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Christian Charity Loses Access to Banking After LGBT Activists Campaign


Barclays bank has reportedly informed a Christian charity in Northern Ireland that it will have its banking facilities revoked following an online pressure campaign mounted by LGBT activists, who claimed that the organisation engaged in so-called gay “conversion therapy”.

The Christian charity, Core Issues Trust (CIT), said that Barclays informed them that their bank account will be terminated by September. CIT claimed that the move came after pressure from an LGBT social media campaign that targetted the group for allegedly practising “conversion therapy”.

The charity also said that they were removed from Facebook, as well as from Paypal, who “terminated its CIT accounts without warning and with no explanation, restricting the ability of supporters to make donations”.

The CEO of CIT, Mike Davidson told regional newspaper The Belfast News Letter: “If a social media mob can cause a bank to close the account of a Christian ministry, then there is nowhere for Biblically faithful Christian ministries to go.

“The UK is now becoming an intensely intolerant country,” Davidson warned.

Andrea Williams, CEO of Christian Concern, said: “If it is Core Issues Trust first, it will be churches next… This kind of demonisation and refusing of services to a Christian ministry is reminiscent of how Jewish businesses were treated under Nazi rule.”

The move to refuse banking services may have breached Section 28 of The Fair Employment and Treatment (Northern Ireland) Order 1998, the newspaper claimed, which prohibits banks from discriminating in the services they provide.

In response, Barclays said: “We do not comment on individual cases. Our terms and conditions – like other banks – allow us to end a relationship with any customer, provided we give two months’ notice.”

Core Issues Trust said that the organisation’s purpose is to challenge “gender confusion; upholding science and conscience”.

The group says that they attempt to help people who “wish to move away from… gender dysphoria” (gender dysphoria being an NHS-recognised condition where somebody feels discomfort because they believe they belong to a different gender – like a man who says he feels like a woman).”

The Christian charity says that it engages in “one-to-one support for individuals voluntarily seeking to leave homosexual behaviours and feelings” which some characterise as a form of “conversion therapy”.

The CEO of the charity, Mike Davidson, rejected that terminology, telling the lobby group Christian Concern: “This is a pejorative, imposed term, coined by an American gay activist, Dr Douglas Haldeman in 1991, that names some extremes such as electro-shock and aversion techniques only ever conducted by medics, long since abandoned from the 60s, or extreme behaviours already outlawed such as ‘corrective’ rape for which there are no prosecutions in the UK.”

“Because the term speaks of talking therapies and counselling as “pseudo-science” in association with these extremes, to be heard defending talking therapy and counselling for unwanted same-sex attractions is then taken to be a defence of the indefensible ‘Conversion Therapy’ label. We reject this accusatory term,” Davidson added.

Organisations who offer therapy for people who wish to abandon sexual urges have become increasingly a target of activist groups. The pressure has resulted in Prime Minister Boris Johnson announcing that his Conservative government will be looking to ban conversion therapy.

“On the gay conversion therapy thing, I think that’s absolutely abhorrent and has no place in a civilised society, and has no place in this country,” said the Prime Minister.

“What we are going to do is a study right now on, you know, where is this actually happening, how prevalent is it, and we will then bring forward plans to ban it,” Johnson went on.

A leading Liberal Democrat leadership candidate and self-described pansexual, Layla Moran, said that Mr Johnson’s “conversion therapy” statements were welcome, but said that urgent government action to end this outdated and harmful practice for good.”

Gendered Intelligence, a trans charity, criticised the Prime Minister for the use of the term “gay conversion therapy”, saying: “Whilst we hope the prime minister used ‘gay conversion therapy’ for brevity, we must ensure the ban on conversion therapy covers all LGBT people, including trans people.”

Follow Kurt on Twitter at @KurtZindulka

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Cuomo Blocks Federal Immigration Officials from New York ID Database


Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) is continuing to block federal immigration officials from having access to the state’s identification records.

New York Democrats passed the state’s Green Light Law this year and Cuomo signed the plan into law — providing illegal aliens with driver’s licenses and banning the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from having access to the records. Recently, Democrats implemented criminal penalties for anyone who shares state ID records with DHS.

In response, DHS had blocked New Yorkers from participating in fast-track travel programs such as Global Entry, which expedites entry into the U.S. from international airports; NEXUS, which expedites entry into the U.S. from Canada; SENTRI, which expedites travel into the U.S. from Canada and Mexico; as well as FAST, which expedites entry into the U.S. for truck drivers arriving from Canada and Mexico.

