VIDEO: She Got Pregnant at 18 and Did Something That Today, Few Teens Do

/in , /by

Kelly Clemente found out she was pregnant when she was 18. She had just finished her first semester of college, and up until then, described herself as your typical “all-American girl.”

She got good grades, was a member of a sorority, and ran on the track team.

When she saw that pregnancy test, “My life is over,” she thought.

“I was like, it doesn’t even matter. Nothing matters anymore,” Kelly told The Daily Signal.

Kelly, unlike most girls her age, was familiar with the implications of an unplanned pregnancy. In high school, she volunteered at HOPE in Northern Virginia, a nonprofit that creates gift baskets for mothers faced with an unplanned pregnancy.

Although she shared compassion for them, Kelly had bought into the stigmas about birth moms. “I’ll never be one of those women,” she thought.

But she was wrong. At 18, Kelly became an unplanned pregnancy statistic. “I was no better than these women that I was creating baskets for,” she said.

After crying and feeling nothing but noise and chaos, Kelly thought of her little sister, who her parents had adopted into their family from Central America.

“I thought of the joy she brought into our family, and for the first moment after hours of crying, I felt calm, and I felt peaceful,” Kelly said. “I knew that I needed to make the decision that my sister’s birth mom had made.”

Kelly would carry her baby to term, and place him—or her—for adoption.

But first, she’d have to tell her parents.

‘Parents’ Worst Nightmare’

Within days upon learning she was pregnant, Kelly had to figure out how to come clean with her parents. “I expected them to be angry,” she said. “Parents’ worst nightmare, right?”

First, she called her mom from school to say she wasn’t feeling well.

“I was concerned enough to go to school to see firsthand what was going on,” Susan Clemente, Kelly’s mom, said.

The two went grocery shopping together, but Kelly avoided sharing the news. Sensing something was wrong, her mom invited Kelly to come back home.

“That entire ride home, I never once told you that I was pregnant,” Kelly said, speaking to her mom about that day. “You told me later that you just knew.”

“I did,” Kelly’s mom replied.

When they got home, they sat on the living room couch and talked so intently that the sun went down without anyone noticing. When her dad, Mark, arrived home from work, he asked, “Why are you all sitting in the dark?”

At that moment, Kelly had to confront one of her biggest fears—telling her dad she was pregnant.

“I could tell something was going on,” he said of the two sitting in the dark.

Almost in the same breath, Kelly broke the news that she was pregnant—and going to place the child for adoption.

Instead of responding with anger or disappointment, Mark told The Daily Signal, “I just remember being so grateful and proud.”

“We’d hoped that we had raised you that way,” her dad said, speaking to Kelly. “So the fact that you didn’t even entertain that thought [abortion], to be honest, it was a very proud moment.”

After that, Kelly moved back in with her parents and set up an appointment with Bethany Christian Services, an organization that facilitates private, faith-based adoptions.

‘Little Treasure’

Walking into Bethany Christian Services, Kelly was expecting “the wrath of God” to be on her.

“I’m going to an adoption agency, and I’m going to be judged,” she said. But when she walked in there, “I never experienced any of that,” she said.

“They showed me what it was like to walk with someone through the hardest time of their life when they are feeling so down on themselves and so alone, they were there.”

Shawn and Dave Hansen were the second couple Kelly and her mom met with in the adoption process.

“It was so obvious that these were the people that would have her little treasure,” her mom told The Daily Signal.

But finding them was the easy part. Kelly was 18, in college, and still pregnant.

‘Where’s My Choice?’

“Being pregnant and being in college is never really a great thing,” Kelly said. “I found out very quickly who my true friends were.”

At one point, she told a friend on her track team that she was pregnant and placing her child for adoption. His response was less than supportive.

“If you don’t get an abortion, I will lose all respect for you,” Kelly remembered him saying.

“I was horrified,” Kelly said. “You call yourself pro-choice, but where’s my choice? It’s my choice to choose adoption.”

Then, two weeks before the birth, Kelly got a phone call from the baby’s father’s best friend informing her the father—Kelly’s boyfriend at the time—wasn’t being faithful.

“I was devastated,” Kelly said. “This is someone I knew for eight years, this is someone I trusted. I’m having his baby. We had conversations about getting married.”

Hearing that news was the second hardest news to take over those nine months, Kelly said. Her entire identity had already been shattered, and her relationship now was, too.

At a low point, Kelly walked out to her parents’ driveway in the middle of the night. She laid down on the road, in the dark, and prayed that a car would come run her over.

“I want to die,” Kelly remembered thinking. “I can’t handle this. This is too much for me.”

At that moment, Kelly said she heard a voice from God telling her to get up. So she did.

“I got up, and I said, ‘OK, I know that this sweet baby did nothing wrong, so I don’t want him to get hurt, so I’m going to have this baby and then I’m going to take my life.’ Because I was so broken, I didn’t think there was any meaning left.”

But then the voice came back and said, “No, I’m not done with you yet.”

“At that moment, I knew that I was loved by a really big God who had a really big heart, that didn’t judge me by my pregnancy and still loved me so much,” Kelly said.

A few weeks later, her water broke, and Kelly gave birth to a healthy baby boy.

‘An Answer to My Prayers’

“Those three days I spent in the hospital, he was mine,” Kelly said of her birth son, Alex. But after those three days, it was time to place Alex with his adoptive parents, Shawn and Dave Hansen.

“I don’t sugarcoat that because it’s real life and I loved this child so much, but I couldn’t give him a father, I couldn’t give him brothers and sisters for a long time, I couldn’t provide him with what felt like anything he deserved.”

She then walked to the hospital chapel, said a prayer for everything to be OK, and at that moment, Dave and Shawn walked in.

“I was like, wow,” Kelly said. “They truly are an answer to my prayers.”

