Freedom Under Siege

YouTube CEO: We've Cut Amount Of Time Americans Watch "Controversial Content" By 70%

Clear Politics. December 2, 2019 

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki tells Lesley Stahl what the video platform is doing about hate speech in an interview Sunday on the CBS newsmagazine program '60 Minutes.'

Wojcicki told '60 Minutes' that Google employs 10,000 people to focus on "controversial content." She described their schedule, which includes time for therapy. Stahl also said there are reports that the "monitors" are "beginning to buy the conspiracy theories."

"What we really had to do was tighten our enforcement of that to make sure we were catching everything and we use a combination of people and machines," Wojcicki explained. "So Google as a whole has about 10,000 people that are focused on controversial content."

A simple face scan will allow the system to retrieve the necessary billing information for a given transaction

Find Biometrics. December 9, 2019 

Denmark is once again the site of a pioneering trial of a biometric payments system, this time thanks to Nets, a European digital payments services provider.

The companies’ new pilot program will see participants making payments at a cafeteria via facial recognition. The trial will be undertaken at the Vibenshuset office complex in Copenhagen, and is open to up to a thousand participants who wish to make biometric payments at the Kokkenes Køkken’s cafeteria.

As with other so-called “naked payments” systems, the idea is to link customers’ payment accounts directly to their biometric identifiers. In this case, that means that a simple face scan will allow the system to retrieve the necessary billing information for a given transaction, and to process it, bypassing the need for the customer to present a physical payment card or any other hardware.

In a statement announcing the pilot program, Nets Head of Creation Labs Jesper Kildegaard Poulsen explained that its main aim is to gauge consumer sentiment about biometric payments. “Today, we have the technology to use faces as identification and validation when making a payment,” he said. “However, how people feel about having their faces scanned is still under question. This trial will help us to learn more about consumer attitudes to facial recognition payments.”

The trial will follow in the footsteps of a different naked payments program recently conducted by Nets in collaboration with Sthaler, whose Fingopay system was implemented at the Copenhagen Business School. That system, which is based on the scanning of finger vein patterns, saw an enthusiastic response from participants, prompting Nets and Sthaler to expand the deployment about a year ago.

Virginia is crafting a militia to defend the Constitution in the state

LET.  Dec 17, 2019

Things are getting really bad in Virginia. But this group isn’t going down without a fight.  

Monday morning, Law Enforcement Today reported on how Tazewell County, Virginia is crafting a militia to defend the Constitution in the state.  And within hours, we were flooded with thousands of emails from people across the state – police officers, veterans, and patriotic Americans – who said they are joining.

And it’s a movement that’s gaining traction across the state.

Here’s the deal.  Last week, we reported on how lawmakers over in Virginia were threatening to use the National Guard if members of local law enforcement refused to enforce laws passed in the state that they felt violated the second amendment.

That’s what sparked things in Tazewell County, which said it isn’t going down without a fight.

On top of calling themselves a second amendment sanctuary county, they’re also crafting a militia as well. The Virginia county has taken the movement that has swept across the state and added an element that is sure to trigger pro gun-grabbing politicians in the state.

Canada minister is working with his colleagues to combat “online hate"

Breitbart.  16 Dec 2019

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, recently made infamous over resurfaced blackface photos, has instructed his ministers to create new legislation aimed at tackling “hate speech” on social media.

The mandate letter, sent to Canada’s Minister of Heritage, calls for legislation to be drawn up imposing “significant penalties” on social media companies that do not remove so-called hate speech within 24 hours.

The letter singles out “hate speech” for special attention, before moving on to other items like child exploitation and terrorism.

Create new regulations for social media platforms, starting with a requirement that all platforms remove illegal content, including hate speech, within 24 hours or face significant penalties. This should include other online harms such as radicalization, incitement to violence, exploitation of children, or creation or distribution of terrorist propaganda.

While You Slept, Government Created Internal Passports

AIER.  November 4, 2019

The deadline of yet another, and perhaps the most insidious, element of the post-9/11 initiatives (a partial list of which includes the establishment of the Transportation Security Agency, the Department of Homeland Security, and a never-ending international war against a nebulously-defined, noncorporeal enemy, “terror”) is less than one year from coming to fruition. Beginning no later than October 1, 2020, citizens of all US states and territories will be required to have a Real ID compliant card or US passport to board a commercial plane or enter a Federal government facility. Pundits citing the inevitability of what amounts to a national ID card have, regrettably, been vindicated.

To be sure, some states have resisted, but dependence upon Federal aid and other programs administered from Washington D.C. makes their ultimate surrender and compliance inevitable. 

Looking back, Social Security numbers and the cards bearing them broke ground for the path to a national identification system — thank you, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. For decades there have been pointed reminders that the cards were intended to be account numbers and not integrated into a government registry of American citizens. 

