by Political Editors: Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) was attacked from behind by his neighbor as he was mowing his own lawn (think about that for a minute) in Bowling Green, Kentucky, last Friday. “Senator Paul was blindsided and the victim of an assault. The assailant was arrested and it is now a matter for the police,” said Kelsey Cooper, Sen. Paul’s communications director. Paul suffered five broken ribs, including three displaced fractures. Clearly, that wasn’t very neighborly. And as details slowly emerge, it was worse than that.

          The lawyer for Rene Boucher, the neighbor who attacked Paul, claims the dispute that precipitated the attack had nothing to do with politics but was over some “trivial” matter. He insisted, “Senator Paul and Dr. Boucher have been next-door neighbors for 17 years. They are also prominent members of the local medical community and worked together when they were both practicing physicians. The unfortunate occurrence of November 3rd has absolutely nothing to do with either’s politics or political agendas.” Perhaps, but it’s no secret that Paul and his neighbor are on opposite sides of the political spectrum and evidently have not spoken to each other in years.
          There is an obvious reason why Boucher’s lawyer would seek to distance his client’s motivation from anything political. If it was political, then Boucher is looking at a federal rather than a state offense, and attacking a U.S. senator “on account of the performance of official duties” carries an 8 to 20 year prison term. At the very least, Boucher faces felony rather than misdemeanor charges due to the severity of the attack.
          Irrespective of how this particular incident plays out, the fact that we are questioning if politics was a motive says much about the current state of our national political climate — a political climate in which congressional Republicans are targeted for assassination by a socialist. When Democrats, the mainstream media and popular culture feel entirely justified to regularly and falsely paint Republicans and conservatives as the party of racists and bigots, when liar-Hillary Clinton labels Donald Trump’s supporters a “basket of deplorables,” and when the Left sees no problem resisting and calling for the impeachment of a justly elected president simply because they don’t like him, we have a real problem. This is type of hatred is the result of one side choosing to exploit identity politics. It remains to be seen if Paul’s neighbor was indeed driven by politically fueled hatred, but there is little question that on a national level America has a dangerously growing problem with “progressive” hate.  ~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/52275

by Todd Johnson:  While most of the mainstream media establishment continues to be fixated on tracking down the latest bit of minutiae pertaining to Special Counselor Robert Mueller’s Russian investigation, there is a momentous story happening in Washington, DC, that has all but been ignored by the fourth estate. As tomorrow marks one year since Donald Trump’s surprise election victory, it makes for a good opportunity to point it out.

          Last week, the Republican-controlled Senate successfully confirmed four of President Trump’s circuit court of appeals nominees, bringing their total to eight circuit court judges being approved this year. That number represents a 4.5% turnover of the 179 total appeals court judgeships available. More impressively, Trump has now tied President Ronald Reagan’s accomplishment of placing eight judges on the appeals courts in the first year of an administration.
          Perhaps contrary to popular belief, this track record of success has been primarily due to the dynamic partnership between the Trump White House and the Senate leadership — specifically Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley. While the president deserves some criticism for his inability to fill executive branch jobs more quickly, his success with judicial candidates is laudable.
          When he entered office in January, Trump had about twice as many lower court vacancies as his predecessor. His ability to work with McConnell and the rest of the Republican Senate has afforded him the opportunity to really leave an imprint on the American judicial system and create a legacy that will long outlast his time in Washington.
          Arguably more impressive than Trump’s work with the GOP is his administration’s work with the Democrat Party. According to Trump’s adviser on Supreme Court and judicial nominations, “This is an administration that has taken extraordinary lengths to consult with Democrat senators, more than I remember in my professional life than with any other Republican or Democratic administration.” Trump’s willingness to work with both sides of the aisle exemplifies political growth and shows a man who is adapting to the political challenges of working with members of Congress.
          Contrary to the popular media narrative surrounding the Beltway, Trump has nominated excellent candidates for the judicial openings and Senate Republicans have done the heavy lifting needed to get qualified candidates through the arduous nominating process.
          And they will have plenty more chances to put more conservative judges on the bench. Another 23 appeals court judgeships are currently vacant or will be vacated in the near future, which gives Trump the opportunity to overhaul some 17% of the circuit court positions. In addition to those openings, he also needs to nominate another 130 people for open slots at other courts, with the vast majority of them being at the federal district court level.
          The only way that progress on these nominations will be stopped is if Democrats decide to invoke the cloture rule on nominations going forward. Cloture used to be a rarely used parliamentary procedure by which the Senate would vote to place a time limit on consideration of a bill or other measure. Now it’s often used by the minority party in the Senate to drag out the process for judicial nominees. Democrats this year alone have utilized the tactic to delay 12 of 13 judicial nominees. Only time will tell if they will continue to obstruct Trump’s ability to fill vacancies.
          That’s why it is imperative that the Republicans in the Senate stay united and patient. No Republican has voted against any of the judicial nominees so far and they need to continue that perfect track record if they want to positively impact the nation long after they leave office.  
~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/52269

