The single most preventable risk factor for dementia

The single most preventable
risk factor for dementia 
By Bob Livingston
One of my closest friends has been suffering from dementia symptoms for over five years now. I've watched his life change completely.

Before his condition began stealing his memory and personality bit by bit, he and his wife had an amazing life. They were more active and social than some folks half their age, traveling to exotic places and hosting parties. Now that’s all changed.

Though for some there is a genetic predisposition to the various brain diseases we know of, the majority of dementia victims have no family history of memory loss, nor do I. That's why I do everything in my power to protect my brain. You just never know.

I help keep my brain young by avoiding drinking alcohol. Moderate alcohol consumption is touted as heart-healthy by orthodox medicine and many alternative doctors, but alcohol consumption is the most important and preventable risk factor for dementia.

Researchers delved into 57,000 cases of early-onset dementia, which begins before the age of 65.

They looked specifically at the effect of alcohol use disorders and included people who had been diagnosed with mental and behavioral disorders or chronic diseases that were attributable to the chronic, harmful use of alcohol.

Of those 57,000 cases of early-onset dementia, the majority (57 percent) were related to chronic heavy drinking.

So if chronic, heavy drinking is behind the majority of early-onset dementia cases, how do you know if you're at risk?

Chronic, heavy drinking is consuming more than 60 grams pure alcohol on average per day for men (4-5 drinks) and 40 grams (about 3 drinks) per day for women.

If you're at, or even near, that level of alcohol consumption on a regular basis, it's time to cut back.

Alcohol use disorders shorten life expectancy by more than 20 years, and dementia is one of the leading causes of these deaths.

Reducing or eliminating alcohol from your daily life is a good first step to combating your dementia risk.

Besides cutting back on alcohol, other steps to take include:

#1 Get regular exercise — This one can't be stressed enough since regular physical activity can lower your dementia risk by as much as 50 percent.

#2 Avoid "diabetes of the brain" — There is a possible link between metabolic disorders and the health of your brain's signaling systems. A good diet to follow is the MIND diet, which is short for Mediterranean-DASH Diet Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay. It's a hybrid of the Mediterranean and DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diets — diets that have been found to reduce the risk of heart problems. And, it's been shown to help maintain a healthy brain. Eat more fish, nuts, leafy vegetables, healthy oils and whole grains (not sugary breads).

#3 Take brain-boosting supplements — PQQ is little-known nutrient that supports healthy cellular aging by boosting the health of your cells' "energy generators" — in other words, your mitochondria. The brains of some dementia patients have been shown to have defective mitochondria.

Once you've boosted the number and health of your mitochondria, it's time to power them up. To do this, you need CoQ10. CoQ10 gives your mitochondria the energy they need to run every organ in your body optimally, including your brain.

I get my PQQ and CoQ10 in Peak Longevity Platinum^™.

INN investigation: Pension spiking still prevalent despite massive debt

INN investigation: Pension spiking still prevalent despite massive debt

·         By Brett Rowland | Illinois News NetworkTop of Form

Bottom of Form

Illinois school districts continued to pad pensions for retiring educators amid a two-year budget impasse and despite concerns about the state's growing pension debts, highlighting the persistence of a problem that lawmakers have struggled to contain.

As the state's budget stalemate entered a second year in the summer of 2017, some school administrators raised concerns about being able to to keep the doors open for the upcoming school year. Some talked about laying off teachers, cutting after-school activities or draining swimming pools. Others worried about depleting reserve funds. But through it all, the state's locally controlled public schools paid millions of dollars in penalties each year directly to the state's largest pension fund as a consequence of giving out raises and sick time in excess of the threshold set by a 2005 state law designed to discourage what is commonly known as pension spiking, an Illinois News Network investigation found.

“It’s inexcusable that school districts were spiking pensions at the end of their careers to the point where they’ve got to pay penalties,” said state Rep. Peter Breen, a Lombard Republican. “This data is Exhibit A for what’s wrong with Illinois’ pension systems."

