Tag: Trump

Ohio Proves Resilient as the Partial Government Shutdown Marks Its Second Week

Andrew Shirley

With no end in sight to the partial-government shutdown, federal workers nationwide are adjusting to the possibility of an extended shutdown. While many areas of the country are heavily impacted, Ohio is poised to weather this storm. In a new report published Thursday, Ohio was revealed to be one of the states least affected by the government shutdown. Of all 50 states and the District of Columbia, The District was the most negatively affected with Minnesota as the least. Ohio came in at 42nd. The report was executed by WalletHub, a financial services company based in Washington DC. The rankings were the result of combining measurements for; Share of Federal Jobs Share of Federal Contract Dollars Per Capita Percentage of Families Recieving SNAP Real Estate as Percentage of Gross State Product Access to National Parks The report also found states which voted Democrat in 2016 were slightly more affected than states that voted Republican. According to the Labor Department numbers, as of June 2017, Ohio has 78,575 federal employees. While many of these Ohio residents have been affected by the government shutdown, almost half of these employees are military personnel, Department of Defense employees, of Veterans Affairs employees. This partial shutdown…

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GatewayPundit’s Jim Hoft Teams Up with Missouri’s St. Louis Tea Party to Announce a Rally for Trump’s Border Wall

Anthony Gockowski

The St. Louis Tea Party is organizing a rally for Saturday in support of President Donald Trump as he continues to fight for the border wall. According to a press release, the rally was organized by the St. Louis Tea Party and the Gateway Pundit, Jim Hoft. “Our president needs our support. Our president needs to know we stand with him,” Hoft said in a statement, encouraging St. Louis residents to attend the Saturday rally in Clayton, Missouri. “Let’s show our support for President Trump as he holds the line, and demand funding for the wall,” the St. Louis Tea Party said on Facebook. The news comes amid a contentious government shutdown over funding for Trump’s border wall, which now Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer are unwilling to budge on after multiple conversations with the president. On Thursday, Trump made a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room (his first) and was accompanied by members of ICE and Border Patrol. Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, told the White House press corps that if they “interview Border Patrol agents, they will tell you that walls work.” “Anywhere that you…

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Ellison Names Outspoken Anti-Trump Immigration Lawyer As Second in Command

Anthony Gockowski

Attorney General-elect Keith Ellison (D-MN) announced Friday that he has named John Keller to serve as his chief deputy attorney general. Keller currently oversees the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, a vehemently anti-Trump non-profit that provides legal services to illegal aliens and refugees. According to a press release from Ellison’s transition team, Keller began working at the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota (ILCM) in 1998 as a staff attorney, and has served as its executive director since 2005. “In that time, he has transformed ILCM from a small, regional legal-services organization with five staff to Minnesota’s leading provider of free, high-quality, and comprehensive legal, policy, and education services with five offices statewide, 32 employees—a majority of whom are from immigrant, refugee, or mixed-family backgrounds—more than 350 trained pro bono attorneys, and a statewide and national reputation,” the press release explains. Keller and the ILCM have become outspoken critics of the Trump administration and its immigration polices, and have repeatedly taken actions to thwart Trump’s agenda in Minnesota. Last December, for instance, Keller helped secure $250,000 in taxpayer funds from Hennepin County to launch a legal defense fund for county residents facing deportation. The fund was criticized by Republican gubernatorial candidate…

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Successful North Carolina Businessman Pioneers New Way Forward in Education

Anthony Gockowski

Bob Luddy had already experienced massive success as a businessman and entrepreneur before launching Thales Academy, one of North Carolina’s most innovative private schools. In 1976, Luddy founded CaptiveAire Systems, now the leading manufacturer of commercial kitchen ventilation systems in the U.S. with annual sales of more than $300 million. Why, after such success, get involved in education? “Primarily because in my life I had a reasonably good education and I realized how much it contributed to my life, and to the American way,” Luddy told Battleground State News in a recent interview. “And also within our family, my parents certainly stressed the importance of education throughout our lifetime. So in making observations after being in business for many years, I felt like too many students are deprived of the opportunity to reach their fruition in life by having a good, sound education.” And that is exactly what Luddy’s Thales Academy (Thales), now in its eleventh year and named for the Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus, does: educate each student to his maximum potential. Luddy launched Thales in 2007 using a “temporary facility in the back of” his corporate office, the school’s website explains, and had just 30 students. Now,…

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Minnesota Lawmakers Respond Feverishly to Border Wall Shutdown

Anthony Gockowski

It was a wild week in Washington, which gave Minnesota’s politicians ample opportunity to attack President Donald Trump. In a Friday appearance on The Dan Obeidallah Show, Rep.-elect Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) said Trump’s border wall “is deeply rooted in xenophobia.” “If Trump shuts down the government: 420,000 Americans will be forced to work without pay over the holidays. 380,000 will be furloughed. 30 million small businesses will lose access to loans,” she later wrote on Twitter. “All of this, over a wall that Americans don’t want. A wast of billions of dollars.” If Trump shuts down the government: 420,000 Americans will be forced to work without pay over the holidays. 380,000 will be furloughed. 30 million small businesses will lose access to loans. All of this, over a wall that Americans don’t want. A waste of billions of dollars. — Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) December 21, 2018 “Hey GOP, your incompetency is mind numbing, three shutdowns in one year. For the sake of the American people, get it together or get out of the way,” Omar wrote on Saturday. Hey @GOP, your incompetency is mind numbing, three #shutdowns in one year. For the sake of the American people, get it together…

