This is the day that The Swamp won.
Trump surrendered.
Rather Expose Them Christian News Blog
A WordPress Blog-THE CHURCH MILITANT Ephesians 5:11-"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them". This Christian News Blog maintains a one stop resource of current news and reports of its own related to church, moral, spiritual, and related political issues, plus articles, and postings from other online discernment ministries, and media which share the aims to obey the biblical commands to shed light on and refute error, heresy, apostasy, cults, and spiritual abuse. ALL CONTENT FROM HTTPS://RATHEREXPOSETHEM.BLOGSPOT.COM MOVED TO THIS NEW BLOG, MAY 2020
— MATT DRUDGE (@DRUDGE) March 23, 2018
Beijing is hitting back at Donald Trump’s order to impose $60 biIlion worth of tariffs on Chinese imports.
China is planning $3 billion of levies on American products, including pork and steel.
“Salutations to you, Hungarian freedom, on this the day you are born!”Ladies and Gentlemen, Compatriots, Hungarians around the World,With a cockade sewn by Júlia Szendrey pinned to his chest, a volume of poems in his pocket, and the still thrilling experience of the Revolution in his head, these are the words with which the poet Sándor Petőfi welcomed the fifteenth of March in his journal. Salutations to you, Hungarian freedom, on this the day you are born! And today also, one hundred and sixty-eight years later, it is with unfettered joy, the optimism of early spring, high hopes and an elevated spirit that across the Carpathian Basin we celebrate — from Beregszász to Szabadka, from Rimaszombat to Kézdivásárhely: every Hungarian with one heart, one soul and one will.Just as then in the decisive battles of the Freedom Fight, now also Hungarian hearts are cheered by the fact that we have with us a Polish legion. I welcome the spirited successors of General Bem: we welcome the sons of the Polish nation. As always throughout our shared thousand-year history, now, too, we are standing by you in the battle you are fighting for your country’s freedom and independence. We are with you, and we send this message to Brussels: more respect to the Polish people, more respect to Poland! Greetings to you. It is a sign of the shared fate of Poland and Hungary that another glorious revolution of ours — that of 1956 — was born between the Bem Statue and Kossuth tér in Budapest. It rose up with the unstoppable force of our glorious ancestors, and by the evening it had dragged the Soviet generalissimo out of his boots.Ladies and Gentlemen,By nature, Hungarians stand up for what is right when the need arises. What is more, they fight for it if needs be, but do not seek out trouble for its own sake. They know that they can often achieve more through patience than through sabre-rattling. This is why those like us are rarely given to revolutions. We have only gone down that path twice in one hundred and seventy years. When we did follow that path, we had reason to do so: we felt that our lungs would burst if we could not breathe in freedom. We threw ourselves into it, and once we had started a revolution, we did so in style. Modern European history has preserved both Hungarian revolutions among the glorious memories of the world: two blazing stars, two national uprisings bursting forth in 1848 and 1956 from Hungarian aspirations and Hungarian interests. Glory to the heroes, honour to the brave. Chroniclers have also recorded the revolution of 1918-19, but the memories of that period are not preserved on the pages of glory; indeed, not only are those memories written on different pages, but they appear in a different volume altogether. The 1918-19 revolution can be found in the volume devoted to Bolshevik anti-Hungarian subversions launched in the service of foreign interests and foreign ambitions; it features under the heading “appalling examples of intellectual and political degeneracy”. Yes, we Hungarians have two revolutionary traditions: one leads from 1848, through 1956 and the fall of communism, all the way to the Fundamental Law and the current constitutional order; the bloodline of the other tradition leads from Jacobin European ancestors, through 1919, to communism after World War II and the Soviet era in Hungary. Life in Hungary today is a creation of the spiritual