While the U.S. Senate gears up for what should be a no-brainer vote on infanticide, the states are nudging their own needles to the pro-life side. Arkansas is the latest, thanks to Governor Asa Hutchinson (R) — and hardly the last.
Tuesday, with a nationwide protest over late-term abortion raging, Arkansas became the fifth state to make it clear where they stand if the issue ever returns to states. The minute Roe v. Wade is overturned, a growing number of states will already be prepared. Under the “trigger law” that Hutchinson just signed, Arkansas would immediately ban abortion if the ruling pro-lifers have been praying for ever came down.
Louisiana, Mississippi, North Dakota, and South Dakota have similar laws on the books — and Kentucky and Tennessee may be next. “It’s time for the United States to redress and correct what many believe is a grave injustice and a crime against humanity which is being perpetuated by the decisions of Roe v. Wade,” said the Arkansas bill sponsor. Under the law, abortion will be completely outlawed, except in medical emergencies. It also, LifeNews points out, allows abortionists to be prosecuted.
“In 2017, the abortion advocacy group NARAL predicted that 13 states immediately would ban abortions if the high court overturns Roe. Last year, the Center for Reproductive Rights put their estimate at 22 states,” Michaiah Bilger reports. After another year like this one, who knows how high that number could go? If you live in Kentucky or Tennessee, help us get to 24! Contact your state leaders and support trigger laws like Arkansas’s.
Tony Perkins’ Washington Update is written with the aid of FRC senior writers.
EDITORS NOTE: This FRC column with images is republished with permission.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/022019_arkansas_770x400-e1550746316773.jpg378640Family Research Councilhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFamily Research Council2019-02-21 05:52:052019-02-21 05:52:07Arkansas Pulls the Trigger on Roe v Wade
Robert Royal: People are happy that McCarrick has finally been defrocked, but now we need to deal with other abusers and enablers.
February is not high tourist season in Rome. Skies are gray and temperatures low. St. Peter’s Square is relatively empty. But journalists filled the nearby Press Office earlier this week – more, according to one veteran, than since the death of St. John Paul II –because of the summit on the sex abuse crisis, which begins this evening with meetings between abuse survivors and participants, and continues Thursday through Saturday with formal sessions, parts of which will be streamed on the Vatican website. A video of the opening press briefing with remarks by Cardinal Cupich, Archbishop Scicluna, and other key figures is available by clicking here.
To be frank, it’s hard to say why so many journalists are here since no one, including Church spokesmen, expects that anything very dramatic will happen over the next few days – at least not in the formal sessions. What happens outside and around them, however, may be a different matter.
When the summit was announced last September, partly because of papal missteps in handling abuse cases in Chile, it seemed that the Church was going to take some large steps forward. There have been many smaller steps for years in many places around the world, everything from easier reporting mechanisms to better human formation in seminaries to the unprecedented laicization last weekend of former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.
Expectations ran high, not least because the Holy Father asked the American bishops, during their annual November meeting, not to vote on ways to hold bishops accountable – whether they are abusers themselves, like McCarrick, or covered up abuse by people under their authority. They were told to wait until a uniform approach could be developed in February when many of the presidents of bishops’ conferences and heads of religious orders would gather together in Rome.
But Vatican spokesmen have more recently been encouraging people to lower expectations; and the focus this week is quite different: “The Protection of Minors in the Church.” That, of course, is a worthy goal. In many parts of the Catholic world, rules are in place, but there hasn’t been serious follow through. If the next few days bring proven practices to new places, that will be all to the good.
But it’s also much less than we were hoping for. And in America, we’ve already come a long way towards responding to the part of the abuse crisis that involves priests. We have been expecting – and had been told – that the next phase would be figuring out how to hold bishops accountable. That’s been a continuing problem, not only in America, but in Chile, Honduras, Australia, Europe, the pope’s own Argentina, and the Vatican itself.
People are happy that McCarrick has been expelled from the priesthood, for example, but they want to know how it was possible for a man widely rumored to be an abuser to have moved up in the hierarchy and eventually become cardinal-archbishop of the capital of the most powerful nation on earth. Three popes and dozens of Vatican officials are now part of the story. Pope Francis has promised an investigation into the files. It’s almost a year later and we’ve heard nothing of that, not even whether there’s an active inquiry underway.
Pope Francis by Will Oliver/EPA-EFE
Meanwhile, a new book, which will be officially released Thursday, the first day of the summit here in Rome, claims that 80 percent of the upper echelons of the Vatican are gay. Some remain celibate, others act out in various ways, but they form what, in local parlance, is called “the Parish,” a network of people who either cover for one another or, given their own inclinations, look the other way.
Or at least that’s what Frederic Martel, the author, says. Martel is a gay activist in France and his motives in publishing this book at this particular moment are suspect – as are some of his wilder claims. But he seems to have conducted thousands of interviews with various figures from high-placed Cardinals to Swiss Guards, and quotes some by name.
The excerpts that have appeared so far raise as many questions as they answer. But the whole matter of the gay presence in the Church and its role as an enabler – which the summit organizers are avoiding, indeed are denying is a factor – will not go away.
Martel says (and there’s no reason to doubt it since there have been no denials forthcoming) that his access to the Vatican was facilitated by Msgr. Battista Ricca, who is Director of the Papal Residence (i.e., Casa Santa Marta) and an official with the Vatican Bank. Ricca was widely known to have had a boyfriend or two when he was a Vatican diplomat in Uruguay. And he was caught in an elevator with a boy prostitute.
It was in response to a reporter’s question about his past on the plane returning from World Youth Day in 2013 that Pope Francis famously remarked, ““If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?”
But it’s partly the pope’s judgment in such matters that has raised further questions. Not only the bishop he wrongly defended in Chile, but even recent appointments like that of Gustavo Zanchetta – a bishop accused of abusing seminarians in Argentina and a friend of the pope’s – to a specially created post at one of the Vatican financial institutions. He had to be removed while investigations are going on.
And then there’s the recent naming of Irish-American Cardinal Kevin Farrell to the position of camerlengo, the official who declares the pope officially dead and then runs the Vatican, with limited powers, during the interregnum, the period between the death of one pope and the election of another.
Farrell lived for six years in the same residence with then-Cardinal McCarrick and claimed – to widespread skepticism – that he had no knowledge of, had never even heard rumors about, McCarrick’s outrages. It’s curious that the pope would pick a potentially questionable figure for such a sensitive post.
All of this suggests that what goes on in the synod hall this week is the merest beginning to what will continue to be a large and troubling process. More on all that in coming days.
Like a strong cocktail that promises a quick buzz, social media offers us instant gratification that can be hard to resist.
But just as alcohol disguises the smell of chemicals, social media hides the bitter poison of identity politics—a poison that increasingly dominates the content we read.
This toxic cocktail is killing our freedom to speak the truth. And sadly, some of the world’s most powerful companies are siding against freedom and truth.
Twitter’s latest move against free thought came in the form of a ban on “misgendering” and “deadnaming.” This essentially means users who use pronouns and names that align with a person’s biology rather than their professed gender identity will be punished.
This is a victory of feelings over facts. Big tech is enabling identity politics to dominate the virtual public square—and it’s even aiding its takeover of the real one, too.
Take the United Kingdom. In England, police have already used tweets to investigate and arrest citizens for referring to individuals according to their biology rather than transgender ideology. In two separate incidents, police responded to complaints against women from men who identify as women.
Police arrested Kate Scottow at home in front of her children and then held her in a jail cell for seven hours after transgender activist Anthony Halliday (aka Stephanie Hayden) accused her of “misgendering” him.
Halliday/Hayden also seemed to suggest that transgender activists ought to “[storm] into” a parish church to ask “robust questions” of a priest’s wife who has opposed transgender ideology.
Police also went after a 74-year–old woman named Margaret Nelson. The reason: She posted two statements on Twitter that didn’t accord with transgender ideology: “gender is fashionable nonsense” and “in life or in death, trans women are not women, no matter how many times you say it’s so.”
Forced to Speak Untruths
In the novel “1984,” George Orwell coined the phrase “Big Brother is watching” to refer to the government. Today, he’d have to include social media companies as enforcers.
Twitter’s ban on “misgendering” and “deadnaming” crosses a red line. Twitter users should be able to choose what pronouns and names they use for each other. When Twitter punishes users for misgendering and deadnaming, the company pressures us to speak untruths.
Princeton University professor Robert George has warned, “Ordinary authoritarians are content to forbid people from saying things they know or believe to be true. Totalitarians insist on forcing people to say things they know or believe to be untrue.”
Social media companies’ embrace of identity politics has led to biased enforcement of content standards that favors transgender activists.
In Canada, for instance, feminist journalist Meghan Murphy testified before the Canadian Senate against the notorious Bill C-16, which added “misgendering” to the human rights code and criminal code in May 2017. In August 2018, Twitter told her to delete tweets that referred to a biological man, Ryan Kreut (who self-identifies as a woman named Lisa), as a man.
