~ Featuring ~
Barr: America's Religious
Foundation Is Crumbling
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Thursday Top News Executive SummaryMedia Editors: Above the Fold
RIP: Powerful Democrat congressman Elijah Cummings has died of complications from longstanding health problems (Associated Press)
POLITICAL THEATER: Democrats storm out of Syria meeting with Trump: “We have to pray for his health” (Fox News)
Government & Politics
FRAUD, PART I: Estimated cost of commie-Sanders/ dinky/liar-Warren healthcare plan rises to an inevitably still conservative estimate of $34 trillion (Washington Examiner)
FRAUD, PART II: Elizabeth dinky/liar-Warren scrubs DNA test video from Twitter (The Washington Free Beacon)
FRAUD, PART III: worthless-Ilhan Omar continues to divert campaign funds to alleged boyfriend’s company (The Daily Caller)
National Security
AID RESTORED: Trump administration to reinstate aid to Central American countries that signed asylum deals (The Daily Caller)
GAME OF CHESS: Turkey’s NATO status complicates U.S. response to Erdogan’s Syria incursion (The Washington Times)
Culture & Heartland
SANITY PICK-SIX: Youth football coach faces possible $500 fine for team’s blowout win (NBC Philadelphia)
PLOT TWIST: Cop who fatally shot black woman wasn’t sent on welfare check (New York Post)
Other Notables
BREXIT DEAL DOA? “Negotiators from the U.K. and EU reached a draft Brexit deal in 11th-hour talks Thursday, although there are serious doubts that the agreement will be approved by U.K. lawmakers back in Westminster.” (CNBC)
Closing Arguments
POLICY: U.S. must prevent rise of new ISIS caliphate in Syria following our troop withdrawal (The Daily Signal)
POLICY: House Democrats’ new bill would drive up college costs even further (The Daily Signal)
HUMOR: In response to question about raising taxes, Elizabeth dinky/liar-Warren comes out as a gay man (The Babylon Bee)
~The Patriot Post https://patriotpost.us/articles/66176?mailing_id=4593&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.4593&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body .
House Oversight Committee Chairman
Elijah Cummings dies suddenly at 68
by Keith Koffler
{ washingtonexaminer.com } ~ House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings died early Thursday in Baltimore at the age of 68... The Maryland Democrat, who was helping lead the impeachment inquiry into President Trump, died due to complications from long-standing health problems, according to the Associated Press. He has also led several other investigations into the president and frequently sparred with the administration. Cummings, the son of a sharecropper, was born on Jan. 18, 1951, in Baltimore. He attended Howard University in Washington, D.C. The five-time congressman from Maryland's 7th District was first elected to the House in 1996. After several terms as ranking member, he became the chairman of the oversight panel when Democrats took control of the House in January. Cummings, who was also a former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, reportedly underwent an unspecified medical procedure and did not return to his office this week. He died at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He was married to Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, who is the chairwoman of the Maryland Democratic Party.
Sorry to hear of his passing. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/house-oversight-chairman-elijah-cummings-is-dead-at-68?utm_source=breaking_push&utm_medium=app&utm_campaign=push_notifications&utm_source=WEX_Breaking%20News%20Alert_10/17/2019&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=WEX_Breaking%20News&rid=5261 .
The Trouble with ‘Renewable’ Energy
By BENJAMIN ZYCHER
{ nationalreview.com } ~ Renewable” electricity — predominantly wind and solar power — is all the rage, described by numerous commentators, politicians, pundits, journalists, and other such “experts” as cost-competitive, clean, and a major part of the solution... to the “existential crisis” now purportedly looming large as an attendant effect of anthropogenic climate change. A massive expansion of wind and solar power is a central component of the various proposals subsumed under the heading “Green New Deal” (GND), which has faded from the headlines for now, but which is very likely to return to prominence as next year’s presidential race intensifies. Notwithstanding the romantic view of wind and solar power held by many, they are not cost-competitive, they are very far from clean, and they would do remarkably little to limit greenhouse-gas emissions and anthropogenic climate change, the “crisis” view of which is unsupported by the evidence. Several available analyses show that a major expansion of wind and solar power would increase the emissions of such conventional pollutants as carbon monoxide. Even apart from those problems, the renewable-electricity component of the GND is unworkable as a matter of straightforward electrical engineering, unless one believes that the American electorate will accept constant and widespread blackouts. In the larger context, the opposition to conventional energy that is the core of the GND is fundamentally anti-human, because one major implication of the opposition to fossil fuels is an aversion to increases in the value of human capital and other parameters that have the effect of increasing the demand for conventional energy. Moreover, the authoritarian implications of the GND are serious, however unnoticed. High costs are a major problem with wind and solar power. First, wind flows and sunlight are intermittent: Power generation from windmills and solar panels cannot be scheduled in advance, because the sun does not always shine and the wind does not always blow. This means that wind and solar “capacity factors” — the percentage of the time that wind and solar units actually produce electricity — are much lower than those for such conventional units as coal, gas, and nuclear, new installations of which have capacity factors of 85–90 percent. For onshore wind units, the figure is 40 percent or less, and it is 30 percent or less for solar facilities. Note that a massive expansion of wind and solar power as envisioned in the GND would drive those numbers downward, because the sites with the best wind and sunlight conditions are developed first, with new wind and solar farms necessarily sited at increasingly unfavorable locations. Accordingly, the wind- and solar-power industries would experience scale diseconomies — rising average costs — as more such capacity was added to the market...
https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2019/10/28/the-trouble-with-renewable-energy/#slide-1 .