heirs and offspring of the ‘48 and ‘56 revolutions. Today, as then, the heartbeat of this revolutionary tradition moves and guides the nation’s political, economic and spiritual life: equality before the law, responsible government, a national bank, the sharing of burdens, respect for human dignity and the unification of the nation. Today, as then, the ideals of ‘48 and ‘56 are the pulse driving the life force of the nation, and the intellectual and spiritual blood flow of the Hungarian people. Let us give thanks that this may be so, let us give thanks that finally the Lord of History has led us onto this path. Soli Deo gloria!Ladies and Gentlemen,Not even the uplifting mood of a celebration day can let us forget that the tradition of 1919, too, is still with us — though fortunately its pulse is just a faint flicker. Yet at times it can make quite a noise. But without a host animal, its days are numbered. It is in need of another delivery of aid from abroad in the form of a major intellectual and political infusion; unless it receives this, then after its leaves and branches have withered, its roots will also dry up in the Hungarian motherland’s soil, which is hostile to internationalism. And this is all well and good.A decent person who raises his children and works hard to build the course of his life does not usually end up as a revolutionary. The right-thinking person who stands on his own two feet and has control over his future knows that upheavals and the sudden upending of the ordinary course of life rarely ends well. The person of goodwill who seeks a life of serene and peaceful progress knows that trying to take two steps at once leads to your tripping over your own legs, and instead of moving forward, you will land flat on your face. And yet these right-thinking people of goodwill, these upstanding citizens of Pest instantly rallied to the call of our revolutions, marching at the front, right behind the university students. They formed the backbone of the revolutions and freedom fights, and they were to pay with their own blood for the honour of the Hungarian people. Every revolution is like the people who make it. On the committee which oversaw order during the 15 March revolution, in the shadow of the colossal figures of Petőfi and Vasvári, we find the furrier Máté Gyurkovics, and the button-maker György Molnár. Our revolutions were led by respectable citizens, military officers, lawyers, writers, doctors, engineers, honest tradespeople, farmers and workers with a sense of national duty: Hungarians who embodied the nation’s best aspects, our homeland’s very best. Hungarian revolutionaries are not warriors for hare-brained ideologies, deranged utopias or demented, unsolicited plans for world happiness; in Pest you find no traces of the illusory visions of quack philosophers or the raging resentment of failed intellectuals. The revolutionaries of 1848 did not want to salvage stones from the ruins of absolutist oppression in order to build a temple to yet another tyranny; therefore the Hungarian revolution’s songs were not written in honour of the steel blade of the guillotine or the rope of the gallows. Our songs are not sung by lynch mobs or execution-thirsty crowds; the Pest revolution is not a hymn to chaos, revenge, or butchery. The 1848 Revolution is a solemn and dignified moment in our history, when the wounds of the glorious Hungarian nation opened once again. Springing from constitutional roots, it demanded the granting and return of the rights seized from and denied to the nation. It is exhilarating, but sober; ecstatic but practical; glorious, but temperate. It is Hungarian to the core.Ladies and Gentlemen,Three weeks before his death in battle, in his last letter to János Arany, Sándor Petőfi asked the following question: “So what are you going to do?” When we, his modern descendants, read this, it is as if he is asking us the same question. So what are you going to do? How will you make use of your inheritance? Are the Hungarian people still worthy of their ancestors’ reputation? Do you know the law of the Hungarians of old — that whatever you do should not only be measured by its utility, but also by universal standards? This is because your deeds must pass the test not only here, but also in eternity.
