CHART OF THE DAY: College Inflation Since 1978

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Courtesy of David Stockman, here’s another testament to government intervention:

It all goes back to two well-intentioned federal goals: first, that a college education should be within the reach of every American, and second, that if students borrow money from the federal government, they should repay it. Most of us would agree that both are noble goals. But the consequences of both have been stunning.

As a result of the first, the money began to flow; over the last 30 years, inflation-adjusted federal financial aid has quadrupled. Total student debt has now reached the $1 trillion mark, more than the credit card debt of every American combined. The federal deficit in the recently ended fiscal year totaled $1.3 trillion; the debt load carried by college grads now stands at more than two thirds of our nation’s massive budget shortfall.

The above paragraph was actually written five years ago. The actual numbers are far worse today.

College-versus-Medical-Care-or-New-Car

Look at the bright side: it’s only 1,272 percent inflation in the last 38 years.

Well done, Democrats! (For more from the author of “CHART of the DAY: College Inflation Since 1978” please click HERE)

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Concealed-Carry Permit Surge Could Play Decisive Role in These 2016 Battleground States

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The number of concealed-carry permit holders has skyrocketed over the last four years, noticeably in key battleground states and among women, according to a new report.

Two swing states have the highest number of permit holders in the country, with 1.58 million in Florida and 1.2 million in Pennsylvania.

Meanwhile, 549,000 have permits in Ohio, another 556,136 in Michigan, and 530,092 in North Carolina. Indiana has issued 728,976 permits. These are all states that President Barack Obama—who supports gun control—carried at least once in his presidential election campaigns.

Fifteen percent of Indianans have concealed-carry permits. Pennsylvania has 12.2 percent of the population holding permits, and another swing state, Iowa, has 11.5 percent of the population carrying concealed-carry permits.

Depending on how significant guns are in the election, the increase in women permit holders and minorities could also be significant. Women have traditionally broken for Democrats in past elections.

“In eight states where we have data by gender, since 2012 the number of permits has increased by 161 percent for women and by 85 percent for men,” a report by the Crime Prevention Research Center says.

In Florida, women had 18 percent of permits in 2012. That rose to 24.1 percent in 2016. The rise went from 18 percent to 22.7 percent in Indiana from 2012 to 2015. In North Carolina, the number of permits for women went from 21.3 percent in 2012 to 27.5 percent in 2015. The study was based on the most recent available data for each state.

The increase among women with permits is even pronounced in the very blue state of Washington, the report said. Between 2005 and 2014, in Washington, “the growth rate for women getting new permits [was] twice as fast as that of men.”

“Women benefit more from having a gun than a man because of the large strength differential between a male-to-woman attacker compared to male-to-male attacker,” Crime Prevention Research Center President John Lott, a noted economist and researcher, told The Daily Signal in a phone interview. “Women with a gun would be able to better resist an attack from men. There has been a lot of fear about guns that have caused people to make the wrong decisions about guns, but that is changing.”

Lott is the author of the new book, “The War on Guns.”

From 2007 through 2015, permits issued by state and local governments increased by 215 percent, to more than 14 million Americans. Much of that increase was among minorities, with permits increasing about 75 percent faster among nonwhites than whites, according to the report. Lott said this is similar to the argument for women having guns.

“People who live in poor urban areas are less likely to be victims of a crime if they can protect themselves,” Lott said.

The Second Amendment will likely play a paramount role in the 2016 election for gun owners because of a Supreme Court vacancy, said John Malcolm, director of judicial studies at The Heritage Foundation.

“The Second Amendment will be on the minds of gun owners who vote because of the Heller decision, and the Supreme Court,” Malcolm told The Daily Signal in a phone interview. “Antonin Scalia was the author of the Heller decision. Now we have a four-four split and the next president will appoint the justice to decide if Heller is good law.”

Heller was the 2008 case that affirmed the Second Amendment guaranteed the individual right to bear arms.

Gun rights are likely to play a role in the Ohio vote and in other swing states, but it might be limited if single-issue voters already know how they’ll vote, said Paul Beck, a political science professor at Ohio State University.

