Man Tries to Throttle McDonald’s Employee Over Plastic Straws. She Serves Him a Super-Size Whooping

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A St. Petersburg, Florid, a McDonald’s customer has been arrested after starting (and handily losing) a brawl with a female restaurant employee over plastic straws.

Upset about the lack of any straws in the condiment section, Daniel Willis Taylor — a white male transient, according to The Washington Post — proceeded to verbally scold a black female cashier. The argument quickly escalated into physical violence when Taylor reached across the counter and grabbed the employee’s shirt.

“She told him that it’s the law now that they’re not supposed to have the straws in the lobby,” said Brenda Biandudi, who witnessed and recorded the altercation, then spoke to The Washington Post on Wednesday via phone. “He said there’s no such law.”

But the cashier was indeed correct, as the St. Petersburg City Council voted to ban plastic straws entirely starting in 2020 but allowed business to only grant the straws upon customer request in 2019, the Post reported. . .

Soon after Biandudi pulled out her camera, Taylor leaned across the counter and grabbed the cashier. After an initial loss of balance, the employee punched the man several times until other employees broke the two apart. (Read more from “Man Tries to Throttle McDonald’s Employee Over Plastic Straws. She Serves Him a Super-Size Whooping” HERE)

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Dems ‘Refused’ to Even Listen to Border Security Briefing at White House

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Democratic lawmakers brought a border security briefing at the White House to a screeching halt Wednesday, refusing to even listen to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, a White House official tells The Daily Caller.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy echoed this version of events to reporters outside the White House immediately after the briefing, saying, “Once the secretary started, Schumer interrupted her and didn’t want to hear it.”

Republican and Democratic lawmakers after the meeting indicated little progress was made toward ending the partial government shutdown and that they agreed to reconvene Friday. The White House official says there was a consensus in the room that negotiations would be put on hold until Pelosi officially assumed her expected role of Speaker.

The White House official told TheDC that both Pelosi and Schumer refused to hear out Nielsen’s briefing and instead advocated for two solutions to end the government shutdown. Neither of the Democratic options would provide the additional funding for border security requested by The White House.

“Democrats in the room either don’t care that there is a humanitarian crisis on the border or just prefer ignorance. It was incredibly disheartening that they don’t want to know the facts when making policy,” DHS Spokeswoman Katie Waldman said in a statement to TheDC. (Read more from “Dems ‘Refused’ to Even Listen to Border Security Briefing at White House” HERE)

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One Way Elizabeth Warren Thinks She’s Obama

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By The Daily Caller. Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s website for her presidential exploratory committee attempts to link questions about her claims of Native American heritage to people who questioned whether former President Barack Obama was born in the United States.

Warren launched the committee Monday, including a website with a “fact squad” meant to push back against criticisms of the senator.

Warren’s website blames “the right-wing machine” for scrutiny of her heritage claims. . .

“Show us your papers. Release your birth certificate. It’s all part of the right’s disgusting effort to use race-baiting and fear-mongering to distract our country and divide our people while they rig the system for the rich and powerful,” Warren’s site claims.

It also displays a photoshopped image of Obama behind Warren that reads: “Don’t worry Liz, I think we fooled them.” (Read more from “One Way Elizabeth Warren Thinks She’s Obama” HERE)

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Warren Is Officially Launching 2020 Presidential Committee

By The Daily Caller. Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren announced on the last day of 2018 she is officially forming a presidential exploratory committee in a bid to run for the presidency in 2020.

“America’s middle class is under attack,” Warren said in the announcement video Monday. “How did we get here? Billionaires and big corporations decided they wanted more of the pie. And they enlisted politicians to cut them a bigger slice.”

Speculation regarding the Massachusetts senator’s presidential aspirations have been swirling for months. In June, she announced that she would not be running for president, however, less than three months later she seemingly flipped on her word, revealing she would, in fact, take a “hard look” at launching a presidential campaign following the midterms. During an interview leading up to her November election, Warren refused to commit to serving her full term in the Senate if re-elected.

Warren has also been quietly shopping for office space in the Boston area to headquarter her possible presidential campaign, according to a report earlier in December. And on Sunday night, she changed the name of her twitter account from “elizabethforma” to “ewarren,” removing her home state of Massachusetts. (Read more from “Warren Is Officially Launching 2020 Presidential Committee” HERE)

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Mexican President’s Immigration Plan Could Be Game Changer

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By Fox News. In a bid to reduce migration to the U.S. and attract investment, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has proposed the creation of economic “free zones” along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The Tax Incentive Decree for the Northern Border Region, which Lopez Obrador announced Saturday, would create a free zone that would stretch from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Coast and be more than 15 miles wide, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

Inside the zone, income taxes would be reduced by a third and Value Added Taxes on imported goods would be slashed in half, the minimum wage would increase 100 percent, and fuel prices would equal U.S. prices, the report said.

