US Culture in Crisis: Church Attendance Plummets, White Supremacy, Racial Hatred and Societal Polarization Skyrockets

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Over the past decade, pollsters charted something remarkable: Americans—long known for their piety—were fleeing organized religion in increasing numbers. The vast majority still believed in God. But the share that rejected any religious affiliation was growing fast, rising from 6 percent in 1992 to 22 percent in 2014. Among Millennials, the figure was 35 percent.

Some observers predicted that this new secularism would ease cultural conflict, as the country settled into a near-consensus on issues such as gay marriage. After Barack Obama took office, a Center for American Progress report declared that “demographic change,” led by secular, tolerant young people, was “undermining the culture wars.” In 2015, the conservative writer David Brooks, noting Americans’ growing detachment from religious institutions, urged social conservatives to “put aside a culture war that has alienated large parts of three generations.”

That was naive. Secularism is indeed correlated with greater tolerance of gay marriage and pot legalization. But it’s also making America’s partisan clashes more brutal. And it has contributed to the rise of both Donald Trump and the so-called alt-right movement, whose members see themselves as proponents of white nationalism. As Americans have left organized religion, they haven’t stopped viewing politics as a struggle between “us” and “them.” Many have come to define us and them in even more primal and irreconcilable ways.

When pundits describe the Americans who sleep in on Sundays, they often conjure left-leaning hipsters. But religious attendance is down among Republicans, too. According to data assembled for me by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), the percentage of white Republicans with no religious affiliation has nearly tripled since 1990. This shift helped Trump win the GOP nomination. During the campaign, commentators had a hard time reconciling Trump’s apparent ignorance of Christianity and his history of pro-choice and pro-gay-rights statements with his support from evangelicals. But as Notre Dame’s Geoffrey Layman noted, “Trump does best among evangelicals with one key trait: They don’t really go to church.” A Pew Research Center poll last March found that Trump trailed Ted Cruz by 15 points among Republicans who attended religious services every week. But he led Cruz by a whopping 27 points among those who did not. (Read more from “US Culture in Crisis: Church Attendance Plummets, White Supremacy, Racial Hatred and Societal Polarization Skyrockets” HERE)

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GOP Rep. Hunter Under Criminal Campaign Finance Investigation

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The Justice Department is investigating Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), the House Ethics Committee revealed in a statement on Thursday.

The ethics panel was reviewing alleged campaign finance violations by Hunter but has halted that work at the request of the Justice Department, the panel said . . .

Reports surfaced last year that the Hunter had been potentially misusing campaign funds to pay for personal trips to Italy and Hawaii as well as funding his children’s school tuition, in addition to more mundane items like cell phone video games and a garage door.

Federal law does not allow the use of campaign funds for personal use. Hunter has denied all wrongdoing, with a spokesman attributing the misspent funds to “sloppy bookkeeping.” Hunter has promised to reimburse his campaign committee roughly $65,000, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. However, reports raise questions about additional seemingly personal expenses. (Read more from “GOP Rep. Hunter Under Criminal Campaign Finance Investigation” HERE)

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Who Controls The (Alternate) ‘Reality’ In America?

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Who’s really got the power in America? Most people are living in an alternate reality created by those with the biggest platforms.

Individual “reality” is defined by what people believe to be true more than what actually exists. A firmly held opinion can create such a vast cognitive dissonance that many people can actually witness something that challenges their belief and still deny that they could be incorrect.

This sounds like the biggest conspiracy theory ever, but if you are here reading this, you probably at least suspect that there are manipulations at play in nearly everything we view or read. There are just a few hundred people who control the media, entertainment, and the Internet, and unless we are completely unplugged, we are lambasted with their versions of reality relentlessly every day.

Let’s talk about how opinions are really formed and who has the influence to sway the people of America. No matter how well-informed a person tries to be, the truth can be hard to come by when bias is presented from so many primary sources.

The Places People Get Their News and Information

According to the Pew Research Group, people get their information from the following sources:

PJ_2016.07.07_Modern-News-Consumer_1-01

Photo Credit Journalism.org
This means that those with the power to influence are the people who pull the strings of network news, those in entertainment, those who make the rules of major social media platforms, and those with the biggest websites. Radio and print newspapers have little influence these days, and for that reason, most major print newspapers also have online outlets.

Notice also how people of varying age groups rely more strongly on different sources for their information.

