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Friday, April 24, 2020

SEDITIOUS U.S. PRESS APPEASES CHINA BUT ATTACKS TRUMP

China Threatens Free Constitutional Republic: Attack to our Nation from Without, iStock-1202233296
China Threatens Free Constitutional Republic: Attack to our Nation from Without
SEDITIOUS U.S. PRESS APPEASES CHINA 
BUT ATTACKS TRUMP
BY ROGER KATZ 
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research 
purposes:
U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)- There is a viral plague in our midst. It is a thing both tenacious and relentless; implacable and ruthless; furtive and evasive; grievously painful and deadly. It is a scourge, spreading rapidly across our Nation, suffocating the very life out of Americans, and crippling our Nation. What is this debilitating virus?

No, we are not talking about the Chinese Coronavirus.

Sure, Premier Xi Jinping’s Coronavirus is horrific. And, it has become a useful, effective bioweapon of war for Xi, whether the unleashing of the viral plague on the U.S. and the world was the Regime’s intention or not.
There is much speculation about the movement of the Chinese Coronavirus plague in our Nation and much disagreement as to the best ways to deal with it and to protect our people and also to get our economy up and running. But one thing is clear and indisputable: The Chinese Coronavirus has ravaged our land and our people. And it is devastating our economy. It is everything loathsome, vile, disgusting, and deadly. Because of this “Gift” from China, our lives are changing, perhaps forever.
But as dreadful as the Chinese virus is, there is another virus in our midst that is more horrific; more rapacious and voracious; more ferocious and tenacious; and more noxious, and it has been with us much longer than the Coronavirus. It is a parasitic virus, a silent plague; carefully cultivated and nourished, right here at home. It doesn’t attack and destroy the body. It latches onto and destroys the mind; the spirit; the soul. Many Americans have a natural immunity to it. Most, unfortunately, do not. It is endemic to our Nation but rarely mentioned. There is no known cure for those who contract the disease. And, for those who succumb to it, the virus turns a person into a numb, unthinking automaton, an obedient drone.
And this parasitic virus has a vile, odious feature the China Coronavirus doesn’t have. It is seductive.
This parasitic virus in our midst is the mainstream Press. It is a plague upon us; one that has been with us for decades.
Where did this plague come from? Disturbingly, it arose from and took root in the U.S. Constitution itself through a corruption of the First Amendment.
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
The freedom of speech is, of course, a fundamental, unalienable, immutable right: a right that exists intrinsically in man, bestowed by a loving Creator in man. Is freedom of the Press distinct from the freedom of speech? Legal thinkers in the past didn’t think so. In fact——
“Through most of our history the distinction has not seemed important because the terms freedom of speech and freedom of press have been used more or less interchangeably. In the last decade, however, the press has begun to assert rights arising specifically from the press clause—the right to maintain the confidentiality of sources, the right of access to prisons and courtrooms, the right to keep police from searching newsrooms, and the right to prevent libel plaintiffs from inquiring into journalists’ thought processes. Thus far the Supreme Court has declined to give independent significance to the phrase ‘freedom of the press.’ It has refused to give the press any more protection than an individual enjoys under the speech clause.” The Origins Of The Press Clause., 30 UCLA L. Rev. 455, February 1983, by David A. Anderson, Professor of Law, The University of Texas at Austin.
If the freedom of the Press exists implicitly in the freedom of speech, why did the founders reference it in the Constitution? We guess they did so to emphasize the import of “free Press Speech,” apart from general public “free Speech,” evidently assuming that the energies of a free Press would be directed to safeguarding the Nation. Many of the founders therefore trusted in an unencumbered, unrestrained, unconstrained free Press. Many did; but not all.
But the founders did, as one, foresee the innate tendency of the federal Government to accumulate power unto itself. And that concern informed the founders’ blueprint for the Nation. They concluded an unshackled free Press, in tandem with the Second Amendment right of the people to keep and bear arms, were two effective guardians against a tyrannical Government. But did the founders misapprehend the Press? Did they fail to see that an unrestrained Press, far from safeguarding a free Constitutional Republic, would endanger it?
The founders correctly deduced the tendency of the federal Government to unlawfully amass power, even as the Constitution's first three Articles, carefully delineated the powers and authority that each Branch may lawfully wield. The founders also correctly deduced that an armed citizenry would effectively counter encroaching tyranny. But the founders evidently did not believe a Press, far from serving as a mechanism to ward off tyranny, might one day become the agent of it, even as some, notably Thomas Jefferson, harbored serious misgivings about Press Freedom as reflected in his writings. In those writings Jefferson expressed uncertainty, even equivocation, despite the fact that many commentators, today, deny this, arguing Jefferson unequivocally supported Press Freedom. He did not.
John Norvell, U.S. Senator from Michigan, January 26, 1837 – March 4, 1841, wrote to Jefferson, explaining how he would one day wish to enter the field of newspaper publishing:
“It would be a great favor, too, to have your opinion of the manner in which a newspaper, to be most extensively beneficial, should be conducted, as I expect to become the publisher of one for a few years.
Accept venerable patriot, my warmest wishes for your happiness.”
Jefferson composed a stern letter to Norvell, warning him of the dangers of the Press.
“To your request of my opinion of the manner in which a newspaper should be conducted, so as to be most useful, I should answer, ‘by restraining it to true facts & sound principles only.’ Yet I fear such a paper would find few subscribers. It is a melancholy truth, that a suppression of the press could not more compleatly deprive the nation of its benefits, than is done by its abandoned prostitution to falsehood. Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day. I really look with commiseration over the great body of my fellow citizens, who, reading newspapers, live & die in the belief, that they have known something of what has been passing in the world in their time; whereas the accounts they have read in newspapers are just as true a history of any other period of the world as of the present, except that the real names of the day are affixed to their fables. General facts may indeed be collected . . . but no details can be relied on. I will add that the man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them; inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods & errors. He who reads nothing will still learn the great facts, and the details are all false.” —Letter from Thomas Jefferson to John Norvell, 14 June 1807
And, 200 years after composing his cautionary letter to John Norvell, the fear that Jefferson expressed has come to pass as many academicians hold to the theory that Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Press are two conceptually distinct freedoms; one accorded to the body politic generally, and the other accorded to mainstream “professional journalists.”
The schism has resulted in the false idea that Press Free Speech is of a higher order of Right than the general Free Speech Right accorded the ordinary masses'; that “professional journalists” should be designated a privileged group; that Press freedom should be accorded more deference than speech freedom. This is a dangerous idea, not only detrimental to First Amendment Free Speech but to the very sanctity of a free Constitutional Republic. And the danger isn’t theoretical; it is actual. The Press is not content simply to report the news and to critique the Government. No! The Press has itself become an instrument of repression as it strives to constrain our fundamental rights and liberties, to overthrow a duly elected President, and to undermine a free Constitutional Republic.

