Republicans Have a Plan for 2018 — It’s Terrible News for Hillary Clinton

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By The Daily Caller. The Republican plan for the 2018 midterms is not good news for failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton . . .

“We’re going to make them own her,” Republican National Committee spokesman Rick Gorka told Fox News.

Republicans are planning to marry Democrats to Hillary Clinton and force the party to be associated with their failed nominee . . .

In a huge contrast to how Mitt Romney treated Barack Obama after the 2012 election, Hillary has refused to leave the public eye. (Read more from “Republicans Have a Plan for 2018 — It’s Terrible News for Hillary Clinton” HERE)

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Hillary Clinton, Not on Ballot, Is Star of GOP Midterm Plan

By Fox News. Clinton is starring in the Republican Party’s 2018 midterm strategy. With no Democrat to attack in the White House for the first time in nearly a decade, Republicans are betting big that the ghost of Clinton will serve them well in 2018.

Even if she avoids the spotlight moving forward, the Republican Party plans to evoke her early and often in key congressional races, particularly in regions Trump won, which feature most of the midterm season’s competitive races.

Internal polling and focus groups conducted by Republican campaigns find that Clinton remains one of the most unpopular high-profile Democrats in the nation, second only to Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader.

Just 36 percent of Americans viewed Clinton favorably in a December Gallup poll, an all-time low mark that bucked a trend in which unsuccessful presidential candidates typically gain in popularity over time.

“We’re going to make them own her,” Republican National Committee spokesman Rick Gorka said. (Read more from “Hillary Clinton, Not on Ballot, Is Star of GOP Midterm Plan” HERE)

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29-Year-Old ‘Hero’ in Tennessee Waffle House Shooting Speaks

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By The Daily Caller. A 29-year-old man saved numerous lives after he took down the shooter who opened fire at a Waffle House in Nashville, Tennessee, Sunday morning, according to police.

James Shaw Jr. saw a chance to take down the shooter and did not hesitate, he said. The gunman entered naked except for a green jacket, which he later took off and opened fire, killing four people and injuring at least three others before Shaw Jr. was able to get the gun away from the shooter, WBIR 10 News reported.

“I was just trying to get myself out. I saw the opportunity and pretty much took it,” Shaw Jr. said in an interview with WBIR 10 News. “I don’t know if it has hit me yet as far as witnessing other people dying,” he continued. “It’s kind of, it shouldn’t have happened. When I was in the ambulance to hospital, I kept thinking that I’m going to wake up and it’s not going to be real. It is something out a movie. I’m OK though, but I hate that it happened.” (Read more from “29-Year-Old ‘Hero’ in Tennessee Waffle House Shooting Speaks” HERE)

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Accused Waffle House Shooter Used to Be a Sucker for ‘Love’

By The New York Post. Accused Waffle House shooter Travis Reinking used to be a self-professed sucker for “love.”

Speaking to a local newspaper in Salida, Colorado, last year — where he used to live — Reinking described the one thing in life that makes him happy.

“True love,” he said. “Just because it’s the best thing that can happen in life.”

The young man had been taking part in a “Word on the Street” column for the Mountain Mail back in January 2017, according to the newspaper. (Read more from “Accused Waffle House Shooter Used to Be a Sucker for ‘Love'” HERE)

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Hillary Changes Things up After Comey’s Book Tour and People Can’t Believe What They Are Hearing

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Hillary Clinton’s blame-tour continued with yet another scapegoat in her growing list of reasons for why she lost the 2016 election.

Nearly two years after her stunning election loss to President Donald Trump, the failed Democratic presidential nominee still won’t accept responsibility for her defeat, adding another explanation to her “What Happened” narrative.

“I felt so bad that people had to hide their support for me,” Clinton said during her appearance at PEN America’s World Voices Festival in New York City on Sunday where she delivered the Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture.

Clinton’s speech in her first public appearance since fired FBI chief James Comey began his own book tour focused on her favorite topic: Trump, whom she compared to authoritarian leaders suppressing journalism in their countries.

(Read more from “Hillary Changes Things up After Comey’s Book Tour and People Can’t Believe What They Are Hearing” HERE)

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Nunes Just Uncovered Something Huge About the Russia Investigation

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“No official intelligence” was used to launch the FBI’s investigation into allegations of collusion between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia, according to the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Devin Nunes of California.

The congressman said in an interview with Fox News on Sunday it’s also now known that longtime Bill and Hillary Clinton aide Sidney Blumenthal and others were “pushing information into the State Department.” . . .

The House intel panel’s probe, Nunes said, is now focused on “major irregularities” regarding how the FBI found out about a meeting Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos had with Russian nationals, which played a major role in prompting the FBI’s Russia probe.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the ranking member of the committee, dismissed Nunes’ comments as a further attempt to divert attention from Robert Mueller’s special counsel investigation into alleged Trump-Russia collusion.