Ladies and Gentlemen,We have our inheritance, the Hungarian people still exist, Buda still stands, we are who we were, and we shall be who we are. Our reputation travels far and wide; clever people and intelligent peoples acknowledge the Hungarians. We adhere to the ancient law, and also measure our deeds by universal standards. We teach our children that their horizon should be eternity. Whether we shall succeed, whether finally we see the building of a homeland which is free, independent, worthy and respected the world over — one which was raised high by our forebears from 1848, and for which they sacrificed their lives — we cannot yet know. We do know, however, that the current European constellation is an unstable one, and so we have some testing times ahead. The times in which we live press us with this question, which is like a hussar’s sabre held to our chest: “Shall we live in slavery or in freedom?” The destiny of the Hungarians has become intertwined with that of Europe’s nations and has grown to be so much a part of the union that today not a single people — including the Hungarian people — can be free if Europe is not free. And today Europe is as fragile, weak and sickly as “a flower being eaten away by a hidden worm.” Today, 168 years after the great Wars of Independence of the European peoples, Europe, our common home is not free!Ladies and Gentlemen,Europe is not free. Because freedom begins with speaking the truth. Today in Europe it is forbidden to speak the truth. Even if it is made of silk, a muzzle is a muzzle. It is forbidden to say that those arriving are not refugees, but that Europe is threatened by migration. It is forbidden to say that tens of millions are ready to set out in our direction. It is forbidden to say that immigration brings crime and terror to our countries. It is forbidden to point out that the masses arriving from other civilizations endanger our way of life, our culture, our customs and our Christian traditions. It is forbidden to point out that those who arrived earlier have have already built up their own new, separate world for themselves, with its own laws and ideals, which is forcing apart the thousand-year-old structure of Europe. It is forbidden to point out that this is not an accidental and unintentional chain of consequences, but a preplanned and orchestrated operation; a mass of people directed towards us. It is forbidden to say that in Brussels they are concocting schemes to transport foreigners here as quickly as possible and to settle them here among us. It is forbidden to point out that the purpose of settling people here is to reshape the religious and cultural landscape of Europe, and to reengineer its ethnic foundations. — thereby eliminating the last barrier to internationalism: the nation-states. It is forbidden to say that Brussels is now stealthily devouring more and more slices of our national sovereignty, and that in Brussels many are now making a plan for a United States of Europe — for which no one has ever given authorisation.Ladies and Gentlemen,Today’s enemies of freedom are cut from a different cloth than the royal and imperial rulers of old, or those who ran the Soviet system; they use a different set of tools to force us into submission. Today they do not imprison us, they do not transport us to concentration camps, and they do not send in tanks to occupy countries loyal to freedom. Today the international media’s artillery bombardments, denunciations, threats and blackmail are enough — or rather, have been enough so far. The peoples of Europe are slowly awakening, they are regrouping, and will soon regain ground. Europe’s beams that rest on the suppression of truth are creaking and cracking. The peoples of Europe may have finally understood that their future is at stake: Now not only are their prosperity, cosy lives, jobs at stake, but our very security and the peaceful order of our lives are menaced as well. At last, the peoples of Europe, who have been slumbering in abundance and prosperity, have understood that the principles of life that Europe has been built on are in mortal danger. Europe is the community of Christian, free, and independent nations; equality of men and women; fair competition and solidarity; pride and humility; justice and mercy.This time the danger is not attacking us the way wars and natural disasters do, suddenly pulling the rug from under our feet. Mass migration is a slow stream of water persistently eroding the shores. It is masquerading as a humanitarian cause, but its true nature is the occupation of territory. And what is gaining territory for them is losing territory for us. Flocks of obsessed human rights defenders feel the overwhelming urge to reprimand us and to make allegations against us. Allegedly we are hostile xenophobes, but the truth is that the history of our nation is also one of inclusion. and the history of intertwining of cultures. Those who have sought to come here as new family members, as allies, or as displaced persons fearing for their lives have been let in to make a new home for themselves. But those who have come here with the intention of changing our country, shaping our nation in their own image, those who have come with violence and against our will, — have always been