Ask and Ye Shall Receive: Local Businesses Keep Doctors Safe

Our small business success story this week comes from Arizona. A doctor who, after seeing his colleagues contract COVID-19 while providing care to COVID patients, became sick and tired of the risks and decided to act. He designed an intubation box to protect medical professionals during the intubation process and went to local businesses for help in creating it.

They stepped up. Via AZ Central:

Reeser first took his design to Phoenix-based mattress company, Tuft & Needle, which has built and donated dozens of intubation boxes to hospitals across the Valley using his plans. Hundreds more have been sent across the country with the help of additional partners. 

While Tuft & Needle didn’t have the resources on hand to make these boxes for Dr. Reeser, they did know who to call. Soon, they were on their way to building the boxes for Reeser and his colleagues.

However, Reeser wasn’t finished. He approached Urban Plough Furniture, which normally serves hospitality and office space firms, to make the same safety devices. Founder Matthew Moore, who had seen six months worth of business dry up, jumped on the chance to help his community and his company:

“And magically, Dr. Reeser shows up at our doorstep,” Moore said. 

Like Tuft & Needle, Moore’s company has been producing the intubation boxes at cost and donating them to doctors in need — they’re not making up for lost profits. But he says the work has given him purpose. 

This is what it means to “buy,” or in this case “ask,” local. Small businesses are always going to fight – and often lose – to faceless corporations that have lower per-product costs and thus can sell everything at a lower price. However, your local small business sees purpose in helping you and your family – whether it’s during the pandemic or during more normal economic times.

Serving communities takes all kinds of shapes. Buying local means that when times are tough, you have allies and friends to get you, your family, and your neighbors through tough times. Reeser and Moore are just a single example of the amazing community teamwork that is taking place across America.

How can you be a part of supporting local?

This post is part of 2ndVote’s coverage of business charity during the COVID-19 public health, social, and economic crises. We are highlighting companies large and small which are doing their part to help their communities.

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EDITORS NOTE: This 2ndVote column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

The Intolerant, Ingrate Left Wants Christians to Stop Helping COVID-19 Victims

Just as soon as the Christian organization Samaritan’s Purse came to the aid of overwhelmed New York City officials and sick residents struggling to combat the effects of COVID-19, New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson decided the diverse, “tolerant,” progressive city had enough of its assistance, due to its Christian foundation, and effectively kicked the charity out.

While it’s usually Christians who are scolded for their so-called intolerant beliefs that are rooted in centuries-old religious traditions, here it seems like it’s progressives who aren’t so tolerant of other people embracing views that are different than theirs—even if those very views inform their acts of charity and medical care.

Samaritan’s Purse is, of course, a renowned Christian relief organization that focuses mostly on offering medical aid in times of crises, setting up emergency field hospitals in disease-ridden, war-torn, or terrorist-ravaged hot spots around the world.


In these trying times, we must turn to the greatest document in the history of the world to promise freedom and opportunity to its citizens for guidance. Find out more now >>>

When can America reopen? The National Coronavirus Recovery Commission, a project of The Heritage Foundation, is gathering America’s top thinkers together to figure that out. Learn more here>>>.


It has gone everywhere from the Bahamas to Mozambique to Iraq and has treated everything from injuries caused by ISIS to Ebola. Now, it’s helping COVID-19 patients and public officials in New York and Italy.

When COVID-19 began to overwhelm New York City just a few weeks ago—at the peak of what we now think was the frightening “curve” of the outbreak—Samaritan’s Purse arrived, built a giant tent hospital in Central Park with the full knowledge and cooperation of the nearby highly acclaimed Mount Sinai Health System, and went to work.

Here’s what Samaritan’s Purse accomplished, according to its website:

We operated our respiratory care unit in Central Park from April 1 to May 5. Through our  partnership with the Mount Sinai Health System, we treated more than 300 coronavirus patients in New York, including 190 at the park site.

More than 240 relief specialists served at various times on the Disaster Assistance Response Team there. We ran a similar medical facility outside of Milan, Italy, that opened on March 20 and closed May 7. The 14-tent unit was set up adjacent to the Cremona Hospital in order to treat an overflow of coronavirus patients.

Our DC-8 aircraft made two airlifts to Italy in order to deliver the hospital, 20 tons of supplies, and a large Disaster Assistance Response Team.

Those efforts sound not only peaceful and benign, but also quite remarkable. Not so, according to a number of New York City officials, who started a culture war where there wasn’t even a battle—except for those fighting for their lives due to COVID-19.

According to a May 4 New York Post column, “Four local Democratic members of Congress—Reps. Jerry Nadler, Carolyn Maloney, Adriano Espaillat, and [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez]—sent a letter to Mount Sinai expressing their ‘concern’ about the group’s efforts and demanding to know how it had received permission to operate in Central Park.”

Combine that with Johnson’s tweets and you have yourself a culture war coup d’etat.

Johnson specifically called out the organization’s religious views, tweeting they were too exclusive and hateful:

Their continued presence here is an affront to our values of inclusion, and is painful for all New Yorkers who care deeply about the LGBTQ community. …

The @NYCCouncil is committed to supporting [health care workers] and protecting our city’s public health. But as a city that values diversity and compassion for all, we can’t continue allowing a group with their track record to remain here when we’re past the point they’re needed.

Mount Sinai must sever its relationship with Samaritan’s Purse. Its leader calls the LGBTQ community ‘detestable’ and ‘immoral.’ He says being gay is ‘an affront to God,’ and refers to gay Christians as ‘the enemy.’ …

Johnson concluded his tweetstorm:  “Hate has no place in our beautiful city.”

Samaritan’s Purse did indeed leave a few days later, although it’s unclear whether those tweets motivated it or whether it had already planned to leave New York City on May 5.

Johnson’s interpretation that Samaritan’s Purse is a bigoted, hateful organization because it espouses traditional Christian beliefs—specifically, that marriage is between a man and a woman—is not a new lens through which the left views Christians, though that doesn’t make it accurate.

Even before the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage in 2015, that was the premise of virtually every LGBTQ group, the plaintiff in that 2015 court case, the ACLU, and many others.

Since when is it “bigotry” to hold sincere religious beliefs that people have practiced for centuries?

The LGBTQ community claims to advocate tolerance and inclusion, but it is inviting and welcoming only when everyone believes what it does, even when, as we saw here, the issue at stake—medical care in a crisis—has nothing to do with political ideology.

There’s no evidence that Samaritan’s Purse came to New York City to condemn gay marriage or even to spread the Gospel. From the sound of it, Samaritan’s Purse pitched its tent, gave medical care to patients suffering with COVID-19, and after a few weeks, or perhaps when its presence became controversial, it left.

There is still a cultural divide between Christians and LGBTQ groups and their supporters. That’s unfortunate.

I know many Christians who grieve over that and desire harmony with everyone without compromising their beliefs. I’m sure many in the LGBTQ community do as well.

It’s possible that divide may always exist, but I wish that Christians could maintain their beliefs and still extend courtesy and grace, and that people like the New York City Council speaker would be as inclusive and tolerant as they claim to be toward Christians trying to help them.

COMMENTARY BY

Nicole Russell is a contributor to The Daily Signal. Her work has appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, National Review, Politico, The Washington Times, The American Spectator, and Parents Magazine. Twitter: .

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A Note for our Readers:

This is a critical year in the history of our country. With the country polarized and divided on a number of issues and with roughly half of the country clamoring for increased government control—over health care, socialism, increased regulations, and open borders—we must turn to America’s founding for the answers on how best to proceed into the future.

The Heritage Foundation has compiled input from more than 100 constitutional scholars and legal experts into the country’s most thorough and compelling review of the freedoms promised to us within the United States Constitution into a free digital guide called Heritage’s Guide to the Constitution.

They’re making this guide available to all readers of The Daily Signal for free today!

GET ACCESS NOW! >>


EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Signal column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

VIDEO: The Fauci-WHO Connection and Restoring U.S. Funding to the Marxist organization

Tucker Carlson obtains draft letter showing U.S. on brink of restoring WHO funding:

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EDITORS NOTE: This Vlad Tepes Blog column posted by Eeyore is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

VIDEO: Tik Tok and Chinese propaganda

Thank you Pepi

Now wouldn’t it be great if this guy did one one Canada’s CBC?

OH WAIT! HE DID!

EDITORS NOTE: This video posted by Eeyore on Vlad Tepes Blog is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

See what Nancy Pelosi stuffed in her partisan ‘Coronavirus’ bill

Nancy Pelosi’s left-wing wish list

If House Democrats are focused on helping Americans get through this global pandemic safely, they sure have a funny way of showing it.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s latest extravagant, $3 trillion spending proposal is Washington at its worst—and most predictable. While President Trump, governors of both parties, and frontline workers band together to fight this virus as one country, House Democrats see an opportunity to exploit this crisis to pass their partisan agenda.

