Liberty: This Republican Has a Revolutionary DC Gun Bill

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A day after the tragic shooting of House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La,. and others in Alexandria, Va. Wednesday morning, multiple members of Congress have publicly pondered how to keep themselves and others safe from other such attacks.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., has an idea: Give people the freedom to defend themselves in our nation’s capital.

On the Fox Business Network Thursday, Massie announced that he would be introducing the D.C. Personal Protection Reciprocity Act (similar to a measure introduced by House Freedom Caucus Member David Schweikert, R-Ariz., last year).

The bill would honor people’s concealed carry permits (not just members of Congress) in the District of Columbia, where even a 2008 loss at the Supreme Court for the gun-grabbers has not deterred the government from keeping a tight leash on people’s exercise of their Second Amendment rights.

In D.C., guns are only allowed in the home, unless one can offer a good enough reason for the District to issue them a carry permit. And very few can.

Had Scalise’s security detail not been present, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a GOP team member, said that Wednesday’s attack “would have been a massacre.”

“From the description of the incident yesterday that I’ve received from my colleagues, it’s clear that the Capitol Hill police who were there are heroic,” Massie said, per the Washington Examiner. “But had Steve Scalise not been there, there would have been far more, would have been fatalities and lot of congressmen would have been hurt.”

The D.C. Personal Protection Reciprocity Act has gained 21 co-sponsors so far, including House Freedom Caucus Chair Mark Meadows, R-N.C., according to its press release.

However, not everyone is on board.

Within hours of the announcement, the bill received blowback from D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, who chided Massie for “shamefully using the District as political fodder” and “abuse congressional authority over D.C.”

“The delegate from D.C. may seek to prevent her constituents from exercising their right to self-defense, but she lacks constitutional authority to deny that right to all those who visit the nation’s capital,” reads a response from Rep. Massie, via text message. “The Constitution is clear on Congress’ jurisdiction over D.C.” (For more from the author of “Liberty: This Republican Has a Revolutionary DC Gun Bill” please click HERE)

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Steve Scalise Was Still Bleeding, and Liberals Were Calling for Gun Control

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It didn’t take long for liberal pundits to reignite the gun control debate after a gunman opened fire on Republican lawmakers and staff at baseball practice Wednesday morning, wounding Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise and four others.

Prominent liberal pundits and journalists used the Twitter hashtag “Gun Control” to bash Republican opposition on gun control and to push for more gun regulations not long after news of the shooting broke.

One freelance writer basically blamed Scalise for being shot. She tweeted, “The rep who was shot at the baseball game, Rep. Steve Scalise, introduced a bill to relax gun restrictions. https://t.co/GkR8bPt9HA.” The tweet has since been deleted. Other journalists immediately used the shooting to call for gun control.

(Read more from “Steve Scalise Was Still Bleeding, and Liberals Were Calling for Gun Control” HERE)

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Standing Together Against Evil

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As long as the media, entertainers, and other public figures blatantly mock God, authority and laws, we will continue to witness horrific manifestations of evil like we saw in the attack on GOP representatives and senators in Alexandria, Virginia. If Americans continue to cast aside the principles upon which freedom stands, the blessings freedom offers will be lost. There is no substitute for the power of transforming truth that sets us free and keeps us free.

This latest senseless and evil act was not caused by the election of President Trump, his administration, or what he is trying to accomplish for America. The worthy goals he seeks to fulfill are, in fact, necessary to help bring such evil action under control.

It is perfectly appropriate and essential for our nation’s leaders to call for prayer and divine guidance. This call from President Trump, Senator Schumer, Speaker Paul Ryan and others is the right immediate step. Do not accept the foolishness of any individuals or media personalities who attack these calls as somehow unconstitutional or out of place. Prayer is in perfect harmony with the heart of our founding fathers, the spirit of our Constitution, and that which is essential for the future of freedom.

Evil is a Present Reality

Every one of us is distracted by evil, often defeated by evil, divided by evil and, tragically, sometimes destroyed by evil. Evil is a present reality; and calling good evil, or evil good, or light darkness does not solve the problem. Evil affects every one of us on the planet in this present age and will until we are in the kingdom to come, where there will be no evil. Although we are all distracted by it, often deceived, and defeated by it, this individual shooter at the baseball field was sold out to and controlled by evil.

