This Congresswoman Has a Warning for High Schoolers About Socialism

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., is taking a leading role Tuesday to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment’s passage in the U.S. House on May 21, 1919. The Daily Signal recently spoke to her about a range of issues affecting her constituents, including the disconnect between the people in Washington state and Washington, D.C. Plus, she speaks about her efforts to reach out to the next generation, why she values every human life, and how the booming economy is helping small businesses in her state. The interview is available on our podcast, video, and the a lightly edited transcript below.

Rob Bluey: You recently spent time back home in the district talking to a lot of your constituents. Tell us what is on their minds. It’s so interesting for those of us in Washington to hear what’s going on in the rest of the country.

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers: Sure. Well, it’s always good to get around to the countries of eastern Washington and hold town halls, invite people to come and ask questions.

I’m also visiting all the high schools. I’ve been to several high schools over the last couple of weeks. I represent several colleges and universities, and going on campus.

At the town halls, what I like to talk about and where I always lead is just that this is representative government, and just how much I cherish representative government, and what an honor it is to serve in the House, the peoples’ House. The battle of ideas that takes place.

I always like to highlight the economy. And in eastern Washington our economy is good, just like it is all over the country. If anything, we have a shortage of skilled workers and affordable housing. We need more plumbers and pipe fitters, and welders.

But the questions that I’ve been asked more just the last few days, I usually get asked about the cost of health care. That continues to be a big challenge, especially for families, small businesses, those that are in the individual market. Rising premiums, copays, the deductibles. That continues to be a question that they ask.

Those on the left, there seems to be quite an organized effort to show up and ask about the Green New Deal. There’s usually one or two, or maybe even more, that will ask, “What about the Green New Deal?”

Which, when you explain at least what we’ve seen to date, we’re talking $93 trillion in cost on this country, it quickly changes that conversation.

Bluey: I bet there are issues that you’re not hearing about as well that are really different from what it seems some in Washington want to focus on. The Mueller report and impeachment and everything else that comes along with that.

McMorris Rodgers: I’ve not been asked about that once.

Bluey: Wow.

McMorris Rodgers: As I have been in these town meetings, at the schools, I have not been asked about it once. Yet that dominates the news, obviously.

Bluey: It certainly does. When you’re meeting with high school students, what’s on their minds and do they think about this move by some in Congress to give 16-year-olds the opportunity to vote?

McMorris Rodgers: It’s been fun to ask them directly that question. I’ve been to several high schools and I remember the first time I asked that question I wasn’t sure how would they respond.

The teacher had said, “Well, Cathy, can you ask them a question maybe on something that’s going on right now in Congress?”

It was days after we had taken that vote in the House whether or not to allow 16-year-olds to vote.

I asked them the question and not one in that class raised their hand. Then I said, “Well, over 100 representatives in the House voted yes. Over 300 voted no, so it failed.”

But I’ve continued to ask that question and I might get one or two, but the large, large majority of them say, “No, probably not the best idea.”

Bluey: You mentioned the economy earlier. I know that that’s important for people young, people who are working and really everybody, whether it’s in eastern Washington or all across this country.

… What’s fueling this economic growth? We continue to see it whether it’s the S&P and Nasdaq hitting new records or the GDP surpassing expectations. What does that mean for your constituents in eastern Washington?

McMorris Rodgers: What that means is that the people that I represent in eastern Washington have more opportunities because the job is the opportunity.

We celebrate America as this land of opportunity. It starts with the job, right? You get that first job and then you get a better paying job.

So when we’re celebrating a record economic growth and record jobs, the fact that we have more job openings than people seeking jobs, we’re celebrating people that are coming off the sidelines.

Those that had given up on finding a job are now getting back into the workforce. That means people have more opportunities. People in eastern Washington, for the longest time we would talk about how we would lose our young people. …

I live in a great corner of the world. We have a great quality of life, and yet so often after high school young people would feel like they have to leave. Or even if they stayed to go to one of our colleges or universities, they would leave after that to find a good paying job.

… We had 9,000 new jobs in Spokane County in the last year. That is great news and that means that they can stay. They can stay in Spokane, stay in eastern Washington, live this great quality of life, raise their family, start a business. You know what also it means? It means that people have freedom to take those ideas and do something with it. That is what freedom and free markets has meant.

America has led the world in innovation and breakthroughs, and I’m always inspired by those stories of the individual that started in their basement or their kitchen with an idea and then built a company. Manufacturing or a new service, a new product. When we have a good economy, it means that there’s more opportunities for that.

Bluey: It certainly is and I appreciate your passion for it. I know you come from a family that had a small business. So that is certainly an area where whether it’s passing tax cuts or working on regulatory issues, certainly Republicans in Congress made a significant impact in the first two years of the Trump administration.

McMorris Rodgers: That was our priority.

Bluey: That’s absolutely true.

McMorris Rodgers: It was to get our economy going. You remember President Barack Obama, he was talking about the new normal. That this record-low economic growth and … coming out of the Great Recession, he said this is just a new normal.

As the Republican majority, along with our president, Donald Trump, have taken on eliminating those regulations and lifting the regulatory stranglehold and the tax burden.

We’ve seen just an amazing response within our economy. Small businesses are the engine of our economy, and I’m grateful to have been raised on an orchard where we had a fruit stand.

It was very family owned and operated. Grateful for that foundation, but we want to keep that going. So that economic growth means that the engine of our economy, and especially small businesses, can do better.

Bluey: You are also known as somebody who has a care and compassion for children. You yourself are a mother of three, and somebody who’s spoken out very directly about the impact that they’ve had on your life in such a positive way.

I want to ask you about some of the debates that we’re seeing play out in other states around the country, whether it be New York passing a law that allows abortion right up until birth or the Virginia governor stating publicly his belief in infanticide, and things of that nature.

What does that say about our culture and how can we go about changing that and bringing more value to the sanctity of life?

McMorris Rodgers: Right. I so want a culture that values life, that celebrates life, celebrates every life and that potential, the dignity, and the value of every life.

