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
What is biblical repentance? This important theological idea is central to the teaching of Scripture, and it is central to the Christian life. In this message, R.C. Sproul discusses the inseparable relationship between faith and repentance, helping us to see that when our hearts are transformed by Jesus Christ, our lives should bear the fruit of the faith that we profess.
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.Psalm 46:1
A help that is not present when we need it is of small value. The anchor which is left at home is of no use to the seaman in the hour of storm; the money which he used to have is of no worth to the debtor when a writ is out against him. Very few earthly helps could be called “very present”: they are usually far in the seeking, far in the using, and farther still when once used. But as for the Lord our God, He is present when we seek Him, present when we need Him, and present when we have already enjoyed His aid.
He is more than “present,” He is very present. More present than the nearest friend can be, for He is in us in our trouble; more present than we are to ourselves, for sometimes we lack presence of mind. He is always present, effectually present, sympathetically present, altogether present. He is present now if this is a gloomy season. Let us rest ourselves upon Him. He is our refuge, let us hide in Him; He is our strength, let us array ourselves with Him; He is our help, let us lean upon Him; He is our very present help, let us repose in Him now. We need not have a moment’s care or an instant’s fear. “The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.”
“Happy is the man who finds wisdom, And the man who gains understanding; For her proceeds are better than the profits of silver, And her gain than fine gold” Proverbs 3:13-14
The circles I have been going around and around in my mind recently made me think about the importance of wisdom. I don’t come by it naturally but I desperately need it.
As in the great wisdom of King Solomon.
As in the wisdom written about extensively by Solomon in the book of Proverbs.
I want wisdom that will help me navigate through the choices and decisions in my life.
Don’t we all? Oh how many times I have faltered because I didn’t pursue the wisest path. I want to do better in this area of my life.
In the book of James scripture tells us that all we have to do is ask for wisdom and it will be generously given.
James 1:5 “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”
What if I ask God for wisdom to discern which direction to go, or how to move forward from my present position, or wisdom to know what changes may need to be made?
And what if I ask for wisdom regarding a decision…but I don’t receive an answer?
If He hasn’t revealed something to me or pointed me in a specific direction or provided a focus, then maybe I am not supposed to know yet.
What do I do with that?
Maybe realizing that His timing isn’t the same as mine is exhibiting wisdom on my part.
Then, what do I do next?
I will remember the verse in James and keep asking God for wisdom and continue to seek His direction.
I think this is the wise thing to do.
James 3:17 “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. “
“Oh, the depth and riches of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out.” Romans 11:33
Thought
God’s plan to save us is incredible. His blueprints for the creation of our universe are beyond our imagining. He is so rich in wisdom and knowledge. What else can we do but go to him and ask him to open our minds to his work and his will in our lives.
Prayer
Precious and Almighty Father, thank you for reawakening me each spring to the power of your sustaining presence in the world, but even more in my life. Bless me today as I seek to put you first in all I do. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.
Knesset members demand speedy formation of new government following terror attacks Members of Knesset (MKs) from the parties involved in the coalition negotiations demanded on Wednesday morning that a government be formed immediately in the wake of the bombings in Jerusalem. “I will not speak about politics but I will say one thing. We need to form a government as quickly as possible – the terror will not wait,” Otzma Yehudit chairman MK Itamar Ben-Gvir said at the site of the explosion at the entrance to the city.
Biden family has 150+ ‘suspicious activity reports’ but Treasury ‘obstructing’ release says House GOP The recently announced House Republican investigation into President Joe Biden and his family’s business dealings will focus, in part, on at least 150 banking suspicious activity reports (SARs) allegedly related to the Biden family and their business dealings. The new investigative effort comes after the Treasury Department, under Biden’s control, has refused to produce the records after previous Republican requests.
CBS reports Hunter Biden laptop is authentic 2 years after it was first revealed CBS News is the latest mainstream media outlet to find that the famous “Hunter Biden laptop” is authentic as Republicans, now in control of the House, are poised to launch investigations centering on its contents. Independent analysts commissioned by CBS confidently concluded the laptop was real and hadn’t been tampered with.
What A Choice: A Tyrannical World Government Or A Nuclear War If you had to choose between living under an extremely oppressive world government or living through a nuclear war, which one would be your choice? Personally, I don’t like either of those two options, but in recent days western leaders have been trying to convince us that we will either have one or the other. According to them, either we can submit to a “global order” that is dominated by the values and the agenda of the western elite or we can accept a multipolar world which will eventually lead to widespread chaos and nuclear war.
Democrats San Francisco Considers Axing Elections Director for Being a White Man The San Francisco Elections Commission is considering terminating its contract with its elections director John Arntz—one of the city’s most highly esteemed civil servants—citing concerns about “racial equity.” Arntz, who is white, will need to reapply next year if he wants to keep his job.
Plan to attack NYC Jews was ‘not an idle threat’ Two armed individuals carrying a large hunting knife, a Glock 17 firearm, a 30-round magazine and a Nazi armband, who were planning an attack against the New York Jewish community were arrested by the (NYPD) at Penn Station on Friday night.
Intel Chief: World Will Soon Face ‘Greatest Test’ in Stopping Iran Nukes Speaking at conference organized by the Institute for National Security Studies, Haliva warned that Tehran had made “significant progress” on its nuclear program, and that the international community would soon face its “greatest test” in preventing the Islamic Republic from obtaining the bomb. Haliva also revealed that Iran has considered launching a terrorist attack at the World Cup soccer tournament, which began on Sunday,
Newly discovered mosaics in Galilee’s “Burnt Church” shed light on early Christianity Recent archaeological discoveries have revealed that the ancient city of Hippos in the Golan was a vibrant center for Christians during the Byzantine period, Haaretz reported. Hippos was part of the Decapolis, a group of ten cities closely tied to Greco-Roman culture. It was known to be an important city and religious center for the pagan Seleucids. However, archaeologists have discovered seven churches in Hippos constructed during the Byzantine period. Constructed in the second half of the fifth century, the church was destroyed by fire in the first half of the 7th century CE.
