Lawsuit Uncovers Sprawling Network Of Federal/Social Media Collusion To Censor Americans During Pandemic

September 2, 2022

Evidence has been discovered and verified that at least eleven federal agencies and the White House itself, coordinated with Big Media to illegally censor speech of Americans over COVID-related issues. As noted below, “this unlawful enterprise has been wildly successful.” — Technocracy News & Trends Editor Patrick Wood

By: New Civil Liberties Alliance

The New Civil Liberties Alliance, the Attorney General of Missouri, and the Attorney General of Louisiana, have filed a lawsuit that blows the lid off a sprawling federal censorship regime that will shock the conscience of Americans. The joint statement on discovery disputes in the lawsuit, State of Missouri ex rel. Schmitt, et al. v. Joseph R. Biden, Jr., et al., reveals scores of federal officials across at least eleven federal agencies have secretly communicated with social-media platforms to censor and suppress private speech federal officials disfavor. This unlawful enterprise has been wildly successful.

Under the First Amendment, the federal government may not police private speech nor pick winners and losers in the marketplace of ideas. But that is precisely what the government has done—and is still doing—on a massive scale not previously divulged. Multiple agencies’ communications demonstrate that the federal government has exerted tremendous pressure on social media companies—pressure to which companies have repeatedly bowed.

Discovery has unveiled an army of federal censorship bureaucrats, including officials arrayed at the White House, HHS, DHS, CISA, the CDC, NIAID, the Office of the Surgeon General, the Census Bureau, the FDA, the FBI, the State Department, the Treasury Department, and the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. Communications show these federal officials are fully aware that the pressure they exert is an effective and necessary way to induce social-media platforms to increase censorship. The head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency even griped about the need to overcome social-media companies’ “hesitation” to work with the government.

These actions have precipitated an unprecedented rise in censorship and suppression of free speech—including core political speech—on social-media platforms. Many viewpoints and speakers have been unlawfully and unconstitutionally silenced or suppressed in the modern public square. This unlawful government interference violates the fundamental right of free speech for all Americans, whether or not they are on social media. More discovery is needed to uncover the full extent of this regime—i.e., the identities of other White House and agency officials involved and the nature and content of their communications with social-media companies.

The government has been uncooperative and has resisted complying with the discovery order every step of the way—especially with regard to Anthony Fauci’s communications. Defendants claim, for example, that White House communications are privileged, even though such privilege does not apply to external communications. The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana should overrule the government defendants’ objections and order them to supply this highly relevant, responsive, and probative information immediately.

Where David escaped

David The Fugitive 

In one scene, David is hiding on the side of a mountain in the wilderness. As Saul’s army closes in on David by approaching from the back of the mountain, a miracle happens. At the last minute, just before he captures David, Saul is called back home to fight the Philistines. The story ends by telling us that the name of this famous mountain where David was delivered from death is the “Rock of Escape.” 

The Hebrew Meaning of the Rock

In the original Hebrew this is Sela HaMaḥlekot סֶלַע הַמַּחְלְקוֹת, a name which is far more interesting than the translation indicates. The word Maḥlekot comes from the root ḤLK חלק which means “to divide”. But the same root also means “slippery.” Which meaning is correct? In fact, both are. This mountain was the dividing border separating two armies. But this mountain is also where David, with the help of God, once again slipped through Saul’s fingers.

The Power of the Hebrew source

The power of reading the Bible in the Hebrew is that you don’t need to pick one translation, you no longer depend on footnotes and commentaries to unpack theses rich layers of meaning. Enroll today in our live online Biblical Hebrew course and discover the hidden secrets of Scripture.

Nine things to know about John Paul I

By Kevin J. Jones Denver Newsroom, Sep 2, 2022

Venerable John Paul I was born Albino Luciani on Oct. 17, 1912 in the town of Canale d’Argordo in northern Italy’s Belluno province. He was the most recent pope to be born in Italy and the first pope to be born in the twentieth century. 

He was elected to the papacy on Aug. 26, 1978. He would be dead just a month later. Though his time as Roman Pontiff was brief, he had such an impact that some Catholics have sought his intercession as a saint. The Vatican has recognized a miraculous healing attributed to the first Pope John Paul and he will be beatified this Saturday.

Here’s more to know:

John Paul I was known as the “Smiling Pope”

The pope admitted he hadn’t learned how to be a good bishop. But he promised to try.

A Pope with two names? Why he chose ‘John Paul’

He was the first pope to take two names. “John” and “Paul” honored his two immediate predecessors, Popes John XXIII and Paul VI. 

