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New Jersey Sen. Corey Booker has been mentioned as a possible contender for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, but his chances at becoming the nominee may have just taken a significant hit.

The Washington Free Beacon reported that Booker was in attendance at the progressive Netroots Nation conference on Friday when he posed for a picture with a group of activists while holding a sign that demanded the removal of security barriers around the nation of Israel.

The activists were part of a radical anti-Israel organization known as U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, and the sign Booker was pictured holding read, “From Palestine to Mexico, all the walls have got to go,” a leftist slogan based on the impossible Utopian vision of an open borders world … and a nation of Israel unable to defend its territory and people from those who threaten it.

The picture of Booker with the activists was posted to Twitter by the radical group with a caption that read: “Excited to be here at Netroots Nation talking with progressives like Sen. Cory Booker about our shared commitment to freedom, justice, and equality for all people.”

Excited to be here at Netroots Nation talking with progressives like Sen. Cory Booker about our shared commitment to freedom, justice, and equality for all people. #NN18 pic.twitter.com/ljswLmv32w

— Palestinian Rights (@US_Campaign) August 3, 2018

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Not surprisingly, Booker’s office soon received pushback over his holding the sign with an anti-Israel message and initially remained silent until controversy began to build and a statement was eventually released.

“Just before delivering a speech in New Orleans, Senator Booker was approached by dozens of people for photos,” explained Jeff Giertz, a spokesman for Booker, in an emailed statement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

“In one instance, amid the rush, he was posing for a photo and was passed a sign to hold — he didn’t have time to read the sign, and from his cursory glance he thought it was talking about Mexico and didn’t realize it had anything to do with Israel,” Giertz continued.

“He hopes for a day when there will be no need for security barriers in the State of Israel, but while active terrorist organizations threaten the safety of the people living in Israel, security barriers are unfortunate but necessary to protect human lives,” the spokesman added.

JTA noted that Booker is quite popular with his Jewish constituents in New Jersey and has portrayed himself as a solid supporter of the nation of Israel.

But while Booker’s spokesman may claim that the senator supports Israel’s security barriers to protect them against “active terrorist organizations” that threaten them, his claim rings hollow when the senator poses for a picture with and holds a sign in support of a group that has ties to “active terrorist organizations” that have threatened to attack and ultimately destroy Israel.

Indeed, The Times of Israel reported in June that the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights served as a sort of umbrella group for hundreds of smaller organizations that are involved in the anti-Israel “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions” movement, which seeks to punish and ruin Israel through economic means.

Worse than that, the group has financial ties to a Gaza- and West Bank-based organization known as the Palestinian BDS National Committee, which in turn hosts as members recognized “active terrorist organizations” such as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, though it is unclear if funds raised by the U.S. organization were being directly funneled into the coffers of the terrorist groups.

The U.S. pro-Palestinian group has made it quite clear that they stand opposed to the security barriers, fences and walls Israel has built along their borders with the Palestinian territories. Those barriers have been credited by many as the most effective counter-terrorism tool utilized by the Israelis and is responsible for the steep decline in suicide bombings and other terror attacks inside Israeli territory.

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Booker may win some additional support among the anti-Israel far-left of his party’s base, but it will likely come at the expense of support among Democrat-aligned liberal Jewish groups he has previously stood alongside.

Of course, Booker could also end up losing support from both the anti- and pro-Israel wings of his party, given the pathetic manner in which he has tried to weasel out of the backlash he received over this picture. The 2020 Democratic primary is going to be interesting, to say the least.

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A Louisiana grocery store employee who captivated the hearts of social media users for letting a young autistic customer stock the store’s shelves is getting $100,000 to go to college.

WATCH: Baton Rouge supermarket employee Jordan allowed Jack Ryan, who has autism, to help him stock shelves for more than 30 minutes when he showed an interest in the task. Jack Ryan’s grandfather called the kind gesture “a miracle in action.” pic.twitter.com/r6RGFRwz8K

— NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt (@NBCNightlyNews) August 1, 2018

Jordan Taylor, an employee at Rouses Market in Baton Rouge, went viral this week when he noticed customer Jack Ryan watching as he refilled the store’s coolers and decided to show the young man how to restock the shelves.

