ddos?
Lebanese MPs Jump Vaccine Queue, Sparking Outrage
The World Bank has said on Tuesday that if it is true that Lebanese officials had jumped the line to receive the vaccine, it will suspend its COVID-19 program for the country which includes the funding of the purchase of coronavirus vaccines.
The World Bank had agreed with Lebanese authorities on a national plan that includes a third-party monitoring agency to ensure “safe, effective and equitable vaccine deployment” to priority groups.
But soon after the first batch arrived on February 13, reports emerged that 16 Lebanese officials and politicians had jumped the queue and had received their first shots.
Regional director, Saroj Kumar Jha, said in a tweet on Tuesday that, if these claims are confirmed, the World Bank may “suspend financing for vaccines and support for COVID19 response across Lebanon.”
The news that politicians have unfairly skipped the queue and received their first doses at the parliament triggered a storm of public outrage.
#NoWasta [no nepotism] is trending on Twitter. One user wrote that “if they can’t handle 30k vaccines, they can’t handle an IMF package or new WB loans. That’s the lesson from the first week of the #NoWasta vaccination campaign. #Lebanon”
Others tweeted that the World Bank’s threat was unfair: “So unethical. MPs get vaccinated and the Lebanese people gets [sic] punished? #NoWasta.”
Such public reaction prompted the vaccination committee’s ethics officer, Dr. Talia Arawi, to resign Wednesday.
The head of Lebanon’s doctors syndicate, Charaf Abou Charaf, warned on Tuesday that this was not the only case and there were “many violations,” referring to people who were inoculated although they were neither registered to receive the vaccine, nor did they belong to a high-risk group.
The same day, the head of the vaccination committee, Dr. Abdel-Rahman Bizri, also threatened to resign over the “violation we cannot stay silent about.”
This is just the latest scandal in a country where corruption, mismanagement and incompetence have been at the heart of three crises it is going through.
Living under one of the strictest coronavirus lockdowns in the world and in the aftermath of the devastating Beirut Blast that remains unresolved, Lebanon is also suffering from the biggest economic crisis in its modern history.
Over 4,400 people have died from COVID-19 in the country since the first infection was recorded on February 21, 2020.
https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/13924-lebanese-mps-jump-vaccine-queue-sparking-outrage
Liz Cheney Goes Rogue – Ends House GOP Leadership Presser Saying Trump “Should Not Play Role in the Party”
Earlier this month Republican House members voted 145 to 61 in a secret ballot to keep Liz Cheney the Trump-hater in leadership.
This was a huge slap in the face to their base of voters who overwhelmingly supported Trump for president.
Liz Cheney decided it was in the country’s and the Republican Party’s best interest to vote to impeach the President on made-up charges and smears. She believes Trump supporters are violent and the party is made up of white supremacists.
Earlier this month Republican House members voted 145 to 61 in a secret ballot to keep Liz Cheney the Trump-hater in leadership.
This was a huge slap in the face to their base of voters who overwhelmingly supported Trump for president.
Liz Cheney decided it was in the country’s and the Republican Party’s best interest to vote to impeach the President on made-up charges and smears. She believes Trump supporters are violent and the party is made up of white supremacists.
On Wednesday Liz Cheney went rogue and, against McCarthy, slammed President Trump. During a press conference with GOP House leaders Cheney ended the presser by telling reporters President Trump “should not play a role in the party.”
She said this in front of House GOP leaders Kevin McCarthy and Steve Scalise, who both supported her leadership position, for shame.
What a disgrace.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/02/wow-liz-cheney-goes-rogue-ends-house-gop-leadership-presser-saying-trump-not-play-role-party-video/
Liz Cheney Goes Rogue – Ends House GOP Leadership Presser Saying Trump “Should Not Play Role in the Party”
Earlier this month Republican House members voted 145 to 61 in a secret ballot to keep Liz Cheney the Trump-hater in leadership.
This was a huge slap in the face to their base of voters who overwhelmingly supported Trump for president.
