New Study: Most Americans Still Thank God for Blessings on Thanksgiving

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On Thanksgiving day, most Americans will give thanks to God — but not for the things you may think.

When George Washington proclaimed the holiday in 1789, he set the day aside for “public thanksgiving and prayer,” to “the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be.” Years later, Abraham Lincoln formally established the holiday, and Congress made it a national holiday in 1941.

What are the goods that were, are, or will be that Americans today give thanks for? Americans are most thankful for family (88 percent), while being thankful for wealth falls to the very bottom of the list (32 percent), reports a new study by LifeWay Research.

The items ranked in order from most thankful to least thankful were family, health, personal freedom, friends, memories, safety and security, opportunities, fun experiences, achievements and wealth. The ranking order did not come as a surprise to Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research. “The blessings that matter most are the ones money can’t buy,” he said.

The study showed that nearly two-thirds of Americans give thanks to God on Thanksgiving. This group included 83 percent of African Americans, 80 percent of Christians and 72 percent of Southerners. Evangelicals are the most likely to thank God, at 94 percent. “They aren’t the only ones thanking God, however,” LifeWay reported. “Close to half of adherents of other religions (46 percent) and more than a quarter of the nonreligious (28 percent) say the same.”

Not everyone thanks God, the study found. Although 63 percent say that they gave thanks to God, 57 percent claim to give thanks to family. Thirty-one percent thank friends, eight percent thank themselves and four percent thank fate.

Although this past year has seen a vitriolic and stressful election season and Americans have been discouraged, McConnell said “they still find a lot to be thankful for.” (For more from the author of “New Study: Most Americans Still Thank God for Blessings on Thanksgiving” please click HERE)

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Thanksgiving 1943: American Sailors Pull off a Miraculous Naval Victory

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As we celebrate Thanksgiving with our families and loved ones, let us remember the American sailors who 73 years ago spent their Thanksgiving fighting a Japanese task force off Cape St. George in the Solomon Islands.

In what could be considered a Thanksgiving miracle, not a single American life was lost — something worth giving thanks for even today.

The Solomon Islands lie to the east of Papua New Guinea and were the site of numerous decisive battles during World War II, including Guadalcanal. On Nov. 1, 1943, the American 3rd Marine Division launched an invasion of Bougainville, some 250 miles southeast of a major Japanese military base at Rabaul, New Britain. The Japanese commanders at Rabaul dispatched a five-ship convoy — part of what was known as the Tokyo Express — with additional army troops to reinforce their air base on Buka Island, just north of Bougainville and evacuate their naval personnel. The convoy consisted of two destroyers and three destroyer-transports.

On the day before Thanksgiving, American Admiral William “Bull” Halsey ordered Captain Arleigh “31-Knot” Burke — who eventually became Admiral Burke, the Chief of Naval Operations — to stop the Japanese reinforcements, using Burke’s five-ship destroyer squadron to intercept the Japanese convoy. Burke had assumed command of 7th Fleet Destroyer Squadron 23 (nicknamed the “Little Beavers”) only a month before. Little Beaver was a reference to the sidekick of Red Ryder, a tough cowboy who was the hero of a very popular Western comic strip that had started in 1938.

When he received Halsey’s order, Burke was hundreds of miles away, taking on fuel at New Georgia Island. The destroyers that made up his small fleet — the Charles Ausburne (Burke’s ship), Claxton, Dyson, Converse, and Spence — had been in almost continuous battles for several months and were badly in need of maintenance.

Because of that, Burke’s ship was capable of only 31 knots, not its maximum speed of 38 knots. That resulted in a message from Admiral Halsey that gave Burke his nickname: “THIRTY-ONE KNOT BURKE GET ATHWART THE BUKA-RABUAL EVACUATION LINE … IF ENEMY CONTACTED YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO.”

Burke and his task force sped north to try to find and destroy the Japanese task force. They found what they were looking for not long after midnight on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 25, 1943, when they encountered two of the Japanese destroyers, the Makinami and the Onami.

Long after the naval battle, Admiral Burke said that “there may have been blacker nights than Thanksgiving Eve, 1943, in the South Pacific, but none could have been more completely blacked out with regard to information of the enemy.” But Burke also said that it was “an ideal night for a nice, quiet torpedo attack.” Using their relatively new radar technology on the moonless, dark, overcast night, Burke’s squadron fired more than a dozen torpedoes and sank both ships, finishing off one of the Japanese destroyers with surface guns.

