Christian organizations denied acces to military bases

President Obama has just given an executive order to ban all Christian groups from military bases if the group has not integrated LGBTs into its organization. Contracts to work on base will be denied.  That is, it is not enough to simply accept gays and transgenders and welcome them into your meetings.  You have to have them be part of the staff.  This has the effect of ostracizing all bible-believing and orthodox Christian organizations from the bases.  The following is an email from the Young Life representative working at Ramstein Air base in Germany.  He works with teenagers of our Air Force personnel stationed at the base.  Since housing is entirely on base, there is no way for him to have a ministry.  He is writing the people who have supported him from the states.

 

Subject: Re: Headwaters Update 4/17/16

Hi Friends:

Thanks so much for praying for us! We are so grateful for your support!

I write to clarify a bit what has happened to us. This is the official statement from our organization, Military Community Youth Ministries, the group to which I have been seconded from Young Life:

"In light of the MCYM/Club Beyond traditional view of marriage and until there is additional legal clarity from the Department of Defense in regards to SOGI (Sexual Orientation Gender Identity), MCYM/Club Beyond Board of Directors has decided we will no longer pursue any contracts with the US Government."

While Christians groups have not been denied access to military bases per se, it is true that Christian groups with a traditional view of marriage and with statements of faith to that effect will find it difficult, if not impossible to work in the military contract system.

My particular work planning camps and service projects was part of fulfilling our contract with the military. No contract means no work. As ministry with kids will most likely go to zero, there will be no kids to plan camps for anyway. That said, we now find ourselves "on the mission field" with no mission to field! We are considering all options but to date God has closed doors more than opening doors here in Europe.

The current contract runs through June 30 so we're good at least until then. I do ask for your continued prayer that God would make a place for us here, or that he would lead us where he wants us soon.

Thanks so much! We miss you guys!

Peace,

Chris

Obama once again shows his contempt for any Christianity that does not submit to his leftism.  (Opiate of the people?) Once again the First Amendment is held meaningless. What really concerns many in the military is that other key parachurch organizations like Navigators, which has a huge ministry among our soldiers will also be booted out.  Chaplains are already forbidden to preach on LGBT issues.  Pray and vote for a candidate who would reverse this horrific contempt for our Constitution and the very concept of Liberty.

So you want to zap China and Mexico?

            I want to ask Trump, “If you graduated from Wharton, didn’t you read the monetarist economists who proved that in the 30’s we had a normal recession that became the Great Depression primarily because of the Hawley-Smoot tariff?”  It killed international trade--just 8% of the US economy in the 30’s but that was enough to devastate the US economy as it tried to recover.  Other countries rebounded handsomely while we languished for a dozen years.

            Do you still want a trade war with China and Mexico? The trouble with anti-dumping and protectionism is that they don’t change the world prices or bring back factories.  You just shoot yourself in the foot.  For example, Chinese companies are flooding us with cheap steel.  We install anti-dumping trade barriers and holler about fairness.  “Our factories have moved overseas!” USA imports about 3% of Chinese steel.  But the Chinese still have cheap steel for sale and the world price stays as low as ever.  That doesn’t help a US steel maker at all.  Nor would any company with overseas operations want to build a new plant in America.

            Now suppose there is a Canadian steel maker who can avoid our trade war with China.  They export cheap steel at the world price and some comes down to the states. But big global companies have lawyers who know how to game the system. A US rival would file an anti-dumping petition on that Canadian company.  The result is that the foreign companies defensively keep their US price higher and pad the profits.  In effect this becomes an unspoken cartel.  Consequently, USA pays a premium and gets no jobs in return. This is a good way to make yourself poor-- America in the 30’s.

            Here’s even worse news.  Cheap exports from China are a result of overcapacity from their slowing economy.  Their weakness, reflected by cheap prices, is spreading worldwide.  Here, we have no inflation and too-cheap interest rates for the Fed to fight another downturn and record debt.  We are vulnerable to recession.  Meanwhile if we impose a trade war on another country, they often retaliate, setting off a chain reaction.  That’s what happened in the 30’s only Europe soon woke up to their idiocy. America’s Republicans became isolationists and Dems gleefully lambasted them for Hoovervilles.  It took a war to fix it.

            Long before I was in politics, I was a businessman who had to be quick and nimble to survive.  You learn to think about this stuff even if you never got a fancy degree from Wharton.  Trump is in business.  Is he stupid or is he just gaming a bunch of low-information voters with populism?  And don’t put faith in Hillary or Bernie who are both against NAFTA and TPP, who count unions as their dearest base.

More election stuff the media won't tell you

Things I have noticed that amazingly is of no interest whatsoever to the media.