Liz Cheney decided it was in the country’s and the Republican Party’s best interest to vote to impeach the President on made-up charges and smears. She believes Trump supporters are violent and the party is made up of white supremacists.
Earlier this month Republican House members voted 145 to 61 in a secret ballot to keep Liz Cheney the Trump-hater in leadership.
This was a huge slap in the face to their base of voters who overwhelmingly supported Trump for president.
Liz Cheney decided it was in the country’s and the Republican Party’s best interest to vote to impeach the President on made-up charges and smears. She believes Trump supporters are violent and the party is made up of white supremacists.
On Wednesday Liz Cheney went rogue and, against McCarthy, slammed President Trump. During a press conference with GOP House leaders Cheney ended the presser by telling reporters President Trump “should not play a role in the party.”
She said this in front of House GOP leaders Kevin McCarthy and Steve Scalise, who both supported her leadership position, for shame.
What a disgrace.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/02/wow-liz-cheney-goes-rogue-ends-house-gop-leadership-presser-saying-trump-not-play-role-party-video/Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) on Wednesday called for New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) to resign in the wake of twin scandals over his handing of data on coronavirus deaths in the state’s nursing homes and allegations of sexual harassment by a former aide.
In a Medium post published earlier Wednesday, Lindsey Boylan, the former deputy secretary for economic development and special adviser to Cuomo, alleged the governor made unwanted advances toward her, including attempting to kiss her on the mouth. Boylan alleges that Cuomo’s top female staff members “normalized” the governor’s conduct. In October 2017, Cuomo invited her to play “strip poker,” she wrote.
“Governor Cuomo has earned his title as Worst Governor in America, and now every New Yorker knows that he is a criminal sexual predator,” Stefanik said in a statement. “On December 14th, I was one of the first and one of the only elected officials in New York State to call for an investigation into Governor Cuomo’s sexual harassment of Ms. Boylan. It is an inexcusable disgrace that almost every other elected official in New York State quietly brushed this serious and credible allegation under the rug. Sadly, much of the media in the state either ignored this matter or chose to report the sexist character and professional smears of Ms. Boylan by Governor Cuomo’s taxpayer-funded staff.”
“I have served in Congress during the height of the #MeToo movement leading to resignations and retirements of my colleagues,” Stefanik added. “Sexual harassment and sexual abuse in the workplace is not a political issue, it is about right and wrong. Governor Cuomo must immediately resign. And any elected official who does not immediately call for his resignation is complicit in allowing a sexual predator to continue leading the great state of New York.”
Boylan’s allegations come as Cuomo’s administration is under investigation by the FBI and the U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn following reports that the governor’s top aide told Democrat lawmakers that officials withheld the nursing home data due to concerns that the figures could “be used against us” in a federal investigation.
The New York Post first reported on the bombshell admission.
New York state lawmakers have since called for Cuomo’s emergency powers, granted during the coronavirus pandemic, to be stripped from him.
There have been more than 13,000 confirmed and presumed-positive coronavirus deaths of nursing home residents since March 1, 2020, with about 4,091 of those deaths occurring after the resident was transported out of a nursing home, according to an update posted Monday on the health department’s website. There were also about 1,743 such deaths among residents of other adult-care facilities since March, the new data showed, with about 1,493 of those deaths occurring after the resident was transported elsewhere.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/02/24/elise-stefanik-calls-for-andrew-cuomo-to-resign-after-former-aide-claims-sexual-harassment/
weird
Breaking911
@Breaking911
Seattle fire crews are responding to natural gas leak where flames are shooting through a sidewalk; nearby residents asked to evacuate
"The gas has ignited and melted through asphalt," fire officials said.
https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1364676248165875716
Rep. Steve Scalise Reminds Democrats of Attempted Assassination by Leftist
As Democrats try to capitalize on the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, Republican minority whip Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) reminded his colleagues that leftist rhetoric inspired the congressional baseball game shooting of 2017, which almost resulted in the congressman losing his life.
