Agents Detail ‘Daily’ Border Fence Battle, Seek Post-Obama ‘Restart’

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In the tiny Arizona city of Douglas, a Border Patrol surveillance camera is trained on a 10-foot-high fence with Mexico. After a few seconds, footage shows a figure appearing out of nowhere and the fence suddenly opens to allow a pickup truck through. A car follows, and they speed off into adjoining neighborhoods while the makeshift gate slams shut.

The Wild West still has a foothold here, more than 100 years after gunslingers Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday called Douglas home. Only the outlaws are cartels and traffickers.

And while President Trump is vowing to step up enforcement and seal off the southern border, agents in Border Patrol say they are still grappling with fallout from the Obama years – which they contend allowed security problems like this to fester.

“We weren’t allowed to do our job,” Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, the border agents’ union, told Fox News.

Judd said the agency is now seeking a “restart” after years of neglect. (Read more from “Agents Detail ‘Daily’ Border Fence Battle, Seek Post-Obama ‘Restart'” HERE)

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Rep. Keith Ellison — Friend to Islamic Radicals and Jew-Haters — Narrowly Misses DNC Chairmanship Win

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Congressman Keith Ellison, D-Minn. (F, 26%), a man known for his ties to noted anti-Semites and radical Islamic groups, came dangerously close to winning the election for DNC chairman Saturday afternoon.

In the second round of voting, Ellison received 200 (46%) of the 435 votes cast, narrowly losing to Tom Perez, secretary of labor under former President Obama. Ellison appeared to be the favorite to win the chairmanship. A survey published in The Hill this week showed that Ellison held a 2 to 1 edge over Perez. Following Perez’ win, Ellison was appointed deputy chair of the DNC.

Ellison, who has paid homage to Malcolm X by previously writing under the pen name Keith “X” Ellison, almost beat out seven other candidates to win the party chairmanship.

Prominent Democratic leaders, such as philanthropist Haim Saban and Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz, have described Ellison as personally anti-Semitic. Dershowitz even threatened to quit the party if Ellison had won.

The Minnesota congressman has deep ties to extremist groups.

Ellison has been tied to the Nation of Islam, and once supported its virulently anti-Semitic founder, Louis Farrakhan. CNN found that Ellison was involved in the Nation of Islam for about a decade between the 80s and 90s. During that time, while in law school, Ellison aligned with anti-Semitic campaigners and Holocaust deniers, often taking to the press to defend them. He often came to Farrakhan’s defense, claiming Farrakhan was no anti-Semite. However, Farrakhan, has previously insisted that Judaism is a “gutter religion,” and blames Jews for the African slave trade.

Moving forward into the 21st century, Ellison has showed immense disrespect for the office of the presidency, engaging in vast conspiracies surrounding the 9/11 attacks. In 2007, he described former President George W. Bush as a Hitler-like figure, suspecting that 9/11 was an inside job.

From 2009 up until present day, Ellison has engaged with several figures who are close to the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas.

In 2009, he met with a man described by the FBI as a fundraiser for Hamas.

Throughout the years, Ellison often has spoken at fundraisers hosted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which has been profiled by the Department of Justice as a Hamas-related organization. Additionally, CAIR was listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terror-financing trial in American history, and is banned as a terror group in the United Arab Emirates.

Just a couple months back, Ellison was set to speak at a radical Islamic conference, rife with extremist individuals. A small sample of the individuals he was set to join includes: an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, supporters of terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah, and an advocate for suicide bombings against Jews and the death penalty for homosexuals. Ellison pulled out of the conference at the last moment after Conservative Review and other news sites exposed his expected attendance at the radical Islamic Chicago conference.

Ellison has long been militantly opposed to the State of Israel, until lately, as he has softened his tone on the Jewish state. As recently as 2014, however, Ellison was calling for the United States to withdraw its military support for Israel while it was in the midst of a war with the Palestinian terror group Hamas.

