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FBI implies Terrorism in San Beradino Attack

Obama-Golf
December 2,2015 9:25pm
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

San Beradino CA, the staff of the Ridgewood blog through the miracle of modern technology was able to garner some little reported information about the San Bernadino shooting . For some odd reason the name of the main suspect which was reported on police scanner as Farooq Saeed was being suppressed by the media for some time. Here is what was reported there were 3 heavily armed with body armor PROFESSIONAL SHOOTERS,  14 DEAD 17 WOUNDED at a GOVERNMENT ️(COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT) AGENCY CHRISTMAS PARTY clearly picking the 2nd floor on the building ignoring the 1st floor. The shooters clearly CAME IN WITH A MISSION at this point it is hard to imagine how this can not be a Terrorist event? Later it was reported by the ATF  that there was a pipe bomb was found on one of the suspects and they suspect some were in the building . So far one shooter was male one female who were killed during pursuit. The one very odd point is why did they single out the second floor only.

The media seems to be trying to push the “an argument  ” at the event caused the shooting ,later the police said could not establish any causality to that. That “argument” caused it seemed patently absurd given all the other evidence . Of coarse denials of international terrorism from unspecified Federal officials are coming in hot and heavy  as well as calls for gun control ,oy vey. One person was being detained and it was not immediately clear weather they were male or female or how they are implicated .

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The Republican establishment is nearing full-blown panic about Donald Trump.

trump poll

GOP in panic over Trump

By Niall Stanage – 11/27/15 06:00 AM EST

The Republican establishment is nearing full-blown panic about Donald Trump.

The demise of Trump’s candidacy has been predicted by centrist Republicans and the media alike virtually since the day it began. But there is no empirical evidence at all to suggest it is happening.

Last month, the liberal ThinkProgress collated more than 30 predictions of the business mogul’s imminent demise. One typical example was The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart, who discerned “the beginning of the end of Trump” in mid-July, soon after the mogul criticized the Vietnam War record of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)

Despite all that, Trump has led the RealClearPolitics (RCP) polling average in a virtually unbroken spell for four months. The only person to briefly wrest the lead away from him, Dr. Ben Carson, appears to be fading. And numerous polls show Trump drawing double the support of his closest establishment-friendly rival, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.)

Add to all this the fact that Trump’s lead over the rest of the GOP field has expanded since the terrorist attacks in Paris, and it becomes clear why anxiety among his many Republican critics is reaching new heights.

“He has a real shot at this. He is the clear front-runner,” said Ron Bonjean, a consultant and former aide to GOP leaders on Capitol Hill.

Adding that “months ago, we all discounted Trump as a candidate,” Bonjean now acknowledged that it seems “safe to assume that he is going to continue with this strong momentum right into Iowa.”

The Iowa caucuses are set for Feb. 1, a little over two months away. Voters tend to pay less attention to politics over the holiday season than at other times, a trend that makes dramatic shifts in the race less likely during that period.

Only one more televised debate will take place before the end of the year, on Dec. 15 in Las Vegas. Beyond that, there will be only one more such clash, in January, four days before the caucuses.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/261252-gop-in-panic-over-trump

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Cruz: Obama is ‘not interested’ in protecting the U.S.

U

November 14, 2015, 05:04 pm
By Devin Henry

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) says he thinks President Obama is “not interested” in protecting the United States from terror attacks.

“I recognize that Barack Obama does not wish to defend this country. He may have been tired of war, but our enemies are not tired of killing us,” Cruz said in a “Fox and Friends” interview.

“They are getting stronger. Every region on Earth has gotten worse under the Obama-Clinton foreign policy.”

Cruz, a 2016 Republican presidential candidate, accused the president of ignoring the threats posed by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in light of a coordinated set of attacks in Paris on Friday.

He said Obama and Hillary Clinton, the leading Democratic presidential candidate, are “ideologues” who “don’t recognize that enemies of America want to kill us.”

