‘Bible Tax’ No More: Trump Exempts Religious Items From China Tariff List

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President Trump is exempting Bibles from upcoming tariff increases on Chinese goods after book publishers warned against a possible “Bible tax.”

A 10 percent hike on $300 billion worth of other Chinese goods will go into effect for some items on Sep. 1 and another set on Dec. 15, according to a statement by the United States Trade Representative made Tuesday. . .

Christian publishers, who report that more than 75 percent of Bibles are printed in China due to the specialized printing technology and formatting, celebrated Tuesday’s announcement from the office of U.S. Trade Ambassador Robert E. Lighthizer.

“Whatever one thinks about trade policy, the Bible should never have been a subject of this sort of taxation,” Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), said in a statement.

Ben Mandrell, president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources, echoed Moore’s claims, adding that there has been “great concern among the Christian publishing community” since Trump’s trade dispute with China began. (Read more from “‘Bible Tax’ No More: Trump Exempts Religious Items From China Tariff List” HERE)

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Planned Parenthood Braces for Serious Financial Jolt From Trump

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By WND. A new rule adopted by the Trump administration that is expected to deprive the abortionists at industry leader Planned Parenthood hits Monday.

That’s the rule that Title X funds cannot go to clinics that conduct abortions or refer them.

The pending change has been upheld by a numerous court decisions.

But now Jordan Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice says the first deadline has come for the abortion industry to prove it is complying in order to continue getting funds.

“HHS has announced the first date for Planned Parenthood and other Title X recipients to provide ‘assurance’ of compliance is Monday, August 19th,” he explained. (Read more from “Planned Parenthood Braces for Serious Financial Jolt From Trump” HERE)
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Judge Rules Against Planned Parenthood’s Bid to Freeze Administration’s New Abortion Rules

By PJ Media. A federal appeals court has rejected an effort by Planned Parenthood to avoid new abortion rules that would ban referrals by federally funded family planning clinics.

The decision in the 9th U.S. Court of Appeals will allow lawsuits filed by various pro-abortion groups to go forward while the rule is implemented.

Politico:

The Department of Health and Human Services set a deadline of midnight Monday for providers across the country to eithercomply with the policy or be kicked out of the federal Title X family planning program and potentially forfeit millions of dollars in federal grants.Several states and medical groups that serve nearly half of the approximately 4 million low-income women that Title X covers for free and subsidized birth control, STD screenings and other health services have said they won’t participate under the new restrictions.

. . .

There is nothing in the new rules that prevents these groups from offering free mammograms, free birth control, or free exams. The pro-abortion groups are throwing a tantrum that rivals any outburst made by a two-year-old. They don’t care about their clients, they want to be able to tell women they should get an abortion — despite a long-standing federal policy that prevents any federal money from being used for abortions. (Read more from “Judge Rules Against Planned Parenthood’s Bid to Freeze Administration’s New Abortion Rules” HERE)

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House Democrats Weighing Action Against Israel

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Senior Democratic members of Congress are said to have launched discussions to formally censure the U.S. Ambassador to Israel and Jerusalem’s envoy in Washington over Israel’s decision to bar entry to congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar.

Around a dozen lawmakers, several of whom are Jewish, have begun talks to communicate a “deep lack of confidence and trust” in Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer and U.S. envoy to Israel David Friedman, the McClatchy news service reported, citing congressional sources.

According to the report, the Democrats are considering releasing a statement of no confidence in Dermer and opening an inspector-general investigation into Friedman.

Among the twelve are House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel and House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey, two Jewish lawmakers from New York.

“We are reviewing all of our options,” McClatchy quoted a source as saying. “With Dermer, the issue is that there already was a severe lack of trust. But now there is a severe lack of confidence. It is completely unclear that he represents his government given he has made promises that he has not kept and wasn’t clear if he ever had any chance of keeping.” (Read more from “House Democrats Weighing Action Against Israel” HERE)

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Eighth NYPD Officer Commits Suicide This Year

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An off-duty New York Police Department (NYPD) officer reportedly killed himself in Yonkers, New York, early Tuesday morning.

Police officials told reporters that the 35-year-old who was assigned to the 50th Precinct died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound around 3 a.m. Reports indicated that a note was also found at the scene.

