Mexican drug cartels have headquarters throughout the United States and are one of the country’s greatest criminal, national security and public health threats, according to a veteran Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) senior agent pushing the federal government to designate them as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO).
“The Mexican cartels have left a trail of blood using intimidation and terrorist acts of ruthless violence,” said Derek S. Maltz, a narco-terror expert who helped establish the Counter Narco-Terrorism Operations Center (CNTOC) before retiring from the DEA. The CNTOC has busted many bigtime narco-terrorism operations, including a money laundering scheme that supported the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah.
“The cartels engage in beheadings, car bombings, dissolving humans in acid, mass murders, torture, bombings and political assassinations,” Maltz said. “Their actions are consistent with the behaviors of traditional terrorists and they have infiltrated the highest levels of the Mexican government with bribes and corruption.” The former DEA agent added that “Mexican drug cartels have utilized techniques which focus on mind manipulation and behavioral modification commonly utilized by organizations such as Al-Qaeda.”
The troubling details were delivered during recent testimony before the Ohio legislature, where Maltz made a powerful case for designating Mexican drug cartels as FTOs. Following a massive bust of the notorious Sinaloa Cartel in the Buckeye State, a resolution was introduced to get the federal government to make the change so that it may use “appropriate means to mitigate and eventually eliminate the operations of the cartels.”
Last week a criminal justice committee heard testimony as the resolution advances in the Ohio legislature. Maltz was a key expert witness, telling the panel that cartels “have major hubs in Southern California, Arizona, Chicago, Texas, New York and Atlanta” and have “expanded into South Florida.”
The resolution states that Transitional Criminal Organizations (TCO) based in Mexico (drug cartels) are responsible for the flow of opioids across the border into the United States and Ohio and that they are also responsible for the proliferation of human trafficking in the United States, particularly Ohio, as part and parcel of their drug trafficking operations.
The measure points out that drug cartels conduct operations on U.S. soil in furtherance of drug and human trafficking and that abuse of opioids and human trafficking are direct threats to the economy, well-being and overall vitality of the state of Ohio and its citizens. “The acting administrator of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, Uttam Dhillon, recently declared Mexican drug trafficking organizations are the biggest criminal threat the United States faces today,” the Ohio resolution states.
The measure further points out that the Immigration and Nationality Act authorizes the U.S. Secretary of State, in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury and the Attorney General, to designate an organization as an FTO when certain criteria are met. Drug cartels meet the criteria, Ohio lawmakers assert, because they are foreign in nature, engage in or retain the capability and intent to engage in terrorism and threaten the security of American citizens and the national defense, foreign relations and economic interests of the United States.
Judicial Watch made parallel arguments in a White Paper published earlier this year. In it, Judicial Watch’s investigative team provides comprehensive documentation that Mexican drug cartels, notoriously sophisticated criminal operations, undoubtedly meet the U.S. government’s requirements to be designated FTOs.
The criteria for FTO designation require that organizations be foreign, engage in terrorism or terrorist activity or possess the capability and intent to do so and pose a threat to U.S. nationals or U.S. national security. Mexican drug cartels are inherently foreign, routinely commit criminal acts within the statutory definition of terrorism and arguably represent a more immediate and ongoing threat to U.S. national security than any of the currently-designated FTOs on the State Department list.
EDITORS NOTE: This Judicial Watch column is republished with permission.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Judicial Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJudicial Watch2019-06-04 16:25:092019-06-04 16:31:18Mexican Cartels Among Greatest Criminal, National Security, Public Health Threat to U.S.
There are times when the Democratic party looks like a formidable threat heading into 2020 — and other times, like this weekend, when people are wondering if their political strategists are permanently out to lunch. Initially, former Vice President Joe Biden probably stood out to a lot of people as a legitimate contender in the field of 23. Now, after a Human Rights Campaign dinner keynote, he’s standing out for another reason: his LGBT fanaticism.
Beating Donald Trump wasn’t going to be an easy task — but Joe Biden just made it a whole lot harder for himself. At a Saturday night speech, the man formerly known as the moderate choice in a cramped race, made a startling announcement about his plans as president. If he wins, he told a room of HRC activists, LGBT “rights” will be his number one priority. “In this dangerous moment for our nation,” he said, “the very idea of America is at stake.” Calling the president’s policies “wrong” and “immoral,” Biden vowed, “I promise you if I’m elected… [the Equality Act] will be the first thing I ask to be done. This is our soul, da**it. This is who we have to be…”
While the crowd of activists wildly cheered, the rest of the country’s reaction could probably be summed up in one word: Really? With all of the tension on the world stage, with immigration reaching its boiling point, and people looking to Washington to keep the economic boom going, the front-runner of the Democratic party says putting men in girls’ bathrooms is the most important thing of all?
Sure, the Equality Act will excite a tiny fringe of liberal voters, but even Democratic headquarters knows there are a lot more serious issues facing our nation than putting Drag Queen Story Hours in every library. And the pollsters know it too. If you ask Americans what their biggest concerns are heading into next year’s election, the LGBT agenda doesn’t even make the list! In April, when Fox News ran the numbers, immigration (21 percent) and the economy (10 percent) were the only two that even had double-digit mentions. Gallup’s team got the same response in the lead-up to the midterms. When they asked voters, Biden’s number-one priority wasn’t even on the map. Even climate change, which is usually dead last on Americans’ minds, had more fans.
If Biden wanted to galvanize the Left with his sudden extremist streak, the Equality Act is about the worst piece of legislation he could have chosen. Apart from the out-of-touch party on Capitol Hill, the policy is so unpopular that it’s even difficult to find liberal consensus on the matter. Feminists, parents, and LGBT athletes were outspokenly opposed to H.R. 5. Thanks to Saturday’s speech, we don’t even have to ask how Biden feels about girls’ sports, parental authority, religious liberty, women’s rights, privacy, and the free market. His support of the Equality Act tells us all we need to know about a possible Biden administration. “It will send a message,” Biden told the audience, “around the world, not just at home.” And that message would be this: We’re no longer a nation of common-sense and freedom.
In a party that already has an infanticide problem, a socialism problem, a Green New Deal problem — and so much more — battleground states have to be looking at this crop of D.C. Democrats and thinking: Are you deaf? Didn’t anyone learn the lessons of 2016, when Hillary Clinton lost because “Rust Belt voters thought she cared more about bathrooms than jobs?” Apparently not. Even now, as heartland Democrats raise red flags about the national party’s strategy, no one seems to care that Biden is alienating himself from the very moderates he might have appealed to.
“From the Appalachian regions of Ohio to the Iron Range of Minnesota and the northern reaches of Michigan and Wisconsin, across Iowa and Missouri and through the southern swaths of Indiana and Illinois — areas in which Bill Clinton triumphed and Hillary Clinton tanked — the quotes from the 72 rural Democrats [Politico] interviewed [last year] read like a pent-up primal scream. And [Indiana State Rep.] Terry Goodin’s [D] comments pop out in particular… He says the Democratic Party is ‘lazy,’ ‘out of touch with mainstream America…’ The Democrats in his district, he laments, ‘feel abandoned.'”
They’re about to feel even more so. When the “moderate” in the field is pushing for taxpayer-funded abortions and gender reassignment surgeries, boys in girls’ showers, legal infanticide, religious discrimination, and the end of parental authority and women’s sports, he isn’t just on the wrong side of history, he’s on the wrong side of most Americans. Social extremism can’t win you an election — but it can sure cost you one. Just ask Hillary Clinton.
Tony Perkins’ Washington Update is written with the aid of FRC Action senior writers.
