‘Only Two F*cking Genders’: Ocasio-Cortez Townhall Goes Completely Haywire As Protesters Shout Her Down

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Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s town hall went downhill Wednesday night after protesters shouted her down.

Ocasio-Cortez was hosting a Listening Forum Event in Astoria, Queens, when a large group of protesters began chanting “AOC has got to go.” Several of the protesters held up signs, with some reading, “Fuck Joe Biden,” “Wake up New York” and “Agenda 2030 U.N. Is Dirty.”

As Ocasio-Cortez spoke about LGBTQ centers, one protester asked, “So if I don’t have butt sex, I can’t have a place to live?”

“Sir, your sexual orientation has nothing to do with it,” Ocasio-Cortez responded. The man then said the centers were “racist against straight people.”

Another man then stood up, and though his speech was inaudible, the rest of the crowd broke out into a “let her speak” chant.

Eventually Ocasio-Cortez, addressing a woman in the crowd, said, “Ma’am, you are saying you ask us why, you’ve been talking for twenty minutes, we know why, we know why you’re mad, let’s talk about it.”

“I am not mad. There are only two fucking genders,” the woman shouted back in response.

This wasn’t the first time Ocasio-Cortez’s town hall was interrupted by protesters. The congresswoman was shouted down by a pair of protesters one week prior at a town hall in the Bronx. One protester slammed Ocasio-Cortez for voting to send weaponry to Ukraine, with one protester saying she should really focus her efforts on calling for peace.

AUTHOR

BRIANNA LYMAN

News and commentary writer. Follow Brianna on Twitter

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Iran: Christian activist forced to strip, says Islamic regime uses sexual violence against female protestors

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The idea is to humiliate and degrade them, and by raping them, to deny them a place in paradise, for in Islam it is entirely the woman’s responsibility to prevent a man from being tempted (hence the hijab, chador, niqab, burqa), and if he is tempted anyway, it’s her fault.

Exclusive: ‘Was forced to strip, govt uses sexual violence against female protesters,’ says Iranian Christian activist

by Annu Kaushik, Firstpost, October 17, 2022:

In 2020, Mary Mohammadi was taken to a detention center near Iran’s capital Tehran. Officials told her that her hair was visible.

In the basement of the all-female detention center, Mary was forced to strip.

“If my hair is a problem, is it not a problem to force me to take off all my clothes? Is this Islamic?,” Mary told Firstpost in an exclusive conversation.

The incident was part of the sexual violence that the regime has been using to suppress female protesters and activists, Mary said.

“During protests, security personnel touch female demonstrators inappropriately. They want to make women fearful of stepping out,” she said.

24-year-old Mary has been on the radar of Iranian officials for several reasons. Born to a Muslim family, she converted to Christianity in 2017.

Christian converts and other religious minorities like the Bahais are not recognised in Iran.

Over the last few years, Mary has faced persecution from the authorities in the form of arrests and interrogations due to her faith as well as activism.

The personnel who transferred her to the detention center in 2020 belonged to the morality police which is currently in the eye of the storm due to the death of Mahsa Amini which has triggered nationwide protests in Iran.

But it’s not just the morality police who target women for not wearing the mandatory hijab or a head scarf or wearing it improperly.

According to Mary “radical Muslims do it too.”

In 2019, Mary was on a bus in Tehran. It was a hot day and she had taken off her hijab. Suddenly a fully veiled woman approached Mary and asked her to cover her hair.

“When I refused, an argument ensued during which the woman attacked me & my face was left bloodied,” Mary said.

The activist somehow managed to take the woman to the police station. According to Mary, the officers dissuaded her from filing a complaint and even threatened her with arrest.

“They (police) were very kind to that woman. They let her go at 10 pm but kept me in custody till 3 am,” she added.

“Radical Muslims can even attack minorities in public because the regime is behind them,

“Islamic hijab is mandatory in Iran even for non-Muslims. I am a Christian but I must wear hijab,” she said.

Mary’s activism and faith also took a personal toll. Without giving any reason, her university barred her from appearing in exams.

But what was more hurtful for Mary was the treatment meted out to her by a former employer who was also a close friend.

“The gymnast training center where I worked was shut down during the COVID lockdown. I kept asking my employers when I can return and they told me and they are still closed,” Mary said.

One day, the activist turned up at the center unannounced and saw that it was fully operational.

Mary was not given her job back and believes that her employer and the university faced pressure from the authorities.

Constant threats that Mary said were from the authorities forced her to flee Iran in February 2022. The activist who is currently living in the US told Firstpost that in her home country security forces “continue to use sexual violence in the ongoing protests.”…

Read more.

AUTHOR

ROBERT SPENCER

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Starts With Us Rallies the 87% of Americans Who Are Tired of Political Division by Sending 87 ‘Abraham Lincolns’ to Times Square Ahead of Midterm Elections

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Growing Movement Partners with Creator Karen X. Cheng on Augmented Reality Filter to Deliver an Urgent Message from the 16th President on the $5 Bill. 

NEW YORK, NY /PRNewswire/ — Starts With Us, a rapidly growing movement to overcome extreme cultural and political divisions in America, today unleashed 87 Abraham Lincolns on Times Square with a timely message for our nation to resist the urge to get caught up in divisiveness this election season. The Lincolns represent the 87% of Americans who are tired of how divided we are politically. These Americans overwhelmingly feel we need to make a change in our politics to preserve our democracy according to a new poll fielded by Starts With Us in partnership with YouGov.1

Invoking the legacy of Lincoln, who is known for preserving our democracy through a period of existential division and Civil War, the 87 Lincolns will inspire citizens to choose connection and cooperation for the common good, regardless of opposing political views and social stances.

“Every day, the discourse in our country gets more polarized and extreme, especially within the media and politics. We are increasingly closed off to ideas that challenge our own, and this has only become more pronounced as the midterms approach,” says Tom Fishman, CEO of Starts With Us. “Through this initiative, Starts With Us will remind those exhausted by our political and social climate that together we can make a change despite the divisive forces working against us.”