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DAVID CLOUD'S "WAY OF LIFE" LATEST ARTICLES

DAVID CLOUD'S "WAY OF LIFE" 
LATEST ARTICLES 
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research 
purposes:
CHINA REMOVES CROSSES FROM CHURCHES FOR BEING “HIGHER THAN THE NATIONAL FLAG” 
(Friday Church News Notes, April 24, 2020, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - 
Bitter Winter, a human rights magazine, reports the following: “Even the deadly coronavirus outbreak did not reduce the speed of the cross-demolition campaign sweeping through China. In mid-March, crosses were removed from multiple churches in the eastern provinces of Jiangsu and Anhui. In the neighboring Shandong, the prefecture-level city of Linyi is no exception: On top of at least 70 crosses removed from churches since last spring, more have been taken down during the epidemic. ... Last December, numerous crosses were removed from Three-Self churches in Hegang, a prefecture-level city in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang. A member of a church in the city’s Dongshan district told Bitter Winter that a local official threatened to close down the church if the cross was not removed because ‘it was higher than the national flag’” (“Crosses Removed from Numerous State-run Protestant Churches,” Bitter Winter, Apr. 11, 2020). This reminds us of two Bible prophecies. The first is in the Psalms: “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion” (Psalm 2:1-6). The second prophecy is in Isaiah: “Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty. The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low” (Isaiah 2:10-12).