Millions of Americans are out of work. President Trump is trying to get them back on the job by safely reopening our country. Instead of helping him do it, here is what Democrats in Congress have decided is worth holding Coronavirus relief hostage for:

  • A BAN on information about low-cost health insurance. That’s right—House Democrats want to forbid the government from sharing any information with you about lower-cost health options such as association plans or short-term plans. Even as families try to cope with job and wage losses, Speaker Pelosi doesn’t want them to learn about options that are up to 60 percent cheaper than Obamacare.
  • Mass voting by mail. A “Coronavirus relief” bill might seem like the wrong time and place to dictate how states run their elections. Democrats disagree.
  • Stimulus checks for illegal aliens. Rather than protect American citizens by requiring a Social Security Number for taxpayer-funded stimulus, Pelosi’s bill would give illegal immigrants the ability to receive up to $1,200 in direct payouts.
  • Bailouts… for government. Democrats want more than $1 trillion in cash for state and local governments, mostly in the form of unrestricted aid that doesn’t need to be used to offset Coronavirus costs. They also threw in a $25 billion bailout for the Post Office.

The list goes on. At a moment when Americans most need Washington to look out for them and cut the partisan drama, Democrat leaders once again chose to put their far-left base first.

MORE: “Democrats’ new $3 trillion Coronavirus spending wishlist is another embarrassing farce”


President Trump is protecting our national stockpile

When the Coronavirus struck, President Trump knew that America needed to act quickly. He worked with Congress to secure $16 billion to build up our national stockpile with ventilators, masks, respirators, pharmaceuticals, and other critical supplies.

As a result, America today has an abundant supply of ventilators, N95 respirators, and resources for testing—a crucial area where we now lead the world.

But that’s only the start. President Trump knows that America’s long-term self-reliance depends on our supply chain. “Our goal for the future must be to have American medicine for American patients, American supplies for American hospitals, and American equipment for our great American heroes,” he says.

“Now, both parties must unite to ensure the United States is truly an independent nation in every sense of the word.”

Today, the President traveled to Pennsylvania, visiting a distribution center that’s played a key role in helping to restock America.

Just since February, the Owens & Minor Distribution Center in Upper Macungie has deployed 1.75 million N95 respirators, 3.4 million gowns, 80 million gloves, and much more across our country. “You’re making America proud,” President Trump told them.

President Trump: “We are reclaiming our heritage as a nation of manufacturers!”

WATCHOur supply chains need to be HERE, not overseas

PODCAST: A Three-Star Conspiracy. . .

Was the Michael Flynn saga ever about him? Or was it just another way to get to the president?

Andrew McCarthy has been following the case for three years, and he says there’s no doubt. Find out what Democrats were up to — then and now — in this special sit-down with the former federal prosecutor. Hear about all of the new developments, including one judge’s decision not to drop the case.

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EDITORS NOTE: This FRC-Action podcast is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

4 Big Unanswered Questions About the ‘Unmasking’ Scandal

As the “unmasking” scandal unfolds, the Senate Judiciary Committee will delve into the conduct of the Obama administration and the intelligence community in secretly investigating the incoming Trump administration.

Two Senate Republicans released previously secret information Wednesday listing top Obama administration officials who made the same request in early 2017: that the intelligence community disclose to them that retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn was the American whose phone conversation with the Russian ambassador had been intercepted by intelligence officials.

Flynn at the time had been chosen by President-elect Donald Trump as his first national security adviser. Flynn’s “unmasking” at the request of some of outgoing President Barack Obama’s closest advisers set in motion events that led to Flynn’s resignation after only 23 days in office during the new Trump administration.

Sens. Charles Grassley of Iowa and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, both Republicans, released the names of the Obama officials requesting Flynn’s identity as part of information declassified by Richard Grenell, acting director of national intelligence.


In these trying times, we must turn to the greatest document in the history of the world to promise freedom and opportunity to its citizens for guidance. Find out more now >>


Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., announced Thursday that his committee would hold hearings in June examining issues surrounding the Flynn case and related to the initial FBI investigation of possible ties between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.

In a joint statement, Johnson, chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the Senate’s chief oversight panel, and Grassley, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said:

Our investigation of these matters has been ongoing for years, and as information finally comes to light, our focus on these issues is even more important now. The records are one step forward in an important effort to get to the bottom of what the Obama administration did during the Russia investigation and to Lt. General Flynn. We will continue to review this information and push for additional relevant disclosures until we are satisfied that the American people know the full truth.

Meanwhile, U.S. Attorney John Durham of Connecticut continues to look into the origins of the Russia investigation, and the Justice Department has said that the Flynn unmasking requests is one part of that probe.

Here are four big unanswered questions as the Senate and the Justice Department scrutinize actions taken by the Obama administration between Trump’s election on Nov. 8, 2016, and his inauguration on Jan. 20, 2017.

1. Can Obama Be Compelled to Testify?

It might well be must-see TV, but at this point it seems highly unlikely that Obama himself would be subpoenaed to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Trump made the demand in a tweet Thursday.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1260938381254701060?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1260938381254701060&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailysignal.com%2F2020%2F05%2F14%2F4-big-unanswered-questions-about-the-unmasking-scandal%2F

“If I were a Senator or Congressman, the first person I would call to testify about the biggest political crime and scandal in the history of the USA, by FAR, is former President Obama,” Trump said in the tweet. “He knew EVERYTHING. Do it @LindseyGrahamSC, just do it. No more Mr. Nice Guy. No more talk!”

The previously classified documents released this week show that in the waning days of the Obama administration, these six well-known officials each submitted an unmasking request that would reveal Flynn’s otherwise protected identity under U.S. law: FBI Director James Comey, White House chief of staff Denis McDonough, Vice President Joe Biden, United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power, CIA Director John Brennan, and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.

The Justice Department’s case against Flynn for lying to the FBI about his conversations with the Russian ambassador largely fell apart after other documents recently surfaced. They included notes of a discussion among Comey and two other top FBI officials about whether the goal in questioning Flynn at the White House was to “get him to lie” so that he could be fired or prosecuted.

The Justice Department last week dropped the case against Flynn for misleading the FBI, but a federal judge this week called in outside authorities to dispute that action.

Graham, in a statement Thursday, appeared to be reluctant about Trump’s call for Obama to testify.

“I am greatly concerned about the precedent that would be set by calling a former president for oversight,” Graham said. “No president is above the law. However, the presidency has executive privilege claims against other branches of government.”

Graham continued:

To say we are living in unusual times is an understatement.

We have the sitting president (Trump) accusing the former president (Obama) of being part of a treasonous conspiracy to undermine his presidency. We have the former president suggesting the current president is destroying the rule of law by dismissing the General Flynn case.

All of this is occurring during a major pandemic.

As to the Judiciary Committee, both presidents are welcome to come before the committee and share their concerns about each other. If nothing else it would make for great television. However, I have great doubts about whether it would be wise for the country.

Graham is striking the correct balance, said Charles Stimson, a senior legal fellow for national security at The Heritage Foundation.

“Chairman Graham should go after the facts, and see where that leads. He’s going to hold hearings,” Stimson told The Daily Signal on Thursday. “To take the president up on that suggestion [of calling Obama to testify] would risk looking political and could delegitimize the inquiry.”

2. What Are the Legal Issues?

Graham said the first part of his committee’s comprehensive inquiry would be of the Flynn matter.

“Our first phase will deal with the government’s decision to dismiss the Flynn case as well as an in-depth analysis of the unmasking requests made by Obama Administration officials against General Flynn,” Graham said in his written statement. “We must determine if these requests were legitimate.”

If Obama administration officials engaged in improper conduct, it’s not clear whether a law was broken, or who violated the law if one was broken.

Under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, U.S. intelligence agencies may intercept and listen to the telephone calls of foreign citizens, including foreign officials. That would include Flynn’s call with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak on Dec. 29, 2016, roughly three weeks before Trump’s inauguration.

If a foreign citizen is speaking to an American citizen on the intercepted call, the law requires the name of the American citizen to be blacked out, or masked, in documentation.

So unmasking is the process by which authorized federal officials request to see information regarding American citizens mentioned anonymously in classified transcripts of calls or other communications involving foreigners.

However, someone leaked Flynn’s communication with the Russian ambassador to the media shortly after the unmasking requests were made. Leaking classified information is a crime.

Brennan, Clapper, Comey and the others named in the documents released by Grenell were authorized to ask for the unmasking. The question is whether there was a legitimate reason to ask for the unmasking, Stimson said.

Another question is whether the unmasking was an attempt by officials of the outgoing Obama administration to undermine the incoming Trump administration.

