Category: News

Aaron Alexis was allowed to walk into a Navy Shipyard last week and systematically execute 12 people because his prior arrests for gun possession were never prosecuted and his cries for mental help were never addressed.

Instead of prosecuting Aaron Alexis on two separate crimes involving a firearm our politically correct judicial system instead issued him two get out of jail free cards. In addition, the mental health professionals who were supposed to recognize the warning signs instead gave him the benefit of the doubt and never shared their findings with the appropriate agencies who could have determined his mental status.

How did this man pass multiple background checks and evade multiple arrests involving firearm use and possession? Why did Aaron Alexis choose the Navy Ship Yard to perpetrate his crime? What drove this young man to commit this heinous act?

The Democratic Party will have you believe that this shooting was a result of too many guns in too many hands. They will have you believe that a complete ban on guns is the only answer to preventing these acts. They will blame it on Right Wing Extremists, the Second Amendment, and the National Rifle Association. They will give you every single excuse under the sun except for their own failed liberal policies.

What they won’t tell you is the truth.

In 1993 former president Bill Clinton issued an order forbidding members of the military and their civilian contractors from carrying their own personal firearms on military bases. Since this ruling at least 25 military personnel have been murdered as a result of this policy. I bet you never heard this on ABC, NBC, CBS, or CNN did you?

Since 1950, almost every single public shooting in the United States in which more than three people have been killed have taken place in what are commonly known as “gun free” zones. The main reason this tragedy occurred was due to Bill Clinton’s 1993 draconian policy on gun control.

Let’s take a look at some mass shootings that took place in gun free zones.

The last mass shooting on a military base happened only four short years ago. Nidal Hasan shot 13 people to death in Fort Hood, Texas in what is the worst mass shooting on a military base in history. Once again, Fort Hood was a gun free zone.

Last December Adam Lanza walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School and shot to death 26 people, including 20 children. Once again, there were no faculty armed on school grounds essentially making the school another easy target in a gun free zone.

James Holmes, who shot to death 12 people last year in a Colorado movie theatre did so by seeking out the one theatre out of seven in the metropolitan Denver area that was in a gun free zone.

In 2007 Virginia Tech student Seung-Hui Cho shot to death 32 students in the worst mass shooting in United States history. Once again, Virginia Tech was a gun free campus with a complete ban on firearms on school property even for security guards and those that possessed a legal concealed weapons permit.

In 1999 two students who attended gun free zone Columbine High School in Colorado murdered 12 of their fellow classmates before turning their guns on themselves.

There are many other incidents of mass shootings that took place in gun free zones but for sake of time I can’t list them all. The fact is that gun free zones kill innocent victims. The people that commit these crimes are well aware that they will not meet an armed resistance which is exactly why these cowards choose these locations.

If military personnel were allowed to carry personal firearms on base these shooters would have thought twice about committing these crimes. If colleges, universities, high schools, middle schools, elementary schools, and even movie theatres were not in gun free zones than most of these tragedies would not have occurred.

The reality is not all shootings can be prevented. But allowing more law abiding citizens to carry firearms will decrease the amount of mass shootings. If plain clothed officers were allowed to patrol schools and carry a firearm it will make these places less of an attractive target. We need more guns in school not less guns in school. We need more guns on military bases not less guns on military bases. We need more armed citizens at movies theatres, restaurants, shopping malls, etc.

The biggest deterrent to fighting crime is not creating the environment that entices it. Most criminals will take the path of least resistance which is why gun free zones are so deadly. If more law abiding citizens were armed there would actually be less mass shootings. As Robert A. Heinlein once said, “An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his or her acts with their life.”

If you like this article you will love my radio show. Please tune into the The Grit and Grace Show live every Tuesday and Thursday nights from 8-10pm CST or anytime right here: www.blogtalkradio.com/gritgraceradio

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Justice League topped global ticket sales this weekend for the second time with $112.9 million bringing its running total to $481.3 million. Disney/Pixar’s Coco debuted at number one in the U.S. with $40.7 million but has been playing globally for about a month during which it has pulled in $153.4 million.

