Culture War Archives - Page 664 of 1065

The Glendon Commission

August 23, 2019/in Courts & Law, Culture War, Featured, Policy, Politics, Religion/by The Catholic Thing

David Carlin: We are witnessing a cultural revolution as atheists and liberals work to destroy Christianity and replace it with a God-less worldview.

In July, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo created something called the “Commission on Unalienable Rights,” the purpose of which is to “provide the Secretary of State advice and recommendations concerning international human rights matters” along with “fresh thinking about human rights discourse where such discourse has departed from our nation’s founding principles of natural law and natural rights.”

The chair of the commission is Mary Ann Glendon, one of America’s leading Catholic intellectuals. She is the Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and former U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican. What’s more, she was Pompeo’s mentor when he was a student at Harvard Law School.

Many people on the political left have objected to the creation of this commission. The expression “natural law” makes them nervous, as does the fact that an out-and-out Catholic like Glendon is its chair.

I myself am very pleased, because I hope it may serve, at least in some small way, to check the astonishing proliferation of “fundamental human rights” that we have seen in the United States in recent decades. The U.S. Supreme Court has recognized a right to abortion (Roe v. Wade), a right to homosexual sodomy (Lawrence v. Texas), and a right to same-sex “marriage” (Obergefell v. Hodges). In the future, if this trend continues, it will probably recognize a right to euthanasia. And God only knows what else.

Those on the political Left have figured out a way of enacting their agenda while bypassing the democratic process. You like X and you want it to be the law of the land. But you can’t get X through Congress or state legislatures. So you decide that X is a fundamental human right, a right that cannot be negated by popular majorities.

And then you go to the U.S. Supreme Court. And if you’re lucky the Court will have a majority of liberal justices on it, and they will agree with you. And since, according to the liberal view, all fundamental human rights are implicitly contained in the U.S. Constitution (they are alluded to in the Ninth Amendment), X now becomes a Constitutional right.

If you object that you cannot find X in the Constitution, despite having read that document very carefully, you will be told that we have a “living Constitution” and that only out-of-date right-wingers read the Constitution literally.

If you reply that Justice Antonin Scalia once said, “The Constitution says what it says, and it doesn’t say something else,” you will be told that while Scalia was a fine fellow (since he was a friend of the saintly Ruth Bader Ginsburg), he was nonetheless an out-of-date right-winger whose originalism was as worthwhile as Confederate money.

The Declaration of Independence not only had a list of natural rights (equality, life, liberty, pursuit of happiness). It also had an epistemology of moral knowledge. It held that the reality of these rights was self-evident.

Now if this is our standard (let’s call it the Jefferson standard), if we say that if X is to count as a fundamental human right, X will have to be self-evidently such, then our newer rights – the “rights” to abortion, to homosexual sodomy, to same-sex “marriage,” or to euthanasia – are not rights at all; for they are far, far from self-evident. If they were self-evident rights, there would be an almost universal consensus on them.

If we were to use the Jefferson standard, only if almost every American agreed that X is a fundamental human right would the Supreme Court declare that X, despite not being mentioned in the Constitution, is one of those unenumerated rights alluded to in the Ninth Amendment.

But if we are not to use the Jefferson standard when deciding what is, and what is not, a fundamental human right, what standard are we to use? Apparently, nothing better than a majority vote of the Supreme Court. If five justices say that X is a fundamental right, X is a fundamental human right.

Now that’s just fine for many people on the political Left. For they can then multiply “fundamental human rights” and hope that their multiplications will be ratified by at least five “living Constitution” members of the Supreme Court. But for the rest of us, for people who like to think that we are living in a democratic republic that operates within the framework of a Constitution that was intended by its makers to be read literally, this potentially unlimited multiplication of fundamental rights is a disaster.

And for Christians too it’s a disaster – at least for old-fashioned Christians, who subscribe to the faith and morals of the early Church, e.g., orthodox Catholics and Evangelical Protestants. For the leftist list of fundamental human rights contains items that are quite incompatible with Christianity.

And so, when the Supreme Court declares that, for example, abortion, homosexual sodomy, same-sex “marriage,” and euthanasia are fundamental rights, it is by very clear implication also declaring that Christianity is the enemy of human rights.

We are, as I see things, in the middle of a great but slow-moving cultural revolution in the United States, as atheists and their near-atheist fellow-travelers (including religiously liberal Protestants and Catholics) attempt to destroy the traditional Christian ethic and worldview and replace it with a God-less ethic and worldview.

So far, the atheist coalition seems to be winning. Their advance, supported by the mainstream media, the entertainment industry, our leading universities, and the Democratic Party, looks unstoppable. And one of the great instruments of this advance is the idea that the leftist agenda can be enacted by the un-democratic “discovery” of more and more fundamental human rights.

Can the Glendon commission stop this advance? Probably not. But perhaps it can slow it down, giving Christians more time in which to rally their troops and fight back. In any case, the work of the commission, and the atheistic reaction to it, will be absolutely essential to watch.

COLUMN BY

David Carlin

David Carlin is a 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: This Catholic Thing column is republished with permission. © 2019 The Catholic Thing. All rights reserved. For reprint rights, write to: info@frinstitute.org. The Catholic Thing is a forum for intelligent Catholic commentary. Opinions expressed by writers are solely their own.

How the Qur’an Commits Its Own Greatest Sin, Polytheism

August 22, 2019/in Culture War, Policy, Politics, Religion/by Barry Webb

The “sin” in question here is shirk, or the ascribing of partners unto Allah. The first verse quoted below spells this out for Muslims, so as to leave no doubt about the “unforgivability” of that sin.

“Verily, Allah does not forgive the ascribing of partners unto him (shirk), but for (sins) other than that he (can) forgive those whom he will, while he who has ascribed partners unto Allah has indeed contrived a tremendous sin” (Qur’an 4:45).

Now, notice how, in the following four verses the Qur’an itself does exactly that:

“And when they appeal unto Allah and his messenger to judge between them (at judgement day), Lo! A fraction of them are averse:

But, if right had been with them, they would have come unto him (him here could mean either Allah or Muhammad) submissively.

Is there in their hearts a disease, or did they doubt, or do they fear that Allah and his messenger should wrong them (on judgement day)? Nay, those are the wrong doers.

Verily, that saying of those who believe when summoned before Allah and his messenger to judge between them is that they say “we heard, and we obeyed,” and those are the successful ones” (on the day of judgment) (Qur’an 24: 48-51).

Note that both 4:45, and the group of 24: 48-51, are “Medina” verses, meaning that the law of abrogation, whereby many “Mecca” verses are negated by “Medina” verses, can not be applied here. Muslims have no choice but to accept this glaring contradiction.