The 2005 law penalized the practice of doling out hefty end-of-career raises to retiring educators, who would then get larger taxpayer-funded pension checks from the state. The law said that school districts would have to pay the cost difference for salary increases of more than 6 percent a year, essentially shifting the cost back to the local school district taxpayers. School boards could still give out raises of more than 6 percent in the years before retirement, but their taxpayers had to pay for the additional pension costs. The law requires local taxpayers to pay the state's Teachers' Retirement System for the full actuarial value that the system expected to incur from the higher salary.

Big end-of-career spikes can significantly boost the annual pension payments an educator receives in retirement and the total amount the taxpayer-supported pension system has to pay out over the term of the benefit.

At one point, 20 percent annual raises were common for educators preparing to retire.

Since the law was passed, school districts have had to pay more than $50 million in penalties to TRS, including $23.8 million since fiscal 2014. Districts used exemptions to avoid paying tens of millions more into the taxpayer-subsidized pension system.

Illinois faces a growing pension problem. It has the worst-funded public sector pensions in the country. Illinois' five pension systems have combined unfunded liability of more than $130 billion, although Moody's Investors Service places the total debt at more than $200 billion. TRS alone had an unfunded liability of $73.4 billion at the end of fiscal 2017, according to its website.

TRS manages pensions for educators across Illinois, with the exception of Chicago Public Schools. In recent years, the largest districts have often ended up paying the largest penalties to the pension system. But some districts pay far more than others.

Rockford School District 205, which has about 28,370 students, paid $1.1 million in excess salary and sick time pension penalties to TRS since fiscal 2014. Elgin-based School District U-46, with 39,377 students, paid $774,968.59 during the same period.

Rockford School District 205 Superintendent Ehren Jarrett and school board president Kenneth Scrivano did not respond to questions about the penalty payments. Rounding out the five highest penalties were Arlington Heights-based Township High School District 214 ($637,156.64), Waukegan Community Unit School District 60 ($631,835.42) and the Illinois State Board of Education ($592,619.69).

Statewide, more than a third of all school districts paid a TRS penalty in fiscal year 2018, Freedom of Information Act requests filed by INN revealed. Over the past five years, fewer districts have paid penalties each year, but the total amount of money TRS collected for excess costs has fluctuated.

Even as the state budget impasse stretched and school districts complained they weren't receiving enough state aid, 342 school districts paid about $3.3 million in penalties to TRS for end-of-career pension spiking.

While many of the payments for individual educators were small, others cost tens of thousands of dollars. For example, Rockford had to pay TRS $78,000 to cover the costs for end-of-career raises for Vikki Jacobson, a retired assistant superintendent of elementary education. The district paid for her pension penalty in 2016 during the state budget impasse. The average annual salary for a teacher in the district was $60,436 in 2017.

It wasn't just local school districts. Since fiscal year 2014, the Illinois State Board of Education itself cost taxpayers an additional $592,619.69 in penalties because of end-of-career raises that increased pension costs for retiring employees.

Excess cost payments to TRS have varied in recent years. The total amount in penalties in fiscal 2014 was about $4.86 million. In fiscal 2018, districts paid about $4.07 million.  

"The amount of excess salary grants are declining," said Dave Urbanek, director of communications for TRS. "School districts are more than aware of it. It's just a fact of life for them at this point."

Urbanek said the 2005 law did what it was designed to do. 

"The law definitely worked. You no longer – or very rarely – see double-digit increases," he said. 

Urbanek said the payments weren't penalties. The 2005 law makes no mention of penalties. Urbanek said that districts that give raises of more than 6 percent are not breaking the law. 

"The mistake is calling it a penalty. It's not a penalty. It triggers a cost," he said. 

However, many school districts consider the payments to be penalties and try to avoid them, said Ben Schwarm, deputy executive director of the Illinois Association of School Boards.

For example, Huntley District 158 has put a clause in recent teacher union contracts stipulating that no raises should be given above 6 percent in the final years before retirement and that any earnings above that limit would be forfeited.

