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
I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. (Hosea 2:14)
The goodness of God sees us allured by sin, and it resolves to try upon us the more powerful allurements of love. Do we not remember when the Lover of our souls first cast a spell upon us and charmed us away from the fascinations of the world! He will do this again and again whenever He sees us likely to be ensnared by evil.
He promises to draw us apart, for there He can best deal with us, and this separated place is not to be a paradise, but a wilderness, since in such a place there will be nothing to take of our attention from our God. In the deserts of affliction the presence of the Lord becomes everything to us, and we prize His company beyond any value which we set upon it when we sat under our own vine and fig tree in the society of our fellows. Solitude and affliction bring more to themselves and to their heavenly Father than any other means.
When thus allured and secluded the Lord has choice things to say to us for our comfort. He “speaks to our heart,” as the original has it. Oh, that at this we may have this promise explained in our experience! Allured by love, separated by trial, and comforted by the Spirit of truth, may we know the Lord and sing for joy!
“And when he again brings the firstborn into the world he says, ‘And let all the angels of God worship him.’ And of the angels he says, ‘Who makes his angels winds and his ministers a flame of fire.’ Hebrews 1:6-7
They have been watching us since the beginning of time. A few people have had encounters with them.
We have always had a fascination with angels.
Consider these brilliant, powerful creatures who filled the night sky announcing Christ’s coming to the shepherds. At his darkest hour in the olive garden they appeared to strengthen their Lord, and on his glorious resurrection morning they moved the heavy stone, terrifying the soldiers guarding the tomb.
As we ponder their existence, remember their purpose. Many quietly minister to God’s people and serve their Lord who created them. It’s the fallen ones who make a great commotion. Be careful of these who disguise themselves to deceive men, supporting the atheist yet desiring our worship. That’s idolatry.
We’re warned not to listen to any angel bringing us a different message (Galatians 1:8) than the truth that Jesus, made lower than the angels for a little while, is now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death so that, by the grace of God, he might bring eternal life.
What about you? What voices do you hear? On the earth, evil spirits fight to get your attention. In heaven, there are voices of millions of angels and believers around the throne saying, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, riches, wisdom, might, honor, glory and blessing”(Revelation 5:12) as they all fall down and worship. So should we.
Precious Lord, you have redeemed us to God by your blood and are worthy of our praise. You alone deserve our worship. Thank you for making us sons and daughters and bringing angels to minister to us. Amen.
“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” Romans 8:37
Are you facing trouble or hardship or persecution? Is conflict in your marriage, a loss of a job or illness weighing you down? Has your family disowned you or your friend deserted you? Are you experiencing a famine of food or a famine of hope? Is there danger or death looming on the horizon?
Then let me remind you that:
God chose you. (Romans 8:29-30)
God is your powerful ally. (Romans 8:31)
God gave up His Son for you, so He will look after you. (Romans 8:32)
Nothing can separate you from God’s love. (Romans 8:39)
We can be confident of these truths because, “Jesus Christ, who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” (Romans 8:34)
Can death separate us from God’s love? No, because through Jesus we have the promise of eternal life. (John 3:16)
Can life isolate us from God’s love? No, because God has promised to be with us always. (Matthew 28:20)
Can angels or demons keep us from God’s love? No. Though there are spiritual forces at work in our world, God is greater than them all. (Matthew 10:28)
Can present troubles or future fears cut us off from God’s love? No, because God is the great “I AM”, the God who is and was and is to come. (Revelation 1:8)
Can any powers that man or Satan exert over us defeat God’s love? No, because the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. (1 John 4:4)
“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:37-39)
Thank you Holy God that because of Jesus, nothing can separate me from Your love. Amen!
Israeli prof predicts AI Bible: ‘There might be religions that are correct’ Yuval Noah Harari expressed his thoughts on the future of artificial intelligence (AI), suggesting that AI could write a new Bible. “In the future, we might see the first cults and religions in history whose revered texts were written by a non-human intelligence,” “This could become true very, very quickly, with far-reaching consequences.
Canadian Euthanasia Soars More Than 35%, Now Representing 4.2% of All Deaths Canada is one of only seven countries in the world where euthanasia is permitted, and in just a few short years, it has become arguably the most permissive of all. Legalized in 2016, deaths from euthanasia has increased year over year, growing between 30-36% each time. This trend shows no sign of stopping.
Philippine, US, Japanese coast guards carry out anti-terror drill in disputed waters “The exercises aim to build the relationship we have with Japan and the U.S. And this is not the first time we have had drills with both countries,” Lt. Junior Grade Jhenrich John Ibanez, a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman, told reporters. “This is purely coast guard-to-coast guard matters. This has nothing to do with China,” he said.
Woman Becomes A “Trans Man” Then Realizes Being A Man Is Too Hard The modern social narrative is that men have always held all the cards, held all the control and kept the good life locked up tight behind an almost supernatural barrier of male privilege and patriarchy. These beliefs have become so ingrained into progressive culture that they are now doctrine. Libs Of TikTok gives us some insight into the conundrum with a recent post of a woman who “transitioned” into manhood, only to discover that being a man is so hard she now understands why men are much more likely to commit suicide… Men are far more likely to deal with the struggle alone … .
North Korea’s Kim vows to ‘hold hands’ with Putin for strategic cooperation North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to “hold hands” with Russian President Vladimir Putin and bolster strategic cooperation on their shared goal of building a powerful country, state media KCNA reported on Monday. Kim made the pledge in a message to Putin marking Russia’s National Day, defending his decision to invade Ukraine and displaying “full support and solidarity.”
The Blessing And Cursing: Falling On The Wrong Side Of The Genesis 12:3 Ledger I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. The premise is straightforward. However, due to the fact that the leaders of most nations do not take the Word of God seriously, they completely reject the certainty of God’s declaration in this passage.
Billionaire George Soros hands control of empire to son A hedge fund manager turned philanthropist and major backer of liberal causes, Soros, 92, said he previously didn’t want his Open Society Foundations (OSF) to be taken over by one of his five children. But speaking of his decision to turn over the foundation and the rest of his $25 billion empire to his son, Alexander, 37, who goes by Alex, the elder Soros said: “He’s earned it.”
Former Vice President calls on Attorney General Merrick Garland to publicly justify the federal indictment against Trump. Former US Vice President Mike Pence on Saturday called on Attorney General Merrick Garland to publicly justify the federal indictment against former President Donald Trump in the classified documents case. Speaking during a speech at a North Carolina GOP convention in Greensboro and quoted by The Hill, Pence said that Trump is facing an “unprecedented indictment” from a Justice Department (DOJ) that is “run by” the current President, Joe Biden, adding that the day of Trump’s indictment was a “sad day” for the country. Pence said no one is above the law, but he has seen “years” of politicization from the DOJ,
With Trump, All Bets Are Off Of course, the gravamen of our decline is largely being spent on Donald Trump. Everything about him, from the day he first announced his candidacy for the White House, has been unprecedented—the rallies, the Access Hollywood tape, the insults and impulsivity, the two impeachment trials—none were ever seen before in American politics. And he liked it that way, and so did most of the people who voted for him. For a man who sat on a golden toilet, Trump curiously galvanized the great American unwashed. No one has ever made better use of bad publicity. The worse it gets, the more energized he seemingly becomes, and the more devotedly his base responds.