Cruz’s interview came after an attack in Paris left at least 129 people dead Friday. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack.

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/260177-cruz-obama-is-not-interested-in-protecting-the-us

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SPEAKER BOEHNER PUSHES FOR ONE MORE BAD DEAL BEFORE LEAVING HOUSE

Boehner_2417210b

BY ANDREW TAYLOR AND ERICA WERNER
ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) — Speaker John Boehner is trying to make one last deal as he heads for the exits, pushing to finalize a far-reaching, two-year budget agreement before handing Congress’ top job over to Paul Ryan this week, congressional officials said Monday.

The deal, in concert with a must-pass increase in the federal borrowing limit, would solve the thorniest issues awaiting Ryan, who is set to be elected speaker on Thursday. It would also take budget showdowns and government shutdown fights off the table until after the 2016 presidential election, a potential boon to Republican candidates who might otherwise face uncomfortable questions about messes in the GOP-led Congress.

Congress must raise the federal borrowing limit by Nov. 3 or risk a first-ever default, while money to pay for government operations runs out Dec. 11 unless Congress acts. Top House and Senate aides have been meeting with White House officials in search of a deal that would give both the Pentagon and domestic agencies budget relief in exchange for cuts elsewhere in the budget.

The measure under discussion would suspend the current $18.1 trillion debt limit through March 2017. After that it would be reset by the Treasury Department to reflect borrowing over that time.

https://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CONGRESS_BUDGET?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-10-26-12-34-27

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Are Western Values Losing Their Sway?

Death-to-America

By STEVEN ERLANGERSEPT. 12, 2015

London — THE West is suddenly suffused with self-doubt.

Centuries of superiority and global influence appeared to reach a new summit with the collapse of the Soviet Union, as the countries, values and civilization of the West appeared to have won the dark, difficult battle with Communism.

That victory seemed especially sweet after the turn of China toward capitalism, which many thought presaged a slow evolution to middle-class demands for individual rights and transparent justice — toward a form of democracy. But is the embrace of Western values inevitable? Are Western values, essentially Judeo-Christian ones, truly universal?

The history of the last decade is a bracing antidote to such easy thinking. The rise of authoritarian capitalism has been a blow to assumptions, made popular by Francis Fukuyama, that liberal democracy has proved to be the most reliable and lasting political system.

With the collapse of Communism, “what we may be witnessing,” Mr. Fukuyama wrote hopefully in 1989, “is the end point of mankind’s ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.”

But couple the tightening of Chinese authoritarianism with Russia’s turn toward revanchism and dictatorship, and then add the rise of radical Islam, and the grand victory of Western liberalism can seem hollow, its values under threat even within its own societies.

The recent flood of migrants and Syrian asylum seekers were welcomed in much of Europe, especially Germany and Austria. But it also prompted criticism from a number of less prosperous European countries, a backlash from the far right and new anxieties about the growing influence of Islam, and radical Islamists, in Europe.

“Nineteen-eighty-nine was perceived as the victory of universalism, the end of history, but for all the others in the world it wasn’t a post-Cold War world but a post-colonial one,” said Ivan Krastev, director of the Center for Liberal Strategies in Sofia, Bulgaria, and a contributing opinion writer for The Times.

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/13/sunday-review/are-western-values-losing-their-sway.html?_r=0

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Poll: Fewer Republicans view own party favorably

rino

By Jesse Byrnes

The percentage of those with favorable views of the Republican Party has dropped across the board since early this year, including sharply among Republicans, a Pew Research Center pollsays.

Fewer than a third of Americans, 32 percent, have a favorable impression of the GOP, a 9-point drop in the poll since January. Pew’s survey finds that 60 percent have an unfavorable view.

Positive views of the Republican Party have fallen 18 points since January among those who identify as Republican, from 86 to 68 percent.

It has also fallen 8 points among Independents since then, from 37 to 29 percent.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party’s ratings are closer — 48 percent favorable to 47 percent unfavorable — and Democrats’ views on their party have remained steady, 86 percent favorable, during the GOP’s dip.

