Overall freedom and women’s rights better in Israel or Arabia? Choose.   Israel is the one and only nation that violates women’s rights, so says the United Nations (U.N.).
We are taught that all cultures are equal, that they are all equally valuable. We are told that, despite creating the modern, technological world, western, capitalist, mostly white cultures are no better than Arab, Persian, or Islamic cultures anywhere else.
Welcome to the United Nations where magical thinking like this dominates. It’s what makes it difficult to determine whether the U.N. is a circus or an insane asylum.
Case in point; the U.N. Economic and Social Council voted 40-2 (with 9 abstentions) to single out the state of Israel as the only nation that violates women’s rights. Voting in the affirmative were countries where husbands have the “right” to rape and beat their wives (Saudi Arabia), stone women who commit adultery (Iran), and other Middle Eastern and African states where the unspeakable practice of female genital mutilation is routinely practiced and accepted.
Israel was singled out for allegedly being the “major obstacle†for Palestinian women “with regard to their advancement, self-reliance, and integration in the development of their society.â€
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Firenze Sage  JAJ48@aol.com  Let us move the U.N. from NY to Cairo and then de-fund it.
 Sen. Bernie Sanders said on Sunday he thinks it’s “unbelievable†that President Trump “attacks American cities†when asked about Trump’s tweet calling Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings’ Baltimore district a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.â€
However, Sanders sounded a different tune in 2015 when he likened Cummings’ West Baltimore district to a “Third World country.â€
Anyone who took the walk that we took around this neighborhood would not think you’re in a wealthy nation. You would think that you were in a Third World country,†Sanders said during a tour of the city in the aftermath of riots over the April 2015 death of Freddie Gray, an African-American man who died after falling into a coma while in police custody.
In 2016, the politician sounded off about Baltimore’s “poorest boroughs,†saying that residents have “lifespans shorter than people living under dictatorship in North Korea.â€
Further, Sen Hirono knows little about economic freedoms.  Now  we learn Hirono did not know what the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) was when asked by a reporter Thursday if she would be for moving forward with the replacement to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
The USMCA, a change from NAFTA, is a bipartisan trade agreement that some think could benefit America’s farmers, ranchers, businesses, and workers. Once approved by Congress, the USMCA is supposed to help longstanding trade problems by giving American businesses more freedom to sell their goods and services throughout North America.
When asked by a reporter if she thinks Pelosi should bring up the USMCA, Hirono responded by saying “the what?†The reporter asked again, if Pelosi should bring up the USMCA for a vote in the House, to which Hirono responded again by asking “the USMCA?â€
One of her staffers then cut in, and said to Hirono, “the new NAFTA.†Hirono paused for a while and then said, “I have to think about that.â€
For church members & the public, COPA / Central Coast Interfaith Sponsors Inc. is not a good bang for the buck based on  info from Charity Navigator.
Look at the numbers:
COPA expenses: Seventy-nine percent  or roughly 4 out of 5 dollars pays for Personnel ($288 K) and General/ Administrative ($18.8 K). Only 21% [$80,400 / $387,233] goes for Program Costs. Wow!
$288 K pays for three full-time COPA organizers in the 2018-19 Budget.  Central Coast Interfaith Sponsors Inc. is another name for COPA in the Santa Cruz and Monterey CA area.
COPA/ Central Coast Interfaith Sponsors Inc. is housed at a Lutheran church in Watsonville, CA and pays about $19 K for General and Administrative costs.
 How to evaluate the numbers:Â
Program Expenses: The majority of charities listed by Charity Navigator  – seven out of ten non profits – spend at least 75% of their expenses directly on their Programs. That means the organization should spend no more than 25% of their total expenses on administrative overhead and fundraising costs.
COPA / Central Coast Interfaith Sponsors Inc. reverses the percentages recommended by Charity Navigator with expenses for Program accounting for only 21% and Personnel/ Administrative expenses accounting for 79%. Wow. That’s a reversal!