Khamenei: West would not be able to stop Iran from going nuclear Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Sunday that Western powers would not be able to prevent his country from obtaining nuclear weapons. He added, according to state media, “Accusations about Tehran seeking nuclear weapons are a lie and they know it. We do not want nuclear arms because of our religious beliefs. Otherwise, they [the West] would not have been able to stop it.”
An Iran arrangement would not obligate Israel, Netanyahu tells Blinken Netanyahu “reiterated his consistent position that returning to the nuclear agreement with Iran would not stop the Iranian nuclear program and that no arrangement with Iran will obligate Israel, which will do everything to defend itself,” according to a readout from the prime minister’s office. The Israeli leader also expressed appreciation for the U.S.-Israeli military and intelligence cooperation, “which is at an all-time peak,” and for recent “sincere talks” between the two countries.
Former Iranian crown prince says fall of ayatollah regime would have positive effect on entire Middle East Reza Pahlavi II, former crown prince of Iran and son of the deposed shah, says the fall of the current ayatollah regime in Iran would dramatically change the entire Middle East in a positive direction. “In the past 44 years, the whole image [of the Middle East] changed. Tension, conflict, radicalism, the nuclear threat, instability are all tied to what happened in Iran,” Pahlavi recently told The Jerusalem Post.
US reportedly warned Iran against enriching uranium to 90% During indirect talks in Oman last month, U.S. officials reportedly sent messages to Iranian oficials warning the regime against enriching uranium to 90% purity. The sources told Axios that the U.S. understood there would be a “heavy price” to pay if Iran proceeds with 90% uranium enrichment — the level needed to create a nuclear weapon.
Strong M6.2 earthquake hits Hokkaido, Japan A strong earthquake registered by the JMA as M6.2 hit Hokkaido, Japan at 09:54 UTC on June 11, 2023. The agency is reporting a depth of 140 km (87 miles). USGS is reporting M5.2 at a depth of 123 km (76 miles), and EMSC M6.2 at a depth of 112 km (69 miles).
Passport Scheme: Is the CCP Invading America Through Benedict Biden’s Southern Border Loophole? …Is there a fourth invasion happening as well? We’ve known there are tens of thousands of Chinese illegal aliens coming across; over 13,000 have been apprehended since October. But what if these aren’t just illegal aliens among the other masses from other nations? What if this is part of a planned infiltration?
Conservative AI Chatbot ‘GIPPR’ Shut Down by ChatGPT-Maker OpenAI We regret to inform our users that our chatbot provider, ChatGPT by OpenAI, is curtailing our free speech and forcing us to conform to their requirements for what can or cannot be said. They claim our GIPPR AI is not in compliance with their policies, “specifically related to deceptive activity and coordinated inauthentic behavior.” Nothing could be further from the truth!
CIA Slammed For ‘Dystopian’ Pride Tweet The CIA is the latest entity that has nothing to do with LGBTQ+ to demand everyone celebrate ‘Pride Month,’ despite having previously conducted ‘homosexual investigations’ and described gay people as “having mental or emotional problems”.
Japan Begins Secretly Releasing Irradiated Water From Fukushima Disaster Into the Ocean Tokyo Electric Power Company (better known as TEPCO) started releasing irradiated seawater from Monday afternoon into an underwater tunnel that has been built to release Fukushima nuclear contaminated water into the sea, Japan’s public broadcaster NHK said on Tuesday. According to TEPCO, the tunnel will be filled with some 6,000 tons of seawater by around noon on Tuesday.
Thousands of Dead Fish Mysteriously Show Up On Texas Coast Thousands of dead fish have washed ashore at Quintana Beach Park in Brazoria County, Texas. The massive amount of dead fish has many experts believing their cause of death is related to the recent heat wave in Southern Texas.
Covid Related News: Bad vaccines, bad treatments, bad doctors and nefarious viruses ….A shocking article in the British Medical Journal informs of six anonymous doctors launching a campaign against the British General Medical Council (“GMC”) for lack of action in silencing dissenting doctors. The article was written by one of BMJ’s editorial staff who also handles grants to the BMJ from George Soros’ Open Foundations.
Documentary: Unsustainable – The UN’s Agenda for World Domination Globalists in the power elite – working through the United Nations – are waging war against property rights, gun rights and capitalism to usher in a Marxist World Order. This war is known as “Agenda 21.”
No Collapse Is The Real Dystopia The nightmare is not the ‘collapse’… The nightmare is that they pull off the End of History, and things just gradually get worse – more crime, more poverty, more degeneracy, fewer services, and a population incapable of anything other than demanding larger doses of the poison…
“Without justice being freely, fully, and impartially administered, neither our persons, nor our rights, nor our property, can be protected. And if these, or either of them, are regulated by no certain laws, and are subject to no certain principles, and are held by no certain tenure, and are redressed, when violated, by no certain remedies, society fails of all its value; and men may as well return to a state of savage and barbarous independence.” —Joseph Story (1833)
The indictment of Donald Trump is grossly political and poses a dire legal risk all at once.
Nate Jackson
Two-tiered justice is not justice. We’ve noted that over and over again in recent years, and most often the subject of unjust personal vendettas in place of true justice is Donald Trump.
Few presidents have done more than Trump to put America First and Make America Great Again. Those aren’t just slogans. He put those things into practice, and we spent his entire four years in office repeatedly detailing and defending those myriad accomplishments.
Trump was elected, as we have also noted, to drop a metaphorical bomb on the DC establishment — to drain The Swamp and rein in the deep state. You don’t do that without angering a lot of powerful people who then try to make you pay.
Our Douglas Andrews covered the indictment of Trump by Joe Biden’s highly politicized and weaponized Justice Department Friday. A sitting president’s attorney general hired a supposedly independent cutout in Special Counsel Jack Smith to indict the president’s chief rival in the upcoming election. Anyone who doubts that’s grossly political hasn’t been paying attention for the last eight years.
“We have one set of laws in this country and they apply to everybody,” Smith proclaimed.
That this whole fiasco is a historic first belies that cruel joke.
Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Mike Pence, David Petraeus, Sandy Berger, and others have mishandled classified information with little or no consequence. Far more minor players — people without political connections or power — get the entire book thrown at them. So, apparently, does Trump. Nearly everyone professes to hate this double standard and yet it keeps happening.
That’s because no one wants their guy (or lady) to be the first one held to account. We all know it won’t bring a new era of fairness or respect for Rule of Law; it’ll just let the other team claim a scalp.
If one thing is certain about this whole affair with Trump and classified documents, it’s that the details of the case will matter to almost no one. The details are far too “in the weeds” for most short-attention-span Americans, so it’s a contest of narratives. Team Trump will argue that it’s the world’s greatest witch hunt. Team Biden will insist that someone so willfully at odds with the law must be held to account.
Whatever you thought of Donald Trump before the indictment, you likely still think of Donald Trump.
All that said, the indictment and its 37 charges have been unsealed and the case doesn’t look good for the former president. Don’t take our word for it. Ask his own lawyers, two of whom resigned, probably because he was such a terrible client (more on that in a minute). Those were the people trying to help him, not destroy him.