CHINA MONITORING CHURCHES’ SOCIAL MEDIA 
(Friday Church News Notes, April 24, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - 
The following is excerpted from ChristianHeadlines.com, Apr. 7, 2020: “Day-to-day online activities by Christians also are monitored. Members of a Three-Self church in the province of Henan received a notice from their pastor in January demanding they dissolve their groups on We Chat, a social media app. In February, a village official forced a Christian resident to ‘change his We Chat account profile picture’ because it contained an image of a cross, Bitter Winter reported. Churches and their members are prohibited from saying anything negative about the government or spreading information about the pandemic that isn't government-approved. ‘The Public Security Bureau has information on all members of every We Chat group, and network inspections are carried out, especially strict during the pandemic,’ a Three-Self pastor from Shandong told Bitter Winter. Persecution has worsened during the pandemic. ‘Encouraged by the government, many factories and public venues have been re-opened, but religious venues are still barred,’ a Three-Self believer from Henan province said. ‘Religious meetings are forbidden, and all channels of religious communication are blocked.’”

IN CHINA, ALL CALLS FOR FREEDOM 
LEAD TO PUNISHMENT 
(Friday Church News Notes, April 24, 2020, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - 
The following is excerpted from “In China,” Bitter Winter, Apr. 11, 2020: “The death of Li Wenliang, the doctor who raised concerns about the dangers of the coronavirus and was silenced by the government, ignited a wave of anger among China’s population. On the night of his death, February 6, a protest started online, a rarity in the country governed by an authoritarian regime. Wearing face masks with ‘can’t’ and ‘don’t understand’—in reference to ‘Can you manage? Do you understand?’ from Dr. Li’s forced confession, asking if he could behave and understand what he did wrong—people took to the internet to express the pent-up distrust and despair at the government for concealing information about the virus and its dangers. They also accused the authorities of suppressing free speech. Among them was a man from eastern China. He agreed to talk to Bitter Winter on the condition of anonymity, so we’ll call him Mr. Cheng. ‘When Li Wenliang died, I wanted to do something to commemorate him,’ Mr. Cheng told Bitter Winter. ‘So, I sent a message on my WeChat group, suggesting that the group members change their profile picture to the photo of Li Wenliang and demand to thoroughly investigate why the coronavirus whistleblowers were persecuted, find out who is to blame, and ask for a public apology.’ ... That same day, the local police stormed into his house, took away his cellphone, and arrested him on suspicion of ‘disturbing public order.’ ‘The police claimed that my message was intended to subvert the state power. I could be imprisoned for ten years,’ Mr. Cheng continued. ... Before he was released, Mr. Cheng was asked to sign a statement promising not to post any more ‘improper remarks.’ ... Many other netizens joined the online protest, demanding freedom of speech. They were reprimanded and silenced by the police, and nothing has changed—business as usual in China.”
MARXISTS LOVE TURMOIL 
(Friday Church News Notes, April 24, 2020, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - 
“Marx took Hegel’s idea of change through confrontation and accommodation and placed it in the material world. This gives us the basic communist idea of change through destruction and reorganization. Communism thrives on turmoil because, to their way of thinking, anything which upsets order is an aid in movement toward their ultimate synthesis. In communism, the ruling class is the thesis, the working class the antithesis, and the ultimate synthesis will be a state controlled by the people living in complete equality. ... Many Christians have been amazed at the sympathy and comradeship liberal theologians feel for the godless communist movement. But it is not really surprising since they are both, in different areas of life, searching by the same methods for the same end” (Daniel J. Ebert, Will Our Sons Defend the Faith, 3rd edition, 1994, p. 36).

