There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true. —Soren Kierkegaard. "…truth is true even if nobody believes it, and falsehood is false even if everybody believes it. That is why truth does not yield to opinion, fashion, numbers, office, or sincerity–it is simply true and that is the end of it" – Os Guinness, Time for Truth, pg.39. “He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.” – Blaise Pascal. "There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily" – George Washington letter to Edmund Randolph — 1795. We live in a “post-truth” world. According to the dictionary, “post-truth” means, “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Simply put, we now live in a culture that seems to value experience and emotion more than truth. Truth will never go away no matter how hard one might wish. Going beyond the MSM idealogical opinion/bias and their low information tabloid reality show news with a distractional superficial focus on entertainment, sensationalism, emotionalism and activist reporting – this blogs goal is to, in some small way, put a plug in the broken dam of truth and save as many as possible from the consequences—temporal and eternal. "The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." – George Orwell “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ― Soren Kierkegaard
I am astonished that, in the light of the clear biblical record, anyone would have the audacity to suggest that it is wrong for the afflicted in body or soul to couch their prayers for deliverance in terms of “If it be thy will….” We are told that when affliction comes, God always wills healing, that He has nothing to do with suffering, and that all we must do is claim the answer we seek by faith. We are exhorted to claim God’s yes before He speaks it.
Away with such distortions of biblical faith! They are conceived in the mind of the Tempter, who would seduce us into exchanging faith for magic. No amount of pious verbiage can transform such falsehood into sound doctrine. We must accept the fact that God sometimes says no. Sometimes He calls us to suffer and die even if we want to claim the contrary.
Never did a man pray more earnestly than Christ prayed in Gethsemane. Who will charge Jesus with failure to pray in faith? He put His request before the Father with sweat like blood: “Take this cup away from me.” This prayer was straightforward and without ambiguity—Jesus was crying out for relief. He asked for the horribly bitter cup to be removed. Every ounce of His humanity shrank from the cup. He begged the Father to relieve Him of His duty.
But God said no. The way of suffering was the Father’s plan. It was the Father’s will. The cross was not Satan’s idea. The passion of Christ was not the result of human contingency. It was not the accidental contrivance of Caiaphas, Herod, or Pilate. The cup was prepared, delivered, and administered by almighty God.
Jesus qualified His prayer: “If it is Your will….” Jesus did not “name it and claim it.” He knew His Father well enough to understand that it might not be His will to remove the cup. So the story does not end with the words, “And the Father repented of the evil He had planned, removed the cup, and Jesus lived happily ever after.” Such words border on blasphemy. The gospel is not a fairy tale. The Father would not negotiate the cup. Jesus was called to drink it to its last dregs. And He accepted it. “Nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done” (Luke 22:42).
This “nevertheless” was the supreme prayer of faith. The prayer of faith is not a demand that we place on God. It is not a presumption of a granted request. The authentic prayer of faith is one that models Jesus’ prayer. It is always uttered in a spirit of subordination. In all our prayers, we must let God be God. No one tells the Father what to do, not even the Son. Prayers are always to be requests made in humility and submission to the Father’s will.
The prayer of faith is a prayer of trust. The very essence of faith is trust. We trust that God knows what is best. The spirit of trust includes a willingness to do what the Father wants us to do. Christ embodied that kind of trust in Gethsemane. Though the text is not explicit, it is clear that Jesus left the garden with the Father’s answer to His plea. There was no cursing or bitterness. His meat and His drink were to do the Father’s will. Once the Father said no, it was settled. Jesus prepared Himself for the cross.
When I talk with Christian teenagers and college students, discerning God’s will for their life is a big concern. They all seem to want their future to be perfect—or at least as perfect as they can dream it should be in light of the things that matter most to them. So often for young Christians, discerning God’s will is tied to questions like: Who should I marry? Where should I go to school? What should I choose for my career?
To answer these questions, we need to begin with a basic Sunday school answer: the Bible. We begin discerning God’s will by opening the Scriptures, not by leaning on our emotions. We don’t begin with our own desires. We begin with God’s Word, which is the baseline authority for finding and doing the will of God.
You might think, “Well, that’s obvious.” But it’s really not, because when we’re talking about our heart’s desires, our emotions tend to get in the way. Our emotions are constantly tempted by our selfish ambitions. If led by our emotions, we begin to see Jesus as the key to getting what we want. Suddenly, God’s will becomes about our will.
Not everything we want is bad. In fact, a lot of the things we pray for are good. But God doesn’t simply want what is good for us. He wants what is best. That means He doesn’t always give us what we want, but He always gives us what we need.
When we’re seeking to know God’s will, we start with the Scriptures. The Bible gives us two theological categories for understanding God’s will.
Here they are:
God’s Revealed Will
The first category is God’s revealed will, which is what He shows (reveals to) us in the Bible. His revealed will is not a mystery. You don’t have to try to read the tea leaves or read signs in your circumstances, you just open the Word. Now, there’s a time to look for open doors. If you’re interviewing for a job and it provides for your family, aligns with your passions, and does not lead you into sin, then you might pray, “God, if you open this door, I’m going to walk through it.”
But with many other aspects of life and faith, there’s no need to test God or wonder what to do, because God has made His will perfectly clear. He’s given us clear commands in the Bible. We don’t need to question, for example, whether or not God wants people saved. He does. He’s going to use the church as His “plan A” on earth to go and take the gospel to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). That is an example of how we can be confident about His will. Other examples of His clearly stated will include your sexual purity and sanctification (1 Thessalonians 4:3), praying and rejoicing with thanksgiving in all circumstances (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18), and that your good deeds silence foolish people (1 Peter 2:15).
Beyond those explicit “God’s will” passages, every command in the Bible can be seen as God’s will since it is what He wants us to do for His glory and our own good. The Bible says, “Love one another” (John 13:34–35), confess sin (1 John 1:9) use your gifts to serve others in the church (1 Cor. 12; 1 Peter 4:7-11), and love your wife and submit to your husband (Eph. 5:22-33). These commands and many more are all a part of God’s revealed will. You don’t need to ask “God, do you want me to do these things?” He has already given you His Word as His revealed will.
God’s Hidden Will
In addition to God’s revealed will, we also have God’s hidden or secretwill. Deuteronomy 29:29 says, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God.” In other words, there are some things we either can’t know in advance or that we’re just not going to know in this life; they are the secret things. What’s going to happen to me in five years? Why do bad or good things happen to certain people? When is the world going to end? Why did my good friend die so young? God knows the answers to these questions, and many times, we don’t.