Mark Altmayer, the chief financial officer and treasurer for the Huntley district, said the district made changes to monitor earnings and stay within the 6 percent limit.

"We look at this as a penalty," he said.

In June, Illinois lawmakers passed a new measure to try once again to curb pension spiking. The state budget enacted this summer for fiscal 2019 requires pension funds like TRS to bill local employers, such as a local school district, for salary increases of more than 3 percent – down from the 6 percent – for any year that will be used to calculate the employee's pension. Lawmakers estimated the change would save the state $21 million.

Despite the TRS pension fund's massive deficit, Illinois teacher unions filed a petition with 15,000 signatures asking lawmakers to get rid of the 3 percent cap shortly after the state budget was approved with bipartisan support in June.

"Because educators can qualify for the pension program after five years, the concern is that employers may want to limit any salary increases to 3 percent, which would deter people from furthering their education, and dissuade people from entering the profession, ultimately lowering the quality of education students receive," the Illinois Education Association wrote in a post on its website.

According to the latest Illinois Report Card, the average teacher salary in the state is $64,516 annually, among the highest in the country.

Even with the tighter cap, concerns remain that pension padding will continue to divert dollars away from the classroom.

State Rep. Mark Batinick, R-Plainfield, said the change might not accomplish much.

“There’s still end-of-career massive spiking that’s going on that’s stressing the pension systems and people are just writing checks,” Batinick said. “So obviously, where the abuse is is from the six percent and well beyond that. My guess is that if it was set to zero, we’d still have problems."

Self-sufficiency and self-worth produce ultimate happiness and human liberty

By Bob Livingston

That which has been is that which will be,
And that which has been done is that which will be done.
So there is nothing new under the sun.
Is there anything of which one might say,
"See this, it is new"?
Already it has existed for ages
Which were before us.
There is no remembrance of earlier things;
And also of the later things which will occur,
There will be for them no remembrance
Among those who will come later still. -- Ecclesiastes 1:9-11 (NASB)

The political left's enthusiastic embrasure of what is being touted as a new brand of socialism is hardly surprising to sober people.

For more than 100 years, Americans have been victimized by a state-sponsored socialist, altruistic, collectivist social and educational system. It has produced a popular mentality of diminishing the individual and independent thinker to a collectivist mind (mentality) which can be esoterically swayed, directed and channeled against his own best interest.

What does this mean? It means that a state of mind is developed and has been nurtured that freely gives oneself and one's production to the state. Each individual, in order to be considered a good citizen of the state, must contribute most of his means and be grateful for the services the state returns — whether they are necessary or useful or not.

Gradualism is the key to government power. Anything can be accomplished over a long period of time. Absolute tyranny can totally replace human liberty if done with a process of gradualism. It is sometimes described as two steps forward and one step backward. Time, however, works for the power brokers. Over a long enough time frame people accept their conditioning no matter what it is.

The political establishment has been hard at work sowing seeds of discontent and separating the masses into races and classes and social groups in a divide and conquer strategy while stealing their wealth through crony capitalism (fascism), progressive taxation, inflation and phony altruism. And over time each individual has come to depend more and more upon the state to provide his sustenance, succor and comfort in order to create in him a sense of equality with those which he has been convinced may have something he doesn't.

So now the harvest is ripe. Discontent with the system has reached a pitch, and many people — millennials (those born between 1982 and 2004) especially — are seeking something new. They embrace the promise of something for nothing inherent in democratic socialism based on their lifetime of indoctrination in public (non)education government re-education camps in which they've been pampered and taught a pseudo-history of state worship that glosses over the millions of deaths and massive human misery caused by democracy and socialism.

Senator Bernie Sanders made socialism popular and acceptable again as a political philosophy. He called his brand of socialism social democracy. Now the Democrats have a new and rising star named Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. They call her "the future" of the Democrat Party. She calls her brand of socialism democratic socialism, and she is the new darling of the Left.