“Clearly we’ve all been very vocal in denouncing the events that happened on January 6th, a clear example of not only mob violence but also about how political discourse can get out of control.”
“For anyone to just try to suggest that discourse just started getting out of control on January 6th would be disingenuous, when you look at where we’ve gotten and how far this has come.”
“I want to take you back to June 14th 2017, a day when a gunman walked onto a baseball field and shot at a dozen members of congress including myself.”
“The FBI did a report. The gunman was motivated by hyper-charged rhetoric that he was hearing from the left. From high, prominent elected officials as well as media personalities.”
“There is a report that the FBI did where they included some of the writings of the gunman where he talked specifically about the people who motivated him and inspired him to commit this shooting, which would have been very deadly if he was successful without the bravery and heroism of the Capitol Police.”
“I say this to let you know that I don’t blame those other people, I blame the shooter. The shooter is the one who should be held accountable, and I’ve been very clear about that, but it’s an example that we all need to be aware of our rhetoric, we can all be doing a better job of toning down the rhetoric, but we also need to call it out where we see it, not just on the other side of the aisle but on both sides.”
“Just as I called out January 6th activities, I called out the violence I saw over the summer, when through hyper-charged rhetoric, people were burning down cities, were killing cops, killing other people. Let’s be consistent in calling it out, not trying to suggest disingenuously that it only comes from one side of the political spectrum… It’s not acceptable from the left or the right.”
https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2021/02/24/rep-steve-scalise-reminds-democrats-of-attempted-assassination-by-leftist/
College student found hanged after telling friends she had been raped
A 17-year-old British college student who told friends she had been raped at a house party was found hanged in her room the next morning.
Megan Younger-Watson told friends she was “distraught” after being sexually assaulted at the party after a night of drinking on Feb. 15, 2019, in Ipswich — just hours before she was found dead in her hostel, the Ipswich Star reported.
The teen’s death, the subject of an inquest at the Suffolk County Coroner’s Court on Tuesday, determined that Younger-Watson had cocaine, Ecstasy, and Xanax in her body when she died — but relatively low levels of alcohol.
Police later identified her alleged attacker but declined to press charges, although Suffolk Police Det. Inspector Daniel Connick acknowledged it was “apparent” that Younger-Watson had been “too intoxicated” to consent to sex, The Sun said in a report Wednesday.
“Megan was one of the most wonderful, bubbliest, happiest people you’d ever meet,” her mother, Natashia Younger-Watson, told The Sun. “She put everyone before herself. That’s why there’s been such a big tribute to her. She was absolutely amazing.”
he teen, a drama student at Suffolk New College in Ipswich, had a history of anxiety and depression and was facing eviction from the Christchurch House hostel.
The night before her death, Younger-Watson was out with friends for a night of partying at the Grinning Rat pub, and joined the group at a party at a local apartment when the bar closed at midnight, the Ipswich Star said.
The teen rarely went out and told a friend she “didn’t know what she was doing.”
https://nypost.com/2021/02/24/student-found-hanged-after-telling-friends-she-had-been-raped/
DC Elitists Call Cops On Truck With ‘Don’t Tread On Me’ Plates, Fearing It May Be An ‘Insurrection Vehicle’
Residents of an elite Washington, D.C. neighborhood called the police to report a possible "insurrection vehicle"
Residents of an elite Washington, D.C. neighborhood took to an internet message board in a state of panic after spotting a white man parking his work truck on the side of a public street, eventually calling police over fears that the truck was an “insurrectionist” vehicle.
According to a recent report from The Washington Post, residents of the elite Adams Morgan neighborhood in Washington, D.C. took to the Next Door app – a hyper localized social media network described as a cross between Facebook and Craigslist – to accuse the vehicle’s driver of engaging in domestic terrorism, honing in on the color of the driver’s skin and the truck’s Gadsden Flag, “Don’t Tread on Me” license plates as evidence of impending doom.