When it comes to God’s hidden will, we must seek to understand that God is sovereign, and He is ruling over all things, so we can trust Him (Psalm 115:3). In our finite minds, we can’t understand His infinite purposes. But we can trust that He has a plan, even if it’s a secret to us right now. In 1 Corinthians 2:9, Paul says “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived—the things God has prepared for those who love Him.” This verse tells us that God’s secret will isn’t just about the end of the world or circumstantial questions during hard times on earth, it’s also about the amazing things God has in store for us in the future.
When We Don’t Know God’s Will, We Can Pray for It.
When I first began to learn about God’s will, I came across a passage that stopped me in my tracks. It’s the prayer that Jesus prayed in Luke 22. In that moment, we find Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night He was betrayed. He’s talking to the Father, and His sweat drops are turning to blood. Jesus says, “Father, if possible, let this cup pass from Me.” Then, His agonizing prayer ends with, “Not My will, but Yours be done” (Luke 22:42)
Jesus is taking the weight of the world on His shoulders. He’s about to experience the full, unbridled wrath of the Father, and He says, “Not My will, but Yours be done.” When you think about that, it’s convicting and inspiring all at the same time! Simply put: that is the way we must pray. If you were to take His prayer and apply it to the way we often pray, it changes us! Does God care if you have a great job? I imagine He does. Does He want you to marry an incredible spouse? We can say, yes! Is He pleased when you succeed in life for His glory? Yes! But no matter what dreams you have and what success you long for, prayer is not about getting God to do your will, but rather, it is submitting yourself and every request to His will — like Jesus did.
After all, we don’t know what God has in store for our future. What if He calls us to stand for truth in the midst of persecution? What if you have the American dream in mind, but He sends you to China like Hudson Taylor? What if you’re the next Adoniram Judson? What if you’re the next Amy Carmichael? God may call you to do something great for His great name that has little to do with your dreams of comfort and pleasure, but does bring Him great glory for all eternity!
Pray for your heart’s desire, but in the end, may we all say, “Thy will be done.”
This blog article is a modified transcription from a portion of an interview between Costi Hinn and Dr. Brian Arnold at Phoenix Seminary on the will of God.
Do Not Bury the Church Before It Is Dead Matthew 16:18; Ephesians 5:29–30; Colossians 1:17–18
O be not too quick to bury the church before she is dead! Stay till Christ has tried his skill before you give it up for lost.
JOHN FLAVEL
Ritzema, E., & Vince, E. (Eds.). (2013). 300 Quotations for Preachers from the Puritans. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
Perfect Faith Is Confidence in Christ’s Mercy Romans 3:25; Hebrews 6:11; 11:1; 12:2; 1 Peter 1:3
He who has assured hope and confidence in Christ’s mercy has already entered into a perfect faith, and not only has a will to enter into it. For perfect faith is nothing else but assured hope and confidence in Christ’s mercy.
THOMAS CRANMER
Ritzema, E. (2013). 300 Quotations for Preachers from the Reformation. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
Knowing the Word of God is an indescribable privilege, but it can sometimes feel like a daunting task. From one of our Ask Ligonier events, Steven Lawson presents several practical ways for Christians to better understand the Bible as a whole. Ask your biblical and theological questions live online at ask.Ligonier.org.
Skeptics sometimes argue that the Christianity in its early years looked different than modern-day Christianity. Specifically, they question whether Jesus claimed to be God or if he was deified by a band of disappointed followers after his crucifixion. Christianity is grounded on the view that the claims of the New Testament are true,]. The gospels describe historical events, accurately recorded. The Apostle Paul wrote, “if Christ is not [truly] raised… our preaching is in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:14). Did Christianity “evolve” as skeptics claim?
If the truth of Jesus of Nazareth has been radically changed; if his message has been altered, and the truth of the Resurrection changed, Christianity itself would collapse even by its own standard. New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman suggested the claims of Christianity had changed over time in a 2014 interview with NPR, stating:
“During his lifetime, Jesus himself didn’t call himself God and didn’t consider himself God, and… none of his disciples had any inkling at all that he was God.”[1]
But early Christian literature written after the death of Jesus tells another story: that Jesus was considered God from the earliest days of the Christian faith.
The Apostle Paul, an early convert to Christianity, wrote some of the earliest texts of Christianity. Paul was martyred in the early-to-mid 60s A.D.and is traditionally thought to be the author of 13 New Testament books. Skeptics such as Ehrman question the authenticity of some of these writings; however, nearly all scholars agree that Paul authored at least 7 of these books.[2] Using just these 7 letters, written between the late-40 and early 60s A.D., we can capture a glimpse of Christianity just 15 to 30 years after Jesus’ crucifixion.
In these letters, Paul described Jesus as the “Lord Jesus Christ,” states Jesus died to provide salvation, claims Jesus was resurrected, and includes explicit language regarding Jesus’ deity. In Philippians 2:6-7, Paul wrote:
“as He [Jesus] already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a bond-servant and being born in the likeness of men.”
Paul was converted well after the other apostles and began his mission after the other apostles had been preaching and teaching. As a result, Paul’s letters did not contain new teachings, but instead conformed to the pre-existing teachings of the other Apostles.
Some skeptics are quick to reject or minimize the whole of New Testament scripture, including even these early letters of Paul, insisting that the earliest Christian believers did not interpret Paul’s writings in the same way that modern orthodox Christian theologians typically interpret them. Luckily, the historical record between the New Testament and modern-day Christianity is not silent.
Numerous Christian believers wrote about their faith, even as early as the first and second centuries. These believers cited many theological truths, as they quoted or referenced many passages from the New Testament. In fact, much of the New Testament could be reconstructed from these early Christian writings.[3]
Despite claims that a high Christology (that is, a belief that Jesus Christ was God) emerged late in history, the early writings of the apostolic fathers (the Christians that came after Jesus’ direct followers), tell a different story. For example, Ignatius of Antioch, writing in the late-first to early-second century, clearly believed Jesus was God. In a letter to the church in Ephesus, Ignatius begins with a greeting:
“Ignatius, who is also called Theophorus, to the Church which is at Ephesus, in Asia… being united and elected through the true passion by the will of the Father, and Jesus Christ, our God.”[4]
Even at this early time, the deity of Christ was already accepted by Christians and being taught in churches.
Clement, who began as a companion to Paul, wrote concurrent to Ignatius and taught about Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, writing:
“Let us look steadfastly to the blood of Christ, and see how precious that blood is to God, which, having been shed for our salvation, has set the grace of repentance before the whole world.”[5]
Early Christian authors repeatedly reiterated the claims of the gospel authors, affirming the theological truths modern Christians accept today. Simply put, Jesus’ claim to deity, His death, crucifixion, resurrection, and offer of salvation emerged quickly after Jesus’ lifetime. These claims didn’t slowly develop over time.
