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
“After two seasons, it is evident the “authentic Jesus” is not in The Chosen. The show is serving as a vehicle to drive a false, interfaith Christ into the hearts of many.”
(John Lanagan – The Word Like Fire) According to the woman who researched and produced this excellent 5 minutes and 58 seconds long video,“Derral Eves, the Mormon who is Executive Producer of The Chosen wrote a book called The YouTube Formula, where he reveals his strategy behind The Chosen.”
Derral Eves writes, “We knew we wanted to resonate our message and vision with a specific persona (25-to 45-year-old female, married or unmarried, church goer, volunteer.)”
Early in the video (27 seconds) the question is asked, “Why would Dallas Jenkins and the producers of The Chosen feel that they could change the narrative of the Bible and replace four men who brought a paralytic to Jesus with a woman?” View article →
CRN is responsible for the titling of this article. The author’s title: Is The Chosen aimed at women ages 25 to 45?
When after the defeat at Ai Joshua appealed to God for help, that help was given him, as always. God declared that there was among the Israelites one man who had disobeyed even the most direct of the divine commands, one who had coveted the riches of Jericho and had rescued and secreted for his own use some of those spoils which had been intended as a “burnt offering” to be sacrificed to God in the flames of Jericho. For the sin of this one fallen soul, covetous, treacherous and disobedient, and also, it may be, for the recklessness and vainglory of the nation, all Israel was being punished.
The next morning Joshua sought to detect the guilty man, appealing to the Lord for help. The entire nation was bidden to march before Joshua; whereon the lot, or whatever method was employed, indicated that the tribe of Judah contained the guilty man. Then the tribe of Judah was divided into families, and then into single households, and so at last the lot was narrowed down until the man Achan stood alone before Joshua. He confessed himself the guilty one.
And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering: and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him.
Leviticus 1:4
If by that laying on of his hand the bullock became the offerer’s sacrifice, how much more shall Jesus become ours by the laying on of the hand of faith?
My faith doth lay her hand On that dear head of Thine, While like a penitent I stand, And there confess my sin.
If a bullock could be accepted for him to make atonement for him, how much more shall the Lord Jesus be our full and all-sufficient propitiation? Some quarrel with the great truth of substitution; but as for us, it is our hope, our joy, our boast, our all. Jesus is accepted for us to make atonement for us, and we are “accepted in the Beloved.” Let the reader take care at once to lay his hand on the Lord’s completed sacrifice, that by accepting it he may obtain the benefit of it. If he has done so once, let him do it again. If he has never done so, let him put out his hand without a moment’s delay. Jesus is yours now if you will have Him. Lean on Him—lean hard on Him—and He is yours beyond all question; you are reconciled to God, your sins are blotted out, and you are the Lord’s.
Central to the claims of the New Testament is the assertion that Jesus was crucified and subsequently rose from the dead.[1] In his Gospel, written circa 80-85 AD,[2] Luke depicts Jesus’ appearance to his disciples after his death and burial, “[Jesus said,] ‘See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, because a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you plainly see that I have.’ And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet.”[3] It is critical to Christianity that Jesus not only lived as a historical person, but actually rose from the dead. In an effort to support the Biblical claim of resurrection, Christians have adopted a number of approaches for supporting the historical claim of resurrection. However, some skeptical scholars reject the use of history to draw such a conclusion.
Central to the claims of the New Testament is the assertion that Jesus was crucified and subsequently rose from the dead. Click To Tweet
Bart Ehrman, a leading New Testament scholar, has previously defined the mission of history as follows: “Historians try to establish to the best of their ability what probably happened in the past.”[4] But when approaching the question of Jesus, Ehrman rules out the resurrection categorically, saying, “A “miracle” can never be shown, on historical grounds, to have happened,” in part, “Because doing so requires a set of presuppositions that are not generally shared by historians doing their work.”[5] Using this framework, one can never conclude that Jesus’ resurrection was a historical fact (causing quite a problem for the truth of Christianity as a whole).
But is Ehrman correct that the problem is a lack of shared presuppositions on the part of historians? This is a curious claim; the belief that miracles cannot occur is not a default position. Instead, Ehrman seems to be admitting that the problem for historians is that they hold a presupposition (that miracles cannot act as a historical conclusion). Historians then do not have a too-few shared presuppositions, but rather too many.
Ehrman does attempt to support the exclusion of miracles by historians due to their rarity, explaining, “Miracles are not impossible. I won’t say they’re impossible… I’m just going to say that miracles are so highly improbable that they’re the least possible occurrence in any given instance.”[6] Ehrman is not wrong with regards to miracles’ rarity; by definition miracles are exceptions, not rules. However, it does not necessarily follow that a miracle is de facto the “least possible occurrence” for every conceivable scenario. When investigating any claim that a miracle has occurred it is wise to keep in mind the rarity of such events, but one does not need to completely write them off from the outset.
To see the weakness in Ehrman’s approach, let us consider the argument for the resurrection made by Christian apologists Gary Habermas and Michael Licona as it compares to a popular alternative theory. Habermas and Licona offer five pieces of data which are “strongly evidenced… [and] granted by virtually all scholars on the subject, even the skeptical ones,” these being 1) Jesus died by crucifixion, 2) Jesus’ disciples believed that he rose from the dead and appeared to them, 3) the Church persecutor Paul was suddenly changed, 4)the skeptic James, brother of Jesus, was suddenly changed, and 5) the tomb was empty.[7] The Christian explanation for these facts is that Jesus really rose from the dead and appeared to the disciples and others, causing radical transformations.
A popular alternative theory is the “hallucination theory” which suggests that after Jesus’ death his followers only believed they had seen the risen Jesus when, in reality, he had not been raised. However, the hallucination theory struggles on several grounds, including the fact it does not explain the empty tomb, the kind of group hallucinations required by the theory are virtually unknown to science, and the fact it requires multiple groups of people to have highly improbable hallucinatory or otherwise imagined experiences of the risen Jesus at different times and in different places over the course of 40 days.[8] However, in order to remain consistent with Ehrman’s approach, if one had to choose between the options of the resurrection or hallucination theory, one would have to accept the hallucination theory and its many weaknesses (weaknesses not shared by the claim Jesus resurrected from the dead). No matter how improbable any theory could be, Ehrman’s schema has decided from the outset that it is preferable to accepting the resurrection.
If the goal of history is, as Ehrman claims, “to establish to the best of [our] ability what probably happened in the past,” then one cannot discount miracles from occurring before the question is even asked. Given the known historical facts surrounding Jesus and the early Christian movement, it is more reasonable to conclude that the resurrection of Jesus actually occurred in history than to accept an opposing theory such as the hallucination hypothesis.
[1] In 1 Corinthians 15 the Apostle Paul states the entirety of the Christian faith stands or falls on this singular claim.
