A legal immigrant is now an American citizen

This morning I attended a naturalization ceremony for foreign-born residents. The swearing-in took place in the Ohio District Court in downtown Cleveland, and there must have been at least 100 applicants present, most with family or friends. The presiding Magistrate Judge gave the proceedings a real sense of occasion. He began by leading the Pledge of Allegiance, and then talked a little bit about America’s founding documents and earning the right to citizenship, before administering the Oath of Allegiance. He also posed for photographs with each and every new U.S. citizen holding his or her certificate of citizenship. Most of those who were sworn in registered to vote before exiting the building.

I had not known what to expect, having read a report of a recent and pretty dismal naturalization ceremony in Brooklyn, where no friends or relatives were allowed in the room, and the presiding judge encouraged new citizens to take a knee. Fortunately, the ceremony I attended this morning was a joyful one, the courtroom lent the proceedings a formal elegance, and a well-known painting of George Washington at the signing of the Constitution (see above) was projected on the screen behind the bench. I had brought with me an American flag lapel pin for the new United States citizen, and my hanky. It was needed.

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Tech Researcher Epstein Warns Conservatives: Get Off Gmail!

image credit: 4thmedia.org

I’ve been reading about the thumb-on-the-scale algorithms built into searches and regular activities on Google, Facebook, YouTube, and so on. A tech researcher, Dr Robert Epstein, was a guest on Fox News a couple of weeks ago, so I recognized his name in an article today at Newsbusters. Here’s a sampling:

Google has more power and control than most people realize and a top tech researcher is warning about it.

In an interview at the D.C. premiere of the Creepy Line, a documentary on the dangers of Google and Facebook, Dr. Robert Epstein told the Media Research Center that Google was building personal profiles of users mainly through Gmail. He warned that Google was compiling information upwards of 3 million pages per user, and said, “The more they know about you, the easier it is for them to manipulate you without your awareness.”

Epstein explained what parts of Gmail Google used to create these profiles: every single part.

“I can’t even begin to emphasize how important it is that you not use Gmail. The problem is that it’s so extensive it’s hard to condense into a sentence or two. But the point is that they’re taking that information, not just from the emails you send, but even from the drafts, those crazy drafts that you decide not to send, that all becomes part of your personal profile. If you’re mentioning other people, that goes into their personal profiles.”

He mentioned that it didn’t matter if some users had emails outside of Gmail, those were on the profiles too.

. . .

[C]onservatives have “special reasons to be concerned” based on the leaked emails and videos from Google concerning the 2016 election. Detailing an article that he was about to release, he said, “I describe 10 different methods by which Google and big tech companies can shift millions of votes in the midterm elections coming up in the U.S. I estimate upwards of 12 million votes.”

In the Fox interview I watched, Dr Epstein made the point that the compiling of data and the manipulation of YOUR online activities to influence YOUR decisions, including your vote, are taking place and leaving no paper trail. Scary. Read the rest here.

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Ken Blackwell: another look at Ohio Issue #1

image credit: sunrisehouse.com

A week or so ago, Cleveland Tea Party posted a blog examining some pros and cons of Issue #1, which will be on the ballot in November.

Today, Ken Blackwell, former Ohio Secretary of State, leads off his article “Ohio’s ‘Issue 1’: A Dangerous and Deadly Proposition” with:

They are at it again!  Liberal billionaires George Soros, Mark Zuckerberg and Nicholas Pritzker are attempting to force their left leaning ideology on Ohioans.

This time it’s by spending millions of dollars to weaken Ohio’s drug laws. Soros, Zuckerberg and Pritzker are the lead funders of state Issue 1, a dangerous state constitutional amendment that gives drug dealers a get out of jail free card.

They want you to believe their proposal is in line with marijuana reforms in other states. It’s not. They will say it’s in the interest of public safety, and will lead to better treatment options for addicted Ohioans. It won’t.

. . .

Drug abuse has had a disproportionate effect on Ohio families, and tragically, our state is ground zero in the fight against overdoses. Law enforcement officials are overwhelmed by the overdose crisis and we cannot afford, in terms of treasure and human suffering, more of these drugs on the streets. But that will be the legacy of Issue 1.

