One Question in a Poll of College Students Crystallizes the Debate Over Free Speech

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Free speech just isn’t as cool as it used to be, according to a Gallup and the Knight Foundation study of college students’ views on the subject.

The news isn’t great for this bedrock principle in America’s higher-learning institutions. College students overwhelmingly support free speech in the abstract, but when it comes to the real world, they are accepting of restrictions on it, which is in effect, not very supportive of free speech. And the numbers have gotten worse for speech on a lot of fronts since 2016.

Almost 90 percent of students say protection of free speech is extremely or very important to American democracy, but two-thirds also believe hate speech shouldn’t be protected by the First Amendment, and 83 percent support free-speech zones on campus, to contain pre-approved protests and distribution of messages. Not exactly the open inquiry we used to love.

There is some good news. In question after question, it appears the forces that are found shouting down speakers like Christina Hoff Sommers or burning Berkeley or attacking Charles Murray at Middlebury are a very loud minority. “Nine in 10 students say violence is ‘never acceptable’” to counter speech and a solid majority of 62 percent believe shouting down speakers is “never acceptable.” This leaves too-large percentages who think violence and shouting down are fine, but the vast majority of college students are in favor of traditional forms of protest without shutting down speech. (Read more from “One Question in a Poll of College Students Crystallizes the Debate Over Free Speech” HERE)

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Mayor Consulted Illegal Immigration Activists Before Tipping off ICE Raid

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Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, who sparked national outrage when she undermined a federal immigration raid last month, worked with illegal-immigration activists before she warned the public about the raid– a move that ICE said led to hundreds of illegals evading detention.

Schaaf took to Twitter to warn the public about the raid, and has stood by her decision despite a number of hardened criminals being caught — and ICE officials warning that potentially hundreds of other criminals escaped as a consequence of the tipoff.

“It is Oakland’s legal right to be a sanctuary city and we have not broken any laws,” Schaaf said in a statement last month. “We believe our community is safer when families stay together.” . . .

KPIX5 reports that Schaaf was in touch with Centro Legal de la Raza just hours before the announcement, giving her information on what employers should do in the case of an ICE raid.

That group, which did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News, is a nonprofit with a focus on providing legal services to those in the country illegally. It also appears to act as an advocacy group for illegal immigrants — printing an “ICE Activity Hotline” on its website. (Read more from “Mayor Consulted Illegal Immigration Activists Before Tipping off ICE Raid” HERE)

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Alaskan Rep: ‘How Many Jews Were Put in Ovens Because They Were Unarmed?’

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Rep. Don Young, the Alaska congressman known for making controversial statements, seemed to suggest that Jewish people died in the Holocaust because they were unarmed.

While speaking at a conference in his home state, the Republican lawmaker said, “How many millions of people were shot and killed because they were unarmed? Fifty million in Russia because their citizens were unarmed.”

He continued: “How many Jews were put in the ovens because they were unarmed?”

Young’s quote came after Dimitri Shein, a Democrat who is running for Young’s congressional seat, asked about school safety. Shein said his daughter’s school had been placed on lockdown, prompting the question. He didn’t identify himself a congressional candidate at the time . . .

“He was referencing the fact that when Hitler confiscated firearms from Jewish Germans, those communities were less able to defend themselves,” [spokeswoman Murphy] McCollough said in an email. “He was not implying that an armed Jewish population would have been able to prevent the horrors of the Holocaust, but his intended message is that disarming citizens can have detrimental consequences.” (Read more from “Alaskan Rep: ‘How Many Jews Were Put in Ovens Because They Were Unarmed?'” HERE)

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BOMBSHELL: Obama’s DOJ Forced Deletion of 500,000 Fugitives From Gun Background Check System

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By The Daily Wire. On Wednesday, acting FBI deputy director David Bowdich testified during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that former President Barack Obama’s Department of Justice forced the FBI to delete over 500,000 fugitives, who had outstanding arrest warrants, from the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).

“It’s my understanding that under federal law fugitives cannot legally purchase or possess guns,” Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) began. “We’ve heard from local law enforcement that the Justice Department has issued a memo that forced the FBI NICS background check database to drop more than 500,000 names of fugitives with outstanding arrest warrants because it was uncertain whether those fugitives had fled across state lines.”

(Read more from “BOMBSHELL: Obama’s DOJ Forced Deletion of 500,000 Fugitives From Gun Background Check System” HERE)

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The Media Is out of Control in Its Push for Gun Control

By The Hill. Fact checkers are out of control, and on the issue of guns they no longer even try to pretend impartiality. Especially on social media, this is becoming a serious problem.

Facebook has been working with organizations such as PolitiFact, Snopes and Factcheck.org to filter news. Stories deemed “false” by these organization are labeled as false and are much more difficult to spread virally.

