Donald Trump: Where does the Republican president stand on key issues? – BBC News

Donald Trump won the 2016 US presidential election riding on one simple phrase: "Make America Great Again".

As he seeks a second term, he faces a country struggling with challenges from the coronavirus and the pandemic's economic aftershocks - and an electorate that will weigh his record from his four years in office.

His 2020 pitch is to bring back the economy, boost jobs, protect US trade interests, and to continue with his hard-line stance on immigration.

Here in detail is where the candidate stands on eight key issues.

President Trump has long campaigned on "America First" principles, and has pushed for bringing jobs and manufacturing back to the US.

During his first campaign, Mr Trump promised huge tax cuts for working Americans, to lower the corporate tax rate, to shake up the trade status quo and to revive American manufacturing.

On some of those, he has delivered.

In the last four years, he has rolled back federal regulations on businesses, enacted corporate and income tax cuts and signed executive orders supporting preferences for domestic-made products.

Since January 2017, the US has added more than 480,000 manufacturing jobs, though analysts say growth in the sector is slowing down and Mr Trump's related policies - like tariffs - have not addressed the structural issues at play.

Mr Trump has also predicted the economy will bounce back immediately after the pandemic - though critics say his Covid-19 response has caused long-term economic damage.

Mr Trump first campaigned on the promise the US should put focus on its own economic interests though he has said "America First" does "not mean "America alone".

On trade, Mr Trump has taken a hard-line stance on China, coupled with a policy to protect local manufacturers from foreign competition - and those remain the key aspects of his trade policy.

Throughout his first term, the president emphasised his work renegotiating past trade deals he says were unfair to the US - like Nafta, between the US, Canada, and Mexico - or leaving them outright - like the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

On the 2016 campaign trail, he also promised to fix the US trade deficit (the gap between imports v exports), which, for the first time in six years did decline in 2019, though economists disagree on whether this suggests an improvement in the economy.

President Trump's ongoing trade war with China has raised border taxes on close to $500bn of annual trade, and this year's "phase one" deal between the two nations saw most of the tariffs remain in place.

In August, he said he wants to offer tax credits to entice US firms to move factories out of China , saying "we will end our reliance on China".

Mr Trump has also imposed tariffs on goods from the European Union - from steel to French wine - has threatened tariffs on steel and aluminium from Brazil and Argentina, and recently re-imposed tariffs on some Canadian aluminium products.

As with trade, Mr Trump has also promised to put "America First" in US foreign policy.

In the White House's words, that means "reasserting American sovereignty and the right of all nations to determine their own futures", with a focus on ensuring security and prosperity.

What has that meant in practice?

It has included stepping away from some large multilateral agreements like the Paris climate accord or pulling back from some multilateral organisations, like the World Health Organization.

He has challenged some international alliances, pushing for North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) members to boost their defence spending in the military alliance.

And he has recently reiterated a promise to bring down US troop levels overseas - which are currently at about the same level as when he took office - specifically in places like Germany and Afghanistan.

Critics have said he has created tensions with historically close US allies while reaching out to adversaries like North Korea and Russia.

He has had foreign policy successes, recently helping to broker a deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates to normalise relations.

And he has touted the killings of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State (IS) group, and Iran's powerful military commander, Gen Qasem Soleimani.

Promises to curb immigration levels have been foundational to the president's political career.

Now, as he seeks re-election he has promised to continue the construction of a border wall on the US-Mexico border - he has so far secured funding for 445 miles (716 km) of the 722 mile barrier.

He also vows to eliminate the visa lottery and chain migration - meaning immigration to the US that is based on family ties - and shift to a "merit-based" entry system.

Mr Trump's plans for immigration reform faced defeat this summer when the Supreme Court ruled against his administration's bid to rescind Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca), which protects about 650,000 young people who entered the US without documents as children.

Mr Trump campaigned in 2016 on repealing the Affordable Care Act, brought in by former President Barack Obama.

Though falling short of a complete repeal, the administration has succeeded in undoing parts of that law including a repeal of the individual mandate, which required people to buy health insurance or pay a tax penalty.

President Trump has also promised to bring down drug prices in the US, and in July brought in measures that would allow discounts and import of cheaper drugs from abroad, though some industry analysts have said they would not have much effect.

He declared the opioid crisis a national health emergency in 2017 and offered $1.8bn in federal funding to states for prevention, treatment and recovery measures. He has also taken steps to restrict opioid prescribing.

But critics say his ongoing efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, which expanded healthcare coverage to millions, is detrimental to battling the opioid crisis.

Since he took office, Mr Trump has rolled back hundreds of environmental protections, including limits on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and vehicles, and protections for federal waterways across the country, fulfilling a campaign promise from 2016.

He also withdrew the US from the Paris climate agreement, saying the deal disadvantaged the US "to the exclusive benefit of other countries". That withdrawal will only be formally completed after November's election.

Most recently, his administration approved oil and gas drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which has been off-limits for drilling for decades.

President Trump has touted the First Step Act as a key step he made towards criminal justice reform.

The 2018 bipartisan bill was significant, and reformed laws at the federal level, giving judges more discretion during sentencing as well as strengthening prisoner rehabilitation efforts.

Mr Trump had also promised a follow-up Second Step Act that would address employment barriers for former prisoners, though no such legislation has been proposed thus far.

During his 2016 campaign, Mr Trump branded himself as a firm advocate of law enforcement and has remained so during his presidency, most recently escalating his support of police amid the nationwide protests against racial injustice.

In June, President Trump signed an executive order introducing several police reforms, offering federal grants for improved practices, including the creation of a database to trace abuses by officers.

The president has said that controversial chokehold methods for restraining suspects should be prohibited "generally speaking", but has not moved to enforce a ban.

After the US was rocked by mass shootings in Texas and Ohio in 2019, Mr Trump expressed support for a series of reforms, like tighter background checks for gun buyers and "red flag laws", which block access to firearms for those who are deemed a risk to society.

But after this initial flurry of interest, Mr Trump has done little to move these ideas forward. The president has instead continued his vocal defence of the US constitution's Second Amendment - which preserves Americans' right to bear arms - and of the powerful gun lobby, the National Rifle Association (NRA).

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Donald Trump: Where does the Republican president stand on key issues? - BBC News

Trumps Platform Doesnt Bother With the Details – Bloomberg

Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics and policy. He taught political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio and DePauw University and wrote A Plain Blog About Politics.

Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

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Once upon a time, American political parties had relatively detailed platforms. Then Jared Kushner came along, and decided he could replacethe Republican Partystraditional document with a one-page placard, small enough to fit into peoples pockets.A month later, that project was scrapped in favor of just using the partys2016 platform. Verbatim. Great! Except that document was filled with all sorts of harsh criticisms of the current administration (that is,Barack Obamas). Even so,that was the official-ish position for a couple of months. Until

The Republican platform committee met on Sunday and decidedthat there wouldnt be any platform at all they were good with whatever President Donald Trump wanted. Which everyone had good fun with for a while, until later Sunday when whatTrump wanted turned out to be50 bullet points.

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The resultingplanhas the feel of somethingthat was slapped together in 20 minutes or so.So Trump is supposedly going to produce 10 million new jobs in 10 months, but theres nothing really, nothing at all about how to fulfill that promise. Same with a million new small businesses.The presidentplans to Build the Worlds Greatest Infrastructure System, which soundsnice, butgiven that hes been promising the same thingfor almost four years and hasnt yet sent a bill to Capitol Hill, some might find it hard to take it seriously. Wipe Out Global Terrorists also seems ambitious, but the plan contains nothing about how it would be donein practice or how it squareswith the promise to Stop Endless Wars and Bring Our Troops Home.

Meanwhile, there are some notableomissions. Nothing about eliminating Obamacare (or, for that matter, about Trumps promised replacement thats always two weeks away). Nothing about supporting U.S. allies not even Israel. Nothing about abortion. Or guns. Nothing about the payroll-tax holiday Trump has been talking about over the past few weeks, or his efforts to restore full deductibility for dining and entertainment expenses.

Its not clear what happens next. One possibility is that the50 bullet points keep getting revised to appease various party groups until they eventually looklike the platform theyweresupposed to replace. Another is that those groups would bewilling to go along with this version since its not an official statement of the party but wont be circulating anything like itto their members.

Again, the whole thingsounds like a last-minute attempt to avoid being ridiculed for not having any second-term agenda without actually doing the work of coming up with a second-term agenda. Which is pretty much what Im expecting of the Republican Convention. Maybe theyll surprise me! But everything thats been reportedso far suggests that the event isbeing thrown together at the last minute, with Trump himself constantly changing what he wants and the organizers having to tear up their plans and start over.

To be sure: Hardly any voters watchmuch more than the major speakers (who this year appear to mostly be Trumps family), and those who do are almost all enthusiastic partisanswho arent going to care if the product looks a big ragged. Still, it would be nice to see some evidence that the president and his partyactually had some sort of policy agenda. After all, they want to govern. Dont they?

1. Brian F. Schaffner, Jesse H. Rhodes and Raymond J. La Raja on political polarization and the suburbs.

2. Seth Masket onthe Democrats and empathy.

3. Sarah Bush and Lauren Prather at the Monkey Cage on public opinion about foreign interference in U.S. elections.

4. Harold Pollack on what the pandemic shows us about public health.

5. Nathaniel Rakich and Meredith Conroy on progressive groups and Democratic primaries.

6. James Fallows on the Democratic convention.

7. Carl Hulse on what virtual conventions leave behind which is why I expect future conventions to be a combination of the old and the new.

8. And Julian Sanchez on the cruelty of playing along with false conspiracy theories.

Get Early Returns every morning in your inbox.Click here to subscribe. Also subscribe toBloomberg All Accessand get much, much more. Youll receive our unmatched global news coverage and two in-depth daily newsletters, the Bloomberg Open and the Bloomberg Close.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

To contact the author of this story:Jonathan Bernstein at jbernstein62@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:Timothy Lavin at tlavin1@bloomberg.net

Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal.

Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics and policy. He taught political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio and DePauw University and wrote A Plain Blog About Politics.

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Trumps Platform Doesnt Bother With the Details - Bloomberg

Donald Trump Jr. warns of silenced majority as RNC speakers say freedom, safety on the line in November – Fox News

President Trumps oldest son praised his father as the man who represents a bright and beautiful future for all and tore into Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden as the Loch Ness Monster of the Swamp during the opening night of the Republican National Convention.

Giving one of the major concluding addresses on Monday night, Donald Trump Jr. also charged that "the other party is attacking the very principles on which our nation was founded.

Joe Biden and the radical left are also now coming for our freedom of speech and want to bully us into submission. If they get their way, it will no longer be the silent majority, it will be the silenced majority, he warned.

Coming off a week during which Democrats used theirquadrennial confabto hammer the presidents handling of the coronavirus pandemic and warn that another four years of Trump in the White House would threaten the nations democratic foundations, the president's son and other speakers returned fire, railing against socialism, cancel culture, and warning of chaos if Biden is elected.