met with resistance.Ladies and Gentlemen,At first, they talk about only a few hundred, a thousand or two thousand relocated people. But not a single responsible European leader would dare to swear under oath that this couple of thousand will not eventually increase to tens or hundreds of thousands. If we want to halt this mass migration, first we must curb Brussels. The main danger to Europe’s future does not come from those who want to come here, but from Brussels’ fanatical internationalism. We should not allow Brussels to place itself above the law. We shall not allow it to force upon us the bitter fruit of its cosmopolitan immigration policy. We shall not import to Hungary crime, terrorism, homophobia and synagogue-burning anti-Semitism. There shall be no urban districts beyond the reach of the law, there shall be no mass disorder, No immigrant riots here, and there shall be no gangs hunting down our women and daughters. We shall not allow others to tell us whom we can let into our home and country, whom we will live alongside, and with whom we will share our country. We know how these things go. First we allow them to tell us whom we must take in, then they force us to serve foreigners in our own country. In the end we find ourselves being told to pack up and leave our own land. Therefore we reject the forced resettlement scheme, and we shall tolerate neither blackmail, nor threats.The time has come to ring the warning bell. The time has come for opposition and resistance. The time has come to gather allies to us. The time has come to raise the flag of proud nations. The time has come to prevent the destruction of Europe, and to save the future of Europe. To this end, regardless of party affiliation, we call on every citizen of Hungary to unite, and we call on every European nation to unite. The leaders and citizens of Europe must no longer live in two separate worlds. We must restore the unity of Europe. We the peoples of Europe cannot be free individually if we are not free together. If we unite our forces, we shall succeed; if we pull in different directions, we shall fail. Together we are strength, disunited we are weakness. Either together, or not at all — today this is the law.Ladies and Gentlemen,In 1848 it was written in the book of fate that nothing could be done against the Habsburg Empire. If we had then resigned ourselves to that outcome, our fate would have been sealed, and the German sea would have swallowed up the Hungarians. In 1956 it was written in the book of fate that we were to remain an occupied and sovietised country, until patriotism was extinguished in the very last Hungarian. If then we had resigned ourselves to that outcome, our fate would have been sealed, and the Soviet sea would have swallowed up the Hungarians. Today it is written in the book of fate that hidden, faceless world powers will eliminate everything that is unique, autonomous, age-old and national. They will blend cultures, religions and populations, until our many-faceted and proud Europe will finally become bloodless and docile. And if we resign ourselves to this outcome, our fate will be sealed, and we will be swallowed up in the enormous belly of the United States of Europe. The task which awaits the Hungarian people, the nations of Central Europe and the other European nations which have not yet lost all common sense is to defeat, rewrite and transform the fate intended for us. We Hungarians and Poles know how to do this. We have been taught that one can only look danger in the face if one is brave enough. We must therefore drag the ancient virtue of courage out from under the silt of oblivion. First of all we must put steel in our spines, and we must answer clearly, with a voice loud enough to be heard far and wide, the foremost, the single most important question determining our fate: The question upon which the future of Europe stands or falls is this: “Shall we be slaves or men set free — That is the question, answer me!”Go for it Hungary, go for it Hungarians!
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research
purposes:
Muslim migrants invade the Basilica of Saint-Denis, which is in a heavily Muslim area
of France. By the end of the video, police line the doorway to the church, preventing
the Muslim migrants from entering. This is a glimpse into the future of France. Before
too long, anytime a church service is going on, there will have to be a squadron of
police lining the entrances.
Far-left activists and illegal migrants invaded the Basilica of Saint-Denis on Sunday
to protest the French government’s new asylum law before they were forcibly
removed by police, resulting in evening mass being cancelled.
Around 80 illegal migrants and far-left activists from the group Coordination des
Sans-Papiers (CSP 75) protested the new law holding up banners, Le Parisien reports.
After around an hour of occupying the Basilica, police were called and arrived to
remove the protesters and illegal immigrants. The area was cleared by around
5:30 pm but evening mass was cancelled in case the protesters returned.
Joe child touching, smelling and whispering condensed:
Clark Ramsey
I would submit to you that keeping the age at 18 to purchase all long guns is one of the good fights we should be engaged in.
