Month: March 2018

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High School Bully David Hogg Is a Gutless Chicken Who Won’t Debate His Own Classmate

The best way to defeat a high school bully is to call his bluff out behind the gymnasium to quote the always quotable Joe Biden.

When old Foghorn Leghorn made his ill-advised comments about kicking President Trump’s ass he might have just been onto something that could finally put the increasingly virulent fascist punk David Hogg back in his rightful place.

Young Hogg is the beneficiary of a ridiculous double standard. He can hide behind his age while he smears people with aplomb, spews a fountain of lies and as we are now seeing, using his undeserved clout to destroy the career of Fox News host Laura Ingraham who hurt the slimy little prick’s feelings.

Whenever anyone dares to punch back, they are accused of beating up on children – Hogg’s sister even demanded that First Lady Melania Trump intervene against Ingraham.

But the one thing that a bully truly hates is a fair fight and that is why the gutless Hogg is continuing to engage in an honest debate with one of his classmates from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

In fact, Hogg’s fellow school shooting survivor who happens to be a conservative with common sense suggestions on the school violence problem has been almost completely censored by the mainstream media which is not using the shooting to pursue the larger agenda to repeal the Second Amendment and confiscate guns from millions of law-abiding Americans.

But that isn’t stopping Kyle Kashuv from waging his own guerrilla war against Boss Hogg via Twitter.

 

 

 

As for Hogg, don’t count on him engaging Kashuv in any way shape or form because he is CHICKEN!

 

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Fox host taking ‘break’ after David Hogg feud — and this is the bold Bible verse she’s sharing

Following the David Hogg controversy, which resulted in being dropped by several advertisers, Fox News host Laura Ingraham has announced that she’ll be taking a week-long break.

Ingraham announced the news during Friday’s “The Ingraham Angle,” and in a tweet, shared a what seemed like a particularly pointed Bible verse.

What are the details of her break?

Ingraham announced that she’d be taking off from her show and the network for a week following the Easter holiday.

According to the New York Daily News, Ingraham’s break was pre-planned.

Hogg, who spoke to the New York Daily News after Ingraham announced her break, had particular wishes for the Fox host’s break.

“I hope she uses this time to reflect not only on how she treated me but so many others like the students at Dartmouth or even people like Lebron James,” Hogg told the outlet.

For his part, Hogg is apparently still very angry about Ingraham’s comment, pointing out his college rejections, and called it “really, really stupid.”

“I’m a 17-year-old kid, she’s bullied people before and I think people are just sick and tired of it,” he told the outlet. “She needs to acknowledge what she has done wrong.”

Ingraham caught the ire of many advertisers after tweeting about Hogg’s college rejections, noting that he was whining about it.

In a tweet, she wrote, “David Hogg Rejected By Four Colleges To Which He Applied and whines about it. (Dinged by UCLA with a 4.1 GPA…totally predictable given acceptance rates).”

Hogg became infuriated and called for her advertisers to jump ship on the show.

At the time of this writing, “The Ingraham Angle” has lost 12 advertisers.

What’s the Bible verse?

Ingraham on Friday tweeted, “The Resurrection is upon us! The sky in Geo’town on way to Stations. To all our viewers & listeners—a blessed Easter and Happy Passover. Reading Psalm 143.”

Psalm 143 is a Prayer for Deliverance From Enemies. It reads:

1. Hear my prayer, O Lord;
give ear to my supplications!
In thy faithfulness answer me, in thy righteousness!
2. Enter not into judgment with thy servant;
for no man living is righteous before thee.

3. For the enemy has pursued me;
he has crushed my life to the ground;
he has made me sit in darkness like those long dead.
4. Therefore my spirit faints within me;
my heart within me is appalled.

5. I remember the days of old,
I meditate on all that thou hast done;
I muse on what thy hands have wrought.
6. I stretch out my hands to thee;
my soul thirsts for thee like a parched land.Selah

7. Make haste to answer me, O Lord!
My spirit fails!
Hide not thy face from me,
lest I be like those who go down to the Pit.
8. Let me hear in the morning of thy steadfast love,
for in thee I put my trust.
Teach me the way I should go,
for to thee I lift up my soul.

