Clinton vs. Trump – the Hand We’ve Been Dealt

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maxresdefault (99)The presidential contest that no one ever expected and many claim not to want is back on track and coming to your ballot box this fall.

Hillary Clinton rebounded from seven straight primary losses to Bernie Sanders to win big in yesterday’s New York Democratic primary. Donald Trump is sure to regain his momentum in the Republican presidential contest with his blow-out victory in the Empire State; Ted Cruz was a far, far distant third, suggesting he has little or no chance of winning states in the more diverse northeast and putting an enormous question mark next to his bid to be president.

Next Tuesday’s primaries in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maryland, Delaware and Rhode Island all appear much friendlier to Clinton and Trump than to their rivals.

Even before yesterday’s primary, Clinton was seen as the likely nominee by 91% of voters in her party, with a record high 62% saying her nomination is Very Likely. Republican voters still view Trump as their likeliest nominee, although he has lost ground in recent weeks, but this Friday’s Trump Change survey is sure to show a turnaround for the billionaire businessman following his biggest primary win to date . . .

If Trump keeps winning primaries and adding delegates, it’s equally difficult to imagine the GOP elders denying him the nomination at the party’s national convention in July even if he’s a few votes short of the 1,237 total needed to claim victory. Cruz, who is nothing if not politically astute, is unlikely to see a path to victory in November by snatching delegates away from Trump at the convention after coming in second or third in most of the remaining primaries. (Read more from “Clinton vs. Trump – the Hand We’ve Been Dealt” HERE)

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Curt Schilling, ESPN Analyst, Is Fired Over ‘Offensive’ Social Media Post

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Curt_Schilling_PitchCurt Schilling, a former All-Star pitcher and one of the highest-profile baseball analysts on ESPN, was fired from the network Wednesday, a day after he drew intense criticism for promoting ‘offensive’ commentary on social media.

Schilling, who had worked for the network since 2010 and most recently offered analysis on “Monday Night Baseball,” was dismissed after sharing a Facebook post this week that appeared to respond to the North Carolina law that bars transgender people from using bathrooms and locker rooms that do not correspond with their birth genders.

The post showed an overweight man wearing a wig and women’s clothing with parts of the T-shirt cut out to expose his breasts. It says: “LET HIM IN! to the restroom with your daughter or else you’re a narrow-minded, judgmental, unloving racist bigot who needs to die.”

To that, Schilling added: “A man is a man no matter what they call themselves. I don’t care what they are, who they sleep with, men’s room was designed for the penis, women’s not so much. Now you need laws telling us differently? Pathetic.” (Read more from “Curt Schilling, ESPN Analyst, Is Fired Over ‘Offensive’ Social Media Post” HERE)

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The ‘Chilling’ Reason This Doctor Says Georgia Fired Him

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doctor-1228627_960_720A public health official, who says he was fired by Georgia’s health agency for the content of his sermons, filed a lawsuit today against the state claiming religious discrimination.

Dr. Eric Walsh accepted a position as the Georgia Department of Public Health’s director for the northwest part of the state in May 2014. A week later, state officials requested copies of sermons he had preached as a lay minister for the Seventh Day Adventist Church, according to First Liberty Institute, a legal organization that defends the religious freedom of Americans.

“Dr. Walsh was terminated because of something he said in a sermon,” Jeremy Dys, senior counsel for First Liberty Institute, told The Daily Signal. “No one should be fired for something they say in their sermon.”

First Liberty Institute and the law firm of Parks, Chesin & Walbert filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. They sued the Georgia Department of Public Health on behalf of Walsh.

“Bureaucrats cannot deny qualified people of faith government jobs simply because they express their beliefs, especially in a house of worship,” Roger Severino, director of The Heritage Foundation’s DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society, told The Daily Signal. “If the First Amendment means anything, it’s that government bureaucrats have no business acting as sermon review boards. That would be religious discrimination, pure and simple.”

The lawsuit charges the state with religious discrimination as well as retaliation against Walsh.