Repeated efforts, starting in the 1970s, to forge identifiers from the Social Security system have been rebuffed: in 1971, 1973, and 1976. The Reagan Administration indicated its “explicit oppos[tion]” to a national identification system. Both the Clinton healthcare reform plan (1993) and a provision of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 requiring Social Security Numbers on driver’s licenses were rejected (the latter in 1999) to some extent upon the basis of tacitly constituting national identifiers for Americans.

 

There are any number of reasons why the alleged trade off between liberty and security that a national ID card represents are being misrepresented. Any system designed, maintained, and run by human beings is ultimately flawed, and in any case corruptible. The existing documents from which the information fed into the Real ID program are eminently vulnerable to forgery. To provide just one example: tens (perhaps hundreds) of thousands of Americans don’t have verifiable, “official” birth certificates.

The church fights in Europe to prohibit working on Sunday

Actualidad.  August 31, 2017

On Wednesday, August 23, 2017, Polish bishops requested a total ban on work on Sunday in a country where the law is very liberal on this particular point. Likewise, throughout Europe, several episcopal conferences are trying again to place the issue of Sunday rest at the center of political debates.

 
The president of the Episcopal Conference of Poland, Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki, declared on Wednesday, August 23, 2017, on behalf of the bishops of Poland that "both Catholics and non-Catholics and atheists need to rest on Sunday."
 
Although it has the support of the Solidarity Labor Union party , the Church in Poland has not been able to impose its point of view.
 
In this country deeply imbued with Catholicism, civil law allows work on Sunday and holidays. However, there has been progress: the current government is in favor of the ban, and will address the issue next fall.
 
As usually happens, the declaration of the episcopal conference is only limited to defending Sunday rest, but does not mention any religious motive. Proposes ad hominem arguments, such as the need for a "better quality of life". In the same context, the Archbishop of Katowice, Monsignor Wiktor Skworc, declared that "families not only need financial support, but also free time."
 
Sunday rest has its origin in the Decalogue: "Six days you will work, and you will do all your work. But the seventh day is a day of rest, consecrated to Yahweh your God; and you will not do any work in it, neither you, nor your son, neither your daughter, nor your servant, nor your servant, nor your cattle, nor the foreigner who is within your doors "(Exodus 20: 9-10) From the Resurrection of Christ, the rest day is Sunday, the" Lord's Day "- dies Domini. Therefore, Sunday as a day of rest is a matter of positive divine law; all the Church did was explain this command of God and make it more explicit. Later, he also included it in his code of canon law and in his universal catechism.
 
When, after the Edict of Milan, the Church's relations with temporal power were normalized, the latter followed the example of ecclesiastical law in this matter. Thus, in a decree of March 7, 321, Emperor Constantine declared: "On the venerable day of the sun, may the magistrates and the people rest in the cities, and may all the workshops be closed."
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This practice was constant in the Church throughout the centuries, until the first attacks against Sunday, the sacred day in which the faithful fulfill their duties to render to God the worship that is due. The first attacks took place during the French Revolution, with the republican calendar imposed between 1793 and 1806; this one suppressed the week of seven days thus eliminating Sundays.
 
Currently, where atheistic and secular ideologies have failed, commercial interests succeed. For many years now, there have been new laws in favor of Sunday work. Modern Popes have tried to control these changes. On May 31, 1998, in his Apostolic Letter Dies Domini , Pope John Paul II recalled that Sunday rest "is the way man has to withdraw from the plaintiff and excessive cycle of earthly tasks to remember that God is the author of everything."
 
Also, in August 2009, the 24 Eucharistic Congress was held in Bari, Italy, on the theme: "Without Sunday, we cannot live." At the closing of the congress, Benedict XVI asked Christians to rediscover the spiritual importance of Sunday, as "an expression of the identity of the Christian community" against "unbridled consumerism" and "religious indifference."
 
Paradoxically, in Europe, a small number of highly secularized countries, such as Austria and Germany, seem to be more respectful towards Sunday rest. In an article published in La Croix , Delphine Allaire cites the German Constitution stipulated in article 139: "Sundays and holidays recognized by the state remain legally protected as days of rest and spiritual edification." In Belgium, it is only allowed to work three Sundays a year, except in the tourist cities.
 
However, in most European countries, including the United Kingdom, Holland, Sweden, Norway, Romania, Czech Republic, Ireland, Italy and Portugal, as well as in Madrid, the capital of Spain, business is open 52 Sundays at year. In highly Catholic countries such as Italy, Portugal and Spain, heated public discussions regularly erupt, La Croix adds. Therefore, in 2014, the Spanish bishop of Santander, Vicente Jiménez, called for a "united front", appealing to the authorities to resist "economic pressures" that seek to liberalize working hours.
 
