‘Total Surrender to Anarchy’
English Police Force Advises Officers to ‘Take The Knee’ in Front of BLM Protests
Kurt Zindulka
Breitbart London
An English police force has suggested that officers ‘take the knee’ during Black Lives Matter protests in order to avoid unwanted attention from the leftist activists, a move which Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage described as “insanity mixed with cowardice”.
Hertfordshire Constabulary advised officers symbolically join the BLM movement by kneeling during a recent briefing for Operation Velour, claiming that the gesture of submission has a “very positive” effect on protests. “Officers are to be mindful that this is optional and those who do not do so may become the focus of the protestors’ attention,” the advice said according to the Mail on Sunday.
“This has a very positive and engaging effect and when taken by officers, has a positive reaction on the protest groups,” Hertfordshire Constabulary added. A senior detective from the constabulary slammed the move, saying: “It’s absurd. Will officers be expected to make similarly appeasing gestures at political events – far-Right protests, for instance?”
Nigel Farage also blasted the police force, remarking: “That Hertfordshire police want their officers to take the knee before protestors is a total surrender to anarchy, Marxism and an organisation that wants them abolished. Insanity mixed with cowardice.”
Tuesday, 30 June 2020
National Focused or Flatulent?
An Election Win in a Sentence
By jc
The BFD
Amessage to Todd Muller and the Nats. Do you want to win the election? Here’s your sentence.
This is an enormous test of National’s mettle. It will, to a large degree, show what stuff National are made of and where they really stand on these sorts of issues. Are they a party prepared to deal to matters such as these? Apart from the economy in relation to COVID, National should make this issue THE issue of the election. It is that important in terms of the potential gravity of the consequences.
Todd Muller needs to make a strong unequivocal statement that a National Government that he leads will not countenance any such occupying of privately owned land and neither will there be any discussions on possible agreements. This needs to be said now while Winston, whose party has just shafted the gun lobby, appears from his utterances so far to be between a rock and a hard place. The moral high ground is there for the taking.
A Message to Todd Muller and the Nats
By jc
The BFD
Amessage to Todd Muller and the Nats. Do you want to win the election? Here’s your sentence.
We will rescind any agreement put in place by this Government that involves the use of taxpayer money to purchase the disputed land at Ihumatao or any other privately owned land occupied in a like manner.Saying you oppose it is simply not good enough. There is a huge amount at stake here.
This is an enormous test of National’s mettle. It will, to a large degree, show what stuff National are made of and where they really stand on these sorts of issues. Are they a party prepared to deal to matters such as these? Apart from the economy in relation to COVID, National should make this issue THE issue of the election. It is that important in terms of the potential gravity of the consequences.
Todd Muller needs to make a strong unequivocal statement that a National Government that he leads will not countenance any such occupying of privately owned land and neither will there be any discussions on possible agreements. This needs to be said now while Winston, whose party has just shafted the gun lobby, appears from his utterances so far to be between a rock and a hard place. The moral high ground is there for the taking.
Monday, 29 June 2020
A Silly Mime
Not the Real Thing
I've seen hamsters more intimidating than this mob who shouted at me - but what is frightening is their intolerance of all other opinions
Peter Hitchens
The Mail On Sunday
A person wearing a face-muzzle, a baseball cap and socks adorned with the words ‘Hotter than Hell’ appeared at my side. He or she (I had better be careful not to assign a gender) spoke sharply to me, like someone with power: ‘Why have you chosen to stand here?’ For a moment, I was taken in by the air of authority, but recovered myself and asked: ‘Who are you?’ To this I received no useful reply, but the person continued: ‘A lot of people would prefer it if you did not stand here.’
The last time I looked, nearly two million people had viewed the resulting internet video of me strolling along through some ugly shopping streets, being shouted at by a small mob at my heels. It has even been set to music by some wag. To which I replied that I was – for the moment – a free man and would stand anywhere I liked on the streets of my home city, thank you very much.
I had gone out on Tuesday afternoon in Oxford to observe the second of two recent demonstrations calling for the removal of a statue of Cecil Rhodes. It is probably because I used to be a foreign correspondent in Moscow and Washington that I feel I should take a close direct interest in events that are happening in my home town.
I can remember clearly taking part in Left-wing demonstrations, some of them pretty unruly, on these same streets more than half a century ago, when I was myself a revolutionary Marxist. I was fascinated to see how things had changed. Basically, the causes I supported in the 1960s have won. Our 1968 protests were demonstrations of powerlessness, which is why they were rowdy. Today theirs are laps of honour.
On both recent occasions I’d fallen into perfectly civilised conversations with demonstrators, who had recognised me, knew I disagreed with them and wanted to talk about it. I’d also noticed what sort of people they were – overwhelmingly young, ethnically mixed, generally middle class.
And I was amused and a bit disturbed to see a rather stately middle-aged figure, with whom I’ve often had good-natured chats, transforming himself into a slogan-chanting, fist-pumping rabble-rouser. I am now not sure which is the real one, and which is the act.
Both demonstrations were supposed to be about the image of Rhodes, which, for the moment, still stands over Oxford High Street. But I don’t think they were really about that, for who can get genuinely worked up about a puny sculpture 50ft above the pavement that you have to crane your neck to see?
But for a short and amusing few minutes, last Tuesday’s event became a demonstration against me.
I've seen hamsters more intimidating than this mob who shouted at me - but what is frightening is their intolerance of all other opinions
Peter Hitchens
The Mail On Sunday
A person wearing a face-muzzle, a baseball cap and socks adorned with the words ‘Hotter than Hell’ appeared at my side. He or she (I had better be careful not to assign a gender) spoke sharply to me, like someone with power: ‘Why have you chosen to stand here?’ For a moment, I was taken in by the air of authority, but recovered myself and asked: ‘Who are you?’ To this I received no useful reply, but the person continued: ‘A lot of people would prefer it if you did not stand here.’
The last time I looked, nearly two million people had viewed the resulting internet video of me strolling along through some ugly shopping streets, being shouted at by a small mob at my heels. It has even been set to music by some wag. To which I replied that I was – for the moment – a free man and would stand anywhere I liked on the streets of my home city, thank you very much.
I had gone out on Tuesday afternoon in Oxford to observe the second of two recent demonstrations calling for the removal of a statue of Cecil Rhodes. It is probably because I used to be a foreign correspondent in Moscow and Washington that I feel I should take a close direct interest in events that are happening in my home town.
I can remember clearly taking part in Left-wing demonstrations, some of them pretty unruly, on these same streets more than half a century ago, when I was myself a revolutionary Marxist. I was fascinated to see how things had changed. Basically, the causes I supported in the 1960s have won. Our 1968 protests were demonstrations of powerlessness, which is why they were rowdy. Today theirs are laps of honour.
On both recent occasions I’d fallen into perfectly civilised conversations with demonstrators, who had recognised me, knew I disagreed with them and wanted to talk about it. I’d also noticed what sort of people they were – overwhelmingly young, ethnically mixed, generally middle class.
And I was amused and a bit disturbed to see a rather stately middle-aged figure, with whom I’ve often had good-natured chats, transforming himself into a slogan-chanting, fist-pumping rabble-rouser. I am now not sure which is the real one, and which is the act.
Both demonstrations were supposed to be about the image of Rhodes, which, for the moment, still stands over Oxford High Street. But I don’t think they were really about that, for who can get genuinely worked up about a puny sculpture 50ft above the pavement that you have to crane your neck to see?
But for a short and amusing few minutes, last Tuesday’s event became a demonstration against me.
Damning Indictment of UK Government
These People Have No Idea What They Are Doing
By Jonathan (Lord) Sumption
DOES the Government have a policy for coronavirus? Indeed it does. In fact, it has several. One for each month of the year, all mutually inconsistent and none of them properly thought through. Sometimes, governments have to change tack. It shows that they are attending closely to a changing situation. But this crisis has exposed something different and more disturbing: a dysfunctional Government with a deep-seated incoherence at the heart of its decision-making processes.
The root of the problem is the uncomfortable relationship between the Government and its scientific advisers. The Government has repeatedly claimed to be 'guided by the science'. This has in practice been a shameless attempt to evade responsibility by passing the buck to scientists for what are ultimately political, and not scientific, decisions. Scientists can advise what measures are likely to reduce infections and deaths. Only politicians can decide whether those measures make sense in economic and social terms too.
Sage, the committee of scientists advising the Government, has been very clear about this, as the minutes of its meetings show. They are not willing to become the Government's human shield, or the fall-guys for its policy misjudgments.
Ministers press them for the kind of unequivocal answers that will protect them from criticism. Scientists cover themselves by giving equivocal answers, which reflect the uncertainty of the science. The Government responds by avoiding any decision for which it would have to take political responsibility, until the pressure of events becomes irresistible, when it lurches off in a new direction. Plan A was published on March 3. It concentrated on ensuring the provision of medical and other essential services. It relied on advice and guidance to the public, not coercion. The Government stood out against the authoritarian and indiscriminate measures which were being applied in Italy, and later in other European countries.
Plan B was an abrupt U-turn.
Saturday, 27 June 2020
Only So Many Days of Good Sailing Weather
Storm-Tossed Galleon
A Presidential Campaign Simile
By Victor Davis Hanson
National Review
Presidential campaigns are like galleons sailing into port, their metaphorical Election Day destinations. Some arrive there first, others not at all.
The news cycle is the propellant wind, their own campaigns the ship and its sails, and the candidates the captains on the bridge. Sometimes, no matter how tall the masts and huge the canvas, the wind blows against them or is all but nonexistent. Then the campaign ship stays in the doldrums or goes backward in the polls because of the headwinds — even despite brilliant rigging, clever tacking, and an adroit captain’s seamanship.
Right now, Trump’s ship has been hit in succession by sudden headwinds and violent storms of impeachment, the contagion, the lockdown, the tragic killing of George Floyd, and both the ensuring peaceful protests and violent looting, rioting, and arson. The result is that his voyage to port has nearly stopped. Even warped polls suggest that in the past few days he has caught little wind in his sails, while Joe Biden, asleep at the wheel, lets his crew ever so slowly capture a tiny breeze or two and drift ahead.
A Presidential Campaign Simile
By Victor Davis Hanson
National Review
Presidential campaigns are like galleons sailing into port, their metaphorical Election Day destinations. Some arrive there first, others not at all.
The news cycle is the propellant wind, their own campaigns the ship and its sails, and the candidates the captains on the bridge. Sometimes, no matter how tall the masts and huge the canvas, the wind blows against them or is all but nonexistent. Then the campaign ship stays in the doldrums or goes backward in the polls because of the headwinds — even despite brilliant rigging, clever tacking, and an adroit captain’s seamanship.
Right now, Trump’s ship has been hit in succession by sudden headwinds and violent storms of impeachment, the contagion, the lockdown, the tragic killing of George Floyd, and both the ensuring peaceful protests and violent looting, rioting, and arson. The result is that his voyage to port has nearly stopped. Even warped polls suggest that in the past few days he has caught little wind in his sails, while Joe Biden, asleep at the wheel, lets his crew ever so slowly capture a tiny breeze or two and drift ahead.
The West's Self-Immolation
‘Statues are Being Toppled, Gang Wars Fought In Streets’
Orban Shocked by Disorder in Multicultural West:
Jack Mongomery
Breitbart News
Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán says he does not know if he should “laugh or cry” when his national conservative government is attacked by liberals from multicultural countries where “statues are being toppled” and there are “gang wars” in the streets.
“Liberal imperialism reigns in western Europe, and they are trying to force their worldview on countries that think differently. American Democrats and often international courts are also involved in this,” said the Hungarian leader, in reference to a recent ruling by EU judges that Hungarian regulations requiring NGOs funded by George Soros and other overseas donors to be transparent about their funding are unlawful.
“There is this international trend in politics which is aimed at weakening and eliminating national governments and nations, and bundling them into some imperial order,” added the conservative leader, who has faced heavy criticism from the global left for his rejection of mass migration and multiculturalism and promotion of policies to support traditional families and child-rearing.
Orban Shocked by Disorder in Multicultural West:
Jack Mongomery
Breitbart News
Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán says he does not know if he should “laugh or cry” when his national conservative government is attacked by liberals from multicultural countries where “statues are being toppled” and there are “gang wars” in the streets.
“Liberal imperialism reigns in western Europe, and they are trying to force their worldview on countries that think differently. American Democrats and often international courts are also involved in this,” said the Hungarian leader, in reference to a recent ruling by EU judges that Hungarian regulations requiring NGOs funded by George Soros and other overseas donors to be transparent about their funding are unlawful.
“There is this international trend in politics which is aimed at weakening and eliminating national governments and nations, and bundling them into some imperial order,” added the conservative leader, who has faced heavy criticism from the global left for his rejection of mass migration and multiculturalism and promotion of policies to support traditional families and child-rearing.
Friday, 26 June 2020
The Eternal Relevance of the Songs of God
Why We Need the Psalms More Than Ever Before
Heather Ferngren Morton
The Gospel Coalition ©
Recent events have left many of us reeling. A pandemic that has taken more than 100,000 American lives. Soaring unemployment. Footage of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd’s brutal murders. National and local leaders who seem unable to bring unity when we need it most.
Worry may be a natural response to the crises facing our nation. It’s also an ancient response. “Fear not” is the most repeated command in Scripture. Yet as I hear newscasters’ predictions of a “second wave” of the coronavirus, or see yet another violent image, it’s a difficult one to obey. The charge to “be anxious for nothing” (Phil. 4:6) may orient me to the goal, but it doesn’t always help me achieve it.
In such moments I need the Psalms.
All of Scripture is helpful for life (2 Tim. 3:16–17). Yet some passages prove especially fitting for particular circumstances. “Like apples of gold in settings of silver,” Proverbs 25:11 says, “is a word spoken at the right time.” The songbook of God’s people is uniquely designed to transform our fears into vivid prayers that lead us into the presence and peace of God.