“I couldn’t believe they fired me because of things I talked about in my sermons,” Walsh said in a statement released by First Liberty. “It was devastating. I have been unable to get a job in public health since then.”

The Los Angeles Times reported in May 2014 that Georgia health officials retracted a job offer to Walsh, “who had come under fire for controversial remarks he made on homosexuality and evolution.”

“In recorded sermons online, [Walsh] said homosexuality is a sin and evolution is a ‘religion created by Satan,’” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in September 2014 after Walsh filed a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Atlanta.

Government officials terminated Walsh the day after he provided his sermons to the state.

“Public servants shouldn’t lose their jobs because of sermons that they preach off the clock, on their personal time,” Ryan T. Anderson, the William E. Simon senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Signal.

Anderson, author of “Truth Overruled: The Future of Marriage and Religious Freedom,” added: “Government employees don’t give up their religious freedom as a condition of their employment.”

In an email to The Daily Signal, Department of Public Health spokesman Nancy Nydam wrote:

During the background check process, DPH learned Dr. Walsh failed to disclose outside employment to his previous public health employer, which also was in violation of California law. Due to violation of both California state law and DPH policy, the offer to Dr. Walsh was rescinded. During his interview, Dr. Walsh disclosed his religious beliefs to DPH staff and indicated that he preached at his church in California. Dr. Walsh’s religious beliefs had nothing to do with the decision to withdraw the offer.

Sermon topics preached by Walsh included “following God, having compassion on the poor, health, marriage, sexuality, world religions, science, creationism, and more,” according to First Liberty. Dys, the group’s senior counsel, said:

If it can happen to Dr. Walsh and he can be terminated because of something he said in his sermon, then nothing is safe for any American who is a religious adherent of any kind. How would the regular person like it if at their annual review, the notes they take in Sunday school class were to come up and they would be evaluated not because of the work that they performed at the job, but because of something they said in Sunday school class to the 6-year-old Sunday school class?

“No one should be fired in America simply because they are a person of faith,” he added.

Walsh, a former director of public health in Pasadena, Calif. who has a medical degree and doctorate in public health, was appointed by President Barack Obama to his Presidential Advisory Committee on HIV/AIDS.

“In America, it is against the law to fire an employee for expressing his religious beliefs – especially when that expression takes place in a church setting,” Andrew Coffman, partner in the law firm of Parks, Chesin & Walbert and a volunteer lawyer for First Liberty, said in a statement.

In a redacted email from the State of Georgia, officials discuss how they will review the sermons.

Lee Rudd, director of human resources with Georgia’s Public Health Department, wrote in an email on May 14, 2014:

“OK … I have an assignment for several of us. We have to listen to his sermons on You Tube tonight. If we take a couple of hours each, then we should cover our bases.”

Dys told The Daily Signal that the state of Georgia “spent upwards of 10 hours dividing up sermons and reviewing them on state dollars, on state computers.” He said:

I think when we have a state dividing up sermons like that and nitpicking through line by line what a lay pastor has said in a sermon and then terminating him because of that, I think every American should be chilled to the core at that type of thing.

In a voicemail left for Walsh, the speaker says:

“Dr. Walsh, this is Dr. Patrick O’Neil and Mrs. Kate Phirman, our CFO here at the Department of Public Health in Georgia. Sorry that we have not been able to reach you by phone. We will be sending you a letter, so be on the lookout for that.”

After the message concludes, the caller does not hang up. Two voices can be heard in the voicemail recording, laughing and saying: “There’s no warm way to say it” and “You’re out.” (For more from the author of “The ‘Chilling’ Reason This Doctor Says Georgia Fired Him” please click HERE)

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Drug Can Reverse Alzheimer’s in One Week

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alzheimersA drug that reversed Alzheimer’s in mice in only one week will be tested in people this year. The IL-33 protein reversed Alzheimer’s-like disease in mice, stopping cognitive decline in its tracks, according to joint research by the University of Glasgow and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST).

