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:
DALLAS, Texas —A blasphemous Baptist minister in
Texas known for his book “The Queering of an American Evangelical” says
that he supports polyamorous—or plural—relationships and believes that
God Himself is polyamorous.
“The Holy Trinity is a polyamorous relationship,” Jeff Hood, who
holds a doctorate with a focus in “queer theology” from Brite Divinity
School and who was ordained at a church within the Southern Baptist
Convention, asserted during a recent Patheos interview with Chuck McKnight.
“You can’t talk about the level of intimacy and ecstasy that these
three beings are constantly experiencing without defining their
relationship in such a way,” he claimed. “Their love has always been and
will always be a shared phenomenon. In the Holy Trinity, love is never
denied. We should spend our lives making sure that the love of
polyamorous individuals is never denied and always protected. The Holy
Trinity demands it.”
Hood has stated before on his website that he believes that “the
disciples and Jesus were involved in some sort of polyamorous
relationship.”
In August, he told Jennifer Martin of Splinter that he thinks polyamorous relationships reflect the Trinity.
“Not only is polyamory a positive thing, I think it’s a holy thing,”
Hood opined. “I think it mimics the personhood of God. Different
relationships can show us different things, and I think polyamory can
show us what the Trinity looks like.”
Hood has also outlined that he believes that because “love is love,”
polyamorous relationships should be supported just like same-sex
relationships.
“While there could be many explanations of the polyamorous God, the
one that matters the most is this: God dwells within the oppressed and
marginalized (Matthew 25). Polyamorous folks are constantly oppressed
and marginalized,” he told McKnight. “God is polyamorous, and if we want
to get saved than we have to figure out a way to become connected to
polyamory.”
Hood acknowledged during the interview that his views are rejected by
many Christians, who he called “church [expletives] that have no
knowledge of God.”
“Do these people sound like they know anything about
love? [Expletive] no. I ain’t listening to a [expletive] word they say,”
he said. “I know who I’m listening to. I hear the voice of God, ‘I am
the way, the truth and the life. No one can can love Me and condemn
polyamory, for I am polyamorous.'”
Hood’s views on the subject have been met with mixed reaction.
“God explicitly condones polygamy and the whole Bride of Christ is polygamous,” one commenter wrote.
“Plural unity within the Trinity is not polyamory,” another stated.
“What people want to do is their business; however, if you feel the need
to justify it scripturally, at least be less sloppy when you try.
Otherwise you’re just preaching to the choir, so to speak.”
“Jeff Hood is clearly biblically ignorant. His so-called knowledge of God comes from Satan,” a third wrote.
Trans Scouts: Boy Scouts Transition To Brave New World Schools, Boy Scouts and other foundational American institutions, have
been taken over by social engineers like Rex Tillerson. The latest shoe
to drop, admitting girls to the Boy Scouts, follows Tillerson embrace of
homosexual scouts, then homosexual scout leaders.
The Boy Scouts of America announced on Wednesday
that girls will soon be allowed to become Cub Scouts and to earn the
coveted rank of Eagle Scout, the organization’s highest honor.
“We believe it is critical to evolve how our programs meet the needs
of families interested in positive and lifelong experiences for their
children,” said Michael Surbaugh, chief executive of the Boy Scouts. The scouting board of directors voted unanimously to make the
historic change in an organization that has been primarily for boys
since its founding more than 100 years ago.
Starting next year, young girls can join Cub Scout units, known as
dens. Local scouting organizations can choose to have dens for girls and
dens for boys. "Cub Scout dens will be single-gender — all boys or all
girls," the organization said in a statement. A separate program for older girls will be
available in 2019, the Boy Scouts said, enabling them to earn the rank
of Eagle Scout. The Boy Scouts said the moves reflect the
changing nature of American life, adding to the appeal of a scouting
program that can serve the entire family. BSA said it commissioned two nationwide surveys that showed parents not
involved in scouting had high interest in getting their daughters signed
up for both Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts.
Girls are now part of four scouting programs — Venturing and Sea Scouting, geared toward outdoor activities; Exploring,
a career-oriented mentoring program; and STEM, focusing on science and
math. But those programs have not offered a path to Eagle Scout for
girls.
Earlier this year, the National Organization
for Women urged the Boy Scouts to admit girls to the entire program,
supporting the efforts of a New York teenager, Sydney Ireland, to attain
the rank of Eagle Scout, as her older brother did.
"I just want to do what the Boy Scouts do —
earn the merit badges and earn the Eagle Award," she told NBC News. "The
Girl Scouts is a great organization, but it's just not the program that
I want to be part of. I think girls should just have the opportunity to
be a member of any organization they want regardless of gender."
In the past, the Girl Scouts have been cool to
the idea of admitting girls into the Boy Scouts, citing research that
showed many girls learn best in an all-female environment.
"We are unparalleled in our ability to build
great female leaders who contribute to society at every level," said
Andrea Bastiani Archibald, a psychologist who helps guide the Girl
Scouts.
_____________________________________________________ SEE ALSO:
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) announced October 11 that it will
acquiesce to “requests” that it allow females into its ranks, welcoming
girls into its Cub Scout program (traditionally for younger-aged boys)
and offering “a Scouting program for older girls that will enable them
to advance and earn the highest rank of Eagle Scout,” according to a BSA
press release.
In a statement, the BSA’s CEO Michael Surbaugh insisted that the move
“is true to the BSA’s mission and core values outlined in the Scout
Oath and Law. The values of Scouting — trustworthy, loyal, helpful,
kind, brave, and reverent, for example — are important for both young
men and women.” He added that it was necessary for the BSA to change
“how our programs meet the needs of families interested in positive and
lifelong experiences for their children. We strive to bring what our
organization does best — developing character and leadership for young
people — to as many families and youth as possible as we help shape the
next generation of leaders.”
The organization explained that beginning in 2018, parents will have
the option to enroll a daughter into Cub Scouts, with existing packs
choosing to establish a new girl “pack,” establish a pack that consists
of separate girl “dens” and boy dens, or remain an all-boy pack. The
organization emphasized that “Cub Scout dens will be single-gender — all
boys or all girls.”
Similarly, by 2019 the Boy Scouts will establish a program for older
girls that will allow them to go through the traditionally all-boy
program and even earn the coveted “Eagle Scout” rank — a singularly
prestigious honor that over the past century has been bestowed upon such
notable men as astronaut Neil Armstrong, President Gerald Ford,
adventurer Steve Fossett, film director Michael Moore, former Texas
Governor Rick Perry, General William Westmoreland, and Wisconsin
Governor Scott Walker, to name just a few.
The latest move is consistent with a conspicuous cultural cave-in the
BSA has suffered over the past several years. While for over a century
the Boy Scouts steadfastly maintained a policy against immoral behavior
and lifestyles, in 2014 BSA officials announced that the organization
would allow boys who self-identify as homosexual to join its ranks.
