Source: The Simplistic and Baseless War on Plastic Bags | RealClearMarkets

Hopes that America’s 250th birthday would be a time of national unity and healing have not been fulfilled so far. After a bipartisan commission (America 250) formed in 2016 dissolved into internal squabbles with little to show for its years of planning, President Trump authorized his own commission (Freedom 250) to organize celebrations worthy of the occasion. But the Left refuses to approve anything touched by Trump, even if it simply cheers on America, so a band of committed leftists is now organizing their own summer events as counterprogramming to the official celebrations of America. Early signs suggest that their events, organized under the title “Next250,” will prioritize protest over celebration.

The Next250 movement is co-chaired by two former organizers of the Women’s March, Linda Sarsour and Carmen Perez. The Women’s March became the face of anti-Trump protests during his first administration, although it fell into disrepute after its leadership’s ties to notorious anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan were exposed. Sarsour and other organizers stepped down in 2019, while Perez lingered to facilitate a leadership transition.

Sarsour announced the tone of the Next250 campaign on Sunday, “America’s next 250 years start with us. As attacks on voting rights continue, immigrant communities are targeted, and too many of our neighbors are pushed to the margins, this moment demands more than remembrance — it demands action.”

The Next250 website described itself as an effort to “retell US history from the perspectives and contributions of women of color and other marginalized identities.” It listed five policy demands: “Living Wage for All; Climate Justice for All; Reproductive Rights & Justice for All; Voting Rights for All; Gun Safety and Peace for All.”

Lest the organization seem totally partisan and not remotely patriotic, they shoe-horned in a Marxist manifesto but slapped a patriotic-sounding title on it. Next250 announced that it would “declare and demonstrate our shared values through a process that centers a new Declaration of Interdependence.”

Not in-dependence but inter-dependence. It would be an innocent inference in its own right, but in the pen of these leftists, it takes on the shape of group identity, ala critical theory.

“To begin the next 250 years of the American story,” the document declares, “we open our hearts and set free our radical imaginations to unlock a nation defined by interdependence, where everyone can participate, prosper, and reach their full potential.” We have to wonder if Next250 was secretly designed to show America what the 250th celebration would have looked like under President Kamala Harris.

“We are one nation,” it asserts, “interdependent, woven together by the strength of our ideals, our shared history, and the extraordinary land we live on — stewarded since time immemorial by Indigenous nations whose sovereignty and leadership continue today.”

The sentence started strong. The first half could have been uttered by any number of presidents. And then it petered away into an irrelevant land acknowledgement, which only ended the sentence in confusion (are the native nations part of the one nation?). Is this declaration trying to appeal to the spirit and ideals of America? Its left-wing base? Or is it caught in an incomprehensible middle by trying to do both?

In keeping with the vision of “Next250,” the declaration did not celebrate the America that has been as much as try to cast a vision for a future America. In a purpose statement, the declaration says it is offered “to achieve the promise of our nation and possibilities of this moment.” There is nothing wrong with a forward-looking vision. Nor is it necessarily bad to acknowledge that, “From its founding, the United States has existed in the gap between ideals and actions — the space between the ideals of liberty, equality, and justice for all, and the actions of genocide, land theft, and slavery.”

However, there is no tempering recognition that America, despite its flaws, remains the freest, most prosperous, and arguably greatest nation on earth. Those who read the declaration may also struggle to escape the conclusion that this document is a party platform, not a declaration of principles. Thus, it states:

“In this declaration of interdependence, we are building a nation where:

“All people are treated with dignity and respect.

“Everybody feels safe in every community.

“Access to clean, green spaces is abundant.

“Every person who works earns a living wage and benefits that allow families work-life balance.”

Finally, unlike the Declaration of Independence, which had a clear historical context that gave it a reason for existence, the Declaration of Interdependence just sort of flops gelatinously in an abstract breeze. Why does it exist? Perhaps not even the authors could tell that, at least not without mentioning the fact that Donald Trump is president.

With their guiding principles so poorly articulated, the Next250 movement has announced a kickoff event on Saturday, June 27. In their own words, the event is not a rally or celebration or memorial or anything of the sort. Instead, it is a “National Mobilization” — which sounds more like generic left-wing street protest than anything uniquely devoted to America’s 250th anniversary.

The National Mobilization event is sponsored by MPower Change, a positive-sounding name for the Muslim Grassroots Movement. Other sponsoring organizations include 50501 Events, People Power United, Blue Future, DemCastUSA, Free Speech For People, and 50501 D.C. Some of these groups are deeply embedded into the left-wing agitator network. For instance, 50501 is responsible for the “No Kings” protests and has been linked to CodePink, Antifa, the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), and the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL).

The Next250 itinerary features other events. For instance, a June 20 art exhibition in Brooklyn, N.Y. will seek to recruit people for the Black Liberation-Indigenous Sovereignty Collective. “We’re trying to reach the folks who might not go to a protest, they might not go to a rally, but they would come to a cultural gathering,” organization Co-Founder and Executive Director Trevor Smith said. “And then once we reach them through art and through culture, we can actually onboard them into movement participation.”