Network News

Who remembers sitting at the table or just after dinner, being bored to tears as a little kid while your parents were glued to the evening news? I remember my dad wanted to watch the news from three sources because he wanted more than one opinion. I get it now, but at the time, it felt like “the news” would never be over. I usually ended up playing with my Barbies or reading a book.

It seems that times haven’t changed much, if the Pew survey cited above is to be believed, and it appears that the older people are, the more likely they are to watch the news on TV.

But here’s the catch.

Although there are thousands of news stations across the country, nearly all of them are owned by six corporations. In the ’80s, the stations were dispersed through about 50 different companies – not a lot but a far more diverse sampling than you have now that your news is filtered through the lenses of billionaire corporations.

So, basically, everything we hear on the news is controlled by these six companies:

Time Warner
Walt Disney
News Corp.
Viacom
CBS Corporation
NBC Universal

Whatever their opinions are, those are the biases from which your news will be presented.

But it goes even deeper than just news because these corporations also control the entertainment industry. And what better way to control the masses than through propagandized drama in which the abnormal is normalized, and agendas are insidiously promoted without the knowledge of an unaware watcher?

Here is a glimpse at the networks owned by these corporations.

media-ownership

Photo Credit The Global Movement
As you can see, nearly anything you watch on any channel is influenced by a handful of people – those who run these major corporations. If they want to push an agenda, you can rest assured that agenda will be present on each of their outlets in some form.

The Rulers of the Internet

People under 50 get more of their news and information from the web than any other source these days.

One hundred websites get the majority of the traffic on the Internet, and that traffic is massive. The people behind these websites are major influences in the reality perceived by Americans.

Think about this:

Google gets 28 billion visits per month. That means when you look something up on Google, you are provided with the answer Google wants you to have, which may or may not be the actual answer.

YouTube follows quickly behind with 20.5 billion visits. (source) I’m sure by now you have heard that YouTube has taken advertising privileges away from a lot of videographers whose points of view are contrary to the agenda they wish to promote. They’re saying that the content is not “advertiser friendly” – and obviously, this discourages people who dedicate their days to advancing the truth from doing so. They, too, must make a living, and video editing is a time-consuming process. One well-done 10-minute video can take 8 hours to produce.

These are the 100 websites that provide the “reality” for the majority of the people who rely on the Internet for their news, as per Alexa.com’s traffic reporting system.

100-websites-rule-internet-1070

Photo Credit Visual Capitalist

Social Media

You may have noticed in the infographic above that a massive amount of traffic goes to social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter.

Both of those networks are notorious for censoring points of view that are not part of a liberal outlook. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably heard about Twitter permanently banning a bunch of popular Alt-Right people, most infamously, Milo Yiannopoulos for his perspective.

Now, personally, I’m not a fan of the Alt-Right viewpoint. It seems like they’re presenting meanness as “truth” when they could just as easily state true things without being jerks about it. But that is beside the point. If these people are going to be banned for their unsavory ways of communicating, why does Twitter allow things like #RapeMelania to trend? Why does Twitter allow actual threats against the president? If you’re going to start banning offensiveness, shouldn’t it be across the board?

Then there’s Facebook, who has actually been busted running social experiments on its users by attempting to alter people’s moods with what they show in their timelines. But it doesn’t stop there. Nearly every blogger I know who works in the alternative news genre has been in Facebook jail at least once for presenting an unpopular opinion. I personally got warnings when I posted this article on my page – the article was taken down dozens of times and reported as “hate speech” when the “hate” it reported on was certainly not MY hatred.

Of course, when you sign up to use any of these social media networks, you agree to their terms and conditions. They’re businesses and are under no obligation to be truthful or have integrity. Go ahead and use them – I do because they are helpful to my business – but do so fully aware that what you see presented there reflects the opinions of the management and not actual reality.

So how do we get the truth?

There really aren’t any unbiased sources out there. Having worked as an alternative journalist, I can tell you honestly that no matter how hard you try to be unbiased, your personal feelings sneak in, at least a little bit. Maybe it’s with the background information you provide to support your story because you can see the direction what you are reporting on is going. Maybe it is with a little bit of snarky commentary or a pithy headline.

Because of this, many people pick the reality in which they want to live. Maybe they select ultra-conservative websites that reflect their religious beliefs. Perhaps they opt for anti-establishment outlets that gleefully point out in a non-partisan fashion that all of the politicians are sell-outs. For others, they want “news” that supports their warm, fuzzy liberal view of the world.

It’s pretty easy to get manipulated through the subliminal messages and the predictive programming, but some folks seem to be immune. You really want to be one of those people, and if you aren’t, you can get there.