The 87 Lincolns campaign is being amplified globally through an augmented reality (AR) camera effect in partnership with director Karen X. Cheng. Individuals may access the filter on Instagram by visiting www.startswith.us/moneytalks. By pointing the camera toward a five-dollar bill or an image of one, users can unlock the following message from the country’s 16th President: “Our country has become so polarized, so crazed, when really it’s compassion and cooperation we crave. Whichever way you lean, we can all agree, it starts with us to make the vibes less extreme.”

“I’ve realized over the last few years -– so much of social media is designed to divide us. America has gotten so polarized, and social media has contributed to that. The algorithms are designed to reward anger,” says creator Karen X. Cheng. “I wanted to design a filter that does the opposite. One that carries a message of compassion and unity, rather than anger and division.”

Another Starts With Us poll found that more than two-thirds of U.S. adults share the concern that this year’s midterms will further divide America.2 The same survey uncovered that more than three-quarters of adults are open to being a part of the solution to overcome our divided culture leading into the election. To learn more about Starts With Us and join more than three-quarters of a million fellow citizens in depolarizing America through everyday actions, visit www.startswith.us and follow @startswithus on Instagram. To try the “Money Talks” filter and share with your friends, visit www.startswith.us/moneytalks.

About Starts With Us

Starts With Us is a growing movement to overcome cultural and political divisions in America by leveraging media and technology to foster independent thinking and constructive communication across lines of difference. Founded by KIND Snacks founder Daniel Lubetzky in partnership with more than 200 cross-industry leaders, Starts With Us invites Americans from the left, right, and everywhere in between to have a seat at the table — and stay there — by practicing curiosity, compassion, and courage as catalysts for change. Learn more at www.startswith.us.

1 Starts With Us commissioned YouGov to field this survey based on 1,005 interviews conducted by YouGov on the internet of U.S. adults October 5 to 10, 2022. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race/ethnicity, education, and U.S. Census region based on voter registration lists, the U.S. Census American Community Survey, and the U.S. Census Current Population Survey, as well as 2020 Presidential vote. In addition, respondents were selected from YouGov to be nationally representative. The weights range from 0.17 to 6.01, with a mean of 1 and a standard deviation of 0.61. The margin of error is 3.6%.

2 Poll conducted by Morning Consult and Starts With Us August 22 to 23, 2022, among 2,210 adults.

©PRNewswire. All rights reserved.

The Most Dangerous Man in the World

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In 1683, the most dangerous man in the world escaped from England to the Netherlands.

He didn’t look very formidable. He was 51 years old, lanky, and asthmatic. He had, according to one description, a “long face, large nose, full lips, and soft, melancholy eyes.”

Yet the King of England considered him one of his deadliest enemies. As the right-hand man of Charles II’s chief political opponent in the country, he was suspected of conspiring to assassinate the king.

But what really made him a threat to the throne was not his skill in the lethal arts, but his genius in the literary arts.

In the hand of John Locke, the pen was truly mightier than the sword.

Locke sailed out of England with a powerful weapon: one that would eventually overthrow, not just one monarch, but all of them. That weapon was a book, at that point an unpublished draft: Two Treatises of Government.

That book was a systematic philosophical case for liberty. Locke knew that his anti-absolutist book might get him killed by England’s absolute monarch. Indeed, later that year Locke’s ally Algernon Sidney was executed for treason, and Sidney’s Discourses Concerning Government were cited as evidence in his trial.

So Locke did not publish his Treatises until 1689, the year after Charles’s successor James II was deposed in the “Glorious Revolution”—and even then, only anonymously. Locke publicly denied authorship throughout the rest of his life, only admitting it in his will. Locke died in 1704.

Later in that century, the ideas in Locke’s Two Treatises of Government became the elements of America’s founding philosophy:

  • Equality, in the original sense, not of equal abilities or equal wealth, but of non-subjugation;
  • Inalienable Rights, not to government entitlements, but to life, liberty, and property;
  • Democracy, in the original sense, not of mere majoritarian voting, but of popular sovereignty: the idea that governments should not be masters, but servants of the people;
  • Consent of the Governed: the idea that governments can only legitimately govern by the consent of the governed, i.e., the sovereign people;
  • Limited Government: the idea that the sole purpose and proper scope of legitimate government is only to secure the rights of the people;
  • Right of Revolution: the idea that any government that oversteps its limits and tramples the very rights it was charged with securing is a tyranny, and that the people have a right to resist, alter, and even abolish tyrannical governments.

These ideas animated the American Revolution and permeated the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. The enormously successful American experiment caused the global prestige of Lockean political philosophy to soar. As Locke’s political principles were adopted throughout the world, liberty spread and absolutism receded.

The ideas contained in the papers that John Locke smuggled across the water from England in 1683 turned the world upside-down: or rather, right-side-up.

This wondrous achievement for humankind has since been partially reversed in many ways. Enemies of liberty have twisted Locke’s terms to pervert their meaning and serve modern variants of absolutism.

But world history took a much freer course because Locke lived, thought, wrote, and published.

Whether he knew it or not at the time, John Locke was the most dangerous man in the world as well as the most heroic: a menace to tyrants and a liberator of generations.

For more on John Locke’s life, works, and influence, read Jim Powell’s wonderful profile, “John Locke: Natural Rights to Life, Liberty, and Property.”

This essay was originally published on Dan Sanchez’s Substack publication “Letters on Liberty.”

AUTHOR

Dan Sanchez

Dan Sanchez is the Director of Content at the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) and the editor-in chief of FEE.org.

EDITORS NOTE: This FEE column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Enforcing The Headscarf Is Not A Matter Of Cultural Choice – It Is An Attack Against Women

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I am a woman who was born in a Muslim-majority country and I have resisted the pressure of the headscarf for my whole life. The issue of the headscarf is personal for me, and, like many others, I am following the protests in Iran. The spark caused by the Iranian morality police’s killing of Jina Amini, better known in the press as Mahsa Amini, after she was detained for not properly wearing her headscarf, has enflamed hundreds of thousands of candles in Iran, and these honorable, noble, bright candles continue to burn with all their might to illuminate Iran, though some may be burnt to the wick for the sake of this illumination. I believe with my whole heart and reason that sufficient light will penetrate the darkness.

