Tag Archives: Politics

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A "different norm"

In the Uighur Province of China, the communist government is running "reeducation camps", committing genocide against the population, including the Muslim minority in that province.

I'm leading off with this, so that you can keep it in mind as you read.

President Biden says,

"..I am not going to speak out against what he’s doing in Hong Kong, what he’s doing with the Uighurs in western mountains of China and Taiwan...Culturally there are different norms that each country and their leaders are expected to follow,”

New York Post

Yes, folks, our president sees the systematic rape, torture, and genocide as merely "different norms" and he does not intend to speak out against these heinous actions.

I am back to "how do we DO good and yet pray curses?"

For he did not remember to show kindness,
    but pursued the poor and needy
    and the brokenhearted, to put them to death.

from Psalm 109

Systematic torture and rape

Women are raped in these reeducation camps, not only by guards, but the men in the surrounding areas who pay the guards for the priviledge of raping young girls.

Tursunay Ziawudun, who fled Xinjiang after her release and is now in the US, said women were removed from the cells "every night" and raped by one or more masked Chinese men. She said she was tortured and later gang-raped on three occasions, each time by two or three men.

So, gang rape is simply a "different norm" so it's okay...according to President Biden.

People who do these things and politicians who publicly refuse to speak against these abuses of image bearers of God...are enemies of God.

Let curses come upon him!

He loved to curse; let curses come upon him!
    He did not delight in blessing; may it be far from him!

from Psalm 109

1,000,000 Uilghurs from the region have been "removed" and some reports say 3,000,000.

He clothed himself with cursing as his coat;
may it soak into his body like water,
like oil into his bones!
May it be like a garment that he wraps around him,
like a belt that he puts on every day!

From Psalm 109

May curses soak into his body like water

"The woman took me to the room next to where the other girl had been taken in. They had an electric stick, I didn't know what it was, and it was pushed inside my genital tract, torturing me with an electric shock."

There were "four kinds of electric shock", Sedik said - "the chair, the glove, the helmet, and anal rape with a stick".

O Lord, God of vengeance,
    O God of vengeance, shine forth!
Rise up, O judge of the earth;
    repay to the proud what they deserve!

The rest of the Imprecation Series is here.

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Here is the link.

Andrew Torba founded Gab in 2016 as a free speech alternative to Facebook:

"We believe that the future of online publishing is decentralized and open," reads a description on its website. "We believe that users of social networks should be able to control their social media experience on their own terms, rather than the terms set down by Big Tech."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2021/01/11/what-gab-social-network-gaining-popularity-amid-parler-crackdown/6620906002/

About Andrew Torba

Torba is unashamedly Christian and will not do interviews with organizations that are not Christian. (You can listen to the Cross Politic interview with him here, where he explains why). Basically, he doesn't wish to do interviews with those who are hostile to free speech platforms and to Christianity.

Gab was "blamed" for the 2018 synagogue shooting because the shooter had posted on there. The fact that he also posted on Facebook and Twitter was "overlooked" in the race to blame the platform. Torba cooperated with law enforcement agencies and that was also "overlooked". Furthermore, that Gab does not allow calls to or threats of violence was also "overlooked."

The New York Times claimed that the January 6, 2021 riots were organized on that platform. Here's the problem - the Feds say that it was on Twitter and Facebook.

"Big Tech" wants control and they have very deep pockets. Groups that have been cancelled are becoming numerous and Gab is a big target.

Torba's sites have lost their internet provider, are not allowed on the iTunes or Android app stores. They are banned from Visa or Mastercard, and one of the bitcoin companies. PayPal and Stripe have also blocked this group. In other words, Gab has been targeted.

Gab does not sell advertisements (you are not the product) and does not allow calls to violence or pornography on the platform. "Facebook was responsible for 94% of the 69 million child sex abuse images reported by US technology companies last year."

Torba has a grand vision for his companies, including a Christian marketplace, they already have a browser (Dissenter) and more.

Gab News...

See more of the "Free Speech Platforms" series

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The 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) was passed to protect the religious freedom citizens from the government. In order for the government to restrict a person from their "free exercise", a law had to pass two tests.

1) there had to be a compelling government interest.