The Democratic Party, which already has major issues engaging with the vast majority of Americans, dodged a bullet Saturday. The DNC almost elected their most radical chairman since the party’s days as a segregationist institution.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to include the news that Ellison was appointed deputy chair. (For more from the author of “Rep. Keith Ellison — Friend to Islamic Radicals and Jew-Haters — Narrowly Misses DNC Chairmanship Win” please click HERE)

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Mark Levin Roasts the 3-Ring Circus Known as the DNC Election

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Members of the Democratic National Committee will gather today to select the next chairman of the Democrat Party. On Thursday, Conservative Review Editor-in-Chief Mark Levin played clips from a candidate forum that demonstrated that these liberals are, in fact, running to be chief clown of the three-ring liberal circus known as the DNC.

The radical frontrunner, Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn. (F, 26%), is among those calling for the impeachment of President Trump under the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution.

“He’s not in violation of the Emoluments Clause – meaning being paid by a foreign government,” Levin explained. “He may have investments in other countries and the monies may flow into his trust. But he’s not being paid by foreign governments for the purpose of influencing his office.”

Keith Ellison isn’t the only kook running for chairman of the DNC. Jehmu Greene, a former Fox News contributor, said the president is “arrogantly marching us towards facism.” Another candidate, Obama Labor Secretary Tom Perez accused Trump of wanting to “turn the clock back.”

“Since when is supporting individual liberty turning the clock back?” Levin asked rhetorically. “Since when is supporting private property rights, and commerce, and trade, and capitalism turning the clock back? Since when is demanding the enforcement of the greatest Constitution man has ever developed turning the clock back? Since when is believing in faith, and family, and a moral order turning the clock back?”

“Turning the clock back to what? You jerk!” (For more from the author of “Mark Levin Roasts the 3-Ring Circus Known as the DNC Election” please click HERE)

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Witches Seek Curse on President Trump; Christians Respond With Spiritual Warfare Prayer

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Christians have traditionally followed the command that the Apostle Paul gave to Timothy:

I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people — for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. (1 Timothy 2:1-2)

If the early Christians could pray even for Roman rulers who persecuted them, how much more should we pray for political leaders whom we have a hand in choosing. But the call to prayer is even more urgent now, when some occultists who oppose President Trump have started to gather to do him harm — calling for people to perform a ritual to curse President Trump, “bind” him and eventually remove him from office.

By the light of the waning crescent moon last night, self-described witches united to cast a spell on President Trump and his supporters with a ritualistic ceremony. It’s a ritual they plan to repeat every month, and they’ve encouraged others to join them. A Facebook event page, posted by a group that prefers to “remain anonymous,” states, “A Spell to Bind Donald Trump and All Those Who Abet Him: Every Waning Crescent Moon at Midnight Beginning February 24, 2017, Ending when he is driven from office.”

Currently, nearly 9,000 people are following the page. And the #bindtrump effort has clearly reached into the entertainment industry. Pop singer Lana Del Rey will said she would join the event as well, posting dates and times of the rituals on Twitter. The liberal music magazine Rolling Stone, tongue only part-way in its cheek, was also on board, saying so far nothing else has worked to stop Trump, “so maybe a little witchcraft isn’t such a bad idea, after all?”

While some may claim that magic — or at least tonight’s effort — is nonsense and powerless, the Bible is full of scriptures condemning the practice nonetheless. Galatians 5:19-21 is one example:

The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God (My emphasis).

Deutoronomy 18:10-12 puts it plainly:

And do not let your people practice fortune-telling, or use sorcery, or interpret omens, or engage in witchcraft, or cast spells, or function as mediums or psychics, or call forth the spirits of the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord.

For those who practice the occult, Revelation promises that “their place will be in the lake the burns with fire and sulfur.”

Christians Fighting Back in the Spirit

As Rolling Stone reports, one group of Christians is performing spiritual warfare of its own to combat the spells — and calling all Christians to do the same. The Christian Nationalist Alliance, on their website, has declared a Day of Prayer for each of the spell-casting days.

This is a declaration of spiritual war and it requires a response. … We beseech all Christian soldiers to answer this call to action by reading from Psalm 23. We ask you to join us in praying for the strength of our nation, our elected representatives and for the souls of the lost who would take up Satanic arms against us.

Psalm 23 (RSV) says:

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want;
he makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul.

