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Our Lady of Knock - August 21st |
Posted by: Stone - 08-21-2022, 06:33 AM - Forum: Our Lady
- Replies (14)
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Our Lady of Knock - August 21st
A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE STORY OF OUR LADY OF KNOCK, QUEEN OF IRELAND
On the evening of August 21, 1879 Mary McLoughlin, the housekeeper to the parish priest of Knock, County Mayo, Ireland, was astonished to see the outside south wall of the church bathed in a mysterious light; there were three figures standing in front of the wall, which she mistook for replacements of the stone figures destroyed in a storm. She rushed through the rain to her friend Margaret Byrne's house.
After a half hour Mary decided to leave and Margaret's sister Mary agreed to walk home with her. As they passed the church they saw and amazing vision very clearly: Standing out from the gable and to the west of it appeared the Blessed Virgin, St. Joseph and St. John. The figure of the Blessed Virgin was life-size, while the others seemed to be neither as large nor as tall. They stood a little away from the gable wall about two feet from the ground. The Virgin was erect with her eyes toward Heaven, and she was wearing a large white cloak hanging in full folds; on her head was a large crown.
Mary Byrne ran to tell her family while Mary McLoughlin gazed at the apparition. Soon a crowd gathered and all saw the apparition. The parish priest, Archdeacon Cavanaugh, did not come out, however, and his absence was a disappointment to the devout villagers. Among the witnesses were Patrick Hill and John Curry. As Patrick later described the scene: 'The figures were fully rounded, as if they had a body and life. They did not speak but, as we drew near, they retreated a little towards the wall.' Patrick reported that he got close enough to make out the words in the book held by the figure of St. John.
An old woman named Bridget trench drew closer to embrace the feet of the Virgin, but the figure seemed always beyond reach. Others out in the fields and some distance away saw a strange light around the church. The vision lasted for about three hours and then faded.
The next day a group of villagers went to see the priest, who accepted the their report as genuine; he wrote to the diocesan Bishop of Tuam; then the Church set up a commission to interview a number of the people claiming to witness the apparition. The diocesan hierarchy was not convinced, and some members of the commission ridiculed the visionaries, alleging they were victims of a hoax perpetrated by the local Protestant constable! But the ordinary people were not so skeptical, and the first pilgrimages to knock began in 1880. Two years later Archbishop John Joseph Lynch of Toronto made a visit to the parish and claimed he had been healed by the Virgin of Knock.
In due course many of the witnesses died. But Mary Byrne married, raised six children, living her entire life in Knock. When interviewed again in 1936 at the age of eighty-six, her account did not vary from the first report she gave in 1879.
The village of Knock was transformed by the thousands who came to commemorate the vision and to ask for healing for others and themselves. The local church was too small to accommodate the crowds. In 1976 a new church, Our Lady Queen of Ireland, was erected. It holds more than two thousand and needs to, for each year more than a half million visitors arrive to pay their respects to the Blessed Virgin.
The Church approved the the apparition in 1971 as being quite probable, although it has never been formally stated. The Shrine at Knock is opened year round. In 1994 three life-sized statues were erected of Our Lady, St. Joseph and St. John.
It is this web master's opinion that the Apparition is more than probable, it is authentic; I believe that Our Lady was warning us about the changes in the Mass coming in the next century, in which much Catholic doctrine would be silenced, that is removed from the Mass itself. The marked decline in church attendance and knowledgeable Catholics provide ample evidence for such a thesis arising not only in this Catholic's mind but others', including some priests.
THE HAIL MARY IN GAELIC
Sé do bheath' a Mhuire, atá lán de ghrásta, tá an Tiarna leat.
Is beannaithe thú idir mná agus is beannaithe toradh do bhruinne losa.
A Naomh Mhuire, a mháthair Dé, guí orainn na peacaithe, anois is ar uair ar mbás. Amen.
ELEVENTH CENTURY IRISH LITANY IN HONOR OF MARY
Great Mary,
Greatest of Marys,
Greatest of Women,
Mother of Eternal Glory,
Mother of the Golden Light,
Honor of the Sky,
Temple of the Divinity,
Fountain of the Gardens,
Serence as the Moon,
Bright as the Sun,
Garden Enclosed,
Temple of the Living God,
Light of Nazareth,
Beauty of the World,
Queen of Life,
Ladder of Heaven,
Mother of God.
Pray for us.
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UN Recruited Over 100,000 ‘Digital First Responders’ to Push Establishment COVID Narrative |
Posted by: Stone - 08-20-2022, 06:17 AM - Forum: Global News
- No Replies
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UN Recruited Over 100,000 ‘Digital First Responders’ to Push Establishment COVID Narrative
October 2020 admission gets fresh attention.
Summit News | 18 August, 2022
At the height of the pandemic, the United Nations recruited over 100,000 “digital first responders’ to push the establishment narrative on COVID via social media.
The revelation actually slipped out in October 2020 during a World Economic Forum podcast called ‘Seeking a cure for the infodemic’, although it is only going viral on Twitter today.
In the podcast, Melissa Fleming, head of global communications for the United Nations, explains how the COVID pandemic and lockdowns created a “communications crisis” in addition to a public health emergency.
Fleming acknowledged that in order to fight so-called “misinformation” about the pandemic, the UN tapped up 110,000 people to amplify their messaging across social media.
“So far, we’ve recruited 110,000 information volunteers, and we equip these information volunteers with the kind of knowledge about how misinformation spreads and ask them to serve as kind of ‘digital first-responders’ in those spaces where misinformation travels,” Fleming stated.
That was nearly 2 years ago. It is not known how many ‘digital first responders’ have been recruited up to this point.
Similar efforts to create astroturf campaigns to push a specific message are nothing new, but when entities such as oil companies engage in it, they are lambasted for rigging the discussion.
However, when globalist technocrats at the UN or the WEF do it, apparently it’s fine.
Last year, it was revealed that the British government used “propagandistic” fear tactics to scare the public into mass compliance during the first COVID lockdown, according to a behavioral scientist who worked inside Downing Street.
Scientists in the UK working as advisors for the government admitted using what they later conceded to be “unethical” and “totalitarian” methods of instilling fear in the population in order to control behavior during the pandemic.
As we previously highlighted, the World Economic Forum is now advocating for the merger of human and artificial intelligence systems to censor “hate speech” and “misinformation” online before it is even allowed to be posted.
In what some dubbed “preemptive censorship,” the WEF is creating a system that would block posts from appearing if they fail the censorship filter.
Of course, the WEF, which is infamous for blocking its critics on Twitter, would never abuse such a system to shield itself from scrutiny.
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Something Is Looming Geopolitically, And We Better Start Taking It Seriously |
Posted by: Stone - 08-20-2022, 06:08 AM - Forum: Great Reset
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Something Is Looming Geopolitically, And We Better Start Taking It Seriously
ZH [emphasis in the original] | AUG 19, 2022
Authored by 'Sundance' via The Last Refuge blog,
As a result of western governments’ taking collective action under the auspices of a ‘climate change’ agenda, we are on the cusp of something happening with ramifications that no one has ever seen before.
Western governments’, specifically western Europe, North America (U.S-Canada) and Australia/New Zealand, are intentionally trying to lower economic activity to meet the intentional drop in energy production.
This is the core consequence of the Build Back Better agenda as promoted by the World Economic Forum.
Anyone who says there is a reference point to determine both the short-term and long-term consequences is lying. There is no precedent for nations’ collectively and intentionally trying to reduce economic activity.
Hiding behind the false justification that current inflation is driven by too much demand, central banks in Europe, the Bank of England, Bank of Canada and U.S. federal reserve are raising interest rates. The outcome we are currently feeling is an intentional economic contraction and global recession.
The Build Back Better monetary policy is successfully shrinking western economic activity; however, the impacted nations that produce goods for markets in North America and Europe, specifically southeast Asia, Japan and China, are not raising interest rates in an effort to try and offset the drop in demand. China has announced they are dropping their central bank rates in a desperate effort to lower costs and keep their export dependent economy working.
Underneath all of this, is a drop in energy production in the same nations trying to lower economic activity. The political policymakers are attempting to manage this process without informing the citizens of the unspoken goal. Shortages of oil, coal and natural gas are self-inflicted problems, all part of the BBB agenda.
Beyond the massive increases in energy costs, which is the true source of inflation and a direct/intentional outcome of the BBB effort, Europe is now facing a looming winter without the energy resources to heat homes and sustain people. Things are going to be very uncomfortable in Europe this winter as roaming brownouts are now predicted.
