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Leftist Mobsters Lambaste College Bands Playing at Trump’s Inauguration … Because ‘Tolerance’

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College marching bands invited to perform at the 58th Presidential Inaugural Parade are being pressured to turn down the offer or face the wrath of the oh-so-tolerant anti-Trump camp.

The Olivet Nazarene University Tiger marching band received backlash from alumni who launched an online petition urging the faith-based Illinois school to withdraw from the event. The petition claims that President-elect Donald Trump has “consistently articulated and advocated policies that undermine the Christian commitments of communities like Olivet”:

His well-documented sexism, his political alliances with white supremacists, and his hostility towards immigrants and refugees are just a few positions incompatible with Christian teachings in general and the Nazarene message of holiness in particular.

…

For Olivet to embody the faith it proclaims, we have a responsibility to stand with those marginalized by the President-elect’s divisive rhetoric rather than march in celebration of it.

Marist College, a private liberal arts school in New York, confirmed last month that their band will perform at the parade. Since then, the school has received the typical leftist outrage reactions from social media users:

Jennifer Hoffman, a 2003 Marist College alum, even created a petition requesting the school to reconsider its decision to play at the parade:

We are all disappointed with the Marist’s decision to participate in Trump’s inauguration. Trump’s history of racism, bigotry and sexism does not reflect Marist College values. We are concerned that participating in this inauguration will send the message that Marist supports Trump’s values, even if that is not the college’s intention.

“Celebrating a transition to this administration celebrates an election which overrode the votes of millions, and a candidate who regularly advocates for hateful, not peaceful, behavior,” Hoffman writes.

Talladega College, the oldest historically black college in Alabama, has probably received the harshest rebuke for accepting Trump’s invitation to have its marching band perform at the parade, despite campus protests, alumni petitions, and social media posts condemning the decision.

“After how black people were treated at Trump’s rallies, you’re going to go and shuck and jive down Pennsylvania Avenue? For what?” Seinya SamForay, one of many commenters on the school’s social media pages, told the AP. “What they did is a slap in the face to other black universities.”

Twitter users called the move “shameful” and an “outrage”:

Despite all the insanity, Talladega College President Billy Hawkins recently confirmed that the band will participate in the parade and dropped some awesome truth-bombs in the process. In a statement released last week, Hawkins noted the extra-political significance of performing at such a monumental event.

“As many of those who chose to participate in the parade have said, we feel the inauguration of a new president is not a political event but a civil ceremony celebrating the transfer of power,” Hawkins said.

Talladega University alumni and Hampton University President William R. Harvey described the parade as a valuable opportunity for students to learn “the importance of supporting the leader of the free world, despite one’s political viewpoint.”

“It will be a wonderful learning experience for the students in the band. It will be a teachable moment for them to understand the importance of supporting the leader of the free world, despite one’s political viewpoint,” Harvey said. “After all, the reason for being of any college or university should be to promote learning and not to enhance apolitical agenda.”

The school has also received overwhelming support from online donors who contributed to a GoFundMe campaign to help cover expenses like travel and lodging. In less than two weeks, the page has raised more than $285,000, far surpassing the initial goal of $75,000.

While many other college and university bands have chosen to boycott the Inauguration Day festivities, Olivet Nazarene, Marist, Talladega, will have the privilege of performing for millions of viewers. These schools should be commended for their courage to stand up against the SJW speech police and their willingness to honor the presidency, regardless of who fills that office. (For more from the author of “Leftist Mobsters Lambaste College Bands Playing at Trump’s Inauguration … Because ‘Tolerance'” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

6 Issues That Should Dominate Trump’s Foreign Policy Agenda

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The American people elected Donald Trump to exact conservative change here at home, thus his focus on his domestic agenda.

But when the focus does turn to foreign policy, he and the GOP also need to show that they heard the voters! President Obama’s election demonstrated voters’ disgust for adventures abroad. Similarly, President-elect Trump’s indicated that voters do not want to see the United States kicked around.

Here are some priorities to help the new administration color inside voters’ lines:

1. Radical Islam, radical Islam, radical Islam

Fighting that insipid ideology is Trump’s lodestar. When Tip O’Neill coined the phrase “all politics is local” he did not have in mind Islamists in Orlando, but that does not mean it does not apply.

2. The South China Sea.

President Obama delegated our security interests there to the UN. The result should be no mystery. Rebuilding our standing will require steadfast leadership, more than just economic threats, and new alliances, not just a show of force. Doing just the latter will bring out China’s fishing boat navy. Voters will not tolerate shooting them; nor will they accept our Navy being run off … so the new administration must avoid policies that present that binary choice.

Reversing China’s eight-year shopping spree will take time, so Trump should set expectations accordingly.

