As the 2017 legislative session winds down this week, the usual flurry of activity to get bills passed has begun in earnest. SB22, legislation sponsored by controversial St. Louis Senator Marie Chappelle Nadal to buy out homes near a contaminated landfill seems to have stalled. Senator Chappelle Nadal originally secured $3 million out the $12 million she requested for the buyout and now its down to $1 million. Our sources say, besides the fact money is tight in this years budget, professional environmental activists or agitators with the Earth’s Defense Coalition have left a sour taste in the mouths of many legislators. One St. Louis area legislator told us, “Look I’m sensitive to the concerns of these homeowners, I once lived near a contaminated sight myself but these outside groups disrupting a private business for publicity doesn’t sit well with me quite frankly. They need to go home and let the adults in the room solve this pressing problem.”
Missouri Times:
The funds going towards Chappelle-Nadal’s project have withered away during the budget process. Her initial version of the Hazardous Waste Home Acquisition Program called for $12.5 million for buyouts in Spanish Lake. Then, that number fell to a $3 million line item in the budget. After conference, it turned into just $1 million. While the Senate deliberated over the HB 6 – the Department of Natural Resources budget bill that contains the West Lake line item, Chappelle-Nadal spoke for roughly half an hour, visibly upset.
“In this particular case, we’re picking and choosing who lives and who dies,” she said, House Budget Chair Scott Fitzpatrick acknowledged Chappelle-Nadal had worked passionately on the issue, but in a year where $500 million had been cut from the budget and pennies were pinched, getting anything for a new line item was a win in itself. “But at the end of the day, I’m hoping she can be happy,” Fitzpatrick said. “It’s hard for me to understand how somebody can be upset that their unprecedented appropriation is not big enough. We’ve never really done anything like it before.” Read more…
Last week’s vote in the House to repeal Obamacare has now placed repeal square in the hands of the Senate where it’s more dicey and up in the air. Senators’ McCaskill and Blunt give their opinions on the bill’s chances in the senate. Of course Senator Blunt took the statesman’s route by looking to solve the problem of healthcare affordability while Senator McCaskill stuck to the DNC’s fear mongering talking points. Sen. Blunt:
“The Senate is going to be looking at this to see what we can do to take the House work, look at what the House did, look at what we can do to improve that in our view and then see if that’s a bill that in all likelihood you have to go back to the House and say ‘here’s what you think, here’s what we think. For the states to have more options in Medicaid is a good thing, not a bad thing. Every state is different. This is a huge budget issue in every state. … You know, coverage is different than access, and both in the insurance market where a lot of people have coverage, but nobody has a place to go because their deductible is so high or in Medicaid where people are covered but doctors increasingly don’t want to take Medicaid patients, those are the kind of problems we ought to be solving.”
Sen. McCaskill
“I was diagnosed with breast cancer last year, and I have been grateful every single day since to have high-quality health insurance and access to darn good doctors. It’s because of this coverage – which I get through Obamacare – that I can say today I’m cancer-free,” said McCaskill. “Way, way, way too many of our friends and neighbors don’t have the same options, and Trumpcare will only make that worse – especially for people who’ve had the nerve to be sick before. Make no mistake: This plan will deny millions of people access to the kind of care that saved my life. The Affordable Care Act isn’t perfect. It needs to be improved, and I’ve worked on specific ways to improve it. But Trumpcare isn’t the answer – it’ll be a disaster for working families.”
What a heartwarming story. The so called racist mayor of Ferguson had a favorite teacher. And guess What? She’s African American!
KMOV.com:
A teacher now retired from the Ferguson-Florissant School District started imagining a better St. Louis decades ago. “Before I started class, I’d say ‘We are going to establish respect for each other. I have respect for you and you’re going to give it back to me. If we can get that all together, we’re going to be fine.'” said Leaster Arps-Widmark, known as Mrs. Arps to her students. Mrs. Arps started teaching back in 1970 and spent about 25 years with the Ferguson-Florissant School District. “Back in my time, when we were coming up, that was the number one profession, being a teacher,” said Arps, now 74-years-old…Dr. Rachel Morel, D.O., now a practicing psychiatrist, James Knowles III, the Mayor of Ferguson, and Christopher Dew, a school transportation supervisor were just a sample of the students who had recently reached out to Mrs. Arps and came to see her again this day…Mayor Knowles highlighted the balance Mrs. Arps found in her classroom, being both strict, yet loving. “You always wanted to get approval from Mrs. Arps,” said Knowles. “None of us would be here without you.” Read more…
The Earth Defense Coalition, a group that has apparently partnered with Just Moms STL (another group organized against the Westlake Landfill) has had a restraining order filed against them by the owners of Westlake Landfill.
STL Today:
Republic Services, the Arizona-based operator of the site containing radioactive waste, and several affiliated companies filed a request for injunctive relief in St. Louis County Circuit Court on Monday. The filing asks that the court restrain 10 of those charged with taking part in the March 31 demonstration from “engaging in further trespass” at the site and more broadly bar them from any protests or entrance blockades at its businesses.
Earth Defense Coalition co-founder Alex Cohen
At the protest, a small group of individuals chained themselves to barrels containing concrete and rebar — a tactical device the court filing said is known as a “sleeping dragon.” The protesters set up before sunrise and police were called shortly after 6 a.m. A peaceful protest lasted throughout the day, until about 10 of the activists were taken into police custody around 4:40 p.m. All of those named in Republic’s court petition were members or supporters of an advocacy organization called the Earth Defense Coalition, said Alex Cohen, a co-founder of the group and a defendant named in the filing. Read more…
Austin Stukins, the brand new Executive Director of the Missouri GOP, joined guest host Chris Arps and Ferguson Mayor James Knowles on Good Friday to discuss his upcoming plans for the Party. Stukins credits growing up in an African American community helped shape his conservative values by being constantly exposed to those values.