“Reaction from voters toward the candidates and their stances is largely already baked in,” Beck told The Daily Signal in a phone interview. “This is one issue that really separates the two parties.” (For more from the author of “Concealed-Carry Permit Surge Could Play Decisive Role in These 2016 Battleground States” please click HERE)

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Rigged Election? A History of Presidential Candidates Who’ve Made Allegations

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The current election is not the first time a candidate has charged that the game was rigged. The new book, “Tainted by Suspicion: The Secret Deals and Electoral Chaos of Disputed Presidential Elections,” delves into the common thread regarding the most controversial presidential elections in history.

The focus is on elections that dragged well beyond Election Day, decided by another branch of government. Here’s excerpts from three of the elections featured in the book.

1824: John Quincy Adams vs. Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson believed the presidency was his. He clearly made the most impressive showing, carrying a majority of electoral votes in 11 states—Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Tennessee. In an election defined by regional preference, Jackson was the only national candidate.

John Adams won the formerly Federalist strongholds of the six New England states, plus New York. William Crawford carried only Delaware, his home state of Georgia, and Virginia. It was enough to put him in third place.

On Dec. 1, the Electoral College announced the results. Jackson won the most Electoral College votes, winning 99 votes to the 84 votes for Adams. However, he didn’t have a majority, or 131, of the electoral votes that he needed. Despite coming in last place in the popular vote, Crawford would actually beat Henry Clay in the Electoral College, 41 voters to Clay’s 37 votes. …

After arriving in Washington on Dec. 7, 1824, Jackson wrote a letter to political supporter and former military ally John Coffee in Tennessee informing him of rumors that Adams and Clay had struck a deal, or would do so if they haven’t already. …

Before the vote, a Philadelphia newspaper, the Colombian Observer, published an anonymous letter on Jan. 28 claiming Clay would back Adams in return for being named Secretary of State. Clay strongly denied this. In fact, there were two meetings between Adams and Clay, on Jan. 9 and Jan. 29, 1825. Nevertheless, there was not a lot of reason to believe Clay was divided. He and Adams saw eye to eye for the most part on infrastructure, on tariffs, and the National Bank. …

The House convened on Feb. 9, 1825, each state having a single vote that would be determined by a majority vote inside the delegation. Clay directed Kentucky, Missouri, and Ohio—the states he won—to the Adams camp. Most of Clay’s supporters, as well as the remaining Federalists, backed Adams in the House, enough to give him a single vote victory. The House delegations of three states that Jackson carried, Illinois, Louisiana, and Maryland, went to Adams. This gave Adams a majority of 13 out of 24 states.

Though not the first president elected after a drawn out process, Adams was the only president to assume office without a majority of the electoral votes. In a dour response, Adams said he regretted that there could not be a do-over for submitting the “decision of this momentous question” again “to obtain a nearer approach to unanimity.”

On Feb.14, Clay accepted the offer of the President-elect Adams to serve as his Secretary of State—presumably making him the next heir apparent since the last four men to lead the State Department became president.

Jackson and his supporters immediately called this a “corrupt bargain” between Adams and Clay. The caucus system was supposed to be gone, but Jackson and his supporters claimed Clay essentially resurrected it to thwart the will of the people and install Adams. Jackson said referring to Clay: “The Judas of the West has closed the contract and will receive the thirty pieces of silver. His end will be the same.”

***

1876: Rutherford Hayes vs. Samuel Tilden

Democrats used violence, lynching, and riots to scare blacks away from voting, knowing it was possible for Republicans to carry some Southern states. Republicans were intent that two could play at this game, and in some cases actually sought to persuade blacks to vote by shotgun.

The day before the election, U.S. Marshal J.H. Pierce of the Northern District of Mississippi telegraphed RNC Chairman Zach Chandler, asserting that “the election in the northern half of the state will be a farce … Colored and white Republicans will not be allowed to vote in many counties. The Tilden clubs are armed with Winchester rifles and shotguns and declare that they will carry the election at all hazards. In several counties of my district leading white and colored Republicans are now refugees asking for protection.”

On Nov. 7, Tilden won the national popular vote 4,288,546 to 4,034,311 votes for Hayes, and 184 to 165 in the Electoral College. More than 80 percent of eligible voters actually turned out, some reportedly voting more than once, and others having their votes shredded if it was for the “wrong candidate.” …

It was after midnight. RNC Chairman Zachary Chandler—like Rutherford Hayes—had turned in for the night convinced of the party’s loss. But using Chandler’s signature from the RNC headquarters, Daniel Sickles telegraphed the Republican governors of South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana to say, “With your state sure for Hayes, he is elected. Hold your state.”

