53percenter's Blog

President Donald Trump is an army of one. At least in Washington, DC and other elite enclaves. Sure, he has his base of deplorables, those who wait on mile-long lines to attend his rallies and those who voted for him two years ago.

Yet look at the forces arrayed against him.  The US media is on the warpath against Trump and his family, coverage 93 percent negative, although I suspect that number is closer to 100 percent. It’s rare to pick up a US newspaper or watch any television news and see anything remotely positive about Trump. Great economic news is always shrouded in a black cloud, as if low unemployment or strong economic growth is racist, sexist, or simply a mirage.

The Deep State, Democrats and Republicans alike, are in lock step trying to remove Trump from office. If only they were in similar agreement on securing the border, cutting regulations, or growing the economy than they are against Trump.

Rep Adam Schiff thinks Trump is heading to jail. Rep Maxine Waters agrees saying, “President Donald Trump is a ‘criminal’ who should be impeached.” It never ends.

When does Trump say, “Enough is enough!”?

Enough can have two meanings here. One meaning is the junkyard dog being taunted until it bares its teeth and attacks ferociously. Trump has that power as President. Assuming Huber and Horowitz have been doing more than playing board games with their reams of lawyers and investigators for the past year, there should be indictments and prosecutions. Not to mention releasing FISA warrant applications and similar documents.

From the Clinton Foundation to the Spygate scandal. From Hillary Clinton’s emails to bogus FISA warrants, there is much for the junkyard dog to attack. When is enough? When does Trump go “scorched earth[TL1] ” through transparency against those conspiring to destroy him?  

Declassify the FISA warrant and expose the collaboration of his Deep State enemies with foreign intelligence agencies. As the Clinton Foundation scandals become public, hammer away via tweets and public comments.  If Trump believes he is going down, he will bring half of Washington, DC with him.

Trump can simply release the hidden information and instruct his Justice department to pursue any and all crimes committed. Regardless of the political party of the perpetrators. That’s not weaponization of his administration, but instead simply the pursuit of justice and accountability. Let the chip fall where they may, across the political spectrum.

This would be the “draining the swamp” we were promised. Despite assurances that “pain is coming”, the deep state swamp is in full bloom. Yet the deplorables have Trump’s back with a 49 percent approval in the December 11 Rasmussen daily presidential tracking poll.

The other enough is for him personally. A billionaire businessman with a successful reality television show, he had it all. A comfortable life with his family. Money, influence, and popularity. He gave that up try to make a difference for America and the world. This campaign speech is an excellent summary of what the Trump presidency is all about, why he was elected and why the deep state is hell bent on destroying him.

For his efforts, he is ridiculed and scorned. Not only by his political opponents, but by those in his own party. NeverTrumpers in Congress and the media who would be ecstatic if a President Bush, Kasich, or Rubio were implementing everything Trump is doing, yet Trump’s conservative accomplishments mean nothing because he tweets and calls his detractors mean names.

He is not one of them, not part of their elite club, not a dues-paying member of the establishment. So those who have been advocating for conservative policies their entire political careers have turned on a dime, throwing their conservatism to the wind, embracing Democrat policies instead, all because they don’t like the messenger.

Trump must have believed he would be embraced by the GOP for his advancement of long-talked-about but never-implemented policies. These include fair trade deals, lower taxes and regulations, border enforcement, economic growth, and conservative judges.

The more Trump does, the more the opposition grows. To the point that he has few friends in Washington, DC. Especially in his own party.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller will undoubtedly cook up something for House Democrats to use for impeachment. For every line that Trump may have crossed, Obama, Clinton, and their minions crossed a parking lot full of lines, all without consequence. It’s not simply two standards of justice, it’s no justice at all. It’s Stalinesque justice where the deep state makes up the rules as they go along, favoring themselves with kangaroo courts for their opponents.

Conventional wisdom is that Senate Republicans would never vote to remove an impeached President Trump from office. Oh really? How many will see obstruction of justice in Trump firing James Comey, after his deputy attorney general recommended, and his attorney general agreed, that he should do just that? Or his perfectly legitimate nondisclosure agreements with payment.

So what if Trump personally paid Stormy Daniels to keep quiet? Obama’s campaign, not him personally, paid Reverend Wright hush money during the 2008 campaign and I don’t recall any special counsel investigations or Congressional hearings into campaign finance violations.

