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After the indictment of Donald Trump, a chorus of progressive celebrities clutched pearls in fits of moral superiority claiming nobody is above the law."

These were the same progressives who spent years pushing the phony Russian Collusion narrative along with other false narratives to destroy Trump and his family. This comes despite the Rasmussen Poll of American voters, taken after the indictment, showing Trump went from trailing Biden 45-42 before the indictment to overtaking Biden by seven points (47-40) after the indictment

Reasoned politicians like even Trump haters Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney are clear this indictment is politically motivated and unfair. This is an outrageous double standard already undermining the law and our republic. Let me explain.

First, its critical to understand the forces bringing this indictment and what its about. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg ran for office promising to indict Trump even before seeing evidence. Famed Professor and author Victor David Hanson summarized some of the critical reasons this indictment was unjust and political: At least two left-leaning federal and state prosecutors (and the FEC) previously have passed on the same evidence Bragg is now using for his indictments. They have explained that such a prosecution is infeasible because of statutes of limitations, because of a state attorney improperly appropriating the role of a federal prosecutor, and because non-disclosures agreements are a fact of life and not strictly illegal.

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Hanson continued, Braggs chief witness Michael Cohen is a felon and confessed liar, with a deep personal hatred of Donald Trump -- a fact well known to all potential prosecutors.

Despite his get Trump campaign promises, even Alvin Bragg initially decided the case could not be brought. In that decision, Bragg was slammed by the left. However, after Trump announced for president, the indictment came. The indictment alleges that Trump paid porn star Stormy Daniels through his lawyer Michael Cohen for her to sign a non-disclosure agreement to silence the allegations.

Trumps business records show the payments as legal expenses. The misdemeanor records-keeping charge was turned into a felony by Bragg by alleging this misdemeanor was a felony by covering up a felony. To convict, this appears to require proving that the sole reason Trump tried to keep the alleged affair secret was for the campaign. Not his wife, family or business. Nancy Pelosi spoke for most on the left in claiming Trump has the right to prove his innocence (while facing over 130+ years in prison).

While the left is clutching pearls, they throw rocks from the most fragile glass house. Bill and Hillary Clinton grossly violated federal law repeatedly. This goes beyond Bill Clintons affair and perjury felonies in the Lewinsky matter. I quote Victor David Hanson again: Trump did not violate federal law, as did Hillary Clinton, by destroying federally subpoenaed emails and devices in order to hide evidence ... sending classified government communications on her own, through an unsecured home-brewed server ... hiring through three paywalls a foreign national, who is prohibited from working on presidential campaigns, to compile a dossier to smear her presidential opponent ... hiding her payments (as 'legal services') to Christopher Steele through bookkeeping deceptions ... Bill Clinton, use(d) a crony to search out a high-paying New York job for a paramour in order to influence her testimony before a special counsel ... Bill Clinton, received a $500,000 'honorarium' for speaking in Moscow while his wife, our secretary of state, approved a longstanding and lucrative desire of the Kremlin for North American uranium to be sold to a Russian consortium.

As to the Bidens, Trump did not, as the Bidens did, set up a family consortium to leverage monies from Ukraine, Russia, and China, on their shared expectations that he might soon run for and be elected president and become compromised ... Joe Biden (is mentioned) in family business communications as a recipient of a 10% commission on such payoffs ... Joe Biden, removed presidential papers without any authority to declassify them and (left) them scattered and unsecured in a garage.

Liberal icons John Brennan and James Clapper, and Andrew McCabe (among many others) committed federal felonies lying to Congress under oath. The list is long.

History has shown that political persecution through the law destroys nations. The late Roman Republic lasted hundreds of years but fell apart primarily due to the cycle of political legal persecution. We counsel developing countries against what is happening now with this indictument. Through censorship of the right in academia and big tech and the biased echo chambers of the mainstream media, progressives believe they are morally superior to conservatives and can act with impunity. With that belief, unequal application of the law seems justified for them, and feel safe doing so. This is delusional.

According to the New York Post, at least two non-federal DAs are looking to indict the Bidens, and there is plenty of evidence through Hunters laptop for those charges.

The left is destroying the law and republic. Its time we turn to God and speak the truth in demanding this stop now.

Bill Connor, a retired Army Infantry colonel, author and Orangeburg attorney, has deployed multiple times to the Middle East. Connor was the senior U.S. military adviser to Afghan forces in Helmand Province, where he received the Bronze Star. A Citadel graduate with a JD from USC, he is also a Distinguished Graduate of the U.S. Army War College, earning his of strategic studies. He is the author of the book "Articles from War.

