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Thursday, November 19, 2015

REPUBLICANS IN CONGRESS PREPARE SURRENDER TO OBAMA ON EDUCATION

GOP Congress Prepares Surrender to Obama on Education

BY ALEX NEWMAN
SEE: http://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/education/item/21975-gop-congress-prepares-surrender-to-obama-on-educationrepublished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

Establishment Republicans in Congress are quietly plotting their next massive surrender to the Obama administration, a “bipartisan” education bill that solidifies federal control of schools and keeps Common Core while entrenching a dizzying array of unconstitutional “education” schemes. Among other measures, the legislation re-authorizes most of two widely criticized and totally unconstitutional federal education statutes known as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and No Child Left Behind (NCLB). It also expands pre-kindergarten schemes and federal control over the youngest Americans while keeping lawless mandates on states. And while opponents are up in arms about the scheming, the radical, lobbyist-backed legislation has the Obama administration, the GOP establishment, Big Business, Big Government, and Big Labor celebrating.
According to multiple news reports, Congress is sending a pair of massive education bills — one passed by the House, the other by the Senate — to a conference committee this week. As The New American documented in July, both versions are packed with unconstitutional measures, including taxpayer-funded handouts to cronies, more powers over education for the lawless Obama administration, more federal testing schemes, and much more. In the conference committee, lawmakers are expected to iron out the differences between the two bills before voting on the “compromise” again in the full Congress and sending it to Obama to be signed into law. The White House has already signaled its support for the legislation, so if activists cannot stop it in Congress, analysts say the monster bill will likely be enacted. Media reports said lawmakers may hold a vote on the final product as soon as this month.  
“We believe we have a path forward that can lead to a successful conference, and that is why we are recommending to our leadership to appoint conferees to take the next step in replacing No Child Left Behind,” said a joint statement released by the top Republicans and Democrats on congressional education committees. “This is a law that everyone wants fixed, and teachers, parents, and students are counting on us to succeed. Our efforts to improve K-12 education will continue to reflect regular order, providing conference members an opportunity to share their views and offer their ideas. Because of the framework we’ve developed, we are optimistic that the members of the conference committee can reach agreement on a final bill that Congress will approve and the president will sign.”
While Republican In Name Only (RINO) lawmakers were falsely claiming the bill rolls back the federal “footprint” on education — “bootprint” would have been a more appropriate term — Education Secretary Arne Duncan was celebrating the legislation. “It is good news for our nation's schools that Congress is taking the next step forward toward a serious bipartisan plan to revamp the outdated No Child Left Behind law,” said Duncan, who was instrumental in imposing Common Core and has been openly touting his efforts, with UNESCO as his “global partner,” to turn American children into “green” and global citizens via the “weapon” of education. “America's students deserve a bill that increases educational opportunity for all and lives up to the civil rights legacy of the original Elementary and Secondary Education Act. We are encouraged that Congressional negotiators appear to be moving toward a framework that accomplishes those goals.” Duncan has also been a proponent of government boarding schools that would keep children 24 hours a day, seven days a week.     
Unsurprisingly, crony capitalists in favor of Common Core are celebrating the effort and demanding even more federal control over education. “Both the Senate and House versions of ESEA legislation contain elements that business leaders support, but more needs to be done to deliver a meaningful education to our students,” President John Engler with the crony capitalist Business Roundtable, a major supporter of Common Core, wrote in a letter to lawmakers last week. “A strong K-12 education is important to the success of all students in our nation and, in turn, to the future of the American economy. ESEA offers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to make that future as bright as possible.” The letter did not specify why crony capitalist CEOs believe the federal government is constitutionally allowed to, much less able to, deliver an undefined “strong K-12 education.” For virtually all of America's history, that responsibility mostly remained with families, churches, and local communities, all of which are increasingly being sidelined.  
Among other demands, Engler and the Big Business CEOs he represents are pushing for more “accountability” of schools and teachers to federal bureaucrats — code word for submission to unconstitutional federal mandates. And in a move likely to further inflame the ongoing parental and teacher uprising against dumbed-down “education” from Washington, D.C., the Big Business lobbyist also told lawmakers to unconstitutionally coerce state governments into forcing at least 95 percent of students to take federally funded Common Core tests. The Business Roundtable, of course, represents the CEOs of U.S. and foreign companies such as bailed out-mega-banks Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co., as well as Big Pharma, Big Oil, and more — in essence, the Big Business wing of the globalist establishment.      
Radical teachers unions responsible for much of the engineered decline in U.S. education were celebrating the draconian bill, too. “Today we are a step closer to rewriting a federal education law that commits America to the success of every student regardless of ZIP code,” claimed the National Education Association's (NEA) Lily Eskelsen Garcia in a statement. “While we welcome this progress, our work is not done. We look forward to working with the congressional conference committee members to ensure that we produce a bill that, when signed by the president, gives every student the opportunity, support, tools, and time to learn.”
Outside of Big Business, Big Government, and Big Labor circles, however, education experts and activists were not amused by the latest GOP betrayal of the voters who put them in office to stop Obama. In a series of blog posts, for example, Charlotte Iserbyt, author of Deliberate Dumbing Down of America and a senior policy advisor at the U.S. Department of Education in the Reagan administration, urged Americans to flood congressional phone lines demanding a “no” vote on the “compromise” legislation. Director Neal McCluskey with Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom, meanwhile, dissected some of the worst elements of the bill and noted that it was all “unconstitutional.”
If it is unconstitutional, which it is — Congress has no delegated authority to meddle in education, and the 10th Amendment specifically prohibits it — then all lawmakers who take their oath of office seriously must vote no. The New American will publish another article on opposition to the scheme soon. Republicans, though, who ran on promises of reining in and stopping Obama, must reject this radical scheme to further empower an administration that is out of control. From imposing Common Core with bribes and bullying to backing “community schools” to further sideline parents, the current White House has accelerated the decades-old dumbing-down agenda like no other in history. If liberty, real education, and prosperity are going to survive into the future, the radical Obama-GOP pseudo-education agenda backed by Big Labor, Big Business, and Big Government must be defeated.     
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CHUCK BALDWIN REVIEWS THE PARIS ATTACKS~FINDS U.S. GOVERNMENT AS LEADING CAUSE