 Check for evidence of commitment to accountability and transparency:
Website:Â The best charities are transparent and accountable to the public. You should be able to see evidence of this in the information they provide on their web site. Can you readily find information about the charity’s staff and Board of Directors? Did the charity publish its financial information such as its most recently filed Form 990 or audit?
Transparency: Low. One must search to find connections to COPA’s  founding organization — the Industrial Area Foundation (IAF) of Chicago, Illinois COPA is a long standing affiliate of IAF.  And there’s no mention of community activist Saul Alinsky who wrote the guiding principles for progressive socialists i.e., Rules for Radicals. One might think it interesting to churches that Alinsky dedicated his book to Lucifer.
Open Borders is one goal of COPA / IAF / Central Coast Interfaith Sponsors Inc.
Churches connected with COPA in Santa Cruz and Monterey CA fund open border  immigration policies. Exactly how much dues each church affiliate pays COPA is not readily available.
COPA recently  held a conference on immigration “reform” in Monterey, CA (4/9/2018). No specifics as to number of attendees is provided on their website.
The Catholic church in CA is a long time supporter of open borders. Five of the seven churches in Santa Cruz County & neighboring two counties which act as as the governing board of COPA  are Catholic.
Other supporters of COPA include several Episcopal churches, i.e., St. John’s in Aptos, Calvary in Santa Cruz and St. Mary’s by the Sea in Pacific Grove.
Sunday, 9/16/18 at 9 am,  COPA / Central Coast Interfaith Sponsors Inc. lead organizer Tim McManus speaks at St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church in Aptos, CA. You might ask Mr. McManus why roughly 4 of 5 dollars of Expenses goes to pay staff Personnel & Administrative and only 21% pays for Program.
Aptos Psychologist:Â Â Â COPA goes to church leaders and gets their “buy in” and them uses that buy in to contact parishioners and teach Alinsky progressive socialist goals.
What is COPA?   On November 2, 2009 Freedom Advocates wrote, “COPA targets congregations and unsuspecting parishioners…”
What COPA currently says:  It’s Mission is  “to develop the leadership skills of ordinary people …. to engage effectively in public life …with power to negotiate with public and private sector leaders … to change the economic, social, political and cultural pressures on their families …Â
COPA has 22 member institutions in Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Benito Counties — including “many religious groups” they say.
Per COPA’s website (4/2018) Pete Scudder of Scudder Roofing said about obtaining workers, “there is no system. There is no line. No way anyone come here legally unless they have  a lot of money….Scudder Roofing construction company hires 90% Hispanics. Scudder Roofing seeks to sponsor ‘citizen applications for workers’.
Back to general discussion of COPA / Central Coast Interfaith Sponsors Inc.Â
It’s vital to look at how charities are rated for financial health and transparency. Neither COPA aka Central Coast Interfaith Sponsors Inc is rated by Charity Navigator. That’s because their financials are too small for Charity Navigator.
What if all the legs of the founding organization — IAF — were examined by Charity Navigator? What if COPA was transparent about its socialist progressive agenda? Would parishioners and the public support COPA / Central Coast Interfaith Sponsors Inc?
It’s best to view COPA and Central Coast Interfaith Sponsors Inc. for what they are — community organizing entities which seek progressive socialist goals.
Per D Souza both Barrack Obama and Hilary Clinton — both students of Alinsky — implemented Saul Alinsky’s political tactics.
Remember Obama’s promises that “you can keep your doctors…” and that “insurance premiums costs were going down …” Then Obama took over health care and 1/6th of private economy. Check out D. Souza on YouTube.
What do you want for your children and grandchildren?  That your children learn progressive socialism in church via COPA / Central Coast Interfaith Sponsors Inc?Â
Or that your children learn to think for themselves and seek freedom?Â
written by Aptos Psychologist Cameron Jackson PSY 14762
Pocahontas — aka Sen. Elizabeth Warren –gets fossil fuel wampum.
For many years, Sen. Warren  receives money from a gas producer.  Sen. Warren has expressed views that gas producers harm the planet. What she has to say about fossil fuels.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren received royalty payments in 2017 from one of the largest natural gas producers in the nation, according to tax return documents her campaign released Wednesday.