The top 12 worldwide films, by ticket sales:

1. Justice League – Warner Bros. – $112.9M
2. Coco – Disney – $79.7M
3. Murder On The Orient Express – 20th Century Fox – $30.2M
4. Thor: Ragnarok – Disney – $27.8M
5. Daddy’s Home 2 – Paramount Pictures – $27.1M
6. Wonder – Multiple – $23.6M
7. Manhunt – Multiple – $11.6M
8. Swindlers, The – Showbox / Mediaplex Inc. – $10.5M
9. Paddington 2 – Multiple – $9.1M
10. Bad Moms Christmas, A – STX Entertainment – $9.0M
11. Star, The – Sony – $6.9M
12. Explosion (Yin Bao Zhe) – Multiple – $4.9M

Top 12 U.S. films, by ticket sales:

1. Coco – Disney – $49.0M
2. Justice League – Warner Bros. – $40.7M
3. Wonder – Lionsgate – $22.3M
4. Thor: Ragnarok – Disney – $16.8M
5. Daddy’s Home 2 – Paramount – $13.2M
6. Murder On The Orient Express – 20th Century Fox – $13.0M
7. Star, The – Sony – $6.9M
8. Bad Moms Christmas, A – STX Entertainment – $5.0M
9. Roman J. Israel, Esq. – Sony – $4.5M
10. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri – Fox Searchlight – $4.4M
11. Lady Bird – A24 – $4.0M
12. Man Who Invented Christmas, The – Bleecker Street – $1.3M

Despite a drop in numbers across much of the United States since the recession, vacant and abandoned properties continue to dog struggling postindustrial cities, tearing apart neighborhoods with growing intensity, according to a report published by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

Since the 1990s, vacancies have become more widespread in cities such as Detroit, Cleveland, and St. Louis, former industrial powerhouses known as legacy cities, researcher Alan Mallach writes in the Policy Focus Report The Empty House Next Door: Understanding and Reducing Vacancy and Hypervacancy in the United States. These vacancies are driving property values down, hurting cities’ financial health, and contributing to higher crime rates. At the same time, cities have had some success with strategies to rehabilitate, selectively demolish, and reuse vacant properties as new housing or green space.

The report analyzes U.S. Census and Postal Service data for 15 legacy cities — ten large and five small — as well as for magnet cities such as San Francisco and Boston, and Sunbelt cities such as Phoenix and Dallas. The report focuses especially on two indicators: hypervacancy, the condition in which at least one in five properties sits vacant, and so-called “other vacancies,” a Census term for properties sitting unused and not for sale or rent — effectively abandoned.

A few decades ago, hypervacancy was limited to a handful of neighborhoods but now characterizes large swaths of many cities. In 2015, more than 49 percent of Census tracts in Flint, Michigan, 46 percent of tracts in Detroit, and 42 percent of tracts in Gary, Indiana, suffered from extreme hypervacancy, with more than a quarter of units vacant in each tract.

At such levels of vacancy, “the market effectively ceases to function,” Mallach writes in the report. “Houses sell, if they sell at all, only to investors at rock bottom prices while the neighborhoods become areas of concentrated poverty, unemployment, and health problems.”

Meanwhile, the number of units that are effectively abandoned has increased by 2.1 million units nationally, from 3.7 million in 2005 to 5.8 million in 2016, an increase roughly equal to five times the entire housing stock of San Francisco. These properties represent less than a third of all vacant properties in magnet and Sunbelt cities, but about half of all vacancies in large legacy cities and roughly two-thirds of vacancies in the smaller legacy cities, which face the greatest economic challenges, as detailed in the report Revitalizing America’s Smaller Legacy Cities.

The Empty House Next Door describes barriers to addressing vacancies, including cumbersome property tax foreclosure processes, and state laws and bank practices that lead to thousands of properties being stuck in foreclosure limbo.  Legal tools including “spot blight” eminent domain, vacant property receivership, and land banking have helped communities gain control of abandoned properties in some cities, but are unavailable or under-utilized in others.