He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil;
for thou art with me;
thy rod and thy staff,
they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
thou anointest my head with oil,
my cup overflows.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life;
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
for ever.

Dave Kubal, President of Intercessors for America (IFA), told Charisma News, “Whether or not this call for spells pans out and people act on it, we feel compelled, as the Body of Christ and intercessors, to come against this evil with immediate and powerful prayer.” (For more from the author of “Witches Seek Curse on President Trump; Christians Respond With Spiritual Warfare Prayer” please click HERE)

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Great-Grandfather Leads Woman to Christ — 100 Years After His Death

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When Joanna Reed Shelton, career diplomat, opened her email one day several years ago, she never could’ve guessed what was inside: an invitation to celebrate the anniversary of her missionary great-grandfather’s church in Japan, which he had started 120 years before. She wasn’t a Christian — so why was she invited? She speculated that her speeches had made it on the web and across the world, connecting her with her great-grandfather’s legacy. She couldn’t have known how his life work wasn’t done — not quite.

Perhaps without even knowing why, she decided to take a trip to Japan.

As Joanna sat in the church her great-grandfather started, family stories came to life. Like the story of her great-grandfather struggling to keep from crying after his 14-year-old daughter who was the organist, Ella, died. When she visited Ella’s grave, Joanna held back tears.

Over time, Joanna took more trips to Japan, visited another church her grandfather founded, and began digging into his work as a writer and theologian at Meiji Gakuin University. Still, something was missing. She realized that her life traveling the world did not fulfill her. She decided to learn more about her great-grandfather and what made him become a missionary to Japan. But to do that, she had to know more about his faith — Christianity.

Joanna said that she traded in her “chauffeured cars and dinners with ambassadors for cowboy boots and life on a 240-acre farm” and moved to Montana. She began studying the Bible in earnest under two devout relatives. The longing she felt, the inner desire for something she couldn’t describe, was filled by her study of scripture. She couldn’t get enough.

Joanna trusted Jesus as her Lord and Savior and she said her life gained a new focus. She thought about her great-grandfather and the Japanese people he ministered to as a missionary. But he wasn’t finished when his life was over. “You might say I’m the latest convert of a man whose work clearly was not done when he died more than a century ago.” (For more from the author of “Great-Grandfather Leads Woman to Christ — 100 Years After His Death” please click HERE)

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Trump Returns Authority Over School Transgender Policies to States and Localities

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On February 22, the Trump administration released a statement rescinding previous Obama administration guidance dealing with students who identify as transgender.

Contrary to almost all the news reporting on this story, the real question addressed by the new administration’s guidance is not (at least not directly), “Which restrooms or locker rooms should students who identify as transgender use?”

Instead, it is something much simpler — “Who gets to decide?”

The answer that President Trump’s administration has now given is also simple: “Not us. Not the federal government.”

Getting Title IX Right

The two Obama administration documents that have now been rescinded — a 2016 “Dear Colleague” letter to every school district in the country, and a lesser-known “opinion letter” issued January 2015 — asserted a specific interpretation of a specific federal law.

“Title IX” is common shorthand for “Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972” — a federal law which prohibited discrimination on the basis of “sex” in any school that receives federal funds (as all do).

The Obama administration argued that discrimination based on “sex” includes discrimination based on “gender identity;” and that failing to treat students in accord with their self-perceived “gender identity” (rather than their biological sex) in all school activities (including restroom and locker room assignments) constitutes such “discrimination.”

This position is legally untenable. Title IX was enacted by Congress, and signed into law by President Nixon, in 1972. It strains credulity to suggest that the legislative intent of Congress — 45 years ago — was to authorize biological males to use female facilities, and vice versa. The logical conclusion is that “sex” in Title IX is a reference only to one’s biological sex at birth.

If Congress wanted to expand the reach of Title IX to encompass “gender identity” as well as “sex,” Congress could amend the law to do so. Until now, they have chosen not to. No president simply has the authority under our Constitution to effect such an expansion unilaterally. President Trump’s decision to withdraw the Obama guidance should be welcomed by anyone who believes in limited government or in the rule of law — regardless of how they feel about transgender issues.

