Sunday, November 01, 2020



Biden Pledges to Gut Religious Freedom Protections, Saying They Give 'Hate' a 'Safe Harbor'

The only hate I can see is Biden's hatred of religions

Joe Biden made no bones about it: If he wins the presidential election, he will gut religious freedom protections that allow faith-based homeless shelters, charities, and small business owners to act according to their consciences. Specifically, he will shove LGBT ideology down the throats of religious Americans in the name of fighting “discrimination.”

On Wednesday, the Democratic nominee told Philadelphia Gay News that President Donald Trump has given “hate” a “safe harbor” by protecting religious freedom and enabling what Biden condemned as “discrimination.”

“Donald Trump and Mike Pence have given hate against LGBTQ+ individuals safe harbor and rolled back critical protections for the LGBTQ+ community,” the Democrat alleged. “By blocking the ability of transgender individuals to openly serve their country, denying LGBTQ+ people access to critical health care, proposing policies allowing federally funded homeless shelters to turn away transgender people and federally funded adoption agencies to reject same-sex couples, and failing to address the epidemic of violence against transgender people — particularly transgender women of color — the Trump-Pence Administration has led a systematic effort to undo the progress President Obama and I made.”

Throughout his interview, Biden condemned as “discrimination” the idea that faith-based homeless shelters, adoption agencies, and other charities would refuse to endorse same-sex marriage, transgender identity, and experimental cross-sex drugs and surgeries. He acted as though any desire to follow a traditional Christian, Jewish, or Muslim view of sexuality and gender must be rank “discrimination.” This falls in line with the radical pro-LGBT Equality Act, which Biden said he would pass in his first 100 days, should Democrats win the Senate and hold onto the House.

“It’s wrong to deny people access to services or housing because of who they are or who they love,” Biden argued.

Philadelphia Gay News asked the Democrat a question about religious freedom that demonized the very idea. “The idea of ‘religious freedom’ as a reason to allow discrimination has stoked divisiveness in this country. What can we do as a country to ensure that discrimination against LGBTQ people, no matter how it’s justified, does not happen?” the paper asked.

Biden responded by condemning Trump, accusing the president of having “deliberately tried to gut protections for the LGBTQ+ community by creating broad religious exemptions to existing nondiscrimination laws and policies that allow businesses, medical providers, and adoption agencies to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people.”

“We need to root out discrimination in our laws, institutions, and public spaces. Religion should not be used as a license to discriminate, and as president I will oppose legislation to deny LGBTQ+ equal treatment in public places. I will immediately reverse discriminatory practices that Trump put in place and work to advance the rights of LGBTQ+ people widely,” Biden pledged.

The Democrat’s pledges may sound positive and inclusive — he wants “protections” for people and he wants to fight “discrimination,” right? — but this rhetoric is deceptive.

Democrats have twisted the notion of discrimination in order to force Christians to violate their beliefs.

Christian baker Jack Phillips, for example, refused to bake a custom cake for a same-sex wedding, although he gladly sells all sorts of pre-made cakes to LGBT people in his shop. Yet the Colorado Civil Rights Commission ruled that he had discriminated against people on the basis of sexual orientation. He appealed the case all the way to the Supreme Court and won — because members of the commission displayed animus against his religious faith, comparing his views to those of the Nazis.

Even after this Supreme Court victory, Phillips again faced the commission. A transgender lawyer asked him to bake an obscene custom cake celebrating the lawyer’s gender transition. Phillips refused, citing his free speech right not to be forced to endorse a view with which he disagrees. The commission again found him guilty of discrimination, but it dropped the complaint in March 2019. The lawyer promptly sued Phillips. Christian florists, farmers, and other bakers have faced government sanctions for “discrimination” when they refused to celebrate same-sex weddings, exercising their rights to religious freedom, freedom of association, and free speech.

This year, Gov. Ralph Northam (D-Va.) signed legislation that will force Christian schools and ministries to hire people who oppose their religious convictions on sexuality and gender. The laws will also force these ministries — which hold that God created humans male and female — to open women’s sports and women’s restrooms to biological males, to refer to biological males by female pronouns if they “identify” as female, and to pay for transgender surgery in their health care plans.

