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
Christ’s Absence Is of Special Use John 16:7; Hebrews 11:1
I know that, as night and shadows are good for flowers, and moonlight and dews are better than a continual sun, so is Christ’s absence of special use, and that it has some nourishing virtue in it, and gives sap to humility, and puts an edge on hunger, and furnishes a fair field to faith to put forth itself, and to exercise its fingers in gripping it sees not what.
SAMUEL RUTHERFORD
Ritzema, E., & Vince, E. (Eds.). (2013). 300 Quotations for Preachers from the Puritans. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
Christ Has Given His Victory to Us Romans 4:25; 8:1, 34–37; 1 Corinthians 15:57
Christ’s victory … is the overcoming of the law, of sin, our flesh, the world, the devil, death, hell and all evils; and this his victory he has given to us. Although, then, these tyrants and these enemies of ours accuse us and make us afraid, yet they cannot drive us to despair, nor condemn us; for Christ, whom God the Father has raised up from the dead, is our righteousness and victory.
MARTIN LUTHER
Ritzema, E. (2013). 300 Quotations for Preachers from the Reformation. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
To see more training videos with J. Warner and Jimmy Wallace, visit the YouTube playlist.
For more information about the impact Jesus and His followers had on science, read Person of Interest: Why Jesus Still Matters in a World That Rejects the Bible. This unique and innovative book makes a case for the historicity and Deity of Jesus from history alone, without relying on the New Testament manuscripts. It contains over 400 illustrations and is accompanied by a ten-session Person of Interest DVD Set (and Investigator’s Guide) to help individuals or small groups examine the evidence and make the case.
Happy is the man that feareth alway. (Proverbs 28:14)
The fear of the Lord is the beginning and the foundation of all true religion. Without a solemn awe and reverence of God there is no foothold for the more brilliant virtues. He whose soul does not worship will never live in holiness.
He is happy who feels a jealous fear of doing wrong. Holy fear looks not only before it leaps, but even before it moves. It is afraid of error, afraid of neglecting duty, afraid of committing sin. It fears ill company, loose talk, and questionable policy, This does not make a man wretched, but it brings him happiness. The watchful sentinel is happier than the soldier who sleeps at his post. He who foreseeth evil and escapes it is happier than he who walks carelessly on and is destroyed.
Fear of God is a quiet grace which leads a man along a choice road, of which it is written, “No lion shall be there, neither shall any ravenous beast go up thereon.” Fear of the very appearance of evil is a purifying principle, which enables a man, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to keep his garments unspotted from the world. Solomon had tried both worldliness and holy fear: in the one he found vanity, in the other happiness. Let us not repeat his trial but abide by his verdict.
Most people live in a relentless pursuit of their own personal happiness. Theirs is a nonstop quest, because they’re effectively chasing rainbows—where satisfaction constantly beckons just beyond their reach. There’s always another dollar to gain and another pound to lose. There’s always a better car to drive, a nicer place to live, a bigger prize to win, and a more enticing romance to enjoy. For most people, happiness remains an elusive destination.READ MORE
Wildfires roar across Europe and Western North America levelling homes, businesses, forests, and plains. Here where I live—hundreds of miles from the devastation—we awaken many mornings with throats dry and scratchy, lungs almost gasping for clear air because of smoke carried by air currents.
Yet in the middle of these disasters, we look into the sky each evening to discover spectacular sunsets, colors so vivid they seem painted by the most avant garde of artists. Out of the catastrophes has come beauty.
Looking for beauty in the midst of hardship is a challenge most of us either ignore or battle. What beauty could come from distress and affliction? The Apostle James writes that such suffering can produce beautiful perseverance in us (James 1:3)
“I have set the Lord always before me; Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved”.
His friend Peter goes on to say that we can become beautifully effective and productive as we walk through the fires of trials
‘I have set the Lord always before me; Because He isat my right hand I shall notbe moved“. (1 Peter 1:8).
Even as we pray for restoration and new life for the suffering people and land, may the sunsets remind us to look to the loving Creator who makes all things new, who brings beauty out of ashes.
Father, I don’t understand the pain of suffering nor do I see how you can bring beauty out of ashes but your promise is sure. Help me see beauty through the smoke of suffering,
Nobody ever outgrows Scripture; the Book widens and deepens with our years.
CHARLES SPURGEON*
Ritzema, E. (Ed.). (2012). 300 Quotations for Preachers. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
Vanity to Trust in Riches That Perish Psalm 49:5–6; Jeremiah 48:7; Matthew 6:19–21, 33; 19:21; Luke 12:16–21, 31–34; James 5:2–3
This is the greatest wisdom—to seek the kingdom of heaven through contempt of the world. It is vanity, therefore, to seek and trust in riches that perish. It is vanity also to court honor and to be puffed up with pride. It is vanity to follow the lusts of the body and to desire things for which severe punishment later must come. It is vanity to wish for long life and to care little about a well-spent life. It is vanity to be concerned with the present only and not to make provision for things to come. It is vanity to love what passes quickly and not to look ahead where eternal joy abides.
THOMAS À KEMPIS*
Ritzema, E., & Brant, R. (Eds.). (2013). 300 quotations for preachers from the Medieval church. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
We discuss recent news on abortion and euthanasia, how the anguish of abortion also impacts men, legislation, the evil and hypocrisy of Planned Parenthood. David also touches on so-called Christians under 40 saying Jesus is not the only way to salvation, and the controversy over The Chosen producer, Dallas Jenkins’ comments about Mormons and Christians
We discuss the attack on masculinity today, Marxism in American culture and in the U.S. Military, religious persecution, Biden administration policies weakening the nation, the need for bold Christian pastors and the role of the church in these troubled times.
I agree with today’s guest: we are in a war, they are going after our children, and they’re using emergency authority. Medical misinformation is off the charts and government has become god to lots of people. Medicine has been weaponized and government is forcing the surrender of our physical bodies. How is this constitutional and how do we respond?
Pastor’s Perspective on religious freedom, Afghanistan, Cvd shots, Romans 13, training godly men & church leaders, and Hobby Lobby losing a trans bathroom case.
When you go to the bank, or grocery store and you see the lines, you wonder which line to pick. If I go in this line will it go faster? Or will that line end up being faster? I always pick the wrong line. If I see that it was moving faster, the moment I get in it, suddenly the cashier runs out of receipt paper and has to reload…or the customer starts writing a check…or the clerks end their shift and swap over. Something, lol.
Being in the wrong line is part of the daily condition and sometimes makes us chuckle with the absurdity of life. Ending up in the wrong checkout line doesn’t have eternal consequences.
There are two lines in heaven. When prophecy ends and God’s plan is completely fulfilled, there will be two lines at judgment. Being in the wrong line does have…
Biden admin gave Taliban a list of American, Afghan evacuees’ names: Politico U.S. officials in Kabul provided the Taliban with a list of names of American citizens, green card holders and Afghan allies who should be given entry into the airport in an effort to expedite evacuation, according to three U.S. and congressional officials, Politico reported on Thursday. The move sparked outrage with officials as chaos erupted in Afghanistan Thursday, with multiple suicide bombing attacks near the airport leaving at least 12 U.S. troops dead and 15 others critically injured. “Basically, they just put all those Afghans on a kill list,” one defense official said, speaking on a condition of anonymity. “It’s just appalling and shocking and makes you feel unclean.”
Ruling Class Increasingly Calls Upon The Private Sector To Make Lives Of The “Unvaccinated” Difficult They aren’t even trying to hide the fact that they want to own us, our bodies, and our minds at this point. Gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe is just one of the tyrants calling on businesses to mandate Covid-19 vaccines after promoting efforts to make the lives of those who are unvaccinated more “difficult.” Joe Biden has already tried this play right out of the slave owner’s handbook:
Obama Tried to Warn Us: ‘Don’t Underestimate Joe’s Ability to F— Things Up’ Obama is a pathological narcissist who only cares about hanging out with celebrities and being extravagantly wealthy, regardless of the death and destruction it causes. Nevertheless, he tried to stop Joe Biden from becoming president and made an effort to warn us about his dangerous incompetence. “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to …. things up,” Obama told a fellow Democrat during the 2020 presidential primary.
‘Should never have happened!’ Donald Trump blasts Biden over ‘heinous’ terror attack He said: “As one nation, America mourns the loss of our brave and brilliant service members in a savage and barbaric terrorist attack in Afghanistan. “These noble American warriors laid down their lives in the line of duty. They sacrifice themselves for the country they loved, racing against time to save their fellow citizens from harm’s way. “They died as American heroes and our nation will honour their memory forever. “I want to express my deepest condolences to the families of those we have lost. All Americans grieve alongside you.
