Does it seem like things are building to some kind of crescendo? The mainstream sources of information have been holding back the onslaught, but the levy’s about to break. Material is now circulating freely, and at some point the legacy media will have to save its own credibility. You can bet they’re figuring out how to handle it right now.

No doubt you’ve noticed. The “save the planet” contingent wants us to eat meatless meat. That way they can justify getting rid of those pesky cows, contributing to methane in the atmosphere. Maybe you didn’t see the massive revolt in Holland. It only lasted a day, but it was a message that farmers are not about to put up with EU regulations that hamper their efforts and in some cases may put them out of business all together. They blocked highways, ports and spewed manure at government buildings. Let’s just say they’re displeased. Not hearing about this on the mainstream news? They can’t afford to let you know that somebody’s got the guts to blow off environmental nonsense.

Tucker Carlson is going where the mainstream dare not tread. He showed the extensive video of the mob swarming the streets and government buildings. Sri Lanka went green. They had other problems. They borrowed way too much money, and can’t begin to pay it back. Farms shut down on account of nitrogen fertilizer damaging the environment, so there’s a food shortage. Nothing seems to get people into a rage like a food shortage. The video is something out of a high budget film. The leaders fled a few days ago, no doubt brimming with pride over their ESG score. They can’t go back.

There’s all kinds of controversy over tennis great Novak Djokovic and whether he’ll be allowed entry into the United States. It seems he’s a foreigner without a vaccine. Maybe he should consider the southern border, they don’t have many requirements, and Then just show up at the tournament. Maybe the tennis association will look the other way. Unbelievable that the government is flexing mandate muscle this long after the fact. Australia pulled this stunt, to its shame. Novak likes his internal chemistry and doesn’t want to take a chance. Power can be exercised capriciously just so we all get it through our thick heads. You WILL comply or they’ll dream up a punishment.

We don’t know anybody that knows anybody, but the local news is rife with Corona virus outbreaks. They’re advising shots for toddlers and infants, as if we haven’t heard about the “rare” harm that may ensue. Word is that masks and vaccines are still on the table, and we’ve been advised to take action. Though it seems that the vaccine and booster shots are not particularly effective. But that kind of talk will get you canceled.

Educated people are warning that vaccines sometimes have unforeseen consequences. You know how they warn you of all the rare things that might happen if you take some advertised drug. In this case the drug companies are immune from whatever legal problems that might arise. So, how bad does Novak want to play in the U. S. Open? Not that bad. Maybe this seems off the subject, but it is global institutions calling the shots. The WHO (used to be a rock band) or the WEC. They don’t require logic. When Dr. Fauci speaks…

The City of New York is airing a public service announcement telling people what to do in case of nuclear attack. And you thought they hated everything about the 1950’s. That’s the last time we were schooled about nuclear attack. The pretender seems to be doing everything but sending troops to Ukraine to tick Putin off. Let’s hope he doesn’t have a terminal disease. Putin, that is. The pretender is in tremendous trouble, and probably won’t last more than a few months, in office that is. The mainstream media is beginning to abandon the impossible defense. The poll numbers are atrocious but
we suspect not near as bad as the truth.

These people (the pretender’s family) have got to be experiencing tremendous anguish. The kind that overtakes a person. It’s a weight, a cloud, a nightmare they hope to wake up from. But now it’s all over TV and there’s no escaping the damning video. There’s no denying the phone message everybody’s heard by now. It gives the lie to previous statements. The worst of escapades were filmed , and now it’s being released to the media. The mainstream media mostly knows nothing about it. But it’s all over TV and the internet. Still, they know nothing except it must be Russian propaganda. That dog won’t hunt. We’re not even going to describe the low rent conduct here. Good luck trying to hide this stuff now.

Apparently the January 6 committee is still going. Headlines in the mainstream claim that Trump has lost half of his support. (Right!) But their record for trying to herd us has not gone unnoticed. The headlines have been steering us wrong for as long as we can remember. The near universal mainstream hatred of Trump and his supporters has been obvious right along. It seems there is an effort to disqualify him permanently from office, and convince his supporters that they’d have to be crazy to back him. Why are they in such a hurry? It’s their last chance. Or who knows, maybe they’ll try again if this doesn’t do the trick.

There is ongoing fallout from the Supreme Court decision. There’s a reported bounty on Justices’ home addresses, and they might have to use the rear exit if dining out. The news reporting on the nonexistent “right” doesn’t seem quite accurate. In essence the Court washed it’s hands of the issue, sending it back to each individual state. But there are ramifications. You’ve no doubt seen that a long list of familiar corporate names have lined up to pay the expenses of a woman needing to go to another state.

