Day: July 12, 2019

Ambassador to Japan Bill Hagerty Endorsed by President Trump for U.S. Senate Seat

Anthony Gockowski

  President Donald Trump has endorsed Bill Hagerty, the current ambassador to Japan, in the U.S. Senate race in Tennessee. “Tennessee loving Bill Hagerty, who was my Tennessee Victory Chair and is now the very outstanding Ambassador to Japan, will be running for the U.S. Senate. He is strong on crime, borders and our Second Amendment. Loves our military and our vets. Has my complete and total endorsement,” Trump wrote on Twitter Friday afternoon. Tennessee loving Bill Hagerty, who was my Tennessee Victoy Chair and is now the very outstanding Ambassador to Japan, will be running for the U.S. Senate. He is strong on crime, borders & our 2nd A. Loves our Military & our Vets. Has my Complete & Total Endorsement! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 12, 2019 The announcement comes a day after both former Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and Rep. Mark Green (R-TN-07) announced that they would not be entering the race. Hagerty will run for the seat currently held by Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), who announced in December that he would not seek reelection in 2020. On Thursday’s Tennessee Star Report, Club for Growth Chairman David McIntosh discussed a potential Hagerty candidacy with the hosts.…

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Labor Secretary Acosta Resigns Amid Epstein Controversy

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by Fred Lucas   Unable to put to rest questions of his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case, Labor Secretary Alex Acosta resigned Friday after serving more than two years in the position. “A Cabinet position is a temporary trust. I must set aside a part of me that wants to continue my service with thousands of talented professionals at the Department of Labor,” Acosta says in the letter to President Donald Trump. “Therefore, I am offering, and wish for you to accept, my resignation as the United States Secretary of Labor effective one week from today.” Deputy secretary Patrick Pizzella will serve as the acting secretary of labor after Acosta exits next week, Trump said. On Monday, federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York charged Epstein, a 66-year-old billionaire financier, with the sex trafficking of dozens of young girls, some as young as 14. In 2008, Epstein reached a deal with federal prosecutors in the Southern District of Florida, run by then U.S. Attorney Acosta at the time, that allowed Epstein to avoid federal prosecution in a case involving multiple charges of sexual abuse, in exchange for pleading guilty in a Florida state court to charges of…

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Sen. Blackburn Addresses Senate on Her Concerns About Snapchat and Sexual Predators Targeting Children

Jason M. Reynolds

  U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) on Thursday again raised the topic of Snapchat and her efforts to urge the company to protect minors from sexual predators. Blackburn addressed the Senate about a letter she wrote Monday to Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel urging him to protect children from sexual predators and from being exposed to explicit content while using the platform. The Tennessee Star reported on the letter on Tuesday. Blackburn said in the letter, “Snapchat’s app rating—rated age appropriate for children ages 13 and up—fails to provide parents with adequate warnings about the platform’s dangers. The Wall Street Journal recently highlighted some of the ancillary risks associated with allowing such young children on the platform. ’13 has become the internet’s age of adulthood,’ when it should instead be 18.” Blackburn gave Spiegel a deadline of July 29 to respond to a list of questions. Video of Blackburn’s speech is available here. Blackburn’s remarks as prepared were as follows: Thank you, Madam President. In 2017, ICE agents arrested Francisco Javier Soledad on charges of producing child pornography using the popular social media app Snapchat. He assumed a variety of false identities, first a teenage boy, later an adult woman, and…

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Commentary: Tired, Irrelevant Democratic Candidates Point to Trump Reelection

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by Conrad Black   It is easier to notice the drift of American political public opinion after being away from it in England for six weeks. It is obvious that President Trump is steadily gaining ground. The human wave of kooks and retreads seeking the Democratic nomination have been shooting furiously inside their 360-degree firing squad and some of the 1 percent group will have to be carried out soon to make it a tighter circle. (The most irritating loudmouth of all of them, Representative Eric Swalwell of California, had the honor of being the first to fold on Monday.) The Democrats’ major problems are that almost all the president’s policies are working. The collapse of the Russian collusion fraud has created an eerie silence as the country awaits possible indictments of the Democrats responsible for that outrage, and the Democrats themselves are completely unfeasible. All the economic news is positive: 83 percent of taxpayers have had their taxes reduced and those who have not are the citizens of chronic Democratic states where the state governments have been so incompetent they have laid on higher state income taxes that the administration no longer will deduct from federal taxes. Why should…

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Trump Administration Preparing to Arrest Illegal Immigrants in Nationwide Raids

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by Jason Hopkins   The White House is reportedly picking plans back up to apprehend and deport thousands of illegal immigrants who have ignored court orders to leave the country. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Sunday will launch raids across major U.S. cities, according to Homeland Security officials who spoke with The New York Times and NBC News. The Sunday raids will target roughly 2,000 illegal aliens who, despite court orders to leave, continue to remain in the U.S. Targeted cities include Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Miami and other areas. President Donald Trump in June announced plans to deport “millions” of illegal immigrants, but he later postponed those plans, telling the public he wanted to allow time to negotiate with congressional Democrats on a solution to the immigration crisis. However, it is likely that the plans were also scrapped because key details were leaked to the media. The president has since said his administration was ready to renew the operation. “These are people where we have their papers, we’ve gone through the court system. [The deportations will] be starting fairly soon, but I don’t call them raids. We’re removing people that have come — all of these people…

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Commentary: Tucker Carlson Is Right, But Who Is Responsible for This Disaster?