[2] Gary Habermas, “Q&A Topics,” GaryHabermas.com, accessed May 10, 2021. https://www.garyhabermas.com/qa/qa_index.htm. See also, Bart Ehrman, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 109.
[4] William Lane Craig and Bart Ehrman, “William Lane Craig and Bart D. Ehrman Debate the Question ‘Is There Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus?’” Southern Methodist University, accessed November 14, 2021. http://www. physics.smu.edu/~pseudo/ScienceReligion/Ehrman-v-Craig.html.
[6] Ehrman, “William Lane Craig and Bart D. Ehrman Debate the Question ‘Is There Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus?’”
[7] Gary Habermas and Michael Licona, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, Inc, 2004), 47-77. It should be noted, Habermas clarifies that the fifth point is accepted by “ roughly 75 percent” rather than “virtually all” scholars.
Our Scripture meditation today reminds us of three vital truths. There is a fight; it is a fight of faith and it is a good fight. If there were no enemies to faith, there would be no fight to it. We need to know the enemy and in God’s grace confront the enemy. Timothy as a young pastor needed encouragement to keep focused on the raging battle. The good fight of faith is the spiritual conflict with Satan’s kingdom of darkness in which believers are necessarily involved.
As Paul began his letter to his understudy, Timothy, so he concludes it. The gospel is opposed from all sides. The world has declared war against Christ and His Kingdom. All around us the Word of God is ridiculed and spurned. Even within the church at large, the trustworthiness of the Scriptures is questioned and sadly denied.
We have no option but to take up our post. The Greek word for “fight” gives us the English word “agonize”. It was used in both military and athletic endeavors to describe the concentration, discipline and extreme effort needed to win. Paul urged Timothy to fight, that is, to agonize for Christ’s cause.
Are you a soldier of the cross, a follower of the Lamb? Do you fear to own His cause, or blush to speak His Name?
Suggestions for Prayer
Ask for ongoing grace to be found faithful in the fight.
Rev. Peter Vellenga is presently serving as itinerant preacher waiting upon Lord for continued assignment.
Patience is more than just a word. It’s an action of love toward others and an action of trusting in God.
Patience is a word I have feared for years. I constantly struggled with putting that word into action and living it out in a way that reflects Christ’s example. Recently, as I was sitting in a half empty airport terminal for two hours at a time that I’m normally sleeping, I couldn’t help but notice how my patience fluctuates. Sometimes, I have the ability to sit, be still, and be fully reliant on God and His timing. Other times, I’m constantly looking at the clock and wondering, “When? Why not now?”
We all have our own individual spiritual gifts. Yours may be leadership, showing grace, teaching, or anything similar to that. Many believe that being patient naturally is a spiritual gift. Although it is in its own way, I believe it is more an act of love rather than a spiritual gift.
In 1 Corinthians 13:4 we read, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.” (NIV) Although this is just a piece of the entire chapter which goes on to talk more about love in action, we can see just how important patience is within the first three words of this verse. Love is patient. While being patient, we are loving others.
I’ve learned that the easiest way to process my impatience and instead develop my patience is to answer the two questions that were stated earlier: When? Why not now? If there is no specific answer, I answer with, “God knows.”
Patience is more than just a word. It’s an action of love toward others and an action of trusting in God. It is also something that is not always easy to develop. It’s totally normal for your patience to develop over time. Patience is also a process. Don’t feel stressed or pressured to immediately go out and try and fix your patience- time, practice, and God’s help are the only things that can truly develop your patience. Be patient while developing your patience
Lord, help me to live in Your joy and peace. Give me strength and understanding to resist anxiety, anger, envy, depression, bitterness, hopelessness, loneliness, fear and guilt. Rescue me when “my spirit is overwhelmed within me; my heart within me is distressed.” (Psalm 143:4). I refuse to let my life be brought down by negative emotions such as these.
When I am tempted to give in to them, show me Your Truth. You have said in Your Word that by our patience we can possess our souls (Luke 21:19) Give me patience so I can do that. Help me to keep my ‘heart with all diligence‘, for I know that ‘out of it spring the issues of life‘. (Proverbs 4:23).
“The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles. The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit.” (Psalm 34:17-18)
Jericho lies deep in Jordan valley. Behind it the mountain passes rise steeply to the colder, healthier highlands of Jerusalem and its neighborhood. After conquering Jericho, Joshua does not seem to have waited for further commands from God, but of his own will despatched pioneers to search out the mountain roads. They came presently upon the small mountain city of Ai perched high above the pass; and returning to Joshua they counselled him to send forth “about two or three thousand men” to smite Ai. More were not needed for so small a city; or so the Israelites thought in the boastful self-confidence inspired by their victory over mighty Jericho.
So three thousand men marched presumptuously against Ai, and were roundly defeated. Six and thirty were slain, while the rest fled in ignominious terror. The loss was small; but the effect of the unexpected defeat was far reaching. All Israel was afraid, and all Canaan was rejoiced; for the invaders were no longer invincible. Joshua was in despair. Had God indeed deserted Israel? He cried our like the feeblest of his followers, “Alas, O Lord God, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan, to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites, to destroy us? Would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side Jordan!”
The Bible isn’t some mystical transmitter of truth. It’s not a coded message with numerological keys. Nor does its text require ethereal insight to unlock its meaning. God has kindly chosen to communicate with man by engaging the mental faculties He has blessed us with—through the clear, objective, and rational expression of His revealed Word.
“This Has Put Us In An Untenable Situation” – Chicago In Chaos As Teachers’ Union Shutters Schools Just the other day, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said during an interview with CNBC that her goal is to “never shut down again”, in reference to a lockdown that economically devastated small business owners. During this interview, Lightfoot insisted that schools weren’t a locus of the spread, which of course is in line with the CDC’s own guidance. Yet, two days later, millions of parents in the city of Chicago are scrambling Thursday morning as the city’s public schools have once again been shut down by a teacher’s union
California Dem Flips On Party Over Smash And Grab Robbery Epidemic This has apparently reached the point where a straw has broken the camel’s back for one California Democrat. Assemblyman Rudy Salas has thrown in the towel and recognized that this crime wave can’t be allowed to continue. With that in mind, Salas introduced a new bill that would reverse proposition 47 and reset the threshold of misdemeanor theft to its previous level of $400. But will the rest of his party back him up? I suppose we should give at least some credit to Assemblyman Salas for finally waking up and smelling the coffee, assuming all of the coffee wasn’t already stolen before he got to the store. California’s culture evolved to embrace criminal activity and the criminals responded in kind.
