Mediaboss Marketing

In a letter published on January 11, 2020, the vice-president of the Spanish Bishops Conference warns the faithful against the direction new far Left coalition government wants to take.

Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera, former prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, is now Archbishop of Valencia and Vice-President of the Spanish Episcopal Conference.

The high prelate does not mince his words in the face of the new coalition government led by Pedro Sanchez, whom he sees as having created a situation more critical than anyone could have imagined: an essentially Marxist form of Communism which seemed to have been wiped out after the fall of the Berlin Wall has risen from the ashes, and that is what will surely preside over the destiny of Spain, he wrote on January 11 in a letter published by the Archdiocese of Valencia.

The Cardinal also warns against the advent of an intellectual orthodoxy of an absolutist and authoritarian nature, drawing a parallel with the situation in Latin American countries: at times, I end up thinking that what has happened in certain South American countries, for example in Venezuela (with the advent of Chavismo, a renaissance of Bolivarian socialismeditors note), is what is now taking place in the chamber of the Spanish parliament.

On January 8, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was invested by the Cortes and declined taking the oath on the Bible and the Crucifix. It was a strong gesture that surprised no one since the head of government finds himself at the head of a motley coalition, a catch-all in which are found several parties of the far Left which are all united in their burning hatred of Christianity, the Catholic Faith, and the natural order.

Moreover, Pedro Sanchez makes no secret of his corrupting and transgressive program: legalization of euthanasia, imposition in schools of sex education as revised to include gender ideology, spoliation of property belonging to the Church, suppression of Catholic chaplains in hospitals and other public establishments, and so forth.

We can better understand the serious tone in which Cardinal Canizares concludes his letter: With great pain, I must tell you and warn you that I have perceived an attempt to make Spain cease to be 'Spain'.

Read the rest here:
Spain: The Church Denounces the Return of Communism - FSSPX.News

Jack Batson: On the Left

Does history repeat itself? Do we learn from history?

The answer to the first question is, yes, in that the pendulum of governance swings back and forth from liberal to conservative. Do we learn from history? Not much. There are experts who learn, but theyre pointy-headed snowflakes who are often drowned out by the barking jackals and baying wolves of politics.

So we might want to know if the present conservative state of mind has any antecedent. And well, well, now that you ask, yes, we have several previous outbreaks of conservative hysteria. In all previous cases, conservatives have become utterly convinced that some dreadful anti-American force is about to take us over, gobble us up and change the America that you and I know and love.

The first such episode occurred in 1692 in Salem. There, the devil himself was fast at work to possess people and overtake Gods chosen people, the godly folks of the theocracy of Massachusetts. Girls saw visions of the red fellow himself. At trial they would convulse as they saw spectral creatures lurking. These unseen spirits were admissible in court as spectral evidence, a category of evidence that would later be dispensed with for good reason.

Anyway, the Bible directed that Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live, so our godly ancestors dutifully hanged 19 people who presented such an intolerable threat to Gods own experiment. The victims, history shows, were Salems others, often single cranky women. Years later, formerly enthusiastic pastors apologized in repentance for the hysteria. The cloud lifted.

The second episode occurred in 1919 just after Lenin called for a worldwide communist revolution to include, of course, fair, trembling America. A young, gay crimefighter from the Justice Department, J. Edgar Hoover, was put in charge of defending us from communism. He rounded up all the commies he could find and exported them to their countries of origin and cleansed the nation of the pollution. It was called The Big Red Scare. It passed away.

Then came Joe McCarthy. The commies had just taken over China and the commies in North Korea had just invaded South Korea. Triumphant communism was on the march! The reds in the USSR had just exploded an A-bomb, stolen from us. Surely, someone had helped them get The Bomb so soon. Surely, there were commies in the government! Firing accusations like Yosemite Sam, drunken Joe McCarthy, waiving a piece of paper, claimed that he had the names of 205 card-carrying communists in the State Department. A week later the number changed. He couldnt divulge the names (because there were none), but they would be duly exposed, so a witch trial began again.

Joe and his evil attack dog, Roy Cohn, masquerading as a human being, suggested that President Dwight D. Eisenhower might be a communist or at least a fellow-traveler, because he endorsed Social Security and tolerated unions. But when he attacked the Army, he finally went too far. Finally, sir, have you no sense of decency? asked Army attorney Joseph Welch. The public, viewing that new-fangled TV thing, saw the thug in action. McCarthy lost his support and the frenzy subsided.