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Commentary: Democrat Oversteps on Trump Impeachment Will Stir Populist Uprising

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by Jeffrey A. Rendall   While viewing news coverage of the recent protests in Paris over the French government’s tax hike on fuel it reminded me (a little) of our very own American citizen uprising over the government’s excessive and unpopular taxation policies of the 18th century. Seeing as this is the time of year Americans celebrate Christmas – and are therefore intensely aware of pressures on family budgets – it’s also appropriate to remember the anniversary of the “protest” that started a populist wave, the legendary “Boston Tea Party.” December 16 marked the 245-year anniversary of the “party,” where highly agitated (and probably inebriated) Bostonians disguised as Indians raided East India Company ships at anchor and enthusiastically tossed the tea into the harbor. Tea and salt water don’t mix, so essentially the act of vandalism cost the Mother Country’s merchants tens of thousands of pounds of product. And it got the British government very angry at the Americans. Lord North and parliament imposed martial law on the Bostonians, the colonies rode the slippery slope towards separation and independence and the rest is… history. Whereas the citizens (some might call them anarchists) in Paris were allegedly upset over President Emmanuel Macron’s…

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Commentary: Break Up Google for the Public Good

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by Ned Ryun   It’s time for all of us to admit that Alphabet, Inc. is the 21st century equivalent of Ma Bell: it is an almost all-controlling monopoly that restricts consumer choice in order to maximize profit for the company. We all know what Ronald Reagan did to AT&T. He broke up that monopoly so Americans could have real choices and the free market could actually work. So it’s time for the Trump Administration to break up the Alphabet, Inc. monopoly. But unlike the Ma Bell monopoly, Alphabet, Inc.’s monopoly—which includes the search-engine behemoth Google—isn’t just about greater competition and more choices for the American people. It’s about so much more: free political discourse and our privacy rights as citizens. Last week in Washington D.C., the House called in Google CEO Sundar Pichai to question him about the bias against conservatives at his company, but also about data privacy and Google’s plans for working with China. Every last one of those issues should trouble every last American. The mainstream media, as the mindless propagandists of the deep state and Democratic Party, are still trying to maintain the miserable hoax of Russian collusion to cover up their own misdeeds and…

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No New Tariffs: Trump Wins Trade Battle With China

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by Jason Hopkins   U.S. President Donald Trump was able to extract a number of concessions from Chinese President Xi Jinping in exchange for not imposing any new tariffs on Chinese goods. Trump reached a major agreement while meeting with the world’s top leaders over the weekend. At the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Trump and Xi spoke for two and a half hours Saturday night — an hour longer than previously scheduled. The meeting, which Trump called “amazing and productive,” has temporarily staved off an escalating trade battle between the world’s two biggest economies. Xi agreed to immediately begin buying more agricultural products from American farmers, along with a pledge to purchase more industrial and energy products. While the specifics of the trade agreements have not been announced, the White House says the deal will help correct the trade imbalance between China and the U.S. Xi has also agreed to a number of cybersecurity and property theft concessions Additionally, China has also agreed to label the opioid fentanyl as a controlled substance, making anyone who sells fentanyl to the U.S. subjected to harsher penalties under Chinese law. The labeling will help the federal government as it fights an…

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Commentary: The Art of the Veto

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by Robert Romano   By last count, Republicans lost at least 32 seats in the House in the midterm elections, and U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is once again poised to be elected House Speaker. This means all legislation will now have to be worked out between a Democratic House and a Republican Senate led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). To navigate these new waters in 2019, President Donald Trump has signaled a willingness to negotiate but he must remember that his greatest leverage could come in the House minority if he wishes to plot a more conservative path. Certainly there will be last-minute attempts in the lame duck session to get things done with Republican majorities, which may or may not work. Time is not a luxury. Democrats will believe they can get a better deal in January and will block legislation in the Senate. It’s up to Trump to convince them otherwise. Looking forward, then, with at least 199 members in the House, Trump and the GOP should have enough votes to sustain any presidential vetoes if they play their cards right. All Trump needs are 145 members who are willing to stand with the President.…

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Commentary: 2018’s Split Decision Goes to Donald Trump and His Senate Republicans