Many of the active forces we witness around the world are acts perpetrated by people who have sold out to evil, and those forces must be resisted and destroyed. This is the rule of God-ordained authority and government of the people, by the people and for the people. (Read Romans 13:1-4.)

A Return to Righteousness and Unity

Right now, it is critically important that everyone who has a relationship with God the Father and Creator pray fervently for a supernatural awakening and a return to true righteousness and unity that only truth can make possible. The invitation from God, “Come now, and let us reason together,” is an invitation to the entire nation to come and reason together. Though our “sins be as scarlet they will become as white as snow.”

There is no substitute for repentance and a return to God. “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him” (Isaiah 59:19).

The heated rhetoric must cease on all sides. Instead of name-calling we must be calling on the name.

God still promises, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” (2 Chron. 7:14). There is hope for the healing God freely offers to those who follow that glorious pathway. (For more from the author of “Standing Together Against Evil” please click HERE)

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Sessions’ Testimony: Zero Evidence of Trump Campaign Colluding With Russians

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As part of their effort to prove the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians to influence the presidential election, Democrats in Congress are calling officials and former officials to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Last week, senators questioned former FBI Director James Comey. He disappointed the Democrats, since he affirmed Trump’s version of events. This week, they called Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Acting Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. The pair had recommended Trump fire Comey for the way he handled the probe into Hillary Clinton’s private email server.

Sessions’ testimony equally disappointed Democrats. He said repeatedly that he saw no evidence of collusion. He called the accusation that he personally colluded with the Russians to influence the election “a detestable lie.” At one point, he stormed, “The suggestion that I participated in any collusion or that I was aware of any collusion with the Russian government to hurt this country, which I have served with honor for over 35 years, or to undermine the integrity of our democratic process, is an appalling and detestable lie.”

He clarified that when he said during his confirmation hearing that he hadn’t spoken with Russians, he meant that no “surrogates had been meeting with Russians on a regular basis.” In fact, he said, he did not recall any of Trump’s campaign staff meeting with the Russians. He probably had two meetings with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the campaign. This is perfectly normal for presidential campaign officials.

Spy Fiction?

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) engaged in the most dramatic exchange with Sessions. “Do you like spy fiction?” he asked. “Have you ever, ever in any of these fantastical situations heard of a plot line so ridiculous that a sitting United States senator and an ambassador of a foreign government colluded at an open setting with hundreds of other people to pull off the greatest caper in the history of espionage?”

He was referring to Trump’s first foreign policy speech at the Mayflower Hotel in April 2016. Both he and the Russian ambassador attended. Sessions does not recall talking to him.

Sessions laughed for the first time during the questioning. “Thank you for saying that, Senator Cotton. It’s just like through the looking glass,” he responded. “I mean, what is this? … I didn’t meet with them.”

Nothing Wrong With Trump Meeting Privately One-on-One With Comey

During Comey’s testimony last week, he said he felt awkward meeting with Trump one-on-one. He said he spoke with Sessions about it later, but he blew it off. Sessions said there was nothing “problematic” about the president privately meeting with Comey. “[Comey] did not tell me at that time any details about anything that was said that was improper.”

He saw “nothing wrong” with the president talking to the FBI director. “It didn’t seem to be a major problem. I knew that Director Comey, long-time experienced individual of the Department of Justice, could handle himself well.” Comey had said he spoke six or more times with President Obama and Trump.

Sessions denied he stayed silent when Comey urged him never to leave him alone again with Trump. He urged the FBI and Justice Department officials to follow proper protocol in their communications with the White House, he said. “[Comey] didn’t recall this, but I responded to his comment by agreeing.”

Sessions Protects Trump

Sessions declined to discuss Trump’s reasons for firing Comey. He said it was privileged information. Democrats accused him of stonewalling. Sessions denied doing so, saying he was just following the DOJ’s historic practices. He said he was protecting the president’s ability to invoke executive privilege. Democrats hammered him over this, saying he couldn’t invoke the privilege for Trump.

