OPINION: Trump Is a Danger to Free Speech

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Last week Hillary Clinton has threatened a conservative political action committee with a lawsuit, angrily boycotted Fox News, complained about unflattering media photos, and demanded that a National Review editor be fined for making politically incorrect comments about her.

Oh, wait. That wasn’t Hillary Clinton doing any of those things. That was Donald Trump.

Trump’s seemingly endless capacity to bully and insult his critics has been entertaining, sure, but is quickly becoming dictatorial. His calls for (mostly conservative) political pundits to be silenced, fined, and boycotted should give pause to anyone in America who cares about free speech.

The Club for Growth, a political action committee dedicated to supporting free-market, limited-government conservatives [Editor’s note: The Club for Growth has an apparent hatred for genuine, Tea Party candidates as evidenced by its penchant for supporting Establishment candidates in a number of recent contested GOP primaries] recently produced an ad critical of Trump over his past comments promoting a socialized healthcare system, higher taxes, and Wall Street bailouts. How did Trump respond? With a cease and desist letter warning that a lawsuit would follow if the ads didn’t stop.

Trump also launched a boycott against Fox News this week because the network had allegedly been “unfair” In its coverage. The issue? The network reported CNN poll numbers that found Trump’s winning margin over the other Republican candidates dropping from 35% to 24%. In response, Trump said he’s refusing interviews until he is guaranteed favorable coverage.

One Fox source told The Hill Trump decided to boycott because he “doesn’t seem to grasp that candidates telling journalists what to ask is not how the media works in this country.”

Despite the boycott, Trump was still watching and dictating orders from afar.

Last Wednesday, National Review Editor Rich Lowry made a somewhat crass remark about Donald Trump’s manhood on Fox News. Trump responded with a furious tweet: “Incompetent @RichLowry lost it tonight on @FoxNews. He should not be allowed on TV and the FCC should fine him!”

(Never mind that the FCC doesn’t issue fines against cable news.)

There you have it. In just a few days, Trump offered three draconian responses to political speech he deemed unfriendly. And that barely scratches the surface. He also went on a tirade against CNN, the New York Times, Politico, and the Associated Press for citing the empty chairs at a campaign event in South Carolina. And who can forget his calling Fox’s Megyn Kelly a “bimbo,” and his endless stream of insults against well…any idiot loser who fails to clap loud enough every time Trump speaks?

Although he’ll use any format to issue broadsides, the courts are, by far, Trump’s preferred remedy for conflict.

The Daily Beast recently posted a piece about his long-documented history of deploying lawyers to combat anyone who speaks ill of his name. And that piece doesn’t even include his threats to fellow Republicans for copyright infringement if they utter Ronald Reagan’s well-known 1982 campaign slogan “Make America Great Again,” which Trump trademarked for himself after stealing it from the Gipper. Or the fact he also fired off a cease and desist letter to a Boston-based t-shirt maker selling shirts that said, “Donald is Dumb” and “Stop Trump.”

You want tort reform? Start by limiting the number of lawsuits Donald Trump can file against political enemies.

It would all be fun and games if Donald Trump weren’t actually campaigning for the highest office in the land—and leading in the polls, a fact he believes earns him the right to laudatory media coverage.

One can only imagine how many press passes would be revoked by the Trump White House, if he deigned to keep a press corps around at all. Much more likely a Trump-approved reality TV camera would simply follow him around, unquestioningly documenting his greatness, similar to how President Obama restricted independent media access in favor of government-controlled media. WHTrumpTV! It’ll be yuuuuuge! NBC will pay for it! Right?

More seriously, Trump’s eagerness to use the courts and other agents of government power against his political opposition is not the mark of a leader. It’s a common trait among tyrants.

Trump may be campaigning as a Republican but his actions don’t reflect any understanding or appreciation for the core values enshrined in the First Amendment that guarantee Americans the right to criticize politicians.

His actions are much more aligned with far-left Democrats who want to pass rules and regulations to keep conservative personalities such as Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin off the air.

Conservatives have suffered through the era of Obama where the IRS was used as a political weapon against Tea Party groups, a filmmaker’s attempt to air an anti-Hillary Clinton film went all the way to the Supreme Court with Citizens United v. The Federal Elections Commission, and Democrats have relentlessly campaigned to silence those who donate to conservative causes.