“I’m not there yet. I want to see more facts,” Stimson told The Daily Signal.

Stimson added that congressional hearings typically seem political, but could produce further lines of inquiry.

He said he is more focused on the probe by Durham, whose career has been as a “stand-up, just-the-facts-ma’am, Joe Friday type of guy.”

3. How Did FISA System Go ‘Off the Rails’?

Graham said the next phase of the Judiciary Committee’s inquiry will revisit the apparent abuse of the process for obtaining warrants under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, highlighted in a scathing report late last year by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz.

Horowitz testified to the committee in December about his report’s findings. Among the most startling: The FBI relied almost entirely on the so-called Steele dossier, an opposition research document financed by Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, as the basis for a FISA warrant to surveil Trump campaign aide Carter Page.

The inspector general’s report also determined that FBI overreach wasn’t limited to Page, but included other Trump campaign aides such as Flynn, then an adviser; George Papadopoulos, a campaign volunteer; and one-time campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

“Our next area of inquiry, later this summer, will be oversight building upon the Horowitz report about FISA abuses against Carter Page,” Graham said. “My goal is to find out why and how the system got so off the rails.”

4. What Was the Point of the Mueller Probe?

After an investigation lasting nearly two years and costing taxpayers $32 million, special counsel Robert Mueller, Comey’s predecessor as FBI director, determined that the Trump campaign did not conspire with the Russian government to influence the 2016 election.

The problem, critics of the Mueller probe say, is that prior to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s appointing him as special counsel, no evidence existed to suggest a Trump-Russia conspiracy.

Thus, the Judiciary Committee will look into the predicate of initiating a special counsel probe, Graham said.

“Finally, we will look at whether Robert Mueller should have ever been appointed as Special Counsel,” he said. “Was there legitimate reason to conclude the Trump campaign had colluded with the Russians?”

Mueller secured grand jury indictments against some two dozen Russian operatives—none of whom is expected ever to stand trial because they are in Russia.

The special counsel’s team also scored a conviction of Manafort for financial crimes unrelated to the presidential campaign.

COLUMN BY

Fred Lucas

Fred Lucas is the White House correspondent for The Daily Signal and co-host of “The Right Side of History” podcast. Lucas is also the author of “Tainted by Suspicion: The Secret Deals and Electoral Chaos of Disputed Presidential Elections.” Send an email to Fred. Twitter: @FredLucasWH.

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A Note for our Readers:

This is a critical year in the history of our country. With the country polarized and divided on a number of issues and with roughly half of the country clamoring for increased government control—over health care, socialism, increased regulations, and open borders—we must turn to America’s founding for the answers on how best to proceed into the future.

The Heritage Foundation has compiled input from more than 100 constitutional scholars and legal experts into the country’s most thorough and compelling review of the freedoms promised to us within the United States Constitution into a free digital guide called Heritage’s Guide to the Constitution.

They’re making this guide available to all readers of The Daily Signal for free today!

GET ACCESS NOW! >>


EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Signal column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

1% of Counties Home to Half of COVID-19 Cases, Over Half of Deaths

As Heritage Foundation researchers have demonstrated throughout the pandemic, the spread of COVID-19 in the U.S. has been extremely concentrated in a small number of states—and among a small number of counties within all states.

As of May 11, for example, 10 states accounted for almost 70% of all U.S. cases and nearly 75% of all deaths (but only 52% of the population). Together, New York and New Jersey alone account for 35% of all cases and 44% of total COVID-19 deaths, though only 9% of the U.S. population.

These state-level figures do not, however, adequately describe the concentrated nature of the spread of COVID-19.


When can America reopen? The National Coronavirus Recovery Commission, a project of The Heritage Foundation, is gathering America’s top thinkers together to figure that out. Learn more here>>>.

In these trying times, we must turn to the greatest document in the history of the world to promise freedom and opportunity to its citizens for guidance. Find out more now >>


The 30 counties with the most COVID-19 cases, for example, account for 48% of all the cases in the U.S. and 55% of all deaths, three to four times greater than their 15% share of the U.S. population.

That is, just 1% of all counties, representing 15% of the U.S. population, are responsible for almost half of the country’s COVID-19 cases and more than half of the deaths.

Of those 30 counties, 24 are in the Northeast corridor between Philadelphia and Boston, the passageway served by a commuter railway system that runs through Manhattan.

Overall, only about 10% of all counties contain 95% of all the COVID-19 deaths, even though they account for 64% of the population.

Just as important, 50% of all counties (with 10% of the U.S. population) have zero COVID-19 deaths as of May 11. In fact, 63% of all counties (with 15% of the population) have no more than one COVID-19 death each.

So, while 1% of counties (mostly in the Northeast) have more than half of all COVID-19 deaths in the U.S., 63% of counties have no more than one COVID-19 death each—and both groups represent the same share of the U.S. population.

With many state and local governments starting to relax stay-at-home orders, it’s instructive to examine just how concentrated the spread of COVID-19 has been in the U.S.

The Heritage Foundation’s interactive COVID-19 tracker helps put these levels of concentrated cases in perspective. It provides county-level data that includes total cases, total cases as a percentage of the population, where that percentage ranks among all 3,145 counties, and a population density measure.

The tracker also describes whether the trend of cases is increasing or decreasing over the prior 14 days, and provides a visual depiction of new cases during this time period.

The information shows just how difficult it can be to use only one metric to gauge whether a county is doing well.

For instance, Jersey County, Illinois, on the state’s border with Missouri, has had an increasing case trend during the past 14 days. As the chart shows, however, the county has not had more than one new case per day since April 26.

Furthermore, the fact that Jersey County ranks almost squarely in the middle of all U.S. counties with a case total of just 0.08% of its population affirms that most counties have a relatively small number of COVID-19 cases.

Readers are invited to explore the information in the tracker and check back frequently for updates.

COLUMN BY

Norbert Michel

Norbert Michel studies and writes about housing finance, including the reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as The Heritage Foundation’s research fellow in financial regulations. Read his research. Twitter: @norbertjmichel.

Drew Gonshorowski

Drew Gonshorowski focuses his research and writing on the nation’s new health care law, including the repercussions for Medicare and Medicaid, as a policy analyst in the Center for Data Analysis at The Heritage Foundation. He also studies economic mobility and the Austrian school of economics. Twitter: @Gonshorowskd.

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A Note for our Readers:

This is a critical year in the history of our country. With the country polarized and divided on a number of issues and with roughly half of the country clamoring for increased government control—over health care, socialism, increased regulations, and open borders—we must turn to America’s founding for the answers on how best to proceed into the future.

The Heritage Foundation has compiled input from more than 100 constitutional scholars and legal experts into the country’s most thorough and compelling review of the freedoms promised to us within the United States Constitution into a free digital guide called Heritage’s Guide to the Constitution.

They’re making this guide available to all readers of The Daily Signal for free today!

GET ACCESS NOW! >>


EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Signal column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Greasing the Skids Toward Socialism?

One fallout of the Covid-19 crisis is its severe thrashing of our economy. Not only have all the impressive economic gains of the Trump administration evaporated, but we are now adding to our national debt in scary ways. I hope that all the bailouts are temporary means to solve a temporary problem.

To use an analogy: One of the saddest things about a midlife crisis is that permanent damage can be done to “solve” what turns out to be only a temporary problem. I pray that America won’t adopt the permanent solution of socialism to solve our temporary coronavirus crisis.

One of the most frightening things about the bailouts is that some people find that they are receiving more money for not working than they did when they were working.

Long before the crisis, we have seen the rise of popularity of socialism among the young in America. A Gallup poll about a year ago found that four in ten Americans embrace some form of socialism. Yipes.

In short, if we are not careful, this crisis could end up greasing the skids toward socialism.

President Trump wants to see us “inch” back to work and to recovery. But many Americans want to see us embrace socialism. Long before the aLL crisis, NYC socialist Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was arguing that the “super wealthy” should be taxed up to 70 percent of their income in order to fund the “green new deal.”

Dr. Richard Land, the president of Southern Evangelical Seminary in Charlotte, N.C., knows firsthand what it is like to live in a socialist country. After graduating Princeton, he studied at Oxford to earn his Ph.D. He lived in the U.K. from 1972-1975 and experienced socialism there before Margaret Thatcher turned things around, beginning in the late 1970s. He said, “It was horrible.”

In a radio segment warning against socialism, he told me, “In Great Britain, nothing worked.”

Some people had been paying 91 percent taxes before Thatcher’s policies lowered it to 29 percent. She also privatized a lot of industries.

The results were amazing. Before Thatcher’s capitalist reforms, notes Land, England had the lowest per capita income in Western Europe. Because of her reforms, they ended up having the highest per capita income.