Sen. Lankford said he was amazed at the senators who thought Sessions was obliged to repeat private conversations with the president. He noted Democrats didn’t object when Obama’s AG Eric Holder withheld documents and private talks from Congress.

Referring to the rumor that Trump might fire Special prosecutor Robert Mueller, Sessions said that “the latest unnamed sourced story of the day” is “grabbing all the attention.” Mueller was appointed to look into the claims of collusion. Rosenstein had said in his testimony earlier in the day that only he as Acting AG has the authority to fire Mueller.

Sessions repeated what he told the president about firing Comey. “When Mr. Comey declined the Clinton prosecution, that was really a usurpation of the authority of the federal prosecutors in the Department of Justice.” Later on, he referred to it as a “Pretty breathtaking usurpation of the responsibility of the attorney general.” Comey’s public statement about the Clinton probe in July violated DOJ rules.

Since he had recused himself from the Russian probe, he said, his decision to fire Comey was not based on Comey’s actions there. He and Rosenstein had discussed replacing Comey before they were confirmed. “We both found that we shared common view that a fresh start would be appropriate.”

Sessions’ Recusal From the Russian Probe

Sessions explained he recused himself from the Russian probe because he had advised the campaign. He cited part of the federal code covering disqualification arising from personal or political relationship.

One senator asked him why Comey said his recusal was “problematic.” He responded irritatedly, “This is a secret innuendo being leaked out there about me, and I don’t appreciate it.”

As a result of recusing himself, he is not aware of any evidence that Russia hacked the election. “I never received any detailed briefing on how the hacking occurred,” he told the committee. The committee has found no evidence of collusion, Sen. James Risch (R-Idaho) told him.

Sessions defended the president from charges he’d interfered with law enforcement.“The President never asked me to do anything unethical or illegal.” (For more from the author of “Sessions’ Testimony: Zero Evidence of Trump Campaign Colluding With Russians” please click HERE)

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Father of College Student Released From N. Korea Doesn’t Buy Explanation for Son’s Coma

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North Korea returned a young college student [Otto Frederick Warmbier] detained for over a year this week. He’s in a coma, and his parents don’t believe a word of North Korea’s explanation . . .

Warmbier returned to Cincinnati Tuesday and is now being treated at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. The comatose student’s condition is stable, but he suffered a “severe neurological injury,” according to a spokesperson from the medical facility where Warmiber is receiving care.

He reportedly fell into a coma shortly after his trial, and no one had heard anything from Warmbier for fifteen months.

“Even if you believe their explanation of botulism and a sleeping pill causing the coma, and we don’t, there is no excuse for any civilized nation to have kept his condition secret and deny him top-notch medical care for so long,” his father, Fred Warmbier, said at a press conference Thursday.

The U.S. recently obtained intelligence reports suggesting that North Korean authorities brutally beat Warmbier while in custody, a senior American official told The New York Times. There were actually serious concerns that the young student was dead. Some American officials suspect that Warmbier’s current condition is the result of his treatment. (Read more from “Father of College Student Released From N. Korea Doesn’t Buy Explanation for Son’s Coma” HERE)

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Why Conservatives Put Trust in Trey Gowdy as House’s Corruption Fighter

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Conservative leaders say they’re confident the new chairman of a House of Representatives panel that targets corruption will dedicate himself to reviewing executive branch actions, including during the Obama administration.

Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., assumed the chairmanship of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee after his confirmation Tuesday. He takes the reins from Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, who will leave Congress on June 30.

The oversight committee, which works to expose abuse, waste, and fraud, seeks to ensure the “efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability of the federal government and all its agencies,” according to the panel’s website.

“I think there are opportunities for accountability for misconduct in the Obama administration that should be taken advantage of,” Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, a conservative legal oversight organization, said of Gowdy in an interview with The Daily Signal.

Gowdy, 52, first elected to Congress in 2010, was chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, which investigated and produced a report on the 2012 terror attacks in Benghazi, Libya.