John XXIII, the former Patriarch of Venice, had made him a bishop. Paul VI had named him the Patriarch of Venice and a cardinal. Luciani explained why he chose to be the first “Pope John Paul” in his Sunday Angelus remarks at St. Peter’s Square on Aug. 27, the day after he was elected Roman Pontiff: 

“Pope John had decided to consecrate me himself in St. Peter’s Basilica. Then, however unworthy, I succeeded him in Venice on the Chair of St. Mark, in that Venice which is still full of Pope John. He is remembered by the gondoliers, the Sisters, everyone.”

“Then Pope Paul not only made me a cardinal, but some months earlier, on the wide footbridge in St Mark’s Square, he made me blush to the roots of my hair in the presence of 20,000 people, because he removed his stole and placed it on my shoulders,” he continued. “Never have I blushed so much!”

The day before he died, he explained a prayer his mother taught him

Though he didn’t know it, John Paul’s Sept. 27 general audience was his last. He reflected on a prayer taught him by his mother.

“My God, with all my heart above all things I love You, infinite good and our eternal happiness, and for your sake I love my neighbor as myself and forgive offenses received,” the prayer said. “Oh Lord, may I love you more and more.”

Shortest pontificate ever? No, but close.

John Paul I was pope for 33 days, from Aug. 26 to Sept. 28, 1978. His 33-day pontificate was the 10th shortest. The last pope to have such a brief pontificate was Leo XI, whose pontificate lasted 27 days in April 1605.  

A shocking death 

The death of a pope so soon after his election caused such great shock that it continues to attract attention. 

John Paul I wrote “open letters” to Mark Twain, Pinocchio, and King David

His 1976 book Illustrissimi is a collection of imaginative fiction: “open letters” to historic figures, saints, famous writers and imaginary characters. Some are playful in style, while others engage in social commentary, personal advice, or spiritual reflection. 

He was never a pastor of a parish church

Despite his “pastoral” reputation, the future John Paul I never served as a pastor leading a parish! He was a curate for his hometown church in Canale d’Agordo only for the six months after his ordination in July 1935. During his life, he was a seminary professor and seminary rector. He held several leading roles in the chancery of the Diocese of Belluno e Feltre before he was named Bishop of Vittorio Veneto in northern Italy. From there, he would become Patriarch of Venice, cardinal, and pope.

His beatification miracle happened in Argentina

Candela Giarda, an 11-year-old girl from Paraná in northeastern Argentina, suffered brain dysfunction and septic shock amid uncontrollable seizures. She was later diagnosed with Febrile Infection-Related Epilepsy Syndrome.

The girl’s mother, Roxana Sosa, went to pray in the Catholic church next to the Buenos Aires hospital and met a priest, Father José Dabusti.

Candela’s health became worse and worse, a Vatican investigation later reported. 

The Light of Grace

• August 31, 2022 Fr. James Brent O.P.

Editor’s note: This article is part 6 of a series, “The Kingdom of Grace.”  Part 5 can be found here. 

Grace is a special gift of God’s love, different from all the blessings of nature, and God gives us his grace in order to draw us into us his own divine Life. God gives actual graces to all people, but in baptism he gives sanctifying grace to souls. Thanks to sanctifying grace, the soul lives on another level than all the things of natural world – on a level beyond even that of the angels. It was God’s plan all along to bestow such a special gift of his Love, and to share something of his own Life with us. In order to live the spiritual life, in order to come to know, love, and enjoy God himself, the first thing one needs is the light of grace.  

In order to live the spiritual life, in order to come to know, love, and enjoy God himself, the first thing one needs is the light of grace.  – Fr. James Brent, O.P.

To understand the light of grace, the liturgy of the Church provides the best comparison. Every year at the Easter Vigil, the priest first blesses the fire, and from the holy fire the paschal candle is lit. From the paschal candle, in turn, the candles of the people are lit. The deacon then processes with the paschal candle. Three times he stops in the procession, holds the candle high, and chants “the Light of Christ!” All of this reveals that Christ is the light of God, and each of us receives his light. The light of Christ, God’s own Light, radiates in us by the grace of our baptism. 

Throughout the year, the same paschal candle is present in the liturgy of baptisms. When a baptism takes place, after the pouring or immersion in the water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, a small candle is lit from the paschal candle and handed to the newly baptized or to the godfather. When the newly lit candle is handed over, the minister says “keep the flame of faith burning brightly.” The liturgy of the Church teaches us clearly that faith is a special light received from God in Jesus Christ, and thanks to grace his divine Light illuminates our souls. Faith is the light of God shining within us in the depths of our souls – in a special part of the soul traditionally called the spiritual part of the soul, the mind, or the heart.    