Pew’s latest poll was conducted early last week amid a nascent 2016 presidential race that has been dominated in the media by businessman Donald Trump since he launched a White House bid in mid-June.

 

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/249115-poll-fewer-republicans-view-own-party-favorably

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Obama Ordered Flags to Half Mast for Newtown, But Not 5 Military Personnel Murdered in Tenn.

half mast flag

By Brittany M. Hughes | July 20, 2015 | 1:48 PM EDT

(CNSNews.com) – As of Monday morning, July 20, the U.S. flag continued to fly at the top of the pole above the White House and at the U.S. Capitol building, five days after a gunman launched attacks in which he murdered five U.S. military personnel at facilities in Chattanooga, Tenn.

President Barack Obama has yet to order the flags to half-staff following this tragedy. By contrast, in 2012, President Obama did order the flags flown at half-staff on the same day  as the shootings at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

Last Thursday, 24-year-old Mohammod Abdulazeez, armed with multiple weapons, opened fire at a local military recruiting center before continuing his rampage at the nearby Navy Operational Support Center and Marine Corps Reserve Center Chattanooga.

https://cnsnews.com/news/article/brittany-m-hughes/obama-ordered-flags-half-mast-newtown-not-5-military-personnel?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=cns&utm_term=facebook&utm_content=facebook&utm_campaign=n-flags-half-mast

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Diplomats: Iran announcement planned Today

iran-death-to-america

Jul 12, 4:25 PM (ET)

By GEORGE JAHN and MATTHEW LEE

VIENNA (AP) — Negotiators at the Iran nuclear talks plan to announce Monday that they’ve reached a historic deal capping nearly a decade of diplomacy that would curb the country’s atomic program in return for sanctions relief, two diplomats told The Associated Press on Sunday.

The envoys said a provisional agreement may be reached even earlier — by late Sunday. But they cautioned that final details of the pact were still being worked out. Once it is complete, a formal, final agreement would be open to review by officials in the capitals of Iran and the six world powers at the talks, they said.

Senior U.S. and Iranian officials suggested, however, there might not be enough time to reach a deal by the end of Sunday and that the drafting of documents could bleed into Monday.

All of the officials, who are at the talks in Vienna, demanded anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the negotiations publicly.

(AP) Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, right, talks to journalist from a…
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“We are working hard, but a deal tonight is simply logistically impossible,” the Iranian official said, noting that the agreement will run roughly 100 pages.

The senior U.S. official declined to speculate as to the timing of any agreement or announcement but said “major issues remain to be resolved.”

Despite the caution, the negotiators appeared to be on the cusp of an agreement.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who on Thursday had threatened to walk away from the negotiations, said Sunday that “a few tough things” remain in the way but added “we’re getting to some real decisions.”

En route to Mass at Vienna’s gothic St. Stephens Cathedral, Kerry said twice he was “hopeful” after a “very good meeting” Saturday with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who had Muslim services Friday. The two met again early Saturday evening.

(AP) U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry walks in the garden of Coburg where closed-door…
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French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius also was cautiously optimistic, telling reporters Sunday: “I hope that we are finally entering the last phase of this negotiation.”

In Iran, President Hassan Rouhani said an agreement was close, but not quite done, describing the negotiations as “still steps away from reaching the intended peak.”

 

https://apnews.myway.com/article/20150712/iran-nuclear_talks-6cf045aec0.html

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A Republican lawmaker on the House Homeland Security Committee on Sunday blasted the idea that white supremacists could be more dangerous than Muslim extremists.

1416083745336_wps_65_Jihadi_John_Alan_Henning

GOP rep: White supremacist threat overstated

By Timothy Cama

A Republican lawmaker on the House Homeland Security Committee on Sunday blasted the idea that white supremacists could be more dangerous than Muslim extremists.

