Why Kids Become Killers (Hint: It’s Not Guns)

. . .The absurdly politicized debate over core causes and prevention strategies generates far more heat than light. Liberals blame guns, the National Rifle Association and Republicans, while conservatives blame fatherlessness, godlessness and gun-free zones. But just as with most other life-and-death issues plaguing today’s painfully divided America, true consensus as to causes and cures always seems out of reach . . .

Before even delving into all the powerful factors involved, Whistleblower starts by documenting something overlooked by almost everyone – the tremendous copycat nature of the mass-killer phenomenon.

Citing recent research, including the peer-reviewed study “Contagion in Mass Killings and School Shootings,” Whistleblower reveals that many mass shooters are utterly mesmerized by previous mass murderers, including Sandy Hook killer Adam Lanza who researched multiple-fatality shootings going back to 1891 and maintained a wall of infamous shooters . . .

Whistleblower also explodes the myth that ultra-violent videogames don’t desensitize, corrupt and even serve as training for mass shooters. President Trump was correct when, following February’s school shooting in Parkland, Florida, he said he’s “hearing more and more people say the level of violence on video games is really shaping young people’s thoughts.” . . .

Despite what is heard from much of the news media today, the Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights absolutely guarantees Americans’ right to keep and bear arms, says LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association. Americans have a right to own firearms for the defense of their family and home. They have a right to own firearms for hunting, shooting or collecting. And they even have a right to own firearms to break the chains of tyranny, if necessary. America’s Founding Fathers said it, the Constitution they gave us guarantees it, America’s courts affirm it, and her laws protect it. (Read more from “Why Kids Become Killers (Hint: It’s Not Guns)” HERE)

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Did Withheld Information Help Acquit Pulse Shooter’s Wife?

Noor Salman, the wife of a terrorist who killed 49 people in the name of ISIS at an Orlando nightclub in 2016, has been found not guilty of charges connecting her to her husband’s jihadi rampage against innocents.

For well over a year, prosecutors have been making the case that she knew about Omar Mateen’s plans to attack the location, but did not attempt to stop him or alert police. Her defense team, however, claimed that she was abused by her husband and that she has a low IQ, rendering her not responsible for her actions as alleged by prosecutors.

The jury did not agree with the prosecutors. After three days of deliberations, the jury acquitted her on charges of obstruction and providing material support to a terrorist organization (ISIS).

It was revealed this week that prosecutors had withheld key information pertaining to the case, calling into question the evidence that has emerged over the past couple of years.

We learned that Seddique Mateen, the father of shooter Omar Mateen, had been an FBI informant from 2005 to 2016. In calling attention to the bombshell, Salman’s team made the case for a mistrial, which was denied by the judge presiding over the case. In continuing the case, the judge claimed that “it does not change the dynamic of whether Noor Salman aided and abetted.”

It’s unclear whether the Seddique Mateen information affected the outcome of the case, but it certainly helped the defense by calling into question the legitimacy of the prosecutors’ arguments.

For well over a year, prosecutors have been making the case that Salman played an integral role in plotting the attack. Before the terrorist attack, Salman reportedly drove with Mateen two hours to Orlando to case several sites, including Disney World and the LGBT nightclub.

In an interview with the New York Times, Salman admitted that she saw Mateen watching jihadist videos. Officials who secured Mateen’s electronic records said he frequently watched ISIS propaganda videos and radical sermons by the deceased al Qaeda preacher Anwar al-Awlaki.

Salman was with Mateen when he stocked up on ammunition, law enforcement officials told NBC News. Additionally, CBS reported that law enforcement had video footage from the ammo buy.

And before conducting the terrorist attack, which resulted in his death, Mateen added Salman to his life insurance policy and gave her access to his bank accounts, according to reports.

But all of that evidence couldn’t convince the jury of Salman’s guilt as a co-conspirator, after the bombshell revelation that the FBI had worked with the terrorist’s father as a paid informant for over a decade. (For more from the author of “Did Withheld Information Help Acquit Pulse Shooter’s Wife?” please click HERE)

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Threat to Independent Media Worse Than You Know

I feel like the prophet Jeremiah. He was always the prophet I did not want to be when I grew up. He not only was the bearer of bad news to Israel, but he did not exactly live a mostly comfortable life – like Ezekiel and Daniel.

