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
Romans Chapter 9 is one of the most controversial chapters in the entire Bible. Different commentators have different interpretations. They answer based on their assumptions about the nature and character ofGod. Does God ordain the damnation of people as well as their salvation? Is God fair in what He does – as some people count fairness? It speaks of God’s sovereignty and man’s condition in relation to that sovereignty. Paul begins the chapter by appealing to the Jews and a great privilege but states that such a privilege does not guarantee salvation. Instead, it is up to the sovereignty of God.
Appeal to Israel, Rom. 9:1-5
The flesh and the spirit, Rom. 9:6-8
The sovereignty of God, Rom. 9:9-26
The remnant saved, Rom. 9:27-29
Righteousness by faith, Rom. 9:30-33
I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit,
Paul speaks from his position of being in Christ, from experiencing the revolutionary grace of God.
Not only is he in Christ, but he uses the phrase “in the Holy Spirit” to try and convey his conviction of the testimony of the truth that he is going to address.
He is writing to the Jews (vv. 2-5; Rom. 2:17, ‘…if you bear the name Jew…”) and is trying to prepare them for what he’s going to teach regarding the sovereignty of God.
that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart.
Paul has great grief for his nation (v. 3-4) as he speaks from his heart, which represents the deepest part of what a person is.
For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh,
Paul’s love for his nation is so deep that he says he could wish himself accursed, even damned, for the sake of his people.
Such great love is uncommon. How many would utter words that imply one’s own damnation for the sake of saving others?
Some could use this verse to suggest that a person’s salvation could be lost. But, the intensity of his words and love for his people have brought him to such powerful language.
As Jesus became a curse for us, Paul emulates this truth by speaking of being cursed for the sake of others.
who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises,
The Israelites were the ones who had been entrusted with so much from God. Their privilege was exceedingly great. They had privileges and advantages.
God did not communicate to any other nations the covenants, Law, temple service, and promises. It was to the Jewish nation alone.
This stands in contrast to the deception and blindness of so many of the Israelites who could not see what all the covenants, Law, temple services, and promises revealed concerning the person of Christ.
whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.
Whose are the fathers
the Jews had the holy patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the prophets, etc.
From whom is the Christ
It was from the Jews that the Christ had been revealed.
All that had been given to them by God pointed to Jesus. But they missed Him.
It is interesting to note how people who were given so much from God can misuse it and blind themselves to the ultimate purpose that God has for them.
We ought not to be so quick to judge the Jews. They had so much from God and failed to recognize who Christ was. How much are we failing in our own lives after having been given even more: Jesus in our hearts?
But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel;
Paul introduces the distinction among Israelites.
Some are Israelites only with respect to their biological heritage. They are covenantal children of the promise, but not covenantal in their hearts. They rely on the externals, legality, an pedigree for their
salvation.
Note: this is the same thing done by the Roman Catholics in the Eastern Orthodox.
nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but: “through Isaac, your descendants will be named.”
Ishmael had been born before Isaac. But it was Isaac through whom the descendants would be named.
Gen. 16:11-12, “The angel of the LORD said to her further, ‘Behold, you are with child, And you will bear a son; And you shall call his name Ishmael Because the LORD has given heed to your affliction.’ 12 He will be a wild donkey of a man, His hand will be against everyone, And everyone’s hand will be against him; and he will live to the east of all his brothers.”
Gen. 17:19, “But God said, “No, but Sarah your wife will bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.”
So Ishmael was not considered the same way as Isaac. They represent two kinds of people in the Jewish context: those of God and those not of God.
TOPIC
ISAAC
JESUS
Only-begotten Son
Gen. 22:2
John 3:16
Offered on a mountain, hill
Gen. 22:2
Matt. 21:10
Took donkey to the place of sacrifice
Gen. 22:3
Matt. 21:2-11
Two men went with him
Gen. 22:3
Mark 15:27;
Luke 23:33
Three-day journey. Jesus: three days in the grave
Gen. 22:4
Luke 24:13-21
Son carried wood on his back uphill
Gen. 22:6
John 19:17
God will provide for Himself the lamb
Gen. 22:8
John 1:29
Son was offered on the wood
Gen. 22:9
Luke 23:33
Ram in a thicket of thorns, Jesus bore a crown of thorns
Gen. 22:13
John 19:2
The seed will be multiplied
Gen. 22:17
John 1:12;
Isaiah 53:10
Abraham went down. Son didn’t. Isaac is “not mentioned”
Gen. 22:19
Luke 23:46
Servant gets bride for the son
Gen. 24:1-4
Eph. 5:22-32;
Rev. 21:2, 9; 22:17
The bride was a beautiful virgin
Gen. 24:16
2 Cor. 11:2
The Servant offered ten gifts to the bride
Gen. 22:10
Rom. 6:23; 12;
1 Cor. 12
That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants.