ANOTHER 4.4 MILLION FILE FOR UNEMPLOYMENT; TOTAL SINCE MARCH 1 NEARING 27 MILLION

ANOTHER 4.4 MILLION FILE FOR UNEMPLOYMENT; TOTAL SINCE MARCH 1 NEARING 27 MILLION 
BY R. CORT KIRKWOOD
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research 
purposes:
The grim news on the American job market kept coming this morning with the U.S. Labor Department’s announcement that another 4.42 million Americans applied for unemployment last week.
The figure is a slight dip from the 5.2 million two weeks ago, but the number is still another major blow to the economy.
The latest numbers mean more than 26 million Americans have applied for unemployment since March 1, just after the Chinese Virus landed in the country and began spreading.
At this writing, infections in the United States are nearing 850,000, with fatalities closing in on 50,000.
Slight Decline Bad as the news is from the week ending April 18, it’s not as bad as it was the week before.
Though 4,427,000 Americans applied for unemployment benefits, the Labor Department reported, the figure is 810,00 less, or 15.5 percent less, than the week ending April 11. That number was 5,237,000.
The unemployment rate for the week ending April 11 was 11 percent, a 34-percent increase from the week ending April 4, when it was 8.2 percent.
The insured unemployed for the week ending April 11 numbered nearly 16 million, the department reported.
That week’s increases in claims were just as staggering. Colorado suffered the most, with 58,246; while New York added 50,250; Missouri, 10,668; and Florida, 10,534.
The largest decreases, the department reported, were in California, which enjoyed 263,342 fewer claims, Michigan with minus 166,347, New Jersey with minus 73,416, Georgia with minus 70,551, and Ohio with minus 66,874.
The department also reported unemployment rates for a number of states for the week ending April 4:
• Michigan: 17.4
• Rhode Island: 15
• Nevada: 13.7
• Georgia: 13.6
• Washington: 13.2
• New Hampshire: 12.2
• Minnesota: 11.9
• New York: 11.9
• Montana: 11.7
• Ohio: 11.6
Adding last week’s 4.4 million claims to what came before, the number of unemployment claims filed since March 1 is nearing 27 million, an average of roughly 3.85 million claims per week for seven consecutive weeks.
More than 10 million filed for unemployment in the two weeks ending March 28.
Real Unemployment Rate Though the unemployment rate for March was just 4.4 percent, two professors are tracking the downturn in the jobs market and estimate that the real figure is 20 percent, as The New American reported last week.
On April 15, Alexander Bick of Arizona State University and Adam Blandin of Virginia Commonwealth University reported that the nation’s employment rate had dropped from 72.7 percent to 60.7 percent, which translated into a staggering 24 million jobs lost.
But even worse, elected officials and labor-market experts are dealing with numbers that are increasing at an almost incomprehensible pace.
“The April 2020 Employment Situation report will reflect labor market outcomes from the third week of April, but is not scheduled for release until May 8,” the professors wrote. “The gap between the data needs of policymakers and the time lag of traditional data sources has left policymakers ‘flying blind’ to a significant degree.”
The Bick-Blandin estimate of 20 percent unemployment, which came from respondents who answered an online survey, is likely higher given last week’s 4.4 million new unemployment claims.
A bright spot in the number, the professors wrote, was that “more than half of the unemployed in our sample are temporarily laid off. Somewhat less than 3/4 of the laid off have been either given a concrete date of return or the indication to be called back within 6 months. This suggests that large share of the unemployed might be quickly recalled to their previous jobs once the economy is opened up.”
Help From the White House Policymakers, as the professors wrote, might be flying blind, but the country’s top policymaker has at least partly seen the light on one issue: cheap foreign labor.
Yesterday, President Trump closed the border to legal immigrants to stop them from taking jobs that otherwise would go to Americans, although some foreigners will be permitted to enter the country.
Among them are the foreign spouses and children of citizens, tycoons who enter on investor visas, and medical personnel who can help fight the pandemic.
As for illegal immigration, last month, as TNA reported yesterday, border agents apprehended almost 34,000 illegal aliens who tried to jump the U.S. border with Mexico or were stopped at ports of entry.
That brought the total this fiscal year to more than 234,000.
Border authorities began immediately deporting illegals pursuant to Trump’s order of March 17 and have sent more than 10,000 back across the border to Mexico since then.
Those deporations will stop unscrupulous American employers from hiring cheap, illegal-alien labor.

