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Billionaire George Soros Gives $1M to ‘Defund the Police’ Movement

Soros contributed $1 million to an organization that describes itself as the “largest online racial justice” group in the U.S.

QUICK FACTS:
ABOUT ‘COLOR OF CHANGE’:
  • “Color of Change leads campaigns that build real power for Black communities,” reads the Color of Change website. “We challenge injustice, hold corporate and political leaders accountable, commission game-changing research on systems of inequality, and advance solutions for racial justice that can transform our world.”
  • Color of Change led an online political outreach campaign last year to defund police departments following the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, notes Free Beacon.
  • It also organized an online petition that reads, “Invest in black communities. Defund the police.” The petition also called for “divesting from and dismantling the systems that unjustly harm Black people.”
  • Color Of Change also supported efforts by the Minneapolis City Council to divert funds from its police department after officer Derek Chauvin was found to have killed George Floyd.
  • Color Of Change president Rashad Robinson said, “Policing is a violent institution that must end. We imagine a country where there is enough money to educate our children, care for our sick and feed those who are financially unstable. Defunding the police allows for this vision.”
  • Malachi Robinson, a campaign director for Color of Change, called for an end to police and mass incarceration last month.
BACKGROUND:
  • Free Beacon notes that the $1 million donation signifies the progressive billionaire’s largest political contribution of the 2021 election cycle.
  • It’s also Soros’ first to the political action committee since 2016.
  • Free Beacon predicts the move could undercut the Democrat Party’s “efforts to downplay allegations that it backs defunding police departments” since Republicans have been hammering Democrats on the issue as violent crime skyrockets nationwide.
  • Soros’s contribution represents “the largest to Color Of Change PAC so far this year,” notes Free Beacon, the next largest being $10,000 from Democratic Party organizer Karla Jurvetson.
  • Geroge Soros founded the Open Society Foundations, “an international grantmaking network.” Soros “used his fortune to create the Open Society Foundations—a network of foundations, partners, and projects in more than 120 countries,” according to the Open Society Foundation’s website.
  • Open Society Foundations, gave Color Of Change grants of more than $1 million in 2019, notes Free Beacon.

Jon Fleetwood is Managing Editor for American Faith.

President Donald Trump Speaks at ‘Rally To Protect Our Elections’ in Phoenix, AZ

China Raids Church Zoom Online Worship Service

The Chinese Communist Party forcibly stopped a pastor and elder from preaching during the service.

QUICK FACTS:
  • Shenzhen Trinity Gospel Harvest Church’s Zoom online worship service was raided on the morning of July 11 by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) security agents, police officers, and religious affairs bureau officials, according to U.S.-based ChinaAid and CBN News.
  • Authorities forced Pastor Mao Zhibin and Elder Chu Yanqing to stop preaching.
  • Other CCP officials reportedly surrounded the Church building.
WHAT ONE CONGREGANT SAID:

A member of another church who was in attendance during the raid said, “At that time I was also in the Zoom call, but there was a long period of time where I did not hear a thing.” Thinking it was a “network connection issue at first,” they then “heard a quarrel erupt. Our co-worker Wang Jun was questioning some people, [saying], ‘Who are you to do this [to us]?'”

BACKGROUND:
  • Trinity Gospel Harvest is located in Guangdong Province.
  • It advocates for justice in China.
  • The raid occurred about three months after a church member, Shi Minglei (known as Hope), had fled to the United States.
  • Open Doors USA, which monitors persecution in over 60 countries, estimates that there are about 97 million Christians in China, a large percentage of whom worship in what China considers to be “illegal” and unregistered underground house churches, according to The Christian Post.
  • China is ranked 17th on Open Doors’ 2021 World Watch List of countries where Christians suffer the most persecution, notes CBN.

Magistrates exonerate street preacher fined by the Met

(Christian Today) London magistrates have thrown out a cause against a street preacher who was fined by the Metropolitan Police for evangelising out on the streets on Good Friday in 2020.