And Trump used part of his speech to praise his fathers record combating the coronavirus, pushing back against repeated charges from Biden and other Democrats that the president had initially downplayed the severity of the crisis and then botched the federal response to the pandemic.

Asthe virus began to spread, the president acted quickly and ensured ventilators got to hospitals that needed them most. He delivered PPE to our brave frontline workers. And he rallied the mighty American private sector, to tackle this new challenge, the younger Trump emphasized. There is more work to do, but there is light at the end of the tunnel.

And pointing to an economy that was nearly flattened by the coronavirus, Trump who has become a top Republican fundraiser and his fathers most-requested campaign surrogate as he excites the partys populist base --spotlighted that job gains are outpacing what the so-called experts expected.

Taking aim at the former vice president who continues to lead the president in national polling and in many of the key general election battleground states Trump charged that Bidens radical leftwing policies would stop our economic recovery cold. Hes already talking about shutting the country down -- again. Its madness.

Referencing the national unrest this spring and summer sparked by the death of George Floyd, a Black man in Minnesota who died while in police custody, the younger Trump stressed that we must put an end to racism, and we must ensure that any police officer who abuses their power is held accountable. What happened to George Floyd is a disgrace. And if you know a police officer, you know they agree with that, too.

But pushing back by calls by some activists to defund police departments, Trump argued that we cannot lose sight of the fact that our police are American heroes. They deserve our deepest appreciation. Because no matter what the Democrats say, you and I both know when we dial 911, we dont want it going to voicemail. So defunding the police is not an option.

Anarchists have been flooding our streets and Democrat mayors are ordering the police to stand down, Trump argued. Small businesses across Americamany of them minority ownedare being torched by mobs. The Democrat mayors pretend its not happening. They actually called it a summer of love.

Following Monday night's speakers, Biden deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield fired back.

If you tuned into the Republican convention tonight looking for some indication from President Trump that he has a strategy to contain the coronavirus, youre still waiting," she emphasized. "What you heard tonight was a parade of dark and divisive fear-mongering designed to distract from the fact that Donald Trump does not have an affirmative case to make to the American people about why he should be re-elected."

Trumps warning about personal freedoms being on the line in Novembers general election were echoed throughout the evening by other speakers, including some everyday Americans who were featured on the first night of the convention.

Patricia and Mark McCloskey, the St. Louis couple who made headlines this summer as they aimed their firearms at a group of protesters advocating police reforms who were walking along their neighborhoods private streets, warned that no matter where you live, your family will not be safe in the radical Democrats America.

Mark McCloskey has maintained that he was scared for his life and brandished a weapon to protect his home and wife, and the White House has defended the couple's actions on multiple occasions, as they face felony charges. He charged that the radicals are not content just marching in the streets. They want to walk the halls of Congress. They want power. This is Joe Bidens party. These are the people who will be in charge of your future and future of your children.

Republican National Committee (RNC) chairwoman Ronna McDaniel also warned about a Democratic Party thats pushing polices that were unthinkable a decade ago. And she claimed that Biden cares more about countries like China and Iran than the United States of America."

The president made two brief recorded appearances in the prime time programming hosting at the White House sixAmericans held hostage in Iran, Syria, and Venezuela who were freed during his presidency, and a discussion with frontline workers in the battle against the coronavirus.

Trump whos not expected to stray far from the spotlight during the 4-day confab --didnt wait until the Republican conventions kick off prime time session to stoke the flames.

REPUBLICANS OFFICIALLY RE-NOMINATE TRUMP AT GOP CONVENTION

Earlier Monday, the president speaking to Republican Party officials and delegates gathered in Charlotte, North Carolina to formally re-nominate Trump and Vice President Mike Pence used his nearly hour long speech to raise doubts about the integrity of Novembers general election. And he peppered his defiant and incendiary comments with blasts against efforts to increase voting my mail during the coronavirus pandemic and accusations that the Democrats are using COVID to steal our election.

The president, who took to the stage amid chants of four more years from his supporters, immediately began stirring the pot bysaying if you want to really drive them crazy, you say 12 more years.

While the first evening of the convention spotlighted the presidents oldest son, it shift to first lady Melania Trump on Tuesday. Shes scheduled to give the crowning address. Earlier in the evening, two of the presidents children, Eric and Tiffany, have speaking slots.

Also speaking during the second day of the confab Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky both of whom may have national aspirations in 2024. Pompeos expected to deliver his address from an undisclosed location in Israel, as Americans top diplomat is on a Mideast peace swing. Despite assurances from the State Department that Pompeo will be speaking in his personal capacity, he and Republican Party officials are facing a chorus of criticism that the secretary of states breaking decades of precedence in not using the office for partisan purposes.

Nicholas Sandmann, the Trump supporter and MAGA cap wearing teen from Covington, Kentucky will also be in the convention spotlight. Sandmann made national headlines last year after being falsely accused of harassing a Native American demonstrator as he and fellow classmates protested against abortion rights at the Lincoln Memorial in the nations capital.

And the governor and lt. governor of two general election battleground states crucial to a Trump victory in November also get speaking slots on Tuesday. They are Gov. Kim Keynolds of Iowa and Florida Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nunez.

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Donald Trump Jr. warns of silenced majority as RNC speakers say freedom, safety on the line in November - Fox News

Don Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle Said It All Very Loud and Very Fast So All of It Must Be True – Esquire

OLIVIER DOULIERYGetty Images

Just for the record, the violent crime rate in America has been in decline for three decades, despite an uptick in homicides this year, and the vast and overwhelming majority of racial-justice protesters who've taken to American streets in the last few months have demonstrated peacefully. Not that you'd know it from the sprawling images of fire and destruction that exploded out of the Republican National Convention on Monday night, an event that was billed in the lead-up as a more optimistic and positive exhibition than the Democratic counterpart last week. The attempt to paint Joe Bidena fairly conservative Democrat on policing issuesas a Trojan Horse for Marxist anarchist revolution who will abolish the police and suburbs left little room for positive vibes.

The event was buoyant on one score: here, the Covid-19 pandemic was under control, apparently because the president took it seriously(!) when no one else did. This was kaleidoscopic propaganda: the president repeatedly and consistently downplayed the threat, said the coronavirus would simply go away, praised China's initial response, and dismissed Democrats and the media as alarmists for heeding the warnings of public-health experts. His signature policy response"banning" travel from Chinadid not actually ban travel for tens of thousands of people, and besides, the virus was actually coming over from Europe. The United States now has nearly a quarter of the world's cases and nearly 22 percent of the deaths spread across just over four percent of the world's population. But that was another element of the positivity here: the 175,000 Americans who have died scarcely merited a mention.

OLIVIER DOULIERYGetty Images

The outing was nearly as bizarre as it was counterfactual. Elsewhere in the festivities, it was suggested that under a President Biden, "we'd be lucky if we could see any doctor," which is certainly a novel claim. There were a couple of semi-normal speakers, like Tim Scott and Nikki Haley, who demonstrated what the party might look like if it backed nearly all Trump's policies but could keep its freak flag at half-mast in public. But mostly, it was a reminder that one thing we'll likely look back on and marvel at about this era is the towering mediocrity of many of the people elevated to the highest echelons of public life. High up on that list are the various Trumpian spawn and their spouses, all of whom seem to be marauding the country making the case for both the big guy's re-election and anti-nepotism policies.

There doesn't seem to be anyone in this orbit who will point out when something is going on that is insane, which may be how this pre-taped speech from Kimberly Guilfoyle, significant other to Donald Trump, Jr. and well-compensated Trump campaign surrogate, made it on air.

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Jesus, what a time to be alive. Though I do think we can all agree that "human sex drug traffickers" should not be allowed to cross our borders, even if that is a great band name. Guilfoyle cycled through the new greatest hits collection, echoing the other speakers in warning that the country is turning into a violent apocalyptic burning wastelandbut also it's the best country in the world and Democrats only talk about its flawsand encouraging viewers to re-elect the incumbent president who is overseeing this surge in firey End Times riot-looting, but also making everything great. She did so in a way that was somehow uniquely unnerving, her volume rising all the time until it hit a genuinely frightening crescendo. All the while, she was both irate and cheerful, a neat visual summation of this movement's relationship to the reactionary grievance that is its animating force. The anger, in the end, feels good.

But Guilfoyle's was not to be the only bizarro performance from the extended Trump clan. Her boyfriend, Donald Trump, Jr., emerged later to make the case for my fatherand for the idea that there was quite a scene in the green room backstage. If Guilfoyle was energized, Junior brought the weeping eyes and fast-lane delivery and jerky hand movements as he warned the audience that they would be CANCELLED by the Democrats.

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This is indeed another novel attack: that Democrats oppose "church, work, and school," presumably because they share public-health experts' concerns about people gathering indoors for long periods of time when the virus is raging out of control. Instead, they support "rioting, looting, and vandalism," a claim made throughout last night's proceedings that, despite running against what Joe Biden has actually said on the topic, does sound scary. So does the notion Biden intends to defund the police, even though, much to the chagrin of the actual left, he wants to boost police funding. So does the notion that he wants to abolish the suburbs, which the president has basically admitted is a crude attempt to fear-monger his way towards clawing back some support among suburban whites.

Meanwhile, you can't help but feel Junior could liberate himself from this whole sad mess if he'd just go Kendall Roy for a minute. When he did his best impression of the Talking Heads staging an infomercial"Imagine the life you want to have, one with a great job, a beautiful home, a perfect family."it was hard not to sense his pain.

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In all, the night was another showcase of the now bedrock Republican belief that if you say something loud enough and often enough that enough people come to believe it, it might as well be true. (In Guilfoyle's case, this was quite literal.) It was a kind of quantum vision of the country, where it is both teetering over the edge into the chaotic abyss and the greatest it's ever been, and the guy in charge is only responsible for the good parts. His opponent, who currently exercises no actual power in any jurisdiction, is nonetheless responsible for the apocalyptic destruction. ("Democrat" cities are a hellscape, especially if you haven't been to one recently.) That's how the incumbent is now running on a platform to restore "law and order" to a country he's already in charge of.

It's a fool's errand to try to speculate whether it will work, but there's plenty of evidence that human beings are unable to accurately process the threat of crime in their personal lives. They hugely overrate it. Republicans have basically abandoned their former talk of how the protests following George Floyd's killing reflected legitimate grievances, and that those people causing property damage were just a minority giving everyone else a bad name. Now, just as the president almost never talks about immigrants except for violent gang members, you'll rarely hear talk in these precincts about peaceful protesters. Everyone's a violent anarchist Marxist now, coming to destroy your suburb. The president and his lackeys will once again test the limits of what people will choose to believe.

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Don Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle Said It All Very Loud and Very Fast So All of It Must Be True - Esquire

Donald Trump Jr. promises law, order and ‘a light at the end of the tunnel’ – Yahoo News

Donald Trump Jr. said that economic recovery is within arms reach during his Monday evening address at the first night of the Republican National Convention.