Finally, of course, we have todays frenzied convulsion. In the name of Americanism, President Trump-Putin is ending Americas 230-year experiment in democracy. This time the un-American, unpatriotic enemy is liberalism, the force that gave us the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and most of the moments and actions that have made us proud.

This time, however, the Joe Welches have been drowned out by the conservative media megaphone, led by Fox. Again, lies are told, told again, and told again. Again, passion overcomes reason: Our duly elected president did nothing wrong, No-Thing Wrong, NOTHING WRONG. They have no proof. NO PROOF!

This time, the barking jackals and howling wolves are tearing at the Constitution and leading us to authoritarian governance and Russification of our policies. The return of the pendulum may come too late. This time, the devil may win.

Jack Batson is a former member of the Fairfield City Council. Reach him atjsbatson@prodigy.net.

Related

Originally posted here:
On the Left: Witch hunts abound here - Fairfield Daily Republic

McCarthyism, often synonymous with the term witch hunt, evolved in American politics after 1950 and continued until 1957. This term was coined by a Republican Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy who served in the U.S. Senate from 1947 to 1957.

McCarthyism was described in the American political lexicon as the practice of publicly accusing American government employees of political disloyalty (Communism) and subversive activities. Hence, the Congress enacted the McCarran Act, also known as the Subversive Activities Control Act of 1950, to counter communism among members of the Communist Party of the U.S. and government employees who were loyal to a foreign power and secretly infiltrated American cultural and political institutions.

But a few years later this investigation gained notoriety for making baseless accusations against Americans with little regard for evidence and using unfair investigation methods while ignoring civil rights and liberties.

During this investigation, many government employees' careers were ended simply because they were accused of having communist sympathies. Moreover, under the McCarthyism investigation, many lives and reputations of Americans were ruined or blacklisted without credible evidence of any wrongdoing.

According to some historians, between 1947 and 1965, 5 million government employees were investigated, of which about 2,700 people were forced to leave their jobs and 12,000 people resigned.

Actually, this investigation violated the freedom of speech provided for in the First Amendment, one of the founding principles of the U.S. Constitution. The unfavorable McCarthyism investigation was very un-American, and it was dangerous to America.

In 1954, the McCarthy hearings were televised. When Sen. McCarthy accused an army officer of being a communist (the so-called Army-McCarthy hearings), it gave rise to backlash against McCarthyism.

Finally, the U.S. Supreme Court put an end to McCarthyism in 1957 to stop the irrational investigation. Today, McCarthyism is used as a term to indicate when the government violates due process by ignoring the civil rights of citizens. Overall, McCarthyism's biggest effect was that it created an anti-democratic atmosphere.

A modern version of the 'hunt'

Francis Fukuyama's article "The End of History" argued that the collapse of the Soviet Union and communism is imminent. Fukuyama acknowledged the victory of both politics and economy heading in the direction of a liberal order with the West and Western ideas.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the bipolar international system changed and left the U.S. an unchallenged power. The U.S. has changed its Cold War foreign policy strategy to emerge as a unipolar superpower of the world.

At the beginning of the 21st century, with the emergence of a multipolar system and globalization, U.S. foreign policy transitioned from the Old World order to a new one. The 21st century began with a new history for the U.S with the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack.

'War on Terror'

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the U.S. found a new enemy and launched a "war on terror." Many scholars described the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as the initiation of a "new era" or "new world order" in international relations. The American military response to Sept. 11 was an unprecedented way of devising foreign policy strategy to kill terrorist Osama bin Laden.

It was clear that the U.S was justifying its unrivaled military operations on the pretext of a war on terror for the world leadership. In this regard, the invasion of Kuwait by then-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was another opportunity to attack the Iraqi leader.

President George W. Bush, in the State of the Union address in 2002, made clear when he said to the world that "either you are with America or you are with the terrorists." Since then, the U.S. has expanded the war on terror regardless of who the president is.

In this regard, the term "witch hunt" was revitalized after Sept. 11 for the threat of terror in international affairs. The American government often targets Muslims, trying to catch or kill "terrorists" across the globe through military operations.

