Trump Administration scuttles Obama-era WOTUS “Waters of the United States” rule

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In a significant victory for farmers, ranchers, and other landowners, the Trump administration December 11 pulled the plug on an Obama-era regulatory scheme that would have subjected millions of acres of private land to federal zoning.

By rolling back Obama’s 2015 “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS) rule, the administration has put an end to the biggest power grab in the 48-year history of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Obama-era rule was sold as an effort to “clarify” the federal government’s jurisdiction over bodies of water under the 1972 Clean Water Act (CWA), which granted EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers jurisdiction over “navigable waters of the United States.”

Over the years, questions arose over whether Washington also had jurisdiction over bodies of water, which may not be navigable themselves, but which are adjacent to, or have some connection to, navigable waters. The Supreme Court’s 2006 Rapanos v. United States decision, failed to resolve the issue, with Justice Anthony Kennedy infamously opining that federal jurisdiction extended to such waters provided they had a “significant nexus” to navigable waters.

The Power Grab

What constituted a “significant nexus” was anyone guess, leaving landowners, municipalities, businesses, and just about everyone else completely in the dark. Eager to take advantage of a murky situation and beef up EPA’s enforcement authority, the Obama administration in 2015 proposed “clarifying” the issue by greatly expanding EPA’s jurisdiction to include ditches, ponds, groundwater, and even “ephemeral” waters (those that form only after rainfall). The rule would have forced farmers, ranchers, and other landowners to obtain permits from EPA if they wanted to make any modifications to their property. A host or organizations sued EPA, and a federal judge ordered a stay on the rule in 24 states.

Having vowed to kill the rule during the 2016 presidential campaign, President Trump issued an executive order in February 2017 directing EPA to carry out the “elimination of this very destructive and horrible rule.” Trump’s first EPA Administrator, Scott Pruitt, tried to delay implementation of the Obama WOTUS rule, but a U.S. district court in South Carolina invalidated the delay in August 2018.

Now, the Trump administration has its own plan for untangling the jurisdictional mess that has surrounded the regulation of waterways for decades.

What is and What is not Subject to Federal Regulation

“Our proposal would replace the Obama EPA’s 2015 definition with one that respects the limits of the Clean Water Act and provides states and landowners the certainty they need to manage their natural resources and grow local economies,” said Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler in a statement. “For the first time, we are defining the difference between federally protected waterways and state protected waterways.”

Under the Trump proposal, the federal government, for the first time, has divided navigable waters into six categories:

  • traditional navigable waters (rivers, bays, the Great Lakes, etc.);
  • waterways connected to navigable waters, including tributaries;
  • certain navigable ditches used for commercial shipping, such as the Erie Canal;
  • lakes and ponds that contribute to navigable waterways;
  • impoundments of jurisdictional waterways; and
  • wetlands adjacent to navigable waterways through “direct subsurface connection.”

Trump’s WOTUS proposal also clearly states what EPA and the Corps of Engineers will not regulate. These include “features that only include water during or in response to rainfall (e.g., ephemeral features); groundwater; many ditches, including most roadside or farm ditches; prior converted cropland; storm water control features; and waste treatment systems.”

Acting EPA Administrator Wheeler, who has been nominated for the top job at the agency by President Trump, points out that most bodies of water not covered under the new proposal are still subject to state protection. “We don’t need to have the dual protection and the dual requirements and permits at both state and federal levels,” he said on the Hugh Hewitt radio show (Washington Times, Dec. 12).

The difference between the Obama and Trump approaches can not be understated. A 2015 American Farm Bureau Federation study, for example, found that 99% of Pennsylvania would be subject to the Obama WOTUS rule.

“This new rule will empower farmers and ranchers to comply with the law, protect our water resources, and productively work their land without having to hire and army of lawyers and consultants,” said farm bureau president Zippy Duvall (Washington Times, Dec. 12).

The fight is far from over, with environmental groups expected to bring suit against EPA and the Corps.

There will be a 60-day public comment period that will last until mid-February 2019.

COLUMN BY

Bonner Cohen, Ph. D.

Bonner Cohen, Ph. D.

Bonner R. Cohen, Ph. D., is a senior policy analyst with CFACT.

EDITORS NOTE: This CFACT column with images is republished with permission.

The LGBTQ Hart Attack is a Good Thing

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I am not suggesting that we should experience schadenfreude (feel pleasure from witnessing someone’s troubles, failures or humiliation). However, LGBTQ enforcers viciously seeking to destroy the career of comedian/actor Kevin Hart for tweets he made 9 years ago is encouraging. Finally, even leftists are beginning to see the take-no-prisoners intolerance and bullying LGBTQ enforcers have been applying to everyone who does not celebrate their lifestyle.

Many of us have been sounding the alarm for years that LGBTQ enforcers are relentlessly targeting Christian businesses for destruction; solely for the purpose of forcing Christians to betray their God by bending a knee in worship of leftists’ god of debauchery.

German pastor Martin Niemofller was imprisoned in Dachau concentration camp from 1941-1945. In his famous poem, Niemofller laments that when they came for the Communists, Socialists, Trade Unionists and Jews he did not speak out because he was none of these. Niemofller wrote, “And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out.”

Not only did leftists not speak out against LGBTQ bullying, they cheered when LGBTQ bullies came for Sweet Cakes by Melissa. The Christian bakery happily served their lesbian customer for several years. When she asked them to bake a cake for her lesbian wedding, the owners said to do so would betray their faith. The husband and wife bakery owners with five kids were driven out of business. 

Well now, LGBTQ enforcers have come for Kevin Hart who many leftists consider one of their own.

Leftist Snoop Dogg who shot president Trump in the head in his music video passionately expressed his support for Hart. Several leftist celebs are expressing their support for Hart. As I stated, the good news for America in the Hart attacks is leftists are waking up and smelling the tyranny coming from their side of the political aisle by LGBTQ enforcers.

“The Devil’s greatest achievement is convincing people that he does not exist.” LGBTQ enforcers’ greatest achievement and deception is convincing people they are the victims and we, mainstream Americans, are the aggressors.

Kevin Hart was scheduled to host the Oscars. In a video, Hart said, “I swear man, our world is becoming beyond crazy. My team calls me, Oh my God Kevin. The world is upset about tweets you did years ago. Oh my God.” LGBTQ enforcers deemed Hart’s nine-year-old tweets anti-homosexual.

Hart received a call from the Academy telling him to apologize again for his old tweets or be replaced as host of the Oscars. Hart said he has repeatedly addressed the issue and acknowledged the rights and wrongs. Hart said he has evolved since making the tweets years ago. Hart said to apologize again for something so far in the past would be a step backwards rather than moving forward. Therefore, he chose to pass on hosting the Oscars. 

The American left’s response was mixed. Many rallied behind Hart. Others were furious over Hart refusing to apologize, calling him defiant. Leftist Kathy Griffin disturbed millions with her photo in which she held a bloody severed head of president Trump. In response to Hart refusing to apologize again, Griffin said, “F*** him”. 

Hart did not realize that LGBTQ enforcers have zero-tolerance for anyone who does not fully embrace the lifestyle. Anyone who dares to dis the LGBTQ lifestyle in the slightest must fall on their face and beg forgiveness or suffer complete personal destruction.

Many Americans believe the LGBTQ community is 23% or more of the population. The truth is, they are 3.4 percent. 

Witnessing LGBTQ enforcers’ relentless media assault on Hart and their efforts to destroy him, I could not help thinking, “Welcome to our world, Mr Hart.” This is the tyrannical assault on free speech Americans face everyday by the LGBTQ thought police. Again, I take no pleasure in seeing Mr Hart suffer.

It was stunning to hear even extreme leftist Joy Behar and leftist women on The View say the attack on Hart puts all comedians at risk. Numerous other high-profile leftist voices are speaking out in agreement.

Folks, LGBTQ enforcers attacking Hart is a real eye-opener for many Americans – a small victory in the war between totalitarian political correctness and constitutional free speech.

EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is from Kevin Hart’s Facebook page.

Misogyny on 34th Street

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I can still remember the many happy occasions I spent shopping at Macy’s on 34th, as a child, my pockets filled with hot chestnuts; later, as a new fashion designer fresh out of the Fashion Institute of Technology, either killing time between job interviews or checking out the new styles;  and then as a newlywed, shopping for our first apartment.

It is very difficult to fathom how this company, that produces the world-renowned Macy’s Parade; the magnificent Christmas windows, with incomparable set designs and moving figures that mesmerized crowds of eager spectators, would one day turn on its customers – when Macy’s owners, its board of directors and staff would consent to introduce a line of oppressive clothing to their female clientele.  Known as the veil or hijab and forcibly imposed in tyrannical, misogynistic Islamic regimes, these alone were selected by Macy’s from the world’s many kinds of fashion.

Macy’s headquarters have fallen for the leftist line, that it is prudent to strive for multiculturalism in a country that has long been a thriving melting pot that elicited the envy of the world.  America’s past success has clearly been due to the immigrants’ fervor to live and let live, whereas Islam, by stark contrast, is mandated in their Koran to dominate and subdue all other cultures by any means necessary.  Multiculturalism is repulsive to Islam.

In addition to the denigration of Western religions, the re-writing of our history, the destruction of our statuary, and the attack on gender identity, the public is now being conditioned to accept the appearance of these oppressed, shrouded forms on city streets.

Introducing  Islamic styles to the American public is yet another way of attacking America’s culture and femininity, as the full niqab, burqa and abaya are a means of dehumanizing women, enforcing the devalued female to cede control to the male in the Islamic shame-honor society, and denying her any societal interactions.  The garment serves as an isolation chamber, causing sensory deprivation problems and disrupting bonding with her infant, even if she removes the shroud at home.  There is also a high physical price to pay, for the wearer is deprived of absorbing Vitamin D in northern climes, thereby causing pelvic fractures during childbirth, and triggering iron deficiencies and hypocalcaemic seizures in the child.

The cost of naively introducing these sheathes into American society will eventually destroy the thriving fashion industry as we know it, eliminate the entertainment industry, and affect all other related businesses, in creativity and in employment, until our country is transformed into another backward Islamic country.   Conquest is achieved, not only through war, but also through stealth, slowly, through government, business, schools, and now the shopping sector.  But there will be blood on the hands of those who acquiesce – their own and the blood of their loved ones.

Could it be that Macy’s was visited by CAIR (Council of American-Islamic Relations) and made compliant, or that they never considered that “multi” would mean the influx of many whose intent it is to destroy the host culture, or that the concept of jihad may apply to race and religion, but never to culture?  Was Macy’s coerced into accepting “diversity and inclusivity” to accommodate an oppressive ideology that itself rejects both diversity and inclusivity?  How long before the Macy’s parade, begun in 1924, with its colorful, imaginative merriment, costumes, music, and introduction to a heartwarming holiday season, will be considered an offense to Islam and halted?

We must learn from history, particularly from the history that is playing out now in real time, in much of Europe, that once a substantial number of Muslim women begins to wear these coverings, those who do not accept the veil become fair game, the quarry, for the terrorist, including kidnapping for sexual slavery, and mass rape on the streets (taharrush), an horrific assault when as many as 20 men will rape one young victim repeatedly.  Sweden’s acceptance of multiculturalism has led to the title, Rape Capital of Europe.

Rape is the method by which Islamic terrorists, jihadi, force the women to discard western clothing for the “safety” provided by the confining veils, and the native men to acquiesce politically.  Rape is also indirectly abetted by our socialist school system’s introduction of techniques that are emasculating our boys, diminishing their importance in studies and for courtship, and eliminating man’s instinctive protectiveness toward family and property.

As with academia, Macy’s personnel have elected to speak of diversity and inclusivity out of a mistaken sense of morality, while choosing to endanger their own fellow-Americans, themselves, their families.  The seventh century ideology of Islam is patient and persistent, and this misplaced tolerance will be a stepping stone to further surrender, one store at a time, one city at a time.  Is this how the company functions, without thought to consequences of its decisions?

While the West speaks inanely of reforming Islam, the clerics emphatically insist that it was perfect from its inception and can never be changed.  In light of this, consider that Islamic intolerance has resulted in 690+ million people killed worldwide over 1400 years (600 million Hindus), that the  centuries-long Islamic invasions into India left mountains of skulls.  Most virulent of all is the undying hatred and persecution of Jews long before Israel’s statehood in 1948, and the constant barrage of rockets and fire bombs into Israel since that date.

The wanton destruction and sexual crimes in Sweden, Berlin and Paris are a mere prelude to total control, and once Islam has been established, no country has ever returned to freedom.  Even Spain, conquered by the Muslims in 711 and reconquered by the Spanish in 1492, is once again succumbing to Islamic oppression.

The Muslim Brotherhood has announced its goal: “to get in and impose sharia law to establish an Islamic state.”  Yusaf al-Qaradawi promises conquest, but assures it can be done peacefully – to get all the women to wear the veil and all the men to wear the beard.  If not by war, “it will do so through predication (pronouncement) and ideology.”  Is Macy’s listening?

Macy’s is deceived, and its accommodation of Islam’s lifestyle is foolhardy, for with Islam, there can be only one lifestyle, and it will consume all others.  We ask Macy’s to reconsider their actions and return to being American.

EDITORS NOTE: This column is republished with permission. The featured photo is by Ged Lawson on Unsplash.

Here Are The Six Most Corrupt Congressmen of 2018, According To A Watchdog Group

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A conservative-leaning watchdog group says House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are the biggest congressional scofflaws of 2018, for their anemic handling of the settlement slush fund that used an unlimited pot of taxpayer money to pay off congressional staff in exchange for signing legal papers barring them from taking public their claims of sexual harassment and other mistreatment by their congressional employers.

Congress members briefly claimed to be shocked at the victim-gagging slush fund when the media reported on it, but in reality, members of both parties in the House’s leadership oversaw it for years. The Committee on House Administration voted on each settlement and put out statistics that severely understated the scope of the problem. Former Democratic Michigan Rep. John Conyers, whose settlement sparked the initial furor, resigned, and the media moved on from the story.

A bill by then-Rep. Ron Desantis that would have named the congressmen who benefited from these payoffs in past years went nowhere, while the bill agreed to by the administration committee and the Senate is more anemic.

“Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi now has an opportunity to act further and we will be encouraging her to finally bring an end to this systematic cover-up. Every day that goes by without releasing the names of Members who have received taxpayer money to settle harassment and discrimination claims is another day of cover-up and another day more innocent people are put at risk of becoming victims,” said Kendra Arnold, executive director of the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT).

Here is a photo of Reps. Gregory Meeks and Elijah Cummings. (Photo: Meeks Congressional office)

Rep. Gregory Meeks, right, settled a complaint involving alleged retaliation against a staffer who said she was sexually assaulted by a politically-connected supporter (Photo: Meeks Congressional office)

FACT was once led by now-acting attorney general Matthew Whitaker.

