THE CHURCH MILITANT
Ephesians 5:11-"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them". This Christian News Blog maintains a one stop resource of current news and reports of its own related to church, moral, spiritual, and related political issues, plus articles, and postings from other online discernment ministries, and media which share the aims to obey the biblical commands to shed light on and refute error, heresy, apostasy, cults, and spiritual abuse.
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
By his mere presence at Davos,
President Trump is forcing EU leaders to make a dangerous attack on
nation-states, a tremendous development given the mainstream media once
claimed globalism was a “conspiracy theory.”
Once again Trump is forcing the power structure to react to him and
his trademark nationalism, which reveals the inherent weakness of
globalism: it only takes one man to act as a lion to defeat the sheep of
a system designed by the Rockefellers and Rothchilds.
For decades, the globalists have gained
control by selling the false idea that national identity still exists as
they forged Europe into a superstate in which every nation is reduced
to a vassal of an unelected bureaucracy.
But now, thanks to Trump, Brexit and the
ongoing migrant crisis, average Europeans are starting to question why
they’re losing their cultures and identities to the EU – and they look
at Trump as a Howard Roark-style American cowboy whose undeterred
rebellion against a legion of doom inspires their own individual
thoughts and opinions.
This leaves the globalists in the
untenable position to directly attack nationalism, but it’ll only
backfire on them; the sparks of ideas have already ignited the minds of
Europeans who’ve spent years living under decay, which they now realize
is the direct result of globalism pushed by the very leaders who are
smearing Trump.
In short, Europeans view Trump’s rebellion as much needed change.
On the eve of President Donald
Trump’s visit to Davos, Switzerland, European leaders on Wednesday came
together to warn the world about the perils of nationalism. European
Leaders warned the World Economic Forum on the dangerous implications of
slipping back to nationalism, while defending free trade, which
president Trump has opposed, and encouraged global co-operation between
nations.
This statement reeks of hypocrisy:
you can’t have independent nations without a hint of nationalism, but
the hypocrisy makes sense once you start thinking like a globalist.
For example, European globalists define “nations” as vassals of
the EU. Just look up the definition of a vassal, then compare it with
the headlines reporting how the EU is requiring migrant quotas on member
countries.
And in another example of hypocrisy,
the New York Times is now defending globalism barely a year after
claiming it was a “conspiracy theory.”
Those conspiratorial beliefs were
bolstered when former President George Bush celebrated the end of the
Cold War in a 1991 speech by saying it was the dawn of a “new world
order.” His use of the phrase was taken as proof by many that a
globalist conspiracy really was afoot.
“It was very easy for them,
especially because he was the one who said it, to take that ball and run
with it,” Mr. Pitcavage said. “From that point on, the phrase became
the shorthand for that kind of globalism conspiracy theory.”
What a difference Trump’s first year
in office made. Now the New York Times now admits globalism does exist
because, like EU leaders, the mainstream media is forced to defend it.
Mr. Trump, who is to arrive later
this week, is drawing a mix of breathless anticipation, anxiousness and
downright agitation among a crowd that has long considered him an
outsider.
Davos has always been a playground for elites who believe in globalism,
climate change and free trade. The cast of multinational leaders this
year ranges from chief executives like Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase to
philanthropists like Bill Gates and policymakers like Angela Merkel,
Germany’s chancellor. Over the years, it has attracted artists like Bono
and Matt Damon.
FULL SPEECH: President Donald Trump Davos Speech 1/26/18
President Trump addressed world leaders, chief executives,
celebrities, and other global elites in a major speech at the World
Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The Davos conference is an annual
gathering of around 2,500 of the most influential political and economic
leaders from around the world. President Trump is expected to promote
his "America First" policy at this gathering, which could be
controversial given the pro-globalist bent of the Davos forum. Watch our
LIVE COVERAGE of President Trump's Davos speech, including a pre-show
and post-show where we read your comments live on the air.
President Trump has Dinner with European Business Leaders, Davos, Switzerland
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
LANSING, Mich. —A former gymnast who had been sexually abused by sports
doctor Larry Nassar when she was 15 presented the gospel on Wednesday in
delivering her victim impact statement in court.
