Isikoff: Clinton-sponsored, anti-Trump dossier ‘likely false’

Christopher Steele

That “dossier” with all those bad things to say about President Trump, when he was a candidate?

“Likely false,” says one of the “early public conduits” for the document.

The Washington Times reports that Yahoo News’ Michael Isikoff “now says the former British spy’s sensational Russia collusion charges lack apparent evidence and are ‘likely false.’”

It was the dossier that was assembled by British agent Michael Steele, on the payroll of Fusion GPS, which was funded by Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

It apparently made-up claims were used by the Department of Justice, under Barack Obama, as “evidence” before a secret Washington court to obtain permission to send government spies into Trump’s 2016 campaign.

The Obama administration did not, as would be usual protocol, advise the Trump campaign of any of its suspicions about any of its staff members or volunteers.

The “dossier” has been cited by some as essentially the only reason there now is an FBI special counsel investigation, by Robert Mueller, into claims of “collusion” between the campaign and Russia.

In fact, what facts have come out have revealed it was Steele who had contacts with Russia during that time period.

The Times reported that as Election Day loomed in 2016, Isikoff was the first Washington journalist to write about Steele’s claims.

“He focused on Mr. Steele’s contention that Trump campaign volunteer Carter Page met with nefarious operatives of Russian President Vladimir Putin during a publicly announced trip to Moscow in July 2016,” the report.

But Isikoff recently told Mediaite columnist John Ziegler: “When you actually get into the details of the Steele dossier, the specific allegations, we have not seen the evidence to support them, and in fact, there is good grounds to think that some of the more sensational allegations will never be proven and are likely false.”

Isikoff, who was first to report on the then-independent counsel investigation into Bill Clinton’s affair with a 22-year-old intern, Monica Lewinsky, is friends with Fusion BPS co-founder Glenn Simpson, who had hired Steele with “money funneled through a law firm from the Hillary Clinton campaign,” the report said.

Steele admitted he was desperate to stop Trump’s campaign.

The report said, “It has been 31 months since Mr. Steele submitted his first dossier memo in June 2106 to Fusion GPS; 30 months since the FBI opened an investigation that came to rely heavily on his work; 27 months since Mr. Isikoff wrote the first dossier story; 24 months since BuzzFeed posted the entire dossier; 24 months since the House and Senate intelligence committees opened their separate probes; and 19 months since special counsel Robert Mueller took charge of the Trump-Russia investigation.”

So far, there’s been no evidence released linking the Trump campaign to collusion with Russia.

The Times report details a long list of claims, such as that the Trump campaign partnered

“In an interview this month, Mediaite’s Mr. Ziegler asked Mr. Isikoff whether the Steele dossier ‘has been somewhat vindicated.’ Mr. Isikoff said, ‘No,’” the report said.

WND reported just weeks ago Steele admitted he was hired by a Democratic law firm in preparation for Hillary Clinton challenging the results of the 2016 presidential election.

He said the law firm Perkins Coie wanted to be in a position to contest the results based on his claims about a conspiracy.

It was Hill reporter John Solomon who earlier confirmed Obama administration officials who used Steele’s claims may have known it was unreliable.

That would be a violation of protocol, because all evidence submitted to the top-secret FISA court must be certified as accurate by the FBI.

Even former FBI Director James Comey, whose criticism of the President has yet to reach its limits, called claims made in the dossier “salacious and unsubstantiated.” And the author, Steele, has testified in court that the claims are unverified.

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Why Christians are persecuted

‘The Resurrection of Lazarus,’ oil on canvas painting by Henry Ossawa Tanner, 1896, Musee d’Orsay, Paris (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days. Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God? … And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes; … Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him.

But some of them went their ways to the Pharisees, and told them what things Jesus had done. Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? for this man doeth many miracles. If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation. … Then from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death.

– John 11:39-40, 43-48, 53

The story of Jesus Christ raising Lazarus from the dead is one of the most dramatic in the New Testament. Yet, almost as amazing as bringing a man back to life after four days in the grave is the authorities’ reaction to this astonishing miracle: It made them want to kill Jesus.