And while it had faced a high-profile scandal that revealed decades of the abuse
of boys by scout leaders, in 2015 the organization announced that it
would allow openly homosexual adults to serve as scout leaders. The Associated Press reported that the latest BSA policy change “was
hailed by Zach Wahls, an Eagle Scout who played an active role in
pressuring the BSA to end its ban on gays. However, he urged the Boy
Scouts to take one more step and end its exclusion of atheists and
non-believers who do not profess a 'duty to God.'”
However, many others have responded to the BSA cultural cave-in by
ending their involvement in the Boy Scout program and putting their boys
into alternative programs such as Trail Life USA,
which states that its mission is “to guide generations of courageous
young men to honor God, lead with integrity, serve others, and
experience outdoor adventure.” Among those criticizing the latest BSA policy change is the
leadership of the Girl Scouts USA (GSUSA), which understandably fears
that the welcoming of girls into Boy Scouts will result in fewer girls
joining GSUSA. But it is also ironic, since the Girl Scouts’ own cultural slide from traditional values has also led to many parents choosing alternative youth programs such as American Heritage Girls. Lisa Margosian, chief customer officer for GSUSA, said that her
organization was “blindsided” by the BSA announcement. “We’ve had 105
years of supporting girls and a girl-only safe space,” Margosian said.
“So much of a girl’s life is a life where she is in a coed environment,
and we have so much research and data that suggests that girls really
thrive in an environment where they can experiment, take risk, and
stretch themselves in the company of other girls.” In August GSUSA President Kathy Hopinkah Hannan sent a letter to BSA
President Randall Stephenson accusing his organization of trying to
recruit girls into the BSA at the expense of the Girls Scouts. “I
formally request that your organization stay focused on serving the 90
percent of American boys not currently participating in Boy Scouts ...
and not consider expanding to recruit girls,” Hopinkah wrote in her
missive.
Hannan wrote that “despite offering to engage in a constructive,
collaborative sharing process, we were disappointed in the lack of
transparency as we learned that you are surreptitiously testing the
appeal of a girls' offering to millennial parents.” She also accused BSA
leaders of making “disparaging and untrue remarks about Girl Scout
programming,” and making “subtle implications about the weakness of Girl
Scouts' long term market strength.” The New York Times quoted one longtime Boy Scout Leader,
Joseph Carballo, whose two sons are Eagle Scouts, as saying that girls
have no place in Boy Scouts. “Boys and girls should have separate
organizations for activities,” he said. “There is an organization for
girls. It’s called the Girl Scouts.” Similarly, Bob Adelmann, an Eagle Scout and longtime writer for the The New American,
decried the Boy Scouts' continued slide into cultural compromise. “The
Boy Scouts was at one time in our nation an esteemed and worthy
organization because of its commitment to helping form generations of
boys into solid and dependable young men,” he recalled. “Now it has
become little more than a sad footnote in history, known more for
compromise than commitment to the boys and families it claims to serve.
The welcoming of girls into its ranks is one more predictable step on
its way to irrelevance.”
In a deeply controversial survey given to school children across the
country, federal authorities improperly solicit information about
everything from the sexual and drug habits of children to home and
family life. Dubbed the “National Youth Risk Behavior Survey”,
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
The official story surrounding the Las Vegas mass shooting is crumbling.
After Las Vegas Sheriff Joseph Lombardo dramatically altered the
shooting timeline Monday, indicating a security guard was shot by
alleged gunman Stephen Paddock before his assault on country music concertgoers, the entire narrative has been thrown into question.
Watch these two videos for a recap of various inconsistencies that don’t add up. Below: Excerpts from the different press conferences
held by LVPD and FBI show that their official story has more holes that
Swiss cheese.
Below: This is a compilation of two videos featuring
Rene Downs, who was staying at the Bellagio hotel on Oct 1st and heard
automatic fire, broken glass and stampeding crowds at the Petrossian
Lounge. Her room was combed by Hotel staff who claimed no shooting was
heard at that location. Rene Downs time stamped the sounds of automatic
gunfire to just after 11pm, a full 45 minutes after shooting ended at
the Mandalay Bay.
The owners of the Mandalay Bay are questioning Las Vegas police’s
version of events, after law enforcement accounts of how a deadly mass
shooting played out changed dramatically Monday.
Mandalay Bay Owner: ‘What’s being expressed (by police) may not be accurate’
MGM spokesperson: ‘We cannot be certain about the most recent timeline that has been communicated publicly…’
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Here is yet more evidence that the State Department is a swamp that has yet to be drained, and may never be drained. Munira Khalif may be a wonderful U.S. Youth Observer to the United
Nations, even if her statement here is full of the expected platitudes
(“empower,” “diversity,” “globalized world,” etc.). But she was clearly
chosen for her symbolic value. She is a living, walking symbol of the
State Department’s anxiousness to show that the United States is not
“Islamophobic.” She is a demonstration of the State Department’s
determination to “empower” Muslims and show our “diversity,” so as to
refute the jihadist narrative that the U.S. is at war with Islam, which
will keep Muslims in the U.S. from becoming “alienated” and joining the
jihad. The whole idea is based on the assumption that Muslims turn to jihad
because of the injustices suffered by Muslims at the hand of the U.S.,
and so if the U.S. is nice to Muslims, the jihad will end. This is based
on completely ignoring the teachings about jihad in the Qur’an and
Sunnah, and so is doomed to failure, but that doesn’t keep the deep
state State Department wonks from trying and trying, again and again.
“Meet Munira Khalif, the 2017-2018 U.S. Youth Observer to the United Nations,” DipNote, U.S. State Department blog, October 4, 2017 (thanks to Creeping Sharia):
I’m so honored and excited to have been selected as this
year’s U.S. Youth Observer to the United Nations. To start off the year,
I wanted to officially introduce myself.
My name is Munira Khalif, and I was born and raised in Minnesota. I
study Economics and minor in Government at Harvard University. As a
Somali-American, I grew up aware of the reality that not all children
have the opportunity to attend school—especially girls. By no fault of
their own, millions of children are deprived of the opportunity to
advance their own lives and that of their families and communities.
There is an African proverb that exclaims, “If you educate a boy, you
educate an individual. If you educate a girl, you educate a nation”.
Education has the power to transform — not only individuals — but our
world. With this in mind, I co-founded Lighting the Way. The youth-run organization focuses on making education more accessible for young people in East Africa — especially girls. Lighting the Way
works to provide scholarships, build libraries, and sponsor teachers.
In addition, I served as a Teen Advisor for the United Nations
Foundation campaign Girl Up. Girl Up mobilizes American girls to empower
and support the world’s hardest-to-reach adolescent girls in developing
countries to be safe, healthy, educated, counted, and positioned to be
the next generation of leaders. Through Girl Up, I have had the
opportunity to speak on the importance of girl’s education at the United
Nations Head Quarters on the first inaugural Malala Day and to lobby
alongside other youth advocates to pass the Girls Count Act.