ANALYSIS:

The 48th verse of the 4th sura (chapter) clearly states that the sin of ascribing partners unto Allah is the worst of all possible sins, the only sin that Allah can not forgive. Yet, the 48th through the 51st verses of chapter 24 in the same Qur’an has Muhammad (the messengers) sitting side-by-side with Allah to judge the souls as they pass before that divine duo. In fact, it does appear that Muhammad has actual veto power over Allah’s decisions as judgement is passed on the souls.

The verses preceding this section in the 24th sura make it clear that the topic being discussed is the “Last Judgment Day.” This is confirmed by the tafaseer (explanations) by, ibn al-Khateeb (page 433), which has been officially approved by Egypt’s al-Azhar University, the “Vatican” equivalent for Sunni Islam. Al-Khateeb adds the comment that the reason that the messenger) Muhammd) will play this role at Judgement day is because “the messenger tells nothing but the truth.” But that still begs the question as to why God would even need Muhammad’s help in judging the souls. Does Muhammad know more about what’s in peoples’ hearts than does Allah?

This interpretation (this this is “Judgement Day” at the end of time is also confirmed by the more modern and al-Azhar approved translation by Muhammad Asad (p. 606), and is accepted by virtually all Islamic scholars from the Middle Ages to the present day.

These verses in the 24th sura, then make Muhammad at least equal to Allah and also a partner unto Allah (shirk) the greatest of all sins according to 4:48!

Islam thus negates itself as a religion, because it is the most outrageous of ideologies in terms of ascribing partners unto Allah.

VIDEO: American Decency Rallies

August 22, 2019/in Commentary, Culture War, News, Policy, Politics, Religion/by Bill Finlay

Finally! A plan to push back against the forces of evil in America!

Modesto, CA has denied citizens the right to celebrate heterosexuality, life, the USA and Faith.

VIDEO: Hong Kong — A Catholic Protest?

August 22, 2019/in Culture War, Elections, Policy, Politics, Religion/by Dr. Rich Swier

Catholic Vote TV published the following comment and video.

A spiritual story you haven’t heard.

RELATED ARTICLES:

USCCB Chairmen Applaud Proposed Regulations Preventing Government Discrimination Against Faith-Based Federal Contractors

Trump signs executive order cancelling student loan debt for disabled veterans

DHS Using Loophole Around Flores To Address Immigration Crisis

The Omar-Tlaib affair: Tough questions for AIPAC

August 21, 2019/in Culture War, Elections, Must Read, News, Policy, Politics, Religion/by Dr. Martin Sherman

Notwithstanding AIPAC’s discomfort over the Omar-Tlaib case, there is more than a hint of hypocrisy in its joining the general assault on Israel.

The brouhaha over the ruckus that erupted last Thursday between the Netanyahu government and the two radical, anti-Israeli Congresswomen, Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), refuses to subside.

It continues to generate headlines even after almost a week since Israel reversed its original decision to allow them to visit the country—invoking a 2017 law that permits the government to bar entry to foreign citizens, who support anti-Israel boycotts. Coincidentally—or not—this dramatic change of heart took place soon after President Trump posted a somewhat caustic tweet, deriding Israel’s previous position to permit their arrival.

Thus, on Monday (8.19.2019), the two held a well-choreographed and emotive press conference , unsurprisingly well-covered in the international media, in which they lambasted Israel for its heavy-handed “oppression” of the Palestinians and its “undemocratic” prohibition of their planned trip. Likewise, they urged other US law-makers to visit Israel to discover for themselves the “iniquitous realities” that, according to them, prevail here.

Israel’s perceived capitulation to Trumpian pressure sparked wall-to-wall condemnation from the Democratic Party—even from long-standing Israel supporters. A good number of pundits warned that the barring of the Democratic Congresswomen could herald the end of the era of bipartisan support for Israel, and expressed concern over what might await it in a post-Trump era—or at least, a post-Republican era.

Clearly, the requested visit by two of Israel most vehement detractors created an extremely awkward situation for the Netanyahu government. Equally clearly, the government’s clumsy vacillation in dealing with the problem was anything but flawless, and created a number of irksome questions marks as to its conduct—for itself and for its advocates in the public arena.

However, despite any misgiving one may have over the government’s handling of the “hot potato” left at its doorstep, the Omar-Tlaib episode—and the intensity of the reactions to it—raise several troubling issues.

Bipartisanship: At what price?

The first of these is the question of the price that Israel is called upon to preserve bi-partisan support for it. After all, no-one can assume that the two fiercely anti-Israel Congresswomen would not exploit their stay in Israel to inflict the maximum possible damage on it—irrespective of any “inconvenient facts” they might have happened to encounter on it.

Accordingly, if Israel is required to forsake important national interests in order to appease a party, in which some of its most prominent members are viscerally opposed to the Jewish state, one might very well question the value—even, the very point—of preserving such bi-partisanship. Indeed, at some point, bi-partisanship may well cease to be an invaluable asset and become a burdensome liability instead!

In this regard, perhaps the most telling—and most surprising—censure came from the prestigious and powerful pro-Israel lobby, AIPAC, which, as a rule, has consistently backed the decisions of the Israeli government—virtually without exception. Accordingly, public reproach from an organization so closely identified with pro-Israel advocacy is, without doubt, extraordinarily significant. Of course, for AIPAC, the issue of bi-partisanship is an almost sacred value, the very “holy grail” of its political influence. Indeed, it attributes—with considerable justification—much of its political stature and sway to its ability to harness such bi-partisan support for Israel. It is thus, clearly understandable that it will react negatively to any development that appears to threaten that ability.

AIPAC’s hypocrisy?

However, not withstanding AIPAC’s discomfort in the Omar-Tlaib case, there is more than a hint of hypocrisy in its joining the general assault on Israel.

After all, it would be difficult—even impossible—to imagine that the AIPAC leadership would extend an invitation to either Omar or to Tlaib to address its annual convention, and to provide them an opportunity to publicly berate Israel and blacken its name with baseless accusations.

Accordingly, the trenchant question that this raises is the following: If AIPAC would not permit access to Omar and Tlaib to allow them a platform to denigrate Israel, why would it find fault with Israel for not permitting them access to a very similar platform?

This, then, is the question, which should be directed at the AIPAC leadership—and which they should be called on to address.

“Jews who vote democrat have a lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.” — President Donald Trump [Videos]

August 21, 2019/in Culture War, Elections, News, Policy, Politics, Religion, Video, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by Vlad Tepes Blog

Posted by Eeyore

This seems like the right time to re-post this important clip from Israeli TV, where a well known and accomplished Israeli intellectual, predicts that Leftist Jews, will bring unto themselves a pogram from the USA for their failure to support President Donald Trump. The only leader in these times who is both willing and capable of supporting the United States as a non-communist polity, as well as a firm defender of the state of Israel.

