA

TSA is tracking regular travelers like terrorists in secret surveillance program.

Federal air marshals have begun following ordinary US citizens not suspected of a crime or on any terrorist watch list and collecting extensive information about their movements and behavior under a new domestic surveillance program that is drawing criticism from within the agency.

The previously undisclosed program, called “Quiet Skies,” specifically targets travelers who “are not under investigation by any agency and are not in the Terrorist Screening Data Base,” according to a Transportation Security Administration bulletin in March.

The internal bulletin describes the program’s goal as thwarting threats to commercial aircraft “posed by unknown or partially known terrorists,” and gives the agency broad discretion over which air travelers to focus on and how closely they are tracked.

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Health Insurance Mafia & The Heroin Of 'Signing Up' For Obamacare

A good friend urges me to “sign up” for Obamacare.

He knows about the extortion letters I have been receiving from the federal thugs who are now the enforcers for the health insurance mafia – which succeeded in getting a law passed which forces us to buy their services.

Or else.

The “or else” being punishing fines – plus interest. These are called “shared responsibility” payments but – in the first place – nothing is being “shared” (I am being forcibly mulcted) and in the second place for whom am I “responsible”?

Myself, certainly.

But that is precisely the point and the fulcrum of my objection to Obamacare – to this business of being forced to be responsible for other people’s “care” at the expense of my own.

I could afford a high-deductible, catastrophic care insurance policy – something which would “cover” just that, a catastrophic and therefore not-likely event, such as a heart attack or cancer. And precisely because such an event is unlikely, the cost of such a “plan” would actually be insurance and so affordable.

I could therefore afford to be responsible for myself.

But Obamacare has turned the concept of insurance on its head. What is going on now is not insurance. It is wealth redistribution – mostly to the insurance mafia. The law forces me – and you – to pay for things we don’t need or use (for example, maternity care “coverage” for a divorced middle-aged man and “substance abuse counseling” for a man who doesn’t abuse any substances) which means no value received for the money extorted. The money lines the pockets of the mafia, which may perhaps dole out a portion to “cover” some portion of other people’s maternity care or substance abuse counseling.

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Tucker Carlson Reports the FBI Collaborates With Southern Poverty Law Center

Fox News' Tucker Carlson reported last night the Federal Bureau of Investigation has collaborated with the Southern Poverty Law Center, a controversial left-wing group that often promotes misguided and false accusations of hate against conservatives and right-leaning organizations, for input and advice on various investigations.

“Well as you already know if you’ve been paying any attention at all, the Southern Poverty Law Center is a fraudulent enterprise...It’s a left-wing political group that uses ‘hate crime’ designations to target its ideological enemies and to crush people,” Carlson said on last night’s episode of “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”

“The SPLC has repeatedly been allowed to brief the FBI on alleged domestic terrorist threats to this country,” Carlson added. “Disturbingly though, the relationship is ongoing, if you can believe it…Despite multiple requests from this program, the FBI has refused to describe the extent of its collaboration with the SPLC, we’ve asked repeatedly, or even to explain why it continues to work with a group like that,” the Daily Caller founder noted.

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Eric Holder says 'Yeah, I'm interested!' in being president: Report

Eric Holder knows what he wants. Whether he'll go after it is still under speculation.

In a meeting with Cincinnati Democrats last night, the former U.S. attorney general confirmed he wants to be president, according to a CNN report: "Am I interested it?" he asked. "Yeah, I'm interested!"

In his response to the first question of the meeting, the Obama administration also reiterated pursuing a 2020 run was something he won't decide until next year after discussing with his family, the report states.

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Millsboro Man Arrested for Kidnapping, Robbery, and Home Invasion-Rehoboth Beach


