It’s easy to laugh at people such as Democrat Georgia state representative Erica Thomas and her anguish at being told, as she relates it, that she should “go back” to where she came from.
That is, until it happens to you.
Here is my story:
Contact Selwyn Duke, follow him on Gab (preferably) or Twitter, or log on to SelwynDuke.com.
It seems that the media would do some fact checking before they run with a story. Given the Jussie Smollett hoax and the Catholic student rampage one would believe that the legacy media would have learned a lesson. Talk to everyone involved, then run the full story.
Chris Enloe the weekend editor for TheBlaze reported on the incident between Georgia Rep. Erica Thomas (D) and Eric Sparkes, a Cuban American and Democrat. Enloe noted:
Mainstream media outlets, Twitter, prominent presidential candidates, and even New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio rushed to condemn what Georgia Rep. Erica Thomas (D) claims was an incident of racism at her local Publix grocery store on Friday.
Now it appears the truth is not what she claimed or what the media initially reported.
Watch as WSB-TV’s cameras caught Thomas verbally berating Sparkes, who remains calm during the interview:
UPDATE: Video of Georgia Lawmaker’s ‘Racism’ Incident Comes Out.
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“The weak grow strong by effrontery— the strong grow weak through inhibition.” Henry Kissinger
Watching what is going on in American House of Representative and social media, Vladimir Putin and his KGB cronies are laughing and chuckling at America’s incompetence. Three Directors of the FBI were unable to identify the Trump/Dossier as a KGB hoax-production and, nobody in the American Security Apparatus exposed this Russian fraud—Falshivka produced by the Russian Intel. What a Shame! I wrote about it for about three years. I recognized this fraud in two seconds, warning you constantly about a paralyzed American Intel, unwilling at the highest level to identify our foremost enemy—the KGB. I am using these three letters as they are familiar to vast majority of Americans, I have combined under this term the entire Russian Intelligence.
In addition to the shameful condition in our Intel, the laughing in the Kremlin become even more hysterical after “the squad” identified America as the worst place to live in the world, run by the occupant of the White House, who they scream is a racist. The Kremlin is in frantic hysterical laughter, because 90% of their agenda is completed. The rest 10% is coming—the preparation for a Socialist Revolution in the 2020 presidential election in America going on at full speed… And this is not news for me, I am writing about the political operatives of the KGB, fishing in the murky waters of the Washington D.C. and treason committed by the Dems for the last three decades.
Don’t be surprised that “the squad” is insisting on Trump’s impeachment, it has nothing with the “color” of four radical women, it is ideology. This is also Putin’s agenda; he mortally hates Trump and his political operatives illustrate it. Read my columns written in 2017-2018, discussing Putin. Don’t be surprised that all 2020 Dems candidates for the U.S. presidency end up praising “the squad.” Unlike them, look at the strong reaction of Senator Graham to “the squad” as he goes nuclear: Graham RIPS ‘Anti-Semitic, Anti-America’ Dems; Says They ‘Hate Their Own Country’ posted by Hannity staff. Senator Graham stated: They are running on an agenda that is disgusting… They’re socialist, they’re anti-Semitic, and they stand for all the things most Americans disagree with.”
Sen. Graham is right, every person, who loves America is disgusted, watching those four radical liar-provocateurs. I did, too. Listening to their hateful speeches, trashing America I was stunned by four radical women, who were returning me to my past in the Soviet Union, where the policy “to blame America first” had indoctrinated us in the Stalinist ideology, with an arsenal of different devices: lies, fraud, deceit, distortion, fabrication, perjury, and so on. Mocking America and praising Russia was the central part of the ideology, a modus operandi in our lives, in a time when perverted truth was turning logic up-side-down for all 24/7. That way Russia became a model of goodness and America became a rotten country with an illegitimate political system. We knew they were deceiving us, but Russia was a totalitarian state and we were intimidated into silence…
Now, in America, listening to those four Representatives of the Congress, I was scared, my entire body has become covered with goose bumps and a cold snake crawling along my spine has frozen me—Stalinist Political Correctness is reigning and with arrogant effrontery they demonstrated it here on American soil. I was terrified, but continued listening, analyzing the familiar handiwork of the KGB…I couldn’t believe it was happening in America! There is a third reason for Putin and his “criminal cabal” to enjoy and laugh, watching their several people participating in the Dems debates as the candidates for the American presidency. We can expect a third Manchurian President…
Moreover, none of Dems had reacted to terrorist attacks in Colorado and Washington where Antifa has raised the Mexican flag over the ICE facilities and our flag up-side down. It was a typical fascist putsch by the criminals with masked faces. The same crime had been perpetrated by these fascist Antifa thugs in Berkeley, California several years ago with no lawful penalty for their fascist ferocity. Just look at the whole Democrat Party’s policies, actions and agenda. They don’t respect our flag and pledge of allegiance. They want to abolish ICE and DHS and install a policy of open borders, giving healthcare to all illegal migrants, Medicare for the rest of us, and “Green New Deal,” which costs $93 trillion. Everyone who disagreed with them is a “Racist”—a typical Soviet approach to politics. CNN, their mouthpiece, mentioned the word “Racist” 22 hundred times during one day…
Truman’s Democratic Party has dissolved into the current American Socialist Party in July 2019. Look at Washington D.C.—the term “Racist” is customized by the Dems and has become the worst possible crime committed in America. In fact, our Founding Fathers created a self-reappearing system that restored and mended the mistakes of the past. America has NO problem of racism any longer—we all have equal rights and enjoy living in the most humane and well-developed democracy with capitalist economic system in the world. This is not a feud with the socialists, we have been at war for a long time, an asymmetrical war waged by the Socialist mafia against Western civilization and its successful capitalist economy during the last hundred years. Yes, it began after the victory of Socialists in the Russian Revolution in 1917 and became extremely effective in the middle of the 1960s. The infiltrated Democrat Party brought this war to our soil…
I have been writing about this war in all my books and columns for over thirty years—the war is the main topic, to me it is WW III – its definition: ”WW III: Recruitments and Drugs, Infiltration and Assassinations.” I am writing about this war, because I am a witness of how this war was executed and perpetrated by the KGB, which is the major culprit in the propaganda of Racism in America… Please, read an Epilogue of my book What is Happening to America? The Hidden Truth of Global Destruction. Xlibris, 2012. In this book, I am describing Soviet fascism and giving you the definition of the ideology on p.159. Yes, the Epilogue addresses the recent topic of “Racism” and its roots…
Epilogue
“Dear Reader,
I owe you an explanation. With some American participation, the year 2011 has brought so many violent events in the world that you are confused—who are we fighting against and who are we helping? No other author talks about or confirms the brand new terms I gave you: Soviet Fascism and WW III. By reading my book you have already gotten basic knowledge of Soviet Fascism; however, it has recently changed its tactics—WW III has taken a new spiral. As a result the Democrats, Republicans, and Independents are deceived and misled. Writing the Epilogue at the end of 2011, I am taking this opportunity to present my analysis and commentaries of the new spiral of WW III, waged by the Kremlin.