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COMMENTARY: Progressive double standards - The Times and Democrat

The Holston Conference of the United Methodist Church finalized Saturday the departure of 264 churches.{p}{/p}

The United Methodist Church (UMC) saw the departure of more than 200 member churches.

More than 100 of those churches are based in Tennessee.

That's according to Knoxville's WJHL.

The Holston Conference now has 578 churches after starting Saturday with 842.

WJHL reports the number represents 31% of churches in the conference, which stretches from the Chattanooga metro area to the Blacksburg, Virginia area in the northeast.

According to the UMC's website, the Holston Conference of The United Methodist Church is comprised of 842 congregations, organized in nine districts, and located in East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, and North Georgia.

On Saturday the UMC called a special session of the Holston Conference, which acts as a kind of umbrella organization for the UMC, where delegates considered all the disaffiliation requests in a single vote, which passed.

The departures are the culmination of a years-long rift between more traditional congregations and those that are more moderate or progressive, particularly around issues of sexuality.

We have reached out to local UMC pastors in our area for their comments.

This story will be updated as we hear back from local faith leaders and learn more information.

Read more:
Rifts between conservatives, progressives intensify at United Methodist Church - WTVC

The following is a guest contribution and reflects the authors views alone. For information on how to submit an article to the Opinion Section, click here.

This coming Friday night, April 28, Princetons Center for Jewish Life (CJL) will host Israel Shabbat. This highly divisive event was last hosted in 2019, forcing many liberal Zionist, non-, and anti-Zionist Jewish students who then felt alienated from their religious communal space to host an alternative Sabbath meal. Dozens of students also signed an open letter condemning the event. This scenario is repeating itself again this year, with students who do not feel comfortable celebrating Israeli nationalism over Shabbat dinner relegated to another space for the evening. Leftist Jews on campus, as well as those who identify as liberal Zionists, advocated against the CJL hosting Israel Shabbat on the grounds that it is unnecessarily divisive and alienating. Once again, these same parties are asked to step aside as the CJL panders to its right-wing students and donors. The CJL is superimposing a celebration of an apartheid state, in which Jews possess elevated legal status compared to that of Palestinians, and onto what should be a communal religious observance.

Though Israels apologists will claim that this is a celebration of culture, not politics, the question of whether to spend ones Friday night celebrating what multiple human rights experts, the Palestinian people, and an increasing share of the American Jewish population consider to be an apartheid state is deeply political.

The CJLs own policies claim that the organization will not promote racism or hatred of any kind. While they believe celebrating Israel does not promote racism or hatred for AJP and others in the context of the nation-state law, increased human rights violations, and the rise to power and prominence of ultra-right wing government officials (many of whom, such as Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, have credibly been called fascists), the choice to host events of this kind does cross the line. An unprecedented number of Israelis are in the streets protesting the threats this government poses to democracy, civil rights, and the rule of law not only for Palestinians, but for Israeli Jews themselves.

These facts make it harder and harder for the CJL to state that Israel Shabbat does not cross the line into promoting racism or hatred. The organization has repeatedly crossed this line recently, hosting far-right activist Dr. Ronen Shoval and allowing The Tory, a conservative student publication that routinely attacks Palestinian activism on campus, to host events in the building.

Additionally, in the wake of its accusations of antisemitism against pro-Palestinian campus speakers and attacks against attempts at pro-Palestinian student organizing, this event marks just the latest example of the CJL taking right-wing positions on political debates that sharply divide Princetons Jewish community. And yet, somehow, the CJL often maintains a reputation as a purely apolitical space for Jewish life and gathering. While the space undeniably serves as such for many students, it is long past time the student body collectively began to recognize the other clear purpose of this institution: advancing right-wing Zionist politics on Princetons campus.

Examples of the CJL behaving as a political actor with a distinctly Zionist agenda abound. The CJL hosts Israel Fellows, Israeli army veterans who work on college campuses across North America. According to the website of the Jewish Agency for Israel, which provides the fellows, their goal is to resist anti-Israel sentiment and activism in the context of an alarming rise in anti-Israel and anti-Semitic incidents in recent years. Not only do they conflate antisemitism and anti-Zionism, but the fellows are also given a platform to spread this political message by teaching classes on Israel through the Jewish Learning Fellowships at the CJL. The very fact that these fellows work at the University also allows them to use Princetons institutional influence to spread Zionist talking points.