The viral video shows Taylor working with Ryan for more than 30 minutes to restock the coolers with orange juice and milk.

Jack Ryan’s father captured the video of the heartwarming encounter, and his sister, Delaney Edwards Alwosaibi, posted it to Facebook. The video has racked up at least 7,900 likes and more than 9,500 shares on Facebook as of Saturday morning.

“Talk about a stand-up young man!!!!” Alwosaibi said of Taylor in her Facebook post. “We all know autism makes going out difficult, and sometimes grocery stores can be a challenge. This young man took the time to slow down and allow Jack Ryan to help for over 30 minutes, guiding him as he finished his task.”

Alwosaibi, who was impressed with Taylor’s act of kindness, started a GoFundMe page to raise money for Taylor’s college education.

Taylor told Alwosaibi that he wants to become a teacher in the future and loves math. The campaign initially had a goal of $10,000, but the campaign had such an overwhelming amount of support that the page raised more than $100,000 by Friday.

As of Saturday morning, the campaign received more than $105,000 in donations.

A GoFundMe spokesperson told Fox News that Taylor’s campaign is the top trending campaign on GoFundMe, and people from around the world have donated to the fundraiser.

“Donors from Baton Rouge to Bangkok have been inspired by Jordan and Jack Ryan’s story. Nearly 3,000 people have donated $100,000 from all across the US and all around the world. Donors from Japan to Germany, from Ireland to Italy, have stepped up and taken action to show their support,” GoFundMe spokesperson Bobby Whithorne said.

A friend of Ryan’s family also started a separate GoFundMe page on Thursday to raise money for the family to care for Jack Ryan and his 26-year-old autistic brother. The campaign raised $2,820 as of Saturday morning and has a goal of $20,000.

When President Trump announced that the unconstitutional DACA program, put in place by President Obama after Congress refused to pass it into law, would be allowed to expire unless Congress took action on border security, former White House chief of staff and current Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel (aka “Rahmbo”) announced that Chicago would become a “Trump-free zone,” a sanctuary city welcoming and protecting any and all illegal aliens.

“To all the Dreamers that are here in this room and the city of Chicago: you are welcome in the city of Chicago. This is your home and you have nothing to worry about.”

He added: “Chicago, our schools, our neighborhoods, our city, as it relates to what President Trump said, will be a Trump-free zone. You have nothing to worry about. And I want you to know this, and I want your families to know this. And rest assured, I want you to come to school… and pursue your dreams.”

The problem is that he forgot the beleaguered African-Americans in his city burdened by debt and high taxes as its citizens fight poverty, joblessness, and high crime rates.  They have dreams too, such as getting to school alive or being able to do their homework with a bullet piercing their bedroom window. On Thursday, this key and long-taken-for-granted part of the Democrat constituency, took to Chicago’s streets, and one expressway, to ask where they must flee to find the sanctuary Rahm Emanuel promises for illegal aliens:

An anti-violence march in Chicago briefly closed Lake Shore Drive on Thursday afternoon, as protesters demonstrated against the city’s spiraling crime crisis and called for Mayor Rahm Emanuel to step down.

A spokesman for Chicago police said Lake Shore Drive was closed for about 35 minutes on Thursday afternoon, as demonstrators marched toward Wrigley Field, where the Cubs were scheduled to play later in the evening…

The demonstrators waved signs demanding Emanuel’s resignation and chanted “one city, one Chicago” and “Rahm has to go,” as fans watched from inside the park…

Ahead of the march, protesters made clear they didn’t want the Democratic mayor’s support or blessing — they were urging him to resign over what they called his inability to get gun crime under control.

Demonstrators said they took that route because if they had protested in their neighborhoods the city’s cultural and political elites and the national liberal media would have paid little heed to what was really a protest of Rahm Emanuel’s indifference to his citizen constituents as he embraces illegal aliens. Certainly the media would have ignored the calls for Trump’s help and demands for Emanuel to resign:

“Rahm Emanuel is a con man. His whole job is to keep black folks divided,” one man told Fox News’ Gianno Caldwell, who covered the march.   