If you have any doubts in my identification of Soviet Fascism and WW III, the first person to confirm the identity of both will be the Chairman of the KGB, 1967-1982, Yuri Andropov. I will give you a conversation of Lt. General Ion Mihai Pacepa, the highest-ranking KGB officer ever to defect to the U.S, with Yuri Andropov: “In 1972 the Kremlin decided to turn the whole Islamic world against Israel and the U.S. As KGB Chairman, Yuri Andropov told me a billion adversaries could inflict far greater damage on America that could a few millions. We needed to instill a Nazi-style hatred for Jews throughout the Islamic world, and to turn this weapon of the emotions into a terrorist bloodbath against Israel and its main supporter the United States. No one within the American/Zionist sphere of influence should any longer feel safe.” (“Russian Footprints,” by Ion Mihai Pacepa, National Review Online, August 24, 2008.)
General Pacepa wrote in the same article: “According to Andropov… the Muslims had a taste for nationalism, jingoism, and victimology. Their illiterate, oppressed mobs could be whipped up to a fever pitch. Terrorism and violence against Israel and her master, American Zionism, would flow naturally from the Muslims’ religious fervor, Andropov sermonized.” What can better confirm both of my terms Soviet Fascism and WW III than those words? They summarized my entire book. I remind you that under Andropov the infiltration into Western civilization had tripled. Under his watch occurred the bloodiest terrorists’ attacks in the world, from the Munich murder of Israelis in the Olympic Village to the Johnstown tragedy in America.”
Now you can see the personality and character of the KGB Chairman Yuri Andropov targeting America in different aspects. Yes, the Muslims mobs were “whipped up to a fever pitch” by the Andropov KGB. Moreover, the same races policy was targeting our Black population by the KGB document designed to instill and inflame the racial division in America in the 1960-70s, titled Message to the Black Movement, A Political Statement from the Black Underground. Please, read the document to see clear the propaganda of racism in the ideology of Soviet Fascism…
I am writing about the time of Yuri Andropov, the KGB Chairman, because I was a member of the legal community in USSR at the time of his tenure and familiar with all of the KGB’s criminal activities. The Epilogue is only a part of that to introduce you the personality of the KGB’s Chairman, under his leadership more sinister and nefarious crimes took place against America. The mentioned above Message to the Black Movement was flooding America to divide and conquer in the best Stalinist traditions in the end of the 1960s. For you to understand where the term “White Oppressors” came from, please read the Message, I don’t want to describe it, you won’t believe me, and you have to read it for yourself to grasp the direct effect of it on the Black Caucus in our Congress and on recent events…
Do you remember what Khrushchev promised to you? “Your children will live under Communism!” He had in mind the socialist platform and leadership of “the squad” that is guiding the entire Socialist mafia to a direction of Socialist revolution against the system designed by our Founding Fathers. We have it today. The last 3-4 decades the Dems have been infiltrated by the KGB, a Socialist mafia has been created within the Party, nothing left from Truman’s Party. The current House of Representatives demonstrates its movement towards Socialism and definite action against capitalist economy, “the squad” is leading the movement. My conclusion: The Dems Party is a political fraud like any other Socialist entities. Moreover, Vladimir Putin and his KGB now control the Dems and lead the Anti-Trump criminal cabal.
By the way, a recent study from the University of Pennsylvania has found that America is actually LESS racist under President Donald Trump than it was under Barack Obama. The study was conducted by researchers Danial J. Hopkins and Samantha Washington, who found that anti-Black and anti-Hispanic prejudice declined after the 2016 campaign and election. “Racism is dying, as people become more educated, bigotry and hatred will become a thing of the past.” My conclusion: Knowledge is Power! President Donald J. Trump is not a “Racist!” Donald Trump is fighting Soviet Fascism!!!
I am repeating this refrain for over thirty years, writing about Russia and the KGB, because most of the trouble in the world is derived from and caused by Russia. It is not a coincidence that my latest two columns were dedicated to Political Correctness in the column Soviet Socialism in the 21st Century. As you know, I have renamed Soviet Socialism to Soviet Fascism lately. Political Correctness and Social Engineering are two sides of the same coin of Soviet Fascism. Stalinist PC was aimed at hiding or masking the Truth and replacing it with Stalin’s ideological Dogma. You can read official definition in my latest column, here is my definition of Political Correctness:
“… Political correctness is a Stalinist policy, driven by the political agenda, a skillfully crafted design of a quintessential system of lies, fraud, and a long-term strategy of war against Western civilization to create of One World Socialist Government under Kremlin’s rule.”
To achieve the result Stalin needed a force, a mind-control mechanism or apparatus to implement his PC and the KGB became that very force. This is the reason I write about the KGB in my books and columns for thirty years. Soviet Fascism had been alive for 70 years due to the force provided by the entire Intelligence apparatus working in collaboration with the lies and fraud of Political Correctness. It is the Soviet Socialist economy that collapsed in 1991—the Soviet System, the regime and the KGB survived and not a lot has changed in Russia since, where Putin and his KGB are running the country. Knowledge of the regime, its methods, tricks, and diabolical Political Correctness is a Must!
Political Correctness is Stalinist social engineering within semantics, to use and affect a human emotional core, with touching scenes that play on your emotions, while deceiving you. Returning to “the squad” of four women who were blaming America, their agenda is clear to me–to replace our political system left to us by our Founding Fathers. They were acting by the protocol PC requires—they aimed at hiding and masking their real agenda while deceiving you with their “love” for America. They are the Islamist part of the Socialist mafia aimed at replacing Capitalism with Soviet Socialism, which I renamed Soviet Fascism. Moreover, Socialist mafia has its combined military force to achieve the goal—Antifa and several other fascist gangs are comprising that force. They don’t wear black shirts, they wear black masks. The Socialist Revolution is in progress in America! Be ready for 2020! The Dems will use all methods and tricks of Soviet Fascism to win!