Others on FACT’s list of worst ethics violators of 2018 include:

  • Former Rep. Elizabeth Esty of Connecticut, for her role in the sexual harassment scandal. When the female Democrat learned that her chief of staff was accused of  “physically beating, sexually harassing and threatening to kill another one of the Congresswoman’s staff members, Esty tried to cover it up,” FACT wrote. She continued to employ him for months, then gave him a golden parachute.
  • Democratic senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Kamala Harris of California, who solicited campaign funds based on their involvement in the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, while they were still ongoing. “Senators are prohibited from campaign fundraising tied to their official duties,” FACT wrote.
  • Former Republican congressional candidate Russell Taub of Rhode Island, for operating an illegal “scam PAC” that raised and failed to distribute $1.5 million to candidates.
  • Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, who claimed that voting machines in Florida were tampered with by Russia. Since there is no public evidence of this, FACT said he either lied or improperly disclosed classified information.
  • New York Democrat Rep. Yvette Clarke, for having 10 percent of her taxpayer-funded office budget go missing in what her own deputy chief of staff believed was a theft scheme between the chief of staff and the IT aide, Abid Awan. Since Clarke failed to take action and refused to discuss the incident publicly, she managed to win re-election by 1,000 votes. The missing funds would be enough to buy 20 iPads for every employee, and the former chief of staff, Shelley Clarke, signed off on the invoices. Clarke later had the missing items removed from the House inventory as if they never existed.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Here Are The Largest Congressional Payments The House Has Admitted

Clarke’s Chief Of Staff Tried To Expose Suspected Theft Ring On Capitol Hill, Was Met With Resistance

Watchdog Group Names Two Top Dems As ‘Top Ethics Violators Of 2018’ For Kavanaugh Antics

EDITORS NOTE: This column with images by The Daily Caller is republished with permission.

Electric Vehicle Tax Credits Another Form of Corporate Welfare

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If America’s auto manufacturers wrote letters to Santa, it’s not hard to guess what would be high on their lists: retaining the federal tax credit for electric vehicles.

For several years now, Uncle Sam (who often acts like Santa’s U.S.-based cousin) has tried to encourage the public to buy electric vehicles by offering those who do so a tax credit of up to $7,500.

But the credit wasn’t created to be available forever, and it already caps out when a manufacturer has sold 200,000 electric vehicles.

General Motors Co., which is more than happy to have taxpayer money propping up part of its business, wants the credit made permanent and the cap lifted. So do other auto manufacturers, such as Nissan and Tesla. Many lawmakers on both sides of the aisle seem more than happy to give them what they want.

Guess who isn’t? President Donald Trump. When General Motors recently announced plant closings and a 15 percent cut in its workforce, the president said he was “looking at cutting all GM subsidies, including for electric cars.”

As well he should. Government has no business interfering in the market and trying to push consumers to buy what they don’t want. And it’s even more galling when lawmakers use taxpayer money to do it.

This type of cronyism is bad enough on principle alone. But it gets worse in the case of electric vehicle tax credits.

For one thing, the cost is borne disproportionately by lower- and fixed-income families who can’t afford electric vehicles. Who’s taking advantage of the subsidies? Primarily America’s wealthiest households. They don’t need a tax break to afford an electric vehicle, but hey, if it’s there, they’ll take it.

So, in an ironic twist, we have the government taking money from a wide swath of Americans, including those on the low end of the income scale, to put those who are more well off into “green” vehicles.

The Pacific Research Institute found that in 2014, 79 percent of electric vehicle tax credits went to households making over $100,000, while 99 percent of them went to households making at least $50,000.

Auto manufacturers, like any other company, should base their decisions about what to make solely on what customers want—not on what government wants them to want.

If people want electric vehicles, fine. But it should be their free choice, not something they purchase because they get some “free” money.

But some people may say it’s worth it for the environmental benefit. “Switching to electric cars is key to fixing America’s ‘critically insufficient’ climate policies,” The Guardian wrote earlier this year. That’s the rationale the Obama administration used to justify its push for electric vehicles.

But as economist Nicolas Loris points out in a recent article, “the numbers tell a different story.” In a study published in May, the Manhattan Institute calculated the reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from increased adoption of electric vehicles. The bottom line? Yes, electric vehicles reduce emissions, but in amounts far too small to make a difference.

“Based on the [Energy Information Administration’s] projection of the number of new electric vehicles, the net reduction in carbon dioxide emissions between 2018 and 2050 would be only about one-half of 1 percent of total forecast U.S. energy-related carbon emissions,” the report reads. “Such a small change will have no impact whatsoever on climate.”

Plus, let’s keep in mind that the mining of materials for lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles itself pumps out a lot of carbon emissions. Add in the fact that the electricity being used to recharge these batteries is manufactured in coal-powered plants.

The auto manufacturers may disagree, but I have a better wish for Santa: End the electric vehicle credit and other forms of corporate welfare. Let the people decide what they want to buy without Uncle Sam putting his thumb on the scale.

Originally published by The Washington Times

COLUMN BY

Portrait of Ed Feulner

Ed Feulner

Edwin J. Feulner’s 36 years of leadership as president of The Heritage Foundation transformed the think tank from a small policy shop into America’s powerhouse of conservative ideas. Read his research. Twitter: @EdFeulner.

The Daily Signal depends on the support of readers like you. Donate now

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Signal column with images is republished with permission. Photo: Gary Cameron/Reuters /Newscom.

Just give me your Children…

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“Give me just one generation of youth, and I’ll transform the whole world.”

“Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.”

“Destroy the family, you destroy the country. The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.” — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Was the cry of Lenin, Khrushchev, Castro and Hitler and other dictators just before they destroyed their country and used indoctrination with propaganda on the children to turn on their parents and neighbors. The key to the future of our country is its children.  For it does not matter what we accomplish in 8 years to “fix” America, once more “socialists graduate” America will elect socialists.  According to the National Review 2017 40% of the population wants America to be socialist. For the purpose of definition remember that the goal of all ….isms ie, progressivism, globalism, socialism, fascism, collectivism etc. is communism whereby the state (government) control every aspect of human life.

Since the lowest common denominator in America (something ever American does – is attend school) the students are the low hanging fruit.  Also the new brand of communism has changed since the leaders feel they can infiltrate their opponent by mass migration of socialists. By integrating the media, Hollywood and education incremental change and pressure is continual. Weapons are no longer necessary. Winning the “hearts and minds” are the answer. How do you fool millions of people? YOU LIE.

Education is Key… So let’s get directly to the point…

The problem is the content of the curriculum. No amount of money, No choice, no voucher will do anything to fix anything as long as the curriculum stays the same.  The curricula are written by people who want to destroy America. You are seeing the results. Lies, Lies, and more Lies

Students are now taught: The government is gospel, grants your rights and never lies. Your self worth is not important only your group worth.  Facts are not as important as value. Education has become training for work. Being mediocre gets a trophy.  So what happens to a society when mediocre is accepted as the norm.   America now gets mediocre – doctors, inventors, mechanics, teachers, legislators etc.  No more innovation and creation.

2 simple lies, making a huge impact:

Calling America a Democracy:   Our founders were very careful to create a representative republic using our U.S. Constitution as the contract of laws applicable to ALL Americans. (They purposely us words like ALL to eliminate class distinction.)   Article 4 Section 4 guarantees that each American will have a republican form of government. A democracy fails at every turn for it is nothing more than rule by mob.  What is law today can be undone tomorrow by “majority rules”. In addition, if America were a democracy there would be no reason for representatives.  The people would vote directly by referendum.

It is not important to learn English.  What you are not told is that English is the language of Business.  If you can not read contracts, laws and regulations, you are a slave to your interpreter and the government. Welcome to communism. The children in these failing socialist schools have grown up to become your legislators and educators.  Many teachers can not read and write proper English.
The “educators” (the bureaucrats running education who rarely were in a classroom,) today are interested in 3 things:  Money, Power, Control

Money is thrown around by the government, publishers, NGO’s and non-profits as grants to “help” teach the new modern education. As grades slip the cry for MORE MONEY is heard throughout the education community. More money is not the answer. Teaching using programs that work is the answer.  In the 1960’s America was in the top 10 worldwide. After 60 years using proven failed programs America is 37th worldwide and all we hear is: we need more money.

Control is done through standards – in 2013 under the Obama administration a $350 million grant was given to Pearson Publishing to make all its texts Common Core compliant. Pearson supplies about 80% of America’s texts.  Pearson is an English (socialist) company. Does it matter what your state called the standards if all texts follow the same standards?  In addition state got grants as well to help promote common core.

Power: The only way someone can have power over you is if you give it to them.  STOP accepting mediocrity. Have you noticed that the spelling of exceptionalism always comes up as misspelled? Silence is considered compliance.

Education is local and it is the one area I believe that we the people can have control.