A couple of years ago, Fox News’ Special Report cited some research on mass public shootings by the Crime Prevention Research Center, which I preside over. When that old story recently started trending on Facebook, Snopes stepped in to stop it. Snopes’ verdict was that our numbers were “accurate based on the CPRC’s definition of a mass shooting, but also extremely misleading.”

President Obama’s kept claiming that the United States was unique in terms of mass public shootings. So in 2016, we looked over the years of Obama’s tenure and found that Europe had experienced more casualties per capita and a similar rate of attacks compared to the U.S.

Snopes’ attack never mentioned that we had used the FBI’s traditional definition of mass public shootings. This definition excludes gang fights over drug turf and specifies what constitutes a public place. Instead, Snopes preferred the definitions used by Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety and Mother Jones. (Read more from “The Media Is out of Control in Its Push for Gun Control” HERE)

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CNN Equates ICE Enforcement to the Holocaust

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Conservatives have Crowder’s back … Yesterday, I told you how Twitter has suspended CRTV Host Steven Crowder over an undercover video taken at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. It’s not just Twitter, YouTube has removed the video as well. Conservative thought leaders and media types have joined in the effort to get Crowder fully reinstated on Twitter before the end of his 7-day suspension. CR’s Chris Pandolfo has the details.

Why this is important … There is a disturbing trend where it appears Silicon Valley tech giants are suppressing conservative content. The Western Journalism’s George Upper has documented how recent algorithm changes at Facebook have effected conservative websites. Spoiler alert: conservative sites have, on the whole, seen their traffic drop precipitously after the change while MSM and left-wing sites have dropped far less or in many cases have seen a significant uptick in traffic from the social network. The change is clear and demonstrable.

Fight back … There is a real concrete way to fight back against the Silicon Valley bias against conservatives. Sure you could move away like PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, but through control of social media the bias is everywhere. First, you can support conservative media by purchasing a subscription to conservative content creators. For instance, you can both see the Crowder video Twitter and YouTube don’t want you to see, AND subscribe to CRTV using this link.

Immigration enforcement like the Holocaust … Defending the borders and enforcing the immigration laws of a sovereign nation is in no way like the systemic government-sanctioned murder of a race of people. That’s a pretty easy notion to grasp. Well, unless you are CNN. Check this tweet by CNN:

This comparison by CNN is not only absurd, it is disgusting.

Sad … Gregory Korte, the White House correspondent for USA Today shares a heart-wrenching story about how one of Korte’s sources sent the journalist his life’s work via email, then committed suicide. It’s a poignant reminder that all people are human, all people have problems, even those who we think are all right. I’m sharing because it’s a story I think we all need to read.

CNN shakeup … Over the past few months, CNN’s ratings have been tanking while MSNBC’s ratings soar and Fox’s hold steady. In February, CNN didn’t have a show in the top 20 of cable programs. Not only that but the highest rated show, “Anderson Cooper 360,” ranked at 24.

Perhaps that’s why CNN has decided to move Chris Cuomo from morning to primetime. Cuomo’s new show will be in the same 9 p.m. ET timeslot that includes Sean Hannity and Rachel Maddow. Cuomo, who routinely engages in partisan attacks, hilariously taunted his new competition. Cuomo said, “I don’t know where their partisan fights are getting us.”

Important …

I said it above, but I’m going to say it again. Techies holding the left-wing values of Silicon Valley are actively trying to suppress conservative thought. There are ways to fight back against the censorship including newsletters like WTF MSM!? That’s why, every day, I ask you to send your friends to the WTF MSM!? signup page. Delivering conservative content directly to email inboxes circumvents the censors. As always send me an email at [email protected] if you see the media or tech giants do something that makes you say WTF. (For more from the author of “CNN Equates ICE Enforcement to the Holocaust” please click HERE)

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Student Dares Stand up and Tell Walkout Protesters What They Should Really Be Doing

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Students across the U.S. walked out of school Wednesday for a nationwide demonstration in memory of the 17 students and faculty killed one month earlier in a mass shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

While many of the young activists pointed to gun control as a response to continued acts of school violence, some offered alternative or additional steps in pursuit of the same goal.

One student in Washington state expressed her desire to see peers embrace kindness and acceptance, shunning the culture of bullying she believes contributes to the deadly behavior of school shooters.

As iFIBER One News reported, Angelica Mansfield was the only student from a group of about 200 at Moses Lake High School to address the entire local group during this week’s walkout.

In her fiery statement, she chided other students for failing to similarly turn their outrage into action, as reported by KING.

