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
Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee; he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved. (Psalm 55:22)
It is a heavy burden; roll it on Omnipotence. It is thy burden now, and it crushes thee; but when the Lord takes it, He will make nothing of it. If thou art called still to bear, “he will sustain thee.” It will be on Him and not on thee. Thou wilt be so upheld under it that the burden will be a blessing. Bring the Lord into the matter, and thou wilt stand upright under that which in itself would bow thee down.
Our worst fear is lest our trial should drive us from the path of duty; but this the Lord will never suffer. If we are righteous before Him, He will not endure that our affliction should move us from our standing. In Jesus He accepts us as righteous, and in Jesus He will keep us so.
What about the present moment? Art thou going forth to this day’s trial alone? Are thy poor shoulders again to be galled with the oppressive load? Be not so foolish. Tell the Lord all about thy grief and leave it with Him. Don’t cast your burden down and then take it up again; but roll it on the Lord and leave it there. Then shalt thou walk at large, a joyful and unburdened believer, singing the praises of thy great Burden-bearer.
“ For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning fear), but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control.” 2 Timothy 1:7 (Amplified Bible )
What are you facing today that has you considering throwing in the towel?
Do you not realize the potential that lies on the inside of you! You are destined to defeat what has tried time and time again to defeat you. Fear’s presence should serve as a reminder that your fight is worth winning. Everything in life will never be an easy “win.”
Today, gird up the loins of your mind. Put your faith into action and fight the good fight of faith. God did not raise you to be a quitter. Remind yourself that you have what it takes to do this. You are well able to complete the task before you. Remember you can do all things through Christ that infuses you with inner strength.
Father, I pray that we will put on the full armor of God today in order to defeat every enemy that rises up against us and in us. Thank you that you have already given us the victory over fear. You have given us power, love, and a sound mind. May we put into action the tools that are readily available unto us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Fear of the unknown, in my opinion, is the most prevalent fear that we as humans face on a daily basis.
Either we are fighting the good fight against our daily fears of the unknown, or we are lying to ourselves in saying that we don’t struggle with this fear. This idea may contradict what many of us have been taught; however, if we really take a deep look at our lives, we will discover we all fight this fight.
Some teach that if you have faith, you will have no fears in your life. This sadly is only a partial truth. It is by faith that we believe, and through our faith that we fight the good fight against our fears; nevertheless, to say we won’t fear because we have faith is like saying we won’t sin because we have surrendered our lives to Christ.
The biggest lie that we can believe is that if we worry, stress, deal with anxiety, suffer from depression, and have fears is that we don’t have enough faith.
The lie wants us to believe that Mrs. Smith across the street has more faith than us because she seems to trust God more. The lie tells us that we are a failure as a Christian; additionally, it tells us we can never be that kind of Christian. These lies are just that…lies. They are designed for one purpose and one purpose only; to get us to turn from God’s Truth. When we begin to believe these lies, we begin to doubt God’s Truth, His Promises, and His Unconditional Love for us. You however, are not alone in doing this; for every human since the beginning of time has done the same things. We all have at one point, or at many points in our lives believed these lies. In fact, there is only One who has never fallen for these lies; and His name is Jesus.
Jesus tells us that all we need is the faith of a mustard seed to tell a mountain to move from here to there (Matthew 17:20). However we also see in other parts of the Bible where Jesus tells his disciples they have little faith (Matthew 14:31). Does Jesus contradict Himself? Absolutely not! When Jesus says to Peter “come” (Matthew 14:29) Peter steps out of the boat and walks on water based on his faith in Jesus. Then Peter, like all the rest of us, gets distracted by the winds and the waves; allowing fear to take the place of his faith. When Jesus tells Peter that he has “little faith” after He rescues him from sinking, it is important to know that it was not a lack in faith that Jesus is refereeing too. Rather He is saying, “Why did you lose confidence in me?” “Why did you let fear take its place in your heart where your faith in Me was?” Jesus is not scolding Peter for a lack of faith, but rather a replacement of that faith. Peter, who walked on water with his faith in Christ, also allowed the fear of the unknown to cause him to sink amongst the winds and waves of life.
The question is not if you have faith or not; on the contrary;
the question should be are you living your life with a heart of faith, or a heart of fear?
Advanced Technology Paving The Way: US Airforce AI-Enabled Drone Turns On Its Operator the U. S. Air Force conducted a simulation in which an AI-enabled drone tasked with destroying surface-to-air missile sites attacked the very officer who was controlling it. The story sent shockwaves around the world with headlines such as, “AI Could Go Rogue and Kill Its Human Operators.” Stories of AI systems going rogue are becoming more and more common as our world hurtles rapidly toward a nightmare dystopian scenario right out of Hollywood.
Conservative revolt puts US House on pause until next week The U.S. House of Representatives will postpone all votes until next week, Speaker Kevin McCarthy said on Wednesday, as a conservative revolt paralyzed the Republican Party’s efforts to advance its agenda in Washington. The standoff between U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and a hardline faction of his own Republican majority has forced the chamber into a holding pattern that looks likely to persist until at least Monday.
Sarah Idan, Former Miss Iraq and Ardent Zionist, Runs For Congress to be ‘Voice of Reason’ in Democratic Party Human rights activist, former Miss Universe contestant and Iraq native Sarah Idan has filed with the Federal Election Commission and is officially running to represent California’s 30th District in the US House of Representatives. The Los Angeles resident and founder of the non-profit bipartisan organization Humanity Forward will be running as a Democrat for a position in Congress currently held by Representative Adam Schiff,
Iran Reopens Embassy in Saudi Arabia as Saudis Seek Regional Recalibration Iran on Tuesday reopened its embassy in Saudi Arabia, marking the beginning of the end of a seven-year diplomatic freeze between the two regional rivals. The opening follows an agreement mediated by China in April for the two countries to normalize relations by resuming flights and eventually exchanging ambassadors. Saudi Arabia has not yet said when it will open its embassy in Tehran.
On the brink: Unpacking Israel’s unilateral strike threat against Iran “The reality in our region is changing rapidly. We are not stagnating. We are adapting our combat doctrine and our possibilities for action in keeping with these changes,” Netanyahu said at the meeting, which was held at an underground military bunker in Tel Aviv. “We are committed to acting against the Iranian nuclear program, against missile attacks … and against … what we call a multifront campaign.”
Pence v. Trump will be epic, bloody – no VP has ever challenged his own president Most people peg Mike Pence’s chances of surviving, much less winning, this mega-showdown with Donald Trump at zero. The rest would put his chances at less than zero. Trump certainly seems like a prohibitive frontrunner – with 53.2% support in national polls according to the Real Clear Politics average of all recent credible surveys.
Does PETA want to bring about Ezekiel’s end of days horror? The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) organization recently announced that its president and founder, Ingrid Newkirk, rewrote her will, 20 years after the original version, and made some very unusual requests, instructing that “my body be used in a manner that draws attention to needless animal suffering and exploitation.” Her first request was that the executors “Carve out and sear some of her flesh to fry up with onions for a human barbecue.”
A Quiet Revival Is Happening in Public Schools A quiet revival is happening in some parts of our nation’s public school system through a law passed in 1952 informally called “released time.” The idea goes as far back as 1905, when educators at a conference in New York City discussed the closing of elementary schools for one day per week so that students could receive religious education off campus. The idea caught on, and by 1947 participation had reached 2 million students across 46 states. The public schools are desperate for help; they know it, and they want it. Thus, there is greater openness now to a Christian presence, even on campus, than ever before.