“One thing you really have to really focus on is the terrorism threat and the funding of terrorism, whether it’s Saudi Arabia or other countries, as we know there will be no funding, we have zero tolerance for the funding of terrorists,” Trump said at the White House. “I will say Saudi Arabia has been working very hard on that.”Trump also recalled his visit to Saudi Arabia last year for an anti-terrorism conference.“We talked about terrorism and the funding of terrorism, and it will not be allowed. It will not be allowed. That would be the one thing that would end the relationship with any country. I think there’s a very big focus on that, the funding of terrorism, meaning it’s over,” Trump said.Although the two countries are public allies in the fight against the Islamic State, a 2014 memo from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Saudi Arabia and neighboring Qatar “are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL and other radical Sunni groups in the region,” using another acronym for the terror group.Prince Salman, 32, consolidated power as the authoritarian U.S. ally’s de facto leader last year with leadership purge premised on allegations of corruption against royal rivals. The prince has pushed an agenda of economic and social reforms, including moving the kingdom to diversify its oil-based economy and allowing women to drive cars.But Prince Salman also seen as a driving force behind an aggressive Saudi foreign policy, including the nearly three-year intervention in Yemen, where thousands of civilians died in aerial bombings or face starvation. He’s led a coalition of Arab nations to break diplomatic relations with Qatar, accusing the small gas-rich nation of funding extremist groups, with demands including the closure of the news network Al Jazeera.During a Monday background call with reporters, senior administration officials said there would be a wide range of topics discussed between Trump and Prince Salman, whose aging father, King Salman, technically still leads the country.Topics that Trump intended to discuss, according to officials, included the Yemeni Civil War, the Syrian Civil War, regional adversary Iran, and an ongoing diplomatic feud between Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The official also suggested there would be significant discussion about Russia’s role in the region.“The president and the crown prince will discuss countering Iran’s destabilizing activities in the region, but also will include Russia’s role in supporting the Assad regime’s atrocities in Syria, Russia’s efforts to protect Iran from us sanctions to hold the [Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps] accountable for facilitating reckless missile attacks against Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, and also facilitating attacks on shipping in the Red Sea,” one senior official said on the Monday call previewing the visit….
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research
purposes:
Beth Moore, who is a wildly popular female Bible teacher heavily promoted in evangelical circles and aligned with the Southern Baptist Convention’s Lifeway Christian Resources, has steadily been opposing President Donald Trump since his presidential primary. She is not on record ever having opposed President Barack Obama.Moore, who claims to hear audibly from God – going so far as writing down what she says God specifically told her – said in a tweet this week that getting political was necessary because of the “mountain of manure hitting the fan” and that for her and others it is a “fight for the faith.” As President Barack Obama was actively seeking to increase abortions nationwide, lighting up the White House in rainbow-colored flood lights and challenging the Right of Conscience for traditional family advocates, it was apparently not a giant pile of manure hitting the fan. But Trump’s policies, somehow, now must be opposed in the name of fighting for the faith.The context of Moore’s March 12 tweet is Donald Trump. Moore has received heated criticism from the Soccer Mom contingent of Republican voters, who happen to be the very same demographic that is prone to follow Christian mommy-bloggers and read Beth Moore.A plethora of articles online have detailed Moore’s constant hen-pecking of Trump in social media, for which she receives accolades from some and condemnation from others. Riding a wave of virtue-signaling, wind-shifting popular public opinion, Moore has determined to err on the side of feminism and political correctness.The problem for many isn’t that Moore has spoken out against the President’s lascivious sexual behavior or inexcusable foul speech (and shame on anyone excusing it), but the problem is that Moore was eerily quiet for eight years of the Obama administration’s war on unborn children and policies that were anti-humanity, anti-God, and anti-family. For many, that silence is actually loud (in comparison) to her squawking among the chorus of women shrieking about the President’s uncouth speech.Cheering on her tweet was close Beth Moore associate, Jen Hatmaker – another lady preacher and mommy blogger – who recently came out in support of sodomy-based relationships. Although Lifeway (Moore’s chief patron) stopped selling Hatmaker books, Moore has continued her close affiliation with Hatmaker in spite of Hatmaker’s heretical doctrines. Even the Washington Post has noticed Beth Moore teaming up with Hatmaker to be constant co-belligerents against various conservative policies.Hatmaker chimed in, saying, “None of us wanted to be soldiers in this battle. But how could we possibly stay silent when our neighbors and our faith’s integrity are on the line?”Hatmaker, of course, is on the other side of this battle. She is on the side of the LGBTQXYZLMNOP lobby. Whose side is Beth Moore on?