Then, last November, Murphy tweeted several rhetorical questions: “How are transwomen not men? What is the difference between a man and a transwoman?” She referred to transgender activist Jonathan Yaniv according to his biology. In the past he had filed lawsuits against female beauticians who refused to give him “bikini waxes.”
Twitter classified these statements from Murphy as hateful and permanently shut down her account. Yaniv then bragged that he was personally responsible for getting Murphy banned from Twitter.
Companies like Twitter clearly see themselves as defending transgender individuals. But they are much more passive about enforcing “hateful conduct” policies when it comes to protecting women from transgender activists.
Trans activists frequently target Murphy and others by name, referring to them as trans-exclusionary radical feminists (TERFs). A website called terfisaslur.comdisplays tweets like “All TERFs deserve to be shot in the head.” “All TERFS need to cease existing. Wipe them from the earth.”
Transgender activists have also targeted Kaeley Triller, co-founder of Hands Across the Aisle, a coalition of women opposed to transgender ideology, on Facebook by posting her home address and violently threatening her children.
“Ironically,” Triller says, “the least ‘safe spaces’ in the history of the world are spaces where speech is censored and dissent is punished. If people are not safe to disagree, they are not safe at all.”
Social media companies could be protecting women from the violent, graphic, and threatening content against feminists documented at terfisaslur.com, but instead, Twitter is “protecting” those who identify as transgender from the “hateful conduct” of those who simply say that we are born male and female.
The Eclipse of Women’s Rights
For a brief moment during the #MeToo movement, it seemed that women were ascending the identity politics hierarchy. But as PayPal founder Peter Thiel predicted, when conflict comes between identity groups, the solution will be brokered in a way that most benefits the left as a coalition, not any particular group.
Twitter and Facebook’s double standards are proving Thiel correct. Transgenderism is making war on feminism, and feminists are losing out.
Identity politics is poisonous to freedom. It divides Americans up by ethnicity, race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, etc., and ranks us in a hierarchy based upon degrees of “victimization.”
This is deeply out of step with America’s founding, which championed the legal equality of each citizen based on inalienable natural rights. It is also out of step with the way most Americans developed their identities—from their families, religious communities, and civic groups.
But as our society has become more atomized, identity politics has filled the void and offered an alternative kind of social identity—albeit a toxic one.
The Marxist struggle, which originally was seen as a struggle for power between economic classes, has been recast as a struggle between social identity groups. Individual guilt, virtue, and responsibility are replaced with collective guilt, virtue, and responsibility. And because this scheme treats the group as the fundamental unit of responsibility and agency, individual freedoms become irrelevant. At worst, they are seen as tools that “oppressors” can use to exploit the “oppressed.”
We should not be surprised, then, when incidents of identity politics seem to reveal a totalitarian streak. Identity politics doesn’t just produce a grievance culture, it produces a vengeance culture—one that never ends and can never be resolved.
When students and faculty who hold unpopular views are shouted down or even physically assaulted, we are witnessing the fruit of a tree that is rotten to the core.
Identity politics requires the jettisoning of America’s constitutional heritage. It would ultimately replace ordered liberty with a society in which freedoms are enjoyed only by those who have earned them through victimization.
Tech Giants Driving the Train
Twitter, Facebook, and Apple are among 107 major companies that have endorsed federal legislation that would make “misgendering” a punishable offense. Named the “Equality Act,” this bill is anything but.
State and local bureaucrats have already used similar laws and policies to derail the careers of people like high school teacher Peter Vlaming and professor Nicholas Meriwether at Shawnee State University because they referred to students according to biology and not gender ideology.
These laws give government control over our freedom to speak and think according to the truth. The Equality Act would extend that to all 50 states.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the great Russian writer who survived life in the Soviet gulag, once told the Nobel Prize Committee: “One word of truth shall outweigh the whole world.”
As big tech seeks to restructure both our virtual and brick-and-mortar public squares according to the frame of identity politics, now more than ever, we must fight for the freedom to use language to speak the truth.
Rep. Roger Marshall (R-Kans.) isn’t the only one asking himself, “What’s happened to our nation when the president of the United States has to ask legislators to save babies from being murdered?” Overwhelming majorities of pro-choicers are just as startled as he is.
Too often over the past 46 years, the issue of abortion has been reduced to a political issue. Very little thought has gone into the coarsening of America’s collective conscience, which has brought us to this point today — where leaders not only look away, but advocate and defend infanticide. Fortunately, what we’ve seen in the last few weeks is that the hardening of our country’s heart hasn’t extended much beyond the party’s leaders and militant abortion activists.
When AUL and YouGov put the Democrats’ infanticide agenda before the public, Americans were universally horrified. Large majorities in the country already objected to third-trimester abortions (79 percent) and birth day abortions (80 percent) — but it was tough to find anyone who thought leaving newborns on a metal table to die was just another “personal decision” between a woman and her doctor. On the question of legal infanticide, 82 percent said absolutely not.
If those numbers don’t make Democrats cringe, maybe these will. Of “pro-choicers,” 77 percent agree with the Republicans’ push to protect abortion survivors. Another 66 percent percent aren’t on board with abortions in the third trimester, and 68 percent disagree with any law that destroy a baby on its due date. Throw in the taxpayer-funded part of these procedures — another piece of the Democratic platform — and the Left’s abortion agenda is a one-way ticket back to the political minority.
If you think I’m exaggerating, look at Governor Andrew Cuomo’s (D-N.Y.) most recent approval ratings. After eight years of high marks, the bottom is falling out for the man who made the disastrous decision to put New Yorkers at the tip of the pink spear. In the weeks since he led the charge to kill babies at the moment of birth, Cuomo’s favorability rating has taken a beating, dropping to 43 percent from 50 — the lowest ever recorded since he took office in 2011. He also had an almost double-digit decline in his performance ratings, with only 35 percent now agreeing that he’s doing an “excellent” or “good job.”
Contrast that with President Trump, who, after doubling down on the culture of life, is enjoying the highest approval rating (52 percent) since 2017. One man embraced the outer limits of abortion extremism. The other used his most important speech of the year to passionately reject it. You do the math.
Making matters worse for the Left, every day that a Republican walks to the floor of the House and demands a vote on the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act is a reminder of just how fanatical Democrats are. On Monday, they got another glimpse when Rep. Mark Walker (R-N.C.) took his turn asking for unanimous consent on the bill. He, like three Republicans before him, was denied. And while most liberals aren’t exactly knocking down the doors of the press to talk about their wildly controversial stance, some Democrats are saying enough for everyone.
“There is zero place for politicians to be involved in these very complicated medical decisions, and they should only be made between a woman and her doctor — period, full stop,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) insisted. So that’s what killing is now? A “medical decision?” Listen, if Democrats want to get the government out of the health care business, conservatives are all for it. If there’s “zero place” for Congress in medicine, then by all means — let’s do away with Obamacare, insurance regulation, health care mandates, Medicare, and Medicaid. Personal decisions shouldn’t need public funding. But that’s the hypocrisy of the Left. Democrats don’t want taxpayers to have any input in health care — they just want them to foot the bill.
To her credit, at least Gillibrand will cop to her radicalism. Others in the increasingly crowded 2020 field refuse to even talk about abortion. But they don’t have to. The Democratic platform says it all.
Tony Perkins’ Washington Update is written with the aid of FRC senior writers.
EDITORS NOTE: This FRC column with images is republished with permission.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/021219_abortion_770x400-e1550052815774.jpg370640Family Research Councilhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFamily Research Council2019-02-13 05:13:452019-02-13 06:13:19Is the Party over for Dem Extremists?
A recent study by Science Daily has found that Estrogen, the female hormone, is responsible for changes in the impact that methamphetamine addiction has on rats. This could provide one explanation as to why men and women react differently to meth, offering researchers possible insights into sex-specific meth addiction treatment strategies for stimulant addiction.
Men vs. Women and Meth Addiction
Male rats are usually the focus of addiction studies, but
recently scientists are finding that female rats should also be considered as
the impact of addiction to meth or other drugs is likely different for
different sexes. Researcher Carmela Reichel mentions that we have very limited
information at our disposal when it comes to how sex hormones such as
testosterone or estrogen impact addiction to drugs or alcohol.
Studies have found that the female rat responds different to
drugs than the male rat, signifying a possible impact of estrogen on addiction.
According to the CDC, meth kills nearly 100K people annually, so finding a cure
or better treatment for the disease of addiction is vital. Finding ways to
effectively treat men and women, using their own biological backgrounds as the
basis for treatment strategy, may be the key to effective recovery.
Reactions of Rats
Stimulants release excessive amounts of dopamine into the
brain. Methamphetamine increases activity in the prefrontal cortex of the brain
causing rapid sense of pleasure for a short period of time. The release of
dopamine is responsible for motivation, movement, memory and learning.
Unfortunately, a lack of the stimulant can cause the brain to stop producing
dopamine after addiction has set in and this causes a lack of motivation or
feel good sense for the user.