But, someone might ask, “What about Scandinavia?” Land notes that they too abandoned socialism because it doesn’t work. Instead, they have capitalism with a “liberal welfare state.”

What about all the young Americans who claim to embrace socialism? Land notes that they are thinking of socialism as just being “share and share alike.” But that’s not what it is. In socialism, the state becomes god. In a nanny state, you get the people more and more dependent upon the government for their very living.

That is what makes this present meltdown of the economy so frightening. There may be many on the marginal side of life who are content to rely upon the government—even as a way of life beyond the crisis.

Some people claim that the Scriptures advocate socialism. The Bible certainly promotes “share and share alike.” However, sharing is voluntary. Socialism involves government coercion and theft from Citizen A’s property on behalf of Citizen B. Meanwhile, the socialist government makes more money than either citizen in the administration of this theft by taxation and coercion.

Dr. Land observes, “Some people have said that the Bible teaches socialism. They’re wrong. They’re simply wrong and they’re very simplistic. The Bible tells us a great deal about the nature of man, which is pretty basic. And the heart of man, according to Jeremiah, is ‘deceitful and desperately wicked; who can know it?’”

Dennis Prager, founder of PragerU, once told me in a TV interview, “[Socialism] is against human nature. The moment you tell people that the community will take care of you, they work less. It undermines character.”

During the heyday of the Obama administration and their over-abundant spending on domestic programs, I asked Stephen Moore, an economist who has served both Presidents Reagan and Trump, about those who promote socialistic solutions because “it’s the Christian thing to do.”

Moore answered, “I always laugh and sometimes frown when people say the Christian thing to do is to continue to spend money recklessly like we are doing now….If the government spends a dollar, that dollar has to come from somebody or somewhere….The real problem here is people say, ‘Oh, it’s so Christian to be spending all of this money on all these programs,’ and I say, ‘Wait a minute. Who’s going to pay the cost? Isn’t it Christian to care about your kids and your grandkids?”

May the coronavirus crisis be a temporary one. And may we be on our guard against any socialist framework that will do irreparable damage as a “solution” to this, Lord-willing, temporary problem.

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Deep State Judge Denies Relief to Lieutenant General Flynn

“Look at the orators in our republics; as long as they are poor, both state and people can only praise their uprightness; but once they are fattened on the public funds, they conceive a hatred for justice, plan intrigues against the people and attack the democracy.”–  Aristophanes

“Every time we turn our heads the other way when we see the law flouted, when we tolerate what we know to be wrong, when we close our eyes and ears to the corrupt because we are too busy or too frightened, when we fail to speak up and speak out, we strike a blow against freedom and decency and justice.” – Robert Kennedy

“When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.”  – Proverbs 29:2


Relief was short lived for Lt. General Michael T. Flynn.  The federal judge in his case has signaled he won’t immediately dismiss the Flynn case despite the DOJ dismissal of same.

Judge Emmet Sullivan said he’ll receive written arguments that are likely to oppose the DOJ’s bid to dismiss General Flynn’s prosecution.  The Judge’s decision to allow third parties (only those he deems worthy) to submit friend-of-the-court briefs is absolutely egregious.  Attorney Sidney Powell has argued that it should not be allowed.  She has already proven the General’s innocence with her efforts to get Brady exculpatory evidence from the FBI.

Judge Sullivan himself acknowledged that the local criminal procedure rules do not provide for third parties to file amicus briefs in criminal matters, but he claimed that the local rules governing civil cases — which do allow for amicus briefs — “govern all proceedings in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.”

“The proposed amicus brief has no place in this Court,” Powell and other attorneys for Flynn wrote, objecting to an amicus brief that a group identifying itself as “Watergate Prosecutors” had said on May 11th that it intended to submit.

The former Watergate special prosecutors this week resurrected the Ghost of Watergate Past in a last-ditch effort to keep alive the federal court case against former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.

Sidney Powell pointed out, “This Court has consistently, on 24 previous occasions, summarily refused to permit any third party to inject themselves or their views into this case.”

The exculpatory documents brought forth by Attorney General Barr’s appointee, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Jensen, prove that Michael Flynn is innocent of the charges and was set-up and railroaded by Obama and his FBI minions.

Watergate Prosecutors

Sixteen of the former prosecutors in the Watergate case have told Judge Sullivan they believe he has the authority to sentence Michael Flynn to prison despite the fact that the DOJ dismissed the case.

These sixteen are part of the Democratic Deep State who wish to see Donald Trump’s associates and supporters punished for helping him in the 2016 election

They have laid out their legal documents which state that they believe Judge Sullivan has to reject the dismissal request and sentence Flynn who had pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.  They never mention that Robert Mueller’s gang of thugs including Andrew Weissman used the same old modus operandi of threatening family members, in this case the General’s son, Michael, to elicit a guilty plea from the General.

These Watergate prosecutors compared the current situation at the DOJ to Watergate which is an atrocity in itself.

Director Wray

It was FBI Director Wray who was refusing exculpatory Brady evidence to the Flynn defense despite Judge Sullivan’s directive. Now that we have those documents, the General’s attorneys still must fight this judge for the righteous total dismissal of this case.

Christopher Wray has been the Director of the FBI for nearly three years and has defied Congress by refusing to produce documents exposing the dishonest acts of his predecessor, James Comey and the rest of his corrupt comrades.  It is Wray who held back and suppressed documents that proved General Michael T. Flynn’s innocence.

It took AG Barr’s appointed U.S. Attorney and former FBI agent, Jeffrey Jensen to successfully attain the Brady evidence.

DNI Rick Grenell

Richard Allen Grenell, acting Director of National Intelligence who replaced VP Pence’s transition-chosen Indiana friend, Dan Coates, made the decision to declassify information about Obama administration officials who were involved in the “unmasking” of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn whose calls with the former Russian ambassador during the presidential transition were picked up in surveillance and later leaked.

The list of Obama officials doing the unmasking was declassified in recent days by Grenell and then sent to GOP Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson, who made the documents public.

The roster features top-ranking figures including then-Vice President Joe Biden, a detail already being raised by the Trump campaign in the 2020 presidential race where Biden is now the Democrats’ presumptive nominee.

The list also includes former FBI Director James Comey, former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and Obama’s former chief of staff Denis McDonough.  Read the Documents.

Officials in the Obama administration have acknowledged that they moved to unmask some Americans in intelligence reports, but insisted that their reasons were legitimate.  Yeah right…their reasons were to undermine the incoming administration. Those officials include Obama National Security Advisor Susan Rice, former ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power and former deputy national security advisor Benjamin Rhodes.

The DOJ said that after reviewing newly disclosed information and other materials, it agreed with Flynn’s lawyers that his Jan. 24, 2017, interview with the FBI should never have taken place because he had not had inappropriate contacts with Russians. The interview, the department said, was “conducted without any legitimate investigative basis.”

Exactly, this entire charade was to destroy both Lt. General Michael T. Flynn, a three-star general with 33 years of service to his country, both in combat and decades in intelligence.  And even more to destroy the General’s ability to help the duly elected President to clean out the corruption from the intelligence community within the DOJ.

Judge Sullivan

Judge Sullivan belongs to the Deep State globalist cabal.  He is doing the bidding of those who wish to destroy truth, justice, and the American way.  Yes, that’s it, I’m not making this up.  This Clinton appointee hates a man who gave his life to his country and who loves America.

There is no prosecutor in the Flynn case; Brandon Van Grack resigned the very day the DOJ dismissed the Flynn case.  Judge Sullivan looks incompetent and complicit with former prosecutors.  The more the DOJ found that Flynn was innocent, the more they went after a smear campaign.

And today we learned that Paul Manafort has been released to serve the rest of his sentence at home.  It took them long enough to release this elderly man so that he wouldn’t contract Covid-19 in prison.  Throughout the country criminals guilty of rape, murder, burglary, etc. were released weeks ago and many have committed the same crimes, including murder and rape.  It took until today to release Paul Manafort who at his age should not be imprisoned and should have had his federal charges pardoned long ago.

The rush to imprison Trump supporters, Roger Stone and Michael Flynn, shows they are targeted by the millions of Marxist-Leninists within our government.

Conclusion

Lt. General Michael T. Flynn was targeted before he even joined the White House administration.  Flynn was chosen by President Trump to restructure the entire intel community.

Fred Fleitz, former Chief of Staff and Executive Secretary of the National Security Council for Donald Trump stated in his Fox News article that the list released today is of 39 top Obama officials who made 53 requests to unmask Lt. Gen. Flynn’s name from intelligence reports between election day (Nov. 8, 2016) and Jan. 31, 2017.  While many of the requesters were Obama political appointees who resigned by Jan. 20, 2017, some were career officers at CIA, the Pentagon and other agencies.

