This Mystery Virus Is Being Compared to One of the World’s Worst Illnesses

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A year and a half ago “Full Measure” first reported on a baffling new illness responsible for nightmarish scenarios: a child wakes up and his legs don’t move. Soon, he’s paralyzed from the neck down.

Since then, the number of cases has grown. Yet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it still has no clue what’s causing it—and won’t say much else. One thing we know … the disease mimics one of the world’s most feared illnesses: polio. Today, we continue our investigation into the mysterious outbreak that’s left hundreds of American children suddenly frozen.

The following is Sharyl Attkisson’s “Full Measure” report on this issue.

Christopher Roberts, parent: Carter probably developed the flu-like symptoms on a Saturday morning and within 24 hours of that on Sunday morning we found him on the floor and no mobility on his right side. He was unable to move and he was faintly asking for help.

Carter Roberts was just 3 when he was hit by sudden paralysis that looked just like polio. We first caught up with father, Chris, last year at Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, where Carter was hospitalized for months.

Roberts: Last night he cried for 25 minutes. Just uncontrollably. He’s in, I think, regular and constant pain. Although he is immobile, he can definitely feel everything all over his body. But then this morning we’ve had a really good day.

CDC gave the mysterious paralysis a new name: acute flaccid myelitis, or AFM. Myelitis is inflammation of the spinal cord. Doctors told Hayden Werdal of Bremerton, Washington, that he just had a sinus infection—but in 10 days he was paralyzed from the neck down. Mandy Baker was a musical honor student about to start her sophomore year of high school and went from feeling fine to being paralyzed in a single day. Her illness ran up a $3 million hospital bill and treatments not covered by insurance.

As cases piled up in fall of 2014, doctors theorized they were connected to a rare outbreak of a virus called enterovirus, or EV-D68. Unusually high numbers of kids were showing up at ERs with severe breathing problems from EV-D68. Some ended up paralyzed. Within five months, there were more than a thousand (1,153) severe cases of EV-D68 in 49 states, and at least 14 deaths. And 120 known cases of AFM paralysis in 34 states, mostly young children.

The CDC—normally quick to raise alarms and speak on TV when there’s any threat of infectious disease—wasn’t saying much at all this time. They declined our repeated interview requests and instead pointed me to this video that it provided WebMD.

Brian Rha, medical epidemiologist, CDC: Infants, children, and teenagers are more likely to become infected with enteroviruses and become ill.

The video offered little insight. I requested information under the Freedom of Information Act. It took CDC more than a year and a half to begin turning over documents. Internal emails show CDC investigated what could be triggering the AFM paralysis in some kids, including West Nile Virus, insecticides, international travel, and vaccines—particularly oral polio vaccine.

Officials say they still can’t pinpoint the origin. There was one physician in the email exchanges who treated dozens of the paralyzed children—and seemed to be looking at the bigger picture.

Dr. Benjamin Greenberg wondered if we were seeing the 21st-century version of polio … if it is “in the early stages of evolution,” he urged CDC, “we can get ahead of it.”

I recently tracked down Greenberg at Children’s Medical Center in Dallas.

Sharyl Attkisson: What’s the difference between what we’re seeing with these children and polio?

Benjamin Greenberg: Not much—which is interesting.

Greenberg filled in a lot of blanks on the mysterious afflictions … where the CDC would not.

Attkisson: Is it accurate to say this is less contagious than polio?

Greenberg: We don’t know yet. Part of what we’re lacking is the ability to go through a population, and determine who has been exposed to this virus and who hasn’t. We looked at the papers written 100 years ago describing cases of poliomyelitis in the U.S., and we talked to colleagues from around the world who are actually part of teams who treat polio cases. And to all of our surprises, basically what we were seeing was a polio-like illness but not from the polio virus.

Attkisson: Millions of people had been infected with this EV-D68, but a relatively few actually come down with the paralysis. Do we have any idea why those certain children get paralyzed?

Greenberg: We don’t know that yet, but it’s worth noting that that phenomenon, that the same virus can infect thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of people with only a few individuals having catastrophic events from the virus is true for almost every virus in human biology.

At its worst, polio killed 3,000 (3,145) and paralyzed 21,000 Americans (21,269) in a single year back in 1952. In 2014, there were 120 known cases of AFM paralysis in the U.S. In 2015, there were just 21. But last year, the number surged to 138. There have been five confirmed cases so far this year.

Attkisson: Did polio have a pathology that was anything similar to what you’re seeing now?

Greenberg: So if we look at the history of polio, at least in the United States, it started with small outbreaks, and then would disappear for years, and then re-emerge.

Attkisson: Clearly, it’s not a one-time event.