It is my sincere hope that should this predicted pogrom come to pass, Israel will not allow in the leftist Jews who caused it, just as they would not allow in Tlaib and Omar. In fact, this kind of treason from within is far more dangerous than clear and obvious enemies of both nations, and freedom and individualism itself.

At the end of the day, “I”, not we here at VladTepesBlog, but I myself only, agree with President Trump 100%. I cannot speak for other readers or contributors of this site on this issue. But I stand with president Trump on this 100%.

Baby Killers

August 21, 2019/in Commentary, Culture War, Healthcare, News, Policy, Politics, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by Joan Swirsky

Trump Administration mandated that taxpayer-funded family planning clinics immediately stop referring women for abortions, maintain separate finances from facilities that provide abortions, and that both kinds of facilities not be under the same roof.

“Thou shalt not kill.” Exodus 20:13

”…I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live:”Deuteronomy 30:19

Remember good ole boy Johnny Edwards—actually North Carolina Democrat Senator John Edwards (1998-2012), VP candidate in 2004, and presidential candidate in 2008? Edwards is hard to forget because he burst upon the national stage as the golden-tongued lawyer who was famous for defending the rights of the unborn.

According to writer Douglas Johnson in National Review, “in 1985, John Edwards stood before a jury and channeled the words of an unborn baby girl. In his closing argument to the jury, Edwards conveyed what the unborn child, Jennifer Campbell, purportedly had been feeling hour-by-hour as her distress grew.”

“She speaks to you through me,” Edwards told the jury. “And I have to tell you right now—I didn’t plan to talk about this—right now I feel her. I feel her presence. She’s inside me, and she’s talking to you.”

Edwards won that lawsuit and went on to file at least 20 similar lawsuits in the years following, achieving verdicts and settlements of more than $60 million for his clients.

Johnson writes that 13 years after the Jennifer Campbell lawsuit, Edwards was elected to the U.S. Senate from North Carolina, but “…somewhere along the line, John Edwards lost his ability to hear the voices of unborn victims.”

Yep…that’s what happens when the poohbahs of the Democrat Party dictate that anyone who wants “in” to their baby-killer cabal get rid of that empathic feel-for-the-baby stuff and embrace their kill-‘em-in-the-womb mantra. And Mr. Smoothie did just that—became deaf to the pain of in-utero infants and on-board with the baby killers.

MR. PRESCIENT

It is chillingly accurate to say of the former pretty-boy senator—not to mention his affair with Rielle Hunter and the baby girl they had while his wife was dying of breast cancer—that he was a morbid harbinger of his fellow Democrats’ devolution.

While abortion was always their Holy Grail—a virtual litmus test for admittance into the world of their perverse values—even Mr. Edwards and his flexible morality could not have imagined that in January of 2019, the entire Democrat New York State legislature would give a standing ovation to the passage of a law that sanctioned abortion up until the very moment of birth!

That’s right, a law that gave the right to a mother—exhausted by labor and in pain—to decide to snuff out the life of her fully-developed, perfectly intact full-term baby.

Did these Democrats recoil at the very idea of this kind of savagery? Did they weep or wring their hands at the barbarity of it all? Did they stage a protest against the infanticide that is forbidden in both Hebrew and Christian bibles?

No—they stood up and applauded!

Writer Wesley Smith, in Infanticide Makes a Comeback, recalls a recent Senate bill—the “Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act”—that requires any baby who survives an abortion to be treated with “the same degree of professional skill and care as [would be given] to any other child born alive at the same gestational age.” And the bill also would have outlawed infanticide.

Guess who objected to these eminently reasonable and humane guidelines in February of this year? None other than 44 out of 47 Senate Democrats who blocked the Senate from voting on this bill, including presidential wannabes Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, Kirsten Gillibrand, Amy Klobuchar, Cory Booker, and Elizabeth Warren!

WHAT THEY KNOW

Since Roe v Wade was passed in January 1973, over 61 million babies have been killed—legally.

To underscore the kind of vibrant lives of each of these babies—even at 12 weeks—and who these “pro-choice” candidates want to continue to snuff out, here is the clearest MRI of a pregnancy every recorded—only 44 seconds:

Every Democrat candidate for president has seen this or a similar film, and is also aware of the following irrefutable fact: Unborn babies feel! This is the conclusion of one of many studies—this one from Heidelberg psychotherapist Ludwig Janus, reported in February of this year.

“Babies in utero are happy…angry….fearful…and they like music,” Janus concluded. By eight weeks, the fetus has developed a sense of touch, by 13 weeks taste, at 17 weeks hearing, at 25 weeks sight, the miracles go on.

But none of this matters to people who think that the inconvenience of an unwanted pregnancy is worthy of infanticide.

And to think—one of these moral paragons wants your vote! Who will they target next—your disabled child, your elderly parent, your beloved pet?

THE PARTY OF DEATH

Clearly dazzled by the beauty of the NY State infanticide law, the governor of Virginia, Ralph Northam—a pediatric neurologist no less!—decided to go one better. Within days of the NY decision, he announced that, in his state, mothers whose babies survived abortion would and should have the right to kill their babies after they’re born.

“If a mother is in labor,” Gov. Northam said, “I can tell you exactly what would happen. The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.”

Disgusted yet? It gets worse.

IN LOVE WITH DEATH

If you had a measured conversation with a Democrat—in strict privacy and away from cell phones, microphones and cameras—and asked if he or she actually liked:

High taxes
Regulations that require months or years simply to add a room to one’s home
A weakened military
Billions spent on Sanctuary Cities to afford illegal aliens free housing, food, healthcare, education, on and on

All of them would tell you a resounding NO!

But if you followed up and asked, then how on earth could you vote Democrat? Reflexively, they would answer: ABORTION!

According to Sebastian Gorka, former Deputy Asst. to President Trump, in his recent article “Death and the Democrats”, “our existence as free men and women starts not with the right of association, or a free press, or freedom of conscience, or the right to keep and bear arms. Everything begins with the right to life. But in 2019—the Democrat Party “has quite literally become the political party of death.”

Gorka documents the grisly statistics: “The U.S. abortion industry that Planned Parenthood champions kills at least 600,000 babies in utero each year. For perspective, the 70,000 plus deaths last year from opioid overdoses is deemed to be a national crisis with federal and state programs created to staunch the flow of drugs into our nations and prevent needless loss of life.

“But more than eight times that number are killed as a matter of choice, not addiction or accident, and the Left celebrates it and wants more….the arch-eugenicist Margaret Sanger and Adolf Hitler would be most proud.”

RACIST DEMOCRATS

In fact, writer Patricia McCarthy reminds us that Sanger “founded Planned Parenthood to purposefully dispose of black babies—and the Democrat Party has at last embraced her cause openly and without shame.”

Pro-life advocates remind us that abortions are not only immoral but are racist, in effect decimating the black population.