Thursday, April 23, 2020

ALEX NEWMAN INTERVIEWS DR. GRAVES WHO SLAMS DR. FAUCI & ATTACK ON LIBERTY AMID COVID-19 "PANDEMIC"

ALEX NEWMAN INTERVIEWS DR. GRAVES 
WHO SLAMS DR. FAUCI & ATTACK ON LIBERTY AMID COVID-19 "PANDEMIC"
  In this exclusive interview with The New American, Dr. Karladine Graves, a high-profile medical doctor who has been providing information and advice to the White House on coronavirus and other issues, slams the willingness of Americans to trade their liberty for supposed safety. She also slammed Dr. Anthony Fauci, questioning whether he has a conflict of interest. In particular, Dr. Graves believes the government should get out of the way and let doctors deal with their patients. She also supports the use of hydroxychloroquine, despite the Democrats and others trying to stop its use.
▶️ More Videos: Dr. Shiva Exposes Dr. Fauci's "Fake Science" and the WHO https://youtu.be/oWYxl5WMNsQ Dr. Shiva, PhD | COVID-19 https://youtu.be/C6a7vOntSJ0 Thomas Massie on State and Federal Government Overreaches https://youtu.be/XZUyRMmKE30 Fighting Coronavirus With Tyranny & Globalism https://youtu.be/yU_vKl5LnU8 🇺🇸 The New American: http://www.thenewamerican.com/

