The Democrat-Media Meltdown Over Special Olympics Funding Is Everything We Hate About Washington

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The current debate surrounding grant funding for the Special Olympics is an excellent case study of why our country will probably never get out of debt.

In case you missed it, there’s been a fair amount of outrage over the Department of Education’s budget proposal to cut $18 million in federal grant money to the Special Olympics. The proposed budget states that “such activities are better supported with other federal, state, local or private funds.”

On Wednesday, Education Secretary DeVos responded to widespread criticism of the proposed spending reduction with a statement saying:

The Special Olympics is not a federal program. It’s a private organization. I love its work, and I have personally supported its mission. Because of its important work, it is able to raise more than $100 million every year. There are dozens of worthy nonprofits that support students and adults with disabilities that don’t get a dime of federal grant money. But given our current budget realities, the federal government cannot fund every worthy program, particularly ones that enjoy robust support from private donations.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., confronted DeVos on the proposed spending reforms during a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on Thursday and said that whoever came up with the idea for the cuts “gets a Special Olympic gold medal for insensitivity.”

DeVos responded to Durbin’s questions by saying that she wasn’t personally involved in that decision and that she hopes that the debate drives more private donations to the organization. She added: “Let’s not use disabled children in a twisted way for your political narrative. That is just disgusting and it’s shameful.”

Furthermore, according to a report at Politico, DeVos has even been an advocate against cutting the grant funding for years.

But Durbin’s not alone. Multiple congressional Democrats have used the news to score points against the administration.

Appropriations subcommittee chair Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., responded to the controversy by saying, “Our Department of Education appropriations bill will not cut funding for the program.”

This is a classic case-study example of why we’ll never deal with our national debt crisis (and it IS a crisis).

As I’ve said before, the cuts have to come from somewhere, and the federal leviathan has become so massive and intrusive that there is literally no proposed spending cut that won’t affect someone in this country. And there’s no portion of the federal budget for which advocates can’t or won’t use emotional pleas to avoid spending reductions. But the cuts still have to come from somewhere.

And when emotional arguments are made about sympathetic subjects of proposed spending reductions, the headlines, press releases, and outraged social media posts pretty much write themselves.

So, let’s take the emotion out of this argument for a while. The question isn’t who does or doesn’t care about kids with disabilities; it’s whether or not it makes sense for a country that is over $22 trillion in debt and facing projected trillion-dollar deficits to fund any successful private charity, regardless of what its mission is.

Finally, since we went without a Federal Department of Education for the first 203 years of our republic, it’s more than valid to question whether or not we need to spend the operational costs of the agency itself. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., has a bill to terminate it, by the way.

The Special Olympics is a great organization that does some important work. If the politicians and pundits who have used this story to light up the political scoreboard plan on still caring about the Special Olympics’ operating budget when the news cycle moves on to the next font of outrage, consider this an open invitation to join me at next year’s Polar Plunge. (For more from the author of “The Democrat-Media Meltdown Over Special Olympics Funding Is Everything We Hate About Washington” please click HERE)

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Intelligence Committee Republicans Demand Adam Schiff’s Immediate Resignation as Chair

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Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee have united to call for Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff’s “immediate resignation” as the chairman of the committee.

In a letter signed by all nine Republican members of the committee, GOP lawmakers cite Schiff’s continuous claims that he had evidence that President Trump conspired with the Russian government to win the 2016 presidential election.

Rep. Schiff has regularly, without evidence, accused President Trump of colluding with the Russian government to win the 2016 presidential election. Moreover, he has often claimed that he personally possesses proof of collusion. Yet he has never presented any of this supposed evidence to the public.

In addition to being an apparent collusion truther, Schiff is regularly accused of leaking sensitive information.

President Trump has described the Democrat congressman as “one of the biggest liars and leakers in Washington.” He took to Twitter this morning demanding Schiff’s immediate resignation for his work in spreading the false Russian collusion conspiracy theories.

The GOP’s newfound inspiration comes on the heels of special counsel Robert Mueller concluding, according to Attorney General William Barr, that there is zero evidence that the president colluded with Russia.