Trump underperforms the polls and Cruz outperforms them.  From the start when Trump was supposed to beat Cruz in Iowa, then didn’t, I began plotting the Real Clear average of polls in states vs. the outcomes.  Cruz is +6 and Trump is -5 points.  Sometimes this is violated, such as when OH came in exactly as the average of polls predicted.  But consider WI where Cruz held a 39-35 lead and the final result was 48-34.  Mystery?  I don’t think so.  Pollsters often Pollyannishly pretend that everyone is going to vote as they say.  But so many of Trumps voters are Independents who vote only half as often as partisans.  Cruz people are intense conservatives and vote when they say they are going to vote.  This brings up a thought.  From the beginning, the media’s message is entirely about polls. Has Trump been oversold because he polls well? Has the media been transfixed and given him too much free air time?

In OH two colleges studied who voted the Republican ballot.  28% identified as Independent; 8% said they were Dems; 64% were Rs.  With such high crossover this year, Rs are setting all sorts of records for turnout.  How much of Trumps votes are I’s and D’s?  I would venture a guess that half or more are.  Which explains somewhat the next observation.

The media is in love with the narrative that this is the race between establishment and insurgents.  But they never define establishment.  Is that the Congressmen who are the ones bearing the blame of selling out to lobbyists?  Or do they also include anybody who works with the Republican party who certainly haven’t sold out their opinions.  Or is it the well-paid pundit and opinion writer class?  All of these?  None of these?  Unless you insist that anyone who has ever attended a county party meeting is ‘establishment’, there’s a vital group never mentioned—grassroots activists.  It is those grassroots folks who get elected by other grassroots activists to be delegates.  Pundits seem to explain that Cruz has organized and blitzed the state organizations while Trump hasn’t.  Untrue for the most part.  The activists have been paying close attention all along and they have the agenda to elect other Republicans than just a President.  To wit: they aren’t impressed with Trump who offers no support for anyone but himself. (His mélange of policies probably would kill other Rs down the ballot)  Secondly, all the Trump supporters would have to do to win delegates is to attend their county convention and fill out a short form that announces they want to run for delegate at the national convention. Then get elected.  At our district convention, I went around asking if anyone saw a Trump supporter.  None to be found.  Hence all delegates were people who pledged to vote Cruz at the first opportunity. Have you heard a media pundit say the obvious? If Trump people would just get out of the Lazyboy and attend county and district conventions rather than bitch from afar, they would have some delegates.   

Now comes a disgruntled Trump accusing these activists—mom and pop active citizens who just take part in county politics—of being corrupt and using Gestapo tactics.  Here’s Trump on CNN.

“ We've got a corrupt system.  It's not right.  We're supposed to be a democracy.  We're supposed to be you vote and the vote means something.  And I want to tell you, it's a corrupt deal going on in this country, and it's not good.  It's not good.  And it's not fair, and it's not fair to you people.  They're taking your vote away.  They're disenfranchising people that want to see America be great again, and politicians will never do it.  They don't want to do it, they can't do it because their lobbyists and special interests are saying, "We're not gonna let you do it."  It's no good.  And we've gotta change the system.  And it's gotta change fast.”

And he told Ainsley Earhart on Fox,

“ In the Denver area and Colorado itself they're going absolutely crazy because they weren't given a vote.  It's a crooked deal.  And I see it.  And honestly I see it with Bernie, too.  I've gotten millions more votes, millions, not just a couple, millions more votes than Cruz.  Now they're trying to pick off those delegates one by one.  That's not the way democracy is supposed to work.  You know, and they offer 'em trips, they offer 'em all sorts of things.  What kind of a system is this?  I'm an outsider and I came into the system and I'm winning the votes by millions of votes.  But the system is rigged, it's crooked.”

            So there it is.  You grassroots people have disenfranchised, been bribed, cheated and are a bunch of crooks to have set up your state system and gotten elected delegates.  Say Mr. Trump, is this any way to win delegate votes and influence people? 

            Last item is that the number of conservatives hasn’t changed since Reagan.  1992 was 39% conservative, 43% moderates, 16% lib.  By 2000 it became 40% con, 39% mod, 20% lib.  2015, 39% con, 37% mod, 24% lib. So cons haven’t changed in numbers, moderates have declined and liberals are thumping their chests like King Kong and seeing their numbers swell.  Now think about this.  In 1992, libs were in disarray and no one wanted to admit they had the habit.  Today we are polarized, but the oft-repeated wisdom that the Rs cannot ever get a conservative elected again is BS, Barack Stupidity. The base of conservatives is just as strong as ever.  And this gets more interesting when you think that whites were 82% of voters during Reagan while they are headed for 60% in another ten years. Thus the non-white part of the population is getting increasingly conservative because overall conservative numbers are holding steady!  Which is like my Hispanic tree-trimming buddy who came from Chihuahua as a liberal and after years of running a business is now solidly conservative. Ditto my auto body guy. But do you ever hear this said in the media?

                Just thought you’d find this interesting. 