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by Jeffrey A. Rendall   “Donald Trump is the projected winner of the 2020 presidential election.” The call didn’t come from any news desk – or even a professional paid prognosticator like Karl Rove – but you can’t help but predict the president, when faced with the soon to be over-the-top antics of a Democrat House majority, will enjoy making the best case ever for his reelection to the White House in two years. Why? As a minority, House Democrats hid behind the GOP majority’s procedural moves and establishment-controlled direction of legislation. But under the glare of impending Democrat control they can no longer cower in the background lofting rhetorical grenades at Republican members while ducking back into their caves to try and weather the return flak storm. Fox called the House for Democrats around 9:30 p.m. EST on Tuesday, taking much of the drama out of the evening where the lower chamber was concerned. It was a curious forecast considering polls hadn’t even closed on the west coast – but the experts know best, right? Meanwhile, Republicans increased their margins big-time in the senate. Fairly early on Indiana went for GOP challenger Mike Braun over liberal pretender Democrat Senator…

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Commentary: The ‘Sacred Walls’ of Donald Trump

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by Pedro Gonzalez   With each step the “caravan of contradictions” takes toward our border, another progressive illusion slips away. Victor Davis Hanson considers this mob, and by extension the events surrounding it, a “paradox, a contradiction, and an irony.” He’s right. The “reasoning” of progressives that leads them to endorse opening our borders to a group of intransigent lawbreakers so that they may escape lawlessness, is logically unacceptable. Progressives recoil in horror at President Trump’s declaration that we must defend ourselves against an invasion of thousands of foreigners who denounce our laws and hold our sovereignty in contempt. And by progressives, I mean to include those “conservatives” of National Review who cry, “it’s hard to think of a response less measured and more effective at undermining moderate support for immigration restrictions than the reaction of the president and key allies.” Consider, 65 percent of voters favor – compared to 35 percent who oppose – increasing merit over connection to relatives for immigration preference, eliminating the visa lottery, and increased funding for border security. That includes 68 percent of Latino voters, 64 percent of black voters, 64 percent of Democratic voters, 67 percent of Independent voters, 63 percent of “liberal” voters, and…

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Commentary: When Laws Are Not Enforced, Anarchy Follows

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by Victor Davis Hanson   What makes citizens obey the law is not always their sterling character. Instead, fear of punishment—the shame of arrest, fines or imprisonment—more often makes us comply with laws. Law enforcement is not just a way to deal with individual violators but also a way to remind society at large that there can be no civilization without legality. Or, as 17th-century British statesman George Savile famously put it: “Men are not hanged for stealing horses, but that horses may not be stolen.” In the modern world, we call such prompt, uniform and guaranteed law enforcement deterrence, from the Latin verb meaning to frighten away. One protester who disrupts a speech is not the problem. But if unpunished, he green-lights hundreds more like him. Worse still, when one law is left unenforced, then all sorts of other laws are weakened. The result of hundreds of sanctuary cities is not just to forbid full immigration enforcement in particular jurisdictions. They also signal that U.S. immigration law, and other laws by extension, can be ignored. The presence of an estimated 12 million or more foreign nationals unlawfully living in the United States without legal consequence sends a similar message.…

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Commentary: Build the Wall Remains Republicans Rallying Call

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Tennessee Star

by Natalia Castro   Immigration debates dominated the 2016 election and two years later, the issue is equally as pertinent in Americans’ minds. For many individuals who voted for President Trump on the promise of building a wall to secure our southern border, there has been frustration surrounding a lack of action; but some action has been taken and this issue specifically demonstrates Republicans will have to maintain control of the House and Senate in the 2018 midterm elections if they want to finish the job. When President Trump signed a March 2018 spending bill into law, Congress allocated $1.6 billion for border wall construction and $400 million for repairing and replacing existing border fences. At the time, Trump referred to this as a down payment to begin wall construction, with more coming in the months ahead. That money has already been put to good use. Last week, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristjen Nielsen unveiled a newly built 30-foot border wall along the border of California and Mexico. During her visit to the wall she reinforced her support for the president’s policy, Let me be clear: Walls work. That’s not my opinion, it’s not a tagline, it’s not…

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Analysis: Quantifying the Progressive Extremism That Has Overrun the Democrat Party

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by Ken Masugi   A shrewd observer of American politics, Thomas Edsall sums up the evidence that the Democratic Party has rapidly become a far more left-wing party than it ever has been. In the last 18 years, the percentage of white Democrats identifying themselves as liberal doubled, from 28 to 55 percent, while percentages of moderates and conservatives fell. This dramatic change may explain not just the 2018 elections but the future of American politics: 2018 may be the year Democrats push America over the cliff. Using recent survey data, Edsall highlights several changes, notably: “Progressive activists are ‘more than twice as likely [than a typical American] to say that they never pray (50 percent to 19 percent), ‘almost three times more likely to be “ashamed to be an American”’ (69-24), eleven percentage points more likely to be white (80-69), and ‘twice as likely to have completed college (59-29).’” Ashamed to be an American by almost three to one. That just about says it all. The Progressive Democratic Party breaks with its honorable past as the world’s oldest political party and is recently reborn as the radical edge of History, the dictatorship of the enlightened. Within the blinders and…

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Tennessee Star Report-Knoxville Edition: Obama, You’re So Vain, You Probably Think This Growth is About You