What a daily drag for President Trump to pick up the newspaper or watch a bit of cable news and hear a constant drumbeat of how he is evil incarnate and about to be removed from office and sent to prison!  Not simply disagreement over policy, but personal vitriol and hatred toward him and his family. How many of us could withstand such an onslaught from all directions, day after day, without saying enough is enough?

The fact that Trump is still upbeat and optimistic, accomplishing more in a day than his predecessors did in a week, is beyond amazing. But at some point, the human spirit breaks. How many slings and arrows will Trump take before he’s had enough?

How long do political and media hacks pursue trivial matters while danger lurks in all corners of the globe? What kind of example is America, as the world’s lone superpower, setting for the rest of the world with American politicians reenacting “Mean Girls” against the duly elected president?

His supporters wait, hoping and praying that he is able to turn the tables against the deep state. But the deep state isn’t letting up. Mueller’s jihad against the sitting president continues, opposition research funded not by the Clinton campaign and Fusion GPS but by you and me, the American taxpayer.

When does Donald Trump say, “Enough is enough!”?

Photo credit: Michael Vadon

Brian C Joondeph, MD, MPS, a Denver based physician and writer. Follow him on Facebook,  LinkedIn and Twitter.

President Donald Trump is an army of one. At least in Washington, DC and other elite enclaves. Sure, he has his base of deplorables, those who wait on mile-long lines to attend his rallies and those who voted for him two years ago.

Yet look at the forces arrayed against him.  The US media is on the warpath against Trump and his family, coverage 93 percent negative, although I suspect that number is closer to 100 percent. It’s rare to pick up a US newspaper or watch any television news and see anything remotely positive about Trump. Great economic news is always shrouded in a black cloud, as if low unemployment or strong economic growth is racist, sexist, or simply a mirage.

The Deep State, Democrats and Republicans alike, are in lock step trying to remove Trump from office. If only they were in similar agreement on securing the border, cutting regulations, or growing the economy than they are against Trump.

Rep Adam Schiff thinks Trump is heading to jail. Rep Maxine Waters agrees saying, “President Donald Trump is a ‘criminal’ who should be impeached.” It never ends.

When does Trump say, “Enough is enough!”?

Enough can have two meanings here. One meaning is the junkyard dog being taunted until it bares its teeth and attacks ferociously. Trump has that power as President. Assuming Huber and Horowitz have been doing more than playing board games with their reams of lawyers and investigators for the past year, there should be indictments and prosecutions. Not to mention releasing FISA warrant applications and similar documents.

From the Clinton Foundation to the Spygate scandal. From Hillary Clinton’s emails to bogus FISA warrants, there is much for the junkyard dog to attack. When is enough? When does Trump go “scorched earth[TL1] ” through transparency against those conspiring to destroy him?  

Declassify the FISA warrant and expose the collaboration of his Deep State enemies with foreign intelligence agencies. As the Clinton Foundation scandals become public, hammer away via tweets and public comments.  If Trump believes he is going down, he will bring half of Washington, DC with him.

Trump can simply release the hidden information and instruct his Justice department to pursue any and all crimes committed. Regardless of the political party of the perpetrators. That’s not weaponization of his administration, but instead simply the pursuit of justice and accountability. Let the chip fall where they may, across the political spectrum.

This would be the “draining the swamp” we were promised. Despite assurances that “pain is coming”, the deep state swamp is in full bloom. Yet the deplorables have Trump’s back with a 49 percent approval in the December 11 Rasmussen daily presidential tracking poll.

The other enough is for him personally. A billionaire businessman with a successful reality television show, he had it all. A comfortable life with his family. Money, influence, and popularity. He gave that up try to make a difference for America and the world. This campaign speech is an excellent summary of what the Trump presidency is all about, why he was elected and why the deep state is hell bent on destroying him.

For his efforts, he is ridiculed and scorned. Not only by his political opponents, but by those in his own party. NeverTrumpers in Congress and the media who would be ecstatic if a President Bush, Kasich, or Rubio were implementing everything Trump is doing, yet Trump’s conservative accomplishments mean nothing because he tweets and calls his detractors mean names.

He is not one of them, not part of their elite club, not a dues-paying member of the establishment. So those who have been advocating for conservative policies their entire political careers have turned on a dime, throwing their conservatism to the wind, embracing Democrat policies instead, all because they don’t like the messenger.

Trump must have believed he would be embraced by the GOP for his advancement of long-talked-about but never-implemented policies. These include fair trade deals, lower taxes and regulations, border enforcement, economic growth, and conservative judges.