According to Right to Life of Michigan:

More than 19 million black babies have been aborted since 1973
Black women have a significantly higher abortion rate than whites and Hispanics.
36.0% of all abortions in the U.S. in 2014 were performed on black women, yet only about

13.3% of the total population is black

And Professor William D. Rubinstein of the University of Wales posits in his stunning article, “Legalized Abortion and the Triumph of Eugenics,” that “the total black population of the United States is about 40 million. Including the children and grandchildren of these 19 million who were never born, it is reasonable to assume that, without legalized abortions, America’s black population would be in the order of 70 million or even more.”

And fake news calls Republicans racist! Typical projection—accusing your competition of what you yourself are guilty of!

THE BANDWAGON EFFECT

The Democrat governors of New York and Virginia are not alone in their cravenly enthusiastic approval of infanticide. According to Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, Wisconsin Democrat Governor Tony Evers (who succeeded pro-life Republican Gov. Scott Walker) “is perfectly okay with…infanticide as long as it’s done neatly and under the watchful eye of a healthcare professional.”

“We have all sorts of issues to deal with in the state of Wisconsin,” Evers told reporters, “and to pass a bill [like born-alive] seems to be not a productive use of time.”

In other words, kill those pesky babies so we can get to the important work of raising your taxes!

Following suit, the state of Rhode Island, led by Governor Gina Raimondo—you guessed it, a Democrat!—just enacted legislation to make abortion legal up to the moment of birth, including partial birth abortions.

And we know that California’s Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom is hunky dory about abortions at any stage, but ever so sanguine about the lives of career murderers. He just abolished the state’s death penalty, effectively sparing the lives of over 700 savage killers on death row.

Not to omit that last May, the Illinois House passed a bill to repeal the ban on “partial-birth” abortions, and the Illinois Senate did them one better by expanding abortions through nine months and requiring insurance companies to provide coverage—and Democrat Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed it in June.

Democrat depravity marches on!

RELATED ARTICLES:

Hundreds of Babies are Born Alive After Failed Abortions and Left to Die

Ohio Gov Signs Budget Removing Planned Parenthood Funding, Will Fund Pro-Life Pregnancy Centers Instead

Alyssa Milano Says Her ‘Life Would Be Completely Lacking’ If Not For Her Abortions

CBS Trashes President Trump After He Cuts Planned Parenthood Funding: He Hates Women

Iceland Holds Funeral to Mourn Melting Glacier, Kills 100% of Its Babies With Down Syndrome

The Decline of the Church of England. The Rise of the Human Circus.

August 20, 2019/in Culture War, Policy, Politics, Religion/by Shirley Edwards

(These are my views as a woman living in England, on how the culture and spirit of my country has changed over 50 years. Why the country does not feel protected or strong any more, how it has lost, and is losing it values and decency, and how we are daily losing our free speech.)

Every month without fail, I now receive some very welcome handouts sent to me from a small church in America, who besides their usual weekly handout on the scripture from the bible that they will be reading that Sunday, take time to also highlight important controversial events which are currently taking place across the country and around the world. They are events which are politically, morally, and hence spiritually, destroying people.

With the exception of a few fellow countrymen in my own native land of England, who are acting as watchmen and warning the people of our cultural demise, I find the handouts I receive although alarming, are also really encouraging. You see, from my own experiences, it is extremely rare to come across a church in the United Kingdom who is brave enough to go against the politically correct narrative of the day to thoughtfully point out in a kind and ‘scripturally’ sound way the lies which are leading people astray on a downward spiral

Speaking of which, this very week I have wondered if the 55 foot high spiralling helter skelter which has recently been installed in the nave of Norwich Cathedral, as part of the “seeing it differently” project, will make the transition downwards more smooth and enjoyable or if, as it has been reported, get people into a church to think about the meaning of life from a much higher level.

Whilst controversial, The Very Rev Jane Hedges, Dean of Norwich Cathedral has stated in a recent BBC interview,

There are a lot of people who won’t come in to a cathedral because they think it is too posh, it’s not for me. We hope that people will see that actually the cathedral is here for everyone.”

And the Rev. Canon Andy Bryant, who came up with the idea is quoted as saying,

“The helter-skelter is an opportunity for some holiday fun but we also hope it will help our visitors get closer to our wonderful medieval rood bosses, which are one of the true gems of the Cathedral and our fine city.

My own impressions were that the helter-skelter reminded me of the image of the Tower of Babel, and the foolishness of a materialistic attempt to reach God. I wondered why the people who had thought up the idea could not see the circus elephant in the room so to speak, and was I really a killjoy and taking the whole thing far too seriously?

Maybe a cup of tea or a round of crazy golf might make me lighten up and silently think on the deeper questions of life, I wonder?

The temporary mini golf course laid out in the nave of Rochester Cathedral has been explained by the Canon for Mission and Growth, the Revd Rachel Phillips as being in line with the cathedral’s mission to educate for its summer theme of “bridge building”, with each hole on the golf course featuring a miniature bridge which represents an actual bridge across Britain. It implied that not only could we learn about engineering, but also reconciliations.

She states:

“We hope that, while playing adventure golf, visitors will reflect on the bridges that need to be built in their own lives and in our world today.”

I wondered who the ringmaster was in all these shenanigans, and how the sending in of clowns in a circus is used to distract the audience from an impending disaster or mistakes that are happening.

The theme of fun and adventure has obviously been taken very seriously by both Norwich and Rochester, but then it was the Archbishop of Canterbury who at the National Cathedrals Conference held last year in Manchester who had encouraged the theme of fun in their historical buildings, informing all the delegates “If you can’t have fun in a cathedral do you really know what fun is?

One month previously The Very Reverend Stephen Hance from Derby Cathedral had also just defended his decision to allow the screening of sexually explicit films at a film festival being held in the cathedral that year to include The Wicker Man and also the thriller ‘Don’t Look Now” claiming that the cathedral belonged to ‘everyone’ to hire, and that the films won’t be showing God anything that he hasn’t seen before.

Many people do of course know that God has seen everything before, inside and outside of a church building, but many people just did not understand why a man who is meant to represent God would think God would be ‘happy’ or accepting of the showing of sexually explicit films in a cathedral where blood sweat and tears have been spilt to build it, and where holiness (not piety) should really be the priority conveyed from within its walls.

In an attempt to embrace all things worldly and draw more people into the church, people have unfortunately lost respect for those who have adopted the anything goes approach and are not impressed by an almost desperate plea for appearing to be ‘fun’ in an attempt to church people. Attendance for the Church of England has rapidly declined over the years with many divisions taking place by both clergy and parishioners based mainly on the ordination of women and also the acceptance and promotion of homosexuality in some of its churches.

