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Thursday, February 28, 2019

Social Media Active War Against Conservatives

John R. Houk
© February 28, 2019



If you are a Conservative-oriented person active in posting and reading on various Social Media platforms, you are probably quite aware the current Social Media giants do more than lean Left. Those giants also have an agenda to promote all things and ideology Left. You probably have also realized part and parcel of that agenda is to PREVENT YOU -- a Conservative -- from being successful on their Social Media platforms. INDEED, this means censorship and/or banning.

On a personal level I have experienced Social Media Jail on Facebook and Google+. (Neither you nor I will need to worry about Google+ censorship/jail by early April because Google is shutting down the non-commercial usage of G+.)

I operate three blogs. More lately my flagship blog SlantRight 2.0 seems to be on the Facebook radar. Quite suspiciously Facebook has flagged SlantRight 2.0 shared posts as being against the platform’s community standards. This is interesting since I don’t engage in vulgarity, profanity and incitement to violence.

My subject matter promotes Conservative thought, is pro-Christian, Pro-Israel, Pro-Christian Zionist and to a Multiculturalist’s chagrin – I do not shy away from exposing the dark side of Islam both from that theopolitical faith’s own revered writings and current events. In full disclosure I am supportive of Biblical Morality which among other things places me in the present day politically incorrect side of criticizing all things same-sex. This kind of criticism has earned a special epithet from the Left known as homophobia. I am labelled a homophobe even though I condemn violence in any form against those practicing the various forms of homosexually. God Almighty will judge LGBTQ practitioner choices and not any human being and certainly not I. For that matter, there are probably many actions a Conservative should ask forgiveness to escape an end of the age Final Judgment including myself. (One of the awesome aspects of God’s Grace in Christ Jesus is Mercy for all humanity have fallen short due to sin. Mini path to personal Redemption:

God’s Righteousness Through Faith
21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all [a]and on all who believe. For there is no difference; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified [b]freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God set forth as a [c]propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, 26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. [Romans 3: 21-26 NKJV])

Thank God there are Social Media platforms beginning to emerge as a result of the big-dog platforms skewing Left. And yet I’m not exactly an Internet guru and I have found my learning curve for using emerging platforms not always equal to usability. Hence as yet, I have a sense dissatisfaction of the more emerging Conservative-friendly platforms which may be more my problem with adapting to different formats. As the big-dog Social Media becomes more and more hostile toward Conservatives, I suspect I’ll have to make a greater effort to adapt.

I won’t mention the new Social Media I had an utter failure in using, but there are three that adaptability seems easier. GAB is a bit of an alternative to Twitter. You can post with 300 characters at GAB. But GAB has had server issues recently when a mass murderer was discovered to have used GAB, the server company used by GAB gave them the boot. GAB is up and running again with a new server.

MeWe seems to be taking off currently. MeWe is kind of a combo G+ and Facebook. So far though I have not figured out how to link to individual posts in a MeWe Group. Again, the problem might be my skill set more than a MeWe issue. Here is my MeWe Profile Page.

A Social Media platform I find extremely promising is USA Life. USA Life is modeled so much like Facebook, it may be the future Conservative alternative. Go to my USA Life Profile Page and become my friend.

I’ve noticed when I complain of Facebook censorship on the newer platforms, I’m beginning to get responses asking me why don’t I just abandon Facebook? One reason is I’m an old dog that doesn’t like to learn new tricks. Until censorship became a problem at Facebook, it seemed the most effective way to share my blog posts. I am thinking USA Life might actually become competitive to Facebook’s future. Until then I’ll keep protesting Facebook censorship as long as the Facebook despots allow me to share. I suspect a day will come when Facebook despots will ban me for good.

Along the lines of censorship and banning, I was conversing with a Counterjihad author (due to the potential of censorship I hesitate to share the name). We spoke of our mutual censorship experiences on Facebook. He provided some insight on Conservative usage on Facebook.

