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
For I will surely deliver thee, and thou shalt not fall by the sword, but thy life shall be for a prey unto thee: because thou hast put thy trust in me, saith the Lord. (Jeremiah 39:18)
Behold the protecting power of trust in God. The great men of Jerusalem fell by the sword, but poor Ebed-melech was secure, for his confidence was in Jehovah. Where else should a man trust but in his Maker? We are foolish when we prefer the creature to the Creator. Oh, that we could in all things live by faith, then should we be delivered in all time of danger! No one ever did trust in the Lord in vain, and no one ever shall.
The Lord saith, “I will surely deliver thee,” Mark the divine “surely.” Whatever else may be uncertain, God’s care of believers is sure. God Himself is the guardian of the gracious, Under His sacred wing there is safety even when every danger is abroad. Can we accept this promise as sure? Then in our present emergency we shall find that it stands fast. We hope to be delivered because we have friends, or because we are prudent, or because we can see hopeful signs; but none of these things are one-half so good as God’s simple “because thou hast put thy trust in me.” Dear reader, try this way, and, trying it, you will keep to it all your life. It is as sweet as it is sure.
One of the most hopeless aspects of unrepentant sinners’ lives is that they have no answer for anxiety. They’re forced to put their hopes in flimsy, fallible plans and institutions. They aren’t able to rest firmly in the unchanging promises of God—they have to ride out every wave of calamity, every unexpected disaster.READ MORE
“I think I’m going to be sick. What was she saying? What was I supposed to say?” All I heard was yelling, it was as if my head was submerged under water. I could hear her speaking to me but couldn’t fathom what she was saying.
As I stood in my kitchen that day and listened to my dear friend yell at me, I wondered how we could have gotten to this place.
We had been doing life together for about 5 years, my friend and I – having babies, hanging out as families and doing ministry together. We were the only two women in a world of men and we were allies. But our roles had recently changed and she did not like the decisions I was making. We were no longer allies or even friends and my heart was breaking. Why couldn’t we just work this out? Why did it have to be like this? Didn’t she know me well enough that she could trust that I had her best interest at heart?
I watched as our friendship blew up in my face and could do nothing to stop it.
I met with a mentor as I wrestled through what God wanted me to do in regards to our relationship. As we were discussing the situation my mentor made a statement I’ve never forgotten. He said,
“What you’re seeing here, Kristi, is the purest form of legalism – she is saying “it’s my way or the highway”. God’s answer to legalism is grace. And I believe God has given you an extra measure of grace to reach out to her and draw her back into fellowship. But with that grace I believe that God is calling you to take the higher road, to humble yourself and go to her and seek to restore your friendship.” I remember thinking at the time, “This is completely opposite of what the world would tell me to do. The world would say, ‘she did you wrong, run as far away from her as possible. You shouldn’t allow yourself to be treated like that.’”
But I knew in my heart he was right, that God was calling me to lay down my life for her and to go to her in humility and grace.
I wish I could tell you that our relationship was restored but unfortunately it didn’t work out that way.
But what I do know is that I did what God was calling me to do even though it was completely upside down from what the world would say I should do. And through my obedience He blessed me.
In Matthew 5, Jesus talks about what it looks like to live in His Upside Down Kingdom. Listen to His Words,
“God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.
God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. (Matthew 5:3,10 NLV)
Jesus goes on to say further in the chapter, “But I say, do not resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also. If you are sued in court and your shirt is taken from you, give your coat, too. . . You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!” (Matthew 5:39-40, 43-44 NLV)
When we follow Jesus, He calls us to a higher path – a road less followed, a road of radical obedience to His WAY.
Radical Obedience
The world will tell you that you will be walked on if you do things His way that you will be trapped and misused, if you hold to that kind of lifestyle.
But Jesus says that living in His Kingdom sets us apart and shows the world that we are different! The truth is that when we live in His Upside Down Kingdom we experience a life of true blessing and freedom!
Iran unveils ‘Fattah,’ its first hypersonic missile Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) unveiled the “Fattah,” the regime’s first hypersonic missile, on Tuesday morning, Iranian state media announced. According to Iranian media, the Fattah hypersonic missile has a range of 1,400 kilometers and hits speeds of Mach 13-15. The reports claimed that the missile is able to bypass and destroy air defense systems.
Microsoft and Intel collaborate on AI for Windows 11 PCs Intel and Microsoft have joined forces to drive the development of artificial intelligence (AI) on Windows 11 PCs. The companies aim to bring new AI-enabled features and capabilities to PC users, revolutionizing how we interact with technology. At Microsoft’s Build 2023 conference, Intel showcased the upcoming Meteor Lake PC processors, highlighting their architecture and the powerful AI capabilities they offer. This collaboration sets a significant milestone in the evolution of personal computing and opens up new possibilities for innovation across industries.
The Intel 8088 processor launched 44 years ago today, and helped to start the PC revolution If you are working on a PC today, there’s a good chance that it’s using a chip that can trace its roots down to the Intel 8088 processor. That chip launched 44 years ago today, on June 1, 1979. However, its true impact on the PC industry would have to wait for a while longer.
Antisemitism panel: ‘Jews can be the worst antisemites’ Joel Finkelstein, … pointed out that antisemitism permeated in Biblical Egypt, where the Egyptians were afraid that, “Hebrew immigrants would replace the native population.” “Our research shows a grotesque mischaracterization of this story,” he pointed out. He then went on to discuss modern-day antisemitism on both the conservative and liberal ends of the political spectrum, … [These individuals] are turning global wars in Israel into global wars on Jews and when it comes to Jewish unity, Jews are using those myths against one another.
Barkat warns against Iran’s nuclear plan: ‘Nobody in Iran should sleep well at night’ Barkat said he believed the Palestinians should be given a series of Arab autonomies throughout the country, not a state. “It’s very clear: we will never, never allow the Iranians to have nuclear power. The Iranians should be deeply concerned, because if they come close to that threshold, they must realize that nobody in Iran should sleep well at night, because we will never allow that to happen.
IDF attacked secret Iranian weapon factories in Syria The alleged attack by the Israeli Air Force in Aleppo, Syria in the beginning of May targeted sites belonging to a secret Iranian unit operating in Syria, according to media reports in Saudi Arabia on Monday evening. The sites were used by the Iranian Unit 18340, which operates in Syria secretly, as weapons factories to produce precision missiles, as per the reports. The attack came one day before an Iranian state visit …
Miami Jews, Christians protest Target’s Pride merchandise for children Some 30 Jews and Christians gathered across the street from a Target store in Midtown Miami on June 1 to protest the retail corporation’s LGBTQ Pride merchandise for children. There were also counterprotesters and a police presence outside the Target store in southern Florida. Among the protesters’ signs were those that read “Stop Grooming Our Children” and “Save the Children.”
The Blue Dawn Gun Confiscation Invasion Will Come Before the Red Dawn Invasion of AMERICA Most people are familiar with the notion of a Red Dawn invasion. Before a Red Dawn invasion will occur, there must first be a Blue Dawn invasion. The Blue Dawn invasion will consist of Democratically controlled states that will provoke a civil war under the guise of enforcing the UN Small Arms Treaty.
Major Grocery Chain Struggles To Survive Amid Wave Of Thefts … Giant Food, which operates over 160 locations across DC, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, has begun restricting entry and exit points, beefing up store security (some armed), displaying fewer high-dollar items on shelves, and reducing the number of self-checkout items, company CEO Ira Kress told the Washington Post.
Most important story in America: climate zealots try to confiscate South Dakota family farm… There is a very disturbing story coming out of South Dakota. It’s one of the most important stories in America, yet, the media is completely silent. The story involves a farmer named Jared Bossly and a “green” company called “Summit Carbon Solutions” that’s trying to confiscate Mr. Bossly’s family farm by using eminent domain — the right of a government or its agent to expropriate private property for public use. The green group wants to confiscate Mr. Bossly’s farm in order to construct a carbon capture pipeline on his land.