Outside of the buildings, which are sometimes very beautiful, there are now many believers who, if they have not lost their faith completely, find themselves alone in preference to compromising for the sake of belonging. Outside of the buildings are people who are savvy enough to know that God does not tempt someone to come to Him through appearing fun through gimmicks or worldliness.

The broken hearted who search for Truth often find him through the rejection of all of those things knowing that the path to freedom is also the rejection of sin, which is not being spoken about. It is often an inward and silent path, and whilst helter-skelters and crazy golf are not sinful and will probably get you in a church for some brief pleasure, they cannot keep you or lead you to God, most especially if it is in a church which is embracing sin under the disguise of ‘seeing things differently’ or ‘building bridges’ which can also be a form of humanism. Who and what you join with can save you or trick you.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Revd Justin Welby who allegedly has stated that anyone who misquotes the bible on The Church of England’s social media page Face book, will have their comments deleted, also states that people should speak the ‘truth’. In a recent article in the telegraph he is quoted as saying.

“Frankly there is no such thing as an alternative fact. There is truth. There is absolute truth. There is opinion and there is truth.

Whilst it is a very honest statement, this is confusing to many people who are frustrated with the Church of England. The focus on the contributions to the churches social media page distracts from the lies, the mis-quotes from the bible, and the confusion which is being perpetrated from within its very walls.

The decline in church attendance is down to this definite fact.

Congress’s Behavior Police To Register Potential Future Criminals

August 20, 2019/in Courts & Law, Culture War, Gun Rights, News, Policy, Politics, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by Rod Thomson

By KrisAnne Hall.

The TAPS Act is not the solution to gun violence many members of Congress are professing it to be. The unlimited and arbitrary authority this Act bestows upon an unaccountable bureaucracy of 24 people, combined with the language of double-speak and contradictions creating loopholes allowing completely unsupervised and unchecked authority, is reminiscent of the Sedition Act of 1798.

The TAPS Act will create a brand new bureaucracy under the authority of the Department of Homeland Security. A non-elected bureaucrat will be authorized by Congress to appoint 23 other non-elected bureaucrats to “identify individuals who are exhibiting patterns of concerning behavior” and then to “manage” those Americans.

The sole purpose of this bureaucracy of 24 will be to create State and federal behavioral policing body ruling over the perceived behavior of the American people — a KGB-style agency not only monitoring the behavior of Americans, but also functioning as judge, jury, and executioner.

This Act mandates the Secretary of Homeland Security to establish a Joint Behavioral Threat Assessment and Management Task Force: a 24 member bureaucracy consisting of one government employee (level GS-15 or above) and 23 people from non-governmental organizations of the Secretary’s choosing. Not a single member of this 24 person bureaucracy will be elected by the people, therefore the people will retain no control whatsoever over the actions or activity of this newly created bureaucracy that will possess, by Congressional consent, an enormous amount of arbitrary and unchecked power over the people (see §4(a)).

The sole purpose of this task force is “identifying individuals who are exhibiting patterns of concerning behavior” and create a power to control those people on a federal and local level (§3(2)). This Act contains no clear definition of “concerning behavior.” As a matter of fact, the Act relies upon the Task Force (24 non-elected bureaucrats) to first define “concerning behavior” and then empower the “monitors” tasked with “identifying individuals” that exhibit that behavior.

According to (§3(2)(a)) no actual criminal act must take place to invoke the power this bureaucracy creates. A Federal or State agent must only believe an individual is “interested” in committing their definition of “concerning behavior” to summon this new and undefined power to action. The DHS will then be “empowered” to implement these arbitrary rules with no acknowledgement of any of the rights of the people.

To take the legal-eeze off it, this is intended to create a registry of people who may commit crimes at some unspecified and unknown time in the future. This registry will then be used to begin a step-by-step usurpation of their individual rights, from the assumption of innocence and due process to the 1st and 2nd Amendments and more.

Once a State or federal gent has identified an American believed to be interested in some kind of concerning behavior, §3(2)(b) authorizes the bureaucracy to empower these agents to investigate and gather information from multiple sources (sources remain undefined in this Act) on this individual American to find “articulable facts” supporting whether this person is truly exhibiting an “interest” in committing “concerning behavior.”

The 4th Amendment requires the government to obtain a warrant based upon probable cause (not articulable facts), supported by oath or affirmation, particularly describing the places to be searched and the persons or things to be seized. Under the 4 th Amendment, it is impossible for this Task Force to empower any government agent to do what Congress has authorized it to do. But the Act makes no mention of the 4 th Amendment or the government’s requirement to respect and secure the rights of the people. According to §3(2)(c) of this Act, after the bureaucracy has compiled its “articulable facts” by circumventing the 4th Amendment’s requirements on government, the bureaucracy is now empower an government agent to “manage” the threat of “concerning behavior.” There is no definition within the Act for the word “manage.” However, the “Powers of the Task Force” are defined in §4(f) as follows:

“Any member of the Task Force may, if authorized by the Task Force, take any action which the Task Force is authorized to take by this section.”

While there are no guidelines created by Congress on how this bureaucracy is supposed to define “manage” or “identify” the behavior of Americans, §2 of the Act establishes that the Task Force will create its own “guidelines and best practices” in order to devise a “national standard” of action. Therefore, it seems indisputable through §2 and §4(f) that any member of the Task Force can take any action it chooses as long the Task Force will establish the guidelines and practices for such action. The only limit of a government agent and the agency as a whole, rests solely upon the whim of the individual bureaucrat and the bureaucracy to limit itself. There’s not a lot of history suggesting that would happen.

No Real Congressional Oversight

Congress retains no real authority to check, balance, limit, modify, or control the exercise of power created by this bureaucracy. The only requirement for this new bureaucracy is to operate as the behavioral police in America and after one year the Secretary (the GS-15 government employee) will submit a report to Congress telling Congress what they have been doing for the past year. The Act then requires DHS to report to Congress once a year every subsequent year on how the guidelines are working, not as a check and balance.

A deceived member of Congress may attempt to assert that the only authority of the bureaucracy is to make “suggestions to Congress” as to what the proper course of action should be. However, that assertion can be seen as pure error by reading §3(2)(c) of this Act.

A deceived member of Congress may believe that this federal bureaucracy will have no power over the State and local police powers. However §8 of this Act establishes that federal grant money will be given to local jurisdictions which will undeniably establish the power for this Bureaucracy to control local and State authorities once they accept that money. So just as with the Department of Education and so many other federal agencies, if the States submit to federal authority, they’ll get the money. Most to all States will. (Surely the American people recognize this sleight of hand by now!)

A deceived Supreme Court, upon legal challenge, will likely fail to recognize this Act to be vague and full of self-defining authority for a non-elected bureaucracy. SCOTUS has long held great deference to federal agencies and their agents to define their own authority and procedures when Congress leaves holes in the laws.