Once again, the agenda seems more like standard left-wing street activism than celebrating America’s 250th birthday.

Indeed, the funding stream for Next250 suggests that it is at least friendly with the Democratic Party. It has a funding page on the ActBlue website, an organization that raises money for Democrats. The page notes, “#Next250 is housed at One Fair Wage.” That means this hatchling organization does not have the infrastructure (such as bank accounts, a treasurer, etc.) to handle its own finances, but a larger, more established organization in the Democratic orbit is happily providing this service for it.

Some committed activists seem to be taking the agenda into their own hands. More than once already, organizers of Freedom 250 events on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. have encountered acts of vandalism against the equipment being set up (which is massive). In one recent incident, vandals cut a fuel line powering generators that ran the lights. As a result, 30 gallons of generator fuel leaked into underground cisterns that held rainwater. Nice work “greening” the planet there!

Family Research Council is a nonprofit research and educational organization founded in 1983, dedicated to articulating and advancing a family-centered philosophy of public life.

Source: Leftists Organize Counterprogramming to Official Freedom 250 Celebrations – Harbinger’s Daily

For decades, cultural Marxism has run rampant through our institutions.

This week, the world watched an officer dragging Henry Nowak across the floor as he died. The police officer, in the moment, failed to take seriously Henry’s claim to have been stabbed. He was needlessly handcuffed. His murderer stood over him, complaining of a swollen eye. He died on the floor.

It was the moment that the world woke up to the danger of cultural Marxism.

In significant moments like this, the story often becomes larger than the facts themselves. None of us can fully know the thoughts or motivations of every person involved.

But we know that in the 999 call and when the officers arrived, Vickrum Digwa weaponised claims of racism against his victim. And we know that for decades, concerns about political correctness have prevented police officers and other officials from doing the right thing, with devastating effects.

It would take enormous levels of faith for someone to believe that the claims of racism had no negative effect on the officers’ response at the scene.

This week, many have finally lost their faith in the grandmaster of cultural Marxism, Gramsci.

A Pyramid Of Oppression And The Hierarchy Of Rights

I have long lamented the way in which white men in our nation have been portrayed endlessly as the oppressor. Anyone who falls outside this ‘dominant’ group is assumed to be a victim of that oppression in some way.

The same is true of other characteristics: if you are Christian, heterosexual, or ‘cisgender’, you are often presumed to stand at the top of a cultural pyramid, benefiting from and perpetuating the disadvantage of those deemed to be below you.

The great success of cultural Marxism has been to march through the institutions, embedding attitudes and policies that invert this so-called pyramid of oppression, intentionally creating biases to correct what is seen as inequity. Intersectionality meant that disparate groups like Muslims and LGBTQ+ saw a common oppressor in Christians and could ally against them.

That’s why, when the Equality Act laid out protected characteristics like religion or belief, sexual orientation, and gender reassignment, it was never going to achieve real equality. There would be a clash between protected characteristics and a hierarchy of rights would develop.

In the work of the Christian Legal Centre, I have seen this play out in countless different ways.

Islam

Many of the most serious harms have come through fears of political correctness around Islam.

Decades of grooming gang abuses were allowed to continue because police and other authorities were concerned about accusations of racism and Islamophobia. The victims include ‘Sarah’, whom I have personally supported. She is among several survivors who have shared the specifically Islamic nature of some of the abuse. It has been a long uphill battle to get the authorities to even consider that these have anything to do with Islam, as our recent report demonstrates.

A security guard at the Manchester Arena attack failed to intervene for fear of being branded a racist.

In the wake of that and other Islamist attacks, Ian Sleeper held a sign saying “Love Muslims, hate Islam, Jesus is love and hope.” He was arrested.

The evangelist Hatun Tash is well known for having been stabbed at Speakers’ Corner and facing multiple plots to kill her because of her outreach to Muslims. Yet it is she who has been arrested numerous times, not the mobs surrounding her. She was arrested for damaging her own Quran. She was arrested falsely in 2021 minutes after those who incited her arrest were recorded calling for Jewish blood.

Even in situations where Muslims are the majority, as they surround the diminutive Hatun, they are afforded minority status and protected against the Christian.

And the Labour Government pushed hard for an Islamophobia definition (now ‘anti-Muslim hostility’) which will only make things worse. It provides even more reasons why people will be afraid to trust their eyes and address the real problems in front of them.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council has recently updated its misconduct guide to implement this anti-Muslim hatred definition. And speaking of nurses…

Trans Identities – Afforded The Highest Protection?

As I have supported nurses like Jennifer Melle and the Darlington Nurses through lengthy legal battles, it has been plain to see trans-identifying people being treated as automatic victims, no matter what the facts are.

Multiple women raised concerns about the inappropriate behaviour of ‘Rose’, a man who stood in a female changing room in his boxer shorts with holes in them and triggered traumatic flashbacks for female nurse Karen Danson. Even though the nurses won their case, the treatment of these women throughout the situation is in stark contrast to the support and respect consistently given to ‘Rose’.