Rachael Denhollander was the first woman to speak out in 2016 after
USA Gymnastics was accused of failing to properly handle sexual assault
accusations lodged by young gymnasts, and she was also one of the last
to have a say this week as Nassar was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in
prison.
“Larry, you have become a man ruled by selfish, perverted desires. A
man defined by his daily choices over, and over again, to feed that
selfishness and perversion,” she said as she addressed Nassar during her
36-minute statement. “You chose to pursue your wicked desires, no
matter what it cost others. The opposite of what you have done,
therefore, is choosing to love sacrificially, no matter what it costs
me.”
Denhollander noted that she had observed Nassar previously bring his
Bible to court and that he had said that he had prayed for forgiveness.
“If you have read the Bible you carry, you know that the definition
of sacrificial love portrayed in it is of God Himself loving so
sacrificially that He gave up everything to pay the penalty for sin He
did not commit. By His grace, I too, choose to love—no matter what it
costs,” she said. The 32-year-old, who is now married and works as an attorney, then warned Nassar that he must repent of his evil deeds.
“You spoke of praying for forgiveness, but Larry, if you have read
the Bible you carry, then you know that forgiveness does not come by
doing good things, as if good deeds can wipe out the incredible evil you
have committed,” Denhollander outlined. “It comes from repentance,
which requires facing and acknowledging the truth about what you have
done, in all its utter depravity and horror. Without mitigation. Without
excuse. Without pretending you can cover it with good things.”
“The Bible you carry says it is better for a millstone to be tied
around your neck and you thrown into a lake than for you to make even
one child stumble. And Larry, you have wounded hundreds of children,”
she continued. “The Bible you carry speaks of a final judgment where all
of God’s wrath, in all its eternal terror, is poured out on men like
you. Should you ever reach the point of truly facing what you have done,
the weight of guilt in the face of the horrific evil you committed,
will be crushing.”
After explaining the consequences of sin, Denhollander presented
the grace of the Lord as Christ took the place of undeserving sinners.
“And that is what makes the gospel of Christ so sweet. Because it
gives hope and grace where none should be found,” she outlined. “And I
pray you experience the soul-crushing weight of guilt someday, so that
it can be followed by true repentance and forgiveness from God.” According to reports, Nassar dabbed at his eyes during some of the
victim impact statements that were delivered over the seven-day hearing,
and other times he sat emotionless. Over 150 women who state that they
were abused by Nassar while coming to him for treatment spoke during the
sentencing hearing.
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
We have seen this all over the country, and in every case, the school
officials insist that the school is simply teaching the tenets of
Islam, not proselytizing for them. But it is noteworthy that public
schools never seem to teach, say, that “Jesus is the Son of God and
Savior of the world” without qualification. Whenever public schools
teach about Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc., they are
careful not to teach what adherents believe as established fact. But
when it comes to Islam, its tenets are being taught as established fact
in public schools all over the country. There should be a federal
investigation of this phenomenon, but of course, there probably will not
be.
“Mom Says NJ School Assignment Recruited for Islam,” by Nick Rummell, Courthouse News Service, January 24, 2018:
NEWARK, N.J. (CN) – A New Jersey middle school that
caught flak last year for requiring students to watch videos on Islam
was hit Tuesday with a federal complaint. Represented by the Thomas More Law Center, parent Libby Hilsenrath
says a teacher assigned her 12-year-old’s seventh-grade class at Chatham
Middle School to watch two videos at home with proselytizing messages. The first video,
“Intro to Islam,” is set to a musical version of a poem that describes
“Christians and Jews as ‘infidels’ and prais[es] Muhammad in gruesome
detail for slaughtering them,” according to the complaint. Calling it a “conversion video,” Hilsenrath says the 5-minute
assignment was “replete with biased, chastising statements encouraging
the students … to follow the Quran and become Muslim.” “Muhammad (Peace be upon him) is the last & final Messenger of God,” one such unqualified message in the video states. In addition to presenting the religious teachings of Islam as facts,
Hilsenrath says the video includes a link where students can download
“Qaseedah Burdah,” the song with references to killing infidels. Hilsenrath notes that the second video,
an explanation of the five pillars of Islam, is a cartoon where a
Muslim child explains the tenants of Islam to his non-Muslim friend,
then ends with both boys walking off to “learn how to pray.”