In his remarks, Trump Jr. touted the administrations economic accomplishmentsa list of greatest hits that President Trumps surrogates have been rattling off for at least a year. He noted that, before the coronavirus pandemic hit the United States, the country had seen record-low unemployment for Black and Hispanic Americans. He also touted the GOPs 2017 tax cut.

All of that was scrambled, Trump Jr. said, courtesy of the Chinese Communist Party and the virus that led to widespread lockdowns across the country.

Trump Jr. also spoke of the death of George Floyd, who was killed by Minneapolis police in May, while also insisting that the GOP is the party of law and order.

We must put an end to racism, and we must ensure that any police officer who abuses their power is held accountable. What happened to George Floyd is a disgrace. And if you know a police officer, you know they agree with that too, he said.

He went on: Everything starts with safety and security. You cant have anything else without it. You cant focus on building a better future for your children without the peace of mind that they can study safely in their classrooms, play safely in their neighborhoods and sleep safely in their beds.

The presidents eldest son also defended the administrations response to the coronavirus pandemic. Over 170,000 Americans have been killed so far by the virus, and the presidents response has been widely criticized by doctors, lawmakers and other experts.

Fortunately, as the virus began to spread, the president acted quickly and ensured ventilators got to hospitals that needed them most, said Trump Jr., the first of the Trump children to formally address the RNC.

He delivered PPE to our brave frontline workers. And he rallied the mighty American private sector to tackle this new challenge, he said. There is more work to do, but there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Story continues

Trump Jr. often uses his huge online platform to taunt Democrats while hosting the semifrequent live show Triggered, named for his book of the same title, to his nearly 5 million Twitter followers.

In May, Trump Jr. baselessly suggested via Instagram that Democratic nominee Joe Biden was a pedophile. Met with indignation, he attempted to characterize his post as a joke.

He continued those slights Monday night.

Joe Biden is basically the Loch Ness monster of the swamp. For the past half-century, hes been lurking around in there. He sticks his head up every now and then to run for president, then he disappears and doesnt do much in between, said Trump Jr.

He continued: Joe Biden and the radical left are also now coming for our freedom of speech and want to bully us into submission.If they get their way, it will no longer be the silent majority, it will be the silenced majority.

In June, Trump Jr. temporarily lost access to his Twitter account for circulating a post that falsely claimed that lupus drug hydroxychloroquine could cure COVID-19. He has frequently claimed that the social media site is biased against conservatives.

Trump Jr. has also publicly toyed with the idea of running for elected office.

In recent years, he has become a main conduit between mainstream GOP and the fringe right. And in his speech Monday, he painted an optimistic message of what four more years of his father would look like, as opposed to what he described as the horrors of Democratic government.

Imagine the life you want to have one with a great job, a beautiful home, and a perfect family. You can have it. Imagine the country you want to live in one with true equality of opportunity, where hard work pays off and justice is served with compassion and without partiality. You can have it, he said.

Imagine a world where the evils of communism and radical Islamic terrorism are not given a chance to spread, where heroes are celebrated and the good guys win. You can have it.

Trump Jr. frequently collaborates with his girlfriend, ex-Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle, for campaign activities.

Guilfoyles mother was born in Puerto Rico, and her father emigrated from Ireland in the 1950s.

She used her platform Monday evening to stress the importance of the immigrant experience to the GOP.

My mother, Mercedes, was a special education teacher from Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. My father, also an immigrant, came to this nation in pursuit of the American dream. Now, I consider it my duty to fight to protect that dream, said Guilfoyle, who spoke earlier in the evening.

She added: Manifest and be the change in this country that you dream, that you hope, that you believe in. Stand for an American president who is fearless, who believes in you, and who loves this country and will fight for her!

One of Trumps very first campaign promises was to construct a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border to keep out, in the presidents words, drug dealers, criminals and rapists. The president also reportedly griped in 2018 about immigrants from predominantly nonwhite countries coming to the United States.

Guilfoyle struck similar tones, saying that some immigrants from across the border would commit heinous crimes.

Rioters must not be allowed to destroy our cities. Human, sex, drug traffickers should not be allowed to cross our border, she said.

Guilfoyle, an attorney who was married to Gavin Newsom before he became governor of California, left her job at Fox News in 2018 to help assist the Trump reelection effort. She has since pivoted to public-facing roles in Trumps reelection PAC and his campaign, and she warned Monday that Democrats would dismantle and destroy American law enforcement.

Biden, Harris and their socialist comrades will fundamentally change this nation. They want open borders, closed schools, dangerous amnesty and will selfishly send your jobs back to China while they get richer, Guilfoyle said,

They will defund, dismantle and destroy Americas law enforcement... When you are in trouble, and need 911, dont count on the Democrats.

_____

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Donald Trump Jr. promises law, order and 'a light at the end of the tunnel' - Yahoo News

Barack Obama slams the president at the DNC: ‘Donald Trump hasn’t grown into the job because he can’t’ – CNBC

WASHINGTON Former President Barack Obama delivered a searing critique of his successor, President Donald Trump, during his keynote address Wednesday night at the virtual Democratic National Convention.

Obama spoke live from Philadelphia, where he described why he thinks his former vice president, Joe Biden, is the right man for the White House.

Asked to respond to excerpts of Obama's criticism Wednesday, Trump told reporters, "President Obama did not do a good job. ... The reason I'm here is because of President Obama and Joe Biden. Because if they did a good job, I wouldn't be here."

Below are Obama's full remarks:

"Good evening, everybody. As you've seen by now, this isn't a normal convention. It's not a normal time. So tonight, I want to talk as plainly as I can about the stakes in this election. Because what we do these next 76 days will echo through generations to come.

"I'm in Philadelphia, where our Constitution was drafted and signed. It wasn't a perfect document. It allowed for the inhumanity of slavery and failed to guarantee women and even men who didn't own property the right to participate in the political process. But embedded in this document was a North Star that would guide future generations; a system of representative government a democracy through which we could better realize our highest ideals. Through civil war and bitter struggles, we improved this Constitution to include the voices of those who'd once been left out. And gradually, we made this country more just, more equal, and more free.

"The one Constitutional office elected by all of the people is the presidency. So at minimum, we should expect a president to feel a sense of responsibility for the safety and welfare of all 330 million of us regardless of what we look like, how we worship, who we love, how much money we have or who we voted for.

"But we should also expect a president to be the custodian of this democracy. We should expect that regardless of ego, ambition, or political beliefs, the president will preserve, protect, and defend the freedoms and ideals that so many Americans marched for and went to jail for; fought for and died for.

"I have sat in the Oval Office with both of the men who are running for president. I never expected that my successor would embrace my vision or continue my policies. I did hope, for the sake of our country, that Donald Trump might show some interest in taking the job seriously; that he might come to feel the weight of the office and discover some reverence for the democracy that had been placed in his care.

"But he never did. For close to four years now, he's shown no interest in putting in the work; no interest in finding common ground; no interest in using the awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends; no interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves.

"Donald Trump hasn't grown into the job because he can't. And the consequences of that failure are severe. 170,000 Americans dead. Millions of jobs gone while those at the top take in more than ever. Our worst impulses unleashed, our proud reputation around the world badly diminished, and our democratic institutions threatened like never before.

"Now, I know that in times as polarized as these, most of you have already made up your mind. But maybe you're still not sure which candidate you'll vote for or whether you'll vote at all. Maybe you're tired of the direction we're headed, but you can't see a better path yet, or you just don't know enough about the person who wants to lead us there.

"So let me tell you about my friend Joe Biden.

"Twelve years ago, when I began my search for a vice president, I didn't know I'd end up finding a brother. Joe and I came from different places and different generations. But what I quickly came to admire about him is his resilience, born of too much struggle; his empathy, born of too much grief. Joe's a man who learned early on to treat every person he meets with respect and dignity, living by the words his parents taught him: "No one's better than you, Joe, but you're better than nobody."

"That empathy, that decency, the belief that everybody counts that's who Joe is.

"When he talks with someone who's lost her job, Joe remembers the night his father sat him down to say that he'd lost his. When Joe listens to a parent who's trying to hold it all together right now, he does it as the single dad who took the train back to Wilmington each and every night so he could tuck his kids into bed. When he meets with military families who've lost their hero, he does it as a kindred spirit; the parent of an American soldier; somebody whose faith has endured the hardest loss there is.

"For eight years, Joe was the last one in the room whenever I faced a big decision. He made me a better president and he's got the character and the experience to make us a better country.

"And in my friend Kamala Harris, he's chosen an ideal partner who's more than prepared for the job; someone who knows what it's like to overcome barriers and who's made a career fighting to help others live out their own American dream.

"Along with the experience needed to get things done, Joe and Kamala have concrete policies that will turn their vision of a better, fairer, stronger country into reality.

"They'll get this pandemic under control, like Joe did when he helped me manage H1N1 and prevent an Ebola outbreak from reaching our shores. They'll expand health care to more Americans, like Joe and I did 10 years ago when he helped craft the Affordable Care Act and nail down the votes to make it the law. They'll rescue the economy, like Joe helped me do after the Great Recession. I asked him to manage the Recovery Act, which jump-started the longest stretch of job growth in history.

"And he sees this moment now not as a chance to get back to where we were, but to make long-overdue changes so that our economy actually makes life a little easier for everybody whether it's the waitress trying to raise a kid on her own, or the shift worker always on the edge of getting laid off, or the student figuring out how to pay for next semester's classes.

"Joe and Kamala will restore our standing in the world and as we've learned from this pandemic, that matters. Joe knows the world, and the world knows him. He knows that our true strength comes from setting an example the world wants to follow. A nation that stands with democracy, not dictators. A nation that can inspire and mobilize others to overcome threats like climate change, terrorism, poverty, and disease.

"But more than anything, what I know about Joe and Kamala is that they actually care about every American. And they care deeply about this democracy.

"They believe that in a democracy, the right to vote is sacred, and we should be making it easier for people to cast their ballot, not harder.They believe that no one including the president is above the law, and that no public official including the president should use their office to enrich themselves or their supporters.

"They understand that in this democracy, the commander-in-chief doesn't use the men and women of our military, who are willing to risk everything to protect our nation, as political props to deploy against peaceful protesters on our own soil. They understand that political opponents aren't "un-American" just because they disagree with you; that a free press isn't the 'enemy' but the way we hold officials accountable; that our ability to work together to solve big problems like a pandemic depends on a fidelity to facts and science and logic and not just making stuff up.

"None of this should be controversial. These shouldn't be Republican principles or Democratic principles. They are American principles. But at this moment, this president and those who enable him, have shown they don't believe in these things.

"Tonight, I am asking you to believe in Joe and Kamala's ability to lead this country out of these dark times and build it back better. But here's the thing: No single American can fix this country alone. Not even a president. Democracy was never meant to be transactional you give me your vote; I make everything better. It requires an active and informed citizenry. So I am also asking you to believe in your own ability to embrace your own responsibility as citizens to make sure that the basic tenets of our democracy endure.

