2022 Now The Worst Year in the History of U.S. Stock Market

Stock futures are falling. On Friday, U.S. stocks ended in the red, with the Dow Industrials closing down 1.6% and all major indexes posting weekly losses.

On Monday, the British pound hit its lowest-ever level against the U.S. dollar and was sharply lower against the euro. Yields on benchmark U.K. bonds have jumped to fresh multiyear highs.

AUTHOR

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

BLASPHEMY: Hillary Clinton, Democrats Equate Republicans to Nazis, Trump To Hitler

This shrieking harpie wants more Republicans attacked. Apparently her “basket of deplorables” slur was too soft. Ironically, this is exactly what the Nazis did to the Jews.

Hillary Clinton has a history at name calling republicans. Before the 2016 election, she called the republican base “deplorables.” Fox News: Trump hosted a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, last Saturday in support of US Senate candidate JD Vance, who is facing Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan to succeed retiring Republican Sen. Rob Portman. Some Trump supporters in attendance raised one index finger in the air at the end of the former president’s speech. Taylor Budowich, a spokesman for Trump, accused Clinton of “using some of the most disgusting smears imaginable” (Fox News). Jon Levine: Hillary Clinton likens Trump supporters to Nazis during remarks at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin “What’s happened to these people” (Twitter)? Daily Wire: Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin claimed that Trump supporters pointing in the air “bore an uncanny resemblance to the infamous Nazi salute.” Other left-wingers, including feminist author Joyce Carol Oates, Harvard professor emeritus Laurence Tribe, retired Army General and MSNBC contributor Barry McCaffrey, and the left-wing legal organization Citizens for Ethics all compared the rally attendees to Nazi supporters on Twitter (Daily Wire).

Daily Wire: Hillary Clinton likened Trump supporters to Nazis because they pointed in the air during a rally.

While speaking at the Texas Tribune festival in Austin, Texas, on Friday, the former first lady, secretary of state, and failed 2016 presidential candidate recounted that when she was a student, she wondered why people in the 1930s and 40s were so enthralled with Adolf Hitler. Clinton implied that a similar phenomenon was going on with Trump supporters because, like at Hitler’s rallies, people at Trump rallies raised their arms while he was speaking.

“I remember as a young student, you know, trying to figure out, how people get basically drawn in by Hitler,” Clinton said. “How did that happen? I’d watch newsreels and I’d see this guy standing up there ranting and raving, and people shouting and raising their arms. I thought, ‘What’s happened to these people?’”

“You saw the rally in Ohio the other night,” Clinton continued. “Trump is there ranting and raving for more than an hour, and you have these rows of young men with their arms raised. I thought, ‘What is going on?’ So there is a real pressure, and I think it is fair to say we’re in a struggle between democracy and autocracy.”

Clinton was not the only left-wing figure to compare Trump supporters to Nazis after the rally. Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin claimed that Trump supporters pointing in the air “bore an uncanny resemblance to the infamous Nazi salute.” Other left-wingers, including feminist author Joyce Carol Oates, Harvard professor emeritus Laurence Tribe, retired Army General and MSNBC contributor Barry McCaffrey, and the left-wing legal organization Citizens for Ethics all compared the rally attendees to Nazi supporters on Twitter.

“As usual, the media is working hand in hand with the Democrats weeks before an election,” Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich said in a statement to the New York Post. “It seems like perpetual-failed-candidate Hillary Clinton’s basket of deplorables has run stale, not unlike herself. It’s pathetic, it’s divisive, and it is further cementing her legacy of cringe.”

Clinton infamously labeled Trump supporters “deplorables” during the 2016 election. “You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the ‘basket of deplorables,’” Clinton said at the time. “The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic — you name it.”

Clinton’s rhetoric is also similar to President Joe Biden’s recent line of attack against so-called “MAGA Republicans.”

At a closed-door event with supporters in Rockville, Maryland, in August, Biden said that the ideology of Trump and his supporters borders on fascism. “What we’re seeing now is either the beginning or the death knell of extreme MAGA philosophy,” Biden said. “It’s not just Trump, it’s the entire philosophy that underpins the — I’m going to say something, it’s like semi-fascism.”

AUTHOR

 

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

Records Revealed on Paul Pelosi Arrest

Washington, D.C. – Judicial Watch announced today that it received records from the California Highway Patrol (CHP) Public Records Unit that include 44 photos and five hours of audio/video footage depicting the misconduct and arrest of Paul Pelosi, husband to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. The material shows Mr. Pelosi invoked his wife’s name and shared his police charity membership during the arrest.

Judicial Watch obtained the records as a result of a June 14, 2022, Public Records Act request for information regarding Pelosi’s May 28, 2022, arrest in Napa, CA, for suspected alcohol intoxication while driving.

Video footage from Pelosi’s arrest depicts his interaction with the CHP officers. He first makes reference to himself as a “high profile person,” to which an officer responds, “right. I understand who you are. And I’m not out here to do anything to draw any negative attention to you. If you’ve being honest with me, there’s really nothing you should be worried about.”

Pelosi next invokes his wife’s name, telling the officers that his “wife, Nancy, is back on the East Coast.”

In response to Pelosi’s invocation, an officer says, “I’ll discuss with my supervisor – what he’s willing to do – just because we know you’re a high-profile person and I’ll consult with him what he wants to do at that point.”

Next, Pelosi insists that he should be able to call an Uber to pick him up but the officers explain that releasing a DUI suspect to an Uber driver is against county policy. But Pelosi insists that he will “give [the Uber driver] a tip or whatever the hell he needs.”

Pelosi continues to insist that an Uber driver pick him up but an officer responds, “Sir, we’ve done everything we can to work with you. Now we’re just dragging it out.” Pelosi replies, “May I speak with your captain please?” to which the officer says, “No, he already hung up. We’re going around in circles here.”

When asked for his driver’s license, Pelosi hands the police officer his donor card from the “11-99 Foundation,” a California Highway Patrol benevolent charity, along with his California driver’s license. Photos of Pelosi’s Porsche from the crash scene also show that his license plate bears the 11-99 Foundation’s logo.

The officer who arrested Paul Pelosi writes the following in his post-arrest supplemental report:

Throughout my conversation with [Pelosi], I observed the following objective signs and symptoms of alcohol intoxication: both of his eyes were red/watery, his speech was slurred, he had a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from his person, and he failed to provide logical answers to multiple questions I asked.

A May 29, 2022, email titled “Newsworthy Arrest” from Captain John Blencowe to Napa County District Attorney Allison Haley explains that the CHP officers “attempted to cite and release [Pelosi], but he didn’t want anyone else to be aware of his arrest.”

“This material shows Paul Pelosi tried to name drop Nancy Pelosi’s name during his arrest,” stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.”

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

New Documents Reveal COVID-19 Vaccine Studies Used by HHS were Conducted in China

Washington, D.C. – Judicial Watch announced today that it received 115 pages of records from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) revealing previously redacted locations of COVID-19 vaccine testing facilities in Shanghai, China. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had claimed the name and location of the testing facilities were protected by the confidential commercial information exemption of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

The records were obtained through a September 2021 FOIA lawsuit filed after the FDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease failed to respond to a June 7, 2021, FOIA request for all biodistribution studies and data for the COVID-19 vaccines (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (No. 1:21-cv-02418)).