Language for Our Distress
Many psalms were written in distressing situations far more dire than mine. I’ve never hidden from wicked men bent on killing me, a common theme running through many psalms. I’ve never suited up for war. But I have experienced other crises—some potentially life-threatening, some emotionally devastating.
Heather Ferngren Morton
The Gospel Coalition ©
Recent events have left many of us reeling. A pandemic that has taken more than 100,000 American lives. Soaring unemployment. Footage of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd’s brutal murders. National and local leaders who seem unable to bring unity when we need it most.
Worry may be a natural response to the crises facing our nation. It’s also an ancient response. “Fear not” is the most repeated command in Scripture. Yet as I hear newscasters’ predictions of a “second wave” of the coronavirus, or see yet another violent image, it’s a difficult one to obey. The charge to “be anxious for nothing” (Phil. 4:6) may orient me to the goal, but it doesn’t always help me achieve it.
In such moments I need the Psalms.
All of Scripture is helpful for life (2 Tim. 3:16–17). Yet some passages prove especially fitting for particular circumstances. “Like apples of gold in settings of silver,” Proverbs 25:11 says, “is a word spoken at the right time.” The songbook of God’s people is uniquely designed to transform our fears into vivid prayers that lead us into the presence and peace of God.
Language for Our Distress
Many psalms were written in distressing situations far more dire than mine. I’ve never hidden from wicked men bent on killing me, a common theme running through many psalms. I’ve never suited up for war. But I have experienced other crises—some potentially life-threatening, some emotionally devastating.
Pouring It All Out Unto a Holy God
What Do Angry Christians Sing?
Warren Peel
Some years ago I read Carl Trueman’s helpful article entitled ‘What do miserable Christians sing?’ His argument was that we need the God-breathed language of lament in the psalms to enable us to articulate our grief in the face of a broken world in a godly way.
I was reminded of it over these past weeks while reading of how the world and the Church have responded to the killing of George Floyd. Where can we find the vocabulary to pray about injustice? Here in the UK this week the government at Westminster voted to allow abortion for non-fatal foetal abnormalities in Northern Ireland, in spite of the fact that the majority of politicians in the Northern Ireland Assembly (who are supposed to have the authority to legislate on this issue) opposed it. A baby can now be legally ripped apart in their mother’s womb simply because he or she has Down’s Syndrome, a cleft palate or lip, or clubfoot. At a time when that same government’s slogan has been ‘Stay home, protect the NHS, save lives’ and their imposing of stringent measures to keep safe those most vulnerable to covid-19, it is more than a little sickening to see their utter disregard for the lives of the most vulnerable in our society.
We ought to feel righteous indignation and anger in the face of these and a thousand other daily kinds of evil. But how do we express our outrage in a God-honouring way?
Warren Peel
Some years ago I read Carl Trueman’s helpful article entitled ‘What do miserable Christians sing?’ His argument was that we need the God-breathed language of lament in the psalms to enable us to articulate our grief in the face of a broken world in a godly way.
I was reminded of it over these past weeks while reading of how the world and the Church have responded to the killing of George Floyd. Where can we find the vocabulary to pray about injustice? Here in the UK this week the government at Westminster voted to allow abortion for non-fatal foetal abnormalities in Northern Ireland, in spite of the fact that the majority of politicians in the Northern Ireland Assembly (who are supposed to have the authority to legislate on this issue) opposed it. A baby can now be legally ripped apart in their mother’s womb simply because he or she has Down’s Syndrome, a cleft palate or lip, or clubfoot. At a time when that same government’s slogan has been ‘Stay home, protect the NHS, save lives’ and their imposing of stringent measures to keep safe those most vulnerable to covid-19, it is more than a little sickening to see their utter disregard for the lives of the most vulnerable in our society.
We ought to feel righteous indignation and anger in the face of these and a thousand other daily kinds of evil. But how do we express our outrage in a God-honouring way?
Thursday, 25 June 2020
The End Of It All
How Cultural Revolutions Die — or Not
They eat their own, unless a cruel dictator rises to unite and control the mob.
By Victor Davis Hanson
National Review Online
Unlike coups or political revolutions, cultural revolutions don’t just change governments or leaders. Instead, they try to redefine entire societies. Their leaders call them “holistic” and “systematic.”
Cultural revolutionaries attack the very referents of our daily lives. The Jacobins’ so-called Reign of Terror during the French Revolution slaughtered Christian clergy, renamed months, and created a new supreme being: Reason.
Mao cracked down on supposed Western decadence such as the wearing of eyeglasses, and he made peasants forge pot iron and intellectuals wear dunce caps. Moammar Qaddafi’s Green Book cult wiped out violins and forced Libyans to raise chickens in their apartments.
The current Black Lives Matter revolution has “canceled” certain movies, television shows, and cartoons, toppled statues, tried to create new autonomous urban zones, and renamed streets and plazas. Some fanatics shave their heads. Others have shamed authorities into washing the feet of their fellow revolutionaries.
But inevitably cultural revolutions die out when they turn cannibalistic. Once the Red Guard started killing party hacks too close to Mao, it began to wane.
They eat their own, unless a cruel dictator rises to unite and control the mob.
By Victor Davis Hanson
National Review Online
Unlike coups or political revolutions, cultural revolutions don’t just change governments or leaders. Instead, they try to redefine entire societies. Their leaders call them “holistic” and “systematic.”
Cultural revolutionaries attack the very referents of our daily lives. The Jacobins’ so-called Reign of Terror during the French Revolution slaughtered Christian clergy, renamed months, and created a new supreme being: Reason.
Mao cracked down on supposed Western decadence such as the wearing of eyeglasses, and he made peasants forge pot iron and intellectuals wear dunce caps. Moammar Qaddafi’s Green Book cult wiped out violins and forced Libyans to raise chickens in their apartments.
The current Black Lives Matter revolution has “canceled” certain movies, television shows, and cartoons, toppled statues, tried to create new autonomous urban zones, and renamed streets and plazas. Some fanatics shave their heads. Others have shamed authorities into washing the feet of their fellow revolutionaries.
But inevitably cultural revolutions die out when they turn cannibalistic. Once the Red Guard started killing party hacks too close to Mao, it began to wane.
An Attempt to Tear Down and Destroy All
BLM Seeks to Destroy Western Civilisation, Nations, and the Family Unit
Nigel Farage Exposes The Grand Conspiracy
Victoria Friedman
Breitbart London
Free speech has never been so at risk as it is now, Nigel Farage has said, because this time its opponents are highly organised and their networks are putting pressure on anyone questioning the tactics of far-left movements like Black Lives Matter.
Speaking to Fox News’s Laura Ingraham on Tuesday, the Brexit Party leader warned that what makes this battle for free speech different to others in the past is “the sheer level of organisation” and support that groups like Black Lives Matter receive from the powerful progressive institutions.
“Black Lives Matter is backed up, of course, by other organisations like Media Matters. You can trace much of the funding of this back to George Soros and many other people,” Mr Farage said on The Ingraham Angle.
The former radio host recently parted ways with talk radio station LBC, over what he had suggested this week may have been as a result of leftist pressure on advertisers. Mr Farage told Ingraham that this tactic has become a tool in silencing those who question far-left orthodoxy in the media.
Nigel Farage Exposes The Grand Conspiracy
Victoria Friedman
Breitbart London
Free speech has never been so at risk as it is now, Nigel Farage has said, because this time its opponents are highly organised and their networks are putting pressure on anyone questioning the tactics of far-left movements like Black Lives Matter.
Speaking to Fox News’s Laura Ingraham on Tuesday, the Brexit Party leader warned that what makes this battle for free speech different to others in the past is “the sheer level of organisation” and support that groups like Black Lives Matter receive from the powerful progressive institutions.
“Black Lives Matter is backed up, of course, by other organisations like Media Matters. You can trace much of the funding of this back to George Soros and many other people,” Mr Farage said on The Ingraham Angle.
The former radio host recently parted ways with talk radio station LBC, over what he had suggested this week may have been as a result of leftist pressure on advertisers. Mr Farage told Ingraham that this tactic has become a tool in silencing those who question far-left orthodoxy in the media.
Wednesday, 24 June 2020
Silly Folk
Hitchens Enjoys Leisurely Stroll While Being Abused by BLM Protesters
Laughter and Mockery the Best Riposte
Victoria Friedman
Breitbart London
Black Lives Matter activists verbally abused journalist Peter Hitchens as he strolled through the streets of Oxford to observe the far-left protest. Footage shared on social media showed one Black Lives Matter protester with a microphone chanting, “I don’t know what I’ve been told, Peter Hitchens’ got to go,” while the hundred or so others echoed the lines back to her.
Mr Hitchens, a self-confessed reformed member of the “left-wing mob”, was undisturbed by the chants, saying later that he was “less troubled by these pale copies of the 1960s than I otherwise would be”.
“I just followed the march, as any journalist (or indeed anyone else interested in it) is entitled to do. There was a feeble attempt to (I assume) intimidate me by chanting my name, but I wasn’t bothered. I remain my usual 5 ft 9 in,” he said. Tweets flooded in in support of Mr Hitchens casually carrying on the duty of a journalist whilst young left-wingers chanted his name.
Brexit campaigner Darren Grimes congratulated the writer for being “unapologetically hard arse”. He continued: “Not everyone could do this, not everyone could refuse to bend the knee to a baying mob of people arguing an entire ethnic group must flagellate themselves over a murder in the USA, but he did. More power to him.”
Educator and Free School founder Katharine Birbalsingh said: “What is this madness?! Peter Hitchens, we love you.”
Laughter and Mockery the Best Riposte
Victoria Friedman
Breitbart London
Black Lives Matter activists verbally abused journalist Peter Hitchens as he strolled through the streets of Oxford to observe the far-left protest. Footage shared on social media showed one Black Lives Matter protester with a microphone chanting, “I don’t know what I’ve been told, Peter Hitchens’ got to go,” while the hundred or so others echoed the lines back to her.
Mr Hitchens, a self-confessed reformed member of the “left-wing mob”, was undisturbed by the chants, saying later that he was “less troubled by these pale copies of the 1960s than I otherwise would be”.
“I just followed the march, as any journalist (or indeed anyone else interested in it) is entitled to do. There was a feeble attempt to (I assume) intimidate me by chanting my name, but I wasn’t bothered. I remain my usual 5 ft 9 in,” he said. Tweets flooded in in support of Mr Hitchens casually carrying on the duty of a journalist whilst young left-wingers chanted his name.
Brexit campaigner Darren Grimes congratulated the writer for being “unapologetically hard arse”. He continued: “Not everyone could do this, not everyone could refuse to bend the knee to a baying mob of people arguing an entire ethnic group must flagellate themselves over a murder in the USA, but he did. More power to him.”
Educator and Free School founder Katharine Birbalsingh said: “What is this madness?! Peter Hitchens, we love you.”
Trump Starts to Squeeze Germany Over Its Failure to Pay For US Troops In Europe
Trump Confirms
Major U.S. Troop Drawdown in ‘Delinquent’ Germany
Simon Kent
Breitbart London
President Donald Trump confirmed Monday a major reduction in U.S. troop strength in Germany will go ahead as he faulted the “delinquent” NATO ally for failing to pay enough for its own defense. “We’re putting the number down to 25,000 soldiers,” Trump said at the White House.
“We’re protecting Germany and they’re delinquent. That doesn’t make sense,” the president continued, referring to Germany’s failure to attain a goal set by all NATO members in 2014 to spend at least two percent of gross national product on defense by 2024. Germany says it hopes to reach two percent by 2031. “Until they pay, we’re removing our soldiers, a number of our soldiers,” Trump said, noting America bears the burden of militarily defending Europe and gets precious little in return.
Major U.S. Troop Drawdown in ‘Delinquent’ Germany
Simon Kent
Breitbart London
President Donald Trump confirmed Monday a major reduction in U.S. troop strength in Germany will go ahead as he faulted the “delinquent” NATO ally for failing to pay enough for its own defense. “We’re putting the number down to 25,000 soldiers,” Trump said at the White House.
“We’re protecting Germany and they’re delinquent. That doesn’t make sense,” the president continued, referring to Germany’s failure to attain a goal set by all NATO members in 2014 to spend at least two percent of gross national product on defense by 2024. Germany says it hopes to reach two percent by 2031. “Until they pay, we’re removing our soldiers, a number of our soldiers,” Trump said, noting America bears the burden of militarily defending Europe and gets precious little in return.
Tuesday, 23 June 2020
Secularism On the March in the US
Recent Anti-Church Supreme Court Ruling
Threatens Americans’ Most Valuable Freedom
In denying the special importance of religious freedom in American life, the recent Supreme Court decision has only facilitated the ongoing removal of religion from the public square.
Auguste Meyrat
The Federalist
As America’s cities burn and leftist sympathizers make headlines, the U.S. Supreme Court quietly passed a potentially horrendous ruling against religious freedom. Chief Justice John Roberts, now replacing Justice Anthony Kennedy as the reliable swing vote, sided with liberal justices and approved of California’s restrictions on the number of people who could attend a religious service.
The United Pentecostal Church contended these limits violated their congregants’ freedom to practice their faith and exhibited a bias against churches since other businesses, such as abortion clinics, liquor stores, and pot dispensaries, could reopen without similar constraints.
According to Roberts, these limits, made to slow the spread of the Wuhan virus, did not violate people’s First Amendment right to worship freely: “Although California’s guidelines place restrictions on places of worship, those restrictions appear consistent with the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.”
Roberts never bothers to explain how this is true, important because an order to limit church capacity necessarily “prohibits the free exercise of religion” directly stated in the First Amendment. He simply moves past this absurd claim and maintains that other activities involving large gatherings face “similar or more severe restrictions,” as though this obvious point demonstrates why stripping people of their fundamental rights is acceptable.
Threatens Americans’ Most Valuable Freedom
In denying the special importance of religious freedom in American life, the recent Supreme Court decision has only facilitated the ongoing removal of religion from the public square.
