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HomeNewsworthyNewsAmerica: The End (September 25-30)

America: The End (September 25-30)

Various weekly news summaries

Club 14 Fitness
 

News

Edited by Michael Hernandez

(Editor’s Note: this is part of a weekly compendium of recent significant events, culled from world news and curated by Michael Hernandez.)

Gov. Ron DeSantis: Hurricane Ian Is a ‘500-Year Flood Event’ 

JORDAN DIXON-HAMILTON (Sept. 29)Breitbart News

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Thursday said the state was hit with a “500-year flood event” one day after Hurricane Ian made landfall in southwest Florida. “We’ve never seen a flood event like this,” he said at a news briefing in the state’s capital, Tallahassee. “We’ve never seen a storm surge of this magnitude.”

Although Hurricane Ian hit southwest Florida the hardest, DeSantis said that counties in central Florida are “looking at potential major flooding. The amount of water that’s been rising and will likely continue to rise today even as the storm is passing is basically a 500-year flood event,” DeSantis said. He also highlighted the influx of resources the state has received in the past day and praised Floridians for their resiliency. “The response here and the way people have reacted has been very impressive,” DeSantis added.

Florida first lady Casey DeSantis said the state raised $2 million in 24 hours to help the hurricane’s victims. Hurricane Ian hit Florida as a strong category-four storm on Wednesday, with maximum sustained winds of 155 miles per hour, the Hill reported. Ian has since been downgraded to a tropical storm, but Florida officials warned that the wind and rain are still dangerous.

DeSantis also announced he spoke with President Joe Biden, who declared a major disaster for nine Florida counties. DeSantis reportedly plans to ask Biden to expand the emergency declaration to more counties, allowing Florida residents to receive individual assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

“This storm is having broad impacts across the state and some of the flooding you’re going to see in areas hundreds of miles from where this made landfall are going to set records, and that’s going to obviously be things that will need to be responded to,” DeSantis said at his press conference.

The storm left more than 2.5 million Floridians without power and caused structural damage to several vital pieces of infrastructure, including the Sanibel Causeway, which connects the Sanibel Islands to the mainland.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/09/29/gov-ron-desantis-hurricane-ian-500-year-flood-event/

Putin proclaims he’s annexing four regions of Ukraine

Francesca Chambers and Kim Hjelmgaard (Sept. 30) USA Today

Russian President Vladimir Putin used a speech in Moscow on Friday to falsely proclaim four Ukrainian regions were now part of the Russian Federation, a move that comes amid Moscow’s growing battlefield setbacks in its war in Ukraine and a decision to call up tens of thousands of reservists. Putin claimed the illegal annexations were “the will of millions of people” to huge applause during a signing ceremony in the Kremlin’s  St. George’s Hall despite widespread reports of voter coercion and people being pressured at gunpoint. 

The illegal occupation could potentially raise the stakes of Russia’s seven-month-old war in Ukraine because Putin vowed to defend the annexed territories with “all available means,” a veiled reference to his insistence he would be prepared to use nuclear weapons if Russia’s territory is threatened.  

Russia is incorporating the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson areas of Ukraine – representing roughly 15% of Ukraine’s territory – following widely discredited referenda that mirrored a similar move to annex Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014. Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014. Only a handful of countries, such as North Korea and Syria, have recognized that annexation.

Ukraine and Western officials have characterized the move as little more than a land grab and desperate tactic by Putin to disguise growing battlefield losses to Ukraine.

Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., introduced legislation on Thursday that would prohibit countries that recognize Russia’s annexation of the four new regions from receiving economic or military assistance from the United States. The bipartisan pair is also pushing for passage of legislation that would designate Russia a state sponsor of terror for over its actions in Ukraine. Just four countries — North Korea, Syria, Cuba and Iran — have the designation.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/09/30/putin-russia-annexation-ukraine-sanctions/8129099001/

New Italian prime minister’s stance defending “God, country and family” shocks Europe elites

SIMON KENT (Sept 26) Breitbart News

Giorgia Meloni, leader of the Brothers of Italy party that won the most votes in Italy’s national election, was preparing to be the country’s first woman premier on Monday. The center-right coalition leader is bound for office declaring “We defend God, country, and family” built on opposition to gender ideology and the LGBT lobby alongside support for strong borders and an end to limitless mass migration.