Calls for Abbas to step down grow as PA leader cracks down on critics “The continuing crackdown on public freedoms shows that the Palestinian leadership is nervous and does not want to hear about democracy and freedom of expression,” they said, as reported in The Jerusalem Post on Sunday. The statement came the day after P.A. security forces arrested dozens of Palestinian activists on Saturday. Calls for Abbas to resign have grown especially since the death in June of anti-corruption activist Nizar Banat while in the custody of Palestinian security forces.
Israeli archaeologists uncover parts of Vilnius synagogue destroyed by Nazis The dig, organized by Israel Antiquities Authority’s Dr. Jon Seligman, announced Thursday the a six-year aimed at uncovering the remains of the Great Synagogue of Vilna and parts of the Shulhoyf, the center of the Jewish community and Torah life of Vilna, has been completed.
GOP Senators call on Biden to resign over Afghanistan Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) on Thursday joined a wave of other Republicans calling on US President Joe Biden to resign. Hawley said in a statement issued by his office and quoted by The Hill that Biden “has now overseen the deadliest day for US troops in Afghanistan in over a decade, and the crisis grows worse by the hour.” “We must reject the falsehood peddled by a feckless president that this was the only option for withdrawal,” wrote Hawley.
The Israeli farmers who are giving their land a year’s rest Starting the second week of September, Israeli organic farmer Ben Rosenberg will stop planting in the field. He will grow his veggies in raised containers inside fabric-covered hothouses until next September. According to the Bible, every seventh year in the Land of Israel is a shmita (“release”) year, when debts are canceled and fields lie fallow and ownerless. Promoting growth through most forms of plowing, planting and pruning is forbidden, as are the usual methods of reaping and harvesting.
Bennett showcases himself worshipping God before meeting Biden Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett posted on his office’s official Twitter account an image of himself donning tefillin (phylacteries) and tzitzit (fringes on a four cornered garment) in his hotel room before meeting with US President Joe Biden. Both are commanded for Jewish men in the Torah.
Macron to visit Marseille as city battles ‘explosion’ of gang-related violence Marseille’s chief prosecutor, Dominique Laurens, told a press conference on Monday that there had been an “explosion” in gang-related murders since the middle of June. Twelve people have been killed in the last two months, according to police figures.
‘We will go after them’ US General fires warning at ISIS after 12 US troops dead in Kabul “We’ve been clear all along that we’re going to retain the right to operate against ISIS in Afghanistan and we are working very hard to determine attribution and determine who is associated with this cowardly attack and we’re prepared to take action against them.” “The security situation in Afghanistan remains extremely volatile.
Joe Biden on brink as Boris, Merkel and Macron ‘can’t trust’ US President WESTERN allies can “never trust” Joe Biden again following his Afghan debacle, according to a senior journalist. Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, one White House insider said the Biden administration gives little more than lip-service to key allies. They said: “Having worked with a lot of these guys, they believe their own rhetoric and don’t feel that compels them to actually take firm steps.
Thousands of homes destroyed by floods, more than 60 fatalities, Niger Heavy rains and floods affecting Niger since the start of the rainy season in June have affected more than 100 000 people, left thousands of homes destroyed and more than 60 people dead. In addition, the country was hit by an outbreak of cholera following the floods, with additional 68 fatalities.
PCR tests once again proven fraudulent Rice University in Houston is reverting back to remote learning less than two weeks into the fall semester after fraudulent PCR tests for the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) generated multiple false positives.
WHO insider exposes GAVI, Bill Gates for perpetrating coronavirus plandemic Dr. Astrid Stückelberger dropped some major bombshells during a recent interview that completely blew the lid on billionaire eugenicist Bill Gates, the corrupt World Health Organization (WHO), and other nefarious elements that all conspired together to perpetrate the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) plandemic on the world.
Canada: Muslim ‘Minister for Women and Gender Equality’ refers to Taliban as ‘our brothers’ “I want to take this opportunity to speak to our brothers, the Taliban…““Our brothers?” Whose “brothers” exactly is Monsef referring to? As an elected representative, who once served as Minister for Democratic Institutions as well, Monsef is responsible for answering questions, yet she will not do so and likely could never answer honestly.
‘Walkaway Joe’ Biden Has Just Created The All-New Taliban ‘Badri 313’ Special Forces Brigade Armed To The Teeth With American Military Weaponry Any American president is also the Commander-in-Chief of the military, and as such call the shots. When Donald Trump was president, he expanded the US military by creating the Space Force, which we told you about here. Well, Walkaway Joe Biden had a hankering to create something new militarily as well, so he created the Badri 313 Taliban Special Forces by giving the Islamic terrorists billions of dollars in weapons, machines, tanks, planes and what not.
In the Name of ‘Public Safety’ Australia Descends Into a Nightmarish Orwellian Police State These days even man’s best friend seems to have it better than the people struggling to survive Down Under, Robert Bridge writes. The land Down Under appears to be reverting back to its original status as a penal colony as government officials, looking more like prison wardens than any servants of the people, clamp down on demonstrators weary of more Covid lockdowns.
Texas Parent Strips to Underwear During School Board Meeting Speech About MasksPosted: 26 Aug 2021 06:38 PM PDTOPINION (ETH) – This week, parent James Akers stripped down to his boxers during a school board meeting to prove a point about masks. According to FaithWire, A 15-year resident of Dripping Springs, Texas, the father of three spoke during the meeting, explaining that he does “not like government or any other entity — ask my wife — telling me what to do.” “But,” he continued, “sometimes I gotta push the envelope a little bit and I just decided that I’m not gonna talk about it, I’m gonna walk the walk.”Standing in front of the board members, Akers — who is a father to four kids, three of whom have already graduated and one of whom is currently in the high school — began arguing in support of mask protocols, noting that while they may be inconvenient, they are in place for a reason.Continue reading Texas Parent Strips to Underwear During School Board Meeting Speech About Masks at End Time Headlines.
HEARTBREAKING: Desperate Afghan Christians are being turned away at gates…Posted: 26 Aug 2021 04:21 PM PDT(ETH) – With time running out to rescue civilians fleeing the Taliban, Afghan Christians and others whose names appear on U.S. government lists of qualified evacuees are being turned away at the airport in Kabul, representatives of aid organizations and others told CNA Wednesday.“I was told by contacts from various groups working to rescue those still in danger in Afghanistan—who must remain anonymous — that the State Department at least at a certain point was not implementing the lists that they require the organizations to compile — even though they have sent them multiple times,”Faith McDonnell, director of advocacy at Katartismos Global, an Anglican nonprofit ministry group based in Manassas, Virginia, told CNA Wednesday.Continue reading HEARTBREAKING: Desperate Afghan Christians are being turned away at gates… at End Time Headlines.
DEVELOPING: Major Hurricane could strike Gulf Coast in coming daysPosted: 26 Aug 2021 11:19 AM PDT(ETH) – Tropical Depression Nine has formed in the Caribbean Sea and is likely to soon strengthen into Tropical Storm Ida before potentially threatening the northern U.S. Gulf Coast at near major hurricane strength by late this weekend.The Weather Channel is reporting that it’s too early to know specific details about the impacts future Ida will bring to portions of the U.S. Gulf Coast, but interests from Texas and Louisiana to Mississippi, Alabama, and the Florida Panhandle should monitor its progress closely.Continue reading DEVELOPING: Major Hurricane could strike Gulf Coast in coming days at End Time Headlines.
“A feeble executive implies a feeble execution of the government. A feeble execution is but another phrase for a bad execution; and a government ill executed, whatever may be its theory, must be, in practice, a bad government.” —Alexander Hamilton (1788)
The blood of our military personnel and the coming bloodshed of thousands of Afghan men, women, and children being readied for slaughter is on the hands of every unrepentant Biden/Harris voter.
Mark Alexander
For any Biden/Harris snowflakes who come upon this post, if you have a problem with these words, come hot and heavy. Having devoted my entire adult life to the support and defense of Liberty at home, and in some s—tholes abroad, and now as the father of a Marine infantry officer, here is my perspective.
The last 24 hours have been devastating. After 18 months of no American deaths — zero — Taliban terror surrogates walked through multiple Taliban checkpoints and murdered 10 Marines, two Army soldiers, and a Navy corpsman, along with almost 100 Afghan civilian men, women, and children. There were 15 Americans injured and countless civilians severely injured. It was the worst military loss in a decade.