In France, Sunday rest lost importance after the promulgation of the Macron Law in 2015, which created 21 international tourist areas in a country where it is allowed, through a trade agreement, to work on Sundays.
 
In Italy, Delphine Allaire explains, the Episcopal Conference prefers to stick to the protection of the rights of "workers" to spend time with their families on Sundays, supporting the country's main business association, Confesercenti.
 
It should be noted that on June 9, 1873, at the feast of the Holy Trinity, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared in Saint-Bauzille-de-la-Sylve in the Hérault, to Auguste Arnaud, a young winemaker of 30 years old , who worked during the week, and who was working in his small vineyard, and said very seriously: "You must not work on Sunday. Blessed are those who believe; woe to those who do not believe." This Marian apparition was recognized by the authorities of the Church, and serves to demonstrate once again the importance of sanctifying the Lord's Day. The Mother of God had already reminded men of the importance of this religious obligation in La Salette.

Internet founder launches contract to end online abuse

SCMP   Nov, 2019

Tim Berners-Lee pictured at a data privacy conference at the European Parliament last year. Photo: AP

World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee on Monday unveiled a “Contract for the Web” to halt “misuse” by governments, companies and individuals, bringing several capital cities and tech titans like Google aboard.

“If we don’t act now – and act together – to prevent the web being misused by those who want to exploit, divide and undermine, we are at risk of squandering” its potential for good, Berners-Lee said in a statement from his World Wide Web Foundation.

Credited with laying the groundwork for the web – the universe of multimedia web pages accessible via the internet – in 1989, the computer scientist has been developing the so-called Contract for the Web since last year.

His unveiling of the final document on Monday comes as government, business and civil society leaders gather in Berlin for the four-day UN Internet Governance Forum.

NASA scientists say we're likely to find alien life in the next decade.

Business Insider. Dec 19, 2019

Many NASA scientists think we're on the verge of finding alien life.

That's because the agency plans to dramatically ramp up its search for signs of extraterrestrial life in the next 10 years — in ancient Martian rock, hidden oceans on moons of Jupiter and Saturn, and the atmospheres of faraway planets orbiting other stars.

"With all of this activity related to the search for life, in so many different areas, we are on the verge of one of the most profound discoveries ever," Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA's former administrator, told Congress in 2017.

Ellen Stofan, NASA's former chief scientist, said in 2015 that she believes we'll get "strong indications of life beyond Earth in the next decade and definitive evidence in the next 10 to 20 years." 

"We know where to look, we know how to look, and in most cases we have the technology," she added, according to the LA Times.

Abraham Lincoln knew the real enemies of liberty

"You see that your friends, the Jesuits, have not yet killed me. But they would have surely done it, when I passed through their most devoted city, Baltimore, had I not defeated their plans, by passing incognito, a few hours before they expected me. We have the proof that the company which had been selected and organized to murder me, was lead by a rabid Roman Catholic, called Byrne; it was almost entirely composed of Roman Catholics; more than that, there were two disguised priests among them, to lead and encourage them. I am sorry to have so little time to see you; but I will not let you go before telling you that, a few days ago, I saw Mr. Morse, the learned inventor of electric telegraphy; he told me that, when he was in Rome, not long ago, he found out the proofs of a most formidable conspiracy against this country and all its institutions. It is evident that it is to the intrigues and emissaries of the pope, that we owe, in great part, the horrible civil war which is threatening to cover the country with blood and ruins." 

"







If I were fighting against a Protestant South, as a nation, there would be no danger of assassination. The nations who read the Bible, fight bravely on the battlefields, but they do not assassinate their enemies. The Pope and the Jesuits, with their infernal Inquisition, are the only organized power in the world which have recourse to the dagger of the assassin to murder those whom they cannot convince with their arguments, or conquer with the sword. "Unfortunately, I feel more and more, everyday, that it is not against the Americans of the South, alone, I am fighting, it is more against the Pope of Rome, his perfidious Jesuits and their blind and blood-thirsty slaves, than against the real American Protestants, that we have to defend ourselves. Here is the real danger of our position. So long as they will hope to conquer the North, they will spare me; but the day we will rout their armies (and the day will surely come, with the help of God), take their cities, and force them to submit; then, it is my impression that the Jesuits, who are the principal rulers of the South, will do what they have almost in variably done in the past. The dagger or the pistol of one of their adepts, will do what the strong hands of the warriors could not achieve. This civil war seems to be nothing but a political affair to those who do not see, as I do, the secret springs of that terrible drama. But it is more a religious than a civil war. It is Rome who wants to rule and degrade the North, as she has ruled and degraded the South, from the very day of its discovery. There are only very few of the Southern leaders who are not more or less under the influence of the Jesuits, through their wives, family relations and their friends. Several members of the family of Jeff Davis belong to the Church of Rome. Even the Protestant ministers are under the influence of the Jesuits without suspecting it. To keep her ascendancy in the North, as she does in the South, Rome is doing here what she has done in Mexico, and in all the South American Republics; she is paralyzing, by a civil war, the arms of the soldiers of Liberty. She divides our nation, in order to weaken, subdue and rule it."

