Happy Labor Day weekend

Art credit: Kewlgraphics.com

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Winning on trade

art credit: moziru.com

News Gingrich’s latest message includes a short summary of President Trump’s trade deals:

The breakthrough in trade negotiations with Mexico is, to use one of President Trump’s favorite words, huge.

Most of the so-called experts had said the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) couldn’t be renegotiated. They insisted Trump had offended Mexicans so much with his harsh language that the Mexican government wouldn’t come to the table. They asserted building the wall would alienate the Mexican leadership. They were just plain wrong.

President Trump’s progress on NAFTA sends five big signals:

1.    Making good on a big, disruptive pledge that set his 2016 campaign apart from every other candidate, President Trump kept his word and is forcing a difficult negotiation toward success.

2.    President Trump proved, once again, that tough language and tough negotiating can actually lead to breakthroughs. Unlike most politicians, Trump is willing to endure heat to achieve success.

3.    As a result of his seriousness on trade, other countries are now approaching Trump about trade negotiations (note German Chancellor Merkel’s call this week for trade talks).

4.    Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tried to be clever when he ambushed and attempted to embarrass President Trump during a press conference at the G7 Summit in Canada. Trudeau is now discovering that Trump has a good memory. Canada now has virtually no leverage in trying to play catch up with the U.S.-Mexico negotiations.

5.    The Trump Administration’s continued attention to economic matters – despite the liberal media’s daily efforts to get him and his team off balance through dishonest reporting and smear stories – is paying off. The average American sees the economy getting better and better. And the average American increasingly thinks the success is due to President Trump.

Mr. Speaker’s full message is posted at Fox here.

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Moon over Cleveland

Photograph by Cleveland Tea Party's roving photographer Pat J Dooley. More to come from this weekend's Air Show.

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Jim Brown on President Trump, our national anthem, and race

Photo credit: mmqb.si.com

I’m old enough to remember football legend Jim Brown playing for the Cleveland Browns back in the 1960’s. He is still "the greatest football player of all time." And he is speaking up about President Trump, taking a knee, and the black community. Brian Kilmeade interviewed him on Fox and Friends. I missed it, but Steven Beyer at Western Journal reported on the interview:

NFL legend and social activist Jim Brown appeared on “Fox & Friends” Tuesday morning and delivered a charge to the “black community” by asking it to take responsibility over shifting the blame onto President Donald Trump.

The former star running back started the interview by heaping praise on Trump for being “accessible.”

He told Fox’s Brian Kilmeade, “I have access to the president, and anytime I have access to the president, and he will listen to my thoughts, that’s all I can ask of him.”

“This president is accessible,” Brown said. “He’s different. He’s challenging, and he pays attention to what I say.”

Brown then turned his attention to the black community, telling Kilmeade, “We should look at ourselves first before we look at the president.”

Kilmede asked him if he felt Trump was doing a good job of “producing” for the black community.

“Well, I tell you it’s very hard to produce for the black community in a certain way,” Brown replied. “The black community, and I’m a part of the black community, has a responsibility regardless of what the president does. If you have a homicide rate in your black community, then it’s not the president that’s created that homicide rate. It’s the black community itself that needs to address it.”

“So I don’t want to put everything on him, and I’m sorry to say the black community is not doing what we should do, and that includes myself,” Brown added.

Kilmede asked Brown if he believed the president to be a racist.

“I’m so glad you asked me that,” Brown replied. “Of course not. Is America racist? Of course not.”

Brown went on talk about the national anthem protests saying, “We should never denigrate our flag and our national anthem. We should always be Americans first and we should work our butts off to do the right thing and make it a better country.”

“But to not respect your flag and national anthem is something I’d never do,” he added.

The video interview is embedded at the link here.

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Navy Week in Cleveland

Cleveland.com reports:

Navy Week, featuring a variety of events here to celebrate that branch of the service, will formally open with a 5 p.m. ceremony on August 28 at the Cuyahoga County Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument on Public Square.

The free event will include remarks by Vice Admiral Forrest Faison III, and performances by the U.S. Fleet Forces Band and Navy Ceremonial Guard Drill Team.

For Navy Week, which runs through Sept. 2, the monument has created a special display focusing on three admirals who were Northeast Ohio natives.

More info and schedule of Navy Week events, including the Air Show, is here.

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What is their endgame?

image credit: theburningplatform.com

I go hot and cold on Mark Levin. But his column yesterday was the lead link at Doug Ross’s Director’s Blue blog, and it’s a good one. Here’s his conclusion:

Challenge socialists on this single point: What is their endgame?

