Ilhan Omar: Her Washington Week In Review by Hugh Fitzgerald

Ilhan Omar has been much in evidence this past week — Dec. 14 to 20 — in Washington. During the impeachment hearings, when Congressman Kevin McCarthy, at the podium on December 18, quoted, as an example of the level of discourse to which some of his opponents had sunk, Rashida Tlaib’s call to “impeach the motherf—–,” Omar immediately began, and continued repeatedly, to scream out from the back of the chamber, “Stop it! Stop it!,” even though McCarthy had not repeated the phrase, but gone on to other matters. Apparently Ilhan Omar didn’t think that Congressman McCarthy had a right to remind the American people of the crudity to which Rashida Tlaib routinely sinks, and to protect her BFF, tried to shout down, in the House of Representatives itself, the freedom of speech of a fellow Congressman. McCarthy, of course, was not maligning Tlaib, only quoting her verbatim – but that was enough to spur Ilhan Omar into hysterical action.

In another example of Omar’s making her indelible mark in Washington, she joined 16 other Congressmen in a letter deploring the Trump Administration’s sanctions on Iran as “economic warfare.” But why is that wrong? That’s exactly what those sanctions are meant to be – “economic warfare” – in order to persuade the Iranians to modify their aggressive behavior, across the Middle East (in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon), and to slow down their pursuit of nuclear weapons. Why should the Trump Administration not be heartened by the effectiveness of those sanctions rather than, as Ilhan Omar and her 16 colleagues seem to think, be apologetic for their effect? The Administration’s reimposition of sanctions have reduced Iranian oil sales by 90%, from 2.46 mbd to .26 mbd. This has made it harder for the mullahcracy to continue to support the terrorist group Hezbollah in Lebanon; Hezbollah has had to greatly reduce salaries for its members as a result of Iran’s cutting of aid. Nor can Iran offer its previous level of financial support to the Shi’a militias in Iraq. The Iranian rial has sunk in value; Iran’s GDP has actually decreased, the price of gas has had to be increased to raise government revenues; Iran’s people have suffered – that’s exactly what economic sanctions are intended to do.The letter Ilhan signed claims that the sanctions have increased anti-American feeling in Iran. There is no evidence for this; the popular protests in Iran have been directed solely at the Iranian government itself, for its mismanagement, choice of spending priorities, and corruption. Ilhan Omar and her colleagues apparently want those sanctions, that are working so well, to be dramatically reduced, but they offer nothing to take their place. What alternative way to modify the Islamic Republic’s behavior would Ilhan Omar suggest? How would she prevent Iran from producing nuclear weapons? Or keep Iran from its foreign aggression?

The report on the letter Ilhan Omar signed is here:

In a letter issued on Tuesday to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, the lawmakers wrote that the hefty sanctions the US has imposed on the country was tantamount to “economic warfare.”

The sanctions put in place by this Administration against Iran are nothing less than economic warfare. After years of improving relations between the United States and Iran, the sanctions have devastated that country’s middle class, increased hostility toward the United States, and led to a humanitarian catastrophe. One dire effect has been an entirely preventable shortage of lifesaving medicine.

“This Administration must answer for their attacks on Iranians’ basic human right to affordable medicine,” Rep. Omar said in a statement.

The letter explains that while Iran manufactures 97% of its medicine domestically, the country relies on obtaining the rest through foreign imports.

First, Iran itself makes 97% of all the medicine it needs. That hardly suggests that there is a “humanitarian catastrophe” because of a lack of medicine, unless the remaining 3%, that must be imported, includes medicines that are absolutely critical to the survival of patients, and can be obtained nowhere else. We are not told what those medicines are that need to be imported. Nor is there evidence presented that those imports cannot be obtained from countries other than the U.S., including the U.K., France, Germany, Russia, and China. Ilhan Omar’s letter does not address these other potential sources for these imports. But finally, the main point of the letter – that there is a supposed “humanitarian catastrophe” because of that 3% of Iran’s medicines that the U.S. withholds – is fatally vitiated by the fact that the Department of the Treasury on October 25, 2019 announced a new “humanitarian mechanism” to allow medicine imports into Iran. That didn’t stop Ilhan Omar and her colleagues, nearly two months later, to send their letter to Secretary Mnuchin, ignoring the Treasury’s October 25 announcement. The signatories  didn’t want anyone to be confused with facts. Their minds were made up, that “economic warfare” against Iran is a Bad Thing, and they were willing to continue to complain about the withholding of medicine that, if it had ever occurred, now occurred no longer.

The third event of Ilhan Omar’s Washington week in review didn’t require her presence, but she was indispensable to the story. I am thinking of the proceedings in the divorce court, where Dr. Beth Jordan, the wife of her political consultant and lover Tim Mynett, obtained her final decree. The story is here:

It took all of fifteen minutes, but Rep. Ilhan Omar was slammed as an adulteress in a Washington, DC, divorce court on Dec. 19 as her political consultant/alleged lover formally split from his wife, a report said.

Dr. Beth Jordan accused the Minnesota Democrat of having an affair with her now-ex-husband, political consultant Tim Mynett, during a 16-minute hearing before a judge cut her off, the Daily Mail reported.

“I have a statement to make,” Jordan, 55, said, adding that Mynett “had an affair with Ilhan Omar.”

The allegation was first reported by The Post in August, when Jordan claimed in a divorce filing that Mynett confessed to the affair in a “shocking declaration of love” for Omar in April before ditching his wife.

Mynett, 38, a DC-based political consultant who has worked for Omar’s campaign, laughed and clapped his hands with glee as his left the court on Thursday but was tight-lipped when confronted by media.

So her lover “laughed and clapped his hands with glee.” He left his wife and his child for Ilhan Omar, the outspokenly anti-Israel antisemitic Congresswoman, who famously described 9/11 as a place where “some people did something,” who is in all kinds of trouble with the law for failing to correctly report her campaign contributions, and may or may not have married her brother in order to ensure that he could enter the U.S. and receive student loans.

As for Tim Mynett, his relationship with Omar has been disturbing in every sense. She has paid him, as a political consultant, between January and mid-October of 2019, a “consulting fee” of $310,000. That’s $34,444 a month. He must be a very good consultant. The unusually large amounts he has received from her campaign have raised questions, given Omar’s extramarital affair with him, that remain to be answered.

When Beth Jordan charged Ilhan Omar for being an “adulteress,” it seems not to have fazed Omar. Has she, the great Defender of Islam, forgotten what would happen were she living in a Muslim country such as Iran and Saudi Arabia, where the Sharia is fully enforced, and convicted of adultery? One hundred lashes, then death by lapidation. Does she approve? It would be nice if some reporter were to ask her that very question. Consistency is not her strong suit.

There has always been so much going on in Omar’s  busy life.

There’s still the question of her brother, as mentioned above.  Omar is credibly accused of marrying her brother, Nur Said Elmi, in order to commit immigration and student-loan fraud, and even filed fraudulent tax returns. While married to Elmi, she filed a joint return with another man, Ahmed Hirsi, to whom she was not married at the time.

She is also accused of using campaign money not for political purposes, but on personal travel with Tim Mynett. This is still being investigated by the FEC.

She has already been required by the Minnesota Campaign Board to reimburse her own campaign for money she spent on personal matters, including travel and lawyer’s fees, and to pay a fine as well.

There’s much for an intrepid investigative team to look into.

But just now, let’s limit ourselves to summing up Ilhan Omar’s Washington Week in Review.