Greenberg: Clearly, as we saw in this last year, we see—we had a spike in cases again. There were about 120 reported in 2014; relative to—monitoring that started in August. In 2016, what we saw is over 130, maybe over 140, cases. And so we know that this virus has the capability, if it is the cause, to come back, and to cause damage.

With CDC saying so little publicly, families struck by the horrible illness have found each other on Facebook. Erin Olivera runs a parent support group. In 2012, she says she noticed her 2-year-old son Lucian crawling oddly; soon he could barely move. In Albany, Oregon, McKenzie Anderson went from having a cold to being paralyzed from the neck down and on a ventilator in 12 days. There’s Sadie Briggs in Oklahoma City, Laura Carton of Oswego, Illinois, and Adrian Dittmar of Seaman, Ohio.

And although CDC told me it has “not received any reports of death in an AFM case…”

The family of 14-year-old Isaac Prestridge of Louisiana says the CDC confirmed to the coroner that AFM was the cause of their son’s death. He got sick last October, complaining of a “weird feeling in his knees,” and died two days later.

Attkisson: Some of these kids die?

Greenberg: “They do. It is—it is a very rare event—to have death related to acute flaccid myelitis; unfortunately, it has happened.”

Attkisson: As a medical outsider, I look and I say more kids have been hurt seriously with this than measles, Ebola, and Zika combined. But you don’t hear anything about it. There’s no emergency funding requests, CDC is not making big public pronouncements. How do you explain that?

Greenberg: So there are some scientist reasons to have priorities around Ebola, measles, and Zika that are very valid. Enterovirus D68 is a common virus with a low rate of causing—significant paralysis or conditions that lead to disability. And so the decisions have been made that, while it is a problem, while it is a concern, it may not garner the level of need that some other public health issues do.

Attkisson: Do you agree with that?

Greenberg: I wish we had the resources to do it all.

Greenberg says there’s reason to hope that AFM isn’t the beginning of another polio. So far, he says, the rate of paralysis after infection seems lower.

Greenberg: The No. 1 question we get asked is about rehabilitation and recovery. Will children get better after the event?

Attkisson: And what’s the answer?

Greenberg: They do. It’s very slow, and it takes a lot of work. When we stay aggressive and we push and we stay with a routine, we’re seeing slowly but surely improvements occur.

Today, Carter is out of the hospital and back at home in Richmond, Virginia. There’s been no improvement in his condition, but he’s considered “stable.”

Roberts: I guess long-term prognosis has varied greatly between the different patients to this point. What I’ve seen, what I’ve read and heard, there have only been two children who have recovered from this, but even then not fully because they’re still demonstrating muscular weaknesses.

Believe it or not, AFM paralysis isn’t a “reportable disease” like West Nile Virus or measles … meaning doctors aren’t required to report cases. Greenberg thinks that should change … in fact, he advocates a broadened surveillance system to track all kinds of sudden paralysis to better find answers as to what’s causing them. (For more from the author of “This Mystery Virus Is Being Compared to One of the World’s Worst Illnesses” please click HERE)

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Sessions Is Said to Have Offered to Resign

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Attorney General Jeff Sessions offered to resign in recent weeks as he told President Trump he needed the freedom to do his job, according to two people who were briefed on the discussion.

The president turned down the offer, but on Tuesday, the White House declined to say whether Mr. Trump still had confidence in his attorney general . . .

Mr. Spicer’s remarks came after The New York Times reported that Mr. Trump had vented intermittently about Mr. Sessions since the attorney general recused himself from any Russia-related investigations conducted by the Justice Department. Mr. Trump has fumed to allies and advisers ever since, suggesting that Mr. Sessions’s decision was needless. (Read more from “Sessions Is Said to Have Offered to Resign” HERE)

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YouTube Won’t Pull Sermons of Radical Imam Connected to UK Terror

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One of the three Islamic terrorists who committed this weekend’s attacks at London Bridge was reportedly inspired to jihad by watching YouTube videos of Michigan-based Imam Ahmad Musa Jibril.

While the video-sharing titan is known to take an aggressive posture when it comes to banning, suspending, and demonetizing conservative content, YouTube is giving a free pass to a hate preacher who calls for Muslims to join terrorist organizations.

Not only is his own YouTube channel still accessible, Jibril’s sermons have been shared by countless fan pages and have accumulated millions of views.

Moreover, in a U.K. TV documentary called “The Jihadis Next Door,” which was released last year, an acquaintance of one of the future London Bridge terrorists claimed he was radicalized by watching Jibril’s sermons.

The “former friend” elaborated, per The Sun (U.K.):

“He used to listen to a lot of Musa Jibril. I have heard some of this stuff and it’s very radical. I am surprised this stuff is still on YouTube and is easily accessible. I phoned the anti-terror hotline. I spoke to the gentleman. I told him about our conversation and why I think he was radicalised.”