“There’s this suspicious white truck that is parked on the corner of Belmont and 19th,” the thread’s original post claimed, describing the driver as a white male and making note of the truck’s “Don’t Tread on Me” tags, which are available to anyone with a vehicle registered in Virginia.
“The Don’t Tread on Me tags say he probably has guns and is probably angry at some minority or politician,” a response to the post read as Adams Morgan residents and users of the community-based Next Door social media platform began to panic over the sight of the truck.
Some users began drawing comparisons to the recent Nashville bombing and the January 6th Capitol Hill protests, which the Adams Morgan residents labeled an as “insurrection.”
One user even made the claim that the truck was part of a plot to assassinate former President Barrack Obama, who lives in the nearby Kalorama neighborhood, while others claimed that the “insurrectionist” vehicle was part of the latest right wing conspiracy to takeover Washington, D.C. “I just want the police to be aware,” another user said.
When police arrived on the scene, they found the vehicle to be occupied by its owner, who was doing nothing wrong and was part of a construction project in the area.
“When things are serious, things need to be taken seriously — instead of just being a sheep. You got to look out for your tribe,” Michael Landry, one of the thread’s posters, told The Washington Post. Additionally, Landry told The Post that he and other Adams Morgan residents have remained “vigilant” in recent months, keeping an eye open for out-of-town license plates, bumper stickers conveying conservative messages, and people who aren’t wearing masks.
When faced with the reality of having accused an innocent working man of domestic terrorism, Landry told The Washington Post “I’m actually kind of ashamed of some of the things I said — but I stand my ground on everything I said.”
https://nationalfile.com/dc-elitists-call-cops-on-truck-with-dont-treat-on-me-plates-fearing-it-may-be-an-insurrection-vehicle/
Congressional Republicans Slam Carter Center’s China Ties
Ex-president's think tank partnered with CCP influence arm
Congressional Republicans are demanding answers from the Carter Center for its collaboration with Chinese government-backed entities as part of a wider effort to crack down on Chinese influence-peddling efforts in the United States.
Rep. Jody Hice (R., Ga.) and three other Georgia Republicans criticized the Carter Center for cohosting events with the United Front, the Chinese Communist Party's foreign influence arm, in a Wednesday letter. The Atlanta-based think tank was founded by its namesake, former president Jimmy Carter.
"The United Front is an organization which is deeply hostile to any idea contrary to Communism.… We are deeply troubled that the United Front continues to be given a platform to spread its propaganda in the United States," the letter reads.
The letter's publication coincides with a renewed push from other congressional Republicans to restrict China's activities in the United States. Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) and Rep. Jim Banks (R., Ind.) introduced legislation that will severely restrict the United Front and other CCP-linked influence groups in the United States.
"The Chinese Communist Party expands its disinformation campaign each day," Cotton told the Washington Free Beacon. "The United Front Work Department is just another venue for the CCP to spread its propaganda and to co-opt foreign groups to toe the CCP line. We must put an end to their tactics."
Chinese government-backed entities have spent large sums of money to peddle pro-Beijing propaganda across the world. The United Front and other China-backed groups have a long history of targeting think tanks such as the Carter Center to disseminate pro-China propaganda.
The China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF), a nonprofit group backed by the United Front, has channeled millions of dollars to famed U.S. think tanks such as the Brookings Institution, Center for American Progress, and the Atlantic Council. The Carter Center received more than $100,000 from the foundation in 2019 alone, according to its most recent annual report.
https://freebeacon.com/national-security/congressional-republicans-slam-carter-centers-china-ties/
Biden cancels Trump’s ‘Operation Talon’ Program that Targeted Sex Offenders Living in U.S. Illegally
Biden has made it clear that his number one mission as president is to undo everything the Trump administration accomplished over the last four years. His newest cancellation simply does not make sense.
Biden’s administration recently cancelled Operation Talon, a Trump administration program aimed at removing convicted sex offenders living in the United States illegally.