Yes, the indictment itself stands on some questionable footing likely in order to boost the charge count. More than 30 charges depend on the Espionage Act, which is seldom used for anything, and those charges are unlikely to stick. Besides, as the Wall Street Journal’s editors note, “It’s striking, and legally notable, that the indictment never mentions the Presidential Records Act (PRA) that allows a President access to documents, both classified and unclassified, once he leaves office.” That matters, they say, because “if the Espionage Act means Presidents can’t retain any classified documents, then the PRA is all but meaningless.”
However, to illustrate Trump’s legal peril, we’ll focus on just a couple of things.
First was the material he took and the circumstances in which he held it. The indictment says: “The classified documents Trump stored in his boxes included information regarding defense and weapons capabilities of both the United States and foreign countries; United States nuclear programs; potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to military attack; and plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack. The unauthorized disclosure of these classified documents could put at risk the national security of the United States, foreign relations, the safety of the United States military, and human sources and the continued viability of sensitive intelligence collection methods.”
We’ve argued that at least Trump stored physical documents at the Secret Service-secured compound known as Mar-a-Lago as opposed to sending classified emails over an unsecured server, in some cases from hostile foreign soil, the way Clinton did.
Yet the indictment notes, “The Mar-a-Lago Club was an active social club, which, between January 2021 and August 2022, hosted events for tens of thousands of members and guests.” On top of that, Trump stored documents “in a ballroom, a bathroom and shower, an office space, his bedroom, and a storage room.” In any event, it was “not an authorized location” for said documents, and it’s reasonable to conclude that it was reckless and irresponsible to maintain such files there.
Likewise for sharing such information with people who didn’t have security clearance, sometimes seemingly for the sole purpose of boasting.
What separates Trump from Biden or Pence is that, when confronted, the latter two men quickly turned over documents. (Whether that was complete compliance is another matter.) As he is wont to do, Trump fought and argued and lied all the way up until that FBI raid of his home. He claims to have declassified whatever he wanted to, but there is no record of him having done so. Posting on Truth Social is not sufficient.
Second and much harder to dismiss is Trump’s arm-twisting of his legal team and others. After receiving a grand jury subpoena to turn over the classified material he had kept, Trump met with his lawyers to discuss how to handle it. As former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy cleverly notes, “Not everyone was on the same page about what handle meant.”
Trump wanted his attorneys to essentially get rid of the evidence and obstruct justice the way Hillary Clinton’s attorney did. He told them what he considered to be the model for this:
He was great, he did a great job. You know what? He said, he said that it — that it was him. That he was the one who deleted all of her emails, the 30,000 emails, because they basically dealt with her scheduling and her going to the gym and her having beauty appointments. And he was great. And he, so she didn’t get into any trouble because he said he was the one who deleted them.
Trump exacted the only justice Clinton will ever face by defeating her in 2016. Now he wants to be just like her? He should be able to do whatever she did? That’s his defense?
“The evidence of this soliloquy — wherein it was Trump-splained that a ‘great job’ by a lawyer entails making incriminating evidence disappear and taking the fall for it so the client escapes jeopardy — does not come from Donald Trump’s enemies,” observes McCarthy. “No, the evidence comes from Trump’s lawyers. The people who were trying to minimize his criminal exposure and push back against his destructive tendencies. The people who were trying to help him.”
Trump has a habit of doing that to his people. Pushing them too far to defend his most self-destructive tendencies and then throwing them under the bus when they no longer serve his purposes. Mike Pence, call your office.
Speaking of people sporting tire treads, former Attorney General Bill Barr says of the indictment, “If even half of it is true, then he’s toast.” He called it “a very detailed indictment” and “very damning.” In fact, Barr continued: “This idea of presenting Trump as a victim here — a victim of a witch hunt is ridiculous. Yes, he’s been a victim in the past. Yes, his adversaries have obsessively pursued him with phony claims. And I’ve been by his side defending against them when he is a victim. But this is much different. He’s not a victim here. He was totally wrong that he had the right to have those documents … and he kept them in a way at Mar-a-Lago that anyone who really cares about national security would — their stomach would churn at it.”
Trump dismisses Pence, Barr, and a host of other administration alums as simply traitors who were never very good at their jobs anyway. Well, who picked them for their posts?
Back to the two-tiered justice, McCarthy adds: “It’s not that Trump is owed a pass. It’s that every official who is entrusted with access to the nation’s secrets, and who then betrays that trust by willful law violations and cover-ups, should be prosecuted. Every … single … one. And none of them has any business near power.” He adds, “The fix for a two-tiered justice system is not equal injustice under the law.”
That isn’t to say that the law isn’t in need of review. Undoubtedly too much information is classified and thus kept from the American people. Trump clearly and for good reason didn’t respect the system or the deep state that makes so many things classified, often for the purpose of obfuscation of corruption and abuse of power. He dropped a bomb on that system.
As for Trump’s other legal troubles, the case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is totally preposterous and ought to be laughed out of court. He’s not out of the woods with tax questions, though. Ultimately, the “far greater legal jeopardy,” argues journalist Julie Kelly, is “Smith’s ongoing investigation into January 6.” She says, “Potential charges include obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to obstruct, and witness tampering,” as well as “a seditious conspiracy count against Trump.”
Finally, a humble word to Republican voters if we may be so bold. As the primaries approach, many folks are motivated to support Trump for the Republican presidential nomination for two reasons: They believe he deserves a chance to finish the job he started and was unfairly and illegally blocked from completing, and Democrats are afraid of him.
The first part is absolutely understandable, even if Trump would be in his 80s by the end of another term. The second part is where voters might want to consider the Left’s strategy. Democrats want nothing more than for Trump to be the Republican nominee — indictments and all — because they think they can beat him a fourth time by stirring up the unmitigated hatred of millions of Americans.
Simply ask this question: Would Democrats rather talk about Dementia Joe’s economy or Trump’s indictments? The latter makes the 2024 election a referendum on Trump instead of Biden.
That’s undeserved and unfair. It’s also just the inconvenient truth.
The Sooners’ women’s softball team finished a spectacular season by unapologetically professing their faith in Jesus Christ.
Douglas Andrews
Dominance doesn’t begin to describe the Oklahoma women.
Yes, the Sooners beat Florida State 3-1 last Thursday night to win their third straight women’s softball national championship and fifth in seven seasons. Yes, they finished off the season with an eye-popping 61-1 record and a 53-game winning streak. And, yes, they became the first team in history to lead the nation in the key statistical categories for each part of the game — hitting, pitching, and fielding: They scored the most runs, they gave up the fewest, and they fielded the ball better than anyone else.
None of this, though, tells us about the inspiration behind this singular season — at least for some of the Sooners’ key players. As FaithIt reports: “Several Sooners are devoted Christians who boldly share their faith. They’re following the example of head coach Patty Gasso, who regularly glorifies God for His many blessings. Grasso credits God with changing her mindset years ago, shifting the focus from winning softball games to winning souls. ‘You open the door and let them in; I’ll take over from there,’ was God’s message to her.”
What a message. And what a testimonial from her players. During the post-game presser, when Oklahoma team captain Grace Lyons was asked by ESPN’s Alex Scarborough how she and her teammates handle the day-in, day-out pressure of their winning streak and maintain their joy throughout it all, she responded unequivocally.
The only way that you can have a joy that doesn’t fade away is from the Lord. Any other type of joy is actually happiness that comes from circumstances and outcomes. … Joy from the Lord is really the only thing that can keep you motivated — just in a good mindset no matter the outcomes.