The chase was then on to catch the fleeing destroyer-transports. Burke’s task force caught up with the Yuguri, sinking it and damaging the Uzuki, although the Uzuki managed to escape with the last Japanese ship, the Amagiri. It was the Amagiri that had collided with PT-109, the boat skippered by Lt. John F. Kennedy, on August 1, 1943.

Trying to catch the fleeing Uzuki and the Amagiri, Burke went deep into Japanese-held territory — far beyond the reach of American air cover. With the onset of dawn and the possibility of massed attacks by Japanese aircraft, Burke wisely ended the chase and withdrew.

As they headed back to an American navy base in Purvis Bay, another 350 miles southeast of Bougainville, Thanksgiving was on everyone’s mind. Burke sent a message asking that Thanksgiving services be arranged for “all hands on arrival.”

Not a single American sailor was killed. Gunfire from the Japanese destroyers had all missed. A Japanese torpedo that hit one of the American destroyers didn’t explode. A group of torpedoes fired by the Japanese exploded in the wakes of Burke’s destroyers after he had a gut feeling that he should change position. And when Destroyer Squadron 23 withdrew, not a single plane from the four Japanese airbases in the vicinity of Rabaul (58 bombers and 145 fighters) attacked the task force. It was either luck or a series of miracles or a combination of both.

Burke’s strategy and tactics, and the performance of his sailors, led to the Naval War College calling the Battle of Cape St. George “an almost perfect surface action.” Bull Halsey called it the “Trafalgar of the Pacific.” It ended the Tokyo Express, the Japanese naval convoys that were used to supply Japanese land forces and attack Allied military efforts in the Solomon Islands.

Bull Halsey once famously said that “there are no great men; just great challenges that ordinary men, out of necessity, are forced by circumstances to meet.” The Battle of Cape St. George was one of those great challenges that, out of necessity, Captain Arleigh Burke and the hundreds of American sailors who served under him were forced to meet. They did so with the gallantry and can-do attitude that has long been a hallmark of the U.S. Navy. Burke himself told his sailors that they had been successful because of their “courage and valiant determination” and when they got safely to port, his “battle-weary crews [gave] thanks to God for their victory – and for their deliverance.”

So as you sit down to eat that great American bird (which Benjamin Franklin thought should be our national symbol instead of the eagle), with stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry relish, and whatever other goodies your family includes, give thanks for those American sailors who nearly eight decades ago spent Thanksgiving risking their lives to protect our nation in a fight with a merciless enemy. We owe them more than we can ever say. (For more from the author of “Thanksgiving 1943: American Sailors Pull off a Miraculous Naval Victory” please click HERE)

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Why Democrats Have De Facto Control of the Senate Unless Conservatives Step Up

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Conservatives in the Senate are an endangered species. With Jeff Sessions vacating his seat, there will be a huge void in the House of Lords, which has fewer than 15 conservatives — and that is being charitable. After failing to elect a single, new conservative to the Senate this year, it is vital that the grassroots mobilize for 2018 and to fill any vacancies that might arise with cabinet picks.

The Senate is worse than you think. There is far from a 52-48 conservative majority.

Traditionally, it has been Senate Republicans who have sand-bagged every opportunity conservatives created in pursuit of limited government reforms. Senate RINOs, led by Bob Dole, turned the Senate into a graveyard for the Contract with America reforms pushed by Newt Gingrich and House Republicans, as was the case when Republicans controlled the Senate during the Reagan administration. They also dogged President Bush during the time when Republicans controlled all three branches, even on the conservative initiatives he proposed. If conservatives don’t think of a new game plan and prepare to win more primaries, here is what is confronting us in the House of Lords.

A Senate leadership that sides with Democrats on critical issues

As much as conservatives complain about House Republicans, they look like the Founding Fathers compared with their Senate counterparts. For a cursory glance of what our policies will be confronted with in the Senate, take a look at this chart of Senate leaders and likely chairmen of key policymaking committees for the upcoming session.

senate-scorecard

I already analyzed Orrin Hatch, Chuck Grassley, John McCain, and Thad Cochran before the election in my piece on the four fossils that are using the Senate as a retirement home. But take a look at some of the other scores here.