In the Patristic period (the era following the eyewitnesses of Jesus), the “students of the eyewitness students” continued to write about their experiences and their perspective on Christianity. Writings which survive from this period are robust and contain extensive descriptions of Christianity. Justin Martyr, for example, wrote in the mid-second century and described the Christian position on Jesus as follows:
“In the books of the Prophets, indeed, we found Jesus our Christ foretold as coming to us born of a virgin, reaching manhood, curing every disease and ailment, raising the dead to life, being hated, unrecognized, and crucified, dying, rising from the dead, ascending into Heaven, and being called and actually being the Son of God.”[6]
Justin Martyr also described Jesus as the “Word” (or Logos) mentioned by John:
“The Logos is the pre-existent, absolute, personal Reason, and Christ is the embodiment of it, the Logos incarnate.”[7]
This account of Jesus describes him as possessing all the attributes of deity: infinite in nature, all-powerful, and all-knowing.
Even Bart Ehrman tacitly admits that the early church, the Christians who immediately followed the life of the Apostles, accepted Jesus as God. In his book, Did Jesus Exist?, Ehrman writes that the deity of Jesus was not an invention of later Christians, but was instead a claim offered by the New Testament writers. When describing the New Testament authors’ description of Christian salvation, Ehrman states:
“Later Christians – including most notably Paul … but also the writers of the Gospels – maintained that it was belief in Jesus that would bring a person into the coming kingdom. But… these people didn’t even know him.”[8]
Although Ehrman claims Jesus never envisioned himself a God capable of a salvific act, he admits that the earliest Christians claimed Jesus was God (and was, in fact, capable of saving them). Why would they believe such a thing? The most reasonable inference is that the real Jesus of history acted and existed in such a way that His followers could reasonably infer His Deity.
Christians proclaimed the deity of Jesus exceedingly early in history. Why? Because Jesus proclaimed this truth and demonstrated His deity repeatedly. Christianity hasn’t evolved. Instead, it has consistently proclaimed the deity of Christ.
[3] Wallace, Daniel B, quoted by Lee Strobel in In Defense of Jesus. 87. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
[4] Ignatius of Antioch. “The Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians.” In The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. Vol. 1. The Ante-Nicene Fathers. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885. https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01/anf01.v.ii.html
[5] Clement of Rome. “The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians.” In The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. Vol. 1. The Ante-Nicene Fathers. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885. https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01/anf01.ii.ii.html
How many times have we heard the phrase, “A loving God would never ____”? What that person is really saying is that I have my own idea of what love is, and I will only accept a god who loves on my terms. That is the subtle form of idolatry that many people—even many churchgoers—buy into today.
“And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:20
It is good that there is One who never changes, and who is always with us. It is good that there is one stable rock standing strong against the crashing waves of the sea of life.
My friend, in times of struggle, don’t trust rusting, moth-eaten, decaying treasures. Instead, set your heart on God, who is forever faithful to you. Don’t build your house on the moving quicksand’s of a deceitful world, but found your hopes on this rock, which, despite shifting sands, will stand immovably secure. Store up your treasure in the only secure cabinet. Store your jewels where you can never lose them. Put everything you own in Christ. Pour your affections on Him alone, all your hope in His merit, all your trust in His Holy blood, and all your joy in His presence. In doing so, you can laugh at loss, and defy destruction.
Remember that all the flowers in the world’s garden fade at the right time. Death’s black extinguisher will eventually put out your candle, ending your life in this world. How sweet it will be to have sunlight when the candle is gone! The dark flood must someday roll between you and all you have. So, wed your heart to Him who will never leave you. Trust yourself with Him who will go with you through the black and surging current of death’s stream, and who will land you safely on the heavenly shore. Then you will sit with Him in heavenly places forever.
If you are experiencing sorrow, tell your troubles to the Friend who sticks closer than anyone else ever could. Trust all your cares to Him who never can be taken from you, who will never leave you, and who will never let you leave Him. Remember that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8)
“I am with you always” is enough for me to live on, and enough to sustain me even if all others forsake me.
How does God sustain you in difficult times? Have you been spending regular time in prayer with Him?
Originally, written by Charles Spurgeon. Updated to modern English by Darren Hewer, 2009.
“And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19
After 23 years in one location, we sold our farm and moved to an apartment in another city about one hour away. The day after we moved in, Marvin left on a ministry trip and I was by myself in this new location. I felt very much alone. Nothing was familiar.
I decided to go for a walk. Our apartment was close to the ocean and I looked forward to walking along the dike. I had only walked a few feet when I noticed a big black dog trotting alongside me. Real friendly. He acted like I was his owner. When we got to the beach he brought me a stick and I threw it into the water and he ran to retrieve it. We played like this for quite a while. Then he chased the ducks – but would always come back for my approval. People walking along the dike thought he was my dog. I felt good – I had a companion – even it if was only a dog.
He walked home with me, but when I was a few feet from the apartment building, he left me and I never saw him again.
The Lord knew I needed a companion that day and He provided one for an hour. My heart was overwhelmed with thankfulness and love for Him.
Father, You know all the lonely hearts that are reading this devotional. Reveal Your love for them by showing them that someone cares for them. Thank You! Amen.
A Christian man is the most free lord of all, and subject to none; a Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to everyone.
MARTIN LUTHER
Ritzema, E. (Ed.). (2012). 300 Quotations for Preachers. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
Pride the Worst of Vices 1 Samuel 15:23; Proverbs 21:4; James 4:16
Pride is the worst of all vices, because it attacks the soul through its virtues as well as through its evil habits. Pride is hateful to God and men.… It is the first prompting in the committing of sin; it remains the last in the struggle against sin. Indeed when the servant of God has overcome other vices and has reached the heights of virtue, she still has to face the battle against pride, and if she do not engage in the struggle her labor in other directions will be in vain.
HUGH OF ST. VICTOR
Ritzema, E., & Brant, R. (Eds.). (2013). 300 quotations for preachers from the Medieval church. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
Obadiah and the Gaza War The prophet Obadiah wrote about the end of Edom from verse 1 to verse 14. The rest of the book is about the end times. Some scholars think this first part is referring to just the ancient Edomite empire started by Esau, Jacob’s brother. Although this does fit, the Dead Sea Scrolls teach that the major and minor prophets teach about the events that happen leading up to, and including, the millennial reign of the Messiah. Several of us who study the biblical prophecies think this first section (verses 1-14) may also refer to Mystery Babylon. But for now, let’s focus on how the nation of Israel and the Gaza strip were supposed to form. The prophecy says, Hamas arises when the Day of trouble is near.
Unanimous Supreme Court Ruling Handicaps Government Gun Confiscation In a unanimous opinion delivered Monday, the Supreme Court ruled against police officers who entered a Rhode Island man’s home and seized two of his firearms without a warrant. “What is reasonable for vehicles is different from what is reasonable for homes,” Associate Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the court’s majority opinion.