________________________________________________________________SEE ALSO:
SEE: https://www.wayoflife.org/friday_church_news/19-11.php
(Friday Church News Notes, March 16, 2018, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) –
The following is excerpted from “Elsa Coming Out as a Lesbian?” CBN.com, Mar. 1, 2018: “A sequel to the hit-film [Frozen] is set to release in November 2019, and now an interview with the film’s writer and co-director, Jennifer Lee, in the Huffington Post raises the possibility that Elsa could be getting a girlfriend. The movement started when fans and LGBTQ activists grabbed a hold of the film’s hit song ‘Let It Go’ as their ‘coming out anthem’ — and once a sequel was announced, social media became flooded with the hashtag ‘GiveElsaAGirlfriend.’ Petitions even circulated to give the character a female love interest. When Lee was asked about whether or not she was going to officially inaugurate Elsa into the LGBTQ community, she said the film’s team has been discussing the possibility. ‘I love everything people are saying and people are thinking about with our film,’ she told the Post. ‘That it’s creating dialogue, that Elsa is this wonderful character that speaks to so many people.’ Disney added an openly gay tween to the hit seriesAndi Mack, and the Disney series Doc McStuffins targeted preschoolers with a pro-lesbian message in the ‘2 Moms” episode.’”
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research
purposes:
President Trump Announces Immediate Actions To Secure American SchoolsWhiteHouse.govUSA – -(Ammoland.com)- “Every child deserves to grow up in a safe community surrounded by a loving family and to have a future filled with opportunity and with hope.” ~ President Donald J. TrumpHARDENING OUR SCHOOLS: President Donald J. Trump is making sure our schools are safe and secure, just like our airports, stadiums, and government buildings.
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research
purposes:
The UK public is enraged over Muslim rape gangs brutalizing their young girls wantonly, while police and social workers were all found to be covering up the rape gang activity for fear of being called “racist.” Even after this became a scandal that rocked Britain, the attacks on girls have not stopped, but continue to spread, as public anger rightly continues to grow.The number of sexual offences committed against children in Sadiq Khan’s London has soared to 1,200 in the last year, new figures show.The situation in London is grim, not only because of the surge in this abuse of children, but also because London’s Muslim Mayor Sadiq Khan has done everything he could to downplay the proliferation of violent crime in London, which is correlated to Muslim migration. Instead, Khan has allocated exorbitant amounts to police forces, not to combat crime, but to hunt down anyone who engages in so-called “offensive communication” against Islam.Londoners could have seen this coming, but Khan’s unsavoury ties to jihadis and Islamic supremacists did not stop him from being elected.“Child Sex Crimes Soar by 30 Per Cent in Sadiq Khan’s London as Public Anger Over Grooming Grows,” by Virginia Hale, Breitbart, March 17, 2018:___________________________________________________________________The number of sexual offences committed against children in Sadiq Khan’s London has soared to 1,200 in the last year, new figures show.Statistics show the number of child sexual exploitation cases in 2017 had risen by 30 per cent on the previous year, the Evening Standard reports.The figures were released on Friday, when the Metropolitan Police co-hosted a conference to raise awareness of the problem with children’s charity Barnardo’s, which has launched a pilot scheme to help child victims of rape and sexual exploitation.“Children who have been sexually exploited can feel completely powerless, and being raped or sexually assaulted often causes debilitating levels of trauma,” said Jessica Juon, assistant director of children’s services at Barnardo’s London, explaining it is important to help victims feel safe.”….The Metropolitan Police claimed it had seen no evidence London was facing similar scandals to towns like Telford and Rotherham, where ‘politically correct’ police and authorities failed to act as hundreds of girls were raped, beaten and trafficked…….
