Have nothing to do with the [evil] things that people do, things that belong to the darkness. Instead, bring them out to the light... [For] when all things are brought out into the light, then their true nature is clearly revealed...

-Ephesians 5:11-13

Category Archives: Politics

DOJ Wants Bannon Jailed for 6 Months for Refusing Jan. 6 Committee

Wednesday, 19 October 2022 14:20
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Wednesday, October 19, 2022:

The kept mainstream media rejoiced at the news that the Department of Justice, treating the January 6 “star chamber” investigations as legitimate, issued a memo on Monday demanding that former Trump advisor Steve Bannon be given the maximum sentence for refusing to submit to that committee’s demands.

“Star chamber” is a term used for any court proceeding that is grossly unfair or that is used to persecute an individual.

From the very beginning, the House’s “Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol” violated House rules and everything the committee says, seeks, or demands, from that moment on, is illegitimate.

The major news outlets, including The Washington Post, ABC, NBC, and even the left-wing U.K. Independent, jumped all over the memorandum, quoting various pieces from it as they continued their efforts to sully the reputation and credibility of the man who ran Donald Trump’s successful presidential campaign in 2016, and then served as his chief strategist and senior counselor in the early months of his administration.

Efforts to obtain a copy of the 24-page memorandum from the Justice Department failed, but the mainstream media was happy to quote at length all the reasons they could conjure to support the DOJ’s demand that Bannon suffer the maximum penalty for his two convictions for misdemeanors: failing to show up at the committee’s command, and failure provide it with documentation that it demanded.

Each misdemeanor would be punishable by between 30 days and one year in jail, plus fines. The DOJ wants Bannon behind bars for six months, and for him to pay a $200,000 fine.

From the elusive partisan memo, as reported by The Washington Post:

“The rioters who overran the Capitol on January 6 did not just attack a building — they assaulted the rule of law upon which this country was built and through which it endures. By flouting the Select Committee’s subpoena and its authority, the Defendant exacerbated that assault,” U.S. prosecutors J.P. Cooney and Amanda R. Vaughn wrote in a 24-page sentencing request. “Such behavior cannot be tolerated, lest it become commonplace and accepted, and the important work of congressional committees like the Select Committee rendered impossible.”

“Cannot be tolerated” is the theme reiterated by other members of the press. Here is ABC News:

“From the moment that the Defendant, Stephen K. Bannon, accepted service of a subpoena from the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, he has pursued a bad-faith strategy of defiance and contempt,” prosecutors said Monday. “The Committee sought documents and testimony from the Defendant relevant to a matter of national importance: the circumstances that led to a violent attack on the Capitol and disruption of the peaceful transfer of power. In response, the Defendant flouted the Committee’s authority and ignored the subpoena’s demands.”

The statement continued, “For his sustained, bad-faith contempt of Congress, the Defendant should be sentenced to six months’ imprisonment — the top end of the Sentencing Guidelines’ range — and fined $200,000 — based on his insistence on paying the maximum fine rather than cooperate with the Probation Office’s routine pre-sentencing financial investigation.”

ABC News added:

“From the time he was initially subpoenaed, the Defendant has shown that his true reasons for total noncompliance have nothing to do with his purported respect for the Constitution, the rule of law, or executive privilege, and everything to do with his personal disdain for the members of Congress sitting on the Committee and their effort to investigate the attack on our country’s peaceful transfer of power,” they say. “[Bannon’s] abject refusal to heed the Committee’s subpoena, under the circumstances with which this country is confronted, could not be more serious.”

From the U.K. Independent one learns that the elusive memo included this:

“Through his public platforms, the Defendant has used hyperbolic and sometimes violent rhetoric to disparage the Committee’s investigation, personally attack the Committee’s members, and ridicule the criminal justice system,” prosecutors wrote, adding that Mr. Bannon’s numerous public utterances show his actions were “aimed at undermining the Committee’s efforts to investigate an historic attack on government.”

 

“Rather than respect the criminal justice process and participate meaningfully and seriously in the courtroom defense of his case, for the Defendant, ‘going on offense’ meant resorting to name calling, mimicry, and menacing rhetoric aimed at the Committee’s investigation and its membership,” they said.

Added The Independent:

“The Defendant’s abject refusal to heed the Committee’s subpoena, under the circumstances with which this country is confronted, could not be more serious,” they said….

 

“The Defendant is entitled to his views and to express them vociferously; there is nothing criminal about the Defendant’s opinions or his expression of those opinions. But this Court may — and should — consider the Defendant’s out-of-court statements to ascertain his motive, evaluate his intent, and measure the degree of his contempt, including appraising his overall disdain and disrespect for the rule of law and the investigative and criminal justice processes that are crucial to maintaining a peaceful, lawful, and orderly society,” they said.

Bannon has, from the very beginning, had nothing but contempt for the January 6 “star chamber” investigation. It has had nothing to do with any crime that Bannon committed. It had everything to do with his defiance, and his close relationship to the hated 45th president of the United States — one who was legitimately elected, by the way — who has exposed the Deep State’s control over the media, among other heinous political crimes.

Bannon is not going away quietly. As he was leaving the courtroom in July after being found guilty, Bannon said:

I only have one disappointment, and that is the gutless members of that show-trial committee, that [Jan. 6] committee, didn’t have the guts to come down here and testify.

 

We may have lost a battle here today, but we’re not going to lose this war. [The jury] came to their conclusion about what was put on in the in that courtroom. But listen, in the closing argument, the prosecutor missed one very important phrase, right? I stand with Trump and the Constitution, and I will never back off that, ever.

Bannon’s attorney David Schoen said then that Bannon’s defense team will appeal the case, saying, “This is just Round One.”

When history is accurately written, the January 6 committee will be relegated to a mere footnote in history while Bannon will be celebrated as a hero standing up to unconstitutional weaponization of an illegal committee acting in concert with a corrupt and sold-out Department of Justice.

Slowing Economy, Rising Prices Pushing Likely Voters Toward Republicans

Monday, 17 October 2022 14:51
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, October 17, 2022:  

With the November midterms just three weeks away, Republicans are increasing their advantage over Democrats in so-called generic voting. Such voting removes individual candidates from consideration by asking likely voters, “Would you rather have a Republican representing you in Congress than a Democrat, or vice versa?”

In late September, Democrats were leading Republicans slightly — between one and three percentage points. Since then, it’s been all Republicans, with a “generic” Republican steadily gaining over his “generic” Democrat rival, and now showing a five- to seven-percentage-point advantage.

Not only is the momentum important going into the last days before the midterms, but pollsters note that any time Republicans hold at least a three-percentage-point advantage going into the election, Republicans gain many seats while Democrats lose them. GOP pollster Ed Goeas put it this way: “If the generic ballot is within 5 points [for Republicans] usually that means we pick up some seats.”

Likely voters are going to be voting their pocketbooks. Sixty-five percent of them believe the economy is getting worse, while 63 percent of them are saying that prices for gas and groceries are going up. Nearly half of voters told CBS News-YouGov pollsters last week that Democrat policies have harmed the economy.

Democrat efforts to deflect away from those realities by emphasizing the slight temporary reduction in gas prices at the pump as a result of releasing 180 million barrels of oil from the country’s strategic oil reserves isn’t working. Prices are going up again, and once again Democrats are considering releasing another 100 million barrels just before the midterms, hoping to gain some political advantage from the move.

Voters who drive aren’t buying the canard. Those reserves are for emergencies, not for electing Democrats. As author and radio show host Kevin McCullough notes: “The trickery of taking our emergency reserves and getting gas prices down .08-.30 cents [per gallon] hasn’t fooled anybody.”

He added:

Every week moms and dads are shelling out $100s more in gas than they did before [Biden] was elected. Every trip to the grocery store magnifies this as well.

 

These injuries fester more deeply in working and middle-class families. These families will vote in a big way.

 

Ignorance, malfeasance, and incompetence [by the Biden administration] are very much on the ballot, and people will vote against them.

While the spread between generic Republican and Democratic candidates continues to widen — it’s now seven percentage points whereas just a week ago it was three points — the real turning against Democrats is occurring among Independents. On September 29, according to Rasmussen, Democrats held a one-point advantage in that cohort over Republicans: 38-37.

A week later, that Democrat advantage vanished, with Republicans leading Democrats, 41-34.

Last week, Republicans extended their lead among independents in generic voting, 46-30.

That’s a 17-point shift towards the GOP in just the last three weeks.

There are other issues, of course: brainwashing youngsters, the Mar-a-Lago raid, the faux January 6 investigation, the Biden-instigated threat of nuclear war in Europe, the immigration flood, and so on.

But issues such as abortion rights, which the Democrats have been hoping would galvanize voters who don’t object to murdering babies in the mother’s womb, aren’t gaining traction. Recent surveys show abortion as “the most important issue” at just eight percent, while concern over the economy is at 30 percent.