Putin: Who wants to “bite” Russia and “knock off their teeth” in one bite_Sina News Putin said, “No matter what we do, no matter how hard we try to satisfy the appetite of those who try to contain us, deterrence will continue, because many of our opponents, let’s call them this way, we don’t need a country like Russia at all. , But we all need it, our people need it.”
Weather Service Issue Tropical Storm Watch The Bermuda Weather Service issued a ‘Tropical Storm Watch’ this afternoon [May 20] noting that a “disturbance is developing approximately 600nm east of Bermuda.”
M6.7 earthquake in South Pacific No tsunami impact-Weathernews There was an earthquake overseas around 9:42 on May 19th (Wednesday), Japan time. The epicenter is the South Pacific (southern East Pacific Rise), and the magnitude of the earthquake is estimated to be 6.7.
Israel says it shot down armed Iranian drone on its border Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that Israeli forces shot down an armed drone belonging to Iran. “While we were engaged in these hostilities, a few days ago, Iran sent an armed drone to Israel from Iraq or from Syria,” Netanyahu told German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas. “Iranian forces launched a drone — armed drone — which our forces intercepted on the border between Israel and Jordan.”
Israel, Hamas agree to ceasefire starting tonight Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Security Cabinet approved a cease-fire Thursday as part of a truce with Hamas, intending to put an end to an 11-day military operation in Gaza. “The Political Security Cabinet unanimously accepted … the Egyptian initiative for a bilateral ceasefire without any conditions,” a statement from Netanyahu’s office said. A Hamas official reportedly told Reuters that a “mutual and simultaneous” truce between Israel and Hamas will begin at 2 a.m. local time on Friday — 7 p.m. EST in the U.S.
Why Biden wants a War in Israel Terrorists have only one thing to offer. It’s right there in the name. But you can’t have a ceasefire until you first have a war. That’s the war now raging. It’s the familiar model already embraced by terrorist organizations, who pretend that their political and military wings are separate organizations. The Biden administration policy is for the PLO to play the political wing to Hamas’s military wing. Hamas starts wars, and the PLO collects territory and concessions to stop the fighting, while disclaiming any responsibility for the violence. And the Biden administration oversees this terrorist shakedown by insisting that Israel make more concessions for “peace.”
Israel won’t restore electrical powerlines to Gaza until bodies of MIA troops returned The Israel Electric Company (IEC) union said on Thursday that it will not repair electrical lines to the Gaza Strip that were destroyed during the latest exchange of fire until the Israeli soldiers being held captive by Hamas are released, according to Israeli media. “As a show of solidarity and support for the struggle for the return the men, we have no intention of fixing and erecting the power lines to Gaza that were damaged due to Hamas firing, until Hadar Golden, Oron Shaul and Avira Mangistu are brought back to Israel,” the union said in a statement.
Wildfires burning at extremely dangerous levels across Manitoba, Canada Wildfires are blazing out of control across Manitoba, Canada, some of which have caused evacuations. As of Wednesday, May 19, 2021, the government reported 12 fires at extremely dangerous levels, prompting air-quality warnings for the western and central areas due to smoke.
Mask Psychosis: NYT Confirms The Liberal Mask Cult Is Here to Stay All at once, the powers that be want Covid-19 to be finished. Mere weeks ago, the CDC wanted Americans to wear face masks almost everywhere they went. Now, masks are out. The CDC says people with vaccines no longer need to wear them. They’ve become optional in Virginia and in Andrew Cuomo’s authoritarian bailiwick of New York. It’s amazing what one month of really bad jobs numbers can do to the science.
U.K. to deploy door-to-door covid vaccine “hit squads” The government of Great Britain has announced that in order to get more people “vaccinated” with the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19), jab-armed “hit squads” are now being deployed throughout the island to help boost compliance.
Race-Crazed Disney Backs Down Humiliated Walt Disney Corporation scrubbed its bizarre critical race theory-based employee indoctrination materials from the Internet after a think tank scholar exposed them.
Woman shocked by ‘woke,’ ‘cancel culture’ books in BABY section at Barnes & Noble “OH MY LORD. Parents please wake up and see what is happening!” says Renee Times, a Republican precinct committeewoman in Palm Beach County. “I took a trip to #barnesandnoble to buy a children’s gift check out some of these titles and how our children are being indoctrinated into this #woke Cancel Culture we are witnessing right before our eyes.”
Everything is on fire I have in many articles and interviews pointed out how predictable events are (and people). This is particularly true in the world economy. Empires come and go, economies boom and bust and new currencies come and without fail always go. All this happens with regularity.
Colorado school bus driver fired after slapping 10-year-old child for not “properly wearing mask”Posted: 20 May 2021 09:04 PM PDT(ETH) – A school bus driver has lost his job after slapping a 10-year-old student who pulled her mask under her nose because it was making her sick. “Out of reaction, I slapped her once,” Bertram Jaquez admitted in a written statement to the Fremont County School District in Colorado.According to KKTV-TV, Jaquez is now facing multiple charges, including harassment, assault causing an injury, and child abuse. The incident, which was investigated by the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office, was caught on a surveillance camera installed in the school bus and purportedly showed the driver smacking a young student in the face after he confronted her over wearing her mask improperly.Continue reading Colorado school bus driver fired after slapping 10-year-old child for not “properly wearing mask” at End Time Headlines.
Lego unveils first LGBTQ set ahead of Pride MonthPosted: 20 May 2021 08:56 PM PDT(ETH) – Lego fans can build castles, jungles, and entire town centers with the right set of bricks. But from June, the company will launch a brand new product — its first-ever LGBTQ-themed set, named “Everyone Is Awesome.”The 346-piece set contains 11 figures, each with an assigned rainbow color. Lego said Thursday that the model was inspired by the classic rainbow flag, an enduring symbol of solidarity for the LGBTQ community.Continue reading Lego unveils first LGBTQ set ahead of Pride Month at End Time Headlines.
PROPHECY WATCH: Turkey calls on International forces to conquer Jerusalem …Posted: 20 May 2021 11:26 AM PDT(OPINION) ETH – After a cabinet meeting at the Presidential Complex in Ankara late Monday, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan held a media conference in which he called on the UN, UN Security Council, Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), and other international organizations to take action focusing on wrestling Jerusalem away from Israel.“At this point, we believe there’s a need for a separate arrangement on Jerusalem. To achieve lasting peace and tranquility in Jerusalem, which contains the indispensable religious symbols of Muslims, Jews, and Christians, everyone must make sacrifices,” Erdogan said.Continue reading PROPHECY WATCH: Turkey calls on International forces to conquer Jerusalem … at End Time Headlines.