Steven M. Snell
Rehoboth Beach- The Delaware State Police have arrested a Millsboro man after he entered a residence armed, assaulted the victims, and then kidnapped them.
The incident occurred on Saturday, July 28, 2018 at approximately 9:43 a.m. when Troopers were dispatched to the M&T Bank located at 19511 Camelot Drive, in reference to a victim reporting she was kidnapped and her vehicle was stolen.  Upon arrival, contact was made with an 81-year-old female victim who stated that a suspect left the bank with her husband in the trunk of her vehicle. The vehicle was located parked behind the Subway at 19470 Coastal Highway.  The victim's 82-year-old husband was located and the suspect had fled on foot.
Further investigation revealed that the suspect, Steven Snell had responded to the victims' residence located in the Rehoboth Beach Yacht and Country Club earlier this morning.  Snell entered the residence through an open garage door and once inside, he made contact with the male victim, and asked to use the house phone.  After Snell used the phone, he asked the victim for a drink.  The victim provided Snell with a drink of water and when he proceeded to turn around, Snell grabbed him from behind and put a box cutter to his throat.   A brief struggle ensued in which the victim received a laceration to his chin.  The victim proceeded to yell for his wife who was upstairs.  As the victim's wife proceeded downstairs, she was met by Snell who pushed her to the floor.  Snell then proceeded to obtain rope that he had in his book bag and tied the male victim's arms behind his back and his feet together.  Snell then took an undisclosed amount of cash out of the male's pocket and the female's purse, along with a M&T Bank Card.  Snell then placed the male into the truck of the victim's vehicle and the female in the front passengers seat and left the residence.  As they arrived at M&T Bank, Snell ordered the female to the ATM machine to withdraw cash.  After the female withdrew an undisclosed amount of cash, she tried to hold onto a railing as Snell began to try and pull her back to the vehicle.  A customer had arrived at this time and observed what was going on, at which point Snell let the female go and fled the area in the vehicle with her husband  still inside the trunk.  The female then proceeded into the bank and requested help.
While still in the trunk, the male realized the vehicle had come to a stop.  He was able to free his hands, locate a release button inside the trunk, and exit the vehicle.  The male victim was treated at the scene and the female victim was not injured during this incident.
Through investigative measures, Troopers were able to identify Snell as the suspect.  Snell was later apprehended without incident at a residence located in Potnets, Creek Side, Millsboro.  He was transported back to Troop 7 where he was charged with 2 counts of Kidnapping First Degree, 3 counts of Robbery First Degree Displays What Appears to be a Deadly Weapon, Possession of a Deadly Weapon During the Commission of a Felony,  Home Invasion,  Assault Second Degree, Theft of a Motor Vehicle, and Offensive Touching.  Snell was arraigned before the Justice of the Peace Court 3 and committed to the Sussex Correctional Institution on $362,100.00 cash only bond.

Man arrested and accused of strangling nurse to death, may be responsible for up to seven murders

The Connecticut man arrested for the brutal strangling death of a New York City nurse may be responsible for as many as seven other murders, authorities said.

Danuel Drayton, 27, of New Haven, Connecticut, was arrested in Los Angeles on July 24, for allegedly strangling 29-year-old Samantha Stewart to death in New York City on July 17.

Stewart was found dead in her home in Queens, New York, with her teeth knocked out and her tongue hanging out. She was covered in a white sheet. Stewart's 17-year-old brother made the gruesome discovery.

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Ex-New York Assembly Speaker sentenced to seven years in prison for public corruption

Former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was sentenced to seven years in prison in federal court on Friday.

US District Judge Valerie Caproni in Manhattan saidcorruption in New York state 'has to stop,' after announcing Silver, one of New York's longtime Democratic power brokers, would spend the better part of the next decade behind bars.

This punishment is five years lighter than the original sentence handed down by Caproni to Silver, after his first conviction on corruption charges was overturned on appeal.

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Wise Parenting Dos and Don'ts From 1886

Editor’s note: The following excerpt comes from Hill’s Manual of Social and Business Forms by Thomas Edie Hill, which was published in 1886.

What Parents Should Never Do

Never speak harshly to a child.

Never use disrespectful names.

Never use profane or vulgar words in the presence of a child.

Do not be so cold and austere as to drive your child from you.

Never misrepresent. If you falsify the child will learn to deceive also.

Never withhold praise when the child deserves it. Commendation is one of the sweetest pleasures of childhood.

Never waken your children before they have completed their natural slumbers in the morning. See that they retire early, and thus have the requisite time for sleep. Children require more sleep than older persons. The time will come soon enough when care and trouble will compel them to waken in the early morning. Let them sleep while they can.

Do not reproach a child for a mistake which was made with a good motive at the time. Freely forgive, wisely counsel, and the child will thus be taught that there is no danger in telling the truth.

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DCCC to Pay Interns in Some Form Moving Forward

The Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee will reportedly start paying its interns after 13 of them working at the organization wrote a letter requesting pay and suggesting that unpaid internships only allow people from well-off backgrounds to have these opportunities, HuffPost reports.