“Due to the fact that these doctrinal messages calling for conversion
to Islam were included in video format with vivid images and text, they
possess greater communicative impact and are more likely to be accepted
by the students viewing them than information that is spoken in a
classroom or even written in a book,” the complaint states.
A worksheet component of the assignment meanwhile focused on the
shahada, what Hilsenrath calls “the Islamic conversion creed and
prayer.”
“Clearly, seventh graders were given a sugarcoated, false depiction
of Islam,” the Thomas More Law Center said in a statement. “They were
not informed of the kidnappings, beheadings, slave-trading, massacres,
and persecution of non-Muslims, nor of the repression of women — all
done in the name of Islam.”
Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the law center,
issued a statement as well. “After watching this video, I can’t imagine
any reasonable person saying this is not Islamic indoctrination,” he
said.
Questioning why the curriculum for the Middle East and North Africa
unit left out other religions, the complaint notes that “there are
approximately 16 million Christians in the Middle East and approximately
6.4 million Jews living in the Middle East.”
Likewise the religious beliefs of Christianity are not covered in the
unit on Latin America, a region that is 88 percent Christian, and
Eastern religions are not covered in the unit on Southeast Asia,
according to the complaint.
“Defendants assailed the First Amendment … by forcing children to
endure the promotion of Islam in their public schools, including an
explicit and direct call to the children for conversion to the religion
of Islam,” the complaint states.
Hilsenrath says she and another parent emailed their concerns to school officials in early 2017. Fox News invited them to appear
on Tucker Carlson’s show that February. The pair joined many other
parents at a packed March 2017 open meeting of the Chatham school board.
School officials defended the curriculum at the meeting, saying it
met the state requirements and that it was untrue that Islam was the
only religion taught to seventh graders.
But Hilsenrath says the school’s conduct betrays hostility toward
Christians. When confronted about the curriculum in January 2017,
according to the complaint, Chatham’s social studies department chair
sent an email where he linked to what he called a “priceless” clip
from TV’s “The West Wing.” In the scene, the president character mocks a
fundamentalist Christian about various tenants of the Old Testament,
such as its endorsement of slavery….
______________________________________________________ THE VIDEOS FROM THIS ARTICLE:
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Who decides what constitutes “hate speech” and what doesn’t? That is
the all-important question that Leftists who call for “hate speech” to
be restricted in various ways consistently ignore. The grim reality is
that those in power can label any opinion they dislike as “hate speech,”
and proscribe it accordingly. That is the pathway to an unbridled
tyranny. That’s why the freedom of speech is absolutely essential for a
free society. But YouTube and its cohorts are rushing to destroy it by
means of Orwellian initiatives of this kind.
“YouTube is investing $5 million in creators who ‘counter hate and promote tolerance,’” by Lizzie Plaugic, The Verge, January 24, 2018 (thanks to David):
YouTube announced today
that it plans to invest $5 million in its Creators for Change program,
in an effort to help members “counter hate and promote tolerance.”
Creators for Change, which launched in 2016, is a collective of 39
YouTubers who use the platform to discuss and promote important issues
around the world.
The members of Creators for Change work on “impact projects”
to raise awareness about things like police brutality, bullying,
xenophobia, and racism. The $5 million investment will come in the form
of “production and marketing support,” including several production
grants, according to YouTube. The company also says it hopes to bring
more creators into Creators for Change in 2018.
The fund is a small amount for a company that has an estimated value of $75 billion, but it’s an indication that YouTube wants to put more effort into ensuring its creators use their platforms for good. As Polygon points out, the investment comes just a few months after some members of Creators for Change said it was “disheartening” to see YouTube’s more controversial streamers earning huge amounts of money and views.