"Because that's what at stake right now. Our democracy.

"Look, I understand why a lot of Americans are down on government. The way the rules have been set up and abused in Congress make it easier for special interests to stop progress than to make progress. Believe me, I know. I understand why a White factory worker who's seen his wages cut or his job shipped overseas might feel like the government no longer looks out for him, and why a Black mom might feel like it never looked out for her at all. I understand why a new immigrant might look around this country and wonder whether there's still a place for him here; why a young person might look at politics right now, the circus of it all, the meanness and the lies and conspiracy theories and think, what's the point?

"Well, here's the point: this president and those in power those who benefit from keeping things the way they are they are counting on your cynicism. They know they can't win you over with their policies. So they're hoping to make it as hard as possible for you to vote, and to convince you that your vote doesn't matter. That's how they win. That's how they get to keep making decisions that affect your life, and the lives of the people you love. That's how the economy will keep getting skewed to the wealthy and well-connected, how our health systems will let more people fall through the cracks. That's how a democracy withers, until it's no democracy at all.

"And we cannot let that happen. Do not let them take away your power. Do not let them take away your democracy. Make a plan right now for how you're going to get involved and vote. Do it as early as you can and tell your family and friends how they can vote too. Do what Americans have done for over two centuries when faced with even tougher times than this all those quiet heroes who found the courage to keep marching, keep pushing in the face of hardship and injustice.

"Last month, we lost a giant of American democracy in John Lewis. Some years ago, I sat down with John and the few remaining leaders of the early civil rights movement. One of them told me he never imagined he'd walk into the White House and see a president who looked like his grandson. Then he told me that he'd looked it up, and it turned out that on the very day that I was born, he was marching into a jail cell, trying to end Jim Crow segregation in the South.

"What we do echoes through the generations.

"Whatever our backgrounds, we're all the children of Americans who fought the good fight. Great grandparents working in firetraps and sweatshops without rights or representation. Farmers losing their dreams to dust. Irish and Italians and Asians and Latinos told to go back where you came from. Jews and Catholics, Muslims and Sikhs, made to feel suspect for the way they worshipped. Black Americans chained and whipped and hanged. Spit on for trying to sit at lunch counters. Beaten for trying to vote.

"If anyone had a right to believe that this democracy did not work, and could not work, it was those Americans. Our ancestors. They were on the receiving end of a democracy that had fallen short all their lives. They knew how far the daily reality of America strayed from the myth. And yet, instead of giving up, they joined together and said somehow, some way, we are going to make this work. We are going to bring those words, in our founding documents, to life.

"I've seen that same spirit rising these past few years. Folks of every age and background who packed city centers and airports and rural roads so that families wouldn't be separated. So that another classroom wouldn't get shot up. So that our kids won't grow up on an uninhabitable planet. Americans of all races joining together to declare, in the face of injustice and brutality at the hands of the state, that Black lives matter, no more, but no less, so that no child in this country feels the continuing sting of racism.

"To the young people who led us this summer, telling us we need to be better in so many ways, you are this country's dreams fulfilled. Earlier generations had to be persuaded that everyone has equal worth. For you, it's a given a conviction. And what I want you to know is that for all its messiness and frustrations, your system of self-government can be harnessed to help you realize those convictions.

"You can give our democracy new meaning. You can take it to a better place. You're the missing ingredient the ones who will decide whether or not America becomes the country that fully lives up to its creed.

"That work will continue long after this election. But any chance of success depends entirely on the outcome of this election. This administration has shown it will tear our democracy down if that's what it takes for them to win. So we have to get busy building it up by pouring all our efforts into these 76 days, and by voting like never before for Joe and Kamala, and candidates up and down the ticket, so that we leave no doubt about what this country we love stands for today and for all our days to come.

"Stay safe. God bless."

The rest is here:

Barack Obama slams the president at the DNC: 'Donald Trump hasn't grown into the job because he can't' - CNBC

Elections 2020: will Donald Trump leave the White House if he loses? – AS English

US President Donald Trump will go head to head with Democratic nominee Joe Biden in the 3 November presidential elections with various polls currently giving the former vice president to Barack Obama a lead of up to seven points over the current occupier of the White House. Trump is facing widespread criticism over his administrations handling of the coronavirus pandemic as well as spiraling unemployment as a result of the Covid-19 crisis and amid an impasse in the Senate over a fresh stimulus package to boost an ailing economy. Still, he remains bullish about winning the election and securing a second term in the Oval Office. But the question many people are asking is: will he accept the results of the election if they do not go the way he hopes?

Trump has repeatedly attacked mail-in voting, claiming that the results of the election will be fraudulent despite experts on the subject insisting that there is no evidence supporting the presidents theory. Such is Trumps dislike of mail-in voting that his re-election campaign has made moves to prevent ballot drop boxes being used in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania, which the president won by less than a single percentage point in 2016.

The only way were going to lose this election is if the election is rigged, Trump told a rally in Oshkosh, Wisconsin on Monday.

The White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, echoed Trumps concerns during a briefing on Wednesday: He believes that voter fraud is real, in line with what we see all across the country, particularly with mail-in ballots, which are prone to fraud.

The President has always said hell see what happens and make a determination in the aftermath. Its the same thing he said last November. He wants a free election, a fair election, and he wants confidence in the results of the election, particularly when you have states like Nevada doing mass mail-out voting to their voting rolls. And when they tried this in the primary, it was a massive failure. Ballots were piled up in trash cans. Ballots were pinned to apartment dartboards. And with that being the system, the President wants to take a hard look at this and make sure that these are fair election results and not subject to fraud, McEnany added when asked if Trump will accept the results of the election.

The president, however, made no such promises during an interview with Fox News Sunday. No. I have to see. Look you - I have to see. No, Im not going to just say yes. Im not going to say no. And I didnt last time, either. It was a significant change of tack from comments the president made in June. "Certainly if I dont win, I dont win. I mean, you know, go on and do other things, he told the same broadcaster.

If Biden is victorious, Trumps presidential term will officially come to an end on January 20, 2021, with the former vice president assuming office the following day at noon. However, observers have speculated that the president will use whatever means he can to hold on to power.

I dont think he plans to leave the White House, House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn told CNN. He doesnt plan to have fair and unfettered elections. I believe that he plans to install himself in some kind of emergency way to continue to hold onto office.

Biden suggested in an interview on the Daily Show that the military would be called in to remove Trump if it came to it. I promise you, I'm absolutely convinced, they will escort him from the White House in a dispatch.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who would theoretically be the beneficiary of a protracted legal bid on Trumps part to contest the results of the elections, told MSNBC recently: There is a process. It has nothing to do with if the certain occupant of the White House doesnt feel like moving and has to be fumigated out of there because the presidency is the presidency.

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Elections 2020: will Donald Trump leave the White House if he loses? - AS English

Motorcyclists, gun owners rally for the Second Amendment – WXOW.com

Chippewa Falls (WQOW)- Dozens of Second Amendment advocates took their cause on the road Saturday, to, in their words, defend their rights as gun owners, and to promote voting for pro-second amendment candidates come November.

It was the second annual "Freedom Day," hosted by area motorcycle groups.

The advocates traveled in a caravan from Chippewa Falls, to Augusta, Fairchild, and Eau Claire, to raise awareness for what they called political attacks against constitutional rights.

Former National Rifle Association president David Keene joined the rally, saying that it's more important now than ever for Americans to have the right to defend themselves with firearms.

"The Second Amendment was not adopted to give us the right to posses fire arms for legitimate purpose," said Keene. "The founders wrote the second amendment to say we will not interfere with a preexisting right you have to defend yourself, your family and your community."

Rally participants also raised funds for area concealed carry classes.

News 18 reached out to local democratic lawmakers for comment, but have not received one as of Saturday afternoon.

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Motorcyclists, gun owners rally for the Second Amendment - WXOW.com

Guns, the NRA and the Second Amendment are under assault from the left – NBC News

In the midst of a challenging pandemic, many American cities have been under siege. Amid violence and riots, the rule of law has been abandoned by the same elected officials who swore to uphold it. Law-abiding citizens who unwittingly drove through protests have found themselves attacked or left to the mercy of a mob.

Many Americans are indeed now choosing to exercise their Second Amendment rights; a national indicator for gun sales is at an all-time high.

The promotion of civil unrest and the systematic destruction of neighborhoods and businesses have been permitted with limited consequences under the guise of the First Amendments protection of the right to protest. Yet when the case for protecting the Second Amendment couldnt be stronger to reasonable Americans, the left is yet again trying to weaken it.

As Americans, our constitutional rights and individual liberties are not just a source of patriotic pride but the lifeblood of our democracy. The founders knew that the right of citizens to bear arms was essential to the preservation of democracy and liberty. The Second Amendment ensures that Americans can protect themselves, their families and their businesses, especially when the government is unwilling or unable to do so. And many Americans are indeed now choosing to exercise their Second Amendment rights; a national indicator for gun sales is at an all-time high.

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The left has long attacked the Second Amendment, as they believe it is antiquated and unnecessary, and have assured us they can protect us better than we can protect ourselves. But in a time of crisis, many of them have revealed that they wont actually use law enforcement and even support defunding the agencies that protect and serve all communities. Now they are attacking a private organization thats trying to do the same.

Just three months before a presidential election, New York Attorney General Letitia James has filed suit against the NRA and several members of its leadership, seeking to have the gun rights organization dissolved. This lawsuit, filed in New York state court, is the apex of a longstanding feud between the NRA and the Democratic state attorney general. James attacked the NRA while she was a candidate for attorney general, calling it a terrorist organization and a criminal enterprise.

James knows that if the NRA were dissolved, it would be a huge personal and political victory, as the Democrats would finally be able to silence the largest Second Amendment and gun safety advocate in the country. The NRA promotes responsible and safe firearm ownership and self-defense, and it encourages favorite pastimes like hunting and recreational shooting. Thats a staple of life for folks like us in Arkansas, and a far cry from James nefarious terrorist organization and criminal enterprise labels.

As state attorneys general, we are tasked with protecting the interests of consumers and holding bad actors accountable. Since the NRA is based in New York, James office has the jurisdiction to investigate this organization, like any other charity or nonprofit. But while the lawsuit alleges that NRA leadership misused the organizations funds for their own personal gain, no NRA executives have been charged with any crimes, though James has threatened criminal charges pending the outcome of her offices investigation.

Moreover, James doesnt seem to be too worried about protecting the interests of the consumer: those who are NRA members. If successful, the lawsuit could permanently bar the strongest Second Amendment advocate from raising funds for its cause and ultimately dissolve the multimillion member organization. Instead of holding the alleged bad actors accountable, James seems to believe she has found a way to finally rid the left of one of its greatest political adversaries and, possibly, its least favorite constitutional amendment.