This week, though, DHS lifted New York’s ban after Cuomo amended the Green Light Law to allow for DHS to have access to state ID records “as necessary for an individual seeking acceptance into a trusted traveler program, or to facilitate vehicle imports and/or exports.”

Still, Cuomo has banned DHS from getting access to state ID records for law enforcement purposes carried out by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.

Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf said in a statement:

The Green Light Law ultimately undermines the efforts of law enforcement officers, criminalizing their mission to secure the nation and the American people from threats and furthering the risk to their own lives. When jurisdictions like New York fail to cooperate with federal authorities, they operate more like refuges from criminal behavior, not sanctuary havens.

DHS officials have said they are working with the Department of Justice to determine whether they will take legal action against New York.

New York’s Green Light Law allows hundreds of thousands of the roughly 725,000 illegal aliens living in the state to obtain driver’s licenses. ICE agents have said the law makes it impossible for them to quickly check the immigration status of any individual they come into contact with.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder. 

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Judge Rules Federal Agents Don’t Have To Identify Themselves While Making Arrests In Portland

Police typically have to identify themselves before serving warrants or making arrests in America, but a federal judge in Portland recently ruled federal agents in Portland, Oregon do not have to identify themselves when arresting suspects.

U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman ruled Friday that Oregon state Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum lacked standing to sue the federal government. Rosenblum had sued the Trump administration alleging the federal agents deployed in Portland violated protester’s and rioter’s constitutional rights. Mosman ruled Rosenblum hadn’t articulated a state interest beyond those constitutional rights, PJ Media reported.

Buzzfeed reported that Mosman “denied a request by the Oregon attorney general’s office for an order that would require federal law enforcement officers in Portland to identify themselves when making arrests and place limits on the detention and arrests of protesters.”

More from Buzzfeed:

In his order on Friday, the judge repeatedly described the case as “unusual,” writing that typically in cases involving allegations of constitutional violations during protests, the people affected would be the ones to file a lawsuit, not a state. Rosenblum’s office was also seeking a future-looking injunction, which set an “unusually high bar” for the attorney general’s office to clear, he wrote.

To sue on behalf of citizens — a legal doctrine known as “parens patriae” — Oregon had to show that it had an interest that was separate from private individuals, and that a “quasi-sovereign interest” had been violated. Mosman wrote that the state offered mostly “purely hypothetical” arguments about the risks facing Oregonians by federal officers failing to identify themselves during arrests, such as the possibility of counterprotesters pretending to be federal officers to kidnap protesters.

Rosenblum’s lawsuit was just one of several that have been brought against the Trump administration by liberal states who have let violent protesters and rioters have free rein over their cities to destroy businesses, buildings, and monuments with little consequence.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Michael Simon ruled in favor of restricting what federal officers can and can’t do to journalists and legal observers in Portland. The ruling banned federal officers from arresting journalists and observers unless they had probable cause of a crime. The judge also ruled these same groups didn’t have to follow dispersal orders.

“Without journalists and legal observers, there is only the government’s side of the story to explain why a ‘riot’ was declared and the public streets were ‘closed’ and whether law enforcement acted properly in effectuating that order,” Simon wrote, according to Buzzfeed.

Violence continues in liberal cities across the city following the police-involved death of Minneapolis resident George Floyd. Floyd died on May 25 after officer Derek Chauvin held his knee to Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes as Floyd said he couldn’t breathe. Two months later, and major cities including Portland, Seattle, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, and Minneapolis are still facing violent crimes. Chicago and New York City especially have seen violent crime in the city surge, all while city officials promise to reduce police presence.

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President Signs Executive Orders Reducing Drug Prices on Insulin, EpiPens and More

There was much-anticipated drug pricing news from the White House yesterday, as President Trump announced he was signing a series of Executive Orders as they relate to medication pricing. These Executive Orders help Medicare recipients and others manage the rising costs of life-saving medication for example insulin and epinephrine pens. The President said, “I’m signing four sweeping executive orders that will lead to a massive reduction in drug costs,” [This] will completely restore the prescription drug market in terms of prices”.