Joe Biden was AWOL after the attack — which was the direct result of his catastrophically failed exfil. But as I have noted, the failure is not Biden’s plan; it’s the man.
Biden attempted to draw a distinction between the Taliban and the Khorasan branch of the Islamic State now being hosted by the Taliban. He lied about this distinction because he could not blame the Taliban, upon whom he is now depending for protection of the airport. Fine job they did yesterday. Recall that the Taliban “head of security” in Kabul, Khalil Haqqani, is a designated terrorist by the U.S. government and has a $5 million bounty on his head. What could go wrong?
However, do not be confused by the spin from Biden, his team, and their Leftmedia propagandists about who is responsible for this attack.
Let me be crystal clear: There is virtually NO degree of ideological and methodological separation between the so-called “Taliban government” thugs and their surrogate terrorist groups. The Taliban is not a “government” but an amalgam of violent Islamist terrorists, and there is now no doubt that their deadly al-Qa’ida and ISIS surrogates have risen again under their protectorate. To insist that al-Qa’ida and ISIS are not under the Taliban umbrella is a distinction without a difference.
In his rambling teleprompted read, Biden declared we would bomb some tents somewhere in retaliation. Biden tried to put on his most menacing mean face and warned: “To those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm, know this: We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay.” Of course, “those who carried out this attack” are already dead, but expect some significant air-delivered ordnance soon.
Asked who was responsible, Biden correctly said, “I bear responsibility for, fundamentally, all that’s happened of late.” Of course, all he has done of late is attempt to blame-shift his failures to Donald Trump. But recall, as I noted in “Biden’s Afghan Blowup,” that Trump’s drawdown plan had two primary conditions: First, that the Taliban cut their ties with al-Qa’ida and ISIS, and second, that they successfully negotiate and maintain peace with the Afghan government.
With Trump gone, the Taliban summarily discarded those conditions and ousted the Afghan government. And why wouldn’t they? Obviously, they have no fear of Biden enforcing those terms.
Next came a plethora of absurdities from Biden’s spokeswoman Jen Psaki. Her obfuscations are too numerous to post here, but…
Asked about Biden’s mental state, she responded: “Well, I would say that anyone who’s watched the president up close … knows that the — putting the lives of servicemen and women at risk, and those decisions that you have to make as commander-in-chief, weigh heavily on him.” Indeed it should. But she added: “Any day where you lose service members is — may be the worst day of your presidency, and hopefully there’s not more. But we are certainly early in the presidency at this point in time.”
“But we are certainly early in the presidency at this point in time.” There are still 41 months left for Biden’s ineptitude to result in many more Americans deaths. Brace yourself, America.
Asked about extending Biden’s 31 August exfiltration deadline, Psaki responded: “No. And here’s why: The president relies on the advice of his military commanders, and they continue to believe that it is essential to get out by the 31st. That is their advice.” Right, which is precisely why SecDef Lloyd Austin, CJCS Gen. Mark Milley, and CentCom Gen. Kenneth McKenzie need to resign into shameful obscurity.
As for concerns about the vetting of incoming Afghans, which Biden’s “national security team” is now proposing should be up to 200,000, Psaki said: “I will tell you that what we have been working to do is to work closely with governors, with localities, with local leaders to give them detailed briefings on what our vetting process looks like, what the background check process looks like before any individual comes into the United States. And that is a background check process that’s thorough before they are allowed to come in and step on U.S. soil.”
They have done NONE of that regarding the 1.2 million illegal immigrants Biden has invited to step across our southern border, many of whom were then bussed and flown around the nation under cover of darkness. Oh, and that’s 1.2 million we counted — the administration has no idea how many MS-13 gangsters and drug and sex traffickers have walked in.
In an effort to silence any objection to Biden’s deadly folly, Psaki insisted: “This is a day where U.S. service members … lost their lives at the hands of terrorists. It’s not a day for politics, and we would expect that any American, whether they’re elected or not, would stand with us in our commitment to going after and fighting and killing those terrorists wherever they live, and to honoring the memory of service members.”
Well, OK then.
Where to from here?
The immediate concern is the evacuation of as many Americans and Afghan allies as possible before Biden’s acquiescent timeline.
Allow me to raise a tactical departure question: Exactly how do those last massive transport planes full of American troops safely depart Kabul without a defended airport perimeter? Biden has pleaded with the Taliban to provide a perimeter, but that’s the same perimeter they allowed terrorists to enter yesterday.
Air breaks in contact with the enemy are very difficult. Some of us are old enough to recall our helicopters shot down while attempting final exfil from Vietnam LZs with enemy fighters close. And recall the last major loss of military lives in Afghanistan. The deadliest day in SEAL Team Six history was 06 August, 2011, when Taliban in the Tangi Valley shot down a departing Chinook transport helicopter, killing all 38 service personnel on board. Among the 30 American warriors, 15 SEALS were from Team Six’s Gold Squadron.
Veterans who have departed hostile regions by air know that combat aircraft departures depend on a lot of runway for airspeed in order to achieve a very high angle of climb to get above enemy fire at the end of a runway. But that presumes a secure airfield.
Yes, we utilize defensive departure corridor patterns and may deploy significant air support for cover, perhaps including A-10s for close cover, but our lumbering transport aircraft are now at significant risk from the weapons Biden allowed the Taliban to seize. And positioning American resources to prevent small-arms fire or a man-portable missile launch would mean abandoning those personnel in a zone completely overrun with the enemy.
Of course, the Taliban has no fear that Biden would obliterate Kabul in retaliation for attacking departing transports. Biden knows that the next week the whole world would be viewing images of dead and dying women and children as a result.
I suppose this means in addition to air cover, one of the last planes into Kabul will be loaded with large denomination American currency to bribe the Taliban to maintain that perimeter?
The aforementioned CentCom Gen. McKenzie assured that he is “reaching out to the Taliban who are actually providing security for the outer cordon of the airfield to make sure they know what we expect them to do to protect us.” McKenzie, who refers to the Taliban as “our Afghan partners,” added, “They’ve cut some of our security concerns down and they’ve been useful to work with going forward.”
Yet McKenzie says that departing aircraft are already taking small arms fire.
So trusting is the Biden military command of the Taliban that they gave them the names of Americans and Afghan allies still in Kabul trying to get to the airport. That prompted one defense official to conclude, “Basically, they just put all those Afghans on a kill list.”
BTW, who gets fired for the colossal strategic error of abandoning Bagram Air Base — all our assets and all the Taliban and al-Qa’ida prisoners there — before American civilians were safely out? Or was retreat from Bagram another indication that Biden lied about how fast the Taliban would take over, mocking Iwo Jima Marines along the way? SecDef Lloyd Austin and CJCS Mark Milley won’t take responsibility.
Moving forward, the intermediate concern is the consequences for tens of thousands of Afghan allies, civilians, and families whom Biden abandoned. As the Taliban firms up its organizational structure and returns to its extremist tyrannical control, the bloody purges will be underway.
The extended concerns are that Biden has reseeded al-Qa’ida’s and ISIS’s turf, and that Biden’s cowardly Afghan retreat will embolden far more powerful tyrants in Iran, Russia, and China.
Given the resurgence of the Taliban, there is now a very real renewed threat of terrorist assaults on American soil and Americans abroad. Recall that Biden’s director of national intelligence warned him in April that the Taliban rise would result in an imminent and perilous threat to the continental U.S.
The consequences of animatronic Biden’s now-obvious failure as commander-in-chief have immediate and dire implications for our national security that extend far beyond the borders of Afghanistan. China, Russia, and Iran are now greatly emboldened. Power does not tolerate a vacuum.
Allow me to reiterate: The problem was not Biden’s plan; it was, and remains, the man. The Taliban had no fear of Joe Biden, which is why they seized Afghanistan in just days after he abandoned our Afghan army allies. And the Taliban’s actions have confirmed that the world’s tyrants need have no fear of Biden.
In the learned words of our national security analyst Gen. B.B. Bell (USA, Ret.), regarding Biden’s shameful presidential dereliction of duty, “He should be impeached and removed from office immediately, and criminal charges should be considered.”
Likewise, it is ironic that for 10 hours after the attack until Biden finally spoke, the White House briefing room had only one post — a “Proclamation on Women’s Equality Day 2021.” Ironic, of course, because it is not applicable to the Afghan women Biden and Harris left to the Taliban.
Again, as I asked Wednesday, please join us in lifting up in prayer our warriors and the hundreds of thousands of Afghans and their families who embraced our affirmation of Liberty. Many of them are now being systematically targeted for having collaborated with the nation whose inept president ordered them abandoned as evil swept over them — evil that rose because it knew it had nothing to fear from this president.