“It’s going to be the biggest free zone in the world,” Lopez Obrador said. “It is very important to project for winning investment, creating jobs and taking advantage of the economic strength of the United States.”

Lopez Obrador, a self-styled left-wing populist, took office Dec. 1 with the promise to help the country’s poor, noting that the nation’s minimum wage had lost 70 percent of its purchasing power in recent decades after devaluations and economic crises. (Read more from “Mexican President’s Immigration Plan Could Be Game Changer” HERE)

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US, Mexico Seek to Stem Migration From Central America by Funding Development in Region

By USA Today. The United States and Mexico will be cooperating closely to convince thousands of potential Central American migrants to not risk the perilous journey to the U.S. border by investing money into some of the region’s poorest areas.

Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said up to $10.6 billion in existing U.S. funding would fund “institutional reform” and “good government” initiatives in Central America, along with regional development in southern Mexico – where new Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has promised to pull the region out of poverty through projects ranging from railways to refineries to planting thousands of hectares of trees.

Cross-border cabinet meetings would be convened, Ebrard said, and private sector participation would be included in the plan.

“Both countries recognize the strong links between economic growth in southern Mexico and successfully promoting prosperity, good government and security in Central America,” Ebrard told reporters.

“We’re committed to promoting strong regional economic growth, better-paying jobs and better opportunities for all our citizens.” (Read more from “US, Mexico Seek to Stem Migration From Central America by Funding Development in Region” HERE)

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Democrats Put Politics Before Safety

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As the partial government shutdown continues into 2019, too much of the media is focused on the political winners and losers of the budget funding stalemate and not enough on the reason for the shutdown.

Democrat opposition to border wall funding is rooted in politics and not in reason. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., want to deny President Trump a significant campaign promise in hopes of demoralizing the president’s base as the 2020 presidential race approaches.

In the end, the Democrats’ strategy will backfire because they are putting politics before the safety and security of Americans.

President Trump’s motivation for border security, including a wall, is not that he’s bored and misses his old job of construction projects. The president wants a wall to help secure the southern border to protect citizens from criminal illegal aliens and to impede the flow of drugs that are killing too many Americans.

The Christmastime shooting death of police officer Ronil Singh in Newman, California, exposes the risk to Americans from Democrats who oppose funding of a wall and support sanctuary cities.

An illegal alien, Gustavo Perez Arriaga, was arrested and charged with homicide as the primary suspect in Singh’s death. In addition to Arriaga, seven others were arrested for hiding him and aiding his attempted escape to Mexico.

Arriaga was identified as a member of the Surenos street gang, and some of those arrested were also illegal aliens and may also have connections to the gang.

Democrats’ support for sanctuary polices makes our problem of criminal illegal aliens worse. Sheriff Adam Christianson said Singh’s death was “preventable” but, “Under SB54 in California, based on two arrests for DUI and some other active warrants that this criminal has out there, law enforcement would’ve been prevented — prohibited — from sharing any information with ICE about this criminal gang member.”

Sanctuary policies coupled with a porous border are a lethal combination for innocent law-abiding Americans. In addition to illegal alien crime, dangerous drugs are flowing over the Mexican border.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 70,237 people died of drug overdoses in 2017. Most alarming is the dramatic increase in overdoses from fentanyl-type drugs.

Fentanyl, a synthetic form of heroin, and related drugs were responsible for 28,466 overdose deaths in 2017, a stunning rise from about 3,000 deaths in 2013 based on CDC data. The National Institute on Drug Abuse attributes 29,406 deaths to fentanyl in 2017, up from 19,413 deaths in 2016, more than a 50 percent increase in overdose deaths.

Fentanyl, originally designed as an anesthetic, is scarily potent. Fentanyl can be up to 100 times more potent than morphine and is so dangerous that it’s a potential weapon for terrorists and was called “a significant threat to national security” by a former intelligence government official.

Mexico is the biggest supplier of heroin to the U.S., and, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune, a major source of fentanyl is drug cartels in Mexico. China is also a major supplier of the drug.

A Drug Enforcement Administration official noted a rise in the amount of the potent drugs seized in Arizona coming from Mexico, saying, “We have seen a 2,000 percent increase in the amount of fentanyl powder we seize and a 3,000 percent increase in the amount of fentanyl pills.” Clearly, construction of a border wall will not totally halt drug trafficking, but it will make one route more difficult and allow resources to focus on other modes of illicit transport.

