Beto Going All-In on Confiscation

Democrat Presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke continues to struggle to gain any sort of traction for his campaign. With some polls putting him in 10th place, and his average sitting around 7th, some might say that it is desperation time for the candidate who was once a darling with the far left and the legacy media while he was running his losing campaign to unseat U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Tex.).

recent tweet from O’Rourke is just one clue that the candidate is, indeed, becoming desperate.

The former U.S. Representative from Texas called on banks and credit card companies to help promote gun control by refusing to do business with companies that produce legal products, and refusing to process legal financial transactions.

As has often been the case with Beto’s campaign, he seems to try to be provocative by rehashing old ideas.

Some banking institutions, with the urging of anti-gun extremists, have already adjusted their practices to accommodate those, like O’Rourke, who stand opposed to the Second Amendment. While this subject has been part of the anti-gun crusade for some time, it has been met with strong opposition, and others have questioned how credit card companies could stop processing certain, specific transactions without actually ceasing doing any business with companies that allow the targeted transactions, as well as others not targeted.

Beto’s most puzzling demand is that banks and credit card companies “(s)top processing transactions for gun sales online & at gun shows without background checks.” As a presidential candidate, and former U.S. Representative, O’Rourke should be aware that ALL firearm transfers through licensed gun dealers—whether they be at a brick-and-mortar store, at a gun show, or over the Internet—are required, by law, to be run through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).

Of course, he knows this, but his tweet is intended to create confusion on the issue, as well as create the impression that he is proposing to address specific problems, even though they simply do not exist.

Rehashing an old anti-gun campaign isn’t his only sign of desperation, though.

On September 12, during the third debate of Democrat Presidential candidates, he tried to be even more provocative.

When asked if he supported confiscation of certain semi-automatic firearms, Beto stated, “Hell yes, we’re gonna take your AR-15, your AK47….”

And just to prove he was serious, his campaign started selling t-shirts.

Thankfully, he didn’t go so far as one former candidate who also proposed confiscation, but also made what many considered to be a rather ominous threat.

So far, Beto has tried being folksy, posting videos of him at the dentist, getting his hair cut, flipping burgers, and changing a tire. That hasn’t been successful in getting his polling numbers out of the low single digits.

Now he’s selling profanity and trying to prove he’s the most anti-gun candidate in the field in trying to lure support from Democrats in his Quixotic quest to be President. A far cry from when he faced only the Texas electorate, and assured lawful gun owners they could keep their firearms. If these tactics don’t work, which they likely won’t, can we expect O’Rourke to dive even deeper into the anti-gun end of the pool, and start promoting the repeal of the Second Amendment? As we often say, stay tuned!

RELATED ARTICLES:

NASCAR Takes a Hard Left

Tell Your Lawmakers: No Semi-Auto and Magazine Ban!

San Francisco Board of Supervisors Declares NRA a “Domestic Terrorist Organization”

House Democrats Continue Unprecedented Push for More Gun Control

EDITORS NOTE: This NRA-ILA column is republished with permission. © All rights reserved.

VIDEO: Why Won’t Ilhan Omar Talk to Me? Muslim Journalist Dalia Al-Aqidi

Last month, veteran Muslim journalist Dalia Al-Aqidi faced Twitter censorship after inviting Congresswoman Ilhan Omar to an interview. Both women are refugees and Muslim Americans, which would have made for an eye-to-eye conversation between the leaders. However, Ilhan Omar ignored the requests from another Muslim American woman, which came on the heels of also spurning interview questions from American Muslim human rights leader Ani Zonneveld.

In response, Dalia Al-Aqidi headed to Ilhan Omar’s district in Minneapolis, Minnesota and invited reporters to a sit-down conversation close to the 18th anniversary of September 11th attacks where “somebody did something” (according to Omar).

RELATED STORIES:

The Interview Ilhan Omar Refused to Accept

Feud: Ilhan Omar vs. Miss Iraq

Listen: Is Ilhan Omar Practicing Taqiyya?

Democrats don’t hate your guns, they hate you!

In an article titled “Have They Lost Their Minds?” John C. Sigler wrote:

Last year I was criticized for saying “they don’t hate your guns, they hate you” – Well, it looks like I was right. San Francisco’s defamatory and utterly hateful and ridiculous resolution shows just how far off the deep end their hatred for you, the NRA, and America’s traditional values has driven the anti-gun crowd.

But there is a method to their madness. The real meat of their preposterous resolution lies not in the defamatory and inflammatory labeling of NRA as a so-called “domestic terrorist organization”. No, the real meat of their preposterous resolution lies in the purpose of that resolution which is to do the same thing that New York tried to do – scare off businesses who do business with NRA and its 5+ million law-abiding God-fearing, freedom-loving patriotic members. Here’s the punch line from their hate-filled resolution:

“The City and County of San Francisco should take every reasonable step to limit those entities who do business with San Francisco from doing business with this domestic terrorist organization”( meaning the NRA and its members). [Emphasis added]

What we have seen since the election of Donald J. Trump is a global effort to delegitimize his administration and a national effort by the Democratic Party and the media to dehumanize his supporters.

