Radio America Online News Bureau

Archives for January 2018

Tax Cuts Triggering Major Boom? Left Coast Libs Push Tax Hike, Meehan’s Mess

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Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America welcome comments from Bank of America Chief Executive Brian Moynihan suggesting the recent tax bill will trigger “massive new investment” in the United States, likely leading to economic growth and more jobs.  They also skewer a plan from two state Democratic lawmakers in California who are pushing a ten percent tax hike on businesses making more than a million dollars to help offset the alleged damage the federal tax plan is doing to the middle class.  They also unload on Pennsylvania Rep. Patrick Meehan, a married Republican lawmaker who used taxpayer dollars to settle a dispute with a female staffer he allegedly made romantic advances towards.  Meehan pathetically insists it was not a romantic overture, just that they were soulmates.

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House Judiciary Chairman: There Is No DACA Deadline

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The author of the House of Representatives bill to clamp down on illegal immigration and address the fate of people brought to the U.S. illegally as children says there is no reason for lawmakers to rush immigration legislation and says his goal is to make sure the nation never faces an illegal immigration crisis again.

Senate Democrats tried to attach immigration legislation to efforts to keep the government funded past January 19.  Three days later, they agreed to fund the government in exchange for a promise that an immigration debate would begin prior to the next funding deadline of Feb. 8.

At issue is the fate of roughly 700,000 people who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children.  President Obama granted legal status for anyone who enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, through executive action in 2012.  In September, President Trump announced the executive DACA program would end in March 2018.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., is author of the Securing America’s Future Act.  He says despite some lawmakers waving frantically at the calendar, Congress does not need to race to get legislation done.

“We should take our time and not feel we’re compelled to do anything by any deadline.  There is no deadline.  February 8 is not a deadline to solve this bill.  It is a deadline to keep the government funded but not to solve this problem.  March 5, the deadline the president has set, can be changed if necessary,” said Goodlatte, who also notes a federal judge has ordered a stay on Trump’s order.

“We should use all the time that’s necessary to get this done right and not a minute longer,” said Goodlatte.

The Goodlatte bill and the Senate’s Gang of Six legislation differ significantly in many ways.  It allows current DACA enrollees to receive legal status for three years, which they can renew in perpetuity.  The bill does not offer them a pathway to citizenship, and it grants no legal status to people eligible for DACA but failed to enroll.

The Senate plan offers a pathway to citizenship  to DACA recipients as well as the other so-called “Dreamers.”  It also confers legal status on the very parents who broke the law to bring their families to the U.S.

Goodlatte’s plan would also greatly limit chain migration to only spouses and minor children, kill the visa lottery, authorize whatever is necessary to beef up border security, and make overstaying one’s visa a crime.

Goodlatte says his legislation comes from a very straightforward premise.

“We agreed we would negotiate on four points: security, chain migration, ending the visa lottery, and DACA.  That’s what my bill does,” said Goodlatte.

He also explained his mindset in crafting the legislation.  He wants “a fair way way to deal with the problem created by President Obama in this unconstitutional program and ended by President Trump.”

“But then [Trump] turned around and said these individuals need a solution and Congress should do it.  We provided that in our bill,” said Goodlatte.

He also wants this to be the last time Congress has to deal with the immigration mess.

“We also are the only plan that addresses Speaker Ryan’s concern and that is that we not allow this problem to happen again,” said Goodlatte.

While the Senate and the media focus on the Gang of Six bill, Goodlatte says he has assurances from Republican House leaders that his legislation will come to the House floor.  He says before that time, he plans to educate his colleagues on why all of the various enforcement mechanisms are required and why he thinks they will be effective.

Goodlatte is ready to defend his bill, starting with his refusal to grant DACA enrollees a pathway to citizenship.

“We don’t object to people who are DACA recipients finding an opportunity to get a green card and U.S. citizenship as long as they follow the existing law like anybody else who has followed the rules and come here legally,” said Goodlatte.

“Under our bill, DACA recipients would be allowed to live in the United States  permanently with three-year renewables but indefinitely.  [They can] work in the United States, own a business in the United States, travel in and out of the country and if they find a way under the normal law to qualify for U.S. citizenship that’s fine, but not a special pathway to citizenship,” said Goodlatte.