Even more stark was the differing treatment given to Jennifer Melle when she accurately described a male, convicted paedophile prisoner as ‘mister’, leading to her being racially abused using the N word. She was suspended and offered no support because his status as trans gave him automatic victim status, with Jennifer cast as oppressor.

Cultural Marxism Blinds Us

Everywhere I look in our cases and campaigns, this thinking turns up. Felix Ngole’s Christian views about marriage and sex were argued to be harmful due to minority stress theory. The “smash heteronormativity” chants used in staff training that chaplain Bernard Randall objected to cost him his job.

I could continue to outline the countless ways that these clashes play out between differing groups. The ubiquitous ideology of cultural Marxism has blinded us and led to worse inequalities.

So it would be absolutely no surprise for it to have blinded the police officers attending the murder of Henry Nowak.

Everything about our cultural narratives screams that it’s likely that a white lad, perhaps after a night out, would racially abuse and attack a minority. This is what Vickrum Digwa exploited. This is what made Henry Nowak’s claim of having been stabbed so unbelievable to the police officer arriving at the scene.

Reverse the identities of those involved and this is plain to see. Imagine a group of white men standing around a minority who is on the floor saying he’s been stabbed. Does anyone truly believe the treatment would have been identical?

God demands that we show no partiality. There is one law for both native and stranger. We must abandon systems of thinking that insist on privileging some groups over others, not because of “the content of their character” but because they belong to a group that is afforded automatic victim status.

The ideology of cultural Marxism has twisted Christian virtues of impartiality and justice into a harmful parody of those values.

The world is becoming ready for the real thing – we need to be ready to give it to them.

It’s found in the person of Jesus Christ, in whom all things hold together. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Jesus makes sense of everything. In him, truth, justice and freedom are found.

Andrea Williams is the Chief Executive of Christian Concern and the Christian Legal Centre, which works to safeguard the freedom of Christians and to provide legal support for those taking a stand for Jesus.

Source: The Murder Of Henry Nowak: Will The World Finally Wake Up To The Danger Of Cultural Marxism? – Harbinger’s Daily

There’s something different about this June. There are fewer rainbows. No, I’m not talking about the sign of God’s covenant that appears in the sky after a storm. I’m talking about the rainbow flag that has become the symbol of Pride Month.

For years, June brought a predictable wave of corporate logos, advertising campaigns, themed merchandise, and public celebrations. Parents learned to pay closer attention to commercials in family programming, sports fans grew accustomed to Pride-themed uniforms and promotions, and many city streets became venues for often indecent displays at Pride parades.

This year is noticeably different. The symbols are not gone, but they are far less prominent. It’s premature to say Pride has fallen, but it is fair to say the appeal of Pride Month has faded.

Corporations are rethinking their public affiliation with a cultural agenda that, according to a Gallup poll released this week, is losing support among Americans. The Obama-Biden era push to promote transgenderism among children, while limiting treatment options to experimental drugs and surgeries, has prompted many Americans to reconsider the movement’s underlying motives.

Increasingly, Americans see Pride parades not merely as expressions of tolerance but as demonstrations of cultural influence reaching into every corner of society. For many, concerns over gender identity policies involving children became the point at which broader questions about sexuality, marriage, parental rights, and cultural authority converged. As many warned years ago, the debate was never simply about the right to marry the person one loves; it was also about redefining longstanding social norms, including those governing parent-child relationships.

When schools withheld information from parents about a child’s social gender transition, many families saw the connection between what was happening in the classroom and the broader redefinition of marriage and family. As a result, public opinion began to shift.

That shift is showing up in the corporate world. Companies are not only scaling back Pride Month promotions; many are abandoning participation in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index. The 2026 index lost 65% of its Fortune 500 participants. Whether driven by conviction, consumer pressure, or shareholder concerns, many corporations are recalculating their public association with LGBT activism.

By itself, that would not prove a cultural realignment. But combined with developments in states across the nation, it suggests something more than a temporary retreat. Republican leaders have moved beyond symbolic resistance to Pride Month and are increasingly advancing proclamations and policies promoting the nuclear family. Among the arguments they cite is extensive social science showing that, across numerous measures, children do best when raised by their married mother and father.

Here is why I believe this is more than a passing fad: corporate leaders and elected officials are responding to the people. For several years, parents refused to back down. They attended school board and city council meetings, despite being called domestic terrorists. They opposed policies involving boys in girls’ sports and mixed-sex bathrooms and locker rooms, and in many cases ran for office themselves. Across the country, they won seats, changed policies, and reshaped local government.

There are fewer rainbows this June. That alone does not mean the cultural debate is over. But it does suggest that millions of Americans who refused to surrender their convictions are beginning to see the impact of their perseverance. Parents and patriots are prevailing not through outrage, but through persistence.

Tony Perkins is the president of the Family Research Council and executive editor of The Washington Stand. He also served two terms as a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives, and served as Chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Source: Shifting Public Opinion: The Appeal Of Pride Month Appears To Be Fading – Harbinger’s Daily