Consider these words from a bloodied Afghan father amid the devastation yesterday: “I am an Afghan translator for the United States Marine Corps. I was over here … to get on a plane and get out of here. There was an explosion that happened inside the crowd. A lot of people got hurt. And I got a baby girl, she was five years old, and she died right in my hands.”
We are also praying for those American service personnel and their families who have sacrificed so much to contain that evil prior to this disgraceful retreat.
While the focus now is on getting Americans out, the focus will soon turn to the disaster Biden left behind.
Finally, let me reiterate: Anyone — ANYONE — who believes that the resurgence of the Taliban would have occurred under a second Donald Trump term is so deeply deluded they are now in total denial. The blood of our military personnel and the coming bloodshed of thousands of Afghan men, women, and children being readied for slaughter is on the hands of every unrepentant Biden/Harris voter.
But because of Joe Biden’s failed leadership, our troops were sitting ducks.
Douglas Andrews
If ever there was a slow-moving train of an attack, this was it. Everyone who watched the news on Wednesday knew it was coming. Our intelligence services told us so, and our embassy sent emergency communications to the Americans in Kabul to stay away from the entry points to Hamid Karzai International Airport.
We knew it was coming, and yet we couldn’t stop it.
The “it” was actually a “they” — twin coordinated blasts delivered by the favored means of this awful strain of humanity known as radical Islam, an evil strain that glorifies the targeting and the cold-blooded murder of the innocent.
The telegraphed attack finally happened Thursday at around 6 p.m. local time, when two jihadist suicide bombers detonated themselves at Abbey Gate, a main entrance to the airport, and at the nearby Baron Hotel. Among the dead were 10 U.S. Marines, two Army soldiers, and one Navy Corpsman, making this the deadliest day for American forces in Afghanistan in more than a decade. Indeed, there hadn’t been a single U.S. combat casualty in Afghanistan since February 8, 2020, due to an agreement hammered out by then-President Donald Trump and his secretary of state, Mike Pompeo. Clearly, Joe Biden and his secretary of state, Antony Blinken, don’t strike the same fear into the black hearts of these murdering dogs that their predecessors did.
At least 90 Afghans were also killed, and untold dozens more were wounded. A Taliban splinter group called ISIS-K claimed responsibility. They were likely helped by the fact that we’d trusted the Taliban to help provide security there.
The Wall Street Journal reports, “President Biden spoke for the country Thursday in his expression of empathy and loss, but he can’t duck responsibility for the failure to provide enough force to execute a safe evacuation.”
Biden did speak Thursday, finally, and weakly. “I’ve been engaged all day and in constant contact with the military commanders here in Washington, the Pentagon, as well as in Afghanistan and Doha,” he began. “And my commanders here in Washington and in the field have been on this with great detail, and you’ve had a chance to speak to some, so far. The situation on the ground is still evolving, and I’m constantly being updated.”
The commander-in-chief was clearly trying to convey a sense that he was in charge, that he was on top of things. But it was all for show. Then, in a tone-deaf effort to connect with the families of those fallen warriors, Biden invoked the memory of his son Beau, a former soldier and Iraq war veteran who died of brain cancer in 2015.
Biden also vowed revenge: “To those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm, know this: We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay. I will defend our interests and our people with every measure at my command.” It seemed hollow, forced, fake. And it got worse.
In a deeply disgraceful and wholly unsettling moment just prior to taking questions, Biden said, “Ladies and gentlemen, they gave me a list here. The first person I was instructed to call on was Kelly O’Donnell from NBC.”
I was instructed? Just who on earth is in charge at the White House? On a day marked by the raw courage of our warriors in the face of an attack they knew was coming, our commander-in-chief couldn’t simply look out to the assembled press and say, “You. What’s your question?” Then, “You. What’s yours?” and so on. Instead, his handlers made sure it was choreographed, so he’d have time to rehearse his answers.
Toward the end, Biden took a few unscripted questions, one of which was about whether his administration had, inexplicably, shared a list of U.S. citizens, green card holders, and Afghan allies with the Taliban. (He didn’t deny it. Which means they did. And which makes the Taliban’s job easier when it comes to figuring out who to execute after the Americans leave.)
To his credit, Biden then closed by calling on Fox News’s Peter Doocy.
“Mr. President,” Doocy began, “there had not been a U.S. service member killed in combat in Afghanistan since February of 2020. You set a deadline. You pulled troops out. You sent troops back in. And now [13 Americans] are dead. You said the buck stops with you. Do you bear any responsibility for the way that things have unfolded in the last two weeks?”
Biden responded, “I bear responsibility for, fundamentally, all that’s happened of late.”
Except then he tried to pin it on Donald Trump. “But here’s the deal: You know — I wish you’d one day say these things — you know as well as I do that the former president made a deal with the Taliban…”
Yeah, yeah, we know, Joe. We know. And it was working. Remember: not a single combat death since February of last year.
“Do not be confused by the spin from Team Biden and their Leftmedia propagandists about who’s responsible for this attack,” writes our Mark Alexander. “Right on cue, Biden has blamed ISIS, attempting to draw a distinction between the Taliban and ISIS and vowing to retaliate. That is a distinction without a difference.”
Alexander continued: “There is NO degree of separation between the so-called ‘Taliban government’ thugs and their surrogate terrorist groups. The Taliban is not a ‘government’ but an amalgam of Islamists, and there is every indication that their murderous al-Qa’ida and ISIS surrogates have risen again under its protectorate.”
Finally, as Alexander made clear earlier this week, the catastrophic failure of Biden’s Afghan exfil was not due to the plan, but the man.
“I am president of the United States of America,” Joe Biden said just over a week ago, “and the buck stops with me.” But if that’s really the case, and if he really is the commander-in-chief, then where are the resignations? Why haven’t Lloyd Austin and Mark Milley cleaned out their damned desks yet?
Either Joe Biden will own this catastrophe, or he won’t. But history won’t be kind. He and his team have failed the American people. And more than that, they’ve failed our warriors.
At least 13 U.S. troops are dead, and our enemies get billions of dollars’ worth of military equipment.
Thomas Gallatin
As Americans grapple with the grim reality that at least 13 U.S. service members were killed by suicide bombers in Kabul — thanks to the outrageous decisions of Joe Biden — we must also realize that this is only the beginning of the carnage.
An estimated $83 billion was spent by the U.S. in providing both training and military equipment for the Afghan security forces over the course of the war. Following Biden’s headlong rush to pull out of Afghanistan, almost all of the military equipment — including Black Hawk helicopters, Humvees, and a plethora of weapons — that was left behind for the Afghan security forces has been commandeered by the Taliban.
Biden’s debacle of a pullout not only stranded thousands of Americans and Afghan allies but also effectively armed the Taliban. And the numbers of arms are staggering. The New York Post reports, “The war chest also included the supply of least 600,000 infantry weapons — including M16 assault rifles — as well as 162,000 pieces of communication equipment and 16,000 night-vision goggles.”
The Hill notes that “from 2017 to 2019, the United States also gave Afghan forces 7,035 machine guns, 4,702 Humvees, 20,040 hand grenades, 2,520 bombs and 1,394 grenade launchers, among other equipment, according to a report last year from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR).” This is all now in the hands of the Taliban.
The massive weapons cache taken by the Taliban is significant not simply for its military value but also the psychological messaging, a point the Taliban sought to drive home with a photo of Taliban fighters dressed in U.S. military fatigues planting a Taliban flag, mocking the iconic photo of U.S. Marines raising the American flag on Iwo Jima.
This is the Taliban saying it not only defeated the U.S. but has also humiliated America by looting us on the way out.
Biden has now effectively armed the Taliban for decades to come. Rather than protecting Americans and U.S. interests, Biden has aided terrorists and made the world a more dangerous place for Americans and our allies. Sadly, that reality has been brought home almost immediately with the bombing attack in Kabul that took the lives of at least 13 U.S. Armed Forces Patriots.
Lt. Michael Byrd’s rationale for shooting an unarmed woman in the U.S. Capitol building is utterly unconvincing.
Douglas Andrews
The first impression one gets from listening to Capitol Police Lieutenant Michael Byrd, the man who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt in the Capitol building on January 6, is that he isn’t too bright. During his interview with NBC’s Lester Holt, Byrd comes across more like an unimpressive mall cop than the sort of professional we’d entrust to protect Nancy Pelosi and all those other important lawmakers.