As the collective west attempts to, using their words, “manage the transition,” they do not have mechanisms to control an outcome of this magnitude. It is simply too big a situation to manage. Where the rubber meets the road, the think-tanks and high-minded climate change ideologues do not have the ability to manage a transition and still meet the needs of people. Beyond the esoteric thinking, there are real consequences from these actions.
Many people have discussed the potential for longer-term food shortages and recently, shorter-term winter heating. However, beyond that, the downstream geopolitical consequences are seemingly being ignored. Instead, what we see is an effort to keep pretending the climate change ends will justify the means (disruption of energy production).
In this connected world, when the western nations stop buying things, we find ourselves domestically with economic trouble. Businesses fail, unemployment rises, financial stress ripples throughout the economy, dependency on government subsidy increases and real pain is felt. However, beyond the domestic issues the supplier nations run into even bigger problems.
Unemployment in Malaysia, Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and even China, creates an entirely different set of regional stability issues on a geopolitical level.
There is no precedent for this. Never before in the history of industrialized nations has any government intentionally tried to lower its economic activity. It has never been done with intent before because within the contraction nations get more poor, people suffer.
Not only has no single nation ever tried to intentionally shrink its wealth, but there is no precedent whatsoever for an alliance of nations to join together with the same purpose. While this might seem like an academic economic modeling exercise, unfortunately it is very real. What I am describing is happening right now, and we had better start talking about it before the unforeseen consequences start to become a crisis.
In North America (U.S-Canada), Europe and Australia, there will continue to be massive increases in food prices as a result of the collapse in energy production. Beyond the western nations there will be food shortages as a result of lowered harvest yields and less industrial food production. This is not controversial.
It is also not controversial that regions with harsh winter climates are going to be paying much more for scarce heating resources.
That being accepted, what happens geopolitically, even militarily, when the entire global economy starts to feel the impacts from western nation economic contraction on a scale -created by collective action- that has never been seen before.
I have no idea what that big picture consequence looks like, but whatever “that” is, will be happening at the same time as people everywhere will be more desperate as an outcome of their economic position. I don’t have the answers, but I sure as hell can see the problem coming.
Political leadership in the aforementioned western nations are seemingly, perhaps intentionally, keeping people distracted with domestic shiny things to occupy time. However, someone needs to start talking about, and seriously challenging, the big picture consequence of this Build Back Better future, before it’s too late.
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World Economic Forum adviser Yuval Harari is a Marxist who believes there is no truth, only power |
Posted by: Stone - 08-20-2022, 06:02 AM - Forum: Great Reset
- No Replies
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World Economic Forum adviser Yuval Harari is a Marxist who believes there is no truth, only power
World Economic Forum adviser Yuval Harari openly rejects objective values such as human rights,
calling them 'fictions' or 'stories,' and is unusually fixated on power.
Yuval Noah Harari
Aug 18, 2022
(LifeSiteNews) – Yuval Noah Harari is rightly regarded by the thinking population as one of the most dangerous intellectuals alive.
The World Economic Forum adviser has already won notoriety for his dehumanizing statements, dystopian predictions, and his role in an organization that appears to be hastening their fulfillment (think digital contact tracing to curb disease).
But how can we know people aren’t simply overreacting to a caricature of Harari?
The answer boils down to this question: If, in Harari’s eyes, we are no higher than the animals, and the “vast majority” of the world’s population is now unnecessary, where does that leave us?
In plain sight, he has given us a foreboding clincher to the formula for unbridled tyranny. Harari believes in what is understood to be a fundamental tenet of cultural Marxism: There is no truth, only power.
That is, Harari believes there is no “truth” in the most consequential and dangerous possible way. While he acknowledges there is an objective scientific reality, Harari has openly rejected the existence of objective values. He thus rejects firm values, such as the sanctity of human life, as a foundation for society and its laws.
He made this clear in a recent interview with Chris Anderson, head of the TED media group, the same interview in which he infamously declared that the world does not need the “vast majority” of its population.
In their discussion, Harari tellingly described societal values as “fictions” or “stories,” citing human rights as one such example. He said that human rights are “not a biological fact,” but a “story we have constructed.”
In fact, Harari has previously gone so far as to claim that “Homo sapiens is a post-truth species, whose power depends on creating and believing fictions.”
The import of his belief becomes disturbingly clearer in his interview with Anderson, when he appears to totally distance himself from human rights as a fixed principle.
When Anderson again brings up human rights, also describing them as a “human construction,” Harari interjects and speaks of it in the past tense, pointedly suggesting inalienable rights are not a timelessly applicable principle:
“It was a very good story…But it’s also dangerous to confuse a story we have constructed in a particular historical setting and think that we can just apply it to any other historical period or to any other political and geographical location today in the world.”
Harari (and Anderson) are so sophisticated, they have transcended the idea of human rights! In fact, their belief is a natural consequence of atheism, which makes arbitrary any belief in objective values.
Harari’s cultural Marxist claim that power has usurped truth has been strongly suggested in his past articles and interviews, such as when he claimed that science is about power and not truth, or when he wrote that “as a species, humans prefer power to truth.”
This concerning belief is also suggested in Harari’s interview with Anderson, when the latter asks, “Isn’t it possible that some of these stories [read: values] are truer than others?” and mentions science as something he doesn’t want to believe “is just another story.”
Immediately, Harari gravitates to the subject of power, answering, “No, science isn’t. We need to differentiate two types of power in history. You have the power over objective reality, like to build bridges, or cure diseases, or building an atom bomb. And then you have the power over humans and their subjective feelings, their imagination, making them believe in something.”
Harari is signaling here that he sees the entire spectrum of reality through the lens of power rather than truth, even his “objective” realm of science. Also revealing is the importance he places on power over the human will, via the “feelings” and “imagination.”
When his ideas here are pieced together, one can see Harari’s culturally Marxist worldview emerge: those in power can manipulate society’s values to their own ends, and with no such thing as objective values — including human rights — society is enslaved to the arbitrary ideas and whims of its rulers.
In 2018, Harari wrote, “Truth and power can travel together only so far. Sooner or later they go their separate ways. If you want power, at some point you will have to spread fictions. If you want to know the truth about the world, at some point you will have to renounce power. You will have to admit things – for example about the sources of your own power – that will anger allies, dishearten followers or undermine social harmony.”
“As a species, humans prefer power to truth. We spend far more time and effort on trying to control the world than on trying to understand it – and even when we try to understand it, we usually do so in the hope that understanding the world will make it easier to control it. Therefore, if you dream of a society in which truth reigns supreme and myths are ignored, you have little to expect from Homo sapiens. Better try your luck with chimps.”
Considering Harari’s position as adviser to the head of the World Economic Forum, which has massive government and corporate influence, we should further ask: What does this statement by Harari say about himself, and the WEF?
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Letter of Saint Bernard to Guigo, the Prior, and to the other monks of the Grande Chartreuse |
Posted by: Stone - 08-20-2022, 05:51 AM - Forum: The Saints
- No Replies
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Letter of Saint Bernard to Guigo, the Prior, and to the other monks of the Grande Chartreuse
Saint Bernard of Clarivaux visits Guigo I at the Charterhouse (Vicente Carducho)
Source: The Letters of St Bernard of Clairvaux, Bruno Scott James, Burns Oates, 1953. In: Lectionary for Matins – Sanctoral B – 20 August – Readings 1 to 8 (Saint Hugh’s Charterhouse 2021)
I received the letters of your Holiness with a delight equalled only by my longing eagerness for them. I have read them and mused upon them and they have fired my heart like so many sparks from the fire which the Lord came to spread over the earth. How great must have been the fire burning in your meditations to have sent out such sparks as these! Your burning and kindling greeting seemed to me, I confess, to have come, not from man, but from him who sent word to Jacob. It was no ordinary greeting such as one gives in passing on the road, or from habit; I could feel it came from the heart, a welcome and unexpected benison. May the Lord bless you for troubling to meet me, your child, with such a blessing in your letter to me that you have given me the courage to write back to you, after I had for so long wanted to, but not dared. For I was loath to harass your holy peace in the Lord, to disturb even for one moment your unbroken silence from the world, by my uncalled-for scribbling.
I rejoice on my own account and on yours; I congratulate you on your charity, and myself on the profit my soul has derived from it. For that is true and sincere charity to be attributed entirely to a pure heart and unfeigned faith which leads us to love our neighbours’ good as well as our own. The man who loves his own good in preference to his neighbours’ good or who loves only his own good proves, by the very fact that his love is not disinterested, that he does not love the good with a chaste love. Such a one could not obey the Prophet when he says: Praise the Lord because he is good. He may praise the Lord because he is good to himself, but not because he is Goodness itself. And he should know that the same Prophet is casting a reproach at him for this when he says: He will praise you when you do well to him. There are those who praise the Lord because he is powerful, and these are slaves and fearful for themselves; there are those who praise him because he is good to them, and these are hirelings seeking themselves; and there are those who praise him because he is Goodness itself, and these are sons doing homage to their father.
