Guardian Angel

September 12, 2020

“And the people sang songs and rejoiced because they had been redeemed, and they were well fed because He was present, and they had great joy.  But the fallen were enraged at their hope of redemption, and the fallen, being hungry and full of misery, sought to lead the people astray that the people might join them in their misery.  But the fallen knew that they could not make their pleas to the people to join their ranks by making their conditions clear.  It would have to be done in a hidden and deadly way.  So instead they would do it in a subversive manner which is a specialty of the fallen, and they would slither into any cracks they found as befits a serpent. 

So over time demons became entrenched in all the places where men were called to defend the faith, and they sent out words that hinted at truth but in the end denied it.  And the people began to look to themselves, or nature, or graven images for redemption which had no power to save them, and the demons rejoiced.  And the people neglected His presence, for in looking at how the Eucharist was handled, they surmised that Christ was not present at all, and they were no longer well fed but were instead ravenously hungry.  And this made them quarrelsome, and they had no peace.  And the joy of Christ was absent from their lives. 

The world was already a dark place, but with the Church no longer holding a beacon for all to see, it became even darker.  And His people stepped down into the gutters with the world instead of calling to the world to repent and to come to the mountain and bow before God.  Without this light, the world moved further and further from God, and it seemed there was no longer a plumb line by which truth could be measured.  But in truth the plumb line as always was Christ, but His people no longer sat with Him, and they denied His presence, so they began to see truth and lies as interchangeable. 

In the midst of the evil, amidst the cries of the babies taken violently from their mother’s wombs, the violation of the innocence of children, the animosity in the hearts of men, and the denial of His presence, the demons rejoiced as they led men down the path of perdition. And the cord of mercy was taken up for a while that men might repent, and the rope of justice descended with a crash.  And thus began the great and terrible day of the Lord.  

But in this time watchmen have the Lord called, and the people will call to the watchmen, “Watchman, what time of night?”  And the watchmen will answer the people, “Morning is coming, then night again.”  But as the watchmen told the people in Isaiah’s time, the watchmen will now say that this is not the day of comfort “for this is a day of rout, panic, and confusion.”  And as the people turn their faces to the earth, they will be told, “you did not look to the Creator of these things, you did not look to the One who fashioned them long ago.”  And as the people in Isaiah’s time, the people now will also not don sackcloth and ashes, and they will not weep and mourn, but instead will make merry.  And God’s hand will not be stayed.  Calamities will continue to fall upon the earth until the people can no longer lift their heads. 

Oh watchmen, cry to the world.  And cry to the people of His Church.  For evil chokes the world and wraps its tendons around those in the Church called to uphold the faith.  Remind His people that redemption is in the Lord, and there they will be fed, and in His presence they will be immersed in joy.  Then will the beacon of the Church shine forth again. 

Oh what dark days come upon the earth.  But Christ has not left you.  Hasten unto Him.  Dwell with Him and know His heart.  Those of you who have been called to be watchmen must go forth.  In September, the people smell smoke, and in October, the pavement is hot under their feet, and their garments are singed.  In November, the people cry for mercy but offer not repentance.  And in December those who arrive to put out the fire will bring blankets and chains but no water.  And still will continue to unfold the great and terrible day of the Lord.

But you who are watchmen cry out to the people.  Admonish them to cease making merry and to don sackcloth and ashes.  And when the people call unto you, “Watchman, what time of night”  Answer them that it is the time of repentance.  And if they tarry even a minute, it might be too late.”

-S

The Human Costs of Pro-Criminal,Anti-Police Prosecutors by Newt Gingrich September 11, 2020 Pro-criminal, anti-police prosecutors have been elected or appointed in nearly a dozen American cities and counties, and now residents are paying the price. Back in November 2019, I wrote a column with Sean Kennedy about the dangers of allowing radical, anti-police activists to infiltrate local district attorney offices. I also warned about this dangerous trend in my June 2020 book Trump and the American Future. Now, as riots, looting, and violent crime spikes continue in Democrat-run cities across America, we are living through the violent consequences. These consequences are most immediately clear in Portland, Oregon, which just passed its 100th day of consecutive violence in the streets. For more than three months, lawlessness and chaos have been allowed to dominate Portland, and the city’s left-wing leadership has been completely ineffective in restoring peace. In fact, Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt has been adding fuel to the fires. Elected in May, Schmidt officially begins his term in January but was appointed to fill the remainder of his retired predecessor’s term in July during the violence. Schmidt announced last month that he would be dropping the cases of more than 500 protestors who were arrested for disorderly conduct, interfering with police, and other charges. For cases in which property was destroyed or people were terrorized, he said he wanted to give the vandals and bullies three months to pay restitution and have their cases dropped. Never mind what victims wanted or expected from law enforcement. One beneficiary of Schmidt’s pro-criminal policies was Michael Reinoehl, who allegedly gunned down a conservative protestor in the street last month. The month before Reinoehl had been arrested by police for a gun violation, resisting arrest, and disorderly conduct. Schmidt dropped his case and put him back on the street with tragic consequences. Of course, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler has only begged people to stop the violence – and in return was run out of his own condo by the rioters. On the other side of the country, in Baltimore, we have seen violent crime – including homicide – skyrocket under the reign of pro-criminal, anti-police District Attorney Marilyn Mosby. According to the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund’s (LELDF) report on Prosecutorial Malpractice, since Mosby took office in 2015:“Baltimore has reigned as America’s big city murder capital with homicides climbing 65% during her five-year tenure. Meanwhile, she dropped or lost 44% of all felony cases. An astounding 50% of homicide suspects in Baltimore have prior ‘violent crime’ arrests and 31% were on parole or probation at the time of their arrest.” From 2014 to 2019, the LELDF reports that street robberies in Baltimore are up 27 percent, assaults are up 22 percent, and murder is up an astonishing 65 percent. In Chicago, nearly 500 people were arrested for violating curfew and refusing to disperse during the early protests and violence which followed the horrific killing of George Floyd. Cook County State Attorney Kim Foxx declined to charge them, saying they were simply exercising their First Amendment rights. Now, violent mobs have pillaged the city’s Magnificent Mile and waged gun battles in the once peaceful downtown streets. Residents have witnessed violent car-jackings in broad daylight, according the local NBC affiliate. Even the city’s Democratic mayor and its police superintendent have criticized Foxx for “emboldening” the mobs by not prosecuting those arrested. (Of course, Mayor Lori Lightfoot supported defunding the police department in the early stages of the violence — then ordered police to defend her home from the violent mobs as they tear the rest of the city apart. She has since backed off the defunding idea.) Thanks to the ineffectiveness of Chicago’s Democratic leaders, as of Sept. 1, there have been 505 homicides this year – nearly twice as many as had been committed in the same time frame in 2019 (333), according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Over Labor Day weekend alone, there were 10 murders, and 51 people were shot in 38 separate shootings. One of the people murdered was a pharmacy clerk who was stabbed to death in an apparent attempted robbery. The man arrested for the crime had reportedly robbed the same pharmacy and another one the previous week. Thankfully, President Trump’s Operation LeGend initiative has heavily curbed the violence in the Windy City (federal agents have arrested more than 500 people in five weeks and the murder rate is nearly half what it was before the operation started). But much damage has already been done. Many of the violent mobs tearing down our cities are doing so in opposition to systemic problems in our criminal justice system. There is a systemic problem, but it is not racism. The problem is rising pro-criminal, anti-police Democratic leadership. Email Link   https://conta.cc/2Zv1yYz Rip McIntyre