Rats are given the ability to self-administer
methamphetamine in the test environment. Female rats were seen consistently
taking more and more methamphetamine. During the first six hours of the addiction,
female rats were seen repeatedly taking more of the drug. Researchers believe
this explains why addiction to methamphetamine is so powerful for females—as
they seem to have a consistent early urge to take more drugs more frequently.
Examining Rat Brains
Addicted rats and non-addicted rats were examined.
Researchers were checking the prefrontal cortex of the male and female rat
brains to determine the level of change that occurred as a result of
methamphetamine abuse. Female rats showed lower resting activity than males
before drug use. Post meth use, females had a stronger response in the brain’s
synaptic activity followed by a faster fall once the drug wore off.
This suggests that hormones such as estrogen can play a role in the ability for a rat (or human) to become addicted to drugs such as crystal meth. Using this as a guideline, researchers suggest that treatment approaches that are directly related to women be developed to better treat those suffering from addiction to this and to other drugs.
EDITORS NOTE: The featured
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/tablets-1001224_640.jpg384640Mary Lampherehttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngMary Lamphere2019-02-12 19:23:052019-02-12 19:23:07New Study Finds Estrogen Responsible for Changes in Meth Addiction Between Men and Women
During the month of February in America we celebrate Black History Month. As we celebrate the achievements of Blacks in the making of this great country, I can’t help but think about the state of the Black community in 2019.
The state of our Black union is depressing!
We, as a community, must stop asking others to do for us what we should be doing for ourselves. We have more education than our parents and grandparents; yet have a lower quality of life. We have more opportunities than our parents and grandparents yet have less to show for them.
We have more Blacks in elected political offices than ever before, yet our economic indices in cities run by Blacks are horrible, i.e.: Washington, DC, Baltimore, and Atlanta to name a few.
Hardly a week passes by without a Black person having some deadly encounter with law enforcement.
How did we, in the Black community, get to where it seems to be open season on our people by law enforcement? Yes, racism still exists, but racism is not the cause of the condition of our community.
According to the Centers for Disease control and Prevention, over 70% of Black babies are born to unwed mothers. It is estimated that since the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion in 1973, that over 16 million Black babies have been murdered — 55 million babies in total.
In New York City every year, more Black babies are aborted than are born. Yes, you heard right. According to their Health Department, between 2012 and 2016, 136,426 Black babies were aborted versus 118,127 babies born. Blacks are the only group in America that have more babies aborted than born!
If Black lives matter, does that include their babies?
The solution to this culture of death in the Black community specifically, and America in general, is very simple. We need to reconstitute the family unit; meaning mother, father and children. These perverted variations of the traditional family unit will not restore our traditional values back to our community or our society.
Study after study has shown that if you graduate high school, get married, and then have children, you are almost guaranteed not to live in poverty.
The traditional family unit is the solution to all the ills facing the Black community and America.
But yet, the media appointed Black leaders and their radical liberal groups spend all of their time promoting homosexuality, amnesty for illegals, and Planned Parenthood.
When have you ever heard the Congressional Black Caucus, the NAACP, or the National Urban League talking about the traditional family unit is key to righting the ship in the Black community?
When Bill Cosby gave his famous “Pound Cake” speech, he was eviscerated by the Black liberal elites.
When have you ever heard Al Sharpton, President of the National Action Network, Derrick Johnson, President and CEO of the NAACP, or Marc Morial, President of the National Urban League talk about the family unit; or telling girls to keep their damn legs closed if they cannot financially afford to care for a child?
How did the Black community allow the homosexuals to hijack our fight for Civil Rights? Their issue has absolutely nothing to do with Civil Rights.
How did we allow George Soros, Bill Gates, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Mark Zuckerberg to get media-appointed Blacks to put illegals ahead of their own community? Can you imagine willingly training someone who is going to take your job and agreeing with them that they have a right to take your job.
According to Planned Parenthood’s 2017 annual report, they had total revenue of $1.3 billion, $555 million from the federal government. They made a profit of $77 million. Yes, they get paid to kill.
They also have spent over $38 million in political campaigns between 2012-2016. Yes, they buy Black, Democrat politicians!
To paraphrase Jay-Z, “Blacks folks got 99 problems, but homosexuality, amnesty, and Planned Parenthood should not be one.”
We survived slavery, overcame segregation, and fought discrimination and are still standing.
But, in order to restore the Black community, we must turn away from the media-appointed Black leaders. They have sold us out at every chance.
Just imagine if we put the same amount of energy fighting for our own people and causes like we do for other groups.
Just imagine if we took the energy we put into hating President Donald Trump and Republicans [put it] into getting young girls to stop having babies before marriage; getting Black entertainers and athletes to hire Black C.P.A.s, publicists, lawyers, managers, etc.; getting Black churches to stop caving in to the radical homosexual agenda; and creating more Black entrepreneurs.
We don’t need a law to make any of the above reality; but what we do need is leaders who cannot be bought off by those who have no concern for the Black community.
The state of our union can be brighter, but you can’t have union without “u” “n” “i.”
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article do not reflect the official policy or position of BlackPressUSA.com or the National Newspaper Publishers Association.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/victor-grabarczyk-1058065-unsplash-e1549930152603.jpg366640Raynard Jacksonhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngRaynard Jackson2019-02-11 19:09:252019-02-11 19:09:27The State of the Black Union
I guess Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York was too busy cozying up to Governor Andrew Cuomo for money for itsPro Bono legal services in defense of illegal aliens to bother pushing too hard to save late term aborted babies!
New website connects pro-bono lawyers with immigrants in need of help
After relating stories about several illegal aliens (oops! “undocumented”)….
New York’s “vulnerables!”
These undocumented immigrants are all in need of pro-bono legal help and their cases are being advertised on a new web portal run by the state’s Liberty Defense Project and Catholic Charities to connect them with volunteer immigration attorneys.
The new websitefunded by the state brings attention to Catholic Charities, which has placed 105 pro bono cases with more than 230 volunteer attorneys throughout New York. Every volunteer receives expert legal training to file applications for asylum-seekers, crime victims, juveniles or individuals trying to reunite with family members.
[….]
In New York, no “liberty defense” for this new American!
The new website is funded by Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Liberty Defense Project, launched in 2017, which provides free legal help to immigrants across the state through Office for New Americans locations.
The program has provided more than 25,000 services to immigrants, according to a press release. A quarter of the immigrants in detention who received representation under the program have been released and reunited with their families.
Again, thatnew website that seeks to link free lawyers to illegal aliens (aka New Americans) in need of help to stay in the country is being funded by New York state taxpayers! See Liberty Defense Project!
What can you do? If you live in New York and especially if you are Catholic, you must letCatholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York know what you think!
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/pro-bono-project-catholic-charities.jpg360640Ann Corcoranhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngAnn Corcoran2019-02-11 10:33:282019-02-11 10:54:28New York: Are “Vulnerable” Immigrants more Important to Catholic Charities than Vulnerable Babies?
A verse in the Bible says, “They meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.” Who could have imagined that God would transform the following three attacks on the unborn into a blessing for the pro-life movement.
Fake news media faces a lawsuit for false reporting which caused the high-tech lynching of the Covington high school students who attended the 2019 March for Life. New York legislators gave a standing ovation to killing babies on the date of birth. The governor of Virginia sought to legalize killing babies after birth. These 3 attacks have made Americans more aware of Democrats’ culture of death and war on the unborn. Abortion is front and center on the international political stage.
Since the Roe v Wade abortion on demand decision in 1973, 60 million babies have been killed. Pro-lifers are passionately energized to challenge Roe v Wade. Praise God!
I was blown away that the majority of the estimated 300,000 who attended the 46th Annual March for Life were teens, pre-teens and millennials. It was heartwarming and encouraging to see so many young people overflowing with compassion for the unborn. They were extremely excited, upbeat and joyful about celebrating and defending babies. Many carried signs, “I am the pro-life generation.”
Every time I lament that my fellow blacks insanely support Planned Parenthood which targets black babies to kill, I’m flooded with emails from whites. “Lloyd, let blacks know Planned Parenthood was founded by rabid racist Margaret Sanger to exterminate blacks.” Frustrated, I yell at my computer. “I’ve been telling blacks the truth about Sanger and Planned Parenthood for years to no avail!”
To stop the black on black genocide via abortion, Godly black ministers put up a billboard. “The most dangerous place for an African-American is in the womb.” Guess who had a cow and demanded that the billboard be removed? The answer is Rev Al Sharpton, black civil rights organizations and Democrats. https://dailym.ai/2UJBfZS
Black civil rights leaders have betrayed their people and the legacy of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. Liberalism continues to devastate the lives of black Americans. And yet, black leaders keep preaching the destructive evil religion of Liberalism to their people.
Planned Parenthood demands that women rights include mothers killing their babies for whatever reason they deem necessary before or after birth. Here is a link to a brief video of an abortion doctor explaining to congress, in graphic detail, the procedure he used to perform second trimester D&E abortions. Anyone not extremely disturbed by this video is spiritually ill.
President Trump, the most pro-life president in American history, signed legislation to empower states to defund Planned Parenthood. From day one of his presidency, Trump took action to defend the sanctity of life. He reinstated the Mexico City policy, stopping American foreign aid from going to organizations that promote or support abortion around the world.