“It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself. Subject opinion to coercion: whom will you make your inquisitors?” —Thomas Jefferson (1781)
Democrats may wish they had not wished for this one…
Mark Alexander
You may have heard… On January 6, 2021, there was an “insurrection” in the Capitol building — apparently a much more egregious assault on that building than that inflicted when the British visited in 1814.
Predictably, as a final chapter of Trump Derangement Syndrome while he was still in office, Demo Rep. Nancy Pelosi and her Senate sidekick, Chuck Schumer, immediately seized on the riot as theatrical fodder for the 2022 midterm elections.
Let’s review.
On that unfortunate January day, after former President Donald Trump held a rally down the road, some outlying miscreants at that rally, spurred on by conspiracy theory luminaries such as InfoWars chief Alex Jones and others, unlawfully entered the Capitol building to disrupt the Electoral College process. A few of those protesters disgracefully attacked police, but most trespassed in the building without causing harm or damage.
As I noted in my original analysis regarding this shameful incident, the reason Capitol Police were not prepared for that fringe mob is that all law enforcement agencies expected Trump rally supporters to act like they always have — with civility and respect. There was no reason to believe that some fraction of 1% of those attending the Trump rally would resort to the riotous thuggery otherwise associated with “peaceful” leftist protests. Heretofore, that has been the standard modus operandi of the so-called “Black Lives Matter” Marxists and their like-minded “antifa” fascists.
Unlike all those leftist protests across the nation, there was only one actual casualty of the Capitol riot — an unarmed young veteran named Ashli Babbitt, who was shot dead by a Capitol Police officer. There has been no further public investigation — yet.
Though Pelosi and Schumer desecrated the death of Officer Brian Sicknick, claiming he was murdered by protesters and then using his funeral as a theatrical prop for Pelosi’s proposed “9/11-type” commission to investigate the riot, it was determined, after a three-month delay, that Brian’s death was not the result of the false narrative propagated by Pelosi and Schumer and their Leftmedia propagandists. Furthermore, it should be noted that, by way of invoking the 9/11 Islamist attack on our nation in reference to her “commission,” Pelosi also managed to use the deaths of all the victims who perished that fateful day as political fodder.
Notably, the 9/11 Commission was officially mandated to “investigate and report to the President and Congress on its findings, conclusions, and recommendations for corrective measures that can be taken to prevent acts of terrorism.” Pelosi’s 1/6 commission is almost identically mandated to “investigate and report to the President and the Congress on its findings, conclusions, and recommendations for corrective measures … that could be taken to prevent future acts of targeted violence and domestic.”
To advance their charade, Pelosi and Schumer arranged to have the National Guard called in and established security perimeters around the Capitol grounds and other key buildings — essentially $500 million in taxpayer-funded props around their theatrical set.
Pelosi padded the props with a “Congressional Gold Medal” for the Capitol Police, who a few weeks earlier she and Schumer had implicated as racists. Then there was another special “Capitol deployment ribbon” for all the Guard extras. (I should note that these token awards were not welcomed by many Capitol Police and military participants.)
For the record, the only Capitol grounds assault since January 6, despite all the security, was the murder of Capitol Police Officer William Evans by a radical black Islamist — who was then shot and killed as he attempted to assault another officer.
Fast-forward to this week.
The massive federal manhunt that followed the Capitol riot has resulted in 429 arrests for varying offenses from unlawful entry and trespassing to destruction of property and assault. Of those, 53 have been detained. There has been only one guilty plea.
Meanwhile, there were tens of thousands of assaults and thousands of murders across the nation over the last year, primarily in Democrat-controlled urban centers, that remain unsolved with no arrests.
And the Demos’ DC response reflects their penchant for double standards regarding the condemnation of riots and rioters. As historian Victor Davis Hanson confirmed, last year the nation endured months of “torching federal court houses and police precincts, 700 policeman injured, 40 people dead, [and] $4-$5 billion in damages.” Among those dead were actual murdered police officers. That notwithstanding, not only was there not universal condemnation from Demos, but in many cases there was support for the violence — including from our current vice president, who this past summer said, “They’re not gonna let up, and they should not.”
Timed with the departure of the National Guard personnel, Pelosi called for a vote on her “bipartisan commission” to investigate the January riot, which was approved. Thirty-five Republicans supported the commission idea because, if approved by the Senate, it will open the door to a broader investigation than just what Pelosi envisions, including a probe into the death of Ashli Babbitt and Pelosi’s use of Brian Sicknick’s death as political fodder.
In the Senate, Schumer is ramping up the theatrics, calling the riot “the greatest attempted insurrection since the Civil War.” Ah, an angle to infuse the investigation with the Demos’ hate-hustler narrative. But the proposal is meeting with vigorous resistance from Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Let me be clear: I do not support any of the actions of the jackass Capitol protesters, who apparently lacked any modicum of self-awareness sufficient to temper their actions, which set up the Pelosi/Schumer “investigation” charade.
But if the commission is approved in the Senate and there is an actual investigation, Democrats, including Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, may wish they had been more careful about proposing this sham investigation.
The direct deposits of child tax credit payments mark a huge expansion of the welfare state.
Brian Mark Weber
“Help is here.”
So said President Joe Biden earlier this week as he touted aspects of the American Rescue Plan, part of a broader, bipartisan $1.9 trillion (mostly not) COVID relief bill passed earlier this year. But his words aren’t anything new. For nearly a century, Democrats (and even some Republicans) have conditioned Americans into thinking they need government assistance to survive.
Contrast Biden’s language with that of former President Ronald Reagan, who famously said, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”
Indeed, that mantra took such hold that even former President Bill Clinton declared in 1996, “The era of big government is over.”
Well, those days are over.
Americans used to be independent and too proud to live off the government dole, but government handouts are no longer looked down upon. They’re expected.
Tapping into this enthusiasm, the Biden administration is making the newly increased Child Tax Credit a monthly direct payment to individual parents making under $75,000 per year and parents filing jointly who earn less than $150,000 per year. According to USA Today, “Roughly 39 million households, covering 88% of children in the U.S., will receive the monthly payments.” The payments are set to begin on July 15.
Recipients don’t even need to pay taxes or fill out a form to qualify. In July, millions of Americans will log into their bank accounts and the money will be there. At a time when unemployment benefits exceed the minimum wage, causing employers to desperately scramble to find workers, this additional “entitlement” is going to have some detrimental economic effects.
Once everyone is accustomed to seeing direct deposits from Uncle Sam, fewer people are going to oppose them. Even some Americans typically opposed to drinking out of the government trough now gladly cash those checks.
One of the evil characteristics of socialism is that it takes advantage of people by claiming to help them. It’s incremental, but never repealed. Democrats have always needed a dependent class to hold onto power, but now they’ve got a dependent nation.
Under the current plan, the benefits are set to expire at the end of the year, but President Biden wants to extend the program … until 2025. (Would the fact that a Republican president might take office then have anything to do with that arbitrary date selection?) Most Democrats, unsurprisingly, want this regular government check to become permanent.
