Day: May 5, 2023

Kamala Harris Gets $140 Million Budget for Another Job She Can Botch: ‘AI Czar’

Kamala Harris Gets $140 Million Budget for Another Job She Can Botch: ‘AI Czar’

BY ROBERT SPENCER

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/robert-spencer/2023/05/05/kamala-harris-gets-140-million-budget-for-another-job-she-can-botch-ai-czar-n1692888;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

Back in March 2021, Old Joe Biden named alleged Vice President Kamala Harris his “Border Czar,” while she herself told us what a tough but crucial job it was: “Needless to say,” Madame Heartbeat Away intoned, “the work will not be easy. But it is important work.” She then proceeded not to do it. Fox News noted in Jan. 2023 that “Harris has visited the southwest border only once since President Biden tasked her in March 2021 with addressing the root causes of the ongoing immigration surge.” And now the whole charade is beginning all over again, as Old Joe has given The Cackler yet another job she can ignore: Kamala Harris is the nation’s new AI (artificial intelligence) czar.

The White House announced Thursday that the Biden regime is taking “new actions that will further promote responsible American innovation in artificial intelligence (AI) and protect people’s rights and safety.” Principal among these actions was a meeting that Harris had that same day “with CEOs of four American companies at the forefront of AI innovation — Alphabet, Anthropic, Microsoft, and OpenAI — to underscore this responsibility and emphasize the importance of driving responsible, trustworthy, and ethical innovation with safeguards that mitigate risks and potential harms to individuals and our society.” Who could object to this? Who could be against underscoring responsibility and emphasizing being responsible? Anyone who was paying attention to what was really being said.

The White House press release also stated: “President Biden has been clear that when it comes to AI, we must place people and communities at the center by supporting responsible innovation that serves the public good while protecting our society, security, and economy. Importantly, this means that companies have a fundamental responsibility to make sure their products are safe before they are deployed or made public.” So that’s four repetitions of “responsible” and “responsibility” within the space of two paragraphs. “AI is one of the most powerful technologies of our time,” the White House also said, “but in order to seize the opportunities it presents, we must first mitigate its risks.” Thus along with all the emphasis on being responsible, we are told there are “potential harms” and “risks” involved with AI.

There certainly are risks involved with AI. Kids are getting it to write their school papers. In fact, it’s writing this column while I’m sipping a martini by the pool. (Okay, not really.) But it strains credulity to think that just when Old Joe and his henchmen are trying to improve Kamala’s tattered image, they would give her the job of making sure schoolchildren were doing their own work. No, she will likely do the job about as well as she has done the border job, but it’s clear that the regime is putting Harris on the AI beat because the irresponsibility and riskiness they’re so concerned about is the possibility that AI might tell people things that deviate from the Leftist establishment line.

It is, after all, abundantly clear at this point that the Biden regime is no friend of the freedom of speech. It tried to establish a Disinformation Governance Board; it worked with Twitter and the other social media giants to silence dissenting voices; and it is in general the least transparent administration in recent memory. And Harris has been at the forefront of efforts to stamp out dissent. Back in June 2022, the New York Post reported that she focused on “developing programs and policies” and that she was heading up a new internet policy task force that was working to protect “political figures” from “disinformation,” “abuse” and “harassment.”

Related: Chinese Communist Party Mandates AI Chatbots ‘Reflect Core Values of Socialism’

This was treading dangerous ground in terms of the First Amendment, as “abuse” and “harassment,” to say nothing of “disinformation,” are subjective terms. What was to prevent the person who is charged with judging what constituted them — Kamala Harris, evidently — from considering sharp criticism, or even any criticism at all, no matter how accurate or justified, to be abuse or harassment?

And now she is the AI Czar. There can be little doubt that she will be working to ensure that whatever forms AI takes and whatever it communicates to the American people, it will not give Americans any unwelcome ideas, or lead them to think any thoughts that might take them off the Leftist reservation. Those who understand the importance of the freedom of speech as the foundation of any free society can only hope that Harris’ performance will be as perfunctory and indifferent as her performance at the border.

Georgetown, the Oldest Catholic University in the U.S., Opens a Big Mosque on Campus

Georgetown, the Oldest Catholic University in the U.S., Opens a Big Mosque on Campus

1

BY ROBERT SPENCER

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/culture/robert-spencer/2023/05/05/georgetown-the-oldest-catholic-university-in-the-u-s-opens-a-big-mosque-on-campus-n1692878;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

Georgetown University, which was founded as Georgetown College in 1789 and is the oldest Catholic university in the United States, has earned yet another distinction: it is now the oldest Catholic university in the U.S. that has a large new mosque on campus. This is great news, right? This is just the sort of openness and good-heartedness that will erase misunderstandings, melt hostility and mutual suspicion, and usher in a new era of peace. Won’t it? Meanwhile, we eagerly await the announcement of which Islamic university anywhere in the world is planning to open a Christian chapel on campus.

The College Fix reported Friday that Georgetown “recently completed a major construction project erecting a large mosque on campus.” The university happily proclaimed that the Yarrow Mamout Masjid, which was named after a famous Muslim freed slave and entrepreneur who lived in the Georgetown area in the early nineteenth century, is “the first mosque with ablution stations, a spirituality and formation hall and a halal kitchen on a U.S. college campus.” How exciting! And really, what could possibly go wrong?

The Georgetown mosque has been happily welcomed at the highest levels. The College Fix stated that it has actually been operating since 2019 while construction continued, but finally the building “was completed earlier this year to much fanfare, with a dedication ceremony March 18 drawing Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who issued a proclamation recognizing the mosque.”