3. Iran.

Trump must rebuild our regional containment system. Wrecking Obama’s naive nuclear deal is not enough. That means reconstituting our regional alliances, undermining Iran’s radical Islamic ideology, ripping out Hezbollah root and branch around the globe, and learning to love Iraq (the invasion and regime change happened almost 14 years ago in our rearview mirror. We must stop treating it as untouchable).

4. Spread the pain.

President George W. Bush launched the multilateral Six-Party Talks in 2003 in response to North Korea’s bad behavior. This diplomatic exploratory surgery gifted North Korea a large stage on which to act out. Importantly, it also meant the U.S. owned the issue, giving countries like China and Russia leverage over us.

When North Korea acts up again, ask first how to get it off the U.S. docket. Convincing China to own the response is smart statecraft, and sounds like a negotiation worthy of Donald Trump.

Likewise, allies can provide in-kind burden sharing. For example, with American support, the Balts, Georgia, Ukraine, etc., can keep Putin busy.

Trump must keep this in mind as the multitude of rogue states vies for his attention. Already, Russia, a country that should be in our peripheral vision, inspires a national freak-out.

5. Israel.

Do not just stymie immoral UN behavior; bring the pain to Turtle Bay. Of course, Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. And, for the love of God, the Oslo Process, ongoing since 1993 (actually, since the 1979 Camp David Accords), will never — never —work. Settlements do not prevent peace.

Palestinian Islamic extremism does. Target Iran’s sponsorship of groups like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Push for Arab recognition of Israel. Help alleviate our ally’s existential security threats. Only then can peace happen.

6. Reform our sclerotic national security structure.

Create a credible diplomatic option so that our statecraft choices go beyond shooting, sharply worded demarches, and sanctions. It will make the above possible.

Fix our broken State Department. Create a political warfare capability. Get our intelligence community out of the business of running its own military so it can back to doing what it does best: spying.

Successfully tackling this impossibly long list will require that the government relearn what used to be part of our statecraft muscle memory: applying leverage. Diplomacy is not about negotiations. It is about presenting other countries with choices and then using leverage so that they make the decisions we want.

Success also requires that American foreign policy once again reflects American exceptionalism. Americans value not just where we live but how. That has practical implications. For example, most of our allies reflect our values, and our values are non-negotiable.

Defense of our values requires a muscular internationalism. That does not imply the active use of the military. Ronald Reagan never invaded a country larger than Grenada, and he protected our values just fine. But simply drawing inward like Obama leaves our values and allies vulnerable. Ask Israel.

Conservatives need the Trump administration to succeed at the list I outlined. Voters elected him to fulfill fundamental, conservative goals (which the above are), and they gave the GOP both houses of Congress to help.

The GOP has not had conservative foreign policy since the 1980s. On top of that, throw decades lazy post-Cold War strategic thinking and the fact that Obama did not focus on any of these goals (constructively). Moreover, we have never tried to combat radical Islam, and it has been a threat since 1979. Conservatives have a UUGE task ahead of them. I hope they understand that. (For more from the author of “6 Issues That Should Dominate Trump’s Foreign Policy Agenda” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Will the ‘Trump Effect’ Trickle down to Christian Conservatives?

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Like no one before him, Donald Trump has shaken our nation, and love him or loathe him, he has done what no one else has ever done. On his journey to the presidency, he has broken (and rewritten) the rules, he has defied the establishment, he has challenged the status quo, he has played both the bully and the victim, he has proved the pundits wrong, and he has emerged from every storm stronger than before.

Not only so, but the climate of the nation has changed (some say for better and some say for worse), to the point that what seemed inevitable just three months ago no longer seems so inevitable. Could it be that America is about to make a massive change in direction, a radical course correction?

This, to me, is an important aspect of what some are calling the “Trump effect” (often in pejorative terms; a Google search on January 12 yielded 1,160,000 for “Trump effect” in quotes): The inevitable can be challenged; the status quo can be changed; the bullies can be conquered.

Again, I’m aware that for many, President-elect Trump is the ultimate bully, hardly a model to follow, especially for followers of Jesus, and my goal here is not to call pastors and believers to emulate his tone or his style. Instead, I’m encouraging us to learn from his example that America’s course has not been inexorably set, that the seemingly impossible is very possible, that history is full of surprises, and that now is the time for fresh courage and commitment.

The Nation Turned on a Dime

For several years now, we conservatives have been told that we have lost the culture wars, that we should throw in the towel and concede, that we should consolidate our losses and move on to non-controversial, spiritual issues, that the tide of history is set against us. And those of who refused to go along with this narrative were mocked and ridiculed, told that we represented a dying breed that was about to be replaced by an enlightened generation, mocked as unfortunate relics of a bygone age, ridiculed as an endangered species soon to be obsolete.

