Category: Warning

Christian group warns social media can be ‘deadly’ after 2 girls die in TikTok challenge

Samantha Kamman – July 21, 2022

A Christian organization commented on the potential harms of young children using social media without proper supervision amid reports that two sets of parents are suing TikTok over the belief the company could have done more to prevent their daughters’ deaths via an online challenge.

The Social Media Victims Law Center filed a civil lawsuit against TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance Ltd., in a Los Angeles County court on behalf of the families of Lalani Erika Walton and Arriani Jaileen Arroyo, two children who died while attempting the viral TikTok challenge known as the “blackout challenge.”

Participants in the challenge share videos depicting self-strangulation until they lose consciousness. Walton and Arriani, ages eight and nine, respectively, died after participating in the challenge.

The parents claim that their children became addicted to TikTok and that the platform promoted content that influenced the kids to harm themselves.

Paul Asay, senior associate editor of the Christian organization Focus on the Family’s PluggedIn.com, which helps parents navigate popular entertainment, weighed in on the controversy, stressing that social media comes with a “built-in irony.”

Asay told The Christian Post that these applications are intended to strengthen friendships but are also a “business.” He said the purpose of the business is to “keep their users as involved and engaged as much as they possibly can.”

He stated that this can be a problem for kids and teens using social media applications. The associate editor argued that children typically don’t have the ability to make “wise, healthy decisions for themselves.”

“Social media is designed to be addictive, in a way — designed to keep its users engaged with it as long as possible,” Asay wrote. “And, as this tragic story illustrates, content found on such sites can be damaging, dangerous and deadly — especially for children.”

https://www.terradaily.com

Digital ID bill sees action in the House and Senate

FCW – July 15, 2022

A bill from Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.) and its Senate companion would raise the federal government’s profile in the digital ID ecosystem.

A bill meant to ramp up federal government participation in the digital identity ecosystem is inching closer to passage. The bill is poised to be advanced by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform and a Senate version was just introduced.

The bipartisan “Improving Digital Identity Act” was first introduced by Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.) in 2020, but never never voted out of committee. It also didn’t get a Senate version in that session of Congress. Foster reintroduced the measure last year.

In the House, the committee recessed on Thursday before finishing officially recorded votes to report Foster’s bill and others out of the committee. That will happen when the committee picks back up on the markup, a committee aid confirmed with FCW.

Sen. Krysten Sinema (D-Ariz.) along with Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo) introduced a Senate counterpart on Wednesday.

The bill includes a few deliverables but the main impact will likely be felt from its proposed policy shift that puts the federal government more squarely in the digital ID business.

The legislation pushes the federal government to use existing authority to help Amerians “prove who they are online,” by providing opt-in ID validation services that “augment private sector digital identity and authentication solutions.”

The bill would also set up a task force on digital identity and establish a grant program at the Department of Homeland Security to support the creation of interoperable identity credentialing systems for digital identity verification on the state and local level.

This all comes in the midst of a government still grappling with increased identity fraud since the start of the pandemic. Identity fraud losses shot up from $16.9 billion in 2019 to $56 billion in 2020, according to Javelin Strategy and Research.

https://fcw.com

Texas Sues HHS, Says Biden Admin. Trying to ‘Transform Every Emergency Room in the Country into Walk-In Abortion Clinic’

Ben Kelley – July 21, 2022

The State of Texas, led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, has sued the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) over its attempt to “transform every emergency room in the country into a walk-in abortion clinic.”

The lawsuit, filed on July 14th, claims that “the Biden Administration’s response to Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Org., 142 S. Ct. 2228 (2022), which ended the terrible regime of Roe v. Wade, is to attempt to use federal law to transform every emergency room in the country into a walk-in abortion clinic.”

The administration’s directive, released on July 11th, is a clarification of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), a law that forces hospitals to treat patients regardless of their ability to pay and protects doctors from being prosecuted under state laws if they perform a procedure that they deem necessary to save a patient from death or serious injury in an emergency situation.