Joshua Sutcliffe, 31, was preaching and handing out leaflets with a friend in Camden, north London, on 10 April 2020.

He was detained by officers for supposedly being outdoors without a reasonable excuse and breaching Covid regulations.

He explained that as a pastor and and worship leader, he was allowed to be outside providing charitable services, but officers rejected his explanation and gave him a caution and a fixed penalty notice of £60.

Contesting the fine at the City of London Magistrates Court this month, Mr Sutcliffe said that he had given a homeless man his shoes, something he would not have been able to do if he had only been preaching online.

The fine was overturned by the court, which ruled that Mr Sutcliffe and his friend were “entitled to gather for street evangelising”, and that he “had a reasonable excuse as he was travelling to his place of work, as a worship leader.”

Commenting on the judgment, Mr Sutcliffe said he had been surrounded by four police officers during the incident, which he had found “very intimidating”.

“They treated me like a second-class citizen,” he said.

“I am a Christian minister of the gospel, which not so long ago was a treasured and respected vocation in the UK.

“During times of need, people need the hope of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

“That is what I do on a regular basis, I go to the streets and proclaim the hope and truth of the resurrection of Christ. I was doing this on Good Friday, one of the most important days in the Christian calendar to do this.

“I am very glad the magistrates threw the case out and that reason and justice prevailed.”

Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, which supported Mr Sutcliffe, said that while she was pleased he had been acquitted, she was concerned the case had even reached the court.

“We are seeing a lot of inconsistencies from police and the judiciary in these cases,” she said.

“Christians have been easy targets for police during the pandemic while other groups gathering in significant numbers have been favoured by the police.

“After being cautioned on Good Friday, Joshua continued to preach, even giving his own shoes to a homeless man and walking home barefoot. This is what Christian witness should have looked like during this time of crisis – ministering to people’s physical and spiritual needs.

“Instead, we have seen Christian preachers and pastors, like Joshua, who have a heart for reaching those in great need in their communities fined, arrested and prosecuted for doing so.”

Heckler Confronts Tucker Carlson: ‘Worst Human Being Known to Mankind’

A fishing guide reportedly confronted Fox News host Tucker Carlson at a fly fishing shop in Livingston, Montana on Friday.

QUICK FACTS:
  • Dan Bailey, a fishing guide, said to Carlson, “You are the worst human being known to mankind. I want you to know that” inside a fishing store.
  • Bailey put himself in front of Carlson so the Fox News host couldn’t walk by.
  • “Settle down, son,” Tucker responded walking away.
  • Bailey continued to follow Carlson around the store.
  • A video shared to Twitter by The Lincoln Project capturing the exchange had been viewed over 330K times, according to Newsweek.
  • The 22-second clip was shared to Instagram by user @danbaileymt.
THE VIDEO:
BACKGROUND:
  • Newsweek reports the Instagram user identified himself as a resident of Montana, claiming he was the man seen in the video confronting Carlson. The Gateway Pundit claims the Instagram user, Dan Bailey is the man in the video.

World Investors Pouring Record $900 Billion into U.S. Funds

Global money managers funneled nearly $1 trillion into U.S. financial assets in the first half, signaling the American economy is primed to dominate post-COVID markets.

