MATT M. MILLER,  September 30, 2019 

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Enforcement arrested 46 individuals over the course of a five-day enforcement action, the agency announced.

The arrests were carried out by ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers and targeted illegal migrants, most of whom had prior criminal histories, according to an ICE press release.

The enforcement action took place in Michigan and Ohio from Sept. 20 to 25, according to the press release.

Four of the migrants arrested had prior sex offenses, according to ICE’s Northeast Regional Communications Director, Khaalid Walls. Their charges included gross sexual imposition, attempted felonious sexual penetration, attempted unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, pending criminal sexual conduct, and a conviction for solicit prostitution.

Others had drug related and criminal violence related offenses, according to the press release.

“Upholding public safety by focusing on removing criminal aliens is at the heart of what ERO officers do every day,” Rebecca Adducci, field office director for ERO Detroit, said. (RELATED: ICE Releases List Of Murderers And Rapists Protected Under Sanctuary City Policies)

In Michigan and Ohio, ICE Detroit office said yesterday that ICE agents “arrested 46 individuals during a 5-day targeted enforcement action that ended Sept. 25, targeting criminal aliens and other immigration violators.” https://t.co/ivlYB4jJ3S

— Niraj Warikoo (@nwarikoo) September 27, 2019

“These targeted enforcement actions highlight ICE’s vital role in keeping our communities safe,” she continued.

All of those arrested were reportedly male. The group was composed of nationals from 10 different countries including Cameroon, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Iraq, Mexico, Senegal, South Korea, Tanzania and the United Kingdom.

The arrested individuals who are not being federally prosecuted will be processed for deportation, according to the press release. Those who are federally prosecuted and have illegally reentered the U.S. could face up to 20 years in prison depending on the charges, ICE stated.

Additional information from ICE will be provided when it is received.

https://dailycaller.com/2019/09/30/ice-arrests-michigan-ohio/

U.S. Rep. Dr. Mark Green (R-TN-07) led a debate on the House floor Wednesday night against sanctuary cities, introducing a motion to ensure that the stories of victims and their families are told.

The motion received bipartisan support with 16 Democrats voting in favor.

Green tweeted, “Tonight, I led debate on the House floor against sanctuary cities and introduced a motion to ensure that the stories of the victims and their families are told. The facts are undeniable—sanctuary cities constitute a direct threat to public safety.”

Rep. Mark Green✔@RepMarkGreen

Tonight, I led debate on the House floor against sanctuary cities and introduced a motion to ensure that the stories of the victims and their families are told. The facts are undeniable—sanctuary cities constitute a direct threat to public safety

Green cited the many accounts of innocent Americans who have been murdered, raped, or assaulted by criminal aliens released by sanctuary cities, saying:

The facts are undeniable—sanctuary cities constitute a direct threat to public safety. Meanwhile, the Majority does nothing about them. While they continue to defend the lawlessness of these sanctuary cities, the number of victims continues to grow.

We are a nation of laws—we must uphold our laws and not reward State and local officials who deliberately and flagrantly disregard them. It’s time for Congress to act.

Under this amendment, any victim of a crime committed by an illegal immigrant in a sanctuary jurisdiction can safely and securely file a report with the Ombudsman. This secure, confidential channel allows victims and their families an opportunity to be heard by policymakers in Congress and by the Department of Homeland Security. The Ombudsman will analyze reporting patterns and make recommendations about how to decrease the incidents we have so sadly seen.

Sanctuary cities and states are under increasing scrutiny for safety issues.

In a bid to show the horrific consequences of sanctuary laws, ICE in June released details of some of the criminals in Washington and Oregon custody, which are sanctuaries, who went on to evade ICE apprehension.

The issue is hitting close to home as well.

Metro Nashville Mayor-Elect John Cooper may want to take notice, as there have been questions raised about whether the city’s sanctuary city policy is legal under state law. The policy, enacted by outgoing Mayor David Briley, may cost Nashville a $300,000 federal grant.

– – –

Jason M. Reynolds has more than 20 years’ experience as a journalist at outlets of all sizes.
Photo “Mark Green” by CSPAN.

https://tennesseestar.com/2019/09/26/rep-green-files-motion-to-allow-victims-of-criminal-aliens-in-sanctuary-cities-to-report-their-stories/?fbclid=IwAR3cP33ObZcT8cXG7oowR0IJ5u520wiyiV3UPLxySFI_S7y-5P6C8BXuB74

TN Statutory Rights of Students and Parents

[Especially TCA 49-6-7003]

Chapter 644 of the Public Acts of 2016 requires the department to annually compile a list of state laws related to the rights of students and their parents or legal guardians. This document includes a summary of the state laws that provide explicit rights to parents, legal guardians, or students and does not include all the legal protections and privileges afforded to students and their parents or legal guardians. 

T.C.A. § 49-1-704. 

Parents and guardians have the right to inspect and review their children's education records maintained by the school. Parents and guardians have the right to request student data specific to their children's educational records. LEAs shall provide parents or guardians with a copy of their children's educational records upon request.

T.C.A. § 49-1-705. 

Students shall not have to provide data to their school or LEA on their political affiliation; religion; voting history; and firearms ownership.

T.C.A. § 49-1-706. 

 Parents must provide written consent prior to a state agency or educational institution collecting any individual student biometric data, student data relative to analysis of facial expressions, EEG brain wave patterns, skin conductance, galvanic skin response, heart-rate variability, pulse, blood volume, posture, and eye-tracking.  

T.C.A. § 49-1-1106.   

Parents or other caretakers of children in the care of a child care program certified by the department of education shall be permitted to visit and inspect the facilities and observe the methods for the care of their children at any time during which the children are in the care of the program and, except those records of other children and their parents or caretakers, shall further be permitted to inspect any records of the program that are not privileged, or are not otherwise confidential, as provided by law or regulation, and the parents' or caretakers' access for these purposes shall not be purposely denied by the program.

T.C.A. § 49-2-124. 

Parents may refuse to consent to the administration of a psychotropic medication to a student or to a mental health screening, evaluation, testing or examination of a child or student. 

T.C.A. § 49-2-129.   

No school administrator, teacher, or other employee of an LEA shall require a student or the student's parent to provide information on firearm ownership by the student's family. No school administrator or other employee of an LEA shall require a teacher or other school employee to provide information on firearm ownership by the teacher or school employee. Any information on firearm ownership that is voluntarily provided by a student, parent, teacher, or LEA employee shall not be the basis for adverse disciplinary action against a student or adverse employment action against a teacher or LEA employee.

T.C.A. § 49-2-211.   

Every LEA shall have a policy that allows a parent or legal guardian access to review all surveys, analyses or evaluations, prior to being administered to the parent or legal guardian's child. The policy shall enable a parent or legal guardian to opt their student out of participating in a survey, analysis, or evaluation. The policy shall require a parent, legal guardian or student, in the case of students eighteen (18) years of age or older, to provide written consent before the collection of individual student biometric data. The LEA shall also disclose to the parent or legal guardian of the student the purpose for the survey, analysis, or evaluation materials as well as who will have access to the results.

T.C.A. § 49-3-310.  

No board of education of any public school system shall require any pupil or parent to purchase any textbook or instructional materials except in cases where the pupil or parent damages, loses or defaces the textbook or instructional materials either through willful intent or neglect. Parents or pupils may voluntarily purchase textbooks and instructional materials.

T.C.A. § 49-5-1003. 

Educators shall not disclose information about students obtained in the course of professional service, unless disclosure serves a compelling professional purpose or is required by law.

T.C.A. § 49-6-901.   

A copy of a student's report card shall be furnished by the LEA to the parent or parents of the student.

T.C.A. § 49-6-902.   

Any parent who does not have custody of a child, or in the case of parents having joint custody of a child, the parent not residing with the child, or in the case of a child in the custody of a legal guardian, both parents, may request in writing that a copy of the child's report card, notice of school attendance, names of teachers, class schedules, standardized test scores and any other records customarily available to parents be furnished directly to the noncustodial or nonresident parent. 

T.C.A. § 49-6-1004.

A period of silence of approximately one (1) minute shall be maintained at the beginning of each school day. A teacher shall not indicate or suggest to the students any action to be taken by them during this time.  Students may voluntarily participate in prayer and no teacher or other school authority may prescribe the form or content of any prayer. Nonsectarian and nonproselytizing voluntary benedictions, invocations or prayers that are initiated and given by a student may be permitted during school-related noncompulsory student assemblies, school-related student sporting events and school-related commencement ceremonies. 

T.C.A. § 49-6-1031.  

No school shall permit a student to become a member or participate in any activities of a club or organization if the parent or legal guardian of such student has tendered a written communication prohibiting such student from such membership or participation. In order to be valid, the written communication shall be signed and dated by the parent or legal guardian.

T.C.A. § 49-6-1305. 

LEAs shall notify parents or legal guardians of students whom the LEA anticipates will be present for family life instruction in sex education that: The LEA is using a family life curriculum that meets the requirements of state law; and The parent or legal guardian shall have the right to examine the grade level instructional materials and confer with the student's instructor, school counselor or principal, as designated by the LEA, regarding any or all portions of family life. A parent or guardian who wishes to excuse a student from any or all portions of family life shall submit a request, in writing, to the student's instructor, school counselor, or principal. A student who is excused from any or all portions of family life shall not be penalized for grading purposes if the student satisfactorily performs alternative health lessons.

T.C.A. § 49-6-1306.    

A parent or legal guardian of a student enrolled in family life may file a complaint with the director of schools if the parent or legal guardian believes that a teacher, instructor, or representative of an organization has not complied with the requirements of that law.  

If a student receives instruction by an instructor or organization that promotes gateway sexual activity or demonstrates sexual activity then the parent or legal guardian shall have a cause of action against that instructor or organization for actual damages plus reasonable attorney's fees and court costs (this does not apply to instruction from teachers employed by the LEA). 

T.C.A. § 49-6-1504.  

Upon the expulsion of a student charged with a violent felony or violent felony delinquency, or a student convicted, adjudicated, or that admits guilt in court with respect to a violent felony or felony delinquency, the director of schools shall immediately give written or actual notice to the parent or guardian and the student of the right to appeal the decision to expel or remand the student to an alternative school. All appeals shall be filed, orally or in writing, within five (5) days after receipt of the notice and may be filed by the parent or guardian, the student, or any person holding a teaching license who is employed by the school system if requested by the student.

T.C.A. § 49-6-1506.  

A student or student’s parent may request in writing within five (5) days after receipt of written notice of a disciplinary hearing by the disciplinary hearing authority that the hearing be conducted as an open meeting. 

T.C.A. § 49-6-1601.   

Principals or other designated persons shall provide to parents or legal guardians all school information and records relevant to any reports of alleged abuse or sexual abuse, if requested by the parent or legal guardian; provided, that the information is edited to protect the confidentiality of the identity of the person who made the report, any other person whose life or safety may be endangered by the disclosure and any information made confidential pursuant to federal law or § 10-7-504(a)(4). 

T.C.A. § 49-6-1802.   

An LEA shall treat a student's voluntary expression of a religious viewpoint, if any, on an otherwise permissible subject in the same manner in which the LEA treats a student's voluntary expression of a secular or other viewpoint on an otherwise permissible subject and may not discriminate against the student based on a religious viewpoint, if any, expressed by the student on an otherwise permissible subject.