He says the parents who perpetrated the crime of illegal immigration should not be rewarded in any way.

“I am not unsympathetic to the situation, but it is a situation that their parents created for them and one we have to respond to with that in mind.  In other words, take care of them but don’t give them an opportunity to petition for those same parents who were responsible for coming here illegally in the first place,” said Goodlatte.

In exchange for granting legal status for DACA recipients, Goodlatte’s bill clamps down hard on chain migration, ending the practice of an immigrant sponsoring many extended family members to come into the U.S.  It also ends the visa lottery.

“The visa lottery is a crazy program that gives 55,000 people green cards every year, not based on family relations, not based on job skills, but based upon pure luck.  That is totally unfair and it is a national security concern as well,” said Goodlatte.

When it comes to border security, President Trump has made it clear that there will be provision for a border wall or he will not agree to DACA legislation.  Goodlatte says Republicans are in agreement on what that means.

“There is a need to repair fences, to extend the wall and build a wall in some places, particularly in high population areas and in high crime areas where there is a lot of smuggling going on.  You do not need it where there are mountains, where there are large deserts, or where there are rivers,” said Goodlatte.

But he cautions enforcement advocates that there is a lot more to preventing the influx of illegal immigration than just the wall.

“That is one tool but it doesn’t at all address the 40 percent of [illegal immigrants] who come into this country legally and them simply ignore the laws and overstay their visas.  Nor does it address the people who come into the country illegally  and are not trying to evade the border patrol but are actually going to them and turning themselves in,” said Goodlatte.

He says those people are then released into the U.S. and told to show up for a court hearing, which they rarely do.

Goodlatte’s bill is officially known as H.R. 4760.

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‘This Wasn’t About Abortion, It Was About Infanticide’

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Live Action President Lila Rose says President Trump is off to a “promising” start on pro-life issues but she says the president and Congress must do what it takes to defund Planned Parenthood at a time when Democrats are voting in favor of “infanticide.”

Still in her twenties, Rose has been a leading pro-life activist for a decade, starting when she was 15.  She gained notoriety for videotaping her experiences posing as a pregnant teenager at various Planned Parenthood facilities.

One year into the Trump presidency and 45 years since the Supreme Court legalized abortion nationwide, Rose gives the administration a decent grade on pro-life issues.

“I think the last year has been promising.  I would use that word, especially the folks that he’s surrounded himself with, and the appointments he’s made, and the confirming of Justice Gorsuch.  These are good signs,” said Rose.

“I think it’s good that he showed up to speak from the Rose Garden at the March for Life.  I think his appointments are good on [Health and Human Services].  The head of the Department of Justice is now investigating Planned Parenthood.  These are good things, but we really have to achieve the biggest thing, which is stopping the government forcing of taxpayers to fund abortion chains,” said Rose.

“We are urging to administration to really lean on Congress to make sure they get that bill to ensure that we’re not funding the biggest abortion chain (Planned Parenthood) $1.5 million every day,” added Rose.

Republicans did try to include defunding of Planned Parenthood in various forms of Obamacare repeal or reform legislation, only to be thwarted by the likes of Republican Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.

Rose does worry that congressional leaders and members may be more eager to promise defunding Planned Parenthood than to actually do it.

“I am concerned about lip service and I think others in the movement are concerned.  This is a really hard thing to do.  You basically have to break 50 votes.  Depending on how the rules are changed or amended, you could get the vice president to weigh in and be the tiebreaker in the Senate.

“There is a path to do it.  It’s a matter of is this going to be the most important thing for the administration when it comes to upholding the first human right and protecting human life in this country,” said Rose.

While Rose and other pro-life activists pressure lawmakers to make defunding Planned Parenthood a priority, she is appalled by how Democrats approached Friday’s House vote on the Born Alive Infant Protection Act.

The legislation would require medical personnel to do whatever possible to save the life of a baby if he or she emerges alive from the mother’s womb following an attempted abortion.  It reinforces existing policy on this front but also adds criminal penalties, including up to five years in prison for failing to pursue life-saving measures.