Lydia Murray, who is Chinese-American, wrote the letter and 12 other interns signed it.

“Most of our fellow interns, while undoubtedly bright, are white and wealthy and have no real understanding of the perspectives of everyday working Americans, nor do we have fellow interns with diverse backgrounds to discuss issues, ideas, or experiences with,” the letter said.

“It is impossible for us to champion the working class when at the most basic levels, those who work in the party do not represent them on a socioeconomic or racial basis.”

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UK Home Office Rejects Syrian Christians, Refugee Intake 100 Percent Muslim

The British government has admitted that no Christians were taken among the Syrian refugees flown into Britain recently, with the Home Office rejected the handful of non-Muslims selected for resettlement by the United Nations.

Despite the persecution of Christians at the hands of Islamic extremists in Syria having been declared genocide by the U.S., the European Union (EU) and even British MPs themselves in a 2016 parliamentary vote, the 1,112 Syrians that Britain resettled in the first three months of 2018 consisted only of Muslims.

The Barnabas Fund, an aid agency which supports Christians persecuted for their faith, obtained the figures via Freedom of Information requests after “a protracted tussle with the Home Office”, The Sunday Times reports.

The campaign group, which last year accused the UNHCR of unfairly prioritising Sunni Muslims over persecuted minorities when recommending refugees for resettlement in the West, stressed it was not requesting special treatment for Christians but for people to be selected “on the basis of vulnerability”.

“If someone is gay, the penalty under sharia is death, but if someone converts from Islam to Christianity, the penalty is also death,” said Martin Parsons, head of research at the Barnabas Fund.

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Tim Tebow Foundation Changes the Life of a Boy Born with Severe Deformity

An 11-year-old boy in the Philippines is recovering from a life-changing corrective surgery on his legs that was made possible by the Tim Tebow Foundation and CURE International.

Aldrin, whose last name was not disclosed, was born with a severe leg deformity that left him in unbearable pain from simply standing. It prevented him from walking long distances, too, Fox 35 Orlando reported.

The CURE International blog made clear that Aldrin’s condition was identified as congenital knee dislocation, which caused his knees to bend the wrong way. His stature left him subject to bullying from peers and prevented him from participating in everyday activities.

“Essentially, Aldrin’s knee bends the wrong way, like a flamingo,” Dr. Tim Mead, medical director of CURE and one of Aldrin’s lead surgeons, wrote on his blog. “Look at his picture and be amazed he could even get around at all.”

A team of three surgeons worked to correct and realign Aldrin’s joints, tendons, and femur bones in a four-hour surgery before his legs were cast to protect the soft tissue and tendon repairs.

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Ridicule, Not Reasoned Debate, Is the Best Medicine for Political Cults

U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley recently told a high school audience that conservatives shouldn’t delight in “owning the libs” –– i.e. triggering a progressive into a hysterical response that you proceed to make fun of. Instead, we should be “persuading” progs with reasoned argument and “bringing people around to your point of view,” as Haley said.

In that way, we make a convert rather than energize partisans into clinging more tightly to their beliefs and voting to empower them.

Having spent more than 40 years in the incubators of today’s leftist nonsense, universities, I am skeptical about the power of reasoned argument among today’s ill-educated students. Most of their teachers, like most progressives, are pretty much immune to reason, evidence, and coherent argument, little of which makes it into their courses. As the old gag goes, arguing with a leftist is like playing chess with a pigeon: It knocks over the pieces, craps on the board, then struts around like it won the game. Reasoned argument cuts no ice when confronted with the irrational caprices and gratifying passions of human beings.

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Ashley Kavanaugh's Emails Combed for Attack Points

The New York Times and Associated Press have both reportedly filed public information requests in Maryland to comb through emails Ashley Kavanaugh — wife of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh — sent as town manager for her tiny neighborhood in Chevy Chase.

The AP requested "all emails sent or received" by Kavanaugh's Village of Chevy Chase email address, while the Times asks for "any emails to or from Ms. Kavanaugh that contain any of the keywords or terms listed below."

The Times list includes politically-charged words like "liberal," "abortion," "gay," and "federalist"...

Ashley Kavanaugh is manager for the section of Chevy Chase where the Kavanaugh family lives in Maryland, with responsibilities that include organizing the neighborhood's Fourth of July parade, a two-block long procession that ends with a barbecue.