SEE ALSO:
UK: Muslim grandfather ran pedophile rape house in Telford, police neglected evidence
White hating, Muslim gang rape rampage of terror
in Rotherham
'Easy Meat.' Britain's Muslim Rape Gang Cover-UpHow Muslim rape gangs blackmail British girls into prostitution
Tommy Robinson confronts Muslim rape gang
Robert Spencer from DHFC on Vimeo.
David Horowitz Freedom Center 2018
Tommy Robinson Full Speech – Speakers Corner
Brenda Arthur received an unexpected visit on March 8 that, one week later, leaves her feeling more than a little uneasy.At her door that day was an officer with the West Virginia State Police. He wanted to know about her involvement in a Freedom of Information request regarding a local mosque.Arthur, who will turn 67 this summer, serves as leader of the West Virginia chapter of ACT For America, whose mission is to educate Americans about the advancement of Islamic principles in Western societies.As a Jewish American, she was concerned about a major expansion of the Islamic Association of West Virginia in her hometown of South Charleston. This mosque has hosted an openly anti-Semitic preacher in the past, and so she went to city hall in late January to have a look at its construction permits and site plans, something that is within the right of every American citizen under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act and state open-records laws.She had no idea that this perfectly legal activity, performed every day by citizen watchdogs across the U.S., would prompt a visit from the state police.Arthur was not available to answer the door when Sgt. R.C. Workman came knocking, but Workman left his business card with a hand-written note on the back:“Brenda, please contact me at: 304-573-6190.”Workman’s unit is part of the West Virginia Intelligence Exchange, a secretive outfit that works closely with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s “intelligence fusion center” in West Virginia.All 50 states have at least one DHS fusion center, and the story of Brenda Arthur lends credence to the views of civil libertarians that these centers, whatever their stated purpose, have been weaponized against law-abiding American citizens.Fusion centers were established a few years after the 9/11 terror attacks by the George W. Bush administration and expanded under Barack Obama.The West Virginia Fusion Center website says its mission is to “Embrace proactive intelligence efforts. Those efforts are key to inhibiting criminal networks, whether those groups are terrorists, drug-related groups, organized crime, or other criminal enterprises.”Fusion centers work with “non-traditional sources,” including corporate America, to build threat assessments on people.But what is it about Brenda Arthur that could garner the attention of this specialized police unit? She seems like an unlikely candidate to be involved in terrorism or organized crime.Arthur is a senior citizen who’s never broken a law in her life. She is a professional insurance broker, a great-aunt to six children, one of whom she helps with financial support for a private education at a Montessori school.But fusion centers know no boundaries, including the U.S. Constitution, says constitutional attorney and civil liberties advocate John Whitehead.“The word mosque, it’s key words like that. If you don’t like mosques, they’re gonna be after you, they’re watching you, because everything is determined by algorithms,” said Whitehead, founder of the Charlottesville, Va.-based Rutherford Institute.Being an “activist” also draws the attention of the fusion centers, he said.‘Do not talk to them’Whitehead has strict advice for any law-abiding citizen who is approached by law enforcement asking questions about their personal activities.“If they come to your door, do not talk to them. If they call you on the phone, do not talk to them.”Whitehead said the intimidation tactics used by fusion centers are similar to the East German Stasi and other secret-police agencies.“They’re copying the tactics of former totalitarian regimes and the slightest mistake can get you in trouble,” he said. “That’s why you shouldn’t talk to them. The threat assessments are very dangerous. Don’t talk to them. Call someone like us, let us issue one of our letters and that usually shuts them up, and also puts them on record.”“Once you’re in their system,” Whitehead added, “you cannot get out.”BlindsidedArthur was typical in that she was caught off guard by the visit.“So I called him at the number he gave me and asked ‘what’s this about?’”Sgt. Workman did not beat around the bush.“We came by your house and wanted to talk to you.”“Yes sir, what about?” Arthur asked.“It’s about that FOIA request you made about the building plans for the mosque,” he told her.It did not immediately dawn on her that she was actually not the one whose name was on the Freedom of Information Act request.