Here’s part of President Donald Trump’s speech in Poland:

The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive. Do we have the confidence in our values to defend them at any cost? Do we have enough respect for our citizens to protect our borders? Do we have the desire and the courage to preserve our civilization in the face of those who would subvert and destroy it?

After this speech, which was warmly received by Poles, the president encountered predictable criticism. Most of the criticism reflected gross ignorance and dishonesty.

One example of that ignorance was penned in The Atlantic magazine by Peter Beinart, a contributing editor and associate professor of journalism and political science at the City University of New York.

Beinart said, “Donald Trump referred 10 times to ‘the West’ and five times to ‘our civilization.’ His white nationalist supporters will understand exactly what he means.”

He added, “The West is a racial and religious term. To be considered Western, a country must be largely Christian (preferably Protestant or Catholic) and largely white.”

Intellectual elites argue that different cultures and their values are morally equivalent. That’s ludicrous. Western culture and values are superior to all others.

I have a few questions for those who’d claim that such a statement is untrue or smacks of racism and Eurocentrism.

Is forcible female genital mutilation, as practiced in nearly 30 sub-Saharan African and Middle Eastern countries, a morally equivalent cultural value?

Slavery is practiced in Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad and Sudan; is it morally equivalent?

In most of the Middle East, there are numerous limitations placed on women, such as prohibitions on driving, employment, and education.

Under Islamic law, in some countries, female adulterers face death by stoning. Thieves face the punishment of having their hands severed. Homosexuality is a crime punishable by death in some countries.

Are these cultural values morally equivalent, superior, or inferior to Western values?

During his speech, Trump asked several vital questions.

Do we have the confidence in our values to defend them at any cost? Do we have enough respect for our citizens to protect our borders? Do we have the desire and the courage to preserve our civilization in the face of those who would subvert and destroy it?

There’s no question that the West has the military might to protect itself. The question is whether we have the intelligence to recognize the attack and the will to defend ourselves from annihilation.

Much of the Muslim world is at war with Western civilization. Islamists use multiculturalism as a foot in the door to attack Western and Christian values from the inside. Much of that attack has its roots on college campuses among the intellectual elite who indoctrinate our youth.

Multiculturalism has not yet done the damage in the U.S. that it has in Western European countries—such as England, France, and Germany—but it’s on its way.

My colleague Thomas Sowell reveals some of the problem. He says, “Those in the Islamic world have for centuries been taught to regard themselves as far superior to the ‘infidels’ of the West, while everything they see with their own eyes now tells them otherwise.”

Sowell adds, “Nowhere have whole peoples seen their situation reversed more visibly or more painfully than the peoples of the Islamic world.”

Few people, such as Persians and Arabs, once at the top of civilization, accept their reversals of fortune gracefully. Moreover, they don’t blame themselves and their culture. They blame the West.

By the way, one need not be a Westerner to hold Western values. One just has to accept the sanctity of the individual above all else.

Source: The Daily Signal

President Trump has taken a lot of grief about his tough talk on North Korea, especially from liberal mainstream media outlets.

Trump went all in, even getting all up in China’s grill — something few U.S. presidents are wont to do.

Trade between China and North Korea grew almost 40% in the first quarter. So much for China working with us – but we had to give it a try!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 5, 2017

But it turns out all the critics were wrong and Trump was right.

On Saturday, the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to impose new sanctions on North Korea, with both China and Russia joining to vote for the U.S.-proposed sanctions. The sanctions are estimated to cut the rogue state’s $3 billion annual export revenue by as much as $1 billion.

“The U.S.-drafted resolution bans North Korean exports of coal, iron, iron ore, lead, lead ore and seafood,” Reuters reported. “It also prohibits countries from increasing the current numbers of North Korean laborers working abroad, bans new joint ventures with North Korea and any new investment in current joint ventures.”

Before the vote, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told the council: “We should not fool ourselves into thinking we have solved the problem. Not even close. The North Korean threat has not left us, it is rapidly growing more dangerous.”

After the vote, Trump was gleeful in a pair of Saturday evening posts on Twitter:

The United Nations Security Council just voted 15-0 to sanction North Korea. China and Russia voted with us. Very big financial impact!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 5, 2017

United Nations Resolution is the single largest economic sanctions package ever on North Korea. Over one billion dollars in cost to N.K.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 5, 2017

North Korea’s President Kim Jong Un has grown increasingly belligerent, firing two inter-continental missiles last month. Trump took to pressing China hard, convinced that North Korea’s nearest neighbor and main benefactor could rein in the dictator.

On Sunday, Beijing backed the sanctions, calling on North Korea to stop its missile and nuclear tests.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, sitting with North Korea’s top diplomat during the meeting in Manila, urged the North to “maintain calm” despite the U.N. vote, the Associated Press reported.

“Do not violate U.N.’s decision or provoke international society’s goodwill by conducting missile launching or nuclear tests,” Wang said, in an unusually direct admonition.

After all his tough talk on China, Trump threw Beijing a bone in a White House statement released after the U.N. vote:

“President Donald J. Trump commends the United Nations Security Council for passing a new resolution that increases sanctions on North Korea in response to its recent ballistic missile tests. The President appreciates China’s and Russia’s cooperation in securing passage of this resolution. He will continue working with allies and partners to increase diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea to end its threatening and destabilizing behavior.”

Source: The Daily Wire

“Out of every hundred new ideas ninety-nine or more will probably be inferior to the traditional responses which they propose to replace. No one man, however brilliant or well-informed, can come in one lifetime to such fullness of understanding as to safely judge and dismiss the customs or institutions of his society, for those are the wisdom of generations after centuries of experiment in the laboratory of history.” — Will and Ariel Durant

“We make men without chests and expect from them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.” – C.S. Lewis

Too many Americans have become like the spoiled trust fund kids running the family business. Grandpa built it and knew it top to bottom. Dad learned from him and kept it going. Now they’re taking over and unfortunately, they never really bothered to learn the ins and outs of how the company works. They just look at it as a place where they can have a fancy title and get money to finance their lifestyle.

Many Americans don’t know why this country is so successful, don’t understand the long-term ramifications of the things they advocate politically and don’t get how lucky we are.

Knowledgeable conservatives know better. We know that we are fortunate enough to live in what Reagan called a “shining city on a hill” and that eternal flame that sets us apart from other nations can easily dim. Americans should consider that many of the things they take for granted are not necessarily so.

You see, far too many of us take it for granted that….

1) ….We can not only refuse to teach patriotism to our kids, but teach our kids in schools that our country is a horrible place and it won’t produce people who are disloyal to our nation.

2)….Black and Hispanic Americans can be incessantly encouraged to create and nurture racial grudges, white people can constantly be put down, degraded and discriminated against via programs like Affirmative Action, but Caucasians won’t increasingly adopt the same racist attitudes liberals encourage minorities to hold.

3) …We can accuse a man of rape if the woman he has sex with has been drinking, weirdly demand verbal consent for every stage of a make-out session and accuse a man of sexual harassment if a woman claims he grabbed her butt 30 years ago, but it won’t have any ramifications for male/female relationships.

4)….We can hamstring our military with ridiculous rules of engagement, have soldiers on the battlefield call lawyers before they can shoot targets and have politicians make military decisions based on how it will play in the press; yet our troops will still win wars.