Fr. Rutler’s Weekly Column September 13, 2020

In our city (New York) accustomed to  protest demonstrations of all sorts, a recent one was particularly dismaying and even frightening. The anarchistic chants were bad enough, but the frightfulness was in the glazed eyes of the expressionless marchers, like the “pod people” in the 1956 cult film “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” Carrying signs supplied for them, they chanted refrains called out by a leader as they moved through one of our pricier neighborhoods. To a boy in 1956 the black-and-white film was scary, though in later years it was amusing to watch again, but now it has taken on an unsettling reality in the living color of live people.     Mind control is a signature of corrupt politics, and George Orwell said that “Political language . . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” It is easy to appropriate the brains of people who are disturbed or idealistic or both. In the eighteenth century, the physicist and satirist George Lichtenberg volunteered that “The most dangerous untruths are truths moderately distorted.” That is the essential psychology of heresies in religion, and it is also true of platforms in politics.      In any election season, when information is twisted by “disinformation,” one can learn with profit from the experience of the Church as she confronted  distorters of the Gospel. A vital instance is the way Saint Paul detected the errors among the first Greek Christians on the island of Crete. Being a man of erudition, which his true humility allowed him to remark without affectation, Paul quotes a minor poet of about 600 BC, Epimenides: “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.”    Epimenides is the same sage that Paul cites when he speaks to the philosophers in the Areopagus in Athens. The verse sent to Titus is paraphrased by the Apostle in Acts 17, when he speaks of the One “in whom we live and move and have our being.” A discovery of the full text of Epimenides’s poem “Cretica” in the early 1900’s by the formidable English scholar J. Rendel Harris, makes clear that the lying was a specific lie—namely about a tomb built in contradiction to the supposed immortality of Zeus. This resolves what has been called the “Epimenides Paradox:” If Epimenides said that all Cretans are liars, how can we trust Epimenides who was himself a Cretan? But in fact, the deceitfulness of the Cretans was only about trying to entomb immortality.    Saint Paul invoked the gift of “diakrisis,” which is the discernment of truth from falsehood (1 Corinthians 12:10). Never, and especially not in times of political propaganda, should lies intimidate, so long as one has that discerning gift to know the difference between what comes from Christ, the Head of the Church (Colossians 1:18), and the talking heads on television.  Faithfully yours in Christ, Father George W. Rutler

A Closer Look at Francis’ Revision of the Lord’s Prayer, the Gloria 

By David Martin

As reported in late August, a new Italian missal featuring a revised Gloria and changes to the Lord’s Prayer will be mandatory for Italian celebrations of the Mass from Easter (April 4) 2021. https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2020/08/pope-gets-first-copy-of-italian-missal-translation/

Avvenire, a Milan-based Catholic newspaper owned by the Italian bishops, reported on August 28 that the new translation was promulgated by Pope Francis in 2019. Avvenire also reported that the Italian Episcopal Conference presented Pope Francis with the new missal containing the changes he had approved. https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/italian-bishops-roll-out-new-missal-that-includes-francis-our-father-change-altered-gloria

The revision of the Gloria warrants concern since the opening of the Gloria was first sung by the angels the night that Christ was born in Bethlehem, as recorded in the Latin Vulgate: “Gloria in altissimis Deo, et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis.” (Luke 2:14) The English translation reads: “Glory be to God On High and on earth peace to men of good will.”

The change to the Gloria replaces the words “of good will” with “loved by the Lord,” thus rendering the Italian translation “pace in terra agli uomini di buona volontà” (“on earth peace to men of good will”) to the new “pace in terra agli uomini, amati dal Signore” (“peace on earth to men, loved by the Lord”). 

This revision of the Gloria not only corrupts the original text but places a new spin on it. All men are loved by the Lord, since they were created by Him, but not all men receive the peace and blessing of the Lord. Peace is a special gift from God that is given only to “men of good will,” not just to anyone. 

Replacing “of good will” with “loved by the Lord” is an apparent attempt to establish the fallacy that God’s peace and mercy are unconditionally granted to all men, regardless if they are living in sin and adultery. It is in keeping with the presumptuous error of Luther, whose statue Francis erected at the Vatican on October 13, 2016. 

Francis: The Lord’s Prayer “Induces Temptation”

The changes to the Lord’s Prayer have been more controversial. The key change concerns the rewording of the phrase “lead us not into temptation” so that it now reads “abandon us not into temptation.” 

In the centuries-old recited prayer, the world’s Catholics call upon God to “lead us not into temptation, but delver us from evil.” 

In a December 2017 interview on the official television network of the Italian bishops, Francis said that this translation used for centuries in many parts of the world, including the Italian and English versions, was “not good” and should be changed. He argued that it was incorrect, saying, “It is not a good translation because it speaks of a God who induces temptation.”