However, like any good defender of freedom, the NRA is fighting back. The same day New York filed its state suit, the NRA filed its own lawsuit in federal court, pointing to then-candidate James campaign promise to take on the NRA if elected. The NRA claims that James lawsuit is nothing more than a politically motivated stunt to deliver on that promise not a response to any real fraud.

The NRAs lawsuit is based on the First Amendment and similar New York state law. The NRA argues that it is being targeted for its pro-Second Amendment advocacy and that James request to dissolve the NRA is nothing more than an attempt to silence political speech. The NRA is also asking the federal court to stop James from interfering with its free-speech rights and to declare that the NRA is in substantial compliance with New York not-for-profit law.

As Americans, our constitutional rights and individual liberties are not just a source of patriotic pride but the lifeblood of our democracy.

So, is this lawsuit really about the NRA, or does it represent a bigger agenda of the left? While the suit may be a great political rallying cry for James in New York and other liberal arenas heading into the November election, the rest of us see this lawsuit for what it truly is: a deliberate attack on the Second Amendment and those of us who support it.

I understand the importance and duty of attorneys general to investigate allegations of corruption and fraud, but James eagerness to dissolve the entire organization rather than to hold potential bad actors accountable speaks volumes about her real motives. The left has worked tirelessly to rewrite history, but we will not and cannot allow it to try to rewrite the Constitution.

Leslie Rutledge is the first female and first Republican to be elected attorney general in Arkansas. A strong advocate for individual liberties, she defends those same constitutional rights deemed essential to the preservation of our democracy by the Founding Fathers.

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Guns, the NRA and the Second Amendment are under assault from the left - NBC News

The Choice Is Clear: President Trump’s Second Amendment Record Has Earned Him the Gun Vote in 2020 – America’s 1st Freedom

We are living in extraordinary times, and it will take an extraordinary effort by freedom-loving Americans during this years presidential election to emerge with our liberties intact. The candidates could not be further apart in how they view your fundamental right to protect yourself and your loved ones. Regardless of party affiliation, if you value the right to keep and bear arms and wish to preserve it for this and future generations, you must vote to re-elect President Donald J. Trump in November.

I explained last month why the election of Joe Biden would be a disaster for gun owners and would cripple the Second Amendment as we know it. That alone makes the choice easy.

But for his part, President Trump has earned the gun vote by keeping his promises to Americas firearm owners and by proving time after time that he is a stalwart and trusted ally to Second Amendment supporters.

Gun owners will remember that 2016s presidential election was largely a referendum on who would choose the successor to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, author of the landmark 2008 opinion in District of Columbia v. Heller. Scalia used text, history and tradition to establish as a matter of law what was already common knowledge to most Americans: the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms, independent of service in an organized militia. Justice Scalias decision led to the end of handgun bans in the District of Columbia and Chicago. It also signaled that the Second Amendment must be afforded the same respect as other individual liberties protected by the Bill of Rights.

Gun prohibitionists reacted with fury and have been trying to undermine and reverse Hellers individual-rights holding ever since. They may well have succeeded, had the Senate confirmed Barack Obamas choice to fill Scalias vacant seat on the court. That nominee, Judge Merrick Garland of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, had voted to rehear the lower court decision that would eventually become the Heller case before the Supreme Court. Garland manifestly believed the full D.C. Circuit needed another crack at interpreting the Second Amendment, after a three-judge panel issued an opinion holding that D.C.s handgun ban violated the Second Amendments individual right to keep and bear arms.

Donald Trump made appointing a worthier successor to Scalias legacy a keystone of his presidential platform. He even published a list of potential Supreme Court nominees during his campaign, so voters could see for themselves what sorts of judges Trump would appoint to the nations highest court. The common denominator among these judges (besides impeccable professional credentials) was a demonstrated respect for Americas constitutional order, legal traditions and Second Amendment.

Most had also adopted Scalias signature originalist style of constitutional interpretation, which limits judicial policy-making by deferring to the meaning of constitutional language as it was understood at the time of its adoption. This ensures permanence and stability for the nations founding principles, unlike the contrary practice of simply declaring constitutional precepts out of thin air to suit the judges preferred politics and to keep up with the elite trends of the day, whatever they happen to be.

Gun owners understood the stakes in 2016 and voted for Donald Trump in droves. After his election, President Trump kept his most important promise by nominating Judge Neil M. Gorsuch, then of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, to ascend to Scalias vacant seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. Gorsuch, in contrast to Garland, had demonstrated his respect for the Second Amendment, writing in one case that the Second Amendment protects an individuals right to own firearms and may not be infringed lightly. Like Scalia, Gorsuch also emphasized textualism and originalism in his approach to constitutional interpretation.

President Trump had another opportunity to appoint a Supreme Court justice with the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy in 2018. Kennedy was widely recognized as the critical swing vote in Heller and the follow-up case of McDonald v. City of Chicago. Yet he was also typically characterized as a centrist, and it wasnt clear how far his support for the Second Amendment extended. Many believe the reason the Supreme Court remained silent on the Second Amendment in the years after Heller and McDonald was that neither the evenly divided pro- and anti-gun wings of the court had confidence that Kennedy would vote their way.

Trumps choice to succeed Kennedy was Brett M. Kavanaugh, then of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Kavanaugh had one of the strongest records on the Second Amendment of any potential nominee, having penned a lengthy and well-reasoned dissent from a case that upheld various aspects of D.C.s onerous post-Heller gun control regime. It was clear he would take the Second Amendment seriously if elevated to the high court.

In judicial appointments and many other ways, President Trump has unapologetically supported the Second Amendment.

Since their appointments to the Supreme Court, both Gorsuch and Kavanaugh have been even clearer about their concern over the lower courts dismissive treatment of the Second Amendment and their desire for the court to rectify that situation. Both have joined or written opinions expressing this sentiment in cases in which the court ultimately declined to revisit the right to keep and bear arms. No one knows when the Supreme Court will take up another Second Amendment case, but when they do, few doubt that Gorsuch and Kavanaugh will be among the strongest defenders of that essential liberty.

Speaking of the lower courts, President Trump has been busy there as well, in June reaching the milestone of 200 judicial appointments. Only a tiny fraction of cases ever reach the U.S. Supreme Court. The decisions that affect Americans lives and libertiesincluding the right to keep and bear armswill mostly be rendered by judges at the district and circuit court levels. President Trump recognizes this and has made an investment in the judiciary that will pay dividends for gun owners for decades to come. Even Trumps detractors recognize that his reshaping of the federal judiciary will be his most important and lasting legacy.

Yet President Trumps support for the Second Amendment goes well beyond his judicial appointments. Shortly after taking office, he wasted no time repealing an Obama-era scheme that forced Social Security recipients to choose between their benefits and their Second Amendment right to possess a firearm. President Trump made sure that Americans rights should never be the subject of such a false choice.

During his 2016 campaign, Trump promised to abolish so-called gun-free zones that empower criminals and disarm the law-abiding. He did exactly that in April, initiating a rulemaking to end a ban on the possession of firearms in water resource development projects administered by the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE). These areas comprise one of the largest networks of outdoor recreation sites in America, encompassingmore than 400 lake and river projects in 43 states. Visitors use these sites for hiking, boating, fishing, camping, hunting and geo-caching. Yet carrying firearms for self-defense in these areas is prohibited.

The proposed rule would abolish an existing gun-free zone on 12 million acres of public lands and waters nationwide, including 55,390 miles of shoreline, 7,856 miles of trails, 92,588 campsites and 3,754 boat ramps. It is set to be one of the single largest expansions of the right to carry in the nations history.

The Trump administration also reformed Americas antiquated system for regulating exports of firearms and ammunition in a way that benefited both individual gun owners and the lawful industries that support them. Among other things, this move reversed Obama-era polices that wreaked havoc with gunsmiths and gunsmithing schools, as well as with hunters traveling abroad with personally owned firearms and ammunition.

During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many state governments were poised to use the novel virus as a means to restrict Second Amendment rights, President Trumps administration identified the firearms industry as critical infrastructure, forcing all but a few states to keep gun stores and other firearm businesses open. In doing so, President Trump made clear that the self-defense rights of law-abiding Americans are and forever will be essential.

And, who could forget the historic moment when President Trump unsigned the Arms Trade Treaty on stage at our 2018 Annual Meeting. His leadership freed the U.S. from a terrible treaty that could have imposed restrictive international gun control on American gun owners.

The president additionally used his authority to increase access to public lands for the use of hunters and sport shooters, both through executive orders and by signing federal legislation to that helps states provide more shooting ranges on public lands.

More so than any of his predecessors, President Trump has unapologetically supported the Second Amendment, even when elite opinion has railed against it.

President Trump understands that despite what these so-called elites claim, nothing is more important than the fundamental freedoms we enjoy as Americans. Thats why Ive whole-heartedly endorsed him in my role as Chairman of NRA-PVF, and why I look forward to casting my ballot to help re-elect him on November 3. I invite you to join me by doing the same.

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The Choice Is Clear: President Trump's Second Amendment Record Has Earned Him the Gun Vote in 2020 - America's 1st Freedom

Catholics and the Second Amendment – Church Militant

One of the most hotly-debated issues in America today revolves around the Second Amendment: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

In this week's Mic'd Up,the Second Amendment is defended from a Catholic angle.

Michael Voris interviews Jason Jones, executive producer of the 2006 People's Choice Award-winning film Bella. Jason, along with his co-author John Zmirak, also wroteThe Race to Save Our Century: Five Core Principles to Promote Peace, Freedom, and a Culture Of Life.

God endows as part of His design the natural and inalienable right for humans to defend themselves, and if they're responsible for the lives of others, this defense is a grave duty. Government, therefore, doesn't give the rights, but defends them.

This comes from the Catechism of the Catholic Church regarding the respect for human life, and more specifically, legitimate defense: "Legitimate defense can be not only a right but a grave duty for one who is responsible for the lives of others. The defense of the common good requires that an unjust aggressor be rendered unable to cause harm."(CCC 2265)

Since self-defense is a natural right freely given by God, it makes sense that historically, the irreligious have stripped people of these rights in order to bring about their own agenda.

In 1918, as the Russian Revolution was launchedunder Vladimir Lenin, the Council of People's Commissars, which became the highest authority of the Soviet Union, put together "On the surrender of weapons." This decree ordered citizens to surrender their firearms, swords and bayonets.

This communistrevolution is thought to haveresulted in the murder of millions of Russians from 19171922.

Since then, Hitler's Nazi Germany, Mao's communist China, and even socialist Venezuela have all stripped their own people of their natural right to defend themselves.

In the United States, some Churchmenlike Cdl. Joseph Tobin of Newark, New Jersey have joined many Democrat politicians in calling for "a ban on the sale or possession of all assault weapons."Fr. James Martin has even portrayedgun control as moral issue equal to abortion.

Jason Jones and John Zmirak, both Catholic writers at The Stream, wrote a thorough articledebunking these assertions.