Judge Sullivan should recuse himself from this case. It’s obvious who he is working for and it’s certainly not for true justice.

Three-star General Michael T. Flynn has endured enough at the hands of these demons of the dark state.

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RELATED ARTICLE: Flynn Judge Faces Ethics Complaints After Shock Move

Deliver Us from Evil Democrats

Despite 30 million Americans losing their jobs, domestic violence and suicides on the rise, Democrats and fake news media are terrifying Americans into believing the lock-down must continue. These evil wicked people are fully committed to using coronavirus to stop Trump’s reelection.

I scratch my head thinking, “Don’t these wacko leftists realize that if they destroy America, their livelihood is destroyed as well?” Democrats and fake news media’s hatred for Trump and his voters and their desire to block him from making America great again, again, overrules logic. Their behavior is like the wicked queen in the Disney “Snow White” movie. Her hatred for Snow White was so great that she sacrificed her beauty, transforming herself into an ugly old witch to deceive and destroy Snow White.

Democrats and fake news media will sacrifice America if it means destroying Trump. These people must be defeated.

Sadly, half the country still does not realize that Democrats and fake news media are tag-team partners in transforming America into a socialist/communist nation.

Before my lifelong Democrat dad, Dr Rev Lloyd E. Marcus passed away at age 90, I tried to inform Dad that his working-man party had been hijacked by 1960s hippies. Hippies (Democrats) also took over Hollywood, mainstream media and public education decades ago. Consequently, they created a generation of young adults who hate America, hate the God of Christianity and believe their parents are stupid, racist, sexist and homophobic.

Long gone is the mindset of the TV show, “Father Knows Best”. “Family Feud” game show surveyed 100 people. “Who would you ask for advise?” Not one person of those surveyed said their would seek counsel from their father. Wow!

For many years, I have tried to educate my family and friends to the truth that Democrats are not our friends. Everything they desire to do is harmful to Americans. The Democratic party has been taken over by a spirit of anti-Christ. Every policy they seek to implement is rooted in their belief that they are smarter than God, desire to overrule God’s original intent and mission to ban God from our culture.

Daring to be an independent thinker speaking the truth about Democrats gets me called names; a self-hating n*****, stupid, Republican and Uncle Tom sellout. I challenge you to research and prove my observation of Democrats wrong.

Democrats and fake news media are all over TV absurdly saying that because of covid-19, we can never return to normal life in America. For crying out loud, viruses have been around since the beginning of time. Suddenly, because of one flu virus, Democrats say we must wear masks and social distance forever. God did not design or intend for us to live like that. But then, Democrats believe they are smarter than God. Folks, there is no scientific data which supports social-distancing.

Knut Wittkowski, PhD said the elderly and people with immune issues should be protected. Wittkowski said forcing the masses to social distance is harmful because it delays herd immunity which makes the virus last longer. “…we should not believe that we are more intelligent than mother nature was when we were evolving. Mother Nature (God) was pretty good at making sure that we’re a good match for the diseases that we happen to see virtually every year.” 

Dr Judy Mikovits said by wearing masks, we are breathing in our own germs. I witnessed this at a local store. The clerk was struggling to breath. “What is wrong with you?” I asked with concern. She said the mandatory requirement that she wear a mask was stupid because it blocked her from breathing fresh air.

Virologists say we are doing the opposite of what we should be doing to deal with coronavirus. We are lowering our immune system by sheltering-in-place, wearing masks and killing our good bugs by over using hand sanitizer. https://bit.ly/2LeGdLp

And yet, Democrats are using coronavirus to implement crazy policies such as never again allowing church gatherings over 50 people. These Democrats are crazy and evil.

Most of my family and friends who are Christians still do not realize that Democrats are obsessed with overruling God’s original intentions. A Democrat memo exposed their desire to legalize 12 new perversions which include pedophilia and bestiality.

Democrats are masters of deceiving and bullying the public into surrendering to anti-God cultural norms. Here’s how they will normalize pedophilia and bestiality.

I’ve seen articles and heard college lectures that pedophiles are born that way. Therefore, pedophilia is simply another god-given sexual orientation. Hollywood will produce movies portraying pedophiles as victims of our intolerance. Expect a new “groundbreaking” TV sitcom titled something like, “Suzy Loves Daddy”, a hilarious comedy about a goofy lovable dad who married his daughter.

Democrats and fake news media will gang attack anyone who dares to criticize the immoral show. They will say, “love is love”. Sadly, Christians will say, “Suzy Loves Daddy is so funny!” Then, they will say, “Jesus loves everyone” which means good Christians should embrace every perversion. Suddenly, pedophilia and incest are normalized, featured in movies, TV shows and commercials from home improvement to diet and exercise. Pedophilia and incest will skyrocket. Your kids will view you as an out-of-touch dinosaur for not embracing “loving” pedophile and incestuous relationships.

Next up, Democrats will force us to normalize bestiality; sex between humans and animals. The Oscar winning movie, “The Shape of Water” is a major step in normalizing bestiality.

Believing they are smarter than God, Democrats outrageously seek to legalize aborting babies even after they are born to save the planet from overpopulation. Democrats outrageously say it is not a human being with rights unless the mother says so. How can any Christian think this is right? God said, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you…” (Jeremiah 1:5)

I could go on and on with examples of how Democrats and fake news media believe themselves smarter than God. “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.” ( Romans 1:22)

Democrats are hellbent on prolonging this insane unscientific lock-down for as long as they can get away with it. It is Democrats’ most destructive effort thus far to attack America, destroy Trump and assume the role of God.

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GUESTS AND TOPICS:

JUDGE ROY MOORE

Judge Roy Moore, Alabama former Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court and former U.S. candidate.

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Steve Turley (PhD, ) is an internationally recognized scholar, speaker, and author who is widely considered one of the most exciting voices in today’s Intellectual Dark Web.

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Linda Paine is President of Election Integrity Project California, Inc. (EIPCa)Election Integrity Project California, Inc. (EIPCa), and The Election Integrity Project, Inc (EIP) and President, Co-Founder election Integrity Project California, Inc.

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PODCAST: The First Thing We Do, Let’s Kill All The Bean Counters

Nope, its not the lawyers; its the “bean counters” that are ruining business. Let me give you an example, I know of a large machine-tool operation in the Midwest who used to be heralded for producing quality products. To this end, the company established an in-house school who taught their machinists how to build products, not just any old way, the company’s way. The school was led by the senior craftsmen of the business who took pride in their workmanship and passed this on to the new employees. When an employee graduated from the school, a machinist not only knew his job, but took pride in his work and became loyal to the company due to its reputation. Even if an employee dropped out and went elsewhere, he would always recommend his former company’s products because he knew they were built with quality. This school went on for a number of years and became a part of the corporate culture. However, in the 1980’s the company hired a team of MBA’s to look over their operations and make recommendations for improvement. You must remember, this was a time when cost cutting was the norm. After looking over the financial statements of the business, the management consultants concluded the school represented a costly overhead and convinced the company to close it down.

Shortly after the school’s closure, the company started to experience a drop in morale, absenteeism and tardiness began to rise, and craftsmanship began to deteriorate. Product quality dropped significantly and the company began to lose customers, so much so, they eventually sold off their machine-tool operations and went into a totally new line of business. Keep in mind, prior to this the company was a leader in the machine-tool industry and generated substantial profits from it.

Obviously this story isn’t unique as we have witnessed several such changes in the corporate landscape during the 1980’s and 1990’s. The point is, the bean counters have taken charge of business which has triggered sweeping changes in how we deal with our customers, our vendors, and our employees.

LOSING THE PERSONAL TOUCH

Under the bean counter approach to business, numbers are all that matter. Of course, paying attention to the bottom-line is always important, but this should not result in a callous way of operating a business. To me, studying the numbers is analogous to watching the dials and gauges of a machine. It is like watching the speedometer of an automobile, but if I observe an emergency vehicle approaching or see a drunk driver nearby, I am going to ignore the gauge and do what is proper. I am going to make a human decision and do what is best for my passengers and myself, as well as the other surrounding vehicles. If I only did what the dials and gauges told me, I would probably harm others.

The bean counter approach to business represents a very mechanical way of operating. Let me give you an illustration. I have a friend here in Florida who is the state sales manager for a home health business (a lucrative business for a retirement state like Florida). The company was recently purchased and a new management team put into place run by bean counters. After studying sales figures, management found a salesman who wasn’t making his quota and, consequently, instructed my friend to terminate his employment. My friend knew the salesman in question and realized he was experiencing some personal problems. After considerable discussion with corporate management, he convinced them to let him (the Sales Manager) work with the salesman a while longer to see if he could help him. He pointed out to management, the alternative was to start the laborious and costly process of recruiting and teaching a replacement. Management acquiesced and granted the salesman a stay of execution. Over the next few weeks, the Sales Manager was able to work with the salesman, helped him overcome his personal problems and rebuilt his confidence. Since then, the salesman has gotten back on track and has been exceeding quota ever since.