On second thought, maybe we’re being unfair to mall cops. What kind of law enforcement professional, after all, shoots an unarmed woman in the chest? And what kind of officer says of himself, during a national TV interview, “I believe I showed the, uh, utmost courage on January 6th”?
Michael Byrd is a hero, he’ll have you know. And he has no doubt he did the right thing when he stepped toward that window, aimed for “center mass,” and boldly blew away 110-pound Ashli Babbitt. “I know that day I saved countless lives,” Byrd said. “I know members of Congress, as well as my fellow officers and staff, were in jeopardy and in serious danger. And that’s my job.”
His lawyer, Mark Schamel, is even more nauseatingly effusive. “The bravery shown by the lieutenant in organizing and coordinating the defense of the House and its members and staff was nothing short of heroic,” he said. “The lieutenant’s conduct saved lives and helped to end the violent insurrection.”
“There should be a training video on how he handled that situation,” added Schamel, as if he hadn’t already said enough. “What he did was unbelievable heroism.”
It should be noted that in February 2019, Byrd was investigated “for leaving his department-issued Glock-22 firearm unattended in a restroom on the House side of the Capitol, even though the potent weapon, which fires .40-caliber rounds, has no manual safety to prevent unintended firing. The abandoned gun was discovered by another officer during a routine security sweep.”
We wonder: Is there a training video for that deeply embarrassing incident?
Byrd said he shot Babbitt as “a last resort,” but if he and the people he was protecting were in such mortal danger, why didn’t one of the numerous armed law enforcement officers directly behind Ashli Babbitt simply grab her and stop her from going through that window? Perhaps they sized up the tiny, unarmed Babbitt and didn’t think she was the sort of threat that calls for deadly force.
Indeed, as one veteran Capitol officer put it, “I’m not sure how he was justified shooting her when there was a SWAT team right behind her,” referring to the three heavily armed USCP officers who’d positioned themselves between the doors and the mob. “They saw no immediate threat.”
As for the shot Byrd fired, the footage of which begins at around 2:20 of the video, we can see that he has his weapon trained toward the middle of the doors, then, in a single movement, he shifts his aim up and leftward and fires a single shot. It’s hard to believe that he even processed his target during that split-second between whirling and firing.
“She was posing a threat to the United States House of Representatives,” Byrd said. Uh-huh. This was reportedly the first time during his 29 years on the force that Byrd had ever fired his weapon, and so perhaps he simply choked. Perhaps he’s simply never sighted down a real threat before. And, to be fair to Byrd, he’s certainly never found himself in a surreal situation like that before.
Further, when interviewer Holt asked him whether he could tell if Babbitt was armed, and whether it would’ve made any difference in his decision to shoot her, Byrd said, “It did not.”
Perhaps Holt’s best moment came when he asked Byrd, “What should we make of the fact that there were other officers in other potentially life-threatening situations who didn’t use their service weapons that day?” Byrd’s answer was less than convincing.
As for Holt’s most disgraceful moment, that would be when he described Babbitt as “35 years old, an Air Force veteran, Trump supporter, and QAnon follower,” as if the 14-year veteran’s affinity for a fringe political group somehow makes Byrd’s actions more justifiable.
The Babbitt family’s attorney has described the incident as an “ambush,” claiming that Byrd gave no warning before he pulled the trigger. Here, the two sides utterly disagree. Byrd, in fact, told Holt “he felt pain in his throat for days afterward from yelling at the protesters to stop and step back as they pounded on the glass doors.”
As our Mark Alexander, himself a former cop, has pointed out: “What’s clear from the videos is that there were four uniformed officers within feet of Babbitt, at least four additional heavily armed riot police, and one or more plain-clothed officers — none of whom made an effort to prevent her attempt to climb through the broken window of the door where she was shot. There is no apparent justification for [Byrd’s] actions.”
Ashli Babbitt’s family clearly agrees, and they’ve signaled their intention to file a $10 million wrongful death civil suit against the Capitol Police. Their attorney, Terry Roberts, didn’t respond to NBC’s request for comment.
In the end, what we have here is the exoneration of a black male Capitol cop for the killing of an unarmed white female Trump supporter. Had these demographics been reversed, we can’t help but believe the outcome would’ve been different. As it stands, this seems like the embodiment of two-tiered justice.
The justices got it right this time, slamming the CDC’s abuse of power.
Nate Jackson
A president like Joe Biden is never content with merely one constitutional offense. No, if you’re willing to shred our nation’s credibility and leave 13 American troops dead because of dereliction of duty as commander-in-chief, you’re probably not bothered by other niceties like constitutional authority for pandemic mandates.
Take the CDC’s unconstitutional eviction moratorium, for example. The Supreme Court finally struck it down in a 6-3 ruling Thursday, but how did we get here?
The offense began with Congress. As part of its initial COVID relief efforts, Congress passed a temporary moratorium on home rental evictions to protect those who had lost their jobs due to the tanking economy. Money was allocated to pay landlords on behalf of tenants. By the time the moratorium expired in July 2020, however, Donald Trump told the CDC to renew it, and it was extended multiple times by both Trump and Biden.
In June of this year, the Supreme Court got it wrong, ruling that though the CDC didn’t have the authority for the moratorium, it was nearly expired anyway and Congress had allocated money that still needed time for dispersal.
How much money? Well, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week that “just $4.7 billion of almost $47 billion appropriated by Congress had reached tenants and landlords through July.” Nothing like the efficiency of government.
In early August, Biden extended the moratorium again (albeit a very slightly less expansive version) despite the Court’s June ruling that Congress must do the extending, and the case naturally made it back before the justices. The CDC’s lawyers argued that the agency’s “legal authority goes all the way to getting transmission to zero.” Moreover, “Just because that’s not factually an option doesn’t mean that they don’t have the legal authority to try.”
The Biden administration assumed the power to confine people to their own homes in order to argue that landlords can’t evict them. “It would be strange to hold that the government may combat infection by prohibiting the tenant from leaving his home,” the White House brief said, “but not by prohibiting the landlord from throwing him out.”
Could there be a more unlimited view of power?
Fortunately, this time, the justices got it right.
“It would be one thing if Congress had specifically authorized the action that the CDC has taken. But that has not happened,” the unsigned majority said. “Instead, the CDC has imposed a nationwide moratorium on evictions in reliance on a decades-old statute that authorizes it to implement measures like fumigation and pest extermination. It strains credulity to believe that this statute grants the CDC the sweeping authority that it asserts.”
No less a constitutional scholar than Joe Biden himself had already said upon his latest extension that “the bulk of the constitutional scholars say it’s not likely to pass constitutional muster.” It didn’t, even if more than a year too late.
The city’s leftist leadership refuses to enforce the Rule of Law, and lawlessness ensues.
Thomas Gallatin
A social cancer has been steadily metastasizing in the leftist-run city of Portland, Oregon. That cancer is lawlessness wrapped in the garb of political protest. Two groups hellbent on a fight recently clashed in violent confrontations near a city park. Those groups were the far-left antifa and the far-right Proud Boys.
Violence predictably erupted when antifa crossed over to confront the protesting Proud Boys. Law enforcement was nowhere to be seen. And that lack of a presence of law enforcement was in fact intentional. This comes after months of rioting primarily instigated by leftist groups like antifa and Black Lives Matter, all while the Portland Police Department has been rendered nearly powerless by the city’s leftist leaders. Inept Democrat Mayor Ted Wheeler asserted that the “violence was contained to the groups of people who chose to engage in violence toward each other.” He then ridiculously added, “The community at large was not harmed and the broader public was protected. Property damage was minimal.” Wow.
Wheeler’s message is, We’re okay with anarchy. Furthermore, his assertion that it has little impact upon the city at large is absurd. Over the last year alone, as this nearly daily rioting has been allowed to continue virtually unchecked by law enforcement, violent crime in the Rose City has spiked. The number of homicides in Portland so far this year is 61; the total number of homicides in 2019 was 32.
Police morale in the city has tanked, as Wheeler has essentially handcuffed officers’ ability to enforce the law. Responding to the woke demands of BLM following the death of George Floyd, city leaders cut the police budget by some $25 million. On top of the budget cut, the department has lost 150 officers to either resignations or retirements. So, lacking manpower and the authority necessary to properly enforce the law, an apparently exasperated Police Chief Chuck Lovell recently told residents of Portland they “should not expect to see police officers standing in the middle of the crowd trying to keep people apart.”
It’s clear that Portland’s elected leaders have no real interest in taking the necessary actions to stop this growing lawlessness from spreading. Wheeler has his head in the sand believing that this response to lawlessness will contain the growing anarchy.