Google, which owns YouTube, told Conservative Review they reviewed Jibril’s sermons and found that they do not violate YouTube’s guidelines on extremist or hateful content:

Our thoughts are with the victims of this shocking attack, and with the families of those caught up in it. We take our role in combatting the spread of extremist material very seriously. YouTube has clear policies prohibiting terrorist recruitment and content intending to incite violence, and we act quickly to remove flagged videos violating these policies. We also terminate accounts run by terrorist organisations or those that repeatedly violate our policies. We’re committed to working in partnership with the government, NGOs and industry colleagues to tackle these complex problems and to see what more we can do to ensure that we’re part of the solution.

In 2005, federal prosecutors said Jibril “encouraged his students to spread Islam by the sword, to wage a holy war” and “to hate and kill non-Muslims.”

A fundamentalist preacher, Jibril’s sermons do not explicitly call for militant action. But similar to deceased al-Qaida leader Anwar al-Awlaki, Jibril’s Islamist ideology provides a gateway to a justification of violence through religious doctrine. Like al-Awlaki, Jibril attempts to propagandize Westerners about the supposed evils of their system of order, pushing potential recruits toward a radical Islamic doctrine that calls for murder and violence.

In a comprehensive report on the Dearborn, Mich.-based imam, the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization found that many of his followers went on to join al-Qaida and the Islamic State terror group.

Although born in the United States, Jibril spent much of his childhood in Saudi Arabia, where he studied Islamic theology. In the late ‘90s, he and his father created the website AlSalafyoon.com, which served as a platform for militant jihadi sermons. Additionally, the imam has run into trouble with the law several times. In 2005, Jibril and his father were convicted on 42 counts of fraud.

YouTube is far from the only social media venue to host Ahmad Musa Jibril’s content. A Facebook fan page for the radical imam has almost a quarter-million followers, and there are several Twitter accounts dedicated to Jibril’s sermons.

Editor’s note: The article and headline have been updated for additional information on Jibril’s ideology and to reflect the statement from Google. (For more from the author of “YouTube Won’t Pull Sermons of Radical Imam Connected to UK Terror” please click HERE)

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7th Circuit Codifies Transgenderism Into the Constitution

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Well, the political elites believe that it is settled science that the weather has permanently changed for the rest of time because of capitalism, but human sexuality is evidently not settled science. In fact, according to the courts, it is settled science for a man to be a woman.

Last week, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals became the latest federal appeals court to codify transgenderism into law and the Constitution.

Although Obama’s executive mandates for transgender bathrooms have gone by the wayside (thanks to Attorney General Jeff Sessions overruling the liberal whims of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos), the courts are engaging in their own social transformation on behalf of the defeated Democrats.

In Whitaker v. Kenosha Unified School District, a unanimous opinion from the three-judge panel ordered a Wisconsin school district to allow a girl to use the boys’ bathroom in school. Following in the footsteps of the Sixth and Fourth Circuits, this Seventh Circuit panel (which included GOP-appointee Ilana Rovner) ruled that the 1972 Title IX education law and the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause cover transgenderism as a protected class.

As the courts redefine our national sovereignty, rewrite election laws and redistricting in favor of Democrats, redefine criminal justice law for mass murderers, and mandate publicly funded abortions, they are using their self-acclaimed status as kings to redefine sexuality retroactive to laws and amendments codified long before the sexual-identity movement was in vogue.

In an emotional screed disguised as law, this opinion uses male pronouns to describe a woman with female parts. In any other era, these judges would have been deemed mentally unstable to serve on a bench.

While refusing to recognize biological sex as immutable — or, even significant — the court contended that there is absolutely no disruption or privacy concerns over opposite sexes using the wrong bathrooms:

A transgender student’s presence in the restroom provides no more of a risk to other students’ privacy rights than the presence of an overly curious student of the same biological sex who decides to sneak glances at his or her classmates performing their bodily functions.

The court then appealed to common sense to disregard any remaining privacy concerns as “conjecture and abstraction”!

Why is it I have a sneaking suspicion that when Title IX was drafted in 1972 (much less when the 14th Amendment was drafted in 1867), they completely understood the privacy concerns but would have never fathomed judges maniacally referring to a Y chromosome as an X chromosome?

Amazingly, the legal liberals are the ones with the hypocritical arguments, even according to their own twisted logic. How could this school district be guilty of violating equal protection and engaging in stereotyping for actually applying science equally, and not going along with the deliberate stereotyping requested by the plaintiff?

There is no greater stereotype than saying that a girl, despite being a girl, should be treated like a boy because she acts out in a “manly” way. The entire sexual-identity movement is built upon the very sex stereotypes they want to codify into law but also protect from discrimination.

This is part of a broader hypocrisy in which the transgender lobby is filing lawsuits to apply disability laws to gender-confused individuals — but, on the other hand, are suing on discrimination grounds for stereotyping and recognizing this “disability” as a disability and not as a natural phenomenon.