This cosmic irony – of genuine godliness inspiring loathing and violence – has been reflected throughout our world ever since.

Christianity inspired hostility from the beginning; not only was Jesus crucified, but 11 of the 12 apostles were martyred.

Today, sincere followers of Jesus Christ are under attack everywhere, not only in lands dominated by religions and governments hostile to Christianity, but increasingly in those parts of the world historically home to, and founded by, Christians.

Think of it. The most transcendent way of life a man or woman can embrace on this earth – one that commands not only that you love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself, but that you “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” – is cursed, hated and persecuted.

This persecution shows up in a broad spectrum of ways. In the United States it is, as a rule, far less overt and brutal than overseas, taking the form of censorship, demonization and criminalization – for example, the never-ending prosecutions of Christian businesses and individuals (including the jailing of a Christian county clerk) for being unwilling to actively participate in homosexual weddings. Then there are the ubiquitous assaults on Christian expression in the public square, online and within our public schools and armed forces, and the ongoing destruction of Christian memorials, crosses, nativity scenes and the like, and even the recent equating of Christianity with white supremacism and the open mockery of prayer.

Of course, in much of the rest of the world no such subtlety or restraints exist, with scores of nations persecuting, torturing, enslaving and slaughtering Christians daily.

By every measure, Christian persecution – and even more fundamentally, fear and loathing of biblical Christianity – is growing worldwide, even in the once-Christian West, including Europe, the United Kingdom and North America.

The most appalling manifestation within the U.S. has been church shooting massacres, including September 2017’s church shooting in Tennessee and the following November’s mass-murder in rural Texas when a militant atheist, calling believers “stupid,” slaughtered 26 churchgoers and injured dozens more.

Around the world, sums up Open Doors, a ministry serving the needs of the persecuted faithful, “Christians are being persecuted in more countries and in more ways than ever before.”

First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, where more than two-dozen people were killed in November

Why is this happening?

And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. – John 3:19-20

In many parts of the globe, the reasons Christian believers are targeted are clear enough: Christians are considered “infidels” by millions of Muslims taught from birth that such are deserving of death or forced conversion to Islam, or else dhimmitude (subservient second-class status including a punitive tax). Likewise, the ruling elite in communist societies indoctrinates the population that there is no God – or, as in North Korea, that their leader is a god – rendering Christianity a serious competitor for the people’s loyalty and thus a mortal threat to communists’ limitless ambitions to power.

But even in America, Christian believers are increasingly reviled in a land historically founded as an explicitly Christian one. America’s culture today is not merely un-Christian, but anti-Christian. The news and entertainment media mock and belittle Christian beliefs as do most of the nation’s colleges and universities, while the political left increasingly equates biblical values with ignorance and bigotry at best, and at worst, with white nationalism and fascism. Unfortunately, this growing antipathy toward Christianity was turbocharged by President Obama, who for eight years openly denigrated the very faith he claims to follow. In reality, raised by a Muslim stepfather and schooled as a follower of Islam in Indonesia, Obama later embraced the atheistic religion of Marxism for decades – and he has never publicly renounced nor even criticized either one.

Former President Obama has said he is a practicing Christian

But let us now turn up the magnification and take a much closer look at what actually underlies today’s growing antagonism toward the followers and teachings of Christ.

Bear with me, please, because it may seem at first as though we’re not dealing directly with the subject at hand – Christian persecution – although you’ll soon see we have arrived at the very heart of the matter.

Let’s zoom in on a common scene in 21st-century America. For the nearly four-and-a-half decades since Roe v. Wade, pro-lifers – the vast majority of them Christians – have been standing vigil and praying outside abortion clinics across the country and, when opportunity arises, speaking to the mostly young women entering therein. As a rule, these “sidewalk counselors” demonstrate genuine love and concern for both mother and child, frequently offering to take the expectant mother to a nearby pro-life crisis pregnancy center that gives free ultrasounds, counseling and support in dealing with a crisis pregnancy without abortion. Countless women have been helped this way; otherwise, pro-lifers wouldn’t engage in this outreach year after year.