“It’s not God who throws me into temptation, in order to then see how I’ve fallen,” Francis told Italian broadcasters. “No, a father doesn’t do that… The one who leads us into temptation is Satan. That’s Satan’s task,” he said.

So Christ taught us to invoke a God who leads us into temptation? To think that the Messiah’s instruction to mankind on how to pray—as penned by the Evangelists as the infallible Word of God and followed for 2000 years by all the Saints and members of Christ—is now incorrect!

The Faith Called into Question

To say that the proposed “reform” of the Our Father warrants respect is to say that Catholics for 2000 years have been misled by the Our Father. Moreover, it instigates doubts about the whole of revelation, i.e. the Bible and Sacred Tradition, and the centuries-old guidance of the Church. It appears that it is Pope Francis who is leading us into temptation. 

Francis purports to criticize the English and Italian translations of the Our Father, when he knows full well that it is the original manuscript he is criticizing. The text from the Lord’s Prayer, as taken from the Latin Vulgate (which comes from the original Greek: καὶ μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς πειρασμόν, ἀλλὰ ῥῦσαι ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ), reads: et ne nos induces in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo, which translated is: “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” (Matthew 6:13). 

Hence this is not a translation issue but a scriptural issue. The English translations of the Our Father as recited today are correct because they are taken from the Vulgate, which is the official version of Holy Scripture, the source from which all authentic translations must directly or indirectly be taken. It appears that Francis does not agree with what the evangelists penned in Holy Scripture. 

Watered Down

The change to “abandon us not into temptation” suggests that it is alright to be around temptation as long as we’re not abandoned by God. It almost suggests that God “accompanies” us in the pursuit of evil without abandoning us, which of course could never be. The idea is that we flee all occasion of sin and not go anywhere near temptation, lest we dignify it and offend God and consequently lose the grace of being “delivered from evil.” 

If God in His permissive will wishes to try us with temptation to test our valor, then such temptation is all gain and no loss, provided we turn away from it; but we of our own volition should never abide in its presence but should always beg God that He would “lead us not into temptation” and away from all evil. Francis’ revision guts the Lord’s Prayer of this key essential element, thus opening the faithful up to danger. 

The obvious problem with making changes, aside from sowing error, is that it brings into question what was done before. If nothing else, it is change for the sake of change. 

On that note, the new missal includes yet another change to the Lord’s Prayer, which is the insertion of the word “anche” (also) into the phrase “as we forgive those who trespass against us, i.e. “come [anche] noi li rimettiamo ai debiti” (as we [also] forgive those who trespass against us). 

Uncalled For

The revision of the Lord’s Prayer indeed is uncalled for. Never in the 2000-year history of the Church has it occurred to any pope or saint that the Lord’s Prayer stood in need of change, so why is Francis calling into question something so central to the Faith—the “perfect prayer” given to us by Christ Himself on the Mount—and at a time when the Church is undergoing the worst debacle of its 2000-year history? What is needed today is that rock-solid stability of old to offset the new order of change that has misled the Church since Vatican II, so why is Francis leading us into the temptation of change? 

It appears he is upset over the idea of being led away from temptation, since he is led by the temptation of globalism and change. The Bible threatens him to give up his change, so instead of humbly admitting that Scripture is correct he judges that it is “incorrect,” in the same way he has denied the miracle of the loaves and has judged that Catholic evangelization is “solemn nonsense.” 

The Church’s mission is precisely to evangelize and lead us away from the temptation of this world that we may arrive at the shores of everlasting peace. God in His mercy wants us all to know that this world is not our common home, but rather a quagmire of temptation, and that our true home is in Heaven with God and the Saints who said the un-revised Our Father during their lives. 

Therefore, as children of God who obey the Father’s commands, we take the Father’s hand and ask Him to lead us not into temptation, but away from all evil, because if we chase after temptation—especially the temptation to change the Bible and the doctrines of the Faith—God will let go of our hand, and in His permissive will He will allow us to fall, not only into temptation, but into the very fires of hell. And by the way, Papa, this condemnation is forever.

Christ warns of the dire consequences of changing but one word of Holy Scripture. He says to St. John in the Apocalypse: “If any man shall add to these things, God shall add unto him the plagues written in this book.” (Apoc. 22:18) The plagues of COVID-19 and Socialism indeed have been ‘added unto us’ for our having dared to change the Catholic Church. 

Let us therefore reverence the words of Christ in the Gospel, remembering that all Scripture is “inspired of God.” (2 Timothy 3:16) “Neither let us tempt Christ: as some of them tempted, and perished by the serpents.” (1 Cor. 10:9)

Donald Trump Deserves the Nobel Peace Prize

By Brian Cates – September 9, 2020

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On September 9th, a member of the Norwegian parliament, Christian Tybring-Gjedde, nominated U.S. President Donald J. Trump for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize.

Such a nomination of this President will strike many as being absurd after more than four years of nonstop histrionic media coverage that paints Trump as an out of control war-mongering buffoon in the pocket of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

After the real estate billionaire won the 2016 election, there were loud pronouncements of forthcoming doom and gloom in the media.

Donald Trump with the nuclear codes will be a disaster, we were all assured. The brash, thoughtless, and impulsive blowhard would instantly antagonize other world leaders with his swaggering alpha male act, making the world a far more dangerous place.

Well, excuse me.

Far from blowing the world up, Trump continues to solve seemingly intractable problems that stumped the Washington policy wonk class for years, if not decades.

It appears the only thing Donald Trump has blown up in his first term as America’s President was the illusion the foreign policy class in Washington knew what it was doing.

The fact of the matter is, Trump turned out to be right, and the Washington DC “Smart Set” was wrong.

Let’s just take a quick walk down memory lane and compare the scorecards, shall we?

Obama Tells Trump He’ll Be Going to War With North Korea 

The first big foreign policy crisis that the newly sworn-in President Trump faced was North Korea.

Super-smooth Nobel Peace Prize-winning Obama sadly informed the uncouth and boorish Trump that he was going to have to go to war with North Korea.

Then – surprise! – Trump successfully de-escalated the conflict between North and South Korea by establishing a direct dialogue with Kim Jong Un. The world was then treated to the amazing spectacle of a US President setting foot inside North Korea.