More than 1,600 people have been shot in Chicago this year, including three children who were recently wounded while playing basketball. Residents said after the shooting that the situation is so bad, children are being kept indoors for their safety.

One woman said Thursday that Emanuel “doesn’t care about anybody” except his own neighborhood and his own family, while another woman said Emanuel seems to care more about illegal immigrants in the city.

“African-Americans, we’re citizens, and our ancestors built this country,” she told Caldwell, whose younger brother survived a shooting last year that killed his best friend.

State Rep. La Shawn Ford, a Democrat who represents the West Side of Chicago, called on President Trump to help the city.

“Not everyone believes Chicago is a Trump-free zone. If he’s serious about helping the people… I accept his help. We can’t turn any help away,” said Ford, adding that seniors and children need to have safe streets and federal authorities need to help the local police. 

As noted, Caldwell has personal knowledge of Chicago’s murder and crime spree from which its citizens can find no sanctuary. As he wrote at the end of July on Fox News Opinion:

During Memorial Day weekend last year, my younger brother and two of his friends were sitting in a car on the south side of Chicago when two men walked up to the window and fired 25 times. With his bloodied best friend dead in his arms, it was only through God’s grace and mercy that my younger brother made it out alive…

Right now, Chicago is going through another bloody summer of gun violence. In fact, at the beginning of this month more than 23 people were shot in one weekend — including three who were killed. The wounded included girls ages 5, 14 and 15.

The next weekend things were even worse, as the local CBS affiliate headlined on its website: “4 Killed, 24 Wounded in Weekend Shootings Across Chicago.” And just last Monday, reporting on the shootings of the weekend, the local ABC affiliate headlined: “Chicago weekend violence: 7 killed, 38 shot.”

Much of Chicago’s violence stems from gang bangers, particularly those imported from south of the border, and from the steady supply of illegal drugs that are a consequence of the open borders and sanctuary city policies Rahm Emanuel supports. It is called “gun violence” when it is in fact gang violence fueled by drug trafficking. As Katie Pavlich writes at TownHall:

As the violence in Chicago’s gang plagued neighborhoods rages on, the underlying cause of the Windy City’s murder rampages can be found thousands of miles away along a porous border. According to a report from Breitbart’s Jeremy Segal, Mexican drug cartels are “allowed” to run Chicago’s streets and young African-American men are killing each other as a result.

Harold “Noonie” Ward, a former high-ranking member of the Gangster Disciples, one of America’s largest street gangs, claims the deadly violence that is plaguing Rahm Emanuel’s “world class city” of Chicago is because Mexican drug cartels are being allowed by “the powers that be” to operate freely and “run” Chicago’s streets.

In an interview with Breitbart News outside of his childhood home, a now-condemned apartment in Altgeld Gardens, one of Chicago’s most well known housing projects, Ward explained that there are a number of issues leading to the bloodshed in the city. The greatest reason, Ward says, is drugs and how they are being brought into the city. “Where the drugs are coming from is Mexican cartels,” Ward said. “From Mexico to Chicago, they make $3.5 billion dollars a year. And the majority of violence in Chicago, comes from the Mexican cartels.”

Rahm Emanuel faces another tough reelection bid in 2019. He and other mayors not only believe we should have open borders but that those who cross them to enter sanctuary cities such as his should be allowed to vote. Coincidence? I think not. He and his ilk are willing to trade American lives for votes. If you can’t find enough voters, you import them in the form of undocumented Democrats.

Meanwhile, blacks in Chicago are getting wise. It may be time for regime change in Chicago. As President Trump said in the campaign as he actively called for black votes, what do you have to lose?

Daniel John Sobieski is a free lance writer whose pieces have appeared in Investor’s Business Daily, Human Events, Reason Magazine and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications.