The more Trump does, the more the opposition grows. To the point that he has few friends in Washington, DC. Especially in his own party.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller will undoubtedly cook up something for House Democrats to use for impeachment. For every line that Trump may have crossed, Obama, Clinton, and their minions crossed a parking lot full of lines, all without consequence. It’s not simply two standards of justice, it’s no justice at all. It’s Stalinesque justice where the deep state makes up the rules as they go along, favoring themselves with kangaroo courts for their opponents.

Conventional wisdom is that Senate Republicans would never vote to remove an impeached President Trump from office. Oh really? How many will see obstruction of justice in Trump firing James Comey, after his deputy attorney general recommended, and his attorney general agreed, that he should do just that? Or his perfectly legitimate nondisclosure agreements with payment.

So what if Trump personally paid Stormy Daniels to keep quiet? Obama’s campaign, not him personally, paid Reverend Wright hush money during the 2008 campaign and I don’t recall any special counsel investigations or Congressional hearings into campaign finance violations.

What a daily drag for President Trump to pick up the newspaper or watch a bit of cable news and hear a constant drumbeat of how he is evil incarnate and about to be removed from office and sent to prison!  Not simply disagreement over policy, but personal vitriol and hatred toward him and his family. How many of us could withstand such an onslaught from all directions, day after day, without saying enough is enough?

The fact that Trump is still upbeat and optimistic, accomplishing more in a day than his predecessors did in a week, is beyond amazing. But at some point, the human spirit breaks. How many slings and arrows will Trump take before he’s had enough?

How long do political and media hacks pursue trivial matters while danger lurks in all corners of the globe? What kind of example is America, as the world’s lone superpower, setting for the rest of the world with American politicians reenacting “Mean Girls” against the duly elected president?

His supporters wait, hoping and praying that he is able to turn the tables against the deep state. But the deep state isn’t letting up. Mueller’s jihad against the sitting president continues, opposition research funded not by the Clinton campaign and Fusion GPS but by you and me, the American taxpayer.

When does Donald Trump say, “Enough is enough!”?

Photo credit: Michael Vadon

Brian C Joondeph, MD, MPS, a Denver based physician and writer. Follow him on Facebook,  LinkedIn and Twitter.

You’ve heard the claim, whether spoken plainly or implied: America is deeply racist.

The United States hates anyone with dark skin, or so the narrative goes. We can’t stand foreigners and see everyone else as inferior.

Take this recent September piece in Time Magazine, for instance. Princeton University professor Eddie S. Glaude, Jr. bemoaned how “Americans have grown comfortable with racism resting just beneath the surface of our politics,” stating this as accepted fact with only vague anecdotes to back it up.

The view that Americans are xenophobic and racist pervades the media, but is it true? A recent study from the Pew Research Center suggests not.

It turns out that the U.S. is actually rather open and welcoming to different races from all over the world who want to come to our country … and there are many other nations who are far less welcoming.

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“As the number of international migrants reaches new highs, people around the world show little appetite for more migration — both into and out of their countries,” the non-partisan research group explained.

Pew surveyed people in 27 different countries, and found an interesting trend: A high number of nations around the world are not open to increased immigration from foreigners. The United States, however, is among the most welcoming of all countries.

“Across the countries surveyed, a median of 45% say fewer or no immigrants should be allowed to move to their country,” Pew discovered. “Just 14% say their countries should allow more immigrants.”

European countries have historically been a hotbed of migration, particularly in recent years under the European Union. But Pew found that several EU nations which have been magnets for asylum-seekers and refugees are largely fed up with those foreigners, and would like to see them leave.

“In Europe, majorities in Greece (82%), Hungary (72%), Italy (71%) and Germany (58%) say fewer immigrants or no immigrants at all should be allowed to move to their countries,” Pew reported.

What do those places have in common? “Each of these countries served as some of the most popular transit or destination countries during Europe’s recent surge in asylum seekers.”

According to the study’s findings, only 29 percent of Americans said that there should be fewer or no immigrants coming to the United States. Only Canada and Japan had lower percentages of people saying the same, which means that Americans are actually among the most welcoming to immigrants.

It’s a similar story when the flip side of the same question is examined. Twenty-four percent of Americans said that they’d like to see more immigrants. While not a giant number, that’s among the highest in the world, with only Spain having more citizens who wanted to welcome more migrants.

In other words, the U.S. is second in the world when it comes to supporting more immigration to their country.

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Once again, a frequent charge leveled at Americans by many leftists and other nations has fallen on its face when the real facts are examined.