THE PARIS ATTACKS
by Chuck Baldwin
http://chuckbaldwinlive.com/Articles/tabid/109/ID/3390/The-Paris-Attacks.aspx;
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

Paris, France: Muslim terrorists took the lives of over 120 people. Here are my observations:

I am aghast and flummoxed at the number of Americans who just cannot seem to comprehend the culpability that the U.S. government has in all of this. This only makes sense when one takes into account that the vast majority of Americans only know what the mainstream media tells them. And, without question, our mainstream media is nothing more than a propaganda ministry for Washington, D.C. Without a doubt, the controlled major media in America rivals the controlled major media of Hitler’s Germany or Stalin’s Soviet Union.

Make no mistake about it: the wars in the Middle East are Washington’s wars. The refugee crisis is the direct result of Washington’s wars. G.W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan and the continued violent attacks by the Obama administration throughout the Middle East--not to mention, the direct intervention of, and supervision by, the CIA, British intelligence, the Israeli Mossad, and the governments of Turkey and Saudi Arabia--created ISIS. Furthermore, these governmental entities have all helped to arm, sustain, equip, supply--and medically care for--ISIS terrorists.

One needs to understand that violent Muslims have been killing other Muslims for centuries. In fact, the vast majority of the people killed by violent Muslims are other Muslims--NOT Christians and Jews. What happened in Paris happens routinely in Syria.

ISIS is composed of mostly radicalized Saudi Arabian Sunni Muslims. The goal is to dispose of President Assad’s government in Syria as a stepping stone to conquering both Syria and Iran, thus turning those Shia Muslim nations into Sunni Muslim nations. The result of which means Saudi Arabia’s King Salman will become the de facto king of the entire Middle East. It would also mean that King Salman (already the richest man in the world) would single-handedly control the oil of the entire Middle East. And as everyone should already know, King Salman is in the harlot’s bed with virtually the entire western banking and petroleum worlds.

In addition, please understand that Washington’s wars have created hundreds of thousands of grieving Muslim mothers who have watched Bush and Obama’s bombers and drones take the lives of their sons and daughters--AND THEY ARE MAD! The families of these deceased grandfathers, grandmothers, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, and cousins have made ISIS recruitment EASY. These people know that the western alliance is behind these deaths and they want justice. Tell me we would react differently if the deaths were members of our families.