But it’s been my misfortune to raise alarms about the devastating attacks by the Digital Cartel – Google-Facebook – on the independent media. They’ve been going on for a long time to be sure. But the scorched-earth policy began last summer – and it’s been killing sites like WND, Breitbart, Daily Caller, et al.

Just this week, for instance, Politico published a story almost gleefully reporting that my friends at Breitbart.com have lost half their traffic and even more advertising during this siege by the politically motivated giants of the internet. Even if the reports are exaggerated, we’re talking about an imminent, existential threat to the biggest of the big independent media sites . . .

This war on us is not going away. We’re all in the same boat – and Google-Facebook are shooting holes in it. It’s a massive power play that not only threatens the independent media that were so important as a reality check in the 2016 presidential election but is crippling us in the critical 2018 election battle for control of Congress.

But it’s even bigger than that, I’m afraid. I honestly believe that this fight, at the end of the day, will determine whether or not freedom of speech on the internet will survive. I think the independent media are just the lab rats in a grand and gruesome experiment for total control of thought by the left. If the lab rats die, it will be on to stifling other voices through intimidation and humiliation. (Read more from “Threat to Independent Media Worse Than You Know” HERE)

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Left-Wing ‘Fact-Checkers’ Meet Their Match

Abortion kills … Jacob Isaac, a Republican congressional candidate in Texas, issued the following statement in a League of Women Voters guide:

I will work to end abortion, which is the leading cause of death for black Americans and kills as many as 1,000 black children every day.

Our friends at NewsBusters have a lengthy rebuttal to a PolitiFact “fact-check” that rates this sentence as “mostly false.” PolitiFact uses CDC terminology and the fact that some pregnancies would have resulted in stillbirths and miscarriages to say the statement is false. As NewsBusters says, “All this tweaking your terminology doesn’t change the biological fact that a living human baby with human organs and limbs and bones is being destroyed in an abortion.”

Keeping the “fact-checkers” honest … The Media Research Center, which runs NewsBusters, announced a new project yesterday. “Fact-Checking the Fact-Checkers” will serve as a check on the use of opinion masquerading as fact to say conservatives are not telling the truth. The article mentioned above is part of that new project. Keeping the fact-checkers honest is a full-time job.

Oopsie … Sometimes the words just don’t come out right, as Brian Kilmeade found out this morning. Tomi Lahren has been doing man-on-the-street interviews for Fox News lately. Kilmeade, in a hilarious gaffe, thanked Lahren for “working the streets – uh, for us.” Kilmeade quickly realized what he’d said, and co-host Ainsley Earhardt covered for him. It’s well worth the quick watch. This sort of thing happens to the best of us.

Yes, people are calling for the repeal of the 2nd Amendment … At the crack of dawn this morning, CNN’s Chris Cuomo replied to a tweet by saying, “this is a lot of bunk. no one calling for 2A repeal. Stop with the bogeymen.” That’s when Commentary’s Noah Rothman stepped in with five prominent calls for the repeal of the Second Amendment — just since Monday. According to Rothman, those calling for repeal included a former Supreme Court justice, a GWU law professor, an Esquire op-ed, A Seattle Times op-ed, and a Democratic candidate in California.

This doublespeak by liberal journalists isn’t going to work any more. For decades, they’ve hid their anti-freedom agenda by saying they weren’t calling for the banning of all guns or the repeal of the Second Amendment. But that is what the end goal has always been. And now prominent people are coming out and saying it.

It wasn’t grassroots … CNN really wants you to believe that the march to suppress natural rights over the weekend was a purely grassroots effort. The network even published an article about how the “March for Our Lives” event came together. It was heavy on saying it was student-organized. While mentioning the groups that really put the event on, it downplayed them as merely helping the students instead of being the main drivers.

(For more from the author of “Left-Wing ‘Fact-Checkers’ Meet Their Match” please click HERE)

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Why Did It Take Two Weeks to Discover Parkland Students’ Astroturfing?