9. Deliver me, O Lord, from my enemies!
I have fled to thee for refuge!

10. Teach me to do thy will,
for thou art my God!
Let thy good spirit lead me
on a level path!

11 For thy name’s sake, O Lord, preserve my life!
In thy righteousness bring me out of trouble!
12 And in thy steadfast love cut off my enemies,
and destroy all my adversaries,
for I am thy servant.

Anything else?

Ingraham’s show lost approximately 6 percent of total viewers from Wednesday to Thursday — the days immediately following the Hogg controversy.

“The Ingraham Angle” lost 9 percent overall in the key 25-34 demographic.

Just one year ago in April 2017, former Fox host Bill O’Reilly — who was also enmeshed in an advertiser boycott — announced that he, too, would be taking an Easter vacation break from the network.

O’Reilly, who also said the break was pre-planned, would later be fired from the network, before even returning to the air.

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Federal judge rules that government has a right to make a couple sick

According to a ruling by federal judge in St. Louis, Missouri, governments can require a people to make themselves sick. More specifically, a local ordinance that requires planting grass, to which a St. Peters, MO woman is allergic, does not violate a “fundamental right.” Thus, U.S. District Judge John Ross granted a summary judgment sought by the City of St. Peters, and ruled against a federal lawsuit brought by Jan and Carl Duffner, who must now devote half of their lot to cultivating a plant that makes them ill. The basis of the judge’s ruling is that the Supreme Court has ruled that  “aesthetic considerations constitute a legitimate government purpose.”


So, according to this ruling, the government can force you to affirmatively commit acts that are harmful to your health.



St. Louis Today reports:


U.S. District Judge John Ross’ 17-page ruling said Janice and Carl Duffner “failed to identify a fundamental right that is restricted by the Turf Grass Ordinance.”


After unsuccessfully suing in state court, the Duffners filed their federal suit in 2016, claiming the ordinance was “unnecessary for the advancement of any compelling or permissible state objective” and “imposes a permanent obligation on the owner to cultivate and maintain that unwanted physical presence on their property for no reason other than that the government commands it.”


The suit said such ordinances could lead to cities mandating swimming pools or holiday light shows to boost property values and said the Duffners could face jail time or fines of $7,490 to nearly $188,000. (snip)


Ross ruled that the potential punishment was not excessive. He also declined to consider several state law claims, saying that some of the issues had already been “extensively litigated and decided by Missouri state courts” in a prior state lawsuit, and other issues, including zoning, were better left for state courts to consider.


Dave Roland, a Freedom Center of Missouri lawyer representing the Duffners, vowed to appeal.


“If a city can compel citizens to devote half of their property to growing a plant that the citizen does not want and that makes them sick, there is no longer any principled limit to the government’s control over private property,” he said in a statement.


Kemberlee Kaye of Legal Insurrection gets it, about how outrageous and frightening this is:


Janice Duffner is highly allergic to grass. The couple transformed their yard into a beautiful garden landscape. But, unless the Duffner’s adhere to the city ordinance, they can be fined up to $188,000 or face jail time up to 20 years in the slammer. A totally reasonable punishment for a landscaping violation.


Indeed, the pictures provided by the Freedom Center of Missouri and posted to Legal Insurrection show a beautifully landscaped garden, not some weed-filled wasteland.




But this fails to satisfy the landscaping commissars of a Missouri town, so the Duffners are potentially liable for lengthy prison sentences.  


Fortunately, the Freedom Center of Missouri has the resources to back an appeal to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.


I can only speculate that Judge Ross does not suffer from any serious allergies. If he did get sick from allergens that make breathing difficulty and cause skin rashes (and other negative health consequences) from prolonged exposure, he might have ruled differently. I do not think that one can enjoy “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” while racked by allergic reactions to substances that are toxic to the individual allergic to them.


The state as almighty has been affirmed in Missouri.


According to a ruling by federal judge in St. Louis, Missouri, governments can require a people to make themselves sick. More specifically, a local ordinance that requires planting grass, to which a St. Peters, MO woman is allergic, does not violate a “fundamental right.” Thus, U.S. District Judge John Ross granted a summary judgment sought by the City of St. Peters, and ruled against a federal lawsuit brought by Jan and Carl Duffner, who must now devote half of their lot to cultivating a plant that makes them ill. The basis of the judge’s ruling is that the Supreme Court has ruled that  “aesthetic considerations constitute a legitimate government purpose.”