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[Can you say "d-e-s-p-e-r-a-t-e"? --Editor]

City report on Confederate monuments raises idea of renaming Austin

Austin’s Equity Office suggested renaming the city in a report about existing Confederate monuments that was published this week.

Known as both the “father of Texas” and the namesake of the state’s capital, Stephen F. Austin carved out the early outlines of Texas among his many accomplishments.

He also opposed an attempt by Mexico to ban slavery in the province of Tejas and said if slaves were freed, they would turn into “vagabonds, a nuisance and a menace.”

For that reason, the city of Austin’s Equity Office suggested renaming the city in a report about existing Confederate monuments that was published this week.

Also on the list of locales to possibly be renamed: Pease Park, the Bouldin Creek neighborhood, Barton Springs and 10 streets named for William Barton, the “Daniel Boone of Texas,” who was a slave owner.

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Thiel: Universities Are as Corrupt as the Catholic Church of 500 Years Ago

Technology giant Peter Thiel argued this week that American universities are as corrupt as the Catholic Church of 500 years ago.

Speaking to a group of conservative students on Wednesday night, tech legend Peter Thiel compared American universities to the Catholic Church of 500 years ago.

“The analogy that I’ve used is that perhaps the universities today are as corrupt as the Catholic Church was 500 years ago,” Thiel said. “If you think about the eve of the Reformation when Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the church doors, there were all these priests that did not do very much work in much the same way that college professors and administrators are today. You had to pay these indulgences the way that you have to pay runaway tuition today.”

Thiel went on to argue that American society teaches young people that the quality of their lives will be determined by their success at college. “It’s also a story of salvation,” he added. “If you get a college diploma, you will be saved. If you don’t get one, you will end up in a very bad place. We need a sort of reformation. I’ve often described the universities as the atheist church. It’s not going to reform itself from within. The reformation will come from without.”

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CBP Officers Find Over Five Tons of Narcotics Hidden in Cargo Shipment

OTAY MESA, Calif. — U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the Otay Mesa Cargo port of entry seized over five tons of narcotics Wednesday hidden in a cargo shipment.

“This truly shows the perseverance of our officers in making sure these drugs do not reach our city streets and children,” said Otay Mesa Port Director Rosa Hernandez. “I am proud of the hard work of our officers are doing.”

At approximately 6:45 a.m., on Wednesday, July 25, CBP officers encountered a 36-year-old Mexican citizen with a valid visa driving a tractor-trailer that entered the cargo facility carrying a manifested shipment of “doors and window frames.” CBP officers conducting roving operations selected the tractor-trailer for a further intensive examination.

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Newt: ‘You Must Be an American Citizen to Vote’

Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich accused Democrats of pushing illegal immigration to gain more traction at the polls.

Gingrich cited San Francisco as ground zero for the movement, where illegal immigrants are eligible to register and vote in local school board elections, in a Wednesday op-ed for Fox News.

“Pro-illegal immigration, sanctuary-state-supporting Democrat majority in the state Legislature has no interest in enforcing the law when it’s being ignored by fellow Democrats,” Gingrich wrote.

He claims Democrats have a “long-range” plan to cement a permanent majority by stacking their voter base with non-citizens.

“A sound immediate step would be for Congress to pass a law reaffirming that you must be an American citizen to vote in all American elections,” he concluded.

“Let’s see how many Democrats would oppose this simple requirement.”

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Soros Spent $10.37 Million Lobbying During Second Quarter

Liberal billionaire George Soros's nonprofit spent more on lobbying during the second quarter of 2018 than he has in any previous quarter, disclosure forms show.

The Open Society Policy Center, a Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)(4) nonprofit that deals with domestic and international advocacy efforts that is a separate entity from Soros's Open Society Foundations, reported spending $10.37 million between April 1 and June 30—an increase of nearly $8 million from the first quarter of the year when the center reported spending $2.52 million on its lobbying efforts.

The increase in its lobbying activities can be attributed to the group adding a number of issues related to the nomination of Donald Lu as the U.S. Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan and the nomination of David B. Cornstein as U.S. Ambassador to Hungary, where Soros was born.

The group's three in-house lobbyists additionally focused on a handful of issues related to North Korea such as the Preventing Preemptive Action in North Korea Act of 2017, the No Unconstitutional Strike against North Korea Act, the North Korea Nuclear Baseline Act, and issues related to security sector assistance, North Korea, and Defense in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019.