Prior to joining Congress, Gowdy worked as a federal prosecutor in South Carolina on cases that included narcotics trafficking rings, child pornography, and the murder of a federal witness. He also held the post of 7th Circuit solicitor, directing 25 attorneys and 40 other employees in an office that represents South Carolina in certain local criminal cases.

Fitton said he hopes Gowdy will investigate corruption that occurred during Barack Obama’s presidency.

“I think he should work to get the attention of the White House to expose what went on during the Obama administration, even on things that everyone thinks are over, such as Benghazi and the IRS and, you know, even Fast and Furious,” Fitton said.

Besides the terrorist attacks in Benghazi that left U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three others dead, Fitton was referring to the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of tea party groups under IRS division chief Lois Lerner before the 2012 elections. Lawmakers recently asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions to re-examine the Lerner case.

Fast and Furious, a secret operation of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives authorized by the Obama Justice Department, funneled guns to illegal buyers close to the Mexican border because agency officials wanted to follow them back to Mexican drug gangs.

Weapons from the Fast and Furious program were found on Dec.14, 2010 at the scene of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry’s slaying, The Daily Signal previously reported.

Jordan Sekulow, executive director of the American Center for Law and Justice, a legal group, said in a statement provided to The Daily Signal that Gowdy will be an unbiased chairman.

“Congressman Gowdy brings valuable prosecutorial skills to this critical role,” Sekulow said. “He understands as well as anyone in Congress how to gather evidence, question witnesses, and separate truth from spin. He is an excellent choice for the position.”

Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Signal in an email that Gowdy could use his position to probe illegal payments to third-party organizations.

On June 7, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the federal government no longer will make settlement agreements with any person or organization not directly involved in a legal dispute.

Von Spakovsky said of Gowdy:

I think one of the first things he could look at, in conjunction with AG Sessions having just ended the DOJ practice of having settlement funds in litigation being paid to third-party groups, is using his oversight powers to compile a list of all of the organizations that were paid off by the Obama Justice Department, with the amounts they received.

Chaffetz, first elected to Congress in 2008, announced April 19 that he would not seek re-election in 2018. He officially resigned Tuesday as chairman of the oversight committee, and said his last day in Congress would be June 30.

As committee chairman, Chaffetz, 50, became known for his investigation into Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email account and server to conduct official business when she was secretary of state during Obama’s first term.

Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, a group of conservative lawmakers, said in a statement provided to The Daily Signal that he is confident that Gowdy will be a competent watchdog.

“Having worked with him on the Oversight Committee since I arrived in Congress, I can tell you there are few men in Washington more dedicated to holding government accountable than Trey Gowdy,” Meadows said, adding:

He is an honest broker who has consistently demonstrated a commitment to truth and integrity above partisan politics. He’ll make an outstanding chairman and I look forward to working with him.

Anthony L. François, a senior attorney at the Pacific Legal Foundation, told The Daily Signal in an interview that he expects Gowdy will hold the executive branch accountable.

“There is an overarching purpose to what the committee does, and especially Mr. Gowdy’s responsibility [in] the chair, in making sure that the government that American citizens get is the one that their elected representatives have enacted, not a different one that unaccountable bureaucrats would prefer to impose,” François said.

Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C., chairman of the Republican Study Committee, the largest caucus of GOP lawmakers in the House, told The Daily Signal in an interview that he hopes Gowdy will use his oversight position to ensure government accountability.

Walker said:

As far as specific areas that we hope that he will look into, when it comes to government accountability I think there is a lot of room. Some of the agencies that have run amok, that have operated in some of the careless behavior, I believe that is part of his goal and part of his heart to continue to peel back some of the abuse, the overspending. And I think he’s the guy to do that, and I support this decision 100 percent.

(For more from the author of “Why Conservatives Put Trust in Trey Gowdy as House’s Corruption Fighter” please click HERE)

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The Shameful Response of the Left to Attempted GOP Massacre

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Maybe I’m just too naïve.

I’d expected that liberals would eventually turn to talk of gun control after Wednesday’s violent, horrible shooting targeting GOP lawmakers.