Some Muslim women with whom I have spoken about the protests and who themselves wear the headscarf have made extremely shallow comments normalizing the situation. They say: “The requirement of the headscarf in Iran is very light – anyway you can see the women’s hair. It is enough if they just wrap their scarf so that it covers half of their hair. Let them do this little thing, what is the problem?” The issue here is not the shari’a-compliant manner of wearing the headscarf. It is how the governments and societies of many countries today utterly disregard the individual bodily inviolability of women and seek to shape those women according to their own beliefs, and for this purpose apply punishments that include death. We have grown so accustomed to the requirement of the headscarf that we have lost perspective of how truly bizarre it is. To view the absurdity of this situation objectively, one need only imagine a government that killed men because they violated a hypothetical injunction that “men must always wear blue socks.”

As a woman who was born and lived for 27 years in a Muslim-majority country I can say this with certainty: The crushing majority of women in those countries who wear the headscarf do not do so willingly. Girls in those countries are forced, either by their families or by society, to wear the headscarf. After all this pressure, most women who wear the headscarf say that they do so “because I want to.” I have never seen a single woman who wore the headscarf without psychological pressure, physical violence, or both from their own parents, other family members, or other adults. In such families, the lightest form of pressure is, as the girl is growing up, to speak as though it is assumed, it is a given, that in the future the girl will wear the headscarf, and to convey the message often that if she does not do so, she will not have her family’s approval or love. The heaviest forms of pressure include direct insult, physical violence, and not allowing the girl to leave the house.

Unfortunately, I was born as the youngest girl in a family in which wearing the headscarf was viewed as an absolute and unquestionable requirement. My mother and my five sisters all started wearing the headscarf when they were children. As I was growing up, I saw from the closest proximity the pressure on my sisters from our family and from society. When the time came the same pressure was put on me. From my childhood, my family spoke as though it was a certainty, taken for granted, that I would wear the headscarf like my sisters do, and implied that if I did not, my family would not accept me. When they saw that I was openly resisting this pressure, they started forcing me to go to courses to study the Quran.

When I was in my early teens, our neighbors and relatives added to this pressure. They said that the ordinary blue jeans and t-shirts that I wore were not suitable for “a moral girl,” that my arms down to my wrists should not be visible, that my jeans showed the shape of my body. They made thinly veiled insults, asked often when I was going to wear the headscarf, and gave endless speeches about how “a moral woman must wear the headscarf.”

In high school, the molestation and harassment on the street – either verbal or physical, mostly in the form of nonconsensual touching in crowded settings – was added to all of this. The perpetrators were men, most of whom were older than 40, who thought that because you did not wear a headscarf, you were an immoral woman open to such things, and so they could touch you. The existence of this perception is a certainty: I know it because I have heard men say it themselves, and because from discussions with the women from the country of my birth that I know, there is a difference in the frequency with which women who wear and do not wear the headscarf experience this molestation and harassment. In fact, in my country there is an expression that everyone knows and that some are shameless enough to say out loud: “A woman without a headscarf is like a house without curtains: either for sale or for rent.” More evidence of this way of thinking can be found in how, in my mother tongue, the shortest way to describe a woman who wears the headscarf is to say that she is “closed,” and the shortest way to describe a woman who does not wear the headscarf is to say that she is “open.” These words are the ordinary and most frequently used descriptive words for this situation: One would say “that woman is open” to say simply that she does not wear the headscarf. However, the secondary implications of promiscuity suggested in these two words sound the same in my mother tongue as they do in English.

When I went to university, my boyfriend at the time, with whom we were discussing marriage, came to me one day and said: “After we get married I want you to wear the headscarf. My family would not want a bride who does not wear the headscarf.” At the time, I told him: “Up until now, I have not worn the headscarf, despite believing that God wants me to do so, so I am definitely not going to wear it just because you or anybody else wants me to. If one day I decide to wear it, it will be completely because God wants it, not because people do.” I broke up with him in the same conversation, and to this day this remains one of the best things I ever did for myself in my life.

The great majority of women in my country live one by one through the stages and experiences I have described. Some of them resist each of these stages. Unfortunately, the majority of them, at one of these stages or another, cannot resist anymore, and put on the headscarf. Some start wearing it immediately, to please their family. Others do so later, to avoid harassment or the gossip of neighbors and relatives. Still others hold out until they finally give in to please a potential husband. But when asked, nearly all of them will say that they wear the headscarf “because I want to.”

They say this because it is spiritually very painful to think that you have done something out of submission to these people, who think that they have the right to speak authoritatively and make decisions about your body and your personality, which are the two most valuable things that you can ever have. It is much easier to believe you have done that act because you wanted to. I completely respect the choices of women who truly wear the headscarf because they want to. I also understand the helplessness experienced by women who wear the headscarf as a result of pressure, and I do not blame them. For me these women are the victims of male-dominated Muslim societies. My only expectation from them is that they do not pressure their daughters and other women in the same way. They should not continue this chain of tyranny against women, and should instead have it end with them. Others must acknowledge that while a minority of Muslim women wear the headscarf truly because they choose to do so, without pressure from family or society, the majority of women who wear the headscarf do so because they are forced to, whether by their family, by society, or by a government that purports to represent them.

This is the situation in the country of my birth, which is not governed by shari’a, so I can imagine the physical and psychological pressure applied to the women of Iran, which for more than 40 years has been governed by shari’a and whose government has forced women to wear the headscarf. That in this era, those who speak authoritatively in government and society still intervene in the individual bodily inviolability of women, and of their freedom of thought and belief, to attack their rights with pressure and violence, is a shame not only on the countries in which this is the case, but on all humanity. Contrary to what many Westerners may think, these attacks are not a matter of cultural choice; they are simply crimes. A person’s religious belief is binding only on themselves. Muslim societies need to understand that the path to paradise does not pass through tyrannizing women and children.