Faith is a fixed tendency to trust and affirm what God has revealed to the human race, i.e. everything that comes down to us in the testimony of the prophets and apostles. This fixed tendency is traditionally called a theological virtue. Thanks to this virtue or fixed tendency of the heart or mind, when a person full of faith hears what God has revealed, the person simply believes it all. The faithful affirm in all simplicity that Jesus is Lord, that he freely chose to die on the cross out of love for us, that God raised him from the dead, that now he stands before the Father interceding for us, and the Father answers his prayers by pouring out the Holy Spirit upon us – especially in the sacraments of the Church.

Thanks to the virtue of faith, the faithful simply believe in the perpetual Virginity of Mary, the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the mystery of the Holy Trinity, and all the other mysteries of our faith. These mysteries naturally give rise to many questions. The questions are not doubts (or need not become doubts). Rather, every question is a call to grow in understanding of what God has revealed, and so faith also ponders the mysteries in love like the Blessed Virgin Mary who “kept all these things pondering them in her heart” (Lk. 2:19). Faith, therefore, gives birth to prayer and meditation, contemplation and sacred study, indeed, to the whole personal response to the Light that is living and true theology. 

More importantly, faith is the beginning of eternal life in us. In John 17:3, the Lord said: “eternal life is knowing you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” Eternal life is a form of knowing. It is not merely an abstract or conceptual knowledge, but a personal, experiential, familiar form of knowing God. Faith is contact of the mind with God himself, and the fruit of such contact is life in the presence of God, awareness of him, knowing him in the biblical sense in the depths of the heart. Whoever lives in such contact with God in the depths of the heart is already in some sense one with him. That is why Saint Thomas Aquinas says that by faith a person enters into “a union similar to marriage” with God, and also that by faith a person “perceives many things of God in a manner higher than reason.”

Now, just as in a marriage, the union merely begins on the day of the wedding and is meant to grow from that day forward, so union with God begins in faith and is meant to grow through faith and hope and charity and the seven gifts of the Spirit. It is meant to grow into the full enjoyment of the presence of God dwelling within us. In this way, God recovers fallen humanity from its sense of the absence of God, heals our hearts of the calamity of the Fall, and renews us in the life of knowing the divine Light. 

Most importantly of all, faith is the root and source of contemplative prayer. “Contemplation,” the Catechism says, “is a gaze of faith fixed on Jesus” (CCC 2715). When two people trust each other and abide in love together, their communication tends to simplify, to become more interior, more silent, and yet mysteriously richer and more intimate. So too it is with the faithful who pray. Those who believe – in all trust and love – what God reveals, and give themselves to the practice of prayer, tend to become more interior souls, more silent, abiding more with a simple awareness of the presence of God living within. They begin to experience for themselves the meaning of these words: “he who believes in me out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (Jn. 7:38). 

Such contemplative awareness can become radical. One great example is the French Carmelite nun Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity.  She was a contemplative soul, and by grace was given from an early age to pondering the reality of the Trinity dwelling in her soul. “I have found heaven on earth, since heaven is God, and God is in my soul,” she wrote. What was her secret? What was the secret of her growth in radical awareness of God dwelling within her? “Believe in his Love,” she wrote, “in his exceeding Love.”

“Believe in his Love, in his exceeding Love.” – St. Elizabeth of the Trinity

Poland and Hungary Live in Shame: Nigeria Lives Proudly At The U.N

By Austin Ruse | September 2, 2022

Hungarian President, Victor Orban

NEW YORK, September 2 (C-Fam) Western conservatives like to tout the heroic nature of Poland and especially Hungary under Victor Organ for standing up the European Union on things like immigration. But conservatives, especially social conservatives, should understand that neither Poland nor Hungary has ever done much of anything for the unborn child at the UN. And it is such an easy thing to do.

In fact, both have acted shamefully in recent days. Today, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution that puts abortion into the category of a human right and advances the homosexual/trans ideology. Outrageously, both Hungary and Poland co-sponsored the resolution and then did nothing to stop the abortion and homosexual/trans language.

Several truly brave countries, mostly from Africa, stood up to the Western countries and tried to have various amendments passed that would have blunted the pro-abortion advance in this non-binding but still dangerous resolution. The amendments would have also blunted pro-homosexual/trans language. All the amendments failed.