The newly unredacted documents reveal the following Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine studies’ locations:

  • document with the filename, “ s_r_IND 19736 0 105 2.6.5 pharmkintabulated-summary” identifies all in vitro metabolic stability studies of ALC-0315 and ALC-0159 (synthetic lipids in the vaccines) were conducted at Medicilon Preclinical Research LLC, a testing facility located in Shanghai, China. Studies within this record indicate work was done in August 2020.
  • document with the filename, “s_r_IND 19736-0-253 Section 2.6.5 pharmkintabulated-summary” identifies that all in vitro metabolic stability studies of ALC-0315 and ALC-0159 were conducted at Medicilon Preclinical Research LLC, a testing facility located in Shanghai, China. Studies within this record indicate work was done in August 2020.

Additionally, Study 18350 was conducted at a Charles River testing facility in Tranent, UK

  • document with the filename, “s_pharmkin-tabulated-summary.pdf” notes that all in vitro metabolic stability studies of ALC-0315 and ALC-0159 were conducted at Medicilon Preclinical Research LLC, a testing facility located in “Shanghai, China.” Studies within this record indicate work was done in August 2020.

The document adds that Study 18350 was conducted at a Charles River testing facility in Tranent, UK.

  • document titled “FINAL REPORT” with the filename, “s_r_185350.pdf” and the logo, “Charles River” lists the TESTING FACILITY as “Charles River Laboratories Edinburgh Ltd. Elphinstone Research Centre Tranent, East Lothian EH33 2NE, UK” Studies within this record indicate the work was conducted in July 2020.

“The Biden administration’s stonewalling and shell games about the COVID vaccines further undermine public confidence in these controversial drugs,” stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Americans are now going to want to know why did the Biden operation try to hide COVID vaccine ties to China!”

This is part of Judicial Watch’s ongoing investigation into the US Government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In July 2022, National Institutes of Health (NIH) records revealed an FBI “inquiry” into the NIH’s controversial bat coronavirus grant tied to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The records also show National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) officials were concerned about “gain-of-function” research in China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology in 2016. The Fauci agency was also concerned about EcoHealth Alliance’s lack of compliance with reporting rules and use of gain-of-function research in the NIH-funded research involving bat coronaviruses in Wuhan, China.

Previous disclosures from this lawsuit include:

  • HHS records revealed that from 2014 to 2019, $826,277 was given to the Wuhan Institute of Virology for bat coronavirus research by the NIAID.
  • NIAID records showed that it gave nine China-related grants to EcoHealth Alliance to research coronavirus emergence in bats and was the NIH’s top issuer of grants to the Wuhan lab itself. The records also included an email from the vice director of the Wuhan Lab asking an NIH official for help finding disinfectants for decontamination of airtight suits and indoor surfaces.
  • HHS records included an “urgent for Dr. Fauci ” email chain, citing ties between the Wuhan lab and the taxpayer-funded EcoHealth Alliance. The government emails also reported that the foundation of U.S. billionaire Bill Gates worked closely with the Chinese government to pave the way for Chinese-produced medications to be sold outside China and help “raise China’s voice of governance by placing representatives from China on important international counsels as high level commitment from China.”
  • HHS records included a grant application for research involving the coronavirus that appears to describe “gain-of-function” research involving RNA extractions from bats, experiments on viruses, attempts to develop a chimeric virus and efforts to genetically manipulate the full-length bat SARSr-CoV WIV1 strain molecular clone.
  • HHS records showed the State Department and NIAID knew immediately in January 2020 that China was withholding COVID data, which was hindering risk assessment and response by public health officials.

Through FOIA, Judicial Watch has uncovered a substantial amount of information about other important COVID-19 issues:

  • May 2022: University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) records show the former director of the Galveston National Laboratory at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), Dr. James W. Le Duc warned Chinese researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology of potential investigations into the COVID issue by Congress.
  • May 2022: HHS records regarding biodistribution studies and related data for the COVID-19 vaccines show a key component of the vaccines developed by Pfizer/BioNTech, lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), were found outside the injection site, mainly the liver, adrenal glands, spleen and ovaries of test animals, eight to 48 hours after injection.
  • April 2022: Records from the Federal Select Agent Program (FSAP) reveal safety lapses and violations at U.S. biosafety laboratories that conduct research on dangerous agents and toxins.
  • March 2022: HHS records include emails between National Institutes of Health (NIH) then-Director Francis Collins and Anthony Fauci, the director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), about hydroxychloroquine and COVID-19.
  • March 2021: HHS records show that NIH officials tailored confidentiality forms to China’s terms and that the World Health Organization (WHO) conducted an unreleased, “strictly confidential” COVID-19 epidemiological analysis in January 2020.
  • October 2020: Fauci emails include his approval of a press release supportive of China’s response to the 2019 novel coronavirus.
  • An October 2021 lawsuit uncovered that over a 10-year period, Fauci and others at NIH received more link to than $350 million in secretive “royalty” payments from drug companies and other third parties.

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

PODCAST: Grover Norquist—GOP Leader McCarthy’s First Bill Next Congress Will Cut IRS Budget!

GUESTS AND TOPICS:

GROVER NORQUIST

Grover Norquist is president of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), a taxpayer advocacy group he founded in 1985 at President Reagan’s request. ATR works to limit the size and cost of government and opposes higher taxes at the federal, state, and local levels and supports tax reform that moves towards taxing consumed income one time at one rate.

TOPIC: GOP Leader McCarthy: First Bill Next Congress Will Cut IRS Budget!

RICK MANNING

Rick Manning is a Conservative Commandos and AUN-TV alumnus and the President, Americans for Limited Government. Rick also served on President Trump’s transition team. And he is also the author of the new book with Starr Parker — “Necessary Noise: How Donald Trump Inflames the Culture War and Why this is good for America!”

TOPIC: Want a Real Red Wave?

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Italy: Populist Brothers of Italy Win Sweeping Majority, Smeared by Globalists as ‘Fascist’

Italian voters have spoken: enough of globalist chaos; environmental lunacy creating a bad economy built on an unrealistic green agenda; open-door, unvetted immigration; rigid Covid mandates; and diminishing personal freedom. Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy coalition party has captured a sweeping majority in Italy. It’s being widely smeared as the most right-wing government since Mussolini. Other coalition members include Matteo Salvini’s League, noted for its opposition to an open-door immigration policy, and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia.

Here’s what Italy can immediately expect, based on the stated policies of the incoming government:

review of rules on public spending and economic governance. Meloni has stated that her focus will be on “investments to boost Italy’s chronically weak economic growth but pledged responsibility in managing its debt-laden public accounts.” And as a fiscal conservative, she added: “I am very cautious.” She has also criticized the EU for its lack of foresight in pursuit of a green economy at any cost, accusing the EU of failing “to craft policies that would ensure available, affordable energy supplies. Sky-high energy prices, she declares, “have forced businesses and families down to their knees.”

The Brothers of Italy party is being attacked as far-right,  “anti democratic” and a threat to personal freedoms, but the truth is that globalist governments have themselves proven to be the worst threats to democracy and personal freedom, while accusing the Right of everything they do. It is globalists today who are the exponents of the socialist ideology and who are willing to use violence to cancel our freedoms (especially the freedom of expression) and drive capitalist economies into the ground.