Neocons and globalists in Washington, D.C., are using the Shia Muslim people as the proverbial straw man to topple the governments in Iran and Syria, because those Shia Muslim nations care absolutely nothing about getting in bed with the international traders who want to further enrich themselves from the profits that can be made in those countries. The only one who is seriously making war against ISIS is Russia’s Vladimir Putin. And his efforts against the Sunni terrorists began but just weeks ago.

The refugee crisis is a tool of globalists to destabilize the West and help usher in a global Police State. Again, the goal is a global economic system. The Federal Reserve has taken the U.S. and European economies to the brink of collapse. The only thing that globalists can do to circumvent this inevitable collapse is create global panic, global war, and a global Police State. A Europe and America invaded with angry Muslims is just the antidote.

Please understand that the vast majority of refugees are NOT terrorists. They are persecuted Muslims and Christians (and others) who are literally fleeing for their lives. But there is no question that CIA-backed Sunni terrorists have infiltrated these refugees.

Ask yourself, why would refugees seeking safety and protection in other countries want to murder hundreds of citizens within those countries? They know this would completely alienate the country against them and only serve to further endanger the lives of their families. The attacks in Paris were NOT committed by refugees; they were committed by CIA-backed, Saudi-backed, Mossad-backed, Turkey-backed, MI6-backed ISIS terrorists.

Even though the majority of refugees are doubtless harmless people who did not want to leave their homes and did so only for their very survival--and with the knowledge that western operatives have created a radical Muslim Frankenstein--and given the fact that our federal government is making no attempt to vet these refugees, it is foolish for states to accept them. Governors are right to refuse. (If the U.S. government was truly behaving in the interests of peace and was not an active participant in creating war and instability in the Middle East--and thus creating the refugee crisis to begin with--it would be a different story.)

In addition, how did those terrorists successfully pull off these coordinated attacks? How did they get fully-automatic rifles and bombs into Paris? These sand people are NOT that sophisticated. They do NOT have those kinds of connections. Do you think you could successfully get a group of people together and smuggle dozens of automatic weapons and explosives into a European country--and then successfully coordinate a large-scale attack in a high-security major downtown city? The only people capable of such a thing are Special Ops military personnel. In other words, ISIS had help, folks--a LOT of help.

Furthermore, I believe the mainstream media and Washington politicians are setting America up for another 9/11-type attack. Following the Paris attacks, CIA director John Brennan wasted no time saying that ISIS was preparing more attacks against the West. He also criticized America’s privacy protections--meaning the Fourth Amendment and similar impediments to government encroachment of our liberties.

See the report:


Really, Mr. Brennan? If you are truly concerned about future terrorist attacks in the United States, why are you not using the power of your agency to help secure America’s borders? After 9/11, the U.S. government did NOTHING to secure our borders. And to this day, our borders are an open sieve. And you, Mr. Brennan, helped to create thousands of additional terrorists; you helped arm them, supply them, and sent Special Ops to help train them. And all you can say to the American people is that we must surrender whatever protections against governmental encroachment we have left? Do you take us for fools?

And when this next terrorist attack against the U.S. occurs, Washington politicians and their toadies in the mainstream media--along with thousands of Christian “leaders”--will blame Islam. They won’t give a second thought to who the real war-makers are.

A well-traveled friend from Germany wrote this in a private email, “The propagation that Muslims in general are thriving to take over the world is mostly radical Christian propaganda and paranoia with the clear intent to pursue their own political agenda and capitalize on fears in the general public. For instance, if you travel through Iran today, the general public is very pro west. The majority of the Iranian people seem to regard their religious leaders with great skepticism. Also, just look at the numbers: there are worldwide about 50% more Christians than Muslims. Militarily, Christian countries outnumber Muslims countries in weapons and forces easily by 20 to one--and this is not even assessing the quality of the weapons. The United States alone has more fighter jets than all Muslim countries put together by a wide margin. And most of the Muslims countries are allies of the Christian west.

“The uprising of ISIS is a direct result of Bush’s [and Obama’s] war on terror. Terrorism is always a type of guerrilla warfare. It cannot take over western countries for lack of organizational structure. It rises in an area of power vacuum as a structured opposition is lacking. The goal of terrorism is to initiate fear, to taunt powers and destabilize existing political structures. They succeed if radical groups spread the fear of the Muslim religion. This then destabilizes the political structure in western countries with radical parties rising. Since ISIS, the neo-Nazis have gained popularity in Germany. The attempt of Muslim terrorism is not to take over the USA or Germany. It is to create enough fear and political opposition in these countries that weakens their resolve to interfere on the ground in countries like Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.