So, is the U.S.'s Terrorist Watch List a modern version of a witch hunt? The threat of terror has taken specific forms, particularly Islamic countries or groups. For example, the American government defined Iran, Iraq and Libya as "rogue states" to give the perception that those governments sponsor terrorism.

American presidents have expanded the targeting of states suspected of harboring terrorists to include "potential terrorist hotspots." The U.S. can justify its military attack on any sovereign country by using the threat of terror. American presidents' rhetoric culturally stereotypes non-Westerners as "others," particularly in the Muslim world, although Muslims have rejected all kinds of terrorism.

After World War II, anti-communism became hysterical until 1991, and from 2001 to present, the "war on terror" has become hysterical in international relations.

Paradigm on terrorism

A modern terrorism witch hunt began with the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. This event has completely changed the world order vis-a-vis international relations.

Bush defined the Sept.11 attacks as "a new war," and this was the paradigm shift for the new world order in the 21st century.

The new paradigm is a war on terrorism on global scale since 2001, which is the top priority for national security. The Bush administration categorized the countries based on their involvement in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

'Axis of Evil'

In this regard, the U.S. labeled North Korea, Iran and Iraq as the "axis of evil." Any country that was linked to the spread of WMD, ballistic missiles and development of nuclear weapons was also viewed as part of the "axis of evil." As a result, they were also considered supporters of terrorism.

In the long term, the implication of the war on terrorism has been building a new U.S.-led world order. That effort led the U.S. to adopt the role of "world policeman."

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the U.S. has been expanding its military operations on the pretext of global terrorism around the world (North Korea, Afghanistan, Iran, the Middle East and Africa, etc.) This is the U.S.'s renewed version of "witch hunts for terrorism" in international relations.

The last example of a terrorism witch hunt was the U.S. killing of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani in a drone strike in Baghdad. President Donald Trump said that "he was a monster."

International relations have been undergoing fundamental changes since the introduction of the "war on terrorism" in 2001. This change is viewed as a paradigm shift for the new world order in international politics. In the 21st century, state affairs have been moving away from international norms led by Western ideas and liberalism to state affairs where international norms are no longer respected. In this situation, where no norms are important to anyone, states ultimately opt to choose military power in the international relations on the pretext of terrorism.

*Yksel holds a Ph.D. in political science and public management from Erciyes University.

Visit link:
McCarthyism's transition in paradigm: 'Terror witch hunt' - Daily Sabah

"The past few days have again witnessed the escalation of bloody repression by the security forces against the demonstrators in Baghdad and other provinces, which led to the death of more demonstrators and dozens injured.

In addition to repeatedly using live bullets, yesterday the security forces also attacked the sit-ins in squares in Baghdad and Basra and burned the protesters' tents, in a new attempt by the regime to end the peaceful protests by force.

Disregard and procrastination continue in dealing with the legitimate demands of the people. It is this stance which we have always warned against, and this is what has forced the protesters in recent days to take escalatory steps whilst maintaining a peaceful character.

The continuing acts of repression, intentional killings, assassinations, arrests, kidnappings, stifling and violating the freedom of expression will not help break the morale of the people and force them to return to their homes. Among recent victims of this campaign of repression was a Communist youth, the martyr Fahad al-Alyawi, who was treacherously killed yesterday on Muhammad al-Qasim Highway in Baghdad as he tried to reach his comrades who were protesting there, carrying food to them.

This is the solution, and the starting point on the path of salvation from another dark era which wasted 16 years of our peoples lives.

We glorify the martyrs, and wish speedy recovery for the wounded and injured, and freedom for the detainees."

More:
Iraqi Communist Party demands the ending of bloodshed, calls for early elections - In Defense of Communism

Reports of escalating persecution and a crackdown on religious believers in China have been filtering to the outside world for months. In recent years nearly 6,000 underground churches have been shut down by Communist authorities, some leveled to the ground, and pastors and church members arrested for crimes such as "inciting subversion of state power" and "illegal business operations."

For two years, Stephen (not his real name) attended one of those 6,000 now-shuttered underground churches. On the day authorities raided his church in 2018, he was flying back from an overseas trip so he was not there when his pastor and other church members were arrested. He told his story of harassment from authorities and efforts to flee to the Christian Post last week.