The Leftist Atlantic, in an article titled The Return of Fascism in Italy, asserted….

Meloni would also represent continuity with Italy’s darkest episode: the interwar dictatorship of Benito Mussolini.

Ridiculous. Just as Hitler was socialist (the Nazi party was the National Socialist German Workers’ Party) yet is frequently referenced as “right wing,” Mussolini was also a socialist, called “right wing” when both were violent socialist Leftists.

Meloni refused to join Mario Draghi’s national unity government in February 2021, opposing his “tough coronavirus measures, notably the so-called Green Pass requiring workers to be vaccinated.” Meloni is also tough on open-door migration. Italy has been overwhelmed by North African Muslims illegally swarming in, and Draghi was lukewarm on the issue. AFP stated that Meloni’s party’s “anti-immigration positions and the protection of Italy from ‘Islamization,’” and also quoted Meloni as saying: “there is no room for nostalgic attitudes of fascism, for hypotheses of racism and anti-Semitism.”

The Associated Press describes Meloni as having a message that blends Christianity, motherhood and patriotism, while the Qatar-owned Al-Jazeera says that her party “calls for the defence and promotion of Europe’s “Judeo-Christian” and classical roots.” Meloni has also been criticized by the Left for being anti-abortion.

A government that supports Judeo-Christian principles, rejects unvetted illegal migration and rigid COVID mandates, and is Eurosceptic sounds like a government on the right track. No wonder the Left is going heavy on the “far-right” and “fascist” smears.

Globalist EU leaders are now worried about a shift in the EU’s balance of power, as they should be, and about a Meloni alliance with Hungary. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has already congratulated Meloni on a “well deserved” victory.

AUTHOR

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

Half of 2023’s Diversity Visas to Be Given to Migrants from Muslim Countries

While increasing numbers of Americans are wondering how they’re going to pay for both gas and groceries this month, the Biden administration is busy concentrating on what’s really important: celebrating diversity. The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) reported Thursday that “recently released State Department estimates indicate that a majority of those coming to the U.S. via the Diversity Visa Lottery during the next fiscal year (2023) will be Muslims, despite the fact that adherents of that faith account for less than a quarter of the world’s population.” What could possibly go wrong? Surely you don’t object to this, do you? Biden’s handlers are no doubt standing ready to brand anyone who dares utter a murmur of dissent as “racist” and “Islamophobic.”

There are other reasons why Americans may look askance at the prospect of bringing large numbers of Muslims into the country. While there is no doubt whatsoever that the overwhelming majority of Muslims will never become terrorists, there is no reliable way to determine, among those wishing to enter the country, which hold jihadist sentiments and which do not. The consequences in this case could be lethal.

One of the key elements of the Left’s rap sheet on me is that I supposedly fail to distinguish between “extremist” and “moderate” Muslims, but the real problem is that Muslims all too often don’t do so, either. Ibrahim Simpson and Nadir Soofi, the Islamic State (ISIS) jihadis who came to kill us all at the Muhammad Art Exhibit and Cartoon Contest I co-sponsored with Pamela Geller in Garland, Texas in 2015, were members in good standing of the Islamic Community Center of Phoenix. In January 2016, Abdul Shaheed (formerly Edward Archer) shot Philadelphia police officer Jesse Hartnett multiple times at close range. He was a member of Philadelphia’s Mujahideen Mosque.  The Tsarnaev brothers, who bombed the Boston Marathon in 2013, were members of the Islamic Society of Boston, as were many other jihadists.

What’s more, With 42,000 jihad attacks around the world since 9/11, and numerous jihad plots in the U.S., and criminals quoting the Qur’an to justify their criminality, there is ample reason to be concerned about Islam. But to take note of such facts is “Islamophobic,” and so the CIS reported that the percentage of Muslim migrants to be given the next round of Diversity Visas would be much higher than it has been in the recent past: “This is up sharply from the FY 2020 level of about 18 percent.”

There is more. Read the rest here.

AUTHOR

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

If Iranians Want Change, They Will Have To Do It On Their Own – The West Will Not Help

“We will fight, we will die, we will take Iran back” and “Mullahs must get lost,” Iranian demonstrators keep chanting.[1] On September 23, in response to the regime’s cutting off mobile Internet, the State Department tried to take some measures to help the protestors, issuing a “General License” that would allow a general category of services and hardware not to be under sanctions.[2] After the announcement, Elon Musk immediately tweeted: “Activating Starlink.”[3]

Yet, the Saudi-owned media outlet Iran International raised doubt about the efficacy of the license: “Neither U.S. official clarified how Iranians might buy the ‘flat user terminal’ required for Starlink satellite access, nor how Iranians would afford a $495 installation fee and $85-a-month subscription.” Furthermore, Iran International noted that while Musk is making “a good gesture by trying to provide Starlink services to Iranians,” the Iranian government will unlikely allow “any hardware facilitating unrestricted connection to the Internet into the country.”[4] It is also worth noting that the Iranian Ministry of Communications already blocked access to the Starlink website.[5]

It Is Hard To Say What The West Has Done To Support Freedom In Iran

It looks as though, once again, the West’s help to the Iranian people not only “may have limited benefit,”[6] but also that it is too little and too late. Protests in Iran have been going on for more than a year and a half, but this did not prevent the West from continuing dialogue with Tehran to reach an agreement on the nuclear deal, disregarding the regime’s violations of human rights and its support for terror. In fact, back in August, it was leaked from the negotiations in Vienna that, on the first day of the deal’s approval, the West was ready to revoke three executive orders issued by former U.S. president Donald Trump, which would mean that sanctions would be lifted from 17 Iranian banks and 150 Iranian institutions, and that $7 billion in frozen funds would return to the Iranian regime.[7] Furthermore, it was reported in May that sanctioned Iranian oil may be allowed onto global markets in the future.[8]

It is hard to say what the West has done to support freedom in Iran over the years, as the West appears to have assisted the regime more than its people. On a personal note, I was invited in 2006 to participate in an event in Ankara, Turkey, on “Women’s Empowerment in the Broader Middle East and North Africa,” sponsored by the State Department’s Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI). To my surprise, the Iranian women that were invited were all members of the government. I remember that, during a bus trip around Ankara, they forced the driver to stop so they could disembark before reaching the Anıtkabir, which is the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, as they did not want to set foot on the grounds of a monument dedicated to the promoter of secularism in Turkey.

“Woman, Life, Freedom”

Instead, it would have been nice to have found among the participants of that conference women like renowned Iranian artist Parastou Forouhar, whose parents were killed atrociously during the chain murders of Iranian intellectuals perpetrated by the Iranian regime in the late 1990s. Parastou’s father Dariush, founder of the Hezb-e Mellat-e Iran (“Iran Nation’s Party”), and his wife Parvaneh were brutally murdered and their bodies were mutilated. The Forouhars were killed under Khatami’s presidency, even though the key figures appointed under the Hashemi Rafsanjani presidency were still active inside the government. Parastou Forouhar, known for denouncing the regime’s violence through her artwork, is a critic to the compulsory hijab, supporting the slogan of the Iranian demonstrators: “Woman, life, freedom.”