The Constitution delegates no authority to Congress to fund, recommend, or create a behavioral police for the people. The writing of this Act and the Act’s website proves that every co-sponsor of this Bill knows this as fact! First, the Act makes no mention of due process, the rights of the people, nor any reliance upon or limit established by the Constitution of the United States.

Secondly, if you go to the Bill’s website and click on the hyperlink “Constitutional Authority Statement” the link takes you back to a copy of the Bill text, with no statement of authority whatsoever. The Constitution is not what the foundation for this Act, but fear of guns on the left and fear of terrorists on the right.

So, with the passage of this Act, Congress will create a new bureaucracy who will be empowered to create its own guidelines and procedures on how it will operate; and to define, identify, and enforce government control upon its self-defined “concerning behavior” of individuals in America — complete autonomous, arbitrary, self-defined authority resting in the hands of bureaucrats elected by no one, and controlled by no one.

This Act, on its face, violates the 4th , 5th , 6th , and 8th Amendments. But as in every arbitrary law, the whole truth of its offense to the rights of the people cannot be fully known until the law is put into action. If this Act is used as some members of Congress profess, it is highly likely that execution of this Act will violate large swaths of the Constitution — including the 1st , 2nd , 4th , 5th , 6th , 7th , 8th , 9th , and 10th Amendments. Constitution and the rights of the people be damned, the bureaucrats will have their power under the illusion of keeping people safe — always the justification for taking away rights.

Members of Congress are championing this Bill as the “be all and end all” solution to gun violence in America, yet the Bill does not even once mention the words “gun” or “ammunition.” It should be clear now that the TAPS Act is not about gun control at all, it is about people control. It will target any American who voices, types, or indicates a thought toward questioning government policy, people, or power. (See the FBI Memo defining and identifying the “new” standard for domestic terrorist.)

How any politician who professes a knowledge of the Constitution or professes a love for America, her people, and their rights could ever back this insidious piece of legislation is completely beyond my comprehension. And as Patrick Henry said in 1788: “Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel.”

It’s time for the American people to hold these pretend patriots suspect and tell them to change their vote or change their vocation.

If any person, including members of Congress would like to discuss this with me, my door is open. My website: KrisAnneHall.com.

ABOUT KRISANNE HALL

KrisAnne Hall is a former biochemist, Russian linguist for the US Army, and former prosecutor for the State of Florida. KrisAnne also practiced First Amendment Law for a prominent Florida non-profit Law firm. KrisAnne now travels the country teaching the foundational principles of Liberty and our Constitutional Republic. KrisAnne is the author of 6 books on the Constitution and Bill of Rights, she also has an internationally popular radio and television show and her books and classes have been featured on C-SPAN TV. KrisAnne can be found at www.KrisAnneHall.com.

Anti-Semitism @CNN

August 20, 2019/in Commentary, Culture War, News, Policy, Politics/by Defend The Border

A major part of our mission here at The United West (TUW) is to expose and eradicate Anti-Semitism throughout the United States and around world.

Whether it is the rise of Anti-Semitism among Socialist Democrats in Congress and efforts by some to end our nation’s support of Israel to opposing boycotts against Jewish businesses and condemning terrorist attacks on Synagogues around the world, TUW stands front and center in the defense of Jewish peoples everywhere.

This is why I am writing you today.

Nowhere is Anti-Semitism more pernicious – more damaging – than in the field of journalism. As a friend once told me, journalism is history one day at a time.

So when an “important news organization” like CNN hires virulent “out of the closet” Anti-Semites to gather and report “the news,” it is critically important that we point them out and abolish their influence.

Recently, CNN accepted the “resignation” of Mohammed Elshamy – a 25-year-old former photojournalist with the Turkish Anadolu news agency.

It turns out that Elshamy, who began working as a photo editor at CNN’s headquarters in Atlanta earlier this year, had a history of posting poisonous anti-Semitic tweets against Israel in general and the Jewish people in particular.

In one tweet, Elshamy reportedly celebrating the deaths of “Jewish pigs” and in 2011 referred to “Zionist pigs” while praising a Palestinian terror attack.

A statement released by CNN read, in part:

“The network has accepted the resignation of a photo editor, who joined CNN earlier this year, after anti-Semitic statements he’d made in 2011 came to light.

CNN is committed to maintaining a workplace in which every employee feels safe, secure, and free from discrimination regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation or religion.”

If CNN really cared about this “policy position” why didn’t this so-called “news organization” conduct a background check on Elshamy before they hired him.

If they didn’t, that is negligent at best. If they did and hired him anyway, that’s worse.

It is important to note what CNN didn’t do when they fired Elshamy.

CNN didn’t publish their statement about firing him on their website… didn’t name the editor who posted the tweet… and didn’t mention the deadly terrorist attack on innocent Jewish civilians that Elshamy celebrated.

The Daily Mail’s Jordan Schachtel, who researched the details of Elshamy’s hate-laced twitter rant, wrote back saying:

“(Elshamy) “celebrated” a 3/23/11 terror attack at a Jerusalem bus stop…” “The bombing killed a Christian woman who was studying in Israel & severely injured a 14-year-old Israeli girl who would succumb to her wounds 6 yrs later. The attack injured 39 more.”

I decided to share this story with you because you probably didn’t see or hear anything about it in the “Establishment News” media.

And if it weren’t for you, TUW would not have been around to research or expose this story that CNN allowed to happen and tried to hide.

To educate Americans about the “Real News” – news that the leftist controlled “Establishment News Media” simply ignores – we need your help.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Criticism of Israel Is Not Anti-Semitism; Anti-Zionism Is

Berlin: Capital of European Antisemitism

THEATER OF THE ABSURD: Democrats go from screeching ‘Russia, Russia, Russia’ to ‘Recession, Recession, Recession!’

August 20, 2019/in Culture War, Economy, Elections, Policy, Politics/by Dr. Rich Swier

The Democratic Party has for some time now focused entirely on one thing and one thing only – President Donald J. Trump. Their rhetoric has given rise to the likes of Antifa. Their rhetoric has caused the shooting of members of Congress to the harassment of members of the Trump cabinet in public places. It has gone from holding up the severed head of President Trump by a comedian to the mock assassination of the President at a Democratic fundraiser in Illinois. It has become a game of pin-a-name on President Trump, and his supporters, leading to violent protests in Portland, Oregon.

But now the attacks are directly against the American people.

It began with Bill Maher saying that he wants America to go into a recession so that President Trump does not win a second term in office. Watch.

For Democrats it’s no longer the economy, it’s the narrative stupid!

The Democratic Party has gone off the rails when it embraces the idea that it must destroy America and every American in order to win back the White House in 2020 by creating a recession. Something that they’re actually good at dating back to FDR, Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama.

