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
“The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes … Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.”
Christians often seem to have a paradoxical relationship with God’s law.
Sometimes, we misapply Paul’s teaching that we’re not under law but under grace (Romans 6:14) to suggest that all of the law was only for Old Testament times. Back then, the error goes, God’s people did as they were told and obeyed the Ten Commandments; now, we can do whatever we want because we live in freedom. But with such a perspective, it’s difficult to understand the psalmist’s love for God’s law. He didn’t see the law only as something that had to be done—as a means to an end—but recognized it in itself as a source of restoration, joy, and blessing. That should be no less the case for believers today. It is true that we’re no longer under law as a means of acceptance with God; but we are still to see the law as a means of living for God. We have been redeemed so that we might be the firstfruits of God’s new creation, dedicated to God by doing His will—and we find His will in His law!
Jesus told us, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32). The liberating power of God’s word will only do its work when we hold on to the truth in obedience to what Jesus said.
The apostle James described God’s law as perfect, giving us freedom (James 1:25). In Christ, this law is no longer external to us, written on tablets of stone. It is now written on our hearts: “The Holy Spirit also bears witness to us … ‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds’” (Hebrews 10:15-16).
This is the paradox: our freedom in Christ is tied directly to our obedience. Disobedient people think they’re free, but really they’re in bondage to sin. Obedient people may at times feel constrained, but they’re in freedom, no longer enslaved to the impulses of a sinful nature. The greater our obedience, the greater our freedom, for the more we obey our Creator who told His image-bearers to enjoy being blessed (Genesis 1:28), the more we are living in line with the people we were made to be.
The psalmist recognized this paradox and therefore could rejoice in God’s law. So should we. If you want to know freedom from guilt, lust, fear, loneliness, aimlessness, and emptiness, you must abide in the truth. As you walk in obedience to God’s law, you will discover true freedom that revives your soul, bringing unending joy and unimaginable blessing along the way. In what way are you struggling to live under God’s law today? That will be the place where you can experience the paradoxical freedom of obedience.
The book of Hebrews is one of my favourite books in the Bible. After all, the epistle is a tribute to the incomparable Son of God and naturally, it should be the disposition of every believer to love the Word of God, particularly that which exalts the precious name of Jesus. But the book also has another purpose, because the writer of Hebrews feared that his Christian readers were wavering in their endurance. As Christian leaders, we may sometimes fear the same. The world, particularly today, is a stressful place. All around us, believers are facing pressure to forsake the image of God and conform to the image of the world. Many, not willing to suffer the cause of Christ will do so. After all, many want the settling comforts of nice homes, fancy cars, expensive holidays, not the scourge of suffering. Yet, the Bible paints a different picture – the suffering comes first, then the settling.
1 Peter 5:10-11 KJV – “But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.”
Outside of the time period of Christ’s first advent, I believe the church is living in the most exciting time of mankind’s history. Yet, outside of a small remnant, it is showing the least amount of interest. How did this happen? With the ever-present help of the Holy Spirit, with all of the prophetic Scripture readily available in the Word and with all of the capable Bible teachers and commentators worldwide, how did the church come to be in such a state of spiritual lethargy that it is not buzzing with excitement over the imminent trumpet call of the rapture? Perhaps the church has overlooked the clear teaching of 1 Thessalonians 5:5-7: “Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.”
If I may make an observation – many Christians have simply decided to go into spiritual cruise control. Yet, let us not forget that we have an enemy who seeks no rest from his mission. You may sleep, but you can never convince the devil to.
1 Peter 5:8 KJV – “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:”
John 10:10 KJV – “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
Now I am not suggesting that the Christian should not rest. Rest is a necessary element of our life, ordained by God. However, many people have become convinced that rest and spiritual lethargy are the same. They are indeed not. Probably the most discouraging aspect of this is that many have grown accustomed to a static condition and have succumbed to a spirit of lethargy. Perhaps we can appreciate this parody of the hymn “Onward Christian Soldiers”:
Like a mighty turtle,
Moves the church of God;
Brothers, we are treading,
Where we’ve always trod.
Napoleon Bonaparte was quoted as saying: A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of coloured ribbon. In his army, men endured physical pain, illness or even the sacrifice of an arm or leg just for an approving nod from their leader. Has the modern church cast aside the desire to hear those sweet words, “well done good and faithful servant” when we stand before our Lord?
When speaking on spiritual lethargy (and those who fall asleep in worship!), Jonathan Edwards once exhorted others who were alert not to leave their brothers and sisters to sleep, but to encourage them to awaken: “Here I would particularly desire that you would not suffer those that sit by you, to sit sleeping at meeting; but wake one another, when anything of that appears. And let none of the godly give way so much to their corruption as to take it ill, when others admonish them, when others jog them to wake them, either out of their natural sleep in time of public worship, or their spiritual sleep, by friendly admonition.”
As it is with the body, so it is with the soul – there are many factors that will induce sleep. One of them is inactivity. The antidote is simple – be active. And in the context of our spiritual life, this means being active for the Lord. There is always somebody who needs help; always somebody who hasn’t heard about the love of Christ; always somebody that could use your shoulder to lean on. Ask God to lead you to them and ask Him to give you the grace and strength to help them.
Darkness also induces sleep. There are a number of influences in the world which work against us in the Christian life. As A. W. Tozer once said: “There are only three directions from which danger comes to the Christian life. They are the world through which we journey, the god of this world and our own mortified flesh.” The darkness of a night does not come suddenly, but gradually. So too Satan will gradually bring darkness into your life – little sins, things that are not necessarily criminal but certainly worldly, immoral, unscriptural and un-Christ-like.
Quietness also induces sleep. Nobody could sleep next to a constantly firing cannon but put them in a comfortable hammock in the quiet countryside and sleep will come without resistance. Sometimes the enemy will convince you that you don’t need to fellowship with other believers or you don’t need to read the Word of God. He will convince you to isolate yourself from the still small voice of God and then have you believe that the resulting silence is comforting and peaceful.
There is a largely unknown missionary by the name of Egerton Ryerson Young. He was a Wesleyan Methodist minister born in Ontario who served as a missionary amongst the Cree and Ojibwa Indian tribes in northern Manitoba from 1868 to 1876. Because it was difficult to travel during the day as a result of the glare from the snow, he often had to travel at night. However, he once recounted the story of nearly freezing to death. During the experience he said he heard the sweetest music, while everything about him was draped in the colours of the rainbow. He could hardly resist the temptation to drop down on the snow as someone would drop down into a luxurious lounge and fall asleep. Suddenly startled by the thought that he was freezing to death, he sought a remedy. He tied the tail-rope of his sled around his waist and gave his dogs the word to go. Off they went, dragging him through the snow and bumping him against every hard thing along the way until the blood began to circulate around his body again. He said that the process of resuscitation was as painful as the freezing was delightful! He felt as if there was a hot poker probing every nerve throughout his body. Yes, the waking process was painful, but he determined that it was better than the alternative – to sleep on and die to all the work that was left undone.