AUTHOR

Anonymous*

EDITORS NOTE: This MEMRI column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

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Democrats Won’t Talk About Biden’s ‘Accomplishments’—So We Will

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It seems that Democrats don’t want to discuss what they, and the Biden administration, have accomplished since January 20th, 2021.

If Democrats don’t want to talk about it, we will.

Here’s our list of Biden, the Democrat Party and the Biden administrations accomplishments:

  1. Canceled the Key Stone XL pipeline via Executive order on the first day in office.
  2. Took millions of barrels of oil out of the U.S. strategic reserves in order to keep gas prices below $4-$6 a gallon before the 2022 midterm elections.
  3. Abandoned Afghanistan and leaving behind U.S. citizens, a trillion dollars worth of military equipment, missiles and ammunition.
  4. Abandoning the women in Iran who are protesting, being raped by the Iranian police and dying in the streets of Tehran for their individual freedom to choose.
  5. Pressured Saudi Arabia and OPEC to not cut oil production before the 2022 midterm elections. An impeachable quid pro quo offense.
  6. Stopped drilling for oil and natural gas on public lands.
  7. Biden administration funded drag performances in Ecuador, with the State Department awarding more than $20,000 to an Ecuadorian cultural center to host “drag theater performances” in the name of “diversity and inclusion.”
  8. Biden sending U.S. military to open border to run chores for illegal aliens, clean refrigerators, shred paper and answer phones.
  9. Passed the Green New Deal and Inflation Reduction Act which caused even more inflation and increased the costs of food, fuel, products and services nationwide.
  10. Implemented mask mandates to fight Covid, when it has been proven that masks don’t stop the spread of the virus.
  11. Supported the closing of schools during the pandemic.
  12. Formed the J6 Select Committee to attack, torture, incarcerate and denigrate their political opponents.
  13. Used Executive Orders and fund the grooming and gender transition surgery of under-aged children.
  14. Mandated that every American support their trifecta of myths diversity, inclusion and equity (DIE) agenda, including companies, religious organizations, public schools and individuals.
  15. Biden’s CDC panel adds COVID shot to kids’ routine vaccine schedule.
  16. Want abortion up to the moment of birth. Fund abortions using taxpayer dollars both domestically and overseas.
  17. Want to eliminate all vehicles (cars, trucks, trains, aircraft) from using fossil fuels.
  18. Support Black Lives Matter and defunding the police.
  19. Defunding the police has led to government-tolerated crime which is driving out commerce in Philadelphia and other cities.
  20. Designating those parents who question what their children are taught in public schools as “domestic terrorists.”
  21. Idolize criminals like George Floyd.
  22. Arrest pro-life pastors and pro-life advocates.
  23. Raid the homes of innocent individuals in the dead of the night using armed FBI agents.
  24. Increase the cost of living for every American.
  25. Opened America’s borders allowing over 2,000,ooo illegal aliens, terrorists, drug cartel members and even prisoners into our nation.
  26. Promote the grooming of our children to have underaged sex with perverts, pedophiles and pederasts in the name of diversity.
  27. Illegally canceled student debt via Executive Order.
  28. Turned a bull market into a bear market in under 2 years.
  29. Created the greatest inflation in 40 years.
  30. Defunding the police has caused crime to skyrocket in cities like: Chicago, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, and Washington, D.C.
  31. Children in public schools competency in mathematics, reading and writing has fallen dramatically, as much as 60% in some states.
  32. Lied and then denied on issues like slowing or stopping oil production.
  33. Use pejoratives like homophobic, racist, white supremacist, Islamophobic, traitor to silence their political opposition.
  34. Spying on American patriots via the FBI and social media.
  35. Divided America and Americans rather than unite America and Americans.

To understand how out of control the Biden administration is watch this,

The Bottom Line

Hershel Walker did find one thing that Biden is very, very good at. Watch Hershel’s reply to one good thing about Biden.

We agree. Biden is good at eating ice cream. He’s also very, very good at groping underaged girls and boys. He’s also forgetful, incoherent and seemingly lost on occasion.

Biden wants to turn America into Los Angles, California. Watch this to understand what this means.

Get it? Got it? Good!

©Dr. Rich Swier. All rights reserved.

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A National Study of Catholic Priests

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Stephen P. White on a new study of how the abuse crisis, and the American Church’s response to it, affected the relationship and trust between priests and their bishops.

The crisis of clerical sexual abuse, which wracked the Church in the United States in recent years, deeply eroded confidence in the credibility of our bishops. There has been no shortage of painful reminders of the tremendous deficit of trust that has resulted from the Church’s failure to adequately address the scourge of clerical sexual abuse, particularly when it comes to episcopal accountability.

No one ought to be satisfied with the record of the Church in this country, still less complacent about the progress that has been made. But neither should anyone forget the Church’s real accomplishments, in no small part because of the efforts of our bishops.

In the twenty years since the passage of the Dallas Charter, the Church in the United States has become a global leader in protecting the young and holding abusers accountable. The safeguarding measures, reporting procedures, and review boards established under the Charter have become the standard model for anti-abuse and accountability policies around the world. The United States remains one of the only parts of the global Church with a strict policy of zero tolerance for confirmed abusers.

If there is one universally acknowledged flaw in the Dallas Charter, it’s that it failed to hold bishops accountable for their own abuse or for negligence and mishandling of abuse by those under their authority. Rome has attempted to address those shortcomings in episcopal accountability with (to put it charitably) mixed results.

But the Dallas Charter, for all the good it has accomplished, also had a downside.

For decades, there have been warning signs – anecdotal, but coming from both priests and bishops – that the policies put in place in response to the abuse crisis had caused a shift in the relationship between priests and their bishops. What had once been akin to a familial relationship had been de-personalized. Priests were worried that bishops saw them as liabilities to be managed rather than as brothers of sons. Bishops were worried that priests were less and less likely to come to them with serious personal problems or failings.