GREAT RESET: World’s Largest Asset Management Firm BlackRock Behind Forcing DEI And ESG On Companies Via Chinese-Style ‘Social Credit’ Scheme Last week I was researching a story about the DEI page on the Chick-fil-A website, and all the purported furor it was generating. I’ll be honest, I knew about the environmental, social, and governance initiatives known as ESG, but I knew nothing about the diversity, equity and inclusion of DEI. Where is all this coming from, and why is nearly every major company doing it? As it turns out, there is a simple, one-word answer to that question. BlackRock.
Examining ‘Pride Month’: The Days Of Lot Before Our Eyes Our Sodom-like society continues to rage toward the Judgment-producing moment in which Jesus said He will be “revealed” (Luke 17: 28). There will be at that future time, the Lord foretold, things going on which will look exactly like things that were happening as the vexed Lot observed his surroundings in the doomed city of Sodom.
Nearly 4,000 Jobs Were Lost to AI Last Month, Report Shows Companies are beginning to dive into the AI workforce headfirst—at least that’s what the data are saying. A new report says that AI is responsible for almost 4,000 job cuts last month alone.
Iran Unveils New Hypersonic Missile ‘Fattah’ Saying That It Is Capable Of Striking Israel Within 400 Seconds After Being Launched Iran really hasn’t been up to all that much lately, I cannot recall the last time we did a story on the terror state. But behind the scenes, they have been quite busy building their offensive weaponry capabilities. Today we find that they’ve just announced the launching of their new ‘Fattah’ missile that, they say, is able to hit Israel within 400 second after launching. The name ‘Fattah’ in Persian translates to ‘Conqueror’ or ‘victory giver’, as in a victory over their sworn and eternal enemies, the Jews.
“Energy in the executive is a leading character in the definition of good government. It is essential to the protection of the community against foreign attacks; it is not less essential to the steady administration of the laws; to the protection of property against those irregular and high-handed combinations which sometimes interrupt the ordinary course of justice; to the security of liberty against the enterprises and assaults of ambition, of faction, and of anarchy.” —Alexander Hamilton (1788)
The former vice president is a fundamentally decent man with all the necessary qualifications for the White House.
Nate Jackson
When a former vice president launches a presidential bid, it’s a big deal. As that man, Mike Pence immediately has name recognition, a high profile, and a résumé that’s a natural fit for the top job.
Besides serving as vice president for four years, he was the governor of Indiana for four, a congressman for 12 (including serving as chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee and then Republican Conference chairman), and a talk-radio host. “No president in at least the last 30 years has come to office with that kind of résumé,” says veteran political analyst Byron York.
Yet there’s no denying Pence faces a tough road to the GOP presidential nomination.
On one side, Pence is persona non grata after refusing to go along with Donald Trump’s plan on January 6. According to Trump and his supporters, Pence had a duty to ensure that Trump, the rightful winner, prevailed in the electoral vote count instead of Joe Biden, who couldn’t possibly have legitimately won all 306 of those electoral votes with 81 million ballots from his Delaware basement. Pence (rightly in our view) declined to unilaterally declare his boss the winner, and Trump’s most devoted supporters won’t forgive him for it. Besides, Trump himself is in the race, and it’s unlikely that Trump’s supporters will defect to Pence even if they don’t hate him.
On the other side, Pence was Trump’s right-hand man for four years. No one was more loyal, and, arguably more than any other figure besides Trump, Pence helped articulate, defend, and enact the (very successful) America First/Make America Great Again agenda. Pence was the indispensable man in the Trump administration and, until January 6, one of the precious few that Trump never publicly disparaged. Even after January 6, Pence proudly defended Trump’s incredible and myriad achievements. Therefore, anyone with the hate-Trump version of Trump Derangement Syndrome also hates Pence.
So who’s left?
A lot of Americans, actually.
Millions of normal folks who get up every day and love their families and go to work without being glued to cable news or Twitter just want a decent human being to be president. We haven’t had one of those in a while.
“Today our party and our country need a leader that will appeal, as Lincoln said, to the better angels of our nature,” Pence said in his video announcement.
Mike Pence is such a decent guy, in fact, that he doesn’t spend time alone with any woman who’s not his wife — to avoid even the appearance of anything wrong. The same media that caterwauls about Trump’s treatment of women mocks and attacks Pence for honoring them.
Years ago, some of Pence’s friends took to calling him Captain America because of his willingness to do the right thing, even if it meant leaping on a live grenade. January 6 was as close to that scenario in politics as we can think of.
Pence is a committed Christian and one of the most culturally conservative candidates in the race, and he’s also a proponent of economic and national security conservatism. He favors a federal ban on abortion after 15 weeks. He recently said, “I couldn’t have been more proud to have been part of the administration that appointed three justices that sent Roe v. Wade to the ash heap of history where it belongs.”
The former veep supports assisting Ukraine against Russia’s invasion. And he wants to reform Social Security and Medicare, calling them “the real driver of our national debt.” That too is a contrast with Trump, whose position Pence says “is identical to Joe Biden’s.”
His record isn’t perfect, though whose is? For example, the editors of National Review note, “Social conservatives were — rightly, in our view — alarmed when Pence, as governor of Indiana, bent to economic pressure and watered down the Religious Freedom Restoration Act he had just signed.” One way or another, that episode will serve as a contrast with, for example, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s battle with Disney, which Pence has criticized as overstepping.
Ultimately, the reality is that Pence may be exactly the kind of man best suited for the White House, but he’s also significantly out of step with today’s Republican primary voters — and that will make it difficult to win the chance to prove it.
The author and disgraced former FBI director can’t seem to separate fact from fiction.
Douglas Andrews
James Comey is a dirty, smarmy, sniveling rat.
There. We said it.
The disgraced former FBI director claims to have “a higher loyalty” to the institution of justice than to, say, a sitting president. Heck, he wrote a book about this supposed higher loyalty of his. And it’d be a great line if only it were true. But let’s get real: James Comey’s highest loyalty of all is to himself.
One would think this guy might’ve been better served by just going home; just taking the “L” and slinking away. But no. Having joined his corrupt colleagues — John Brennan, James Clapper, Andrew McCabe, and Peter Strzok — in penning self-serving memoirs about their brief experiences with Donald Trump, Comey has kept a public profile, popping up here and there to denounce Republicans and defend his actions as the FBI director who more than any single person is responsible for the bureau’s precipitous fall from grace.
That’s the thing about narcissists: They just can’t stop talking.
And these days, Comey is talking about his new book, a fictional novel titled Central Park West. (We know what you’re thinking: Wasn’t his memoir a work of fiction? And, yes, it was, but this latest book is actually labeled as fiction.)
Unfortunately for him, though, no one wants to talk about his new book. They want to talk to him about the damning Durham Report and about the once and perhaps future American president, Donald Trump.
Not even the friendlies at MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” wanted to help him sell his book.
Asked about the Durham Report and its findings, and whether he acknowledges that just maybe perhaps possibly some passive-construction mistakes were made along the way, he said: “Oh, definitely. They were found four years ago by the inspector general. There is nothing new in this new document.”
Nope, nothingtoseeheremovealong. The 306-page document that no less a Trump-hater than CNN’s Jake Tapper conceded is “devastating to the FBI and to a degree, it does exonerate Donald Trump” has nothing new in it.
“This was an operation, not an investigation,” said former U.S. Attorney Brett Tolman about Crossfire Hurricane, which was the substance of the Durham Report’s years-long investigation. But nothing new here — at least not to an unrepentant James Comey.
Comey also lamented the damage that had been done to the FBI by the “lies about the FBI acting as some kind of ‘thug army.’” Perhaps he should’ve considered such things while he was leaking classified documents to the press and leading the bureau’s descent into rank political partisanship.