Now, the tide of history has shifted suddenly, with the real possibility of a complete reversal in the expected makeup of the Supreme Court (under Hillary) and the equally real possibility of a wholesale repudiation of radical liberalism. And to think that on Election Day, even into early election evening, this was the exact opposite of what was widely expected to be. The direction of the nation literally turned on a dime, and with it, the sense that anything is possible. The very rules of engagement have changed.

Who says that we have to cower before the cultural bullies? Who says that we have to apologize for our convictions? Who says that the mainstream media sets the agenda and establishes the talking points? Who says that the defeat of conservative values is inevitable?

Again, I am not saying that we emulate the style of our president-elect (in terms of the negative aspects of his style) or that we take on the posture of bullies. Instead, I’m urging us to learn from what he has accomplished, to change our way of thinking, and to seize the day and take back the ground that has been pulled from under our feet.

Just three months ago, it appeared that Planned Parenthood would be firmly ensconced and generously funded for a generation or more. Now, the abortion giant stands on the verge of national defunding.

Just three months ago, it appeared that Roe v. Wade would not be overturned in our lifetimes or perhaps even in the lifetimes of our children. Now, talk of its possible reversal is anything but fantasy.

Just three months ago, it appeared that LGBT rights would push religious rights into the closet. Now, an unlikely champion of religious rights has arisen (and oddly enough, he fashions himself a friend of LGBT rights as well).

This is not just the tables turning. This is the floor becoming the ceiling and the ceiling becoming the floor. This is nothing less than upheaval.

Rise Up, Stand Tall!

Of course, we have no way of knowing how President Trump will govern and how far the Republican-led Congress will go in terms of making positive, necessary changes.

But what’s clear is this: Donald Trump, in the past more famous for hedonism than for heroics, has declared war on a sacrosanct, PC world, and it’s high time for others who call themselves overcomers and world changers and who fashion themselves to be countercultural Christians — I’m speaking about the born-again Church of America — to rise up, stand tall, and speak the truth in love.

After all, if a thrice-married, formerly-playboy, billionaire businessman can shake the nation, why can’t we as the Lord’s people — in the power of the Spirit and in the footsteps of Jesus, overcoming evil with good?

Enough with our compromise and cowardice. It’s time for courage and conviction. It’s time we led the way. (For more from the author of “Will the ‘Trump Effect’ Trickle down to Christian Conservatives?” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Rex Tillerson’s Moral Indecision

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President-elect Trump has nominated a number of outstanding men and women for top foreign policy positions in his administration. Marine Corps Gent. (Ret) James Mattis for Secretary of Defense. South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley for U.N. Ambassador. My one-time boss, former Senator Dan Coats, for Director of National Intelligence. Marine Corps Gen. (Ret) John Kelly for Director of Homeland Security. Congressman Mike Pompeo for CIA Director. Great choices, all.

Then there’s Rex Tillerson.

Former head of Exxon-Mobil, Mr. Tillerson has extensive experience in corporate management, international trade, and building a strong professional team. He is reputed to be an effective negotiator and his ability to lead a sprawling bureaucracy is not in question. No doubt he is a patriot and a highly capable individual.

Sadly, he also seems to be completely ill-suited to be Secretary of State. Listening to Mr. Tillerson at his Senate hearing was like hearing an awkward teenager talking to his girlfriend’s father.

The Tillerson Eqivocation

His refusal to acknowledge the moral ugliness of Vladimir Putin was striking. An impassioned and probing Sen. Marco Rubio asked Mr. Tillerson about Putin’s responsibility for the deaths of up to 300,000 Chechens, his murder of political opponents, his military backing of Syrian mass murder Bashir al-Assad (including missile strikes against civilians), and his invasion of the Ukraine to regain Russian control of the Crimea.

Mr. Tillerson’s equivocation was astonishing. Not just in his refusal to call Vladimir Putin a war criminal but in his insistence he needed more information to comment. As a rightly exasperated Sen. Rubio said, the information about Putin’s campaign of death is in the public domain — it is not classified.

It is one thing for a national leader to be temperate, to refuse to surrender to the pressure of the moment, and to maintain an even keel in the face of intense questioning. It is quite another to abandon moral outrage and persist in not calling evil, whether committed by the governments of Russia, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, or anywhere else, what it is. This latter characterized Mr. Tillerson’s responses to Sen. Rubio.

Volatility is not what America needs in the chief representative of her foreign policy. In this, the steady Mr. Tillerson acquitted himself well. But an unwillingness to characterize mass murder and thuggish aggression as the brutality and moral horror they are does not indicate prudence. Rather, it is a disturbing display of weakness.

Tillerson and Religious Persecution

Concerns about Mr. Tillerson’s potential conduct as our chief diplomat extend to the growing pattern of religious persecution in many corners of the world. Reading the just-issued 2017 Open Doors’ World Watch List, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom’s Annual Report, or the State Department’s International Religious Freedom annual report gives one a sobering, arresting sense of the extent of religious persecution, much of it against Christians, throughout the world.