At 3 a.m., South Carolina’s Republican Gov. Daniel Chamberlain responded on a telegraph machine, “All right. South Carolina is for Hayes. Need more troops.” …

Three days after the election, Nov. 10, President Grant issued an order to General W.T. Sherman to instruct generals in Florida and Louisiana:

No man worthy of the office of President should be willing to hold it if it counted in or placed there by fraud. Either party can afford to be disappointed by the result, but the country cannot afford to have the result tainted by suspicion of illegal or false returns.

***

2000: George W. Bush vs. Al Gore

The first Tuesday of November in 2000 came the same day as the Election Day 1876—on the seventh. Half the country may have had better things to do than follow the Bore and Gush contest before election, but a decisive majority of Americans were glued after Election Day.

Bush would almost certainly have had significantly more votes had the networks not called Florida before polls closed in the heavily-Republican Panhandle, which is in the Central time zone. Gore campaign strategist Bob Beckel said that Bush lost at least 8,000 votes in the Panhandle alone because of the incorrect reporting.

Meanwhile, Republican polling firm McLaughlin and Associates estimated that Bush lost 11,500 votes because the networks reported the polls were closed in the Panhandle. Economist John Lott estimated between 7,500 and 10,000 voters in Republican counties were dissuaded from showing up. …

In the popular vote, Gore beat Bush nationally with 50,996,582 to 50,456,062. That’s a half million votes. Neither candidate had 270 votes in the Electoral College. Gore had 266 votes. Bush had 246. The 20-electoral vote spread was not that different from Hayes-Tilden. …

Democratic lawyers also began targeting the overseas absentee ballots from the military—which seemed to be more likely Republican voters. The attorneys threatened to sue Seminole County, where election officials corrected errors on thousands of applications for absentee ballots—many for military personnel. Democrats also targeted Duval County, which had one of the heaviest military populations in the United States. This prompted Republicans to say Democrats wanted to disenfranchise military voters.

Before this, Democrats had been able to control much of the message of demanding that every vote be counted. But when a memo surfaced from Democratic attorney Mark Herron that laid out a legal strategy for disqualifying military votes, Democrats found themselves on the defense. Despite a public relations problem, Democrats managed to disqualify 1,420 military ballots over various legal technicalities by Nov. 17.

Retired Army General Norman Schwarzkopf, hero of the Gulf War and Bush supporter, issued a strong statement, asserting: “It’s a very sad day in our country when the men and women of our country are serving abroad and facing danger on a daily basis in places like Bosnia, Kosovo, or on ships like the USS George Washington, yet because of some technicality out of “their control, they are denied the right to vote for the president of the United States, who will be their commander-in-chief.” (For more from the author of “Rigged Election? A History of Presidential Candidates Who’ve Made Allegations” please click HERE)

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Rio Olympics Ceremony Pushes Global Climate Change, Ignites Controversy

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The opening ceremony of the 2016 Olympic Games at Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro on Friday featured a video focusing on the controversial issue of climate change.

Discussion over whether or not the Olympics were an appropriate forum for political topics like climate change or race relations has been ongoing for months, with former Olympic medalist Caitlin Jenner — who was a man known as Bruce Jenner when he won a gold medal in 1976 — telling HBO’s Bill Simmons “absolutely not” when asked that question on Wednesday.

The opening of the summer Olympics disregarded Jenner’s objections, including fireworks, musical acts, costumed performers and a climate change themed video narrated by Oscar winner Judi Dench, with maps and graphics showing climate data and demonstrating potentially harmful scenarios that climate change activists say could happen if action isn’t taken to prevent further damage to the planet.

With roughly 30 percent of the world’s rainforest and more than half the Amazon rainforests within the country, Brazil seems to be a logical place for a discussion on climate change to occur since if there are any negative effects, Brazil would be uniquely harmed by them.

The climate change portion of the opening ceremony spurred plenty of reaction on social media, with many showering praise upon the Olympics for tackling what they perceive to be such an important subject.

However, the controversial nature of the issue meant that a lot of people were not complimentary. Skeptics have said that the climate change issue has been exaggerated by alarmists and dispute the idea that it is a catastrophic problem.