“It’s our duty to not promote just the negative, but the positive,” YouTuber Sam Saffold told Polygon in September. “There are so many positive YouTubers who don’t get the attention they deserve.”
YouTube has also been criticized for videos that include hate speech and terrorist propaganda. This summer, the European Union approved a set of proposals that would make companies like YouTube responsible for blocking the hate speech published on their platforms….
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Who is Jesus Christ? Internet users are posting videos of Google products refusing to answer the simple question. In one video uploaded Wednesday, Google fails to answer but provides
an in-depth summary when asked about other religious figures including
Allah.
A Facebook user who asked the same question in November 2017 received a different response.
In the older footage, Google answered, “Regardless of what you might
think of him personally, Jesus Christ stands as the central figure in
the history of Western Civilization.”
The answer SHOCKED ME!!! 🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Posted by Joshua Feuerstein on Saturday, November 25, 2017
Today when asked about Jesus, Google gives no reply and instead sends users to a Jehovah’s Witness website.
David Sams, a resident of Brentwood, Tennessee attested, “I even asked
Google who is David Sams? Google knew who I was, but Google did not know
who Jesus was, Google did not know who Jesus Christ was, and Google did
not know who God was.”
Why are these products omitting the most historical figure in the Western world?
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
The 50,000 text messages between two lead FBI investigators who
worked on the Clinton e-mail case are filled with damning revelations.
Among those is a thread that shows that the two agents — Peter Stzrok
and his mistress, Lisa Page — knew ahead of time (and while the
“investigation” was still ongoing) that then-FBI Director Comey was
planning to give Clinton a pass. The text messages at issue are dated July 1, 2016, and address the
“timing” of the infamous tarmac meeting between former President Bill
Clinton and then Attorney General Loretta Lynch. That meeting took place
on June 27, 2016 and has been seen as evidence of the Obama FBI and
Department of Justice protecting Hillary Clinton from anything
resembling a real investigation. During his testimony before Congress on June 8, 2017, Comey said that
the Clinton/Lynch tarmac meeting and Lynch’s instructions to refer to
the Clinton probe as a “matter” and not an “investigation” influenced
his decision not to recommend indIctment.
Since both Strzok and Page were involved in the “investigation” into
Hillary Clinton’s illegal use of an unsecured, unauthorized, private
e-mail server and account to send and receive at least 2,079
classified e-mails during her tenure as secretary of state, their text
messages on the subject should carry more than a little weight —
especially since these text messages were never intended to see the
light of day. The text messages between the two agents appear to indicate that — on
July 1, 2016, four days after the meeting and four days before Comey’s
recommendation against an indictment in the “matter” — they both already
knew what the outcome would be. Referring to the tarmac meeting, Stzrok
wrote, “Timing looks like hell.” Page replied, “Yeah, that is awful
timing,” adding, “It's a real profile in couragw [sic], since she
[Lynch] knows no charges will be brought.”
Given all of the evidence of both Clinton’s crimes and the
skulduggery going on between the FBI and Department of Justice during
the dog-and-pony show that was passed off to the American people as an
investigation, it is apparent that there was a decision — made before
all the facts were known and even before many key witnesses (including
Clinton herself) were interviewed — to clear Clinton of any wrongdoing.
As this writer said in an article about the order from Attorney General Jeff Sessions for the Department of Justice to investigate the FBI, the word for that is not “investigation,” it is “cover-up.” These text messages add another layer to the already growing body of
evidence that what Lynch called a “matter” and the FBI originally called
an “investigation” was little more than a fix for Clinton. There will
likely be more evidence of that as further revelation come to light. _________________________________________________
High-ranking Obama Administration hold-overs of the Deep State have surreptitiously planned to overthrow Donald Trump.
#ReleasetheMemo – Why Isn’t Mainstream Media Covering This Matter?