When government grows without restraint, the American people pay the price.
Brian Mark Weber
If you’re like most Americans, it’s getting harder to balance your family’s budget. Even with multiple stimulus checks coming in from Uncle Sam, there’s still not enough money to cover household expenses.
While you might be worried about it, some economists and politicians actually think your lack of purchasing power is a good thing.
Case in point: A headline for an opinion piece in The New York Times reads, “Inflation Could Stay High Next Year, and That’s OK.”
In the column, economist Peter Coy argues all the reasons why inflation is harmless and temporary, but he views inflation purely through a lens that only a policy wonk can appreciate. Coy may think inflation isn’t a problem, but in the real world where people work for a living in order to buy milk, eggs, and a used car, it’s harder than ever to make ends meet.
CNBC reports that consumers now face higher prices in a range of products and services including airline tickets, used cars, gasoline, hotels, groceries, clothing, furniture, and others.
Consequently, “Americans are feeling that heat,” Business Insider admits. “Nearly nine in 10 adults in the US have experienced price hikes this year, and two-thirds said those hikes have hurt their finances, according to a survey conducted by Bankrate.com.”
A look at the numbers tells the story. And the numbers don’t lie even when politicians and economists try to sugarcoat the data.
Analyst Taylor Tepper writes: “Overall, prices in July climbed 5.4% year-over-year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), and 0.9% over the past month. The indexes for homes, food, energy and new automobiles were key drivers of inflation growth last month. Of course, those items are key to the basic financial life of normal Americans, thereby stretching their bottom line.”
Meanwhile, the government keeps spending money like there’s no tomorrow, and there may not be a tomorrow for our children and grandchildren thanks to reckless politicians who can’t see beyond the next election. Congress is currently working on $4.5 trillion in spending legislation.
But the bill is full of pork-barrel spending, sending millions of dollars back home to congressional districts.
Former U.S. Treasury adviser Stephen Miran writes, “While the U.S. desperately needs improvements in roads, bridges and tunnels, the timing couldn’t be worse for inflation.” He adds: “There are other hidden inflationary forces in the bill. A persistent driver of inflation is the regulatory cost of doing business, and the bipartisan infrastructure bill is filled with new regulations.”
Ultimately, when the government spends borrowed money and increases regulatory burdens on businesses large and small, it’s the American people who pay the price.
That’s making some parts of the country look more like the Soviet Union under communism than the land of the free, as shoppers face empty grocery store shelves for the first time in memory.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation blames the growing acceptance of inflation by economists and politicians on what is known as Modern Monetary Theory. MMT is basically a smoke-and-mirror trick to take the negative feeling away from the word inflation and convince Americans that higher inflation is actually good for them and the country. Essentially, the Federal Reserve prints money while holding down interest rates and manipulating numbers to make inflation look harmless.
“Inflation also acts as a tax on us as it reduces our purchasing power,” according to the foundation. “Put simply, government uses inflation to confiscate a portion of your savings and your wealth.” That’s an argument economist Thomas Sowell has been making for decades.
We can add inflation to the list of problems this administration promises to address but does nothing to solve. Well-to-do economists writing op-eds for news and financial publications will never have to choose between paying the electric bill or making a car payment, but the rest of us know inflation has a real impact on our ability to get the most out of our hard-earned money.
Lesbian, gay, and bisexual activists mistakenly place sexual preference above everything else.
Emmy Griffin
The LGBTQ+ community claims many identities. For the purposes of this article, let’s focus on the “LGB” part of this group. LGB stands for lesbian, gay, and bisexual, and those who subscribe to this worldview base their identity on being born with an inclination to love those of the same sex (or both sexes, if they are bisexual). This community is generally older and more active than the latter add-ons, and they also have a long and colorful history — a lot of which is sad. This community, like all special interest groups, contains two sides: those who strive for assimilation and living quiet lives of freedom in their community, and the more aggressive sect of activists. The activists tend to be the ones pushing the agenda beyond the realm of toleration and peace to that of indoctrination and bigotry.
LGB activists place the sexual preference of the individual above everything else, which is both too broad and too narrow. People are complex. They have too many gifts, talents, and ideas to offer the world to be happy in such a narrow box. An LGB-identifying activist is choosing to make this part of themselves the hill worth dying on. It is a death indeed.
When you make sex and sexuality your identity and your god, then of course you inflate your pride. And pride is the war cry of the LGB activists. Pride, as the LGB community means it, is about loving and embracing who you are, but it more accurately means having too high an opinion of oneself. Author C.S. Lewis says in his book Mere Christianity, “A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.” He’s describing loving something about yourself so much that it builds a wall of vitriol and hate against those who disagree with the worldview. It inhibits the capacity to look for a greater purpose beyond your self-ascribed identity.
These activists take what could arguably be standing up for their constitutionally protected freedoms and rights to an extreme that is antithetical to the American identity.
First, let’s talk about freedom of association. It is the constitutional right of all Americans to associate with whomever they desire. But LGB activists do not have the right to force their ideas and agendas on those who don’t agree with them. A few common words that are often shouted by these activists are “tolerance” and “respect.” Well, tolerance and respect are a two-way street. Their version of these words seems to mean, Let me do and say whatever I want to whomever I want. This can prove to be a dangerous slippery slope.
It’s a slippery slope that has been taking over culture in the form of new holidays on the American calendar, i.e., “Pride Month” and special days of mourning and remembrance for their martyrs. There is nothing inherently wrong with marking special days for certain groups. America has a long history of celebrating all the various people that make up its history and culture. However, these holidays have become pervasive and taken to the most extreme.
Which leads to perhaps the most egregious violation that these activists have perpetrated: indoctrinating children in the name of “tolerance and fairness.” For starters, young children through middle school are not mature enough sexually to even be introduced to these concepts. Young children (hopefully) have no concept of sex and sexual identity. It is a part of their innocence. Protection from information that they are not ready for and cannot properly process should be a goal of all adults who care about them.
This year in particular, though, it seems that children are up for grabs.
Throughout the month of June, there were gay characters in children’s shows celebrating Pride Month, rainbow flags were everywhere, and there was even a song that the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus made about literally converting your children. This is not only a violation of the freedom of association but also a flagrant disregard for the rights of the parents and the innocence of the children in question. In other words, the song definitely comes across as a threat. More recently, Patriot Post contributor and Tennessee resident Patrick Hampton had to pull his children from a Christian school summer camp — where he believed they were more or less safe from this ideology — because counselors showed a video featuring a same-sex couple. At the end of the day, the activists have crossed a line. Children should be off limits.
Lastly, the American identity operates under the condition that we use the same language and assimilate into the greater culture through the use of this agreed-upon language. Language is a living thing and does change over time, but the Left as a whole has hijacked this and in recent years has been using language to convolute and obfuscate truth. The LGB activists are no different. Gay vs. straight. Bigoted vs. tolerant. Frankly, they use common language to spread hate and label those who agree with them as “good” and those who disagree with them as “bad.” So much for tolerance.
Until we can collectively use language in the correct way as a tool to build rather than destroy, it is only going to continue to crumble our country, people, and identity.
13th U.S. service member dies in Afghanistan attack, now deadliest day of conflict since 2011 (Daily Wire) | Tone-deaf House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tweets about Women’s Equality Day after Americans killed in Kabul (PJ Media)
In hopeless speech, President Biden refuses liability for Afghanistan crisis he created (The Federalist) | Biden admits to being instructed which reporters to call on (Daily Wire)
Dumb… CENTCOM commander says U.S. sharing intel with Taliban (Fox Business)
… and dumber: U.S. officials gave Taliban terrorists names of American citizens, green card holders, and Afghan allies (PM) | “This is insanity”: Baffled reporters torch Biden for sharing list of U.S. citizens and allies with Taliban (Fox News)
Around the Nation
Tropical Storm Ida is strengthening and forecast to hit the Gulf Coast as a major hurricane (TWC)
Portland explodes again in violent battles between antifa and Proud Boys (The Hill)
Feds to close troubled NYC jail where Jeffrey Epstein killed himself didn’t kill himself (AP)
Democrat Terry McAuliffe, candidate for Virginia governor, forgot to sign form making him a valid candidate, complaint says (Daily Wire)
Other Notables
Getting it right on the second try: Supreme Court strikes down eviction moratorium (National Review) | Nearly 90% of rental assistance funds not yet distributed (Fox Business)
The officer who shot Ashli Babbitt reveals identity, ridiculously says he “saved countless lives” (National Review)
Delta Air Lines will impose $200 surcharge on unvaccinated employees (Fox Business)
Non compos mentis: Harvard’s new chaplain is an atheist — and “good without God” (NY Post)
Closing Arguments
Policy: How might China exploit the Afghanistan debacle? (Daily Signal)
Policy: How to regulate Critical Race Theory in schools (Manhattan Institute)
Satire: In response to Afghanistan disaster, Nancy Pelosi begins impeachment proceedings against President Trump (Babylon Bee)
For more of today’s editors’ choice headlines, visit Headline Report.
