WATCH: Gym Bars Vet From Wearing ‘Racist’ T-Shirt

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A Missouri gym owner reportedly told an Army veteran that his “racist” pro-Trump t-shirt was not to be worn in her gym, because she stands for “tolerance.”

Staff Sgt. Jake Talbot posted a short video to Facebook on Sunday recalling the incident. “The owner, Liz, came up to me and said that the Trump shirt I had on was offensive and said I needed to remove it in order to work out there, and that it is linked to racism,” Talbot said. “I hate the word, its used way too loosely. It’s 2019, get the hell over it, it’s not racism.” . . .

The gym owner, identified as Liz Drew by The Washington Post, told KMOV4 that she approached Talbot because the Trump shirt “made several members uncomfortable.”

Drew released a statement to the gym’s Facebook page, which appears to have been removed from Facebook.

“I am deeply saddened by the amount of hate this event has garnered,” the statement said, as reported by KMOV4. “I will personally and publicly continue to defend my stance for tolerance and against hate no matter the financial consequence… Allow me to clarify. I don’t believe our gym should be a political forum for anyone. I want everyone to feel safe and comfortable there. We are all trying to improve ourselves and work hard to change.” (Read more from “WATCH: Gym Bars Vet From Wearing ‘Racist’ T-Shirt” HERE)

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Iran Nuclear Chief Confirms Iran Violated Nuclear Deal

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In yet another confirmation of Iran’s blatant violation of the terms of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), which is committed to translating into English otherwise-hidden primary source material from the Arab and Muslim world, has reported that the terrorist regime in Tehran secretly purchased replacements for its nuclear infrastructure that the nuclear deal had otherwise required it to destroy. Per MEMRI:

Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, was interviewed on Channel 4 TV (Iran) on January 22, 2019. He said that the negotiations surrounding the JCPOA had required Iran to destroy the Arak reactor’s calandria by filling it with cement, but that Iran had secretly acquired replacement tubes ahead of time so that the reactor’s functionality would not be ultimately affected. He also said that pictures that had circulated that showed the Arak reactor’s pit filled with cement had been photoshopped. He explained that Iran has no intention to build a nuclear weapon, and that the Arak reactor is nonetheless incapable of producing weapons-grade plutonium. In addition, Salehi said that the yellowcake production facilities in Ardakan are operational and that Iran has been authorized to produce two additional IR-8 centrifuges. Salehi added that Iran has advanced rapidly in the field of nuclear propulsion.

(Read more from “Iran Nuclear Chief Confirms Iran Violated Nuclear Deal” HERE)

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What You Need to Know About the Presidential Crisis in Venezuela

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Socialist autocrat Nicolas Maduro helped continue the downward spiral in Venezuela for what was once a promising and growing state, leading to a full-blown economic, societal, and now a political crisis.

On Wednesday, the United States government threw its weight behind the legitimacy of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido. In the span of minutes, the Trump administration built a rapid-fire, almost instant global coalition behind the removal of the Venezuelan dictator Maduro.

The country’s economy is in a state of collapse. Once private and thriving companies were forcibly overtaken by state authorities, with disastrous consequences for some 500 or more businesses. Socialist management of Venezuela’s oil riches has led to major output issues. Inflation continues to devalue its already worthless currency. Its GDP contracted by more than 10 percent in 2018. Political and societal instability has resulted in a substantial brain drain. High taxation and regulation have made it pretty much impossible to become a successful businessman or entrepreneur without working hand in glove with the state. And given that the socialized system delivers no incentive to make a living, logistics are a national nightmare, resulting in empty supermarkets and shuttered stores.

Life in general for the average Venezuelan remains exceedingly difficult. Law and order are basically nonexistent. The government regularly engages in extremely violent crackdowns on who they perceive to be political opponents.

These realities have created a massive humanitarian crisis in Venezuela affecting tens of millions of people. The past year has seen hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans regularly taking to the streets, in defiance of Maduro, to raise awareness about their desperate and horrific conditions.

President Trump recognized Juan Guaido as president of Venezuela just minutes after Guaido declared himself “acting president” at a protest in Caracas on Wednesday.

“In its role as the only legitimate branch of government duly elected by the Venezuelan people, the National Assembly invoked the country’s constitution to declare Nicolas Maduro illegitimate, and the office of the presidency therefore vacant,” President Trump said in a statement. “The people of Venezuela have courageously spoken out against Maduro and his regime and demanded freedom and the rule of law.”

The vast majority of countries in the Western Hemisphere have backed Guaido. Eleven countries in the 14-country Lima Group — Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, and Peru — released a statement backing Guaido. Mexico, Cuba, and Bolivia support Maduro, while a few, such as Guyana, Uruguay, and Saint Lucia, remained neutral.

