Cal State LA President Issues Letter Lamenting ‘Cost’ Of Free Speech Ahead Of Daily Wire’s Knowles Event

Michael Knowles

“I cannot remain silent in the face of actions that ostracize our students…”

In a community-wide letter sent out just a few days before The Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles‘ scheduled speech on the unversity’s campus, California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA) President William Coveno laments the “cost” of protecting free speech.

In a letter sent to the entire “university community” Friday, Coveno addresses the issue of speech that “may be deeply hurtful and may cause anger, confusion and feelings of betrayal.” He also reminds students that the school offers counseling and other services to help handle this “deeply hurtful” speech.

While Coveno does not detail the specific incidents that prompted the letter, he states that he feels compelled to write because of attempts to “ostracize oure students who are immigrants or children of immigrants.” He does not mention Knowles’ upcoming appearance on the campus (Tuesday, April 23), but the timing of the letter and a few of its references has raised eyebrows among the sponsors of the event, Young America’s Foundation.

“Over the years, I’ve spoken with countless families in our community whose dreams for their children are like those of my family,” Coveno begins. “They want their kids to receive a college education so they’ll have good careers and a bright future. Cal State LA offers fertile ground for those dreams to come true as our students explore new ideas and opportunities together. That’s the experience I hope our students will have here.”

The tone of the letter then dramatically shifts. “But there are times when their experiences are not ones that I wish for them,” writes Coveno. He follows that ominous comment with a discussion of the “cost” of free speech.

“As a public university, we uphold the right to free speech — but I want you to know that I recognize its cost,” he writes. “Some speech may be deeply hurtful and may cause anger, confusion and feelings of betrayal among many in our community.”

The university president then suggests that his comments have been triggered by some students’ insensitive statements about immigrants. “As a first-generation college graduate, whose life was changed through education, I cannot remain silent in the face of actions that ostracize our students who are immigrants or children of immigrants,” he continues. “When the actions of a few on our campus lack the compassion and sensitivity that characterize healthy dialogue, it is our collective responsibility to restore those values.”

Coveno then makes clear that when he says “immigrants,” he includes illegal immigrants. “I stand, in unwavering solidarity, with all our students, regardless of their immigration status,” he writes, adding: “To demean and insult in a blatant attempt to provoke others is wrong. Dreamers and other immigrant students are transforming their lives through education and realizing their dreams.”

Knowles’ speech has been promoted by members of YAF in part as addressing the issue of illegal immigration, including the group holding a “build the wall” event.

Coveno then provides contact information for the university’s counseling and psychological services office as well as the Dreamers Resource Center.

“The role of the University in these divisive times is to stand for the values and principles that are central to higher education and to a civil society,” Coveno concludes. “As we witness the polarization of our nation, we must not allow that vitriol to influence how we relate to each other. In our community, compassion and caring are fundamental and divisiveness has no place.”

Knowles’ recent YAF-sponsored speech titled “Men Are Not Women” on the campus of the University of Missouri-Kansas City was met with protesters, who attempted to obstruct other students from hearing his speech by drowning out the speaker. The event erupted in chaos when one student sprayed an unknown liquid on Knowles, prompting campus police to arrest the demonstrator. The chancellor of the university responded to the ugly incident by denouncing Knowles and praising the protesters.

 

Nolte: Top 51 Fake News ‘Bombshells’ the Media Spread About RussiaGate Collusion Hoax Hall of Shame

An audience member holds a fake news sign during a President Donald Trump campaign rally in Washington Township, Mich., Saturday, April 28, 2018. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

By John Nolte

Here are the top 51 pieces of fake news the establishment media spread about the Russia Collusion Hoax over the past two years, and I describe this list as the Top 51 because there is a behemoth of an iceberg lurking below.

Since the release of the Mueller Report last week, which — despite two years, $30 million, and a team of rabidly partisan left-wing investigators — found exactly zero crimes of Russia collusion or obstruction associated with President Trump and his campaign, one of the most bizarre results has been watching the media pat themselves on the back for the stories they believe they got correct.

Imagine that. Imagine your industry is so broken and corrupt that all you have left is to point to what you believe you did right. This is like watching an airline pilot brag about the times he didn’t crash, a district attorney point to the people he prosecuted who were not innocent — or in the words of comedian Chris Rock, a parent boast about taking care of his kids.