For the better part of three years, The Catholic Project (of which I am the executive director) and a team of sociologists led by Brandon Vaidyanathan (our Chair of Sociology here at Catholic University) has been working on a study to address this question: How has the abuse crisis, and the Church’s response to that crisis, affected the relationship and trust between priests and their bishops?

This week, we published the initial results of that study – the largest survey of American Catholic priests in more than fifty years.

What we learned from the study is this: American priests are thriving. They are “flourishing” in their vocations and deeply fulfilled in their ministry. Priests don’t have particularly high confidence in their bishops (though this varies greatly from diocese to diocese) and very little confidence in “the bishops” as a whole. Priests see their bishops very differently than bishops see themselves, more as administrators than fathers.

There is so much more; I won’t hazard a full summation of an already summary report. But you can read the report in its entirety on The Catholic Project website by clicking here.

There are three particular points from our study, however, that I do want to highlight.

First: 82 percent of priests regularly fear being falsely accused of abuse. Seeing that number in print is striking. Priests know that even a single, anonymous allegation can result in suspension from ministry. Priests know that even a false allegation, once made, can be very difficult to disprove definitively. And priests know that, even if such an allegation is dismissed as “not credible” and they returned to ministry, they may carry the stigma of that allegation forever. Add to this a widespread conviction among priests that bishops see the accused more as liabilities than as men who are innocent until proven guilty, and one can easily imagine how living with such fear – constantly, for decades – would take a toll.

Second: Close to 70 percent of priests support a zero-tolerance policy for abusers as set forth in the Dallas Charter, though 40 percent think it is too harsh. Our interviews added some flesh to these bones. Priests overwhelmingly, even unanimously, support the permanent removal from ministry of priests proven to have sexually abused a minor. There are no qualms among priests about zero-tolerance when it comes to such abuse. They are less sure that zero-tolerance is an appropriate policy for other sorts of impropriety, especially given a lack of clarity about what constitutes a “vulnerable adult.”

Third: Priests in religious orders show far less anxiety about what would happen after a false allegation. Religious communities are bound to take care of their own, even if a member of the community is accused of something as heinous as abusing a minor. They’ll have a roof over their head, food, and the community will provide defense counsel. This is not necessarily the case for diocesan priests.

Religious priests, especially among younger cohorts, also show lower signs of burnout than diocesan priests. Finding ways to combat isolation and strengthen community ties among diocesan priests ought to be priorities.

Our priests understand and support the reforms of the Dallas Charter, including zero-tolerance. Our priests, especially diocesan priests, are also acutely aware of just how weak the due-process protections of the Charter can be in practice. This leaves our priests feeling vulnerable, isolated, and distrustful of their bishops.

Yet through all of this, no doubt owing to grace, our priests remain deeply in love with their vocation and fulfilled in their ministry. They’re flourishing. That is no small encouragement.

The bishops are currently engaged in the process of revising the Dallas Charter, which they do every few years. My hope is that this survey will encourage them in that work – both as a reminder of the importance of the Charter, and as a spur to find ways to strengthen due-process protections for priests, even while continuing to improve protections for the vulnerable and accountability for the guilty.

You may also enjoy:

Fr. Gerald E. Murray’s Reflections n the New Sex-Abuse Norms

Russell Shaw’s The Crisis of Ecclesial Communion

AUTHOR

Stephen P. White

Stephen P. White is executive director of The Catholic Project at The Catholic University of America and a fellow in Catholic Studies at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

EDITORS NOTE: This Catholic Thing column is republished with permission. © 2022 The Catholic Thing. All rights reserved. For reprint rights, write to: info@frinstitute.org. The Catholic Thing is a forum for intelligent Catholic commentary. Opinions expressed by writers are solely their own.

ZELDIN SPIKES: NY Race Now A Toss-Up In Blue NY State As Voters Put Crime, Inflation As Top Issues in Midterm Election

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And this comes from a Left leaning poll. Lee Zeldin can win. The rational citizens of the state of New York must come out in full force and vote for Lee Zeldin. Vote the Left out of office. Save the state of New York. #Zeldin2022!

NY voters put crime ahead of inflation in midterm election, boosting Zeldin to within 4 points of Hochul

Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin, who is challenging incumbent New York Gov. Kathy Hochul in the gubernatorial election, has made crime a signature issue

By Fox News, Oct 18, 2022

The issue of crime is topping inflation among Republicans, Democrats and independents in New York, and Republican Lee Zeldin has surged to within four points of his opponent, Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday.

A Siena College poll released earlier Tuesday showed Zeldin having closed to within 11 points of Hochul.

In the Quinniqiac poll of 1,617 likely New York voters, crime topped the list of most pressing issues heading into Election Day among Republicans and independents. Democrats listed protecting democracy as their top issue, followed by crime, then inflation. The poll has a margin of error of 2.4 percentage points.

AUTHOR

Geller Report Staff

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EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Democrats Bomb On Every Key Issue In New Poll

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Democrats performed worse than Republicans on issues that were most important to voters in a Wednesday poll from Politico and Morning Consult.

On the economy, which 81% of respondents said would play a major role in their voting decision, 46% of voters trusted Republicans more while only 39% trusted Democrats more, the poll found. The survey comes amid a wave of Republican gains in midterm polling.

Another 80% of voters said inflation would play a major role in determining their vote, and 46% of respondents trusted Congressional Republicans on the issue compared to 37% who trusted Democrats more, according to the poll; 61% thought inflation is getting worse.

Crime was the third-most important issue to voters, with 64% saying it would play a major role in their vote; 45% of respondents had more trust in Republicans to handle crime compared to 38% for Democrats, the poll found.

Democrats performed best on issues of abortion access, climate change, the environment and health care, the poll found. Abortion was a major issue for 59% of respondents, and the poll didn’t survey voters on whether the remaining issues would play a major role in their vote.

Several other recent polls have brought bad news for Democrats as voters focus on inflation and the economy.

The poll surveyed 2,005 registered voters Oct. 14-16 with a 2% margin of error.

The Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.

AUTHOR

LAUREL DUGGAN

Social and culture reporter.