But some women – and a great many of the abortion clinics’ staffers – insist they witness vile, hateful, vicious verbal assaults from the pro-life interventionists. It’s not true, of course. I have known many pro-life activists and sidewalk counselors, including some who offer – out of their own personal substance – to help these girls, to pay their way, even take them into their own home to provide them with a loving, supportive, life-affirming alternative to abortion. They are motivated by love.

Why, then, do some people experience the genuine concern of kindhearted, well-intentioned people as vile, vicious and abusive?

A young girl holds up a pro-life sign at the March for Life in Washington, D.C., in 2013 (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Only because, in order to head down the dark path toward aborting their child, they have had to stifle or ignore their own conscience – that little spark of God within, the moral compass in every human being that illuminates right from wrong. And what happens when this conscience, which they have managed for the time being to evade, suddenly pops out in another person and speaks eloquently and boldly to them? They react to the voice of conscience in the pro-lifer the same way they react to their own conscience – as an adversary to be discredited and overcome.

In essence, since they feel pain when the Christian pro-lifer speaks to them, they conclude that the person did something terribly wrong to them!

But in reality, all that’s happening is the light of truth shining through one soul is exposing a dark deed in another – in this case, fortunately, a dark deed that hasn’t yet occurred. (This is why some of the most grateful people on earth are women who have been confronted by someone with a little love before entering an abortion clinic.)

Much the same dynamic is replicated in other areas of life, such as when Christian business owners including wedding photographers, bakers, event planners and venue hosts decline on moral-religious grounds to actively participate in homosexual weddings, which celebrate something the Bible explicitly condemns as immoral and sinful. To many who have fallen into the highly addictive world of homosexuality, someone shining a light on their sexual perversion by simply declining to participate in a wedding ceremony is seen as evidence not just of bigotry and hate, but of a crime.

Yet consider that a remarkable body of major peer-reviewed research confirms what previous generations of psychiatrists and psychologists knew, and what many people intuitively recognize – that homosexual identification frequently results from childhood sexual abuse. Thus, despite today’s supercharged cultural and legal affirmation of homosexuality as a perfectly normal, healthy, even glorious lifestyle, underneath it all great anxiety and guilt persist because homosexual acts actually are morally wrong and disordered and often rooted in trauma. When that deeply buried angst over one’s homosexuality is awakened by some innocent person who fails to affirm that homosexuality is moral and wholesome, it is often experienced as “hate.”

It is not hate, only an unwelcome truth.

Ironically, though Islam is infinitely harsher than Christianity in its treatment of homosexuals – lashing them, throwing them off buildings, hanging, stoning, torturing or shooting them – rarely are any complaints heard from the left about Islam. Only about Christianity. Why?

TerrorMoniter ASA posted this photo on Twitter, claiming it shows ISIS terrorists throwing a 15-year-old boy off a rooftop after they accused him of engaging in homosexual relations with a top ISIS officer (Photo: Twitter/TerrorMonitor)

Because the left’s real enemy is not Islam, it is the Judeo-Christian biblical precepts and commandments that for centuries served as Western civilization’s moral foundation. The left does not feel threatened by Islam because Islam doesn’t shine a light on the left’s sins; it just represents a different form of darkness and, therefore, causes no spiritual conflict or shame.

Moreover, for now at least, the left is strategically comfortable allying with Islam because “the enemy of your enemy is your friend,” and both Islam and the atheistic left are at war with Christianity.

It’s no coincidence that the two previous examples cited – abortion and homosexuality – both revolve around sex. Much of the American left’s hatred of Christianity has everything to do with sex and morality. Indeed, since the 1960s cultural revolution and the ascendency of the various “liberation” movements – “sexual liberation,” “gay liberation,” “women’s liberation,” legalized abortion and so on, much of it hinging on “sexual freedom” – one single factor has stood in opposition to total Marxist socio-sexual anarchy: biblical morality.

That’s right. Even today, most of those so strenuously denouncing the endless stream of sexual predators being exposed in Hollywood, Congress and the news media fail to realize that the only thing that has ever effectively restrained such misbehavior has been the Judeo-Christian moral laws found in the Bible.