Why Are Palestinians 'Disappearing'
in Saudi Arabia?
by Khaled Abu Toame
{ gatestoneinstitute.org } ~ Dozens of Palestinians have been "disappearing" in Saudi Arabia in recent months and are believed are being held in detention in the kingdom's prisons... according to Palestinian sources and international human rights organizations. The Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership in the West Bank, which regularly condemns Israel for arresting Palestinians suspected of involvement in terrorism and other anti-Israel activities, has been reluctant to speak out against the Saudi purge of Palestinians, ostensibly for security reasons, not to harm its relations with the kingdom. The PA is not only keeping mum about the unprecedented Saudi crackdown, but it is also trying to prevent the families of the detainees from protesting in public. Last week, the PA's Preventive Security Service summoned the family of Palestinian engineer Abdullah Odeh, being held in a Saudi prison, and warned them not to protest their son's detention. Odeh's family was planning to arrive at a football match between Saudi Arabia's national soccer team and the Palestinian national soccer team as part of the World Cup qualifier held on October 15 near the West Bank city of Ramallah. The family was warned that they would be beaten and arrested if they arrived at the Faisal al-Husseini Football Stadium to protest their son's incarceration in Saudi Arabia. Additionally, the family was ordered to remove all social media posts denouncing the arrest of Odeh and calling for his release. Odeh's brother, Baraa, wrote on his Facebook page on September 6: "My brother, engineer Abdullah Odeh, has been held in a Saudi prison for the past month and we don't know anything about him. This is not how a prisoner should be treated in an Islamic country."...
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15035/saudi-arabia-palestinians-disappearing .
Coast Guard Focused On Being Sea-Based In
Arctic As Merits Of Deep-Water Port Debated
By Ben Werner
{ news.usni.org } ~ For now, the Coast Guard is focused on being sea-based in the high latitudes even as talk of building a deep-water Arctic port gains support in Washington... On Capitol Hill, Alaska’s lawmakers have for years highlighted the attributes for building a deep-water port in the Arctic. Retreating ice in the region is causing maritime traffic to increase as mineral resources are newly accessible. Lawmakers also cite an uptick in Russian Arctic activity as increasing the strategic need for such a facility. For the Coast Guard, a proposed fleet of six heavy icebreakers will provide the service with the resources needed to fulfill its Arctic missions, Adm. Karl Schultz, the commandant of the Coast Guard, told USNI News after speaking at an event co-hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the U.S. Naval Institute. “Karl Schultz’s view, as 26th commandant: we will sea-base our Alaska operations moving towards the Arctic,” Shultz said. The idea of establishing a deep-water Arctic port is something Schultz said merits discussion. However, he explained such discussions should involve several government entities, including Congress, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of Defense, and Alaska state agencies. Deep-water Arctic port proposals have circulated around Washington for at least two decades, according to a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 2015 draft report. A deep-water Arctic port is needed to accommodate predicted increased commercial maritime traffic, the report states. The report also spells out strategic reasons for the military to support the proposed port...
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Afghanistan Wants Partnership with US Military
Even as Relationship, Conditions Evolve
By John Grady
{ news.usni.org } ~ Kabul’s ambassador to Washington said “passing statements” about U.S. withdrawal or peace talks with the Taliban made in American political campaigns are “not helpful”... in setting Afghanistan on the pathway to a future as functioning democratic republic. Speaking Wednesday at the Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C., Roya Rahmani said in answer to several questions, “we want the United States to look at us … as partners over the last 18 years.” The major change: “now it is not the Americans fighting” the Taliban or the Islamic State in Afghanistan, she said. Rather, the Afghan security forces are in the lead militarily, as part of a strategy developed several years ago in coordination the United States and NATO. “We could talk about this as a success story.” The ambassador added Afghanistan “is an important part of your foreign policy. We have a rapidly changing environment” inside Afghanistan that includes shifting mindsets over the role of women in society. Rahmani was speaking against the backdrop of the sudden announcement of the American withdrawal of forces from northeast Syria, where they had been working alongside the Syrian Democratic Front against the Islamic State. That sudden withdrawal raised new questions about U.S. commitment to stay in Afghanistan. Even before the U.S. forces pulled out, Turkish aircraft and artillery struck targets in the northern part of Syria, and Turkish ground forces pushed forward to establish a buffer zone where up to 1 million refugees would be relocated. Ahead of an Afghan election last month, President Donald Trump abruptly canceled a secret Camp David meeting where members of the Taliban and the Afghan government and the administration would work out the final details of a peace agreement ending the American military involvement in Afghanistan. Rahmani cited the success of the 70,000 Afghan security forces who ensured the safety of voters in the Sept. 28 presidential election as another example of the difference this year from previous national votes, when the United States and coalition forces played a major role in keeping the peace on voting day...