Handing her baby to another family wasn’t going to be easy, even though the family was the living embodiment of her prayers.

“I thought the hardest day of my life would be finding out that I was pregnant,” Kelly said. “It wasn’t.”

“The hardest day of my life was driving away from that hospital without a baby. I had never felt more empty in my life. I was physically empty, and I felt so alone.”

Kelly made a decision that in today’s society, few women do.

In 2014, the latest data available, 18,329 women in the U.S. chose to place their children for adoption. That same year, more than 900,000 women chose abortion. According to the National Council for Adoption, a nonpartisan group that advocates adoption, for every 1,000 abortions and births to unmarried women, there were only 6.9 adoptions.

‘It’s Over Now’

Kelly gave birth in September 2008, and returned to college in January. Much like the pregnancy, the transition back wasn’t easy.

“I remember everybody just telling me over and over again, ‘It’s over now. It’s over. Aren’t you so glad that this is over?’” Kelly said.

But she felt differently.

“I was fine without drinking, I was fine without sleeping around. I had lived a life I was proud of while I was pregnant, and I wanted that to continue but I was feeling so much pressure to just be that fun sorority party girl that I was before my entire life changed. No one seemed to wrap their head around the fact that my entire worldview had been shifted.”

Today, Kelly is 28 years old. She graduated from college and went back to receive a master’s degree in school counseling.

“My heart is for children,” Kelly said. For now, she’s teaching preschool and hopes one day to be either a school counselor or a voice for teen moms and teen birth moms.

“I want them to know that they have value and their life isn’t over. They have their whole life ahead of them.”

She also wants birth moms to know that children placed with adoptive families “are not lacking in love.”

Her son, Kelly said, “not only receives love from his adoptive parents. He receives love from me, he receives love from my parents, there’s so much love to go around.”

Kelly chose to have an open adoption with Alex and his parents, and sees him a couple times every year.

After enjoying time together, Kelly said, “You would think that it would be this emotional thing where I’m so upset that my birth son is going back with his adoptive parents.”

“It’s not,” she said. “It’s this beautiful thing where he’s happy that he’s seen me, I’m happy that I’ve seen him. He knows who is parents are. He knows that I’m not mom. One day I hope to be a mom, but I’m not his mom. I get to be birth mommy. And that’s OK with me.”

COMMENTARY BY

Portrait of Kelsey Harkness

Kelsey Harkness

Kelsey Harkness is a senior news producer at The Daily Signal and co-host of “Problematic Women,” a podcast and Facebook Live show. Send an email to Kelsey. Twitter: @kelseyjharkness.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Podcast: What It’s Like to Be a ‘Birth Mommy’

13 Weeks Pregnant: Symptoms and What to Expect

Dear Readers:

With the recent conservative victories related to tax cuts, the Supreme Court, and other major issues, it is easy to become complacent.

However, the liberal Left is not backing down. They are rallying supporters to advance their agenda, moving this nation further from the vision of our founding fathers.

If we are to continue to bring this nation back to our founding principles of limited government and fiscal conservatism, we need to come together as a group of likeminded conservatives.

This is the mission of The Heritage Foundation. We want to continue to develop and present conservative solutions to the nation’s toughest problems. And we cannot do this alone.

We are looking for a select few conservatives to become a Heritage Foundation member. With your membership, you’ll qualify for all associated benefits and you’ll help keep our nation great for future generations.

ACTIVATE YOUR MEMBERSHIP TODAY

VIDEO: The Awan Brothers/Democrat I.T. Scandal

/in , , , , /by

New reports have emerged that dozens of House Democrats waived the background checks on the Awan Brothers — the House I.T. aides handling their cybersecurity and with access to their email systems. Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton went to Capitol Hill last year to help shine a spotlight on the ongoing Awan Brothers I.T. scandal in the House of Representatives that the mainstream media — and, sadly, even our Justice Department and much of Congress — are all ignoring.

This is a story that involves political corruption, alleged cybersecurity breaches, the potential sharing of private constituent info, possible large-scale fraud, cover-ups, and threats to our national security.

Civil War: What you get when one side doesn’t accept the results of a free election

/in , , , , /by

What do you get when one side will not accept the results of a free election?

Texas Moms Demand Action President Charged for Accosting Teen Girls

/in , , , , /by

Not content to let the gun control and hardcore anti-Donald Trump communities’ hateful rhetoric be relegated to the internet, print media, television, and protests, prominent Texas Moms Demand Action President Kellye Burke decided she would take direct action against her political adversaries – by allegedly berating some teenage girls in a bakery. Burke is also a city council member in West University Park Place, Texas.

Kelly Burke

According to a report from Houston’s KPRC, a group of teenage girls were waiting in line at Tiny’s Milk and Cookies to buy some baked goods for their church when Burke happened upon them. Apparently disturbed that one of the teens had decided to exercise her First Amendment right by wearing a “Trump: Make America Great Again” shirt, Burke allegedly began to shout an expletive for a part of the female anatomy at the young girls.

The father of one of the girls told KPRC that the group initially ignored Burke’s aberrant conduct. However, Burke allegedly continued to harass the girls, reportedly shaking her fist and mockingly shouting “MAGA! MAGA! MAGA!”

Demonstrating a level of maturity not present in the council member, the girls reportedly left the bakery without engaging Burke. According to the father, “They were absolutely scared. My little girl essentially wanted to know if this woman was going to hurt her.”

The bizarre encounter was captured on video, which allowed Burke to be identified.

Due to Burke’s position as a city council member, the case is being handled by the Harris County Constable’s Office, who, according to the Fort Worth Star Telegram, cited Burke for disorderly conduct on Thursday.

Following the citation, Burke released a sarcastic apology through her attorney, Texas super-lawyer Rusty Hardin.