Across the globe, several powerful authoritarian nations continue to put their weight behind Maduro. Turkey, Russia, Iran, China, and others have expressed their support for Maduro as the leader of Venezuela. The European Union backed Guaido and urged immediate democratic elections.

Both Maduro and Guaido continue to claim the mantle of the presidency. Maduro justifies his legitimacy by pointing to his victory the 2018 elections, which international observers considered to be rigged in his favor. Guaido is currently the president of the Venezuelan National Assembly. In that position, he becomes interim president of the country if there is a presidential vacancy. Guaido claims that Maduro’s 2018 election was illegitimate, and therefore Guaido should be president.

It remains too early to tell who will persevere as the ultimate authority in Venezuela. A former Venezuelan ministry says that ultimately, the “guys with guns,” or the Venezuelan military, will determine the outcome of the political crisis, putting aside the prospect of foreign intervention. (For more from the author of “What You Need to Know About the Presidential Crisis in Venezuela” please click HERE)

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Why Don’t We Deport the 2 MILLION Known Criminal Aliens?

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Do we really need to shelter millions of dangerous criminals from other countries?

In fiscal year 2013, the DHS estimated, based on ICE programs in local jails, that there were 1.9 million criminal aliens in this country and that 900,000 aliens were arrested every year. Chillingly, the report noted that “550,000 criminal aliens convicted of crimes exit law enforcement custody every year” and that “this population of criminal aliens poses a major threat to public safety.”

That was before the massive surge of immigration from Central America and the gang and drug crisis engendered by the flow of young males pouring over our border since 2014. Also, that data was from the Secure Communities Program, which matches fingerprints to federal databases, and from information provided by ICE officers working in local jails. Over the past five years, many of the biggest criminal alien cities refuse to cooperate with ICE. Thus, the number of criminal aliens is likely exponentially higher.

Why is it that, amid this monthlong shutdown over immigration, we are not having a discussion on how to deport at least those illegal aliens who commit other crimes as expeditiously as possible and without judicial intervention? How could anyone oppose ridding ourselves of other countries’ criminals when we have so many of our own?

In 2014, when defending his illegal executive amnesty, President Obama touted the need to focus on criminals. “Felons, not families. Criminals, not children. Gang members, not a mom who’s working hard to provide for her kids. We’ll prioritize, just like law enforcement does every day.”

Four years later, why are so few of these people deported and why are the courts permitted to violate our statutes and grant so many reprieves to even the worst criminals who have no right to be here to begin with?

The answer is because Republicans have failed to forcefully educate the public on the severity of the criminal alien problem and have shielded Democrats from taking tough votes on sanctuary cities. For that matter, sanctuary cities haven’t even been a subject of the current debate, and Republicans failed to act on them when they had full control for two years, even as the courts were declaring sanctuary policies. Needless murder and mayhem are continuing because we refuse to deport the criminal aliens we already know about.

The astounding amount of avoidable crime by illegal aliens

What do Connie Koontz, 56, Sophia Renken, 74, Gerald David, 81, and his wife, Sharon David, 80, all have in common? They were American lives cut short between January 10 and January 16 when an illegal alien allegedly broke into their homes in the Carson City/Reno region of Nevada and murdered them. Wilbur Martinez Guzman is an illegal alien who was able to enter thanks to the lack of a defensible barrier at our border. He has now been arrested and is suspected of murdering the four victims. According to the Reno Gazette, he is turning 20 years old. In other words, before last week, he would have been considered the quintessential “dreamer” who came here from Central America sometime after the 2014 wave.

How many more young violent males from other countries are in this country and already have criminal records, yet have still not been apprehended and deported? Think of the hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens arrested every year for DUI, assault, drug trafficking and other offenses that our weak criminal justice system considers low-level. So many of them live in sanctuary cities, where they will not be turned over to ICE…

You can imagine how many more were arrested but never convicted and never turned over to ICE. California, the biggest sanctuary of all, is home to one-third of the nation’s illegal immigrants. Thanks to the state’s new bail laws, authorities will immediately release many low- to mid-level offenders without requiring them to post bail. The feds have been trying to ramp up apprehensions on their own, without the state’s cooperation, but they are clearly missing thousands of these criminals.

Why is it too much to ask that we follow the laws and deport foreign criminals? Every day that we fail to immediately deport these two million known criminal aliens is a day that more Americans will be murdered, raped, sexually assaulted, robbed, or killed by a drunk driver. It’s not that these crimes are worse when they are perpetrated by an illegal than by an American. It’s just that they are more preventable and are rooted in the failure of the federal government to protect us from external threats.