Iran begins enriching uranium to 60% at Fordow nuclear site Iran has begun enriching uranium to 60% at its underground Fordow nuclear site, Reuters reported on Tuesday. Tehran had sent a letter to the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency informing the nuclear watchdog of the move, said the report.
Shallow M6.2 earthquake hits Baja California, Mexico A strong and shallow earthquake, registered by the USGS as M6.2, hit Baja California, Mexico at 16:39 UTC on November 22, 2022. The agency is reporting a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles). EMSC is reporting M6.2 at a depth of 2 km (1.2 miles).
Google is sued for auto-installing Covid “spyware” on people’s phones A class action lawsuit has been filed against the US state of Massachusetts for what the plaintiffs claim is a case of covert mass surveillance carried out via “Covid spyware” installed on over one million phones.
Why Is The Government Arming More Bureaucrats Than Marines? When Congress authorized $80 billion this year to beef up Internal Revenue Service enforcement and staffing, Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy warned that “Democrats’ new army of 87,000 IRS agents will be coming for you.”
Dr. Russell Blaylock: How Vaccine-Induced Spike Proteins Damage the Brain and Cause Cancer “This [Covid] injection is an injection of artificial exosomes … The brain is one of the most complex things in the entire universe … [The medical profession] really doesn’t understand this injection. They don’t understand what it does to the neurological apparatus of the brain and spinal cord,” Dr. Russell Blaylock told Brian Hooker of Children’s Health Defense.
ABC Legal Analyst Sunny Hostin Told Her Co-Hosts On ‘The View’ That Jesus Christ Would Be The Grand Marshal At The Gay Pride Parade This lost world does not want God, they don’t want His perfect, sinless and only begotten Son, and they actively quench the Spirit on a minute by minute basis. But what they do want is a worldly Jesus with a powerless form of godliness, who will confirm them in their sins. Such was the case on ‘The View’ yesterday where co-host Sunny Hostin boldly announced that if Jesus was on the earth in bodily form right now, He would love to be the Grand Marshall at the next gay and transgender Pride parade.
“It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favors.” —George Washington (1789)
America is particularly blessed, and we should be thankful for so many things.
Nate Jackson
Thanksgiving is a uniquely American tradition, begun and built upon our tradition of Christian faith. Obviously, you don’t have to be a Christian to be thankful, but the history and legacy of the holiday is powerfully religious.
We’ll admit, when your Patriot Post editorial team collects and write stories each day, we can get rather discouraged at times. Bad policies have bad consequences. Elections don’t always turn out as we’d hope. And aside from the constant stream of malaise brought by Democrats and the Biden administration, the woke mob vilifies the Thanksgiving holiday and America herself, miseducating our kids while they’re at it.
Even the Thanksgiving meal reminds us of the bad news — the average price of this year’s food is up an astonishing 20% since last year, which in turn was 14% higher than the year before. Remember when Joe Biden was crowing about saving you 16 cents for an Independence Day cookout?
But hey, there’s always good news. If you’re a vegan who gets triggered by all that (expensive) meat and dairy at the Thanksgiving table, there’s a support hotline for you to call. Is this a great country or what?
That last line was a joke, but also not one at all. This is a great country, current challenges and bad actors notwithstanding, and we’re greatly blessed and awfully thankful to live in it.
Hudson Institute senior fellow Melanie Kirkpatrick, author of a book on Thanksgiving, echoes that optimism. “Amid all the political and cultural turmoil with which we live today, it’s sometimes easy to lose sight of our country’s many blessings,” she said. “Thanksgiving Day is a good moment to reflect on the words of Benjamin Franklin, who called Thanksgiving a day of ‘public Felicity’ in which Americans give thanks, above all, for our ‘full Enjoyment of Liberty, civil and religious.’ That was 1785. Franklin’s words apply no less equally today.”
Every year on Thanksgiving, The Wall Street Journal runs the same editorial in which this thankful note continues to ring true: America is the “longest enduring society of free men governing themselves without benefit of kings or dictators.”
The deeper truth is that we haven’t done this for ourselves. Our Republic and our freedom are gifts from God. Remembering that is key to reviving both faith and the American Spirit inherent in the Thanksgiving holiday.
Remember the Pilgrims and the history of Thanksgiving, and teach it to your kids. Being thankful takes practice, so don’t forget to keep working at it and recalibrating to it. Reach out in love to that family member or neighbor who doesn’t think like you do. Above all, don’t forget the Creator who blessed you with life and Liberty.
We have so much to be thankful for, and here in our humble shop, one of the foremost things is you, our readers and supporters. God bless you and yours on this Thanksgiving!
As our team prepares to celebrate Thanksgiving tomorrow, we are grateful to you — our readers and supporters — who stand with us to preserve the freedoms our Founders fought so hard to win.
To our readers who have financially supported us, and to those who have written kind notes explaining their inability to do so — thank you. Your commitment to Liberty is not measured by a financial contribution.
If you are planning to make a gift to benefit The Patriot Fund’s Year-End campaign, you may make a secure online donation here.
Thank you for standing with us in support of Liberty. Our work is not possible without you!
In his farewell appearance before the media, The Man of Science didn’t get the send-off he expected.
Douglas Andrews
Anthony Fauci, the highest-paid bureaucrat in the entire federal government, held a farewell presser yesterday in the White House Briefing Room.
Yes, the man whose great humility, whose consistency of message, whose apolitical approach to public health, and whose unswerving allegiance to data-driven decision-making saved all but 1,085,753 Americans from the deadly NIH-funded China virus offered a few parting words for what he assumed to be an adoring and supplicant mainstream media press pool.
It didn’t quite go according to script.
Fauci, 81, plans to embark upon an outrageously lucrative retirement next month after having served as the nation’s senior-most infectious disease “expert” since 1984 and as Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser since last year.