Hillel International, an organization of Jewish campus organizations that the CJL belongs to and partners with in order to bring in Israel Fellows, has a rule that it will not host speakers who support boycott of, divestment from, or sanctions against the State of Israel, a position that is both flagrantly anti-free speech as well as blatantly political in its goal to shut down any discussion of effective economic action against Israeli apartheid. There is also widespread documentation of Hillel Internationals allyship with reactionary right-wing groups and causes.

Both the CJLs affiliation with Hillel International and its own independent actions contribute to its political character, but that is not to say that there is no space for political organizations at Princeton. Plenty of student clubs are open about their political affiliations, and even groups that receive University funding such as the James Madison Program (JMP) or the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center (GSRC) make no serious effort to hide their politics, whether conservative or liberal. These organizations political goals and leanings are transparent, and students are able to understand them clearly and react accordingly. But the CJL has managed to operate outside of this paradigm. Non-, anti-, and post-Zionist Jews on this campus are left wrestling with the fact that we ostensibly have a space for Jewish life, but which is effectively an in-house dispensary of Zionist propaganda.

A collective shift of campus consciousness toward a re-understanding of the CJL and its goals would serve us all. If we acknowledge that the CJL is not a neutral space for Jewish life, but rather one with an obvious Zionist agenda, we can stop being shocked by each instance of the CJLs political activism and more effectively resist it. More importantly, we could begin questioning why the University is so insistent in supporting the CJL in its current form, despite the fact that it only caters to Princetons Zionist community, rather than its entire Jewish one.

We hope progressive students and allies Jewish and non-Jewish will join us this Friday night to celebrate Not Our Shabbat together.

The Alliance of Jewish Progressives

This op-ed, for which Emanuelle Sippy 25 and Ben Gelman 23 serve as official signatories, was written collaboratively by the members of the Alliance of Jewish Progressives. Sippy can be reached at emanuelle@princeton.edu and Gelman at bgelman@princeton.edu.

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Not in our name, not our Shabbat: the Alliance of Jewish ... - The Daily Princetonian

Incumbent San Antonio City Council progressives are sticking together this election season.

District 5 CouncilwomanTeri Castillo is backing District 1 and 2 freshmen Mario Bravo andJalen McKee-Rodriguez.

"A better San Antonio is possible," she said in a Tweet this morning encouraging people to vote early and re-elect herself, Bravo and McKee-Rodriguez.

Bravo in the downtown and near North Side District 1, McKee-Rodriguez in the East Side District 2 andCastillo in the near West Side District 5 were elected in 2021 as an assumed new progressive voting coalition. The endorsement comes even though Bravo sometimes took a back seat in his first term.

OnExpressNews.com: Your guide to the city of San Antonios May 6 election. Whats on the ballot, where to vote, key dates and more

Former District 7 Councilwoman AnaSandoval was known to vote in line with the progressives on council before she left office for a new job in January. But thecandidates in the District 7 race are less liberal thanSandoval was.

District 1 Councilman Mario Bravo (center) addresses the Mayor, City Council and City staff as they convene on Thursday, Apr. 13, 2023 for a day-long work session. During the session, the Mayor and City Council provided policy direction for service priorities for the Citys Fiscal Year 2024 Proposed Budget and Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Plan.

Some voters have remained concerned about Bravos abilities after an unprofessional outburst last year led tohis censure and a vote of no confidence from his council colleagues.

In September, Bravo berated former District 7 City Councilwoman Ana Sandoval, his former romantic partner, near the dais for not supporting his plan to use $50 million in excess CPS Energy revenue to weatherize homes instead of disbursing a roughly $30 credit to individual households. He told Sandoval that her lack of support was why he ended their relationship and didnt have children with her.

And during a council meeting, Bravo alluded to Sandoval so often that City Attorney Andy Segovia reprimanded him.

Mayor Ron Nirenberg temporarily suspended Bravo from his City Council committee assignments, and an independent investigator determined his actions violated anti-harassment and violence in the workplace policies.

After his council outburst, Bravo apologized and sought counseling.

Bravo was an Environmental Defense Fund project manager until March of last year when he decided to focus full-time on being a council member.

On ExpressNews.com: Mario Bravo had humbling lesson in his first term, but hes confident in re-election bid

Bravo and McKee-Rodriguez have found themselves in two of the most crowded city council races this season, facing off against six and nine challengers, respectively.