“IL-33 is a protein produced by various cell types in the body and is particularly abundant in the central nervous system — brain and spinal cord,” said Professor Eddy Liew of the University of Glasgow. “We carried out experiments in a strain of mice (APP/PS1) which develop progressive AD-like disease with aging.

We found that injection of IL-33 into aged APP/PS1 mice rapidly improved their memory and cognitive function to that of the age-matched normal mice within a week.”

Characteristics of Alzheimer’s include the amyloid plaque deposits and the formation of neurofibrillary tangles in the brain. As the disease progresses, plaques and tangles build, leading to the loss of connections between nerve cells. Eventually, the cells die, which causes the loss of brain tissue . . .

Although the researchers aren’t positive the protein will work in humans, they are optimistic. “Previous genetic studies have shown an association between IL-33 mutations and Alzheimer’s disease in European and Chinese populations,” said Liew. “Furthermore, the brain of patients with Alzheimer’s disease contains less IL-33 than the brain from non-Alzheimer’s patients. (Read more from “Drug Can Reverse Alzheimer’s in One Week” HERE)

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Lisa Murkowski and RINO Allies Pass Left-Wing Bill Adopting Solyndra Subsidies, Enron-Style Accounting to Fuel Federal Housing

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48414424What happens when you mix green energy social engineering with the affordable housing agenda? You get the worst elements of venture socialism that led to our economic collapse. You also get a bill from your GOP Senate pushing this very left-wing ideal of central planning.

To begin with, the Republican-led Senate is pushing a dubious energy efficiency bill at a time when they should be focusing on bold and popular conservative legislation, especially pertaining to homeland and national security. The Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2015 (S. 2012), sponsored by Lisa Murkowski (RINO-AK), uses the boot of government to promote “energy efficiency” and steer funds toward specific products and services offered by corporate cronies. It also provides subsidies and low interest loans for various forms of energy preferred by federal policy makers.

While this bill is being sold as a positive step forward because it also contains a provision expediting liquefied natural gas export applications, we are unlikely to actualize any benefit from that until we have a Republican president. In that case, we can pass an even better bill — minus the green energy social engineering.

To make matters worse, the Senate voted yesterday on an amendment sponsored by Senators Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Johnny Isakson (R-GA), which will require the Federal Housing Administration to count the projected savings from “energy efficiency” in the home towards the income of the borrower for a prospective mortgage. This “increased income” will in turn allow the home buyer to qualify for a larger government-backed loan.

Folks, you can’t make this stuff up. This is a mix of Solyndra, Freddie Mac, and Enron accounting all in one. Republican lawmakers are now doubling down on the same failed affordable housing social engineering agenda and are using notional and intangible green energy savings as income in order to encourage riskier loans on the taxpayer’s dime. This proposition will further distort the private market and force housing appraisers and underwriters to ascertain the voodoo-value of energy savings in the house. Overall, this amendment passed 66-31, with the help of the following 21 Republicans:

Alexander (TN)
Ayotte (NH)
Blunt (MO)
Burr (NC)
Capito (WV)
Cassidy (LA)
Cochran (MS)
Collins (ME)
Cornyn (TX)
Graham (SC)
Hatch (UT)
Heller (NV)
Hoeven (ND)
Isakson (GA)
Johnson (WI)
Kirk (IL)
Murkowski (AK)
Portman (OH)
Rounds (SD)
Sullivan (AK)
Tillis (NC)

This is a quintessential example of the problem with the Republican Party. They accuse conservatives have harboring unrealistic expectations in terms of how much government they have the ability to cut. The problem is, far from cutting any government intervention, almost every piece of legislation they pass expands government involvement in the private sector. This bill combines two of the worst federal policies — green energy social engineering and the federal housing scheme — and doubles down on the very impetus for our economic failure. (For more from the author of “Lisa Murkowski and RINO Allies Pass Left-Wing Bill Adopting Solyndra Subsidies, Enron-Style Accounting to Fuel Federal Housing” please click HERE)

Watch a recent interview with the author below:

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Boycott Target: Michelle Obama’s Favorite Store Invites Men to Use Women’s Bathrooms, Changing Rooms

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1024px-Target_store-Springfield-2005-10-15The Target department store chain has jumped into the transgender bathroom debate by declaring that men who claim to be women may use whatever bathroom or changing room they choose.

