The setting is dramatic. Moses has led the Children of Israel from slavery in Egypt and across the Red Sea to freedom. He has guided them to Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments, and repented their sin of the Golden Calf. Now, Moses stands with them near the boundary of the Promised Land.

He selects twelve “men of distinction,” one from each tribe (13:3). They are to “see what [kind of] land it is, and the people who inhabit it” (13:18). “So they went up and explored the land” (13:21), the Bible says, spending a full 40 days traveling the length and breadth of the Land of Israel, which was promised to their forefathers generations ago.  They collect samples of the land’s produce, including a huge cluster of grapes. Then they return to give their report.

That is when things go terribly wrong. The majority, ten out of the twelve, give a discouraging report to the people. “We came to the land to which you sent us, and it is flowing with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. However, the people who inhabit the land are mighty, and the cities are extremely huge and fortified, and there we saw even the offspring of the giant… We are unable to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we… The land we passed through to explore is a land that consumes its inhabitants, and all the people we saw in it are men of stature… There we saw the giants… In our eyes, we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we were in their eyes” (13:27-33).

This is the first recorded example of “fake news.” It includes two types of fakery. One involves “facts” that are just made up — stories of giants and grasshoppers. The other involves true facts — “milk and honey” — that are spun in a damaging way, couched in editorial language — “We are unable” — that is calculated to create division and despair.

The minority — Caleb and Joshua — dissent vigorously. “We can surely go up and take possession of it, for we can indeed overcome it,” Caleb protests (13:30). But the people are dismayed: “If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this desert.” (14:2) They despair: “Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt!” (14:4)

The “fake news” has had its effect — not only misinforming the people, but encouraging political division and sedition. Caleb and Joshua reiterate their report, and tell the people to have faith. “The land we passed through to scout is an exceedingly good land,” they say, urging the people to have faith that the Lord will protect them from harm.

It is to no avail: for their trouble, the Bible says, “The entire congregation threatened to pelt them with stones” (14:10). As punishment, the Children of Israel are condemned to wander in the desert for another 40 years, until nearly all of the adults have died. Only a new generation, the Lord decrees, will be able to enter the Promised Land (14: 29-35).

So fake news is nothing new. What fundamentally divided the spies was not what they saw when they scouted the land, but what they believed about their ability to inhabit it. The majority did not have enough faith, and sought to undermine the faith of others. They planted faulty intelligence with that deliberate, destructive agenda in mind. We tend to think of “fake news” as a new phenomenon, a product of advanced social media technology and our coarse and divided popular culture.

But as Ecclesiastes observes (chapter 1, verse 9): “there is nothing new under the sun.” Fake news — the deliberate spread of misinformation to sway public opinion — dates back to the days of the Bible. “Fake news” has brought this country to a breaking point. Nightmares are becoming reality. 

Those who fail to recognize the real threat posed by Islam are naïve and ignorant of history, he said, and unfortunately many in the Church fall into this category. Citing a letter he wrote last August to Pope Francis, Father Boulad said that “on the pretext of openness, tolerance and Christian charity — the Catholic Church has fallen into the trap of the liberal left ideology which is destroying the West.”

Therefore, he wrote, the Western tendency to simply call Muslim violence “terrorism” is insulting to believing Muslims who “see themselves carrying out the will of Allah, even sometimes to their own death in doing so.” Rather than terrorism, he insists, Muslims see their violence as “a religious endeavor to conquer the world,” which they understand to be “an act of piety.”

Because of this gaping educational void, “most citizens are simply not equipped to face the forces now reappearing in the world,” he wrote. “And while it may be politically incorrect to state these things, they need to be stated and are in fact the truth — things that both Muslims and non-Muslims need to hear and consider,” he said.

He linked a number of political phenomenons globally, from the rise of the far-right in Europe to the election of Donald Trump in America, to a growing influence of religion on politics. His comments came after the Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron resigned earlier this week, citing questions about his Christian attitudes towards gay sex as a key factor in his decision. 