The inflation rate was just released, and you know the result. Just over 9%. That’s spread out over a whole range of products. Chances are you buy more gasoline than other goods. In that case we’re talking way more than the number being reported. We know what gas is costing. Everybody, save the wealthy who can’t be bothered, just got a giant demotion. Take-home pay isn’t what it used to be.

The Pretender is embarrassing himself all over the Middle East at present. Don’t show us the gaffes. We can’t take it. He’s on bended knee before some of our worst enemies, and not a bit shy.

Much has been made of the poor old codger doing somebody’s dirty work, and blaming everyone else. As soon as he’s outlived his usefulness he’ll get all the blame, but the damage will have been done. It is being done. This one’s complicated, but God knows what’s up. We don’t need to stress too much. His Will definitely will be done, regardless.

Mark

Source: http://www.intercontinentalcog.org/fridayupdates.php

The post Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – 15 July 2022 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

News of the shooting in a Copenhagen mall has circled the globe.  Maybe if they only had stricter gun laws this wouldn’t have happened.  Do you think somebody intent on killing people is going to care about the gun laws?  Lawful citizens already have to abide all kinds of regulations and federal “checks” to see that they’re in compliance.  Presumably the Copenhagen shooter fell through the cracks.  They’ll definitely need to pass more laws to see that this doesn’t happen again.

Here at home, the Supreme Court is driving the usual suspects crazy.  They struck down New York’s restrictive gun laws and the governor responded by making nearly everywhere someone might go a “gun-free zone.”  Would be shooters can reasonably expect that they’ll get no resistance if they go to one of those.

This morning we woke up to the news of the assassination of Shinzo Abe, former Prime Minster of Japan and by all accounts a great and humble man.  He was murdered by a homemade gun.  Mr. Abe appeared and gave an eloquent speech at Pearl Harbor on the occasion of the 75^th anniversary, expressing grief and sorrow for the attack against the men in the service and their loved ones.  He vowed, on behalf of Japan to never again resort to war, and promised to pursue a policy of peace.  But that doesn’t cover it. He praised the freedom of America and the American people, something apparently abhorrent to our embarrassment of an administration and the mainstream ideology.

Gun laws are extremely strict in Japan, so much so that the average person would never dedicate so much time and trouble to following the stringent regulations.  So this assassin just made them at home.  He claimed he was trying to kill someone else.  Either way, he was a fine man who rose above the visceral hatreds of the past and pledged peaceful cooperation on behalf of the Japanese people.  Donald Trump loved Abe and thought very highly of him.  That alone is enough to send liberals over the top with hatred, but they surely dare not express it right now.  It seems like every world leader you can think of has come out and expressed their profound respect and sorrow.

Also this week we have the resignation of Boris Johnson as the Prime Minister of the U K.  What a disappointment he turned out to be.  We thought he’d be the Donald Trump of England, and then suddenly he was all about climate change and coronavirus restrictions.  Then came the scandals, staples of British entertainment.  When all the ministers who had supported him through those trials resigned, he knew it was over and said so in a very good-natured resignation speech.  Apparently he will remain in office while succession is sorted out.  You don’t suppose EU membership will be revisited?

When you look around the world, the nations that we have counted on to be sane are in a kind of political limbo.  It’s hard to know what comes next in Israel.  Boris is now just a place-holder, Canada has the heavy handed governance of Trudeau, and he’s buddies with Mark Rutte of Holland.  They are both graduates of Klaus Schwab’s WEF.   As we all know, that outfit knows everything about everything, way more than you or me.  Especially when it comes to planetary survival.

We’ve reached the point where quoting the Declaration of Independence is an act of defiance against a government that has declared war on its citizens.  You know the maneuver that temporarily stopped the rising price of gas?  Strategic reserves were reportedly released on the world market and sold to China.  If there were brokers in between, we’ll find out sooner or later.  Probably later.

You’d think there was a five alarm emergency over the Supreme Court’s recent decision on Roe.  There’s gnashing of teeth and all manner of nonsense.  There should be a law!  Make it an executive order!  Several woke institutions want you to know that they’ll pay the travel and whatever other expenses for a woman who has to go out of state to procure “treatment.”  Meanwhile, the true believers are still chasing Supreme Court Justices around.

You’d not know if limited to the mainstream news, the Dutch farmers have mounted a rebellion against EU plans to save the planet.  It seems that they’ve got to cut nitrogen emissions, and that has all kinds of ramifications.  It’s not exactly leading the news, but word is getting out.  Police actually shot at a 16 year old driving a tractor around a roadblock.  The crowds in protest are vast.  It looks like the Dutch farmers have figured it out, and been pushed far enough.  What’s everybody going to eat when the farms are interfering with planet saving measures?  This climate-change farce looks like the bandwagon everyone has to get on, or else.  That, and gay and tranny nonsense, reparations for racism and vaccine mandates.

