53percenter's Blog

[N]or do we believe in the existence of Satan or the supernatural. The Satanic Temple believes that religion can, and should, be divorced from superstition. As such, we do not promote a belief in a personal Satan. To embrace the name Satan is to embrace rational inquiry removed from supernaturalism and archaic tradition-based superstitions. Satanists should actively work to hone critical thinking and exercise reasonable agnosticism in all things. Our beliefs must be malleable to the best current scientific understandings of the material world — never the reverse.

Regarding the question of how TST is a “religion,” the group states:

The idea that religion belongs to supernaturalists is ignorant, backward, and offensive. The metaphorical Satanic construct is no more arbitrary to us than are the deeply held beliefs that we actively advocate. Are we supposed to believe that those who pledge submission to an ethereal supernatural deity hold to their values more deeply than we? Are we supposed to concede that only the superstitious are rightful recipients of religious exemption and privilege? Satanism provides all that a religion should without a compulsory attachment to untenable items of faith-based belief. It provides a narrative structure by which we contextualize our lives and works. It also provides a body of symbolism and religious practice — a sense of identity, culture, community, and shared values.

According to Rolling Stone, TST had previously rejected the idea of pursuing tax-exempt status.

TST president Lucien Greaves, however, reportedly reversed this position in 2017 after President Trump signed a “religious freedom” executive order.

“As ‘the religious’ are increasingly gaining ground as a privileged class, we must ensure that this privilege is available to all, and that superstition doesn’t gain exclusive rights over non-theistic religions or non-belief,” Greaves reportedly wrote in the group’s newsletter.

Greaves added that the group should move to ensure that “atheistic and secular non-profits, advancing a distinct religious opinion and/or opinion upon religion, are themselves rightful beneficiaries of religious tax exemption as well.”

According to the Catholic News Agency (CNA), “IRS regulations draw a clear distinction between “churches” and other religious organizations”:

A church must have certain characteristics, according to IRS requirements, including: a recognized creed and form of worship; distinct ecclesiastical government; formal code of doctrine; ordained ministers selected after completing prescribed courses of study; established places of worship and regular religious services.

“The apparent recognition of the IRS comes after members of the Satanic Temple have had to defend themselves against accusations that their ‘church’ is essentially a political stunt,” CNA stated.

While millions remain on the sidelines of the workforce, the Chamber of Commerce has routinely advocated for increasing legal immigration levels as a boon to corporations while depressing job prospects and wages for America’s working and middle class. Already, about 1.5 million illegal and legal immigrants are admitted to the country every year, to the detriment of U.S. wages.

The Chamber of Commerce’s push to increase legal immigration levels is vastly out of step with Republican voters and American voters as a whole. Last year, nearly two-out-three U.S. voters said they supported reducing legal immigration, while most recently about 43 percent of Republican voters said immigration hurts the country.

Extensive research by economists like George Borjas and analyst Steven Camarota has found that the country’s current mass legal immigration system — wherein 1.2 million mostly low-skilled workers are admitted annually — burdens U.S. taxpayers and America’s working and middle class while redistributing about $500 billion in wealth every year to major employers and newly arrived immigrants.

Borjas has previously called the country’s legal immigration system the “largest anti-poverty program” in the world at the expense of blue-collar Americans and middle-class taxpayers.

Camarota, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies, has found that every one-percent increase in the immigrant composition of American workers’ occupations reduces their weekly wages by about 0.5 percent. This means the average native-born American worker today has his weekly wages reduced by perhaps 8.5 percent because of current legal immigration levels.

In a state like Florida, where immigrants make up about 25.4 percent of the labor force, American workers have their weekly wages reduced by about 12.5 percent. In California, where immigrants make up 34 percent of the labor force, American workers’ weekly wages are reduced by potentially 17 percent.

Likewise, every one-percent increase in the immigrant composition of low-skilled U.S. occupations reduces wages by about 0.8 percent. Should 15 percent of low-skilled jobs be held by foreign-born workers, it would reduce the wages of native-born American workers by perhaps 12 percent.

Though corporate interests and the open borders lobby have sought to sway Trump from his “America First” illegal and legal immigration agenda, senior advisor Jared Kushner recently said the president’s top priority in terms of the White House’s reform efforts is protecting Americans’ wages.