"But there is a thing which is very certain; it is, that if the American people could learn what I know of the fierce hatred of the generality of the priests of Rome against our institutions, our schools, our most sacred rights, and our so dearly bought liberties, they would drive them away, tomorrow, from among us, or they would shoot them as traitors. But I keep those sad secrets in my heart; you are the only one to whom I reveal them, for I know that you learned them before me. The history of these last thousand years tells us that wherever the Church of Rome is not a dagger to pierce the bosom of a free nation, she is a stone to her neck, and a ball to her feet, to paralyze her and prevent her advance in the ways of civilization, science, intelligence, happiness and liberty."




"This war would never have been possible without the sinister influence of the Jesuits. We. owe it to Popery that we now see our land reddened with the blood of her noblest sons. Though there were great differences of opinion between the South and the North, on the question of slavery; neither Jeff Davis nor anyone of the leading men of the Confederacy would have dared to attack the North, had they not relied on the promises of the Jesuits, that, under the mask of Democracy, the money and the arms of the Roman Catholics, even the arms of France, were at their disposal, if they would attack us. I pity the priests, the bishops and the monks of Rome in the United States, when the people realize that they are, in great part, responsible for the tears and the bloodshed in this war; the later the more terrible will the retribution be. I conceal what I know, on that subject, from the knowledge of the nation; for if the people knew the whole truth, this war would turn into a religious war, and it would, at once, take a tenfold more savage and bloody character. It would become merciless as all religious wars are. It would become a war of extermination on both sides. The Protestants of both the North and the South would surely unite to exterminate the priests and the Jesuits, if they could hear what Professor Morse has said to me of the plots made in the very city of Rome to destroy this Republic, and if they could learn how the priests, the nuns, and the monks, who daily land on our shores, under the pretext of preaching their religion, instructing the people in their schools, taking care of the sick in the hospitals, are nothing else but the emissaries of the Pope, of Napoleon, and the other despots of Europe, to undermine our institutions, alienate the hearts of our people from our constitution, and our laws, destroy our schools, and prepare a reign of anarchy here as they have done in Ireland, in Mexico, in Spain, and wherever there are any people who want to be free, etc."   




"Two cankers are biting the very entrails of the United States, today: the Romish and the Mormon priests. Both are quietly at work to form a people of the most abject, ignorant and fanatical slaves, who will recognize no other authority but their supreme pontiffs. Both are aiming at the destruction of our schools, to raise themselves upon our ruins. Both shelter themselves under our grand and holy principles of liberty of conscience, to destroy that very liberty of conscience, and bind the world before their heavy and ignominious yoke. The Mormon and the Jesuit priests are equally the uncompromising enemies of our constitution and our laws; but the more dangerous of the two is the Jesuit —the Romish priest, for he knows better how to conceal his hatred under the mask of friendship and public good; he is better trained to commit the most cruel and diabolical deeds for the glory of God.  "               Abraham Lincoln, Fifty Years In The Church Of Rome pp. 691-704

All who are taught of God recognize Christ as His Son

The intrigues of sin surpass infinite conception. Every calamity, every suffering and death is an evidence, not only of the power of evil, but of the truth of the living God. Having known the truth, the Word of the living God, which abideth forever, and which through obedience gives life, man’s weakness in conforming to Satan’s ingenuity is surpassingly strange. All who are taught of God recognize Christ as His Son. All who disbelieve the known declarations of God demonstrate the popularity of sin, and are not working on the side of life and immortality which are brought to light through perfect sanctification of the truth. Unless they make a change in character, in words, and in spirit, souls will be lost.     Manuscript 139, 1903

Who is the Holy Spirit?

Psalms 139:7    Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? 

1 Corinthians 2:11   For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.

Romans 8:9-10    But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 

John 14:26    But the Comforter, (parakletos) even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said unto you. 

1 John 2:1   My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate (parakletos) with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

John 14:18   I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.

John 16:8    And when he has come, he will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgement.

John 16:13,14    However, when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth; for he will not speak on His own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak; and he will tell you things to come. He will glorify me, for he will take of what is mine and declare it to you.

Galatians 3:14   That the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise  of the Spirit through faith.


John 14:15-17  If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

  

Acts 5:32   And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Spirit, whom God hath given to them that obey him. 