She’s been accused of being an adulteress by the wife of her lover and “political consultant” Tim Mynett, to whom she has given unusually large sums from her campaign funds. On the floor of the House, she tried to drown out, by shouting “Stop It! Stop It!,” a Congressman trying to be heard – there is no “free speech” as far as Ilhan Omar is concerned — all because he did nothing more than repeat verbatim a crude remark by her ally and fellow Muslim, Rashida Tlaib. Finally, she signed a letter denouncing the Administration for its “economic warfare” against Iran, deploring the very thing that most of us agree has been a smashing success both in curbing Iranian aggression through proxies (Houthis, Hezbollah, Shi’a militias), and in weakening popular support in Iran for the monstrous regime in Tehran. She thus joined in deploring a supposed “humanitarian catastrophe” in Iran because, although that country produces domestically 97% of all the medicines it needs, that remaining 3% was, the letter falsely implied, cannot be obtained except from the U.S. But even if that were true, two months before Omar’s letter was sent, the Treasury had already announced that it was ending all sanctions on medicine for Iran. It was no longer an issue. But what do facts matter when it’s such fun to bash the Administration?

That was Ilhan Omar’s Washington Week In Review. Let’s hope there are not too many more such weeks featuring the deplorable Omar and her cast of characters – those two Somali husbands, one a possible brother, the consultant/ lover who may yet become her third husband – all part of her scandalous entourage. We can’t take too much more of this. Minnesotans, next November, you will be able to right this wrong. Don’t miss the chance. Do your stuff.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. © All rights reserved.

The Impeachment That Never Was [Can You Say Criminal Illegal Coup?]

And the fake news media headlines get it wrong again, “Trump Impeached”, oops-NOT! With headline after headline to keep the public ill-informed, (and by some measures there is an estimated 30% of Americans who actually believe the President was impeached and even removed from office), the main stream media gets it wrong yet again. With crazy and unhinged Pelosi’s recent unconstitutional move of withholding the articles from the Senate, President Trump has not officially, constitutionally and factually been impeached. Pelosi is so frazzled it’s as though she is a clone that is malfunctioning. Clone? Chipped? Programmed? Feast your eyes on this and forward to 11:50 time marker. Pelsoi press conference.

I will get back on point in a moment. But have you ever noticed similar malfunctions in Joe Biden, and Hillary Clinton? I mean Joe cant get a sentence out and suddenly mentions the word “roaches” completely non-sequitur to what he was talking about. And what he was talking about was how he loves children on his lap and something about the blonde hair on his legs etc. He has come out on stage standing with his back to the audience. He also cannot even name the state he is in and so much more. Then there was as you may recall, Hillary Clinton having what seemed to be a completely out of control rather lengthy spasm ( time marker 1:10). in addition to her legs giving out more often than not. Then there was the event at a rally she gave while running against Trump where she lost all control and a gentleman raced to the platform and looked Iike he inserted or injected or zapped her in the back with something. Don’t you find it odd, that these bizarre occurrences are only present in the democrat party? Talk about puppet masters! I let you think on that for a moment. Hum, makes one wonder what these malfunctions are.  Pelosi, Biden, Hillary, others, Cloned? Chipped? Programmed? We’ll leave that for another article and discussion. Back on point…

Can You Say Illegal Coup?

Those in the know, those awake, knew this from day one. I have written about this in real time. Yes this is in fact another treasonous illegal coup d’ etat. Consider this and this just scratches the surface.

  • Schiffs parody (lie)
  • No whistle blower and nothing to whistle blow
  • Transcripts released – case closed
  • Dems switch since caught right out of the gate – bribery, quid pro quo disappears from articles of impeachment
  • Entire process in the House unconstitutional in protocol
  • No due process afforded to the President or the Republicans – no lawyers-no witnesses
  • No evidence or facts for high crimes and misdemeanors – nor are they mentioned in the articles of impeachment
  • 100% partisan Dems only vote. Four Dems do not vote yeah for impeachment and one thus far defects and comes over to the Republican party
  • Not bi-partisan, Clock and a calendar sham – no impeachable offenses
  • Pelosi withholds and delays Senate hearings – thus presently not impeached not even by the house

Need I continue?

Will They Stop Here?

They will never stop until exposed and justice begins to be served.  This will take some years but we are progressing according to plan. Once we gain full control over the rigged deep state and shadow government systems etc., the acceleration of our success will continue. Meanwhile, the Deep State, the Dems. and other swamp creatures have contingency plan after contingency plan. Pelosi, the front mouthpiece for the Deep State on this  criminal coup, is buying time. Read and watch what Mike Adams has to report about this. Do you believe me now? Democrats actively rolling out scheme to remove VP Mike Pence so they can install Nancy Pelosi, then Hillary Clinton as President… the CRIMINAL COUP IS HERE.

What Others Are Saying (Repubs. and Dems.)

Dr. Alan Keyes

Jonathan Turley

Tom Fitton

Alan Dershowitz

Ken Starr

Mark Levin

Conclusion

Pelosi wants to negotiate how the Senate trial will be conducted. Excuse me Nancy, it is NOT up to the house nor the speaker it is solely up to the senate. If the articles are filed in the Senate – it is then that President Trump would have officially been impeached by the Democrats only and only in the House upon a procedure that violated the Constitution and denied rights that were afforded to the Senate and the President under the Constitution. This is the first ever in history, an all partisan, no High Crimes and Misdemeanors a US Impeachment with two articles presented that do not adhere to what are impeachable offenses per the Constitution.

This is why Democrat and Constitutional Scholar Jonathan Turley who told us under oath that he did not vote for Trump, and testified that there are no impeachable offenses and that the house Democrats that are violating the Constitution and obstructing justice.  Then there’s life long proud liberal Democrat Alan Dershowitz  who concurs with Turely.

Could these articles go straight to the Supreme Court and basically be expunged there? Will these fake phony and false articles of impeachment go to the Senate? Will there be a trial in the Senate or will it simply be dismissed due to the fraudulent nature of it? Will the Senate take a quick vote of which will overwhelmingly support the President thus DOA, no impeachment and removal?  We are weeks away from having these questions answered.

The Real Story – The News Behind The News

The REAL story is FISA, the Epstein intel, Julian Assange intel – NSA Data Collection – Giuliani’s files, (bye bye Biden and others) and then there is the on-going criminal investigation being conducted by Prosecutor John Durham against the deep state and its Democrat and other operatives. Let us not forget two important tings, all this FISA spying data implicates Obama and then there’s Hillary’s 33,0000 e-mails in the state department. Pain and justice is coming for the guilty in 2020 and beyond.

Yes this failed coup (yet another one) against this most popular (turn off fake news), and successful duly elected President has utterly failed. From Schiff’s onset with his parody and lies to the current state of affairs. Four dems did not vote for it. ZERO republicans voted.  The public opinion is not in favor for the deep state and the Dems. One Dem, (so far), has left the party and come over to Republicans. This may be a trend as 2020 plays out. Trump’s polls are up even higher than before the fake phony and false impeachment and the Dems as a result of all this BS are being seen for what they are and who they are actually serving, (hidden puppet masters) and thus they are losing ground in battleground states and with all the TRUE evidence and facts out on FISA and soon (late 2020) Durham’s criminal investigation, the Dems and deep state scum will be in real trouble. They already are and they know it. They are panicking and further insidious coups are already underway. Watch AG Barr on FOX.