While Trump helped the two Korea’s start peace talks, we spent over a year with the international foreign policy experts claiming that by ‘legitimizing’ Kim and speaking to him directly, Trump was doing it all wrong.

Reining in China

What’s strange about the DC political class criticizing Trump for talking to Kim face-to-face is that these are the same foreign policy wonks who spent decades preaching ever-expanding engagement with the brutal CCP regime in China as super-smart policy.

Under former Presidents like Clinton, the Bushes, and Obama, the United States not only established a dialogue with this evil and repressive regime in Beijing, we ended up joining ourselves at the hip to the CCP by moving vital national security industries to China.

It took a worldwide pandemic originating in China for the folly of this kind of China policy to become evident, and now President Trump has the necessary decoupling from China already underway.

Taking Down ISIS

Obama also famously derided ISIS as ‘the JV Team’ despite being repeatedly warned the terrorist organization was a very real threat.  Obama did nothing, then watched as ISIS proceeded to unleash a bloody reign of terror, seizing control of parts of Iraq and Syria.

When Trump became President, ISIS-controlled territory larger than many US states. Trump quickly moved to help our allies in the region take ISIS down, and by the end of 2018, the terrorist ‘caliphate’ had been reduced to 1% of its former size. Trump then authorized the raid that killed ISIS’s crucial leader, who was supposed to be irreplaceable as the terror cult’s belief was that he was the only one who could establish the Islamic State.

Canceling the Iran Deal

Obama was gifted with a Nobel Peace Prize early in his first term. It appeared to be based chiefly on expectations of what he would accomplish in the foreign policy arena.  Those expectations were never met.

Obama’s 8 years in office could be described as one long litany of foreign policy blunders, setbacks, and mistakes.

From refusing to show even token support of the Green Revolution in Iran in 2009, to the Russian annexation of Crimea and the subsequent invasion of Ukraine, to the rise of ISIS and his failure to enforce his own stated ‘red line’ in Syria, to the scandal of Benghazi, it was Obama and not Trump who stumbled from one foreign policy blunder to the next.

The crown jewel of Obama’s foreign policy efforts is, of course, the Iran Deal.

The Obama administration tirelessly sought this deal based on a firm belief that a Russian-backed Iranian nuclear hegemony over the Middle East was inevitable, and the best that could be hoped for was to merely delay the Iranian nuclear breakout by a few years.

Trump loudly campaigned on scrapping the Iran Deal should he win the Presidency, and upon assuming office he wasted little time in following through on that promise.

As usual, the foreign policy think-tank establishment deeply entrenched in Washington DC spent months patiently explaining what a blithering and stupid move this was on Trump’s part.

Those who invested heavily in this assumption that the Russo-Iranian nuclear umbrella was the only possible future of the Middle East region are only now belatedly discovering just how wrong they were. There was a legitimate alternative.

And Trump is creating it right before their eyes, with the newly announced peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates [UAE]. There are already rumors that Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, and several other Arab states will be following UAE in making treaties with Israel.

The Kurdish Genocide That Didn’t Happen

Last year when Trump announced he’d be removing several hundred US troops from Syria since ISIS was now effectively defeated, we were all assured in the most strident tones possible that Trump “abandoning the Kurds” by shifting these troops would cause a genocide.

Of course, no such genocide happened, and in July a secret deal more than a year in the making was announced that will send billions in oil profits to the Kurdish autonomous region.

Now all the people who spent months viciously slandering this President for abandoning key allies to ‘genocide’ look as foolish as they deserve to.

Moving the US Embassy To Jerusalem

The foreign policy experts appeared on network news shows where they pontificated that by moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, Trump was making yet another impulsive mistake that would set back peace efforts in the region for decades.

Leaving aside the fact that the three previous US Presidents had all promised that they would make this exact move and then found creative ways to renege on it, not only did this embassy move not to stunt peace in the region, it appears to have directly led to the newly revealed Israel/UAE deal mentioned earlier.

Taking Out the World’s #1 Terrorist

When Trump ordered a drone strike that took out Iran’s top terrorist, General Qassem Soleimani, the denunciations of Trump’s foolish and incredibly dangerous action were swiftly delivered. Hysterical politicians and political pundits thundered that Trump would end up starting a war with Iran.

Well of course, no war with Iran developed, and since Soleimani was essentially irreplaceable, having been the operational commander of all of Iran’s proxy terror groups, the attacks on US citizens and embassies in Iraq quickly ended.

The Serbia/Kosovo Deal

The Serbian conflict was long and especially brutal, and for over twenty years things remained in a bitter stalemate until President Trump got involved.

As former US ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell has noted, the mainstream media is dealing with the stunning announcement of the Trump-brokered Serbia/Kosovo economic deal by…. ignoring it.

Grenell had to write an op-ed to explain the content of this historic deal since the mainstream media focused on everything but what the deal really does.

The Dog That Didn’t Bark

So just to quickly sum up before going on:

Trump threaded the North Korea needle, took down ISIS, solved the Syria/Turkey/Kurd Gordian Knot moved the US embassy to Jerusalem, got the Israel/UAE deal, then the Serb/Kosovo deal took out the operational leader of all of Iran’s proxy terrorist organizations scrapped the Iran Deal and began the much needed decoupling from China and he has accomplished all of this with the globalist elite class loudly screaming the entire time for him to STOP.

If you listen to people like John Bolton or General Mattis, Trump’s foreign policy has been one unmitigated disaster after another. And it’s nothing but desperate gaslighting by a political class that sees its own power and influence slipping away the more Trump fixes world crises and problems they were impotent to fix themselves.

The only way the “Trump has been a disaster at foreign policy!” narrative can work is if the mainstream media just passes over and ignores his accomplishments.

Which is precisely what they are trying to do. But it’s getting harder and harder to keep it up.

The Last Gaslighting Stand of the Global Elite

As it becomes increasingly apparent that the supposedly clueless and boorish Trump is literally fixing the seemingly intractable foreign policy problems the DC elite class were powerless to solve, the more desperate that elite class becomes to remove him from office.

You must understand: They know what happens to them if Donald J. Trump gets another four years in the White House. So, their **only chance** is to take him down now.