When is enough government control enough? Why won’t socialists -- or Democrat Socialist -- share their blueprint for society? What industry is a “bridge too far” for socialism? Why can’t they tell us what their limits are on taxation, control of industry, and how much of society should be dependent upon their handouts?

Conservatives know their endgame: it is called the United State Constitution. These four pages of wisdom, condensed instructions gleaned from thousands of years of human experience, ended up germinating the most magnificent nation-state yet to arise from humanity’s tumult.

And a great percentage of our fellow citizens neither recognize nor appreciate the magnificent society with which they have been bequeathed. They take for granted this unique and precious anomaly in the context of human history.

Only education can help them. Not all of them, to be sure, but many: those who possess both open minds and a willingness to learn.

He asks a good question, one which my ultra-liberal friends and relatives might have difficulty responding to. The full article is here. 

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Social media, surveillance, and your vote

image credit: picstopin.com

Breitbart has reported on the "the extent to which major technology companies such as Google are surveilling their users." But the segment that I hope everyone will watch (it’s less than 4 minutes) is Dr. Robert Epstein’s appearance on Tucker Carlson from (apparently) a few months ago and re-broadcast last Friday. 

Video credit: YouTube [another platform for surveillance] via thelibertydaily.com

Here’s a partial report and transcript from The National Sentinel: 

Dr. Robert Epstein, a research psychologist at the American Institute of Behavioral Research and Technology, joined Carlson to discuss an upcoming presentation on “The Search Suggestion Effect (SSE): How Search Suggestions Can Be Used To Shift Opinions and Voting Preferences Dramatically.”

The researchers looked at the power of Google and Facebook to influence elections over a period of five years and came up with powerful results.

“I can tell you we should be paranoid because what Google and Facebook can do is really mind-boggling,” he told the host.

“For example, if Mark Zuckerberg on election day last year, if he had chosen to press the enter key early in the morning and just sent out a message to Hillary Clinton supporters only saying, ‘Go out and vote,’ that would have sent her an additional 450,000 voters that day with no one knowing that this had occurred. And that’s just Facebook,” he added.

“What Google can do is really off the scale. Our studies show that Google can take a 50-50 split among undecided voters and change it into a 90-10 split with no one knowing they had been manipulated and without leaving a paper trail,” the research continued.

“It has to do with those search suggestions. Literally from the very first character that you type into the search bar you are being manipulated,” Epstein said. “And we’ve done 16 months of experiments. We’ve done all the research now and we know exactly how this works… The threat is absolutely, positively profound.”

Read the rest here or watch the video. Please share with all your social media friends.

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Troy Balderson wins the race

art credit: thebigrocks.com

It’s finally official. Cleveland.com reports:

After millions of dollars spent, a presidential visit, and a lengthy vote certification process, Republican Troy Balderson has become the newest congressman representing Ohio's 12th District --  at least, for the next two months.

Balderson, a state senator from Zanesville, beat Democrat Danny O'Connor, the Franklin County recorder, by 1,680 votes, according to final vote totals from the Aug. 7 special election released Friday by elections officials.

. . .

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UPDATE: Cleveland.com ran an editorial applauding Secretary of State's John Husted "timely demolition of fraud rumors in 12th District results." This blogger was suspicious.

Priorities in the Age of Trump

one version of Donald Derangement Syndrome

James Delingpole at Breitbart published an article, “Trump Derangement Syndrome Is Making Conservatives Lazy, Cowardly and Stupid”. He’s sorting through Never Trumpers, conservatives, and semi-conservatives. He concludes:

Let’s get this straight. We – at least the vast majority of us – on the side of the argument that Donald Trump is currently representing believe in stuff like: national borders, free speech, protecting citizens’ interests, equality of opportunity, lower taxes, smaller government, democratic accountability, the family, personal responsibility, rising standards of living, property rights, the rule of law, checks and balances, the Constitution, liberty. There is nothing in any of this we should feel awkward or guilty about. It does not make us Nazis. Or even semi-Nazis. Or alt-right. Or any of the other pejorative terms which – according to our opponents – make it wholly acceptable to punch the teeth out of anyone in a MAGA baseball cap.

Trump Derangement Syndrome has caused some conservatives – not all of us, thankfully – to lose sight of why it is that we fight.

We fight because we’re right. And yes – as Trump is one of the few conservative presidents to get – it really is that simple.