Schiff told Fox News in a statement the Republican majority “seems to believe that if it can discredit the initiation of the investigation by attacking the FBI, Justice Department and State Department, it can get the public to ignore the growing body of evidence of illicit contacts between the Trump campaign and the Russians.” (Read more from “Nunes Just Uncovered Something Huge About the Russia Investigation” HERE)

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Unpublished Study: Over 2 Million Defensive Gun Uses Every Year

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Every year, Americans use guns to defend themselves more than 2 million times, according to an unpublished study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that focused on data gathered in 1996, 1997 and 1998.

Since the 1990s, Florida State University criminologist Gary Kleck and partner Marc Gertz have claimed as many as 2.2 million Americans use firearms to defend themselves every year. While critics have claimed Kleck’s estimates were too high, he has frequently stated that they provide no scientific evidence to counter his findings.

Now it’s revealed that the unpublished CDC study in the 1990s found 2.46 million defensive gun uses, or DGUs, per year.

Kleck provides the following summary of the CDC findings:

In 1996, 1997, and 1998, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) conducted large-scale national surveys asking about defensive gun use (DGU). They never released the findings, or even acknowledged they had studied the topic. I obtained the unpublished raw data and computed the prevalence of DGU. CDC’s findings indicated that an average of 2.46 million U.S. adults used a gun for self-defense in each of the years from 1996 through 1998 – almost exactly confirming the estimate for 1992 of Kleck and Gertz (1995). Possible reasons for CDC’s suppression of these findings are discussed.

(Read more from “Unpublished Study: Over 2 Million Defensive Gun Uses Every Year” HERE)

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Russian Lawyer Asks Mueller an Important Question

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By AP. A Russian lawyer who discussed sanctions with Donald Trump Jr. in New York during his father’s 2016 campaign for the U.S. presidency said Sunday that special counsel Robert Mueller has not contacted her yet.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Natalia Veselnitskaya also detailed her recent meeting in Berlin with investigators from the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee. Like Mueller, the committee is investigating allegations of Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election.

Veselnitskaya met in June 2016 with then-candidate Donald Trump’s son, his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort, his campaign chairman at the time, Paul Manafort, after Trump Jr. was told the Russian lawyer had potentially incriminating information about Hillary Clinton. (Read more from “Russian Lawyer Asks Mueller an Important Question” HERE)

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Can Mueller Be More Honest Than His Colleagues?

By The Hill. I think it’s entirely possible — likely, in fact — that Robert Mueller is an honest broker and performing his job as special counsel without fear or favor. That he will investigate until he reaches the end of the logical trail and present his legitimate findings accordingly, recommending prosecution of those who may have violated our nation’s laws and betrayed our trust.

But considering the information that’s become available in the past year, we would be remiss if we didn’t at least consider other possible scenarios. Here’s one of them, posited amidst the context of news that has come to light. It has to do with a special counsel probe with the appearance of several important conflicts of interest.

There are many excellent agents within our intelligence agencies who deserve great credit and respect. But we also know that some bad actors within those agencies have a daunting record of problems that include lying about evidence; conducting politically-motivated acts; botched terrorism investigations; improper surveillance of private citizens, members of Congress and journalists; providing incorrect information to Congress; and illegally withholding evidence.

When top FBI officials spoke privately of needing an “insurance policy” in case Trump were elected, what if they felt this “policy” were necessary not just because they hated Trump, or because they believed Trump was illegally conspiring with Russia? What if they feared what a Trump administration might uncover within the intelligence agencies … and what the administration might do to take steps to reform them? Go up against the intelligence agencies, and as top Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) warned, “They have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you.”

Mueller isn’t exactly an unconflicted player in this scenario. He was FBI director from 2001-2013 when many alleged abuses occurred and — theoretically — would have a vested interest in protecting his former colleagues and his own legacy by preventing a Trump administration from poking around into alleged intelligence agency misdeeds. (Read more from “Can Mueller Be More Honest Than His Colleagues?” HERE)

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IRS Pushed to Bill Churches $1 Billion

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A demand from atheists that the IRS bill churches and other religious organizations a total of some $1 billion would violate freedom of worship and destroy many congregations, a new court brief contends.

In a case now at the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, churches are seeking to overturn a stunning district court decision by Judge Barbara Crabb . . .

It provides that a housing allowance is not considered taxable income when the house is for the convenience of the employer. While pastors do benefit, the tax deduction also is available for workers who live overseas, employees of educational institutes, any member or former member of the uniformed services, government workers living overseas, any American citizen living abroad and others.

Crabb’s verdict in the case brought against Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and others by the Freedom From Religion Foundation found that while the exemption is valid for secular employees, it should not be available for Christian pastors, setting up a discriminatory standard for the benefit . . .

A brief in the case filed by the Becket Fund on behalf of Chris Butler, a pastor from the South Side of Chicago, contends ending the housing allowance “would discriminate against religious groups by treating them worse than many other secular employees who receive similar tax treatment.” (Read more from “IRS Pushed to Bill Churches $1 Billion” HERE)

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Warning: State About to Ban Bible Sales

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By WND. Liberty Counsel, which defends religious and civil rights, Friday warned that the state of California effectively is about to ban the sale of Bibles.