District 2 Councilperson Jalen McKee Rodriguez addresses the Mayor, City Council and City staff as they onvene on Thursday, Apr. 13, 2023 for a day-long work session. During the session, the Mayor and City Council provided policy direction for service priorities for the Citys Fiscal Year 2024 Proposed Budget and Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Plan.

Even so, the incumbents are garnering a lot of support.

Jeremy Roberts and Sukh Kaur, a couple of the strongest District 1 candidates, have raised tens of thousands of dollars for their campaigns. But with more than $57,000 cash on hand at the end of the most recent filing period, Bravo has about $10,000 more than Roberts andKaur combined.

McKee-Rodriguez has outraised each of his opponents, bringing in nearly $40,000 in contributions during the most recent reporting period, from Jan. 1 to March 27. Thats enabled him to hire a campaign team of almost a dozen paid staffers.

On ExpressNews.com: Jalen McKee-Rodriguez looks to make history by keeping District 2 seat

Castillo is facing the least opposition of council progressives with just two people challenging her. One of those opponents is Rudy Lopez, a retired civilian employee with the San Antonio Police Department. Castillo defeated Lopez in a runoff in 2021.

Castillo and McKee-Rodriguez among the very few council members to say they supportProposition A, also called the San Antonio Justice Charter. It would decriminalize abortion and marijuana, expand cite-and-release and ban some policing techniques. It also would create a citywide justice director to oversee the implementation of the policy changes.

On ExpressNews.com: How to vote early for San Antonios May 6 election. Well walk you through it.

Interim District 7 Councilwoman Rosie Castro, who is not seeking election in May, is the only other council member to back the proposition.

Bravo has not said if he is voting for or against the charter. He said there are parts of it he supports, such as the decriminalization of marijuana and a womans right to choose, but he is concerned that it would take away officer discretion when it comes to property theft and destruction.

Early voting started today and runs through May 2. Election Day is May 6.

megan.rodriguez@express-news.net

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Progressive Councilwoman Teri Castillo backs these incumbents - San Antonio Express-News

Now, he is receiving criticism in a joint statement from former state senators Cynthia Mendes and Jeanine Calkin, former state representative Moira Walsh, former state Senate candidate Jennifer Rourke, and former Providence City Council candidates Monica Huertas and Corey Jones. Calkin and Rourke co-founded the Rhode Island Political Cooperative with Matt Brown, who ran for governor last year alongside Mendes, who ran for lieutenant governor.

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But in a statement sent to reporters this week, Mendes, who is Afro-Latina, described both Brown and Regunberg as wealthy progressive men vying to become the white savior.

Powerful in their little lefty spaces, wealthy, career-driven men in the progressive movement represent a barrier to unifying the left movement, she wrote. Why? Because they couldnt agree on which one of them got to be our white savior.

But, she said, They are not in politics to help us. They are in politics to help themselves. They practice their own version of trickle-down politics.

Mendes had also considered entering the congressional race, and she asked why Regunberg didnt back her if he truly cared about the progressive movement and not just his own political career. She said Regunberg called her when he was exploring a run for the seat, and that he was startled when she compared him to Brown, who stepped down from the Rhode Island Political Coop on Dec. 31.

They are not poor leaders because they have trust funds and reckless ambition, Mendes wrote. They are terrible leaders because they are utterly disconnected from impacted communities (the ones they supposedly will save), feel entitled to power, their egos far outweigh their values, and they consistently use people to get what they want.

Regunberg responded to the criticism, saying many of the statements were inaccurate and that one of the authors was seeking employment in his campaign last week. Whats true is that I didnt endorse these candidates in their most recent campaigns, and its not been a secret that I have at times disagreed with the approach of some members of the RI Political Cooperative, he said.

Regunberg said he has worked to build coalitions to pass policies that help everyday Rhode Islanders on issues such as paid sick days, higher wages, and access to clean energy.

Though we may have political disagreements, I am not going to fight other progressives, he said. My focus is on taking the fight to Big Pharma, Big Oil, and the gun industry, and addressing the climate crisis with the urgency it requires.

Regunberg has received support from progressive legislators of color. For example, when he announced his candidacy, Representative Leonela Felix, a Pawtucket Democrat, said, Ive seen Aaron show up for people facing injustice, and Ive seen Aaron get things done at the State House. Thats why I am proud to endorse his campaign for Congress.