Taiwan Should Destroy Island’s Semiconductor Plants If China Invades, Paper Says A scorched-earth policy involving Taiwan destroying its own advanced semiconductor plants in the event of a Chinese invasion would be a good deterrence strategy for the self-ruled island against warmongering China, according to a recent paper published by the U.S. Army War College. “In practice, this strategy means assuring China an invasion of Taiwan would produce a major economic crisis on the mainland, not the technological boon some have suggested would occur as a result of the PRC [People’s Republic of China] absorbing Taiwan’s robust tech industry,”
China’s Xi Orders Military To Create “Elite Force” To Win Wars Chinese leader Xi Jinping delivered this year’s mobilization orders to the regime’s military on Jan. 5, saying it must evolve into an elite force capable of winning any war. “The armed forces must closely follow the evolution of technology, warfare, and rivals, redouble their efforts to better combine training with combat operations, and strengthen systematic training and the use of technologies to develop an elite force that is capable of fighting and winning wars,” the order said, according to state-run news agency Xinhua.
Judge Rejects FDA’s 75 Year Delay On Vax Data, Cuts To Just 8 Months A federal judge has rejected a request by the FDA to produce just 500 pages per month of the data submitted by Pfizer to license its Covid-19 vaccine – and has ordered them to produce 55,000 pages per month. Assuming there are roughly 450,000 pages, that means it will take just over eight months for the world to see what’s under the hood.
Reuters Data Scientist Fired After Nuking BLM Narrative, Exposing ‘Significant Left-Wing Bias’ In Reporting On Tuesday, we republished a column from a journalist who resigned from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation because the network exhibited such extreme left-wing bias and propaganda that she couldn’t be a part of it any longer. Today, bring you the story of Zac Kriegman, a former Reuters data scientist who was fired after performing a statistical analysis which refuted claims by Black Lives Matter, and spoke out against the company’s culture of “diversity and inclusion” which unquestioningly celebrated the BLM narrative. He was sent to Human Resources and Diversity & Inclusion for the chance to reform his thoughts. –
Police In Kazakhstan Say 12 Officers Killed, One Beheaded During Extremely Violent Protest Dozens of people, including 12 police officers, were killed, and one officer was beheaded, in one of the world’s largest countries Thursday during violent protests that saw government buildings set on fire, The Associated Press reported. Dozens of demonstrators were killed as they stormed Kazakhstan’s presidential palace and the mayor’s office in the nation’s largest city on Wednesday, and they continued to try to invade administrative buildings overnight,
Ghislaine Maxwell: key juror has hired lawyer, trial judge says A juror who sat at the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell last month and has now told reporters he was sexually abused as a child has retained a lawyer, the trial judge said on Thursday. The unidentified juror’s public interviews led defense lawyers in the case to say they will request a new trial.
Man arrested after threatening Religious Affairs Minister will ‘end up like Rabin’ According to the indictment, the man called yesterday from his cell phone to the office of the Religious Affairs Minister, and told office employee who answered: “Tell him to stop harming the rabbinate or the rabbis, I tell you, in the end he will end up like Rabin.”
Foreign Min. official gets into shouting match with EU diplomats Bin-Noun, who listened to the complaints and saw the long list in the protest letter that the European diplomats had submitted to her, reacted angrily and said that the European allegations were insulting. “After everything the new government in Israel has done for the Palestinians, you come to complain?” “You’re pissing me off,” she told them …
On way to cemetery, ‘stillborn’ baby cries Doctors tell couple their baby who was delivered at 5 months was dead, only for child to cry right before he was to be buried. Melek and Hasan Sert received the most pleasant shock of their lives when their newborn baby, who they had been told was stillborn, began to cry right before he was to be buried. Turkish authorities have launched an investigation to determine if there was any negligence involved in the case.
US reduces Iran sanctions threat from any violation to 90% enrichment There is a sense in Jerusalem that if Russia invades Ukraine, it could sharply change how the US deals with Iran. Sullivan’s remarks to Israeli officials come as world powers continue negotiations for Iran and the US to return to the JCPOA, and as Israel warns allies that Iran is taking steps towards enriching weapons-grade uranium.
Qasem Soleimani statue torched in western Iran This is not the first time a statue of former IRGC Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani has been torched in Iran. A statue of former Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani was torched on The statue of Soleimani had just been unveiled on Wednesday morning. The six-meter tall statue was worth about 150 million Tomans or about $35,500, Wednesday night by unidentified individuals in Shahrekord in western Iran, according to the Iranian ISNA news agency.
Biblical name, seals shed light on First Temple treasuries New research on several artifacts dating back 2,600 years and uncovered in the area of the Temple Mount or its immediate proximity has shed light on where both the Temple and the Kingdom of Judah’s treasuries once stood, two Israeli archaeologists have suggested.
Fourth Covid booster underperforms, won’t be recommended for general population a study at the Sheba Medical Center showed that the antibodies produced by the fourth booster did not last as long as expected reports Kann News. Reporter Katy Dori reported that the Health Ministry, as well as researchers, are “disappointed” by the underperforming results.
IDF kills terrorist in Shekhem during firefight An Arab terrorist was killed by Israeli forces in Shechem/Nablus in Samaria on Wednesday after the latter was attacked during an arrest raid, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.
Kabbalist Rabbi reveals How to come out of Gog-Magog War unscathed Rabbi Gottlieb said that the final battle will be between those who believe that God is one with consistent, united commandments against those who believe that God is fragmented with a whole slew of decrees – some good and some bad. He then explained that many people will be fooled by pain and suffering in the world to believe that God does bad things rather than compel us to acknowledge the bad and choose morality. “This is really not a game. We are sitting on a powder keg” he warned.
California Drought: $500 Fines for Wasting Water, Despite Recent Rains The California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) has adopted water restrictions that include potential fines of $500, warning that the state is not free from a two-year drought despite heavy rains and record-setting snowfall in December.
Climate indoctrination inhibits people’s ability to use logic and reason Climate propaganda, relentlessly pushed by the media, is contradicted by facts, but that hasn’t stopped it or led to corrections. The prophets of doom and their cultist followers pay no heed. We’re all going to face catastrophe from rising sea levels, the end of snow, and all the other fantasies. But: Antarctica had the coldest six months on record in 2021, with the summer six degrees below normal.
Abortion is leading cause of death worldwide third year in a row For the second year in a row, abortions have been the leading cause of death worldwide, with more than three times as many people losing their lives to abortion than the second leading cause of death.
Boris Johnson: 90% of Patients in ICU Are Double-Vaxxed Prime Minister Boris Johnson has reported that the overwhelming majority of people who are in the ICU with COVID are already double-vaxxed. Johnson was trying to use this stat as a public plea to those who have not yet received their booster vaccine, but all he accomplished was further showcasing the ineffectiveness of the vaccine.
Five professional soccer players die from heart attacks, fueling speculation of vaccine side effects Five international soccer stars from different countries were reported to have died after suffering sudden heart attacks just before or after Christmas. The sudden deaths of the international soccer players have added to speculation that the increasing number of deaths or sudden illness in otherwise healthy athletes could potentially be linked to the COVID jabs.