          Trump didn’t just promise to defend U.S. interests and allies, he took aim at Kim Jong-un’s regime in other ways. “North Korea is not the paradise your grandfather envisioned,” Trump said to Kim. “It is a hell that no person deserves.” He also took on the Kim regime for its human rights abuses, using words like “fascism,” “cult,” tyrant" and “sinister.”
          It’s hard to overestimate how unusual it is for anyone to speak so forcefully against North Korea from just across the border in South Korea. Trump’s words were a strong message in the face of communist tyranny, and a welcome sign of strength for U.S. foreign policy.
          Next up is continuing to deal with China. Trump went from Seoul to Beijing, where he is reportedly expected to push China to cut financial ties with North Korea.
          Trump made an effort to honor Chinese President Xi Jinping even while preparing to challenge him — honor is an important thing to keep in mind in Asian cultures. “I want to just say that President Xi … has been very helpful,” Trump said. “China is out trying very hard to solve the problem with North Korea.”
          In reality, of course, as Mark Alexander wrote in September, China is “using the Kim/NoKo nuclear threat as a king pawn to protect their own trade and foreign policy interests.” In other words, China benefits from keeping North Korea as a bargaining chip and insurance against economic action the Trump administration might take against China. The American Leftmedia continue to push the narrative that China is doing all it can, but the reality is Beijing is using Pyongyang’s saber rattling to its advantage.  ~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/52306

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/11/06/april_ryan_trump_fighting_back_by_galvanizing_his_base_of_white_males_the_uneducated.html

          Recall back in August when The New York Times claimed to have procured a draft copy that it asserted “has not yet been made public.” This was false — the draft had long been up for public review, which the Times later clarified — but it helped support the premise supplied by the Times’ headline: “Scientists Fear Trump Will Dismiss Blunt Climate Report.”
          As we reported at the time, this now-demonstrably fake news bolstered the narrative two-fold: It furthered the Times’ agenda of portraying Donald Trump as a Neanderthal who “could change or suppress the report” without the public’s knowledge, and it also helped portray ecofascists as brave whistleblowers who had no choice but to “leak” a report to save humanity. In reality, the report formally went out without a hitch. But hey — narrative!
          According to CBS, “The Trump administration did not seek to block its release, but the conclusion directly contradicts statements made by senior members of his cabinet.” That’s the difference between the liar-nObama and Trump administrations — the former pulled out all the stops to suppress every little thing with which it disagreed, while the latter respects debate and the Rule of Law. There are many ways to question and counter causation without pulling out an executive order, a practice that became Barack liar-nObama’s modus operandi. As Trump spokesman Raj Shah put it, “The Administration supports rigorous scientific analysis and debate and encourages public comment on the draft documents being released today.”
          Interestingly, not everyone on the Left agrees wholeheartedly with the report — and not because it lacks sensationalism. Even an liar-nObama-era official is calling into question some of the report’s findings. Physicist Steven E. Koonin, former undersecretary of energy under liar-nObama, addresses two specific issues in The Wall Street Journal, where he writes:
          One notable example of alarm-raising is the description of sea-level rise, one of the greatest climate concerns. The report ominously notes that while global sea level rose an average 0.05 inch a year during most of the 20th century, it has risen at about twice that rate since 1993. But it fails to mention that the rate fluctuated by comparable amounts several times during the 20th century. The same research papers the report cites show that recent rates are statistically indistinguishable from peak rates earlier in the 20th century, when human influences on the climate were much smaller. The report thus misleads by omission.
          This isn’t the only example of highlighting a recent trend but failing to place it in complete historical context. The report’s executive summary declares that U.S. heat waves have become more common since the mid-1960s, although acknowledging the 1930s Dust Bowl as the peak period for extreme heat. Yet buried deep in the report is a figure showing that heat waves are no more frequent today than in 1900. This artifice also appeared in the government’s 2014 National Climate Assessment, which emphasized a post-1980 increase in hurricane power without discussing the longer-term record. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently stated that it has been unable to detect any human impact on hurricanes.
          Koonin rightly calls this dichotomy “the difference between science and advocacy.” It’s not like anything in this report is “news.” If anything, it’s a regurgitation of what we’ve been hearing for decades, only with fresh data and enhanced alarm. The report also should not be interpreted as a Trump administration flip-flop, as many of these agencies are controlled by career activists. More importantly, Trump officials — particularly EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt — are enacting policies that jettison the agenda being propagated by climate activists. It’s for that reason climate reports will be sensationalized further in the years ahead, as holdovers work to demonize the Trump administration’s work.  ~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/52262

