Nothing Says ‘Merry Christmas’ Like a Nativity Scene Featuring Baby Jesus in an ICE Detainment Cage

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A couple in Austin, Texas has decided to use Christmas to make their feelings about President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration. A native scene is set up in Katie Naranjo’s yard except it’s not your traditional nativity scene. Jesus is show in inside of an immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) “detainment box” with Joseph and Mary outside of the cage.

According to the Naranjos, this is their way of protesting children separated from their families at the United States-Mexico Border, KUVE-TV reported.

“We’re living in extraordinary times. During the holidays, people spend time with their family. Right now, there are children who can’t spend time with their parents this holiday season,” Naranjo explained. “We decided to show baby Jesus in a cage because he was a refugee himself.” . . .

“People are having a hard time having discussions about issues, and so we have been taking our political beliefs and putting them into our holiday displays as a way to start those conversations with people who would otherwise not be interested or listen,” Naranjo explained. “If anyone is offended by our display, please know that we want to start this dialogue and have people thinking about why children are in cages.”

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It’s no surprise though, that the Naranjos decide to show their political preferences this way though. A simple Google and Facebook search shows that Katie served as President of the College Democrats of America from 2008 to 2010. She’s worked on a number of Democratic campaigns, including Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential campaign.

(Read more from “Nothing Says ‘Merry Christmas’ Like a Nativity Scene Featuring Baby Jesus in an ICE Detainment Cage” HERE)

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Disgraced Anti-Trump Journalist May Have Embezzled Donations Meant for Syrian Orphans

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By Washington Examiner. An award-winning German journalist who was recently found to have fabricated parts of stories may be facing more trouble.

Claas Relotius, 33, is facing new accusations that he solicited donations for orphans of the war in Syria, donations that he ultimately pocketed, reported CBS.

As part of the scandal over the former CNN International’s Journalist of the Year, residents of Fergus Falls, Minn., dispelled a variety of falsehoods in his piece “ In a small town” that took aim at “the people who pray for Trump on Sundays.” Relotius is accused of making up quotes, interview subjects, and facts in potentially dozens of stories spanning years. (Read more from “Disgraced Anti-Trump Journalist May Have Embezzled Donations Meant for Syrian Orphans” HERE)

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Disgraced German Reporter May Have Embezzled Donations Intended for Syrian Orphans

By CBS News. A German journalist who who resigned in disgrace for making up information for numerous articles is suspected of embezzling donations he collected on behalf of children orphaned by the war in Syria. Influential German news weekly Der Spiegel said Sunday that its award-winning former reporter, Claas Relotius, had asked readers by email from his private account for donations to be transferred to his personal bank account.

Der Spiegel said it’s not clear how many people donated money, how much Relotius, 33, collected or what happened to the money. But the magazine said it will press charges and will work with prosecutors to find out the details.

“Der Spiegel will give all the information it collects to public prosecutors as part of a criminal complaint,” it said on its website.

The Hamburg-based magazine announced Wednesday that Relotius, who reportedly resigned, had fabricated interviews and facts in at least 14 articles in the magazine’s print and online editions.

Spiegel said concerned readers had in recent days reported Relotius’s call for donations purportedly for orphaned Syrian children living on the streets of Turkey. (Read more from “Disgraced German Reporter May Have Embezzled Donations Intended for Syrian Orphans” HERE)

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Stock Market Crashes Hit Average Americans Hardest, Not the Wealthy

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Just in time for Christmas, American stock markets have plummeted. Amid debate over whether it was Trump’s trade wars or the Obama-era dovish monetary policy that paved the way to our unstable markets, everyone can agree that our markets in free fall gravely damage the country. . .

Regardless of the moral inferiority of such unabashed envy of wealthy Americans and evil of wishing them all ill, McElwee’s just dead wrong from a factual perspective. Collapsing markets hurt average people more than anyone. The public stock market tends to have regressive effects, insulating the wealthy more than anyone.

As of 2016, outstanding corporate American stock was valued at nearly $23 trillion. Retirement plans, such as IRAs and 401(k) plans, account for more than one-third of that value. A quarter of the stock market is owned by foreign investors, and another quarter is owned by individual investors or other taxable funds. . .

McElwee’s take is the kind that could only be spewed by a trust-fund baby who can rely on parents wealthy enough to qualify as private investors or someone with open disdain for economic or financial literacy. But in fact, this sort of ignorance characterizes the modern socialist, who has to ignore all history up to this point in order to embrace his discredited ideology. (Read more from “Stock Market Crashes Hit Average Americans Hardest, Not the Wealthy” HERE)

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CDC: Year’s Challenges Include ‘Steep and Sustained Increases’ in STDs, Opioid Deaths

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The most pressing health threats for Americans in 2018 included “steep and sustained increases in sexually transmitted diseases” and declining overall life expectancy blamed in large part on the opioid crisis.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s year-end roundup also noted that since August the agency has been coordinating with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Ministry of Health as the second-largest ebola outbreak in history sweeps through the region.