Knowledge of Russia is a Must in foreign policy as well, as we are dealing now with “the Axis of Evil” a coalition of the countries under Kremlin’s umbrella adhered to the ideology of Soviet fascism. To know how to deal with Iran, you have to know Soviet fascism, to deal with North Korea, China or Syria, you have to know the KGB and the ideology implemented by Russia in the countries of the “Axis of Evil.”
In front of you is a typical repetition of the 1980s Russian game, trouble and confrontation with the West. Iran, a member of “the Axis of Evil”, illustrates this game in the international waters now in 2019. Never forget: It took 29 years for Stalin to create a Chinese Communist State. Read What is Happening to America? Xlibris, 2012. This book was sabotaged by the corrupt FBI twice to prevent its publication–Soviet Fascism doesn’t tolerate the Truth!
Stalinist policy of distributing the ideology of Soviet Fascism throughout the world is strongly sustained by that devoted disciple of Andropov—Vladimir Putin. Do you know that people from former Soviet Republics are joining ISIS? The field commanders of ISIS are Chechen or the former Saddam’s security operatives, both were trained by the Russian security forces. There are some documents accusing Russia in designing the attacks of 9/11 and bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. Yet, this topic should be discussed separately.
Knowing the Russian methods, agenda, and its proclivity to mold Soviet style charlatan-leaders around the world to engineer cadres of fifth columnists, I believe there are two types of people committing betrayals: Those who do not like the political system established by our Founding Fathers and are trying to transform it– they are currently collaborating with the KGB to destroy the country, and those people who haven’t a clue about the KGB infiltrations, hence becoming their unwitting accomplices. Both groups are the enemy within, they constitute a huge help to President Putin, who is continued running the anti-Trump show today…
God gave us this last chance to save our county—President Donald J. Trump! Don’t allow Soviet Fascism to take over the American Republic. Now you can recognize all so-called socialists, “the squad,” the Trojan Horse Bernie, AOC, Beto, Pete, other Soviet Socialists, and their leader Tom Perez. They are lying, fooling and deceiving you for decades. Be vigilant! Some of them are sponsored by the KGB. Fight the ideology of Soviet Fascism and save the legacy of our Founding Fathers and the American Republic!
Knowledge is Power! Good Luck my beloved America the Beautiful!
To be continued www.simonapipko1.com or at www.drrichswier.com/author/spipko/.
(These are my views as a woman living in England, on how the culture and spirit of my country has changed over 50 years. Why the country does not feel protected or strong any more, how it has lost, and is losing it values and decency, and how we are daily losing our free speech).
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Martin Luther King.
A Whistling Kettle
With the sentencing of freelance reporter and activist Tommy Robinson, on the 11th July, now reported to be serving 9 months imprisonment, and who is currently being detained in high security Belmarsh Prison, on a possible civil matter; one can only wonder if it was the harsh and extreme hatred which had been continuously directed towards him prior to his sentencing which may have in some way possibly influenced the harsh and extreme outcome of his case?
Aside from openly reporting every alias he has ever used, and also gleefully reporting every single crime or slight mis-demeanour that he has ever been accused or charged for, our judicial system appears to have come down excessively heavy upon a man whose crime was to report and live stream a sex grooming gang who were attending court for sentencing.
The mainstream media and also the social media have been awash with some of the most hateful and ugly statements you will ever see against a man who was waiting to go to court. Do the perpetrators of such venomous attacks see their very own hypocrisy when they exercise their own right to free-speech to attack this man and wish him the very worst of ills before he has even been sentenced?
The Pot Calling the Kettle Black
One of the main gripes directed at Tommy Robinson is that he is not a ‘trained’ journalist, and cannot contest that he is being imprisoned for journalism. Indeed, they are correct, he is not trained so to speak; but whilst many journalists almost always portray an identical and very one sided account on how they perceive Tommy Robinson or his supporters to be, they seem to be inept in not seeing just how far the British public as a whole no longer respect or trust the profession of journalism, and why the rise in alternative news media has now become a more reliable source of information for some people in contrast to some of the news the public is professionally fed.
Another gripe which has been used about the interference of Tommy Robinson’s reporting, but this time in relation to the law, is that every person should be due to a ‘fair’ trial, and that everyone is perceived innocent unless proven to be guilty. It has been stated that his live streaming outside the court could have influenced the sentencing, but in this case it is reported that he only gave out information that he believed was already in the public domain.
In relation to reporting however, our newspapers often get it wrong in accusing, naming and blaming beforehand innocent suspects in order to sell a story. Consider:
In December 2018, a Sussex couple were wrongly accused and questioned for 36 hours by Sussex police for flying a drone over Gatwick Airport and halting flights for thousands of passengers. Within hours of being taken for questioning, many newspapers were printing their pictures and one newspaper labelled them the ‘morons who ruined Christmas’.
This is not professional journalism.
In the summer of 2016, pop artist Cliff Richard was cleared of historical sex assault allegations after an investigation by South Yorkshire police. The police later apologised to him for the “initial handling of the media interest” after the BBC were tipped off about a raid upon his home, and it was broadcast ‘live’ from a helicopter by the BBC.
Cliff Richard later successfully fined the BBC for their coverage based on mere ‘accusations’ and believes some ‘privacy’ should be awarded to those who are accused of such crimes until someone is charged, found guilty and sentenced. He is currently backing a campaign group called FAIR (Falsely Accused Individuals for Reform) which calls for anonymity for those suspected of sexual offences until they are actually charged.
You can listen to his statement about the false allegations made against him, and how the media coverage affected his life here:
In his article in the Guardian, Professor of Journalism, Roy Greenslade writes on how the BBC should appeal against the ruling made in favour of the privacy of Cliff Richard, made by Mr Justice Mann, indicating that this case now states a precedent with worrying implications for press freedom. He states in his article:
“It suggests that reporting the identity of anyone whose home is raided, or who is known to be under police investigation prior to being arrested or charged, amounts to an intrusion into their privacy. It means that Mann has broken new legal ground by rebalancing the two articles in the European convention on human rights that deal with respect for private life and freedom of expression. He has decided that article 8, the right to privacy, now trumps article 10, the public’s right to know”.