But there is nothing new about it, whether you call it social democracy or democratic socialism. It's merely an effort at whitewashing a bloodstained wall.

The morality of socialism is easily summed up in a few words: envy and sacrifice based on a phony and coerced sense of altruism.

The socialist not only envies and wants a portion of the wealth of others; he desires to see the wealth of others lowered to the level of his own. The socialist wants to use a sense of altruism — couched in terms like "fairness," "equality" and  "fair share" — to coerce those who have into willingly giving a portion of their wealth to others. That failing, the socialist desires that the power and organized violence of the state be used to create a level of conformity and reduce everyone to the same level — even if it is the level of poverty and privation.

Socialism is also a philosophy of racism, weakness, ineptitude and collectivism in that it assumes one gained what he has by way of special privilege not afforded those who are of a different race or creed or social standing; and that one cannot obtain a thing or advance economically without the assistance of government or the collective.

Manipulating minorities — minorities being all those divided up by the establishment into various races, classes and social groups and pitted against one another — who are naturally drawn to socialism is a basic political strategy to justify government politics and plunder.

Samuel Goldman, an assistant professor of political science at George Washington University, describes democratic socialism as "achieving collective control of the economy."

Andrei Markovits, a professor of political science at the University of Michigan, calls democratic socialism an attempt to create, "a property—free, socialist society."

So we see that democratic socialism is a disguised system of stealing the wealth and production of the producers of wealth with spurious laws under the legitimacy of the vote. Stealing or taking from producers and transferring it to nonproducers is very sophisticated and concealed class warfare.

Democratic socialism is anathema to human liberty and is a concealed form of slavery. Democracy equals socialism equals communism equals fascism. They are all totalitarian forms of collectivism demanding self-sacrifice and total allegiance to the state, and are all anathema to life and liberty and property.

However, it's naïve and wholly inaccurate to ascribe this philosophy only to Democrats. Almost all politicians, Democrat and Republican, embrace socialism in many forms.

Always remember: The government has nothing good or nice to give to you. The government is in the business of shrinking freedom (and wealth), not expanding it.

Any political system built upon self-sacrifice (and all are) is an illusion and can only maintain authority at your expense. Distorted reality is any ploy that seeks to persuade you to share what you have with nonproducers or to seek guidance from external authority. Politics is such an ingrained system that few realize that politics is a system of reliance on external authority that perpetuates itself on illusions and distortions.

Relying on the external authority feels safe because it is the status quo. It feels like freedom because we have endured mass brainwash telling us our slavery is freedom and democracy.

But freedom and happiness are only restored through self-reliance and acting on our own judgment. Self-sufficiency and self-worth produce ultimate happiness and human liberty.

Will County consumers face possible sales tax hike -- right up to Chicago rates

Steve Balich Editors note: 
Homer 33C was one of the school districts that opted out of the 1% sales tax. Homer District 33C, spokeswoman Charla Brautigam said, “Our school board is aware of the opportunity for a County School Facilities Retail Tax but does not want to inflict any more taxes on our constituents at this time.”

Funds from this sales tax can be used for building maintenance projects, technology infrastructure, security enhancements, life safety work, energy efficiency improvements, and to abate debt payments, according to information provided by school officials.

It cannot be used for direct instructional costs, textbooks, computers or salaries.

Presently about 70% of our Property Tax Bill goes to schools. When is enough enough!

Will County consumers face possible sales tax hike -- right up to Chicago rates

by Carol Ostrow | Aug 1, 2018

 Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., an international investment-banking firm in Missouri behind potential Will County tax hikes.

If a proposed Will County sales tax takes effect, residents could end up forking over taxes on a tier equal to that of Chicago’s rates, according to a report by the Illinois Policy Institute (IPI).    

County officials are considering a referendum that would hike the rates despite potential impact on local consumers. Illinois already imposes high figures compared to other Midwestern states, so the change would amplify the burden, according to the Chicago and Springfield-based think tank.