Also, Representative Cherie Cruz, a Pawtucket Democrat, said, Aaron has worked tirelessly to help progressive women like me run for office and win. He has a proven record on the issues that matter in my community raising wages, supporting working class families, investing in affordable housing and I think hes exactly who we need fighting for us in Congress.

Other supporters include Representatives Megan Cotter and Kathleen Fogarty, and City Council member Helen Anthony.

Calkin, a Warwick Democrat who lost her Senate re-election bid last year, wrote that when he was a state representative, Regunberg took walks or voted in favor of bad bills, and she claimed he warned she would suffer consequences if she did not support Dominick J. Ruggerio, a North Providence Democrat, for Senate president.

It seems that some progressive men are not immune to participating in the patriarchy when it suits them, Calkin said. For far too long, these progressives claim one thing while behind the scenes, do the exact opposite. They swear to support equity and equality, and want more progressive women in office, but have no qualms about running or working against them.

Walsh, who served in the House from 2017 to 2021, said in the joint statement this week that Regunberg had encouraged her to run for the House in 2016. I was a waitress at a local diner making $2.89 an hour and Aaron saw something in me that I couldnt yet see in myself potential, she said. She wrote that she defended Regunberg long after most lefties had written Aaron off.

But Walsh said she became disillusioned with Regunberg. Over the course of our friendship, Aaron told me about all the progressive values he believed in, she wrote. He swore that we needed more women and women of color at the State House. It wasnt until years later that I realized that in nearly every race he ever ran, Aaron ran against a woman of color.

Walsh said Regunberg was furious that she considered running for lieutenant governor last year. He decided that he could control me, she wrote. He didnt care about my future, my leadership skills, or the trajectory of my political career.

Regunberg had considered running for lieutenant governor again, but he decided not to run after McKee became governor and chose Sabina Matos, then Providence City Council president, to succeed him as lieutenant governor. Matos is now running for Congress.

Rourke, a Warwick Democrat who ran for state Senate in 2018, 2020 and 2022, said she backed Regunberg for lieutenant governor in 2018, but wrote in the joint statement this week that he wouldnt even look my way when we were in the same room. He treated me as if I was less than. Even refused to take a photo with me.

Rourke, who co-founded the Rhode Island Political Cooperative, claimed that Regunberg has trashed some of the groups candidates. I was informed that there was a rift within the progressives that there was some sort of progressive Civil War, she wrote. That war narrative was created and pushed by Aaron and his cronies.

Jones, co-founder of the Black Lives Matter RI PAC who lost a Democratic primary for Providence City Council last year, said he served on Regunbergs exploratory committee for lieutenant governor.

We were progressive allies so I thought, he wrote. But when Jones filed to run for the City Council Ward 3 seat, he said an activist friend told him that Regunberg was considering running for that seat and would crush him but would support him if he moved to a different ward.

Later I was told a rumor that he was trying to clear the field for someone else to run, Jones wrote. Aarons since apologized, but in this upcoming congressional race, we need a progressive leader that builds coalitions and trust in open and honest ways.

Regunberg did not run for City Council and backed Susan Anderbois, who won the Ward 3 primary. Jones is now assisting another First Congressional District candidate, Providence City Council member John Goncalves, with policy, field, and strategy work.

Anderbois is backing Regunberg for Congress, saying, Climate change is the existential threat of our time. Aaron understands these issues at both a very personal and professional level, and theres nobody who will advocate for them more passionately.

Huertas said Regunberg gave a speech about fighting for the people of Washington Park but did not support her when she ran for the City Council Ward 10 seat in 2019. She finished fourth in the Democratic primary won by Pedro J. Espinal.

I was the only candidate that was fighting for environmental and social justice in that community, Huertas wrote in the joint statement this week. In the end, he did not support me. He used the rally to uplift himself, and no one else.

The six former legislators and candidates wrote that, As Aaron gears up for another run for yet another elected position, progressive men have been reaching out to ask us to end the rift in the progressive party. Every time we are asked to explain why we are not supporting him, we need to relive hurtful experiences, only to not be believed or questioned. This is why we have decided to explain our reasons. The rift was caused by Aaron and only Aaron can solve it by stepping down.

This story has been updated to include a response from Regunberg.

Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at edward.fitzpatrick@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @FitzProv.

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R.I. progressives assail Regunberg as he runs for Congress - The Boston Globe