The Florida Citizens Alliance in 2017, helped get a bill passed CS989, that gives any Florida resident the right to challenge the texts for accuracy, bias, errors and omissions. Does your state have a bill like that?    Having that bill is only good if you use it.

The Alliance is offering help to form committees and challenge the texts.  It is important that we use their words and framework.  Therefore, under the current guidelines that demand equality we must demand they offer a traditional education as well.  Teaching socialism only “is not fair and equal.”

I now ask you:  Is America worth saving?  If so what will you do?  Do you know what is in your school?   If you are interested in education solutions, contact me:  Karen Schoen  kbschoen@bellsouth.net

For the statistics go to https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/millennials-patriotic-survey/

EDITORS NOTE: This column is republished with permission. The featured photo is by Jose Gomez on Unsplash.

VIDEO: Parkland Father Andrew Pollack Is Leading the Charge for Safer Schools

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Andrew Pollack: “Numerous Entities Failed My Daughter.” 10 Months After Parkland.

Father of Meadow Pollack, Andrew Pollack, joins Grant to discuss his efforts to secure schools and protect our children 10 months after the Parkland massacre.

EDITORS NOTE: This column with video is republished with permission. The featured image is from Andrew Pollack – Parkland Parent @meadowmovement Facebook page.

Growing Blame America First Crowd Rushes To The Border

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In describing the 1984 San Francisco Democrats, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Jeane Kirkpatrick said, “They always blame America first.” She was referring of the fringe elements of the Democratic Party.

Unfortunately, because of monopolistic control of the culture-moving powers, what is fringe in the Democratic Party becomes more mainstream over time, and we see that clearly in this era.

The Blame America Firsters have been enthralled at the chance to show how terrible America is at every turn, and the basic national sovereignty issue of having secure borders is just the perfect issue.

Of course Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez cut her protesting chops by going down to the border during the manufactured crisis of separating children from their parents, which was done at the orders of the 9th Circuit Court ostensibly to protect the children and implemented by President Obama. The separating of children was painted as exemplar of Americans not caring about the plight of the poor, and of course being racist — despite the fact that America does more for the world’s poor by many factors than any other country, or most continents, and Africans don’t seem to think we are too racist as they choose America in droves.

Throughout the traipsing northward of the caravan of illegal immigrants (they broke their way into Mexico, so it is accurate to call them illegal immigrants even before trying to break their way into America) there has been a sort of delight at the prospect of being able to paint America as uncaring and racist for having so much and giving so little.

Every poor or dangerous decision made by a migrant on their way illegally across Mexico to America was portrayed as America’s fault.

But this came to a head when a seven-year-old Honduran girl died a few hours after her father knowingly and unlawfully took her across the border. The girl had apparently not eaten or drank for several days. She went into convulsions on the bus on which she was being transported to the nearest border crossing post (where her father should have been seeking to enter) and paramedics had been alerted and were waiting. From there she was emergency flown to a hospital but could not be saved.

She went on a months long trek across deserts and dangerous terrain, was exhausted and clearly depleted of nutrition and water. But here were the headlines splashed everywhere by the Blame America First media:

USA Today’s headline: “Migrant girl, 7, dies in Border Patrol custody of dehydration, shock”

NBC News headline: “Girl who crossed border with dad died in Border Patrol custody”

KTLA headline: “7-Year-Old Immigrant Girl Dies After Being Arrested by Border Patrol”

CNN’ headline: “Thousands of miles away, grieving family wants to know how 7-year-old girl died in US custody”

The CNN story is particularly nauseating in it’s blame America first. Here’s the lead:

“Jakelin Caal Maquin jumped up and down when her father told her they’re leaving their impoverished Guatemalan village for the United States. When the rest of her family sent them off, nobody imagined the 7-year-old girl would not come back alive.

She died last week after Border Patrol agents detained her and her father in the New Mexico desert. Her death, which was only made public Thursday, has raised questions from members of Congress and advocates about how migrants are treated at the border.”

Just shameless. But more.

“The girl’s death comes months after a toddler died six weeks after being released from an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement facility in Dilley, Texas. The toddler’s mother and her attorneys alleged she contracted a respiratory infection after they arrived at the detention center and that ICE provided substandard medical care for the 19-month-old.”

See, an illegal immigrant dies hours after being arrested by American authorities and her dehydration and starvation are not to blame, it’s the American’s fault. But a toddler dies six weeks after leaving an American facility and…it’s the American’s fault. In the same story!

The purposeful juxtaposition of the girl’s arrest by the Border Patrol — which was obviously her best hope for survival — was meant to blame the Americans for her death. No other way to read it. (Yes, this all conflates with raging Trump hatred in the media.)

Even the girl’s father said the American agents did everything they could and he had no complaints about the care — which was probably a thousand times better than it would have been in rural Honduras. Apparently an ambulance chasing lawyer had not gotten to the father to explain he needed to blame America so the lawyer could get a fat check from taxpayers. That will come.

Speaking of lawyers, next in the congo line of Blame America First was the American Civil Liberties Union, an organization just spiraling down the partisan toilet (see Christine Ford and the collapse of civil rights protections for political correctness.)

Cynthia Pompa, advocacy manager for the ACLU Border Rights Center, said the Honduran girl’s death shows the “inhumane conditions” at border patrol facilities. (Ironically, again, so much irony, the facilities would be less overrun if we actually had a wall.)

“Lack of accountability, and a culture of cruelty within CBP have exacerbated policies that lead to migrant deaths,” Pompa said. Because there is no responsibility for anyone anywhere based on their own actions. It’s all America’s fault.

Then came the lowest forms of Blame America First — the politicians, slithering below even the lawyers to slap America.

Twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton tweeted: “There are no words to capture the horror of a seven-year-old girl dying of dehydration in U.S. custody. What’s happening at our borders is a humanitarian crisis.”

Grandstander Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler, the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, said Homeland Security officials would face questions on the matter in a hearing scheduled for Thursday. We “will be demanding immediate answers to this tragedy,” Nadler said.

Lost in all of this rush to blame America first is the actual tragedy of a 7-year-old girl who is dead and a father who is grieving — neither of which would have happened if the father had not made a series of choices that put her in such a dangerous situation. The only role America played was being the most attractive country in the world in which to live.

We probably shouldn’t apologize for that.

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EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in The Revolutionary Act. It is republished with permission. The featured photo is by Sophie Potyka on Unsplash.

VIDEO: The Vortex—The Mission

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THE MISSION! It never changes — but sometimes the method does.

RELATED ARTICLE: The spiritual and moral bankruptcy of ‘progressive’ Christianity

TRANSCRIPT

The mission of this apostolate — St. Michael’s Media/Church Militant — is singular: to be used to save souls — period. That mission plays out in the day-to-day in a number of different ways.

The corruption in the Church — doctrinal, liturgical, sexual and financial — must by necessity continue to be exposed for the simple reason that it cripples the Church — both the clergy and the laity — in the mission of the Church, which is to bring souls to Christ.

One of the ways the corrupters in the Church have been so remarkably successful is to speak in ambiguous terms where what they say can be understood a hundred different ways depending on who is hearing it.

That’s intentional — you can sound like you are Catholic, but in reality, you are far from the heart of the Church.

What this lack of clarity and precision has produced is near complete confusion, and that has been the intended effect. And the intended effect of the confusion has been to deprive people — meaning souls — of the truth.

Truth is always clear, meant to be understood, to be apprehended, by the mind, the intellect. Clarity is the currency that truth traffics in.

As the rot and filth, all the corruption continues to be exposed, it poses deep challenges in bringing it to light.

For example, long-time followers of Church Militant will notice that a good deal of time and attention, our resources, have been dedicated to uncovering the corruption and exposing it. Let us first say, this was not a part of our original mission here, not seen as even necessary to it because, frankly, we didn’t know it existed beyond just a collection of just individual bad prudential judgments.