In his speech to March for Life 2019, president Trump said, “Together we will work to save the lives of unborn children so that they have a chance to live and to love.” “Every child is a sacred gift from God.”
Trump signed a letter to congress that if they send any legislation to his desk which weakens the protection of human life, he will veto it.
Carrie Fischer was aborted in 1968. Born 6 months later, the failed abortion caused Carrie to be partially paralyzed and facially disfigured. As a little girl, 5-6-7 years old, Carrie had reoccurring dreams of a baby in a womb fighting for her life; trying to get away. Carrie said she felt the baby’s pain and heard her screams.
At age 13, Carrie learned that the baby was her. A relative told Carrie her mother tried to abort her. When Carrie confronted her mom who raised her, she confessed and wept deeply. When the abortion failed, Carrie’s mother said she was filled with regret and shame. Carrie and her mom are best friends.
Remarkably, Carrie did not suffer brain damage as doctors predicted. Due to her facial disfigurement, Carrie endured horrific bullying by students and teachers. Carrie attempted suicide. Today, Carrie is happily married. She speaks around the country. Carrie said God saved her life to be a voice for the voiceless unborn.
My friend, radio show host (Radio Patriot) Andrea Shea King shared her story with me. Pregnant and unwed at age 15, Andrea chose giving her son up for adoption rather than abortion. Forty-two years later, Andrea received a phone call from her son which led to a heartwarming reunion. Andrea met her daughter-in-law and her grand-kids. Her son is also a conservative like Andrea, his mom.
Andrea’s story inspired me to write, perform and record this song titled, “Hello Mom, It’s Me”. Please enjoy the music video.
Download the song, adding it to your play-list. Share it and encourage others to do the same, in defense of the sanctity of life. With abortion zealots outrageously seeking to legalize killing babies even after they are born, a compassionate pro-life song is needed more than ever.
EDITORS NOTE: The edited featured image is by Pixabay.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/roe-v-wade.jpg361640Lloyd Marcushttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngLloyd Marcus2019-02-10 19:21:072019-02-10 19:22:02Are the Days of Roe v Wade Numbered?
Gender is binary, you know male and female. Well not according to Unicode Emoji 12.0. You can now pick your gender and proudly, no pun intended, show your penchant for sodomy at the same time using the “people holding hands” emojis.
So now you, your children and grandchildren have the ability to go online and choose their preferred gender/race emoji (right). Now the gay agenda can reach millions of online users, many of them underage children. The perfect targets for pedophiles and pederasts.
Emoji 12.0 data has been released, with 59 new emoji…With 171 variants for gender and skin tone, this makes a total of 230 emoji including variants.
These emojis are available to “vendors for mobile phones, PCs, and web platforms…”
Now pedophiles and pederasts can go online and find the perfect underage child that fits their sexual proclivity. It is expected these new gender/race emojis will appear on cell phones in October 2019.
Facebook’s message was clear when the social media network added new gender options for users on Thursday: the company is sensitive to a wide spectrum of gender identity and wants users to feel accommodated no matter where they see themselves on that spectrum.— Katy Steinmetz
I must admit I’ve become disenchanted with the State of The Union Address. I guess it began with Obama’s presidency. I found him so repulsive and dishonest that I couldn’t stand to listen.
When President Trump took office, naturally, my enthusiasm over the State of the Union Address blossomed once again. But even still, I can’t get over the fact that the Address has become a recitation of a long list of projects a particular President wishes to accomplish interlaced with pre-contrived talking points and moments of self-adulation. The State of the Union report is constitutionally prescribed, but not the Address.
However, there is one major, unanticipated plus to the State of the Union Address: observing the opposing party’s reactions to the President. Tuesday night’s was a glaring example of just how revealing this can be as millions of Americans were struck with what the Democrats did not stand for. And given this lengthy and ugly list, perhaps it is best if Democrats remain seated and stay out of the way while the rest of us choose greatness.
Here is the appalling list Democrats did not stand for:
1. Wages are rising.Specifically, they are growing for blue-collar workers. The Democrats did not stand. I was confused here. Does that mean that they don’t like blue-collar workers, or is it the improvement in their wages that Democrats oppose?
2. Five million Americans have been lifted off food stamps. The Democrats did not stand. Again. Confused. Five million people are no longer getting food stamps. That means that they are doing better. They are providing for themselves, probably because they have jobs now. Is that not a good thing?
3. The U.S. economy is growing twice as fast today as when President Trump took office. The Democrats did not stand. Do the Democrats not like that the economy is growing, or is it the implicit shaming of Obama they resent?
4. Unemployment has reached the lowest rate in over half a century. The Democrats did not stand. That’s a good thing, right? According to the Democrats, probably not — at least if they cannot take credit for it, which they cannot.
5. Asian, African American, and Hispanic unemployment rate at lowest level ever recorded. The Democrats did not stand. Neither did Speaker Pelosi. I thought the Democrats were all about the racial divide and correcting the injustices being purposefully perpetrated against minorities in this country. Shouldn’t we therefore be celebrating an improvement in the economic standing of members of minority groups? Nope, say the Democrats.
6. Americans with disabilities unemployment rate at an all-time low. The Democrats did not stand. Who doesn’t cheer accomplishments by disabled Americans? Oh yeah, Democrats.
7. More people are working now than at any time in the history of our country. The Democrats did not stand. Is people having jobs not a good thing?
8. Right to try. The Democrats did not stand. Okay. This one has to be bipartisan. The Right to Try law allows people with fatal conditions to try certain curative treatments despite not being approved by the FDA. It’s the legalization of the Hail Mary Pass in pharmacology. Surely, everyone is in favor of cutting through the bureaucratic nonsense to save a life, right? Apparently not the Democrats.
9. Companies are coming back in historic numbers. The Democrats did not stand. I got nothing.
10. The U.S. is the number one producer of oil and natural as in the world. The Democrats did not stand — except one, Sen. Manchin from West Virginia. They can’t stand this one! The President of the United States just exalted the destruction of the planet through the greater production of lethal green gases. Gases that will kill the earth! Never mind that those products keep our homes warm, help us cook our meals, or keep our biodegradable products cold so they won’t rot. On the other hand, who cares? According to Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, the planet is ending in 12 years anyway.
11. The U.S. is now a net exporter of energy. The Democrats did not stand. But what’s this? Pelosi clapped!?!? Perhaps just a confused moment. Otherwise see #10.
12. America is again winning each and every day. The Democrats did not stand. Of course. The Democrats will perpetually root for anyone against the Patriots, and they’re still sore from their defeat in the Super Bowl at the hands of a Trump-loving quarterback against a team that, by its very name, celebrates patriotism.
13. The state of our union is strong. The Democrats did not stand, of course, and Pelosi smugly shook her head. I understand that we have a fundamental disagreement regarding the direction we believe the country should be headed, but to deny that the state of the union is strong, particularly when the economy is buzzing, the unemployment rate is down, and (let’s face it) people are risking life and limb merely to be a part of us, is disingenuous to say the least. We should be celebrating the state of our union today, not dismissing it. And yes, always fighting for better.
14. Another 304,000 jobs were added in the latest job numbers, almost double the number expected. The Democrats did not stand. All I can say is that they didn’t stand for this because a strong work force is a threat to the future of the Democratic Party.
15. And the granddaddy of them all, America will never be a socialist country! The Democrats did not stand. A telling testament to the true intent of this crop of Democrats. They want to dismiss our foundational principles, destroy everything we’ve accomplished, and take us in the same direction as other nations with consistently calamitous results.
Given this atrocious behavior and what it foretells in policies, it actually would be best if Democrats stay seated and brood. The rest of us will continue to protect our freedoms and strive for greatness.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/stadium-165406_640.jpg480640Dr. Julio Gonzalezhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngDr. Julio Gonzalez2019-02-08 04:09:002019-02-08 04:09:02Democrats SHOULD Remain Seated; The Rest Of Us Will Choose Greatness
With the election of president Trump, prayer has made a striking comeback in the political arena. Everywhere I turn, I hear people asking fellow Americans to pray for our president. During a conference call, VP Mike Pence asked religious leaders to pray for president Trump. President Trump humbly asked for our prayers. “Trump Prayer Warriors” is one of several Facebook groups advocating praying for our president. Christian leaders contributed prayers to a book titled, “Prayers for the President”. Why are so many Americans feeling an urgent need to pray for our president and country?
Mainstream media seek to convince us that a majority of Americans embrace their anti-Christian anything-goes-sexually agenda. The truth is, millions of Americans are disturbed by our nation’s cultural and moral decline. A growing number of TV commercials selling everything from milk to phone services interject homosexuality. I told my wife, “Next they will have men kissing.” Thirty minutes later, a Diet Coke TV commercial featured two men kissing in a cab.
With every new TV drama and sitcom, the question is, in which episode will the show promote homosexuality? LGBTQ are only 3% of the population. Why is there such an intense, relentless push to shove homosexuality into our faces?