EDITORS NOTE: This FRC column is republished with permission. All rights reserved.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Family Research Councilhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFamily Research Council2019-06-04 06:46:052019-06-04 06:46:05Biden Tries Boosting His Self-Extreme
Dan Freemyer, minister at Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, recited a Benediction prayer at the Baylor University commencement on May 18, 2019. Toward the end, he prayed,
“God, give them the moral imagination to reject the old keys that we are trying to give them, the planet that we are poisoning by running it on fossil fuels and misplaced priorities, a planet with too many white straight men like me behind the steering wheel while others are expected to sit at the back of the bus.”
This was quite a plea. Rather than concentrate on the students as they celebrate the years of hard work, dedication to their studies and the financial sacrifices made by their families, and praise them as they make their formal entry into the adult work force to offer their contributions to our great nation, the speaker used the pulpit and the podium to call on God to promote his personal political message, an affront to our Judeo-Christian values.
Dedicated to leftism over Christianity, Freemyer is no more a Christian than Bernie Sanders and Chuck Schumer are Jewish. Despite his pastor title, he expressed concern about an “ecological calamity,” which we know was invented solely to destroy capitalism, the only economic system since the Industrial Revolution that has contributed to the improvement of life on earth. The purpose of this evil scheme, confessed by United Nations official, Christiana Figueres, in February 2015, was to redistribute global wealth under the control of one ruling class, and despite the expose’, it continues relentlessly. Globalists are determined to destroy life as we know it, through government changes, the schools and the media.
Why did the pastor denigrate “straight white men?” “Straight” because the majority of the LGBTQXYZ community was made ripe and easy prey to mobilize as a unified force. Considered the most divisive president in American history, Obama sparked racism with stories of his biased white grandmother and lies about a white girlfriend. He isolated Blacks, Latinos and Christians and ignored Black Lives Matter, black-on-white violence, and Islamic terrorism. He bashed Republicans, discredited Americans as lazy and police as stupid; and unfailingly supported Muslims against Christians and Jews. It is no surprise then that other groups separated from the united Americans we were, and became intersectional, each with its own grievances, its own obsession, and the LBGT community remained unmindful of the left’s complicity with Islam and Islam’s deadly hatred of homosexuality. Thus consumed, the community became an automatic Democrat voting bloc, as designed.
Although the pastor is himself white, he drank the Kool-Aid and allies himself against the “white men” who played an enormous role in the making of America and establishing our Judeo-Christian heritage as the foundation of our Constitution. White men are responsible for the laws that ended slavery in our country, and the laws that granted equality and suffrage to women, whereas slavery and abuse against women exist where the majority is people of color. His statement shows that he was among the many to be beguiled by the left, incited and duped into accepting immigrants based on the irrationality of skin color rather than on values, morality, and dedication to our country. The left finds the Obama administration’s victimhood narrative appealing because it feeds their self-aggrandizement. Further, and perhaps more importantly, it is the masculinity of men that protects a nation in times of invasion and war, yet this is what today’s schools are working to destroy.
Wars and destruction begin with lies, propaganda, encouraged fabrications of one group against another. They stimulate prejudice, unfairness, hate and violence. Our United States was founded by “white men” who resisted the tyranny of England to establish a country of new laws of the people, by the people, and for the people, words later enshrined in Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. Nowhere in the Bible or our Constitution is it permissible to honor or disgrace others.
The Bible teaches that Adam is our common ancestor, so that there would be no difference between king and commoner, or between people of different colors. These lessons were included in the Commandments and throughout biblical history to create a peaceful world out of chaos, to teach respect and compassion, yet this “man of the cloth” turned against those teachings. We saw the reflection of his guilt when he stopped looking at his audience after inserting his leftist assertion. It was further defined when he completed his speech, turned, and left without a fare-thee-well for their future.
Freemyer stole the honor of work, diligence, and achievement for which the students were to be recognized on this auspicious occasion, and the joy that only a small percentage of the world’s population reaps in a lifetime. He purloined the dignity and the festivity when he humiliated the “white” students in public, and he tricked other students into laughing or applauding, thus also diminishing their integrity.
With the same stroke, he suggested the socialist plan for equalization of grades or wealth, and disallowing success based on diligence and innate talents. This is not an act of benevolence for the less successful, but a way of justifying the right to take anything from anyone at any time – what he wants when he wants it – a surefire way to chaos and bloodshed.
I understand that Baylor University was not complicit in scripting the Benediction, and President Linda Ann Parrack Livingstone has nobly rejected and apologized for Freemyer’s ignoble presentation. Yet the event will forever be a tainted memory for the students who deserved better.
Trump is now seeking to impose tariffs on the goods from Mexico to gain control over the highly porous southern border of the United States, through which tonnage of deadly drugs and other contraband freely flow into the country and unknown hundreds of thousand of illegal aliens enter without inspection. Trump’s action is the direct result of the unwillingness of the “leaders” of both the Democratic and Republican parties to have provided the administration with the tools it clearly needs to end the crisis.
While a wall on the border would not, by itself, end the immigration crisis, it would represent an important element of what should be a secure immigration system that honors America’s tradition of welcoming more lawful immigrants than the rest of the world combined by making clear distinctions between lawful immigrants and illegal aliens.
More than a decade ago Congress voted to fund a fence on the southern border. However, that fence was never built. Other measures were never implemented either, but continual promises of the creation of massive amnesty programs have served to encourage millions of aspiring illegal aliens from around the world to head for our borders.
For decades politicians made statements about how our immigration laws must be enforced and our borders secured against the illegal and uninspected entry of aliens, while making certain never to implement the measures to actually achieve those commonsense and achievable goals.
Unfathomably, now members of the Democratic Party claim that the situation along that border does not constitute an emergency or a crisis.
The first step to solving a problem is to acknowledge that there is one.
Anyone who could take all of the facts surrounding the border situation and declare that there is no emergency has to be either a fool or insane, or for ulterior motives, is happy, indeed ecstatic with the current state of affairs. These are the Democrat politicians who call for the end of immigration law enforcement altogether and castigate ICE agents as thugs to justify promulgating “Sanctuary” policies that shield illegal aliens, including those who pose a clear and immediate threat to public safety, from ICE.
This has cost thousands of innocent victims their lives.
For these immoral politicians, victims of these criminal aliens are simply “speed bumps” on the road to immigration anarchy and the end of U.S. sovereignty.
Some members of both political parties have weighed in about their concerns that imposing tariffs on Mexican goods would hurt American consumers and hurt corporate profits as a justification for their strong opposition to the imposition of tariffs.
The threat of a lawsuit by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce should not come as a surprise. After all, the Chamber of Commerce has been a strident opponent of border security. In fact, I would suggest that the real reason for the chamber’s adamant opposition to the threat of the impassion of tariffs is not so much about the economic fallout from such a tariff, but the possibility that Mexico might finally act to help the United States secure its border against the massive onslaught of hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens that undermines national security, public safety, public health and the jobs and wages of American workers.
The greatest concern that the anti-American Chamber of Commerce has, and one I believe that is shared with the members of Congress who oppose the imposition of tariffs, is that Mexico might actually accede to President Trump’s demands that Mexico end the massive caravans of illegal aliens heading with sickening regularity to the U.S./Mexican border. One of the easiest ways for Mexico to do this would be to simply secure its southern border with Guatemala. It is a far smaller border than its northern border with the U.S. and would be highly effective.
I have testified at Congressional and state legislative hearings on immigration where the chamber of Commerce or other special interest groups with strong ties to the Chamber of Commerce also testified.
At those hearings I noted that the 9/11 Commission had made it clear that border security is national security and that the 9/11 terror attacks and other such attacks, both thwarted and those that were actually carried out, were only possible because of multiple failures of the immigration system, including failures to secure our borders.
In fact, the preface of the official report,9/11 and Terrorist Travel – begins with the following paragraph:
It is perhaps obvious to state that terrorists cannot plan and carry out attacks in the United States if they are unable to enter the country. Yet prior to September 11, while there were efforts to enhance border security, no agency of the U.S. government thought of border security as a tool in the counterterrorism arsenal. Indeed, even after 19 hijackers demonstrated the relative ease of obtaining a U.S. visa and gaining admission into the United States, border security still is not considered a cornerstone of national security policy. We believe, for reasons we discuss in the following pages, that it must be made one.