by Political Editors: Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) was attacked from behind by his neighbor as he was mowing his own lawn (think about that for a minute) in Bowling Green, Kentucky, last Friday. “Senator Paul was blindsided and the victim of an assault. The assailant was arrested and it is now a matter for the police,” said Kelsey Cooper, Sen. Paul’s communications director. Paul suffered five broken ribs, including three displaced fractures. Clearly, that wasn’t very neighborly. And as details slowly emerge, it was worse than that.

          The lawyer for Rene Boucher, the neighbor who attacked Paul, claims the dispute that precipitated the attack had nothing to do with politics but was over some “trivial” matter. He insisted, “Senator Paul and Dr. Boucher have been next-door neighbors for 17 years. They are also prominent members of the local medical community and worked together when they were both practicing physicians. The unfortunate occurrence of November 3rd has absolutely nothing to do with either’s politics or political agendas.” Perhaps, but it’s no secret that Paul and his neighbor are on opposite sides of the political spectrum and evidently have not spoken to each other in years.
          There is an obvious reason why Boucher’s lawyer would seek to distance his client’s motivation from anything political. If it was political, then Boucher is looking at a federal rather than a state offense, and attacking a U.S. senator “on account of the performance of official duties” carries an 8 to 20 year prison term. At the very least, Boucher faces felony rather than misdemeanor charges due to the severity of the attack.
          Irrespective of how this particular incident plays out, the fact that we are questioning if politics was a motive says much about the current state of our national political climate — a political climate in which congressional Republicans are targeted for assassination by a socialist. When Democrats, the mainstream media and popular culture feel entirely justified to regularly and falsely paint Republicans and conservatives as the party of racists and bigots, when liar-Hillary Clinton labels Donald Trump’s supporters a “basket of deplorables,” and when the Left sees no problem resisting and calling for the impeachment of a justly elected president simply because they don’t like him, we have a real problem. This is type of hatred is the result of one side choosing to exploit identity politics. It remains to be seen if Paul’s neighbor was indeed driven by politically fueled hatred, but there is little question that on a national level America has a dangerously growing problem with “progressive” hate.  ~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/52275

by Todd Johnson:  While most of the mainstream media establishment continues to be fixated on tracking down the latest bit of minutiae pertaining to Special Counselor Robert Mueller’s Russian investigation, there is a momentous story happening in Washington, DC, that has all but been ignored by the fourth estate. As tomorrow marks one year since Donald Trump’s surprise election victory, it makes for a good opportunity to point it out.

          Last week, the Republican-controlled Senate successfully confirmed four of President Trump’s circuit court of appeals nominees, bringing their total to eight circuit court judges being approved this year. That number represents a 4.5% turnover of the 179 total appeals court judgeships available. More impressively, Trump has now tied President Ronald Reagan’s accomplishment of placing eight judges on the appeals courts in the first year of an administration.
          Perhaps contrary to popular belief, this track record of success has been primarily due to the dynamic partnership between the Trump White House and the Senate leadership — specifically Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley. While the president deserves some criticism for his inability to fill executive branch jobs more quickly, his success with judicial candidates is laudable.
          When he entered office in January, Trump had about twice as many lower court vacancies as his predecessor. His ability to work with McConnell and the rest of the Republican Senate has afforded him the opportunity to really leave an imprint on the American judicial system and create a legacy that will long outlast his time in Washington.
          Arguably more impressive than Trump’s work with the GOP is his administration’s work with the Democrat Party. According to Trump’s adviser on Supreme Court and judicial nominations, “This is an administration that has taken extraordinary lengths to consult with Democrat senators, more than I remember in my professional life than with any other Republican or Democratic administration.” Trump’s willingness to work with both sides of the aisle exemplifies political growth and shows a man who is adapting to the political challenges of working with members of Congress.
          Contrary to the popular media narrative surrounding the Beltway, Trump has nominated excellent candidates for the judicial openings and Senate Republicans have done the heavy lifting needed to get qualified candidates through the arduous nominating process.
          And they will have plenty more chances to put more conservative judges on the bench. Another 23 appeals court judgeships are currently vacant or will be vacated in the near future, which gives Trump the opportunity to overhaul some 17% of the circuit court positions. In addition to those openings, he also needs to nominate another 130 people for open slots at other courts, with the vast majority of them being at the federal district court level.
          The only way that progress on these nominations will be stopped is if Democrats decide to invoke the cloture rule on nominations going forward. Cloture used to be a rarely used parliamentary procedure by which the Senate would vote to place a time limit on consideration of a bill or other measure. Now it’s often used by the minority party in the Senate to drag out the process for judicial nominees. Democrats this year alone have utilized the tactic to delay 12 of 13 judicial nominees. Only time will tell if they will continue to obstruct Trump’s ability to fill vacancies.
          That’s why it is imperative that the Republicans in the Senate stay united and patient. No Republican has voted against any of the judicial nominees so far and they need to continue that perfect track record if they want to positively impact the nation long after they leave office.  
~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/52269