Boy, when I heard what New York had done, the law that they had passed and the governor of Virginia and his [comments] … I was shocked first and foremost at the idea that a baby who had survived an abortion outside the womb would not be given health care.

So we have immediately gone to work on the born-alive legislation. It has been more difficult than it should be. In my mind, this should be a no-brainer, and especially today with the life-saving treatments and technology that we have.

Our health care system is one that is about saving lives. … We do a lot. We lead the world in saving lives, and yet this idea that somehow a baby that’s born alive would not be given health care, it’s really a shocking commentary on our culture and the devaluing of life.

In our Declaration of Independence it says it so well. You just go back to our foundation … This is a country where we’re based upon a pursuit. It’s life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Bluey: Right.

McMorris Rodgers: Life is pretty fundamental and we need to make sure that we’re celebrating that life either before the life is born or after it’s born. And certainly the born-alive legislation should be something that we can pass.

Bluey: Absolutely. It’s currently a discharged petition, which means Republicans have signed it and you’ve had a few Democrats who have also put their names on it, but you need more Democrats in order for it to get to that number, 218, to have a vote on the House floor.

I want to ask you about what you’ve experienced in terms of the difference now that the Democrats are in control of the House. Republicans seem to have thrown a few curve balls at them with motions to recommit and forcing votes that they might not have wanted to take.

What is it like, in your own experience, having gone from Republicans being in the majority to now Democrats controlling Congress?

McMorris Rodgers: It’s night and day. It’s very different. We were just talking about the born-alive legislation.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi refuses to bring that up for a vote in the House of Representatives. That means that our only recourse to force that vote is the discharge petition, and it means that we have to file it, we have to get 218 signatures in order to get it released from Speaker Pelosi. Then you have to wait for a certain amount of time before you can have the vote.

When you’re in the majority, you are setting the agenda. You are setting the calendar.

For the last eight years the Republicans had been in the majority in the House. We had been setting the agenda, which meant we led on tax reform. We led on a whole series of bills that were lifting the regulatory burden.

And now that’s all being done by Speaker Pelosi, it’s just a very different agenda. Unfortunately, it appears that she’s more interested in the presidential race and votes of … It’s just basically show votes.

We’ve done more resolutions this year. They’re not putting forward legislative solutions, they’re just putting forward resolutions. It’s more they just want to be able to grandstand and talk about an issue rather than really sit down and do the tough work of legislating.

Bluey: Yeah, getting things done. No, absolutely.

You have a couple of political celebrities in this new class—I’m talking about the congresswoman from New York, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar—who made a lot of news themselves.

Have you had much interaction with them or, as somebody who’s served in Congress, how do you get back to avoiding these headlines and actually getting things done on behalf of the American people?

McMorris Rodgers: Right. It seems that they’re more interested in headlines. I term them celebrity politicians, right? They’re not about actually building relationships or doing the hard work of legislating.

What is most frightening is that they are openly promoting a socialist agenda for Americans. This is the first time that I’ve ever seen it quite at this level.

I’m reminding the high school students that I visit and colleges that socialism and human rights do not coexist.

You look at the history: Socialism doesn’t celebrate every person, individual rights and human rights, and make sure that their potential is being reached. Socialism is a few people that get to make the decisions for the rest of the country.

Bluey: We’re talking about the growing economy. If you look at Heritage’s own Index of Economic Freedom, you see the socialism countries don’t provide that freedom for the people who live in places like Venezuela or North Korea. The countries that do are those who are the most economically free.

McMorris Rodgers: Yes, yes.

Bluey: Glad to hear you’re telling the high school students about that.

McMorris Rodgers: Well, yes. It’s free markets, capitalism, free markets that allows you to take that idea that you have.

We’re creative people, right? We have ideas. We’re always in search of that more perfect union, and we’re always coming up with new ideas to improve our lives. It’s in a free-market society that you can actually do something with that idea. You don’t have to ask permission of the government. And yet socialism is all controlled by a few.

That’s where … America has led the world in. … You think about health care and all the breakthroughs and new innovations. We have led the world and … we’ve lifted more people out of poverty. We’ve raised the standard of living higher than any other country in the world, and it’s because we are a free people.

Bluey: One of the other things that comes with economic freedom often is trade, and I have heard you talk about the importance of trade, particularly to Washington state, and how reliant Washington state is on having a free trade.

McMorris Rodgers: Yes.

Bluey: We have an opportunity here coming up, perhaps, with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, which the president has negotiated.

What can you tell us about that or what prospects there might be in this Congress to take some action on trade and really help the economy grow even more?

McMorris Rodgers: Ninety-five percent of the consumers live outside of the United States of America. My vision is that America is a country that grows, that manufactures, that produces, innovates, and then sells it to the rest of the world.

In Washington state, we are. We are the most trade dependent state in the country. It’s estimated one out of every three jobs is dependent upon trade, and that is the fact that we export so much of our agriculture.

Apples, potatoes, and wheat. We export Boeing airplanes. We export Microsoft and Amazon products, and we sell it to people all over the world.

The USMCA is really important. I’m on the whip team. This is a modernization of NAFTA that the Trump administration has led. Getting USMCA approved is going to be very important.

was just down at the White House a few weeks ago, we were strategizing on how to get it done.

Part of USMCA is calling for some labor reforms in Mexico. We hope that Mexico will do that by the end of April. The clock is ticking there. Then ITC has issued its recommendations.

Once that’s in place, then the administration plans to send USMCA up to Congress and the clock will start ticking. We’ll have 60 days to get it done. My hope is that we’ll get that done by August and then we can move onto other important trade agreements with Japan and others.

I also want to just express appreciation to our president for what he’s doing with China, and being tough on China. No other administration has been willing to do that.

China has not been a good actor. China has not been honoring intellectual property rights or playing by the rules of the road.

This administration is holding China accountable. That’s very important so that China isn’t the one that’s setting the trade agenda, but it will be an agenda that’s driven by freedom-loving countries.

Bluey: We appreciate your interest in that issue, and I’m glad to learn a little bit about Washington state myself. I did not realize some of that information you shared.