The mother of one of Burke’s alleged victims didn’t appreciate Burke’s sardonic response, stating, “Clearly her ‘apology’ was an attempt to placate very angry parents as opposed to a genuine apology.” Offering Burke some friendly advice, the mother went on to note, “if a t-shirt triggers such strong emotions, one should seek therapy.”

Burke first came to the attention of the gun rights community when she offered false testimony to the Texas Senate’s Committee on State Affairs during a February 12, 2015 hearing on campus Right-to-Carry legislation. Representing Moms Demand Action, Burke told the committee,

We do not know about how, quote responsible [concealed handgun license] holders are because that dataset is not available and is completely locked down. Any statements about how quote responsible and law-abiding CHL’s are is completely anecdotal and therefore conjecture.

In fact, the Texas Department of Public Safety makes detailed statistics concerning conviction rates among CHL holders available to the public, as well as a variety of demographic data that includes CHL revocations.

Burke’s erroneous testimony failed to sway the committee. The State Affairs Committee approved the legislation by a vote of 7 to 2 and campus Right-to-Carry became law on June 13, 2015.

According to an interview with the radical left-wing publication Mother Jones, Burke was driven to support gun control by what she called the “sickness and the callousness” of NRA. Most Americans, and probably an even larger portion of Texans, do not share Burke’s view. A March 2018 Reuter/Ipsos poll found that a majority of Americans hold a favorable view of NRA. The same cannot be said for Moms Demand Action’s preferred presidential candidate.

Look for the top-down Michael Bloomberg gun control machine to distance itself from Burke following her alleged attempt to dictate the attire and political beliefs of those around her. Then again, why should they? Controlling the legitimate behavior of others is what gun control is all about.

RELATED VIDEO: “If you are a #MAGA, I don’t care if you live or die” – One America News:

VIDEO: The Sinclair Controversy Is About the Legacy Media’s Fear of Losing Control

/in , , , /by

A vast right-wing conspiracy is taking over America’s newsrooms.

That’s the narrative that has taken off with the release of a video by the popular news site Deadspin, which shows news anchors on multiple local stations reciting the exact same lines.

Those local stations are all owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, a media group that is generally considered conservative or right-leaning. According to the Washington Examiner, Sinclair owns “193 TV stations spanning over 614 channels in 89 U.S. markets.”

A number of media pundits and politicians wildly overreacted to the recitation of fairly innocuous lines—that have been used in CNN ads—by calling Sinclair’s editorial practices a threat to democracy and an omen of coming authoritarianism.

On Wednesday, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., sent Sinclair a letter, according to Talking Points Memo, asking it to explain why it is telling local affiliates what to say and demanding that it reveal its editorial practices.

Amy McGrath, who is running for office in Kentucky, decided to pull ads from a local Sinclair affiliate, saying the multiple video broadcasts posed “an extreme danger to our democracy” and that they mimic “the propaganda efforts that authoritarian regimes often use to control the media in their own country.”

Is it not ironic that in response to Sinclair’s alleged signs of “authoritarianism,” government officials are now prying into the editorial decisions of a private company?

As one might expect, media figures pounced on the video and lashed out at Sinclair.

John Oliver, the comedian and host of “Last Week Tonight,” said the montage made the journalists look like “a brainwashed cult.”

Liberal late night host Jimmy Kimmel said on Twitter that Sinclair’s editorial practices were “dangerous to our democracy.” This nearly exact phrase, ironically, was used in the Sinclair promo that he found so dangerous.

MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski said, “This looks like something we would mock the Russians for doing during the days of Pravda.”

Perhaps the most absurd criticism of Sinclair—and that’s a high bar—came from disgraced CBS anchor Dan Rather.

Rather, who lost his job in 2004 when he ran a false story about President George W. Bush on the eve of an election, chimed to castigate news hosts for reading scripts and peddling fake news.

“News anchors looking into the camera and reading a script handed down by a corporate overlord—a script meant to obscure the truth, not elucidate it—is not journalism,” he said. “It is propaganda. It is Orwellian. It is on a slippery slope toward some of history’s most destructive forces.”

But Sinclair’s senior vice president of news, Scott Livingston, begs to differ. He said these reactions wildly exaggerate what news anchors actually said in their repeated scripts.

“If you read the script, it’s not propaganda, it’s a statement of our commitment,” Livingston told The Daily Signal. “To say that this is comparable to state-controlled television. That’s crazy.”

While playing all of the identical broadcasts together in a synchronized fashion certainly makes them sound creepy, what they actually said is fairly innocuous.

“[W]e’re concerned about the troubling trend of irresponsible, one-sided news stories plaguing our country,” the news anchor script reads. “The sharing of biased and false news has become all too common on social media. … More alarming, some media outlets publish these same fake stories … stories that just aren’t true, without checking facts first.”

You can read the rest of the script here. It is hardly a call to authoritarianism, and at most it is marginally political.

President Donald Trump even jumped into the controversy, praising Sinclair on Twitter.

Sinclair’s politics certainly lean to the right. But that doesn’t mean it is intentionally misleading its audiences.

Would the repeated script be so controversial if it had been spoken by left-leaning journalists at CNN?

That’s not too hard to imagine—“fake news” has been a favorite target of left-leaning media outlets since the 2016 election. It was The New York Times, after all, that first sounded the alarm about the spread of “fake news” on social media.

The Washington Post soon joined the chorus:

“Fake news is dangerous mischief and takes advantage of the fact that social media generally rely on rapid-fire algorithms and not deliberate human editing,” The Washington Post editorial board wrote in 2016. “The internet has become a vital forum for democratic debate; it is essential that that interchange not be warped by propaganda and lies.”

These concerns over authoritarianism and journalistic integrity sound awfully similar to the concerns voiced by Sinclair-owned outlets.