Lyons’s teammate, Jayda Coleman, agreed “one-thousand percent,” noting that she was happy after having won the national championship as a freshman but didn’t feel joy. “I didn’t know what to do the next day,” said Coleman. “I didn’t know what to do that following week. I didn’t feel fulfilled and I had to find Christ.”
She continued: “I think that is what makes our team so strong is that we’re not afraid to lose because it’s not the end of the world if we do lose — obviously we’ve worked our butts off to be here and we want to win — but it’s not the end of the world because our life is in Christ and that’s all that matters.”
Said infielder Alyssa Brito:
This isn’t our home. … We have so much more. We have an eternity of joy with our Father, and I’m so excited about that. … No matter what, my sisters in Christ will be there with me in the end, when we’re with our King.
Women’s softball is somewhat unique among collegiate sports because its popularity is growing to the point where it actually competes for eyeballs with its men’s counterpart, baseball. As Scarborough notes: “The growth of college softball in recent years — 24 schools averaged more than 1,000 fans per game last season, up six from five years earlier, and 1.74 million people tuned in to watch the WCWS final last year, roughly 150,000 more than the men’s final — suggests that what the Sooners have accomplished is good for the sport. But parity is a legitimate concern when Oklahoma is winning 28 games by mercy rule and has a run differential of plus-442.”
Scarborough has a point about parity. Oklahoma has its pick of the nation’s best players. Not only was its roster stacked to begin with, but during the offseason, the Sooners picked up four additional players who were either All-Conference players or All-Americans at their previous schools.
“Is that good for the game?” Gasso asked. “It’s good for job security. … And people are like, ‘This is boring’ or ‘This is not good for the women’s game to have an elite team.’ But it’s our job, and I think for sport connoisseurs, they want to see what greatness looks like.”
Indeed, anyone who wants to see what greatness looks like need look no further than Norman, Oklahoma. Because something special there is making the country’s best players want to disrupt their lives, leave their chosen schools, and instead go to play for Patty Gasso.
Scarborough’s ESPN article is interesting, but not just because he offers a detailed and informative analysis of Oklahoma’s incredible season. No, what’s most interesting about his 2,700-word article are the words that are conspicuously absent: words like faith, Jesus, and God. We don’t know whether Scarborough is himself an embittered atheist or was simply under orders from his bosses at the notoriously left-wing ESPN to forgo any reference to the Sooners’ strong Christian faith. But we do know that he asked the question during the postgame interview, and he didn’t report the players’ answers.
Clearly, Scarborough’s glaring omission says more about ESPN than it does about the Oklahoma women. Indeed, it says more about our Leftmedia’s willingness to report on any topic under the sun except a resounding example of strong Christian faith.
Violating U.S. flag code, Hillary won’t go away, climate data is “corrupted,” and more.
Thomas Gallatin & Jordan Candler
Cross-Examination
Did Biden’s White House “Pride” flag display violate U.S. flag code? On Sunday, Joe Biden hosted a “Pride Month” celebration featuring the “Progressive Pride” flag being prominently hung between two U.S. flags on the White House balcony. Images of the White House flag display quickly generated controversy on social media with accusations of Biden having violated the law. According to U.S. Flag Code §7. (e), “The flag of the United States of America should be at the center and at the highest point of the group when a number of flags of States or localities or pennants of societies are grouped and displayed from staffs.” During the event, Biden claimed the LGBTQ folks are “some of the bravest and most inspiring people I’ve ever known,” asserting that they “set an example for the nation and quite frankly for the world.” Tell that to the families of Americans who died defending the flag Biden disgraces.
Hillary just won’t go away: In what amounts to gloating for being a member of the protected political insider class of America’s two-tiered justice system, Hillary Clinton used the occasion of Donald Trump’s indictment over mishandling classified documents as a fundraising opportunity. In a Twitter post, Hillary encouraged followers to buy her limited edition hats emblazoned with “But Her Emails” in an effort to raise support for her Onward Together leftist political slush fund. Effectively, her message to Trump amounts to, “Haha, I got away with it.”
Vast majority of climate data is “corrupted”: Climate change alarmists like Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez love to claim “the science” in defense of their extreme policy demands. Furthermore, they blast skeptics of their ideology as being “anti-science.” Well, a recent study found that upwards of 96% of U.S. temperature data that is relied upon to track climate change is “corrupted.” According to the study, titled “Corrupted Climate Stations: The Official U.S. Surface Temperature Record Remains Fatally Flawed,” just 4% of temperature stations in America used to measure climate change meet the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s “acceptable” standards. The primary corrupting factor for the temperature data is the presence of urban heat-trapping or heat-producing objects. Simply put, temperatures collected in hotter urban environments are throwing off accurate measurements of the actual global climate.
Tillis censured: The North Carolina GOP has disciplined one of its own. In a 799 to 361 vote on Saturday, Republican Senator Thom Tillis found himself censured due to his positions on hot-button cultural and political issues that diverge from the party’s platform. The three issues in particular that drove the decision were Tillis’s support for the pro-LGBTQ Respect for Marriage Act, gun control via red flag laws, and amnesty for illegal aliens. One of the delegates observed, “People felt like Senator Tillis no longer took account of our platform.” While the vote may prove to be embarrassing, Tillis has little to worry about, as he’s not up for reelection until 2026. The question is, does this signal a divide growing in the Republican Party in North Carolina and beyond?
Man wins big in women’s bike race: A man who identifies as a “transgender woman” won a North Carolina women’s bike race by a whopping five minutes over the second-place cyclist. Last Saturday, Austin Killips defeated his female opponents to take home the $5,000 prize. The second-place finisher observed that her power was “not comparable” to Killips and called for the creation of a separate category for “transgender” athletes. This was not Killips’s first win, as he won the Tour of Gila stage race in New Mexico last month. His win there prompted famed tennis legend Martina Navratilova to object, calling his victory “a joke.”
Headlines
Federal deficit tops $2 trillion over last 12 months (Fox Business)
IRS gets major power to request private tax info after Supreme Court decision (Yahoo Finance)
Biden names a Border Patrol veteran in Texas to be the agency’s next chief (NPR)
Biden let America get bullied by Saudis, leaked docs show (Free Beacon)
Saudis say they’re moving ahead with nuclear program, with or without U.S. (Free Beacon)
Extensive poll finds majority of Europeans unwilling to “take America’s side” in war with China (RedState)
California bill would charge any parent who doesn’t affirm transgenderism with “child abuse” (Daily Signal)
New York lawmakers pass bill that considers reparations for slavery (AP)
California port problems piling up amid labor negotiations (Fox Business)
Tony Award presenter calls DeSantis a KKK leader. Lefty theater crowd goes wild. (Daily Wire)
Toronto Blue Jays designate pitcher Anthony Bass listed for assignment after groveling apology (Hot Air)
Daniel Penny describes harrowing confrontation with Jordan Neely (RedState)
George Soros’s son takes over multibillion-dollar empire (Daily Wire)
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy says “counteroffensive and defensive actions” underway against Russia (Politico)
Russia to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus in July, Putin says (NBC News)
Boris Johnson resigns from Parliament after allegedly misleading MPs (Forbes)
Ted Kaczynski, known as the “Unabomber,” dies in federal prison (National Review)
Satire: Sad: Invitations to Unabomber’s funeral mailed out, but no one wants to open them (Babylon Bee)
The communist chess pieces are moving ever closer and endangering U.S. national security.