“If there are oversight hearings, I absolutely will cooperate fully and testify before the Congress,” promised the tiny technocrat. “You may not know, but I’ve testified before the Congress a few hundred times, okay, over the last 40 years or so, so I have no trouble testifying. We can defend, and explain, and stand by everything that we’ve said, so I have nothing to hide.”
Okay, thought The Daily Caller’s Diana Glebova, we’ll bite: “What have you done to personally investigate the origins of COVID?”
Glebova has been a fixture at coronavirus briefings since March 2020, so it would seem that she, at least as much as any other journalist in the room, had earned the right to ask the $417,608 question.
So it would seem. But White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who’d been serving as the gatekeeper for Fauci’s brief Q&A session by calling only on state-controlled journos, jumped in and stopped the briefing to scold Glebova — which caused a handful of other intrepid journalists to press Fauci on the single most important and most avoided question concerning the pandemic that has, to date, killed 6,621,772 people worldwide.
Namely: Where did it come from?
“Hold on one second,” said a faux-indignant Jean-Pierre. “We have a rigged process here. I’m not calling out on people that yell. And you’re being disrespectful to your colleagues, and you’re being disrespectful to our guest.”
Our guest? Does she mean the arrogant imp who once said, “If you are trying to get at me as a public health official and a scientist, you’re really attacking not only Dr. Anthony Fauci, you’re attacking science”?
That falsely authoritative guest?
Does she mean the double-masking dolt who only a few months ago finally conceded that those vaunted COVID-19 vaccines — the ones that he and Joe Biden have been using like a cudgel against the American people — aren’t all they’re cracked up to be?
That sanctimonious and lavishly compensated guest?
Does she mean the guy who finally said, two years too late, that COVID “is not going to be eradicated, and it’s not going to be eliminated, and what’s going to happen is that we’re going to see that each individual is going to have to make their calculation of the amount of risk that they want to take”?
That government-employed guest?
Those in the briefing room appeared to have had enough. As the New York Post reports: “Other news outlets, including Al Jazeera and The Post, put in their own requests for Fauci to answer. Other reporters said the interruption was disrespectful, arguing that final briefings are usually emotionally sensitive forums.”
“Emotionally sensitive forums”? Since when are journalists more concerned about emotional sensitivity than they are about getting to the truth? (That’s a rhetorical question, since the answer depends entirely upon the political nature of the subject matter.)
“Can we get an answer?” Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett chimed in.
“We need an answer, Dr. Fauci, on the COVID origins,” the Post said to Fauci. “Why are we still funding the EcoHealth Alliance, Dr. Fauci? Why are they getting millions of more dollars?”
Things were just starting to get good when a clearly rattled Jean-Pierre said as she looked down at her prepared remarks, “Dr. Fauci has always led with the science, and our country is stronger and healthier because of his leadership.”
So says the Ministry of Truth.
For all the damage that Anthony Fauci caused our nation, and for all the smugness and evasiveness that he showed along the way, we can only hope that the door — and a few dozen steel-toed boots — hit him hard in the arse on the way out.
SCOTUS rules against Trump over his tax returns, McCarthy to Mayorkas: resign or be impeached, and more.
Thomas Gallatin & Jordan Candler
Cross-Examination
SCOTUS rules against Trump over his tax returns: On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Donald Trump’s request for a temporary stay to block the Democrat-led House Ways and Means Committee from accessing his tax returns. This means that in the coming weeks the IRS will likely be giving Trump’s tax returns to House lawmakers to comb through. It effectively ends the years-long standoff between Trump and Democrats over his taxes. Democrats celebrated the ruling, with Representative Richard Neal (MA) arguing, “The principle of oversight has been upheld.” Trump’s lawyers asserted that the committee’s motive was political and that “the goal here is to immediately publicly expose and release President Trump’s tax returns.” Republican Representative Adrian Smith (NE) blasted Democrats, saying that they “pursued this lawsuit, which has no legitimate legislative or oversight purpose, so they can look at President Trump’s personal financial information and potentially release it to the public.” He then promised as a contender for committee chairman that he “would do neither.” Yet Democrats who held onto control of the Senate will also have the power to call on the IRS to release tax returns. Trump’s announcement last week of his 2024 presidential bid was as much a legal defensive move as it was a political one. As Mark Alexander observed, one way for Trump to counter his “considerable legal problems” was to declare his candidacy, which “will reinforce a defense argument that prosecution is political.”
McCarthy to Mayorkas: resign or be impeached: “Our country may never recover from [DHS] Secretary [Alejandro] Mayorkas’ dereliction of duty. This is why today I am calling on the secretary to resign,” stated Representative Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on Tuesday. “If Secretary Mayorkas does not resign, House Republicans will investigate every order, every action and every failure. And we will determine whether we can begin an impeachment inquiry.” McCarthy is vying for the position of House Speaker following the Republicans’ winning control of the House, and while he remains the most likely candidate to win the position, he is facing opposition within the ranks. What all Republicans can get behind is tackling the treasonous job that Joe Biden’s DHS secretary has done undermining national security via his de facto open-border policy. Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) was quick to voice his support for McCarthy’s ultimatum: “Americans deserve accountability for the unprecedented crisis on the southwest border. Republicans will hold Secretary Mayorkas accountable for his failure to enforce immigration law and secure the border through all means necessary.” The situation at America’s southern border has only gotten progressively worse, even as Mayorkas continues to peddle the myth that the border is “secure.”
