Educational Freedom for Our Warriors in the Land of the Free

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When our Founding Fathers drafted the Declaration of Independence and the Continental Congress adopted it on July 4th, 1776, they declared themselves a nation built on the principles of human freedom and limited, representative government. For years, they fought the British and gave their lives to confirm this independence.

Now, 241 years later, our military families continue to give their lives to secure our freedom. As we celebrate this Independence Day and thank the men and women of our armed services, let’s also consider ways we can improve freedom and opportunity for our military families as they serve.

All military members volunteer to deploy into harm’s way. For a service member preparing for deployment or already deployed far from home, the education options available to their children can be a point of great concern. The schooling options available to military-connected children can play a role in whether a family accepts an assignment, even factoring into decisions to leave military service altogether.

According to a recent survey conducted and published by the Military Times, 35 percent of respondents said that dissatisfaction with their child’s education was a “significant factor” in their decision to remain in or leave military service.

In fact, the Pentagon’s changes to policy in 2016 enabling families to remain at duty stations for longer time periods was a direct response “to complaints by military parents who are loathe to move if the next duty station has poorly performing schools.”

These complaints may often stem from the fact that military-connected children are assigned to the district schools closest in proximity to military bases, regardless of whether those district schools are right for them.

As important as education is to military parents, more than half of all active-duty military families live in states with no school choice options at all.

What if, instead of assigning children of active duty military families to district schools closest to where they live, we offered military families a chance to access the federal dollars being spent on their children directly? The 1.3 billion dollar Impact Aid program supports the education of military-connected children by sending money to local district schools.

Imagine if instead a military family could access a portion of those funds through an account with their name on it. Active duty military families would have access to a parent-controlled education savings account, populated with the federal funds that would have been spent on their child in the public system, which could be used for private school tuition, online learning, special education services and therapies, private tutors, textbooks, curricula, and any other education-related services of their choice.

Educations savings accounts give valuable freedom to parents to choose the education that works best for their child. Across the U.S., six states have established educations savings account options: Arizona, Florida, Tennessee, Mississippi, Nevada, and most recently, North Carolina.

Like their civilian-family counterparts, children of military families deserve choices in education.

Modernizing the Impact Aid program by transitioning funding into parent-controlled education savings accounts would provide children of active-duty military families with education choice, while ensuring the federal program serves military families as well as they serve us.

When our Founding Fathers drafted the Constitution, they made national defense a paramount responsibility of the new federal government. As we celebrate the birth of our great nation, let’s strengthen our national defense by supporting military families with educational freedom. (For more from the author of “Educational Freedom for Our Warriors in the Land of the Free” please click HERE)

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Busted Iran Front Group Loaded Clinton Foundation With Cash

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An Iranian foundation recently convicted as a front organization for the theocratic regime in Tehran donated five-figure sums to the infamous Clinton Foundation.

Last week, a New York grand jury ruled that the government can seize a building majority-owned by the Alavi Foundation, agreeing with prosecutors that it is a front group for the mullahs in Tehran. The foundation used the Manhattan skyscraper to garner hundreds of millions in revenue so it could supply cash for its “charitable” endeavors inside the United States.

The Alavi Foundation rarely donated to non-Islamic or non-academic institutions. Alavi spent most of its funds on building Shiite institutions — such as mosques and cultural centers — and installing Iran-friendly professors at prominent American universities.

So its regular donations to the Clinton Foundation — now estimated at around $100,000 — particularly stood out. From 1985 to 2014, the Alavi Foundation — which last year listed its assets at over $100 million — donated to only 13 non-Islamic organizations.

In addition to its direct donations to the Clinton Foundation, the Alavi Foundation has also sent money to organizations associated with the non-profit. Alavi has given funds to the Clinton Foundation through its supposed humanitarian programs (the “Child Foundation”) in Louisiana and Haiti.

Prominent legislators have labeled the Clinton Foundation as something resembling a money-laundering and influence-peddling operation. Its critics argue that the foundation was primarily utilized to curry favor with the power Clinton family. They point to instances like the foundation’s disaster-relief fundraising efforts in Haiti, which ended up enriching the Clinton Foundation and not doing anything substantive to relieve the suffering of the people on the ground.

When first confronted with the possibility that the Alavi Foundation was an Iranian front group, the Clinton Foundation refused to return its donations.

At the time, in 2015, New York U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said: “For two decades, the Alavi Foundation’s affairs have been directed by various Iranian officials, including Iranian ambassadors at the United Nations, in violation of a series of U.S. laws.”