Incredibly some of those witnesses not only scoffed at my concerns and the concerns and recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, but confronted me after the hearings and told me that my calls for enhanced border security must stop. They complained that while I saw our borders as America’s first and last line of defense against international terrorists and transnational criminals, to them secure borders were a serious impediment to theirwealth!
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is far more fixated on head-counts on international airliners, ball parks and theaters than they are on body counts at the morgue! It also has friends in both political parties, particularly the Republican Party.
For all of these open-border advocates and immigration anarchists, our immigration system has morphed from being a system that protects national security, public safety, public health and the well-being of Americans into a delivery system of unparalleled efficiency that delivers an unlimited supply of exploitable foreign workers who can be coerced into working for substandard wages under illegally dangerous conditions.
Our immigration system also delivers an unlimited supply of foreign students and foreign tourists and, for the immigration lawyers in both political parties, of greatest concern, an unlimited supply of clients for immigration law firms.
This has not happened overnight, although any shred of integrity to the immigration system has been stripped away by politicians who lack integrity.
Securing the U.S./Mexican border would interfere with a delivery system that is far more efficient than Fed-Ex and UPS combined.
For those who oppose the imposition of tariffs, put the blame where it belongs: on the U.S. Congress that has impeded, obstructed and hobbled any and all efforts at border security while Sanctuary Cities beckon illegal aliens.
EDITORS NOTE: This FrontPage Magazine column is republished with permission. All rights reserved.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Michael Cutlerhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngMichael Cutler2019-06-04 05:06:042019-06-04 05:07:40Trump’s Mexico Tariffs: Result of Congressional Obstruction
This is the politician who told German people that if they did not like Merkel’s mass immigration policies they should feel free to leave Germany. Apparently someone felt the same about him.
German district president found dead with gunshot wound — report
The president of the regional council of the central German city of Kassel was found dead in his garden early on Sunday morning.
A spokesman for Walter Lübcke’s party, the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), confirmed the 65-year-old’s death late on Sunday.
Regional news outlet HNA reported that Lübcke had been found with a bullet wound in his head and that police had found no weapon at the scene.
State police did not comment on the HNA report. They said in a statement that they were investigating the matter.
Police helicopters circled above the deceased’s home as locals were interviewed by law enforcement officers, according to HNA.
The public prosecutor’s office in Kassel announced that they would release more details on Monday.
The CDU described the Lübcke as a “bridge builder” who never shied away from “telling it as it is.”
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Vlad Tepes Bloghttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngVlad Tepes Blog2019-06-03 18:36:002019-06-03 18:36:00VIDEO: Merkel politician, Walter Lübcke, found dead in his garden with gunshot to head
Jewish shop owners are hounded, threatened and run out of town. Their businesses are the targets of prolonged campaigns of intimidation, culminating in months of demonstrations at their doors with up to a thousand angry protesters at a time shooting red paint bombs and mutilated dolls at employees.
Owners of these businesses threatened with death and (real) bombings. The threats including their families.
Police refuse to step in, saying the protesters are behaving lawfully. In fact, a top politician supports and is listed as a patron of the organization behind the protests.
Since we know how the Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses which began in 1933 ended, let’s talk about what’s happening in today’s UK.
The Palestine Solidarity Campagin, of which Labour party head Jeremy Corbyn is a patron, has, in reality, been waging this campaign against Jewish businesses that sell Israeli products (both those originating from inside Israel proper as well as those made in the disputed territories) since 2001.
They have not only targeted Jewish businesses but also the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall, an Israeli theater company at Shakespeare’s Globe and an Israeli LGBT event in London.
The group is prominent in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement against Israel, which has been deemed anti-Semitic at its core by the U.S. State Department’s definition of anti-Semitism.
Most recently, the group has forced shops selling Israeli cosmetics to close, like the one owned by UK citizen Nissan Ayalon, 33, who was forced to move his business three times, starting from scratch each time, before finally giving up and fleeing the country.
“Eventually, I lost faith in being able to make a life once again in Britain,” Ayalon said in a newly-released film called Hounded, which documents the on-going campaign of intimidation of Jews who sell products from Israel. “I just couldn’t keep moving to a new city every two years. I had a family to look after.”
The true litmus test of anti-Semitism is whether the actions are against Jews per se (biogtry) or simply making a political statement. The BDS movement holds Jews to a different standard than in similar conflicts worldwide. It is a clear case of anti-Semitism.
Moreover, it is a known fact that while the movement has created little damage to Israel, the movement significantly harms the Palestinian people (another litmus test of its real raison d’etre: anti-Semitism).
Businesses that are targeted in Israel and forced to close because of the movement are mainly located in the disputed territories, which are known for employing large numbers of Palestinians (and paying them at a higher rate than they would receive working for Palestinian companies.
These jobs not only benefit the individuals themselves but also translate to more tax income for the Palestinian Authority – not to mention the good will and peace building atmosphere these companies have been known to create among their Jewish and Palestinian workers.
But the story doesn’t end there (and if it did, it would be bad enough).
Germany’s interior minister and the Berlin mayor allowed the annual pro-Iranian/pro-Hezbollah Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day rally to take place in Berlin. The purpose of the rally is traditionally to call for the destruction of the Jewish state.
The U.S. embassy in Germany tweeted, “Germany’s federal courts decided years ago that Hezbollah is a unified organization dedicated to the destruction of Israel. Symbols of Hezbollah are banned, why not the entire organization?”
Ironically, just days after the rally, Angela Merkel, Germany’s leader, said,
“There is to this day not a single synagogue, not a single daycare center for Jewish children, not a single school for Jewish children that does not need to be guarded by German policemen.”
The rally also came on the heels of an unprecedented report released by Germany’s domestic security agency about how anti-Semitism among the country’s Muslim population is a major problem in the country.
Not only has Merkel and her interior minister blatantly refused to ban the internationally-recognized terror group Hezbollah dedicated to the destruction of Jews, they have refused to even entertain the question.
Small wonder that every Jewish establishment in Germany needs police protection.
And now, due to our ability to connect halfway across the world with a simply click of a button, this phenomena can be spread throughout the globe.
In Australia, a Muslim doctor has been the target of an intimidating anti-Semitic campaign for working with a Jewish organization that helps sick Palestinian children obtain necessary and life-saving treatment in Israeli hospitals.
Dr. Jamal Rifi is a prominent figure in Sydney’s Shiite Muslim community from Lebanon. He has been recognized for his work in preventing the radicalization of young Muslims by ISIS. Yet, Rifi is now considered an “enemy” by pro-Iranian and pro-Hezbollah activists in his community.
He and his family have received death threats. He is afraid to go back to Lebanon to visit his mother for fear of being arrested and prosecuted by Lebanon’s Military Court.
Yet, is Rifi’s situation that much different than Germany’s (current) government-sanctioned anti-Semitism?
In 1933, Jewish businesses began to be targeted by Nazis. It was slow. In fact, the first boycott was a one-day affair. It progressed to a campaign of ever-increasing harassment until it culminated in systematic pillaging, forced transfer of ownership to Nazi Party activists, arrests and ultimately the murder of Jews who owned businesses (of which, in Berlin alone, there were 50,000).
I am not one of those people who think Nazi Germany can happen again. Many would call me naïve; others might call me unwarrantedly optimistic. Perhaps they are right.
But the world is different, certainly when it comes to what we are willing to tolerate and not.
The problem with this equation is the fact that our “tolerance” has become a double-edged sword.
In this case, we have extended our tolerance to Islamists, who, in the cases above, use Israel as the cover for their anti-Semitism. If anything is as dangerous in our time for Jews as it was in the 1930s in Germany, it is the pass Islamists are given when they play the Islamophobia card.