They think they can repeal the Laws of God if they can just get enough of us to go along.  If the mainstream media can just get most people to accept the logic put forth, then they’ll be happy knowing that rebellion against the Laws of nature is “universal.”  The blurred “pride” logo on network TV and the internet tells us it’s universal, and we’re responding out loud.  Not quite.

Mark

Source: http://www.intercontinentalcog.org/fridayupdates.php

The post Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – 8 July 2022 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

By the time most people saw the story it had already been debunked.  When was the last time you saw the Secret Service release a statement about anything?  You’ve got the limo driver and the agent and they’re offering to testify under oath?  This is the Anita Hill tactic, but it’s not first person, she heard it from a friend.  Maybe that’s why hearsay isn’t allowed in a real court of law.  But this is not a court of law.   You have to wonder what fantastic stories we’ll be treated to as the Fall draws closer.  No doubt the story has plenty of drama, even violence.  As you try to envision it in your mind, it’s a little difficult.  Then you realize it’s not true.  Classic.  But unlike Russian collusion or treason in a phone call, this one’s crashed on takeoff, but the mainstream hasn’t noticed.

The gal none of us had ever heard of is having her 15 minutes of fame, longer if the mainstream media has anything to say.  If any of this were true she’d make a living on appearances and a book deal.  This is going to be in the history books despite it’s farcical nature.  She’ll either be a star or she’ll be thrown under the bus.

What’s up with Liz Cheney giving her comments from the Reagan library? (Mark Levine says Trump haters occupy top positions on the Reagan library board) It’s an indisputable fact that Ronald Reagan turned this country around, after interminable humiliation from some Iranian whack jobs.  Gas stations had lines around the block.  There was rationing.  Some are not old enough to remember, but it was depressing to say the least.  America was perceived to be weak, and constantly humiliated around the world.  Hardly any business was being done.  That’s what happens when interest rates go ballistic.  Ronald Reagan brought in an era of patriotism and strength.  He turned the country around.   For his name to be associated with this travesty of nonsense is shameful.

Since when is an administration bent on punishing its own citizenry?  The border news is so bad we don’t want to hear it.  Inflation is hurting everyone, especially those trying to make a living.  But none of that is as important as the “insurrection” and how close we came to “losing our democracy,” to coin a phrase.

Not only is Donald Trump guilty, having “lost his mind,” grabbing for the wheel of his limo and trying to choke a secret service officer, he’s guilty of being insane and trying to overthrow the country.  Just so that those who love and support him know what they’ve teamed up with.  If he’s guilty of “insurrection” and all the rest, what does that make his supporters?

We’ve been lied to straight faced by these committees, the networks, the newspapers and realized they’re no good at eating crow.  Instead of admitting what fools they’ve made of themselves with their sober proclamations and righteous predictions, they’re doubling down.  The hatred for Trump and his supporters runs deep.  You can’t believe in the Constitution and support Trump?  Liz Cheney, with that familiar look on her face, has decreed it.  Now we’ve heard everything.  That’s about as desperate as it gets.  It didn’t matter that the story was debunked as soon as it was told.  Nevertheless, the committee was deeply distressed.

Do they not realize that the same players put the people of this country through years of this nonsense under the guise of Russian Collusion and the fake impeachment.  Have we not seen all this before?  They’ve decided the people of this country are gullible.  If big names say something, repeated by the newspapers, the websites and the six o’clock news, it must be true.  A glance at the mainstream media revealed bombshell headlines.  You have to read nearly the whole article to find out that the actual first-hand witnesses say nothing of the sort ever happened.  These sober hearings weren’t designed to glean truth.  They were designed to be the last nail in the Trump coffin.

If the United States hasn’t been drawn into a proxy war in Ukraine, you’d never know it.  The public pronouncements have become provocative, weapons and the money more so!  So, who’s at war and why?  None of our business. Leave that to the experts.  Don’t think or say anything negative or some agency might send a swat team.  Some White House spokesman has proclaimed our several predicaments less important that the future of the “liberal world order.”  The what?  “This is about the future of the liberal world order, and we have to stand firm.”  Apparently everything’s already been fixed.  Don’t you love when they tell you what it’s “about?”  They’re committed and can’t go back now.  It’s double down time, and it looks like the American citizen is hostage to the liberal world order, whatever that is.

Eventually these buffoons find out what pipsqueaks they are.  But until then…

Mark

Source: http://www.intercontinentalcog.org/fridayupdates.php

The post Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – 1 July 2022 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

U.S. Special Representative Sung Kim met his South Korean and Japanese counterparts, Kim Gunn and Funakoshi Takehiro, after a U.S. assessment that the North was preparing its Punggye-ri test site for what would be its seventh nuclear test.