The policy center's scope also hit bills and issues spanning from the Disclosing Foreign Influence Act to the Bill on Foreign Funded Organizations in Hungary, a crackdown on foreign-funded organizations in that country.

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Anti-Kavanaugh Campaign Makes Extensive Use of ‘Dark Money’ Donations

So-called "dark money" groups on the political left are planning how to spend millions to try to stop the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

In an article headlined, "Liberal activists embrace ‘dark money' in Supreme Court fight," the Washington Post reported Friday how liberal groups are making use of unidentified donors to put out a slew of anti-Kavanaugh messages to persuade senators to vote against the federal judge's confirmation. Demand Justice is one such group, classified as a "social welfare" organizations by the IRS but able to keep its donors anonymous since it is housed inside another nonprofit.

Demand Justice executive director Brian Fallon, a former aide to Hillary Clinton, complained that pro-Kavanaugh groups will still outspend them. He said, however, that they are keeping up better in the fight against Kavanaugh, who President Donald Trump nominated to the Supreme Court earlier this month, than they did in their fight against now-Justice Neil Gorsuch last year.

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[Related: It turns out Democrats love ‘dark money’ ;

Old Prosecutors Speaking Frankly

About once a year the Society of Old Prosecutors meets in a private libation spot the name of which I am honor bound not to disclose. We met to discuss the week’s events and, as long as I don’t name the participants, I was given permission to share some of the talk. (Given the mad-dog operations of the Special Counsel some feared that to publicly state their views they’d be subject to midnight FBI raids with their nightgown-garbed wives rousted from bed and felt up by armed agents, or all their assets seized and their private correspondence unrelated to anything handed over to Democratic spinners like Lanny Davis to be megaphoned on CNN.)

Lawyer 1: "The President is denying his former lawyer Cohen’s claim that he approved the meeting in Trump Tower. Funny that meeting, isn’t it? I mean, why did Loretta Lynch allow Natasha Veselnitskaya to have a special visa to enter the country and why did Natasha choose as her translator Anatoli Samochornov, who for over a decade was a U.S. State Department Translator?’ I’ve handled far weaker entrapment cases."

Lawyer 2: "Funnier yet, the meeting was ostensibly to discuss Russian orphan adoption issues. But even if it had been to hear the dirt Russia had on Hillary, when and why and how would it be unusual or illegal for a campaign to want to hear dirt on a competitor? I mean, get real -- Hillary paid for the Dossier which was confected by an anti-Trump former UK spy whose sources were all Russian. Not since I read Alice in Wonderland as a kid, have I seen such an upside down universe."

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Trump's ethanol plans alarm the boating industry

The boating industry is raising the alarm over President Trump's pledge to allow higher-level ethanol fuels to be sold year-round, which the industry believes could place millions of consumers on the hook for expensive repairs.

“President Trump’s pledge to allow the year-round sale of E15 will needlessly put consumers in danger,” Thom Dammrich, president of the National Marine Manufacturers Association, said in a statement Friday.

Trump told farmers in Iowa on Thursday that the administration is "getting very close" to approving a waiver to allow 15-percent ethanol fuel blends, or E15, to be sold year-round. Currently, the sale of the fuel is restricted during the summer months because of its high volatility. Sales after June 1 require a waiver from the Environmental Protection Agency.

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Lawless Washington

It is useless for conservatives to hope laws against political corruption and violating national security information and colluding with unsavory types will ever apply to leftists. When is the last time any leftist in Washington faced any successful prosecution for committing crimes of this sort?

The infinitesimal peccadilloes Democrats allege that Trump and his campaign staff may have engaged in with an essentially harmless Russian Federation – a nation with multiparty elections and many parties represented in the Duma, freedom of worship and speech, and no plans of world conquest – are nothing, even if true. Russia, one third the size of the old Soviet Empire, is no real threat to America at all and is, in many respects, a natural ally of our nation in many areas.

The Clintons' utter disregard for both the law and ethical behavior stretches back to Bill's ghastly reign of depravity and dishonesty in Arkansas and Bill's term as president was perhaps the most lawless in American history. The left was utterly indifferent to his crimes and sins and all he got was a slap on the wrist for lying under oath before a federal judge and a largely symbolic impeachment that gutless Republicans in the Senate tried as best they could to ignore.

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Top Medicare Official Slams 'Medicare for All'

The Trump administration's Medicare chief on Wednesday slammed Sen. Bernie Sanders' call for a national health plan, saying "Medicare for All" would undermine care for seniors and become "Medicare for None."