It remains unclear if the conviction of the Alavi Foundation will change whether the Clinton Foundation will dispose of the terror-linked funds they have regularly received from the Iranian front group. If the Clinton Foundation continues to take funds from Alavi, the Clintons will be enabling a country determined — by bipartisan consensus — in U.S. government circles as the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism. (For more from the author of “Busted Iran Front Group Loaded Clinton Foundation With Cash” please click HERE)

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Hillary ‘Already Running’ for 2020

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Her rise to power was once seen as inevitable, her victory in the run for the presidency a foregone conclusion.

Yet today, Hillary Clinton is nothing but a source of anger, embarrassment and frustration for many Democrats who blame the former first lady for wasting enormous sums of money on an incompetent 2016 presidential campaign . . .

One observer who has closely followed her scandal-plagued career over decades, a childhood friend and former romantic partner of former President Bill Clinton, says there is no chance Hillary Clinton will ever accept responsibility for her failures, nor will she ever gracefully fade away from the media spotlight.

“Are you kidding me?” Dolly Kyle responded when asked if Hillary Clinton is planning on running for president again. “Hillary’s already running for president in 2020!

“For over 45 years, she has been riding Billy Clinton’s coattails. She has always known, at a deep level, she was incapable of achieving the lofty goal on her own. That’s why she followed Billy back to Arkansas in 1974. Does anyone think Hillary would have been elected to the Senate from New York if she had not discarded any shred of personal integrity by hitching her political wagon to a rapist/serial sex abuser? OK, to give the devil his due, Billy is a charming, politically astute rapist/serial sex abuser. (Read more from “Hillary ‘Already Running’ for 2020” HERE)

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Trump Urged to Send Jet to Save Baby From Court-Ordered Death

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Will President Trump help medically transport a 10-month-baby from London to the U.S. before the government and his doctors pull the plug on his life support?

That’s the question being raised on Twitter Monday. And it wouldn’t be the first time Trump has intervened to medically transport a sick child for treatment.

Little Charlie Gard – a 10-month-old baby in London who has been blocked from traveling to the U.S. to receive potentially life-saving treatment and could be days from the end of his life – captured the attention of Trump and the pope Monday.

A crowd of more than 100 protesters gathered outside Buckingham Palace Monday in a last-ditch plea to to stop the baby’s life support machine from being switched off. The group chanted, “Save Charlie Gard” and “Release Charlie Gard” while waving signs that read, “It’s murder.”

(Read more from “Trump Urged to Send Jet to Save Baby From Court-Ordered Death” HERE)

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Homegrown Islamic Terror Suspect Caught With Dozens of Firearms

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A man with links to a U.S.-based Muslim organization suspected of terror links was arrested in Johnson City, New York, after police discovered a massive weapons cache inside a storage locker he was renting.

Ramadan Abdullah, 64, an associate of the cult-like Muslims of America, or MOA, was arrested after attempting to steal ammunition from a local store. Police grew suspicious when questioning Abdullah and later obtained a warrant to search his rented storage locker.

The locker contained an alarming assortment of both arms and armor, including eight assault weapons, four loaded handguns, one loaded shotgun, two rifles, 64 high-capacity ammunition feeding devices, flak jackets and thousands of rounds of ammunition, according to to the Broome County District Attorney’s Office.

Additional search warrants on other properties linked to Abdullah resulted in the seizure of another loaded handgun and some ammunition.

Abdullah has been charged with four counts of criminal possession of a weapon, second degree; one count of criminal possession of a weapon, third degree; and criminal possession of stolen property, fifth degree. (Read more from “Homegrown Islamic Terror Suspect Caught With Dozens of Firearms” HERE)

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Paul: Senate Health Bill Is ‘Lit up Like a Christmas Tree’ With Spending

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Washington Republicans are taking no July 4 holiday on the Senate’s ObamaCare overhaul bill — with President Trump calling senators and Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul pushing a conservative alternative to the existing measure that he says is “lit up like a Christmas tree” with spending.

“I don’t think we’re getting anywhere with the bill we have,” Paul said on “Fox News Sunday.” “Every time you add more federal money, more spending for the big-government Republicans, it offends the conservatives. … Senate leadership is loading (up) the bill like a Christmas tree, with billion dollar ornaments.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., didn’t have enough support last week to vote on the measure, leaving it behind as Congress departed for the July recess.

The Kentucky Republican will need support from at least 50 of the chamber’s 52 GOP senators to pass the bill.

Paul is pushing a plan to divide the Senate bill into two parts — a vote on repealing ObamaCare and a separate vote on replacing it. (Read more from “Paul: Senate Health Bill Is ‘Lit up Like a Christmas Tree’ With Spending” HERE)

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Obamaphone Fraud as High as 65%

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A massive portion of Obamaphone recipients are receiving the benefit after lying on their applications, according to a new 90-page report from the Government Accountability Office.