According to the Washington Examiner, Biden is “casting a wider federal safety net that draws the ire of Republicans who fear the start of a full-blown welfare state.”
It’s decades late for Republicans to be fearful. The Left’s “Great Society” welfare state is bigger and bolder than ever, and Republicans have their fingerprints all over it. Despite largely opposing Biden’s $1.9 trillion plan, the GOP’s half-trillion-dollar alternative was a concession to socialism, not opposition.
The Democrats’ child allowance increase will add “almost $110 billion to the budget this year alone,” says American Enterprise Institute fellow Matt Weidinger. “The lion’s share of those new costs — and all of the increases for part-time workers and the unemployed — reflect new benefits paid for by others, not relief from taxes a recipient would otherwise owe.”
You can’t really blame Republicans too much. They’re up against an unwinnable fight. Fewer people remember a big tax cut than remember a direct deposit from the U.S. Treasury.
Joe Biden is Santa Claus and every day is Christmas. What’s not to like?
Sure, we’ve got to lend a hand to the less fortunate — those hit especially hard by largely Democrat-imposed pandemic shutdowns — but taking hard-earned money from one group of Americans and giving it to those sitting at home playing video games or trying their hand at microbrewing is downright criminal.
Conventional wisdom says Biden and President-in-Waiting Kamala Harris will scare Americans into voting Republican in the 2022 midterms, but don’t count on it. Any GOP candidate opposing checks for hurting Americans will be portrayed as cruel and heartless.
In the long run, the price to pay for this socialism will be more than the Fed’s printing press can handle. Maybe then we’ll wake up from our Christmas dream and realize that socialism only works for those in power.
Some folks just really aren’t going to let go of COVID protocols anytime soon.
Douglas Andrews
Meet Joe. He’s a professional photographer and musician from Albany, and he got his COVID-19 vaccination earlier this month. And yet even today, he sticks to a safety protocol he’s had for 14 months. Whenever he goes out, he dons an N95 surgical mask, then a cloth mask over that, and then a pair of goggles. And he plans to keep doing this for at least the next five years.
As the New York Times’s Sarah Maslin Nir writes, “Even as a combination of evolving public health recommendations and pandemic fatigue lead more Americans to toss the masks they have worn for more than a year, [Joe] is among those who say they plan to keep their faces covered in public indefinitely.”
Indefinitely? What gives?
We’re not mocking this man; we just want to understand. As Nir continues, “For people like [Joe], a combination of anxiety, murky information about new virus variants and the emergence of an obdurate and sizable faction of vaccine holdouts means mask-free life is on hold — possibly forever.” (Leave it to the Times to choose “obdurate” when “stubborn” would’ve worked perfectly well.)
There’s clearly a political component to all this. Progressives have been more willing to abide by their government’s masking and lockdown orders, while conservatives have been less so. Think: blue state versus red state, tyranny versus Liberty. In fact, when we overlay two U.S. maps, one showing the level of mask compliance and the other showing 2020 voting preference, we see remarkable similarity. Joe Biden is Mr. Mask, after all, and Nancy Pelosi has, to use Timesspeak, obdurately refused to lift her masking rule on the House floor, despite the CDC’s clear guidance to the contrary.
Indeed, the only thing Pelosi finds more appealing than power is hypocrisy, and the latter was on full display yesterday afternoon, when she doubled down on her anti-scientific masking mandate: “What is this, the honor system? The honor system, as to whether somebody’s been vaccinated? Do you want them breathing in your face on the strength of their honor? … We have a responsibility to make sure that the House of Representatives chamber is not a Petri dish for the, uh, because of the selfishness of some not to be vaccinated.”
Later that day, though, she was seen chatting away, unmasked and mere inches away from other unmasked lawmakers. At least one of them appeared to be a fellow Democrat, Ted Lieu, and perhaps the others were, too. Which means Pelosi’s “Petri dish” fears are phony, and so are her “honor system” objections — except for members of her own political party.
But politics can’t explain it all. This dawned on this writer just last weekend, when he saw a young, healthy-looking couple walking down the middle of a quiet residential street, both of them masked up, and nary another soul near them. What possible political statement is being made by that?
Allahpundit tells of an even more bizarre occurrence in San Francisco, where a resident, Rebecca Kee, recently decided to take a neighborhood walk sans mask. “Then a man with two children, all masked, darted into the street to avoid her. When she told him there was new guidance, the man told Kee she was lying and he hoped her family would get sick and die.” So there’s that.
National Review’s Michael Brendan Dougherty thinks it’s time for a mass deprogramming. “It’s as if a circuit has been fused,” he writes. “While caution and restrictive behavior can be justified by a conscience informed by the risks, the human mind can also make calculations based on superstition. And one frighteningly common one is the equation of science with truth, fear with realism, and caution with virtue.”
As for the science, one-time lefty Glenn Greenwald’s observation was typically spot-on: “For the last year, anyone questioning let alone rejecting CDC/WHO guidance on COVID was vilified as an anti-science crank, to the point of being censored off the internet. Yet it’s now totally common for liberals with no scientific training to go on TV and reject new CDC guidance.”
Hmm … politics might not explain it all, but it seems to explain a lot.
After 11 days of fighting, Israel met its objective in ending this last immediate Palestinian threat.
Thomas Gallatin
The latest chapter in the seemingly unending conflict between Israel and Hamas-controlled Palestinian territory came to a close earlier today, with the two sides agreeing to a “mutual cease-fire.” In truth, it was “mutual” only because Israeli military forces accomplished their goal of deterring the immediate Hamas threat. After 11 days of fighting to respond to the unprovoked rocket barrage launched by Hamas militants, Israel met its objectives — key Palestinian leaders were taken out via implementing a strategy to hammer them hard and then step back.
Hamas suffered a significant defeat, as demonstrated by the lopsided death toll. Even the Hamas propagandists in the Associated Press acknowledge the overwhelming results: “Israeli strikes killed more than 200 militants, including 25 senior commanders, and hit more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) of militant tunnels.” By contrast, despite more than 4,000 Hamas rockets being fired, Israel’s “Iron Dome” blocked 90% of them and just 12 Israelis were killed.
Following the cease-fire news, Joe Biden was quick to take credit. “Over the last 11 days, I spoke with the [Israeli] prime minister six times,” he said. “I’ve also spoken with President Abbas and the Palestinian Authority more than once as part of our intense diplomatic engagement. And I want to also thank the secretary of state, the secretary of defense, our national security adviser, and everyone on our team for their incredible efforts to bring this about, this outcome that we’re about to see.” Of course, Biden taking credit for the accomplishments of others is par for the course.