Of course, the Western media, which espouse “politically correctness,” have a hard time seeing Iranian women liberating themselves from headscarves. This has been true for years. In 2012, the New York Times published an op-ed, titled “The Freedom of the Hijab,” in which the author intended to convince the reader that the hijab is a feminist victory over the patriarchy. “My hijab liberates me… I needed to declare to the world on my birthday this year that henceforth I am a hijabi… I see hijab as the freedom to regard my body as my own concern and as a way to secure personal liberty in a world that objectifies women,” the op-ed read.[9]

“My People Call For Freedom”

It is becoming clear that if Iranian people want change, they will have to do it on their own. The West will not help. In 2021, one of the songs that was used as the background music to some of the Iranian demonstrations’ videos was the song, “Patria y Vida” (“homeland and life”; the inversion of the Cuban Revolution slogan “Patria o Muerte,” “homeland or death”), which was associated with the July 2021 Cuban protests.

In fact, in the same days that the Iranian people were demonstrating for food, water, and rights, the Cuban people were doing the same, as the demands for freedom resonated loud and clear from Havana to Teheran. “No more lies. My people call for freedom, no more doctrines. We no longer shout homeland or death, homeland and life instead. And start building what we’ve dreamed of. What they destroyed with their hands. Stop the bloodshed, for wanting to think differently,” sings “Patria y Vida.”

Yet, in May the White House announced measures to re-engage with Cuba, which surprised the Cuban opposition, which immediately shouted “vergüenza [shame]” at the U.S. for keeping the dictatorship alive.[10] This is the same approach that the West is adopting for the ayatollah’s regime.

Shame On You!

The good news is that the Islamic republic is a dying regime, whose ideology is no longer appealing to the people. As Norman Roule, who worked for the CIA for 34 years, put it: “Whether the regime collapses or transitions deeper into autocracy is uncertain, but its inability to attract supporters outside of militias underscores its destiny on History’s dust heap.” Yet, it is clear that, if the regime collapses, it will be thanks to the will of the courageous people of Iran, instead, if the country transitions into more autocracy, it will surely be caused by the West’s will to “re-engage” with the Islamic republic. “Vergüenza,” or as they say in Farsi: “خجالت بکش [khejâlat bekesh, shame on you!]”

AUTHOR

Anna Mahjar-Barducci

Anna Mahjar-Barducci is a MEMRI Senior Research Fellow

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EDITORS NOTE: This MEMRI Daily Brief No. 414 is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


[1] Twitter.com/IranIntl_En/status/1573735217487089669?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1573735217487089669%7Ctwgr%5E93853488a723b9ea9bd51e7886e4b7399dc4914a%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fd-28485649093328999597.ampproject.net%2F2209072154000%2Fframe.html, September 24, 2022.

[2] State.gov/advancing-the-free-flow-of-information-for-the-iranian-people/, September 23, 2022.

[3] Fortune.com/2022/09/26/iran-protests-starlink-internet-elon-musk-sanctions-us/, September 26, 2022.

[4]Iranintl.com/en/202209242281, September 24, 2022.

[5] Fararu.com/fa/news/576641/%D8%B3%D8%A7%DB%8C%D8%AA-%D8%A7%DB%8C%D9%86%D8%AA%D8%B1%D9%86%D8%AA-%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%87%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%87%E2%80%8C%D8%A7%DB%8C-%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%84%DB%8C%D9%86%DA%A9-%D8%AF%D8%B1-%D8%A7%DB%8C%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86-%D9%85%D8%B3%D8%AF%D9%88%D8%AF-%D8%B4%D8%AF, September 24, 2022.

[6] Iranintl.com/en/202209242281, September 24, 2022.

[8] Bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-05/us-may-allow-more-iran-oil-to-flow-even-without-deal-says-vitol?leadSource=uverify%20wal, June 5, 2022.

[9] Nytimes.com/2012/07/14/opinion/the-freedom-of-the-hijab.html, July 14, 2012.

[10] Cibercuba.com/noticias/2022-05-17-u207888-e207888-s27061-opositores-cubanos-reaccionan-deshielo-biden-verguenza, May 17, 2022.

The Connection Between Xanax and Cancer

For people taking Xanax to treat their anxiety, it could be potentially concerning to hear about the possible link between Xanax and cancer. But is this actually true? If so, such a serious issue of using Xanax and other related benzodiazepines should cause people great pause before taking this medication. If not, where did this rumor come from? Here’s what you need to know about the connection between Xanax and cancer.

When the Warnings Started

Xanax comes from the polarizing class of drugs known as benzodiazepines. These drugs were initially marketed as safer alternatives to barbiturate drugs. At one time, they were the most widely used prescription drug. Xanax is certainly the most popular of the various benzodiazepines, and it’s generally prescribed to treat anxiety and panic disorders. It is also used as a sedative. Beyond personal use via prescription, Xanax and other benzodiazepines treat people undergoing alcohol detox and even opioid recovery programs, too. However, these drugs are also notorious for their highly abusive and addictive potential.

So what makes Xanax, in particular, a culprit in developing cancer? Unfortunately, there are conflicting studies related to this. Some studies assert that Xanax does not have a direct link to causing cancer whatsoever, while others argue that it can only be linked to certain types of cancer. For example, The Guardian reported in recent years that there is a link between Xanax and the development of lung cancer. Still, other studies conclude that only certain benzodiazepines, not including Xanax, have a link to cancer. The medical research verdict at this point is “unclear,” which unfortunately means we just don’t know yet.

Is Cancer a Necessary Side Effect?

What we do know might make a big difference, though. Xanax comes from a long history of drugs initially marketed as safe. At first, barbiturates were thought to be safe drugs to treat many of the same symptoms that benzodiazepines do. Over time, however, barbiturates were understood to cause severe dependence and abuse. Then came benzodiazepines, a drug thought to solve some of the dependence problems that came with the territory of barbiturate use. Just consider the way the drug was originally advertised as a personal savior during the 1970s. However, it didn’t take long for benzo users to show the same patterns of abuse and dependence as those who used barbiturates.

Not only do we not see the kind of magazine advertisements for Xanax that you could find decades ago, we now see more explicit warnings about the drug coming from updated drug labeling by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). An official statement from the FDA in September 2020 announced that the drug labeling would be updated with its strongest warning to signal “potential abuse, misuse, addiction, physical dependence, and withdrawal reactions.” This warning is known as the FDA’s black box warning, its strongest warning. This is important because Xanax and other benzos have not changed chemically from their early days. What has changed is how much we know about these drugs today after decades of statistical use.

The same pattern of research regarding Xanax and other drugs tends to follow a similar path; the more we learn about drugs already approved for widespread use, the more we learn of their previously unknown dangers, not their harmless nature. Drugs tend to be deemed more dangerous over time because we can learn more about them over time, and Xanax is no exception to this.

We know much more about Xanax’s addictive potential than when the drug first hit the markets, including the Xanax withdrawal symptoms, which range from restlessness to life-threatening delirium tremens (DTs). We know that people experiencing Xanax withdrawal are the most vulnerable during the first two weeks of detox. We also know those who take blood pressure or heart medications should avoid taking Xanax in most cases because of the risk of adverse drug interactions.

