Is a trap being set for Trump in the Senate trial?

Can 20 U.S. senators withstand the potentially irresistible temptation to reverse the results of the 2016 election and remove a president a number of them openly or privately dislike?

Since Donald Trump announced his intention to run for the White House on June 16, 2015, many of the entrenched elites across the various power centers of Washington and beyond have spent many of their waking hours trying to stop or unseat him.

The political charade of an impeachment “investigation” is but the latest example. But that impeachment charade could harbor the greatest threat to Trump’s presidency.

Over the past week, I have heard from three seasoned Republicans who fear that President Trump and the West Wing are seriously underestimating the potential danger of a Senate trial. Human nature and common sense dictate that, despite the well-meaning resolution circulated by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) condemning the House impeachment process, it’s important for the White House to understand that the weight of history is settling upon the shoulders of these senators — some of them quite weak — and because of that pressure, private conversations are taking place and a trap may be sprung for the president in that trial. 

A potential trap set by seemingly loyal Republican senators.

Those I spoke with, like others, worry that the impeachment process, especially a potential conviction in the Senate, will forever poison the integrity of our constitutional and congressional processes and put every future president at risk of having his or her election reversed for partisan and ideological reasons.

But such is the lingering animosity about Trump by many in the GOP establishment, and there very well may be enough Republican senators willing to topple the first domino and set in motion a chain reaction — no matter the consequences.

In a speech to the American Enterprise Institute in October, former governor and U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley put her finger on the greater issue, saying in part, “President Trump is a disruptor. That makes some people very happy, and it makes some people very mad. … When I was in the administration, I served alongside colleagues who believed the best thing to do for America was to undermine and obstruct the president. Some wrote about it anonymously in The New York Times. Others just did it. They sincerely believed they were doing the right thing. I sincerely believed they weren’t. … No policy disagreement with him … justifies undermining the lawful authority that is vested in his office by the Constitution.”

What’s at stake, Haley said, “is not President Trump’s policies. What’s at stake is the Constitution.”

She is correct, but does all of this go beyond Trump being a disruptor? As we have witnessed, Trump is being opposed, called out and undermined through leaks by multiple anonymous and named sources from the “deep state,” his own National Security Council, former White House staff, former and current Pentagon, State Department and diplomatic officials, members of Congress and their staffs, and basically every other agency within the federal government.

There appears to be a common thread that runs through all of this opposition and stated hatred: “He is not part of the club. He is not one of us. He can’t be controlled.”

The unrelenting opposition to Trump is not based on the fictional quid pro quo with Ukraine’s president but rather a desperate need by the entrenched establishment from both political parties to maintain the status quo of their all-powerful club — aka part of the “swamp” Trump sought to drain.

For Trump to be convicted in a Senate trial, 20 Republican senators would have to join forces with the 47 Democrats. We should not worry about those who openly dislike Trump, such as Sens. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Susan Collins (R-Maine) or Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska); we should worry about those in the purple states, who face tough reelection fights in 2020, and those who have continually criticized and demeaned the president in private.  

What is driving all of this, of course, is the fear that Trump will win reelection. Well, 63 million Americans voted for him in 2016, and 20 GOP senators soon may have the power to invalidate those votes. Can they resist doing so and vote not to convict? Conventional wisdom says that will be the outcome. But as we all know when it comes to Donald Trump, you can throw conventional wisdom right out the window.

For that reason, when it comes to a trial in the Senate, Trump and the West Wing need to remember the sage advice of President Ronald Reagan: “Trust, but verify.”

Douglas MacKinnon, a political and communications consultant and author, was a writer in the White House for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and former special assistant for policy and communications at the Pentagon during the last three years of the Bush administration.

Original Article

Chaos in London as Far Left Protestors Take to the Streets

Following the victory of Boris Johnson in the UK’s general election this week over far-left labour candidate Jeremy Corbyn; protestors took to the streets. The protestors, a collection of far- left activists, anti-Brexiteers, and Antifa, chanted “this is what democracy looks like”.

One woman told Breitbart London: “Fuck Boris, fuck racism, fuck homophobia, fuck all you pigs.”

“[Boris Johnson] is a pig and I’m so ashamed that he’s the prime minister of my country, it’s disgusting and I wish him the worst, I wish him a horrible death,” said another woman.