Finally, I want to ask you a question about some people that you’ve tried to hold accountable. That is the big tech companies.

You have been an outspoken advocate on behalf of conservatives to make sure that their content isn’t suppressed, there’s not censorship. Why is that issue so important to you?

McMorris Rodgers: It’s pretty fundamental. It’s the First Amendment. It’s freedom of speech.

The public square today, a lot of the debate takes place on these platforms, these giant platforms. It’s so important that we are protecting that freedom of speech, and that conservative voices are not being stifled, and that we have a real freedom of that debate within the public square on the tech platforms.

… I’m also looking at privacy, how we make sure that we have transparency around what’s actually being collected, how it’s being used. There’s been too many surprises recently about information that’s being used in ways that no one was aware of.

Bluey: Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, thanks so much for spending time with The Daily Signal.

McMorris Rodgers: Great to be with you. Thank you.

The post This Congresswoman Has a Warning for High Schoolers About Socialism appeared first on The Daily Signal.

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One mystery in the Mueller report still needs solving

One hand clapping.  That’s the sound after the Mueller report’s release.  Why?

Because one of the questions we would have hoped to see answered in the report is, what, exactly, was the charge against President Trump; what, exactly, is he supposed to have done?  It is astonishing that the word used for his alleged activity has been, from start to finish, “collusion.”

“Collusion” is a characterization of a charge, not a description of one.

If, for instance, Vladimir Putin had come ashore in a dinghy on a remote patch of the Maine coastline and had handed Trump a briefcase with $1 billion in it, that would be the charge.  Poets could characterize that as “collusion” between Trump and Putin, but the charge would be that Trump had accepted from Putin — a foreigner — a contributed of $1 billion to Trump’s campaign.

We can narrow things down because we know what did not happen and thus could not have been collusion with the Russians or anybody else.

1. That George Papadopoulos could have opened the investigation into the Trump campaign is absurd. Papadopoulos allegedly told Alexander Downer that the Trump campaign knew that the Russians had Hillary’s 33,000 deleted emails.

Our intelligence guys would have laughed themselves sick if they believed this.  Why?  Because Hillary had already turned back in to the State Department all the emails containing Official Business!  The 33,000 emails that she deleted contained only “wedding arrangements and yoga appointments.”  How do we know this?

Hillary told us!

2. In addition to that, the FBI was convinced of it by means of the FBI’s investigation.  Would the agents have cleared Hillary of prosecution if they thought Official Business/secrets of the country had been conveyed to the Russians due to her use of her private server while secretary of state?  Obviously not!  And we know that the FBI must have been extremely careful, because it had to account for the massive amount — $500,000 — the Russians had paid for a speech by Bill.

3. There is one more thing that locks this up tight.  James Comey — at that time director of the FBI — broke with normal practice and made himself responsible for the investigation of Hillary’s emails.  No more need be said!

4. We know that “hacking” of the DNC computers could not have been an issue because that never rose to the level of a formal complaint through channels.  There were some mutterings about hacking having taken place, but when the FBI sought to investigate — that is, when the authorities wanted to initiate a criminal investigation — the DNC would not permit the FBI to examine its computers.  Thus, the DNC, whatever may have happened with its computers, had not a criminal problem, but rather an I.T. problem.

5. Some of the emails from John Podesta — Hillary’s campaign chairman — were published by WikiLeaks.  By Podesta’s own account, he was phished.  That is not a hack.  And, in any case, “sunshine is the best disinfectant.”  There would be no activities that a campaign chairman would be involved in that the public does not have a “right to know” about.

Mueller cleared President Trump of all charges, but that still leaves his report a disappointment because we still don’t know what charges it is that Trump was cleared of!

Look at it this way.  Our quadrennial elections for president are the most important ritual of the U.S. of A.  People in the intelligence community — Brennan, Comey, Clapper — knew that there was “unprecedented interference” by the Russians in the 2016 election.  How do we know this?  They’ve told us so!

Well, who was in charge of seeing that that did not happen?  The CIA, the FBI, and the director of National Intelligence, who coordinates all our intelligence.

But they have not told us what the Russians did or what they — Brennan, Comey, Clapper — did about it and what they directed their organizations to do about it.

The point of intelligence is to inform the president so he can direct the affairs of the country.  A matter this grave would have been reported upward to President Obama.

What did he know, and when did he know it?  And why didn’t he do anything?   

After Hillary lost the election, the Democrats, examining their souls in light of 150 years of machine politics, wondered what trick Trump used to fool the public.  Not being able to find one, they made one up — with the support of the Intelligence Community, which turned on the country.

Trump offered himself as a citizen, at great personal risk, to lead the country.  He made the case to the public on critical issues that had been ignored or on which the country was being sold out by its permanent leadership and about which the public was gravely concerned.

Trump picked up the trampled flag and hollered, “Follow me.”

One hand clapping.  That’s the sound after the Mueller report’s release.  Why?

Because one of the questions we would have hoped to see answered in the report is, what, exactly, was the charge against President Trump; what, exactly, is he supposed to have done?  It is astonishing that the word used for his alleged activity has been, from start to finish, “collusion.”

“Collusion” is a characterization of a charge, not a description of one.

If, for instance, Vladimir Putin had come ashore in a dinghy on a remote patch of the Maine coastline and had handed Trump a briefcase with $1 billion in it, that would be the charge.  Poets could characterize that as “collusion” between Trump and Putin, but the charge would be that Trump had accepted from Putin — a foreigner — a contributed of $1 billion to Trump’s campaign.

We can narrow things down because we know what did not happen and thus could not have been collusion with the Russians or anybody else.

1. That George Papadopoulos could have opened the investigation into the Trump campaign is absurd. Papadopoulos allegedly told Alexander Downer that the Trump campaign knew that the Russians had Hillary’s 33,000 deleted emails.

Our intelligence guys would have laughed themselves sick if they believed this.  Why?  Because Hillary had already turned back in to the State Department all the emails containing Official Business!  The 33,000 emails that she deleted contained only “wedding arrangements and yoga appointments.”  How do we know this?