Prior to the 2018 elections, Schiff promised that the Democrats’ Trump-Russia campaign “won’t stop when we take the majority.” In other words, if Mueller failed to prosecute the president, then Schiff would take up that mantle and tie up President Trump in sham investigations. (For more from the author of “Intelligence Committee Republicans Demand Adam Schiff’s Immediate Resignation as Chair” please click HERE)

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Previously Deported Child Rapist Arrested

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By Townhall. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced the arrest of a previously deported child rapist in Central Islip, New York this week. Alcides Acosta-Euceda, a 31-year-old citizen of El Salvador, was arrested after Enforcement and Removal Operations initiated an investigation in January 2019 to track down the pervert after learning he had re-entered the country earlier this year which led to his apprehension on March 26.

According to a press release issued by authorities, “ICE previously removed Acosta-Euceda to El Salvador on June 6, 2018, following a July 2017 felony conviction, for Rape 3rd Degree: victim less than 17 years, perpetrator 21 years or more, in Suffolk County (NY) Superior Court. On Sept. 29, 2017, Acosta-Euceda was sentenced to 10 years of probation supervision and required to register as a sexual offender.” he was then subsequently deported from the United States.

“Acosta-Euceda had already been removed from this country once before following a rape conviction. It is unfathomable that there is anyone who would want an illegal alien, previously convicted of rape, living in their neighborhood,” Thomas R. Decker, field office director for ERO New York, said in a statement. (Read more from “Previously Deported Child Rapist Arrested” HERE)

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ICE Arrests Previously Removed Guatemalan National, Released From Local Custody With an Active Detainer

By ICE.Gov. ICE removed or returned 258,085 aliens in fiscal year 2018. Enforcement and Removal Operations arrested 158,581 aliens, 90 percent of whom had criminal convictions, pending criminal charges, or previously issued final orders. The overall arrest figure represents an 11 percent increase over fiscal year 2017.

ICE is focused on removing public safety threats, such as convicted criminal aliens and gang members, as well as individuals who have violated our nation’s immigration laws, including those who illegally re-entered the country after being removed and immigration fugitives ordered removed by federal immigration judges. (Read more from “ICE Arrests Previously Removed Guatemalan National, Released From Local Custody With an Active Detainer” HERE)

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Sex Payouts, Character Assassinations: Trudeau Struggles to Contain Corruption Scandal

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As sordid details of the SNC-Lavalin corruption scandal emerge, Justin Trudeau’s Liberals are under fire for what many analysts allege were strategic leaks intended to smear Jody Wilson-Raybould.

The former attorney general has accused Canada’s prime minister and top staffers of attempting to interfere in the criminal prosecution of Montreal-based global engineering firm SNC-Lavalin on bribery and corruption charges relating to its government contracts in Libya from 2001 to 2011.

Since the scandal broke in February, Trudeau and the Liberals have taken a hit in the polls, dropping four points behind the Conservatives, CBC News reported in March. And the prime minister’s personal popularity has tanked more than his party’s, dropping six to eight points, with some pundits predicting the growing SNC-Lavalin scandal may be the end of Trudeau’s political career.

In a more unsavory aspect of the affair, Montreal’s La Presse revealed last month that SNC-Lavalin paid $30,000 to Saadi Gadhafi, the son of former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, to cover his hiring of prostitutes during his visit to Canada in 2008, according to the National Post. . .

The information was gathered during an investigation of Stéphane Roy, former vice-president of SNC-Lavalin, on fraud and bribery charges, and its publication was allowed after the charges were dropped in mid-February because of court delays, the National Post reported. (Read more from “Sex Payouts, Character Assassinations: Trudeau Struggles to Contain Corruption Scandal” HERE)

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Huge Snake Strangles Hawk in ‘Life-Or-Death Battle’, Stunning Photos Show

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Seventh-graders on a field trip in Northlake, Texas witnessed Mother Nature at her finest on Monday.

A western rat snake was seen wrapped around a large red-tail hawk, which was likely hoping to make the serpent its next meal. The middle schoolers came across the wild scene at the Northwest Independent School District’s Outdoor Learning Center, a nearly 200-acre site with ponds, wildflowers and wildlife. . .