But as the years have progressed, we have learned. We have learned that this is exactly what is being exposed, as we said yesterday, a worldwide, organized criminal syndicate, the goal of which is to destabilize the Church and represent the Faith in such a way as to suck out all vestiges of divine revelation.

It all goes hand in hand, these areas of rot: doctrinal, liturgical, sexual and financial.

For the going on 14 years the apostolate has been around, we have moved through what you might call a “progression of awareness.”

In our first few years, we concentrated entirely on the doctrinal rot because that’s all we were aware of, frankly. So we produced our flagship show, The One True Faith, to help people come to the realization that for the past 50 years they haven’t really been taught authentic Catholicism.

The reality came very clear very quickly, that if you are a baptized Catholic under roughly 60 years old, you were — with occasional exceptions, of course — not really taught the Faith.

So our programming then was largely concentrated in that arena. And it is still just as relevant today — actually more so than when we first produced it back in the 2006–2008 timeframe.

Then we began to see the intimate connection between the loss of faith with the destruction of the liturgy that had taken place, the parallel watering down of catechesis with the liturgy.

Both had become massively Protestantized. In fact, the understanding of the Faith had becomeso Protestantized that the average Catholic had forgotten, or never heard, that Protestantism is a heresy, and a heresy, every heresy, any heresy, deprives a person of the truth.

So in this period, our programming began focusing on this aspect, and we started producing our longer form investigative pieces, our FBIs — Faith-Based Investigations — where we dove headlong into these crucial discussions.

That all began around the 2008–2010 time frame.

After that, a great illumination began to come to us, all of this that was going on, the meltdown of the Faith — the Church established by the Son of God personally, outside of which there is no salvation — was actually an orchestrated effort.

The entire body of the Faith had been deliberately distorted and twisted and represented, re-offered to Catholics and the world.

But what was being represented was not Catholic. It was the working of spiritually sick and demented men and women who had no love for Christ and who had seized control of vast areas of the Church.

Many of these individuals had become corrupt because of lust — sexual lust — and lust for power, often times both, for they are often found hand in hand.

Their lust became the fuel in their engines for distorting the Church, disfiguring Her. Lust, especially sexual lust, a failure to control the passions, is the main cause for the damnation of souls, and it’s why so much of humanity will be damned.

In the Church, within the clergy specifically, a special lust seized hold — homosexual lust which has played itself out in the most spiritually, psychologically and physically damaging ways imaginable.

It is the driving reason law enforcement agencies are raiding chanceries all over the nation today.

All of this became very clear to us on a trip to Rome in 2011 with a series of private discussions and multiple headlines. In very short order, we began reporting on this manifest evil and haven’t looked back.

We were pilloried in the early years we were exposing all this — pilloried and attacked by people in the Church. Events, however, have unfolded to cause others to also see what we saw and join forces.

So here we are, years later, having dedicated a sizable portion of our resources to uncovering all this, because as long as this evil — the filth, rot and corruption continues to hold sway — souls are being lost because the truth is obscured.

When covering all this from a journalistic standpoint, there are challenges that do not exist in the secular world for uncovering corruption.

Put succinctly, there are avenues in the secular world for getting at the truth that simply do not exist within the Church.

While certainly not perfect, and requiring a kind of doggedness on the part of reporters, the truth can be discovered because of one factor in the secular world which is totally absent in the Church: accountability.

There is no accountability in the Church for evil men. As long as the person above them is also corrupt — a practicing homosexual, an enemy of Christ, a malformer, a spiritual terrorist — then they are safe.

In the world of secular journalism, a reporter can demand certain government documents: it’s called a Freedom of Information Act — a FOIA.

There are open trials where much is discoverable through court records. Campaigns have to report financial dealings as well as politicians.

There are a hundred legitimate ways to get at truth in the secular world if you are determined, but not so in the Church. A series of arcane procedures and laws and practices that can never be challenged or changed except, ultimately, by a sitting pontiff, prevent access to truth.

A climate of secrecy develops, and wicked men use this as a perfect cover. And if you challenge them, then they ignore you, or attack you, but they never come clean.

So this necessitates, for the reporter, a different way of getting at the truth. Methods that would not usually fly in the secular world now become the only means available to get at the truth and ultimately uncover the evil.

So very few people are ever able to be named because they will be retaliated against. Semi-private conversations which point to destabilizing efforts to uncover the truth must be revealed without the sources again ever being named.

Documents or recordings that were never intended to be seen or heard beyond the immediate parties are now spirited out and gone over.

Emails from people with encrypted accounts, secret meetings, discussions far away from interested ears — all of this now becomes the routine because there is no transparency. That lack of transparency is directly attributable to the lack of accountability. All of this, taken together, is how the mission must now be fulfilled.

Too many Church leaders today, frankly, are liars and cannot be trusted, and a person would be a fool given all that has been revealed to simply take a given leader at his word.

As the federal and state investigations continue to expand and media reports to continue to expose and more and more people within the Church come to realize that they need to come forward and spill the beans — ala Viganò — the truth will come out; which means that those who have a vested interest in keeping the truth from coming out will go their graves stepping up their efforts to cover it up.

If you would have told us 14 years ago that all of this is what we would be talking about today, we would have had you committed.

Yet here we are, fighting un-Catholic presentations like we have a reasonable hope that all men are saved, Holy Communion received in the hand is hunky dory and the whopper: homosexuality is a gift from God and we must treasure it.

We say all this now, as what has proven to be a watershed year begins to end, to say that nothing has changed here in our mission.

The Holy Catholic Church was established by the Incarnate Eternal Logos for the salvation of souls, and outside of it, there is no salvation; that for those who know this and refuse to enter it, there is no hope of salvation; that there are evil and wicked men in high levels in the Church who have dedicated their despicable lives to the prevention of people ever hearing this.

And that the number one duty of every single faithful son of the Church is to fight this corruption with every fiber of your being in what has proven to be unconventional ways.

Fight on, faithful Catholics. The mission never changes.

EDITORS NOTE: This column by Church Militant with images and video is republished with permission.

A Troubling Year in Review

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Fr. Gerald Murray: If the dark clouds of 2018 have a silver lining, it’s that there’s a chance that immoral priests and bishops will no longer be tolerated. 

One aspect of getting older, and wiser, is the shedding of once comforting, but in fact naïve illusions about individuals or groups. We normally trust that certain people and groups who profess to carry out a particular and demanding mission in society are in fact going to do just that. Past performance, as far as we know, was good and the future promises more of the same.

But reality is more complicated than that. Illusions give way to a more realistic understanding. High expectations about people and groups are often shown to be illusions based on incomplete knowledge of their past performance. The reputation for competence and integrity may exist largely because contradictory evidence of failure was carefully hidden from public view, or downplayed when made public.

The overcoming of the false impressions that once buttressed our appreciation of persons and groups is a good and necessary step in facing the world as it is, not as we would wish it to be. I remember being told that growth into maturity consists in the ever-increasing ability to deal effectively with complexity. Simplistic judgments are often attractive but are not usually sufficient.

Knowing the complexity of things, however, should not mean losing our sense of awe for God’s providence in guiding the course of the world and His Church. Discovering facts and casting aside illusions is unsettling, especially when it comes to the way the Church manages her affairs, which means how the leaders of the Church carry out their duties, which should be in absolute fidelity to the teaching of Christ.

These year-end reflections on illusion and reality are of course prompted by what has been happening in our Church during the past twelve months. The reality is that the once common high regard for bishops as a group, and for many individual bishops, has been shattered by the revelation of sexual abuse and episcopal patterns of covering up immorality and malfeasance.

Catholics in the United States and elsewhere were genuinely stunned to discover the sordid story of ex-Cardinal McCarrick’s depredations, the hidden payoffs made by other bishops to seminarian and priest victims of McCarrick, and the seemingly unhurried response of the Holy See in pursuing these canonical crimes.