Either way, the courts will always reach the legal conclusion that best promotes the socially licentious political outcome .. even when the “jurisprudence” is contradictory.

Last year, the Fourth and Sixth Circuits said that transgenderism being codified into civil rights and the Constitution is “settled law,” demonstrating how irremediably broken the courts are. This is not just the Ninth Circuit; we have yet to find a single circuit willing to understand the most immutable laws of nature. Thus, it’s not surprising that almost every court is creating a right for Somalis to immigrate. If marriage and human sexuality are subjective, so are the borders of a nation.

Although the Supreme Court punted the Fourth Circuit case (Grimm v. Gloucester County) because that one was built upon Obama’s obsolete transgender mandate, it is quite clear that another case will end up before the high court within the next year.

Given Justice Anthony Kennedy’s history on this issue — and his penchant for being influenced by growing momentum in the lower courts and the legal profession — it’s fairly safe to say we will be confronted with the transgender version of Obergefell in the near future.

The transgender case comes just two months after the Seventh Circuit codified sexual orientation into Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. This circuit, like many others, is drifting more and more to the far left. A number of the GOP appointees, such as Richard Posner and Ilana Rovner, are among the worst offenders.

There are only two reliable originalists on the court (Michael Kanne and Diane Sykes). This is why it’s so important for Trump to immediately fill the two vacancies on the court with known originalists. Even more importantly, this is yet one more reason to make the courts less consequential by reforming their jurisdiction and scope of power. (For more from the author of “7th Circuit Codifies Transgenderism Into the Constitution” please click HERE)

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Supreme Court Won’t Hear Former Marine’s Religious Liberty Case

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The Supreme Court declined to hear a case Monday involving a former Marine court-martialed in part for refusing to remove a bible verse from her work station. This means the ruling against LCpl Monifa Sterling from the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces stands.

The decision not to hear the case “is going to affect the religious freedoms of all of those who serve us in uniform,” warned First Liberty Institute President Kelly Shackelford. “And that really is a shame.”

Shackelford’s nonprofit is defending the former Marine. He called the CAAF decision a “travesty.” “The military court’s outrageous decision means federal judges and military officials can strip our service members of their constitutional rights just because they don’t think someone’s religious beliefs are important enough to be protected. Our service members deserve better.”

United States v. Sterling was appealed to the Supreme Court last December. But the case is not as simple as it appears on first blush.

Sterling’s Court Martial

In 2013 Sterling displayed the phrase “No weapons formed against me shall prosper.” Summarized from Isaiah 54:17, the phrase was taped around her desk. When her supervisor objected, Sterling claimed displaying it was her First Amendment right. Sterling also noted that her coworkers displayed personal items at their desks. Later Sterling’s supervisor tore the phrase down. Sterling replaced the phrase, only to have it removed again.

A court-martial followed. But refusing to remove the phrase wasn’t all Sterling was charged with. As The Stream previously reported, she was also charged with refusing an order, failing to report for duty, and lying about why she didn’t wear the proper uniform. She was convicted and given a bad conduct discharge.

Exercise of Religion?

First Liberty only disputed the conviction regarding the Bible verse. But last August, the CAAF considered the verse in the context of Sterling’s other charges:

This is not the usual case where an individual or group sought an accommodation for an exercise of religion and it was denied. Nor is it a case where the practice at issue was either patently religious, such as the wearing of a hijab … Rather, the claimed exercise of religion at issue in this case involved posting the printed words “[n]o weapon formed against me shall prosper” at a shared workspace in the context of Appellant’s contentious relationship with her superiors.

First Liberty attorney Mike Berry previously told The Stream the CAAF set a dangerous precedent. He claimed it could force service members to prove the importance of their beliefs in order to enjoy Constitutional protection.

People shouldn’t be required to declare intentions “before we engage in religious activity,” he said.

Not Discouraged

Despite the CAAF’s ruling, First Liberty saw an “unusual” number of briefs supporting Sterling. Seven amicus briefs urged the Supreme Court to hear Sterling’s case. Amici included 13 retired military generals, 14 state attorneys general, 36 Congress members, and Dr. Simcha Goldman. Goldman was the plaintiff in a Supreme Court case involving the right to wear a yarmulke while in uniform. Goldman lost 5-4 in 1986.

Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Jerry Boykin was one of the generals who signed onto the amicus brief. Boykin said Monday the Supreme Court’s decision will have the “unfortunate effect of allowing a chill on religious expression in the military to continue.” He says the ruling, “only underscores the need for the Trump administration to root out the anti-religious animus allowed to fester in the military during the Obama administration.”

Meanwhile, Shackelford claims he isn’t “discouraged” by Sterling’s outcome. “In fact it’s going to really cause us to redouble our efforts,” he said in a video. Shackelford noted First Liberty was previously undefeated in its military cases.