The bill passed, with all Republicans voting for it, but 183 of 189 Democrats opposed it.

Planned Parenthood denounced the bill.

“Medical guidelines and ethics already compel physicians facing life-threatening circumstances to respond. Doctors and clinicians oppose this law because it prevents them from giving the best care to their patients. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists strongly opposes this legislation, calling it a “gross  interference in the practice of medicine,'” said a PLanned Parenthood statement.

Planned Parenthood official Dana Singiser took it even further.

“The political agenda here is clear: to take away access to safe, legal abortion,” said Singiser in the same statement.

But Rose says this vote just shows how radical Democrats are on abortion now.

“I think it just shows the insanity of the Democratic Party today, which is really going to hurt them in elections the more word gets out.  This bill, the Born Alive Infant Protection Act, wasn’t even about abortion.  It was about infanticide.  It was about protecting children who have been born and who deserve to be protected,” said Rose.

“The fact that Democrats in a huge voting bloc, tried to reject a bill that would protect against infanticide is extremely troubling.  Look, most of the electorate – including in the Democratic Party – want at least some restrictions on abortion.  That’s the majority of Democrats, including Democrat women,” said Rose.

Rose says Democrats are increasingly marching to whatever tune Planned Parenthood is playing.

“They help elect these people so even though these folks try to mislead voters to say that they were more moderate or they cared about human rights or do what was best once in office, their elections are being funded by Planned Parenthood.

“They’re going to march to the beat of their drum, even if that beat ultimately includes shooting down protections against infanticide,” said Rose.

One of the major themes at Friday’s March for Life was how science is on the side of the pro-life movement, most especially with the advancements in ultrasound technology, but in other ways as well.  Rose says the arguments that life begins at birth or viability should determine personhood are relics from years past.

“If you create an arbitrary line at birth, then you are killing children who are viable before birth, children that are separated by inches of a birth canal from human rights protections.  It’s arbitrary.  It doesn’t make sense,” said Rose.

And she says science is winning the viability debate as well.

“Viability is being increasingly moved backwards.  Children can now survive outside the womb with medical assistance a little past 21 weeks.  That’s incredible.  The more we develop our medical technology, the more and more that viability line will change.  People are realizing it’s an arbitrary line and that life, as science reveals, begins at the moment of conception,” said Rose.

Rose says the pro-life movement has a lot of momentum right now both politically and to some extent in the courts.  However, she does contend Congress needs to seize that momentum and end taxpayer subsidies for Planned Parenthood for this Congress to be a true success.

She also claims cultural momentum, pointing out that more Americans are pro-life and young people a major reason why.  Rose also says the personal stories of mothers who carry difficult pregnancies to term and the testimonies of former abortion clinic workers are making a big difference in changing minds around the nation.

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Libs Fume at Schumer, Court Kills House District Map, Holt Does Kim’s Bidding

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Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America enjoy seeing Democrats get accused of caving in the shutdown standoff and seeing the avalanche of leftist criticism aimed at Chuck Schumer.  They also shake their heads as the Pennsylvania Supreme Court rules that the current congressional map is unconstitutional gerrymandering and a new map must be drawn, likely costing the Republicans at least two seats.  And they’re disgusted as North Korea keeps finding ways to turn the Winter Olympics in South Korea into an opportunity to glorify its own communist dictatorship, and media figures like NBC’s Lester Holt seem only too happy to help.

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Brat Discusses End of Shutdown, DACA Fight, FISA Memo

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Senate Democrats abandoned their hopes of attaching an immigration bill to legislation to fund the federal government , but Rep. Dave Brat, R-Va., warns a fierce fight over immigration policy is still coming that conservatives must win.

Brat also expounded upon why he and dozens of other House Republicans want to make public a FISA memo on FBI and Justice Department conduct in recent years.

However, the big story on Capitol Hill Monday was Senate Democrats agreeing to a GOP plan to fund the federal government through February 8 in exchange for a promise to start a debate on legislation to grant legal status and possibly a path to citizenship for people brought to the United States illegally when they were children.