Comey then provided a public service to the deep state by warning MSNBC’s dozens of morning viewers about the prospect of Trump’s return to the White House:
I think he poses a near-existential threat to the rule of law. He will do everything he can in a new term to try to tear down the institutions that he sees as threats and to dismantle them and the people who occupy them, the a-political people who occupy by them. So there is a lot on the ballot in 2024 if he is a candidate, but the rule of law, in my view, is at the top of the list.
Got that? The guy who oversaw a corrupt years-long spying operation by our intelligence services on the Republican Party’s presidential candidate and his staff; the guy who signed off on FISA warrants predicated on doctored evidence and a politically generated pack of lies known as the Steele dossier; the guy who testified under oath before House Judiciary and Oversight committee members and told themon 245 separate occasions “I don’t know” or “I don’t remember” or “I don’t recall” — yes, that guy says Rule of Law is at the top of his list.
We can’t make this stuff up.
Comey wasn’t done with his apolitical politicking, though. “It has to be Joe Biden,” he told former Biden Press Secretary Jen Psaki in a Sunday interview. “The president must be someone who abides the law and our Constitution, and there’s no one else but Joe Biden.”
Yep, when it comes to Rule of Law, there’s no one else but the Biden Crime Family.
Comey also noted that Trump could be “wearing an ankle bracelet while accepting the nomination at the Republican convention.” In a perfect world, of course, James Comey would be wearing an ankle bracelet right now.
The first paragraph of Comey’s aforementioned memoir is its best one. There, he writes: “Who am I to tell others what ethical leadership is? Anyone claiming to write a book about ethical leadership can come across as presumptuous, even sanctimonious. All the more so if that author happens to be someone who was quite memorably and publicly fired from his last job.”
We wish he’d stopped writing right there. It would’ve saved us the 50 cents we paid for his book at the thrift store.
Chris Christie embarks upon second bid for president, Tucker Carlson’s back, Florida man favors grooming children, and more.
Nate Jackson & Jordan Candler
Cross-Examination
Christie launches: Former two-term New Jersey governor, U.S. attorney, and failed 2016 presidential contender Chris Christie embarked upon his second bid for president yesterday. He’s made clear that one of his biggest motivations is taking out Donald Trump, though one wonders how much that will actually help Trump. Especially by insulting the former president with a comparison to a villain in adolescent literature. “I don’t want to say his name,” Christie said of Trump. “He is, for those of you who read the Harry Potter books, like Voldemort. He is ‘He Who Shall Not Be Named.’” Christie did name Trump, of course, saying he is the one “who is obsessed with a mirror, who never admits a mistake, who never admits fault, who always finds someone else and something else to blame for whatever goes wrong but finds every reason to take credit for anything that goes right.” Christie the former Trump fan can’t stand the guy now. We get it. But besides what many are calling a kamikaze campaign, why is he running? He left the governorship with record-low popularity, fizzled in 2016, and missed what might have been his only real shot at the White House in 2012. Maybe he just wants to be attorney general for the next Republican president not named Trump.
Tucker’s back: Episode One of Tucker Carlson’s new show dropped on his Twitter account last night, as the popular host begins a new era of commentary. Summarily fired by Fox News with virtually no reason in April, Carlson announced last month that he’d be coming to Elon Musk’s platform. He began his 10-minute monologue with sharply sarcastic comments regarding the destroyed damn in Ukraine and the media’s defense of Ukraine and condemnation of Russia before moving on to sharply sarcastic comments about a government cover-up of UFOs. As we go to press, his first episode hasn’t even been up for 24 hours and it’s already dwarfed his Fox News audience with more than 71 million views. Clearly, he resonates.
The Rainbow Empire Strikes Back: Retail giant Target appeared to pull back a bit from its promotion of “Pride” merchandise — even for children and infants — after blowback from people who are tired of tasting the rainbow as it’s shoved down their throats. The mild retreat isn’t going over well with the Rainbow Mafia. More than 200 of its mob groups are demanding that Target bow the knee, put back the merchandise, and furthermore “denounce extremists,” by which they mean normal people who object. “When it comes to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion, there is no such thing as neutrality,” the mafia declared. “Fear will not win,” they insisted — as they demand submission or else.
Florida man favors grooming children: Judge Robert Hinkle of the Northern District of Florida claimed that “gender identity is real” and that “the overwhelming weight of medical authority supports treatment of transgender patients with GnRH agonists and cross-sex hormones in appropriate circumstances.” As we’ve said before, “medical authority” makes an awful lot of money creating lifelong “transgender” patients, and there are an increasing number of studies citing the long-term medical difficulties caused by screwing around with God’s design. Moreover, “medical authority” lost a lot of trust during COVID, so there’s that. Nevertheless, Hinkle, an appointee of sexual deviant Bill Clinton, issued a preliminary injunction against Florida’s law banning puberty blockers and hormones for minors. The battle isn’t over, but that’s an unfortunate loss that will harm children.
Headlines
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum announces a truly long-shot presidential bid (Politico)
RFK Jr.‘s rising profile sparks Democrat jitters (The Hill)
Chris Licht out as CNN CEO as staffers rebel against efforts to revamp network’s image (National Review)
Lia Thomas’s UPenn teammate speaks out, says university “wanted us to be quiet” (Fox Sports)
“Smells fishy”: Elliot Page being compared to Jussie Smollett over alleged “transphobic attack” (Daily Wire)
Trans-identifying man to compete in Miss California pageant (Daily Wire)
Associated Press forbids even discussing transgenderism cult as an ideology (Daily Signal)
Bud Light dethroned as top-selling beer brand in U.S. after boycott (Newsweek)
Disgraced SLPC adds parental rights group to “hate map” (Daily Signal)
Biden admin is preparing to target Americans’ gas furnaces amid stove crackdown (Fox News)
Two million immigrants released into U.S. under Biden are “here indefinitely” (Washington Examiner)
He covered up Cuomo’s nursing home deaths; now he’s a CDC deputy director (FrontPage Mag)
New York City Democrats unveil crack pipe vending machine (Free Beacon)
Disney reverses course and agrees to meet with Uyghur genocide victims (Free Beacon)
U.S. had intelligence of detailed Ukrainian plan to attack Nord Stream pipeline (WaPo)
PGA Tour agrees to merge with Saudi-funded rival LIV Golf (Not the Bee)
Satire: “The View” hosts wear Klan hoods to prove Tim Scott wrong about America’s racial progress (Babylon Bee)
And the Biden administration’s mewling weakness isn’t helping.
Emmy Griffin
The U.S.-China struggle for hegemony is at a treacherous pass. Relations have been especially sour since the spy balloon incident and the visit by the Taiwanese president to the U.S. mainland. Much of the superpowers’ contention lies in vying for control over resources, tech, and economic influence on the world stage.
This competition has gotten more dicey over the past few weeks.
Just before Memorial Day, we learned that Chinese officials snubbed a meeting with U.S. military officials. According to the Pentagon: “The [People’s Republic of China] informed the U.S. that they have declined our early May invitation. The Department believes strongly in the importance of maintaining open lines of military-to-military communication between Washington and Beijing to ensure that competition does not veer into conflict.” The Biden administration has been continuously asking to meet with Chinese officials in an attempt to mollify relations.
News broke on May 31 that suspected Chinese spies were apprehended trying to infiltrate Alaskan airbases. They were disguised as tourists but were equipped with drones and other surveillance tech. If they are spies, these actions are more aggressive than a spy balloon, yet it wasn’t much talked about.
The threat of conflict with China seems to be ever growing. This despite President Joe Biden’s assurances that relations between the two superpowers would “thaw” after the G7 summit in Japan. Biden believed that a show of united allies at the summit would cool China’s jets. In fact, it is obvious that the opposite has occurred.