Bean counters do not understand or appreciate the true business of a company. They make knee-jerk reactions based strictly on numbers, not on human intuition or social interaction. It is no small wonder the corporate world has become dehumanizing. I know of a medium sized semiconductor business in the Southeast who also experienced a similar phenomenon. The company was founded by a man with little formal education, but a lot of “street smarts.” He took a hands-on approach to the startup of the company which grew in leaps and bounds. As the company settled into maturity, the founder began to slow down and brought in a new management team to take over the reins. His new management team had some pretty slick business school credentials but, inevitably, they were nothing more than bean counters. Under their watch, corporate growth was arrested and the company’s stock diminished radically. Today, a company that was at one time a robust and thriving business with loyal customers and dedicated employees is a mere shadow of its old self.

Conducting business is more about our interpersonal relations with customers, vendors and employees, than it is about watching dials and gauges. As the famed W. Edwards Deming once said:

“Profit in business comes from repeat customers, customers that boast about your project or service, and that bring friends with them.”

Keep in mind, Deming understood the need for statistical analysis and watching the bottom-line, but he also realized they were nothing more than the dials and gauges of the business.

CONCLUSION

Under the bean counter approach we have lost the personal touch for conducting business. Companies have become cold and calculating, certainly not the types of businesses we want to work for or with. Always remember that bean counters believe conducting business is simply manipulating numbers, not in building products or servicing customers. Yet, for some unfathomable reason, we have put them on a pedestal and expect them to competently guide our companies, but the only thing I see them guiding is our foreign competitors who take over our market share.

To paraphrase William Shakespeare, “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the bean counters.”

“Business is about people, not just numbers.” – Bryce’s Law

Keep the Faith!

P.S. – Also, I have a NEW book, “Before You Vote: Know How Your Government Works”, What American youth should know about government, available in Printed, PDF and eBook form. DON’T FORGET GRADUATION DAY. This is the perfect gift!

EDITORS NOTE: This Bryce is Right podcast is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved. All trademarks both marked and unmarked belong to their respective companies.

PODCAST: Air Force Veteran Talks Military Service, Marriage, and Feminism

If “the American dream” describes overcoming the challenges of a difficult childhood; serving in the armed forces; having the financial freedom to support not only yourself, but also your family; making a difference in your community through political engagement; and finding love along the way, then Anna Paulina Luna is living the dream.

Luna joins the “Problematic Women” podcast on the eve of the 78th anniversary of the creation of the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps in 1942 formally allowing women to join the armed forces. She shares her journey of growing up in a single-parent home in California as a Hispanic American and finding confidence, success, and a husband through her Air Force service.

Plus, in the wake of Mother’s Day, we take a moment to say “thank you” to all our wonderful mothers and chat with Lauren’s mom, Karla Evans. And as always, we’ll be crowning our problematic woman of the week.

Listen to the podcast below or read the lightly edited transcript. Enjoy the show!


In these trying times, we must turn to the greatest document in the history of the world to promise freedom and opportunity to its citizens for guidance. Find out more now >>


Virginia Allen: We are joined by Anna Paulina Luna, a conservative political activist and a retired Air Force veteran. Anna, thanks so much for being here.

Anna Paulina Luna: Thank you for having me on, I’m super excited to be here.

Allen: Tomorrow is the anniversary of women being allowed to serve in different branches of the military, so we’re really excited to talk with you about your military service. But first, I just want us to take a minute to talk more about who you are and learn more about your story.

So, Anna, you are a Hispanic American. You were raised by your mom in Southern California. Could you just take a minute to share a little bit about your childhood with us?

Luna: Yeah. I think it’s always interesting doing the political crossover because I feel like so many people, especially in this really digital age, try to put on this front that they’re just these perfect people. And I find that when you really own who you are, when you own your childhood and your upbringing, it actually allows other people to connect with you.

So I found one of the most powerful things has been for me to really talk about that, to give people a little bit of insight as to why I’m so passionate about what I believe in, and really why I believe in certain policies.

What a lot of people off first glance looking at me might not expect is that I grew up in the welfare system. My mom actually had me at 20, and she chose to keep me over an abortion. It was really us on our own from the beginning.

My entire family, not just on my mom’s side, but my father struggled with a very severe drug addiction that really took him away from me a lot of the time.

So not only did I have this kind of chaotic upbringing, but I knew that I really did want to make a change, and I thought at the time that I was going to do that through medicine.

I overheard that the military would pay for medical school, or pay for school in general. So, without telling my mom, I went and talked to a recruiter and I enlisted. I told her about a month before I was supposed to leave that I would be joining the military.

It was really the military that kind of launched me into what I say [is] success as an adult. It gave me that structure that I really didn’t have in a family life.

It was through the military that I was able to excel. And I tell people even to this day, “I will always support the military for that reason.” It was a huge factor in setting me up for success and really enabling me to help my family as well. But you don’t always have to have that victim mentality, you can accomplish anything you set your mind to.

It was through my hard work and dedication to my family and to myself that I was really able to change the outcome, I think, of my own life, my family’s life, and future generations.

So that’s why I’m very passionate and that’s why I share my stories, because I think that more stories like that need to get out there. And through my work with Prager, we’re hoping to really connect with people on that deep personal level and really stand up some great voices to help save this country.

Lauren Evans: What was going on in your head when you were 19 and joined the military? I think a lot of American youth are kind of in this arrested development and they feel like 19 is a really young age, but that was a really big commitment to make.

Luna: It was a super big commitment. And because it was really just my mom, me, my brother, my sister, we didn’t know of anyone in our immediate family that had been in the military. It actually wasn’t until I got out that I found out some of our extended family had either gone to Normandy or had been in Vietnam.

But at the time, I went and talked to a recruiter. I’d actually went and talked to the Army recruiter first, and I was supposed to join the Army as a medic.

And then I went over to the Air Force recruiter prior to me going to MEPS, which is where you do your in-processing before you leave. And the Air Force recruiter is like, “I think I can get a better gig, let me tell you about what jobs we have available.”

But when you’re so young, and you don’t really have a lot of that guidance that I think some people have, you really don’t, I think, understand the magnitude of what you’re about to do, especially when you join the military.

So for me, I went from being in LA, kind of a different lifestyle, to really joining the military, and then that was it, I was gone, I wasn’t at home around my family, I wasn’t at home around where I grew up, I was in a completely different world.

For me, changing that, taking me out of a place of comfort, and putting me somewhere new where I had to excel on my own if I wanted to make it, that really builds character, and that was, I think, where I really started to grow as an adult, was during those early years in the military.

Really, today, it’s weird, but I only got out of the military two years ago. So I really still do have a close tie to the military community because so many of my friends are still actively serving.

Allen: Wow. So amazing. Anna, we want to play just a short clip of an interview you did with PragerU, talking about your time in the military. Let’s take a listen for just a moment.

Luna: The military is one of the best things that, a lot of times, people can do to get out of really bad situations. And it deeply almost angers me when I hear people say that the military targets minorities, and that it’s not a good thing, because not only was I able to help myself, and really, as an adult, get the guidance and the structure that I needed to really excel, but I was able to also help my family.

And I think that for someone like myself, I mean, what other place in the world can a young woman join the military and then help their family to the point of really making changes that impact future generations? And I think that that was something that I will forever be grateful for the military for.

And when I still talk to younger kids, even kids from rougher areas, I’m like, “Hey, look, you should consider joining, because for me, it was life-changing and I don’t regret that decision.”

Allen: So, Anna, let’s unpack for a minute just a little bit of what you say in this clip. You mention that your service changed not only your life, but also really empowered you to be able to affect the lives of your family members. Can you just explain a little bit more about what you mean by that?

Luna: Yeah. So my mom, again, going back, she was a young single mom. … We were in the welfare system. She was very much so, I think, dependent on different loans and sometimes government assistance. But when I joined the military, I was able to not only send money back home, but in an instance, I think I talked about it earlier, but I was able to help out my dad.

What a lot of people don’t know is that my dad was homeless for a little bit. And it was, again, the military giving me a job, a stable form of income, taking care of me completely that I was actually able to move my father out to Florida, and was really, I think, one of the first times in his life that he truly stayed clean, and that he still is.

So had I not done that, had I not been able to send money back home that would help pay for my sister’s art lessons—and then later on she was accepted into one of the best art schools, not even just in the world, but in the country.

All of these things—people don’t realize, but sometimes you never know who’s going to be the one to reach back and really help out and make changes.