Both those who fear for themselves and those who seek themselves are acting only for themselves; only the love of a son seeks not itself. On this account, I think that the words The Law of God is unspotted refer to charity, because it alone can turn the heart from love of self and the world, and direct it to God alone. Neither fear nor love of self can turn the soul to God; they may sometimes change the aspect or influence the actions of a man, but they will never change his heart. Even the slave sometimes does God’s work, but because he does not do it willingly he proves that his heart is still hard. And the hireling too will sometimes do God’s work, but because he only does it for reward, he is known to be attracted only by his greed. Where there is self-seeking, there too is self-esteem; where there is self-esteem, there too is private interest; and where private interest makes a corner for itself there rust and filth will collect. Let fear itself be the law of a slave, by it he is bound; let greed be for the hireling his law, by it he also is confined when by it he is led off and enticed away. Neither of these two laws is unspotted, neither can turn the soul to God; only charity can do this, because she alone can render a soul disinterested.
I would call his charity unspotted who never keeps anything of his own for himself. When a man keeps nothing of his own for himself everything he has is God’s, and what is God’s cannot be unclean. Therefore the unspotted law of God is charity, which seeks not what may benefit itself, but what may benefit many. Charity is called the law of the Lord, either because the Lord himself lives by it or else because none may have it except by his gift. Let it not seem absurd that I should have said that even God lives by law, for I have also said that the law is nothing else but charity. What else but charity preserves that supreme and unspeakable unity in the blessed Trinity? Charity is therefore a law, and it is the law of the Lord holding together, as it were, the Trinity and binding it in the bonds of peace. Yet let no one think that I speak of charity here as if it were a quality or something accidental to the Godhead, as if I were saying may it be far from me to say any such thing! that there was something in God which is not God; but I say that charity is the divine substance itself. And there is nothing new or strange about this, for Saint John himself has said, God is charity.
The Spirit bears witness to my spirit that while your law is also mine, I too am one of your sons; and as you are, so also may I be in this world. For it is certain that those who fulfil the words of the Apostle and owe no man anything except to love him are in this world even as God; not hirelings nor yet slaves but sons. Therefore neither are the sons of God free from law, unless anyone should think differently on account of the words. The law is not made for the just. But it should be understood that the law promulgated in fear by the spirit of slavery is one thing, and the law given graciously by the spirit of liberty is quite another. Sons are not bound by the former, but neither are they suffered to live without the latter.
Good and sweet is the law of charity, not only light to bear, but also an easement of the law of slaves and hirelings. For it does not destroy these laws, it brings them to perfection, according to our Lord’s words: I have not come to set aside the law, but to bring it to perfection. Tempering the one and controlling the other, it eases both. Charity will never be without fear, but a chaste fear; nor ever without self-interest, but an ordered self-interest. It brings the law of the slave to perfection by inspiring it with devotion; and also the law of the hireling, by controlling self-interest. When devotion is mixed with fear it does not nullify it, but amends it; it takes from it the anguish which it never lacks when it is servile, and renders it chaste and filial. The words Perfect charity casts out fear must be understood as meaning that it removes the anguish which, as I have said, is never lacking to fear so long as it is servile. It is a common mode of speech, putting the cause for the effect.
And the self-interest inherent in the law of the hireling is controlled by charity, so that it entirely rejects what is evil, prefers what is better to what is good, and what is good only for the sake of what is better. And, when this is fully effected in the soul by the grace of God, the body and all created good are only loved for the sake of the soul, and the soul only for the sake of God, and God for his own sake. Because we are flesh and blood born of the desire of the flesh, our desire or love must start in the flesh, and it will then, if properly directed, progress under grace by certain stages until it is fulfilled in the spirit for that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; afterwards that which is spiritual, and we must first bear the image which is earthly and afterwards that which is heavenly. At first a man loves himself for his own sake. He is flesh and is able only to know himself. When he sees that he cannot subsist of himself, then he begins by faith to seek and love God as necessary to himself. And so in the second stage he loves God, not yet for God s sake, but for his own sake.
However when, on account of his own necessity, he begins to meditate, read, pray, and obey, he becomes accustomed little by little to know God and consequently to delight in him. When he has tasted and found how sweet is the Lord he passes to the third stage wherein he loves God for God’s sake and not for his own. And here he remains, for I doubt whether the fourth stage has ever been fully reached in this life by any man, the stage, that is, wherein a man loves himself only for God’s sake. Let those say who have experienced it; I confess that to me it seems impossible. It will come about, doubtless, when the good and faithful servant shall have been brought into the joy of his Lord and become inebriated with the fullness of the house of God. For he will then be wholly lost in God as one inebriated and henceforth cleave to him as if one in spirit with him, forgetful, in a wonderful manner, of himself and, as it were, completely out of himself.
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Bishop Williamson Promotes Grave Errors in Interview August 2022 |
Posted by: BVMcrusader - 08-18-2022, 11:40 AM - Forum: True vs. False Resistance
- Replies (11)
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For those who think Bishop Williamson no longer holds or preaches grave errors, that he might have changed his position, or that most of his material is good, his interview on Friends of Aquinas, with E. Michael, Jones, this month of August, 2022, should be enough to confirm that His Excellency has fallen into further and more grave errors and that, for the love of his soul and those who are influenced by him, we must pray and sacrifice for him and for the fake resistance more than ever. I have heard it said that, perhaps, Bishop Williamson "does not mean to be in error or does not mean what he says" which is to promote the same errors of subjectivism and modernism that he promotes. Whether he means to be in error or not, the fact is that he IS in grave error and must be opposed. He cannot claim ignorance, as he had Archbishop Lefebvre as his teacher and spiritual father whose very reason for founding the SSPX was to oppose what Bishop Williamson now promotes. He also has Fr. Hewko, Fr. Ruiz, Fr. Rafael and several other true Resistant priests who, out of love for his soul, continually remind him of the Truth and his duty to preach it in season and out of season.
For those who say we do not know what Bishop Zendejas is thinking because he is silent, remember that the enemy who keeps his hand hidden is the most dangerous. Furthermore, not to condemn error is to condone it. One can readily see the two bishops working in union together, along with Bishops Faure and Aquinas, who do not tolerate criticism of Bishop Williamson. They ordain priests for the same monasteries and for their fake resistance, and they work together. They allow a discussion forum, filled with slander, calumnies and detraction against clergy, to call itself their official mouthpiece. We left the SSPX in order not to work with those who are leading us back to apostate Rome through the front door. The fake resistance, through Bishop Williamson, leads souls back to error through a back door. Bishop Williamson, in this very interview, encourages the interviewer to go to his local SSPX priest who will certainly know who the "conservative Novus Ordo priests" are within the diocese in order to make a referral. Bishop Zendejas, to my own knowledge, has told a priest that his brother (also a priest) should remain in the SSPX. Until he makes known his position and separates himself from the errors of Bishop Williamson, he is equally to be avoided.
The above mentioned interview can be found here:
Note: The most grave errors, and there are many, are found in the second hour. My timestamps are not exact, but I have marked the time when said errors begin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=casxXTtQFPs
1:00:45 - Life is not black and white and, in the Novus Ordo, you've got a measure of black and white. There are a number of decent priests working as such inside the Novus Ordo. Because you've had a bad experience in the Novus Ordo doesn't mean everything is "black". If you look for one somewhere in your area, you'll find a decent Novus Ordo priest who is just waiting to hear properly a young man's confession.
There's a bunch of garbage inside the head of Benedict XVI, but at the same time there's some good will, there always has been and, to this day, there still is in the heart of Benedict XVI good will.
1:05:50 - If you look in your diocese, you'll find a network of at least a handful of young priests looking to say the old Mass. (At this point, the interviewer is appalled and asks if we are to put our souls in danger sifting through the Novus Ordo, hoping to find a decent Novus Ordo priest ....he also questions how this can be possible since the new rite of ordination is doubtful to begin with. He mentions "Mystici Corporis" of Pius XII wherein it is proclaimed that the Faith must be held entire and inviolate, which is not the case with the Novus Ordo. Bishop Williamson says we are in different times! He says that is "objectively" true, but at the time that was written, there was not today's raging subjectivism. Souls of goodwill cannot understand dogma now. How can they profess what they don't know and have never been taught? A lot of Novus Ordo priests have never known tradition. (This is making a totally subjective and impossible judgement as to the state of each priest's goodwill and state of soul.) This is PURE MODERNISM by Bishop Williamson! What he is saying, in so many words, is that TIMES HAVE CHANGED and that THE CONSTANT PRACTICE OF HOLY MOTHER CHURCH NO LONGER APPLIES! It is exactly for times like these that the Church has developed its praxis and admonished the flock never to depart from the received and approved traditions.