2) the law had to be the least restrictive way to accomplish that interest. The "Do No Harm Act" (expected to be reintroduced in 2021) grants the government more authority to restrict religious liberty.

This bill prohibits the application of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA) to specified federal laws or the implementation of such laws. Currently, RFRA prohibits the government from substantially burdening a person's exercise of religion even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability, except in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest when using the least restrictive means.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/1450

Who Would This Affect?

This bill would only federally funded entities (for now) but, ANY government funding would be included. Attempts have been made to include any monies granted to parents that is paid to Christian day care facilities.

The Do No Harm Act “would preserve the law’s power to protect religious freedom, but also clarify that it can’t be used to cause harm,” said Maggie Garrett, vice president for public policy for Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

https://www.deseret.com/indepth/2021/1/8/22204893/religious-freedom-law-do-no-harm-act-congress-trump-administration-legal-conflict

Here's the thing...whoever is in power gets to define "harm".

Unrestricted government power is the one thing our founding fathers feared. Furthermore, the Constitution was written to restrict the government and the first thing protected was the freedom to exercise religion.

The proposal even says that RFRA should not allow any “party” to discriminate against others, “including persons who do not belong to the religion or adhere to the beliefs of that party.” Think about that. Today, RFRA allows churches or organizations to challenge federal laws or regulations that would force them to hire or include as members persons who oppose their beliefs. The Harris bill would allow the government to make that choice instead.

https://www.heritage.org/religious-liberty/commentary/diluting-the-substance-religious-freedom

Again, right now, a church can hire people who agree with what that church believes and teaches. There has been talk of punishing Bible-believing churches who don't toe the agenda line. Law suits are one way. Removing their non-profit status if they "discriminate" against "name that minority" is another.

The "Do No Harm" act is a step in that direction.

The first article: The Equality Act of 2020 is here.

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Sermon Notes: Imprecations Intro-Part 1

Our pastor is preaching a series on imprecatory prayers and there's a lot unpack. The first point was "we are here" and the first point of the first point was "The Equality Act"

February 7, 2021 - we are here with the Equality Act

the "equality act" would add "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" to the list of civil right protection. H.R.5 is expected to be reintroduced in 2021.

Implications of The Equality Act

...continue reading →

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Lots of links today...and one of them is no longer active (well, it didn't take long for that censorship to happen...

In the Christian Sphere

A Biblical Case for Civil Disobedience & the Right Use of Romans 13 - James White

"Yet unqualified Christian obedience to government cannot be taught from texts which explicitly limit the boundaries of government authority and the extent of our submission.  God Himself clearly restricts the role of government, not giving it unlimited authority: it acts “for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right” (1 Pet. 2:14).  When rulers reverse that, as often happens, by praising evildoers and punishing those who do right, they violate their delegated, God-given authority and transgress their divinely established boundaries and assigned jurisdiction.  "

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...continue reading →

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Side note: Today would have been my dad's 86th birthday and he's been in heaven a bit over four years, but many times I just want to pick up the phone and hear his voice.

Now...

Christian Reading Habits

Reading Out of Love For Others - Tim Challies - Good thoughts and as I'm thinking about books for the Reading Challenge, I'm thinking about this also.

Politics (The Corruption of President Biden)

Labor Pick Paid Biden-Linked Firm Tens of Thousands Prior to Nomination This is a bit confusing, but there's an end to that ball of string.

The Culture Wars

Biden's Culture War Aggression

"TLDR version": If Biden wanted "unity", he wouldn't have turned the "on a scale of 1 - 10" dial up to 12 on "the culture war" (that's in quotes because that's the term that Sullivan used)"

And another from the Heritage Foundation

Boys who identify as girls must be allowed to compete in the girls' athletic competitions, men who identify as women must be allowed in women-only spaces, healthcare plans must pay for gender-transition procedures, and doctors and hospitals must perform them.

Sounds unifying, right?

In reality, it spells the end of girls' and women's sports as we know them. And, of course, no child should be told the lie that they're "trapped in the wrong body", and adults should not pump them full of puberty-blocking drugs and cross-sex hormones.

What’s the real evidence for 2020 Election Fraud?