“We are preparing for all contingencies in close coordination with our Japanese and ROK allies,” Kim said at the beginning of the meeting, referring to South Korea by the initials of its official name, the Republic of Korea.

This year, North Korea has tested several ballistic missiles, including one thought to be its largest intercontinental ballistic missile, in violation of U.N. resolutions.

“We want to make clear to the DPRK that its unlawful and destabilising activities have consequences and that the international community will not accept these actions as normal,” the U.S. envoy said, referring to North Korea.

South Korea’s newly appointed nuclear envoy, Kim Gunn, said North Korea’s “relentless pursuit of nuclear weapons will only end up strengthening our deterrence”.

“The course that Pyongyang is currently embarking on has only one inevitable destination: reduce security for North Korea itself,” the South Korean diplomat said.

Last week, the United States called for more U.N. sanctions on North Korea over its ballistic missile launches, but China and Russia vetoed the suggestion, publicly splitting the U.N. Security Council on North Korea for the first time since it started punishing it in 2006, when it conducted its first nuclear test.

Japan’s Funakoshi stressed the need for coordination, vowing to “enhance regional deterrence, including trilateral security cooperation”.

The officials said the door for dialogue was open and expressed concern over the COVID-19 situation in North Korea.

“We have made very clear directly to Pyongyang that we are open to diplomacy,” Sung Kim said later at a separate conference in Seoul, noting that Washington was willing to discuss items of interest to Pyongyang, such as sanctions relief.

“So far they have shown no interest.”

The most important thing was for the three countries to present a united front to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the U.S. envoy said.

“When he sees that we are coordinating very closely with partners and allies I hope this persuades him that the only viable path is diplomacy with us,” he said.

China and Russia were clearly not interested in working with the United States to manage North Korea’s nuclear and missile arsenal, Kim said, when asked about their veto of new sanctions.

“We’re not asking them for a favour, it’s in their interest,” he said.

The United States would not link humanitarian aid for North Korea as it battles COVID to denuclearization, U.S. officials said.

“We passed the message through our regular channel, that we were willing to provide humanitarian cooperation focused on COVID relief including vaccines,” Kim said. “But we haven’t heard back.”

It was time to look for new approaches to North Korea because Kim Jong Un would never willingly give up nuclear weapons, said Tae Yong-ho, a former North Korean diplomat who now serves as a member of parliament in the South.

“Nuclear weapons are the core to unite the whole North Korean people and ensure continuation of Kim family rule,” he told the conference.

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Reporting by Soo-hyang Choi, Dogyun Kim, Daewoung Kim, and Josh Smith; Editing by Robert Birsel

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/us-south-korea-japan-envoys-meet-north-korea-nuclear-tension-2022-06-03/

The post U.S., South Korea, Japan envoys meet as North Korea appears to prepare nuclear test first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Two Secret Service agents are prepared to testify before Congress that then-President Trump did not lunge at a steering wheel or assault them in an attempt to go to the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot, a source close to the Secret Service tells Fox News.

The explosive new allegations were made on Tuesday by Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

White House Counsel Pat Cipollone repeatedly warned staff in the days before the rally that “we’re going to get charged with every crime imaginable” if Trump goes to the Capitol, Hutchinson testified.

Following Trump’s speech at the Ellipse, he got into the presidential SUV under the impression that he was going to the Capitol, then had a “very strong, very angry response” when the head of his Secret Service detail, Bobby Engel, said that they were going to the White House.

“The president said something to the effect of, ‘I’m the f’ing president. Take me up to the Capitol now,” Hutchinson testified, relaying what she was told later that day by another White House aide, Tony Ornato.

JANUARY 6 HEARING: TOP 5 MOMENTS OF EXPLOSIVE CASSIDY HUTCHINSON TESTIMONY ON TRUMP, ATTACK ON CAPITOL

“The president reached up towards the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel. Mr. Engel grabbed his arm and said, ‘Sir, you need to take your hand off the steering wheel. We’re going back to the West Wing. We’re not going to the Capitol.'”

Engel and the SUV driver, an unnamed Secret Service agent, are prepared to testify before the Jan. 6 committee that the president didn’t lunge at the steering wheel. The Jan. 6 committee and the Secret Service are in discussions about whether one or both men will appear on camera.

The news was originally reported by NBC after Hutchinson’s testimony on Tuesday.

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Jody Hunt, a former Justice Department official in the Trump administration who is representing Hutchinson, tweeted that others with knowledge of the events should appear before the Jan. 6 committee.

“Ms. Hutchinson testified, under oath, and recounted what she was told,” Hunt tweeted. “Those with knowledge of the episode also should testify under oath.”