Read the rest here.

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Debate scheduled: Sherrod Brown vs Jim Renacci

art credit: digitaltrends.com

From Andrew J. Tobias at cleveland.com (posted yesterday):

The two major candidates for this year's Ohio Senate race will debate in Cleveland next month, organizers for the event announced Monday.

Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown and his Republican challenger, Rep. Jim Renacci, have agreed to debate at 6 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 14 in Cleveland, about three weeks before the November election.

The debate will be held at the Westfield Insurance studio theater at the Idea Center in Playhouse Square, according to the nonpartisan Ohio Debate Commission, which is organizing the event.

Two veteran journalists -- Ann Fisher, of WOSU public radio in Columbus and Russ Mitchell, anchor at WKYC-TV in Cleveland -- will serve as moderators. Tickets for the event are free, and organizers say more information about how to attend will be posted on their website, www.ohiodebatecommission.org, on Tuesday.

Stay tuned.

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Constitution Day and Citizenship Day

image credit: lauruscollege.edu

Today is Constitution Day and Citizenship Day, and “the act mandates that all publicly funded educational institutions, and all federal agencies, provide educational programming on the history of the American Constitution on that day.” Er, one day out of the year? Nevertheless, Salena Zito reports some encouraging news:

"We must not be afraid to be free," Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black famously said in a dissent defending free expression. That appeal is germane today, especially on college campuses, professor Daniel Cullen argues.

Cullen, a professor of political science at Rhodes College, is working to engage liberal arts college students on the critical importance of the First Amendment and free speech. It's part of a program at 30 colleges and universities across the country [which] will be marking Constitution Day on September 17, the 231st anniversary of its signing.

“It is a critical moment in American society and culture to deeply reflect First Amendment traditions as they relate to the Constitution,” said Cullen of the initiative sponsored by the Jack Miller Center.

. . .

“There was a survey recently done by the Knight Foundation that found a majority of American college students today either believe incorrectly that the First Amendment prohibits hate speech, or if it doesn't, then it ought to,” he says.

Simply put, it is an entire generation forgetting that one of the proudest achievements of American democracy is that we agree to tolerate the speech we hate.

“Nevertheless it's that proposition that a majority of college students no longer accept. They don't think it's something to be proud of. They think it's an error so the question is, ‘Why?’ And I think the best answer is that they, especially the iGen generation have become highly sensitized to the harm that speech can do and the offensiveness that often goes along with speech,” he said.

. . .

Yet Cullen remains hopeful, “What we do is we try and separate truth from falsehood and truth from error, and students remain naturally intellectually curious. They want to hear the arguments for important moral viewpoints, even arguments for viewpoints that strike them as fundamentally wrong.”

Read the rest here.

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#WalkAway Campaign

 

image credit:breitbart.com 

Maybe you know one or two liberals who are having second thoughts about the Democratic party platform, tactics, and Big Government values (the opposite of Tea Party values). If so, this information will be of interest.

The headline at The Daily Signal: “Rally in Washington Will Urge Disillusioned Democrats, Leftists to ‘Walk Away’”

The organizer: actor, singer, hair stylist Brandon Straka.

The #WalkAway event: The march and rally will be held Saturday, Oct. 27. The event will start near the Democratic National Committee headquarters building on Capitol Hill and end on the lawn of the Capitol. The date is 10 days before the midterm congressional elections.

On May 26, Straka released a video of himself explaining why he was walking away from the Democratic Party and building a platform for folks who shared similar experiences. Mr. Straka can use all the help he can get, since a few days ago, his Facebook page was suspended for 30 days but then suddenly reinstated under questionable circumstances. 

The full report on the October 27 #WalkAway rally in DC is here. We Tea Party members welcome any #WalkAway red-pill takers into our community.

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Fake Weather Channel

Hurricanes are no laughing matter, but watch a few seconds of the Weather Channel tracking Hurricane Florence (YouTube), via Conservative Treehouse. Tony scar's Twitter caption:

So dramatic! Dude from the weather channel

bracing for his life,

as 2 dudes just stroll past.

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