Either the reptile or the bird let go of the other, though it’s not clear which one relinquished its hold first, per a Texas Parks and Wildlife-DFW Urban Wildlife Facebook post which describes the scene. The social media message had more than 4,000 reactions and 2,000 shares as of Thursday morning. . .

“The snake strikes out, secures a grip with its teeth and immediately wraps its body around the animal. Once the coils are around the animal, the snake flexes its muscles as the prey exhales. This prevents the prey from inhaling another breath and it eventually dies of suffocation,” the research center explains on its website, noting rat snakes are “bold and ready to defend themselves from perceived threats.”

Red-tailed hawks, on the other hand, are known to feed on snakes, rats, rabbits and other small mammals, birds and reptiles. The creatures typically spot their prey from a perch above, swoop down and then capture it with their talons, according to the National Audubon Society. (Read more from “Huge Snake Strangles Hawk in ‘Life-Or-Death Battle’, Stunning Photos Show” HERE)

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Court Orders Christian to Pay $55,000 to Trans Politician for Calling Him ‘Biological Male’

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By Life Site News. A B.C. human rights tribunal has ruled that a Christian activist discriminated against a man who claims to be “female” by distributing flyers that referred to the man, who was running for political office at the time, as a “biological male.”

The court ruled for transgender activist “Morgane” Oger, born Ronan Oger, and against Christian activist Bill Whatcott by declaring it’s discriminatory not to accept transgender people as the gender they claim to be. . .

The tribunal also ordered Whatcott to pay Oger $35,000 in compensation for injury to his “dignity, feelings and self-respect,” and an additional $20,000 to Oger for Whatcott’s alleged improper conduct during and before the hearings, it reported. . .

Oger, who is vice president of the B.C. NDP, launched a discrimination complaint against Whatcott after the Christian activist distributed flyers in Vancouver-False Creek riding in 2017 when Oger was running as MLA for the B.C. NDP. . .

Oger, who narrowly lost to a former Vancouver mayor, alleged the flyer was discriminatory and exposed him to “hatred and contempt” under Section 7 of British Columbia’s Human Rights Code. (Read more from “Court Orders Christian to Pay $55,000 to Trans Politician for Calling Him ‘Biological Male'” HERE)

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B.C. Human Rights Tribunal Rules in Favour of Transgender Politician

By Global News. . .On Wednesday, the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal ruled that Whatcott violated Oger’s human rights and engaged in hate speech.

Oger called the ruling historic.

“This win is a win for everybody who is in a community who faces state propaganda in Canada,” Oger said.

“For the first time ever, gender identity or gender expression has been protected in a B.C. court against hate propaganda.”

Oger was the first person who identified as transgender to run for election in B.C.’s legislature. (Read more from “B.C. Human Rights Tribunal Rules in Favour of Transgender Politician” HERE)

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Poaching Footage Released of Father and Son in Alaska Killing Protected Bears

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Video footage of an Alaskan father and son poaching and killing a hibernating mother bear and her two cubs in their den on Esther Island in Prince William Sound last April has been released to the public through the Humane Society.

Andrew and Owen Renner, who were fined and sentenced to three months in jail, thought they would escape punishment but their actions were being caught on camera, as the mother bear and her cubs were being filmed as part of a study by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and U.S. Forest Service.

In the disturbing clip, which has since been viewed 140,000 times on Facebook, Owen, 18, and Andrew, 41, can be seen shooting into the den at the base of the tree, killing the mother bear before her shrieking cubs meet their untimely death. . .

Andrew was ultimately sentenced to three months in jail, while Owen received 30 days of suspended time for the offense. Each was ordered to pay $1,800 in restitution, with the elder Renner owing an additional $9,000 fine, the Anchorage Daily News reported at the time.