You can read the full article here. In my opinion, the article offers an interesting and thoughtful insight on how freedom of press operates and how social media now contributes in making our society one of the least secretive places in history. However, false accusation is a worrying trend, and the resulting consequences can have devastating effects.
Contempt of court cases resulting in imprisonment have in British history been very few in number, but we do hear of many fines being imposed upon newspapers who have been accused of influencing or interrupting court cases.
In 2012, a journalist for the Spectator magazine was accused of being let off for almost causing the Stephen Lawrence case to collapse when an article was published which could have jeopardized the trial of the two men accused of murder. In this instance the magazine was fined and not the journalist.
In 2012, the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror were fined for contempt of court and fined £10,000 each with costs of £25,000 each for their coverage of Levi Bellfield’s (now known as Yusuf Rahim) conviction for the murder of Milly Dowler.
In 2011, it is reported the Daily Mirror was fined £50,000 and the Sun newspaper £18,000 for articles on the arrest of Christopher Jefferies who was released without charge for the Joanna Yates murder case when another man was found guilty of her murder.
The harsh treatment being directed towards Tommy Robinson evidently appears to be out of context in relation to the equally serious offences above. Why is he hated so much?
Blowing off some Steam
The very vocal supporters of Tommy Robinson understandably feel frustrated and demonstrative towards the outcome of his sentencing, and like many other people across the country can only surmise and wonder why the British press are rarely supportive towards him in light of their own continuous misdemeanours, and why he has received in his words, a death sentence in relation to being put in a prison which has a high proportion of Islamic prisoners.
Unfortunately, it could be concluded that it is the failure of our country, the police force, our judicial system and our government which has made Tommy Robinson into the hero and martyr which people who dislike him complain about. No amount of rationale by professional experts, who in some cases are exhibiting a class snobbery, is now able to justify the treatment against him.
He has stepped outside the box and spoken up for the silenced in the same way that the Brexit party spoke up for the majority of knowledgeable and insightful people in the UK who felt betrayed by our government.
There is an awakening in the UK through social media that is uniting the voices which are not being listened to. They are hungry for the likes of Tommy Robinson, regardless of his background, who in some way is demonstrating a certain fearlessness in opposition to a silent fear which is bubbling below the surface of the UK.
The battle everywhere appears to be between an uncomfortable truth, and a force of dictatorship, which is taking an immoral high ground and coming down excessively heavy on those who dare to expose some reasonable although uncomfortable truth for consideration, by labelling them, discrediting them and isolating them. It is the reason we must ultimately find our silenced voices and always speak up and be fully aware of what is happening in the UK and across the world today.
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” Martin Luther King
EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in J. D. Pendry’s American Journal and is republished with permission. © 2019 Shirley Edwards, All Rights Reserved, Email: eshirley02@gmail.com
This month marks the 50th anniversary of the landing on the moon, a major milestone in human history. As Neil Armstrong noted, as he stepped on the lunar surface, “One small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.” Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin planted the American flag on the moon, as they explored it for some 21 hours.
What was the first meal on the moon? It may surprise you to know that it was bread and wine in a one-person celebration of the Lord’s Table. As Neal Armstrong respectfully looked on, fellow Apollo 11 astronaut, Buzz Aldrin marked the incredible occasion by celebrating Holy Communion—communing between him and God. This was before they stepped out of the “Eagle,” the lunar module, to walk around on the moon.
In the October 1970 issue of Guideposts magazine, Aldrin tells of the experience:
“For several weeks prior to the scheduled lift-off of Apollo 11 back in July, 1969, the pastor of our church, Dean Woodruff, and I had been struggling to find the right symbol for the first lunar landing.”
Buzz Aldrin was an elder at Webster Presbyterian Church in the greater Houston area. Pastor Woodruff told him that, “God reveals Himself in the common elements of everyday life.” That would include bread and wine, the elements of the Lord’s Table, a celebration of Christ’s death on behalf of sinners.
The idea of communion on the moon was Aldrin’s. He writes:
“I wondered if it might be possible to take communion on the moon, symbolizing the thought that God was revealing Himself there too, as man reached out into the universe. For there are many of us in the NASA program who do trust that what we are doing is part of God’s eternal plan for man. I spoke with Dean about the idea…and he was enthusiastic.”
They decided that while Aldrin served himself communion on the moon, his church back home on earth would be participating in communion at roughly the same time.
But, even though he was an elder, would he have permission from the church to serve himself the elements? Pastor Woodruff inquired of the stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church’s General Assembly and received a swift okay.
Apollo 11 landed on the moon on the afternoon of Sunday, July 20, 1969. Astronaut Mike Collins was circling at that time, in the words of Aldrin, “in lunar orbit, unseen in the black sky above us” in the command module, while Armstrong and Aldrin were in the lunar module.
On my radio show, I spoke about this little-known incident of the first meal on the moon with Bill Federer, historian and bestselling author. Said Bill, “Buzz Aldrin was such a famous astronaut that the Toy Story character was named after him, Buzz Lightyear.”
Bill notes, “Before they stepped [onto the moon], they had a rest time. And they turned to radio silence.”
Aldrin was the one who requested the radio silence, saying: “Houston, this is Eagle. This is the LM Pilot speaking. I would like to request a few moments of silence. I would like to invite each person listening in, wherever and whomever he may be, to contemplate for a moment the events of the past few hours and to give thanks in his own individual way.”
Federer notes that earlier, when the Apollo 8 was in outer space at Christmastime 1968, the crew had read from Genesis 1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth….” Alas, Madalyn Murray O’Hair, the famous atheist, sued NASA for this incident. Perhaps this lawsuit inspired the radio silence Aldrin requested.
In any event, Aldrin tells of his plan “to give thanks” for this incredible moment: “For me this meant taking communion.” That is very fitting, since historically, communion was called the Eucharist, derived from the Greek word for thanksgiving—in gratitude to Jesus for His sacrifice.
Aldrin continues, “In the radio blackout I opened the little plastic packages which contained bread and wine.” His church back home had given him a little chalice. As he poured the wine into the chalice, he notes, “In the one-sixth gravity of the moon the wine curled slowly and gracefully up the side of the cup.”
The Bible passage that Aldrin chose to read were the words of Jesus from John 15:5:
“I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me, and I in him, will bear much fruit; for you can do nothing without me” (TEV).
Aldrin added:
“It was interesting to think that the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the first food eaten there, were communion elements.”
As I write all this, I keep hearing the words of Paul Harvey, longtime radio broadcaster, “And now you know the rest of the story.”