Many of these people likewise took to social media to show their displeasure with the opening ceremony.

(For more from the author of “Rio Olympics Ceremony Ignites Controversy” please click HERE)

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Being Hillary’s Running Mate Makes Kaine Feel Like He’s Been ‘Kidnapped’

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If anyone has ever wondered what it feels like to run on the presidential ticket with Hillary Clinton, her vice presidential nominee, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine has a blunt answer for you.

At the Democratic Party’s campaign field office in Grand Rapids, Mich., Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., asked Kaine, “Well, what is it like?”

Kaine replied, “It feels like I got kidnapped.”

Politico’s Burgess Everett wrote Kaine is usually much more chatty when he’s not being dragged about the U.S. in the Clinton campaign.

“Kaine has been a bit more buttoned-up than his normal self in his first two weeks as Clinton’s running mate.” Everett wrote. “He still lingers at events and talks to supporters, but has said little to the traveling press even while recording interviews with local and national outlets — belying his habit as a senator of holding long gaggles with reporters as he deals with the rigors of the presidential campaign trail.”

But Kaine apparently has no trouble joking around about his new political commitment to stand behind Clinton as the supportive running mate. While visiting a Milwaukee brewery on the campaign trail, Kaine reportedly said, “Friday afternoon at a brewery in Milwaukee — who says campaigning is tough?”

The New York Times reported Clinton’s selection of Kaine had as much to do with his popularity as it did with the fact Virginia is a swing state. Having been the former governor of Virginia was also seen as a positive aspect to his being chosen.

“Tim Kaine is in many ways, a perfect vice presidential pick for Hillary Clinton…Kaine is really a passionate social justice liberal with a very moderate demeanor,” says Cheryl Stolberg of the Times. (For more from the author of “Being Hillary’s Running Mate Makes Kaine Feel Like He’s Been ‘Kidnapped'” please click HERE)

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Iran HANGS Spy Who Gave the US Valuable Nuclear Information

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Iran has executed a nuclear scientist who allegedly accepted millions in bribes spying for the U.S., the country’s state-controlled media announced Sunday.

The strange saga of Shahram Amiri began in 2009, during Democratic presidential nominee Hillary’s Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state. Amiri was making a pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia when he abruptly vanished without a trace. A few months later, Iran accused the U.S. of kidnapping Amiri with Saudi cooperation, but the U.S steadfastly denied this.

In early 2010, though, news reports started coming out claiming Amiri was a long-time U.S. spy inside Iran, and that his disappearance was a carefully planned CIA operation to allow him to defect to the U.S.

But things only got weirder from there. In June, 2010, Amiri resurfaced in two homemade videos where he claimed he had been kidnapped by the U.S. He said U.S. officials had tortured him and offered mammoth bribes to get nuclear secrets from him, but he claimed to have resisted all these efforts. Amiri also expressed a wish to return to Iran, which he did one month’s later to a hero’s welcome.

At the time of his return, The Wall Street Journal reported that Amiri had returned home after Iranian officials threatened to kill his son. Meanwhile, Iran’s official Fars news service claimed Amiri was actually a double agent, who had obtained secret information from U.S. intelligence during his stay in the U.S. (Read more from “Iran HANGS Spy Who Gave the US Valuable Nuclear Information” HERE)

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A Tale of Redemption: Recovering Alcoholic Priest Says ‘Hold onto Jesus’ in Video Released After His Death

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“Hold onto Jesus.”

Those were some of the last words that Fr. Ed Thompson, a priest and recovering alcoholic, said to a friend who documented his 92-year life story on video. It was a heartwarming tale of the Prodigal Son who came home, told just before his real home-going. Fr. Ed wasn’t the typical pious priest. He’d struggled with addiction for most of his adult life. But he knew one thing: Jesus Christ was the answer.

Fr. Ed was born eight minutes before his identical twin brother David. Before the boys were born, a doctor told their mother to abort them, because she would contract rheumatoid arthritis if she carried them to term. She refused. Fr. Ed said that when he and his brother were born, his mother took each of their tiny hands and made the sign of the cross over her newborn babies. He and his brother later looked back on that event as one that set their lives in motion.