The broadside from Medicare and Medicaid administrator Seema Verma came in a San Francisco speech that coincides with a focus on health care in contentious midterm congressional elections.

Sanders, a Vermont independent, fired back at Trump's Medicare chief in a statement that chastised her for trying to "throw" millions of people off their health insurance during the administration's failed effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Denouncing what she called the "drumbeat" for "government-run socialized health care," Verma said "Medicare for All" would "only serve to hurt and divert focus from seniors."

"You are giving the government complete control over decisions pertaining to your care, or whether you receive care at all," she added.

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A tale of two campaigns: Midterm elections 100 days out

The battle for Congress unfolding 100 days before the midterm elections is a tale of two campaigns, playing out in two contrasting Americas that hold conflicting opinions of President Trump.

In the affluent suburbs, where educated professionals will decide control of the House, antipathy for Trump and flat-out exhaustion with his antics threatens to sink the Republican Party’s 24-seat majority. The Democratic Party that would snatch the speaker’s gavel, bolstered by a diverse array of candidates, is fueled by women and an unapologetic liberalism long relegated to the margins of the left-wing base.

The fight for the Senate runs right through the ruby red Heartland. There, a firm appreciation for Trump has only strengthened amid a cascade of scandals, putting Republicans in a remarkable position to pad their 51-49 majority. To survive, or possibly flip the chamber, Democrats are relying on a handful of pragmatic progressives, once the foundation of the party but whose influence is waning.

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Union Demands Ousted Former President Pull Ad Supporting Right to Work

One of Missouri's largest public-sector unions is demanding its former president pull an ad supporting right to work.

Retired St. Louis Police sergeant Gary Wiegert urged voters to support Proposition A, which would ban employers from mandating union membership dues or fees as a condition of employment. Wiegert, the former head of the St. Louis Police Officers Association, criticized "out of touch union officials" for "lying to you about Prop A."

"I'm a retired union leader. If workers like their union they can keep it," Wiegert says in the ad, which has garnered more than 3,000 views on the National Right to Work Committee's Facebook page. "Prop A just gives them that choice … Prop A is good for our workers."

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Gregg Jarrett: ‘Trump-Russia Collusion Hoax’ a Scheme to Clear Hillary, Undo Election

Fox News Channel legal analyst Gregg Jarrett, author of The Russia Hoax: The Illicit Scheme to Clear Hillary Clinton and Frame Donald Trump, described the “Trump-Russia collusion” as “an effort to undo the election.”

He offered his remarks during a Wednesday interview on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight with Breitbart News Senior Editors-at-Large Rebecca Mansour and Joel Pollak.

Jarrett said, “There was scheme to clear Hillary Clinton and frame Donald Trump. Top officials at the FBI and the Department of Justice were threatened by Trump; this guy is going to come in there and drain the swamp, and that threatened their jobs and their positions. There is nothing that will motivate people more than power forfeited, so people like James Comey, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, Andy McCabe, people at the Department of Justice decided that they were going to clear Hillary Clinton of the many crimes she surely committed. To do that, they had to twist the facts and contort the law.”

Jarrett continued: “On the very day that Comey stood in front of television cameras, July 5th, 2016, clearing [Hillary Clinton] of the obvious crimes she had committed, his FBI was secretly meeting for the first time in London with the author of the phony anti-Trump dossier, an ex-MI6 British agent, and armed with that fabricated document — it’s laughable on its face — they decided this is the pretext that they can exploit to frame Donald Trump for crimes he didn’t commit, and indeed, crimes that don’t even exist.

Jarrett concluded, “They were trying to damage his candidacy and prevent him from being elected, and when he defied that and was elected, they doubled down in an effort to undo the election and destroy his presidency, and it’s still going on, right now.”

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Trump Will Shut Down Government Over Border Wall Funding

President Donald Trump threatened to shut down the federal government in September if Democratic lawmakers continue their obstruction and “do not give us the votes for Border Security [and] … the Wall” along the U.S.-Mexico border.

“I would be willing to ‘shut down’ government if the Democrats do not give us the votes for Border Security, which includes the Wall! Must get rid of Lottery, Catch & Release etc. and finally go to system of Immigration based on MERIT! We need great people coming into our Country!” Trump tweeted Sunday.

Trump said in March, “... I say to Congress, I will never sign another bill like this again.”