So, according to this ruling, the government can force you to affirmatively commit acts that are harmful to your health.


St. Louis Today reports:


U.S. District Judge John Ross’ 17-page ruling said Janice and Carl Duffner “failed to identify a fundamental right that is restricted by the Turf Grass Ordinance.”


After unsuccessfully suing in state court, the Duffners filed their federal suit in 2016, claiming the ordinance was “unnecessary for the advancement of any compelling or permissible state objective” and “imposes a permanent obligation on the owner to cultivate and maintain that unwanted physical presence on their property for no reason other than that the government commands it.”


The suit said such ordinances could lead to cities mandating swimming pools or holiday light shows to boost property values and said the Duffners could face jail time or fines of $7,490 to nearly $188,000. (snip)


Ross ruled that the potential punishment was not excessive. He also declined to consider several state law claims, saying that some of the issues had already been “extensively litigated and decided by Missouri state courts” in a prior state lawsuit, and other issues, including zoning, were better left for state courts to consider.


Dave Roland, a Freedom Center of Missouri lawyer representing the Duffners, vowed to appeal.


“If a city can compel citizens to devote half of their property to growing a plant that the citizen does not want and that makes them sick, there is no longer any principled limit to the government’s control over private property,” he said in a statement.


Kemberlee Kaye of Legal Insurrection gets it, about how outrageous and frightening this is:


Janice Duffner is highly allergic to grass. The couple transformed their yard into a beautiful garden landscape. But, unless the Duffner’s adhere to the city ordinance, they can be fined up to $188,000 or face jail time up to 20 years in the slammer. A totally reasonable punishment for a landscaping violation.


Indeed, the pictures provided by the Freedom Center of Missouri and posted to Legal Insurrection show a beautifully landscaped garden, not some weed-filled wasteland.




But this fails to satisfy the landscaping commissars of a Missouri town, so the Duffners are potentially liable for lengthy prison sentences.  


Fortunately, the Freedom Center of Missouri has the resources to back an appeal to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.


I can only speculate that Judge Ross does not suffer from any serious allergies. If he did get sick from allergens that make breathing difficulty and cause skin rashes (and other negative health consequences) from prolonged exposure, he might have ruled differently. I do not think that one can enjoy “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” while racked by allergic reactions to substances that are toxic to the individual allergic to them.


The state as almighty has been affirmed in Missouri.






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Huge surge in migrants from Central America headed toward US

Here’s some rather disturbing news from Mexico. Mexican immigration authorities are turning the other way as thousands of migrants from Central America flood immigration points headed for America.


There’s no real natural disaster or surge in violence in Honduras, where most of the migrants are from. This is a cold, calculated, organized effort to storm the US border with thousands of illegals.



BuzzFeed:


For five days now hundreds of Central Americans — children, women, and men, most of them from Honduras — have boldly crossed immigration checkpoints, military bases, and police in a desperate, sometimes chaotic march toward the United States. Despite their being in Mexico without authorization, no one has made any effort to stop them.


Organized by a group of volunteers called Pueblos Sin Fronteras, or People Without Borders, the caravan is intended to help migrants safely reach the United States, bypassing not only authorities who would seek to deport them, but gangs and cartels who are known to assault vulnerable migrants.


Organizers like Rodrigo Abeja hope that the sheer size of the crowd will give immigration authorities and criminals pause before trying to stop them.


“If we all protect each other we’ll get through this together,” Abeja yelled through a loudspeaker on the morning they left Tapachula, on Mexico’s border with Guatemala, for the nearly monthlong trek.


When they get to the US, they hope American authorities will grant them asylum or, for some, be absent when they attempt to cross the border illegally. More likely is that it will set up an enormous challenge to the Trump administration’s immigration policies and its ability to deal with an organized group of migrants numbering in the hundreds.


The number of people who showed up to travel with the caravan caught organizers by surprise, and has overwhelmed the various towns they’ve stopped in to spend the night. Pueblos Sin Fronteras counted about 1,200 people on the first day.


Everyone should write a letter to the Mexican government thanking them for their generosity – at our expense.