Meloni sounded a moderate, unifying tone in a victory speech that noted Italians had finally been able to clearly determine who they wanted to govern and the direction they wished to go in defiance of establishment elites. “Italians have sent a clear message in favor of a right-wing government led by Brothers of Italy,” she told reporters in Rome, holding up a sign saying “Thank you Italy.” All of which has sent much of Europe into a gasping, political tail spin.

The vice president of the European Parliament, Katharina Barley of the Social Democrats of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, cast Meloni’s victory as “worrying” given her affiliations with Hungary’s leader Viktor Orban and former U.S. President Donald Trump. “Her electoral lip service to Europe cannot hide the fact that she represents a danger to constructive coexistence in Europe,” she was quoted as saying by German daily WELT, AP reports.

“I am afraid of incompetence, not the fascist threat,″ said Roberto D’Alimonte, a political science professor at LUISS, a private university in Rome. “She has not governed anything.” He neglected to mention Meloni did serve as youth minister in Berlusconi’s last government a decade ago.

Prof Gianluca Passarrelli of Rome’s Sapienza University told the BBC he hoped she would avoid rocking the boat on Europe and focus on other policies, before expressing the fear she might enact the promises she was elected on, cautioning “I think we will see more restrictions on civil rights and policies on LGBT and immigrants.”

German magazine Stern splashed its front page with a photo of Meloni, under the banner: “The most dangerous woman in Europe.” The Financial Times reports just last week E.U. commission chief Ursula von der Leyen put Rome in the same basket with Budapest and Warsaw as challengers to the overarching desire of the E.U. to govern all of Europe without exception or challenge to its own autocracy. “If things go in a difficult direction,” she said when asked about the Italian elections, “I’ve spoken about Hungary and Poland, we have tools.” This was a reference to the rule of law disputes and funding freezes that both countries have experienced.

The implied threat sparked outrage in Rome, particularly amongst the political right of center and online in the MIGA (“Make Italy Great Again”) circles, where von der Leyen was accused of interfering in the election.

Despite the threats from around the E.U., Meloni has no intention of being intimidated as her audience saw as far back as 2019 at the World Congress of Families: She will need that fortitude in coming months and years.

Italy is suffering rampant inflation while an energy crisis looms this winter, linked to the conflict in Ukraine. The Italian economy, the third largest in the eurozone, is also saddled with a debt worth 150 percent of gross domestic product. Despite the gasps from her opponents inside and outside Italy, Meloni is bound to act to secure the country’s economic future despite what her detractors say is her underlying euroskeptic beliefs.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/09/26/italys-move-to-the-right-shakes-europe-as-giorgia-meloni-looks-set-to-form-government/

Firebombed Pregnancy Center sues for surveillance footage from attack

JORDAN DIXON-HAMILTON (Sept 24) Breitbart News

The president of a pregnancy center that far-left radical pro-abortion protesters firebombed over the summer filed a lawsuit to retrieve video surveillance of the attack from federal authorities.

In early June, one of CompassCare Pregnancy Services’ locations in Amherst, New York, was attacked by far-left radicals. The pro-abortion perpetrators spray-painted “Jane was here” on the building, damaged the building, and burned portions of it.

Unfortunately, the attack on the CompassCare location was just one of the hundreds of such attacks on pro-life organizations, churches, and pregnancy centers since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade leaked in May. The CompassCare attack was attributed to Jane’s revenge, which has taken credit for various attacks on pregnancy centers nationwide.

As Breitbart News editor-in-chief Alex Marlow detailed in his “Summer of Rage” series, Jane’s Revenge is one of several militant groups violently targeting pro-life institutions. The “Summer of Rage” series revealed that one conservative advocacy group complained about being harassed by far-left groups just weeks before Jane’s Revenge members firebombed its offices.