Watch the full episode of Mic'd Up: God, Guns and the Government.

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Catholics and the Second Amendment - Church Militant

Parnell asks voters to join the chorus of patriot voices at RNC – The Times

Chrissy Suttles|Beaver County Times

Republican Sean Parnell lauded President Donald Trumps policies during his Monday Republican National Convention speech, imploring disillusioned Democrats to join the ranks of conservative American voters.

Parnell, the combat veteran and former Army Ranger challenging Democratic U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb in Pennsylvanias 17th Congressional District, began his nearly five minute opening night speech recounting his time in Afghanistan as aplatoon leader placed in command of Americans from every corner of our planet.

He told viewers about a 2006Taliban attack his platoon was heavily outnumbered and wounded within minutes, but his soldiers fought back and ultimately held their ground.

When he returned to the U.S. years later, he was eager to enjoy the "freedoms he defended," butfound the Democratic Party had shifted too far left.Parnell's speech then focused on Democrats and presidential candidate Joe Biden.

I watched with alarm as the party of my grandfather, a lifelong union Democrat, turned against the very people it professed to represent, Parnellsaid. I watched as Joe Biden spit venom at an autoworker who dared to question Joes intention to dismantle the Second Amendment and take your guns.

That exchange between Biden and a Michigan autoworker took place in March, when Biden said the man was "full of [expletive]," becausethe candidateonly plans to endthe sale and manufacture of AR-15s and other assault weapons oftenused in mass shootings.

In his speech, Parnell said Democrats once stood for hard working, law abiding Americans, but the new party is now comprised of hedge fund managers, celebrities and university professors with contempt for America."He called on disillusioned Democrats to join the chorus of patriot voices, and praised President Donald Trumps policies on energy independence and the Second Amendment.

The 17th Congressional District, which includes the north, south and west Pittsburgh suburbs in Allegheny County, Beaver County and a small part of Butler County, is one of Pennsylvanias high-profile races. Parnell, anauthor and occasional Fox News show guest, recently moved from Cranberry to Ohio Township.

Parnell has called Marine Corps veteran and former federal prosecutor U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb, D-Mount Lebanon, too liberal for the district he represents. Democrats, however, are confident that Parnellsconservative rhetoric andloyalty to Trump wont appeal to suburban moderates.

Lamb, who flipped the historically Republicandistricttwo years ago, was among the Democrats who gave a keynote address at the Democratic National Convention last week.

Another RNC speaker with ties to western Pennsylvania on Monday was Patricia McCloskey, a Beaver County native and Penn State graduate who rose to notoriety in June when she and her husband, Mark, were recorded pointing guns at Black Lives Matter protesters marching by theirSt. Louis home.

The personal injury lawyers, both facing weapons charges for brandishing guns at protesters, warned viewers that what you saw happen to us could just as easily happen to any of you.

Their grim speech played into suburban fears the pair called protesters who marched by their Missouri mansionMarxist liberal activists and an out-of-control mob who should have faced criminal charges.

They actually charged us with felonies for daring to defend our home, Mark McCloskey said, as the two pushed President Trumps narrative that Joe Biden would abolish the suburbs.

Patricia McCloskey praised Trump for ending government overreach by promoting more single-family home construction. Reducing zoning for single family homes would bring low-quality apartments and more crime to thriving suburban areas, she said.

The McCloskeys then criticized Democratic criminal justice reform proposals such as defunding the police and ending cash bail.

They want to walk the halls of Congress, they want to take over, they want power, Mark McCloskey said during the speech.

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Parnell asks voters to join the chorus of patriot voices at RNC - The Times

The Ninth Circuit Doesnt View Commonly Used Gun Magazines As Unusual – Above the Law

The past few months have been somewhat of a topsy-turvy ride when it comes to the issue of gun control. This past June the Supreme Court rejected 10 different cases that could have expanded gun rights. The refusal to take up the expansion of gun rights caught some liberal-leaning organizations by surprise and the theory that Second Amendment cases are in season with a solid conservative majority on the Supreme Court seemed to be cast in serious doubt. Just over a week ago, however, the Ninth Circuit gave gun rights advocates reason to hope again.

Before we get into the specifics of the Ninth Circuit decision, it is vitally important to discuss the context in which this decision takes place. Because although we are currently living in an era where major restrictions on gun ownership have been overturned, or lapsed, the rate of violence, including gun violence, has nevertheless steadily decreased. Jacob Sullum at Reason recently summarized this remarkable trend well:

According to the FBIsnumbers, total homicides in the United States fell from 24,700 in 1991 to a low of 14,164 in 2014 a 43 percent drop. The homicide rate fell even more dramatically, from 9.8 per 100,000 in 1991 to 4.4 per 100,000 in 2014 a 55 percent drop. Homicides rosein 2015 and 2016, then fell in 2017 and 2018, when the rate was 5 per 100,000, up 14 percent from 2014. The FBI has not published final data for 2019 yet, butpreliminary numbersfor the first half of the year indicate that homicides fell by 7.4 percent.

The trends for murders committed with firearms are slightly different because the type of weapon usedvaries over time. Gun homicides fell from apeakof 17,075 in 1993 to alow of 7,803 in 2014 a 54 percent drop. The number rosein 2015, 2016, and 2017, then fell in 2018, when it was 32 percent higher than in 2014 but still 40 percent lower than the 1993 total. The gun homicide rate in 2018 was about 3.1 per 100,000, half the1993 rate.

As I have written before, the only thing that could turn the incredibly good news that gun violence is steadily decreasing into something depressing is if nobody actually believes it, which most Americans sadly dont.

At the risk of going all both sides on you here, it must also be pointed out that there is a lot of blame to go around for the current misconception surrounding gun violence. The presidents repeated depictions of American carnage are simply not true, but a lot of people believe him anyway. Moreover, as Sullum points out, Joe Biden characterizes gun violence as an epidemic that is seemingly out of control when, again, the only notable attribute about gun violence rates lately is that they have gone down, drastically. Thankfully, our courts have largely not taken the bait with either form of misleading political rhetoric, choosing instead to focus on the facts. Which brings us to the recent Ninth Circuit decision.

The Ninth Circuit case focused on whether Californias criminalization of large capacity magazines (LCMs) that hold 10 or more rounds passes constitutional muster. As the court noted in its decision, these LCMs are extraordinarily common. In fact, they make up about 115 million LCMs out of a total of 230 million magazines in circulation and, perhaps most importantly, are commonly the standard with many handguns. If you are asking why it should matter that these LCMs are common in handguns, well, the Supreme Court has recognized that the handgun is the quintessential self-defense weapon. Moreover, like with the First Amendment, courts view the Second as an individual right. Indeed, the Ninth Circuit has recognized that gun-control must be individual-based and that general bans that limit this individual right to self-defense should be viewed with strict scrutiny.

In order to pass strict scrutiny, the government must have a compelling interest. But while the Ninth Circuit recognized that California did advance a compelling interest of preventing and mitigating gun violence in its LCMs ban, the decision to categorically criminalize nearly every weapon that can be reasonably expected for use in self-defense was not an acceptable means of achieving the compelling interest. Indeed, the Ninth Circuit decision goes into great length about the value of the legal right of self-defense that is essentially being taken away by Californias criminal prohibition, particularly on those who may not be equally protected by the state.

I understand that many will not agree with the Ninth Circuit, or me, on the subject of gun control. But we should be able to agree with basic facts about gun violence and acknowledge that these facts make the issue extraordinarily complicated. For example, it is a fact that many people should not be allowed to have guns and that most guns intended for self-defense will never be used. Indeed, bringing a gun into the home is to bring a certain degree of risk. But at the same time, it should be said that there is nothing illogical about courts recognizing the right of psychologically stable people, committed to safe handling, to use common tools such as firearms for their self-defense.

Tyler Brokers work has been published in the Gonzaga Law Review, the Albany Law Review, and is forthcoming in the University of Memphis Law Review. Feel free to email himor follow him onTwitterto discuss his column.

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The Ninth Circuit Doesnt View Commonly Used Gun Magazines As Unusual - Above the Law

The Washington Posts Abortion Fact Check Gets It Wrong – National Review

The Posts fact check on the convention speeches last night includes this passage:

Most abortions are performed in the earlier stages of pregnancy. About 1 percent happen after the fetus reaches the point of viability. In short, [RNC chairwoman Ronna] McDaniel and the president are describing something that rarely happens and that no Democrat is calling for, anyway.

Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and some others who competed in the Democratic presidential primary said they favored having no restrictions on abortion.

Biden does not take such a sweeping position; he supports abortion rights and says he would codify in statute the Supreme Courts landmark ruling inRoe v. Wadeand related precedents.

Experts told us that support for abortion rights doesnt mean Democrats support extreme late-term abortions. Thats like saying everyone who supports the Second Amendment supports school shootings, Katie L. Watson, a professor at Northwestern Universitys Feinberg School of Medicine, previously told The Fact Checker. Abortion until the moment of birth does not exist its a boogeyman abortion opponents have created to frighten voters and derail rational conversation about constitutional rights, Watson said. Nobody supports it, and nobody does it. No patient ever asks a physician to end her pregnancy the moment before birth, and no physician would agree to do it.

Biden, exactly like Warren and Sanders, believes that abortion should be allowed, even late in pregnancy, if needed to preserve a womans emotional health. Thats what those related precedents (chiefly Doe v. Bolton, Roes companion case) suggest.

Watsons parallel would work if Second Amendment activists believed that school shootings should be legal. Of course, they dont.

A previous Post fact-check estimated (conservatively, insofar as it is using CDC numbers for the incidence of abortion) that more than 8,000 abortions are performed each year after viability. In the 2018-19 school year, there were 13 school-shooting deaths (according to Wikipedia). It is not my impression that the Post treats school-shooting deaths as events so rare that politicians should stop talking about them.

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The Washington Posts Abortion Fact Check Gets It Wrong - National Review

The First Night of the Republican Convention Was Like Getting Stuck in a Bell Jar of Alternate Reality – Esquire

Chip SomodevillaGetty Images

This is what I learned on the first night of the Republican National Convention. I learned that Joe Biden is a Communist, a Socialist, the next Castro, and a puppet controlled by cosmopolitan elites, Hollywood moguls, the Chinese government, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. I learned that the streets of California are paved with heroin needles, that MS-13 will be moving in next door, and that HUMAN SEX DRUG TRAFFICKERS!!!!!!!!!!! I learned that the Democrat Party plans to abolish the First Amendment, the Second Amendment, Jesus, and the suburbs. I learned that El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago is the last bodyguard of Western Civilization, and that is an actual thing that actually was said.

And, throughout the first night of the Republican National Infomercial, I kept repeating to myself as a mantra, over and over again.

This is not for you. You are not the political cosmos. An audience has been carefully built for this over the past 40 years, and that audience believes this stuff down to the last dipthong. This is not for you.

OK, so it's a lousy mantra.

