Just as many in the Democratic Party are seeking to moderate their message in order to once again compete as a national political party, some high-profile Democrats are urging the party to lurch further left with an even firmer embrace of gun control.
Going further than most anti-gun activists and politicians, her command for Democrats to champion gun control included a call to shut down discussion on the topic. In doing so, Warren seemed to liken the issue of gun control to that of global warming, which many activists have long-attempted to put beyond the scope of legitimate debate.
It’s time for us to say: Democrats are on the side of science.
We’re done arguing about whether climate change is real – and we’re going to fight it with everything we have.
We’re done arguing about whether trickle-down economics works – and we’re going to fight to build this economy so it works for working families.
We’re done arguing about gun safety – and we’re going to fight for the common-sense reforms the overwhelming majority of Americans want.
First, there is nothing remotely close to a scientific consensus on the efficacy of gun control advocates’ most favored proposals. A 2013 memo from the Department of Justice’s National Institute for Justice surveyed the research on several gun control measures. In relation to a restriction on the private transfer of firearms, the NIJ determined that such a measure would be ineffective unless coupled with an onerous registration regime. Addressing restrictions on commonly-owned semi-automatic firearms, NIJ determined, “Since assault weapons are not a major contributor to US gun homicide and the existing stock of guns is large, an assault weapon ban is unlikely to have an impact on gun violence.” So-called “smart guns” were found “Unlikely to affect gun crime.”
Moreover, earlierreviewsof gun research and controls by the National Academies have made clear that the senator’s absolutist statement is unwarranted.
Second, while gun control proponents are quick to point to polls showing public support for restrictions on the private transfer of firearms as a justification for trampling gun rights, actual experience paints a different picture. In 2016, anti-gun activists’ most-touted gun control measure was on the ballot in two very different “blue” states, Maine and Nevada. When given the opportunity to vote on this legislation, Mainers rejected further gun control, while Nevadans narrowly passed a misleading and unenforceable background check initiative by less than a 1 percent margin. Not exactly evidence of an “overwhelming majority.”
If there is any positive aspect to Warren’s recent anti-gun statement, it is that the senator was so forthright in her attack on our Second Amendment rights. For many years, gun control advocates and anti-gun politicians have implored lawmakers and the nation to have a much-needed “conversation” on gun control. Of course, the country has been embroiled in a nearly ceaseless national debate on the topic since the 1960s.
This tactic is always an anti-gun ruse. Rather than an earnest debate on the merits of a given proposal, those using this language are exclusively concerned with achieving their preferred policy outcomes. While Warren is incorrect that the argument over gun control has been decisively determined in her favor, at least she has dropped the ridiculous pretext of wanting a serious debate.
Warren’s hardline anti-gun position might play well in Massachusetts, a state where the fanatical attorney general has been permitted to willfully misinterpret state law to attack law-abiding gun owners and local law enforcement have discretion over who may possess even a single-shot shotgun. Given Hillary Clinton’s fervent support for the most radical gun control measures and her subsequent ascent to the Democratic presidential nomination, it’s obvious that militant anti-gun messaging is also attractive to some of the more statist elements of the Democratic Party. However, there is strong evidence that if the Democrats are interested in competing nationally, a more moderate stance on Second Amendment rights is the way forward.
Democratic Party leaders, and Democratic candidates running in competitive elections, will have to decide whether to follow the lead of someone likely bolstering her left-wing credentials to run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, or look to history and recognize the wisdom in former Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Rahm Emanuel’s determination that Democratic candidates should “reflect” their constituents.
EDITORS NOTE: Thomas Jefferson, the founder of the Democratic Party, wrote, “The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.”
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/elizabeth-warren-1.jpg360640NRA Institute for Legislative Actionhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngNRA Institute for Legislative Action2017-08-19 05:47:472017-08-29 05:40:08Elizabeth Warren Urges Democrats to Champion Gun Control, Shut Down Debate
Chautauqua Institution, originally a cultural center, is now a disseminator of Islamic messaging to reach out to uninformed Christians and Jews programmed to accept multiculturalism. Featured speaker Shadi Hamid, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic Center for Middle East Policy, is part of the worldwide movement financed by oil money.
On August 9, he spoke of American anxiety, incongruously blaming occasions such as buying jam at the grocer’s, where, alas, so many choices will cause regret that he hasn’t purchased the best option. He sees no beauty in the many fruits, flavors or quality, or why, if one manufacturer makes jams and employs and pays a decent wage to improve life for himself and his neighbors, another cannot do the same in another locality. Why must ingenuity be stifled?
Blind to possibilities, Hamid is instead guided by Islamic rules, allowing only one jam, or having one of his housebound wives make it.
He prefers that leadership dictate one’s lifestyle by force; create one nation, the Ummah; one law, sharia; and one goal, world domination.
Where democratic nations have excelled in science and technology, medical advances, improvements in agriculture and water technology so that humanity may flourish, the Islamic culture is based on shame and honor, and a high illiteracy rate to impede progress. Their greatness will come when all vestiges of advanced societies are destroyed.
He described the universal condition as a “struggle,” but he meant “jihad,” as struggle is rarely part of the Western vernacular. Hamid is a moderate, unweaponed jihadi, hoping to conquer by message, to convince his conditioned audience that his culture is superior, and particularly to reach those who have chosen the altar of liberalism over Judaism and Christianity, from which derived those freedoms, morals and ethics imperative to happiness and peace. Judaism and Christianity do not struggle for meaning; struggle is a proclivity of all forms of fascism, because authoritarianism provides no contentment.
The divisiveness that Hamid sees in America comes not from democracy, but from those who seek its destruction. Our laws provide respect for human rights, religious freedom, worker rights, a secure peace by combating international terrorism, stability, prosperity, open markets and economic development, improvement in the global environment and human health, and the enemy hopes to use our laws to defeat us. Arab-American author Nonie Darwish penned a warning, “America must protect its democracy, culture, and sovereignty from nations with aspirations of conquering us from within.”
We need only look to the Islamic Middle East to see Hamid’s “rich tapestry of traditions and contentment” – the rampant violence that has now created a “lost generation” of Middle East men – 30,000 suicides, 35,000 deaths from interpersonal violence, a ten-fold increase of fatalities from HIV/AIDS in 25 years (a side effect of FGM on women), and 144,000 deaths from wars in 22 Islamic nations.
Other twisted threads of this vintage brocade constitute the sharp increase in non-communicable diseases in the Eastern Mediterranean region – depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia. The death toll from Islamic terrorists since 9/11, at 31,546 (to date), is born of, but also affects, the families from which these terrorists are woven.
The speaker educated his audience that Mohammed, a prophet, was also theologian, politician, head of state, and state builder, but his list was incomplete. He was also a warmonger, conqueror, murderer, beheader, enslaver, rapist and pedophile. Hamid imperiously denounced the Bible as not being the entire word of G-d, but tells us that the Koran is – of a god who wreaks pain and havoc on his children.
While also insinuating that the Hebrew Scriptures are superseded by the Christian Scriptures (although the former provides the foundational doctrines for the latter), he added that the Koran supersedes the Christian. In a few words, he has delegitimized the basis for all Western civilization, slighting the most compassionate laws by which humans live in comparative harmony.
Interestingly, Hamid acknowledged that Islam is also a political doctrine. He cannot distinguish the role of religion from state because Islam is a theocracy, and their deity, Allah, the sole source from which all authority is derived.
The rule of conquest is carried out by both armed terrorists and self-styled moderates working within the framework of the invaded country to insinuate their laws in increments, gradually and differently, according to the workings host culture.
The speaker closed with the usual feigned victimization, a plea for “peaceful disagreement if there must be disagreement.” This is taqiyyah, holy deception, “a strategy to make Islam dominant; a persistent tactic of the skilled to deceive the non-Muslims and downplay the threat of Islam.” Yet the reality is that while mosques are being erected throughout the US, Christians and Jews are not demanding churches and synagogues in Saudi Arabia. While American school cafeterias are accommodating Moslem students with the removal of pork, Jews are not demanding kosher foods anywhere. While our textbooks have been revised to contain whitewashed Islam, Americans are being robbed of their own history.
Of all the ethnic groups that have come to America, Moslems are the only ones who require accommodation, and create neighborhoods and school areas that exclude others. His is the group that will use our laws to enact theirs for dominion.
Dear reader, his was not an extemporaneous speech by a neophyte. Hamid’s words were judiciously chosen, with a lesson to be derived from his explicit example of achieving contentment from only one jar of jam. He cares not a whit about quality, flavor, or your preference; he wants only one choice of jam and one choice of religion – Islam. In 1400 years, Islam was unable to produce the quality and flavor of Western civilization, but if they could succeed in annihilating Western civilization, ah, then Islam would finally be the best.
This is civilizational jihad. This guest is one of many who comes to indoctrinate the uninformed in Chautauqua, that fewer choices mean fewer worries. Life is not made better, but infinitely simpler when you do as you’re told, eat what you’re given, and dare not complain. It is more than just a “Shadi” deal; it is bondage.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/Chautauqua-Institution.jpg372639Tabitha Korolhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngTabitha Korol2017-08-18 19:55:382017-08-20 15:21:56A Choice of One
It’s a story as old as civilizations passing away, history looping without end…
First they came for the Confederate monuments, because they represented those who fought to maintain slavery.
