#POPE embraces #Castro but calls #Trump anti-Christian !!! @Thinker

By Silvio Canto, Jr.

Last Sunday, Pope Francis was in Mexico visiting sick children in hospitals.  It was amazing to watch him holding the little kids and praying with their mothers.  As a Catholic, I was so proud of "El Papa."

That was El Papa being El Papa, or the religious leader of my faith.  He was reaching out to kids and their mothers and giving them some hope.

As he left Mexico, Pope Francis made a terrible mistake by saying that Donald Trump is not a Christian.  I am not sure if he was answering a question or speaking at a meeting.  He had finished a Mass on the El Paso-Ciudad Juarez border.  

First, El Papa should stay away from presidential elections, here, there, and everywhere.  

Second, the Vatican is one gigantic place surrounded by walls.  

Third, is a border now un-Christian?  How did we get to the point that defending borders and promoting legal immigration is now inhumane?

Fourth, El Papa has given Mr. Trump a huge gift.  I am not a Trump supporter, but I believe that the U.S. has every right to protect and defend its borders.  I don't know whether building a wall from Laredo to San Diego is the best answer.  However, it may work in some isolated regions currently used by cartels to bring drugs and people.

Last, but not least, El Papa just visited Cuba.  He hugged and embraced Raúl Castro, a man who has executed priests, harassed religious leaders, and closed Christian schools years ago.  Did he call the Castro brothers un-Christian?

Pope Francis is a good man, but he needs a few people around him to protect him from himself.

P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow m

Vietnam Sends Blogger to Prison for 15 Months

Dissident blogger Pham Viet Dao appears at a court in Hanoi, Vietnam on March 19, 2014.

IMAGE: DOAN TAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS

BY LORENZO FRANCESCHI-BICCHIERAI

Vietnam has jailed a prominent opposition blogger for 15 months, accusing him of "abusing democratic freedoms" with his blog posts against the government.

Pham Viet Dao, 62, was arrested in June 2013 for posting several articles against Vietnam's leaders. The authorities charged Dao, a former official at the Ministry of Culture and member of the Vietnam Writers Association, with a crime of "abusing democratic freedoms to infringe on the interests of the State." Judge Ngo Tu Hoc found him guilty in a two-hour-trial celebrated in Hanoi on Wednesday, according to multiple news reports.

SEE ALSO: Iran Arrests 16 in New Crackdown on Internet Freedom

http://mashable.com/2014/03/19/vietnam-blogger-prison/?utm_cid=mash-com-Tw-main-link

The End of International Law

March 14, 2014 by Daniel Greenfield 

“There has been no greater advance than this, gentlemen,” the President of the United States said. “It is a definite guarantee of peace. It is a definite guarantee by word against aggression.”

The year was 1919. The speaker was President Woodrow Wilson and the tremendous advance in human history was the League of Nations.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/the-end-of-international-law/

“You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.”

Woodrow T. Wilson quote

Four of five FCC study authors gave to Obama

BY BYRON YORK | FEBRUARY 27, 2014 AT 6:20 PM 

TOPICS: BELTWAY CONFIDENTIAL BARACK OBAMA FCC

According to Federal Election Commission records, the authors of a study about the FCC donated to...

A significant problem with the now-suspended Federal Communications Commission plan to have government contractors question journalists about editorial decisions and practices was that it was a partisan exercise. The plan originated among Democrats on the FCC; the commission's two Republican members didn't even learn about it until it was well under way.

There was also a one-sidedness in the research behind the project. The FCC enlisted scholars from two big journalism schools, the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Communication and Democracy, to determine the "critical information needs" about which journalists would be questioned. The study, delivered in July 2012, listed five authors: Ernest J. Wilson III, Carola Weil, and Katya Ognyanova from USC, Lewis Friedland from Wisconsin, and Philip Napoli from Fordham University. (Weil is now with American University.) Four of the five, it turns out, contributed to President Obama's campaigns.

http://washingtonexaminer.com/four-of-five-fcc-study-authors-gave-to-obama/article/2544837

EU reportedly agrees to impose sanctions on Ukraine as truce falls apart

The European Union reportedly has agreed in an emergency meeting Thursday to impose sanctions against Ukraine after violence flared up again in Kiev, leaving at least 33 people dead.