This tactic of organized attack on our border is not new, but it’s never happened on this scale before. Where are we going to put them, with detention centers on our border already bursting? Mexico is deliberately, coldly creating a humanitarian crisis for the US. In some contexts, this is an act of war. They are looking to paralyze US border enforcement and force the government into choosing between starving thousands or accepting them at the border.


I don’t envy Trump in this situation. There is little room for compromise with the Mexican government who have apparently decided to facilitate this attack. Is there a way we could force them to feed, house, and care for so many illegals before they get to the US? Or, in turning back the flood of illegals trying to cross our border, can we count on Mexico to offer them assistance to go back from where they came?


These ignorant, illiterate migrants have been sold a bill of goods by those who are trying to manipulate the Honduran masses into advancing a political agenda. It doesn’t get much more despicable than that.


Here’s some rather disturbing news from Mexico. Mexican immigration authorities are turning the other way as thousands of migrants from Central America flood immigration points headed for America.


There’s no real natural disaster or surge in violence in Honduras, where most of the migrants are from. This is a cold, calculated, organized effort to storm the US border with thousands of illegals.


BuzzFeed:


For five days now hundreds of Central Americans — children, women, and men, most of them from Honduras — have boldly crossed immigration checkpoints, military bases, and police in a desperate, sometimes chaotic march toward the United States. Despite their being in Mexico without authorization, no one has made any effort to stop them.


Organized by a group of volunteers called Pueblos Sin Fronteras, or People Without Borders, the caravan is intended to help migrants safely reach the United States, bypassing not only authorities who would seek to deport them, but gangs and cartels who are known to assault vulnerable migrants.


Organizers like Rodrigo Abeja hope that the sheer size of the crowd will give immigration authorities and criminals pause before trying to stop them.


“If we all protect each other we’ll get through this together,” Abeja yelled through a loudspeaker on the morning they left Tapachula, on Mexico’s border with Guatemala, for the nearly monthlong trek.


When they get to the US, they hope American authorities will grant them asylum or, for some, be absent when they attempt to cross the border illegally. More likely is that it will set up an enormous challenge to the Trump administration’s immigration policies and its ability to deal with an organized group of migrants numbering in the hundreds.


The number of people who showed up to travel with the caravan caught organizers by surprise, and has overwhelmed the various towns they’ve stopped in to spend the night. Pueblos Sin Fronteras counted about 1,200 people on the first day.


Everyone should write a letter to the Mexican government thanking them for their generosity – at our expense.


This tactic of organized attack on our border is not new, but it’s never happened on this scale before. Where are we going to put them, with detention centers on our border already bursting? Mexico is deliberately, coldly creating a humanitarian crisis for the US. In some contexts, this is an act of war. They are looking to paralyze US border enforcement and force the government into choosing between starving thousands or accepting them at the border.


I don’t envy Trump in this situation. There is little room for compromise with the Mexican government who have apparently decided to facilitate this attack. Is there a way we could force them to feed, house, and care for so many illegals before they get to the US? Or, in turning back the flood of illegals trying to cross our border, can we count on Mexico to offer them assistance to go back from where they came?


These ignorant, illiterate migrants have been sold a bill of goods by those who are trying to manipulate the Honduran masses into advancing a political agenda. It doesn’t get much more despicable than that.






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Complaints Halt Trainloads of New York Human Sewage Being Sent to Alabama

The are few states that the coastal elite liberals who run the biggest cities have more contempt for than Alabama and here is a story that should result in outrage from any who live there.

It seems like the Big Apple is literally sending trainloads of human waste (translation: shit) down south to dispose of it and when you realize that NYC has over 8 million residents, you can get an idea of just how much fecal matter that they are offloading.

The reason why this is news is that residents of the Yellowhammer State have managed to raise enough hell that the trains carrying the smelly cargo have been stopped – at least for now.

Via AL.com “New York stops sewage trains to Alabama landfill”:

New York City has decided to halt an operation that sent train loads of partially treated sewage material to a landfill in Alabama.

Six wastewater treatment plants from New York City and one from New Jersey had been sending their biosolids — the solid material left over from wastewater treatment processes — to the Big Sky Environmental, LLC landfill in Adamsville for more than a year.

The operation sparked complaints over smells, flies and health issues at multiple locations in Jefferson and Walker Counties.