Then they came for Confederate flags, because banning them would alleviate the hurt of slavery they represented.
Then they came for Confederate names on buildings, on schools and on streets. That which causes offense is not acceptable in our society.
Then they came for the history textbooks, which were revised to avoid causing pain to students confronted with the ugly past in their own country. How could the children endure this?
After a time, they had erased all memories of the Confederacy from the public square and the books — sent them down the memory hole — and all was good with race relations. All would now prosper and feel safe from the offense of history.
But…
Some Founders were slaveholders. And this is intolerable to even think about. So they came for those Founders who owned slaves, most prominent of whom were Thomas Jefferson and George Washington.
They came for the Jefferson and Washington Monuments in the nation’s capital and all statues of Washington and Jefferson, for they caused deep offense. Slaveowners looking down on us!
Then they came for schools named after Jefferson and Washington. Then they came after streets and towns named after Jefferson and Washington. That which causes offense is not acceptable in our society.
Then they came for the history textbooks, which were revised to avoid causing pain to students confronted with the slaveholding realities of the nation’s forefathers. How could the children endure this?
And finally they came after the Capital of the United States, because it was named after a slaveholder. How offensive to every citizen!
After a time, they had erased all memories of every founder who was a slaveholder from the public square and the books — sent down the memory hole — and all was good with race relations. All would now prosper and feel safe from the offense of history.
But…
It was soon remembered that all of the Founders agreed to keep women from being able to vote, to treat them as second-class citizens. This included those who were not slaveholders and those who opposed slavery.
So they came after all of the rest of the Founders not already erased, because they were sexist and diminished women. Hated women. Such sexism can never be celebrated!
Then they came for the monuments to Founders such as John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Paine and the rest for they caused offense, they made some women feel “less than.” Sexist males looking down on us!
Then they came for schools named after Adams and Hamilton. Then they came after streets and towns named after Adams and Hamilton. That which causes offense is not acceptable in our society.
Then they came for the history textbooks, which were revised to avoid causing pain to students confronted with the ugly, sexist past of all of the Founders of their own country. How could the children endure this?
After awhile, they had erased all memories of every Founder — racist and sexist — from the public square and the books — all sent down the memory hole — and all was good with race and gender relations. All would now prosper and feel safe from the offense of history.
But…
Oh, there was so much more still to erase! The impurities!
They came for Christopher Columbus because he brought plagues to the natives and stole their lands and resources. Erase him!
They came for U.S. presidents before the Civil War because they appeased the South with compromises, allowing slavery to expand into more new states in the Union. Erase them!
They came for the Presidents who did not uphold treaties with Native Americans. Erase them!
They came for the 19th century building titans who constructed the Transcontinental Railroad because they paid the Chinese slave labor wages for their work. Erase them!
They came for every corporate baron enriched during the industrial revolution, some of which had used child labor, all of whom had mistreated workers. Erase them!
They came for U.S. Supreme Court justices who upheld slavery in the Dred Scott ruling. Erase them!
They came for the once-revered Woodrow Wilson because he was an overt racist and acted colonially when he began the U.S. occupation of Haiti. Erase him!
They came for Franklin Roosevelt because he put Japanese-Americans in internment camps in World War II. What an offense to have to be faced with! Erase him!
They came for Harry Truman because he used atomic weapons against Japanese civilians — but not Germany — showing his bigotry. Erase him!
They came for Lyndon Johnson, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush. None withstood the next wave of erasure. “Erase them all!” they cried in their purifying fever.
Like the great Eraser’s of kingdoms past from Assyrians to Soviets, they took down all predecessors, all remnants that might remind people of the offensive, unacceptable, unauthorized national history. They erased them all.
In the end, they stood around, panting heavily from their long labors and paused. And then they came for themselves, because such was the voracious appetite to purify history from offense that none could meet the test of purity.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/Confederate-monument-in-Alabama-via-By-JNix-and-Shutterstock-e1503089550960.jpg387640Rod Thomsonhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngRod Thomson2017-08-18 16:52:442017-08-18 17:52:05First They Came for Confederate Monuments…
A few weeks ago, road and highways minister Nitin Gadkari said that driverless cars would be banned in India in order to “protect jobs.” This kind of fallacious argument is nothing new. For the past year or so, newspapers have frequently published articles arguing that automation is to blame for job losses. Even seemingly intelligent people like Bill Gates have made outlandish suggestions, such as taxing robots, to compensate workers who might lose their jobs as a result.
Bad government policies are the root cause for unemployment.
By doing a superficial analysis, one may indeed say that automation causes job losses. But by digging a bit deeper, one sees that bad government policies are the root cause for unemployment.
Circumventing Regulation
Take the case of driverless cars. Driving is not a job that requires specialized skills. Low skilled workers are abundant and also inexpensive to hire. Why, then, is Uber so interested in developing driverless cars? It is because governments around the world have imposed costly regulations, or outright banned Uber to protect the taxi cartels.
Never mind that this creates an immediate job loss for Uber drivers, it also gives Uber an incentive to invest billions in developing driverless cars to circumvent the burdensome regulations. This will ensure that all drivers will lose their jobs in the long run, including the taxi cartels governments are trying to protect.
Lant Pritchett, at the Centre for Global Development, wrote last month of a similar problem in the US. Workers from Central and Latin America could easily work low-wage jobs in the US.But minimum wage laws and immigration restrictions make labor artificially expensive.
Technological progress is distorted when government tries to protect certain industries.
That is precisely why Amazon is pouring billions into drones. In the absence of government intervention, it would be far cheaper to hire low skilled immigrants for delivering parcels. But since government won’t allow that, it is cheaper to use drones. Most delivery jobs in the US will be eliminated in the near future as a result of bad immigration policies. Policies which were, ironically, crafted to save those jobs.
Note the tremendous inefficiency this creates. The world’s scarcest resources, entrepreneurs and scientists, are working to economize the most abundant resources, namely low skilled labor. All of that entrepreneurial and scientific talent is being wasted due to bad government policies. Pritchett rightly laments that this makes it harder for poor people to escape poverty.
Pritchett’s observation is nothing new. In January, I wrote that even Karl Marx understood how technological progress is distorted when government tries to protect certain industries or occupations. A case in point is Indian manufacturing, which the government tried to protect from foreign competition.
Ill-conceived government policies are why low skilled jobs are dying an untimely death.
Countries at a similar level of development have labor intensive manufacturing which makes use of cheap labor. In India, the opposite has happened. Whatever little manufacturing takes place in the country is extremely capital intensive. Why did this happen?
Laws Are Expensive
Before 1991, government imposed extremely high tariffs on imports to encourage domestic manufacturing. Manufacturing grew, but it became more capital intensive over the years, even though cheap labor was abundantly available. The explanation for this lies in India’s complex labor laws.
India has nearly 250 labor laws between the centre and the states. The cost of complying with these labor laws is so high that companies found (and still find) it cheaper to use machines than to hire people, creating the phenomenon of jobless growth.
All of this evidence points to just one culprit, when it comes to unemployment. It is not greedy corporations and it is not automation. Ridiculously ill-conceived government policies are the sole reason that low skilled jobs are dying an untimely death.
Jairaj Devadiga is an economist who illustrates the importance of property rights and freedom through some interesting real-world cases. When he is not doing research, he enjoys reading about medicine, astronomy, computers, and law among other things. Readers may email him at jairajdevadiga@gmail.com with questions, suggestions, feedback etc.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/automation-e1502961957616.jpg416640Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFoundation for Economic Education (FEE)2017-08-17 05:28:282017-08-17 05:29:35Government, Not Automation, Destroys Jobs by Jairaj Devadiga
As a proud grateful American who happens to be black, I am frustrated by Leftists’/fake news media’s frenzied exploitation of the racial violence in Charlottesville. How can justice, peace, love and unity prevail when leftists are obsessed with using any and every opportunity to further its socialistic/progressive agenda and mission to overturn the peoples’ election of Trump?
Leftists/fake news media promote their narrative that America as founded sucks; is eternally racist, sexist and homophobic. Leftists are not interested in truth, fairness or Americans getting along. Patriotic brotherhood would throw a wrench into Leftists’ American-white-males-are-the-source-of-all-evil-in-the-world story line.
Unchallenged or criticized, Black Lives Matter has been inflicting violence across America; numerous incidents which include kidnapping and torturing a Trump supporter and attacking white families at state fairs. Black teens set a 13-year old boy on fire for being white. Have you heard any condemnation of Black Lives Matter from fake news media?
So how can we as right minded Americans of all races come together when Leftists who control most of the airways are committed to spreading division, hate and a one-sided bogus story line?
President Trump calling all racism evil was morally correct and presidential. Shamefully, Obama invited, praised and celebrated the extreme hate group Black Lives Matter at the White House. Leftists believe it is morally right for blacks to hate whites. Leftists call me an Uncle Tom traitor to my black race for not reserving a certain amount of resentment and hate for my fellow Americans who are white.
Fake news media attempting to twist Trump’s unifying message to brand him racist is the height of moral bankruptcy and must be rejected by the American people. For far too long, we have shrugged our shoulders in frustration saying, “Oh well, that’s just the bias liberal media.” Meanwhile, Americans are suffering and dying due to fake news media’s insidious propaganda and hate generating lies.