Heavy rains and fatal floods strike northern Algeria Northern Algeria has been grappling with heavy rainfall since early June, leading to devastating floods, particularly in the Saïda and Laghouat provinces. The severe weather conditions have resulted in casualties and significant damage.
Severe floods and landslides hit Turkey’s Black Sea region Two people lost their lives as heavy rains swept across northern Turkey, particularly the Black Sea region, from June 4, 2023, triggering floods and landslides, and causing rivers to overflow.
What to Do When COVID Tyranny Returns Recently, a colleague commented: “I am still truly angry about what happened to me and my family because of our refusal to take the vaccine in this country [Canada]. I never believed Nazi Germany was possible again until covid. And now I KNOW it is possible and likely WILL happen again…only next time the gloves will be off, and there will be nowhere to hide.”
WEF document calls for limiting ‘private car use,’ drastic reduction in the number of cars by 2050 The globalist World Economic Forum (WEF) is encouraging cities to “contain growth of private car use” and aims to drastically reduce the number of cars by 2050, according to a recently published white paper. The document relies on the usual falsified climate change data and dishonest models and ignores the looming population collapse which many have been warning the world is facing.
Bible to be removed from some Davis School libraries Copies of the King James Bible are being removed from school library shelves at elementary and junior high facilities in Davis County, Utah, after an unknown person’s complaint that the scriptures feature material inappropriate for younger children.
Stanford University and UMass Researchers Uncover Disturbing Pedoph*le Network on Instagram In a joint investigation conducted by The Wall Street Journal and researchers at Stanford University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, it was revealed that Instagram, the social media platform owned by Mark Zuckerberg, is serving as a hub to “connect and promote a vast network of accounts openly devoted to the commission and purchase of underage-sex content.”
Chief Covid Con Artist Chris Whitty to approve planning for 60% of new homes The UK government is to invest £3.2 billion and has created a new statutory consulting body to nudge and corral people into 15-minute cities. Active Travel England (“ATE”), as the new body is called, has recently been tasked with approving all large planning applications, about 60% of new homes. The “Expert Advisor” of the scheme is none other than Chief Covid Con Artist Chris Whitty.
Flashback: Australia to Forcibly Vaccinate Population through Aerosol Spraying An article re-published on LinkedIn in 2015 described the intentional release of DNA vaccines through large-scale aerial spraying. With experiments already conducted in California, USA, the Australian Gene Technology Regulator was looking to approve a license to permit the intentional release of a GMO vaccine consisting of live bacteria into the environment in four states.
Comparing Military Spend Around The World At the top of the table is Ukraine, which has earmarked a staggering average of 9.46% of its total economic output on defense over the past five years…
“Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people; and not for profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men; therefore, the people alone have an incontestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government; and to reform, alter, or totally change the same, when their protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness require it.” —John Adams (1776)
A former teammate of William “Lia” Thomas has decided to put her name to the anti-Gender Marxism cause.
Emmy Griffin
Riley Gaines, former swimmer for the University of Kentucky, has a new ally in her mission to save women’s sports. Paula Scanlan was a teammate of William “Lia” Thomas at the University of Pennsylvania. Thomas, as you may recall, is the infamous male who declared he was a female and got to swim competitively against college women. He went from a middling swimmer to All-American with his declaration of “womanhood.”
Scanlan had previously spoken out about Thomas anonymously on Matt Walsh’s documentary “What Is a Woman?” in which she attested to the strong stance that her coaches had taken. The coaches and athletic department made it very clear that the UPenn girls should toe the line and not make any trouble about Thomas’s admittance on the team. These young women were also intimidated and threatened. If they spoke out, they would be labeled bigots, their future careers would be at stake, and other consequences would ensue.
Even at the time, Scanlan was deeply troubled by the bullying tactics of her school against her and her teammates. In her most recent interview with Walsh, Scanlan recounted: “After that meeting, they really scared us. … I went home that night and I called my brother and said, ‘Can I even talk about this with you? Is there something wrong with me for thinking that this is wrong?’ It worked. The university wanted us to be quiet, and they did it in a very effective way. … And after that point, no one would talk about it anymore. They effectively silenced us even within talking to each other.”
Scanlan is joining the fight now because she is realizing that the institutions she trusted to protect her and her teammates “won’t do the right thing.” It is women like Riley Gaines and Paula Scanlan who are going to be the ones to change the trajectory of this movement. This is a realization that all women must come to if there is to be any progress in this fight to protect women’s sports.
Universities won’t do the right thing because many of them are publicly funded. What is the Biden administration’s favorite culture war issue? “Transgender rights.” Most universities wouldn’t dare go against the Democrat Party line. They have the political and financial stakes to ensure the ideology gets implemented. Universities and other publicly funded schools are not going to do the right thing even if they recognize it as the right thing (which is questionable). These poor female athletes are swimming in shark-infested waters.
But it’s not as bleak as it seems. On the Title IX front, where Biden has attempted to add gender identity as a protected class, there has been progress to counter this effort. However, it all means nothing if women cannot unite.
Traitors like former women’s soccer star Megan Rapinoe and WNBA legends Sue Bird and Brittany Griner — all of whom have endorsed having “trans women” (men) compete against women — have no stake in the future of women’s sports. They have no children who are affected by their stance, and they themselves are headed out of the spotlight.
But other women who are competing or have athletic daughters have no excuse for supporting this agenda. And yet, it is because of women that this pitched battle for women’s rights is even an issue. Women overwhelmingly vote for Democrats who endorse this ideology. Women are also the primary enablers of the sort of behavior that trans-identifying people force on everyone else, such as preferred pronoun usage and the virtues of “acceptance” and “tolerance.”
Well, there is extensive harm associated with these shortsighted and shallow maxims, and both political pundit Megyn Kelly and Christian author Rosaria Butterfield have publicly changed their stance on coddling this gender delusion with preferred pronouns.
Indulging this group of confused and sometimes brainwashed people is not loving them; it’s lying to them. Kowtowing to their activist backers is fomenting the problem. Kelly admitted that Riley Gaines’s treatment at San Francisco University — where trans activists attacked Gaines and chased her into a janitor’s closet — was a turning point in her using preferred pronouns. “There is the harm,” she said as she watched women being abused for standing up for themselves.
Women have a beautiful God-given gift of compassion and empathy that is intrinsic to their nature. That same compassion and empathy have been used by an abusive elite to silence women and morally corrupt children in this pervasive push toward Gender Marxism.
Transgenderism ideology is rank abuse of the vulnerable. This cult targets women and children, though even some men are susceptible to the violent bullying of its acolytes.
Riley Gaines has become the public face of preserving women’s sports in the U.S. She has literally taken hits because of her position. Other voices across the pond have played an important role as well. Voices like J.K. Rowling, who has suffered the slings and arrows of transgenderism’s violent activists, and the women cyclists who have been brave enough to boycott races in protest. They have figured out a way to band together and stand united against this ideological power grab.
Here in the U.S., girls as young as high-school age are fighting for their right to have women-only sports, and they are catching hell for doing so. Judges aren’t letting them be anonymous in their complaints. If they stand up, they have to put their names and faces out in the public. It is essentially giving the activists another target. Miraculously, many are willing to do just that. They are facing the giants and taking on a great injustice.
It is infuriating when conservative men accuse women of not standing up for themselves. That is simply not true at all. Women have been powerfully pushing back, and they continue to keep going. It was the enabling of weak and shortsighted women that let this ideology take hold, and it will be the strong and brave women who stop the bleeding.
However, there is another interesting reason why women and children are the primary targets of this ideological bullying. The ideologues who champion Gender Marxism are picking on a target they consider easy.