QUICK FACTS:
  • Investors world-wide have funneled more than $900 billion into U.S.-domiciled mutual and exchange-traded funds during the first half of the year, according to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
  • The data was compiled by Refinitiv Lipper, an American financial services firm founded in 1973 and acquired by Reuters in 1998.
  • The massive inflow sets a new record in data going back to 1992, notes WSJ.
  • The amount is “more than investors have put into funds elsewhere around the world combined during the first two quarters of 2021.”
  • The S&P 500 has risen to over 17% in 2021, setting an all-time high.
WHAT EXPERTS ARE SAYING:
  • Portfolio manager and strategist at global asset manager Natixis Investment Managers Jack Janasiewicz said, “The U.S. economy has a head start coming out of this pandemic.” “There’s plenty of optimism from our standpoint as to why the market can continue to walk up,” he added.
  • WSJ surveyed economists forecasting the U.S. economy will grow 6.9% in 2021. “That is higher than International Monetary Fund projections for most advanced and emerging-market economies, including the euro area, Japan and the United Kingdom,” notes WSJ.
BACKGROUND:
  • FactSet reports S&P 500 companies recently trading at around 28 times their last 12 months of earnings, near the highest level since 2000.
  • “Such attractive returns could still draw more money to the U.S., analysts said. Optimism toward U.S. stocks rose in July among global fund managers surveyed by Bank of America, while bullish sentiment about eurozone and emerging-market equities waned,” reports WSJ.

Mississippi AG Asks SCOTUS to Overturn Roe V. Wade

The Mississippi Attorney General asked the Supreme Court to overturn Roe V. Wade on Thursday.

QUICK FACTS:
  • Mississippi attorney general Lynn Fitch urged the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) on Thursday to overturn its 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that women have a constitutional right to abortion.
  • AG Fitch also asked SCOTUS to sustain a state law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
  • Mississippi argued that because the U.S. Constitution doesn’t mention ‘abortion’ specifically, adhering to Roe was “dangerously corrosive to our constitutional system,” according to USA Today.
  • “If Roe falls, half the states in the country are poised to ban abortion entirely,” said one abortion advocate.
  • The court will hear arguments in the case in the fall, according to The New York Times.
WHAT AG FITCH SAID:
  • “The Constitution does not protect a right to abortion,” Ms. Fitch wrote. Adding, “The Constitution’s text says nothing about abortion. Nothing in the Constitution”s structure implies a right to abortion or prohibits states from restricting it.”
  • “The national fever on abortion can break only when this court returns abortion policy to the states—where agreement is more common, compromise is often possible and disagreement can be resolved at the ballot box.”
  • “Roe and Casey are unprincipled decisions that have damaged the democratic process, poisoned our national discourse, plagued the law—and, in doing so, harmed this court,” Fitch wrote.
WHAT MISSISSIPPI LAWYERS SAID:
  • “Roe and Casey are egregiously wrong,” Mississippi lawyers told the court Thursday, notes USA Today. “The conclusion that abortion is a constitutional right has no basis in text, structure, history, or tradition.”

A SECTION FROM THE FILING:

  • “On a sound understanding of the Constitution, the answer to the question presented in this case is clear and the path to that answer is straight. Under the Constitution, may a State prohibit elective abortions before viability? Yes. Why? Because nothing in constitutional text, structure, history, or tradition supports a right to abortion. A prohibition on elective abortions is therefore constitutional if it satisfies the rational basis review that applies to all laws.”
BACKGROUND:
  • Sixteen states have attempted to ban abortions before viability.
  • A 7-2 majority concluded in Roe that women have the right to an abortion during the first and second trimesters. However, the ruling also allows states to impose restrictions in the second trimester. 
  • In Planned Parenthood v. Casey, SCOTUS allowed states to ban most abortions at viability (roughly 24 weeks), when a fetus can survive outside the womb.

California parent groups sue Gavin Newsom over COVID mask mandate for schools

(The Sacramento Bee) Two parent advocacy organizations announced Thursday afternoon that they are suing California Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state’s top health officials over the statewide mandate that children wear masks to school regardless of their vaccination status. 

The lawsuit, filed by Let Them Breathe and Reopen California Schools in San Diego County Superior Court, names Newsom, Health and Human Services Secretary Mark Ghaly, Public Health Director Tomás Aragón of the Department of Public Health, and Dr. Naomi Bardach of Safe Schools for All as defendants. 

“It’s clear that (the health the department) has chosen to ignore the overwhelming evidence that show children are at a very low risk from being infected with COVID-19, transmitting it to others, or becoming seriously ill from COVID-19,” Reopen California Schools founder Jonathan Zachreson of Roseville said in a statement. “A return to a normal school year is crucial to the mental and physical health recovery for students across California who have endured months of isolation and a majority of who spent last school year entirely in distance learning.”