When do we the people say enough and hold Leftists/fake news media accountable for their crimes against all Americans? Please note. I am not advocating violence. I am advocating calling out Leftists/fake news media operatives, exposing them for the vile evil trash that they are; unworthy of our time, respect or support of their sponsors.
Remember, “All that is needed for evil to prosper is for good men to do nothing.”
My white wife of 40 years and I recently moved from Florida to a tiny town in West Virginia to be closer to our elderly sickly parents. Mine is one of a few black faces in town. We have experienced none of the stereotypical racism Leftists would have you believe about heartland America. Quite the opposite. Locals have bent over backwards to make Mary and I feel welcome. White neighbor Ron brought us corn from his huge garden; guaranteed to be the sweetest we have ever eaten. Ron was correct.
White local handyman and hunter Randy fixed our hot water heater for peanuts. He promised to keep us stocked in venison. Folks around here are big Trump supporters.
Watching fake news media’s relentless attempts to portray America as a hellhole of white supremacists who elected Trump is truly disheartening and evil. We simply cannot continue allowing them to get away with it. The stakes are too high. Allowing Leftists’ daily fueling of racial hate to go unabated puts American lives at risk.
The local internet provider cannot install WiFi in our home until later this month. I’ve been using the WiFi at the local country store. When I left the store the other evening an elderly white gentleman complete stranger cheerfully yelled as I was getting into my car, “Have a great evening son!”That gentleman represents the real typical white American of today. The majority of white Americans are not the rabid hate-filled racist fake news media relentlessly tells you they are. If Americans were racist, Obama could not have been elected for two terms considering that blacks are only 12% of the U.S. population.
Let’s stand together as Americans folks and just say “no” to Leftists’/fake news media’s hate-mongering. Brothers and sisters, “We Are Americans!“
RELATED VIDEO: Eric Garner & Trayvon Martin Family, Michael Brown Lawyer Say Al Sharpton Exploited Their Tragedies
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/cracked-american-flag-1.jpg360640Lloyd Marcushttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngLloyd Marcus2017-08-16 18:18:162017-08-16 18:47:30Don’t Fall For Leftists Dividing Us Racially to Get Trump
The events that transpired in Charlottesville, Va., on Aug. 12 were truly vile and disgusting. Set into motion under the guise of protesting the city’s decision to remove the statue of Robert E. Lee from Emancipation Park, the gathering instead devolved into a display of violence and intolerance that struck at the face of democracy and the ideals upon which our country was built.
The left is quick to cast its aspersions upon the white nationalist groups that organized the rally under the leadership of Jason Kessler. By the same token, it is quick to dismiss whatever disruptive behaviors may have taken place on the part of counter-protesters also present.
There are, however, three facts that are indisputable.
First, despite the repugnance of the message Kessler and his Unite the Right activists were delivering that Saturday, they had all the right in the world to deliver it as they were armed with the protections conferred by the First Amendment and a permit.
Second, the City of Charlottesville had a duty to maintain order during the demonstration especially since it knew that the outermost fringes of our political spectrum would be in attendance.
And third, the outermost fringes of our society’s political spectrum did indeed show up.
Since March 2017, Charlottesville knew this rally was coming. As a matter of fact, it acted to inconvenience Kessler and his band of protesters, ostensibly in the name of public safety, to the point of rejecting their petition unless they agreed to hold their rally at nearby McIntyre Park.
In fact, following the city’s Aug. 7 decision to reject Kessler’s original request, Kessler had to file a lawsuit in federal court seeking injunctive relief. On Aug. 11, the day prior to the rally, U.S. District Court Judge Glen E. Conrad granted Kessler the relief he sought stating, “Based on the current record, the court concludes that Kessler has shown that he will likely prove that the decision to revoke his permit was based on the content of his speech. . . Kessler’s assertion in this regard is supported by the fact that the city solely revoked his permit but left in place the permits issued to counter-protesters.” (emphasis added)
As a result, Conrad concluded that the city’s decision to disallow Kessler’s request was “based on the content of his speech” rather than on public safety, something that is specifically prohibited by the First Amendment of the Constitution.
And the city had already gotten a taste of what was coming. On July 8, a similar rally was held at Emancipation Park where approximately 50 clansmen were in attendance and over a thousand counter-protesters showed up. In that rally, a mere month prior to Kessler’s event, 23 arrests were made. (Editor’s note: This conflict is a natural result of identity politics, which we explain here.)
Moreover, the city stated prior to the rally that it was expecting anywhere between 2,000-8,000 people to be at Emancipation Park, and it still provided an inadequate police force to handle such a gathering.
Everyone understands that Charlottesville is a small town, but if the city’s police force was insufficient to protect the protesters in what was predicted to be a volatile situation, then it should have asked the Commonwealth of Virginia for help.
The bottom line is that there was no excuse for the inadequate police presence at the beginning of the rally. Charlottesville’s duty, just like that of any American governmental entity, was to protect Kesler’s right to peacefully speak and the counter-protester’s right to peacefully counter his speech. Sadly, Charlottesville shirked its responsibility, and the rest, as they say, is (another dark stain upon our) history.
There are many who place the blame on the white supremacists accumulated that day at Emancipation Park. It seems, though, that the only reason they point fingers at them is the true repugnance of their message. However, such repugnance can never be the primary reason to assign blame since doing so is tantamount to censorship and suppression.
Although we would have all loved it if these Nazi whackos would have sat down and shut up, the reality is they had all the rights afforded them in the Constitution to speak that Saturday at Emancipation Park.
Sadly, if we are to blame anyone for this tragedy, it is the City of Charlottesville, which failed to maintain the peace that day under the statue of Robert E. Lee because it didn’t like the petitioner and the message he was set to deliver.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/protesters-e1502906257971.jpg367640Dr. Julio Gonzalezhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngDr. Julio Gonzalez2017-08-16 13:57:472017-08-16 18:29:26Who’s to Blame for the Events in Charlottesville? Charlottesville!
Last week, I was scheduled to attend the annual convention of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) in New Orleans, but, after receiving a copy of the agenda with the list of speakers, I decided to cancel my trip.
I think the NABJ should change its name to the National Association of “Liberal” Black Journalists, because that is truly what they are, as an organization. I have, for years, told their leadership that they are perceived by Republicans to be closely allied with the Democratic National Committee (DNC). I have even offered to personally arrange for them to meet with leaders of the Republican Party, so that they could begin to cultivate the necessary relationships to be viewed credibly by Republicans, but NABJ leadership has absolutely no interest in being a “professional” group; they would rather be a “partisan” group, instead.
And hell no, Omarosa Manigault does not count. She is the Director of Communications for the Office of Public Liaison for the Trump Administration. She’s a liberal Democrat, not a Republican and based on what I’ve read, Omarosa’s appearance at the convention was an absolute mess.
And no, Eboni Williams from Fox News doesn’t count, either. She is a Democrat/Independent.
When you view the list of speakers, it’s a who’s who of very liberal Democrats and NABJ’s leaders wonder why the Republicans don’t take them seriously?
Need more proof that the NABJ is in the tank for the DNC? Check out the list of panelists for their “NABJ Newsmaker Plenary”:
Moderator:
Byron Pitts, ABC’s “Nightline”
Speakers:
Shani Hilton | Head of U.S. News, BuzzFeed News
Rashida Jones | Senior Vice President, Specials, NBC News/MSNBC
April Ryan | White House Correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks, Author, “At Mama’s Knee: Mothers and Race in Black and White”
Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. | Publisher and Chairman, The New York Times
Lauren Williams | Executive Editor, VOX News
Cheryl Boone Isaacs | Immediate Past President, Academy Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Marc Morial | President, National Urban League
Symone Sanders | CNN Political Commentator, Priorities USA strategist
Nina Turner | President, (Former Ohio State Senator and CNN Contributor), Our Revolution
Every, single one of these panelists works for an organization that leans left or is straight up radically liberal.
Obviously, no Black Republicans fit the NABJ’s “Newsmaker” description. I have told the leadership of NABJ, in no uncertain terms, that I would be happy to provide them a list of people who they could call upon, if they were interested and, as usual, there continues to be absolutely no interest from the group.
NABJ’s bias is so great, that they even had a panel on diversity with absolutely no “diversity”—ideologically speaking. Every person was a liberal.
They even had several speakers from the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, but, obviously, they are incapable of finding any speakers who are pro-life; or maybe they are just uninterested.
I couldn’t make this stuff up, if you paid me. Diversity of thought is nowhere to be found within NABJ.
Aren’t they doing the same thing that they, and other liberal groups, accuse corporate America of doing? As a dues paying member of NABJ, I find their lack of diversity of thought and their conscious willingness to ignore the issue, very offensive and hypocritical.
How can they constantly harp on the lack of diversity in media newsrooms and other institutions and not see that they are guilty of the same thing?
The group is supposed to be about improving opportunities for Blacks in journalism, media, and public relations. It’s worth noting that Republican members of Congress hire professionals in communication, journalism, and media for their official staffs and campaigns. Republican members of Congress also hire college interns from across the country.
By mandate of their own by-laws, they are obligated to expose their membership to the wide array of opportunities that exist in the marketplace and not to serve as a farm system or pipeline for all things liberal.