Hillary told us!

2. In addition to that, the FBI was convinced of it by means of the FBI’s investigation.  Would the agents have cleared Hillary of prosecution if they thought Official Business/secrets of the country had been conveyed to the Russians due to her use of her private server while secretary of state?  Obviously not!  And we know that the FBI must have been extremely careful, because it had to account for the massive amount — $500,000 — the Russians had paid for a speech by Bill.

3. There is one more thing that locks this up tight.  James Comey — at that time director of the FBI — broke with normal practice and made himself responsible for the investigation of Hillary’s emails.  No more need be said!

4. We know that “hacking” of the DNC computers could not have been an issue because that never rose to the level of a formal complaint through channels.  There were some mutterings about hacking having taken place, but when the FBI sought to investigate — that is, when the authorities wanted to initiate a criminal investigation — the DNC would not permit the FBI to examine its computers.  Thus, the DNC, whatever may have happened with its computers, had not a criminal problem, but rather an I.T. problem.

5. Some of the emails from John Podesta — Hillary’s campaign chairman — were published by WikiLeaks.  By Podesta’s own account, he was phished.  That is not a hack.  And, in any case, “sunshine is the best disinfectant.”  There would be no activities that a campaign chairman would be involved in that the public does not have a “right to know” about.

Mueller cleared President Trump of all charges, but that still leaves his report a disappointment because we still don’t know what charges it is that Trump was cleared of!

Look at it this way.  Our quadrennial elections for president are the most important ritual of the U.S. of A.  People in the intelligence community — Brennan, Comey, Clapper — knew that there was “unprecedented interference” by the Russians in the 2016 election.  How do we know this?  They’ve told us so!

Well, who was in charge of seeing that that did not happen?  The CIA, the FBI, and the director of National Intelligence, who coordinates all our intelligence.

But they have not told us what the Russians did or what they — Brennan, Comey, Clapper — did about it and what they directed their organizations to do about it.

The point of intelligence is to inform the president so he can direct the affairs of the country.  A matter this grave would have been reported upward to President Obama.

What did he know, and when did he know it?  And why didn’t he do anything?   

After Hillary lost the election, the Democrats, examining their souls in light of 150 years of machine politics, wondered what trick Trump used to fool the public.  Not being able to find one, they made one up — with the support of the Intelligence Community, which turned on the country.

Trump offered himself as a citizen, at great personal risk, to lead the country.  He made the case to the public on critical issues that had been ignored or on which the country was being sold out by its permanent leadership and about which the public was gravely concerned.

Trump picked up the trampled flag and hollered, “Follow me.”

via American Thinker Blog

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Fetus-Fixated NPR Lingo Czar: ‘Babies Are Not Babies Until They’re Born’

Ramesh Ponnuru at National Review pointed out that NPR standards-and-practices guru Mark Memmott issued a new memo — a "guidance reminder" — instructing his taxpayer-funded staff how their language on abortion should not concede anything to "antiabortion groups." It isn’t about objectivity. It’s about using language to shift public opinion. Unbelievably, this memo is summarized as "We need to be precise, accurate, and neutral."

via NewsBusters – Exposing Liberal Media Bias

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Developing: Democrat Chairman of House Oversight Committee and Wife Accused of Massive Pay-to-Play Scandal

Rep. Elijah Cummings caught up in charity scandal–

A charity run by Maya Rockeymoore, the wife of Rep. Elijah Cummings, received millions from special interest groups and corporations that had business before her husband’s committee.

The Washington Examiner reported:

Cummings, 68, a Maryland Democrat, is chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. His wife, Maya Rockeymoore, 48, is the chairman of the Maryland Democratic Party and briefly ran in the state’s gubernatorial race last year. The couple married in 2008. Cummings was once heavily in debt — in part due to hefty child support payments to his first wife and two other women he had children with — but his financial situation has improved considerably over the past decade.

Rockeymoore runs two entities, a nonprofit group called the Center for Global Policy Solutions and a for-profit consulting firm called Global Policy Solutions, LLC, whose operations appear to have overlapped, according to the IRS complaint filed by watchdog group the National Legal and Policy Center on Monday. The complaint states that the arrangement may have been used to derive “illegal private benefit.”

Global Policy Solutions received more than $6.2 million in grants between 2013 and 2016, according to tax records. Several of the nonprofit group’s financial backers — which included Google, J.P Morgan and Prudential — have business interests before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Cummings has served as Democratic chairman of the committee since January and previously served as ranking member.

Read the rest here.

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House Freedom Caucus Formally Condemns Justin Amash’s Impeachment Remarks

The House Freedom Caucus on Monday evening formally denounced Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI), one of the group’s founding members, over his recent remarks regarding President Donald Trump and impeachment.

House Oversight Committee ranking member Jim Jordan (R-OH), who previously served as chairman of the Freedom Caucus, told reporters that all 30 members in attendance of the caucus’s weekly meeting voted to condemn the libertarian-leaning Michigan congressman. “It was every single person who totally disagrees with what he says,” said Jordan. “What concerns me is Justin was viewed as a leader, right, on protecting privacy rights first to First Amendment rights.”

The conservative lawmakers were said to have taken turns expressing frustration over comments made by Amash, who claimed special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on now-debunked collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia had shown President Trump committing “impeachable” offenses. He also accused Attorney General William Barr of mischaracterizing Mueller’s findings.

“Contrary to Barr’s portrayal, Mueller’s report reveals that President Trump engaged in specific actions and a pattern of behavior that meets the threshold for impeachment,” Amash tweeted on Saturday. The lawmaker then contended that the report “identifies multiple examples of conduct satisfying all the elements of obstruction of justice, and undoubtedly any person who is not the president of the United States would be indicted based on such evidence.”

On Monday, Amash doubled down on his impeachment remarks, stating those who assert President Trump did not commit any crimes are relying on “several falsehoods,” then asserting that the Mueller Report shows an “underlying crime” that Trump was attempting to obstruct. Mueller’s team conclusively stated that there was no underlying crime of collusion with foreign nationals; that conspiracy theory only continues to live on in the fever swamps of far-left pundits and celebrities.