A Testing and a Calling

Both boys entered the priesthood, David one year before Ed. Although he received his calling at age 11, he wasn’t “pious,” and continued to live a normal life — he dated girls, played sports and worked at Westinghouse. When he finally told his mother and father he wanted to be a Catholic priest, they discouraged him. His father accused him of trying to be like his brother. His mother said he needed to work to help support the family. Even the local priest agreed with his parents.

Later, though, he said, he realized they were testing him. “They wanted to make as sure as they could that I was doing it for the right reason,” he said.

After entering the seminary and then working as a Vocation Director for 12 years, in 1974 Fr. Ed was made a pastor in a Philadelphia church. “But I had a problem,” he said sadly. “It was a drinking problem. I was a real, live alcoholic.” He only lasted a year as a pastor there. “I was so sick and so ashamed that after a year I just left the parish.”

He went to Florida and got a job selling graves for a cemetery. Even though his mother urged his brother David to “bring him back,” David told her he would wait until Fr. Ed was ready. “Thanks be to God, my dear brother David never tried to call me, never tried to rescue me.” After about six months, he called his brother, who told him he’d immediately come to Florida.

“You know what he told me?” Fr. Ed said. “’Edward, you’re an alcoholic. And you’re a liar.’ Alcoholics when they’re drinking cannot tell the truth. They can’t survive telling the truth.” That’s when he joined Alcoholics Anonymous, and his brother arranged for him to stay in a rehabilitation house, where he lived for over a year. His job at the house was slopping the pigs. “So the Prodigal Son story was very much alive in my life,” Fr. Ed said wryly.

Fr. Ed was once again given the opportunity to practice as a priest when the bishop of Reno, Nevada, took him in. But once again he fell victim to his addiction. He celebrated the event by drinking scotch. It caught up with him about a year later, he said, and over his fifteen years as a priest in Nevada, Fr. Ed said he was sent to 3 six-month treatment centers for his alcoholism, after which he said the money ran out and the diocese told him, “We’re saying goodbye to you. You’ll have to make it on your own.”

At the Point of Desperation

Just at the point of desperation as he was kicked out of the parish and the treatment center, Fr. Ed had an experience that turned his life around. A woman was trying to reach him, and he decided to call the phone number even though he didn’t recognize the name.

It turned out to be someone he had helped 30 years prior. Jesus told her that he was in trouble and she was to help him, she said. He admitted he needed help and had nowhere to go and she invited him into her home in Florida, where he had four cats as roommates. “I was really afraid of cats,” he said. He worked for his room and board, cleaning up after the cats, cutting the grass and going to the grocery store. He was thankful for a place to stay.

Then ‘a miracle happened,’ Fr. Ed said.

He was given yet another opportunity to serve in a church, there in Florida. At first he was given only simple jobs like training altar servers or reading the Scriptures during worship. But then his bishop in Florida convinced the bishop of Reno to let him work as a priest once again.

“For the last 23 years, I’ve had the joy of being a parish priest here at St. Mary Magdalene parish,” he said. “It has been 23 years of the happiest times in my whole priesthood, my whole life. … I offer holy mass, hear confessions, teach the Scriptures, visit the sick, bury the dead. If I do those things, and do them well, I’ve had a wonderful priesthood.”

Fr. Ed’s last words on the video were intended to reach others, offer encouragement and hope and perhaps reveal the secret of what kept him going during the years he struggled.

“Whatever you do,” he said as he looked into the camera, “hold onto Jesus Christ … in the holy Communion. … He is there. He is our religion, He is our Church. … Hold onto Him. Believe in Him. Never let Him slip out of your life.” (For more from the author of “A Tale of Redemption: Recovering Alcoholic Priest Says ‘Hold onto Jesus’ in Video Released After His Death” please click HERE)

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What’s the Bigger Threat: Radical Islam or Ourselves?

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When will the “religion of peace” stop being so misunderstood and recognized as the noble social justice warriors that they are?

Maybe when stuff like this stops happening. Just last week, a police officer with Washington, D.C.’s Metro Transit was arrested on charges of assisting the (not according to Obama) Islamic State. Federal prosecutors say he had been under government’s surveillance since 2010 and travelled twice to Libya – a land known for its peace and tranquility – twice in 2011.

Hard to know how many American lives were just saved by such an arrest. What is clear, though, according to a recent story in the New York Times, is that there is little time to celebrate in America or elsewhere. One cockroach may have been crushed under the heel of our still feisty-at-times, but seriously limping, remnant of Western Civilization. Yet the broader infestation is relentless, vast, and coordinated to a degree that many remain in denial about.