China’s massive cyberspace operation is outgunning the U.S.: A recent chilling report from the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission observes that “China has engaged in a massive buildup of its cyber capabilities over the past decade and poses a formidable threat to the United States in cyberspace today.” Since Chinese strongman Xi Jinping has been in power, he has worked aggressively to build a government with sophisticated cyberwarfare capabilities with espionage efforts that have stolen trillions of dollars in trade secrets. Beijing now boasts an army of military hackers 10 times the number at U.S. Cyber Command. The 785-page report warns, “As a result of these long-running efforts, China’s activities in cyberspace are now more stealthy, agile, and dangerous to the United States than they were in the past.” Even more concerning is the fact that China’s cyberspace force is more offensively oriented than is the U.S.‘s. Experts note that China’s 10-1 cyber warfare personnel advantage “could give the [People’s Liberation Army] an edge over U.S. cyber forces if a surge in malicious Chinese cyber activity overwhelms limited U.S. personnel.” The report also observed, “China’s formidable cyber capabilities call into question the U.S. government’s preparedness to protect its networks from a major Chinese cyberattack.” It concluded: “To prevail in the long-term competition with China, policymakers must find ways to impose greater costs for malicious cyber activity and strengthen domestic cyber defenses while upholding the liberal values the United States has historically championed.”
Headlines
Walmart employee in Chesapeake, Virginia, kills six with pistol (Fox News)
A possible railroad strike during the holiday season would risk $2 billion per day (Reason)
Biden administration extends payment pause on student loan debt (CNBC)
“Priority #1”: Elon Musk to address Twitter’s child sexual exploitation problem (Daily Wire)
NHL dragged for going woke, promoting trans hockey tournament (Daily Wire)
MSNBC panel gives a preview of the Left’s strategy to shut down debate on sexualizing children (RedState)
Targeting Justice Samuel Alito: The latest secondhand hearsay attempt to discredit the Supreme Court (WSJ)
Policy: When ideology trumps empathy: Progressives profess to care deeply about inner-city black Americans, but their voting patterns suggest otherwise (City Journal)
Policy: American fitness has national security implications. It’s time to take it more seriously. (Daily Signal)
Humor: Tension at first Thanksgiving as one Pilgrim wears “Make America Great Someday” hat (Babylon Bee)
What true selfless bravery means when stacked against hollow virtue signaling.
Emmy Griffin
“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” ―former South African President Nelson Mandela
Mandela knew a thing or two about being courageous in the face of daunting adversity. His courage turned the tide of the oppressive apartheid in South Africa. Courage is a lost art, but it moves us deeply whenever we have the opportunity to witness it unvarnished.
The World Cup currently has soccer fans’ attention. That platform has provided the teams of various countries the opportunity to make statements they deem important in full view of their captive audience. Western countries and several European nations have decided take a jab at the host country of Qatar for outlawing homosexuality. Qatar, like many other Middle Eastern countries, is a religious Muslim country where homosexuality is a sin punishable by law.
The U.S. decided to redesign the USA crest on its practice jerseys with rainbow colors. The team will not be wearing the rainbow patch for matches.
England, Wales, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland declared that they were going to wear armbands with a pink heart and the LGBTQ+ rallying slogan “OneLove.” FIFA, the soccer federation behind the World Cup, decided that any team or player who did this would face sanctions, not just fines. So all the teams backed down and released this joint statement explaining their change of heart:
We were prepared to pay fines that would normally apply to breaches of kit regulations and had a strong commitment to wearing the armband. However, we cannot put our players in the situation where they might be booked or even forced to leave the field of play. We are very frustrated by the FIFA decision which we believe is unprecedented. Our players and coaches are disappointed — they are strong supporters of inclusion and will show support in other ways.
So much for their “courage.” They were worried about putting their players in a position of not being allowed to play, so they decided to back down from their bully pulpit. When “enlightened” elitists’ position actually costs them something, they back down in a hot second.
On the other hand, Iran and England played their first World Cup game yesterday. The Iranian team displayed an incredible act of courage and used the eyes of the world to protest the horrific regime in Iran that is squelching a people’s revolt sparked by the brutal murder of a woman for wearing her hijab “incorrectly.” Iranian team captain Ehsan Hajsafi spoke publicly before the game in support of the women’s rights protesters and lamented the lives that have been lost so far because of that government’s despotic response. The Iranian people are dying because they are daring to defy the mullahs. The soccer players chose not to sing their national anthem at the beginning of the game in a show of solidarity for the movement.
These players face the reality of being disappeared upon their return to Iran. This is what putting skin in the game really looks like. When the cause you are supporting is so important that you’d sacrifice your own life in the service of your fellow countrymen and women, that is true bravery. This is the Nelson Mandela brand of bravery that may help to change the horrible dictates in the Middle East. As political pundit Ben Shapiro put it: “Actual bravery: Iranian soccer players refusing to sing the anthem, and risking jail or worse. Fake bravery: Europeans threatening to wear rainbow armbands to the cheers of the media, then backing down the minute they were threatened with a yellow card.”
The contrast between the Iranian team and the European teams is obvious and stark. The world’s hearts should be broken for the people of Iran and their fight to shake off the menace that is Islamic extremism. Yet Westerners are likely to give more attention to the virtue-signaling bullies who are whining about the potential yellow cards they might incur.
That shows you just how unserious and cowardly they are. Their backing down also reveals that maybe, at the heart of it, they don’t really think that LGBTQ+ radicalism is something worth fighting for.
The world’s largest emitter isn’t meeting commitments — and has no intention to.
Lewis Morris
In the wake of last weekend’s UN global climate summit, it’s worth taking a few minutes to see what progress has been made toward meeting global climate goals. According to a study covered in The New York Times, there hasn’t been much. Shocking, we know.
The Times states that none of the big four emitters — China, the U.S., the European Union, and India — is on track to meet its pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions made during the Paris Agreement seven years ago.
Naturally, the Times places a lot of blame on the U.S., pointing out that “the United States is, by far, the largest historical emitter of greenhouse gases, and remains one of the largest when measured per capita.” The paper goes on to claim that “because of the country’s enormous historical role in emitting greenhouse gases … the U.S. government is expected by many others to play a leading role in both setting ambitious emissions reductions targets and helping smaller and poorer nations adapt to the destabilizing effects of the changing global climate.”
Nothing is said about how the U.S. has consistently led the world in voluntarily reducing emissions, even before the Paris Agreement was established. The greater role of fracking and natural gas in reducing those emissions is likewise skipped over, as is the Left’s continued refusal to see the wisdom of nuclear power as a means of clean, reliable energy.