Amash’s comments were met with fierce blowback from top Republicans, including the president himself, who hit back at the Michigan congressman in a pair of tweets Sunday. “Never a fan of @justinamash, a total lightweight who opposes me and some of our great Republican ideas and policies just for the sake of getting his name out there through controversy, the president said. “Justin is a loser who sadly plays right into our opponents [sic] hands!”

In an interview with the Fox News Channel, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA ) said Amash drummed up talk of impeachment because he is an attention seeker. “You’ve got to understand Justin Amash. He’s been in Congress quite some time,” the Republican said. “I think he’s asked one question in all the committees that he’s been in. He votes more with Nancy Pelosi than he ever votes with me. It’s a question whether he’s even in our Republican conference as a whole.”

Unsurprisingly, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) broke with Republicans in offering praise for Amash, branding his statements “courageous.” “I respect him. I think it’s a courageous statement,” Romney said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union.

Meanwhile, Amash’s remarks have earned him a primary challenge from a Michigan state representative.

Michigan State Rep. Jim Lower (R) on Monday announced he will try to unseat Amash, moving up the announcement in the wake of Amash’s comments.

“Congressman Justin Amash tweets yesterday calling for President Trump’s impeachment show how out of touch he is with the truth and how out of touch he is with people he represents,” said Lower, according to the Detroit Free Press. “He must be replaced and I am going to do it.”

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Information slowly emerging about pipe-wielding mob of Somali ‘youths’ who attacked people waiting for light rail train in Minneapolis last Friday

My hometown of Minneapolis has been totally transformed by the arrival of tens of thousands of refugees from Somalis, one of whom now represents the city and a few suburbs in Congress. Nobody there was asked if such a makeover was desired by the residents; State Department officials decided that the generous welfare benefits available in Minnesota were reason enough to send people whose native land was tropical to the coldest major city in the United States.

But now that the old 97%+ Caucasian city has been made into a multicultural exemplar, the local establishment, including the newspapers and broadcasters, is ultra-protective of its prized diversity-endowing Somali community.

That might explain why the news of a horrific attack on people waiting for a light rail train at the University of Minnesota has been so slow to emerge. A mob of “youths” – it now turns out they are juveniles, so their identities are being protected – believed to be of Somali extraction attacked innocent people waiting for a light rail train at the East Bank University of Minnesota station. They were wielding either hammers or pipes.

East Bank Light Rail station (photo credit: Runner 1928)

The first reports came not from any established news outlets, but rather from people monitoring police scanners and posting the Facebook Page of 2nd Pct Minneapolis Crime Watch & Information. Those reports were, in turn, posted to Alpha News (hat tip: Glenn Reynolds, Intapundit) which writes:

A mob of eight to 10 males wielding hammers descended upon bystanders at the East Bank Light Rail station on Friday night injuring several, according to recorded police dispatch audio.

The incident was apparently reported to 911 just before 10 p.m. on Friday according to the audio and other social media police scanner reports. A 9:48 p.m. Facebook post on 2nd Precinct Minneapolis Crime Watch page said that University of Minnesota (U of M) police were requesting assistance from Minneapolis police (MPD) and Metro Transit police for “a group of 8-10 males chasing people with hammers” and that some people were injured. A Facebook post a minute later on Minneapolis Scanner page said that the three police departments were responding to “multiple [911] calls” about “10-12 Somali teen males armed with hammers chasing people,” also with “several injuries reported.” Both Facebook pages regularly post summaries of police scanner audio.

A person who claimed on social media to have been at the station when the incident occurred said that the group of males had “hammers and bars,” and that they seemed to be “attacking anyone who looked like they had money or were white.” The witness, who said he isn’t white, said he didn’t want to “[take] on a bunch of dudes with blunt objects,” and that he “hurried an older white lady away” and they walked a few blocks to catch a bus.

A long and spirited discussion thread on  2nd Pct Minneapolis Crime Watch & Information provided lots of follow-up, including:

A representative from the MPD’s 2nd Precinct, which covers the area where the incident occurred, responded that the case was being handled by the University of Minnesota (U of M) police, and said that the U of M police report indicated there were seven juveniles “causing a disturbance” on the light rail platform and that two of the juveniles “had pipes in their hands.” The email stated that two juveniles were arrested and cited for disorderly conduct, fleeing police and false information to police, and they were transported to the Juvenile Detention Center. The email also said that one of the suspects was “known” to officers in Minneapolis’ 1st Precinct, which covers downtown Minneapolis and the Cedar-Riverside area. The email said there was nothing mentioned [in the U of M police report] about injuries or victims. Case number UM 19-140183. 
Because the suspects are juveniles, no further information about their identities or cases will be made available.

Finally, yesterday, 3 days after the attack, the (formerly St. Paul, now Twin Cities)  Pioneer Press daily newspaper covered the attack.

Two males who were carrying metal pipes were identified through video surveillance and witness descriptions, said Lacey Nygard, a University of Minnesota spokeswoman. Police issued them citations.

University of Minnesota Police were dispatched to the Green Line’s East Bank station at 9:45 p.m. Friday.

Police asked for assistance from Metro Transit and Minneapolis police for a group of eight to 10 males “chasing people around with hammers,” according to initial emergency radio traffic posted by Minneapolis Crime Watch & Information.

Officers found no one injured as a result of the incident, Nygard said.

Police cited two males for disorderly conduct and fleeing police on foot; one was also cited for giving police a fictitious name. A police report didn’t specify their exact ages, but indicated that one is 12 or 13 and the other is 14 or 15.

Glenn Reynolds comments:

“Males.” They were Somali teens, showing their gratitude to the nation that gave them refuge.

So far as I can determine, Rep. Ilhan Omar, the Somali refugee who represents Minneapolis in Congress and who also seems entirely ungrateful to the nation that paid for her to leave her hellhole homeland and granted her citizenship, has so far not commented on the incident.

Since the alleged perps are juveniles, we can expect this attack to disappear from the formal media, but perhaps bloggers and Facebook posters (so long as Mark Zuckerberg permits) will offer further details as they emerge.