This past weekend, there were two close encounters. The first incident involved a Chinese warship and an American destroyer. Canadian and American ships were doing training exercises in international waters in the South China Sea. Witnesses claim that the Chinese warship sped up intentionally to get into the path of the American destroyer. A collision was narrowly avoided.
The second incident, also over the South China Sea, involved a Chinese fighter jet. An American reconnaissance aircraft in international airspace was “buzzed” by a Chinese fighter jet — a harassment technique in which a plane flies directly into the path of another plane. Here’s the video released by the Pentagon.
Clearly, the overtures by the Biden administration for peace are inadequate. Former National Security Council Director Evan Medeiros explains: “Washington wants dialogue and risk reduction, amid further policies of competition and pushback. By contrast, China wants to reduce the constant strategic pressure it faces from the U.S. and its allies while continuing to bend global rules and norms in its favor.”
This weakness on Biden’s part has drawn much criticism. Senator Tom Cotton chided: “Biden administration officials should stop chasing after their Chinese communist counterparts like lovestruck teenagers. It’s embarrassing, and it’s pathetic. In fact, it projects weakness to China, it encourages them to do things like buzz our aircraft, or come within a few hundred yards of our ships, encourages them to send spy balloons floating all across America. Reducing those tariffs would send the same message.”
Political analyst Gary Bauer puts it even more bluntly: “Biden’s actions don’t work on a playground, much less on the world stage. When a bully knocks your hat off your head and you ask to talk it over, his next move is to punch you in the face!”
China is a bully. No amount of apologizing, capitulating, or promises are going to temper its aggression on the world stage. China respects strength, and that is not what the U.S. is displaying under this administration.
Socialists say they care, but the real world shows: to protect the environment, capitalism works better.
John Stossel
“Greed of the fossil fuel industry” is “destroying our planet,” says Sen. Bernie Sanders. Young people agree. Their solution? Socialism.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says socialism creates “an environment that provides for all people, not just the privileged few.”
“Nonsense,” says Tom Palmer of the Atlas Network in my new video.
Palmer, unlike Ocasio-Cortez and most of us, spent lots of time in socialist countries. He once smuggled books into the Soviet Union.
What he’s seen convinces him that environmental-movement socialists are wrong about what’s “green.”
“We tried socialism,” says Palmer. “We ran the experiment. It was a catastrophe. Worst environmental record on the planet.”
In China, when socialist leaders noticed that sparrows ate valuable grain, they encouraged people to kill sparrows.
“Billions of birds were killed,” says Palmer.
Government officials shot birds. People without guns banged pans and blew horns, scaring sparrows into staying aloft for longer than they could tolerate.
“These poor exhausted birds fell from the skies,” says Palmer. “It was insanity.”
I pointed out that, watching video of people killing sparrows, it looked like they were happy to do it.
“If you failed to show enthusiasm for the socialist goals of the party,” Palmer responds, “you were going to be in trouble.”
The Party’s campaign succeeded. They killed nearly every sparrow.
But “all it takes is two minutes of thinking to figure, ‘Wait. Who’s going to eat all the bugs?’” says Palmer.
Without sparrows, insects multiplied. Bugs destroyed more crops than the sparrows had.
“People starved as a consequence,” says Palmer. “People confuse socialism with … a ‘nice government’ or a ‘government that’s sweet’ or ‘made up of my friends.’”
Socialism means central planning. That ends badly.
“What AOC wants to do is basically give the Pentagon, or similar agencies, control over the entire society. She thinks that’s going to turn out well,” says Palmer. “It’s a joke.”
China’s central planners keep making mistakes.
Many Chinese lakes and rivers are bright green. Fertilizer runoff created algae blooms that kill all fish. A Lancet study says Chinese air pollution kills a million people per year.
Wherever socialism is tried, it creates nasty pollution.
In the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin wanted cotton for his army. His central planners decided it should be grown near the Aral Sea. They drained so much water that the sea, once the fourth biggest inland lake in the world, shrank to less than half its size.
“Soviet planners caused catastrophic environmental costs to the whole population,” says Palmer.
I push back. “That was then. Now the rules would be different. Now the rule would be: ‘green.’”
“All the time we hear socialists say, ‘Next time, we’ll get it right.’ How many next times do you get?” asks Palmer.
Yet American media still sometimes say socialists protect the environment. A New York Times op-ed claims “Lenin’s eco warriors” created “the world’s largest system of most protected nature reserves.”
“These are not nature preserves,” Palmer responds. “They use it as a dumping ground for heavy metals, for radioactive waste — in what sense is it a nature preserve?”
Capitalists destroy nature, too. Free societies do need government rules to protect the environment.
But free markets with property rights often protect nature better than bureaucrats can.
Private farmers, explains Palmer, are “concerned about the ability of the farm to grow food next year, year after year, (even) after that farmer is gone. Why? Because the farm has a capital value. That’s the ‘capital’ in capitalism. They want to maximize that.”
Capitalism also protects the environment because it creates wealth. When people aren’t worried about starving or freezing, they get interested in protecting nature. That’s why capitalist countries have cleaner air.
Also, capitalists can afford to pay for wild animal preserves.
“When no one has property rights and people are poor, tigers and elephants are considered a burden … They kill them,” says Palmer. “When you’re wealthier … you care about the environment.”
Socialists say they care, but the real world shows: to protect the environment, capitalism works better.
What would convince a mother to sacrifice her child? What would convince a husband to sacrifice his wife?
Samantha Koch
As we look at some of the most extreme ideas being accepted in today’s society, many of us are scratching our heads as to how insanity has become the new normal and normal has almost become a criminal offense.
Look at what drives humans to actions and behaviors that demonstrate an utter lack of reason and understanding. Sarah Steel, author of the book Do as I Say, which provides an in-depth look at cults and how people get sucked into them, writes: “Cults prey upon vulnerabilities that are core to our species: our need for acceptance, to be part of a group, to connect, to feel safe. Cult leaders themselves manipulate, dominate and control because, sadly, those are also very human behaviors. If you know where to look, you’ll see cult-like behavior showing up in other parts of society, too.”
Generally we associate “cult-like behavior” with infamous groups like the Branch Davidians. David Koresh had large groups of people believing he was the final prophet of the Seventh Day Adventist religion, and in that dedicated belief he used the tactic of mixing religious text and ideas that were already familiar to his followers with just enough deception to convince them to view him as their savior.
The Jonestown cult, led by Jim Jones, pulled people in who were motivated by his promises of social justice, fixing racism, and building a utopia by implementing the ideas of communism and control that he had learned from early study of Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Vladimir Lenin.
Both Koresh and Jones demanded that the men in their groups sacrifice their wives to them and that the mothers hand over their babies to the community. The children were to be raised by people who were determined to be the most dedicated and qualified to ensure that every minute of every day would be spent enforcing and repeating only the ideology of the belief system to these young cult members.
As recently as 1998, a group called NXVIM (pronounced “nex-ee-um”) was established by narcissistic, sociopathic, sex offender Keith Raniere, who sold the idea of being a part of a women’s empowerment group to women from all kinds of backgrounds and cultures. They were heavily indoctrinated into his ideas of what truly gave women their value and strength in the world — only to find themselves demonstrating that empowerment by calling Raniere “master.” They joined an exclusive group within the organization called DOS, which stands for “Dominus Obsequious Sororium” and in Latin translates to “Master Over Female Slave.”
At its peak, NXVIM had over 700 active members — young women, many of whom were being starved and sexually preyed upon by Raniere himself and completely isolated from their families.
Yet somehow these women would preach to each other and potential cult recruits about how lucky they were to have found this community, attempting to inspire more of their peers to join.