Nigeria led the way even though Nigeria came under vicious pressure from the Biden administration and the European Union. Countries like Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Egypt, Gambia, Senegal, and Uganda voted in favor of the unborn child.

Hungary voted against the amendments and Poland abstained.

It is not a hard thing for Hungary and Poland to vote pro-life and pro-family at the UN. There is no cost to them. They can quite easily stand up to the EU and the United States. But they never do. And this week, they positively advanced the cause of death and family breakdown.

There is potentially a huge cost to the countries in Africa that do vote pro-life and pro-family. There are sanctions and threats of sanctions. Diplomats lose jobs.

Today Hungary and Poland live in shame and infamy. They were cowards. The next time a conservative sings the praises of either of them, especially Hungary, tell them what happened at the UN this week.

While you are at it, hail the countries of Africa who showed genuine bravery today.

Nigeria Leads Fight Against Abortion at the UN

By Stefano Gennarini, J.D. | September 2, 2022

NEW YORK, September 2 (C-Fam) Nigeria stood up to the United States and the European Union in a heated debate about abortion in the General Assembly on Friday.

“Each country should decide its abortion laws at the national level without external interference,” decried a Nigerian delegate during a General Assembly debate on access to justice for victims of sexual violence. “Countries should help women avoid abortion and provide mothers and their children with health-care and social support,” he added, citing past UN agreements.

The Nigerian delegation proposed amendments to delete controversial language promoting abortion and gender ideology in the resolution. The amendments co-sponsored by Belarus, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Libya, Mauritania and Senegal were supported by more than thirty delegations mostly from Africa and the Middle East, ultimately failed. But the strong result helped to show that abortion rights are far from being a settled issue internationally.

The Nigerian delegate cited the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, where members of the United Nations agreed to address the negative impacts of abortion in UN policy. That agreement cast abortion in a negative light as something that should be avoided, but Western countries and UN agencies want to reinterpret the same conference documents to promote “access to safe abortion” as a human rights issue.

Consistent with this approach, the Nigerian warned against making abortion an official UN response to pregnancies in emergency situations, saying that it “creates the danger that women will be pressured to abort their babies.”

The most contentious issues in the debate, was a paragraph in the resolution that declared “access to safe abortion” as a human rights issue for only the second time in a General Assembly resolution. Both the United States and the European Union supported it.

Along with the Ambassadors of Japan and Sierra Leone who led the negotiations they repeatedly characterized this as “agreed language,” a technical term for non-controversial language routinely included in UN resolutions on a consensus basis. They overlooked the fact that the U.S. delegation voted against the same language only two years ago and it has been rejected repeatedly since. Similar language was also contentious in a close vote in a resolution at the Human Rights Council in Geneva in July.

The intense opposition the paragraph encountered may make it harder for the U.S. and European delegations to streamline the notion of “safe abortion” in other UN agreements.

Many of the same delegations who objected to abortion language also objected to language related to gender and veiled references to homosexuality and transgenderism.

The resolution replaced every reference to “sexual violence” and “violence against women” in the resolution with the term “sexual and gender-based violence.” UN agencies use this term to describe programs not just to end violence, but also to promote social acceptance of homosexuality and transgender issues.

The European Union was adamant that such programming is necessary during the debate on Friday.

“Discrimination fuels violence” said the representative of the Czech Republic on behalf of the European Union. “To ban violence we must ban all forms of discrimination… including on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.”

The Czech delegate spoke aggressively about the need to provide children with “comprehensive sexuality education” and to “pushback against the pushback” to sexual rights.

The lively debate in the General Assembly underscored the importance that governments afford UN policies, even though they are sometimes considered non-binding and the legal implications of the agreements are not always immediately clear.

In a revealing exchange before the meeting a U.S. representative told a group of activists in the Gallery of the General Assembly, including the Rise Foundation, that a standalone UN resolution on the rights of survivors of sexual violence was important because, if the language is repeated again in future resolutions, it can become binding as “customary international law.”

Ironically, in the official U.S. statement during the debate the same delegate said that in the adoption of the resolution the U.S. government “did not recognize any change to the state of customary international law.”

Revelation in some way is like the book of Job in the events that are going on there. True believers suffer badly in both books. It differs in one important way. The tragic events in Job’s life are never explained to him. While seeking for answers from God, he meets the Almighty and is humbled by such a powerful encounter. That’s it! He is never told that the reason all these things happened in his life is because Satan and God had an argument about people’s ability to love God for God and not for his benefits.