A number of years ago, a man and his wife were given the opportunity to move to a Western country. They gladly accepted. They were living in an Islamic nation at the time and were excited to be granted the opportunity to live openly as Christians amongst the company of other believers. However, after living in their host country for a period of time, the wife began to plead with her husband to take them back to their country of origin. Why? She told him, “It’s like there’s a satanic lullaby playing here and the Christians are asleep. And I feel like I’m falling asleep! Please, let’s go back!” And so, they did.
Spiritual lethargy is a serious problem in the church today. Many have come to believe that the biggest battles of the church are now behind us and we will be the generation that is carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease.
Friends, rest is coming, and it will be glorious. But for now, it is time to press on. Not only for our sakes, but for the sake of those who have yet to hear of the Saviour who died for them.
Funerals are hard enough for believers, but what do you say at an unbeliever’s funeral service?
Sympathy and Compassion
Funerals are hard enough for believers, but what do you say at an unbeliever’s funeral service? The Bible commands us to weep with those that weep (Rom 12:15). It doesn’t say we should not weep for unbelievers too. At finding Lazarus four-days-dead, Jesus’ wept (John 11:35). We too should weep for those who pass, and weep for those left behind, saved or not. We are all human and it’s good to grieve and cry for this is part of the healing process. Regardless of whether the person was saved or not, we must always show compassion and sympathy to those left behind. That’s what they need the most right now…not judgmental talk about “He’s probably in hell now” or “He/she’s in a better place now.” God alone knows, but whether the deceased person was saved or not, we must show love and compassion to those they’ve left behind. Let the normal part of human grieving do its work and move alongside the grieving family members and help in any way possible that you can, even if it’s saying, “I’m so sorry…I wished I knew what to say that would help.”
Speak the Truth
In all things, we must speak the truth, including at funeral services or memorial services for those we believe or we know were not saved. It helps no one who is not saved by failing to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Gospel is that unless they trust in the Savior, they are saying “Goodbye” to them and not as to the saved, “See you later.” If there was a bridge out around the corner on a highway, we’d likely get out of the car and boldly warn others and say, “Stop! Stop! The bridge is out.” If they proceed to drive around the blind corner and die, then their own blood is on them, but if we fail to say anything and are silent, we’re culpable in their death. In the same way, when death has shown up in a family’s life, we must warn other living family members and their friends at the funeral that “Today is the day of salvation” (2 Cor 6:2). Tomorrow may not even come. We must warn they living while they are yet alive because judgment comes after death (Heb 9:27), so plead with them my brothers and sisters. Pray for them to be reconciled back to God through Jesus Christ (Rom 10:9-12).
No Speculating
If we seem certain that the person who has passed away was not a believer, we should still show compassion to those they left behind, but we can’t sugarcoat it and say, “They’re in a far better place now” or “They’re reunited with their loved one now…” We must not say what is not or may not be true. We must remain faithful to the Gospel and that is only through a saving, personal relationship with Jesus Christ can we be saved (John 3:16-17) and spared from the wrath of God (John 3:18, 36b). There is simply no other way anyone can be saved (Acts 4:12). Unless we warn those still living of the wrath to come, they’ll never see their need to trust in the Savior. The person who passed away may have been seen as a good person, but no human goodness is acceptable to God (Rom 3:10-12; Eph 2:8-9). Unless they have the righteousness of Christ, they will not be in the Kingdom of Christ. And to be shut out of the kingdom is a fearful thing (Rev 21:8). It might seem harsh to preach about God’s wrath, but it makes God’s mercy important to them. And the most loving thing we can do for sinners is to speak the truth and tell them of the wrath of God so that they might seek the grace of God.
Preach the Gospel
Jesus once said not long after Lazarus had died that “I am the resurrection and the life; the one who believes in Me will live, even if he dies” (John 11:25). He also said that “everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this” (John 11:26)? Jesus asks us all, Do you believe this?” The dead will pass into glory if they’ve trusted in Christ. I hope you do believe this, but regardless, at a funeral there will be a mixture of saved and lost so we must at all times, present the gospel and the hope of the living is in Christ. They dead have no more hope unless they’ve trusted in Christ. And for believers we know that to be apart from the body by death means being present with the Lord (2 Cor 5:8).
Goodbye or See You Later?
The hope of believers who have lost loved ones is that they will see them again in the Kingdom, so at a believer’s funeral, it’s not “Goodbye” but “See you later,” but if they’ve never trusted in Christ, then it is “Goodbye” and it is goodbye forever. We can’t make the message any easier and not speak of the realities of stepping outside of this life without Christ. A failure to present the Gospel of salvation through Christ alone is a failure to warn sinners of the coming wrath of God (Rom 1, 2).
Conclusion
I pray you’ve already trusted in Christ and passed from death unto eternal life in Jesus Christ because whoever believes in Him, even if they die, and all will die, they shall live again in the presence of God (Dan 12:2-3; John 11:25-26; Rev 21:1-5). For believers, death is only a beginning…a beginning for something eternal. That is eternal life and being in the presence of Jesus Christ for time without end. The wrath of God was placed on Jesus Christ and not on the saints who were brought to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, therefore, I plead with you today if you are not saved, repent today and trust in Jesus Christ or you will surely face God’s judgment and His wrath after your death (Heb 9:27) or at Christ’s appearance (Rev 20:12-15), whichever happens to come first.
While there is still yet time sinner, come to the Savior that you might receive eternal life and the forgiveness of sins. Then you can have the assurance of the saints that nothing or no one can ever take you from the promised coming presence of God (John 10:28-29; Rom 8:35-39).
Resource – Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), Crossway Bibles. (2007). ESV: Study Bible: English standard version. Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Bibles. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
RESOLVED: “I will instill in my children a fear of God, an appreciation for their uniqueness, a respect for authority, and a wealth of pleasant memories.”
Are we victims of chance, tossed about by circumstances beyond our control? Does God watch the unfolding events in our world from a distance, passive and inactive? Or can we find rest and hope in a God who is active and sovereign?
In this series, Alistair Begg introduces us to the doctrine of God’s providence. Here the Christian can find hope in the knowledge that the one who created and sustains us orders everything according to His will, even as His boundless sovereignty does not infringe upon our responsibility for the choices we make. God, we learn, will ultimately use even wicked intentions and painful trials for His glory and the good of His people. In an increasingly unstable world, believers can rest securely in the providence of God, who faithfully pursues our good.
During difficult times, Christians can be vulnerable to temptation and doubt. Today, Derek Thomas opens The Pilgrim’s Progress, the classic book by John Bunyan, to encourage us that God will not desert His people.
And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. (2 Kings 6:16)
Horses and chariots and a great host shut up the prophet in Dothan. His young servant was alarmed. How could they escape from such a body of armed men? But the prophet had eyes which his servant had not, and he could see a greater host with far superior weapons guarding him from all harm. Horses of fire are mightier than horses of flesh, and chariots of fire are far preferable to chariots of iron.