1:12:40 - Bishop Williamson's analysis of the validity of the Novus Ordo rites of ordination of priests and consecration of bishops is a further disaster. First off, let us dispose of his discussion of the "intention" of the minister. Pope Leo XIII, in his declaration concerning Anglican ordinations, clearly enunciated the traditional teaching of the Church, which is that the sacraments operate "ex opera operato." That means the sacraments operate independently of the intentions or desires of the minister, so long as the minister performs the sacrament according to the valid formula and ritual. The Church does not, because it cannot, judge the intention, except if a contrary intention is manifested outwardly by. It does not matter whether the bishop in his heart of hearts is Catholic, a heretic, in the state of mortal sin, or a future canonized saint.. So long as he employs proper matter and form, his actions are valid, and to believe or state otherwise is the heresy of Donatism. All of this straining by Bishop Williamson, the fake resistance and the SSPX to determine whether a bishop is orthodox (and, therefore, has Catholic "intentions"), so as to decide whether a priest has been validly ordained, similarly smacks of Donatism.
Bishop Williamson also fails to distinguish that the Novus Ordo rite of episcopal consecration gravely departs from the formula in Sacramentum Ordinis and, therefore, renders those bishops consecrated by said rite as doubtfully valid. Bishop Williamson admits the rite is ambiguous and "dancing on the edge of invalidity", but then says the immediate context can settle ambiguity.
1:19:20 - The interviewer states he will only receive sacraments from certainly valid priests who are also not imposing any heresy. Bishop Williamson says again that you can look for an older priest in your diocese and that you'll also find a network of young priests who, in private, will tell you what they really think...they want tradition.
1:23 - The poor interviewer objects again that Vatican II is a protestant religion where people believe abortion and homosexuality are okay in some circumstances...and you're telling me to wade in this cesspool to maybe find a priest to hear my confession? This Church is fake, protestant, communist!
1:29:00 - Bishop Williamson says the Novus Ordo is a half poisoned cake. But if it's only half poisoned, that means there's a half that's not poisoned and, if you use your mind, you can distinguish what is poison and what is not. (Yes, he really said that. What happened to one tiny drop of poison in a glass of water is enough to kill?)
1:30 - This begins a discussion of his firm believe in Novus Ordo Eucharistic "miracles". Bishop Williamson adamantly defends them as true, which leads to the conclusion that the Novus Ordo is certainly valid and that "there is grace in the Novus Ordo". It was always the practice of the Church to put these miracles through a rigid test and research, and only the legitimate Church authorities (prior to Vatican II, of course) could rule on them. The devil also has been given power to work miracles, and could it not be possible that he is using this means to lead souls into error?
1:36 - Does one have to stay absolutely away from the Novus Ordo? Bishop Williamson answers, "no". You can drive around your diocese and look for a priest. He then says your local SSPX priest will probably know conservative Novus Ordo priests and recommends you ask him!
1:43 - He states that the spirit of God is still at work inside of the rotten Church.
He prromotes Garabandal, another questionable and unapproved apparition.
1:43 - The spirit of God is still at work inside of the rotten church
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Secular Commentary: The psychology of totalitarianism |
Posted by: Stone - 08-18-2022, 07:53 AM - Forum: General Commentary
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The Psychology of Totalitarianism
Transhumanism.news | 07/01/2022
Professor Mattias Desmet, a Belgian psychologist with a master’s degree in statistics, gained worldwide recognition toward the end of 2021, when he presented the concept of “mass formation” as an explanation for the absurd and irrational behavior we were seeing with regard to the COVID pandemic and its countermeasures.
(Article by Dr. Joseph Mercola republished from Articles.Mercola.com)
He also warned that mass formation gives rise to totalitarianism, which is the topic of his new book, “The Psychology of Totalitarianism.” Desmet’s work was further popularized by Dr. Robert Malone, whose appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast was viewed by about 50 million people.
But as the search term “mass formation” exploded in popularity, Google responded by manipulating the search engine results in an attempt to discredit Desmet and show people in their search results information that would cause them to discount the importance of this work. Why? Because Google is at the core of the global cabal and movement toward totalitarianism.
Understanding the Psychology of the Times Is Crucial
Those who refuse to learn from history are bound to repeat it, they say, and this appears particularly pertinent in the present day because, as explained by Desmet, if we don’t understand how mass formation occurs and what it leads to, we cannot prevent it. How did Desmet reach the conclusion that we were in the process of mass formation? He explains:
Quote:“In the beginning of the Corona crisis, back in February 2020, I started to study the statistics on the mortality rates of the virus, the infection fatality rates, the case fatality rate and so on, and immediately, I got the impression — and with me, several world-famous statisticians, such as John Ioannidis of Stanford, for instance — that the statistics and mathematical models used dramatically overrated the danger of the virus.
Immediately, I wrote an opinion paper trying to bring some of the mistakes to people’s attention. But, I noticed immediately that people just didn’t want to know. It was as if they didn’t see even the most blatant mistakes at the level of the statistics that were used. People just were not capable of seeing it.”
This early experience made him decide to focus on the psychological mechanisms at play in society, and he became convinced that what we were seeing were in fact the effects of a large-scale process of mass formation, because the most salient characteristic of this psychological trend is that it makes people radically blind to everything that goes against the narrative they believe in.
They basically become incapable of distancing themselves from their beliefs, and therefore cannot take in or evaluate new data. Desmet continues:
Quote:“Another very specific characteristic is that this process of mass formation makes people willing to radically sacrifice everything that is important to them — even their health, their wealth, the health of their children, the future of their children.
When someone is in the grip of a process of mass formation, he becomes radically willing to sacrifice all his individual interest. A third characteristic, to name only a few, is that once people are in the grip of a process of mass formation, they typically show a tendency of cruelty towards people who do not buy into the narrative, or do not go along with the narrative. They typically do so as if it is an ethical duty.
In the end, they are typically inclined, first, to stigmatize, and then, to eliminate, to destroy, the people who do not go along with the masses.
And that’s why it is so extremely important to understand the psychological mechanisms at work, because if you understand the mechanisms at work, you can avoid the mass formation to become so deep that people reach this critical point in which they really are fanatically convinced that they should destroy everyone that does not go along with them.
So, it’s extremely important to understand the mechanism. If you understand it, you can make sure that the crowd, the mass, will first destroy itself, or will exhaust itself, before it starts to destroy the people that do not go along with the mass.
So, it’s of crucial importance, and that’s what my book describes. It describes how a mass, a crowd, emerges in a society, under which conditions it emerges, what the mechanisms of the process of mass formation are, and what you can do about it. That’s extremely important. I will mention this from the beginning.
Usually, it is impossible to wake up the masses. Once a process of mass formation emerges in a society, it’s extremely difficult to wake the masses up. But, [waking them up is] important, [because] you can avoid the masses and their leaders becoming so fanatically convinced of their narrative that they start to destroy the people who do not go along with them.”
Indeed, to those of us who did not fall under the spell of the irrational COVID narrative, the cruelty with which political leadership, media and people at large tried to force compliance was shockingly abhorrent. Many were physically attacked, and some even killed, simply for not wearing a face mask, which we knew was a useless prevention strategy.
Historical Context for Mass Hypnosis
It is easier to understand what mass formation is if you consider it as mass hypnosis, because they’re not merely similar, they’re identical, Desmet says. Mass formation is a kind of hypnosis that emerges when specific conditions are met. And, disturbingly, these conditions, and the hypnotic trance that emerges, almost always precede the rise of totalitarian systems.
While totalitarianism and a classical dictatorship share certain features, there are distinct differences at the psychological level. According to Desmet, a classical dictatorship, at the psychological level, is very primitive. It’s a society that is frightened of a small group, a dictatorial regime, because of its aggressive potential.
Totalitarianism, on the other hand, arises from a very different psychological mechanism. Interestingly, the totalitarian state didn’t actually exist before the 20th century. It’s a relatively new phenomenon, and it’s based on mass formation or mass hypnosis.
The conditions for this mass hypnotic state (listed below) were first met just before the emergence of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, so that’s our historical context. These conditions were again met just before the COVID crisis. What we’re seeing now is a different kind of totalitarianism, largely due to technological advancements that have created extremely effective tools to subconsciously influence the public.