Taking the Gamble of the Unknown

Whether Xanax is the culprit or a contributing factor to cancer is still unclear. We do know that mixing Xanax with other substances increases the risk of organ damage, chronic illnesses, and, yes, even cancer. Since Xanax is already part of the equation in those cases, it seems best to treat long-term use of the drug as a dangerous option.

While Xanax has a legitimate use in medical treatment, we can’t afford to downplay its high abuse potential or the ongoing research that adds to the list of dangers.

©Kevin Morris. All rights reserved.

Sources

Delphi Health Group. (n.d.). Guide to Benzodiazepine Addiction and Treatment. Retrieved https://delphihealthgroup.com/benzodiazepines/

Delphi Health Group. (n.d.) Xanax Addiction Treatment Guide. Retrieved https://delphihealthgroup.com/benzodiazepines/xanax/

Delphi Health Group. (n.d). Guide to Alcohol Detox: Severity, Dangers, and Timeline. Retrieved https://delphihealthgroup.com/alcohol/detox/

Yale Medicine (2019, December 11). Are Benzodiazepines the New Opioids? Retrieved  https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/benzodiazepine-epidemic

Delphi Health Group. (n.d.). Can Xanax Increase Your Risk of Cancer? Retrieved https://delphihealthgroup.com/blog/can-xanax-cause-cancer/

The Guardian. (2015 Jun 19). Common sleeping pills including Xanax and Valium trigger ‘worrying’ rates of lung cancer. Retrieved https://guardian.ng/features/health/common-sleeping-pills-including-xanax-and-valium-trigger-worrying-rates-of-lung-cancer/

NIH. (2015 Feb). Is Long-term Use of Benzodiazepine a Risk for Cancer? Retrieved https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4602739/

DEA. (2020 Apr). Barbiturate Drugs Fact Sheet. Retrieved https://www.dea.gov/sites/default/files/2020-06/Barbiturates-2020_0.pdf

Benzodiazepine Information Coalition. (n.d.). A Brief History of Benzodiazepines. Retrieved https://www.benzoinfo.com/a-brief-history-of-benzodiazepines/

FDA. (2020 Sep 23). FDA Requiring Labeling Changes for Benzodiazepines: Boxed Warning to Be Updated to Include Abuse, Addiction and Other Serious Risks. Retrieved https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-requiring-labeling-changes-benzodiazepines

Pharmacy Times. (2016, March 15). 10 Black Box Warnings Every Pharmacist Should Know. Retrieved https://www.pharmacytimes.com/view/10-black-box-warnings-every-pharmacist-should-know

NIH. (2013 Sep 28). The History of Benzodiazepines. Retrieved https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24007886/

FDA. (2018 Jun 18.). Think It Through: Managing the Benefits and Risks of Medicines. Retrieved https://www.fda.gov/drugs/information-consumers-and-patients-drugs/think-it-through-managing-benefits-and-risks-medicines

Delphi Health Group. (n.d.) Xanax Withdrawal. Retrieved https://delphihealthgroup.com/benzodiazepines/xanax/withdrawal/

Delphi Health Group. (n.d). Xanax and Blood Pressure- What is the Relationship? Retrieved https://delphihealthgroup.com/benzodiazepines/xanax/and-blood-pressure/

Delphi Health Group. (nd).Overdose Risk of Mixing Benzodiazepines with Alcohol. Retrieved https://delphihealthgroup.com/alcohol/mixing-with-benzos-overdose/

Healthline. (2021 Jul 23). What Happens When You Combine Alprazolam (Xanax) and Alcohol. Retrieved https://www.healthline.com/health/xanax-and-alcohol

Pro-Abortion Case Just Got Weaker

The case for abortion just got weaker.  How do I know?  Because leading abortion advocates are out there saying the most ridiculous things.  Take Stacey Abrams, for example, the woman who thinks she’s Governor of Georgia.  She claimed in a video that surfaced last week that, “There is no such thing as a heartbeat at six weeks.”  She went on to say what sounds like a heartbeat is just a “manufactured sound” invented by the patriarchy to control women’s bodies.  In this latter claim, she is echoing other abortion advocates who have claimed ultrasound machines produce the sound on their own, generated from what is just ‘electrical activity’, not a functional heartbeat.

Experts beg to differ.  The Mayo Clinic, the Cleveland Clinic, and the authoritative Merck medical manual have all stated there is a heartbeat by six weeks.  “The heart begins to pump fluid through blood vessels by day 20,” the Merck Manual states.  That’s the definition of a heartbeat – “cardiac tissue contracting to pump blood through the circulatory system.”   The Mayo Clinic and Planned Parenthood recently scrubbed their websites to remove any reference to a heartbeat, with Planned Parenthood now claiming ultrasound machines produce the sound on their own.  Sure, and I’m the tooth fairy.  Not a good look, changing your story like that.

Stacey Abrams joins other abortion advocates who have said the most preposterous things about killing babies in the womb.  A feminist said last year abortion is an “act of love” when it allows a mother to take better care of her other children.  And when the going gets tough in the future, will it be OK to kill those children, too?  Why not?  How’s it any different?

We also know the case for abortion is getting weaker because advocates are censoring contrary information they don’t want you to hear.  YouTube has started censoring videos containing truthful information about the links between abortion and breast cancer, as well as abortion and infertility.

We also know the case for abortion is getting weaker because, after having lost in the court of public opinion and in the Supreme Court, abortion advocates are using their temporary control of the federal government to push abortion every way they can.  Joe Biden signed an executive order to that effect in July.   Among other federal acts, VA hospitals are now performing abortions in states where it is outlawed.  The White House would not rule out building abortion clinics on federal land, if that’s what it takes to provide abortions in every state.  Biden’s immigration authorities are steering illegal aliens to states where abortion is legal, violating a federal law which prohibits the use of taxpayer money to facilitate the procedure.

We also know the case for abortion is weak because apostates continue to leave the abortion industry to tell the truth about what really goes on there.  A former Planned Parenthood clinic director facilitated 22,000 abortions during her time there, but left to become an anti-abortion activist.  She now regrets telling expectant mothers their babies would not feel pain while being torn apart, and otherwise duping women into abortions they didn’t really want.  But when’s the last time you ever heard of someone leaving the pro-life movement to become an abortion activist?  It doesn’t seem to happen.

It’s been my experience in life that people who make the most hysterical arguments are often rationalizing their desire to do something they know deep down is wrong.  So when Stacey Abrams says there is no fetal heartbeat – the machines are making the sounds – you gotta wonder, what does she really believe deep down inside?

©Christopher Wright. All rights reserved.

Why They Already Hate Giorgia Meloni The New Prime Minister of Italy

We are baffled by the media’s reactions to the overwhelming victory of  the newest, and first female, Prime Minister of Italy Giorgia Meloni.

Not long after her stunning victory NBC News, the New York Times, The Washington Post, BBC News, NPR and CNN all labeled Meloni “far-right” and “right-wing” in their headlines.

Here’s The Atlantic’s title on her historic victory: The Return of Fascism in Italy

Here’s Yahoo News’ title on the very first woman Prime Minister of Italy: A century after Mussolini seized power, Giorgia Meloni looks to steer Italy back toward nationalism

It’s like they were reading, or printing their news, from the very same hate filled script.