This was an attack that left House Majority Whip Steve Scalise in critical condition as of Wednesday night, according to the hospital treating him, as well as wounding three others–a lawmaker’s aide, a Capitol Police officer, and a lobbyist. One of them, lobbyist and former Capitol Hill aide Matt Mika, also is in critical condition, according to reports.

I’d thought liberals would at least react with sympathy and sorrow that innocent people had been targeted by former Bernie Sanders volunteer James Hodgkinson, the man police say was the shooter, and allow some time to pass before switching to gun control.

Now, of course, neither Griffin or “Julius Caesar” director Oskar Eustis is at all responsible for the shooter’s decisions—but, just as I would hope no conservative would have done such things to President Barack Obama, it’s reasonable to ask the left to behave better, to not forget that Donald Trump, too, is a person. (And yes, it was inappropriate when a 2012 version of “Julius Caesar” starred an actor resembling Obama.)

And of course some, perhaps even most, on the left have been acting in a respectful way.

But there’s been some glaring exceptions.

The New York Times, rightly, is getting pilloried for its editorial, published Wednesday, that insinuated Sarah Palin’s target map was to blame for the shooting of Gabby Giffords. Here’s the language from the original editorial (via National Review):

Was this attack evidence of how vicious American politics has become? Probably. In 2011, when Jared Lee Loughner opened fire in a supermarket parking lot, grievously wounding Representative Gabby Giffords and killing six people, including a 9-year-old girl, the link to political incitement was clear. Before the shooting, Sarah Palin’s political action committee circulated a map of targeted electoral districts that put Ms. Giffords and 19 other Democrats under stylized cross hairs.

The New York Times has since corrected the piece, noting: “An earlier version of this editorial incorrectly stated that a link existed between political incitement and the 2011 shooting of Representative Gabby Giffords. In fact, no such link was established.” Indeed.

National Review’s David French dismantled the argument, writing: “In its zeal to create moral equivalencies and maintain a particular narrative about the past, the Times flat-out lied. There is simply no ‘link to political incitement’ in Loughner’s murderous acts. The man was a paranoid schizophrenic who first got angry at Gabby Giffords years before Palin published her map.”

And CNN’s Jake Tapper, no conservative, similarly disputed the Times account:

You know what wasn’t mentioned in that Times editorial, which noted their grief in 2011 at “vicious American politics”? Kathy Griffin wasn’t mentioned nor was the “Julius Caesar” play. Oh, sure, the Times offered a pablum take on civility, writing:

Conservatives and right-wing media were quick on Wednesday to demand forceful condemnation of hate speech and crimes by anti-Trump liberals. They’re right. Liberals should of course be held to the same standard of decency that they ask of the right.

But without naming names or calling out any specific instances, that’s a pretty toothless take.

And when I went to The Slot, an offshoot of my favorite liberal site Jezebel, I found this comment on the article about the Scalise shooting:

Yeah, f— these people. Scalise voted for the AHCA [American Health Care Act] and got a good chunk of change from insurance and pharmaceutical companies and health professionals. [Republican Rep. Mo] Brooks is a Freedom Caucus member, so he can go to hell, too. Worst thing they’ll have is a traumatic memory, but they have insurance that allows them to get PTSD treated. Scalise will probably have a scar on his hip. No sympathy for these people. (Note: Language edited for decency, in both screenshot and quote.)

This comment was liked 156 times.

And while many Democrat politicians seem to be acting with humanity (including the wonderful display of Democrat lawmakers praying at a Washington, D.C. baseball field when they heard about the shooting), some almost immediately brought up gun control after the attack at the baseball field in Alexandria, Virginia, just outside Washington.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, had this to say Wednesday: “I think we need to do more to protect all of our citizens. I have long advocated — this is not what today is about — but there are too many guns on the street. We lose 93 million Americans a day to gun violence.”

McAuliffe, who clarified he meant 93 Americans a day after a reporter asked, said those words just a few hours after the shooting.

And Rep. Don Beyer, the Democrat who represents the district that includes the baseball field (and is, sadly, my House member), sent his constituents an email Wednesday afternoon that concluded with this sentiment: “I believe strongly that our nation should rethink its policies regarding gun violence, and I will have more for you soon on that issue.”