The EU is given some praise for being alone among the big four in coming closest to meeting its Paris goals. However, that is likely to change. Europe is feeling the squeeze as Vladimir Putin has dramatically ratcheted back gas supplies in the wake of war-related sanctions. Germany, which turned its back on nuclear power, is now being forced to burn more coal as winter sets in, and other nations will likely follow suit. The continent’s leftists will surely miss the lesson to be learned here in not relying on Russia for their primary energy needs.
India relies on a carbon-heavy energy strategy, but the Times lets it slide because it has not been a big historical contributor to emissions. India’s prime minister chose to skip the climate summit, and that nation is not expected to meet its net-zero emissions target until later in the century. India is also predicted to surpass the EU in total emissions next year, and it will soon become the world’s most populous nation.
China is also given a break by the Times and by just about every Western politician, including President Joe Biden and America’s climate maven John Kerry. China is currently the world’s biggest polluter, accounting for almost a third of all human-caused greenhouse gases — more than the U.S., Europe, and Japan combined.
In the last two decades, China’s emissions have skyrocketed, and the country has paid only lip service to the Paris Agreement and other climate accords. The ChiComs have demonstrated no concern or interest in joining the rest of the world in protecting the environment.
Indeed, why should China be concerned? The ChiComs are never held to account in international climate accords, and they are not on the hook with Western nations to pay climate reparations to Third World countries as called for at last week’s COP27 summit.
If large countries like China and India, which together account for a third of the world’s population, can ignore their share of the responsibility for climate action, then how can we expect these efforts to be successful? And how long will we accept shouldering the burden for the rest of the world’s malfeasance?
A retired Army veteran did what came naturally to him, and in doing so saved countless lives.
Douglas Andrews
A Saturday night massacre at a bar in Colorado Springs left five dead and at least 25 wounded, but it would’ve been immeasurably more bloody had it not been for a retired U.S. Army officer and the “toxic” masculinity that drove him to action.
Rich Fierro, who served three tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, rushed and tackled the 22-year-old assailant who opened fire inside a gay nightclub called Club Q, telling reporters that he tried to use the attacker’s own pistol to “finish him.”
“It’s the reflex,” said Fierro to the assembled media outside his home on Monday. “Go! Go to the fire. Stop the action. Stop the activity. Don’t let no one get hurt. I tried to bring everybody back.” As Fox News reports:
Fierro could smell the cordite from the ammunition, saw the flashes and dove, pushing one of his friends down before falling backwards.
Looking up from the floor, Fierro saw the shooter’s body armor and the crowd that had fled to the club’s patio. Moving toward the attacker, Fierro grasped the body armor, yanked the shooter down while yelling at another patron, James, to move the rifle out of reach.
As the shooter was pinned under a barrage of punches from Fierro and kicks to the head from James, he tried to reach for his pistol. Fierro grabbed it and used it as a bludgeon.
Fierro’s wife, Jess, said on the Facebook page of their family business, a local brewery, that her husband had bruised his right side and injured his hands, knees, and ankle. “He was covered in blood,” she wrote.
The disturbed assailant was already known to local law enforcement for an incident in June 2021. At the time, he was arrested for a bomb threat that led to a standoff with law enforcement at his mother’s home. In addition, the killer “identifies” as non-binary and uses “they/them” pronouns according to his lawyers. Beyond the Left’s boilerplate anti-2A rhetoric, there are and should be reasonable grounds for removing firearms. Here, it appears, was one such case.
None of this, however, stopped the shameless opportunists on the Left from immediately blaming Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans. “After Trump elevated anti-immigrant & anti-Latino rhetoric,” tweeted Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, “we had the deadliest anti-Latino shooting in modern history. After anti-Asian hate w/COVID, Atlanta. Tree of life. Emanuel AME. Buffalo. And now after an anti-LGBT+ campaign, Colorado Springs. Connect the dots, @GOP.”
We have no idea what drove the assailant to commit mayhem and murder — nor does a narcissistic leftist congresswoman from Queens — but we suspect it had a lot more to do with emotional imbalance and individual brokenness than it did Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis. Unless there’s a growing community of nonbinary they/them ultra-MAGA types we’re not aware of.
Fierro had been at the club with his daughter Kassy, her boyfriend, and several others to see a drag show and celebrate a birthday. His daughter’s boyfriend, Raymond Green Vance, was among those fatally shot.
Somehow, we suspect he wasn’t thinking Damn those Republican lawmakers! when he sprang into action, but many of those there that night were spared because he did. “Honestly, I don’t care about myself in that moment,” he said. “I cared about everybody that was around me and I cared especially about my family.”
“As soon as I got done with that guy and the cop came in, I went across the room and started first aid with my friend who was shot in the chest and the legs in the arms.”
As Task and Purpose reports: “Fierro entered the Army as a field artillery officer in 1999, deploying to Iraq from November 2003 to February 2004, January 2006 to December 2006, September 2008 to August 2009, and then to Afghanistan from April 2011 to April 2012 before leaving the service as a major in 2013. During that time he received numerous awards, including the Combat Action Badge and two Bronze Stars, according to his service record.”
The father and husband said he relied on his combat training to respond to the situation. “I don’t know exactly what I did, I just went into combat mode,” Fierro said. “I just know I have to kill this guy before he kills us.”
“I told him while I was hitting him, I said, ‘I’m going to f***ing kill you, man, because you tried to kill my friends.’ My family was in there. My little girl was in there,” he said.
Fierro isn’t the first man to act courageously and aggressively to save the lives of others. In fact, he’s emblematic of traditional manhood and masculinity and military training. And for that, the surviving patrons of Club Q — and their friends and families — can be thankful.
Jack DeVine: Election Common Sense — Worried about erosion of American democracy? Get back to basics on voting rules.