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra’s letter says that “emergency medical conditions involving pregnant patients may include, but are not limited to, ectopic pregnancy, complications of pregnancy loss, or emergent hypertensive disorders, such as preeclampsia with severe features.”

Becerra’s letter goes on to state that an abortion may be an appropriate stabilizing treatment for pregnant patients with an emergency medical condition:

“When a state law prohibits abortion and does not include an exception for the life and health of the pregnant person – or draws the exception more narrowly than EMTALA’s emergency medical condition definition – that state law is preempted.”

Paxton’s lawsuit disagrees with this assertion: “To the contrary, EMTALA ‘do[es] not preempt any State or local law requirement, except to the extent that the requirement directly conflicts with a requirement of EMTALA.’”

EMTALA does not codify any right or access to abortion, so there is no direct conflict between EMTALA and a state law banning abortion, the suit alleges.

https://www.cnsnews.com

The ‘Disrespect of Marriage Act’: Democratic Bill Would Redefine Marriage

Ben Johnson – July 19, 2022

With economic pressures squeezing middle-class families tighter than any time in a generation, congressional Democrats have decided to ram through a series of laws that would write left-wing positions on social issues into law, including a national bill establishing same-sex marriage.

On Monday, Democrats in both chambers of Congress introduced a bill to redefine marriage in national law, which they have dubbed the Respect for Marriage Act. The bill would prevent any state from exclusively protecting the natural family in law, in the (unlikely) event the Supreme Court overturns Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 opinion which created the constitutional “right” to same-sex marriage.

“The far-right Supreme Court is on a rampage against the freedoms of the American people,” asserted Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.), a democratic socialist who identifies as gay. “We will not sit idly by as Republicans and their activist judges take our country backward,” insisted Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), who also identifies as LGBT. “I look forward to bringing it to the [f]loor for a vote this week,” said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (R-Md.) on Monday.

“It really should be the Disrespect for Marriage Act,” Quena Gonzalez, senior director of Government Affairs at the Family Research Council, told “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” Monday. The bill merely says that “an individual shall be considered married if that individual’s marriage is valid in the [s]tate where the marriage was entered into.” At no point does it limit marriage to two partners. Democrats plan to pass legislation preventing states from criminalizing interracial marriage or contraception, positions that have no political constituency in any state. This follows the House passing two bills to expand abortion nationwide last Friday, although one or both bills appears poised to die in the Senate.

https://www.washingtonstand.com

Al-Qaida’s power base in Afghanistan now ‘worse’ than before 9/11

WND Staff – July 12, 2022

When Joe Biden abruptly withdrew all American troops from Afghanistan last year, he left behind billions of dollars worth of American war machinery for the Taliban – the terror organization then taking over the country – to have and to use.

He also left behind hundreds of Americans, despite his promise that he would see to it that every one got out.

Further, there were thousands of nationals who had worked with the U.S. during its years-long presence there, and who were likely to face the wrath of the terrorists who took control of the nation, and installed themselves as the government.

The U.S., of course, originally had gone in because of the Islamic extremists who were threatening and killing people and destabilizing that part of the world. And carrying out 9/11.

Bill Roggio, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and editor of the Long War Journal, said in a report at Just the News that now the Taliban controls all 34 provinces – as opposed to about three-quarters as of the 9/11 date when Muslim extremists commandeered four jets and created terror in Washington and New York, costing nearly 3,000 American residents their lives.

“The State Department’s policy essentially normalizes Taliban control of Afghanistan,” he explained. “This is absolutely insane. If the U.S. is unwilling to support the Afghan resistance, then it’s effectively ceding Taliban control to Afghanistan.”

https://www.wnd.com

US House Passes Abortion Defense Bill in Response to End of Roe Protections

Ilya Tsukanov – July 15, 2022

Democratic Party lawmakers in both houses of Congress have vowed action to protect women’s ability to travel across state lines to get an abortion after Republican states rushed to criminalize the procedure. The legislative rush has come in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to abolish federal abortion protections last month.