“Also when thinking of Islam as a religion with world conquering ambitions: there have been major Christian communities all over the Arab world since Islam was founded. Lebanon is mostly Christian. Parts of Turkey, Iraq and Syria are Christian settled and have been for a thousand years or more. The Muslims had centuries to get rid of them but they haven’t. Some of the Christians communities are enclaves totally surrounded by Muslim groups that have peacefully coexisted for hundreds of years. That speaks more for religious tolerance than the reverse.”

I bet the vast majority of readers have never heard nor read about the fact that Christians and Muslims are fighting side-by-side against ISIS in Syria, have you? You haven’t read that NO ONE in the West or in Israel is helping the Assyrian Christian Army in Syria, have you? You haven’t heard that Iran is helping to provide medical assistance and support to the Christians fighting ISIS in Syria, have you? You haven’t heard that Assad’s army in Syria is assisting the Christians in their fight against ISIS, have you? No, you haven’t. The U.S. media and Washington politicians don’t want to tell you about that. It might undermine the anti-Muslim, anti-Iran, anti-Syria propaganda that they have been dishing out 24/7 for the last fourteen years.

See these reports:



Note that even though Breitbart should be credited for publishing the above reports, they continue to regurgitate the anti-Assad, anti-Iran propaganda. However, this bias doesn’t change the truth of the efforts of Christians and Muslims fighting together in Syria against ISIS that Breitbart admirably reports. You didn’t hear about this on FOX News, did you?

Then there is this: the first thing the president of France did following the terrorist attacks in Paris was to close the French borders. DUH! I think the fox is already in the henhouse.

Folks, let’s get real: if it wasn’t for Donald Trump, there would not even be a national discussion about America’s illegal immigration problem. However, the one disturbing element to Trump’s rhetoric regarding immigration is his statements that, as president, he would seriously consider closing mosques.

Again, Islam is NOT the problem. We have had mosques in the United States since at least 1929. And there are nearly 3,200 mosques currently in the United States. And none of them has been identified as producing terrorist attacks in America. The terrorists that did participate in the attacks on 9/11 were not even from the United States. They were from SAUDI ARABIA. If we were going to attack a Muslim nation in retaliation for 9/11, why didn’t we attack Saudi Arabia? Come on, folks. Are things not starting to add up?

Either we have freedom of religion for all or we have it for none. The problem with the rise of Islam in America can only be laid at the doorstep of the Christian Church. If our pastors and churches were doing the job they should be doing of making Christianity relevant to life today (including our political life), the American people would not be losing interest in Christianity, and the spiritual void that other religions (including Islam) are filling would not even exist. THAT problem is NOT an immigration problem or a political problem at all. THAT problem is a spiritual problem. And only our pastors and churches can solve that problem, but they refuse to do it.

Plus, America’s churches are more glorified social clubs than they are anything else. Far, far too many of America’s pastors are more concerned about being politically-correct CEOs or Joel Osteen wannabes than they are about being watchmen and shepherds. It has been a long, long time since a majority of America’s churches were a “pillar and ground of the truth.” (I Tim. 3:15) The rise of false religions is merely God’s judgment on the Church for abandoning truth. When truth is abandoned, does it really matter which version of error takes its place? Christians need to look themselves in the mirror and stop blaming the country’s ills on Muslims.

If a president can close mosques, he can close synagogues and churches. Talk about opening Pandora’s Box!

But there is another element to the Paris attacks: remember that France--and most of Europe--is a giant gun-free zone. Think about it: a handful of armed terrorists sent tens of thousands of French males into panic like kitty cats in a thunderstorm. European governments (except for Switzerland) have successfully stolen the manhood from the male citizens of that continent. The Natural instinct of men is to FIGHT for their families, their friends, and their communities. But for more than a half-century, socialist governments have indoctrinated men to believe that they must depend on government to protect their families, friends, and communities. Men are not allowed to defend themselves. They are stripped, not only of the means of self-defense, but of the mindset of self-defense. They are like a thousand Wildebeests running away from a half-dozen lions. And that’s exactly what globalists want to see happen in the United States. And in many respects, it has ALREADY happened in the United States.

For all intents and purposes, many states and cities in America are gun-free zones. Men and women are not allowed to defend themselves. The media constantly bombards the minds of the American people with the philosophy that we must depend on government to defend us. Government personnel are always called “first responders.” They are NOT first responders. Private American citizens at the scene are the first responders. By the time government employees show up, most of the damage is already done.