The futile “Trump secretly thinks fallen American soldiers are suckers and losers!” story in The Atlantic is nothing more than a desperate gaslighting smear coming from an incompetent and increasingly irrelevant DC elite class trying to get Joe Biden into the White House.

They cannot stop Trump. If they could, they would have by now. And I strongly suspect Trump has more aces up his sleeve to play before November 3 gets here. None of the details of the Kurdish oil deal, the Israel/UAE deal or the Serbia/Kosovo deal leaked in advance.

This President very well could roll out another unexpected deal in the next 50 days. I wouldn’t bet against him. The DC elite class did – and look where they are now.

Brian Cates entered the political arena in March 2012, following the death of Andrew Breitbart. He is currently a political columnist for The Epoch Times and UncoverDC. Brian is based in South Texas and is the author of: “Nobody Asked For My Opinion … But Here It Is Anyway!”

Twitter: @drawandstrike
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Kamala Harris: The Most Radical VP Nominee in History by Newt Gingrich  September 10, 2020 Sen. Kamala Harris is the most radical person ever nominated for president or vice president by a major party. Because of Joe Biden’s frailty, her potential to become president is much greater than for most vice-presidential candidates.  Last month, Rasmussen Reports published a survey which indicted 59 percent of likely voters do not think Democratic Presidential Nominee Biden would finish his first term in office, if he is elected in November. Even nearly half (49 percent) of Democrats who were asked thought Biden would bow out before four years was up. This is a remarkable statistic and makes the 2020 election even more unique and important, because it means nearly half of Democrats believe they will actually be electing the vice-presidential candidate rather than the top of the ticket. Historically, voters do not heavily consider the vice-presidential candidate when voting, but in 2020, Biden’s clear weakness makes it essential to give Harris much more scrutiny than would normally be warranted.  Of course, the liberal media constantly tries to pitch Biden as a moderate Democrat who could appeal to more people in the middle of the country. No doubt, the media will try to do the same with Harris – although it would be much more difficult.  I don’t want you to take my word for it or count on my judgement. That is why on Newt’s World, I captured some of Harris’s more radical positions – in her own words – so that Americans can hear directly from the senator how radical she is and keep that in mind as the November election approaches.   Harris, despite being a former prosecutor, has been incredibly supportive of efforts to defund police departments; to elect radical, pro-criminal, anti-police prosecutors who simply refuse to prosecute laws against criminals; and to sow chaos in American cities.  On ABC Good Morning on June 9, Harris said she fully supported Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s decision to cut $150 million from policing to boost health and youth training programs, saying “I applaud Eric Garcetti for doing what he’s done.” Importantly, Harris said this on the same day that the local CBS affiliate reported crime in the City of Angels was up 250 percent in the first week of June.  In May of 2017, she tweeted her support for Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner saying, “progressive prosecutors are key to criminal justice reform like rolling back mass incarceration and ending cash bail.” And she has supported a slew of other pro-criminal, anti-police prosecutors in Chicago, Milwaukee, and elsewhere who have decided to stop prosecuting theft, public drug-use, and other so-called quality of life crimes in the name of social justice.  Further, on June 18, Harris almost gleefully told Late Show host Stephen Colbert that the chaos happening in cities across the county “[is] not going to stop before election day in November and they’re not going to stop after election day. And that should be, everyone should take note of that on both levels that they are not going to let up and they should not.”   But Harris’ radical views on crime and public safety are only the tip of the left–wing radical iceberg. Over her years as California’s top prosecutor and later one of the state’s US Senators, Harris has made many more radical statements – and supported many more radical ideas.  On immigration, she would decriminalize illegal border crossings and offer free health care to every person in the country illegally.  On the environment, she would pass the destructive Green New Deal, ban all fracking, and decimate the American fossil fuel industry. She is so adamant on these issues, she would even ban plastic straws.  But you need not take my word for it. On my latest episode of Newt’s World, we have found a large number of examples of Harris explaining these positions in her own words.  This is important, because anyone who votes for the Biden-Harris ticket will not be voting for moderation or anything close to center. If more than half of likely voters are right, a vote for President Biden is really a vote for President Harris.  That would be a vote for a dramatically more radical, dangerous America. Email Link  https://conta.cc/3mctKc7 Rip McIntosh

“Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your Lord.” (Mic. 6:8)

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September 10, 2020

Most Rev. William P. Callahan

Diocese of La Crosse, WI

Re: Correcting Fr. James Altman 

Dear Bishop Callahan,

Many of us suffering Catholics in America have been reading, watching, and listening intently to Fr. James Altman’s homilies. He is not one to admonish but to honor and celebrate.      

You are a busy man, You Excellency. I do not intend to take up much of your time. But I would hope and pray you allow me to pose these few questions to you, a successor of the apostles of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I do not expect an answer from you personally or from your chancery. From me you can expect my fervent prayers. I believe I am duty bound under Canon 212, §2 and §3 to express some concerns.

What exactly did Fr. Altman do or say to violate his priestly office and to offend you? Did he not speak the truth that the Democratic Party is the party of abortion among other intrinsic moral evils? (See 2020 Democrat Party Platform). Did your brother Bishop, Ordinary of Tyler, Texas, Joseph Strictland, not endorse Fr Altman’s bold words?         
          

“If my support of Father Altman can prompt meaningful conversations and prayerful discernment about these questions, then I am at least beginning to fulfill my role as a pastor of souls and a disciple of Jesus Christ.” (CNA News, Sept. 9^th)

Did our Lord and Savior admonish St. John the Baptist or did He call him the greatest prophet for speaking out boldly? (Mt. 11:11-15)

Did you really mean to counsel Fr. Altman privately which Scripture calls for before publicly taking him out to the woodshed, humiliating him while threatening canonical penalties? (Mt. 18:15-20)        

What about your brother bishop, Archbishop Samuel Aquila of Denver, consistent for years in his strong message that Catholics “cannot support candidates who will advance abortions.”*

In his recent twitter meme, Archbishop Aquila had this say about the Democrat and Republican convention speakers:

“A tale of two nuns. One follows church teaching, one does not. RNC Sister Diedre [Byrne]: As a physician I can unequivocally say life begins at conception. DNC Sister Simone [Campbell]: Abortion is above my pay grade,” the meme stated.*

Should Archbishop Aquila and Bishop Tyler also be taken out to the proverbial woodshed for admonishment and correction by the bishops who comprise the membership of the USCCB?