“As a precaution and to better understand local concern, we have discontinued utilizing the [Big Sky] facility,” Edward Timbers, a spokesman for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, said in an email to AL.com.

A representative of the Big Sky landfill said the company would not make any statement or answer questions about the sewage sludge operation on advice of the company’s attorneys.

So there you have it folks, New York is literally shitting all over Alabama and in a different way than California shits all over the rest of the country.

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BOZELL & GRAHAM: Sean Penn Loses His Marbles

For many years now, the celebrated thespian Sean Penn has been one of the wackiest activists in the pantheon of the Hollywood left. When we last observed him in his unnatural habitat, he was warmly interviewing the murderous drug lord “El Chapo” for Rolling Stone and insisting the drug lord is demonized in the war on drugs.

Now Penn thinks he is not just a journalist but a novelist. Right before the 2016 election, he narrated an audiobook titled “Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff” under the pseudonym “Pappy Pariah.” Simon & Schuster has now published it in book form with his name attached, and the publisher’s corporate synergists at CBS aired interviews with him on “Sunday Morning” and the “Late Show With Stephen Colbert.”

Among his many talents, Bob Honey is an assassin, and he kills elderly welfare recipients for a secret government agency. But guns aren’t cool, so he murders people with a wooden mallet. Sound like a wacky leftist under the influence?

In one scene, Honey writes a letter to the not-so-fictional president, named Mr. Landlord. He wants him killed.

“Many wonderful American people in pain and rage elected you,” he writes. “Many Russians did, too. Your position is an asterisk accepted as literally as your alternative facts. Though the office will remain real, you never were nor will be. A million women so dwarfed your penis-edency on the streets of Washington and around the world on the day of your piddly inauguration … You are not simply a president of impeachment, you are a man in need of an intervention. We are not simply a people in need of an intervention, we are a nation in need of an assassin … Tweet me b—-, I dare you.”

This is why Colbert nudged Penn on TV and said, “Have the Secret Service contacted you? … Because that’s the sort of thing you can’t even make jokes about.” (Earth to Colbert: Your company published this garbage.) Penn said he wrote the novel as “a kind of venting.” It’s “venting,” like his fellow actor Jim Carrey getting jollies on March 27 by tweeting a drawing of President Trump’s two oldest sons being impaled on an elephant’s tusks.

Some “venting” is encouraged. Some “venting” gets you fired. It depends on who is president. These are the same liberals who wanted heads to roll when an unknown Republican congressional aide made a few rude remarks on her personal Facebook page that said then-President Obama’s daughters were dressed like girls at a bar for a Thanksgiving turkey pardoning. She had to resign.

Meanwhile, Penn is getting paid by Simon & Schuster for writing “literature” that sounds like a bad high school project. The novel’s hero is “evading the viscount vogue of Viagratic assaults on virtual vaginas, or worse, falling passively into prosaic pastimes.” Even The Huffington Post warned that “Sean Penn the Novelist Must Be Stopped.” It called the plot a “nausea-inducing mess.”

Penn loves alliterating every few pages, as in: “There is pride to be had where the prejudicial is practiced with precision in the trenchant triage of tactile terminations.”

This man doesn’t need to write novels. He doesn’t need publishers and television networks encouraging his self-expression. He needs a psychiatrist. And a muzzle.

L. Brent Bozell III is the president of the Media Research Center. Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org. To find out more about Brent Bozell III and Tim Graham, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

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An army of illegal aliens is marching on America

Sounds like the first line of a movie script based on some dystopian future, doesn’t it? But it’s actually an underreported story from the real world.

I first became aware of this developing tale thanks to a tweet from Nicolas Medina Mora lionizing the work of Adolfo Flores of Buzzfeed. What is Adolfo up to? Take a look.

Flores is apparently on a lengthy trek through all of Mexico with a literal army of migrants from a number of countries including Honduras. Normally one might imagine that a potential national security crisis for the United States such as this would be cause for raising the alarm. Instead, the Buzzfeed reporter is cheering them on and talking about their “struggle.”

You won’t see much in the way of coverage of this on the major networks or CNN, but Buzzfeed is covering it.

For five days now hundreds of Central Americans — children, women, and men, most of them from Honduras — have boldly crossed immigration checkpoints, military bases, and police in a desperate, sometimes chaotic march toward the United States. Despite their being in Mexico without authorization, no one has made any effort to stop them.