The Book of Job reveals a lot to readers, but not to Job himself. The Book of Revelation is different in that it explains to the readers the reasons for the suffering that they are enduring. In the end one of the messages of Revelation is that any oppression or evil that Satan and his ilk can inflict upon believers is done strictly with permission of God and strictly for a great purpose and only limited time.

On The Marble

“In poverty and other misfortunes of life, true friends are a sure refuge. The young they keep out of mischief; to the old they are a comfort and aid in their weakness, and those in the prime of life they incite to noble deeds.”

• ARISTOTLE

Our wounded creation

Sep 3, 2022 by Mary M. McGlone

Spirituality

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A general view shows brick factories as smoke rises from the stacks in the town of Nahrawan June 5 in Baghdad, Iraq. (CNS/Reuters/Thaier al-Sudani)

Today’s Gospel describes great crowds “traveling with” Jesus. That portrays people acting like an audience at a spectacle, groups hanging out, being entertained, perhaps even a bit proud of being fans, yet not committed enough to opt for a one-way ticket with Jesus. It’s to these folks that Jesus says, “If you want to be my disciples, you must hate your very own family.”

While that sounds unreasonably harsh, it’s actually worse than you think. According to scripture scholar David E. Garland, the word we translate as “hate,” is better understood as “indifference.” If you think that’s better, think again. Hate, the inverse of love, is emotionally involved; contact or even the thought of someone we hate provokes strong feelings — we remain very much aware of and influenced by that person.

Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

September 4, 2022

Wisdom 9:13-18b

Psalm 90

Philemon 9-10, 12-17

Luke 14:25-33

Indifference is the emotional equivalent of a temperature of 68 degrees: neither hot nor cold. It does not keep our attention or solicit concern. Jesus showed this sort of indifference when someone blessed his mother and he replied: “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it” (Luke 8:21). After saying that, Jesus offered the crowds two more examples of the requirements for joining his company.

Luke leads with the harshest of Jesus’ demands: “If you want to be my disciple, you must bear your own cross and follow me.” To put this in context, remember that Luke wrote for a Christian community that knew Jesus’ story. What he quotes Jesus as saying is really directed to people who considered themselves Christians. Because Luke wrote after the year 70, he wasn’t depicting a one-time event in the life of Jesus, but the cruciform life of all Jesus’ followers. Jesus carried a cross and died on it once. Luke warns would-be followers that their life’s journey will be constantly marked by the sign of the cross. To carry one’s own cross is to follow Jesus in his life of free self-giving, a death to self that led him to become the victim of powerful people who truly did hate him.

The second of Jesus’ demands, “renounce all your possessions,” can be understood as a reiteration of the first, simply sung in a different key. Poverty is a major theme in Luke, as it is in the writings of Pope Francis. Luke quotes Jesus as saying “anyone who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.” In Evangelii Guadium, Francis explains that possessions have dangerous power to make our hearts “complacent yet covetous.” He describes materialism as, “the feverish pursuit of frivolous pleasures,” warning that it wields treacherous potential to blunt our consciences, leaving no room for God’s love or voice. That’s a pretty dire portrayal of how possessions can incapacitate disciples.

The Gospels tell us that only the women who followed Jesus and his closest male disciples actually abandoned family life and lived from a common purse (Luke 8:1-3 and 5:1-11). Nevertheless, we know that the Christians tried to create the kind of family Jesus described. In the Acts of the Apostles Luke writes: “There was no needy person among them” for they put what they had in common and the apostles “distributed to each according to need” (Acts 4:34-35).

It seems that what Jesus really counseled was an indifference to blood ties such that one was not bound by them, nor by self-preservation nor by possessions. That means that, like the good Samaritan, the need that appears on our road must trump our other priorities. (If you want to calculate the cost of that, imagine how that Samaritan explained to his wife what had happened to the oil, the wine and the money he was supposed to bring home!)

What does this mean for us today? How are we to move from being Jesus’ fans to his followers? According to Francis, today’s most urgent call is to the “ecological conversion” that will lead us to heal and renew our common home. Francis reminds us that creation is languishing like the discounted victim on the side of the road who implores us “to put an end to our abuses and to her destruction.” Ecological conversion is the ultimate and most urgent call to protect life; as Francis says, it is our call to ” ‘protect mankind from self-destruction’ ” (Laudato Si’, Paragraph 79) Francis adds: “Living our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork … is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our Christian experience.”

We are not called to walk through Israel with Jesus. Few of us are called to forsake home and family completely. But today, everyone who wishes to be Jesus’ disciples must carry the cross of wounded creation and renounce what harms her. This is not an option.