How ironic that the very worldview the left mocks is the one and only factor that has, for all previous generations, provided our society with a sacred core of sound moral values with regard to sex, marriage and family. The secular elite’s hypocrisy is staggering: America’s colleges promote sexual anarchy in every conceivable way, with Harvard holding its annual “Sex Week” last month, including a clinic instructing students on how to have anal sex. And yet these same institutions complain bitterly about the “culture of rape” on campus – a culture they literally created.

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The very high cost of discipleship

And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. – John 1:5

What about the rest of the world? In so many nations, life is more wretched and the human spirit more stifled than we in the West can ever imagine.

And in these dark regions, where the light of Judeo-Christian civilization has never dawned, and where the marvelous freedom, security, self-worth, individual rights and resulting entrepreneurism, innovation and other blessings of liberty have never existed, the dynamics of persecution just described manifest not as mockery and lawsuits, but as brutal suppression, mayhem, madness and murder.

For those who rise to positions of power in totalitarian nations, as well as for those unfree souls forced to serve as soldier-slaves of the regime’s enforcement machinery, the mortal threat posed by the very existence of the Christian Gospel being shared in that land – because of its exceedingly powerful appeal to the hearts, minds and souls of the people – is total. It must be stamped out at all costs. The darkness not only can’t “comprehend” the light – it absolutely can’t stand it and feels compelled to put it out.

The extreme penalties simply for being a Christian in much of the Arab-Muslim world, and especially for apostasy – converting to Christianity from Islam, generally earning a death sentence – are a measure of just how truly dark the state-mandated religion can be in many parts of the world.

Christians in Egypt

And yet, to the great masses of people living in totalitarian regions, hearing and receiving the Gospel message often is like being gifted with cool water in a stifling spiritual desert. This is why, despite the very high cost of discipleship, Christianity blooms readily in the most hostile places on earth. Places like Nigeria and Somalia in northern Africa, where being a Christian can easily mean having your home burned to the ground and your entire family beheaded, and North Korea, where simply being found to possess a small Bible can lead to summary execution with a high-powered rifle shot to the head. But many would much rather live with the extreme danger, yet with joy and the promise of eternal life, than continue in the living death they had before.

And then, there is Europe.

Currently in the process of being conquered by Islam, Europe has already largely been conquered by the seductive, atheistic, yet insufferably self-righteous “religion” of socialism/Marxism and the moral and spiritual emptiness it truly represents. Europeans rejected the stout Christian faith of their forefathers for the sake of gaining “freedom” from their prior bondage to old-fashioned morality, biblical values and the personal responsibility, self-denial and sacrifice that real liberty requires. However, that rebellion against their centuries-old Christian foundations has created a raging spiritual vacuum, which Islam has been only too happy to fill. With its rapidly expanding population – comprising both migrants and converts –Europe’s Muslims seem full of religious fervor and willingness to have lots of children unlike native Europeans, and to generate a never-ending supply of fired-up jihad warriors and wannabe martyrs eager to die while ushering in the Islamic apocalypse.

It’s been said it takes a religion to fight a religion – and Europe has none.

Indeed, the plight of Europe and the United Kingdom today is eerily reminiscent of the many biblical accounts of God’s chosen people who, having fallen into disobedience and corruption, were invaded, put to the sword and conquered by pagan armies serving an alien god.

Freedom from bondage

Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. – Matthew 5:11-12

So where does this leave us? Our world, despite its natural beauty, wonder and awesomely dazzling complexity, is filled with the wretchedness of desperate people trying to bear up under the yoke of every form of bondage. Not just bondage to deranged leaders and enslaving philosophies, religions and governments, but bondage to drugs, alcohol, food, sex, gambling and everything in between. Human weaknesses like pride, doubt, anger, lust and greed manifest as cruelty, confusion, corruption, exploitation and criminality – and terrorism and war are never far behind. Even in the most civilized of nations like America, rage, depression, anxiety, mental illness, addiction, divorce, family breakdown, hopelessness and suicide far too often get the upper hand.