I am posting and linking since I expect it will resonate with most Cleveland Tea Party members. Full article is here.

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A bad idea from the Cuyahoga County Council

art credit: gamesageddon.com

Cleveland Tea Party would not have a role to play in, say, the ongoing targeting of the Colorado baker who won’t produce a cake celebrating gay marriage or transgendering. However, one of the three core Tea Party values is limited government, and the Cuyahoga County Council is planning to take it upon itself to further meddle in the lives of residents. Our friends at Ohio Value Voters sent out the message below (warning: Cringe Alert). Mark your calendar, make some phone calls, or send messages:

Re: Cuyahoga County Human Rights Commission 

Residents of NE Ohio

Public Testimony Requested

Wednesday, September 12^th at 5:00 Pm

The Cuyahoga County Council has been quietly working on legislation to establish a county-wide "Human Rights Commission" that will affect every city, resident, business, and church in the county.  The three-person commission is intended to hear ALL cases of discrimination in Cuyahoga County relative to sexual orientation/gender identity.  LGBT citizens will be provided legal assistance paid for by our tax dollars.  This piece of legislation hurts business, puts our safety at risk, and punishes people of faith.   This ordinance permits biological men, who consider themselves to be women, to enter a woman's bathroom or locker room in "all places of public accommodation."

On Wednesday, September 12th at 5:00 pm the County Council of Cuyahoga County, Ohio will hear public testimony against Ordinance No. O2018-0009 sponsored by: County Executive Budish and Councilmembers Brady, Miller, Houser, and Simon.  

Resources/Articles and ACTION items: 

Click Here For Council Meeting Instructions [includes free parking info]

Action Item: Tell the council (by phone/email) to Vote NO on Ordinance No. O2018-0009. Click Here for a list of Phone Numbers/Email Addresses of Council Members

Read this article, "How to think about Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) Policies and Religious Freedom," by Ryan T. Anderson

Resource: List of Gender Identities & Pronouns

The above linked Heritage Foundation article is good but rather long. I found a shorter related article – and it pulls no punches – zeroing in on “Marxism and Marriage” at American Thinker here. 

I also checked the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission which already has jurisdiction over claims related to LGBT; see here. The Cleveland Field Office website is here; its page for filing a charge of discrimination is here. So the Cuyahoga County Council's intended power-grab can also be filed under the Department of Redundancy Department.

I’ll re-post the alert again after Labor Day.

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Preview: Cleveland Air Show over Labor Day weekend

photo credit: Pat J Dooley photography

Click here for the 2018 Cleveland Air Show website, which includes preliminary schedules, ticketing, and general information. And this year, it’s the Blue Angels.

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Teaching history in England and America

art credit: indianexpress.com

  

James Delingpole’s “History Teaching Has a Dangerous Left-Wing Bias” is mostly about teaching the history of England, but he references NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s put-down of the USA from a day or two ago: “We’re not going to make America great again. It was never that great.” 

The teaching of history in America more and more shares Gov. Cuomo’s guilt-ridden perspective. And I am thinking of all the Confederate and Founding Father statues and plaques that are being torn down, which will ultimately result in history text books filled with blank pages and lies. Delingpole concludes his article:

Apart from being objectively untrue – the historical achievements of the Anglophone empires and their various scientists, inventors, writers, painters, explorers and warriors far, far outweigh their defects – this approach is also insidiously dangerous.

There’s a reason why young Victorians were raised on GA Henty novels with titles like Under Drake’s Flag and Winning His Spurs. The narrative of national pride filled young men and women with the confidence to go out and achieve extraordinary things on behalf of their great nation.

There’s a reason, too, why young Americans used to pledge allegiance to the flag.

We’re encouraged by the modern left to pour scorn on such outmoded jingoism. But it was nothing of the kind: just people uniting in love of their country and recognising that it was a cause worth fighting and dying for. The less you value your nation’s history and traditions, the less you feel they are worth defending. Such negativity is a recipe for decay and defeat. It’s so obvious, so well-documented that only a left wing historian could be deluded enough to imagine otherwise.

The full article is on Breitbart here.

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E-Censorship

 art credit: 2012patriot.wordpress.com

Most days I visit several news aggregators to find reports, analyses, and commentary. A couple of weeks ago, one of the aggregators, Lucianne.com, was down for several days. It wasn’t the first time it went down, and I wonder about why it happened. For the last two days, another aggregator, Politipage, has gone blank. Hmm. Maybe these were just technical crashes. Both these aggregators lean conservative.