I applied to be the next U.S. Youth Observer because I believe in the
power of young people to bring forth immeasurable change. Often times,
international institutions like the United Nations can seem daunting. In
turn, we believe that our voices don’t matter. But the reality is that
the United Nations needs a diversity of voices to be able to solve the
complex issues of the world. More importantly, when issues that affect
young people are being discussed it is intrinsic that we have a seat at
the table. As the U.S. Youth Observer, I will work to ensure that young
Americans have a seat at the table. I will leverage my platform to
amplify the voices, ideas, and concerns of young Americans at global
policy discussions.
As the year unfolds, I look forward to connecting with young people
from across the country to hear about the global issues that are at the
forefront of their minds. I hope that over my tenure I will be able to
instill a sense of global citizenship. We live in a globalized world and
our futures and lives are more interconnected than ever before. Being a
global citizen means caring about not only what is happening within our
own borders — but also outside of them. Because the problems of others
can quickly become our own. We must speak out where others have been
silent. We must take action where others have stood still. We must
shine our own light in the hopes of illuminating the way for others.
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
A Hungarian MP slammed billionaire George Soros and
supporters for attempting to dilute the spirit of Europe with “the
forced settlement of tens of millions of migrants.” He claimed there is a
Christian duty to fight what he called “Satan’s Soros” plan. The lawmaker in question, Andras Aradszki, who represents the
Christian Democratic People’s Party (KDNP), claimed that “Soros and his
comrades want to destroy the independence and values of nation states,”
as cited by the Budapest Beacon. According to Aradszki this is happening “for the purpose of watering
down the Christian spirit of Europe with the forced settlement of tens
of millions of migrants.”
“But the fight against Satan is a Christian duty. Yes, I speak of an
attack by Satan, who is also the angel of denial, because they are
denying what they are preparing to do — even when it is completely
obvious. They frantically try to prove that there is no [refugee] quota,
there is no compulsory settlement, and the Soros Plan does not exist,”
Aradszki noted.
“The national consultation is an outstanding opportunity for us
to make our opinions known about Satan’s Soros Plan,” he concluded. On
Sunday, the Chief Security Advisor to the Prime Minister, Gyorgy
Bakondi, warned of the implications of the “Soros Plan.”
“This may have serious consequences for the sovereignty of member
states, for the nations themselves, and also with regard to the
security of European citizens,” he pointed out.
Soros stated in 2015 that the “EU has to accept at least a
million asylum-seekers annually for the foreseeable future. And, to do
that, it must share the burden fairly.”
“Adequate financing is critical,” the billionaire wrote. “The EU
should provide £10,000 (€15,000) per asylum-seeker for each of the first
two years to help cover housing, health care, and education costs – and
to make accepting refugees more appealing to member states.”
Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has repeatedly blamed
Hungarian-born Soros of fueling the refugee crisis in Europe, said that
“Brussels has come under George Soros’s influence.”
“We have revealed the existence of the Soros plan, and the
drafter himself admitted that it exists. We have placed it in the focus
of politics,” the prime minister said in an interview to public radio on
Friday.
In July, Orban accused Soros of using the EU in order to create a
“new, mixed, Muslimized Europe,” according to AP. The prime minister
said that Soros is now more powerful in Brussels than in Washington or
Tel Aviv and he argued that European institutions should fight to limit
his influence.
He noted that reforming Europe can only begin by stopping illegal
migration into the EU and that Hungary’s border defenses will help with
that effort.
Late last month Orban called on Hungarians to participate in the
government’s public survey on the “Soros plan,” noting that it will help
the country shield itself from migration. The survey dubbed “national
consultation” will ask Hungarians for their view on whether or not
Hungary should become an immigrant country.
“We want a Hungarian Hungary and a European Europe,” Orban said on the first day of parliament’s autumn session.
Last week Goran Buldioski, director of Soros’ Open Society
Initiatives in Europe, told AP that Soros and his foundations support
“more coherent and humane policies for helping to resettle migrants
fleeing oppression and violence in their homelands” but that “there is
no such thing as a global conspiracy against Hungary.”
Hungary is engaged in a bitter row with the EU over the refugee
relocation quotas, together with Poland and Slovakia. The issue dates
back to the EU decision made in 2015 to rehouse some 160,000 refugees
from Greece and Italy over a period of two years, only around 27,700 of
whom have been settled so far.
Hungary claimed in September that its fences on the borders with
Croatia and Serbia had helped to cut the inflow of migrants by 99.7
percent since 2015. The small inland nation now has one quarter of the
length of its borders protected by a fence. The Hungarian border fence
has been repeatedly criticized by other European countries, as well as
by EU politicians, but Budapest has resisted pressure to remove it.
The Hungarian government has established itself as a steadfast opponent
of George Soros and the globalist agenda at the political and social
levels,
but now they have taken the battle spiritual.
Countries Are Defeating Globalism
By Turning Back To Christ
Alex Jones talks with callers about Hungary and other country's
rejection of George Soros and Globalism to preserve their Christian
history and deep reaching roots of morality, law, and order.
The “antifascist” group otherwise known as Antifa is planning a
revolution in America on Saturday, November 4th. This date is exactly 3
days before the 100 year anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution that
took place in Russia. Coincidence? Find out more in this episode of
Straight Talk.
Helpful Links:
"Promoting Antifa Mayhem" issue of The New American:
https://www.jbs.org/store/shoptna/tna...
Antifa Planning Communist Revolution for America on November 4
https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews...
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
No matter how many communist
hammers & sickles or images of Marx, Mao, and other communists the
violent Antifa radicals display, the Fake News media continue to present
them as idealistic "anti-fascists."
“When we fight, we fight for communism, and all our constructive and
destructive activity is geared toward building our party, which will
wage a protracted people’s war, establishing socialism and continuing
the revolution under the rule of the working class.”
So declares
Red Guards Austin, the masked “Antifa” thugs of Austin, Texas, who
march about displaying the communist hammer & sickle symbol, and who
also openly display banners emblazoned with images of Karl Marx and mass-murderers Mao Zedong and Vladimir Lenin. See, for example, the photos to the right and immediately below, from their website (see here and here; the article continues below the photo.)
Unequivocally Communist
The organizers, theorists, strategists, and writers of Antifa (short
for “Anti-fascist”) are unequivocally communists, as is evident not only
from their obvious communist tactics and their own admissions and
public proclamations, but also from their ties to (and support from)
formal communist parties, as well as their adoption of communist
slogans, symbols, chants, and causes. Many Antifa leaders and groups
unabashedly proclaim themselves Maoists, Marxist-Leninists, Stalinists,
or Trotskyites.
The above-mentioned black-clad hoodlums of Red Guards Austin, for
example, offer unalloyed praise for one of history’s most notorious
dictators and mass murderers in “A Tribute to Comrade Joseph Stalin.” As
Maoist communists, they also have great affection, of course, for Mao
Zedong, the only dictator ever to top Stalin in the bloodletting and
liquidation business. According to the meticulous research of the late
Professor R. J. Rummel, Mao’s regime murdered over 76 million Chinese.