Like most other media groups, Sinclair wants to be known as an honest and trusted source of information.

Saying that this is what differentiates it from its media competition is hardly unique—other news outlets often say similar things.

This is hardly a new and novel practice.

Of course, media outlets may not exactly have disinterested reasons for suddenly chastising Sinclair.

Sinclair is currently attempting a merger with Tribune Media—another large local media provider—and will have to get approval from the Federal Communications Commission to do so.

Some have called for blocking the merger, including some conservatives. It makes sense that in a contentious media market, news outlets would try to gain the upper hand on one another.

“We’re all competing for eyeballs. And we’re competitors,” Livingston said.

“They see we are doing great things across the country,” he continued. “ … You see that and you can see why we are a threat.”

As ridiculous as the video looked, with all the anchors delivering the same lines verbatim, using identical lines on multiple shows isn’t exactly an uncommon media practice.

Late night host Conan O’Brien has actually been making fun of this practice for years, as conservative commentator Stephen Miller pointed out.

All this is to say that, regardless of potential bias or skewing of the news, the cries of “authoritarianism” levied against Sinclair are completely unfounded. Government is not forcing anyone to watch any particular news station. America offers media companies on both the right and left a mostly free marketplace to thrive.

The legacy media’s missteps and perceived bias have opened up opportunities for other outlets to capture their audiences.

That’s a good thing.

But some voices are, of course, unhappy with the outcome of the free market.

If tyranny is in fact lurking around the corner, it will most likely come from government following the advice of this New York Times editorial:

We must rediscover the term ‘public good,’ holding entities like Sinclair and Fox News to account for disseminating outlandish propaganda. Yes, we treasure our First Amendment, but we also treasure our democracy.

Maybe it’s time to bring back the Fairness Doctrine. Certainly it is time to force the FCC to follow the law and fulfill its mandate under our laws to promote diversity of access to the public airwaves. In the end, we must all rededicate ourselves to democracy. Allowing our media to become the province of a few ideological extremists bent on ownership of our airwaves is not just bad for the republic. It could be its end.

Yes, we like the First Amendment, but we’d rather gut it to save our vision of “democracy.”

As David Harsanyi wrote in The Federalist, “As long as we have a media market and inhibit government meddling in speech … the idea that we are powerless to turn away from ‘propaganda’ is nothing but alarmism.”

If viewers don’t like the programming of Sinclair, or The Washington Post, or CNN, it’s very easy to tune out and find something else.

Moreover, recent deregulation by the FCC—such as allowing newspapers to go into the broadcasting business—makes it even easier for companies to enter that market than was possible in the mid-20th century.

James Gattuso, a regulatory and telecommunications expert at The Heritage Foundation, wrote, “The power over information that the FCC’s rules were meant to control simply is no more. In today’s marketplace, the old media is threatened rather than threatening.”

The legacy media’s missteps and perceived bias have opened up opportunities for other outlets to capture their audiences. That’s a good thing. But some voices are, of course, unhappy with the outcome of the free market.

It is that desire to shut down alternative media, not the editorial slant of private media companies, that would put our institutions and liberty at risk.

COMMENTARY BY

Portrait of Jarrett Stepman

Jarrett Stepman

Jarrett Stepman is an editor and commentary writer for The Daily Signal and co-host of “The Right Side of History” podcast. Send an email to Jarrett. Twitter: .

RELATED ARTICLE: Liberals Finally Find Some Media Bias They Dislike

A Note for our Readers:

Trust in the mainstream media is at a historic low—and rightfully so given the behavior of many journalists in Washington, D.C.

Ever since Donald Trump was elected president, it is painfully clear that the mainstream media covers liberals glowingly and conservatives critically.

Now journalists spread false, negative rumors about President Trump before any evidence is even produced.

Americans need an alternative to the mainstream media. That’s why The Daily Signal exists.

The Daily Signal’s mission is to give Americans the real, unvarnished truth about what is happening in Washington and what must be done to save our country.

Our dedicated team of more than 100 journalists and policy experts rely on the financial support of patriots like you.

Your donation helps us fight for access to our nation’s leaders and report the facts.

You deserve the truth about what’s going on in Washington.

Please make a gift to support The Daily Signal.

SUPPORT THE DAILY SIGNAL

RELATED ARTICLES:

The Truth About Fake News

The History of Fake News in the United States

The Founders Had an Answer to the ‘Fake News’ Problem

EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is by John Greim John Greim Photography /Newscom.

VIDEO: Blasting YouTube

/in , , , /by

You Tube and other Internet giants have been bullying people for years. One lady snapped and shot up the YouTube Main office.

Calling BS on Marijuana Research + Video on Effects of Marijuana Legalization in Colorado

/in , , , , , /by

Politicizing Research?

A slew of news articles flooded the print, broadcast, and internet media this week about two new studies published in Monday’s online issue of JAMA Internal Medicine.

One study found that states with medical marijuana laws are associated with reductions in Medicare Part D opioid prescriptions, compared to states that do not have such laws. The other found a similar association in states with both medical and recreational marijuana laws in the Medicaid population.

Lead author of the first study is David Bradford, PhD, at the School of Public and International Affairs of the University of Georgia. UGA sent out a press release promoting Dr. Bradford’s study with this title: “SPIA Professor Pens New Study: Legalized Medical Cannabis Lowers Opioid Use.”

Not quite.

Dr. Bradford’s study finds a correlation between states with medical marijuana laws and a reduction in opioid prescriptions, not use. And only in the Medicare Part D population, not the whole population. Dr. Bradford himself notes this when citing the study’s limitations in his journal article. Yet many of the news stories picked up his university’s headline.