If the NABJ wants to serve as a surrogate for the DNC and other liberal organizations, then they should formally amend their bylaws to indicate that. But, if they are going to hold themselves out to be a professional organization, then maybe they should start acting like a professional organization.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/National-Association-of-Black-Journalists-logo.jpg362640Raynard Jacksonhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngRaynard Jackson2017-08-16 13:05:482017-08-16 13:05:48The National Association of Black Journalists Should Consider a Name Change
Besides removing supposed temptations to idolatry, Islamic supremacists want to ruin the artifacts of non-Muslim civilizations because doing so testifies to the truth of Islam, as the Qur’an suggests that ruins are a sign of Allah’s punishment of those who rejected his truth:
Many were the Ways of Life that have passed away before you: travel through the earth, and see what was the end of those who rejected Truth. (Qur’an 3:137)
This is one of the foundations of the Islamic idea that pre-Islamic civilizations, and non-Islamic civilizations, are all jahiliyya — the society of unbelievers, which is worthless trash. Obviously this cuts against the idea of having some historical memory and respect for where we have been as an aid to understanding and guiding where we may be going. The non-Muslim past is to be regarded solely with disgust and contempt, and the memory of it erased.
ISIS destroys Mosul statues.
This impulse is yet another element of the alliance of Muslims such as those of Hamas-linked CAIR and Leftists. Both demonize all disagreement and dissent from their positions, and do not debate their opponents, but instead defame them as morally evil. And in this call from Nihad Awad, Hamas-linked CAIR joins the Left in wanting all traces that anyone ever thought differently from the acceptable current orthodoxy be forever effaced.
“Council on American-Islamic Relations: Tear Down Every Confederate Memorial,”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), America’s largest Muslim civil rights group, is calling on state and local governments all over the United States to tear down all monuments and memorials commemorating Confederate leaders and the short-lived Confederate States of America.
CAIR joined several groups asking for the removal of Confederate memorials in the wake of a “Unite the Right” white supremacist rally that turned violent over the weekend. At the Charlottesville, Va. rally, James Alex Fields, a rally attendee, allegedly plowed his grey Dodge Challenger through a large group of people on a pedestrian mall. One woman, Heather Heyer, died in the incident. About 20 other people suffered injuries.
Nihad Awad, CAIR’s national executive director, urged state and local governments to erase every symbol and every vestige of Confederate history immediately.
Antifa protesters destroy statue in North Carolina.
“A fitting response to the deadly terror attack on anti-racist protesters in Charlottesville would be for officials in states and cities nationwide to immediately announce that every street, every school, every flag, and every public memorial honoring those who took up arms in defense of white supremacy and slavery will be removed or have its name changed to instead honor those who fought for civil rights,” Awad said in a statement to The Daily Caller.
“Removal of these memorials would be a small step forward in turning the page on the darkest period in our nation’s history,” Awad also said.
CAIR has created a template for state governments, municipal governments and school district officials to use for introducing resolutions seeking the removal of Confederate memorials and other symbolism….
On Monday evening, a group of protestors toppled a monument to Confederate soldiers in Durham, North Carolina….
In 2009, CAIR was listed by the U.S. government as an unindicted co-conspirator in a scheme that provided funding to the terror group Hamas.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/antifa-isis-destroying-statues.jpg362640Jihad Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJihad Watch2017-08-16 08:27:022017-08-20 08:28:21Islamic Supremacist CAIR calls for destruction of every Confederate memorial
Hard to know which body is held in lower esteem, the Congress or the media. But for a long time the media thought they were invincible, based largely on their success after forming the JournOlist in 2007––a cabal of 400 leftists who vowed to destroy anyone who said a single bad word about the poseur “president” Barack Obama.
When said poseur denied his lifelong friendships and political associations with fulminating anti-Semites, enacted the disaster of socialized medicine and socialized public education, eviscerated our military, doubled the national debt, signed a deal with genocidal Iran, and sang the praises of peaceful Islam as dozens of horrific Muslim terrorist attacks around the world attested to a decidedly sub-human species, JournOlist went into action to squash his critics like they were so many pesky cockroaches.
COLLUSION 101
The JournOlist’s goal last year was to insure that the, ahem, legacy of the poseur would be continued by another globalist shill, Hillary Clinton, who shamelessly extorted massive “donations” from foreign government leaders and tin-pot dictators alike to fill the coffers of the Clinton Foundation, a slush fund of undisguised bribes and payoffs designed to insure access to power. Curious that this windfall completely dried up the day after Nov. 8, 2016.
Not that anyone liked Hillary or could stop themselves from cringing as she bobbled her head, affected a southern accent in front of black audiences, and lied through her teeth at every turn.
No, to the real powers-that-be on the Council of Foreign Relations, the World Monetary Fund, in the cesspool known as the United Nations, and the big-money guys on Wall St. who actually buy our politicians and so run our country, Hillary was yet another Barack Obama, an easy-to-manipulate functionary, a front person to do their bidding and move them closer to the One World Government––and total power and control––they all crave.
And why do they crave such immense power? Partly for the accumulation of even greater wealth––my bank account is bigger than yours!––but also because they genuinely believe that they are immeasurably smarter than the masses and so exquisitely suited to call all the shots about everything to do with human existence from cradle to grave.
UH OH––MEGALOMANIUS INTERRUPTUS
After nearly one-hundred years of planning and plotting their takeover of the Democratic Republic of big bad capitalist America, the socialists and communists and jihadists among us––who under Obama, frighteningly, were implanted in the highest positions in virtually all departments of our government, hence the avalanche of leaks––along came a genuinely unanticipated wild card into the presidential race of 2015-16, billionaire businessman and successful TV personality Donald J. Trump.
Everyone witnessed the patronizing and supercilious snickering of fake journalists like ABC-TV’s George Stephanopoulos, MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Greenspan, CBS-TV’s Scott Pelley, NBC-TV’s Chuck Todd, everyone at CNN starting with its president Jeff Zucker, at the prospect of a Donald J. Trump candidacy.
Everyone––except for we Trump believers––watched and believed all the pollsters, every single one of them, predict not a mere Hillary win, but a resounding victory, right up until 8 p.m. on the night of the vote.
And, of course, everyone remembers that in spite of all the billions spent on Hillary’s candidacy, in spite of every [inaccurate poll], in spite of a Democrat Party that over decades has become expert in rigging elections, and especially in spite of the rancid collusion of the media in predicting her win, the American people had another idea.
Not since we peasants rose up between 1775 and 1783 to defeat the Crown of England under the leadership of General George Washington has an electorate been so inflamed and passionate and ideologically driven as in the election of Donald Trump on November 8, 2016.
Our message was clear: We hate the Communism and Socialism and Jihadism that has contaminated our body politic, and we love American patriotism and capitalism and a strong military and the man who is saying “Make America Great Again!”
HYSTERICS
Throughout American history, both on a national, state and local level, contentious elections have been won and lost by a hair. Sometimes there is a lengthy recount, as in Bush v Gore in 2000. Sometimes there is litigation, usually to no avail. But there has never been anything like the massive leftist meltdown after Donald Trump walloped Hillary in the Electoral College and won the presidency.
To this day, the hysterics go on. Why is that?
It is because President Trump’s victory was a total, complete, comprehensive, and devastating repudiation of everything Barack Obama and the left stood for, but more important what his handlers and billionaire world-globalists and the leftist media moguls stood for, and, of course, what Democrats and Republicans In Name Only (RINOs) stood for.
According to Wayne Allen Root, in discussing the recently failed Obamacare repeal vote––but this applies generally––“the senators who voted against the repeal are corrupted, bribed, on the take. Senators and Congressmen are making an unimaginable fortune off of Obamacare. That’s why they are against the repeal. They don’t want to end the gravy train. They want the system complex and expensive. They want government involved. They want taxpayer money wasted by the billions. That’s how they milk the system. They all own stocks of medical companies, health insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies. I’m betting many actually own companies with government contracts that benefit from Obamacare. They put them in the names of their spouses, children, parents, siblings, childhood buddies. They own them in offshore accounts. The conflicts of interest are the size of Texas.”
There you have it. But candidate Trump took a machete to the entirely crooked, corrupt, self-serving, back-slapping, vote-rigging system that has been running our country and economy and foreign policy and independence into the ground for the past at-least 75 years.
It’s as if someone showed up at your door and told you that everything about your life, your values, your beliefs, even the furnishings in your home were meaningless and disposable.
“But I’ve lived here for 50 years!” you may protest. “This is who I am, what I’ve worked for, my belief system, my identity!”
“Tough,” the person at your door says. “You have bad values, warped beliefs, shabby furnishings, a malevolent identity, and you’re a crook––and I am here to wipe you out, and everything you stand for! And by the way, I’m also going to expose all your dirty laundry, your crimes, and the criminals who aided and abetted you along the way.”
That is what we are witnessing today. Thankfully, President Trump is still the smartest guy in the room and fully up to dealing with the sewer rats who are spending every day and night trying to undermine him.
NO UNDERMINING THESE ACCOMPLISHMENTS
In mid-May, I wrote an article entitled The Juggernaut & the Jerks, which spelled out the stupendous accomplishments of President Donald Trump in his first three months in office. The response was tremendous, many people thanking me for bringing to their attention hundreds of the president’s achievements they had never heard of or read about or seen on TV. They agreed with my description of the president as a virtual unstoppable juggernaut and that members of the media were indeed a bunch of jerks.