Though the program seems to be something everyone should support, it clearly isn’t. Why would anyone want sex offenders to remain in the country?
South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson joined a coalition of 18 state attorneys general to urge Biden to reverse the cancellation, according to ABC 4 News.
“We’re working hard to fight human trafficking and sex crimes in South Carolina and allowing convicted sex offenders who are here illegally to remain in our country makes absolutely no sense,” Wilson said. “These trafficking and sex crimes are repugnant to human decency generally and to children specifically,” he added.
The letter, directed to Joe Biden, the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Acting Director of ICE Tae Johnson, pointed out the problems with this cancellation. The attorneys general argued that canceling Operation Talon could encourage sexual predators to attack.
“The United States’ population of illegal immigrants includes disturbingly large numbers of criminals with prior convictions for sexual crimes,” the letter reads. “According to data collected by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, during the period from October 2014 to May 2018 ICE arrested 19,572 illegal aliens with criminal convictions for whom the most serious prior conviction was a conviction for a sex-related offense.”
“Meanwhile, an increasing number of illegal aliens are entering the United States after having been previously convicted of sexual offenses,” it continues. “The cancellation of [Operation Talon] effectively broadcasts to the world that the United States is now a sanctuary jurisdiction for sexual predators. This message creates a perverse incentive for foreign sexual predators to seek to enter the United States illegally and assault more victims, both in the process of unlawful migration and after they arrive. It will also broadcast the message to other criminal aliens who have committed other offenses that any kind of robust enforcement against them is unlikely.”
The letter begs perhaps the most important question: “If the United States will not remove even convicted sex offenders, whom will it remove?”
In addition to South Carolina, the state attorneys general that signed on to the letter include: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.
https://humanevents.com/2021/02/24/biden-cancels-trumps-operation-talon-program-that-targeted-sex-offenders-living-in-u-s-illegally/
Facebook sucker-punch the Australian government. What it means for independent journalists and social media users
Facebook has sucker-punched the Australian government, yet the treasurer Josh Frydenberg has claimed a win with Facebook announcing on Tuesday (23-2-21) that it will reverse the ban, that started last Thursday (18-2-21), it put on links to news articles on Facebook.
But Facebook has reserved the right to implement the ban again if they see fit which could be as soon as 2 or 3 months from now so it’s important we prepare in case the news ban on Facebook happens again.
The SMH reported today:
But the truth is that the last minute deal which has restored news to the social media giant in Australia is not the clear cut, agenda-setting, new era-defining reset of relations between tech power and political power in the 21st century. That may come later.
For now, we merely have a détente. The amendment to the Australian bill which would have forced Facebook to make blanket payments for news content it features kicks the can down the road for a couple more months. (Click here to read more)
Other media also pointed out the governments deal within Facebook is a Claytons deal and it will be at least a couple of months before there is any true indication of what will and won’t happen with Facebook and its relationship Australia’s media.
What we can say with some certainty is those small publishers who said they lost a lot of traffic since last Thursday and also said they would struggle to survive without the traffic they received from Facebook have about 2 to 3 months to prepare in case Facebook again ban links to media websites in Australia. And there is only one way to prepare and that is to diversify their marketing strategy so they receive more traffic from emails followers and other social media platforms such as Twitter and YouTube etc.
Independent journalists
Almost all news websites, big and small, rely on Facebook users sharing links to their websites and almost all news websites also have Facebook pages that drive traffic back to their websites and all the websites lost traffic when Facebook banned news links last Thursday.
One small independent news website is Michael West News and Mr West said, in the below video which was recorded the day of the Facebook ban, that he relies on Facebook for 30% of his traffic and that he will ramp up his YouTube channel and produce more videos to try and cover the lost traffic to his website. That’s what all small and independent media websites need to do, diversify so no one traffic source is relied on and if one stops working like Facebook did, they can quickly adapt and focus on other traffic sources.
https://kangaroocourtofaustralia.com/2021/02/25/facebook-sucker-punch-the-australian-government-what-it-means-for-independent-journalists-and-social-media-users/
Biden’s Foreign Policy Is Obama All Over Again: Empowering Our Enemies At Our Expense
President Biden seems determined to go down the same path as his former boss, which will no doubt strengthen America's foes to the detriment of the country.