But I say this, not only will it be a Trump landslide, both popular vote and electoral college in 2020 , but the Dems stand a VERY good chance of losing a majority in the House. People are waking up to the real world and waking up all over the world; Deep State-Deep Swamp, Fake News – Fed Res. CB system, Big Pharama, Pedophilia, false flags, “suicided’s” and so on and so on. This is why 36%-39% of the black community has come aboard as opposed to 18% in 2016. Many more Dems are moving over and by the time Durham and Barr begin to drop the hammer – far more will come aboard. The Democrat party has left the Dems. and they know it so they are coming over to join us.

Trump fills stadiums with ticket requests often exceeding 100,000 per event and stadiums filled with thousands while thousands remain outside watching the screens. Biden, (present front runner and I believe they will bring Clinton or Michelle out to “save the day” ), draws sometimes less than 100. There are more people on line at the ladies room at any given Trump rally than there are in total at any given Biden rally. Now there are your polls. Oh yeah, and nobody (outside of evil people and left wing lunatics) support infanticide, pedophilia and hardcore socialism.

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Impeachment?

Impeachment Trump vs Deep State – What’s Next?

Another Coup Bites the Dust

“I Caught the Swamp”

Final Word

If you believe that things will calm down soon I am here to inform you they wont. Not for some time. In fact, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Best way to get through all that is about to happen in 2020 and beyond, is to surround yourself with like minded people who understand the times in which we live. Break free from the matrix of controlled thought and complete lies. Click and request your free copy of the digital report to help you with this. It’s right here under Author page on this site. Americans are starving for truth. Seek it. Share it. Pay attention. Expand your thinking. The world is waking up. Nothing will stop us. Victory is ours. MAGA – WWG1WGA. Come join us.

Trump Campaign Releases New Ad on Twitter — It then goes viral

Donald J. Trump released a new political ad on Twitter. The theme is “our best days are yet to come.” It shows the President’s impact on America and Americans. It’s message is simple, America is now great and President Trump intends to keep America great. Since its release it has gone viral.

Watch the ad:

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1208494102062477312?fbclid=IwAR2oOP8ZTlj1qI_tW5MCnDpr9Tz5pPEPyHkE3EMpuBg23WrQ1GlQbNJMR8A

© All rights reserved.

We Don’t Need Different Santas for Every Race

My wife Mary and I were Christmas shopping on a Tuesday, rather than a weekend. And still, the traffic was crazy, stores were packed and checkout lines were long. President Trump has our economy booming. Economic growth has reached 3.1% for the first time in over a decade. Unemployment is 3.7%, the lowest rate in nearly 50 years. In October, U.S. job openings increased to 7.3 million. Black unemployment has hit a new historic low.

Upon entering Home Goods store, I was greeted with a full-size statue of a black Santa Claus. As a black person, I realize the black Santa was meant to make me feel good. Instead, I felt annoyed.

My mom, dad, four younger siblings and I were fine with thinking of Santa as a kindly old white man who loved all the children of the world regardless of race. Santa is a wonderful role model for bridging racial divides and promoting brotherhood. Santa being white never made my black family feel deprived or excluded. We did not need a Santa that looked like us.

Social justice warriors are pushing the absurd narrative that people can only be represented or given a fair shake by people who look like them. SJWs demand that extreme feminist screen writers be hired to properly represent women in movies. They demand that Asians be hired to represent Asians and so on. A black screen writer complained that political correctness in Hollywood has limited his career. He is only hired for black movies. He argues that he is talented enough to write for any movie.

SJWs are relentless in their mission to corrupt everything everyday people hold dear. They have even infected public schools with a children’s book titled, “Santa’s Husband” in which a black Santa Claus has a white husband. Unbelievable.

Hollywood SJWs are obsessed with gender swapping. Beloved white male characters in movies and TV shows are being gender swapped to be played by women. A new TV series will feature a female in the lead role as Zorro. SJWs scored a twofer with the new James Bond movie, swapping Bond’s race and gender. A black woman is the new 007. In-your-face you misogynist, climate change denying, homophobic and privileged white guys.

All this identity politics, race and gender swapping is supposedly about empowering women and minorities. That is a lie. It is really about SJW’s hatred for straight white men and their desire to punish, demonize and cancel them. I am not exaggerating when I say SJWs believe the world would be a better safer place without Christian heterosexual white men. Folks, this SJW narrative is extremely dangerous, sick and evil.

We the People are fed up with SJWs bullying demands that we surrender to their insane views and obsession with meaningless surface appearances. I have noticed a trend towards more people telling SJWs, “No! Back off, mind your own business and leave us alone!”

Recent movies, “Terminator: Dark Fate”, “Charlie’s Angels” and “Black Christmas” have bombed at the box office; rejected because of their SJW virtue signaling.

In a TV commercial, a girl is told that she can be Santa. Wrong! Her desire to give gifts is admirable, but she cannot be Santa. Santa Claus is a man, an elderly loving white man. Get over it!

Merry Christmas folks. Happy Birthday Jesus.

Florida: Muslim who wrote about taking revenge on non-Muslims not charged with terrorism for sabotaging plane

“Prosecutors said at his detention hearing in September that FBI investigators learned Alani lied about taking a trip to Iraq in March to visit his brother. They also found out he told a fellow American Airlines employee in June that his brother had been kidnapped and was a member of the extremist Islamic group known as ISIS. Prosecutors said Alani allowed the FBI to search his smartphone and agents found a ‘disturbing’ ISIS video in which a person was being shot in the head, and that he sent the video to someone with an Arabic message asking ‘Allah’ to take revenge against non-Muslims.”

Yet despite all that, “Alani was not charged with a terrorism-related offense.”

Apparently to have charged him with terrorism would have been “Islamophobic.”

“American Airlines mechanic pleads guilty to sabotaging plane at Miami International,” by Jay Weaver, Miami Herald, December 18, 2019:

An American Airlines mechanic accused of sabotaging a navigation system on a Miami flight with 150 passengers aboard pleaded guilty Wednesday to attempting to destroy the aircraft in a plea agreement designed to avoid a maximum sentence up to 20 years in prison.

“I do admit the guilt,” Abdul-Majeed Marouf Ahmed Alani, 60, said through an Arabic interpreter in Miami federal court.

Alani, a veteran AA employee who had lived in California and commuted to his job at Miami International Airport, now faces up to three years in prison under a joint recommendation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office and his defense lawyer. His sentencing is set for March 4.

At his detention hearing in September after his arrest, federal prosecutors suggested that Alani may have possible links to a Middle East terrorist group, but that allegation never came up at his plea hearing before U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke.

His defense attorney, Jonathan Meltz, made that point outside the courtroom when asked by reporters about the allegation. “This case is only about what you heard in court,” said Meltz, who added that his client “has been leading a law-abiding life for 30 years.”

After his arrest, Alani told federal investigators that he disabled the aircraft’s navigation system on the morning of July 17 because he was upset over stalled union contract negotiations with the airline. He said he wanted to generate some overtime for maintenance on the plane.

Alani also said that he meant no harm to anyone.

The Miami-Nassau flight was aborted before takeoff at Miami International Airport after an error alert appeared on the navigation system.

At Wednesday’s hearing, prosecutor Randy Hummel summarized the evidence against Alani, stressing that the AA flight’s navigation system was “deliberately obstructed” with foam by Alani and that the “aircraft was deemed not airworthy.”

Alani was accused of tampering with the plane’s so-called air data module, a system that reports aircraft speed, pitch and other critical flight data to pilots.