As conservatives have pointed out for years, there’s a huge difference between illegal and legal immigration. This distinction seems to be constantly lost on the media and the left, which accuse citizens of xenophobia and racism for wanting our border laws enforced.

The fact of the matter is that the United States already welcomes over a million legal immigrants, every single year.

Being against law-breakers while still acknowledging that America is a nation of immigrants isn’t as inconsistent as many voices would have you believe.

We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

The commission investigating the February 14 Parkland school shooting voted 13 to 1 Wednesday to arm teachers.

The Associated Press reports that the commission recommended allowing “teachers who volunteer and undergo extensive background checks and training…to carry concealed guns on campus to stop future shootings.”

The vote comes just weeks after Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, lead investigator on the commission, announced that he wanted to see teachers armed in Florida.

Sheriff investigating the Parkland massacre says teachers SHOULD be armed so they can stop school shooters https://t.co/dySSsV5oKv

— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) November 21, 2018

On November 21, Breitbart News reported that Gualtieri said the investigation into the Parkland shooting had changed his views on armed teachers; that he went from opposing it to supporting it. He noted, “People need to keep an open mind to it as the reality is that if someone else in that school had a gun it could have saved kids’ lives.”

Gualtieri’s observation is poignant in light of the fact that Parkland shooter paused five times to reload during his attack, but no teachers or staff were armed to take advantage of the lull in attack.

Constitutional attorney and author Mark W. Smith spoke to Breitbart News about the commission vote, saying:

The Parkland Commission’s decision in favor of arming teachers is rational and founded in common sense. While many commissions often come to feel good, but ineffective, conclusions, the Parkland commission here came to very effective, clear and definitive recommendations that if adopted will make a major improvement in protecting the lives of the children and teachers in Florida. And it is worth mentioning that this conclusion was reached by the overwhelming majority of this commission by a 13 to 1 vote. Hopefully, other states will look at this commission’s recommendations and adopt their very sensible recommendation.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.

President Trump is following through on his “Buy American, Hire America” commitment, surging the arrests of illegal aliens hired by U.S. businesses by more than 640 percent over the last year.

For Fiscal Year 2018, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency increased their worksite enforcement of immigration — going after the U.S. employers who hire illegal aliens over American citizens — their arrests of those illegal alien hires, and the number of investigations they opened.

In Fiscal Year 2018, ICE made nearly 780 criminal arrests and 1,525 administrative worksite-related arrests, a more than 640 percent increase compared to Fiscal Year 2017. Likewise, ICE opened more than 6,800 worksite investigations this year, a more than 300 percent increase compared to the year before.

“Reducing illegal employment helps build another layer of border security, and reduces the continuum of crime that illegal labor facilitates, from the human smuggling networks that facilitate illegal border crossings to the associated collateral crimes, like identity theft, document and benefit fraud and worker exploitation,” ICE official Derek Benner said in a statement.

“Employers who use an illegal workforce as part of their business model put businesses that do follow the law at a competitive disadvantage,” Benner said.

“These laws help protect jobs for U.S. citizens and others who are lawfully employed, reduce the incentive of illegal migration, eliminate unfair competitive advantages for companies that hire an illegal workforce, and ultimately help strengthen public safety and national security,” he said.

The number of worksite audits initiated by ICE totaled nearly 6,000, an increase of about 340 percent from Fiscal Year 2017.

Though criminal indictments and convictions remained relatively steady compared to years past, ICE officials say the numbers will rise, as many cases are pending. So far, 72 managers who hired illegal aliens were indicted this year and 49 managers were convicted of hiring illegal aliens over Americans.

This year, businesses hiring illegal aliens were ordered to pay more than $10.2 million in fines, forfeitures, and restitution. One Texas company was forced to pay more than $5.5 million after a five-year investigation by ICE revealed their illegal workforce.

Australia is ready to follow U.S. President Donald Trump and recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s official capital and move its embassy there.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison expected to announce the historic change Saturday in the face of widespread opposition from the Muslim world.

AFP reports Australian holiday makers heading for nearby Muslim-majority Indonesia have been warned of a possible backlash after the announcement is made and they should “exercise a high degree of caution” while Arab nations are talking of a financial sanctions against Australia.

Mr. Morrison will argue Israel has the right to choose its own capital and peace talks are dead in the water, so there is no real peace to keep if Australia moves its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Indonesia’s government, facing domestic pressure at home, reacted angrily in October when the prime minister first floated the idea.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said the move would “slap Indonesia’s face on the Palestine issue” and was joined in her condemnation by 13 Arab ambassadors in Australia who called the suggestion regrettable and asked Mr. Morrison to reconsider.