Emmy Griffin
Reports are that Cuba and China have negotiated plans to put a Chinese spy base on the Caribbean island. China sees it as an excellent tit-for-tat strategy since the U.S. has a presence in Taiwan. More importantly for the U.S., the spy base located in Cuba is 100 miles off the coast of Florida and would have the capability to intercept sensitive information from military bases in the southern United States.
The South is where most of the U.S.‘s military bases are located.
This seems like yet another serious development on the aggression front. China has been making increasingly aggressive moves against the U.S. This tension is in spite of White House assurances that it has everything under control and is keeping the communication channels open.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby acknowledged that the U.S. is aware that China has been building infrastructure in other countries. “While I cannot speak to this specific report, we are well aware of — and have spoken many times to — the People’s Republic of China’s efforts to invest in infrastructure around the world that may have military purposes, including in this hemisphere,” he said. “We monitor it closely, take steps to counter it, and remain confident that we are able to meet all our security commitments at home, in the region, and around the world.”
However, spy base infrastructure in Cuba isn’t the same thing as debt-trapping African nations, as China is wont to do.
When interviewed by MSNBC, Kirby actually denied the report of a Chinese spy base in Cuba. He told reporters: “We’ve seen the report. It’s not accurate.” Sadly, this administration has a long track record of obfuscation with the American public.
The real question is, what does Kirby really mean by “inaccurate”? Is it inaccurate just like the “malarkey” of President Joe Biden’s influence peddling?
Perhaps the inaccuracy is the timeline, as other sources suggest.
On Sunday, the Associated Press reported that there has been a spy base in Cuba since 2019.
So first, the administration denies the spy base. Then it claims a spy base in Cuba is old news. Next thing you know, it’ll explicitly blame it on former President Donald Trump. That seems to be this administration’s pattern with its poor performance on the world stage. The buck never seems to stop with Team Biden.
Perhaps Biden and his team believe they can talk their way out of this particular foreign policy dilemma, just like how Biden thought that U.S.-Chinese relations would “thaw” after the G7 summit in Japan. In both cases, the result seems to be executive branch weakness in the face of Chinese aggression.
Regardless of whether there has been a spy base in Cuba since 2019 or one is yet to be built, this is concerning information. China having a spy presence in Cuba threatens U.S. national security.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-OH) said: “Well, what we’re seeing is an unbelievable aggression by China. If you look at the balloon that flew over the United States, the Chinese police stations, the aggressiveness against our both planes and ships in international water, it goes right to the heart of what President Xi said when he stood next to Putin in Russia, where he said, they’re trying to make change that had not happened in 100 years.”
It seems that this administration is content to let the aggressive Chinese Communist Party get footholds in all the wrong places. For the U.S., it is akin to losing the game of Risk.
According to a new Gallup survey, the answer is yes — but some caveats apply.
Douglas Andrews
A greater percentage of Americans now identify as both socially and economically conservative than at any time in more than a decade.
That’s according to a new Gallup poll, which reports that 38% of respondents say they’re conservative on social issues, and 44% say they’re conservative on economic issues. Both of these are the highest numbers the poll has seen since 2012.
The numbers are based on Gallup’s annual Values and Beliefs survey, which was conducted from May 1-24. “The survey,” Gallup says, “comes at a time when many states are considering policies regarding transgender matters, abortion, crime, drug use and the teaching of gender and sexuality in schools.”
According to Gallup:
The increase in conservative identification on social issues over the past two years is seen among nearly all political and demographic subgroups. Republicans show one of the largest increases, from 60% in 2021 to 74% today. Independents show a modest uptick of five percentage points, from 24% to 29%, while there has been no change among Democrats (10% in both 2021 and 2023).
In recent years, economic issues have steadily enjoyed stronger conservative identification than the social issues. As Gallup reports:
When Americans are asked to describe their views on economic issues, 44% identify as very conservative or conservative, 33% moderate and 21% very liberal or liberal. The percentage saying they are conservative averaged 40% between 2020 and 2022. The current figure is the highest since 46% in 2012. Americans have consistently been more likely to say they are conservative on economic issues rather than liberal, by no fewer than 16 percentage points (in 2021).
All this is good news, we’d say, but some serious caveats apply.
The first bit of break-tapping we’ll do is to point out that Joe Biden is the least popular president in American history. For this reason, the numbers likely represent a greater dissatisfaction with his administration’s policies than with any sudden rediscovery of the virtues of conservatism.
The second cautionary note would be that neither 38% nor 44% represents a governing majority. That’s because the poll offers a third category, “moderate,” in addition to conservative and liberal, and plenty of folks are calling themselves moderate these days. This strikes us as a safe haven for self-conscious liberals who are too embarrassed to identify as liberal.
Consider, for example, that the 38% score for social conservatism is up from 33% last year, while the score for social liberalism has dipped from 34% to 29% during the same period. Meanwhile, a full 31% identify as moderates. That’s a lot of folks who, when push comes to shove, will still need plenty of convincing when the choice is between Republican and Democrat.
Again, the news is good, but it’s mostly because the alternative — the ruinous policies of Joe Biden — is proving so unpalatable. And the real question is whether this silver lining will translate to electoral success.
If Republicans can’t do a better job of harvesting the vote and winning elections both locally and nationally, then these encouraging polling numbers are ultimately just that — numbers.
Saudi Arabia is what it is — a feudal, authoritarian country that behaves like one.
Michael Reagan
Oil money, oil money.
When you have as much of it as Saudi Arabia has, it can buy a lot of things — including a sacred American sports institution like the PGA.
As all of us hackers know, the PGA Tour shocked the golf world this week by announcing it will merge with the LIV Tour, the upstart Saudi-backed professional golf tour that the PGA has been in a bitter legal fight with since last year.
The details of the nearly $3 billion deal are still unknown.
So is the impact it will have on the wallets of pro golfers and how much control it will give Saudi Arabia over the way professional golf is organized here and around the world.
The threat posed by the birth of the LIV Tour caused a lot of trouble for the PGA Tour.
By spending huge sums to lure stars like Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson into playing in its tournaments, LIV threatened the PGA’s virtual monopoly over the pro golf industry.
The lure of LIV’s money also created ill-feeling between golfers like Koepka, who took it, and stars like Rory McIlroy, who stayed with the PGA on principle and turned it down.
Meanwhile, the PGA management did everything wrong. It shamed the big names who left, held weeks of secret meetings with the Saudis and then sprang the LIV merger on the players without notice.
The PGA’s argument that golfers should not take the Saudi Kingdom’s money because of moral principles turned out to be hypocritical hogwash.
Saudi Arabia is what it is — a feudal, authoritarian country that behaves like one.
But it’s decades too late to ask anyone to take the moral high ground on Saudi Arabia, which does about $30 billion in trade with us each year. Every time you put gas in your car, you’re essentially doing business with them.
Now that the PGA has done a 180, however, McIlroy and other loyal players look like suckers and its execs have been exposed as hypocrites for trash-talking the players who took Saudi money.
At this point the PGA-LIV merger is confusing to everyone — the media, players and golf fans like me.
All I know for sure is that I couldn’t watch LIV tournaments on TV. I tried — and lasted two minutes.