Mao is, nevertheless, idolized by Red Guards Austin. In listing the
“weapons” of their cause, these Antifa hoodlums say: “The first and most
important among these [weapons] is the Maoist party — Red Guards
Austin’s reason for existence is to build this party with other Maoists
in the US.” The Red Guards Austin are not the only
Antifa group proudly declaring their communist lineage and their
adherence to Marxist-Leninist ideology. Indeed, virtually all of the
Antifa organizations around the country that have been rioting and
burning our cities and physically assaulting American citizens openly
declare their communist sympathies. This is no secret, yet the
establishment news media continue to refer to the Antifa criminals and
terrorists by their preferred labels: anti-fascist, anti-Nazi,
anti-racist. CNN Investigative Report Unmasks ... Zilch
For example, on August 22, 2017, CNN produced an “investigative news”
report entitled “Unmasking the leftist Antifa movement” that did zero
unmasking. Instead, the CNN report glamorized Antifa, providing a public
relations bonanza for mayhem makers. “We are meeting members of the
Rose City Antifa, short for Anti-Fascist,” CNN reporter Sara Ganim
explained as she went to a secret meeting in Portland, Oregon, with the
masked Antifa members. “This group’s main goal is to disrupt neo-Nazis
and white supremacists, but also to take on government and capitalism,”
Ganim noted. CNN’s reference to “taking on” capitalism was as close as
the “unmasking” got to even hinting at Antifa’s core communist
motivation. A young masked Antifa woman tells Ganim’s CNN audience that
“Antifa is any group that is willing to stand up to fascists by any
means necessary.”
That sounds pretty idealistic — maybe even admirable — does it not?
After all, everyone knows fascists and Nazis are bad. Shouldn’t we stand
up to them? But here’s the rub: For Antifa activists,“fascist” is a
totally elastic label that can be stretched to smear anyone with whom
they disagree, including brave people who truly fought fascism — people
such as my parents and my uncles who put their lives on the line in
World War II to fight Hitler and the Nazis. My father was a paratrooper
in the 82nd Airborne (D-Day, Battle of the Bulge); my mother was in the
Army Nurse Corps (England, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany). My
parents were fiercely anti-Nazi, anti-fascist, anti-racist, and
anti-KKK — and, just as fiercely, anti-communist. It was the
anti-communist part that made them, and millions of other patriotic
veterans like them, “enemies of the people” in the eyes of the Communist
Party, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the Weather
Underground, and the Black Panther Party — the ancestors of today’s
Antifa. So, during the 1960s and ’70s, my parents and other
anti-communist Americans who had actually fought the Nazis had to endure
being called Nazis by Marxist-Leninist baby-boomer brats and hardcore
communist terrorists who were bent on establishing a totalitarian
dictatorship that would have been every bit as tyrannical and genocidal
as Hitler’s. Antifa's Professor Mike Isaacson
So it continues today. According to Professor Mike Isaacson (shown at
right), an Antifa leader who teaches at the City University of New
York’s John Jay College of Law, “Anti-communism is code for fascism.”
There you have it: If you’re an anti-communist, if you’re averse to
living in a communist police state — 24/7 surveillance, repression,
torture, gulags, genocide, etc. — well, then, you’re obviously a
FASCIST. If you stand anywhere to the right of Mao Zedong or Fidel
Castro, you are a FASCIST, and, according to the Antifa jihadists, you
should be treated as such. Which means that not only have you forfeited
your right to speak, but also your right to exist. It’s “Off with your
head!” Literally. The Antifa website It’s Going Down wants to bring back
the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror, with a campaign to “Make the Guillotine Red Again.” Communist
megalomaniacs from Marx to Lenin, Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Minh, Fidel
Castro, and Pol Pot have invoked the French Revolution’s massive
bloodletting as their inspiration for remolding society. Prof. Isaacson, a founder of Smash
Racism DC, an Antifa group in our nation’s capital that participated in
the violent and disruptive “protests” during President Trump’s
inauguration, has gained infamy for his numerous public endorsements of
Antifa violence and his many tweets supporting murder of police
officers, some of whom are his law school students. Here are a few of
his offensive tweets that have caused outrage:
• July 18, 2017 — “Dead Cops are good, Laci.”
• August 16, 2017 — “What’s even the point of a cop that isn’t dead?”
• August 17, 2017 — “I hear their police stations catch on fire with an accelerant.”
• August 23, 2017 — “Some of y'all might think it sucks being an
anti-fascist teaching at John Jay College but I think it's a privilege
to teach future dead cops.”
• August 29, 2017 — “Off the pigs”
And he teaches law at a prestigious law school! A committed
Marxist-Leninist, Isaacson has even developed a Marxist, collectivist
method of grading his students because, he says, the “pursuit of
knowledge is a collective pursuit.”
“Few academic or professional endeavors are the result of individuals acting alone,” states
Isaacson’s grading curve policy for his class, “ECO 101: Introduction
to Economics and Global Capitalism.” “All graded assignments will
receive grades reflective of not only individual efforts, but also class
effort,” the class description continues.
In September, due to public outcry over Isaacson’s outrageous
anti-police statements and his support for Antifa violence, he was put
on administrative leave by John Jay College. However, that public outcry
didn’t arise because of any coverage of Isaacson in the “mainstream”
media; it came about thanks to outrage from police unions and coverage
of the Antifa prof’s antics by the independent conservative media. For
its part, the establishment Fake News media was content to present
Isaacson as a credible academic and quote his more “nuanced” — and
seemingly more moderate — statements, without hinting at his radical
Marxist roots.
The members of the press have no excuse for continuing to treat
communist Antifa revolutionists as brave “anti-fascists” and romantic
crusaders fighting against Nazis, racists, and social injustice.
Ignorance and incompetence only go so far in explaining the bias,
imbalance, and self-censorship in the media’s Antifa coverage. Willful
blindness to the facts and sympathy for the Antifa agenda (if not a
total endorsement of its violent communist methods) are clearly at play
here.
Below are some of the additional important facts that the American
people need to know about the Antifa “phenomenon,” but which the
pro-Antifa media have ignored, censored, downplayed, or half-hidden from
the general public’s view. Without Organized Communist Leadership Antifa Wouldn’t Exist
Communist parties and communist organizations such as the
Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), Communist Party USA (CPUSA),
Workers World Party (WWP), By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), Freedom Road
Socialist Organization, and RefuseFascism.org provide the key
leadership, ideological indoctrination, organizing, and training for the
Antifa rioters. They also provide the chants, slogans, signs, and
banners for the Antifa confrontations. This is not new; it is a
continuation of the same communist organizational operations that have
run through the radical Occupy Wall Street, anti-war, anti-police,
immigration (DACA, Dreamers), environmental, and other protests over the
past several decades. This is not difficult to document, as we have
been showing for years from the radicals’ own admissions and publicly
available documents. (See here, here, here, and here.)
Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Professor Cornel West (shown at right) promotes Antifa as “saviors” — with help from the media.
Prof. West (Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Union Theological Seminary) has
been a hardcore Marxist activist for decades, openly working with the
Revolutionary Communist Party, the violent Maoists who idolize Mao
Zedong and his murderous Red Guards who terrorized China in the 1960s
and '70s.
West claims that Antifa thugs at the deadly Charlottesville,
Virginia, riot on August 12 “saved” him and his leftist clergy comrades
from being beaten by the fascists. We have counted dozens of stories in
the major media that have repeated this claim by West, many of which
have gone on to use this as an accolade for the masked felons and as
supposed evidence of Antifa’s “anti-fascist” bonafides. Not a single
story we have seen has even mentioned Cornel West’s communist
credentials, let alone questioned his motives in glorifying Antifa, or
(perish the thought!) asked whether or not the “saving” operation may
have been planned from the start for precisely the propaganda value that
it obviously has accrued. Antifa author/professor Mark Bray admits Antifa’s communist ideology and origins in his Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook,
but disingenuously entangles it with the less-understood anarchist
label and the more benign-sounding socialist label. (Professor Bray is
shown below on "Democracy Now!" with a cover image of his handbook shown
to the right.) He also attempts to ennoble and sanctify the Antifa
brand by clothing it in “anti-fascist” garb and dishonest rhetoric that
claims the group’s well-documented record of initiating violence is
somehow justified as “self defense.” Repeating a thesis of his book,
Bray told Sean Illing of the left-wing Vox website: “Anti-fascism
originated in response to early European fascism, and when
Mussolini's Blackshirts and Hitler's Brownshirts were ascendant in
Europe, various socialist, communist, and anarchist parties and groups
emerged to confront them.” (Article continues after photo.)
Antifa Flag: Designed by Communist Propagandists
The Antifa flag was designed by Communist Party propagandists to
serve communist purposes. Where did the Antifa logo (pictured below)
with the red and black flags (symbolizing communist/anarchist unity)
come from? The rallying symbol, ever-present on flags and banners at
Antifa events, can be traced back to Germany in the 1920s, reports the
radical left-wing Jacobin magazine, in “The Lost History of Antifa.” According to the Jacobin
account, it was “devised by Association of Revolutionary Visual Artists
members Max Keilson and Max Gebhard, [and] has been since become one of
the Left’s most well-known symbols.” What the Jacobin article
doesn’t tell readers is that the Association of Revolutionary Visual
Artists was an official propaganda arm of the German Communist Party,
which was a subservient branch of the Communist Party of the Soviet
Union. Max Keilson and Max Gebhard were high-level Communist Party
members. Keilson’s wife, Margarete Schnate-Keilson, was a top member of
the German Communist Party’s Central Committee, and a ruthless agent of
the Comintern (Communist International), the global network of Soviet
spies, assassins, propagandists, and agents of influence. Among her many
exploits, for which she received Soviet and East German honors, was
helping convicted atom bomb spy Klaus Fuchs escape.
She later married Fuchs. An undated black-and-white photo (presumably
from the 1930s) shows a German Antifa gathering in an auditorium with a huge Antifa flag/banner in the center of the stage flanked by communist flags with the hammer & sickle on either side. SDS Radicals From the ’60s
Prof. Mark Bray is certainly aware of this history, as well as the
essential red/black, communist/anarchist ties that run throughout
Antifa’s current composition, but he does not share this crucial
information with his television audiences. And his media interviewers
are complicit in his deception. Communist SDS leader and Weather
Underground terrorist Bill Ayers is one of the many radical Marxists now
continuing their 1960s activism through Antifa. At a Trump campaign
rally in Chicago on March 11, 2016, Ayers joined Antifa, Revolutionary
Communist Party, and Communist Part PUSA agitators who violently blocked
the rally, causing it to be cancelled. A video interview with Ayers at the event
also shows many of the other participating communist groups, as well as
featuring a young anti-Trump woman who sings/chants about “armed
revolution” and “it’s time to pick up a gun.”
More SDS Reds from the 1960s, such as C. Clark Kissinger and Dan Siegel, are helping the Antifa anarcho-communists:
• Clark Kissinger was national secretary of the SDS in the 1960s and
was such a devoted Maoist that he visited Communist China twice and was
an avid propagandist for Chairman Mao’s bloody Cultural Revolution and
Red Guards. His fervor has not dimmed over the past five decades: He
continues as an activist comrade in the Revolutionary Communist Party,
writes for the RCP’s Revolution newspaper/website, runs the Revolution
Books bookstore in New York City, and is a leading figure in the Occupy
Wall Street movement, as well as in the RCP fronts (and Antifa’s guiding
allies) Refuse&Resist, NotInOurName, and RefuseFascism.org.
• Dan Siegel was an SDS leader and, as student body president at the
University of California-Berkeley, led the 1969 “Bloody Thursday” riot,
also known as the “Battle for Peoples’ Park” at UC Berkeley. He has been
a radical “civil rights” lawyer ever since. He is an Occupy Wall
Street/Occupy Oakland activist and a longtime friend and adviser to
radical Oakland Mayor Jean Quan. Siegel’s Occupy comrades turned the
series of Occupy Oakland protests in 2011-2012 into bloody riots that
were some of the most violent, destructive, and costly operations of the
Occupy movement. The Occupy Oakland conflagrations served as a
principal training ground for Antifa recruits.
Few familiar with Siegel’s background were surprised when he showed up as the attorney for Professor Eric Clanton, the now-infamous Antifa thug arrested and charged with
the cowardly and vicious attacks (which could easily have been lethal)
in Berkeley last April. In those attacks, several Trump supporters at a
rally were (allegedly) clobbered by Clanton, who was wielding a heavy,
steel bike lock. One of the victims, who was struck on the head in a
sneak attack, was seriously injured. Clanton, the alleged attacker, then
blended back into the crowd, a typical tactic recommended in the Antifa
handbooks. However, the attacks were caught on video, and online
sleuths were able to unmask Clanton as the alleged attacker using computer forensic tools. Revolutionary Communist Party
The Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) is a central player in Antifa
violence. Whether the Antifa mayhem erupts in Boston, Berkeley,
Charlottesville, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Baltimore, St.
Louis, Oakland, Seattle, or elsewhere, the RCP cadres are inevitably
exercising a leading role. This is evident on many levels, the most
obvious being the distinctive RCP signs carried by the Antifa activists.
Again, this is no secret; the RCP’s web address (www.revcom.us) is
printed on the signs. This RCP branding is clearly visible even in many
of the photos accompanying “mainstream” media reports on Antifa. But
the Fake News journalists virtually never point out this fact, nor do
they show the slightest inclination in probing the RCP’s organizing
role. Ditto for the RCP’s front group, Refuse Fascism. The
RCP/RefuseFascism cadres have been hard at work for decades recruiting
and building an American version of Mao’s Red Guards to implement a Maoist Cultural Revolution here in the United States.