The protesters outside 10 Downing Street managed to break through police and clashed violently with police. They carried placards with slogans like: “Queer Resistance”, “Defy Tory Rule” and “Open the Borders, No Deportations”

Read More: Breitbart

‘The First Temptation of Christ’ Under Fire for Depiction of Potentially Gay Jesus

Imagine a story in which Jesus Christ shirked his religious obligations and instead pursued a career as… a gay juggler. That’s the basic plot of The First Temptation of Christon Netflix, a blasphemous Christmas special from Brazilian comedy group Porta dos Fundos. As you can imagine, First Temptation of Christ‘s depiction of a potentially gay Jesus isn’t sitting well with Evangelical Christians, more than 1.3 million of whom have since signed a Change.org petition calling for Netflix to remove the comedy. The petition, originally written in Portuguese, claims that the special has “seriously offended Christians,” and as such, Netflix and Porto dos Fundos must be “held responsible for the crime of villainous faith.”

The First Temptation of Christ, or Especial de Natal Porta dos Fundos: A Primera Tentação de Cristo in Portuguese, follows 30-year-old Jesus Christ as he returns to his parents’ house after 40 days in the desert. Mary and Joseph have gone all out for Jesus’ birthday bash, but when he arrives with his new friend Orlando, his family is introduced to a new side of him. While the Netflix Christmas comedy never explicitly identifies its central character as LGBTQ+, the implication is clear: there are multiple innuendos and hints about Orlando “giving it to him” and their “special” desert tryst.

Brazil’s large Christian population hasn’t taken kindly to the special’s insinuation that Jesus Christ was gay. Since the special was first released on December 3, more than 1.3 million people have signed a Change.org petition urging Netflix to remove the Christmas comedy. The petition (originally written in Portuguese, but translated into English) explains that the signees are calling “for the removal of the film from the Netflix catalog” and for Porta dos Fundos — translated to “Back Door” — “to be held responsible for the crime of villainous faith.” Reads the petition, “We also want public retraction, as they have seriously offended Christians.”

Porta dos Fundos and Netflix have yet to respond to the backlash, but if the official Netflix description of the special is any indication, it doesn’t seem like they care: “Jesus, who’s hitting the big 3-0, brings a surprise guest to meet the family. A Christmas special so wrong, it must be from comedians Porta dos Fundos.”

Original Article

Transgender Latina makes history as Evangelical Lutheran pastor

“Nobody can question my faith, my devotion to Christ, my devotion to the church,” Pastor Nicole Garcia said. “Being trans is secondary.”

Before coming out as transgender, Nicole Garcia prayed daily that God would “fix” her. When her prayers weren’t answered and the feeling in her gut didn’t go away, she gave up on religion.

Now, nearly four decades later, Garcia stands behind the pulpit at Westview Lutheran Church in Boulder, Colorado, and delivers weekly sermons to a congregation of more than 100 faithful as their ordained pastor.

“Nobody can question my faith, my devotion to Christ, my devotion to the church. That’s why I’m the pastor here,” Garcia,who turned 60 Thursday, told NBC News. “Being trans is secondary.”

Pastor Nicole Garcia had her first service on Dec. 1, 2019.
Pastor Nicole Garcia had her first service on Dec. 1, 2019.Courtesy Westview Church

Garcia, who delivered her first sermon at Westview earlier this month, is the first known transgender Latina to serve as a pastor within the 4 million-strong Evangelical Lutheran Church in America — an unanticipated position for someone who grew up in the Roman Catholic Church and left religion entirely for nearly 20 years.

‘I had never felt comfortable in my own skin’

One of Garcia’s earliest memories is of her grandmother kneeling on the cold kitchen floor of her Colorado farm, praying the rosary in Spanish while the voice of Francisco “Paco” Sanchez buzzed through the radio. She still has the worn black rosary that her grandmother gave her when Garcia was just five years old.

Growing up in the ‘60s, Garcia said she had a traditionally paramount role as the “oldest son” in a devoutly Roman Catholic Latino family. She went to church two to three times each weekend and played guitar in the choir. But she said something about her life was off-kilter.

As she got older, an uncomfortable feeling loomed over her, though she struggled to put a finger on exactly what it was. As a teenager, Garcia recalled, she loved to dress up in women’s clothing. She’d even stash outfits in hidden spots around her house to make sure that side of her stayed secret.

“I had never felt comfortable in my own skin. I had always been chastised for doing the wrong thing,” Garcia said. “Everything just felt wrong. I did everything my male cousins would do, but it was just awkward and it didn’t come naturally.”

She said she prayed every day that God could take those uncomfortable feelings away, but her prayers continued to go unanswered. In 1982, in her early 20s, Garcia left the church.