T.C.A. § 49-6-1804.   

Students may express their written beliefs about religion in homework, artwork, and other written and oral assignments free from discrimination based on the religious content of the student's submissions. Homework and classroom assignments shall be judged by ordinary academic standards of substance and relevance and against other legitimate academic concerns identified by the LEA. Students may not be penalized or rewarded based on the religious content of the student's work.

T.C.A. § 49-6-1805.   

Students may organize religious student groups, religious clubs, "see you at the pole" gatherings, or other religious gatherings before, during, and after school to the same extent that students are permitted to organize other non-curricular student activities and groups. Religious groups shall be given the same access to school facilities for assembling as is given to other non-curricular groups without discrimination based on the religious content of the students' expression. If student groups that meet for nonreligious activities are permitted to advertise or announce meetings of their groups, then the LEA may not discriminate against groups that meet for prayer or other religious speech. An LEA may disclaim school sponsorship of noncurricular groups and events in a manner that neither favors nor disfavors groups that meet to engage in expressions of faith or religious speech. 

T.C.A. § 49-6-2211. 

Every student shall be permitted to take any textbook or instructional materials specifically issued to the student home for the purpose of studying the textbook or instructional materials.  

T.C.A. § 49-6-2904. 

Students have the right to voluntarily pray in a public school, express religious viewpoints in a public school, speak to and attempt to share religious viewpoints with other students in a public school, possess or distribute religious literature in a public school, and to be absent to observe religious holidays and participate in other religious practices. The participation in these activities must be in accordance with LEA policies. 

T.C.A. § 49-6-3001.  

A parent or guardian may withdraw a child from a public school for a good substantial reason; provided, that within thirty (30) days the parent or person having legal custody of the child places the child in a public school designated by the local board of education or in a non-public school.

A parent or guardian who believes that a child is not ready to attend school at the designated age of mandatory attendance may make application to the principal of the public school that the child would attend for a one (1) semester or one (1) year deferral in required attendance. 

A person designated as a caregiver with the power of attorney for care of a minor child pursuant to title 34, chapter 6, part 3 shall have the right to enroll the minor child in the LEA serving the area where the caregiver resides. The LEA shall allow a caregiver with a properly executed power of attorney for care of a minor child, pursuant to title 34, chapter 6, part 3, to enroll the minor child, but may require documentation of the minor child's residence with a caregiver or documentation or other verification of the validity of the stated hardship prior to enrollment. Except where limited by federal law, the caregiver shall be assigned the rights, duties and responsibilities that would otherwise be assigned to the parent, legal guardian or legal custodian pursuant to this title. If at any time the parent or legal guardian disagrees with the decision of the caregiver or chooses to make any educational decisions for the minor child, then the parent must revoke the power of attorney and provide the LEA written documentation of the revocation.

T.C.A. § 49-6-3109. Unlawful discrimination. 

No person shall be refused admission into or be excluded from any public school in this state on account of race, creed, color, sex or national origin. No student shall be assigned or compelled to attend any school on account of race, creed, color or national origin, or for the purpose of achieving equality in attendance or increased attendance or reduced attendance, at any school, of persons of one (1) or more particular races, creeds, colors or national origins. LEAs may assign a pupil in the manner requested or authorized by the pupil's parents or guardian.

T.C.A. § 49-6-3201. 

Parents or legal guardians who are dissatisfied with the school assignment of the student may, within ten (10) days, make a written application to the board for a hearing before the board as to the reasonableness of the assignment and ask for a transfer to another school. 

T.C.A. § 49-6-4213. 

Students shall be advised in writing at the time of their enrollment in a school that they are subject to the testing for the presence of drugs in the student’s body. Notice to each student shall include grounds for testing, the procedures that will be followed and possible penalties. Students shall be advised of their right to refuse to undergo drug testing and the consequences of refusal. A parent of the student or a person legally responsible for the student shall be notified before any drug test is administered to the student. If an LEA adopts a policy permitting random drug testing of students in voluntary extracurricular activities, then, prior to a student participating in an extracurricular activity, the LEA shall notify the parents and guardians of any such student that the student may be subjected to random drug testing. A parent or guardian of a student participating in a volunteer extracurricular activity shall provide written consent for random drug testing prior to the student participating in the voluntary extracurricular activity. The principal or school counselor of the school in which a student who tests positive in a drug testing program is enrolled shall provide referral information to the student and to the student's parents or guardian. The information shall include information on inpatient, outpatient and community-based drug and alcohol treatment programs.

T.C.A. § 49-6-4404.   

Within forty-eight (48) hours of the imposition of corporal punishment of a pupil within the special school district, the pupil shall have the right to be examined by a physician to determine if the punishment was excessive. In any case in which the punishment is excessive, the pupil shall have the same civil and criminal remedies as any other pupil in the public schools.

T.C.A. § 49-6-5001.   

Children must be immunized against diseases identified by the Commissioner of Health prior to attendance at any school, nursery school, kindergarten, pre-school or child care facility. Parents or guardian of children are responsible for having their children immunized. Parents or guardians may file with school authorities a statement that the immunization and other preventive measures conflict with the parents’ or guardians’ religious tenets and practices, affirmed under the penalties of perjury. Parents may not provide a statement of waiver from immunizations during an epidemic or immediate threat of an epidemic. No child shall be denied admission to any school or school facility if the child has not been immunized due to medical reasons if the child has a written statement from the child's doctor excusing the child from the immunization. No child or youth determined to be homeless shall be denied admission to any school or school facility if the child or youth has not yet been immunized or is unable to produce immunization records due to being homeless. 

T.C.A. § 49-6-5005

Parents and guardians shall be provided with information about meningococcal disease and the effectiveness of vaccination against meningococcal disease at the beginning of every school year by the LEA. 

T.C.A. § 49-6-6007

Students and parents must be able to access information about state mandated tests and tests mandated by the LEA that shall be administered in the upcoming school year on the LEA website. 

T.C.A. § 49-6-7002

Parents or guardians may meet at least two (2) times per year with appropriate faculty members to discuss any pertinent problems or other matters of concern regarding the development and education of the student of the parent or guardian. 

T.C.A. § 49-6-7003. 

A parent or legal guardian is entitled to review all teaching materials, instructional materials, and other teaching aids used in the classroom of the parent or legal guardian's child; and to review tests that are developed by and graded by a teacher of the parent or legal guardian's child. LEAs shall make all teaching materials, including handouts readily available for review upon request by the parents or legal guardians.

T.C.A. § 49-10-103. 

Children with disabilities shall receive the benefits of a free public education appropriate to their needs. 

T.C.A. § 49-10-306.  

Any child receiving special education or special education related services outside the school district in which the child would normally attend public school and any parent or guardian of the child, shall continue to have all civil and other rights that the child would have if receiving like education or related services within the subdivision or school district where the child would normally attend public school.

T.C.A. § 49-10-1304. 

If school personnel impose isolation restraints or isolation on a student in an emergency situation, the student's parent or guardian shall be notified, orally or by written or printed communication, the same day the isolation or restraint was used. School personnel shall be held harmless for failure to notify if reasonable effort has been made to notify the student's parent or guardian. 

T.C.A. § 49-10-1305. 

A child may be administered a chemical restraint for therapeutic purposes under the direction of a physician and with the child’s parent or guardian’s consent to administer such chemical restraint. 

T.C.A. § 49-13-140.   

All records of a public charter school shall be open for personal inspection and duplication by any citizen of this state to the same extent that records of public schools operated by an LEA are open.

T.C.A. § 49-16-206. 

Families with students enrolled in virtual school shall be provided instructional materials by the virtual school. The virtual school shall also ensure student materials and access to necessary technology used for school work through a physical computer lab that is available to the student through regularly scheduled times. 

 https://www.loudoncounty.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=418102&type=d&pREC_ID=961519

BY ROBERT SPENCER AUGUST 15, 2019

The Qur’an says that Christians and Muslims worship the same God (29:46), and so does the Catholic Church. The Irish Catholic newspaper recently considered this question and offered an argument from authority, which is the weakest of all arguments: Christians and Muslims worship the same God because the Catholic Church’s Second Vatican Council says so in the documents Lumen Gentium and Nostra Aetate. But a closer examination of the evidence shows this to be false.

Besides the obvious differences regarding the Trinity, the crucifixion, and the divinity of Christ, there are deeper differences that are often overlooked.

1. Free will. There are numerous passages of the Qur’an, as well as indications from Islamic tradition, to the effect that not only can no one believe in Allah except by his will, so also no one can disbelieve in him except by his active will. “And to whoever God assigns no light, no light has he” (24:40).

The issue of free will versus predestination has, of course, vexed Christians of various sects for centuries, as different biblical passages are given different weight in various traditions. Calvinism, of course, in its pure form is notorious for its doctrine of double predestination, the idea that God has destined people for hell as well as for salvation. But this position is largely unique to them in the Christian tradition, which generally holds that God desires all men and women to be saved, and gives them the means to attain this salvation. The idea that God would create men for hell is in total conflict with the proposition that God “desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4), and that he “takes no pleasure in the death of anyone” (Ezekiel 18:32).

The situation in Islam is, on first glance, even worse, with the Qur’an’s testimony on this, as on other matters, appearing to be hopelessly contradictory. The Qur’an, says the Qur’an, is “nothing but a reminder to all beings, for whoever of you who would go straight; but you will not do so unless Allah wills, the Lord of all Being” (81:27-29). Those who would “go straight” — follow Allah’s straight path — cannot do so “unless Allah wills.”

The Qur’an goes significantly further than that, into a more or less open determinism: “If Allah had willed, he would have made you one nation; but he leads astray those whom he wills, and guides those whom he wills; and you will surely be questioned about the things you have done” (16:93). Even though everything is in Allah’s hands, even the decision of the individual to obey him or not — for he leads astray those whom he wills, and guides to the truth whom he wills — human beings will still be held accountable for the things they have done.

Proof That Muslims and Christians Don't Worship the Same God

Allah even sends people to hell based not on their deeds, but solely upon his fiat: “And if we had willed, We could have given every soul its guidance, but the word from me will come into effect: I will surely fill hell with jinn and people all together” (32:13).

The Qur’an repeats this idea many times: Those who have rejected Allah do so because he made it possible for them to do nothing else. And indeed, given the fact that in the Islamic scheme of creation and salvation, human beings are the slaves of Allah, not his children, the rejection of free will is not altogether surprising. Allah tells Muhammad that “some of them there are who listen to you, and we lay veils on their hearts so that they don’t understand it, and in their ears heaviness; and if they see any sign whatever, they do not believe in it, so that when they come to you they dispute with you, the unbelievers saying, ‘This is nothing but the fairy-tales of the ancient ones’” (6:25-6).

Elsewhere in the Qur’an Allah describes this veil as a seal and as a barrier, saying to his prophet: “As for the unbelievers, it is all the same to them whether you have warned them or have not warned them, they do not believe. Allah has set a seal on their hearts and on their hearing, and on their eyes is a covering, and there awaits them a mighty chastisement” (2:6-7). The medieval Islamic scholar Ibn Kathir (1301-1372), whose commentary on the Qur’an is still enormously influential among Muslims, says in his commentary on this Qur’anic passage: “These Ayat [verses] indicate that whomever Allah has written to be miserable, they shall never find anyone to guide them to happiness, and whomever Allah directs to misguidance, he shall never find anyone to guide him.”