Defending the persecuted should be a cornerstone of American foreign policy, not only because of our nation’s founding conviction that one’s submission to God takes precedence over allegiance to the state, but because standing with those suffering for their religious beliefs is in our national interest.

As Georgetown University’s Dr. Thomas Farr, the first director of the State Department’s Office for International Religious Freedom, said recently, by upholding the right of all people to believe according to their consciences and live out their faiths freely, America fosters “stable self-governance, economic development, and the defeat of religion-based terror. If we act to rediscover those reasons ourselves, and overcome our contemporary skepticism about engaging religious ideas and actors in American diplomacy, we can avert the momentous consequences of rising religious persecution and declining global religious freedom.”

By fighting for the persecuted, America also lets them know they have a friend who cares about their dignity and liberty. This will bear great fruit over time. As many former prisoners of Cold War Communism have testified, understanding that Ronald Reagan and his team were raising their incarceration and treatment at the highest levels of their oppressive governments inspired them to carry on. And this brave allegiance to religious freedom created a loyalty to our country among the former prisoners and their fellow freedom-lovers that remains strong today.

As the eloquent closing comments of Sen. Rubio make, clear, the stakes could not be higher:

We can’t achieve moral clarity with rhetorical ambiguity … For those 1,400 people in jail in China, those dissidents in Cuba, the girls that want to drive and go to school (In Saudi Arabia), they look to the United States; they look to us, often to the Secretary of State … When they see the United States is not prepared to stand up … it demoralizes these people all over the world. And it leads people to conclude this, which is damaging and it hurt us during the Cold War and that is this: America cares about democracy and freedom as along as it is not being violated by someone that they need for something else. That cannot be who we are in the twenty-first century.

Mr. Tillerson has no background in standing against tyrants, brutes, and, yes, criminals like Vladimir Putin or Kim Jong-Il. At a time of rising international tension, America needs a Secretary of State who has a deft hand as well as a spine of steel. Dealing with dictators, cagey adversaries, and outright enemies is not like negotiating with a potential business partner. It is about standing firmly, sometimes stonily, for America’s national security and vital interests.

Our opponents appreciate resolve, strength, and courage, not sweet reason or a rather pathetic desire to be liked. The Obama foreign policy too often has been typified by a desperate eagerness for other countries to approve of us. The consequences — a newly emergent Russia, an emboldened China, a militaristic North Korea, and an uncertain NATO alliance — pose an increasingly imminent danger to the United States.

Donald Trump appreciates toughness, forthrightness, and candor. In his performance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Rex Tillerson showed none of these. (For more from the author of “Rex Tillerson’s Moral Indecision” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Is the Trump/Russia “Dossier” the Fake News of the Decade?

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Fake news or conspiracy theory? Or the most epic troll since Dan Rather was conned into accepting forged documents about George Bush? Or a hilarious amalgam of all three?

All elements of this story are as yet unknown, but what is unfolding has the makings of historical high comedy. Here’s a rundown.

Buzzfeed, a website whose specialty is celebrity tittle-tattle, asinine quizzes such as “Which ‘Pixie Hollow Fairy Are You?“, and get-skinny-quick-by-petting-cats articles, published a document, which they gave the graduated title of dossier, which purported to show how Russia, under the devious and genius scheming of Vladimir Putin, had been grooming and bribing Donald Trump for many years, and blackmailing him by threatening to reveal perverted sexual practices, so that Trump would be induced to enter the US Presidential election, win it by secret dirt supplied by Russian intelligence agents, and so place the once United States of America under the control of a foreign government.

Yes, really.

Even Hollywood would never believe a story like that. But many others did. Like, some allege, virulent Never-Trumper, and legacy Republican political strategist, Rick Wilson, the man who accused Trump supporters (this is, unfortunately, relevant) of being childless single men who masturbate to anime.

That disgusting comment is relevant because after Wilson made it, he became a target of ridicule across the Internet, including at the Wild West site 4Chan, a place were folks delight in trolling, which might be defined as pranking-with-intent. After Buzzfeed revealed their conspiracy theory, and probably because of the conspiracy theory’s reliance on certain perverted sexual acts and because of Wilson’s tie-in with sexual commentary, members on 4chan claimed that they were the authors of the dossier. The claim is that the dossier was fan fiction, and that it was leaked to Wilson who believed it and who then turned it over to the CIA. Wilson denies this. And it isn’t plausible 4chan hoaxed the entire USA intelligence community, but the fracas adds a delightful twist to the story.