For the next few years, Garcia descended into a spiral of alcohol abuse and partying, which she said became her excuse for “dressing up” and dating men. But after years of heavy drinking and hopping between low-paying retail jobs, she found herself living in a cousin’s trailer in Boulder and going through alcohol withdrawals.

“I realized something had gone terribly wrong,” she said. “I decided it was time to change my life.”

‘I had my come-to-Jesus moment’

Garcia moved out of the trailer and into an apartment in nearby Longmont, where she met a woman at karaoke night. The two dated for a year before they married at a Catholic church in 1994. They eventually bought a house in downtown Denver, and Garcia found a new career as a corrections officer.

From the outside, it looked like Garcia had turned her life around. However, she still felt like she didn’t belong in her body. Every morning before work, Garcia said, she wanted to put on women’s clothes, and when it came time to put on her corrections uniform, it felt like a costume.

“As soon as I got home and I took off the uniform, I was exhausted. All my energy was used just to perform that day,” she said. “I’d drink a pint of Jack Daniels and three or four beers just to be able to calm down and relax.”

Garcia’s marriage crumbled after 8 years, and her wife asked for a divorce in 2002. After they separated, Garcia was sitting at her kitchen table, wondering why she had thrown away what seemed like an ideal life.

“I had my come-to-Jesus moment. It wasn’t one of those, “Oh please, oh please, help me,’” she explained. “It was more, “Alright you son of a b—h, if I’m going to come back, you better step it up this time.’”

‘I’ve always been Nicole’

In a fortuitous turn of events, just two days after her “come-to-Jesus moment,” Garcia received a message offering free therapy sessions for corrections officers. After only a few appointments, Garcia unearthed the uneasy feeling she had struggled with her whole life.

“Within a month or so, I told her my deepest, darkest secret: That for my entire life, as long as I can remember, I have always loved wearing women’s clothing,” she said. “I realized in that moment that I’ve always been Nicole; I’ve always been a woman.”

“I knew at that point I had to transition,” Garcia added. “I could finally put a name on what I was going through.”

Garcia’s therapist recommended she visit the Gender Identity Center of Colorado. It was there that she met another transitioning law enforcement officer who encouraged her to attend a service at the Saint Paul Lutheran Church in Denver.

“I was sure I would walk in and they’d say, “Look at that man in a dress,” but they didn’t,” Garcia recalled. “They were lovely; they embraced me. I just felt at home.”

Nicole Michelle Garcia was officially ordained as Pastor Nicole Garcia on Nov. 23rd, 2019 at Christ the Servant Lutheran Church in Louisville.
Nicole Michelle Garcia was officially ordained as Pastor Nicole Garcia on Nov. 23rd, 2019 at Christ the Servant Lutheran Church in Louisville.Courtesy Westview Church

In 2003, shortly after she started her transition, she became a Lutheran, and soon after began working with an organization called Reconciling in Christ, which works toward full acceptance of the LGBTQ community within the Lutheran denomination. Five years later, Garcia was elected to the group’s national board of directors as their transgender representative, and in that position she continued to campaign for the advancement of LGBTQ people into pastoral positions.

While Garcia immediately felt accepted by the Lutheran congregation early in her transition process, she said her mother had a harder time accepting that the “oldest son” in their Roman Catholic family wanted to transition to a woman. For the first few months, she said her mother stopped speaking to her entirely. When they finally reconciled, it was under the pretense that Garcia had to present as male in their home, combing her long hair back into a ponytail and wearing her corrections officer uniform.

During her yearslong transitioning process, Garcia helped take care of her stepfather, Joe Mayes, who had terminal bone cancer. Garcia said Mayes, who died of cancer in 2005, immediately accepted her as Nicole.

“I would ask him, ‘Papa, why were you so accepting and loving?’” she recalled. “He said, ‘Because I finally saw you happy. For so many years you were morose, you were drunk, you were angry, and now you look happy.’”

Pastor Nicole Garcia had her first service on Dec. 1, 2019.
Pastor Nicole Garcia had her first service on Dec. 1, 2019.Courtesy Westview Church

Though it took nearly a year for Garcia’s mother to accept her as Nicole, her mother was happy to see her child had returned to the church.In 2013, a decade after she started her transition and found her way back to Christianity, Garcia left her position as a corrections officer to attend seminary school.