Here’s an important point many in the media miss about the number of illegal alien homicides and how avoidable they are. Basic criminology teaches that most murderers first build up a prior rap sheet before committing the ultimate offense. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), 70 percent of violent felons from 1990 to 2002 had a prior arrest record, and 57 percent had at least one prior arrest for a felony. In other words, murderers are generally those who have repeat histories of DUI, burglary, weapons charges, drug trafficking, gang activities, etc. Those crimes are particularly prevalent among illegal aliens, yet are treated as low-level, and they are often released. Only a relatively small percentage of them are deported; many more aren’t even detected or tracked by ICE.

Illegal aliens should be immediately deported upon arrest. Thus they should never be allowed to remain in this country long enough to continue their criminal careers and graduate to violent felonies. Not all murderers have prior records, especially the very young ones, as we saw in the Nevada case, but most do. That means, by definition, most violent crimes committed by illegal aliens are not only avoidable because they should never have been in the country in the first place, but also because they should have been deported after their first arrest for other crimes.

According to BJS, 83.4 percent of all prisoners released in 2005 re-offended within nine years, and 40 percent of the new offenses were violent crime. We deported 5.6 million illegal aliens between 1998 and 2016. ICE reports from most years show that the majority of them (recently, the overwhelming majority) had prior criminal convictions.

The symbiotic importance of border and interior enforcement

The importance of deportation and the need to keep out criminals also ties back into the debate over the wall at the border. Many of these criminals, even the ones we wind up deporting, come right back over the border, smuggled in by the cartels. I’m particularly skeptical about the efficacy of the wall in stopping the general migration if we continue to allow this bogus asylum, because they will just come over the fence and surrender themselves to the agents. But there is no doubt that the wall will always work, other policies notwithstanding, against criminal aliens, because they do not want to see a border agent.

Matt Pinsker, former federal special prosecutor on the border, explained the problem of criminal aliens and an open border best in an interview with Townhall. He recounted how, as a young prosecutor, he was “struck” by “just how many persons illegally entering the United States have criminal records. … They enter illegally because they cannot enter legally, and the reason why they cannot enter legally is because they have criminal records.”

They are able to get the cartels to smuggle them in while the border agents are tied up with the hundreds of bogus asylum seekers. The wall will definitely help slow down those who don’t want to get caught.

Just this week, Hector Montez, a Honduran illegal was arrested for raping and impregnating a minor in Kings County, California, after being deported twice before. In another part of the state, Macario Cerda, an illegal alien from Mexico, was just sentenced on numerous rape and child sexual assault charges, including impregnating one of his victims. He was able to come back into the country and commit all these crimes after being deported. The prosecutor argued that he should be locked up for life and “never grant him any possibility at being deported because he has crawled his way back into the States illegally way too many times.”

I totally agree with that sentiment in this particular case, but the ultimate goal should be to deport all these people once arrested for lesser crimes to prevent bigger ones. At the same time, we need the wall so that they can’t come back once they are deported. The problem of criminal aliens sits at the nexus of border and interior enforcement and demonstrates why we need to focus on both of them with full force. Many terrible people are able to continue committing heinous crimes because we refuse to either deport them, secure our border, or both.

Trump had the perfect opportunity to harness the biggest bully pulpit of all time with a unique State of the Union address next week from an unannounced location. He could have looked the American people in the eye and promised to be the president to finally protect America from the millions of foreign criminals who should never be in the country. Now we may have to wait until it’s too late. (For more from the author of “Why Don’t We Deport the 2 MILLION Known Criminal Aliens?” please click HERE)

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Ridiculous: Here’s Why Cohen Wants to Postpone His Congressional Testimony

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By Daily Wire. Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who was recently sentenced to three years in prison as a consequence of Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, was scheduled to appear before the House Oversight Committee on Feb. 7. It was a voluntary decision and an opportunity he said he was “looking forward” to. On Wednesday, Cohen requested his testimony be postponed because he’s now concerned for his family’s safety, particularly the “ongoing threats” from President Trump and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

Over the past week, both Trump and Giuliani have suggested that Cohen’s father-in-law, Fima Shusterman, be investigated for alleged ties to organized crime. Giuliani made the argument in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, while Trump brought it up on Twitter.

“Due to ongoing threats against his family from President Trump and Mr. Giuliani, as recently as this weekend, as well as Mr. Cohen’s continued cooperation with ongoing investigations, by advice of counsel, Mr. Cohen’s appearance will be postponed to a later date,” Cohen adviser Lanny Davis said in a statement. “Mr. Cohen wishes to thank Chairman Cummings for allowing him to appear before the House Oversight Committee and looks forward to testifying at the appropriate time. This is a time where Mr. Cohen had to put his family and their safety first.” . . .