“Can you believe these kids?” It’s been a recurring theme of the coverage of the Parkland school shooting: the remarkable effectiveness of the high school students who created a gun control organization in the wake of the massacre. In seemingly no time, the magical kids had organized events ranging from a national march to a mass school walkout, and they’d brought in a million dollars in donations from Oprah Winfrey and George Clooney. . .

In other words, the response was professionalized. That’s not surprising, because this is what organization that gets results actually looks like. It’s not a bunch of magical kids in somebody’s living room. Nor is it surprising that the professionalization happened right off the bat. Broward County’s teacher’s union is militant, and Rep. Ted Lieu stated on Twitter that his family knows Parkland student activist David Hogg’s family, so there were plenty of opportunities for grown-ups with resources and skills to connect the kids.

On Twitter, I lost track of the number of bluechecks rhapsodizing over how effective the kids’ organizational instincts were. But organizing isn’t instinctive. It’s skilled work; you have to learn how to do it, and it takes really a lot of people. You don’t just get a few magical kids who’re amazing and naturally good at it.

The real tip-off should have been the $500,000 donations from Winfrey and Clooney. Big celebrities don’t give huge money to strangers on a whim. Somebody who knows Winfrey and Clooney called them and asked. But the press’s response was to be ever more impressed with the kids.

For two weeks, journalists abjectly failed in their jobs, which is to tell the public what’s going on. And any of them who had any familiarity with organizing campaigns absolutely knew. Matt Pearce, of the Los Angeles Times, would have been ideally placed to write an excellent article: not only is he an organizer for the Times’s union, he moderated a panel on leftist activism for the LA Times Book Festival and has the appropriate connections in organizing. Instead, he wrote about a school walkout, not what was behind it. (Read more from “Why Did It Take Two Weeks to Discover Parkland Students’ Astroturfing?” HERE)

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Soros and Planned Parenthood-Sponsored ‘March for Our Lives’ Hypocritically Protests Our Only Real Protection Against Violent Crime

Police are on our side, for the most part, and many of them lay their lives on the line nightly to serve and protect fellow Americans and immigrants in neighborhoods that the rest of us avoid. But do they have a legal duty to respond quickly or effectively to our 9-1-1 calls?

No. If police arrive in time to prevent a tragedy, that’s nice, but it’s up to them. They aren’t legally obligated to dispatch, patrol or operate well. It’s been litigated from different angles, and it was eventually settled by the Supreme Court.

In March 1975, two men kicked down a Washington DC single mother’s door and raped her. Two upstairs neighbors heard her screams, called 9-1-1 and were told help was on the way. But it wasn’t.

When they didn’t arrive for 12 minutes, the neighbors called 9-1-1 again and were told again to sit tight, that police were coming. One shouted down to encourage the downstairs mom that police were en route.

This alerted the rapists to the women upstairs. They broke into the upstairs apartment, kidnapped all three women at knife-point, and for the next 14 hours, beat them, raped them, robbed them and forced them to perform sexual acts on one another.

The victims later sued the District of Columbia municipal government, which employs the police. The government fought the women’s lawsuit and did not settle out of court. That city, which has some of the strictest gun control laws in America, argued in court that its police owed no specific duty to the brutalized victims. The courts agreed.

The Supreme Court settled the law on this issue in a 2005 ruling. In that case, police failed to enforce a court order against a Colorado ex-husband who abducted his three daughters, ages 7, 9 and 10. The girls’ mother reported the abduction and violation of the court order, and provided reliable information on their location, but police did not follow up. The ex-husband later shot his three girls dead.

The bereaved mother later sued, based on the court order’s language that “you shall arrest” the violator. When the lawsuit reached its final appeal, the Court held that the fatal inaction was “within a well-established tradition of police discretion” despite “apparently mandatory arrest statutes.” The law of the land, since 2005, is that you have no legal right to police protection.

You do, however, have a legal right to keep and bear arms. The government is Constitutionally prohibited to infringe that right. And so you have a capacity, if you can keep it, to protect yourself, your daughters and your downstairs neighbor from violent criminals.