At first glance, this may seem to be not far from Jesus’ words: “This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah which says: `You shall indeed hear but never understand, and you shall indeed see but never perceive. For this people’s heart has grown dull, and their ears are heavy of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should perceive with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn for me to heal them’” (Matt. 13:13-15).

And indeed, Islamic tradition shares with Christian tradition the idea that repeated defiance of God can render one’s soul insensitive to grace. That appears to be the case in many passages of the Qur’an, such as one recounting the reaction of hypocrites to a new revelation that Muhammad has delivered: “And whenever a sura is sent down, they look one at another: ‘Does anyone see you?’ Then they turn away. Allah has turned away their hearts, for they are a people who do not understand” (9:127).

But in Islam there is more. Another Qur’an commentary explains Qur’an 36:9 as meaning that Allah has “covered the insight of their hearts (so that they see not) the Truth and guidance.” Ibn Kathir records that one early Muslim also ascribed unbelief to Allah’s will: “Allah placed this barrier between them and Islam and Iman [faith], so that they will never reach it.”

Other Qur’an passages state this explicitly. “We have created for hell,” Allah says in a Qur’anic passage that directly echoes the statement of Jesus’ quoting Isaiah, “many jinn and men: they have hearts, but do not understand with them; they have eyes, but do not perceive with them; they have ears, but they do not hear with them. They are like cattle; nay, rather they are further astray. Those — they are the heedless” (7:179).

Despite the superficial similarity of the “eyes but see not and ears but hear not” motif, there is an immense chasm between this and the statement of Jesus, which most exegetes throughout the ages have taken to mean that some people harden themselves so in unbelief that when they hear the truth of God, they do not recognize it as such. In the Qur’anic passage, by contrast, Allah says that he actually created some people (as well as the mysterious spirit beings known as jinn) for hell — a doctrine that is hard to reconcile with the idea of a just and loving God.

In Islamic theological history, a party known as the Qadariyya tried to advance the concept of individual free will. The pioneering Islamic scholar Ignaz Goldziher explains that the Qadaryya were protesting against “an unworthy conception of God,” and yet they “could not find a large body of supporters” among Muslims. Their opponents “battled them with the received interpretation of the sacred scriptures.” And won. Ultimately, Muslim authorities declared the concept of human free will to be heretical. A twelfth-century Muslim jurist, Ibn Abi Ya’la, fulminated that the Qadariyya wrongly “consider that they hold in their grasp the ability to do good and evil, avoid harm and obtain benefit, obey and disobey, and be guided or misguided. They claim that human beings retain full initiative, without any prior status within the will of Allah for their acts, nor even in His knowledge of them.” Even worse, “their doctrine is similar to that of Zoroastrians and Christians. It is the very root of heresy.”

New Book: History Is 'Entirely Incompatible' With Islam

2. The nature of the soul. The Christian concept that mankind’s alienation from God is manifested in an inclination toward sin is utterly alien to Islam. In Islam, although Adam and Eve begin in Paradise and are banished from it after their disobedience, and Satan vows to tempt the believers, ultimately even this is a manifestation of Allah’s active will. In the Qur’an, it is only Allah who inspires in the soul both “wickedness and righteousness” (91:8). The world-renowned Pakistani Muslim political leader and theologian Syed Abul Ala Maududi (1902-1979), who wrote a popular and influential commentary on the Qur’an, explains that this verse means that “the Creator has imbedded in man’s nature tendencies and inclinations towards both good and evil.”

That means that Allah is ultimately responsible not just for the soul’s inclination toward good, but for its inclination toward evil as well. In other words, in sharp contrast to the Christian understanding that evil is the rejection of God, in Islam God is the source of evil. This is worlds apart from the proposition that “God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all” (I John 1:5) — for to place evil in the soul, Allah must have it to give, which would be utterly impossible and absurd in the Christian conception, since evil is the absence of God.

3. The nature of God. No limits can be placed upon the sovereignty of Allah, the absolute monarch. That includes ones that would naturally arise from his being always good and true. Allah, the Qur’an says twice, is the best of “schemers”: “And when those who disbelieved plotted against you to restrain you or kill you or evict you. But they scheme, and Allah schemes. And Allah is the best of schemers.” (8:30; cf. 3:54). In this “scheming,” Allah has no limitations whatsoever. Indeed, at one point the Qur’an excoriates the Jews for suggesting limits to God’s power. The passage is ambiguous, but its principal import is plain enough: They dared to say that there was something Allah could not do: “And the Jews say, ‘The hand of Allah is chained.’ Chained are their hands, and cursed are they for what they say. Rather, both his hands are extended; he spends however he wills” (5:64). Neither does he have any obligation to disclose any consistency or anything else in what he does: “He shall not be questioned as to what he does” (21:23).

What could the Jews have possibly meant, if any Jews ever said it at all? It is possible that they meant that God, being good, would be consistent, and would operate the universe according to consistent and observable laws. This would not have been so much a limitation on what God could do, but upon what he would do. This proposition of divine consistency was all-important for the development of scientific inquiry. “The rise of science,” observes social scientist Rodney Stark, “was not an extension of classical learning. It was the natural outgrowth of Christian doctrine: nature exists because it was created by God. In order to love and honor God, it is necessary to fully appreciate the wonders of his handiwork. Because God is perfect, that handiwork functions in accord with immutable principles. By the full use of our God-given powers of reason and observation, it ought to be possible to discover those principles.” That process of discovery became the foundation of modern science. “These were the crucial ideas,” says Stark, “that explain why science arose in Christian Europe and nowhere else.”

Indeed, for an Islamic culture to have affirmed that God’s creation operates according to immutable principles would have been nothing short of blasphemy. Allah’s hand is not chained by consistency or by anything else. Allah is absolutely free to do anything he wills to do, without any expectations or limitations deriving from logic, love, or anything else. This idea made sure that scientific exploration in the Islamic world would be stillborn.

So would philosophical investigation. The great Islamic theologian Al-Ghazali (1058-1111), although himself a philosopher, delivered what turned out to be the coup de grace to Islamic philosophy, at least as a vibrant mainstream force, in his monumental attack on the very idea of Islamic philosophy: Incoherence of the Philosophers. Muslim philosophers such as Avicenna and Averroes, according to al-Ghazali, were not intellectual trailblazers worthy of respect and careful consideration. In positing that there could be truth that was outside of or even contradicted what Allah had revealed in the Qur’an, they had shown themselves to be nothing more than heretics who should be put to death and their books burned.

And while Christians hold that God is unchanging, the Qur’an affirms Allah’s changeability, even in what he reveals to mankind: “We do not abrogate a verse or cause it to be forgotten except that We bring forth better than it or similar to it. Do you not know that Allah is over all things competent?” (2:106).

These three points are hardly ever considered when this question comes up. But they show the affirmation of the Vatican II documents Lumen Gentium and Nostra Aetate to be wholly false.

Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He is author of the New York Times bestsellers The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and The Truth About Muhammad. His new book is The History of Jihad From Muhammad to ISIS. Follow him on Twitter here. Like him on Facebook here.

https://pjmedia.com/faith/do-christians-and-muslims-worship-the-same-god-absolutely-not-heres-why/

Yay for homeschooling!!

By Emma Roberts

It is preposterous to me that many of my peers are so afraid of climate change that they say they can hardly think about it. I think what they should really be afraid of is government overreach caused by such exaggeration over the effects of climate change. 

Back in the 1960s, some scientists believed that by 1975, the human race would perish through famine caused by climate change. Funny thing, the human race is now 7.5 billion strong. Fast-forward 10 years to the 1970s, and scientists were claiming that the world was entering a new ice age, or, in other words, that we were imperiled by global freezing.  

Now it is 2019 (about the same time scientists had predicted the world would be frozen over), and many of my peers, as well as plenty of adults, believe that the world is going to end due to global warming, and there is nothing we can do to stop it. 

The hysteria over climate change has gone so far that many students my age are striking — skipping school every Friday to protest global warming. And they’re demanding that Washington, D.C., fix it. 

Washington has many, many things that it needs to fix, and many responsibilities and duties to uphold. Global warming, however, is not one of them. Studies show that if the U.S. fully implemented the Green New Deal, the temperature of Earth would decrease by no more than 0.097 degrees Fahrenheit over a span of 30 years.  

But the price of electricity would increase by almost 10 times its current amount. The price of gasoline would increase astronomically, so that drivers would have no choice but to drive Priuses and Teslas.  

Further, it is estimated that in the state of Texas alone, such regulations would cause the loss of over a million jobs. And that’s just in Texas; across the United States, the numbers would be devastating and the effects on our economy and society possibly irreversible. 

None of this sounds like freedom to me, and that is because it is not freedom; it is government control. It is government control over the single black mother who now won’t be able to afford her electricity. It is government control over the Hispanic immigrant who, because the construction machines he operates are not “eco-friendly,” will lose his job and not be able to put food on the table for his family. This is not the American way. It doesn’t make sense to implement regulations that do not solve the problem and yet adversely affect the American people so greatly. 

The government wants control. And its excuse is the thin veil of only wanting the best for people and the Earth. But the result of ceding so much control to government that we will have no choice in what job we have, no choice in what car we drive, and no choice in the price we pay for our electricity. 

That’s not freedom. And frankly, the possibility of such government overreach scares me a lot more than global warming, which seems to be just another ridiculous scientific prediction. Yes, we need to be good stewards of the Earth. We need to take care of our natural resources, because they are the only ones we have. But the government cannot do it for us, and if it tries, it will only wreak havoc.  

The good news is we are taking care of our environment; America’s air and water are cleaner than ever, even as our economy has expanded and our population has increased. My peers should take note, so that in 20 year or 30 years or 50 years, we’ll still enjoy the freedoms that set America apart. 

Emma Roberts is a 17-year-old living in Liberty Hill, Texas. She is home-schooled and, when not reading about public policy, enjoys exploring the Texas Hill Country.
 

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/09/24/socialism_not_climate_change_is_the_real_threat_141323.html

September 20, 2019 12:12PM

As Mayor Briley’s handlers and rich friends try to paint the picture of an effective mayor who moved the city of Nashville forward during his time in office, I’m calling bullsh*t. In my opinion, Briley’s time in office was an unmitigated economic disaster and that’s why Nashvillians made history and overwhelmingly voted him out. I want to be clear about how historic this was. An incumbent mayor has never lost re-election since Nashville and Davidson County merged into a metro government. The eventual winner of the election didn’t have the name ID or corporate donations that Briley did and ended up beating the incumbent mayor by 40 percentage points in the runoff election.

Let’s talk about why:

Corporate Welfare

This may be the reason that Briley lost so much of the liberal vote to Cooper. Nashville’s new mayor John Cooper won the election in part because of his brilliant campaign strategy to focus on neighborhoods. The reason this worked so well was because of Briley’s complete focus on downtown. While Briley always made sure to give lip service to neighborhoods, it seemed as if most of our tax dollars went to big corporation after big corporation to move to the downtown corridor. Whether it was giving millions of dollars to gigantic companies like Amazon or Alliance Bernstein or giving away $25 million to a bunch of millionaires who wanted to build a soccer stadium, Mayor Briley seemed to choose corporations over teachers, police officers, and firefighters.