by Thomas Gallatin:  As parishioners worshipped Sunday morning at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, a crazed individual attacked the church, killing 26 people before he was shot and chased off by a neighbor who responded to hearing shots fired. The attacker, who fled in his SUV, was eventually forced off the road and was found dead in his vehicle from a gunshot wound. The number of dead would most certainly have been greater had not a good guy with a gun shown up to confront and end the rampage.

          The attacker was a 26-year-old former member of the U.S. Air Force who had been discharged for bad conduct in 2014 after a domestic violence conviction. He was court-martialed in 2012, spent a year in confinement and took a reduction in rank. He was married and a father of at least one young child. Several people who knew him have described him as an “outcast” but not a loner, and one who “preached his atheism” online. His online social profile does indeed lend support to the view that he was a vehement and, it now seems, militant atheist. There are also unconfirmed rumors that he was sympathetic toward antifa. Given antifa’s weekend “resistance” rallies, that makes us wonder…
          Texas Gov. Greg Abbott stated, “I don’t think this is a random act of shooting, a randomly chosen location, but obviously someone who is very deranged.” President Donald Trump responded to the news from Japan, saying, “Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and families in today’s horrible … attack. In dark times, and these are dark times … Americans do what they do best: they pull together. We join hands, we lock arms, and through the tears and through the sadness, we stand strong.” He continued, “All Americans pray to God to help the wounded and the families of the victims.”
          And of course, predictably, before any investigation had taken place or the facts were known, the anti-Second Amendment crowd quickly sought to politicize the atrocity by laying blame for the crime on law-abiding Americans’ right to bear arms, the National Rifle Association and Republicans. Never mind the fact that the killer’s domestic violence conviction already made it illegal for him own or possess a firearm or ammunition. Once again, gun control advocates ignorantly assign responsibility for the crime to the availability of firearms, irrespective of the actual laws on the books. A killer’s decision isn’t their focus.
          Yet this atrocity should once again remind everyone that evil is real and no law can rid it from the hearts and minds of people.

Update: Police are now saying the killer died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and that his motive was domestic and not religious.  ~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/52254