Without my constantly reminding myself that I am not the audience here, I might have felt like I was stuck on a shuttle bus at the Greater Neptune International Airport. Four years ago, in Cleveland, there at least was the mad, crackling energy of the unbridled Caucasian political ID to put a charge in the proceedings. You felt alive in the world anyway. Now, after nearly four years of this presidency*, and knowing what we know and seeing what has been plainly obvious, to be stuck in what circumstances have dictated as a bell jar of alternate reality is to feel like you've been unwittingly dosed with STP and sent off to regions of the mind best left unexplored.

It is impossible to engage the arguments mustered on the television Monday night. I don't speak the language. I am unfamiliar with the syntax. The vocabulary eludes me. And it all eludes even my considerable gift for mimicry. (I know Senator Tim Scott doesn't really believe Joe Biden is the socialist tool of cosmopolitan elites, but his ability to fake it caused his soul to ascend visibly from his body.) The only way I know what they're saying is by understanding as best I can the specific set of my fellow citizens to whom they're saying it. And by reminding myself, constantly, that I am not part of that group.

OLIVIER DOULIERYGetty Images

What is left, then, except mockery and derision? When Kimberly Guilfoyle goes full Evita, arm-waving and all, in an empty function room, am I supposed to engage her arguments? When Junior cracks that Biden is "the Loch Ness monster of The Swamp," am I not obligated to point out that Loch Ness isn't a swamp? Or when Scott warns us against a "socialist utopia," should there not be a clarification that any kind of "utopia" is a really good thing? When words stop meaning what they mean, we're all reduced, again, to grunts and squeaks and hand signals.

And when Charlie Kirk kicks things off, in a speech promoting this particular president*, by noting that "churches can't open, but casinos can," how am I not supposed to dissolve into helpless laughter and heckling? What's left for me to do? Point out, politely, the self-evident fact that the president* is the most thoroughgoing heathen ever to occupy that office? And that he once owned casinos, but that he doesn't anymore, because he was a terrible businessman who stiffed his contractors and then hid in the thickets of the bankruptcy laws until the next scam revealed itself to him?

If I say that, then the audience to whom Kirk was talking will look at me as though I've suddenly taken to talking in Klingon. And that audience is too big to fit into any comfort zone, although I think it may be smaller than it was four years ago, because we're all livingor not livingthrough the consequences of the gamble that audience took in 2016.

Night Two coming right up.

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The First Night of the Republican Convention Was Like Getting Stuck in a Bell Jar of Alternate Reality - Esquire

Governor’s budget borrows $4B, raises $1M in NJ taxes and fees – NJTV News

109636109636109636Governor's budget borrows $4B, raises $1M in taxes, feesFacing a pandemic-sized budget hole, Gov. Phil Murphy unveiled a spending plan for the rest of FY2021 that would borrow $4 billion and raise taxes on millionaires, cigarettes, yachts and firearms. Business groups called it "irresponsible" and Republican lawmakers condemned it as a burden New Jersey taxpayers simply can't afford.2020-08-25 08:33 amdisabled8g5HzP8jXZAtrue

Gov. Phil Murphy unveiled his budget plan on a sweltering Rutgers football field facing socially-distanced lawmakers, officials and news media. He proposed a COVID-19 driven, $32.4 billion budget proposal for the rest of the fiscal year. It would borrow $4 billion and raise more than $1 billion in fees and taxes on millionaires, cigarettes, yachts and gun permits.

The governor explained the pandemic lockdowns crushed tax revenues, confronting the state with an estimated $5.6 billion budget deficit.

Beside setting off an unprecedented public health crisis, this pandemic also unleashed an economic crisis, Murphy said. 1.4 million have filed for unemployment, but we cannot send the false hope things are going to simply snap back to the way they were before.

Murphys proposal finally completes his original fiscal year spending plan that was put on hold when the pandemic surge sent the state into lockdown in the spring. It restores the Senior Freeze and Homestead Rebate programs that benefit senior, disabled, and low-income homeowners and leaves school funding and municipal aid flat.

It also makes a massive $4.9 billion payment into state public worker pension system. And, it borrows an idea from Sen. Cory Booker the creation of Baby Bonds, a $1,000 deposit for each qualifying newborn that they can use at age 18.

And as this child grows, so too will the value of this bond to help pay for things like college, to help ultimately to make a down payment on a home or start a small business, Murphy said.

The governor again called for more federal aid from the president and Senate Majority Leader McConnell an unlikely event. So Murphys pushing to borrow $4 billion, but doesnt plan to spend it all. Hed set aside half of the money for a COVID-19 surge.

This budget envisions a closing surplus of more than $2.2 billion, a much needed cushion against revenue shocks from a second wave, Murphy said.

The budget does require state departments to cut $1.25 billion in spending. This is Murphys third attempt to generate $390 million by raising the so-called millionaires tax from 8.97% to 10.75% on gross income between $1 million and $5 million. Thats the rate already paid on income over $5 million.

I would urge those who would pay this tax to see it this way: were asking you to sacrifice pennies on your top dollar to ensure every New Jerseyan has the same opportunity to succeed that you did, Murphy said.

Democrats in the Legislature have blocked Murphys previous efforts to hike taxes on New Jerseys wealthiest taxpayers.

Senate President Steve Sweeney expects tax revenues might be better than the governor predicted, but said nothings off the table.

Im not excited about taxes, period, but you cant rule anything out right now. That would be irresponsible. Weve never been in a place like this, so weve got to look at everything, Sweeney said.

Items expected to prompt protests include the proposal to let a temporary 2.5% Corporate Business Tax surcharge become permanent. Its a move the business community calls irresponsible. Plans to raise taxes and fees on firearms will draw fire from Second Amendment advocates.

Republican lawmakers panned the tax hikes and borrowing.

This was a political speech, 100% political, and he forgot one interest group: the taxpayers of the state of New Jersey, said Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick. This is a governor who is totally out of touch with the working people who are paying the taxes.

Eight new taxes during the worst recession. New Jersey residents dont have the luxury of going out and borrowing $9 billion, even if theyre the ones whore going to foot the bill so its very disappointing, said Assemblyman Hal Wirths.

A special commission must approve the borrowing plan before it even gets to lawmakers for debate. Its uncertain how much input the public is going to get. This budgets on a fast track with a tight Oct. 1 deadline.

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Governor's budget borrows $4B, raises $1M in NJ taxes and fees - NJTV News

Us Kids Documentary Premiering At Wynwood Drive-In Chronicles Youth Movement Against Gun Violence In Wake Of Parkland Shooting – CBS Miami

MIAMI (CBSMiami) They are survivors turned activists students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who witnessed unimaginable horror on Valentines Day 2018.

Now, the documentary Us Kids launches a national drive-in screening tour in tandem with March For Our Lives, chronicling the gun violence prevention youth movement.

Kim A. Snyder directed the film, that follows 18 pivotal months in the development of the March for Our Lives movement through a very personal lens.

It became a film not about Parkland. I really say Us Kids is about a film about a youth movement it was sparked by that horrible moment that happened on February 14 that everyone remembers, Snyder said. This is a film about a whole generation of young people born out of trauma and rage that transformed it into action and ultimately hope. Its a very helpful movie in my mind.

Filmgoers will see real life scenes as these high school students set out across the world to build an inclusive youth movement that addresses racial justice with a goal to change gun laws. In many cities, they were met with strong resistance.

They was brave and they were patient and they were well schooled and they did their homework, Snyder said. Theyve never been advocating to threaten the Second Amendment. Its about their genuine feeling of coming out of a school shooting and teaming up with kids across the country from inner-city places that have endured gun violence that said we want to safe. Its not a red or blue thing, its a public health issue.

The film premiered in early 2020 at Sundance Film Festival. It embarks on a nationwide, nine city drive-in screening tour, which begins in Wynwood Tuesday night.

Students Samantha Fuentes and Alex Dworet, who both survived wounds by an AR-15 in their classrooms, will hit the road following the Miami kick-off to engage with youth across the tour.

Its really about telling other people to have that inner generational respect. We cant attack them, we need to stand shoulder to shoulder with them. They do know a lot about what theyre doing. Theyre resilient and they have their whole futures ahead of them, she explained.

Us Kids will premiere Tuesday, August 25 at 7 p.m. at the Carpool Cinema Wynwood.

There will be free tickets available to young people on their website at uskidsfilm.com.

They will be releasing the film nationwide in the near future, though theres no exact date as of yet.

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Us Kids Documentary Premiering At Wynwood Drive-In Chronicles Youth Movement Against Gun Violence In Wake Of Parkland Shooting - CBS Miami

Groups come together for open carry rally in Newport News after city passes open carry ban ordinance – wtkr.com

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - Black Lives Matter 757 Boogalo along with other groups took part in a Second Amendment gun rally Sunday afternoon.

The rally was held in response to Newport News city leaders approving an ordinance that bans open carry of firearms in city buildings, facilities and parks.

The ordinance passed in July in a 6-1 vote.

Sunday's rally was held by Liberate Hampton Roads.

"They wanted to take away our guns and that's a way to control things and now they're literally putting everything forward and putting it together as if people are just suppose to accept it," Aubrey Jones, the president of BLM 757, said. "We are not accepting it and we refuse to comply."

Protesters also told News 3 they think the ordinance is unconstitutional.

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Groups come together for open carry rally in Newport News after city passes open carry ban ordinance - wtkr.com

5-at-10: LeBron’s greatness and social stances, Good, bad and ugly from Day 1 of the RNC, Back in the kitchen – Chattanooga Times Free Press

Playoff pitches

LeBron and the Lakers DEEEEE-stroyed Portland in Game 4. LeBron went 10-of-12 from the floor and finished 30-6-10 in 28 minutes.

And with that, the Lakers are up 3-1 on an eighth-seeded Portland team that Chuck Barkley thought would bounce the LeBron from the bubble.

In a lot of ways, the sports definition of all-timers is making greatness expected.Think Tiger in his heyday. It was surprising when he missed a 10-footer rather than making it.

Think about Mariano Rivera. It was surprising when someone got on base, never mind score a run against him.

The list goes on. Jordan and winning. Manning and Brady in so many ways. Bonds in the early 2000s hitting the baseball hard.

Those are the peak levels of all-timers over the last quarter century.

And of those, is LeBron the most hated of those?

I ask because he again spoke about the racial divide in our country and how Black people are afraid in America after last night's game. Heck George Hill even went as far as saying the players should not have played this year and stayed focused one social justice after the Bucks' win last night. (Side note: Uh, George, ain't no one making you stay in the bubble and cash millions in checks my man.)

I'm not trying to be political about this, and LeBron's hypocrisy on China truly hurts his credibility when discussing social justice issues.

But I do believe that as a player LeBron's the best I've ever seen. Yes, a better player than Jordan, but not a better winner or the competition that MJ was.

And his decision to speak on social issues something that MJ and just about all the others of the all-timers listed above certainly affects his stature in a lot of people's eyes in my opinion.