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by George Rasley, CHQ Editor   Tuesday night Fox News’ Tucker Carlson had a great monologue about immigration, especially from Muslim countries and he singled-out freshman Democrat Representative Ilhan Omar (MN-5), who came to the U.S. as a refugee from Somalia, is “living proof” that U.S. immigration laws are “dangerous.” “No country can import large numbers of people who hate it and expect to survive. The Romans were the last to try that with predictable results. So be grateful for Ilhan Omar, annoying as she is. She’s a living fire alarm, a warning to the rest of us,” Carlson said during his monologue. “Omar is now at the age of only 36, one of the most powerful women in America. It’s an amazing story really. Only in this country could it have happened,” he said. “Ilhan Omar has an awful lot to be grateful for, but she isn’t grateful. Not at all,” Carlson then said. “After everything America has done for Omar and for her family, she hates this country more than ever.” “Omar isn’t disappointed in America. She’s enraged by it,” he continued. “That should worry you, and not just because Omar is a sitting member of Congress. Ilhan…

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Immigrant Activists Storm Biden Headquarters, Demand He Apologize for Deportations

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by Jason Hopkins   Immigrant rights activists protested inside Joe Biden’s campaign headquarters in Philadelphia, demanding the former vice president apologize for the deportations that took place during the Obama administration. “We are here with families who have had their families separated both under the Obama and Trump administrations, and we are demanding that Biden apologize for overseeing 3 million deportations under the Obama administration, and we are calling for Biden and 2020 Democratic candidates to commit to ending deportation and detention in their first day in office,” said a spokeswoman Wednesday during the Facebook live coverage of the protest. The group behind the rally, Movimiento Cosecha — which translates to “Harvest Movement” in English — has been behind other immigration-related protests, such as a push to give illegal immigrants driver’s licenses. Members of the organization wanted to bring attention to the Obama administration’s record on immigration enforcement. The protest highlighted a seemingly incongruous fact: Deportations were higher during the Obama administration than they are under the Trump White House. Norma is currently shutting down @JoeBiden's campaign office to share her story. Her son, who came at the U.S. at age 10, would have qualified for the "Obama-Biden DACA program"…

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Acosta Defends Role in Epstein Deal

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by Fred Lucas   Fending off calls for his resignation or firing, Labor Secretary Alex Acosta on Wednesday defended his role as a federal prosecutor in Florida more than a decade ago in what is widely viewed as a plea deal with billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein that resulted in a lenient sentence. He said a federal trial would have been “a roll of the dice,” with no guarantee of a more severe punishment, and put most of the blame on the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office. “The goal here was straightforward: Put Epstein behind bars, ensure he registered as a sexual offender, provide victims with the means to seek restitution, and protect the public by putting them on notice that a sexual predator was in their midst,” Acosta said at a press conference Wednesday. Acosta was the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida in 2008, when the plea agreement was reached. On Monday, federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York charged Epstein, 66, with the sex trafficking of dozens of young girls, some as young as 14 years old. During Wednesday’s nearly hourlong press conference, Acosta dodged questions as to whether he would apologize…

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The Tennessee Star Report Talks to Club for Growth’s David McIntosh About Tennessee Senate Race and the Freshman Democrats Running to the Left

Julie Carr

  On Thursday’s Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – Gill chatted with long time friend, David McIntosh, chairman of Club for Growth, about Bill Haslam’s decision not to compete in Tennessee’s Senate race and who the front runners might be. Towards the end of the show, McIntosh and Gill discussed how the new freshman Democrats have voted nearly one hundred percent of the time with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Gill: David McIntosh is the chairman of Club for Growth. Former Congressman from Indiana. Former candidate in Indiana is now heading up Club for Growth. And David, we wanted to talk about the new study that you all have done. And we’re going to talk about all these Democrats that ran claiming to be a new kind of Democrat have turned out to be exactly like the liberal whack jobs of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Nancy Pelosi. They’re voting alike about 91 percent of the time. But before we get to the study. Breaking news this morning, Governor Bill Haslam deciding not to run for the US Senate. I…

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Ocasio-Cortez Implies Pelosi Is Racist for Singling Out ‘Newly Elected Women Of Color’