Alani was not charged with a terrorism-related offense. However, prosecutors said at his detention hearing in September that FBI investigators learned Alani lied about taking a trip to Iraq in March to visit his brother. They also found out he told a fellow American Airlines employee in June that his brother had been kidnapped and was a member of the extremist Islamic group known as ISIS.

Prosecutors said Alani allowed the FBI to search his smartphone and agents found a “disturbing” ISIS video in which a person was being shot in the head, and that he sent the video to someone with an Arabic message asking “Allah” to take revenge against non-Muslims. In addition, they said Alani sent $700 to someone in Iraq, where he was born and has family….

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. All rights reserved.

VIDEO: The Vortex — The Homosexual Papacy?

There is no authentic love for you, not one shred.

TRANSCRIPT

Reports swirled around the internet earlier yesterday that the Pontifical Biblical Commission had given its approval to a reading of Sacred Scripture that approves of homosexual unions. The reports were based on a new 300-page book entitled What Is Man?

Some media outlets reported the book said the following things about homosexuality: “a legitimate and dignified expression of the human being.” The media reports went on to claim that the book said, “A new and more adequate understanding of the human person imposes a radical reservation on the exclusive valuation of the heterosexual union in favor of an analogous reception of homosexuality and homosexual unions.”

In short, the time for looking at heterosexual unions as the only morally permissable union is at an end. Put the brakes on the idea of just heterosexual unions. The Church has been wrong for 2,000 years. It’s time to now include homosexual unions as also morally legitimate.

Again, media reports continued that, after much word-smithing and twisted interpretation by pro-gay scholars, the Old and New Testament condemnations were little else than “cultural features of that time.”

While there is still some disagreement about what the report actually says, or more importantly, why some of those references are in the report at all, one thing is certain: Because of the current pro-gay climate that has been created in the Church, Catholics on both sides jumped on the media reports and treated them as accurate.

Orthodox Catholics went ballistic over the possibility that the Vatican and Francis papacy had finally come totally out of the closet and the homosexual camp in the Church was gaga over the report, as seen here in a tweet from Brokeback Martin, celebrating what he thought was an accurate report.

Why was everyone so ready to believe these reports? That’s easy. Because homosexual men, admitted into seminary by other homosexual men, ordained by homosexual men, consecrated bishops by homosexual men, seizing operational control of the Church, have brought the Church to this point.

Men like Fr. James Martin is little else than the latest in a long line of homosexualists in the clergy, whose entire reason for entering the clergy was to get the Church to bless their filth.

It all started with a communist agent invasion beginning almost a century ago, and now a century later, the Church is coming apart at the seams.

And hundreds of millions of wimpy head-in-the-sand Catholics, who have zero understanding of the idea that the Faith must be fought for in every generation, simply whistle past the graveyard because they are too terrified to get into the fight.

The pro-homosexual clerics are bastard sons of the Church. They must be called out and challenged at every turn. They have no love for Christ, His Church or the souls of those they corrupt on the march to perverting the teachings.

Sodomy is not a gift. It is an evil that if, participated in and unrepented of, leads a soul to Hell forever, like many other mortal sins. But too many of these scholars and clergy are homosexuals themselves or completely embracing of it so they may gain Church support for their personally immoral lives.

All of this was painfully evident when the homosexual clergy child sex abuse scandal burst upon the Church in 2002. That was brought into the Church by homosexual priests and bishops — and there was loads more homosexual activity within the clergy and hierarchy than just child abuse. It’s just that a portion of these sick men also attacked children, and that is what brought the truth into the open.

Yet even still today, homosexual cardinals and their allies continue to deny the plain truth. Men like Blase Cupich and Joseph Tobin continue to spew out that homosexuality has nothing to do with homosexual abuse.

Yet in nearly every single example of scandal still being vomited into the world from the Church, homosexuality is front and center.

  • Buffalo Bp. Richard Malone resigned for covering up homosexual abuse.
  • Bishop Michael Bransfield had to step down in disgrace for homosexual abuse.
  • Monsignor Walter Rossi, the rector of the National Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, is being investigated by not one, but two, dioceses for homosexual abuse.
  • Crookston Bp. Michael Hoeppner is being investigated for covering up homosexual assault and lying to parishioners and his clergy.
  • Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York ignored years of complaints and covered up for homosexual priest Fr. Peter Miqueli, who was stealing from parishes to support a sex addiction for gay prostitutes.

The list of homosexual crimes committed against the Faith by prelates and priests goes on and on and on.

Gay, drug-fueled orgies in the Vatican, Roman clergy frequenting gay bars, gay officials promoted by Francis, abusive homosexual prelates covered up for by him, his own number two accused of covering up for a wildly abusive bishop.

As we said, it goes on and on. Homosexuality, as a gift in itself, is now ensconced in the Vatican as perfectly normal.

What Catholics need to understand is really pretty simple once you get your head wrapped around it. Nearly every current bishop in the West has been part of the homosexualization of the Church. At the very least, they have sat by and said nothing.

But for the majority, the seminaries were hotbeds of homosexuality. They were engineered starting in the 1960s to recruit, form and ordain gay men and weed out heterosexual men. Once ordained, they patiently worked their way up the career ladder, promoted by other gay men, all with the single intent of corrupting the Church into teaching that their filth is moral and acceptable.

And now they have reached a point where they feel free enough to say Scripture has it wrong. Brokeback Martin tweeted that very thing himself weeks ago, saying he doesnt deny Scripture condemns homosexuality, but adding the rhetorical question: “The issue is precisely whether the biblical judgment is correct.”

The biblical judgment is correct, Martin. It is you and your fellow homosexual travelers who are wrong. You are a filthy, condemnable lot who pervert teaching to feel good about yourselves and rationalize your evil. You can meet with the pope all you want and tweet about it all you want.

This is a homosexual papacy, so anything Francis says which contradicts Divine Law can be completely dismissed. He is wrong, flat-out wrong — underscored by when he told a gay man that “God made you that way.”

The civil war the Church is now engaged in has been brought to you first by communism, and then accelerated by perverted homosexual men in the clergy. Period.

Ten years ago, Church Militant started telling you about all this. We were mocked continually. We weren’t wrong then, and we aren’t wrong now.

Understand: Your souls and the souls of your loved ones are being offered up by twisted men to support their own psychological illnesses. From decades of highly effeminate men in the pulpits to clergy in Rome, there is no authentic love for you, not one shred.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Church Militant video is republished with permission. © All rights reserved.

VIDEO: Former Extremists Frank Meeink and Tanya Joya: The Way Back

Former extremists Tanya Joya (jihadi bride) and Frank Meeink (neo-Nazi) talk with Clarion Project about their journey out of extremism and how that has shifted their views on the issues society is polarized by at present.

Frank Meeink talks about how he doesn’t see himself as a victim, and how his experience in walking away from being a neo-Nazi has changed his relationship with violence.

When I joined that group [neo-Nazis], I didn’t lose my humanity. I gave it up for acceptance. You can’t have empathy and humanity and be a neo-Nazi. Even using my manners wasn’t something I did anymore as a neo-Nazi. I had to bury it deep down.

Former jihadi bride Tanya Joya reflects on what it means to try to be a good person in a toxic and extremist environment.

“When I see people like Hoda Muthana [an American jihadi bride asking to come back to the U.S.] and other extremists, people who reject the West … I empathize with them, because what I see are young women who come from broken homes who are escaping the trauma they were raised in. I see them trying to seek God, like I was.

They’ve been misguided, and I know what it’s like because I’ve been there. I know what it’s like to be vulnerable and weak-minded. I also understand the process of radicalization … how every time you try to think outside the bubble you get shut down by the community.