European intelligence, which has had the unfortunate duty of connecting dots in the aftermath of wave after wave of deadly terrorist attacks in the last few years, has uncovered the existence of an elite intelligence and operations unit within Islamic State called the Emni. It has been recruiting and sending fighters abroad for at least two years under the command of the Islamic State’s most senior Syrian operative, with the assistance of a team of lieutenants spread out across the globe. Charged with sparking a reign of terror whenever and however they can.

So instead of crazy lone wolves inflicting happenstance workplace violence, we likely have a swarm full of jihadis who are holding hands in a human chain of malice extending across the globe. Looking to do the blood-curdling will of Allah.

Oh, and on top of all that, the good little hackers over at Islamic State – what difference do Hillary’s e-mail shenanigans make anyway, right? – has released a list of 700 U.S. Army soldiers it wants its followers to kill. Too bad we don’t have a better jobs program to keep them otherwise occupied.

So these guys are clearly focused and serious as a heart attack. Got it. Now let’s look at our side of the ledger. What kind of culture and leadership stands in the way of this death wish?

Um…Bueller? Bueller?

Let’s just say we aren’t, collectively speaking, led by a bunch of very righteous dudes at the moment.

For starters, an economist from the University of Chicago says his research indicates too many of America’s young men are content to spend their days unemployed, unmarried, living with their parents, and spending as much as 75 percent of their leisure time playing video games. Hence, there’s probably not a lot of guys ready and willing to jump on top of a grenade in that flaccid clan.

But that’s why we’ve got great leaders at the top. The kind of leaders who do the worrying for us so we never have to put the joystick down, and wipe the drool from our chin. Leaders like President Obama, who just this week showed us once again what a ninja he is when it comes to keeping his eye on the ball. Right?

No, he still can’t utter the phrase “radical Islamic terrorist,” but he can say “global warming” so fast that it makes time stand still. Not to mention American infrastructure comes to a screeching halt.

The Obama regime issued standards last week that will make it easier to block a wide range of projects in the name of fake science, including building bridges and expanding highways. So Unicorns 1, Just Trying to Get to a Freaking Job 0.

I guess we are going to have to leave it to the church, then, to clarify the difference between the darkness and the light. No flights of fancy there. Just truth. Pure truth.

Oh no. Pope Francis said what?

The leader of the Catholic Church pulled a full Obama last weekend by rejecting the phrase “Islamic violence.” Timed in the wake of one of his own priests having his throat slit wide open by an Islamic terrorist as he was celebrating Mass in France.

If he has to speak of “Islamic violence,” then Pope Francis said it is also his duty to speak of “Catholic violence.” Sadly, though, Francis had not yet reached peak SJW. He had to throw this politically-correct psychobabble in for good measure: “As long as the god of money is at the center of the global economy and not the human person, man and woman, this is the first terrorism.”

Right, because the son of a wealthy Arab family like Osama bin Laden plotted 9/11 in order to strike a blow for the global proletariat. Come on, man. Pope Francis might as well trade out those Hail Mary’s for a hearty Allahu Akbar and call it a day.

I’m sorry, but I don’t even know why the terrorists bother blowing themselves up anymore. They have clearly already won. The leaders of Western Civilization believe in imaginary creatures more than they do the very real threat at their doorstep, and they do so with a smug smile on their face.

So while that martyred French priest may have died with the words, “Begone, Satan!” on his lips and on his heart, it is clear he has very few wingmen. Islamic State, on the other hand, continues to draw both a crowd and plenty of blood, with nary an end to the carnage in sight.

Which ultimately and sadly begs this final question: whose lies will be more responsible for getting us killed in the end? Islam’s or our own? (For more from the author of “What’s the Bigger Threat: Radical Islam or Ourselves?” please click HERE)

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TPP Path to Lame Duck Passage Grows Murky

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U.S. Rep. Candace Miller, R-Mich., released a letter on August 1 signed by five other GOP supporters of the fast track trade authority urging President Obama to not submit the enabling legislation to Congress during a lame duck session.

Calling a “lame duck” consideration of the Trans-Pacific Partnership “an end-run around the American people immediately following an election,” Miller and her colleagues unambiguously opposed moving ahead with the massive trade deal before the next Congress.