We now have very sophisticated tools with which to hypnotize far larger masses of people than they could in earlier times. But while our current-day totalitarianism is global rather than regional, and the information war more sophisticated than anything the Soviets or Nazi’s could muster, the basic psychological dynamics are still identical.
Understanding Hypnosis
So, what are those psychological dynamics? “Mass formation” is a clinical term that in layman’s jargon could simply be translated as a kind of mass hypnosis, which can occur once certain conditions are fulfilled.
When you are being hypnotized, the first thing the hypnotist will do is to detach or withdraw your attention from the reality or environment around you. Then, through his hypnotic suggestion — usually a very simple narrative or sentence stated out loud — the hypnotist will focus your full attention on a single point, for instance, a moving pendulum or just his voice.
From the perspective of the hypnotized person, it will seem as though reality has vanished. An extreme example of this is the use of hypnosis to make people insensitive to pain during surgery. In that situation, the patient’s mental focus is so narrow and intense, that they don’t notice that their body is being cut into.
In the same way, it doesn’t matter how many people are injured by the COVID measures, because the focus is on COVID and everything else has vanished, in psychological terms.
People can be killed for not wearing a mask and the hypnotized won’t raise an eyebrow. Children can die from starvation and friends can commit suicide from financial desperation — none of it will have a psychological impact on the hypnotized because to them, the plight of others doesn’t register. A perfect example of this psychological blinding to reality is how COVID jab deaths and injuries are simply unrecognized and not even considered to be causal.
People will get the shot, suffer massive injuries, and say, “Thank goodness I got the shot or it would have been so much worse.” They cannot conceive the possibility that they were injured by the shot. I’ve even seen people express gratitude for the shot when someone they supposedly loved died within hours or days of getting it! It’s just mindboggling. The psychological dynamics of hypnosis does explain this irrational and otherwise incomprehensible behavior, but it’s still quite surreal.
Quote:“Even while I know the mechanisms at work, I’m still baffled every time it happens,” Desmet says. “I almost can’t believe what I see. I know someone whose husband died a few days after the vaccine, during his sleep, from a heart attack.
And I thought, ‘Now she will open her eyes and wake up.’ Not at all. She just continued in the same fanatic way — even more fanatic — talking about how happy we should be because we have this vaccine. Unbelievable, yes.”
The Psychological Roots of Mass Formation
As mentioned, mass formation, or mass hypnosis, can occur when certain psychological conditions are present in a large-enough portion of society. The four central conditions that need to exist in order for mass formation to arise are:
- Widespread loneliness and lack of social bonding, which leads to:
- Experiencing life as meaningless, purposeless and senseless, and/or being faced with persistent circumstances that don’t make rational sense, which leads to:
- Widespread free-floating anxiety and discontent (anxiety/discontent that has no apparent or distinct cause), which leads to:
- Widespread free-floating frustration and aggression (frustration and aggression have no discernible cause), which results in feeling out of control
How Mass Formation Emerges in a Society
Once a large-enough portion of society feels anxious and out of control, that society becomes highly vulnerable to mass hypnosis. Desmet explains:
Quote:“Social isolation, lack of meaning, free floating anxiety, frustration and aggression are highly aversive because if people feel anxious, without knowing what they feel anxious for, they typically feel out of control. They feel they cannot protect themselves from their anxiety.
And, if under these conditions a narrative is distributed through the mass media, indicating an object of anxiety, and at the same time, providing a strategy to deal with the object of anxiety, then all this free-floating anxiety might connect to the object of anxiety.
And, there might be a huge willingness to participate in a strategy to deal with the object of anxiety, no matter how absurd the strategy is. So, even if it is clear from the beginning — for everyone who wants to see it — that the strategy to deal with the object of anxiety might claim many more victims than the object of anxiety itself … even then, there might be this huge willingness to participate in a strategy to deal with the object of anxiety.
That is the first step of every major mechanism of mass formation. Whether it concerned the Crusades, or the witch hunts, or the French Revolution, or the beginning of the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany, we see the same mechanism, time and time again.
There is a lot of free-floating anxiety. Someone provides a narrative that indicates an object of anxiety and a strategy to deal with it. And then all the anxiety connects to the [proposed] object of anxiety.
People participate in a strategy to deal with the object of anxiety that yields a first important psychological advantage, and from then on people have the impression that they can control their anxiety. It’s connected to an object and they have a strategy to deal with it.”
The Problematic Social Bonding of Mass Formation
Once people who used to feel lonely, anxious and out of control start to participate in the strategy presented to them as the solution to their anxiety, a brand-new social bond emerges. This, then, reinforces the mass hypnosis, as they now no longer feel isolated and lonely.
This reinforcement is a kind of mental intoxication, and is the real reason why people buy into the narrative, no matter how absurd. “They’ll continue to buy into the narrative, because it creates this new social bond,” Desmet says.
While social bonding is a good thing, in this instance it becomes extremely destructive, because the free-floating frustration and aggression are still there, and need an outlet. These emotions need to be directed at someone. What’s worse, under the spell of mass formation, people lose their inhibitions and sense of proportion.
So, as we’ve seen during the COVID pandemic, people will attack and lash out in the most irrational ways against anyone who doesn’t buy into the narrative. The underlying aggression will always be directed at the part of the population that isn’t hypnotized.
Speaking in generalized terms, typically, once mass formation is taking place, about 30% of the population will be hypnotized — and this typically includes the leaders who pronounce the hypnotizing narrative to the public — 10% remain unhypnotized and do not buy into the narrative, and the majority, 60%, feel there’s something wrong with the narrative, but go along with it simply because they don’t want to stick out or cause trouble.
Another problem with the social bonding that emerges is that the bond is not between individuals, but rather a bond between the individual and the collective. This gives rise to a feeling of fanatic solidarity with the collective, but there’s no solidarity toward any given individual. So, individuals are remorselessly sacrificed for the “greater good” of the faceless collective.
Quote:“This explains, for instance, why during the Corona crisis, everybody was talking about solidarity, but people accepted that if someone got into an accident on the street, you were no longer allowed to help that person unless you had a surgical mask and gloves at your disposal.
That also explains why, while everybody was talking about solidarity, people accepted that if their father or mother was dying, they were not allowed to visit them,” Desmet says.
In the end, you end up with a radical, paranoid atmosphere in which people do not trust each other anymore, and in which people are willing to report their loved ones to the government.
Quote:“So, that’s the problem with mass formation,” Desmet says. “It’s solidarity of the individual with the collective, and never with other individuals. That explains what happened during the revolution in Iran, for instance. I talked with a woman who lived in Iran during the revolution, which was actually the beginning of a totalitarian regime in Iran.
She witnessed, with her own eyes, how a mother reported her son to the government, and how she hung the rope around his neck just before he died, and how she claimed to be a heroine for doing so. That’s the dramatic effects of mass formation.”
With No External Enemy, What Happens?
We’re now facing a situation that is more complicated than at any previous time, because the totalitarianism that is now arising has no external enemies, with the exception of citizens that aren’t hypnotized and don’t buy into the false narratives. Nazi Germany, for example, was destroyed by external enemies that rose against it.
On the other hand, there’s advantage to this, because totalitarian states always need an enemy. That’s something that was very well described by George Orwell in his book “1984.” In order for the process of mass formation to continue to exist, there must be an external enemy onto which the state can focus the aggression of the hypnotized masses.
Nonviolent Resistance and Outspokenness Are Crucial
This brings us to a key point, and that is the need for nonviolent resistance and speaking out against the narrative. Violent resistance automatically make you a target for aggression, so “resistance from within a totalitarian system always has to stick to the principles of nonviolent resistance,” Desmet says. But you must also continue to speak out in a clear, rational and nonabusive way. Desmet explains:
Quote:“The first and foremost principle the resistance has to stick to during a process of mass formation and emerging totalitarianism, is that people who do not go along with the masses have to continue to speak out. That’s the most crucial thing.
As totalitarianism is based on mass formation, and mass formation is a kind of hypnosis, the mass formation is always provoked by the voice of the leader, which keeps the population in a process of hypnosis. And when dissonant voices continue to speak out, they will not be able to wake the masses up, but they will constantly disturb the process of mass formation.
They will constantly interfere with the hypnosis. If there are people who continue to speak out, the mass formation will usually not become so deep that there is a willingness in the population to destroy the people who do not go along with the masses. That’s crucial.
Historically speaking, if you look at what happened in the Soviet Union and in Nazi Germany, it’s clear that it was exactly at the moment when the opposition stopped to speak out in public that the totalitarian system started to become cruel.