But it was that team effort to where I was able to kind of provide the air support for my family that we needed that’s really impacted and made changes.

Frankly, my sister, she didn’t just go on to attend this incredible art school—I mean, she’s there on scholarship—and it was because I was able to hep my mom out, help send her to those lessons. My dad is now sober because I was able to move him from a place that he was in, a very dark area, to an area where he could focus on his life, get his life together.

And I don’t have a perfect family. And I’m not saying that. But I’m saying that through hard work and dedication you can make those changes.

Sometimes you don’t realize how much something as small as me going into a recruiter’s office would help change the next 10 years, the next 20 years in outcomes of your family. But here I am. And it’s really resonated with a lot of people. And I’m not just the only one.

So you meet a lot of people in the military that are from all walks of life. They’re from sometimes the inner city of Chicago, sometimes they’re from well-to-do families.

But the one thing that brings you together is your sense of purpose to serve the country, your uniform, the fact that you are away from home, and that the military, your sergeants become your parents, your younger enlisted members become your brothers and sisters. You spend holidays together. And that deep form of bonding can really help, especially people like myself who didn’t necessarily always have that.

So I still, to this day, I know this is going to sound like a military recruiting ad, but I’m a huge fan of the military. And to tie this to politics, I feel like you have so many politicians that say they want to help out veterans, but they don’t. And they know that veterans are great for photos, but then don’t genuinely have that passion and drive to really help represent veterans, focus on veterans’ issues, and take care of our service members.

I hope to help other leaders stand up, so that we can be advocates for the vet community.

Evans: What are some of those ways that we can be advocating for the veteran community?

Luna: I’d say right now, especially in regard to how many people are now coming back, you have less than 1%, I believe the number is, of the U.S. population now having served. And I think when we’re talking on issues, and this is something that’s even in the military community considered really taboo, but the topics of post traumatic stress disorder.

You have so many people that that word in itself, that term “disorder,” they don’t want to be branded with that, they don’t want to be labeled with that, and they don’t want the stigma that comes along with it.

So sometimes people won’t get the help that they need because of the fact that they don’t want to be in that category. But what ends up happening is, these people become isolated, and because of that, that’s when you have the higher instances of even suicide with post-traumatic stress disorder.

So … let’s say you’re the owner of a company, if there’s a way that you can give back to veterans organizations, do it. If there’s a way that you can hire veterans, do it.

But also, if you’re friends with a veteran, ask them how they’re doing, ask them about their service. A lot of people don’t realize that sometimes just having a simple conversation to take the time and say, “Hey, how are you doing?” I know this is a busy world, everyone is on their phones all the time, but having that intimate conversation, that does make a difference.

And even now, here where I live, I work with different veterans organizations. And even though I’m still doing the political circuit, I reach back, and I try to lift those around me that I know are going to help further veterans’ causes.

But I’d say right now, one of my biggest goals is to really help change the stigma nationally of what post-traumatic stress disorder is. And then also ensure that people are making sure that veterans’ rights aren’t being thrown onto the chopping block in policy.

I love what The Heritage Foundation is doing with veterans. I think it’s incredible. And I think that we need to be the voices sometimes for those that might not want to speak up on these issues. So that’s what I talk about. Sometimes I talk about the uncomfortable, and I think that that’s needed right now.

Allen: It is needed. … We all need to be made a little bit uncomfortable sometimes.

But, Anna, one of my favorite things is just to sit and listen and hear the stories of veterans, veterans like yourself that have served their country, have sacrificed.

Are there any stories that you want to share today that are just really reminiscent for you of your time in the Air Force and what it means to you to serve your country?

Luna: There is a ton. But I’d have to say, one of the things I’m never going to forget is my first sergeant.

The first sergeant that I ever had that I really connected with, his name was Sergeant Haywood. And actually, to this day, [I] still keep in contact with him. But this was kind of when I realized, “Wow, the military is showing me something.” I had my adult moment where I realized the military was teaching me some things.

And you have Sergeant Haywood, and he was from Inglewood, which is in California, at the time, a really rough area, and still somewhat is. But he became my sergeant. And you had me, which people a lot of times look at me and they assume a lot. I’m kind of tiny, they probably think I’m just hanging out at the Starbucks with a mocha late and UGG boots on.

But he was from this really rough area. And I would talk to him at work and we would hang out. Then after work, I finally saw him and I realized that I was kind of judging people based on how they dress. And I didn’t realize that Sergeant Haywood was from the opposite side of town as me. But it was the military uniform that brought us together, and it enabled me to look past that.

That was, I think, kind of one of my first growing, mentally growing experiences. But the other thing that really stuck with me was, in 2014, my husband was shot in Afghanistan.

At this point in time, I really didn’t understand, I guess, what the concept of post-traumatic stress disorder was. And the military will constantly give you CBTs, it’s called computer-based testing. … It’s basically PowerPoints where you check in, walking through the training.

So you had a lot of people that would get the CBT, there’d be slight mentions of it. But no one actually who had gone through an experience of what it was like to have a family member go through that or a community go through that. And what’s been really unique is that my husband is an Air Force special operator. So what his job is is combat control.

When he was shot in Afghanistan, I knew that he would be physically OK from where the injury was. But when I got up to Walter Reed Medical Center in Maryland, about a week after he had been shot, to meet him, and I was going through the hospital, and seeing really what happens after war, it wasn’t this glamorous thing that Hollywood makes it out to be.

It wasn’t like in the movie “Pearl Harbor,” where it’s this epic, positive love story. You had a lot of these people that were coming back physically and mentally in pieces.

When it showed me that and I saw what was happening to the community, what these families were going through, what the service members were going through, and then how certain people were really afraid of, I think, reaching out to get help, it really changed my outlook in, what was I doing on social media? What was I doing in my own community as a military member and then later on as a veteran to really help shed light on this issue?

I realized at that point that I needed to be focusing and making this a topic of discussion so that farther down the line I could help people like this that were coming back and dealing with it.

I ended up actually later on writing a book about really what my husband and I went through during that recovery process because so many marriages, so many people just didn’t want to talk about it, it was this private elephant in the room that I think people were going through and didn’t even realize that someone next to them might be having those same experiences.

My husband and I, we got through it. And it wasn’t easy, it was very difficult. But we made it, and we’re stronger because of it. We now talk about it to help, really, other married couples that might be struggling with similar issues, especially in regards to what’s faced in war time.

But that was something that will forever have changed my life, and … forever, I think, changed the objective of what I’m choosing to fight for, especially on veterans’ issues.

Evans: I think that’s what I love about you, Anna, that you always want to take your experiences and really help others with that knowledge. You met your husband while you both were serving, correct?

Luna: Correct. Yeah. I had joined with zero intent of getting … I wanted to just go to school, and like kind of a Beyoncé song, young independent female. And I met him, not even kidding, eight months after I joined. And we got married a month after we started dating. So it was very quick. That was 10 yeas ago.

Evans: Oh, wait, you got married one month after dating?

Luna: We got married one month after dating. So we were friends for a little bit prior, and then we started dating. He always jokes because he busted out of the friend zone. But yeah, it was 10 years ago. And I look back at that, and I was only 20 years old when I got married.

Evans: So what was that like? You were newlyweds and both in the service, which I imagine is a lot. And then you mentioned the major trauma that your relationship went through. Even now that you’ve transitioned to civilian life and he’s still serving, what has [being] married to a service member been like?

Luna: Well, I tease him all the time, especially when it comes time to get water before bed, I’m like, “I went through five combat deployments, or four combat deployments, go get me water.” I tease him about it all the time.

But it’s one of those things that I always tell people it’s really important, especially if you are in a relationship with a service member, to make sure that you’re friends first, because that kept us through all of the deployments, and all the hard times, and the injuries, and training.

My husband was in a unique job, especially as an active-duty member to work. He was not just deploying basically every six months. But then in between the times that he was deploying, he was going through training. So he really wasn’t around a lot.

But I stayed busy with college, and I was able to get my degree done, my bachelor’s in science. And then I was able to continue to move forward and really focus on my family, and just kind of keeping the house, redecorate ever so often. So I stayed busy.

But it is important to have a good network of friends, it is important to be friends [with] another service member before anything else, because that keeps you together through the hard times.

Allen: Such good life advice.

Evans: I still can’t get over you married your husband one month after meeting him, that’s so awesome.

Luna: I know. We didn’t necessarily advertise it either to people. We just knew people would be like, “What?” Especially now. But eventually when we did announce it, we actually ended up going to India, and we “eloped” in India. So we actually had this secret marriage for a little bit. … I’m very vocal on other issues, but I like to keep my relationship kind of private.