The Democratic Party is working day and night to turn America into a socialist nanny state.

Their strategy is to use political correctness to silence the overwhelming majority of Republicans, growing numbers of Independents and Democrats who believe the party has gone to far. Even Rahm Emanuel, during a panel discussion on ABC’s show This Week, said,

We have taken a position so far, and the candidates have, through the process — a few have not — about — on basically Medicare for all, which is, we’re going to eliminate 150 million people’s health care, and we’re going to provide health care for people that have just come over the border.

That is an untenable position for the general election. [Emphasis added]

Whether it is the New Green Deal, Medicaid for all, free healthcare for illegal aliens, forgiveness of tuition debt, giving away money to everyone not working at the expense of those who are working, or attacks on the U.S. Constitution, the Democratic Party has left America.

On September 11th, 2019 CNBC reported that the Democrat controlled House passed two bills banning new offshore oil and gas drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and the Florida Gulf Coast. The day after this bill passed drones attacked the Saudi oil fields. This has driven oil and gas prices up globally. The Democrats do not have what is good for working Americans in mind. Emma Newburger reported:

The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed two bills banning new offshore oil and gas drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and the Gulf Coast of Florida. It was set to vote on a third bill banning drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The legislation could hamper President Donald Trump’s push to expand offshore oil and gas development.

Conclusion

Democrats are unabashedly the party of Karl Marx and Mao.

Only President Trump had the foresight to make America energy independent. Only President Trump is unabashedly pro-worker, pro-middle class, pro-jobs and pro-America.

That is the choice on November 3rd, 2020.

© All rights reserved.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Marching Toward Gun Confiscation: Prohibition Advocates Released Unhinged Gun Control Plan

Flag on the Play: Media Promotes Gun Confiscation Laws by Exaggerating “Study” Results

Beto Going All-In on Confiscation

Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Is Petitioned to Rehear the Federal Refugee Resettlement Opinion

ANN ARBOR, MI— The Thomas More Law Center (TMLC) and Bursch Law PLLC have filed a petition for rehearing by the entire Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals bench of a two-judge panel opinion of that court dismissing Tennessee’s challenge to the constitutionality of the federal refugee resettlement program for lack of standing.​

The basis for the rehearing petition, which was filed last Friday, Sept. 6, is that the two-judge opinion is “painfully at odds” with Supreme Court precedent.The Thomas More Law Center, a national nonprofit public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, agreed to represent the State of Tennessee, its General Assembly and two state legislators at no charge, after the state’s attorney general refused to bring the requested lawsuit. John Bursch of Caledonia, Michigan, represented the plaintiffs on behalf of TMLC at the oral arguments in the Sixth Circuit.

TMLC filed the federal lawsuit on behalf of the plaintiffs in March 2017, alleging that the Refugee Act of 1980, currently imposed on it by the federal government, amounts to an unconstitutional power grab – commandeering millions in state taxpayer dollars for a purely federal program.

A federal district court granted the federal government’s motion to dismiss the case. On appeal to the Sixth Circuit, a two-judge panel affirmed the lower court’s dismissal on the sole grounds that the plaintiffs lacked standing. It never reached the merits of the case.

Consequently, the petition for rehearing asks the Sixth Circuit’s full bench to consider the question: Does the Tennessee General Assembly have standing to challenge a regulatory regimen that allows the federal government to siphon dollars from the state treasury “at times and in amounts of the federal government’s choosing,” effectively diluting the legislature’s exclusive power of appropriation?

The controversy over refugee resettlement in Tennessee dates back to 2008. That’s when the state pulled out of the federal refugee program in accordance with its agreement with the federal government. But the flow of refugees continued, as the federal government simply transferred management of the program to a private agency, Catholic Charities of Tennessee, an arm of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, observed, “This case has enormous jurisprudential consequences, not only on the issue of the federal refugee resettlement program, but on the ability of Congress to force states to pay for future bizarre, fantastical, unwanted programs as proposed by current Democrat candidates without any recourse to the courts.”

Crucial to the argument for rehearing is the 2015 case of Arizona v. Independent Redistricting Commission (AIRC), wherein the Supreme Court ruled that state legislatures have standing to bring lawsuits when their legislative powers are threatened.

The petition for rehearing states, “In sum, the federal government is siphoning state funds to pay for a program from which Tennessee has withdrawn, and it can do so on any date and for any amount it wants. As the federal government admitted in its brief, Tennessee’s decision to end participation in the Refugee Resettlement Program had ‘no implications whatsoever’ on Tennessee’s obligation to fund the program. The federal government mandates Plaintiffs provide Medicaid to otherwise eligible refugees, or face termination of federal benefits.”

Accordingly, the federal government forces Tennessee to continue funding the refugee program by threatening to pull $7 billion in federal Medicaid funding, which represents 20 percent of the state’s total budget.

The rehearing petition warned, “As the federal bureaucracy continues to grow, federal officials will increasingly look to state budgets as the solution to federal funding deficits. When federal bureaucrats do so in violation of the Constitution, e.g. by coercing states to continue funding under pain of losing 20% of the state budget, state legislators must have the ability to bring suit.”