Both the enablers of this ideology and the gender dysphoric men cruel enough to usurp women’s spaces are masters at manipulating a woman’s compassion and empathy to get what they want. They are ultimately abusive narcissists who have succeeded in making women feel not only alone and crazy but like their perfectly legitimate concerns were wrong. That’s why they have run roughshod over women’s sports, women’s locker rooms, women’s rights, and women’s safety.
Fortunately, this group of narcissistic abusers are a small minority. That is what is being shown again and again.
The Biden administration has been pushing the Gender Marxism agenda hard, but even among Democrat constituents, it’s a 60-20-20 issue. The majority of Americans are against the indoctrination and infiltration of this ideology.
It is often the loudest minority that upends society and throws it into chaos. By exposing their numbers and banding together in opposition to this madness, we women can stop it.
We can save women’s sports for our daughters, our granddaughters, and many more women to come. Thank you, Riley Gaines, Paula Scanlan, and all the other women who are risking life and limb for our girls. We’ve got your back.
Our northern neighbor’s wildfires are wreaking havoc on American air quality, and the Left is leaping to the usual conclusions.
Douglas Andrews
Listen closely, and you can practically hear him say it: You never want a serious Canadian wildfire crisis to go to waste.
No, Rahm Emanuel isn’t whispering into Joe Biden’s ear these days, but those on the Left know well what Barack Obama’s former chief of staff said in the days just after the 2008 election, and they certainly know “an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before” when they see one.
Take Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, for example, who told her 13 million Twitter followers yesterday: “Between NYC in wildfire smoke and this [heat wave] in [Puerto Rico], it bears repeating how unprepared we are for the climate crisis. We must adapt our food systems, energy grids, infrastructure, healthcare, etc ASAP to prepare for what’s to come and catch up to what is already here.”
And in case anyone failed to pick up the “opportunity” she’s driving at, AOC affixed the “GreenNewDeal” hashtag to the end of her message.
At this point, the smoke from at least 233 active Canadian wildfires and 9.4 million charred acres is wreaking havoc on the American air being breathed by 100 million of our fellow citizens. Most of the fires are in western Canada, but some are in Quebec, above New York, and the wind patterns yesterday made New York City’s air the worst of any major city in the world — which is quite a feat, as anyone who’s spent any time in a major Chinese city will tell you.
But that’s not all. According to air quality specialist IQAir, following closely behind the Big Apple are other northeastern cities such as Boston, Buffalo, and Pittsburgh, but the smoke isn’t stopping there. Columbus, Baltimore, Norfolk, Raleigh, Asheville, and even Myrtle Beach are also seeing and feeling the effects. These include air travel delays and cancellations, as well as cancellation of outdoor and even some indoor activities in the affected cities.
But the question remains: Are all these wildfires due to “climate change,” as AOC and her ilk would have us believe?
And the answer already appears to be: No. As the Toronto Sun reports: “Quebec police are investigating the possibility that the smoke creating poor air quality in southern Ontario and making downtown skylines disappear may have been the result of arson. ‘There is an investigation because the cause is suspect,’ said Surtee de Quebec media officer Hugues Beaulieu.”
Most reports blame dry conditions and lightning strikes. In any case, even under the most progressive definition imaginable, arson isn’t climate change.
Sadly, we’ve been down this shamefully politicized road before. In fact, it feels like Groundhog Day. As our Thomas Gallatin wrote back in 2020: “According to Democrats and the mainstream media, the primary culprit for the massive wildfires currently consuming vast swaths of the Pacific Northwest is climate change. However, according to the scientific data accumulated over years of observation, the real reason has little to do with the changing climate and more to do with changes to forestry-management practices instigated by politicians unduly influenced by flawed environmentalist ideology.”
Gallatin went on to identify the real culprit: forest mismanagement, both here in the U.S. and in the vast Canadian wilderness:
Analysis of the historical records show that wildfires regularly burned millions of acres annually in the U.S. up until the late 1950s. Beginning in the 1930s, the U.S. Forest Service, along with state agencies, began efforts to better control and limit the amount of acreage burned annually. Ironically, these efforts to suppress and prevent fires has contributed to the massive fires America is seeing today. The reason is simple: By not being control-burned, these forests have accumulated vast amounts of fuel (overgrowth) and have become literal tinderboxes primed for igniting, whether by lightning or, in many cases, arson.
So, if you’re in one of these smoke-plagued regions, set aside the politics and do four things: Stay inside, to the extent possible; use an air filter if you have one; wear a mask — because smoke particulate is a lot more filterable than a coronavirus; and monitor the air quality in your area.
Oh, and don’t listen to Sandy Cortez and her leftist ilk. They’re just trying to do things they couldn’t do without a convenient crisis.
The AP’s recent updated guidance on transgenderism betrays its bias and negatively affects conservative free speech.
Nate Jackson
Who cares what the Associated Press style manual says? That may be the question on the minds of many conservatives, but we can assure you it matters a great deal, whether or not you read the AP.
For one thing, the AP stylebook is the most common set of journalistic guidelines used by news outlets across the political spectrum (though, for the record, not including The Patriot Post). That doesn’t mean conservative organizations use everything in that manual without modification, but the influence is still there, as are the stories themselves, which are often simply republished on various websites.
For another, social media thought police rely on supposedly “objective” sources like the AP when deciding what opinions to silence.
It’s a racketeering operation. Media rating organizations hire left-wing former journalists to look at the standards and practices of Leftmedia outfits, declare them to be the gold standard, and then rate those organizations highly for having adhered to their own rules. Conservative outlets, which exist in the first place as a counter to mainstream media bias, often don’t adhere to those same standards and openly declare their bias in order to stand against the Left. So, the leftist journalists who declared themselves gatekeepers use their purported authority to give conservatives demerits for not adhering to left-wing rules.
Your humble team here has experience with this protection racket. Last year, we were downgraded by the hacks at NewsGuard, a news rating “authority” used by social media, and one of our “offenses” is practically straight out of the AP style guide. We allegedly used “homophobic” and “transphobic” language — terms that betray a clear political bias of their own.
Which brings us back to that AP guide.
The AP recently published its Transgender Coverage Topical Guide, which expands the grip of the Rainbow Mafia over how the news media may talk about the Rainbow Mafia.
We can understand avoiding admittedly politically charged words like “groomer” or “mutilation” when talking about this stuff. The AP is supposed to produce straight news, after all, not political analysis like we do. Yet the AP insists on calling “groomer” an “often false” term, and if a reporter must quote someone using it, that reporter must include an immediate “fact-check” like this: “using a term that falsely links LGBTQ+ people’s interactions with children to the actions of child molesters.” Yes, opponents of sexual abuse of any type intentionally use that term because that’s what we think is happening. An opinion is not “false” just because the AP doesn’t like that opinion, but that’s the game these racketeers play.
Furthermore, here are a few examples of things that betray the AP’s clear political bias and agenda:
Use preferred pronouns, the style guide says, but just don’t call them that. Instead, say things like “the pronouns they use, whose pronouns are, who uses the pronouns.” (That’s funny — the AP refers to self-identified pro-lifers as “anti-abortion.” Why can’t we choose our own label?)
Use “gender-affirming care” to describe various medical treatments from puberty blockers to hormones to surgery that are used to change gender and often leave patients with lifelong health problems from scarring to infertility. How is that “affirming” again?
“Avoid terms like biological sex, along with biological male and biological female, which opponents of transgender rights sometimes use to refer to transgender women and transgender men, respectively.”
“Avoid references to a transgender person being born a boy or girl, or phrasing like birth gender.” Instead, “Sex assigned at birth is the accurate terminology.” In fact, the AP tells its reporters, “Sex is usually assigned at birth by parents or attendants, sometimes inaccurately.”