McCarrick resigned from the College of Cardinals in July and was ordered to live a life of prayer and penance without travel and public appearances while awaiting completion of a canonical process. He was first accused of molesting a seminarian in September 2017. The Holy See judged this accusation to be credible in June 2018. McCarrick has not been tried by a canonical court as of December 2018. Why the delay if the evidence was compelling six months ago?

In August, the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report was released and precipitated the downfall of the most influential American cardinal, Washington’s Archbishop Donald Wuerl. Shortly thereafter, Bishop Michael Bransfield of Wheeling, West Virginia, a McCarrick protégé, was abruptly retired and placed under investigation for sexual harassment of adults.

Dante and Virgil speak to Pope Nicholas III in the Eighth Circle of Hell by Gustave Doré, 1861 [The engraving was among a number Doré did illustrating The Divine Comedy. Nicholas III was pope from 1270-1280 and was accused of selling ecclesiastical offices, a.k.a. simony.]

There followed accusations by the former Nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, that many people in the Holy See, in particular Pope Francis, knew about McCarrick’s immorality and abuse of authority and acted in ways that kept him from being held accountable.

When Pope Francis refused to answer journalists’ questions about Viganò’s charges on a flight back from Ireland, he frustrated those who want to know how McCarrick amassed such power and prestige when his behavior had been reported multiple times to the Holy See in the past. Francis told the journalists to do their job and look into Viganò’s charges. But when journalists started to call the cardinals and bishops named in Viganò’s memorandum no one wanted to respond. A cone of silence seemed to descend on the Vatican.

The American bishops asked for an investigation of McCarrick’s rise. The Holy See has only responded that a review of documents in various curial offices is being conducted. While a good first step, that hardly constitutes a thorough investigation. What about taking testimony from those in the know? Or promising to make public the evidence and the findings? Or inviting McCarrick’s victims to meet with the Holy Father and tell him directly what happened, as was the case in Chile?

The U.S. bishops were set to take concrete steps at their annual November meeting to put an end to a hierarchical culture in which priests, and even bishops such as McCarrick, were protected from revelations of crimes and allowed to continue in place, thanks to payoffs and confidentiality agreements. The last-minute instruction from the Holy See to take no action until after a February meeting in the Vatican was met with stunned incredulity. Is this the right way to address a five-alarm crisis of confidence in the Church and her leaders regarding horrendous crimes and malfeasance?

The faith and love of Catholics for Christ and His Church has been severely tried this year. The common expectation among Catholics that the bishops as a whole shared the same horror of sexual, and in particular of homosexual, immorality among the clergy has been shown to be an illusion. So be it.

Love for the Church has prompted laity to call for a reform of the hierarchy. Accountability for past failures to root out sexual immorality is the first necessity, as is a clear demonstration that a repeat of the career path of a Theodore McCarrick will be impossible in the future.

Bishops will only regain the respect of ordinary Catholics if they truly live up to what we all believe is the Church’s true mission, the salvation of souls. If the dark clouds of 2018 have a silver lining, it’s that there is now at least some chance that immoral and conniving priests and bishops will no longer be tolerated, protected, or promoted, but rather called to repent and held to account.

Fr. Gerald E. Murray

Fr. Gerald E. Murray

The Rev. Gerald E. Murray, J.C.D. is a canon lawyer and the pastor of Holy Family Church in New York City.

RELATED ARTICLE: Illinois AG report says dioceses failed abuse victims

EDITORS NOTE: This column with images is republished with permission. © 2018 The Catholic Thing. All rights reserved. For reprint rights, write to: info@frinstitute.org. The Catholic Thing is a forum for intelligent Catholic commentary. Opinions expressed by writers are solely their own. The featured photo is by Giulio Del Prete on Unsplash.

The Curry Wall: Preventing access to public information. Maybe we should “recycle” politicians?

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Putting stuff into the yellow-topped curbside recycling bins may make homeowners feel virtuous, but it probably isn’t saving the taxpayers any money.

The popular notion is that the garbage is sold and the operation breaks even or makes a profit.

Not quite.

The city does get $1.5 million in revenue, but it spends $2.2 million, not even counting the cost of collection. (It also avoids using space in the landfill.)

What is more, the prospects are dim for improving the situation.

Waste Management, which is heavily involved in trying to make recycling work, has been closing recycling centers and its CEO has noted: “To be sustainable overtime, recycling operations must make economic sense.”

The reasons that recycling is losing ground are that processing costs are up and commodity prices are down.

Contamination is a major problem and is the main reason much of the material collected after considerable time and expense ends up in a landfill, by a circuitous route.

Homeowners can help by recycling all empty bottles, cans and paper, and keeping food, liquids and loose plastic bags out of the recycling bin.

Turning garbage into gold isn’t magic.

Duval County collected nearly 3 million tons of solid waste last year. Only five other counties had more.

One interesting note: Among the largest counties, Duval collects the most waste per capita – an eye-opening 17.3 pounds per person per day. That number has been growing since 2013.

Duval had a recycling rate of 58 percent, which was better than the top five but more waste went into landfill than four of the top five, because Duval burns almost no solid waste. Hillsborough recycles less but burns 27 percent of the waste it collects and Palm Beach burns 36 percent.

At one time, Duval burned much of its waste. During the 1980s there was a proposal to build an incinerator that would produce energy, but it failed to pass the City Council.

Florida, incidentally, has an ambitious goal of reaching 75 percent recycling by 2020, but isn’t even meeting the current 60 percent goal.

One reason is that the commercial sector generates two-thirds of the waste. Household recycling alone simply won’t do the job.

Since recycling, burying and burning all entail a cost, the question is whether Jacksonville is using the most cost/efficient mix of waste disposal.

It affects everyone. Currently, using recycling is optional. It could become mandatory and even more burdensome on the homeowner if he is required to separate materials himself.

We wanted to ask City Hall about this and other matters pertaining to solid waste disposal but were unable to break through the Curry Wall, which prevents access to public information.

As the recent Task Force on Open Government noted, the Curry administration seals off access to public officials in order to “control the message,” which is one way of saying “spin it in the mayor’s favor.”

We couldn’t find the information on the city’s Web site (also criticized by the task force) so we went to the people who are supposed to provide the public with information.

Mayor Lenny Curry’s highly paid public information officer gave us several snarky replies to our requests, then basically told us to go get the information ourselves from the state government. That is where we obtained the figures about waste collection and disposal.

It doesn’t tell us anything about whether the city’s costly recycling program is efficient or worthwhile, but Eye on Jacksonville will continue to seek ways to climb Curry’s Wall and obtain information.

COLUMN BY

LLOYD BROWN

Lloyd was born in Jacksonville. Graduated from the University of North Florida. He spent nearly 50 years of his life in the newspaper business …beginning as a copy boy and retiring as editorial page editor for Florida Times Union. He has also been published in a number of national newspapers and magazines, as well as Internet sites. Married with children. Military Vet. Retired. Man of few words but the words are researched well, deeply considered and thoughtfully written.

EDITORS NOTE: This column with images originally appeared on Eye on Jacksonville. It is republished with permission.

Why a Judge Ruled Obamacare Unconstitutional, and What Policymakers Should Do Next

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A judge has declared Obamacare unconstitutional—but the case is far from over.

U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor, a George W. Bush appointee, granted a motion for summary judgement in favor of 20 states led by Texas that had filed a lawsuit seeking to strike down the Affordable Care Act on Friday.

Now that O’Connor has ruled, the losing side is sure to appeal to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and ultimately the Supreme Court.

However, as the case continues to wind its way through the legal system, it is imperative that policymakers pursue real health care reform. Obamacare isn’t working for too many American families and individuals slammed with high premiums and few choices. Rather than looking for ways to keep Obamacare in place amid these legal challenges, lawmakers should pursue real solutions.

The Judge’s Reasoning in Striking Down Obamacare

As part of the last year’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Congress repealed the financial penalty associated with failing to comply with the individual mandate, effective in 2019.

In 2012, in NFIB v. Sebelius, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the individual mandate by the narrowest of margins when Chief Justice John Roberts, providing the deciding vote, devised a novel theory construing the penalty associated with violating the individual mandate as a tax that Congress has the power to levy under the Constitution.