During her years at seminary, Garcia became the director of congregational care at Mount Calvary Lutheran Church in Boulder, and her presence in the community became even more formidable. At her ordination in November of this year, over 200 people came to celebrate her trailblazing service as an advocate and leader among Lutherans.

Garcia was then asked to step in at the newly formed Westview Lutheran Church in Boulder as their pastor. The church’s first service was Dec. 1, and Garcia stood before the congregation, a vibrant red stole draped over her shoulders.

Garcia said she hopes her presence behind the pulpit encourages other LGBTQ people and people of color to step forward through faith.

“As a transgender Latina, I bring a breath of fresh air into all the places I walk into,” she said.

 

Original Article

Paula White Steps Down as Pastor From Florida Church

Paula White, spiritual advisor to the President is to step down from her position as pastor at City of Destiny church, Florida. Ms White has great ambitions. She plans to start 3000 new churches and even set up a university.

Ms White official installed her son Brad Knight and his wife in the position of senior pastors. The church  saw their attendance fall by 200 to 300 people in response to Paula White’s connections with the President.

Read More: Huffington Post

Pastors, worship leaders pray for Trump in Oval Office amid impeachment fight

About 50 worship leaders from across America gathered for a faith briefing Friday organized by Paula White-Cain, the president’s personal pastor and special adviser to the Faith and Opportunity Initiative in the White House.

ATHEIST GROUP TARGETS ALABAMA SHERIFF FOR ‘USING TRAGEDY TO PROMOTE’ PRAYER

“All 50 of us crammed into the Oval Office. He sat at his desk and he said pray for me,” Sean Feucht, a Bethel Music worship leader who is running for Congress in California’s Third Congressional District, told Fox News.

President Trump surrounded by a large group of worship leaders from across the country whom he invited to pray for him in the Oval Office Friday.

President Trump surrounded by a large group of worship leaders from across the country whom he invited to pray for him in the Oval Office Friday. (Official White House Photo by Tia Dufour)

“We just laid our hands on him and prayed for him. It was like a real intense, hardcore prayer. It was so wild,” Feucht said. “I could not believe he invited us in. That he carved out time to meet with us.”

KIRK, FALWELL JR. LAUNCH LIBERTY UNIVERSITY THINK TANK TO FIGHT ATTACKS ON JUDEO-CHRISTIAN VALUES

The worship leader, who has traveled as a missionary to countries where Christianity is most persecuted, called it “historic” having that many worship leaders invited by the president into the Oval Office.

Are America’s Homeschooling Moms at the Forefront of the Next Revolution?

Historian C, Bradley Thompson speaking with Breitbart argues that the army of  American families taking the kids out of public school are maybe the hope for the future of the nation. Thompson argues that in a post-truth society, where the nation can no longer unite over the very foundational ideas of what it is to be American; the homeschooling  moms are quietly leading a revolution.

“So the question is: What is it, what ideas can Americans rally around?” asked Thompson. “If we cannot rally around these words — we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, among which are the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness — then we can rally as a nation around no words.”

The current political climate in the nation is one of fragmentation and division.

“The Declaration talks about four self-evident truths,” explained Thompson. “If you take just the first two, which are, I think, the moral principles of the Declaration — equality and rights — again, Americans seem to be divided on these two concepts. Part of America thinks, with the Declaration of Independence, that ‘rights’ means equal freedom or equal rights, that is, the freedom, the opportunity to govern oneself and pursue one’s own values, whereas the other half of the country thinks that ‘equality’ means that  we should all be the same, that we should be made the same, that we should be made the same economically, that is, we should have equal stuff.”

Thompson goes on to explain how the Left have taken over education and academic institutions across the nation.

“The reigning intellectual and moral orthodoxy of American intellectual life, American universities would be the twin towers of moral relativism and nihilism, and the idea here, and the goal of the left over the last 50 or 60 years has been this long march through the institutions,” noted Thompson. “What they’ve tried to do — and in fact, have done quite successfully — is to take over America’s cultural institutions, particularly education, particularly K through 12 education, and colleges and universities, and that’s where the real battle is. It’s a battle of ideas.”

Thompson continued, “Unfortunately I think, too many libertarians and conservatives and classical liberals invest too much time in politics, whereas John Adams and Thomas Jefferson believed that — what really is the underpinning — the soul of a nation is how we educate our children. That’s the core issue, and so whoever controls the schools, and now also the universities, will control the culture.”

I do have hope in homeschooling,” declared Thompson. “I think homeschooling is one way in which we can recapture this culture, and I would argue, and have argued, that the leaders of the revolution are America’s homeschooling mothers. They’re the ones at the forefront of this change, and I would strongly encourage people to pull their kids out of government schools and to homeschool their children.”

