President-elect Donald Trump said in a weekend interview that he is nearing completion of a plan to replace President Obama’s signature health-care law with the goal of “insurance for everybody,” while also vowing to force drug companies to negotiate directly with the government on prices in Medicare and Medicaid.
Trump declined to reveal specifics in the telephone interview late Saturday with The Washington Post, but any proposals from the incoming president would almost certainly dominate the Republican effort to overhaul federal health policy as he prepares to work with his party’s congressional majorities.
Trump’s plan is likely to face questions from the right, after years of GOP opposition to further expansion of government involvement in the health-care system, and from those on the left, who see his ideas as disruptive to changes brought by the Affordable Care Act that have extended coverage to tens of millions of Americans.
In addition to his replacement plan for the ACA, also known as Obamacare, Trump said he will target pharmaceutical companies over drug prices. (Read more from “Trump Vows ‘Insurance for Everybody’ in Obamacare Replacement Plan” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/Donald_Trump_23691565882.jpg8531280Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-01-15 20:53:352017-01-15 20:53:35Trump Vows ‘Insurance for Everybody’ in Obamacare Replacement Plan
The radical political operatives aspiring to disrupt Donald Trump’s inauguration next week are planning to throw a “dance party” on the lawn of Vice President-elect Mike Pence’s temporary home in Washington, D.C., Fox News reports.
Confirmation of the upcoming event came in the form of audio recorded by Trevor Loudon on behalf of Capital Research Center’s documentary division, Dangerous Documentaries. Capital Research Center is also the originator of the Bombthrowers website.
The audio was obtained as part of Capital Research Center’s upcoming documentary on left-wing protesters, “America Under Siege: Civil War 2017.” The film, directed by Judd Saul, is set for release before Inauguration Day.
The audio features a female member of the #DisruptJ20 organization, which has ties to left-wing financier George Soros, explaining the group’s plans to “do everything we can to try and stop people from being able to access the inauguration.”
The woman says on the recording that her group intends to holds a “pure dance party at Mike Pence’s house” on Wednesday, January 18, two days before Trump and Pence take their respective oaths of office.
“It’s his last few days living in Chevy Chase before he moves into the vice presidential residence, and we’re going to send him off with a bang,” the woman says. Chevy Chase is a neighborhood in Northwest Washington not far from the vice president’s official residence at the U.S. Naval Observatory on Embassy Row.
Pence’s left-leaning neighbors in Chevy Chase have given him a frigid reception but the so-called dance party by the Marxists and anarchists of #DisruptJ20 takes leftist animosity against the former Indiana governor to a new level.
After harassing Pence, the group will focus on the pro-Trump “DeploraBall” the next day at the National Press Club.
On the recording, the woman describes the DeploraBall as the “alt-right neo-Nazi … party to celebrate Trump.”
“We’re gonna crash it,” she says.
On the morning of the Inauguration, Friday, January 20, members vow to block entrance points as well as roads and transportation leading to the swearing-in ceremony.
“We’re going to be doing blockades,” she says. “We’re going to [be] blockading checkpoints into the security zones. We’re also going to be blockading roads and other modes of transit into the city.”
Friday 10 a.m. the group is planning an “anti-Capitalist, anti-fascist bloc” that “will be an unpermitted march that will be leaving from Logan Square.”
A #DisruptJ20 spokeswoman spoke to Fox News about her group’s agenda. “We’re exercising our freedom of speech and really want to set a tone for the next few years that there’s a massive body of people … who are very concerned about the dangerous direction Donald Trump is taking our country in.”
Fox News reports that one organizer said he hopes to “turn the inauguration into as big of a clusterf— as possible.”
The ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) Coalition has laid out its own inauguration plans, saying it hopes to galvanize tens of thousands of people at permitted locations — like Freedom Plaza and the Navy Memorial — to march and protest in a more conventional way. ANSWER is an ultraleftist organization supportive of the dictatorships in Cuba and North Korea. (For more from the author of “OUR SCOOP ON FOX NEWS: Trump Inauguration Disrupters Admit to Planning ‘Dance Party’ on Mike Pence’s Lawn” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/Male_protester_with_loudspeaker_during_the_Cedar_Revolution.jpg426640Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-01-13 23:10:312017-01-14 15:39:08Radical Political Operatives Plan to Disrupt Trump Inauguration, Harass Mike Pence at His Home
President-elect Donald Trump has narrowed his potential Supreme Court picks to only the federal appeals court judges on his broad list of potential nominees, according to CNN.
CNN reported that Vice President-elect Mike Pence said the team is “winnowing” the list that “is made up of mostly federal appellate court judges.” That doesn’t automatically mean all the others are off the list yet, according to Pence.
Appeals court judges on the list of 21 are Steven Colloton, Neil Gorsuch, Thomas Hardiman, Raymond Kethledge, William Pryor, and Diane Sykes. However, the story also mentions Michigan Supreme Court Justice Joan Larsen.
Pence met with senators Wednesday about the potential pick, including Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V.