Had the French government not stripped the French people of their ability to defend themselves--and had the males of Paris not lost the mental awareness and mental toughness necessary to defend themselves--the loss of life in Paris would have been much less.

At about the same time that a disarmed Paris was being turned into a bloodbath, the Greensboro, North Carolina, Police Department was teaming up with Destiny Christian Center to ask residents to sign a “Pledge of Non-Violence” and to turn in their guns. Once again, we find American police agencies and state churches (via their 501c3 non-profit organization status) teaming up to try and disarm the American citizenry. No doubt, the pastor of this so-called church quoted Romans 13 to justify this Hitlerian conduct.

Here is the report:


So, here would be my response if a police agency requested that I ask my fellowship to participate in such an activity (ha ha):

“First, Mr. Police Chief, will your department take a ‘Pledge of Non-Violence’ and turn in its guns?

“Every day, policemen throughout America commit acts of violence including the use of firearms. Let's assume for a minute that violence was justified in every single instance (which it's not). Why is it right and proper for a policeman to violently use a firearm in self-defense and not a citizen? Does not the Natural Law of self-defense apply equally to every human being, regardless of profession? Are policemen a privileged class?

“Second, Mr. Police Chief, do you really expect the criminal class in our community to sign a ‘Pledge of Non-Violence’ and turn in their guns?

“It is proven beyond all reasonable doubt (by reasonable people) that a disarmed society only encourages violence. Asking non-violent people to disarm doesn't discourage violence; it invites it.

“These pledges of non-violence and appeals for citizen disarmament are NOT intended to reduce crime; they are intended to make the populace more dependent on government. It's not about crime; it's about control.

“Mr. Police Chief, I respectfully decline your invitation. In fact, I think I will encourage the attendees of my fellowship this Sunday to go out and purchase a firearm. Oh, and I don't advise that your police department disarm either.”

The Paris attacks, the refugee crisis, ISIS, a world on the verge of global war: it’s all a manipulated contrivance of the globalist elite to eviscerate freedom and usher in Huxley’s “Brave New World,” aka George H.W. Bush’s “New World Order.” Folks, get your eyes off of the Wizard and start looking for the man (men) behind the curtain, because that’s the real enemy.


P.S. Once again, I invite readers to order James Jaeger’s brand new film, “Midnight Ride: When Rogue Politicians Call For Martial Law.” Distinguished patriot luminaries such as Pat Buchanan, Larry Pratt, Ron Paul, G. Edward Griffin, Sheriff Richard Mack, Stewart Rhodes, Edwin Vieira, Jr., and several others are featured in this film. I am honored to also be featured.

I invite readers to go to my website and order the DVD of this brand new film. And please tell your friends. Order “Midnight Ride” here:

 

DEMOCRATS PLOT STATE LEVEL STRATEGY TO PRESSURE REPUBLICAN GOVERNORS ON REFUGEES

Dems Plot State-Level Strategy to Pressure 

GOP Governors on Refugees

Rep. Joaquin Castro met with left-wing state advocacy group 
to enlist Democrat mayors

Joaquin Castro Endorses Clinton

"Castro made the endorsement in an email that Ready for Hillary sent out Monday, which was obtained by POLITICO. “There’s no doubt about it: Hillary is the best person to be our 45th president,” Castro writes in the email.
“Hillary has always been a tireless advocate for working families — she’s never ceased to make sure everybody has a fair shot at achieving the American Dream,” he writes.
“Hillary’s the leader I want to see moving into the White House in two years,” he says.
“She hasn’t announced yet that she’s running in 2016, but Hillary needs to know that if she does, millions of grassroots supporters like you will be standing proudly by her side.
You and I both know Hillary would do amazing things as U.S. President — but it’s up to us to make these early moments count.”
Castro and his brother Julian Castro are both rising stars in the Democratic Party. Julian Castro is a former San Antonio mayor and incoming Obama administration Cabinet appointee who is widely seen as a potential Clinton running mate."