Lamar Alexander will oversee any critical reforms on health care and education, yet he has an astounding 15% Liberty Score®, lower than some Democrats! Lamar has already signaled that he doesn’t want to repeal fully the costly Obamacare coverage mandates that are solely responsible for the skyrocketing premiums.

What about energy? We have Lisa Murkowski as the quarterback on all issues pertaining to energy. She has a 20% Liberty Score® and has bought into the global warming agenda.

What about military and foreign policy? Bob Corker and John McCain will continue to chair the Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees, respectively. They have been a part of the problem in misdirection on foreign policy for years.

Even those with better liberty scores, such as Mike Crapo, are problematic. Despite his slightly better voting record than current banking chair Richard Shelby, Crapo is actually a step down on this issue. While serving as one of the top members on the Senate Banking Committee for years, Crapo has been reluctant to phase out federal involvement in housing policy and is regarded as only a lukewarm opponent of the Dodd-Frank regulations, much less so than Shelby.

What about spending cuts? Good luck getting those past appropriations chairman Cochran, who is indistinguishable from a Democrat in his legacy of federal largesse.

Transportation and infrastructure? This is an issue for which conservatives will have to battle the administration in order to devolve spending to the states instead of expanding it on a federal level. Some might be heartened that James Inhofe, a big proponent of federal control of transportation, is termed out as chairman of the committee. But his likely successor, John Barrasso is just as bad.

Reforming food stamps and farm subsidies? Over the dead body of big-spender, Pat Roberts.

For conservatives looking for change in these critical spheres of policy, wherever they turn they will meet stiff resistance. Each one of these chairmen either fundamentally don’t share our values on the issues within their respective jurisdictions or they value working with the Left more than with conservatives.

The landscape for 2018

The 2018 Senate map is a dream landscape for Republicans. They will defend only eight seats, while Democrats must defend 25. Furthermore, almost all of the GOP incumbents are in solid Republican states — with Dean Heller (RINO-Nev) being the only legitimately vulnerable seat. On the other hand, Democrats have an endless number of potential vulnerabilities.

Seven states should be vulnerable right off the bat either due to Trump carrying those states by a substantial margin or because of the dynamics of state politics: Indiana (Joe Donnelly), North Dakota (Heidi Heitkamp), Missouri (Claire McCaskill), West Virginia (Joe Manchin), Montana (Jon Tester), Ohio (Sherrod Brown), and Florida (Bill Nelson).

Then there are the three traditionally blue-leaning states that Trump was able to narrowly win and are exceedingly more red during mid-term elections: Pennsylvania (Bob Casey), Michigan (Debbie Stabenow), and Wisconsin (Tammy Baldwin). In addition, there are states like Minnesota (Amy Klobuchar) and Maine (Angus King), where Trump lost narrowly but could easily shift in a midterm with lower Democrat base turnout.

In total, Republicans could easily make a run at a 60-seat super-majority in the Senate. But what’s the point of a GOP super-majority if we continue the trajectory of automatically nominating Mitch McConnell yes-men for those races? Republicans could win 70-80 seats in the Senate and it will never be enough because we will continue filling those seats with Democrat-lite politicians. The party establishment is already trying to recruit moderate House candidates to challenge these vulnerable Democrats. Achieving a 60-seat GOP majority with just 15 conservatives in the Senate will get us nowhere.

In addition, it would be a shame for conservatives to allow RINOs such as Jeff Flake, Roger Wicker, Bob Corker, and Orrin Hatch (assuming he breaks his pledge and runs again) to get a free pass in their primaries. Ultimately, I believe we need to push state parties and legislatures to change election law and transform Senate and House primaries into representative conventions to give the grassroots an equal footing against the K Street interests. But until that is accomplished, conservatives must begin recruiting candidates now.

During the Constitutional Convention, in explaining the unique role of the Senate, James Madison predicted that the upper chamber would serve as a “necessary fence” against the “fickleness and passion” of the House of Representatives. That was at a time when they liked the government they had conceived and wanted to prevent demagogues from playing on people’s impetuous impulses to alter the government they created.