I wrote about this previously:

What if some people are genetically more susceptible than others? What if some of us are immune to this constant bombardment of images, words, and ideas that most people seem to buy into without question?

Could this be the difference between the vast majority of the people and those of us are that are awake and aware? Are we just mutants? Is this why I can explain this stuff until I lose my voice and just get a blank stare from people who think I am the crazy one?

The vast majority of people in the United States are completely accepting of the official message:

They believe that the government will be there to save them in all circumstances.

They don’t question or inquire. They simply accept what they are told.

They don’t share our fears that something big is on the horizon.

They exist in a bubble and don’t look at the bigger picture.

They refuse to prepare for bad things because they honestly don’t believe it’s possible that those things will happen.

Most people like us (those who are aware, the self-sufficient minority) watch less TV than the masses. Some of us watch no TV at all. I watch a few shows on Netflix or Amazon Prime, but we don’t have cable TV with its commercials and *cough* news. We have other things to do, things that will help us when there are soldiers on the streets “for our own protection.” Things that will help our kids survive when the store shelves are empty and the majority relies on government rations to live (if they behave well enough to get one that is, and behave they will because hunger is a massive motivator to do as you’re told.)

Even if you have a tendency to be mind-controlled, it’s possible to snap out of it. I wasn’t always the tinfoil-clad blogger you see before you today. When I was in my early 20s, I truly did believe that the government agencies like the EPA and the FDA were looking out for our best interests, that food or medicine wouldn’t be sold if it was harmful, and that schools truly were in the business of educating children. Most of us have to shake off our early training at the hands of the education system and the television.

And sort of like in the movie, The Matrix, if you can get someone to swallow the red pill, they become a lot less willing to believe whatever they’re fed.

Subliminal messaging can change people’s views, can change the way they think, can change what they want to eat, what car they want to buy, maybe even how they vote. All you need is the cash to get your message out there and buy a few split seconds of screen time.

It can sow the seeds that make acceptance of abnormal and dangerous situations easier. It can teach people not to question and to be good little sheep.

Sitting for hours in front of the television mindlessly watching the drivel produced by companies who call it “entertainment” is brainwashing people and turning them into idiots, making the best current day example of predictive programming the movie Idiocracy.

All you have to do is look around and you’ll see that it’s here.

What if you don’t want to live in an alternate reality created by the media?

First of all, this doesn’t even touch on other influences like the ridiculous fear culture perpetuated in our schools or the Marxist indoctrination in our colleges and universities, where they teach you that gender isn’t a real thing and you get to pick whenever you want. There are many more players in the alternate reality game than just the media, but you have to start somewhere.

My advice for those who don’t want to live in an alternate reality:

Turn off the TV.

Vet your sources.

Try to get several points of view – even the ones you don’t like. The truth lies somewhere in between.

Look out for talking points that are used ad infinitum like “deep state” or “with an abundance of caution” or “the Russians.” The things you hear repeated over and over are repeated for a reason – to brainwash you.

In the famous words of Fox Mulder, “The truth is out there.” You just have to seek it diligently. (For more from the author of “Who Controls the (Alternate) ‘Reality’ in America?” please click HERE)

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London Terror Suspect Identified for Parliament Square Jihad, ISIS Claims Responsibility

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The Islamic State terror group has claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s terrorist attack in London, according to the jihadi outfit’s propaganda outlet, Amaq News Agency.

“The perpetrator of the attacks yesterday in front of the British Parliament in London is an Islamic State soldier and he carried out the operation in response to calls to target citizens of the coalition,” Amaq revealed.

On Wednesday, four people were killed and dozens more injured when the Islamic terrorist drove his vehicle along a pedestrian walkway over the Westminster Bridge in London. After ramming several people, the terrorist got out of his car and proceeded to go on a stabbing spree, before he was finally neutralized by police. The terrorist utilized a vehicular jihadi tactic popularized by Palestinian terrorists, a tactic which has since spread to groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS.

An American citizen, 54-year-old Kurt Cochran from Utah, was among those killed in the attack, along with a police officer and a female schoolteacher. Cochran was in London celebrating his 25th wedding anniversary with his wife Melissa, who was also injured in the melee.

British authorities have named British-born Khalid Masood as the man responsible for the attack.

“Masood was not the subject of any current investigations and there was no prior intelligence about his intent to mount a terrorist attack. However, he was known to police and has a range of previous convictions for assaults, including GBH, possession of offensive weapons and public order offences,” said a statement from London Metropolitan Police.