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) said he totally “disregarded” a New York Times report, based on findings from the New America Foundation, that white supremacists, anti-government extremists and others have killed nearly twice as many people as radical Muslims since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

“Every murder is horrible,” King said in ABC’s “This Week.” “There is no comparison between these white supremacists and an internationally coordinated movement which, if the attacks were not stopped, we could have thousands and thousands of deaths.”

things the NY Times recently missed :

2015.06.27 (Maiduguri, Nigeria) – Two female suicide bombers murder three people at a leprosy hospital.
2015.06.26 (Mosul, Iraq) – A physician is dragged from his hospital and executed by religious radicals.
2015.06.26 (Ain al-Arab, Syria) – Children are among eighteen more victims found after an Islamic State rampage.
2015.06.26 (Sousse, Tunisia) – Two Islamists massacre thirty-nine innocents with machine-guns at a beach resort popular with foreign tourists.
2015.06.26 (Kobani, Syria) – Over one-hundred more civilians are butchered when the Islamic State overrun a Kurdish town and go ‘house to house’.
2015.06.26 (Kuwait City, Kuwait) – Sunni radicals stage a suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque, calling it the ‘temple of the rejectionists’ and leave over two dozen dead.
https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/246400-gop-chairman-white-supremacist-threaten-overstated

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Congress Bought and Paid For Passes Trade Promotion Authority bill

US-POLITICS-HILL-OBAMA

Here’s how much corporations paid US senators to fast-track the TPP bill

Robert Gibson and Taylor Channing

*Out of the total $1,148,971 given, an average of $17,676.48 was donated to each of the 65 “yea” votes.
*The average Republican member received $19,673.28 from corporate TPP supporters.

*The average Democrat received $9,689.23 from those same donors.
*The amounts given rise dramatically when looking at how much each senator running for re-election received.

Critics of the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership are unlikely to be silenced by an analysis of the flood of money it took to push the pact over its latest hurdle.
A decade in the making, the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is reaching its climax and as Congress hotly debates the biggest trade deal in a generation, its backers have turned on the cash spigot in the hopes of getting it passed.

Barack Obama given ‘fast-track’ authority over trade deal negotiations

“We’re very much in the endgame,” US trade representative Michael Froman told reporters over the weekend at a meeting of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum on the resort island of Boracay. His comments came days after TPP passed another crucial vote in the Senate.

That vote, to give Barack Obama the authority to speed the bill through Congress, comes as the president’s own supporters, senior economists and a host of activists have lobbied against a pact they argue will favor big business but harm US jobs, fail to secure better conditions for workers overseas and undermine free speech online.

Those critics are unlikely to be silenced by an analysis of the sudden flood of money it took to push the pact over its latest hurdle.

Fast-tracking the TPP, meaning its passage through Congress without having its contents available for debate or amendments, was only possible after lots of corporate money exchanged hands with senators. The US Senate passed Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) – the fast-tracking bill – by a 65-33 margin on 14 May. Last Thursday, the Senate voted 62-38 to bring the debate on TPA to a close.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/may/27/corporations-paid-us-senators-fast-track-tpp

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Garrett was target of crackdown by House Speaker Boehner, report says

scott_garrett_seniors_theridgewoodblog

“Today’s Trade Promotion Authority bill doesn’t do enough to ensure proper congressional oversight of future trade deals, strengthen middle class New Jersey families, or protect American jobs; and therefore I could not support it. Trade requires trust, and many New Jerseyans find it difficult to trust a White House that gave us unconstitutional amnesty, maintained the broken tax code, and implemented a massive government takeover of our health care system. While I believe there is a path to trade agreements that strengthen our country and protect American jobs, today’s bill falls short of the mark.”

Rep. Scott Garrett (NJ-05) issued the above statement after he voted against the Trade Promotion Authority bill:

Garrett was target of crackdown by House Speaker Boehner, report says

JUNE 25, 2015, 5:16 PM    LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 2015, 5:21 PM
BY HERB JACKSON
WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT |
THE RECORD

Rep. Scott Garrett’s penchant for bucking the Republican House leadership and voting his own way almost cost him his chairmanship of a House subcommittee, according to a report by Politico.