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Insight: “Whereas each man claims his freedom as a matter of right, the freedom he accords to other men is a matter of toleration.” —Walter Lippmann (1889-1974)
For the record I: “I’m old enough to remember when the Democrats impeached Donald Trump for making a phone call.” —John Hayward
For the record II: “If President Trump can be impeached over a phone call, then the time has come to IMPEACH Biden for gross negligence in Afghanistan. Americans deserve better. We deserve better than someone who willfully IGNORES the WORST crisis in decades.” —Congressman Ronny Jackson
The bottom line: “Every president since Bush has had to deal with this really difficult decision — Obama, Trump. But Biden is the only one who really followed through with the stupidest possible option. And now we’re paying in blood for it.” —Congressman Dan Crenshaw
Forewarning: “What we now have is a new epicenter of jihadist terrorism that is a going to be a grave threat to the world.” —former National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster
Having your cake and eating it too: “I bear responsibility for, fundamentally, all that’s happened of late. But here’s the deal: You know — I wish you’d one day say these things — you know as well as I do that the former president made a deal with the Taliban.” —Joe Biden
Chickens coming home to roost: “God, forgive me if I’m wrong … but no one’s being killed right now [in Afghanistan].” —Joe Biden last week
Too little, too late: “On behalf of the men and women of the Department of defense, I express deepest condolences to the loved ones and teammates of all those killed and wounded in Kabul today. Terrorists took their lives at the very moment these troops were trying to save the lives of others. We mourn their loss. We will treat their wounds. And we will support their families in what will most assuredly be devastating grief. But we will not be dissuaded from the task at hand.” —Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin
Dezinformatsiya: “Thursday’s bombings in Kabul come as Republicans push to turn the crisis into an albatross for the president. Yet several factors threaten to undermine that effort.” —Politico in a Democrat damage control piece titled, “GOP faces hurdles in push to make Afghanistan matter in the midterms.”
A trip down memory lane: “[Jihadis] are not to target visits by US Vice President Biden. … Obama is the head of infidelity and killing him automatically will make Biden take over the presidency for the remainder of the term, as it is the norm over there. Biden is totally unprepared for that post, which will lead the US into a crisis.” —Osama bin Laden, May 2010
Non compos mentis: “We don’t have time for complication. We don’t have time for bureaucracy. We’re gonna have to move very very quickly in this [climate] crisis and break through a lot of the crap that has existed for years.” —Senator Bernie Sanders (Memo to Sanders: Afghanistan might be on fire, but it ain’t because of climate change…)
Grand delusions: “I know that day I saved countless lives.” —Capitol Police Officer Michael Byrd, who killed Ashli Babbitt
And last… “Joe Biden has blood on his hands. The buck stops with the President of the United States. This horrific national security and humanitarian disaster is solely the result of Joe Biden’s weak and incompetent leadership. He is unfit to be Commander-in-Chief.” —Congresswoman Elise Stefanik
Former US President Donald Trump has accused Joe Biden’s administration of incompetence after American troops were killed in a suicide bombing amid the evacuation from Kabul, Afghanistan.
Trump blasted Biden for not ensuring a sooner evacuation of American nationals and allied Afghans and for leaving behind US military hardware, which later fell into the hands of the Taliban.
The hasty withdrawal of US troops was “the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to our country,” the former president told Fox News’ Sean Hannity. “We look like fools all over the world. We are weak, we are pathetic. We are being led by people that have no idea what they are doing.”
The already frantic and chaotic evacuation from Kabul was further marred by a twin suicide bombing outside the crowded Hamid Karzai International Airport on Thursday, which killed 13 US soldiers and at least 90 Afghans. Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K), an Afghanistan affiliate of the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS), claimed responsibility for the attack, while its rival, the Taliban, condemned the bombing. Trump also condemned the attack, claiming “it would not have happened if I was your president.”
The Americans killed on Thursday were the first US combat deaths in Afghanistan since February 2020 and the deadliest single-day casualty event there since 2011.
In a speech delivered several hours after the attack, Biden vowed to avenge the fallen troops and continue the evacuation. “We will not be deterred by terrorists. We will not let them stop our mission,” he said, adding that the US will find ways to help any Americans that may become stranded in Afghanistan after US soldiers leave on August 31.
Biden also confirmed that the US military had shared some information on the evacuation procedures with the Taliban in the past in order to streamline the process. The president did not explicitly refute a report by Politico, which claimed that the US had provided the militants with a list of names of American nationals, green card holders and Afghan helpers slated for evacuation.
Like many Republican Party politicians and conservative commentators, Trump said such a move would have been outrageous. “We’re giving lists of Americans to the Taliban, so you just knock on the door and grab them and take them out.”
“This country has never seen stupidity like this and our country is really in trouble. And it’s only going to get worse,” he said.
Under the deal signed by Trump and the Taliban in Qatar in February 2020, the militants promised not to attack American forces in exchange for their gradual withdrawal. The Taliban also agreed to dialogue with the UN-backed government in Kabul. However, the fighting resumed almost immediately.
The militants launched a series of sweeping offensives simultaneously with the US withdrawal, which culminated with the seizure of the Afghan capital on August 15. The US Air Force has since evacuated more than 100,000 American citizens and Afghans, according to the Pentagon.
DOCUMENTATION AND ADDITIONAL READING PART 1 (0:0 – 3:43):
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August 26, 2021: We Were Warned: But the Attack in Afghanistan Leaves Many Dead and Many Questions that Demand an Answer
PART 2 (3:44 – 7:19):
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The Leadership of President Biden In Wake of Tragedy: What the US People Needed Was a Picture of Strong, Competent Leadership. We Saw A Picture of America in Decline
In this episode, Dinesh reveals the magnitude of Biden’s disaster, worse than Carter’s hostage crisis, worse than Benghazi, and asks whether it is time for a serious discussion of impeachment. Dinesh shows why the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Biden’s immigration policy is firmly anchored in the clear language of federal law.
The deadly attacks in Afghanistan should be the final straw for Biden, whose incompetence has now cost the lives of at least a dozen American soldiers.
Shortly after the deadly Kabul bombing, President Joe Biden has said that the US military may have shared data on Americans and allied Afghans with the Taliban in order to streamline evacuations.
Three US officials, who spoke with the Politico news website on Thursday on the condition of anonymity, said that the Taliban was given a list of names of American citizens, green card holders and Afghan allies slated for evacuation.
The move was said to have been intended to help evacuees safely pass through militant-controlled checkpoints outside the Hamid Karzai International Airport ahead of the looming August 31 deadline for the complete withdrawal of American troops. A defense source, however, told Politico the US had effectively put Afghan helpers on “a kill list.”
Biden faced questions from reporters later on Thursday, hours after 13 US soldiers and more than 90 Afghans were killed in a twin suicide bombing near the Kabul airport. Biden acknowledged that the US sometimes shared certain details on the evacuation process with the Taliban.
Our military has contacted their military counterparts in the Taliban and said this, for example, this bus is coming through with X number of people on it, made up of the following group of people. We want you to let that bus or that group through.
Biden could not say “with any certitude that there’s actually been a list of names,” but then added that “it could very well have happened.”
A spokesperson for the president’s National Security Council, Emily Horne, later told Politico that “in limited cases” the US has shared information with the Taliban that has helped evacuations from Kabul.
Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K), an offshoot of Islamic State (IS/formerly ISIS) that is active in Afghanistan, claimed responsibility for the Kabul bombings. The Taliban, which has clashed with ISIS-K in the past, condemned the terrorist attack.
Nevertheless, the idea of providing the Taliban with data on American citizens and allied Afghans sparked uproar among US Republican Party politicians and conservative commentators, who argued that such actions endanger the evacuees.
Congressman Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) and State Senator Wendy Rogers (R-Arizona) argued that such a move would be tantamount to “treason.”
“We need to find out who is responsible for giving the Taliban a hit list and they need to go to prison,” Crenshaw, a former US Navy SEAL, who lost an eye when serving in Afghanistan, wrote on Twitter.