Celebrate diversity, anyone?

My hometown of Minneapolis has been totally transformed by the arrival of tens of thousands of refugees from Somalis, one of whom now represents the city and a few suburbs in Congress. Nobody there was asked if such a makeover was desired by the residents; State Department officials decided that the generous welfare benefits available in Minnesota were reason enough to send people whose native land was tropical to the coldest major city in the United States.

But now that the old 97%+ Caucasian city has been made into a multicultural exemplar, the local establishment, including the newspapers and broadcasters, is ultra-protective of its prized diversity-endowing Somali community.

That might explain why the news of a horrific attack on people waiting for a light rail train at the University of Minnesota has been so slow to emerge. A mob of “youths” – it now turns out they are juveniles, so their identities are being protected – believed to be of Somali extraction attacked innocent people waiting for a light rail train at the East Bank University of Minnesota station. They were wielding either hammers or pipes.

East Bank Light Rail station (photo credit: Runner 1928)

The first reports came not from any established news outlets, but rather from people monitoring police scanners and posting the Facebook Page of 2nd Pct Minneapolis Crime Watch & Information. Those reports were, in turn, posted to Alpha News (hat tip: Glenn Reynolds, Intapundit) which writes:

A mob of eight to 10 males wielding hammers descended upon bystanders at the East Bank Light Rail station on Friday night injuring several, according to recorded police dispatch audio.

The incident was apparently reported to 911 just before 10 p.m. on Friday according to the audio and other social media police scanner reports. A 9:48 p.m. Facebook post on 2nd Precinct Minneapolis Crime Watch page said that University of Minnesota (U of M) police were requesting assistance from Minneapolis police (MPD) and Metro Transit police for “a group of 8-10 males chasing people with hammers” and that some people were injured. A Facebook post a minute later on Minneapolis Scanner page said that the three police departments were responding to “multiple [911] calls” about “10-12 Somali teen males armed with hammers chasing people,” also with “several injuries reported.” Both Facebook pages regularly post summaries of police scanner audio.

A person who claimed on social media to have been at the station when the incident occurred said that the group of males had “hammers and bars,” and that they seemed to be “attacking anyone who looked like they had money or were white.” The witness, who said he isn’t white, said he didn’t want to “[take] on a bunch of dudes with blunt objects,” and that he “hurried an older white lady away” and they walked a few blocks to catch a bus.

A long and spirited discussion thread on  2nd Pct Minneapolis Crime Watch & Information provided lots of follow-up, including:

A representative from the MPD’s 2nd Precinct, which covers the area where the incident occurred, responded that the case was being handled by the University of Minnesota (U of M) police, and said that the U of M police report indicated there were seven juveniles “causing a disturbance” on the light rail platform and that two of the juveniles “had pipes in their hands.” The email stated that two juveniles were arrested and cited for disorderly conduct, fleeing police and false information to police, and they were transported to the Juvenile Detention Center. The email also said that one of the suspects was “known” to officers in Minneapolis’ 1st Precinct, which covers downtown Minneapolis and the Cedar-Riverside area. The email said there was nothing mentioned [in the U of M police report] about injuries or victims. Case number UM 19-140183. 
Because the suspects are juveniles, no further information about their identities or cases will be made available.

Finally, yesterday, 3 days after the attack, the (formerly St. Paul, now Twin Cities)  Pioneer Press daily newspaper covered the attack.

Two males who were carrying metal pipes were identified through video surveillance and witness descriptions, said Lacey Nygard, a University of Minnesota spokeswoman. Police issued them citations.

University of Minnesota Police were dispatched to the Green Line’s East Bank station at 9:45 p.m. Friday.

Police asked for assistance from Metro Transit and Minneapolis police for a group of eight to 10 males “chasing people around with hammers,” according to initial emergency radio traffic posted by Minneapolis Crime Watch & Information.

Officers found no one injured as a result of the incident, Nygard said.

Police cited two males for disorderly conduct and fleeing police on foot; one was also cited for giving police a fictitious name. A police report didn’t specify their exact ages, but indicated that one is 12 or 13 and the other is 14 or 15.

Glenn Reynolds comments:

“Males.” They were Somali teens, showing their gratitude to the nation that gave them refuge.

So far as I can determine, Rep. Ilhan Omar, the Somali refugee who represents Minneapolis in Congress and who also seems entirely ungrateful to the nation that paid for her to leave her hellhole homeland and granted her citizenship, has so far not commented on the incident.

Since the alleged perps are juveniles, we can expect this attack to disappear from the formal media, but perhaps bloggers and Facebook posters (so long as Mark Zuckerberg permits) will offer further details as they emerge.

Celebrate diversity, anyone?

via American Thinker Blog

Enjoy this article? Read the full version at the authors website: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/

Ramadan Rage 2019: Jihadis Massacre 364, Injure 404 in Two Weeks

Islamic terrorists have carried out an estimated 76 attacks in nearly 15 countries since the beginning Ramadan this month, killing at least 364 people and injuring 404 others in the first two weeks of the holiest month for Muslims, a Breitbart News tally shows.

That means, on average, jihadis killed at least 25 people and injured about another 30 each day since Ramadan began at sunset on May 5. This year, the holy period is expected to last through sundown on June 4.

Breitbart News’ count this week covers the 14 days of May 6 through May 19.

The tally includes a total of 768 casualties (364 deaths, 404 injuries) in 14 countries: Afghanistan, Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Egypt, Iraq, Pakistan, Kenya, Somalia, Libya, Mali, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Syria.

Afghan Taliban narco-jihadis surpassed their Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) rivals as the world’s chief perpetrators of terrorist attacks during Ramadan this year, with 29 attacks that killed 146 and wounded 156.

ISIS closely trailed the Afghan Taliban with 23 assaults that resulted in 105 fatalities and 132 injuries.

The Taliban is responsible for 40 percent of all fatalities while ISIS was behind an estimated 30 percent.

Overall, the Taliban carried out nearly 40 percent (302) of all casualties, including injuries.