In 1930, in the Soviet Union, the opposition stopped to speak out, and within six to eight months, Stalin started his large purges, which claimed tens of millions of victims. And then, in 1935, exactly the same happened in Nazi Germany.
The opposition was silenced, or stopped to speak out. They preferred to go underground. They were thinking that they were dealing with a classical dictatorship, but they were not. They were dealing with something completely different. They were dealing with a totalitarian state.
And by deciding to go underground, it was a fatal decision for themselves. So, also in Nazi Germany, within a period of one year after the opposition stopped to speak out in public, the cruelty started and the system started to destroy first its opponents. That’s always the same.
In the first stage, totalitarian systems or the masses start to attack those who do not go along with them. But, after a while, they just start to attack and to destroy everyone, group after group.
And, in the Soviet Union, where the process of mass formation went very far, much further than in Nazi Germany, Stalin started to eliminate the aristocracy, the small farmers, the large farmers, the goldsmiths, the Jews, all people who according to him would never become good communists.
But after a while, he just started to eliminate group after group without any logic. Just everyone. So, that’s why Hannah Arendt said that a totalitarian state is always a monster that devours its own children. And that destructive process starts when people stop to speak out.
That’s probably the reason why, in the beginning of the 20th century, there were several countries where there was mass formation, but where there was never a full-fledged totalitarian state.
Probably, there were enough people who didn’t shut up, who continued to speak out. That’s something that is so crucial to understand. When mass formation emerges, people typically feel that it doesn’t make sense to speak out because people don’t wake up. People don’t seem sensitive to their rational counter arguments.
But, we should never forget that speaking out has an immediate effect. Maybe not that it wakes the masses up, but that it disturbs the process of mass formation and the hypnosis. And in that way, prevents the masses from becoming highly destructive towards the people who do not go along with them.
Something else also happens. The masses start to exhaust themselves. They start to destroy themselves before they start to destroy the people who do not go along with them. So, that’s the strategy to be used for internal resistance towards totalitarian regimes.”
Push Back Against Transhumanism and Technocracy
As mentioned earlier, the leaders who declare the narratives are also always hypnotized. They are fanatics in that sense. However, while today’s world leaders are fanatics about transhumanism and technocracy, they may not necessarily believe what they’re saying about COVID.
In the end, the ultimate challenge is not so much to show people that the coronavirus was not as dangerous as we expected, or that the COVID narrative is wrong, but rather that this ideology is problematic — this transhumanist and this technocratic ideology is a disaster for humanity … To show people that, in the end, a transhumanist view on man and the world will entail radical dehumanization of our society. ~ Mattias Desmet
Many know that they’re telling lies, but they justify those lies as necessary in order to bring the ideologies of transhumanism and technocracy to fruition. The ridiculous COVID agenda is a means to an end. This is another reason why we must continue to push back and speak out, because once the counter arguments disappear, these leaders will become even more fanatic in their ideological quest.
Quote:“In the end, the ultimate challenge is not so much to show people that the coronavirus was not as dangerous as we expected, or that the COVID narrative is wrong, but rather that this ideology is problematic — this transhumanist and this technocratic ideology is a disaster for humanity; this mechanistic thinking, this belief that the universe and man is a kind of material mechanistic system, which should be steered and manipulated in a mechanistic technocratic transhumanist way.
That’s the ultimate challenge: to show people that in the end, a transhumanist view on man and the world will entail radical dehumanization of our society. So, I think that’s the real challenge we are facing. Showing people, ‘Look, forget for a moment about the Corona narrative.
What we are heading for if we continue in the same way, is a radically, technologically controlled transhumanist society, which will leave no space whatsoever for life for a human being.”
It’ll Get Worse Before It Gets Better
Like me, Desmet is convinced that we’re rapidly headed toward global totalitarianism and that things will get far worse before they get better. Why? Because we’re only in the initial stages of the process of totalitarianism. On the horizon, digital identity still looms large, and with that comes an unfathomably powerful control grid capable of breaking just about anyone.
The glimmer of hope is this: Everyone who has studied mass formation and totalitarianism has concluded that both are intrinsically self-destructive. They cannot survive. And, the more means it has at its disposal to control the population, the sooner it might destroy itself, because totalitarianism destroys the core of the human being.
Ultimately, “totalitarianism” refers to the ambition of the system. It wants to eliminate the ability of individual choice, and in so doing, it destroys the core of what it is to be human, “because psychological energy in a human being emerges at every moment a human being can make a choice that is really its own choice,” Desmet says. The quicker a system destroys the individual, the sooner the system collapses.
Again, the only weapon against the brutal destruction of humanity is to push back, to speak out, to nonviolently resist. It may not stop totalitarianism in its tracks, but it can keep the most heinous atrocities at bay. It will also provide a small space where the resistant can try to survive together and thrive in the midst of the totalitarian landscape.
Quote:“Then, if we want to succeed, we will have to think about parallel structures which can allow us to be a little bit self sufficient. We can try to make sure that we don’t need the system too much anymore. But, even these parallel structures would be destroyed in a moment if the people do not continue to speak out. So, that’s the crucial.
I try to bring this to the attention of everyone. We can build parallel structures as much as we want, but if the system becomes too destructive and decides to use it’s full aggressive potential, then the parallel structures will be destroyed. But, the system will never reach this level of depth of the hypnosis if there are dissonant voices that continue to speak out. So, I’m very dedicated myself to continue to speak out.”
While it’s impossible to make accurate predictions, Desmet’s gut feeling is that it’ll probably be at least seven or eight years before the totalitarian system currently emerging with burn itself out and self-destruct. Could be more, could be less. Society is a complex dynamic system, and even simple complex dynamic systems cannot be predicted even one second in advance. This is known as the deterministic unpredictability of complex dynamic ecosystems.
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Socialists Siege Churches in Nicaragua |
Posted by: Stone - 08-18-2022, 07:21 AM - Forum: Anti-Catholic Violence
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Socialists Siege Churches in Nicaragua
"The woketopian elite’s sympathy seems limited to the amount of virtue signalling points they can score
from an event, or squeeze out of a word, fad, politicised phobia, or policy."
Caldron Pool | AUGUST 18, 2022
Tensions between Church and State are at boiling point in Nicaragua, as Soviet-era Sandinistas siege churches and label clergy, terrorists.
The latest move by Nicaragua’s radical leftist dictator, Daniel Ortega, is a response to the Church feeding and sheltering dissidents during Ortega’s violent suppression of student protests in 2018.
Updates from Catholic News Agency described how Ortega has ordered a ban on mass processions and placed priests under house arrest.
Police are also investigating clergy – at the behest of the socialist regime – for, “[trying to] organize violent groups, inciting them to carry out acts of hatred against the population, creating an atmosphere of anxiety and disorder, disturbing the peace and harmony of the community.”
Bitter over the Church providing sanctuary and charity to wounded anti-government protesters, Ortega claims clergy were working for the United States government in a ‘plot to unseat him.’
The 76-year-old has also accused pastors of fostering domestic terrorism; of “having no respect for Christ, nor God,” and in a rant quoting the Bible, asserted that the Church was in league with the Pharisees.
Daniel Ortega’s swath of new anti-Christian initiatives are a clear political manoeuvre designed to tighten the socialist, and his wife, Vice President, Rosario Murillo’s “democratically elected” 15-year grip on power.
Observers believe Ortega’s ‘crackdown’ on Christians is an expansion of his regime’s purge of political opponents, of whom, France24 said, 180 are now considered to be political prisoners of the Sandinista government.
America Magazine’s Jan-Albert Hootsen predicted in August last year, that the Catholic Church would be next in Ortega’s Stalinist repression:
“Using an anti-treason law passed last December by a National Assembly filled with political allies, Mr. Ortega’s regime has arrested no less than seven candidates running for president or vice-president over the past few months.”
Relaying events leading up to the general election in June 2021, The Guardian quoted Nicaragua’s imprisoned former health minister Dora María Téllez labelling the purges as, ‘the last gamble of a dictator’s family.”
Once a comrade in Ortega’s 1960s-70s Marxist overthrow of nationalist dictator, Anastasio Somoza, Téllez, was arrested along with other former Ortega revolutionaries, turned political opponents.
The same year, popular 2021 presidential candidate, journalist, and opposition leader, Cristiana Chamorro, was forced out of the election after police raided her home minutes before a scheduled press conference.
Nicaraguan authorities charged Chamorro, and then asked ‘the country’s electoral tribunal to bar Chamorro from running or holding public office.’
Luis Almagro, head of the Organization of American States (OAS) criticised the arrest as a “politicising of Nicaragua’s legal system, and delegitimising of the electoral process.”