Yet even with a proclamation from the mayor and proud Catholic university administrators boasting about ablution stations and a halal kitchen, the university didn’t seem eager to talk about its grand new structure. The Fix noted that “Georgetown University’s media relations, as well as representatives of its Catholic Faith Communities, Catholic Ministry and alumni center, all ignored requests over the last week from The College Fix seeking comment on the mosque.” Now, that’s downright strange. Are they proud of their new mosque or not?

They should be if they have any interest in being consistent. The College Fix also points out that “the Catholic Georgetown is not shy about embracing Islam. Its news release touted the fact that Georgetown was also the first U.S. university to hire a full-time Muslim imam 24 years ago.” And “in 2016, students at Georgetown University elected a Muslim student to serve as their student association president, a first for the school.” Fr. Mark Bosco, the vice president for Georgetown’s Mission and Ministry division, explained the underlying rationale for all this when he said: “We need to embrace interreligious dialogue.”

Fr. Bosco has several million reasons to say this. The Daily Caller reported back in June 2019 that Georgetown was among the American universities that have “taken hundreds of millions of dollars from the government of Qatar, a middle eastern nation with suspected links to international terrorism.” Long before that, the Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal gave Georgetown $20 million for the Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, which pumps out “Islamophobia” propaganda by the bucketload, gives Sharia supremacist and pro-slavery and rape apologist Jonathan A. C. Brown and other disingenuous Islamic apologists an aura of respectability, and sponsors the Bridge Initiative, which endeavors to hoodwink Catholic institutions into thinking there is no jihad threat and that “Islamophobia” is the real problem (as if they needed much convincing).

Related: Wokeness on Steroids: Indiana University Hosts Deported Jihad Mastermind as Featured Speaker

The links to Saudi Arabia and Qatar make it clear: Georgetown is bought and paid for, like so many other American universities today. The new mosque is more about that than about a genuine attempt to foster interfaith understanding and dialogue. And regarding that dialogue, a parting question for Fr. Mark Bosco: where is the Islamic university that is opening a Catholic chapel, or any kind of Christian chapel? Why does the “interreligious dialogue” to which you are so indefatigably committed, despite the fact that it has not saved a single Christian from persecution or prevented one church in a Muslim country from being destroyed, always and in every case go only one way?

The renowned twentieth-century Muslim Brotherhood theorist and Islamic scholar Sayyid Qutb put it plainly: “The chasm between Islam and Jahiliyyah [the society of unbelievers] is great, and a bridge is not to be built across it so that the people on the two sides may mix with each other, but only so that the people of Jahiliyyah may come over to Islam.” Georgetown, still supposedly a Catholic university, has become one of those bridges.

Biden to Turn Over 10% of America’s Land to the Left

Gas and meat prices will climb sky-high under BLM “conservation leases.”

Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso WARNS About Biden Nominee Tracy Stone Manning

Despite her history of diddling with eco-terrorism in the 1980s and lying about it, President Biden has nominated environmental activist Tracy Stone-Manning for Director of the Bureau of Land Management. U.S. Sen. John Barrasso (@SenJohnBarrasso) joins Jimmy Sengenberger (@SengCenter) to discuss what is BLM, why it's important, and why is it such a bad idea for Stone-Manning to become its next leader.

Lauren Boebert Proposes Denying a Salary to Tracey Stone for Collaborating with Eco-Terrorists!

At the House Oversight Committee hearing, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) proposed an amendment to deny a salary to BLM Director nominee Tracy Stone-Manning. Tracy Stone-Manning is an American environmental policy advisor for Biden. In 2021, she was nominated to serve as director of the Bureau of Land Management in the Biden administration a nomination that was embroiled in controversy over her collaboration with Eco-Terrorists and Lying to authorities something she should have gone to prison for but she made a Deal with he FBI to keep her out of prison.

'BLM Is Currently Not Complying With The Law': Lauren Boebert Presses BLM Director

2022 NACD Annual Meeting Keynote Address - BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning

BY DANIEL GREENFIELD

SEE: https://www.frontpagemag.com/biden-to-turn-over-10-of-americas-land-to-the-left/;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

The Bureau of Land Management was formed out of the General Land Office, which sold and distributed public land to settlers, and the Grazing Service, which settled the range wars on the side of the farmers. Its mission under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) is “the management of the public lands and their various resource values so that they are utilized in the combination that will best meet the present and future needs of the American people”.

Unfortunately, BLM became a bastion of environmentalists opposed to any kind of development and, under Biden, even outright eco-terrorists, like Tracy Stone-Manning, his BLM director.

Tracy Stone-Manning had been the spokeswoman for the eco-terrorist group EarthFirst and had sent a threatening letter to the Forest Service warning that the terrorists had rigged a forest with traps and concluding with, “You bastards go in there anyway and a lot of people could get hurt.”

Instead of going to jail, Biden nominated the eco-terrorist to head BLM, and Senate Democrats, including Senator Manchin, voted to confirm her into office. Instead of managing national resources for the benefit of the American people, Biden’s BLM has waged a corrupt and dishonest campaign to seize total control of them and prevent them from being utilized.

After Biden and BLM were forced by the court to offer oil and gas leases, they did it with a poison pill by offering poor and played-out sites, hiking royalties, and reducing available areas, before pulling the auction due to “lack of interest”. While BLM was sabotaging oil and gas drilling, American workers were being economically devastated by sky-high gas prices.

BLM is now trying for something much more ambitious. The federal agency, which is not a legislative body, is proposing to dramatically modify the Federal Register to redefine conservation, or non-use of the land, as a “primary purpose” and then offer “conservation leases” to leftists to lock up the land and prevent if from being used for grazing or drilling.

The Bureau of Land Management’s leadership is proposing to unilaterally transform its functioning from managing exploitable resources on behalf of the public to banning the exploitation of those resources while potentially turning over as much as 10% of the nation’s land to leftists.