Breitbart News found that, so far, Afghanistan (160 deaths, 189 injuries), Nigeria (50 deaths, 33 injuries) and Iraq (46 deaths, 54 injuries) are the bloodiest countries during the holy month.

Jihadis and other Islamists encourage their followers and supporters to escalate attacks during the holy month, arguing that Allah exceptionally rewards martyrdom during Ramadan.

The Afghan Taliban rejected a Ramadan ceasefire offer by the Afghan government this month. Instead, Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the narco-jihadi group, proclaimed, “As jihad is … the best part of worship, doing it on Ramadan is rewarded more than in other months.”

The vast majority of Ramadan attack victims are Muslims in Africa and the Middle East.

Breitbart News primarily gleans its data for its Ramadan death tally from the Religion of Peace website, but it also relies upon other databases as well as media and government reports.

News outlets and officials may update some of the casualty figures as some of the wounded victims succumb to their injuries, potentially altering the count after Breitbart News publishes this report.

Most Muslims follow the peaceful Ramadan tradition of abstaining from eating, drinking, smoking, having sex, and other physical needs each day, starting from before the break of dawn until sunset. Nevertheless, the number of attacks at the hands of jihadis tends to escalate during the month when compared to other times of the year.

Breitbart News removed the May 11 attack in Pakistan by the ethnic separatist group Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) as experts disagree on whether the group is primarily jihadist or secular separatist in nature.

Breitbart News has documented the following attacks during Ramadan:

May 6 — North Waziristan, Pakistan — Suspected Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) jihadis kill four security forces, injure ten others. 

May 6 — Kirkuk, Iraq — Suspected ISIS kill three police officers, wound one other.  

May 6 — Takhar, Afghanistan — Taliban kills eight security force members.

May 6 — Farah, Afghanistan — Taliban storms army checkpoint, killing 20, abducting two.  

May 7 — Borno, Nigeria — Boko Haram razes homes and businesses in Molai village, killing 11, including four soldiers, and wounding another 12.

May 7 — Pendjari National Park, Benin — Unknown jihadis from neighboring Burkina Faso kidnap two French tourists across the border in Benin and kill their guide in the Pendjari National Park that straddles both countries. 

May 7 — Yatenga, Burkina Faso — Suspected al-Qaeda jihadis kill toll booth operator and wound two others in the provincial capital of Ouahigouya.  

May 7 — Laghman, Afghanistan — Taliban-linked bomb blast kills four police officers, including chief, and wounds four others.  

May 7 — Salahuddin, Iraq — Suspected ISIS terrorists attack police officer’s house in the village of Mazarei, killing three and wounding five others. 

May 8 — Nineveh, Iraq — Suspected ISIS jihadis kill five family members and wound two others inside their home in the Hammam al-Alil area south of Mosul.

May 8 — Diyala, Iraq — Bomb attack linked to suspected ISIS terrorist wounds two members of the Baghdad-sanctioned Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF).

May 8 — Manbij, Syria — Suspected ISIS terrorists target the U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Aleppo province, killing two and injuring four others, including at least one child. 

May 8 — Manbij, Syria — Suspected ISIS bomb attack kills three civilians in Aleppo province, reportedly all children 

May 8 — Kabul, Afghanistan — Taliban attacks U.S. aid group, killing nine, wounding 24 others. 

May 8 — Punjab, Pakistan — TTP attacks pilgrims at an 11th-century Sufi shrine in Lahore, killing at least 13, including at least one child, and injuring 21 others. 

May 8 — Ghazni, Afghanistan — Taliban ambushes military convoy in the Qarabagh district, killing three police officers and wounding two others.  

May 9 — Wajir, Kenya — Al-Qaeda’s East Africa affiliate al-Shabaab claims attack on security forces near the border with Somalia, killing at least one soldier.

May 9 — Saladin, Iraq — Suspected ISIS jihadis target grain silo in the town of Shirqat, killing one guard. 

May 9 — Nineveh, Iraq — ISIS kills a family of eight in Mosul, including the couple and their six children. 

May 9 — Fezzan, Libya — Suspected ISIS jihadis kill two and kidnapped a third person from the town of Ghadduwah.  

May 9 — Baghdad, Iraq — ISIS suicide bomber kills eight, wounds 15 others as they broke their Ramadan fast at the Jamila market.

May 10 — Mopti, Mali — Suspected al-Qaeda jihadis kill four civilians, wound two others at the market in the town of Bandiagara. 

May 10 — Badghis, Afghanistan — Taliban targets two outposts, killing 25 security personnel and wounding 11 others in Bala Murghab district. 

May 10 — Borno, Nigeria — ISIS West Africa kills 11 troops in the town of Gajiganna.  

May 10 — Bari, Somalia —Suspected ISIS wounds ten in a failed assassination attempt against a local judge in the port city of Bosaso. 

May 10 — Balkh, Afghanistan — Taliban attacks army outpost in Balkh District, killing one local police officer and wounding four soldiers and a police officer.  

May 11 — Borno, Nigeria — Boko Haram attacks the Moranti village near Maiduguri, leaving nine dead, at least one wounded, and four missings. 

May 11 — Baghdad, Iraq — Suspected ISIS-linked bomb blast kills one child, wounds two others in the Jisr Diyala neighborhood located in the southern part of the capital. 

May 11 — Nangarhar, Afghanistan — Suspected Taliban terrorists kill deputy intelligence director for the Afghan National Police (ANP) in the Kama district. 

May 11 — Takhar, Afghanistan — Taliban kills four police officers and wounds five others in a security outpost in Khwaja Ghar District.

May 11 — Sar-i-Pul , Afghanistan — Taliban kills one police officer in Sancharak District,

May 11 — Nangarhar, Afghanistan — Taliban ambushes and kills a police officer as he drove home in the Kama District. 

May 11 — Samangan, Afghanistan — Taliban narco-jihadis kill three pro-Kabul militiamen in Khuram Ao Sarbagh district. 

May 11 — Samangan, Afghanistan — Taliban rocket attack kills five civilians, including women, and wounds ten others in Dara-i-Suf Payan district. 