Well, whaddaya know? Plus ça change, plus la même chose! Now that the juggernaut president has just passed his 200th day in office, he is still going at warp speed in chalking up significant accomplishments and, at the same time, draining both the national and international swamplands that have contaminated our politics for decades, and the media are still spewing out fake news and fake polls in their desperate but impotent attempts to derail the unstoppable Trump Train.
Here is an impressive––but not comprehensive––list of President Trump’s accomplishments in his second three (almost four) months in office:
The President traveled to Saudi Arabia (where he demanded that the Arab world do its share to stop terrorism); Israel (where he was the first U.S. president to visit the Western Wall); and the Vatican. He also traveled to Warsaw, Poland where he spoke proudly and passionately about the virtues of western civilization.
In the Trump White House, there are 110 fewer employees on staff than under Obama, to the tune of $5.1 million in savings: currently, five staffers for Melania Trump vs. 24 staffers for Michelle Obama.
The President donated his first-quarter salary of approx. $78,000 to the National Parks Service.
The President also did the following:
Created the Office of American Innovation to streamline and improve the Government for future generations.
Signed Executive Orders:
to “Buy American and Hire American” and to make it easier for businesses to start and expand apprenticeship programs;
to mandate that for every one new regulation, two old regulations must be eliminated, which can potentially reduce costs by $70 billion, according to The American Action Forum.
to control regulatory costs that will dramatically reduce permit approvals for projects from 10 years to 2 years, spurring investment and job creation.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average has increased 17 percent since Election Day, hitting new highs 25 times this year already.
Since January, the economy added almost a million new jobs, including in the private sector.
The President signed 14 Congressional Review Act resolutions into law, ending burdensome Obama-era rules and regulations, more than all other Presidents combined.
By withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord, President Trump protected America from a bad deal that would have harmed our economy, cost the U.S. nearly $3 trillion, and lost 6.5 million industrial-sector jobs and 3.1 million manufacturing-sector jobs.
The President increased exports of our energy resources to a global market, updated guidance from the Treasury Department to allow the United States to export coal, and expedited the permitting and approval processes of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminals and exports, including the approval of the Lake Charles LNG terminal in Louisiana.
He unleashed oil and gas development in the United States by expanding access to resources and the infrastructure needed to get them to market; he approved the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, creating over 42,000 jobs and $2 billion in earnings.
He signed Executive Orders mandating (1) future pipeline work to be done by American workers and with American steel, and he expedited new pipeline approval and production, such as the New Burgos Pipeline to Mexico, and (2) the extension of offshore oil and gas drilling and he reissued a leasing program to develop offshore resources.
The President also boosted oil and gas development on Federal lands.
Now, President Trump is reconsidering the Obama-era Environmental Protection Agency rule on greenhouse gas emissions that is estimated to cost oil and natural gas operators as much as $530 million annually.
President Trump rolled back Obama’s “Stream Protection Rule,” which targeted the beleaguered coal industry with estimated costs of at least $81 million a year.
He also withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which failed to protect American workers, and he promised to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to better reflect our modern economy while benefitting all parties involved.
The President began the process of renegotiating the United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement. In addition, negotiations started with China on economic cooperation have already produced results for American businesses. For the first time in 14 years, American beef imports have returned to China and China is now welcome to negotiate contracts to import American liquefied natural gas.
The President rolled back the Obama Administration’s bad deal with Cuba that benefitted the Cuban regime at the expense of the Cuban people.
The President instituted tough immigration policies that have reduced illegal border crossings by 53 percent compared to the same time last year.
President Trump ordered the hiring of 10,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, including 5,000 additional border patrol agents. Within the first 100 days, ICE conducted nearly 40 percent more Enforcement and Removal Operations compared to the same time last year, and arrests of convicted criminal aliens climbed by nearly 20 percent in this time compared to the same time last year. In fiscal year 2017, ICE has removed over 2,700 criminal gang members, compared to 2,057 criminal gang members in all of fiscal year 2016. ICE has specifically targeted MS-13 criminal gang members for removal on immigration violations. Since January, 66,000 illegal immigrants have been arrested, more than 70% of them having criminal records.
According to journalist and former NY City Police Chief Jim Kouri, in July, two major law enforcement operations led by the FBI, DEA and the Dutch National Police, shut down the infrastructure of an underground criminal economy and two huge crime outfits, AlphaBay and Hansa, responsible for the trading of over 350 000 illicit commodities including drugs, firearms and cybercrime malware.
The President ordered the Department of Homeland Security to use $100 million of unspent appropriations in its account for border security, fencing and infrastructure.
He ordered the creation of the Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement (VOICE) office at DHS, ensuring that our Government can no longer ignore the victims of criminal acts by illegal aliens.
Under President Trump, Department of Veterans Affairs fired over 500 employees, suspended 200, demoted 33, and disciplined 22 senior leaders as part of the effort to restore integrity and accountability to a department charged with supporting our nation’s heroes.
President Trump signed the Veterans Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act, enabling senior Veterans Affairs officials to fire failing employees while establishing important safeguards to protect whistleblowers.
The President is now starting the process of shifting veterans’ electronic medical records to the same system used by the Defense Department, ending a decades-old rift in sharing information between the two agencies.
President Trump signed into law a bill providing over $2 billion to open new Veterans Affairs department medical facilities and fund care for veterans seeking medical care outside the government system.
President Trump brokered a ceasefire in southwest Syria as part of the U.S. commitment to end the conflict, reduce human suffering, and defeat ISIS.
He supported the opening of a new “Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology” in Saudi Arabia, created to empower Muslim-majority countries to more effectively combat radicalization.
The President increased pressure on Iran to end its destructive and destabilizing actions in the Middle East, including its continued ballistic missile research.
The Department of the Treasury sanctioned over 25 entities and individuals involved in Iran’s ballistic missile program, ensuring our ability to monitor potentially malicious actors while preventing future acts of terrorism.
This week, the United States sanctioned sixteen entities and individuals that have supported Iran’s military and Revolutionary Guard Corps in the development of drones, fast attack boats, and other military equipment.
In his first six months, President Trump worked with our partners and allies in the Middle East to defeat ISIS, leading to Iraqi forces recapturing Mosul.
After the Syrian regime used chemical weapons against civilians, President Trump authorized strikes against the airbase that launched the chemical attacks, demonstrating our national commitment to preventing further atrocities.
President Trump has lifted restrictions that had prevented the Secretary of Defense and our commanders in the field from fully using their judgement and expertise.
President Trump cut $600 million from United Nations’ laughable peacekeeping budget.
President Trump signed two resolutions, one encouraging women at NASA and another promoting women in entrepreneurship.
Further, according to both The Gateway Pundit and Joel B. Pollak, Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News:
In President Trump’s first six months, the U.S. Stock Markets are at record highs and millions of Americans are benefitting in their retirement savings accounts.
The DOW daily closing stock market average has risen 18% since the election on November 8th. (On November 9th the DOW closed at 18,332 – the other day it closed at over 22,000).
The S&P 500 and the NASDAQ have both set new all-time highs during this period: the U.S. Stock Market gained $4 trillion in wealth since Trump was elected and the S&P 500 also broke $20 Trillion for the first time in its history.
According to Bloomberg News, U.S. corporate profits in the second quarter “have beaten estimates at more than three-quarters of the Standard & Poor’s 500 member companies. In every sector, at least half of the companies have surpassed or met expectations, with many also getting a boost from a sinking U.S. dollar.”
S. Debt has decreased under President Trump since his inauguration by (-$103) Billion. (President Obama increased the US debt in his first 6 months more than $974 Billion or nearly $1 Trillion.)
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, President Trump added a projected 1,027,000 jobs in his first six months (January through June 2017.) President Obama on the other hand lost more than 3,826,000 million jobs in his first six months.
Also according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the unemployment rate since President Trump’s inauguration decreased from 4.8% to 4.4% (January through June 2017). Unemployment under President Obama’s first six months in office, the unemployment rate increased each month from 7.8% in January 2009 to 9.5% by June of 2009.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. inflation rate decreased to an eight month low in June to 1.6%.
In 2011, houses for sale were on the market an average 84 days. This year, it’s just 45 days.
The U.S. Manufacturing Index soared to a 33-year high in President Trump’s first six months, which was the best number since 1983 under President Reagan.
The Federal Reserve has increased interest rates three times since President Trump was elected into office in November. The Fed increased interest rates only once in Obama’s 8 Years prior to the increase after President Trump’s winning the election in November.
Illegal immigration is down almost 70% under President Trump.
Since President Trump took office in January 2017, according to the latest U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) statistics on food stamp enrollment, more than 1.1 million Americans dropped off the food stamp rolls.
NATO announced Allied spending is up $10 billion because of President Trump.
After being nominated by President Trump, Constitutionalist Judge Neil Gorsuch was confirmed and sworn in as Supreme Court Justice in early April.
The President has signed around 150 executive orders, memoranda and proclamations as of July 19th, including (to name but a few): dismantling Obama’s climate change initiatives; travel bans for individuals from a select number of countries embroiled in terrorist atrocities; enforcing regulatory reform; protecting law enforcement; rebuilding the military; cutting funding for sanctuary cities.
President Trump launched his Voter Fraud Commission, officially the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity.
President Trump announced on Twitter on July 26: “After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military.”