Yet, God is merciful. For into this exceedingly dark world, He sends a gift. The Creator of the entire universe, omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent, somehow manages to wrap His nature and goodness and grace and healing and majesty and a plan for redemption all into a tiny package – a present for mankind – and sends it to earth in the form of an infant. A wonder literally beyond our imagining, God’s Son is not only full of love and truth and innocence – basically, everything this world is not – but bears the ultimate gift of healing for mankind. The child grows up to become not only the most important person to ever live – the greatest example, greatest teacher, greatest religious leader and so on – but much more. He becomes the savior of mankind, the doorway to a new life for us, both in this world and the next.

But, He says, there will be many difficulties as we journey through this present life.

Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. – John 15:20

For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake. – Philippians 1:29

Even so, there is a sort of divine magic afoot, for all who embrace Him and faithfully follow His path to peace and fulfillment even in the midst of suffering, joy in the face of heartache, fullness of life even when surrounded by death. The magic of God’s love for us and our redemption is a great and mysterious heavenly miracle, yet down here at “ground level” we are called to focus on forgiveness: God forgives our sins through Christ’s sacrifice for us – and we, in gratitude and obedience, forgive everyone else’s sins. Everyone. Completely and totally.

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. – Matthew 5:44-45

If you think about it, when we bless those who curse us and do good to them that hate us and pray for those who persecute us, we can’t lose. No matter what. We become bulletproof. The good is good, and the bad is good, so to speak.

U.S. soldiers kneel in prayer

Moreover, let’s remember that as important as this life is, we are on a sojourn through this world to another kingdom. While here, we’re meant to live every moment of our lives in faithful service and obedience to our now and future king.

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. – Revelation 21:4-5

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Jesus as Son of God? Muslims now claim Christian beliefs ‘mock Islam’

A Christian commentator isn’t saying, “I told you so.”

But he could.

With the most recent developments in Uganda, where, according to a Washington Times report, Muslims are now considering “any public statement of the Christian faith,” to be an insult to Muslims.

And then they believe they can “justifiably exact revenge.”

Including violent attacks against Christians making statements about their faith.

It is commentator Robert Spencer who has written at FrontPageMag that the Times report explains the “extraordinary revelation.”

“Muslims now consider any public statement of the Christian faith to be a calculated insult to Muslims, for which they can justifiably exact revenge,” he said. “This is, or should be, sobering news for the comfortable Christians of the West who have made an idol out of ‘interfaith dialogue’ and fastidiously avoid saying anything remotely critical about Islam, even as the Muslim persecution of Christians continues worldwide.”

The Times said, “In June a group of Muslims attacked Christian preachers in eastern Uganda during a ‘crusade,’ where Christians publicly profess their faith and invite others to join. Muslims in the town accused the Christians of mocking Islam by publicly saying Jesus was the Son of God.”

That is, after all, what the Bible teaches.

Christian pastor Moses Saku, however, said in the report that because of the statements, Muslims immediately turned violent.

“They became very angry and began throwing rocks at Christians, chanting ‘Allah akbar.’ Many Christians were injured during the incident,” he said.

The results prompted Spencer to write, sarcastically, “Christians, stop saying Jesus is the Son of God. It provokes Muslims.”

“The Christians appealed to the Muslims to have respect for those of other faith; the Muslims responded with contempt,” Spencer wrote. “One Muslim, Abubakar Yusuf, declared: ‘We have now declared a jihad against them. We are not going to allow anybody to despise Islamic teachings at their church or crusade. We will seek revenge.’”

The Christians, Spencer explained, did no more than preach aspects of Christianity, such as the divinity of Christ.

“Christians, knowing how delicate their situation was, would never have dreamed of actually saying something critical about Islam itself; but to the Muslims who heard them, just enunciating the tenets of their Christian faith was criticism enough. And they refused to stand for it,” he explained.

He pointed out that a few years back, he and Pamela Geller organized the AFDI Muhammad Art Exhibit and Cartoon Contest in Garland, Texas.

At the time, some Christians criticized him for holding the event. It was, they challenged, an uneeded provocation.