How can Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Washington, D.C. viscerally berate the Knights of Columbus for allowing the President of the United State and the First Lady to step foot in the St. John Paul II National Shrine a block away from the National Basilica?

He reportedly said in part:

“I find it baffling and reprehensible that any Catholic facility would allow itself to be so egregiously misused and manipulated in a fashion that violates our religious principles, which call us to defend the rights of all people even those with whom we might disagree.”**

Should Archbishop Gregory be censured for misrepresenting the Church and the deeply held values of his brother bishops who appreciate the President’s commitment in support 

of the dignity and sacredness of all human life and in this situation his respect for the Catholic Church by visiting and praying at the national shrine? The archbishop couldn’t even acknowledge that First Lady Melania Trump is Catholic? Why shouldn’t she be allowed to visit the shrine?

Should Archbishop Joseph Naumann, Ordinary of Kansas City, chair of the USCCB’s committee on pro-life activities, also be censured for his praise of the Trump  administration’s strong defense of life in domestic and international policy?*** How can one Catholic bishop (Gregory) and another bishop (Naumann) express such opposing views about the President of the United States?

It is apparent to us Catholics in the pews who are paying attention that the Catholic bishops of America are deeply divided when it comes to national politics. Are the bishops not choosing sides, many obviously hard pressed in containing their personal bias?

Whose side are you on, Your Excellency? With Christ, St. John the Baptist, and the holy archangels or the princes of the world and secular leaders? Please honor and love your priests, especially Fr. James Altman. He is working hard for the Kingdom of God. 

I pray that our Lord and Savior guide you with eternal wisdom, understanding, and heavenly discernment. May you be just, merciful, and righteous in your dealings with your priests, especially Fr. James Altman, who is a great treasure and blessing to the Catholic Church.

Sincerely.

Philip C. Sevilla

San Antonio, TX      

*https://www.lifenews.com/2020/08/31/catholic-bishop-christian-voters-cannot-support-candidates-who-will-advance-abortion/

**https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/jpii-shrine-says-trump-visit-long-scheduled-while-archbishop-gregory-calls-it-reprehensible-23476

***https://www.usccb.org/news/2020/catholic-bishops-pro-life-chairman-praises-trump-administration-ensuring-us-global-health

Words of Mary

September 9, 2020

“This time has been given unto you that you might come to know your Mother

So that when you are beset by difficulty and entrenched in confusion, you will call to me.

It was important that you had this time of coming to know me,

And of understanding that I am always, first and foremost, your Mother.

For soon the time comes and indeed has started when my Son’s Church will forget His Mother,

And when they forget me, then many will find not the way to my Son. 

But you have come to know me, and you will forget not your Mother.

I have brought words again and again to my children.

At times the words have been brought forth, and at other times they have been hidden,

But now is the culmination of all that I have foretold,

And many of my words that have been hidden will now be brushed off and brought forth.

In these days, untruths cascade in a constant flow from Rome,

And make pools in the parishes where my children gather.

A few holy men stand with buckets and attempt to bail out the untruths

So that they hide not the deposit of faith,

But most of my children sit with open mouths, drinking in all that pours over them,

And refusing to pick up buckets and help remove the water.

Soon the water will be so deep that holy men will seek refuge

For they can no longer feed their people in the midst of the water,

And my children will find that they are parched, even while they sit with open mouths.

But refuge will be given, and there my children will be fed.

At a time when unrest in the streets, sickness, and natural disasters might turn men to the Lord,

Men are told instead to turn their attention to the earth from which comes not salvation,

And they are told to relegate me to an inconsequential bystander in the coming of my Son to the world.

But I was chosen by my Son to be His Mother, 

And within my womb was prepared a place for the Light of the World.

My “yes” to the advent of the Christ by being the God-bearer was carried to heaven by an angel,

And the Spirit, who was awaiting my “yes,” swiftly came unto me. 

I had nothing but humility, being human, to offer, but I had been kept unsoiled by sin,

For how could anything unclean carry the Son of God?

But the Spirit, being God, had everything to offer,

And so this union brought forth the One who became all man while remaining all God.

In the coming days, in a sly and subversive manner, those in Rome will try to silence my name,

And they will tell not those who wander that they have a Mother who is the Mother of God.

It is my Son ultimately that they wish to cast aside, and if there is one who is a God-bearer,

Then God must indeed be with man, and He must indeed have come to redeem man,

And this they do not want to be known.

I have brought words of the sanctity of life, but man wanted not these words,

For they have decided that this gift is for some but not for all.

Babies are plucked from their mother’s wombs, and children are sold for pleasure,

And the lives of some men are considered inconsequential and therefore not to be saved.

But this is an abomination before the Lord!

As a call goes out for men to save the earth, souls perish,

And the call for a brotherhood of inclusion is in reality a call to exclude the laws of God,

And therefore many souls will be lost.  

In these times, you must remind men that they have a Mother,

For then in this time of uncertainty they will turn to me, and I will direct them to my Son. 

Evil walks brazenly throughout the world, performing acts of such wickedness that the earth trembles,

And I weep for my children.  

Soon comes a storm that will expose much that has been hidden,

And this will provoke fury on the part of those who have been exposed,

And they will call forth their armies in revenge,

And blood will flow in the streets.

And where are the shepherds who have been called to look after the sheep?

They count their silver and sit snugly in their castles, and their beach houses.

But there are no actions of theirs that God has not seen,

And He will bring fire upon them, and they will be reduced to cinders.

But those who have not wavered but have spoken truth He also sees,

And He will guide them and keep them safe.

Oh children, you have come to know your Mother,

And you will speak my name even when forbidden, and I will be near.

And in the darkness, I will show you the light of my Son,

For I am the God-bearer, and I have carried the light of the world.

It is time now for what is hidden to be illuminated,

And time for men to speak the truth, although it might seem a disobedient act.

For it is to Christ that obedience is owed,

And His truth will vanquish every lie.