Inaccurately? Call us crazy, but it’s not that difficult to tell the difference between genitalia.
It sure is hard to pin down a science denier. The Rainbow Mafia is always screaming about how sex is different from gender because the former is biology and the latter is identity. Indeed, the AP says “sex is inherently biological.” But if someone is “assigned” sex at birth, doesn’t that also make sex a social construct? And why is the way to correct this “inaccuracy” to “transition” a person to the opposite sex gender?
“Avoid references to both, either or opposite sexes or genders.” Oh.
Perhaps the most revealing AP style item is this: “Do not use the term transgenderism, which frames transgender identity as an ideology.”
Well, it is an ideology, though it’s also more than that — it’s a cult. We say so because it has all the markings of one, including demanding approved language and subjecting adherents to degrading humiliation and/or self-harm to show devotion to the cause.
Yet the AP wants to avoid even hinting at that truth in its reporting and in fact essentially instructs its reporters to join the cult. The rest of us pay the price by at best getting biased news and at worst not even being allowed to disagree. The AP is thus, as Thomas Jefferson once lamented, one of the “chimnies to carry off noxious vapors and smoke.”
CDC’s pandemic cronies, gay teacher suspended for opposing transgenderism, and more.
Nate Jackson & Jordan Candler
Cross-Examination
CDC’s pandemic cronies: Anthony Fauci may be retired from the NIH, but his legacy will live on in federal health agencies. The CDC, among others, lost a ton of credibility during the coronavirus pandemic and yet learned nothing — except that greatly increased power is desirable. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky is on her way out, and rumor has it that Joe Biden is set to tap Fauci cult member Mandy Cohen as her replacement. She was a proponent of lockdowns and mask mandates (including in schools and regardless of vaccination status). In other words, Cohen is the new boss, same as the old boss. It could be worse. One of her deputies will be Howard Zucker. If you’ve never heard of him, journalist Daniel Greenfield notes he “had his name on the infamous ‘Cuomo Death Order’ that has been blamed for the deaths of thousands of nursing residents.” And then Zucker helped cover it up on Cuomo’s behalf. So don’t worry — the CDC will be run by people who have a lot of deaths on their hands. They’ll be in good company with Dr. Richard Rachel Levine, who isn’t known for all the nursing home deaths in Pennsylvania on his watch but for being a man dressed as a woman. Trust? Pffft.
Gay teacher suspended for opposing transgenderism: All is not well with the Alphabet People. “A gay fifth grade teacher in Glendale, California, was placed on leave after complaining at a school board meeting that his school promotes transgenderism,” reports The Daily Signal. Evidently, 25 years of teaching, a couple of “Teacher of the Year” awards, the PTA’s Golden Oak Award, and the fact that he’s gay wasn’t enough to save Ray Shelton from suspension for “wrongthink” manifesting in a T-shirt that read “Make Biology Great Again.” He was even promoting science and he still got suspended. That’s how tight a grip the transgender cult has on people. Dissent based on reality will not be tolerated.
NYC sues NY counties over migrant busing: New York City is a “sanctuary city” for illegal aliens, but don’t think for a minute that the city actually wants them coming. Mayor Eric Adams has complained about “showmanship” from Governors Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis, who have flown or bused illegal migrants from their overrun states to places that sanctimoniously declare to be sanctuaries — like New York City. Adams has had a tough time finding places for all these migrants, however, and has even floated asking residents to accommodate them in their homes. But the city is also suing other New York counties for refusing to accept migrants bused from the city. DeSantis rebuked California Governor Gavin Newsom, but Adams should take it to heart as well: “These sanctuary jurisdictions are part of the reason we have this problem because they have endorsed and agitated for these types off open border policies. They have bragged they are sanctuary jurisdictions. … When they have to deal with some of the fruits of that they all of a sudden become very, very upset about that.”
Ukraine blew up Nord Stream? Among the material in the classified information pilfered by Airman First Class Jack Teixeira was some intriguing stuff about Russia’s Nord Stream pipeline, which was blown up by someone last year. The Washington Post reports, “Three months before saboteurs bombed the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline, the Biden administration learned from a close ally that the Ukrainian military had planned a covert attack on the undersea network, using a small team of divers who reported directly to the commander in chief of the Ukrainian armed forces.” The Post proceeds to detail the evidence from the leak as well as various reaction to it. This isn’t incontrovertible proof that Ukraine actually carried out the attack, in part because key details of the leaked plan differ from what actually happened, but it’s certainly strong circumstantial evidence. We’ve written before about analysts who speculated that either Russia did it as a way to blackmail European clients or the U.S. did to sabotage Russia.
Headlines
Comer cancels move to hold Director Wray in contempt after FBI comes to its senses (Townhall)
Gavin Newsom proposes 28th amendment to the Constitution that would restrict gun access (Fox News)
Biden vetoes measure overturning student loan forgiveness plan (The Hill)
Trump attorneys notified former president is target of criminal investigation (Fox News)
Pat Robertson, Christian media mogul and presidential candidate, dead at 93 (National Review)
Our State Department’s “Pride Month” foreign policy is in your face around the globe, except in countries where they won’t tolerate it.
Douglas Andrews
Celebrate us or else!
Unless you live in a Muslim country. In which case, have a nice day.
That seems to be the essence of the Biden administration’s “Pride Month” foreign policy, which proudly flies the rainbow flag at our embassies around the globe — except those in Muslim countries, where they aren’t as tolerant of perversities such as those we expose our children to at Drag Queen Story Hour, and the sorts of obscenities that are routinely rubbed in American Catholics’ faces by The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Nor are these Muslim countries as supportive as we are of monstrous gender-based medical experimentation that sexually mutilates our young children.
All that notwithstanding, Joe Biden’s handlers heralded the coming of June with “A Proclamation on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Pride Month,” which reads, in part: “During Pride Month, we honor a movement that has grown stronger, more vibrant, and more inclusive with every passing year. Pride is a celebration of generations of LGBTQI+ people, who have fought bravely to live openly and authentically. And it is a reminder that we still have generational work to do to ensure that everyone enjoys the full promise of equity, dignity, protection, and freedom.”
Rather than staying positive, though, Team Biden’s Rainbow Mafiosi shifted from vibrancy and inclusivity to smearing, misleading, and dividing. Their message continued:
In 2023 alone, State and local legislatures have already introduced over 600 hateful laws targeting the LGBTQI+ community. Books about LGBTQI+ people are being banned from libraries. Transgender youth in over a dozen States have had their medically necessary health care banned. Homophobic and transphobic vitriol spewed online has spilled over into real life, as armed hate groups intimidate people at Pride marches and drag performances, and threaten doctors’ offices and children’s hospitals that offer care to the LGBTQI+ community. Our hearts are heavy with grief for the loved ones we have lost to anti-LGBTQI+ violence.
This attack, though, was reserved for the American people. Elsewhere around the world, the Biden State Department’s Pride Month message was either brimming with enthusiasm or notably nonexistent.
“In Vatican City,” writes columnist Daniel Greenfield at FrontPage Magazine, “the U.S. Embassy flew the rainbow flag and tweeted that it ‘stands with the LBGTQI+ community against discrimination and other forms of persecution because of who they are and whom they love.’”
How nice. And of our embassy in India, the world’s largest democracy, Greenfield reports: “Ambassador Eric Garcetti, the former Los Angeles mayor whose inappropriate nomination had barely survived the scandal of his aide sexually harassing men, broadcast a video in which he raised the pride flag, with more dedication and drama than the Marines at Iwo Jima, before delivering a speech about the importance of the LGBTQ movement.”