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Top abortion advocate Cecile Richards (shown) plans to step down as
the head of Planned Parenthood after 12 years at the helm of the
nation's leading abortion provider, reported the Washington Post January 24. While neither Richards nor Planned Parenthood has confirmed the news,
a spokesperson for the abortion giant said that Richards planned to “to
discuss 2018 and the next steps for Planned Parenthood’s future at the
upcoming board meeting.”
The Post reported that rumors of Richards' retirement from
the “non-profit” have been circulating through the liberal political
world for several months, and according to “people with knowledge of the
decision, there was talk before the 2016 election that if Hillary
Clinton won the presidency, Richards was ready to move on.”
During Richard's tenure Planned Parenthood proudly ended the lives of
over 300,000 pre-born babies every year — 3.5 million abortions in all.
During that same time frame Planned Parenthood raked in billions of
dollars in tax revenues.
The abortion giant's own annual report for 2016-17 shows that during
that time it was responsible for 321,384 abortions while reaping $543.7
million in government subsidies — nearly 40 percent of the
organization's $1.46 billion budget.
Additionally, during that reporting period abortions made up 96
percent of Planned Parenthood’s pregnancy services, while prenatal
services, miscarriage care, and adoption referrals accounted for only
four percent. In fact, for every adoption referral Planned Parenthood
made during 2016, it performed more than 82 abortions.
Pro-life leader Troy Newman suggested that Richards departure may
have been expedited by President Trump's aggressive stand against
abortion compared to that of Obama, along with an ongoing investigation
by the Department of Justice into Planned Parenthood practices.
“Planned Parenthood is under investigation by the Department of
Justice for illegally trafficking in aborted baby remains and other
crimes,” noted Newman, who heads the group Operation Rescue. “Could it
be that Richards is getting out while she can, before indictments are
handed down?”
David Daleiden of the Center for Medical Progress, the organizations
whose investigation uncovered Planned Parenthood's harvesting of baby
body tissue for sale, recalled that during her tenure “Cecile Richards
was the most devoted practitioner of Planned Parenthood’s ‘out of sight,
out of mind’ mantra to cover up their barbaric abortion business from
the public. As Planned Parenthood faces federal criminal investigation
from the FBI and DOJ for selling aborted baby hearts, lungs, livers, and
brains, Richards’ departure shows that the old strategy is no longer
working — the secret is out that Planned Parenthood is a
taxpayer-sponsored crime syndicate of industrial-scale child killing,
and even Cecile Richards can no longer put a friendly spin on it.”
With the nation having a pro-life president and increasing numbers of
states passing legislation designed to protect the unborn and their
mothers, “Planned Parenthood is swimming against the tide of history,”
said Marjorie Dannenfelser of the pro-life organization Susan B. Anthony
List. “Its public favor is on the wane as pro-life momentum is on the
rise. Her successor is left with an impossible job: sell a
scandal-laden, failing organization that ... provides pregnant women
with prenatal care only 2.3 percent of the time.”
Putting a spiritual spin on Richards' impending departure from the
abortion giant, Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life commented, “I
always say a prayer when someone like Cecile Richards has a change in
her job, because it can be an opportunity for her to evaluate more
clearly what she has been doing and why.” Pavone added, however, that
the larger issue “is not the personnel who lead Planned Parenthood, but
the corrupt and criminal enterprise that the organization itself is.
Whoever serves it, in any capacity, is wounded and distorted in
conscience. The whole enterprise needs to be closed.”
______________________________________________________
Cecile Richards Announces Resignation From Planned Parenthood, But Says She’s
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
WASHINGTON —Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards announced on
Friday that she is resigning from her position with the abortion and
contraception giant, but in no way recanted her work with the organization.
Rather, Richards praised Planned Parenthood and spoke glowingly
about the 12 years that she had spent leading the sexually-centered
business.
“Twelve years ago, I joined Planned Parenthood to fight for a world
where every woman can live her best life, and together, we’ve built a
movement to protect reproductive health,” she said in a video statement.
“And I could not be prouder.”
“From my first moment at Planned Parenthood, I have been in awe of
our brave doctors, clinicians, staff and volunteers who provide care to
one in five American women,” Richards said. “And to all of you who count
on Planned Parenthood, know that this organization will be here for
you, no matter where you live, how much money you make, who you love or
where you come from.”