5)…We can smear the Christian church at every opportunity, tar every decent person as a secret hypocrite and write morality off as old timey, but the people in our country will continue to be good over the long haul.

6)…. Social Security and Medicare will always be available for the enormous number of Americans that depend on it even though we have no money set aside for either program and we have an unsustainable debt that we are adding to every year.

7) ….We can ignore lawbreaking by illegal aliens while playing political games with our justice system based on whether a Republican or Democrat is being targeted without ordinary Americans losing respect for the rule of law.

8) ….We can put men with poor character in office; yet they’ll still do the right thing for the country, instead of themselves, when they’re elected.

9) ….We can run up an astronomical debt that we never intend to fully pay off, large parts of which are held by nations hostile to us, but they will never choose to crash our economy by refusing to lend us more money that we may not pay back one day.

10) ….We can shut down speakers we disagree with on college campuses; the police can charge exorbitant fees to allow someone to publicly exercise his 2^nd Amendment rights and social media giants can quiet anyone they want without consequence, but the rest of us will continue to have our right to free speech honored.

11) …We can trash the police at every opportunity and give the benefit of the doubt to the criminals they arrest instead of to them, while they’ll still be willing and able to effectively do their jobs.

12) …We can abandon the pure capitalism that made our country so rich, pile regulation on top of regulation and exorbitantly tax the most productive members of society without it slowing down the economic growth, jobs and opportunity for everyone.

13) ….We can coddle our best and brightest college students so much that they get “triggered” by hearing things they don’t like, expose them to professors that are Communists, bombers and radicals and then expect them to be tough, competent and capable enough to keep the country running one day.

14) …We can bring in enormous numbers of immigrants from non-Western, socialistic and often backward countries, immerse them in a culture that strongly discourages assimilation and they, or at least their kids will fare as well as anyone here.

15) …We have clean water, decent roads, full supermarkets, Internet access, non-corrupt cops, shoes, free speech and a hospital that will fix a broken leg whether you have money to pay or not. Compared to the MAJORITY of people on Earth, Americans live in a utopia. Yet, all we ever hear are complaints and endless kvetching about how horrible it is to live in such a rich, powerful country that has done so much for the world. Part of that is human nature. It’s easy to focus on what you lack instead of what you have…until you don’t have it any more.

More Americans need to start thinking about preserving this nation for our children. Of all the terrible things we could do as a people, the worst would be to squander the incredible opportunity we’ve had and to leave future generations of Americans with nothing but a shallow husk of what this country is today.

Source: Townhall

The worst people in the world gathered in New York on Thursday to condemn the United States for exercising its sovereign right to establish its embassy in Israel at Israel’s capital. The United States, which funds the lion’s share of the United Nations, hosts the organization in its most populous city, and offers $50 billion of taxpayers’ hard-earned money annually in foreign aid to member countries, did not take the condemnation of human rights abusers and terrorists lying down. U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley explained,

When a nation is singled out for an attack in this organization, that nation is disresepected. What’s more, that nation is asked to pay for the privilege of being disrespected. In the case of the United States, we are asked to pay more than anyone else for that dubious privilege. Unlike some U.N, member countries, the United States government is answerable to its people, as such we have an obligation to acknowledge when our political and financial capital is being poorly spent. We have an obligation to demand more for our investment, and if our investment fails, we have an obligation to spend our resources in more productive ways. Those are the thoughts that come to mind when we consider the resolution before us today.

Ahead of the vote, both President Trump and Ambassador Haley threatened to withdraw foreign aid to countries that voted to condemn the United States. Nevertheless, representatives from some of the most brutal regimes on earth, including North Korea, Yemen, Turkey, Venezuela, Cuba, Syria, and Iran, spoke in support of the measure; and 128 members countries, including many of our alleged allies, voted in lockstep with them. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu had the temerity to whine that his benefactor might withdraw the hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid that it regularly provides to the increasingly hostile regime. “We were all asked to vote no or face consequences,” complained Cavusoglu. “Some even threatened to cut development aid. This is bullying. It is unethical to think that the votes and dignity of member states are for sale.”

The United States pays 28.5% of the $7.3 billion U.N. peacekeeping budget and 22% of its $2.7 billion core budget in addition to hosting the international body in New York. A look back at the U.N.’s record at maintaining peace and the international order show this investment has failed to generate significant returns. Throughout the Cold War, the U.N. largely stayed out of the peacekeeping business. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, peacekeeping efforts have failed in Somalia, Rwanda, and Bosnia. Although more than 98% of military and police personnel deployed in peacekeeping missions have a mandate to protect civilians, the U.N. has only even attempted to intervene and protect civilians in 20% of cases for which it was authorized to do so.

The U.N.’s persistent failure to fulfill its mission may owe to the rampant fraud and corruption it breeds. A 2007 U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services analysis showed that 40% of peacekeeping contracts reviewed contained “significant” corruption schemes to the tune of $619 million. The U.N. mission in Sudan alone squandered tens of millions of dollars on waste, fraud, and abuse. More recently, leaked documents have shown “peacekeepers’” widespread fraud in Western Sahara and illegal reselling of food in Lebanon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In 1975, the U.N. adopted the resolution, “Zionism is racism.” In 2011, the U.N. General Assembly held a moment of silence to honor North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il. In 2017, it condemned the United States for establishing an embassy in a member nation’s capital city. It wasn’t always like this. During its founding period, the United Nations possessed greater moral clarity because it limited membership to countries that had declared war against the Axis powers in the Second World War. The modern U.N. bears no resemblance to that body.

More than 20 years ago, former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton explained the relation between the United States and the United Nations with characteristic bluntness. “The League of Nations was a failure because the United States did not participate. The United Nations would be a failure if the United States did not participate,” he observed. “There is no United Nations. There is an international community that occasionally can be led by the only real power left in the world, and that’s the United States, when it suits our interest.”

The image of a United Nations that does not rely for its very survival on the goodwill of the United States is a dangerous fiction that empowers the worst actors on earth and conflates their vicious self-interest with American moral clarity. It’s time to defund the fantasy. When next the ingrate children leading U.N. member states desire our blood and treasure, as they constantly do, they can come to us and beg.

Source: The Daily Wire

“Christmas is essential to our understanding of Western Civilization and our values,” said Breitbart News’s Senior Editor-at-Large Rebecca Mansour on Sunday.

Mansour made her comments while co-hosting Breitbart News Sunday alongside Breitbart Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon during a special Christmas Eve live broadcast on SiriusXM.

LISTEN:

“The symbols and celebration of Christmas have shaped our history [and] Western Civilization,” said Mansour.

Reflecting on “the dawn of Christianity,” she noted Christianity’s “transformative” impact on the old pagan world and the culture of Germanic barbarian warrior tribes.

Chivalry — rooted in ethical monotheism — spread the concept of valuing all human life as having dignity, said Mansour:

Chivalry was introduced to Western feudalism [via Christianity]. It made feudalism actually livable and bearable. What chivalry called for, what the concept of chivalry was, it was about the defense of the weak. It said that the strong had to be champions of the right and the good against injustice and evil. That was the code of chivalry.