Joya speaks to how her views changed when she became a mother, and how being a mother gave her courage to have the confidence to speak her mind. She also reflects on how these women have been living in chaos and destruction for the past six years, never experiencing a single day’s happiness, never getting a break.

“We need to give them a taste of happiness back,” she says.

Joya admits they’ve committed crimes but, as Franks also believes, haven’t lost their humanity; they have d to bury it, she says, adding that we have a chance to rehabilitate people by bringing that back into their core character.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Clarion Project column with video is republished with permission. © All rights reserved.

Nancy Pelosi doesn’t want to talk about impeachment

So much for “solemn.”

For nearly 3 years, Democrats in Congress openly made plans to impeach President Donald J. Trump. While Speaker Nancy Pelosi claimed that “no one comes to Congress to impeach a president,” some House Democrats did exactly that—and said so explicitly.

“I would vote yes” on impeachment, one said during her campaign more than a year ago. “I recognize [President Trump] as a tyrant.”

Another Democrat made this promise hours after she was sworn into office in January: “We’re gonna impeach the motherf****r.”

The list goes on. Speaker Pelosi doesn’t want mainstream Americans to see comments like those. She knows the rest of the country would be appalled by the way House Democrats talk to their far-left base. And she knows it would expose the truth about impeachment: that it was always a partisan move to silence the voices of 63 million Americans. It never mattered what the facts were or what the law said.

You can’t have it both ways. Democrats can’t lecture the country about the gravity of impeachment and then turn right around and make a mockery of it for their voters.

YesterdaySpeaker Pelosi assured the public that the impeachment vote would be a “solemn” process and a prayerful day for America. Not everyone got the memo:

Speaker Pelosi may be captive to her party’s growing radical, Democrat-Socialist movement, but she’s no dummy. She knows how bad this all looks. In full damage-control mode, she made two shocking announcements just hours after the House vote.

The first is that she’s done talking about impeachment. “I’m not going to answer any more questions” about it, she said this morning.

Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham called her out, noting that the White House had been answering reporters’ questions about it all morning. “When you wrongfully impeach a President, people deserve answers. You’ve been talking nothing but impeachment for months (years really)—why the silence now?”

The second stunning move Speaker Pelosi announced? After rushing to complete the fastest impeachment of a President in U.S. history, the House will now hold onto the Articles of Impeachment instead of passing them along to the Senate for trial. Democrat leaders know the Senate will acquit President Trump—after all, their Articles don’t even allege that he committed a crime—and they don’t want the weakness of their case exposed.

House Democrats got their historic day. They now own the first impeachment in American history that had no bipartisan support, only bipartisan opposition. They now own the first impeachment that contains no criminal violations, only political disputes.

It’s a terrible precedent for our country. Speaker Pelosi knows that. Just don’t ask her about it, OK?

Here’s what President Trump did today.

Something to shareThey’re not after me. They’re after you.

PODCASTS: Merry Impeach-mess from House Dems

Their news may be fake, but their glee over impeachment is not! Liberal members of the media were beside themselves with joy at Wednesday’s “solemn” occasion — the House vote on impeachment. Like Democrats, who celebrated the 218th vote like they’d won the Masters, Washington Post reporters clinked glasses in one photo. They were all smiles until Rachael Bade’s “Merry Impeachmas!” tweet started dropping jaws — reminding Americans what “objective journalism” looks like now.While Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) gave revelers an icy stare on the House floor, Bade’s colleagues in the media gave the Post much more. “What… were you thinking when you tweeted this?” Emmy-winning investigative reporter Bill Melugin fired back. “Some of us still care about ethics and unbiased reporting, and this garbage makes it harder for all of us by reinforcing a stereotype. Come on guys.” The Hill’s Joe Concha was just as angry. “[This] isn’t a horrible look for both news organizations or anything,” he said, nodding at Bade’s second employer, CNN. Well, Mollie Hemmingway half-joked, the Post did work hard for this impeachment over the past few years.

But honestly, Americans didn’t need a happy hour selfie to tell them what they already know: this entire impeachment charade isn’t serious — and neither are its advocates. Think about it: This is the first modern impeachment without a scrap of bipartisan support. Not a single Republican voted in favor of the articles — and worse for Pelosi, multiple Democrats voted against them. So the only thing that is bipartisan, it turns out, is the opposition. Congressman Mike Johnson (R-La.), who literally stepped into the cloakroom to join us on “Washington Watch,” talked about this and the behind-the-scenes frustration on both sides of the aisle. This is, he pointed out, “the first time that there has been a literal single-party impeachment, and… that is precisely what the founders feared. They feared that it would come to this… where the majority party in the House would abuse their power and go after the president because they don’t like his policies or the way he communicates.”

“Look, every previous president in this country has made unpopular decisions, especially infuriated their political opponents and the other party. But impeachments for good reason and by specific design are exceedingly rare. So we’ve been a country for 243 years. There [are] only two previous presidents, Andrew Johnson in the 1860s and Bill Clinton in 1998 that have been impeached by this House. Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 to avoid this. But in each of those previous impeachments… evidence clearly established that specific criminal acts were committed. [And, based on the votesboth parties agreed.] That is just simply not the case here. And what they’re doing is opening a Pandora’s box that it will be very, very difficult for us to close.”

The bar has been set so low now, he warns, that if you disagree with the next presidents or anything about them, one side will call for impeachment. “This is exactly what the founders wanted us to avoid — [which is] getting to this point where impeachment is weaponized and becomes a common tool. It will destroy a republic.” Mike is absolutely right. This is an attack, pure and simple, on the policies and accomplishments of this administration which undoing what they’ve worked decades to accomplish through the courts and government bureaucracy. If it weren’t, the House would be accusing the president of an actual crime. It hasn’t — something even the Post admits.

His crime, at least to the Left, goes back to the irrational response over what Justice Neil Gorsuch said on Fox: “Merry Christmas.” If you want to know what’s driving this intense liberal animosity toward the administration, those two words sum it all up. This president has unleashed the powers of faith in this country, unlike anything we’ve seen. The Christians in this country, who’ve spent years being mocked and maligned, feel emboldened again. Saying “Merry Christmas” in places like work or school used to mean you’d need a lawyer. If you put a nativity scene in the town square or senior center, you’d be summoned to court. That still happens every once in a while, but by and large, faithful Americans feel understood and protected by this president. After three years of watching Trump beat back the forces of political correctness, people aren’t intimidated anymore. They aren’t frightened by what liberals might do, because this administration hasn’t just stopped the Left — it’s slowly and steadily dismantled the anti-faith policies they stood on.

So when Neil Gorsuch goes on television and wishes people a “Merry Christmas,” the Left isn’t upset about December 25th. They’re upset about every other day of the year that this president is moving faith and the freedom of religion forward. When you get right down to it, liberals don’t have many options. This impeachment is their last-ditch effort to preserve the Left’s secular domination of the culture. And they have everything to lose.


Tony Perkins’s Washington Update is written with the aid of FRC senior writers.


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EDITORS NOTE: This FRC column with podcasts is republished with permission. © All rights reserved.

Democrats’ Move to Manipulate Senate Impeachment Trial Breaks Norms

President Donald Trump says White House counsel Pat Cipollone will lead his defense team in the Senate impeachment trial, but House Democrats’ tactics mean it still isn’t clear when that trial will begin.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer announced late Thursday afternoon that no more House votes will be taken until after Jan. 7.

That means House managers, or prosecutors, won’t be selected until at least then to deliver articles of impeachment to the Senate for commencement of the trial.