She claimed that Planned Parenthood has been an integral part of the
country and has helped to save lives as rates for unintended pregnancy
and abortion have fallen in recent years.
“Planned Parenthood has been a part of the fabric of this country for
100 years, and thanks to you, it will be here for 100 more,” Richards
remarked. “… Planned Parenthood has helped tens of millions take control
of their health and their futures providing birth control, pap smears,
breast exams, STI testing and treatment, and safe and legal abortion.”
“Today, America is at a 30-year low for unintended pregnancies, and
historic lows for abortion and teen pregnancy. This is one of the most
important public health success stories in America’s history, and it
would not have been possible without the life-changing and life-saving
work of Planned Parenthood,” she asserted.
Richards stated that it was an “honor” to be both a patient and
president of Planned Parenthood, and advised that she will be a
“lifelong supporter and champion” of the organization’s purposes.
She has not yet advised what her plans are going forward, or why she
decided to leave, other than remarking in an email, “[T]he time has come
for me to move on to my next chapter—and for new voices to take the
lead at Planned Parenthood.”
The Center for Medical Progress (CMP), which has been one of the most
prominent opponents of Planned Parenthood—and exposed the
organization’s practice of transferring the body parts of aborted babies
to for-profit biomedical companies—opined that Richards’ announcement
could signal problems within the organization.
“After CMP’s revealing undercover videos of Planned Parenthood’s top
abortion doctors and the damning findings of multiple Congressional
probes, Richards’ departure shows that the old strategy is no longer
working as Planned Parenthood faces federal criminal investigation for
selling aborted baby hearts, lungs, livers, and brains,” said director
David Daleiden. “Planned Parenthood’s new leadership should commit to
full transparency with the Department of Justice and with the public,
and to ending this taxpayer-funded criminal abortion enterprise once and
for all.” As previously reported,
according to its annual report, Planned Parenthood performed 321,384
abortions during the 2016-2017 fiscal year. Government funding was the
largest source of revenue for the organization, as it received over $543
million in the year alone, down slightly from $554 million in
2015-2016. $532 million came from private contributions and grants. With
all the sources of income combined, Planned Parenthood generated over
$1.45 billion in revenue throughout the fiscal year. Sanger’s newsletter “The Woman Rebel.”And
despite its expenditures, which included $75 million to “strengthen and
secure Planned Parenthood,” $47 million for sexual education, and $40
million on public policy, the abortion giant still garnered a $98.5
million dollar profit, labeled as “excess of revenue,” up from $77
million the year prior and $58 million in 2014. As previously reported, Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger,
who was a staunch advocate of eugenics, made a correlation between birth
control and the purification of the races, referring to those with
disabilities as being “morons,” “idiots” and “imbeciles.” “Birth control itself, often denounced as a violation of natural law,
is nothing more or less than the facilitation of the process of weeding
out the unfit, of preventing the birth of defectives or of those who
will become defectives,” she wrote in “Woman and the New Race.” “If we
are to make racial progress, this development of womanhood must precede
motherhood in every individual woman.” “The emergency problem of segregation and sterilization must be faced
immediately,” Sanger also contended in her publication “The Pivot of
Civilization.” “Every feeble-minded girl or woman of the hereditary
type, especially of the moron class, should be segregated during the
reproductive period. Otherwise, she is almost certain to bear imbecile
children, who in turn are just as certain to breed other defectives.”
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) sent a message to
the White House through an aide on January 22, informing President Trump
that he was retracting the offer he made on January 19 to approve more
than $1.6 billion for construction of a wall along the southern border
with Mexico. Schumer “took it off,” Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the assistant
Democratic leader said on January 23. “He called the White House
yesterday and said it’s over.”
The offer was made during negotiations to end a government shutdown
by approving a temporary funding measure through February 8. Senators
voted 81-18 on January 22 to pass the temporary funding measure in
exchange for assurances from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
(R-Ky.) to work on a deal to grant legal status to roughly 700,000
youthful aliens protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood
Arrivals (DACA) program.