In a statement sourced by The Guardian Chamorro ‘described the legal moves against her as a “judicial monstrosity,” stating that the only aim is to block her run for the presidency.”
Note here the similarities between Ortega’s apparent purging of Chamorro, and recent moves by Democrats in the United States against Donald Trump.
In addition to Ortega’s arrests and imprisonment of his political opponents, 1,200 non-government organisations have been shut down since the beginning of 2022.
Up to eight Christian radio stations were included in the mandated closures.
Widespread reports, backed up by information from C.N.A, argued the stations were violently closed down by police because they were run by ‘bishop, Rolando Alvarez – a frequent critic of the Socialist government’s human-rights abuses.’
Initially stopped by riot police, Alverez, is accused of ‘hate speech and inciting violence.’ Alongside 6 other members of the clergy, he has been prevented from leaving the church since August 5.
The lockdowns, bans, and house arrests of the clergy, fit a pattern of abuses described as “pro-Ortega terror,” such as the firebombing of churches, and outspoken, pro-freedom clergy, like Edwin Roman being sent into exile.
Although Ortega has never been a big fan of the Church, historically the Church and State in Nicaragua have had an off-again, on-again relationship. The church generally backed the Sandinistas and supported Ortega’s election-winning abortion ban in 2006.
Despite this, Ortega’s crackdown on religious freedom is not to be simply dismissed as Leftist clergy being devoured by the leftist leviathan they once supported.
As The Heritage Foundation’s Mike Gonzalez explains, “The Catholic Church has been a common target of contempt, and accusations of undermining the leftist regime [is not a new thing], despite [the Nicaraguan clergies’] history of liberation theology and pro-left activism.”
Drawing from Gonzalez’s conclusions, Ortega appears to be emboldened by the weak-willed, navel-gazing Biden administration.
Unlike its previous occupant, the woke White House has turned a blind eye to human rights abuses, and in the name of nuance and niceness, sought to avoid ruining any chances it has at achieving a “dialogue” with Ortega and other ‘leftists in the region.’
This woke walking on eggshells could explain why The Vatican, particularly the current Pope, has yet to address the violation of civil liberties in Nicaragua.
The Western world continues to ignore the persecution of Christians, in exchange for props from Communists in China, KGBTQIAA+ activists in America, and Islamists in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
The woketopian elite’s sympathy seems limited to the amount of virtue signalling points they can score from an event, or squeeze out of a word, fad, politicised phobia, or policy.
Illustrating this wicked self-centredness is how the brutal massacre of Christians in Nigeria and elsewhere, barely register as a blip on the globalist’s oppressor/oppressed intersectionality radar.
Look at the stark contrast between the West’s response to the recent bloodbath in Nigeria, and the photo-op, front-page solidarity, when a Mosque was attacked in New Zealand.
Then look at how Sri Lankan Christians were mocked by Democrats as “Easter Worshipers,” after 290 were slaughtered, and 500 more were wounded by Islamists in April 2019.
Nicaragua is no different. Limited concerns, matched with zero interest, reflect the West’s politically correct paralysis, and the permissive culture of silence it breeds.
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Inflation Reduction Act "Secretly" Brought To You By Bill Gates |
Posted by: Stone - 08-18-2022, 07:08 AM - Forum: General Commentary
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Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act "Secretly" Brought To You By Bill Gates
ZH [adapted - emphasis in the original] | AUG 18, 2022
The Democrats' "Inflation Reduction Act" - which according to the Congressional Budget Office will raise taxes on the middle class to the tune of $20 billion - not to mention unleash an army of IRS agents on working class Americans over the next decade, was made possible by Bill Gates and (in smaller part) Larry Summers, who have been known to hang out together.
Pals hanging out
The bill, of course, was signed yesterday.
In a Tuesday Bloomberg article that reads more like a newsletter for the Gates fan club, the billionaire Microsoft co-founder recalls how earlier this year, as moderate Democratic Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema continued to block the tax-and-spend legislation over concerns that it would raise taxes on the middle class (it will), Gates says he tapped into a relationship with Manchin that he'd been cultivating since at least 2019.
Quote:Gates was banking on more than just his trademark optimism about addressing climate change and other seemingly intractable problems that have been his focus since stepping down as Microsoft’s chief executive two decades ago. As he revealed to Bloomberg Green, he has quietly lobbied Manchin and other senators, starting before President Joe Biden had won the White House, in anticipation of a rare moment in which heavy federal spending might be secured for the clean-energy transition.
Those discussions gave him reason to believe the senator from West Virginia would come through for the climate — and he was willing to continue pressing the case himself until the very end. “The last month people felt like, OK, we tried, we're done, it failed,” Gates said. “I believed it was a unique opportunity.” So he tapped into a relationship with Manchin that he’d cultivated for at least three years. “We were able to talk even at a time when he felt people weren’t listening.” -Bloomberg
We know, gag us with a spoon.
Apparently Gates and Manchin's bromance began when the billionaire wooed the West Virgina Senator at a 2019 meal in Seattle, in an effort to garner support for clean-energy policy. Manchin at the time was the senior-most Democrat on the energy committee.
"My dialogue with Joe has been going on for quite a while," said Gates.
After Manchin walked (again) on the bill last December over concerns that it would exacerbate the national debt, inflation, the pandemic, and amid geopolitical uncertainty with Russia, Gates jumped into action. A few weeks later, he met with Manchin and his wife, Gayle Conelly Manchin, at a DC restaurant, where they talked about what West Virginia needed. Manchin understandably wanted to preserve jobs at the center of the US coal industry, while Gates suggested that coal plant workers could simply swap over to nuclear plants - such as those from Gates' TerraPower.
Manchin apparently wasn't convinced, announcing on Feb. 1 that "Build Back Better" (the Inflation Reduction Act's previous iteration) was "dead."
In an effort to convince him otherwise, Democrats pulled together a cadre of economists and other Manchin influencers - including former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, who convinced Manchin that the bill wouldn't raise taxes on the middle class, or add to the deficit.
Quote:Collin O’Mara, chief executive officer of the National Wildlife Federation, recruited economists to assuage Manchin’s concerns — including representatives from the University of Chicago and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Senator Chris Coons of Delaware brought in a heavyweight: former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, who has spent decades advising Democrats.
The economists were able to “send this signal that [the bill’s] going to help with the deficit,” O’Mara said. “It’s going to be slightly deflationary and it’s going to spur growth and investment in all these areas.” Through this subtle alchemy, clean-energy investments could be reframed for Manchin as a hedge against future spikes in oil and gas prices and a way to potentially export more energy to Europe. -Bloomberg
Gates also sprang into action again on July 7, when Manchin was spotted at the Sun Valley media conference in Idaho - which Gates also attended.
"We had a talk about what was missing, what needed to be done," Gates said. "And then after that it was a lot of phone calls."
Gates looks back at the new law with satisfaction. He achieved what he set out to do. “I will say that it's one of the happier moments of my climate work,” Gates said. “I have two things that excite me about climate work. One is when policy gets done well, and this is by far the biggest moment like that.” His other pleasure comes from interviewing people at climate and clean-tech startups: “I hear about this amazing new way to make steel, cement and chemicals.” -Bloomberg
"I don’t want to take credit for what went on," says Gates - in the article about how he gets credit for what went on.
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Vandals behead Saint Anthony statue at Catholic school in Northeast DC |
Posted by: Stone - 08-17-2022, 06:07 AM - Forum: Anti-Catholic Violence
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Vandals behead Saint Anthony statue at Catholic school in Northeast DC
Aug 15, 2022
WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — A Catholic school marking 100 years in the Brookland neighborhood of Northeast became the target of vandalism.
St. Anthony Catholic School shared pictures of the destruction on its property, located at 3400 12th St. NE, on an online fundraising page established to help fix the damage. Among the vandalism was a beheaded statue of the school’s patron saint.
The school included this message on its fundraising page:
Quote:We are sad to share that our beloved St. Anthony Catholic School was recently vandalized. Our school is proudly celebrating its 100th year in the neighborhood. St. Anthony loves the Brookland neighborhood and we make it our mission to serve and love our neighbors well. Even if you don’t attend the school or church, you are probably still familiar with our school and our principal, Mr. Thomasian, and our school children and families who take pride in being part of this vibrant neighborhood. We are very hurt by the actions of one or few, but we plan to fix all the damage before the first day of school.
Our beautiful St. Anthony statue was knocked down and broken, the nearby concrete windowsill was broken, and the statue’s head is missing. Our three playground benches were also pulled out of the ground and damaged.
This desecration is a hate-crime and was reported to the police.