“Inclusivity is a core belief at Target,” a new company statement reads. “It’s something we celebrate. We stand for equality and equity, and strive to make our guests and team members feel accepted, respected and welcomed in our stores and workplaces every day.”

The retailer added, “We welcome transgender team members and guests to use the restroom or fitting room facility that corresponds with their gender identity” . . .

Customers and potential customers almost immediately spoke out against Target’s decision to ignore the biological difference between men and women.

“Why would you choose to allow men in the women’s restroom when every single store has a single family restroom that can easily accommodate your Transgender customers,” Sandy Bell Small wrote on Facebook. “Way to go Target for choosing to protect the .03% of the ADULT transgender population over your women, children, mothers, grandchildren, teenager population. I’m sure you will say you I longer miss us but I’m sure the $$$’s spent weekly will be felt somewhere.” (Read more from “Boycott Target: Michelle Obama’s Favorite Store Invites Men to Use Women’s Bathrooms, Changing Rooms” HERE)

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Obama Admin. Fails to Designate Pakistan as Hostile to Religious Freedom Despite Recent Massacres of Christians

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maxresdefault (97)The United States Department of State has released its official blacklist of countries guilty of egregious violations of religious freedom, and for the 14th consecutive year has left Pakistan off the roster.

Secretary of State John Kerry has re-designated Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, as “countries of particular concern,” or CPCs, under the International Religious Freedom Act, and has added the ex-Soviet republic of Tajikistan for the first time.

State Department spokesperson John Kirby announced this year’s list of countries of particular concern at a press briefing last week, underscoring that these designations “help us shine a spotlight on countries and conditions that require the international community’s attention.”

Nonetheless, despite persistent urging from the bipartisan U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), the list omits mention of Pakistan, despite recent incidents that have drawn world attention to the country.

The Easter-Day massacre targeting Christians in Lahore saw the death of 72 victims, mostly women and children, along with at least 320 injured. (Read more from “Obama Admin. Fails to Designate Pakistan as Hostile to Religious Freedom Despite Recent Massacres of Christians” HERE)

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New York Primaries Deliver Huge Victories for Primary Front-Runners

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23691565882_46f5873d66_bCruz must rely on contested convention

By FoxNews.com. Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton regained their stride in the presidential race Tuesday night, winning their respective primaries in New York — and sending a message to their rivals that their campaigns are back on track after recent stumbles.

Trump, in his home state, notched what appeared to be his biggest victory yet. Speaking to cheering supporters Tuesday night at Trump Tower, he declared: “We don’t have much of a race anymore.”

“[Texas] Senator [Ted] Cruz is just about mathematically eliminated,” Trump claimed. “We’re really, really rockin’.” Indeed, Cruz’s poor showing left him with no mathematical chance of clinching the nomination before the Republican convention in July, though Trump could still end up short of the needed 1,237 needed to seal victory before the gathering. . .

In the Democratic race, Clinton soundly defeated Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in her adopted home state, which she represented in the Senate for eight years. Despite the Brooklyn-born Sanders’ hard-fought attempt at an upset, the former secretary of state successfully staved off that possibility Tuesday night. With 94 percent of precincts reporting, Clinton had 58 percent to Sanders’ 42 percent. (Read more about the New York Primaries HERE)

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Trump the “Runaway Winner” in New York Primaries

By Scott Kelnhofer. As expected, Donald Trump is the runaway winner in today’s New York Republican primary.

Within minutes after the polls closed, CNN projected the real estate mogul as the winner. With more than 40 percent of precincts reporting, Trump had more than 62 percent of the vote. Ohio Gov. John Katich was second with 23 percent of the vote, while Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has only 14 percent of the vote.