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/secret-service-agents-testify-trump-lunge-steering-wheel-capitol-riot

The post Secret Service agents willing to testify that Trump didn’t lunge at steering wheel during Capitol riot: source first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The post Supreme Court sides with praying coach in landmark religious liberty case first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

San Antonio: The bodies of 46 dead migrants were discovered inside a tractor-trailer on Monday in San Antonio, Texas, city officials said, in one of the most deadly recent incidents of human smuggling along the US-Mexico border.

A San Antonio fire department official said they found “stacks of bodies” and no signs of water in the truck, which was found next to railroad tracks in a remote area on the city’s southern outskirts.

Sixteen other people found inside the trailer were transported to hospitals for heat stroke and exhaustion, including four minors, but no children were among the dead, the department said.

“The patients that we saw were hot to the touch, they were suffering from heat stroke, exhaustion,” San Antonio fire chief Charles Hood told a news conference. “It was a refrigerated tractor-trailer but there was no visible working A/C unit on that rig.”

Temperatures in San Antonio, which is about 160 miles (250 km) from the Mexican border, swelled to a high of 103 degrees Fahrenheit (39.4 degrees Celsius) on Monday with high humidity.

The city’s police chief William McManus said a person who worked in a nearby building heard a cry for help and came out to investigate. The worker found the trailer doors partially opened and looked inside and found a number of dead bodies.

McManus said this was the largest incident of its kind in the city and said three people were in custody following the incident, though their involvement is not yet clear.

A spokesperson for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said that its Homeland Security Investigations division was investigating “an alleged human smuggling event” in coordination with local police.

The deaths once again highlight the challenge of controlling migrant crossings at the US-Mexico border, which have reached record highs.

The issue has proven difficult for US President Joe Biden, a Democrat who came into office in January 2021 pledging to reverse some of the hardline immigration policies of his Republican predecessor Donald Trump. Republicans have criticized Biden’s border strategy ahead of the midterm Congressional elections in November.

Mexico’s foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard called the suffocation of the migrants in the truck the “tragedy in Texas” on Twitter and said consular officials would go to the hospitals where victims had been taken to help “however possible.”

A spokesman for the Honduran foreign ministry told Reuters the country’s consulates in Houston and Dallas would be investigating the incident. Ebrard said two Guatemalans were hospitalized and Guatemala’s foreign ministry said on Twitter that consular officials were going to the hospital “to verify if there are two Guatemalan minors there and what condition they are in.”

The I-35 highway near where the truck was found runs through San Antonio from the Mexican border and is a popular smuggling corridor because of the large volume of truck traffic, according to Jack Staton, a former senior official with ICE’s investigative unit who retired in December.

In July 2017, 10 migrants died after being transported in a tractor-trailer that was discovered by San Antonio police in a Wal-Mart parking lot. The driver, James Matthew Bradley, Jr., was sentenced the following year to life in prison for his role in the smuggling operation.

Staton said migrants have regularly been intercepted in the area since the 2017 incident. “It was only a matter of time before a tragedy like this was going to happen again,” he said.

(Reuters)

Source: https://thewire.in/world/texas-46-found-dead-in-truck-along-us-mexico-border-human-smuggling-angle-suspected

The post Texas: 46 Found Dead in Truck Along US-Mexico Border; Human Smuggling Angle Suspected first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Unfortunately, with legal, language, and recertification barriers cited as common constraints, these individuals often struggle to access the labor market.

In a report released last year, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees highlighted the importance of “employment and employability to successful integration” into the society of the host country.

For refugees, “successful economic adjustment remains one of the most pressing challenges,” the report said.

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That said, with President Joe Biden’s commitments to welcome an additional 75,000 Afghan and 100,000 Ukrainian refugees, the United States is in increasing need of programs to connect newcomers with stable, well-paying jobs.

Biden, along with other officials from the U.S. State Department, has pleaded with private citizens and organizations to support these resettlement efforts.

“We urge more governments to engage the private sector, NGOs, faith groups, universities, youth, and other parts of society in resettling refugees,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a video statement during a UNHCR event on Monday.

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“The more we can make our communities partners in these efforts, the more fully we can integrate refugees into the fabric of all our nations,” he added.

The U.S. refugee admissions ceiling was raised to 125,000 in Fiscal Year (FY) 2022, double the number from the year before, according to the U.S. State Department. In response, the government has launched innovative solutions such as Refugee Cash Assistance, Refugee Medical Assistance, and the Community Sponsorship Hub to support the influx.

The Tent Partnership for Refugees, a non-profit organization, which focuses on mobilizing the global business community to include refugees, has created a unique approach to the job-training challenge.

Building on an effort launched in 2021 that focused specifically on Afghan and Ukrainian refugees, leaders at the Tent Partnership have spent months rallying a group of 103 companies to commit to reducing barriers for refugees looking for jobs and helping them integrate into the U.S. economy.