Julie Carr

On Wednesday’s Tennessee Star Report: Knoxville Edition– broadcast on WETR 92.3 FM – Star News Digital Media National Political Editor Steve Gill questioned why migrants and immigrants would want to come to a country that is not so great because of Trump (according to the Democrats).  He suggested that perhaps Venezuela would be a more geographically desirable location for those seeking a better life. Gill observed the rally turnout for Trump in Nowhere Nevada versus Obama’s populated rally spot of Reno, of which he drew seven thousand less people than Trumps rally in Elko. Gill continued: And as we ponder big thoughts, big things. Like if America is the racist, horrible place, that the left, Democrats running for office around the country, want us to believe, if were just so disgusting and deplorable, why do we have seven to ten thousand people walking across thousands of miles to come here?  Again it’s been a question we’ve posed before.  Why do folks try to swim through shark infested waters from Cuba to Miami if we are just such an awful place?  I mean they could get right to Venezuela that has the socialism the left tells us they think is the right…

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Trump Is Cutting Regulations Between the West And its Water Supply

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by Tim Pearce   President Donald Trump signed a memorandum Friday ordering Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to cut regulations slowing water supply and hydroelectric projects. The Trump administration’s memo is aimed at speeding up environmental reviews and simplifying the approval process for building permits in California, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. “This will move things along at a record clip. And you’ll have a lot of water. I hope you’ll enjoy the water you’ll have,” Trump told lawmakers and others assembled at the signing ceremony in Arizona, Politico reports. The timing of Trump’s order might partly be aimed at helping Republicans in California and Washington compete in close races leading up to Nov. 6 midterms. Trump criticized California’s state water policies earlier in 2018 in a broader attack on California environmental laws. Trump and Zinke blamed California environmental policies for exacerbating wildfires that scorched the state at record levels during the 2017 and 2018 wildfire seasons. “For many years, westerners have expressed their need for certainty and access to water and affordable, renewable hydropower,” Utah GOP Rep. Rob Bishop, chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources, said in a statement. “This action will increase the availability of innovative technology, improve access to…

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SCOTUS Puts the Brakes on Kids’ Climate Lawsuit Against the Government

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by Chris White   Supreme Court Justice John Roberts granted the Trump administration a stay Friday night in a climate lawsuit several young people leveled against the government. The Trump administration repeatedly asked both the SCOTUS and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to stop the trial through a writ of mandamus, a rarely used judicial tool allowing a higher court to overrule a lower court before a verdict is made. Roberts granted mandamus after the 9th Circuit twice turned down the writ. The 21 plaintiffs, all between the ages of 11 and 22, are arguing that federal officials violated their due process rights by allowing the fossil fuel industry to release greenhouse gas emissions, despite knowing for years that such emissions can cause climate change. The plaintiffs are seeking a court order requiring the federal government to implement an “enforceable national remedial plan” phasing out carbon emissions in an effort to stabilize the climate and protect the environment. Their case — Juliana v. United States — has survived several attempts by the government to torpedo the case after it was originally filed in 2015. Attorneys for the defendants said they believe the case will eventually move forward. “We are confident once Chief Justice Roberts and the full…

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Victor Davis Hanson Analysis: Could Trump Win 20 Percent of the Black Vote in 2020?

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by Victor Davis Hanson   The provocative Donald Trump certainly seems to be disliked by a majority of African-American professional athletes, cable news hosts, academics and the Congressional Black Caucus. Yet there are subtle but increasing indications that his approval among other African-Americans may be reaching historic highs for a modern Republican president. Some polls have indicated that Trump’s approval rating among black voters is close to 20 percent. That is far higher than the 8 percent of the African-American vote that Trump received on Election Day 2016. A recent, admittedly controversial Rasmussen Reports poll showed African-American approval of Trump at 36 percent. Even 20 percent African-American support for Trump would all but dismantle Democratic Party presidential hopes for 2020. Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election with 88 percent of the black vote. That was about a six-point falloff from Barack Obama’s share of the black vote in 2012. But far more importantly, an estimated 2 million of the African-American voters who cast ballots for Obama in 2012 simply did not show up at the polls in 2016 to vote for the off-putting Clinton. Even a small drop in African-American turnout or anything less than the usual 85 percent to…

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While Know-It-Alls Lecture on Tariffs Against China, Trump Dials Up New Trade Deals with UK, Europe and Japan

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by Robert Romano   While President Donald Trump continues to bring the pressure to China, so far with 10 percent tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods shipped to the U.S., rising to 25 percent in Jan. 2019, which comes atop another 25 percent tariff on $50 billion of goods from China, he is dialing up new trade deals with traditional U.S. allies. Trade agreements with South Korea, Mexico and Canada are already going to Congress, accounting for a combined $1.4 trillion in trade with the U.S. And now, Trump has notified Congress of his intent to negotiate deals with the UK, Europe and Japan, with whom the U.S. carried on a combined $1.7 trillion in trade. These were supposed to be mutually exclusive things, according to all the experts. Trump could either put up more trade barriers or lower them, but he could not do both. Instead, Trump is proving that the U.S. can walk and chew gum at the same time as it pursues the Trump trade agenda. If nations act fairly and reciprocally with the U.S. to lower trade barriers, they can get a good deal. If not, like China, then they face tariffs. “Under President Trump’s…