What do you think?

Yeah, we thought so too.

Prime Minister of Italy Giorgia Meloni

Here’s why these woke, anti-liberty, anti-family, anti-faith media outlets hate Giorgia Meloni.

Watch.

They hate Prime Minister of Italy Giorgia Meloni because she is pro-woman, pro-family, pro-freedom, pro-life, pro-Italy. Her message is “Make Italy Great Again” (MIGA) and very much like the American MAGA movement she is hated for her love of faith, family and country.

Prime Minister of Italy Giorgia Meloni is a woman of principle.

Giorgia is everything that the real fascists hate. She’s a mother, Catholic, wife and a strong and independent woman. She loves her country and its traditions.

In other words she is a normal and healthy woman!

Get it? Got it? Good!

Copyright Dr. Rich Swier. All rights reserved.

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Ron DeSantis’ Martha’s Vineyard Move Was Pure Political Dynamite. Here’s Why

More than two million people streaming through a wide-open southern border was not a problem for the American left, but 49 migrants on an island seven miles off the coast of Massachusetts sure got their attention.

If Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ intent was elevating the broader immigration challenge in this country, mission accomplished. Bonus points for spotlighting the “not in my backyard” hypocrisy among the glitterati.

Massachusetts is no stranger to limousine liberalism with “rules for thee but not for me” dictated from on high. For years, environmentalists struggled to square their green advocacy efforts with their opposition to wind turbines in Nantucket Sound that interfered with the views from their seaside homes.

But the uproar over the migrants in Martha’s Vineyard takes the cake. Long the summer playground for the rich and famous, the island counts both the Obamas and Oprah among its part-time residents. President Joe Biden carried the island by 80% in 2020. The average home sells for well north of a million dollars.

DeSantis’ critics and the mainstream media were quick to decry the entire back and forth as a “stunt.” They have been focused on the legal intricacies and lawsuits accusing him of “flouting state law by flying migrants.”

If only they demonstrated a similar level of outrage when Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released new data showing migrant crossings at the border surpassing the two million threshold, shattering new records. Or when Border Czar Kamala Harris pronounced the same area “secure” during a national television interview.

Above all, recent events have laid bare the left’s inability to recognize or understand the challenges of border states or the issue writ large. Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser protested that the District “wasn’t Texas” and thus ill-equipped to deal with the buses of migrants being shipped her way. A housing advocate on the Vineyard said the quiet part out loud when she let slip, “we don’t have housing for 50 more people.”

That’s precisely the point DeSantis and other governors frustrated with the lackadaisical response from their federal partners are trying to make.

Globally, the issue of immigration does not break down along the neat ideological lines of the United States. In my previous role as U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand, I lived in an isolated country on the other side of the world known for its progressive politics, beautiful terrain and yes, strict migration policies. It was not that long ago the country’s immigration minister announced a “Kiwi first” policy tightening access to work visas. Even today, their policy remains “highly restrictive” with strict criteria.

Granted, New Zealand is an island nation four hours by plane to their closest neighbor. They don’t face the challenge of securing a southern border 2,000 miles long and a northern one more than 5,000.

It’s unfortunate that former President Donald Trump’s pledge to complete the wall never came to fruition, and there is plenty of blame to go around. Statistics show it was getting results. CBP statistics from 2020 showed a marked decrease in apprehensions – 79% – in areas where the wall had been completed.

Plus, the “remain in Mexico” policy favored by the last administration and overturned by the current one sent a message that the U.S. government meant business.

To be sure, it is unfortunate that human beings are caught in the middle of this back and forth. One cannot fault anyone for wanting to come to the U.S. We’re the greatest country in the world. But to remain so, we must understand that a nation without secure borders is not a nation at all.

Gov. DeSantis’ critics would be better off directing their anger toward the Biden administration for their abject failure to recognize the scope of the issue, let alone take meaningful action to address it.

Their inability to recognize the broader picture speaks volumes about the true challenge facing our nation.

AUTHOR

SCOTT BROWN

Scott Brown served as Ambassador to New Zealand from 2017-2020, and represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate from 2010-2012.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation. 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.

Is Harvard hopelessly woke? What Harvard is really like

Like most things, Harvard is what one makes of it — and this can include experiences rooted in faith and friendship. 

Harvard is often seen as the archetypal American university, offering a model that many others seek to emulate. So, as a new school year and new application season begin, it seems fitting to ask: what is this storied institution really like anyway? Is it home to heroes or heretics? Maker of gods… or the godless? My response is quite simple: neither extreme is accurate. Harvard is not as heavenly as some think; fortunately, it’s not as bad either.

My college decision was practically effortless. Harvard, I was told, offered everything a motivated, book-smart student could want: challenging courses; fabulous research opportunities; world-class professors; and, most importantly, insightful, intrepid, intellectually curious peers.

I envisioned a campus alive with students who genuinely loved learning, who asked big questions and pursued them to their limits, who discussed Dostoyevsky at lunch and astrophysics at dinner, and who would challenge, shape, and inspire me over the course of our college journey.

Needless to say, this vision wasn’t entirely accurate. Arriving on campus last fall, I was surprised to find that many of my peers did not choose Harvard out of a deep, reverent hunger for veritas. Rather, their motives were primarily mercenary: they had enrolled for the degree and the connections. Almost every Harvard student I know really is a smart, accomplished individual; test scores and ambition, however, are not necessarily synonymous with intellectual curiosity.

Lowered standards, heightened biases  

Critics of Harvard tend to focus on academic standards and political bias. In terms of academics, it is telling that Harvard’s two most popular concentrations are economics and government. Read: wealth and power. Students with these two goals are incentivised to take easy courses whenever possible: between grade inflation and the competitive nature of consulting applications, a B from a fabulous but challenging professor just won’t do.

As such, students offset rigorous concentration requirements with “gems,” pleasant, untaxing courses in which A’s are guaranteed and learning is optional. Last fall alone, over 800 students enrolled in a gen-ed course fittingly entitled “Sleep,” though how many attended more than one lecture remains unclear.

Administrators, meanwhile, do little to counter this trend. Notorious gems (“Sleep” excepted) are occasionally identified and restructured, but with tuition-paying customers to please and a reputation to maintain, addressing lowered standards will be essentially impossible.

The real tragedy is not the proliferation of easy A’s but the slow suffocation of liberal arts education. In lieu of a robust core is a smattering of “distributional requirements” easily satisfied by niche, fringe, or downright non-substantive courses. In other words, “Sleep” might be the only science course a Harvard student ever takes.

Thus, it’s possible to graduate from Harvard without challenging one’s prejudices, without genuinely exploring different disciplines, and without ever diverting one’s gaze from the holy trinity of law, finance, and consulting. Alas, the utilitarian ethos prevails; it was never about veritas anyway.

Harvard critics’ true concern, however, is not academic standards but politics — just how radical is the “Kremlin on the Charles”? According to the numbers, very. While 82 percent of Harvard faculty identify as liberal or very liberal, a mere 1 percent identify as conservative, and none identify as very conservative. The student body, luckily, boasts slightly more ideological diversity: conservative or very conservative individuals made up 6 percent of the Class of 2022, and nearly 70 percent were progressive or very progressive.