Linda Moss Mines: Jamestown: A ‘New World’ Experiment — Captain John Smith stepped forward and the Jamestown settlement morphed into a community based on military-style discipline.
The Conspiracy Theorists Were Right About Everything — The midterm elections are over, and the Democrats (mostly) managed to maintain their grip on power. However, their propagandistic control on the narrative is waning.
“The most unresolved problem of the day is precisely the problem that concerned the founders of this nation: how to limit the scope and power of government. Tyranny, restrictions on human freedom, come primarily from governmental restrictions that we ourselves have set up.” —Milton Friedman (1912-2006)
“Nothing is easier, or more emotionally satisfying, than blaming high prices on those who charge them, rather than on those who cause them.” —Thomas Sowell
For the Record
“When DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testifies before House and Senate committees that the border is ‘secure,’ and pictures show the opposite, it is akin to claiming American astronauts never landed on the moon. … We have become hyphenated Americans with too many clinging to their native land in language and culture. No nation can be sustained in its character without controlling who is allowed to enter. Other nations have far more restrictive immigration laws and paths to citizenship than ours.” —Cal Thomas
Political Futures
“I am reminded of a headline from the left-wing publication Vox after Trump won the presidency against Clinton in 2016: ‘Democrats Won the Most Votes in the Election. They Should Act Like It.’ That is sage advice six years later for the Republicans in Congress. Don’t be cowardly lions. You have the majority and the support of 52 million voters. Cut deficit spending and get us back to a balanced budget. Reduce taxes that hurt our economy. Stop the Green New Deal. End the Biden war on American-made energy. Put the fraudsters in jail who stole $150 billion by scamming unemployment, Medicaid and other federal programs. Make sure education dollars go to parents and children to attend the school of their choosing. Make Congress great again.” —Stephen Moore
“What made Trump inspire voters in places like central Appalachia is that he recognized their strengths, which had been long ignored and often ridiculed by the cultural elite. The media, the political parties, the corporations, Hollywood and academia looked down their noses at ordinary people who live here and basically anywhere more than 20 minutes outside of major metropolitan areas. These people, however, have their pride. … A lot of them stayed home last Tuesday because of Trump’s decision to make the midterm election results all about him. They worried his picks would be beholden to his every whim rather than what was important to them, and the red wave died on the vine. In short, what Trump started to get wrong is what the media have always gotten wrong about these voters. They do not live by a credo filled with resentment and grievances. Their aspirations are about their communities, families and their future, and that is how they vote. … ‘When the concept of Trump was that he stood for the grievances of the voters, they were for him,’ [conservative strategist Bruce Haynes] said. ‘At some point, it stopped being about the voters, and it started being about his own personal grievances. And that is when he started losing voters.’” —Salena Zito
“The good news for the conservative populist coalition is that it has not fallen apart; in truth, it has grown. It even attracted new Hispanic and black voters. The people the movement will likely peel off are the ones who were infrequent voters before Trump came along; they were the least ideological and more about Trump than the rest of the coalition. He didn’t need to win for them; they just liked him because he was a unicorn in a business filled with suits.” —Salena Zito
The BIG Lies
“Trans women are women. Trans men are men. Nonbinary identity is real.” —National Hockey League
“Here’s what we know: If folks get their updated vaccines and they get treated if they have a breakthrough infection, we can prevent essentially every COVID death in America.” —White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha
Swampthink
“You can decide to trust America’s physicians, or you can trust some random dude on Twitter. Like, those are your choices.” —Ashish Jha
Dumb & Dumber
“Reparations for African Americans could have cut COVID-19 transmission and infection rates both among blacks and the population at large.” —Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee
“Jesus would be the grand marshal at the pride parade.” —”The View” co-host Sunny Hostin
Cognitive Dissonance
“DeSantis is unimpressive outside the right-wing media bubble.” —Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin, October 26
“Beware, DeSantis is as much a threat to America as Trump.” —Jennifer Rubin, November 21
Belly Laugh of the Week
“The Republican activists leading a decades-long assault on affirmative action, which is poised to succeed in the Supreme Court, claim they want to eliminate racism and create a colorblind society. Their propaganda is so persuasive that 73% of Americans, including most people of color, believe race or ethnicity should not be a factor in college admissions.” —LA Times columnist Jean Guerrero
Joe Biden is the ultimate government parasite and his whole clan is in on the grift.
Hunter Biden’s daughter, Naomi Biden, got married at the White House on Saturday.
According to reports, Joe Biden is expected to pay a minimum of $300,000 out-of-pocket for his granddaughter’s wedding – RIGHT!
No press was allowed because Joe Biden said the wedding was a “private” event – EXCEPT FOR VOGUE MAGAZINE.
The media was banned – the peasants weren’t allowed near the wedding but Vogue Magazine was there to do a photoshoot.
Vogue was invited to the wedding and they wrote a puff piece of Biden’s granddaughter comparing her to the Princess of Monaco.
A classless Jill Biden wore a short dress with her kneecaps showing to her step-granddaughter’s formal wedding.
Jill Biden dons inappropriate dress for Naomi’s wedding
It was also revealed that Naomi Biden and her then-fiancé, Peter Neal, a former Hillary Clinton campaign intern, moved into the White House “for a few months” as they planned their glitzy wedding.
Naomi Biden mooched off of taxpayers for several months and the media was banned from her White House wedding.
Typical Biden corruption!
“Naomi says she was surprised to find Peter was “a bit of a bridezilla,” she jokes, and “obsessed with all the details,” but she was not surprised by involvement from the first lady—known among all the Biden grandchildren as “Nana.” When the couple’s lease ran out on their DC apartment, they asked Nana and the president if they could move in for a few months while wedding planning, along with their mini Australian shepherd, Charlie, who can often be seen gamboling on the South Lawn with the Bidens’ German shepherd, Commander. “I try to remind myself it’s the White House, but it also gets normalized over time,” says Naomi.” Vogue reported.
The Biden clan headed to a $30 million Nantucket estate after the lavish wedding at the White House.