A better angle involves Republican Senator John McCain, personal enemy of Trump. McCain was first given a copy of the conspiracy document, which he later handed over to the FBI because, he said, he didn’t “know if it is credible or not.”

How did McCain come into possession of the document in the first place? It is being reported he got it from Christopher Steele, an Ex-British Intelligence Officer, and member of Orbis Intelligence Limited, a company that performs “oppo research,” or opposition research, also known as the art of digging up dirt. Yet if it is true Steele is the author of the conspiracy theory, who paid Steele to create it?

The Wall Street Journal tried tracking down Steele, but they only discovered a colleague who told the paper Steele “would be away for a few days.” The colleague didn’t know where. Perhaps they should search in Phoenix, where Senator McCain has his official residence? Or maybe in a dim bar in Moscow? One wonders if Steele has a 4chan account. Never mind.

Enter CNN. That network presented the conspiracy theory as if it were true, and hinted with all possible strength that the US intelligence community also believed it was true, and that Trump had been briefed by “Intel chiefs” about the damning information Russia had on him.

Only it turns out that Trump was never briefed. Intelligence agencies had the document, which is now known to have been “originally generated as part of opposition research by anti-Trump Republicans and then shopped by Democrats,” but they “planned to show it as an example of disinformation campaigns.”

The tale grows stranger still, because Trump himself claims to have conducted his own “sting operation” to detect leaks from American intelligence agencies, an operation he says was a success, proving somebody was leaking details about his intelligence briefings. This has led to all kinds of rumors about bad feelings between Trump and the intelligence community.

Reacting to CNN and Buzzfeed, Trump said at a news conference Wednesday, “It’s all fake news. It’s all phony stuff. It didn’t happen.” The kicker is that when a CNN reporter tried to ask a question, Trump shot him and CNN down, saying “You are fake news.”

It will be recalled that during the election, CNN had given up any pretence of impartiality, openly touting Clinton and denigrating Trump. The network’s bias soon became so blatant that when a CNN crew was spotted, Trump supporters taunted them with cries of “Clinton News Network,” or worse.

Now that Hillary has faded from the scene, CNN has not given up its visceral hatred of Trump, and has proved willing to broadcast any information that might be damaging to Trump, even when that information has less veracity than an out-of-focus photograph which purports to show Bigfoot riding the Loch Ness Monster.

The story isn’t over. The news on why Steele wrote the document, if he wrote it, and why, including who paid him for it, is bound to generate even more fun. (For more from the author of “Is the Trump/Russia “Dossier” the Fake News of the Decade?” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Trump Protesters Vow to ‘Shut down’ Inauguration, Related Celebrations

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A coalition of leftist causes calling itself Disrupt J20 plans a series of organizing sessions, classes, protests, and other activities aimed at disrupting Donald Trump’s inauguration as president Jan. 20.

n appeals to “all people of good conscience,” Disrupt J20 seeks to bring thousands of fellow activists to Washington to join forces at American University beginning Saturday, six days before Inauguration Day.

“We’re planning a series of massive direct actions that will shut down the inauguration ceremonies and any related celebrations—the inaugural parade, the inaugural balls, you name it,” Disrupt J20 declares on its website, adding:

A coalition of leftist causes calling itself Disrupt J20 plans a series of organizing sessions, classes, protests, and other activities aimed at disrupting Donald Trump’s inauguration as president Jan. 20.

“We’re planning to paralyze the city itself, using blockades and marches to stop traffic and even public transit.” —Disrupt J20 website

In appeals to “all people of good conscience,” Disrupt J20 seeks to bring thousands of fellow activists to Washington to join forces at American University beginning Saturday, six days before Inauguration Day.

“We’re planning a series of massive direct actions that will shut down the inauguration ceremonies and any related celebrations—the inaugural parade, the inaugural balls, you name it,” Disrupt J20 declares on its website, adding:

We’re also planning to paralyze the city itself, using blockades and marches to stop traffic and even public transit. And hey, because we like fun, we’re even going to throw some parties.

Organizers plan early-morning “blockade actions” Jan. 20 built around such banners as “racial justice,” “trade justice,” “climate justice,” “economic justice,” “communities under attack,” “labor direct action,” and “anti-war and Palestine.”

This all must be cool because the communist Workers World is covering it. The Daily Signal has not found direct calls for violence attributed to Disrupt J20 organizers, who did post this definition of what it means to take “direct action”:

Direct Action is when you take collective action to make social change without giving power over to an authority or middle person. We don’t ask permission or put our faith in electoral politics, instead, we use our bodies to stop the smooth operation of the system we oppose. Examples of direct action include the ongoing resistance at Standing Rock against the Dakota Access Pipeline, the street and highway blockades of Black Lives Matter, or the occupations of public squares during Occupy Wall Street.

Anarchist-affiliated media sites such as Crimethinc.com, however, suggest the potential for violence.

