Is the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development about to double down on the 2015 federal takeover of local zoning regulations?
http://dailytorch.com/2019/07/is-the-dept-of-housing-and-urban-development-about-to-double-down-on-the-2015-federal-takeover-of-local-zoning-regulations/

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is getting set to finalize a regulation modifying the 2015 rule from the Obama administration, Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing, that conditioned $3.3 billion of annual community development block grants on rezoning local municipalities along income and racial guidelines. More than 1,200 cities and counties accept those block grants nationwide affecting populations of tens of millions of people. Now sources familiar with the final regulation currently being considered by the White House Office of Management and Budget suggest that it will still condition funds on making changes to local zoning, just with a different rationale, to reduce regulatory burdens that contribute to higher housing costs particularly in urban areas such as San Francisco. There’s only one problem. Congress prohibited anything to do with zoning and this rule. Is there any way to stop it?

To end border crisis, Trump administration restricts asylum claims from Central America:
http://dailytorch.com/2019/07/to-end-border-crisis-trump-administration-restricts-asylum-claims-from-central-america/

Under current immigration and asylum regulations, it was impossible to enforce the law on the southern border. The hundreds of thousands of Central Americans flooding the border the past several months gamed the system, betting that a compassionate America would let them in. Afterward, the families were released into the U.S. pending hearings, but those that showed up did so only to the extent they might be granted asylum, and upon rejection were never heard from again. It’s mandatory catch-and-release. Because of the way the regulations were written. Now, to get a handle on the problem and to deter future waves, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice are using their powers under the law to provide for additional restrictions and have issued a new rule telling asylum seekers they must first apply for asylum in the country they first transit through and be denied before they may qualify. Can this stem the tide and deter future migrant waves?

President Trump’s tweets were not racist and anti-American, but the U.S. Reps’ statements he was responding to may have been:
http://dailytorch.com/2019/07/president-trumps-tweets-were-not-racist-and-anti-american-but-the-u-s-reps-statements-he-was-responding-to-may-have-been/

Do we have a country anymore? I think the State of the Union is poor. And I don’t think it’s Trump’s doing. Here is where I agree with Trump the most in his more recent statement that “Go wherever they want them, or they can stay. But they should love our country. They shouldn’t hate our country. You look at what they’ve said.” Trump is right. We shouldn’t hate America. We should be working to make it a better place. Tearing it down, comparing it to Nazi Germany — a monstrous lie — saying that we should represent our race before our country, suggesting that Jewish money controls Congress, is destructive. It fuels division. And I, for one, am glad President Trump called it out. It’s about time someone did. What do you think?

Antifa firebombing ICE in Tacoma inspired by AOC’s reckless comparison of the border crisis to concentration camps and the Holocaust:
http://dailytorch.com/2019/07/antifa-firebombing-ice-in-tacoma-inspired-by-aocs-reckless-comparison-of-the-border-crisis-to-concentration-camps-and-holocaust/

It appears that U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s irresponsible and reckless comparison of illegal immigrant detention facilities to Nazi concentration camps where millions were murdered inspired the Antifa member who firebombed an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Tacoma, Wash. on July 12. A manifesto reportedly left behind by Willem Van Spronsen, a 69-year-old, ran with the AOC comparison, stating, “evil says concentration camps for folks deemed lesser are necessary… detention centers are an abomination. i’m not standing by.” Why won’t AOC denounce this terrorist attack and stop making these insane comparisons to the Holocaust?

Citizen, legal resident and illegal alien populations will still be determined under 2020 Census via Trump executive order:
http://dailytorch.com/2019/07/citizen-legal-resident-and-illegal-alien-populations-will-still-be-determined-under-2020-census-via-trump-executive-order/

President Donald Trump via an executive order is mandating federal departments and agencies to provide records to the Department of Commerce and the U.S. Census Bureau to compile an accurate counting of citizen, legal resident and illegal alien populations for the 2020 Census — but without a citizenship question on the Census form households fill out. Instead, the Trump executive order requires “All agencies shall promptly provide the Department [of Commerce] the maximum assistance permissible, consistent with law, in determining the number of citizens, non citizens, and illegal aliens in the country, including by providing any access that the Department may request to administrative records that may be useful in accomplishing that objective.” If the same data can be gleaned from other means than the questionnaire, then why not? President Trump is doing everything he can to ensure that the data is collected. It’s better than nothing. What do you think?