“There’s been some of the people on that list who have already gone through the process here as far as approving,” Manchin told CNN. “I guess they would look at someone who has gone through, somebody who’s made it through here before would have a chance.”
Trump said during his Wednesday press conference he would be making a decision on a Supreme Court justice choice within two weeks of his Jan. 20 inauguration.
The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to an inquiry from The Daily Signal as to whether the CNN report on the short list was accurate.
Here’s a look at all of the seven appeals court judges on the list, in alphabetical order.
Michigan Supreme Court Justice Joan Larsen was named to the state’s high court by Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican. Larsen, 48, in 2002 became an assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. Larsen, who also taught law at the University of Michigan, received her law degree from Northwestern and clerked for the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
Judge William H. Pryor Jr., a President George W. Bush appointee, has served since 2004 on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Alabama, and there was a fight to get him on the court. Interestingly, Pryor’s comment about “nine octogenarian lawyers who happen to sit on the Supreme Court” deciding on the death penalty became an issue during his appeals court confirmation fight. Pryor’s confirmation came only after the May 2005 “Gang of 14” bipartisan Senate compromise, to break a Democratic filibuster of several Bush judicial nominations and also prevent the Republican leadership from invoking the so-called “nuclear option,” of curbing the filibuster. In a 53-45 vote, the Senate confirmed Pryor the following month. Pryor, 54, has a political background. He became Alabama’s attorney general in 1997 after his predecessor, Jeff Sessions, was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Republican. Trump designated Sessions to be his next attorney general. Pryor was elected in his own right in 1998 as state attorney general and was re-elected in 2002. In 2013, he was confirmed to a term on the United States Sentencing Commission. Pryor received his law degree from Tulane University.
Judge Thomas Hardiman was appointed by Bush in 2007 to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit in Pennsylvania. The Senate confirmed him 95-0 in March 2007. Hardiman, 51, previously was a federal district judge for the Western District of Pennsylvania, a position confirmed by a voice vote in October 2003. A Notre Dame graduate, Hardiman practiced law in Washington and Pittsburgh.
Judge Steven Colloton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit in Iowa was appointed in 2003 by Bush. The Senate confirmed him in September 2003 by a vote of 94-1. Colloton previously served as a U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Iowa. The 53-year-old graduate of Yale Law School clerked for the late Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist.
Judge Neil Gorsuch, 49, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in Colorado, was appointed in 2006 by Bush. The Senate confirmed him by a voice vote in July 2006. Before that, Gorsuch was a deputy assistant attorney general at the Justice Department. The Harvard Law School graduate clerked for both current Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy and former Justice Byron White.
Judge Diane Sykes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in Wisconsin was named by Bush. The Senate confirmed her by a vote of 70-27 in March 2004. Sykes, 58, had been a justice on the Wisconsin Supreme Court since 1999. Before that, she was a trial court judge in both civil and criminal matters. She received her law degree from Marquette University.
One federal appeals court judge on the list of 21 who wasn’t mentioned in the CNN story is Judge Raymond Gruender, 53. He was named by Bush to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit in Missouri. The Senate voted 97-1 to confirm him in May 2004. He previously was a prosecutor and served as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri. He received his law degree from Washington University in St. Louis.
With a few exceptions, such as Justice Elena Kagan and retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, most justices in modern times have been federal appeals court judges. The list Trump considered was intriguing because it included many state supreme court justices, as well as Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah.
Generally, there is a reason most justices are drawn from federal appeals courts, said John Malcolm, director of the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation.
“Federal appeals court judges have written more legal opinions about matters that are likely to go before the Supreme Court, while state supreme court justices have ruled mostly on state law and not federal law,” Malcolm, a former deputy assistant attorney general, told The Daily Signal.
But there is also merit to having state supreme court judges, said J. Christian Adams, a former Justice Department lawyer and president of the Public Interest Legal Foundation.
“I’m big fan of state Supreme Courts just because I think they might have a better understanding of overreach by the federal government, but the list I saw, they are all good names and any one would be fantastic,” Adams told The Daily Signal. (For more from the author of “Here’s the Potential Short List for Trump’s Supreme Court Pick” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/Panorama_of_United_States_Supreme_Court_Building_at_Dusk.jpg19523788Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-01-13 22:33:232017-01-15 00:31:58Here’s the Potential Short List for Trump’s Supreme Court Pick
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:
Marist's marching band is playing at Trump's inauguration. In related news, how do I go about transferring schools
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)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/band-1492359_960_720.jpg640960Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-01-13 22:30:212017-01-13 22:30:21Leftist Mobsters Lambaste College Bands Playing at Trump’s Inauguration … Because ‘Tolerance’
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)
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)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/29381357345_27b53e0902_b-3.jpg6831024Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-01-13 21:32:092017-01-13 21:32:09Will the ‘Trump Effect’ Trickle down to Christian Conservatives?
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)
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)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/donald-trump6-1024x682.jpg6821024Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-01-12 21:11:282017-01-12 21:11:28Is the Trump/Russia “Dossier” the Fake News of the Decade?
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)
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)