Some cities have pursued strategies to promote reuse of vacant property. In Cleveland and Youngstown, Ohio, collaborative public-private efforts have combined strategic demolition with rehabilitation to make refurbished homes available to new buyers at affordable prices. Baltimore uses receivership to place vacant properties in the hands of for-profit and nonprofit developers in targeted areas with market potential, putting 1,300 units back to use since 2010.

In neighborhoods with less redevelopment potential, cities have converted vacant properties into green space. Cleveland, for example, published a catalog of potential green uses for vacant land and worked with a nonprofit partner to make $500,000 in grants to 56 small parks, rain gardens, and agricultural projects. In Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society has pioneered an inexpensive, low-maintenance approach to greening more than 7,000 vacant lots.

With inspiration from these successes, the report recommends that cities collect better data on vacancies, remove legal impediments to reuse, adopt and use strong legal tools, use public strategies to overcome obstacles to market-driven reuse, make greening a long-term strategy, and balance demolition with rehabilitation as part of a larger strategy for revival.

The Navy will commission its newest Independence-variant littoral combat ship (LCS), the future USS Charleston (LCS 18), during a 10 a.m. ceremony Saturday, March 2, at Columbus Street Terminal in Charleston, South Carolina.

U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina will deliver the commissioning ceremony’s principal address. Charlotte Riley, wife of former Charleston Mayor Joe Riley, is the ship’s sponsor. The ceremony will be highlighted by a time-honored Navy tradition when Mrs. Riley gives the first order to “man our ship and bring her to life!”

“The future USS Charleston is proof of what the teamwork of all of our people – civilian, contractor and military – can accomplish together,” said Secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spencer. “This ship will extend the maneuverability and lethality of our fleet to confront the many challenges of a complex world, from maintaining the sea lanes to countering instability to maintaining our edge against renewed great power competition.”

The name Charleston has a long and storied history in the U.S. Navy. The first Navy ship to bear the name Charleston was a row galley that defended the coast of South Carolina during the Quasi-War with France. The second Charleston (C-2) was a protected cruiser that received the surrender of Guam during the Spanish-American War. The third Charleston (C-22) was a St. Louis-class protected cruiser that performed escort and troop transport duties in World War I. The next Charleston (PG-51) was an Erie-class patrol gunboat that earned the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with one battle star for her service in the northern Pacific during World War II. The fifth Charleston (AKA-113/LKA-113) was an amphibious cargo ship that served during the Vietnam War.

The future USS Charleston is a fast, agile, focused-mission platform designed for operation in near-shore environments yet capable of open-ocean operation. It is designed to defeat asymmetric “anti-access” threats such as mines, quiet diesel submarines and fast surface craft. The ship will be homeported in San Diego, Calif.

The LCS class consists of two variants, the Freedom variant and the Independence variant, designed and built by two industry teams. The Freedom variant team is led by Lockheed Martin, Marinette, Wis., (for the odd-numbered hulls). The Independence variant team is led by Austal USA, Mobile, Ala., (for LCS 6 and the subsequent even-numbered hulls).

The ceremony, using hashtag #USSCharleston, can be viewed Saturday morning on the Navy Live blog.

The IRA claimed responsibility for four letter bombs found in London and Glasgow Tuesday, telling police there is a fifth explosive that has yet to be found.

The four devices arrived at three buildings in London and the University of Glasgow on March 5 and 6, CNN reported. Police issued a statement saying the devices resembled those used by “dissident groups associated with Northern-Ireland related terrorism,” and that police opened a line of inquiry into that possibility.

The IRA first claimed responsibility by contacting a local news station in Northern Ireland on Monday, with police confirming that the caller used a code word common in the IRA, according to CNN. The mail bombs also sported Irish stamps and postmarks, according to The Irish Times.

“This was a reckless and cowardly attack on the entire community. I condemn in the strongest possible terms the people who carried out this act,” Irish Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan said. “We must work together to reject those isolated groups who would discard the accomplishments of the peace process for all communities on these islands for their own narrow objectives. Their futile agenda will not succeed.”