But Garrett told The Record he hasn’t been approached about his voting by either Speaker John Boehner or Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas, the chairman of the Financial Services Committee. But he also went out of his way to mention he was pleased another conservative who did lose his chairmanship got it back on Thursday.

Politico reported Wednesday night that Garrett was one of the targets of a crackdown Boehner had begun on on conservatives who oppose the party on major legislation, especially those in privileged spots as subcommittee chairmen.

Prefering to handle discipline through committee chairmen, Boehner had House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy approach Hensarling, and he vouched for Garrett, Politico said.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/garrett-was-target-of-crackdown-by-house-speaker-boehner-report-says-1.1363514

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To Destroy ISIS, Conscript Millennials, Says Baby Boomer Journalist

Millennials theridgewoodblg.net

I am a millennial, get me out of here!

Robby Soave|Jun. 17, 2015 10:40 am

National Journal’s Ron Fournier has come up with a frightening, ageist approach to defeating ISIS: enslave the millennials! He explains:

I know a better way to fight ISIS. It starts with an idea that should appeal the better angels of both hawks and doves: National service for all 18- to 28-years-olds.

Require virtually every young American—the civic-minded millennial generation—to complete a year of service through programs such as Teach for America, AmeriCorps, the Peace Corps, or the U.S. military, and two things will happen:

1. Virtually every American family will become intimately invested in the nation’s biggest challenges, including poverty, education, income inequality, and America’s place in a world afire.

2. Military recruiting will rise to meet threats posed by ISIS and other terrorist networks, giving more people skin in a very dangerous game.

The tone of Fournier’s column suggests that he considers mandatory national service a compromise in light of political realism—he would clearly prefer to restore the draft outright. This “compromise” idea is less horrifying than the draft, but not by a whole lot.

Disclaimer: I’m a millennial. I’m 26-years-old. I’m married and have a surprisingly steady job writing about why the government sucks. I’m supposed to just set all that aside for a year to work for causes I either don’t support, or actively oppose?

There are so many things wrong with this idea. For starters, it violates the principles upon which this nation was founded—that all men and women have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. While the Supreme Court has never held that mandatory national service violates the Constitution, the language of the Thirteen Amendment seems pretty clear to me: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.”

At the root of Fournier’s plan is a more insidiously evil notion: that millennials aren’t doing anything worthwhile with their lives right now, and their time would be better spent in Teach for America, or the Army. There’s some anti-market thinking at work here, since typically, the activities that free people choose for themselves are more productive and profitable than the ones totalitarian governments assign to them. This is why the comparatively less meddlesome U.S. government is generally in better shape than, say, Venezuela. Fournier is essentially saying that in order to defeat our enemies, we have to mimic their levels of disrespect for individual freedom.

https://reason.com/blog/2015/06/17/to-destroy-isis-conscript-millennials-sa

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Isis on the run? The US portrayal is very far from the truth

tikrit-map-march15-1

Sunday 3 May 2015
PATRICK COCKBURN

The map issued by the Pentagon to prove that Isis had lost territory shows how false optimism dominates the actions of the outside powers towards the Middle East.

A graphic illustration of Western wishful thinking about the decline of Islamic State (IS) is a well-publicised map issued by the Pentagon to prove that the self-declared caliphate has lost 25 per cent of its territory since its big advances last year.

Unfortunately for the Pentagon, sharp-eyed American journalists soon noticed something strange about its map identifying areas of IS strength. While it shows towns and villages where IS fighters have lost control around Baghdad, it simply omits western Syria where they have been advancing in and around Damascus.