The Budget

When the Beacon Center did exit polling during the election, fiscal responsibility/the budget was the #1 issue on voters’ minds. Unsurprisingly, Mayor Briley did very poorly among these voters. It wasn’t just that Briley’s administration helped bankrupt one of the hottest cities in the country in just 18 months; it was his utter lack of interest in addressing the budget shortfall in the city. In one of the final debates, Briley actually told Cooper “social priorities cannot be subservient to the budget.” To his credit, Cooper answered by saying that “all social progress is dependent on economics.” Briley’s lack of interest in fiscal stewardship was another one of the main reasons for his landslide loss.

Everything else

If I wrote all out of all Briley’s failures as a mayor and candidate, I could write a novel but in the interest of keeping this column under 600 words, I will just mention a few more. From backing a completely unaffordable and unrealistic transit plan that Nashville voted down by 2-1 margin to criticizing Cooper for self-funding his campaign while at the same time taking large sums of money from millionaires who have gotten tax dollars from his administration, Nashville was ready to move on to a new mayor.

Briley’s contrived and inauthentic “Calling Bullsh*t” remark was the perfect encapsulation of his time as mayor: it was more about obtaining the cheers of a few hundred insiders lucky enough to be in the room than advancing policies that improve the lives of the rest of us Nashvillians who were not.

https://www.beacontn.org/mayor-briley-was-a-disaster-for-nashville

Kevin Whitt received plenty of praise and admiration as a drag queen. People treated him like a celebrity when he performed as a woman.

But when a male stripper in a gay strip club invited him to church, Whitt had no reason to say no. He thought the man was joking, but the following Sunday morning, Whitt woke up to the man honking outside his house.

"I hadn't even taken a shower or anything," Whitt says on the "Charisma News" podcast. "So I quickly brushed my teeth, just threw on the clothes I had on the night before, which were girl clothes. And we go to church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and we went to Calvary Chapel. And he had his hands out to worship God, and I was like, 'OK, he was just at the club last night getting drunk, dancing to the song.'"

Whitt asked the man why he was at a gay bar the night before going to church. The man told him he was struggling with his sexuality but was trying to find help through a ministry at the church.

Whitt and that man never spoke to each other again, but that odd experience planted a seed in Whitt's heart.

Later on, several of Whitt's friends died from suicide, HIV, drug overdoses and other heartbreaking circumstances that accompany the kind of lifestyle he was living. Around that time, he caught a severe case of pneumonia that forced him to go to the hospital.

"I was like, 'OK, I've lost like seven friends. My life is not going well. I'm a prostitute. There has to be more to life than this,'" he says. "So I started praying in my hospital room. And I was like, 'If there's more than this, show me what it is, God. If there's more to life than this, help me realize it and see what's going on.'"

As soon as Whitt was released from the hospital, one of his friends invited him to church for Easter Sunday. Whitt was not prepared for the encounter he had with the Holy Spirit that day. He spent the service sobbing and marveling at the price Jesus paid to save him.

But that didn't mean all of Whitt's inner struggles went away immediately. Instead, the Holy Spirit had to lead him on a journey of healing from the trauma he experienced since his youth.

"No one is born gay," Whitt says. "But no one chooses to be gay, either. Homosexuality is the direct manifestation of neglect and abuse as a child. ... What we have in America is a country full of father wounds, and those father wounds lead to many things."

Listen to the podcast to hear how the Holy Spirit healed Whitt of his gender dysphoria and how he's helping others. You can hear him speak in Orlando at the Freedom March on Sept. 14!

https://www.charismanews.com/culture/77950-former-drag-queen-shares-how-holy-spirit-healed-his-gender-dysphoria?utm_source=Charisma%20News%20Daily&utm_medium=email&utm_content=subscriber_id:3485345&utm_campaign=CNO%20daily%20-%202019-09-11

September 14, 2019 By Patricia McCarthy

Throughout the Democrat presidential debate Thursday night, the candidates were positively entertaining in their quest to out-pander each other (can we say Yang?) — on health care, of course, but especially on race, then guns.  The agreed-upon talking point since the day he was elected has been that "Trump is a racist" even though for the first seventy-one years of his life, no one had ever, even once, suggested such a thing.

Trump had long been friends with nearly all high-profile African-Americans from all walks of life in New York.  He has helped countless African-American individuals, schools, and charitable organizations.  The man has never demonstrated an iota of racism or even race consciousness.  But as we all know by now, the truth is not a left-wing value, as Dennis Prager often reminds.  They don't like Trump, so any slur, any fabricated indictment of his character is A-OK, a sanctioned furtherance of the agenda to transform America into their dystopian utopia.

White supremacy?  Sounds like a plan.  Let's go with it.  No made-up accusation is over the line.  No plan to eviscerate the Constitution is a bridge too far.  The left loathes the limits our Constitution places on our government.  Thank God for the genius of our Founders.  Without them, we would not have prevailed to this day.  As for the loathsome Beto's vow to "take our guns," he has no idea the power of the sleeping giant he has awakened.  Americans who revere the Constitution are filled with a terrible resolve.

Will we survive the socialist plan our Left has for us?  Only time will tell.  Given the Left's promulgation of homelessness (they pass out needles and ban straws), its commitment to the further dumbing down of education, and its disdain for Judeo-Christian values, its love of open borders and all that entails, and its fidelity to Marxist socialism, if leftists take the White House, the House, and the Senate, America as we know it will be over.  The U.S. will become a class-stratified society like that of old Europe, of France before its revolution.  Our elites will see to it that their lives are not impacted in any way by the legislation they mean to impose on the rest of us.  That is not part of their plan.

The American Revolution was fought to free the American colonies from the tyranny of and taxation by England.  That same liberty-loving spirit led to the Civil War: freedom-loving Americans fought to end slavery.  The Republican Party was founded to do exactly that.  Any faux historian who says different is lying.  America was founded in 1776, its nationhood cemented with the ratification of the Constitution in 1788.

Legitimate historians are rare these days; nearly all have been politicized by academia and its power to persuade, and by its love of Howard Zinn's slanderous and wholly inaccurate version of U.S. history.  The NYT's silly claim that we have been a nation since 1619, when, according to the paper, the first slave arrived in the New World, is utter nonsense.  Academia is now, with a few exceptions, thoroughly corrupt, committed only to the leftist indoctrination of the unsuspecting young.

Only the perceived crimes of America matter now.  We are all to be indicted for being born here.  We are to be condemned and punished if born Caucasian, as if we had a hand in the nature of our birth.  And yet it is those of us who love America and are familiar with our history who care nothing about the color of anyone's skin.  It is the Left that defines people and judges people by their race and not their character.  How else to explain leftists' affection for illegal migrant criminals like those terrorizing Montgomery County, Maryland, one example that is being replicated across the country? 

The debate of Thursday night should be a huge wake-up call for all freedom-loving Americans.  Every one of the Democrat candidates wants to curb nearly all of the freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights: speech, assembly, the right to bear arms.  They mean to restrict our access to health care, fuel, food, electricity, mobility by car or air, and goods in markets. 

In short, they well and truly intend to transform the country beyond what Obama did on his watch and not in a good way.  They mean to punish all of us who support Trump because, like Hillary, we are to them deplorable for loving our country.  They are not alone.  The DNC debate audience in Houston were mind-numbed clapping seals.  The more punitively race-conscious and socialist the candidates' promises, the more they applauded.

The fact that there have been no American flags on the stage at any of the Democrat debates says it all.  One thing is certain: this election season is going to be a bumpy ride.  Like the colonists of 1776, we are looking at the choice between freedom and tyranny.  All Americans need to be cognizant of the deadly seriousness of their vote in 2020.  Trump's style and his tweets may offend some, but his dedication to the preservation of America is boundless.  He has pledged his life and fortune to the cause.  Gratitude is in order.

 https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/09/the_democrat_debate_was_terrifying_who_are_these_people.html#ixzz5zuRsThaJ
 

September 14, 2019 By Patricia McCarthy

Throughout the Democrat presidential debate Thursday night, the candidates were positively entertaining in their quest to out-pander each other (can we say Yang?) — on health care, of course, but especially on race, then guns.  The agreed-upon talking point since the day he was elected has been that "Trump is a racist" even though for the first seventy-one years of his life, no one had ever, even once, suggested such a thing.

Trump had long been friends with nearly all high-profile African-Americans from all walks of life in New York.  He has helped countless African-American individuals, schools, and charitable organizations.  The man has never demonstrated an iota of racism or even race consciousness.  But as we all know by now, the truth is not a left-wing value, as Dennis Prager often reminds.  They don't like Trump, so any slur, any fabricated indictment of his character is A-OK, a sanctioned furtherance of the agenda to transform America into their dystopian utopia.

White supremacy?  Sounds like a plan.  Let's go with it.  No made-up accusation is over the line.  No plan to eviscerate the Constitution is a bridge too far.  The left loathes the limits our Constitution places on our government.  Thank God for the genius of our Founders.  Without them, we would not have prevailed to this day.  As for the loathsome Beto's vow to "take our guns," he has no idea the power of the sleeping giant he has awakened.  Americans who revere the Constitution are filled with a terrible resolve.

Will we survive the socialist plan our Left has for us?  Only time will tell.  Given the Left's promulgation of homelessness (they pass out needles and ban straws), its commitment to the further dumbing down of education, and its disdain for Judeo-Christian values, its love of open borders and all that entails, and its fidelity to Marxist socialism, if leftists take the White House, the House, and the Senate, America as we know it will be over.  The U.S. will become a class-stratified society like that of old Europe, of France before its revolution.  Our elites will see to it that their lives are not impacted in any way by the legislation they mean to impose on the rest of us.  That is not part of their plan.

The American Revolution was fought to free the American colonies from the tyranny of and taxation by England.  That same liberty-loving spirit led to the Civil War: freedom-loving Americans fought to end slavery.  The Republican Party was founded to do exactly that.  Any faux historian who says different is lying.  America was founded in 1776, its nationhood cemented with the ratification of the Constitution in 1788.

Legitimate historians are rare these days; nearly all have been politicized by academia and its power to persuade, and by its love of Howard Zinn's slanderous and wholly inaccurate version of U.S. history.  The NYT's silly claim that we have been a nation since 1619, when, according to the paper, the first slave arrived in the New World, is utter nonsense.  Academia is now, with a few exceptions, thoroughly corrupt, committed only to the leftist indoctrination of the unsuspecting young.

Only the perceived crimes of America matter now.  We are all to be indicted for being born here.  We are to be condemned and punished if born Caucasian, as if we had a hand in the nature of our birth.  And yet it is those of us who love America and are familiar with our history who care nothing about the color of anyone's skin.  It is the Left that defines people and judges people by their race and not their character.  How else to explain leftists' affection for illegal migrant criminals like those terrorizing Montgomery County, Maryland, one example that is being replicated across the country? 

The debate of Thursday night should be a huge wake-up call for all freedom-loving Americans.  Every one of the Democrat candidates wants to curb nearly all of the freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights: speech, assembly, the right to bear arms.  They mean to restrict our access to health care, fuel, food, electricity, mobility by car or air, and goods in markets. 