Until Monday, Democrats has insisted upon immigration being tied to the funding, but Brat says reality smacked the minority party in the face since the government partially shuttered operations at midnight Saturday morning.

“I think they heard plenty of feedback coming back that said, ‘What are you guys doing?'” said Brat, noting the position of Democrats was tantamount to withholding pay for our military and funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program all for the sake of helping people in the U.S. illegally.

Brat says the untenable position of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, and other Democrats even overwhelmed efforts in the media to paint Republicans as responsible for the shutdown since they control the White House and both chamber in Congress.

“It’s amazing that you have to have a debate on who shut the government down.  You’ve got 95 percent in the House and the Senate on the Democrat side voting to shut it down.  If you forego rationality and language in the public square, that’s a hint where your society is,” lamented Brat.

In addition to wanting legislation to provide legal status for 800,000 people enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, Brat says Democrats wanted the provision with no conditions.

“They got out way over their skis.  They’re saying they want a DACA debate.  We’re going to have a DACA debate.  What they really mean is they want a clean, Democrat DACA bill and no border security,” said Brat.

It’s not just Democrats pushing for a generous DACA bill.  The so-called Gang of Six includes Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Cory Gardner, R-Colo.

The legislation they crafted with Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., not only grants permanent legal status to the roughly 800,000 DACA enrollees but to all people here illegally who are eligible for DACA but never signed up for it.  All of them would also be allowed to pursue a “pathway to citizenship.”

In addition, the parents of all of those people would also get legal status despite being responsible for the law-breaking to enter the U.S. in the first place.  All told, some 10 million people could gain legal status as a result of the Gang of Six bill.

The offsets in the legislation amount to very little.  The Gang of Six bill would tweak but not fundamentally change current chain migration and visa lottery policies and only allocate money to maintain existing border fencing.

Brat says that approach is reckless, and he is particularly frustrated about the lack of action on chain migration, which allows citizens to sponsor immediate and extended family members to come to the U.S. legally.

“You have all of the leading conspirators on the other side – Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi and Dick Durbin – all coming out against chain migration as early as five years ago.  They’ve totally switched sides,” said Brat.

Brat says the progression of legalizing DACA recipients and their extended families results in an economic nightmare.

“If you allow the DACA piece to go through that will have a lot of unintended consequences like chain migration and extended families.  That will lead to millions more, while we’re trying to get 20 million American citizens that have left the workforce back in the workforce,” said Brat.

“We’ve got to get all of our own citizens back in the labor force and then you see if you have a labor shortage.  The other key piece is we’re trying to move towards a rational skills and merit-based immigration system instead of the familial piece that has gotten us in this boat in the first place,” said Brat.

Brat also says following the Gang of Six prescription will result in another huge bill to pay for a nation already more than $20 trillion in debt.

“Who’s gonna pay the bill?  That’s where you get the issue: health care, if you’ve got two kids in public schools that’s $26,000 a year.  Every person in the country with a certain status is eligible for $40,000 of federal benefits a year.  That’s one of the reasons we’ve got a welfare crisis right now,” said Brat.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell agreed to begin a DACA debate before government funding runs out again on Feb. 8.  Given the easy passage of the Gang of Eight bill in the Senate in 2013, passage of the Gang of Six bill seems likely.

That would put immense pressure on the House and President Trump to go along, but Brat says 2013-2014 proves stopping a bad bill is not impossible.

Brat should know.  His upset primary win over the sitting House majority leader in June 2014 was a major factor in derailing the Gang of Eight plan.

“It did blow up in the House.  I think there was an election that had something to do with it in Virginia’s seventh district.  I’ve heard rumors,” cracked Brat.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., is sponsoring a far different immigration reform plan.  He would grant legal status to DACA recipents with no pathway to citizenship.  He would also limit chain migration to spouses and children and ditch the visa lottery altogether.  His bill would authorize border wall construction but fails to appropriate money for it.

Brat says commitment to Goodlatte’s approach and a President Trump veto as a backstop gives amnesty opponents plenty of firepower.

“We need to start off strong with the Goodlatte bill.  Then you could have a debate between the Goodlatte bill and the Senate.  Then the president is the ultimate veto threat, so a lot of it is going to depend on where President Trump comes down on this,” said Brat.