When President Trump announced that the unconstitutional DACA program, put in place by President Obama after Congress refused to pass it into law, would be allowed to expire unless Congress took action on border security, former White House chief of staff and current Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel (aka “Rahmbo”) announced that Chicago would become a “Trump-free zone,” a sanctuary city welcoming and protecting any and all illegal aliens.

“To all the Dreamers that are here in this room and the city of Chicago: you are welcome in the city of Chicago. This is your home and you have nothing to worry about.”

He added: “Chicago, our schools, our neighborhoods, our city, as it relates to what President Trump said, will be a Trump-free zone. You have nothing to worry about. And I want you to know this, and I want your families to know this. And rest assured, I want you to come to school… and pursue your dreams.”

The problem is that he forgot the beleaguered African-Americans in his city burdened by debt and high taxes as its citizens fight poverty, joblessness, and high crime rates.  They have dreams too, such as getting to school alive or being able to do their homework with a bullet piercing their bedroom window. On Thursday, this key and long-taken-for-granted part of the Democrat constituency, took to Chicago’s streets, and one expressway, to ask where they must flee to find the sanctuary Rahm Emanuel promises for illegal aliens:

An anti-violence march in Chicago briefly closed Lake Shore Drive on Thursday afternoon, as protesters demonstrated against the city’s spiraling crime crisis and called for Mayor Rahm Emanuel to step down.

A spokesman for Chicago police said Lake Shore Drive was closed for about 35 minutes on Thursday afternoon, as demonstrators marched toward Wrigley Field, where the Cubs were scheduled to play later in the evening…

The demonstrators waved signs demanding Emanuel’s resignation and chanted “one city, one Chicago” and “Rahm has to go,” as fans watched from inside the park…

Ahead of the march, protesters made clear they didn’t want the Democratic mayor’s support or blessing — they were urging him to resign over what they called his inability to get gun crime under control.

Demonstrators said they took that route because if they had protested in their neighborhoods the city’s cultural and political elites and the national liberal media would have paid little heed to what was really a protest of Rahm Emanuel’s indifference to his citizen constituents as he embraces illegal aliens. Certainly the media would have ignored the calls for Trump’s help and demands for Emanuel to resign:

“Rahm Emanuel is a con man. His whole job is to keep black folks divided,” one man told Fox News’ Gianno Caldwell, who covered the march.   

More than 1,600 people have been shot in Chicago this year, including three children who were recently wounded while playing basketball. Residents said after the shooting that the situation is so bad, children are being kept indoors for their safety.

One woman said Thursday that Emanuel “doesn’t care about anybody” except his own neighborhood and his own family, while another woman said Emanuel seems to care more about illegal immigrants in the city.

“African-Americans, we’re citizens, and our ancestors built this country,” she told Caldwell, whose younger brother survived a shooting last year that killed his best friend.

State Rep. La Shawn Ford, a Democrat who represents the West Side of Chicago, called on President Trump to help the city.

“Not everyone believes Chicago is a Trump-free zone. If he’s serious about helping the people… I accept his help. We can’t turn any help away,” said Ford, adding that seniors and children need to have safe streets and federal authorities need to help the local police. 

As noted, Caldwell has personal knowledge of Chicago’s murder and crime spree from which its citizens can find no sanctuary. As he wrote at the end of July on Fox News Opinion:

During Memorial Day weekend last year, my younger brother and two of his friends were sitting in a car on the south side of Chicago when two men walked up to the window and fired 25 times. With his bloodied best friend dead in his arms, it was only through God’s grace and mercy that my younger brother made it out alive…

Right now, Chicago is going through another bloody summer of gun violence. In fact, at the beginning of this month more than 23 people were shot in one weekend — including three who were killed. The wounded included girls ages 5, 14 and 15.

The next weekend things were even worse, as the local CBS affiliate headlined on its website: “4 Killed, 24 Wounded in Weekend Shootings Across Chicago.” And just last Monday, reporting on the shootings of the weekend, the local ABC affiliate headlined: “Chicago weekend violence: 7 killed, 38 shot.”