WATCH:
President Biden, the First Lady and a gaggle of Bidens (including Hunter Biden) have arrived in Nantucket for their Thanksgiving holiday. pic.twitter.com/16DID438g8
After failing to meet profit expectations, Disney fired CEO Bob Chapek on Sunday, less than two weeks after the entertainment conglomerate’s former chief executive released a memo to senior leaders calling for some “tough and uncomfortable decisions” through job cuts, travel restrictions and hiring freezes.
Disney, which employs about 190,000 workers, reported that its parks and media divisions fell short of profit projections during its fiscal fourth quarter (July–September). And Disney’s streaming services, which include Hulu, ESPN+ and Disney+, lost $1.47 billion during its most recent quarter.
Fourth-quarter revenue in the entertainment and media division fell 3% year over year to $12.7 billion compared to the same period last year, as the company’s direct-to-consumer and theatrical businesses struggled. Analysts had forecasted this segment’s revenue at $13.9 billion, according to StreetAccount estimates.
And Disney’s Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy has lowered investor expectations for the new fiscal year, forecasting revenue growth of less than 10%. The company reported 2022 fiscal revenue growth of 22%.
The entertainment giant’s shrinking profit margins are likely the result of the century old company’s abandonment of the conservative nuclear family values it was founded on, says Michael Brown, host of the Line of Fire broadcast and author of “Can You Be Gay and Christian?“
“There was a time when Disney was synonymous with family friendly entertainment, with something wholesome and enjoyable for your children,” Brown told Decision. “Today Disney is synonymous with LGBTQ+ activism, with gay characters and queer themes specifically designed to ‘enlighten’ your children. Talk about a radical shift!”
Suzanne Bowdey, editorial director and senior writer at the Family Research Council’s The Washington Stand, attributesDisney’s financial volatility “to the very public feud between Disney and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R), which outed the company as viciously anti-parent and pro-indoctrination.”
Bowdey writes further: “After content creators bragged that they were focused on ‘queering’ and sexualizing children, families started walking away from the entertainment magnate in mass. People canceled their vacations, dropped their subscriptions, and generally turned their backs on the 99-year-old franchise.”
But it doesn’t seem Disney is ready to correct course. Bob Iger, who has led Disney’s woke transformation since 2005, has been named Disney’s new CEO. Iger served as Disney’s executive chairman until last year.
The Political Forum’s Stephen Soukup, author of “The Dictatorship of Woke Capital,” lauds Disney’s decision to remove Chapek.
But, Soukup told The Washington Stand, “Unfortunately, by reverting immediately to the leadership of the man who designed and initially implemented the company’s current social and political strategies, the board did itself and its shareholders no favors. Bob Chapek may have drawn the public’s ire for his poor execution of Disney’s ‘woke’ approach, but that approach was Bob Iger’s in the first place.”
National Border Patrol council president Brandon Judd discusses Rep. Kevin McCarthy calling on Republicans to investigate Mayorkas over border on ‘Fox Business Tonight.’
Terror in Jerusalem: twin blasts explode near bus stops at the height of rush hour, killing a 16-year-old Israeli and wounding at least 20 more; CBN News Middle East Bureau Chief Chris Mitchell talks from Jerusalem about the Israeli concerns over another potential wave of Palestinian violence, the possible response to terrorism by the incoming Netanyahu government, and concerns in the Israeli leadership about the problems among the Palestinian people and leadership; at least seven killed, including the shooter, in a mass shooting at a Wal Mart in Chesapeake, Virginia – the shooter was reportedly a manager at the store; latest North Korean missile test indicates it could strike anywhere in the US with a nuclear missile; and CBN’s Studio 5 takes a look at a new movie, “Devotion,” which tells the story of the friendship between America’s first Black Navy pilot and his white wingman, as they became some of the Navy’s most celebrated fliers during the Korean War in 1950.
On Tuesday, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy called on Biden’s Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to step down from his position over the immigration crisis at the southern border, Fox News Digital reported. McCarthy added that if Mayorkas refuses to resign voluntarily, House Republicans will attempt to launch an impeachment inquiry next year.
During a press conference in El Paso, McCarthy blamed Mayorkas for the “great[est] wave of illegal immigration in recorded history.” He added, “This is why today I am calling on the secretary to resign.”
“He cannot and must not remain in that position,” McCarthy continued. “If Secretary Mayorkas does not resign, House Republicans will investigate every order, every action and every failure to determine whether we can begin an impeachment inquiry.”
McCarthy previously told Fox News Digital that if he becomes the next House speaker, he will hold congressional hearings at the southern border to force Democrats to witness the migrant crisis firsthand.
“The American public deserves more, deserves better and expects more within their government. Enough is enough. We will do whatever it takes,” McCarthy said.
Mayorkas has repeatedly insisted that the southern border is “secure” despite the overwhelming numbers of border crossings reported by Customs and Border Protection.
According to CBP data, there were more than 1,700,000 migrant encounters at the border in the fiscal year 2021 and more than 2,300,000 in the fiscal year 2022, a 37% increase. Last month alone, there were approximately 230,000 encounters.
The Border Patrol reported that every day, there are an estimated 2,500 “gotaways,” or immigrants who were seen crossing the border into the United States but who managed to evade law enforcement and have not been processed.
During a Senate hearing last week, Mayorkas told lawmakers that the migrant crisis is not unique to America’s southern border.
“The entire hemisphere is suffering a migration crisis,” claimed Mayorkas. “We are seeing an unprecedented movement of people from country to country. It is not restricted to the southern border.”
In a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation, the Department of Homeland Security said, “Secretary Mayorkas is proud to advance the noble mission of this Department, support its extraordinary workforce, and serve the American people. The Department will continue our work to enforce our laws and secure our border, while building a safe, orderly, and humane immigration system.”
“Members of Congress can do better than point the finger at someone else; they should come to the table and work on solutions for our broken system and outdated laws, which have not been overhauled in over 40 years,” the department added.