President Trump continued to shut Democrats out in special elections, which the media expected them to win on a supposed wave of anti-Trump sentiment. In Montana, Republican Greg Gianforte won even after being arrested for assaulting a Guardian reporter, and in Georgia, Karen Handel won the most expensive congressional race in history after her Democratic challenger, Jon Ossoff, had looked like a heavy favorite just days before.
Last week, President Trump joined Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and David Perdue (R-Ga.) to announce legislation about changes to our immigration laws for the first time in more than half a century. The RAISE Act (Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment), instead of admitting immigrants on the basis of often specious “family” ties, would choose the immigrants based on merit, with points granted for skills, English proficiency, advanced degrees, actual job offers, et al.
About 30 percent of the territory the American-led coalition has retaken from the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) in Iraq and Syria since 2014 has been liberated under U.S. President Donald Trump’s watch, according to a senior State Department official. In total, the U.S.-led coalition has re-conquered 27,000 square miles (about 78 percent) of the 35,000 square miles ISIS is believed to have controlled at its peak in Iraq and Syria in early 2015.
According to writer Larry Schweikart, President Trump “is advancing his Greatness Agenda through court appointments like wildfire.” To date, he “has outpaced Barack Obama and Bill Clinton with his judicial appointees.”
According to political operative Roger Stone:
President Trump signed a bill into law to reduce the backlog of families of fallen police officers waiting to receive benefits due to their status.
Under President Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded an Obama Administration memo that directed the Bureau of Prisons to begin phasing out private prisons.
Again, under President Trump, the Justice Department prosecuted two doctors and one other for the subhuman practice of female genital mutilation––the first such prosecutions under a federal law passed by Congress in 1996 prohibiting the practice.
Despite historic Democrat obstructionism, President Trump has worked with Congress to pass more legislation in his first 100 days than any President since Truman!
In June, the Trump Administration sent 20 ATF agents to Chicago to help the city fight gun violence. The local U.S. Attorney said the same day that his office had already prosecuted more Chicago gun cases in 2017 than it had done throughout the entire 2016.
President Trump, in “another critical step to restoring local control,” signed an Executive Order for Secretary of Education Betsy De Vos to review Dept. of Education regulations, with the intention of returning power to the states and local governments and to review, modify and possibly repeal any regulations and guidelines that are not consistent with federal law.
The staged protests we’re witnessing, even as I type, are funded by the same globalists who embrace capitalism with a passion––hence their billions––and live in dazzling splendor and luxury. But they sucker astoundingly gullible leftists into believing they are for “the little man” who needs Big Government to survive, and they pay them to hold up shiny new placards and protest a president who is actually––empirically––bringing jobs and safety and fair trade and border security and respect for our veterans and genuine equality back to America.
If leftists can’t get on board with this agenda, I quote President Trump when he says: “Sad.”
RELATED VIDEO: Trump Accomplishments 08 24 17
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/trump-train-1.jpg360640Joan Swirskyhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJoan Swirsky2017-08-14 19:51:102017-08-29 07:08:46THE UNSTOPPABLE TRUMP TRAIN: Delivering on His Promises, Decimating the Opposition
When the state approved a foster parenting license for Zack and Krystina Morris in 2008, the child-rearing record of the young couple, who had just moved from New York, already had a major black mark.
New York officials five years earlier had found that the Morrises provided inadequate guardianship for their 4-month-old son after the infant stopped breathing; was rushed to the hospital with a fractured skull, bleeding in the brain and other injuries; and was diagnosed with shaken baby syndrome, according to New York documents. The parents failed to offer any explanation for the injuries, the records show.
New York’s child welfare agency subsequently determined that the baby would be at serious risk of harm if he stayed with his parents, and a judge ordered the infant to be placed in foster care, according to the records. The family eventually was reunited.
As serious as the 2003 incident was, it apparently did not appear on the state Department of Human Services’ radar when the agency certified the Morrises as Hawaii foster parents, raising new questions about the vetting process used to determine who gets approved to care for some of the state’s most vulnerable children.
Zack Morris eventually was convicted of sexually abusing three foster children, all boys, who were placed in his care by DHS from 2009 to 2011. The victims ranged in age from 11 to 16.
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser previously reported on documents from the criminal case and a 2014 negligence lawsuit filed on behalf of two victims, alleging the state didn’t heed numerous warning signs involving the Morrises before issuing them a license and renewing it several times.
But more recent court documents and other records reviewed by the newspaper have raised even more questions about the screening process, including whether DHS was even aware of the couple’s New York record when it approved the Morrises’ license.
The couple was the focus of two other New York abuse investigations, including one triggered when their son was hospitalized after a door supposedly fell on him, according to the records. The allegations were unconfirmed but still part of the couple’s New York file, which included the substantiated finding from 2003….
Less than three months after DHS placed the last foster child with the Morrises in July 2011, the agency issued a report describing Zack Morris as a “confirmed and untreated sex offender” and a threat to any child under his care, according to the court records. By then authorities had removed all the children, including his biological ones, from the home.
Morris was indicted a few weeks later, eventually pleaded no contest and is now serving a 20-year prison sentence.
Jacobs, the plaintiff attorney, said the Morris case revealed multiple problems with the state’s vetting process, leading to horrific outcomes for his clients. “It’s indicative of systemic failures of epic proportions,” Jacobs said….
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/Zack-Morris-e1502702178713.jpg396640Hawaii Free Presshttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngHawaii Free Press2017-08-14 05:16:272017-08-14 05:16:27New York Child Molester Approved by Hawaii DHS as Foster Parent
Hillary Clinton (right) to play the role of Dr. Strangelove, originally done by Peter Sellers.
Hollywood, struggling to make any movie that is profitable, has decided to go back to the future, no pun intended.
An unnamed source leaked to CNN the script of a new version of the 1964 Stanley Kubrick film “Dr. Strangelove” or “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.” Dr. Strangelove is being filmed at an undisclosed location in Chicago. This same unnamed source noted that the film will be released on November 8th, 2017, the first anniversary of President Trump’s election, under the title “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love North Korea’s Bombs.”
The film is being marketed as anti-Trump. It will feature Hillary Clinton as U.S. President Merkin Muffley, Group Captain Lionel Mandrake of the RAF and Dr. Strangelove, former President Barack Obama will appear as Lt. Lothar Zogg, the B-1B navigator and Susan Rice in the role of Brigadier General Jack Ripper.
The film will be about what could happen if the wrong person (one of President Trump’s generals) pushed the wrong button. U.S. Air Force General Jack Ripper (played by the gender neutral Susan Rice dressed as a man), goes completely insane, and sends his/her/its bomber wing to destroy North Korea.
Ripper tells Mandrake that he discovered the Communist plot to pollute Americans’ “precious bodily fluids” during “the physical act of love.”
The Ripper (Rice) thinks that the Russians stole the 2016 election and are conspiring to pollute the “precious bodily fluids” of the Democrat Party making them impotent. Ripper (Rice) takes President Trump’s “locked and loaded” comment to heart and decides to pull the trigger her/him/itself.
The the roles of Major T. J. “King” Kong, General Buck Turgidson, a jingoist USAF general, Colonel Bat Guano, Soviet Ambassador Alexei de Sadeski, Miss Scott, General Turgidson’s secretary and mistress, and Capt. Ace Owens, the B-1B co-pilot have yet to be announced. The unnamed source believes/suggests/thinks roles have been offered to Anthony Weiner (jingoist General Buck Turgidson), Vladimir Putin (Ambassador Sadeski), Chelsea Manning (Turgidson’s mistress) and Bernie Sanders (Capt. Ace Owens) .
Hollywood is looking to revive its mojo in this summer of discontent, also know as “the resistance.”
Box office sales are way down because Hollywood’s audience, made up of Antifa, Black Lives Matter, Organizing for Action and Democrats, is busy protesting the November 2016 election.
Dr. Strangelove will be billed as the biggest upset in Hollywood history since November 8, 2016.
Dr. Strangelove Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb Full Movie.
EDITORS NOTE: This political satire column originally appeared in the magazines The Hollywood Beating and Califorication News.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/dr-strangelove-movie-poster-e1502628574625.jpg396638Dr. Rich Swierhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngDr. Rich Swier2017-08-13 08:49:412021-10-08 01:47:04Hollywood remakes ‘How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb’ staring Hillary Clinton as Dr. Strangelove
Dr. Kelli Ward, candidate for U.S. Senate Arizona.
TEMPE, Ariz /PRNewswire/ — Today the Ward for Senate campaign has announced that the founder and top operative of the largest Super PAC supporting the President in 2016, Great America PAC, have joined the campaign. Eric Beach was founder and co-chair and Brent Lowder served as Executive Director of Great America PAC, which raised and spent nearly $30 million in support of President Trump’s candidacy in 2016. The two respected operatives will help lead Kelli Ward’s campaign to defeat Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona in 2018.
“Eric and Brent are highly accomplished political operatives with strong track records of success. They played an important role in the election of President Trump and are now committed to helping me to send Jeff Flake into retirement next year,” said Ward. “We are excited to have them join the team and know they will have an immediate positive impact on our campaign.”
“Kelli Ward is a strong, thoughtful leader and will be a hardworking, dedicated Senator in Washington that all Arizonans can be proud of,” said Beach. “Senator Jeff Flake has continually failed Arizona and is more interested in selling his new book by attacking the President than actually serving his constituents and getting things done. Arizona deserves far better from their Senator.”