This is how our supreme value of “tolerance” has taken us off kilter.
We have seen this in America in response to the blatant displays of anti-Semitism from Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib. They have been handed a free pass from their own Democrat party.
If the Western world still has the will, they can call this out and stop it. If not, I will be changing my opinion. Because the one thing, unfortunately, that all those who exist on the extremes can agree on is hatred of Jews — historically and now.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Clarion Projecthttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngClarion Project2019-06-03 11:36:262019-06-03 18:53:19Germany 1933 or Europe 2019? You Decide
As we promised you, Church Militant is going to be vigilant and relentless in exposing the filthy squalor into which many of the members of the hierarchy have descended.
And the point to keep uppermost in your mind is that this stuff — all of it — has been known and is still known by multiple bishops, chancery personnel, lawyers and Catholic media types who continue the cover-up.
It is of little significance, except from a criminal law standpoint, if what happened was two years ago or 20 years ago.
All of this filth stains the hands of the dozens of people who did it and covered it up as well as enabled it back in the day and still continue to enable it by refusing to come forward with what they know.
Many of the rats who were running around their chanceries back in the day are today bishops or auxiliary bishops who know many dark secrets and simply refuse to divulge them, especially their own role in the filthy business.
Take for example the case of Fr. Andrew Millar from the diocese of Rockville Center, New York back around the year 2000.
In May of that year, Millar was arrested for sodomizing a 15-year-old mentally disabled teenage boy in a bathroom at a popular beach on Long Island. In November of the same year, a finding of guilty got him a prison sentence of one to three years.
Now, here’s the hitch. Millar was roaming about and able to commit what detectives called a “crime of opportunity” because he was living near the beach in retirement at a Rockville Center parish.
The reason he was “retired” and living at the parish was because he had been stashed away there by then-Bishop James McHugh after Millar had been accused to the diocese of sexually abusing a different child — this one a 10-year-old boy.
McHugh did not tell the police he had a child molester on his hands; then shipped Millar off to the notorious St. Luke’s in Maryland for a few months; then brought him back to the diocese and “retired” him to the parish.
Eight months later, he got caught raping the 15-year-old boy by the boy’s father at the beach bathroom. The boy’s father chased him down and held Millar until the police arrived.
So why, you may reasonably ask, did the bishop “retire” him? Good question — to shuttle him away, hoping he wouldn’t rape any more boys in “retirement.”
And retirement here was key because as McHugh’s lawyer’s tried to assert in the civil suit which followed, since he was “retired,” he was no longer an “employee” of the diocese, so the diocese could not be held financially liable.
Yeah, you heard that right. If, Bp. McHugh reasoned, we could reclassify the rapist priest as a non-employee, then the diocese would be shielded from liability. You can’t make this stuff up. And as the saying goes, but wait, there’s more.
McHugh actually wrote a letter to Millar regarding his retirement and in that letter, McHugh, the bishop remember, knowing full well of the sexual assault against the 10-year-old, thanked Millar for his 41 years of “priestly goodness.”
Eight months later, Millar sodomized the mentally disabled teenage boy. And believe it or not, there’s actually more.
During the criminal trial, McHugh actually intervened on behalf of Millar who had been declared guilty and tried to have the court forgo a prison sentence and remand Millar over to the diocese, seemingly forgetting that Millar had already been under the authority of the diocese when he raped the boy that he was now facing sentencing for.
The bishop, through his attorneys, actually had the audacity to suggest to the court that Millar be handed over to the bishop who would then transfer him to a facility in the western United States where he could receive counseling.
The bishop never discussed that neither he nor the diocese have any jurisdiction in the western United States, nor that Millar would owe absolutely zero allegiance to the bishop since he was “retired.”
In short, Bp. McHugh intervened to have the rapist priest that by the way he knew had abused at least two boys, the case of the original boy not known by the court or law enforcement at the time of the sentencing, that would come out in the civil case, he intervened to have him go completely scot-free, unsupervised.
Now, to show the spiritual insanity of all this, there was at the same time this case with Millar was going on, another case with one of McHugh priests, a Fr. Murphy who had been arrested falsely for trespassing at an abortuary.
Father Murphy had, in fact, not trespassed at all but had to undergo the charge by the child-killers that are commonly hurled at prayer warriors in front of the killing centers.
Catholics directly petitioned McHugh and asked him if he would intervene in the case of Fr. Murphy, and the cold-blooded, hypocritical response of McHugh was, paraphrasing, “I will not intervene in a case I have not been invited to intervene in.”
So when it comes to protecting a known and convicted homopredator rapist, McHugh intervenes to try and get him released. But in the case of another one of his priests who had not broken the law, McHugh defers and hides behind proper decorum.
McHugh went on to say that the request for him to do something in the Fr. Murphy abortion trespassing case was “abusive.”
Yet when the father of the 15-year-old mentally disturbed rape victim was made aware of McHugh’s letter to Millar thanking him for his “priestly goodness,” the father said he was furious about the bishop’s letter saying the entire incident “eats me up alive.”
Apparently, that doesn’t count as abusive because the bishop is allowed to dump on victims and cover-up crimes.
And by the way, just one more thing on the topic of covering up crimes, McHugh didn’t just intervene in Millar’s case knowing full well that he had sexually assaulted a 10-year-old prior to this case, he actually expressed in public, in no uncertain, clear as a bell terms, that this was for Fr. Millar the “first time to engage in such an act.”
Why not throw in perjury while you’re at it?
So who were the men and women, who were the priests, who were the lawyers working in the chancery at Rockville Center back in 2000? How do they sleep at night?
The judge in the case disregarded McHugh’s ridiculous intervention. Millar was shipped off to prison.
As for McHugh, three weeks after Millar went to prison, he died.
EDITORS NOTE: This Church Militant video is republished with permission. All rights reserved.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Church Militanthttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngChurch Militant2019-06-03 11:12:232019-06-04 06:28:23The Vortex — Abortion & Sodomy: How do the bishops handle each of these? [Video]
DELAWARE, Ohio (ChurchMilitant.com) – A class to teach teens how to do drag is being canceled after an Ohio library was flooded with complaints.
The Delaware County District library had planned to offer a “Drag 101” class to “demonstrate the art of creating a character, costuming, and applying makeup” to children aged 12–17. After being inundated with complaints from upset parents, the library reluctantly called off the event, which was going to be funded with taxpayer money.
At a press conference Wednesday, the library explained the cancellation was owing to “safety concerns.”
“Let me be clear that this is in no way a victory for anyone,” the statement read. “Please continue using the library to engage your curiosity, expand your opportunities, and improve your quality of life.”
The library claimed the “safety concerns” were from the “hostile and angry messages,” noting, “A small number of those messages appeared to threaten the safety of our staff, our patrons, Selena and the teens and caregivers for who (sic) we strive to provide a safe space.”
The statement added that these concerns were shared by the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office. But when local media contacted Delaware City Police, they made clear no police reports have been filed, saying they had “no understanding of any threats.”
The class was to be taught by Kyle Gayle, a 29-year-old female impersonator who was crowned Miss Gay Heart of America in 2018. In a report on the event last week, West claimed the event was about “the building blocks of how to do drag.”
“It’s nothing to do with sex or gender identity at all,” West said.
The library’s statement also noted changes to such events after locals expressed concerns.
One of those, raised by Melisa Ackison, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, was whether or not the instructors were properly vetted. “My first concern was, ‘Are there background checks for this program and how are they vetting candidates who come in for something like this?'” she asked.
Ackison is an outspoken advocate against the exploitation of children and helped raise opposition to the event.
“The idea that the general public is going to stand down and simply allow our children to be part of a leftist social engineering project is the furthest from the truth,” Ackison said. “I have exhausted myself and my resources in the media to share truths about what’s happening and I’ll do it again to shut this down and send a strong message that we will not back down.”