British Prime Minister Theresa May said that the killer had previously been investigated for ties to extremist activity.

“Our working assumption is that the attacker was inspired by Islamist ideology,” May said at the British Parliament. “We know the threat from Islamist terrorism is very real. But while the public should remain utterly vigilant, they should not and will not be cowed by this threat.”

“An act of terrorism tried to silence our democracy, but today we meet as normal … we are not afraid and our resolve will never waver in the face of terrorism,” May added. “Democracy and the values it entails will always prevail.”

Meanwhile, police have spent much of Thursday conducting raids throughout the country. They are reportedly investigating areas where Masood has previously lived. (For more from the author of “London Terror Suspect Identified for Parliament Square Jihad, ISIS Claims Responsibility” please click HERE)

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Security Alert: Windows 10 Has Been Quietly Logging EVERY KEYSTROKE You Type And Sending It To Microsoft (This Is How To Stop It)

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Yesterday we reported that an international group of hackers claim they have breached Apple’s iCloud user database and stolen 300 million usernames and passwords. The group has threatened to initiate a widespread factory reset on April 7th, 2017, potentially wiping out data on tens of millions of iPhones and iCloud accounts should Apple fail to pay a ransom.

But that breach by nefarious hackers, while serious, is nothing compared to what your trusted operating system provider may be doing on your personal computer.

According to a recent report, if you are a Windows 10 user then every single keystroke you have ever typed on your computer may have been logged and sent to Microsoft.

You know those nagging questions during the installation process that ask you whether or not you want to “help” improve Windows by sending data to Microsoft? If you happened to answer “yes” to one of these questions, or if you went with the Microsoft default installation, there is a real possibility that everything you have done on your computer from the get-go, including sending “secure” messages (because the keyboard logger captures your keystrokes before they appear in your secure messaging app), is now a part of a massive user database somewhere.

There’s been heaps of controversy associated with Microsoft’s latest operating system Windows 10 since it was launched, but the latest issue takes the cake – apparently Windows has been quietly logging every single keystroke users make on their keyboards from the beginning. Even better, that data is being constantly sent to Microsoft’s servers on a regular basis.

Via IB Times

It’s been reported that Microsoft has been using the data to improve artificial intelligence writing and grammar software, but it’s not clear what else they are doing with it.
If you are OK with sharing your personal messages, usernames and passwords with Microsoft for the betterment of the Windows universe, then there is nothing else you need to do at this time.

But if you are concerned about your personal privacy, there are two ways to avoid having your computer spied on using this keylogger method.

Choose A Custom Installation

When installing Windows 10 for the first time you’ll want to select a ‘Custom Install’. This will allow you to choose what you do or do not want activated. To be safe, select ‘no’ for all options related to sending information or data to Microsoft or third-parties.

Update Your Privacy Settings

There is a simple way to identify whether or not your typing activities are being logged.

Simply click on your Windows 10 Start Menu. From there, go to Settings (or the gear icon) -> Privacy -> General

You’ll want to turn off the option that says, “Send Microsoft info about how I write to help us improve typing and writing in the future.”

msft-screenshot2

Once moved to the ‘Off’ position, Microsoft keyword logging should no longer be a problem.

But even though Microsoft will no longer be accessing your data, keep in mind that recent leaked documents reveal most devices have been compromised by intelligence services, meaning that not only can they see what you are typing to friends, family and business colleagues, but they can remotely monitor your voice and video communications in real-time without you even knowing its happening, including when you think your computer is turned off. (For more from the author of “Security Alert: Windows 10 Has Been Quietly Logging EVERY KEYSTROKE You Type and Sending It to Microsoft (This Is How to Stop It)” please click HERE)

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ON LIFE SUPPORT: GOP Postpones Health Care Vote as House Conservatives Revolt

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Republican leaders canceled a vote in the House on the plan to replace ObamaCare Thursday, after leadership’s attempts to lobby enough votes apparently failed — a major setback for House Speaker Paul Ryan and President Trump.

Trump and Republican leaders had spent much of the day scrambling to get both moderates and conservatives on board with the increasingly unpopular legislation.

“We have not gotten enough of our members to get to yes at this point under what we have now,” House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, R-N.C., told reporters.

Ryan postponed his press conference twice as he worked with House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy R-Calif., Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., and Chief Deputy Whip Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., to get enough votes to get the American Healthcare Act through the House on the seventh anniversary of ObamaCare’s passage.