Sending the latest ripple in the divisive Washington drama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had suggested she would delay the start of a trial by not transmitting the two articles of impeachment—the charges against Trump—to the Senate.


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The theory among some Democrats is that Senate Republicans want to get the impeachment trial out of the way, and will make concessions in setting rules for it.

Under the rules of the Senate, an impeachment trial may begin only after the House managers deliver the articles of impeachment. Pelosi, D-Calif., said she wouldn’t select House managers until she had a better idea about the parameters of the trial.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., has said he wants to call witnesses such as acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and former Trump national security adviser John Bolton.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said his role is not as an impartial juror, and he views the impeachment of Trump as illegitimate. He mocked the Democrats’ reluctance for a trial in a tweet Thursday.

“Last night, House Democrats passed the thinnest, weakest presidential impeachment in American history,” McConnell tweeted. “Now they’re suggesting they are too afraid to even submit their accusations to the Senate and go to trial. The prosecutors are getting cold feet in front of the entire country.”

Others in House Democratic leadership appear to be on board behind Pelosi, or to go further.

Majority Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina, the No. 3 House Democrat, told CNN that Democrats should hold the articles of impeachment for “as long as it takes.”

“The delay is made necessary because the majority leader of the Senate has made it very clear that he’s not going to be impartial, he’s not going to be fair, he will collude, if you please, with the White House—at least the White House’s attorneys—to decide how he will go forward,” Clyburn said of McConnell.

“Why would the speaker of the House step into that without trying to determine exactly what the majority leader plans to do?” he said.

The House voted Wednesday night to impeach Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress in connection with his July 25 phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that broached the topics of both former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden’s high-paying job with Ukraine energy company Burisma.

Asked by a reporter if he were suggesting that “it’s possible you will never transmit the articles of impeachment?” Clyburn responded: “If it were me, yes, that’s what I’m saying. I have no idea what the speaker will do.”

This would be an unusual move, based on historical precedent, said Thomas Jipping, a former chief counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee who was involved in two Senate impeachment trials of federal judges.

Jipping noted that when the House impeached President Andrew Johnson in February 1868, the Senate trial began the next day. When the House impeached President Bill Clinton on Dec. 19, 1998, he said, the Senate trial began Jan. 7, 1999, after lawmakers returned from Christmas break.

“In most other impeachments of judges, the trial started in a week or two,” Jipping, now deputy director of the Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Signal.

“The Senate has the sole power to try an impeachment under the Constitution,” Jipping added. “The House is trying to manipulate when the Senate begins the trial. This is completely different than anything ever done before.”

Notably, in the previous two presidential impeachments, the same party controlled both the House and Senate. In this case, a Republican-controlled Senate will try the impeachment charges approved by a Democrat-controlled House.

“If Democrats are willing to delay the trial, why did they rush impeachment through the Senate?” asked Curt Levey, president of the Committee for Justice, a conservative political group. “The political cost would seem to be for Democrats if they needlessly delay this.”

That said, Levey suggested, it’s entirely a political matter and no one could force the House to transmit the two articles of impeachment in a timely manner.

“It is hard to imagine a court getting involved,” said Levey, a constitutional lawyer, adding:

It’s a political question. … Democrats are fond of saying that Trump violates democratic norms. But, impeaching a president over disagreements with the legislative branch and playing games with the Senate over impeachment also violates norms.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., tweeted that the Democrats’ strategy is “scary.”

“It creates a constitutional extortion mechanism that is dangerous for the country,” Graham tweeted.

The House impeachment managers, or prosecution team, will be House Democrats, if precedent is a guide. Most likely, they will include House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., among others.

During the Clinton impeachment, Republicans named 13 House managers.

Sitting Thursday afternoon in the Oval Office beside Rep. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, who decided in recent days to flip from being a Democrat opposed to impeachment to being a Republican opposed to it, Trump took a question from the press pool about his strategy for the Senate trial.

“We think what they [House Democrats] did is wrong,” Trump said of the impeachment votes. “We think that what they did is unconstitutional, and the Senate is very, very capable. We have great senators, great Republican senators.”

The president added that Cipollone, the White House counsel, is “doing a great job.”

Asked if he would be the main lawyer, Trump said: “It looks that way. Pat Cipollone. We have a couple of others that we are going to put in, but Pat’s been fantastic as White House counsel.”

Trump reportedly is also considering House allies such as Reps. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, to assist during the Senate trial.

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:

As progressives on the far Left continue to push for greater government control under the disguise of “free stuff,” our lawmakers need conservative research and solutions to guide them towards promoting your principles instead.

That is why we’re asking conservatives to unite around the key values of limited government, individual liberty, traditional American values, and a strong national defense by making a special year-end gift to The Heritage Foundation before December 31.

Next year, absolutely everything is on the line. The Left won’t pull any punches. They stand ready to trade the principles of the American founding for the toxic European socialism that has failed so many times before.

That is why finishing this year strong is so critical. The Heritage Foundation is challenging you to rise up and claim more victories for conservative values as we battle socialism in 2020.

Will you take a moment to learn how you can do your part today?

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Trump Is Beating The Swamp

Despite resistance from the Congress, President Trump has made considerable progress in his first term; he has reshaped the federal courts to enforce the Constitution, he has moved the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem (something other presidents promised to do, but failed to deliver), he has rebuilt our military and is assisting veterans, illegal immigration is being slashed, he made several key trade deals (particularly the recent USMCA to replace NAFTA), he crushed ISIS, and introduced policies and programs resulting in a booming economy of historic proportions. Despite all this, perhaps his biggest achievement is taking “The Swamp” to task and is beating them.

Let’s be clear, the Washington establishment likes it better when one of their own serves as president. Mr. Trump is the first outsider to break the pattern and challenge the culture. As we know, the “Swamp” consists of Democrats, the Main Stream Media, RINOs, and the “Deep State” bureaucrats, all of whom have banded together to obstruct this president. However, President Trump is a quick study and has forced their hand, by branding the news media as “Fake News” (thereby causing them to lose the trust of the people), taking RINOs to task, unmasking and weeding out “Deep State” officials, and butting heads with the Democrats. He is being successful as it is simply no longer business as usual in Washington.

Indicative of the Congressional meltdown is the president’s impeachment which is all part of the Swamp’s coup d’état to rid the country of President Trump. More than anything, this coup denotes the presence of a cultural revolution. Such a revolution happens when an outsider enters a new culture; the person either adapts to the culture or the culture rejects the person, which is quite normal. However, when the culture grows to the point that it fails to serve its constituents, you need an outsider to change it, like President Trump. This is all about serving the needs of the people, not the political power brokers in Washington.

Last week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the UK drove his Conservative Party to an overwhelming victory over the Labour Party thereby opening the door for the British to finally exit the European Union (BREXIT). This victory is significant as it was viewed as the will of the people. This should be considered a harbinger of things to come in the 2020 U.S. elections. People are simply sick and tired of the political class going against the will of the people. Democrats are now in the unenviable position of facing angry voters in November. It is highly likely President Trump will experience the same landslide victory Boris Johnson did last week.

Thus far, the Democrats have failed in all their attempts to besmirch the character of the president; the Mueller Investigation produced nothing, and the impeachment is going nowhere fast. Shortly after the impeachment coup ends in defeat, the Democrats will continue to hound the president the best they can. It is conceivable they could do another impeachment inquiry, but this will not likely happen. I believe the next thing you will hear is the House trying to censure the president. A censure is a condemnation of an individual, but carries no penalty.