From the rational perspective of spectators on the sidelines, we can observe the behaviors and actions that members of these groups are expected to perform. We see the harm that they seem to be willing to inflict on others, on themselves, and even their own children. We wonder how on earth people can be convinced to participate in things that are so obviously destructive, by people who clearly have no concern for their wellbeing, despite repeatedly and emphatically expressing otherwise.
Yet, in 2023, it doesn’t take familiarity with The People’s Temple or Heaven’s Gate to recognize the signs and symptoms of the “cult-like behavior” spreading through society as we speak.
The schools on Warren Jeff’s compounds were really hours-long, daily classes filled with teachings that affirmed him as a prophet. Similarly, some very bad apples in today’s public schools are slowly replacing actual academics with rooms filled with books that “affirm” that, as human beings, our gender is meaningless and that we can be whatever we want.
In place of the American flag, children are encouraged to pledge their allegiance to the Pride flag.
Instead of ideologically neutral clothing and goods that we expect to find in the local supermarket, shoppers are instead blasted with gender ideology in the form of Pride displays, clothing that supports queer theory ideas, and decor to encourage us to set up our own “Pride” shrines in our homes.
If you’re familiar with Scientology, children are taught and raised in an environment where even the entertainment they consume must be produced by a team of fellow members — which might sound reminiscent of the Disney movies, Nickelodeon cartoons, and ideology-friendly celebrities used to assist in creating a new reality for the next generation of devotees.
Maybe the most disturbing aspect of this rapidly spreading ideology is that the destruction of the body and mind is encouraged and reinforced by “experts” and proposed as the way to elevate human beings to some kind of mental and physical utopia. Parents readily hop on board, and as a symbol of their undying allegiance to the cause, they fight to be the first to offer their child to the hormone and scalpel lords.
As with all of the previously mentioned groups, dissent is punished, people are bullied and intimidated if they question ideas, and anyone who chooses to leave and discuss the realities of the inner-workings is immediately called a liar — by the same people who were their family and community just minutes before.
No matter how horrible the stories are, and how much personal destruction happens, the group is programmed to see what they’re told to see and ignore what they see with their own eyes.
A suffering and depressed child who has been denied an actual education has been convinced to be a victim of their own body. They’re told that the outside world hates them, even though they don’t interact with people who do not believe.
Individuals dealing with unaddressed trauma, anorexia, anxiety, or loneliness are diagnosed with “gender dysphoria,” and those around them refuse to acknowledge the harm of a one-size-fits-all assessment. That’s devastating, and potentially fatal.
I guess the old adage “actions speak louder than words” is easy for us to say when our brains haven’t been thrown into a blender and rebuilt into a mechanism for unquestioning devotion toward bizarre and alarming concepts.
Douglas Andrews: Team Biden Pitches Reparations at UN — The administration’s special appointee to the United Nations called for a reparations solution both created and implemented by non-whites.
Linda Moss Mines: The Raging Debates — The question was who holds the power — small states, big states, or a balance of power between the states?
In Brief: Why I’m Done With ‘Preferred Pronouns’ — It is beyond time to stand up to the trans lobby that means to deprive women of their spaces and rights.
Comey: ‘It Has to Be Joe Biden’ — Former FBI Director James Comey says, “The president must be someone who abides the law and our Constitution, and there’s no one else but Joe Biden.”
Megyn Kelly Will No Longer Use ‘Preferred Pronouns’ — The popular commentator used to go along to avoid offense, but she explains why trans ideology’s growth and intolerance has changed her mind in favor of reality and truth.
Margaret Sanger and the ‘Greatest Sin’ — A 1957 clip of Planned Parenthood’s founder has resurfaced and it shows what a terrible person she was and how awful the organization she founded remains.
“Busing or flying migrants around the country without any coordination with the federal government … is dangerous and unacceptable. And we’ll continue to be very, very clear about that. It is dangerous and unacceptable because you’re putting people’s lives at risk. … And it’s dangerous and it’s unacceptable because you’re actually putting a lot of pressure on these states and … local areas.” —White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre
Non Sequitur
“When you hear my colleagues on the other side of the aisle talk about all the problems with fentanyl and with gotaways and with smuggling, you know what they don’t ever talk about? They don’t ever talk about the tremendous exportation of American-made guns to Mexican cartels that give them the power and authority to control the fentanyl trafficking into this country.” —Congressman Dan Goldman (D-NY) (“Kind of like ‘Operation Fast and Furious’ when Obama’s ATF allowed illegal gun sales in order to ‘track them.’” —Daily Caller)
Dog & Pony Show
“I hope that we can all commend the Biden-Harris administration for their actions to prevent serious disorder at the border following the expiration of Title 42.” —Congressman Robert Garcia (D-CA)
“Democrats, President Biden, folks in the House and the Senate — we’re Team Reasonable. We’re Team Normal. We’re Team Get Stuff Done.” —House Democrat Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY)
Swampthink
“I think the accusations of ‘woke’ are grossly overexaggerated.” —Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley
For the Record
“As we saw in the debate over critical race theory, as soon as the right adopts a term that has purchase, the left denies that the underlying phenomenon exists. There have been numerous reports in the press about how no one can define ‘woke,’ while left-wing commentators and academics have been saying the use of the term is, of course, itself racist. Whenever the term ‘woke’ goes out of style, whatever replaces it will be found similarly lacking. The word and what it denotes are going to stay at the center of the GOP debate, though, because Republican voters are rightly alarmed by the cultural direction of the country.” —Rich Lowry
Upright
“I believe America could do for anyone what she’s done for me: restoring hope, creating opportunities, and defending and protecting the America that we love.” —Senator Tim Scott (R-SC)
“We are a meritocracy. Your talent, your character, your grit take you as high as you’re willing to climb. But according to [Democrat] policies, they take the first three rungs of the ladder out.” —Tim Scott
“Frankly, the truth of my life disproves every single lie from the pit of hell that we’re hearing from the radical left.” —Tim Scott
Hunter Biden has been ordered to appear in an Arkansas court next month to face questions about his financial status and defend himself against contempt allegations that could carry a penalty of up to six months in jail.
With unidentified flying objects (UFOs) increasingly making headlines, intrigue over the topic only seems to be increasing, with one apologist noting this phenomenon is even invading some Christians’ beliefs.
Listen to the latest episode of CBN’s Quick Start podcast
Jason Jimenez, who leads Stand Strong Ministries and hosts the “Challenging Conversations Podcast,” recently broke down some facts he wants Christians who entertain UFOs and aliens to understand.
“If you look at the belief that many people have had through the centuries, even if you go back as far … as ancient Greeks, they believed and they even worshiped this idea of extraterrestrials among them,” Jimenez said on his show. “And you see that in full display among many of those ancient cultures.”
Even today, he said such beliefs are “going strong” among some factions, with UFOs increasingly breaking into the headlines and some claiming the phenomenon is attracting more popularity than ever.
Jimenez’s episode on the matter specifically tackled three factors he believes refute the idea that UFOs and extraterrestrial life exist outside planet Earth: scientific explanations rebut claims of alien life, spiritual warfare is a biblical reality, and demonic encounters have long been documented.
He started the podcast by noting most of the videos and photos of sightings reported have been determined by experts as having been “doctored up” in some way.
“The vast majority of stuff is a hoax,” Jimenez said.
But he noted there are some unexplained past events and times when things “outside of the natural where we cannot explain” have emerged, helping fuel the continued conversation about alien life.
“It piques people’s interest and it never gets dull,” Jimenez said. “And there’s movies about it and there’s documentaries about it, and so people love to talk about this stuff.”
Yet the apologist said he doesn’t believe in UFOs and aliens, explaining how Scripture offers no framework for such an ideal.
“The Bible doesn’t mention anything of extraterrestrials,” Jimenez said. “The Bible does talk about the spiritual realm [and] these spiritual beings known as angelic beings, and then in fallen Angels known as demons.”