Read the interview in full or listen to the podcast: Breitbart

 

China’s Social Credit System Controlling Businesses: Domestic and Foreign

China’s social credit system has been used to control private citizens in alarming ways. Now businesses are training staff on how to avoid falling victim to it.

In China companies are already monitored as part of the social credit scheme. “Bad companies” face higher taxes, more regulatory scrutiny, and reduced access to business loans.

A problematic aspect of the scheme is if a company is blacklisted then another company doing business with that company will receive negative marks against it. Thus the affect can domino down the business network.

Foreign companies have been warned already by China, specially US companies and anyone who has criticised Chinese government treatment of Uyghur Muslims.

A report conducted by Dezan Shira & Associates into the effects of the system concluded that businesses working in China:  “undertake a supply chain audit and conduct due diligence on business partners given the inclusion of partners in social credit assessments.”

“Businesses should also not forget to assess their IT and data security strength since they will need to transmit data to the government more frequently and in greater numbers,” the authors added.

Read More: Breitbart

New York’s super-rich migrating south for better value

Quitting New York is making financial sense for many of the city’s super-rich.

Analysts say a growing number of New York’s financial elite believe that fleeing the city for other states with lower taxes and costs in order to protect their wealth is a total no-brainer — particularly since the 2019 UBS/PwC Billionaires Report found that the collective net worth of their peers globally has plunged heavily for the first time in years.

“The wealthy are migrating out of high-income-tax states such as New York to lower- or no-state-income-tax locations, more than ever,” according to Michele Lee Fine, president of Cornerstone Wealth Advisory and a financial adviser in Jericho, New York.

“Much of the tone and focus of the recent political agenda has been attacking the wealthy directly at the wallet,” she added. “Whether you’re a billionaire or millionaire, there is cause for concern.”

And while President Trump and tycoons such as legendary corporate raider Carl Icahn — both of whom are swapping New York for lower-cost Florida domiciles — are grabbing headlines, dozens of lesser-known, highly successful wealthy New Yorkers are also plotting escapes.

“The exodus continues from this tax-heavy city,” the New York-based CEO of a small high-tech transportation company, who declined to be named, told The Post. “Most of the uber-wealthy I know in New York now spend the majority of their time in Florida or Texas, where they are not obliterated by taxes.”

John O’Shea, executive chairman of the broker-dealer Global Alliance Securities, knows the feeling.

About a year ago, O’Shea relocated his company from 100 Wall St. in lower Manhattan to Charleston, South Carolina. He and his wife Jennifer vacated their New York home for a gated community in a tony section of this South Carolina paradise, paying just over $1 million for a luxury waterfront property on almost an acre.

“You can make more money and keep more of it in South Carolina,” O’Shea said.

With a local property tax rate of 0.4%, it means O’Shea pays just over $4,000 annually to live in the lap of luxury — a small fraction of what the owner of a comparable home in many parts of New York would pay in property taxes. And with a maximum of only $10,000 in local property taxes now deductible against federal taxes, O’Shea is making out just fine.

That’s unlike many New York residents who live in some of the fanciest ZIP codes — some with annual property taxes starting at $40,000.

“The quality of life is also much better down here,” O’Shea told The Post. “I have a much larger property than what I would pay for something similar up in New York — and I also have lower costs for my business and in my home.”

At 100 Wall St., where O’Shea once ran a sprawling operation, at least three other firms also recently left the building for offices in the US sunshine states, according to people familiar with the moves. Management for the building didn’t respond to a request for comment.

 

Original

Paris Shops Hit By Transport Strikes

Transport strikes in France have left shops in Paris virtually empty. In the run up to Christmas shops ought to be full, with December traditionally the month where business is at its peak. However many shop owners, particularly independent shops, are worried for their survival.

The strike has been termed as “unlimited” and could last until Christmas.

Paris businesses have been affected by a year of yellow vest protests, police strikes and firefighter strikes.

Read More: France 24

Whoaaa! Nearly 700,000 people moved out of California last year

Just under 700,000 people said goodbye to the Golden State last year. The top two reasons for moving out are the high cost of housing and high taxes.

Nearly 700,000 people moved out of California last year.

U.S. census data shows that only a half million moved TO California during that same time. That means there are 200,000 more residents going out than coming in.

A recent poll by UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies found that half of California voters have thought about moving out.

Original