Cori Bush Becomes Second ‘Squad’ Member To Lose Reelection This Year
'Squad' member and Democrat Rep. Cori Bush lost her reelection bid during Missouri's primary elections on Tuesday.'Squad' member and Democrat Rep. Cori Bush lost her reelection bid during Missouri's primary elections on Tuesday.Nicaraguan regime bans Christian activities during Holy Week, organizes fashion shows instead
Nicaragua's Marxist-Leninist regime has once again banned public Christian activities associated with Holy Week and Easter.
Instead of communal displays of Christian faith, Rosario Murillo, the power-mad wife of Nicaraguan dictator Daniel Ortega, has ensured that only festivities favorable to the regime will be permitted to take over the streets.
The regime's decision to continue its brutal repression of Christians, most notably Catholics, comes amid new U.S. sanctions targeting Nicaraguan Attorney General Wendy Carolina Morales Urbina for her role in executing the "regime's unjust persecution of political prisoners and civil society within the country."
The U.S. State Department also announced new arms restrictions against Nicaragua on March 14, citing concerns "about continuing brutal repression by Ortega-Murillo authorities against the people of Nicaragua."
Background
The Catholic Church in Nicaragua had a fleeting flirtation with the Sandinistas in the 20th century. However, in the 1980s, Pope John Paul II cleaned house, suspending clergymen who supported revolutionary Marxism. The former Roman pontiff also promoted a steadfast critic of the Sandinistas, then-Archbishop Miguel Obano y Bravo, to cardinal in 1985.
The church's revived defiance of leftism in Managua and frequent alliance with Nicaraguan conservatives made it an easy target for persecution. The church became an even bigger target when it supported critics of the regime during the 2018 protests, which Ortega turned bloody.
Blaze News previously reported that at the outset of his fourth term in office in 2018, Ortega's paramilitaries sent a clear message, shooting up a church. Ortega suggested that Catholics critical of the regime or sympathetic to critics of the regime were "terrorists."
Now in his fifth term, the leftist dictator's attacks on Catholics have worsened. The regime routinely targets Catholics with arbitrary raids, beatings, disappearances, deportations, church burnings, and asset seizures. Additionally, Ortega's regime has shuttered thousands of church-affiliated organizations and services in recent years.
The Associated Press indicated that despite support for the regime among several evangelical leaders, the regime has also begun extending its persecution to other Christian groups, closing or dissolving more than 256 associations linked to the Protestant or evangelical church since 2021.
This persecution has prompted an estimated 80% of the country's clergy and religious to flee.
Frederick Davie, the vice chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, said earlier this year, "USCIRF is outraged that the Nicaraguan government has chosen to continue its brutal crackdown on members of the Catholic Church for speaking out about the religious freedom and human rights violations occurring in the country."
"It has become increasingly clear that President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo are intent on silencing the voice of any individual peacefully following the dictates of their conscience," added Davie.
Holy week in the shadow of the regime
Last year, the regime banned public Holy Week events, processions, and outdoor masses. Murillo blasted those who dared complain, claiming they "do not know how to be respectful or show solidarity."
The Associated Press reported that extra to shutting down religious activities, authorities also picked up and deported clergymen.
The regime has doubled down this year.
Martha Patricia Molina, a Nicaraguan lawyer who authored the Spanish language report "Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church?" noted on Facebook that the regime had banned "4,800 processions for Lent/Holy Week 2024[.] This figure includes the processions that took place/will take place on the 4 Fridays of Lent, Palm Sunday and those that took place directly in the Major Week itself."
Molina indicated that parishes have or will hold religious activities indoors, but that state officials may interfere with those as well, reported the Catholic News Agency.
"Some processions have been allowed around the block where the church is, but at the last minute a National Police officer shows up and gives a counter-order so the people can’t come out (of the church for the procession), under threat of being imprisoned," wrote Molina.
Molina told a Spanish-language news outfit, "Nicaragua is a country very given, as a Catholic people, to popular piety."