Hill and Bern's tax proposals

            Let us pause now and consider how crazy Bernie is and how pandering Clinton can be to the Democratic base.  Ah, the base.  Contrary to media narrative, the number of conservatives hasn’t changed in 30 years—but the number calling themselves Libs has increased by 8% (as their shame in the Reagan Revolution wore off)  and they have gotten bold.  1992 was 39% conservatives, 42% moderates, 16% liberals.  By 2000 this was 38% C, 38% M, 20% L.  By 2016 it is now 39% C, 37% M, and 24% L.  So moderates have been somewhat replaced by liberals.  Thus the Dem base is now much more liberal than in the Clinton era.  You knew this.  I thought I would just give the statistics.

            So Bernie wants to increase payroll tax by .2% and your employer increases his contribution by 6.2%, max income tax rate goes to 52%, and we all get a wonderful financial transactions tax.  What’s a financial transactions tax?  Glad you asked.  It is a 1% tax on all transactions.  So you write a check and Uncle Sugar gets a percent.  Transfer some of your life savings from a savings account at the bank to an annuity and you give Uncle another percent.  Have a garage sale and welcome to filling out paperwork to turn in another one percent.  This raises almost as much as income tax each year, so think of it as a doubling of your taxes--and it's regressive!  But of course, if you make real money you get 52% max rate.  Did I also mention that Bernie burns you with a new confiscatory estate tax that kicks in at $3 million.  I guess if you have that much you either don’t care or you have a trust or a Panama bank account.

            Now Hillary just wants a 4% increase in max tax to 44%.  She also has a transactions tax but limits it to equity trading.  Anybody who shows a lot of income has to pay minmum 30% and has deductions taken away.  And a doubled capital gains treatment thresholds from one year to six years out.

            I want to monitor their next debate.  I’ll ask this question, “So exactly how much is a fair share and you can’t answer ‘more’”? 

            You don’t think Panama will build a wall to keep gringos out, will they?  “Hey Bernie, there’s free cheese in a mousetrap too.”

            Democrats: a bunch or rich people telling poor people to vote for selfsame rich people and blame the other rich people.  But they hate greed and Hillary charges $640,000 a speech.

            If Americans were poor they’d vote Dem; if rich, they’d vote Republican.  Which kinda explains the Democratic economic strategy. 

            A socialist is someone who walks into a Walmart or a supermarket and says, “I Hate capitalism.”

Hillary's legal fight summarized

A legal writer for Politico explained the procedures, meaning and consequences of Hillary’s email scandal and I think I finally understand. Lots of stuff about federal cases explained clearly. Hillary’s in deep doo-doo.  Will she withdraw?  That question will have to be answered but here in layman’s language is the case at present.

The recent announcements of scheduled interviews with HRC staff and that Justice Dept. lawyers have teamed with the FBI imply that the preliminary investigation is done and it has big consequences.  If someone lies to a grand jury or the FBI, you are perjuring.  (Martha Stewart went ot prison for lying to FBI.) Subpoenas and immunity for an aide, Bryan Pagliano (manager of her private server and email) tell us that a Grand Jury exists, else these subpoenas and immunities could not take place.  It takes a presiding judge.  Pagliano was in trouble (didn’t inform State Dept. that he was also working for her privately on the side) so he has much motive to be cooperative.  Private email is in violation of the laws on national security and he also had to know this.

Hillary, as Sec. of State, is one of 10 people who classify and guard classified documents.  Therefore, the smokescreen of , “oh, it was later classified,” is absolute bullshit.  She was in charge.  She also signed a document that says she is responsible to define classification and indeed she had SAP (above top secret classification) on her private email.  She broke the law—no ifs, ands or buts about it.

But why?  She claimed “inconvenience” in not using her dot-gov email account.  Also in the evidence is that she requested a secure Blackberry, like Obama has, that cannot be hacked.  NSA vetoed this—too expensive.  She wanted this because there are ‘secure rooms’ around Washington where classified email can only be accessed.  One of these is her State Dept. Office.  Secure rooms totally disable a private phone or other device. (Guards against a hacker taking over a private phone and “listening”) Therefore, aides had to load the secret emails onto her private account.  Obviously Hill wanted control offered by a private server she owned.  Why? Two reasons.  Freedom of Information Act requests could demand to see the unclassified portion of messages.  And thousands of other government employees could see her emails if she was on dot-gov. Probably she had something to hide. Likely it was the $$$ donated to Clinton foundation.

What’s coming?  Obama and Loretta Lynch have a big decision for prosecution and given Washington’s leaky nature, won’t be able to simply sweep it under the carpet. A grand jury and federal judge will make a recommendation.  Most likely Obama and Lynch will pass this hot potato to a special prosecutor.  At that time one would expect HRC to withdraw from the presidential race but this is not guaranteed given the nature of the Clintons.  We’ll just have to see.

And as you can see, some things will come about, some are probable, some are unknown.