Even so is it at this hour. The adversaries of truth are many, influential, learned, and crafty; and truth fares ill at their hands; and yet the man of God has no cause for trepidation. Agencies, seen and unseen, of the most potent kind, are on the side of righteousness. God has armies in ambush which will reveal themselves in the hour of need. The forces which are on the side of the good and the true far outweigh the powers of evil. Therefore, let us keep our spirits up, and walk with the gait of men who possess a cheering secret, which has lifted them above all fear. We are on the winning side. The battle may be sharp, but we know how it will end. Faith, having God with her, is in a clear majority: “They that be with us are more than they that be with them.”
“What should I do, do I make the change,” I asked? as to and fro I paced.
“Do you still trust Me?” the Lord asked, in response to a quandary I faced.
Oh my light, my strength, my helper! “Oh Yes,” I responded without haste.
No words were spoken yet at that moment of ‘yes,’ all my doubts erased.
I trusted… I wasn’t afraid… in His comforting presence I was embraced.
Go to His loving arms in times of need. Do it now. There’s no time to waste.
Got a dilemma, struggling with a quandary, trust God and be graced.
My prayer for us
Creator God, it is with anticipation and joy that we come to you with praise, thanking you for our strength and salvation. Do we still trust you? Unequivocally yes! We bless your holy name. Amen.
Have you ever wished that birth certificates came with road maps and that life offered a few more directions along the way?
Life often looks like one giant highway full of bends in the road, four-way stops, and endless freeway with no assurance that you’re going to actually get there.
God doesn’t leave us directions, a map, or a voice mail
Our family used to go camping when we were small. One year, when I was six or seven, we hiked up part of Mt. Jefferson.
The snow was deep. Too deep for my small legs to find their own footing.
Instead, my dad went ahead of me, and all I had to do was step into his giant foot prints.
I was safe as long as he’d already been there, and I knew the way as long as I stayed close behind.
Psalm 85:13 tells us our Heavenly Father “makes His footsteps our pathway.”
He doesn’t hope we’ll find the path.
He makes it for us by going ahead.
We find our way by staying close behind. Like a child.
Not trusting our steps, but watching for His and stepping into them with full assurance.
He “makes His footsteps our pathway.”
We don’t need a road map to life.
Just childlike faith.
“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with my eye.” (Psalm 32:8)
Anti-Judicial reform protests turn anti-Messiah Protests against the judicial reform measures being proposed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government took on religious overtones as protesters targeted MK (Likud) Ariel Kallner’s home in Haifa on Thursday night, plastering the neighborhood with posters proclaiming, “Here lives a messianic [believer].”
“Unstoppable Duo?” Prospect Of An Unlikely Trump-RFK Ticket Remains A Hot Topic As Robert F. Kennedy Jr. draws unusual bipartisan support in the race for the White House, there is a swell of sentiment that he should be former President Donald Trump’s running mate. Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon suggested a Trump/Kennedy ticket back in April. Mr. Bannon said Mrs. Lake is his favored choice for Trump’s vice president, but said on his War Room show that if she wasn’t available “Kennedy would be an excellent choice.”
Cash-Strapped Consumers Resort To ‘Dumpster Dining’ To Save On Grocery Bill We have shown many households are in rough financial shape. Dollar Tree executives confirmed weeks ago that mid/low-tier consumers are trading down from other more expensive retailers to their stores for groceries. This means Walmart has become too expensive for some consumers.
One-Third Of Seattle Residents May Flee City Over Crime, Costs Approximately 33% of those polled said they were ‘seriously considering’ moving out of the city, vs. 67% who said they have no plans to move. Among those who say they’re considering leaving, 37% blame rising costs, while 34% cited public safety as a primary concern.
Biblical Prophecy: It Has Never Been More Vital That Churches Teach It, And Believers Understand It It’s not just the convergence of a host of prophetic signs that make it so, but the existential dangers to our lives and livelihood that threaten everyone. I have watched recordings from the World Economic Forum (WEF) meetings during which time the elite talk openly about the need to drastically reduce the world’s population.
Israeli Envoy: ‘Ukraine Supports 90 Percent of Anti-Israeli Decisions at UN Ukraine has supported 90 percent of anti-Israeli decisions at the UN, Israeli Ambassador to Ukraine Michael Brodsky said in an interview with Ukrainian media ZN.UA. “This is strange considering that Kyiv often turns to the Israeli authorities for various requests,” he added.
US military reveals it eliminated ISIS leader in Syria In a strike in Syria, CENTCOM killed Usamah al-Muhajir, an ISIS leader in eastern Syria. “We have made it clear that we remain committed to the defeat of ISIS throughout the region,” said Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, commander of US Central Command. “ISIS remains a threat, not only to the region but well beyond.”
Lebanese army enters Israel – and refuses to leave Israel Army Radio reported this morning (Sunday) that an unusual incident happened last week in the Manara area on the Lebanese border when dozens of armed men, most of them soldiers from the Lebanese army, along with a number of Hezbollah terrorists crossed the border into Israeli territory. According to the report, the incident happened last Wednesday, while the IDF was carrying out work in the Ramim Ridge area. The Lebanese soldiers who crossed the border were armed and in uniform.
Russian embassy in US condemns Washington’s decision to send cluster munitions to Ukraine The White House has in effect confessed to committing war crimes by agreeing to send cluster munitions to Ukraine, the Russian embassy in the US said in comments published late on Sunday. “We paid attention to (White House national security spokesperson John) Kirby’s statements about the supply of cluster munitions to Ukraine. The official admitted de facto to committing war crimes by the United States in the Ukrainian conflict,” the embassy said on the Telegram messaging app.
Israeli security cabinet votes to prevent collapse of the Palestinian Authority “In the absence of a change in the national assessment, Israel will act to prevent the collapse of the Palestinian Authority, while demanding that it cease its anti-Israel activity in the international legal-diplomatic arena, the incitement in its media and education system, the payments to the families of terrorists and murderers, and the illegal construction in Area C,”
Kosher bakery refuses to fulfill order for Pride baked goods Do not lie with a male as one lies with a woman; it is an abhorrence. A kosher bakery, the West Orange Bake Shop, refused to make a rainbow cake and ten pounds of rainbow cookies celebrating Pride Month for Congregation B’nai Israel, a Conservative congregation in Millburn, NJ. A separate order was made the same day for rainbow cupcakes for the synagogue’s youth group and was also canceled. After consulting with a rabbi and a lawyer, he canceled the order based on his belief that the symbols were “a celebration of something which is against Torah,”
Terrorists turned Jenin mosque into a hideout, with underground tunnel and cache of weapons, explosives srael Defense Forces gained control of the Al Ansari Mosque in the West Bank on Monday afternoon, following a shootout with Palestinian gunmen in the area. … the gunmen in Jenin turned the Al Ansari Mosque into a “fortified” hideout, complete with an underground tunnel and a cache of weapons, explosives and other military equipment,
7 state AGs warn Target that ‘Pride’ promotion may have violated child protection laws In a letter to Target’s CEO regarding the retailer’s June ‘Pride’ campaign, the attorneys general outlined potential violations of laws pertaining to the protection of children from sexual obscenity as well as parental rights and the economic interests of stakeholders.