Perhaps the best known censure of an American president was that of Andrew Jackson in 1834. Believe it or not, Abraham Lincoln was censured during the Civil War (1864), and the last president to be censured was William Howard Taft in 1912. This didn’t appear to hurt him politically as he was appointed the tenth chief justice of the Supreme Court in 1921. In all cases, censure was politically motivated, just as it will be with President Trump. Nonetheless, this will be the last desperate act of the Democrats before they are voted out of office.

So far, President Trump has played this all quite shrewdly. He has rattled the cage of the Swamp who now face losing their jobs. By doing so, he has cracked the Washington establishment which is now beginning to crumble. We owe him a great debt of gratitude for this.

As to those who feel Mr. Trump doesn’t act “presidential,” I ask what acting “presidential” has gotten us over the last few decades, other than an erosion of our values and a lowering of the prestige of the country. He may not be politically correct, but he sure knows how to get things done.

Thank God for Donald J. Trump, the first American president with the strength and courage to take on “The Swamp,” and win.

Keep the Faith!

P.S. – Also do not forget my new books, “How to Run a Nonprofit” and “Tim’s Senior Moments”, both available in Printed and eBook form. Great holiday gifts!

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New York City Experienced Worst Decline in Restaurant Jobs since 9/11 After $15 Minimum Wage Win

The Big Apple’s fast-food industry, The New York Times recently reported, has long served as a laboratory for progressive politicians and the nation’s labor machine.

But new economic research suggests their latest experiment is not going as planned.

Data show that following the labor movement’s “Fight for $15” victory, which imposed steep annual increases in mandatory wages for workers, New York City experienced its sharpest decline in restaurant jobs in nearly 20 years.

Restaurants tend to operate on famously low profit margins, typically 2 to 6 percent. So a 40 percent mandatory wage increase over a two-year period is not trivial.

In response to the minimum wage hikes, New York City restaurants did what businesses tend to do when labor costs rise: they increased prices and reduced labor staff and hours.

For example, Lalito’s, a popular restaurant on Bayard Street, recently raised its menu prices 10-15 percent, Eater New York reports.

A New York City Hospitality Alliance survey also showed that three out of four full-service restaurants said they planned to reduce employee hours. Nearly half of those surveyed said they planned to eliminate some job positions in 2019.

In response, New York City council members are trying to shield restaurant employees from “unfair” firings. Labor lawyer Michael J. Lotito, whose firm represents the restaurant industry, told The Times that a “just cause” firing provision for fast food employers “would be a first in the country.”

Regardless of whether or not the firings are “fair,” the data are clear: restaurant workers are losing jobs.

Recently published data from the American Enterprise Institute, a right-leaning Washington, DC, think tank, show that full-service restaurant employment declined for the first time in a decade in 2018. That year also saw the sharpest month-to-month annual decline since the attacks of 9/11.

“December 2018 restaurant jobs were down by almost 3,000 (and by 1.64%) from the previous December,” wrote economist Mark Perry, “and the 2.5% annual decline in March 2018 was the worst annual decline since the sharp collapse in restaurant jobs following 9/11 in 2001.”

Perry says this “restaurant recession” is likely the result of the series of mandatory wage hikes that brought the city’s minimum wage to $15 an hour.

New York’s experience is noteworthy since numerous states have passed or are in the process of passing a $15 pay floor. Illinois and New Jersey recently passed laws mandating a $15 minimum wage—they will be phased in over several years, similar to New York’s law—joining California, Massachusetts, and of course New York. The Maryland House of Delegates advanced a $15 pay floor by voice vote Wednesday. The District of Columbia and some cities, including Seattle and Minneapolis, have also passed $15 minimum wage laws.

Considering the latest results of New York’s $15 minimum wage experiment, lawmakers and activists should consider Mary Shelley’s great moral lesson: beware the monsters we create ourselves.

COLUMN BY

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Rick Scott is a U.S. senator from Florida. Twitter: .


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3 Democrats Defect as House Votes to Impeach Trump

The Democrat-controlled House voted Wednesday night to approve two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump after about 10 hours of debate.

In two historic votes largely along party lines, the House charged Trump with abusing his power by a vote of 229 to 197 and obstructing Congress by a vote of 228 to 198.

Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan, elected as a Republican but recently turned independent, voted for both articles of impeachment.

Two Democrats, Reps. Collin Peterson of Minnesota and Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, voted “no” on both articles of impeachment. Van Drew indicated over the weekend that he plans to become a Republican.


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A third Democrat, Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, voted “no” on the charge of obstructing Congress.

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, voted “present” on both charges.

“Taken together, the two articles charge that President Trump placed his private, political interest above our national security, above our elections, and above our system of checks and balances,” Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said.

The outcome makes Trump the third president in American history to be impeached by the House of Representatives. President Andrew Johnson was the first in 1868 and President Bill Clinton became the second on Dec. 19, 1998, almost exactly 21 years ago.

Trump was speaking at a rally in Battle Creek, Michigan, as the vote on the first article of impeachment occurred, and cable news networks used a split screen to show both the president and the unfolding votes.

The rally was held in Amash’s congressional district.

“It doesn’t really feel like we’re being impeached,” Trump told the cheering crowd. “The country is doing better than ever before, [and] we did nothing wrong.”

The floor debate began after 9 a.m. and, as day turned into evening, House members from each side howled or applauded, depending on who was speaking. The votes concluded around 8:45 p.m.

Democrats based the charge of abuse of power on Trump’s July 25 phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in which they allege Trump pressured Ukraine’s new leader to open an investigation into a political rival at a time when Trump was withholding nearly $400 million in congressionally approved military aid. Trump released the aid in September.

According to an official White House transcript, Trump expressed concern that Ukraine, years before Zelenskyy took office, meddled in the 2016 presidential election in the United States.

The two leaders also talked briefly about Trump’s interest in Ukraine’s investigating the activities of former Vice President Joe Biden’s son as a highly paid board member at the Ukrainian energy company Burisma while the senior Biden was President Barack Obama’s point man for Ukraine policy.

“President Trump should have been focused on the interest of the American people in that call,” Nadler said. “Instead, he prioritized his private, political interests.”

Democrats based their charge of obstruction of Congress on Trump’s direction that administration officials not respond to subpoenas for documents and testimony during the House impeachment inquiry.

“Many presidents, including President Trump, have asserted privilege and other objections to specific subpoenas,” Nadler said. “But only President Trump has ordered the categorical defiance of a congressional investigation, the automatic rejection of all subpoenas.”

The two articles of impeachment likely will go nowhere in a Senate trial, noted John Malcolm, director of the Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation.

“It is the culmination of an impeachment effort by House Democrats that began within days of Trump’s inauguration nearly three years ago. It all seems so anti-climactic,” Malcolm said in a written statement, adding of the coming Senate trial:

Assuming that all 45 Democrats and both independents vote to convict, they will still need at least 20 Republican senators to join them in order to remove Trump from office. This will not happen. … President Trump will not be unseated by this partisan ploy. While [the] vote in the House will, no doubt, anger the president, the ultimate verdict will be rendered by the people when they vote in November 2020.

It requires 67 senators, an unlikely two-thirds majority, to convict and remove a president after a Senate impeachment trial. Republicans hold 53 seats.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters earlier in the day that the House would consider withholding the articles of impeachment from the Senate. This move could stall the trial, providing some leverage to House Democrats on setting the rules.

During the House floor debate, Republican lawmakers argued that the articles of impeachment were vague and did not allege a specific crime.