In what are probably related developments, some prominent conservative voices have been demonetized or blocked from Facebook or other platforms. Among them are Diamond and Silk, Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, and Avi Yemini.

Glenn Reynolds (Mr. Instapundit) has an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal today titled “When Digital Platforms Become Censors: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other tech giants say that they’re open forums. What happens when they start to shut down voices they consider beyond the pale?”:

Call 2018 the “Year of Deplatforming.” The internet was once celebrated for allowing fresh new voices to escape the control of gatekeepers. But this year, the internet giants decided to slam the gates on a number of people and ideas they don’t like. If you rely on someone else’s platform to express unpopular ideas, especially ideas on the right, you’re now at risk. This raises troubling questions, not only for free speech but for the future of American politics and media.

That’s his opener. The rest of his commentary is here.

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The Media’s war against President Trump escalates

image credit: thatbookwormgirl.wordpress.com

It is difficult to equate a “free press” with the dishonest Mainstream Media that produces negative propaganda round-the-clock. Legal Insurrection has the latest anti-Trump strategy:

Since election day in 2016, various media outlets have attacked Trump and his supporters on a near daily basis. Yet when Trump refers to fake news as an enemy of the people, they become outraged and claim he is attacking the free press.

The Boston Globe has decided to organize a protest in print, proving once again that the media thinks it is part of the resistance. Brian Stelter of CNN is pretty excited about this:

More than 100 newspapers will publish editorials decrying Trump’s anti-press rhetoric

“The dirty war on the free press must end.”

That’s the idea behind an unusual editorial-writing initiative that has enlisted scores of newspapers across America.

The Boston Globe has been contacting newspaper editorial boards and proposing a “coordinated response” to President Trump’s escalating “enemy of the people” rhetoric.

“We propose to publish an editorial on August 16 on the dangers of the administration’s assault on the press and ask others to commit to publishing their own editorials on the same date,” The Globe said in its pitch to fellow papers.

The effort began just a few days ago.

As of Saturday, “we have more than 100 publications signed up, and I expect that number to grow in the coming days,” Marjorie Pritchard, the Globe’s deputy editorial page editor, told CNN.

The rest of the report is here. Sad to see that cleveland.com is on board the anti-Trump Train, such as here. Let's see if it runs an editorial tomorrow.

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Update on the Ohio District 12 election

100percentfedup reports:

It looks like there was a big blue bust when the so-called “blue wave” trickled into town during Ohio’s special election. Reports are suggesting that there were over 170 people listed in Ohio’s 12th Congressional District who were registered as being over 116-years-old. How does that happen? Well, that’s a very good question, especially in a town where voter fraud is thought to run rampant and a Republican might just barely defeat their Democratic opponent.

It was Republican Troy Balderson who won (so far) by a very slim number of votes, close to 1,600, and that accounts for less than 1% of the votes in the district. That means the election is so close that law demands a recount. Of course, that’s Ohio law, specifically. It’s also reported that there are at least 3,000 provisional ballots yet to be counted. That number is higher than the number by which Republican Balderson has apparently won, which likely contributes to the further demand for a recount. It’s like you can’t win an election if you’re Republican without people wanting a recount and some invisible person who is 116-years-old, or older, shows up magically to defeat you.

Full report is here. No wonder Danny O’Connor has not conceded (see here).

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Erasing History

A.F. Branco’s cartoon via www.wnd.com

Rename America

Most of us are aghast at the destruction of our history, whether the result of indoctrination taking the place of education in schools, or Confederate statues being torn down, or a commemorative plaque of George Washington being removed, etc. etc. Daniel Greenfield looks down the road that we are on, and it is scary. From his article “Rename America”:

Austin’s Equity Office has recommended renaming the Texas city because of Stephen F. Austin's alleged views on slavery. But why stop at just renaming Austin when Amerigo Vespucci took and sold slaves. 

Austin, Texas is named after Stephen F. Austin, but America is named after Amerigo Vespucci. 

. . .

History cannot be purified, only learned from. 

Read the rest here.

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Ohio District 12: “finding” ballots

image credit: headlineoftheday.com

We’ve seen this movie before. Leah Barkoukis reports at Townhall:

Election officials in Ohio found 588 uncounted votes Wednesday in a suburb of Columbus, county officials said.