The 2nd Amendment was under attack Saturday, just across town from where the three women were overwhelmed and dehumanized by knife-wielding criminals in 1975. March for Our Lives organizers claimed that 2 million adolescent supporters participated, including over 800 “sibling events” across the nation. They assure us that their attack on gun rights will continue during the midterm elections this Fall.

If you have trouble remembering which is the March for Life and which is the March for Our Lives, just remember that the March for Life is the annual prolife rally that is largely ignored by the mainstream media, not breathlessly promoted. Or you can remember that the March for Life is a protest against the killing of over 60 million defenseless, unborn American children since the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision.

The March for Our Lives, on the other hand, was partially funded by Planned Parenthood, an organization that has committed 8,058,657 abortions, by one count, since 1970.

“Everyone has a right,” Planned Parenthood tweeted Saturday with breathtaking irony, to lead “a life that is healthy and free of violence.” A Planned Parenthood spokesperson boasted to BuzzFeed News that the government-subsidized organization is “teaching and hosting trainings” for young anti-gun activists. They provided the students with “logistics, strategy and planning” assistance. Likewise MoveOn.org, underwitten by billionaire immigrant George Soros.

But the March for Our Lives is also funded by a number of large contributions from Hollywood celebrities, entertainers and corporate donors, including $50,000 from Joshua Kushner, brother of Trump son-in-law Jared. Some of the celebrities attended the anti-gun rally, protected by armed security.

Law enforcement failures are apparently of little interest to the NeverAgain movement. The police officer who stood inert in front of the high school he was assigned to protect, the ignored warnings about the shooter’s intentions, the FBI’s failure to follow up – none of this seems to matter as much as the opportunity to launch impassioned attacks on Republicans and the NRA. Why not?

At what point do we admit that this is not a children’s crusade? Hardened leftist adults, with other fish to fry, have provided its infrastructure, funding and even its goals. The kids have compelling and tragic stories that give them value to people who would have happily crushed their skulls and dismembered them less than two decades ago. But the kids are not in control of this movement.

I’m not a mind-reader. I don’t know how sincere the adolescents are. I’m not sure that I could have resisted, at their age, the seduction of the spotlight, the opportunity to feel like a rock star. It wouldn’t be fair to expect wisdom of them. Not now.

Although a few have surprised us: Parkland survivor Kyle Kashuv, for example, considers himself a NeverAgain supporter but seeks a middle ground of hardening targets and improving security without infringing his fellow citizens’ right to keep and bear arms.

“The only way change will be accomplished,” the high school junior said, “is if we stop using inflammatory language, we sit down and have a logical discussion, we don’t call the person the enemy, we don’t shout at them and we don’t boo them. That’s the only way a positive change will be made.”

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Trump Derangement Syndrome Strikes Again

Make Peru great again? … CNN “Republican” analyst Ana Navarro is back at it again. This time she responded to the news that Peru’s president is resigning by tweeting, “Oh how I wish we were Peru, right now.” Really, you wish we were Peru? Let’s look at some quick facts about Peru: The per capita GDP is $13,300, which is 22 percent of the US GDP per capita of $59,500. The unemployment rate in Peru is 6.7 percent, and over 20 percent of the population is in poverty. Ana, you really don’t wish we were Peru; that’s your Trump Derangement Syndrome talking again.

Biased … The media went apoplectic over the weekend when Donald Trump tweeted about the firing of former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. That led to the Associated Press “fact-checking” the president’s tweets. As NewsBusters shows, the AP played fast and loose with the “facts” it used to perform its analysis. The cherry-picking shed the worst possible light on the tweets. Bias by omission is real, and the AP is a master at it . . .

Uh … The New York Times published obituaries of people that it missed over the years. The piece opens with, “Since 1851, obituaries in The New York Times have been dominated by white men. Now, we’re adding the stories of remarkable women.” As CR’s Chris Pandolfo noted on Twitter, the first obituary in this new format is of a man. The Times describes Marsha P. Johnson as a “transgender pioneer and activist.” The piece goes on to list many others, but really — that’s who they put at the top of the list.