As a result, various townships and municipalities will attempt to hold Holy Week activities even if the Catholic Church is officially barred from doing so.
The Christian Post reported that Murillo, the dictator's wife, has indicated that this year, officials will swap out religious processions with "popular processions." These processions, organized by the regime's Institute of Tourism, will emphasize the Sandinistas' radical ideology throughout Holy Week.
Rather than prayerful reflection, the Ortega-Murillo regime has reportedly opted for fashion shows, beauty contests, and other materialistic distractions. While the regime insists that its approved message floods the streets, it also promotes anti-Christian hatred on television and the radio.
A new human rights report from the United Nations indicated that "led by the President and the Vice-President, hate speech inciting to violence and discrimination against the Catholic Church has been disseminated through pro-government media."
Republican Sens. Rick Scott (Fla.), Ted Cruz (Texas), Tommy Tuberville (Ala.), and Katie Britt (Ala.) implored President Joe Biden last week to sanction Nicaragua for its "repeated violations of religious freedom in Nicaragua."
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Nicaragua arrests another bishop as Marxist regime ramps up its brutal persecution of Catholics
Nicaragua's socialist regime has arrested another bishop as part of Nicaragua's crackdown on Catholics and the Catholic Church — perceived to constitute threats to Marxist dictator Daniel Ortega's stranglehold on power.
Bishop Isidro del Carmen Mora Ortega was on his way to celebrate the confirmations of 230 parishioners on Dec. 20 in La Cruz de Río Grande when Marxist paramilitaries intercepted him and dragged him away. According to El Pais, the bishop's whereabouts remain unknown.
Two seminarians, Alester Saenz and Tony Palacio, were reportedly detained with Bishop Mora on Wednesday.
Bishop Mora apparently drew the ire of the regime, not only on account of his religiosity but because he indicated the previous day during a homily at the Cathedral of Saint Peter the Apostle that he was praying for Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa, whom the regime has all but condemned to die in prison, reported the Tablet.
"We remain united in prayer for the beloved diocese of Matagalpa," said Bishop Mora. "We pray for Bishop Rolando and for each one of you."
For supposedly refusing to go into exile with five priests, a deacon, two seminarians, and hundreds of other critics of the Marxist regime, Bishop Álvarez was accused of "conspiracy to undermine national integrity," convicted of treason without being assigned legal representation, stripped of his citizenship, and sentenced to a 26-year prison sentence.
Bishop Mora's arrest is the latest in a long series of attacks on Catholics and on Christian groups critical of the regime.
While Catholic clergy once dabbled with leftist politics in Nicaragua, Pope John Paul II largely brought this flirtation to a standstill, stressing in 1980 that "an atheist ideology cannot be the guiding instrument of the effort to promote social justice, because it deprives man of his freedom, of spiritual inspiration, and of the strength to love his brother, which has its most solid and operative foundation in the love of God," reported the Catholic News Agency.
Pope John Paul II suspended various clergymen who remained supportive of the revolutionary Marxists while on the other hand promoting a steadfast critic of the Sandinistas, then-Archbishop Miguel Obando y Bravo, to cardinal in 1985.
After losing an election in 2003, Ortega feigned apologetic for the Sandinistas' longstanding persecution of the Catholic Church, which for years served as a counter to authoritarian overreach. However, once back in power, he resumed his anti-Catholic campaign.
At the beginning of his fourth term in office in 2018, Ortega's paramilitaries reportedly inaugurated a new spate of attacks by shooting up a church. Now with Ortega in his fifth term, attacks on Catholics — who make up the majority of the population — and on churches have only worsened.
The U.S. State Department indicated in a human rights report earlier this year that Ortega's regime has been credibly accused of "unlawful or arbitrary killings, including extrajudicial killings; torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by prison guards and parapolice; ... arbitrary arrest and detentions; [holding] political prisoners; ... severe restrictions on religious freedom"; and a host of other ghastly crimes against the citizenry.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom noted in its recent report that "religious freedom conditions in Nicaragua worsened considerably last year."