The New York Post said the officer is now the eighth NYPD policeman to die by suicide this year, and the sixth since June. Reports also noted that the officer’s fiancée was inside the home when he took his own life. . .

Last month, NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan told officers that if they experienced suicidal thoughts they should seek out mental health counseling. Monahan also said officers who sought help need not be afraid of losing their jobs. . .

The NYPD website offers resources to its officers if they need to speak to someone about feeling hopeless or overwhelmed. “Seeking out help is never a sign of weakness — it’s a sign of great strength,” the website stated. “If you are having a problem of any kind, please contact the services offered inside and outside the department — because you never have to shoulder your burden alone.” (Read more from “Eighth NYPD Officer Commits Suicide This Year” HERE)

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Trump Administration Scores a Partial Victory on Asylum Ban

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A federal appeals court partially lifted a nationwide injunction against the Trump administration’s efforts to rein in the wave of Central American migrants seeking asylum at the border. . .

Politico:

While the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit upheld a lower court’s decision to block the ban, it narrowed the nationwide injunction to the 9th Circuit, which encompasses district courts in the border states of Arizona and California.

But the panel also said in a related order that the asylum ban, implemented in July, likely violated federal regulatory law because it was issued without an adequate period for public comment.

The ACLU and others argued that the new asylum rules, which barred migrants from seeking asylum in the U.S. if they first passed through another nation on their way to the U.S. border, violated federal asylum laws and international agreements. That argument is yet to be tested, but it was good enough to get an injunction.

In the ruling Friday, all three judges on the 9th Circuit panel agreed to uphold Tigar’s temporary freeze on the ban’s implementation. However, the panel split 2-1 on the issue of limiting the scope of the injunction.

(Read more from “Trump Administration Scores a Partial Victory on Asylum Ban” HERE)

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Leaked Transcripts Reveal How NY Times Leadership Plans to Craft Trump-Racism Narrative

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New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet convened a full newsroom meeting on Monday to discuss recent concerns with the newspaper. Specifically, Baquet focused on the backlash directed at the Times over a recent headline that Democrats thought was too friendly toward President Donald Trump.

Transcripts of the meeting, which centered on the president’s alleged racism and reveal how the Times plans to craft its narrative about Trump moving forward, were later leaked to Slate and published on Thursday.

“Chapter 1 of the story of Donald Trump, not only for our newsroom but, frankly, for our readers, was: Did Donald Trump have untoward relationships with the Russians, and was there obstruction of justice?” Baquet said.

But after Robert Mueller’s investigation concluded that Trump’s campaign did not collude with Russia, Baquet claimed “the story changed,” forcing the Times to “regroup, and shift resources and emphasis to take on a different story.” . . .

“I think that we’ve got to change. I mean, the vision for coverage for the next two years is what I talked about earlier: How do we cover a guy who makes these kinds of remarks? How do we cover the world’s reaction to him? How do we do that while continuing to cover his policies? How do we cover America, that’s become so divided by Donald Trump?” Baquet explained. (Read more from “Leaked Transcripts Reveal How NY Times Leadership Plans to Craft Trump-Racism Narrative” HERE)

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Mexican President Looking to Extradite El Paso Shooter to Prevent His Possible Execution

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The El Paso shootings were horrific. Patrick Wood Crusius, a crazed man with white supremacist views, gunned down over 20 people at a local Walmart on August 3 and wounded scores more. He was targeting Mexicans. His manifesto is littered with racial overtones, yes, but he noted that his views predated Trump’s 2016 win, that Republicans are terrible, and that a lot of people have to die to in order to maintain the sustainability of the planet. There is an eco-terror angle that makes up the core of his manifesto that the media is ignoring. Eco-terrorism isn’t an activity of the far-right and the anti-Trump media need to deliver uppercuts to the White House that trashes them on a daily basis. Meanwhile, a mass shooter in Dayton, Ohio who is a self-avowed leftist is having his political views masked by the news media because, well, it just doesn’t fit the Left’s ‘all mass shooters might be racist right-wingers’ narrative. The Dayton shooter was pro-gun control, by the way. Anyway, I digress.