They do not hide this. In fact they boast of it. One example out of
many: An interview with RCP leader Raymond Lotta in the RCP’s Revolution newspaper for May 9, 2016, titled “The Cultural Revolution: The Furthest Advance of Human Emancipation Yet.” “The
Cultural Revolution was the high point of the first stage of communist
revolution,” avers Comrade Lotta. “The Cultural Revolution was the most
far-reaching attempt in modern history, and in human history, to
revolutionize and restructure a society away from all exploitation and
oppression.... During the course of this, millions and millions of
people revolutionized their world outlook — that is, their basic values,
their approach to reality — and the whole ethos, or spirit, of society
was transformed.” Yes, and millions of people were, jailed, tortured,
and executed in the process, while the remaining hundreds of millions
(except for the privileged Communist Party elites) were enslaved. In
Antifa, the Maoist RCP has already formed the basis for their
long-envisioned Red Guard Amerika.
On September 11, 2017, the RCP’s Revolution published a Refuse Fascism article entitled “Shameful, Dangerous, Wrong Attacks on Antifa,” which takes to task those elements of the “progressive left” that have criticized Antifa’s violent methods.
Below are several of the many photos available on a Chinese-language website
showing the grisly reality of the Cultural Revolution. The photos below
of public condemnation of Chinese accused of “thought crimes” do not
begin to show the depths of torture and despair and the horrendous
murders of Mao’s Red Guards, whom Antifa glorify and seek to emulate.
(Article continues beneath photos.) Communist Workers Party
The Communist Workers World Party (WWP) provides key support to
Antifa efforts. Like the RCP, the WWP is a hardcore, unapologetic
communist organization with a long history of violent “protest” and
rioting. While the RCP true believers channel Mao, the WWP have chosen
Bolshevik death-dealer Leon Trotsky. In an editorial in the third issue
of the party’s publication, International Workers Day, the
group proclaimed, “We are THE Trotskyists. We stand 100% with all the
principled positions of Leon Trotsky, the most revolutionary communist
since Lenin.” On August 14, two days after the deadly Charlottesville mayhem, WWP cadres led a similar attack that toppled a statue of a Confederate soldier in Durham, North Carolina.
Clearly, they were hoping to provoke a riot similar to the lethal
Charlottesville melee. Among the WWP Trotskyists arrested were Takiyah
Thompson, Ngoc Loan Tran, Dante Emmanuel Strobino, Peter Gull Gilbert,
and Raul Jiminez. The WWP is holding a “#Do It Like Durham” Workers World Party Forum in
New York City on October 14, featuring Takiya Thompson and Ngoc Loan
Tran. Thompson, who climbed the Confederate statue in Durham, North
Carolina on August 16 and put the rope around its neck that was used to
pull it down, has become something of a celebrity among the “progressive” Left, since a video of her “heroic” exploit went viral. Black Lives Matter
Antifa
ally Black Lives Matter (BLM) has provided the most successful
communist exploitation of race hatred since the 1960s-’70s. The “white
privilege” mantra of the BLM activists was invented by Noel Ignatiev
(shown at right), a member of the Communist Party USA and a co-founder
of its most militant Stalinist/Maoist offshoot, the Provisional
Organizing Committee.
Ignatiev is also a co-founder of the New Abolitionist Society (the
object of which is to “abolish the white race”) and co-founder of Race Traitor: Journal of the New Abolitionism.
“The key to solving the social problems of our age is to abolish the white race,” says Ignatiev, who
is white. And, says this white Red who exploits and incites blacks to
attack whites, “The abolitionists do not limit themselves to socially
acceptable means of protest, but reject in advance no means of attaining
their goal.” In other words, “By any means necessary,” the slogan that
has become one of the refrains of the Antifa/BLM militants. According to Ignatiev, “If
you are a white male, you don’t deserve to live. You are a cancer,
you’re a disease, white males have never contributed anything positive
to the world! They only murder, exploit and oppress non-whites!”
This kind of racist, anti-white speech has become standard fare among
millions of students marinated in Ignatiev’s communist propaganda, and
can be regularly seen and heard at BLM/Antifa events. The three radical
lesbian co-founders of Black Lives Matter — Patrisse Cullors, Alicia
Garza, and Opal Tometi — identify themselves as "Black queer women" and
are members of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, which draws much
of its inspiration from Ignatiev’s Provisional Organizing Committee.
(We have previously traced much of the BLM’s Marxist-Leninist-terrorist
lineage here.) Media Censorship
It goes on and on. The evidence that Antifa is a communist instrument
serving the anti-American, anti-liberty communist agenda is
overwhelming. Which is not to say that all, or even most, of the young
activists involved are conscious of this fact, or even realize that the
chants and slogans they are mouthing, or the memes they are tweeting,
are weaponized words designed by communist propagandists such as Mao,
Trotsky, and Ignatiev.
However, there are many in the media who cannot claim ignorance as a
defense; they are consciously censoring this crucial information that
Americans need to understand the world and make vital decisions. And
they must be called to account for this unconscionable betrayal.
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
It’s been a week since Stephen Paddock shot and killed nearly 60
people at a concert in Las Vegas and wounded another 500 before taking
his own life. Since then, 100 FBI agents
and other investigators have been combing Paddock’s background to try
to determine a motive. After spending thousands of man-hours searching
his computers, residence, hotel room, vehicles, and banking connections,
and checking into his mental health records, criminal behavior, and
finances, they have uncovered an immense amount of information. They
have interviewed hotel employees and viewed hours of videotape from
hotel surveillance cameras. They’ve learned a lot, but they still don’t
have a motive.
And now they’re asking the public for help. Today the FBI will post
billboards near the scene offering rewards for any information that
neighbors, bystanders, or other observers might be able to provide in
their quest.
They have learned that Paddock’s father’s photograph appeared on the
FBI’s “10 Most Wanted” posters in the early 1960s. Once Benjamin Paddock
was incarcerated, neither Stephen nor his two brothers, Eric and Bruce,
had any more contact with him.
Paddock’s teen years were uneventful. He played varsity tennis in
high school, leaving behind an unremarkable record. He graduated from
California State University with a business degree. His few friends
remembered him as quiet, well-behaved, and facile in mathematics.
He took a job with the U.S. Post Office as a letter carrier and then
became an agent for the Internal Revenue Service. After that he went to
work for Lockheed (later to become Lockheed-Martin) auditing defense
contracts.
He married and divorced twice, leaving no children. He started
dabbling in real estate, buying up cheap houses and renting them out. He
caught the California real estate boom in the early 1990s and rode it
for all it was worth. In 2014 the real estate partnership he was in was
liquidated, leaving him a multimillionaire.