The individual who claimed responsibility specified that three devices had been sent to commercial targets and the remaining two were sent to British army recruitment centers, according to The Telegraph. One of those devices remains unaccounted for.

Authorities in the U.K. have contacted businesses with instructions on how to address any explosive devices they receive.

 

by Rob Shimshock

A leader of the #MeToo movement allegedly paid off her own sexual assault victim after accusing film producer Harvey Weinstein of a 1997 rape in October 2017.

Italian director and actress Asia Argento, one of Weinstein’s first public accusers, apparently paid actor and musician Jimmy Bennett $380,000 in exchange for his agreement not to sue her after she allegedly sexually assaulted him in 2013, The New York Times reported Sunday. Argento was 37 years old and Bennett was 17 years old at the time of the incident.

“We hope nothing like this ever happens to you again,” Argento’s lawyer, Carrie Goldberg, wrote in an April letter to Argento. “You are a powerful and inspiring creator and it is a miserable condition of life that you live among shitty individuals who’ve preyed on both your strengths and your weaknesses.”

Bennett’s own lawyer, Gordon Sattro, described a “sexual battery” perpetrated by Argento on Bennett that affected both the musician’s mental health and income, in a November letter he sent to lawyer Richard Hofstetter, who was then representing Argento.

Bennett asked Argento for $3.5 million in damages for lost wages, emotional distress, battery and assault. The actor had made over $2.7 million in the five years leading up to the alleged 2013 incident, but he has since earned an average of $60,000 per year.

Argento obtained the copyright for a May 9, 2013 photo from Bennett featuring the two of them lying in bed as part of the parties’ agreement. The New York Times obtained access to this photo via an encrypted email from an anonymous party.

Bennett cannot sue Argento for sexual assault, as per the parties’ agreement, however, Goldberg told Argento that the musician could publicly address the claims.

“In the coming days, Jimmy will continue doing what he has been doing over the past months and years, focusing on his music,” Sattro told The New York Times.

Argento did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The New York Times. Her late boyfriend, celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain, committed suicide in June.

You know those hippy throwbacks who think it would be cool if everyone was “equal” like the Constitution guarantees? Just a heads up, the guarantee is for equal access to succeed, not a guarantee for equal success.

This president can’t seem to grasp that truth. He has a hard time grasping many truths. And now, he’s given illegals, yes, the people who came here by breaking the law, a leg up over hard-working, tax-paying Americans.

One of the first in-your-face insults was him pushing states to give in-state tuition to illegals. And once again for clarity… these people are here illegally, breaking the law, and not paying taxes. It just shows his disdain for the American way of life. Veterans can’t even get the same privileges. They have to live in a state for the state’s designated residency period before they are considered a resident who qualifies for in state tuition. Maybe they should renounce their citizenship and run up from south of the border into the arms of California Governor Jerry Brown who recently told all illegals (and anyone thinking about coming to America illegally) to come to California they were welcome here! And Governor Brown won by big numbers in California, they deserve him!

Mr. Obama has opened previously closed military bases (remember, they were too costly to keep open). He flew in medical supplies with staff to treat the recent influx of Illegals coming across the border. This was a “humanitarian act” according to Mr. Obama. Wouldn’t it also have been a humanitarian act to reopen bases to help our vets? But it appears President Obama wouldn’t think of flying in medical personal to help our vets to shorten the time it takes them to get help because of the costs. Really Mr. President? Do you disrespect us that much? I guess you really do believe Americans are stupid.

Mr. Obama, you send Eric Holder into Ferguson to threateningly suggest that there is much more going on there behind the scenes with the police than actually is. How about you send him in to the VA with threats and a guarantee that many will lose their jobs if they don’t get their act together?

Remember when you told us that the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) would not pay for abortions? Remember that? Remember you said there was no money in there for illegals to get healthcare? Not to mention all that “keep your doctor,” “cheaper rates,” “better policies,” you know the “Obama bucket-o-lies” bit.