Legal Issues With “Gender Identity” Protection

Making “gender identity” a protected category under non-discrimination laws or policies would raise concerns beyond the question of bathrooms and locker rooms. Will staff be punished for inadvertently referring to a transgender student by the wrong, non-preferred, pronoun? Will fellow students have their freedom of speech or religion infringed upon, by being punished for expressing the view that God created human beings male and female, or that biological sex is a more valid indicator of maleness or femaleness than subjective “gender identity?”

The issue of sex-separated facilities or programs is an important one. Even future Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, defending the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to prohibit sex discrimination under the law, wrote in the Washington Post in 1975 that “the equality principle” is compatible with having facilities separated on the basis of sex, declaring, “Separate places to disrobe, sleep, perform personal bodily functions are permitted, in some situations required, by regard for individual privacy.”

Common sense, however, tells us that the reason we have separate facilities for men and women, boys and girls in the first place is not because their gender identities are different, but because their anatomy is different.

Privacy Needs

Court precedents on physical privacy have established that it is a right which includes the right not to expose one’s nude or semi-nude body to someone of the opposite biological sex, and similarly not to be exposed involuntarily to the nude or semi-nude body of someone of the opposite biological sex. The Obama guidelines would have cast this privacy right to the winds, in favor of an unrestricted preference for gender identity over biological sex.

Many observers express concern about the needs of students who identify as transgender — as they should. But what about the concerns of Kaeley Triller Haver — a rape survivor who showered in her underwear because of the trauma she had endured? What about the female student in Illinois who now wears her gym clothes to school under her regular clothes — and then puts the regular clothes back on over the gym clothes, without showering — in order to avoid exposing herself to a biological male who was given permission to use the girls’ locker room?

Providing single-user, gender-neutral restrooms or changing facilities is a reasonable accommodation that could protect everyone’s concern for privacy and safety — yet it has been rejected as discriminatory by transgender activists and the Obama administration.

The Trump administration policy will open the door for such accommodations to ensure that the legitimate needs and concerns of all students are met. This is far preferable to a “one-size-fits-all,” top-down solution imposed by the federal government. (For more from the author of “Trump Returns Authority Over School Transgender Policies to States and Localities” please click HERE)

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At CPAC, Panelists Discuss Role Vetting, Assimilation Play in National Security

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Extreme vetting and a border wall are the key issues facing the country under President Donald Trump’s administration—but aren’t the silver bullet solution to immigration, experts and members of Congress said Saturday.

“Extreme vetting is something that applies to the refugee side of this debate,” said Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., during a panel at the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC.

The forum was titled “If Heaven Has a Gate, a Wall, and Extreme Vetting, Why Can’t America?” and covered a number of illegal immigration issues, from the national security impact to the economy.

On Jan. 27, Trump signed an executive order for a 120-day pause to temporarily block immigration from seven Middle Eastern terrorism hot spots—Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, Sudan, Somalia, and Yemen.

Buck said the United States either shouldn’t take refugees from those countries, or take them only after doing adequate background checks.

“Really, what the president was talking about, what Congress was talking about, is when we’re dealing with countries that are hot spots of terrorism that are destabilized as a result of civil war, we don’t have the ability to go into those countries and find records to determine if someone has health issues, or criminal background, or is radicalized in some ways,” Buck said.

The Trump administration calls this approach “extreme vetting,” but critics charge it is a “Muslim ban.”

After judicial setbacks, the Trump administration will take a dual track of defending the current order, while also drafting a new order, White House press secretary Sean Spicer has said.

Washington state and Minnesota sued to stop the president’s executive orders. A federal judge in Seattle suspended enforcement of the order. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld that temporary restraining order.

Multiculturalism prevents a common national identity and language, said Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at The Heritage Foundation.

“This issue of multiculturalism has to be solved no matter what we do with immigration,” Gonzalez said. “We can do all the vetting we want, but if people come in and they are assimilated into groups, we are going to have a problem unless we take care of that.”

This extends into national security, he said, because often the younger generations are taught multiculturalism in schools.