One explanation for some of these images is a spiritual manifestation of what we see described in the Bible — not alien life invading Earth, Jimenez said. It is an “interaction with spiritual beings” known as angels and demons that could be showing through.
“I wholeheartedly believe that there are times when we have witnessed or even captured the footage of a spiritual being interacting in the physical realm,” he said. “Maybe it’s a spiritual battle between an angel and a demon. Maybe it’s demons messing around in using this type of influence to continue to strike fear or curiosity to lead people away from God.”
The apologist also discussed the fact one doesn’t see any debris nor are their sonic booms or other such evidences of aircraft coming into the earth’s atmosphere — something he argued would be discernible in the many cases in which people claim to have captured and observed UFOs in the skies.
Jimenez cited astrophysicist Hugh Ross, a Christian who has cast doubt on aliens and UFOs, noting the way these aircraft are said to move defies gravity.
While he believes “science can explain away a lot of these UFO sightings,” he circled back to the reality that there are undoubtedly unexplainable phenomena. And, if something is clearly being seen, witnessed, or experienced and it’s authentic, one must answer to what is practically happening.
“If we know that aliens don’t exist out there, the Bible doesn’t mention life outside the Earth … then how can we explain this?” Jimenez asked.
He noted the Bible’s explanation of angels as ministering spirits to guide and protect humans. The existence of a spiritual realm is further addressed throughout Scripture, with Ephesians 6:12 discussing a massive spiritual battle unfolding and bubbling underneath the surface.
The verse (NIV) reads: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
“I think when we’re having these discussions, when people go the realm of the UFOs, notice what’s happening is this idea of turning the discussion on something that does not exist,” Jimenez said. “And … therefore not talking about spiritual warfare, spiritual activity.”
He continued, “These are angels and demons. These are spiritual beings that come from a non-physical realm that interact in our physical.”
Jimenez said he hopes the episode of the “Challenging Conversations Podcast” helps Christians better engage with fellow believers who might entertain UFOs and aliens while also helping them “stand strong with the armor of God.”
He believes Satan is using UFOs and extraterrestrial life as a distraction.
“One way he’s doing that is for our fixation — for us to focus in on extraterrestrial life,” Jimenez said. “So, we’re looking beyond and not noticing what he’s up to.”
Listen to the full episode for more on this fascinating topic.
We’ll leave you with other episodes of “Challenging Conversations”:
After months of promising to strike a blow ostensibly to push Russia back to its original border Ukraine is on the March and, as expected, is suffering massive losses in men and materiel. And the losses are going to get worse. Russia already is claiming it killed almost 4,000 Ukrainian soldiers in a 48 hour period. The reasons for Ukraine’s impending failure are pretty simple. First, Ukraine does not have the trained manpower to muster 300,000 combat ready troops required to seriously threaten the Russians. Second, the troops that comprise the assault brigades have received different training from different countries (e.g., the U.S., the U.K., France and Poland) and have not been trained to operate as an army on the move. Third, Ukraine lacks the tanks, mobile artillery and close air support from fixed and rotary winged aircraft required to sustain an offensive beyond a week. Fourth, Ukraine lacks a viable air defense system and cannot stop Russian aircraft from pounding relentlessly Ukrainian supply lines and storage depots.
The destruction of a major section of the Kakhova dam and ensuing flooding of souther Ukraine is keeping the pundits quite busy with endless speculation about who done it and what does it mean. I suggest you read Simplicius’ account, which is comprehensive and provides a great summary of the various theories about who benefits and who suffers from this disaster.
Personally, I think it was a Ukrainian operation. The following tweet makes the case succinctly.
We have proof of sorts that this is the long promised Ukrainian offensive courtesy of Russian General Shoigu. He made an unusual public appearance and described in detail what Russia is doing:
Ukraine’s inability to defeat Russia on the battlefield and the accompanying destruction of almost a billion dollars in recently donated Western military equipment is likely to provoke a political upheaval in Kiev. I think Zelensky’s days are numbered. He is on a path eerily similar to Adolf Hitler’s demise in the bunker below the Reichstag as Soviet troops closed in.
When the post-mortem is finally done on Ukraine I think we will learn that Russian intelligence out-classed anything that Ukraine was provided by its Western allies. It appears that no one in the West has any good sources inside the Russian military command. Russia, however, has significant sources inside the Ukrainian General Staff, military intelligence and NATO and knows Ukraine’s plans and order of battle. Like a good poker player, Russia is not tipping its hand and is bidding its time in deciding when and how to strike. Right now the Ukrainian troops trying to advance on Russian defensive lines are being torn to pieces. Stay tuned.
The Biden administration is expected to soon finalize regulations restricting which home gas-powered furnaces consumers are able to purchase in the future.
According to experts, the regulations — proposed in June 2022 by the Department of Energy (DOE) — would restrict consumer choice, drive prices higher and likely have a low impact on greenhouse gas emissions. The agency could finalize the rules targeting residential gas furnaces, which more than 50% of American households rely on for space heating, at any point over the upcoming weeks.
“This is a classic example of one size not fitting all,” Ben Lieberman, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told Fox News Digital in an interview. “Every home is different, every homeowner is different and people are best off having a wide range of choices. They can work with their contractor to make the best decision for their home and their circumstances.”
“The efficiency standard would effectively outlaw non-condensing furnaces and condensing alternatives would be the only ones available,” Lieberman said. “Those are more efficient, but they cost more. And installation costs could be a big problem for some houses that are not compatible with condensing furnaces.”
Under the proposed regulations, DOE would require furnaces to achieve an annual fuel utilization efficiency (AFUE) of 95% by 2029, meaning manufacturers would only be allowed to sell furnaces that convert at least 95% of fuel into heat within six years. The current market standard AFUE for a residential furnace is 80%.
Because of the stringent AFUE requirements, the regulations would largely take non-condensing gas furnaces — which are generally less efficient, but cheaper — off the market. But consumers who replace their non-condensing furnace with a condensing furnace after the rule is implemented, face hefty installation costs.
“There are some really technical reasons why this is such a concerning rule,” Richard Meyer, the vice president of energy markets, analysis and standards at the American Gas Association (AGA), told Fox News Digital in an interview. “It has to do with the ability for consumers to be in compliance with this new efficiency standard.”
“They’re going to have to, in many cases, install new equipment to exhaust gas out of their home. These higher efficiency units, or so-called condensing units — a lot of consumers have them in their home, but a lot of consumers don’t. So, this rule would require additional retrofits for a lot of consumers. And those retrofits can be extremely cost prohibitive.”
The AGA, whose members provide natural gas to more than 74 million customers nationwide, filed comments in opposition of the furnace rules with the DOE last year. The industry group has argued consumers would be better served if the agency allowed the free market to naturally increase product efficiency.
Overall, between 40-60% of the current residential furnaces on the market currently would be prohibited under the proposed regulation.
“What we’re seeing across the U.S. federal government and reflected, of course, in many states right now is an active policy push intended to address climate change,” said Meyer. “But the outcome is to restrict the options and availability of the direct use of natural gas for consumers.”
“AGA’s primary concern is, one, removing that option, that choice, from consumers,” he continued. “Two, in many cases, natural gas remains the lowest cost and even lowest-emissions resource for many consumers. A lot of the policies we’re seeing that are designed to restrict natural gas may end up having a counterproductive result and could increase costs to consumers and could increase the emissions associated with the energy use by those consumers.”
In its announcement last year, the DOE claimed the efficiency standards would save the average family about $100 a year and reduce carbon emissions by 373 million metric tons and methane emissions by 5.1 million tons.
Francis Dietz, a spokesperson for the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute which represents heating equipment manufacturers, said his organization’s members are in favor of regulations that aren’t “overly stringent.”