Planned Parenthood is America’s largest abortion company. It kills hundreds of thousands of babies each year, scarring women, damaging fathers and destroying families.
It also just fired its first physician CEO in a half-century and replaced her with a political activist. Its famed former CEO Cecile Richards, who stepped down last year, was a political activist, not a health care professional.
If Planned Parenthood is more about politics and abortion than women’s health, then why do corporations and non-profits give hundreds of millions of dollars to Planned Parenthood each year? Why did Bank of America feel funding Planned Parenthood was more important than being honest with shareholders?
It’s because corporations fear the abortion industry more than 2ndVote Americans. It’s time to change that – here’s how:
1. Most importantly, continue to elect pro-life politicians in Washington, in your state government, and locally. Your work to elect pro-life politicians has brought great results in our nation’s capital and in certain states where elected officials are defending life!
A 2ndVote score of 3 or greater is the goal of 2ndVote for all corporations and non-profits.
The irony is that ending unborn life is just one of Planned Parenthood’s horrific policies. The company also covers up sex abuse of underage girls. It used to illegally sell baby body parts, and it is a necessary service for prostitution and sex trafficking. It defrauds taxpayers. It is ripe for losing all governmental and corporate support – so let’s dig deep and make it happen.
It won’t be easy, but the most important things never are. The children are worth it.
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While the State Department was trying to stop religious hostility, one congresswoman was down the street trying to fuel it. In an eerie backdrop to the Trump administration’s ministerial, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) seemed determined to highlight the threat that exists right here at home — radical Democrats.
Omar, who hasn’t exactly been a friend to Israel, took her contempt to a new level this week when she introduced a new level of anti-Semitism into her congressional agenda. If she learned anything from her February scandal, when she demeaned the Jewish people and drew the ire of her own party, Omar hasn’t shown it. Instead, she’s doubled down on her obvious disdain for Israel with a resolution that would support the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
If you’re unfamiliar, the BDS movement that Omar is promoting is an effort reminiscent of what took place in Nazi Germany leading up to WWII. In 1933, the German government launched Juden boykott, a boycott of Jewish stores and shops designed to not only to hurt the Jewish community economically but to stigmatize and delegitimize the Jewish people. The BDS movement — whether stated or not — has the same effect only it is an international effort targeting the state of Israel.
The BDS movement is being done in the name of the Palestinians, attempting to force Israel to give up their land in the eastern portion of the country, Judea, and Samaria. The sad irony is that while targeting Israel, the movement is hurting many Arabs and Palestinians who are working side by side with Jewish residents in these communities. I’ve been to places like Ariel, which have thriving industrial parks that employ hundreds of Palestinians. The reality is, in those communities, Israel’s thriving economy is fostering a managed and sustainable peace that so many on the outside have promised through third-party intervention.
The criticism has been so overwhelming that CBS News invited the Minnesota congresswoman on its morning show to explain. “Would you like to make it clear that you’re not anti-Semitic?” Gayle King asked. “Oh, certainly not,” Omar said, smiling. “Yes.” “Would you like to make that clear?” King asked again. “Yes,” Omar repeated, a little more frustrated this time. “Oftentimes there are things that you might say, might not hold weight for you, but to someone else, right, the way that we hear and consume information is very different than how the next person might,” she explained.
Of course, to the Jewish people here and abroad, it’s more than what Omar has said (and that’s more than enough). It’s what she’s doing that speaks the loudest. Vice President Mike Pence, like most conservatives and reasonable Democrats, isn’t fooled. He knows this is part of a much deeper hatred, which, if it isn’t stopped now, has the potential to unleash a frightening new chapter in America. “Anti-Semitism is on the rise,” he warned at the ministerial. “In France and Germany, things have gotten so bad that Jewish religious leaders have warned their followers not to wear kippahs in public for fear that they could be violently attacked. And attacks on Jews, even on aged Holocaust survivors, are growing at an alarming rate.”
Then, in a direct nod at Omar, said, “Regrettably, the world’s oldest hatred has even found a voice in the halls of our United States Congress. So let me say it clearly: Anti-Semitism is not just wrong; it’s evil. And anti-Semitism must be confronted and denounced wherever and whenever it arises, and it must be universally condemned.” That’s a scary thought to most Americans, who assumed the U.S.’s new envoy to combat anti-Semitism wouldn’t be needed here at home.
But, as Noam Marans explained at a panel I joined at the ministerial, “Hate is an equal opportunity offender. It sometimes begins with Jews, but it never ends with Jews.” That’s why the U.S. Congress — and Democratic party in particular — needs to stand up and make it clear: this kind of dangerous prejudice won’t be tolerated. Irene Weiss, a Holocaust survivor, who spent eight months in Auschwitz sleeping next to the crematorium, understands all too well where this leads. “Day and night columns of young mothers with children, and elderly men and women, took their last steps as they passed by our barrack. We watched them enter the gate that led to the gas chamber.”
She thought no one could have possibly known such evil existed. “If they knew, surely they would stop it.” It turns out, world leaders knew about Auschwitz and the other extermination camps. “But the killing continued.” Seventy-years later, she said soberly, “Humanity’s vulnerability to the same forces of hate exists today.” And we cannot say we did not know.
Tony Perkins’ Washington Update is written with the aid of FRC senior writers.
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EDITORS NOTE: This FRC column is republished with permission. All rights reserved.
Planned Parenthood has exterminated 10 times more people than the Nazis. Justice demands that they be tried in the same manner.
“Will a single American elected official please stand up and challenge the continued public funding of this subversive religious racket?” – Michelle Malkin
Refugee Resettlement Watch may be down temporarily, but thankfully patriots with bigger megaphones have taken up the call to educate Americans about the supposedly ‘religious’ charities that live off of us—taxpayers—in order to promote an Open Borders agenda.
Thanks to reader Richard for tipping me off to Michelle Malkin’s recent column about Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service‘s leading role as an anti-Trump community agitation group (while they collect millions in federal grants and contracts from the Trump Administration)!
Krishanti Vignarajah leads the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service following the controversy that saw its previous CEO ousted in 2017.
From VDARE,
If you were shocked by the images of the Mexican flag flying over an Aurora, Colorado, immigration detention center this weekend, you’ll be appalled at an even more disgusting spectacle:
One of the top promoters of the so-called Lights for Liberty nationwide protests by Trump-hating, ICE-bashing radicals was a nonprofit religious organization known as the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service.