Meanwhile, Hamas leadership claimed victory. Palestinians celebrated the cease-fire by waving Palestinian and Hamas flags in the streets of Gaza and setting off fireworks. A Gaza shop owner put into words the reason why this conflict is doomed to continue: “Life will return, because this is not the first war, and it will not be the last war. The heart is in pain, there have been disasters, families wiped from the civil registry, and this saddens us. But this is our fate in this land, to remain patient.” To highlight it again: “It will not be the last war.”
The maddening reality is that peace could actually be a reality if all the Arab countries around Israel would accept the Palestinians, but none ever do, in part because violent malcontents make a better geopolitical bargaining chip than they do citizens.
Unfortunately, false narratives surrounding the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians have been propagated in the U.S. to the point where American Jews are experiencing a dangerous wave of anti-Semitism. This anti-Semitism is being stoked by Critical Race Theory’s “equity” ideology that classifies the Palestinians as the victims, irrespective of their leadership’s anti-Israel terrorism. And the Democrat Party is now the primary vehicle for this vile ideology.
A feckless Biden administration and some strong polling numbers are cause for Republican optimism.
Douglas Andrews
It could be worse, fellow deplorables. You could be a Democrat.
Oh, sure, the GOP is powerless to set the agenda these days — powerless to hold hearings, and powerless to bring legislation to the floor. But you could be staring at three and a half more years of Jolt-less Joe Biden as your party’s standard-bearer, and Unlikeable Kamala Harris as your error apparent.
Yep, it could be a lot worse.
Things are actually looking up, in fact — and not just because everything looks up when you’re flat on the floor. Even Democrat pollsters are taking notice. The Washington Examiner’s David Drucker writes:
Republican voters are united behind former President Donald Trump and enthusiastic about putting a check on President Joe Biden in 2022 as GOP infighting in Washington fails to translate outside the Beltway. That is the conclusion of a fresh survey from veteran Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg, who measured Republican voters’ fidelity to Trump and their intensity as it relates to participation in next year’s midterm elections. Greenberg discovered that three-quarters of the Republican electorate takes its cues from Trump and GOP voters overall are, by 11 percentage points, more interested in 2022 than Democrats.
November 8, 2022, is still an eon away, but that 11-point enthusiasm gap is considerable, and it correlates strongly with voter turnout. And voter turnout is the only thing that’ll force Nancy Pelosi to twist her lips and turn over the speaker’s gavel to Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
The big takeaway from this Democracy Corps poll, though, is that the Republican Party is the party of Donald Trump until he says otherwise. “The Trump loyalists [and the] Trump aligned … form a breathtaking, three quarters of the party in the electoral battleground states and districts that will decide who leads the country,” writes Greenberg. “With such high early engagement of Republicans and white working-class voters in this survey, it means the era of Donald Trump shaping the electorate is not over either.”
As for the Liz Cheney dustup, it really hasn’t fractured the Republican Party at all, much to the dismay of the Democrats and their Leftmedia lickspittles. As our Thomas Gallatin wrote recently, “Cheney sealed her own fate with her refusal to back off countering Donald Trump’s claims about a stolen election, as well as her continued vehement and vocal opposition to Trump himself. She frustrated a majority of House Republicans who recognize that Trump is still a major leader in the party and who want a unified focus on countering Joe Biden and the Democrats’ radical agenda, not relitigating the 2020 election.”
Gallatin’s assessment is also borne out by the polling: As a recent CBS News poll showed, “Eighty percent of Republicans who’d heard about the vote agree with Cheney’s removal — they feel she was off-message, unsupportive of Mr. Trump, and that she’s wrong about the 2020 presidential election.”
We know what you’re thinking: It’s a trap! Those lying leftist pollsters are setting us up!
We’re not so sure. Nor is National Review’s Rich Lowry. In fact, he’s downright bullish. “The GOP Future Is Bright,” blares the headline of today’s column. “All indications,” he writes, “are that GOP voters are united and energized, and the party is doing what’s necessary to make Kevin McCarthy the next speaker, which would instantly squash the never-very-plausible talk of Joe Biden being the next FDR. The foundation of the GOP’s unity, of course, is that Donald Trump effortlessly maintained his control of the GOP. The anticipated civil war came and went with barely a shot fired.”
Several counties voted to explore secession from Oregon. But the whole nation is in trouble.
Nate Jackson
“For 220 years, the injustice of taxation without representation has lived on in Washington, D.C.,” complained DC Mayor Muriel Bowser earlier this year. Her push “to finally right this wrong” involves the Democrat pet project of statehood for the constitutionally distinct federal District of Columbia. It’s a bastardization of the “no taxation without representation” slogan of the American Revolution, but the good people of eastern Oregon have said, Hey, maybe they’re onto something.
Earlier this week, voters in five Oregon counties — Baker, Grant, Lake, Malheur, and Sherman — approved measures to recommend the process of seceding from the state and joining neighboring Idaho. Jefferson and Union counties passed similar measures last year, and there’s a push for more to make a contiguous Idaho. The argument is that the more conservative eastern portion of the state is clearly not being represented by the more populous, powerful, and very leftist western side.
According to The Hill, “Oregon voters favored President Biden over former President Trump by a 56 percent to 40 percent margin in 2020, but voters in those five rural counties gave between 69 percent and 79 percent of the vote to Trump.” Democrats in Portland — and their lawless vagabonds filling the ranks of antifa — have a stranglehold on the state, and voters in the eastern half clearly aren’t feeling Joe Biden’s “unity.”
“This election proves that rural Oregon wants out of Oregon. If Oregon really believes in liberal values such as self-determination, the Legislature won’t hold our counties captive against our will,” said Mike McCarter, president of Citizens for Greater Idaho, which is pushing for Idaho to absorb 22 of Oregon’s 36 counties and even some of California’s and Washington’s. “If we’re allowed to vote for which government officials we want, we should be allowed to vote for which government we want as well.”
Obviously, this is not going to happen anytime soon. Idaho’s legislature may readily agree to bring in more land and population, but the shift would also require the approval of the Oregon legislature and the U.S. Congress. Oregon isn’t going to do so for a number of reasons, but there’s really only one that matters: The state legislature has strong Democrat majorities — 37-23 in the House, and 18-11 in the Senate with one Independent. While letting Republican areas leave would actually solidify Democrat control over Oregon, they have little reason to empower their political opponents while letting go of tax revenue and nearly three-quarters of the state’s territory.
Moreover, approval from Congress for such splits has come only three times in our nation’s history. Kentucky was born out of Virginia in 1792, Maine separated from Massachusetts in 1820, and West Virginia seceded from Virginia in 1863. There’s also a move afoot to split California into three states, but let’s just say it’s been a while since this happened.