The concern is that Democrats will actually succeed in tearing down our economy. Their policies are designed to do just that if they win the White House – destroy America from within. From raising taxes to 90% on the successful job creators, to the Green New Deal’s goal of saving the planet by instituting a Marxist government. Their ideas are designed to gain control of something government should never control, the economy. Just look at the former Soviet Union, Cuba and most recently Valenzuela.

President Trump understands that it really is the economy stupid.

He’s doing everything he can as the Chief Executive to reduce spending, cut regulation and lower taxes. His campaign promise is to “Keep America Great.” The only way to keep America great is to unleash its full potential. That means giving power back to the people.

As newly elected President Trump said during his inaugural address:

Today’s ceremony, however, has very special meaning. Because today we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another, or from one party to another — but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C. and giving it back to you, the American People.

For too long, a small group in our nation’s Capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost. Washington flourished — but the people did not share in its wealth. Politicians prospered — but the jobs left, and the factories closed.

The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country. Their victories have not been your victories; their triumphs have not been your triumphs; and while they celebrated in our nation’s capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land.

That all changes — starting right here, and right now, because this moment is your moment: it belongs to you.

It belongs to everyone gathered here today and everyone watching all across America. This is your day. This is your celebration. And this, the United States of America, is your country.

What truly matters is not which party controls our government, but whether our government is controlled by the people. January 20th 2017, will be remembered as the day the people became the rulers of this nation again. The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer.

Everyone is listening to you now.

We will see what the Democrats come up with as their slogan for 2020. Whatever it is it can’t beet MAGA and KAG.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Democrats Rooting for Recession

The left stokes racist flames and demonizes millions

VIDEO: Red Flag Red Flags

August 20, 2019/in Courts & Law, Culture War, News, Policy, Politics, Video, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by Bill Finlay

Confiscating guns from legal owners who have done no wrong violates everything the USA stands for!

To learn more about “Red Flag” laws please click here.

The Vortex — The Day of Reckoning Has Arrived

August 19, 2019/in Courts & Law, Culture War, Policy, Politics, Religion, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by Church Militant

TRANSCRIPT

It’s been brewing for a while now, and yesterday, the sins of the homosexualist hierarchy officially caught up to them.

In New York state, the Child Victim’s Act went into effect, and the vultures have now swept in to begin picking over the dying body of the Church as hundreds of lawsuits worth hundreds of millions of dollars — perhaps even billions — were filed throughout the state’s seven dioceses.

Church Militant, you will recall, led all Catholic media last year during the “Summer of Shame” saying this was bound to happen — and now it has.

States all over the country are now suspending their statutes of limitations and opening up a one-year window for any victims of past sexual abuse to sue the Church, and on the very first day, literally hundreds of lawsuits were filed; and yesterday was just day one of the year — 364 more to go.

In courthouses all over the state, lawyers lined up in the halls beginning at midnight to get their clients’ lawsuits filed. In many places, the atmosphere was almost circus-like.

And why wouldn’t it be? From the attorneys’ perspectives, a massive, huge payday is waiting down the road and potential bankruptcy for multiple dioceses, as Buffalo’s lying bishop, Richard Malone, even stated publicly days before.

The bishops in New York fought like hell to prevent this law from being passed, with Cdl. Timothy Dolan leading the way.

In fact, the flashpoint of the story yesterday happened right on the steps of his cathedral, St. Patrick’s on 5th Avenue, which was fitting since it was here where it was all concentrated last year as news broke that former Cdl. Theodore McCarrick had been accused of sexually abusing a minor right inside this very cathedral.

That case then caused James Grein to come public, and at the Silence Stops Now rally last November in Baltimore, which Church Militant was proud to be a sponsor of, Grein step forward into the glare of cameras and announced that he had been an 18-year sexual abuse victim of the corrupt cleric.

In a moment of poetic justice, Grein stood with his lawyer right in front of the cathedral and together they began a process which may very well bring the archdiocese of New York to its knees.

It was a moment of vindication for Grein and hundreds if not thousands of victims of abuse — mostly male — at the hands of corrupt clergy.

And Grein’s point about this now presents a moment to get to the bottom of how all this came to be is what has corrupt homosexual members of the hierarchy most concerned — and if not, it should.

So many of the bishops and members of the establishment, for decades, have covered up this filth for so long and used the mechanism and machinery of the Church to hide behind and even destroy victims — that open court is now the only way to force the truth into the light of day.

This is the moment that the weak, head-in-the-sand Catholics can no longer deny, as the secular press has grabbed hold of this story and is now running with it, much like they did with the original story back in 2002 in Boston.

This has come about because of the infiltration of homosexual men into the Catholic priesthood, some of whom, certainly not all, but some of whom raped altar boys, thousands and thousands of altar boys.

Their homosexual buddies who had moved up the ranks to become bishops covered up and lied for them, bullied and intimidated victims and sat by with false platitudes as many young men killed themselves, unable to bear the psychological torture.

Lying prelates like Blase Cupich and Joseph Tobin continue to deny that homosexuality had anything to do with it, with Cupich even manipulating last February’s sex summit in Rome to deliberately avoid the discussion.

When all this became much more public last summer, many Catholics somewhat naively hoped that this would finally be the moment where the Church could be cleaned up, the hierarchy held to account for their sins and gross negligence.

But in the intervening year, what has become blindingly clear is that the gay corrupt mafia, as archbishop Viganò calls them, has dug its heels in even further and doubled down on the lies and cover-up, some bishops shredding documents at a furious pace.

The rampant homosexuality in the Church among clergy is now completely exposed, and still, the hierarchy does nothing about it.

Look at these pictures from an exclusive Church Militant report from just yesterday, two former priests from New England who recently left their vocations and moved to Minnesota where they were civilly married. These are their own social media postings.

Their respective dioceses simply avoid the entire affair saying once they left, there’s nothing they could do.

How about conducting some deep-dive forensic analysis of how this could happen — what was their formation, what’s the current formation? But no, that won’t happen because the men in charge support all this.

Homosexualist clerical kingpin himself James Martin is protected and promoted all over the country by dozens of these wicked men in miters, the same men who lied and covered up all this sin, and a couple hundred others of the mitered class say nothing, implicating themselves in the sin.

Here in Detroit, a disgraced archbishop who had to step down in St. Paul-Minneapolis is allowed to return to his home archdiocese and concelebrate Mass at the seminary as though nothing happened — the same seminary, as rector, former seminarians report he used to hit on them.

These are but a tiny, tiny sampling of what has become the status quo in the clerical ranks, something Abp. Viganò last year himself said, and has been proven true point by point.

And yet, the greedy homosexualist prelates still do not learn, as Dolan and his archdiocese have actually sued their 32 insurance companies who refuse to pay any settlements these hundreds of lawsuits are going to produce.

Their position: You liars and cover-up artists are the ones who let this go on for decades, and you even lied to us about what you did. We are not paying for your sins.