Along the way he learned to gamble profitably, treating it not as
entertainment but a business. He found that video poker worked best for
him and he would spend hours off in the corner of a casino playing, and
winning. The casinos in Las Vegas knew him well, especially when he
started costing them money. They eventually stopped comping him his
rooms and meals. That’s where he met his girlfriend Marilou Danley, a Filipino who worked at casinos in Reno and Las Vegas.
He was generous with his money, and used some of his comps to treat
his brother Eric and a nephew to $1,000 dinners in Las Vegas. He sent
$100,000 to his girlfriend while she was in the Philippines to help her
buy a home. He even sent cookies to his mother in Florida on her
birthday.
He was an odd duck, but not dangerous. He drove a car wearing gloves,
even in the summer, and kept the window shades pulled while he was at
home. The investigators could find no footprint on social media, no
criminal record, and no political ideology for the Las Vegas shooter.
He owned two airplanes and had a pilot’s license.
He was prescribed Diazepam (Valium) by a local doctor in June, but
suggestions that this somehow influenced his behavior were denied by Dr.
Michael First of Columbia University. First said that although some of
Diazepam’s side effects could cause aggressive behavior, the extent to
which Paddock carefully planned his attack over many months indicated
that there were “deeper issues” involved than just simply taking
Diazepam. Investigators searching for those “deeper issues” remain in
the dark.
When police examined his 2017 Chrysler Pacifica they found 50 pounds
of Tannerite, a patented target explosive used for long-range shooting.
When a high-velocity round hits a target many yards down range, it
explodes, indicating a hit and eliminating the need for the shooter to
go downrange to inspect the target visually. Some investigators have
raised the possibility that Paddock had so much Tannerite in his car
that he hoped/planned/expected that it would explode if police were to
target it. Again, speculation.
Some investigators got excited when they thought officers saw flashes
coming from the fourth floor of Paddock’s hotel, which Snopes quickly
put to rest, as there were no broken-out windows on the fourth floor.
The flashing light was a strobe light that had been flashing for hours
before Paddock started shooting, and the police and SWAT team heading up
the stairs to the 32nd floor most certainly would have heard gunfire as
they hit the fourth floor. Another dead end.
Investigators remain stymied when checking on claims by an Islamic
terrorist group that Paddock was one of their “soldiers.” They could
find no credible evidence that this 64-year-old white man had somehow
been radicalized and assimilated into the Jihad.
Nothing more appears in the media about the mysterious “Antonio” — an
alleged hotel employee who claimed that he served Paddock and a guest
one day before Paddock rented his room at Mandalay Bay. But they did
learn that Paddock had been casing Las Vegas for at least two weeks
prior, having found that he had rented a three-room suite at the Ogden
luxury condominium complex overlooking the concert area for two weeks
before he took his perch at Mandalay Bay.
They wondered how anyone could move dozens of rifles and ammunition,
using 10 suitcases, into his hotel room without anyone noticing. What
investigators learned is that that happens all the time: Media crews
supporting various events bring video and audio equipment by the case
into rooms, so Paddock’s efforts went unnoticed.
They got excited when they discovered a note on the table next to his
body, but were disappointed to learn that it was essentially
undecipherable, and not a much-hoped-for suicide note. Investigators
said the note was “significant to the gunman” but to no one else.
They also got excited when they learned that there is a public
shooting range not far from where Paddock lived in Mesquite, especially
when they uncovered video footage of him driving down the road to the
range. But further investigation proved fruitless: Paddock never fired a
single round from any of his rifles at that range.
One thing missing was any evidence whatsoever of any interest by
Paddock in things spiritual or eternal. He never attended church, so far
as the investigators could tell, nor did he ever express an interest in
God or His creation and purpose. Paddock was completely and totally a
secular man, living for the “now.” When something snapped — and that
something remains unknown — Paddock had the resources to inflict
terrible damage and horror on people he didn’t know and never would
know, for purposes that investigators are still unable to discern.
Related articles:
Stephen Paddock: Another Mass Shooter on Psychiatric Meds Many Unanswered Questions About Las Vegas Shooting
_____________________________________________________
Guandolo Moment: Facts That Point to Jihad in Vegas
This new special edition of The Glazov Gang features John Guandolo, a former FBI agent, combat veteran Marine, and now the president of Understanding the Threat. John focused on Facts That Point to Jihad in Vegas, unveiling why ISIS’ claim of responsibility is deadly serious. Don’t miss it! Subscribe to the Glazov Gang‘s YouTube Channel. Please donate through our Generosity Campaign or Pay Pal account to help The Glazov Gang keep going. Thank you!
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Every time Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
(FISA) is set to expire, the surveillance hawks prop it back up, give it
a fresh coat of paint, and promise to (really, this time)
protect the privacy of American citizens. And every time, the “reforms”
succeed in refueling the surveillance machine so that it can continue to
bulldoze citizens’ rights in the name of national security. With the
surveillance programs authorized under Section 702 set to expire on
December 31, 2017, the surveillance hawks are at it again.
On Thursday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.)
and Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.), along with Reps. Jim
Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) and Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), held a press
conference to announce the introduction of the USA Liberty Act (a
misnomer not to be confused with the equally misnamed USA Freedom Act,
though — given that they both promise “liberty” and “freedom” while
empowering the surveillance state to strip Americans of those very
things — your confusion would be easily forgiven).
Section 702 is deservedly one of the most controversial portions of
FISA, since it authorizes the collection of massive amounts of data from
a wide variety of sources with so little real oversight and almost no
real restrictions. The Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) aptly
describes Section 702 as:
Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act (FISA) is a statute that authorizes the collection,
use, and dissemination of electronic communications content stored by
U.S. internet service providers (such as Google, Facebook, and
Microsoft) or traveling across the internet’s “backbone” (with the
compelled assistance of U.S. telecom providers such as AT&T and
Verizon). Section 702 sunsets on December 31, 2017.
CDT also acknowledges that the “restrictions” that ostensibly keep Section 702 in line are inadequate to the task, stating:
Unlike “traditional” FISA surveillance,
Section 702 does not require that the surveillance target be a suspected
terrorist, spy, or other agent of a foreign power. Section 702 only
requires that the targets be non-U.S. persons located abroad, and that a
“significant purpose” of the surveillance be to obtain “foreign
intelligence information” (the primary purpose of the surveillance can
be something else entirely).
That is an accurate (if incomplete) assessment, since, while many
claim that the powers granted by Section 702 are abused, the reality is
that they are designed for abuse. The surveillance hawks love Section
702 because it allows that abuse.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) — an organization dedicated
to defending digital liberty in an age of nearly ubiquitous surveillance
— describes the surveillance that takes place under the authority of
Section 702 as “warrantless” and “suspiciousness.” EFF’s description
goes on to say:
The U.S. government uses Section 702 to
justify the collection of the communications of innocent people overseas
and in the United States by tapping into the cables that carry domestic
and international Internet communications through what's known as
Upstream surveillance. The government also forces major U.S. tech
companies to turn over private communications stored on their servers
through a program often referred to as PRISM. While the programs under
Section 702 are theoretically aimed at foreigners outside the United
States, they constantly collect Americans’ communications with no
meaningful oversight from the courts.