If, as pollsters are suggesting, the midterms give Republicans a 230-205 advantage in the 118th Congress, the real issue is just how serious that new Congress will be in beginning to rebuild the Republic. The present 117th Congress sports a dismal 67-percent rating out of 100 among Republicans in the The New American’s “Freedom Index“, a measure of how closely representatives and senators hew to their oaths to uphold and defend the Constitution.

That number must improve substantially in order for the restoration to begin in earnest.

Jan 6 Inquisition’s Last Gasp: Subpoena Trump! Trump Responds.

Friday, 14 October 2022 14:26
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Friday, October 14, 2022:  

At the very end of the very last meeting of the duplicitous, facetious, irrelevant, and largely ignored so-called select House committee to investigate the “insurrection” of January 6, 2021, lame-duck House Representative from Wyoming Liz Cheney, vice-chair of that committee, moved yesterday to subpoena former President Donald J. Trump.

She said — after nine months, holding thousands of interviews, issuing hundreds of subpoenas, reviewing millions of documents, and expending untold millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money — that it was now a “key task” of the committee to “compel” the testimony of “January 6th’s central player.” Trump was “the central cause of Jan. 6 … [who] had a premeditated plan to declare that the [2020 presidential election] was stolen before Election Day.”

Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) echoed Cheney:

He is the one person at the center of the story of what happened on January 6. So, we want to hear from him. The committee needs to do everything in our power to tell the most complete story possible.

 

We also recognize that a subpoena to a former president is a serious and extraordinary action. That’s why we want to take this step in full view of the American people, especially because the subject matter at issue is so important to the American people and the stakes are so high for our future and our democracy.

All of which, as chairman Thompson well knows, is pure unadulterated persiflage. It’s less than 25 days away from the November midterms, which even Democrat pollsters have conceded will sweep away the Democrat Party’s control of the House and with it the “select” committee.

If the committee issues the subpoena, it will expire at the end of the Congressional term in January. And Trump is likely to contest it.

Responded Trump:

Why didn’t the Unselect Committee ask me to testify months ago? Why did they wait until the very end, the final moments of their last meeting? Because the Committee is a total “BUST” that has only served to further divide our Country which, by the way, is doing very badly — A laughingstock all over the World?

He added:

The Unselect Committee knowingly failed to examine the massive voter fraud which took place during the 2020 Presidential Election — The reason for what took place on January 6th.

In still another response on Truth Social, Trump wrote:

The Unselect Committee is a giant Scam, presided over by a group of Radical Left losers, and two failed Republicans, the likes of which our Country has rarely seen before. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

He promised a formal response to the committee this morning:

I will be putting out my response to the Unselect Committee of political Hacks & Thugs tomorrow morning at 8:00. Thank you!

Early this morning, Trump published his 14-page letter to the committee. For the reader’s enjoyment, here are a few of the more pithy and memorable responses to that committee’s announcement from the former president:

THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 2020 WAS RIGGED AND STOLEN!

 

The same group of Radical Left Democrats who utilized their Majority position in Congress to create the fiction of Russia, Russia, Russia, Impeachment Hoax #1, Impeachment Hoax #2, the $48 Million Mueller Report (which ended in No Collusion!), Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine, the atrocious and illegal Spying on my Campaign, and so much more, are the people who created this Committee of highly partisan political Hacks and Thugs whose sole function is to destroy the lives of many hard-working American Patriots, whose records in life have been unblemished until this point of attempted ruination….

 

This memo is being written to express our anger, disappointment, and complaint that with all of the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on what many consider to be a Charade and Witch Hunt, and despite strong and powerful requests, you have not spent even a short moment on examining the massive Election Fraud that took place during the 2020 Presidential Election, and have targeted only those who were, as concerned American Citizens, protesting the Fraud itself.

 

Those who committed the Fraud, thereby having created the Crime of the Century, go unblemished and untouched, but those who fought the Crime have suffered a fate that was unthinkable just a short time ago….

 

A Majority of people in our Country say that the Presidential Election of 2020 was determinatively dishonest, including the fact that many Legislatures were overridden by local and State politicians and judges on vital regulations and requirements, which is totally illegal and UNCONSTITUTIONAL….

 

No work was done by the Committee on Election Fraud. We, and a huge portion of the American people, simply asked that it be a part of your Committee’s work.

 

It wasn’t….

 

Despite very poor television ratings, the Unselect Committee has perpetuated a Show Trial the likes of which this Country has never seen before.

 

There is no Due Process, no Cross-Examination, no “real” Republican members, and no legitimacy since you do not talk about Election Fraud or not calling up the troops.

 

It is a Witch Hunt of the highest level, a continuation of what has been going on for years.

 

You have not gone after the people that created the Fraud, but rather great American Patriots who questioned it, as is their Constitutional right.

 

These people have had their lives ruined as your Committee sits back and basks in the glow.

If anyone happens to ask whether Trump intends to appear before the committee in response to its forthcoming subpoena, the answer would be no.

Chicago’s Rising Crime Continues to Drive Big Companies away

Tuesday, 11 October 2022 14:24
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Tuesday, October 11, 2022:  

Even though, officially, Tyson Foods’ surprise announcement last week that it was moving from Chicago to Arkansas had to do with something called “unlocking greater opportunities to share perspectives” among its key people, most observers know the real reason: those key people working in Chicago don’t want to get mugged or carjacked on their way to work.

Said Tyson CEO Donnie King:

Bringing our talented corporate team members and businesses together under one roof unlocks greater opportunities to share perspectives and ideas, while also enabling us to act quickly to solve problems and provide the innovative products and solutions that our customers deserve and value.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s “progressive” policies such as ending cash bail and defunding the Chicago Police Department (CPD) have allowed crime to explode. According to the latest statistics from the CPD, crime surged in both 2021 and thus far in 2022 to heights not seen in decades.

Murders are up 32 percent since 2019 (with 526 murders so far this year), violent crime is up 37 percent, while common low-level theft (property, vehicles, etc.) is up an astonishing 61 percent.

Chicago’s homeless camps and open-air drug markets remind one of San Francisco, which Neighborhood Scout rates as a 4 out of 100 of the safest cities in the nation. Chicago rates a 10.

While King avoided any mention of the real reason for Tyson’s sudden announcement, MacDonald’s CEO Chris Kempinski wasn’t so constrained. His company built a $250 million headquarters in the city in 2018 and isn’t persuaded (yet) that he should move. But he declared in a speech to the Economic Club of Chicago last week,

Everywhere I go, I’m confronted by the same question these days: what’s going on in Chicago?

 

While it may wound our civic pride to hear it, there is a general sense out there that our city is in crisis.

He added,

We have violent crime that’s happening in our restaurants.… We’re seeing homelessness issues in our restaurants. We’re having drug overdoses that are happening in our restaurants.

And, understandably, that’s making it hard for him to recruit top talent to the Windy City:

The truth is, it’s more difficult for me today to convince a promising McDonald’s executive to relocate to Chicago … than it was just a few years ago.

Tyson follows the departure of the city’s richest man, Ken Griffin, and his companies. Griffin owns 80 percent of Citadel LLC, a multinational hedge fund, and all of Citadel Securities, one of the largest market makers in the country. Griffin echoed Kempinski:

If people aren’t safe here, they’re not going to live here. I’ve had multiple colleagues mugged at gunpoint. I’ve had a colleague stabbed on the way to work, countless issues of burglary.

Griffin himself experienced an attempted carjacking, and there continue to be reports of shootings, riots, and looting near some of his employees’ homes.

Tyson also follows Boeing, which has been a corporate resident of Chicago’s Deerfield suburb for three decades, and Caterpillar. Each is moving to safer locales: Arlington, Virginia, and Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, respectively.

Food retailers Whole Foods and Aldi are reducing their presence in the crime-infested city. Said Aldi, “Our decision [to close at least one of its stores] was based on several factors, including repeated burglaries and declining sales. Out of concern for our employees and customers.… Keeping this store open was no longer a sustainable option.”

25 Million Square Feet of Office Space in San Francisco Is Vacant

Monday, 10 October 2022 15:08
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, October 10, 2022:  

The vacancy rate for commercial real estate in the “City by the Bay” was just four percent in early 2020. Today, according to Bloomberg, the vacancy rate is over 25 percent — that translates into more than 25 million square feet of commercial office space in downtown San Francisco that is empty.

Other internal measures of the collapse of San Francisco confirm that fact. Weekly office utilization is less than 40 percent of the pre-Covid average, rents have dropped 40 percent on a price-per-square-foot basis since December 2020, and the level of human activity (according to Hubblehq.com) “is not even a third of the way back to where it was pre-Covid – marking the worst recovery of any large city in North America.”