Auguste Meyrat
The Federalist
As America’s cities burn and leftist sympathizers make headlines, the U.S. Supreme Court quietly passed a potentially horrendous ruling against religious freedom. Chief Justice John Roberts, now replacing Justice Anthony Kennedy as the reliable swing vote, sided with liberal justices and approved of California’s restrictions on the number of people who could attend a religious service.
The United Pentecostal Church contended these limits violated their congregants’ freedom to practice their faith and exhibited a bias against churches since other businesses, such as abortion clinics, liquor stores, and pot dispensaries, could reopen without similar constraints.
According to Roberts, these limits, made to slow the spread of the Wuhan virus, did not violate people’s First Amendment right to worship freely: “Although California’s guidelines place restrictions on places of worship, those restrictions appear consistent with the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.”
Roberts never bothers to explain how this is true, important because an order to limit church capacity necessarily “prohibits the free exercise of religion” directly stated in the First Amendment. He simply moves past this absurd claim and maintains that other activities involving large gatherings face “similar or more severe restrictions,” as though this obvious point demonstrates why stripping people of their fundamental rights is acceptable.
Petulant Vandalism
Threatened, Insecure Innocents
New Zealand has got caught up in "wokedness". A few silly people think it is their right and privilege to destroy whatever they take umbrage at. It does not matter the target, nor its significance or meaning. If it's deemed offensive by the Woke Brigade, it must be torn down.
These folk remind us of petulant children throwing hissy fits because their whims have not been genuflected towards by everyone else.
Here is Winston Peters's take:
"Woke New Zealanders feel the need to mimic mindless actions imported from overseas". "A self-confident country would never succumb to obliterating symbols of their history, whether it be good or bad or simply gone out of fashion", he said.ACT Party leader, David Seymour also ridiculed the "wokies".
And "what next?', asked Peters. "If one doesn't approve of war we pull down our cenotaphs? Should we demolish every school that once applied corporal punishment? Should Gandhi's statue be thrown in the Wellington harbour because we don't agree? Should knighthoods to the undeserving be post-humously withdrawn? Do Māori now disown our mixed heritage?
"The idea that statues of Captain Cook, the greatest maritime explorer of his age, be pulled down because of the history that followed him is disgraceful," Peters said. "The woke generation are the equivalent of a person with no long-term memory, stumbling around in the present without any signposts to guide them.
"If a person, like a country, doesn't know where they have come from, they have no way of knowing where they are going", he said. "Deal with it, grow up and read a book". [NZ Herald]
Monday, 22 June 2020
Grow Up, Folks
Stop ‘Renaming Everything’ Because of Racial History'
Ben Carson : We Need to ‘Grow Up as a Society’
Pam Key
Breitbart News
Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson called on society to “grow up” and stop renaming things because of the racial history.
Stephanopoulos asked, “The president’s convention acceptance speech is scheduled for Jacksonville on August 27th, [where] a KKK mob attacked mostly black civil rights protesters. Is it appropriate to have a convention speech on that anniversary in that city?”
Carson said, “You know, we’ve reached a point in our society where we dissect everything and try to ascribe some nefarious notion to it. We really need to move away from that. We need to move away from being offended by everything, of going through history and looking at everything, of renaming everything.
"I mean, think about the fact that some of our universities, some of our prestigious universities, have a relationship with the slave trade. Should we go and rename those universities? You know, it really gets to a point of being ridiculous after a while. . . .We have to grow up as a society:
Ben Carson : We Need to ‘Grow Up as a Society’
Pam Key
Breitbart News
Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson called on society to “grow up” and stop renaming things because of the racial history.
Stephanopoulos asked, “The president’s convention acceptance speech is scheduled for Jacksonville on August 27th, [where] a KKK mob attacked mostly black civil rights protesters. Is it appropriate to have a convention speech on that anniversary in that city?”
Carson said, “You know, we’ve reached a point in our society where we dissect everything and try to ascribe some nefarious notion to it. We really need to move away from that. We need to move away from being offended by everything, of going through history and looking at everything, of renaming everything.
"I mean, think about the fact that some of our universities, some of our prestigious universities, have a relationship with the slave trade. Should we go and rename those universities? You know, it really gets to a point of being ridiculous after a while. . . .We have to grow up as a society:
Let Justice and all Concerned Have Their Day in Court
Don’t Rush To Judgment On The Atlanta Shooting
The death of Rayshard Brooks is a tragedy, but it is not the open and shut case that George Floyd killing was.
David Marcus
The Federalist
The death of Rayshard Brooks at the hands of Atlanta police officer Garrett Rolfe is a tragedy. Brooks was discovered by police asleep behind the wheel at a Wendy’s drive through. After apparently failing a field sobriety test, officers attempted to cuff Brooks, who resisted, stole an officer’s Taser and attempted to flee while pointing and seeming to fire the Taser at Rolfe. It is a sad story of a situation that got badly out of hand, but the rush to judgment against Rolfe by many in the media is misguided.
Over Saturday night as protesters burned down the Wendy’s in question, outlets like CNN were painting the police in the worst possible light, attempting clearly to link the shooting to the outrage over the killing of George Floyd. Sometimes this took the form of straight up lying, such as CNN legal analyst Areva Martin saying Brooks was unarmed.
“We now have yet another death of an unarmed African American man,” Martin says. It’s a bizarre untruth especially from a legal analyst. On Sunday another CNN guest would say that Brooks was “compliant” with police even though he clearly refuses to be handcuffed and assaults the officers before stealing the Taser.
But even those on the left who are not telling flat out lies are misrepresenting the incident in almost every way they can to poison the public’s views of the police action. “He was running away,” they say, “Tasers aren’t lethal,” they go on. What gets short if any shrift at all is that Brooks was firing a weapon at police that could incapacitate them, leaving them at Brooks’ mercy.
The death of Rayshard Brooks is a tragedy, but it is not the open and shut case that George Floyd killing was.
David Marcus
The Federalist
The death of Rayshard Brooks at the hands of Atlanta police officer Garrett Rolfe is a tragedy. Brooks was discovered by police asleep behind the wheel at a Wendy’s drive through. After apparently failing a field sobriety test, officers attempted to cuff Brooks, who resisted, stole an officer’s Taser and attempted to flee while pointing and seeming to fire the Taser at Rolfe. It is a sad story of a situation that got badly out of hand, but the rush to judgment against Rolfe by many in the media is misguided.
Over Saturday night as protesters burned down the Wendy’s in question, outlets like CNN were painting the police in the worst possible light, attempting clearly to link the shooting to the outrage over the killing of George Floyd. Sometimes this took the form of straight up lying, such as CNN legal analyst Areva Martin saying Brooks was unarmed.
“We now have yet another death of an unarmed African American man,” Martin says. It’s a bizarre untruth especially from a legal analyst. On Sunday another CNN guest would say that Brooks was “compliant” with police even though he clearly refuses to be handcuffed and assaults the officers before stealing the Taser.
But even those on the left who are not telling flat out lies are misrepresenting the incident in almost every way they can to poison the public’s views of the police action. “He was running away,” they say, “Tasers aren’t lethal,” they go on. What gets short if any shrift at all is that Brooks was firing a weapon at police that could incapacitate them, leaving them at Brooks’ mercy.
Saturday, 20 June 2020
Antifar On the March in the UK
UK Middle Class Appeasement
Three Crucial Lessons From Great Britain’s University-Driven Cultural Revolution
Unless conservatives urgently tackle the hubs of radicalism, the next time any leftist government is in power, the revolution will have the full backing of the establishment.
Sumantra Maitra
The Federalist
In what could now be considered a routine in Europe, another Saturday went by with protesters and counter-protesters squaring off, with open brawling in the British and French capitals. This time, at least in Britain, there were right-wing “statue defender brigades” from all over the country, vilified as “white nationalists” when they were anything but.
Predictably, in the absence of any state authority, feudal tribalism started to take shape. What we are watching live in London and in parts of Seattle is why nation-states, state authority, and neutral police forces evolved from feudalism in the first place, and what happens when they are absent or neutered, or worse, when they choose one ideology over the other. Britain is providing a natural experiment for everyone to observe.
Americans need to understand what has already happened in Britain: a Blairite revolution. Everything observable now is the logical end-state and aftermath of that revolution, which was far more radical and stealthier than anyone could have understood at that time.
Under the smooth-talking former Prime Minister Tony Blair, all forms of neutral authority were eroded, with entire police forces replaced and neutered by feminist theory-literate leftists.
Three Crucial Lessons From Great Britain’s University-Driven Cultural Revolution
Unless conservatives urgently tackle the hubs of radicalism, the next time any leftist government is in power, the revolution will have the full backing of the establishment.
Sumantra Maitra
The Federalist
In what could now be considered a routine in Europe, another Saturday went by with protesters and counter-protesters squaring off, with open brawling in the British and French capitals. This time, at least in Britain, there were right-wing “statue defender brigades” from all over the country, vilified as “white nationalists” when they were anything but.
Predictably, in the absence of any state authority, feudal tribalism started to take shape. What we are watching live in London and in parts of Seattle is why nation-states, state authority, and neutral police forces evolved from feudalism in the first place, and what happens when they are absent or neutered, or worse, when they choose one ideology over the other. Britain is providing a natural experiment for everyone to observe.
Americans need to understand what has already happened in Britain: a Blairite revolution. Everything observable now is the logical end-state and aftermath of that revolution, which was far more radical and stealthier than anyone could have understood at that time.
Under the smooth-talking former Prime Minister Tony Blair, all forms of neutral authority were eroded, with entire police forces replaced and neutered by feminist theory-literate leftists.
North Korean Sabre Rattling
North Korea Announces Military Attack on ‘Human Scum’ in South Korea
North Korea’s communist regime spent much of the weekend publishing vitriol against the South in its state media arms, declaring on Monday that unspecified “retaliatory measures” were on the way for Seoul. The measures will be “entrusted to our army,” Pyongyang asserted.
Last week, the regime stopped using a direct phone line established between it and the government of South Korea in 2018, insisting that diplomacy with South Korea was untenable unless South Koreans stopped sending humanitarian aid and leaflets with news about the outside world into the country.
North Korea bans citizens from consuming any media not created and approved by the communist government. To override that ban, many South Korean aid groups, including many with North Korean refugees participating, use balloons and other methods to flood the other side of the border with leaflets contradicting the false version of current events prevalent in North Korean propaganda journals. Among the falsehoods the leaflets regularly denounce are the claims that South Korea is destitute as a product of capitalism and North Korea is among the world’s wealthiest and most respected countries.
While this practice has gone on for years, Pyongyang abruptly began threatening violence in response to it this month. The official national propaganda newspaper of North Korea, Rodong Sinmun, condemned the leftist South Korean presidential administration on Monday for its “weakness and incompetence” and threatened “retaliatory action” against the leaflets.
“We have already made a conclusion that there is no need for us to sit face to face with the south [sic] Korean authorities and discuss things with them any longer. What is left for us is to make them pay dearly for their heinous crimes,” Rodong Sinmun announced. “We have decided to take a series of retaliatory actions to punish the betrayers and human scum.”
Rodong Sinmun also announced the “destruction” of the joint liaison office between North and South Korea, which operates on their border and previously housed the direct phone line. “As was declared, the north-south joint liaison office will come into destruction and the right to taking the next action against the enemy will be entrusted to our army,” the propaganda outlet stated. “Our invincible revolutionary armed forces will take a resolute action to take avenge on the enemies in order to allay the surging indignation of our people.”
Monday’s statement followed remarks on Saturday published by North Korean media and attributed to Kim Yo-jong, dictator Kim Jong-un’s sister, who is believed to be one of the most powerful people in the country. While it remains unclear exactly what the younger Kim’s responsibilities are in her brother’s regime, she was once known to run the “Propaganda and Agitation Department” of the communist government.
“By exercising my power authorized by the Supreme Leader, our Party and the state, I gave an instruction to the arms of the department in charge of the affairs with enemy to decisively carry out the next action,” Kim Yo-jong reportedly said. Like the Rodong Sinmun article, Kim mentioned the joint liaison office in the border town of Kaesong, asserting it would meet “complete collapse.”
“Our army, too, will determine something for cooling down our people’s resentment and surely carry out it, I believe,” Kim concluded.
The head of North Korea’s American affairs office, Kwon Jong Gun, also issued a statement Saturday.
In a press statement, Kwon wrote:
Rodong Sinmun also characteristically followed Kim Yo-jong’s remarks with a column threatening “to behead and dismember the heinous provokes who insulted the dignity of our supreme leadership dearer than the life [sic].”
“As the first-stage action representing their will, we took a measure of completely cutting off all the communication and liaison lines between the north and the south. This is the first sledgehammer blow at the fools who are still dreaming a day dream [sic], not aware of the seriousness of the situation,” the column read. The column was signed by the same author as the one published Monday.
According to the conservative South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo, the administration of leftist President Moon Jae-in held an “emergency meeting” Sunday to address Kim’s remarks. A spokesman for the presidential office confirmed the meeting but did not offer any details. On Monday, the Yonhap news agency reported that South Korean military operations on the border appear to have expanded for the prevention of any potential attack.
“We are closely monitoring North Korean military’s moves and are maintaining a firm military readiness posture. As of yet, there has been no incident to give additional explanations on,” Col. Kim Jun-rak, a spokesman for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said. . . . .
The chief of South Korea’s national police announced officials would also implement a 24-hour monitoring system to prevent South Koreans from sending aid North on Monday. “We cannot allow a situation where the public feels threatened by North Korea as a result of [activists] sending provocative material to the North through balloons and other means,” Police Commissioner Min Gap-ryong insisted.
North Korea’s latest threats Monday come on the 20-year anniversary of a historic meeting between leaders of North and South Korea, which resulted in the signing of a joint statement expanding dialogue between the two countries.
North Korea’s communist regime spent much of the weekend publishing vitriol against the South in its state media arms, declaring on Monday that unspecified “retaliatory measures” were on the way for Seoul. The measures will be “entrusted to our army,” Pyongyang asserted.