Brat is also one of several dozen House Republicans who have seen the FISA memo from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence that GOP members describe as alarming “alarming” to “stunning” to sure to land people in prison.  While specifics are still under wraps, the four-page memo focuses on alleged FISA abuses by the FBI and Justice Department during the 2016 campaign.

The top Democrat on the intelligence panel, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., says the memo should not be released because the American people will not be able to understand it without the supporting documentation.

Brat says the memo should be made public because the people have the right to make up their own minds about what’s in it and what the fallout should be.

“We’re a democratic republic.  The people are our boss.  We’re not the boss. Maybe he got his eighth grade civics upside down but I still believe in the good old school stuff where the people are my boss and I’m going to let them see the information, let them make up their mind, and then I’m going to represent them.  That’s my job,” said Brat.

Despite the strong adjectives used by other Republicans, Brat says he is not worried about the memo being over-hyped.

“There’s something just very, very wrong at the highest levels of our Justice Department,” said Brat.  “I’m not too worried about the over-hype on this.  You cannot over-hype any corruption at all in the highest levels of government.”

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Dems Feel Heat on Shutdown, FBI Loses Key Emails, Paul Attacker’s Bogus Reason

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Chatting before the much-anticipated Senate vote to end the government shutdown, Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America are glad to see Democrats feeling the heat on refusing to fund the government and taking some steps to get things fully up and running, but they also warn listeners what Democrats and some Republicans really want in an immigration bill to go along with reopening the government.  They also don’t believe the FBI’s explanation that it somehow lost five critical months worth of text messages from Peter Strzok, the agent fired form the Mueller special counsel team and bragged about an “insurance policy” against a Trump victory.  And they also call BS on the explanation from Sen. Rand Paul’s neighbor for attacking Paul, namely that the senator was assaulted from behind and had five ribs broken because he was stacking brush close to their shared property line.

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Trump Hails March for Life, Highlights Pro-Life Policies

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Donald Trump became the first sitting president to address the March for Life on camera Friday, hailing the pro-life activists for their love and concern for the unborn and their mothers and announcing new pro-life policies impacting conscience protections for the medical community and flexibility for how states spend Medicaid dollars.

On a sunny Friday that was considerably warmer than most recent days in the nation’s capital, tens of thousands of pro-life demonstrators descended on the National Mall to hear speeches from President Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, lawmakers, and other activists before marching to the U.S. Supreme Court to denounce the Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton decisions handed down 45 years ago this month by the nation’s highest court.

Those decisions legalized abortion across America, giving women protection under the law to terminate their unborn children for any reason at virtually any point in their pregnancies.

The March for Life began soon after, but for the first 44 years no president addressed the crowd in person.

That changed on Friday.

“Today I’m honored and really proud to be the first president to stand with you here at the White House to address the 45th March for Life,” said Trump.

Trump spoke from the Rose Garden at the White House.  Video was then transmitted to giant screens on the National Mall.  Previous pro-life presidents spoke to the march through phone calls.

Vice President Pence introduced Trump as the most pro-life president in U.S. history.  Trump says protecting life is a major priority of his administration.

“Under my administration, we will always defend the very first right in the Declaration of Independence and that is the right to life,” said Trump.

Trump then listed multiple policy moves and priorities, starting with an order he issued Friday for the medical community.

“We have just issued a new proposal to protect conscience rights and religious freedoms of doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals,” said Trump.

He also announced an end to an Obama administration directive on how states can spend Medicaid dollars.

“I have also just reversed the previous administration’s policy that restricted states’ efforts to direct Medicaid funding away from abortion facilities that violate the law,” said Trump.

States may now have the flexibility to refuse sending taxpayer dollars to the likes of Planned Parenthood.  In 2016, the Obama administration warned states that refusing abortion providers that money may be a violation of federal law.

Trump also urged the Senate to follow the lead of the House and approve a federal ban on most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.  The legislation is known as the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.

“I strongly supported the House of Representatives’ pain-capable bill, which would end painful late-term abortions nationwide.  And I call upon the Senate to pass this important law and send it to my desk for signing,” said Trump.