Hubble, a “workspace” marketing company, admits that “tech companies that once expanded their square footage at an alarming rate are now subletting some of their office space, or moving out completely. Google, Twitter, Netflix, Airbnb, and Yelp area just some of the names on that growing list.”

Missing from its list of reasons are 1) the city’s sky-high living costs, and 2) its resemblance to a third-world country, with more than 20,000 homeless infesting and soiling the city.

Another reason is San Francisco’s soaring crime rate. Violent crime (murder, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault) is twice the national average, while property crime (burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson) is even more than twice the national average. Neighborhood Scout gave San Francisco a Crime Index rating of 4 out of 100 (with 100 being the safest) — meaning it is safer than only four percent of U.S. cities.

And ZeroHedge noted:

The city is now famous for its depravity and decline. With multiple “poop tracking” apps to help residents avoid stepping in human fecal matter piled on the sidewalks as well as entire neighborhoods and street corners overrun with homeless people and Fentanyl addicts, it’s very hard for the city to play itself off as a destination of dreams (though they still try)….

San Francisco saw a 6.8% population decline from 2020 to 2021. Sales tax revenues dropped by 50% from 2019 to 2020 and city officials do not expect a recovery until 2025.

Disgusted with the city’s rising crime and homelessness, voters booted the city’s progressive district attorney, Chesa Boudin, in June, leaving his mess in the hands of Brooke Jenkins, a Democrat who ran the recall campaign against Boudin. She is already receiving criticism for not impacting the violence as quickly as voters had hoped she would.

Pro-murder Guttmacher Institute Whines About Reduction of Abortions Following Dobbs Decision

Thursday, 06 October 2022 13:30
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This article appeared online at  TheNewAmerican.com on Thursday, October 6, 2022:  

The Guttmacher Institute, formerly a branch of the abortuary Planned Parenthood, issued a whiny report on Thursday, 100 days after the Supreme Court’s life-affirming decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. That decision overturned the ghastly Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade (and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, in which the high court affirmed Roe).

The institute found

that 100 days after the June 24 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, 66 clinics across 15 states have been forced to stop offering abortions.

 

Prior to June 24, these 15 states had a total of 79 clinics that provided abortion care [sic]. As of October 2, that number dropped to 13….

 

That means there are no providers currently offering abortions in 14 or 15 states.

Guttmacher researchers focused on the 15 states that were enforcing either total or six-week abortion bans as of October 2, and complained:

In the 13 states that had implemented total abortion bans as of October 2, all clinics were forced to stop offering abortions. In two other states, Wisconsin and Georgia, the situation is precarious.

From the point of view of the institute, that situation is going to become much more precarious: “Our state legislative tracking predicts that a total of 26 states are certain or likely to ban abortion within a year of Roe being overturned.”

This, in their eyes, is an unmitigated disaster:

The 14 states where abortion is currently unavailable accounted for 125,780 abortions in 2020.

 

Individuals who can no longer obtain an abortion from a clinic in these states are now forced to travel to another state for abortion care (facing additional direct and indirect costs associated with travel logistics, child care and time off work), self-manage their abortion or continue their pregnancy (and accept the significant associated health risks).

And this is just the beginning:

Much more research will need to be conducted to grasp the full extent of the chaos, confusion, and harm that the US Supreme Court has unleashed on people needing abortions, but the picture that is starting to emerge should alarm anyone who supports reproductive freedom and the right to bodily autonomy.

On the other hand, pro-life supporters are celebrating the lives that are being saved in those 15 states. Said the Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, those present and expected bans against abortion murder “are estimated to protect as many as 200,000 unborn children annually.”

This is a long way from the more than 900,000 babies being murdered in their mothers’ wombs across the country every year, but it’s a good start. Complained one abortionist in Indiana: “It is precarious from a medical standpoint and certainly from a business standpoint. It’s difficult to keep the doors open and the lights on when you don’t know if you’re going to be a felon tomorrow.”

Report: FBI Deliberately Downplays Role of Gun Owners in Stopping Mass Shootings

Wednesday, 05 October 2022 16:11
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Wednesday, October 5, 2022:

In its summary of recent findings about how often legally armed bystanders actually intervene to end mass shootings, John Lott’s Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) was far too forgiving of the FBI for massively and deliberately lying. Based on its research going back to 2014, the CPRC noted that the FBI’s manipulated numbers indicate that just over four percent of mass shootings were ended by an armed bystander.

The CPRC, on the other hand, reveals that number to be almost six out of ten, a massive difference reflecting the agency’s part in the decades-long war against private ownership of firearms.

The CPRC said the FBI “misclassified” many of those mass shootings while “overlooking” others in order to present a slanted, anti-gun perspective to the national media seeking the same end. And there were many others that the agency missed counting altogether.

Said the CPRC softly, “Some see a pattern of distortion in the FBI numbers because the errors almost exclusively go one way: minimizing the life-saving actions of armed citizens.”

For example, the mainstream media, relying totally on FBI statistics to present their anti-gun bias, scorned the idea that the actions of the hero in the Greenwood Mall mass shooting in July, Elisjsha Dicken, represented any kind of pattern. The AP said that it is “rare in [the United States] for an active shooting to be stopped by a bystander.” The New York Times echoed: “After [the] Indiana mall shooting, one hero is no lasting solution to gun violence.”

And said The Washington Post: “The Greenwood incident is unique … because it became one of the rare instances of an armed citizen successfully intervening to end a mass shooting.”

Just how rare? According to lies fed by the FBI to the willing sycophants in the media, there were 252 “active shooter incidents” between 2014 and 2021, and just 11 of them were “stopped by an armed citizen.” That’s 4.4 percent.

But the CPRC counted 360 active shooter incidents in that same time period and found that an armed citizen stopped 124 of them. That’s 34 percent.

And when mass shooting incidents occur in places where concealed carry laws are effective, the percentage of “stops” jumps to 58 percent. It only makes sense that in “gun-free” zones bystanders are typically unarmed and thus unable to defend themselves or others from an active shooter.

Further, noted the CPRC, even it doesn’t count incidents involving just one person being targeted, of which there no doubt are many.

And many more shootings are ended before they begin merely by the presence of an armed bystander.

For years the CPRC has brought these massive “discrepancies” to the attention of the bureau, and for years the bureau has ignored them or made no attempt to correct their slanted statistics. Said the CPRC, “The FBI failed to address them.”

Happily, others who see how the FBI distorts its data aren’t so reticent about calling out the agency. Gary Mauser, professor emeritus at Simon Fraser University in Canada, said:

Whether deliberately through bias or just incompetence, the FBI database of active shooters cannot be trusted….

 

Relying on media stories would greatly underestimate the true number of defensive gun uses.

The CPRC agrees: “There is no reason to think that the news media covers all the cases where civilians stopped attacks.”

Where the CPRC failed to call out the FBI directly for fudging its data, however, Theo Wold, former DOJ assistant attorney general during the Trump administration, was much more forthright:

So much of our public understanding of this issue is malformed by this single agency. When the Bureau gets it so systematically — and persistently — wrong, the cascading effect is incredibly deleterious. The FBI exerts considerable influence over state and local law enforcement and policymakers at all levels of government.

 

Trump Lawsuit Against CNN the First of Many Against Liberal Media

Tuesday, 04 October 2022 13:19
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Tuesday, October 4, 2022:  

The massive lawsuit (seeking $475 million in punitive damages plus another $75 million in compensatory damages) filed by former president Donald Trump’s attorneys on Monday peeled the skin off CNN and its writers, exposing the network’s deliberate and intentional perfidy:

The Plaintiff, President Donald J. Trump, has been a long-time critic of the Defendant, Cable News Network, Inc. (“CNN”) — not because CNN does a bad job of reporting the news, but because CNN seeks to create the news (“fake news,” as the Plaintiff has characterized it in public statements).

 

Beyond simply highlighting any negative information about the Plaintiff and ignoring all positive information about him, CNN has sought to use its massive influence — purportedly as a “trusted” news source — to defame the Plaintiff in the minds of its viewers and readers for the purpose of defeating him politically, culminating in CNN claiming credit for “[getting] Trump out” in the 2020 presidential election.

 

CNN’s campaign of dissuasion in the form of libel and slander against the Plaintiff has only escalated in recent months as CNN fears the Plaintiff will run for president in 2024.

 

As a part of its concerted effort to tilt the political balance to the Left, CNN has tried to taint the Plaintiff with a series of ever-more scandalous, false, and defamatory labels of “racist,” “Russian lackey,” “insurrectionist,” and ultimately “Hitler.”

 

These labels are neither hyperbolic nor opinion: these are repeatedly reported as true fact, with purported factual support, by allegedly “reputable” newscasters, acting not merely with reckless disregard for the truth of their statements (sufficient to meet the definition of the legal standard for “actual malice”) but acting with real animosity for the Plaintiff and seeking to cause him true harm (the way “actual malice” commonly is understood).