And he pushed this misinformation along in interviews he gave to the press, telling the Cox Media Group, “’There are substantial reductions in opiate use’ in states that have initiated dispensaries for medical marijuana,” when in fact there are significant reductions in opioid prescriptions rather than use.

Dr. Bradford also tells his interviewers that the 2017 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NAS) review of the marijuana literature found “conclusive evidence that there are benefits to cannabis for chronic pain in adults, for nausea associated with chemotherapy, and for spasticity and seizures.” He doesn’t understand that all of the evidence for the last three conditions and most of it for chronic pain came from randomized controlled trials of purified cannabinoids rather the kinds of marijuana states have legalized for medical use.

He tells AP reporter Malcolm Ritter that the NAS report presents evidence that is “hard to ignore” and therefore federal laws should be changed to allow doctors to prescribe marijuana for pain treatment.

An accompanying editorial in the journal by two physicians not affiliated with these studies notes that other studies find legal marijuana increases opioid use. They warn than marijuana policy has gotten far ahead of marijuana science and we must remedy this quickly.

Perhaps people with chronic pain will get more relief from purified cannabinoids than opioids, but we won’t know that until randomized, controlled trials are conducted to find out if that’s true. At best, ecological studies like the two published this week can push us towards research, but certainly not policy.

Read “Association Between US State Medical Cannabis Laws and Opioid Prescribing in the Medicare Part D Population” here.

Read “Association of Medical and Adult-Use Marijuana Laws With Opioid Prescribing for Medicaid Enrollees” here.

Read “The Role of Cannabis Legalization in the Opioid Crisis” here.

Marijuana May Lead Nonsmokers to Cigarettes

A study from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health finds that while cigarette smoking has been on the decline for many years, marijuana use is on the rise—and may end that decline.

The study found that marijuana use may

  • Increase the initiation of smoking cigarettes among nonsmokers.
  • Make it harder for smokers who also use marijuana to stop smoking cigarettes, and
  • Make former smokers who use marijuana more likely to relapse to cigarette smoking.

These findings came from an analysis of data from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions in 2001-2002 and 2004-2005 via responses from 36,639 individuals asked about marijuana use and smoking. The effects occurred among all marijuana users, not just those with marijuana use disorders.

Read study here.

New Film on YouTube Shows Effects of Marijuana Legalization in Colorado

Curious about what marijuana legalization looks like in Colorado? View Marijuana Xhere. Filmmaker Michael De Leon has put his director’s cut on YouTube so that you can watch this movie free of charge.

To view, click picture or here.

EDITORS NOTE: The Marijuana Report is a weekly e-newsletter published by National Families in Action in partnership with SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana). Visit National Families in Action’s website, The Marijuana Report.Org, to learn more about the marijuana story unfolding across the nation. Subscribe to The Marijuana Report.

VIDEO: Full interview on ‘Generation Next’ with President Donald J. Trump

/in , , , /by

Charlies Kirk, Executive Director of Turning Point USA, interviewed President Trump. The topic was Generation Next. Urban Dictionary defines Generation Next:

The generation of children that follows Generation X, whom are people born between the Late 60’s to the Early 80’s. (1965 to 1980)

Generation Next thereby is anyone born between the Late 80’s to Mid 90’s. (1980-1995). We are called Generation Next because we are the youth that goes into the Next Millenium and will be the first to have all the advantages of the Jetsons-Like “High Tech” Age, better known as “The Future”, where there are robots and flying cars and such, not that much of this will probably be true.

EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is of President Donald Trump answering questions posed by Charlie Kirk, executive director of Turning Point USA, during the White House’s “Generation Next” forum March 22, 2018. (Photo: Ron Sachs/CNP/MEGA/Newscom)

VIDEO: Mental or Moral?

/in , /by

America does not have a mental health crisis, we have a moral crisis.

VIDEO: Sexism didn’t defeat Hillary Clinton — Wild untruths about emails are why she’s not Madam President

/in , , , , , /by

There’s a new book out by Hillary Clinton’s former communications director, Jennifer Palmieri, suggesting that sexism by American voters – not Clinton’s email scandal – was the key factor responsible for Clinton’s loss to Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

Palmieri writes in her book – titled “Dear Madam President” – that Clinton couldn’t get out of the email “box” because American voters couldn’t get past their “unease” about a woman seeking power.

In fact, Palmieri goes on to suggest that the Clinton email issue was both trivial and irrelevant – notwithstanding the fact that a Reuters poll just six weeks before the election showed a significant 46 percent of Americans were “very concerned” about that very issue.

In her book, subtitled “An Open Letter To The Women Who Will Run the World” Palmieri writes:

“One thing our campaign was never able to move beyond was the vexing issue of Hillary’s emails … I think it was the unease people felt about Hillary’s motivation as a woman seeking power that made it impossible for us to very fully put this matter to bed. I have weathered a lot of political crises, but never encountered one quite like this. It was a box we could never get out of.” (Emphasis added).

Hillary Clinton’s problem was that many Americans didn’t trust her because she was caught telling untruths – repeatedly – about her email system.

Given Clinton’s recent comments that Trump voters were backwards and women voters were manipulated by men, it is no surprise to see a Clinton adviser attacking American voters rather than suggesting that voters fairly evaluated Clinton based upon her conduct.

Clinton’s problem was that many Americans didn’t trust her because she was caught telling untruths – repeatedly – about her email system. She first told us it was simply a matter of convenience to use her unsecure, non-government email system. That wasn’t true.

Clinton next told us there was no classified information on the email system. That wasn’t true.

Then the Democratic presidential candidate told us she turned over all the government emails that she had. That absolutely was not true.

And the kicker was Clinton’s attempted deletion of over half the emails she supposedly took with her when she left the State Department – 33,000 in total.

On top of that, there is the pay-to-play scandal that Judicial Watch uncovered in August of 2016 that raised further legal issues about Clinton’s conduct as secretary of state.