These spaces that were vandalized were created by the generous donations from school families and from the community for the community.
Many neighborhood volunteers have put sweat equity into making our outdoor space inviting and welcoming for all. The playgrounds have always remained unlocked so that they are available for the neighborhood. This wasn’t a just a loss for our church and school but truly a loss for the community.
We will use the funds to replace the statue, broken benches and repair the damage done to the building.
Any additional funds will go towards beautifying the outdoor space and improved safety. Thank you for your prayers and for partnering with us to rebuild the broken pieces before our school doors open to our children.
Please keep our school community in your prayers.
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It’s ‘Guaranteed’ Americans Earning Less Than $400,000 Will Be Hounded by IRS: Rep. Scalise |
Posted by: ThyWillBeDone - 08-16-2022, 09:17 PM - Forum: Socialism & Communism
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www.theepochtimes.com
It’s ‘Guaranteed’ Americans Earning Less Than $400,000 Will Be Hounded by IRS: Rep. Scalise
Tom Ozimek
6 - 8 minutes
Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) said that the Democrat spending bill that boosts IRS funding is “guaranteed” to squeeze more tax revenue from middle- and lower-income Americans despite Biden administration insistence that households making less than $400,000 won’t face higher taxes or audit rates.
Scalise, who is the House Republican whip, made the remarks on the House floor and in an interview on Fox News on Aug. 12, the day the Democrat-controlled House passed the Inflation Reduction Act.
“The smoking gun came out this morning,” Scalise said on the House floor, referring to a statement from the non-partisan scorekeeper at the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) that reportedly confirmed that $20 billion in additional tax revenue would come from middle- and lower-income households owing to the IRS enforcement funding boost.
“It was a confirmation that the IRS agents will be getting about $20 billion in new taxes from people making less than $400,000,” Scalise said, while characterizing the CBO statement as confirmation that the bill “breaks President [Joe] Biden’s promise” that Americans making less than that amount shouldn’t worry as their taxes won’t go up.
“It’s confirmed by the CBO, and there was an amendment to stop it from happening, and every Democrat voted against it,” Scalise continued, referring to amendment 5404 (pdf) proposed by Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) that would have prevented any of the funds appropriated under the Inflation Reduction Act being used to audit taxpayers making less than $400,000 a year.
The $20 billion in additional taxes from American households earning less than $400,000 was arrived at by calculating how much less tax revenue would flow into government coffers if legislators had accepted Crapo’s amendment, according to Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee, who disclosed part of the CBO statement.
“CBO has not completed a point estimate of this amendment but the preliminary assessment indicates that amendment 5404 would reduce the ‘non-scorable’ revenues resulting from the provisions of section 10301 by at least $20 billion over the FY2022-FY2031 period,” the CBO said, according to Republicans.
The Epoch Times has reached out to the CBO with a request for confirmation of the scorekeeper’s assessment.
null[/url] Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) in an interview with NTD in Washington on Sept. 30, 2021. (Screenshot via The Epoch Times)
‘Army of 87,000 New IRS Agents’
In an interview on Fox News, Scalise said that the reason Democrats rejected Crapo’s amendment is because they plan to squeeze more tax revenue from middle- and lower-income Americans, despite multiple statements by Biden administration officials to the contrary.
“This army of 87,000 new IRS agents … will be going after people making less than $400,000. That would break President Biden’s pledge,” Scalise told Fox News.
“It’s been guaranteed. We know that it will happen. CBO confirmed it today,” Scalise added.
It’s a view shared by Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), who told NTD in a recent interview that middle-income Americans are going to be harmed as the “onerous and burdensome” provisions of the bill enable a legion of “hyper-motivated” IRS agents to go after Americans making less than $400,000 a year.
“I’ve never had one constituent yet tell me they wish we had more IRS agents. Most of this money will be spent on enforcement to go after Americans to harass and intimidate Americans to collect more revenue to try to pay for these terrible Democrat environmental extremist policies,” Good said.
The Republican lawmaker estimated that the tens of thousands of potential new IRS hires would result in around a million additional audits per year.
“They’ll go after the middle-income Americans who they know when they get that threatening tax letter saying you owe the money you must pay or else we’ve presumed you’re guilty,” Good said.
“They know middle-income Americans can’t hire the tax lawyers, the tax accountants to fight it. So they’ll just comply. They’ll just give in and they’ll pay. That’s what it’s intended to do, to harass and threaten, intimidate Americans,” he added.
null U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen speaks during a news conference in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, on July 14, 2022. (Made Nagi/Pool via Reuters)
More Tax Audits?
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen [url=https://www.theepochtimes.com/yellen-tells-irs-not-to-target-middle-income-americans-with-audits-as-crackdown-fears-swirl_4658201.html]has insisted Republican claims that tax auditors will target lower- and middle-income Americans at higher rates are politically motivated falsehoods.
“Contrary to the misinformation from opponents of this legislation, small business or households earning $400,000 per year or less will not see an increase in the chances that they are audited,” Yellen said in an Aug. 10 letter to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig.
Yellen also said in the letter that she was ordering the IRS not to use any of the additional revenue from the legislation to increase audit rates among middle- and lower-income Americans.
“I direct that any additional resources—including any new personnel or auditors that are hired—shall not be used to increase the share of small business or households below the $400,000 threshold that are audited relative to historical levels,” she said.
The IRS chief, too, has insisted that the tax agency would “absolutely not” be increasing audit scrutiny on small businesses or middle-income Americans relative to “recent years,” according to a letter to members of the Senate on Aug. 4 (pdf).
A CBO analysis indicated that, under basically the same funding plan as is featured in the Inflation Reduction Act, audit rates would be restored to levels around 10 years ago and that audit rates would rise “for all taxpayers,” though ones with higher incomes would face the biggest increase.
IRS audit rates have fallen sharply over the past decade, with the Government Accountability Office saying in a report that rates in 2019 were about one-third of those in 2010 for all income groups, dropping from 0.9 percent down to 0.25 percent.
A CBO estimate (pdf) shows that that the additional $80 billion in funding will bring in around $204 billion in new revenue, including from enforcement.
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Tom Ozimek has a broad background in journalism, deposit insurance, marketing and communications, and adult education. The best writing advice he's ever heard is from Roy Peter Clark: 'Hit your target' and 'leave the best for last.'[/size]
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Germany announces color-coded vaccine passport system similar to Communist China’s |
Posted by: Stone - 08-16-2022, 07:25 AM - Forum: COVID Passports
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Germany announces color-coded vaccine passport system similar to Communist China’s
Those who aren't 'freshly vaccinated' will be subject to restrictions.
Vaccination passport
Aug 15, 2022
(Reclaim the Net) – German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach has announced that the nation’s digital contact tracing and vaccine passport app, Corona-Warn-App (CWA), will start assigning different colors to citizens based on whether they received a COVID-19 vaccine within the last three months.
The CWA will assign one color to citizens who add proof that they received a vaccine within the last three months and a different color to citizens who add proof of vaccination that’s more than three months old. Only those with the color showing that they’re “freshly vaccinated” (have received a vaccine within the last three months) will be exempt from Germany’s mask requirement in public indoor spaces.
Other citizens, including those who received multiple vaccines but had their last vaccine more than three months ago, will have to show proof of recent recovery from COVID or a current negative test to get an exemption from this mask requirement.
Germany’s Berliner Zeitung noted that the color codes in the vaccine passport app would “give different rights in the future” and said the system would put citizens who are already quadruple vaccinated on the same legal footing as those who are unvaccinated.
Berliner Zeitung also reported that this new German vaccine passport system would be similar to Communist China’s color code vaccine passport system. China’s system assigns a green, yellow, or red code to citizens. Those with a green code are allowed to move freely, those with a yellow code may be asked to stay home for seven days, and those with a red code have to quarantine for two weeks.
Despite moving to this color code vaccine passport system, Lauterbach has admitted that the goalposts could shift at any time and that if too many freshly vaccinated people make use of the mask exception, Germany will change the rules and close the exception.
Lauterbach, who is quadruple vaccinated, announced this new color code vaccine passport system four days after he contracted COVID. The new system is being introduced as part of Germany’s “Infection Protection Act.”
Health agencies defended the rollout of vaccine passports and other COVID surveillance measures by claiming that they would prevent the spread of the coronavirus. However, in recent weeks, government health experts have admitted that COVID vaccines don’t prevent infection.
Despite this admission, Germany and other nations are continuing to push far-reaching, restrictive vaccine passport systems. Some countries are also combining vaccine passports with digital ID or rolling out more invasive COVID surveillance devices such as wristbands and ankle bracelets.
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