NICK RATHOD 
An Indian-American civil rights attorney. Nicholas Rathod is the executive director of the State Innovation Exchange. Prior to leading this organization, Nick served as the director of state campaigns for Mayor Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety, where he oversaw legislative campaigns around issues of gun safety and violence prevention. Nick was U.S. President Barack Obama's Special Assistant and Deputy Director for Intergovernmental Affairs in the Office of the President.
SEE: http://freebeacon.com/politics/dems-plot-state-level-strategy-to-pressure-gop-governors-on-refugees/republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

A prominent Democratic lawmaker met with the head of a progressive state-level advocacy group on Tuesday to plot ways to undermine Republican governors who have resisted federal efforts to relocate Syrian refugees to their states, according to sources present at the meeting.
In a conversation at a Capitol Hill coffee shop on Tuesday afternoon, Rep. Joaquin Castro (D., Texas) and Nick Rathod, head of the State Innovation Exchange, discussed the need to enlist Democratic mayors to put political pressure on those governors.
“The mayor of Boston, the mayor of Houston, those guys could be fighting against their governors,” said Castro. “You can push the states in a more progressive direction from the cities.”
Castro also cited Newark, “another place where you can score some points against a prominent Republican governor.” Rathod suggested Detroit due to its high numbers of Muslim immigrants. That city’s mayor “should be standing up and sticking it to the Michigan governor,” he said.
The conversation was transcribed and relayed to the Washington Free Beacon by an individual who overheard the meeting. Another source who was also present for the conversation confirmed the account. Both spoke on condition of anonymity.
Their meeting came as congressional Republicans readied legislation to “pause” the administration’s plans to relocate 10,000 Syrian refugees in the United States, an idea also floated by Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.), the Senate’s third ranking Democrat.
At least 31 governors have said they will resist efforts to relocate Syrian refugees. Most are Republicans, but the list includes New Hampshire Democrat Maggie Hassan. Rathod and Castro discussed efforts to pressure them to drop that resistance.
“I’d love to be strategizing and organizing with you guys” on the refugee issue, Castro told Rathod, a former Obama White House official who took the helm at the State Innovation Exchange (SiX) last year.
The group was designed to be a counterweight to the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative group that crafts model legislation with the assistance of state legislators, private companies, and other stakeholders.
“Progressives are looking around to figure out where to go to push back, and there has not been a vehicle to do that at the state level—it’s the biggest missing piece in the progressive infrastructure,” Rathod said at the time.
After Castro left, he and two other SiX staffers continued discussing the refugee issue and its potential for dinging Republican officials at the state level.
“You need to get the mayors the talking points, and data research to back it up,” Rathod told the staffers.
Some at the meeting expressed concern that the issue could backfire.
“We need to be really careful,” one SiX staffer said. “Have we thought how terrorists were able to get through all these refugees?” another asked. “Have we thought through this so we’re not making a bad argument?”
Rathod reassured them.
“I feel pretty comfortable that the refugees aren’t the way a terrorist would get in. It’d be through Canada,” he said. But, he added, “It’s always a risk.”
Neither Rathod nor Castro’s office returned requests for comment on the meeting, which came as the Democracy Alliance, a left-wing donor club instrumental in SiX’s formation, met in Washington, D.C., for its biennial conference.
SiX is central to the DA’s strategy to retake statehouses in the wake of massive Democratic losses under President Obama. Rathod griped about those losses, and the Democratic Party’s inability to stem them, during his meeting with Castro.
“The DNC doesn’t do anything. It’s all top-down, presidential cycle driven. They don’t do anything to help the cause,” he complained. “Even after Presidential Obama took office, we’ve lost 900 seats at the local level. I thought that we had kicked their ass and Republicans were done. It’s been the opposite.”
The solution, he said, is to nurture groups such as SiX that incubate Democratic talent at the state and local levels.
“We have some young rising stars on our side, like yourself, but we lack a pipeline,” Rathod told Castro. “The right nourishes and builds their young stars. They take amateurs and turn them into heavy hitters.”
SiX is “spending a lot of time understanding the needs of state legislators, figuring out how to support their needs, training people when they’re in office, so by time they’re ready to go to the next level, they’re armed with policy and political skills.”
That sort of talent recruitment could see a boost under a Republican president, Castro suggested. “I’m supporting Hillary Clinton and all that,” he said. “But a silver lining of having a Republican president, it’d be great for the progressive bench. George W. Bush was great for building up our side.”
He and Rathod suggested that a Clinton loss is a distinct possibility if the Republican Party nominates Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. “Rubio is really scary to me,” Rathod said. “Me too,” 
Castro agreed.
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CATHOLIC HISPANIC PRO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT

Joaquin Castro on Closing Family Detention Centers;
Advocates Changing Immigration Laws