PROTESTS BY THE LEFT GET A PASS WHILE CONSERVATIVES GET ARRESTED

PROTESTS BY THE LEFT GET A PASS 
WHILE CONSERVATIVES GET ARRESTED
All protestors are equal - 
but some are more equal than others
BY DANIEL GREENFIELD
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research 
purposes:
Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.
On Monday, April 21st, members of National Nurses United (NNU), a radical union that advocates for socialized medicine, gathered outside the White House to protest against President Trump.
Video of the protest was carried on Facebook Live by the same dot com monopoly which had banned ‘Reopen’ protests as being harmful. After the rally, protesters clumped together with reporters, and there was no social distancing in sight. Despite that Facebook did not take down the NUN page.
And the media celebrated the protesters. "Nurses protest unsafe conditions in front of White House," CBS News headlined its coverage. "We're Beyond Angered," the Washington Post blared.
“We’re feeling like martyrs,” MSNBC shrilled.
There wasn’t even a hint of a suggestion that a protest was inappropriate under lockdown. Especially by a group that is at far more risk of spreading the virus than any of the shuttered small businesses.
The White House protest was one of multiple NNU protests around the country, some thinly disguised as ‘vigils’ or concerns over PPE, but ultimately a larger push for a socialized medicine takeover.
But it wasn’t just protests by health care workers that benefited from a political double standard.
In the same weeks as the ‘Reopen’ protests against state lockdowns and for reopening businesses were taking place, a parallel series of protests against President Trump were also happening across America.
Police cracked down on the ‘reopen’ protests, arresting an organizer in New Jersey, while the media condemned them, spun conspiracy theories trying to tie them to members of the Trump administration, and falsely accused protesters of causing an increase in coronavirus in Kentucky.
Facebook deleted protest groups in coordination with state governments, labeling the protests, illegal.
Blue state governments, dot com overlords, and the media all warned that protesting in the age of the coronavirus was dangerous and illegal. Even if the protesters were in cars or maintaining social distance.
But meanwhile Refuse Fascism, a radical leftist organization created by members of the Revolutionary Communist Party, was holding its own anti-Trump protests with no interference from the authorities.
And no negative coverage from the media.
While New Jersey State cops had arrested the organizer of the ‘Reopen’ protest in Trenton, the Philadelphia Inquirer described members of Refuse Fascism Philly, at least one of them outfitted in 'Handmaid' garb, driving to dump fake body bags at the Trump National Golf Club in New Jersey while "police officers wearing respirators monitored the peaceful demonstration" and made no arrests.
The paper, which has blasted the "reopen' protests, offered positive coverage of the anti-Trump protest.  
The Communist organization’s Facebook site, including links to its protest and photos from the event, is still standing. The social media giant has refused to take it down the way it has ‘Reopen’ sites.
While Facebook has claimed that it views protests during the coronavirus lockdown era as illegal, it is treating protests against the lockdown where conservatives wave American flags very differently than it does protests against President Trump by Communist activists. The patriots are banned from Facebook while the Communists are welcome. The political bias is unmistakable and the agenda is all too clear.
Facebook isn’t banning protests during the coronavirus lockdowns. It’s banning conservative protests.
The local CBS affiliate in Chicago covered a protest by Refuse Fascism on April 18th and offered no criticism of the irresponsible behavior of going out to dump body bags outside a Trump building at a time when everyone is being told to stay home to avoid spreading the virus.
SFBay covered both the reopen protests and a Refuse Fascism protest in front of the San Francisco Federal Building, condemning the former, while writing positively about the latter. Bloomberg whitewashed the Communists protesters as “critics of Trump’s slow response to the crisis”.
There was no media condemnation of the Refuse Fascism protests, even when they took place at Trump Tower or in Times Square in New York City, the city hardest hit by the pandemic. Or, as the Communist organization put it, “In the midst of the #Covid-19 virus, Refuse Fascism did this action in Times Square.”
The sight of protesters dumping body bags outside Trump properties and federal buildings was an effective piece of street theater. What is curious is how only a handful of media outlets covered it.
Much of the country has been locked down. Countless Americans have lost their jobs and their hope.
The media is well aware that the sight of resistance hipsters parading around with body bags and protest signs might be infuriating at a time when the country is going through a national trauma. And so the media has made a selective choice not to cover protests that it knows quite well are taking place.
This coverup has been conducted at the same time as it has hatefully covered the Reopen rallies.
The smears of the Reopen rallies serve the media’s political agenda, while covering the Refuse Fascism rallies would not. The media doesn’t oppose the Communist rallies, it just understands that even the people who repeat back everything the media tells them might pick up on the hypocrisy of accusing Reopen protesters of spreading coronavirus and endangering their states while cheering the Commies.
While the media has played down lefty protests in this country, it has been more enthusiastic abroad.
When lefties rallied against Prime Minister Netanyahu in Israel, the media cheered. "Israelis Just Showed the World What a Socially Distant Protest Looks Like," Time gushed. "This is what a socially distant protest looks like," CNN smirked. There was nothing safe about 2,000 radicals crowding into Kings of Israel Square, with the overflow spreading into nearby streets, while synagogue prayers are restricted.
Israel’s Netanyahu is a longtime media hate object and the media supports the protests against him. And it’s safe to promote protests in Israel that won’t affect or infuriate Americans under lockdown.
The double standard on anti-Trump and anti-lockdown protests by the media, by Facebook, and by state authorities is evidence of bias, of discrimination, and of selectively censoring political speech.
New Jersey arrested a Reopen protest organizer while letting Communists protest as they liked. Her real crime was ‘protesting while conservative’ under Governor Murphy’s post-Bill of Rights regime.
The pandemic is being used as a pretext by blue governments and by Facebook to silence conservatives.
If leaving the house to go to church or to play catch is a public health hazard, why have the authorities allowed the National Nurses United and Refuse Fascism protests to continue without tickets or fines?
If a protesting is a public health threat, as Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg insists, why is his platform continuing to host videos of Refuse Fascism and National Nurses United protesting in public?
The wholesale suppression of the First Amendment by governments and dot com monopolies would be bad enough. But the suppression is selective. As it always has been long before the pandemic arrived.
If you’re protesting against President Trump, the authorities won’t touch you. But if you gather to demand the right to reopen your small business, they will fine you and even arrest you.
And Facebook will delete any attempt to organize peaceful protests by small business owners waving American flags, while hosting protest content from Communists who want to destroy America.
These are not pandemic precautions. The crackdown on the Reopen rallies is political persecution.
It is up to Attorney General Barr and the DOJ to stand up for the civil rights of the people being arrested, fined, threatened, and censored, not because of the coronavirus, but because they are conservatives.