“We plan to keep that record going,” he said. “Eventually we will get this taken care of across the country.” (For more from the author of “Supreme Court Won’t Hear Former Marine’s Religious Liberty Case” please click HERE)

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The Latest: Neighbors Say London Attacker Tried to Radicalize Kids

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Neighbors of one of the dead suspects in the London Bridge attacks say he was trying to radicalize young people, and that they reported him to police.

Jibril Palomba said he and his wife worried because the man, whom they knew as Abu Mohammed and recognized in photos of the attack, gave their children candy and preached about Islam. Erica Gasparri said she also saw him and two other men proselytizing outside a school.

Another neighbor, Michael Mimbo, said the van later used to ram pedestrians on the bridge was blocking the road at the suspect’s housing complex on Friday. The next day, Mimbo says that same van sped erratically down the street. (Read more from “The Latest: Neighbors Say London Attacker Tried to Radicalize Kids” HERE)

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Syrian Christians Help Kurds to Liberate ISIS Capital

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Today I received a call which I’ve dreaded. The battle for Raqqa has started. Starting today, thousands of brave fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) will fight from house to house against ISIS: an entrenched enemy that will give away absolutely nothing. Some of my dear friends will be dodging bullets and dismantling IEDs. I can only pray that they make it out alive.

This is an immensely important moment in the war against ISIS. After three years of endless fighting the SDF is about to take the capital of the “Caliphate.” There is no doubt about the final outcome: ISIS will be defeated. For the democratic, pluralist Federation of Northern Syria this is a highly symbolic moment. ISIS made the Federation its prime target.

David Kills Goliath

Nobody back in 2014 could have believed that the Federation would crush ISIS, instead of the other way around. That religious liberty and equality for women would triumph over savagery. That the brave people of Syria would free themselves. But they did. Shouldn’t that give us hope?

The upcoming victory only became possible thanks to a remarkable and unique cooperation of Kurds, Arabs and Syrian Christians. They created the most unusual alliance in the modern Middle East.

This alliance is unique because it is not a simple ‘anti-ISIS’ coalition of convenience. No, in a region where Syrian government authority had vanished, people targeted by ISIS came together. In these extraordinary circumstances these groups created their own government, starting with local and regional councils. They ensured that men and women had equal representation at all levels. They introduced the same freedom of religion as we enjoy in the West — which is rare in the Middle East. Federation residents can choose their own religion, change it, or hold to none at all. They can practice or preach it freely.

These Syrian freedom fighters started out with three small regions and very few weapons. Nobody would have believed back then that this movement would grow into the force that would conquer ISIS: A self-starter army with home-made “tanks” and little or no help from the outside world. But they resisted ISIS in Kobane and in the Khabour Valley against all odds — and won. And now they’re moving into Raqqa to finish off ISIS in its capital. It’s perhaps the most stirring story of self-sacrifice and heroism in our times.

President Trump made the bold move to arm the Kurds in the SDF, reversing the Obama administration policy of dribbling out meager aid, and only to Arab groups. Sadly, the U.S. is still honoring Obama’s decision not to arm the Christians — though they’re a full part of the SDF, and have bravely fought ISIS for years. American Christians should let the White House and Congress know that this policy is unjust and foolish. It leaves Christians uniquely vulnerable and dependent. It tells the rest of the region (where Turkey and Saudi Arabia back Sunni Islamists) that Syrian Christians are friendless and forgotten.

What Happens Next?

To answer this question we need to take a look at a very recent ‘political’ map of Syria. (It’s the main image for this column.) It shows the territory held by every single faction in Syria.

It is pretty obvious that the Assad regime and allies are strongest in the richly populated west of Syria. However their armies are exhausted due to a long, protracted war. All the areas controlled by ‘rebel forces’ are scattered across the west and south of Syria, and small by comparison. Only the rebel areas in the far south (Daraa) and north (Idlib) can receive supplies from the outside. All other rebel enclaves are pockets in regime territory.

A bit of an oddity is the southern desert, which is very sparsely populated. For some time it has been in the hands of U.S.-supported Syrian opposition forces, which have fought against ISIS and also clashed with Assad’s troops. This force is playing an increasingly important role in blocking Iranian influence.

In the desert center of Syria we see ISIS. Also it’s in the east along the Euphrates towards Iraq. However it is clear that they lost a lot of territory to the Federation and a bit to Assad’s regime.

The Federation has expanded its area almost solely at the expense of ISIS. The Federation now is the major force in all of North-East Syria and a large part of the northwest.