Galatians 5:22,23  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

Galatians 5:16   This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

Genesis 6:3   And the LORD said, My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.

Psalm 51:11    Cast me not away from Your presence; and take not Your Holy Spirit from me.

Ephesians 4:30   And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption
  
Luke 11:13    If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!.

Acts 2:17,18    And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams. And on my menservants and on my maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days: and they shall prophesy.

Top medical journal takes on big pharma

SMH. December 4, 2019
A leading medical journal is launching a global campaign to separate medicine from big pharma, linking industry influence to the pelvic mesh scandal that injured hundreds of women.
The BMJ says doctors are being unduly influenced by industry-sponsored education events and industry-funded trials for major drugs.

Those trials cannot be trusted, the journal's editor and a team of global healthcare leaders write in a scathing editorial published on Wednesday.

The "endemic financial entanglement with industry is distorting the production and use of healthcare evidence, causing harm to individuals and waste for health systems", they write.

They are calling for governments to start funding independent trials of new drugs and medical devices, rather than relying on industry-funded studies. Sponsored research is more likely to find a favourable result compared to independent research, studies show.

Benefits Of Reading Books Compared To Reading From Screens

Collective.  December 12, 2019

In the age of information we are being bombarded left, right and center with quick facts, fake news, censored information, video images and so much more. This is greatly affecting the span of our attention. To many the idea of picking up a book, when we could just as easily listen to it, or read segments on our phones is completely absurd. However, there are many benefits that come along with reading books that just might make it worth it to you.

Consider just the very act of reading a book in itself, holding it, turning the pages, seeing your progress in the development of the story, it’s almost as if you are a part of it.

Reading requires patience and diligence, which is not something required from a glance and a click on a quick headline. Reading a book  is almost a kin to running a marathon for your brain, I mean if you can finish a whole book!

Reading stimulates imagination and creativity.

Research has shown that reading helps with comprehension and emotional intelligence as well as fluid intelligence — meaning the ability to reason and have flexible thinking. This leads to smarter decision-making regarding yourself and others.

As we age, our memory will decline, but regular reading can help keep minds sharper longer according to research published in Neurology. Frequently exercising your mind was also proven in that same study to lower mental decline by 32 percent.

Even with accurate info, humans ‘self-generate their own misinformation’: study

NY Post  December 10, 2019

Although social media giants such as Facebook and Twitter have taken heat for spreading misinformation, it turns out that we — all of us — may be our own worst enemies in the battle against the scourge of fake news.

A new study found that people given accurate statistics on controversial topics tend to misremember those numbers in order to fit their own commonly held beliefs.

In the study, when people were shown that the number of Mexican immigrants in the United States declined recently — which is true but has gone against most people’s beliefs — they tended to recall the opposite. 

They thought it was judgment day

Irish Times   Nov 11, 2019

November 1833. As the night skies exploded and the stars fell on America’s Deep South, the slavers on one plantation in Tennessee – terrified of the end of the world – attempted to make restitution to those they had enslaved.

Every year, in mid-November, the Earth passes through the Leonids, a huge meteor cloud left behind by the Comet Tempel-Tuttle. Each year sees impressive displays, with certain nights offering particularly spectacular meteor showers.

I

t is 186 years since the Leonids put on that striking show over the US south, and it is still remembered there as “The Night the Stars Fell”. The 1930s jazz standard Stars Fell on Alabama immortalised the night.

“On the night of November 12th to 13th, 1833,” wrote Victorian astronomy writer Agnes Clerke, “a tempest of falling stars broke over the Earth.

“The sky was scored in every direction with shining tracks and illuminated with majestic fireballs. At Boston, the frequency of meteors was estimated to be about half that of flakes of snow in an average snowstorm. Their numbers ... were quite beyond counting; but as it waned, a reckoning was attempted, from which it was computed, on the basis of that much-diminished rate, that 240,000 must have been visible during the nine hours they continued to fall.”

In Alabama, the Florence Gazette reported there were: “thousands of luminous bodies shooting across the firmament in every direction.

“There was little wind and not a trace of clouds, and the meteors succeeded each other in quick succession.”

“Born That Way” No More

John Peck   November, 2019

A new study adds to a growing body of evidence demonstrating that the dominant narrative about sexual orientation—that it is genetically determined—simply cannot be true. Instead, the science shows that a person’s sexual orientation and choice of partners depends heavily on the development and expression of personal autonomy regarding one’s own sexual possibilities. People with same-sex attractions should be legally and culturally free not to identify with or act on them.

Late last month, a team of MIT and Harvard scientists published a landmark study of the genetic basis for sexual orientation in the journal Science. The study, which was based on an examination of the genetic material of almost half a million individuals, definitively refutes the idea that being gay is an innate condition that is controlled or largely compelled by one’s genetic makeup.