And now it's the GOP's turn

OK, last week, after day one of the Democratic National Convention, we reviewed what we saw, what we liked, what we didn't and what left a lasting impression.

Regulars around these parts know I'm a conservative. I've voted Republican all my life.

I watched way more of last night's opening salvos from the Republican convention than I expected. The Lakers KER-rushing the Blazers made that choice rather easy.

Let's review this in the old-school Clint Eastwood way. Deal? Deal.

The good: Tim Scott makes me hopeful for the future of the GOP and for leadership in America. Truly. Nikki Haley taking the stage after a cattle call of curious speaker selections the Mattress Guy? really? reminded me that there are still mindful adults in the inner circle. Also, the strong number of minority speakers, including Haley and Scott and Herschel Walker and others, was a clear and smart political maneuver.

Side tangent, part I: How great was Scott, seriously? He delivered monster lines like his family went from "cotton to Congress in one generation" that truly framed the American dream. He pointed the finger back at the system remember how much hay Trump made four years ago with the Swamp allegories? and said, ""It's about how we respond when tackling critical issues like police reform. When Democrats called our work a token effort and walked out of the room during negotiations because they wanted the issue more than they wanted a solution."

The bad: The parade of Trumps heading to the podium Monday was dizzying, and Donald Trump Jr. looked like he showered after an all-night bender and the last piece of advice he got was "Don't forget to move your hands when you speak." His passion was clear; hey, who among us would not adamantly defend our dad. But his message seemed amateurish and kind of SNL-ish. Andas I asked today on A2, with half of the 12 pre-convention announced speakers being named Trump and turning this into the ReTrumplican National Convention is Junior a better pitch man to America than Dan Crenshaw form Texas or Mike Gallagher or James Lankford? Also, Kimberly Guilfoyle, the young lady who is Trump's campaign finance chairperson again, why are paid staffers and family getting mic time rather than some of the other national GOP leaders must have either had some hearing loss or been told her mic was off. Why was she yelling so much? I understand the decision to play to the fear of middle America truly I do but it's sad and not a solution to our problems as much as a path to political persuasion in my view. Not unlike the complete abandonment of fiscal conservatism that a vast majority of those in D.C. and everyone trying to get elected this fall have completely embraced.

Side tangent here because as I wrote in the A2 column, it seemed to me to be a curious decision to have so many Trump trumpeters rather than GOP decision makers and fiscal conservatives. Does this story from the Wall Street Journal late last month that says only 13 percent of polled people are in play make that decision seem smarter?https://www.wsj.com/articles/poll-finds-just-13-of-voters-still-up-for-grabs-for-trump-biden-11595678400?mod=wsjtwittertest19I'm not sure, because for the first time in a long time, the middle ground seems more important in this race. I believe there are 35-plus-percent that love Trump and 35-plus-percent (and maybe more) that will never vote for Trump. I think Biden leads in the polls and if the election was held today, I think he would win, but I think it's much, Much, MUCH closer than any national number I've seen.

The ugly: Again, I don't need to hear from the My Pillow Guy. I supported the Missouri couple who went into their yard with weapons out of fear in terms of being charged with crimes, but I don't really care about their viewpoints, and in some ways trying to push the fear button for the undecided pulls back the curtain to see some of the seedy underbelly of those in the party you call your own. (That said, the father of the Parkland girl who was killed in that tragic shooting was very powerful.) Also, my profession did not have a good day on Monday. Whether it's CNN not airing the coverage of the convention's roll call was it boring TV, yes it was, but is it, you know, news, uh HECK yes it is or the ever-disappointing Chuck Todd on MSNBC, who is framed as a news person and anchor who asks questions, not a columnist or analyst or opinion-giver who crafts hot takes. Todd, on air, said Monday afternoon that Trump delivered a "grievance-filled informal acceptance speech" that was "filled with so many problems about mail-voting that if we were to air only the truthful parts, we probably could have only aired only a sentence, if that much." In a big picture view here, Todd likely should be under review as whether a 'news person' with that much of a political slant should be hosting an NBC show with the history and purpose of being a true news show like "Meet the Press."

In the end, the results were mixed, and likely did not change your mind one way or the other.

The directions are clear fear and law and order are a top priority, so is freedom and personal liberties from the second amendment on down from the first day of the GOP convention.

Those directions are designed to fire-up his base and reach out to minorities. Those directions are based simultaneously in the American Dream and the fear of lawlessness.

Are those directions wise? Debatable, but they are certainly understandable.

Will those directions work? No way to tell until November.

Tuesday in the kitchen

Been a minute since we spent some time cooking. We got back to work last weekend with a couple of items.

Some are familiar and family favs made a pot of chili and a pan of hash brown casserole, both of which are fine on their own and even better merged for a hot lunch this week and some are next experiments.

We'll review one of the new dishes, and considering some of the regulars around these parts Hi Intern Scott, working from home today heckled some of my previous dishes in terms of calories, cholesterol and some heavy doses of heady doses.

We made eggplant parmesan with noodles. It was well-received.

(And yes, we have been getting a fair amount of eggplant in our CSA boxes over the last few weeks.)

Cut your eggplant in 1/2-to-1 inch slices. I peel the purple skin off the outer rings. Space the slices on paper towels and sprinkle generously with Kosher salt. This soaks up some of the natural bitterness of the eggplant. Let them sit for 30-minutes or so.

Wash the eggplant and get ready to coat. I use several egg whites and half a cup of milk and mix. (If you want a little more Southern taste with a kick, add a few dashes of tabasco to the mixture. I don't normally do this when cooking for the family because I like food really spicy; the rest of the family does not.)

For the coating, I use breadcrumbs, grated parmesan, light salt, pepper and in this case Italian seasoning. Mix.

Dip each eggplant slice into the egg white/milk mix and dredge both sides through the breadcrumbs. Make sure both sides are covered. Repeat for each eggplant slice.

You can fry them if you want it's a pretty easy effort in a skillet or large pan since the eggplant slices are thin but I actually bake mine. (Hi Intern Scott. Yes, I am heavy.)

I bake them at 400 for 20 minutes and then flip them and do them for 10 more.

As for the marinara, you can make your own I do or you can go with a a jar depending on your time.

In a greased casserole dish, put a foundation of marinara and spread half the eggplant on top of it. If you prefer thinly sliced eggplant you can add multiple layers. I normally go thicker and one layer of the eggplant works fine.

Scatter a layer of shredded mozzarella and parmesan, and cover that with more marinara and cheese. (I also try to work in fontina cheese a wicked underrated choice on occasion.)

Viol.

This and that

You know the rules. When TFP college football expert David Paschall writes college football, we read and link Paschall's prose on college football. Here's DP breaking down some interesting angles on some SEC defensive dudes inUT linebacker Henry To'o To'oand Alabamasuperstar corner Patrick Surtain II.

You know the rules, part II. Here's Stephen Hargis, TFP sports editor and prep sports guru,naming this week's player of the week. Kudos.

So UTC will play one game only in the fall. Only in 2020 right friends?

Man, amid the drum-banging and all the headlines from Wisconsin to LeBron to the bubble to the Corona to the convention to all parts in between, Albert Pujolscontinues to etch his nameamong the all-timers. Dude is now second all-time in RBIs in MLB history.

Spell check say what? Seriously, we now have a second sports media voice who is in hot water for typing the N-word on social media and claim it's spell-check changing Nuggets to the Queen Mother of all racial slurs.This one is a guy namedDarren McKee, a sports radio host in Denver, who Tweeted, "Utah is 48% from 3. Dang. But n@#$%^s are right there." OK, it's clear from the context that he was looking for Nuggets, who are playing Utah in the first-round of the NBA playoffs. But as Jay Williams wondered on ESPN last week when discussing the Charlotte radio guy who did something similar and also said spell-check got him, does anyone's spell-check just automatically got to the N-word? Is the iPhone racist? A better explanation, as Williams noted, is the 'predictive text feature' on iPhones, that automatically go to words that are frequently typed on the phone. Not sure what happened here friends.

TheCollege Football Playoff is movingforward and will not recognize Spring 2021.

Today's questions

True or false, it's a Tuesday.

True or false, Madden is the best video game of all time. (We offer this because Madden 21 is released today, and the Lil' 5-at-10 is pumped. And he's not the only one. Giddy-up.)

True or false, you'll take LeBron and the LeLakers over the field to win the NBA title.

True or false, you will play fantasy football this year.

True or false, spell-check changing Nuggets to not-'Nuggets' rings true to you.

True or false, Albert Pujols is the best first baseman in MLB history.

True or false, if your team won the 2020 College Football Playoff you would claim it.

As for today, Aug. 25, let's review. George Wallace would have been 101. Billy Ray Cyrus is 59.

Two American heroes died on this day Neil Armstrong in 2012 and John McCain in 2018.

Sean Connery is 90 today. Not sure he will make it, but who is on the SNL Rushmore of best/funniest actor impersonations, because the Sean Connery on Jeopardy! is pretty dang good.

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5-at-10: LeBron's greatness and social stances, Good, bad and ugly from Day 1 of the RNC, Back in the kitchen - Chattanooga Times Free Press

GOP convention offers traditional roll call with Washington, Idaho bragging about features – The Spokesman-Review

Shortly after the Republican National Convention started Monday it moved to one of the key features of such a gathering, the roll call of the states to cast delegate votes for the partys nominee.

Unlike last weeks virtual Democratic Convention which featured short video speeches from a location in each state, GOP votes were castin Charlotte, North Carolina, wherehandfuls of delegates representing each state were gathered.

The roll call was interrupted several times, for speeches from President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. As usual, the outcome was never in doubt. So the entertainment value, as usual, was to see what each state slipped into the tally to brag about its features or virtues.

Caleb Heimlich, Washington State Republican Party chairman, tried to pack as much as possible into a single sentence.

On behalf of the Evergreen state, proudly named after our first president; the most beautiful state in the nation, home to majestic mountains, rivers, hydro power, lakes and the Pacific Ocean; home to entrepreneurs, innovators, tech companies, manufacturing, farming, agriculture, natural resources and many other fantastic industries; and a state that well knows the consequences of Democrat rule and their giving in to radical socialists in Seattle; on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of Republican voters and our 43 delegates, we cast all of our votes for President Donald Trump.

Layne Bangerter, Idaho director for the Trump campaign, also stretched the standard limits of a sentence:

Madam secretary, on behalf of Idaho, the Gem State, and all of our happy people, all the hard-working beautiful people there; encompassed by the Rocky Mountains, where people love the fish, the wildlife, the land and the water; where people are focused on God, family, country and our sacred Second Amendment and along with our other individual liberties; and because of those important, and in defense of those individual liberties, Im proud to cast all of Idahos votes, 32 votes, to Donald John Trump.

Trump needed 1,276 delegate votes to be nominated. He got 2,521.

Continued here:

GOP convention offers traditional roll call with Washington, Idaho bragging about features - The Spokesman-Review