The type of surveillance conducted under Section 702 was first
brought to the attention of Americans as part of the Snowden
revelations. American citizens, outraged by what they learned, demanded
reform of the surveillance state. The surveillance hawks promised reform
and in June 2015 delivered the USA Freedom Act — equal parts smoke and
mirrors. As this writer reported in December 2015, when that act took effect:
The USA FREEDOM Act, like the USA PATRIOT
Act of 2001, is a misnomer. The name is a not-very-subtle manipulation,
designed to hide from the American people the real nature of the law.
The architects of the USA PATRIOT Act used the word "patriot" to
persuade Americans that the "patriotic" way to confront the specter of
terrorism was to trade liberty for security. It took the one but never
delivered the other. Likewise, in the USA FREEDOM Act, the use of the
word "freedom" is designed to convince Americans that their freedom is
being returned to them by "reforming" the surveillance state. In fact, no such reform is taking place.
The USA Freedom Act was not a reform; it was merely the next piece of
sleight-of-hand in a shell game being played by the surveillance state
with American citizens as the victims. Predictable and systemic abuses
of Section 702 powers are well documented and — while they appear to have reached a peak in 2015/2016 — have not halted, even with the advent of the USA Freedom Act.
The problem is that warrantless surveillance is — regardless of the
reasons given — a violation of the Fourth Amendment guarantee against
unreasonable searches. As Dr. Ron Paul explained,
“There is no ‘terrorist’ exception in the Fourth Amendment. Saying a
good end (capturing terrorists) justifies a bad means (mass
surveillance) gives the government a blank check to violate our
liberties.”
After passing the cleverly misnamed USA Freedom Act off on the
American people in a successful bid to keep the surveillance machine
running at full steam, the surveillance hawks in both the intelligence
community and Congress knew that they would need another piece of crafty
legislation to keep the game going once the sunset provision for
Section 702 came up again. That crafty piece of legislation is the USA
Liberty Act. The name — and the content — of this bill are an insult to
the intelligence of the American people.
As the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) explains:
The Project On Government Oversight has
pushed for reforms to be made to FISA that adequately protect American
citizens’ civil liberties while keeping the country safe from harm. This
piece of legislation fails to accomplish either of these goals and we
are specifically concerned with three areas of the newly unveiled
legislation.
The three areas of concern for POGO are:
1. Whistleblower Protections for Intelligence Community Contractors — about which POGO says:
As written, the bill lacks teeth to
enforce the provisions against retaliation for blowing the whistle, and
we call on the sponsors to add stronger enforcement mechanisms to this
bill for both contractors and federal employees through the committee
process before sending it to the Floor for a vote. Until these employees
feel comfortable blowing the whistle because they know they will be
protected from retaliation, Congress is creating an incentive to go
outside of proper reporting channels.
2. Exemptions for Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) — about which POGO says:
This draft bill purports to exempt the
essential oversight board from the Government in the Sunshine Act, an
exemption that would allow the members of the board to meet in secret to
discuss issues under its purview.
We are sympathetic to the argument that
open-meeting laws may complicate the ability of the board to complete
its mission, but a full exemption from transparency laws is not the
responsible way to address this problem. We urge the committee to work
with civil society to find a common ground that promotes adequate
transparency without hindering the work of this oversight board.
3. Surveillance Program Still Puts Americans’ Civil Liberties at Risk — about which POGO says:
While this draft bill attempts to provide
a fix for the backdoor search loophole, it does not go far enough to
ensure Americans’ civil liberties are protected. By allowing an
exception for foreign intelligence searches with an overly broad
definition of such searches, Americans may still find their Fourth
Amendment rights violated.
We applaud the inclusion of reporting to
Congress of an estimate of the number of Americans’ communications that
have been subject to “incidental” collection under section 702, but we
encourage the committee to make this report available to the public. We
also encourage the committee to consider further provisions to increase
public oversight over these programs.
CDT, EFF, and POGO are far from alone in their concerns about the
continuance of the Section 702 game under the so-called USA Liberty Act.
Tom’s Hardware — a website that devotes its attention to tech news
about new gadgets and computer parts — weighed in on the topic with an
article titled “USA Liberty Act: New ‘Foreign’ Intelligence Law Will Legalize Spying On Americans.” The article points out that, “although the bill does aim to curtail some illegal NSA activities and abuses
that shouldn’t have happened in the first place, it also codifies into
law the bulk collection of Americans' data. It also codifies the NSA’s
ability to share data with other domestic agencies.” The article goes on
to say:
President Obama also expanded some executive rules
last year that allowed the NSA to share raw intelligence data without a
warrant with 16 other agencies. Because the shared data is raw,
Americans’ data can be seen by agents from any of the 17 agencies,
without any judicial approval. Such broad access may also put this data
at risk from cyber attacks.
It’s not clear if the new USA Liberty
Act, which does require a warrant when Americans’ communications content
is accessed by the other 16 agencies, including the FBI, overrides
those rules. The USA Liberty Act is also much more relaxed when it comes
to metadata (phone or email records, etc.), requiring only a
supervisor’s approval for access.
What is clear is that until last year,
the so-called “incidental” data collected on Americans through foreign
intelligence programs was supposed to be minimized and then
automatically purged. However, President Obama’s expanded rules now
allow 17 agencies to scour through that data before any minimization or
purging happens.
Meanwhile, the USA Liberty Act seems to
imply that data will be kept long enough that there will be enough time
for domestic agencies to get warrants from judges or other type of
approvals to obtain it. In other words, the supposed “incidental”
collection is starting to seem less incidental and more purposeful.
And there is the rub; the NSA and other intelligence agencies have
made it so normal for the exceptions to outnumber the rules that it is
obvious to all but the most casual of observers that the rules are
designed to give way to exceptions.
The American people deserve better. And all Americans who are
concerned about preserving liberty should call and write their senators
and representatives and tell them to vote “no” on the USA Liberty Act.
According to the Jacobin
account, it was “devised by Association of Revolutionary Visual Artists
members Max Keilson and Max Gebhard, [and] has been since become one of
the Left’s most well-known symbols.” What the Jacobin article
doesn’t tell readers is that the Association of Revolutionary Visual
Artists was an official propaganda arm of the German Communist Party,
which was a subservient branch of the Communist Party of the Soviet
Union. Max Keilson and Max Gebhard were high-level Communist Party
members. Keilson’s wife, Margarete Schnate-Keilson, was a top member of
the German Communist Party’s Central Committee, and a ruthless agent of
the Comintern (Communist International), the global network of Soviet
spies, assassins, propagandists, and agents of influence. Among her many
exploits, for which she received Soviet and East German honors, was
helping convicted 