As a designated “host,” LIRS played a key role in publicizing, organizing and participating in demonstrations against President Donald Trump’s deportation enforcement actions targeting some 2,000 illegal immigrants and their families who have ignored removal orders or skipped out on court hearings.
Brazen hatred of cops, Border Patrol and ICE agents were on full display at the open borders protests fronted by LIRS and other left-wing groups, including Code Pink, CASA and CAIR.
[….]
The president and CEO of LIRS, Krishanti Vignarajah, is a Sri Lankan refugee and former Michelle Obama policy director who led the Lights for Liberty event in Washington, D.C. She argues that Americans are obligated to open the floodgates at the southern border (since she turned out so great) and vehemently opposes what she calls “militant border enforcement.” To these border-sabotaging radicals, of course, any border enforcement is “militant.”
LIRS sounds like just the kind of extremist group you’d expect to be kept afloat by billionaire George Soros’ big bucks. But hold on to your wallets and your American flags, folks: In 2016, LIRS relied on $64.7 million in government subsidies from taxpayers—that’s you and me—to fund a whopping 96.2% of its budget.
[….]
Disguised as compassion and Christian morality, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service’s activism is a profit-seeking machine—even as the agency has been plagued by allegations of mismanagement that prompted an external probe two years ago.
These ‘Christian’ groups aren’t passing the plate in their churches, but have latched on to the money stream coming out of your wallets via Washington’s redistributors of your wealth.
Please visit VDARE for more of Malkin’s excellent summary of why this is so outrageous.
Photo is from Birchbox, here.
Endnote: At least one of the nine federal refugee contractors isn’t doing so well and has announced this week that it will close its Florida offices, see World Relief running out of your money.
Big fat lie in that story!
World Relief, which opened its Jacksonville office in 1990, is one of nine agencies nationally that collaborates with the U.S. State Department to resettle refugees.
The nonprofits typically help refugees set up their apartments, get their children into school, and go to doctors’ appointments. But the refugees are expected to pay back all the costs.
That is not true!
This post is filed in my ‘Charity fraud’ category.
EDITORS NOTE: This Frauds, Crooks and Criminals column is republished with permission. All rights reserved.
“Speak now or forever hold your peace” is based upon the marriage liturgy of the Christians’ Book of Common Prayer. Today it may refer to our self-monitoring for the irrational fear of not being politically correct
After reading my essay, “An Assumption of Dignity,” on the Internet, a reader commented,
“I circulated it to our editorial board who found it very moving. However, based entirely on the reality of it not being “politically correct,” I am recommending that it will not be posted on our educational site. That said, given its compelling nature, I will circulate it privately and selectively.”
This poignant communication appears to be from an academic, corporate or military milieu, who wants to share it but is constrained by a fear of being classified “intolerant.” In years past, he’d have thought nothing about forwarding and posting the article with his observations on said educational site. Today, in this post-Obama era, he is threatened by the vitriol that would explode were he to dispatch ideas antithetical to those who set the political agenda, intimidated by the possibilities that harm would come to his family, and concerned that he could be summarily dismissed from his position if the first two and harassed if the third.
Although our First Amendment remains unchanged, with its protections extended to all individuals in the United States, the writer nevertheless reasoned that sharing information contradictory to the views of the ruling class could offend and must be done surreptitiously and with extreme caution. He is judicious and self-monitoring, but feeling defenseless in his isolated position, he is slowly conforming to “the plan.” Guarded, he is gradually growing fearful and more submissive to those in power.
The purveyors of hate-speech accusations work to divide us into groups based on their immutable features – race, religion, ethnicity, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, family breakdown, and views on innumerable subjects. They have always existed in history but are far more forcefully promoted by those who now hold sway over our schools, government, and the workplace. When these were still insufficient to more completely affect our massive population, the ruling class devised issues for additional divisiveness – climate, abortion and post-partum infanticide, American monuments and symbols, slavery and LGBTQ reparations, a unique foreign invasion, and so many more. And when our young adults leave the schools to join the mainstream of American life, they will take with them not only their learned prejudices, but also their ways of stifling the free speech of others who would dare to disagree.
The left has worked doggedly to insert their values into our lives, and because they use compassion as their tactic, traditional Americans failed to see that the compassion was highly selective. Compassion for the mother is denied the unborn child; compassion for the gender-confused is denied the healthy heterosexual; compassion for the Muslim newcomer is denied the indigenous Christian and Jew. We have even witnessed the compassion shown more for the criminal than for his victim in a court of law.
This selective compassion is denied our President, a man who serves his country selflessly, even donating his paychecks to worthy causes. Why does the left rant about President Trump, insult his every sentence, mannerism, activity? For one thing, it serves to comfort the left, to keep them engaged with trivia to dodge the discomfort of acknowledging his triumphs. For another, and perhaps the crux of the issue, is that when they cannot suppress his speech, they can still suppress what they hear. They impose their will on others by censoring what’s available to the public, such as Google, Facebook and Twitter, and discredit the rest. The Shangri La for the left is when society is so controlled that it becomes self-censoring. We are almost there.
Our founding fathers ensured that freedom of speech became the unambiguous law of our land, yet many who claim to support that freedom work to silence the views of others, to eliminate dissent and satisfy their desire for power – even dictatorially seeking to inflict harm on those who disagree. By making full use of the conflicts inherent in multiculturalism, and further dividing the population into their own cultural attributes and values, now identified as intersectionality, social havoc has been created with political liberty.
Our United States has been fragmented into warring tribes, as we see those who insist on protection from ideas they find intolerable have, themselves, become intolerant of the speaking rights others. Mainstream media publishes and reports only their leftist view on any subject and event. Muslims who insist on shari’a law for themselves are dedicated to overtaking their host by denying Americans their Constitutionally guaranteed culture and religious worship. Demeaning insults abound against any opposition, and democrats now debase men in general and white males in particular for the ills of racial segregation, although they were enacted by the democrat-mandated Jim Crow laws of racial segregation, from the 1870s, after the Reconstruction era, to 1965.
The ideological tactic is also defined as cultural Marxism, when one party can issue invectives to force the other party into “politically correct” silence. This unhealthy situation has replaced honest debate that arrives at understanding and/or gracious compromise. The resultant increasing levels of antagonism are causing a decline in our social stability – allowing invasion, crime by overpopulation, escalating disease, homelessness, drug abuse, rising sexual crimes, heightened loneliness and suicide, violence – all adding a serious strain to our national debt, as well. Allowing these failures results from one side’s preying on the compassion of others. We must recognize that “Limited speech must come from debate, not before debate.” – Izzy Kalman.