This only came about because of the Judeo-Christian West, and I say Judeo-Christian for a very specific reason; all of this is rooted in the ancient Jewish scripture, what the Christians would call the Old Testament. You can see it right from the beginning. The God of the Old Testament, the God of Jewish scripture instructs that every single human being has worth and dignity — even the foreigner, even somebody outside of your tribe, even the widow and the orphan. They all have worth and value — the weakest among you as well as the strong. This is a radical concept, and it is from the Jews that we have monotheism, and it is from that that Christianity evolved.

“The idea of protection of the weak and innocent,” said Mansour, entered Western culture via Judeo-Christian ethics, which radically “changed the way that we have looked at the rights of the weakest among us.”

Bannon agreed, noting that the “Rough Roman justice” of the old pagan world had “no sense of you as a person or an individual.”

Christianity’s spread to the Germanic lands on the frontiers of the Roman Empire, noted Mansour, set the stage for the evolution of conceptual human rights and created the foundation for the Western values we cherish today.

Mansour tied this to the symbols and celebration of Christmas by explaining that the “most iconic” and ancient Nativity image is the Madonna and Child.

The ubiquity of depictions of the Madonna and Child as “the highest expression of art” in European countries, said Mansour, vividly illustrates Christianity’s transformation of the “Viking-type” “warrior tribe” cultures that valued only the strong and worshipped war gods. People who once subscribed to an ethos of “might makes right” had transitioned to a civilization that elevated the image of a woman holding a child to preeminence in their artistic expressions.

Christian symbolism — particularly pertaining to the Christmas-themed image of the Madonna and Child — played an indispensable role in rallying Christian forces to victory against Islamic enemies in determinative battles, said Mansour. Pointing to the Battles of Vienna (1683) and Warsaw (1920) as examples, she noted the centrality of Christian symbolism to the war efforts of European nations in defending against Islamic and communist invasions, respectively.

In both battles, Mansour explained, Catholic Poland’s devotion to a depiction of the Madonna and Child known as the Black Madonna of Częstochowa served as a rallying point and source of consolation. It also served as a unifying symbol for Lech Walesa’s Solidarity Movement in their struggles against their communist rulers in the 1980s, she noted. Walesa famously wore a lapel pin bearing the image of Our Lady of Częstochowa.

Mansour and Bannon went into particular detail about the epic Battle Vienna in 1683. As Mansour explained, the Polish King Jan III Sobieski rallied his forces to liberate the besieged city of Vienna from the Islamic army of the Ottoman Turks by encouraging them to fight for “God and Our Lady” and to invoke the Madonna’s help in securing their victory and protecting their homeland, which he had entrusted to her care when he visited the shrine at Częstochowa before departing for battle.

The allied Christian forces, known as the Holy League, under Sobieski’s command knew that if Vienna fell, the Turks would then turn their sights on their ultimate goal which, Mansour explained, was “the greatest city in Christendom — Rome,” and “if Rome fell, Holy Mother Church would fall.” The Christian forces were fighting to preserve their faith, she said.

Sobieski himself led the cavalry charge to liberate Vienna — the largest cavalry charge in history — with 18,000 Polish and allied knights, including 3,000 of the famed “Wing Hussars.” The allied forces of the Holy League smashed the Turkish army and sent them scurrying over the Danube. The victorious Sobieski sent the Pope the Turkish army’s green Islamic banner along with a message paraphrasing the words of Julius Caesar: “Veni, vidi, Deus vicit.” (“I came, I saw, God conquered.”)

“The Christians had turned the tide against the sword of Islam” in the Battle of Vienna, said Mansour, quoting Ludwig Heinrich Dyck. The Turks would never again venture that far into Western Europe.

“It was on September 11, 1683 that the conquering armies of Islam were met, held, and thrown back at the gates of Vienna,” wrote the late Christopher Hitchens, describing the rationale behind the date selection of the 9/11 Islamic terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001.

“The radicalized Muslim world,” said Bannon, views the Battle of Vienna as a symbol of Christian victory that must be overcome. “It was one of the symbols of the September 11 bombing seventeen years ago, this Battle of Vienna.”

“We would all be in mosques today” if not for Christianity and Christmas as galvanizing forces among Western societies against hostile Islamic societies, said Bannon.

Although civilizational conflict between Western and Islamic societies has modified across space and time, it continues through the present day with certain commonalities. Bannon explained:

The Siege of Vienna we’re talking about, with the Ottoman Empire — which is Turkey, and the Muslims — this whole invasion of the West, occurring literally today with the same migrant issues coming up through Syria, through Turkey, and you see the countries of Poland, and Hungary, and the Czech Republic, and Slovakia taking the lead here in trying to reverse this.

“These fights haven’t really changed all that much. It’s still Iran and the West. It’s still Persia and the West,” said Bannon, noting the similar conflictual flash points between Western forces and ISIS of today and the Roman and Persian empires of nearly two thousand years ago.

Christianity and broader Judeo-Christian values, suggested both Bannon and Mansour, reinforce Western Civilization’s sense of purpose in the face of internal and external threats.

The migration of tens of millions of Muslims to Europe in recent decades, said Bannon, is an existential threat to Europe and modern iteration of aforementioned civilization conflict between Western and Islamic societies: “The entire situation with this mass migration and refugee situation, which is really, there is no doubt, is starting to destroy Europe.”

Listen to the full audio of Mansour and Bannon’s discussion on Breitbart News Sunday above.

Breitbart News Sunday airs on SiriusXM Patriot between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. Eastern (4 p.m. and 7 p.m. Pacific).

Follow Robert Kraychik on Twitter @rkraychik.

Source: Breitbart

“Every year the U.S. federal government collects more than $3 trillion in taxes …”

PragerU and Information Station team-up for the new educational short “Where Does the Federal Government Get All That Money?” The video breaks down the individual income tax and how much the government is taking in from taxpayers.

“Every year the U.S. federal government collects more than $3 trillion in taxes, and almost half of that comes from you and me, the individual income taxpayers,” the narrator explains. “These are the taxes that come out of your paycheck or maybe you pay quarterly. Either way … it’s a lot of money, so it’s worth learning more about!”

The video breaks down five little known facts about the federal income tax.

“Number one: The individual income tax has been the largest source of federal government revenue since 1950 … accounting for 47.3% of revenue in 2016.”

That is a large chunk of the bill that taxpayers are covering for government programs.

“Number two: While the name ‘individual income tax’ implies that only individual Americans pay the tax, many small businesses are subject to it as well. A majority of small businesses are set up as ‘pass-through’ entities, which means that business profits are included on the owner’s individual tax sheet and is thus taxed at the individual rate which is higher than the rates big corporations pay.”

Citing 2016 data, the narrator notes that “44% of Americans, or roughly 77 million people, don’t pay any federal income taxes at all.”

Then there’s all the wasted time and money on simply filling out and paying tax returns. “A combined 2.6 billion man hours is spent every year filling out tax returns. That’s an average of 17 hours per American tax filer.”

Taxes should be easy to file, not complicated to the point of taking almost twice an average work day to complete.

“And lastly number five: According to the most recent data from the Tax Foundation, the top 1% of taxpayers contribute roughly 40% of all federal income taxes collected.”

The narrator goes on to explain that the bottom 50% pay less than 3% of total tax revenues, which destroys the Left’s notion that the top earners aren’t paying their “fair share.”

Watch the video below:

Source: The Daily Wire

There are talkers and doers, sowers of dissatisfaction seeds and agents of lasting change.