The Family Research Council reported that as of September 22 there have been more than 100 incidents of violence against pro-life institutions since May.

James Harden, president and CEO of CompassCare Pregnancy Services, provided the FBI with surveillance footage and a “mountain of other evidence” shortly after the attack. However, Harden could not copy the footage before giving it to law enforcement because of damage to the building. Harden has asked the FBI and local law enforcement for access to the footage, but they only showed him still images taken from the video.

After months of no action being taken against the attack’s perpetrators, Harden filed a lawsuit asking a judge to order law enforcement to turn over the footage, Catholic News Agency (CNA) reported. “Time is of the essence to commence a civil litigation because the longer time goes by the more likely it will be that those responsible for the firebombing will spoliate other evidence,” the complaint reads.

Harden told CNA: “The public has a right to know what’s going on. There is a serious sickness in the body politic of America and the FBI isn’t even talking about it. It’s the largest law enforcement agency on the globe and it appears that they’re treating this like some sort of bubble gum theft.”

The surveillance footage reportedly shows “multiple perpetrators,” clear figures, and license plates that Harden said would make identification of the perpetrators possible. Law enforcement in this case seems to be following President Joe Biden’s lead by ignoring another example of the systematic attacks on pregnancy centers.

“These attacks have generated minimal acknowledgement, much less a response, from the Biden administration and federal law enforcement, who steadfastly track—and prosecute—incidents targeting abortion providers,” Breitbart News reported.

Due to the administration’s few words on the acts of violence against pregnancy centers, Reps. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) recently introduced the Protect Pregnancy Care Centers Act of 2022, which among other things, would require Biden to update Americans on how his administration is investigating and prosecuting those who engage in “domestic violent extremism” against pro-life institutions.

However, while the Republican party is still the minority party in Congress, it is unlikely the bill will go anywhere, given that House Democrats voted to kill a resolution that would have condemned the violent attacks on pregnancy centers, churches, and other pro-life institutions.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/09/24/firebombed-pregnancy-center-sues-surveillance-footage-attack/

Obama: ‘Americans are racist”

NEIL MUNRO (Sept 26) Breitbart News

Americans oppose President Joe Biden’s lawless and wage-cutting mass migration because they are “racist, not because of their economic worries,” according to former President Barack Obama.

“Right now, the biggest fuel behind the Republican agenda is related to immigration and the fear that somehow America’s character is going to be changed if, people of darker shades, there are too many of them here,” Obama told a meeting of Hispanic realtors on September 25 in San Diego, California.

Obama used his divide-and-rule claims of racism to hide the public opposition to migration’s economic impact, according to his comments posted in a September 25 report by the San Diego Union-Tribune:

“I wish I could be more euphemistic about it except [they’re] not that subtle about it — they’re just kind of saying it,” Obama said. “You hear it on hard-right media, you hear it from candidates and politicians, you hear things like ‘great replacement theory’ — I mean, this is not subtle. Unless we’re able to return to a more inclusive vision inside the Republican Party, it’s going to be hard to get a bill done.”

Obama also argued that public opposition to mass migration is more dangerous than government support for the nation-changing migration that has killed thousands of migrants and many more Americans: “When you have that kind of rhetoric floating around out there, we’ve seen in history that is dangerous rhetoric. It’s dangerous wherever it appears and it’s dangerous here in the United States.”

Since January 2021, Biden and his pro-migration border chief have extracted roughly 3 million migrants from poor countries into the U.S. economy via the southern border, likely in violation of federal law.

“When you have that kind of rhetoric floating around out there, we’ve seen in history that is dangerous rhetoric. It’s dangerous wherever it appears and it’s dangerous here in the United States,” said Obama.

https://www.breitbart.com/economy/2022/09/26/obama-claims-racism-suppress-american-opposition-bidens-deadly-migration/

Formal complaint made against Soros Foundation for 2022 election tampering

KATHERINE HAMILTON (Sept 26) Breitbart News

Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow announced Monday that he filed a formal Internal Revenue Service (IRS) complaint against the George Soros-backed Good Information Foundation for allegedly attempting to tamper with the 2022 midterm elections.