Extra to freezing church assets and conducting arbitrary raids, beatings, disappearances, and church burnings, "the Ortega regime has also pressured the Catholic Church by hindering or preventing Church-affiliated organizations and services from operating," having closed over 3,000 related nongovernmental organizations in 2022 alone.
For instance, schools such as the Jesuit Central American University have been shuttered by the regime. Catholic television networks and programming have been banned and replaced with state propaganda. Radio stations operated by the church have similarly been shut down.
Even Catholic processions are now verboten in public, especially on holy days such as Easter and the celebration of the Conception of Mary, regarded by Nicaraguans as a national saint.
"In 2023 alone, 275 attacks were carried out. We can say this last year was the year with the most attacks against the Church during the recent five-year period," Martha Patricia Molina, a Nicaraguan lawyer and researcher, told El Pais. "176 religious men and women are not exercising their ministry in Nicaragua because they were expelled, prohibited from entering or sent into exile."
Tens of thousands of Nicaraguans have fled the nation since 2018 to avoid Ortega's death squads, kangaroo courts, and various restrictions on liberty. An estimated 80% of the country's clergy and religious have left the country.
It appears persecution under the Ortega regime has had an impact on American illegal immigration.
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, 370,523 Nicaraguans were encountered crossing the U.S. southern border between January 2021 and November 2023.
Those Christians, pro-democracy dissenters, and regime critics who do not voluntarily leave are frequently thrown out. Earlier this month, the Ortega regime booted the International Committee of the Red Cross from the country, bringing an end to the organization's humanitarian mission in the country.
Molina noted, "The objective of this persecution is always the same: to make the Catholic Church of Nicaragua completely disappear, because priests and bishops have not knelt down before the dictatorship nor have they become accomplices and cronies, which that is what they were hoping for."
"Since they have not managed to make bishops and priests bow down to the dictatorial project, the objective is to annihilate Catholicism, to create their own religion, in which the gods are Daniel Ortega and his wife," added Molina.
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Republicans Can’t Defeat Antisemitism Without Fighting All Anti-White Racism
Taken to its natural end, the left's identitarian worldview ends with people getting killed. Republicans must do more to protect all people.Wealthy Shanghai-based American Marxist and his radical wife are bankrolling anti-Israel protests in the US: Report
George Soros' Open Society Foundations is far from the only game in town when it comes to radical leftist astroturfing campaigns. A damning new report has revealed that a wealthy China-based Marxist and his radical wife have been helping sow discord in the U.S., most recently by filling the coffers of a group staging anti-Israel protests and fomenting pro-Palestinian rage in the United States.
Bari Weiss' the Free Press recently zeroed in on how tech entrepreneur Neville Roy Singham — who lived the capitalist dream by selling his software consulting company Thoughtworks in 2017 for $785 million — has been bankrolling a pro-Hamas organization that is scheming to intimidate lawmakers and hold American mobility, critical infrastructure, and trade hostage until Israel is forsaken and the West is saddled with the Palestinian cause.
The extremist outfit seeking the West's ruination
The organization in question, the People's Forum, touts itself as a "movement incubator for working class and marginalized communities to build unity across historic lines of division at home and abroad. We are an accessible educational and culture space that nurtures the next generation of visionaries and organizers who believe that through collective action a new world is possible."
Ostensibly unwilling to test its ideas at the ballot box, TPF appears keen instead to turn to intimidation and mob actions to get its way, blockading streets and critical infrastructure; swarming political offices and businesses; and turning to other forms of "direct action." This preference for ochlocratic upheaval is unsurprising given the kinds of leftist movements and mass murderers the group idolizes, including Soviet dictator Vladimir Lenin.
While antipathetic to the West in general, TPF reserves special hatred for Israel, calling for people to mobilize "from within the heart of empire to demand an immediate ceasefire, an end of all aid to Israel, and a lifting of the siege on Gaza."
The Manhattan-based revolutionary socialist group has co-organized numerous anti-Israel demonstrations in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks on Israel, including the celebratory rally in Times Square on Oct. 8.