Here is the breakdown according to the White House release of the Executive Orders:

Executive Order on Increasing Drug Importation to Lower Prices for American Patients. “One way to minimize international disparities in price is to increase the trade of prescription drugs between nations with lower prices and those with persistently higher ones. Over time, reducing trade barriers and increasing the exchange of drugs will likely result in lower prices for the country that is paying more for drugs. For example, in the European Union, a market characterized by price controls and significant barriers to entry, the parallel trade of drugs has existed for decades and has been estimated to reduce the price of certain drugs by up to 20 percent. Accordingly, my Administration supports the goal of safe importation of prescription drugs. The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, take action to expand safe access to lower-cost imported prescription drugs”.

Executive Order on Lowering Prices for Patients by Eliminating Kickbacks to Middlemen: This EO eliminates the middleman who would normally get a kickback from the drug manufacturers to health plan sponsors, pharmacies, or pharmacy benefit managers (PBM’) and thus passing the savings onto patients. “It is the policy of the United States that discounts offered on prescription drugs should be passed on to patients“.

Executive Order on Access to Affordable Life-saving Medications: More Affordable Insulin and EpiPens: “Insulin is a critical and life-saving medication that approximately 8 million Americans rely on to manage diabetes. Likewise, injectable epinephrine is a life‑saving medication used to stop severe allergic reactions. The price of insulin in the United States has risen dramatically over the past decade. The list price for a single vial of insulin today is often more than $250 and most patients use at least two vials per month. As for injectable epinephrine, recent increased competition is helping to drive prices down. Nevertheless, the price for some types of injectable epinephrine remains more than $600 per kit. While Americans with diabetes and severe allergic reactions may have access to affordable insulin and injectable epinephrine through commercial insurance or Federal programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, many Americans still struggle to purchase these products”.

“It is the policy of the United States to enable Americans without access to affordable insulin and injectable epinephrine through commercial insurance or Federal programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, to purchase these pharmaceuticals from an FQHC at a price that aligns with the cost at which the FQHC acquired the medication“.

There is a fourth Executive Order that will go into effect on August 25, 2020, that will require Medicare to purchase medication at the same prices that are paid by foreign countries which can be significantly less. This prevents the U.S. from continuing to pay for the cost of research and development for other countries. Medicare will be able to negotiate pricing which will help patients to pay less for the same prescription medication. The delay in signing this Executive Order is to give companies time to find alternative solutions for funding their cost for research and development.

Paul Madden

During the press conference, The President, asked Paul Madden, an insulin-dependent diabetic senior citizen from Boston who has lived with diabetes for 59 years, to speak. Madden spoke about how the lowering of insulin pricing will positively impact him and the 34 million other people who live with diabetes. “Last year I realized quickly my ability to afford prescribed insulins that worked best for my health was no longer possible because of their excessive high price. Soaring costs have impacted the quality of my life“. He continued, “It has impacted me so much that I even started to use a 30-year-old insulin to survive which does not do quite the same job of balancing my diabetes. To ensure that insulin is affordable under Medicare will help guarantee that I and millions of seniors who take insulin realize more healthier and more productive and independent, happier lives“.

The President full remarks and signing can be seen here.

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LIMBAUGH: Trump Must Directly Appeal To African Americans

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump directly appealed to African American voters for their vote, asking them, “What do you have to lose?”

Trump should have received more credit for this, as Republicans have often been criticized for not wooing African Americans from Democrats, who crucially depend on their overwhelming support yet take their votes for granted.

Trump’s message was that blacks had entrusted their improvement exclusively to the Democratic Party, but it had failed to produce. He highlighted two critical areas in which Democrats had let them down: education and poverty.

He said that blacks “are living in poverty” and their “schools are no good,” and he pledged to do better by them, unlike Democrats, who offered nothing but empty promises.

The Democrats have never bothered to show how their policies are superior to the Republicans’ because they can’t. Instead, they’ve cynically cast Republicans as uncompassionate and, in many cases, racist. I’ve always assumed their scheme worked, because I can find no other explanation for the Democrats’ electoral vice grip on African Americans than the latter’s distrust of Republicans. Nothing else makes sense.

It’s no coincidence that Democrats have played the race card with even greater intensity in response to President Trump’s undeniable policy successes for African Americans and other minorities. Under Trump, African American unemployment was at a record low, and their wages were greatly improving prior to the virus-induced downturn.

Democrats always cite the same phony examples to make their case, such as that Trump is an immigration hawk because he doesn’t like Mexicans and other non-Americans. It’s all bogus, but it works, and it sure beats having to explain away their own policy failures and Trump’s policy successes. It is despicable and destructive.