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Commentary: Dems’ Beautiful Blue Wave More Like Stagnant Algae-Filled Millpond

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by Jeffrey A. Rendall   It’s always curious when political pundits and media figures use terms like “waves” to describe forthcoming or just concluded elections results. According to the dictionary, a “wave” (used as a noun) is, “a long body of water curling into an arched form and breaking on the shore, or, a gesture or signal made by moving one’s hand to and fro.” As we move ever closer to election day 2018 it’s become clear American voters already dismissed the possibility of the first type of  Democrat “wave” to leave room for a “gesture” or “signal” to the minority party (we’ll leave it to your imagination as to which “gesture” is most appropriate). If anything, the ocean-type “wave” the pundits love droning on about is now headed back out to sea, never to reach the sandy shores of Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. By all appearances the same phenomenon that produced the election surprise of the millennium (to some folks at least) in 2016 is sweeping over the entire country again this year. Once confident Democrats are now pulling back their grandiose predictions that Republicans will be brutally kicked out of the Speaker’s and Majority Leader’s offices in…

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Principal Replaced After Making a Student Take Off His Trump Jersey at a Patriotic-Themed Football Game

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by Neetu Chandak   A North Carolina high school principal was replaced after she asked a student to take off his Trump jersey at a patriotic-themed football game. Cindy Gordon, the former principal at Harnett Central High School, asked Matthew Collins, 18, to remove the jersey because it was political, according to WRAL Friday. The front of the jersey read “USA” in red, white and blue and the back of the shirt had the word “Trump” with the number “45” written below. Gordon informed Collins that some parents were complaining about the shirt and he had to take it off in order to stay at the game, according to the son’s father Michael Collins, WRAL reported. Matthew Collins left the game that day. Students were encouraged to dress patriotically for the school’s football game on Oct. 5, according to ABC11 on Wednesday. “As long as the expression does not disrupt, and is not reasonably expected to disrupt, the educational mission of the school system, these rights include wearing clothing expressing political messages or supporting political candidates,” Harnett County school district spokeswoman Natalie Ferrell said, ABC11 reported. Michael Collins, who is a registered Democrat, said the shirt was not meant to promote President…

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Kevin McCarthy Rolls Out Bill to Fully Fund Trump’s Border Wall, Cut Off Sanctuary Cities

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by Will Racke   House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy formally introduced Friday a bill that would set aside more than $23 billion to build President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall, drawing attention to a key concern of Republican voters ahead of the November midterm elections. The proposal, known as the Build the Wall, Enforce the Law Act of 2018, would appropriate $16.6 billion for a “border wall system” along the U.S.-Mexico frontier consisting of physical barriers and intrusion detection systems. It adds another $6.8 billion for security infrastructure, including border surveillance technology and additional detention space for illegal immigrant families. McCarthy tied the bill’s border security provisions to the ongoing family migration crisis at the southwest border, which the Trump administration says is caused by laws that encourage illegal immigration. “For decades, America’s inability to secure our borders and stop illegal immigration has encouraged millions to undertake a dangerous journey to come here in violation of our laws and created huge loopholes in the legal channels we use to welcome immigrants to our country,” the California Republican said in a statement. “President Trump’s election was a wakeup call to Washington. The American People want us to build the Wall and…

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President Trump Tells China ‘No Deal’ on Trade

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by Robert Romano   “Now look, China wants to make a deal, and I say they’re not ready yet. I just say they’re not ready yet. And we’ve canceled a couple of meetings because I say they’re not ready to make a deal. We can’t have a one-way street. It’s got to be a two-way street. It’s been a one-way street for 25 years. We gotta make it a two-way street. We’ve got to benefit also.” That was President Donald Trump’s declaration to China on Oct. 9 that there won’t be a deal on trade anytime soon. Not while the U.S. is running a $375 billion trade in goods deficit every year. So far, Trump is levying 10 percent tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods shipped to the U.S., rising to 25 percent in Jan. 2019. That came atop a 25 percent tariff on $50 billion of goods from China. And Trump did warn that if China retaliates, another $267 billion of tariffs would follow. Well, so far, China has retaliated with tariffs on $60 billion of goods including agricultural products soybeans and pork. In one gambit, China tried to exact a political toll by taking out a 4-page…

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Promise Kept: Trump Signs Law That Ends Gag Orders Against Pharmacists Sharing Money-Saving Information