Here in the U.S., the Biden administration practically encourages its hard-left supporters to poke fun at Christians and to offend them with grotesque and blasphemous displays like the one being prepared for Los Angeles Dodgers fans later this month. But don’t even consider an offense directed toward The Religion of Peace, or one of its adherents might just run up to you on your bicycle and shoot you, stab you, slice your throat from ear to ear, and pin a cautionary note to your chest with a dagger — like Mohammed Bouyeri did to Theo van Gogh one dreary November morning in Amsterdam. Or they might barge into your newsroom and shoot up the place, killing a dozen of your colleagues and injuring 11 others, like they did at the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, the satirical newspaper that dared publish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
Here in the U.S., we allow a sicko Christ to be mock-crucified, while a fellow blasphemer rubs his crotch in the fake Savior’s face. Hilarious.
As Greenfield writes: “While the U.S. Embassy in Bern, Switzerland urged, ‘This month and every month, let us celebrate the pride that powers the movement for LGBTQI+,’ the message did not reach the U.S. Embassy in Algiers. ‘Pride Month is kicking off in the U.S. today! We’d love to know: What does Pride mean to you,’ the U.S. Embassy in Brussels asked. But the U.S. Embassy to the UAE instead bafflingly urged the locals to come to Michigan to get degrees in Arabic Language.”
It’s strange, this tolerance we have for the intolerant around the globe, and the intolerance we have for those of us here in the U.S. who would just prefer to be left alone. And have our children left alone.
The least our generation can do is to remember who they were, what they did, and how much we owe them.
Victor Davis Hanson
Seventy-nine years ago this week, the Allies assaulted the Normandy beaches on D-Day, June 6, 1944.
Their invasion marked the largest amphibious landing since the Persians under Xerxes invaded the Greek mainland in 480 B.C.
Nearly 160,000 American, British, and Canadian soldiers stormed five beaches of Nazi-occupied France. The plan was to liberate western Europe after four years of occupation, push into Germany, and end the Nazi regime.
Less than a year later, the Allies from the West, and the Soviet Russians from the East, did just that, utterly destroying Hitler’s Third Reich.
Ostensibly, the assault seemed impossible even to attempt.
Germany had repulsed with heavy Canadian losses an earlier Normandy raid at Dieppe in August 1942.
The Germans also knew roughly when the Allies were coming. They placed their best general, Erwin Rommel, in charge of the Normandy defenses.
The huge D-Day force required enormous supplies of arms and provisions just to get off the beaches. Yet the Allies had no means of capturing even one port on the nearby heavily fortified French coast.
To land so many troops so quickly, the Allies would have to ensure complete naval and air supremacy.
They would have to tow over from Britain their own ports, lay their own gasoline pipeline across the English Channel, and invent novel ships and armored vehicles just to get onto and over the beaches.
More dangerous still, the invaders would ensure armor and tactical air dominance to avoid being cut off, surrounded, and annihilated once they went inland.
German Panzer units — battle-hardened troops in frightening Panther and Tiger tanks, with over three hard years of fighting experience on the Eastern Front — were confident they could annihilate in a matter of days the outnumbered lightly armed invaders.
Such a huge force required 50 miles of landing space on the beaches. That vast expanse ensured that some landing sites were less than ideal – Omaha Beach in particular.
No one quite knows how many Allied soldiers, airmen, and sailors were lost during D-Day’s 24 hours.
Some 10,000 casualties is a good guess, including nearly 4,500 dead. Well over 400 soldiers were killed, wounded, or captured every hour of the first day.
Most of the losses occurred at Omaha Beach, the riskiest landing area. Cliffs there offered perfect German lines of fire onto the landing craft below.
Concrete seawalls blocked access from the beaches. Crack German troops had recently beefed up the fortifications. Mined hedgerows blocked entry into the countryside.
A tragic paradox of D-Day was that Omaha Beach proved an ungodly nightmare, while the other four landing sites worked like clockwork with few casualties.
Nearly a quarter-million Allied soldiers were killed or wounded in “Operation Overlord” over the ensuing seven weeks of fighting in Normandy. Combined German and Allied casualties exceeded 400,000. Nearly 20,000 French civilians were killed as “collateral” damage.
The Allies did not secure Normandy until the end of July, when they finally broke out into the plains of France and began racing toward Germany.
Intelligence failures, poor coordination between airborne and infantry troops, and mediocre leadership all plagued the Allies for most of June and July.
Yet the Allies pulled off the impossible by surprising the Germans, securing a beachhead, supplying that toehold in western Europe, and then expanding the pocket into a vast 1,000-mile front that in less than a year shattered Hitler’s defenses.
How and why did the Americans on Omaha charge right off their landing craft into a hail of German machine gun and artillery fire, despite being mowed down in droves?
In a word, they “believed” in the United States.
That generation had emerged from the crushing poverty of the Great Depression to face the reality that the Axis powers wanted to destroy their civilization and their country.
They were confident in American know-how. They were convinced they were fighting for the right cause. They were not awed by traveling thousands of miles from home to face German technological wizardry, veterans with years of battle experience, and a ruthless martial code.
The men at Omaha did not believe America had to be perfect to be good — just far better than the alternative.
They understood, like their predecessors at Valley Forge, Gettysburg, and the Meuse-Argonne, that nothing in the United States was guaranteed.
They accepted that periodically some Americans — usually those in the prime of life with the greatest futures and the most to lose — would be asked to face certain death in nightmarish places like Omaha, in a B-17 over Berlin, or the horrid jungles in the Pacific.
The least our generation — affluent, leisured, and so often self-absorbed — can do is to remember who they were, what they did, and how much we owe them.
Editor’s Note: Each week we receive hundreds of comments and correspondences — and we read every one of them. Click here for a few thought-provoking comments about specific articles. The views expressed therein don’t necessarily reflect those of The Patriot Post.
“I rise to commemorate the start of Pride Month by honoring the one and only queen of drag, RuPaul — an artist, a philanthropist, and a barrier-breaker. RuPaul Charles has become an American phenomenon and an icon. Nobody has more charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and talent than RuPaul Charles.” —Congressman Robert Garcia (D-CA)
Race Bait
“When Republicans talk about election integrity, they’re really talking about voter suppression. They’re talking about carrying on the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow by actively disenfranchising black and brown communities.” —Congresswoman Cori Bush (D-MO)
The BIG Lies
“We have been working to reduce the deficit, which is the first step in reducing the debt.” —Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg
“We’re focused on securing our border.” —Joe Biden
Political Futures
“[Mike] Pence, who this week formally becomes a candidate for the 2024 Republican nomination, is in a nearly impossible situation. Or maybe a totally impossible situation. And it all traces back to his four years with President Donald Trump in the White House — the period that should have set him up for a run for the presidency himself. The short version of the situation is this: Mike Pence is both running on and running away from his record in the years 2017 to 2021. … In any other time, Pence would be a natural presidential candidate. In today’s historically weird political world, his candidacy is deeply troubled even as it begins.” —Byron York
“I would advise … all the candidates, including Donald Trump, to aim their fire and resources not at each other, but at what the left and Biden’s third term of the Obama presidency are doing to America and how they plan to correct it.” —Gary Bauer
For the Record
“Mike Pence is such a decent guy … 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.” —Nate Jackson
“It is absolutely crazy that the COVID-hysterical, fake Russia collusion hoaxers at CNN ran out their new boss because he tried to make them mildly care about real news instead of Democrat narratives. Just crazy. Corporate media simply can’t be fixed, sadly.” —Mollie Hemingway
“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.” —Emmy Griffin
A new Washington Post article about Nord Stream throws Ukraine overboard and absolves the United States, offering another version of reality we’ll have to strain to take seriously
This is getting silly now.
