Written by Daniel Horowitz

If Bashar Assad or other Islamic entities came to our border, set up multibillion-dollar global criminal networks sending drugs as powerful as chemical weapons flowing into our country, wouldn’t we treat it like a national emergency on par with a war? Well, take a look at what these violent global entities (still simply known as “drug cartels”) are doing at our border. Breitbart Texas has posted unimaginably gruesome photos of their daily activities. (Warning: extremely graphic.)

Somehow, it’s only cool to care about humanitarian and national security problems of other countries, but not our own or even those of the country just south of us. The reason? Because it implicates the agenda of illegal immigration.

Last week, I caught up with several law enforcement agents who have decades of experience dealing with the southwest border. Here is a synopsis of what a few of them told me of the seriousness of the situation.

Sheriff Mark Napier, who heads local law enforcement in Pima County, the largest border county in America, lamented the callous disregard of the politicians and the media to our border crisis. “This is a human rights issue,” said Napier, who is also vice president of the Arizona Sheriff’s Association. “Unlike Pelosi, who says border walls are immoral, I would say what is immoral is to create a system that encourages some man in Central America to grab his small children by the hand, walk hundreds of miles north through all sorts of climate conditions, environmental hazards, and criminal hazards, and come here believing they could just walk in for a better life. That is the humanitarian tragedy – the system that encourages this very dangerous and desperate behavior that is the problem. By fixing our border, the aliens would know that they can’t come north.”

The media and special interest groups have spent years ignoring the national security threats to Americans while actually fueling the humanitarian crisis for the very migrants that they claim to care about. Now, U.S. House Democrats plan to hold hearings pointing fingers not at themselves, but at Border Patrol for the recent deaths of two child migrants in BP custody. Perhaps the politicians should hear more from border sheriffs rather than special interest groups. Here is what is causing the humanitarian problem, according to Napier.

“My deputies recover over 100 bodies a year in the desert of my county, mostly skeletal remains. This is not the fault of CBP that this child died in their custody; it’s the fault of the system that encouraged that dangerous behavior on the part of that minor’s guardian. I’m not a very political guy, but when you argue against border security, you are incentivizing very dangerous behavior that seems to counter-indicate to me any degree of caring for those people that you profess to care about.”

He expressed a sentiment I’ve heard from many local and federal law enforcement agents who are not trying to score any political points and are driven simply by the dangerous facts on the ground they are confronted with – facts that the political elites want to ignore:

“Long after I’m no longer the sheriff of this county, this county is still my home, and I care about it because my children and grandchildren live here,” said the veteran sheriff. “We’ve got to fix this. I’m so tired of the politics and sound-bite policy. This is not a partisan issue; this is a human rights issue, this is a public safety issue, and a national security issue, which should transcend partisan politics, but unfortunately it does not.”

The frustration at the lack of federal help was also echoed by Mark Dannels, the sheriff of Cochise County, Arizona, just to the east of Pima County:

Our southern border has become the largest crime zone in America, and law enforcement at all levels work tirelessly every day to secure our border and communities to prevent and detect those that use our border for an avenue to promote illegal activity that degrades our quality of life in America. As the political debate continues, law enforcement deputies/officers/agents will continue to do their constitutional mandates/expectations in securing our borders. I just wish our elected congressional members would do the same.

Inextricably mixed with the humanitarian crisis is the national security crisis posed by the evil cartels. Last week, I had retired Texas Department of Public Safety Captain Jaeson Jones on my podcast. Jones worked for 24 years in the intelligence and counterterrorism division. He now teaches the intelligence community, federal, state, and local law enforcement across the country about border security and Mexican cartels. He warned that cartels such as Jalisco are “now operating in 42 countries” and that “the Mexican cartels are no longer just drug trafficking organizations, they are global violent networks” for a multitude of reasons:

Not only should we treat them as terrorists because they’re operating globally, but because they are also employing terrorist organizations such as FARC to conduct their baseline training. They have killed over 200,000 Mexican citizens since 2007.

Then you take the integration of military-grade weapons such as light antitank weapons, surface-to-air missiles, and hand grenades. The tactics that they’re employing in the tradecraft that they’re gaining from working with terrorists and from special forces units is incredible.

Jones blames not only the media, but even much of federal law enforcement for not adapting their tactics to confront the “quantum leap” the cartels have made from being small-time drug traffickers to violent global entities with endless resources at their disposal.

And no, the violence is not just staying on their side of the border. For those of you asking “why now?” in terms of the urgency at the border, heed the words of this veteran agent:

I can remember a time in this country when we never even heard the term “human trafficking.” That occurred in other countries around the world. … Today it is not only here, it is in every state in this country. We first saw it at the southwest border. I can remember cases when I was stationed in Brownsville, where we had … one of the first cases, I remember, was a woman that was brought in the country, smuggled here through some coyotes by her husband. She was stripped naked and tied up and duct-taped in the back of a car. We were pinging the phone trying to locate her, while they were selling her from Dallas to Houston, putting her into the trade. It was absolutely horrific. I can remember thinking, my God, what is happening? Sadly, now it’s all across the country and not even newsworthy. Now the question is, why did American law enforcement not stop this?