BLM’s “conservation leases” would allow environmentalist groups and others to seize public lands and potentially place them off-limits under the guise of “restoring public lands”. These conservation leases would be offered to “individuals, businesses, and non-governmental organizations”. Most of them would go to leftist non-governmental organizations or NGOs.

With “conservation leases” running for as long as a decade, Biden’s BLM would be able to lock up key development sites to prevent future Republican administrations from opening them up to drilling and mining. And Biden would be able to claim plausible deniability for restricting drilling and mining by claiming that the lands are currently undergoing “restoration” or “mitigation”.

BLM controls 1 in 10 acres, 30% of the country’s minerals, and much of its oil and gas. The new “conservation leases” could be used to cripple America’s energy independence for a decade while keeping energy prices high. Furthermore, Communist China, which already has ties to environmentalist groups in this country, could use them as trojan horses to cripple mining, especially of rare earth metals, to keep us dependent on Beijing for our technology.

The Natural Resources Defense Council, which was quick to cheer the proposed “conservation leases”, has been accused of extensive ties to the People’s Republic of China.

BLM’s package of proposals would ‘Californicate’ land management across the country leading to the same measures that crushed farmers, ranchers, energy extraction and mining, created droughts and forest fires, while abandoning productive land to cartels for illegal drug cultivation in what was once a prosperous state for people outside San Francisco and Los Angeles, and industries other than Hollywood and Big Tech.

A proposed land health assessment would apply California-style “watershed function, ecological processes, water quality, and wildlife habitat” analysis to provide countless reasons to block any land use.

BLM also proposes to redefine conservation from passive to active measures for “maintaining resilient, functioning ecosystems by protecting or restoring natural habitats and ecological functions.” This would provide a steady flow of taxpayer money to leftist organizations and provide an open-ended excuse for locking up lands until some ideal standard had been met.

While conservation leases could run for a decade, “mitigation leases” are open-ended and run

“for a term commensurate with the impact it is mitigating”. If you redefine mitigation, as BLM is proposing to do, then these become endless leases that are renewed every 5 years in perpetuity.

The Biden BLM move would not only increase oil and gas prices while furthering our dependence on foreign oil, it would also raise meat prices and help kill ranching.

American ranchers are dependent on public lands for grazing cattle. After a difficult few years in which ranchers have gone bankrupt and culled herds leading to even higher meat prices, the BLM and its eco-terrorist boss have aggressively gone after anyone who isn’t eating soy.

Former EarthFirst eco-terrorist Tracy Stone-Manning demanded the power to unilaterally change existing grazing permits to compensate for the environmentalist hoax known popularly as ‘global warming’. Under these proposals, BLM would constantly “evaluate” the land for global warming impacts and potentially pull grazing permits if its environmentalist fanatics objected.

This would make it impossible for ranchers to run a business without ever knowing if a BLM eco-bureaucrat might cut off their grazing rights any time that she pleases. And the availability and price of meat in supermarkets would soon reflect that grim reality.

Once the grazing land is defined as not being “resilient” in the face of global warming, BLM would snatch it away and hand it over as a “conservation lease” or a “mitigation lease” to environmentalists determined to end grazing, the ownership of animals, and eating meat.

When meat prices rise and supply drops, Biden will blame ranchers and meatpackers for “profiteering” rather than admitting that this was the desired outcome of his own policies.

With over 50 million acres of grazing land at risk, BLM has the ability to crush meat production in the United States, much as it can kill oil, gas, and mining in this country. As a pleasing side effect, it will also kill any number of conservative businesses while feeding money to the Left.

Western conservatives have called for abolishing the Bureau of Land Management before while urban conservatives have ignored issues like grazing rights or oil and gas leases because meat seemed to come from a supermarket and gas from a pump. But these seeming abstractions have changed life for most of the country for the worse as part of a larger environmental plot.

Beef prices are expected to increase another 15% this year after a year of increases that raised retail meat prices anywhere from 20% to 60% for consumers. Egg prices have put the basic commodity off the breakfast tables of millions of Americans. And gas prices have been rising again. BLM’s latest proposals are meant to not only keep the pain going even into future Republican administrations but to change American living habits and expectations permanently by systemically ending access to oil, gas, and meat for much of the country.

Turning over as much as 10% of America’s land to the Left will end the middle-class standard of living. California is a test case, and unless BLM is abolished, America will become California.

Democrats will HATE what MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE just Urged President Trump to Do on Twitter!!!

Top news right now: Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has fully endorsed former President Donald Trump for the 2024 presidential election, expressing her desire for more of his “mean tweets” during an annual dinner in Ohio. Greene believes that these tweets come with benefits such as “world peace,” “secure, strong borders,” and “supporting law enforcement and low crime.” She emphasized her belief in “America First” and showed frustration with the current state of the country, claiming that too much money is being spent on others while American streets are filled with homeless people and drug-related deaths are on the rise. Greene and Trump have a close relationship that goes back several years, with Greene praising him for his “America first” policies and strong stance on immigration. Follow Next News for more breaking news.

We Already Have a Disinformation Governance Board: Media Decides What You Can and Cannot Hear From RFK Jr.

We Already Have a Disinformation Governance Board: Media Decides What You Can and Cannot Hear From RFK Jr.

BY ROBERT SPENCER

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/robert-spencer/2023/05/03/we-already-have-a-disinformation-governance-board-media-decides-what-you-can-and-cannot-hear-from-rfk-jr-n1692356;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

Old Joe Biden’s handlers tried and failed to establish their own little Ministry of Truth, the Disinformation Governance Board, but they were likely not devastated by the ignominious failure of this initiative. That’s because they already have plenty of Disinformation Governance Boards: they’re known as “news outlets.” The mainstream media happily carries water for the establishment line, as we saw again this week with ABC’s censorship of its own interview with a Democrat presidential candidate, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., because his views on vaccines dissent from the establishment line.