Marlow made the announcement during an appearance on the Charlie Kirk Show, stating that the tax-exempt organization appears to be participating in activities that violate federal law prohibiting 501(c)(3) organizations from “directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign.” Kirk called the official complaint a potential “marker in the sand” because the onus rests with the IRS now that the agency has been officially notified.

“So earlier today, I filed a complaint, yes as a journalist but also as an American individual who thinks that this is clear corruption, and I don’t trust the government to look into it unless someone like me reaches out,” Marlow said.

Marlow filed the complaint less than a week after attorney and legal commentator Preston Moore posted a video saying he was offered, and rejected, $400 by the “Good Information Foundation” to make a video attacking Donald Trump and “Trump Republicans.” The foundation allegedly wanted Moore to create the video about January 6 and post it on his social media platforms to reach the widest possible audience.


“It became really clear that … they wanted me to use the most graphic images possible,” Moore told Breitbart News. “They wanted me to use fear to manipulate people into voting blue, or into voting not Trump. … And when they’re giving examples of the things they wanted me to say — don’t say ‘Trump and his allies,’ say ‘Trump Republicans’ — it became really clear that this was about putting out information … to impact midterms.”

Marlow said if what Moore said is true, “we are seeing flagrant violations of 501(c)(3) rules that forbid people from participating in politics, both directly or indirectly. And you would think that in an era where we are talking about adding 87,000 new IRS agents, this would be front and center for the IRS.”

As Breitbart News previously reported, the Good Information Foundation’s website states that it is the 501(c)(3) nonprofit arm of Good Information Inc., “a public benefit corporation committed to restoring social trust and strengthening democracy by investing in solutions that counter disinformation and increase the flow of good information online.” Good Information Inc., which is backed by billionaires Reid Hoffman, George Soros, and others was established in 2021 to fund media companies and “efforts that tackle disinformation,” Axios reported in October 2021.

The organization’s 501(c)(3) status is especially notable because the designation is typically reserved for organizations that serve a noble public interest, such as public education and charitable work. A 501(c)(3) designation allows these organizations to forgo paying taxes on revenue and allows donors to write off donations.

Breitbart News previously asked the IRS if the Good Information Foundation’s alleged activities put the organization in violation of 501(c)(3) rules. The IRS said it could not comment on the legality of an organization’s actions without an official audit and pointed to the aforementioned federal statute.

Kirk described the Good Information Foundation and other similar organizations as operating “kind of like a traveling circus” or a “build-a-tent-and-collapse-it model.”

Good Information Inc. appears to be a reiteration of ACRONYM, which was partly funded by Laurene Powell Jobs and Reid Hoffman. Notably, Hoffman has a history of funding organizations accused of election tampering. He previously issued an apology in 2018 following news that he spent $750,000 funding an organization that used tactics modeled on Russian influence operations to spread disinformation about the Republican candidate, Roy Moore, on Facebook and Linkedin.

ACRONYM operated Courier Newsroom, which is a network of left-wing media websites posing as local news sources and was notorious for funding Shadow Inc., the Democrat Party-contracted firm that delayed reporting during the Iowa caucus.

Axios reported in October of 2021 that Good Information Inc., also backed by Hoffman and Soros among others, acquired ACRONYM for “an undisclosed sum.” The founder and CEO of Good Information Inc., former Democrat strategist Tara McGowan, also happens to be the founder and CEO of ACRONYM and the publisher of Courier Newsroom.

Good Information Inc. and Good Information Foundation appear to be dealing with tens of millions of dollars, though there is not much information on the organization’s financial records. Vox’s Recode reported in February of 2021 that McGowan was trying to raise $65 million for Good Information Inc. and the nonprofit, which was, at that point, named the “Good Information Project.” McGowan had reportedly denied that the corporation was building a nonprofit arm to Axios in October of 2021, but received its 501(c)(3) status from the IRS in April of 2022.