Master of Ceremonies Marc Cox and speakers Christopher Arps and former Mo. House Speaker Tim Jones
St. Louis Public Radio:
About 200 people who couldn’t go to Jefferson City attended a local Trump rally in Ballwin Saturday. Republican activist Rene Artman said she helped organize the local rally because Democrats are “hell-bent on bringing Trump down.” “I did not like when President Obama was elected, but we didn’t go out and burn cars or do all of that. I held my nose. I kept my mouth shut. I respected him. The Democrats on the whole have no respect,” Artman said. Local anti-Trump events have been peaceful. But Artman said she is appalled by reports of vandalism during anti-Trump protests in California. Read more…
Remarks by speaker Christopher Arps:
Good morning Patriots!!!!!! Is this a great day the Lord has provided us to celebrate the Spirit of America or what? I’ve got two questions for all of you before I begin my remarks:
One, how many of you are being paid to be here this morning? Two, how many of you received an email from a Republican or conservative “astroturf” organization telling you what time to be here; suggestions on what to chant and talking points to give if you’re interviewed by the media after this event?
And what I mean by astroturf is the fake grassroots activism we saw during the Obamacare debate where Democratic operatives and groups tried to give the impression there was wide spread support for socialized medicine. That support was astroturf as we have seen because Obamacare has never been popular in the polls and eight years after its passage its still not popular.)
Some of you know that I was not a supporter of Donald Trump during the primary election season. I was a supporter of Sen. Ted Cruz and was a staffer on his campaigns in Iowa, South Carolina and here in Missouri. Even after Mr. Trump secured the nomination I still was not wildly supportive of him but I put my country first over my feelings and voted for Mr. Trump for president.
Does my voting for Mr. Trump mean I support the late night twitter storms and some of the, what I deem, unnecessary distractions he brings upon himself and his administration? Of course not but when I see a fake media and the so called loyal opposition trying to destroy a presidency within the first weeks of an infant presidency, then it brings out a natural defensiveness from someone who loves their country and wants to see fundamental fairness.
You see, this rally, and those happening all around the country today are bigger than one man, bigger than any political party, bigger than even the institution of the presidency. This is a rally about the spirit of America and preserving that spirit for our generation and for the generations to come. Radio and TV host Mark Levin said, “What the Founding Fathers created in the Constitution is the most magnificent government on the face of the Earth, and the reason is this: because it was intended to preserve the American society and the American spirit, not to transform it or destroy it.”
Featured speakers and organizers
Founding Father Patrick Henry said “When the American spirit was in its youth, the language of America was different: Liberty, sir, was the primary object.” Almost 250 years later, the American spirit in my opinion is still in its youth because liberty and freedom never gets old. Our friends on the other side have learned that lesson all too painfully electorally with the loss of the presidency and a 1,000 legislative seats across the country since the election of former President Obama.
Most Americans reject the heavy hand of the government intruding in their lives and they’ve let the jack ass party know resoundingly by going to the ballot box and letting their voices be heard. Our friends on the other side somehow believe by letting their voices be heard by rioting, looting, disrupting congressional town halls, or by wearing special hats with derogatory names, that it will be just as successful as the tea party movement.
President Calvin Coolidge succeeded to the presidency upon the sudden death of Warren G. Harding in 1923. In his first address to Congress the new president said: “Free government has no greater menace than disrespect for authority and continual violation of law. It is the duty of a citizen not only to observe the law but to let it be known that he is opposed to its violation.”These rallies around the nation today are a part of our duty as citizens to observe the law and we’re letting it be known we are opposed to it’s violation in particularly when it comes to illegal immigration. No decent American is opposed to immigration because we are all immigrants to this land. What we are opposed to of course is illegal immigration and the guilt trip that is tried to be placed on us for wanting the law followed.
President Coolidge also talked about immigration and his words are just as relevant today as it when he first uttered them: “American institutions rest solely on good citizenship. They were created by people who had a background of self-government. New arrivals should be limited to our capacity to absorb them into the ranks of good citizenship. America must be kept American. For this i purpose, it is necessary to continue a policy of restricted immigration.
It would be well to make such immigration of a selective nature with some inspection at the source, and based either on a prior census or upon the record of naturalization. Either method would insure the admission of those with the largest capacity and best intention of becoming citizens. I am convinced that our present economic and social conditions warrant a limitation of those to be admitted. We should find additional safety in a law requiring the immediate registration of all aliens. Those’ who do not want to be partakers of the American spirit ought not to settle in America.”
That last sentence sounds harsh but sometime the truth hurts. It’s not xenophobic or hatred to expect guests in our country to love our country as much as we do and to respect our laws. There are thousands of people who have paid thousands of dollars and who have been in line for years to immigrate legally to this country who have the utmost respect and admiration for the ideals of America.
These are the people who understand why we’re gathered here today and these are the people this nation needs regardless of race, color, creed, religion or nationality. God bless you and thank you for coming out. And God bless the president and our leaders and may God continue to bless the United States of America!
So Congressman Clay can bother to show up to work and “defend the Constitution”and draw his $174,000 salary to file a lawsuit to protect this garbage masquerading as “remarkable” art…
But he’s AWOL when it comes to real constitutional questions like the former secretary of state operating her own illegal home brew server.