While babysitting, my brother overheard the kid video his grandson was watching talk about having two daddies. The video promoted homosexual parents. My brother discarded the DVD.
Some say, Lloyd, get over it. The LGBTQ agenda is the new normal. Why don’t you accept it and move on? Every time we allow ourselves to become desensitized to a deviance, Democrats introduce another more evil. Who could imagine Democrats would seek to legalize pedophilia and murdering babies even after they are born?
In a sane world, how could these evil people get elected? Rush Limbaugh theorizes that because Democrats fear the overturn of Roe v Wade, they seek to kill as many babies as possible.
For years, Planned Parenthood claimed abortion was okay because they were only removing an unviable tissue mass, not a baby. Technology confirms that it is a baby. “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb.” Jeremiah 1:5
Planned Parenthood now says it does not matter that it’s a baby. A mother has a moral right to abort her baby for any reason she deems necessary before or after birth. Here is a link to a brief video of an abortion doctor explaining to congress, in graphic detail, the procedure he used to perform second trimester D&E abortions. Anyone not extremely disturbed by this video is spiritually ill.
Democrats desiring to murder born alive babies is a whole new level of satanic evil.
Speaking of Democrats rising to new levels of evil, Democrats are pushing to legalize pedophilia. Tom Delay exposed an Obama DOJ secret memo which included pedophilia on a list of 12 perversions it planned to legalize.
“Big Mouth” on Netflix is an insidiously evil animated cartoon to sexualize teens going through puberty. The show features boys and girls masturbating and talking to their genitalia. One scene has a boy’s father telling him it is okay to kiss another man’s penis. Despite public outrage over the show’s pedophilia, Netflix has signed on for season 3 of “Big Mouth”.
A film on Netflix titled, “Desire” features play between two girls under 10 years old that becomes sexual. Again, public outrage availed nothing.
Leftists (Democrats) claim pedophilia is a sexual orientation that society should accept. They will argue that opposing pedophilia is bigotry. They plan to keep forcing pedophilia upon us until we become desensitized or give up pushing back against it. Their narrative is pedophilia is simply another form of love. Who can argue against love? How many Christians will be deceived into embracing pedophilia believing it is what Jesus would do?
“But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to fall away–it would be better for him if a heavy millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depths of the sea.” Matthew 18:6
The LGBTQ agenda has progressed from supposedly only seeking tolerance to destroying and jailing anyone who does not bow down in worship to their lifestyle.
Americans are beginning to comprehend mainstream media’s unprecedented intense hatred for Trump and his voters. They see fake news media’s 24/7 lies to stop Trump’s America first agenda and to remove him from office. Even some in Trump’s own party are colluding with his enemies.
Americans realize Trump is the only wall between We the People and leftists’ anti-Christian, anti-American and anti-morality tyranny.
Only almighty God can protect Trump. This is why so many Americans feel divinely led to pray for president Trump. Please keep our president in your prayers.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/samuel-martins-631378-unsplash-e1549535207498.jpg427640Lloyd Marcushttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngLloyd Marcus2019-02-07 05:27:122019-02-07 05:27:14Why Many Americans Are Praying For President Trump
President Donald J. Trump at the State of the Union said the following:
To defend the dignity of every person, I am asking the Congress to pass legislation to prohibit the late-term abortion of children who can feel pain in the mother’s womb.
Let us work together to build a culture that cherishes innocent life. And let us reaffirm a fundamental truth: all children — born and unborn — are made in the holy image of God.
There will be a National Day of Mourning in silent protest of the state of New York’s infanticide law.
Saturday, February 23, 2019 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM Empire State Plaza Albany, NY 12210
The state of New York just voted to expand abortion access right up to the birth of the baby! To celebrate this unbelieveable depravity they lit the One World Trade Center in pink! Women used to celebrate motherhood and find joy in their children. Today, in places like New York City, they are taking joy in destroying their children. N.Y. State has crossed a line of inhumanity that should drive us to our knees. 46 years of the state sanctioned killing of our most helpless and defenseless children should cause us to weep, to mourn, and to take action. What is to be thought of a society that kills her own children? What will the future be of such a hearltess society that celebrates such barbaric inhumanity?
“If the foundations be destroyed what shall the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:3) We are calling for a National Day of Mourning and repentance. We are in desperate need for God to move upon the hearts of young and old in our nation. If our hearts do not break over the killing of these little image bearers of God in the womb, then how can we expect those growing up in this lost, confused and decadent culture to take our message seriously? Join us February 23rd for “A National Day of Mourning.”
The settlers and the founders of this country spoke a lot about their posterity—the generations that would follow them. For example, the Constitution begins, “We the People of the United States, in Order to…secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution” (emphasis added).
Long before the Constitution was written, Rev. John Winthrop, the founder of Boston and leader of the first major migration of the Puritans from England, told his followers in the famous “City on a Hill” speech (actually called, “A Model of Christian Charity”): “Now the only way to avoid …shipwreck and to provide for our posterity, is to follow the counsel of Micah, to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God.” That was in 1630.
When the Puritans founded Harvard in 1636 for the sake of ministerial training and later named it in honor of Rev. John Harvard because of his generous donations, they mentioned posterity as part of their raison d’etre. Their goal was “to advance Learning and to perpetuate it to Posterity; dreading to leave an illiterate Ministry to the Churches, when our present Ministers shall lie in the Dust.”
The Massachusetts Congress in 1775 declared, “Resistance to tyranny becomes the Christian and social duty of each individual. Fleets, troops, and every implement of war are sent into the province, to wrest from you that freedom which it is your duty, even at the risk of your lives, to hand inviolate to posterity.”
On December 16, 1796, President George Washington wrote to Congress about the need to “secure to ourselves and to posterity that liberty which is to all of us so dear.”
Posterity. Posterity. Posterity.
But now liberalized abortion laws are taking aim at our posterity. New York just passed a law that out-Roe’s Roe v. Wade. The 1973 abortion ruling from the Supreme Court stated explicitly that it was legalizing abortion for the first trimester. On the same day, the Court also issued the companion ruling, Doe v. Bolton, which allows for later term abortions if a doctor approves.
The law New York recently passed will allow for abortion right up to the moment of birth. Lawmakers in Virginia tried to pass a similar law—essentially sanctioning infanticide—allowing for an “abortion” after birth.
Cheryl Sullenger of Operation Rescue told me, “The recent discussion on late-term abortions and even the killing of newborns is a tough discussion that Americans must have in order to help us face the brutal reality of what abortion does to an innocent and living baby. This discussion is waking up people and may help to finally bring this barbaric practice to an end.”
We could say that on January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court declared war on our posterity. And now, 60 million abortions later—we are still suffering as a nation.
No wonder we cannot keep up with our social security payments. We have killed off 60 million of our posterity, many of whom would be paying in by now.
How will future generations judge this one? We now have 4D sonograms. We can see the humanity of the unborn. There, in color, is our posterity—just waiting to come out—but too often he or she (and it’s always a he or she, never an “it”) meets a violent, premature end. Future generations will look back at us and our barbarism toward our posterity in the way we today look back at slave-owners.
One commentator noted, “What’s the most dangerous place in America? It’s in your mother’s womb.” It should be the safest place in America.
Abortion clinics are often asked by scared women (the vast majority of whom feel that they are forced to abort), “Is it a baby?” The facility personnel tell them it’s just a clump of tissue, it’s just a bunch of cells. It’s not really a baby. Then in many cases they carefully perform the abortions in such a way so they can save the kidneys, the liver, the lungs, the heart, the brains. Why? So they can sell these to laboratories for research for monetary profit. All of this is documented by David Daleiden and his undercover videos. Apparently, our posterity can fetch a good price in the marketplace.
“Posterity,” declared John Adams in a letter to his wife (4/26/1777), “You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent it in Heaven that I ever took half the pains to preserve it.”
Forget our posterity, say the modern humanists—only “we the born” have value today. Our forefathers sacrificed for their posterity—us. But “we the born” today sacrifice our posterity for our own (perceived) well-being, to our everlasting shame.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/dennis-acevedo-762843-unsplash-e1549500823678.jpg425640Jerry Newcombe, D. Min.http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJerry Newcombe, D. Min.2019-02-06 19:53:582019-02-06 19:53:59We the Born
PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP’S STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS Remarks as prepared for delivery TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES:
Madam Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, the First Lady of the United States, and my fellow Americans:
We meet tonight at a moment of unlimited potential. As we begin a new Congress, I stand here ready to work with you to achieve historic breakthroughs for all Americans.
Millions of our fellow citizens are watching us now, gathered in this great chamber, hoping that we will govern not as two parties but as one Nation.
The agenda I will lay out this evening is not a Republican agenda or a Democrat agenda. It is the agenda of the American people.
Many of us campaigned on the same core promises: to defend American jobs and demand fair trade for American workers; to rebuild and revitalize our Nation’s infrastructure; to reduce the price of healthcare and prescription drugs; to create an immigration system that is safe, lawful, modern and secure; and to pursue a foreign policy that puts America’s interests first.