Last week, the regime stopped using a direct phone line established between it and the government of South Korea in 2018, insisting that diplomacy with South Korea was untenable unless South Koreans stopped sending humanitarian aid and leaflets with news about the outside world into the country.
North Korea bans citizens from consuming any media not created and approved by the communist government. To override that ban, many South Korean aid groups, including many with North Korean refugees participating, use balloons and other methods to flood the other side of the border with leaflets contradicting the false version of current events prevalent in North Korean propaganda journals. Among the falsehoods the leaflets regularly denounce are the claims that South Korea is destitute as a product of capitalism and North Korea is among the world’s wealthiest and most respected countries.
While this practice has gone on for years, Pyongyang abruptly began threatening violence in response to it this month. The official national propaganda newspaper of North Korea, Rodong Sinmun, condemned the leftist South Korean presidential administration on Monday for its “weakness and incompetence” and threatened “retaliatory action” against the leaflets.
“We have already made a conclusion that there is no need for us to sit face to face with the south [sic] Korean authorities and discuss things with them any longer. What is left for us is to make them pay dearly for their heinous crimes,” Rodong Sinmun announced. “We have decided to take a series of retaliatory actions to punish the betrayers and human scum.”
Rodong Sinmun also announced the “destruction” of the joint liaison office between North and South Korea, which operates on their border and previously housed the direct phone line. “As was declared, the north-south joint liaison office will come into destruction and the right to taking the next action against the enemy will be entrusted to our army,” the propaganda outlet stated. “Our invincible revolutionary armed forces will take a resolute action to take avenge on the enemies in order to allay the surging indignation of our people.”
Monday’s statement followed remarks on Saturday published by North Korean media and attributed to Kim Yo-jong, dictator Kim Jong-un’s sister, who is believed to be one of the most powerful people in the country. While it remains unclear exactly what the younger Kim’s responsibilities are in her brother’s regime, she was once known to run the “Propaganda and Agitation Department” of the communist government.
“By exercising my power authorized by the Supreme Leader, our Party and the state, I gave an instruction to the arms of the department in charge of the affairs with enemy to decisively carry out the next action,” Kim Yo-jong reportedly said. Like the Rodong Sinmun article, Kim mentioned the joint liaison office in the border town of Kaesong, asserting it would meet “complete collapse.”
“Our army, too, will determine something for cooling down our people’s resentment and surely carry out it, I believe,” Kim concluded.
The head of North Korea’s American affairs office, Kwon Jong Gun, also issued a statement Saturday.
In a press statement, Kwon wrote:
It is really preposterous to hear the balderdash of south Korean authorities-who do not have either any qualification to discuss, or the position to poke their noses into, the matters between the DPRK [North Korea] and the U.S., to say nothing of nuclear issues – are commenting on the resumption of DPRK-U.S. dialogue and interpreting the issue of denuclearization at their own choice.The statement went on to say that “having been long forsaken like a good-for-nothing cucumber stalk thrown into swill, they should have now been aware too well of their sad lot, but it is really pitiful that they are still irrationally mouthing denuclearization, like a monk chanting the prayers.”
Rodong Sinmun also characteristically followed Kim Yo-jong’s remarks with a column threatening “to behead and dismember the heinous provokes who insulted the dignity of our supreme leadership dearer than the life [sic].”
“As the first-stage action representing their will, we took a measure of completely cutting off all the communication and liaison lines between the north and the south. This is the first sledgehammer blow at the fools who are still dreaming a day dream [sic], not aware of the seriousness of the situation,” the column read. The column was signed by the same author as the one published Monday.
According to the conservative South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo, the administration of leftist President Moon Jae-in held an “emergency meeting” Sunday to address Kim’s remarks. A spokesman for the presidential office confirmed the meeting but did not offer any details. On Monday, the Yonhap news agency reported that South Korean military operations on the border appear to have expanded for the prevention of any potential attack.
“We are closely monitoring North Korean military’s moves and are maintaining a firm military readiness posture. As of yet, there has been no incident to give additional explanations on,” Col. Kim Jun-rak, a spokesman for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said. . . . .
The chief of South Korea’s national police announced officials would also implement a 24-hour monitoring system to prevent South Koreans from sending aid North on Monday. “We cannot allow a situation where the public feels threatened by North Korea as a result of [activists] sending provocative material to the North through balloons and other means,” Police Commissioner Min Gap-ryong insisted.
North Korea’s latest threats Monday come on the 20-year anniversary of a historic meeting between leaders of North and South Korea, which resulted in the signing of a joint statement expanding dialogue between the two countries.
Friday, 19 June 2020
Welcome To Our New World
The Endless Present
". . . every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.
George Orwell, 1984
". . . every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.
George Orwell, 1984
May The Spirit of Wilberforce Arise Amongst Us Once More
The Hard Truth--Charles Darwin
What Your Biology Teacher Didn’t Tell You
Phil Moore ©
The Gospel Coalition (US)
Charles Darwin is a great British hero. That’s hardly surprising, since he was one of the most influential thinkers of the past 200 years. I happened to live opposite Darwin’s former lodgings when I was a student at Cambridge University, so I looked out each morning on a blue plaque hailing him as one of the greatest Britons who ever lived. I’m not saying he didn’t deserve that commemorative plaque, but I should point out that he wasn’t a British hero but a British villain. You don’t need to be a Bible-thumping evangelical to question whether Darwin’s thinking deserves to be given a bit more thought.
Whatever your views on origins and evolution, we can hopefully all agree that, at present, we give far too much honor to the British thinker who justified genocide.
Devaluation of Humans
Darwin didn’t hide his view that his evolutionary thinking applied to human races as well as to animal species. The full title of his seminal 1859 book was On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life. He followed up more explicitly in The Descent of Man, where he spelled out his racial theory:
What Your Biology Teacher Didn’t Tell You
Phil Moore ©
The Gospel Coalition (US)
Charles Darwin is a great British hero. That’s hardly surprising, since he was one of the most influential thinkers of the past 200 years. I happened to live opposite Darwin’s former lodgings when I was a student at Cambridge University, so I looked out each morning on a blue plaque hailing him as one of the greatest Britons who ever lived. I’m not saying he didn’t deserve that commemorative plaque, but I should point out that he wasn’t a British hero but a British villain. You don’t need to be a Bible-thumping evangelical to question whether Darwin’s thinking deserves to be given a bit more thought.
Whatever your views on origins and evolution, we can hopefully all agree that, at present, we give far too much honor to the British thinker who justified genocide.
Devaluation of Humans
Darwin didn’t hide his view that his evolutionary thinking applied to human races as well as to animal species. The full title of his seminal 1859 book was On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life. He followed up more explicitly in The Descent of Man, where he spelled out his racial theory:
The Western nations of Europe . . . now so immeasurably surpass their former savage progenitors [that they] stand at the summit of civilization. . . . The civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace the savage races through the world.Thankfully, most British people today are embarrassed by the racist rhetoric that undergirded the late-Victorian British Empire. What’s astonishing is how little they understand that Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution provided the doctrine behind its white supremacism.
Thursday, 18 June 2020
Blinded By One's Own Bigotry
Jack Phillips Finally Wins His Case
But New Evidence of Progressive Bigotry Emerges
David French
National Review Online
Today my former colleagues at the Alliance Defending Freedom announced that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission will dismiss its pending discrimination charge against Masterpiece Cakeshop’s Jack Phillips. Even after Phillips won a 7-2 decision at the Supreme Court rebuking the commission for its clear anti-religious bias, it had pursued new charges against Phillips for failing to design a cake celebrating a male-to-female gender transition.
Remarkably, the evidence showed that Colorado had actually doubled-down on the religious bigotry that caused it to lose at the Supreme Court. In his opinion, Justice Kennedy singled out this statement from Commissioner Diann Rice:
But New Evidence of Progressive Bigotry Emerges
David French
National Review Online
Today my former colleagues at the Alliance Defending Freedom announced that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission will dismiss its pending discrimination charge against Masterpiece Cakeshop’s Jack Phillips. Even after Phillips won a 7-2 decision at the Supreme Court rebuking the commission for its clear anti-religious bias, it had pursued new charges against Phillips for failing to design a cake celebrating a male-to-female gender transition.
Remarkably, the evidence showed that Colorado had actually doubled-down on the religious bigotry that caused it to lose at the Supreme Court. In his opinion, Justice Kennedy singled out this statement from Commissioner Diann Rice:
I would also like to reiterate what we said in the hearing or the last meeting. Freedom of religion and religion has been used to justify all kinds of discrimination throughout history, whether it be slavery, whether it be the holocaust, whether it be—I mean, we—we can list hundreds of situations where freedom of religion has been used to justify discrimination. And to me it is one of the most despicable pieces of rhetoric that people can use to—to use their religion to hurt others.And here was Justice Kennedy’s response:
To describe a man’s faith as “one of the most despicable pieces of rhetoric that people can use” is to disparage his religion in at least two distinct ways: by describing it as despicable, and also by characterizing it as merely rhetorical — something insubstantial and even insincere. . . . This sentiment is inappropriate for a Commission charged with the solemn responsibility of fair and neutral enforcement of Colorado’s antidiscrimination law — a law that protects discrimination on the basis of religion as well as sexual orientation.Yet despite this clear language from the court, Colorado official continued to express the same sentiments.
Deliberate Focus to Kill The Innocent and Defenseless
Selective Abortion
State Murder of Down Syndrome Babies Rises in UK
Dr Thomas Williams
Breitbart London
The number of Irish babies with Down syndrome aborted in England rose by 60 percent in just one year, from 17 in 2018 to 27 in 2019, the Iona Institute reports.
Since abortion was legalized in Ireland in January 2019, the number of abortions performed on Irish women in the UK in 2019 dropped by over 650 percent last year, but this did not curb the number of Down syndrome babies being aborted. On the contrary, that figure rose, mainly because British law allows abortion up to birth of babies suspected of having Down syndrome.
The UK’s Department for Health and Social Care released its official abortion figures for 2019 on June 11, revealing the highest number of abortions in the country’s history. According to the report, 209,519 abortions were performed in England and Wales during the 2019 calendar year, the highest number ever.
Commenting on the report, Dr. Angelo Bottone noted that of Irish women who terminated their pregnancies in England and Wales in 2019, 64 percent were single and 17.3 percent had had a previous abortion.
While abortions performed on Irish women for reasons of the “physical or mental health” of the mother decreased from 97 percent of the total to 83 percent, reasons of a child suspected of being seriously handicapped increased from three percent to 17 percent. The reason for this, Bottone notes, is that later term abortions (after 12 weeks) are still illegal under Irish law, and non-life-threatening conditions (such as Down Syndrome) are often discovered later on in a pregnancy.
State Murder of Down Syndrome Babies Rises in UK
Dr Thomas Williams
Breitbart London
The number of Irish babies with Down syndrome aborted in England rose by 60 percent in just one year, from 17 in 2018 to 27 in 2019, the Iona Institute reports.
Since abortion was legalized in Ireland in January 2019, the number of abortions performed on Irish women in the UK in 2019 dropped by over 650 percent last year, but this did not curb the number of Down syndrome babies being aborted. On the contrary, that figure rose, mainly because British law allows abortion up to birth of babies suspected of having Down syndrome.
The UK’s Department for Health and Social Care released its official abortion figures for 2019 on June 11, revealing the highest number of abortions in the country’s history. According to the report, 209,519 abortions were performed in England and Wales during the 2019 calendar year, the highest number ever.
Commenting on the report, Dr. Angelo Bottone noted that of Irish women who terminated their pregnancies in England and Wales in 2019, 64 percent were single and 17.3 percent had had a previous abortion.
While abortions performed on Irish women for reasons of the “physical or mental health” of the mother decreased from 97 percent of the total to 83 percent, reasons of a child suspected of being seriously handicapped increased from three percent to 17 percent. The reason for this, Bottone notes, is that later term abortions (after 12 weeks) are still illegal under Irish law, and non-life-threatening conditions (such as Down Syndrome) are often discovered later on in a pregnancy.
Wednesday, 17 June 2020
Unintended Consequences
When the Police Are Defunded
We Had No Idea It Would Go That Far
Poll: 79 Percent of Truckers Say They Won’t Deliver to Cities with Defunded Police Departments
Katherine Rodriguez
Breitbart News
A majority of truckers are vowing to halt deliveries to cities that defund or disband their police departments, according to a recent poll. Seventy-nine percent of truck drivers said they felt their safety would be at risk if they had to deliver to a city with a disbanded police department, according to CDL News, a website for the commercial trucking industry.
Long-haul truck drivers have been on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic for the past year due to stay-at-home orders requiring most Americans to buy their goods online, and have had to deal with protests.
Now many truckers are worried about going to places such as Minneapolis, Minnesota, where their city council president reportedly planned to dismantle their police department following the death of George Floyd.
CDL News asked drivers on its app to explain their reasoning for not delivering to these cities.
“I will not deliver to an area with a disbanded police department. My life matter and I do this for my family. We are already at the mercy of these towns and cities with laws and hate against us for parking, getting a meal or even using a restroom,” one driver responded.
“Simple. We may not like it all the time, but laws and order is necessary,” another driver said.
Truck driving has historically been ranked as one of the most dangerous jobs in the U.S.
In 2018, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics ranked it as the most dangerous job in the country with construction workers coming in second, farmers and ranchers taking third, groundskeepers taking the fourth slot, and miscellaneous agricultural employees rounding out the list as the fifth most dangerous job.
We Had No Idea It Would Go That Far
Poll: 79 Percent of Truckers Say They Won’t Deliver to Cities with Defunded Police Departments
Katherine Rodriguez
Breitbart News
A majority of truckers are vowing to halt deliveries to cities that defund or disband their police departments, according to a recent poll. Seventy-nine percent of truck drivers said they felt their safety would be at risk if they had to deliver to a city with a disbanded police department, according to CDL News, a website for the commercial trucking industry.