You’re supposed to take care of your kids!

And the media are supposed to get stories correct.

But here is the media forced to brag on when they didn’t crash the plane, when they did take care of the kids, which tells you something is horribly, terribly, ridiculously wrong.

Hey, here are some examples of when we didn’t mislead the country with disinformation!

CAP

Check out this one below. Here you have a reporter forced to focus on the “highlights” of her outlet’s reporting because the Washington Post got so much wrong she was able to quickly cobble together a list of those times the Post did not mislead its readers:

CAP

While a list of what the media might have gotten correct is fairly easy to put together, no one will ever be able to grasp the tsunami of fake news Americans were buried under for over two years.

The list below of 51 might sound like a lot, but it is a drop in the ocean when you recall the thousands and thousands of hours CNN, MSNBC, Meet the Press, This Week, PBS NewsHour, State of the Union, Good Morning AmericaReliable Sources, and the Today Show devoted to anchors and pundits pushing the hoax that Trump colluded with Russia.

Not to mention, millions and millions of establishment media tweets and Facebook posts.

Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Donnell, Shepard Smith, Andrew Napolitano, Joe Scarborough, Chris Hayes, Chuck Todd, Joy Reid, Chris Matthews, Jake Tapper, Don Lemon, Chris Cuomo, Brian Stelter, Erin Burnett, et al.,  are alone responsible for thousands and thousands and thousands of hours of lies and conspiracy-mongering.

This list of 51 doesn’t count the half-million — half-MILLION — Russia collusion stories published over the past two years, almost all of which were premised on the idea that Trump did, indeed, collude with a foreign power to steal the 2016 presidential election.

This list cannot begin to count the countless times these 51 fake stories were repeated as fact throughout other news outlets, social media, and thousands upon thousands of cumulative broadcast hours.

What’s more, this list of 51 can’t begin to count the countless examples of fake news launched against Trump that have nothing to do with Russia — desperate and deliberate lies involving fish food and ice cream scoops…

Before we begin, credit where it’s due. This list would not have been possible without the lists already compiled by Sharyl AttkissonGlenn Greenwald, and Sohrab Ahmari.

  1. New York magazine, McClatchy:

Michael Cohen went to  Prague.

  1. BuzzFeed:

Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie, and Mueller has emails proving it.

  1. The New York Times:

Paul Manafort passed polling information to Kremlin.

  1. Axios:

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein forced out.

  1. NBC News:

Federal investigators wiretapped Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen, have recordings of Trump.

  1. Associated Press:

Phony Russia dossier was initially funded by Republican group.

  1. ABC News:

Donald Trump directed Flynn to make contact with Russian officials during the 2016 presidential campaign

  1. Talking Points Memo:

Russian social media company provided documents to Senate about communications with Trump official.

  1. CNN:

Donald Trump Jr. conspired with WikiLeaks.

  1. Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal:

Robert Mueller subpoenaed Trump’s Deutsche Bank records.

  1. ABC News:

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort worked with Russia intelligence-connected official as late as December 2017.

  1. The New York Times:

Trump Deputy National Security adviser K.T. McFarland lied about another official’s contacts with Russians.

  1. CNN:

Trump’s campaign was never wiretapped.

  1. NBC News:

Manafort notes from Russian meeting refer to political contributions.

  1. The New York Times:

Seventeen intelligence agencies concur Russia hacked the 2016 presidential race.

  1. CNN:

Congress investigating Russian investment fund with ties to Trump officials.

  1. The New York Times:

Former FBI Director James Comey says Attorney General Jeff Sessions told him not to call Russia probe an investigation but “a matter.”

  1. CNN:

James Comey will testify he never told Trump he was not under investigation.

  1. NBC News:

Putin admits he has compromising information about Trump.

  1. Politico, the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, AP, Reuters, and the Wall Street Journal:

Trump fired Comey after Comey asked for additional resources for the Russia investigation.

  1. The New York Times:

Numerous contacts between Trump campaign staff and “senior Russian intelligence officials.”

  1. MSNBC:

Among others, a Trump family member will be indicted on February 8.

  1. The Guardian:

Paul Manafort visited WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange on three occasions.

  1. The Washington Post:

Trump campaign changed GOP platform on Ukraine.

  1. The Atlantic:

Then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions lied about meeting with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

  1. McClatchy:

Michael Cohen really did visit Prague.