After 100 years of post-constitutionalism, however, our government as it was originally adopted is unrecognizable. The Senate, therefore, is now being used as a fence against the requisite passion necessary to restore our republic. We need more men of passion, lest the “Senate saucer” only be used to cool conservative tea and insulate the steaming pile of progressive bile we seek to remove. (For more from the author of “Why Democrats Have De Facto Control of the Senate Unless Conservatives Step Up” please click HERE)

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Another Obama DHS Screw Up: 20,000 Green Cards Handed out Like Candy

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In the latest instance of the Obama administration’s neglect and indifference toward America’s immigration problem, around 20,000 green cards have been wrongly distributed or contained false information, according to the latest DHS inspector general report.

“[T]he problem was far worse than originally thought,” reads a press release accompanying the 43-page report from the office of the inspector general about the flawed U.S. Customs and Immigrations Services system. The DHS report highlights that at least 19,000 green cards were issued with either incorrect information or sent in duplicate, while the USCIS also received over 200,000 complaints that cards had either been sent to the wrong address or not received at all.

Furthermore, the OIG report found that over 2,400 immigrants who had only been cleared for two-year conditional residence status were inadvertently issued cards that don’t expire for 10 years.

“It appears that thousands of Green Cards have simply gone missing. In the wrong hands, Green Cards may enable terrorists, criminals, and undocumented aliens to remain in the United States,” states Inspector General John Roth in the release. “It is vital that USCIS ensure better tools and procedures are in place to mitigate such risks.”

This comes just a few weeks after the OIG revealed that the DHS had erroneously granted citizenship to at least 1,800 individuals. Almost half of those wrongly permitted to stay indefinitely (858) were from “special interest countries” (countries prone to producing a disproportionate amount of terrorists) and already slated for deportation.

As Daniel Horowitz explained elsewhere at Conservative Review in September:

Remember, many immigrants who would be eligible for citizenship initially came here before the now-defunct Immigration and Naturalization Service was rolled into DHS. They are a part of the 148,000 fingerprint records that were never transferred over into DHS databases, compromising the ability of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to monitor which aliens were ordered deported when approving applications for citizenship.

So long as those finger print records have not been digitized, I.G. Roth says in a separate report regarding the earlier incident, U.S. Customs and Immigration Services “risks making naturalization decision without complete information and, as a result, naturalizing more individuals who may be ineligible for citizenship or who may be trying to obtain U.S. citizenship fraudulently.”

What both of these incidents point to is how the sovereignty of the American people, expressed in our congressionally passed immigration laws, is being skirted and undermined by a federal government agency that has created a de-facto pathway to citizenship for thousands of people, either by malice or sheer negligence.

Compare that with the Department of Justice’s recent decision to prosecute Sherriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Ariz., for simply enforcing federal immigration law with too much zeal in violating an injunction that requires the federal government to address state inquiries on an individual’s immigration status.

The nature of the case is unprecedented, according to the Arizona Republic:

Legal experts say the judge and attorneys have little historical guidance moving forward with the case.

“As rare as it is to have a federal judge refer the head of a law-enforcement agency for prosecution, it is even rarer that the Department of Justice would pick up that gauntlet and move forward with the charge,” said Paul Charlton, a former U.S. attorney for the District of Arizona. “It’s unheard of.”

This is the absurdity of the Obama administration and its immigration system, folks. Thanks to one department in the administration, Sheriff Arpaio could face up to six months in jail for following the will of the American people — manifest in federal law — while another federal agency subverts that will via negligence with seemingly no consequence whatsoever.

But there is hope from all of this madness: It’ll all be over in January … hopefully. (For more from the author of “Another Obama DHS Screw Up: 20,000 Green Cards Handed out Like Candy” please click HERE)

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Who’s Funding the Rioting Against Trump?

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As the violent post-election riots continue, many observers are becoming aware that much of the rioting is the work of paid protesters who have been instructed to use violence. Retired Army Gen. Michael Flynn, Donald Trump’s national security advisor, told a gathering of Young America’s Foundation the demonstrators are “paid anarchists.”

Both Donald Trump and Senator Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) have publicly criticized the paid rioting. As the word is getting out, Twitter hashtags of #paidprotest and #fakeprotest have been started, identifying the operations.