The Kakhovka dam just exploded in Ukraine, flooding a huge territory and causing another insane ecological disaster.
Russia and Ukraine spent yesterday trading accusations, while the U.S. leaked it was “leaning towards Russia as the culprit of the attack.”
The synchronicity was uncanny, with the media’s dam freakout coming exactly as public panic about the previous lunatic infrastructure attack came full circle, moving from certainty Russia blew up the Nord Stream pipeline to belated claims we knew all along Ukraine did it. It’s as if officials want the world to take American intelligence assessments more as Gilbert Gottfried routines than truth.
The story contended the United States learned from a “European intelligence service” in June, 2022 that Ukraine was planning a “covert attack” on Nord Stream, using divers who “reported directly to the commander in chief of the Ukrainian armed forces,” General Valery Zaluzhny.
Apparently, U.S. and European allies knew about the Ukrainian plan and were impotent to stop a move they worried “risked a severe Russian response.”
The only people in the country who didn’t roll eyes or laugh at these latest anonymous contortions were reporters.
Look at Matt Orfalea’s damning video made last October for a refresher on how absolutely certain we’ve been in these situations before, only to completely change our tune later.
If you’re keeping track, this new Nord Stream piece is about the seventh or eighth theory that the Washington Post alone has posted since September, which puts the Kakhovka story in perspective.
…
Specialists in “anti-disinformation” insist a goal of foreign fake news artists is to assault the reasoning process itself, making populations distrust once-reliable sources, leaving them susceptible to conspiracy theories. If that’s true, how is it not provably the case that domestic officials are playing the same game, moving goalposts on everything from the origin of the coronavirus to vaccine efficacy to Nord Stream?
The Nord Stream narrative has now gone from “No one thinks anyone but Russia did it” to “It’s a mystery!” to “There’s no evidence Russia did it” to “pro-Ukraine saboteurs may have done it” to “The U.S. and its allies have known for nearly a year Kyiv did it, but said otherwise the whole time.”
What are we supposed to think next time officials make statements after a disaster? Are we supposed to forget all this background?
A new Rassmussen poll finds that 74% of likely voters believe Joe Biden should debate his primary opponents. Biden’s approval rating is currently at a dismal 44% among voters. This is with a legacy media that is fully supportive of Biden and blocks any news that may be detrimental to his standing with the American people.
The latest poll is good news for Robert Kennedy, Jr. who is pulling at 20 percent among Democrats and who has the support of millions of independent and GOP voters.
Although some Democrats have denounced President Joe Biden’s challengers for his party’s 2024 nomination as “fringe candidates,” voters overwhelmingly want Biden to debate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Marianne Williamson.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 74% of Likely U.S. Voters believe Biden should debate his Democratic challengers on national television. Just 17% don’t think Biden should debate Kennedy and Williamson.
The latest skirmish in the war over Fox’s decision to remove Carlson from the airwaves without notice has the network saying Carlson’s recent appearance with a commentary on Twitter violated his contract.
That commentary drew a stunning 102 million plus – and growing – views, many times the viewership he routinely had on Fox.
A report from Deadline said the network told Carlson’s attorney that they believe his new Twitter show violated his contract.
The report said, “The letter from the network to Carlson’s attorney did not include threats or suggest recriminations, but stated the network’s belief that Tucker on Twitter, which debuted on the platform on Tuesday, amounted to a contract violation, according to a source.”
The network’s broadside was immediately rejected by Carlson’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, who said in a statement, “Fox defends its very existence on freedom of speech grounds. Now they want to take Tucker Carlson’s right to speak freely away from him because he took to social media to share his thoughts on current events. That’s not going to happen. Not in the United States of America.”
Carlson was canceled by Fox only days after it agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems $787.5 million to settle defamation claims. That stemmed from comments on the network about the 2020 election and Dominion’s actions then.
Carlson’s lawyers earlier charged that Fox breached its contract with him in reaching that settlement, and that a “non-compete clause” essentially had been abandoned.
Deadline said it was Axios that said Fox News general counsel Bernard Gugar claimed Carlson’s contract still is valid, and prohibits other appearances like the Twitter show.
The Guardian explained the exact terms of Carlson’s departure are not known.
Various reports have said the move was part of Fox’s settlement with Dominion, which Fox has denied.
In his recent monologue, Carlson promised “viewers the truth without the constraints of mainstream media,” the report said.
Subjects included Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the president of Ukraine, and an attack on a dam that has caused widespread flooding.
In response, Twitter owner Elon Musk said it was “great to have shows from all parts of the political spectrum on this platform!”
NBC cited “a source with direct knowledge of the matter” in explaining the dispute arose over Carlson’s first Twitter monologue.
The Washington Examiner said Carlson’s original complaint of breach of contract by Fox came up weeks ago.
The report said, “Carlson’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, sent a letter to Fox News on Tuesday, alleging that the network’s executives and employees, including ‘Rupert Murdoch himself,’ intentionally broke promises made to Carlson ‘with reckless disregard for the truth,’ constituting fraud, according to a report.”
The Examiner explained, “The letter also alleges Fox broke an agreement with Carlson to keep his private communications confidential, not to use them ‘to take any adverse employment action against him,’ and not to settle with Dominion Voting Systems ‘in a way which would indicate wrongdoing’ on Carlson’s part, hurting his reputation.”
Freedman’s letter reportedly charged, “These actions not only breached the covenant of good faith and fair dealing in the Agreement, but give rise to claims for breach of contract, and intentional and negligent misrepresentation.”
Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network and long-time host of the ‘700 Club’ has passed away at the age of 93. His son Gordon Robertson wrote of his passing on CBN’s website:
Dear Friends,
Today, June 08, 2023, my father, Pat Robertson, has gone home to be with his Lord. My dad was at home, surrounded by his family when he entered glory and met his Savior face to face, whom he loved and served with his whole heart, mind, and being. My father was an extraordinary man by any standard. He was an evangelist, a humanitarian, an entrepreneur, an educator, an author, a statesman, a television personality, a man of global influence and tremendous vision. Perhaps most important though, he was a dearly loved father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and friend. For many of us, he was also a spiritual father, guiding us and teaching us to love the Lord and live lives worthy of the Gospel. In his final days, he often talked about heaven and his desire to be with Jesus.
Robertson left the 700 Club in 2021 after 60 years on air, which was a good thing, as he was no stranger to self-contradiction and absurdity. He’s been deceiving millions of people for literally decades, routinely telling supporters that he’s getting bizarre visions and messages from the Lord including prophesying that Trump would win a second term and that after a few years an asteroid would strike the earth and demolish it.
The much-hyped Ukrainian Counteroffensive finally gained a lot of momentum today, even if it, so far, has yielded no territorial results – in fact, Ukrainian officials are denying that it has even started, and by now, we know that they’ll only ever announce it when (or if) they capture some minimally meaningful village or settlement.
Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Oleksiy Danilov: “When we start the counteroffensive, everyone will know about it, they will see it.”
Downstream from the Kakhovsk dam, catastrophic flooding is still ongoing, mainly in the areas of the eastern bank of the river controlled by Russia – Russian Federation’s Ministry of Emergency Situations and volunteers working in the region to help civilians.
But regardless of who destroyed the dam, since the flooding in Kherson makes it impossible for large troops to cross the swelling Dnieper river in the next weeks, now both armies are free to move their troops west and north into the areas that will be the main theater of operations of the counteroffensive, in Zaporozhie and Donetsk.