The House of Representatives passed two bills Friday aimed at safeguarding abortion access, including a measure allowing women to travel across state lines to get the procedure if it is banned in their home state.

The first bill, entitled the ‘Ensuring Access to Abortion Act’, was passed by a margin of 223-205, with three Republicans, including never Trumper Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, joining all 220 Democrats to vote in favor of the measure.

The bill proposes making it illegal for states where abortion is lawful to bar women from out of state from getting the procedure at a registered clinic, introduces legal protections for those who assist women getting an abortion, and provides for the legalization of the interstate transportation of Food and Drug Administration-approved abortion drugs.

The second bill, the ‘Women’s Health Protection Act’, was passed 219-201, with Democratic Congressman Henry Cuellar of Texas the only Democrat to vote against. That bill has already been around the block of congressional debate, and was passed by the House last September, but thrown out twice by the Senate, which is split 50/50 between Republicans and Democrats.

Senate Democrats drafted legislation similar to the ‘Ensuring Access to Abortion Act’ earlier this week, calling it the ‘Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act of 2022′. That bill proposes protections for non-profits which assist women traveling to states where abortion is permitted to get the procedure.

The fate of both of the House bills passed Friday remains uncertain amid the possibility that rogue Democrat Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema could block their Senate versions. The two lawmakers already dashed Democrats’ hopes for a filibuster change to codify federal abortion rights late last month, despite paying lip service of their support for Roe v Wade.

Lawmakers also face time constraints, with the House going on a month-long recess at the end of July, and the Senate following suit a week later in early August.

https://sputniknews.com

Health Min. wants to expand euthanasia access to terminally ill children under 12 | NL Times

NL Times – June 28, 2022

Minister Ernst Kuipers of Public Health wants to make euthanasia possible for terminally ill children aged 1 to 12 who suffer unbearably and without hope. He is working on a regulation to allow this, with a series of due care criteria like is the case for euthanasia in adults and infants younger than 1, he said in a letter to parliament, the Volkskrant reports.

The Netherlands currently has nothing formally in place to relieve critically- and terminally ill children aged 1 to 12 from unbearable suffering. While a study in 2019 showed a great need for an option to end the life of kids in this age group who suffer “without hope and unbearably.” In the study, parents described how they could do nothing while their children screamed in pain for hours on end or had almost continuous seizures. One mother told how a brain tumor had her child screaming for three days, banging his head, and shouting for help.

Kuipers stressed that this concerns “a small group of terminally ill children who suffer hopelessly and unbearably and for whom all options of palliative care are insufficient to alleviate their suffering.” He opts for regulation instead of a legislative amendment at the request of pediatricians. They worry that a change in the law will spark another polarizing debate while they are looking for a practical solution for a very small group of children who need urgent help.

The Euthanasia Act already allows adults and children over 12 to end their lives if they are suffering unbearably and without hope. The law considers them capable of understanding their situation and the gravity of their decision. Euthanasia presupposes self-determination and competence, considered lacking by children under age 12 by the law.

For infants under the age of 1, the 2005 Groningen protocol applies. It contains guidelines for the termination of the life of infants who suffer unbearably and without hope. Bot parents must give informed permission, and the decision is checked afterward. Kuipers plans to build on this protocol for kids aged 1 to 12.

https://nltimes.nl

Biden to Sign Order on Abortion Access

AP – July 8,  2022

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will take executive action Friday to protect access to abortion, the White House said, as he faces mounting pressure from fellow Democrats to be more forceful on the subject after the Supreme Court ended a constitutional right to the procedure two weeks ago.

The White House said Biden will speak Friday morning “on protecting access to reproductive health care services.” The actions he was expected to outline are intended to try to mitigate some potential penalties women seeking abortion may face after the ruling but are limited in their ability to safeguard access to abortion nationwide.

Biden is expected to formalize instructions to the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services to push back on efforts to limit the ability of women to access federally approved abortion medication or to travel across state lines to access clinical abortion services.