“Efforts to intimidate witnesses, scare their family members, or prevent them from testifying before Congress are textbook mob tactics that we condemn in the strongest terms,” Cummings and House Intelligence Committee Chair Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) wrote in a joint statement. (Read more from “Here’s Why Cohen Wants to Postpone His Congressional Testimony” HERE)

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Michael Cohen Says Trump’s ‘Threats Against His Family’ Will Delay His Testimony Before the House

By NBC News. Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer, is delaying his public testimony before Congress “due to ongoing threats against his family from President Trump” and members of his legal team, Cohen attorney Lanny Davis said in a statement Wednesday.

Cohen, 52, was set to appear voluntarily before the House Oversight Committee, chaired by Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., on Feb. 7. Cohen is scheduled to report to prison on March 6.

Davis cited threats from Trump and Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, “as recently as this weekend,” as well as Cohen’s “continued cooperation with ongoing investigations” as central to the decision to postpone his testimony. (Read more from “Michael Cohen Says Trump’s ‘Threats Against His Family’ Will Delay His Testimony Before the House” HERE)

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Sheila Jackson Lee Accused of Retaliating Against Staffer Who Said Black Caucus Foundation Official Raped Her

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A former staffer for Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, has claimed in a lawsuit that she was fired last year in retaliation for legal action the staffer planned to bring against the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF) related to an alleged rape in 2015.

In a statement released Thursday, Jackson Lee’s office denied “that it retaliated against, or otherwise improperly treated” the staffer, who is identified in the lawsuit only as “Jane Doe.”

“While we still deny the allegations, we are especially concerned about Ms. Doe and only want the best for her and the many, many young people that the Congressional office has supported, encouraged, and provided opportunities for over 20 years,” the statement concluded.

According to documents filed in federal court in Washington last week, Jane Doe claimed she was raped in October 2015 while she was a CBCF intern by Damien Jones, who was the foundation’s internship program coordinator and her supervisor at the time. The lawsuit was first reported by BuzzFeed News.

Doe reported the alleged assault to police in Washington, D.C., but a criminal investigation proved inconclusive and she did not immediately pursue legal action. She also met with CBCF representatives who asked for all communications between Doe and Jones and told her that Jones was being placed on leave immediately. (Read more from “Sheila Jackson Lee Accused of Retaliating Against Staffer Who Said Black Caucus Foundation Official Raped Her” HERE)

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Another State Looks to Make Abortion up to Birth a Constitutional Right

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. . .Pro-abortion lawmakers and activists on Wednesday introduced a bill to enshrine abortion on-demand up to birth in a state that already has no protections for the unborn, looking to eventually channel the bill into an amendment in the state’s constitution.

“We need a Vermont where every Vermonter should feel free to make their personal decisions about their sexual and reproductive health care,” said House Speaker Mitzi Johnson, according to Vermont Digger. “They should be guaranteed unrestricted access to the doctors and the procedures that encompass the full range of that care, including abortion care.”

“The General Assembly intends this act to safeguard the right to abortion in Vermont by ensuring that right is not denied, restricted, or infringed by a governmental entity,” the bill states, adding, “Every individual who becomes pregnant has the fundamental right to choose to carry a pregnancy to term, give birth to a child, or to have an abortion.” . . .

If the bill were to become an amendment, it would ensure abortion on-demand even after a potential overturning of Roe v. Wade. “In order for the amendment to proceed, it would have to gain a majority vote in the House and two-thirds’ vote in Senate this session and again next year for Vermonters to vote on it in 2022. It would go into effect the next year,” explained One News Now.

Vermont Right to Life Committee leader Mary Hahn Beerworth blasted Planned Parenthood and pro-abortion politicians for the move. “Vermont … has legalized abortion through all nine months of pregnancy without a single restriction or regulation on the practice of abortion – not even that a doctor perform the procedure; no limit on how late into pregnancy; and … legalized physician-assisted suicide. And now it wants to enshrine death into the Vermont Constitution,” she said. (Read more from “Another State Looks to Make Abortion up to Birth a Constitutional Right” HERE)

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Three Naturalized U.S. Citizens Arrested for Conspiracy to Support ISIS

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On Tuesday, the Department of Justice announced that three naturalized U.S. citizens in Lansing, Michigan were arrested and charged with planning to aid Islamic State. The DOJ press release reads:

Members of the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) arrested Muse Abdikadir Muse (Muse Muse) at the Gerald R. Ford Airport in Grand Rapids, Michigan, after checking in for a flight to the first of a series of destinations on his way to Mogadishu, Somalia. Shortly thereafter, law enforcement arrested alleged coconspirators Mohamud Abdikadir Muse (Mohamud Muse), and Mohamed Salat Haji (Haji). All three defendants are naturalized U.S. citizens who were born in Kenya.