Linsey Davis of ABC began by warning viewers not to support this man; she introduced Kennedy as “one of the biggest voices pushing anti-vaccine rhetoric, regularly distributing misinformation and disinformation about vaccines, which scientific and medical experts overwhelmingly say are safe and effective based on rigorous scientific studies.” The network then proceeded to cut Kennedy’s own words about the vaccines, not allowing him to make his case.

Numerous viewers found this disturbing. The problems with it were succinctly articulated by an unlikely voice: Bruce Pearl, Auburn University’s basketball coach, who tweeted Monday, “How is this Ok? How can the media simply edit or censor what a candidate has said about a topic, in this case, COVID, because ABC says that it’s dangerous or misinformation? Isn’t it our job to hear a candidate and determine that for ourselves?”

It is, or at least it was. Davis was upfront and unapologetic about the network’s censorship of the video, explaining that “during our conversation, Kennedy made false claims about the COVID-19 vaccines.” She claimed that “data shows that the Covid-19 vaccine has prevented millions of hospitalizations and deaths from the disease.” She detailed other supposedly false claims that Kennedy made and concluded, “We’ve used our editorial judgment in not including extended portions of that exchange in our interview.”

Yet Davis’ own claims were unproven at best. Kennedy’s website, The Defender, features an April 14 article with the headline, “45 Times as Many Deaths After COVID Shots in Just 2 Years Compared With All Flu Vaccine-Related Deaths Since 1990, Data Show.” The subtitle: “The authors of a peer-reviewed meta-analysis of national and international COVID-19 vaccine adverse events during the first two years of the rollout said their findings highlight the importance of reevaluating public health policies that promote universal mass injection and multiple boosters for all demographic groups.” Did Davis offer any specific refutation of these claims? Of course not. The guardians of acceptable opinion don’t have to defend themselves.

The same imperiousness showed through in the part of the interview that did air. According to the Daily Caller on Friday, Davis challenged Kennedy “over his claims that there is a correlation between vaccinations and autism.” Davis asserted that what Kennedy was saying had been “debunked.” Kennedy asked, “Wait a minute, who debunked it?” Davis replied, “We have not seen any kind of scientific connections from the CDC, the World Health Organization…” Kennedy said, “They’re captured agencies.” Davis didn’t bother to explain why this wasn’t so.

Related: I Love This Guy: RFK Jr. Slams Dems for Rigging the System

After the interview, Kennedy charged that what ABC did was actually illegal, noting that “47 USC 315 makes it illegal for TV networks to censor Presidential candidates.” He stated, “I’m happy to supply citations to support every statement I made during that exchange,” and naively added, “I’m certain that ABC’s decision to censor came as a shock to Linsey as well.” This is unlikely. Censorship is the hallmark of the contemporary Left.

In a certain sense, however, ABC’s censorship of Kennedy is encouraging. It demonstrates that Leftists are not at all confident that people will end up agreeing with them if they hear opposing viewpoints. But of course, once Leftists realize this, they turn to the forcible silencing of those opposing views. ABC demonstrated that it thinks the people who are unfortunate enough to watch the network are too stupid to think for themselves or evaluate truth claims on their own. It also showed that it thinks Leftist “news” outlets properly have the authority to determine what the American people see and hear and what they do not.

RFK Jr. is a lone voice on the Left standing against this trend. But will our moral superiors even allow Americans to hear what he says?

Pope in Hungary: It is ‘sad and painful’ to close doors to people who are ‘unlike us’~Pope says of Christianity and Islam that ‘our common commitment is to a good life’

“Let us open the doors”: Pope celebrates Mass in Budapest with interfaith leaders

Hungary has much to teach the Pope about responsibility to one’s own household. The Pope is more moved by illegal economic migrants than he is by Christians being slaughtered in Africa and the Middle East.

Pope Francis, seen also on a giant screens, celebrates mass in Kossuth Lajos Square in Budapest, Hungary, Sunday, April 30, 2023. (Tibor Illyes/MTI via AP)

HUNGARIAN CPAC!-You Won’t Believe What Tucker Carlson Said In Hungary!!!

BY CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2023/05/pope-in-hungary-it-is-sad-and-painful-to-close-doors-to-people-who-are-unlike-us;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

In 2021, Pope Francis urged Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban to take in more migrants, “opening ourselves to the thirst of men and women of our time.” On a recent visit to Hungary, the Pope again urged Orban to take in migrants and even became political in urging an end to “self-referential forms of populism” in Europe. He equated open-door migration to Christianity.

ABC reported that “while Orbán’s government has consistently rejected asylum-seekers from the Middle East and Africa, around 2.5 million Ukrainians fleeing war in their country found open doors.” Orban has made his position clear on numerous occasions as to why he has closed Hungary’s doors to the mainly Muslim migrants flowing in from the Middle East and Africa. It was all about national security and preserving Hungary’s culture. He stated in 2021 that “migrant armies are banging on Europe’s doors, on the doors that seal off migration routes on land and at sea.”

In contrast, the UK projects that 56,000 illegal migrants will enter the country via the English Channel this year. Serious criminals — including murderers, terrorists, and rapists — have been found among English Channel migrants. The situation has prompted UK Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick to warn that illegal migrants “cannibalize” communities by importing “different lifestyles.” Italy has also now declared a state of emergency over its own influx of illegal economic migrants from Africa.

Hungary has chosen to preserve its values, protecting its citizens from the threat of jihad, Sharia no-go zones, Sharia patrols, high crime, Islamic supremacism, sex assaults, “Islamic separatism” and the like. The small nation has also been spending tens of millions of dollars to rebuild churches and Christian communities destroyed by jihadis in the Middle East. So this is not about “racism,” as the Pope also suggested by saying that it was “sad and painful” to see doors closed to people who were “unlike us.”