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by Chuck Ross   New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez implied Wednesday that Nancy Pelosi is racist and said the House speaker has been “disrespectful” toward “newly elected women of color” in Congress. Ocasio-Cortez addressed in an interview with The Washington Post the growing rift between Pelosi and the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. Pelosi was quoted in a New York Times article on July 6 taking a thinly veiled shot at Ocasio-Cortez and several other freshman Democrats who voted against a bill to help migrants at the border. “All these people have their public whatever and their Twitter world, but they didn’t have any following,” Pelosi said to The Times’ Maureen Dowd. “They’re four people and that’s how many votes they got.” Pelosi was referring to Ocasio-Cortez and Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, who are all minority women. Ocasio-Cortez told The Post that she initially believed Pelosi was employing a strategy to protect moderate Democrats. But she suggested she believes there could be a racial tinge to Pelosi’s repeated rebuke of Ocasio-Cortez and her fellow freshmen. “When these comments first started, I kind of thought that she was keeping the…

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Over Half of Hispanic Voters Support Citizenship Question on Census

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by Carmel Kookogey   A poll released earlier this month includes a finding that may surprise those who say adding the citizenship question to the 2020 census will result in minority communities not being properly counted. Among the Hispanic registered voters polled in the survey sample for Harvard University’s latest national monthly public policy poll, 55% say they are in favor of adding a question about whether a census respondent is a citizen to the 2020 census. Additionally, the poll, released by the Harvard’s Center for American Political Studies and the Harris Poll, found 67% of all registered U.S. voters say the census should include a citizenship question. There were reports Thursday that President Donald Trump planned to announce an executive order to include a citizenship question on the census. Trump added to the speculation with a tweet: The White House will be hosting a very big and very important Social Media Summit today. Would I have become President without Social Media? Yes (probably)! At its conclusion, we will all go to the beautiful Rose Garden for a News Conference on the Census and Citizenship. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 11, 2019 Mike Gonzalez, senior fellow at the Allison…

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Michigan’s New Marijuana Laws: What Consumers, Business Owners Should Know

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by Scott McClallen   The agency that regulates the marijuana market in Michigan has clarified rules to sell product legally to adult residents, making it easier for small businesses to enter the market. Michigan’s Marijuana Regulatory Agency said it plans to accept business applications through Nov. 1 and are required to begin approving businesses by Dec. 6. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer established the MRA to regulate medical and recreational marijuana in the state and to implement a fair and effective market for Michigan residents. The MRA set no capital minimums for the adult-use market after several citizens complained that small businesses don’t have enough startup capital to compete with corporate companies. Medical marijuana licensees previously had to prove they had $200,000 to $500,0000 in assets, with one-fourth liquidity. The new laws give new license types for temporary events, micro-businesses, and social-use facilities. “The race to be the first to get applications submitted and approved has now officially begun,” said Josh Hovey, spokesman for the Michigan Cannabis Industry Association. “Every business in the state that is looking at this industry … they’re putting on their running shoes.” There’s no legal way for the general public to purchase cannabis without a medical marijuana…

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Omar and ‘the Squad’ Reportedly Isolated by Pelosi, Saddled With Work to Avoid Spotlight

Anthony Gockowski

  Tensions between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA-12) and the freshmen progressives in her party are starting to boil over. It was clear from the beginning that “the squad,” comprised of Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY-14), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-13) and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA-07), wasn’t going to make things easy for Pelosi. For one thing, she’s repeatedly had to defend Omar and Tlaib against claims of anti-Semitism. The squad wants impeachment proceedings, while Pelosi would prefer to wait things out. Some members of the squad called for new leadership and would’ve liked to see Pelosi go. The Pelosi-squad schism has been the subject of several articles out of The New York Times and The Washington Post in the past few days. The squad’s vote against the House’s border-funding bill, which Pelosi called “our bill,” plus an “offensive” tweet from Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff that compared moderate Democrats to segregationists, are both factors that are threatening to bring the spat over the edge. “All these people have their public whatever and their Twitter world,” Pelosi said of the squad in a recent interview with The New York Times. “But they didn’t have any following. They’re four people and that’s how…

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Mark Green Files Legislation to Allow Taxpayers to Designate Funds on IRS Form to a Border Wall Trust Fund to Build a Wall

Jason M. Reynolds

  U.S. Rep. Dr. Mark Green (R-TN-07) announced he introduced legislation Thursday that would replace the Presidential Election Campaign Fund checkbox on the IRS 1040 with a Border Wall Trust Fund checkbox to allow taxpayers to designate their tax money toward building a southern border wall. “Taxpayer dollars should never be used to advance political campaigns,” Green said in a press release. “But, keeping Americans safe must be our #1 priority. My bill will give every American the opportunity to directly help President Trump build the wall.” Green tweeted, “Americans spoke loud and clear in 2016 that we want a wall to secure our southern border. Congress has clearly been unable to get the job done. My new bill will give every American the opportunity to directly help @realDonaldTrump #BuildTheWall.” Americans spoke loud and clear in 2016 that we want a wall to secure our southern border. Congress has clearly been unable to get the job done. My new bill will give every American the opportunity to directly help @realDonaldTrump #BuildTheWall. https://t.co/UYCbynv1AT — Rep. Mark Green (@RepMarkGreen) July 11, 2019 The current IRS 1040 form allows taxpayers to check a box to direct $3 (or $6 for married filing jointly)…

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