Texas argues that once the penalty is reduced to $0, it can no longer be considered a legitimate tax, and that therefore the individual mandate would no longer have a constitutional leg to stand on.

Moreover, Texas argues, in upholding the individual mandate, the Supreme Court appeared to rely on the argument that Congress considered the individual mandate to be a central—indeed, indispensable—component of Obamacare that is not “severable” from the rest of its provisions, and that without it, the rest of the law should be invalidated.

A group of 17 states led by California are defending the law, arguing that even a tax of $0 is still a tax, and that it was never Congress’ intent to get rid of the rest of Obamacare when it repealed the financial penalty associated with the individual mandates as part of last year’s tax bill.

In granting the plaintiffs’ motion, O’Connor stated, showing his agreement with Texas’ argument:

The [Tax Cuts and Jobs Act] eliminated that [individual mandate] tax. The Supreme Court’s reasoning in NFIB—buttressed by other binding precedent and plain text—thus compels the conclusion that the individual mandate may no longer be upheld under the tax power. And because the individual mandate continues to mandate the purchase of health insurance, it remains unsustainable under the Interstate Commerce Clause—as the Supreme Court already held.

Finally, Congress stated many times unequivocally—through enacted text signed by the president—that the individual mandate is “essential” to the ACA. And this essentiality, the [Affordable Care Act’s] text makes clear, means the mandate must work ‘together with the other provisions’ for the Act to function as intended. All nine justices to review the [Affordable Care Act] acknowledged this text and Congress’s manifest intent to establish the individual mandate as the [Affordable Care Act’s] ‘essential’ provision. The current and previous administrations have recognized that, too. Because rewriting the ACA without its ‘essential’ feature is beyond the power of an Article III court, the Court thus adheres to Congress’s textually expressed intent and binding Supreme Court precedent to find the individual mandate is inseverable from the [Affordable Care Act’s] remaining provisions.

What Should Be Next

But the legal fight aside, we need a better health care solution than Obamacare.

One of Obamacare’s core conceits was that what (allegedly) worked in Massachusetts would also work on a national scale. That hasn’t borne out.

Instead, Obamacare led to years of increasing costs and decreasing choices. Premiums doubled in the first four years of the program. Millions lost the coverage they used to have. Americans found it harder to pick the right plan and doctor, as health plan choices declined and provider networks narrowed. Frustrated providers are drowning in red tape and increasingly feeling burned out. Meanwhile, taxpayers are on the hook for the money needed to paper over Obamacare’s flawed structure.

Those who seem to benefit most from Obamacare are big insurance companies that embraced the law and receive a steady stream of taxpayer subsidies and politicians who made endless promises to reform Obamacare but failed to deliver.

Real Solutions for Pre-Existing Conditions

Regardless of these facts, expect many in Congress to call for immediate restoration of Obamacare in the name of protecting the sick and people with pre-existing conditions.

Some on the left claim Congress must protect Obamacare because only Obamacare allows Americans with pre-existing conditions to get coverage. That’s an irresponsible, false dilemma and Congress should reject it.  

There are steps that states can take right now to ensure people with pre-existing conditions are protected, even if Obamacare ultimately goes away.

Congress should let states review their health care regulations and pursue innovative ways to make coverage more affordable and accessible to Americans—regardless of their income or medical status.  Every state legislature is about to go into session in early 2019, so this is both a desirable and possible approach.

Empower the States

Congress does have a role to play in helping families and individuals get the quality private coverage they want, and helping health care professionals meet their needs. Conservatives have a proposal to achieve this: the Health Care Choices Proposal, which undoes Obamacare’s damage by letting states innovate.

Under Obamacare, insurance companies receive taxpayer subsidies dollar for dollar as they raise prices.  This proposal does away with that flawed spending scheme.

Instead, it would convert existing Obamacare spending into a grant that states would use to ensure chronically-ill patients have access to the health coverage of their choice. Greater flexibility and resources to the states means that all Americans, even those who are chronically sick, would have access to more health plans at better prices.

The Health Care Choices Proposal would lower premiums up to an estimated 32 percent and ensure that everyone can access a quality private coverage arrangement of their choice.

And everyone who gets a subsidy could decide what coverage to use it for, including private or employer-sponsored health insurance.

Individuals and families would be able to decide what coverage arrangement works for them, and decide whether to work directly with a doctor for primary care and buy catastrophic coverage, or get a plan that covers more costs up front. The proposal would be especially helpful to the working poor, who may want to have private coverage but lack the means to pay for it.

For most people, this is a much better option than what happens today: being pushed onto a government-controlled plan a bureaucrat thinks is best for them.

This proposal would build on a promising, emerging trend already happening in the states. When states have been given even a little bit of freedom from Obamacare’s mandates, they’ve been able to lower premiums using tools that ensure that the sick still retain access to care.

Politicians have long promised to replace Obamacare with solutions that help everyone. It’s time to deliver—no matter which way the courts go.

COMMENTARY BY

Portrait of Marie Fishpaw

Marie Fishpaw

Marie Fishpaw is director of domestic policy studies at The Heritage Foundation’s Institute for Family, Community, and Opportunity.

Portrait of John G. Malcolm

John G. Malcolm

John G. Malcolm is the vice president of the Institute for Constitutional Government and director of the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, overseeing The Heritage Foundation’s work to increase understanding of the Constitution and the rule of law. Read his research. Twitter: .

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EDITORS NOTE: This column with images is republished with permission. Photo: Paul Hennessy/Polaris/Newscom.

Trump administration places Pakistan on list of worst violators of religious freedom

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The Trump administration has put Pakistan “on its annual list of worst offenders for nations that it says infringe on religious freedom,” largely because of its infamous blasphemy laws. The high profile case of “Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman who was recently acquitted of blasphemy but has been unable to leave the country due to riots and death threats against her” highlights the severity of Islamic oppression in that country, where Muslims were hunting house to house to find and kill Bibi and her family.

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom also released a report that accused “South East Asian nations of systematically failing to protect their populations’ religious rights, noting that ‘state officials’ in Pakistan often shield criminals forcing Christian or Hindu women into a Muslim marriage,” citing Pakistan as “home to the most egregious violations mentioned in the study.”

As abusive as Pakistan is to religious minorities and women, it also a state sponsor of terrorism, and is attempting to enforce its Islamic blasphemy laws internationally. Its Prime Minister Imran Khan vowed to go to the UN to stop all Muhammad cartoons and criticism of Islam, and Pakistan has already succeeded in compelling Twitter to enforce Sharia. Twitter has absurdly sent warnings out to Western foes of jihad terror and Sharia oppression, telling them that their tweets violate Pakistani blasphemy laws.

“US Downgrades Pakistan in Religious Freedom Rankings,” Associated Press, December 11, 2018:

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Tuesday placed Pakistan on its annual list of worst offenders for nations that it says infringe on religious freedom.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement he added Pakistan to the U.S. list of “countries of particular concern” regarding protection for people to worship according to their beliefs. Pakistan had previously been on a special watch list for religious freedom. The downgrade means that Pakistan could be hit with U.S. sanctions, although Pompeo waived those penalties in the U.S. national interest.

U.S. Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback said the decision to designate Pakistan was largely the result of criminal blasphemy laws in the country. He said half of the world’s population of prisoners jailed for blasphemy are in Pakistan. And he noted the recent high-profile case of Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman who was recently acquitted of blasphemy but has been unable to leave the country due to riots and death threats against her.

“It’s our hope that the new leadership in Pakistan will work to improve the situation,” Brownback told reporters on a conference call to detail Pompeo’s findings. “There was some encouraging signs seen recently on how they’ve handled some of the recent protesting against the blasphemy laws, and we continue to watch very carefully what’s happening to Asia Bibi.”

Other countries on the blacklist, which calls out nations for “systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom,” are China, Eritrea, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. All had been so designated in last year’s list. Aside from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkistan received sanctions waivers.