Donald Trump is telling us he, like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, also believes in using the brute machinery of government to savage political enemies. Pay attention. Free speech is at stake. (For more from the author of “Trump Is a Danger to Free Speech” please click HERE)

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Pope Francis: Refusing to Sign Same-Sex Marriage Licenses Is a Human Right

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Pope Francis gave clear approval of Kim Davis’ stance against issuing homosexual “marriage” licenses as he traveled back to Rome Monday, calling it a “human right” for government officials to refuse to conduct a duty that violates their conscience.

On the flight home from his first visit to the U.S., the pope was asked whether he supported individuals, including government officials, who decline to obey certain laws, for instance issuing “marriage” licenses to same-sex couples . . .

Religious liberty has been a hot-button issue in recent months in the United States as various small businesses across the country have been targeted with fines, prosecution and attack on social media for declining to take part in homosexual “weddings” based upon their owners’ religious and moral objection.

The headlines of late have been focused on the case of Rowan County, KY Clerk Kim Davis, who went to jail for refusing to issue marriage licenses to any couples so as to avoid discriminating against homosexual couples. She has asked for an accommodation where her name and title would be removed from the licenses.

“I can’t have in mind all cases that can exist about conscientious objection,” Pope Francis told journalists on his flight, “but, yes, I can say that conscientious objection is a right that is a part of every human right.” (Read more from “Pope Francis: Refusing to Sign Same-Sex Marriage Licenses Is a Human Right” HERE)

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Putin and Obama Clash Over Syria as Russia Calls for ‘Anti-Hitler’ Type Alliance Against ISIS

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Vladimir Putin snubbed Barack Obama and revived Russia’s historic role in the Middle East on Monday by calling for a new “broad coalition” to fight Isil based on co-operation with the Assad regime, report Richard Spencer, Harriet Alexander in New York and Roland Oliphant in Moscow.

In his long-awaited speech at the United Nations, the Russian president fiercely attacked American policy in Syria and around the world and criticized the West for “exporting social experiments” in the form of democratic revolutions, which he blamed for the Middle East crisis.

He said he had called for a new Syrian peace conference to be attended by a “contact group” of outside powers including Russia and the United States, as well as regional powers such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Iran.

Despite the fact that Russia is not among the countries led by the US currently conducting operations against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil), Mr Putin followed up reports that it was co-ordinating intelligence sharing between Iran, Iraq and Syria by putting Moscow at the center of the world’s “war on terror”.

He went so far as to compare his plans to the alliance that fought Hitler in the Second World War. “We must address the problems that we are all facing and create a broad anti-terror coalition,” he said. (Read more from “Putin and Obama Clash Over Syria as Russia Calls for ‘Anti-Hitler’ Type Alliance Against ISIS” HERE)

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Watch: Interviewer Tries to Trap Ben Carson, Then His Campaign Manager Decides He’s Had Enough

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After CNN’s Jake Tapper continued questioning Ben Carson for several minutes on Sunday concerning his views on why he does not believe a Muslim should be president, his manager decided to end the interview.

The CNN State of the Union interview came one week after Carson’s comments on NBC’s Meet the Press, where he explained why he would not advocate for a Muslim to be President of the United States . . .

“I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation. I absolutely would not agree with that,” Carson stated.

On Sunday, Tapper asked Carson nearly a dozen questions apparently trying to get the candidate to admit that he was engaging in unfair discrimination against Muslims because of his views.

“I would have problems with somebody who embraced all the doctrines associated with Islam,” Carson explained. “If they are not willing to reject sharia and all the portions of it that are talked about in the Quran — if they are not willing to reject that, and subject that to American values and the Constitution, then of course, I would [have problems],” he said.

Tapper would not let the subject go. “You seem to be singling out Muslims as individuals who automatically, as a knee-jerk, would put their religion ahead of the country,” adding, “I think that offended a lot of people, including a lot of patriotic Muslims.” (Read more from “Watch: Interviewer Tries to Trap Ben Carson, Then His Campaign Manager Decides He’s Had Enough” HERE)

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Bush: Don’t Worry, It’s Still Early, and We’ve Got Lots of Money

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Thursday is October 1. Republican caucus and primary voters begin voting the first of February. Jeb Bush has suffered a big decline in the polls, losing, by the count of Wall Street Journal pollsters, 2/3 of his support nationally since June. (He was at 22 percent in that month’s Journal poll and seven percent in a new survey released Sunday.) Other polls show significant decline.