There is a new opportunity in American politics, if only we have the courage to seize it. Victory is not winning for our party. Victory is winning for our country.
This year, America will recognize two important anniversaries that show us the majesty of America’s mission, and the power of American pride.
In June, we mark 75 years since the start of what General Dwight D. Eisenhower called the Great Crusade — the Allied liberation of Europe in World War II. On D-Day, June 6, 1944, 15,000 young American men jumped from the sky, and 60,000 more stormed in from the sea, to save our civilization from tyranny. Here with us tonight are three of those heroes: Private First Class Joseph Reilly, Staff Sergeant Irving Locker, and Sergeant Herman Zeitchik. Gentlemen, we salute you.
In 2019, we also celebrate 50 years since brave young pilots flew a quarter of a million miles through space to plant the American flag on the face of the moon. Half a century later, we are joined by one of the Apollo 11 astronauts who planted that flag: Buzz Aldrin. This year, American astronauts will go back to space on American rockets.
In the 20th century, America saved freedom, transformed science, and redefined the middle class standard of living for the entire world to see. Now, we must step boldly and bravely into the next chapter of this great American adventure, and we must create a new standard of living for the 21st century. An amazing quality of life for all of our citizens is within our reach.
We can make our communities safer, our families stronger, our culture richer, our faith deeper, and our middle class bigger and more prosperous than ever before.
But we must reject the politics of revenge, resistance, and retribution — and embrace the boundless potential of cooperation, compromise, and the common good.
Together, we can break decades of political stalemate. We can bridge old divisions, heal old wounds, build new coalitions, forge new solutions, and unlock the extraordinary promise of America’s future. The decision is ours to make.
We must choose between greatness or gridlock, results or resistance, vision or vengeance, incredible progress or pointless destruction.
Tonight, I ask you to choose greatness.
Over the last 2 years, my Administration has moved with urgency and historic speed to confront problems neglected by leaders of both parties over many decades.
In just over 2 years since the election, we have launched an unprecedented economic boom — a boom that has rarely been seen before. We have created 5.3 million new jobs and importantly added 600,000 new manufacturing jobs — something which almost everyone said was impossible to do, but the fact is, we are just getting started.
Wages are rising at the fastest pace in decades, and growing for blue collar workers, who I promised to fight for, faster than anyone else. Nearly 5 million Americans have been lifted off food stamps. The United States economy is growing almost twice as fast today as when I took office, and we are considered far and away the hottest economy anywhere in the world. Unemployment has reached the lowest rate in half a century. African-American, Hispanic-American and Asian-American unemployment have all reached their lowest levels ever recorded. Unemployment for Americans with disabilities has also reached an all-time low. More people are working now than at any time in our history –- 157 million.
We passed a massive tax cut for working families and doubled the child tax credit.
We virtually ended the estate, or death, tax on small businesses, ranches, and family farms.
We eliminated the very unpopular Obamacare individual mandate penalty — and to give critically ill patients access to life-saving cures, we passed right to try.
My Administration has cut more regulations in a short time than any other administration during its entire tenure. Companies are coming back to our country in large numbers thanks to historic reductions in taxes and regulations.
We have unleashed a revolution in American energy — the United States is now the number one producer of oil and natural gas in the world. And now, for the first time in 65 years, we are a net exporter of energy.
After 24 months of rapid progress, our economy is the envy of the world, our military is the most powerful on earth, and America is winning each and every day. Members of Congress: the State of our Union is strong. Our country is vibrant and our economy is thriving like never before.
On Friday, it was announced that we added another 304,000 jobs last month alone — almost double what was expected. An economic miracle is taking place in the United States — and the only thing that can stop it are foolish wars, politics, or ridiculous partisan investigations.
If there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation. It just doesn’t work that way!
We must be united at home to defeat our adversaries abroad.
This new era of cooperation can start with finally confirming the more than 300 highly qualified nominees who are still stuck in the Senate – some after years of waiting. The Senate has failed to act on these nominations, which is unfair to the nominees and to our country.
Now is the time for bipartisan action. Believe it or not, we have already proven that it is possible.
In the last Congress, both parties came together to pass unprecedented legislation to confront the opioid crisis, a sweeping new Farm Bill, historic VA reforms, and after four decades of rejection, we passed VA Accountability so we can finally terminate those who mistreat our wonderful veterans.
And just weeks ago, both parties united for groundbreaking criminal justice reform. Last year, I heard through friends the story of Alice Johnson. I was deeply moved. In 1997, Alice was sentenced to life in prison as a first-time non-violent drug offender. Over the next two decades, she became a prison minister, inspiring others to choose a better path. She had a big impact on that prison population — and far beyond.
Alice’s story underscores the disparities and unfairness that can exist in criminal sentencing — and the need to remedy this injustice. She served almost 22 years and had expected to be in prison for the rest of her life.
In June, I commuted Alice’s sentence — and she is here with us tonight. Alice, thank you for reminding us that we always have the power to shape our own destiny.
When I saw Alice’s beautiful family greet her at the prison gates, hugging and kissing and crying and laughing, I knew I did the right thing.
Inspired by stories like Alice’s, my Administration worked closely with members of both parties to sign the First Step Act into law. This legislation reformed sentencing laws that have wrongly and disproportionately harmed the African-American community. The First Step Act gives non-violent offenders the chance to re-enter society as productive, law-abiding citizens. Now, States across the country are following our lead. America is a Nation that believes in redemption.
We are also joined tonight by Matthew Charles from Tennessee. In 1996, at age 30, Matthew was sentenced to 35 years for selling drugs and related offenses. Over the next two decades, he completed more than 30 Bible studies, became a law clerk, and mentored fellow inmates. Now, Matthew is the very first person to be released from prison under the First Step Act. Matthew, on behalf of all Americans: welcome home.
As we have seen, when we are united, we can make astonishing strides for our country. Now, Republicans and Democrats must join forces again to confront an urgent national crisis.
The Congress has 10 days left to pass a bill that will fund our Government, protect our homeland, and secure our southern border.
Now is the time for the Congress to show the world that America is committed to ending illegal immigration and putting the ruthless coyotes, cartels, drug dealers, and human traffickers out of business.
As we speak, large, organized caravans are on the march to the United States. We have just heard that Mexican cities, in order to remove the illegal immigrants from their communities, are getting trucks and buses to bring them up to our country in areas where there is little border protection. I have ordered another 3,750 troops to our southern border to prepare for the tremendous onslaught.
This is a moral issue. The lawless state of our southern border is a threat to the safety, security, and financial well‑being of all Americans. We have a moral duty to create an immigration system that protects the lives and jobs of our citizens. This includes our obligation to the millions of immigrants living here today, who followed the rules and respected our laws. Legal immigrants enrich our Nation and strengthen our society in countless ways. I want people to come into our country, but they have to come in legally.
Tonight, I am asking you to defend our very dangerous southern border out of love and devotion to our fellow citizens and to our country.
No issue better illustrates the divide between America’s working class and America’s political class than illegal immigration. Wealthy politicians and donors push for open borders while living their lives behind walls and gates and guards.
Meanwhile, working class Americans are left to pay the price for mass illegal migration — reduced jobs, lower wages, overburdened schools and hospitals, increased crime, and a depleted social safety net.
Tolerance for illegal immigration is not compassionate — it is cruel. One in three women is sexually assaulted on the long journey north. Smugglers use migrant children as human pawns to exploit our laws and gain access to our country.
Human traffickers and sex traffickers take advantage of the wide open areas between our ports of entry to smuggle thousands of young girls and women into the United States and to sell them into prostitution and modern-day slavery.
Tens of thousands of innocent Americans are killed by lethal drugs that cross our border and flood into our cities — including meth, heroin, cocaine, and fentanyl.
The savage gang, MS-13, now operates in 20 different American States, and they almost all come through our southern border. Just yesterday, an MS-13 gang member was taken into custody for a fatal shooting on a subway platform in New York City. We are removing these gang members by the thousands, but until we secure our border they’re going to keep streaming back in.
Year after year, countless Americans are murdered by criminal illegal aliens.
I’ve gotten to know many wonderful Angel Moms, Dads, and families – no one should ever have to suffer the horrible heartache they have endured.
Here tonight is Debra Bissell. Just three weeks ago, Debra’s parents, Gerald and Sharon, were burglarized and shot to death in their Reno, Nevada, home by an illegal alien. They were in their eighties and are survived by four children, 11 grandchildren, and 20 great-grandchildren. Also here tonight are Gerald and Sharon’s granddaughter, Heather, and great‑granddaughter, Madison.
To Debra, Heather, Madison, please stand: few can understand your pain. But I will never forget, and I will fight for the memory of Gerald and Sharon, that it should never happen again.
Not one more American life should be lost because our Nation failed to control its very dangerous border.
In the last 2 years, our brave ICE officers made 266,000 arrests of criminal aliens, including those charged or convicted of nearly 100,000 assaults, 30,000 sex crimes, and 4,000 killings.