An undercover sting operation showed ineligible applications were approved 63 percent of the time, and a review found that 36 to 65 percent of beneficiaries in various categories had lied in easily detectable ways but were approved anyway.

The GAO reports that after basic eligibility checks were instituted, the cellphones-for-the-poor program shrunk by a third, from $2.2 billion to $1.5 billion. In the 30 days following the addition of meager but previously absent anti-fraud measures, monthly payments dropped $40 million. Incredibly, the 65 percent rate of easily detectable fraud is what remained after those huge numbers of fraudsters dropped off the rolls.

The GAO undercover investigators applied for free government phones 19 times using criteria that should have been rejected, and “we were approved to receive Lifeline services by 12 of the 19 Lifeline providers using fictitious eligibility documentation.”

All someone has to do to apply for free cellphone service is say that they are on another welfare program, such as food stamps or disability, known as SSI. (Read more from “Obamaphone Fraud as High as 65%” HERE)

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Defense Department Delays Costly Transgender Policy, for Now

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Defense Secretary James Mattis has granted the request of top military brass to postpone the Obama-era policy of admitting openly transgender individuals to the armed services until Jan. 1, but a delay is only the first step to blocking the policy, opponents said.

That’s because LGBT activists and the RAND Corp. have been scripting implementation plans from day one, and they are still there, said Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, a conservative pro-defense group.

“Everyone should realize that we have a lot of work to do,” Donnelly told The Daily Signal, referring to opposing the agenda set by activists for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans.

“Forget six months: We have only four months, at best, to turn this around. Time to start the engines,” she added.

A RAND Corp. study determined that 2,500 service members and another 1,500 in the reserves were transgender.

Donnelly’s Center for Military Readiness recently released a report urging the Pentagon to revoke the policy ordered last year by then-Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, citing:

–Open-ended costs for lifetime hormone treatments and sometimes irreversible surgeries.

–Infringements on personal privacy in conditions of forced intimacy.

–Demoralizing pressures on military commanders, doctors, and nurses to approve, participate in, or perform procedures that violate medical ethics or sincerely held personal or religious convictions.

“Transgender advocates demand special status for recruits seeking lifetime medical benefits despite deployability problems,” Donnelly said. “They also demand coverage for veterans in an already-overloaded system and for family dependents, including minor children.”

Mattis made the correct move, said Ryan T. Anderson, a senior research fellow in the DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society at The Heritage Foundation.

“The Obama administration in its last days rushed to impose a politically driven agenda on the entire military,” Anderson told The Daily Signal. “Secretary of Defense Mattis is correct to hit the pause button, to take the time to get this policy correct, maintain military effectiveness, and respect the dignity of all people involved.”

LGBT groups weren’t happy with the Defense Department decision, but expressed some confidence the transgender policy eventually would be implemented.

“Transgender service members have been serving, openly and authentically, since October 2016 with no impact on readiness,” Matt Thorn, executive director for OutServe-Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a Washington-based advocacy group for LGBT individuals in the military, said in a prepared statement.

Thorn added:

It is time to fully lift the ban on transgender service by enacting this final piece and implementing the accessions policy. This delay is a disservice to the transgender community and to our military as a whole. While we cannot now avoid this six-month delay, we expect the full and unequivocal implementation of this accessions policy for transgender individuals at the end of these six months.

Stephen Peters, spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, an influential LGBT organization, said in a statement: “Each day that passes without the policy in place restricts the armed forces’ ability to recruit the best and the brightest, regardless of gender identity.”

During a June 28 hearing of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Mo., called for Congress to strike the policy because of the cost to readiness.

The surgeries would cost the military an estimated $1.35 billion over the next decade, Hartzler said. Among the items the funds could be used for are 13 F-35s, 14 Super Hornet F-18s, or two B-21 Long Strike Bombers, she said.

“By recruiting and allowing transgender individuals to serve openly in our military, we are subjecting taxpayers to high medical costs, including an average of $130,000 per transition surgery, lifetime hormone treatments, and potential additional surgeries to address the average 25 percent of individuals who experience complications in addition to possible mental health issues and cost of training policies,” Hartzler said during the hearing.

A Rasmussen poll released Friday found that 23 percent of likely voters support allowing openly transgender individuals to serve in the military. Another 31 percent said it’s bad for the military, while 38 percent said it would have no impact.

In a memo announcing the decision released Friday evening, Mattis said the delay “in no way presupposes an outcome.”