Much of Chicago’s violence stems from gang bangers, particularly those imported from south of the border, and from the steady supply of illegal drugs that are a consequence of the open borders and sanctuary city policies Rahm Emanuel supports. It is called “gun violence” when it is in fact gang violence fueled by drug trafficking. As Katie Pavlich writes at TownHall:

As the violence in Chicago’s gang plagued neighborhoods rages on, the underlying cause of the Windy City’s murder rampages can be found thousands of miles away along a porous border. According to a report from Breitbart’s Jeremy Segal, Mexican drug cartels are “allowed” to run Chicago’s streets and young African-American men are killing each other as a result.

Harold “Noonie” Ward, a former high-ranking member of the Gangster Disciples, one of America’s largest street gangs, claims the deadly violence that is plaguing Rahm Emanuel’s “world class city” of Chicago is because Mexican drug cartels are being allowed by “the powers that be” to operate freely and “run” Chicago’s streets.

In an interview with Breitbart News outside of his childhood home, a now-condemned apartment in Altgeld Gardens, one of Chicago’s most well known housing projects, Ward explained that there are a number of issues leading to the bloodshed in the city. The greatest reason, Ward says, is drugs and how they are being brought into the city. “Where the drugs are coming from is Mexican cartels,” Ward said. “From Mexico to Chicago, they make $3.5 billion dollars a year. And the majority of violence in Chicago, comes from the Mexican cartels.”

Rahm Emanuel faces another tough reelection bid in 2019. He and other mayors not only believe we should have open borders but that those who cross them to enter sanctuary cities such as his should be allowed to vote. Coincidence? I think not. He and his ilk are willing to trade American lives for votes. If you can’t find enough voters, you import them in the form of undocumented Democrats.

Meanwhile, blacks in Chicago are getting wise. It may be time for regime change in Chicago. As President Trump said in the campaign as he actively called for black votes, what do you have to lose?

Daniel John Sobieski is a free lance writer whose pieces have appeared in Investor’s Business Daily, Human Events, Reason Magazine and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications.

The capacity of human beings for making the same mistake again and again is exceeded only by the capacity of their governments to enshrine those mistakes in law.

To err is human; to forgive, divine – but what are we to do when a significant segment of our population has grown so enamored of an error that they lose the capability to recognize it as such?  Indeed, they become violently defensive at the mere mention of reassessing their beliefs.

A difficult situation is made untenable when the error involved has dangerous ramifications for everyone, not just those making the mistake.

This is where 21st-century America finds itself today, relative to that perennial error known as socialism.

The base of support for this long discredited ethos is multi-layered, with each layer supporting the error from a different foundation.

The largest element stands on a foundation of ignorance – they are simply unaware of the history and track record of collectivist schemes in general and socialism in particular.

Absent a frame of reference, members of this group are vulnerable to the socialist’s siren song and soon find themselves singing along about fairness, equality, and justice, not realizing that the composer of the song lacks the instruments necessary to play it, unless he first takes them from someone else.

This group is the weakest, and a great many members can be peeled away from the collectivist concert by opening their eyes to the nuts and bolts of their newfound political plaything.  Once realizing that the price of admission involves the surrender of personal choice, they either abandon the effort or graduate to the next group.

The next echelon recognizes the shortcomings of socialism but is unwilling to accept these inevitable failures as fundamental flaws of the system itself, preferring to either ignore the murderous history of the creed entirely or blame the failures on interference by outside, nefarious influences.  In their eyes, every stumble must’ve been the result of being tripped; every fall surely must have been preceded by a shove.

These are the true believers, standing on a foundation of near religious fervor, willing to risk life and limb to prove to the world that socialism can work, if only operated by the right people, with the right funding and the support of right-minded people.

It is a rare occasion that sees one of this crowd abandoning the “faith.”  I suggest not wasting the effort to turn them.  Only abject, personal disaster can move them, as any outside attempt will be seen as validation of their paranoid worldview.

The final level know full well the ramifications of the policies they are advocating.  They know the history, they understand the fatal flaws and are fully prepared to sacrifice the lives and fortunes of as many people as necessary to gain and maintain power.