I and millions of other viewers want to see the best players in the world playing the best golf in the world so we can sit at home and watch it.
We want to be following the Koepkas, Spieths and McIlroys, not the nobodies and never-winners.
The PGA tells us the merger with the Saudis and their oil money will be good for the game of golf in the long run.
Realistically, it’s mostly going to improve the bottom line of the PGA and fatten the pocketbooks of the top players.
It also might improve the way the PGA operates. Until now it has been in total control of pro golf and the golfers, who, for instance, had to play in a certain number of tournaments a year and were not allowed to be paid to enter one.
Now it looks like the players will get more control over their lives. If that turns out to be the case, the PGA-LIV marriage will be a great deal for the players.
The real problem with the merger right now, I think, is the bad optics.
It looks like the Saudis are buying up professional golf — one of America’s signature sports and our most popular global exports.
The Saudis may live in what looks like a gigantic sand trap, but they’re serious about diversifying their economy by investing heavily in the sports and entertainment industries.
They’ve got $600-plus billion sitting in their treasury, so they’re not going to run out of cash anytime soon.
But if they do, all they have to do is what they did the other day — yell “Fore!” and jack up the price of oil.
Joe Biden’s Senior Moment of the Week (Vol. 46) — He bumbled his way through press conferences, couldn’t remember the name of the most famous British prime minister of all time (Winston Churchill), and appeared to believe the Super Bowl took place this week.
Mark Levin Explodes on Trump Indictment — Fox News host Mark Levin discusses a federal grand jury voting to indict former President Donald Trump over his alleged mishandling of classified documents.
Socialism Ruins the Environment — Socialists say they care about the environment. John Stossel says the real world shows that capitalism works better.
Time to Grow Up and Get Back to Work — No one dreams of growing up and working for a company that censors their speech, tells them how to think, and judges them by their skin color or gender.
“This is a president who respects the rule of law.” —White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Olivia Dalton
“The thing about [Mike] Pence here is that when I lived in Indiana and I went to Notre Dame, he had a terrible approval rating because of the way he treated the AIDS crisis. Awful. A lot of people died because of him.” —”The View” co-host Sunny Hostin
Hot Air
“If we don’t deal with global warming, it’s the only existential threat that exists for humanity.” —Joe Biden
For the Record
“At noon on May 19, 1780, it looked like midnight. People thought the world was ending. Scientists later determined that massive wildfires in Canada sent massive amounts of smoke drifting down into New England. That was 243 years ago. There were no factories, no SUVs. The population of the world was many times smaller. Yet that massive wildfire happened. More recently, a similar event occurred in 1950. It was the same phenomena — huge Canadian wildfires broke out and the winds blew smoke into the U.S. In spite of all the left’s hyperventilating, this has nothing to do with climate change. If anything, it points out the hubris of suggesting that we can control climate change. … Sadly, the left will exploit anything, even nature and the weather, to gain power.” —Gary Bauer
Re: The Left
“We have to marvel at how quickly the Biden DOJ can move when it wants to. … Five months after AG [Merrick] Garland belatedly appointed Robert Hur to see if maybe Joe Biden, at some time during his half-century in Washington, might’ve perhaps possibly maybe stashed boxes of classified documents next to the Corvette in his Wilmington garage, or in some office in the Chinese intelligence-gathering building known as the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, Hur hasn’t even interviewed Joe Biden. But Jack Smith can put together a seven-count indictment against Trump in less than seven months. Don’t even get us started on Hillary Clinton’s willful defiance of the law with her unsecured server.” —Douglas Andrews
“To this point, the debate over the proper pronunciation of Ron DeSantis’ last name has gotten more coverage than the president possibly pocketing millions of dollars through shell corporations. … Of course, we expect jaw-dropping hypocrisy from politicians. We expect a politicized Justice Department to protect Democrats. Nowadays, we also expect the complete abdication of journalistic responsibility from a partisan big media. And that’s a massive problem.” —David Harsanyi
“In the current culture war dealing with the transgenderism cult and the whole LGBTQ+ movement, pedophilia is the next logical step in the slippery slope of ‘liberalism.’ If the premise and goal of liberalism is individual autonomy and freedom to pursue sexual goals of virtually any kind, then after destroying the gender binary, next is undermining and destroying the protection of children from sexualization and exploitation. If gender doesn’t matter, why should age?” —Emmy Griffin
Insight
“To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again: and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself — that was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word ‘doublethink’ involved the use of doublethink.” —George Orwell (1903-1950) in 1984
Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) joined The Brian Kilmeade and discussed why he feels the indictment of Donald Trump looks like an unequal system of justice based on past decisions not to indict Hillary Clinton or President Biden #FoxNews Listen to the full Podcast: https://bit.ly/3PYIfyZ
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In response to widespread public outcry following the indictment of former President Donald Trump, Joe Biden has ordered the military to shoot anyone who dares to refer to the United States as a “banana republic.”
“Listen up, folks. The United States is not a banana republic. Got it?” Biden said sternly in brief remarks to members of the media at the White House. “That’s just a bunch of malarky and anyone who tries to say it will be dragged into the street and executed. I don’t even like bananas. Greetenbarzarfit!”
The Biden administration has been accused of totalitarianism and weaponization of the Department of Justice against political opponents and dissidents, largely due to him implementing totalitarianism and weaponizing the Department of Justice against political opponents and dissidents. The White House continues to refute such claims. “This administration does not engage in oppressive tactics,” said black lesbian White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who is also a lesbian who is black. “Any claims to the contrary can only come from enemies of the state and will be met with swift and vengeful force to permanently silence them.”
Attempts were made to reach prominent critics of the administration for comment, but many of them were being held in federal custody without trial or under gag orders due to pending indictments.
At publishing time, as the Biden administration was issuing its latest denial of exercising dictatorial rule, it was simultaneously ordering the construction of a large number of gallows to line the streets of Washington, D.C. to prepare for mass public hangings.
This little girl was just looking at clothes and Barbies — but Bullseye the Target Dog had other plans for her.
Sixty-nine percent of Americans now believe that transgender athletes should only be allowed to compete on teams that align with their biological gender, a 7 percentage point increase from two years ago, according to a new Gallup poll.
President Trump vowed on Monday to go after the “MOST CORRUPT PRESIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE USA, JOE BIDEN, THE ENTIRE BIDEN FAMILY, & ALL OTHERS INVOLVED” with the destruction of our elections, borders, and country itself.
President Trump: NOW THAT THE “SEAL” IS BROKEN, IN ADDITION TO CLOSING THE BORDER & REMOVING ALL OF THE “CRIMINAL” ELEMENTS THAT HAVE ILLEGALLY INVADED OUR COUNTRY, MAKING AMERICA ENERGY INDEPENDENT, & EVEN DOMINANT AGAIN, & IMMEDIATELY ENDING THE WAR BETWEEN RUSSIA & UKRAINE, I WILL APPOINT A REAL SPECIAL “PROSECUTOR” TO GO AFTER THE MOST CORRUPT PRESIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE USA, JOE BIDEN, THE ENTIRE BIDEN CRIME FAMILY, & ALL OTHERS INVOLVED WITH THE DESTRUCTION OF OUR ELECTIONS, BORDERS, & COUNTRY ITSELF!