Much of my column work over the year is dedicated to exposing the worst in politics, pop culture, media, and the policy arena.

But to ring out 2017, I’m raising a toast to some of my favorite bulldogs—vigilant citizens, independent journalists and bloggers, and dedicated activists who work tirelessly to protect life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Angel Moms and Dads

These brave parents of victims of illegal immigrant crime keep the legacies of their lost loved ones alive by fighting for secure borders and immigration enforcement to prevent more needless suffering.

After President Donald Trump spotlighted several members on the campaign trail in 2016, liberal journalists attacked them as a “hate group”—never mind the fact that many are legal immigrants and naturalized citizens themselves.

As open-borders lobbyists fight hard this coming year for amnesty, sanctuary cities, and border wall sabotage, look for the Angel Moms and Dads to step up and speak for the voiceless.

Terri LaPoint

An Alabama-based writer and investigative reporter, LaPoint runs MedicalKidnap.com for Health Impact News. She exposes the dangerous alliance between child welfare bureaucrats and elite medical institutions that undermine parental rights and separate sick kids from their families in the name of saving them.

While the Justina Pelletier and Charlie Gard cases prompted international outrage, most medical kidnappings go unnoticed and unreported on a chillingly routine basis. LaPoint is the go-to resource for families under siege for defending their medical autonomy.

Luke Rosiak

This prolific investigative reporter for The Daily Caller News Foundation has broken dozens of stories on the Democrats’ information technology scandal involving what Rosiak calls a “massive cyber breach on Congress and cover-up.”

For the past year, he has hammered away at House Democrats who employed IT aide Imran Awan and his family members to the tune of at least $4 million in taxpayer funds between 2009 and 2017.

Thanks to Rosiak’s work, we learned that Awan and his brothers were under investigation for equipment theft and accessing congressional computer networks while working for several Democrats who served on committees that handle highly sensitive national security information.

Awan was wiring gobs of cash to Pakistan; his brother Abid Awan ran a used car lot with no inventory, a fake sales staff, and funding from a “Hezbollah-linked fugitive.” While Rosiak collects and connects the shady dots, the rest of the media is still snoozing.

Kimberly Corban

This Colorado mom is a passionate Second Amendment defender who directly challenged President Barack Obama’s support of gun control by sharing her experience as a rape survivor in 2006.

More than 10 years later, Corban speaks regularly to young women on college campuses and defies the left-wing feminist orthodoxy of rape survivors as perpetual victims. She has weathered death threats and hate attacks online, but remains undeterred in her quest to help empower women through armed self-defense.

Obianuju Ekeocha

This Nigerian-born pro-life speaker and organizer is president of Culture of Life Africa.

With her megawatt smile and razor-sharp tongue, Ekeocha takes on the abortion ghouls in Hollywood, at the BBC, and at the United Nations armed with data and backed by African women who uphold the sanctity of life in word and deed.

Ekeocha uses Twitter and social media masterfully to unmask left-wing cultural imperialism and build a global culture of life.

Brian Bates

An Oklahoma private investigator, Bates’ website on the case of former Oklahoma City police officer Daniel Holtzclaw’s wrongful convictions (holtzclawtrial.com) is a rare challenge to prosecutorial misconduct and crime lab incompetence in the Sooner State.

If not for his work, I would not have embarked on my own continuing investigative journey into a case that represents the worst miscarriage of justice in the criminal justice system that I’ve covered in 25 years.

Stay tuned as many more independent experts and advocates weigh in on the case in 2018 while Holtzclaw fights for his exoneration.

Judicial Watch

The D.C. watchdog foundation is simply the best muckraking giant on the right—shining bright light on the sleazeballs and scam artists in the Beltway swamp.

Tom Fitton and his crew have spent decades fighting against government corruption and misconduct by using the Freedom of Information Act and challenging evaders in court.

Michael Morisy & Mitchell Kotler

These transparency advocates founded MuckRock in 2010 to assist journalists filing public records requests across a complicated landscape of local, state, and federal agencies.

MuckRock tracks the process from start to finish, sends follow-up messages to foot-draggers, and helps crowdsource the results.

I’m not just a fan of their passion project. I’m a regular user of the site, and you can see my Freedom of Information Act requests on MuckRock.

Check out all of my Bulldog Award winners at CRTV’s “Michelle Malkin Investigates,” and here’s to more effective exposure and hell-raising in 2018. Cheers!

Source: The Daily Signal

Guatemala announced it is going to move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem following US President Donald Trump’s controversial decision to officially recognize the city as the country’s capital.

Guatemala President Jimmy Morales said he met with Israel Prime Minsiter Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss relations between the two countries, which ultimately resulted in a decision to return the Guatemalan embassy to Jerusalem.

“We applaud the historic decision of President Jimmy Morales and the government of Guatemala to move its embassy in Israel to the city of Jerusalem,” the United States said in statement.

It’s a controversial move, many experts have said. The United Nations General Assembly recently voted overwhelmingly to condemn the Trump administration’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital. Guatemala — along with Honduras, Nauru, Togo, Palau, the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia — were the only countries to support the United States in the UN vote, but that decision has unclear motivations.

“Guatemala rejected the United Nations resolution because the United States is much more important in this case,” Nicholas Virzi, a political science scholar, explained. “Guatemala set aside the world’s opinion. It doesn’t matter right now. What is more important? The General Assembly of the United Nations or the United States? The United States is its main trading partner and a country that often intervenes in the region.”

But Guatemala’s most recent vote in the United Nations may also have a different underlying strategy, Virzi said. In 2006, the  country created the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) — an independent body backed by the United Nations that assists institutions investigating corruption. However, many officials inside and out of Guatemala have questioned its effectiveness and political leanings.

The first commissioner for the commission had to leave the country in disgrace. Then Francisco Dall’Anese of Costa Rica took over, made some progress and was replaced by the leftist Iván Velásquez, of Colombia, who had numerous important achievements, such as the removal of former President Otto Pérez Molina. Some fear that Velásquez has lost sight of the responsibilities that CICIG has.

During former President Barack Obama’s administration, the United States Embassy in Guatemala fully supported CICIG, which caused other officials to question its performance. “The agenda of the ambassador and the CICIG was simply an agenda for the left that had nothing to do with the original mandate of the CICIG,” Virzi said.

He said Guatemala began using CICIG “like a tool” against the right. “It was starting to be understood that the fight against corruption only focused on right-wing officials.” With CICIG politicized, the Obama adminsitration could finance causes for the left with its ambassador in Guatemala, Todd Robinson. The embassy even became a meeting spot for leaders of the left.

In January 2016, President Morales took office with strong support from a Christian, largely Evangelical, base. Though he had little political experience, Morales was able to win over the country with a clean, corruption-free record. That is, until September 2016, when CICIG linked his son to a corruption case that eventually polarized the country.

While some officials have called it a full-blown case of money laundering, Virzi said it looks more like a minor misdemeanor. José Manuel Morales allegedly borrowed federal money to pay for “Christmas baskets.” It’s undoubtedly a crime, but nothing out of the ordinary in Guatemala. CICIG, however, wanted to use it to dismantle the Morales adminsitration.

In response, Morales named Iván Velásquez a persona non grata — a  constitutionally legal move by aa President, but which the Guatemalan Justice system later criticized.