Eastern University has been lost for a while. Founded in 1925 and affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA denomination, the Philadelphia-based institution was once very theologically conservative and biblically faithful. Over the last few decades, they have become progressively more progressive, reflecting its denomination’s heterodox views, which have affirmed abortion and same-sex marriage as par for the course and a matter of personal liberty and conscience.
Recently, they updated their policies to allow LGBTQ faculty and non-discrimination protections for gay and lesbian students.
As a result, the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) has revoked their membership, allowing them to spin off into woke irrelevancy because they capitulated to their rainbow gods.
The hotpot for heresy counts among their faculty Tony Campolo of Red Letter Christians and late Ron Sider, known as a founding signatory and member of ‘Pro-Life Evangelicals for Biden. ‘Other notable alums include raging heretic Peter Enns, Bryan Stevenson, the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, and Abti-capitol punishment activist Shane Claiborne. RNS explains the changes:
Until this semester, Eastern welcomed LGBTQ students and allowed a student-led club, Refuge, to advocate for LGBTQ students. But its student handbook banned “inappropriate displays of affection” and “sexual intimacy … outside of marriage between a man and a woman.”
That has now been amended. Sex outside of marriage is still prohibited, but marriage is no longer defined as the union of a man and a woman. The new policy states:
“It is the University’s position that sexual intimacy is prohibited outside the commitment and bond of marriage. The University reserves the right to take action under the Code of Conduct for students found in violation of this policy.”
In short, the handbook was updated to say it’s a sin to have sex outside of marriage (for now) but not a sin for LGBTQ folk to get married to each other. It’s just the sort of thing lost people would think up.
TODAY’S GUEST: Gary Kahwith Hope for the World. Gary is an author and the former Europe & Middle East Trade Specialist for the Indiana state government; he worked with economic staff at American Embassies on trade-related projects.
We discuss advancing evil agendas including a global system of government, intentional attacks on the U.S., population control, weakening of America’s middle class, military, energy sector, as well as food supply, oil, and shipping concerns. Prophetic signs and product prices are rapidly increasing and some nations are already suffering, but when could it really hit hard in the U.S.?
If rules and doctrines no longer matter, why have them? In another violation of biblical principles, the progressive United Methodist Church (UMC) voted to make “Reverend” Cedrick Bridgeforth, an openly gay man, a bishop at their official meeting last week. Of course, they did.
After being elected, Bridgeforth told those gathered at the Western Jurisdiction meeting that he was “grateful to God Almighty” and “to my husband, Christopher.” But the good news is the UMC is no longer “United.”
The UMC Book of Discipline forbids ordaining ‘practicing homosexuals.’ But rules are meant to be broken, right? The question is what or who is final authority?
The Book of Jude appeals to Christians to stand up for the truth and fight against attacks on the faith. See if you notice any similarities to today’s church as Jude warned first century Christians saying:
For certain people have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into indecent behavior and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Jude 1:4
Deception, godlessness, and false teachers are nothing new. It’s just disappointing.
Don’t miss the fact that a man in an open same-sex “marriage” was still elected to the office of UMC bishop. Bridgeforth served as the California-Pacific Conference’s director of innovation and communication and received 73 votes out of 93 ballots cast.
During the last decade, Methodists finally split. Biblical Christians in the denomination are tired of compromise, LGBTQ policies, women pastors, and division over abortion and marriage. So after years of debate over gay pastors and accommodating sin, conservatives officially parted ways with the UMC and launched its Global Methodist Church earlier this year.
Former UMC General Conference delegate, John Lomperis of the Institute on Religion & Democracy, said Bridgeforth’s promotion exhibits “further direct defiance of the UMC’s official rules, which is increasingly becoming normalized.” He adds:
“Bishops are entrusted with the sacred responsibility of upholding and enforcing our church’s doctrinal and moral standards. When the bishops are so openly breaking these standards, then this is a true ‘inmates running the asylum’ situation,”
According to the Christian Post, Loperis remarked about a female bishop also elected by the UMC, that she even refused to say if she believes in the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ. Apparently [she] does not believe in “basic biblical doctrine about His incarnation.”
Plenty of people mention God or even say they believe in Him, but does your faith translate over into your life? Where’s the fruit? Do you obey the commandments? Anyone can say they are Christian and millions do, but do you really follow Jesus and live out your faith according to the Bible? Are you a man-pleaser or a God-pleaser (Gal. 1:10)?
I think we know the answers to these questions, and the truth is sobering. It is reflected in the moral rot and decay of culture and the infestation of social justice and liberal ideologies into American churches. It’s not just one denomination.
It’s important to understand the historical decline. In 2016, the United Methodist Church (Western Jurisdiction) appointed the first openly lesbian bishop, and the election was unanimous! Karen Oliveto’s ordination was later deemed invalid by the Church’s Judicial Council a year later, but that didn’t matter; she remains in her position to this day.
In 2019, the UMC voted – by a slim margin – to uphold the church’s bans on ordaining LGBTQ clergy and performing same-sex weddings. However, that vote was disregarded by many progressive leaders within the UMC who rebelled and continued to commission openly gay clergy as well as officiate same-sex weddings.
The Bible warns us to align with those who rebel and also says God will not be mocked. He never changes and neither does His Word. You will reap what you sow, either sin and corruption or righteousness and everlasting life (Gal. 6:7-8, Isaiah 40:8).
Churches have been divided on politics for over a century, but the greater issue is division over clear biblical doctrines and teachings. By the way, the (formerly) United Methodist Church is the third-largest Protestant denomination in the USA.
The Apostle Paul said because the Holy Spirit lives in believers, we are temples of the living God.
Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? …Therefore “Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you.” 2 Corinthians 6:14, 17
How about you or your church? Do you have a decision to make?
For those in seeker-sensitive “churches” who no longer adhere to or believe what the Bible teaches, it doesn’t matter what they say. Christ the King will return as promised, sin will be judged, and righteousness, holiness, grace and truth will prevail.
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