The potential move has already been hailed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:

I spoke today with Australian PM @ScottMorrisonMP. He informed me that he is considering officially recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel & moving the Australian embassy to Jerusalem. I’m very thankful to him for this. We will continue to strengthen ties between & !

— Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu) October 15, 2018

The United States officially relocated its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May on the 70th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel. U.S. President Donald Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, attended the ceremony.

Mr. Trump promised to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem during his 2016 presidential campaign and  announced the decision to proceed last December.

Some of Judaism’s holiest sites are located in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount and Western Wall in Jerusalem; the Tomb of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs in Hebron; and Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus.

The head of the Palestinian delegation in Canberra has reacted angrily to Mr. Morrison’s decision, warning it would be “a recipe for damaging and destroying the peace process in the Middle East.”

Mr. Izzat Abdulhadi said Arab nations are also prepared to withdraw ambassadors over the issue, and may consider economic sanctions.

“Our reaction will be difficult,” he told 9 News Australia. “We will ask Arab governments to take difficult actions against Australia.

“We will talk to Saudis, Gulf States, and also OIC countries to boycott meat and wheat from Australia.”

Mr Abdulhadi says he’s spoken not only with his Foreign Minister in recent days, but also representatives from other Arab and Muslim-majority countries, including Indonesia.

“I can tell you there will be huge damage actually,” he said.

Follow Simon Kent on Twitter: Follow @SunSimonKent or e-mail to: skent@breitbart.com

The Deep State now is publicly baring its fangs at us, laughing at ineffective attempts to hold it accountable for abuse and worse.  I hate to be alarmist, but we have police agencies misbehaving and then destroying the evidence and refusing to cooperate with constitutional oversight functions.  Just in the last couple of days, we have learned that critical form 302 records were altered months after they were first created regarding the FBI interview upon which General Michael Flynn was prosecuted.  And we learned that the Special Counsel’s Office of Robert Mueller scrubbed access to the text messages of Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, the texting blabbermouths who revealed the D.S. “insurance policy” in the event Trump won the presidency.

And now we know that the FBI is flouting a congressional subpoena for documents that would explain why it raided the home of a whistleblower in the Uranium One case.  (Readers may recall that that case, implicating Secretary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation, was prosecuted by Rod Rosenstein, then the U.S. attorney in Baltimore, and investigated by James Comey’s FBI.)

Gregg Re of Fox News explains the FBI’s obstruction of oversight – in other words, its declaration that it is above the law and not accountable to Congress investigating what looks like abuse of a whistleblower who is embarrassing the Bureau.

The Justice Department and FBI have missed a Wednesday deadline to provide information about the government’s mysterious raid on a former FBI contractor-turned-whistleblower’s home last month.

Sixteen FBI agents on Nov. 19 raided the home of Dennis Nathan Cain, who reportedly gave the Justice Department’s Inspector General (IG) documents related to the Uranium One controversy and potential wrongdoing by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The documents in question allegedly showed that federal officials failed to investigate possible criminal activity related to Clinton, the Clinton Foundation and Rosatom, a Russian nuclear company.  Its subsidiary purchased Canadian mining company Uranium One in 2013.

The remedy to this outrageous defiance ought to be prosecution.  But the Department of Justice can stonewall and refuse to prosecute.

An unaccountable police agency?  ”What, me worry?” seems to be the attitude of the media and Democrats.  

Photo credit: pxhere.

The Deep State now is publicly baring its fangs at us, laughing at ineffective attempts to hold it accountable for abuse and worse.  I hate to be alarmist, but we have police agencies misbehaving and then destroying the evidence and refusing to cooperate with constitutional oversight functions.  Just in the last couple of days, we have learned that critical form 302 records were altered months after they were first created regarding the FBI interview upon which General Michael Flynn was prosecuted.  And we learned that the Special Counsel’s Office of Robert Mueller scrubbed access to the text messages of Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, the texting blabbermouths who revealed the D.S. “insurance policy” in the event Trump won the presidency.

And now we know that the FBI is flouting a congressional subpoena for documents that would explain why it raided the home of a whistleblower in the Uranium One case.  (Readers may recall that that case, implicating Secretary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation, was prosecuted by Rod Rosenstein, then the U.S. attorney in Baltimore, and investigated by James Comey’s FBI.)