The question coming into the night was not if Trump would win his home state primary, but rather by how much. The margin would be important in determining how the state’s 95 delegates would be allocated.

CNN not only projected Trump would win the state, the network also projects Trump would win more than 50 percent of the vote across the state’s congressional districts, which would give him all of the state’s delegates.

It was a dramatic turnaround from just two weeks ago, when Cruz picked up a double-digit win in Wisconsin and so-called establishment Republicans hoped they were seeing the beginning of the end of Trump’s dominance.

No such concerns were being raised after Tuesday’s win. (Read more from “New York Primaries Deliver Huge Victories for Primary Front-Runners” HERE)

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The Confidential Memo Behind a Ted Cruz Victory Over Donald Trump Supporters

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6236460903_2a8ff49c7e_bBy Jim Galloway. On Saturday, Harry Abrams was a member of the five-member nominating committee for [Georgia’s] 11th District GOP convention. The committee had spent the previous week interviewing 61 applicants for the three delegate and three alternate spots the convention was to hand out.

In the end, the committee produced a six-person slate that led with a Donald Trump supporter, Lori Pesta of Cherokee County. But on a motion from the floor, the slate was dumped and the elimination of Trump supporters began.

In an after-action report, Abrams sent out the confidential blueprint that Ted Cruz supporters received on Friday night, and operated from on Saturday morning. The four-page memo is somewhat faint, but the detail is worth the squinting.

Writes Abrams in an introduction:

Was anything illegal done? I would have to say no. Was the Convention Packed. I would say yes. Under our “rules” was anything done that was illegal? No.

(Read more from “The Confidential Memo Behind a Ted Cruz Victory Over Donald Trump Supporters” HERE)

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Cruz to Win Half of Pennsylvania’s Delegates

By Ian Schwartz. NBC’s Hallie Jackson reports Cruz has changed his focus to Pennsylvania and making a play for the state’s unbound delegates. Jackson, the network’s Cruz correspondent, said even if Cruz has a third place finish in Pennsylvania’s Republican primary, he’ll win more than half the delegates.

“It’s very telling that’s Ted Cruz tonight is not in Brooklyn or Manhattan or any of the boroughs or state. He’s in Pennsylvania,” reported Jackson.

“He’ll be in Philly for his watch party tonight,” Jackson said. “That’s indicative of where he and his campaign see this race going, to Pennsylvania, where they are looking to make a play for these unbound delegates. Even if they come in a distant third, a top campaign aide tells me, they will still, they believe, pick up more than half the delegates there.”

“They’re looking at more than 30,” Jackson said. (Read more from “Cruz to Win Half of Pennsylvania’s Delegates” HERE)

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Former New York Mayor Gives His Recommendation on a Winning Republican Ticket

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477145681_1ee6571a50Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has given his recommendation for a Republican presidential ticket he feels “could win the election” . . .

Continuing the interview, Giuliani said, “Look, what have the Cruz, Trump, Bernie Sanders voters told us? They don’t trust Washington. Now Sen. (Mitch) McConnell, who is Washington, is coming in and saying, ‘I want an open convention so I can pick the nominee.’ We’re going to lose the grassroots of this party.”

Giuliani suggested that in the event of such a scenario, Trump could make a deal in order to get the necessary delegates. He also cautioned the other candidates, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, saying, “Cruz step back, Kasich step back and give him the extra 20 to 30 because if you don’t, you’re going against the will of 65 percent of the Republican Party, maybe 70 percent of the Republican Party.”

Later, Giuliani said the voters are the people who elect the president, not the people in Washington. He then said, “And if this election season has told us anything, what it’s taught us is the people of this country, Republican and Democrat, are disgusted with the party bosses.”

Finishing, Giuliani said, “If they want to win the presidency, they have got to elect a guy with the most votes of anybody during the Republican primary. And Trump has the most votes. Trump-Kasich ticket could win this election.” (Read more from “Former New York Mayor Gives His Recommendation on a Winning Republican Ticket” HERE)

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