Can academic freedom, civil discourse, or mere open-mindedness thrive in such an environment? Here are a few illustrative examples that make it tempting to view Harvard as a powerful brainwashing machine:

First, my hallmates and I attended a mandatory, dorm-wide meeting at the start of the academic year to discuss the hookup culture. We were tasked with creating explanatory posters exploring the hookup culture in its various dimensions. One group of students crafted a suitably vague definition of “hookup” for their poster, while another brainstormed adjectives to describe hookups (highlights include “exciting” and “experimental”). Not once were other approaches to sex and dating, let alone inconvenient biological realities (sex not infrequently makes babies), ever mentioned.

Second, this past semester I watched a trembling professor issue a formal apology at the behest of her outraged students and teaching staff. Her crime: reading aloud a passage from Invisible Man — a novel advocating civil rights and equality — that contained a racial epithet. Although this incident had occurred during a discussion section before a small subset of enrollees, critics swiftly and loudly demanded that she ask the entire class for forgiveness. Pressuring a professor to apologise for her language threatens academic freedom. Critics certainly deserve a voice, but not at the expense of their professor’s.

Finally, I saw a formerly well-liked friend ostracised by her residential housemates during her last month at Harvard. This jovial, whip-smart senior was a Latina Democrat; she volunteered regularly at a youth homeless shelter, vocally advocated racial justice, and actively disliked Trump. Just participating in two pro-life rallies, it turns out, was enough to outweigh all of that.

Faith, friendship, and signs of hope

While such everyday occurrences make it tempting to believe that Harvard is a lost cause, there are two important limiting factors that suggest otherwise. First, because Harvard is a very large institution — with twelve graduate and professional schools, fifty concentrations in the undergraduate college, and an extensive array of administrative offices — centralised or consistent strategic communication is next to impossible. Having many supervisors, counterintuitively, leads to little supervision — within this large bureaucratic institution are many conservative niches, ranging from a controversial pseudonymous publication to a philosophical debating society to a growing pro-life presence on campus.

The second limiting factor is Harvard’s inherent elitism. Prestige and influence require class distinctions; in a truly equitable world, Harvard does not exist. Thus, Harvard will continue to champion progressivism — but never enough to endanger its own future. Harvard students of all political stripes perceive this hypocrisy; if anything, they graduate not more liberal but more cynical. So much for the formidable brainwashing machine.

In addition to these two limiting factors, my first year — which was hands-down my happiest in a decade — suggests that Harvard is not a lost cause. I learned to read ancient Greek, solved triple integrals, and wrote an essay on Fredrick Douglass’s conception of the human soul. I kayaked on the Charles, explored Boston’s fabulous art museums, and attended a weeklong seminar in Oxford. I befriended the dining hall workers, learned how to swing dance, and performed Schumann with my chamber ensemble.

Despite the prevalence of secularism and credentialism at Harvard, faith and friendship were central to my joyful first year. In fact, Christianity, particularly Catholicism, is alive at Harvard. Every morning, a dozen students attend daily Mass before eating breakfast together in a nearby dining hall. Weekly talks at the Harvard Catholic Center precede solemn adoration accompanied by a student band. And this past Easter alone, thirty-one members of the Harvard community were fully initiated into the Catholic Church.

Outside of the Catholic and Christian communities, Harvard students are very respectful of religion. Talking openly about my Catholic faith elicits not smirks and grimaces but genuine curiosity and the occasional request to join me at Mass. Although I attended Catholic school all my life, my faith life has never thrived as at Harvard.

Nor have I ever been blessed with such strong, beautiful friendships. Just one week into freshman year, I had already found a group of kind, intelligent friends. Yes, our everyday conversations are less intellectual than anticipated; yes, our educational goals differ significantly. But far more important is character. My friends at Harvard are truly virtuous and generous people.

What’s more, my experience is hardly singular. Personality is an important factor in Harvard’s admissions process — so while many admitted students are indeed ambitious and career-oriented, they are for the most part essentially decent people. This emphasis on personability combined with its unique housing system, active extracurricular life, and countless study abroad and fellowship opportunities means that Harvard intentionally and successfully fosters friendship.

One year into my Harvard career, I can report that no stereotype of the university is entirely accurate. By no means is Harvard an immaculate place: intellectual curiosity often suffers at the expense of utility, classes and administrators can be overly political, and students with unpopular views are often frightened into silence. Still, I have great hope for Harvard.

While it’s true that students can avoid Homer, Shakespeare, or Tolstoy if they wish, it is equally true that those fascinated by such literary giants will encounter first editions of their texts in the rare books library and brilliant professors eager to elucidate them.

Though Harvard students can graduate without having explored questions about God, morality, and the meaning of life, those brave enough to ask can consult prominent theologians and learned priests, travel to Jerusalem on Harvard’s dime, or simply walk down Bow Street to pray in magnificent St. Paul’s.

In the end, Harvard, like most things, is what one makes of it. It can never be perfect; what it can be is a haven for faith, friendship, and the pursuit of veritas.

This article has been republished with permission from The Public Discourse

AUTHOR

Olivia Glunz

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

With Guns Drawn, FBI SWAT Raids Home of Christian Activist as His Screaming Children Watch


America under the illegitimate Democrat regime is UNRECOGNIZABLE.

Whatever your position on abortion, this is inhuman, unconstitutional and immoral.

Over the past few months, we have witnessed pregnancy centers firebombed, attacked and destroyed with no prosecution or follow up. This man did nothing wrong.

Report: FBI SWAT Raids Home of Catholic Pro-Life Activist as ‘Screaming’ Children Watch

By: Paul Bois, :

The FBI subjected a Catholic pro-life activist’s children to a fully-armored SWAT raid this week under the order of the DOJ.

Mark Houck, the founder and president of The King’s Men – a group that helps men overcome pornography addiction – was arrested at his rural Pennsylvania home on Friday for allegedly violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act during his regular sidewalk counseling outside of an abortion clinic in 2021. Speaking with LifeSiteNews, Houck’s wife, Ryan-Marie, said that around 25 to 30 fully-armored FBI agents stormed their property early Friday morning, aiming their rifles as the children screamed in horror.

“They started pounding on the door and yelling for us to open it,” Ryan-Marie said of the raid.

Prior to opening the door, Mark allegedly tried to reason with the agents to calm them down for the sake of his children. “Please, I’m going to open the door, but, please, my children are in the home. I have seven babies in the house,” Houck allegedly told the agents.

The FBI agents allegedly “just kept pounding and screaming,” according to Ryan-Marie.

“They had big, huge rifles pointed at Mark and pointed at me and kind of pointed throughout the house,” Ryan-Marie said of the moment that her husband opened the door for the agents.

“Our staircase is open, so [the kids] were all at the top of the stairs which faces the front door, and I was on the stairs as well, coming down,” she said.  “The kids were all just screaming. It was all just very scary and traumatic.”

Ryan-Marie then demanded that the agents present an arrest warrant before taking her husband, but they allegedly said that they would “take him whether they had a warrant or not.”

“You can’t just come to a person’s house and kidnap them at gunpoint,” she allegedly protested.