How can we allow this to continue at our own border when we race off and spend billions and endless lives in the Middle East at the drop of a hat, based on a fraction of the security concerns that exist at our border?

Jones lamented the amount of crime from criminal alien networks that is not being quantified in federal data:

Along our southwest border right now the level of cartel infiltration at local and state and federal levels is unbelievable. Look at the kidnappings that are occurring. The extortion, drug trafficking. … To this day at a national level, the American people have no idea how much dope is actually seized in this country. Human trafficking, labor trafficking, money laundering, weapon seizures, cybercrime. I mean the list goes on.

What about those who believe blocking cartel infiltration is somehow not the purview of national defense? U.S. Representative Mac Thornberry, the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, said that he opposes any plans to use defense spending for the border because “it is not a responsibility of the Department of Defense” to build the wall, which he considers to be “non-defense purposes.”

Here’s what Jones said about the threat these cartel members pose in our communities:

“When we see these individuals learning the tradecraft of how to utilize armored vehicles and military-grade weapons in two-man, four-man, 10-man tactics … our everyday law enforcement officers domestically are not capable of handling that. That’s not what they train for.”

It’s a shame that establishment Republicans, even those in border states, refuse to recognize the severity of the problem or offer any realistic solutions while criticizing the president. How much longer will they allow this to continue?

This article was originally published at ConservativeReview.com.

Written by Liberty McArtor

On January 21, 2017, the Women’s March on Washington became the largest march in American history. On January 21, 2018, Women’s March, the organization behind last year’s historic protest, will hold an anniversary event in Nevada. Like last year, similar events will be held in cities around the nation.

This year’s event is called “Power to the Polls.” According to the website, it’ll “launch a national voter registration tour” and “channel the energy and activism of the Women’s March into tangible strategies and concrete wins in 2018.”

But something else is happening on January 21. It’s Sanctity of Life Sunday. Every year around this time, pro-lifers observe the anniversary of Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade. Often it’s with sermons about the value of life, and education on how to get hands-on in the pro-life movement. It’s sometimes marked with a presidential proclamation.

There are plenty of problems with Women’s March and its events. But the fact that Sanctity of Life Sunday falls on the same day as its next event highlights the worst problem of all.

Human Rights are Human Rights

Let me put politics aside for a moment. To be honest, I sympathize with Women’s March’s desire to lift up the marginalized. Though its solutions are often misguided, the organization’s desire to fight for minority communities, disabled people, immigrants and others is clear. Those involved want to make life better for people who have traditionally struggled and held little influence.

And this is where — politics still aside — the movement is choked by sad irony.

While claiming to exalt the marginalized, members marginalize the most vulnerable group of all: unborn children. They brush aside the very group that we as women, by our biology, have the privilege of carrying, nurturing and bringing into the world.

If any Women’s Marchers are reading this, they probably rolled their eyes at that last sentence. Maybe they’d say I care more about fetuses who haven’t been born yet than real-live people. That’s false.

Here’s the deal: you can’t value any human life if you rob it of its inherent right to exist.

The Women’s March website lists several “unity principles.” Among them are statements like “Women’s rights are human rights,” and “LGBTQIA rights are human rights.” But it fails to include the most obvious statement of all: Human rights are human rights.

The Other Women

This is why so many women cannot join in Women’s March events. It’s not just that Women’s March rejects pro-lifers — which the organization has done at an official level, by the way. It’s that, despite touting so many “human rights,” the movement has rejected the most basic human right.

There are plenty of other reasons to criticize Women’s March and its efforts. Their affiliation with an anti-American, terrorist-supporting activist, for one. The fact that they include as “women” people who are biologically male and only undermine true women’s causes, for another. And the fact that the only women they care about promoting are those who will further an extremely progressive agenda.

Help us champion truth, freedom, limited government and human dignity. Support The Stream »

But the fact that they reject the most basic human right — life — and evangelize for the cause, is the most telling.

So on January 21, thousands, or maybe millions, of women will gather around the nation for the “Power to the Polls” event. But millions of others will gather in churches. They’ll gather in pregnancy centers, shelters and ministries. They’ll be helping women and their babies to not only make it, but thrive.

And they’ll be praying. Praying for the restoration of the most basic human right, and the liberation of America’s women from this lie that unborn life is the enemy.

This article originally posted on the Stream.org.

If signed into law by Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner, HB 40, which passed in both the Illinois House and Senate, will force taxpayers to subsidize abortions for women on Medicaid and for women covered by state employee health insurance.