China’s Harshest Lockdown Yet Tests Its ‘Zero-COVID’ Playbook The first man set out on foot. For eight days and seven nights, he walked across snowy mountains, pacing around to warm himself amid the bitter winds and sleeping only when the sun came out—until suspicious villagers tipped off the police.
OUTBREAK: Oregon Hospital Reports Rare Fungal Superbug An Oregon hospital has reported an outbreak of a rare fungal superbug. Two patients at a Salem hospital contracted a dangerous fungal infection during an “outbreak” of Candida Auris, a type of yeast rare to the United States, the Oregon Health Authority reported Tuesday.
This Is What Is Really Going On Behind The Scenes We seem to have a pandemic of the vaccinated since official data reveals “91% of covid-19 deaths have been among the fully vaccinated since August.” Still, health officials act as if the jab is the answer (along with masks and lockdowns) when it is now the cause of our health problems.
Get Out Now Before It Is Too Late If one wonders why when looking at the most liberal of cities, or in the case of California, state leaders are allowing criminals to run the streets unchecked, we only to look to the purpose of allowing such in-your-face criminal activity….which is to literally turn America the Republic into a Marxist, Socialist country.
After Macron Declared War On His Unvaccinated French Citizens, EU Nations Like Italy, Austria And Greece Now Mandating COVID-19 Vaccinations Talk to most people about Emmanuel Macron, and you will get a variety of opinions, and most of them will not hold him in very high regard. He is not seen by the average person as being very politically powerful, and yet, his decisions have tremendous influence over his European counterparts in the EU. 24 hours after he announced to tighten the screws on unvaccinated French citizens, Italy, Greece, and Austria jumped on board, with a number considering it.
Never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity, Joe Biden eschewed “unity” and instead attacked Donald Trump.
Douglas Andrews
Were Joe Biden a statesman rather than a cognitively addled political hack, he’d have taken the high road. He’d have used yesterday’s somber occasion to try to bring the American people together; to begin the hard work of healing the country. Remember all that talk of “unity” in his inaugural address? It seems so long ago. Instead, yesterday, he chose to attack his White House predecessor and, by extension, the 75 million Americans who voted for him.
It won’t end well for Biden.
Vice President Kamala Harris was the warm-up act for Biden yesterday as they strolled out together into the Capitol’s Statuary Hall. It was a see-through show of faux unity. Harris talked of how the January 6 protesters “targeted the lives” of our elected representatives, all of whom somehow managed to survive the unarmed non-insurrection. She then pivoted to the real purpose of yesterday’s events (other than bashing Donald Trump), which was to push for the voting rights bills that the Democrats are desperately trying to ram through Congress — a scheme that will federalize our elections rather than keeping them in control of the 50 states, as the Founders had intended.
Harris began by comparing January 6 to December 7 and September 11. To anyone to understands and appreciates American history, it was an odious comparison. She then decried the violence of the January 6 riot, which was rich indeed coming from someone who encouraged violence in the summer of 2020, and who raised money to bail out those Black Lives Matter rioters. She finished by butchering the Preamble to our Constitution, mumbling something about “ourselves and our prosperity” rather than ourselves and our posterity. It was altogether fitting. Then it was Biden’s turn.
Maybe Biden’s handlers think throwing cheap shots at Trump and constantly, childishly, breathlessly invoking the man’s name as some sort of existential “threat to our democracy [sic]” plays well with the base. And it probably does. But Biden’s base isn’t big enough to save his presidency. Not even close. Nearing the one-year mark of a term we think he’s even-money to finish, Biden has Lynyrd Skynyrd’s smell of death around him. Not literal death, of course, but political death. When folks are more inclined to feel sorry for you than fear you, or even respect you, your time as an effective leader of the American people and the Free World is up.
Somewhere inside themselves, Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats — including Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and Liz Cheney — must know this. They must surely see the manifold failures of their president and his policies, and they must see the midterm freight train off in the distance, building up speed as it steadily speeds toward them. J6 is all they’ve got.
Rather than reunifying the country, Biden kept gloating about how he won the 2020 election. He felt it necessary to remind the American people — including the 75 million of them who voted for his opponent — that Donald Trump is “not just a former president; he’s a defeated former president, defeated by a margin of over seven million of your votes in a full and free and fair election.”
“A full and free and fair election”? We wish Biden hadn’t gone here, but since he did: What about the allegations of a massive, systematized, and wholly illegal ballot harvesting operation now finally being investigated in Georgia? And if massive bulk-mail ballot fraud took place in one urban center within one crucial battleground state, what are the chances that it happened in others — say, in Milwaukee and Detroit and Philly and Phoenix? If it did, it would begin to explain how Trump earned 12 million more votes than any Republican candidate in history and handily carried an astounding 18 of 19 “bellwether” counties across the nation, and yet still lost the election. And not by seven million votes, either — five million of which were in California alone — but by 43,000 votes spread across just three key states: Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin.
There’s something rotten in Denmark when one candidate, Trump, is barnstorming the country, drawing enthusiastic crowds in the tens of thousands in state after state after state during the last few days of the campaign, while the other guy is hunkered down in his basement, venturing out only on rare occasions to draw crowds in the dozens. Sometimes it seemed that only paid staff and immediate family were in attendance at Biden’s events, and that the nearby crowds of hecklers were larger than the ones suffering through yet another painfully bad Biden stump speech. Remind us again: Which guy won?
Biden said it was “the God’s honest truth” that “over 150 million Americans went to the polls and voted that day.” And that is a lie from the pits of hell. Fewer than 60 million Americans actually went to the polls on Election Day 2020. The rest of the votes — more than 100 million of them — came through the mail. Hey, what could go wrong?
Biden said Trump “rallied the mob to attack” that day. And it was yet another lie. Everyone knows Trump encouraged his supporters to “peacefully and patriotically” make their voices heard. It’s right there on video for anyone who cares to know the truth.
In the same breath Biden talked about “fear over hope,” he then said, “Make no mistake about it, we’re living at an inflection point in history … engaged anew in a struggle between democracy and autocracy, between the aspirations of the many and the greed of the few … we are in a battle for the soul of America.” So much for hope over fear.
He talked about America becoming more like “them,” more like China and Russia, “more like the autocrats and the dictators and the strongmen.” And we are, frankly, because of the unholy alliance between the Left, which Joe Biden represents, and Big Tech, which suppresses ever more of our speech on the Left’s behalf.
“I will allow no one to place a dagger at the throat of democracy,” Biden said toward the end of his speech. “I believe the power of the presidency and the purpose is to unite this nation, not divide it.” But that’s all he did yesterday: Divide us.
Of yesterday’s spectacle, Trump said Biden had used his name “to try to further divide America.” In this, it seems to us, the former president was spot-on. He went on: “This political theater is all just a distraction for the fact Biden has completely and totally failed.” In this, too, we think Trump has it exactly right.