We are joined tonight by one of those law enforcement heroes: ICE Special Agent Elvin Hernandez. When Elvin was a boy, he and his family legally immigrated to the United States from the Dominican Republic. At the age of eight, Elvin told his dad he wanted to become a Special Agent. Today, he leads investigations into the scourge of international sex trafficking. Elvin says: “If I can make sure these young girls get their justice, I’ve done my job.” Thanks to his work and that of his colleagues, more than 300 women and girls have been rescued from horror and more than 1,500 sadistic traffickers have been put behind bars in the last year.
Special Agent Hernandez, please stand: We will always support the brave men and women of Law Enforcement — and I pledge to you tonight that we will never abolish our heroes from ICE.
My Administration has sent to the Congress a commonsense proposal to end the crisis on our southern border.
It includes humanitarian assistance, more law enforcement, drug detection at our ports, closing loopholes that enable child smuggling, and plans for a new physical barrier, or wall, to secure the vast areas between our ports of entry. In the past, most of the people in this room voted for a wall — but the proper wall never got built. I’ll get it built.
This is a smart, strategic, see-through steel barrier — not just a simple concrete wall. It will be deployed in the areas identified by border agents as having the greatest need, and as these agents will tell you, where walls go up, illegal crossings go way down.
San Diego used to have the most illegal border crossings in the country. In response, and at the request of San Diego residents and political leaders, a strong security wall was put in place. This powerful barrier almost completely ended illegal crossings.
The border city of El Paso, Texas, used to have extremely high rates of violent crime — one of the highest in the country, and considered one of our Nation’s most dangerous cities. Now, with a powerful barrier in place, El Paso is one of our safest cities.
Simply put, walls work and walls save lives. So let’s work together, compromise, and reach a deal that will truly make America safe.
As we work to defend our people’s safety, we must also ensure our economic resurgence continues at a rapid pace.
No one has benefitted more from our thriving economy than women, who have filled 58 percent of the new jobs created in the last year. All Americans can be proud that we have more women in the workforce than ever before — and exactly one century after the Congress passed the Constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote, we also have more women serving in the Congress than ever before.
As part of our commitment to improving opportunity for women everywhere, this Thursday we are launching the first ever Government-wide initiative focused on economic empowerment for women in developing countries.
To build on our incredible economic success, one priority is paramount — reversing decades of calamitous trade policies.
We are now making it clear to China that after years of targeting our industries, and stealing our intellectual property, the theft of American jobs and wealth has come to an end.
Therefore, we recently imposed tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese goods — and now our Treasury is receiving billions of dollars a month from a country that never gave us a dime. But I don’t blame China for taking advantage of us — I blame our leaders and representatives for allowing this travesty to happen. I have great respect for President Xi, and we are now working on a new trade deal with China. But it must include real, structural change to end unfair trade practices, reduce our chronic trade deficit, and protect American jobs.
Another historic trade blunder was the catastrophe known as NAFTA.
I have met the men and women of Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, New Hampshire, and many other States whose dreams were shattered by NAFTA. For years, politicians promised them they would negotiate for a better deal. But no one ever tried — until now.
Our new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement — or USMCA — will replace NAFTA and deliver for American workers: bringing back our manufacturing jobs, expanding American agriculture, protecting intellectual property, and ensuring that more cars are proudly stamped with four beautiful words: made in the USA.
Tonight, I am also asking you to pass the United States Reciprocal Trade Act, so that if another country places an unfair tariff on an American product, we can charge them the exact same tariff on the same product that they sell to us.
Both parties should be able to unite for a great rebuilding of America’s crumbling infrastructure.
I know that the Congress is eager to pass an infrastructure bill — and I am eager to work with you on legislation to deliver new and important infrastructure investment, including investments in the cutting edge industries of the future. This is not an option. This is a necessity.
The next major priority for me, and for all of us, should be to lower the cost of healthcare and prescription drugs — and to protect patients with pre-existing conditions.
Already, as a result of my Administration’s efforts, in 2018 drug prices experienced their single largest decline in 46 years.
But we must do more. It is unacceptable that Americans pay vastly more than people in other countries for the exact same drugs, often made in the exact same place. This is wrong, unfair, and together we can stop it.
I am asking the Congress to pass legislation that finally takes on the problem of global freeloading and delivers fairness and price transparency for American patients. We should also require drug companies, insurance companies, and hospitals to disclose real prices to foster competition and bring costs down.
No force in history has done more to advance the human condition than American freedom. In recent years we have made remarkable progress in the fight against HIV and AIDS. Scientific breakthroughs have brought a once-distant dream within reach. My budget will ask Democrats and Republicans to make the needed commitment to eliminate the HIV epidemic in the United States within 10 years. Together, we will defeat AIDS in America.
Tonight, I am also asking you to join me in another fight that all Americans can get behind: the fight against childhood cancer.
Joining Melania in the gallery this evening is a very brave 10-year-old girl, Grace Eline. Every birthday since she was 4, Grace asked her friends to donate to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. She did not know that one day she might be a patient herself. Last year, Grace was diagnosed with brain cancer. Immediately, she began radiation treatment. At the same time, she rallied her community and raised more than $40,000 for the fight against cancer. When Grace completed treatment last fall, her doctors and nurses cheered with tears in their eyes as she hung up a poster that read: “Last Day of Chemo.” Grace — you are an inspiration to us all.
Many childhood cancers have not seen new therapies in decades. My budget will ask the Congress for $500 million over the next 10 years to fund this critical life-saving research.
To help support working parents, the time has come to pass school choice for America’s children. I am also proud to be the first President to include in my budget a plan for nationwide paid family leave — so that every new parent has the chance to bond with their newborn child.
There could be no greater contrast to the beautiful image of a mother holding her infant child than the chilling displays our Nation saw in recent days. Lawmakers in New York cheered with delight upon the passage of legislation that would allow a baby to be ripped from the mother’s womb moments before birth. These are living, feeling, beautiful babies who will never get the chance to share their love and dreams with the world. And then, we had the case of the Governor of Virginia where he basically stated he would execute a baby after birth.
To defend the dignity of every person, I am asking the Congress to pass legislation to prohibit the late-term abortion of children who can feel pain in the mother’s womb.
Let us work together to build a culture that cherishes innocent life. And let us reaffirm a fundamental truth: all children — born and unborn — are made in the holy image of God.
The final part of my agenda is to protect America’s National Security.
Over the last 2 years, we have begun to fully rebuild the United States Military — with $700 billion last year and $716 billion this year. We are also getting other nations to pay their fair share. For years, the United States was being treated very unfairly by NATO — but now we have secured a $100 billion increase in defense spending from NATO allies.
As part of our military build-up, the United States is developing a state-of-the-art Missile Defense System.
Under my Administration, we will never apologize for advancing America’s interests.
For example, decades ago the United States entered into a treaty with Russia in which we agreed to limit and reduce our missile capabilities. While we followed the agreement to the letter, Russia repeatedly violated its terms. That is why I announced that the United States is officially withdrawing from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, or INF Treaty.
Perhaps we can negotiate a different agreement, adding China and others, or perhaps we can’t –- in which case, we will outspend and out-innovate all others by far.
As part of a bold new diplomacy, we continue our historic push for peace on the Korean Peninsula. Our hostages have come home, nuclear testing has stopped, and there has not been a missile launch in 15 months. If I had not been elected President of the United States, we would right now, in my opinion, be in a major war with North Korea with potentially millions of people killed. Much work remains to be done, but my relationship with Kim Jong Un is a good one. And Chairman Kim and I will meet again on February 27 and 28 in Vietnam.
Two weeks ago, the United States officially recognized the legitimate government of Venezuela, and its new interim President, Juan Guaido.
We stand with the Venezuelan people in their noble quest for freedom — and we condemn the brutality of the Maduro regime, whose socialist policies have turned that nation from being the wealthiest in South America into a state of abject poverty and despair.
Here, in the United States, we are alarmed by new calls to adopt socialism in our country. America was founded on liberty and independence –- not government coercion, domination, and control. We are born free, and we will stay free. Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country.
One of the most complex set of challenges we face is in the Middle East.
Our approach is based on principled realism — not discredited theories that have failed for decades to yield progress. For this reason, my Administration recognized the true capital of Israel — and proudly opened the American Embassy in Jerusalem.
Our brave troops have now been fighting in the Middle East for almost 19 years. In Afghanistan and Iraq, nearly 7,000 American heroes have given their lives. More than 52,000 Americans have been badly wounded. We have spent more than $7 trillion in the Middle East.
As a candidate for President, I pledged a new approach. Great nations do not fight endless wars.
When I took office, ISIS controlled more than 20,000 square miles in Iraq and Syria. Today, we have liberated virtually all of that territory from the grip of these bloodthirsty killers.
Now, as we work with our allies to destroy the remnants of ISIS, it is time to give our brave warriors in Syria a warm welcome home.
I have also accelerated our negotiations to reach a political settlement in Afghanistan. Our troops have fought with unmatched valor — and thanks to their bravery, we are now able to pursue a political solution to this long and bloody conflict.