 

CNN has been given the dreaded “Pants on Fire!” designation by PolitiFact for its stories comparing Trump to Hitler. Still, it persists, requiring the time and expense of filing the instant lawsuit.

In order to prove defamation, Trump must show that CNN’s writers acted with “actual malice” or “reckless disregard for the truth.”

Working in Trump’s favor is that, back in 2020, CNN settled a $275 million defamation lawsuit filed by Nick Sandmann following the network’s slanted coverage of the confrontation near the Lincoln Memorial. Sandmann also won similar lawsuits against The Washington Post and NBC.

Also working in his favor is the network’s adoption of the term “Big Lie” when characterizing Trump’s insistence that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent, thus deliberately and intentionally in the public’s mind tying him to the hated image of Adolf Hitler. Hitler, in his 1925 book Mein Kampf, used the term as a propaganda ploy to turn public opinion against Jews (whom he accused of using the “Big Lie”) and lay the groundwork for the Holocaust.

Wrote Trump’s lawyers in the complaint:

Most notably, and, the subject of this complaint, is CNN’s persistent association of the Plaintiff to Adolf Hitler and Nazism.

 

When labels like “racist,” “Russian lackey,” and “insurrectionist” did not have the desired effect to undermine the Plaintiff’s candidacy when running for President or the Plaintiff’s accomplishments as President, CNN upped the stakes to conjure associations between the Plaintiff and arguably the most heinous figure in modern history.

 

CNN’s persistent use of ever-increasing defamatory characterizations of the Plaintiff up to and including comparing him to Hitler and Nazism demonstrates that it published its defamatory statements about the Plaintiff with actual malice.

The lawsuit is the first of several to be filed against other prominent members of the mainstream media who participated in the defamation. Last June, Trump’s Save America committee stated that the former president would be filing a lawsuit against CNN. At that time, Trump said, “I will also be commencing actions against other media outlets who have defamed me and defrauded the public regarding the overwhelming evidence of fraud throughout the 2020 election.”

That promise also extends to the January 6 Committee. Said Trump on Truth Social on Monday:

… notwithstanding overwhelming evidence, [the committee] REFUSED to investigate the massive Presidential Election Fraud which took place, but only investigate and harass the people and Patriots who complained and asked questions about it.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, has been assigned to a Trump-appointed judge, Raag Singhal.

Man With 3-D Printer Blows Up Gun Buyback Scheme

Monday, 03 October 2022 15:51
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, October 3, 2022:  

A man using the moniker “Kem” told Utica, New York’s WKTV how he scammed the local police department’s gun buyback program. He saw tweets exposing how people with 3-D printers were taking advantage of gun buybacks. He received a 3-D printer for Christmas and decided to seize the opportunity: print out some lower receivers in various calibers and turn them in for a reward.

Here is his story:

I 3D-printed a bunch of lower receivers and frames for different kinds of firearms….

 

[Utica Police Department officials asked] “How many firearms do you have?” And I said, “110.”

 

[Haggling began, and] it ended with a guy and a lady from the budget office finally coming around with 42 gift cards and counting them in front of me … $21,000 in $500 gift cards.

New York’s Attorney General Letitia James, recently in the news over her politically motivated lawsuit against Donald Trump, was delighted with the “success” of the Utica buyback effort:

New York Attorney General Letitia James announced that 296 firearms, including 177 ghost guns, were turned in to law enforcement at a gun buyback event hosted by her office and the Utica Police Department….

 

“Gun violence is a scourge that devastates neighborhoods and endangers New York families,” said Attorney General James. “Gun buybacks, such as the one we hosted yesterday, are one of the many ways I am working to combat this crisis, reduce crime, and protect New Yorkers from harm. Every gun that was turned in is a potential tragedy prevented and a potential life saved, and I thank the Utica Police Department for their invaluable support and collaboration.”

“Kem” scorned her celebration:

I’m sure handing over $21,000 in gift cards to some punk kid after getting a bunch of plastic junk was a rousing success….

 

Gun buybacks are a fantastic way of showing, number one, that your policies don’t work, and, number two, you’re creating perverse demand.

 

You’re causing people [like me] to show up at these events, and, they don’t actually reduce [gun] crime whatsoever.

“Kem” is exactly right. Keith Taylor, an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, called such programs a waste of taxpayer money:

It’s a waste of resources if the entities that are sponsoring [gun buyback programs] believe that it’s going to have a positive effect on reducing crime.

But it’s great for gun owners seeking to offload worthless, rusty, nonworking firearms at taxpayers’ expense:

But if the purpose is the provide a means for individuals to get rid of weapons from their households that they don’t want to have anymore, it absolutely is a good option.

Mark Anderson, professor of economics at Montana State University, went further:

Who’s choosing to turn their gun in? It’s probably not the person on the margins whose gun we’re trying to get off the street.

 

That gun from Grandpa is not the one that is going to be involved in a crime….

But such “successes” do make for great PR, as indicated by the boast above by Attorney General James.

Not every gun turned in “is a potential tragedy prevented,” as James claims. Of the 177 “ghost guns” — i.e., 3-D printed ones — at least 110 of them were manufactured just for the occasion.

James’ PR statement said nothing about that. However, when her office was informed about “Kem” and his scam that cost Utica taxpayers $21,000, the agency took umbrage: “It’s shameful that this individual exploited a program that has successfully taken thousands of guns off the streets to protect our communities from gun violence.”

They added, “We have adjusted our policies to ensure that no one can exploit this program again for personal gain.”

But what about the exploitation of taxpayers funding a scam that has virtually no measurable impact on gun violence, but instead serves as just one more way to promote the canard that guns cause crime — not the criminals using them?

House Republican Presents Bill Redirecting IRS Funding to Southern Border

Friday, 30 September 2022 15:11
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Friday, September 30, 2022:  

Representative Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) offered the draft of a bill last week which, if passed by Congress, would take an estimated $50 billion from IRS funding for hiring new agents and redirect it to Customs and Border Protection instead.

The draft is simplicity itself: “A BILL to rescind certain [funds] made available to the Internal Revenue Service and redirect them to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection … for the salaries and expenses of new agents and officers hired for the security of the southern border of the United States.”

She calls it the “Diverting IRS Resources to the Exigent Crisis Through (DIRECT) Funds for Border Security,” which would stop “Biden’s new IRS army from launching audits of middle-class families.”

She added:

Americans don’t want more IRS audits; they want a secure border and safer streets. The DIRECT Funds for Border Security Act will deliver just that by providing CBP with the money needed to hire new agents.

Nothing is provided for finishing the southern border wall that President Donald Trump started.

And nothing is mentioned about completing the wall in the Republicans’ other big move — its “Commitment to America” — which was rolled out last week and then snuffed out online immediately thereafter. But House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy promised that the first order of business in January, if the Republicans take back control, will be to “repeal 87,000 IRS agents. So they’re not going after you [to coopt one of Trump’s favorite warnings].”

Web users can still find a copy of the original Commitment. In summary, it’s long on words and short on specifics.

Nothing is said or even implied about following Constitutional limitations. Nothing is said or implied about completing the border wall. Instead, more government agents are to be hired to shut down illegal border crossings.

Nothing is said about the several million illegals who have crossed the southern border and have disappeared into the heartland of America.

Nothing is said about states offering sanctuary to those aliens through handouts and ID cards allowing them to vote in elections.

Nothing is said about inflation that is ravaging the purchasing power of the average middle-class worker.

Nothing is said about the abortion holocaust in various states that are even offering transportation for women seeking an abortion who live in states where abortion is now prohibited. Isn’t that an “interstate crime”?

Instead, McCarthy seems intent on ignoring those issues, but instead will “investigate” — through a special select committee — the China threat.

What many are afraid of is this: the new Republican House, run by people such as Kevin McCarthy, will snuff out any attempt to rebuild the foundations of the Republic, and instead opt for the political expediency of doing nothing while appearing to be doing something.

At this writing, Tenney has no cosponsors for her bill.

Far-left Philadelphia Mayor Bans Guns From Public Places, Despite State Preemption Law

Wednesday, 28 September 2022 16:18
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Wednesday, September 28, 2022:  

Knowing full well that his executive order released Tuesday and declared to be effective immediately would be challenged in court, Jim Kenney, the thug mayor of Philadelphia, in concert with his Soros-backed district attorney, Larry Krasner, challenged the state anyway, declaring: “Bring it on!”

He and his far-left progressive DA have been working successfully to emasculate the city’s law-enforcement culture, resulting in record-setting gun violence by criminals released thanks to lenient/nonexistent prosecution of their crimes. Tuesday’s executive order prohibiting firearms at city parks and recreational centers is just an extension of Kenney’s agenda to limit and ultimately eliminate the private ownership and possession of firearms.