TPF made clear the timing of this rally was no mistake, claiming in a subsequent statement that the terrorists who butchered thousands of unarmed Israelis and dozens of Americans were "Palestinian resistance factions" whose attacks constituted "an unprecedented liberation struggle."
Recipients of Singham's funds continued, writing, "We stand with the Palestinian people. We defend their fundamental right to resist an illegal occupation, break out of their concentration camp, and defy the cruelty of the sixteen-year Zionist blockade," likening Hamas to the similarly murderous Viet Cong as though that were a positive.
"We mobilize in the belly of the beast because we understand that we have a unique role to play in combating material support for Zionism, and weakening the handmaiden of U.S. global imperialism," added the leftist organization.
The Free Press' Francesca Block indicated that Singham has been the main funder of TPF since 2017. Between 2017 and 2022, Singham and his wife, Jodie Evans, a former Democratic political activist, reportedly funneled $20.4 million to the People's Forum "through a series of shell organizations and donor advisory groups."
Singham's wife reportedly jumped into leftist activism and professionally criticizing America in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks on the homeland. Evans' go-to causes are climate alarmism, gender, and race hustling. Upon TPF's inception in 2017, she was made one of the organization's three board members.
While TPF's website and tax documents fail to mention Singham, the Free Press traced funds from the radical couple to TPF via a Goldman Sachs-run fund.
Additionally, TPF has admitted to taking Singham's money, writing on X, "A few years ago we met Roy Singham, a Marxist comrade who sold his company & donated most of his wealth to non-profits that focus on political education, culture & internationalism."
"It seems to bother some folk that we receive funding that furthers our anti-imperialist politics. It seems to bother them even more that our funder is also a staunch anti-imperialist whose work goes back to the Black Panthers & the LRBW in Detroit," continued the admission. "Roy follows in the footsteps of his father Archie, a committed activist for National Liberation."
Archibald Singham was a Sri Lankan leftist academic and so-called "anti-imperialist" who worked at Brooklyn College.
Mouthpieces for the Chinese regime
Singham, now based in Shanghai, appears to qualify Western success as imperialism and communist imperialism as success.
The New York Times reported earlier this year that "hidden amid a tangle of nonprofit groups and shell companies ... Mr. Singham works closely with the Chinese government media machine and is financing its propaganda worldwide. From a think tank in Massachusetts to an event space in Manhattan, from a political party in South Africa to news organizations in India and Brazil, The Times tracked hundreds of millions of dollars to groups linked to Mr. Singham that mix progressive advocacy with Chinese government talking points."
In July, Singham reportedly joined a Communist Party workshop about promoting the genocidal regime internationally.
Evans, the co-founder of Code Pink, is also a hard-core supporter of the Chinese regime, denouncing pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong and Xi Jinping's Uyghur victims alike.
The Times indicated that none of the nonprofits Singham uses to finance leftist initiatives and propaganda favorable to America's adversaries have been registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act "as is required of groups that seek to influence public opinion on behalf of foreign powers."
"I categorically deny and repudiate any suggestion that I am a member of, work for, take orders from, or follow instructions of any political party or government or their representatives," he reportedly said in an email. "I am solely guided by my beliefs, which are my long-held personal views."
Citing the Times' report, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) wrote to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland on Aug. 9 to ensure that the DOJ investigates whether Singham is complying with FARA.
"It appears that organizations tied to Neville Roy Singham, a U.S. citizen, have been receiving direction from the CCP. Mr. Singham is the founder of Thoughtworks, a Chicago-based software consultancy, and for many years, promoted far-left causes. Mr. Singham reportedly created a dark money system that allows him to send funds to a number of far-left organizations," wrote Rubio.
The Republican senator requested that the DOJ investigate various radical outfits linked to Singham including Code Pink, TPF, No Cold War, and Tricontinental.
The Free Press indicated neither Singham nor Evans replied to requests for comment.