The study contained two key findings. First, it found that the effect of the genes we inherit from our parents (known as “heritability”) on same-sex orientation was very weak, at only .32 on a scale from 0 (none) to 1 (total) heritability. This means that a person’s developmental environment—which includes diet, family, friends, neighborhood, religion, and a host of other life conditions—is twice as influential on the probability of developing same-sex behavior or orientation as a person’s genes are. More

While Congress subjects the nation to its carefully orchestrated impeachment drama, our civil liberties continue to die a slow, painful death

Rutherford    December 02, 2019

“It is the responsibility of the patriot to protect his country from its government.”—Thomas Paine

While Congress subjects the nation to its impeachment-flavored brand of bread-and-circus politics, our civil liberties continue to die a slow, painful death by a thousand cuts.

Case in point: while Americans have been fixated on the carefully orchestrated impeachment drama that continues to monopolize headlines, Congress passed and President Trump signed into law legislation extending three key provisions of the USA Patriot Act, which had been set to expire on December 15, 2019.

Once again, to no one’s surprise, the bureaucrats on both sides of the aisle—Democrats and Republicans alike—prioritized political grandstanding over principle and their oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution...

The legislation passed the Senate with a bipartisan 74-to-20 vote. It squeaked through the House of Representatives with a 231-192 margin. And it was signed by President Trump—who earlier this year floated the idea of making the government’s surveillance powers permanent—with nary a protest from anyone about its impact on the rights of the American people.

Spending bill or not, it didn’t have to shake down this way, even with the threat of yet another government shutdown looming.

Congress could have voted to separate the Patriot Act extension from the funding bill, as suggested by Rep. Justin Amash, but that didn’t fly. Instead as journalist Norman Solomon writes for Salon, “The cave-in was another bow to normalizing the U.S. government’s mass surveillance powers.”

That, right there, is the key to all of this: normalizing the U.S. government’s mass surveillance powers.

In the 18 years since the USA Patriot Act—a massive 342-page wish list of expanded powers for the FBI and CIA—was rammed through Congress in the wake of the so-called 9/11 terror attacks, it has snowballed into the eradication of every vital safeguard against government overreach, corruption and abuse.

The Patriot Act drove a stake through the heart of the Bill of Rights, violating at least six of the ten original amendments—the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Amendments—and possibly the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments, as well.

The Patriot Act also redefined terrorism so broadly that many non-terrorist political activities such as protest marches, demonstrations and civil disobedience are now considered potential terrorist acts, thereby rendering anyone desiring to engage in protected First Amendment expressive activities as suspects of the surveillance state.

The Patriot Act justified broader domestic surveillance, the logic being that if government agents knew more about each American, they could distinguish the terrorists from law-abiding citizens—no doubt a reflexive impulse shared by small-town police and federal agents alike.

This, according to Washington Post reporter Robert O’Harrow, Jr., was a fantasy that “had been brewing in the law enforcement world for a long time.” And 9/11 provided the government with the perfect excuse for conducting far-reaching surveillance and collecting mountains of information on even the most law-abiding citizen.

Federal agents and police officers are now authorized to conduct covert black bag “sneak-and-peak” searches of homes and offices while you are away and confiscate your personal property without first notifying you of their intent or their presence.

The law also granted the FBI the right to come to your place of employment, demand your personal records and question your supervisors and fellow employees, all without notifying you; allowed the government access to your medical records, school records and practically every personal record about you; and allowed the government to secretly demand to see records of books or magazines you’ve checked out in any public library and Internet sites you’ve visited (at least 545 libraries received such demands in the first year following passage of the Patriot Act).

In the name of fighting terrorism, government officials are now permitted to monitor religious and political institutions with no suspicion of criminal wrongdoing; prosecute librarians or keepers of any other records if they tell anyone that the government has subpoenaed information related to a terror investigation; monitor conversations between attorneys and clients; search and seize Americans’ papers and effects without showing probable cause; and jail Americans indefinitely without a trial, among other things.

The federal government also made liberal use of its new powers, especially through the use (and abuse) of the nefarious national security letters, which allow the FBI to demand personal customer records from Internet Service Providers, financial institutions and credit companies at the mere say-so of the government agent in charge of a local FBI office and without prior court approval.

In fact, since 9/11, we’ve been spied on by surveillance cameras, eavesdropped on by government agents, had our belongings searched, our phones tapped, our mail opened, our email monitored, our opinions questioned, our purchases scrutinized (under the USA Patriot Act, banks are required to analyze your transactions for any patterns that raise suspicion and to see if you are connected to any objectionable people), and our activities watched.