This is, of course, is a necessary step in turning a free republic into a communist dictatorship.

Said Kenney: “There’s no place for guns anywhere, but especially in pools, playgrounds, or rec centers.” This is consistent with his oft-stated belief that only police should have guns: “I would get every gun off the street and every gun shop should be closed.”

That would result in only criminals, the elite, and the state having firearms, thus eliminating any chance for law-abiding citizens to challenge the politicians instituting their tyranny.

Said Krasner, twice elected DA thanks to millions supplied to his campaigns directly by George Soros and indirectly by his many political action committees: “Even if you have a permit to carry, and you go on these premises, you’ve got a problem with me.”

Krasner already has a problem with the Republican-dominated state Legislature, which is considering whether he should be impeached for dereliction of duty. The committee looking into the matter has — not surprisingly — been stymied by Krasner’s unwillingness to comply with their subpoenas.

Lars Dalseide, a spokesman for the National Rifle Association (NRA), sarcastically noted:

Every law-abiding Philadelphian hopes and prays that the violent criminals Mayor Kenney and his woke district attorney carelessly [deliberately] release onto the streets abide by his directive.

 

A more prudent and effective approach would be to arrest, prosecute, and punish these savage criminals for their violent crimes.

He then noted that the Kenney/Krasner directive will go nowhere thanks to Pennsylvania’s preemption law holding that local municipalities may not enact laws stricter than those allowed at the state level:

The simple fact is that Pennsylvania state law prevents local jurisdictions from passing laws that are inconsistent with or more restrictive than state law.

 

This ban is more restrictive and therefore illegitimate.

Under the Kenney/Krasner administration, gun violence in Philadelphia has soared. According to Kathryn Ott Lovell, the city’s commissioner of Parks & Recreation, there have been nearly 300 incidents of gun violence in the city’s recreation facilities alone since 2019.

The Washington Times reports that:

Violent crime has surged during Mr. Krasner’s term, with Black residents overwhelmingly the victims.

 

The homicide rate in 2020 was the highest in three decades. The number of homicides was 499, up 40% from 2019, according to police department figures.

In response to the Kenney/Krasner regime’s attack on law enforcement, citizens have been arming themselves at record rates. According to the Crime Prevention Research Center, concealed carry permit applications are “up 600% from recent years.”

Krasner’s “progressive” policies, aided and abetted by a supportive far-left mayor, include ending criminal charges against those caught possessing marijuana, ending cash bail for criminals charged with “minor” crimes, and demanding lenient sentences for certain crimes. In addition, the progressive reordering of justice in Philadelphia includes reviewing past cases and sentences in order to seek re-sentencing to lesser punishment, or even release from prison.

In his first month as district attorney, Krasner fired 31 pro-law-enforcement assistant attorneys and replaced them with his own brand of progressives.

While the Kenney/Krasner cabal has issued an order that on its face is illegal and contravenes state law, it is indicative of what the world would look like if thugs and criminal politicians like these two were allowed to operate freely: crime would soar, justifying still more government restrictions on the freedom of private citizens to defend themselves, leading ultimately to total government control. That’s the agenda of thugs like Kenney and Krasner and their funders.

RINO Liz Cheney to Support Democrats

Monday, 26 September 2022 14:07
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, September 26, 2022:  

Liz Cheney, whom Wyoming Republicans obliterated in the party’s primary in August, claimed a year ago that she would do “whatever it takes” to keep Donald Trump out of the White House for a second term.

She repeated her promise on Saturday while speaking at the Texas Tribune Festival. She told the news outlet’s CEO Evan Smith, “I will certainly do whatever it takes to make sure Donald Trump isn’t anywhere close to the Oval Office.”

She included Republican Kari Lake in that promise: “I am going to do everything I can to make sure that Kari Lake is not elected.” Lake, a Republican who is supported by Trump and believes the 2020 election was stolen from him, is presently tied in the polls with her Democrat opponent, Katie Hobbs, in the race for governor of Arizona.

She added that, in her deranged hatred of anything Trump, she would even campaign for Democrats if they were running against a pro-Trump Republican.

She continues to use her position on the faux January 6 “insurrection” investigating committee to keep her name in the spotlight. She said that the committee has just received 800,000 pages of correspondence from the Secret Service in response to a subpoena and that they contain “a lot” of new information.

As for making a criminal referral to the Justice Department, she continues to bide her time, likely waiting to spring her “revelations” as part of the expected “October surprise” designed to sully and damage Trump and his endorsed candidates just before the November midterm elections.

Lake expressed delight when she learned that Cheney was coming after her:

That might be the biggest, best gift I have ever received! The Republican Party — the new Republican Party — is the party of We, the People. It is no longer the party of warmongers.

Christian Ziegler, vice chairman of the Florida GOP, said Cheney’s promise to campaign against her own party “should mobilize a lot of our voters to the polls,” while Steve Bannon, a former Trump advisor, wrote, “This almost certainly guarantees a Kari Lake blowout.” He then added, tongue in cheek, that “Katie Hobbs [her Democrat opponent] should file an immediate protest!”

Christian Pastor Says He Will Not Back Down on School’s Policy Concerning Biblical Sexuality

Thursday, 22 September 2022 13:59
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Thursday, September 22, 2022:  

Barry McKeen, a pastor and school administrator of Grace Christian School in Valrico, Florida, has been under attack ever since NBC News learned of an email he sent to parents in June. McKeen has remained strong and stalwart in the face of those attacks.

Grace Christian School, located about 14 miles east of Tampa, offers a strong Christian education to students from pre-K through 12th grade. In June, McKeen sent an email to parents planning on enrolling their children for the upcoming fall semester. The email was titled “Important School Policy Point of Emphasis … Please Read,” and included these statements:

We believe that God created mankind in His image: male (man) and female (woman), sexually different but with equal dignity.

 

Therefore, one’s biological sex must be affirmed and no attempts should be made to physically change, alter, or disagree with one’s biological gender — including, but not limited to, elective sex reassignment, transvestite, transgender, or non-binary gender fluid acts of conduct (Genesis 1:26-28).

 

Students in school will be referred to by the gender on their birth certificate and be referenced in name in the same fashion.

 

We believe that any form of homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality, transgender identity/lifestyle, self-identification, bestiality, incest, fornication, adultery and pornography are sinful in the sight of God and the church (Genesis 2:24; Leviticus 18:1-30; Romans 1:26-29; I Corinthians 5:1; I Corinthians 6:9; I Thessalonians 4:2-7).

 

Students who are found participating in these lifestyles will be asked to leave the school immediately.

While the policy is not new, it must be understood and accepted completely, the email said, adding that parents would “have to agree to all policies and procedures before your student may start school in August.”

This was enough to light the fire of indignation among those who don’t follow Christ. In the days immediately after NBC reported on the email, the school came under withering attack, with threats of violence and death threats against McKeen, his family, and his staff.

The Epoch Times reached out to pastor/administrator McKeen on Monday to learn that he remains fixed in his policies and in his determination to keep the school grounded on its purpose:

To help every student to be “thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (II Timothy 3:17);

 

To encourage all students to “love the Lord their God with all their heart and with all their soul and with all their mind, and to love their neighbor as themselves.” (Matthew 22:37-39); and

 

To give Christ the pre-eminence in all things. (Colossians 1:18).

The Times asked if the tidal wave of indignation and threats had subsided. Said McKeen:

The backlash for about a day and a half was very severe, a lot of death threats, burn-my-house-down threats. And then after about a day and a half, most of our commentary turned positive, because some of the more, I guess you could say, conservative outlets started picking up the story.

In the last two weeks, thanks to those “conservative outlets picking up the story,” Grace Christian School has received more than 7,000 emails, with 80 percent of them positive, and many letters of encouragement, some of them enclosing checks.

Those letters and checks came from around the world, with the school receiving more than $45,000 in unexpected donations. Said McKeen, “One guy gave $5,000. I’ve never met him. He’s never been to our church or school. But he read about the story and said, ‘I believe what you’re standing for, and here’s some money.’”

The small school now has a waiting list of more than 100 potential students hoping to gain acceptance for the fall term.

McKeen expressed surprise and dismay that his email had generated so much reaction. Following the NBC story, he told Fox News:

If I backed down from something like this, I’m abandoning what God has said is the truth.

 

I [asked] how is this hard for people to understand? This is what God said. This is one of the many reasons we have a Christian school, and we’re not going to abandon this policy. God has spoken on these issues.