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Pelosi on Voters’ Concerns About Inflation, Crime: ‘I Dismiss That’

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Failed Dem Candidate Claims Biden ‘Saved Our Economy’ In Attempt To Spin Dismal Poll Numbers

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Social Security Now Allowing People To Choose Their Own Gender, No Questions Asked

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved. Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

‘Screw Parental Interference’: Inside The Online Community Encouraging Kids To Transition

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In sequestered parts of the internet — blacklisted from Google searches — parents are discussing the spread of Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD), attributing their child’s newfound gender identity to online influence.

Reddit, a popular anonymous internet forum, harbors one such online community that promotes “affirming” a child’s gender confusion with or without adequate medical or psychological examination. The community, “r/trans,” allows self-identified minors to discuss cross-dressing, surgeries, and hormone replacement treatment with transgender individuals, most of whom identify online as adults.

Chloe Cole, an 18-year-old who detransitioned after undergoing cross-sex hormones and a double mastectomy, told the Daily Caller that she likely would not have transitioned if it weren’t for social media.

“My first exposure to transgender content was [online],” Cole said. “I saw female adolescents ages 12 to 19 talking about their transition. I feel like I wouldn’t have transitioned if I wasn’t exposed to that.”

At the age of 12, Cole began socially transitioning to a boy identity and told the Daily Caller that she began browsing Reddit communities.

“I was fed a lot of medical misinformation on [Reddit],” Cole said. “I was sort of pigeonholing myself into this ideology or community.”

Users of r/trans opt for a vocabulary outside of the day-to-day vernacular of most Americans. Fourteen-year-olds use slang such as “T,” which stands for testosterone hormones, or “MtF,” which stands for male to female.

A common post on the r/trans thread is titled “Do I Pass?” which features self-described trans-identifying individuals posting photos of themselves asking for affirmation from community members on whether they pass for the opposite sex.

Other popular threads seek advice from other r/trans members. In one post, a user who identifies as a 14-year-old biological male solicited advice on how to come out as transgender now that the user is “forced to reintegrate back into society for high school.”

Another purported minor, who claims to be a middle schooler and biological female, sought advice on chest binding.

“This year I am going into a whole new school (I’m in middle school) and I’m trans [female to male], my mom won’t let me cut my hair and she won’t buy me a binder. I’ve tried the sports bra tricks, didn’t bind well, and I don’t own a beanie to do the beanie trick. I need some advice.”

Cole told the Daily Caller that she was caught in a similar online community that praised her for each step in her physical transition.

“Initially, I wasn’t really interacting with other transgender people online directly,” Cole said. “When I reached more milestones in my transition … with each milestone, as they got more and more extreme, I got more praise. Both from people who call themselves ‘allies’ and other transgender people.”

A self-described “minor,” who claims to be a 16-year-old, discussed starting testosterone soon. The biological female sought advice on how to easily procure the hormone treatment.

Click here to view Reddit r/trans screen shot

Several of the threads allegedly posted by minors included comments from older users encouraging kids to cut parents out of their lives. A self-described high school freshman, who appears to be a biological female, solicited advice on whether to get a male-styled haircut despite the student’s mother’s wishes.

“I would be surprised if the grounding lasted more than a couple weeks. 4 years of grounding for cutting your hair once is ‘I’m cutting you out of my life as soon as I turn 18’ territory,” one user responded.

Users on the board overwhelmingly supported the student, encouraging the teen to get a haircut.

“Cut it, and style it however you want in spite of that ridiculous ultimatum. Then just preemptively learn to pick a lock … and sneak out with friends,” another user suggested.

“Off with her head,” a self-described trans woman said. “In this instance, her head is your hair. Cut that stuff off and feel good about yourself. Screw parental interference. They only know so much about you.”

Other advice included cutting a portion of hair to “hide it” at home and “put it up in a bun at school.” Another user suggested “falling asleep” with a wad of chewed bubble gum to get a haircut.

The r/trans thread also applauds minors taking medical steps to transition physically. A self-described 14-year-old posted in all capitalized letters, “GUYS I DID MY FIRST [TESTOSTERONE] SHOT TODAY!” The biological female received cheers and congratulatory messages from fellow users.

One user asked what country the 14-year-old lives in. “America in California,” the user responded.

Click here to view Reddit r/trans conversation with 14-year old girl

Other purported minors posted about their discomfort dealing with gender dysphoria. A 14-year-old biological male questioned whether 6’1″ was too tall to pass as a female, and a young biological female questioned whether or not to use the men’s bathroom at school.

One thread, allegedly written by a minor, solicited advice on how to purchase female clothing when the biological male’s parents have access to their bank account.

Dr. Erica Anderson, a clinical psychologist with 30 years of experience and a transgender woman, told the Daily Caller that it’s undeniable that troubled adolescents are being influenced by social media communities.

“Many adolescents are spending a lot of time on these sites and they are influenced by them,” Anderson said. “It is influential in particular to kids who may be susceptible to others … or who are troubled and sincerely looking for answers.”

Cole described being “bombarded” with LGBT content at the age of 11, when she first obtained an Instagram account. She said she consistently saw content that downplayed femininity and motherhood in favor of content that was “super sexualized.” She credits Reddit and Instagram with promoting gender ideology.

Cole desisted from her transgender identity and said the same online communities that once love bombed her, now spew vile attacks at her character.

Cole’s experience appears common in anecdotal stories of parents with transgender teens worldwide. Dr. Lisa Litman, the scientist who coined the phrase “Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria”, found that parents began reporting a correlation between children participating in online discussion groups and young adults who experience ROGD, despite having “no histories of childhood gender identity issues.”

A quick search of the words “Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria,” shows only articles that discuss the controversy of ROGD and videos from activists on why the theory is false. Dr. Litman’s study on ROGD is not one of the primary results.

R/trans is only one of many online forums where children go to discuss their ever-changing gender identities.

Reddit did not respond to the Daily Caller’s multiple requests for comment.