In Afghanistan, my Administration is holding constructive talks with a number of Afghan groups, including the Taliban. As we make progress in these negotiations, we will be able to reduce our troop presence and focus on counter-terrorism. We do not know whether we will achieve an agreement — but we do know that after two decades of war, the hour has come to at least try for peace.
Above all, friend and foe alike must never doubt this Nation’s power and will to defend our people. Eighteen years ago, terrorists attacked the USS Cole — and last month American forces killed one of the leaders of the attack.
We are honored to be joined tonight by Tom Wibberley, whose son, Navy Seaman Craig Wibberley, was one of the 17 sailors we tragically lost. Tom: we vow to always remember the heroes of the USS Cole.
My Administration has acted decisively to confront the world’s leading state sponsor of terror: the radical regime in Iran.
To ensure this corrupt dictatorship never acquires nuclear weapons, I withdrew the United States from the disastrous Iran nuclear deal. And last fall, we put in place the toughest sanctions ever imposed on a country.
We will not avert our eyes from a regime that chants death to America and threatens genocide against the Jewish people. We must never ignore the vile poison of anti-Semitism, or those who spread its venomous creed. With one voice, we must confront this hatred anywhere and everywhere it occurs.
Just months ago, 11 Jewish-Americans were viciously murdered in an anti-semitic attack on the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. SWAT Officer Timothy Matson raced into the gunfire and was shot seven times chasing down the killer. Timothy has just had his 12th surgery — but he made the trip to be here with us tonight. Officer Matson: we are forever grateful for your courage in the face of evil.
Tonight, we are also joined by Pittsburgh survivor Judah Samet. He arrived at the synagogue as the massacre began. But not only did Judah narrowly escape death last fall — more than seven decades ago, he narrowly survived the Nazi concentration camps. Today is Judah’s 81st birthday. Judah says he can still remember the exact moment, nearly 75 years ago, after 10 months in a concentration camp, when he and his family were put on a train, and told they were going to another camp. Suddenly the train screeched to a halt. A soldier appeared. Judah’s family braced for the worst. Then, his father cried out with joy: “It’s the Americans.”
A second Holocaust survivor who is here tonight, Joshua Kaufman, was a prisoner at Dachau Concentration Camp. He remembers watching through a hole in the wall of a cattle car as American soldiers rolled in with tanks. “To me,” Joshua recalls, “the American soldiers were proof that God exists, and they came down from the sky.”
I began this evening by honoring three soldiers who fought on D-Day in the Second World War. One of them was Herman Zeitchik. But there is more to Herman’s story. A year after he stormed the beaches of Normandy, Herman was one of those American soldiers who helped liberate Dachau. He was one of the Americans who helped rescue Joshua from that hell on earth. Almost 75 years later, Herman and Joshua are both together in the gallery tonight — seated side-by-side, here in the home of American freedom. Herman and Joshua: your presence this evening honors and uplifts our entire Nation.
When American soldiers set out beneath the dark skies over the English Channel in the early hours of D-Day, 1944, they were just young men of 18 and 19, hurtling on fragile landing craft toward the most momentous battle in the history of war.
They did not know if they would survive the hour. They did not know if they would grow old. But they knew that America had to prevail. Their cause was this Nation, and generations yet unborn.
Why did they do it? They did it for America — they did it for us.
Everything that has come since — our triumph over communism, our giant leaps of science and discovery, our unrivaled progress toward equality and justice — all of it is possible thanks to the blood and tears and courage and vision of the Americans who came before.
Think of this Capitol — think of this very chamber, where lawmakers before you voted to end slavery, to build the railroads and the highways, to defeat fascism, to secure civil rights, to face down an evil empire.
Here tonight, we have legislators from across this magnificent republic. You have come from the rocky shores of Maine and the volcanic peaks of Hawaii; from the snowy woods of Wisconsin and the red deserts of Arizona; from the green farms of Kentucky and the golden beaches of California. Together, we represent the most extraordinary Nation in all of history.
What will we do with this moment? How will we be remembered? I ask the men and women of this Congress: Look at the opportunities before us! Our most thrilling achievements are still ahead. Our most exciting journeys still await. Our biggest victories are still to come. We have not yet begun to dream.
We must choose whether we are defined by our differences — or whether we dare to transcend them.
We must choose whether we will squander our inheritance — or whether we will proudly declare that we are Americans. We do the incredible. We defy the impossible. We conquer the unknown.
This is the time to re-ignite the American imagination. This is the time to search for the tallest summit, and set our sights on the brightest star. This is the time to rekindle the bonds of love and loyalty and memory that link us together as citizens, as neighbors, as patriots.
This is our future — our fate — and our choice to make. I am asking you to choose greatness.
No matter the trials we face, no matter the challenges to come, we must go forward together.
We must keep America first in our hearts. We must keep freedom alive in our souls. And we must always keep faith in America’s destiny — that one Nation, under God, must be the hope and the promise and the light and the glory among all the nations of the world!
Thank you. God Bless You, God Bless America, and good night!
THE WHITE HOUSE, February 5, 2019.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/state-of-the-union-2019-e1549455338298.png360640Dr. Rich Swierhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngDr. Rich Swier2019-02-06 07:15:512019-02-06 13:26:00President Donald J. Trump State of the Union Speech February 5, 2019
Years from now, when history looks back on the Democratic Party, one date will almost certainly stand out: July 25, 2016. That was the Tuesday, in the capital of the Revolution, when everything changed. For the first time in America’s 240 years, a major political party threw its full support behind one of the most savage and violent practices of the modern age: full-term, no-apologies abortion.
It’s just a party platform, some said. It doesn’t mean anything. Try telling that to Americans today, who watched in stunned silence last night as a leader of the U.S. Senate walked to the same floor where giants of freedom have stood and defended the killing of a perfect, fully-born child. It was not just a party platform when another senator, Ben Sasse (R-Nebr.), looked at the other side of the aisle and saw a group of men and women willing to “betray the universal truth of human dignity and [turn] the stomachs of civilized people… in every country on earth.” And it wasn’t just a party platform when, the only other time this issue came up for a vote, every Senate Democrat agreed: infanticide is wrong.
The moment Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) rose to her feet and objected to protecting the survivors of abortion will be a defining one for Democrats. It should have signified to everyone that the radicalization of the party that started in 2016 is now complete. And like so many others, Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) could only look on in horror. “This is the world’s greatest deliberative body,” she said. But “there is nothing great, there is nothing moral or even humane, about the discussion that we have before us today.”
New Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) stood in disbelief. “Is this really the extremism of the Democratic party?” After decades of proving that there was still some scrap of moderation in their abortion agenda, liberals have thrown off any pretense of solemnity or restraint. And just like the Brett Kavanaugh debate, they’ve significantly overplayed their hand. “I can’t imagine a vision less just or less consistent with the goodness and compassion of the American people,” Hawley argued.
He’s right. “Gallup polling from 2018 found that only 13 percent of Americans favor making third-trimester abortions ‘generally’ legal, and only 18 percent of Democrats shared that position,” Alexandra Desanctis warns. Less than a quarter of their own party is willing to follow them into the most radical terrain on abortion ever broached. “Women reject late-term abortion at an even higher rate than men. A Marist survey from earlier this year found that 75 percent of Americans would limit abortion to, at most, the first three months of pregnancy, and majorities of Democrats and those who describe themselves as pro-choice agreed.”
With almost an eerie detachment to the issue at hand, Murray tried to frame the bill as unnecessary. “We have laws against infanticide in this country,” she claimed in her brief justification for stopping its passage. But, as so many have pointed out, only 26 states have “affirmative protections” for born-alive babies. Even if all 50 did, what’s the harm in reaffirming the Senate’s commitment to protecting these innocent survivors? Surely a party that can eat up hours of the legislative clock with a passionate plea to save the Delta Smelt can spare some sympathy for endangered children.
Even after yesterday’s disgrace, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has no intentions of walking away from survivors like Melissa Ohden and Gianna Jessen, who wouldn’t be alive today if Democrats got their way. Before the vote, McConnell cautioned that if the other side stopped the bill, it “would make quite a disturbing statement.” If they do, he vowed, “I can assure them that this will not be the last time we try to ensure that all newborns are afforded this fundamental legal protection.”
To almost every American, “health care” does not include the killing of innocent newborns. “But in defending bills that expand the right to abort [living children], Democrats are giving away the game,” Desanctis predicts. “Most people, even those who favor some abortion access, instinctively recoil from what they see. These late-term abortion bills do more than reveal Democratic radicalism. They draw back the veil of euphemism to expose abortion for what it is: At every stage of pregnancy, it is the taking of a human life. For the anti-abortion movement, it is a pivotal moment to insist upon that truth.”
That’s where you come in. If you haven’t contacted your senators about the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Act, make sure you do today. Let them know that extremists like Patty Murray stand alone!
Tony Perkins’ Washington Update is written with the aid of FRC senior writers.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/020519_murray_770x400-e1549416026479.jpg372640Family Research Councilhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFamily Research Council2019-02-05 20:21:492019-04-17 06:38:35Killer Party: Dems Stand Alone on Infanticide