The agents agreed and went to retrieve the warrant. When Mark asked that she grab his rosary and sweatshirt, the agents had already loaded him into the vehicle upon her return. She told LifeSiteNews:

After they had taken Mark, and the kids were all screaming that he was their best friend, the [FBI agents on her porch] kind of softened a bit. I think they realized what was happening. Or maybe they actually looked at the warrant. They looked pretty ashamed at what had just happened.

Ryan-Marie said her children were “really sad and stressed” as a result of the raid and that she has already “reached out to some psychiatrists or psychologists to try and help us through this.”

“I don’t really know what’s going to come of it when you see guns pointed at your dad and your mom in your house when you first wake up in the morning,” she told the outlet.

According to Ryan-Marie, the charges were from an incident in which he shoved a pro-abortion activist who had been harassing his 12-year-old son in front of an abortion clinic during one of his sidewalk counseling sessions. The charges were reportedly “thrown out of the District Court in Philadelphia” earlier this year only to later be picked up by Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice. Per LifeSiteNews:

On several occasions when Mark went to sidewalk counsel last year, he took his eldest son, who was only 12 at the time, she explained. For “weeks and weeks,” a “pro-abortion protester” would speak to the boy saying “crude … inappropriate and disgusting things,” such as “you’re dad’s a fag,” and other statements that were too vulgar for her to convey.

Repeatedly, Mark would tell this pro-abortion man that he did not have permission to speak to his son and please refrain from doing so. And “he kept doing it and kind of came into [the son’s] personal space” obscenely ridiculing his father. At this point, “Mark shoved him away from his child, and the guy fell back.”

“He didn’t have any injuries or anything, but he tried to sue Mark,” and the case was thrown out of court in the early summer.

Local reports conveyed a different story, charging that Houck shoved the man, a 72-year-old, on two occasions, the second of which required “medical attention.” WHTM reported:

In the first incident, the man was attempting to escort two patients exiting the clinic when Houck forcefully shoved him to the ground. In the second incident, Houck allegedly confronted the man and shoved him to the ground in front of the Planned Parenthood center, causing injuries that required medical attention.

The report did not mention Ryan-Marie’s claim that the case had been thrown out of District Court prior to the Department of Justice picking up the charges.

The FACE Act makes it a federal crime to intimidate, injure, or interfere with anyone attempting to provide abortion access. U.S. Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero said:

Assault is always a serious offense, and under the FACE Act, if the victim is targeted because of their association with a reproductive healthcare clinic, it is a federal crime. Our Office and the Department of Justice are committed to prosecuting crimes which threaten the safety and rights of all individuals.

“Put simply, violence is never the answer,” said Jacqueline Maguire, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Philadelphia Division. “Violating the FACE Act by committing a physical assault is a serious crime for which the FBI will work to hold offenders accountable.”

Houck could face up to 11 years in prison and fines up to $350,000 if found guilty.

AUTHOR

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Wisconsin County Takes Control Away from Dominion – Approves Hand Recount of Governor, Lieutenant Governor and U.S. Senator Race in November Election

Righting the terrible wrongs of stolen elections….this is how it’s done. Each town, each city, each individual must fight for free and fair elections.

BREAKING BIG: Wisconsin County Takes Control Away from Dominion – Approves Hand Recount of Governor, Lieutenant Governor and U.S. Senator Race in November Election

By Jim Hoft, Gateway Pundit, September 24, 2022:

Reader David sent this in:

A few weeks ago I recommended to our County Executives to provide funds for a hand count of our upcoming 2022 governor and US Senate races in selected municipalities. I emphasized this would provide proof to those of us that are skeptical of the voting machines.

The Washington County Executive Committee recently announced that the Washington County Board has provided funds to perform a hand count of ALL the votes in the entire county!

This is a great first step. Please announce this on your website so as to encourage other counties in Wisconsin and elsewhere to do the same.

If we find the machines are not tallying the votes correctly, that will be prima facia evidence of the fraud. If the tally is correct, we’ll need to move on. But we definitely need more counties to do what Washington County has done; do a hand count to compare the two. Yes, we are counting the paper ballots not machine images.

For more info please call me any time or email. I’ve also given this info to Jefferson Davis, who is doing a follow-up.

Here’s a link to the local news report regarding the funding allocation. The important section is in the last few paragraphs.

The West Bend Daily News reported:

By Grayson Sewell
gsewell@conleynet.com

WASHINGTON COUNTY — The Washington County Executive Committee voted to upgrade the county’s election management system, and to do a full recount of select state and federal elections, during their meeting on Wednesday.

“What we’re looking at doing is beginning to program all of our elections here, in-house, rather than contracting with [Dominion Voting Systems] as we have in the past,” said Washington County Clerk Ashley Reichert.

According to Reichert, her predecessor had previously programmed the election machines used by the county in-house, until April of 2016 when they had decided to switch to Dominion voting machines and contract the work out through Dominion.
Currently, the county has the “lite” version of the software used for the voting machines, and would need to pay for upgrading to the full version so they can start programming the machines in-house again. The county will be able to use the same voting machines with the full version of the program.

“It’s the same software, it’s just a program that gives me the capability of inputting all of the data that I compile already,” said Reichert. “Then I’m able to actually put it all together and finalize it all rather than having Dominion do so.”

The cost of upgrading the software and training staff is estimated to be up to $75,000, according to the committee report.

Reichert said this will also lead to ongoing expenses for the county for increased fees, but they will be included in her budget moving forward and would go through a budget amendment in the future.
According to Reichert, one of the fee increases is $11,000 more than the county currently pays. The other is for $20,000 for training and support in programming as they switch to doing it in-house, but it will only be for a year or so.

“I think this is something that Ashley should be commended for. I think anything we can do to pull things away from Dominion and have more control, and Ashley, who I think does a phenomenal job, to be able to have her hands on it, is a positive,” said County Executive Josh Schoemann.

See COMMITTEE, PAGE 6A

From Page 1A

“I’d like to also echo those same comments. I think we need to make our public aware that we’re bringing so much more of this control in-house, inside the county,” said County Supervisor Caroll Merry.

The committee voted unanimously to approve the use of up to $75,000 in strategic priority funds to upgrade the county’s election system management software.

The committee then voted on doing a full recount by hand of the governor, lieutenant governor and U.S. senator elections in the general election on Nov. 8.

According to Reichert, the county audits every election held, by choice.

Normally, the county will randomly select two reporting units in the county and then hand-count the ballots in two of the races in the election and compare the results with the voting machine tabulations.

“What we are suggesting doing for the 2022 general election is hand-counting the entire county as a part of an audit doing the top state race and the top federal race, which would be governor, lieutenant governor and then the U.S. Senate race, and hand-counting all of those,” said Reichert.

According to Reichert, the expense of the recount is up to $50,000, and would be paid for by the county and not the individual municipalities. The funding would come out of the strategic priority fund.

She added that she doesn’t believe the recount would cost the full $50,000, as in 2016 the full recount cost roughly $36,000.
“Here again, I think we need to commend the clerk’s office for taking a step forward on this,” said Merry. “Just another effort to reassure the voters of Washington County that we’re trying to stay ahead of any potential fraud.”

Read the rest here.

AUTHOR

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