So we’ve been very fortunate enough to kind of have a really energetic and traveling spirit with one another. So when it came time to actually say, “Are we going to do a wedding?” … We went to India and had a blast and didn’t have to worry about wedding planning.

Allen: That’s so awesome. Oh, wow, I love that. Love your story. Well, Anna, since you left the military, you have become one of the most prominent Hispanic conservative leaders in our country. What kind of reactions do you get from people when they find out that you’re a Hispanic American and yet you’re very conservative?

Luna: It’s interesting because I get two completely different reactions. From those that are also conservative Hispanics, it’s like, “Finally. I align with you, you’re like me. Thanks God.”

But when it’s from very liberal, most of the time Democrat Hispanics, the first thing they actually bring up is my skin color and really, really racist undertones. I’ve been told, “Oh, you’re too white to be Hispanic.” Or, “You’re only half Hispanic so … you don’t count.”

And now, I know that that just for them is coming from a place of ignorance. So what I always like to say is, Barack Obama was half white and he’s considered the first black president. And with me, you can’t just box, especially the Hispanic community, into just one category. We’re not all short and Speedy Gonzales-like. And I don’t run around with a maraca and a sombrero just to prove how Hispanic I am.

But I can say that, on the back end, you have a lot of people that, I think, have really been programmed to think that being Hispanic is a certain thing. And the fact is that this Hispanic community is very diverse. You have Cubans, you have Mexicans, you have Puerto Ricans, you have Dominicans, you have Colombians, you have Guatemalans.

You have so many people from so many different areas, and the one thing that brings us together, especially in this country, is the fact that we have ideas that align with the Constitution, that we’re conservative, and that we’re Americans.

So, really, when it came time to kind of title the show for Prager, we wanted to really focus on that.

You have so many people coming from so many different backgrounds to talk about what their American story is, and that we don’t agree with identity politics, that we’re here to really bring this discussion to the forefront and say, “You can’t say that because someone is Hispanic that they have to vote a certain type of way.”

And you can’t take a community that’s really faith-based and has conservative values, and try to change that. Because at the end of the day, we all remember where we came from.

So I think in regards to people’s reactions, I mean, my close friends are not surprised. They all say the same thing, they’re like, “Well, we knew you were going to do something great.”

But when it comes to some of the people online that are really empowered by hiding behind their phones, it definitely does, I think, change their level of what they’ll say to you.

And people can just be mean. But I don’t sit there and I don’t dwell on it. I don’t read through every negative comment. If people want to be fine, that’s great; or be mean, that’s great. But I don’t have to sit there and subject myself to abuse. And so I don’t.

If people act like that, then that’s their own thing. But I’m not going to give them the time of day.

So it’s been mixed. From people that are conservative, you get positive, nothing is ever brought up about my skin tone. But when you get a very liberal person who happens to be Hispanic, even maybe sometimes less Hispanic than I am, the first thing that they bring up is my skin color.

And it’s very racially driven, and it’s almost sad, because if you’re focusing on my skin color and not the things that are coming out of my mouth, that’s how you know you’ve been programmed.

Evans: I think it’s Taylor Swift that said, “And the haters are going to hate, hate, hate, hate, hate.” So you just keep doing what you’re doing.

I want to bring it back to the reason why we’re talking today, and that is that tomorrow is the anniversary of women being allowed to serve in different branches of the military.

What does that mean to you as a female veteran that women, for a long time in our country, couldn’t easily serve in the same capacity that you did?

Luna: Having gone through the military training, and having done my job, and served my country, it’s a weird concept to think at a certain point, women weren’t even allowed to serve. But then you kind of look back at, historically, you had the Women’s Air Corps, the WAC. And then seeing really how women have helped kind of change the service as a whole.

I can say that I’m very, very proud to serve. And there’s just something about joining the military that really has given me, I think, the confidence that I need to now excel in this political arena. …

It’s something that I take great pride in. So to imagine that I wouldn’t have been able to serve is just a weird kind of foreign concept to me because it makes up so much of who I am, even now that I’m no longer in.

My job in particular, I did air field management. It’s called an AFSC, but that’s … kind of your category of learning. So it was “one, Charlie, seven, five, one.” And I actually worked to do flight plans for pilots. So in the sky, you have basically invisible roadways for airplanes. And so you have to work with the [Federal Aviation Administration] to block those out.

Then I did inspections for the airfield, I worked side by side with many pilots, from fighter pilots to gunship pilots, to the stealth bomber. And I also helped do arrivals and departures of some pretty high-level people, to include, at the time, Vice President [Joe] Biden.

I can tell you that, with the military, you always want to make sure that you have an administration that really supports the military. And there is something to be said about the morale now in the military under [President Donald] Trump, which is through the roof, versus at the time, even back in the day, with [President Barack] Obama and Biden.

Having been there when Biden came through, I can tell you that, for sure, I am very excited that President Trump is in office, because when you have people going to fight your wars, you want to make sure that these people are taken care of, and the Trump administration does do that for military members.

Allen: Anna, we’re certainly so thankful for your service and for all of the incredible individuals who have made that sacrifice and that decision to serve their country. There is so much that we are forever indebted to you all for.

But, Anna, last question I want to ask you, this is a question that we love to ask our guests that come on the show because we get so many different answers, do you consider yourself to be a feminist? Yes? No? Why or why not?

Luna: I think the modern-day term for what a feminist is has really changed over time. I support women, I support strong independent women in the workforce, whether it’s the military, or politics, or any other capacity. But the one thing that I think that the modern-day feminist movement has really targeted is men. And I don’t understand that.

You can be a strong independent woman for pro-life causes, for women empowerment, but you don’t have to hate men in the process. And I love my husband, I respect him; I love my father, I respect him, even though he’s not perfect. But I feel like that that’s really been hijacked.

So when people ask me that question, I think in the true, what initially feminism started out as, yes, I would be considered a feminist in that sense. But what it’s been hijacked, and what it’s become today, I wouldn’t consider myself that type of feminist, the type of feminist that really targets men.

So I say that I still will promote what I believe in, I will still fight for women in any capacity and really for being, I think, a good role model for the younger generations. But I don’t think you have to hate men in the process.

Evans: Anna, thank you so much for your time today. It’s been a pleasure talking with you.

Luna: Thank you so much, you guys.

PODCAST BY

Virginia Allen

Virginia Allen is a news producer for The Daily Signal. She is the co-host of The Daily Signal Podcast and Problematic Women. Send an email to Virginia. Twitter: @Virginia_Allen5.

Lauren Evans

Lauren Evans is the multimedia manager for The Daily Signal and The Heritage Foundation. Send an email to Lauren. Twitter: @laurenelizevans.


A Note for our Readers:

This is a critical year in the history of our country. With the country polarized and divided on a number of issues and with roughly half of the country clamoring for increased government control—over health care, socialism, increased regulations, and open borders—we must turn to America’s founding for the answers on how best to proceed into the future.

The Heritage Foundation has compiled input from more than 100 constitutional scholars and legal experts into the country’s most thorough and compelling review of the freedoms promised to us within the United States Constitution into a free digital guide called Heritage’s Guide to the Constitution.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Signal column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Maxine Waters: We Don’t Want Businesses ‘Opened Back Up’

Monday on Spectrum News 1’s Inside the Issues, Rep. Maxine Waters said President Trump and lockdown protesters should be ashamed of themselves for pressuring governors to reopen their states.

“You know our governors are under great stress,” said Waters. “The protests that have been organized, the protests trying to intimidate our governors to open up everything are protests where the people participating in that should be ashamed of themselves. They should not be encouraged in any way.”

“So we’re doing everything that we can give support to our constituents, to our citizens, to the people who work every day, who have families to take care of.” Waters added. “So if we do that, this will support our states and our governors and not having to open back up. So that you know the small businesses that are in direct contact with people — nail shops, beauty shops, barbershops, flower shops — these are people in touch with folks every day, and they’re risking their lives, and we don’t want them opened up. ”

The governors are under stress? No, the people are under stress. Lives are being destroyed, the economy is being torpedoed, by the totalitarian lockdowns. And yet Waters sides with the governors.


Maxine Waters

162 Known Connections

Waters’s Immense Wealth and Hypocrisy

On June 24, 2017, Waters held a town hall meeting at the Nakaoka Community Center in Gardena, California, and did not permit anyone who lived outside of Waters’s 43rd Congressional District to be admitted inside the facility; such individuals were instead relegated to an outdoor “overflow space.” In light of these facts, it is worth noting that Waters herself does not reside in her own 43rd Congressional District, which is one of the poorest districts in the state of California. She owns a $4.8 million mansion in the upscale Hancock Park section of Los Angeles, several miles outside of her District.

To learn more about Waters, click on her profile link here.

EDITORS NOTE: This Discover the Networks column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.