Meanwhile, Trump met inside the Cabinet room with the Freedom caucus to try and rally conservatives to the cause. He also tweeted, urging supporters to call their representatives to back the bill. (Read more from “ON LIFE SUPPORT: GOP Postpones Health Care Vote as House Conservatives Revolt” HERE)

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IRS Policy That Allowed Targeting Is Still in Effect, Watchdog Finds

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An obscure bureaucratic policy that allowed IRS officials to target conservative and tea party tax-exemption applicants during the 2010 and 2012 election campaigns is still in place, meaning the same abuses may be continuing, according to a nonprofit government watchdog.

The federal tax agency’s policy requires IRS officials to stop processing tax-exempt applications that are “likely to attract media or congressional attention,” the Cause of Action Institute said in a report made public Wednesday.

The policy also directs IRS officials to prepare “sensitive case reports” for their supervisors and to ignore “the merits of the application” if it involves a newsworthy topic.

“Targeting was—and is—IRS policy, not a violation of it,” the report said, noting that the policy is still in place. “As a result, American taxpayers are at risk for similar treatment in the future.”

“In halting the applications, preparing such reports and referring the matter to supervisors, including political appointees, IRS employees behaved exactly as agency rules dictated,” the report continued. (Read more from “IRS Policy That Allowed Targeting Is Still in Effect, Watchdog Finds” HERE)

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London Attack Shows Challenge of Stopping Terrorism in Age of ISIS

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At least four people were killed, including a police officer and the suspected assailant, and 40 others wounded in a terrorist attack Wednesday in London.

British Prime Minister Theresa May described the suspected attacker, whose name she did not release, as a British-born man “inspired by Islamist ideology” whom the country’s domestic intelligence agency had investigated for connections to extremism.

The man drove a large vehicle into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, which leads to the United Kingdom’s Parliament, authorities said.

After the vehicle crashed, the man got out and approached Parliament, where he fatally stabbed a police officer as he tried to enter the building. Police then fatally shot the attacker, authorities said.

The Islamic State, the terrorist group also known as ISIS, on Thursday claimed responsibility for the attack.

Heritage Foundation terrorism expert Robin Simcox told The Daily Signal that “anyone who has looked at this [security] issue will tell you that even with the best intelligence, this was going to happen at some point.”

Some of those wounded or injured were teenage schoolchildren from France, The New York Times and other media reported.

Police said they were treating the attack as terrorism. Parliament chambers and offices were placed on lockdown for more than two hours. Both the House of Commons and House of Lords will sit Thursday at their normal times.

The attack, which unfolded around 2:40 p.m. local time, came on the anniversary of suicide bombings in Brussels—claimed by ISIS—that killed 32 people, along with three bombers.

“This is the day we have planned for but we hoped would never happen,” Mark Rowley, the acting deputy commissioner with London’s Metropolitan Police Service, said at a news conference. “Sadly, it’s now a reality.”

President Donald Trump spoke with May to express his condolences over the attack.

Before Wednesday, Britain had not suffered a major terrorist attack since the rise of ISIS, unlike the U.S., France, Belgium, and Germany. But the United Kingdom long has been an attractive target for terrorists.

British intelligence services, considered some of the best in the world, have foiled planned attacks before they happened.

Long before the most recent threats, Britain maintained a comprehensive, preventive approach to counterterrorism, beginning its efforts shortly after the 2005 bombings by Islamist terrorists of London’s public transport network. That attack is commonly known as 7/7 for the month and day it occurred.

“The U.K had escaped the attacks of France and Germany—not because the U.K. is not a target but because it has a world-class intelligence service and collection capacity and the agencies work very well together,” Simcox said.

“Britain has an extremely well-integrated intelligence system,” Simcox continued. “But anyone who has looked at this issue will tell you that even with the best intelligence, this was going to happen at some point. The U.K. is a very high-value target for ISIS. It has had a host of plots thwarted in recent years, and eventually one would get through.”

In 2015, authorities made 35 percent more terrorism-related arrests in the United Kingdom than in 2010. About 800 individuals from Britain have traveled to Iraq and Syria to fight in the conflicts there. Among them was Mohammed Emwazi, a British Arab known as Jihadi John who notoriously beheaded multiple Americans and Britons before he was killed in a U.S. airstrike in November 2015.

Counterterrorism experts say the mode of the Wednesday’s attack—car-ramming and stabbing—are ISIS’ staples and relatively easy to carry out and difficult to stop.