AUTHOR

CHRISSY CLARK

Education reporter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

NYC City Hall Official Declares ‘No Sympathy’ For Public Sector Employees Forced Out of Jobs Due to COVID Vaccine Mandate

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*CLICK HERE TO TWEET THE VIDEO*

Project Veritas Action released a second video today exposing the staff and inner workings of New York City mayor Eric Adams.

Here are some of the highlights from today’s video:

  • Chris Baugh, Advance Team Aide, NYC Mayor Eric Adams: “I have no sympathy for them. They made a choice [not to get vaccinated]. They chose not to do a very harmless thing that protects the rest of society. F**k ‘em. 1,400 people voluntarily quit their jobs rather than get vaccinated. They don’t deserve their jobs back. We have thousands and thousands of vacancies in city government right now. I’m worried about filling all of those jobs more than I’m worried about giving people who volunteered to leave their job back.”
  • Baugh: “I don’t give a sh*t. They are like, ‘This is unfair.’ F**king deal with it. We’re allowed to set the terms of employment. Period.”
  • Baugh: “I have no sympathy for those people. That was the rule. You had a very cushy government job…Again, no one was required to get vaccinated. You just had to get vaccinated if you had a job. So, you could have moved to Florida.”
  • NYC Mayor’s Press Secretary Fabien Levy RESPONDS: “Despite how many ‘parts’ Project Veritas releases, the fact remains that this is an enterprise run by a convicted criminal and one that admitted to lying in an effort to simply have a conversation.”

You can watch the video HERE.

The city official went on to dismiss concerns expressed by NYPD officers.

“The cops are mad at us though because we rolled back the private sector mandate, but we’re not rolling back the public sector mandate…COVID is over is the short answer. Why are we still doing it [vaccine mandate] for the public sector? I don’t know. We will probably stop that in a few months,” Baugh said.

“Being a cop is like the cushiest gig in the city. Like, you might get shot, but otherwise it’s very good,” he said.

“I’ve just always joked — New York is sort of like Hogwarts. Like, it’s a lot of fun, great opportunities, and people die.”

*CLICK HERE TO TWEET THE VIDEO*

EDITORS NOTE: This Project Veritas exposé is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Pelosi on Voters’ Concerns About Inflation, Crime: ‘I Dismiss That’

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Tuesday on MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) completely rejected a poll showing that Americans’ top concerns going into the November midterm elections are inflation and crime.

Host propagandist Andrea Mitchell began, “Let’s talk about rising inflation concerns along with crime, giving momentum, new momentum to Republicans after the Democrats were closing the gap, the historic gap. After the Supreme Court ruling, there was huge outrage. That has seemed to subside, at least among overriding concerns. Despite all the legislative accomplishments, and I want to cite them, I want to say it’s been an extraordinary session. You and the president have done so much in terms of domestic concerns, the economy. So why do you think the president hasn’t gotten it through to the voters?”

Pelosi replied, “Well, first of all, let me say that I think that much of what you’ve said I don’t agree with, that is to say, the New York Times poll, I think is an outlier poll, you cite one poll, but all the other polls —”

Mitchell interjected, “It’s also the RealClearPolitics average is showing similar issues.”

Pelosi said, “No, but that was one that brought down the average, and it was an outlier. It wasn’t even that big a sample. So I dismiss that. I have been since Congress adjourned, I’ve been in an average of five states a week. And I can tell you that women’s concerns about their freedom are very, very much still very significant in terms of how they will vote.”

It’s just like a Democrat to tell the voters what their concerns are.

Nancy Pelosi

141 Known Connections

Video of Pelosi Saying on January 6, 2021, That She Would Like to Physically “Punch … Out” President Trump & Go to Jail As a Consequence

On October 13, 2022, CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 aired never-before-seen video footage that had been filmed by Nancy Pelosi’s daughter Alexandra during the breach of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. in that footage, the House Speaker stated that if President Trump were to come to the Capitol that day, she would physically assault him and would be glad to serve time in jail as a consequence. (During his speech earlier that day at the Ellipse, Trump had told a large crowd of his supporters: “And after this, we’re going walk down, and I’ll be there with you. We’re going walk down to the Capitol.”) A staff member told Pelosi, “The Secret Service said they have dissuaded him from coming to Capitol Hill. They told him they don’t have the resources to protect him here. So at the moment, he is not coming, but that could change.” An enraged Pelosi responded: “I hope he comes. I want to punch him out…. I’ve been waiting for this, for trespassing on the Capitol grounds. I want to punch him out, and I’m going to go to jail, and I’m going to be happy.” Pelosi also stated: “Tell him [Trump] if he comes here, we’re going to the White House.”

To learn more about Nancy Pelosi, click here.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Discover the Networks column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Is President Donald J. Trump an Antisemite? Absolutely not!

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In response to President Trump’s recent comments on Truth Social, JEXIT strongly stands with President Trump! JEXIT believes American Jews should no longer blindly vote for the Democrat party, a Party that has abandoned Israel.

Today, the Democrat party, no longer the Party of JFK, is so left-leaning that issues deemed bi-partisan just ten years ago are labeled as bigoted, racist, homophobic or some other irrational criticism.

From actively attempting to defund Israel’s Iron Dome, to perpetual victimhood, gender pronoun obsession, abortion until birth, and every other progressive platform across the spectrum, the intersectional coalition of leftist extremism has made Democrats a much different party than it was twenty years ago, and unrecognizable to what it was fifty or sixty years ago. Ironically, the Democrat Party remains the racist party it has always been from the beginning.

Many older Jews vote for socialist/leftist policies because of a historic reliance on the provision of the “state,” and the centuries of abuses Jews experienced at the hands of European Christianity. Sadly, most socialist/progressive American Jews do not realize that now, conservative Christians worldwide are principled allies of Jewish people! Clearly, the radical, Marxist, intellectual elites may tickle the ears of Jewish people, but the left are not our friends.

It is very important to note that ideologically, the Torah is much more in line with conservative values than Marxist principles.

Siggy Flicker, JEXIT’s National Spokeswoman, is an Israeli born, legal US immigrant who has been speaking about President Trump’s love for Israel since 2016. Siggy sums up the JEXIT position when she says, “THANK YOU President Trump for speaking the truth!”