The Department of Public Health earlier this month issued guidance requiring that K-12 California schools mandate mask wearing for students. 

That was a contrast to recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which on July 9 issued guidance saying vaccinated students and teachers could remain unmasked during in-person learning.

The parents’ lawsuit calls the state mandate arbitrary, not based on scientific evidence and harmful to students. 

“CDPH states that despite CDC recommendations, they will require masks for all students in order to treat them the same,” Let Them Breathe founder Sharon McKeeman said in a statement. “Of course it’s true that all children deserve equity and should not be singled out based on vaccination status. However, this should be accomplished by allowing all children to unmask and share their smiles.”

The lawsuit comes as the state continues to grapple with the spread of the delta variant of the COVID-19 virus, which has been shown to be more contagious. The delta variant makes up 83% of analyzed cases in the United States, while COVID-19 hospitalizations are up 32% and deaths are up 19%. 

Los Angeles County has reinstated an indoor mask mandate as a result. Other counties — including Monterey, Napa, San Benito, Sacramento, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Yolo and Ventura — are asking everyone, including those who are fully vaccinated, to wear masks when inside public places such as grocery stores or movie theaters. 

The World Health Organization recommends that people wear masks whenever possible in order to cut down the spread of the COVID-19 delta variant. The American Academy of Pediatrics also has recommended masks in schools for the coming academic year.

‘America First’ And ‘Middle Class First’ Parties Would Dominate If U.S. Was A Multi-Party System

(Information Liberation) Americans would ditch the Republican and Democratic parties for an “America First” nationalist party and “Middle class first” universal health care party if America was a 5-party system, according to a new survey. 

A Republican-style party would come in third while a “Green New Deal” social justice party and a Democrat-style LGBTQ, free trade, “reform capitalism” party would tie for last.

From Echelon Insights (survey of 1,001 national registered voters conducted June 18-22 online):

The survey appeared skewed towards the left and the margin of error is probably at least 5%.

Whereas Acela is a solid description of the current Democratic Party their “Conservative” Republican Party is not the greatest stand-in as it says they would “promote traditional family values,” which the GOP has zero interest in today (thanks to GOP megadonor Paul Singer).

If they replaced “promote traditional values” with “promote Caitlyn Jenner” and “put Israel First” their support would probably match that of the Acela (Democrats) and Greens. 

Of course, this is just a useful thought experiment as the Democratic and Republican parties are set up the way they are for a reason and the American people only getting the worst part of their respective party’s agenda when they’re in office is by design.

Nonetheless, it demonstrates perfectly how we have a rigged system.

Full Story

Russia Fines Big Tech Platforms

A Russian court has fined social media platforms Facebook, Twitter, and Telegram for not deleting “banned” content.

QUICK FACTS:

  • The Russian court fined U.S. social media giants Facebook, Twitter, and messaging app Telegram for “failing to delete content Moscow deems illegal,” according to American Military News.
  • Facebook was fined 6 million rubles ($81,000), Twitter 5.5 million rubles, and Telegram 11 million rubles ($149,000).
  • The fines come after multiple protocols filed by Russia’s communications watchdog, Roskomnadzor, also according to Military News.
  • Moscow claims it is trying to protect Internet “sovereignty.”
BACKGROUND:
  • The same court fined Facebook 17 million rubles and Telegram 10 million rubles last month for what it called “administrative offenses,” failing to remove content banned by Russia.
  • Twitter and Google have been fined for similar offenses.
  • Roskomnadzor imposed a slowdown on Twitter in March for posts containing child pornography, drug use, and encouragement of youth suicide.
  • British Prime Minister Boris Johnson met platform representatives last week, warning that they would “face fines amounting to 10% of their global revenues unless they removed hateful and racist content,” according to Reuters.
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