Besides Medicaid funding, the federal government also commandeers state funds for other welfare programs and for public education of the refugees.

TMLC’s complaint alleges that “the federal government has violated the Unites States Constitution’s Spending Clause and the Tenth Amendment” by enacting legislation and rules which purport to give the federal government authority to commandeer state funds to finance the refugee resettlement program.

The argument in favor of the General Assembly’s standing is bolstered by the fact that both chambers of the Tennessee General Assembly voted overwhelmingly in 2016 in favor of filing a civil lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the federal refugee resettlement program. The State Senate passed Senate Joint Resolution 467, by a vote of 27-5 while the House voted 69-25 to pass the same resolution.

In accordance with SJR 467, TMLC is providing its legal services, including a potential appeal to the Supreme Court, at no cost to taxpayers.

Since January 2002 the federal government has placed more than 19,000 refugees into Tennessee cities and towns.

These refugees often arrive in poor health, with no job or English skills, and with children who are placed in public schools and in need of expensive translators and tutors. And without any waiting period they can automatically apply for all welfare programs provided by the State of Tennessee.

As a result, the federal program thwarts the state legislature’s ability to pass a balanced budget as required by the Tennessee Constitution.

In the middle of a fiscal year the federal government, for any reason, can decide to settle additional refugees into Tennessee causing the state’s spending to exceed its revenue.

In short, this purely federal program diverts state tax dollars away from other state programs that benefit deserving Tennesseans.

Clearly, the General Assembly has been deprived of its right “to spend state funds in the manner the people of Tennessee may – through their elected legislators – deem appropriate,” the petition states.

You can read the full petition for rehearing here.

You can read the original complaint, as filed by TMLC in March 2017, here.

FIFA: Did a Woman Have to Die Before You Stepped In?

FIFA officials will make a visit to Iran after a young woman set herself on fire after being arrested for attending a soccer match.

FIFA (the International Federation of Association Football) gave the Islamic Republic until August 31 to allow women to enter soccer stadiums, but the deadline passed with no signs of compliance. Unfortunately, it appears that it has taken the death of young woman to wake FIFA up.

This story began when Sahar Khodayari, a young Iranian woman who has been since dubbed “Blue Girl” (due to her favorite team’s colors), was arrested for trying to enter a soccer stadium disguised as a man.

After spending three days in jail, she was released on bail and a court date was set for six month later. However, when Khodayari showed up for her trial, she found that it was postponed due to the judge being called away for a family emergency.

It was reported that when she went to pick up her cell phone, she overheard someone saying that if she was convicted, she would be sentence to between six months and two years in jail.

Hearing this, she set herself on fire in front of the courthouse and later died in the hospital.

Women have been forbidden from entering stadiums to watch men’s sporting events since 1981, two years after the Islamic Revolution that propelled the ayatollahs into power. One exception was made last year when women were allowed in a stadium to watch the streaming of the World Cup.

RELATED STORIES

Women’s ‘Rights’ in Iran: 5 Laws That Will Appall You

Bad Hair Day in Iran

World Hijab Day? Not on This Soccer Field!

California: America’s First Third World State by Black Pigeon Speaks [Video]

Posted by Eeyore video by Black Pigeon Speaks

VIDEO: The Vortex — Brood of Vipers

TRANSCRIPT

Church Militant has confirmed from sources within the diocese of Crookston, Minnesota, that Bp. Michael Hoeppner actually lied under oath about what he knew and when he knew it in a case of a priest who molested a 16-year-old male — but of course, we keep getting reassured by other bishops this has nothing to do with homosexuality.

Church Militant sources within chancery of Crookston are extremely close to the case and say the reason the diocese had to settle was specifically because the bishop got caught lying multiple times.

The case of Bp. Hoeppner and the diocese of Crookston is especially interesting given the timing.

Church Militant will be in Crookston tomorrow giving a talk in a public park which has been widely publicized for weeks now.

In response to the talk sponsored by local faithful Catholics, Hoeppner has gone bananas issuing statement after statement denouncing Church Militant the talk sponsored by Roman Catholic Revival and even had them read out loud at all Masses, telling local Catholic to stay far away from the event.

He even had his staff throw together a last-minute “youth conference” to compete with the Revival conference.

And here’s the interesting point: Our sources inside the diocese tell us that multiple officials are worried that Church Militant’s presence will add to a potential public relations nightmare for Bp. Hoeppner.

In fact, so troubled are members of Hoeppner’s inner circle who know he lied, that Hoeppner won’t even be at his own youth event, conveniently scheduled for another event many miles away in a secluded area of the diocese. Well, that’s not an unfounded concern.

In fact, it was the motivation for the whistleblowers in the diocese getting in touch with us and telling us all about Hoeppner lying under oath.

But don’t think the lying and deceit and deflection and cover-up that Hoeppner is so skilled at resides only with him.

All over the country, bishop by bishop, nearly the entire lot is being exposed as duplicitous schemers, liars, deception artists and cover-up experts.