As an added bonus, RC Di Mezzo, former national press secretary for the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, left the super PAC to work as the Director of Communications for Good Information Inc. Di Mezzo worked with the Lincoln Project during its tiki torch hoax, in which operatives attempted to link Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin to white supremacists in the days leading up to Youngkin’s election.

Marlow said swamp creatures in Washington, DC, think these mercurial organizations are “a genius model and they all get in on it, and then the billionaire class recruits other billionaires to engage in this activity.”

“They only got their 501(c)(3) status in April of this year. So, they got right down to business knowing that they were going to be able to influence this election before any investigation took place,” Marlow alleged. “Even if the IRS does look into them — and I’m not holding my breath, though I hope they do — there is no way we are going to have a conclusion before they have already interfered in the election. This is the design: they keep designing new places and new ways to get this billionaire cash.”

Marlow added that these billionaires have “tipped their hand” a number of times already and have “suggested on many occasions that they … try to achieve their political aims by any means necessary.”

“This is a phrase you hear constantly uttered by the left that you never hear by the right, so I take them at their word,” he continued. “They are willing to corrupt the entire American system and they are willing to buy votes. They are willing to, in the most Orwellian way possible, get people to claim they are fighting misinformation while blatantly lying to the public as is the case here with Preston Moore.”

Breitbart News has previously reached out to the Good Information Foundation for comment and asked if the accusations are true and if the organization has contacted others similarly or used the same approach against other public officials or candidates. The organization has not responded

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/09/26/formal-irs-complaint-filed-good-information-foundation-whistleblower-claims-election-activity/

Biden Admin ‘Deeply Concerned’ After Israel Kills Four Palestinian Terrorists

DEBORAH BRAND (Sept. 29) Breitbart News Network

The Biden administration expressed “deep concern” Wednesday over an uptick in violence in the West Bank, after four Palestinian terrorists were killed during an Israeli counter-terrorism raid earlier in the day.

Israel Defense Forces troops in Jenin targeted the home of Ra’ad Hazem, the terrorist who carried out a deadly attack at a café in Tel Aviv in April, hoping to arrest his brother, Abed Hazem. Abed Hazem, together with other terrorists operating from the home, opened fire on Israeli forces. Israeli troops responded, killing Hazem and three other terrorists.

“We are deeply concerned by the deteriorating security situation in the West Bank,” U.S. Department spokesman Ned Price Price said. “This year alone, more than 100 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank and more than 30 in Gaza, while more than 20 Israelis and other civilians have been killed in terrorist attacks.” Price didn’t mention that the overwhelming majority of Palestinians killed were terrorists while all the victims in Israel were innocent. “We call on all parties to do everything in their power to de-escalate the situation and return to a period of calm. This is in the interest of all Israelis and Palestinians,” Price said.

“As we have said for some time, we call on the parties themselves to contain the violence. The United States and other international partners stand ready to help but we cannot substitute for vital actions by the parties to mitigate conflict and to restore calm.”

Price used the opportunity the once again highlight the administration’s endorsement of a Palestinian state, saying that “a negotiated two-state solution negotiated between Israelis and Palestinians” was Washington’s “ultimate goal.”

Gavin Newsom Signs Law Making California a Sanctuary for Child Transgender Surgery

JOEL B. POLLAK (Sept. 30) Breitbart News

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed a bill Thursday making California a sanctuary state for children to obtain “gender-affirming” surgery or drugs. The bill, SB 107, was sponsored by Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), who also sponsored a law in 2020 that reduced penalties for adults who had oral or anal sex with a willing minor child within ten years of their age by removing a requirement that they register as sex offenders, leaving that to judges’ discretion. The law ostensibly addressed discrimination against LGBTQ people.