He senses that above Facebook algorithms digitally hunting down Conservatives, he believes there are people among your friend lists who lean Left or are downright Liberal trolls who make it their objective to report your Conservative content as offensive. Whether or not it is actually offensive matters little. There is no recourse to rebut a false report with Facebook.

The suggestion is to go through your friend list and delete suspicion looking friends. Check out their views from their posts. If you determine a friend leans Left, that person can be suspected of reporting your Conservative content. Delete them.

Below are some posts exposing Social Media Platforms with a Left-Wing anti-Conservative agenda and their methods.

JRH 2/28/19
Your generosity is always appreciated:

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Published on Feb 26, 2019

Earlier today, Tommy Robinson was banned from Facebook and Instagram. YouTube won't be far behind. YouTube is removing more and more content based on false flags. Videos that contain absolutely no hate speech are being removed as hate speech, and creators that haven't violated any rules or guidelines are receiving strikes and having their privileges (e.g. livestreaming) revoked. YouTube's Community Guidelines strike system is pure garbage. YouTube is also punishing content creators for comments left on their videos. Perhaps the YouTube Creator Academy can address these problems.

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FACEBOOK INSIDER GOES PUBLIC: 'SUPPRESSION' FOR CONSERVATIVES

Admits 'special features' used to 'deboost' traffic during elections

WND Writers
February 27, 2019


A Facebook insider has confirmed the social-media giant discriminates against conservatives through software manipulation, using “special features” to “deboost” their traffic, especially near elections.

The former employee of the Big Tech firm now works with James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas, which released a video of her testimony.


[In case Youtube removes video or Project Veritas account, video can be watched HERE.]

[Posted by Project Veritas
Published on Feb 27, 2019

Be Brave. Do Something: https://www.projectveritas.com/brave/


Project Veritas has obtained and published documents and presentation materials from a former Facebook insider. This information describes how Facebook engineers plan and go about policing political speech. Screenshots from a Facebook workstation show the specific technical actions taken against political figures, as well as "[e]xisting strategies" taken to combat political speech.


She was a content review analyst for the intellectual property department, dealing with copyright and trademark claims.

As part of her work, she noticed some odd things on various accounts.

For example, one of the company’s engineers, Danny Ben David, had created an item called “actiondeboostlivedistribution” and was attaching it to accounts belonging to conservatives.

The insider said the obvious intent was to prevent distribution of that particular page or video.

It was one of the “methods of suppression,” she said.

It was done by disabling routine features on the page such as notifications.

“I would see it on several different conservatives pages,” she said, noting pages for Mike Cernovich, Steven Crowder and the Daily Caller.

She also pointed out Facebook was doing the throttling and even taking down material without letting the user know.

The insider noted company CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s claim to Congress, “We want to make sure we have the widest possible expression.”

He said he didn’t want his company acting on the political ideology of content.

But the former Facebook employee said that’s exactly what is not happening.

Project Veritas tried to obtain comment from David, who refused.

Another Facebook employee behind the campaign was Seiji Yamamoto, who wrote internally about his “news feed reduction strategy.”

He was concerned about “hate speech” but said there’s “quite a bit of content near the perimeter of hate speech that we need to address as well.”

Yamamoto described it as speech that “offends.”

Facebook, the report explained, also targets right-leaning individuals and organizations by labeling terms they use as offensive. One example was “MSM,” for mainstream media.

Yamamoto also refused to comment to Project Veritas.

The strategy includes “drastically limited bandwidth,” auto logouts for users and posts that “fail to upload.”

“They believe the election of Donald Trump was a fluke, it shouldn’t have happened,” the insider said, so Facebook is now trying to “influence elections.”

The company internally even discussed ratting out people it considers offensive by notifying everyone in their friends network.

“Fear of being outed … is what regulates behavior in real life and we should reintroduce that to the online world,” the company’s internal discussion noted.


Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe said that to expose dishonesty and censorship in big tech companies, he will be relying upon more insiders, informants and leakers in the future.

“Our future depends on those who are willing to give up everything for what they believe.”