The left has been paying “AstroTurf” activists for years — “astroturf” movements seem to be natural grassroots movements but were actually created and funded by others for propaganda. Project Veritas Action, the organization of conservative undercover videographer James O’Keefe, filmed Democratic operative Scott Foval discussing paying people to engage in violence at Trump campaign events. Several protesters admitted they were paid $16 an hour to demonstrate against Trump.

The Billionaire Funders

Billionaires are funding left-wing groups organizing the protests. A strategy document was uncovered in the hacked and leaked emails of Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager John Podesta. Sent from his think-tank Center for American Progress and shared with MoveOn.org, it asked leftist billionaires George and Jonathan Soros, Peter and Jonathan Lewis, Herb and Marion Sandler, Steve Bing, and John Sperling to fund “grassroots” protest efforts. Jonathan Lewis, who inherited his fortune from his father Peter Lewis, the founder of Progressive Insurance, agreed to fund the protests this year.

The lefty organizations place ads on Craigslist recruiting activists to agitate in large cities. A typical ads says, “STOP TRUMP — up to $1500/week. Hiring immediately! Call Today Start tomorrow! $15-$18 hourly rate + bonus + overtime up to 77 hours per week!”

One of the groups placing the ads is Community Outreach Group, a Planned Parenthood affiliate. Planned Parenthood received $553.7 million dollars in tax dollars last year, so taxpayers may be indirectly funding the protesters. Left-wing billionaire George Soros and his family are top contributors to Planned Parenthood. Soros himself contributed $1.5 million to the organization this election cycle.

Moveon.org placed an ad on Craigslist in New York hiring anti-Trump activists for $18 an hour. The ad said, “We only want protesters under the age of 30. … We prefer minorities.” The organization is not only funding the demonstrators but creating a fake impression of who they are. Moveon.org is also funded by Soros.

Another ad is from the Fund for the Public Interest, the largest fundraiser for progressive causes in the United States. Soros funds many of the umbrella organizations underneath it. The Progressive Unity Fund provides the financial backing for Act Now To Stop War & End Racism (ANSWER) Coalition, which started much of the rioting after the election.

What the Left Wants

The left is trying to cover its tracks. Two leftist “fake news debunking sites” are trying to distract people from investigating the paid protesters by citing a fake article about a paid protester as evidence it’s not happening. In fact, the fake article was written by a man who deliberately tried to fool Republicans into sharing incorrect news in order to help Clinton.

However, the organizations behind the rioting clearly indicate they intend to continue the demonstrations. They are planning to demonstrate at Trump’s inauguration January 20.

It is not clear what the lefty organizations seek to achieve with the protests. Trump won the election fairly and it will be extremely difficult to persuade enough electors to change their votes to Clinton. There are rumors that the left wants to generate dislike for Trump in order to start impeachment proceedings after he enters office, but with a Republican-controlled House and Senate that is equally unlikely.

Their goal must be to artificially create the appearance of a mass dislike for Trump, in order to influence others and generally undermine his administration. With the Republican advantage in the Senate so small, the left has to get only three or four senators to start opposing Trump to change the balance of power in the Senate. They may also be preparing for the mid-term elections, where Democrats hope to regain seats in Congress by capitalizing on what they hope will be Trump’s unpopularity. (For more from the author of “Who’s Funding the Rioting Against Trump?” please click HERE)

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Trump Dismisses Notion of Offering Senator a Spot in Cabinet – ‘No Thank You’

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New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte, who has been one of the most outspoken Republicans against President-elect Donald Trump, will not have to worry about serving on Trump’s Cabinet.

When speaking with New York Times reporters Tuesday, Trump made it clear that he’s not interested.

Trump reportedly said Ayotte “would love a job in the administration.”

When asked by reporters if the senator could potentially have a spot in his Cabinet, the president-elect replied, “No thank you.”

Earlier this month, Ayotte lost her re-election bid to New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan, a Democrat.

Ayotte withdrew her support for Trump in October after the release of a 2005 tape in which the New York businessman made lewd comments about women.

“I wanted to be able to support my party’s nominee, chosen by the people, because I feel strongly that we need a change in direction for our country,” she said in a statement. “However, I’m a mom and an American first, and I cannot and will not support a candidate for President who brags about degrading and assaulting women.”