Ackison also recorded the Delaware Library director, George Needham, admitting the class was not about art and theater, but “about sexual questioning.”
“Why would we be utilizing drag queens to answer and explore sexual questions from kids aged 12 to 17?” Ackison asked. “Are we going to just allow tax dollars, resources, public places to fund whatever political ideology that’s going to come from those who are in charge of scheduling events?”
She added that just as it wouldn’t be acceptable for female exotic dancers to educate and perform for children, male drag queens shouldn’t be allowed to, either.
Ackison is not alone in her fight to stop the normalization of deviant behavior. In March, the pro-family advocacy group, MassResistance, found out that the Houston Public Library had allowed a convicted child sex offender to read to children at a Drag Queen Storytime event.
MassResistance’s investigation resulted in a 163-page report that showcased corruption and unethical conduct with event organizers.
Albert Alfonso Garza, who performs as Tatiana Mala Nina, was convicted in 2008 for assaulting an 8-year-old boy. The Houston Public Library allowed him to read to children as young as two.
Drag queens were photographed with a rubber chicken, gay slang for a sexual preference for young boys.Tweet
“Pornographic material and general depraved sexual activity” by the Drag Queen participants was also uncovered by MassResistance, directly contradicting Selena T. West’s claim that “[d]rag is not scary; drag is not sexual.”
West’s Instagram page also contradicts his claim, displaying multiple photos featuring immodest dress and sexually provocative poses.
In April, MassResistance found a second convicted sex offender who participated in a Drag Queen Story hour for children. William Travis Dees, who acted as a greeter at the Houston Library events, was convicted in 2004 at the age of 16 for indecency and sexual contact with four children aged four, five, six and eight.
Dees and other drag queens at the Houston event were photographed with a rubber chicken — gay symbolism for a sexual preference for young males, or pederasty.
These men dress in over-the-top nun’s habits and blasphemous outfits to push the LGBT agenda, saying, “Ours is a ‘ministry of presence.'”
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence website notes, “The Sisters frequently act as educators, lecturing to classrooms of students and informing the cute boy at the bar about the risks of unsafe sex.”
Needham admitted to Ackison that there were no procedures in place at the Delaware library to check the backgrounds of drag queen performers.
The “Drag 101” event has been moved to a local comic book store.
EDITORS NOTE: This Church Militant column is republished with permission. All rights reserved.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Church Militanthttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngChurch Militant2019-06-03 10:55:202019-07-08 08:45:00VIDEO: Ohio ‘DRAG 101’ Class for Teens Canceled after Backlash
Oh God, we praise you as the one universal king over all. You are our leader and our lord and we worship you. There is one God and one savior — and it’s you, your name is Jesus. And we exalt you Jesus. And we know we need your mercy. We need your grace. We need your help, we need your wisdom in our country.
We stand right now on behalf of our president and we pray for your grace and your mercy and your wisdom upon him. And God we play that he would know how much you love him — so much that you sent Jesus to die for his sins, our sins. So we pray that he would look to you and that he would trust in you, that he would lean on you, that he would govern and make decisions in ways that are good for justice and good for righteousness and good for equity, every good path.
Lord, we pray, we pray that you would give him all the grace he needs in ways that we just saw in 1 Timothy 2 that lead to peaceful and quiet lives, godly and dignified in every way. God we pray for your blessing in that way upon his family. We pray that you would give them strength, we pray that you would give them clarity, wisdom — wisdom, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. Please, O God, give him wisdom and help him to lead our country.
Alongside other leaders, we pray today for leaders in Congress, we pray for leaders in courts, we pray for leaders at national and state levels. Please, O God, help us to look to you, help us to trust in your word, help us to seek your wisdom and live in ways that reflect your love and your grace and your righteousness and your justice.
We pray for your blessings on our president toward that end.
In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Dr. Rich Swierhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngDr. Rich Swier2019-06-03 06:33:332019-06-03 06:33:47VIDEO: McLean Bible Church Pastor David Platt’s Prayer for President Donald J. Trump
“I don’t feel safe,” says a Harvard student in a video.
What threatens her? The dean of her Harvard dormitory, law professor Ronald Sullivan, agreed to be part of accused sexual harasser Harvey Weinstein’s legal defense team.
Sullivan and his wife were deans of the dormitory for years, but no matter. Now the professor is apparently an evil threat.
A group calling itself “Our Harvard Can Do Better” demanded Sullivan be removed from his dean job.
Sullivan is black, but black activists joined the protest, too. On the videotape, one says, “Dean Sullivan told me to my face that I should view his representation of Harvey Weinstein as a good thing because that representation will trickle down to black men like me who constantly face an unjust justice system.”
Seems reasonable to me. But the privileged Harvard students laugh and clap when the protester goes on to say, “F— that!”
Colleges don’t show much courage when pushed by student activists. Harvard administrators removed Sullivan and his wife from the residence hall.
Do the students really “feel unsafe”?
“They’re lying,” says Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz in my newest video. “Anybody who says they feel unsafe in the presence of a lawyer and his wife are looking you in the eye and committing the equivalent of perjury. They don’t feel unsafe. They’ve learned the language of the new McCarthyism.”
In other words, people call themselves “victims,” knowing they can get results they want by saying they are traumatized by the presence of their enemies. Schools and other businesses, wanting to avoid protracted fights and accusations of sexism, racism or “insensitivity,” rush to comply with activists’ wishes.
Dershowitz is mad about what’s happened at his school: “The mantra of the day is ‘We feel unsafe.’ Well, that’s just too bad! Learn to deal with it. You’re going to have to live in the real world in which your neighbors, friends, relatives are going to disagree with you. If you start using the criteria of ‘unsafe’ in your life, you’re going to be a failure.”
Worse, he adds, “You’re going to impose restrictions on the rest of us.”
I told Dershowitz that the students protesting Sullivan were mostly young women. Some had been sexually assaulted. Isn’t it reasonable that they not be reminded of that?
“No, it’s not reasonable not to want to face the reality that due process requires that everybody be represented,” replied Dershowitz.
Harvard didn’t fire Sullivan from his professor job, only his dean job.
So I said to Dershowitz: “Don’t students have a right to say, ‘Look, we’re living with this guy. He creeps us out because of what he does. Get somebody else’?”
“If they could say that,” replied Dershowitz, “they could say it about somebody who supports Donald Trump for president, somebody who is a Muslim, who’s gay, who’s Jewish, you name it.”
Sullivan, who like Dershowitz has defended clients considered monsters by the general public, has long argued, “For the rights of all of us… to be protected, we have to live in a system where we vigorously, vigorously defend the guilty.”
“You get the right to counsel no matter how despicable you are thought to be,” explains Dershowitz. “These students would have fired John Adams. They would have not allowed him to come to the Constitutional Convention or write the Declaration of Independence because he defended the people who were accused of the Boston Massacre.”
The new McCarthyism requires that everyone bow to demands of “victims.” That’s a lot of people.
On the videotape, one student says she worries not just about her own safety, but the well-being of “survivors, transgender and gender nonconforming people, BGLTQ people, undocumented, DACAmented and TPS people, indigenous people, first generation low-income people…”
I don’t even know what some of those words mean.
Most of us want to protect genuine victims. But it makes little sense that America, a country where even poor people live longer and better lives than almost anyone in history, has become a place where spoiled children paying $60,000 tuition consider themselves “victims.”
America’s trust in the mainstream media is at a historic low—and rightfully so, given the behavior of many journalists in Washington, D.C. and across the country.
Ever since Donald Trump was elected president, it’s been painfully clear that the mainstream media covers liberals glowingly and conservatives critically.
Why? Because they are determined more than ever to give the government more control over your lives. Restoring your liberty and embracing freedom is the best thing for you and the country.
Americans need an alternative to the mainstream media. That’s why The Daily Signal exists.