“Some are calling for blockades at the checkpoints around the parade route, in hopes that Trump will ride into office in front of silent, empty bleachers,” Crimethinc wrote. “Others are preparing to rove the city, supporting and defending other protesters and responding to situations as they arise.”

Disrupt J20 does not disclose or identify itself with nationally known groups or major donors. It says the “direct action” planned is “supported by the work of the D.C. Welcoming Committee,” which it calls “a collective of experienced local activists and out-of-work gravediggers acting with national support.”

That group isn’t funded by any nonprofits and has no connection with any political parties, according to the website.

But Matthew Vadum, senior vice president at the Washington-based Capital Research Center, said he has found an indirect link with hedge fund manager and liberal philanthropist George Soros.

“George Soros is a major funder of Alliance for Global Justice, a radical left-wing group that collected donations on behalf of the Occupy Wall Street movement,” Vadum told The Daily Signal, adding:

Alliance for Global Justice is now functioning as a fiscal sponsor for a group called Refuse Fascism that is heavily involved in the Disrupt J20 effort. A fiscal sponsor accepts donations on behalf of unincorporated or small groups and charges a modest administrative fee so that donors can deduct the donations from their taxes.

Kelly Kullberg, a founder of the American Association of Evangelicals, told The Daily Signal she doesn’t know who finances such efforts to cause chaos on Inauguration Day but considers them dangerous:

This ‘progressive’ worldview and funding accelerate the erosion of traditional wisdom like faith, family, and even freedom. It is regressive, and many people suffer the consequences. This should concern every American. We deserve to know more about this funding and their false narratives. We deserve truth.

Organizers also offer a “legal guide” for protesters who encounter the police, including advice for protesters who are placed under arrest. A section titled “Bulls— cops will say” tells protesters that “cops lie a lot” and lists examples.

Disrupt J20 urges protesters to get started over the weekend by taking part in “Action Camps” from Saturday through Monday at American University in partnership with student groups there. These include a “racial justice” group called the Darkening, the Black Student Alliance, the Latino and American Student Organization, and the AU Student Worker Alliance.

American University spokeswoman Camille Lepre told The Daily Signal in an email that the school is neither prohibiting nor sponsoring the anti-Trump events being held in its facilities.

The camps also are set for Tuesday through Thursday at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Northwest Washington.

Topics of workshops include “Radical Cheerleading,” “How to Cop Watch,” “Nonviolent Direct Action,” “Know Your Rights,” “Street Safety,” “De-escalation,” and “Community and Workplace Organizing.”

Participants may join “Climate Convergence” workshops Wednesday and have the opportunity to “stand in solidarity with others working for migrant rights, racial justice, LGBTQ rights, and more.”

Such different movements and organizations need to stand as one, according to Disrupt J20 organizers, because this way they can form a more potent force to “stop the rollback of progress” under the incoming Trump administration.

Disrupt J20’s “Call to Action” warns against the advent of a “security state” under Trump:

Trump stands for tyranny, greed, and misogyny. He is the champion of neo-nazis [sic] and white Nationalists [sic], of the police who kill the Black, Brown, and poor on a daily basis, of racist border agents and sadistic prison guards, of the FBI and NSA who tap your phone and read your email. He is the harbinger of even more climate catastrophe, deportation, discrimination, and endless war. He continues to deny the existence of climate change, in spite of all the evidence, putting the future of the whole human race at stake.

A group called the D.C. Anti-Fascist Coalition will host a sort of counterinaugural ball called the Protest the Fascist Alt-Right Deploraball on the night of Thursday, Jan. 19, at the National Press Club. Organizers say the event is being held as a protest of an inaugural ball for Trump supporters there.

Disrupt J20 plans its major events for Inauguration Day itself, beginning that morning in McPherson Square in Northwest Washington, where it asks activists to meet and regroup throughout the day. The website says:

We must take to the streets and protest, blockade, disrupt, intervene, sit in, walk out, rise up, and make more noise and good trouble than the establishment can bear. The [inaugural] parade must be stopped. We must delegitimize Trump and all he represents.

The Democratic Socialists of America, in partnership with Disrupt J20, has scheduled a “Stand Against Trump” event at 9 a.m. at the northwest end of the square.

Other events include “The Anti-Capitalist and Anti-Fascist Bloc” set for 10 a.m. at the Francis Scott Key Memorial. (Be sure to wear all black, participants are urged).

A “Festival of Resistance” is set for Columbus Circle, in front of Union Station, where many out-of-towners will arrive for the official festivities.

Disrupt J20 organizers are setting up “Activist Housing” for the expected protesters, including “mass housing” at an unnamed local church.