A bill in the legislature, approved 50-18 in an Assembly vote this week, would forbid counselors from telling a gender-confused male client that he is actually a man. . .

The bill declares “advertising, offering to engage in, or engaging in sexual orientation change efforts with an individual” is fraudulent business practice.

“If approved, victims of sexual abuse can no longer get counseling if they develop (as often happens) unwanted urges to engage in same-sex behavior or become gender confused,” Liberty Counsel said.

“This bill would also make it unlawful for any person to sell books, including the Bible, counseling services, or anything else that directs people to trust in Jesus Christ to help them overcome unwanted same-sex attraction or gender confusion.” (Read more from “Warning: State About to Ban Bible Sales” HERE)

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China Banning Online Bible Sales ‘Absurd’

By The Baptist Press. China is purportedly the largest publisher of Bibles in the world, but the communist nation has now apparently blocked online Bible purchases for its residents.
Beginning last week, searches for Bibles at leading online retailers in China came up empty, according to reports from The New York Times and CNN.

The reports indicate certain Bible studies or illustrated storybooks were available through searches. Two merchants told CNN the Bible could be purchased through private messages, but public listings were now “impossible.”

China has historically restricted in-person Bible sales to state-sponsored channels and government-run churches, but online sales presented a loophole of sorts for Christians within the growing underground church movement.

That loophole has now apparently been closed as part of increased religious freedom restrictions — particularly against Christians. (Read more from “China Banning Online Bible Sales ‘Absurd'” HERE)

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Turns out, Feds Are Wasting Billions Protecting ‘Endangered’ Animals That Are Just Fine

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The federal government has spent hundreds of millions in taxpayer money to protect species listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) that were never in danger of extinction, according to a Heritage Foundation report.

Robert Gordon, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Free Markets and Regulatory Reform, studied the Endangered Species Act and the federal bureaus in charge of administering and regulating it. Gordon released his report, which focuses on inconsistencies and waste in the listing and de-listing of species, Tuesday.

Former-President Richard Nixon signed the ESA into law in 1973, following the president’s push for stronger environmental protections the previous year. Nixon charged his “environmental awakening” for stronger environmental regulation in areas such as sewage, air and noise just two years after the Environmental Protection Agency’s founding.

Since the ESA’s enactment, 1,661 U.S. plants and animals have qualified for federal protection as either “threatened” or “endangered” — or close to extinction. Forty-five years later, slightly more than two percent, or 38 species, have been officially de-listed as “recovered.” About half of the officially “recovered” species where never actually in danger of extinction but placed on the list because of bad or missing data or taxonomic — the way animals are classified into species and subspecies, errors — according to Gordon . . .

Often when conducting preliminary research often serving to justify whether a species is listed or not, federal researchers miscount the actual number of animals in a population or species and reach a conclusion regularly off by a factor of 10 — sometimes more. (Read more from “Turns out, Feds Are Wasting Billions Protecting ‘Endangered’ Animals That Are Just Fine” HERE)

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This County Just Declared Itself a ‘Sanctuary’ for Gun Owners

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By The Daily Wire. On Monday, Effingham County, Illinois declared itself a “sanctuary” for gun owners. In a resolution passed 8-1, the country board directed their employees to neglect enforcement of any new state gun regulations that “unconstitutionally restrict the Second Amendment,” reports Fox News.

Effingham County board member David Campbell told “Fox & Friends First” that the county decided it was “time for someone to take a hard stand” against “the increasing number of House and Senate bills coming through attacking our Second Amendment” rights.

Campbell, who helped in crafting the resolution, said he received inspiration from a similar measure recently passed in Iroquois County, which is also located in the state. (Read more from “This County Just Declared Itself a ‘Sanctuary’ for Gun Owners” HERE)

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‘We’re Taking a Stand’: Illinois County Declares Itself a Sanctuary for Gun Owners

By Fox News Insider. Effingham County, Illinois, on Monday became a “sanctuary county” for gun owners.

The county board passed the resolution on an 8-1 vote and directed its employees not to enforce any new state law that would “unconstitutionally restrict the Second Amendment.”

Effingham County State’s Attorney Bryan Kibler said that the action is largely symbolic and will not control decision-making by law enforcement.

On “Fox & Friends First,” Effingham County board member David Campbell and Kibler joined Heather Childers to explain the thinking behind the resolution and what it means for the county.

Campbell said they decided to “take a stand” because they’ve seen an increasing number of state House and Senate bills that attack the Second Amendment.

“[We] decided it’s time for someone to take a hard stand,” Campbell said, explaining that he modeled the resolution after a similar one that was adopted by Iroquois County, Illinois. (Read more from “‘We’re Taking a Stand’: Illinois County Declares Itself a Sanctuary for Gun Owners” HERE)

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