Maine governor expected to sign a bill that allows abortion up to birth Maine Democratic Gov. Janet Mills is expected to sign legislation that would allow abortion up to birth, according to reports. The bill is titled “An Act to Improve Maine’s Reproductive Privacy Laws” and it would allow a woman to go through with a late term abortion if a doctor determines it necessary.
CDC admits not including diagnostic codes showing COVID vax as ’cause’ on some death certificates The CDC’s explanation for leaving certain diagnosis codes off Minnesota death certificates that cite COVID-19 vaccines as a cause of death, allegedly hiding vaccine injuries in federal records, shows “intent to deceive,” according to a person who helped analyze the death certificates for the Brownstone Institute, a think tank that challenges the scientific basis for COVID conventional wisdom and policy.
Five rescued, nine missing after massive landslide in central China’s Hubei Province Rescue operations are in progress in central China’s Hubei Province after a massive landslide struck a highway construction site on Saturday, July 8, 2023. The landslide, which involved over 500 000 m3 (17.6 million ft3) of soil, has led to the rescue of five individuals, while nine others remain missing, according to a statement from local authorities.
370 000 urged to evacuate as heavy rains hit western Japan On Saturday, July 8, 2023, heavy rains caused extensive damage in Shimane Prefecture and other western Japanese regions, prompting local authorities to urge approximately 370 000 residents in two cities to evacuate. Landslides and river floods have occurred in Izumo City, disrupting transportation, although vital services remained intact.
Justin Trudeau’s Canada Shrugs, Says Fires Will Rage Through August Canadian forestry officials predicted on Thursday that the ongoing, out-of-control wildfires burning across the country and polluting large swathes of America will continue through August, breaking records for the amount of territory burned.
Michigan Criminalizes Misgendering with 5 Years in Jail or $10K Fine. The Michigan House of Representatives has passed new hate speech legislation which criminalizes misgendering if someone feels ‘terrorized, frightened, or threatened’ by words, with offenders potentially facing up to five years imprisonment or a $10,000 fine.
Climate Related News: Eco-fascism is coming to the fore Finland has reminded us of the rise of eco-fascism as a Minister who called for “climate abortions” for African women four years ago is forced to resign. This comes as the World Health Organisation (“WHO”) and Bill Gates attempt to flood Africa with dangerous malaria “vaccines.”
U.S. DOD issued contract for ‘COVID-19 Research’ in Ukraine in 2019 The world first started to hear about a novel coronavirus in early January 2020, with reports of an alleged new pneumonia like illness spreading across Wuhan, China. However, the world did not actually know of Covid-19 until February 2020, because it was not until the 11th of that month that the World Health Organisation officially named the novel coronavirus disease as Covid-19.
“The mild voice of reason, pleading the cause of an enlarged and permanent interest, is but too often drowned, before public bodies as well as individuals, by the clamors of an impatient avidity for immediate and immoderate gain.” —James Madison (1788)
Our experience with the social media giant has been one of frustration and violated civil rights.
Andrew Culper
“A coordinated and well-funded assault on the First Amendment is well underway. So egregious are these attacks that even the leftist ACLU’s legislative counsel notes, ‘It should concern everyone when companies like Facebook and Twitter wield the unchecked power to remove people from platforms that have become indispensable for the speech of billions — especially when political realities make those decisions easier.’”
Fortunately, things for Twitter have changed since our own Mark Alexander mentioned the above ACLU quote. But the social media monster Facebook (Meta) continues down the path of conservative speech suppression.
The Patriot Post joined Facebook in 2009, seeing the opportunity to reach millions of people with the message of Liberty. Our efforts have resulted in a substantial following of over three-quarters of a million people, with the ability to reach millions on the platform. Compared to our peers, we have some of the most engaged followers on the platform — and thus leftist types at the Big Tech behemoth took notice.
We had a good run for over a decade building our Facebook presence (and, subsequently, building Facebook itself). That all changed in January 2020, when we received a Hate Speech strike for telling the truth. This unleashed an unending parade of strikes in the run-up to the presidential election, leaving our page in perpetual peril of deletion and severely limiting our reach. We have received at least 21 fact-checks and at least six Community Guidelines violations since, mostly for utterly absurd reasons — none for legitimate ones. In most cases, we have been given little to no recourse to resolve these. Indeed, what we have experienced has been unending capriciousness, lack of recourse, and civil rights violations.
Today, we stand on the other side of a newly kindled offensive, having now four “violations” that existentially threaten our page. Over 750K people have intentionally followed us for the purpose of seeing our content, but only a tiny fraction of them see anything we post. To shed light on the sheer absurdity of these most recent strikes, a brief recounting is in order.
Here are the causes for lost traction on Facebook:
Fact-checks. Facebook uses (read: pays) “independent” third-party fact-checkers to supposedly combat the spread of false information on the platform without bias. If original content is directly cited by a fact-checker, the author may contest it with them and might have a chance to reverse it. If it has been reposted, even just as similar content that is not expressly cited by the fact-checker, there is no recourse — just punishment. Due to the third-party nature, Facebook does not help in these instances, based on our experience. One of the most famous labels fact-checkers use is the “missing context” category. This makes it easy to fact-check just about anything that differs from their opinion.
Community Standards/Guidelines violations. We can understand a platform wishing to limit things such as adult content or spam, but in our experience nearly every Community Standards violation levied against us has been a “gotcha” situation based on a technicality. For example, in a recent violation we received a strike for promoting “Dangerous Organizations or Individuals” because in 2021 we posted an editorial column summarizing the rise of political Islam (more on that later). There are countless examples where Facebook flat-out gets what we’re saying wrong (willfully or otherwise) — but when we contest the ruling, 99% of the time it upholds its decision, or there is a convenient “technical error” that does not allow us to submit a claim.
Facebook limiting political content. After using political content to drive massive growth and engagement on its platform (and collect huge sums of money for itself), Facebook decided in late 2021 to limit political content on the platform. This directly impacts our ability to spread the message of Liberty, and it comes, again, after we expended significant effort to build the platform over many years.
Here are the ways we have lost traction on Facebook:
Page no longer recommended.
Distribution in news feed reduced.
Ability to advertise was taken away for two years.
Page at risk of being unpublished.
Our message of Liberty intentionally hidden from people who want to see it.
Traffic from Facebook to our website reduced by over 85%.
We have compiled a detailed list of “violations” for the last 3.5 years. The most recent and most ridiculous ones for 2023 will be mentioned here.