A lawsuit challenging the new laws as unconstitutional charged that Virginia’s LGBT statues force “people of faith to adopt a particular government ideology under threat of punishment.”

Indeed, it seems Biden aims to force transgender ideology on the American people.

“I believe every transgender or non-binary person should have the option of selecting ‘X’ as their gender marker on government identifications, passports, and other documentation. I will support state and federal efforts to allow for this accurate representation,” he said (emphasis added).

In other words, Biden claims that transgender identity, not biological sex, is an “accurate” representation, even though biological males do not become female and vice versa. In one particularly tragic case, a pregnant mother who identified as transgender arrived at the hospital in labor. Because her documents falsely listed her as male, the doctors assumed her issue was not pregnancy and her baby died.

Yet the Democrat endorsed transgender identity as “accurate” and seems intent on forcing that ideology throughout the federal government.

Biden’s mischaracterization of Trump’s policies
Biden illustrated just this kind of logic by demonizing Trump’s commonsense policies and religious freedom protections.

Trump required the military to admit soldiers according to their biological sex, not their gender identity. This was not a “ban” on transgender people but an acknowledgment of biological sex, which might be extremely important in the military and in health care, since men and women physiologically react to certain medications differently.

Similarly, Trump protected religiously affiliated medical groups from having to pay for transgender surgery — an experimental and divisive medical operation that Obamacare appeared to mandate businesses must cover in insurance. This is what Biden referred to as “denying LGBTQ+ people access to critical health care.” Many former transgender people have regretted surgeries that left them permanently scarred.

Finally, many homeless shelters and adoption agencies are run as religious charities. Mandating that homeless shelters must house biological men who claim to identify as female with vulnerable women is a recipe for disaster — and it violates the religious freedom of faith-based shelters that do not accept transgender ideology. Similarly, adoption agencies should be able to abide by their own standards and many adoption agencies do place kids with same-sex couples.

Violating the religious freedom of homeless shelters and adoption agencies will only gut these critical services. Many adoption agencies have shut their doors rather than violate their consciences, so Biden-style government policies leave needy children in the lurch.

Biden did not just pledge to fight religious freedom at home, however. In his interview with Philadelphia Gay News, he pledged to “restore America’s global leadership on LGBTQ+ issues and actively combat violence and discrimination that is far too rampant. … If governments restrict the rights of LBGTQ+ individuals, or allow violence or discrimination, my Administation, working with partners, will use America’s full range of diplomatic tools to influence that government’s behavior, including private diplomacy, public statements, and multilateral initiatives at United Nations agencies.”

Of course, America should stand up for human rights across the world, and too many countries make homosexual activity a crime punishable by death. The Trump administration has launched a global effort to end the criminalization of homosexual activity.

Yet it seems Biden is intent on pushing his radical anti-religious freedom vision of opposing “discrimination.” In fact, he argued that “the Trump-Pence Administration’s treatment of LGBTQ+ Americans… signals a tolerance for abuses by other countries.”

Tragically, all of this radicalism is of a piece with Biden’s public statements, notorious statements from a staffer, and his party’s increasing hostility to religious freedom.

One of Biden’s staffers said that a woman like Amy Coney Barrett should be “disqualified” from serving on the Supreme Court because she believes marriage should be between one man and one woman. Biden has demonized those who oppose LGBT activism. His running mate has endorsed the “anti-LGBT hate group” smear that the scandal-plagued smear factory the Southern Poverty Law Center levels at conservative Christian groups.

While Joe Biden identifies himself as Roman Catholic and claims to abide by the Greatest Commandment, he would vehemently oppose religious freedom in office.

'Eradicate this plague': French politicians demand action to 'wipe out Islamo-fascism' after three die in Nice terror attack

French politicians lined up to demand tougher action against Islamist terrorism today after three people were murdered by a knifeman in Nice.

The triple murder is the latest in a long line of terror attacks in France in recent years, including the Charlie Hebdo massacre in 2015 and the beheading of a school teacher two weeks ago after he displayed some of the magazine's cartoons.

Nice's mayor Christian Estrosi said today that 'enough is enough... it's time now for France to exonerate itself from the laws of peace in order to definitively wipe out Islamo-fascism from our country'.