Headlined by major companies like Delta, Pfizer, and Marriott, the Coalition for Refugees in the U.S. has agreed to provide mentorship and training opportunities to all refugees in the country, regardless of their place of origin.

Gideon Maltz, executive director of the Tent Partnership, called the program “unprecedented and extremely significant,” telling Newsweek he sees it as a welcome shift from previous efforts to support refugees.

“At the height of the Syria crisis in 2015, we saw a lot of companies do token, in-the-moment things to help,” he said. “They might have sent an in-kind donation or wrote a check, but they never really engaged or invested in the issue.”

Maltz said that the Coalition focuses on creating genuine, long-term engagement from the private sector. To accomplish that goal, Tent leaders seek to connect with the spirit of charity and generosity of participating companies, and also emphasize the economic benefits that comes from employing refugees.

Tent recently released a survey conducted with the NYU Stern School of Business that found that 63% of U.S. consumers are more likely to purchase from brands that are involved in helping refugees, a number that exceeds the percentage that back brands selling environmentally friendly or fair-trade products.

And with 11.4 million job openings in the U.S., Maltz also noted that hiring refugees is already helping states across the nation.

“In states with labor shortages, we have seen governors of both political parties increasing the admissions of refugees in the last year, partly because they need to,” he said.

“To get to a place where there’s broad public support for America to bring in more refugees,” he said, “we have to highlight and emphasize the amazing contribution that refugees make to the American economy.”

Maltz is looking beyond the short-term refugee crisis to a brighter future for them, and for their new country.

“We have been focused on creating programs that companies benefit from and see the value in so that in a year or two, when Afghanistan and Ukraine are not in the news, companies will still be engaged because it makes sense with their business,” he said.

Source: https://www.newsweek.com/more-100-major-us-companies-commit-hire-train-more-refugees-1718148

The post More than 100 Major U.S. Companies Commit to Hire and Train More Refugees first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Today is the day the mainstream has been dreading.  In actual fact, the abortion issue has been handed back to the states.  The 1973 ruling was invalidated as a matter of law.  The idea that the U. S. Constitution handed some sacred “right” to women was a fantastic reach in the first place.  Finally, nearly 50 years later, it’s been overturned.  Some “crowds” (to be charitable) have been parading, banging drums and chanting in front of the homes of Supreme Court Justices.  Who are these people?  Are they wearing masks outdoors for fear of COVID, or to hide their identities?

If the hard left gets its way, there will be all kinds of mayhem.  Nobody seems interested in prosecuting those trying to influence the decision, a crime though it may be.  They seem to be doing the dirty work we were promised.  Will it set off riots?  Maybe looting and burning?

It’s Trump’s fault, of course.  Him and his ultra-maga supporters.  Biden is mad,  Maxine Waters says they’re going to be out protesting in their thousands, or millions.  “We are going to make sure we fight for the right to control our own bodies.”  (Where was she during the mask mandate?)  They’ll defy the Supreme Court.  How, other than causing a ruckus, we’ll see.

Obama says the court has curtailed our freedoms.  Michelle is heartbroken.  It is a “horrifying decision.”  They’re both calling on people to join protests and give Planned Parenthood support.  The Justice Dept. says it will “use every tool at our disposal to protect reproductive freedom.”  It’s hard to know what that means, but the weeks ahead should give us some idea.   AOC is shown with her mouth wide open, talking about “birthing people” and  chanting with protesters.  I guess this is supposed to let us know she thinks men can get pregnant.  But sure enough, some states are announcing that abortion is illegal, as of today.

World leaders are appalled.  Especially Justin Trudeau of Canada.  He’s horrified and can’t imagine the fear and anger that it will cause.  Even Boris Johnson is bent out of shape.  Just when the whole world was seeing the light and liberalizing laws governing abortion.

It’s the second time this week they’ve seen the court rule against their  beloved philosophy.  First it struck down New York’s gun law.  So they were already ticked.  The abortion ruling though, just might drive them over the edge.  The police caught a guy who said he’d come to “kill Kavanaugh.”  No big deal, according to the mainstream media.  Hardly worth reporting.  But all bets are off as we wait to see how crazy the protesters will get.  This may well justify riots and looting.  Even if the rioters and looters don’t know what they’re mad about.  Riot police are staging outside the Supreme Court, just in case.  But not everybody is down in the dumps.  Some are celebrating.  Trump says to God be the glory.

What ever happened to Ukraine?  It’s not in the news much lately.  The last thing we heard was that we were going to send billions of dollars and more.  Apparently Russia has had to call in troops that were stationed in other hot spots.  Some are worried that this thing may drag on and that other countries may get involved causing an escalation that may get out of control.  We hope they’re wrong.