The Daily Signal’s mission is to give Americans the real, unvarnished truth about what is happening in Washington and what must be done to save our country.
Our dedicated team of more than 100 journalists and policy experts rely only upon the support of patriots like you.
Your donation helps us fight for access to our nation’s leaders and report the facts.
We do this because you deserve the truth about what’s going on in Washington.
Please make a gift to support The Daily Signal today.
What anti-American zealots in government and media are doing to president Trump is unprecedented and should scare the heck out of every American. They have created a parallel universe void of truth and reality. In the midst of Trump actually making America great again, millions of Americans believe Trump is a Russian agent, mentally ill and leading America to destruction.
Trump brought back jobs that Obama decreed were gone forever. Black, Hispanic and female unemployment are at historic lows. Trump pulled us out of bad deals with foreign governments. Thanks to Trump eliminating absurd regulations and oppressive taxes, businesses are coming home to America building factories. The average American wage is $27 per hour. Americans are enjoying an economic boom. All this incredible good news is for the most part being hidden from Americans.
Instead, Democrats, fake news media, Hollywood and social media flood the airwaves with their lie that Trump is horrible for America. They claim he obstructed justice in the Mueller investigation. Hogwash! The truth is the Mueller so-called investigation was really an illegal witch-hunt, a silent coup undermining Trump’s presidency; to reverse the 2016 presidential election.
Mueller’s investigation was based solely on the Steele Dossier, a bogus document written in 2016 paid for by Hillary Clinton. Hillary’s despicable fake document claimed Trump paid prostitutes to urinate on a hotel bed slept in by Obama. Mueller and the 19 Hillary lawyers he hired knew the document was filled with lies. And yet, they used it to illegally obtain warrants to harass the Trump Administration for 3 years. Trump knew the Mueller investigation was a scam to destroy his presidency. Still, Trump did not exercise his authority to fire Mueller. Trump turned over a million documents to Mueller’s evil minions. Still, fake news media is helping Democrats to sell their obvious lie that Trump is engaged in a cover up.
Trump pushed back against his treasonous conspirators by publicly calling them out on their lies and behind-the-scenes illegal dirty tricks. This enraged them. Republicans usually allow Democrats and fake news media to spread lies about Republicans and policies beneficial for We the people. Trump is a different breed of Republican, one who stands up for himself. This has caused anti-American zealots (Democrats, fake news media, Hollywood and deep state Republicans) to declare Trump insane.
Think about this folks. For over 3 years, Democrats, fake news media and deep state Republicans launched an illegal silent coup to reverse the 2016 presidential election. Every time Trump told the American people the truth about what his treasonous conspirators were doing, they launched a national narrative that Trump is insane and attempting to obstruct justice.
Displaying off the chain arrogance and chutzpah, anti-American zealots are trying to criminalize Trump defending himself. They expect Trump to lay back and not respond to them spreading lies 24/7 about him and his policies.
Democrats, fake news media and deep state Republicans are, in essence, saying screw the law, screw the truth, screw equal justice and screw the American people. They are fanatically intent on removing Trump from office by any means necessary. This threatens justice for every American.
Anti-American zealots control 90% of the media, Hollywood and educational institutions. Folks, if anti-American zealots can get away with hiding the remarkable job Trump is doing for America, falsely branding him a Russian agent and a lunatic, think what they can do to any and every conservative, Christian and Republican. Their power is extremely scary and totally unacceptable.
I cannot explain why, but suddenly the image of Lady Justice wearing a blindfold struck a powerful cord with me. Knowing why Lady Justice wears a blindfold, I asked my wife Mary if she knew. Mary said yes.
Lady Justice wears a blindfold because friends should not be treated differently than strangers; the rich should not be treated better than the poor. In other words, Justice should be distributed equally to all Americans.
Democrats, fake news media and deep state Republicans have ripped the blindfold off of Lady Justice. They allow Democrats and deep state anti-Trump operatives to break laws at will, while inventing bogus crimes to attack Trump.
Disturbingly, Trump haters in government and media can sell the American people lies about Trump and his excellent job performance. Incredibly, they have created a parallel universe void of truth and reality.
AG William Barr absolutely must uncover these treasonous rats in our government and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law. If Barr does not follow through, the blindfold of Lady Justice in America will be gone forever.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Lloyd Marcushttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngLloyd Marcus2019-06-02 15:23:022019-06-02 15:23:02Anti-Trump Traitors Rip Blindfold Off Lady Justice
“Our heritage and ideals, our code and standards – the things we live by and teach our children – are preserved or diminished by how freely we exchange ideas and feelings.”– Walt Disney
There is a growing movement in states like Alabama, Georgia, Ohio, Missouri, Louisiana and others to protect the unborn.
This had led various media companies, actors and actresses to threaten to boycott some of these states. Among them is Disney, which has Disney World and Disney Studios in Orlando, FL.
Would Disney stop making films in its Orlando studios?
We may find out as Florida Senator Joe Gruters fully intends to re-introduce his legislation. Senator Gruters in an email states:
I was the co sponsor of the heartbeat bill and the main sponsor of the pain capable unborn child protection act and will file the same legislation again next year.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is a supporter of limiting abortion. As a member of Congress he voted “yea” for HR 4712Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. Politico reported that then candidate DeSantis, “pledged…to sign legislation to ban abortions ‘after a fetal heartbeat is detected’.”
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Dr. Rich Swierhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngDr. Rich Swier2019-06-02 08:34:232019-06-03 05:16:37Would Disney World close if the Florida legislature passed the ‘Pain capable unborn child protection act’?
The question is, are you a parent who has the guts to instill the quality of self-control in the next generation?
If you were presented with the opportunity to instill one, and only one, quality in your children, what would it be?
Perhaps, like Solomon of old, you would be tempted to choose something like a long life, or great wealth, or even freedom from harm for your offspring. After all, what parents don’t desire happiness and success for their children?
But while parents have a deep desire to see their children achieve these things, realistic parents understand the difficulty of such a task, and may even be tempted to shrug their shoulders and only hope for the best.
Self-Control Is the Most Important Childhood Trait
However, according to famed family physician and author Dr. Leonard Sax, parents don’t have to resign themselves or their children to such a fate. His research shows that there is one thing parents can instill in their children to ensure a successful future. That thing is self-control:
Unfortunately, self-control is something that many adults don’t even have. How, then, can they instill self-control in their children? Dr. Sax suggests two ways this can be done.
The first is to “educate desire.” Dr. Sax describes this as “instill[ing] a longing for something better, more lasting, than video games or Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner on Instagram.” In other words, children who have a steady diet of fun, entertainment, and superficial niceties will turn out to be as fluff-filled as those items.
Children raised to value a standard of excellence in the books they read, the (minimal) entertainment they watch, and the activities they participate in, however, will add a far greater depth to their lives. In all likelihood, they will also gain familiarity with other tools to help them accumulate more self-control in their lives.
Tough Parenting
The second way to instill self-control in children is to establish boundaries. This means being the tough, unpopular parent who expects the chores to be done and the healthy food to be eaten. “Adolescents need structure and guidance,” Dr Sax explains. “When parents become more permissive, rates of anxiety, depression and disengagement among teens are likely to rise, as they have done.”
Dr. Sax goes on to say:
Do your job. Turn off the screen. Take your kid for a hike outdoors, or go sailing, or visit a museum. Don’t worry about your kid’s popularity with other kids: being popular, for young teens, is now a major risk factor for bad outcomes. …
If you don’t, who will?
Indeed. The question is, are you a parent who has the guts to instill the quality of self-control in the next generation?
Annie is a research associate with Intellectual Takeout. In her role, she writes for the blog, conducts a variety of research for the organization’s websites and social media pages, and assists with development projects. She particularly loves digging into the historical aspects of America’s educational structure.