“I not only serve on the Judiciary Committee, I also serve on the Rules Committee,” Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz., said. “I have spent hours and hours and hours reading transcripts, looking at documents, hearing testimony. I can tell you one thing: I believe this is the most unfair, politically biased, rigged process that I have seen in my entire life.”

“There is no proof, none, that the president has committed an impeachable offense,” Lesko added. “Not one of the Democrat witnesses, not one, was able to establish that the president committed bribery, treason, or high crimes and misdemeanors as required [for impeachment] in the U.S. Constitution.”

Lesko noted that 17 of the 24 Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee already had voted to back an impeachment resolution against Trump before the Trump-Zelenskyy phone call.

Five of the nine Democrats on the House Rules Committee also already had voted to impeach Trump, she said.

The Arizona Republican was referring to Reps. Al Green, D-Texas, and Brad Sherman, D-Calif., who used procedures to force three earlier votes on the House floor on whether to table Green’s resolution to impeach Trump. The most recent such resolution was in July.

Van Drew, Peterson, and Golden were the only Democrats to defect among the 31 who won election in 2018 in congressional districts won by Trump in 2016.

Rep. Elaine Luria of Virginia is among the “Trump district” Democrats. She invoked her military background, which helped her win election, in arguing for impeachment.

“I rise today in support of the oath I first took at 17 upon entering the Naval Academy and took five more times in my 20-year Navy career, an oath that comforted me in the years that I spent away from my family deployed around the globe,” Luria said, adding:  “And today, an oath that gives me resolve, resolve to do today what is right and not what is politically expedient, resolve to stand with the president at the White House last week and resolve to stand up to the president today.”

Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., the No. 3 Democrat in the House, appeared to use the words “domestic enemies” to refer to Trump and invoked religion in describing his vote.

“I rise today feeling the full weight of my duty as a member of this august body, reflecting upon our oath of office to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” Clyburn said.

Clyburn, quoting Founding Father Thomas Paine, said: “Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered.”

“Today, we have a president who seems to believe he is a king or above the law,” Clyburn said. “Paine warned us that so unlimited a power can belong only to God Almighty. My faith leads me to take very seriously the final words of our oath, ‘to faithfully discharge the duties of the office, so help me God.’”

Pelosi had resisted impeachment for months, but said Wednesday that she had no choice. As she spoke, Pelosi stood by a prop, a sign that quoted from the Pledge of Allegiance: “And to the Republic for which it stands.”

“If we do not act now, we will be derelict in our duty,” Pelosi said. “It is tragic the president’s reckless actions make impeachment necessary. He gave us no choice.”

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., gained applause from his caucus when he asserted about 7:45 p.m. that Trump easily would survive impeachment following a Senate trial.

“Donald J. Trump is president of the United States. He is president today. He will be president tomorrow. And he will be president when this impeachment is over,” McCarthy said, prefacing his remarks by saying he knew they would upset Democrats.

Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, noted the previous attempts to impeach Trump and referred to Green’s widely reported comment that Democrats needed to impeach Trump to keep him from getting reelected.

“That is probably the most prescient thing said by the majority in the last year, is, ‘We can’t beat him if we don’t impeach him.’ There is a reason behind this impeachment, and even Speaker Pelosi said it would be dangerous to leave it to voters to determine whether President Trump stays in office. Really?” Collins said, adding:

After we just said the Pledge of Allegiance, we go back to the speaker’s own words, who said it would be dangerous to leave it [Trump’s fate] to the voters. I will tell you right now, Madam Speaker, we on the Republican side have no problem taking our side to the [House] majority and to the people of this country because they elected Donald Trump, and it is a matter for the voters, not this House, not in this way, not in the way this is being done. It has trampled everything this House believes in.

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., who started what she called the “Impeach 45” movement in 2017, appeared to boast of a mission accomplished.

“History will remember those who were willing to speak truth to power. Yes, I called for Trump’s impeachment early,” Waters said, adding:

This is our country. Our foremothers and our forefathers shed their blood to build and defend this democracy. I refuse to have it undermined. I wholeheartedly support this resolution. I’m proud that in the final analysis, justice will have been served in America and Donald Trump will have been impeached.

Ken McIntyre contributed to this report.

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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America spoke. House Democrats never listened.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats are about to go down in history. Their legacy will be sealed tonight with an unfair, hyper-partisan impeachment vote that is unprecedented for all the wrong reasons.

  • President Donald J. Trump committed no crime. House Democrats agree: Their Articles of Impeachment against him do not claim a single criminal violation. For the first time in history, a President will be impeached for solely political reasons.
  • Also for the first time ever, an American President will be impeached without any votes from the minority party. A couple Democrats may join in opposing it, too.
  • The Pelosi-Schiff blitz will go down as the fastest impeachment in U.S. history. Why the rush? Because public support has dropped steadily throughout the process. Most Americans are against it. Democrats can’t afford to let it continue.

If House Democrats are remembered for anything else, it will be their rank hypocrisy. Obvious political double standards tend to get lost in the moment—especially with a Democrat-friendly media helping the cause—but history judges them harshly.

During the Clinton impeachment, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY)—now chairman of the powerful House Judiciary Committee—warned that a partisan impeachment would be illegitimate. Such a ploy would “call into question the very legitimacy of our political institutions,” he said. He went so far as to lambast an impeachment attempt that didn’t have the “legitimacy of a national consensus” as a “partisan coup d’etat.”

The amazing irony, of course, is that the Clinton impeachment was bipartisan, with five Democrats voting in favor of 3 of the 4 articles introduced. The Pelosi-Schiff impeachment of President Trump, however, is only bipartisan in the opposition to it.

Americans have delivered their verdict. A new poll from Gallup finds that support for impeachment and removal has dropped 6 points. Other polls corroborate it: Recent ones from USA Today and Quinnipiac show that a majority of Americans oppose impeaching and removing President Trump from office.

At town halls across America, constituents are demanding that House Democrats stop with impeachment and focus on the real issues facing our country.

It should be obvious, and it is to everyone outside the Beltway Swamp: Americans are sick of Washington’s never-ending partisan circus. They’re tired of the excuses for obstructionism and inaction. They aren’t buying the phony, sanctimonious lip service to our Constitution and Founding Ideals from career politicians who never bother to defend either when it counts.

Americans know House Democrats will go silent the moment they’re confronted with the Swamp’s own corruption, whether it be from FBI officials who used false information to spy on the Trump campaign or from Democrats’ own family members who got rich off conflicts of interest in Ukraine.

Our citizens simply want their Government to work for them, not against them. Under President Trump, it finally is. The working-class boom is lifting wages for blue-collar workers, dropping the unemployment rate to a 50-year low, and slashing income inequality. On trade, this President renegotiated NAFTA and held China accountable for years of unfair and abusive practices that Washington ignored.

Beyond that, illegal immigration is down, crime rates are down, and American service members are finally coming home while our NATO allies step up and contribute their fair share to the Alliance.

But instead of listening to Americans and helping make Washington better, Democrats ignored them. The left sought impeachment from day one. They chased conspiracy theories to discredit the voices of 63 million Americans. They’ve called President Trump “illegitimate” and “not my President.” They’ve turned the most sacred power of Congress into a political weapon. They’ve made it clear democracy only counts if they win.

The message of the 2016 election was straightforward for anyone who listened: Put the American people first. Tonight, House Democrats will prove they never heard a word of it.

In case you missed it: Read President Trump’s letter to Speaker Pelosi.

Watch: “This has been rigged from the start.”