There are seven points, and this conclusion

This isn’t an exhaustive survey of fraud evidence in the 2020 presidential race. For example I didn’t even include affidavits from witnesses seeing fraud in Wisconsin or Nevada. Nor did I even go through the Navaro Report or many of the claims listed on HeresTheEvidence.com.

But what I’ve seen is more than enough to convince me that Biden will not be a legitimately elected president when sworn in this Wednesday.

NOTE:  I disagree with the statement that President Trump would have won...but I do believe that there were enough irregularities to raise an alarm and all irregularities should be investigated (whether or not it would have changed the outcome) in order to have fair and honest elections in the future.

And...Policy Changes

Biden Appears To Signal Shift On Israel After Claiming In Speech That He Would ‘Repair Our Alliances’

“The change in title marks a significant shift in policy toward Israel,” The Washington Free Beacon reported. “The United States has for decades declined to take a policy position on the West Bank and Gaza territories, maintaining the Israelis and the Palestinians must decide in negotiations how the areas will be split up for a future Palestinian state. By including Gaza and the West Bank in the ambassador’s portfolio, the Biden administration appears to be determining that neither area is part of Israel—a move that is certain to rile Israeli leaders,” the outlet continued. “The incoming administration’s move also signals that it will elevate the next ambassador’s role to include conducting direct diplomacy with Palestinian leaders, including in the Gaza Strip, where the Hamas terror group maintains control. This is the only ambassador tasked with conducting diplomacy in a region controlled by a U.S.-designated terror group.”

‘Incredibly Troubling,’ ‘Deeply Disturbed’: Canadian Lawmakers React To Biden Energy Policy

This is a gut punch for the Canadian and Alberta economies. Sadly, it is an insult directed at the United States' most important ally and trading partner," Kenny told a news conference, according to Reuters.

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Here's the link to the post by Politichicks.

We (Phil and I) have been talking about changes in the future and thought that these changes were a few years away, but COVID-19 radically changed the time frame.

Key Phrase: The Great Reset

The promise is that this reset will bring us to a place that will "correct the world's economic ails" in a sustainable way.

from the website: The changes we have already seen in response to COVID-19 prove that a reset of our economic and social foundations is possible.

In short, we need a “Great Reset” of capitalism.

there are three main components:

  • "fairer outcomes" - NOT equal opportunities...equal outcomes.
  • Equality and sustainability - using "green" urban infrastructure, social and governance metrics.
  • harness the Fourth Industrial Revolution to support the "public good" *especially by addressing health and social challenges.

The main Great Reset "microsite"

Tony Marsh (politichicks) says the time frame has narrowed to 24 months.

The details of this Great Reset are vague but the direction is clear.

  • massive government intervention
  • wealth taxes (punish success)
  • Green New Deal programs
  • all (yes, ALL) aspects of our societies must be revamped
  • redistribution of wealth from the world's most successful economy to...everybody else.
  • "rebalancing economies"

They don't call it "socialism" but the definition fits. "a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole."

twentyfour months.

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lunes linkage is a weekly post that I'm resurrecting in my latest attempt at restarting the blog. The title stuck from when I was taking Spanish classes and every Monday (lunes) would list all the tabs that were open on my computer

The Annual Book Reading Challenge

Politichicks on "the Great Reset"

Klaus Schwab, the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum launched the initiative by proposing wealth taxes, additional regulations, and massive Green New Deal government programs. He said, “Every country, from the United States to China, must participate, and every industry, from oil and gas to tech, must be transformed.” “In short,” he wrote,” we need a ‘Great Reset’ of capitalism.”

How Far will Democrats go to loosen election procedures in order to ensure continual victory?

A person doesn’t even have to believe that such fraud did occur to realize how dangerous such a situation is. I am deeply disturbed that our media (a big part of the problem anyway) has no interest in fairly reporting on the allegations of fraud, and that our judiciary is punting. But I’m afraid that’s what we’re facing.

On President-elect Biden's Health and Human Services nominee, Xavier Becerra (from the National Catholic Register...and analysis from Get Religion.)