Before Stephen could get home, authorities came to his apartment and knocked on the door. Frightened, his wife locked the door and turned off the lights. Oddly, the police did not knock down the door. But when he next spoke with his wife by phone, he learned the electricity had been turned off and that there was no heat in the place in the middle of a freezing winter. He called the property manager who was able to turn the power back on for a short while. But it was soon shut off again and he was told he had to meet with authorities to get it turned back on. He went to the local police station expecting to be arrested and thrown in prison. He described the experience to the Post:

"I wore a very heavy jacket and heavy pants," he said. "I go there and told the police officer, 'Why you turn off the power? You can just call me. You have my phone number.' And he said, 'If we do not do that, you won't show up.'"

Stephen said he was ordered by a police officer to write his name and government identification number on a piece of paper in addition to the names and ID numbers of his wife and kids.

At that point, the police official introduced Stephen to three "community officials" who wanted to discuss issues related to the closure of the church and a school affiliated with the church that his children attended.

The officials offered his children free seats in a public school. Although some Chinese families desire the opportunity to send their children to a good public school, Stephen refused the offer.

"I said 'Oh, thank you so much. I know this is a very good opportunity but please give to other people,'" he recalled. "My wife and I are Christians. We want to educate our children with God's Word."

The officials didn't seem happy with his refusal and left the room.

He was then asked to sign a document saying he would no longer have any contact with church members. The document also contained a gag order, which would prohibit him from talking about church affairs or street preaching.

Stephen refused to sign, telling officials that "friends and family need our support."

"They were scared about why we visit each other. That's human beings doing natural things," Stephen told CP. "I want the freedom to visit my brothers and sisters. I want to contact them. So I could not sign."

Stephen then said something that is often heard in report after report of Christians facing persecution. "I understood they are doing their duties. They are under pressure," he added of the government officials. "As Christians, we pray for them. They have to do whatever they do to earn money. So they kind of surprisingly let me go home."

Stephen says to this day he doesn't know why officials didn't break down the door to his apartment that first day, or why he was let go after interrogation. He wanted to stay in China, but Christian leaders urged him to flee for fear authorities would again arrest him and force information from him about the church's ministry in order to build a stronger case against the church's pastor. He finally fled his home city, going from city to city for weeks, knowing police were monitoring his moves. A month later he and his family flew to America where they live with a relative.

As CBN News has reported, attacks against Christians and other religious groups have been increasing in China in recent years, including bulldozing churches and mosques, barring Tibetan children from Buddhist religious studies, and incarcerating more than a million members of Islamic ethnic minorities in what are termed "re-education centers."

One of the most obvious attacks on Christians happened last October when Chinese government authorities tore down a mega church's building in the Funan, Anhui region, starting the demolition while the congregation was still in the church worshipping. The church's pastors were arrested and detained, according to the international non-profit Christian human rights organization China Aid.

Government officials did not show any documents ordering the 3,000-seat church building's demolition. But they did produce arrest warrants for leaders Geng Yimin and Sun Yongyao. Both pastors were detained on the charge of suspicion of "gathering a crowd to disturb social order."

Despite all his smiles to the US and the West, President and Communist Party leader Xi Jinping is behind the increasing persecution in China, and has ordered that all religions must "Sinicize" to ensure they are loyal to the officially atheistic party. According to Open Doors 2020 Persecution Watch List, this means they must make beliefs, including Christianity, "fall in line with [the government's] interpretation of Communism...[and endure]a steady drip of pressure, where the government increases surveillance, control, and restrictions of believers."

China ranks as the 23rd worst persecutor of Christians in the world, moving up from 27th last year, according to that 2020 Persecution Watch List.

As he released their newest report last week, Open Doors CEO David Curry warned that China, with its "social scoring" system where people get points for "good" behavior, and lose points for not strictly adhering to the government line, and with its increased facial recognition capability, it is creating a "system of persecution for the future" and is the "greatest threat" to human rights in the world today, according to CP.

"I saw with my own eyes the surveillance on the street but also in the churches, watching their congregation," Curry said. "Facial scans when you come in and then tracking you and generating reports with assumptions built into their artificial intelligence system that is tracking Christian behavior."

Curry believes in the future China's system could be exported to other persecuting rulers around the world.

As for Stephen, after more than a year in America, he wants to go back home to China. But Christian leaders there say it's not advisable at this time. He continues to live in America where he and his family of six share a room in a sibling's home.

Read more from the original source:
Chinese Christian Tells of Increasing Persecution By Communist Government - CBN News