“Our main goal in this is to have a rule that is reasonable enough so that there are still higher efficiency choices for consumers,” he told Fox News Digital. “So, you know, you would have one at a level low enough where it would be more affordable for consumers and others who felt they needed even more efficiency would still have some choices there. That’s really our main goal.”
The expected rule, meanwhile, comes amid a blitz of DOE rulemaking targeting appliance efficiency standards. Over the last several months, the DOE has unveiled new standards for various appliances including gas stoves, ovens, clothes washers, refrigerators, air conditioners and dishwashers.
And in December, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm touted that the administration had taken 110 actions on energy efficiency standards in 2022 alone. The energy secretary added that the regulations strengthened U.S. leadership in “the race towards a clean energy future.”
According to the current federal Unified Agenda, a government-wide, semiannual list that highlights regulations agencies plan to propose or finalize within the next 12 months, the Biden administration is moving forward with rules impacting dozens more appliances, including pool pumps, battery chargers, ceiling fans and dehumidifiers.
Under the DOE’s mission statement, the Unified Agenda highlights advancing “energy efficiency and conservation” as one of five central pillars. Broadly, Democrats and environmentalists have argued that electrification, banning natural gas hookups and implementing strict energy efficiency standards could help accelerate emissions reductions.
This week marks the 10th anniversary of the first story featuring National Security Agency (NSA) contractor-turned-whistleblower Edward Snowden’s initial revelation: the role of Verizon in aiding NSA’s telephone metadata mass surveillance program.
As the Guardian noted at the time, “The court order appears to explain the numerous cryptic public warnings by two US senators, Ron Wyden and Mark Udall… that the US government is relying on ‘secret legal interpretations’ to claim surveillance powers so broad that the American public would be ‘stunned’ to learn of the kind of domestic spying being conducted.”
The Verizon revelation and the many others that followed in the months after it underscored the most consequential effect of Snowden going public: NSA’s ostensible overseers – the House and Senate Intelligence Committees – had been witting of the mass surveillance and instead of stopping it had gone along with it.
Worse, through the annual appropriations process, Congress had given NSA (and the FBI) the money to continue that mass surveillance. American taxpayers were paying for the “privilege” of being spied on at scale by their own government.
And as I’ve noted previously, Snowden’s efforts to inform his fellow
Americans
of the surveillance dragnet under which they now operated were met with scorn or outright attacks, some from the press but most from members of Congress whose oversight failures Snowden had effectively exposed.
Fifty years earlier, in an era that saw similar whistleblower-driven revelations of widespread illegal federal government surveillance, Congress was far less amenable to such executive branch misconduct. In 1975, the work of the Senate investigative committee, led by the late Senator Frank Church (D-ID), exposed massive, previously undisclosed unconstitutional surveillance and political repression operations aimed at literally hundreds of thousands of Americans.
Church and his colleagues subsequently passed legislation designed to prevent such abuses in the future: the creation of the House and SenateIntelligence Committees, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), and the Inspector General Act. And even though one can argue persuasively that the FBI, NSA, and other federal intelligence and law enforcement entities have found ways around the Church Committee’s reforms, at least Church and his colleagues understood the magnitude of the threat to the constitutional order posed by executive branch surveillance overreach and tried to do something to end it.
In contrast, Snowden’s revelations produced a nearly opposite reaction, with no public hearings into the breadth and damage caused by the mass surveillance he exposed and only one weak and ineffectual legislative fix for the NSA telephone metadata program: the 2015 USA Freedom Act. It was the legislative and constitutional equivalent of putting a Band-Aid on a sucking chest wound.
It was also a testament to the power and influence of the nation’s national security establishment in shutting down any kind of meaningful surveillance reform effort, in no small part by indicting the whistleblower under the Espionage Act (no proof has ever surfaced that Snowden acted as the agent of a foreign power or gave legitimate U.S. secrets to one), seizing the royalties from his memoir, and refusing to consider allowing him to mount a public interest defense for his actions.
In that memoir, Snowden mused on the disparity in the treatment meted out to him and other whistleblowers versus officially sanctioned leaks (pp. 238-239):
“What makes one disclosure permissible, and another not? The answer is power. The answer is control. A disclosure is deemed acceptable only if it doesn’t challenge the fundamental prerogatives of an institution… To blow the whistle on secret programs, I’d also have to blow the whistle on the larger system of secrecy, to expose it not as the absolute prerogative of state that the [Intelligence Community] claimed it was but rather as an occasional privilege that the IC abused to subvert democratic oversight.”
Snowden’s error was in believing that meaningful, forceful, and effective democratic oversight of NSA, FBI and other federal law enforcement and intelligence components actually exists. The historical record at the time Snowden went public said otherwise, and that remains the case today.
Despite a fresh set of revelations of FBI and NSA abuses of the FISA Section 702 electronic mass surveillance program, no FBI or NSA officials have been sanctioned by the FISA court, much less lost their jobs as a result of their misconduct. That program is set to expire at the end of 2023, but anyone who believes its demise is a sure bet is only fooling themselves – in the same way that Edward Snowden tragically fooled himself into believing that exposing NSA and FBI surveillance crimes would somehow trigger a new age of surveillance reform and accountability.
Americans will continue to be federal government surveillance targets unless the public ejects from Congress and the White House those federal officials who continue to act as if Americans are suspects first and citizens a very distant second.
Former CIA analyst and ex-House senior policy advisor Patrick G. Eddington is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute.
Their viewership declined by 61% compared to 27% and 12% for Fox News and MSNBC.
CNN averaged only 473,000 in primetime viewers in the month of March.
The May numbers did not improve for CNN. The network’s total prime time viewership sank to 494,000 viewers, a 25% year-over-year decrease.
On Wednesday CNN released CEO Chris Licht after only one year. The regime was mad at him after a recent town hall with President Donald Trump. It was just too much for the liberals calling the shots.
And for the record – CNN was failing long before Chris Licht came on and hoped to move the channel to more news and less opinion.
Media figures are flagrantly re-writing the history of CNN, right before your eyes, to make it seem as if CNN only started failing when Chris Licht was hired and demanded it stop being a DNC activist group.
“The Constitution allows for religious beliefs to be stated and supposedly protects spiritual organizations from harm. In America today, that is not happening.”
(Bill O’Reilly) On Friday night, June 2, a sold-out crowd watched the L.A. Dodgers defeat the New York Yankees at Dodger Stadium.
So much for the “boycott” over the Dodger organization honoring the anti-Catholic hate group “The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.”
Believe me, when I tell you the totalitarian left, which now controls much of the media, is watching this situation very closely. Just last week, the incredibly militant Los Angeles Times printed a column praising the “Sisters” who have invaded churches and grossly denigrated Christianity in general.
DC Draino on Wednesday morning tweeted out a signed letter by President Trump dated January 19, 2021. This was the day before President Trump left office. The presidential letter declassifies all of the Crossfire Hurricane documents that prove Barack Obama, James Comey, John Brennan, James Clapper, the FBI, CIA, State Department and Deep State spied on him and knew the Trump-Russia collusion hoax was a scam.
This is devastating news for the Biden regime. Don’t expect this to make any headlines in the fake news today!
Via DC Draino.
Kinds hard to prosecute a former President for classified documents that he not only officially declassified, but that also have a presumption of declassification under the PRA
Back in August 2022 when the Biden regime raided Mar-a-Lago The Gateway Pundit reported that the FBI “had a personal stake” in retrieving documents at Mar-a-Lago. They were after Spygate documents!
Here is what we reported at the time –
President Trump declassified a binder on January 19th, 2021 that contains hundreds of pages about the Crossfire Hurricane scandal. It contains damaging information about the corrupt actors involved with our government. Two different DOJ Attorney General’s have defied President Trump’s direct lawful order to publish the binder in the Federal Register. It’s been 19 months as the DOJ defies the order, and every FOIA request to make it public. Can we now raid the homes of acting AG Monty Wilkinson, and Merrick Garland?