“I hadn’t filed it, a friend of mine did. Within seconds it occurred to me, but I didn’t want the other lady to be brought into it so I just acknowledged it and said ‘you know I file a lot of FIOAs, I filed one with the Health and Human Resources, with the auditor’s office, with Bureau for Medical Services, and more.”“Yes, but those FOIAs are within the normal course of things,” said the stern voice on the other end of the phone line.Why is it that this particular request, for information on a mosque project, was considered abnormal? And who decides what is NORMAL in a search of public-record documents?She explained that she is an upstanding citizen activist and member ACT For America.“I explained we are an organization with 750,000 members, we support the Constitution, American liberty, American values, and we fight terrorism and the concepts of Sharia law, which are antithetical to the U.S. Constitution.”In the course of the 10-minute phone conversation, Arthur did a lot of explaining.She explained that she was perusing the website of the local mosque when she came across a photo that caught her attention. It was of a man standing in the middle of the mosque speaking to the congregation. That man was Nihad Awad, executive director of Council on American-Islamic Relations or CAIR.“He’s a terrorist supporter, he finances terror, and is part of a terrorist-tied organization,” Arthur told the sergeant.That prompted Sgt. Workman to hint at the real reason for his inquiry.“Well, we have a good relationship with that mosque and when he came here they notified us he was coming,” he told Arthur.That sparked something in Arthur’s memory.When she and a friend had gone to city hall on Jan. 31 to inspect the documents, the city manager and another city official stood over their shoulders the entire time. They made a point of telling the two women, “We have a good relationship with the mosque.”Who’s the snitch?The West Virginia Fusion Center’s website encourages Americans to report “suspicious activity” by filing a SAR or Suspicious Activity Report on a fellow resident.A SAR is defined as “the sharing of information concerning activity, incident, or behavior that the reporting individual considers to be outside of normal parameters,” the website states.Inquiring about a mosque was not NORMAL activity. Arthur had been flagged for suspicious activity, probably by a city official who has a good relationship with the mosque, or someone at the mosque itself.In West Virginia, the fusion center operates under the supervision of the West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety [DMAPS].I called DMAPS Tuesday and asked what could possibly be suspicious about a 66-year-old insurance broker with no criminal record going to city hall and inspecting public-record documents.Lawrence Messina, director of communications for West Virginia DMAPS, said he would ask that question of his superiors and get back with me.He sent the following email at 2:09 p.m. on March 13:“I have consulted with my colleagues here at the Office of the Secretary as well as with the W.Va. Intelligence Fusion Center and the W.Va. State Police (the latter is also part of this department). We decline to comment on this matter.”Arthur, as a Jewish American, has every reason to be concerned that an anti-Semite like Awad would be invited to speak in her community. He is a supporter of Hamas, which is on the U.S. State Department’s list of designated foreign terrorist organizations, and he rejects the right of Israel to exist. [See Discover the Networks for documentation of Awad’s long history of radical statements, activities and affiliations.]….
As a Roman Catholic who experiences same-sex attraction, [the author, Mattson] adds to the growing discussion within the church about labels for people like Mattson and me, and more importantly, the identities those labels imply.
This is a full-blooded vision of Christianity that takes seriously the call to die, and doesn’t for a moment consider chastity a gift that costs too much, though it can feel at times like it costs all one has. Here he becomes not aloof, but relatable, as he describes how he won this vision through years of pain.
In August of 2017, InfoVaticana received a second letter from Baker & McKenzie, this time demanding that in addition to no longer using the crossed keys with the name InfoVaticana, InfoVaticana actually cease using the name “InfoVaticana” at all and turn the website domain over to the Secretary of State. The letter argues that the crossed keys used in InfoVaticana’s application for its trademarked logo is a violation of the Vatican’s intellectual property in the form of “State Symbols.” Such argumentation would imply that any portion of the formal symbols representing Vatican City (the Cross, the keys, a tassel, a gold and white flag) are prohibited from use by any entity without express permission from the Vatican.