“This is true for radicalization,” Gonzalez said. “It’s not really the immigrant, the guy who comes in. It’s his child or the second generation that becomes radicalized.”

This largely has been a government construct, he said.

“We have always been multiethnic. We have never been multicultural,” Gonzalez said of America. “Immigrants are pressed into ethnic groups that form the building blocks of multiculturalism.”

On Jan. 25, Trump signed other executive orders regarding immigration. One order called for “immediate construction of a physical wall on the southern border, monitored and supported by adequate personnel so as to prevent illegal immigration, drug and human trafficking, and acts of terrorism.”

Trump said he will ask Congress for an initial payment to build a wall at the border with Mexico—a project already authorized under the 2006 Secure Fence Act. After that, Trump said, he will seek reimbursement from the Mexican government.

Trump also issued an order scaling back funding for “sanctuary cities,” the term for municipalities that refuse to cooperate with federal officials in enforcing immigration law.

Immigration can’t be addressed without reintroducing the idea of a guest worker program, said Helen Krieble of the Vernon K. Krieble Foundation, who was the biggest advocate of the gate referred to in the title of the forum.

“You will never deport 11 or 12 or 15 million illegal immigrants,” she said.

An audience member shouted, “Why not?”

“Because you can’t. It’s logistically impossible,” Krieble responded. “If that person has got a self-supporting job, has never committed a crime in the United States, they have no path to citizenship, no path to a green card, and no use of our social services, to allow him to apply for a simple work permit so that they are here legally is a good idea.”

However, Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., insisted: “You build the wall and plan for the gate. We have to secure the border. That has to be job one.”

He added:

That takes a wall, that takes technology, that takes boots on the ground. That takes all this administration says they are committed to doing. Similarly, they are talking about, I think President Trump calls it, a beautiful gate. He wants a gate. He wants people to have access. But, if folks are here, and they are then applying for these jobs that Helen is talking about, that has the potential to be very problematic.

If you are going to move in that direction, that’s why I say you have to do three things first—border control, internal enforcement, and you have to take away their inducements. But if you have inducements to come to America and apply for this card, then you have an inducement to be here, perhaps even illegally. If you’re going to allow this kind of program, you would want them in your home country to obtain that card and then work it out that way.

CPAC, the largest annual national gathering of conservative activists, runs from Wednesday to Saturday at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, just outside Washington. (For more from the author of “At CPAC, Panelists Discuss Role Vetting, Assimilation Play in National Security” please click HERE)

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New EPA Administrator Emphasizes Federalism, Rule of Law

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“The future ain’t what it used to be at the EPA.”

That was the message of Scott Pruitt, the newly confirmed administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, to conservatives gathered Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC.

“Process, rule of law, and cooperative federalism, that is going to be the heart of how we do business at the EPA,” Pruitt said.

In his role as EPA administrator, Pruitt said that he would work to restore the role of the states.

“What really matters a lot is federalism,” the former Oklahoma attorney general said.

“We are going to once again pay attention to states across this country. I believe the people in Oklahoma, in Texas, Indiana, Ohio, New York, and California and all the states across the country … care about the air they breathe and they care about the water they drink and we are going to be partners with those individuals, not adversaries.”

Pruitt said the EPA will also “pay attention to process.”

“We are not going to bypass rule-making,” he said. “We are going to do the work that Congress has said we must do.”

The new administrator also said he will make sure the EPA pays “keen attention to [the] rule of law.”

“As we engage in real rule-making, as we make sure that we don’t use the courts to regulate, we are going to do so with a keen attention to rule of law,” Pruitt said. “Rule of law matters.”

Pruitt said executive agencies must operate under the authority Congress has given them, and not go beyond it.

“Executive agencies only have the power that Congress has given them, they can’t make it up as they go,” Pruitt said. “They can’t fill in the blank. They can’t say, ‘We’re just simply going to go forward without Congress speaking.’”

CPAC, the largest annual national gathering of conservative activists, runs from Wednesday to Saturday at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, just outside Washington. (For more from the author of “New EPA Administrator Emphasizes Federalism, Rule of Law” please click HERE)

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Where Conservatives Are in the Trump Era: 15 Takeaways From Their Biggest Conference

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Five weeks into President Donald Trump’s presidency, the first time in eight years a Republican has been in the White House, where do conservatives see the country going?