“The wall offer is off the table,” Schumer told reporters on January 23. “That was part of a package” that’s now defunct.
“It was the first thing the president and I talked about. The thought
was that we could come to an agreement that afternoon [of the 19th],
the president would announce his support, and the Senate and the House
would get it done and it would be on the president’s desk,” Schumer
continued. “He didn’t do that. So we’re going to have to start on a new
basis and so the wall offer is off the table.”
Later that day, Trump responded by tweeting: “Cryin’ Chuck
Schumer fully understands, especially after his humiliating defeat, that
if there is no Wall, there is no DACA. We must have safety and
security, together with a strong Military, for our great people!”
Trump also tweeted that day: “Nobody knows for sure that the
Republicans & Democrats will be able to reach a deal on DACA by
February 8, but everyone will be trying....with a big additional focus
put on Military Strength and Border Security. The Dems have just learned
that a Shutdown is not the answer!” USA Today reported that the White House provided a different
account of the January 19 meeting, stating that Schumer offered
legislative approval for the wall, but not actual funding.
Hogan Gidley, a White House spokesman, said on January 23 that the
Schumer offer “never existed.” “You can’t rescind money you never really
offered in the first place,” Gidley said on Fox News.
Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) disputed Schumer’s recollection of the
meeting wherein the border wall offer was discussed. “They claim that
some crazy deal was made,” Cotton said of Democrats. “And then when we
say no deal was made, they accuse Republicans and the president of
reneging.”
After the talks between the president and the Senate minority leader
broke down, the Senate rejected a short-term spending bill, creating a
partial government shutdown. Senate Democrats voted against the measure
because it did not include protections for the “Dreamers,” young people
brought into the country by illegal-alien parents, who now have
temporary legal status under the Obama-era DACA program.
A report from NPR noted that last week, White House Chief of Staff
John Kelly told a caucus of Hispanic lawmakers that he had persuaded the
president that his long-promised border wall was unnecessary. As a
candidate, Kelly said, Trump was not “fully informed” of the border
situation when he pledged to build the wall and since then, the
president's views on the subject had “evolved.”
The chief of staff reiterated those same points during an interview on Fox News, NPR reported.
With Republicans holding a slim majority in the Senate (51 out of 100
senators), one may wonder why all of these extensive negotiations are
necessary in order to approve a budget. It is true that not every
Republican was on board with the recent budget deal. In a recent
article, we quoted Senator Rand Paul’s explanation for why he could not
vote for the continuing resolution: “I’m just not voting to exceed the
spending caps, and I’m not voting for $700 billion deficits annually.”
However, even if the budget bill could have been improved to the point
where Paul and two other Republicans who were opposed to it could have
voted for it, Democrats still would have been able to sustain a
filibuster to stop it.
Under current Senate rules, a majority of 51 senators is not enough
to pass legislation that the minority party wants to filibuster. It is
for this reason that journalist Art Harman contributed an opinion
article to The Hill on January 24 in which he raised the following points:
Why on earth is the Senate minority
leader in the loop at all in a Republican Senate, much less effectively
sitting in the driver’s seat? It’s because of the charred remnants of
the old Senate tradition, still called the “filibuster,” long after the
requirement to demonstrate rhetorical stamina was eliminated.
Until the rules were changed in 1970, use
of the filibuster was incredibly rare, but today, every bill is
effectively held hostage to a 60-vote majority found nowhere in the
Constitution. The effect has been to neuter the Senate and thereby the
House. To force Republicans to write bills for Senator Schumer’s
approval rather than for Americans who want to secure our border, restore our nation’s defense, bring home our jobs and repeal and replace ObamaCare.
After providing several examples of how the filibuster has obstructed
the Trump administration’s efforts to accomplish its objectives,
including eliminating ObamaCare and obtaining Senate confirmation for
some of Trump’s appointees, Harman observed:
There’s lots of talk about a return to
regular order and passing real budgets, but as long as the legislative
filibuster survives, there is little chance we will ever see anything
but perpetual continuing resolutions.