“When approached for comment, author and filmmaker Mike Cernovich said the troubling issue is that Facebook could just ‘make stuff up’ about people through these systems. ‘Facebook, or an individual at Facebook, has the unilateral power to create false allegations against someone he or she doesn’t like. The person accused not only can’t do anything about the allegation, they don’t even have an idea the allegation was made,’ said Cernovich,” Project Veritas said.
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Facebook bans Tommy Robinson, falsely claiming he calls for violence against Muslims

FEB 26, 2019 4:00 PM

A Muslim activist in the UK is claiming credit for this:

However, Tommy Robinson says: “…the reasons they’ve given are just complete lies. They’re saying I incited violence and that I openly called for violence against Muslims, that’s just a lie. If that was the case then they could show evidence of messages where I’d said that but I never have.”

Whatever you may think of Tommy Robinson, fascists such as Mohammed Shafiq are not going to stop with him. It will soon be impossible to voice any opposition to jihad mass murder or Sharia oppression of women, gays, and others on any social media platform. Then the jihad will be able to advance unopposed and unimpeded, which is the ultimate goal of all these efforts to silence critics of jihad terror.


“Tommy Robinson Banned from Facebook, Instagram,” by Oliver JJ Lane, Breitbart, February 26, 2019:

Facebook has banned British citizen journalist and street organiser Tommy Robinson from its platforms, including Instagram, in a move that comes days after he released a new documentary exposing what he claimed to be dishonest practise at establishment media giant BBC.

The social media giant claimed in a statement published Tuesday that Tommy Robinson’s own Facebook page, which had around one million ‘likes’ before deletion, “has repeatedly broken [Facebook community] standards, posting material that uses dehumanizing language and calls for violence targeted at Muslims. He has also behaved in ways that violate our policies around organized hate.”

Facebook claimed the move “is not a decision we take lightly.”

Responding to the ban, English Defence League founder turned citizen journalist Tommy Robinson told Breitbart London: “…the reasons they’ve given are just complete lies. They’re saying I incited violence and that I openly called for violence against Muslims, that’s just a lie. If that was the case then they could show evidence of messages where I’d said that but I never have.

“This is continued censorship which we all knew was coming but its been done instantly because of my documentary which exposed the establishment working with Hope not Hate, working with the BBC in order to destroy my name to the nation. When I exposed what they were doing they’ve put down the pressure to completely delete me from the internet. This has to show people the levels they’re gonna go to silence any opposition to mass migration and the Islamisation of this nation.”

Robinson’s removal from the platform is only the latest in a series of bans targeting the campaigner in recent years. He was de-platformed by Twitter in May 2018, banned from receiving payments by Paypal in November of that year, and had Youtube videos blocked from earning revenue in January 2019.

Mr Robinson told Breitbart London that he would be working on his own mobile app for live streaming after his removal from several social media sites.

It is not clear what actions were taken by Mr Robinson’s social media page in the recent past to cause Facebook’s decision to remove him now, but the move does come just days after he released an exposé documentary claiming to reveal underhanded dealings at British state broadcaster the BBC. In the hour-long film, which Robinson uploaded to his Facebook page, it is alleged the BBC collaborated with far-left activist organisation HOPE Not Hate to create what was apparently called a “Tommy Takedown”.

Robinson’s film debuted at a protest he held in Manchester, England, outside the offices of the BBC where the Panorama documentary series is produced. Thousands are reported to have attended the heavily-policed event.

In the film, top BBC documentary maker John Sweeney can be seen being confronted by Robinson with undercover footage of him making apparently racist and classist statements. It is believed at least some of the claims and counterclaims between Mr Robinson, the BBC, and HOPE Not Hate may yet be contested in court.