For 2023:
4/28/23 — We received a hate strike for sharing a cartoon about Russian collusion and the U.S. intelligence community regarding the Hunter Biden laptop.
As we detailed here, we think the Facebook bots perceived the cartoon as hate speech against Russians. Since the cartoon is about the U.S. intel community blaming the Hunter Biden laptop story on the Russians, this is obviously a misinterpretation on Facebook’s part. However, even after speaking to a live person at the organization, they upheld the decision to keep the violation on our page. They also refused to tell us exactly how we violated policy, as is typical.
Have the major news outlets that posted countless false Russian collusion stories received retroactive strikes? We doubt it.
5/15/23 — We received a strike for posting in September 2021 a William Federer syndicated column titled “Sept. 11 — Political Islam’s Long War on the West.” Facebook claimed that it “goes against our Community Standards on dangerous individuals and organizations.”
This is particularly disturbing, as Facebook retroactively found content nearly two years old. It’s even more disturbing because the column was simply a piece detailing the rise of political Islam. Read it for yourself and see how absurd this is. Of course, when we tried to contest this, we were ignored and punished.
6/19/23 — A German fact-checker discovered an AI image of Joe Biden posted on a Russian-language Facebook page. The image was created as a unique play on a Babylon Bee satire piece. We used the image in one of our memes, and so we got grouped in. It’s obvious to anyone with a brain that the image is A) fake and B) hilarious. Yet somehow using it means we are now subject to foreign fact-check companies from European countries that don’t understand humor, satire, or free speech.
There are countless other examples like these we could share, but it would take a book. In any case, it is vital that you understand this: For years we have participated on Facebook — a platform that may be the largest forum for public discourse in the world. Indeed, it is a forum indispensable for the speech of billions of people. We have been bullied and silenced for arbitrary and capricious reasons, without recourse, for years. Facebook has benefited monetarily from the audience we have painstakingly grown, while simultaneously costing us untold amounts of monetary value due to its treatment of us. It seems obvious that we have been targeted for our political opinions and given preferential treatment as a result. The systemic redlining of conservative free speech is apparent in our experience, and it is an egregious afront to our civil liberties.
When will Congress or anyone in DC pay attention to what may be the biggest fight for free speech in our lifetimes? We’re not holding our breath.
Biden’s big White House staff, Georgia mayor arrested for burglary, 500 days of war in Ukraine, and more.
Thomas Gallatin & Jordan Candler
Cross-Examination
Biden’s big WH staff: Evidently, it takes a lot of handlers to keep Joe Biden propped up and running — indeed, a record number. According to an OpenTheBooks review of Biden’s White House staff payroll, it is the largest and most costly in U.S. history. Thus far into his presidency, Biden’s WH staff has cost $158.8 million. “No White House ever employed 500 staffers until Biden became president,” observed OpenTheBooks CEO Adam Andrzejewski. “The Biden White House employed 560 in FY2021 and 474 in FY2022. In 2023, the headcount increased by 50, to 524.” Biden has employed 108 more staff than Donald Trump and 70 more than Barack Obama at this same point in their respective presidencies.
Dispatches from the Golden State: Demonstrating that California’s reparations task force is little other than a clown show, a further recommendation it offered beyond a reparations payment of $1 million per black resident was to end several “racist” laws. That includes laws against “public intoxication” and “public urination” and eliminating interest on child support debt. It is indeed telling that the task force sees laws against these behaviors as somehow being anti-black. Who exactly are the racists again?
Bizarre: Georgia mayor arrested for burglary: South Fulton Mayor Khalid Kamau was recently arrested following his breaking and entering into a lake house he had taken a shine to. When confronted and held at gunpoint during the break-in by the surprised homeowner, Kamau reportedly responded: “Do you know who the f**k I am? I’m the mayor, and I’ll wait for my police to get here and see what happens then.” Kamau was charged with criminal trespass and first-degree burglary and released after posting $11,000 in bail. A city official explained, “The city of South Fulton is committed to upholding the law and ensuring that all individuals, regardless of their position, are subject to the same fair and just treatment.” The mayor’s rationale for entering the home was his desire to own it someday.
DOJ has spent $9M and counting on Trump doc investigation: The special counsel investigation into Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents, led by Jack Smith, has cost American taxpayers over $9 million thus far. Over $2.5 million of that total has gone to personnel compensation and benefits costs. Meanwhile, Robert Hur, the man investigating Joe Biden’s own classified document mishandling, has spent a little more than $600,000. We know this is shocking, but judging by the money spent, Trump is the DOJ’s primary target.
China’s threatening “neurostrike” weapons program: The Chinese military has been developing brain-disrupting weaponry, according to a recent report. Known as China’s Neurostrike Program, the aim would be to attack both military and civililian personnel with a brain-disrupting weapon that would “impair thinking, reduce situational awareness, inflict long-term neurological damage and cloud normal cognitive functions,” reports The Washington Times. (No, they don’t mean TikTok, though if the shoe fits…) The authors of the report contend that China’s “new landscape of neurostrike development includes using massively distributed human-computer interfaces to control entire populations as well as a range of weapons designed to cause cognitive damage” and that “any breakthrough in this research would provide unprecedented tools for the CCP to forcibly establish a new world order, which has been [Chinese President] Xi Jinping’s lifelong goal.”
Five hundred days of war in Ukraine: July 8 marked the 500th day since Vladimir Putin’s Russia invaded Ukraine. The U.S. and others have spent billions in military aid for Ukraine, and yet the end is nowhere in sight. Indeed, Joe Biden admitted in a CNN interview over the weekend that the Ukrainians are “running out of that ammunition, and we’re low on it.” Biden followed that up by noting that the U.S. will be sending another $800 million military aid package that includes cluster munitions to Ukraine. The human tole of the war continues to rise with more than six million Ukrainians having fled the country; at least 9,000 civilians have been killed and a further 15,000 wounded. When it comes to soldiers, Russia has suffered an estimated 230,000 casualties and Ukraine an estimated 131,000. And these numbers continue to rise daily.
Headlines
Congress braces for three-week sprint before August recess (Washington Examiner)
“Optics the Chinese love”: Janet Yellen awkwardly bows to CCP official during Beijing trip (Fox News)
Democrats express reservations about Biden decision to send cluster bombs to Ukraine (Daily Wire)
“I made a huge mistake”: Tucker Carlson talks covering politics, why he was fired, and Donald Trump (RedState)
CNN discourages viewers from watching anti-pedophile movie “Sound of Freedom” (PM)
Portland to distribute foil, straws, snorting kits to drug addicts (Daily Caller)
Supermarket employee fired for recording three men stealing $500 in laundry detergent (NY Post)
Disgraced USA Gymnastics team doctor stabbed multiple times by a fellow inmate (Fox Sports)
“Transgender” model crowned as Miss Netherlands, will compete for title of Miss Universe (Breitbart)
Good news: Appeals court reinstates Tennessee ban on gender-transition treatments for minors (National Review)
Good news: Cycling event alters category policy after furor over “transgender” competitor’s win in women’s race (Fox Sports)
Sudan on brink of all-out civil war, UN chief warns, after airstrike kills at least 22 (The Guardian)
Kremlin says Putin met with Wagner chief Prigozhin days after attempted mutiny (National Review)
Dutch PM Mark Rutte is quitting politics (Politico)
Humor: California bans Spanish over nouns having only two gender options (Babylon Bee)
“Free speech absolutist” Elon Musk pledged to the ChiComs what he needed to for business success.