EDITORS NOTE: This FEE column is republished with permission.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFoundation for Economic Education (FEE)2019-06-02 07:56:552019-06-02 07:58:58The Childhood Quality That’s the Best Predictor of Wealth, Health, and Happiness
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wants to extend identity politics to vegetables.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) wants to extend identity politics to vegetables. For Ocasio-Cortez, some vegetables are too “colonial” to grow.
Community gardens are a component of the Green New Deal, and having projects “make sense in a cultural context” is important, says Ocasio-Cortez.
Cauliflower and Yuca
If “communities of color” are “resistant to certain environmentalist movements,” perhaps it’s because they are concerned about taxes and jobs? The reason Ocasio-Cortez gives is far different:
When someone says that it’s too hard to do a green space that grows yuca instead of…cauliflower or something, what you’re doing is that you’re taking a colonial approach to environmentalism.
Yuca grows best in hot, dry regions. In many areas of the United States, including her home district of New York City, it would be an enormous challenge to grow yuca. I may like grapefruits, but I wouldn’t plant a grapefruit tree in the cold climate where I live.
Cauliflower is used in many Caribbean cuisines. Only Ocasio-Cortez knows why some vegetables are “colonial.”
Yuca is a starchy root vegetable with over double the amount of carbohydrates in a potato. If Ocasio-Cortez cares about the obesity and diabetes problems in her district, she may want to think again about her gardening advice.
What Hubris Leads To
Ocasio-Cortez is not the first member of Congress to offer inane advice. Yet she is fair game because she wants to use coercive force of government to remake the country in the image of her Democratic Socialist and Green New Deal programs.
We may laugh at Ocasio-Cortez’s boundless hubris, but let’s learn from history. Mao is perhaps history’s most famous despot who was eager to dispense agricultural (along with much other) advice. The result? During his Great Leap Forward (1958-1962), at least 45 million lost their lives through starvation, neglect, and violence.
Mao was a despot who had the power of the Chinese military power behind him to enforce his edicts; Ocasio-Cortez doesn’t.
Today, some see Ocasio-Cortez as a brilliant new voice in politics. With enough support, she and her fellow Democratic Socialists might have the power they crave to command people’s individual decisions. Ocasio-Cortez will never have absolute power, but she may gain enough power to do real harm.
In his book The Fatal Conceit, F.A. Hayek warned of the “naïve mind that can conceive of order only as the product of deliberate arrangement.” To such a mind, Hayek wrote,
it may seem absurd that in complex conditions order, and adaptation to the unknown, can be achieved more effectively by decentralizing decisions.
We are all naïve about many things; a dose of humility and respect for the rights of others keeps us out of trouble.
Mao’s “Gardening” Advice
In his book, Mao’s Great Famine, historian Frank Dikötter explains the horrors of the Great Leap Forward. Mao was intent on dramatically increasing both industrial and agricultural production, and the Great Helmsman was sure he knew the way forward. Here are some of the agriculture “reforms” commanded by Mao.
Mao commanded the planting of more than one rice crop a year even though the weather didn’t support it:
Mao asked, on a visit to the provincial capital Changsha. “Why do the Hunan peasants still plant only one crop of rice a year?” After Zhou explained that the weather permitted only a single crop a year, Mao pointed out that Zhejiang was on the same latitude as Hunan and planted two crops of rice. “You are not even studying other experiences. That’s the trouble,” Mao continued.
Mao ordered deeper plowing of the soil and destroyed the topsoil in the process:
Deep ploughing was another revolutionary recipe meant to free the farmers from the capricious soil. The deeper the planting, the stronger the roots and the taller the stalk, or so ran the logic behind this experiment. “Use human waves, and turn every field over,” commanded Mao.
Goaded by cadres… villagers now and then burrowed through the earth to bedrock, destroying the topsoil.
Then Mao ordered a heavier concentration of seeds:
Explained Chairman Mao: “With company they grow easily, when they grow together they will be more comfortable”… Villagers, of course, knew better: they had tilled the land for generations, and knew how to care for a precious resource on which their livelihoods depended. Many were incredulous, some trying to reason with the cadres: “You plant the seedlings too closely, there is not enough breathing space between them, and then you add ten tonnes of fertiliser per field. It will suffocate them to death.” But advice was ignored: “It’s a new technique, you don’t understand!”
Mao believed he could conquer nature, but nature had the last word. The killing of sparrows led to insect infestations, worsening the famine:
Sparrows were targeted because they ate grain seeds, depriving the people of the fruits of their labour. In what is one of the most bizarre and ecologically damaging episodes of the Great Leap Forward, the country was mobilised in an all-out war against the birds. Banging on drums, clashing pots or beating gongs, a giant din was raised to keep the sparrows flying till they were so exhausted that they simply dropped from the sky. Eggs were broken and nestlings destroyed; the birds were also shot out of the air. Timing was of the essence, as the entire country was made to march in lockstep in the battle against the enemy, making sure that the sparrows had nowhere to escape.
Farmers were organized into large communes with ignorant political cadres issuing capricious orders based on “little knowledge of agriculture.”
In 1959 in Luokang commune a local leader decided to replace the existing crop with sweet potatoes on half of the available acreage, only to change his mind later and substitute the potatoes with peanuts. These were then torn out to make room for rice instead. The previous year the commune had tried deep ploughing, using vast concentrations of manpower on small strips of land to dig deep furrows, much of it by hand. Huge amounts of fertiliser were applied, in some cases up to 30 tonnes a hectare. It all came to nothing. In Kaiping county, Guangdong, thousands of villagers were repeatedly forced to plant a crop in the early spring of 1959 despite bitterly cold weather: the seeds froze on three occasions.
Agriculture was militarized:
The militia movement and a small corps of trained fighters brought military organisation to every commune. All over China farmers were roused from sleep at dawn at the sound of the bugle and filed into the canteen for a quick bowl of watery rice gruel. Whistles were blown to gather the workforce, which moved in military step to the fields, carrying banners and flags to the sound of marching songs. Loudspeakers sometimes blasted exhortations to work harder, or occasionally played revolutionary music. Party activists, local cadres and the militia enforced discipline, sometimes punishing underachievers with beatings.
“Every conceivable kind of nutrient” was used as fertilizer:
Animal and human waste was carried to the fields by endless rows of people, sometimes until deep into the night…. Human waste extended to hair, and in some Guangdong villages women were forced to shave their heads to contribute fertiliser or face a ban from the canteen.
Then They Came for the Houses and Tools
The demand for higher yields meant houses were razed for their value as fertilizer:
But most of the time buildings made of mud and straw were torn down to provide nutrients for the soil. Walls of buildings where animals had lived and especially where they had urinated, such as stables, could provide useful fertiliser. At first old walls and abandoned huts were destroyed, but as the campaign gained momentum entire rows of houses were systematically razed to the ground, the mud bricks shattered and strewn across the fields.
Later, houses were wantonly destroyed to make room for new buildings that were never built:
Most quietly stood by, sometimes in tears, as the local leader walked past without uttering a word, simply lifting his finger to mark out a house for destruction. In Dianjiang county, Sichuan, a team of eleven people went around torching hundreds of straw huts. “Destroy Straw Huts in an Evening, Erect Residential Areas in Three Days, Build Communism in a Hundred Days” was the leading slogan. Some villages were emptied altogether, although somehow nobody quite managed to get beyond the destruction phase of the plan.
Pots and pans and farm implements were confiscated and melted down to be used in industrial production:
Many of the farming tools had been destroyed in the iron and steel campaign, labour was still diverted to building dams, and communal granaries in the people’s communes were poorly managed. In Liantan, the model commune where a slogan praising the Great Leap Forward had been chiselled in the mountains to welcome an inspection team, several thousand farmers were conscripted to deep-plough seven hectares during the autumn harvest; as nobody was available to collect the crop, some 500 tonnes of grain were abandoned in the fields.