Meanwhile UN officials are warning of food shortages.  The pope is hinting at resignation.  Maybe he’s done enough damage.  The American economy is reeling from inflation being driven by the  pretend administration’s war on oil.  They want you to know there’s nothing more they can do.  But at least something’s gone right today.    Have a great Sabbath.

Mark

P.S. The new Feast brochures are printed and will be going out with the next letter, probably Monday or Tuesday.

Source: http://www.intercontinentalcog.org/fridayupdates.php

The post Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – 24 June 2022 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Writing for the court majority, Justice Samuel Alito said that the 1973 Roe ruling and repeated subsequent high court decisions reaffirming Roe “must be overruled” because they were “egregiously wrong,” the arguments “exceptionally weak” and so “damaging” that they amounted to “an abuse of judicial authority.”

The decision, most of which was leaked in early May, means that abortion rights will be rolled back in nearly half of the states immediately, with more restrictions likely to follow. For all practical purposes, abortion will not be available in large swaths of the country. The decision may well mean too that the court itself, as well as the abortion question, will become a focal point in the upcoming fall elections and in the fall and thereafter.

Joining the Alito opinion were Justice Clarence Thomas, appointed by the first President Bush, and the three Trump appointees — Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. Chief Justice Roberts, appointed by President George W. Bush, concurred in the judgment only, and would have limited the decision to upholding the Mississippi law at issue in the case, which banned abortions after 15 weeks.

Dissenting were Justices Stephen Breyer, appointed by President Clinton, and Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, appointed by President Obama.

“With sorrow — for this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection — we dissent,” they wrote.

Alito’s opinion is a tour de force of the various criticisms of Roe that have long existed in academia
Indeed, the 78-page opinion, which has a 30-page appendix, seemingly leaves no authority uncited as support for the proposition that there is no inherent right to privacy or personal autonomy in various provisions of the Constitution — and similarly, no evidence that peoples’ reliance on the court’s abortion precedents over the past half century should matter.

Alito pointed for instance, to Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the 1992 decision that upheld the central holding of Roe and was written by Justices Sandra Day O’Connor, Anthony Kennedy and David Souter, all Republican appointees to the court. Alito pointed to language in the Casey opinion that he said “conceded” reliance interests were not really implicated because contraception could prevent almost all unplanned pregnancies.

In fact, though, that 1992 opinion went on to dismiss that very argument as “unrealistic,” because it “refuse[s] to face the fact” that for decades “people have organized intimate relationships and made choices … in reliance on the availability of abortion in the event that contraception should fail.” Not exactly the concession that Alito described.

It is not unusual for justices to cherry pick quotes but not so out of context and not from former colleagues who are still alive and privately, not amused at all.

In the end, though, Alito’s opinion has a larger objective, perhaps multiple objectives.

Writing for the majority, he said forthrightly that abortion is a matter to be decided by states and the voters in the states. “We hold,” he wrote, that “the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion.” As to what standard the courts should apply in the event that a state regulation is challenged, Alito said any state regulation of abortion is presumptively valid and “must be sustained if there is a rational basis on which the legislature could have thought” it was serving “legitimate state interests,” including “respect for and preservation of prenatal life at all stages of development.” In addition, he noted, states are entitled to regulate abortion to eliminate “gruesome and barbaric” medical procedures; to “preserve the integrity of the medical profession”; and to prevent discrimination on the basis of race, sex, or disability, including barring abortion in cases of fetal abnormality.

Ultimately, the translation of all that is that states appear to be completely free to ban abortions for any reason.

Near the end of the opinion, Alito sought to allay fears about the wide-ranging nature of his opinion. “To ensure that our decision is not misunderstood or mischaracterized, we emphasize that our decision concerns the constitutional right to abortion and no other right. Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion. ”

But in his concurrent opinion, Justice Thomas said the legal rationale for Friday’s decision could be applied to overturn other major cases, including those that legalized gay marriage.

“For that reason, in future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell,” he wrote. “Because any substantive due process decision is ‘demonstrably erroneous.'”

The court’s liberals noted that Thomas’s language cast doubts on Alito’s majority opinion that said the court’s decision did not mean that cases like Obergefell would be affected.

“The first problem with the majority’s account comes from Justice Thomas’s concurrence—which makes clear he is not with the program,” they wrote. “In saying that nothing in today’s opinion casts doubt on non-abortion precedents, Justice Thomas explains, he means only that they are not at issue in this very case.”

The next steps on abortion across the country would play out in a variety of ways, almost all of them resulting in abortion bans.

Several states — among them Mississippi, North Carolina, and Wisconsin — still have decades-old abortion bans on their books; with Roe overturned, those states could revert to a pre-Roe environment. Officials in such states could seek to enforce old laws, or ask the courts to reinstate them. For example, a Michigan law dating back to 1931 would make abortion a felony. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, has been working to try to block that law.