While I’m certainly aware of how fast the news cycle moves, could McAuliffe and Beyer maybe have held on to these hot takes, for oh, a whole 24 hours? After all, as of Wednesday night, Scalise was still in critical condition.

Never let a crisis go to waste, indeed.

Let’s refresh: The shooter was a former Bernie Sanders volunteer, who lawmakers said started shooting after confirming those on the field were Republicans, and whose social media use shows a clear liberal tilt.

Hogkinson’s alleged violent actions are his own responsibility, and nobody else’s.

But would it have been so crazy for the left to have taken a step back and reflected on their overheated rhetoric of the past few months, their willingness to depict Republicans and conservatives as monsters who want to hurt minorities and LGBT Americans and take away everyone’s health care? (Instead of people who have different views on appropriate discrimination policies, religious freedom, and the best way to ensure everyone has access to health care, not just insurance.)

No. It wouldn’t have been crazy.

It would have been refreshing.

But unfortunately, that’s not the America we live in today. (For more from the author of “The Shameful Response of the Left to Attempted GOP Massacre” please click HERE)

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Trump’s Airport Reform Could Lead to Lower Ticket Prices

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President Donald Trump has announced plans to privatize the United State’s air traffic control system, which he said could lead to lower ticket prices.

“We are taking the first important step to clearing the runway for more jobs, lower prices, and much, much, much better transportation,” Trump said last week.

Air traffic control, which monitors and guides aircraft activity, falls under the Federal Aviation Administration’s authority, and is directed by Federal Aviation Administrator Michael Huerta.

Huerta is expected to serve out his full term through January 2018.

There has been no announcement as to who will replace Huerta, according to Michael Sargent, a policy analyst for transportation and infrastructure at The Heritage Foundation.

Trump’s plan to privatize air traffic control would include a board of directors, Sargent said, with “people representing the airlines, the pilots, the airports [and] general aviation.”

The board of directors would also include a CEO and representatives from the government.

Trump said his initiative will help America reclaim its influence in travel.

“America is the nation that pioneered air travel, and with these reforms, we can once again lead the way far into the future. Our nation will move faster, fly higher, and soar proudly toward the next great chapter of American aviation.”

In a statement outlining his plans, the Trump administration highlighted that privatizing air traffic control will prioritize safety, national security, and access for consumers.

Trump also said that privatization will improve service.

“We’re proposing reduced wait times, increased route efficiency, and far fewer delays,” Trump said. “Our plan will get you where you need to go more quickly, more reliably, more affordably and, yes — for the first time in a long time — on time. We will launch this air travel revolution by modernizing the outdated system of air traffic control. It’s about time.”

Previous transportation secretaries voiced support for Trump’s announcement.

“I applaud President Trump for his leadership in putting forth a bold plan and vision for moving [Air Traffic Control] out of [Federal Aviation Administration] and creating a more efficient and effective Air Traffic Control,” Ray LaHood, who served as transportation secretary from 2009-2013, said in a statement.

James H. Burnley IV, who served as transportation secretary from 1987-1989 under President George H.W. Bush, also praised the announcement.

“Air traffic control is a complex 24 hour a day business,” Burnley said in a statement, adding:

While it is very safe, government red tape increasingly impedes the installation of new technologies. As a result, the U.S. is falling ever further behind other countries, such as Canada, that have separated their systems from government constraints. President Trump’s proposal is the right solution for the 21st century.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, also was supportive.

“I think it’s a big deal that the president came out … and is leading on this issue,” Cruz said in a statement, adding:

There are over 130,000 jobs in Texas that depend on the airline and aerospace industries and by modernizing Air Traffic Control we will see an increase in safety, a decrease in waiting times, decreased costs, and improve the environment by having far less emissions. It should be a no-brainer.

Rep. Rick Nolan, D-Minn., voiced concerns about the announcement.

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., is also skeptical. “Why give away billions of dollars in government assets to an entity that will be governed in large part by the airlines,” Nelson said, according to Reuters.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., also disapproves.