The case in Buffalo and Bp. Richard Malone is so outrageous that the local media has taken to calling it the “Buffalo Diocesan Circus,” and Malone, after preaching at a press conference that area Catholics actually support him, shut down his email account that was being flooded by Catholics telling him he should resign — lies, and nothing but lies.

We all know the case of Donald Wuerl, who lied and side-stepped his way around what he knew about McCarrick’s monstrous behavior.

Right along beside him was Kevin Farrell, who lies so often about so much that Pope Francis actually promoted him to essentially the second most powerful man in the Church, the Camerlengo, who takes control of the Church when Francis is gone and before the next pontiff is elected.

Dolan in New York — a consummate liar and politician extraordinaire — has had to actually step in on the Malone Buffalo case because the heat has gotten that intense in Upstate New York.

At Notre Dame, what could only be described as a giant “Lie Fest” will be hosted on the heretical campus — the event called “The Church Crisis: Where Are We Now?”

Some of the attendees are some of the more notable liars and deceivers, including the archbishop of Baltimore, William Lori, who took donations from now-disgraced homopredator West Virginia Bp. Michael Bransfield and then led the “investigation” into the thieving bishop, which resulted in a slap on the wrist.

How can someone with the record of Lori, who permits an open homosexual parish to operate in his archdiocese, be considered or trusted to lecture Catholics on the crisis in the Church?

He and his ilk are the reason for the crisis in the Church, so it is altogether fitting that Crisis Central, Notre Dame, would play host to such a whitewash conference.

They might as well have invited Cupich to be the emcee so he could tell everyone there is no crisis, and sex between priests doesn’t really mean that much because it’s consensual.

And he ought to know since two of his priests got caught by police having car sex on a public street in Miami, right across from a school. But hey, it’s consensual — which apparently is the same logic followed by Patterson, New Jersey, bishop and McCarrick buddy Arthur Serratelli, who apparently never seems to miss the chance to ordain a practicing homosexual and then lying for them and covering up once they get caught.

Need we go on? Ladies and gentlemen, these are not isolated examples. These men are proof that the U.S. episcopate is little else than a brood of vipers, liars and deceivers who hide behind their offices as successors of the Apostles so as not to have give an accounting.

They allow innocent priests to be black-balled, even violating the Pope’s own directives, as did Detroit Abp. Allen Vigneron in the case of Fr. Eduard Perrone, who was never given the chance to answer charges before the Associated Press interviewed his staff and then it was announced at all the Masses at Perrone’s parish.

Detroit insiders tell us that Vigneron is table-pounding furious that his $190 million fundraising campaign has gotten off to such a slow start, adding that Vigneron himself has not been able to achieve his goal of personally raising $20 million like he told his priests he would.

Vigneron, remember, is the archbishop who allows the longest continual gay Mass on the planet to go every Sunday right under his nose.

No matter where you look, no matter what rock you turn over, these men — products of a system of lies and privilege and cover-up and lack of transparency and financial misdeeds and sexual impropriety — operate and continue along in their sins until they are forced to admit the truth or the truth is completely revealed under oath, like Michael Hoeppner in Crookston.

Almost to a man, they are the keepers of horrible secrets they keep hidden so they can profit from them — sexually, financially or career-wise.

And they don’t give a damn — literally, a damn — about who is hurt or even dies, spiritually or physically.

As hard as it is to do — and believe us, we know it is extremely hard — these men have to be prayed for. They have collectively and individually brought the Church in America to the brink of near-total destruction.

The youth are abandoning the Faith in historic numbers; 70% reject the Real Presence; 95% reject all or nearly all of the moral teachings regarding sexuality.

Most of them are a few years away from standing before Jesus Christ and being judged.

Every day at Church Militant, in our public, corporate recitation of the Rosary, we offer it up for the bishops of the world, especially the bad ones.

These men, along with their vicious counterparts in Rome, attack the faithful, abuse good priests, misuse the material goods of the Church — and do it all in the name of mercy and encounter and meeting people where they are.

At this rate, the only “meeting of people where they are” will be in the fires of Hell, which does exist, Bp. Barron, and is chocked full of human souls — as the Mother of God told us.

EDITORS NOTE: This Church Militant video is republished with permission. © All rights reserved.

California-based ‘Church’ Ministry Indicted by Feds in Forced Labor Case

Here is the news about the disgusting abuse in the name of God.

From the AP story at the Hartford Current:

Leaders of California ministry charged with forced labor

(My first question when I saw the news was, what are the names of the leaders? Other than the leader of the scam, the others aren’t named in most of the US news stories.  But, as is so often the case the UK Daily Mail has them with pictures!—ed)

A dozen leaders of a California-based ministry were arrested Tuesday on charges that they used homeless people as forced labor, holding them in locked group homes and forcing them to panhandle up to nine hours a day, six days a week, U.S. prosecutors said.

The former pastor of Imperial Valley Ministries, Victor Gonzalez, and the others were arrested in San Diego, El Centro near the Southern California border with Mexico and Brownsville, Texas. They face charges of conspiracy, forced labor, document servitude and benefits fraud.