Paul speaks of the distinction between people: fleshly and spiritual.
It is not pedigree that makes someone spiritual or saved.
The children of the promise are those who are of the faith, not just the flesh. They are born after the spirit of God.
3:8, “The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘All the nations will be blessed in you.’” (A quote from Gen. 12:3)
4:29, “But as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now also.”
We must not avert our eyes from God’s law. Today, R.C. Sproul teaches that as this mirror reveals our moral blemishes, it alerts us to our need of the gospel.
And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves. (Ezekiel 37:13)
Indeed it must be so: those who receive life from the dead are sure to recognize the hand of the Lord in such a resurrection. This is the greatest and most remarkable of all changes that a man can undergo—to be brought out of the grave of spiritual death and made to rejoice in the light and liberty of spiritual life. None could work this but the living God, the Lord and giver of life.
Ah, me! How well do I remember when I was lying in the valley full of dry bones, as dry as any of them! Blessed was the day when free and sovereign grace sent the man of God to prophesy upon me! Glory be to God for the stirring which that word of faith caused among the dry bones. More blessed still was that heavenly breath from the four winds which made me live! Now know I the quickening Spirit of the ever-living Jehovah, Truly Jehovah is the living God, for He made me live. My new life even in its pinings and sorrowings is clear proof to me that the Lord can kill and make alive. He is the only God. He is all that is great, gracious, and glorious, and my quickened soul adores Him as the great I AM. All glory be unto His sacred name! As long as I live I will praise Him.
“Worry weighs a person down; an encouraging word cheers a person up.” Proverbs 12:25 (NLT)
We live in a world that has become filled with mayhem. Every side we turn there is a school shooting, a kidnapping, a family on the brink of falling apart or even a suicide as we have witnessed recently.
In the midst of all these challenges we have a tendency to become so consumed with our own lives and fail to see those crying out for help right around us. That is why it is essential for us, as the children of God to hear the voice of our Father.
Every day we should position ourselves to hear what He desires to share with those around us. I love this scripture found in Isaiah 50:4; it reads, “The Almighty Lord will teach me what to say, so I will know how to encourage weary people. Morning after morning he will wake me to listen like a student.” (GW) We must become sensitive to His Holy Spirit.
Too many people are walking around not knowing what to do or where to turn and we hold the answers within us. No, our lives may not be perfect, but we do serve a perfect God. He knows the plans and the purposes He has set for us. Along the course of our journey we should be willing to make ourselves available when He needs to interrupt our plans. The challenge we are in right now, may hold the key to someone’s victory. That is, if we would take the time to stop murmuring and complaining and learn the lessons.
The Lord would often send others to help encourage and strengthen our hearts in hopes that we would begin to do the same for those that cross our path. Take the time today and pay close attention to that still small voice within. Begin to share a smile, a hug, or just a few kind words with a stranger or a friend and watch their life blossom. You never know whose live you may be saving. That is the power of encouragement.
Nothing in our lives is wasted. Everything that we have encountered has purpose. It helps to remember that we were not created to serve ourselves but to serve those around us. You are the answer to someone else’s dilemma. You are their miracle.
“Encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:11
Thought
While Paul’s exhortation here is excellent, it is the style of the exhortation we should especially notice. We live in an age where we are constantly pressured to emphasize the novel, new, or improved versions of things. But in our lives as Christians, we need to remind each other of what we are doing right and just simply say, “Hey, you’re doing well, just keep doing what you’re doing!”
Prayer:
Faithful Father, thank you for noticing and keeping record of the things I’ve done that are good and pleasing to you. Please help me to keep doing those things that please you, only do them better, that you may be pleased and glorified. In Jesus name. Amen.