The whole line of contact is lit with fighting.
While in many, many points along the line of contact, the action is undertaken by nothing more than DRG (Diversion and Reconnaissance Groups) of a somewhat suicidal nature, in the Zaporozhie oblast we had on Wednesday (June 7th), the first big bonafide mass attack by the Ukrainian troops.
Russia and Ukraine have swapped places now. Kiev has the forces ready, with a large number of equipment, and as many as 4 brigades of the 10th Army Corps for offensive operations.
“In total: up to 20 thousand people, up to 90 tanks, up to 180 AFVs, up to 120 MLRS, up to 80 field artillery guns and mortars.”
The main offensive action so far is taking place in the direction of Orekhov – Tokmak – Melitopol, with the objective of severing the land bridge to Crimea peninsula, and also gain access to the Sea of Azov, that right now is a Russian controlled sea.
Ukrainian tank runs over a Russian mine during the offensive. Watch the video:
The first waves of assault were repelled, with the attacking Ukrainians suffering heavy casualties. Simplicius the Thinker reported:
“In a somewhat uncommon gesture, Shoigu himself actually gave the exact figures of Russian losses during this assault. They were: 71 Russian servicemen killed, 210 wounded.
[…] Ukraine’s losses from June 4 to June 6 were 3,715 soldiers, 52 tanks, 207 armored vehicles, 134 vehicles, 5 aircraft, 2 helicopters, 48 artillery systems and 53 drones, Mr. Shoigu announced.
[…] But interestingly, just in today’s (Wednesday, June 7th) new assault in west Zaporozhye, we have visual confirmation of 42 pieces of armor destroyed. That’s just from a couple videos from one unit out of dozens/hundreds of units on these lines.”
Kiev’s forces are ‘probing in force’, with a gigantic main breakthrough force, elite soldiers trained and equipped by the Western allies, at the rear ‘ready to swing in as soon as the vanguard units find an opening’.
As we publish this, the attacks are ongoing, with Ukraine sending more and more ‘expendable’ forces to the slaughter, trying to find the weak link.
Emerald posted the transcript from Tucker’s final monologue at Emerald.TV.
Tucker starts out by blasting Jen Psaki, a top Democrat and totalitarian who believes freedom of speech is a thing of the past.
Members of Congress aren’t allowed to talk like this. The Constitution of the United States prohibits it. American citizens have an inalienable right to critique and criticize their political leaders. Our politicians are not gods. They’re instruments of the public’s will. They serve the rest of us, not the other way around. For that obvious reason, politicians can never censor our speech or try to control what we think. That unchanging fact is the basis of our founding documents, of our political system and our personal freedoms. As a former government official who claims now to be a journalist, Jen Psaki should know this, and defend America’s foundational principle. She refuses. Instead, Psaki nods along like a fan as Sandy Cortez calls for law enforcement to shut down news programming. The White House Correspondents Association and various other self-described advocates of press freedom stay silent too. Apparently they agree with Ocasio-Cortes, or they’re too afraid to say otherwise.
Tucker then goes on to discuss how Congresswoman and open Marxist AOC wants his show canceled.
She’s demanding that our show be canceled because the things we’re saying are quote, “very clearly an incitement to violence.” Is this true? Even accounting for the fact that people tend to hear what they want to hear, it is not true. It’s a lie, as anyone who watches this show knows. We are opposed to violence, not just philosophically but in practical terms. We’re against violent crime — the strong oppressing the weak. We’re against the horrors of late-term abortion and state-encouraged euthanasia. And above all we’re passionately opposed to the violent and pointless cruelty of the war in Ukraine, which the Biden Administration could end at any moment, thus saving the lives of innocents, but is instead prolonging purely for ideological reasons. Those are the things we dislike the most — the acts of violence our leaders endorse. Ocasio-Cortes is one of those leaders. She supports every one of those indefensible things, from abortion in the ninth month of pregnancy to extending the carnage in Ukraine. Who, honestly, is on the side of violence?
And Tucker Carlson then revisits the quandary of Ray Epps.
And where, we wonder, is Ocasio-Cortes on the question of Ray Epps? January 6th was a violent insurrection they tell us — and on the basis of that claim, they’ve turned the war on terror against America’s own citizens. We believe that is a false characterization. As we’ve said many times January 6th was not an insurrection, which is why no one has been charged for that crime. No guns were brought into the Capitol. No plans to overthrow the government have ever been found. It was not an insurrection. But there was violence. A Capitol police officer called Michael Byrd executed Ashli Babbit, an unarmed protestor, and was praised for doing it by politicians in both parties. Outside the building, a riot broke out. Windows were smashed; cops were assaulted. We were offended by this on the day it happened, and we said so. We still are. We’re against violence, whether it’s in Chicago, Ferguson, downtown Kenosha or on the west steps of the Capitol building in Washington. The main question from January 6th is, how did the violence start? Nearly two and a half years later, we still can’t say with certainty, but there are clues in the contemporaneous video tape. The night before the riot, for example, a man called Ray Epps was caught on camera encouraging protestors to breach the capitol.
The next day, as the violence began, Epps was filmed again doing the same.
Nine percent of adults identify as LGBT+, according to a 2023 survey conducted online in 30 countries by Ipsos for Pride month.
In this survey, LGBT+ includes people who identify as Lesbian/gay/homosexual, Bisexual, Pansexual/omnisexual, Asexual, Transgender, Non-binary/gender non-conforming/gender-fluid and Other than male or female.
Brazil has the highest share of people identifying as LGBT+, at 15 percent while Spain comes in a close second place with 14 percent of adults, followed by Switzerland (13 percent), Great Britain (12 percent) and the Netherlands (12 percent). Spain is the country where respondents were most likely to say they are gay or lesbian (6 percent) while Brazil and the Netherlands were where the highest share of respondents said they are bisexual (7 percent both).
Meanwhile, the United States comes in just above the 30-country average of 9 percent, with 10 percent of adults saying they identified as LGBT+ in 2023.
When looking at sexual orientation in the U.S., 3 percent of respondents identified as gay, 5 percent as bisexual and one percent pansexual or omnisexual.
At the lower end of the spectrum comes Ireland and Poland with 6 percent of adults identifying as LGBT+ in each. This contrast is somewhat surprising considering the countries’ vastly different stances on LGBT+ rights. Where Ireland legalized gay marriage in 2015 by popular vote with a landslide victory of 62 percent (versus only 38 percent no), Poland has seen a downturn of LGBT+ rights in recent years, with dozens of municipalities even declaring themselves so-called “LGBT-free zones”. Peru had the lowest share of people saying they were LGBT of the surveyed countries at only 4 percent.
There was also considerable variation across age groups: across the 30-country average, 18 percent of Gen Zers self-identified as LGBT+ population versus 10 percent of Millennials, 6 percent of Gen Xers and only 4 percent among Baby Boomers.
“After a review of the incident which took place on June 3, 2023, in the 800 block of Washington Street in the City of Reading, the District Attorney’s Office has withdrawn the charges of disorderly conduct filed against Damon Atkins,” a Tuesday Facebook post from the Berks County District Attorney reads. “The charges were withdrawn after the District Attorney’s Office reviewed the videos of the incident along with applicable case law.”
According to the Lancaster Patriot — which initially covered details of the arrest — an email from Berks County Commissioner Christian Leinbach said “from what I have seen thus far I believe this was an unlawful arrest and could open the City of Reading and their police department to legal action.”
What’s the background?
The incident took place Saturday outside City Hall at 815 Washington Street where the first annual Reading Pride March & Rally was underway. Reading is about 90 minutes northwest of Philadelphia.