Actions speak louder than words. Until the Pope enables opening the doors of the Vatican, including those of his own quarters, to the mainly Muslim migrants from Africa and warmly welcomes all of the illegal, unvetted migrants,  he should carefully consider his words to Hungary. He should also tell the victims of the worst crimes — including victims of terror — to their faces that open-door migration policies are a positive good.

Hungary has much to teach the Pope about responsibility to one’s own household. The Pope is more moved by illegal economic migrants than he is by Christians being slaughtered in Africa and the Middle East.

“Pope Francis urges Hungarians to ‘open doors’ to migrants,” BBC, May 1, 2023:

Pope Francis has urged Hungarians to “open doors” to migrants, ending his visit to the country led by a nationalist anti-immigration cabinet.

Speaking at an open-air mass in the capital Budapest, the pontiff said it was “sad and painful” to see doors closed to people who were “unlike us”.

Up to 100,000 people attended the mass, including Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Mr Orban has criticised migration, building a barbed-wire border fence to stop migrants crossing into Hungary.

Addressing the crowd near the Hungarian parliament building on Sunday, Pope Francis pleaded to everyone – including “those with political and social responsibilities” – to be more open.

He was speaking about “the closed doors of our selfishness with regard to others… the doors we close towards those who are foreign or unlike us, towards migrants or the poor”…..

______________________________________________________________

Pope says of Christianity and Islam that ‘our common commitment is to a good life’

BY ROBERT SPENCER

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2023/05/pope-says-of-christianity-and-islam-that-our-common-commitment-is-to-a-good-life;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

All right, but the definition of “a good life” differs sharply in both religions. The pope would stoutly deny this and call anyone who pointed it out “Islamophobic,” but nonetheless, it is the case.

Qur’an 98:4-6: “Nor were the people of the book divided until after the clear proof came to them. And they are not ordered to do anything else but serve Allah, keeping religion pure for him, as hanifs, and to establish prayer and to give alms. That is true religion. Indeed, the unbelievers among the people of the book and the idolaters will remain in the fire of Gehenna. They are the most vile of created beings.”

Qur’an 5:14: “And with those who say: Indeed, we are Christians, we made a covenant, but they forgot a part of what they were reminded about. Therefore we have stirred up enmity and hatred among them until the day of resurrection, when Allah will inform them of their handiwork.”

Qur’an 5:17: “They indeed have disbelieved who say, Indeed, Allah is the Messiah, son of Mary. Say, Who then can do anything against Allah, if he had willed to destroy the Messiah son of Mary, and his mother and everyone on earth? To Allah belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth and all that is between them. He creates what he wills. And Allah is able to do all things.”

Qur’an 4:157: “And because of their saying, We killed the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, the messenger of Allah, they did not kill him nor crucify him, but it seemed so to them, and indeed, those who disagree about this are in doubt about it, they have no knowledge of it except pursuit of a supposition, they did not kill him for certain.

Qur’an 4:171: “O people of the book, do not exaggerate in your religion or say anything about Allah except the truth. The Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, was only a messenger of Allah, and his word that he conveyed to Mary, and a spirit from him. So believe in Allah and his messengers, and do not say Three, Stop, it is better for you. Allah is only one God. It is far removed from his transcendent majesty that he should have a son. Everything that is in the heavens and everything that is on the earth is his. And Allah is sufficient as defender.”

Qur’an 5:116: “And when Allah said, O Jesus, son of Mary, did you say to mankind, Take me and my mother as two gods besides Allah? He said, Be glorified. It was not for me to say what I had no right to say. If I said it, then you know it. You know what is in my mind, and I do not know what is in your mind. Indeed, you, only you, are the knower of hidden things.”

Qur’an 19:35: “It is not fitting for Allah that he should take to himself a son. Glory be to him, when he decrees a thing, he says to it only, Be, and it is.”

Qur’an 9:30-31: “And the Jews say, Ezra is the son of Allah, and the Christians say, The Messiah is the son of Allah. That is their saying with their mouths. They imitate the statements of those who disbelieved before. May Allah curse them. How perverse they are. They have taken as lords besides Allah their rabbis and their monks and the Messiah, the son of Mary, when they were called to worship only one God. There is no God except him. May he be glorified from all that they ascribe as partners.”

Qur’an 9:29: “Fight against those do not believe in Allah or the last day, and do not forbid what Allah and his messenger have forbidden, and do not follow the religion of truth, even if they are among the people of the book, until they pay the jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued.”

“Pope: Christianity, Islam share common commitment to good life,” by Francesca Merlo, Vatican News, May 4, 2023 (thanks to Tom):

Addressing participants at the VI Colloquium between the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue and the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies, Pope Francis encouraged each member, noting that with this being their sixth encounter, their perseverance is clear.

Commonalities between religions
The theme of the colloquium, “Creative Commonalities between Christianity and Islam”, the Pope said, reflects how “each of us is like the link in a long chain: many people have preceded us on the beautiful and challenging road of encounter and friendship, others will follow us, as we hope and pray, confirming that feeling of brotherhood that is the foundation of relations between peoples”….

Bringing his message to a close, the Pope noted that the dialogue practiced and promoted requires a style of sincerity and mutual respect if it is to be fruitful, and requires “an awareness of both convergences and divergences”. He spoke of compassion for all, before adding that “we also believe that not everything ends with death, but that there is another life, eternal, where we will give account to God for our actions and receive reward or punishment”.

Finally, the Pope noted that “our common commitment is to a good life” and this, he concluded, “gives glory to God and joy to all those we meet on our earthly pilgrimage”.