Responding to the ban, Tommy Robinson ally and UKIP leader Gerard Batten said the rise of censorship showed the nation was headed towards a “dark place.” He said: “Without any explanation whatsoever, the personal Facebook accounts of key UKIP members and Tommy Robinson have been removed….
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Social Media Active War Against Conservatives
John R. Houk
© February 28, 2019
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YouTube's Community Guidelines System Is Garbage

From Acts17Apologetics About Page:

"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else." ~Acts 17:24-25
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FACEBOOK INSIDER GOES PUBLIC: 'SUPPRESSION' FOR CONSERVATIVES

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Facebook bans Tommy Robinson, falsely claiming he calls for violence against Muslims

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Wednesday, February 27, 2019

A Right Granted Us By God



One of my biggest concerns about America today is the erosion of Liberty envisioned by the Founding Fathers. This erosion is being exacted by the American Left dedicated to transforming the USA into a State controlled socio-political culturally humanist paradigm. This means the termination of Religious Liberty, Free Speech, Free Thought and the Right to Self-Defense that America has experienced largely thanks to the political institutions set into motion by America’s Founders.

In this editorial Justin Smith looks inalienable Right to self-defense that exists not because of a man-made document, but rather exists by the Will of God.

JRH 2/27/19
Your generosity is always appreciated:
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A Right Granted Us By God
Gun Control Laws Are Illegitimate

By Justin O. Smith
Sent 2/25/2019 8:47 PM

"False is the idea of utility that sacrifices a thousand real advantages for one imaginary or trifling inconvenience; that would take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may drown in it; that has no remedy for evils except destruction. The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.” ~ Cesare Beccaria18th Century Italian jurist

American culture and this society have become so pusillanimous, that they have incredibly fought to tamp down and suppress the God-given right to the lawful act of self-defense and bearing arms to properly defend one's person, family and property. More often we see both Democrats and so-called Republicans urging some manner of control over people already doing everything right, with the Democrats offering the harshest measures. It is as if they somehow imagine that limiting law-abiding citizens' right to keep and bear arms will stop criminals and gun violence, which is akin to cutting the horns off a water buffalo as an answer to lion attacks.

Not the federal government, not the state governments, not any majority group of voters and certainly not any government official, elected or otherwise ... none of the aforementioned have any legal authority to impede or infringe upon anyone's God-given right to keep and bear arms, by any means or any measure or any arbitrary "rule" they color with the illegitimate use of the word "law". A right granted Us by God as seen through Natural Law cannot be legislated out of existence.

[Blog Editor: On a personal I lean to the belief in the existence of Natural Law: viz., Law originating from God. But in full disclosure concepts of Natural Law and Natural Rights philosophically have a bit of controversy. So here are some titles to stretch your mind – perhaps you can locate yourself:

o   What is “natural law”? How is God fundamental to it? Rediscover – Archdiocese of St. Paul & Minneapolis; © 2006, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops



o   Blackstone's View of Natural Law and Its Influence on the Formation of American Declaration of Independence and the Constitution; By Kent Schmidt; Sullivan-County.com; © Oak Brook College of Law and Government Policy All Rights Reserved. 


o   Natural Rights and Natural Law; By James A. Donald; Jim.com; (N0 publication date but an interesting bibliography)


America currently has numerous states from California to Hawaii, Illinois and Vermont to Washington, New Jersey, Florida and Oregon trying to limit their citizens' right to bear any weapon of the same sophistication as the U.S. military carries. Normally reticent as I am to quote the Supreme Court, as an example, due to its judicial activism, it is important to note that even the Court held this to be a God-given right that pre-exists government and the Constitution, in the majority ruling on Heller v. District of Columbia 2008. [Blog Editor: Bill of Rights Institute summary]

And yet, one more of the most egregious gun "laws" has just reared its ugly head in Ohio, without any more understanding of the Constitution than other pieces of legislation that have done nothing in L.A., New York or Chicago to stop gun violence. 

Ohio House Bill 228 [PDF download] passed in December 2018, and it was largely intended to clarify when shooting someone in self-defense is legally justified; however, due to a HUGE drafting ERROR by the Legislative Services Commission and a misplaced provision regarding the Mossberg Shockwave shotgun, thousands of people will be turned into instant criminals overnight when this bill takes effect on March 28th 2019.

Dean Rieck, head of Buckeye Firearms Association, had worked closely with legislators on this legislation. He observed that many bills were flying about at the time, with Democrats firing off their own amendments and lobbyists and protesters adding to the chaos. The confusion of the day made an environment ripe for human error.