“We have to condemn publicly the very idea that some people have the right to repress others. In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousandfold in the future.” – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. The Gulag Archipelago.
EDITORS NOTE: If you enjoyed this article, please consider Korol’s book, “Confronting the Deception,” available on Amazon.
Sharia justice in the UK. My latest in FrontPage:
As Tommy Robinson headed into court for his sentencing Thursday, he wore a t-shirt that read: “Convicted of Journalism.” And it’s true. Tommy Robinson is heading back to jail for doing what journalists routinely do: ask questions of defendants heading into courtrooms. The gaggle of establishment media journalists who peppered Tommy himself with questions as he entered the court have not been arrested.
British authorities claimed that Tommy Robinson had prejudiced the outcome of the trial of several members of a Muslim rape gang. This is arrant nonsense: the trial had been completed, and Tommy was asking them what they thought of their having been convicted. There was, however, a gag order on the proceedings, and it was on the basis of the claim that Tommy violated that gag order that he is now back in prison.
Why was the gag order put into place? The obvious reason is that the British government and law enforcement authorities are deeply embarrassed by their abysmal record in dealing with Muslim rape gangs. In just one city, Rotherham, British officials “described their nervousness about identifying the ethnic origins of perpetrators for fear of being thought as racist; others remembered clear direction from their managers not to do so.”
Nor did this happen only in Rotherham; all over the country, authorities let Muslim rape gangs run rampant for fear of being charged with “racism” and “Islamophobia” if they did anything about them. That is just what happened to Tommy Robinson when he dared to call attention to these gangs and the Islamic motivation behind their activities. The Muslim rape gangs went unreported, unprosecuted, and in general unstopped because of far-Left organizations including Hope Not Hate, Faith Matters, and Tell Mama, which waged relentless war against anyone and everyone who spoke out about this issue. They demonized as “Islamophobic,” “hateful” and “bigoted” anyone who said that there were Muslim rape gangs at all, and that they had to be stopped. They led the campaign to ban Pamela Geller and me from entering the country, when one of the events we had discussed going to was a rally against the Muslim rape gangs.
Hope Not Hate has scrubbed the evidence, but it used to be possible to search for “grooming” (as these gangs are usually called “grooming gangs” in the British media) at Hope Not Hate’s site. You would have seen that the vast majority of the articles mentioning this practice were attacking those who were calling attention to it and protesting against it.
The lives of tens of thousands of British girls are ruined today because of fascist “anti-hate” crusaders Nick Lowles and Matthew Collins of Hope Not Hate, Fiyaz Mughal of Faith Matters and Tell Mama, and their friends, supporters, and allies. Yet it is Tommy Robinson who is in prison. If Britain were even close to being a sane society today, Lowles, Mughal, and company, not Tommy Robinson, would be being subjected to scorching criticism, and there would be a thorough public reevaluation of how much the Left’s alliance with Islamic supremacism and smear campaign against foes of jihad terror has harmed the nation and its people.
But Britain is not a sane society today, and these sinister individuals — Lowles, Mughal, and the rest of them — continue to wield their considerable power and influence in British society. If Britain is ever to recover itself and stave off chaos, civil war and Sharia, Lowles, Collins, Mughal and others like them must be decisively repudiated and removed from all positions of influence, and their organizations exposed for what they are.
Instead, Tommy Robinson is back to jail, with a sentence that could be a death sentence at the hands of Muslim inmates who threatened and menaced him when he was in prison before.
The British government is clearly making an example of him in order to try to deter more Britons from protesting against its policies of mass Muslim immigration and its covering up of crimes perpetrated by Muslims in the name of Islam and in accord with its teachings. This conviction and sentencing shows not Tommy Robinson’s contempt of court, but the contempt of the British government for its own citizens, and particularly for the victims of Muslim rape gangs.
Britain has become a shabby little police state in which it is illegal to criticize Islam and mass Muslim migration in Britain today. Its death as a free society is by its own hand.
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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. All rights reserved.
Chronology of Venezuela’s Transition from Prosperity to Socialism.
The Venezuela Model:
Chronology of America’s Transition from Prosperity to Socialism.
Everything is on the line on November 3rd, 2020.
I took a lot of heat for forecasting this and discussing this in numerous articles of which are linked up here in this post. Turns out I was right. More importantly, this is now at our door step as forecast way back when.
July 13, 2019, The Washington Times reported that “The House of Representatives moved Friday to make military commissions held at Guantanamo Bay more transparent by paving the way for proceedings to be broadcast online”. Yep, that’s right.
I get it, the article goes on to discuss terrorism and 911 and so on. But once this passes, who else will be viewed on line as the tribunals take place? Yep, those charged with treasonous acts in violation of 18 US Sec. Code 2384 seditious conspiracy and 2385 advocating the overthrow of a government. Mark Taylor said this on Twitter, “Boom! Here we go, the first Military Tribunal? And the people get to watch. These Tribunals will be some of the most watched TV with the highest ratings. Panic! Victory!”
I encourage you to have a peek at the dot connecting applicable inks below. Then sign up for the JMC weekly report by clicking below. Subscribe to my YouTube channel and watch for the launching of my daily program at IAMtv, the “News Behind The News with John Michael Chambers”. Things are about to get very real. Be informed and remain connected. WWG1WGA!
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In response to my clarion call for citizens to push back against anti-Americanism and cultural assassins, several of you have asked how. Some believe the battle is already lost. Some think violent resistance is the only solution. I disagree with both mindsets.
We are a Christian nation founded upon the rock of biblical principles. This is why unlike any other form of government, our constitution has survived over 243 years. It is up to each of us to pray, asking God to reveal our personal role in restoring America back to His original intention for our exceptional great nation.
In the gospel song, “Ordinary People” the lyric says, “Your little becomes much when you place it in the Master’s hand.” My younger brother is a perfect example of this truth. He is a deacon in a church in Baltimore with an all black congregation. His pastor and the congregation hate Trump, Republicans and trend towards anti-Americanism. On numerous occasions, my black Republican brother has confronted his pastor and fellow parishioners about how their loyalty to the Democratic party conflicts with their supposed commitment to Jesus Christ and biblical teachings. Their response has been to impugn him, calling him an Uncle Tom. A church member laughed at my brother for wearing a tiny American flag lapel pin.