by Arnold Ahlert:  These are desperate times for Democrats. And what do Democrats do when they’re desperate? They play the race card.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Democrats and their equally smug media allies thought the nation would be basking in the glow of the nation’s first female president. Instead, Trump was elected, and his victory was attributed to “referencing a nostalgia that would give hope, comfort, settle grievances for millions of people who were upset about gains that were made by others,” liar-Hillary Clinton stated on CBS’s “Sunday Morning” in September.
          Host Jane Pauley looked for clarification. “What you’re saying is millions of white people?” she asked. “Millions of white people, yeah. Millions of white people,” liar-Clinton responded, adding that Trump’s inauguration a speech was a “cry from the white-nationalist gut.”
          liar-Hillary and her equally clueless fellow travelers never get around to explaining how those same “racist” white people elected Barack liar-nObama twice, or why many of them label any black American who identifies as Republican a race “traitor.” When one swims in a sea of identity politics, inconvenient reality is easily ignored.
          What cannot be ignored is when Democrat institutions engage in the very same bigotry they claim to abhor. Last week, DNC Data Services manager Madeleine Leader sent an email to fellow DNC employees announcing that the Technology Department is looking to fill some positions. That would be a DNC whose website states it is an “equal opportunity employer.”
          For most Americans, “equal opportunity” would be self-explanatory. For a Democrat Party obsessed with dividing Americans into tribalist sub-groups, it is apparently necessary to elaborate. Thus we are told the DNC does not discriminate based on “sex, race, age, color, creed, national origin, religion, economic status, sexual orientation, veteran status, gender identity or expression, ethnic identity or disability, or any other legally protected basis.”
          Leader didn’t get the proverbial memo. “I personally would prefer that you not forward [this email] to cisgender straight white males, since they’re already in the majority,” she wrote.
          For Americans who have failed to keep up with the Left’s sexual  identity politics, “cisgender” is a term for people whose gender identity matches the sex that they were assigned at birth. Thus one can presume a white male claiming to be a woman trapped in a man’s body remains in the running.
          The DNC disavowed Leader’s email. “The email in question was not authorized by the DNC nor was it authorized by senior leadership,” spokesman Michael Tyler told Fox News. “All hiring decisions at the DNC are made consistent with the DNC’s commitment to equal employment opportunity and hiring an inclusive and talented staff that reflects the coalition of the Democratic Party, because our diversity is our greatest strength.”
          That is, quite simply, a bald-faced lie. For Democrats, diversity is about anything that accrues to their political agenda. Anything that doesn’t is bigotry with all the attendant subheadings, from nativist to transphobic, and everything in between.
          New Yorkers are the latest group of Americans paying a high price for Democrat-defined diversity. Following last Tuesday’s terrorist attack, during which eight innocent people were slaughtered with a truck allegedly driven by Sayfullo Saipov, it was revealed the Islamic State supporter was invited to America under the auspices of the “Diversity Visa Program.” The program was initially spearheaded by-then New York Representative and current Senator Chuck clown-Schumer, along with former Senate “lion” Ted Kennedy in 1990. And the GOP, demonstrating an equal level of cluelessness, supported the measure, with President George H.W. Bush signing it into law.
          An added “bonus” of that lottery is chain migration, a system that allows citizens and lawful permanent residents the ability to sponsor their non-nuclear family members for entry in America. Thus we welcome a virtual flood of unskilled, uneducated and often elderly immigrants to partake of our nation’s generous welfare system.
          In Saipov’s case, he was able to help as many as 23 other individuals  become eligible to emigrate to America.
          Trump would eliminate the lottery and turn immigration into the skills-based merit system that benefits America, not merely those who wish to come here. For that he was branded a racist, just as he was for imposing a travel ban including the nations of Chad, North Korea, Venezuela, Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Somalia.
          One of the jurists blocking this latest ban is Barack liar-nObama appointee Judge Derrick Watson in Hawaii. That would be the same  overwhelmingly Democrat Hawaii prepping for a nuclear attack by North Korea, one of the countries added to the list. Like their New York counterparts, it appears a commitment to diversity and multiculturalism is more important than the threat of terror — or nuclear annihilation.
          Speaking of annihilation, that’s exactly what the Latino Victory Fund (LVF) attempted to do to Virginia’s Republican gubernatorial candidate, Ed Gillespie. They produced a political ad showing a white man attempting to run down minority kids with a pickup truck sporting a Confederate flag, a Tea Party license plate, and a bumper sticker for Gillespie. The end of the spot reveals this is a nightmare replete with awakened kids shaking in fear, while the narrator asks, “Is this what Donald Trump and Ed Gillespie mean by ‘the American dream’?”
          As opposed to the open borders, national sovereignty-despising fundamental transformation dreams of Democrats?
          Records subsequently released by the Virginia Department of Elections reveal Democrat candidate Ralph Northam’s campaign  coordinated with the LVF to produce the ad. No doubt to both entities’ dismay, the real truck attack in New York forced them to pull the spot. Undaunted, LVF released a Spanish-only ad featuring Gillespie and Trump — appearing in front of Nazi flags.
          And despite pulling the original ad, LVF president Cristóbal J. Alex defended it. “We knew our ad would ruffle feathers,” he said. “We held a mirror up to the Republican Party, and they don’t like what they see.”
          What Republicans see? How about what decent Americans see? Americans who don’t believe anyone and everyone who disagrees with the Democrat agenda is a potential terrorist or a dedicated Nazi? Americans who finally got sick and tired of being referred to as “bitter clingers,” “irredeemables” or “deplorables” in addition to the aforementioned epithets Democrats substitute for rational debate?
          “The Democrats use identity politics to develop their campaigns, organize their party and impose their will via government policy,”  explains Washington Post contributor Ed Rogers. “Qualified people are excluded from service, good candidates are smeared, and Americans are put in danger. But somehow, Democrats think this is progress. They think this is justice. It is what they want to do more of when they are in power.”
          Last week, former DNC leader Donna Brazile revealed just how committed Democrats are to honesty and fairness amongst themselves in pursuit of power. In short, the party was willing to shaft half (or more) of its supporters to make liar-Clinton its presidential candidate. Thus as always, “by any means necessary” remains Democrat Party’s foremost “principle.”
          And as for race bait, Brazile recounted an exchange she had with the liar-Clinton campaign: “I’m not Patsey the slave,” referencing a character in the film “12 Years a Slave.” She continued, “Y'all keep whipping me and whipping me and you never give me any money or any way to do my damn job. I am not going to be your whipping girl!” Race-baiting? A tool of the Democrat trade.  
~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/52244