House Oversight Committee Rejects Republican Resolution to Investigate Hunter Biden

Wednesday, 21 September 2022 20:35
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Wednesday, September 21, 2022:  

Following two hours of debate on Tuesday, the House Oversight Committee, dominated by Democrats, rejected a resolution from Republicans on the committee seeking documents from White House resident Joe Biden relating to Hunter Biden’s business deals with the Chinese communists, along with those involving other Biden family members.

James Comer, the ranking Republican on the committee said:

This resolution of inquiry requires President Biden to hand over documents in his possession that are related to the Biden family’s international business schemes and influence peddling.

 

Oversight Republicans’ ongoing investigation has revealed the Biden family has peddled access to the highest levels of government to enrich themselves.

 

And unfortunately, often to the detriment of U.S. interests.

 

By passing this resolution of inquiry we will provide the American people with much-needed transparency to understand the Biden family’s businesses.

 

It is time President Biden answers questions about his participation in his family’s business schemes with some of our most significant adversaries for years, including the Chinese Communist Party.

Predictably, the committee rejected the move along party lines, 23-19.

But the rebuff merely delays the inevitable. When Republicans retake control of the House in November, said Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.), “We’re absolutely going to look into this stuff. We’re going to reveal it for the American people.”

Much of that “stuff” to which Higgins referred has recently been exposed to public view: “My Son Hunter” became available for live streaming on September 7. Based largely on Hunter’s own personal revelation Beautiful Things, the film warns viewers of its sordid, sinful, and degrading nature:

This picture contains Sex, Prostitution, Drugs, Cronyism, Money Laundering, More Sex, a Laptop from Hell, Chinese Spies, Ukrainian ‘Businessmen’, the CCP, the Selling Out of America, the Big Guy, Corn Pop, More Sex, Additional Drugs, and … Family.

Even Andrew O’Hehir, writing for left-wing Salon, was forced to admit after viewing the film that Hunter “used his dad’s name to get paid big-time by shady companies in China and Ukraine.”

Since 2018 Delaware’s United States Attorney General, David Weiss, has been doing his own investigation into Hunter’s “stuff” and has uncovered sufficient damning evidence to charge him with various felonies. In July Weiss’ investigation had reached what CNN called a “critical juncture” over which charges he and his team might make.

But that “critical juncture” came and went as it ran into an unwritten rule in the Department of Justice, revealed by various whistleblowers, that no charges be made within 60 days of an election.

This outraged 30 Senate Republicans, who sent Attorney General Merrick Garland a letter demanding that he allow Weiss authority to expand his investigation into additional areas of likely felonious behavior by the son of Biden.

From that letter:

As you know, the United States Attorney’s office for the District of Delaware — led by U.S. Attorney Weiss — has been investigating Hunter Biden. There is no way of knowing the entire scope of the investigation, but evidence seems to be mounting that Hunter Biden committed numerous federal crimes, including, but not limited to, tax fraud, money laundering, and foreign-lobbying violations.

 

Indeed, Senators Grassley and Johnson have conducted an investigation for several years that has resulted in the public disclosure of facts that support criminal concerns, including the disclosure of financial records showing the Biden family’s close financial connections to the communist Chinese government and questionable foreign nationals.

 

It is clear that Hunter Biden thrived off of a “pay to play” culture of access to his father, then Vice President Joe Biden, in exchange for financial compensation….

“We believe it is important to provide U.S. Attorney Weiss with special counsel and authorities and protections to allow him to investigate an appropriate scope of potentially criminal conduct…,” the senators said.

It is highly unlikely that Garland will grant such expanded authority to Weiss, thus leaving the door open, come January, for Republicans on the Oversight Committee and in the Senate to pick up where the investigations of Hunter Biden left off.

Review of “Letter to the American Church” by Eric Metaxas

Tuesday, 20 September 2022 17:09
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Tuesday, September 20, 2022:  

Author Eric Metaxas, used his #1 best-selling book Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy as the basis for his latest one, Letter to the American Church. Released Tuesday, September 20, Metaxas’ book reveals parallel after parallel between events in the 1930s and events now. He warns that unless the American church awakens from its slumber and its focus on just the Gospel and nothing else, the destruction of America is imminent.

His target: pastors who offer “cheap grace,” i.e., the mental assent that Jesus Christ died for their sins, but leaving out the part about following Him through a totally changed life. He wrote:

Dietrich Bonhoeffer … called the German church to be the church in their time, and as I hope to make clear, his voice to them is his voice to us today, calling the American Church to actually be God’s church, with all that entails, so that we might avoid the mistakes of the German church in in the 1930s, and those direst consequences we know to have been their result….

 

I have written this book because I am convinced the American Church is at an impossibly — and almost unbearably — important inflection point.

 

The parallels to where the German Church was in the 1930s are unavoidable and grim.

 

So the only question … is whether we might understand those parallels, and thereby avoid the fatal mistakes the German Church made during that time, and their superlatively catastrophic results.

 

If we do not, I am convinced we will reap a whirlwind greater even than the one they did.

Example:

The church folded like an accordion in 1954 when then-Senator Lyndon Baines Johnson, angered that local Texas churches called him out for his egregious sins, offered a bill granting tax exemptions to churches provided they don’t get political. It was passed into law and is now called the “Johnson Amendment.”

The parallel:

Pastors in the eighteenth century spoke boldly from their pulpits against the tyranny of King George III, and opposed him by name….

 

[But in the 1950s] it is astonishing that pastors in America allowed this wild idea to go uncontested. In this they behaved rather like many of the submissive pastors in Germany two decades earlier.

Example:

When we think of the death camps and the murder of so many millions … we need to understand that in the beginning [German citizens and their pastors] had no idea where it was leading, and had no idea there were facing nothing less than the forces of anti-Christ.

Parallel:

We are now facing those same forces [but] in different guises … those forces … have an agenda … that is globalist.

Example:

Part of this may be traced back to the 1960s, when the U.S. Supreme Court took prayer out of the public schools … part of a general trend down a path that was fundamentally mistaken in its views of [Thomas] Jefferson’s famous “wall of separation” between church and state.

 

Rather than protecting people of faith from government intrusion, as the Founders intended … the judiciary began to interpret it to mean that the public square should be stripped of faith entirely….

 

Because the American people did not see the dangers … and because Christian leaders did not speak out boldly, the drift toward an unconstitutional and secular view began to be enshrined in our laws and in our culture.

The Covid parallel:

What the Nazis did first, a mere four weeks into Hitler’s [takeover], was to use the incident of the Reichstag Fire — in which a Dutch madman set fire to the German Parliament building — to enact sweeping emergency decrees….

 

It was a stunning erasure of [legitimate] German government, with blitzkrieg swiftness….

 

[The Nazis used the incident] to demonize their enemies … and to crush dissent by instilling fear in anyone who wished to object.

Wayne Grudem, professor of theology at Phoenix Seminary and author of the massive and highly regarded Systematic Theology, was moved to say this about Metaxas’ effort:

[It is] bold and insightful.… Metaxas calls for pastors (and other Christian leaders) who … will be courageous enough to speak unambiguously against the massive anti-Christian forces that now threaten to permanently transform American society and bring to an end America’s role as a beacon of freedom for the world.

Federal Appeals Court Upholds Texas Bill Prohibiting Social Media From Censoring Content

Monday, 19 September 2022 16:23
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, September 19, 2022:  

The Appeals Court for the Fifth Circuit reversed a lower court’s ruling in NetChoice v. Paxton on Friday, setting the stage for another appeal to the Supreme Court.

At issue is the First Amendment’s guarantee of the right to free speech — “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press…” — and whether Texas House Bill 20 violates or upholds it.

When Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed the bill into law last September, he stated:

Social media websites have become our modern-day public square. They are a place for healthy public debate where information should be able to flow freely — but there is a dangerous movement by social media companies to silence conservative viewpoints and ideas.

 

That is wrong, and we will not allow it in Texas.

NetChoice disagreed:

The Act tramples the First Amendment by allowing [Texas] to force private businesses [i.e., Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube] to host speech they don’t want to … [and additionally allows Texas to] police and control speech online, overriding the First Amendment rights of [those businesses].

Fifth Circuit Judge Andrew Oldham, a Trump nominee with a law degree from Harvard, minced few words in his decision:

A Texas statute named House Bill 20 generally prohibits large social media platforms from censoring speech based on the viewpoint of its speaker.

 

The platforms urge us to hold that the statute is facially unconstitutional and hence cannot be applied to anyone at any time and under any circumstances.

 

In urging such sweeping relief, the platforms offer a rather odd inversion of the First Amendment. That Amendment, of course, protects every person’s right to “the freedom of speech.”

 

But the platforms argue that buried somewhere in the person’s enumerated right to free speech lies a corporation’s unenumerated right to muzzle speech. [Emphasis in original]

He and fellow appeals court judges Edith Jones and Leslie Southwick rejected outright that “rather odd inversion”:

Today we reject the idea that corporations have a freewheeling First Amendment right to censor what people say.