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-kelly-ward-for-senate.jpg360640Dr. Rich Swierhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngDr. Rich Swier2017-08-12 07:11:332017-08-12 07:17:43Leading Pro-Trump Super PAC joins Ward for U.S. Senate campaign to defeat Jeff Flake
This week I took a step back and observed what the Obama legacy left for President Trump and America. Obama called for the TRANSFORMATION of AMERICA. What exactly did that mean? To transform something means you must destroy its current status. Obama’s battle cry left me with a question…why are Americans are so ready to give up the American way of life which as brought so much greatness to America and humanity and turn to socialism when this ideology is failing all around us?
While talking to a friend, it hit me like a ton of bricks. Americans aren’t ready to give up their life, liberty and personal property at least 70-78% of the population aren’t. It is just that our vocabulary has been altered and definitions are changed for each specific group. This makes communication/conversation almost impossible. The majority of Americans really want the same things. So why are we so divided and full of hate? Americans in general are not full of Hate. Hate addresses about 10% of the population but the media hypes HATE continually so that number grows….unless we stop it now.
Where is all this hate coming from? Hate is an emotion which must be learned. No one is born with the desire to hate, yet here we are hating each other and allowing 535 people in Congress, those in the CFR, the IMF, the UN, the media and Hollywood to determine that we should hate each other while giving them the power to control 300 million people to stop the hate. About 10,000 people have decided they are richer, smarter and more powerful and must make all of the decisions to control every aspect of our lives.
Let’s understand first up that this political game is about POWER, not service to country, environment, children, education, animals, health or humanity etc. It is all about power. They want it. You are in the way because the only way to get power from you is if you give it to them. So let’s not give it to them, simple. Wrong, nothing in life is simple. We allow these massive lies and manipulation to focus on hate so much so we stop paying attention to the real threat, the destruction of American values.
In order to find the stop hate, we must accept the premise, everything happens for a reason and every action has a consequence. (This premise is omitted from school study so please remember it) Then as Herman Cain says, you must first isolate the enemy, learn their plan and then come up with a solution. Let’s start by isolating the enemy. Who promotes hate?
The easy enemy is the left funded by billionaire, (who stole our money because we let him), George Soros. But remember, Soros is not acting alone. As always, there are others hidden in the shadows pulling the strings. George is the one most visible in this globalist group of criminals so let’s focus on George.
George is hell bent on destroying America as the Americans are the last strong hold to complete One World Governance. Why America? Why Americans?
America has more natural resources than any other country in the world. See the Donald Trump special on the Science/Discovery channel called, “What’s America Worth?” Once you see the film, you will understand the riches that belong to America, We the People. Americans can own their business, person, and land. If you understand your rights and what you own the government has little control over you unless you let them regulate you to death.
To George, destroying America is a game and he gets to play god. He has said this on several occasions. George’s money is behind every aspect of anti-Constitutional, anti-American behavior. Imagine the good George could have done, if only George would have put his money to constructive use instead of destruction. But communists can only destroy.
George and company are evil and rich and getting richer each time one of his puppets writes a new rule or regulation to destroy an American product or industry. These regulations benefit a favored donor class or corporation by eliminating competition. Remember George made billions destroying the UK pound by manipulating the currency.. Now I will bet he has a hand in destroying any hope of BREXIT. George promotes and funds groups promoting HATE of the west. George is a Marxist who HATES America. These NWO rulers detests the fact that Americans are individuals and ALL ARE EQUAL under the law. So they marginalize people, force them into groups, promote hate against other groups while promoting violence. Then society breaks down. People give up privacy for control to fix the chaos. Mission accomplished.
Let’s make sure you get the picture of how our government is working today to divide and manipulate us to hate each other.
George and friends write the legislation, then both R & D follow without reading because they are rewarded by George and company at the end. Remember the destructive energy legislation denying American companies permits to drill in the Gulf? (DOI was issued a contempt citation – HA, no enforcement.) Petrobus (Brazilian co funded by Soros.) became the recipient of $2Billion while Americans paid higher gas prices and beg for work. You are led to hate the oil company.
Then our corrupt congress (D & R) fight over bills that no one reads because George and company tells them how to vote. Legislators put on a great show to make sure you think they care. They only care about controlling your wallet and your land. Using Obamacare – you are guided to hate the health insurance industry yet bail them out with taxpayer dollars. The after a 7 year platform of repeal, the GOP liars surface when the vote counts and instead they vote to screw American again with more lies. Maybe they should be forced to become part of Obamacare. I love when they dodge that proposal. But we are at fault for reelecting the same criminals.
Congress allows non-elected agencies following UN guidelines to regulate American industry and private property (you will see UN Agenda 21 Sustainable Development all over government web sites.) EPA closes farmland using the ESA to favor a 2 inch fish. You are told to hate the farmers. Usable lumber goes up in flames in CA. Environmentalist close lumber companies for endangered species and refused to allow underbrush clearing. You are told to hate lumber companies while you watch billion of dollars in lumber go up in smoke while houses and farmland are destroyed. Counties no longer have a say in the quality of their drinking water because we gave the power to unelected bureaucrats like Water Management Districts and Environmental Departments following the UN guidelines of getting NGOs in place to eliminate elected officials. Then they create a rift between environmentalist groups creating hate.
Globalists use the environment and the man made global warming hoax to eliminate products, close industry causing loss of competition and jobs all so their friends can make a killing by control prices and production. They offer huge subsidies to buy these products so their friends can purchase the overpriced products with taxpayer rebates or subsidies, (our money). Coming up with programs that make no sense is the goal. The army was forced into using biofuels for $15 a gallon. How does that make sense? You must hate all those supporting fossil fuels.
WE the People, the taxpayer paid for the golf cart or solar panels to prop up the new company’s balance sheet, so others will invest into while those in the know, trade short or go bankrupt causing new investors to lose money and get you to bail them out. Who invested in Solyndra? Who made out when Solyndra went under? Did you get a tax rebated golf cart?
In the meantime, Congress gives our tax dollars to the non – elected bureaucrats to create more phony UN regulations that inhibit our rights and steal our property. They use our tax dollars to purchase land at an inflated price so people will sell. If there is no sale, not to worry they make up a zoning issue and eventually they will get you off your land. As long as the results are the same, you lose your land and the land falls into the hands of some UN group called an NGO. We continually see stories restricting land use. Who has the right to tell you what you can and can not do on your own land? According to the constitution, no one. According to the Globalist bible, Agenda 21, they have the right to regulate: healthcare, food, education, energy, production and distribution of goods and services, water. Everything must be controlled in order to be “fair”.
When land comes off the tax roles for green regulations, shrinking county budgets. The residents are stuck making up the difference or maybe they will lose their land too. Not to worry more land for UN NGO’s to buy. Time to hate home/land owners.
With the help of George’s big bucks in the form of media coverage, news, radio, tv, movies and sports, everyone says the same message without question. Children’s movies are full of propaganda: There are no more movies about real life heroes using self-reliance, common sense, respect. No one for kids to look up to. Only fake superheroes. Hate propaganda is fed to your children indoctrinating hate at an early age. Do you know what your child is reading? If your child does not carry the group message, your child is considered evil. Time to hate the evil thinkers.
One group is chosen to be demonized and the others are set against them while everyone denies it is happening.
In the meantime, China (our biggest debtor) will eventually have some plan to cash in on their equity, OUR LAND
All of this is done while Congress sits and says, “Repealing Obamacare is so hard.”
And the American people watch this bad movie instead of demanding that these legislative fools work for us and should do the job we hired them to do.
So let’s take a look at one day in America in the news and see if UN Agenda 21 is still in play. Just because no one calls Agenda 21 by name, means it is being followed through projects. How do you destroy Freedom and Liberty? One regulation at a time.
Obama halved spending on Border Fencing, Infrastructure, Technology–Leaving 1,300 Miles of Mexico Border Unfenced -Agenda 21: calls for regionalism not nationalism. Lenin, “Take away a man’s heritage and he will follow.” Collapse the entitlement system by overloading it, getting more people on the entitlement roles. Create an underground group of people who have no allegiance to America, are easily manipulated and will promote “Hate”. Trump is doing the opposite, so he is demonized instead of being recognized for all of the improvements to the economy, border, and foreign leadership. Children are taught to HATE TRUMP: Remember Obama, MUM MUM MUM, remember Trump with a severed head.
Regular business with government is no longer done without the government becoming a partner aka fascism. Grants are issued to promote one business or industry over another, skews competition and pricing and picks market winners and losers regardless of the harm to the industry. Then wars are called for in that industry War on Coal…You will learn to Hate coal companies.
Do you hate the incandescent light bulb? Bush regulations destroyed the cheap American light bulb so Americans now must get lighting from expensive Chinese companies. Agenda 21 at its finest. Redistribution of wealth as the new bulbs from China closed the American factory.
Illegals use Federal Tax Id numbers not SSI numbers to get mortgages Why is an illegal allowed a pass to steal someone’s identity? No one talks about that. When discussed it is always the fault of the person who’s identity was stolen, never the illegal. After all the illegal is the victim because our poor immigration laws are unfair. Our children learn to Hate the Americans who live here. White Americans are guilty. Children are taught about “White privilege” and to hate whites.