After counting the ballots, Republican Troy Balderson received 198 votes; Democrat Danny O’Connor got 388 votes; and Joe Manchik, 2 votes. Thus, O’Connor gained 190 on Balderson, who currently leads by 1,564 votes in the close race.

Full report is here. If this follows the usual plot, election officials will keep “finding” ballots until O’Connor wins. At any rate, O'Connor has not conceded.

More on potential Ohio voter fraud is at Breitbart here.  Eric Eggers reports:

Consider that 170 registered voters listed as being over 116 years old still existed on the rolls of Ohio’s 12th Congressional when GAI accessed the data last August. That’s 10 percent of Balderson’s current margin of victory, pending provisional ballots. And 72 voters over the age of 116 who “live” in Balderson’s district cast ballots in the 2016 election.

But the Left hasn’t given up trying to create conditions favorable for voter fraud in Ohio. As former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell has pointed out, “hyper-partisan liberals…have their eyes on Ohio.” Electing a Democrat as the state’s top elections official would undoubtedly roll back the hard-won safeguards Ohio has implemented. And as Blackwell points out, as goes Ohio, so goes the Presidency.

I had previously linked to Ken Blackwell’s article in the Cleveland Tea Party blog here.

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Special Election tomorrow 12th District

map credit: ballotpedia

12^th District, outside of Columbus includes Zanesville and Mansfield

Cleveland Tea Party members: Do you have family, friends, or colleagues who live in the Ohio 12^th District ?  Tomorrow, Tuesday, Aug. 7 is the Special Election for the US House seat recently vacated by Rep. Patrick Tiberi. State Sen. Troy Balderson (R) is running against Danny O'Connor (D).

Easy Action Alert: call, email, text, or otherwise encourage those you know to VOTE tomorrow.

Click here for more information.

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Dinesh D’Souza’s Death of A Nation

Roger L. Simon posted his review of Dinesh D’Souza’s new documentary film Death of A Nation. The review concludes:  

. . . Dinesh is definitely not premature in assessing the moment we are in as critical to the future of our nation, even its existence as we know it.  And he has made the most impassioned film he could to help move people in the right direction. This alone makes it compelling.  Most films are made for no reason at all but wealth and self-aggrandizement and show it.

The question remains -- as it is with all works of this nature -- will anybody see it who doesn't already agree with it?  Reporting from my new home in Nashville, I am not optimistic.  I was alone in the theatre with one other couple.  Whatever the case, D'Souza has to be applauded for his effort.  He's a patriot and an immigrant who makes a great case for legal immigration all by himself.

The full review at PJ Media is here. The documentary is currently at several Cleveland area theaters (Valley View, Beachwood, Middleburg Hts.). Click on the movie website here; when you select “Get Tickets” the area theater details will pop up.

I have not seen the movie, but I have read a related article that Mr. D'Souza published the other day at American Greatness here; entitled “The Switch That Never Happened: How the South Really Went GOP,” it is adapted from the book.

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Gov. Kasich on Trump’s “chaos”

Breitbart reports:

Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Gov. John Kasich (R-OH) said President Donald Trump’s “chaos” was turning off “suburban women.”

Kasich said, “First of all, the chaos that surrounds Donald Trump has unnerved a lot of people. Suburban women in particular here are the ones that are really turned off. And you add to that the millennials you have it very close.”

(More of the report with video is here.)

Let's see. Chaos defined as “complete disorder and confusion” vs President Trump’s record since his election.  Below are a few accomplishments out of over 50 cited by Sean Hannity here:

• ·         Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court
• ·         Stock Market reached an all-time high
• ·         Consumer confidence at 17-year high
• ·         More than 2 million jobs created
• ·         Mortgage applications for new homes rise to a 7-year high
• ·         Unemployment rate at 17-year low
• ·         Ended war on coal
• ·         Bids for Border Wall underway
• ·         Changed rules of engagement against ISIS
• ··        Withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
• ·         Removed The United States out of The Paris Accord
• ·         Authorized the construction of The Keystone Pipeline
• ·         Food Stamp use at lowest level in 7 years
• ·         Would not certify the Iran Nuclear Deal
• ·         Recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital
• ·         Passage of Tax Reform Bill

If that’s “chaos,” some voters will want more chaos.

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President Trump rally in Ohio

Here's the live stream link via Right Side Broadcasting Network for President Trump's rally today (Saturday, August 4), scheduled to begin at 6:30pm (h/t Sundance).

Or go to the YouTube link at 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVknMa_m8FU

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