Gregg Re of Fox News explains the FBI’s obstruction of oversight – in other words, its declaration that it is above the law and not accountable to Congress investigating what looks like abuse of a whistleblower who is embarrassing the Bureau.

The Justice Department and FBI have missed a Wednesday deadline to provide information about the government’s mysterious raid on a former FBI contractor-turned-whistleblower’s home last month.

Sixteen FBI agents on Nov. 19 raided the home of Dennis Nathan Cain, who reportedly gave the Justice Department’s Inspector General (IG) documents related to the Uranium One controversy and potential wrongdoing by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The documents in question allegedly showed that federal officials failed to investigate possible criminal activity related to Clinton, the Clinton Foundation and Rosatom, a Russian nuclear company.  Its subsidiary purchased Canadian mining company Uranium One in 2013.

The remedy to this outrageous defiance ought to be prosecution.  But the Department of Justice can stonewall and refuse to prosecute.

An unaccountable police agency?  ”What, me worry?” seems to be the attitude of the media and Democrats.  

Photo credit: pxhere.

After 40 years, the perpetually butthurt discovered the display.

Via KPTV:

A nativity scene displayed at a public park in Woodland was moved to private property after a handful of complaints, according to the city.

Tuesday, the Public Works Department helped move the set from Horseshoe Lake Park to a privately-owned vacant lot at the corner of Goerig Street and Buckeye Street.

City leaders told FOX 12 they didn’t want to move the manger but made the decision after seeking guidance from the city attorney, who advised that keeping it on public property was a violation of federal and state laws.

“I wouldn’t have chosen to do this, but it’s in the best interest of the city to do so,” said Mayor Will Finn by phone Tuesday night. “The feedback I’m getting is that it’s in a better spot.”

Finn said he personally sought out the new location and permission from the property owner after the city received complaints about the display within the last week.

According to City Administrator Peter Boyce, the nativity scene itself is privately-owned, but the city has allowed it to be displayed at the park for the last few decades.

Finn estimates the manger has been set up in the park every December for the last 40 years.

Jenny Tingley was able to see the nativity scene from her home and was surprised and disappointed to see it removed.

“Our grandkids love it when they put little baby Jesus out,” Tingley said. “I didn’t think it was offensive at all. I thought it added to the look of our town when it’s the holidays.”

“I’m just sorry that people got offended by it, because we enjoy it – everybody we know enjoys it,” Tingley added.

Boyce said he’s unaware of complaints in years prior, but said the city recently received about five recent complaints.

Keep reading…

On second thought, maybe taking the aid wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

Such is the thinking of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, who seems to be reaching out to the United Nations for aid in the wake of the hideous socialist failure of the Venezuelan economy.

According to the Washington Post:

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela may have reached a tipping point.

The country, of course, is still a mess, with almost 12 percent of the population malnourished and infectious diseases spreading rapidly, according to UNICEF. Making matters worse, an independent national survey of 40 hospitals found that a third of beds aren’t operative, half of emergency rooms do not have vital medicines, and 95 percent of CT scans and 51 percent of X-ray machines aren’t working.

So why the celebration among some Venezuela watchers? It’s because the government of President Nicolás Maduro has essentially admitted the depths of the humanitarian crisis in his country and agreed to accept some financial help — albeit a modest amount.

Not exactly an advertisement as to the glories of socialism.

What it shows is that socialism is no road to self-sufficiency – it actually makes a country permanently dependent on the international bureaucracies – the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the Hague courts, the World Bank, joining the welfare class of nations that aren’t really nations without the aid, and putting them in a position of always looking for a handout, not primarily to feed the people but to prop the regime – and its way of governing – up.

Studies show that becoming one of those nations that’s always looking to the UN for help is a great route to permanent underdevelopment. Why, because actual nations are nations because they can hold themselves up, pay their way, live like adults instead of children. Anything else and they end up as wards of some empire. In this case, Maduro is choosing the UN.

And that reveals a lot about where Venezuela is heading – its pattern downstream and off the falls is exactly that of other socialist regimes, starting with its mentor-state, Cuba.

A socialist always looks to another socialist, a bigger socialist, to bail him out, because socialism is inherently unsustainable. Castro did it, using the Soviet Union when his hellhole went bust, and then Venezuela until the money ran out. Vietnam, Laos, Mongolia, Ethiopia, Allende’s Chile, they’ve all been Soviet client states living on handouts. Someone supports North Korea. Surprise, it’s communist China.