Roseanne fights back … Next week, the reboot of 1980s/90s classic “Roseanne” is premiering on ABC. Roseanne, who in real life is a supporter of Donald Trump, has said it’s realistic that her TV character would support Trump, since many of his voters are blue-collar middle-Americans. That has the media upset. The Washington Post says that Roseanne’s character reminds them of bigoted Archie Bunker. Roseanne fired back that the show is “about love.” It is a welcome sign that ABC is willing to present American families as they are, not as Hollywood wants them to be. You can read all about Roseanne’s reaction here. (For more from the author of “Trump Derangement Syndrome Strikes Again” please click HERE)

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The Iran-Pakistan Border Is a Geopolitical Powder Keg

The Iran-Pakistan border contains all the ingredients for a geopolitical explosion – regional rivalries, Sunni-Shia conflicts, ethnic insurgents, espionage, drug smuggling and human trafficking.

China considers the stability of the region so important that it brokered a series of border security meetings between Iran and Pakistan over the past year.

Much of China’s multi-billion-dollar investment in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) hinges on the commercial viability of the Pakistani port of Gwadar, near the Iranian border, for which it has a 40-year operational lease. Moreover, CPEC is the regional linchpin of the Belt and Road Initiative, an ambitious plan to connect Eurasia, the Middle East and Africa to China through a series of land-based and maritime economic zones.

Additionally, the planned Chinese naval base on Pakistan’s Jiwani peninsula, even closer to the Iranian border and located at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, is a critical military node in China’s “String of Pearls” facilities designed to dominate the strategic sea lanes in the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean.

Such ambitions present a direct economic and military threat to India. Commercially, Gwadar competes with joint Iranian-Indian development of the port of Chabahar, just 150 miles to its west.

According to numerous reports, Saudi Arabia contributes to the instability of the border region by sponsoring virulently anti-Shia Sunni militant groups, such as Jaish al-Adl, who launch attacks on Iran from safe havens in Pakistan.

Iran retaliates by supporting the Baloch Liberation Front (BLF), an ethnic separatist group, whose sanctuaries and leader, Dr. Allah Nazar Baloch, are claimed to be inside Iranian territory and routinely conduct cross-border operations against Pakistani government targets. Members of the BLF are suspected to be in contact with Iranian intelligence, often through drug lords acting as intermediaries. BLF members are occasionally confused with their anti-Shia counterparts. Some months ago, a BLF team was mistakenly attacked by Iranian border guards. One member, shot in the encounter, was taken to Imam Ali Hospital in Chabahar for treatment, but later died of his wounds. The other team members were subsequently released by Iranian forces.

There are also narco-terrorists groups on the Pakistani side of the border with indirect links to the government in Islamabad. Lashkar-e-Khorasan, a alleged Islamic State affiliate, has been reportedly involved in “cleansing” western Balochistan of Sufi Zikris, Shia Hazaras, Hindus, Christians, Ahahmadis, Sikhs or anyone else who refuses to convert to the extreme form of Sunni Islam. The purported leader of Lashkar-e-Khorasan is Mullah Shahmir Bizenjo, a resident of Turbat, whose cousin is Senator Hasil Bizenjo, a member of the National Party and currently Pakistan’s Minister of Maritime Affairs. According to the Daily Beast, one of the drug world’s most notorious opium traffickers, also from Turbat, is Imam Bizenjo aka Imam Bheel, a National Party financier, whose son, Yaqoob Bizenjo, served as a member of the Pakistan National Assembly until 2013.

A more ominous portent of Iran-Pakistan border instability, is the return of the “Zainebiyoun” brigade. As a result of its involvement in the Syrian conflict, Iran created a unit composed of

Pakistani Shia volunteers trained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC), who have gained extensive combat experience fighting for the Assad regime against Sunni militants. It is rumored that “Zainebiyoun” members are now infiltrating back into Pakistan to provide the cadre for a Hazara self-defense force, a community long under attack by virulently anti-Shia extremist groups in Pakistan.