Novak Djokovic may get all the attention, but tyranny Down Under is much deeper.
Nate Jackson
In the classic movie “The Princess Bride,” the hilariously inept villain Vizzini engages in a “battle of wits” with the hero, Wesley, a.k.a. the Man in Black, over a poisoned glass of wine. As Vizzini attempts to outwit his opponent with what Wesley mockingly calls “a dizzying intellect,” he expounds on the nation of Australia. “As everyone knows,” he says, “Australia is entirely peopled with criminals, and criminals are used to having people not trust them.”
Here in our own bizarre reality, Australia is populated by untrusted criminals only because their own government has declared them to be such.
For much of the coronavirus pandemic, the people of Australia have been prisoners of their own government’s tyrannical attempts to reach “COVID zero.” Totally outrageous videos and stories abound regarding people arrested for violating mandates, even when they’re outside and pose no threat to anyone. People are forcibly detained in quarantine facilities (and heaven help them if they escape). Elective surgeries have been suspended. In at least one case, parents were denied the ability to identify their dead son’s body. We could go on and on about the dystopian nightmare that is the Land Down Under.
How’s that working out for stopping the spread? Wednesday’s Reuters headline says it all: “Australia suffers record COVID cases.”
Crikey!
So it’s little surprise to hear the story of Novak Djokovic, the world’s number-one-ranked tennis star, who has been forcibly detained upon arrival in Melbourne to defend his Australian Open title. (He’s won nine Australian Opens and his next Grand Slam title will break a three-way tie for the most men’s titles in history.) Djokovic has refused to disclose his vaccination status as required, but he obtained an exemption thanks to natural immunity from a previous infection and headed to Australia with that understanding. A day after he arrived, however, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison declared that Djokovic’s visa had been canceled and that he’d be sent home. He’ll be detained until the deportation question is settled on Monday in court.
Another of the world’s best tennis players, Rafael Nadal, didn’t have much sympathy. “If you are vaccinated,” he said, “you can play.” Again, Djokovic apparently chose natural immunity over vaccination. Nadal, who’s been fully vaccinated, caught COVID over Christmas anyway.
Tell us again how the rules make any sense?
As for the tennis world, the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) recently stood up to China over Beijing’s treatment of Peng Shuai after her accusation of sexual assault at the hands of a ChiCom official. The WTA pulled out of China until further notice. Perhaps it’s time for other players to boycott the Australian Open — unless, that is, they’re just happy to have an easier chance of winning without Djokovic in the mix, even if an asterisk ought to apply to the eventual winner.
And as for Australia, the nation has already served as a model for American Democrats when it comes to gun confiscation. Citizens there gave up their guns in a “buyback” scheme that Democrats would love to replicate here. We can blame the Australian government all day, but in the end, the people seem to have the government they want and deserve. There is, after all, a cultural zeitgeist that prevails when people are unarmed and defenseless. It allowed them to be disarmed in the first place and now to be effectively imprisoned “for their own good.”
COVID is mutating, and like all viruses, it is becoming more virulent and conversely more mild.
Emmy Griffin
France has announced a new COVID variant, except it’s not all that new. The variant, dubbed “IHU,” actually predates Omicron.
IHU originated in Cameroon in mid-November, doctors speculate, when the infected person brought it back home with him to France. Twelve people have caught this variant so far. IHU has 46 different mutations in its spike protein, making it more difficult for vaccines to be effective against and heightening the level of contagiousness. This was the conclusion of one study, though it has not yet been peer-reviewed.
We are only just now hearing about IHU probably because the media, along with politicians, have a vested interest for the pandemic panic to continue. The thing is, though, COVID and each successive variant seem to be getting more mild but also easier to spread. When a virus does that, it becomes endemic.
Americans have had enough of the fearmongering media, Dr. Anthony Fauci’s shifting goalposts, unclear messaging from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and politicians making each step regarding COVID prevention a power grab.
The media have fanned the flames of pandemic fear by refusing to be actual reporters. Instead, they have acted like the propaganda arm of the radical Left, repeating the approved talking points over and over to the public and consistently ignoring the science. Social media also colluded in this echo chamber by censoring anyone who did not toe the line of approved messaging on COVID.
Dr. Fauci has lied to the American people over and over again. First he told us not to wear masks. Then he told us to wear masks — two of them, even. Then he told us that if we got the COVID vaccine we would go back to normal. Now to be considered “fully vaccinated,” you’ll soon need to have the original vaccine plus a booster shot. It’s almost like he wants to see what else he can make the guinea pigs do.
The CDC has now updated its isolation policies for those who have come in direct contact with an infected person. Quarantine has dropped from 10 days to five. The CDC also encourages asymptomatic people not to bother with a test. This is partially because there is a shortage of tests right now and partially because the tests may not even be accurate after day five.
Leftist politicians have been the absolute worst though when if comes to COVID fearmongering. Many of them whose locked-down states require what are effectively vaccine passports and other such dictatorial things flout their own rules and escape to Florida for vacation. Clearly, they aren’t really worried about the virus; they just need you to be worried about the virus.
Within the past few weeks, our hallowed institutions have started to walk back their anti-science authoritarian rhetoric. The change in the leftists’ tune was all at once and all of a sudden. As Charles C.W. Cooke of National Review noted: “Just like that, President Biden has moved out of his sickly savior mode and admitted that the federal government can’t do much to help after all. Just like that, the teachers’ unions have begun to take hits for their duplicity and their cynicism. Just like that, the efficacy of cloth masks and the workability of the zero-risk approach are being questioned, and some of our most influential voices are acknowledging that there might perhaps be some downsides to shutting down the world. Just like that, we’re hearing talk of previously downplayed concepts such as ‘endemicity,’ ‘seasonality,’ ‘risk tolerance,’ and — heaven forfend! — humility.”
They have finally realized what some of us have long suspected. This virus is something that will always be with us, not unlike the common cold or influenza. It will become part of our risk calculation (if it hasn’t already) of spending time with friends, family, or being at work and school. The pandemic is over. It’s time to start living our lives.
Republican lawmakers should propose a rewrite or elimination of the 1887 Electoral Count Act.
Thomas Gallatin
In light of the Democrats’ January 6 memorial theatrics, in which they have repeatedly insisted that American democracy was put under serious threat by the actions of the rioters overrunning the Capitol building, Republicans have a golden opportunity to grab the real issue by the horns. And that real issue has to do with the promotion of a misunderstanding of a poorly written law, the 1887 Electoral Count Act.
Contrary to Joe Biden’s claims that the protesters who gathered last January 6 were there “to subvert the Constitution,” the truth is the vast majority were there to rally against the 2020 election results in the fervently held belief that the election had been grossly fraudulent — in other words, that Biden’s election subverted the Constitution. Encouraged by Donald Trump, many of his supporters were led to believe that the Electoral Count Act granted Vice President Mike Pence and the Senate authority to reject the vote of the Electoral College.