Reckless comparisons of the border crisis to concentration camps and the Holocaust are unfortunate — and dangerous:
http://dailytorch.com/2019/07/reckless-comparisons-of-the-border-crisis-to-concentration-camps-and-the-holocaust-are-unfortunate-and-dangerous/

While almost everybody died in German imprisonment in the concentration and death camps during World War II, totaling six millions Jews and another 13 million Slavs, Poles and others, with murder being the top cause ordered by Hitler and his regime, with starvation and disease being another, in comparison, more than 99 percent do not die in U.S. prisons or whilst in Border Patrol custody. None were ordered to be murdered by President Trump or his administration. It is a dangerous comparison, likely to provoke yet more political violence against Trump supporters and Republicans more broadly as we proceed into the 2020 election cycle. Increasingly, the comparisons made are to liken regular Americans to the perpetrators of the Holocaust, to see your neighbors as being Nazi stooges. What is alarming is how much traction such bizarre claims have. What do you think?

The ‘Betsy Ross’ American flag SJW Nike nixed was likely not popularly used until 1876—after slavery was abolished:
http://dailytorch.com/2019/07/the-betsy-ross-american-flag-sjw-nike-nixed-was-likely-not-popularly-used-until-1876-after-slavery-was-abolished/

The “Betsy Ross” flag was not really popularized until 1876 for the 100-year celebration of independence—after slavery had been abolished in 1865 after the bloody Civil War. Ross’ grandson in 1870, William J. Canby, presented a paper to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania that forms the basis of the claim based on a family oral tradition that he only learned of in 1857, which lent itself to the popular legend. When Harper’s New Monthly Magazine picked up the account in 1873, it reached a large audience for the first time. Come 1876, it was common to see the “Betsy Ross” flag. Maybe someone should tell Nike and Colin Kaepernick?

Political violence in Portland, Oreg. a sneak preview of our unraveling civil society if all Americans do not denounce it:
http://dailytorch.com/2019/07/political-violence-in-portland-oreg-a-sneak-preview-of-our-unraveling-civil-society-if-all-americans-do-not-denounce-it/

The scenes of political violence in Portland, Oreg. are just the beginning. The worst thing civil society can do in the face of it is nothing. A permissive environment is encouraging this violence and when it goes unanswered, opposing partisans appear to confront it in the streets. Assuming a state of political violence is not the America we want to live in and raise our families, it’s time to let the police do their jobs. Public officials that get in the way are complicit with staging that violence. The civil society must be restored. Everyone, Republicans, Democrats and everyone in between need to speak in unison against political violence — before it’s too late. This is a sneak preview of what’s coming to all of our hometowns if we do nothing. What do you think?

Democrats, media give Biden free pass on China, NAFTA and trade in first debate:
http://dailytorch.com/2019/07/democrats-media-give-biden-free-pass-on-china-nafta-and-trade-in-first-debate/

The first Democratic presidential primary debate is in the can, and it looks like the media and his Democratic opponents intend to protect former Vice President Joe Biden on the question of trade and not damage him in the primary. Biden voted for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1993, and permanent normal trade relations with China in 2000, but you wouldn’t know it if you watched the debate. The issue, especially on the second night of the debate when Biden was present, barely came up at all. No trade or China questions were directed at Biden. NAFTA was not even mentioned in either night of the debate. Are these Democrats running for union household votes in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan they lost to Trump in 2016, or what?

Reddit quarantines largest Trump subreddit r/The_Donald with over 750K followers as Trump announces social media summit to address censorship:
http://dailytorch.com/2019/06/reddit-quarantines-largest-trump-subreddit-r-the_donald-with-over-750k-followers/

In the latest round of social media censorship, Reddit has quarantined the largest subreddit in favor of President Donald Trump, r/The_Donald, with over 750,000 followers, restricting access. The move comes amid a crackdown of conservative content on social media platforms, with users on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube being censored, suspended, banned and demonetized and Trump calling for a social media summit to address the censorship. Can anything be done to save the free and open internet?