It is good that you have come to know your Mother,

For I will point you to my Son,

And in Him is the salvation of mankind.”

-S

SEPTEMBER 9, 2020

‘Catholics for Biden’ Is a Bad Joke

DECLAN LEARY

Catholics for Biden held its national kickoff call on the evening of Thursday, September 3. It was, predictably, an hour-long attempt to make us all forget that the candidate is implicit in—and his party is devoted to—the vilest crime ever perpetrated against humanity. It was a less than brilliant exercise in misdirection.

The distraction was attempted, for the most part, through sheer vagueness. Appeals to “the common good” and “Catholic values” abounded, with very little illumination of just what these words might mean and how they might be realized in political practice.

The first of the evening’s featured speakers was Dick Durbin, the Democratic Whip. The Senator’s comments aimed mainly at stirring up an emotional response to anecdotes about families separated after entering the United States illegally—a practice begun during the Obama-Biden Administration of course. And there is some sense to the senator’s aversion to the practice. As a general rule, we ought to object to state policies that undermine the integrity of the family.

As Democrats tend to do, Dick Durbin ignores the complex reality of the matter. More than ever before in human history, great masses of people are fundamentally unrooted. Countless ancestral homes and homelands stand at existential risk. The powerful, vicious forces behind this mass dislocation have pushed families to the desperation of illegal border crossings and have pushed the world at large to a state of widespread global vagrancy, as the crisis is found not among the migrant poor alone, but among the cosmopolitan elite as well. It is these underlying forces that must be addressed by any politics aiming at the common good. It goes without saying that they are best combated by a doctrine and praxis intent on preservation, stability, and the protection of everything these people feel compelled to leave behind—in a word, conservatism.https://secureaddisplay.com/i/view/js/?Viewable=0&isMobile=0&AULU=31049420180502T2200289306460AB42454C400A8A16937CB3EB93D7&cb=1599670826585&ccvid=973058180&pvid=1970085037

But Mr. Durbin is uninterested in this solution. Instead, he seeks to tweak the legal processes by which we address a symptom of the crisis. Substantive change is shunned; all that matters is a sentimental payoff from the self-assured feeling that we’ve won some small comfort for the sufferers we see. Let the places they come from burn, and let the places they come to sink. Just make sure we tout our “Catholic values” in the meantime.

After accusing President Trump of stirring up racism amid these last few months of riots, Mr. Durbin challenged his captive audience: “Tell me that is consistent with any moral teaching of any church on earth, let alone the Catholic Church.” Beside the dubious nature of the underlying claim, the squishy universalism of the overture is telling. This isn’t even about our undefined “Catholic values”: it’s a blind stab at “any moral teaching of any church on earth.” All that matters is a hazy appeal to some thing called faith in the focus groups.

I cannot profess to know Dick Durbin’s heart. But it would not be improper to call into question his public allegiance (or lack thereof) to the tenets of our faith. Since 2004, Senator Durbin has been barred by his bishop from receiving Communion due to his fanatical support of abortion. The immediate cause of the prohibition was Mr. Durbin’s refusal to vote against partial birth abortion—a gruesome variation on the already evil act, in which a child is partially delivered before being killed. Thanks be to God, the bill outlawing it was passed, despite the best efforts of this prominent Catholic for Biden. Never mind the heretic sects—try telling me this is consistent with the moral teaching of the one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church.

Tim Shriver, a former president of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, accidentally called attention to the disconnect when he shared the fruits of his Google search for “Catholic social teaching.” “Our bishops tell us that a basic moral test for a society is how our most vulnerable members fare,” he reports. It might burst Mr. Shriver’s bubble to recall that our most vulnerable members are currently kept in bins in a back room at his local Planned Parenthood. Are their corpses the cost of our Bidenic common good?

❧

The vague platitudes that prevailed throughout the event received their deepest exploration in the brief remarks of Peter Kellner. Mr. Kellner, a lawyer and entrepreneur with more salt than pepper in his hair, is a year older than my father and a featured speaker on the call’s “Young Catholics” panel. (The other “young” Catholics, it seems, are at least on the right side of the half-century mark.)

In defending his endorsement, Mr. Kellner told us, “Joe Biden represents all the things that my Catholicism teaches me,” listing humility, reflection, interest in social justice, open-mindedness, global interest, and intellectual curiosity.

Sure, some of these things coincide with the fundamentals of our faith. But the list as a whole seems like it was lifted from the mission statement of a self-indulgent NGO or the orientation pamphlet of a very expensive liberal arts college. If those are all the things your Catholicism has taught you, then someone along the way has failed you miserably.

A slightly more religious veneer was slapped onto the list in the remarks of Sister Simone Campbell, SSS. She was the big-ticket speaker of the night, given the non-appearance of Mr. Biden himself. (Make what you will of the fact that Catholics for Joe Biden cannot seem to count among its ranks Joe Biden.) Sister Simone is a longtime professional activist with a remarkable skill for locating progressive dogma writ in minute script between the lines of magisterial teaching.

Early in her remarks, Sister Simone admonished a large chunk of her audience. “White Catholics have gotten it wrong in the past,” apparently referring to their failure to vote for her preferred, left-wing candidates—and implicitly recalling the understudied doctrine of ethnic infallibility.

As she went on, the would-be nun repeated again and again that Catholics are “multi-issue voters,” a carefully crafted euphemism for “keep killing babies, as long as the government pays for it, and for everything else.” It wasn’t long before the mask came off: “In fact, the reversal of Roe v. Wade, the outlawing of abortion, has never been our faith.” Well, that’s just untrue. There’s no gray area here, and no line-blurring or strategic vagueness. It’s a lie and a scandal, plain and simple. The moral seriousness of the mere possibility that listeners might believe her outrageous claim cannot be overstated.

Throughout, Sister Simone peddled liberally in the left-wing Catholic’s favorite tool—a cartoon depiction of Pope Francis as some hippie warrior for the pet causes of American progressives. She pointed listeners to a website her lobbying group has created, called popefrancisvoter.org. It provides a quiz that purports to compare the respondent’s values with Pope Francis’s, and then to compare both with the respective candidates’ values. Absent, of course, is any reference to the Holy Father’s belief that fighting abortion is the “preeminent issue” in modern politics, or that abortionists are Nazis “with white gloves.” Rather, the nine questions essentially amount to nine variations on “Do you have basic human decency?” with about as much nuance as was on display in Thursday’s call. My result was:

You agree with Biden. Your Catholic Voter Score is 100 percent.