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What This Marxist Historian Gets Right About The American Revolution
As Jon Elster rightfully notes, the United States was born in an act of rebellion by a rag-tag bunch of 'colonials' against their mother country.These are the Democrat policies that are throttling America's future
If you haven’t noticed, there’s a trend occurring among Marxists. And that is that they’re all a part of the Democrat Party.
“Every single Marxist is a Democrat,” Mark Levin, an avid critic of the Democrat Party and author of the upcoming book “The Democrat Party Hates America,” confirms.
“Reich is one of them, Bernie Sanders is another, AOC and the mob, that whole group. They worked within the Democrat Party, because the Democrat Party is perfectly comfortable with them,” he adds.
Robert Reich specifically has praised Joe Biden for revitalizing what he calls “democratic capitalism,” which is just another phrase for what Bernie Sanders calls “democratic socialism.”
“When they use these hyphenated things like democratic capitalism, what they’re trying to do is put a favorable and persuasive patina on top of economic socialism and cultural Marxism,” Levin explains, adding that what Democratic capitalism really means is “that the government controls the economy.”
This is the antithesis of what capitalism really is, which is “about you making your own decisions.”
“It’s about individualism, it’s about freedom and opportunity and all the rest of that stuff,” Levin adds.
George Orwell, the author of the dystopian novel “1984,” discussed the use of words like “democracy” at length.
Levin suggests Orwell knew that “the word democracy means nothing.”
“Communists use it. Fascists use it. Everybody uses it, so it has whatever meaning they want to apply to it.”
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Video: Song about murdering white farmers sung in stadium packed with South African Marxists
South Africa's Marxist-Leninist political party, the Economic Freedom Fighters, celebrated its 10th anniversary over the weekend.
After the radical group's demagogic leader emphasized, "We are with President Putin. ... We are Putin, and Putin is us, and ... we are not with the USA," Julius Malema led nearly 100,000 of his followers in singing the anti-white hate song, "Dubul' ibhunu," known as "Shoot to kill, kill the Boer, kill the farmer."
Video of the bloodthirsty chant at the FNB Stadium, complete with gun sounds, has gone viral, prompting outrage and concern from the world's richest man, South African Twitter CEO Elon Musk, who wrote, "They are openly pushing for genocide of white people in South Africa."
The controversial song is about gunning down Boers, the white descendants of the Dutch-speaking Free Burghers who settled South Africa between the 17th and 19th centuries. "Boer" means "farmer" in both Dutch and Afrikaans.
Judge Colin Lamont of the South Gauteng High Court barred Malema from singing the song in 2011, noting it undermined Afrikaners' dignity, reported the Mail and Guardian.
Although the Western press has largely downplayed the phenomenon, in recent years, Afrikaners appear to have been targeted in an escalating series of murders, rapes, and other attacks.
The Guardian reported that in the wake of the ruling, the African National Congress promised to stop singing the hate song.
Malema, who had been expelled from the ANC and seeks to seize farmland without compensating victims, continued to sing the song but purportedly changed "Shoot the Boer" to "Kiss the Boer."
However, when Malema publicly slipped up last year, AfriForum, a large advocacy group for Afrikaners, took the matter to the Equality Court in Johannesburg.
South Africa's Independent Online reported that the court ruled the song was neither hate speech nor incitement, claiming "liberation songs should not be interpreted literally."
Despite the court's assessment, Malema appeared quite literal when he told BBC's "Hardtalk" program last July, "When the unled revolution comes ... the first target is going to be white people," and when he stated in 2016, "White minorities be warned. We will take our land. It doesn't matter how. It's coming, unavoidable. The land will be taken by whatever means necessary."
Ernst Roets, chief executive for strategy and international relations at AfriForum, said Judge Edwin Molahlehi's ruling "proved how the political order in South Africa is becoming radicalised, especially against minorities. A political order where the incitement and romanticisation of violence against minorities is sanctioned by the judiciary is not a free, democratic order, but an oppressive order."
AfriForum has appealed the judgment, and the Supreme Court of Appeal is set to hear the case later this year.