In 2016 President Trump also vowed to bring Hillary Clinton to justice. This was after she erased over 30,000 subpoenaed emails on the Clinton Foundation and government emails. Hillary kept the classified emails on a server in her bathroom at home.
After his victory in 2016 President Trump did not launch any investigations into Hillary Clinton and her family. This was a major mistake.
The radical Marxists running the country today will only respond to force. They don’t seem too worried about any upcoming investigations.
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) June 11, 2023
Two outstanding highlights and the full clip below.
The hard truth is that our laws vest *tremendous authority* in the President to make severe and sometimes awful judgments – to drop nuclear bombs, to invade Iraq in the name of WMDs, to botch an Afghanistan exit that leaves our weapons in the Taliban’s hands. That also includes… pic.twitter.com/fvARNkOTnQ
House Oversight Chairman James Comer Sunday evening told Fox News host Trey Gowdy that other FBI documents detailing Biden’s bribery schemes exist.
Last week GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene revealed some of the details from the FBI form 1023 related to Biden’s bribery scheme.
The Ukraine-Biden-bribery evidence was first presented to the FBI by a trusted, highly credible, well paid informant back in 2017.
According to MTG, the bribery allegations appear to involve Mykola Zlochevsky, the Ukrainian oligarch who hired Hunter Biden to serve on the board of Burisma Holdings.
“He [Burisma owner] paid $5 million to one Biden and he paid $5 million to another Biden and it was all a bribery to get Shokin fired and end the investigation into Burisma,” MTG said.
According to Marjorie Taylor Greene, the informant said the Burisma owner claimed to have two pieces of evidence showing proof of payment to Hunter and specifically Joe Biden.
Chairman Comer said there are more FBI documents alleging Biden family bribery schemes.
“We had whistleblowers approach Senator Grassley about their concern that there was this form 1023 in existence and the FBI had never investigated it,” Comer said. “Senator Grassley and I got on the phone with Director Wray, and Senator Grassley told Director Wray that both Senator Grassley and myself had already read the form 1023 from a whistleblower, so we knew darn well it existed.”
Comer said he realized there were two footnotes in the 1023 form that referenced other 1023s.
“Once the FBI allowed me and Jamie Raskin, my counterpart on the House Oversight Committee, to go in and look at it, I read it again and then realized that there were two footnotes in there that referenced other 1023s,” he said.
“This is going to turn out, I think, a lot like the suspicious activity reports that the Treasury Cabinet had on the Bidens,” Comer said. “There are a lot more of these than what the federal government wants to admit, and the question is, why hasn’t the federal government done anything about it?”
There are at least 20 shell companies in Biden’s orbit that were laundering money from foreign nationals.
“Here’s what we know. There are 20 shell companies at least, and probably more, that were laundering money from foreign nationals, including Romania, and money was being sent less than two weeks after Joe Biden left there as vice president, delivering foreign aid and talking about foreign policy. This form 1023 alleges the exact same thing happened in Ukraine,” Comer said.
For all the friends who have been asking “why don’t we see you on Fox anymore?” — This is why. I am passionately committed to free speech and a free flow of information necessary for a free society. Until Fox stops trying to silence Tucker, it’s not a place for me. And I feel for…
Fox Newshas sent a “cease and desist” letter to Tucker Carlson as he ramps up a competing series on Twitter that drew a combined 169 million views for its first two episodes, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: The contract battle between Fox and its former top host — who was taken off the air in April, after the network’s historic Dominion settlement — has mighty repercussions for the conservative media ecosystem.
With “Tucker on Twitter,” Carlson and his growing production team are working to elevate Elon Musk’s social media site as a news platform.
Details: The cease-and-desist letter has “NOT FOR PUBLICATION” in bold at the top.
What’s happening: Fox is continuing to pay Carlson, and maintains that his contract keeps his content exclusive to Fox through Dec. 31, 2024.
Carlson is making a First Amendment argument for posting on Twitter, and asserts that Fox has committed material breaches of his contract.
Behind the scenes: Carlson’s first two Twitter episodes were straight-to-camera monologues. He plans to keep iterating with longer, more varied episodes and the addition of guests, Axios is told.
We hearsome big names have been lined up.
Justin Wells,Carlson’s executive producer, tweeted yesterday: “Next Episode of Tucker on Twitter coming Tuesday: Tucker’s response to the indictment of President Donald Trump.”
Subscribe to my #LionelMedia exclusive subscriber channel for critical analysis and commentary that bravely deal with troublesome truth verboten in conventional arenas. ➛ https://bit.ly/3kveTeh
“Dare to think for yourself.” — Voltaire
We have simple goals here at LionelNation. Truth, plain and simple. Bold and brave exploration of facts. The epistemology and ontology of the obvious. Nothing more. Nothing less.
The indictment of former President Donald Trump looks like something out of a banana republic. With his numbers among the lowest of any president, Biden’s justice department (sic) decides to threaten his leading opponent with 100 years in prison? It’s going to backfire! Also today: J6 cops were provocateurs? Finally, “mis”-gender your kid, lose your kid in Cali. Watch today’s Liberty Report:
The nation’s largest Protestant denomination has seen a decline in membership for years and a drop in the overall number of congregations. At the same team, the ongoing debate about women pastors in the Southern Baptist Convention is reaching a boiling point.
Former Saddleback Church Pastor Rick Warren recently issued a tough challenge to the SBC by calling it out for what he calls “hypocrisy” when it comes to the role of women in the church.
“Hypocrisy: the 2023 SBC will kick out churches for having a woman preach while honoring Charles Stanley, SBC president who was saved through a woman preaching!” Warren tweeted.
When Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall and took a big fall, “all the king’s horses and all the king’s men could not put Humpty-Dumpty together again.”
I see a similar fate for the US debt egg, whose cracks are just about, well… everywhere.
Cracks in the Debt Egg
The first obvious (but media ignored) signs of this breaking egg emerged in September of 2019, when the TBTF banks no longer trusted each other’s collateral and the repo markets spiked overnight, prompting Uncle Fed to be the lender of last resort to its spoiled little banking nephews.
This required hundreds and hundreds of billions in mouse-clicked liquidity.
But then again, what does a billion or trillion even mean anymore to a mouse-clicker and $31+T (and growing) Public debt?
Numbers, like debts, have effectively become abstractions in what I previously described as a “banalization of debt.”
Since the repo crisis, as Uncle Sam’s twin deficits expanded at a fairytale pace alongside rising rate policies which neutered the price of sovereign bonds and hence the balance sheets and the life-cycles of regional banks, the Humpty-Dumpty US arrived at yet another climatic debt-ceiling reality-check.
Can-Kicking the Breaking Egg
As predicted, this “crisis” was “solved” by a predictable can-kicking of its debt responsibilities (and reality-checks) into a post-election-cycle.
How politically convenient.
In fact, political convenience at the expense of economic common sense or fiscal accountability is the very hallmark of our math-blind yet power-smug “representatives” in DC.
For those paying attention, however, the US not only voted past it’s $31.4T debt ceiling, it removed/suspended that ceiling all together.
This effectively allows the children in DC to borrow and spend without limit until 2025.
In short: The Humpty-Dumpty debt egg is getting fatter and fatter, and wobbling on the wall.