While everyone involved is saying this was an "honest mistake", it is highly suspect that it occurred during a lame-duck session of the state legislature. Even more suspect, the error wasn't caught, until after the bill was passed. This just shows how incompetent or devious leaders of the day can be.

Who were the proofreaders? Who signed off on the final draft? 

Don't lawmakers read a damn bill these days, before signing it? Obviously or conveniently not.

On March 28th 2019, any firearm of at least twenty-six inches and approved for sale by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms under the Gun Control Act of 1968, that is somehow not regulated under the National Firearm Act (NFA) of 1934, will be classified as "dangerous ordnance". This turns an AR15, a thumbhole stock rifle, flash suppressors and other cosmetic features into dangerous ordnance and a felony to possess. 

I submit that even a tax on firearms is illegal and unconstitutional, since it too carries an impediment of sorts to owning weapons. And here one must note, the NFA was held to be constitutional as a tax revenue measure. No entity has ever stated the federal government, or any government, has the power and authority to ban firearms of any type; this also is equally applicable to ammunition.

Many citizen groups and activist leaders, such as Jeremy Deter, have joined in protests, that forced the legislators to take heed and move for an immediate emergency fix, after initially stating they would have to wait 90 days before they could do anything. The Ohio State Legislature met on February 19th to enter a fix, at the urging of Senator Kristina Daley Roegner, who took a stand for the citizen groups, who introduced Bill 53. And predictably so, Democrats are now pushing back against any fix, as they contend no damage to firearms owners' rights will result from Bill 228 as written, despite proof to the contrary.

Regardless of just how much damage it will or won't do, without the proper correction to the error, the new "law" will be UnConstitutional as written, anyway one wishes to view it.

One option is to fix the error in the state budget, which will be introduced March 15th and passed into law on July 1st. This delay was called "unacceptable" by Chris Dorr, director of Ohio Gun Owners.

Senator Cecil Thomas, a retired police officer and a Cincinnati Democrat, noted that this all results from rushing through legislation in a lame duck session. Thomas said, "It's just a bad way of doing business now, and mistakes are made ...".

Addressing the legislators, Eva Silvers, an advocate for the Second Amendment, called the law "unconstitutional" and exclaimed: "You took a constitutional oath to protect the people of this country. Will you enforce an unconstitutional law?"

Understanding the gun-grabbers will do everything in their power to keep this egregious "law" on Ohio's books, calls have one out across the nation to meet on March 28th in an armed protest at the State Capitol Building. Ohio is currently an "open carry" state, and the reason for having the protest the day after the bad law goes into effect, is to show it is an unenforceable law. But, they are also getting county sheriffs on their side, who have already acknowledged they do not plan to enforce it as it stands, and if the fix is passed in the meantime, everybody will still meet on the State Capitol steps in Columbus, in celebration.

The Declaration of Independence states: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." The Second Amendment helps Americans defend and protect Our Life and Liberty, and that makes me happy.

All patriotic freedom-minded Americans must rush to the aid of their countrymen in Ohio and any and all the other states and stand firm, tough and ready in the face of illegitimate and illegal legislation, by way of all manner of protest and petition.

Wherever Our God-given Rights, the Bill of Rights and the Second Amendment are under heavy assaults by those who seek not to govern, over a sovereign nation of Free Born Americans, as their fellow patriot and brother in Liberty, seeking instead to rule as their lord and master, in a manner that reduces all to serfs of the state, We cannot allow it -- We must not allow it, for it bears the name "tyranny", and it will not reign over my children, their children and their children's children, so long as there remains breath in my body, a rifle in my hand.

"The right to bear arms has always been the distinctive privilege of freemen. Aside from any necessity of self-protection to the person, it represents among all nations power coupled with the exercise of a certain jurisdiction. ... It was not necessary that the right to bear arms should be granted in the Constitution, for it had always existed." ~ John Ordronaux, Constitutional Legislation in the United States 241-242 (1891)

By Justin O. Smith
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Edited by John R. Houk
Text embraced brackets as well as source links are by the Editor.