A cascade of newly active state laws
Another path to banning abortion involves “trigger bans,” newer laws pushed through by anti-abortion rights legislators in many states in anticipation of the Supreme Court’s action. Some 15 states – in the South, West and Midwest – have such laws in place, according to CRR and Guttmacher, but they fall into different categories.

Some states will act quickly to ban abortion. According to a new analysis by the Guttmacher Institute, South Dakota, Kentucky and Louisiana have laws in place that lawmakers designed explicitly to take effect immediately upon the fall of the Roe precedent. Idaho, Tennessee, and Texas – where most abortions are already illegal after about six weeks of pregnancy – have similar laws, which would take effect after 30 days. Guttmacher says seven other “trigger ban” states have laws that would require state officials such as governors or attorneys general to take action to implement them.

“We have been talking to all of those about acting immediately,” Liebel told NPR. “So when that happens, let’s be ready. How do you get that back into play?”

In recent years, many states also have passed gestational bans prohibiting abortion at various stages of pregnancy. Courts have blocked many of those laws in response to legal challenges, including laws in Georgia, Ohio, and Idaho that ban abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. Now those laws may take effect immediately. So too, could a law recently enacted in Oklahoma, that makes performing abortion a felony punishable by time in prison.

“It will be a tremendous change in an incredibly short period of time,” said Julie Rikelman, senior director of litigation at the Center for Reproductive Rights. Rikelman argued the Center’s challenge to Mississippi’s abortion ban at Supreme Court this term.

A host of other restrictions could limit where, by whom, and under what conditions abortion can be provided. Some examples include laws requiring parental notification or consent for abortions involving patients who are minors; and other health regulations for doctors and clinics that many medical groups say are unnecessary, expensive, and difficult to comply with.

Finally, Liebel said some governors may consider calling special sessions to pass new legislation in response to Friday’s ruling.

More legal uncertainty
Legal experts say the court’s decision will pose new questions for other courts to deal with – questions about how to apply the specific language of the final ruling to individual state laws.

If Roe is indeed overturned or substantially rolled back, Rikelman, the Center for Reproductive rights attorney, predicts “legal chaos” in states across the country in the immediate aftermath of the decision.

“I think what we will see is far more litigation in the federal courts – not less litigation,” Rikelman said.

Some states such as Texas and Oklahoma have multiple abortion restrictions on the books, raising potential questions about which ones would be valid. Those laws each include different provisions and carry different penalties, adding to the potential confusion and prompting additional litigation in state and federal courts.

Liebel, with SBA Pro-Life America, acknowledged that more legal battles are likely.

“That’s gonna take us back, frankly, to where we always have been. Each side tries to put their big toe right on that line and push the envelope,” Liebel said.

Battles in state courts are also likely. Some state constitutions may offer protections for abortion rights notwithstanding the U.S. Supreme Court’s interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. In Florida, for example, the American Civil Liberties Union and other reproductive rights groups are challenging a 15-week abortion ban modeled on Mississippi’s law, on the grounds that it violates privacy rights protections guaranteed in Florida’s state constitution.

Even without overturning Roe, Rikelman points to the Texas law known as S.B. 8, which took effect in September. The law, which has spawned several copycat proposals in other states, including Oklahoma, relies on individuals filing civil lawsuits to enforce an abortion ban.

Interstate enforcement battles
Abortion bans in restrictive states will likely bleed over to states that protect abortion rights as well, Rikelman said. She notes that some state lawmakers are trying to prohibit people in other states from providing abortions to their residents.

“What we are seeing already are states and state legislators impacting even people’s ability to access abortion in places where it would remain legal,” she said.

For example, an omnibus abortion law passed by a Republican supermajority in Kentucky earlier this year includes a host of new requirements for dispensing medication abortion pills, and a provision for extraditing people from other states who illegally provide abortion pills to Kentuckians. It’s unclear how enforceable those types of laws would be.

Meanwhile, some states are trying to expand access to abortion in preparation for more patients traveling from restrictive states for procedures. Connecticut lawmakers passed legislation this year designed to protect abortion providers from out-of-state lawsuits.

“This just raises a whole host of issues,” Rikelman said. “All of those different disputes will have to be worked out in the courts” including, potentially, in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Even as abortions have now become far more restricted overall, the Guttmacher Institute reports that the long-term decline in abortions has reversed. In 2020, there were 930,160 abortions in the U.S., an increase of 8 percent more abortions than in 2017. The Institute also said that at the same time, fewer people were getting pregnant and among those who did, a larger proportion chose to have an abortion.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/06/24/1102305878/supreme-court-abortion-roe-v-wade-decision-overturn

The post Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, ending right to abortion upheld for decades first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.