Earlier on Friday, the House passed the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act.  The bill calls for criminal penalties for doctors who fail to treat and care for infants who survive attempted abortions and fully emerge from their mothers.

Penalties include criminal fines and up to five years in prison.  Current law requires physicians to care for such babies but does not detail penalties for those who refuse.

The bill passed the House 241-183.  All but six Democrats opposed it.  All Republicans supported it, however, Democrats are planning to kill the legislation in the Senate.

During his speech, Trump railed against America’s standing as being among the nations with the most radical abortion laws.

“As you all know, Roe v. Wade has resulted in some of the most permissive abortion laws anywhere in the world.  For example, in the United States, it’s one of only seven countries to allow elective late-term abortions, along with China, North Korea, and others,” said Trump.

“Right now, in a number of states, the laws allow a baby to be [torn] from his or her mother’s womb in the ninth month.  It is wrong.  It has to change,” said Trump.

Trump acknowledged the marchers and praised them for keeping the pressure on government for 45 years and counting since Roe v. Wade.

“Today, tens of thousands of families, students, and patriots and really great citizens gather here in our nation’s capital.  You come from many backgrounds, many places, but you all come for one beautiful cause: to build a society where life is celebrated, protected, and cherished,” said Trump.

“The March for Life is a movement borne out of love.  You love your families, you love your neighbors, you love our nation, and you love every child -born and unborn – because you believe that every life is sacred and that every child is a precious gift from God,” said Trump.

In addition to applauding those who fight to save unborn lives, Trump also praised those who care after women in crisis pregnancies.

“I want to thank every person here today and everyone across our country who works with such big hearts and tireless devotion to make sure that parents have the care and support they need to choose life,” said Trump.

Trump singled out Mariana Donadio of Greensboro, North Carolina.  Donadio found herself in a crisis pregnancy when she was 17 years old chose to have her baby with the support of her parents.  Now the mother of six, Donadio run Room at the Inn, a facility caring for other women facing unplanned and uncertain pregancies.

“Over the last 15 years, Room at the Inn has provided housing, child care, counseling, education, and job training to more than 400 women.

“Even more importantly, it has given them hope.  It shows each woman that she is not forgotten, that she is not alone, and that she now has a whole family of people who will help her succeed.

“That hope is the true gift of this incredible movement that brings us together today.  It is the gift of friendship, the gift of mentorship, and the gift of encouragement, love, and support,” said Trump.

He says that spirit is the key to ultimately winning the battle for the right to life in the United States.

“We are protecting the sanctity of life and the family as the foundation of our society.  But this movement can only succeed with the heart and the soul and the prayer of the people,” said Trump.

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Interior Removes Shutdown Theater, Dems’ Shutdown Hypocrisy, Memo Mania

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Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America applaud the Interior Department for announcing open-air memorials and national parks not requiring staffing will stay open in the event of a partial government shutdown, a very different approach than the Obama administration barricading memorials to war veterans to make a political point.  They also hammer Senate Democrats for planning to block a bill that would keep the government open and point out the blatant hypocrisy and deception being employed by the Democrats to justify their tactics.  And they tell House Republicans that the FISA memo better be a massive bombshell or else the GOP is going to look pretty silly over the hype.  They also tell the GOP that if they want it released to the public, they should just vote on it and be done with it.

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How Socialism Became ‘Cool’

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CNN is under fire for a story this week suggesting Martin Luther King, Jr. speaks to our political discourse today, part because ‘he was a socialist before it was cool,’ a pronouncement that Cold War scholar Dr. Paul Kengor says is a radical departure from what liberals claimed for decades following King’s death and he indicts our education system for anyone thinking socialism is “cool.”

On Monday, in connection with the federal holiday commemorating King’s birthday and his civil rights legacy, CNN’s John Blake wrote a story chronicling three ways that King, “speaks to our time.”  The second contention stated that King “was a socialist before it was cool.”

In his piece, Blake cited several known positions that King held, including advocacy for a “universal health care and education, a guaranteed annual income, and the nationalization of some industries,” wrote Blake, noting that King also called for wealth redistribution at times.