One of Emmanuel Macron's party colleagues called for 'total mobilisation' against extremism in what another called a 'war that the Islamists are waging on our nation'.

Macron's prime minister Jean Castex said France's alert level had been raised to its highest 'attack emergency' setting after today's violence.

Within hours of the Nice attack, a gunman had been shot dead by police in Paris while a knifeman was arrested for attacking a guard at a French consulate in Saudi Arabia.

Speaking in parliament, where he had earlier been talking about France's new lockdown, Castex said the Nice attack was 'as cowardly as it is barbaric'.

French anti-terror prosecutors have opened an inquiry into what mayor Estrosi called an 'Islamo-fascist attack.'

Estrosi, a member of the conservative Les Republicains party, called for churches around the country to be given added security or to be closed as a precaution.

David Lisnard, the conservative mayor of Cannes, called for a 'fierce and cold determination to eradicate this plague' after an 'abominable Islamist attack'.

'The action against Islamist fanaticism must be methodical, flawless, adamant, relentless,' Lisnard said.

'More than ever, we must defend France and our values, and also our civilization. Because the fight is civilisational.'

Members of Macron's LREM party also joined the call for a tough response today, with MP Sacha Houlié saying that 'our mobilisation against Islamist terrorism is total'.

'The unity of the country, the defence of the rule of law and of our common ideals is absolutely necessary,' he said.

Marseille MP Said Ahamada, also a member of Macron's party, said that 'incredible acts of violence have targeted France today'.

'These Islamist terrorists will not have the war of civilisation that they seek,' Ahamada said.

Another LREM lawmaker, Sophie Beaudouin-Hubiere, called for France to 'stand united and determined to fight'.

'It is a war that the Islamists are waging against the [French] nation, against each of us,' she said, referring to previous attacks including the 2015 Bataclan massacre.

In the wake of Samuel Paty's murder earlier this month, the French government shut down a Paris mosque and raided other Islamic associations.

Macron has vowed to stamp out extremism in France but his staunch defence of the right to publish blasphemous cartoons has drawn anger in the Middle East.

Abdallah Zekri, director general of the French Council of Muslim Worship (CFCM), also condemned the attack in Nice today. 'I can only denounce as strongly as possible this act of cowardice against the innocent,' he said.

Zekri called on French Muslims to cancel festivities to mark Mohammed's birthday, which end on Thursday, 'in solidarity with the victims and their loved ones.'

There was also condemnation of today's attack from abroad, with UK prime minister Boris Johnson saying he was 'appalled' by news of a 'barbaric attack'.

'Our thoughts are with the victims and their families, and the UK stands steadfastly with France against terror and intolerance,' the PM said.

Angela Merkel's spokesman said the German chancellor was 'deeply shocked about the gruesome murders in a church in Nice'.

Italy's prime minister Giuseppe Conte condemned a 'vile attack' but vowed it 'will not shake the common front defending the values of freedom and peace.'

The attack it comes amid anger at France from across the Islamic world after president Macron staunchly defended the blasphemous Mohammed cartoons which led to the teacher's beheading.

Turkey has led the confrontational rhetoric with France after Charlie Hebdo magazine published an offensive cartoon of its president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Erdogan called the cartoonists 'scoundrels' and accused the West of wanting to 'relaunch the Crusades' by attacking Islam after the image appeared on the front of this week's magazine.

Iran's president Hassan Rouhani also took aim at France by warning that insulting the Prophet would encourage 'violence and bloodshed'.

Acceptable Anti-Semitism?

Leftists attack a "Jews for Trump" rally and no one seems to care.

Last Sunday, a “Jews for Trump” convoy of hundreds of cars draped with American flags and Trump 2020 banners paraded from Coney Island in Brooklyn to the Trump Tower in Manhattan, prior to heading for a rally at Brooklyn’s Marine Park. The rally was organized by Boris Epshteyn, an adviser to the Trump campaign and co-chair of Jewish Voices for Trump.

And how did a city where 68% of registered voters are Democrats — Democrats who view themselves as some of the most “tolerant” people in the nation — react?