How a Dollar-Thirsty Humpty-Dumpty Wobbles
Having artificially “solved” (postponed) an otherwise very real/toxic debt crisis, the post-debt ceiling policy makers will now have to decide where the much-needed liquidity will come from to keep Humpty Dumpty alive, as debt (paid for with synthetic liquidity) is the only thing keeping him from a fall.
Re-Filling an Empty Treasury—Complex Games, with No Winners
Toward this end, the question is now about how much the US Treasury is willing to “liquify” (refill) a very thirsty Treasury General Account (TGA), which has been the invisible source of funding to offset the Fed’s mid-2022 policy of so-called balance sheet “tightening”?
Whenever Powell grabs headlines for “tightening” liquidity, the TGA quietly provides more of the same behind a TGA curtain of complexity.
But now that TGA needs a re-fill of USDs to continue this charade of musical-dollar-chairs.
Stated simply, there is a great big “sucking sound” coming from the TGA, which is thirsty, very thirsty for USDs.
Where Will the “Money” Come From?
Should the US Treasury make a generous liquidity injection into the TGA from bank reserves, this will dry up other corners of a breaking US system equally thirsty for similar injections of USDs.
In short: This liquidity option is dangerous and unlikely.
Alternatively, however, the Fed’s Reverse Repo liquidity water-cannon could spray the TGA with the necessary liquidity (USDs) to buy more of Uncle Sam’s IOUs and thus buy the TGA’s borrow-and-spend system more time rather than solutions.
In the past, the banks were buyers of these IOUs, but we all know how well that worked for them in 2023…
So, once again, and amidst all this deliberate DC confusion, the simple question remains: Who will buy the IOUs (Treasury Bills) needed to keep Humpty Dumpty alive?
The US Treasury’s bank reserves? The Fed’s Reverse Repo Program? The UST-weary banks? The Money Market Funds?
Yes, The Bond Market Is Still the Thing
To see through this maze more clearly, one must always look at the bond market, however “boring.”
If the Fed keeps raising rates and tightening its balance sheet, those T-Bills needed to keep Humpty Dumpty on the wall will fall in price and hence rise in yields, becoming far more expensive for Uncle Sam to repay?
This is a problem.
Yellen In a Corner and Waking to Reality?
But perhaps far more important, and far less discussed or understood, is Yellen’s preference to issue IOUs to refill the TGA from the short end of the duration spectrum (i.e., short-term T-Bills) rather than longer-term UST bonds.
But would it not be cheaper for Uncle Sam to issue longer-term bonds at lower yields (interest expense) to continue his debt orgy of extend and pretend?
In short: What the heck is going on behind the scenes of Yellen’s Treasury Department?
Yellen, many argue, is still under the illusion that the UST market in general, and the US T-Bill market in particular, is the safest, most loved and hence most liquid IOU in the world.
But even Yellen can not have ignored the simple fact that a post-sanction world of weaponized dollars is dumping (rather than buying) those IOUs and stacking gold instead…
Perhaps Yellen is now desperately aware that to keep the debt Humpty Dumpty egg alive, she’ll now have to issue more and more “yield-sexy” (but harder-to-repay) T-Bills to buy time in a debt-soaked nation that is running out of time?
But far more ominously, perhaps Yellen is slowly coming to a sober conclusion which the markets and mathematical realists understood long before the fork-tongued policy makers, namely: Uncle Sam’s debt cancer is simply too fatal to cure with longer-duration bonds—or at some point, any bonds at all.
For now, a desperate Yellen has no choice but the last resort of issuing more of the sacred yet more expensive T-Bills to keep the yield-curve from inverting to levels so grotesque that the sound of Humpty Dumpty’s fall would echo through eternity.
Back to Basics: The Fed as Buyer/Lender/Spender of Last Resort
But the question still remains: Who will buy these T-Bills/IOUs at levels (trillion-dollar) necessary to cushion Humpty-Dumpty’s fall?
My opinion, and for now, it is only an opinion (one based on flow probabilities, the math of interest expense Realpolitik, the reality of UST-weary banks and the historical lessons of nations over their skis in debt) is that the ultimate buyer of Uncle Sam’s debt will be the Fed itself.
In short, and as warned since quantitative tightening began in earnest in 2022, I still see an unavoidable and inevitable pivot to either open QE or hidden repo/reverse repo QE once Powell’s “higher-for-longer” efforts to become Volcker-reborn are won at the expense of Humpty Dumpty’s demise.
Stated otherwise: Once the tightening and rate hiking breaks the national economy into a dis-inflationary or even deflationary spiral, the thirst for more mouse-clicked and inflationary trillions will be obvious.
Save the System or the Currency?
This thirst will force the system into a stagflationary “solution” of more fake, debased money in which the currency is sacrificed to save an otherwise unworthy, rigged and broken “system.”
I’ll say it again: In the end, the last bubble to “pop” is always the currency.
From Humpty Dumpty to Gold
It’s no secret that gold is insurance for currencies already dying.
Regardless of the USD’s relative (but ever-weakening) strength/hegemony, its (and other currencies’) inherent purchasing power when measured against gold has fallen by greater than 98% since Nixon closed the gold window in 1971.
Many can, will and do anxiously track and ask about the daily gold price, a price, which, is ironically measured in increasingly worthless fiat currencies.
This price fixation is especially true (and understandable) of speculators and traders.
But we are gold investors and wealth preservers. As such, our perspective, bias and convictions are comfortably patient and far-sighted.
We feel that measuring gold, as well as one’s own wealth, in such fiat fantasy is a dangerous and consensus-driven habit, and thus we measure wealth in ounces and grams not euros, dollars, pesos etc.
Gold, unlike the various US bonds discussed above, are of infinite duration and finite supply.
This so-called “pet rock” (of which central banks just bought over 1100 tons in 2022) serves as a constant as the USD races and scatters about the repo, Eurodollar and derivative markets in a complex, and often sexy madness which hides the fact that it is just a player in a familiar and losing game in which all fiat money reverts to its zero mean.
From Humpty Dumpty to the Big Bad Wolf
To the many who cannot conceive that tomorrow will be different than yesterday, or that
the USA
and its USD are not immortal, such statements are castigated as “sensational.”
If, however, one steps back and objectively observes the slow but steady history of the Greenback, it becomes undeniable that gold never really rises, currencies just fall.
Like the fable of the Three Little Piggies, there will always be those who prefer building their homes of straw and mud to have more time to enjoy the seductive call of rising asset bubbles and pet rock jokes.
After all, who can deny the high-times (and record-breaking wealth inequality) handed to us by years of an asset-inflating yet price-discovery-destroying and capitalism-killing central bank whose decades of fake liquidity and unprecedented debt have created an artificial sense of endless pleasure.
I mean, this was pretty fun, no?
But that Big Bad Wolf of rising debt levels and disingenuous policy makers is lurking beyond the tree line and occasionally smiling at the happy little piggies playing (or politicking) in the distance.
Soon, the debt wolf will stand, stretch and roll his mighty neck.
Then he will slowly trot, then cantor and finally gallop toward the straw and mud huts, and “he will huff, and he will puff and then blow those houses (and Humpty Dumpty) down.”
We feel, however, that the little piggy who built his financial house of bricks rather than straw is very much like those few nations, enterprises and individuals (the 0.5%) who have been quietly purchasing physical gold.
When the debt wolf comes, only the strongest houses will thrive – and it’s not always in the “houses” you’d expect.
Truth2Freedom's Blog 