Donald Trump may be slipping, but he is still at the top of the GOP polls, with Ben Carson close, and both are ahead of Bush. Now Marco Rubio and Carly Fiorina are ahead of Bush, as well. The former Florida governor’s fundraisers are reportedly growing nervous at his lack of progress, hinting they may take their support to someone else if Bush doesn’t do better soon.

So what is Team Bush’s response? To project a sense of calm and imperturbability in the face of bad news. “The race is completely fluid — look at all the moving parts to date,” said close Bush aide Sally Bradshaw in an email exchange Sunday. “We don’t spend a lot of time worried about who is President of 2015.”

“The campaign is confident that a steady approach will yield results — that has been our plan from day one,” Bradshaw continued. “It has not changed. The more people learn about Jeb’s record as governor through our messaging, the more likely they will be to support the most committed conservative governor in the race — with a record of reform and results.”

Another aide at the highest level of the Bush campaign — Mike Murphy, who runs the Bush Right to Rise Super PAC — also addressed the issue Sunday. When I tweeted, “WSJ poll: Jeb support 1/3 what it was in June. Then: 22%. Now: 7%,” Murphy responded: “Early national polls are totally meaningless.” (Read more from “Bush: Don’t Worry, It’s Still Early, and We’ve Got Lots of Money” HERE)

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Watch: European Woman Tells What the Immigrants Are Really Saying About ‘Infidels’

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By Conservative Post. A European woman who speaks Arabic translates what the Muslim migrants were saying when they thought she didn’t understand their language.

(Read more from “European Woman Tells What the Immigrants Are Really Saying About ‘Infidels’ When They Think Nobody Understands” HERE)

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George Soros Is Now Demanding That Eurozone Must Accept One Million Refugees

By Barry Secrest. George Soros is practically demanding that the Eurozone must accept 1 million refugees and is blaming the EU for the sudden crisis that has unfolded over the past several months.

However, it must be noted, that if an international left-wing globalist like George Soros, who is the de facto front man for the banker-globalist elites, wants the Eurozone to accept at least a million of these refugees, then the individual EU nations will now better know what to do.

Don’t follow Soros’ instructions.

There are many suspecting people who believe that the refugee crisis was largely manufactured by the elites in order to flood the west with radicalized Muslims, further destabilizing an already fragile world economy.

The one thing to remember is that Soros isn’t, at all, interested in the welfare of the refugees. (Read more from “George Soros Is Now Demanding That Eurozone Must Accept One Million Refugees” HERE)

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Is There Any Historical Precedent for Donald Trump?

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In November 1964, a crowd of 5,000 attended the opening of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, then the longest suspension bridge in the world. Presiding were New York Mayor Robert Wagner, Gov. Nelson Rockefeller and transportation and parks czar Robert Moses. Also in the crowd was a teenager named Donald Trump.

Trump later told a New York Times reporter that he remembered that on that occasion no one mentioned the name of 85-year-old Othmar Ahmann, designer of New York’s famous bridges for more than 50 years. “I realized then and there that if you let people treat you how they want, you’ll be made a fool,” he told the Times. “I don’t want to be anyone’s sucker” . . .

Trump’s entire life has been marinated in politics. His father Fred Trump made millions building apartments in Brooklyn and Queens. It didn’t hurt, when it came to land assembly and public subsidies, that he was a key supporter of Brooklyn machine Democrats and a close friend and ally of Abraham Beame, city controller in 1964 and later mayor . . .

Trump’s lavish self-praise and wild unpredictability, masking his long developed political acumen, makes him seem a unique political figure in American history. But maybe not completely unique.

Newt Gingrich compares him to Andrew Jackson, rich and smarter than generally thought, but regarded as a dangerous wild man by his predecessors Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe. Justifiably: As president Jackson abolished the Bank of the United States, which the latter two supported and ruthlessly shipped the civilized tribes west in a way they never contemplated. (Read more from “Is There Any Historical Precedent for Donald Trump?” HERE)

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Prosecuted Florist: ‘This Isn’t Real to Me’

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The 72-year-old florist being persecuted by LGBT activists and the state of Washington told LifeSiteNews that the institutional campaign against her “isn’t real to me.”