Multiple school districts in the county are behind the lobbying for the County School Facility Occupation Tax (CSFT).

Individual business districts previously selected their own tax rates, resulting in a variety of tax tiers depending on location. If the CSFT is enacted, consumers will encounter a 1 percent hike wherever they shop in Will County, no matter what the original figure. Not only do specific business zones stand to be affected, but also municipalities like Joliet, parts of Bolingbrook and Plainfield.

CSFTs aren’t new. State legislators authorized CSFT inclusion on election agendas via school board referenda in 2007 with the purpose of taxing retail products and vehicle fuel. Under CSFTs, monies collected from everything from gas stations to superstores fund regular upkeep, improvements and schools’ financial obligations.

Will County folks haven’t heard much about CSFTs until now because at a minimum half the county’s school districts (calculated by student numbers) would have to opt for CSFT inclusion on voting ballots. While more than two-thirds, or 68 percent, of Illinois counties have made it as far as that step, neighboring jurisdictions around Will County have not.

Indian Prairie District 204 is one body that recently embraced a CSFT referendum, however. On July 23, that district passed a resolution approving the proposal, with District 204’s Jay Strang telling the Naperville Sun that Will County was edging closer to the 50 percent requirement for the proposal to go to voters.

State-level regulations tie local school districts’ hands by requiring more cash from already burdened counties, pressuring officials to scramble for extra funding wherever they can find it, IPI said.

IPI previously reported that Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. — a private financial firm in Missouri —actively courted local leaders to stimulate CSFTs, their motive being to profit by handling the inevitable refinancing ventures resulting from those very increases, according to the institute.

“Stifel … is a multibillion-dollar international investment-banking conglomerate headquartered in Missouri that pushes the CSFT tax,” said IPI’s Brian Costin in October 2014. “Stifel makes money by handling the bond sales of local governments wanting to borrow large sums of money … Stifel assists school districts in passing tax hikes, and in return they make a not-so-subtle pitch for their services in return.”

Arguing that a Will County CSFT would strain consumer resources excessively, IPI analysts recommended that elected officials instead make proactive decisions at the state level — where change must originate for local constituents to experience economic relief — by enacting realistic modifications to Illinois law.

“Lawmakers must introduce real fiscal reforms – including constitutional changes to laws governing pensions and collective bargaining power – that would empower school districts to control their finances, rather than continuing to lean on overtaxed residents,” IPI’s Vincent Caruso said.

Dangerous Illegal Immigrant Attacks His Wife With A Chainsaw

From Mommy Dearest

The media is not scarce when addressing the “injustices” illegal immigrants are facing by the Trump administration.

Emphasis is failed to be mentioned on the fact that these individuals are breaking laws established in this nation, well before Trump took office.

Sanctuary states have been impeding Immigration and Custom Enforcement Officers in their attempts to detain illegal immigrants, many of which have criminal records, leaving violent offenders to strike at any moment.

This realization became all too apparent in Los Angeles last Wednesday when Alejandro Alvarez Villegas, 32, an illegal immigrant, violently attacked his wife with a chainsaw.

The Daily Wire reported:

“Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials say that a criminal illegal alien who had been deported 11 times from the United States attacked his wife with a chainsaw in front of their children.”

Around 3pm. Wednesday, the Whittier Police were called to the home of Alvarez Villegas for a suspected attempted murder, stemming from a domestic dispute, according to the LA Times.

In a public statement, upon arrival they found Alvarez’s wife “suffering from traumatic physical injuries, believed to have been inflicted by a chainsaw.”

In a terrifying discovery, the couples 3 young children, ages 5, 8, and 10, were in the home witnessing the whole gruesome attack, according to The Daily Wire.

All three children were placed in protective custody after their mother was rushed to the hospital.

It is our hope that these children will get the help and support they need to heal from the tragedy they witnessed.

Alvarez’s wife was taken to “a local trauma center where she underwent surgery”, Officer John Scoggins of the Whittier police stated, where she is is “currently recovering and expected to survive.”