“Since becoming the secretary of defense, I have emphasized that the Department of Defense must measure each policy decision against one critical standard: Will the decision affect the readiness and lethality of the force?” Mattis said in the memo, adding:

Put another way, how will the decision affect the ability of America’s military to defend the nation? It is against this standard that I provide the following guidance on the way forward in accessing transgender individuals into the military services.

If the Obama administration policy is fully implemented, the cost to readiness, recruitment, retention, morale, and cohesion will be even greater than the monetary costs, said retired Lt. Gen. William “Jerry” Boykin, a former Army Delta Force commander.

Boykin cited a report that the military is getting machinery parts from museums because of budget constraints.

“The military has been reduced to stripping parts from museums, which is why it makes no sense to spend more than a billion taxpayer dollars on new body parts for anyone who joins the military and identifies as transgender,” Boykin, now an executive vice president at the Family Research Council, said in a formal statement.

“After lost deployment and other costs are factored in, taxpayers could be on the hook for as much as $3.7 billion over the next 10 years. Spending billions of dollars on transgender surgeries and treatment plans, when the military has other priorities that would actually ensure its effectiveness in war, is irresponsible.” (For more from the author of “Defense Department Delays Costly Transgender Policy, for Now” please click HERE)

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New Jersey Governor Issues a State of Emergency Executive Order

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In an attempt to shield those living in the Garden State from the problems their government created, the governor, Chris Christie, has now signed an executive order issuing a “state of emergency.” As speculation grows that New Jersey will soon follow in Illinois’ footsteps, the government is proving forecasters correct by their inability to pass a constitutionally mandated budget.

Not only did New Jersey’s inability to pass a budget shut down the government (but not really, don’t worry, you’ll still be taxed and welfare checks will still go out) but it scared Christie enough to sign a state of emergency executive order.

New Jersey’s economic stability is in a dire state, and they appear to be continuing to make the same mistakes as Illinois. But according to nj.com, the conflict in the legislature and subsequent budget standstill is about the finances of not-for-profit Horizon Blue Cross/Blue Shield, the state’s largest health insurer. The state Senate passed a bill that allows the state government to control how much Horizon keeps in its surplus fund before it must contribute to a public health fund.

The government doesn’t seem to want to tackle to problems they created, they only seek to tighten the economic hold they have on companies and individuals through taxation and regulations. And the government never tries taxing less and spending less, they only want more power, which is funded by more theft, and control through entitlement programs.

Moody’s is even warning that it’s the high taxation and political promises that are sinking states.

“Tax rate increases, such as the ‘millionaires’ tax’ implemented in prior administrations, could bridge some of the gap, but may be politically challenging in this already high-tax state. Closing the entire $3.6 billion gap with revenue-side solutions alone appears unlikely,” analysts said. Gubernatorial candidates seeking to replace Gov. Chris Christie have proposed bringing back variations of the millionaire’s tax. But the size of the future deficit is so large, Moody’s said, “it unlikely that a sufficient tax increase would be politically feasible.” Finding enough cuts, too, would be “highly challenging,” the agency said, adding even slashing employee health benefits would fall short in the long term. –NJ.com

The dollar is collapsing all over in states which exhibit massive amounts of control over their populations. Preparing for the looming economic crisis that will impact all of us is important, and experts are suggesting an investment in metals. Barter systems may take over in the event that entire state economies collapse making precious metals a viable currency when the dollar becomes useful only as toilet paper.

Infighting between Republicans and Democrats is getting the constant blame for the economic troubles facing New Jersey, but the real problem is much more simple. The entire government and the system they operate under is the problem. The infighting is merely a symptom which masks the bigger issue of too much government. And preppers in volatile states like New Jersey aren’t taking any chances right now. (For more from the author of “New Jersey Governor Issues a State of Emergency Executive Order” please click HERE)

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Pilot Mentions ‘Weather Phenomenon,’ Drops off Radar

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National Transportation Safety Board investigators said Sunday there was a discussion between the pilot of a Cessna airplane and air traffic controllers about “local weather phenomenon.” Soon after, the aircraft dropped off radar and crashed, killing six.

“We’re dealing with things that people just don’t want to talk about or see,” Price County Sheriff Brian Schmidt told local media.

The Price County Sheriff’s Office said the airplane crashed at 3:21 a.m. CT Saturday near the north Wisconsin city of Phillips. The plane was found near State Highway 111 and U.S. Highway 8 in the town of Harmony.

According to WSAW-TV, the plane was a Cessna 421 and investigators said the pilot was certified to fly it.

The victims were all adults, Price County Sheriff’s Lt. Gabe Lind said Sunday. No names have been released. (Read more from “Pilot Mentions ‘Weather Phenomenon,’ Drops off Radar” HERE)

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