Germany: 12,000 protesters glorify jihad violence, praise Hamas and the Qassam Brigades, chant ‘Death to Jews’

BY CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2023/05/germany-12000-protesters-glorify-jihad-violence-praise-hamas-and-the-qassam-brigades-chant-death-to-jews;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

Islamic antisemitism has been rising globally for years via the effective manipulation of Palestinian victimhood. Of course, the well-documented Palestinian goal of obliterating the state of Israel is presented to the world as a “resistance” in the face of injustice, a presentation that involves erasing history.

The hatefest and incitement to violence — presented as a “protest” in Berlin — would never be tolerated in any Western society against any other group. It shows the effectiveness of propaganda, as well as how leaders are willing to kowtow to Islamic supremacists out of fear. Although “Berlin police had banned calling for Israel’s destruction and showing flags and signs of terror organizations” before the protest, the rallygoers ignored the ban. The demonstration escalated to full-blown antisemitism. The Times of Israel described the protest:

“Death to Israel. Death to the Jews.” Shockingly, these chants were heard at “anti-Israel” protests in the Berlin neighborhoods of Kreuzberg and Neukölln, over Passover. The demonstrations were co-organized by a group called Samidoun – part of a network of NGOs connected to the Popular Front Liberation of Palestine (PFLP),

The biggest questions are these: how many arrests were made? And will there be a follow-up?

The more Israel defends itself and the rights of Jewish people, the more vicious the jihad against it becomes, along with a surge in tolerated antisemitism. The Samidoun Network posted images of the demonstration on Telegram to further fuel its mission.

“Berlin Becomes A Scene Of Protests Led By PFLP-Affiliated Samidoun Group, Calling For Extermination Of Israel; Hundreds Of People March In Solidarity With Palestinian Arabs,” MEMRI, May 2, 2023:

Amidst the renewed violent clashes between the Israeli security forces and Palestinians on Temple Mount in Jerusalem during the coinciding Ramadan and Passover holidays, German capital once again became a scene of public calls for the extermination of the Jewish state. On April 8, approximately 500 pro-Palestinian protesters marched through the street of the Berlin districts of Neukölln and Kreuzberg, both with large Arab and Turkish populations, chanting antisemitic and anti-Israel slogans and calling for the destruction of Jews and Israel. Some of the chants heard were: “Death to the Jews! Death to Israel!”, “I generate the bloody body!”, as well as “Tel Aviv, the answer will come!” Protesters openly glorified terrorist violence and praised the military arm of Hamas, the Qassam Brigades that is responsible for numerous suicide attacks against civilians, rocket attacks, and hostage taking. The protest was organized by the German branch of the “Samidoun – Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network,” a direct affiliate of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which simultaneously mobilized a protest gathering in Cologne.

On April 6, Samidoun posted on its Telegram channel an event flyer announcing the protest march held under the slogan of “Solidarity With the Steadfast Defenders of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.” The protest started in the center of Neukölln district and ended at Kottbusser Tor station in the neighboring Kreuzberg district. An additional gathering was to take place in the center of Cologne at the Heumarkt square.[1]

Although Samidoun is banned in Israel as a terrorist organization, given its extensive overlap with the PFLP and its involvement in planning and networking, the organization is still free to operate in Europe. Despite PFLP being listed as a terrorist organization in Israel, the U.S., the E.U., and elsewhere, Samidoun is not subjected to a ban in Germany where operates freely. Regardless of the evidently illegal slogans at the Samidoun-organized protest, the police forces present at the scene and provided with official Arabic interpreters, remained idle and refrained from intervening and dispersing the demonstration.

Images from the protest in Berlin and Cologne have circulated on various social media platforms including Telegram, Facebook, as well as TikTok, shared by individual attendees as well as by the Samidoun Network itself.

On its Telegram channel, the Samidoun Network posted on April 9 images and video footage of the protest…..

Andrew Tate challenges people to desecrate Qur’an after Satanist tears up Bible, many take him up on it

BY CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2023/05/andrew-tate-challenges-people-to-desecrate-quran-after-satanist-tears-up-bible-many-take-him-up-on-it;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

The notorious “influencer” and convert to Islam, Andrew Tate, who once said that “ISIS are the real Muslims,” sparked outrage when he issued a challenge to Satanists who shredded a Bible.

But Tate’s invitation backfired:

Social media users accepted the “challenge” by Tate and started posting photographs and videos desecrating the Quran. They trended #AndrewTateQuranChallenge to post on the media. There were images of burnt Quran, pork and bacon placed on the open Quran, the holy book in the mouth of a pig and other derogatory imagery against the Quran.

As Hindustan Times reported, Tate’s tweet “quickly sparked backlash and accusations of ‘Islamophobia’, with many people criticizing Tate for promoting intolerance and disrespect towards the Muslim faith.”

Even Muslims aren’t spared charges of “Islamophobia,” no matter what the intent. In Tate’s case, he was displaying bravado with a hint of a threat to those who might take up his challenge. Others saw it as an insult to issue such a dare. Then there was Tate’s unintentional defense of Christianity. The truth is that Christianity is the real religion of peace, tried and tested. You won’t hear about Christians beheading, murdering, maiming, or mobbing anyone who tears up a Bible or offends Christianity. And the reason certainly is not that Christians don’t feel offended or hurt. It’s because there is nothing in Christianity that calls for the death of anyone who blasphemes, unlike Islam:

A blind man had a slave-mother who used to abuse the Prophet (peace be upon him) and disparage him. He forbade her, but she did not stop. He rebuked her but she did not give up her habit. One night she began to slander the Prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace) and abuse him. So he took a dagger, placed it on her belly, pressed it, and killed her. A child who came between her legs was smeared with the blood that was there. When the morning came, the Prophet (peace be upon him) was informed about it. He assembled the people and said: I adjure by Allah the man who has done this action and I adjure him by my right to him that he should stand up. Jumping over the necks of the people and trembling the man stood up. He sat before the Prophet (peace be upon him) and said: Messenger of Allah! I am her master; she used to abuse you and disparage you. I forbade her, but she did not stop, and I rebuked her. but she did not abandon her habit. I have two sons like pearls from her, and she was my companion. Last night she began to abuse and disparage you. So I took a dagger, put it on her belly and pressed it till I killed her. Thereupon the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: Oh be witness, no retaliation is payable for her blood. 
Abu Dawud Book 38 no 4348

As for the gutless Satanists who tore up the Bible, they, too, know that Christianity is a religion of peace and that they had nothing to fear.