The World Health Organization reported last week that battling the ebola outbreak in the DRC “continues to be a complex challenge” as “pockets of community reluctance and the conflict setting continue to obstruct activities in some affected areas.” . . .

CDC also responded to several foodborne illness outbreaks over the year, including E. coli contamination of romaine lettuce that led to nationwide recalls, and formed a task force in November to respond to a marked increase in cases of acute flaccid myelitis — a rare but serious nervous system condition that develops mostly in children after a mild viral infection.

The agency also noted a record-breaking increase in reports of sexually transmitted diseases, including nearly 2.3 million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis. STDs increased for the fourth year in a row, the CDC reported in August, including gonorrhea nearly doubling among men. (Read more from “CDC: Year’s Challenges Include ‘Steep and Sustained Increases’ in STDs, Opioid Deaths” HERE)

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Trump the Disrupter Pivots Back to Trumpism – and the Establishment Freaks Out

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The Americans who voted for Donald Trump wanted a disrupter, and that’s what Santa brought them this Christmas/Hanukah/Kwanzaa. After two years of denying his inner Donald, and under fire from all sides, Trump finally went full Trump. That is, he actually did what he promised, and the establishment lost its collective Schiff.

They really thought this was it for Trump. They thought they finally had him. The GOP just lost the House. The Fed raised interest rates as the market slumped – for totally economic reasons and not to hurt Trump’s chances, and if you say different you are a crazy traitor Russian emoluments treason guy. Ann Coulter was dissing him about the wall so hard he unfollowed her on Twitter. The Mueller festival of elite onanism peaked with the Flynn fiasco.

But when all hell breaks loose, Trump thrives. And he thrives through disruption. He stopped trying to behave – yeah, the last two years was him behaving in an attempt to work with the establishment – and started doing what he said he would do. He went back to disrupting the elite consensus. And that has freaked out the squares.

Trump campaigned on his promise to build a wall. He told Frisco Nancy and Chuck Odd that he would shut down the government if he didn’t get his wall money. The Republican establishment, which does not really want a wall because the GOP corporate donor class doesn’t want to turn off the spigot of cheap foreign peasant labor even though those illegals are all future Democrat voters, led Trump on and on. They put continuing resolution after continuing resolution in front of him, each time promising to really, truly, cross-my-heart-and-hope-you-die fight next time. He gave them a chance. He gave them too many chances. And they expected he’d go along again this time. But conservatives drew the line and Trump realized that he needed to do what he did best to get back inside the ruling class’s decision cycle.

He needed to disrupt, so he kept his promise. He refused to play along with the wall scam anymore. And the gleeful Dem senators singing carols as they expected to get away with another grift ended their serenade with a sad trombone. Now the government is going to shut down, and Trump has zero to lose by holding out. (Read more from “Trump the Disrupter Pivots Back to Trumpism – and the Establishment Freaks Out” HERE)

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Christmas Witnessing and Blessings

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I have made it a habit during the Christmas season to always wish those I encounter in stores and elsewhere a “Merry Christmas”. When someone initially says “Happy Holidays” to me, my response is “and a Merry Christmas to you.” And you know, there has never been a problem. Frequently, the person appears to be relieved that someone is not playing the politically correct game with them, especially if their store bosses have ordered them to say only the pathetic “Happy Holidays.”

Another witness is through outdoor Christmas decorations. For many years we have had a lighted, manger scene in the front of our house surrounded by many lights on our bushes and tree. The old manger was eventually getting damaged by years of winter weather and I found it took several years to find a replacement. They are no longer anywhere near as available as they used to be. My daughter in Virginia finally found a suitable replacement online that I could order.

The new manger scene is larger and more artsy looking, but it does the job in explicitly witnessing to the reality that Christmas is all about the birth of the Christ child and not about blown up, huge, lighted and moving snowmen, Santas, elves and other figures that we see on many front lawns. We have received a lot of compliments on the manger scene, even from strangers and non-Christians.

Last year, a few days before Christmas, I was also blessed to see a large and beautiful angel statue in a Canadian Tire store that had been drastically reduced in price. That angel is not only now part of our nativity scene, but is kept at the front of the house year-round as a sign of the guardian angel of our home. . .

And of course, the most important Christmas witnessing is to be extra kind, patient, charitable and generous to those we meet during the Christmas season and to take every opportunity that is appropriate to refer to the holiness of this great commemoration of the birth of the Savior of the world. Visiting the sick and inviting in the lonely witness to the love of Christ for all of mankind. (Read more from “Christmas Witnessing and Blessings” HERE)

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Son of President Reagan Has Urgent Warning for Trump Concerning the Border Wall

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By The Blaze. Michael Reagan, son of former President Ronald Reagan, voiced a dire warning to President Donald Trump Thursday, one day before the government temporarily shut down over a budget battle between Republicans and Democrats.