  1. CNN:

Trump is lying when he calls Russia dossier “phony.”

  1. Fortune:

RT had hacked into and taken over C-SPAN and C-SPAN “confirmed” it had been hacked.

  1. USA Today, MSNBC, Associated Press:

Russia’s hacked the election systems of 21 American states.

  1. The Washington Post, ABC News, CNN:

Russian hackers penetrated U.S. electricity grid through a utility in Vermont.

  1. The Washington Post:

“More than 200 websites” were “routine peddlers of Russian propaganda during the election season.”

  1. NBC News, MSNBC:

Russia is the main suspect in the sonic attacks that sickened 26 U.S. diplomats.

  1. Slate:

Trump created a secret Internet server to covertly communicate with a Russian bank.

  1. CNN:

Donald Trump knew in advance of the Trump Tower meeting.

  1. CNN:

Mueller Report will show Trump “has helped” Putin “destabilize” the United States.

  1. NBC:

Russia supports Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI).

    1. CNN:

Sessions failed to disclose meetings he had with the Russian ambassador.

  1. Vox:

“There’s actually lots of evidence of Trump-Russia collusion.”

  1. The Washington Post, The New York Times, NPRReutersthe Guardian, USA Today, CNN, BuzzFeed:

Trump revealed classified information to Russians.

  1. The Washington Post:

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said Russia paid Trump.

  1. Fox News:

Mueller can show Trump campaign “had a connection to Russian intelligence.”

  1. MSNBC:

“Rudy Giuliani just told America that Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia.”

  1. The Washington Post:

Evidence suggests Trump could be a Russian “asset.”

  1. NBC:

Russians began hacking Hillary Clinton’s emails on the day Donald Trump joked about it in July 2016.

  1. Mic.com:

Russia spy visited Trump’s Oval Office.

  1. CNN:

Phony Russia dossier has been “corroborated.”

  1. NPR:

Donald Trump Jr. lied under oath about Trump Tower deal in Moscow.

  1. NBC, The Hill, New York Daily News:

Russia successfully hacked voting systems in a number of states.

  1. CNN:

Trump is “bonkers” for claiming Hillary Clinton behind Russia dossier.

  1. CNN:

“Every intelligence expert, both under the Obama administration and under the Trump administration,” agrees with the assessment that Russia attempted to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.

  1. BBC:

Ukrainian president “authorized” an illegal payment of $400,000 to Michael Cohen for additional face time during a June 2017 meeting with President Trump.

Twitterati pounce on MSNBC for sending reporter to pester Mueller near church on Easter Sunday

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Russiagate-obsessed news network MSNBC sent one of its journalists to talk to the one person in a position to feed the dying hopes that the now-public Mueller report still holds the key to ousting President Donald Trump.

MSNBC’s Mike Viqueira ambushed Robert Mueller as he and his wife were leaving St. John’s Episcopal Church in downtown Washington after an Easter service. In what he probably believed to be an act of adversarial journalism, Viqueira pelted the special counsel with questions to which every Russiagater hopes to hear the right answers.

“Will you testify before the Congress, sir? If it were anybody but the president, would Mr Trump be indicted, sir? Sir, why didn’t you make a recommendation to the Congress one way or the other? Did the attorney general accurately characterize your positions on conspiracy and obstruction, sir?”

Mueller responded with “no comment.” But Viqueira simply wouldn’t take that for an answer. Speaking to anchor Alex Witt in the studio about the encounter, he later joked that Mueller was “tight-lipped” with him.

Many commenters on Twitter didn’t find it as amusing as he did though. “Bad form to harass him on Easter Sunday guys!” one person said. “MSNBC stalked and harassed [Mueller],” another commenter remarked. The general message to the network seems to be: Leave the man alone, he deserves a break after digging into Trump for two years.

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US politicians and media personalities, who were hoping that Mueller’s report would be the downfall of Donald Trump’s presidency, are grasping at straws after the 400-page document stated that Trump’s campaign didn’t collude with Russia and refrained from saying if it was involved in any obstruction of justice. AG William Barr decided negatively on the latter, since there was no underlying crime to cover up in the first place.

Now the people who were feeding their audience the collusion narrative for over two years are resorting to new tactics, like accusing Barr of maliciously misleading the public to protect the president, implying that the redacted parts of the publicly available report are still hiding some smoking gun, or claiming that the Mueller investigation was too narrow to begin with.