Feticidal maniacs in Illinois—including lawmakers—are desperate to have Rauner sign this bill into law. They reason that since abortion is legal, the public should subsidize it. Leftists believe all Illinois taxpayers should pay for poor women’s and state employees’ choices to have their unborn children killed. Ironically, while Leftists command that men never express an opinion on abortion, Leftists also say male taxpayers should fund abortion. Word to Leftists:

1.) Those tiny humans growing inside women get half their DNA from men.

2.) The issue of whether the product of conception between two humans is a human with rights is a human rights issue—not exclusively a women’s issue.

3.) There are no criteria that Leftists can manufacture to defend the right of some humans to snuff out the lives of other humans that apply only to incipient human lives. Whether those criteria are intrinsic or extrinsic to humans in the womb, they all can be applied to humans who escaped the torture chamber that the womb has become. Intrinsic criteria such as immature development, dependency status, lack of sentience, or lack of perfection apply to humans outside the womb as well. Extrinsic criteria such as being considered a financial or emotional burden also apply to humans outside the womb.

4.) According to Leftists, men can have wombs, menstruate, become pregnant, and give birth, and, therefore, abortion is a men’s issue.

5.) Using the language of “rights,” feticide-defenders are appealing to the respect Americans have for “negative rights”—also known as liberties—(e.g., the right to vote, assemble, exercise one’s religion, and speak freely), which are not accompanied by any obligation for others to subsidize them. But what feticide-defenders are really suggesting—without explicitly saying—is that women have a “positive right” (i.e., an entitlement) to abortion, which imposes a duty on others to subsidize it. Abortion, however, is not an entitlement, and society has no obligation to pay for women to get them. Neither wanting something; nor really, really wanting something; nor experiencing suffering from not obtaining this desperately desired thing means the public has an obligation to provide it.

7.) We, as a benevolent society, have created safety nets to provide for basic health care for those who are unable to provide for it themselves. No matter how many times feticide-defenders call the killing of incipient human life “health care,” it’s not. Killing human fetuses is neither health care nor reproduction. It’s death facilitation and anti-reproduction. If Leftists want to help poor women and state employees kill their offspring, they have the choice and negative right to do so.

In an editorial appearing in Crain’s Chicago Business, K. Sujata, president and CEO of the Chicago Foundation for Women (CFW), frets about the implications of an HB 40 veto. She worries about the economic interests of pregnant women, many of whom choose to have sex when they can’t afford or don’t want to provide for the needs of humans who may result from their choice to have sex:

HB40 also removes restrictions on reproductive health care coverage that put women’s economic security at risk…. In order for women and their families to achieve full economic security, all women in Illinois must be able to make the important decision of when to start or grow their family.

Do Illinoisans really have a moral obligation to provide for the “full economic security” of state employees? Do Illinoisans really have a moral obligation to pay for the destruction of the tiny family members already growing inside of poor women?

And how does killing humans—including female humans—whose lives are just beginning fulfill this core principle of the Chicago Foundation for Women:

We believe that equality is a universal human right, and we uphold respect and dignity as guiding principles in all our work.

If Leftists really believe that more developed, sentient, able-bodied, and cognitively superior humans have the right to exterminate less-developed and cognitively and physically impaired humans whose self-awareness is diminished or absent, then they are kindred spirits with Princeton University bio-unethicist Peter Singer who makes the same argument but applies it to post-natal humans as well. What possible ethical difference do a few days or few inches of birth canal make in terms of the right to kill?

Remember ten years ago when Hillary Clinton expressed her belief that abortion should be “safe, legal, and rare. And by rare, I mean rare“? Northwestern University law professor Andrew Koppelman expressed the same sentiment during a forum at Northwestern Law School several years ago. When I asked why abortion should be rare if incipient human life is so devoid of personhood as to be undeserving of even minimal constitutional protection, he had no answer.

If Leftists really wanted abortion to be rare, they wouldn’t be fighting tooth and nail for the passage of HB 40, which, it is estimated, will result in an additional 15,000 abortions each year at taxpayer expense.

But no one actually believes Leftists care about whether abortion is rare or common. To them destroying human fetuses is no different from excising tumors.

Wombs should be sanctuary spaces and no-kill people shelters where all humans are safe. Governor Rauner should kill HB 40.

Take ACTION: Click Here to email Governor Bruce Rauner. Urge him to keep his pledge to veto HB 40. Also, please continue to call the governor’s public comment line every day until this is resolved: (217) 782-0244 and (312) 814-2121. 

You can also send Gov. Rauner a message via Twitter: @GovRauner

Listen to Laurie read this article in this podcast:

https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/2Kill-HB-40-Wombs-Should-Be-Sanctuary-Spaces-and-No-Kill-Shelters.mp3

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And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.
~2 Corinthians 11:14~

The United States was founded by people of faith, people who espoused a biblical worldview. That worldview, bolstered by a conscience that yearns for justice, compelled the writing of the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

The Declaration defined the nature and source of human rights; the United States Constitution detailed those rights, protecting them from government transgress.