Democrats are politically very vulnerable for a partial government shutdown for resisting $5.7 billion for border wall funding, especially since in 2006, many Democrats, including Schumer, voted for a bill to fund construction of a border fence.

Pelosi is opposed to a border wall because she feels it’s “immoral, ineffective, expensive,” but her arguments are false and misleading. In fact, she’s wrong on all accounts.

Walls do work. A border fencing project in Yuma County, Arizona, combined with border security personnel resulted in a 96 percent drop in illegal alien apprehensions.

As for the cost, the Defense Department has $674 billion to spend to protect the U.S. in fiscal year 2019, so the $5.7 billion for a wall is a reasonable amount to protect Americans from illegal aliens and drugs.

Pelosi’s “immoral” claim is by far the worst, and the likely incoming speaker of the House of Representatives has it backwards: It’s immoral to block efforts to protect Americans. Democrats were for a border barrier before they were against it, proving they are putting politics before the safety and security of Americans. (For more from the author of “Democrats Put Politics Before Safety” please click HERE)

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The National Debt Is the Punch Line

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An elderly gentleman walked into the bar last week and proceeded to tell me jokes.

The greatest joke-tellers can be reasonably assured that their jokes will wither and die with me, because I’m the world’s worst rememberer and re-teller of great jokes. I destroy good jokes, and it’s a shame, but I remember the punch lines.

So after the gentleman told me the one about the Murphy twins getting drunk and the one where the old man needs help to recall his wife’s name (Rose), he asked me if I’ve ever been to Europe.

I have been, but to keep him talking, I said I hadn’t, and he told me that the best place to live is France. “The government builds nice roads there, and you can go to college for free, and public transportation, why, they’ve got it down to a science over there,” he said.

I thought, “This is a joke, right?” I mean, come on.

“Everything you could ask for is taken care of; health care is terrific; in fact, it costs you nothing to stay at a hospital, unlike here where you’ll go to the poorhouse,” he continued. “Sure, they tax you at 50 percent, but your life is pretty much worry-free.”

I chuckled, thinking that was the punch line. Apparently this old socialist Democrat was not a consumer of the news of the recent riots in Paris due to high taxes. But I offered the fact that as someone about 40 years his junior, I am most worried about our debt.

“The debt has always been high; people have been complaining about the debt since I was 15,” he said.

“OK,” I thought, “this isn’t funny any more.” When he was 15, two parents didn’t have to work to support the family. When he was young, the nation was fighting and winning a world war and government debt was due to that. He was apparently unaware that our debt is due to accumulative massive spending on social programs and foolish intervention in the private sector.

So I countered that a trillion dollars is an unimaginable sum. He said, “So was a billion 30 years ago.” I said yes, but we owe upwards of $200 trillion in unfunded liabilities, to which he responded, “You should blame the president for giving those tax cuts to the rich.”

Are you kidding me? I’m not rude, so I just acted like I didn’t understand his point, rather than give him simple truths like, “We had those liabilities before Trump” and “You are benefiting from them” and “Congress has no plan to fix the shortfalls” and “They have extended us too far” and so on. He truly believes we should be taxed at 50 percent, and then everything will be hunky-dory.

As he got up to leave, I searched for a kind thing to say. “Well, you have a Merry Christmas, sir,” I said, and he laughed and said, “You too, thank you.” I thanked him for the great jokes, and he left.

I have thought a great deal about that meeting. I recalled that the answer to the debt that this socialist Democrat shared was exactly the same answer that was given to me by the first local Republican I met when I jumped into politics for the first time, ten years ago. “The debt has always been high.”

It’s like a punch line to a joke. Almost.

Then, cynically, I thought the old man could afford to think the way he did. His working years are over; he has Social Security and Medicare; and he chooses to live in America despite that it does not give him enough free stuff for his liking. I’m one of two and a half workers paying for his benefits. My back will still carry the increased consequences of high debt, and so will my children’s and their future children’s.

The debt-to-GDP ratio is near 100 percent and quickly reaching WWII levels, yet the Republicans are salivating over new infrastructure spending and the Democrats have their hearts set on Medicare for all and a global warming tax.

The government is closed because of a disagreement between two fiscally irresponsible parties about how to spend more money.

And the punch line is, “Don’t worry; the debt has always been high.” (For more from the author of “The National Debt Is the Punch Line” please click HERE)

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ANOTHER: New Orleans Women’s March CANCELED – Here’s Why

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Organizers of the New Orleans Women’s March say their January event is now off after a “drastic” drop-off in support, The Washington Times reports. . .