The El Centro-based ministry has about 30 affiliate church throughout the United States and Mexico and runs five group homes in Southern California, authorities said.

Dozens of victims, many of them homeless and some as young as 17, were lured to the group homes by the promise of food and shelter until they were able to return home.

Instead, the ministry that billed itself as rehabilitating drug addicts kept them inside deadbolted group homes, took their personal belongings and identification documents and refused to return them, stole their food stamp and welfare benefits and in some cases threatened to take away their children if they left, according to a grand jury indictment filed Aug. 23 and unsealed Tuesday.

“The indictment alleges an appalling abuse of power by church officials who preyed on vulnerable homeless people with promises of a warm bed and meals,” U.S. Attorney Robert Brewer said at a news conference. “These victims were held captive, stripped of their humble financial means, their identification, their freedom and their dignity.”

“Windows were nailed shut at some group home locations, leading a desperate 17-year-old victim to break a window, escape, and run to a neighboring property to call police,” said a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office.

More here.  And, see the indictment here.

Who are they?

Now check out the UK Daily Mail story, here, where we learn the names of the ‘new Americans’ ripping off extremely vulnerable homeless people.

Former IVM Pastor Victor Gonzalez, 40, of Brownsville, Texas was among those arrested in the probe along with Jose Demara Flores, aka Joe Flores, 52, Mercedes ‘Mercy Diaz’, 37, and Susan Christine Leyva, 39.

El Centro, California church leaders Arnoldo Bugarin, 47, Jose Gaytan, 47, Sonia Murillo, 51, Sergio Partida, 32, Ana Karen Robles-Ortiz, aka Karen Partida, 29, and Azucena Torres, aka Susana Bugarin, 43, were also booked.

San Diego leaders Jose ‘Chito’ Morales, 47, was arrested in San Diego.

So much for the entrepreneurial spirit of ‘new Americans.’

The Indictment is here.  If anyone finds some juicy bits that weren’t mentioned by the media, let me know.  For example, did money leave the country?

RELATED ARTICLES:

EDITORS NOTE: This Frauds, Crooks and Criminals column is republished with permission. © All rights reserved.

Video of an Exceptional Speech on ‘Green economy’ in the German Parliament by Alice Weidel, Co-leader of AfD

Posted by Eeyore

This is a must watch.

Direct link.

RELATED ARTICLES:

The Environmental Costs of Renewable Energy Are Staggering

Climate Kid Greta’s Global Strike Underway

41 Climate Doomsday Predictions That Didn’t Come True

Canada Deletes 100 Years of Inconvenient Temperature Data

145 companies just made it official: Leftist claptrap is more important than the U.S. Constitution

The United States’ Founders understood that law-abiding, decent people must be able to protect themselves from criminals and governments. They enshrined this right into the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Regretfully, leaders of 145 of America’s corporations – some of them industry and cultural leaders – just decided that sucking up to the “woke” leftist crowd is more important than human rights, constitutional guarantees, and evidence.

Complete cluelessness

From Twitter to Levi’s to Edelman and Eventbrite, these CEOs and co-founders wrote a letter demanding that Congress step in to restrict firearm ownership rights. They urged background checks and increased ability for law enforcement to restrict the rights of people interpreted as potentially dangerous – “red flag” laws.

Here’s the problem: Government has often missed obvious signs with current laws, never mind ones which put more responsibility on faceless bureaucrats and law enforcement officers. As we discussed earlier this month, the recent Odessa, Texas shooting happened a month after police were called about the alleged shooter threatening a neighbor with a rifle. Police never showed and the shooter never should have owned a firearm in the first place, according to media reports.

This is a common occurrence – the same government which these CEOs want us to trust to stop shooters completely missing obvious signs of future violence.

What about abuse of power?

Gun ownership is not a problem in America. The 2ndVote Gun Cam proves that a gun under constant surveillance NEVER commits a crime on its own, and the data shows that justified self-defense is a greater cause of gun deaths than homicide.

But these CEOs don’t get that. They want government to step in to stop crimes before they take place – thought-crime that can be valuable in keeping society safe, but can also easily be abused…especially if the citizenry is disarmed.

Take action

America’s corporations are increasingly taking an anti-constitutional approach to firearm ownership. We urge you to contact Twitter’s, Levi’s, and Eventbrite’s CEOs. Tell them to respect the human and constitutional right to self-defense by sticking to business instead of poking their noses into the morass of politics.

Why My Democrat Acquaintance May Change Parties

I was talking to an acquaintance yesterday who is a lifelong Democrat. He’s having real problems with the Democratic Party. It sounds more and more foreign to the party he’s always been a part of. I told him there is an alternative party and smiled.

He actually was open to the idea when he never, ever thought he would be. I was truly surprised. He’s clearly not a Trump fan, but the Democrats are not sounding like his party anymore and he thinks the Trump hysteria is overblown. I don’t know how widespread this is, but looking at the debate last night, possibly more than is realized — and more than will be captured in polls where people supporting Trump are not as likely to admit it as others.