President Trump said that the El Paso shooter should get the death penalty. I think many would agree given the heinous nature of the crime, but Mexico’s president does not want that. In fact, he said he’s exploring ways to possibly extradite Crusius to prevent his possible execution (via AFP):

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Friday that Mexico does not want the El Paso shooter who killed 22 people — targeting Mexicans — to be executed, and will seek to extradite him from the United States.

[…]

Lopez Obrador, an anti-establishment leftist, said that while Mexico condemns Crusius’s “reprehensible, abominable” crimes, it does not want to see him put to death.

“Our constitution does not allow the death penalty. We do not want the death penalty, as a matter of conviction. Life imprisonment does not exist (in Mexico), either,” he told a press conference.

(Read more from “Mexican President Looking to Extradite El Paso Shooter to Prevent His Possible Execution” HERE)

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So Much for Being ‘Peaceful’: Antifa Attacks Reporters and Conservatives in Portland (Again)

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Not quite seven weeks ago, conservative journalist Andy Ngo was attacked while covering an Antifa protest in Portland, Oregon. Mayor Tom Wheeler ordered police to stand down at the time and received backlash for doing so. The city prepared for the Proud Boys to hold a rally on Saturday, with Antifa showing up to counter protest. Wheeler made it clear that Portland is taking a “zero tolerance” policy during Saturday’s activities.

At one point, Antifa protestors had The Washington Examiner’s Julio Rosas surrounded. They wanted him to report on what was taking place from the other side of the street because he “wasn’t with” them.

Rosas attempted to explain that he was simply reporting on the events for his job but Antifa didn’t care. They thought he was “spying” on them.

[Warning: videos contain explicit language.]

(Read more from “So Much for Being ‘Peaceful’: Antifa Attacks Reporters and Conservatives in Portland (Again)” HERE)

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Rashida Tlaib: Boycott Bill Maher for Opposing BDS

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Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) has now turned her guns on HBO’s “Real Time” host Bill Maher for daring to criticize the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement as a hateful anti-Israel political sentiment with little or no goal beyond the destruction of the Jewish state.

“Maybe folks should boycott his show,” Tlaib tweeted, according to Deadline. “I am tired of folks discrediting a form of speech that is centered on equality and freedom. This is exactly how they tried to discredit & stop the boycott to stand up against the apartheid in S. Africa. It didn’t work then and it won’t now.”

On Friday, Maher pivoted his criticism away from Trump and conservatives and toward Tlaib and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) for supporting the BDS movement. His attack came shortly after the pair were barred from entering Israel for having an agenda entirely in opposition to the country’s existence.

“It’s a bulls*** purity test, BDS is a bulls*** purity test by people who want to appear ‘woke’ but actually slept through history class,” Maher said. “It’s predicated on this notion — I think, it’s very shallow thinking — that the Jews in Israel are mostly white and Palestinians are browner, so they must be innocent and correct and the Jews must be wrong. As if the occupation came right out of the blue, that this ‘completely peaceful people’ found themselves occupied. Forget about the intifadas and the suicide bombings and the rockets and how many wars.” . . .

“Congresswoman Omar has said things like, ‘It’s all about the Benjamins,’ ‘Israel has hypnotized the world,’ ‘May Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel,'” Maher said. “She apologized for it, but it’s out there: Jews control the world, control the money.” (Read more from “Rashida Tlaib: Boycott Bill Maher for Opposing BDS” HERE)

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Suicide Bombing at Wedding; 63 Dead, Over 180 Injured

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At approximately 10:40 p.m. local time on Saturday evening, a suicide bomber detonated an explosive in a wedding hall in Kabul, Afghanistan. At least 63 people were killed and more than 180 injured. . .

The Associated Press quotes a man named Amanullah, whose son was killed in the attack, and his body severely disfigured: “I wish I could find the pieces of my son’s body and put them as one piece into the grave.”

Ashraf Ghani, president of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, sent out several tweets condemning the attack, offering condolences to the wounded and their families, and assigning a portion of the blame to the Taliban:

However, according to CNN, the area in Kabul in which the bombing took place is populated by many in the Shiite Hazara minority, and the Islamic State, a Sunni terrorist organization, has claimed responsibility for the attack.

(Read more from “Suicide Bombing at Wedding; 63 Dead, Over 180 Injured” HERE)

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