The Patriot spoke to Atkins as well as the man who recorded video of his arrest, Matthew Wear.
Wear told the Patriot he’d been preaching to the Pride rally attendees prior to Atkins’ arrival, and the same officer who arrested Atkins also told Wear to knock it off. “A cop got in my face, laid hands on me, and threatened to arrest me if I didn’t stop,” Wear says on video.
The outlet said Atkins was standing on the public sidewalk holding signs just after 10 a.m. when trouble began for him, too. Wear’s video camera was on, and he captured the interaction between Atkins and the officer.
“This is public property,” Atkins told the officer — identified by the Patriot as Sgt. Bradley McClure — who agreed it was public property but still insisted that Atkins “let them have their event” and “respect it.”
Image source: YouTube screenshot
Atkins replied, “You know who’s cheering for us? The people that are in hell.”
The Patriot said Atkins later explained he was referring to the parable of the rich man and Lazarus in the Gospel of Luke, in which a rich man begs Father Abraham to send someone to warn his brothers about the place of torment he’s in.
As the officer turned and walked away, Atkins said, “So you do you, and I’m gonna do me.”
With that, Atkins began speaking, hollering, “You!” across the street and then uttering the words, “God is not” before the officer interrupted with, “That’s it! You’re done!” and arrested Atkins. The Pride rally attendees applauded.
Image source: YouTube screenshot
Atkins added to the Patriot that he was going to quote a portion of 1 Corinthians 14:33 — “God is not the author of confusion” — but didn’t finish speaking the verse as he was being arrested.
Moments later, when a handcuffed Atkins continued trying to speak to the Pride rally attendees, the officer turned him around and walked him up against a building’s outer wall.
Image source: YouTube screenshot
Soon the officer walked Atkins away from the rally as two other officers followed and sat him on a curb while his backpack was emptied.
“Sheer tyranny,” Wear — who was still recording video of everything — said about what was going down in front of his eyes.
Image source: YouTube screenshot
During this time, a Pride representative on a microphone mocked “protesters across the street” who managed to “get themselves in trouble with the police.”
The crowd loved it and began cheering. The man on the mic then urged the protesters to get “some love into that heart of yours.”
Check out the video below. Atkins’ arrest occurs just after the 1:50 mark:
Christian arrested in Reading Pennsylvania at a Pride March. youtu.be
What else?
The Patriot included in its initial report what it says is an affidavit of probable cause, which indicates the arresting officer said, “[Atkins] was carrying a sign with a slogan written on it that showed his opposition to the event.”
The outlet added that the affidavit also said the arresting officer indicated that Atkins “began to yell to the people” attending the Pride event.
“I immediately approached him and told him that, while he was free to stand on that side of the street and hold his sign, he could not cross the street nor yell comments intended to disrupt the event,” the affidavit read, according to the Patriot.
The officer added that Atkins “said he understood,” the outlet noted.
However, Wear’s video doesn’t appear to show Atkins agreeing to not “yell comments” at the Pride rally attendees, and Atkins added to the Patriot that he never agreed to the officer’s instructions.
More from the outlet:
A court document provided to The Lancaster Patriot shows that Atkins was charged with “Disorderly Conduct Engage in Fighting.”
A criminal complaint from the Reading Police Department provided to The Lancaster Patriot explains that a violation of the Disorderly Conduct statute entails “the intent to cause substantial public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm, or recklessly creating a risk thereof, he engages in fighting or threatening, or in violent or tumultuous behavior” and that Atkins “despite being warned by police just moments prior, yelled derogatory comments at an organization that was holding a permitted event.”
Former FBI agent Nicole Parker slams the agency for its targeted politicized attacks and says a fresh start is needed in the FBI amid increasing distrust from Americans on ‘Varney & Co.’ #foxbusiness
The Globalist WHO still clings to the idea of tyrannical “vaccine passports.” But the covid “vaccine” debacle has rightfully destroyed trust in the publicly displayed “experts.” Leaders of countries can pay lip service to the WHO, but this isn’t 2019 anymore. The window of trust has closed.
The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, led by GOP Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), has now scrapped plans to convene a vote to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress.
Comer had been after an unclassified FD-1023 form that the FBI generated, which contained allegations that then-Vice President Joe Biden took a bribe from a foreign national. The committee had issued a subpoena in early May, with a deadline of May 31, requesting all FD-1023 forms containing the name “Biden.”
The FD-1023 forms are used by FBI agents to collect unverified reports from various confidential human sources. The information on the form represents what was told to an FBI agent.
Comer and other House Republicans had threatened to hold Wray in contempt if he did not produce the documents. Earlier on Wednesday, the committee introduced a 17-page resolution (pdf) doing just that. A business meeting to have the full committee consider the resolution was scheduled for Thursday at 9 a.m. (EST).
But by late Wednesday, the committee announced that the FBI has decided to produce some documents— including the FD-1023 form Comer had been after—and that the committee’s business meeting on Thursday to vote on holding Wray in contempt was now scrapped.
“After weeks of refusing to even admit the FD-1023 record exists, the FBI has caved and is now allowing all members of the Oversight and Accountability Committee to review this unclassified record that memorializes a confidential human source’s conversations with a foreign national who claimed to have bribed then-Vice President Joe Biden,” Comer said in a statement.
“
Americans
have lost trust in the FBI’s ability to enforce the law impartially and demand answers, transparency, and accountability. Allowing all Oversight Committee members to review this record is an important step toward conducting oversight of the FBI and holding it accountable to the American people.”
(Left) House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) holds a news conference to present preliminary findings into their investigation into President Joe Biden’s family, in Washington on May 10, 2023. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images); (Right) FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee on the president’s 2024 budget request for the agency in Washington on May 10, 2023. (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images)
Ongoing Investigation
Comer said that the allegations contained within the unclassified record “are not closed as the White House and Democrats would have the American people believe.”
He noted that other FBI officials have said the record is being used in an ongoing investigation.
“We also know the confidential human source who provided this information is highly credible and trusted, has worked with the FBI for over a decade, and has been paid six figures,” Comer said of the unclassified FD-1023 form.
“The allegations contained within this record track closely with the Oversight Committee’s investigation of the Biden family’s influence peddling schemes. The Oversight Committee will continue to follow the facts and ensure accountability for the American people.”
Wray had told Republicans on May 31 that the document exists but the FBI has continued to be reluctant to hand the form over. The FBI previously told Comer in a letter on May 10 that releasing the forms could put their confidential sources at risk.
“Confidential human sources often provide information to the FBI at great risk to themselves and their loved ones,” the FBI said, in part, in the letter (pdf).
“Protecting the identities and information provided by confidential human sources from unnecessary disclosure or undue influence is therefore critical not only because of safety concerns but also to avoid chilling their candor or willingness to continue reporting to the FBI.”
Ranking Member Asserts Bribery Probe Was Closed
Former Attorney General William Barr earlier on Wednesday told The Epoch Times that the Department of Justice (DOJ) under his watch didn’t close an investigation into Biden, and that the FD-1023 form was “sent to Delaware for further investigation.”
The comments contradict assertions from House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.).
On June 4, while appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Raskin dismissed the investigation as politically motivated and contended that Barr’s DOJ closed the investigation while President Donald Trump was in office.
Raskin accused the Republican majority of “closing out” the Democrats and said that, as a result, he’s uncertain about the contents of the FD-1023 form. However, from public reporting, he said he understands the form suggests a connection to Hunter Biden’s business activities in Ukraine.
On Wednesday, Raskin said in a statement that he was told by the FBI that officials of the DOJ under the Trump administration looked into the allegations in January 2020 but closed the probe by August 2020.
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