SB 107 “would prohibit a provider of health care, a health care service plan, or a contractor from releasing medical information related to a person or entity allowing a child to receive gender-affirming health care or gender-affirming mental health care in response to a criminal or civil action” from another state that bans transgender surgery or drugs for minor children under 18. It would also prohibit California police from enforcing arrest warrants for transgender treatments for minors that are illegal in their own states.

The bill would also “prohibit the enforcement of an order based on another state’s law authorizing a child to be removed from their parent or guardian based on that parent or guardian allowing their child to receive gender-affirming health care” in California.

In a signing statement, Newsom described SB 107 as a bill about “parental choice.” However, there is nothing in the bill that requires that the “gender-affirming health care” be performed with parental consent. It also does not specify a minimum age at which a child qualifies for surgery or pharmaceuticals that would cause potentially irreversible physical changes to genitals or other organs.

The Los Angeles Times noted: “Whether SB 107 itself will be upheld in court is also in question because of federal requirements that states must recognize out-of-state laws when residents travel.” It also quoted State Sen. Brian Dahle, who pointed out that California would be in a difficult position if one parent supported a child’s transgender surgery and the other parent opposed it.https://www.breitbart.com/health/2022/09/30/gavin-newsom-signs-law-making-california-a-sanctuary-for-child-transgender-surgery/

Our Hope

See You at the Pole leaders pray for students’ boldness and courage on campuses worldwide: Romans 12

Ryan Foley (Sept. 28) Christian Post

Students across the United States and worldwide gathered in prayer Wednesday morning as ministry groups work to ensure that Christian outreach on school campuses lasts the whole year. The 33rd annual See You at the Pole event held was a student-organized “global movement of prayer.” 

Each year, students gather in a circle around their school’s flagpole to pray together on the fourth Wednesday of September. Students can participate in elementary, junior high and high schools, as well as at universities worldwide. Adults can also participate by praying at the same time at their work, church or at their local city hall. 

The theme of this year’s See You at the Pole event was “Aflame,” specifically focusing on the Bible verse Romans 12:11-12 proclaiming, “Never let the fire in your heart go out. Keep it alive … PRAY!”

Student activists affiliated with the group Claim Your Campus hosted a livestream featuring prompts for participants in See You at the Pole to consider. They called on students to “turn this moment into a movement,” pointing to the ministry’s app and free campus prayer guide as tools to continue to “gather with your friends to pray for change in your school.”

The annual event dates back to 1990, when a high school youth group in Burleson, Texas, felt compelled to go to the flagpoles at schools in their area and pray for their friends, schools and leaders. Shortly thereafter, youth leaders across the state envisioned simultaneous, student-led events at school flagpoles statewide. The first See You at the Pole event occurred on Sept. 12, 1990, with 45,000 teenagers at schools in four states participating. The following year, the movement expanded to include approximately 1 million students nationwide. In the past 30 years, See You at the Pole has spread to 64 countries and about 1 million students take part each year.

While See You at the Pole does not have an official sponsor, the Baptist General Convention of Texas has the rights to the trademarked phrase “See You at the Pole” and Student Discipleship Ministries in Burleson, Texas, creates and distributes promotional materials for the event such as videos. The National Network of Youth Ministries handles media relations for the event. 

See You at the Pole is not the only event held annually to encourage students to share their faith. Bring Your Bible to School Day, scheduled to take place on Oct. 6 this year, “empowers Christian students of all ages to speak God’s grace and truth into the culture around them, starting with two simple steps — bringing their Bibles to school and sharing what God’s word means to them.”

https://www.christianpost.com/us/see-you-at-the-pole-leaders-hope-event-launches-yearlong-movement.html

California voters: “Every Life is Valuable” – VOTE NO on Proposition 1 / For more info: https://proposition1-whyvoteno.com/.


(Michael Hernandez, co-founder of the Citizens Journal—Ventura County’s online news service is a former Southern California daily newspaper journalist and religion and news editor. Mr. Hernandez can be contacted at [email protected] and is editor of “America: The End and Our Hope”.)

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