Sargent said the announcement shows promise.

“It moves a vital transportation service out of the government, unshackling it from extensive bureaucracy inertia and establishes it as an independent, nongovernmental, non-profit corporation in charge of providing a service,” Sargent said. (For more from the author of “Trump’s Airport Reform Could Lead to Lower Ticket Prices” please click HERE)

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Trump Will Reverse the Damage Done by Obama’s Cuba Policy

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If “America First” means anything, it must mean preventing a virulently anti-American criminal enterprise from perpetuating its existence next door and reproducing itself throughout the hemisphere.

And since this is precisely what President Barack Obama’s opening to the Castros accomplished, President Donald Trump is duty-bound to reverse this mistake.

In fact, if The New York Times is to be believed—and on this we should, as coddling the Castros is one thing the Gray Lady has been consistent on for 60 years—the administration is about to announce it is reinstating the limits on travel and trade that Obama lifted.

This isn’t full reversion, but I’ll take it. I don’t say this very often, but let’s hope The New York Times is right.

Obama always said he was helping Cubans with his opening, and in a technical way that is true.

Alejandro Castro Espin, the ideologically unbending Leninist son of military ruler Raul Castro, is a Cuban. So is Gen. Luis Alberto Rodriguez Lopez Calleja, the economic czar in charge of the lucrative tourist trade.

Oh, Lopez Calleja is also Castro’s son-in-law and Alejandro’s brother-in-law.

U.S. recognition and sanction of the Castros helped these two Cubans enormously in their endeavor to inherit political and economic control when Castro, a spry 85-year-old man, effected a transition from one communist Castro to another in a short nine months.

Cuba’s 11 million other citizens were not helped so much.

They would have had a much better hope of a real transition to a post-communist, post-Castro, free Cuba had Obama not promised that, in exchange for nothing, the Castro dictatorship would benefit from selling their products in the United States and receiving credits to boot.

With Cuba’s international benefactor, Venezuela’s own despotic government, teetering on the brink of collapse, the Obama lifeline to the Castro family looms even larger.

People with zero understanding of Cuba have always parroted the Godfather stereotypes, so let’s put things in a language they’ll understand.

Raul is Don Corleone in this version, while Alejandro is Michael Corleone, and Lopez Calleja is Tom Hagen.

Sonny and Fredo are played by any number of Miami Cuban-Americans with business interests tied to this division of the spoils, the freedom of their former compatriots be damned.

Alejandro is widely expected to pull the strings of power when and if the nominal heir apparent, Miguel Diaz-Canel, first vice president since 2013, takes the title of president from Raul in February 2018.

There are precedents for this in the revolution and earlier Cuban history.

Cuba’s president from 1959 to 1976 wasn’t Fidel Castro, but a wealthy lawyer by the name of Osvaldo Dorticos Torrado, a nonentity who committed suicide in 1983.

From 1936 to 1940, the republic’s official head of state was Federico Laredo Bru, another wealthy lawyer whose strings were pulled by Fulgencio Batista.

Both Dorticos and Laredo Bru associated with communists and let them take part in government (yes, little-known fact: Batista was such a communist sympathizer that even Stalin’s Chilean hagiographer, Pablo Neruda, once wrote a poem to him).

But before reading these lines, had you ever heard of either of Dorticos or Laredo Bru?

This window-dressing fate awaits Diaz-Canel. Journalists are now besoiling themselves by claiming all sorts of things about him.

Six months ago, Reuters said he “has already established press and internet freedom as signature concerns.” It is often written that he’s a Beatles fan (the way Andropov liked jazz).

Probably better to listen to what Alejandro Castro says and watch what he does. This is admittedly onerous, as he’s a humorless Marxist ideologue who would apply a dialectical analysis to a doughnut.

But if you’re interested in what’s ahead for Cuba, there is, alas, no alternative.

“Cuba will never return to capitalism,” the reclusive Alejandro, officially an army colonel and the head of military intelligence, told Peruvian-Greek journalist Lasonas Pipinis Velasco in a sweeping 2015 interview.