Last night’s debate gives us insights as to why my acquaintance is considering what, for him, is a pretty drastic step.

Joe Biden, the frontrunner, is more than a gaffe machine, as everyone says. His mental capacities are waning as is his stamina. So at one point he said he wants social workers to come into your home to help you raise your kids, and turn on the radio, um, TV, um no, phones, no, listen to record players, “to hear words.” Literally play records and hear words. What the what? Nobody could figure what he was bungling towards. Research shows that when parents read to their kids and listen to classical music, the kids do better in school. Is that what Biden was trying to say? Unclear.

If so, that was badly mangled, and that is a constant. He keeps calling Bernie Sanders the President. He wants you to dial Joe 0101.com or something. He really doesn’t know. Actually, the list is long and expanding daily. It is clear that his mental capacities, never his strength, are diminishing. If you are a Democrat, you’d have to be very worried about him as your standard-bearer a year from now. If you are just an American, you’d be even more fearful of him as President.

My acquaintance cringes at Trump, agrees with some policies and really not some policies, but he agrees with fewer of Biden’s as the candidate moves leftward. Can he even trust that Biden will be capable to hold the office in January 2021?

More from the debate.

Elizabeth Warren wants to spend more and more of your money every debate. (Now it’s a $200 increase for Social Security beneficiaries.) This is just brazen vote-buying with your tax dollars. Her budget-busting Medicare For All plan is one signature move (along with free college and so many more giveaways of your money) but she refuses to answer the question on how she will pay for it except to wave the magic wand of rich people. Not enough, and she knows it and the media knows it. So even the Democrat media moderators pushed her on whether middle class taxes will go up. She refused to answer for the umpteenth time. They will. A lot. She is a tax and spend and tax more and spend more candidate. My friend is looking for fiscal responsibility, but getting the opposite in his party.

Bernie Sanders is like Warren, spending more and more of your money, but he’s a true believer somewhere between Socialist and Communist. (He’s also never had a real job except politics, but he did honeymoon in the Soviet Union — literally praising its glories. That sort of thing does not sit well with Democrats like my acquaintance.) He admits straight up that he will raise middle class taxes. Even with tax hikes, these programs will not be sustainable. He would be a wreck.

Beto O’Rourke wants to confiscate AR-15s and all the rest, and the crowd cheered wildly when he said it. Just the stupid Constitution written by white males stands in his way. He, along with others, say that we literally have a “white supremacist” in the White House. This line is akin to everyone to the right of center is a Nazi. It’s old, it’s a lie, and fewer and fewer outside the Democratic base and anti-Trump hysterics are buying it — even more so when Democrats wink and nod at actual, outright anti-semites and terrorist sympathizers in their party in Congress. My acquaintance is not at all onboard with this.

Pope Pete Buttigieg lectures Christians that if you don’t agree with his politics, your a bad Christian or not a Christian. The Bible is pretty clear that Christians aren’t supposed to do that. But then, he does this from a position of being married to a man and supporting abortion up to the second of birth, so he may not actually know what’s in the Bible, which will not stop him from virtue lecturing us.

Kamala Harris, Corey Booker, Andrew Yang, Julian Castro and the pack are all in tune to some degree with radical, anti-liberty, giant spending programs that will drag the country downward. They are favoring de facto open borders. Their foreign policies will almost certainly allow for the creation of another Al-Qaeda (which happened under Democrat Bill Clinton) and ISIS (which happened under Democrat Barack Obama) while distancing ourselves from stalwart allies such as Israel. They will let China run rampant in Asia and steal our technologies and business, and maybe do another “restart” with Russia so Putin can take more land as he did under Obama but has not under Trump. More money may be sent to the Iranian Mullahs and they would cripple the U.S. with some version of the loony and disastrous Green New Deal.

The last, least insane candidate left is Sen. Amy Klobuchar from Minnesota, and even she says some pretty radical things (for the Democratic Party of 10 years ago.) She also has zero chance at being nominated. The media (major nominators) ignore her and the base probably wonders if she’s a secret Nazi white supremacist.

I understand my acquaintance’s misgivings. He’s far from alone. And it may matter a lot in 14 months.

RELATED ARTICLE: Socialism Offers ‘Security’ of State Control But Demands Surrender of Individual Responsibility

EDITORS NOTE: This Revolutionary Act column is republished with permission. © All right reserved.

VIDEOS: Some material on the DOJ IG report on FISA abuse

Posted by Eeyore

DOJ watchdog submits draft report on alleged FISA abuses to AG Barr

AG Barr has received draft report on FISA abuse allegations

Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz on prosecutors moving forward on charges against McCabe

© All rights reserved.

Survivors Debunk Massage Parlor Myths in ‘Defend Dignity’ Video

When someone thinks of prostitution, they may not think of the hundreds of illicit massage parlors—also known as “body rub parlours”—that exist across the world. Instead of working on the street or in a typical brothel, these sexually-oriented businesses operate like a typical massage parlor with one exception: the women there are paid for sex in addition to massages.

Often, these parlors act as mere fronts for the owners’ real money maker: the women whose bodies are sold in order to make a profit.