Long-haul truck drivers have been on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic for the past year due to stay-at-home orders requiring most Americans to buy their goods online, and have had to deal with protests.
Now many truckers are worried about going to places such as Minneapolis, Minnesota, where their city council president reportedly planned to dismantle their police department following the death of George Floyd.
CDL News asked drivers on its app to explain their reasoning for not delivering to these cities.
“I will not deliver to an area with a disbanded police department. My life matter and I do this for my family. We are already at the mercy of these towns and cities with laws and hate against us for parking, getting a meal or even using a restroom,” one driver responded.
“Simple. We may not like it all the time, but laws and order is necessary,” another driver said.
Truck driving has historically been ranked as one of the most dangerous jobs in the U.S.
In 2018, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics ranked it as the most dangerous job in the country with construction workers coming in second, farmers and ranchers taking third, groundskeepers taking the fourth slot, and miscellaneous agricultural employees rounding out the list as the fifth most dangerous job.
The Destructive Dangers of Marijuana
My New Best Pal in the Drugs War? Stormzy!
Peter Hitchens
The Daily Mail
I don’t suppose the rapper Stormzy is a keen reader of my articles, and I have no idea what sort of hideous noises he makes, but we are now shoulder to shoulder, brothers in arms and hand in hand.
For Stormzy, whose real name is Michael Omari, says he has stopped smoking marijuana, after realising the drug was harming his mental health. And because of who he is, his message is likely to reach a lot of people who urgently need to hear it.
He said: ‘I have suffered with mental health problems for the past few years… When I used to feel depressed, I would lock myself away and smoke weed and I would just get worse and worse and worse.’
Professor Sir Robin Murray, a psychiatrist who has warned for years of this danger, thinks the singer’s admission could have a significant impact on young marijuana smokers. He says: ‘The evidence is very clear that heavy cannabis use can cause mental health problems including anxiety, depression, and psychosis. Young people may be reluctant to believe this when a psychiatrist like me says it but are much more likely to accept it when a star like Stormzy says it.’
It is interesting just how little coverage Stormzy’s confession has had.
Peter Hitchens
The Daily Mail
I don’t suppose the rapper Stormzy is a keen reader of my articles, and I have no idea what sort of hideous noises he makes, but we are now shoulder to shoulder, brothers in arms and hand in hand.
For Stormzy, whose real name is Michael Omari, says he has stopped smoking marijuana, after realising the drug was harming his mental health. And because of who he is, his message is likely to reach a lot of people who urgently need to hear it.
He said: ‘I have suffered with mental health problems for the past few years… When I used to feel depressed, I would lock myself away and smoke weed and I would just get worse and worse and worse.’
Professor Sir Robin Murray, a psychiatrist who has warned for years of this danger, thinks the singer’s admission could have a significant impact on young marijuana smokers. He says: ‘The evidence is very clear that heavy cannabis use can cause mental health problems including anxiety, depression, and psychosis. Young people may be reluctant to believe this when a psychiatrist like me says it but are much more likely to accept it when a star like Stormzy says it.’
It is interesting just how little coverage Stormzy’s confession has had.
Tuesday, 16 June 2020
"A Complete Scum"
J. K. Rowling vs. Woke Supremacy
The informed and sensible back the author’s statements on transgenderism.
By Madeleine Kearns
National Review Online
Much ado has been made of J. K. Rowling’s essay explaining her “reasons for speaking out on sex and gender issues.” She has been accused of transphobia far and wide. A school in West Sussex has dropped plans to name one of its houses after her as it does “not wish to be associated with these views.” An adviser for the Elizabeth Warren campaign has called her “complete scum.” A writer for the New York Times has implied that she is responsible for increasing suicidality in gender-dysphoric people. Sanctimonious younger cast members of the Harry Potter movie series (actors of mediocre talent who would not be where they are were it not for Rowling) have tweeted out woke platitudes. Almost all of her critics have ignored what she actually wrote. And next to none have engaged with her verified claims of being a domestic-abuse survivor.
In her essay, Rowling provides “five reasons” for being “worried about the new trans activism, and deciding I need to speak up.” The first is her philanthropic activity, which “supports projects for female prisoners and for survivors of domestic and sexual abuse” as well as funding medical research into MS, “a disease that behaves very differently in men and women.” The second is that she is an ex-teacher and head of a children’s charity, with an interest in education and safeguarding. The third is that, as a “much-banned author,” she is interested in freedom of speech. The fourth is a concern “about the huge explosion in young women wishing to transition,” especially since she herself was once unhappy with her body. And the fifth reason is that, as a domestic- and sexual-abuse survivor, she stands in “solidarity with the huge numbers of women who have histories like mine, who’ve been slurred as bigots for having concerns around single-sex spaces.”
What becomes clear from reading her essay is that she has done her homework and has been closely following this debate for the past two years. She has collected testimony from trans people, specialists, researchers, and women worried about “the way a socio-political concept is influencing politics, medical practice and safeguarding” and above all, “a climate of fear that serves nobody — least of all trans youth — well.”
The informed and sensible back the author’s statements on transgenderism.
By Madeleine Kearns
National Review Online
Much ado has been made of J. K. Rowling’s essay explaining her “reasons for speaking out on sex and gender issues.” She has been accused of transphobia far and wide. A school in West Sussex has dropped plans to name one of its houses after her as it does “not wish to be associated with these views.” An adviser for the Elizabeth Warren campaign has called her “complete scum.” A writer for the New York Times has implied that she is responsible for increasing suicidality in gender-dysphoric people. Sanctimonious younger cast members of the Harry Potter movie series (actors of mediocre talent who would not be where they are were it not for Rowling) have tweeted out woke platitudes. Almost all of her critics have ignored what she actually wrote. And next to none have engaged with her verified claims of being a domestic-abuse survivor.
In her essay, Rowling provides “five reasons” for being “worried about the new trans activism, and deciding I need to speak up.” The first is her philanthropic activity, which “supports projects for female prisoners and for survivors of domestic and sexual abuse” as well as funding medical research into MS, “a disease that behaves very differently in men and women.” The second is that she is an ex-teacher and head of a children’s charity, with an interest in education and safeguarding. The third is that, as a “much-banned author,” she is interested in freedom of speech. The fourth is a concern “about the huge explosion in young women wishing to transition,” especially since she herself was once unhappy with her body. And the fifth reason is that, as a domestic- and sexual-abuse survivor, she stands in “solidarity with the huge numbers of women who have histories like mine, who’ve been slurred as bigots for having concerns around single-sex spaces.”
What becomes clear from reading her essay is that she has done her homework and has been closely following this debate for the past two years. She has collected testimony from trans people, specialists, researchers, and women worried about “the way a socio-political concept is influencing politics, medical practice and safeguarding” and above all, “a climate of fear that serves nobody — least of all trans youth — well.”
No Middle Ground
You Can Either Be A Christian Or You Can Be A Marxist
But You Can't Be Both . . .
Collective guilt ideology that’s incompatible with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Joshua Lawson
The Federalist
It’s unclear how many Christians are going along with the current neo-Marxist collective guilt movement out of fear, a misunderstanding of what they’ve signed onto, or an authentic conversion to the cause. What is clear, however, is that you can’t be a Christian and a Marxist at the same time—not without irresolvable contradictions.
Whereas traditional garden-variety Marxism views history as a struggle between the wealthy and the working class “proletariat,” neo-Marxism cranks up the heat and redefines the fight to incorporate biological sex, race, ethnicity, and a whole gambit of various “identity” badges.
The grand unifying principle for the Marxists behind the Black Lives Matter movement is that everything—and they mean everything—can be reduced to “oppressors” versus the “oppressed.” If you happen to be a member of one of the “oppressor” groups, then expect to see all sorts of punishments heading your way until the neo-Marxists are satisfied. Except they never are.
Too many Christians are falling into a trap of expressing solidarity with an ideology that is completely antithetical to the teachings of Jesus. Right now, they need our prayers. Then, they need to wake up.
Collective Guilt Is Not Biblical
Whether the sins were committed yesterday, last week, or 400 years ago, all Caucasians are now told to bear the guilt for the sins committed by all other Caucasians; if they remain silent, Caucasians are accused of “violence.”
This is the opposite of Christianity as it is revealed in the Bible. Christianity states you are accountable to God alone for your sins and inequities. You must go to Jesus to atone for the sins that result from your reality as a flawed human being. As for my brother, it is up to him to reconcile his sin with God or any specific individuals that he directly slights, attacks, or transgresses.
While the Old Testament tells of entire peoples or nations found guilty and castigated, they are punished by God, on His direct orders, or through His power, not by the whims of other individual men or women. Scripture does not instruct believers to thrust their guilt, sins, or suffering on to others.
When we read of “group solidarity” in the Old Testament it is important to remember it is always entirely voluntary and covenantal in nature. When God freed the Israelites from Egypt and then gave him His law, he didn’t force it upon them.
The concept of collective guilt is explicitly rejected in Ezekiel 18:20:
Christianity Rejects the Materialism of Neo-Marxism
Historical Marxism peddles the materialistic notion that if everyone could just be wealthy enough so that economic status is meaningless, then the earth could be transformed into a utopian fantasy. Neo-Marxism adds the dimension of “identity” to this formula, but the problem of inequality remains.
Yet Christ teaches us not to concern ourselves with questions of wealth, who has it, and how we can “reclaim” more of it for ourselves. To the contrary, in Matthew 6, Jesus says:
That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? … So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.
In truth, we can never be satisfied with earthly possessions, or have enough “comfort.” Indeed, too much comfort can breed the circumstances for sin just as easy as hard times. There’s a reason for the maxim “idle hands are the devil’s workshop.”
All this isn’t to say we shouldn’t try to better our conditions on this side of heaven. But this world is never meant to be anything approaching paradise. Courting that goal brings disaster. The millions killed at the hands of Marxist totalitarian dictatorships are all the evidence one should need.
Marxism Fuels Covetousness, Envy, and Resentment
Instead of spreading peace and forgiveness, the neo-Marxists running the Black Lives Matter movement have exacerbated anger and resentment. Instead of preaching thankfulness, the movement has caused many Americans to covet their neighbor’s status.
The Old Testament, however, implores us in Exodus 20:17 not to covet anything our neighbor possesses that we do not. The New Testament renews that sentiment in Philippians 4:11-13, which encourages us to be content “in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little.”
Because it is steeped in neo-Marxist ideology, the Black Lives Matter movement sees every disparity as a sign of racism and every inequality as evidence of injustice. But not only is this demonstrably false, even if all inequalities could be eliminated evil and malevolence would still exist in the world. Due to our sinful nature, we would still fight with our family, our friends, and strangers.
Instead of keeping the anger flowing as the neo-Marxists require, the Bible offers a guide on how to combat the fallen nature of the world as well as the evil we’ll inevitably encounter in our lives.
Ultimately, Marxism has no answer for questions of purpose, meaning, and what we’re to do here on earth. For its adherents, everything is a struggle for power; one to be resolved either by redistribution or the sword.
Christianity Seeks to Unify, Neo-Marxism Seeks to Divide
One’s “group identity” is everything in neo-Marxism. The key idea is that “majority” identity groups in any nation have historically oppressed those in the “minority” position. Therefore, a revolution is needed to create the type of society where no majority group holds all the power.
What Christians cajoled into supporting this ideology have temporarily forgotten is that this was accomplished at the cross.
In Christianity, you are seen as an individual. Christ has already done the work of erasing all cultural or ethnic barriers to God. Grace is available to all those who put their faith in Jesus Christ, regardless of status, race, ethnicity, or sex. The only “group” that should matter to Christians is the multi-ethnic world community of believers: the Body of Christ.
As the Apostle Paul writes in Galatians 3:28-29, “There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.”
Christians supporting neo-Marxist viewpoints should remember what Karl Marx himself had to say about religion. For Marx, the abolition of religion was “the first requisite for the happiness of the people.” Perhaps most famously, Marx slandered religion by comparing it to opium. Worse, like Satan himself, Marx claimed, “My object in life is to dethrone God.” This is not a man Christians should have anything to do with.
In every nation that adopted Marxism as its ideological model, Christians have been oppressed. But Christians conned into neo-Marxist group-think can be comforted in the reminder that they don’t need a divisive ideology to fulfill Christ’s teachings to be charitable, care for the poor, and love thy neighbor as thyself.
Christians can take up their cross and follow Jesus, or they can pick up a hammer in one hand, a sickle in the other, and seek to create the permanent revolution sought by today’s radical leftists. But to spout neo-Marxist talking points while claiming to walk with Jesus Christ does a gross disservice to the Good News of the Gospel.
Joshua Lawson is managing editor of The Federalist. He is a graduate of Queen's University as well as the Van Andel School of Statesmanship at Hillsdale College where he received a master's degree in American politics and political philosophy. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaMLawson.
But You Can't Be Both . . .
Collective guilt ideology that’s incompatible with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Joshua Lawson
The Federalist
It’s unclear how many Christians are going along with the current neo-Marxist collective guilt movement out of fear, a misunderstanding of what they’ve signed onto, or an authentic conversion to the cause. What is clear, however, is that you can’t be a Christian and a Marxist at the same time—not without irresolvable contradictions.
Whereas traditional garden-variety Marxism views history as a struggle between the wealthy and the working class “proletariat,” neo-Marxism cranks up the heat and redefines the fight to incorporate biological sex, race, ethnicity, and a whole gambit of various “identity” badges.
The grand unifying principle for the Marxists behind the Black Lives Matter movement is that everything—and they mean everything—can be reduced to “oppressors” versus the “oppressed.” If you happen to be a member of one of the “oppressor” groups, then expect to see all sorts of punishments heading your way until the neo-Marxists are satisfied. Except they never are.
Too many Christians are falling into a trap of expressing solidarity with an ideology that is completely antithetical to the teachings of Jesus. Right now, they need our prayers. Then, they need to wake up.