Nate Jackson
Elon Musk is an entrepreneur extraordinaire. He owns Tesla, SpaceX, and now Twitter, among numerous other ventures. He once famously described himself as a “free speech absolutist,” which is why his purchase of Twitter sent the anti-free-speech Left into a tizzy.
We’ll come back to Twitter in a moment.
First, Musk’s Tesla, a world leader in electric vehicles, recently joined several Chinese automakers in signing a letter pledging to uphold “core socialist values” in a clear attempt to placate the party poobahs in Beijing.
Obviously, one doesn’t do business in China, the world’s largest market, without playing ball with the ChiComs. Sometimes that means saying unsavory things, even if your fingers are crossed behind your back. Loads of U.S. companies do so rather than miss out on making tremendous profits.
Back in the 1990s, the thinking was that bringing China into the World Trade Organization, for example, would liberalize the communist nation through capitalism and trade. A quarter century later, that still hasn’t panned out. Instead, companies all over the world kowtow to ChiCom diktats. Worse, using its status in the WTO, China has displaced the U.S. as the global trade leader in many places and dominates the world with its often ripped-off and subpar products.
This economic conundrum is why the world went to you-know-where with the China Virus pandemic.
In any case, Musk isn’t always a reliable man of the Right. Yes, he’s encouraged people to vote Republican and even helped launch Ron DeSantis’s campaign. He’s a darling of the Right for largely freeing Twitter from the clutches of the leftist thought police.
But he’s got a soft spot for some bad ideology. “By the way,” he tweeted in 2018, “I am actually a socialist. Just not the kind that shifts resources from most productive to least productive, pretending to do good, while actually causing harm. True socialism seeks greatest good for all.”
Yes, yes, the tired, old, bogus “it’s never really been done right” argument. We’ll skip right over that to note that few things illustrate the socialist principle of central planning better than electric cars. For all their appeal in terms of technology and ability to throw you back in your seat on the way to 60 m.p.h. in three seconds, EVs are gaining ground in the market primarily because of government subsidies and mandates. Or, to put it another way, because government “shifts resources from most productive to least productive, pretending to do good.”
Tesla — and thus Musk’s portfolio — in particular has benefited enormously from this wealth transfer. Because of mandates from the EPA and other government agencies around the world, automakers like GM and Chrysler pay Tesla, one of their competitors, hundreds of millions of dollars for emissions credits. The legendary Hemi engine is arguably dead because this arrangement is no longer economically feasible for Stellantis, which now owns Dodge and Chrysler.
In what kind of world does one company pay a penalty to a competitor? A socialist one.
Therefore, it’s hardly surprising to see Musk willingly comply with ChiCom diktats for the benefit of an EV company that already thrives on forced government redistribution and central planning.
So, how does this all relate to Twitter? For one thing, Twitter isn’t exactly open for business behind the Great Firewall of China, and Musk would like for Tesla not to suffer the same fate.
Furthermore, you may have heard that Meta, the parent company for Facebook and Instagram, just launched a direct competitor to Twitter called Threads. And if any company exudes “core socialist values” like censorship, it’s Meta. Ask our social media guru, Andrew Culper. Indeed, it took a Silicon Valley Second for the thought police to begin removing individual Threads for violating those warm and fuzzy “Community Guidelines,” along with warning users about following certain disfavored individuals like Donald Trump Jr.
If Musk’s insinuation about Threads is correct, Meta also exhibits the “core socialist value” of intellectual property theft. “Competition is fine,” Musk said, “cheating is not.” Twitter is threatening a lawsuit against Meta for basically stealing its product.
No wonder Threads topped China’s app store last week. And no wonder Musk is trying to appease the Chinese wherever possible. He didn’t become the world’s richest man by actually being an absolutist about anything.
The common thread here? The above are all American institutions. Yes, some are newer than others, but they’re all part of the American fabric — all part of the American infrastructure, if you will. And, as we noted Friday, they’re all failing miserably:
Do Americans trust big institutions? The short answer is a resounding “No!” Since 1979, when Gallup first began conducting its poll of Americans’ trust in our nation’s major institutions, no year has shown a lower level of confidence than today. Just 26% of Americans trust our nation’s major institutions, which represents a 10 percentage point drop from 2020. Americans’ faith in the presidency is at 26%, and Congress now sits at just 8% (throw the other bums out). Meanwhile, those institutions that hold the highest trust are small businesses (65%) and the U.S. military (60%). Law enforcement, public schools, and Big Tech have all hit new lows in public trust. If things don’t change, this does not bode well for America’s future.
We strive for fairness, though, so we’ll now present the complete list of all the institutions whose prestige and standing among the American people have actually increased during the Biden presidency: .
There’s an old Greek or Italian or Turkish expression that says a fish rots from the head. Can there be any better proof of this than the Biden administration?
As if we needed proof of this, the aforementioned Gallup poll gives us the grim numbers. “Confidence,” reports the nation’s most esteemed polling organization, “has generally trended downward since registering 48% in 1979 and holding near 45% in the 1980s. It averaged closer to 40% in the 1990s and early 2000s before dropping to the low 30% range in the 2010s. Last year was the first time it fell below 30%.”
Let that sink in. According to Gallup, the only two institutions that earned even a passing grade — that is, the trust of more than half of American adults — were small businesses (65%) and the military (60%).
Six weeks ago, in the wake of the devastating Durham Report, historian Victor Davis Hanson ran down a litany of institutional failures under Joe Biden, noting: “The Left is waging a full-fledged cultural revolution against traditional America. And the Maoist results are often as absurd as they are terrifying.”
Is “terrifying” too strong a word? Not if you’re paying attention. And not if you care about the country the Left is hell-bent on wrecking for your children and grandchildren.
“All these implosions,” says VDH, “are not just shocking but surreal. Why are our government, corporations, and popular culture colluding in mass suicide — to the delight of our enemies like Communist China?”
He’s certainly right about China, but we needn’t go halfway around the globe to find those who are rooting for American failure. Indeed, we needn’t even leave our own shores.
We can practically feel the heat from those on the Left rubbing their palms together. And we can practically hear George Soros saying to his heir apparent son Alex, I love it when a plan comes together.
Clearly, Bill de Blasio’s successor is also not ready for prime time.