Kengor says King’s sentiments on those issues are not new, but he says the left’s willingness to brand King a socialist is a big shift.

“[Blake] said, ‘There was a time in American politics when calling someone a socialist was a slur.’  I would add there was once upon a time in America when if you called Martin Luther King, Jr. a socialist, it was a racial slur.  You weren’t allowed to do that,” said Kengor.

Kengor says King’s socialist positions were an issue of fierce debate in the 1980’s during the debate to create a federal holiday in King’s honor.  Skeptics of the idea cited their discomfort with some of King’s positions on economic issues, and were roundly condemned as bigots or engaging in McCarthyism.

Since King’s passing, political activists and politicians on both sides of the aisle have suggested that King would support their particular issue.  Kengor says the reality is much more complicated.  he says on cultural issues, King was rather conservative.

Noting that King talked often about laws being unjust if they violated a person’s conscience, Kengor says he’s pretty confident about where King would line up on some key issues.

“I can’t imagine that he wouldn’t be willing to defend pastors and religious people who want to cite their freedom of religion and freedom of conscience when it comes to begging not to be forced by the state to make a cake for a ceremony that violates their sacred religious beliefs,” said Kengor.

Even on economic issues, Kengor says the King record is mixed.

“I don’t know to what extent we would call him a socialist, because I’ve seen other King statements that aren’t very socialistic.  He would definitely be more of a mixed bag in where we would want to place him on which side of the aisle,” said Kengor.

However, Kengor says regardless of where King stood on a variety of economic issues, it is clearly proper to honor the civil rights leader for his leadership and sacrifices for the cause of racial equality.

“We do celebrate him for his racial achievements.  That’s really the key point,” said Kengor.

Following the posting of Blake’s story, a Twitter user named Allie Lynn responded by saying, “The Venezuelan people dying because of socialism would probably disagree about their government being ‘cool.'”

Blake then replied saying, “I’m not sure a lot of people would link what’s happening to Venezuela to socialism; in fact everything I’ve read and talking to people from there attributes there collapse to other problems.”

Kengor is appalled, and suggests Blake visit the tomb of the late Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez.

“He can go there and say, ‘You know, sir, what you called twenty-first century socialism, which is even listed at Wikipedia with your name next to it because you coined the frame, it’s not socialism.’  Blake could provide the correctives and explain to the ghost of Chavez and also to the live body of Nicholas Maduro that they’re not actually doing socialism,” said Kengor.

Whether or not Blake was being flippant about socialism being “cool,” many millennials are more favorable towards socialism than capitalism.  A majority between ages 18-29 oppose capitalism.  A 2016 poll commissioned by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation found a third of millennials and 28 percent of the full population thought George W. Bush killed more people than Josef Stalin, who some scholars believe murdered 60-70 million of his own people.

Kengor says students are taught well about the horrors of Nazi Germany and the ten million or more slaughtered in the Holocaust, but he believes our children are done a great disservice by not learning about the murderous trail left behind by communism.

“But that’s nowhere near the number that Stalin killed.  It’s nowhere near the number that Mao killed.  It’s nowhere near the percentage of his population that Pol Pot killed in Cambodia in four years, and on and on and on.  They haven’t learned any of this stuff,” said Kengor.

Kengor blames schools, especially universities for ignoring or distorting the truth.  However, he also has a firm message for the parents who send their children to such schools.

“Socialism is enjoying a popular resurgence.  It’s very sad.  That has to do with our colossal failure in education in this country.  And people, if you’re sending your kid to one of these colleges where the kid is coming out a socialist and you’re paying the college to do it, shame on you..  Shame on you,” said Kengor.

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Joyous Jobs Numbers, Fake News Awards, When Reid Doesn’t Read

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Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America celebrate the lowest number of weekly jobless claims since 1973 as yet another sign the economy is on a serious upswing.  They also examine the Republican National Committee’s winners for worst fake news in 2017, with a look at the choices and the RNC being unprepared for the traffic on its website.  And they call out MSNBC’s Joy Reid for her vile attack on National Review’s David French and for her later retraction of the smear, which proved she never actually read his article in the first place.

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