“Jimmy Morales’s current administration has been asking: ‘What happened? Why doesn’t Donald Trump change the policy (regarding CICIG’s power)?” Virzi explained. “But that will not change much. They will continue to fight against corruption and that will continue with Donald Trump, only Donald Trump will not continue financing leftist policies as Obama did.”

But now, amid this controversy and low approval ratings, Morales has decided to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and to vote against the majority opinion in the United Nations. It may make Guatemala a priority for the United States, potentially allowing Morales to even request a meeting with Donald Trump.

“You might say that Donald Trump owes Morales a favor now,” Virzi said. “And in a hypothetical meeting, he might ask for a little distance between the United States and the United Nations in Guatemala.”

Guatemala could also ask the United States to grant Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Guatemalans traveling there. El Salvador has TPS, allegedly because it was the only country that supported the United States in Iraq with troops in 2003. Additionally, the military embargo imposed by President Jimmy Carter on Guatemala in 1977 is still in place. It’s possible that Morales, who has significant support from the military, is hoping to get the embargo lifted.

Morales might also ask Trump for preferential treatment for exports between Guatemala and the US. Guatemala is one of the main exporters of the spice cardamom, and exporters are worried about a possible embargo.

“This is a unique opportunity for Guatemala to achieve several goals,” Virzi said, adding that the US maintains significant influence over the courts in Guatemala — another area where he could ask for support.

Virzi said he believes it’s paradoxical for the left to now claim the United States under Trump is influencing Guatemalan foreign policy, because the people who originally wanted sovereignty for Guatemala were those on the right.

“This is the most audacious move in the history of Guatemala’s foreign policy,” Virzi said.

Source: PanamPost

Haiti Pregnant Amid Ruins

Gun Deaths: It’s become commonplace to hear after a U.S. shooting tragedy that, when it comes to guns, America is just more violent than other countries, especially those in Europe, where many countries have stiff gun-control laws. It’s a progressive shibboleth, but even some conservatives agree. The only problem is, it’s not true.

Yes, America does have a lot of gun violence. But more than other countries, especially in Europe?

To listen to America’s politicians, you’d think that was the case.

President Obama talked about it a lot, including in June of 2015, after a gunman shot nine people in a Charleston, North Carolina church: “Let’s be clear: At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries,” Obama said. 

Days later, Sen. Harry Reid echoed his comments. “The United States is the only advanced country where this kind of mass violence occurs,” he said.

More recently, the tragic, preventable slaying of 17 students by accused gunman Nikolas Cruz elicited similar sentiments from Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, speaking in the Senate just  last Thursday: “This happens nowhere else other than the United States of America.”

Powerful remarks, and no doubt heartfelt. But a study of global mass-shooting incidents from 2009 to 2015 by the Crime Prevention Research Center, headed by economist John Lott, shows the U.S. doesn’t lead the world in mass shootings. In fact, it doesn’t even make the top 10, when measured by death rate per million population from mass public shootings.

So who’s tops? Surprisingly, Norway is, with an outlier mass shooting death rate of 1.888 per million (high no doubt because of the rifle assault by political extremist Anders Brevik that claimed 77 lives in 2011). No. 2 is Serbia, at just 0.381, followed by France at 0.347, Macedonia at 0.337, and Albania at 0.206. Slovakia, Finland, Belgium, and Czech Republic all follow. Then comes the U.S., at No. 11, with a death rate of 0.089.

That’s not all. There were also 27% more casualties from 2009 to 2015 per mass shooting incident in the European Union than in the U.S.

“There were 16 cases where at least 15 people were killed,” the study said. “Out of those cases, four were in the United States, two in Germany, France, and the United Kingdom.”

“But the U.S. has a population four times greater than Germany’s and five times the U.K.’s, so on a per-capita basis the U.S. ranks low in comparison — actually, those two countries would have had a frequency of attacks 1.96 (Germany) and 2.46 (UK) times higher.”

Yes, the U.S. rate is still high, and nothing to be proud of. But it’s not the highest in the developed world. Not by a long shot.

Yet, some today propose banning rifles, in particular AR-15s, because they’ve been used in a number of mass killings. It’s important to note however that, according to FBI crime data cited this week by the Daily Caller, deaths by knives in the U.S. outnumber deaths by rifles by five to 1: In 2016, 1,604 people were killed by knives and other cutting instruments, while 374 were killed by rifles.

So is it not fair to ask: If we’re banning rifles, why not knives, too?

The point is, guns aren’t the problem; deranged killers that grow up in broken families often without positive male role models in their lives are the problem. So are political and religious extremists, in particular Islamists. If these people didn’t have guns, they would find some other means to do the job.

Bombs are illegal in both the U.S. and Europe. Yet Europe loses far more people to bombings than the U.S. Doesn’t that make them more violent?

In the most recent mass killing here in the U.S., what’s upsetting is that Nikolas Cruz, as is usually the case, showed all the signs of a potential killer. He had been expelled from school. He made repeated violent threats. Deputies had made no fewer than 39 visits to his home. He left comments on a web video saying “I’m going to be a professional school shooter.” After being notified about the disturbing message, the FBI looked into it, but did nothing.

In this, Cruz is typical. As columnist SE Cupp notes, “the stunning commonality in all these mass shootings … is that the men who perpetrate them are sick — Las Vegas, Pulse nightclub, Newtown, Columbine, Charleston, Virginia Tech, Tucson, Aurora — on and on, these killers were mentally ill and in almost every case, someone knew it.”

Sweeping gun control laws may sound good, but they won’t keep handguns and rifles out of the hands of criminals. They will make it even harder for honest Americans to exercise their Second Amendment rights, however.

Rather than politicizing the deaths of 17 people, Democrats and others should instead be pushing for better school security, and for our law enforcement agencies to respond more aggressively to clear threats. Those who are severely mentally ill or psychotic or potentially violent need help. And those that kill for political or religious reasons often show clear signs of being violent. No amount of gun control can stop that.

Influence on global oil markets is also expected to rise, with U.S. oil exports more than doubling

The U.S. is likely to overtake Russia to become the world’s largest oil producer by 2023, accounting for most of the global growth in petroleum supplies, a top industry monitor said Monday.

U.S. crude production is expected to reach a record of 12.1 million barrels a day in 2023, up from 10.6 million a day this year, said the International Energy Agency, which advises governments and corporations on industry trends. American oil output will surge past Russia, currently the world’s largest crude producer at roughly 11 million barrels a day.

President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met at the White House on Monday. It was their fifth meeting since President Trump took office. Both men exclaimed that the relationship between the United States and Israel has never been closer.

The president immediately made some news by declaring that he might visit Israel in May for the opening of a new U.S. embassy in Jerusalem. “We’re going to have it built very quickly,” President Trump said. “We’re looking at coming. If I can, I will.” The prime minister in turn praised President Trump for his bold decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, comparing him to leaders in the past who have helped the Jewish people to return to their historic homeland, and to President Harry Truman who quickly recognized the Jewish state of Israel after it declared its independence. Prime Minister Netanyahu said, “We remember how a few weeks ago President Donald J. Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Mr. President, this will be remembered by our people through the ages. As you just said, others talked about it. You did it.”

Needless to say, the Palestinians had the opposite reaction to President Trump’s Jerusalem decision. Nevertheless, President Trump expressed the belief that the Palestinians want to return to the negotiating table “very badly.” When asked what would happen if the Palestinians did not come back to the negotiating table, President Trump warned that “if they don’t come back there won’t be peace.”