Trump also had harsh words for Rep. Joe Heck, R-Nev., who also withdrew his support for Trump after the tape was released.

“I can no longer look past the pattern of behavior and comments that have been made by Donald Trump. … My wife, my daughters, my mom, my sister and all women deserve better,” Heck said in October.

Like Ayotte, Heck lost his bid for re-election, falling to Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto.

In his time with reporters Tuesday, several of whom were live tweeting highlights of the meeting, Trump said he noticed a shift among some prominent Republicans who had been critical of him before his Nov. 8 victory.

Conservative columnist George Will had suggested Trump choose Ayotte as his attorney general. (For more from the author of “Trump Dismisses Notion of Offering Senator a Spot in Cabinet – ‘No Thank You'” please click HERE)

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Justice Thomas: Supreme Court Must Stop Adding Rights to the Constitution

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The U.S. Supreme Court must cease granting so-called rights demanded by some in the 21st Century that are not found in the Constitution, Justice Clarence Thomas said Thursday night.

Speaking to the Federalist Society at a dinner honoring the late Justice Antonin Scalia, Thomas referenced the Supreme Court’s decision last year to legalize same-sex marriage as an example.

“Today it is the view of many that the Supreme Court is the giver of liberties—what an odd conception of governance that We the People are dependent on the third branch of government to grant us our freedom,” Thomas said.

“With such unchecked judicial power, the court day-by-day, case-by-case, is busy designing the Constitution—as Justice Scalia once quipped—instead of interpreting it,” he added.

Thomas said this practice leads to judges adding to the Constitution.

“With such unchecked judicial power, we leave it for the least accountable branch to decide what newly discovered rights should be appended to our Constitution,” Thomas said.

Thomas argued that conservative judges and legal minds must work to make government once again conform to the what the authors of the Constitution intended.

“Whether we in this room tonight ultimately win or lose the effort to reclaim the forms of government that the Framers intended, it is our duty to stand firm in the defense of the Constitutional principles and structure that secure our liberty,” Thomas said.

“Like Justice Scalia, we must do what the Constitution obliges us to do. It is now for us, the living, to be dedicated to the unfinished business for which Justice Scalia gave his last full measure of devotion,” Thomas said, paraphrasing the words of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

Federalist Society President Eugene Meyer noted that last week’s election has changed the world as conservative legal scholars know it.

“On November 8, Hurricane Trump hit. The future can be difficult to predict,” he said.

Leonard Leo, the society’s executive vice president, met with Trump this week to discuss the transition and potential Supreme Court picks. He told the group that change means opportunity.

“Any time there’s a major shift in the power of government, it’s an enormous opportunity for what is probably the collection of the smartest, most talented and most publicly minded lawyers in the country to roll up their sleeves and help advance the cause of constitutional government,” he said. (For more from the author of “Justice Thomas: Supreme Court Must Stop Adding Rights to the Constitution” please click HERE)

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Possible Breakthrough in Mysterious Murder of DNC Staffer

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A spokesman for the family of Seth Rich, the Democratic National Committee staffer mysteriously murdered this summer, said there may be a breakthrough in the case.

Jack Burkman, appearing Tuesday on The Steve Malzberg Show on Newsmax TV, reported that some additional private surveillance footage, pertinent to the murder, may have surfaced.

“Some of the surveillance footage has legs. We know there’s two people, we strongly suggest there’s two people instead of one,” Burkman said.

Then he provided the newest details in the case.

“Now interesting Steve we can break some news here. We just learned that there may be additional private video,” Burkman said. “We believe we have located additional private video that could be useful.”

According to Burkman, the video came to light thanks to Rich’s parents canvassing his old neighborhood in the northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C. with fliers offering a $125,000 reward for information leading to a conviction in the case. Previously, DC police were offering a $25,000 reward, and Burkman put up an additional $100,000.

Rich, 27, was shot twice in the back in the early morning hours of July 10, just a short distance from his apartment.

DC police have not been able to ascertain a motive or any suspects.

Rich’s father, Joel, told Omaha, Neb., CBS affiliate KMTV shortly after his son’s murder, “If it was a robbery, it failed because he still has his watch, he still has his money, he still has his credit cards, still had his phone. So it was a wasted effort except we lost a life.”