by Robin Smith:  “If you want more of something, subsidize it; if you want less of something, tax it,” said President Ronald Reagan. As we see how this fact applies to the GOP tax reform proposal and unpack a bit of the information of the plan that’s still very much under construction, we must agree upon what a tax is to honestly deal with the issue.

          Merriam-Webster notes that a tax is “a charge usually of money imposed by authority on persons or property for public purposes.” Investopedia defines a tax as “an involuntary fee levied on individuals or corporations that is enforced by a government entity, whether local, regional or national in order to finance government activities.”
          Items taxed by the federal government — those only relevant to the tax plan being proposed — are predominantly personal income by workers identified by our government as legal citizens, or income as a result of the sale of a product or service through a business or corporation. Fees are also a type of tax collected on transactions or products that may generate a cost to the government through a license, the need for oversight or regulatory action.
          In 2016, the U.S. Treasury collected $3.3 trillion in federal taxes. Of those collections, 47% came from personal income taxes, 37% from Social Security taxes, 11% in corporate taxes, 3% for excise taxes that apply to the purchase of certain products and 1% each for both taxes collected on estates at death and custom duties from international trade.
          It’s pretty obvious that our government spends off the backs off workers, not the poor as alleged by the Left. Sadly, that also means that it’s through the mandatory confiscation of wealth from those who produce that government programs are funded. But, now, what about that Reagan quote? Do we really want less work and less productivity?
          So, what does the GOP tax plan mean, not just to Wall Street, but average workers of the middle class on Main Street, that rely on mortgage deductions and charitable giving write-offs? Is there truly a working-class benefit, as claimed by Republicans?
          In proposing to take seven tax brackets and simplify the system to only four, it does make tax preparation easier, but in examining these tax brackets, the lower two stratifications seem to enjoy real tax relief. Those individual workers making up to $200,000 annually will be in the second lowest bracket of 25% along with those married filers reporting up to $260,000 in income. In the lowest tax bracket of 15%, individuals reporting $45,000 annual income and married filers up to $90,000. These bracket reforms coupled with the doubling of the individual and married standard deductions benefit the working class.
          Even The Washington Post awarded four Pinocchios to Senate Democrats’ fearmongering that the working class would be hit with a tax increase. In their analysis, they note that “you will see that every quintile on average receives a tax cut — not a tax increase.”
          But a system reformed means a system changed. While many have grown to enjoy certain deductions, the GOP plan does include significant changes regarding a couple of very traditional write-offs. The charitable contribution write-off remains unchanged from current law. Those giving to qualified charities and churches will see no change in that reporting — save only that the increased standard deduction means fewer people will itemize their charitable contributions.
          The loudest opponents’ challenge seems to originate from the real estate and mortgage industries. The current deduction of the interest on the first $1 million borrowed for a home is set to be capped at $500,000 for new home purchases and has been completely eliminated for any other homes that are not primary residences. A second point of opposition is the cap of deducting property taxes leveled by one’s state and local government.
          The talking points to dispute these changes are that capping the mortgage interest deduction destroys the American Dream of owning a home. That’s especially true, critics say, with the cost of homes being so high in some regions.
          Yet according to Forbes, “What the Republican Tax Bill Means for the Value of Your Home,” the median price of an American home sold today is $245,000, falling well within the capped limit of $500,000. Again, The Washington Post breaks out some real reporting citing an August 2017 report by United for Homes. Only 6% of new mortgages are valued over $500,000 with an accurate statement that “the rhetoric about middle-class families is largely at odds with the reality of who actually owns half-million-dollar homes in the U.S.
          Addressing the capped deduction for property taxes at $10,000, the data supports that the average family who itemizes their tax returns will be untouched by this change. According to USA Today, "each of the country’s 84 million single-family homeowners paid an average of $3,296 in property taxes.”
          Be advised that those yelping the loudest on this last change find themselves in the bluest of blue states. Residents of New Jersey have the highest average of $8,477 paid annually in property taxes, with New York at $7,013 and Connecticut at $6,963. The moral to this story is that big blue governments have depended on the ability to increase property taxes knowing the federal government would permit a deduction. Those raising property taxes will now need to think again to appreciate they hold more accountability to voters who produce within their states.
          The facts are indisputable, despite the best efforts of the Left whose only tools are protest and fear. If you pay taxes, you’ll likely get a tax cut. If you make more than $1 million, you may not get as large a tax cut, and, because of closing tax loopholes, you may actually pay more overall. But are the Democrats satisfied? NO!
          Why? Their argument comes from their claim that the total sum of workers’ earnings set to be confiscated for the Treasury in the form of taxes and the poor will foot the bill. Let’s return to Reagan.
          First of all, if you don’t pay taxes — the poor — you’re not paying for anything. Tax cuts are for those who pay taxes.
          Further, with the Reagan tax cuts in the 1980s following the Carter economy, the economy doubled, growing at an average of 3.5%, which confounded those who claimed the U.S. Treasury would have revenues depleted. Incoming monies to the Treasury actually doubled due to the economic upturn and expansion.
          Let’s agree that it’s a good thing for the government to have less money to spend. Let’s also agree that taxing the productivity of Americans less is a very good thing. And we must agree, too, that it doesn’t matter what Republicans do, the Left will never approve tax cuts in fear of losing power over the dependents upon subsidized living. Do we want more of that?  ~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/52251