Less than one-fourth of his meeting with President Trump was devoted to the Palestinian issue, according to Prime Minister Netanyahu, who briefed reporters afterwards. “The issue of the Palestinians came up in the terms I described —  the security question,” the prime minister said. “Not more than quarter of the time [we discussed] the Palestinians.” He would not commit explicitly to supporting the creation of an independent Palestinian state, but said that the Palestinians “should have the power of government, except the power to threaten us.” Security is his number one priority. “We have no desire to govern the Palestinians, but we have every desire to control [security],” the prime minister said. “It’s impossible to protect ourselves without militarily controlling the territory west of the Jordan river. You leave an area and it is immediately grabbed by the terror elements.”

There is no scheduled release date for the Israeli-Palestinian peace plan that the Trump administration is said to be working on, led by the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner who attended the meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu.  The London-based Saudi newspaper Asharq al-Awsat claimed last week, in an unconfirmed report said to be based on “knowledgeable Arab diplomatic sources,” that elements of the draft plan include recognizing East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital but placing the Old City of Jerusalem under “international protection.” The Palestinians would be required to give up their demand for the so-called “right of return” for Palestinian refugees and their descendants to their former homes inside the borders of pre-1967 Israel. The draft plan would also leave some large settlements in place, while expanding Palestinian security and administrative authorities in areas A and B of the West Bank. It would call for gathering up $40 billion of funding in support of a Palestinian state and its government institutions. Some European Union countries, according to the Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki, were said to be seeking some changes in the proposed plan before it is officially released. No doubt, the changes would be in the Palestinians’ favor.

It is not known to what extent President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu discussed any of the ideas the Trump administration has been developing as part of its peace plan or any concessions that Israel might be asked to make, including on settlements. Prime Minister Netanyahu told reporters after the meeting that he was not shown the plan. In any case, as the prime minister also told reporters, Israel must maintain sufficient control of security in the West Bank to prevent the emergence of a terrorist safe haven, as occurred in Gaza following Israel’s unilateral withdrawal in 2005.

The proposal to leave the Old City under “international protection,” whatever that means, is not likely to sit well with Israel. As Morton Klein, the president of the Zionist Organization of America, pointed out, “The last time ‘internationalizing’ Jerusalem was proposed in 1947, as part of the UN partition plan, Arabs seized the Old City and the rest of eastern Jerusalem.” More recently, under the noses of the United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon, Hezbollah has, thanks to Iran, built up a sophisticated rocket arsenal of as many as 150,000 rockets. International “guarantees” are worthless, in the Middle East especially. Finally, giving the Palestinians $40 billion without very tight, enforceable conditions would lead to a repeat of the windfall the Iranian regime received in conjunction with the disastrous nuclear deal and has been able to use to fund Hezbollah and other terrorist proxies.

Prime Minister Netanyahu called Iran “the central issue” in achieving peace and stability in the region, in particular Iran’s nuclear program and its moves to establish a permanent presence in Syria. The prime minister said that President Trump was “very interested in my advice and insights,” a refreshing contrast to former President Obama who gave Prime Minister Netanyahu the cold shoulder and the Iranian regime everything it asked for.

Source: FrontPage Mag

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration expelled 60 Russian diplomats on Monday and ordered Russia’s consulate in Seattle to close, as the United States and European nations sought to jointly punish Moscow for its alleged role in poisoning an ex-spy in Britain.

Senior Trump administration officials said all 60 Russians were spies working in the U.S. under diplomatic cover, including a dozen at Russia’s mission to the United Nations. The officials said the administration was taking the action to send a message to Russia’s leaders about the “unacceptably high” number of Russian intelligence operatives in the U.S

Statement on Expulsion of Russian intelligence officers. pic.twitter.com/4uCzMOMG3f

— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) March 26, 2018

The expelled Russians will have seven days to leave the U.S, said the officials. They weren’t authorized to be identified by name and requested anonymity. They added that the Seattle consulate is a counter-intelligence concern because of its proximity to a U.S. Navy base.

The move was one of the most significant actions President Donald Trump’s administration has taken to date to push back on Moscow and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Less than a week ago, Trump congratulated Putin by phone for his re-election but didn’t raise the spy case, renewing questions about whether the U.S. president is too soft on the Kremlin.

The U.S. actions came as more than a dozen nations, including those in Russia’s neighborhood, were expected to announce similar steps to reduce Russia’s diplomatic presence in their countries or other actions to punish Moscow. Poland summoned Russia’s ambassador for talks, and its foreign ministry was among several in Europe planning news conferences later Monday.

Last week, EU chief Donald Tusk predicted that member states would introduce measures against Moscow over its suspected role in the spy poisoning case.

Britain has already expelled 23 Russian diplomats, accusing them of being undeclared intelligence agents, which led Russia to expel the same number of British diplomats. The European Union has already recalled its ambassador to Russia.

Britain has accused Moscow of perpetrating the attack. The U.S., France and Germany have agreed it’s highly likely that’s the case.

Source: PBS

On Wednesday, China said that it secured a commitment from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to denuclearize the Korean peninsula during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

In return, Xi reportedly pledged to uphold China’s close relationship with North Korea during Kim’s visit to China which lasted from Sunday to Wednesday, Reuters reported.

“It is our consistent stand to be committed to denuclearization on the peninsula, in accordance with the will of late President Kim Il Sung and late General Secretary Kim Jong Il,” Kim said, according to Xinhua.

“The issue of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula can be resolved, if South Korea and the United States respond to our efforts with goodwill, create an atmosphere of peace and stability while taking progressive and synchronous measures for the realization of peace,” Kim continued.

Xi said that the decision was a “strategic choice and the only right choice both sides have made based on history and reality, the international and regional structure and the general situation of China-DPRK ties.”

“We are ready to make joint efforts with the DPRK side, conform to the trend of the times, hold high the banner of peace, development, cooperation and mutual benefit, continuously improve the well-being of the two peoples, and make positive contribution to regional peace, stability and development,” Xi continued.

This latest development comes as President Trump is expected to meet with Kim in the next couple of months to discuss the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

A new CNN poll released on Tuesday showed that nearly two-thirds of Americans approve of President Trump’s plan to meet with Kim, as “The shift in tone between the White House and the North Korean regime seems to have eased Americans’ fears about the threat North Korea poses to the US.”

This is a breaking news story, check back for updates…

Source: The Daily Wire

There is plenty of real collusion in Washington, but it has little to do with Russia.  It’s the unholy alliance between lobbyists and politicians that has caused the most damage to America’s democracy.  Lobbyists and special interest groups openly try to influence our elections for their own gain to the detriment of the country and yet there has never been an investigation.

It has taken decades of decay to get the swamp as muddy and slimy as it is today.  It’s an old story that has gone on for far too long, where candidates seeking office, if not independently wealthy, rely heavily on campaign contributions to run successful races for congressional seats.  Big business and special interest groups who primarily are concerned with their bottom line hold the purse strings to the massive amounts of cash needed to win elections.  Hence, ethical compromises and implied favors are the norm before the first ballot has been cast.