This is a misreading of the law, albeit an understandable one given the ambiguous wording of the statute. Per the Constitution, the Framers clearly did not intend to make the executive branch beholden to the legislative branch. In the contested 1876 election, three states sent two different sets of electors to Congress. Ten years later, Congress came up with a legislative “solution” in an attempt to avoid a similar situation from arising. The issue is that the Act has been interpreted as giving Congress the authority to reject state electors, candidates, and even Electoral College votes if deemed not “regularly given,” which creates a fundamental problem — as if the Act effectively gave Congress rather than the judiciary the authority to resolve election disputes.
Unfortunately, the ECA has now become more problematic than helpful.
It wasn’t just the 2020 election that had members of Congress evoking the ECA in an attempt to justify rejecting the Electoral College vote. Democrat lawmakers did so following the election victories of George W. Bush and Donald Trump.
Republicans can jump on this idea, either rewriting or repealing the ECA, in order to clarify an important matter and to effectively undercut the partisan aims of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and his fellow Democrats regarding their “solution,” which is the passage of their ludicrous voting legislation. Schumer has already been laying the groundwork for the Democrats’ bait-and-switch, using the January 6 riot as an excuse to pressure Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema to cave on their resistance to eliminating the filibuster. Under the guise of “needing to act to protect American democracy,” Schumer will demand that they acquiesce.
“Democrats keep saying Jan. 6 must never happen again, but their main goal seems to be to use the memory of that day against Republicans in 2022,” the Wall Street Journal editorial board insightfully observes. “If they’re honest about ‘never again,’ they’ll grab the Electoral Count Act issue. Or Republicans could turn the electoral tables on Democrats by grabbing it first. If Congress does nothing, Americans are likely to conclude that Jan. 6 has become one more political prop for partisan gain.”
That would be because, for cynical Democrats, it is a political prop for partisan gain.
By preposing a rewrite or elimination of the ECA, though, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell can effectively expose and blunt Schumer’s partisan agenda, while offering a truly bipartisan solution to the American people that actually addresses the problem exposed by the January 6 riot.
Could we be seeing the beginning of an exodus from Twitter and Facebook?
Brian Mark Weber
Twenty years ago, the Internet was a promising outlet where people hoped to engage in conversations about the important events and ideas shaping the country. As the Internet evolved, new platforms such at Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter offered us unique, interactive ways to connect with one another. But something dark happened along the way, turning what had become an electronic public square into an oppressive system designed to censor certain viewpoints.
In some cases, the censors’ quibble isn’t necessarily with the idea or the comment, but the person who makes it. One example is Rand Paul, who was suspended by YouTube in August for making the claim that cloth masks don’t stop the spread of the coronavirus. That was just too dangerous for the public to hear, YouTube’s censors decided, so they silenced him.
Fast-forward a few months, and CNN’s Leana Wen said cloth masks don’t work. Miraculously, her social media accounts are still active.
It’s one thing to muzzle people on Big Tech’s platforms, but it’s another thing entirely when these tech giants won’t even allow others to create their own platforms. We all remember what happened last year when Google, Apple, and Amazon colluded to shut down Parler.
Essentially, this is no longer about controlling information on their platforms; it’s about preventing us from joining the discussion at all.
Of course, the question we’re all asking is: Where do we go from here?
Some public figures such as Joe Rogan, Rand Paul, and Marjorie Taylor Greene have left platforms such as Twitter and moved over to new spaces including GETTR. Paul launched his own news aggregator site, and Rumble has partnered with Trump Media & Technology Group to compete with YouTube.
Although Rogan’s move to GETTR might seem insignificant, the nation’s most widely listened-to podcaster inspired more than a half-million others to join him.
We shouldn’t applaud Rogan’s move because he’s a representative of conservatives — on many issues, he is not. What we’re celebrating is the fight against Big Tech’s censorship of millions of Americans and supporting those who dare to compete with them.
Meanwhile, Paul has left YouTube and now generates new content on Rumble. “Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram are the new town square, and opposing viewpoints are being silenced by the BigTech gatekeepers,” the Kentucky senator explained. “An entire generation of young people, who use these platforms exclusively for their news, will never read or hear of opinions or ideas that challenge the Big Government / Big Tech orthodoxy.”
That means even someone like Dr. Robert Malone, a respected virologist, isn’t allowed to take one step outside of the approved narrative. Malone merely suggested on “The Joe Rogan Experience” that, due to the anxiety over COVID-19, Americans are susceptible to being manipulated by a leader who seeks to take advantage of their anxiety, referencing Germany before the rise of the Nazis. He also criticized government vaccine mandates.
YouTube thought Americans couldn’t handle hearing such “dangerous” information, so the platform removed Rogan’s interview of Malone.
Appearing on Fox News, Malone offered us a bit of hope. “What the media doesn’t understand is that you can’t suppress information,” he said. “It’ll find a way to be free.”
Let’s hope he’s right, but where do we go to find this freedom of information?
Introducing legislation to protect free speech on Big Tech platforms is one approach, but such moves aren’t likely to go anywhere (good) anytime soon. Therefore, the only viable alternative solution seems to be abandoning Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube and joining the competition.
As long as we’re playing on Big Tech’s turf, it’ll always call the shots. But if we create our own turf, and move there in droves, there’s nothing Big Tech can do to stop us.
Mayor Eric Adams was elected to clean up New York, but the new district attorney has other ideas.
Douglas Andrews
One week on the job, and the honeymoon’s already over for Eric Adams.
Adams, a pro-Second Amendment Democrat and a former NYPD captain, ran for and was elected mayor of New York City on a platform whose centerpiece was cleaning up the increasingly crime-ridden Big Apple and thereby undoing the damage done by his soft-on-crime predecessor, Bill de Blasio.
Unfortunately for Adams, Alvin Bragg also ran for public office. In a much lower-profile election, Bragg was elected Manhattan’s district attorney, largely with funds from billionaire anarcho-socialist George Soros, and largely on a platform of decarceration — which is to say, putting fewer bad people behind bars and instead employing “reformist” and “abolitionist” strategies to more gently encourage these wayward offenders to change their wicked ways.
Burglars, robbers, drug dealers, armed felons, and gang bangers with designs on unsuspecting Manhattanites are no doubt rubbing their hands together with glee.
But don’t take our word for it. “My commitment to making incarceration a matter of last resort is immutable,” Bragg wrote in his Day One memo of January 3 titled “Achieving Fairness and Safety.”
So now we know three things that are immutable: God, the destructive nature of leftism, and Alvin Bragg’s commitment to putting criminals ahead of public safety.