‘They are Christians’: Obama & Clinton lambasted for calling bombed Sri Lankans ‘Easter worshipers’

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Some people believe prominent Democrats deliberately avoided using the word “Christian” when condemning bombings of churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday as part of a policy to undermine Christian faith in the US.

The eight bomb attacks in Sri Lanka, which killed almost 300 people on Easter Sunday, sparked worldwide condemnation. But the way some US politicians expressed their condolences sparked a minor outcry among conservative Americans. Former President Barack Obama and the former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, were blasted for using the term “Easter worshipers” instead of “Christians” when referring to the victims of the attacks.

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Three Sri Lankan Christian churches were targeted by the perpetrators, implying that the Christian minority was in the crosshairs. Some commentators in the US said Obama and Clinton were in the wrong when they failed to name the religion.

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Particular ire was sparked by the fact that both US politicians didn’t hesitate to use the word “Muslim” when expressing condolences to the victims of last month’s massacre at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.

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Notably, Obama and Clinton were not the only US figures, who used the term in remarks about the bloodshed in Sri Lanka. So did Adam Schiff, the Democrat chair of the House Intelligence Committee.

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And the same goes for US Attorney Trent Shores.

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The criticism is based on the perception that the Democratic Party is bent on downplaying America’s Christian roots for the sake of sensibilities of people adhering to other religions. The sentiment is probably best reflected in Fox News’ coverage of the supposed “war on Christmas” in the US.

In this particular case, however, the notion may be misplaced, one commenter pointed out. Christian churches are not exclusively Christian places of worship there, quite the contrary.

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In Sri Lanka, Christianity plays a unique role of serving as a bridge between people by welcoming both the Sinhalese and Tamil ethnic groups. Considering that Tamil separatism was behind a bloody 25-year-long civil war on the South Asian island, which ended just a decade ago, one can understand why this role is highly appreciated.

Mexican Troops Disarm American Military Personnel North of the Border

American troops were disarmed by their Mexican counterparts north of the border.

By Richard Moorhead

A confrontation between American and Mexican military personnel earlier this month near Clint, Texas appears to have ended strangely, with Mexican troops disarming the American soldiers with the false impression the latter had intruded on Mexican territory. In reality, the encounter occurred within the territory of the United States.

statement from the Department of Defense confirmed that the American soldiers allowed themselves to be disarmed in “an attempt to de-escalate a potentially volatile situation.” The two American soldiers, active in the area in support of border security operations, allowed the Mexican forces to place their sidearms in a Customs and Border Patrol Vehicle nearby.

The Pentagon went on to request an explanation from the Mexican government. It’s unclear if Mexico has apologized on behalf of its military personnel for the mistaken intrusion into American territory. The confusion may have been caused by the soldiers’ southern proximity to a security perimeter north of the Rio Grande River, which marks the border between the United States and Mexico across much of Texas. The fence is north of the actual border.

The Mexican soldiers were under the impression that they were in Mexican territory, as opposed to the United States. This wouldn’t be the first time that American and Mexican military have engaged in miniature border disputes, usually involving cases in which one party is unaware in regards to the nation they’re actually in.

Around 3,000 service members of the U.S military, mostly of the National Guard, are currently deployed at the southern border, tasked to assist Customs and Border Patrol with operations to secure the area. U.S troops are limited by federal law from acting directly as law enforcement, and have mostly been charged with acting in an auxiliary fashion to CBP agents. Service members have conducted tasks such as aerial reconnaissance and maintaining vehicles.

CENSORSHIP WAR: The Koch Brothers Fight To Silence Independent Voices

By Patrick Howley

The globalist Koch political network headed by billionaire Charles Koch is waging a war to silence independent journalists on the Internet.

The nonsense Koch group Americans For Prosperity is lobbying Judiciary Committee members to “oppose any effort to use antitrust laws to break up America’s innovative tech companies,” circulating a petition under the disingenuous header “Government Shouldn’t Pick Winners and Losers on the Internet.”

Government already picks winners and losers on the Internet by allowing Silicon Valley to ban independent truth-tellers like Alex Jones, Milo, Laura Loomer, and Roger Stone and shadowban many good American patriots who simply want to share information about Deep State corruption that won’t get picked up by the mainstream media. Just ask Gab about how hard it is to build a competitor social media platform in this current monopolized landscape.