The real story here is the serious division between conservatives and leftists. Again, despite Biden’s promise to bring “unity,” Democrats have only sown hatred and division for years now. Given that a significant number of residents in one state have decided divorce is better than living under the same “roof,” how much longer can we expect our country to abide its deep divisions?
Chris Cuomo apologizes for advising brother, Andrew Cuomo, on response to sexual harassment allegations (Washington Examiner)
Consumer prices outpace wage growth as inflation surges (Daily Caller)
Closing Arguments
Policy: Congress needs to undo EPA’s “science massacre” (Daily Signal)
Satire: Lego unveils new genderless bricks with no male/female connectors (Babylon Bee)
For more of today’s editors’ choice headlines, visit Headline Report.
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Insight: “The study of money, above all other fields in economics, is one in which complexity is used to disguise truth or to evade truth, not to reveal it.” —John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006)
Upright: “While we cannot control our circumstances, including the chores of life and the friction created by our interaction with others, we can control how we think and what meaning we give to the actions and activities of others. This frames how we react to those actions and activities; our change in attitude then creates changes in those around us. As a teenager, I sometimes cleaned the baseboards in our house, but I lived in a house that provided shelter. I sometimes washed and dried the dishes, but I had food to eat. Decades later, I have come to realize that the way we approach life influences the way life unfolds before us. We each get to choose to be grateful for what we have or be frustrated by what we don’t have.” —Jackie Gingrich Cushman
Exactly: “The conflict between Hamas and Israel is about a stubborn fact: Israel exists, and Hamas wishes it didn’t exist. Hamas will target civilians in Israel, use Palestinian children to shield its rockets and lie to the press to achieve its goals. Israel, meanwhile, is seeking to minimize civilian casualties at great risk to its own citizens. Opposing Israel’s actions doesn’t make you an anti-Semite. But siding with Hamas in a conflict like this one certainly does.” —Ben Shapiro
Observations: “In part, the Western left always despises the unapologetically successful — as if they are inevitably beneficiaries of unfair privilege. Underdog Israel was not so hated from 1947 to 1967. Then, it was poorer, more socialist and in danger of being extinguished by its many neighboring enemies. But after the victories in the 1967 and 1973 wars, the Israeli military proved unconquerable in the region, no matter how large the numbers, wealth and armaments of its many enemies. For the left, Israel’s current strength, confidence and success mean it cannot be seen as a victim, but only as a victimizer. … Hating democratic Israel while it is under attack is not just a reflection of the new woke and ethically bankrupt left. It is also a symptom of a deeper pathology in the West, one of moral equivalence, amoral relativism and self-loathing. Hating Israel has become the surrogate Western way of hating oneself.” —Victor Davis Hanson
Food for thought: “If Hamas put down their weapons, there would be peace. If Israel put down their weapons, there would be no Israel.” —Senator Tom Cotton
The bottom line: “President Biden has sent the world a profoundly different message. Instead of seeking peace through strength, he has invited violence through weakness.” —Mike Pence
For the record I: “The Iranians understand power and deterrence and they can sniff weakness 5,000 miles away.” — former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
For the record II: “This administration threw away all the good work we had done. When I hear [the Biden administration] say, ‘We are telling people not to come,’ the truth is they are telling people to come. … This is a real crisis that is taking place on our southern border. It’s a crisis of sovereignty, American sovereignty, of making sure we know who is coming in and out of our country, of keeping us safe.” —Mike Pompeo
For the record III: “The evidence that the virus came from Wuhan is enormous, though largely circumstantial, and most signs point to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, or WIV, as the source of COVID-19. In America, concern about the site is now broad and bipartisan. The world must hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable and punish Beijing…” —Mike Pompeo
Non compos mentis: “We condemn Hamas’s firing of those rockets, but I think you have to look at what prompted even that behavior. … I think what Hamas has done is — obviously we condemn that — but we have to look at the power balance here, or imbalance as it were, and we have to put more responsibility on Israel in maintaining peace in the region.” —Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal
And last… “When a country forgoes — and even demonizes — its shared values and instead categorizes people as oppressed or oppressors based on their race, religion, gender, class, etc, you don’t get equity, equality or empathy. You get resentment, bitterness, strife & violence.” —Allie Beth Stuckey
GOP lawmakers on Friday demanded Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas provide information on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, including whether evidence exists that the outbreak came from a Chinese lab.
Fox News medical contributor Dr. Marc Siegel weighs in on New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and family receiving preferential treatment during the pandemic.
In the wake of just-announced ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, RT speaks to ex-Israeli ambassador to the UK and former peace negotiator Daniel Taub, to discuss whether violence will eventually return, what kind of fallout awaits Israel when the dust settles, and more.
Israel and Hamas have agreed to a cease-fire, COVID-19 cases are down to the their lowest levels since last June, Parents are upset at Loudon County’s school because of lewd passages in reading materials, a support group of parents is willing …
In this episode, Dinesh exposes the criminal investigation of Trump as a thinly-disguised political persecution. Dinesh shows that, by contrast, the New York State investigation of Cuomo is actually an attempt to protect him. Taking up Nikole Hannah-Jones’ critique of the founding, Dinesh reveals that she, not the founders, has a perverse obsession with race. Also Dinesh consults Booker T. Washington’s classic autobiography to show how his recipe for success is being adopted by Asian Americans, not blacks.
Gaza & Israelis under siege. Will Israel bow to pressure & halt military response? Pushing back. Reversing cultural wokeism; Most progressive president since FDR? Slowing Biden’s shift to extreme left; Christian persecution rising in Canada?
PORTLAND, OR—In a dark cave outside Portland, a burglar has reported that he spotted local liberal man Greg Frederic sitting on a rock in the middle of a pond, whispering sweet nothings to his mask.
“It is my own, my precious,” he whispered to himself, having been locked in the cave since last March. His eyes have adjusted to the dark, dank cave, causing them to grow into large green orbs. Since he’s too scared to get DoorDash, he eats fish from the cavern’s pool, causing him to evolve sharp teeth and slippery, wet, fish-like skin.
The man reportedly grows angry if anybody tries to take his mask from him or suggests that he won’t need it forever. “IT’S MINE! IF I’M ANGRY IT’S YOUR FAULT!” he snapped as a neighbor checked in on him, not having seen him for many months. “YOU WANT THE MASK FOR YOURSELF!”
The burglar, trying to help out, managed to snatch the mask from the liberal after tricking him at a game of riddles. He has taken it to the factory where it was forged in order to cast it into the fire from whence it came and destroy it once and for all.
Asked for comment, Frederic was in hysterics and only shouted, “WE WANTS IT, WE NEEDS IT! MUST HAVE THE PRECIOUS! THEY STOLE IT FROM US! SNEAKY LITTLE REPUBLICANS! WICKED, TRICKSY, FALSE!” He is currently stalking the thief to try to get the precious back.
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