“I waited on Rob for years,” Barronelle Stutzman said, referring to the gay former customer who sued her for refusing to participate in his “wedding” to a man, shortly after speaking at the American Family Association’s luncheon at the annual Values Voters Summit. “He would come in and pick out unusual and different vases, and he’d just say, ‘Just do your thing, this is for Kurt’s birthday,’ or whatever, and I loved it because I got to get out of the box and make him something special. We had a great relationship. I really miss him.”

Stutzman said she never expected prosecution from the state, which her attorney later told LifeSiteNews could bankrupt her and cause her to lose her business. “Rob and I had been friends, as I said, for years,” explains Stutzman. “And when Rob left, I hugged him – before he left, we talked about his marriage, and why he was getting married. I told him about three other florists who could do his wedding, and we hugged, and he left, and we were fine – until the attorney general and the ACLU jumped on board.”

“I’m still a small businessperson,” says the soft-spoken grandmother. “This isn’t real to me. I still go to work. The store’s still open; I have a great manager and a great crew that take care of things while I’m gone, but I still go back and go to work, and do my job.”

“I spoke about our freedoms” at the luncheon, says Stutzman, “and about Rob and Kurt and our relationship. I talked about how God’s promises are faithful, and that Christ gave His life for us, and what are we going to give for Him? And if everybody stands behind me, not behind me, and we be silent, then we have nothing left to fight for.” (Read more from “Prosecuted Florist: ‘This Isn’t Real to Me'” HERE)

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Baby’s Best Friend! Pet Labrador Adopts the Role of Mom in This Adorable Video

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This pooch is more than just man’s best friend and he proved it by taking on the parental responsibilities and tucking the family’s newborn baby into bed.

The heart-warming video, which is believed to have been filmed in America, shows the baby catching up on his sleep with his face down on the sofa.

The attentive pet Labrador approaches, and after noticing that the baby does not have his blanket wrapped around him, sets about putting that right . . .

He starts on one side and with a single swift movement covers the youngster’s legs before moving further along the sofa.

The pooch then begins flicking more of the blanket towards the baby so that he is completely covered before he then uses his nose to tuck him in. (Read more from “Baby’s Best Friend! Pet Labrador Adopts the Role of Mom in This Adorable Video” HERE)

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Ben Carson Dodges Question on Muslim President Comment

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By Michael Barbaro. Ben Carson is riding a wave of frustration with politics as usual. But on Sunday he employed a time-honored tactic of those elected officials: dodging direct answers to specific questions.

Appearing on ABC’s “This Week,” Mr. Carson, a retired neurosurgeon whose popularity is surging in the Republican field, was asked if he stands by his controversial opinion that a Muslim should not be president of the United States.

“Well, first of all, you know, what I said is on a transcript and it’s there for anybody,” he replied, avoiding the question of whether he stood by the remark.

The host of the show, Martha Raddatz, interrupted: “I’m reading the transcript, Dr. Carson, that’s exactly what you said.”

In his original remark, made last Sunday on “Meet the Press” when he was asked about the relevance of a president’s faith, Mr. Carson said: “I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation. I absolutely would not agree with that.” (Read more from “Ben Carson Dodges Question on Muslim President Comment” HERE)

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Ben Carson: ‘Democrats Tend to Look More at the Color of Their Skin’

By Eugene Scott. Ben Carson said Wednesday that Republicans are more colorblind than Democrats when it comes to race.

“I find black Republicans are treated extremely well in the Republican Party. In fact, I don’t hear much about being a black Republican,” he said Wednesday at an event in Michigan. “I think the Republicans have done a far superior job of getting over racism.”

Carson was a Democrat for years, but said he’s found the Republican Party to be more welcoming.

“When you look at the philosophies of the two parties now, what I have noticed as a black Republican is that Republicans tend to look more at the character of people. And Democrats tend to look more at the color of their skin,” he said Wednesday.

Carson, the only African-American running for president, spoke at an event in Jackson County, Michigan, which boasts itself as “the birthplace of the Republican Party” — a party whose history the presidential hopeful referenced. (Read more from “Ben Carson: ‘Democrats Tend to Look More at the Color of Their Skin'” HERE)

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