Big League Politics links were banned from Reddit after my investigative reporting series exposing how a recent employee of the George Soros-funded Atlantic Council, now a top Reddit executive, was leading a “Ban Out” effort to suppress the free speech of President Donald Trump’s supporters. In protest, some Reddit users now post screenshots of Big League Politics articles onto the Reddit platform.

Now, the Koch-funded Daily Caller is actually partnering with Facebook to censor its competitors on Mark Zuckerberg’s platform. The outlet, which received nearly a million dollars from the Charles Koch Foundation in 2017 through their “Daily Caller News Foundation” content machine, is one of the “fact checker” organs for Zuckerberg to determine whether news sites get their reach throttled down. That gives the Caller an opportunity to shadowban their competitor sites on the Right and wage censorship war against the America First writers who are openly despised by Caller management (Tucker Carlson is no longer affiliated with the Daily Caller in any way).

To give you a sense of the kind of people who are tasked with “fact checking” competitors, look at Daily Caller editor-in-chief Geoff Ingersoll’s disgusting rant against populist nationalist reporter Cassandra Fairbanks, whom Ingersoll accused of being a Russian puppet.

“Still better than eating Putin’s cock bacon for breakfast, you hapless harlot,” Ingersoll ranted at Fairbanks. “By the way, maybe cut down. You’re blowing up.”

With many of the New Right accounts from the 2016 election — including the loud and proud Pepe the Frog shitposters — now virtually banned from the Internet, the Kochs are clearly hoping that they can suppress anyone who strays from the 2-D Narrative and control the conservative movement with their establishment “Blue Check” aggregators, many of whom sprang to force-fed prominence after Trump’s election to disparage America First people and constantly virtue-signal to the mainstream media mob.

Fortunately, independent journalists are not taking this laying down.

I broke the news:

Investigative journalist Laura Loomer filed a lawsuit Thursday against Twitter following her ban from the platform for comments about Muslim congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.

Loomer is also suing the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), which reportedly“complained to Twitter” about Loomer’s work on the platform prior to her ban. Loomer, renowned for ambush video interviews of Democrat politicians, amassed more than 250,000 followers on Twitter. She was first suspended without clear explanation in the days leading up to the 2018 midterm election, and later banned outright from the social media platform after the election in November during her efforts to expose voter fraud in Florida.

“Ilhan is pro Sharia Ilhan is pro- FGM Under Sharia homosexuals are oppressed & killed. Women are abused & forced to wear the hijab. Ilhan is anti Jewish,” Loomer tweeted, referring to forced genital mutilation (FGM). That tweet was cited as the reason for her ban.

Loomer and her company Illoominate Media are being represented by attorney Ronald Coleman of the New Jersey-based law firm Mandelbaum Salsburg. Loomer’s legal defense fund can be found at FreeLoomer.com.

Loomer’s lawsuit can be READ HERE.