“Recent convert Andrew Tate challenges people to desecrate Quran and social media gets flooded with people accepting the challenge: What started the fiasco,” Opindia, May 3, 2023:

On May 1, former kickboxer and social media influencer Andrew Tate who recently converted to Islam, challenged people to desecrate the Quran. He was irked by a video from SatanCon 2023 where a Satanist tore down Bible pages and chanted ‘hail Satan’. Tate said, “Try the Quran if you’re so brave :)”. The emoji he used at the end of the tweet gave the impression that he wanted to say if anyone tried the same with Quran, he or she would not be spared. However, it did not go well with the netizens.

Social media users accepted the “challenge” by Tate and started posting photographs and videos desecrating the Quran. They trended #AndrewTateQuranChallenge to post on the media. There were images of burnt Quran, pork and bacon placed on the open Quran, the holy book in the mouth of a pig and other derogatory imagery against the Quran.

For those who are unaware, SatanCon is a formal ceremony that ‘renounces’ symbols of oppression by ripping up a Bible and a ‘Thin Blue Line’ flag that represents police. The video that Tate quoted showed a woman tearing up Quran and chanting ‘Hail Satan’. SatanCon 2023 was a three-day event that took place in Boston, USA. It was hosted at the Marriott Copley Place by the Satanic Temple. The event marked the 10-year anniversary of the Temple.

In December 2022, Andrew Tate, a former Orthodox Christian embraced Islam. Since then, his Muslim fan base has increased exponentially. Tate was arrested and jailed in Romania as part of a human trafficking and rape investigation. Tate’s residence in Bucharest, where he was held alongside his brother Tristan, was raided by the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT)….

‘THE ULTIMATE PUNISHMENT’: DeSantis Signs Bill Allowing Death Penalty for Pedophiles~DeSANTIS UNLOADS ON LIB MEDIA: ‘They are Trying to GET YOU and USE YOU’

DeSANTIS: "In Florida, we believe it’s only appropriate that the worst of the worst crimes deserve the worst of the worst punishment."

DeSANTIS UNLOADS ON LIB MEDIA: 'They are Trying to GET YOU and USE YOU'

Do not give them the satisfaction that they are some type of neutral gatekeepers because they are not.”

Not a Conspiracy Theory: Yes, the Government Will Be Coming for Your Gas Stove

Not a Conspiracy Theory: Yes, the Government Will Be Coming for Your Gas Stove

BY RICK MORAN

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2023/05/04/not-a-conspiracy-theory-yes-the-government-will-be-coming-for-your-gas-stove-n1692571;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

Last January, when Consumer Product Safety Commission member Richard Trumka Jr. suggested that the entire U.S. could follow the lead of Berkeley, Calif., and ban the use of gas stoves, conservatives lit into the CPSC and Trumka for even suggesting such a thing.

New York Senator Chuck Schumer called suggestions that the government wanted to end the use of gas stoves in residences a “MAGA conspiracy theory.” “Nobody is taking away your gas stove,” he said.

That may be true. But if you like cooking with gas or heating your house with gas, don’t try to relocate. The chances are good that if you want to move to a blue state in the next couple of years, you’re going to be forced to cook with electricity. That’s because it will soon be all the rage in blue states to ban the installation of gas stoves in all new construction.

The movement to rid the planet of gas stoves got a big boost on Wednesday when the New York legislature passed a bill that would ban gas stoves in new residences starting in 2026.

Why? Gas stoves are powered by natural gas — a fossil fuel. There have also been a couple of studies showing that cooking with gas can give your child asthma. Or something.

Reason.com:

Steve Everley, writing in National Review in January, covered several flaws in the most recent studies finding serious health impacts from gas stoves. Experimental studies that found links between gas stoves and child asthma used airtight rooms without ventilation. The author of another much-touted meta-analysis finding a link between gas stoves and child asthma said their study “does not assume or estimate a causal relationship.” Masses of earlier studies, Everley notes, have found no health impacts from gas stoves.

In the short-term, mandated electrification of appliances is probably worse for the climate. On-site use of gas stoves and furnaces uses almost all the energy in the gas. Generating electricity from gas and then using that electricity to power appliances is much less efficient. Of New York’s 10 largest power plants, for instance, five are powered by natural gas.

Cherry-picking scientific studies to “prove” something is dangerous is dishonest and anti-science. But eco-fads like banning gas stoves wouldn’t be possible without climate hysterics driving the conversation and the media lapping it up like good little puppies.

Does it matter that people actually like their gas stoves?

“Most home chefs—and pretty much all professional chefs—will tell you that electric stoves take a long time to heat up and are far less responsive when changing heat levels. Induction stoves, which are actually quite fast to heat up, require different types of cookware and kitchen thermometers, in addition to being a lot more expensive than electric stoves,” wrote Reason‘s Liz Wolfe earlier this year.

This is a consequence of demonizing fossil fuels. The “devil’s breath” is not a hazard, nor does it contribute measurably to net carbon emissions. In fact, it wasn’t so long ago that greens were demanding the coal-fired plants be repurposed to burn natural gas.