The Next Step in Ending ISIS

What will happen after Raqqa? The SDF have made clear that the Deir-Ezzor area east of the Euphrates is the next goal. Only after they liberate that region can we say that ISIS has been defeated in Syria. For the SDF this will be very important, as it will ensure that they will have a very significant role in post-ISIS Syria. Furthermore it will open all supply routes between the Federation and Iraq. Finally it will ensure that Iran will not be able to move freely forces from Teheran to Damascus. This prospect would otherwise become reality: Iranian proxies in Iraq have just reached the Iraqi-Syrian border.

When SDF has expanded the Federation to all of eastern Syria, there will be calm and stability in eastern and northern Syria but a protracted civil war in the west.

The West Can’t End the War

It is highly unlikely that there will be a final solution for the civil war in western Syria any time soon. At this moment there is no sign of any peace deal. The Astana and U.N. Geneva talks have unsurprisingly been mostly window-dressing. The jihadist forces in the north and the rebel forces in the south show no signs of giving up. The Assad regime forces are exhausted and have been bleeding for years now with no end in sight. The victories of Assad in Aleppo and some areas around Damascus are small in comparison to the whole territory that is still in hands of anti-regime forces.

There is a steady movement to a step by step federalization of Syria. And as The Stream has written, that would be the best possible outcome. In western Syria, the highly heterogenous population groups are gradually being homogenized — as anti-Assad people flee his regions, and his supporters flock to them. It’s sad that this is happening thanks to military pressure. In the Federation of Northern Syria, there has been no ethnic cleansing or group removals. It is still a complex mosaic, but one that functions well, with power decentralized and the rights of minorities protected.

The U.S. and the E.U. Can Help Build Peace
What can the U.S. and the E.U. do about Syria? Let’s start with what they can’t do. They cannot change the situation in the western part of the country. That’s because:

They have no allies on the ground to work with.

They won’t go to war with Russia.

The U.S. doesn’t want a repeat of its Iraq occupation in Syria.

Based on these realities the E.U. and the U.S. should focus on cooperation with the Federation of Northern Syria. It should help rebuild (where needed) war-torn towns and facilities. This will bring stability to a very significant part of Syria. Moreover the new culture of freedom that the Federation offers will exert a magnetic attraction. People in neighboring regions will want that for themselves, too. This is how freedom usually grows — organically, from the ground up. That’s how it emerged in the U.S., and in England and Switzerland before it.

And it’s happening now in the Federation. Arab women from strict Muslim towns like Shaddadi are now joining the Federation’s police forces. An increasing number of Kurds are converting to Christianity — as they are free to do in the Federation (or vice versa). Muslims who do the same in Saudi Arabia and many other Muslim countries face the death penalty.

My heart breaks when I think of all the (mostly) young people who will die in liberating Raqqa. But they need not die in vain. The West has the chance to help the Syrian people nurture the seeds of freedom. If it grows, it will change the Middle East. That will change the world. (For more from the author of “Syrian Christians Help Kurds to Liberate ISIS Capital” please click HERE)

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Attacked by Jihadists, They Cling to Faith in the Multi-Cult

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By now I’m sure you’ve read reports of the most recent incident on the Muslim Atrocities Ticker: the vicious jihadist attack in London. This appalling attack has it all:

• Cosseted Islamists long known to the authorities,
• Viciously attacking terrified civilians, while
• Unarmed police run away, and
• Media solemnly warn the public against Islamophobia.

Rinse and repeat, until Britain is remade in the image of Libya or Syria.

Not exactly the spirit of the London Blitz, now is it? Attacks like these, that turn out like this, are what happens to a naturally brave and dogged people, like the British, under the soul-draining influence of a false and toxic religion.

Civilizational AIDS

No, I don’t mean Islam. The jihadi menace in the West is a deadly symptom, but it’s not the cause. It’s an opportunistic infection, like the pneumonia that kills you after your immune system collapses thanks to AIDS.

What is this false religion, this civilizational AIDS? It’s multiculturalism. Cooked up in that promiscuous bathhouse that is the modern university, it serves as a comprehensive replacement for Christian faith, sane politics and even manners. It’s all purpose, like Scientology — but without that creed’s rigorous attachment to the facts.

Posing as an answer to racism and real, irrational xenophobia, multiculturalism in fact is something quite different. It’s a variety of Marxism. But it drops out the proletariat — who have a distressing tendency to vote for things like Brexit and people like Donald Trump. Instead it plugs in as the always righteous and conquering motive force of history …

Just about anyone who’s not a white male, whom one can paint as somehow a victim. That is based not on real experiences of discrimination or bias, but on group identity politics. Hence a black female trust fund student sitting in a Gothic dorm at Yale qualifies as a victim. A white coal miner who lost his job thanks to “climate change” activists (like her) does not.

A wealthy gay couple who taunt a Christian baker by demanding he make their wedding cake: they’re victims. The underfunded baker who follows his conscience and loses his business: he’s not.

