First Lady Melania Trump and Barron Trump receive the official White House Christmas Tree for 2017; a beautiful 19-and-a-half-foot Balsam fir from Wisconsin that White House officials picked out in September.
Jim and Diane Chapman, owners of a Wisconsin Christmas tree farm, won an annual contest by the National Christmas Tree Association and got to present the tree.
After the first lady and son Barron gave their symbolic approval, the tree will be taken to the Blue Room, where it will become the holiday showpiece -complete with a nativity scene- for a first-family who have vowed to put Christmas back in the center of the winter holidays.  WATCH:

(more…)

During an event celebrating multiple NCAA championship teams at the White House, the champion Oklahoma State University softball team asks President Trump if he would allow them to pray with him.   Watch:

.
President Trump was visibly moved by the prayer which is evident in the extended version of the video below.
(more…)

Yesterday the first indicators of a longer pattern of violence and anti-social behavior began to emerge.  Today some of the space between those details begins to fill in.  The gunman’s  violent past includes: animal abuse, domestic violence and a history of stalking.
Texas gunman Devin Patrick Kelley, killed 26 people and wounded dozens more during his rampage at the Sutherland Springs First Baptist Church, and yesterday we began to discover his disturbing past including a year spent in military prison.
Today media reports are digging deeper and show the reason Kelley spent a year in prison was for abusing his wife and breaking the skull of his infant son.  According to the Air Force, in 2012 while Kelley was stationed at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico in he was charged with “assault on his spouse and assault on their child.”
Retired Colonel Don Christensen, who was the lead Air Force prosecutor during the case, said:

“[Kelley] assaulted his stepson severely enough that he fractured his skull, and he also assaulted his wife. He plead to intentionally doing it.”

After Kelley spent a year in prison, he was kicked out of the military with a “bad conduct” discharge; similar to, but just a notch below, the more well-known dishonorable discharge.
(more…)

Interesting video interview below.  Texan Johnnie Langendorff arrived at the intersection near the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs and witnessed a good Samaritan (neighbor) returning rifle fire with the church shooter Devin Patrick Kelley.
As shooter Kelley attempted to escape the area, together Langendorff and the armed good Samaritan gave chase in Johnnie’s truck.
TEXAS – Summer Caddel said her boyfriend, Johnnie Langendorff, called her moments after the shooting at First Baptist Church and told her that he saw a gunfight between the shooter and a neighbor, who was returning fire.
Langendorff then told Caddel the suspect — identified at Devin Kelley — then got into an SUV and drove away, and the two gave chase. (read more)

It is being reported that multiple people have been killed after a gunman opened fire in a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, at approximately 11:15am (local time).  According to media reports, a single shooter walked into the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs and opened fire, Wilson County Commissioner Albert Gamez Jr. told NBC News.  There were approximately 50 people in the church. Reports: 27 dead, dozens injured.

CBS […] A law enforcement official confirmed the gunman is deceased. He was shot after a car chase with police. It’s unclear if he shot himself or if he was shot by police, CBS News’ senior investigative producer Pat Milton reports. (link)

NBC […] Texas Congressman Vicente Gonzalez said on MSNBC that “apparently the shooter was not from the area, he was from outside of that area.” (link)

TEXAS – (Via NBC News) […] Gamez said he had spoken to the sheriff and other officials who said there were multiple fatalities and multiple wounded, but it was not immediately clear how many were dead or injured.  The shooter was “down,” Gamez said.
Several other law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation also said “multiple” people had been killed, with as many as 15 injured. The FBI and ATF were headed to the scene, the sources said.
Sherri Pomeroy, the wife of church pastor Frank Pomeroy, told NBC News that her husband was out of town at the time of the reported shooting and but that her daughter was inside the church. (link)

May God be w/ the people of Sutherland Springs, Texas. The FBI & law enforcement are on the scene. I am monitoring the situation from Japan.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 5, 2017

(more…)

President Trump became the first sitting president to deliver a speech at the Value Voters Summit in Washington DC. The Summit is a gathering of faith-based leaders and political voices from within the faith-based community.
President Trump had spoken at the Summit twice before, including his attendance as the 2016 Republican presidential nominee. His address today at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in DC was his third at the Summit and the first for a sitting president.

[Transcript] 10:22 A.M. EDT – THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, Tony. (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you very much. (Applause.)
AUDIENCE: USA! USA! USA!
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. You know, I’ve been here before. (Laughter.) You do know that. Before the big day on November 8th, I was here. I want to thank Mark Meadows and all of the folks that have really made this possible. And, Tony, tremendous guy.
(more…)

A stunning level of censorship admitted by Twitter surrounding the senate campaign launch of Tennessee candidate Marsha Blackburn.
Blackburn kicked off her senate bid with a campaign video within which she affirms her platform advocacy against abortion by highlighting her opposition to the sale of fetal tissue for medical research.  The statement she “stopped the sale of baby parts” triggered the censors within twitter to remove her campaign commercial:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn’s Senate campaign announcement ad has been blocked by Twitter over a statement the abortion rights opponent makes about the sale of fetal tissue for medical research.
Blackburn, who is running for the seat being opened by the retirement of Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, boasts in the ad that she “stopped the sale of baby body parts.” A Twitter representative told the candidate’s vendors on Monday that the statement was “deemed an inflammatory statement that is likely to evoke a strong negative reaction:

(more…)

UPDATE:

The incident in #ExhibitionRoad #SouthKensington earlier is not being treated as a terror-related incident. It is a road traffic collision.

— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) October 7, 2017

Life With Jihad – Another possible terrorist attack today in London England as a cab driver intentionally plows into a group of pedestrians outside the London Natural History Museum. It appears his rampage was hampered by the bollards and barricades recently put into place as a security precaution.

[Details from Daily Mail] Several people have been injured after a car mounted the pavement and mowed down pedestrians outside the Natural History Museum in London this afternoon.
A man was pinned down by security guards and arrested by police in the heart of the capital’s museum land in Kensington.
Hundreds of terrified tourists fled the scene as the black Toyota Prius – a registered minicab – careered into a sign before ultimately crashing into a crowd of as many as 10 people as it hit a silver car, according to witnesses.

(more…)

The man who opened fire on an outdoor concert on the Las Vegas Strip late Sunday, killing at least 58 people and wounding 515 more before he was found dead in a 32nd floor hotel room, has been identified as 64-year-old Stephen Paddock of Mesquite, Nevada, the Clark County sheriff said at a news conference Monday.
♦64-Year-old “Ordinary Guy”
♦No violent criminal background.
♦Paddock was a licensed pilot, owned two airplanes and had no criminal history beyond a citation that was handled normally.
♦Lockheed Martin said in a statement that Paddock worked for a predecessor company of theirs for three years starting in 1985.
♦Prior Residences: California, Florida, Texas, Nevada (reported 27 residences).
♦Paddock lived in Mesquite, Texas, before moving to Mesquite, Nevada, about 82 miles northeast of Las Vegas
♦More than 10 17 rifles were found in the Mandalay Bay hotel room with Paddock.
♦During the time he owned a home in Melbourne Florida (2013-2015), just west of I-95 in Brevard County, Stephen Paddock bragged about going to The Philippines and Europe. (link)
Watch interview with one of Stephen Paddock’s brothers Eric Paddock of Orlando Florida:
(more…)

GOP Majority Whip Steve Scalise returns to congress today following almost four months of surgery and recovery from an attempted assassination at a June congressional baseball team practice.  Scalise received an emotional welcome and shared how his prayers had been answered during his recovery process.

(more…)