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Roets said of the EFF chant over the weekend, "The question is whether the singing of the song 'Kill the boer, kill the farmer' is indeed hate speech. Given the fact that the case is still sub judice and in the process of going to court, Malema has no right to sing the song."
John Steenhuisen, leader of the Democratic Alliance — which serves as official opposition to the ruling African National Congress — indicated his party would file charges at the U.N. Human Rights Council after Malema's recent stunt.
"The DA recently forced the South African government to live up to its international responsibility to comply with warrants issued by the International Criminal Court," said Steenhuisen. "We will now do the same to force it to act against Malema."
Steenhuisen suggested Malema has violated at least three U.N. charters, including Article 3 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which makes it a punishable offense to direct and publicly incite people to commit mass murder on the basis of their identity, reported the Independent Online.
The DA leader said on Twitter, "Julius Malema has resurrected the demon of hatred, division and ethnic violence in South Africa. He is determined to ignite the civil war our country narrowly averted in the 1990s. The DA will not look away. We are confronting this bloodthirsty tyrant head-on."
Helen Zille, former chairperson of the Federal Council of the DA and former premier of the Western Cape, wrote, "Malema calls for the murder of citizens based on race. We all know what he means by boer/farmer. If a white leader called for the shooting of black ppl, s/he would, rightly, be in jail. But SA is the land of double standards."
Whereas some have taken issue with a crowd of over 90,000 making gun sounds and calling for the Boer to be killed, EFF chairman Dali Mpofu called the celebration "[t]ear-jerking stuff!"
That Mpofu would be moved by the event is unsurprising given how the EFF's founding manifesto reads like a work of Western "antiracist" agitprop.
The manifesto states, "The EFF is a radical, leftist, anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist movement with an internationalist outlook anchored by popular grassroots formations and struggles. ... The EFF draws inspiration from the gallant fight those who came before us have mounted, generation after generation, against the superior firepower of the colonists. The EFF intend to elevate this resistance to a decisive victory to vindicate the justness of the cause of liberation wars and to pay tribute to all those who perished fighting for the liberation of the African people."
Despite opposing European colonizers and imperialists, the EFF "draws inspiration" from European political philosophies.
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Anti-capitalist Colin Kaepernick claims that targeting 'Black Studies' is central to the GOP's 'white supremacist political project'
Former NFL player Colin Kaepernick has claimed that targeting "Black Studies" is key to the Republican Party's "white supremacist political project."
"Black Studies and, more generally, a critical engagement with U.S. history, threatens the white supremacist status quo," Kaepernick said during an interview with Indigo Olivier of the New Republic. "Any attempt to whitewash the past should actually be understood as a concrete step toward fascism and a desire to build a nation state where power is concentrated in the hands of a self-anointed (read: white) few. That said, I wouldn't characterize GOP attacks on Black Studies as an 'obsession' but rather as core to their white supremacist political project."
Kaepernick, Robin D.G. Kelley, and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor edited the book "Our History Has Always Been Contraband: In Defense of Black Studies," which contains a collection of writings by multiple people, including the three editors.
While interviewing Kaepernick, Olivier described the other two editors as "two of the most prominent Black Marxists in the country" and noted that "most, if not all, of the featured writers are anti-capitalists."
Kaepernick suggested that "Black Liberation" cannot occur within capitalism, a point that he believes the anthology conveys. He also expressed the view that white supremacy continues due to its connection to capitalism and other factors.
"I've long admired Keeanga and Robin's work as well as their uncompromising political analysis and understanding that Black liberation simply isn't possible under capitalism. I think the anthology makes this argument quite well, and I hope it challenges readers to see that racism is not white supremacy's only ingredient. White supremacy persists in part because of its relationship with capitalism, heteropatriarchy, ableism, and so on," Kaepernick claimed, according to the outlet.
When asked to characterize his personal political thoughts, Kaepernick indicated that his views stem from reading material by "Black radical thinkers" and communicating with "Black radical organizers."
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