In short, they well and truly intend to transform the country beyond what Obama did on his watch and not in a good way.  They mean to punish all of us who support Trump because, like Hillary, we are to them deplorable for loving our country.  They are not alone.  The DNC debate audience in Houston were mind-numbed clapping seals.  The more punitively race-conscious and socialist the candidates' promises, the more they applauded.

The fact that there have been no American flags on the stage at any of the Democrat debates says it all.  One thing is certain: this election season is going to be a bumpy ride.  Like the colonists of 1776, we are looking at the choice between freedom and tyranny.  All Americans need to be cognizant of the deadly seriousness of their vote in 2020.  Trump's style and his tweets may offend some, but his dedication to the preservation of America is boundless.  He has pledged his life and fortune to the cause.  Gratitude is in order.

 https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/09/the_democrat_debate_was_terrifying_who_are_these_people.html#ixzz5zuRsThaJ
 

September 14, 2019 By Patricia McCarthy

Throughout the Democrat presidential debate Thursday night, the candidates were positively entertaining in their quest to out-pander each other (can we say Yang?) — on health care, of course, but especially on race, then guns.  The agreed-upon talking point since the day he was elected has been that "Trump is a racist" even though for the first seventy-one years of his life, no one had ever, even once, suggested such a thing.

Trump had long been friends with nearly all high-profile African-Americans from all walks of life in New York.  He has helped countless African-American individuals, schools, and charitable organizations.  The man has never demonstrated an iota of racism or even race consciousness.  But as we all know by now, the truth is not a left-wing value, as Dennis Prager often reminds.  They don't like Trump, so any slur, any fabricated indictment of his character is A-OK, a sanctioned furtherance of the agenda to transform America into their dystopian utopia.

White supremacy?  Sounds like a plan.  Let's go with it.  No made-up accusation is over the line.  No plan to eviscerate the Constitution is a bridge too far.  The left loathes the limits our Constitution places on our government.  Thank God for the genius of our Founders.  Without them, we would not have prevailed to this day.  As for the loathsome Beto's vow to "take our guns," he has no idea the power of the sleeping giant he has awakened.  Americans who revere the Constitution are filled with a terrible resolve.

Will we survive the socialist plan our Left has for us?  Only time will tell.  Given the Left's promulgation of homelessness (they pass out needles and ban straws), its commitment to the further dumbing down of education, and its disdain for Judeo-Christian values, its love of open borders and all that entails, and its fidelity to Marxist socialism, if leftists take the White House, the House, and the Senate, America as we know it will be over.  The U.S. will become a class-stratified society like that of old Europe, of France before its revolution.  Our elites will see to it that their lives are not impacted in any way by the legislation they mean to impose on the rest of us.  That is not part of their plan.

The American Revolution was fought to free the American colonies from the tyranny of and taxation by England.  That same liberty-loving spirit led to the Civil War: freedom-loving Americans fought to end slavery.  The Republican Party was founded to do exactly that.  Any faux historian who says different is lying.  America was founded in 1776, its nationhood cemented with the ratification of the Constitution in 1788.

Legitimate historians are rare these days; nearly all have been politicized by academia and its power to persuade, and by its love of Howard Zinn's slanderous and wholly inaccurate version of U.S. history.  The NYT's silly claim that we have been a nation since 1619, when, according to the paper, the first slave arrived in the New World, is utter nonsense.  Academia is now, with a few exceptions, thoroughly corrupt, committed only to the leftist indoctrination of the unsuspecting young.

Only the perceived crimes of America matter now.  We are all to be indicted for being born here.  We are to be condemned and punished if born Caucasian, as if we had a hand in the nature of our birth.  And yet it is those of us who love America and are familiar with our history who care nothing about the color of anyone's skin.  It is the Left that defines people and judges people by their race and not their character.  How else to explain leftists' affection for illegal migrant criminals like those terrorizing Montgomery County, Maryland, one example that is being replicated across the country? 

The debate of Thursday night should be a huge wake-up call for all freedom-loving Americans.  Every one of the Democrat candidates wants to curb nearly all of the freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights: speech, assembly, the right to bear arms.  They mean to restrict our access to health care, fuel, food, electricity, mobility by car or air, and goods in markets. 

In short, they well and truly intend to transform the country beyond what Obama did on his watch and not in a good way.  They mean to punish all of us who support Trump because, like Hillary, we are to them deplorable for loving our country.  They are not alone.  The DNC debate audience in Houston were mind-numbed clapping seals.  The more punitively race-conscious and socialist the candidates' promises, the more they applauded.

The fact that there have been no American flags on the stage at any of the Democrat debates says it all.  One thing is certain: this election season is going to be a bumpy ride.  Like the colonists of 1776, we are looking at the choice between freedom and tyranny.  All Americans need to be cognizant of the deadly seriousness of their vote in 2020.  Trump's style and his tweets may offend some, but his dedication to the preservation of America is boundless.  He has pledged his life and fortune to the cause.  Gratitude is in order.

 https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/09/the_democrat_debate_was_terrifying_who_are_these_people.html#ixzz5zuRsThaJ
 

The Duke Student Government Senate unanimously declined to recognize Young Life as an official Duke student group at its Wednesday meeting. 

Young Life is a national Christian organization that has branches serving middle and high school students in Durham and Chapel Hill. The group had requested official recognition to recruit and support a greater number of students, as it already has a following on campus. But Young Life was rebuffed over concerns about the national organization’s policies concerning LGBTQ+ leaders. 

At last week’s DSG meeting, senators noted that the national organization’s rule barring LGBTQ+ individuals from leadership positions violates the Student Organization Finance Committee’s guideline that every Duke student group include a nondiscrimination statement in its constitution. 

The Senate then tabled the vote to give Young Life members the chance to speak to senators at this week’s meeting. 

Young Life’s sexual misconduct policy states that "we do not in any way wish to exclude persons who engage in sexual misconduct or who practice a homosexual lifestyle from being recipients of ministry of God's grace and mercy as expressed in Jesus Christ. We do, however, believe that such persons are not to serve as staff or volunteers in the mission and work of Young Life." 

Senator Tommy Hessel, a junior, suggested that the Duke Young Life chapter amend its rules to comply with Duke’s nondiscrimination policy. However, Jeff Bennett, a master’s candidate at the Duke Divinity School and current Young Life member, argued that the Duke chapter could not break with national standards. 

“We cannot go outside the bounds of national policies,” Bennett said. 

Senior Rachel Baber, another Young Life member, also spoke in front of the Senate in a push for recognition, pointing out that Duke community members involved in the organization currently have to drive to Chapel Hill for official meetings. 

Senator Ava Changnon, a sophomore, raised the question of Young Life’s policies potentially discouraging LGBTQ+ members from not only holding leadership positions but also attending the club. 

Baber responded that the organization holds an “anti-discriminatory cause” and will thus not prohibit individuals from joining the club based on their sexuality, regardless of whether they can serve in leadership positions.

After the round of questioning, Senator Jackson Kennedy, a sophomore, delivered a negative speech on chartering the group. He mentioned that the group, in its SOFC application, registered as having a national affiliation with Young Life as well as the fact that its national policy contradicts Duke’s nondiscrimination policy. 

Kennedy argued that DSG could not recognize the group given the issues with the national organization’s policies. No positive speech on the topic was given.

The Senate then proceeded on the final vote, in which it unanimously turned down official recognition of Duke Young Life.

In other business:

The Senate unanimously approved $2,500 in funding for the Duke Spoken Verb club’s Poet Feature Event. The Senate also unanimously chartered Sikh Society, a club aiming to create a community among those following Sikhism at Duke as well as raise awareness on the religion in general. 

https://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2019/09/duke-university-student-government-rejects-young-life-christian?ct=content_open&cv=cbox_featured

Dr. Mark Green is a physician, businessman, and combat veteran representing Tennessee’s 7th district in Congress. He is a member of the House Homeland Security Committee and House Oversight Committee.

The U.S. military is the most powerful, effective, and unstoppable military force in the world, and this is for many reasons. One of the Defense Department’s greatest strengths is its organizational structure, centered around combatant commands. Combatant commands (COCOMs) sequester the entire fighting force of all the service branches and military capabilities under a chain of command. This is broken down for six different geographical regions, and we also have four functional COCOMs focusing on priorities like cyberwarfare, space activity, and the command in which I served, USSOCOM for our special operations.

These structures were designed with a goal in mind—to synchronize all aspects of national power at the decisive point on the battlefield—and have helped our Department of Defense become very effective in prosecuting the commander-in-chief’s intent. On the other hand, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is young, and has been charged with a daunting mission to secure our border and keep America safe. After visiting the southern border this summer, I believe it too needs the proper structure to maximize resources, create economies of scale, and accomplish its mission.

DHS has six broad missions. It defines the border mission as follows: “Managing the flow of people and goods into the U.S. is critical to maintaining our national security…. Illegal aliens… disregard our national sovereignty, threaten our national security, compromise our public safety, exploit our social welfare programs, and ignore lawful immigration processes.” After abysmal failures by previous administrations and Congress, we now have over 11 million illegal immigrants. The status quo is not working.

The American people elected President Trump in large part because he was actually serious about the mission. He has fought for a strategy to stop illegal immigration—and has already made great progress in building the wall, cracking down on visa overstays, and enabling our brave men and women at Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to do the jobs bipartisan Congresses gave them. Yet he is being derailed at every angle by obstructionists who see no other role in their daily life than to be a nuisance to the rule of law in our country for the sake of scoring political power.

Congress should work together with President Trump to create something similar to a COCOM for securing our southern border. We are seeing around 1 million pounds of drugs at our border every year, and that is just the amount we catch. And we are seeing vulnerable people looking for economic hope oppressed and trafficked by transnational criminal cartels. This cannot go on. We have a crisis. For the sake of every fleeing migrant and for the sake of the American people, we must fix this—now.

A COCOM-like structure would create a command in charge of the personnel and resources across agencies, including partners in DOD, DOJ, USDA, HHS, to accomplish our goals. It would be capable of caring for the distressed migrants whom the Democrats claim to want to help yet fight against every genuine effort to bring that help to realization. And it would get to the actual work of stopping the flow of illegal immigrants. The advantages of continuity of command, synchronization of assets, economy of force, and centralized planning achieved with combatant commands in DoD would serve the boarder mission effectively. Perhaps the COCOM would be temporary to handle the current crisis. Either way, until we provide unity of effort of the key elements of our national power charged with protecting the southern border, we will continue to struggle to accomplish the task.

As Americans, we want to celebrate legal immigration, but that mission necessitates a strategy that secures the border and respects the rule of law. That mission requires leadership to work smarter, not harder. That mission requires a better command structure, and a combatant-like command is needed.

President Donald Trump wants to solve this crisis. In the 2016 election, the American people made clear they want to as well. It’s time Congress steps up to the plate to help him do that. Our Defense Department has succeeded because of largely bipartisan efforts over decades to fund it, structure it well, and support it fully. It’s time to do the same with the Department of Homeland Security.

https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/homeland-security/461378-we-need-a-new-structure-to-secure-our-border?fbclid=IwAR0ZDFq8G3pQ_6mRDYqmkNLBckumjJ1ztt3UO-cw2mXdDmlhAXdtnsNfPwI

Posted: 11:50 AM, Sep 11, 2019 

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Tennessee officials are questioning whether a new order from Nashville Mayor David Briley violates a previous commitment not to interfere in immigration investigations, potentially setting the stage for a loss of federal funding.