If true, this qualifies as borderline treason. We need to find out who is responsible for giving the Taliban a hit list and they need to go to prison. https://t.co/WTkeRytHmN
“F*** this administration,” co-founder of the Daily Wire news website and podcast host Ben Shapiro tweeted.
Fox News contributor and spokesperson under former president Donald Trump, Kayleigh McEnany, asked why would the White House entrust the Taliban with sensitive information. “[Biden’s spokesperson] Jen Psaki says the Taliban is ‘not a group we trust, not our friends.’ So why did we rely on them to provide safe exit for Americans?”
Jen Psaki says the Taliban is “not a group we trust, not our friends.”
So why did we rely on them to provide safe exit for Americans?
Leon Panetta, one in a host of voices of the US national security establishment objecting to the withdrawal from Afghanistan, says Joe Biden will have to “go back in” to deliver on a pledge to avenge the deaths of troops in Kabul.
Panetta, who headed the CIA between 2009 and 2011 before moving to replace Robert Gates at the helm of the Pentagon, went on CNN to predict a forever war on terrorism in America’s forceable future, including in Afghanistan.
“I understand that we’re trying to get our troops out of there. But the bottom line is we can leave a battlefield, but we can’t leave the war on terrorrism, which still is a threat to our security,” he told the OutFront program.
"There's no question that it's probably Joe Biden's worst nightmare to lose 13 Marines as a result of what's happened here," says former CIA director Leon Panetta of the deadly attacks in Afghanistan.
The Obama-era official was commenting on President Joe Biden’s promise to go after the Afghan branch of terrorist group Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS), which claimed credit for the Thursday bomb attacks in Kabul. The bombings claimed dozens of lives, including 13 US soldiers. Panetta said Biden was right to promise to retaliate against the people who orchestrated the bombings, and that pledge may require him to act against his withdrawal plan.
We’re gonna have to go back in to get ISIS. We’ll probably have to go back in, when Al-Qaeda resurrects itself – as they will with this Taliban [government].
The Taliban has been promising to deny access to Afghanistan territory under its control to international terrorist organizations, including Al-Qaeda, as the Islamist militant movement seeks international recognition of its power in the country. Taliban fighters, who were guarding the perimeter of the Hamid Karzai International Airport, were among the victims of the Thursday attack.
Panetta’s mistrust of the militants’ intentions is not surprising. He made his negative opinion about Biden’s decision to honor a Trump-era agreement with the Taliban to pull out NATO troops from Afghanistan quite clear. Last week, he compared the fall of the US-backed government in Kabul with the failed invasion of post-revolution Cuba under John Kennedy and called on Biden to take responsibility for his ‘Bay of Pigs’ in Kabul.
2 withdrawal from France in WWII.
Fmr. Obama Defense Sec. and CIA Director Leon Panetta added the collapse of the Afghan government and military, was a major blow to the US’ credibility as an ally on the world stage.
The sentiment is shared by a long list of former US national security officials, who served under both Democratic and Republican administrations. The criticisms of Biden’s Afghan policy became overwhelming in the US media after the unexpectedly swift takeover of Kabul by the Taliban fighters.
Panetta and other anti-withdrawal pundits happen to share not only that same attitude but also another trait – involvement with the private sector servicing the US military-industrial complex.
In 2014, the former security official joined the defense consulting firm Beacon Global Strategies. The next year he joined the board of software giant Oracle, whose ties with the Pentagon were highlighted recently by the company’s legal fight for a $10bn contract that the DoD gave to competitor Microsoft.
As he predicted that the US would have to “go back in” to Afghanistan, Panetta remained vague about what exactly he envisioned. The Taliban showed no intention to tolerate Western soldiers on Afghan soil after the August 31 evacuation deadline, which the Biden administration wants to keep.
It’s safe to assume that Panetta’s preferred approach would be timid compared to what another media personality suggested in response to the attack in Kabul. The reaction of conservative show host Todd Starnes was arguably an advocacy of war crimes, as he proposed that “a city in Afghanistan should be wiped off the face of the Earth” for every American killed.
Even Democrats are criticizing President Biden for his handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal, and moderate Republicans are calling for his resignation.
Evacuations out of Kabul are continuing after yesterday’s deadly suicide attacks that killed at least 100- people including 13 u-s service members. “America is back” – that’s the story President Biden told Allies when he took office.
WASHINGTON, D.C.—President Biden today reassured citizens that he did not violate America’s longstanding ban on negotiating with terrorists, because he just said ‘yes’ to whatever they asked for.
“I would never negotiate with terrorists! I’m Joe Biden!” screamed the President, as aides tried to calm him. “The Taliban guy – who by the way, was a lot friendlier than some of you so-called journalists – asked if we could leave on August 31st because that’s his birthday. His birthday, ok? I just said, hey bucko, Uncle Joe loves birthday presents! You bet! You call that negotiating with terrorists? Hogwash!”
President Biden also kindly granted requests from the Taliban for 600,000 weapons, identification biometrics for U.S. allies, control of Afghanistan, and a photo op of Biden groveling at the feet of a mujahideen. Biden was very diligent to ask for absolutely nothing for America in return, so as not to violate U.S. policy.
“Let me be clear – there was no quid pro quo here, not like that Trump fella,” said Biden. “All I did was say yes sir! Well, I did ask if he would let Americans get to the airport, but he said no, so I’m not counting that. The fact is, I have handled this thing perfectly, and if I had it to do over again, I would do it perfectly again, just like I did the first time.”
At publishing time, the Taliban had reportedly added a request for some Popeye’s chicken sandwiches to be delivered by the Dallas Cowboys’ cheerleaders, which Biden is working on from the Situation Room.
Dr. Anthony Fauci and the rest of President Biden’s COVID advisors have been proven wrong about “the science” of COVID vaccines yet again. After telling Americans that vaccines offer better protection than natural infection, a new study out of Israel suggests the opposite is true: natural infection offers a much better shield against the delta variant than vaccines.
The study was described by Bloomberg as “the largest real-world analysis comparing natural immunity – gained from an earlier infection – to the protection provided by one of the most potent vaccines currently in use.” A few days ago, we noted how remarkable it was that the mainstream press was finally giving voice to scientists to criticize President Biden’s push to start doling out booster jabs. Well, this study further questions the credibility of relying on vaccines, given that the study showed that the vaccinated were ultimately 13x as likely to be infected as those who were infected previously, and 27x more likely to be symptomatic.
Alex Berenson, a science journalist who has repeatedly questioned the efficacy of vaccines and masks at preventing COVID, touted the study as enough to “end any debate over vaccines v natural immunity.”
The new analysis relies on the database of Maccabi Healthcare Services, which enrolls about 2.5 million Israelis. The study, led by Tal Patalon and Sivan Gazit at KSM, the system’s research and innovation arm, found in two analyses that people who were vaccinated in January and February were, in June, July, and the first half of August, six to 13 times more likely to get infected than unvaccinated people who were previously infected with the coronavirus. In one analysis, comparing more than 32,000 people in the health system, the risk of developing symptomatic COVID-19 was 27 times higher among the vaccinated, and the risk of hospitalization eight times higher.
This time, the data leave little doubt that natural infection truly is the better option for protection against the delta variant, despite the fact that the US won’t acknowledge the already infected as having antibodies protecting them from the virus.
As the first country to achieve widepsread coverage by the vaccine, Israel is now in an unthinkable situation: daily case numbers have reached new record levels as the delta variant penetrates the vaccines’ protection like a hot knife slicing through butter.
At the very least, the results of the study are good news for patients who have already successfully battled COVID but show the challenge of relying exclusively on immunizations to move past the pandemic.
“This analysis demonstrated that natural immunity affords longer lasting and stronger protection against infection, symptomatic disease and hospitalization due to the delta variant,” the researchers said.
Unfortunately, the study also showed that any protection is time-limited. Protection offered by natural infection wanes over time, just like the protection afforded by vaccines: The risk of a vaccine-breakthrough delta case was 13x higher than the risk of developing a second infection when the original illness occurred during January or February 2021. That’s significantly more than the risk for people who were ill earlier in the outbreak.
What’s more, giving a single shot of the vaccine to those who had been previously infected also appeared to boost their protection. Still, the data don’t tell us anything about the long-term benefits of booster doses.
This latest data showing the vaccines don’t offer anywhere near the 90%+ protection that was originally advertised by the FDA after the emergency authorization. Other studies are finding harmful side effects caused by the mRNA jabs are also more prevalent than previously believed.
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