There are many myths that surround this form of sexual exploitation. In Defend Dignity’s latest video, survivors of body rub parlors discuss and debunk many of those myths in order to shed light on the reality of illicit massage parlors: they are a vehicle for sexual exploitation and trafficking across Canada, where Defend Dignity is located, and across the world.

Seven “popular” (read: pervasive) myths about illicit body rub/massage parlors are broken down here both in the video and in the text below.

Myth #1: Body rub parlors are a safe alternative to street work

Massage parlors are not, in fact, safe for the women who work in them. Survivors describe being hit, spit on, choked, kicked, and beaten. One woman was fined by the owner when she ended a session early after being threatened by a client. Drug use was common and needed for many of the women to get through the day. Another survivor was so scared she didn’t feel it was safe for her to show her face.

Myth #2: Body rubs help to empower women

For many of the women working within illicit massage parlors, their work was anything but empowering. A typical day often looked like this: the women line up for a new client and he’d pick one of them from the lineup like he was choosing a piece of meat. The owners hire women based on looks, and one woman described being made to get naked for the interview. A survivor said, “the owner had power. The buyers had power. I was powerless.”

Myth #3: Men need sex and where else are they going to get it?

This is a common myth among many proponents for commercial sexual exploitation. Not only is it degrading to women, but the belief is also degrading to men. Men are fully capable of controlling their desires, and unfettered access to women’s bodies is not a right. This myth is only a way to justify the rampant male sexual entitlement inherent to the nature of commercial sexual exploitation. As one survivor said: “If sexual exploitation is the fire, then demand is the fuel. Get rid of the fuel, and the fire goes out.”

Myth #4: Proper regulation, oversight, and security measures will make it safer for women

This is another common myth for those who believe legalizing prostitution in all its forms will allow for safer environments and policies for the women involved in prostitution. However, research is showing this is not the case in places like Amsterdam and Germany, where prostitution is legalized, and even in the United States where women report being beaten, controlled, and exploited even when the work is considered legal. “I was exploited sexually, psychologically,” a survivor explains. “How do you regulate that?”

Myth #5: Body rub parlors provide economic opportunity and choice for women because “they can leave whenever they want”

Women who are involved in prostitution are frequently from the most vulnerable populations of society and have very little choice. Many are groomed, manipulated, and even trafficked into prostitution and often end up in illicit massage parlors by no choice of their own. And once in the business of body rubs, it can be almost impossible to get out. Survivors reported being threatened by their owners, beaten, and having no other job opportunities, forcing them to stay even though they wanted nothing more than to leave.

Myth #6: Licensing body rub parlors reduces organized crime

In Canada, where these women were working in body rub parlors, they reported seeing “human trafficking, sex trafficking, drugs, I saw it all.” Another woman was brought over on a false student visa. Illicit massage parlors are just another point in the vast web of sexual exploitation, and no amount of licensing will change that fact.

Myth #7: These are legitimate businesses owned by legitimate people

If these places were legitimate businesses, they certainly wouldn’t be exploiting women for profit. The problem isn’t the massages. It’s the blatant disregard for the women’s human dignity. These weren’t massage parlors: they were brothels and the owners were pimps.

Massage parlors that sell sex are profiting off the exploitation of women and they further fuel the demand for prostitution. Legitimizing and normalizing these types of establishments only serves to fuel the web of exploitation, human trafficking, and suffering for countless women, children, and even men. It’s time to stop and ask the question the video poses: “Should we be helping exploiters get rich or should we be helping women transition out and shut down these havens of sexual exploitation?”

To learn more about Defend Dignity, visit their website here. To read more about NCOSE’s own efforts against demand, visit our project page here.

COLUMN BY

Sommer Porter

COPYWRITER

Sommer Porter is a recent graduate of Brigham Young University, earning her bachelor’s degree in Sociology with a minor in International Development. She is passionate about solving important world issues such as sexual exploitation through non-profit work and advocacy. She has worked with several non-profits, including spending three months conducting a program evaluation for an organization based in Bulgaria. She now works as a copywriter at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation and hopes to pursue a graduate degree in the future.

RELATED ARTICLES:

No, Hustlers is Not Empowering for Women

“I was the first woman to publicly accuse gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar. But I was also abused in my own church.”

The Research-backed Links Between Pornography and Child Sexual Abuse

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

Insurance Discrimination against Victims of Domestic Violence

Domestic violence is any form of abuse done by a perpetrator against another person in a household setting. They often manifest as verbal, physical, emotional, and sexual forms of violence. These acts of violence are usually committed by an intimate partner against the other person. In other cases, they can also be abuse towards children, parents, and the elderly.

Domestic Violence Victims Statistics in the USA

Domestic violence victims statistics in United States is more common than you think. In a minute, 24 individuals experience physical abuse, rape, or stalking by an intimate partner. That accounts for more than 12 million domestic violence victims in a single year. Reportedly, 4 out of 5 of these domestic violence victims are women.

In terms of physical violence, nearly 1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men have been severely abused by an intimate partner. Also, almost half of both women and men have been psychologically abused by their intimate partner in their lifetime.