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by Evie Fordham   President Donald Trump signed a law that ends insurance companies’ pharmacist gag clauses in an effort to lower drug prices Wednesday. “If there’s anything bipartisan it’s lowering drug prices,” Trump said while signing the Patients’ Right To Know Drug Prices Act according to CBS News. Currently, insurers and pharmacy benefit managers use the gag clauses to “forbid pharmacists from proactively telling consumers if their prescription would cost less if they paid for it out-of-pocket rather than using their insurance plan,” according to a press release from Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, the bill’s sponsor. Trump also signed Democratic Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s Know the Lowest Price Act, which “prohibits Medicare drug plans from putting a gag clause on a pharmacy in their contracts,” according to CNN. The Patients’ Right To Know Drug Prices Act would lead to “a slight decrease in federal revenues,” according to the Congressional Budget Office. That decrease could be offset by another provision in the bill, reported Politico. Collins’s bill also targets “pay-for-delay,” a tactic where a brand drug company pays a generic manufacturer to withhold a product that would compete with the brand drug for market share. Closing this loophole could save consumers and taxpayers money, according…

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A Senate Democrat Reportedly Outsourced Parts of the Trump-Russia Probe to Operative Linked to Soros, Fusion GPS

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by Chuck Ross   A Democratic senator outsourced parts of the investigation into possible Trump-Russia collusion to a former Senate staffer with links to George Soros and Fusion GPS, according to a New Yorker report. The New Yorker reports the unidentified senator contacted Daniel Jones, a former Senate Intelligence Committee staffer, around March 2017 to review data regarding a possible link between the computer servers of the Trump Organization and a Russian bank called Alfa Bank. Jones, who worked under California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein when she chaired the intelligence panel, had just formed a non-profit group called the Democracy Integrity Project. The organization worked closely with Fusion GPS and former British spy Christopher Steele, the tag-team duo that produced the Democrat-funded dossier accusing the Trump campaign of colluding with the Kremlin. Jones’s operation was also funded by a small group of billionaires, including left-wing philanthropist George Soros. Jones told the FBI in March 2017 that between 7 and 10 billionaires had put up $50 million to continue an investigation into Russian meddling in elections. Jones also told the FBI that he had secured the services of Steele and Fusion GPS “to continue exposing Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election.” The goal…

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Commentary: The Coming Red Tide

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by Brandon J. Weichert   Republicans are slated to lose the midterms next month. History is against them. The “experts” don’t think the GOP has a snowball’s chance in Florida. Generic polling shows the Republicans facing a nearly hopeless situation in the House of Representatives, and there is even some question as to whether they can hold their narrow majority in the Senate. Yet, as Mark Twain once said, “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” The Right faced roughly these same odds and dire predictions exactly two years ago. And while President Trump’s name is not on the ballot, most Republican voters understand what the stakes are: the future of the country, more or less. I think the GOP will be able to eek out a victory in the midterms. Think about it: for two years, rather than humbly accept defeat and regroup, the Left has overreached; they’ve gone from “loyal” opposition to deranged insurgents. The late character assassination of the now-confirmed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh is another example of the Democratic Party’s hubris. So, too, is the Left’s embrace of full-blown socialism (or, excuse me, “democratic socialism”). Although President Trump’s overall approval ratings may be (if one were to take the polls at face-value) relatively low,…

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Double Standards at Orange County California High School Results in False Racism Claims from School Principals

Julie Carr

On Wednesday’s Gill Report – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 1510 WLAC weekdays at 7:30 am – Star News Digital Media National Political Editor Steve Gill was flabbergasted regarding an “alleged” incident at a recent football game at Santa Ana High School in Orange County, California. According to principals of the schools and further spun by the Anti-American media, students were chanting “USA, USA” and holding up posters that read, “we love white.” The posters actually read, “we love red, white, and blue.” He goes on to describe the principals’ blatant attempt to label that schools students racist and a offense to ‘dreamers’, however,  the other team’s school was allowed to proudly wave their Mexican flags during the game. Gill said: As we look back on 911 and look at the way that some in this country don’t appreciate America it’s not just the NFL athletes on the field. We’ve now got school systems that are attacking students for shouting, “USA, USA” in the stands during a football game. An Orange County high school football game, Orange County, California, was marred by allegations of racism earlier this week. An issue where posters allegedly seen at the Friday night game between…

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Commentary: What the Mainstream Media Doesn’t Get About Trump Support

Tennessee Star Staff
Donald Trump rally

by ConservativeHQ.com Staff   Much to the amazement of the establishment media, President Trump’s job approval rating held steady despite former campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s conviction on tax and bank fraud charges and ex-personal lawyer Michael Cohen’s guilty plea last week, according to the results of two polls released over the weekend. Trump’s job approval in a survey conducted from Aug. 18-22 sat at 46 percent, while 51 percent disapproved, a NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey found. A second poll conducted between Aug. 22-25 revealed his Trump supporters approval numbers held steady, despite the legal jeopardy of his associates. The second survey from NBC News and the Wall Street Journal found 44 percent of respondents approved of Trump’s job performance, whereas 52 percent did not according to analysis by The Washington Examiner’s Naomi Lim. NBC reported that Republican pollster Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies, who conducted this survey with Democratic pollster Peter Hart and his team at Hart Research Associates, called Trump’s approval rating “remarkably stable” despite the Manafort and Cohen developments, both of which became public on the same afternoon last Tuesday. Hart added that, for Democrats hoping to craft a midterm election strategy, the week’s news thus…