That’s a tough case to argue against.

Dolan and other bishops around the country are now in a position to have to begin doling out millions in legal fees to force their insurance companies to pay what will likely be hundreds and hundreds of millions in settlements.

After their final years are spent in all these civil courts, they very well will find themselves moving down the hall to the bankruptcy courts.

And yet, in the midst of this scandalous turn of affairs, not one, not a single sitting ordinary has stepped forward and owned this filth, saying we are guilty of now laying bare the entire patrimony of the Church, in addition to participation in what may very well be the largest sexual abuse cover-up in the world — not one.

And yet, they will put on the happy face of willing participants and wanting to see justice done and victims protected — blah blah blah.

Don’t believe them — not for a single minute.

They are products of decades-old system, a system which rewarded and advanced lying, thieving homosexual men.

They played the game their entire careers; they danced to this music as they climbed their way up the ladders, but now, the music has come to a screeching halt.

What a horrible legacy these men will have left when their corpses are rotting their graves in a few short years: tens of millions of souls having abandoned the one true faith; 7 out of every 10 rejecting the central teaching of the Real Presence; thousands and thousands of altar boys raped and abused; thousands of vocations destroyed; liturgy made into a side-show.

And now, the very patrimony of the Church, what millions of poor immigrant Catholics scraped and saved for decades to hand over for the work of the Church, all to be gobbled in court judgments and scattered to the four winds.

The lying, corrupt hierarchy, never missing a chance to virtue signal, can’t stop babbling on about immigrants.

What about the millions of immigrants who came here and used their sweat and toil and money to build up the Church in Her work of holiness?

Since they will not bow to the will of God and correct their ways, God is now forcing the situation, as He has always done when the leaders go astray.

In a couple of months, the state of New Jersey Child Victim’s Act goes into effect. The rampage through the Church is about to shift into high gear.

Pray for the restoration; pray that these wicked, lying prelates repent, that they have their eyes opened or that God will close them forever.

Lessons from Weimar Germany for the Portland Extremists

August 19, 2019/in Culture War, Must Read, National Security, Policy, Politics, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)

Immediately following the conclusion of the First World War and the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was thrust into a state of economic, political, and social disarray. The infantile German state, which had recently been established in 1871, struggled to maintain its reputation as a global superpower. Kaiser Wilhelm II chose to abdicate the throne, a weak constitutional republic was recognized in Weimar, and the Dolchstoßlegende (the “stab-in-the-back” myth) soon spread across the wounded nation. By the early 1920s, many of Germany’s emerging political parties—both right- and left-wing—had formed paramilitary groups to intimidate and violently suppress their political advisories.

Though the history of the Weimar Republic is brief—it was dissolved in 1933—it is instructive. The period is filled with violent episodes carried out by baton-wielding ideologues who were determined to beat and assassinate their way into political power. These paramilitary units, which were so prevalent in post-war Germany, were hardly consistent in membership. Many individuals viewed their service to a paramilitary group as an extension of their time in the military during World War I and sought a form of camaraderie they found lacking after the war. Others affiliates were nothing more than enraged ideologues who viewed violence as the most effective method to ensure the establishment of their utopian vision.

As early as 1918, the Räterepublik Bayern (Bavarian Soviet Republic) was temporarily established in the midst of the German Communist Revolution. Immediately following its pronouncement, street brawls broke out between Nationalist, Socialist, and Communist groups. These brawls were nothing more than well-organized mob brutality. Hundreds of moderate and liberal politicians were murdered in the streets by both right- and left-wing extremists. Once nationalists began taking over the Reichstag, these assassinations were then typically blamed on rogue communists, rather than Nazi Sturmabteilung.

A hyperinflationary crisis and the looming threat of a communist revolution, in large part, made this environment of violence possible. By the beginning of the 1930s, however, Hitler’s National Socialist Party had come to power, banned all other political parties (including their paramilitary arms), and blindly set the country on a collision course for a Second World War. The rest, so it is commonly said, is history… and yet we see a strange pattern reemerging.

Street Violence and Antifa Rallies

“History may not repeat itself, but it does rhyme.”

While there is no conclusive evidence that the American novelist Mark Twain ever uttered or wrote these words, they are often attributed to him. Recent stories coming out of Portland, which is often regarded as the country’s mecca for progressive and peaceful individuals, sound more and more like a Dr. Seuss story every day as Twain’s supposed theory rings true.

Viral videos of masked left-wing extremists, typically identifying under the collective banner of Antifa, have been surfacing on the internet for well over a year. Andy Ngo, a prominent Portland journalist who was covering an Antifa rally, is just one of the latest victims of this widespread paramilitary street violence. The injuries sustained by Ngo—a brain hemorrhage, multiple contusions, and various other neurological complications—are still making headlines a month after the attack.

Despite a recent proposal from Republican Senators Ted Cruz (TX) and Bill Cassidy (LA) to classify Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization, not everyone is taking Antifa’s violence seriously.

Tae Phoenix, a musician and frequent op-ed contributor, scoffed at Cruz and Cassidy, claiming, “I’ve met golden retrievers who scared me more.” Progressive blogger Sarah Gailey actually had the gall to propose more violence, even going as far as suggesting Antifa members should start using bricks. The violence in Portland, notwithstanding Phoenix and Gailey’s comments, should bother everyone. Paramilitary street violence of this nature, whether it’s carried out by left- or right-wing groups, is not a new or comical phenomenon. It is the result of deep-rooted ideological conflict and often indicative of impending political chaos.

Left-Wing Violence Begets a Reactionary Response

Michael Malice is correct when he asserts that “we live in a culture where everyone working for President Trump is brazenly referred to as a White Supremacist or a Nazi, even Jewish advisors like Jared Kushner” and that “there are very few people in Americans who are comfortable seeing their fellow citizens being assaulted.”

Antifa members like to think they are fighting actual fascists, or at least tend to label anyone who identifies as ideologically right of a self-proclaimed communist as one. But what they fail to realize is that they are just a catalyst for the return of real fascists. The response to the extremist violence will not be met with adherence to left-wing ideology but rather reactionary opposition. This effort to stifle and ban free speech defenders from vocalizing their opposition to leftist ideals is actually a march toward a totalitarian system rather than a step away from it.

In the face of extremist political violence, it is essential to remember all the past and not just that which is convenient for one’s particular narrative. The work of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn exposed the world to what left-wing ideologues were capable of implementing.

“Thanks to ideology,” Solzhenitsyn informed the world in The Gulag Archipelago, “the twentieth century was fated to experience evildoing calculated on a scale in the millions.”

Ideology is what is fueling the violence carried out by individuals on the streets of Portland. What Antifa fails to realize is that waving communist flags and punching Nazis doesn’t pacify hatred; it only incites more violence.

COLUMN BY