Mark Alexander
In the 2021 New York City mayoral election, after eight years enduring the abject ineptitude of Bill de Blasio — especially during the ChiCom Virus pandemic — voters had a choice between a smart leftist, Andrew Yang, and a dullard leftist, Eric Adams. They opted for Adams, proving once again that below-average voters tend to elect below-average candidates, and they have done so again in our nation’s largest city.
To his credit, Adams was a New York City Transit Police officer and then an NYPD officer for 22 years until his political aspirations got the better of him in 2006. He then won two terms in the New York State Senate and later served seven years as the influential Borough President of Brooklyn.
Among a few indications of Adams’s integrity then, in 1999, when a black man could still get away with speaking the truth about race and violence, Adams declared publicly: “Lying is at the root of our training. At the academy, recruits are told that they should not see black or brown people as different, but we all do. We all know that the majority of people arrested for predatory crimes are African-American. We didn’t create that scenario, but we have to police in that scenario. So we need to be honest and talk about it.”
Adams ran as a “moderate Democrat” mirroring Joe Biden’s 2020 charade, and both have established themselves now as pawns of Marxist puppeteers.
Of his mayoral election, the Wall Street Journal editors declared: “The de Blasio era has shown that the hard-won gains of the Giuliani-Bloomberg years can easily be squandered. Mr. Adams campaigned as a practical liberal focused on results, not the illusions of progressive pieties. He’ll need that focus to set New York back on a road to genuine progress.”
Given the 62-year-old Adams’s marginal political experience, he now finds himself amid cascading crises — again, mirroring Joe Biden.
Last week, Manhattan’s thug DA Alvin Bragg, who has political aspirations of his own — which also accounts for his prosecution of Donald Trump — announced an investigation into Adams’s campaign donors. Bragg alleges there was a “very organized” scheme to “circumvent campaign finance laws to deliver more money to the Adams campaign” than allowed by law with the intent, according to Politico, “to use the illicitly obtained haul to seek favorable treatment from City Hall once Adams was elected.”
Then there was the scooter killer this past weekend — a black assailant who rode a scooter around Brooklyn and Queens randomly shooting people, murdering an 87-year-old Muslim man. No, this was not a “gun problem” but a continuation of the institutionalized lawlessness in the name of “social justice” that began with the Demos’ “Summer of Rage” riots in 2020.
I know, you thought New York was a “tolerant” city.
And on the subject of tolerance, two weeks ago at a town hall, 84-year-old Holocaust survivor Jeanie Dubnau asked Adams a question about housing affordability. Adams angrily responded, “Don’t stand in front like you treated someone that’s on the plantation that you own.” Asked in a subsequent interview if he “went too far,” Adams doubled down, insisting the Holocaust survivor’s behavior was “degrading,” and he refused to apologize.
Now, as if he was not deep enough in the hole he keeps digging, The New York Times called out Adams for claiming he kept a photo of a murdered police officer in his wallet for decades. Good cop Adams claimed, in a “get tough on crime” message, that the murder of two NYPD officers recently “reminded him of the 1987 line-of-duty death of a friend, Officer Robert Venable.” Adams claimed, “I keep a picture of Robert in my wallet,” and he posed with that photo.
But according to the Times, the photo “had not actually spent decades in the mayor’s wallet” but was a recent photo he instructed some of his office minions to artificially age, “including by splashing some coffee on it.”
This desecration of valor lie is worse than a stolen valor lie, but I suspect few of his leftist supporters care.
However, Mr. Mayor, this desecration we will not forget.
From espionage law to trade dispute to Yellen’s visit, an update on our icy relations with the ChiComs.
Emmy Griffin
Much happened on the foreign affairs front last week with China, which predictably is getting more aggressive — and it seems Team Biden is content to continue trying to appease.
The first item on the docket is a new espionage law. According to The Guardian: “The US National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) said the law … gives Beijing ‘expanded legal grounds for accessing and controlling data held by US firms in China’. The NCSC said the new law is ambiguous on what fits its definition of national security secrets, but believes Beijing’s view could include information that companies use as a normal part of their business.” This law would allow the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to snoop on U.S. companies and is vague enough that the threat of being labeled as an “espionage” company (or individual) is a more palpable cudgel.
The penalty for the crime of espionage in China ranges from life in prison to execution. This law is a curious move on the CCP’s part. It would seem to discourage foreign companies from doing business with China, and Chinese citizens from working for those companies. Is China trying to isolate itself from the market? Perhaps. More likely, it is trying to posture and give the West a show of strength.
In any case, the law itself is beyond ironic given that so much of China’s technology and advancement is the result of intellectual property theft from other countries.
If tightening the espionage laws weren’t threatening enough, dictator Xi Jinping also decided to restrict exports on two minerals to the U.S.. These minerals are gallium and germanium. They are important materials used to construct solar panels, electric cars, and (more importantly) military equipment. This restriction was a retaliation from Xi for the U.S. blocking China from accessing advanced semiconductors.
This may be more shortsighted than productive for the CCP. By restricting the exports, it only encourages other countries in the West to increase production. However, if the aim is to mess up U.S. stockpiles of arms and ultimately access to semiconductors (Taiwan’s biggest export), it may send some sort of message if the restriction is there for the long term. As Wu Xinbo, dean of the Institute of International Studies at Shanghai’s Fudan University, put it, “China is creating more bargaining chips, in order to make the U.S. pay attention to its concerns.”
To end the week, Team Biden sent a new emissary to see if she would have any luck thawing relations with our biggest foreign enemy. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen landed in Beijing on Thursday and, according to The Wall Street Journal, is overall a better-liked face in the Biden administration by the Chinese. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s recent visit was an utter disaster. However, it’s hard to take these talks seriously when, strategically right before Yellen’s arrival, Xi instructed fighters in his Easter Theater Command (the one that patrols the Taiwan Straight) to be ready for war.
Talks will continue with Yellen and Chinese officials into Monday, and the goal — just as it was with Blinken’s visit — is to open up communications channels between the two countries. We shall see if Yellen is more successful where Blinken and others have failed.
As much as the Chinese may like Yellen better than others in the Biden administration, the fact is, signs are pointing to escalating aggression. Each new week seems to be accompanied with fresh acts of challenge by the Chinese.
Douglas Andrews: AI: Poised to Poison Our Politics — The power of artificial intelligence, coupled with its progressive bias, bodes ill for politics generally and Republicans in particular.
Roger Helle: Bound by Fear — Our emotions can lie to us. I believe that is what’s happening to millions of Americans all across the country right now.
In Brief: How to Fix Disney — Can you fix a company that seems hell-bent on destroying billions of dollars worth of intellectual property from The Little Mermaid to Indiana Jones?
Mamas for DeSantis — Casey DeSantis argues for supporting her husband’s run for president.
Stop Playing Politics With the Pill — NBC News recently published an article criticizing conservatives who are speaking out against birth control. The article failed to mention that the anti-birth-control trend is rooted in truth.