President Biden says his foreign policy goal is to promote American values. Yet serious questions deserve to be raised as to whether these were only empty words following the Biden administration’s recent controversial moves on China and Iran that seem all too eager to appease America’s adversaries.
In a recent CNN town hall, when asked about the genocide of the Uighur Muslims enacted under Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping, Biden sounded like a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry, repeating the CCP’s talking points, and explaining the CCP’s treatment of the persecuted Uighur population as a different cultural “norm.”
Tony Blinken, Biden’s secretary of state, stated in his Senate confirmation hearing that he agrees China is committing “genocide” in Xinjiang but had a change of heart after Biden dismissed the CCP’s actions. Following his boss’s lead, the State Department now claims “insufficient evidence to prove genocide.”
The intrinsically discernible fact is that no cultural norm could ever justify the systematic elimination of the identity, culture, and religion of an entire group of people. As the numerous news reports about the plight of Uighurs in China indicate, more than 1 million have been “systematically dehumanized, humiliated, and brain-washed” in prison-like internment camps.
Uighur women reportedly have suffered the worst, including rape, sexual assaults, forced sterilization, and forced abortions inside the camps. Besides these unspeakable physical sufferings, Uighurs are losing their religious sites and cultural heritage.
Refusing to Hold the CCP Accountable
Under the Trump administration, the United States took a series of actions to hold the CCP accountable for its human rights abuses, such as sanctions targeting senior CCP officials. On his last day as the U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo officially declared that the Chinese Communist Party’s actions against Uighur Muslims and other minorities in Xinjiang constitute “genocide” and a “crime against humanity.”
By doing so, Pompeo removed a challenging barrier for his successor, making it easier for the Biden administration to take tough actions to hold Beijing accountable while providing the new administration powerful leverage to use in future negotiations.
In its zeal to erase all things Trump-related, the Biden administration is giving up the leverage gifted by the Trump administration and relinquishing America’s legal responsibility and moral leadership. If this appeasement is being done in hopes of a change in the CCP’s behavior, it’s both ignorant and arrogant. Already, there are now credible reports regarding the CCP’s deployment of identical tactics it used in Xinjiang against the Uighurs to populations in Tibet and Inner Mongolia.
The Biden administration’s moral cowardice will only drive allies further into China’s sphere of influence, emboldening the CCP to intensify its domestic aggression, and accelerating the rise of a dangerous Sino-centric new world order.
https://thefederalist.com/2021/02/24/bidens-foreign-policy-is-obama-all-over-again-empowering-our-enemies-at-our-expense/
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-25/qanon-keeps-changing-the-goal-posts/13184202
'This is not okay': AOC slams Biden for reopening Trump-era migrant children holding facility, calls for elimination of DHS and ICE
The New York democratic socialist is not happy
The Washington Post revealed Monday that the Biden administration officially reopened a Texas housing facility for migrant children along the U.S.-Mexico border capable of holding hundreds of children. The location was opened by the Trump administration for just a month in 2019 — a move that was a source of repeated criticism from the left and immigration activists.
News of the facility's reopening led to a massive hue and cry on the left, which accused Biden of betraying his base by repeating the horrors of former President Donald Trump.
Not one to be overshadowed by fellow outraged leftists, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez got into the action Tuesday evening and offered her critique of President Joe Biden's decision to follow in Trump's throw-kids-in-cages footsteps.
"This is not okay, never has been okay, never will be okay — no matter the administration or party," the democratic socialist New York lawmaker declared.
She went on to blast U.S. immigration policy, which currently does not offer illegal aliens the opportunity to simply waltz over a border or overstay a visa and automatically grant the immigration violator American citizenship.