Harman noted that had not the Senate eliminated the filibuster for
votes on Supreme Court nominees, Neil Gorsuch would never have been
confirmed as an associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. (Gorsuch’s
nomination received 54 votes of approval.)
Harman quoted one of Trump’s tweets expressing support for exercising
what is called “the nuclear option” (eliminating the filibuster): If
the “stalemate continues, Republicans should go 51% (Nuclear Option) and
vote on real, long-term budget, no C.R.s!”
The article concluded by admonishing members of Congress: “If the
Senate ends the legislative filibuster, Congress had better pass a
budget that includes full funding for the wall, and then pass actual
budgets by September 30 in regular order.”
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
As a result of the FBI failing to preserve text messages between two
senior FBI agents who appear to have worked to protect Hillary Clinton
during the “investigation” into her e-mail scandal, Attorney General
Jeff Sessions ordered the Justice Department on Monday to investigate
the FBI. The missing texts are from a crucial five-month period covering both
the presidential transition and the beginning of the Mueller probe. Both
of the agents — Peter Strzok and his mistress, Lisa Page — were
involved in both the Clinton investigation and the Mueller probe. While
those five months of text messages are “missing,” another 50,000
messages between the two have been found that show — among other things:
• The couple was part of a “secret society” of highly placed people in both the FBI and the Department of Justice. • That “secret society” is working against President Trump. • Strzok texted Page about “an insurance policy” to get rid of Trump if he were elected. • Both Strzok and Page were “pressured” to “wrap up” the Clinton
investigation as soon as it became apparent that Trump would secure the
GOP nomination. • Strzok and Page appear to have known ahead of time that Comey would not recommend indictment against Clinton.
The attorney general’s order to launch this investigation comes
amidst a plethora of other similar investigations. This investigation
will focus on the FBI’s failure to preserve the text messages, which are
seen as evidence in an already ongoing investigation into the FBI’s
mishandling of the Clinton e-mail investigation. In that investigation,
there appears to have been a decision — before all the facts were known
and even before many key witnesses (including Clinton herself) were
interviewed — to clear Clinton of any wrongdoing. There is a word for
that. It is not “investigation.” It is “cover-up.”
In his statement about the investigation, Sessions said that his
office is determined to recover the missing text messages and to
“confirm with certainty” why they “are not now available.” That
statement said, in part:
We will leave no stone unturned to
confirm with certainty why these text messages are not now available to
be produced and will use every technology available to determine whether
the missing messages are recoverable from another source.
His statement also made it clear that those responsible will be held
accountable and that “if any wrongdoing” is discovered, “appropriate
legal disciplinary action” will be taken. From that statement:
I have spoken to the Inspector General
and a review is already underway to ascertain what occurred and to
determine if these records can be recovered in any other way. If any
wrongdoing were to be found to have caused this gap, appropriate legal
disciplinary action measures will be taken.
The New American previously reported that the text messages
that are known reveal the existence of a “secret society” that both
Strzok and Page belong to. That “secret society” is comprised of highly
placed people in both the FBI and Department of Justice and works
against President Trump. Leading Republicans are demanding action to uncover that “secret society.”
Besides the demands of leading Republicans and the new investigation ordered by Sessions, there is also the four-page
memo circulated among the House of Representatives showing systemic
abuses of of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
Again, leading Republicans — who could not discuss the specifics of the
memo, because it is classified — have led the charge, demanding that the
memo be made public. They say that if it is made public, government
officials will “go to jail.”
All of these revelations connect — in one way or another — to the
Trump/Russia collusion narrative put forth by leading Democrats that is
responsible for the probe led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. That
probe — and the lies on which it stands — are coming unraveled as more
information comes to light.
Even Strzok — who held a lead role in the Mueller probe — admitted he
does not believe there is anything to the allegations of Trump/Russia
collusion. In a text message to Page in May 2017, he wrote that he was
hesitant to join the probe because “you and I both know the odds are
nothing.”
The outcome of these multiple investigations may help finally prove that.