“The Supreme Court is now just a 9 person legislature, slinging takes and making law with cases that are basically made up by friendly right wing groups in order to get the new law they want from their 6 buddies on the court.” —Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT)
“As the president said at his first inauguration, he is a president for all Americans. It doesn’t matter if you’re in a red state or a blue state. And his agenda helps all Americans.” —White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre
“The president is proud to have restored the rule of law in his administration.” —Karine Jean-Pierre
“I think a lot of people do watch you [Joe Biden] and are impressed and they think you’ve been a great president. You’ve brought the economy back. You’ve restored relations with the world.” —CNN’s Fareed Zakaria
Non Compos Mentis
“This is a war relating to munitions. And they’re running out of that ammunition, and we’re low on it.” —Joe Biden letting Russia and China know that both Ukraine and the U.S are low on 155mm munitions, the staple of artillery combat (Trying to walk back the comment, Biden’s defense spokesman then declared, “We are authorizing cluster munitions to ensure that Ukraine is not left defenseless while we wait for our own domestic production of ammunition to ramp up.”)
“Trans health is health, and health care is a human right. We will not have true health equity for all until we have eliminated the health disparities trans and nonbinary people face.” —Senator Ed Markey (D-MA)
For the Record
“[Kamala] Harris has a problematic history when it comes to cocaine. She occasionally cackles like a cokehead. The drugs were found near her vehicle. Coincidence?” —Andrew Stiles
And Last…
“The Left’s crocodile tears about the fate of ‘our democracy’ can be easily explained by the fact that when Democrats and left-wing activists speak of ‘democracy,’ they really mean ‘progressivism.’ It is quite a sleight of hand. The victim of that sleight of hand, unfortunately and ironically, is actual American democracy itself.” —Josh Hammer
The U.S. national debt has increased by $1 trillion in the five weeks since President Biden signed a bill into law that effectively turns off the debt ceiling until 2025.
According to Treasury Department data, the total national debt stood at $32.47 trillion on July 6, $1 trillion more than the $31.47 trillion level last seen on June 2. The national debt had been stuck at or near that June 2 level for months because the government had hit the debt ceiling and was legally prohibited from borrowing any more money.
On June 3, however, Biden signed legislation reflecting negotiations with House Republicans that requires a small spending cut next year and allows unlimited federal borrowing until 2025. With no debt ceiling in effect, federal borrowing jumped more than $350 billion in a single day and crossed the $32 trillion mark in less than two weeks.
How the establishment media shows bias against Israel, including the BBC apologizing after an anchor told former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on camera “The Israeli forces are happy to kill children” – and how some in Israel are taking … CBN News. Because Truth Matters™
This month we’re celebrating America’s birthday. Today’s radicals on the Left want to sever us from our nation’s history and rebuild upon foundations far from what our founders envisioned. But the revolutionary period provides us with a very clear case study in where that would take us. See what two revolutions, the American and the French, fought to protect and what they brought to fruition on this episode of “Truths That Transform.”
Joseph Robinette Biden Jr, the installed placeholder for those who control the office of President of the United States, is not going to run for the presidency in 2024. Oh, he says he is. His team claims he is. But he isn’t. Not really. I’d be willing to have my chest hair removed like Steve Carell in “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” if he’s the Democrat on the ballot in 2024.
We’ve seen a shift in reporting about both the White House in general and the Biden Crime Family in particular in recent weeks. No, corporate media generally isn’t going after the Bidens, but they’re not carrying his water for him like they were not too long ago, either.
The latest iteration comes from The Hill, a leftist “news” site that used to be a lot more balanced a decade ago than it is today. When they start asking questions like the one below, we know they’ve been given permission by the powers-that-be to start planting seeds.
Like a magician setting up a trick in one hand while distracting the audience with the other, the Biden White House and its allies are desperately trying to distract the attention of the American people from President Biden’s age, his obvious frailty and his increasing verbal and mental gaffes.
It has now gotten to the point where I have had a number of Democrats — including staunch supporters of the president — tell me it makes them “nervous,” “uncomfortable,” “sad” or gives them a feeling of “foreboding” anytime they watch President Biden speak in public, interact with guests or walk up or down the stairs to Air Force One.
Many I speak with honestly care about the president and want the best for Joe Biden, the human being. They all understand that every person on earth — rich or poor, famous or not — ages out. It is a reality and finality of life which unites us all. [read more]
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Fox News contributor Liz Peek discuss the media’s silence over Biden’s mounting scandals and Gov. Ron DeSantis’ 2024 election chances among the growing GOP candidate field.
The powerful United Nations is now seeking to increase its influence worldwide by seizing global “emergency” powers, and President Joe Biden supports their proposal.
Interestingly, the U.N. proposal would begin September 2024, a mere two months before a highly anticipated general election in the U.S.
The global organization will host a “Summit of the Future” where associated nations will adopt a so-called “Pact for the Future.”
The “pact,” or agreement, would set in place multiple policy reforms offered by the U.N. in past years as part of its “Our Common Agenda” platform.
While there are several aggressive proposals included in the agenda, none are as disconcerting as the U.N.’s plan for an “emergency platform,” which would provide the international organization significant powers in times of “global shocks,” such as another global pandemic.
The U.N.’s secretary-general, António Guterres, outlined the emergency platform proposal: “I propose that the General Assembly provide the Secretary-General and the United Nations system with a standing authority to convene and operationalize automatically an Emergency Platform in the event of a future complex global shock of sufficient scale, severity and reach.”
“The challenges we face can only be addressed through stronger international cooperation,” Guterres declared.
The emergency platform would provide the international body with power over all nations in times of distress.
Such power, according to the U.N., is needed to “[e]nsure that all participating actors make commitments that can contribute meaningfully to the response and that they are held to account for delivery on those commitments.”
According to the U.N.’s policy proposal, the secretary-general could extend the emergency platform, if need be, despite its duration being set for a “finite period.” Such a decision would be made without the consent of any member nations.
So, precisely what type of “global shock” would trigger an emergency platform?
According to the U.N., a “large-scale event,” “future pandemics,” a “disruptions to global digital connectivity,” a “major event in outer space,” and other “unforeseen risks” are all causes of an emergency platform.
Many have criticized the U.N.’s proposal and have accused it of being an attempt at consolidating power.
Although many oppose the proposal, there are some who support it, such as the Biden administration.
"The emergency platform proposal might be the biggest attempted power grab in the history of the United Nations, but as shocking as it is, it pales in comparison to the Biden administration’s treatment of this extremist proposal." They are all in on this. https://t.co/kDF0JPBPZ2
Instead of defending American sovereignty, the White House expressed its support for the emergency platform.
U.S. Ambassador Chris Lu noted in March 2022 that the Biden administration supports the U.N.’s emergency platform, as well as multiple other proposals included in “Our Common Agenda,” according to a transcript of Lu’s remarks to the U.N. in 2022.
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