As for the attempted murderer, he was finally arrested the following day, after fleeing the scene when the police arrived at the bloody home.

The suspect was driving a stolen SUV when he was spotted in San Diego, according to NBC San Diego.

When law enforcement officials tried to pull Alvarez over, he attempted to ram the police vehicles, according to the LA Times, but detectives were able to control the situation and arrest him.

Alvarez was taken to Whittier jail, reports the LA Times, where he is on “suspicion” of attempted murder, child endangerment, hit and run, and grand theft auto.

These charges are in addition to his withstanding charges for re-entering the country an eleventh time illegally, all beginning in 2005.

It was reported by the LA Times that court records indicate Alvarez has had previous charges in the United States to include “possession of a controlled substance”, and “driving with a blood-alcohol content of 0.08% or higher.”

This non-compliant fugitive in our country has progressively been more dangerous, and will more than likely not stop his violent and reckless behavior.

It is apparent that Alvarez has no interest in becoming a law-abiding citizen and should have never been in a position to harm his family.

Local authorities were asked by ICE officers to let them know when Alvarez is going to be released so that they can take him into custody, according to ICE spokeswoman Lori Haley.

Coming back into the United States after having been previously deported is a felony in and of itself, with a sentence of up to 20 years in federal prison.

History has not fared this agreement well though, with Los Angeles law enforcement agencies being notorious for not cooperating with ICE officials.

In February of this year, ICE went to law enforcement agencies in Los Angeles to seek cooperation in finding out which illegal immigrants were a danger to the general public.

The response they got was sickening, yet unsurprising.

Los Angeles refused to assist, forcing ICE agents to do widespread sweeps that put “officers, the general public, and the aliens at greater risk”, all while “increasing the incidence of collateral arrests” ICE spokeswoman Sarah Rodriguez said.

California’s stubborn and dangerous position on ignoring immigration laws have put many Americans at risk for becoming unnecessary victims, while many more have already had to suffer at the hand of those who should have never been given sanctuary.

The Center For Immigration Studies reported:

“Commission shows that of those convicted of federal crimes between 2011 and 2016, 44.2 percent were not U.S. citizens… In comparison, non-citizens are 8.4 percent of the adult population. Of this 8.4 percent, about 4 percent are illegal immigrants and about 4 percent are legal immigrants.”

These are not comforting statistics, and should not be ignored by legislators supporting the defense of illegal immigrants.

Mainstream media wants you to think that crimes like Alvarez’s are an anomaly, but they aren’t.

Family members all over the nation are experiencing tragedy by the hands of illegal immigrants, while states like California want to keep them hidden from Immigration officials.

Tom Fitton: ‘This Clinton Dossier was Disguised Inappropriately and Misleadingly by the DOJ and FBI’

On July 23, 2018, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton appeared on “After the Bell” on the Fox Business Network to discuss the newly released FISA applications to surveill Carter Page and President Trump considering the revocation of security clearances.
 

Chris Farrell: DOJ, FBI Officials Committed Criminal Misconduct

On July 23, 2018, Judicial Watch Director of Investigations and Research Chris Farrell appeared on “Lou Dobbs Tonight” on the Fox Business Network to discuss the newly released FISA applications to surveill Carter Page.

Tom Fitton: Yanking Comey, McCabe’s Security Clearances a No-Brainer

​

On July 23, 2018, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton appeared on “Hannity” on the Fox News Channel to discuss the newly released FISA application for surveilling Page.

Chris Farrell: “Stop Trump Gang” is Running an Information Operation to Manipulate the Public

On July 23, 2018, Judicial Watch Director of Investigations and Research Chris Farrell appeared on “Fox News @ Night with Shannon Bream” on the Fox News Channel to discuss Judicial Watch seeking documents from the CIA on leaks to Former Senator Harry Reid.