So then we find that there actually is money for abortions in Obamacare in the form of the morning after pill, abortions for “emergency reasons,” “rape and incest.” Mr. Prez, I know you have a word problem, but abortion is abortion. And when the government pays for them that is taxpayer money not yours.

Now you have given 5+ million illegals the ability to take more American jobs and drain the system. Let’s do this at a Sesame Street level so you can understand. You see, once the “illegals” feel free to roam about the country, employers will be able to hire them, and still at a lesser rate than their American counterparts. The jobs they leave open will be back-filled by more people coming over the border because the president will not do anything to secure the borders any more than they are today.

He claims that Republicans wouldn’t sign an immigration bill that included the hiring of over 30 thousand more border patrol personnel. Nice try! Would you have given those new border patrol agents the same “rules of engagement” the current border patrol has? Because if that was the plan, then they would be just as useless as you’ve made the current border patrol. Our poor border patrol agents have their hands tied so badly that even they say they should just stay home.

The president’s claims on “deportation numbers” are bogus. He is counting only those that are caught and released at the border. His numbers are dismal for deporting those here in jail or living in the shadows.

Read more at TheRealSide

 

by Robert Donachie

A combination of geopolitical events, environmental regulations, and rising demand will beset U.S. commuters with higher-than-average gas prices this summer.

Pump prices typically rise during the summer months as Americans take to the open roads for vacation trips. Currently, the national average price for gasoline is about $2.80 a gallon — a sharp uptick from $2.40 during the same time in 2017. Almost half of all gas stations across the country are selling gas at $2.76 a gallon or higher, and 17 percent of stations are selling at $3.01 or higher, according to a May 4 Axios report. Pump prices are expected to climb even higher in the coming months.

Four main factors are driving prices: OPEC, Venezuela’s economic collapse, environmental regulations and higher demand.

After several years of falling oil prices, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, more commonly known as OPEC, reached an agreement with Russia two years ago to limit global oil production. Their deal has proven largely successful. Global oil prices have risen from around $30 a barrel in January 2016 to over $65 today.

Venezuela sits atop the greatest oil reserves in the world, but socialism has a way of complicating the easiest of jobs. Once an oil exporting behemoth, the South American country has watched production screech to a halt as the rest of its economy shutters. Output fell by 100,000 barrels a day in February. Production has reached its lowest point in 70 years, according to The Central University of Venezuela. The situation has aided OPEC’s goal in cutting global production.

Non-geopolitical factors will also lead to higher prices this summer. State and federal regulations require the use of summer-grade gasoline, which is more expensive to manufacture. These environmental rules obligate refineries to switch to a cleaner, higher-priced form of gasoline every summer compared to the winter season. Additionally, the summer months are indicative of travel season. Thousands of American families will be driving and flying across the country, consuming more gas and driving demand.

There are fears in President Donald Trump’s administration that costly gas prices will hamper the economic gains made in the past year. GOP-led tax cuts have boosted growth, but pain at the pump could stymie economic progress. In fact, Trump took to social media to voice ire at OPEC for manipulating prices:

On Christmas Day every year, many Americans relax and enjoy time with their families. For many of our troops, though, it can be a day of sacrifice and hardship.Over the history of the U.S., several big military actions have taken place on December 25. Here are four noteworthy ones.

1776: Washington’s Famous Crossing of the Delaware

The winter of 1776 didn’t start as a good one for Gen. George Washington’s Continental Army. They suffered many defeats in the first few months of the American Revolution and had been pushed out of New York and New Jersey into Pennsylvania. For the troops, morale was low.

Washington needed to renew faith in the battle for independence, so he decided to surprise the Hessians – German troops hired by the British – who were stationed in Trenton, New Jersey. He figured that doing so after the enemy’s Christmas celebrations would find them groggy and unprepared for a fight, especially as a terrible winter storm was brewing.

So late Christmas night, Washington and his troops hopped in boats and waded across the icy Delaware River to test his theory – and he was right. At dawn on Dec. 26, about 2,400 frozen Continentals pushed into Trenton, and they did indeed surprise the enemy, who surrendered within an hour and a half.