We’re also being subjected to invasive patdowns and whole-body scans of our persons and seizures of our electronic devices in the nation’s airports. We can’t even purchase certain cold medicines at the pharmacy anymore without it being reported to the government and our names being placed on a watch list.

It’s only getting worse, folks.

An Apocalyptic Climate

Last Trumpet December 2019

"Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." Matthew 7:13-14

"But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer." I Peter 4:7

In this issue of the Last Trumpet Newsletter, we will candidly and factually examine the events of our time which show that the people of this world are moving further away from God and toward catastrophe. When we consider the widespread upheaval, economic uncertainty, natural disasters, threats of conflict, deadly diseases, shifting ideology, and the religious confusion now at work, it becomes abundantly clear that humanity is moving ever closer to "the end of all things" as spoken of by the Apostle Peter in his first epistle.

For those who care to read news reports these days, you might notice that the scenarios they describe sound like the end of the world. For example, a headline from November 6, 2019, informs, "11,000 scientists worldwide warn of untold suffering due to climate crisis." (1) In a move meant to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the very first World Climate Conference, a letter was released which states in part, "We declare, with more than 11,000 scientist signatories from around the world, clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency." The letter further goes on to say, "To secure a sustainable future, we must change how we live, in ways that improve the vital signs summarized by our graphs. Economic and population growth are among the most important drivers of increases in CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion; therefore, we need bold and drastic transformations regarding economic and population policies." (2) The story was covered by numerous media outlets, including Bloomberg News, which wrote in their headline, "Earth Needs Fewer People to Beat the Climate Crisis, Scientists Say." (3)

The cries for population control are only growing louder, and if the United States soon finds itself under the leadership of radical progressives, most of which would heed the words of these scientists, it is not inconceivable that new policies meant to curb population growth could be put in place. Such leadership would likely encourage more abortion and a greater embrace of homosexuality since both of these sins hamper procreation.

Ironically, the aforementioned Bloomberg News, published a different story on October 30, 2019, less than one week before covering the population control story cited above. The article from October is simply titled "The Global Fertility Crash" and goes on to explain in great detail how much of the world's population is actually shrinking because people are not having enough children. The article begins by noting that the global fertility rate has fallen from five live births per woman in the 1960s to just 2.43 live births per woman in 2017. It then goes on to state, "While the world is expected to add more than 3 billion people by 2100, according to the United Nations, that'll likely be the high point. Falling fertility rates and aging populations will mean serious challenges that will be felt more acutely in some places than others." It is strange that we now see dueling contradictory catastrophes reported by the same source. It should be noted that Bloomberg also reported that in 2017, nearly one-half of all countries in the world have seen their fertility rates drop to below replacement levels. (4)

While scientists fret over global population growth, the actual sad reality is that the human race is starting to die out. The fact that there are a growing number of guilt-ridden, self-loathing young people pledging to never have children is only making the problem worse. Amazingly enough, a small but growing movement has emerged with people despising their lives so much that they wish they had never been born. They call themselves "anti-natalists." (5) This trend was reported by The Guardian on November 14, 2019, in a story that chronicles the philosophy of a twenty-something Indian man who attempted to file a lawsuit against his parents simply because they brought him into the world. Speaking of the anti-natalist movement, the man was quoted as saying, "It was not our decision to be born. Human existence is totally pointless." While his lawsuit was quickly thrown out of court in India, the man further stated that his intent in filing it was "to instill that fear among parents in general. Because now parents don't think before having a child." (6) The report also cites anti-natalist philosopher David Benatar who wrote, "it would be better if humans (and other species) became extinct." (7) The absurd core tenet of anti-natalism is that "creating new life is always wrong." (8)

The prevailing societal angst is palpable. In fact, a word that has found its way into popular vocabulary is "apocalypse." A cursory search of the news will reveal a variety of stories about various apocalyptic scenarios, but oddly enough, the apocalypses they present are secular with no mention of God or His judgment on sinful man at all. As an example, a piece published by The Guardian on November 13, 2019, ominously announces in its headline, "Insect apocalypse poses risk to all life on Earth, conservationists warn." The story goes on to tell how bees, butterflies, and other insects are dying off in record numbers, including twenty-three species of bees and wasps that went extinct in the 1900s. Furthermore, the article cites data which claims that 50 percent of all insects have been lost since 1970, while 40 percent of known insect species today are facing extinction, too. (9) Regarding the crisis, Professor Dave Goulson of the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom was quoted as saying, "We can't be sure, but in terms of numbers, we may have lost 50 percent or more of our insects since 1970 - it could be much more. We just don't know which is scary. If we don't stop the decline of our insects, there will be profound consequences for all life on earth [and] for humans." (10) Bees and butterflies play a crucial role in the pollination of crops. Thirty-five percent of all crops require pollination to grow. (11)