Palmieri’s suggestion that sexism made it impossible for Clinton to explain her way out of the email scandal insults all voters. The real concern – among male and female voters alike – was about putting someone into high office who had such utter contempt for the rule of law.

Recall that Barack Obama defeated Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination  back in 2008 thanks in part to his argument that Bill and Hillary Clinton’s record of corruption would be an albatross during the general election.

Just a few months ago, we disclosed the classified emails from the Clinton email server found on the laptop of Clinton aide Huma Abedin’s scandal-ridden husband, disgraced former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y. It was one more instance of misconduct in a serial violation of national security laws that would have gotten anyone else arrested.

This “trivial and irrelevant” email scandal resulted in a FBI investigation into whether Clinton was in violation of criminal laws concerning the handling of classified information. She escaped prosecution because of the political intervention of the Obama White House, FBI and Justice Department leadership.

Palmieri’s book shows that Clinton wasn’t the only person on her campaign oblivious to the way people perceived her misconduct. While Palmieri does a poor job of explaining the Clinton email scandal, she does a good job of showing how Clinton’s aides enabled her misbehavior.

‘Ultimate Success America’ Launched to Restore American’s Core Values of ‘Faith, Family & Free Enterprise!’

/in , , , , /by

President Donald J. Trump on January 20th, 2017 during his inaugural address said:

Today’s ceremony, however, has very special meaning. Because today we are not merely transferring power from one Administration to another, or from one party to another – but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C. and giving it back to you, the American People.

How can power be transferred from Washington, D.C. and returned to the people?

Our friend and contributor Bill Finley gives each and every American the way to taking back America. In the below video titled “Battle Stations America” Bill lays out the way.

The best way to take back America is to organize for action.

On February 19, 2009, when Rick Santelli, a commentator on the business-news network CNBC, referenced the Boston Tea Party (1773) in his response to former President Barack Obama’s mortgage relief plan. This lead to the creation of the Taxed Enough Already (TEA) Party.

Nine years later we see the launching of another grassroots movement Ultimate Success America (USA). While the TEA Party was politically based with a focus on the U.S. Constitution and bringing America back to its Founding Fathers vision of government of and by the people, this new movement is based on a higher calling. According to its website Ultimate Success America describes itself as:

[A] Grass Roots Organization of Like Minded Patriotic C4 (Christian, Conservative, Compassionate, Capitalist) Believers.

USA’s founder is Brit Hart a former U.S. Marine and successful American businessman. USA notes:

This last election has shown very clearly that the America Conservatives and Patriots have reached the end of tolerating the Progressive Nonsense of the Liberal Left.   Abraham Lincoln said it best:  “Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable – a most sacred right – a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world.”

As Christian Conservative Americans, we have, in the past decade, witnessed an unprecedented attack on our Core Values and Godly Heritage.   An Anti-God, Anti-America spirit has infiltrated every level of our Government and plagued our Educational System, attempting to redefine America by overturning cultural and societal norms. It is time for “We the People” to Unite, Band together and Rise Up in order to Shake off the existing regime and help Restore this Nation to its former glory.   It is imperative that we understand the gravity of this time and how we must work together to Secure and Restore our precious Heritage.

When our Nation’s Founding Fathers gave us the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, they had to lean upon a common understanding of Law, Government, Social Order and Morality. That Understanding sprang from the common acceptance of what has come to be known as the Judeo-Christian Ethic. That is the System of Moral and Social Values that originates in the Old and the New Testaments in the Word of God.   It is these very Moral and Social Values that we find ourselves fighting to preserve today.

There is a Clear and Honorable Pathway that any generation of Americans can use to protect that which is Right and Change that which is Wrong within our Nation:

Pray – Process – Participate – Persevere

USA warns:

Make no Mistake About it:   We are engaged in a Spiritual Battle that threatens our Country, our Families and our very existence as Americans.   Only God’s Intervention will return America to Solid Footing and Restore a moral nation that will Exalt Righteousness. As Believers in Christ, we have His call to be “Salt and Light” to the world (Matt. 5:13-16). We must take seriously our responsibility to put God first, not only in our homes but also in our National Affairs.    It is to this end that Ultimate Success America was purposed and envisioned.

USA is dedicated to more than just Making America Great Again. It’s ministry is to win the cultural and spiritual battle for the heart and soul of America. USA, USA, USA is more than three simple letters that have been shouted out across America at rallies and in the halls of Congress.

The founder of USA Brit Hart believes, “All it takes for Evil to Prosper is for Good people to do Nothing… Let’s get this fire started and let it spread…Lets UNITE our Base – Lets Stand in the Gap for our beloved Values, and Lets Activate as Christian Conservative Compassionate Capitalists (C4s) in Taking Back the USA.    We are an Organization that is made up of people who are Proud to be Americans.    Join us… Get involved and Lets Display the “A” across this Great Land.”

The USA must stand for something or it’s citizens will fall for anything.

Please Click Here to Join USA!

VIDEO: ‘Broward Coward – Stood Down’ Posters Plastered on Broward County Sheriff’s Offices

/in , , , , /by

British political commentator and writer Milo Yiannopoulos posted on his website Dangerous.com an interesting article. The Dangerous.com staff in a column titled “Mysterious ‘Broward Coward’ Posters Plastered All Over Sheriff’s HQ [PHOTOS]” reports:

On Friday morning, Broward County Sheriff officers woke up to their police headquarters littered in controversial “Broward Coward” posters.

The posters, which were photographed by Broward County residents early Friday morning included pictures of disgraced Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, controversial Deputy Sheriff Nezar Hamze (labeled as Deputy Hamas), and the infamous Broward County officer Scott Peterson with the caption, “Have you seen this Broward Coward?”