Sharia-spouting immigrants living on public assistance in Britain and keeping mum about jihadists or rape-grooming gangs in their midst: they’re victims. The Englishmen whom jihadists terrorize: they’re not.

A Simple Cult for the Sophisticated

Have you got it now? It’s a pretty rudimentary, almost primitive religion. Its crude rites involve only two elements: straw men, and sacred cows. However, because it’s so gnostic and unnatural, its implications are complicated, even grotesque.

Andrew Sullivan cogently laid out the kinky psychology and scrupulous morality of this movement. He noted how it is multiculturalists, not Christians, conducting all the witch-hunts in universities in the West. Christian philosopher Rene Girard called this creed “Victimism.” He wrote in one of his late works that it is the worldview that will “bring on the Apocalypse.”

If you want more, albeit deeply depressing proof that multiculturalism has morphed into a functional religion, here it is: People have started turning to it in their moments of gravest danger. They look to it for comfort, instead of the Christian God. In fact, they cling to it with the fierce faith of martyrs. They defend it with the zeal of glassy-eyed fanatics.

Now and At the Hour of Our Death, Amen

Ben Domenech, editor of the stellar online magazine The Federalist, posted the following on Twitter. Please excuse the redacted profanities. It’s a transcript of what took place in the pub near the jihad attack in London last weekend:

Here’s the actual video footage [WARNING: PROFANITY]

ust think of the powerful faith that must underlie such a response. Put yourself in that patron’s shoes. You’re sitting in a pub in your hometown, having a pint. Then a bunch of foreign-looking people (some of them with foreign accents) attack your fellow citizens. They’re shouting in Arabic. During Ramadan. Not two weeks after Muslims bombed little girls in Manchester, England. You’re face flat on the floor, in desperate fear for your life.

The Blood of the Milquetoast

But you have the presence of mind to rebuke an evildoer. Not the 7th century fanatic who’s menacing your life. No, your fellow Englishman. It is he that has broken a sacred taboo. He has in a blink of an eye turned the victimizer to victim. Now the Muslims who are trying their best to kill you are victims of Islamophobia. And that is worse than jihad. Worse than terrorism. You’ll take a stand against it, perhaps with your dying breath.

If that’s not a religion, I really don’t know what is.

Too bad it’s a suicide cult. (For more from the author of “Attacked by Jihadists, They Cling to Faith in the Multi-Cult” please click HERE)

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Seattle Passes Massive ‘Job-Killing’ Tax on Sugary Drinks

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Officials in Seattle passed the second largest Soda Tax in the U.S. Monday in an effort to close “the food security gap” and dissuade residents from buying sugary drinks.

The Seattle City Council approved the measure in a 7-1 vote, placing a 1.75 cents per ounce tax on beverages containing sugar. Councilman Tim Burgess, who sponsored the tax after Democratic Mayor Ed Murray proposed the idea in February, argues soda and other drinks are a threat to public health.

“Liquid sugar has zero nutritional benefits,” he said, according to The Washington Post.

The tax will be implemented at the distribution level, meaning that retailers will likely be forced to pass on the extra cost to consumers. It is second only to Boulder, Colo., as the city with the highest soda tax in the U.S.

“The City Council turned its back today on small business owners and working families with this job-killing tax that will drive up costs and further increase income inequality in Seattle,” said a statement from the business coalition Keep Seattle Livable for All. “Those who can afford this tax the least will be hurt the most.” (Read more from “Seattle Passes Massive ‘Job-Killing’ Tax on Sugary Drinks” HERE)

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Spicer Outlasts Stephanopoulos in White House Press Room

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Critics said he was out of his element in conducting White House press briefings, but he steadily continued for nearly five months into the new presidential administration, frequently having a rocky ride and clashes with the press. Finally, the president ordered a shakeup, and moved him to another job.

This was the Clinton administration in 1993, and the briefer was White House communications director George Stephanopoulos, who had shared time sparring with reporters with press secretary Dee Dee Myers.

As of Wednesday afternoon, 24 years later, President Donald Trump’s White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, will have outlasted Stephanopoulos at the lectern in the briefing room.

When Spicer showed up 30 minutes late for Tuesday’s briefing, though, reporters had reason to wonder whether he would be the one taking questions.

For months, there’s been plenty of speculation that Trump might move Spicer, known for dramatic tangles with reporters, to another job. This notion gained more steam after White House communications director Mike Dubke resigned in late May, leaving the position open.

Deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders fueled some of that speculation Monday, giving a less than direct answer on their futures after a reporter asked, “Where is Sean?”

After some give and take, in which Sanders noted, “He’s here today,” the same reporter asked: “Has his position changed, then?”

Sanders answered: “It’s probably upgraded at this point, given that we don’t have a communications director.”

The reporter, April Ryan of American Urban Radio Network, followed up: “So you will be the new press secretary here?”