It’s a mutually beneficial marriage between lobbyists and candidate, leaving the American citizen in a basket abandoned on the steps of the Capitol.  The end result is a swamp filled with corrupt politicians who at one time may have had good intentions but, in their desire to win their elections, have sold their souls.  And then there are those politicians who don’t need incentives to destroy the country.  Their misguided ideologies are all they need to steer this country to ruin.

For the first time in many decades, those opposed to the founding principles of this republic and the freedoms Americans enjoy have been forced to stand in the light.  The attacks on President Trump are clear indicators of who makes up the swamp and just how thick the swamp is.  If we are ever to entirely free this nation from the quicksand pulling this nation down, then we must confront and end the power and influence the lobbyists and the special interest groups have over our election process.

Rick Hayes is a New York City-based freelance writer and photojournalist with over 25 years’ experience in covering local and national politics.  Hayes has received awards for his work and has covered such political figures as President Donald Trump, former president Bill Clinton, and New York’s Rudy Giuliani, to name only a few.

The media is having a feeding frenzy over allegations that Trump had a one-night-stand with porn star Stormy Daniels in 2006 and then paid hush money a decade later. Her “confession” on 60 Minutes was the most highly rated of such programs in more than a decade. Then there were revelations that Trump had a nine-month affair with a former Playboy Bunny that ended in 2007.

If the allegations are true, Trump has major problems with his zipper. Frankly, the problem is with his morals. Only time will reveal the impact these allegations will have on the elections in 2018 and 2020.

While not discounting the alleged affairs, they must be looked at within a historical perspective. Many U.S. presidents served successfully (and some unsuccessfully) even with regrettable, repulsive and reprehensible sexual peccadillos.

History reveals that many U.S. presidents had sexual affairs, some more flagrant than others. Furthermore, there were rumors about other presidents but no firm data to confirm salacious charges. While there is a mystique surrounding the presidential office, it must be remembered that they were all mere men.

President Trump’s illicit sexual activities are well known: his out-of-wedlock daughter, his admitting to grabbing women and numerous rape and assault charges. Now, The Wall Street Journal reported he had an affair with Daniels and his lawyer paid her $130,000 hush money before the 2016 election. While those facts (and accusations) should not be dismissed with the wave of the hand, they should be considered in an historical context.

Thomas Jefferson is known to have had affairs with at least three women, (though the last two followed the death of his wife). His first affair was as a young college student. His best friend was John Walker and Tom was smitten with Walker’s wife, Betsy. Jefferson admitted in an 1805 letter to improper advances made on her. He apologized to avoid a duel and a scandal.

While in Paris as U.S. ambassador, the then-widowed Jefferson fell in love with Maria Cosway, a beautiful Italian painter. This affair preceded the French Revolution and Jefferson took her to the opera, on country picnics and sightseeing around Paris before the city became chaotic. He wrote “A Dialog of the Head versus the Heart” and he broke off the affair. (His head conquered his heart).

In 1802, newspaper man James Callendar accused Jefferson of a longtime affair with his slave Sally Hemings which produced a number of children. While some authorities dispute that as fact, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation and most historians believe that Callendar was correct.

Jefferson’s sexual affairs must not be explained away, dismissed, or rationalized; however, those wicked activities did not negate the fact that America would not be the nation it is without his leadership.

Democrat and lifelong bachelor James Buchanan is thought by some people to be the first “gay” president (and thought by many more people to be one of the worst presidents). Buchanan reportedly lived for several years with William Rufus King, a former vice president and Alabama senator. The two men were considered inseparable and were the object of much mockery. Andrew Jackson labeled King “Miss Nancy” (a pejorative phrase at the time for an effeminate or homosexual man) and a prominent Democrat, writing to President James Polk’s wife, referred to King as President Buchanan’s “better half,” “his wife,” and “Aunt Fancy . . . rigged out in her best clothes.”

Democrat Grover Cleveland was, like Buchanan, a bachelor when he was elected president in 1884. He came to the office of president with a reputation as a ladies’ man while practicing law in Buffalo, New York. After winning the Democrat nomination in 1884, the media reported on his payment of child support in 1874 after an affair with Mrs. Maria Crofts Halpin, who had accused him of fathering her illegitimate 10-year-old son, Oscar Folsom Cleveland. While he never admitted paternity, Cleveland sent child support to Mrs. Halpin.

During the general election, Cleveland was ridiculed by his opponents with the jingle, “Ma, ma, where’s my pa?” After he won the election, his supporters added to the jingle, “Gone to the White House, ha ha ha.” When the scandal broke during the political campaign of 1884, Cleveland told his advisors “Tell them the truth!” Wow, that’s really different. Note that he told the truth and won reelection!

(As an aside, I do wonder if President Trump has instructed his handlers and lawyers to “tell the truth.” Maybe when pigs fly in formation over the White House.)

Republican Warren G. Harding was the 29th president and is considered by many historians as one of our worst presidents. He allegedly had at least 30 affairs while in office that included friends of his wife, his best friend’s wife, female reporters, White House secretaries, chorus girls and a “string of New York women.” At one time, he was reportedly almost caught by his wife while having sex in the Oval Office closet with a young supporter. He also fathered children with some of the loose ladies.

Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt’s affair with Lucy Mercer, his wife Eleanor’s secretary, is well known and acknowledged by all. When Eleanor found some love letters from Lucy, she threatened divorce which would have destroyed his nascent political career. It is reported that Eleanor threatened to divorce FDR if he didn’t end his relations with Mercer and FDR’s mother promised to cut him off without a cent if he were divorced. FDR was kept on a golden leash by his mother and he caved to his mama — just like he caved to Stalin at Yalta in 1945. Roosevelt promised to break off relations with Mercer. However, she was with him when he died in Warm Springs, Georgia.

FDR is also alleged to have had affairs with his secretary Marguerite Alice (Missy) LeHand (to whom he left a significant bequest) and Princess Märtha of Sweden.The Crown Princess lived at the White House during World War II.

John F. Kennedy was a Democrat who allegedly had sex with friends’ wives and relatives! One of his famous alleged affairs was with Marlene Dietrich, a 60-year-old actress who had also slept with Jack’s father! It is believed that Kennedy slept with several female White House staff members. He even reportedly bedded down his two secretaries known — behind the scenes –as Fiddle and Faddle.

Kennedy had a suite at the Mayflower Hotel where he allegedly entertained a throng of women which may have included stripper Blaze Starr, Kim Novak, Jayne Mansfield, Gene Tierney, Angie Dickinson and Marilyn Monroe.

Kennedy was not circumspect in his affairs; the only qualification seemed to be they must be female. Discretion should be a qualification for being president but Kennedy obviously had no conception of that attribute.

And Trump is being hounded by the media for having been sexually loose and while the media knew of many of JFK’s romps, not a word was printed. Evidently, the public did not always “have a right to know.”

Texas Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson allegedly boasted that he had accidentally bedded more women than Kennedy had on purpose. Among his reported conquests was Madeline Brown, who claimed that they had an affair that lasted more than two decades and that LBJ fathered her son.

Kitty Kelley, the notorious bottom feeder, alleged that George H. W. Bush had affairs involving Jennifer Fitzgerald, a White House deputy chief of protocol, and also an Italian woman. The senior Bush has denied the allegations.