These posters appear to be an artistic and political reaction to the Broward County sheriff department’s poor handling of the Parkland school shooting, which left 17 people dead. Following the Valentine’s Day school massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, it was quickly revealed that officers under Sheriff Israel were called to the home of the shooter, Nikolas Cruz, 19, nearly 45 times prior to the school shooting.

Despite the fact that Nikolas Cruz’s instability, violent tendencies, and plans to carry out a school shooting were reported to the FBI twice prior to the massacre, law enforcement failed to properly investigate, and their failure to act have been directly attributed to the loss of life in Parkland, FL.

On the poster depicting Sheriff Israel, the text reads: “HAVE YOU SEEN THIS BROWARD COWARD? GUILTY OF DERELICTION OF DUTY, INCOMPETENCE, FAILURE TO PROTECT YOUR CHILDREN.”

Following the shooting, it was revealed that school resource officer Scot Peterson was on campus at the time of the shooting, but chose to stand down and not engage the shooter inside the school as innocent children were gunned down. Peterson was quickly labeled a coward, and upon investigation, he was suspended by Sheriff Israel.

On the poster depicting Officer Scot Peterson, the text reads: “HAVE YOU SEEN THIS BROWARD COWARD? GUILTY OF DERELICTION OF DUTY, INCOMPETENCE, HIDING WHILE CHILDREN DIED.”

The middle poster contains an image of the highly controversial Islamic Deputy Sheriff Nezar Hamze, with text that reads: HAVE YOU SEEN THIS BROWARD COWARD? GUILTY OF PROMOTING TERRORISM, TRAINING JIHADIS, INFILTRATING LAW ENFORCEMENT.”

Deputy Hamze has come under fire and received national press for his association with the terror-tied Islamic advocacy group CAIR, and providing weapons training to jihadis at several terror-linked south Florida mosques. On the poster, Hamze is seen wearing an official Hamas head band while holding a weapon.

He is referred to on the poster as Deputy Nezar Hamas–a reference to the Middle East terrorist organization–and nods to him being a member of CAIR. CAIR, the Council on American Islamic Relations, is listed as a designated terrorist organization by the United Arab Emirates. However, a federal judge, the U.S. Attorney Generals office, and the Fifth Circuit Court of appeals found ample evidence of CAIR having direct ties Hamas.

Read more.

Nikolas Cruz killed 2 faculty and 15 students at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School. The Broward County School District and Broward County Sheriff’s Office was complicit in these deaths. The Federal Bureau of Investigation failed and is also complicit in these deaths.

People kill people. The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. The good guys with guns stood down. The heroes that used their bodies to take bullets in order to protect their fellow students were unarmed.

The real story is about cowards with guns and unarmed heroes.

VIDEO: One of these saves lives, the other is just a march

/in , , , /by

This weekend, radical leftists will participate in the so-called “March for Our Lives” in Washington, DC to advance an agenda that demonizes guns and gun owners. While organizers will portray this event as a spontaneous protest by young people, the “March” is actually a well-organized project of the Bloomberg-backed “Everytown” and professional agitator Shannon Watt’s “Moms Demand Action.”

These groups are well-funded and have no qualms against exploiting tragedy to advance their anti-2nd Amendment agenda. They also have the support of liberal celebrities and companies like American Eagle, Aetna, Gucci, and Lyft.

Your can also be certain the media will provide glowing coverage of the protestors, purposefully ignoring young people who hold an opposing view.

However, what you won’t hear from the protestors is how guns are used every day to prevent crime and, for that matter, save lives.

Below is a gun we’ve been watching 2ndVote Guncam for over 250 days and could be used by a law-abiding citizen to defend himself or his family. Furthermore, we have yet to observe any indication that this gun will initiate any acts of violence:

>

That’s why we need your help sharing a simple message. Let’s illustrate how the so-called “March for Our Lives” is another political rally organized exploit tragedy and advance the left’s agenda while highlighting how guns are not only safe, but can prevent acts of violence as well.

Help us continue holding corporations accountable for their activism by becoming a 2ndVote Member today!

PODCAST: Call to ‘Save the Persecuted Christians’

/in , , , , , /by

THE ABRAHAM LINCOLN ADDRESS | Prepared Remarks by Frank J. Gaffney

The Queens Village Republican Club | New York, New York | 18 March 2018

It is one of the greatest honors of my life to be asked to deliver the 143rd annual Abraham Lincoln Address to the Queens Village Republican Club. I want to start by expressing my deep appreciation for being afforded this opportunity to pay tribute to a man I admire more than virtually any other, to be allowed to join thereby the distinguished company of others who have done so with you in the past and, most especially, to be afforded approximately eight minutesmore for this purpose as President Lincoln took to make his immortal remarks at Gettysburg!

Of Abraham Lincoln’s many admirable attributes, two are particularly relevant to our own time: One, he led our nation through a tumultuous and costly civil war that pitted American against American, that led to the deaths of over 600,000 of us and that threatened to destroy our Republic. And two, he emancipated people enslaved for the color of their skin.

If Abe Lincoln were alive today, I believe he would perceive something that has yet to dawn on most of us. Our nation is once again in the midst of a civil war, albeit it an undeclared and, to date, largely non-violent one.