© Justin O. Smith


Tuesday, February 26, 2019

Senator Baby-Killers

John R. Houk
© February 26, 2019


Yesterday (2/25/19) 53 Senators voted in favor of Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act (S.311) and 44 Senators essentially VOTED AGAINST saving the lives of botched abortion live-birth babies. And three Senators didn’t vote.

Killing babies before they are born is bad enough, but 44 freaking Dem Senators voted to perpetrate the death of a baby born alive when the child’s already egregious abortion failed.

WHY?

Senator Baby-Killer-in-chief Schumer felt protecting human threatened the Baby-Killer industry and by-Satan the Dems are going to protect abortionists at any cost to a human life that escaped the torture of a murderous abortion and lived.

If you live in a State with a Senator Baby-killer coming up for election in 2020, YOU need to decide you desire to align with live-birth baby-killing infanticide or to protect the basic human life from murder. HERE IS A LIST OF SENATOR BABY-KILLERS enabling YOU the voter to choose with protecting the life of new birthed baby or to MURDER the live birthed baby on election day 2020:

1)  Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)



4) Cory A. Booker (D-NJ) – RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT in 2020

5) Sherrod Brown (D-OH)

6) Maria Cantwell (D-WA)


8) Thomas R. Carper (D-DE)


10)     Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV)

11)       Tammy Duckworth (D-IL)

12)      Richard (Dick) J. Durbin (D-IL)

13)      Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)

14)      Kirsten E. Gillibrand (D-NY) – RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT in 2020

15)      Kamala D. Harris (D-CA) – RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT in 2020

16)      Margaret Wood Hassan (D-NH)

17)      Martin Heinrich (D-NM)

18)     Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI)

19)      Tim Kaine (D-VA)

20)     Angus S. King, Jr. (I-ME)

21)      Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT in 2020

22)     Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT)

23)     Edward J. Markey (D-MA)

24)     Robert (Bob) Menendez (D-NJ) – Escaped corruption charges via hung jury

25)     Jeff Merkley (D-OR)

26)     Christopher Murphy (D-CT)

27)     Patty Murray (D-WA)

28)     Gary C. Peters (D-MI)

29)     Jack Reed (D-RI)

30)     Jacky Rosen (D-NV)

31)      Bernard (Bernie) Sanders (I-VT) - RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT in 2020

32)     Brian Schatz (D-HI)

33)     Charles ([Crying] Chuck) E. Schumer (D-NY) – Senator Baby-Killer-in-chief

34)     Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)

35)     Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ)

36)     Tina Smith (D-MN)

37)     Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)

38)     Jon Tester (D-MT)

39)     Tom Udall (D-NM)

40)     Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)

41)      Mark R. Warner (D-VA)

42)     Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) – RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT in 2020

43)     Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)

44)     Ron Wyden (D-OR)

Three Senators did not vote and they ALL are Republicans. If YOU live in this Senator’s State, YOU need to phone or write to ask WHY. If the reason is lame, DO NOT VOTE FOR THAT SENATOR:
   
1)  Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Not Voting

2) Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Not Voting

3)  Tim Scott (R-SC), Not Voting 

Something to dwell on with your voting decision in 2020: The SIXTH COMMANDMENT in the Amplified Version clarity on Baby-Killing:

13 You shall not commit murder (unjustified, deliberate homicide). -- Exodus 20: 13 (AMP)

It’s time to terminate (or abort) the Senate 60-vote threshold to change laws and end filibusters!

JRH 2/26/19
Your generosity is always appreciated:
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Democrats block bill to ensure medical care for abortion survivors

February 25, 2019 06:12 PM -- Updated Feb 25, 2019, 09:14 PM

Senate Democrats on Monday defeated a GOP attempt to advance legislation that would clarify that babies who survive attempted abortions must receive medical care.

Republicans and anti-abortion advocates pushed for the bill, the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, to receive a vote so that they could put individual senators on the spot regarding the issue of third-trimester abortion. GOP senators have been aiming to pressure Democrats to state whether they believe any limits should be placed on abortion after controversial comments appearing to indicate otherwise from Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam.