Britain’s prime minister Theresa May, the daughter of a vicar, is also a Christian and has seen her own private views subject to much media questioning and scrutiny. In a telephone interview from Moscow, chief rabbi Goldschmidt, said what was a predominantly secular 20th century has given way to a new age dominated by questions about how religion affects the global order.

He said: “The last century, the 20th Century, was the secular century. Then this century started with the most important moment, 9/11, which was a religious moment, because it was a war declared because of religion. This century is going to be more and more religious and religion is going to play a much more important role in its politics than during the last century.” 

For this week came yet another worrying sign that the prejudices of our liberal cultural elite are no less stifling and no less repressive than the taboos they pride themselves on having banished. At the heart of this is the Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron, who resigned on Wednesday after less than two years in the job.

I hold no torch for Mr Farron, who never struck me as an international statesman in waiting. But when I heard him say he could not reconcile his heartfelt Christian principles with his leadership of an avowedly liberal party, I wondered what had happened to our traditions of tolerance and democracy.

At the heart of his dilemma were his views on gay sex, which on several occasions he had failed to say outright was not sinful, as well as his disapproval of abortion (he later claimed to have changed his mind on the issue). But he never tried to impose those views on others. Nor did he propose to outlaw homosexuality, or to recriminalise abortion.

For his liberal critics, however, this was not good enough. As they saw it, he was guilty of what George Orwell called ‘thoughtcrime’. Only a full recantation — and presumably the renunciation of his Christian faith — would have been enough to save him.

Let’s take a look at the top 10 progressive churches participating in the 2017 Capital Pride Parade.

1. Washington National Cathedral

2. Foundry United Methodist Church

3.  Metropolitan Community Church (MCC)

4. Church of the Pilgrims (Presbyterian)

5. St Margaret’s Episcopal Church

6. St John’s Episcopal Church of Chevy Chase, Maryland

7. St John’s Episcopal Church-Lafayette Square

8. Lutheran Church of the Reformation 

9.  Episcopal Church of the Ascension, Silver Spring, Maryland

10. Community of Christ, DC

There were numerous other churches involved in the Capital Pride Parade in DC on June 10-11. These theologically liberal DC churches embraced the rainbow flag and are sure to continue proudly promoting LGBTQ+ issues within their congregations.

On June 1, 2017, ANFR posted the details of the make, model and test results for each phone that was tested, after months of legal action by French physician Dr Marc Arazi. Arazi’s request for the information was initially denied. Popular brands such as Apple, Motorola, Samsung and Nokia were among the cell phone models tested. When tested in contact with the body, some phones have test results as high as triple the manufacturer’s previously reported radiation levels.

“As a physician, I am deeply concerned about what this means for our health and especially the health of our children. People have a right to know that when cell phones are tested in ways people commonly use phones – such as in direct contact with their body – the values exceed current regulatory limits. This is a first victory for transparency in this industry scandal,” commented Arazi.

“This is an enormous international scandal. This is not only about France and Europe, as this applies to all persons who use cell phones in every country. If phones were tested in the ways we use them, they would be illegal,” stated Dr Davis. “Far more concerning is that the regulatory limits do not protect the public from adverse health effects related to long-term exposures,” Davis commented.

Contamination in rural areas in Argentina have caused serious public health issues, and the chemical is reported to be found in many products in our food supply, including many common children’s cereals, and even in breastfeeding mother’s milk, although this last claim is vehemently denied by Monsanto.

While Monsanto claims that glyphosate has a specific half-life which would render it inactive by the time it leached from farmland to ocean’s via rivers and run-off, and that once diluted in the ocean its effectiveness as a killer of phytoplankton would be minimized, the fact remains that with such incredibly high usage of the chemical worldwide, claiming it only negatively affects the intended targets in farmland is absurd.