The Founders secured the very impetus for the colonies in America with the First Amendment to the Constitution:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Notice no reference to a wall of “separation of church and state?” Early settlers desired to live out their faith, to worship according to personal understanding of the scriptures, not by compulsion of a state run and controlled church akin to the Church of England. Government was seen as a necessary evil to provide for national defense and some infrastructure; the U.S. Constitution was clearly written to free the citizen and robustly constrain government.

Our history as an independent people, individually responsible for our own actions and consequences, but keenly aware of rights and justice infuses our national DNA. Rights and justice are not, in and of themselves, evil.

The key is WHO is the author of the rights?

The Founders believed the Bible and that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel created men (ie. all men and all women) in His image. Life was precious, sacred, because the Lord God was its author.

But not all rights are true rights or even good. The idea of “human rights” sounds aspirational, lofty.

The Apostle Paul warned early followers of Jesus and the church at Corinth:

And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.

Masquerading as an angel of light, gay rights activist Stephen Robert “Steve” Endean founded the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) in 1980. The mission of the organization:

The Human Rights Campaign and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation together serve as America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve LGBTQ equality. By inspiring and engaging individuals and communities, HRC strives to end discrimination against LGBTQ people and realize a world that achieves fundamental fairness and equality for all.

The Human Rights Campaign envisions a world where lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people are ensured equality and embraced as full members of society at home, at work and in every community.

Ah ha! The crux of the matter is not “human rights” but rather “LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning) rights.” Why the disguise (aka masquerade)?

Steve Endean knew full well that the average American in 1980 would not wholly endorse “alternative lifestyles.” Had he named the organization “Queer Rights Campaign” or “Lesbian Rights Campaign” Endean would have offended millions of families. But “Human Rights Campaign” sounded righteous and compassionate.

That is until we compare the mission statement with the foundation of America, a biblical worldview which undergirds our founding documents. What does the Bible have to say about those lifestyles?

Earlier in 1 Corinthians:

Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. — 1 Corinthians 6:9-10

And in Romans 1:

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.

. . .

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

Now, having unmasked the true intent and nature of the “Human Rights Campaign,” it should come as no surprise that Endean’s unholy organization seeks to vilify those proclaiming truth and businesses not cowering to the HRC mandates. Since 2002, “HRC’s Corporate Equality Index report, released each fall, provides an in-depth analysis and rating of large U.S. employers and their policies and practices pertinent to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees. Businesses rated 100 percent are recognized in their ‘Best Places to Work’ list. All consumer-oriented businesses are included in their ‘Buying for Equality‘ guide.” [see below]

Businesses in America are rated according to their accommodation and celebration of “alternative lifestyles,” also known as sinful lifestyles. HRC President Chad Griffin writes:

In this 15th edition of the Corporate Equality Index we have seen the largest increase in top-rated businesses in the history of our survey with 517 employers earning perfect 100 percent scores. In addition, this year saw the CEI’s largest jump ever in businesses offering transgender-inclusive healthcare coverage — from 511 last year to 647 this year.

While there is much to do and many key civil rights fights ahead, thanks to these private sector leaders, the march towards greater equality is not slowing down. The LGBTQ community and the 887 businesses in the CEI will keep moving forward every day.

The HRC employs a carrot and stick tactic: CEI as carrot praises those businesses which affirm the LGBTQ agenda; HRC’s “The Export of Hate” as stick castigates any individuals or organizations who decry the same perverse agenda. Written at “The Export of Hate” site:

These individuals are spreading venomous rhetoric, outrageous theories and discredited science.

While this vicious brand of bigotry is currently finding little traction in the United States, public opinion in many other nations makes their words and work much more dangerous. In fact, their actions pose a fundamental threat to the safety of LGBT people around the world, and that threat is growing.

“The Export of Hate” lists familiar names of godly people and God-honoring organizations: attorney and pastor Scott Lively, ADF Chief Counsel Benjamin Bull, ACLJ Director of International Operations Jordan Sekulow, and even our good friend Peter LaBarbera. [See below]

The Bible instructs us to be wise as serpents, harmless as doves. Comparing the Bible and its principles and commands to the Human Rights Campaign mission, Corporate Equality Index, and HRC’s Export of Hate report reveals an unavoidable conclusion. The HRC is an unbiblical and evil entity.

The prophet Isaiah wrote:

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! — Isaiah 5:20

There could not be a more stark picture of that verse than the Human Rights Campaign, and believers in America must hold fast to biblical truth and wisdom and unmask ungodly evildoers “masquerading as angels of light.”

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