Sanders replied:

I did not say that at all. I’m just filling in for the day, April. There are a lot of demands on his schedule, particularly given the fact that there’s not a communications director, and this is part of my job as well. And when I’m needed, I’ll step in.

If Spicer is elevated to communications director, he actually would be taking on a larger role compared with Stephanopoulos, who became a political adviser in Bill Clinton’s White House and reportedly moved to a smaller office. At the time, Stephanopoulos was 32. Today, Spicer is 45.

But, if Trump makes Spicer both communications director and press secretary, the former Republican National Committee communications official could hit the same problems Stephanopoulos had in 1993, said George Condon, now a White House reporter for National Journal.

Condon, then a reporter for Copley News Service, was president of the White House Correspondents’ Association during the shakeup in the early months of the Clinton administration.

“He made the mistake that they all make at first of not realizing how much work it is to brief. You can’t do both jobs and he was determined to do both jobs,” Condon told The Daily Signal, recalling what happened with Stephanopoulos:

A communications director is supposed to be big picture, making sure the government is speaking with the same voice, the agencies, the overall communications strategy, that’s a lot of work. Just preparing for the briefing takes several hours every day. Stephanopoulos got clobbered in his first briefing. He just got clobbered.

“He liked the attention of briefing,” Condon said of Stephanopoulos. “He liked the spotlight. But he wasn’t very good at it because you can’t do both jobs.”

The communications director position began with the Nixon administration in the 1970s, Condon noted.

“The only administration that tried to combine the duties is Clinton, and it was a miserable failure. And if they try to do that here, it will be again,” Condon said. “You can’t have two voices in the administration. That’s problematic. If you want Sarah to do it, pick Sarah as press secretary.”

For a time, Clinton in effect had two functioning press secretaries, Condon suggested, and that didn’t work—even without today’s Twitter factor.

Stephanopoulos’ final press briefing was June 4, 1993, according to the American Presidency Project at the University of California Santa Barbara.

He would continue to work for Clinton before taking a job as a commentator on ABC News in 1997, after Clinton’s re-election, and then becoming an anchor for the network’s Sunday morning program, “This Week.”

Today, Stephanopoulos, 56, is ABC’s chief news anchor and chief political correspondent and co-anchor of “Good Morning America” as well as host of “This Week.”

Clinton, a Democrat, hired senior adviser David Gergen, who had worked for Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, both Republicans.

On June 7, Gergen announced a shuffle in which Mark D. Gearan replaced Stephanopoulos as communications director.

Stephanopoulos also became a senior adviser to the president. Myers remained press secretary, but with an expanded role so she was in charge of briefings.

The New York Times, in a story by Gwen Ifill, reported at the time:

[Gergen] ordered the reopening of the door linking the White House briefing room with the offices occupied by Administration communications officials. The closing of the door in January had sent relations between the reporters and Mr. Clinton off to a bad start …

Two weeks ago, the briefing room had been a hostile place, full of questions and strained answers about Presidential haircuts, travel office dismissals and razor-thin victories in the House. That changed for at least an hour today as Mr. Gergen took a break from moving into his office to begin a new effort at outreach.

“When they brought in Gergen and he shoved Stephanopoulos off the briefing, Dee Dee [Myers] really came into her own after that. But before that, Jan. 20 through May 30, were terrible,” Condon said.

Putting the timeline aside, Spicer’s early months might be more comparable to the tenure of Myers or to that of President George W. Bush’s second press secretary, Scott McClellen, said John Gizzi, a veteran Washington correspondent now covering the White House for Newsmax.

One reason Stephanopoulos was doing so many briefings concurrently with Myers is because of her “poor performance,” Gizzi said.

Eventually, the Clinton White House made another change by naming Mike McCurry as press secretary in January 1995, two years after Clinton assumed the presidency.

“Mike McCurry came in and he was considered the gold standard until Tony Snow came along [under George W. Bush],” Gizzi said, adding:

McClellen was a very good person. He was not always brought into the confidence of the president or Karl Rove, and he said so in his book, which cost him their friendship. He was a good man and an honest person and well intentioned. But when you don’t tell someone things and they go out and they are contradicted by events, it hurts.

Press secretaries do have a tendency to grow on the job, Gizzi said.

“Josh Earnest, because he was the No. 2 [as deputy press secretary], was ready for the top job when he came in,” Gizzi said of President Barack Obama’s third and final press secretary. “But if it weren’t for him filling in on those briefings the way he did, I don’t think he would have been effective. Dana Perino filled in for Tony Snow when he was ill, and then when he finally retired. She was ready for the [press secretary] job. So, it doesn’t hurt to play in the minor leagues before you go pro.” (For more from the author of “Spicer Outlasts Stephanopoulos in White House Press Room” please click HERE)

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