On Monday, President-elect Joe Biden tapped California attorney general Xavier Becerra to head the Department of Health and Human Services. If appointed, Becerra will lead an agency that has been at the epicenter of the “culture wars” in the U.S.—and many Catholic groups will now be bracing for those fights to intensify.

Becerra’s record in California shows that he, perhaps more than any other state attorney general, has been willing to wield the power of the state to enforce pro-abortion policies against religious and pro-life groups.

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"lunes linkage" is a collection of links, articles, etc. (anything) I've found interesting and might want to come back to.

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What Christianity Alone Offers Transgender Persons

The article is good and worth reading, but this line stuck out at me:

Creation isn’t right. The physical world has been “subjected to futility,” to frustration. It doesn’t work properly. It’s out of joint. It has been subjected to this frustration by God. The Bible’s wider narrative explains this. God cursed the ground as a judgment on human sin (Gen. 3:17). In other words, the world isn’t right as both a consequence and a demonstration of the fact that we’re not right.

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Campfire Blanket Scarf

Campfire Blanket Scarf - lunes linkage

Or maybe just a blanket 😉

This will be a good choice when I have spun all the alpaca fiber into yarn.

This piece will be easy and fast to knit, and it is just the sort of thing I like to curl up in when it's chilly, either indoors or out.

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California Could Learn From Puerto Rico Raising Minimum Wage

According to National Review, the impact on American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands was devastating. After only three of the ten scheduled minimum-wage increases after 2006, American Samoa’s overall employment dropped 30 percent — a 58 percent crash in for the critically important tuna-canning industry. Real GDP fell by 10 percent.

But that was much better than their Northern Mariana Islands neighbors, where employment had plunged by 35 percent, and real per capita GDP off by 23 percent.

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That's all for now (Tuesday)

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Lunes Linkage is the occasional Monday post linking to articles I have run across and found interesting...

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Here's one from a while ago (April) - Trump is a Fool.

Donald Trump is a fool—not because he is wrong about so many things, but because he is right about a few others. The fool is not only one who speaks nonsense, but one who speaks sense on the topic no one else will touch. He is the court jester pointing out the king’s failings. Were any sane man to make the same statements, he’d be put on a pole. But the fool, amid a general stream of nonsense, is able to touch on the rare uncomfortable truth.

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A possible treatment for the gene that I carry, and that affects my son,

Patients with Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON), a rare genetic mitochondrial disease that leads to vision loss, show sustained improvement in a follow-up to a Phase 1/2 clinical trial with GenSight Biologics’ therapy candidate GS010.

Patients recruited to the study had been diagnosed with LHON for approximately six years. After 78 weeks of follow-up, promising results were reported, with improved vision in the eye that was treated.

LHON is inherited through the maternal mitochondrial genes. It causes degeneration of retinal ganglion cells, a specific type of neurons in the retina. This condition begins with blurring and clouding, generally in a person’s teens or 20s.

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In the spirit of Christmas season, I want to be charitable to President-elect Donald Trump and express my thanks for his success in 2016.

While there still remains plenty of cause for concern, the continued boldness, energy, and vigor exhibited by the Trump transition team is giving me real hope and excitement. Here are 10 reasons this conservative is having a merrier Christmas season thanks to Donald Trump.

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At the heart of Christianity and the gospel is the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Apart from the “Word becoming flesh” (John 1:14) and the incarnate Son of God living and dying in our place as our Savior, there is no salvation. Apart from the coming of the eternal Son, his taking on human nature and acting as our covenant representative, there is no hope for the world.

It is appropriate at Christmas to think more deeply about the incarnation. Here are 10 things we should grasp.

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Another from a while ago - courtesy Doug WIlson (there's a lot of political incorrectness, but good information.)

The Scars on Your Forearms -

Show me your forearms. Unless there are scars all over them, then I honestly don’t want to hear your views of the inadequacy of these cultural clashes (Gal. 6:17). When the barbarians are throwing their scaling ladders against the city walls, if the only defenders at the top of those walls are Chick Fil A employees in paper hats and hot grease from the deep fryer, and rednecks with their beards and shotguns, and nobody at all there from Red Brick Memorial Reformed, Rev. Forsythe P. Snodgrass, D.Min, minister, then let us be frank. We shouldn’t blame the folks who are there.