In a letter sent Tuesday to Briley, the state's Office of Criminal Justice Programs -- an agency that distributes federal funding for law enforcement -- questions whether the mayor's new Executive Order 11 violates the mayor's own signed certifications that the city has no "sanctuary city" policies.

"OCJP is concerned that Mayor Briley's Executive Order 11 issued on September 3, 2019 may demonstrate an unwillingness to comply" with those certifications, wrote OCJP executive director Jennifer Brinkman.

Brinkman's letter gave Briley until Sept. 30 to resubmit a questionnaire from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), along with a letter of explanation clarifying how his order will not hinder its obligations.

Federal law makes it illegal for governments to prohibit any official from exchanging information with ICE officials "regarding the citizenship or immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of any individual."

Back in July, as part of an application for a $300,000 federal grant for a new gun initiative, Briley signed a form that certified that Nashville did not have any policies related to how its employees may communicate with DHS or ICE.

But his Executive Order 11 now states that "no person acting in their capacity as a Metro employee or agent shall assist or cooperate with, or allow any Metro agency funds or resources to be used to assist, cooperate with, or facilitate any federal agency in any immigration enforcement operation, except where legally required to do so by state or federal law or by court order."

Briley’s order came after a recent ICE stakeout in Hermitage where local police were present. Questions have also been raised about how probation officers have shared information with ICE officials.

The spokesperson for the state Department of Finance and Administration, where the Office of Criminal Justice Programs is located, said the letter did not reflect a final decision of Briley's executive order.

"As you know, the Office of Criminal Justice Programs is charged with distributing and managing non-competitive federal grant money in Tennessee," Lola Potter said.

"The documents we shared are part of our responsibility in managing federal funding."

The Mayor's Office released the following statement:

Project Safe Nashville, like Executive Order #11, was designed to improve public safety for all Nashvillians. The State Office of Criminal Justice Programs has asked the city to recertify certain parts of our grant application, and we will happily comply. Mayor Briley has asked the Department of Law to review the prior certifications to ensure compliance.

As Executive Order #11 does not violate any state or federal law, we are fully confident that the city will continue to receive grant funding in the future to support Project Safe Nashville.

You can read the entire letter here.

https://www.newschannel5.com/news/newschannel-5-investigates/state-questions-brileys-immigration-order-federal-funding-potentially-at-risk?fbclid=IwAR2AYC67GIAgsHRfupUnD94DeF6v7QXFxJNEYey9vmA_aA82P9V1mziRxsY

A Nigerian national has been charged in Montgomery County, Maryland, for rape, marking the eighth illegal alien to be charged with rape or another sexual crime in the county since July 25.

Oluwakayode Adebusuyi, a 26-year-old man from Nigeria, allegedly raped an intoxicated woman in her car, according to ABC 7 News. Federal Immigration authorities confirmed that Adebusuyi is an illegal alien. He lives in Fairfax, Virginia, and is currently being held in detention on $250,000 bond.

A statement from federal immigration authorities confirmed that the Nigerian national is living in the U.S. unlawfully.

“On Sept. 1, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers lodged a detainer with the Montgomery County Detention Center on unlawfully present Nigerian national Oluwakayode Adewole Adebusuyi. Adebusuyi was arrested Aug. 28 on local charges, including rape,” a statement from ICE read.

This is not the first time Adebusuyi has been in trouble with the law for sexual crimes.

He was charged with a second degree assault, a fourth degree sex offense, and false imprisonment in August 2018, according to arrest documents obtained by ABC 7. However, prosecutors dropped the charges for unknown reasons. Adebusuyi has since worked as a ride-share driver.

News of the arrest marks the latest rape or sexual charge by an illegal alien in Montgomery County since County Executive Marc Elrich signed a “sanctuary” order in July that largely forbids local authorities from cooperating with federal immigration authorities. The “Promoting Community Trust Executive Order,” prohibits county police officers from asking about a suspect’s immigration status and bars police from working with ICE.

A total of eight illegal aliens have now been arrested in Montgomery County since July 25. The last to be charged, Carrasco-Hernandez, a 37-year-old Honduran national, was arrested by local authorities in late August for allegedly raping a 15-year-old girl, his step-daughter.

In another example, Nestor Lopez-Guzman was apprehended by county police on Aug. 18 on molestation charges. ICE issued a detainer request Aug. 14 for Nelson Reyes-Medrano of El Salvador, who was arrested for allegedly raping a 16-year-old girl at knifepoint.

The slate of sexual abuse charges has placed a national spotlight on the Montgomery County government, attracting widespread media attention and criticism, including United States Citizenship and Immigration Services Chief Ken Cuccinelli. Montgomery County has responded by claiming Cuccinelli and “national conservative news outlets and neo-Nazi sympathizers” of mischaracterizing their criminal justice system. 

https://dailycaller.com/2019/09/09/8th-illegal-charged-with-rape-in-maryland/?utm_medium=push&utm_source=daily_caller&utm_campaign=push&fbclid=IwAR016jQJCEQEAz2SFHvmOZKsVv9LNgUTQ4Otw_CfVOxd6pKGk3EuCU8d-Y8

Michael Foust | ChristianHeadlines.com Contributor | Wednesday, August 28, 2019

The Democratic National Committee passed a first-of-its-kind resolution Saturday recognizing the “ethical soundness” and “importance” of religiously unaffiliated Americans while contending such voters “share the Democratic Party’s values.”

The resolution – passed at the DNC’s summer meeting – was championed by the Secular Coalition of America, an organization that lobbies on behalf of atheists, agnostics and humanists in public policy. The coalition said it was the first time the party had “embraced American nonbelievers.” It passed unanimously absent one abstention, the coalition said. 

“[T]he religiously unaffiliated demographic represents the largest religious group within the Democratic Party, growing from 19% in 2007 to one in three today,” the resolution says. “... [T]he Democratic Party is an inclusive organization that recognizes that morals, values, and patriotism are not unique to any particular religion, and are not necessarily reliant on having a religious worldview at all.” 

The religiously unaffiliated, the resolution asserts, “overwhelmingly share the Democratic Party’s values,” with “70% voting for Democrats in 2018, 80% supporting same-sex marriage, and 61% saying immigrants make American society stronger.” 

The resolution says the DNC recognizes the “value, ethical soundness, and importance of the religiously unaffiliated demographic, a group of Americans who contribute in innumerable ways to the arts, sciences, medicine, business, law, the military, their communities, the success of the Party and prosperity of the Nation.”

It also says the DNC recognizes that “religiously unaffiliated Americans are a group that, as much as any other, advocates for rational public policy based on sound science and universal humanistic values and should be represented, included, and heard by the Party”

Further, the resolution criticizes religious Americans: “[T]hose most loudly claiming that morals, values, and patriotism must be defined by their particular religious views have used those religious views, with misplaced claims of ‘religious liberty,’ to justify public policy that has threatened the civil rights and liberties of many Americans, including but not limited to the LGBT community, women, and ethnic and religious/nonreligious minorities.”

Secular and atheist groups applauded the resolution. 

“America was founded as a secular government charged with representing and protecting the freedoms of people of all faiths and none – I am proud to see the Democratic Party take that to heart by bringing secular Americans into the fold,” said Sarah Levin, director of governmental affairs for the Secular Coalition for America.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation said it is “optimistic that the DNC resolution is a sign of bigger and better things to come for freethinkers.”

https://www.christianheadlines.com/contributors/michael-foust/democrats-pass-resolution-applauding-nonreligious-americans-criticizing-churchgoers.html?utm_medium=fbpage&utm_source=topcross&utm_campaign=cdupdate&fbclid=IwAR1ikNySL6dhcUQgfzWT678eeiTOdoMR4zT8ZT7Y_eZEzwhBuTrLpb6-aHQ

BY JOHN HAWKINS MARCH 3, 2019

Every experienced political observer knows that polls of adults are much more liberal than polls of likely voters. What that means is that for political purposes, a poll of adults doesn’t mean much. On the other hand, it also means that the culture at large is significantly more liberal than the group of people that turn out to vote.

This is reflected in our culture, which by every measure imaginable is considerably more liberal than it has ever been. Some people may think, “Gee, that’s just how it is. Cultures ALWAYS get more liberal over time,” but that’s not true. SOMETIMES, cultures go downhill like a truck without brakes, but other cultures go through cycles or become more culturally enriched and conservative.

The first step to getting our culture to go back in the right direction is understanding why conservatives are losing the culture wars.

1. Churches and marriage

It’s not a secret that marriage and the Christian church are in decline in America. Part of that is just a changing world. People are less likely to join any real-world group because they’re getting enough social interaction on the internet and the whole purpose of marriage has changed. Most men no longer need marriage to get sex and most women no longer need marriage for financial support. Throw in a sky-high divorce rate and draconian family courts that are heavily slanted against men and marriage today is orders of magnitude less attractive than it was a few generations ago.

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The problem with that is that the church and marriage are the backbone of our culture. The “old school” values that made America successful were Judeo-Christian values that people were immersed in from their childhood on, usually in church. A marriage between a man and a woman is, was and probably always will be the best way to raise a child and good parents will always care about shaping their child and the world around their child in a way that brings them success.

Yes, the world has changed in ways that have made marriage and the church less successful, but conservatives have been extremely lazy about trying to counteract those changes. What have we done to make marriage stronger or more appealing? What have we done to get more people back in the church? If you said, “As marriage and the church go, so goes our culture,” there would be more than a little truth to it.

2. Schools

No socialist, terrorist bomber, anti-white professor, anti-American professor, radical feminist, or radical Marxist should ever be allowed to teach in our universities. When we take the worst of us and put them in charge of molding the next generation of minds, it shouldn’t shock anyone that it has an incredibly negative impact on the culture. It also shouldn’t surprise us that the history, values, and philosophy that made America successful to begin with are either largely ignored or misrepresented by Leftist teachers who want to replace it with something new and inferior. Yet our school systems are overwhelmingly run by people with this kind of mindset from top to bottom. Our political representatives should play a more active role in what gets taught in high schools and threaten to cut off funds to state universities that hire people like this and turn a blind eye to radicals that prevent conservative speakers from talking. At private schools, we should be speaking with our wallets. We have got to stop paying people with our own money to help them brainwash our kids!

3. Deemphasizing character

A society that consumes "Game of Thrones," "Breaking Bad," and Eminem is going to be more degenerate than one consuming "The Lone Ranger," "Happy Days," and Bing Crosby. Of course, we don’t really call anyone “degenerate” these days, do we? Ok, maybe child molesters and people who torture animals, but nearly everything else is live and let live. We can see the negatives of the world as it used to be — where divorce or having a child out of wedlock was scandalous. Even married couples weren’t seen in the same bed on TV and even something that seems as innocuous as Elvis twisting his hips was outrageous. But what about the positives? Is the average person’s behavior better or worse than it was then? Are people more or less honest? Are you more or less worried about the quality of the culture your children are growing up in? The starting point of a good nation is a people with good character and since human beings are naturally selfish, that doesn’t just happen. Things like virtue, decency, manners, patriotism, and character have to be taught and encouraged in a society, and when they’re not, you get what you’re starting to see in this increasingly decadent country -- an anything-goes attitude that even admires degeneracy and evil if it appears to be bearing fruit for the moment.