Bragg is yet another one of those hard-left Soros prosecutors — like Kim Foxx in Chicago, Kim Gardner in St. Louis, Larry Krasner in Philadelphia, Chesa Boudin in San Francisco, and George Gascón in Los Angeles — who’ve used campaign funding from Soros’s Justice and Public Safety PAC to win election as district attorneys and thereby pursue their “social justice” political activism with the power of law behind them. Soros has spent more than $17 million on campaigns such as these. And if anarchy is the desired result, he’s getting his money’s worth. Crime is way up in each of the above-mentioned cities.
Political and cultural observer Kyle Smith saw this coming. Back in July, he wrote:
Demoralized police are bound to hear all of this as a warning that the kind of dirtbags they arrest for low-level crimes will be dumped laughing back onto the streets the next day. New York City is currently spending $30 million of federal bailout money on its biggest ad campaign in decades to woo tourists back to a city where witnessing public defecation and veering around passed-out bodies on sidewalks has become the new normal.
Bragg’s memo sparked outrage from New York cops, who know exactly where this will lead. “Bragg gives criminals the roadmap to freedom from prosecution and control of our streets,” said the head of the NYPD Detectives’ Endowment Association.
“In Bragg’s Manhattan, you can resist arrest, deal drugs, obstruct arrests, and even carry a gun and get away with it,” said DEA president Paul DiGiacomo.
“Police officers don’t want to be sent out to enforce laws that the district attorneys won’t prosecute,” said Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch. “And there are already too many people who believe that they can commit crimes, resist arrest, interfere with police officers and face zero consequences.”
Perhaps this brief exchange between Bragg and Fox News’s Eric Shawn sums it up best:
Shawn: “Wouldn’t these policies give criminals the green light?” Bragg: “No! I mean, it depends on your definition of ‘criminal.’”
But here’s the thing: Adams and Bragg know each other. And Adams has had nice things to say about the guy who’s fixing to make his life miserable. “I have a lot of respect for DA Bragg, a former prosecutor. He has a real vision.”
We’ll see about that “vision.” Something’s got to give, which means this won’t end well for either Adams or Bragg. And for the sake of New York City, let’s hope it’s the latter.
SCOTUS takes on Biden vax mandate: The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments today against Joe Biden’s COVID vaccine mandate. Specifically, the justices will entertain challenges to the constitutionality of Biden’s use of OSHA to impose a politically motivated agenda. Lower courts have split over the issue, with the Fifth and Sixth Circuits coming down on opposite sides of the debate. Twenty-five states have joined in the suit against the mandate. The justices’ decision promises to hold significant implications for the ability of presidents to unilaterally empower federal agencies to enact their political agendas.
Jobs numbers fail to hit expectations: The December employment numbers are in and for the second month in a row missed the mark. Just 199,000 jobs were added, falling well short of the anticipated 422,000. Even the apparent silver lining of a drop in the unemployment rate down to 3.9% fails to account for the existence of a widespread labor shortage. Staffing remains a major problem for businesses, perhaps especially within the healthcare industry. 2021 may have seen a record number of positions added, but only after millions more jobs were killed in 2020. The fact of the matter remains that the total employment number has yet to reach pre-pandemic levels. Millions fewer Americans are working today than before COVID, despite 11 million openings. The Atlantic Fed is tracking a 6.7% growth in GDP through the end of the year, yet inflation continues at a 40-year high. Throwing even more cold water on the worrying jobs numbers is the fact that this latest reporting period doesn’t include the spike in COVID due to the Omicron variant. Could January’s numbers be even worse?
New minimum wage hikes will slow economic recovery: Minimum wages hikes began in 25 states and 58 cities with the ringing in of 2022. It comes as no surprise that the states and cities enacting the largest minimum wage increases are run by Democrats, or that they also happen to be places from which residents are fleeing. While increased minimum wages sound good, it’s hard to overstate their real-world negative impact on workers and the economy. Employment Policies Institute Managing Director Michael Saltsman observes: “We know the damage that sharply rising minimum wage mandates have caused prior to the pandemic. Now, despite the track record of past harm, minimum wage advocates are instead moving the goal posts without assessing the extent of losses created by minimum wage hikes despite the hardship of the last two years.”
Falsely blaming J6 for officer’s death: Just how bad was the January 6 Capitol riot? Well, according to anti-Trumper Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, it was so bad it was responsible for the death of a Capitol Police officer who was not there and died months later. The Republican governor released a ridiculous social media post in an attempt to show solidarity with the Democrats’ January 6 political show, erroneously suggesting that the death of Officer Williams Evans, a Massachusetts native, was the fault of Capitol rioters. In truth, Evans was murdered by a Louis Farrakhan supporter last April while he was guarding the Capitol.
CBS hides inconvenient J6 polling data: CBS News and YouGov conducted a poll on Americans’ perspective of the January 6 Capitol riot. CBS highlighted that while 85% of Democrats viewed J6 as “an insurrection,” only 21% of Republicans surveyed agreed with that description. In a blatant bit of Democrat propaganda, what CBS failed to note is that the poll also showed 80% of Republicans believe J6 was “a protest that went too far” — in fact, an even higher percentage of Donald Trump supporters (84%) agreed. The poll indicates that the vast majority of Republicans have rejected the Left’s false narrative that the J6 riot was an “insurrection.”
Politics
“The court has no jurisdiction and the case must be dismissed as moot”: Federal judge tosses lawsuit challenging Joe Biden’s authority to block Keystone Pipeline (Daily Caller)
Air Force accused of lowering standards for elite unit to accommodate female candidate; military branch admits change to “norms” (Free Beacon)
Racist Joy Reid to lose MSNBC show in the spring? (Post Millennial)
Health
Re-re-relocating the goalposts: Moderna CEO says fourth COVID vaccine dose likely necessary (National Review)
Irony: Mayo Clinic dropping 700 workers for lacking COVID vaccination (Star Tribune)
Culture
One cheer for Pope Francis: Pontiff rips couples who have pets instead of children (Daily Wire)
Sports stars risk cancel culture to speak out as gender dysphoric male swimmer breaks women’s records (Washington Times)
Heartland
Former New York Times columnist Nick Kristof booted from ballot in Oregon governor’s race (Washington Examiner)
RIP: Lawrence Brooks, oldest U.S. veteran of WWII, dies at 112 (NBC News)
Odds & Ends
Mortgage rates hit highest level since May 2020 (Yahoo) | What to expect when the Federal Reserve hikes interest rates (Washington Examiner)
Trump’s new social media platform will launch February 21 (Post Millennial)
Why the world is watching Kazakhstan: the country’s vast natural resources, including gas, oil, coal, and minerals, make it an important area for energy giants like ExxonMobil, Shell, and Chevron (Morning Brew)
Closing Arguments
Policy: The Chicago Teachers Union–imposed school shutdown is about politics, not the pandemic (City Journal)
Humor: AOC: “Insurrectionists are just mad they can’t date me” (Genesius Times)
For more of today’s editors’ choice headlines, visit Headline Report.