Chinese efforts towards Iran-Pakistan reconciliation has borne some fruit. In recent months, there has been a flurry of agreements in trade, defense, weapons development, counter-terrorism, banking, train service, parliamentary cooperation and, most recently, art and literature.

Iran seeks to separate Pakistan from Saudi Arabia, while Pakistan tries to balance relations with both states. China benefits by reducing tensions among all the regional players in order to advance its wider economic and military aims.

The lesson for the United States is that Afghanistan is swimming in a sea of instability and not, as we seem to presume, the focal point of that instability. American policy should be focused on burden shifting, managing and, when appropriate, exploiting instability to thwart Chinese hegemony. (For more from the author of “The Iran-Pakistan Border Is a Geopolitical Powder Keg” please click HERE)

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This Lawsuit Is a Real Threat to Trump

By The Blaze. Summer Zervos, a contestant on “The Apprentice” in 2005, is bringing a defamation lawsuit against President Donald Trump.

Trump’s lawyers tried to get the case thrown out, but on Tuesday, New York State Supreme Court Justice Jennifer Schecter ruled that “no one is above the law” and Zervos can bring her case. Schecter wrote in her decision that the accusations were not related to any of Trump’s presidential duties and cited the precedent set when Paula Jones sued Bill Clinton for sexual harassment in the ’90s . . .

Glenn and Stu analyzed this story and the dangers for Trump on today’s show. Trump will obviously be in a lot more trouble if Zervos can provide evidence during her day in court, but one of the biggest risks for anyone in this situation is having to speak under oath, increasing the chances that you will make a mistake . . .

Stu pointed out that you can be pinned for a “wrongly worded phrase” once you’re under oath.

“The goal would be to wreck [Trump],” Stu said. “Just get him on something.” (Read more from “This Lawsuit Is a Real Threat to Trump” HERE)

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‘No One Is Above the Law’: Trump Loses Bid to Dismiss Defamation Lawsuit by ‘Apprentice’ Contestant Who Says He Groped Her

By CNBC. A New York state judge Tuesday said “no one is above the law” as she denied President Donald Trump’s request to dismiss a defamation lawsuit by a former “Apprentice” contestant who claims he sexually groped her.

Manhattan Court Justice Jennifer Schecter’s decision, which allows the suit by Summer Zervos to proceed, rejected Trump’s argument that a sitting president cannot be subject to a state court’s jurisdiction.

Schecter cited the U.S. Supreme Court case that found a federal sexual harassment lawsuit against President Bill Clinton by former Arkansas state employee Paula Jones, who accused Clinton of exposing himself to her, could proceed when Clinton was in the White House. (Read more from “‘No One Is Above the Law’: Trump Loses Bid to Dismiss Defamation Lawsuit by ‘Apprentice’ Contestant Who Says He Groped Her” HERE)

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The Secret to Winning America’s New Civil War

Many people think Americans are more divided today than at any time since the Civil War – and further, that we are involved in another albeit different sort of “civil war” between two intensely opposed groups of Americans.

If this is true, we are in desperate need of understanding what we’re dealing with and why our beautiful, once-unified nation is being ripped apart – and hopefully reversing course. . .

You cannot understand America solely through a political lens anymore. A new California law, SB 219, signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown, says you can be thrown into prison for 12 months for failing to use the correct transgender pronoun. That is, for refusing to use words that never existed before – newly created pronouns like co, en, ey, xie and yo, which correspond to dozens of new genders that also never existed before in human history, like genderqueer, pangender, hijra and genderfluid . . .

If we want God to be on our side, we need to make sure we’re on His side. That means we need to repent of our own sins and obey His Commandments – first and foremost to love God and love our neighbor – and even, as Jesus Himself said, to love our enemy. Hate the sin, but never the sinner. There’s real magic in that.

Somehow, my friends, we have to discover how to overcome the angry, delusional, hysterical, anti-American, anti-God agenda that has captured the minds of too many of our fellow Americans, while at the same time embracing Christ’s way, when He said: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven.” (Read more from “The Secret to Winning America’s New Civil War” HERE)

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