4. Desensitization (hat tip to Jessica Fletcher)

This is a relatively new problem that has the unfortunate effect of making it more difficult to deal with the other issues. In the modern era, we are incredibly overstimulated. Every day most of us are being bombarded with more cute videos, beeps, boops, memes, gifs, offers, ads, news, and people vying for our attention than we could fully process in six months. So, getting someone’s attention tends to require either a personal connection or epic levels of cute, shocking, or extreme. It takes ever-escalating levels of brutal insults, crazy comments, or outrageous behavior to cut through the clutter. Not only does this often lead to people getting deeper and deeper into the sewer to get our attention, but a lot of the best advice is also simple, plain, and not particularly exciting. Obey your parents. Be polite. Tell the truth. Respect your elders. Church isn’t a thrill-per-second ride. Neither is staying on the straight and narrow, generally. You’ve probably heard someone say “Don’t do drugs” so many times you barely even hear the words, but if you see an article called “Not Only Is Doing Heroin Not Bad For You, It Will Be The Best Move You Ever Made,” it will catch your eye. When bad advice catches your attention and doing the right thing is so boring you can barely keep your eyes open when people mention it, which is going to have a bigger long-term impact?

5. Reluctance to boycott

Back in the Moral Majority days, conservatives LOVED to boycott. Now, for the most part, we’re too comfortable and lazy to do it, but we cloak that in high-minded rhetoric that we don’t really mean about free speech. If conservatives actually let their values guide where they spend their money the same way that liberals do, the open liberalism of the entire entertainment industry would change overnight. Are you tired of corporations disrespecting what you believe in? Then STOP GIVING THEM YOUR MONEY. It’s no surprise that America-hating socialists would undermine our society, but it’s mind-blowing that conservatives are funding the destruction of the culture that made our country successful.

6. The size of government

We often think about government from an economic perspective. The bigger government gets, the smaller the share of the pie for everyone else, but there’s also an enormous cultural impact of big government. The bigger government gets, the less responsibility people are allowed to take for their own lives. Have a kid out of wedlock? Big Daddy government is there with a check. Don’t want to work? Big Daddy government will pay your bills. Go your whole life without saving a dime for your retirement? Big Daddy government has your back! The problem with this is that Big Daddy government is turning us all into children who are surrendering large portions of our autonomy, responsibility for ourselves, and accountability for our decisions. The more we allow government to paper over the bad lifestyle choices that people make, the harder it is for people to see how damaging certain attitudes and cultural choices can be. When government shields people from the consequences of their bad decisions, it makes it difficult for people to learn from those bad decisions.

7. Complacency

If you were so inclined, you could drive coast to coast in the United States without ever going through an area where Hillary Clinton won in 2016. That’s because Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton 2,626 to 487 in the number of counties taken in the 2016 election. So most conservatives often already live in places that seem more conservative than the dominant culture. This has a great deal to do with why we’re so complacent and unwilling to fight. If you’re living in some place in “flyover country” with minimal crime, where God, guns, and country are respected and people are generally polite, it’s easy to pretend everything is okay. The problem is that the culture extends into our schools, our homes, our entertainment, our government, and our kids’ minds. As Glenn Reynolds said, “You can't win a war you're not fighting” — and most conservatives are just betting that somehow, some way, everything will turn out fine, even if we don't seriously address the problem. That is not a safe bet when you’re dealing with the sort of people who sit around and try to think of ways to destroy the Boy Scouts in their spare time.

https://pjmedia.com/trending/7-reasons-conservatives-are-losing-the-culture-wars/

State Representative Jay Reedy (R-Erin), the House sponsor of HB2315, the 2018 legislation that prohibits state and local governmental entities and officials from adopting sanctuary policies, issued a statement Tuesday afternoon on behalf of legislators that addresses Nashville’s continued flouting of both state and federal laws.

“Nashville is subject to the laws of the State of Tennessee and the United States of America, and the laws of both are clear: Sanctuary policies that shield illegal aliens are themselves illegal,” the statement said.

“The law states clearly that local government entities that do not comply are potentially ‘ineligible to enter into any grant contract with the department of economic and community development,’ the statement continued.

On Tuesday morning, Nashville Mayor David Briley, who by all accounts trails At-large Metro Council member John Cooper in the September 12 mayoral runoff election, stepped up the city’s flouting of state and federal laws when he issued an executive order that, among other things, calls on the Nashville Davidson County delegation of the Tennessee General Assembly to fight to repeal HB2315.

Briley’s executive order, in effect, declares Metropolitan Nashville/Davidson County to be a sovereign state, with rights equal to or superior to those constitutionally authorized rights of the state of Tennessee as well as the federal government of the United States. Its component elements, as reported earlier on Monday by The Tennessee Star, are the following:

• Unless they are issued with a valid and properly issued warrant, no Metro agency or Metro employee or agent will give ICE or CBP access to a person being detained by or in the custody of that agent or agency. No Metro agency or Metro employee or agent will transfer any person into ICE or CBP custody.

• No Metro agency or Metro employee will permit ICE or CBP agents to use Metro facilities, information or equipment, including any agency, electronic databases, for investigative interviews or any other investigative purpose or to execute an immigration enforcement operation.

• No Metro agency or Metro employee or agent may spend time responding to ICE or CBP inquiries or communicating with ICE or CBP regarding a person’s custody, status, release date, or home or work address. The city will only cooperate in the context of a valid public records request or otherwise something required by state or federal law.

• Metro employees, agents or agencies may also not request information from a person about their citizenship or immigration status unless such inquiry or investigation is required by ordinance or ordered for state or federal law.

“Meanwhile, while we wait for this law to be declared unconstitutional, all Metro employees should know they will not be disciplined by the city or their supervisors for failure to comply with a request from ICE unless required by state or federal law,” Briley said before he announced the following executive actions:

• Every Metro department head and agency director must designate a person within his or her department or agency to get notified if an employee or an agent receives a request to support or assist an immigration enforcement act. The designee will communicate that request to the department head or director and document that request in a memorandum and send it to the Mayor’s Office of New Americans within three business days.

• Metro police officers will not inquire about people’s country of origin, and the MNPD will remove country of origin from municipal citations.

Reedy’s statement, titled “Nashville is Part of Tennessee and Tennessee is Part of the United States. The City Must Respect the Anti-Sanctuary Laws of Both,” has been signed onto by 32 members of the State House of Representatives as well as nine Senators, all Republicans, and specifically addresses the issue of whether Briley’s new executive order is legal.

You can read the full statement here:

Last year, the Tennessee Legislature approved House Bill 2315, now Public Chapter 973, which requires all law enforcement agencies in the state to fully cooperate with federal immigration officials in compliance with federal and state laws.

“The explicit aim of HB 2315 was to prohibit formal or de facto sanctuary policies, under which local governments or law enforcement departments in Tennessee shield illegal aliens from detection, or refuse to honor lawful requests by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency to remand individuals who are in their custody for removal. The law was enacted to protect the welfare and safety of all citizens of Tennessee, and is consistent with a federal statute that prohibits so-called sanctuary policies.

“Nashville, the state’s capital and largest city, continues to flout both federal and state law and provide sanctuary to illegal aliens, including criminal aliens. Recently, Mayor David Briley asserted his refusal to ‘use our local resources to enforce ICE orders,’ and to ensure that ‘resources are available for undocumented immigrants should the need arise.’

“In addition to obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws by duly authorized federal authorities, Nashville officials are further compromising the public interest by failing to comply with Public Chapter 973. Under the law, recalcitrant city officials are jeopardizing much needed funding from the state. The law states clearly that local government entities that do not comply are potentially ‘ineligible to enter into any grant contract with the department of economic and community development.’

“We strongly urge Nashville officials to act in the best interests of law-abiding citizens of the city. Nashville is subject to the laws of the State of Tennessee and the United States of America, and the laws of both are clear: Sanctuary policies that shield illegal aliens are themselves illegal.”

Reedy released the statement on September 3 via email, addressing it to Metro Nashville Davidson County officials Mayor David Briley, Chief of Police Steve Anderson and Sheriff Daron Hall, with the simple phrase, “Please protect the citizens of Tennessee!”

You can see the statement in PDF form here:

Just a week after Briley made it to the run-off mayoral election against John Cooper in early August, The Tennessee Star reported that Briley tweeted a how-to video in Spanish, advising illegal aliens how to avoid capture by ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.)

Last week, Briley called for the Metro Nashville Davidson County Office of Internal Audit to conduct a full investigation and performance audit of the General Sessions Probation Department for reportedly proactively sharing probationers’ personal information and other data with an ICE agent, The Star also reported.

Reedy’s anti-sanctuary legislation, after quite a battle and numerous amendments, passed during the 110th Tennessee General Assembly under HB2315 with the companion SB2332 sponsored by then State Senator Mark Green (R-Clarksville). The bills had co-sponsors numbering 67 in the State House and 11 in the State Senate.

While the bill was sent to Governor Bill Haslam on May 10, 2018, it was returned and passed into law without his signature but with a letter explaining his reasoning. The legislation became Public Chapter No. 973, with Governor Haslam’s letter attached, and went into effect January 1, 2019.

At the time, then candidate for governor, Bill Lee, issued a statement opposing sanctuary cities. He said sanctuary cities “embrace lawlessness and put our entire state at risk. I would use every single tool in my power to stop them and enforce the rule of law.”

“As governor, I would sign the bill,” concluded Lee.

The 2019 law states that if a chancery court finds a local government entity or official is in violation of the law, the court shall issue a writ of mandamus against the entity or official ordering compliance, enjoining the entity or official from further interference and taking other action other action to ensure compliance as is within the jurisdiction of the court.

In addition, upon a finding by the court of the local government adopting a sanctuary policy, that entity becomes ineligible to enter into any grant contract with the State’s Department of Economic and Community Development.

Reedy clearly spells out in the statement about and to Nashville officials, “Public Chapter 973 [which] requires all law enforcement agencies in the state to fully cooperate with federal immigration officials in compliance with federal and state laws.”

“The explicit aim,” Reedy goes on to explain about the legislation, “was to prohibit formal or de facto sanctuary policies, under which local governments or law enforcement departments in Tennessee shield illegal aliens from detection, or refuse to honor lawful requests by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency to remand individuals who are in their custody for removal. The law was enacted to protect the welfare and safety of all citizens of Tennessee, and is consistent with a federal statute that prohibits so-called sanctuary policies.”

Reedy calls out sanctuary activities in Nashville, the State’s capital city, as it “continues to flout both federal and state law and provide sanctuary to illegal aliens, including criminal aliens.”

Alluding to specific actions by the mayor, Reedy details, “Recently, Mayor David Briley asserted his refusal to ‘use our local resources to enforce ICE orders,’ and to ensure that ‘resources are available for undocumented immigrants should the need arise.’”

In addition to obstructing enforcement of federal immigration laws, Reedy advises that Nashville officials are further compromising the public’s interest by jeopardizing much needed economic and community development funding.