Children are taught to ignore their parents after all, “No one over 30 knows anything.” According to Al Gore, Hillary, Elizabeth Warren, the children belong to the government. . . Children are taught to Hate the family unit.
Children are taught that God does not exist, the Government is their provider of rights. Be eliminating God and morality we have eliminated self respect, responsibility, respect of others, common sense, purpose and reasoning. In its place we get sex, drugs, suicide, pedophilia, abortion, trafficking, porn, abuse and murder. Children are taught to love depravity it is exciting and hate family, God and America.
Our children are taught that the school/government provides the truth. They are good. Anyone who disagrees is evil; you must HATE the evil God. If you do not agree, you are evil and should be shouted down. .
Once a group is isolated and turned into victim status, regulations pop up to demonize anyone who does not agree. These regulations have nothing to do with the good of humanity. Instead it has to do with controlling the people through the emotion of hate. UN Agenda 21 controls people using different emotions all to promote a One World Government under socialism. The communist Pope just said that the US better get in line with the One World Government. I don’t remember electing him.
Socialism Hates individual Freedom
Socialism eliminates “injustice” by transferring rights and responsibilities from individuals and families to the State which actually creates injustice.
Socialism destroys true liberty: the freedom to decide all matters that lie within our own competence and to follow the course shown by our reason, within the laws of morality, including the dictates of justice and charity.
Capitalism is strengthened by individualism, excellence and freedom of choice
When I was a child my parents took me to see the play South Pacific. This song stuck with me, called: You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught.
You’ve got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You’ve got to be taught
From year to year,
It’s got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You’ve got to be carefully taught.
You’ve got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a different shade,
You’ve got to be carefully taught.
You’ve got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You’ve got to be taught
From year to year,
It’s got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You’ve got to be carefully taught.
You’ve got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a different shade,
You’ve got to be carefully taught.
Our schools follow this song to the letter.
So my friends will you stop the teaching of Hate in school? POTUS gave us the opportunity to control our state curricula but if we leave it to the present crowd, we will get more HATE. It is our chance to make a difference.
Will you go to your school board and expose the texts full of hatred? Will you correct your children, friends, family and neighbors?
Remember: Either you are a victim or an activist. You can’t be both. Slavery or Freedom? The choice is yours.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/teach-hate.jpg404640Karen Schoenhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngKaren Schoen2017-08-11 18:31:222017-08-11 18:31:22You’ve Got to be Taught…to HATE!
ANN ARBOR, MI – The Thomas More Law Center (“TMLC”), a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, today announced that Cardinal Raymond Burke, who is viewed as a leading traditionalist and conservative within the Catholic Church, endorsed the Thomas More Law Center, for its “most important service for the restoration of Christian culture.” The extraordinary endorsement was transmitted in a letter, dated July 26, 2017, to Richard Thompson, the President and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Law Center.
Text of Cardinal Burke’s Endorsement
“During these difficult times in which we are living, in which secularization has ravaged the culture of our homeland, alienating culture from its only true source in God and His plan for the world, theThomas More Law Center provides a most important service for the restoration of Christian culture by promoting the sanctity of human life, defending religious liberty, and protecting the good of the family. Through the intercession of its holy patron, may the Thomas More Law Center courageously continue to serve the true good of our beloved homeland of the United States of America.”
Thompson commented, “We are deeply honored and profoundly grateful to Cardinal Burke for his uncompromising defense of America’s traditional Judeo-Christian culture and moral values, and for his unprecedented endorsement of the Thomas More Law Center.”
In June 2008, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Cardinal Burke as the Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the Holy See’s highest court. He was the first American named to head the Tribunal and became the second highest ranking prelate at the Vatican. However, in 2014 he was removed from that position by Pope Francis.
Regarded as a leading traditionalist within the Church, Cardinal Burke is a courageous and outspoken defender of the Catholic Faith and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Cardinal Burke’s views on key issues facing American culture and Western Civilization, are shared by the Thomas More Law Center and traditional Christians of all denominations.
On Islam . . .
In a 2016 interview with Italian newspaper, II Gioranle, Cardinal Burke stated:
“It is clear that Muslims have as their ultimate goal conquest and power over the world.”
“Islam, through sharia, their law, will rule the world and permit violence against infidels, such as Christians. But we find it hard to recognize this reality and to respond by defending the Christian faith.”
“Many people do not understand what Islam really is. They created these slogans: we all believe in the same God, we are all united by love and so on. It’s not true.
On Same-sex marriage . . .
In a November 10, 2013 interview with The Wanderer, Cardinal Burke said that same-sex marriage . . .
“. . . is a work of deceit, a lie about the most fundamental aspect of our human nature, our human sexuality, which, after life itself, defines us. There is only one place these types of lies come from, namely Satan. It is a diabolical situation which is aimed at destroying individuals, families, and eventually our nation.”
On Abortion . . .
In a March 2, 2009 Interview with the founder of ‘Operation Rescue’, Cardinal Burke stated:
“The service of the Church in the world of today has to begin first and foremost with the protection of the life of those who are the most defenseless and the most innocent, namely the unborn.”
In his January 22, 2017, sermon on the Roe v. Wade Anniversary Mass, Cardinal Burke stated:
“We recognize in that decision of the highest court of our nation a rebellion against God and His Law written upon every human heart in its first and most fundamental tenet: to safeguard and to foster human life from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death.
In March 2009, Burke called on American bishops to withhold the Eucharist from Catholic politicians who support legalized abortion. The bishop’s failure to do so, Burke said, “is weakening the faith of everyone. It’s giving the impression that it must be morally correct to support procured abortion.”
The Thomas More Law Center defends and promotes America’s Judeo-Christian heritage and moral values, including the religious freedom of Christians, time-honored family values, and the sanctity of human life. It supports a strong national defense and an independent and sovereign United States of America. The Law Center accomplishes its mission through litigation, education, and related activities. It does not charge for its services. The Law Center is supported by contributions from individuals, corporations and foundations, and is recognized by the IRS as a section 501(c)(3) organization. You may reach the Thomas More Law Center at(734) 827-2001 or visit our website at www.thomasmore.org.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/Cardinal-Raymond-Burke.jpg366650Thomas More Law Centerhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThomas More Law Center2017-08-11 17:15:592017-08-11 17:15:59Cardinal Burke Endorses Thomas More Law Center for ‘Restoring Christian Culture’
David Carlin writes that post-Vatican II, we’ve lost a sense of the sacredness of things: We need again altar rails, nuns wearing habits, rosary beads, holy water, Latin, etc.
The best definition of religion I have ever come across is that given by the great French sociologist Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) in his book The Elementary Forms of Religious Life: “A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and surrounded by prohibitions – beliefs and practices that unite its adherents in a single moral community called a church.”
“Sacred things” (or “holy things”) is the key here. In the pre-Vatican II Catholic Church, there were lots and lots of sacred things. There was a great pyramid of sacred things. Way up at the top of the pyramid, of course, was God, the most holy of all holy things and the source of the sacredness that trickled down to all lesser sacred things. Of these lesser sacred things, the most holy was the Virgin Mary, the mother of God. Below her were angels and saints, some of them more sacred than others. There were nine orders of angels. Dante has many ranks of saints in his Paradiso.
On Earth there were sacred persons, they too in descending ranks of sacredness. The pope was very holy indeed; thus he was spoken of as “His Holiness.” Cardinals were somewhat less sacred; ordinary bishops less sacred still; parish priests were at the bottom rank of clerical holiness, but they too should be treated with a reverence due to sacred persons. Religious sisters were sacred, both the kind and gentle nuns and the mean nuns who hit your hand with a ruler. The habits nuns wore were also sacred.
Buildings were sacred. St. Peter’s in Rome was the most sacred of all, even though to some Catholics (me among them) it resembled a magnificent train station more than a great church. Medieval Gothic cathedrals were also sacred, especially those of Paris and Chartres. Ordinary parish churches were also sacred, even the hideous churches built in the 1950s in a “modern” style.
Inside, the church overflowed with sacred things: statues and pictures of saints, Stations of the Cross, candles, baptismal fonts, holy water. The altar was holy, made even more holy by the altar rail that set it apart from the rest of the church. The Eucharist was the holiest of all things on Earth, so holy that it mustn’t be touched by the hands of laypersons.
There were sacred ceremonies, the Mass above all. But also lesser ceremonies: Confession, burial of the dead, fasting in Lent, meatless Fridays, fasting from midnightbefore receiving Communion, reciting the rosary (whether with a group or alone), genuflecting when entering a church pew, making the sign of the cross prior to batting in a baseball game.
David Carlin is professor of sociology and philosophy at the Community College of Rhode Island, and the author of The Decline and Fall of the Catholic Church in America.
EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is titled Mass by José Gallegos Y Arnosa, c. 1900 [private collection].
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/mass-e1502451855295.jpg387640The Catholic Thinghttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Catholic Thing2017-08-11 07:44:242017-08-11 07:44:41Why We Need Sacred Things [Plural]
As a proud grateful American who happens to be black, I am frustrated by Leftists’/fake news media’s frenzied exploitation of the racial violence in Charlottesville. How can justice, peace, love and unity prevail when leftists are obsessed with using any and every opportunity to further its socialistic/progressive agenda and mission to overturn the peoples’ election of Trump?
David Carlin is professor of sociology and philosophy at the Community College of Rhode Island, and the author of The Decline and Fall of the Catholic Church in America.