And note that Maduro refuses to take any of our money to help, as President Trump generously offered. No, he wants only U.N. money – and International Monetary Fund Money. He’s a beggar who’s going to be a chooser.

With Hugo Chavez-cheerleader Michelle Bachelet now running the U.N. agency Maduro is seeking help from, one can expect this will be a crony-cozy relationship. Bachelet is a Chilean lefty strongly connected to Allende’s Chile, and an ex-president of Chile who left power on sour terms, as well as a big fan of the United Nations with all its money and power. Now she’s got a new gig there and is one of the officials who’s going to be propping up the Venezuelan hellhole regime with UN money, ensuring his permanent state of power.

Get a load of the adoration from this photo of the two in Costa Rica three years ago. It’s love…

Maduro and Bachelet in 2015 // Source: Gobierno de Chile, CC BY-SA 2.0

And that looks like the next stage of the game in Venezuela’s long socialist slide downward – becoming a permanently underdeveloped client state with an entrenched socialist power structure.

Why the U.N. has money is because the U.S. supports it. If the U.N. is going to be propping up socialist hellhole regimes that should have been overthrown long ago, it raises questions as to what the U.N. is really about and why Americans should continue to support this operation. President Trump has a negative view of the place, and has downgraded its importance to America by dropping the U.N. ambassador position as a cabinet post. If the U.N. is going to be propping up Maduro, maybe he should defund it altogether and just pull the U.S. out.

 

On second thought, maybe taking the aid wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

Such is the thinking of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, who seems to be reaching out to the United Nations for aid in the wake of the hideous socialist failure of the Venezuelan economy.

According to the Washington Post:

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela may have reached a tipping point.

The country, of course, is still a mess, with almost 12 percent of the population malnourished and infectious diseases spreading rapidly, according to UNICEF. Making matters worse, an independent national survey of 40 hospitals found that a third of beds aren’t operative, half of emergency rooms do not have vital medicines, and 95 percent of CT scans and 51 percent of X-ray machines aren’t working.

So why the celebration among some Venezuela watchers? It’s because the government of President Nicolás Maduro has essentially admitted the depths of the humanitarian crisis in his country and agreed to accept some financial help — albeit a modest amount.

Not exactly an advertisement as to the glories of socialism.

What it shows is that socialism is no road to self-sufficiency – it actually makes a country permanently dependent on the international bureaucracies – the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the Hague courts, the World Bank, joining the welfare class of nations that aren’t really nations without the aid, and putting them in a position of always looking for a handout, not primarily to feed the people but to prop the regime – and its way of governing – up.

Studies show that becoming one of those nations that’s always looking to the UN for help is a great route to permanent underdevelopment. Why, because actual nations are nations because they can hold themselves up, pay their way, live like adults instead of children. Anything else and they end up as wards of some empire. In this case, Maduro is choosing the UN.

And that reveals a lot about where Venezuela is heading – its pattern downstream and off the falls is exactly that of other socialist regimes, starting with its mentor-state, Cuba.

A socialist always looks to another socialist, a bigger socialist, to bail him out, because socialism is inherently unsustainable. Castro did it, using the Soviet Union when his hellhole went bust, and then Venezuela until the money ran out. Vietnam, Laos, Mongolia, Ethiopia, Allende’s Chile, they’ve all been Soviet client states living on handouts. Someone supports North Korea. Surprise, it’s communist China.

And note that Maduro refuses to take any of our money to help, as President Trump generously offered. No, he wants only U.N. money – and International Monetary Fund Money. He’s a beggar who’s going to be a chooser.

With Hugo Chavez-cheerleader Michelle Bachelet now running the U.N. agency Maduro is seeking help from, one can expect this will be a crony-cozy relationship. Bachelet is a Chilean lefty strongly connected to Allende’s Chile, and an ex-president of Chile who left power on sour terms, as well as a big fan of the United Nations with all its money and power. Now she’s got a new gig there and is one of the officials who’s going to be propping up the Venezuelan hellhole regime with UN money, ensuring his permanent state of power.

Get a load of the adoration from this photo of the two in Costa Rica three years ago. It’s love…

Maduro and Bachelet in 2015 // Source: Gobierno de Chile, CC BY-SA 2.0

And that looks like the next stage of the game in Venezuela’s long socialist slide downward – becoming a permanently underdeveloped client state with an entrenched socialist power structure.