Uzbekistan had previously been named a “country of particular concern,” but Pompeo upgraded it to the special watch list. The watch list now also includes the Comoros Islands and Russia.

In addition, Pompeo designated several Islamic militant groups as “entities of particular concern” as they do not meet the definition of countries. Those are the al-Nusra front in Syria, the Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, al-Qaida, Somalia’s al-Shabab, Boko Haram in West Africa, Yemen’s Houthi rebels, the Islamic State and the Taliban…..

EDITORS NOTE: This column with images is republished with permission. The featured photo is by Sameer Akhtari on Unsplash.

The Conceit Behind California’s Bad Idea to Tax Text Messages

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State bureaucrats are moving to impose a texting tax on California residents in the name of providing mobile services to the poor.

California routinely makes national headlines for its big government policies. This week is no different, as bureaucrats move to impose a texting tax on state residents in the name of providing mobile services to the poor.

In a November proposal by the California Public Utilities Commission, Commissioner Carla J. Peterman laid out the “proposed decision” exploring the potential effectiveness of the tax.

According to that 52-page report, California’s budget continues to increase even as tax revenues fall:

“A review of California’s total reported intrastate telecommunications industry revenue, which is used to fund universal service, shows a steady decline in revenue from $16.527 Billion in 2011 to $11.296 Billion in 2017. At the same time, California Public Purpose Program budgets show a steady increase from $670 million in 2011 to $998 million in 2017…”

California’s Public Purpose program, which adds a surcharge to consumers’ bills for utilities like gas in order to provide universal services to those who can’t afford them, would be tasked with facilitating the proposed text tax. And though the analysis refers to “industry revenue,” the funds would come from taxing individual wireless customers.

Mercury News, a San Jose-based news outlet, noted that while it is still unclear how much consumers would be forced to pay, the fee would “likely would be billed as a flat surcharge per customer” as opposed to a per-text rate.

While the Commission’s analysis acknowledges opposing arguments—including carrier companies’ assertions that the tax “would not preserve and advance universal service because it does not broaden the base of universal service consumers”—the commission ultimately advocated the additional tax burden.

Parties supporting the collection of surcharges on text messaging revenue argue that it will help preserve and advance universal service by increasing the revenue base upon which Public Purpose Programs rely,” they write. “We agree.”

Business advocacy groups like the Bay Area Council, the California Chamber of Commerce, and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group estimated that the proposed tax could generate $44.5 million in tax revenue per year. However, “they add that under the regulators’ proposal the charge could be applied retroactively for five years—which they call ‘an alarming precedent’—and could amount to a bill of more than $220 million for California consumers,” Mercury News reports.

“It’s a dumb idea,” said Jim Wunderman, president and CEO of the Bay Area Council business advocacy group. “This is how conversations take place in this day and age, and it’s almost like saying there should be a tax on the conversations we have.”

Wunderman also questioned the necessity of additional taxes, referencing California’s current budget surplus:

“While perhaps well-intentioned, the specific programs that the commissioners are hoping to fund with your tax dollars already has around $1 billion to spend. These programs are not in need of greater funding from texting or any other source, and even if they were, there is already an approved, transparent process at the commission to raise the necessary funds without the need to create new taxes.”

Further, the proposed fees make even less sense considering the rise in popularity of internet-based messaging services like Facebook Messenger, Skype, WhatsApp, and Telegram, which would not be subject to the tax. In fact, the tax could very well push consumers further toward these internet-based apps to avoid extra costs.

The November document is not legally binding, but it does assert the Commission’s alleged power to impose a texting tax.

Whether or not the proposed tax becomes actual policy come January, the simple fact that it has been suggested at all illustrates the misguided yet pervasive belief in California that government omnipotence can create prosperity.

It’s precisely this type of thinking that has caused the Golden State to squander one of the largest economies in the world, driving away businesses and individuals alike and inflating costs of living with the imposition of convoluted, interventionist policies. Because of restrictive zoning laws and bureaucratic regulations that make housing inaccessible to the middle class and the poor, for example, California continues to claim the highest rate of poverty in the country despite the billions of dollars it spends on welfare and social services.

Despite the best—and heavy-handed—efforts of politicians and bureaucrats, the people they claim to represent continue to suffer under their policies. This should all come as no surprise. As economist Friedrich von Hayek observed:

“To act on the belief that we possess the knowledge and the power which enable us to shape the processes of society entirely to our liking, knowledge which in fact we do not possess, is likely to make us do much harm.”

COLUMN BY

Carey Wedler

Carey Wedler

Carey Wedler is a video blogger and Senior Editor for Anti-Media.

RELATED VIDEO: The Spending Monkeys.

EDITORS NOTE: This FEE column with images is republished with permission. The featured image is by JESHOOTS-com on Pixabay.

Muslim workers at Amazon demand longer prayer times, less work

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Amazon has banned Jihad Watch from Amazon Smile and Amazon Associates, but its aid to jihadis has not led to its being accorded any breaks by its Muslim workers.

“Amazon says it has offered accommodations such as providing prayer mats for workers, converting a conference room into prayer space during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and approving shift transfers for fasting workers.”

But it isn’t enough.

“The workers, many of whom are practicing Muslims, say the required productivity rate is too high, the company is unconcerned about worker injuries and that the conditions don’t allow practicing Muslims to pray as they otherwise would.”

The idea is to reinforce the principle, already established in other cases, that Muslims must always have special privileges and accommodations that others do not have. This is true now at Amazon unless non-Muslim workers get time off work equal to the prayer breaks that Muslims are given. Islamic law denies non-Muslims basic rights; only Muslims enjoy full rights in an Islamic society. To establish a similar situation in the U.S. is the ultimate goal here.

“Somali-American Amazon workers demand better conditions,” by Kerem Yucel and Nova Safo, AFP, December 15, 2018 (thanks to Mark):

A group of Amazon workers in Minnesota who are Somali refugees resettled in the Midwestern US state demanded better working conditions Friday during a protest outside one of the retailer’s warehouses.

Hundreds braved frigid temperatures to demonstrate outside of the Amazon warehouse in the Minneapolis suburb of Shakopee—home to a sizable Somali immigrant population from which Amazon has heavily recruited….

“We don’t have rights in the company,” worker Abdulkadir Ahmad, 30, told AFP.

The workers, many of whom are practicing Muslims, say the required productivity rate is too high, the company is unconcerned about worker injuries and that the conditions don’t allow practicing Muslims to pray as they otherwise would.

“We do not have enough time to pray. There is a lot of pressure. They say your rate is too low,” Ahmad said.

The workers timed their protest during the busy holiday shopping season, hoping to force the online retailer to make changes.

Amazon’s accommodations

They already have had some success. Amazon says it has offered accommodations such as providing prayer mats for workers, converting a conference room into prayer space during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and approving shift transfers for fasting workers.

“Additionally, we’ve continued to hire and develop East African employees. We’re a leader in this space and we feel really good about our record here,” Amazon spokeswoman Shevaun Brown told AFP via email….

But workers say Amazon’s efforts so far have fallen short.

“We are appreciative they’ve sat down and talked with us, but we are not seeing real action,” activist Abdi Muse said.

Muse is the executive director of the Awood Center, a union-backed non-profit that organized the protest and helps East African workers in the state….

“When workers leave Amazon, they still live with the back pain, chronic illness, and hurt and harm caused during their employment,” said Ahmed Anshur, the imam at the Al-Ihsan Islamic Center in the nearby state capital of Saint Paul.

Protesters said they want the multibillion-dollar company to give back to the struggling community that has been a major source of its workforce in the Minneapolis area by giving money to a community fund to help struggling immigrant families.

“It’s not a handout or a donation,” said Mohamed Omar, imam at another Minneapolis suburban mosque….

Of course not. Why, who would think such a thing?\

EDITORS NOTE: This column with images originally appeared on Jihad Watch. It is republished with permission. The featured photo is by Christian Wiediger on Unsplash.