Reedy told The Star that it is “just appalling that Briley says he will abide by the law, then he turns his back on it.”

“He’s not protecting the citizens of Nashville, let alone Tennessee, by his actions.”

In Briley’s mayoral campaign, Reedy told The Star, “He’s definitely playing to left, but when you have criminal illegal aliens, you would think you would want the federal agents to remove them to protect your citizens from theft, rape, and murder.”

At the time of this writing, Lt. Governor Randy McNally (R-Oak Ridge) and House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) have not responded to Reedy’s offer to sign on to the statement.

—

Laura Baigert is a senior reporter at The Tennessee Star.

https://tennesseestar.com/2019/09/03/rep-jay-reedy-issues-statement-from-state-legislators-to-mayor-briley-nashville-is-subject-to-the-laws-of-tennessee-sanctuary-policies-are-illegal/?fbclid=IwAR3EzZTXlFGa9ln5k_rRtmmNBG4gfgovcXGp9eBH9MecWnKM9MQ4MZfX42A

By Tabitha Korol, August 29, 2019

President Trump has been unarguably the most pro-Jewish, pro-Israel President we've ever had, surpassing George Washington, John Adams, Abraham Lincoln and Harry Truman. His stand against Iran (vociferous enemy of Israel), finally moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, cutting funds to the PA and closing the PLO office in Washington, his donations to Jewish causes, and developing housing for Russian-Jewish immigrants in Brooklyn are just some of the points, but many non-Orthodox American Jews are calling him antisemitic. It is primarily the Democrat Jews who appear antisemitic when they continue to support their party whose members explicitly express their hatred of Israel and Jews worldwide. It may be that their desire to distance themselves from their heritage in eastern Europe and Israel has rendered them irrational, and psychological projection has them denying their own impulses as they attribute them to others – specifically to President Trump.

Most recently, President Trump spoke out against the antisemitism spewed by Muslim Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, and was himself accused of bias. It is time to review the backgrounds of both women who are recognized as Islamic extremists and antisemites by such as Senator Lindsey Graham, Speaker Newt Gingrich, media personalities Mark Thiessen and Rush Limbaugh, as well as by Imam Tawhidi, who added Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to the lot.

October 2015, Rashida Tlaib joined and praised activists who support terrorist Rasmeah Odeh, who is guilty of the deadly 1969 bombing in Jerusalem.

December 2017, Tlaib shared a Facebook post with Linda Sarsour in support of 17-yr-old Palestinian Ahed Tamimi, who assaulted an IDF soldier and promotes stabbings and suicide bombings.

February 2018, Tlaib joined Facebook group, Palestinian American Congress, which demonizes Jews and raised funds for her campaign. She denied both the Holocaust and the Jewish historical claim to Israel.

August 2018, for her victory speech, Tlaib wrapped herself in a Palestinian flag and promised to "fight against every racist and oppressive structure that needs to be dismantled," later telling the UK's Channel 4 News that she would vote against US military aid to Israel. Despite her own foreign garb, she accused Jewish Americans of dual loyalty and has since established a record of Jew-hatred and an affinity for radical Islam.

January 3, 2019, in a MoveOn.org reception, Tlaib warned that the President's days were numbered, and she'd "impeach the motherfu**er." She took her oath on the Koran, which is the antithesis of our Bible and Constitution, and affixed a sticker "Palestine" to replace Israel on her wall map.

A guest at Tlaib's swearing-in ceremony and private dinner was Abbas Hamideh, who equates Zionism with Nazism, and who voiced his support for Hassan Nasrallah, violent murderer of an Israeli Jew and his 4-year-old daughter.

During the week of January 2019, Tlaib condemned her congressional colleagues who did not support BDS against Israel.

March 2019, Tlaib posed with a Palestinian activist who had mourned the death of a Hamas murderer of a rabbi in Israel.

August 2019, Tlaib compared Israel to apartheid South Africa and Nazi Germany, and co-sponsored a resolution to support the BDS movement. She consistently shows herself to be an enemy of our ally Israel and the Jewish people.

Most recently, Tlaib shunned a bipartisan delegation to Israel in order to schedule her own trip to be led by the anti-Israel nongovernmental organization Miftah, where she could agitate for the anti-Israel boycott and use her disinvitation as an accusation against the Jewish state.

Claiming racism, oppression and injustice, Tlaib used the event of her entry rejection into Israel to enhance her victimhood, and a way of showing Gaza's inhumane conditions. However, videos of interviews of her family show a healthy grandmother, free-standing home, and plentiful grounds with outdoor furniture on a lovely summer night.

Tlaib, Omar, AOC and Rep Prammila Jayapal co-sponsored a bill that accuses the Jewish state of torturing non-Jewish children; the bill was re-introduced by Rep. Beth McCollum.
Ilhan Omar claimed to love America but shows her disdain for our country at every turn with a decided detestation for Israel and the Jews. She called herself the President's "biggest nemesis"; said of the terrorist attacks on 9/11, "some people did something"; and wants our greatest ally, Israel, wiped off the face of the earth. The following are examples of her words and deeds:
In November 2012, Omar called Israel an apartheid regime that "hypnotized the world" in order to conceal its "evil doings."

In 2013, Omar said on PBS that she took a college course in terrorism, saying that the professor spoke with pride (his shoulders raised in intensity) about Al Qaeda and Hezbollah, but not when we say America.

During 2013-15, Omar, then a member of the Minneapolis City Council, acknowledged her friendship with Al-Shabab, a Somali jihad terror group.

Omar often characterized Israel as the "Jewish ISIS,' on Arab-American television, comparing members of Hamas to Holocaust victims.

Following the 2013 terrorist bombing that killed ~70 people in a Kenyan shopping mall, Omar blamed the act on a reaction to American injustices, and how the world contributed to Islamic radicalization.

After her election to the MN House of Representatives, November 2016, Omar wrote a judge for leniency in the sentencing of nine Somali-born men found guilty of attempting to join ISIS, blaming their desire for violence on alienation.

In 2016, Omar wanted the University of MN to divest its Israel bonds, and in 2017, she opposed a bill designed to counter economic boycotts against Israel, likening Israel to apartheid South Africa.

In 2017, Omar was one of two MN House members (out of 129) to vote against a bill that would allow life-insurance companies to deny payments to beneficiaries of suicide terrorists, and one of four to oppose legislation to make it a felony for parents to subject their daughters to female genital mutilation (FGM).

After only five days of winning her congressional seat in 2018, Omar worked to institute BDS to financially cripple the state of Israel.

In February 2019, Omar tweeted that pro-Israel lobby AIPAC was guilty of paying politicians to favor Israel: "It's all about the Benjamins, baby."

March 2019, Omar's disdain for Israel won praise from Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke.

March 2019, Omar was keynote speaker for an Hamas-linked CAIR benefit event, along with Hassan Shibley, who will not call out Hezbollah and Hamas as terrorist organizations.

April 2019, Omar called for the release of a senior Muslim Brotherhood member detained in Egypt.

July 2019, Omar, Tlaib and John Lewis co-sponsored House Resolution HR496 for BDS, comparing Israel to apartheid South Africa and Nazi Germany.
There is no question that both Omar and Tlaib are antisemites who seek to destroy Israel and endanger Jews worldwide, and that the Democrat Jews who support those policies are collaborators. Those who speak ill of President Trump and PM Netanyahu and side with the Marxist-Islamic ideology emanating from the Democrat party, who compare the southern-border invaders to the Holocaust's Jewish refugees, and who failed to attend and celebrate the dedication of the US embassy in Jerusalem, Israel's capital, cannot be judged otherwise. Yes, President Trump's honesty may sting, but it is nevertheless honesty.

According to Jewish law, the Democrat Jews are still Jews, but the betrayal of their own brethren and heritage confirm that they are not in consonance with the laws and morality of Judaism – their hearts are elsewhere.

With appreciation to frontpagemag.com for their detailed reporting.

If you enjoyed this, consider the author's book, "Confronting the Deception," available on Amazon.
 

https://www.renewamerica.com/columns/korol/190829

by Jason Hopkins

Emilio Carrasco-Hernandez was arrested in Montgomery County, Maryland for allegedly raping a minor, making him at least the seventh illegal alien to be recently arrested for sex crimes in the sanctuary county.

Carrasco-Hernandez, a 37-year-old Honduran national, was arrested by local authorities for allegedly raping a 15-year-old girl, according to a police report first obtained by ABC 7 News. He was previously deported from the U.S. in April 2016, but was able to re-enter the country sometime afterward.

Montgomery County Police Special Victims Investigations began looking into sexual abuse allegations against Carrasco-Hernandez on August 25, the date when the attack allegedly took place. The 15-year-old girl was in her grandmother’s bedroom when Carrasco-Hernandes allegedly pulled down her pants and underwear, and began to bite down on her breasts, according to the police report.

He then allegedly began to rape the young girl, holding her down so she could not move. The victim reported a “stinging” feeling afterwards, and had “trouble using the bathroom.” The police report states that the victim at the time was under the care and custody of her mother and Carrasco-Hernandez, where they all were living together in a home in Silver Spring, Maryland.

A statement from federal immigration authorities confirmed that Carrasco-Hernandez is living in the U.S. illegally.

“On Aug. 30, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Baltimore lodged a detainer with the Montgomery County Detention Center on unlawfully present Honduran national Emilio Carrasco-Hernandez,” read an ICE statement.

“Carrasco-Hernandez was previously arrested by Immigration officials on March 30, 2017 and was ordered removed by an immigration judge on April 3, 2017. On April 6, 2017, Carrasco-Hernandez was removed to his country of citizenship and reentered the U.S. sometime thereafter,” the ICE statement continued.

The report marks the latest in a string of sexual abuse arrests of illegal aliens in Montgomery County, which just recently signed a sweeping anti-ICE executive order. Six other illegal aliens have been arrested in the sanctuary county since July 25 on sex crime-related charges.

Nestor Lopez-Guzman was arrested by Montgomery County Police on Aug. 18 on molestation charges. On Aug. 14, ICE issued a detainer request for Salvadoran national Nelson Reyes-Medrano, who was arrested for allegedly raping a 16-year-old girl at knifepoint. In another example, two illegal immigrants were charged with repeatedly raping an 11-year-old earlier in August.

Montgomery County has garnered national attention for the slate of arrests, and it has forced County Executive Marc Elrich, a liberal Democrat, to explain an order he recently signed that prohibits local authorities from working with ICE.

Elrich claimed recently that Montgomery County cannot honor ICE detainer requests unless they carry a judicial warrant. However, ICE and immigration experts told The Daily Caller News Foundation that such a claim is “absurd.”

“The public has been misled to believe that certain judges have the authority to sign a warrant for civil immigration violations — but no such judicial authority exists,” an ICE spokesperson said to TheDCNF. “This idea is a myth created by those who either oppose immigration enforcement efforts, are misinformed, or who do not understand how the immigration system works.”

https://tennesseestar.com/2019/09/01/seventh-illegal-alien-arrested-in-montgomery-county-on-sexual-abuse-charges/?fbclid=IwAR0hEHkL546LJ62fV9XQoWE2J-FNpIqQEmVZvHOHyATK6cKSokKPyPnFfe4