My brother said rather than leaving his church of 25 years, he feels led to stay to provide salt and light. He teaches a class at church for new Christians, taking every opportunity to explain how the Democrat’s agenda is contrary to God’s agenda. My brother said more and more members are secretly coming to him, thanking him for opening their eyes to the truth. Praise God. This is how we restore America folks, each of us doing what we can from where we are. In his own way, my brother is pushing back.
For decades, Republicans and Christians have passively allowed leftists to infect our youth with anti-Americanism and instill a culture of glorified debauchery while systemically secularizing our government. All references of America’s Christian founding have been removed from public education. Historian David Barton is pushing back by publishing his Founder’s Bible.
Nike, sports apparel company, pulled their new Betsy Ross flag shoes off shelves because spoiled-brat anti-American multi-millionaire Colin Kaepernick absurdly claimed Ross’s flag celebrates slavery.
Renowned conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh pushed back. He launched a “Stand Up for Betsy Ross” t-shirt campaign featuring the Betsy Ross flag. Proceeds benefit the Tunnel to Towers Foundation. Sales have gone through the roof. Thousands of Americans relished the opportunity to join Rush in pushing back against leftists’ relentless assaults on our great homeland.
Thank God for President Trump. Push back is in his DNA.
Democrats sought to destroy Bernie Marcus, co-founder of Home Depot for donating to Trump’s reelection campaign. Unlike most Republicans, Trump pushed back. He boldly defended Marcus and Home Depot with the following tweet.
“A truly great, patriotic & charitable man, Bernie Marcus, the co-founder of Home Depot who, at the age of 90, is coming under attack by the Radical Left Democrats with one of their often used weapons. They don’t want people to shop at those GREAT stores because he contributed to your favorite President, me!”
“These people are vicious and totally crazed, but remember, there are far more great people (‘Deplorables’) in this country, than bad. Do to them what they do to you. Fight for Bernie Marcus and Home Depot!”
Trump is righteously pushing back against illegals invading our country. Democrats and fake news media desire to corrupt our elections with illegal alien voters. Their sinister scheme began with President Obama removing the citizenship question from the census. Despite enraged Democrats and fake news media having a temper tantrum, Trump plans to issue an executive order to put the citizenship question back in the 2020 census. This is what courageous push back looks like.
I am seeing more and more signs that Americans are finally waking up, pushing back on the front lines of leftists’ war on babies, religious liberty, patriotism and freedom.
For decades we have allowed leftists to dumb down public education; removing true American history and biblical morality from our schools. Consequently, ignorance of the biblical roots of our Constitution and the huge price paid for our freedoms poses the greatest threat to preserving American exceptionalism. We are literally one election away from losing our Founder’s divinely inspired vision of America. It is imperative that each of us push back; doing our part to restore and preserve this unique extraordinarily successful experiment called America. bit.ly/2LhQHf2
Remember, “Your little becomes much when you place it in the Master’s hand.”
Preview:
People are dying all over the country from opioid overdoses. There’s a movement to have the antidote naloxone available in all ambulances and even over the counter. This temporarily reverses the fatal effect of opioids, which stop the patient’s breathing. First responders themselves may need a dose because of contact with a tiny amount of fentanyl, an extremely potent narcotic, while attending a patient.
No, the fentanyl does not come from the patient’s bottle of legal prescription drugs.
Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.) introduced a proposal that he claims would “go a long way to fight the practice of doctor shopping for more prescription pain pills amid a deadly opioid crisis.” Doctor shopping “involves visiting multiple doctors.” Hardly new, this proposal, now passed by the House of Representatives as an amendment to a $99.4 billion Health and Human Services appropriations bill, lifts the ban on funding a Unique Patient Identifier (UPI).
The UPI is part of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996. You don’t have one yet because former congressman Ron Paul, M.D., (R-Tex,) sponsored a prohibition on funding it as part of a 1999 appropriations bill. Rep. Foster’s amendment repeals Dr. Paul’s prohibition.
So how is this 1996 idea supposed to work? And why would it be better than the Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs) now in effect in nearly every state? Every prescription for a controlled substance must be reported to the PDMP, and the doctor must check it before writing a prescription, to be sure the patient is not lying about having prescriptions from other doctors. This costly program that creates time-consuming hassles for doctors has not prevented opioid deaths.
PDMPs are ineffective because doctor shopping is not the cause of the problem. Only 2.5 percent of misused prescription pain medicine was obtained by doctor shopping. And this small percentage apparently increased after PDMPs. More than 97% of misused medications are obtained from a single physician—or from an illicit source. The spike in opioid deaths after 2013 was caused by illicit fentanyl, as Dr. John Lilly concludes from painstaking analysis of official data.
If Rep. Foster’s amendment is not removed, you might have to have a UPI to get legitimate medical care—“no card, no care”—but the drug cartel won’t mind. You can shop drug dealers as much as you like. There is a flood of fentanyl, mostly from Mexico or China, coming across our borders. Rep. Foster is apparently unaware of the armed lookouts protecting the smuggling routes in the Tucson sector. And once here, the drugs go to distributors—such as illegal aliens protected in sanctuary cities.
So, what about the other touted benefits of the UPI? “Specifically, assigning a unique number to a patient would give doctors a way to immediately identify a patient’s medical history,” said Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.). He says it “would lower the cost of medical mix-ups due to misidentification.” His elderly father was nearly given the wrong medication.
To prevent medical errors, you need to alert nurses and doctors—and the UPI is not going to fix the hazards of the electronic health record. The EHR, touted as the solution that will bring efficient, quality care, has created its own type of errors.
There is no guarantee that a UPI will improve access to the record, and critical information will still be buried in voluminous, repetitious data of dubious reliability, some of which may have been cut-and-pasted from another patient’s record. There may be critical gaps as patients withhold information they don’t want in a federal database. The new problem that brings the patient to the hospital won’t be in the old record—but may be the result of an old misdiagnosis that should be corrected instead of copied.
Patients need to be able to shop for doctors, especially if the one they have has not solved their problems. Some of them desperately need opioids, which are increasingly difficult to obtain. They do not need a UPI, and neither does their doctor.
The UPI is ideally suited for government tracking and control of all citizens. People like J. Edgar Hoover or Lois Lerner might find it very useful. But it would be the end of privacy, and the foundation for a national health data system.