The mission, which became known as the Battle of Trenton, was of huge significance to the Continental Army’s cause. Not only did it raise the troops’ spirits, but it revived the hope of the colonists, who were beginning to think their battle for independence wasn’t feasible.

1864: The First Battle of Fort Fisher

For most of the Civil War, North Carolina’s Fort Fisher saw very little combat. But that changed on Christmas 1864, when the Union decided it wanted to capture the last port the Confederates held on the Atlantic Ocean.

It was a debacle for the Union.

First, the Union tried to pack a warship with explosives and blow up the fort’s walls — but that didn’t work. It just blew up their ship and alerted the Confederates of an imminent attack. So on Christmas Eve, the Union tried again, bombarding the fort with heavy gunfire, most of which fell short or missed its target.

On Christmas morning, Union commanders decided to shell an area north of the fort so troops could land and come ashore. But when they did, more disappointment followed — the fort’s heavy artillery was completely unscathed, so that was a no-go, too. It was only then that the Union ordered troops to retreat.

While the first Battle of Fort Fisher was a massive failure for the Union, the second wasn’t. In mid-January 1865, Union troops were finally able to capture the fort, effectively cutting the Confederates off from global trade and supplies. The Civil War ended three months later.

1972: Operation Linebacker II in North Vietnam

American troops were in the middle of the biggest bombing mission in military history during the Christmas season of 1972. The air campaign, called Operation Linebacker II, has largely been considered the action that ended U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.

President Richard Nixon ordered the bombings to begin on Dec. 18 after North Vietnamese delegates walked out on peace talks. Nicknamed the “11 Days of Christmas,” the operation consisted of 11 successive days of raids by B-52 Stratofortress bombers flown in from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam.

The only day that both sides got a reprieve was Christmas, when troops were given a 36-hour break to celebrate. During that time, Nixon ordered the North Vietnamese to return to the bargaining table. The North Vietnamese refused, so the bombings continued until Dec. 29, when they agreed to resume peace talks.

In 11 days, Linebacker II dropped 15,000 tons of bombs via 729 U.S. Air Force sorties involving about 12,000 airmen. Defense Department records show the raids destroyed or damaged 1,600 structures, 500 rail targets, 10 airfields and 80 percent of North Vietnam’s electric-generating capacity. Fifteen U.S. B-52s were also destroyed in the process, killing 35 men and leading to the capture of nearly 40 American prisoners of war.

The resumed peace talks that came from the campaign led to the Paris Peace Accords in January 1973. The U.S. ended its involvement in the war soon after, but the last American troops wouldn’t leave the country for another two years.

1896: “Stars and Stripes Forever” is Written

While this wasn’t exactly a military action, it’s definitely a symbol of America’s military might.

John Philip Sousa, who grew up during the Civil War, was a talented musician who became a long-time director of the U.S. Marine Band. Known as the “March King,” he was a rock star of his time, eventually starting his own band in 1892.

On Christmas Day 1896, while crossing the Atlantic on his way home from a European vacation, Sousa’s lasting legacy came to him. He said the notes for “Stars and Stripes Forever” were born out of homesickness and fond memories of his time as the Marine Band’s leader.

The iconic song officially became America’s national march in 1987.

So this holiday season, while you’re enjoying leave, family, friends and feasts, think of some of your fellow troops, past and present, who had to forgo their holidays for the greater good of the country.  While you’re at it, you might even want to put on “Stars and Stripes Forever” in their honor.

Have a great holiday season, everybody!

Blindsided by a new generation of blazing-fast racers, the legendary Lightning McQueen (voice of Owen Wilson) is suddenly pushed out of the sport he loves. To get back in the game, he will need the help of an eager young race technician, Cruz Ramirez, with her own plan to win, plus inspiration from the late Fabulous Hudson Hornet and a few unexpected turns. Proving that #95 isn’t through yet will test the heart of a champion on Piston Cup Racing’s biggest stage!

Disney/Pixar’s Cars 3 opens in theaters in 3D June 16!