“Please bring a sleeping bag and anything else you need to be comfortable,” they say. “We will post community guidelines that all utilizing the mass housing option will be expected to follow to ensure everyone’s safety.” (For more from the author of “Trump Protesters Vow to ‘Shut down’ Inauguration, Related Celebrations” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Trump to Republicans: Act Swiftly to Replace Obamacare

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U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday pressured fellow Republicans working to repeal Obamacare in Congress to pass a replacement for the healthcare law at the same time or soon after they vote to dismantle it.

Trump told the New York Times he wanted a substitute for President Barack Obama’s 2010 healthcare law done “very quickly or simultaneously” to the vote to get rid of it.

The law, popularly known as Obamacare, has enabled millions of previously uninsured Americans to obtain health insurance, but Republicans condemn it as a government overreach.

With Trump set to succeed Obama on Jan. 20, Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress, face a dilemma. They have a chance to make good on their promise to gut the law, but forging an agreement on a replacement plan has eluded them. (Read more from “Trump to Republicans: Act Swiftly to Replace Obamacare” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

‘MASSIVE, DIRECT ACTIONS’ Inauguration Security to Be Tight, Amid Protest Threats to ‘Paralyze’ DC

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The stage is set for President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration – not just the traditional swearing-in platform on Capitol Hill, but a massive security presence amid protest plans to “shut down” the nation’s capital.

Most crowd estimates for the Jan. 20 festivities are far short of the record-setting 1.8 million visitors for President Obama’s historic 2009 inauguration. But the throngs of spectators and protesters alike are enough to create transit, security and hospitality challenges.

“Security is my greatest concern,” Missouri GOP Sen. Roy Blunt, chairman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, recently said. “No question that on inaugural day, this would be the most appealing target in the world.”

He suggested the city could have as many as 750,000 demonstrators alone.

More than three-dozen law enforcement agencies are working together on security and safety plans in anticipation, including the Capitol Police, FBI, Secret Service and National Guard. (Read more from “‘MASSIVE, DIRECT ACTIONS’ Inauguration Security to Be Tight, Amid Protest Threats to ‘Paralyze’ DC” HERE)

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Newt Gingrich Explains Why the Media Can’t Comprehend Trump

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President-elect Donald Trump’s successful candidacy is the result of an unequivocal disconnect between elite media and average Americans, says former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Speaking Tuesday at The Heritage Foundation at the first of a six-part series on Trumpism, Gingrich explained how the media’s disdain for the American people ultimately led to Trump’s victory in November.

“Because the media had such contempt for the average American, they simply could not see what was happening,” Gingrich said.

Following his Heritage speech, Gingrich spoke to The Daily Signal about the divide that exists between the American people and the news media.

“There’s a huge gap between the world as reported by the news media and the world as it really exists,” Gingrich said.

Gingrich pointed to Hollywood’s display of hatred toward Trump at the Golden Globes as an example of the gap between Americans and Hollywood elites.

“Trump is anti-political correctness and that’s the heart of their self-delusion,” he said. “They think they’re wonderful humanitarians and they think they care about the whole planet. They don’t care about you, but they care about the whole planet. They cling together like a large collection of gerbils who all reinforce each other and the loudest gerbil the other night was Meryl Streep.”

According to Gingrich, Trump disrupts the left’s core identity of safe spaces, political correctness, and their vision of the appropriate behavior.

“It just was inconceivable to members of the establishment that someone this randomly noisy, running a campaign that was so radically different, articulating issues that were clearly politically taboo and at times engaging in behavior and language that was unthinkable to the establishment definition of appropriate leadership, that such a person could become president of the United States until it became a fact,” he said.

Gingrich said the biggest disconnect came from the media’s failure to cover the issues that resonated most with Americans, while instead scrutinizing the way in which Trump delivered his message.

“Because Trump’s substance was so out of the mainstream, it was defined by the establishment media as lacking substance,” Gingrich said. “The attacks at him were about his style not the substance. Voters were responding to the substance, while reporters and opponents were responding to how he said what he said.”

“The media kept saying this guy is noisy, he uses inappropriate language, he’s not clear and the average person would go yeah, but I get what he’s talking about,” he said.

Gingrich will return to Heritage on Thursday for part two of the Trumpism series. The speech takes place at 11 p.m. EST. (For more from the author of “Newt Gingrich Explains Why the Media Can’t Comprehend Trump” please click HERE)

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Meryl Streep Slams Trump’s Deplorables: ‘Let Them Eat Wrestling’

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Last night at the Golden Globes in her speech denouncing Donald Trump and his voters, Meryl Streep reminded millions of Americans why we rejected Hillary Clinton, her party, and the media elites that tried to stuff Clinton down our throat. It’s also why Hollywood keeps making expensive politicized failures that choke at the box office, like the sordid anti-gun potboiler Miss Sloane.