IRAN: CHRISTIAN CONVERT MARY MOHAMMADI GIVEN SUSPENDED PRISON SENTENCE & LASHES

IRAN: CHRISTIAN CONVERT MARY MOHAMMADI GIVEN SUSPENDED PRISON SENTENCE & LASHES 
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research 
purposes:
Twenty-one-year-old Iranian Christian convert Fatemeh (Mary) Mohammadi has been sentenced to three months plus one day in prison, and ten lashes. 
The sentence relates to Mary’s alleged participation in anti-government demonstrations following the downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane in January. 
The sentence is suspended for one year, and depends on her future conduct.
Mary has not appealed against the verdict, but commented:
“There was no evidence against me, so I ought to have been acquitted, but instead I was sentenced not only to imprisonment, but also flogging.
“And it should be mentioned that even before the verdict was handed down, I and my family were forced to endure all kinds of torture, none of which was sanctioned by law, and which ought to be considered crimes in themselves. So even if I would have been acquitted, it wouldn’t have been a real acquittal!”
“We have refrained from appealing against the verdict because the appeal courts have turned into confirmation courts!”
During Mary’s court hearing last week, the judge questioned her about her religious views, even though the charges were unrelated to her faith.
He cited no evidence against her, saying that her presence in the area where the rally was taking place was evidence in itself.
Mary’s hearing had previously been scheduled for 2 March, but was postponed due to coronavirus.
After her hearing was rescheduled, Mary tweeted that it would be a “crime against humanity” to send anyone to prison under the current circumstances.

Background

Mary has already spent six months in prison as a result of her participation in house-churches, for which she was convicted of “action against national security” and “propaganda against the system”.
In July last year she faced fresh criminal charges relating to her “improper” wearing of hijab. Those charges, which were eventually quashed, were brought against her after she initially went to police to complain of an assault.
Then in December, Mary was kicked out of her Tehran university, without explanation, on the eve of her English-language exams.
Just a few weeks later, on 12 January 2020, Mary was arrested as protests took place in Azadi Square.
There was no word about Mary’s whereabouts for a month, before it was confirmed that she was being held in Qarchak women’s prison, south of the Iranian capital Tehran.
After her arrest, Mary was forced to sit in a yard, for hours, in extremely cold weather and opposite the toilets, and not given any food for 24 hours. 
She was beaten so badly – by male and female officers – that the bruises were visible for three weeks.
Mary was also strip-searched twice by female officers, who told her that if she refused to remove her clothes, they would rip them from her.
Mary is a rare example of a Christian activist still living in Iran. She launched a campaign last year called “Kahma”, fighting for the rights of all Christians – whether from Christian homes, or Christian converts – to be given the right to attend church.