 

Because the district court held otherwise, we reverse its injunction and remand [return it to the lower court] for further proceedings.

Because Friday’s decision is counter to a ruling by an appeals court in Florida on the same issue, it is certain to be appealed to the high court once again for final resolution.

Oldham lays the groundwork for that appeal:

The First Amendment protects speech: It generally prevents the government from interfering with people’s speech or forcing them to speak.

 

The Platforms [NetChoice, et al.] argue that because they host and transmit speech, the First Amendment also gives them an unqualified license to invalidate laws [like Texas House Bill 20] that hinder them from censoring speech they don’t like.

 

And they say that license entitles them to pre-enforcement facial relief against HB 20.

 

We reject the Platforms’ attempt to extract a freewheeling censorship right from the Constitution’s free speech guarantee.

 

The Platforms are not newspapers. Their censorship is not speech. They’re not entitled to pre-enforcement facial relief. And HB 20 is constitutional because it neither compels nor obstructs the Platforms’ own speech in any way.

 

The district court erred in concluding otherwise and abused its discretion by issuing a preliminary injunction. The preliminary injunction is VACATED, and this case is REMANDED for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

Big Social Media sued in December, getting a judge to block the bill’s enforcement.

Texas appealed to the Fifth Circuit, which lifted the sanction, but NetChoice et al. immediately appealed to the Supreme Court. The high court suspended the law pending a full review by the Fifth Circuit. Friday’s decision by the Fifth Circuit overruled the lower court’s sanction, setting in motion another appeal to the Supreme Court.

The Texas law bars social media platforms from acting to “block, ban, remove, de-platform, demonetize, de-boost, restrict, deny equal access or visibility to, or otherwise discriminate against expression.”

Oberlin College Finally Gives Up, Pays Up in False Racism Charges Against Local Bakery

Tuesday, 13 September 2022 21:13
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Tuesday, September 13, 2022:  

The board of trustees of Oberlin College — a proud incubator of radical student progressivism almost since its founding — gave up the fight last Thursday, declaring it “would not pursue the matter further.” It has begun paying out to Gibson’s, a local bakery in Oberlin since 1885, the $36,590,000 awarded by the court.

The “matter,” put succinctly, is the attack on the bakery by Oberlin College officials, professors, and several hundred students that occurred six years ago.

Three black students entered the store (which also sells wine) on November 9, 2016, and the police recorded what happened next:

On Wednesday, November 9, 2016, at approximately 4:58pm, officers responded to the area of Gibson’s Bakery in reference to a report of a fight in progress.

 

As officers were responding to the area, dispatch advised that this was involving an alleged theft complaint.

 

Dispatch advised that Allyn Gibson, who is an employee of Gibson’s Bakery, was attempting to apprehend a subject who Allyn had witnessed attempt to steal several items.

 

As officers approached the area, Sgt. Ortiz, and Officer Feuerstein both stated they observed Allyn Gibson lying on his back with several individuals kneeling over him punching and kicking him….

 

Officers attempted to gain control of the situation and were met several times with resistance from several different individuals.

 

After a few minutes officers were finally able to take one female into custody and calm the incident and attempt to figure out what had taken place.

Please note the day: This was the day after Donald Trump was surprisingly (and legally) elected president of the United States, and the students and faculty of this communist training center in the small town of Oberlin, Ohio (population 8,000), were suffering mightily. There were tears, mourning, whining, weeping — and anger.

When Jonathan Aladin (aka Elijah Aladin), who was accompanied by two female associates, tried to purchase some wine using a fake ID, the owner of the store, Allyn Gibson (son and grandson of the owners), turned him down. Gibson noted that Aladin had two bottles of wine inside his coat, and when Gibson pulled out his iPhone to take a photo, Aladin slapped it away, striking Gibson’s face.

The three then ran out of the store, with Gibson in hot pursuit. Gibson attempted to detain Aladin, but Aladin knocked him to the ground and the two female associates joined in the melee. They were punching and kicking Gibson when the police arrived.

Those are the facts.

But to the upside-down, truth-is-falsehood, criminals-are-the victims world in which Oberlin College lives, this was an act of racism, pure and simple: a white man attacking a black man. End of discussion.

School officials supported a student-led riot involving some 200-300 radicals outside the bakery the following day. Some of the school’s staff, including the dean of students — one Meredith Raimondo — distributed flyers that said: “This is a RACIST establishment with a LONG ACCOUNT of RACIAL PROFILING and DISCRIMINATION. PLEASE STAND WITH US.”

The flyer, created by Raimondo and copied by the thousands on college copy machines, gave this view of the incident:

A member of our community [Aladin] was assaulted by the owner [Gibson] of this establishment [Gibson’s] yesterday.

 

A nineteen y/o young man [Aladin] was apprehended and choked by Allyn Gibson of Gibson’s Food Mart & Bakery.

 

The young man, who was accompanied by 2 friends [Cecelia Whettstone and Endia Lawrence] was choked until the 2 forced Allyn to let go.

 

After [t]he young man was free, Allyn chased him across College St. and into Tappan Square.

 

There, Allyn tackled him and restrained him again until Oberlin police arrived.

 

The 3 were racially profiled on the scene.

 

They were arrested without being questioned, asked their names, or read their rights.

 

2 were released shortly after and charged with assault.

 

The young man is being held in Lorain County Jail, charged with robbery….

 

If you have been victimized by this establishment in any capacity, we ask you to stand with us in support of our community member.

Oberlin’s student senate participated in the canard, publishing this:

A Black student was chased and assaulted at Gibson’s after being accused of stealing.

 

Several other students, attempting to prevent the assaulted student from receiving further injury, were arrested and held by the Oberlin Police Department.

 

In the midst of all this, Gibson’s employees were never detained and were given preferential treatment by police officers.

 

Gibson’s has a history of racial profiling and discriminatory treatment of students and residents alike.

This statement appeared in the college public square, where it remained posted for a year after the incident.

This is the “reality” in which Oberlin students are immersed, ready to spread their poison to the culture upon graduation. They have both the dean of students, Meredith Raimondo, and the college’s vice president of communications, Ben Jones, as role models.

When retired Oberlin professor Roger Copeland (from another time and, to the students, another planet) wrote a year after the incident, “The time has come for the Dean of Students Meredith Raimondo, on behalf of the College, to apologize to the Gibson family,” she texted: “F**k him….”

Jones remained unrepentant for his and his school’s support of the boycott of Gibson’s. In an email, he posted this screed:

All these idiots complaining about the college hurting a “small local business” are conveniently leaving out their massive (relative to the town) conglomerate and price gouging on rents and parking and the predatory behavior toward most other local business. F**k ’em.

The school had been fighting the lawsuit brought by Gibson’s since 2016, finally giving up when the state’s Supreme Court refused to hear its appeal. The award — the largest in state history — would have been vastly larger except that the state has capped such damage claims at just $25 million. The balance due is legal fees incurred by Gibson’s.

The school said it has begun the process of transferring the funds demanded by the court to Gibson’s, announcing that “this does not diminish our respect for the law and the integrity of our legal system.”

Nor its mission to turn students into radicals.

Court Beats Back New York State From Forcing Christian Adoption Agency to Allow Same-sex Parents to Adopt Their Kids

Monday, 12 September 2022 13:00
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, September 12, 2022:  

The same court that originally upheld New York state in its determination to force New Hope Family Services — a privately-funded Christian adoption agency that has placed more than 1,000 children with traditional parents since its founding in 1965 — to comply with a new state law demanding placement of children with unmarried or same-sex parents was forced to reverse that decision last week.

Last week, U.S. District Court Judge Mae A. D’Agostino found cogent reasons to reverse her previous ruling, thanks to demands from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that she do so.

Initially she upheld the complaint of New York State’s Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) against New Hope that the Christian agency — by refusing to place children with unmarried and/or same-sex couples, according to their Christian beliefs — violated the state’s new law. She found that New Hope’s policy was “discriminatory and impermissible” under that law.

For years New York prohibited adoption by any couple other than a heterosexual, married couple. In 2010, however, the state — reflecting the continued erosion of Christian, traditional values and their consequent replacement with secular, non-Christian values — reversed. It rewrote the law, allowing — not demanding — adoption agencies to place children with unmarried or same-sex parents.

Later, that law was turned into a demand. When the agency turned its attention and its new anti-Christian-religion animus toward New Hope, demanding that the agency change its policy, the agency sued.

They lost. But on appeal, they won. With the assistance of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a nonprofit law firm focused on providing legal assistance in cases like this one, the appeals court demanded that Judge D’Agostino reverse her previous decision.