President Trump is right: It’s time for the American Jewish community to wake up, embrace their faith a bit more, and in doing so, reject the false perspectives touted by the modern American left and join the millions of Jews who are coming to realize that conservative values are indeed Jewish values!

For several years, JEXIT has been working with many conservative Christian organizations and leaders. Evangelical Protestant and conservative Catholic Christians strongly support President Trump for many reasons but fundamentally, because of his historic and non-compromising support for Israel, America’s number one, national security partner!

On November 1st of this year, #JEXIT along with The United West will be presenting our American Defender of Zion Award, in honor of President Donald J. Trump, for being the greatest friend and ally to Jews and Israel that ever served our nation in the White House!

©The United West & JEXIT. All rights reserved.

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Christian Considerations and the Death Penalty

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There is a debate today over capital punishment. And that debate is taking place right now in Florida, particularly after the Parkland school shooter received a sentence of life, not death.

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who in my book has done a fantastic job keeping the Sunshine Street free, called for the death penalty in this case.

DeSantis has been seeking a change in Florida’s death penalty law, which would apply to Nicholas Cruz who took the lives of 17 students and others at his former high school in 2018 in what could be called the second “St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.”

Javier Manjarres of “The Floridian” notes: “Governor Ron DeSantis has signaled that the Republican-led state legislature could address the 2017 death penalty law that requires a unanimous jury to find that a criminal defendant should be put to death…DeSantis called the recent jury decision to recommend Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz a life sentence instead of death, a ‘miscarriage of justice….[t]hat did not honor the victims and the families and all that they went through. I think we’ll be able to do something legislatively.’” [emphasis added]

Is the death penalty just a vestige from previous barbaric ages, as some maintain? The Constitution forbids “cruel and unusual punishment” in the Eighth Amendment (which in its original meaning never included capital punishment, which was widely considered necessary and appropriate at the time), while allowing for the death penalty (in the discussion on capital crimes) in the Fifth Amendment. Does the Bible condemn or forbid capital punishment?

Dr. D. James Kennedy, my longtime pastor, with whom I had the privilege to co-write 19 books, once said: “I believe a careful study of Scripture would clearly teach us that a faithful Christian must be involved in the political and social issues of his time….God commands men to form civil governments to stem the growth of violence through administering the death penalty (Genesis 9:6). From this flows all other powers and functions of government.”

Genesis 9:6 states: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.” In the New Testament, in Romans 13, the Apostle Paul lays down the principle that the state has the legitimate authority to “bear the sword” if done in a just way: “For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.”

Dr. Kennedy has been criticized for being pro-life in opposition to abortion, while at the same time favoring the death penalty.  He said his critics are the inconsistent ones: “They are willing to kill the innocent but they are not willing to kill the guilty. That is inconsistency.”

One of the books Dr. Kennedy and I wrote was called, How Would Jesus Vote? (2008). It provided a thoughtful Christian view of the issues commonly on the ballot, including the death penalty.

As we noted, when the Bible says, “Thou shalt not kill,” the more accurate translation from the Hebrew is “Thou shalt do no murder.” Meanwhile, God commands punishment of those who deliberately and wantonly take human life, if properly convicted, on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

Today, there is a philosophy of crime-and-no-punishment which treats criminals as if they are patients who need treatment rather than wrongdoers who need punishment. In this view, criminals hey are ill and do what they do because they can’t help themselves.

But as we note in our book, C. S. Lewis, the great British writer, criticized this approach to criminality: “We demand of a deterrent not whether it is just, but whether it succeeds…when we only consider what will cure him…we have tacitly removed him from the sphere of justice altogether; instead of a person…we now have…a ‘case’ to be treated in a clinic.”

To paraphrase Lewis, “When we make the issue medical rather than criminal, justice gets lost, and we treat criminals, like cases to be cured.”

But this medical approach actually depersonalizes the criminal. In this view, he has no free will of his own and is only being compelled by the mechanics of his brain. (Remember the Twinkie Defense? My client wasn’t guilty—eating too many Twinkies made him do it.)

In his 12/6/06 WND article, “Another Argument for Capital Punishment,” columnist Dennis Prager noted: “It is a cosmic injustice to allow a murderer to keep his life.”

He adds, “Killing murderers is society’s only way to teach how terrible murder is. …..A society that kills murderers is saying that murder is more heinous a crime than a society that keeps all its murderers alive.”

In short, if implemented justly and with impartiality, capital punishment sends a statement to society—a statement that human life does have value—so much so that we are willing to exact the ultimate penalty for heinously or callously destroying it

©Jerry Newcombe, D.Min. All rights reserved.

Watch as Campaigners Fail to Prevent Morano and Monckton from Talking Climate in London, England

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CFACT’s Marc Morano joined Lord Christopher Monckton to debunk global warming propaganda at the Global Investment in Sustainable Development conference in London.

Climate campaigners tried hard to stop them from speaking, but failed.

The conference, billed as a “Green Davos,” is an opportunity for investors to cash in on the UN’s upcoming COP27 climate conference in Egypt.

The forum took place despite U.K. Climate Minister Graham Stuart withdrawing his keynote speech, and Dr. Aaron Thierry (pictured above with his hand glued to a building in protest of carbon) pulling out of a debate.

Watch Morano and Monckton discuss the hit they made at the conference on the Mark Steyn show on GB News.  Attendees actually voted to extend Morano and Monckton’s presentation.  Another session voluntarily canceled to make time for them!

Morano and Monckton told Mark Steyn that business leaders continually came up to them at the conference and told them that they privately absolutely agree with them.  They keep up the climate alarm pretense for political, social and financial reasons.  CFACT has experienced this for years.

Global warming propaganda never holds up when confronted in an honest forum.  That is why the Left never ceases working to stifle debate and suppress facts that correct the record on climate.

Watch Morano and Monckton:

Business leaders are well aware that the Left is lying on climate.

As Lord Monckton said, “the cracks are starting to show.”

EDITORS NOTE: This CFACT column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.