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President Trump Announces New Trade Deal Pending With Mexico, Stock Market Jumps Up

Tennessee Star Staff
Donald Trump

President Donald Trump’s Monday morning announcement of a pending new trade deal with Mexico generated new intraday record highs in the stock markets. Details of the negotiated arrangement are expected to be released soon. Most trade experts believe that a bilateral deal with Mexico increases pressure on Canada to make a deal with the U.S. as well. Renegotiation of NAFTA was one of Trump’s campaign promises. Trump announced the tentative agreement with Mexico from the Oval Office with with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto joining by telephone. “It’s a big day for trade. It’s a big day for our country,” Trump told reporters assembled for the announcement. The deal could lead to an overhaul of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), though Trump indicated the new trade deal would have a new name. Trump said he wanted to get rid of the name “NAFTA” because it has bad connotations. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump often railed against the trade pact as “the worst trade deal maybe ever signed anywhere.” Tennessee Star Political Editor Steve Gill, a former U.S. trade official in the Bush and Clinton Administrations, said the deal still needs some work — and Congressional approval — before…

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Commentary: Media’s Outright Lies and Distortions Cloak True Portrait of Trump

Tennessee Star Staff
Donald Trump

by Jeffrey A. Rendall   Have you ever been shown an image and told it portrays something you just don’t see? I’m not referring to a Rorschach test (a psychological test in which subjects’ perceptions of inkblots are recorded and then analyzed using psychological interpretation, complex algorithms, or both); no, I’m talking about a regular run-of-the-mill photo you see in the newspaper or displayed on TV. If that’s the case then you know how half of America now feels about the ongoing jumbled witch hunt the Robert Mueller investigation has devolved into. This week supposedly marked a huge turning point in the liberals’ crusade to bring down the presidency of Donald Trump, with former campaign manager Paul Manafort being convicted in federal court (of non-campaign-related crimes) and sleazy former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen pleading guilty to Mueller’s charges. Through all of it the media’s painted a portrait of Trump that’s more than a little hazy – it’s downright indistinct. The figures are unclear and the actions are open to wide interpretation. One thing’s for sure – it’s a presented piece of evidence that wouldn’t hold up in court. For his part Trump initially took the legal troubles of his former…

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VP Pence Visit to Conservative Lee University Triggers Left Wing Lunacy

Julie Carr
Mike Pence

Conservative political commentator and Tennessee Star Political Editor Steve Gill of The Gill Report, broadcast live on WETR 92.3 FM in Knoxville, stated in disbelief the left’s infiltration into Lee University, one of Tennessee’s top Christian schools – and in particular one Lee University student’s petition to cancel a Vice President Pence visit to one of the most conservative cities in the country. “If you need any further evidence – which you shouldn’t need much – that the left is truly deranged and hurting themselves in their interest to overcome any question about how anti-Trump and anti-Pence they may be,” Gill said; adding, “We just need to look down at the Chattanooga area as students at supposedly conservative Lee University are running a petition to block Vice President Mike Pence from visiting the university in Cleveland on Saturday.” He continued: I don’t know how many presidents or vice presidents that have actually visited little Lee University down in Cleveland, I don’t think it’s many you would think that having a president and vice president visit your campus might be a big deal that would be celebrated by virtually everybody, but no, the left-wing loonies are off to the races. They…

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U.S. Officials Arrive in North Korea to Hold Talks on Possible Trump-Kim Summit

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Tennessee Star

In a new twist to the ‘will they or won’t they’ saga of President Trump’s summit with North Korea–originally planned for next month–the Commander-in-Chief tweeted Sunday afternoon that a US team arrived in North Korea to plan for a possible meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jung Un. Our United States team has arrived in North Korea to make arrangements for the Summit between Kim Jong Un and myself. I truly believe North Korea has brilliant potential and will be a great economic and financial Nation one day. Kim Jong Un agrees with me on this. It will happen! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 27, 2018 Although President Trump sent a letter calling off the talks Thursday, he kept the option to go ahead with the Signapore talks on the table. “We can be successful in the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, that would be a great thing for North Korea, it would be a great thing for South Korea, it would be great for Japan, it would be great for the world, it would be great for the United States, it would be great for China. A lot of people are working on it. It’s moving along very nicely,” Trump said. Shortly…

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Commentary: President Trump Brings Home Christians Held By North Korea