Collective Guilt Is Not Biblical
Whether the sins were committed yesterday, last week, or 400 years ago, all Caucasians are now told to bear the guilt for the sins committed by all other Caucasians; if they remain silent, Caucasians are accused of “violence.”
This is the opposite of Christianity as it is revealed in the Bible. Christianity states you are accountable to God alone for your sins and inequities. You must go to Jesus to atone for the sins that result from your reality as a flawed human being. As for my brother, it is up to him to reconcile his sin with God or any specific individuals that he directly slights, attacks, or transgresses.
While the Old Testament tells of entire peoples or nations found guilty and castigated, they are punished by God, on His direct orders, or through His power, not by the whims of other individual men or women. Scripture does not instruct believers to thrust their guilt, sins, or suffering on to others.
When we read of “group solidarity” in the Old Testament it is important to remember it is always entirely voluntary and covenantal in nature. When God freed the Israelites from Egypt and then gave him His law, he didn’t force it upon them.
The concept of collective guilt is explicitly rejected in Ezekiel 18:20:
The one who sins is the one who will die. The child will not share the guilt of the parent, nor will the parent share the guilt of the child. The righteousness of the righteous will be credited to them, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against them.We receive salvation one at a time, through a solitary and sincere prayer to God. Those who take Christ as Lord and Savior are saved personally, not collectively with others. Only Jesus Christ can provide the ultimate forgiveness for the sins of our fellow brothers and sisters. Thankfully, on the cross at Calvary, he did just that.
Christianity Rejects the Materialism of Neo-Marxism
Historical Marxism peddles the materialistic notion that if everyone could just be wealthy enough so that economic status is meaningless, then the earth could be transformed into a utopian fantasy. Neo-Marxism adds the dimension of “identity” to this formula, but the problem of inequality remains.
Yet Christ teaches us not to concern ourselves with questions of wealth, who has it, and how we can “reclaim” more of it for ourselves. To the contrary, in Matthew 6, Jesus says:
That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? … So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.
In truth, we can never be satisfied with earthly possessions, or have enough “comfort.” Indeed, too much comfort can breed the circumstances for sin just as easy as hard times. There’s a reason for the maxim “idle hands are the devil’s workshop.”
All this isn’t to say we shouldn’t try to better our conditions on this side of heaven. But this world is never meant to be anything approaching paradise. Courting that goal brings disaster. The millions killed at the hands of Marxist totalitarian dictatorships are all the evidence one should need.
Marxism Fuels Covetousness, Envy, and Resentment
Instead of spreading peace and forgiveness, the neo-Marxists running the Black Lives Matter movement have exacerbated anger and resentment. Instead of preaching thankfulness, the movement has caused many Americans to covet their neighbor’s status.
The Old Testament, however, implores us in Exodus 20:17 not to covet anything our neighbor possesses that we do not. The New Testament renews that sentiment in Philippians 4:11-13, which encourages us to be content “in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little.”
Because it is steeped in neo-Marxist ideology, the Black Lives Matter movement sees every disparity as a sign of racism and every inequality as evidence of injustice. But not only is this demonstrably false, even if all inequalities could be eliminated evil and malevolence would still exist in the world. Due to our sinful nature, we would still fight with our family, our friends, and strangers.
Instead of keeping the anger flowing as the neo-Marxists require, the Bible offers a guide on how to combat the fallen nature of the world as well as the evil we’ll inevitably encounter in our lives.
Ultimately, Marxism has no answer for questions of purpose, meaning, and what we’re to do here on earth. For its adherents, everything is a struggle for power; one to be resolved either by redistribution or the sword.
Christianity Seeks to Unify, Neo-Marxism Seeks to Divide
One’s “group identity” is everything in neo-Marxism. The key idea is that “majority” identity groups in any nation have historically oppressed those in the “minority” position. Therefore, a revolution is needed to create the type of society where no majority group holds all the power.
What Christians cajoled into supporting this ideology have temporarily forgotten is that this was accomplished at the cross.
In Christianity, you are seen as an individual. Christ has already done the work of erasing all cultural or ethnic barriers to God. Grace is available to all those who put their faith in Jesus Christ, regardless of status, race, ethnicity, or sex. The only “group” that should matter to Christians is the multi-ethnic world community of believers: the Body of Christ.
As the Apostle Paul writes in Galatians 3:28-29, “There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.”
Christians supporting neo-Marxist viewpoints should remember what Karl Marx himself had to say about religion. For Marx, the abolition of religion was “the first requisite for the happiness of the people.” Perhaps most famously, Marx slandered religion by comparing it to opium. Worse, like Satan himself, Marx claimed, “My object in life is to dethrone God.” This is not a man Christians should have anything to do with.
In every nation that adopted Marxism as its ideological model, Christians have been oppressed. But Christians conned into neo-Marxist group-think can be comforted in the reminder that they don’t need a divisive ideology to fulfill Christ’s teachings to be charitable, care for the poor, and love thy neighbor as thyself.
Christians can take up their cross and follow Jesus, or they can pick up a hammer in one hand, a sickle in the other, and seek to create the permanent revolution sought by today’s radical leftists. But to spout neo-Marxist talking points while claiming to walk with Jesus Christ does a gross disservice to the Good News of the Gospel.
Joshua Lawson is managing editor of The Federalist. He is a graduate of Queen's University as well as the Van Andel School of Statesmanship at Hillsdale College where he received a master's degree in American politics and political philosophy. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaMLawson.
Monday, 15 June 2020
UK Living Under a Curse
UK Sets Grim Abortion Record
209,519 Babies Killed in 2019
Thomas Williams
Breitbart News
The UK Department for Health and Social Care released its official abortion figures for 2019 on Thursday, revealing the highest number of abortions in the country’s history.
The UK Abortion Act was passed in 1967, legalising abortion on certain grounds by certified practitioners in England, Wales, and Scotland. Thursday’s report reveals that 209,519 abortions were performed in England and Wales during the 2019 calendar year, the highest number yet recorded.
The “age-standardised abortion rate” for residents is 18.0 per 1,000 women, which is also the highest rate since the Abortion Act was introduced, the report declared. Of the 209,519 abortions performed, 207,384 were carried out on the children of residents in England and Wales.
The report also revealed that 99 percent of all abortions in England and Wales were funded by the NHS in 2019, while 74 percent of abortions took place in the independent sector.
The largest increases in abortion rates by age were among women aged 30-34, which have increased from 15.7 per 1000 in 2009 to 20.9 per 1000 in 2019.
209,519 Babies Killed in 2019
Thomas Williams
Breitbart News
The UK Department for Health and Social Care released its official abortion figures for 2019 on Thursday, revealing the highest number of abortions in the country’s history.
The UK Abortion Act was passed in 1967, legalising abortion on certain grounds by certified practitioners in England, Wales, and Scotland. Thursday’s report reveals that 209,519 abortions were performed in England and Wales during the 2019 calendar year, the highest number yet recorded.
The “age-standardised abortion rate” for residents is 18.0 per 1,000 women, which is also the highest rate since the Abortion Act was introduced, the report declared. Of the 209,519 abortions performed, 207,384 were carried out on the children of residents in England and Wales.
The report also revealed that 99 percent of all abortions in England and Wales were funded by the NHS in 2019, while 74 percent of abortions took place in the independent sector.
The largest increases in abortion rates by age were among women aged 30-34, which have increased from 15.7 per 1000 in 2009 to 20.9 per 1000 in 2019.
A "Must Read" For All Christians
George Floyd and Me
Shai Linne
The Hip Hop Opportunity
As a Christian hip-hop artist, I’ve had the privilege of proclaiming Christ in my music for many years now. One of the encouraging and surprising aspects of that journey has been seeing how the Lord has used music to make connections across ethnic lines. Before the recent pandemic, a Christian hip-hop concert was often a beautiful picture of the diversity of the new earth, with people from many walks of life united around the message of Christ and him crucified. On many occasions, I’ve marveled at the reality of me, a black man from Philly who grew up steeped in hip-hop culture, united with brothers and sisters of different ethnicities, ages, and cultures as we fix our eyes on Jesus together.
Over the years, I’ve heard from many people that they were affected by the truth contained in my music, even though hip-hop wasn’t their natural cultural preference. Whenever I heard this, I was struck by the power and beauty of likemindedness. It was clear to me that we were likeminded concerning particular emphases in the music—the glory of God, the supremacy of Christ, the centrality of the cross, and the importance of biblical theology. By God’s grace, I will fight for all of those things until the Lord takes me home.
But one of the painful things I’ve discovered over the last eight years or so since Trayvon Martin’s killing is that it’s possible to agree on those things and yet be in a completely different place when it comes to the issue of racial injustice. Just because I’ve made an intentional decision to focus on that which is “of first importance” (1 Cor. 15:3) doesn’t mean there aren’t other important things that need to be addressed in the church. It also doesn’t mean that being a Christian has exempted me from the reality of being a black man in America and all the stigma that comes with it.
Empathy, Understanding, Unity
In the aftermath of George Floyd’s killing, my wife and I received an email from a white sister in Christ.
Saturday, 13 June 2020
Radical Neandertals in the UK
‘British History Matters’
Statue of Falsely-Maligned Scouting Founder Baden-Powell Gets 24-Hour Security
A woman holds a placards reading "British History Matters" alongside a statue of Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of the Scout movement, on the quayside in Bournemouth, southern England, on June 11, 2020, after the council said it would remove the statue.
Oliver J J Lane
Breitbart News
A statue of the world-famous and broadly admired founder of the Scouting movement was due to be removed on Thursday, but the plans were postponed, and now the figure will receive 24-hour security.
While work crews had been booked to remove the statue, the contractors refused to perform the work, Poole’s local newspaper the Bournemouth Echo reported. They are said to have told the council they would not proceed while people surrounded the statue.
The strength of feeling in favour of the statue was underlined when locals turned out to defend the public work of art, with anti-vandalisation demonstrators holding signs reading “British History Matters”, and a pair of Scout leaders arriving in full uniform to salute Baden-Powell. A petition to save the statue has reached nearly 17,000 signatures in a few hours.
The local authority insisted it wanted to remove the statue for its own protection after it was named by left-wing extremists as a target for removal, and intended to put it back once the “threat” had passed.
Statue of Falsely-Maligned Scouting Founder Baden-Powell Gets 24-Hour Security
A woman holds a placards reading "British History Matters" alongside a statue of Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of the Scout movement, on the quayside in Bournemouth, southern England, on June 11, 2020, after the council said it would remove the statue.
Oliver J J Lane
Breitbart News
A statue of the world-famous and broadly admired founder of the Scouting movement was due to be removed on Thursday, but the plans were postponed, and now the figure will receive 24-hour security.
While work crews had been booked to remove the statue, the contractors refused to perform the work, Poole’s local newspaper the Bournemouth Echo reported. They are said to have told the council they would not proceed while people surrounded the statue.
The strength of feeling in favour of the statue was underlined when locals turned out to defend the public work of art, with anti-vandalisation demonstrators holding signs reading “British History Matters”, and a pair of Scout leaders arriving in full uniform to salute Baden-Powell. A petition to save the statue has reached nearly 17,000 signatures in a few hours.
The local authority insisted it wanted to remove the statue for its own protection after it was named by left-wing extremists as a target for removal, and intended to put it back once the “threat” had passed.
A Colossal Waste of Taxpayer's Money
A Needless Waste
Andrew Little-brain has thrown in the towel. Even he has got to the point where he cannot justify more taxpayers' money in the febrile attempt to unearth what went down in that fateful day at Pike River Mine.
When the grand show of mine re-entry kicked off it had secured a budget from the Labour Party: $23 million. But, this was a state project with a commercially ignorant politician at its head. Despite numerous warnings that the funds would be wasted, Mr Little put in ear plugs and set about finding out how 29 men died.
But, as was always likely to be the case, the budget of $23 million rapidly expanded to a total spend of $35m to date. But the final spend is likely to go to $50m-double the original budget. Minister Little is now claiming that "in terms of recovery of human remains, Little said he has always maintained there is a very low probability of recovery. I would put it as more than remote – but it is very low." [NZ Herald]
When Minister Little was championing mine re-entry for political purposes there was not a hint of what he is now alleging to be the case: that there was a very low probability of recovery of bodies.
Andrew Little-brain has thrown in the towel. Even he has got to the point where he cannot justify more taxpayers' money in the febrile attempt to unearth what went down in that fateful day at Pike River Mine.
When the grand show of mine re-entry kicked off it had secured a budget from the Labour Party: $23 million. But, this was a state project with a commercially ignorant politician at its head. Despite numerous warnings that the funds would be wasted, Mr Little put in ear plugs and set about finding out how 29 men died.
But, as was always likely to be the case, the budget of $23 million rapidly expanded to a total spend of $35m to date. But the final spend is likely to go to $50m-double the original budget. Minister Little is now claiming that "in terms of recovery of human remains, Little said he has always maintained there is a very low probability of recovery. I would put it as more than remote – but it is very low." [NZ Herald]
When Minister Little was championing mine re-entry for political purposes there was not a hint of what he is now alleging to be the case: that there was a very low probability of recovery of bodies.
Friday, 12 June 2020
Conniving Cowardice
Taking Control
Why We Should All Be Troubled By Europe’s Violent Weekend
A chaotic weekend of mayhem and violence across Europe showed the impotence of European governments and the limits of the progressive model of policing.
Sumantra Maitra
The Federalist
Two revealing falsehoods have been foisted on a taciturn populace. One, that the raging mob violence has really anything to do about George Floyd, Black Lives Matter, or opposition to police brutality. Two, the rioters and looters, largely spearheaded by Antifa, are similar to the heroes who landed on in the beaches of Normandy under a hail of heavy machinegun fire. It’s a stirring version of alternate history. And it may even win Pulitzer Prize one day. But both these arguments were exposed as baseless, however, by the recent days of mayhem and violence across Europe.
What we’re currently witnessing across the West, is a power-grab led by dangerous anarchists.