Warren received $121 in royalty payments in 2017 from Chesapeake Operating, LLC, a subsidiary company of Chesapeake Energy, according to her tax return. Chesapeake is the second-largest natural gas producer in the nation behind Exxon Mobil and is the most active driller of new gas wells in the country.
Warren called out major oil companies, including Exxon, Shell and BP for raking in billions in profits, during a 2015 speech before climate and labor activist where she stressed that government regulation of the energy industry was necessary to prevent companies from “dumping filth in the river or spewing poisons in the air.â€
Notably absent from her speech was mention of Chesapeake, which operates nearly 23,000 oil and natural gas wells across the country. The company signs lease agreements with landowners prior to opening a new drill site and pays royalties to leaseholders, like Warren, typically as a percentage of the revenue earned from the sale of the gas drilled.
Warren’s financial ties to Chesapeake date back to before her entrance to the Senate in 2013, according to her tax returns.
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Firenze Sage opines:Â Â More hypocrisy and fraud from the queen of deceit [Elizabeth Warren].
First stated by Henry IV of France as, “I want there to be no peasant in my realm so poor that he will not have a chicken in his pot every Sunday,” and later in the United States during the Hoover campaign for presidency as part of an advertisement.
The cost of chicken is about $1.28 per pound in the USA.
So — what can people do so Venezuela kids have “a chicken in every pot”?
The Trump Administration has imposed a range of sanctions on the Maduro dictatorship in Venezuela, including sanctions targeting Maduro and other senior government officials.
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firenze sage–how many bills buys a Venezualean chicken?
There’s several upcoming vigils at Richmond CA which support Open Borders for ALL Illegal immigrants — is this what CA needs? What the USA needs?
OPEN BORDERS for ALL is vital according to Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity. Really?
How come everyone wants “in” as a refugee to the USA and there’s no rush to leave the USA and be a refugee elsewhere? Why don’t we help people stay where they are and — if they leave — help them get back to their homelands, back to their culture, back to the world they grew up in, know and love?
Are the “welcome the stranger” sermons — frequently preached from many  church pulpits — used by the Open Borders crowd? Maybe the persons preaching “welcome the stranger” sermons are the Open Borders crowd.
Here’s some useful info:  There’s three upcoming vigils for illegal immigrants detained by ICE at Richmond Detention Center CA. Friday June 8, Sat. July 7 and Sat. August 8. Why not go and you decide.
Why not have a vigil that represents more than one opinion?
Mother Deborah Lee is the Executive Director of Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity. Per reviews of Interfaith literature, this group mobilizes faith communities for immigrant, racial and economic justice.
This post will update regarding info about the vigils…..
NAFTA is “the worst trade deal ever made” Trump tweets.
NAFTA permits China and other Asian and European countries to import car parts to Mexico and Canada and — once assembled there — those cars enter the USA market without tariffs.
Because of this “loophole”, NAFTA is great deal for Mexico and Canada and for parts manufacturers world wide. NAFTA has been and continues to be  bad deal for USA manufacturing.
So — keeping another campaign promise – expect Trump to exit NAFTA and establish separate trade deals with Canada and Mexico.  Here’s why:
Pictures show mostly young men ages 16-24 not women, children or visibly gay and lesbian persons. One never knows …. Â
So the Caravan coming to the USA was started by gays and lesbians? So they say ….  City without Borders aka Pueble Sin Froneras states that the gays and lesbians — LGBT community — started the 1,000+ persons curerntly traveling to the USA from Honduras and near by areas.
In announcing the group’s March 25 departure, Pueblo Sin Fronteras sent a statement saying it is a “group of people from different nations, religions, genders, gender expressions and sexual orientations migrating and seeking refuge.â€
The statement calls for a series of measures, including an end to political corruption, to violence against members of the LGBT community, to “murder with impunity and gang recruitment of youth.â€
It demands that the U.S. government continued Temporary Protected Status — a program for people from nations affected by wars or disasters. It asks that the “U.S. government stop massive funding for the Mexican government to detain Central American migrants and refugees and to deport them.â€