The constant barrage of alarming stories have left throngs of people with a very gloomy outlook on life. This is evident in an article written by reporter Cara Buckley for the New York Times. In her November 15, 2019, piece, which is entitled "Apocalypse Got You Down? Maybe This Will Help," Buckley writes, "The barrage of cataclysmic planetary news, the galloping wildfires, the smack of 90-degree New York autumn days all felt so at odds with the regular tickings of human life that I often felt quite mad. I felt complicit by merely existing. After all, I belonged to the species that was taking most of the other ones down." In seeking a remedy for guilt-infused angst, Buckley then encourages her readers to "embrace the pain, but don't stop there. Seek out a spiritual path to forge gratitude, compassion, and acceptance…" (12) The author mentions Buddhism but neglects to disclose the real solution that can truly help people who are feeling lost and hopeless. The solution is faith in Jesus Christ. Yes, the world is going to end someday, and many people are now starting to catch on to this plain fact. What should we do? Jesus instructs us in Luke 21:28, "And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh."    More

Pope Francis is building his One World Religion called Chrislam

NTEB November 29, 2019

We showed you how Pope Francis travelled to Abu Dhabi earlier this year and entered into a covenant with Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the ruling leader in Sunni Islam. That peace covenant led to the formation of a Chrislam interfaith council, which then led to the stunning announcement that a Chrislam headquarters would be open in Abu Dhabi by 2022. Now Pope Francis has travelled to Thailand where he met with the ruling Buddhist leader there, and as in Abu Dhabi, presented him with a copy of his Declaration On Human Fraternity’, the Vatican manifesto of the One World Religion.

FROM THE CATHOLIC HERALD UK: After giving prepared speeches, Pope Francis and the Supreme Patriarch had a brief informal conversation, in which they spoke about the value of fraternity between the two religions for promoting peace.

“If we are brothers, we can help world peace,” the poor, and the suffering, Pope Francis said, “because to help the poor is always a path of blessing.” They also spoke about education and the role of missionaries in the country. Before leaving, the two exchanged blessings. READ MORE

Pope Francis is building his One World Religion called Chrislam, but it will not be limited to simply an alliance between the Catholics and the Muslims. No, it will include all the major faiths with one notable exception. It will not contain biblical Christianity, but rather the Laodicean Christian church that is so disgustingly lukewarm.

FDA Study: Cells Used In Vaccines Contaminated With Serious Viruses Including Cancer

Activist Post 23 Nov 2019

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has published shocking results which found that cells used in the manufacturing of numerous childhood vaccines are often contaminated with serious viruses including cancer.

The FDA study looked at vaccines that are made from living cells, or replicated cell substrates that some manufacturers are investigating to create. According to research, these cells are oftentimes contaminated with hidden viral fragments which have the potential to cause cancer.

These viruses are dormant, meaning they live “quietly” inside other cells. However, eventually these cells no longer hide and circulate throughout the body in the form of serious disease. As a result, a person injected with a vaccine containing these cancer-causing micro-organisms may not display signs of health complications until long after they have been jabbed sometimes several years later.

China’s African Swine Fever Now Global Threat

Neo  30.11.2019

The worst outbreak of fatal African Swine Fever disease ever has devastated the world’s largest pig population, that of China, over the past months. Now it is spreading to neighboring states and even threatens the United States pig herds. The political and human impact could be far worse than imagined as a de facto pandemic disease situation spreads. Globalization of agribusiness is not helping matters.

On August 3, 2018 a case of African Swine Fever (ASF) was confirmed in China’s Liaoning Province. Since then despite various measures to contain the deadly disease it has spread across China where as of November, 2019 in little more than a year, nearly half of China’s huge pig population has either died or been eliminated in a desperate effort to contain the disease. ASF is not deadly to humans but is 100% fatal to any pig that is infected. There is no known treatment to cure it. It can be spread by direct contact with an infected pig, body fluids, contact with equipment or clothing and via certain tick species.

The China Agriculture Ministry issued a report in August that the size of China’s live pig herd had declined by a very precise 38.7% from August 2018. Industry sources suspect underreporting and put the actual number at more like 50%. In any event it is huge, and has impacted the politically sensitive measure of China food price inflation over the past year. Pork is a mainstay of the Chinese diet for meat protein and considered a national security issue. Most pigs in China are raised by small-scale farmers who face ruin now. According to reports inside China this has led many desperate small farmers to try to hide the presence of ASF in their herds, to slaughter and sell, to avoid financial ruin.

The disease is especially dangerous. According to experts it’s hard to kill. One report notes, “It lives in feces for 11 days and blood for 15 weeks. It lives in salted meat for 182 days, dried meat for almost a year, and frozen meat for three years. The Chinese love to take meat snacks with them when they travel. Rules can be bent in Asia.”