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

No injuries were reported, and the second fire burned itself out before firefighters could arrive to extinguish it.

A police statement confirmed that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) would be assisting with the investigation and had offered a $5,000 reward for information before an arrest had been made.

WFMZ reported, “It appears to be an isolated incident and police do not believe there is an ongoing danger to the community.”

As the investigation and repairs continue, First Presbyterian Church of Bethlehem will offer congregants a space to worship.

Breitbart News reports extensively about the ongoing cartel violence in Tijuana with shocking numbers of homicides to include a record-breaking year in 2018, which totaled 2,518. By comparison, San Diego tallied 35 the same period.

A recent study released in March by the Citizen Council for Public Safety and Criminal Justice (El Consejo Ciudadano para la Seguridad Pública y la Justicia Penal) listed Tijuana as the deadliest city in the world per capita, based on its 2018 registered homicide count. The bloodshed is generally related to turf wars involving Cártel Tijuana Nueva Generación (CTNG), aligned with El Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación, against the Sinaloa Cartel.

Robert Arce is a retired Phoenix Police detective with extensive experience working Mexican organized crime and street gangs. Arce has worked in the Balkans, Iraq, Haiti, and recently completed a three-year assignment in Monterrey, Mexico, working out of the Consulate for the United States Department of State, International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Program, where he was the Regional Program Manager for Northeast Mexico (Coahuila, Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Durango, San Luis Potosi, Zacatecas.) You can follow him on Twitter. He can be reached at robertrarce@gmail.com.

After Twitter users began to point out her mistake, she deleted the tweet.

It is not the first time the 29-year-old Democrat has made an embarrassing gaffe on Twitter. She mixed up the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan just last month.

Afghanistan War* my apologies

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 5, 2019

Ocasio-Cortez said recently on Yahoo’s Skullduggery podcast that she writes all her own tweets.

Her mistaking Yarmuth for an “older male” member of the Republican Party will likely not endear her to Democrat membership, who have increasingly made disparaging comments about her.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) recently said a “glass of water with a D” next to it could have won Ocasio-Cortez’s district.

“Today he is upset that he is a white man,” noted Levin. “He is trying to fit into what is a radicalized Democrat Party. This is his third run at it. He’s becoming the Harold Stassen of the Democrat Party.”

In March, Biden called for a “change” to “white man’s culture,” which he described as pathologized on matters of sexual assault.

“I don’t really know why [Joe Biden] is running,” stated Levin, rejecting left-wing and partisan Democrat news media characterizations of Biden as a “blue-collar” champion. “I know the commentators say he could take up the blue-collar vote. I don’t know what he’s done for blue-collar workers any time in his life. He was vice president to Barack Obama. They lost a ton of jobs in manufacturing and elsewhere, and the reason is high taxes, high regulations, and all that type of stuff. So he’s a job killer.”

Joe Biden “is going to run as if he is the answer to our racial divide,” said Marlow.

Levin replied, “Some information’s been found in recent months, I believe even audio, where he was defending the segregationist view on busing. I don’t mean taking up the constitutional issue. I’ve always been against it myself for constitutional reasons, but he was playing footsie with segregationists. I don’t remember Trump ever doing that.”

In August 2012, during the year’s presidential campaign, Biden deployed a southern accent in telling a mostly black audience that then-presidential candidate Mitt Romney wanted to “put y’all back in chains.”

Breitbart News Daily broadcasts live on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern.

Follow Robert Kraychik on Twitter @rkraychik.

By the time Monday came up to bat that day at the top of the 5th inning, he was lavished with a standing ovation by the fans in the stands.

“If you’re going to burn the flag, don’t do it around me. I’ve been to too many veterans’ hospitals and seen too many broken bodies of guys who tried to protect it,” Monday said after the game.

The next month, the Dodgers presented Monday with the flag he saved during “Rick Monday Day” on May 4, 1976. Monday says he still has that flag in his collection of baseball memorabilia.

In 2016, Monday threw out the first pitch at Dodger Stadium on the 40th anniversary of his flag-saving act.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.