          Refuse Fascism’s call to action continues, “You cannot try to ‘wait things out.’ Those who lived through Nazi Germany and sat on the sidelines, looking on as Hitler demonized, criminalized and eventually rounded up one group after another, became shameful collaborators with monstrous crimes.” Who exactly are the ones advocating for violence against those whose speech they disagree with? Trump is no more a Nazi than antifa is pro-free speech.
          One of the group’s organizers posted on Facebook (by the way, if Facebook is serious about combatting “fake news,” it may want to look into eliminating this type of absurd vitriol from its site), “Show this damn Trump and Pence regime that they do not rule over us. Let us stand together, come together and fight this regime on November fourth.” Andy Zee, a member of Refuse Fascism’s advisory board, cites communist propaganda titled “The Coming Civil War” by Bob Avakian, the chairman of the group Revolutionary Communist Party, while Zee demands that “the whole regime [Trump and Pence] must go.”
          So, Americans across the nation may need to brace for an antifa temper tantrum, as these delusional, misguided and supremely stupid neo-fascist thugs stomp and scream and break things while they pathetically claim to fight for “justice.”  ~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/52240

http://video.foxnews.com/v/5634845661001

http://video.foxnews.com/v/5633821986001

by Nate Jackson:  How fixed was the FBI investigation into liar-Hillary Clinton’s email servers? Where to begin? We’ve recounted former FBI Director James Comey’s role many times. But he wasn’t the only one perhaps steering the probe away from charging liar-Clinton.

          As our Louis DeBroux wrote last month, “Tangles upon tangles, we note that the investigation was supervised by then-U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein, an liar-nObama appointee currently serving as Trump’s deputy AG, as well as Andrew McCabe, who served as assistant FBI director under liar-nObama, and today as Trump’s deputy FBI director. This is the same McCabe who is under investigation for a $675,000 donation given to his wife, a Virginia state senate candidate in 2016, by Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, former DNC Chair and prolific fundraiser for the liar-Clintons, also now under investigation by the FBI.” That $675,000 amounted to about 40% of her campaign war chest.
          Judicial Watch, the tireless watchdog group that penetrates the vaults of government secrecy, revealed Friday, “We uncovered Justice Department records showing that McCabe did not recuse himself from the investigation into former Secretary of State liar-Hillary Clinton’s unsecure, non-government email server until Tuesday, November 1, 2016, just one week prior to the presidential election!”
          McCabe was acting FBI Director for a time after Donald Trump fired Comey. But don’t worry; he was totally impartial.
          Meanwhile, The Hill reports, “The FBI has begun turning over to Senate investigators hundreds of pages of memos regarding the bureau’s probe into liar-Hillary Clinton’s private email server. … The memos detail how and when the bureau’s leadership declined to pursue criminal charges against liar-Clinton for transmitting classified information on her private email server.”
          With all of this stonewalling and politicizing, is it any wonder that Trump would tweet his disappointment in the FBI?  ~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/52253