Here are highlights from The Daily Signal’s coverage of the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, the largest annual gathering of conservatives:

1. Trump talks policy objectives.

In his speech, Trump emphasized a variety of issues that conservatives care about, saying, “We will build the wall and we are going to start soon,” as well as promising “a substantial upgrade for the military.” He also took aim at regulations:

We are going to put the regulation industry out of work. By the way, I want regulations. I want to protect our environment. I want regulations for safety. I want all the regulations we need, and I want them to be so strong and so tough. But we don’t need 75 percent of the repetitive, horrible regulations that hurt companies, hurt jobs, make us noncompetitive overseas with companies from other countries.

2. The filmmakers behind the “Gosnell” movie discuss the real story.

Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell, whose clinic was dubbed a “house of horrors,” hasn’t received the attention his case deserves. Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney talk about this “serial killer.”

3. Gov. Scott Walker urges GOP lawmakers to keep their promises.

“It’s not only conservatives and Republicans who like that, but what we found in Wisconsin is that independents and, yes, even some discerning Democrats, like it when you do the things you say you were going to do,” said the Republican governor, no stranger to Democrat protests. “Commonsense conservative reforms work, they actually work, and people respond to them.”

4. British politician Nigel Farage calls 2016 “the beginning of a global political revolution.”

Farage, who campaigned with Trump during the election, said the message of sovereignty and nationalism that drove United Kingdom voters to choose Brexit last June mirrors the populist vision that has taken power in Washington,” wrote Josh Siegel in his report.

“When in years to come, the generations that follow us study the history of this period, there is one year that will stand out,” Farage said. “That year is the year of 2016. Because in 2016 we witnessed the beginning of a global political revolution, and it’s one that is not going to stop.”

5. Gov. Sam Brownback talks about refugees.

The Kansas Republican made the case that it isn’t about the number of refugees, but whether they are vetted sufficiently before coming to America. “You can’t bring people in the United States who want to kill us,” he told The Daily Signal.

6. Kellyanne Conway predicts the conference could become “TPAC.”

Trump’s winning campaign manager and adviser suggested Trump was having an impact on the conservative movement. “This will be TPAC,” Conway said. “He has brought this infusion of energy. He made people feel from the beginning they are part of a movement. People felt so energized as they had a seat at the table. … He replaced this fiction of electability with this revelation of electricity.”

7. Katie Pavlich highlights the myths about gun suppressors.

The author and Fox News contributor talked to The Daily Signal’s Kelsey Harkness about guns—and puppies.

8. Carly Fiorina says conservatives should work on “growing support.”

“Substantial change inspires substantial resistance, and boy, is there substantial resistance out there,” Fiorina said. “If change is not accompanied by growing support, the substantial change is never sustained.”

“We have to bring people along now, so that the changes we all believe in will be sustained,” the former Republican presidential candidate added.

9. Jim DeMint says conservatives must achieve the “impossible.”

“Our job as conservatives, and as the national conservative movement, is to make possible what the establishment says is impossible,” the former South Carolina Republican senator who is president of The Heritage Foundation said. He warned:

They’re saying you can’t build a wall and control our borders. You have to give amnesty and citizenship to the people who are here illegally. They’re saying you can’t repeal Obamacare. Tax reform is just too controversial. You can’t ever balance the budget. And of course, you must reopen the big, crony, corrupt Export-Import Bank. That’s what [Republicans] are hearing behind closed doors right now.

10. John Bolton thinks it’s time to end the Iran nuclear deal.

“With respect to Iran, and its support for international terrorism and its nuclear weapons program, candidate Trump described everything that was wrong with Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran,” the former United Nations ambassador said.

“He should abrogate that deal, end that deal as soon as possible,” Bolton added. “We need a clear statement of leadership by the United States that this was a strategic debacle for our country and we don’t intend to let it persist.”