  1. This is an action for breach of contract, tortious interference with an advantageous business relationship, restraint of trade in violation of Fla. Stat. § 542.18, civil conspiracy and violation of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, Fla. Stat. § 501.201, et seq. for which plaintiff seeks and is entitled to damages in excess of Fifteen Thousand Dollars ($15,000) exclusive of interest, special damages, costs or attorney fees.
  2. Plaintiff is a journalist and activist. In order to suppress plaintiff’s views regarding certain controversial political topics – in particular, the role of radical Islam and its proponents American public life and policy – defendants CAIR Florida, Inc. and CAIR Foundation, which have been established by the U.S. government and adjudicated as essentially American branches of the Mideast terrorist group Hamas, have acted in concert and conspired with defendant Twitter, Inc. (“Twitter”) to cause her to be banned, and prevented her from making a living through the use of, the majority of social media platforms.
  3. These include not only Twitter and the blog platform Medium.com, but also major payment processors PayPal.com and Venmo, ride-sharing systems Uber (including Uber Eats) and Lyft, crowdfunding website GoFundMe, online custom merchandise platform Teespring.
  4. Twitter claims that Ms. Loomer was banned because she violated Twitter’s Terms of Service (“TOS”). But, as set forth below, this claim is implausible, because the TOS provide essentially no substantive guidance to all but the most extreme users regarding whether they will or will not be censored on Twitter.
  5. The reason for this is that the TOS are not only vague but are applied with so selectively and in such bad faith that they are meaningless except for purposes of providing Twitter with a pretext for wrongful, bad faith conduct such as is alleged here.
  6. Moreover, innumerable Twitter users, ranging from little-known or anonymous users with a handful of followers to major media organizations, non-governmental human rights and social activist organizations and popular commentators and celebrities, have made the same statements as Ms. Loomer at various times – and in many cases, repeatedly – without adverse action by Twitter.
  7. This conduct by Twitter demonstrates that its pretext for banning Ms. Loomer – because her tweets violated the TOS – is false, and that Twitter’s ban on her as well as Twitter’s explanation of it were made in bad faith.
  8. In fact, there is little serious debate that the Twitter TOS are mere window-dressing, pretexts for employing censorship policies that are either arbitrary and capricious or, far more frequently, and in the facts set forth here, driven by ideology or in coordination with favored or commercially influential advocacy groups, or both.
  9. Rather than being the result of a TOS violation, Ms. Loomer’s ban from Twitter was, upon information and belief, proximately caused by defendants CAIR Florida, organization the Federal Bureau of Investigation has identified as the U.S. “face” of the Mideast terrorist group Hamas, and CAIR National (collectively, “CAIR” or “CAIR / Hamas”), which on information and belief acted in concert with Twitter to procure her elimination as a voice in opposition to them and their favored politicians and causes.
  10. As alleged further herein, the TOS are merely a pretext to place a “progressive” and positive gloss on Twitter’s bad faith, unjustified and unprivileged elimination of plaintiffs’ predominant publishing and fundraising platform, in concert with and at the behest of CAIR Florida and CAIR National, acting with or on behalf of their affiliate Hamas and their financial sponsor the Kingdom of Qatar and, on information, other parties not presently known to plaintiff, thereby effectively silencing Ms. Loomer, eliminating a vigorous and courageous journalistic and investigatory adversary from the public square, enabling defendants to benefit unfairly thereby and causing Ms. Loomer and Illoominate the harm set forth herein”….

Loomer’s February protest at Twitter’s New York City headquarters, where she handcuffed herself to the front door, resulted in Loomer trending #1 on Twitter despite being banned.

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Really? Mitch McConnell Calls Raising National Tobacco Age A ‘Top Priority.’

By JOSH HAMMER

Amid an unprecedented crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border that Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, says amounts to “uncharted waters” for our border and homeland security apparatus, it seems like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has a slightly different idea of what constitutes a present top legislative priority.

Rather, make that a very different idea of what constitutes a present top legislative priority.

McConnell seems intent on firing up all the Republican Party’s legislative gears toward the pressing end of … wait for it … drumroll, please … raising the national tobacco age.

Yes, really. Politico reports:

Mitch McConnell will introduce legislation to raise the legal age to buy tobacco from 18 to 21, calling it a “top priority” when the Senate returns from recess in late April.

The Senate majority leader’s move comes one day after he announced his reelection campaign and shows the changing politics of tobacco. While tobacco has long been a key industry in his home state of Kentucky, McConnell said he wants to change the law to discourage vaping and teenage nicotine addiction and improve Kentucky’s public health.

“Their vaping products … these young people may not know what chemicals they are putting in their bodies,” McConnell said in Louisville, Ky. “Far too often, 18-year-olds in high school can legally buy vaping devices and share them with their classmates.”

“I hope and expect this legislation to get strong bipartisan support in the Senate. As you know, I’m in a particularly good position to enact legislation and this will be a top priority[.]”

It is perhaps difficult to conjure up a less pressing issue for the Republican Party’s Senate leader to dub as a “top priority.” Bogus asylum-centric migrant influxes are presently wreaking havoc all across our beleaguered southern border, transnational gangs in many of the nation’s largest cities effectively complete the chemical warfare-inducing villainy of the Mexico-centric transnational drug cartels, the judicial branch’s institutional self-aggrandizement runs amok in increasingly brazen fashion, and entitlement program-driven spending brings us closer every single day to a tipping point in our reckless profligacy and ceaseless debt accumulation.

But apparently Mitch McConnell thinks that raising the tobacco age from 18 to 21 is more pressing. It is difficult to make this up.