“Vehicles in the convoy were attacked at certain points along the route, some of which was documented,” World Israel News reported. “Eggs and rocks were thrown at cars, a car window was punched by an angry bicyclist and in one case a family of seven was pepper-sprayed on 5th Avenue in Manhattan. The suspect was arrested.”

That family of seven included four kids, and one member of the family stated they were driving down 5th Avenue in Manhattan with their car’s windows rolled down and sporting a Trump flag. A car pulled up alongside and spewed pepper spray into the family’s car. “Immediately the kids started crying and screaming and I jumped out of the car after I was peppered [sic] sprayed as well,” the victim said. The victim also said the attacker pursued him down the avenue trying to pepper-spray him again. At that point, his mother flagged down a cop who arrested the suspect. Following the incident, the man said that his kids were “left traumatized” and “coughing from” the residue.

Contemptible? Undoubtedly. Yet far more troubling — and far more indicative — was the fact that the man would only speak to Fox News on condition of his anonymity, because he feared his family could be targeted for reprisal.

A video shows the equally tolerant behavior directed at rally participant and former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who had his own vehicle pelted with eggs, even as “protesters” shouted obscenities including “F—ing scum,” “F—k you, Rudy,” and “You f—ing coward. Go back to f—ing Long Island.” Another video shows Trump supporters being attacked in Times Square, while yet another shows a Trump supporter being attacked and his vehicle vandalized by red paint while cops struggle to maintain order.

All of them show how comfortable leftists are with shutting down opposing points of view — even to the point of violence.

A spokesperson for the New York Police Department stated that 11 people were taken into custody. Six were charged with disorderly conduct, obstruction of government administration, and harassment. A seventh person was charged with assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest. Apparently still at large is a gang of thugs in Brooklyn that hurled rocks at cars from a Prospect Expressway overlook as the convoy passed beneath it.

According to the Associated Press, the Jews for Trump website indicated that Sunday’s rally was aimed at showing solidarity with “the beleaguered Red Zone community,” a reference to the coronavirus hot spots designated by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo as areas where schools and what the city deems nonessential businesses are required to close to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. “The rally follows weeks of tensions in Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods over the coronavirus restrictions,” the AP adds.

Perhaps those tensions have something to do with the capriciousness of Governor Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio, who have both made it clear that “nonessential” applies far more forcefully to people seeking religious freedom than those protesting “systemic” racism.

On Monday, Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser and himself Jewish, called for Joe Biden to condemn the thuggish response to people exercising their First Amendment rights. “I really hope that Joe Biden, his campaign, will come out and condemn these anti-Semitic actions that were taken against Trump supporters and be respectful again,” Kushner stated.

That’s not likely to happen for a number of reasons. First, reports indicate that Biden has only one in-person event (in Georgia) scheduled between now and the election, along with several online events that won’t require him to leave his home. All of those will be tightly scripted. Yet more to the point, even though religious Jews support Trump by a margin of 83% to 13%, Jewish Americans overall, most of whom are secular, support Biden by a margin of three to one. Since neither camp is likely to see any mass defections at this point, it’s hardly necessary for Biden to weigh in at all.

Rudy Giuliani believes the Trump campaign should put the issue front and center. “I would love to have had a campaign commercial of it and put it on in the middle of America and say, ‘Who would you prefer for the next four years?’” he stated. “This group of foul-mouthed people who don’t seem to have a vocabulary beyond three words, or these very nice Jewish people who are driving in the car and not saying anything back and not doing anything other than exercising their right to say they’re for Donald Trump”?

Giuliani is naive. At the 2012 Democrat National Convention, party efforts to insert references to “God” and “Jerusalem” back into the party platform were met with a loud chorus of boos. Moreover, two different surveys reveal astonishing realities. In New York City, which has the largest Jewish population in the world outside of Israel, the first survey showed that nearly 20% of Millennials and Gen Z-ers believe Jews caused the Holocaust. The second survey revealed that nearly half of all Americans in the entire nation don’t know what the phrase “anti-Semitism” means.

Thus, ignorance is as great a pandemic as coronavirus — if not more so.

Yet far more ominous is the progressive mindset inadvertently revealed by Jewish comedienne Sarah Silverman. In her recently launched podcast, Silverman criticizes progressives for refusing to offer redemption to victims of the Cancel Culture. Victims, she explained, who will ultimately “go where they are accepted, which is the motherf—ing dark side.”