The legislation fell short of the 60 votes it needed to advance in a procedural maneuver, 53 to 44. Democrats Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and Doug Jones of Alabama joined all Republicans present in voting in favor.

"I don't always follow the Democrats," Jones told the Washington Examiner of his decision to support the bill. "Having studied the bill I think it's the right vote."

Republicans and Democrats largely talked past each other about the bill's purpose during floor debate ahead of the vote. Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., who introduced the bill, said it would stop doctors from letting a baby die who survived a botched abortion. Democrats countered that the bill would limit what doctors could do after the birth of a baby who had a grave medical condition, and as a result either wouldn't live past birth or wouldn't survive long.

President Trump weighed in on the bill's defeat several hours later, calling it "one of the most shocking votes in the history of Congress."

“Senate Democrats just voted against legislation to prevent the killing of newborn infant children,” the president tweeted Monday night. “The Democrat position on abortion is now so extreme that they don’t mind executing babies AFTER birth. This will be remembered as one of the most shocking votes in the history of Congress. If there is one thing we should all agree on, it’s protecting the lives of innocent babies.”


During his floor speech ahead of the vote, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the bill would "target, intimidate and shut down reproductive doctors across this country" and "impose requirements on what types of care doctors must provide."

"It has always been illegal to harm a newborn infant," he said. "This bill has nothing to do with that." He called the legislation "Washington politics at its worst."

Sasse countered that the bill would keep doctors from "actively allowing a baby to die" who had survived an abortion.

"What this bill does is try to secure basic rights, equal rights, for babies that are born and survive outside the womb," he said.

A group of House Republicans, led by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, walked on the Senate floor to support the vote.

Earlier this month, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., rejected a motion to pass the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act via unanimous consent, a procedure which a sole senator can stop. Murray objected because, she said, the bill was unnecessary as the U.S. already has laws against infanticide.

Northam and Virginia Del. Kathy Tran, also a Democrat, said several weeks ago that they supported a state bill that appeared to allow abortion at the time of birth. Tran later said she misspoke about when abortion would be permitted and Northam’s office later released a statement saying that the governor’s comments were mischaracterized and had been intended to address cases in which babies wouldn’t survive birth because of deformity or another health issue.

Sasse pounced on the comments during the floor debate Monday, saying that Northam's comments amounted to a "discussion about whether you throw that little baby in the trash can."

Virginia tabled the abortion bill, but other states, including Illinois and Massachusetts, are considering loosening restrictions on third-trimester abortion. Supporters of looser restrictions say they are meant to address circumstances in which fetuses have severe medical conditions that would cause them not to survive birth, or that would result in short, painful lives.

The bill that failed Monday would have built on the 2002 Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, which clarified that “every infant member of the species homo sapiens who is born alive at any stage of development” is a “person” for all federal law purposes. That law was intended to clarify that babies were supposed to receive protections if they survived an abortion, and Sasse’s bill further clarifies what level of care they are supposed to receive, including being immediately transferred to a hospital.

If that protocol isn’t followed, then the doctor performing the abortion would face criminal prosecution. Republicans have noted the case of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, an abortion provider who was convicted of killing babies after attempted abortions, as evidence that their bill is necessary. Democrats and abortion rights groups counter that the doctor was prosecuted and convicted, showing that the legal mechanism are already adequate.

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., pointed to the 2002 bill when explaining his decision to vote against Monday's measure, and saying that the previous legislation already clarifies that infanticide is illegal. Kaine, who has said he is personally troubled by abortion but votes to uphold abortion rights, said he didn't receive any statistics from Republicans about why the bill was necessary and he said he would have wanted to see the bill go through committee first.

"When you have hearings on bills you get the facts out and you explore whether it's needed," Kaine said. "They didn't even want to bring it to committee and that tells me I don't think they had a real case to justify the bill."
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Senator Baby-Killers
John R. Houk
© February 26, 2019
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Democrats block bill to ensure medical care for abortion survivors

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