Tennessee Star Staff

by CHQ Staff   The establishment media has done its best to ignore or step on the story of the magnificent work President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo did to gain the release of three American Christians grabbed-up as hostages by North Korea. In a statement as they traveled to the United States, the prisoners said that they wanted to give their “deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo and the people of the Trump KoreaUnited States for bringing us home.” “We thank God and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return,” they said. Tony Kim (who also goes by the Korean name Kim Sang-duk), Kim Hak-song and Kim Dong-chul are the three Korean-Americans who were arrested and imprisoned by North Korean authorities – and who were sentenced to 10 years to life at hard labor – but no one in the establishment media seems to want to talk about exactly why they were arrested. But the “why” of their arrest is essential to understanding their individual stories and the importance of their release. Tony Kim, who taught at North Korea’s only privately funded college, Pyongyang University…

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Donald Trump Pardons Kristian Saucier, Navy Sailor Who Used ‘Hillary Clinton Defense’

Tennessee Star Staff

President Trump has pardoned former Navy sailor Kristian Saucier who was convicted of breaking laws by taking a photo inside a nuclear submarine, the White House said Friday. The case gained national attention because the prosecution of Mr. Saucier contrasted sharply with the Obama Justice Department decision not to bring charges against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for mishandling classified material on her secret email server.

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Maryland to Sue Trump over New Cap on State and Local Tax Deductions

Tennessee Star Staff

Maryland will sue the Trump administration for capping state and local tax (SALT) deductions in its new federal tax law, the state’s attorney general said Thursday. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act signed by President Trump last year contains a provision capping SALT deductions at $10,000, and Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh said residents across the heavily-taxed state stand to take a hit as a result.

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Trump Ad Says Democratic Foes Will Be ‘Complicit’ in Murders by Illegal Immigrants

Tennessee Star Staff

The Trump campaign released a tough ad Saturday saying that Democrats who oppose the president’s border security policies will be “complicit for every murder committed by illegal immigrants.” “Build the wall. Deport criminals. Stop illegal immigration now. Democrats who stand in our way will be complicit in every murder committed by illegal immigrants,” says the ad by Donald J. Trump for President.

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Pakistan Summons US Ambassador Over Trump Tweet

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Pakistan has summoned the US ambassador, an embassy spokesman said Tuesday, a rare public rebuke after Donald Trump lashed out at Islamabad with threats to cut aid over “lies” about militancy. Ambassador David Hale was asked to go to the foreign office in the Pakistani capital on Monday night, after Islamabad responded angrily to the US President’s allegations that it provided safe havens for militants in the latest spat to rock their alliance.

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Representative Jim Jordan Calls for Second Special Counsel over FISA Warrant on Trump Aides

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Rep. Jim Jordan said Thursday that an additional special counsel needs to be appointed to look into how a FISA warrant was obtained to look at members of President Trump’s campaign team. “The only logical way to get to the answers for the American people is to appoint a second special counsel. And if the attorney general is not going to do it, frankly, I don’t think he should be the attorney general,” Mr. Jordan, Ohio Republican, said on Fox News.

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Hurricane Irma Prompts President Trump to Call Governors of States in Storm’s Path, Including Haslam in Tennessee

Tennessee Star Staff

President Trump made phone calls Sunday morning to governors of Southern states bracing for Hurricane Irma, which earlier had made landfall at Cudjoe Key, Florida. Mr. Trump spoke with governors in Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee. Federal preparations for disaster response continued, including briefings for the president and vice president at Camp David, the White…

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You’re Fired: Trump’s VA Terminates 500, Suspends 200 for Misconduct

Tennessee Star Staff
Tennessee Star

Five hundred and forty-eight Department of Veterans Affairs employees have been terminated since President Donald Trump took office, indicating that his campaign pledge to clean up “probably the most incompetently run agency in the United States” by relentlessly putting his TV catchphrase “you’re fired” into action was more than just empty rhetoric. Another 200 VA workers…

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Vladimir Putin Says Donald Trump Believed Denial of Russian Interference in U.S. Election

Tennessee Star Staff

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday that he thinks he convinced President Trump that Russia did not interfere in the U.S. presidential election. Russian meddling in the election was the first thing Mr. Trump bought up when he two leaders had their first face-to-face meeting Friday, and Mr. Putin repeated his denials that Moscow was involved.…

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Commentary: Was Choosing Gorsuch for SCOTUS Trump’s Greatest Accomplishment to Date?

Tennessee Star Staff

  by Jeffrey A. Rendall If you polled a hundred Americans at random and asked what they considered to be President Donald Trump’s greatest accomplishment during his first half-year in office, the responses might look a little like this: “He appointed a great cabinet;” “He reduced illegal immigration by over half;” “He battled the media and won;” “He fired James Comey;” “He met the Pope;” “He got us out of the Paris accord;” “He signed a ton of executive orders that help American businesses,” and, “Not a darn thing, he’s been awful.” The last response would originate from the roughly half of the electorate who can’t stand Trump and aren’t paying attention to anything he does but are still all too willing to believe the Democrats’ gripes on how the country is going straight down the tubes because he’s now the president. But where conservatives are concerned, likely the most numerous response would be, “He appointed Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.” Many a post-election survey listed Supreme Court appointments as a crucial factor in the decision to vote for Trump or Hillary Clinton, so it would hardly be surprising if folks assigned an oversized importance to Gorsuch’s presence now.…

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