McConnell’s highlighting such an unusual legislative “top priority” comes amid Senate Republicans’ increasing attention to raising money to try to keep their Senate majority after the 2020 election. Politico reported earlier this week:

Senate Republicans — faced with a much tougher map than two years ago and an unpredictable political environment in a presidential year with Donald Trump at the top of their ticket — are stockpiling cash early to guard against losing their majority next year.

While the GOP is mostly on defense, the playing field is significantly narrower than it has been in previous cycles. Republicans are defending 22 seats, compared to just 12 for Democrats. But only two GOP seats are in states Trump lost in the last presidential election, and only a half-dozen GOP senators appear vulnerable at the outset of the cycle. Democrats need to net at least three seats to retake the majority — four if they lose the presidency again — leaving them clear paths to retake the chamber but little margin for error.

Every Senate Republican incumbent in a battleground race raised more than $1 million in the first quarter of the year, a benchmark number puts them in strong position at the outset of the cycle. Five incumbents up for reelection — Sens. John Cornyn of Texas, Cory Gardner of Colorado, Martha McSally of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky — topped $2 million in the first quarter.

NM GOV ATTACKS CITIZEN BORDER PATROL AFTER 1,800 ILLEGALS CROSS IN 24 HOURS

NM Gov Attacks Citizen Border Patrol After 1,800 Illegals Cross in 24 Hours

United Constitutional Patriots trigger Democrats by handing illegal immigrants to Border Patrol

 | Infowars.com – APRIL 19, 2019

Just days after Border Patrol apprehended 1,800 illegal immigrants in one day, the government of New Mexico and the ACLU are criticizing a citizen group patrolling the border.

“It should go without saying that regular citizens have no authority to arrest or detain anyone,” New Mexico’s Democrat Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham told the New York Times.

She also said it’s “completely unacceptable” that migrant families “might be menaced or threatened in any way, shape or form when they arrive at our border.”

Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico sent a letter to Governor Grisham and Attorney General Hector Balderas on Thursday asking for the group of patriots voluntarily patrolling the border to be investigated.

Below is an excerpt of the letter in which they call the group, United Constitutional Patriots (UCP), “white nationalists” and “fascists.”

“Two nights ago, on April 16, 2019, an armed fascist militia organization describing itself as the United Constitutional Patriots arrested nearly three hundred people seeking safety in the United States, including young children, near Sunland Park, New Mexico. Other videos appear to show arrests in the past few hours.[1] The vigilante members of the organization, including Jim Benvie, who posted videos and photographs[2] of the unlawful arrests to social media, are not police or law enforcement and they have no authority under New Mexico or federal law to detain or arrest migrants in the United States. Their actions undermine the legitimate efforts of our state’s law enforcement officials to keep New Mexico families safe and they erode community trust. The Trump administration’s vile racism has emboldened white nationalists and fascists to flagrantly violate the law. This has no place in our state: we cannot allow racist and armed vigilantes to kidnap and detain people seeking asylum. We urge you to immediately investigate this atrocious and unlawful conduct.”

New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas bashed the group in a statement, saying, “These individuals should not attempt to exercise authority reserved for law enforcement.”

A spokesperson for the civilian group, Jim Benvie, said the detention of illegals amounts to “a verbal citizen’s arrest,” which is basically a bluff used to stop border crossers until Border Patrol arrives.

“We’re just here to support the Border Patrol and show the public the reality of the border,” Benvie insisted, adding, “Border Patrol has never asked us to stand down.”

Infowars has covered UCP multiple times this week after they caught a group of over 300 illegals Tuesday night and another group of more than 90 on Wednesday.

Patriot border patroller Conservative Anthony will join The War Room Friday at 4:30 P.M. CST for an exclusive interview where he’ll discuss the latest footage he’s captured, including over 70 buses arriving at the border and a “lookout” drone used by smugglers.

At the 26:45 timestamp in the following video, a drone can be seen monitoring the border to ensure the illegals safe entry into the U.S. as they try to avoid Border Patrol or citizen patrols.

“Lookout” drones are frequently used to assist smugglers who sneak illegal immigrants into the country.

At the 26:30 timestamp, the next video shows what is reported to be a caravan of over 70 buses arriving into Anapra, Mexico in the middle of the night.

While the government of New Mexico has its scope set on United Constitutional Patriots, the group vows to patrol the border until President Trump’s wall is built.

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