Democrat Bill Clinton’s trysts, affairs, romps, assaults, alleged rapes, etc., with Monica Lewinsky, Gennifer Flowers, Juanita Broaddrick, Sally Perdue, Paula Jones and who knows how many others became the stuff of national scandal.

Two Arkansas state troopers chronicled Clinton’s affairs with dozens of women. Arkansas state trooper Larry D. Brown swore that he personally procured women for Bill’s sexual pleasure!

George W. Bush was haunted by two sex allegations, which he has strongly denied. One involved a criminal complaint and lawsuit of rape by Margie Denise Schoedinger, a black woman from a Houston suburb. She shot herself in the head in 2003 nine months after filing suit against Bush.

The second accusation Bush faced was from former Austin stripper Tammy Phillips, who said she had an affair with Bush that ended in 1999. She was a 35-year-old partner in a Carrollton, Texas gym.

It seems most powerful men need adulation, admiration, and affection from fawning, fickle, fervent — if not faithful — women. And these men have controlled our destiny!

While Stormy weather is ahead for President Trump, I hope it doesn’t sink the Ship of State!

Dr. Don Boys is a former member of the Indiana House of Representatives; ran a large Christian school in Indianapolis, wrote columns for USA Today for eight years and authored 16 books. Follow Dr. Boys on Facebook at CSTNews and  Twitter, and visit his blog. 

Source:  The Daily Caller

Weeks ago, President Trump announced new tariffs on steel and aluminum, supposedly in an effort to jog the American economy. At the time, he also announced that trade wars were “good, and easy to win.” His economic rivals reminded him that this had not proven true at any point in American history.

His economic rivals were right, of course. Raising tariffs may be decent security policy from time to time, but it’s bad economic policy: trade wars are unwinnable, because in “winning” a trade war, you’re taxing your own citizens. And each time the country you’re tariffing responds with new tariffs, you’re destroying your own export market as well.

China knows this, which is why they’ve responded to Trump’s new tariffs with massive tariffs on 120 American commodities, including fruit, and raising already-present tariffs on eight more U.S. products.

Now, here’s the question: what will it take for everyone to back off the tariffs? If China, for example, decided to stop sponsoring the theft of American technology, would the U.S. lower its tariffs? How about if China curtailed its naval exercises in the South China Sea? The problem with Trump’s tariff strategy is that he needs to explain what he wants from China in exchange for removing the tariffs. Trump hasn’t issued such demands, presumably because he is under the impression that tariffs are in and of themselves economically useful and viable.

That’s a problem. Trump’s own team is fine with the tactical use of tariffs in order to extract concessions from rivals on the national security front. Such a strategy would be justifiable. But if Trump believes that tariffs are a pure good, then we’re in for a trade war that will have serious ramifications for American businesses and consumers.

Source: The Daily Wire

Nearly two-in-three American adults say they support the 2020 Census asking U.S. residents if they are citizens of the country, a new poll reveals.

Last month, President Trump’s Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross announced that a question asking if respondents are American citizens would be put back on the Census forms, just in time for the 2020 Census.

U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley told an audience at Duke University that changes in U.S. policies toward Israel and Cuba signal an end to “the era of the United States leading from behind.”

The Obama administration created policies that refused to acknowledge and use American military, economic, and moral superiority in international relations.  It was famously described as “leading from behind.”

Washington Free Beacon:

She criticized previous administrations for being too deferential to international opinion, saying she is not hesitant to resist the majority at the U.N.  She described how the U.N.’s Security Council and Human Rights Council regularly single out Israel but leave authoritarian regimes alone.

“Soon after coming to the U.N. last year, we decided we weren’t going to silently accept that anymore.  Israel is our great friend,” Haley said to applause.  “And Israel is a lonely voice for democracy and human dignity in the Middle East.”

“We’ve made these changes to have the back of our friend and ally Israel, absolutely, but we’re also sending the message that the era of the United States leading from behind is over,” she added.

Haley also drew attention to the administration’s willingness to reverse former President Barack Obama’s attempts at closer ties with Cuba.  She said that action “broke faith” with Cuban exiles and political prisoners, and said Obama did not demand any changes from the Cuban government.

“The previous administration chose to ease sanctions on the Castro regime in Cuba without demanding respect for the human rights of the Cuban people in return,” she said.

… “It’s often just easier not to rock the boat.  When the crowd is all going one way, it’s sometimes hard to be the only one going in the other direction,” she said.  “But in America, we don’t celebrate the mob, we celebrate the person who has the courage and conviction to stand up to the mob.”

“Leading from behind” was the worst post-World War II foreign policy decision since perhaps committing U.S. ground troops to Vietnam.  What made it even worse is that the policy implied that America isn’t good enough to lead the world as the sole superpower, that somehow, most of the problems of the world were our fault, and it was better we withdraw from international leadership on a host of issues.

Looking at the state of the world today, we can see the disastrous outcomes that flowed from that policy.  Our allies are weaker and our adversaries stronger.  Trump may not engage internationally on a level desired by many internationalists, but his instincts have been mostly good, and he hasn’t been afraid to put U.S. interests ahead of those of other countries.

That’s why we elect a president, isn’t it?  We elect a chief executive not to preside over the dissolution of American power or to fight for the interests of other countries.  “America first” may be portrayed in the press as some kind of super-nationalism akin to fascism, but in fact, it’s exactly what the American people want in a president.

Good riddance to “leading from behind.”

The American victims the Left has no compassion for.

Once upon a time, we cared about the welfare of our fellow Americans. Farmers in the Midwest devastated by tornadoes, trailer parks washed away in a Florida hurricane, our country’s ranking on various international comparisons — we all rooted for our fellow Americans. Like all countries, we would squabble, but we were family. We were all Americans.

Not anymore! Now, no one cares about anything but getting rich, the better to separate oneself from the lives and concerns of poorer Americans.

Businessmen, Wall Street bankers, ethnic activists, Democrats and Republicans (including the president, apparently) — all of them have a stronger fellow feeling toward Saudi princes and German bankers than toward Iowa farmers. Being “inclusive” to “Dreamers” necessarily means being exclusionary toward our own working class.

So what if wages have flatlined — or declined! — for several decades? The smart set aren’t wage-slaves.

Mexican drug cartels aren’t swarming through their towns. They live in fancy neighborhoods.

Somali refugees aren’t beating up their kids — who are safely ensconced in expensive private schools, anyway.

Members of our governing class seem to have decided the country is doomed, so they may as well make their pile. Sure, they’ll have to face the wrath of voters and may be voted out of office, like Eric Cantor. But they’ll end up on corporate boards or win lucrative lobbying contracts. Plus, being “progressive” on immigration will look great on their kid’s Princeton application.

Everybody’s looking out for No. 1.

It wasn’t always this way. Politicians, liberal activists and journalists used to care about even non-fashionable Americans.

One doesn’t have to go back to the Garfield administration to find a time when everyone wanted to protect the nation from dysfunctional immigration — the crime, the drugs, the poverty, the wage-depressing effect, the burden on our social services. Positions that are today considered hateful used to be called “common sense.”

A 1995 news article in The New York Times calmly described preparations the Immigration and Naturalization Service was making in case a “vast flood of illegal immigrants” surged across the Mexican border, “inundating entire communities as it washes north into the American heartland.” Under the Clinton administration, the illegals would face either “immediate voluntary deportation” or “emergency detention.”

Source: FrontPage Mag