May 12 — Mogadishu, Somalia —Al-Shabaab kills Turkish civil engineer. 

May 12 — Baghlan, Afghanistan — Suspected Taliban jihadis kill province’s deputy intelligence director and injure an intelligence officer in the Dushi district.

May 12 — Hama, Syria — Suspected former al-Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) fires a rocket into Christian-majority town of Suqaylabiyah, killing five, including four children and a woman, and injuring six other children. 

May 12 — Sanmatenga, Burkina Faso — Unknown jihadis attack Catholic church, set it ablaze, and kill six, including the priest. 

May 12 — Paktika, Afghanistan — Hundreds of Taliban jihadis storm outposts in the districts of Mata Khan and Zurmat, killing 13 police officers and wounding 19 others.

May 12 — Wardak, Afghanistan — Taliban targets members of the Shiite Hazara community in the Hesa-e-Dowom-e-Behsod district, leaving 5 civilians dead, 12 others wounded, and five missings. 

May 13 — Baghlan, Afghanistan — Suspected Taliban shoots teacher in Nahren district. 

May 13 — Borno, Nigeria — Improvised explosive device (IED) planted by Boko Haram on a road in Damboa district killed three Nigerian troops, including a commander, and wounded four others.  

May 13 — Nangarhar, Afghanistan — ISIS carries out three explosions in its main South Asia stronghold that rocked the provincial capital of Jalalabad, killing 9 and wounding more than 30 others.  

May 13 — Diyala, Iraq — ISIS kills father and son. 

May 13 — Balochistan, Pakistan — Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, targeted a police vehicle near a mosque with an improvised bomb rigged to a motorcycle, killing four and wounding 11 in the provincial capital of Quetta. 

May 13 — Hama, Syria — Al-Qaeda affiliate HTS, under siege by Syrian regime forces, suspected of firing more rockets into Christian-majority town of Suqaylabiyah, killing one child. 

May 13 — Yatenga, Burkina Faso — Unknown jihadis killed four Catholics, burned Virgin Mary during a procession in the town of Ouahigouya in the Muslim-majority nation. 

May 13 — Sar-i-Pul, Afghanistan — Taliban kills seven pro-Kabul militiamen, wounds six, and kidnaps three others in the provincial capital of Sar-i-Pul city. 

May 13 — Badakhshan, Afghanistan — Taliban kills four ANDSF troops, including commander, and wounds one other in  Shahri Buzurg district. 

May 14 — Nayrab Camp, Syria — Suspected members of al-Qaeda affiliate HTS lobbed missiles into a Syrian-regime held camp for displaced people in Aleppo province, killing at least 6 and wounding at least 11 others, including children, as they broke their Ramadan fast. 

May 14 — Kandahar, Afghanistan — Improvised explosive device (IED) attached to a vehicle killed a police officer in the Taliban birthplace and wounded another.

May 14 — Baghlan, Afghanistan — Unknown terrorists attached IED to a vehicle, killing one civilian and wounding three others.

May 14 — Jowzjan, Afghanistan — Taliban kills one pro-government militiaman and wounds six others in Qarqin district. 

May 14 —  Tillaberi, Niger – ISIS kills 28 soldiers and wounds at least two near the Mali border. 

May 14 — Ghor, Afghanistan — Taliban kills shopkeeper in Dolina district. 

May 14 — Mogadishu, Somalia — Al-Shabaab suicide bomber kills four office workers and injures at least nine other civilians in the Warta Nabadda district. 

May 15 — Paktia, Afghanistan — Taliban kills ANDSF soldier and wounds two others. 

May 15 — Kandahar, Afghanistan — Unknown terrorists in the Taliban birthplace of Kandahar province kill a police officer in charge of the provincial capital. 

May 15 — Kirkuk, Iraq — ISIS kills two policemen and wounds another in the town of al-Rashad.  

May 15 — Kirkuk, Iraq — ISIS kills four federal policemen near the town of Hawijah. 

May 16 — Zabul, Afghanistan — Taliban kills six Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) and wounds six others in attacks on two military checkpoints in Shamulzayi district. 

May 16 — Zabul, Afghanistan — Taliban kills three police officers, wounds two others in the provincial capital.  

May 16 — Kabul, Afghanistan — Unknown jihadis kill four members of the Public Protection Forces in the outskirts of the Afghan capital.  

May 16 — Adamawa, Nigeria — Boko Haram jihadis massacre five people, including farmers and fishermen, in the Madagali district. 

May 16 — Borno, Nigeria — Boko Haram terrorists massacre nine people, including farmers and fishermen, in the Maichulmuri village.  

May 16 — Lake Chad, Chad — Boko Haram kills 13 villagers in the village of Ceilia.

May 16 — Manbij, Syria — Suspected ISIS jihadis carry out suicide vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (SVBIED) attack, kills one U.S.-backed Kurdish fighter and injuring ten civilians. 

May 17 — Diyala, Iraq — Suspected ISIS jihadis killed two civilians, including a teacher and an elderly man in the district of Khanaqin.

May 18 — Fezzan, Libya — Suspected ISIS jihadis kill two guards and a soldier and kidnap four other people at the Zella oilfield. 

May 18 — Herat, Afghanistan — Suspected Taliban kills five children, wounds 20 other civilians in the main the market of Obe district.

May 18 — Takhar, Afghanistan — Taliban kills nine militiamen and wounds seven in Rustaq district. 

May 18 — Helmand, Afghanistan — Taliban roadside bomb kills two police officers and injures two others in Washer district.

May 18 — Borno, Nigeria — Boko Haram attacks refugee camp, killing two people and injuring 12 others. 

May 19 — Giza, Egypt — Suspected ISIS jihadis target a tourist bus with a bomb, injuring  17. 

May 19 — Diyala, Iraq — Suspected ISIS terrorists, kill seven Baghdad-sanctioned PMF troops and injures 26 others. 

May 19 — Timbuktu, Mali — Suspected jihadis kill one United Nations peacekeeper soldier and wound six others. 

via Breitbart News

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