With the federal fiscal year ending September 30, the president warned that he would accept nothing less than wall funding and the other three tough immigration reforms he has repeatedly asked Congress to enact.

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Ryan and McConnell Stick It to Trump – Will Not Fund Border Wall in September Funding Bill

Never-Trump Republican leaders Speaker Paul Ryan and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters this week they will not fund the Trump Border Wall in the upcoming spending bill.

Ryan and McConnell passed a record $1.3 trillion spending bill in March. The spending bill funded Planned Parenthood and sanctuary cities but NOT the Trump border wall.

And now the Republican Party leaders are going to stick it to President Trump and his voters once again. They’re not going to fund the border wall in September.

The Daily Caller reported:

During a radio interview with WHAS on Friday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border will likely not make it into the next funding legislation, which must be passed by the end of September in order to avoid another government shutdown.

When directly asked if the funding of the border wall would have to wait until after midterm elections, the Republican senator replied “probably,” noting that it is “something [Democrats and Republicans] do have a disagreement on.”

More here

Amazon Leads Masters of Universe in Push to Nationalize Music Industry

Amazon is at the forefront of a well-funded, powerful, Silicon Valley-led push to force the federal government to nationalize the music industry, thereby creating a system where the government props up certain companies — such as Amazon — to be beneficiaries of and have control over, while also profiting from, music production.

The so-called “Music Modernization Act,” which already passed the House and is working its way through the Senate right now, would create, by government force if passed and signed into law, a “collective” that pays out to various parties. The major problem with said “collective” is that it would be run by the government, specifically the U.S. Copyright Office, making it prone to cronyism, corruption, and mishandling of intellectual property.

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Why Fixing Things For Your Child Doesn’t Help

In order for children to learn how to do hard things, you have to let them go through hard times. There is no way to truly master something without experiencing it.

Over the years, I’ve talked with countless parents who “fixed” things for their children—cleaning their rooms, picking up left-behind messes around the house, apologizing for their kids, easing their disappointments, or even typing their teen’s school papers because they could “type faster.” I recall talking to a mother who would stop what she was doing (which sometimes meant getting out of bed at night) to prepare elaborate snacks for her adolescent son when he was hungry, even though he was more than capable of making his own food.

These are “responsive” ways of fixing things, which happen after your child has already encountered a problem. There are also parents who try to prevent problems before they happen, so-called “Snow Plow Parents”—much like the two parents I saw on the Steve Harvey Show recently. These two parents monitored their teens’ text messages, voicemails, phone calls, emails, Facebook pages, driving speed, and used state-of-the-art GPS systems to establish “geo-fences” around their child’s school and home. (When the child leaves the “geo-fence,” the parent gets a text.) And keep in mind these were “good” kids that really didn’t get into trouble—the parents were simply trying to “fix” the system so that trouble would be minimally possible in every way. These are helicopter parents to the extreme.

So why is this happening?

[Keep reading.. there's lots of good advice here.]

More Liberal Campaign Sign Questions From A Viewer

Jack Heath is putting his campaign signs up on Salisbury city property at the corner of Poplar Hill Ave and Calvert Street. Must be trying to win the Democrat votes from the criminals coming out of the courthouse, the Shore Transit bus riders and the Flea Market visitors. If this isn't illegal it is at least unethical.

Well?


Unbelievable


CPR By Trooper Assists With Saving A Life In Kent Co.

Type of Incident: Assist EMS

Date and Time: 7-28-18 at 9:20 a.m.

Location: 1900-block McGinnes Road, Chestertown, MD 21620

Narrative: Just before 9:30 a.m. yesterday, Trooper Tucker, assigned to the Centreville Barrack, responded to the area of the 1900-block of McGinnes Road, Chestertown, MD, after monitoring an EMS call for an unconscious male in cardiac arrest. Trooper Tucker arrived before EMS personnel and was shown the location of the unconscious man, later identified as Franklin L. Jester, in a garage. A female was attempting to perform CPR.

Trooper Tucker immediately relieved the female and began performing CPR. He continued for approximately nine minutes until relieved by the first responding EMS personnel. The victim was transported to Kent General Hospital.

Later in the day, Crumpton Volunteer Fire Department Assistant Chief Joseph Joyner called the barrack to advise that Trooper Tucker’s actions resulted in the victim surviving. He also said the victim would likely be discharged from Kent General Hospital later in the day.

Up In Smoke


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