In Brussels, Belgium, hardly a notorious hub of militarized police, protesters rampaged through the city, trashing and looting in the name of Black Lives Matter. In France, riots took place for an alleged killing from back in 2016. In Scotland, a statue of Sir Robert Peel, the founder of British policing, was defaced by actual communists, who proceed to tag it with “ACAB” (All Cops Are Bastards) in graffiti.
In London, Antifa thugs made a poor attempt to set fire to a British flag on the war memorial Cenotaph. A large number of radical leftists stood under the statue of Sir Winston Churchill in the parliament square chanting “Churchill was a racist”, as leftist historians and socialist journalists encouraged them on Twitter. Later, police cleared away men and women who had come to defend Churchill’s statue, in effect allowing protestors to vandalize it later. And in Bristol, police stood by as a statue of Edward Colston was toppled and thrown into Avon river, stating afterward that not intervening was a “tactical decision” to “prevent further disorder.”
The British state, like its American and European counterparts, now regularly and impotently gives in to criminal blackmail.
Why We Should All Be Troubled By Europe’s Violent Weekend
A chaotic weekend of mayhem and violence across Europe showed the impotence of European governments and the limits of the progressive model of policing.
Sumantra Maitra
The Federalist
Two revealing falsehoods have been foisted on a taciturn populace. One, that the raging mob violence has really anything to do about George Floyd, Black Lives Matter, or opposition to police brutality. Two, the rioters and looters, largely spearheaded by Antifa, are similar to the heroes who landed on in the beaches of Normandy under a hail of heavy machinegun fire. It’s a stirring version of alternate history. And it may even win Pulitzer Prize one day. But both these arguments were exposed as baseless, however, by the recent days of mayhem and violence across Europe.
What we’re currently witnessing across the West, is a power-grab led by dangerous anarchists.
In Brussels, Belgium, hardly a notorious hub of militarized police, protesters rampaged through the city, trashing and looting in the name of Black Lives Matter. In France, riots took place for an alleged killing from back in 2016. In Scotland, a statue of Sir Robert Peel, the founder of British policing, was defaced by actual communists, who proceed to tag it with “ACAB” (All Cops Are Bastards) in graffiti.
In London, Antifa thugs made a poor attempt to set fire to a British flag on the war memorial Cenotaph. A large number of radical leftists stood under the statue of Sir Winston Churchill in the parliament square chanting “Churchill was a racist”, as leftist historians and socialist journalists encouraged them on Twitter. Later, police cleared away men and women who had come to defend Churchill’s statue, in effect allowing protestors to vandalize it later. And in Bristol, police stood by as a statue of Edward Colston was toppled and thrown into Avon river, stating afterward that not intervening was a “tactical decision” to “prevent further disorder.”
The British state, like its American and European counterparts, now regularly and impotently gives in to criminal blackmail.
"Check Your Privilege" Rubbish
Chicago Politicians Shout Profanity At Each Other
Most Violent Weekend In 60 Years
Tristan Justice
The Federalist
Chicago suffered its most violent Sunday in 60 years with 18 murders on May 31, according to the University of Chicago Crime Lab reported by the Chicago Sun-Times which only traces crime back to 1961.
The Midwestern city hit the somber milestone as another round of ruthless rioting hit the streets following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody which sparked the worst outbreak of nationwide civil unrest in decades.
Chicago saw seven murders between May 29-30, bringing the weekend total 25 making it the deadliest weekend in the city’s modern history, which had already struggled to shed an international reputation for its rampant crime, according to the Sun-Times.
As lawmakers confronted its latest epidemic of violence to grip the community, leaked audio from a May 31 conference call between the mayor and 50 alderman shows the meeting escalated into a profanity-laced shouting match. One alderman demanded answers on how the city was caught so unprepared and responded so poorly to riots, allowing businesses to go up in flames.
Most Violent Weekend In 60 Years
Tristan Justice
The Federalist
Chicago suffered its most violent Sunday in 60 years with 18 murders on May 31, according to the University of Chicago Crime Lab reported by the Chicago Sun-Times which only traces crime back to 1961.
The Midwestern city hit the somber milestone as another round of ruthless rioting hit the streets following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody which sparked the worst outbreak of nationwide civil unrest in decades.
Chicago saw seven murders between May 29-30, bringing the weekend total 25 making it the deadliest weekend in the city’s modern history, which had already struggled to shed an international reputation for its rampant crime, according to the Sun-Times.
As lawmakers confronted its latest epidemic of violence to grip the community, leaked audio from a May 31 conference call between the mayor and 50 alderman shows the meeting escalated into a profanity-laced shouting match. One alderman demanded answers on how the city was caught so unprepared and responded so poorly to riots, allowing businesses to go up in flames.
Thursday, 11 June 2020
When Lying Becomes Normal
CBS News Stand By Uncorroborated Blather
The Scriptures give us clear warnings about accepting reports or evidence, without corroboration. When it comes to the question of justice, verification of testimony is both fundamental and critical. It is "out of the mouth of two or three witnesses" that every fact shall be confirmed.
Here are some of the critical scriptural evidences:
Deuteronomy 19:15--a single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offence that he has committed, and . . .
Matthew 18:16--But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses."
So, when a morally bankrupt news organisation cuts, slices, and dices a "news report" it's truthfulness should be suspended until another (independent) witness can corroborate the account.
The following interchange between the US Attorney General and a CBS reporter illustrates the matter perfectly.
What's This Weird Kneeling Business?
Misdirected, False Obeisance
When one is asked to kneel, the question that is immediately begged is, "To whom?" If we are being asked to kneel to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, then we must kneel immediately. He is God.
But if we are being directed to kneel before a glorious, shining angel, a thousand times more powerful and glorious than any human being, the answer is different. We are forbidden to kneel to angels, regardless of how powerful and glorious they may be. (Revelation 19:10) And if we are forbidden any kneeling to such glorious, godly creatures, how much more are we forbidden to kneel to feeble, fallen, sinful humankind.
"Taking the knee" (as it has come to be known) is thus the pose of a fool, unless it be a declaration of humble submission to the King of kings.
Joshua Lawson, writing in The Federalist has it exactly right:
When one is asked to kneel, the question that is immediately begged is, "To whom?" If we are being asked to kneel to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, then we must kneel immediately. He is God.
But if we are being directed to kneel before a glorious, shining angel, a thousand times more powerful and glorious than any human being, the answer is different. We are forbidden to kneel to angels, regardless of how powerful and glorious they may be. (Revelation 19:10) And if we are forbidden any kneeling to such glorious, godly creatures, how much more are we forbidden to kneel to feeble, fallen, sinful humankind.
"Taking the knee" (as it has come to be known) is thus the pose of a fool, unless it be a declaration of humble submission to the King of kings.
Joshua Lawson, writing in The Federalist has it exactly right:
The kneeling phenomenon demanded by the radical left in the wake of George Floyd’s death—and embraced by those guilted into submission—creates a two-tiered social stratification of “kneelers” and “those who refuse to bend the knee” that’s wholly un-American.
Mobs resulting from years of citizens saturated in “critical race theory” and grievance studies have pressured far too many into believing they bear guilt for the past sins of others. Now they kneel in fealty to that false reality or are exiled from society.
Unfortunately, it’s also moved beyond just kneeling.
A crowd in Webster, Massachusetts, recently forced Police Chief Michael Shaw to lie face-down on the ground for eight minutes. In Cary, North Carolina, a group of Caucasians washed the feet of black organizers to “ask for forgiveness.” Not to be outdone by the latest woke trends, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took a knee at a massive anti-racism protest at Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
Wednesday, 10 June 2020
Wax-Nose "Truth"
Lancetgate Is a Humiliation for Trump’s Medical Critics
Nude Emperor Caught Out Once Again
James Delingpole
Breitbart News
The Lancet — one of the world’s oldest, best known, and most respected medical journals — has formally retracted a paper which claimed that hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) is ineffective and potentially dangerous in the treatment of Chinese coronavirus.
The paper — ‘Hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine with or without a macrolide for treatment of COVID-19: a multinational registry analysis’ — received widespread publicity across the mainstream media because it was the biggest and most damning study about HCQ.
Supposedly based on the records of 96,032 patients in 671 hospitals, the study claimed that coronavirus patients who took HCQ were more likely to die than those who took nothing. It was so damning that the World Health Organization (WHO) immediately halted all its trials of HCQ. France banned its use altogether in treatments for Covid-19.
But arguably the main reason the study got so much publicity was because HCQ has been championed by President Donald Trump. Trump has admitted to taking HCQ himself as a prophylactic against the Chinese coronavirus. So here was a perfect opportunity for his many critics in the mainstream media to make him look ignorant and foolish.
This story by the BBC was fairly typical, headlined ‘Trump drug hydroxychloroquine raises death risk in Covid patients, study says’.
It began:
This antipathy towards Trump was very much shared by the Lancet, which, for 25 years, has been edited by a hard-left activist Richard Horton. As Rebecca Weisser notes in a piece for Spectator Australia, Horton has a long track record of championing fashionable leftist causes:
Horton and the Lancet are also, it goes almost without saying, fanatical proponents of the man-made global warming narrative.
Last month, the Lancet published an editorial urging Americans to “put a president in the White House…who will understand that public health should not be guided by partisan politics.” This month, however, it has been exposed as having engaged in what look very much like “partisan politics” itself. The way the Lancet has suddenly taken a paper of “such consequence” only to discard it “like a used tissue” has been described as ‘one of the most consequential retractions in modern history’.
Oddly it was the left-wing Guardian that blew the whistle.
A writer for its Australian edition, Melissa Davey, rang round Australian hospitals and found that the real Australian data did not tally with the claims made in the study. This raised serious questions about the credibility of Surgisphere, the hitherto unknown analytics company which had produced the study.
As the Guardian reported:
Why was a once-respected medical journal prepared to run a study from so dubious a source having apparently submitted it to so little scrutiny? As Toby Young, among others, argues at Lockdown Sceptics, the decision appears as if it had more to do with political activism than with disinterested science.
The question is, why did the “independent” fact-checkers fail to spot this bit of fake news when they’ve been so quick to jump on anything purporting to show HCQ is effective? Could it be that they’re not actually independent at all, but Establishment lackeys determined to discredit anything that suggests COVID-19 isn’t the deadly pathogen it’s made out to be by governments around the world, particularly if it emanates from the White House?
With suspiciously convenient timing, within 24 hours of the Lancet retraction, yet another study — from the University of Oxford, part of the so-called Recovery Trial — allegedly debunking hydroxychloroquine was publicised in the mainstream media.
In the Telegraph, the story was reported under the headline ‘Researchers halt trial into hydroxychloroquine after they found it was “useless” against coronavirus’.
Immediately underneath, an anti-Trump standfirst:
Of course it’s quite possible that the many doctors (such as France’s Didier Raoult) who claim to have used HCQ successfully as a treatment for Covid-19 — often in conjunction with zinc — may yet be confounded by a definitive study.
But it’s equally possible that Trump — and those doctors — may yet be vindicated.
Nude Emperor Caught Out Once Again
James Delingpole
Breitbart News
The Lancet — one of the world’s oldest, best known, and most respected medical journals — has formally retracted a paper which claimed that hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) is ineffective and potentially dangerous in the treatment of Chinese coronavirus.
The paper — ‘Hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine with or without a macrolide for treatment of COVID-19: a multinational registry analysis’ — received widespread publicity across the mainstream media because it was the biggest and most damning study about HCQ.
Supposedly based on the records of 96,032 patients in 671 hospitals, the study claimed that coronavirus patients who took HCQ were more likely to die than those who took nothing. It was so damning that the World Health Organization (WHO) immediately halted all its trials of HCQ. France banned its use altogether in treatments for Covid-19.
But arguably the main reason the study got so much publicity was because HCQ has been championed by President Donald Trump. Trump has admitted to taking HCQ himself as a prophylactic against the Chinese coronavirus. So here was a perfect opportunity for his many critics in the mainstream media to make him look ignorant and foolish.
This story by the BBC was fairly typical, headlined ‘Trump drug hydroxychloroquine raises death risk in Covid patients, study says’.
It began:
The drug U.S. President Donald Trump said he was taking to ward off Covid-19 actually increases the risk of patients with the disease dying from it, a study in the Lancet has found.In other words, the MSM was in no doubt where the real significance of the Lancet study lay: it represented a humiliation for Trump. Trump’s ideological enemies were quite unable to hide their glee. Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.) tweeted that “the science is clear and the president, as usual is dangerously wrong”.
This antipathy towards Trump was very much shared by the Lancet, which, for 25 years, has been edited by a hard-left activist Richard Horton. As Rebecca Weisser notes in a piece for Spectator Australia, Horton has a long track record of championing fashionable leftist causes:
Horton’s causes célèbres include publishing an inflated Iraq War death toll, a letter on Gaza from pro-Hamas doctors and calling for physicians to join Extinction Rebellion.
Horton and the Lancet are also, it goes almost without saying, fanatical proponents of the man-made global warming narrative.
Last month, the Lancet published an editorial urging Americans to “put a president in the White House…who will understand that public health should not be guided by partisan politics.” This month, however, it has been exposed as having engaged in what look very much like “partisan politics” itself. The way the Lancet has suddenly taken a paper of “such consequence” only to discard it “like a used tissue” has been described as ‘one of the most consequential retractions in modern history’.
Oddly it was the left-wing Guardian that blew the whistle.
A writer for its Australian edition, Melissa Davey, rang round Australian hospitals and found that the real Australian data did not tally with the claims made in the study. This raised serious questions about the credibility of Surgisphere, the hitherto unknown analytics company which had produced the study.
As the Guardian reported:
- A search of publicly available material suggests several of Surgisphere’s employees have little or no data or scientific background. An employee listed as a science editor appears to be a science fiction author and fantasy artist whose professional profile suggests writing is her fulltime job. Another employee listed as a marketing executive is an adult model and events hostess, who also acts in videos for organisations.