Which she did, in spades:

“‘At the heart of the First Amendment’ is the principle ‘that each person should decide for himself or herself the ideas and beliefs deserving of expression, consideration, and adherence.’”…

 

“Consistent with this principle, freedom of speech means that the ‘government may not prohibit the expression of an idea,’ even one that society finds ‘offensive or disagreeable.’”…

 

“For much the same reason, [the] government also cannot tell people that there are things ‘they must say.’”…

 

“Thus, when [the] government ‘direct[ly] regulat[es] … speech’ by mandating that persons explicitly agree with government policy on a particular matter, it ‘plainly violate[s] the First Amendment.’”…

She concluded:

New Hope has demonstrated that it is entitled to a permanent injunction prohibiting the State of New York from requiring New Hope to provide adoption services to unmarried or same-sex couples.

 

First, New Hope has succeeded on the merits of its First Amendment claim against OCFS, as detailed above.

 

Second, “[t]he loss of First Amendment freedoms, even for minimal periods of time, unquestionably constitutes irreparable injury.” [From Elrod v. Burns, 1976.]

As Douglass Dowty noted on Syracuse.com:

D’Agostino this week ruled in favor of New Hope after the higher court’s decision. She found that New Hope had a First Amendment right [after all] to deny adoptions to same-sex or unmarried couples.

The appeals court sending the case back to D’Agostino uncovered a “suspicion of religious animosity” by the state’s commission given the way it used the law as a bludgeon to force New Hope to violate its First Amendment rights. The court wrote:

It is plainly a serious step to order an authorized adoption agency such as New Hope — operating without complaint for 50 years, taking no government funding, successfully placing approximately 1,000 children, and with adoptions pending or being supervised — to close all its adoption operations.

ADF senior counsel Roger Brooks celebrated the legal victory:

The court’s decision is great news for children waiting to be adopted and for the parents partnering with New Hope Family Services to provide loving, stable homes.

 

New Hope is a private religious ministry that doesn’t take a dime from the government. Shutting down an adoption provider for its religious beliefs—needlessly and unconstitutionally reducing the number of agencies willing to help—benefits no one—certainly not children.

 

New Hope’s faith-guided services don’t coerce anyone and do nothing to interfere with other adoption providers who have different beliefs about family and the best interests of children.

 

The decision from the court simply allows New Hope to continue serving the community so that more kids find permanent homes, more adoptive parents welcome a new child, and more birth parents enjoy the exceptional support that New Hope has offered for decades.

 

The state’s attempt to shutter New Hope did nothing other than violate core rights protected by the First Amendment—the freedom to speak what you believe and the freedom to practice the teachings of your faith.

The victory is just one in the long, sustained, and accelerating battle between atheists and Christ and His followers. The office violating New Hope’s First Amendment rights said it was “deeply disappointed with the decision and maintains that discrimination on any basis should not be tolerated. We’re reviewing our options for next steps.”

Stacey Abrams Looking to Lose to Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, Again

Thursday, 08 September 2022 13:40
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Thursday, September 8, 2022:  

Stacey Abrams, the far-left Democrat who lost to Brian Kemp in the race for Georgia governor in 2018 by 55,000 votes, is poised to lose again. Only this time, the margin is likely to be vastly larger, perhaps by 200,000 votes or more.

She claimed in 2018 that she lost due to voter fraud, and to this date has refused to concede that race.

In every poll since January, however, she has trailed her Republican rival by anywhere between one and seven points (with the exception of a single “tie” by Quinnipiac in June). Even FiveThirtyEight, a licensed pollster with The New York Times, shows Abrams trailing Kemp by five percentage points.

This late in the game, that amounts to an insurmountable gap for Abrams to overcome in the next two months.

Funded mostly with out-of-state money, Abrams (who has raised $18 million more than her Republican opponent) has tried everything, including the get-out-the-vote campaign that narrowed the gap in 2018. But the black vote is going against her. She has played the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision card, hoping that the high court’s decision in Dobbs would galvanize her liberal pro-abortion base.

But nothing has worked, and now the national media has virtually surrendered to the political reality. The New York Times and other mainstream media are seriously questioning whether she can pull off a political miracle (or fraud sufficient to overcome the gap). Newsweek, for example, complained that “the New York Times and others are questioning whether Abrams risks falling flat in a second matchup against Brian Kemp in a race many observers believed winnable for Democrats.”

In trying to explain away the reason for Abrams’ impending second defeat in November, the media is blaming “sexism” — the fact that she is a female, and — if by some miracle she pulled out a victory in November — would be the first woman governor in Georgia history. As the Times suggested, “She is running in the Deep South for an office that has long been elusive to women and candidates of color.”

The real reason likely has nothing to do with color (she is black) or sex (she is female). It’s much more likely that her far-left political positions on issues voters care about are increasingly making her candidacy less and less attractive.

According to Discover the Networks and other sources, Abrams’ positions include:

  • Disparaging the free market private capitalist system that created the highest standard of living of any country in history;
  • Opposing the Second Amendment that continues to be the main bulwark against tyranny in the United States;
  • Supporting, through her board membership in the Marguerite Casey Foundation, efforts to defund the police;
  • Supporting red flag laws that would disarm law-abiding gun owners;
  • Supporting noncitizen voting;
  • Supporting reparations for slavery;
  • Supporting lowering the voting age to 16;
  • Abolishing the Electoral College;
  • Condemning America for its alleged “systemic racism”; and
  • Declaring that Donald Trump is a racist.

With a record like that, one wonders why the five-to-seven-point gap is so small.

Court Gives Trump a Partial Victory in Mar-a-Lago Documents case

Tuesday, 06 September 2022 15:03
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Tuesday, September 6, 2022:  

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon ruled on Monday on Donald Trump’s motion to appoint a “special master” (typically a retired judge or lawyer) to review all of the documents seized by the FBI from his home in Palm Beach, Florida on August 8.

In her statement, she declared that:

Pursuant to the Court’s equitable jurisdiction and inherent supervisory authority, and mindful of the need to ensure at least the appearance of fairness and integrity under the extraordinary circumstances presented, Plaintiff’s Motion … is GRANTED IN PART.

What does “to ensure at least the appearance of fairness and integrity” mean? Is this a disclaimer that the entire incident is fraught with intrigue, illegality, and falsehoods? Is it a warning to the FBI and the Department of Justice that she will brook no further outrageous behavior going forward?

She approved Trump’s demand for a special master:

The Court hereby authorizes the appointment of a special master to review the seized property for personal items and documents and potentially privileged material subject to claims of attorney-client and/or executive privilege.

That covers the more than 33 boxes the FBI seized which, it was later learned, contained more than 11,000 documents.

It also prevents the DOJ and its FBI from “reviewing” the seized documents, despite the fact that the government had informed her that they had already completed their “review”:

Furthermore, in natural conjunction with that appointment, and consistent with the value and sequence of special master procedures, the Court also temporarily enjoins the Government from reviewing and using the seized materials for investigative purposes pending completion of the special master’s review or further Court order.

So, while the government agencies have completed their “review” of all of those 11,000-plus documents, she ordered them not to use them for “investigative purposes,” whatever that means.

But the separate investigation being performed by the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) will be allowed to continue unimpeded:

This Order shall not impede the classification review and/or intelligence assessment by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

The present DNI, Avril Haines, is likely no fan of Donald Trump, having served as assistant to the president during the Obama administration.

According to the enhanced listing of documents reluctantly and belatedly provided by the FBI, its two dozen agents, over a nine-hour period on August 8, seized 11,385 documents, but only 103 of them were marked “classified.”

Small matter: The search warrant issued by the notoriously anti-Trump magistrate was written so broadly that the agents raided the entire facility, including Melania’s closet and underwear drawer along with, it is now revealed, Trump’s son Barron’s bedroom. Trump should be happy they didn’t take the furniture and his grand piano.

Trump asked the court to return everything that wasn’t classified. The judge said no — not until the soon-to-be-named special master has completed his/her “review” of all those documents. The judge also failed to suppress any “evidence” that the FBI might have already uncovered as part of its investigation.

As Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich declared, “This unprecedented and unnecessary raid of President Trump’s home was not some surgical, confined search and retrieval that the Biden administration claims. It was a SMASH AND GRAB!”

In light of all that has been revealed so far, many believe the raid was conducted nefarious purposes: 1) to keep Trump so preoccupied with the legal wrangling that is likely to go on for years (a la the Mueller investigation) that he’ll be unable to focus all of his time and attention on supporting candidates and holding rallies; and 2) to continue to sully his name in the public eye and make it so toxic that candidates being supported by him or claiming to support him and his policies will lose support from voters come November.

The special master will be named on Friday. So far, the first list that appeared with potential candidates contains at least one with a history of virulent hatred of Trump.

Many of the articles on Light from the Right first appeared on either The New American or the McAlvany Intelligence Advisor.
Copyright © 2021 Bob Adelmann