Why the U.N. has money is because the U.S. supports it. If the U.N. is going to be propping up socialist hellhole regimes that should have been overthrown long ago, it raises questions as to what the U.N. is really about and why Americans should continue to support this operation. President Trump has a negative view of the place, and has downgraded its importance to America by dropping the U.N. ambassador position as a cabinet post. If the U.N. is going to be propping up Maduro, maybe he should defund it altogether and just pull the U.S. out.

 

After it was revealed that members of Congress were allowed to tap public money to pay off women who had been sexually harassed, embarassed lawmakers from both parties began working on legislation that would force members to pay off sexual harassment claims on their own dime.

Yesterday, by voice vote, the House and Senate approved a measure that would cap court damages at $300,000 but there would be no limit on private settlements.

Reuters:

“Time is finally up for members of Congress who think that they can sexually harass and get away with it. They will no longer be able to slink away with no one knowing that they have harassed. … They will pay back the U.S. Treasury,” one of the House co-sponsors, Representative Jackie Speier, a Democrat, told reporters.

“We want to thank 1,500 former staff members of Congress who wrote a letter to us who made the case all too clear, that sexual harassment in Congress was a huge problem,” she said.

Congress acted more than a year after the #Metoo battle began against sexual harassment of women. Hundreds of high-profile men around the world have been fired or have resigned from their jobs in politics, media, entertainment and business after facing allegations of sexually harassing or assaulting women and men.

Over the past year, several U.S. lawmakers have left office following sexual misconduct allegations, including Democratic Senator Al Franken, Democratic Representative John Conyers, and Republican Representatives Trent Franks and Blake Farenthold. They all denied the allegations.

Speier has been a driving force behind the legislation, having been a victim of harassment when she was employed on Capitol Hill. 

The legislation says Congress must also regularly report and publish settlements, a departure from past practices in which settlements were secret.

Farenthold left Congress in April, several months after Politico reported he settled a sexual harassment lawsuit with taxpayer funds. He denied wrongdoing, but pledged to pay the money back.

The bill takes other steps to strengthen worker protections for congressional employees, such as eliminating month-long periods for “counseling” and “cooling off” that were required of employees who made harassment claims.

Will this help change the culture on the Hill where women are routinely harassed and even assaulted? It will certainly make it harder for members and their top staff to hide their harassment. It will also make members more careful.

But while dozens of women have been victims, rocking the boat by accusing a member is still a career ender. It’s a horrible choice, to be sure and in a perfect world, women shouldn’t have to make it.

But at least now the public won’t be paying for a member’s indiscretions. 

After it was revealed that members of Congress were allowed to tap public money to pay off women who had been sexually harassed, embarassed lawmakers from both parties began working on legislation that would force members to pay off sexual harassment claims on their own dime.

Yesterday, by voice vote, the House and Senate approved a measure that would cap court damages at $300,000 but there would be no limit on private settlements.

Reuters:

“Time is finally up for members of Congress who think that they can sexually harass and get away with it. They will no longer be able to slink away with no one knowing that they have harassed. … They will pay back the U.S. Treasury,” one of the House co-sponsors, Representative Jackie Speier, a Democrat, told reporters.

“We want to thank 1,500 former staff members of Congress who wrote a letter to us who made the case all too clear, that sexual harassment in Congress was a huge problem,” she said.

Congress acted more than a year after the #Metoo battle began against sexual harassment of women. Hundreds of high-profile men around the world have been fired or have resigned from their jobs in politics, media, entertainment and business after facing allegations of sexually harassing or assaulting women and men.

Over the past year, several U.S. lawmakers have left office following sexual misconduct allegations, including Democratic Senator Al Franken, Democratic Representative John Conyers, and Republican Representatives Trent Franks and Blake Farenthold. They all denied the allegations.

Speier has been a driving force behind the legislation, having been a victim of harassment when she was employed on Capitol Hill. 

The legislation says Congress must also regularly report and publish settlements, a departure from past practices in which settlements were secret.

Farenthold left Congress in April, several months after Politico reported he settled a sexual harassment lawsuit with taxpayer funds. He denied wrongdoing, but pledged to pay the money back.

The bill takes other steps to strengthen worker protections for congressional employees, such as eliminating month-long periods for “counseling” and “cooling off” that were required of employees who made harassment claims.

Will this help change the culture on the Hill where women are routinely harassed and even assaulted? It will certainly make it harder for members and their top staff to hide their harassment. It will also make members more careful.

But while dozens of women have been victims, rocking the boat by accusing a member is still a career ender. It’s a horrible choice, to be sure and in a perfect world, women shouldn’t have to make it.

But at least now the public won’t be paying for a member’s indiscretions. 

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