Neither Whole Foods nor Amazon tests every product it sells for heavy metals or pesticides. Both retailers rely on product providers to meet all USDA and FDA product safety requirements, but product manufacturers routinely misrepresent their own products for the simple reason that they almost never conduct their own testing, either. (Their suppliers lie to them, and in turn they lie to Whole Foods, and Whole Foods accepts that chain of lies as “fact” … which is, ironically, the same method by which the Washington Post writes fake news.)

Natural News has conducted extensive testing of off-the-shelf products from both Whole Foods and Amazon and has found alarming levels of toxic heavy metals like LEAD in products being retailed by both companies.

In 2014, I met with a Whole Foods executive at their headquarters in Austin to hand them heavy metals lab data on the contaminated protein products they were selling. Instead of taking action to remove toxic heavy metals from their products, they ignored the problem and swept the problem under the rug. Whole Foods has since continued to act in a highly unethical manner, selling numerous products on their shelves that are contaminated with lead and other heavy metals.

Numerous economic shocks and negative data which had been simmering for years before the 2016 elections are rising to the surface of the normally oblivious mainstream. This recently culminated in a surprise stock dive that stunned investors; investors that have grown used to the Dow moving perpetually upward, while the economic media immediately began connecting the entire event to Trump and the “Comey memos”, which likely do not exist.

My position according to Trump's behavior and cabinet selection is that he is aware of this agenda and is playing along. That said, there is another important issue to consider - the participation of the ignorant in helping the Ponzi con-game continue.

The question is not “when” we will enter collapse; we are already in the midst of an economic collapse. The real question is, when will the uneducated and the biased finally notice? I suspect the only thing that will shock them out of their stupor will be a swift stock market drop, since this is the only factor they seem to pay attention to.

This will happen soon enough. In the meantime, anyone who discusses legitimate data and warns of the dangers to come is a “doom and gloomer”. Mark my words, one day this label will be considered a badge of honor.

The election of Trump provides a unique opportunity to create partisan battle lines. Social media is rife with venom and hatred as the alt-left faces off against the alt-right. Factions are established and receive support behind the scenes from George Soros, the Koch Brothers, and the Democrat “resistance,” a ludicrous moniker cooked up by the Democratic National Committee under its new chairman Tom Perez.

The DNC announced it will throw a million dollars at its Summer of Resistance. This will further widen the political divide. Polarization is increasingly intense and the establishment propaganda media is fanning the flames. Violence is escalating. Antifa leftists attack Trump supporters and they respond in kind. Activists are now openly carrying weapons.

We’re in the early stages of an engineered civil war.

Who benefits from this?

The state.

It’s a classic example of problem, reaction, solution. Create political violence, or exploit that which is already festering, and then unleash an authoritarian and militarized response.

Hodgkinson was a regular viewer of Rachel Maddow's MSNBC show and worshipped Bernie Sanders.  There is little doubt that someone so immersed in left-wing politics heard the calls for blood and violence against Republicans. Breitbart has a list of Hollywood celebrities who made overt and chilling threats against the GOP and President Trump.

1. Kathy Griffin 'Beheads' Trump in Graphic Photo

2. Madonna – "I've thought a lot about blowing up the White House."

3. Snoop Dogg "Shoots" Trump in the Head in Music Video

4. Robert De Niro: "I'd Like to Punch Him in the Face"

5. Joss Whedon: "I Want a Rhino to [F---] Paul Ryan to Death"

6. Shakespeare in the Park Stabs 'Trump' to Death in Performance of 'Julius Caesar

7. Rapper YG Threatens Trump with ".... Donald Trump" Song

8. Marilyn Manson Kills 'Trump' in Music Video

Hodgkinson followed far-left politics every day, immersing himself in the conspiracy theories and anti-Trump hysteria of the left.  He could not have helped being directly influenced by the threats and acts of violence against Republicans. For that reason, the far left in Hollywood and elsewhere have blood on their hands.