“It’s impossible to stop in a free society because these are very simple attacks,” said Rashad Ali, a U.K.-based resident senior fellow at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, in an interview with The Daily Signal. “Anyone can drive a car into anything and anyone can find a large knife. It would be completely in line with the kind of attacks we have seen over recent years.”

Indeed, in a December 2016 terrorist attack in Berlin, Germany, an attacker—who pledged allegiance to ISIS—drove a truck into a Christmas market, killing 12 people and injuring 56 others.

In Nice, France, last July, that same tactic was used when a Tunisian resident of France drove a cargo truck into crowds celebrating Bastille Day, resulting in the deaths of 86 people and injuring 434.

ISIS claimed responsibility for that attack as well.

“We don’t know for sure if [the London attack] is ISIS,” said Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, in an interview with The Daily Signal. “But looking at the ISIS sphere, a lot of the reasons why this stuff works is the attacks that are a little more low grade are harder to protect against than grandiose plots that occurred in the decade following 9/11.”

Gartenstein-Ross and other experts say these types of attacks are becoming more difficult to stop because domestic extremists are able to use encrypted technology to communicate with terrorist groups overseas.

The New York Times recently reported that as ISIS has lost territory in Iraq and Syria, its members are increasingly conceiving and guiding domestic attacks through virtual communications.

“ISIS has operatives where their role is to basically do online what physical recruiters used to do,” Gartenstein-Ross said. “They identify domestic operatives, move them forward to the point where they are ready to carry out attacks, help them prepare propaganda in advance, and even help them do technical things if necessary.”

Experts say these methods make the jobs of already overburdened law enforcement agencies that much harder.

“Law enforcement is the least of the problems,” Gartenstein-Ross said. “They are doing everything they can to stop these plots.”

Ali seconded this view.

“You can’t take away from this [London attack] that counterterrorism measures aren’t working,” Ali said. “That isn’t true. They are working because the large-scale attacks are being thwarted. Now isn’t the time for recriminations of groups and knee-jerk reactions. We need to heal before we decide how to respond to this.” (For more from the author of “London Attack Shows Challenge of Stopping Terrorism in Age of ISIS” please click HERE)

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Last Call: Donald Trump Plans White House Meeting With the Freedom Caucus on Healthcare Bill

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President Donald Trump continues to court members the Conservative House Freedom Caucus, pushing them to support the House-led bill to replace Obamacare.

The president has scheduled a meeting with members of the caucus at the White House, just hours before the bill is scheduled for a vote. Trump wants to make a deal, appearing willing to make last minute changes to woo conservatives to support the measure.

Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) (pictured) said in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity that he and Trump had come to an “agreement in principle,” about the bill, but was still hammering out details.

Meadows explained to reporters on Wednesday that members of the freedom caucus want to repeal Obamacare’s “essential health benefits” and Title I insurance regulations, in order to lower premiums. (Read more from “Last Call: Donald Trump Plans White House Meeting With the Freedom Caucus on Healthcare Bill” HERE)

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Cuba: Christian Leader Receives 3-Year Prison Sentence for Anti-Castro Comments

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Eduardo Cardet, the head of Cuba’s anti-communist Christian Liberation Movement (MCL), has been sentenced to serve three years in prison following his violent arrest in front of his two young children after the death of Fidel Castro in November.

Some witnesses say Cardet had been heard criticizing the government for forcing Cubans to sign overwrought goodbye notes in government-issued “condolence books.” The Cuban government imposed a nine-day “mourning period” following the elder Castro’s death in late November 2016, imprisoning those who dared defy it.

On Tuesday, Cuban courts convicted Cardet of assault against an officer of the state, a crime his family who witnessed his arrest, say he did not commit. “The sentence is based on manipulated data, without taking into consideration the testimony of defense witnesses,” Cardet’s wife, Yaimaris Vecino, said in a statement published by the MCL. “As we imagined, this has been another attempt to detain him as long as possible.” His family, she says, will appeal the sentence.

Vecino witnessed her husband’s arrest. Cuban police apprehended and beat him, she says, while she held her children away from the scene. Police hauled Cardet away and have since denied him bail on three occasions.

Amnesty International has declared Cardet a prisoner of conscience. “Doctor Cardet is confined to an Holguín prison just for having criticized Fidel Castro,” a statement released Wednesday by the NGO read. Cardet is a medical doctor by trade. “Dr. Cardet is a prisoner of conscience who should be freed immediately.” Amnesty declared Cardet a prisoner of conscience in February. (Read more from “Cuba: Christian Leader Receives 3-Year Prison Sentence for Anti-Castro Comments” HERE)

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