Though they did not initially specify the “issues” that led to NOW canceling the New Orleans Women’s March — one of the largest in the country — a further statement indicated a severe drop-off in both participation and fundraising after two major exposes in Tablet and in The New York Times revealed that the national Women’s March’s hierarchy was a hotbed of anti-Semitic thought.

“Many of the sister marches have asked the leaders of Women’s March, Inc. to resign but as of today, they have yet to do so,” NOW Baton Rouge’s statement read. “The controversy is dampening efforts of sister marches to fundraise, enlist involvement, find sponsors and attendee numbers have drastically declined this year. New Orleans is no exception.”

NOW Baton Rouge added that while they will be moving away from the annual marches, they will continue to work on behalf of the “resistance” in Louisiana.

“However, this does not mean the end of our momentum in Louisiana. It’s time to look past the marching and look towards a new stage of the movement,” they added. “Going forward, we will re-organize and re-evaluate the momentum that the Women’s March gave all of us the first two years.” (Read more from “ANOTHER: New Orleans Women’s March CANCELED – Here’s Why” HERE)

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World’s Oldest Living Person May Have Been a Fraud

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France’s Jeanne Calment, widely recognized as history’s oldest woman upon her death at age 122, may have actually been a 99-year-old imposter, according to an explosive new theory being pushed by Russian researchers.

According to a paper written by mathematician Nikolay Zak and supported by gerontologist Valery Novoselov, the real Jeanne Calment died in 1934 at the age of 59. The woman who achieved fame as history’s oldest person was actually her daughter Yvonne, who assumed her dead mother’s identity in order to dodge steep French inheritance taxes. . .

The paper is not peer reviewed and relies exclusively on circumstantial evidence. One of the paper’s key evidentiary points, for instance, is a Facebook poll of 224 people reporting that Calment did not “look” like a supercentenarian. At another point, the paper tries to justify Calment’s alleged tax fraud by writing that she “hated socialists.”

Nevertheless, Zak provides evidence to show that Calment seemed to bear a closer resemblance to Yvonne than purported photos of herself as a young woman. It cites reports from witnesses, including a former mayor of Arles, saying that she looked and acted younger than her supposed age.

Zak also shows that Calment’s interviews with age verificators were replete with tiny inconsistencies, such as confusing her husband and father or saying that she was accompanied to school by a family maid who would actually have been 10 years her junior. (Read more from “World’s Oldest Living Person May Have Been a Fraud” HERE)

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Marine Killed by Gunshot on Capitol Hill

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The gunshot wound that led to the death of a U.S. Marine at a barracks in Southeast D.C. was not self inflicted, according to an official.

The shooting was reported around 5 a.m. Officials say the Marine was shot and hospitalized but later died from a gunshot wound. . .

A D.C. police source told FOX 5’s Evan Lambert that the incident was an accident, and that it happened during a shift change when weapons are supposed to be unloaded before being passed to the next shift.

“The command’s priorities are to take care of the Marine’s family and friends,” said Col. Don Tomichm commanding officer of Marine Barracks, in a statement. “We want to ensure these personnel are being provided for during this challenging time.”

(Read more from “Marine Killed by Gunshot on Capitol Hill” HERE)

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Dems Aim to Bring Big-Government Programs to Floor Vote With 2019 House Takeover

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Expect to hear the words “free,” “guaranteed” and “for all” a whole lot more in the new year as Democrats prepare an arsenal of big-government bills that could actually see a floor vote once they take control of the House.

Come January, proposals like “Medicare for all” and a host of other generous-but-costly welfare programs that were little more than talking points in recent years could have a shot at passing a chamber of Congress.

“There are dozens of measures like this that have been languishing with Republicans at the helm for years, and I expect to see many of them finally come to the floor under Democratic leadership,” Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., told Fox News.

With the GOP’s expanded majority in the Senate, it’s unlikely these measures would make it to President Trump’s desk. But their consideration on the House side would mark a first step in formally considering major government expansions – concerning everything from education to health care – that Democrats increasingly favor. And with “Medicare for all” and similar proposals amounting to litmus tests for modern progressives, roll-call votes on any of these issues would reveal just how broad their support is. . .

Some of the Democratic Party’s agenda, likely to be spearheaded by Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi, was spelled out in their “A Better Deal” campaign platform. The set of proposals claims nearly every item could be paid for by rolling back the Trump tax cuts. The most liberal bills have emerged from the Congressional Progressive Caucus. (Read more from “Dems Aim to Bring Big-Government Programs to Floor Vote With 2019 House Takeover” HERE)

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