We’ve suffered through eight long years of Obama’s preening, class-president speeches and empty, “virtuous” gestures. We have seen him and his designated successor fawned on by tame (debate-question-leaking) Ivy-schooled reporters and gorgeous, empty-headed celebrities. We know perfectly well that America’s media and political elites consider us the great unwashed, which is why they’ve been fire-hosing us for decades with toxic solvents like anti-male feminism, anti-Western multiculturalism, and anti-family hedonism.

And we’ve learned a thing or two. We’ve learned that pretty people who are talented at acting are pretty good at saying things which they know aren’t true — and doing so convincingly. After all, that’s their chosen craft. We’ve also learned how to recognize and dismantle the Elitist Lie 2.0.

That’s a whirring little time-bomb that lefties like to plant in every “narrative” they get their hands on, from Islamic terror attacks (they blame the truck, the bomb, or the gun — whose motives it is “too soon to determine”) to the kidnapping and torture of a handicapped Trump supporter (just kids being kids, where are their parents?).

Streep reached into her goodie bag and produced her own Elitist Lie 2.0, which she tossed out to America like a trinket we should treasure. This device has three active components:

1. A Phony Claim of Victimhood to Seize the Moral High Ground

In Streep’s speech she managed to cast as persecuted victims a roomful of fantastically overpaid actors, and the coddled film critics of Hollywood’s foreign press, who today are still picking through the goodie-bags they got from billion-dollar movie studios. She took up for these hapless victims as “the most vilified segments in American society right now…. Hollywood, foreigners, and the press.” From Streep’s account, you would think that cross-burning Klansmen were attacking movie theaters for showing films where interracial couples kiss, while Inquisitors burned piles of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker in public squares across America. What really happened? The Democrats lost an election. But that’s not supposed to happen.

Did Donald Trump threaten to end all immigration? No, he promised to enforce our democratically enacted laws that regulate the process. Did he campaign against “foreigners”? No, he warned of those criminal aliens who’ve evaded our laws, with the help of “sanctuary” cities and others who help aliens to flout the law. Has he threatened to infringe on the First Amendment, to silence the media which he considers biased? No, he has gone on Twitter to dispute things he disagrees with. Has Trump spoken of jailing those who criticize his position on immigration? Never — unlike Germany’s Angela Merkel, whose government has jailed those who oppose her influx of Islamists.

2. An Unearned Claim of Moral or Intellectual Superiority

Streep listed a number of actors from working class origins or foreign countries, and presented them as moral exemplars because of their “compassionate” performances which taught Americans how to “enter the lives of those who are different from us.”

Let’s try to unpack that. Apart from those who play themselves in cameos, every actor is paid to portray someone “different” from himself. And every movie we watch (apart from home movies) is about people “different” from us. That’s why it’s entertaining. All that Streep has done here is to describe what happens in drama — while trying to spin it as a form of heroic altruism. So the actors in 50 Shades of Grey were improving America’s moral tone by teaching millions of theater-goers about sexual activities that are “different” from what they’re used to — and those who made that movie should not just be highly paid, but considered part of a virtuous elite that is improving America’s ethics. Got it? We actors, by our very profession, are better than the rest of you helots.

Then she went on to peddle the false claim that President-Elect Trump mocked a reporter’s disability. That media myth is debunked in detail here. So Streep uses a false account of what a real politician said in his own defense while fighting for his political life in response to a reporter at America’s top newspaper, to cast Trump as a bully and moral monster, compared to those heroes of empathy (actors) who read the lines they’ve been given in the dozens of crass, trashy, manipulative movies that Hollywood dumps on the public every year.

3. An Implicit or Explicit Threat of Punishment

Standing atop the papier-mâché moral high ground which she claimed, Streep included a nasty, elitist little warning to the rest of America: “Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners and if we kick ‘em all out, you’ll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts.” Now, of course this is a jibe at the ignorant rubes which Streep imagines lowing and grazing in vast, lumbering herds between the Hudson River and Hollywood, staring slack-jawed at wrestling matches.

It’s also a threat: You common people need us, and if you keep voting the wrong way, we might just go on strike. We will turn up our noses at the million-dollar paychecks we collect for reading back the words that writers put there for us, and starve America of “the arts.” So watch your step, or we will walk. Seriously, that red carpet leads all the way to Canada. We mean it this time. …

These are people who voted, campaigned, and fund-raised for Hillary Clinton, confident that she could pack the Supreme Court with justices who would pluck every critical issue out of the grubby hands of voters. Meanwhile, our Meryl Streeps would offer cinematic carrots, and our Byerleys wield the stick, until every American learned to be worthy of his masters, or starved in rural obscurity.

Gotta love those Golden Globes! (For more from the author of “Meryl Streep Slams Trump’s Deplorables: ‘Let Them Eat Wrestling'” please click HERE)

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