“Before we just stand here for 17 minutes and don’t do nothing, because that’s what we’re going to do right now, I just wanted to say, like, we’re out there for a shooting — school shootings — you guys are all at a school, OK?” she said.

As Mansfield told her schoolmates, massacres like the one in Florida last month “are happening from these kids that you guys are cornering out, that you’re bullying, that you’re doing all this stuff to because you think it’s funny.”

She went on to insist that the issue of bullying is very serious and has led to deadly consequences.

“All of these kids just want to be themselves, they want to be who they want to be in their own school,” she said. “They’re here to learn. They’re not here to bully. Kids shouldn’t be shooting up schools; we’re teenagers.”

Instead of further belittling victims of bullying and those dealing with emotional issues, Mansfield challenged her peers to rise above that reaction to demonstrate empathy and friendship to kids who need it most.

“You should say that you love your neighbor,” she said. “You should be there for them, sit with them at lunch, tell them that you’re their friend, that you’re going to be there for them whenever they need you.”

Even if a personal struggle is not immediately obvious, Mansfield said everyone can benefit from such expressions of kindness.

“Just because they’re already dealing with bullying at school enough, and they have their own problems at home whether you know it or not,” she said. “Everybody does and I don’t know why it’s so hard to be nice and care and love each other. Like, it’s not hard.”

The student acknowledged that some walkout participants would laugh at her for sharing her thoughts, but she remained undeterred.

“I don’t care, because somebody said something while we were out here,” she said. “Somebody stood up.”

Though she apologized for appearing mad and speaking “aggressively,” Mansfield did not shy away from her decision to speak out when given the opportunity.

“Most of you are out here because you don’t want to be in class,” she said. “That’s it. Like, it’s stupid.” (For more from the author of “Student Dares Stand up and Tell Walkout Protesters What They Should Really Be Doing” please click HERE)

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McCain’s Daughter Updates Public on His Future After Cancer Treatments

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Meghan McCain stated in an interview this week that there is still no time table for her father’s return to the U.S. Senate, but she’s hopeful it may be by this summer.

“I wish I had an exact date, but I just don’t,” Meghan told Phoenix talk radio station KTAR-FM on Tuesday. “I am very cautiously optimistic about the summer, yes.”

“As everyone knows especially with this cancer, you have to take it scan by scan but he is doing really good, much better than I think people anticipated,” she added. “He’s doing very well and I feel very lucky that he is doing so well.”

The 81-year-old Arizona Republican senator is fighting an aggressive form of brain cancer called glioblastoma, which was diagnosed last July.

KTAR reported that the original tumor was removed after it was discovered, but in November a second tumor returned in the same area.

During this time period the lawmaker also tore both of his Achilles’ tendons.

According to the Arizona Republic, McCain continues to undergo chemotherapy, radiation treatments and physical therapy as he remains living at his Sedona ranch about an hour and a half’s drive north of Phoenix.

McCain left Washington in mid-December due to the side effects of chemotherapy and has not returned since.

His return to Capitol Hill was expected some time in January, but the senator was not able to meet that goal, due to his weakened immune system.

McCain told Politico last month that “everybody is worried about him getting the flu.”

The typical survival period for those diagnosed with glioblastoma is between 12 to 15 months, though a small percentage can live up to five years or more.

McCain said her father is still mentally “100 percent there,” but physically the treatments have taken their toll.

The lawmaker has continued to issue statements through his office and remains active on Twitter.

The senator’s wife, Cindy McCain, shot down rumors earlier this month that her husband has plans to resign from office.

She wrote, “Contrary to popular believe @SenJohnMcCain is doing fine and has no intention of resigning!” (For more from the author of “McCain’s Daughter Updates Public on His Future After Cancer Treatments” please click HERE)

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Mueller Subpoenas Trump Organization, Demanding Documents About Russia

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The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, has subpoenaed the Trump Organization in recent weeks to turn over documents, including some related to Russia, according to two people briefed on the matter. The order is the first known instance of the special counsel demanding records directly related to President Trump’s businesses, bringing the investigation closer to the president.

The breadth of the subpoena was not clear, nor was it clear why Mr. Mueller issued it instead of simply asking for the documents from the company, an umbrella organization that encompasses Mr. Trump’s business ventures. Mr. Mueller ordered the Trump Organization to hand over records related to Russia and other topics he is investigating, the people said.

The subpoena is the latest indication that the investigation, which Mr. Trump’s lawyers once regularly assured him would be completed by now, will continue for at least several more months. Word of the subpoena came as Mr. Mueller appears to be broadening his inquiry to examine the role foreign money may have played in funding Mr. Trump’s political activities. In recent weeks, Mr. Mueller’s investigators have questioned witnesses, including an adviser to the United Arab Emirates, about the flow of Emirati money into the United States.