- The company’s LinkedIn page has fewer than 100 followers and last week listed just six employees. This was changed to three employees as of Wednesday.
- While Surgisphere claims to run one of the largest and fastest hospital databases in the world, it has almost no online presence. Its Twitter handle has fewer than 170 followers, with no posts between October 2017 and March 2020.
- Until Monday, the “get in touch” link on Surgisphere’s homepage redirected to a WordPress template for a cryptocurrency website, raising questions about how hospitals could easily contact the company to join its database.
- Desai has been named in three medical malpractice suits, unrelated to the Surgisphere database. In an interview with the Scientist, Desai previously described the allegations as “unfounded”.
- In 2008, Desai launched a crowdfunding campaign on the website Indiegogo promoting a wearable “next generation human augmentation device that can help you achieve what you never thought was possible”. The device never came to fruition.
- Desai’s Wikipedia page has been deleted following questions about Surgisphere and his history, first raised in 2010.
Why was a once-respected medical journal prepared to run a study from so dubious a source having apparently submitted it to so little scrutiny? As Toby Young, among others, argues at Lockdown Sceptics, the decision appears as if it had more to do with political activism than with disinterested science.
The question is, why did the “independent” fact-checkers fail to spot this bit of fake news when they’ve been so quick to jump on anything purporting to show HCQ is effective? Could it be that they’re not actually independent at all, but Establishment lackeys determined to discredit anything that suggests COVID-19 isn’t the deadly pathogen it’s made out to be by governments around the world, particularly if it emanates from the White House?
With suspiciously convenient timing, within 24 hours of the Lancet retraction, yet another study — from the University of Oxford, part of the so-called Recovery Trial — allegedly debunking hydroxychloroquine was publicised in the mainstream media.
In the Telegraph, the story was reported under the headline ‘Researchers halt trial into hydroxychloroquine after they found it was “useless” against coronavirus’.
Immediately underneath, an anti-Trump standfirst:
‘This could be the end of the road for a drug touted as a ‘game-changer’ by U.S. president Donald Trump’.Well it could. Except, almost immediately, doubts were being raised about the reliability of this trial too, especially with regard to the dosage of HCQ used.
Of course it’s quite possible that the many doctors (such as France’s Didier Raoult) who claim to have used HCQ successfully as a treatment for Covid-19 — often in conjunction with zinc — may yet be confounded by a definitive study.
But it’s equally possible that Trump — and those doctors — may yet be vindicated.
Tuesday, 9 June 2020
Bitter Fruit
Desiccation of the Family Into an Empty Husk
Family First has published an extensive review of the Anti-Smacking law, entitled A Dog's Breakfast: New Zealand's Anti-Smacking Law 13 Years On. The law has failed. It has ended up doing far more harm than good.
Below is the Executive Summary of the Review.
At this stage it would appear that not only has the ban failed to reduce the harm perpetrated againstAfter an extensive review of the failures of the "Anti-Smacking Law", the Report provides conclusions.
children, but it has increased the harm inflicted by children.
It is crucial to assess whether the law may in fact be doing more harm than good. Notifications of abuse to government agencies continue to increase at alarming rates. Key findings of this report include the following:
• Parents are confused by the law, both by the way it is worded and by conflicting messages from politicians who promoted it
• Notifications of abuse to government agencies continue to increase at alarming rates
• Successive governments have failed to reduce physical abuse as promised, and any government targets appear to have been abandoned altogether
• Child homicides continue to fluctuate with no sign of any long-term, sustained improvement. New Zealand has one of the worst abuse rates in the OECD, and Maori are disproportionately represented
• We have more children in care (especially Maori children)
• Rates of physical abuse (including serious physical abuse) found by both the police and Oranga Tamariki (OT) have increased significantly since the law was passed
• There are significant, warranted concerns around increasing levels of violence in schools, including bullying and physical violence targeting principals and teaching staff
• There are disturbing trends in the wellbeing of children, including the high rates of self-harm, suicide, and emotional and behavioural problems
• While politicians claim the new law does not criminalise “good parents” for lightly smacking their children, a legal analysis finds this is inconsistent with the actual legal impact of the new Section 59
• Law firm Chen Palmer has not been able to find any decision where the courts have, at sentencing, explicitly balanced the long-term effect of the prosecution or conviction on the parent-child relationship against the level of the physical discipline with which the parent is being charged
• Recent polling finds a significant proportion of the public continues to reject and disregard the law
Name and Shame
Training For War Upon the US
Portland Antifa Cell Trains Recruits to ‘Eye Gouge,’ ‘Destroy Your Enemy’.
Chris Tomlinson
Breitbart London
Investigative journalist group Project Veritas has released purported undercover footage of the secretive Rose City Antifa group in Portland, Oregon, alleging to show activists promoting violence and teaching combat techniques.
The footage was released on Thursday morning and reveals that Project Veritas, led by investigative journalist James O’Keefe, had infiltrated Rose City Antifa (RCA) through an unnamed individual who had taken undercover footage of the violent group’s ultra-secretive meetings.
In one of the clips, a man identified as Nicholas Cifuni states that RCA members needed to hide their weapons from the police saying, “don’t be that fucking guy with the goddamn spike brass knuckles getting photos taken of you.”
“Police are going to be like, ‘perfect we can prosecute these fuckers, look how violent they are,’ and not that we aren’t, but we need to fucking hide that shit,” he says. “Practice things like an eye gouge, it takes very little pressure to injure someone’s eyes,” the man continues. “It’s not boxing, it’s not kickboxing, it’s like destroying your enemy.”
Portland Antifa Cell Trains Recruits to ‘Eye Gouge,’ ‘Destroy Your Enemy’.
Chris Tomlinson
Breitbart London
Investigative journalist group Project Veritas has released purported undercover footage of the secretive Rose City Antifa group in Portland, Oregon, alleging to show activists promoting violence and teaching combat techniques.
The footage was released on Thursday morning and reveals that Project Veritas, led by investigative journalist James O’Keefe, had infiltrated Rose City Antifa (RCA) through an unnamed individual who had taken undercover footage of the violent group’s ultra-secretive meetings.
In one of the clips, a man identified as Nicholas Cifuni states that RCA members needed to hide their weapons from the police saying, “don’t be that fucking guy with the goddamn spike brass knuckles getting photos taken of you.”
“Police are going to be like, ‘perfect we can prosecute these fuckers, look how violent they are,’ and not that we aren’t, but we need to fucking hide that shit,” he says. “Practice things like an eye gouge, it takes very little pressure to injure someone’s eyes,” the man continues. “It’s not boxing, it’s not kickboxing, it’s like destroying your enemy.”
Monday, 8 June 2020
Belly Laughs All Around
Poetic Justice
Tom Hunter blogs at the kiwi blog site, No Minister. We provide below an example of his work. Excellent stuff. Well worth a daily read.
It does seem that karma is working its magic all over the USA, as the as the editor of a "Progressive" newspaper, The Indy Week in Raleigh, North Carolina discovered.
That's her on the Left, Leigh Tauss - and my god, don't we all know that Lefty look oh so well.
I see peasant, that you are still racist and privileged. We need to have a conversation. You just listen while I talk and enlighten you.Anyway, after she expressed her support for the protests-turned-riots something bad happened, which she Tweeted about:
Some of the comments from around the Social Media traps were priceless:
- "It was a brick of peace."
- "Did you paint 'progressive' over the door posts in the hopes the mob angel of death would pass you by?"
- "Fire is blind."
- "Leigh needs to check her privilege. As a woke progressive she should be HAPPY to sacrifice her windows to this cause. After all, these people are simply expressing their rage at centuries of oppression. She should be standing outside the office handing them baseball bats."
Dear Comrade Stalin: Please tell me what I have done wrong and how I can atone. Here in the Lubyanka, I await your wise judgment.
Paraphrasing Oscar Wilde on the death of Dicken's character of Little Nell: you'd have to have a heart of stone not to laugh.
China Is Emerging As a Bad Actor
Great Britain Responds
Boris Johnson Lays Out Visa Offer to Nearly 3m Hong Kong Citizens
UK prime minister says all eligible for BNO passport can apply if China cuts freedoms
Patrick Wintour Diplomatic Editor and Helen Davidson
The Guardian
Boris Johnson has opened the path to what he called one of the “biggest changes” to the British visa system, stating he was ready to offer a right to live and work in the UK to any of the nearly 3 million Hong Kong citizens eligible for a British National Overseas passport.
Ministers have been ambivalent since last Thursday on whether the UK government’s offer of an extendable 12-month visa would be available only to the 350,000 current BNO passport holders in Hong Kong, or would also include the more than 2.5 million eligible to apply for the passport.
In the Commons on Tuesday, the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, implied the offer was available only to the narrower group, stressing the government needed to be realistic about what it could offer. However, writing in the Times on Wednesday,, Johnson appeared to make a far wider offer to all those eligible to hold a BNO passport.
The prime minister’s offer would come into play only if China presses ahead with new security laws that strip Hong Kong of its traditional freedoms. Johnson wrote in the Times that if the security laws were pursued, “Britain would have no choice but to uphold our profound ties of history and friendship with the people of Hong Kong”.
Boris Johnson Lays Out Visa Offer to Nearly 3m Hong Kong Citizens
UK prime minister says all eligible for BNO passport can apply if China cuts freedoms
Patrick Wintour Diplomatic Editor and Helen Davidson
The Guardian
Boris Johnson has opened the path to what he called one of the “biggest changes” to the British visa system, stating he was ready to offer a right to live and work in the UK to any of the nearly 3 million Hong Kong citizens eligible for a British National Overseas passport.
Ministers have been ambivalent since last Thursday on whether the UK government’s offer of an extendable 12-month visa would be available only to the 350,000 current BNO passport holders in Hong Kong, or would also include the more than 2.5 million eligible to apply for the passport.
In the Commons on Tuesday, the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, implied the offer was available only to the narrower group, stressing the government needed to be realistic about what it could offer. However, writing in the Times on Wednesday,, Johnson appeared to make a far wider offer to all those eligible to hold a BNO passport.
The prime minister’s offer would come into play only if China presses ahead with new security laws that strip Hong Kong of its traditional freedoms. Johnson wrote in the Times that if the security laws were pursued, “Britain would have no choice but to uphold our profound ties of history and friendship with the people of Hong Kong”.
Saturday, 6 June 2020
Success Measured By Biden's Standards And Aspirations
Biden as Paradox
His weaknesses are his strength, and he’s not running for the presidency.
Victor Davis Hanson
National Review Online
It is now conventional punditry that should Joe Biden win in November, his vice president, in 1944-style, will sooner rather than later become president.
Biden, to reboot and secure the identity-politics base, thought he had to discriminate by sex and race in advance by selecting his vice president. But given recent poor performances, Biden’s promise to select a woman or minority or both on the ticket is a wink-and-nod admission that she or he will soon be the real president while on the ballot as vice president.
In 2019–20, Biden had moved hard left to get nominated and more or less renounced all his previous old-style liberal voting record, such as tough sentencing of drug dealers, opposition to court-mandated school busing, opposition to illegal immigration, and support for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. His contrition over his most recent offensive putdown (“If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black”), alongside the nationwide protesting and rioting, will make it even more likely that Biden will select a progressive with the sort of agendas that went nowhere even in liberal Democrat primaries, and will stay nowhere after the rioting.
Yet Biden apparently believes that his dilemmas and personal foibles will soon be turned upside down, and that his weakness somehow will be seen as strength. A limp Biden in seclusion believes he is far more effective than fighting Joe Biden on the stump. And in a strange way, he could be sort of right.
His weaknesses are his strength, and he’s not running for the presidency.
Victor Davis Hanson
National Review Online
It is now conventional punditry that should Joe Biden win in November, his vice president, in 1944-style, will sooner rather than later become president.
Biden, to reboot and secure the identity-politics base, thought he had to discriminate by sex and race in advance by selecting his vice president. But given recent poor performances, Biden’s promise to select a woman or minority or both on the ticket is a wink-and-nod admission that she or he will soon be the real president while on the ballot as vice president.
In 2019–20, Biden had moved hard left to get nominated and more or less renounced all his previous old-style liberal voting record, such as tough sentencing of drug dealers, opposition to court-mandated school busing, opposition to illegal immigration, and support for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. His contrition over his most recent offensive putdown (“If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black”), alongside the nationwide protesting and rioting, will make it even more likely that Biden will select a progressive with the sort of agendas that went nowhere even in liberal Democrat primaries, and will stay nowhere after the rioting.
Yet Biden apparently believes that his dilemmas and personal foibles will soon be turned upside down, and that his weakness somehow will be seen as strength. A limp Biden in seclusion believes he is far more effective than fighting Joe Biden on the stump. And in a strange way, he could be sort of right.
Aussie PM Light Years Ahead of New Zealand PM In Some Critical Matters
A Man of Faith
Aussie PM Scott Morrison Backs ‘Straight Up’ Donald Trump:
Simon Kent
Breitbart News
Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Thursday outlined the dynamics behind his warm relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump, saying he is a straight talker and a good friend who is open about his Christian faith.
Asked in a TV interview what he thinks of Trump, Morrison was quick to point out the positives of their relationship as a partnership between equals. As News.com reports, Morrison said:
Aussie PM Scott Morrison Backs ‘Straight Up’ Donald Trump:
Simon Kent
Breitbart News
Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Thursday outlined the dynamics behind his warm relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump, saying he is a straight talker and a good friend who is open about his Christian faith.
Asked in a TV interview what he thinks of Trump, Morrison was quick to point out the positives of their relationship as a partnership between equals. As News.com reports, Morrison said:
It is my job to have very good relationships with all our key partners and allies. I have done that as have my predecessors. That is important, that is in Australia’s national interest. That is what matters and keeps Australia safe, it protects Australia’s interests, particularly in this part of the world.Pushed as to what he liked about Trump, Morrison said the United States had been a good friend to Australia for over a century and that was not about to change.
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