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“In my judgment the people of no nation can lose their liberty so long as a Bill of Rights like ours survives and its basic purposes are conscientiously interpreted, enforced and respected so as to afford continuous protection against old, as well as new, devices and practices which might thwart those purposes. I fear to see the consequences of the Court’s practice of substituting its own concepts of decency and fundamental justice for the language of the Bill of Rights as its point of departure in interpreting and enforcing that Bill of Rights.” —Justice Hugo L. Black (1886-1971)
“Vaccines prevent one from becoming infected with a disease and prevent the transmission of the disease to others. … A significant portion of those now testing positive for the virus has been ‘vaccinated’; a sizeable fraction has been boosted as well. Moreover, additional millions have contracted omicron in an intensity below what warrants testing. So, whatever shots we took earlier in the year were not vaccines, at least not as that term is understood by native English speakers everywhere. Consequently, all of the judging and anger that the ‘vaccinated’ directed at their fellow unvaccinated over the last year was largely pointless and misguided. The simple truth is that we have all been unvaccinated, whether we got the shots or not. … Without a true vaccine, it is not clear why anyone other than your doctor and your loved ones should care about what course of therapy you choose for any medical condition.” —Michael McKenna
“It is America’s proud boast to have made the transition of power through peaceful, lawful means a norm for modern republics. One needn’t buy the Democrats’ politicized ‘insurrection’ distortion to grasp that something precious is forever tarnished.” —Andrew McCarthy
“In truth, [Chuck] Schumer, because of his power, is a bigger threat to the constitutional order than any rando who showed up to riot on January 6th. Unlike their actions, his attacks on the system would live on in perpetuity.” —David Harsanyi
Non sequitur: “Certain dates echo throughout history, including dates that instantly remind all who have lived through them — where they were and what they were doing when our democracy came under assault. Dates that occupy not only a place on our calendars, but a place in our collective memory. December 7th, 1941. September 11th, 2001. And January 6th, 2021.” —Kamala Harris
Grand delusions: “After four years of chaos, cruelty and incompetence, culminating in a pandemic and the once-unthinkable trauma of Jan. 6, most Americans were desperate for some peace and quiet. On the surface, we have achieved that. Our political life seems more or less normal these days, as the president pardons turkeys and Congress quarrels over spending bills. But peel back a layer, and things are far from normal. Jan. 6 is not in the past; it is every day.” —The New York Times
Bulk-mail ballot fraud deflection: “[Donald Trump’s] not just a former president. He’s a defeated former president. Defeated by a margin of over seven million of your votes, and a full and free and fair election. There is simply zero proof the election results were inaccurate.” —Joe Biden
Race bait: “Unbelievably, [Joe Biden] has become for Republicans as much of a sort of figure of hatred, a hate object, as President Obama was. You know, the black president. Like, he was his vice president, maybe that’s part of it.” —MSNBC’s Joy Reid
Belly laugh of the week: “This is the like the most sort of norm, core Democrat ever. He’s a moderate, you know, sort of ordinary Democrat. There’s nothing outrageous about him, but they have cast him as some sort of demonic character.” —Joy Reid
Friendly fire: “I will not allow [the teachers union] to take our children hostage. I will not allow them to compromise the future of this generation of [Chicago Public Schools] students. That is not going to happen.” —Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot
Facepalm: “2022 is the first year women’s faces will appear on U.S. quarters. It’s about time.” —Hillary Clinton (“Helen Keller was displayed on the Alabama state quarter issued in May 2003, and Queen Isabella of Spain’s image was featured on an 1893 special commemorative quarter.” —Washington Examiner)
Fake news: “Kyle Rittenhouse … used his semiautomatic weapon to kill two Black men in Kenosha, Wisconsin while waging a glorious war on behalf of his inherited White power.” —National Geographic author Kara Cooney
Science illiteracy: “I’ve done everything I was supposed to do. Yeah, it doesn’t stop omicron, and that’s the problem with a variant, because it gets stronger and does different stuff to you, so, you know, unless everybody gets vaccinated this is what we’re going to be facing for the next, you know, little while.” —COVID-positive “The View” co-host Whoopi Goldberg
Theater of the absurd: “When I hear people say our first value is autonomy, and liberty, and I don’t want to get vaxed, and I don’t want to do anything to help my neighbor, or help people who are weak or vulnerable, one of the important things we can do is shift the moral ground. … We can penalize them more. We can say, ‘You’re going to pay more on your hospital bill if you weren’t vaccinated. You can’t get life insurance or disability insurance at affordable rates if you aren’t vaccinated.’” —NYU professor of (ahem) bioethics Arthur Caplan
And last… “BLM riots of 2020: 25 people killed. Dozens injured. 2 billion dollars in damage. Whole communities left in ruins. Sparked a violent crime wave across the country. And the Democrat Party openly supported all of it.” —Matt Walsh
Journalist Glenn Greenwald on ‘Breaking Points’ explains how the deep state in tandem with the media has used the January 6th attack to go after civil liberties and expand their power.
Newswatch AM January 7th: Supreme Court to hear challenges to President Biden’s vaccine mandate today; Israel takes latest step in its fight against Covid; CBN Middle East Bureau Chief Chris Mitchell talks about the Covid situation in Israel; statue at United Nation that resembles the end-times “beast” from the Bible removed, as it was a temporary exhibit; Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, tells the Babylon Bee he agrees with the teachings of Jesus and discusses salvation; a study examines the…
THE CAPITOL RIOTS ONE YEAR LATER. THE PRESIDENT MARKING THE DAY AND LAYING THE BLAME ON HIS PREDECESSOR. PLUS THE SUPREME COURT TAKES UP VACCINE MANDATES. THE TWO CASES OVER PRESIDENT BIDEN’S VACCINE MANDATES AFFECTING NEARLY 100 MILLION …
FOX Business host Stuart Varney argues Kamala Harris ‘seems out of her depth.’ … STUART VARNEY: Some of her [Kamala Harris] staff recently left, saying she didn’t read her briefing material and then bullied her staffers after she made elementary mistakes.
Judicial Watch President @TomFitton appeared on Newsmax Radio to discuss House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s controversial January 6 Select Committee–and what Judicial Watch wants to know about January 6 as well!
The former house speaker discusses Mitch McConnell signaling openness to election reform and Vice President Kamala Harris laughing off questions about office turmoil. NEWT GINGRICH: Her speech yesterday where she compared January 6 to Pearl Harbor and 9/11 I think proved that California education is even worse than we thought.
Former Trump campaign foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos explains the significance of John Durham’s probe into the origins of the Russia investigation into the Trump campaign – Via Newsmax’s ‘John Bachman Now.’
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