The letter asserts, “TPP will set the template for trade for the next generation. It will not only impact the current 12 member nations but also countries like Korea and China that could join in the future. A ‘lame duck’ Congress should not vote on an agreement of this consequence.”

U.S. Reps. Ed Whitfield, R-Ky., Ted Yoho, R-Fla., Dave Trott, R-Mich., Bill Shuster, R-Pa. and Tim Murphy, R-Pa., joined Miller on the letter sent to President Obama on August 1.

The letter falls on the heels of U.S. Rep. David Bost, R-Ill., another fast track supporter, announcing his opposition to TPP writing, “Having carefully weighed the pros and cons of this trade agreement, I believe it’s in the best interests of my district to oppose it. We must continue to work to open new markets to our farmers and manufacturers, but it needs to be on an even playing field that has tilted against American workers for too long.”

House Ways and Means Committee member U.S. Rep. Tom Reed, R-N.Y., is another of a growing number of TPA supporters who have announced their opposition to TPP, and former House Speaker John Boehner’s replacement U.S. Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, campaigned against passage of the trade deal as a hallmark of his election bid.

In the face of heavy lobbying by the US Chamber and others, the GOP Platform rejected lame duck consideration of TPP writing, “Significant trade agreements should not be rushed or undertaken in a Lame Duck Congress.” U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., was a co-chair of the Committee and opposition to TPP has been growing in her state of North Carolina as details of Obama’s exclusion of the tobacco industry from the benefits of the deal become more public.

The importance of fast track supporters who are walking away from supporting TPP becomes clear when it is remembered that the fast track vote in 2015 suffered an astonishing loss of 54 Republican House members in a bloody battle which largely revolved around the merits of the Asian Pacific trade agreement. The TPA passed by a narrow, 218-211 mark leaving zero margin for error for proponents.

In a related move, the Daily Signal reports that House conservatives are demanding a special conference of the House Republicans in an attempt to deny President Obama one last bite of the government spending apple through passage of a government funding Continuing Resolution that extends until March of 2017, eliminating the need for a lame duck session at all.

The growing opposition amongst the House GOP Conference toward having a lame duck session on any topic combined with the increasing unlikelihood that TPP could pass during the lame duck, leaves House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., boxed in between his corporate donor constituency and the members of his own Conference who will decide if he gets to be Speaker again in 2017. While it is never wise to bet against the K Street donor class, Ryan’s very political survival may depend upon his disappointing them on TPP, and that assumes he isn’t upset in his unexpectedly competitive Republican primary race in Wisconsin against former supporter Paul Nehlen. (For more from the author of “TPP Path to Lame Duck Passage Grows Murky” please click HERE)

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THE FUTURE OF CRIME: The Drone Era, Part I

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Drones have taken over the hobbyist world by storm.

Drone tech has been driven by a strange confluence of improvements in miniaturization (nano-technology), increased transistor density, and materials science.

While the majority of drone applications appear to be in more traditional ventures such as aerial photography and exploration, a little-discussed aspect relates to how drones could be leveraged for criminal activities.

Likewise, for firms focused on security, there will be a growing need to create drone countermeasures.

What am I talking about?

Imagine a jewelry store in a high-end mall. Foot traffic is heavy. An off-duty police officer provides a visible security presence.

But a police officer and alert employees are no match for a drone.

Equipped with a tiny, high-def camera and painted to match the color scheme of the store, the drone is designed to surveil the store from outside. When an opportune time arises — say, when a tray of diamond engagement rings is left unattended, the attacker sends in the drone.

Using a small hook the drone rips through the air and grabs a couple of the juicier rings and exfiltrates them lickety-split.

Countermeasures?

Electronic countermeasures could be employed to suppress remote-control frequencies.

A much simpler — but not too classy — method might be “Magic Mesh”, the screen “door” that opens and closes using magnets as seen on TV!.

This would prevent a tiny drone from insertion and exfiltration without exquisite timing.

With that said, I have a range of ideas regarding criminal activities that could be accomplished using drones and robots. I’ll share them from time to time.

It’s important for law enforcement and physical security firms to think about the ramifications of these technology advances. A significant business opportunity lies in the countermeasures. (For more from the author of “THE FUTURE OF CRIME: The Drone Era, Part I” please click HERE)

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