Biden’s executive order will also direct agencies to work to educate medical providers and insurers about how and when they are required to share privileged patient information with authorities — an effort to protect women who seek or utilize abortion services. He will also ask the Federal Trade Commission to take steps to protect the privacy of those seeking information about reproductive care online and establish an interagency task force to coordinate federal efforts to safeguard access to abortion.

The White House said it will also convene volunteer lawyers to provide women and providers with pro bono legal assistance to help them navigate new state restrictions after the Supreme Court ruling.

https://www.breitbart.com

Great Reset: Economically Crippled Germany Pushes ‘Climate Club’ Global Tax Scheme at G7

Peter Caddle – June 26, 2022

Germany is aiming to found a global “climate club” taxation scheme designed to force countries worldwide to adopt a hardcore green agenda.

Seemingly unhappy with just destroying its own economy, eco-crazy Germany is now reportedly aiming to found a so-called “climate club”, a group that would punish countries not perceived as green enough.

The country is pushing this next element of its climate Great Reset agenda despite the fact that it is already facing economic collapse, a situation which is due in part to its obsession with its own green agenda.

According to a report by public broadcaster Deutsche Welle, the German government will push for the genesis of the “climate club” at the latest meeting of the G7 in Bavaria, Germany, seemingly in the hopes of onboarding some of the other member countries into the new scheme.

The plan was originally the brainchild of eco-zealot American Professor William Nordhaus of Yale University, who has argued that the voluntary nature of previous climate agreements has been insufficient in achieving green goals. Under the scheme, member states set extremely aggressive climate targets, while punishing those outside the group by implementing climate tariffs on their goods.

https://www.breitbart.com

Merrick Garland: Protecting Your Kids is “Domestic Terrorism,” Aborting Your Kids is a “Fundamental Right”

Michael Ippolito – Jul 1, 2022

The Department of Justice (DOJ), an institution once dedicated to ensuring law and order in the United States, looks to have become another pawn for the leftist elite. From categorizing upset Virginia parents as domestic terrorists to going after average Trump supporters, the DOJ continues to subvert the values it’s supposed to protect.

Attorney General Merrick Garland released a statement on June 24 about the Supreme Court decision on the Dobbs case communicating his disdain for the ruling.

The DOJ was very upset at the fact women cannot murder children by citing leftist platitudes about abortion.

“The Justice Department strongly disagrees with the Court’s decision. This decision deals a devastating blow to reproductive freedom in the United States,” the statement read. “It will have an immediate and irreversible impact on the lives of people across the country. And it will be greatly disproportionate in its effect – with the greatest burdens felt by people of color and those of limited financial means.”

Instead of ensuring justice for all U.S. citizens, the DOJ would rather play politics. You would think a department dedicated to justice would adequately understand the Constitution.

The DOJ then proudly states it will continue to protect and advance reproductive “freedom” and encourages federal agencies to continue to provide abortion.

“Furthermore, federal agencies may continue to provide reproductive health services to the extent authorized by federal law,” the statement follows. “And federal employees who carry out their duties by providing such services must be allowed to do so free from the threat of liability.”

The woke bureaucrats in the DOJ want the department’s main priority to be ensuring that federal workers can spend more time slaving away instead of potentially having a family. Ironic that the department that has titled itself the Justice department will provide funding so the greatest injustice can be carried out.

The DOJ ends its statement with a commitment to protecting the ‘totally’ fundamental American value of abortion!

The statement concludes:

The ability to decide one’s own future is a fundamental American value, and few decisions are more significant and personal than the choice of whether and when to have children. Few rights are more central to individual freedom than the right to control one’s own body. The Justice Department will use every tool at our disposal to protect reproductive freedom. And we will not waver from this Department’s founding responsibility to protect the civil rights of all Americans.

So murdering babies is a fundamental right, but protesting against leftism isn’t? Where’s the justice in that?

https://www.lifenews.com