The DOJ had already made redactions to protect sources & methods, and returned the binder back to the White House. But the corrupt FBI also wanted to hide names. So at the last minute, the DOJ demanded the binder comply with the 1974 Privacy Act. The Act requires any “agency” that releases records to also hide personal or identifiable name information. The DOJ knew this Act doesn’t apply to the White House, it was a stall tactic. The courts decided this 22 years ago that the Privacy Act was based around FOIA requests, and the White House is not an agency.
Hours before Trump left office on January 20th, Chief of Staff Mark Meadows gave the binder back to the DOJ, along with this memo. He asked the DOJ to make any Privacy Act redactions “out of an abundance of caution”. In the memo he asks they expeditiously release the binder when finished. Meadows foolishly expected this would take 3-4 days. It’s been 19 months and still not released. Just the News recently obtained the Meadows memo from the National Archives, who also denied having a copy of the declassified binder.
Meadows admits in interviews various agency’s often stalled or defied Trump’s orders. Meadows knew better than to rely on the DOJ to release this damaging binder after they left the White House. He should have released the binder to the public himself. But in doing so, there was a chance he would become a target of the DOJ and FBI. The memorandum below is what Mr. Meadows sent to the DOJ Attorney General on January 20th, 2021.
Now this– New details on Monday’s raid of Mar-a-Lago may offer an explanation on what the FBI was looking for and why the FBI has not released the Spygate documents as they were ordered to when President Trump left office.
Investigative reporter Paul Sperry had his Twitter account taken down for the second time on Monday.
Sperry had his first Twitter account removed after he identified Eric Ciaramella as the leaker in the first Trump impeachment trial.
Sperry had his second account takedn down on Monday after he tweeted about the Mar-a-Lago raid and what the FBI was looking for.
According to Paul Sperry, the FBI agenst spent 9 hours looking for details President Trump took with him on the Crossfire Hurricane FBI spying scandal.
The FBI and DOJ cannot let the American public know the truth of the their criminal acts and attempted coup of President Trump. So they raided his home looking for the documents that may indict the organization.
Cristina Laila reported this earlier today. REPORT: FBI Confidential Human Source Told FBI What Documents Trump Stored at Mar-a-Lago and Where to Search…. Related to Spygate?
Twitter has suspended journalist Paul Sperry after he made several tweets about this week’s FBI raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, where they spent up to 9 hours rifling through the former president’s private office, Melania Trump’s wardrobe, and eventually took 12 boxes of material…
Sperry: “DEVELOPING: Investigators reportedly met back in June w Trump & his lawyers in Mar-a-Lago storage rm to survey docs & things seemed copasetic but then FBI raids weeks later. Speculation on Hill FBI had PERSONAL stake & searching for classified docs related to its #Spygate scandal.”
Sperry also tweeted a list of “conflicted” DOJ officials who were “briefed on the Mar-a-Lago raid”, and noted that “CNN is admonishing reporters not to call the FBI raid of Trump’s home a “raid,” but instead to term it as a “judge-approved search.”
— ULTRA MAGA ENRIC0 SUAVE (@anaelena12345) August 9, 2022
He also tweeted: “Funny, don’t remember the FBI raiding Chappaqua or Whitehaven to find the 33,000 potentially classified documents Hillary Clinton deleted,” adding “And she was just a former secretary of state, not a former president.”
It appears there is more to the Mar-a-Lago raid than they are disclosing.
And it could be even more sinister than we originally suspected.
The Biden administration appears eager to control precisely how Americans illuminate their homes, cook their food, and warm their families.
Whereas a ban on incandescent light bulbs is imminent and the implementation of a possible gas stove ban remains uncertain, a rule regulating gas furnaces is reportedly forthcoming.
The Biden administration is expected to soon finalize its diktat requiring homeowners to install energy-efficient furnaces, reported Fox News Digital.
The Department of Energy detailed the rule in a June 13, 2022, statement, claiming adoption would save consumers billions annually on their energy bills and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 373 million metric tons over 30 years — alleged reductions critics have suggested are based upon faulty assumptions.
Under the rule, “non-weatherized gas furnaces and those used in mobile homes would be required to achieve an annual fuel utilization efficiency of 95%.”
To hit this ultra-utilization efficiency standard, nearly all of the gas used by the furnaces must be converted into heat.
Unlike a less expensive conventional furnace where exhaust gases are vented outdoors, condenser furnaces the Biden administration seeks to foist on some of the population have secondary heat exchangers that capture the heat from the exhaust.
According to Ben Lieberman, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, this standard, set to go into effect in 2029, “would effectively outlaw non-condensing furnaces and condensing alternatives would be the only ones available.”
The current market standard for annual fuel utilization efficiency among available furnaces is reportedly 80%.
Under the proposed regulation, between 40% and 60% of furnaces on the market would be verboten.
Biden’s DOE secretary, Jennifer Granholm, claimed at the time of the proposed rule’s announcement, “By updating energy standards for many carbon-emitting appliances, such as home furnaces, the Biden Administration is working to save consumers money.”
Granholm’s claim of consumer savings has not convinced critics, some of whom have noted the coercive measure would not be cost-effective for everybody.
Lieberman, among the rule’s critics, told Reason, “The only thing these standards do is force the ultraefficient choice on everyone, even though one size does not fit all. … These efficiency standards tend to raise the upfront costs of an appliance, and you may or may not earn it back in energy savings.”
The increased cost and hassle of having to keep up with the Biden administration’s green ambitions would be compounded for homeowners whose homes and the venting systems therein are not compatible with condensing furnaces, suggested Lieberman.
Richard Meyer, the vice president of energy markets, analysis, and standards at the American Gas Association, agrees this is a problem.
Meyer suggested to Fox News Digital that consumers are “going to have to, in many cases, install new equipment to exhaust gas out of their home. These higher efficiency units, or so-called condensing units — a lot of consumers have them in their home, but a lot of consumers don’t. So, this rule would require additional retrofits for a lot of consumers. And those retrofits can be extremely cost prohibitive.”
The Competitive Enterprise Institute stressed in October that while the Energy and Policy Conservation Act of 1975 authorizes the DOE to “set and periodically consider amending energy and water conservation standards for most home appliances, including furnaces … the statute contains a number of provisions protecting consumers from excessively stringent standards that may do more harm than good.”
“A forced shift towards condensing furnaces would disproportionately burden lower- income homeowners who tend to have older and more space-constrained houses – the kinds most likely to need a non-condensing furnace,” said the CEI.
Such lower-income homeowners might accordingly be forced to “make a switch, not to a condensing natural gas furnace but to an electric furnace, with higher operating costs as well as other potential disadvantages.”
“Every home is different, every homeowner is different and people are best off having a wide range of choices,” underscored Lieberman. “They can work with their contractor to make the best decision for their home and their circumstances.”
President Trump released a new ad Wednesday morning on YouTube titled “Wolves.”
The ad covers the crimes, failures, and dangerous lies of Joe Biden, Democrats and their precious Deep State.
From the ad: “Here’s a question for you. Just how far are the radical left and inside the Beltway bandits willing to go to stop him? We all know they hate him for winning the fight to protect life, for exposing their deep state, for draining their precious swamp. And they already know he’ll crush Biden. So like a pack of rabid wolves, they attack. So let’s impeach him. Let’s get tainted radical left prosecutors to charge him. Let’s conspire with Hillary and the FBI with fake stories about him, all to distract from Biden’s incompetence weakness and money grabbing corruption. But here’s the thing. He’ll never blink. That called having the courage of your convictions. And it’s why he’s our president. I’m Donald J. Trump, and I approve this message.”
“The Constitution allows for religious beliefs to be stated and supposedly protects spiritual organizations from harm. In America today, that is not happening.”
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