Less than two weeks after Rich’s murder, Wikileaks released emails revealing collusion between the DNC and the Hillary Clinton campaign, as well as its efforts to undermine the campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders. (For more from the author of “Possible Breakthrough in Mysterious Murder of DNC Staffer” please click HERE)

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A Million Syrian Christians Can Thank Hindu Democrat Rep. Tulsi Gabbard

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This week, Donald Trump surprised the world — and frightened entrenched interests in the GOP ranging from hair-trigger interventionists to military contractors — by meeting with Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard. You might not have heard of her, but this Hawaii Democrat has been one of the loudest voices in Congress speaking for the protection of Middle Eastern Christians and other religious minorities. Here is part of Rep. Gabbard’s statement:

President-elect Trump asked me to meet with him about our current policies regarding Syria, our fight against terrorist groups like al-Qaeda and [the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria], as well as other foreign policy challenges we face. …

I felt it important to take the opportunity to meet with the President-elect now before the drumbeats of war that neocons have been beating drag us into an escalation of the war to overthrow the Syrian government — a war which has already cost hundreds of thousands of lives and forced millions of refugees to flee their homes in search of safety for themselves and their families.
As The Hill reported: “Gabbard told Trump she opposes a no-fly or safe zone in Syria, calling it ‘disastrous’ for the Syrian people and the U.S.”

Indeed it would be, since such a U.S. intervention — beyond risking war with nuclear-armed Russia — would allow radical Sunni Muslims aligned with al Qaeda to take over Syria and commit genocide against religious minorities numbering in the millions, including Syria’s Christians. You know, the way they did in Iraq. That is why Syria’s Christian leaders have been begging Western Christians since 2013 to avert such a reckless intervention.

Should We Shatter Syria as We Did Iraq?

During the GOP primary campaign this crucial issue got too little play in media. The question, to be blunt, was: Would the U.S. do to the Christians in Syria what the Bush administration did to the ancient Christian communities of Iraq? That is, would they topple the secular dictator who wasn’t singling them out for persecution, with no plausible plan for protecting them afterward from the firestorm of unleashed Islamist hatred?

Several of the Republican candidates repeated the shopworn talking points of the neoconservative wing of the party, and promised to do just that: to confront Putin’s Russia using military force, to stop Russia aiding the secular Assad regime — and offer direct military aid to the “Syrian rebels,” who by that point had been almost completely taken over by radical Islamists funded from nasty Muslim theocracies like Saudi Arabia, and directly connected to al Qaeda.

That was the plan of GOP globalists, who never offered a plan for protecting Syria’s Christians, Alawites, Shi’ites, or other religious minorities, should their “moderate” rebels turn over their guns to al Qaeda (as they did), lose out in the power struggle with radical Islamists (as they did), or fade into irrelevance (as they have). Protecting Christians from ISIS-style persecution wasn’t a priority for these people, as it wasn’t in 2003. Since we have friends who are Middle Eastern Christian refugees from the last careless and catastrophically expensive failed intervention in the region, we took this issue personally — and called out the candidates who endorsed this reckless policy. We did so again after the election, urging Sen. Marco Rubio not to let himself be used as a megaphone for the GOP’s bumbling war party.

On this issue, the election of Donald Trump is unabashedly good news, since he owes nothing to that wing of the Republican party, and is under no illusions that al Qaeda-linked Islamist militias are in any way U.S. allies. They are cats’ paws for Saudi Arabia and Turkey, two countries involved right now in the mass colonization of Europe by Muslim immigrants repackaged as “refugees.” If they take power, they will wield it not much differently from ISIS — though doubtless in a more organized and bureaucratic fashion. In Saudi Arabia, those who “insult” Islam by professing Christianity are only executed after formal trials. That makes all the difference, doesn’t it?

God bless Tulsi Gabbard and Donald Trump, and keep them strong in their rejection of another poorly-conceived and callous U.S. intervention in a region we barely understand and should stop pretending we are able somehow to bomb and occupy until it magically turns into Switzerland. (For more from the author of “A Million Syrian Christians Can Thank Hindu Democrat Rep. Tulsi Gabbard” please click HERE)

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Can We Please Stop With This Nazi, Hitler, Name-Calling Stuff?