11. Police chief Stephen Mills makes the case for civil asset forfeiture reform.

“President Trump, I want to thank your administration for your support of law enforcement,” Mills, whose story was told last year by The Daily Signal, said in his remarks. “I know you’re being told by other members of law enforcement and associated groups that asset forfeiture reform is a bad idea, that it’ll help the cartels and terrorists. I want you to know there are many of us out in the field who don’t agree with that sentiment.”

12. Conservatives call for Obamacare repeal.

“It’s going to happen,” said Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, referring to repeal of the health care law.

“What [the 2015 repeal bill] demonstrated to me was that if you got the right president in the White House, you could send that bill back down to the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, and you could repeal large pieces of the Affordable Care Act.”

13. Rep. Andy Biggs talks about illegal immigration.

Is this the year the wall on the border is actually going to happen? The Daily Signal’s Rob Bluey talked to the Arizona Republican about that and more.

14. Mike Pence discusses Obamacare replacement.

In his speech, the vice president talked about Obamacare repeal and replacement, saying he and Trump want all Americans to have “access to quality and affordable health care insurance, which is why we’re designing a better law that lowers the cost of health insurance without growing the size of government.”

Pence added:

We’re going to let Americans purchase health insurance across state lines, the way you buy your life insurance, the way you buy your car insurance.

We’re going to make sure that Americans with pre-existing conditions have access to health insurance and the security they need, and we’re going to give states the freedom and flexibility to take care of the least fortunate in the best way that will work in their state and in their community.

15. Ted Cruz pushes term limits.

From the report by The Daily Signal’s Rachel del Guidice:

“This election was the American people saying, ‘Enough already with the corruption in both parties, Democrats and Republicans who have been here too long,’” Cruz [R-Texas] said.

Cruz told attendees of CPAC that one significant way politicians could deliver on “draining the swamp” is by paving the way for term limits for Congress.

“President [Donald] Trump campaigned on draining the swamp,” Cruz said. “We have majorities in both houses. I think we ought to demonstrate that we have heard the voters; we bring up term limits, pass it, send it to the states for ratification.”

CPAC, the largest annual national gathering of conservative activists, ran from Wednesday to Saturday at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, just outside Washington. (For more from the author of “Where Conservatives Are in the Trump Era: 15 Takeaways From Their Biggest Conference” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Hollywood Liberal Groupthink on Display at Oscars

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Once again, Hollywood showcased its complete lack of diversity in thought at the Oscars.

Of course, it’s a free country, and Hollywood is fine to keep its liberal streak going … just as conservatives can continue to decide whether they want to support new movies.

But it does suggest that there might be a lot of fine stories left untold and moral dilemmas left unexplored, because Hollywood limits itself to such a narrow mindset.

Here are three “highlights” from Sunday night’s 89th Academy Awards ceremony:

1. Actresses Emma Stone and Dakota Johnson wear their support for Planned Parenthood.

What’s lovelier than plugging the nation’s largest abortion provider?

2. Host Jimmy Kimmel takes aim at President Donald Trump.

If you are among the half of all voters who supported Trump for president, Kimmel wasn’t interested in winning your support. The late-night host made several cracks about Trump, including: “This broadcast is being watched live by millions of Americans and around the world in more than 225 countries that now hate us.”

“I want to say thank you to President Trump. Remember last year when it seemed like the Oscars were racist? That’s gone, thanks to him,” Kimmel also said.

3. Iranian filmmaker attacks the travel ban.

“My absence is out of respect for the people of my country and those of the other six nations who have been disrespected by the inhumane law that bans entry of immigrants to the U.S.,” Asghar Farhadi, who didn’t attend the Oscars, said in a statement read out loud when his movie, “The Salesman,” won for best foreign language film.

“Dividing the world into the ‘us’ and ‘our enemies’ categories creates fears. A deceitful justification for aggression and war. These wars prevent democracy and human rights in countries which have themselves been victims of aggression,” Farhadi added in his statement, which got a warm reception from the audience.

Right—because of course, it’s crazy to hit pause on people from seven countries considered terrorism hot spots entering the United States. The only possible reason could be inhumanity, not a desire to protect the security of American citizens. (For more from the author of “Hollywood Liberal Groupthink on Display at Oscars” please click HERE)

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