As soon as I buy my “Mr. Fusion,” I’ll give up my gas stove.

Biden Begs Bankers for $1 Billion Campaign Infusion

Biden Begs Bankers for $1 Billion Campaign Infusion

BY BEN BARTEE

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/benbartee/2023/05/04/biden-begs-bankers-for-1-billion-campaign-infusion-n1692638;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

Like the sad corporate slave that he is, Biden’s handlers recently sent him, hat in hand, to the multinational banker mafia to beg for an additional $1 billion to complement the cool billion he got handed last time around — in exchange for a solemn promise on his part that “nothing will fundamentally change” once elected president.

Via Financial Times (emphasis added):

Joe Biden is racing to win early support from Democratic donors for his re-election bid, hoping to beat the $1bn haul he landed in 2020 ahead of what some pundits predict will be the most expensive presidential race in US history.

Biden’s announcement this week that he intends to run for a second term in 2024 allowed his campaign team to start fundraising in earnest. Within hours of his declaration, they set about putting the finishing touches to a two-day event in Washington starting on Friday that will bring together Wall Street financiers and other backers, said people familiar with the matter.
The donor list includes many of those who helped fund his last campaign, the people said, including Blackstone’s Jon Gray, Evercore’s Roger Altman and Centerview’s Blair Effron. But his advisers are trying to expand the donor base to include backers who did not give money last time around, the people added.

Many donors are particularly energised by a determination to prevent Donald Trump from returning to the White House. Yet several warned that Biden would have to overcome much of the same scepticism that his candidacy generates among voters more generally, including concerns over his age and lacklustre approval ratings. Others raised concerns over what they see as his brand of populist economics and regular criticism of corporate America.

First of all, calling Biden a “populist” is hilariously stupid. But more to the point: why do these people have such antipathy for populism? Is it because they are the enemies of the people and everyone who hasn’t had their brain excavated by MSNBC knows they are enemies of the people?

The “nothing will fundamentally change” pledge hasn’t exactly worked out — for normal Americans.

Things have changed. The American middle class has been further decimated. Way more illegal aliens are permitted to cross the Southern border with no paper while, at least until the Public Health™ emergency ends May 11, unvaccinated American citizens still have to perform a PCR test to enter their own country. The list of offenses could go in ad infinitum.

Meanwhile, profits of the kind of multinational corporations like Blackrock that Biden is currently begging for money from have been doing just fine — which is what Biden really meant by “nothing will fundamentally change.”

In what future historians will recognize as the greatest period of wealth transfer possibly in history, Blackrock’s assets swelled to record highs during the pandemic while hundreds of thousands of American small businesses went under, never to recover.

To keep the gravy train rolling, all Blackrock has to do is toss a few scraps to its dog for being a good boy. There is no better return on investment than buying a politician.

________________________________________________________________

SEE ALSO:

https://conservativeplaylist.com/2021/11/05/4-things-to-know-about-politically-connected-activist-blackrock-and-its-china-investments/

 

Liberal Supreme Court Justice Caught in Scandal

Liberal Supreme Court Justice Caught in Scandal

BY MATT MARGOLIS

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2023/05/04/liberal-supreme-court-justice-caught-in-scandal-n1692561;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

In recent weeks, Democrats have ramped up criticism of conservative Supreme Court justices like Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, alleging corruption and using that as a pretext for congressional oversight of the court.

However, these accusations are baseless and lack legal or ethical standing. Justice Thomas was accused of not reporting free travel expenses received from a friend that he was not even required to report and a minor technical error in income reporting. Justice Gorsuch was accused of selling land to an executive of a law firm that had business before the Supreme Court, but he actually sold the property just after being confirmed, and the buyer had no business before the court at the time.

While these incidents were much ado about nothing, the same Democrats who were calling for DOJ investigations and impeachments will no doubt sing a different tune over the revelation that liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor took $3.6 million from Penguin Random House publishing when the company did have business before the court, and declined to recuse herself.

For our VIP Members: The Never-ending High-Tech Lynching of Clarence Thomas

In addition to the $3.6 million advance (which Penguin Random House lost money on), the Daily Wire found that Sotomayor received payments from the company annually from 2017 to 2021, totaling over $500,000. In 2013, she voted in a decision regarding a case involving Random House despite then-fellow Justice Stephen Breyer recusing himself after receiving money from the publisher. In 2020, Sotomayor received a $10,586 check from Penguin Random House on the same day a lawsuit against the publisher appeared before the Supreme Court. The Court voted not to hear the case in February 2020, and Sotomayor received her largest-ever payment from the publisher in May of that year.

While the media has been busy attacking conservative justices for supposed financial misconduct, including failure to disclose free travel, it turns out that Justice Sotomayor herself failed to disclose six trips funded by outside groups in 2016—without being targeted by the media or enduring the wrath of outraged Democrats.

If Democrats want to prove their attacks on Thomas and Gorsuch are sincere, and that the need for congressional oversight of the Supreme Court is genuine, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y) should be calling for the impeachment of Sotomayor, as she did for Thomas. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) should be calling for the Department of Justice to investigate Sotomayor, as he did for Thomas.

But you know as well as I do that they won’t. The attacks on Thomas and Gorsuch had nothing to do with ethics or corruption, but politics. They’re angry that the court doesn’t vote how they want, and they’re trying to force conservative justices out.

Guess who’s never afraid to call out the mainstream media’s hypocrisy? That’s right, PJ Media! And you can help us expose the left and its ridiculousness by becoming a PJ Media VIP member.

These days, so many media outlets rely on big-name corporate donors, but we’re independent, which means we’re beholden to no one. And that means that your support means the world to us.
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