Mr. Mueller has already indicted 13 Russians and three companies accused of meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign, and on Thursday, the Trump administration included them in sanctions it leveled at Moscow as punishment for interference in the campaign and “malicious cyberattacks.” (Read more from “Mueller Subpoenas Trump Organization, Demanding Documents About Russia” HERE)

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Mattis Pentagon Goes Rogue, Defies POTUS, Backs Iran Nuke Deal

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On the heels of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s firing, due to his defiance of President Trump in support of the Iran nuclear deal, rogue Pentagon officials under Secretary of Defense James Mattis are waging their own campaign to keep the deal with the terrorist regime in Tehran.

In amazing testimony before the Senate, Gen. Joseph Votel, who serves as the leader of U.S. Central Command, told stunned senators that he, Defense Secretary Mattis, and Joint Chiefs Chairman Joe Dunford all support the nuclear deal.

“From my perspective, the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action] addresses one of the principal threats that we deal with from Iran,” Votel said, adding, “So, if the JCPOA goes away, then we will have to have another way to deal with the nuclear weapons program.”

This narrative is not at all in line with the president’s policies on the Iran deal. On the campaign trail, Trump famously described the Iran deal as one of the “worst deals” negotiated in U.S. history. Yet the Pentagon under Secretary of Defense Mattis articulates talking points that more closely represent the Obama administration’s views concerning the nuclear accord.

“Right now, I think it is in our interest” to remain in the deal, Votel added, seemingly in direct defiance of the commander-in-chief’s current mission to either fix or nix the deal.

Votel’s comments came just hours after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was fired and immediately replaced with CIA Director Mike Pompeo.

In moving Pompeo into the chief diplomatic post, the president commented:

“I think Mike Pompeo will be a truly great Secretary of State. I have total confidence in him. And as far as Rex Tillerson is concerned…we disagreed on things. When you look at the Iran deal. I think it’s terrible. I guess he thought it was okay.”

Pompeo has long been a critic of the nuclear deal and recognizes Iran as one of the major forces of terrorist support and global instability.

Secretary Mattis, on the other hand, has consistently acted as a proponent for the Obama administration’s signature foreign policy “achievement.” Last October, Mattis told Congress that he believes it’s in America’s “best interest” to “stay with” the deal.

On the foreign policy front, Mattis has held off on confronting Iran’s regional aggression. Mattis continues to talk tough on Iran, but he still has not committed to any particular strategic or tactical changes to counter the regime.

Mattis has also gone rogue on a number of other issues. While the president opposes gender engineering in the military, Mattis has fought to keep the military open to people who identify as transgender. The defense chief has consistently sought out left-wing ideologues for top Pentagon positions. Additionally, he has pushed through the sale of U.S. military equipment and aid to the controversial regime in Qatar.

The president is seeking to either scrap the Iran deal entirely or institute overarching reforms to the broken accord before May 12. He has sent a team of negotiators to Europe to work with the other signatories to the deal in an attempt to shore up the agreement. The president wants to strengthen the deal to include reining in Iran’s ballistic missile program and rolling back its financial and material support for terrorism. A U.S. departure from the deal would virtually guarantee that it would be terminated by all parties involved. (For more from the author of “Mattis Pentagon Goes Rogue, Defies POTUS, Backs Iran Nuke Deal” please click HERE)

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Report: Trump Opioid Crisis Plan to Include Death Penalty for Drug Dealers

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President Donald Trump’s administration will release a plan to combat the opioid crisis (which is really a fentanyl/heroin crisis) that will include a proposal to give the death penalty to certain classes of drug dealers.

Politico obtained two drafts of the plan, which is expected to be formally announced Monday. The White House plan calls for the death penalty in cases “where opioid, including Fentanyl-related, drug dealing and trafficking are directly responsible for death.” The plan also suggests new law enforcement measures such as making mandatory minimum sentences for drug dealers who knowingly trade in lethal drugs like fentanyl easier to invoke and a new task force to prosecute criminally negligent doctors, pharmacies, and other opioid providers.

President Trump has recently insisted that it’s time for the federal government to crack down on illicit drug dealers.

“You kill 5,000 people with drugs because you’re smuggling them in and you are making a lot of money and people are dying. And they don’t even put you in jail,” Trump said at a rally in Pennsylvania over the weekend. “That’s why we have a problem, folks. I don’t think we should play games.” Trump cited the president of Singapore to make his point, noting that he had asked him if Singapore has a drug problem. “He said ‘We have a zero tolerance policy. That means if we catch a drug dealer, death penalty,’” Trump said. (For more from the author of “Report: Trump Opioid Crisis Plan to Include Death Penalty for Drug Dealers” please click HERE)

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