According to the complaint affidavit, Muse Muse purchased airline tickets earlier this month to travel from Grand Rapids to Mogadishu, departing on Monday, January 21, 2019. Among other support, the complaint alleged Haji and Mohamud Muse aided in the purchase of the ticket and drove Muse Muse to the Grand Rapids airport, each knowing the true purpose of the travel was for Muse Muse to join and fight for ISIS.

ABC News reports that Muse Muse and Mohamud Muse are brothers, and that Haji is their brother-in-law. The threesome initially came on the FBI’s radar due to Mohamud Muse’s pro-Islamic State social media postings. The government’s complaint against the trio, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan, states that Mohamud Muse’s postings “revealed frequent posts of photos, videos, and statements and commentary that were pro-ISIS in nature and what can be described as violent, extremist propaganda.” All three had openly pledged their allegiance to Islamic State. Numerous undercover FBI agents ultimately helped foil the threesome’s plot. (Read more from “Three Naturalized U.S. Citizens Arrested for Conspiracy to Support Islamic State” HERE)

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Today’s Left Now Openly Aims to Make Christians Second-Class Citizens

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The left wants to penalize Christians for their faith. The most recent example is the freakout over the vice president’s wife, Karen Pence, teaching part-time at a Christian school that holds students and staff to traditional Christian standards of doctrine and conduct, including sexual conduct.

These requirements are not exceptional among Christian schools (and those of other religions often have similar restrictions), but they have been treated as the vilest bigotry, deserving censure and punishment. CNN’s John King even suggested that teaching at this school should mean forfeiting Pence’s government-provided security.

As a practical pastoral matter, the school is almost certainly more focused on fornication and adultery than on denouncing sodomy. But the media is obsessed over the aspects of traditional Christian sexual ethics that relate to LGBT identity and actions.

The Washington Post, for example, flatly asserts that Pence has been hired by an “anti-LGBT Christian school” that “seeks to exclude homosexual and transgender students and staff members”—as an aside, note how LGBT ideology sexualizes children and defines them by their still-developing sense of sexuality—but that is not how traditional Christians view these matters. . .

The Christian perspective distinguishes between, on one hand, same-sex attraction or gender dysphoria as psychological states experienced by individuals, and, on the other, behavior, identity, and ideology. Thus, the reality of same-sex attraction is acknowledged, but considered a temptation to be resisted, not an identity to be embraced. Gender dysphoria, like other sorts of dysphoria, is viewed as an affliction that should be treated with compassion in accord with biological reality, rather than a metaphysical truth to which physical bodies must be molded. (Read more from “Today’s Left Now Openly Aims to Make Christians Second-Class Citizens” HERE)

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IIhan Omar’s Rise Demonstrates What’s So Twisted About Identity Politics

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In the few short weeks she has represented Minnesota’s fifth district in the U.S. Congress, Democrat IIhan Omar has become a controversial figure. She smeared Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) over baseless accusations, garnered national recognition for wearing a hijab in Congress, and has already been placed in a leadership position on the Foreign Affairs Committee.

This inexperienced congresswoman has created a stir despite accomplishing little so far, and her win demonstrates the epitome of identity politics. A close look at her election and subsequent quick rise to fame exemplifies the cautions that accompany such a mistake. . .

Omar, 36, became an overnight sensation in Minnesota when she became the first Somali-American to serve in the state legislature. After one term, the fellow Muslim set her sights on former Rep. Keith Ellison’s congressional seat. The fifth district is in urban Minneapolis, where Somali-Americans number in the tens of thousands.

Ellison, himself renowned for long ties with anti-Semitism, has been somewhat of a mentor for Omar. Asking voters to replace him with her meant little practical political change in the district. Ellison won nearly 69 percent of votes cast during his 2016 race. In 2018, Omar won about 78 percent of votes, although in Ellison’s race there was an Independent and in Omar’s race there was not.

At a candidate forum in August, Omar was asked to clarify her position on the anti-Israel boycott, divestment, sanctions movement. She said, “I believe right now with the BDS movement, it’s not helpful in getting that two-state solution.” After she was elected, however, Omar said she did support BDS. (Read more from “IIhan Omar’s Rise Demonstrates What’s So Twisted About Identity Politics” HERE)

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