PRO-LIFE GROUPS SUE CITY OF CHARLOTTE OVER COVID-19 CITATIONS, ARRESTS OUTSIDE ABORTION FACILITY

PRO-LIFE GROUPS SUE CITY OF CHARLOTTE OVER COVID-19 CITATIONS, ARRESTS 
OUTSIDE ABORTION FACILITY 
BY HEATHER CLARK
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research 
purposes:
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Two pro-life groups in North Carolina have sued the City of Charlotte for citing and arresting their members while they were peacefully praying and seeking to reach mothers outside of an abortion facility that was allowed to remain open during the coronavirus pandemic.
The religious liberties group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed suit on Saturday on behalf of Cities4Life and Love Life Charlotte over the incident that occurred on April 4, when Cities4Life President David Benham and others were arrested for declining to leave as they did not believe they were violating the law.
Their organizations are nonprofit charities that provide a public service, and its members were observing social distancing as required.
According to the complaint, attorneys for the two groups were able to obtain confirmation from Major Kornberg of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) that their outreach would be permissible under the Mecklenburg County and City of Charlotte joint proclamation regarding allowed “essential activities.” The proclamation included nonprofit organizations that “provide charitable and social services.”
Cities4Life works with the H.E.L.P. Crisis Pregnancy Center to offer free ultrasounds and counseling to abortion-minded mothers, and also supplies physical goods, including baby items, as well as funds for groceries, rent, prenatal care and wedding services. Love Life Charlotte likewise supplies needed items to overcome material obstacles to parenting, as well as emotional support and counseling.
ADF says that nonetheless, a dozen police officers descended on the scene that Saturday as the pro-lifers were standing spread apart on the sidewalk outside of A Preferred Women’s Health Center.
As previously reported, abortionist Ashutosh “Ron” Virmani was recorded last year calling out “Rape them and send them here!” to pro-life Christians outside of the facility. He had previously been captured referring to African American infants as “ugly black babies” — a remark for which he later apologized, stating that he “lost [his] cool in the heat of exchange.”
Six Christians were arrested and/or cited on April 4 for violating the county coronavirus order and declining to leave: Benham, Robert Reeder, Joshua Kappes, Katherine Burgess, Isaiah Burner and Luke Surak — some of whom are pastors.
Benham tried to reason with the officers, stating, “We are an essential federally-recognized nonprofit charity that helps at-risk mothers and babies. We are within our rights to be here. We are practicing social distancing, we have cleaned our hands, [and] we are offering help to these mothers.”
“And if you’re saying that we don’t have a right to be here, then go into the abortion clinic and make the arrests there,” he said. “I appreciate you serving. I appreciate everything you do for us. But this is wrong and you know it. You cannot tell us to leave.”
Police stated that the Christians were in violation of the joint proclamation because more than 10 people were present between the two groups. ADF believes that the proclamation excludes the nonprofits because of their charitable nature.
However, as previously reported, while the arrests were taking place, two women spared the lives of their unborn babies on the H.E.L.P. Crisis Pregnancy Center mobile ultrasound unit, and one of them and her boyfriend repented and believed the gospel.
“If those two women had not met us, had not been told of all the help available for them, they would be just another statistic of death and those babies would be dead right now in all likelihood,” volunteer Vicky Kaseorg outlined in a video posted to social media. “Both [were] strongly abortion-minded [and] both turned from death to life because we were there.”
“So, we are an essential service if you believe the unborn child is a living human being,” she said. “[God] uses us, and He can’t use us if we’re not here.”
The lawsuit contends that the actions of police violated their freedom of religion and speech, as well as their right to equal protection under the law.
“Defendants lack a rational or compelling state interest for such disparate treatment of the [pro-life] Advocates because prohibiting prayer and religious speech when walking, while at the same time permitting walking in the same location and manner by those who are not praying or engaging in religious speech, bears no real or substantial relation to the public health crisis underlying the Proclamation,” it reads.
“Defendants’ disparate treatment of the Advocates is not narrowly tailored because prohibiting the Advocates from providing charitable social services to women near abortion facilities is not the least restrictive means of advancing any compelling or even legitimate interest the government may have regarding the public health crisis,” the lawsuit states.
It seeks an injunction, as well as a declaration that the proclamation as written and as applied is unconstitutional.
ADF had submitted a letter to City attorney Patrick Baker earlier this month in an attempt to resolve the matter and avoid litigation.
“We support the efforts of public officials to prioritize health and safety, but if other people are free to talk on sidewalks, people of faith should be, too. They can’t be singled out for their religious beliefs or because their form of speech is prayer or pro-life counseling,” Kevin Theriot, ADF senior counsel and director of the ADF Center for Life, said in a statement.
“And if abortion businesses can stay open during the coronavirus crisis, non-profit organizations that provide social services to women should be allowed outside — particularly when they are abiding by health and safety guidelines, as Mr. Benham and the others were.”