Falsely accusing people of racism is a particularly egregious sin, not just because there are few smears more harmful to one’s reputation but also because it damages race relations, especially when the slander, like the sin of racism itself, is applied with a broad brush to an entire group of people — in this case, the Republican Party.

But why fool ourselves? The Democratic Party isn’t going to change anytime soon on this score, as evidenced by Joe Biden’s ghastly remark that African Americans not supporting him aren’t black. As such, a good friend of mine suggested to me that President Trump must follow up on his 2016 challenge to African American voters.

Normally, I’m reluctant for Republicans to target African Americans or other specific voter groups because it smacks of race consciousness and identity politics, and could be seen as patronizing and pandering, none of which has ever stopped Democrats. But as sensitive as the race issue has become, and as much as Democrats have painted Trump and Republicans as racist, it’s time this is addressed head-on.

Now he has a concrete record to tout, but he needs to sharpen his message to demonstrate how his policies were actually lifting African Americans out of poverty, and how the Democrats’ active neglect of black children in inferior inner-city schools has doomed many of them to lives of poverty, violence and crime.

Trump is particularly suited to this task because he has fulfilled his campaign promises to African Americans and he speaks from the heart, avoiding the double speak used by many politicians.

President Trump must accentuate the economic and education issues on which he campaigned, but he should also point to the civil unrest, crime, lawlessness and anarchy that dominates our cities today, and tailor his law and order agenda to black families who crave domestic tranquility as much as anyone else does.

Cities are imploding throughout the nation under mostly Democratic leadership, and they are inflamed with violence. Trump should turn the tables on Democratic politicians and make them answer for their abject policy failures and explain why they turn a blind eye to black lives lost to inner-city violence. Black families living in these troubled neighborhoods surely want law and order and peace and liberty as much as anyone else, despite the activists’ exclusive focus on instances of police misconduct. As for these rogue cops, which are a very small minority, it’s time that Democrats explain their unwavering support for the police unions that protect them. African Americans understand that defunding the cops would be disastrous, yet the Democrats’ answer is less law enforcement rather than more, which guarantees more arson, looting and death.

Trump should demand that Democrats answer why they aggressively oppose charter schools, school choice and other initiatives aimed at improving the quality of education for all people. Here again, are the Democrats working for African Americans or teachers unions?

My friend is right. President Trump, please take your case directly to African Americans and contrast your record with the Democrats’ incendiary and opportunistic rhetoric, and failed policies. Point out that, in fact, African Americans have very much to lose by supporting a party that has no answers for them, and that would enable more lawlessness and ensure greater inequality of outcomes.

David Limbaugh is a writer, author and attorney. His latest book is “Guilty by Reason of Insanity: Why the Democrats Must Not Win.” Follow him on Twitter @davidlimbaugh and his website at www.davidlimbaugh.com. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

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60-Year-Old Man Died from a Gunshot Wound to the Head, Government Reportedly Listed It as COVID Death

Do you want to delegitimize COVID-19 death tallies? Because this is how you delegitimize COVID-19 death tallies. Palm Beach County, Florida, is home to 1.49 million residents. It’s one of the current hot spots in America’s fight against the novel coronavirus. According to The Palm Beach Post, the county saw 761 new diagnosed cases reported…

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Steve Baldwin: The Real Agenda of Black Lives Matter

The death of George Floyd has unleashed a culture war that reveals just how successful the left has been in propagandizing Americans about our supposedly racist country. With the complicity of the media, the socialist left is feeding disinformation to Americans that has little resemblance to reality. When one tries to counter this propaganda barrage,…

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National Retailers: NYC Worst Place To Do Business After COVID-19

The Big Apple is a rotten place to do business, according to retailers who say New York City is not bouncing back the way experts hoped. Shake Shack reported just how bad the New York City retail climate is, and how much it can drag down a nationwide corporation. In a news release, the company,…

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Seattle Police Chief Issues Scorching Letter After City Council Tried To Strip Riot Cops of Everything but Shields and Batons

Seattle Police Department Chief Carmen Best slammed the city council on Thursday for creating a “dangerous” situation for officers by attempting to ban the use of pepper spray and other items often used to control crowds. Earlier this month, Seattle police cleared out a downtown occupied zone that had been set up by protesters in…

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