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Adolph Hitler and the Nazis committed some of the most horrific acts known to the human race, systematically murdering millions of Jews — including one and a half million Jewish children and babies — along with other ethnic and social minorities, not to mention sparking a war that killed many millions of others. In light of the depths of their evil, we had better be very careful before we label others Nazis or call our opponents Hitler.

Most recently, Howard Dean labelled Steve Bannon, President-elect Trump’s Chief of Staff, a Nazi, explaining, “It’s a big word and I don’t usually use it unless somebody’s really anti-Semitic, really misogynistic, really anti-Black.”

Earlier in the month, Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam, tacitly compared Hillary Clinton to Hitler, saying, “Mrs. Clinton backed the crime bill and then called our young people super predators. Of course she apologized, but just a minute. See, Hitler could’ve said to the Jews after Auschwitz, ‘I’m so sorry.’ Would that be enough to satisfy you?”

Back in June, a headline on the Daily Kos claimed that “Jeff Sessions endorses Nazi style fascism.” (Sessions is now Trump’s nominee for the position of Attorney General.)

But this is nothing new.

In June, 2004, John Leo reported that comparing President George W. Bush to Hitler was “no longer confined to loonies,” pointing to the comments of Judge Guido Calabresi, “former dean of the Yale Law School and a moderate liberal,” who “said Bush’s rise to power was strikingly similar to the rise of Hitler and Mussolini.” Leo also noted that “Senator Robert Byrd, for example, says George Bush reminds him of Hermann Goering, thus forfeiting much of his heralded reputation for political seriousness.”

With the election of Donald Trump, a whole new wave of rhetoric has been unleashed. Typical are the comments of Frank Navarro, a Holocaust scholar who is now a high-school teacher, who stated that “there are remarkable parallels between Hitler and Donald Trump.”

On a more grassroots level, those of us in the pro-family movement are used to being called Nazis and Hitler on an almost daily basis, a proven (and effective) strategy of gay activists for more than 25 years. As someone with the screen name of Astral Haze posted on one of my web pages back in March, “all homophobic people are hitler.” (Of course, if you do not affirm any of the goals of gay activism, you are homophobic, and therefore you are Hitler.)

This horrific name-calling needs to stop, not only because it defames the living but also because it mocks the dead — specifically, the victims of Hitler and his henchmen.

Of course these days, it seems that the left is branding almost all of its political and ideological opponents as racist or sexist or misogynist or Nazi or the like (Farrakhan’s attack on Hillary Clinton is in a class of its own), and the more that White Supremacist groups celebrate Trump’s victory (despite Trump’s constant disavowal of their support), the more the radical left will say, “You see! We told you Trump was a Nazi.”

We are also reminded that Trump was elected on November 8th, one day before the 78th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass (November 8th, 1938), the date that many historians give for the beginning of the Holocaust. As Jennifer Mendelsohn tweeted, “Waking up on the anniversary of Kristallnacht to the news that America elected a demagogue. You can’t make this stuff up.”

Neither can you make up the extreme, destructive, and ugly nature of this rhetoric.

So, to set the record straight, the day that Steve Bannon or Hillary Clinton begin putting Jews (or women or blacks) on cattle cars, sending them to the gas chambers to be exterminated, is the day you can call him a Nazi and call her Hitler. (As much as I deplore the abortion policies of Hillary Clinton, I will not call her Hitler.)

And the day that Jeff Sessions begins rounding up minorities, forcing them into crowded ghettos, putting them on starvation diets and depriving them of virtually all human rights, is the day you can accuse him of endorsing Nazi style fascism.

And the day that Donald Trump rounds up hundreds of thousands of Mexicans or Muslims or blacks or Jews, forces them to dig ditches, strip naked, and then take a bullet to the back of the head, or the day he throws the babies of these minorities into burning pits (why waste a bullet on a baby?), or the day he authorizes medical experiments to be performed on minority twins (without anesthesia), or the day he uses the carcasses of his victims to make soap and lampshades is the day you can compare him to Hitler.

Until then (and I trust God that such days will never come in our country), we do well to watch our words.

All this Nazi-Hitler rhetoric is beyond insulting. It is downright dangerous and terribly incendiary. (For more from the author of “Can We Please Stop With This Nazi, Hitler, Name-Calling Stuff?” please click HERE)

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