In other developments:

• Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly is sending an envoy to Ukraine to try to mediate discussions with anti-government protesters – at the request of the country’s president. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov made the envoy announcement after Putin and Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych talked over the phone, state-run news agency RIA Novosti reported, according to Reuters.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/02/20/ukrainian-president-announces-and-protesters-have-agreed-to-truce/

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Even the mighty red (And still drunken) Russian bear breaks down when faced with the potential enemormous financial consequences that santions imposed by the EU and US can bring.

Just never forget who the Russians are and NEVER FORGET their bloddy history.

Legendary folk singer Pete Seeger dies at 94

By Jethro Mullen, CNN

updated 8:54 AM EST, Tue January 28, 2014

Legendary folk singer and political activist Pete Seeger died of natural causes on January 27, his grandson told CNN. He was 94. Pictured, Seeger performs on stage in 1970.

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Folk legend Pete Seeger

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STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Pete Seeger dies of natural causes in a New York hospital, his family says
• His career spanned more than 70 years, often courting controversy
• He is known for songs like "Where Have All the Flowers Gone"

(CNN) -- Pete Seeger, the man considered to be one of the pioneers of contemporary folk music who inspired legions of activist singer-songwriters, died Monday.

He was 94.

Seeger's best known songs include "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," "Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)" and "If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song)."

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/28/showbiz/pete-seeger-death/

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Seeger, Woody Guthrie and their entire generation had a life long effect on all of us.

When this nascent musician was first getting stared playing folk guitar in the earlyl 1960's, it was via these influences, Sing Out Magazine, Peter, Paul and Mary and a lively folks music scene here in Chicago that brought it all to life.

With the Earl of Old Town on Wells Street and the Old Town School of Folk Music on North Avenue, artists of this genreation were readily available and an inspitation to us all.

Remember these lasting words - 

Sing Out for the Lord to Help You, for the Lord is Mighty Strong,

Don't worry about your heavy load, for the Lord's gonna help you along.

RIP Pete.

However, there is a dark side to Pete Seeger, one that is airbrushed out of all the effusive hagiography. Seeger was a dedicated Stalinist and has not renounced his devotion to communism, a political ideology, which according to the Black Book of Communism, responsible for the murder of over 94 million people. When you speak out against communism you get booed, when you’re a cheerleader for its mass murderers you get a Kennedy Center tribute and presidential praise.

Seeger was a member of the Communist Party from the 1930s through the 1950s. He left the party but never gave up the faith. He told the Washington Post in 1995 “I am still a communist.” Like his comrades and fellow travelers Seeger twisted and turned with every pronouncement from Moscow. Seeger supported the Nazi-Soviet Pact, a curious position for a noted “anti-fascist.” In 1941 Seeger along with Guthrie was a member of the Almanac Singers, a communist folk group. The group put out the anti-war album Songs from John Doe, containing songs that labeled Franklin Roosevelt a war monger.

http://www.examiner.com/article/the-dark-side-of-pete-seeger

White House rejects review board finding that NSA data sweep is illegal

The White House on Thursday disputed the findings of an independent review board that said the National Security Agency's mass data collection program is illegal and should be ended, indicating the administration would not be taking that advice. 

"We simply disagree with the board's analysis on the legality of the program," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said. 

He was responding to a scathing report from The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB), which said the program ran afoul of the law on several fronts. 

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/01/23/independent-federal-review-board-says-nsa-phone-data-collection-program-should/

Big Brother is wateching...

And BIG BROTHER knows best!

China's hot messaging app WeChat may be good news for censors

1 OF 2. A picture illustration shows icons of WeChat and Weibo app in Beijing, December 5, 2013.

CREDIT: REUTERS/PETAR KUJUNDZIC

(Reuters) - The day before China's Communist Party published one of its most important policy statements in a decade, a copy of the reform plans was already circulating on Chinese social media.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/11/us-china-censorship-tencent-idUSBRE9BA16M20131211