“These charitable and enlightened Christians said that Christians should instead be deferential to others’ religious sensibilities. At the time, I responded to these people by explaining that giving in to violent intimidation (our event was a response to the jihad murder of the Charlie Hebdo Muhammad cartoonists in Paris) would only encourage more violent intimidation, and that given the fact that Muslims frequently found even basic expressions of Christian faith to be ‘provocative,’ they were effectively cutting the ground out from under themselves and their children, making it impossible for them to practice Christianity in the future,” he said.

“These incidents in Uganda are proof that this was correct. In declaring jihad and stating that the Muslims were now on a quest for revenge, Abubakar Yusuf and the Muslims who agree with him are in effect saying that the public expression of the Christian faith mocks Islam and despises Islamic teachings.”

The Times originally reported now Muslims are attacking those who refuse to convert to what used to be known as Muhammadism.

Christians have been killed by Muslims for such an offense in recent months, and Christian churches have been vandalized, the report said.

WND has reported, too, on a movement at the level of the United Nations among Muslim nations to create a worldwide ban on any criticism of Islam.

The efforts date back at least a decade, and so far have not been successful.

But leaders from Pakistan now say they are “spearheading efforts to get countries to sign onto the “International Convention on Preventing the Defamation of Religions,” which would provide Islam with that special protection.

That document states “freedom of speech is an insufficient pretext for hurting the world’s Muslims.”

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Armed man arrested on way to church to fulfill ‘prophecy’

Tony Dwayne Albert

It seems that walking down a Texas street wearing tactical style clothing, a surgical face mask and carrying loaded guns and extra ammo is going to get attention.

At least, it did over the weekend for a man in Seguin, Texas, an hour’s drive northeast of San Antonio, who was arrested when a woman noticed the unusual appearance and called officers, who were told man talked about going to a nearby church to fulfill a “prophecy.”

ABC reported Tony Albert, 33, was arrested on Sunday

“An SPD officer, who was off-duty at the time, was the first on the scene and observed an oddly dressed male wearing tactical style clothing, a surgical face shield, carrying a loaded firearm and extra ammunition,” the police department said in a statement.

“During the investigation, officers revealed that 33 year old Tony Albert was allegedly en-route to unidentified church to fulfill what he called a prophecy.”

It appears that workers at a nearby restaurant, Las Mañanitas Mexican restaurant, had alerted police when Albert allegedly walked in and asked about the nearest church.

He faces charges of possession of marijuana and being a felon in possession of a gun, the records revealed.

ABC said, “Brianna Jimenez, a waitress at Las Mañanitas Mexican restaurant is Seguin, said she and her mother called to report Albert early Sunday morning when he walked in and asked them to drive him the nearest Baptist church.”

She reported that there is a church next door to the restaurant, but Albert allegedly told her, “I’ve been to that church many years ago. … Do you know where the other Baptist church is at?”

As Albert was walking away, Jimenez told KSAT, she noticed he was armed, and was holding his finger on the trigger.

Restaurant workers locked down their facility as Albert was reported to police.

Police didn’t name the witnesses, but expressed thanks and warned it “could have ended differently.”

The suspect was being held on $100,000 bond.

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Conservative woman can’t get housing due to politics

 

Pardes Seleh (GoFundMe)

A conservative in Washington is facing discrimination – she’s being denied permission to rent a living unit – because of her politics.

The story is outlined by Townhall columnist Zachary Petrizzo who explains the problem facing Pardes Seleh, who is “a conservative who has worked at Fox News and is now a graduate student.”

She shared an email she got in response to her inquiry about a rental.

“After pursuing your journalistic and social media posts, it’s pretty clear your political views are diametrically opposed to ours (and we hate Fox),” the response said.

She had asked for information about an ad regarding “Furn’d pvt room & bath, all utils incl+pool and gym.”

my second time this week being rejected from an apartment/house in dc bc i worked at fox pic.twitter.com/rybqT52A5O

— Pardes Seleh (@PardesSeleh) December 27, 2018

“An hour later,” Petrizzo wrote, “Seleh, in a video posted to Twitter, explained that her political views aren’t far right-wing or that ‘crazy.’ Seleh then expressed the fact that she didn’t want to be seen as a victim, but rather show what occurred when searching for housing in D.C. … as a conservative.”