In it, he applied “the logic of history” to everything from the serfs of the Middle Ages to John Locke, Bretton Woods and the distinction between “participative democracy” and “bourgeois representative democracy.”

(He says Cuba practices the former because it constantly holds “popular consultations.”)

A bit earlier, it was Alejandro, not Diaz-Canal, who conducted the secret negotiations on the opening with Obama’s outmatched deputy Ben Rhodes in 2014. It was also Alejandro who received the Cuban spies charged with the murder of Americans whom Obama obligingly sent to Havana in 2015.

More recently, it was Alejandro who sat next to Obama at the table when the 44th president visited Havana. And it was also him who accompanied Raul for the 2015 meeting with Pope Francis.

And again just recently, it was Alejandro again who popped up in Moscow negotiating, of all things, an agreement on cybersecurity cooperation with the head of the Russian Security Council, Nicolai Patrushev.

Known in hushed tones in Havana as “One Eye” (El Tuerto) after losing most of his sight in one eye in Angola, Alejandro has also left his feelings for the United States known in the book he wrote about America’s rise, “The Empire of Terror.”

According to The New York Times, the Trump administration is reportedly considering measures proposed by Florida Republicans Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart that would block deals between American companies and the Cuban military—measures that would hit the Castro family where it hurts.

Let’s hope it’s true. (For more from the author of “Trump Will Reverse the Damage Done by Obama’s Cuba Policy” please click HERE)

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US and Vietnam Deepen Ties During Prime Minister’s Recent Visit

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The May summit between President Donald Trump and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuân Phúc demonstrated the extent of warming relations between Vietnam and the U.S.

Over the past two decades, U.S.-Vietnam relations have been relatively stable with converging interests in economics, military affairs, and geopolitics. This relationship will prove to be particularly important as both countries contend with China’s expansion in the South China Sea.

Hours after meeting with Trump, Phúc spoke at The Heritage Foundation about Vietnamese-American relations and Vietnam’s security concerns.

During his speech, the prime minister touched on several shared U.S.-Vietnamese interests. He commended the trading of technology and produce, the signing of $15 billion in contracts, the investing of $10 billion to American projects in Vietnam, and the expanding of tourism and education.

According to U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, part of the deals included a $3.4 billion investment in goods manufactured in the U.S. that support 23,000 jobs.

The prime minister also mentioned that investments between the two countries continue to be signs of good relations, with 850 American projects already in Vietnam worth over $10 billion and Vietnam-issued licenses making way for $50 to $70-million projects in America.

Converging military interests are also bringing the two nations closer, despite their embattlement in the Vietnam War decades ago.

The White House announced that the U.S. and Vietnam pledged to strengthen defense ties under the 2011 Memorandum of Understanding on Advancing Bilateral Defense Cooperation and the 2015 Joint Vision Statement on Defense Relations.

One of the most noticeable agreements in recent months is the delivery of six patrol boats and a decommissioned U.S. Coast Guard Hamilton-class cutter. More measures to expand maritime security have also been in the talks between the two countries.

As for humanitarian issues, Phúc advocated for “accelerated humanitarian cooperation to address [the] consequences of war” through continued cooperation in areas such as decontamination, extraction of explosives, and investigation of missing soldiers.

The U.S. and Vietnam have long cooperated in the accounting for American servicemen missing from the Vietnam War.

One topic the prime minister did not address was the issue of human rights for Vietnamese citizens.

According to the State Department, Vietnam has a poor track record with its restrictive policies on speech, its poor judicial system, and inhumane police treatment.

Many Vietnamese activists urged Trump to address arbitrary arrests and beatings of citizens like bloggers defending land-rights and Catholic priests protesting the Formosa Plastics Corp. environmental disaster.

Prior to the prime minister’s visit, however, the U.S. and Vietnam did hold human rights dialogues in Hanoi—something that would not be possible without a broader, positive relationship.

The United States and Vietnam have intersecting interests across a range of issue areas. The two nations should seek to develop those common interests through continued economic, cultural, military, and humanitarian engagement. (For more from the author of “US and Vietnam Deepen Ties During Prime Minister’s Recent Visit” please click HERE)

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