by Michael Swartz:  Moving like greased lightning — at least by congressional standards — House Republicans yesterday released the tax plan that President Donald Trump wanted to call the “Cut Cut Cut Act.” Perhaps that’s just good branding, but after lawmakers backed off a proposal to restrict contributions to 401(k) plans at Trump’s behest and kept many of the cherished ideas that he campaigned on last year, it might make sense to use his pet name. Granted, certain sectors of taxpayers may pay a little bit more, but that name’s offense to the language would pale in comparison to that of the Affordable Care Act.

          While what the House is calling (more sedately) the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act did away with the proposed additional tolls on retirement accounts, there are still a number of features sure to raise the ire of specific groups. For one, the reviled top tax rate of 39.6% is unchanged, although the threshold to reach it is increased significantly for married couples — $1 million in annual income. By that same token, there are certain income levels and situations where the tax rate will increase, hitting the extremely poor and upper-middle class in strange ways.
          The proposed rates are 12%, 25%, 35% and 39.6% — four rates instead of the current seven.
          In addition, home builders and realtors hate the bill because it caps the mortgage deduction to loans of $500,000 or less and eliminates the deduction for a second home. The proposal is “a direct assault on the American Dream of home ownership,” complained National Association of Home Builders chief executive Jerry Howard. A compromise to allow up to a $10,000 deduction for property taxes, while effective for most of the nation, wasn’t the restoration of full deductibility of state and local taxes that Republicans who represent high-tax states wanted to preserve.
          Overall, Speaker Paul Ryan is right to tout the plan as one “for the families who are out there living paycheck to paycheck who just keep getting squeezed.” With increases in the amount and scope of the standard deduction (up to $12,000 for individual filers and $24,000 for married couples) and child care credit (up to $1,600 from $1,000) — albeit at the loss of the individual exemption and certain deductions — families may find they benefit greatly. House Ways and Means Committee chair Rep. Kevin Brady termed the package “the beginning of the end of this horrible tax code in America.” Indeed, it’ll make tax time less onerous for most taxpayers.
          The Daily Signal reports, “We estimate that doubling the standard deduction would roughly cut the percentage of taxpayers who itemize their deductions in half — from 30 percent to 15.5 percent — saving about 22 million taxpayers from the headache of keeping track of all their itemized deductions.”
          The bill also has some sweeteners for business owners. Corporate tax rates would plummet from 35% to 20%, while small business owners who earn what’s known as pass-through income would also see a rate decrease to 25% — although for them the devil is in the details. Those who wish to pass on their businesses to their heirs get some immediate help, as the asset exemption from the estate tax would double to over $11 million. But this is another compromise, as the “death tax” would remain on life support through at least 2024.
          Needless to say, Democrats and their media allies are already running hard against the bill. “This bill is like a dead fish — the more it’s in sunlight, the more it stinks,” Sen. Chuck clown-Schumer panned.
          Others are complaining for the oddest of reasons: “The tax reform proposal unveiled today does not … reflect the goals President Trump and I have discussed over the last several months,” claimed West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin. “It puts investors ahead of workers, raises rates on the small businesses who create most of our jobs, and dramatically increases our national debt.” Never mind his inaccurate claims — since when were Democrats concerned about the national debt?
          It’s quite likely the (up to) $1.5 trillion in additional deficits over the next decade would be largely made up for in additional tax revenue based on increased economic activity, just like that which occurred in the 1980s.
          President Trump set the ambitious goal of wrapping up tax reform by the holidays, touting the “big, beautiful Christmas present in the form of a tremendous tax cut, which will be the biggest cut in the history of our country. It will also be tax reform and it’ll create jobs.” That “biggest in history” line is typical Trump overstatement, and “Christmas present” may be overpromising. So far his track record on legislation has been subpar due to GOP defections in the Senate, where they haven’t created a tax cut bill yet. A bill that already has hurdles aplenty in the House may face a more difficult road in the Senate by the time RINO-John McCain, RINO-Susan Collins, RINO-Lisa Murkowski and the other usual suspects get through with it.
          For this bill to be a success to us regular folks, though, it has to do away with many thousands of pages in our nation’s abominable tax code. Simply moving brackets around and removing a few deductions won’t get that done.  ~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/52