Joe Biden shares your Catholic priorities. His policies will protect people in poverty, the elderly, and migrants and reject racism. You are a Pope Francis Voter, and you must prioritize these sacred issues in the voting booth this November.

Funny how that works.

❧

Sister Simone borrowed at length, too, from Pope Francis’s encyclical Evangelii Gaudium:

I beg the Lord to grant us more politicians who are genuinely disturbed by the state of society, the people, the lives of the poor. It is vital that government leaders take heed and broaden their horizons, working to ensure that all citizens have dignified work, education, healthcare. We must turn to our God and ask the Divine to inspire their plans.

I have my share of reservations about President Trump, and I have never hesitated to speak or publish them. But nobody can deny that he is very much disturbed by the state of society. While many might like to, we cannot deny that he represents a massive movement aimed at reform (though not the kind of reform that Sister Simone or Senator Durbin might prefer) and centered on concern for the common people—with significant contingents explicitly concerned with reordering society toward the common good.

Joe Biden, meanwhile, is the status quo—and stasis—personified. He is not just content with the current state of affairs. He is, as one of the nation’s leading politicians over the last half a century, largely responsible for it. We can expect under a Biden presidency no changes—at least no chances in the right direction—to the social evils that currently plague us, among which abortion remains the uncontested worst. We can expect, at best, limp gestures at “Catholic values” like open-mindedness and global interest while the bloodstain on our nation grows.

“I beg the Lord to grant us more politicians who are genuinely disturbed by the state of society.”

It would have taken a great deal of searching—more than either I or Sister Simone might care to undertake—to find a more compelling Catholic rebuke of Mr. Biden’s candidacy.

[Photo credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images News]

Tagged as 2020 election, Dick Durbin, Joe Biden, Sister Simone Campbellhttps://www.facebook.com/v2.10/plugins/like.php?action=like&app_id=485814248461205&channel=https%3A%2F%2Fstaticxx.facebook.com%2Fx%2Fconnect%2Fxd_arbiter%2F%3Fversion%3D46%23cb%3Df291c69c3ccc29c%26domain%3Dwww.crisismagazine.com%26origin%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.crisismagazine.com%252Ff2152053a391192%26relation%3Dparent.parent&container_width=660&href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.crisismagazine.com%2F2020%2Fcatholics-for-biden-is-a-bad-joke&layout=button_count&locale=en_US&sdk=joey&share=true&show_faces=false111

By Declan Leary

Declan Leary is the Collegiate Network Fellow at The American Conservative and a graduate of John Carroll University.

New post on Roma Locuta Est

Can you be Catholic but not Christian?by Edward J. BarrSeptember 9, 2020 (Edward J. Barr) – We live in an age where self-definition supersedes reality.  Hence, a man can say he is a woman, and the government defends his right to maintain his personal delusion, and also forces others to accede to the insanity. The question of self-definition emerged as a result of a discussion on the “non-negotiables” that should be considered by Catholic voters (see https://romalocutaest.com/2020/07/29/are-the-5-non-negotiables-really-non-negotiable/). What to do when individuals claim to be Catholic but oppose all or most of the “non-negotiables,” while those who are not Catholic support them.  Do labels really matter in 2020 politics?  Perhaps not.The issue of religious self-definition has occurred in the past.  Most recently, when Mitt Romney ran for president in 2012 some questioned whether a Mormon is a Christian.  After all, the full title of the religion states it is the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  If it says so it must be true, right?  Alas, any cursory examination of the tenants of the Mormon church reveals that their beliefs are not Christian; most importantly that Jesus was a man before he was a “god”.  The Trinity and other Christian beliefs are also rejected.  Yet during that presidential campaign numerous commentators and political allies and opponents alike agreed that if one says they are a Christian it must be true.  Who are we to judge? So, if someone adheres to beliefs contrary to Catholic teaching but calls themself Catholic, are they?  What is “Catholic teaching,” anyway? It can be found in the Catechism. The Catholic Church was created in part to guard and present the deposit of Christian doctrine.  The Catechism provides details of what it is to be Christian, beginning with the profession of faith, the Creed.  This is the basis of what we believe, and the Catechism provides greater depth in subsequent parts, incorporating the celebration of the Christian mystery (sacraments), living a life in Christ, and Christian prayer. What about non-Catholic Christians.  Where do they look to determine who is a Christian?  You’ll probably get as many difference answers as they are Protestant denominations.  Many of the creeds of the traditional Protestant denominations have elements of the Nicene creed, but some churches have vastly different interpretations of what it means to be a Christian.  What this means is that it is easy to be a “Christian,” given the numerous different meaning of the term by followers of Jesus Christ.  Just pick a Church that agrees with your viewpoint.Is being a Catholic more difficult?  It appears to be, in that the Catechism is so detailed.  Yet the Catechism contains all the guidance necessary to live a life of abundant happiness – which is living one’s life in Christ.  In some ways it is easier to be Catholic than any other Christian denomination since the Church is truly the body of Christ, being one, holy, catholic and apostolic.  It will not and cannot teach error.  We can be confident in following its teaching.Therefore, the answer to the opening question is no, you can’t be Catholic and not a Christian.  If you are Catholic you are a Christian.  But, if I call myself Catholic but violate most of its most important teachings, including on non-negotiable issues, am I a Catholic?  If I act as a pseudo-priest for a homosexual wedding, and promise to use taxpayer money to pay for abortion on demand, and seek to force Catholic institutions to fund abortion and contraception, am I a Catholic?At least as much a Catholic as Mitt Romney is a Christian!Edward J Barr is a Catechist, an attorney, an intelligence officer, a Marine, and a university faculty member. He has just completed his studies for a Master’s degree in theology from the Augustine Institute. Mr. Barr is a contributing writer for the Roma Locuta Est blog (www.RomaLocutaEst.com)Edward J. Barr | September 9, 2020 at 1:17 pm | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: https://wp.me/p7YMML-6oC