Organized by a group of volunteers called Pueblos Sin Fronteras, or People Without Borders, the caravan is intended to help migrants safely reach the United States, bypassing not only authorities who would seek to deport them, but gangs and cartels who are known to assault vulnerable migrants.

Organizers like Rodrigo Abeja hope that the sheer size of the crowd will give immigration authorities and criminals pause before trying to stop them.

“If we all protect each other we’ll get through this together,” Abeja yelled through a loudspeaker on the morning they left Tapachula, on Mexico’s border with Guatemala, for the nearly monthlong trek.

This isn’t a group of family members or some isolated, organized clan. This is an army. Flores numbers them in the hundreds but looking at the pictures coming from the “march” it clearly appears that their numbers are swelling. The real figure, as cited by Mora, is likely already more than a thousand. Their purpose? They make no bones about it when asked. They, “hope American authorities will grant them asylum or, for some, be absent when they attempt to cross the border illegally.”

Perhaps they’ve been convinced that they can simply apply for refugee status or asylum when they arrive. And they actually can apply, but that doesn’t mean that they will be accepted on that basis. Further, Mexico bears some responsibility for helping to prevent this sort of organized invasion. Just this week our new Homeland Security Secretary met with Mexico’s Foreign Minister and signed agreements related to customs and border security. All of this is happening in the shadow of those NAFTA restructuring talks. It’s worth asking why, as Flores reports, nobody from Mexico is doing a thing to slow down this march. In fact, in some cases, the Buzzfeed reporter suggests that Mexican towns and cities are actually hurrying them along.

This army of interlopers moving across Mexico “without authorization” as Flores puts it (translated to “illegally”) is seeking to overwhelm the resources of immigration officials and are ready to cross the border illegally if an opening presents itself. If Mexico allows this to simply happen with no intercession they shouldn’t expect such a friendly reception with the State Department and the White House.

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The Countdown Begins: Out-Of-Control Chinese Space Station’s Fiery Crash To Earth Is Due On Easter, Destination Unknown

They can predict global warming but not where a space station will fall. Place your bets.

Via Daily Mail:

Out-of-control Chinese space station, Tiangong-1, is predicted to reenter Earth’s atmosphere at 11:30am BST (6:33am ET) on Easter Sunday.

The space craft is carrying highly toxic chemicals and could crash into a number of highly populated areas, researchers claim.

Areas that could be hit include New York, Barcelona, Beijing, Chicago, Istanbul, Rome and Toronto.

When the station does eventually enter the atmosphere it could unleash a ‘series of fireballs’ that will be seen by observers.

Scientists still do not yet know where the satellite fragments are likely to land.

Keep reading…

HT: Louisiana Mom

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WATCH: Prince Charles Delivers Easter Message on Christian Persecution

WATCH: Prince Charles Delivers Easter Message on Christian Persecution

Prince Charles

Chris Jackson/WPA Pool/Getty Images

by Breitbart London31 Mar 20180



LONDON (AP) — Prince Charles released a videotaped Easter message early Friday offering support for persecuted Christians around the world.

He expresses sympathy for people who have “had to flee for their faith and for their life” and says he has been deeply moved by their courage and ability to forgive.

He says all three Abrahamic faiths have endured persecution when religion “has fallen into the barbaric grip of those who distort and misrepresent faith.”

Charles, who is heir to the British throne, has spoken out in the past on the need for religious tolerance.

The message was recorded earlier this month at Charles’ Clarence House residence in central London.

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Report: China’s Underground Christians Feel Betrayed by Vatican Deal with Beijing

Members of China’s Christian community feel betrayed by the Vatican’s negotiations with Beijing over Chinese bishop appointments. In fact, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) writes of Catholics feeling as “betrayed and abandoned” as Jesus on Good Friday.

Christian faith occupies a curious position in Chinese society—frowned upon and distrusted by the Communist elite, but not currently oppressed as savagely as in neighboring North Korea. Some Chinese Catholics belong to churches authorized by the state, but others say those churches are controlled by the state and prefer to worship at “underground” churches free of political influence.