"Our immigration system is built on a carceral framework," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. "It's no accident that challenging how we approach both these issues are considered 'controversial' stances."
"They require reimagining our relationship to each other and challenging common assumptions we take for granted," she continued.
"It's only 2 [months] into this admin & our fraught, unjust immigration system will not transform in that time," she added. "That's why bold reimagination is so [important]."
What is the "bold reimagination" she envisions?
Get rid of the Department of Homeland Security. Scuttle the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Create a new status of refugee for climate change. And more.
"DHS shouldn't exist, agencies should be reorganized, ICE gotta go, ban for-profit detention, create climate refugee status & more," Ocasio-Cortez wrote.
https://www.theblaze.com/news/aoc-biden-reopening-trump-era-migrant-children-facility
Democrat Equality Act ‘the most comprehensive assault on Christianity ever written into law’
'This is a radical bill that uses the government to control, through coercion, how every American thinks, speaks, and acts on issues of human sexuality'
Following the announcement that the radical pro-abortion and pro-LGBT Equality Act will be brought before the U.S. House of Representatives this week, pro-life and pro-family leaders have described the proposed legislation as “the most comprehensive assault on Christianity ever written into law.”
Dr. Bill Donohue, Ph.D., president of the Catholic advocacy group Catholic League, said that, contrary to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s claim that the Equality Act is “about ending discrimination,” that in fact the opposite is true, with Christians set to experience severe discrimination should the act be passed into law.
Donohue explained that, as well as amending the 1964 Civil Rights Act “to include sexual orientation and gender identity to the definition of sex,” a thing never intended or envisioned by the authors of that legislation, the Equality Act would “undermine the Religious Freedom Restoration Act by allowing gay rights to trump religious rights.”
Donohue said that the act’s broad scope would force healthcare providers to supply hormone therapies and even surgeries in accordance with “sex change” procedures.
Women’s sports, too, will become unfairly altered by the inclusion of boys and men who purport to be female. “These biological males can use the locker rooms, restrooms and shower facilities that have always been reserved for females,” he added.
But for Catholics and members of other religious groups who hold to a traditional understanding of human nature, they “could not raise religious liberty objections to any of the aforementioned rights of transgender women. In effect, religious entities would be secularized,” Donohue warned.
As an example, Donohue explained that “if the Equality Act were to become law, Catholic foster care programs would be shut down. They would either have to agree to allow two men to adopt children—a clear violation of Church teachings—or lose federal funding.”
Additionally, Catholic hospitals would lose any federal funding they receive under the proposed Equality Act if they refuse to perform abortions, “or be forced to get into the abortion business.”
“This is the kind of ‘gotcha’ type element that makes this bill so pernicious,” Donohue said.
Family Research Council (FRC) President Tony Perkins described the Equality Act as “a catastrophic loss of religious freedom in America.”
“The Equality Act is a grave and treasonous threat to our nation's core values contained in our First Amendment. The fact that no Republicans have co-sponsored it, even those who co-sponsored in the previous Congress, underscores the Democrats' lurch to the Left. This is a radical bill that uses the government to control, through coercion, how every American thinks, speaks, and acts on issues of human sexuality. It may be named the Equality Act, but as the details make quite clear, the only equal thing about it is how much damage it does to many facets of American life,” Perkins said.
“The bill erodes parental rights and positions the government as lord over churches and other faith-based institutions, potentially dictating how their facilities are used, who they hire, and even punishing them for not falling in step with a view of human sexuality that directly contradicts orthodox biblical teaching,” he continued.
“No person of faith or religious institution, whether school, church, synagogue, mosque, business, or non-profit, will escape the Orwellian reach of the Equality Act,” Perkins warned.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/democrat-equality-act-the-most-comprehensive-assault-on-christianity-ever-written-into-law?utm_source=featured&utm_campaign=standard
this is why the mask is so important