As starvation spread, ersatz foods such as chlorella and wood pulp were promoted:
In China [chlorella, a form of algae] the watery slime was elevated to the status of miracle food during the famine. It could be cultivated and skimmed from swampy ponds, but more often than not it was grown in vats of human urine, the green stuff being scooped out, washed and cooked with rice.
Prisoners were used as guinea pigs. Besides the green plankton, which sickened the inmates, they were also fed sawdust and wood pulp. Bao Ruowang – also known as Jean Pasqualini, the author of a memoir about life in a Chinese labour camp – remembered how brown sheets of the stuff were ground into paper pulp and mixed with flour. Mass constipation followed, killing the weaker prisoners. But even in the cities the spread of substitute foods caused obstruction of the bowels or rupture of the sphincter.
Villagers “scavenged for carrion, rummaged through rubbish, scraped the bark off trees and in the end turned to mud to fill their stomachs”:
It was a vision of hell, as serried ranks of ghostly villagers queued up in front of deep pits, their shrivelled bodies pouring with sweat under the glare of the sun, waiting for their turn to scramble down the hole and carve out a few handfuls of the porcelain-white mud… Once eaten the soil acted like cement, drying out the stomach and absorbing all the moisture inside the intestinal tract.
A Final Caution
As the country starved, Mao opened a party meeting in the summer of 1959. The party leaders were not hungry. They “referred to the gathering as a ‘meeting of immortals’. Immortals lived far above mere humans, seated on the clouds of heaven, playfully gliding through the mist, unencumbered by earthly restraints.”
Propaganda insisted
the country had witnessed an unprecedentedly rich harvest in 1960, there was absolutely no famine and rumours to the contrary were slanderous.
Humanitarian offers of food aid were rebuffed. The contempt the leaders had for their own countrymen was as boundless as their hubris.
Barry Brownstein is professor emeritus of economics and leadership at the University of Baltimore. He is the author of The Inner-Work of Leadership. To receive Barry’s essays subscribe at Mindset Shifts.
EDITORS NOTE: This FEE column is republished with permission.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFoundation for Economic Education (FEE)2019-06-02 07:37:482019-06-02 07:39:38VIDEO: Ocasio-Cortez’s Gardening Advice Echoes the Hubris of Mao’s Great Leap Forward
NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – Two days after the body of a suspected MS-13 victim was discovered at Massapequa Preserve, Nassau PBA president James McDermott says gang units in the county are understaffed and ill-equipped to deal with the violent gang.
“Our gang unit is undermanned and not provided with the necessary resources to deal with this threat,” he said Sunday, speaking near the location where the body was discovered Friday.
The remains are believed to be from one of a number of people murdered by MS-13 several years ago.
In any battle, more “boots on the ground” can help to insure victory. Where the battle is against transnational criminals, it would be most helpful if those “boots” were worn by ICE agents.
What was not discussed in this article is how ICE agents can be of a huge assistance in effectively combatting MS-13 and other transnational gangs and how sanctuary policies have the exact opposite impact.
Indeed, effective immigration law enforcement can support law and assist enforcement efforts to combat gangs, human trafficking, prostitution drug trafficking and other serious crimes.
Years ago INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) agents worked in close cooperation with the NYPD. Back then I frequently participated in joint operations with the NYPD to shut down houses of prostitution. Many of the clients and prostitutes of these brothels were illegal aliens.
The police would arrest the prostitutes and their clients and we would lodge detainers or simply take them into custody. The word on the street was that illegal aliens might find themselves being deported by the INS agents. Business dropped and many of these locations were permanently shuttered.
Additionally, many times the prostitutes would cooperate with our efforts to identify human traffickers so that we could target the pernicious traffickers and ultimately dismantle their operations and bring them to justice.
It is obvious that ICE agents are empowered to arrest illegal aliens on administrative charges that result in the deportation of illegal aliens from the United States.
To this point, immigration anarchists frequently refer to immigration laws as “civil laws” minimizing the true importance of our nation’s immigration laws and the actual authority that ICE agents have.
What is seldom, if ever discussed, is that there are also criminal laws that are a part of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) and violations of these laws carry serious prison sentences.
The 9/11 Commission determined that visa fraud and immigration fraud figured prominently in the ability of international terrorists to enter the United States and embed themselves as they went about their deadly preparation, and not only with the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 were concerned.
Visa fraud 18 U.S. Code § 1546 is an extremely serious crime and when it is committed in conjunction with terrorism exposes the alien who perpetrates that crime to a prison sentence of up to 25 years.
Visa fraud committed in conjunction with drug trafficking carries a maximum of 20 years in prison.
Human Trafficking/Alien Smuggling 8 U.S. Code § 1324 addresses crimes that relate to illegally bringing aliens into the and/or harboring, concealing, aiding, abetting, inducing and encouraging aliens to enter the United States illegally or to remain in the United States illegally and these crimes carry hefty jail sentences. In fact, if such activities lead to the death of any individual, the punishment, upon conviction, can be life in prison.
Re-entry After Deportation, 8 U.S. Code § 1326 carries a maximum of 20 years in prison if the alien in question meets the definition of an “aggravated felon.” (On a personal note, I worked with then-New York Senator Al D’Amato to first convince him of the need to change the law that had previously made no distinction about the criminal history of deported aliens who reentered the United States after being deported. Previously the maximum penalty was two years in prison. The twenty year maximum is intended to deter aliens from returning illegally to the United States.) Given the nature of this particular crime, it is all but impossible for an alien who has been deported and subsequently reentered illegally to deny that the charges are true.
While it may take years to put many criminal cases together and involve many agents and resources, the crime of unlawful reentry can be investigated and completed in just a few days. It is cost-effective and provides a huge hammer to combat criminal aliens who make a mockery of our borders and immigration laws.
Illegal aliens who are found in possession of ammunition or a firearm in interstate or foreign commerce, 18 U.S. Code § 922(g)(5) face up to ten years in prison. Again, this is a simple case to investigate and the jail sentence is significant.
Where all of these federal criminal charges are concerned, they will all ultimately also result in the deportation of the criminal aliens after they complete their prisons sentences.
The goal of law enforcement is to protect the property and lives of those who would fall prey to criminals. Prison sentences are established to accomplish a few commonsense objectives. First, to punish those who violate our laws, second to deter those who might contemplate violating our laws and finally to get dangerous criminals off of the streets of our towns and cities to separate them from those who would otherwise fall victim to their criminal behavior.
One of the challenges for law enforcement is the challenge presented by recidivists, that is, criminals who repeatedly commit crimes, get arrested and convicted, serve prison sentences only to return to the street to commit more crimes and hurt/kill more victims.
Prisons are often optimistically referred to as “Correctional Institutions” where the inmates are hopefully rehabilitated by addressing their sociopathic conduct through training, counseling and other such measures. Unfortunately, all too frequently these efforts fail.
Where criminal aliens are concerned, deporting such criminals provides a means of removing them permanently from the streets of American towns and cities. The severe penalty for unlawful reentry of such criminal aliens was intended to deter such aliens from returning to the United States. This deterrent factor would be far more effective if there were more ICE agents who could arrest such aliens so that more would be prosecuted.
Sanctuary cities have the precise opposite affect, encouraging aliens to run our borders and thus endanger the lives of innocent victims. It most be noted the most frequently those at greatest risk are the members of the immigrant communities where these criminal aliens live and ply their sociopathic “trades.”
Sanctuary policies shield and embolden the gangs and imperil innocent victims, often teenage immigrant children.
With “friends” like the politicians who create “Sanctuary” policies, or want to end ICE altogether, immigrants don’t need enemies!
EDITORS NOTE: This FrontPage Magazine column is republished with permission.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Michael Cutlerhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngMichael Cutler2019-06-02 06:51:312019-06-02 07:17:24Cooperation Between ICE and Police Essential to Combat MS-13