Some of those churches are not very far underground; the SCMP describes one that is festooned with government surveillance cameras, but forty or so Catholics congregate there anyway. Another passage in the article describes an entire village of 3,000 underground Catholics kept under creepy surveillance by cameras and undercover police. Some estimates suggested there are about 12 million Catholics in China, and 60 percent of them belong to state-sanctioned churches.

Amid much controversy, the Vatican has been negotiating the resumption of formal diplomatic relations with Beijing. One of the key issues concerns how bishops would be appointed. China’s authoritarian government wants politically reliable bishops to manage a Catholicism that harmonizes with the Communist Party’s political agenda.

To the dismay of many Catholics, the Vatican seems to have worked out a deal where it will retain an advisory role, but the government will have a major role in appointing bishops. There is tremendous controversy over whether the arrangement would give the Pope or the Politburo the final say in appointments. Even the most optimistic descriptions of the deal suggest that candidates will have to be acceptable to both parties, which angers many Catholics by putting the Chinese Communist Party on an equal footing with the papacy in a role no other government in the world enjoys.

Supporters of the arrangement hope that it will allow the Catholic Church to flourish in China because the regime will no longer view the faith as a threatening subversive force. They portray giving the Vatican a voice in China’s state-controlled church network as a tremendous accomplishment.

“It is not a great agreement but we don’t know what the situation will be like in 10 or 20 years. It could even be worse,” a source familiar with the negotiations told Reuters in February. “Afterwards we will still be like a bird in a cage but the cage will be bigger. It is not easy. Suffering will continue. We will have to fight for every centimeter to increase the size of the cage.”

One of the strongest critics of the deal, former Hong Kong bishop Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-Kiun, frankly denounced the Vatican for selling out to China, described the deal as a suicide pact, and even suggested the diplomats working on the agreement were misleading Pope Francis about what it entailed.

The South China Morning Post on Friday quoted underground church members who felt the same, including priests who spoke of retiring in protest. One of the most infuriating aspects of the deal is that two underground bishops who were appointed by the Vatican have been ordered to step aside for Communist-appointed bishops.

One of those underground bishops, 59-year-old Vincent Guo Xijin of Fujian province, was arrested on Monday for unclear reasons and held for a day. Amnesty International researcher Patrick Poon was outraged at the semi-official explanation that Guo was brought in for “talks,” which he said, “In the Communist Chinese context is always about detention and threats.”

“Quite a number of underground parishioners who would never walk into an official church approached us recently asking if the Vatican is really giving up on legitimate underground bishops for illicit ones. No one can wrap their head around the Vatican’s rationale,” a priest who asked to be identified as “Father Pedro” who leads one of the state-approved Chinese churches, told the South China Morning Post.

Father Pedro was quoted in another South China Morning Post article on Friday where he unhappily predicted that the Vatican’s diplomatic outreach to China is unlikely to bear fruit for Catholics in his lifetime. “Is Beijing really ready to let go its grip and talk sincerely with the Vatican?” he asked.

“This is no different to a father giving up his own children to strangers who set out to harm them. Why is the Pope adding new pain to unhealed injuries?” asked a nun from a rural church who spoke to the SCMP.

The nun accused Vatican officials of “abandoning the interests of underground churches just to make friends with a totalitarian regime,” and said that she knows of several underground priests who are considering retirement because of the deal.

One veteran priest whose family has spent a combined 150 years in jail for defiantly practicing their faith in China said he plans to “retreat quietly” because of the Vatican deal with Beijing, and rendered perhaps the harshest judgment of all: “Not a moment was regrettable since I’ve pledged my life to the Virgin Mary … but if Pope Benedict XVI had not retired, none of this would have happened.”

Some observers worried that the Chinese government has too strong of a hand in negotiations, feeling no urgent need to strike a deal because its state-sanctioned churches already have the Catholic situation fairly well in hand. Others warned that the Communist government is liable to revise any deal it makes in the future, especially if it sees the population of the underground church movement dwindling after a deal with the Vatican, either because they move to more comfortable state-sanctioned churches or abandon Catholicism in despair.

A Vatican spokesman on Thursday said that, contrary to media buzz, “There is no imminent signature of an agreement between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China.”

“I would like to stress that the Holy Father Francis remains in constant contact with his collaborators on Chinese issues and is accompanying the steps of the ongoing dialogue,” the spokesman added.

via Breitbart News

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