These are standing atop a foundation of concupiscence, manipulating the worst elements of human nature, as would a tradesman with a tool.  Undergirding their every decision is a longing for unfettered power and unaccountable control.

These are the leaders who know the system well enough to have monetized it, operating it as a machine from which they draw wealth and power to themselves.  They orchestrate the narrative by using the true believers to mobilize the first group, those ignorant of socialism and its hellish consequences, to fight the “other,” whoever that might be at the time.  This is the genesis of #Resist.

To this nation’s eternal credit, we shunned one such leader during the last presidential election.  Now we must erode the influence of the leaders that took her place and the true believers who yet do her bidding by educating the first group, the ignorant and misinformed.

We have a history of success on our side – freedom blooms wherever planted, while socialism cannot boast of a single blossom, much less fruit.  Most important of all, they cannot long deny the trail of bodies numbering in the hundreds of millions, all victims of their unforgivable error.

So start talking.  We have to shine the light in the darkest corners.  There is an entire generation hanging in the balance.

The capacity of human beings for making the same mistake again and again is exceeded only by the capacity of their governments to enshrine those mistakes in law.

To err is human; to forgive, divine – but what are we to do when a significant segment of our population has grown so enamored of an error that they lose the capability to recognize it as such?  Indeed, they become violently defensive at the mere mention of reassessing their beliefs.

A difficult situation is made untenable when the error involved has dangerous ramifications for everyone, not just those making the mistake.

This is where 21st-century America finds itself today, relative to that perennial error known as socialism.

The base of support for this long discredited ethos is multi-layered, with each layer supporting the error from a different foundation.

The largest element stands on a foundation of ignorance – they are simply unaware of the history and track record of collectivist schemes in general and socialism in particular.

Absent a frame of reference, members of this group are vulnerable to the socialist’s siren song and soon find themselves singing along about fairness, equality, and justice, not realizing that the composer of the song lacks the instruments necessary to play it, unless he first takes them from someone else.

This group is the weakest, and a great many members can be peeled away from the collectivist concert by opening their eyes to the nuts and bolts of their newfound political plaything.  Once realizing that the price of admission involves the surrender of personal choice, they either abandon the effort or graduate to the next group.

The next echelon recognizes the shortcomings of socialism but is unwilling to accept these inevitable failures as fundamental flaws of the system itself, preferring to either ignore the murderous history of the creed entirely or blame the failures on interference by outside, nefarious influences.  In their eyes, every stumble must’ve been the result of being tripped; every fall surely must have been preceded by a shove.

These are the true believers, standing on a foundation of near religious fervor, willing to risk life and limb to prove to the world that socialism can work, if only operated by the right people, with the right funding and the support of right-minded people.

It is a rare occasion that sees one of this crowd abandoning the “faith.”  I suggest not wasting the effort to turn them.  Only abject, personal disaster can move them, as any outside attempt will be seen as validation of their paranoid worldview.

The final level know full well the ramifications of the policies they are advocating.  They know the history, they understand the fatal flaws and are fully prepared to sacrifice the lives and fortunes of as many people as necessary to gain and maintain power.

These are standing atop a foundation of concupiscence, manipulating the worst elements of human nature, as would a tradesman with a tool.  Undergirding their every decision is a longing for unfettered power and unaccountable control.

These are the leaders who know the system well enough to have monetized it, operating it as a machine from which they draw wealth and power to themselves.  They orchestrate the narrative by using the true believers to mobilize the first group, those ignorant of socialism and its hellish consequences, to fight the “other,” whoever that might be at the time.  This is the genesis of #Resist.

To this nation’s eternal credit, we shunned one such leader during the last presidential election.  Now we must erode the influence of the leaders that took her place and the true believers who yet do her bidding by educating the first group, the ignorant and misinformed.

We have a history of success on our side – freedom blooms wherever planted, while socialism cannot boast of a single blossom, much less fruit.  Most important of all, they cannot long deny the trail of bodies numbering in the hundreds of millions, all victims of their unforgivable error.

So start talking.  We have to shine the light in the darkest corners.  There is an entire generation hanging in the balance.