Despite Democrats’ insistence to thwart any and all effort to build a wall on the southern U.S. border, Reagan — who hasn’t always been a Trump supporter — urged Trump to not back down from border security. . .

One of Trump’s central campaign promises was border security and erecting a border wall. However, politics in Washington have proved to be a powerful roadblock to seeing the realization of that promise. (Read more from “Son of President Reagan Has Urgent Warning for Trump Concerning the Border Wall” HERE)
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Ronald Reagan’s Son Warns Trump About Border Wall

By Daily Wire. The son of former President Ronald Reagan issued a warning for President Donald Trump this week, telling the president that this is his last chance to get the funding that he needs to build the border wall.

“Hey @POTUS in 1986 my father made a deal with the Democrats Amnesty for Border Security my father is still waiting,” Michael Reagan tweeted on Thursday. “U have no choice its now or never. #BuildTheWallNow.”

“The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 allowed any illegal immigrants who had been in the U.S. since 1982 to receive temporary legal status and eventually become eligible for green cards if they learned English,” The Washington Examiner reported. “The legislation also attempted to boost border security by increasing funding for the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the U.S. Border Patrol. … The measure also sought to crack down on illegal immigration by barring employers from knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.”

The number of illegal immigrants currently in the U.S. has more than doubled since 1986, from approximately 5 million to 11.1 million, according to The Washington Post. . .

(Read more from “Ronald Reagan’s Son Warns Trump About Border Wall” HERE)

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Teen Cashier Praised for Picking up Struggling Woman’s Grocery Tab

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A Texas teenager has gone viral for all the right reasons after a Facebook user caught him paying the grocery bill for a struggling mom.

The 19-year-old cashier, whose name is John Lopez, Jr., was working at the Princeton, Texas Walmart in order to save money for college, according to KTVT-TV.

A customer named Laci Simms, who shared the story on her Facebook, was in Lopez’s line when she noticed that a woman in line in front of her was “in obvious distress about her inability to pay” for her bill. According to Simms, Lopez stepped in and volunteered to pay the woman’s bill himself.

As of the writing of this article, the Facebook post had been shared over 3,000 times.

(Read more from “Teen Cashier Praised for Picking up Struggling Woman’s Grocery Tab” HERE)

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Border Patrol Snags More MS-13 Members, Convicted Sex Offenders Trying to Jump Border

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United States Customs and Border Protection say they have arrested at least two more members of the notorious MS-13 gang, and two convicted — and previously deported — sex offenders trying to cross the United States-Mexico border. . .

“On Wednesday, agents arrested a 46-year-old Mexican national, after he illegally entered the U.S. near Lukeville,” the Mail reported. “During processing, agents discovered he was convicted in 2002 of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor in Mesa, Arizona.”

“Then on Thursday evening, Nogales Station agents arrested a 24-year-old national of El Salvador,” the report continued. “During processing, agents conducting records checks learned that he is a member of MS-13, a violent trans-national criminal organization operating in many parts of the U.S.”

Specific details weren’t available on the other two men, but CBP did report that one was a member of MS-13 and the other had been previously convicted of a sexual crime and deported back to his home country. All four appear to have been booted from the United States between 2012 and 2013 and returned, recently, with the influx of asylum-seeking migrants. . .

Arrests of MS-13 members are rare; the libertarian Cato Institute estimates that around 0.1% of “asylum seekers” intercepted at the border belong to the dangerous, multinational gang. But even a single arrest seems to prove the Trump administration’s early point on immigration: that the looser immigration enforcement is, the more likely that dangerous immigrants will flow in with crowds of immigrants seeking refuge. (Read more from “Border Patrol Snags More MS-13 Members, Convicted Sex Offenders Trying to Jump Border” HERE)

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‘Bushies’ Creep Into Trump’s Administration

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President Donald Trump uses the term “Bushie” as shorthand for anyone he considers too establishment, thinks too conventionally, or is just, in the president’s mind, a pain.

But a strange thing has been happening within his administration lately. Bush administration alums now run huge swaths of Trump’s government. They’re at high levels of his departments of Homeland Security, Labor, State, Health and Human Services, and Treasury. At the White House, they staff his legal and domestic policy offices. . .

Earlier this month, Trump picked Bill Barr, an attorney general under President George H.W. Bush, as his replacement for Jeff Sessions. Two of his recent hires for the White House counsel’s office, Mike Purpura and Pat Philpin, served under President George W. Bush. They will report to the new White House counsel, Pat Cipollone, who served in the elder Bush’s Justice Department.

Meanwhile, the newly confirmed deputy secretary of the Treasury Department, Justin Muzinich, worked on Jeb Bush’s presidential campaign and helped draft his tax plan. Trump’s pick to run the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Heath Tarbert, served as an associate counsel to George W. Bush — a fact unmentioned in a recent White House announcement of his nomination. Jim Jeffrey, a former senior aide in George W. Bush’s White House, became Trump’s U.S. special representative to Syria in August. (Read more from “‘Bushies’ Creep Into Trump’s Administration” HERE)

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