In terms of sexual violence, about 1 in 10 women have been raped by their partners. 81% of these women have reported significant impacts on their physical and mental health. Besides, about 1 in 71 men have been raped in their lifetime; and 35% of them reported similarly damaging impacts from the experience.

In terms of stalking and emotional distress, 1 in 6 women has been stalked in their lifetime. Of these women, two-thirds were stalked by a current or former partner. In contrast, 1 in 19 men have been stalked in their lifetime, and two-fifths of them were stalked by a partner or acquaintance. Many of them repeatedly receive unwanted calls and messages from their perpetrators.

Children likewise witness and experience domestic violence themselves. There is a child witness in 22% of domestic violence cases. 30-60% of abusive partners also abuse the children in the household.

Why is there Insurance Discrimination against Domestic Violence Victims?

These domestic violence victims’ statistics are relatively common. Many insurers of Medicaid plans have reported domestic violence as a reason for their insurance coverage. However, many insurance companies and employers deny, underwrite, exclude, or cancel the coverage for these domestic violence victims.

But why do insurance companies purposely deny claims to these victims of domestic violence? Let us delve in the different reasons insurers of Medicaid plans give as to why they invalidate the victims’ claims.

  1. Some insurers of Medicaid plans state that the victim makes a voluntary lifestyle choice. They argue that the victim has the choice to leave the perpetrator. However, a domestic violence attorney would rebut that domestic violence remains to be a crime. It is definitely not a lifestyle choice, as no one would choose to be abused.
  2. Some insurers of Medicaid plans argue that domestic violence is a risk factor that needs to be further assessed. They need to make sure that they give out affordable insurance. They would deny coverage to worthy claimants on the basis that this is the standard practice in the industry. However, a domestic violence attorney would argue that a person’s likelihood of being a victim should not be used to underwrite their insurance claims purposely.
  3. Some insurers of Medicaid plans may state that providing insurance to a victim grants the perpetrator to an incentive to kill and collect the policy for himself. They would argue that they could be sued for issuing a policy given the information from the domestic violence. However, they fail to realize that most perpetrators are after their assertion of dominance, and not for the money itself.

From the reasons provided above, it is clear that some insurers will do what they can to circumvent the insurance policies. Aside from knowing why they undermine the victims of domestic violence, we also need to understand how they can discriminate them.

Discriminatory practices against domestic violence victims

When applying for insurance, an individual needs a medical record, where the details of the domestic violence exist. These records are then documented in databases. The insurers can request to gain access to these databases as support for the domestic victim’s claims.

In effect, these insurance companies have the authority to penalize and harm the victims of domestic violence. For instance, they may underwrite the basis of the domestic victim’s past claims. In doing so, they would associate these prior claims as an underlying risk associated with the person and could purposely deny coverage based on abuse.

Another way that these insurance companies discriminate the domestic violence victims is through denial of the abuse-related claims. It may happen if the insurers find exclusions in the insurance policy for intentional acts, such as when a domestic perpetrator intentionally sets their house on fire to hurt the victim.

How to fight against discrimination

The government has undergone different actions to make insurance discrimination against domestic violence victims illegal. For instance, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) developed comprehensive four-model legislation to prohibit this discrimination. These four lines of insurance include acts against discrimination in health benefit plans, in disability insurance, in life insurance, and in property and causality insurance, all in favor of abused subjects.

Also, many states have adopted their own legislation that prevents discrimination against victims of domestic violence. Some of these policies vary among states. Likewise, the federal government took actions to encompass all lines of insurance, thus further cementing the model into actual policies that prohibit discrimination.

However, state and federal laws are not enough. Monitoring and implementing them with the help of domestic violence attorneys are a must. If the local state laws do not cover all forms of insurance, the domestic violence attorneys can advocate for legal reform. If there are violations with the insurance law, the domestic violence attorneys can report them and seek remedies.

The victims of domestic violence have suffered enough. In these ways, we can help them get their well-deserved insurance, and effectively fight the insurance discrimination against them.

France Betrays U.S. With $15 Billion Iran Bailout

France slapped the U.S. in the face with its $15 billion Iran bailout offer, which would serve to undo all the progress made by the sanctions imposed by the Trump administration on Iran. What should the consequences be?

Listen to Clarion’s National Security Analyst and Shillman Fellow Ryan Mauro discuss this on I24 News as well as the latest reports that Hezbollah has now moved its precision missiles intended for Israel into civilian areas.

Israel’s response to the Iranian and Hezbollah missile build up in Syria and Lebanon is now being publicly defended by Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.

Amid the missile build ups by Iran and Hezbollah have come the disclosure by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Iran performed experiments of nuclear weapons at a previously undisclosed site.

Watch here:

RELATED STORIES

Shocking Update: US Offers Bribe to Captain of Iranian Oil Tanker

Clarion EXCLUSIVE Report: Foreign Influence Ops on US Universities

Ditching Zarif: The Dramatic Story of the Iranian Reporter Who Defected…

Pompeo Blasts Iran For Attack On Saudi Oil Field: This Is Your Fault