As it happens, just this morning, I received an email from a distinguished veteran of our special operations community. In it, he shared an analysis attributed to a man I do not know by the name of David Vincent Gilbert. I found it to be a profoundly troubling, yet quite insightful depiction of the state of our polity and its future that suggests we may be in the greatest trouble domestically since Lincoln’s day. Permit me to share with you a few of Mr. Gilbert’s observations:

  • “How do civil wars happen? Two or more sides disagree on who runs the country. And they can’t settle the question through elections because they don’t even agree that elections are how you decide who’s in charge.”
  • “That’s the basic issue here. Who decides who runs the country? When you hate each other but accept the election results, you have a country. When you stop accepting election results, you have a countdown to a civil war.”
  • “The Mueller investigation is about removing President Trump from office and overturning the results of an election. We all know that. But it’s not the first time they’ve done this. The first time a Republican president was elected this century, they said he didn’t really win. The Supreme Court gave him the election. There’s a pattern here.”
  • “What do sure odds of the Democrats rejecting the next Republican president really mean? It means they don’t accept the results of any election that they don’t win. It means they don’t believe that transfers of power in this country are determined by elections. That’s a civil war.”
  • “There’s no shooting. At least not unless you count the attempt to kill a bunch of Republicans at a charity baseball game practice. But the Democrats have rejected our system of government.”
  • “This isn’t dissent. It’s not disagreement. You can hate the other party. You can think they’re the worst thing that ever happened to the country. But then you work harder to win the next election. When you consistently reject the results of elections that you don’t win, what you want is a dictatorship. Your very own dictatorship.”
  • “The only legitimate exercise of power in this country, according to Democrats, is its own. Whenever Republicans exercise power, it’s inherently illegitimate. The Democrats lost Congress. They lost the White House. So what did they do? They began trying to run the country through Federal judges and bureaucrats. Every time that a Federal judge issues an order saying that the President of the United States can’t scratch his own back without his say so, that’s the civil war.”
  • “It’s not a free country when FBI agents who support Hillary take out an ‘insurance policy’ against Trump winning the election. It’s not a free country when Obama officials engage in massive unmasking of the opposition. It’s not a free country when the media responds to the other guy winning by trying to ban the conservative media that supported him from social media. It’s not a free country when all of the above collude together to overturn an election because [of] the guy who wasn’t supposed to win.”
  • He concludes: “Have no doubt, we’re in a civil war between conservative volunteer government and a leftist Democrat professional government.”

One can, of course, only speculate on what Abraham Lincoln might have done about all this. One of his most memorable lines, however, surely offers an indication of what his attitude would be. It certainly serves as a warning to us all.

160 years ago, in a speech in Springfield, Illinois following his selection to be the new Republican Party’s candidate for U.S. Senator that year, Mr. Lincoln referred to Jesus’ admonition to the Pharisees: ““Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.”

He added, “I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved – I do not expect the house to fall – but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.”

In the end, of course, this nation became all free because of Abraham Lincoln’s courageous and unflagging determination to make it so, whatever the cost in lives and treasure. He took seriously his presidential oath of office first sworn on March 4, 1861 – just six weeks before the attack on Ft. Sumter started the Civil War – to “faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and…preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” So help him God.

And not least, the nation was made “all free” by the Emancipation Proclamation, preliminarily issued in September 1862 by President Lincoln, five days after the bloodiest single day of battle in the Civil War at Antietam, Maryland where 22,000 men lost their lives. When it was formally issued four months later, Mr. Lincoln described it to be “an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity” and invoked “the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.”

I feel certain that similar considerations would prompt Abraham Lincoln today to be seized with another affliction in our times: the enslavement – and worse – of hundreds of millions of people worldwide simply because they believe, as he did, that Jesus Christ is Almighty God’s only begotten son.

At the risk of being presumptuous, I believe Abe Lincoln would have been a leader in a new movement that is inspired by his abolitionist agenda, which was, of course, the impetus behind his Republican Party.

The “Save the Persecuted Christians Coalition” is, moreover, modeled after a more recent effort that was mounted half a century ago on behalf of Soviet Jews. With the Lord’s grace and the hard work of countless Jews and Christians alike – including two of my former bosses, Sen. Scoop Jackson and President Ronald Reagan – that campaign proved to be monumentally impactful.

What began modestly with signs displayed outside of synagogues and churches saying “Save Soviet Jewry,” turned into a political force. That political force, in turn, spawned legislation in 1974, the Jackson-Vanik amendment, that denied the Kremlin Most Favored Nation (MFN) status unless it allowed free emigration.

When the Soviets refused that quid pro quo, it was effectively the death knell for the policy of “détente” rooted in the idea of appeasing and propping up what the Gipper rightly called “the Evil Empire.” Without the financial safety net MFN would have given the Kremlin, when Mr. Reagan became president, he was able to use economic pressure, among other tools, to help bring down the USSR.

The rest truly is history. It is no exaggeration to say that those signs, and what flowed from them, contributed to the liberation of not only millions of Jews, but hundreds of millions of others who had been enslaved by Soviet communism.

So today, the Save the Persecuted Christians Coalition and a campaign it is mounting on behalf of the estimated 215 million Christians around the world being not only enslaved but raped, tortured, expelled and murdered for their faith is as simple as it is ambitious: to complement and help the many organizations currently, and often very courageously, working to alleviate the symptoms of such persecution through action aimed at addressing this crisis systemically, as well.

As with the Save Soviet Jewry campaign, we are beginning with signs. I hope you might help place one outside of your church or synagogue, ideally between now and Good Friday. You can get one for that purpose for free at SavethePersecutedChristians.org.

Tell them Abe Lincoln sent you.

VIDEO: Why the political and media elites push the ‘Islamophobia’ myth

/in , , , , , /by

Today I spoke at a Young America’s Foundation national conference for high school students about “Islamophobia,” jihad terror, and why the establishment media and political elites exaggerate the former and ignore the latter.

The event starts at 10:30 in the video.

RELATED ARTICLES: 

On the ‘ISM’ sins: Racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia

Should Catholics Support the Anti-Islamophobia Campaign?

Marquette University pays for faculty to attend ‘Overcoming Islamophobia’ workshop

Cuban Citizen Captured Attempting to Massacre American Citizens on Behalf of Radical Islam: An Unusual Episode?