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What should the West do as
UN arms embargo on Iran ends in 2020?
by Behnam Ben Taleblu and Andrea Stricker
{ fdd.org } ~ The Islamic Republic of Iran has consistently proven how much damage it can cause without having access to high-tech military equipment and formal arms markets... The past few months are indeed instructive. Under a slashed defense budget and outmatched in terms of regional military spending, Iran still managed to turn-up the heat without inviting kinetic reprisal. Western powers and Saudi Arabia have concluded Iran was behind the attack on Saudi oil installations with drones and cruise missiles, used mines to damage tankers, seized ships in the Persian Gulf, shot down a U.S. drone over international waters, engaged in hostage diplomacy, escalated its nuclear program, and broadened the scope of mayhem in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen through its partners and proxies. Now imagine what improved Iranian military capabilities might mean for the future. Next October, on the fifth anniversary of the Iran nuclear deal, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action’s (JCPOA) so-called “Adoption Day,” an international embargo on military-related transfers to and from Iran will end. Before this happens, Washington can take action to extend the UN-based arms embargo, as well as reinforce its policy of sanctioning Iranian arms transfers. The sooner, the better. The Islamic Republic has faced U.S. sanctions, including an arms embargo, since 1984 – the year Washington put Tehran on the “state sponsors of terrorism” list. These penalties helped impede Iran’s modernization, following the bloody 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War, of military systems that used American technology. But starting in 2006, when the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors voted to refer Tehran’s nuclear file to the UN Security Council (UNSC), the country was increasingly subject to multilateral sanctions, and eventually, a global ban on all imports and exports of arms and military-related equipment. These penalties were scaled back in 2015 as part of UNSC Resolution 2231, which codified the nuclear deal and set the five-year timeline for a complete lifting of the arms embargo. The decision to relieve international pressure on Iran’s military-related procurement and proliferation functioned like a sweetener in the final stages of negotiations with Tehran. Notably, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time of the negotiations, Gen. Martin Dempsey, categorically opposed any concession on military and arms exports. Yet Tehran insisted, so the five-year clock started ticking...
https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2019/10/16/what-should-the-west-do-as-un-arms-embargo-on-iran-ends-in-2020/ .
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Barr: America's Religious Foundation Is CrumblingNate Jackson: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other,” said John Adams in 1798. Some things don’t change, even after 221 years, and Attorney General William Barr quoted Adams to say so in a stellar speech at Notre Dame about American politics and our crumbling moral foundation.
Barr, a devout Catholic, made the case that modern Americans have replaced dependency on God with dependency on government. He also argued that modern secularists are not merely non-religious; they are outright hostile to religion.
“The campaign to destroy the traditional moral order has coincided [with] — and I believe has brought with it — immense suffering and misery,” Barr asserted. “And yet the forces of secularism, ignoring these tragic results, press on with even greater militancy.”
He wondered, “Among the militant secularists are many so-called progressives. But where is the progress?” Worse, he implied regression: “The secular project has itself become a religion, pursued with religious fervor. It is taking on all the trappings of religion, including inquisitions and excommunication. Those who defy the creed risk a figurative burning at the stake — social, educational, and professional ostracism and exclusion waged through lawsuits and savage social-media campaigns.”
In any case, says Barr, the government is a poor substitute for true religion. “Today, in the face of all the increasing pathologies, instead of addressing the underlying cause, we have cast the state in the role of the Alleviator of Bad Consequences,” he said. “We call on the state to mitigate the social costs of personal misconduct and irresponsibility.”
“So, the reaction to growing illegitimacy is not sexual responsibility, but abortion. The reaction to drug addiction is safe injection sites. The solution to the breakdown of the family is for the state to set itself up as an ersatz husband for the single mother and an ersatz father for the children. The call comes for more and more social programs to deal with this wreckage. And while we think we’re solving problems, we are underwriting them. We start with an untrammeled freedom and we end up as dependents of a coercive state on whom we depend.”
Humans were created to worship our Creator. When we refuse to do so, we don’t worship nothing; we worship something else. That explains the contentiousness over who controls the levers of power in Big Government. If it’s not the leftists’ man in power, their very religion has been infiltrated. Hence their crusade to burn the heretics. ~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/66120?mailing_id=4588&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.4588&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body
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