The arrogance is breathtaking. Silverman believes she and other progressives own the franchise on “enlightened” thinking to the point where everyone else requires their forgiveness, lest they be “canceled.”

Canceled to what degree? Columnist Jennifer Fitz, who finds Trump “abhorrent” but is “probably” voting for him anyway, offers a warning. “From the right, I continue to see the usual callous indifference to the lives of ordinary people, but it’s just indifference,” she writes. “The message I am getting from the left is that I am a target they mean to destroy.”

Jewish New Yorker Dov Hikind, who served as a Democrat state assemblyman for three decades, attended the Jews for Trump rally in Marine Park, and didn’t vote for Trump in 2016, gets the same feeling. “The values of this country,” he asserts, “are being destroyed by a small group of people on the radical left who are deciding what you can say, what you can believe in, and what’s right for everyone.”

Not just deciding. Enforcing — to the point of violence. And if that sounds familiar, it’s because those who know history have heard it all before:

What Amy Coney Barrett Means to Conservative Women

If the last four years taught us anything, it’s that Americans love politics but they hate politicians. Thankfully, the country has a new, non-political figure to admire: Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

Barrett was confirmed by the Senate and sworn in as an associate justice to the U.S. Supreme Court. The optics alone were historic. Clarence Thomas, a black, conservative justice, administered the swearing in oath for the first female originalist justice—and the first justice who’s a mother of school-aged children.

During the swearing in ceremony at the White House, Barrett made her judicial philosophy clear: She will not legislate from the bench. “It is the job of a judge to resist her policy preferences. It would be a dereliction of duty for her to give into them,” she said, adding:

This separation of duty from political preference is what makes the judiciary distinct among the three branches of government. A judge declares independence, not only from Congress and the President, but also from the private beliefs that might otherwise move her. The Judicial Oath captures the essence of the judicial duty. The rule of law must always control.

Barrett’s respect for the separation of powers, coupled with her unflappable determination to stay above the political fray, perhaps explains her popularity among voters. She answered grueling questions with nothing more than a blank notebook, all the while displaying a level of patience and grace that could only be matched by a working mom of seven. (It’s safe to assume Barrett is used to dealing with temper tantrums and long days.)

Minutes after being sworn in as an associate justice to the Supreme Court, Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told Fox News’ “Hannity” that Barrett’s Supreme Court nomination was a triumph not just for the rule of law, but also for conservative women.

“To all conservative women who go through hell for being conservative, who get beat up by the mainstream media for embracing your faith, being pro-life… you’re a winner tonight. There’s a seat at the table for you,” he said.

Graham’s remarks stood in direct contrast to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who hours earlier called Barrett’s confirmation “one of the darkest days in the 231-year history of the United States Senate.”

Sure, it might have been one of the darkest days for a leftist, establishment guy. But for the millions of hardworking conservative women seeking an example of what it can look like to balance faith, family, and a fulfilling, successful career, Barrett’s confirmation was one of the brightest days in all of history.

It was especially bright for those of us who are exhausted and demoralized by the ugly rancor and political rhetoric. And it was encouraging for those of us who are told we are traitors to our sex if we don’t vote a certain way. It was also historic for those of us who hear, “There is a special place in hell for women who don’t support other women,” but then watch as so-called feminists turn around to destroy women who don’t follow their explicit agenda. Indeed, they didn’t hold back for Barrett.

When a figure like Amy Coney Barrett walks in the door and earns a seat at the table, she establishes a new vision for feminism and reminds conservative women who—and what—we’re fighting for.

The significance of her example cannot be overstated. Whether we’re single, stay-at-home moms, career women, or a mix, Barrett shows what’s possible for us to achieve. Her story rejects the tired notion of traditional feminism and replaces it with a bold version that embraces womanhood for all its glories: marriage, motherhood, faith and a fulfilling career.

And in a year of political burnout, Barrett’s story reminds us of another important thing: Nice guys don’t always finish last. Sometimes, she even finishes first.

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com TONGUE-TIED)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://john-ray.blogspot.com (FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)

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