Tom Fitton: President Trump should Declassify the Rest of the FISA Application to Surveil Carter Page

On July 24, 2018, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton appeared on “Fox and Friends First” on the Fox News Channel to discuss the newly released FISA applications to surveil Carter Page.

President Trump Keeps His Word on Judges

Originally published at Fox News By Newt Gingrich

Monday night at the White House, President Trump kept his word to the American people. He had campaigned on the need for more federal judges who were dedicated to the Constitution, and in Judge Brett Kavanaugh he nominated precisely such a constitutionalist to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.

President Trump’s speech introducing Judge Kavanaugh was a model of patriotic principles, delivered with a bipartisan tone and a seriousness that invited all Americans (including Democratic senators) to look at Judge Kavanaugh with an open mind.

This was a solid presidential speech that reminded the country of the importance of the Constitution, the key role of the Supreme Court, and the profound responsibility the president has in nominating justices (second only to decisions about war and peace, as President Trump acknowledged). When combined with the disciplined bipartisan consultations and careful review process leading up to the nomination, it is one of the best performances of the Trump Administration.

Judge Kavanaugh’s speech was perfect. He was professionally sound and unassumingly personable. His two daughters won the charm award for the evening.

As I listened to Judge Kavanaugh introduce himself to the country — as a father, a husband, the son of a pioneering mother who taught at African American schools and then became a trailblazing woman prosecutor, and as a deeply committed Catholic who coaches girls basketball (both at his church and his local community) and serves food to the poor — I couldn’t help but wonder how the Democrats were going to try to demonize this eminently likable man.

Callista and I were delighted to be at the White House dining with Vice President Pence last night, which allowed us to visit with Judge Kavanaugh and his father (a very unassuming man understandably proud of his son and beaming with pride at the President’s kind words).

The legal profession has responded to the nomination with enormous approval. Judge Kavanaugh is clearly one of the brightest and hardest working members of the federal bench. Even liberal law professors have been praising him.

The Left, however, will likely be vehemently, viciously, and noisily opposed (as they would have been to anyone President Trump could gave picked).

Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin communicated the depth of their desperation when he said it would be worth losing several red state senators to block the nomination. This is a self-defeating concept for two reasons. First, if you are an endangered red state senator, you don’t appreciate your party’s whip offering you up as a sacrifice. Second, if they stopped the President this fall at the cost of two or three senators, the President in January 2019 would have an even stronger hand in picking even more explicitly conservative judges with the support of a larger GOP Senate majority. Durbin’s comments were a sign of the radical extremist wing of his party’s growing desperation.

So, once again, President Trump has named an excellent candidate to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. With this nomination, President Trump is continuing to make good on a promise he made early in his presidency – that “a big percentage of the court will be changed by this administration over a very short period of time.”

As of July 9, there were 153 federal judicial vacancies, for which President Trump has made 89 nominations (not including the announcement Monday). Further, there have been 42 Trump-appointed judges already confirmed to lifetime appointments under the current Congress. By comparison, President Obama had only seen 35 judges confirmed by July 2010. This success is in large part due to the leadership of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. It also is an example of the way President Trump is brilliantly strategic on the issues that are really important.

As I wrote in my new New York Times best-selling book Trump’s America: The Truth About Our Nation’s Great Comeback, President Trump’s ability to reshape the judiciary could be the most important, longest-lasting aspect of his presidency. Not only is President Trump naming judges at a fast clip, he is tending to nominate judges who are relatively young. Kavanaugh is only 53. If he serves until he is Justice Ginsberg’s age, he will be on the court until 2050. This is the Trump plan to strategically shift the judiciary toward constitutionalism. Since these appointments are for life, President Trump’s influence on the federal court system will last decades beyond his time in office.

This is clearly important for the President’s Supreme Court appointments, but the biggest impact will come from his appointments to the lower courts – the courts which more regularly impact the daily lives of every-day Americans and which create the talent pool for future Supreme Court nominations.

The upcoming fight over this Supreme Court confirmation is an important one, and President Trump is clearly laying the groundwork for success.