The Pentagon displayed some embarrassment about its dodgy map, but it largely succeeded in its purpose of convincing people that IS is in retreat. Many news outlets across the world republished the map as evidence of the success of air strikes by the United States and its allies in support of the Iraqi army and Kurdish forces in Iraq and Syria. The capture of Tikrit after a month-long siege is cited as a further sign that a re-energised Iraqi state is winning and one day in the not too distant future will be able to recapture Mosul in the north and Anbar province in the west.

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/isis-on-the-run-the-us-portrayal-is-very-far-from-the-truth-10221225.html

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Obamacare the Big Sell Out repeal falls off Republicans’ to-do list as law takes hold

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Sen. Ted Cruz is among a shrinking number of Republican lawmakers still calling for the Affordable Care Act’s repeal. (Jim Lo Scalzo / European Pressphoto)

By NOAM N. LEVEYcontact the reporter

After five years and more than 50 votes in Congress, the Republican campaign to repeal the Affordable Care Act is essentially over.

GOP congressional leaders, unable to roll back the law while President Obama remains in office and unwilling to again threaten a government shutdown to pressure him, are focused on other issues, including trade and tax reform.

Less noted, senior Republican lawmakers have quietly incorporated many of the law’s key protections into their own proposals, including guaranteeing coverage and providing government assistance to help consumers purchase insurance.

And although the law remains very unpopular with GOP voters, more than 20 million Americans now depend on it for health benefits, making even some of the most conservative Republicans loath to cut off coverage.

https://www.latimes.com/business/healthcare/la-na-obamacare-republicans-20150418-story.html#page=1

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Huckabee Drops Bomb: This Week There’s Been ‘More Pressure to Put Sanctions on Indiana Than on Iran’

mike_huckabee_theridgewood blog

By Katie LaPotin

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee lambasted Americans Saturday for being more outraged at Indiana’s new religious freedom law than President Obama’s Iran deal.

He called the uproar over the Religious Freedom Restoration Act a distraction from Thursday’s announcement of a tentative nuclear proliferation deal with the Middle Eastern nation.

Huckabee made the remark on CNN’s “Smerconish”:

“Somebody who is a blogger made an observation this week that – I thought it was interesting – that there’s been more pressure this week to put sanctions on Indiana than on Iran. I thought that was a pretty wise observation, and it’s been a real almost distraction from something that is a whole lot more significant in terms of our national security than anything that’s been occupying the front pages here.”

Huckabee, who’s considering another run at the White House in 2016, also attributed the drama over the religious freedom laws in Indiana and his home state to the growing pressure from the gay community nationwide:

“The reason that those corporations put the pressure on Indiana and Arkansas was because the militant gay community put the pressure on them,” he said, singling out Apple’s business with Saudi Arabia and Wal-Mart’s business in China.

“I think these corporations really ought to either be consistent — quit making money from these countries that are really oppressing human rights, and quit bowing to the pressure, and just sell their stuff, that’s what they’re in business for – sell stuff.”

Both company’s CEOs came out strongly against the Indiana and Arkansas laws, respectively:

“Statement on HB 1228: Every day, in our stores, we see firsthand the benefits diversity and inclusion have on our associates, customers and communities we serve. It all starts with our core basic belief of respect for the individual. Today’s passage of HB1228 threatens to undermine the spirit of inclusion present throughout the state of Arkansas and does not reflect the values we proudly uphold. For those reasons, we are asking Governor Hutchinson to veto this legislation. – Doug McMillian, Wal-Mart CEO”

Huckabee’s comments on Saturday echoed those he made to Tony Perkins, the host of the Family Research Council’s “Washington Watch,” on his radio show Wednesday:

According to Mediaite, the former governor said of the gay rights activists fighting RFRA legislation in Indiana and Arkansas:

“It won’t stop until there are no more churches, until there are no more people who are spreading the Gospel, and I’m talking now about the unabridged, unapologetic Gospel that is really God’s truth.”

Huckabee, whose supporters recently launched a super PAC for his potential 2016 bid, told Smerconish that he will announce his intentions later this Spring.