He continued, “Seleh told Townhall that she was ‘looking to downsize to an apartment with rommates in order to save money on rent, but it seems a lot of the people who live in my area wouldn’t want a roommate with my work background or political views.’”

One commenter pointed out that Washington has a fair-housing law that might be applicable. That law, in fact, protects from discrimination against “political affiliation” and “source of income.”

A GoFundMe account has now been set up for Seleh, with a message stating: “Please help Pardes overcome liberal bigotry and help her find a Washington landlord who follows the law and doesn’t discriminate based on political ideology.

“It’s bad enough for someone to be de-platformed on social media. But this is real life — banning someone from finding housing, based on their political views.”

Daily Caller said Seleh had been a scriptwriter for Laura Ingraham.

The report said it actually was the second rejection for Pardes recently. She explained both were group housing situations with roommates either in an apartment or a townhouse.

“I respect people’s rights to deny service to anybody they want, but I’m also going to voice my frustration with constantly being rejected from things in D.C. because of my conservative background,” she said.

She also discouraged people from retaliating against those who discriminated against her.

“Guys, please don’t go looking up these peoples [sic] apartment and harassing them, I am not a victim and I don’t want to punish anybody,” she said.

She did seek out one other option, though.

She contacted Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat with strong socialist views who has claimed she can’t afford to live in Washington.

“@Ocasio2018 want to be my roommate?” she asked.

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Louis C.K. mocks David Hogg in new routine

(DAILY MAIL) — Disgraced comedian Louis CK sparked outrage for making fun of the Parkland High School shooting victims and saying he would rather live at the site of a former Nazi concentration camp than New York City during a stand-up set earlier this month.

Audio has been leaked of CK performing at a Long Island comedy club on December 16 in what was the comedian’s sixth sold-out show at the venue.

During the set, the comedian also told the crowd that he lost $35 million in a single day.

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Russia arrests American ‘caught spying’

(BBC) — Russia’s FSB state security agency says it has arrested a US citizen “caught spying” in Moscow.

It named him as Paul Whelan, saying he was arrested in Moscow on 28 December and charged with “espionage”.

The FSB gave no further details.

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Warren takes 1st step toward presidential run

(FOX) — Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Monday she is filing paperwork to launch an exploratory committee for president, taking her first major step toward a 2020 run for the White House.

“Today, I’m launching an exploratory committee for president,” Warren, 69, a Democrat, said in a video released to supporters.

In her announcement, the liberal firebrand argued government “has been bought and paid for by a bunch of billionaires and giant corporations that think they get to dictate the rules that affect everyone,” calling it “corruption, pure and simple.”

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Dem House faces question: What not to investigate?

(THE GUARDIAN) — When Democrats formally assume the US House majority in January for the first time in eight years, they will contend with a president long dubbed by most members of their party as unfit and unqualified to serve.

But for the first time in the two years since Donald Trump’s inauguration, Democrats will no longer be watching or protesting from the sidelines.

Fresh off a major victory in the November 2018 midterm elections – which saw the party gain 40 seats in the House – Democrats are preparing to fully utilize the investigative authorities afforded to Congress as legal troubles continue to mount for the president and his inner circle.

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NBC host wants ‘climate deniers’ silenced

(Washington Times) NBC News has decided that climate change is no longer an issue that has two sides.

Sunday’s episode of “Meet the Press” with Chuck Todd featured an hourlong panel with lawmakers and scientists about the consequences of climate change. But at the start, Mr. Todd said his show is “not going to give time to climate deniers” and went on to inaccurately characterize the nature of the climate debate.

“Just as important as what we are going to do is what we’re not going to do,” he said. “We’re not going to debate climate change, the existence of it. The earth is getting hotter, and human activity is a major cause. Period.”

“We’re not going to give time to climate deniers,” Mr. Todd added. “The science is settled even if political opinion is not.”

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