The elder Renner was convicted of eight counts related to the illegal killing and transporting of the bears, and the falsifying of the sealing certificate. His hunting license has been revoked for 10 years, while his son’s license has been suspended for two years, as per the Daily News. (Read more from “Poaching Footage Released of Father and Son in Alaska Killing Protected Bears” HERE)

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Chicago Sends Bill to Jussie Smollett – Here’s What It’s For

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The city of Chicago sent a letter to Jussie Smollett on Thursday demanding the actor pay $130,000 to the city to offset the costs associated with investigating the alleged hate crime hoax he is accused of concocting. . .

ABC 7 Chicago reports that “the money the city requested in the letter sent Thursday is separate from the $10,000 bond that Smollett forfeited as a condition of the charges against him being dropped.”

“This is a reasonable and legally justifiable amount to collect to help offset the cost of the investigation,” said Bill McCaffrey, a spokesperson for the Department of Buildings.

The Daily Wire reported earlier on Thursday that during an interview with WGN News on Thursday morning, Chicago Democrat Mayor Rahm Emanuel said that the city of Chicago was calculating a bill to send to Smollett.

“The police are assembling the cost [of the investigation],” Emanuel said. “They’ll do that and then the corporation counsel of the city of Chicago will communicate to Jussie Smollett and his legal team about recouping that cost in that effort. And, given that he doesn’t feel any sense of contrition and remorse, my recommendation is when he writes the check, in the memo section he can put the word, ‘I’m accountable’ for the hoax.”

(Read more from “Chicago Sends Bill to Jussie Smollett – Here’s What It’s For” HERE)

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Puerto Rico’s Governor Threatens to Physically Attack Trump

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By Daily Wire. CNN’s Jim Acosta sat back and smiled on Thursday as Puerto Rican Governor Ricardo Rossello threatened to physically attack President Donald Trump, saying that he would punch him in the mouth.

In the interview, which aired on “CNN Right Now With Brianna Keilar,” Rossello said: “If the bully gets close, I’ll punch the bully in the mouth.”

(Read more from “Puerto Rico’s Governor Threatens to Physically Attack Trump” HERE)

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Trump: I’ve Taken Better Care of Puerto Rico Than ‘Any Living Human Being’

By The Daily Beast. President Trump told reporters on Thursday that he has “taken better care of Puerto Rico than any man ever.” “Puerto Rico has been taken care of better by Donald Trump than by any living human being and I think the people of Puerto Rico understand that,” he claimed. “But you do have the mayor of San Juan who, frankly, doesn’t know what she’s doing—and the governor, they gotta spend the money wisely. They don’t know how to spend the money, and they’re not spending it wisely—but I’m giving them more money than they’ve ever gotten[.]” The mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, very publicly criticized Trump for his treatment of the U.S. territory in the wake of hurricanes Maria and Irma, going so far as to claim his administration killed people due to “neglect.” The Washington Post reported earlier this week that Trump complained about the amount of aid funding Puerto Rico got in comparison to Florida and Texas to GOP senators.

(Read more from “Trump: I’ve Taken Better Care of Puerto Rico Than ‘Any Living Human Being'” HERE)

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Marijuana-Related ER Visits Have Tripled in Colorado Since Legalization

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Marijuana-related emergency room visits tripled in Colorado since the legalization of cannabis in 2012, according to a study published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Researchers at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital reviewed the records of nearly 10,000 patients who had pot-related visits at the hospital between 2012 to 2016. They found a three-fold increase in cannabis-associated emergency department visits during that period.

“Lawmakers rushing to legalize marijuana need to slow down and consider the implications it could bring upon their state,” Dr. Kevin Sabet, founder of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, said in an email to TheBlaze. “They are certainly not receiving information such as this from the pot industry’s army of lobbyists.”

Pot smokers visited the emergency room more often, but edibles accounted for a higher number of cardiovascular and psychiatric symptoms, the study showed. Edibles are food products containing tetrahydrocannabinol, more commonly known as THC. It is the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis. . .

“Acute psychiatric visits like acute panic attacks, acute psychosis, and acute-onset of chronic conditions such as acute exacerbations of schizophrenia were also much more commonly associated with cannabis edibles,” he added. (Read more from “Marijuana-Related ER Visits Have Tripled in Colorado Since Legalization” HERE)

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