From “America The Beautiful” To “America Smeared With Feces”. Once upon a time, it was quite rare to see human feces right in the middle of the street. But now in cities that have severe drug problems authorities are constantly battling to keep things clean. For example, San Francisco has become world famous for the human feces that is seemingly “everywhere”… But residents say the problem is much bigger than what the data shows. 55 percent of America’s beaches had unsafe levels of feces in their waters at some point within the last year…
Details Of Secret US-Russia Talks Revealed As Ukraine Counteroffensive In Bad Shape “Secret diplomatic talks are ongoing between former senior U.S. national security officials and high-ranking members of the Kremlin, a U.S. official directly involved in the talks has confirmed to The Moscow Times,” “If Russia thought it might lose Crimea,” the US official said, “it would almost certainly resort to tactical nuclear weapons.”
Soldiers in Niger announce they have overthrown the government “We, the defense and security forces… have decided to put an end to the regime” of President Bazoum, said Colonel-Major Amadou Abdramane, surrounded by nine other uniformed soldiers in a statement read out on national television.
AG Ellison’s family owned slaves, report says Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who recently faced criticism for comparing Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to a house slave, is himself a descendant of slaveowners, according to a 2017 report. “Ellison’s younger brother, Anthony, now a lawyer in Boston, recalled Ellison struggling with their mother’s revelation that some of their Creole ancestors had owned slaves,” Ellison spent hours interviewing his relatives with a tape recorder and notebook on a family cotton farm in Louisiana.
Why there will be no civil war in Israel I wish to call attention to a different and more fundamental point, which is that the left and the right in Israel do not play by the same rules.
Sinéad O’Connor dies at age 56 …deeply troubled Irish Catholic singer Sinéad O’Connor, who sparked outrage in 1992 when she tore up a photograph of Pope John Paul II, passed away last night at age 56. In 2018, she converted to Islam, taking on the name “Shuhada Sadaqat.” The singer reportedly had several abortions, including one while on tour in 1990.
Hunter Biden pleads ‘not guilty’ to all charges after judge refused to sign onto ‘sweetheart’ plea deal Hunter Biden has pleaded “not guilty” to all charges against him after the “sweetheart” plea deal that would have allowed him to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges in exchange for avoiding prosecution for a felony gun charge apparently fell apart Wednesday. The court is set to reconvene at a later date – likely within the next four to six weeks – following what NBC has characterized as a “surprise development.”
Super Typhoon “Doksuri” moves through the Luzon Strait, heads toward southern China Typhoon “Doksuri” — known as Egay in the Philippines — intensified into a super typhoon on Wednesday, July 25, 2023, having reached a maximum sustained wind speed of 240 km/h (150 mph) — the equivalent of a category 4 hurricane in the Atlantic. The typhoon left at least 1 person dead and 2 injured in the Philippines and is now heading toward mainland China.
Strong and shallow M6.4 earthquake hits Vanuatu A strong and shallow earthquake registered by the USGS as M6.4 hit Vanuatu at 12:44 UTC on July 26, 2023. The agency is reporting a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles). EMSC is reporting M6.4 at a depth of 41 km (25.5 miles).
Amazon rolling out new payment tech at all Whole Foods stores Amazon announced Thursday it is rolling out its pay-by-palm services in Whole Foods Market stores across the country, making it possible for customers to use their palms for purchases without a wallet or phone.
Mexican drug cartels are behind the surge in retail thefts Mexican cartels are quietly expanding their global criminal empires to include mass theft operations targeting big-box stores, luxury retail brands, and small businesses, then selling the stolen goods online and laundering the profits through Chinese brokers.
8 Signs We’re Headed for a Global Famine It’s hard to believe that something as dire as “famine” could occur in places like the United States or Europe. However, the evidence is mounting, and Ertharin Cousin, former executive director of the World Food Program, calls it “a perfect storm in global agriculture.”
Google Tests A.I. Tool That Is Able to Write News Articles Google is testing a product that uses artificial intelligence technology to produce news stories, pitching it to news organizations including The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal’s owner, News Corp, according to three people familiar with the matter.
Tornado damages Pfizer plant in North Carolina, will “likely lead to long-term shortages” of medicine An important Pfizer pharmaceutical plant in North Carolina was severely damaged on Wednesday after a powerful tornado ripped through the area, threatening production lines that normally provide huge amounts of medicine to U.S. hospitals. Meanwhile, torrential rain flooded parts of Kentucky and communities from California to South Florida endured scorching heat that at times reached record-high temperatures.
Biden’s Plans to Block the Sun Are Actually Worse Than You Realize Solar radiation modification (SRM) is a form of geoengineering that aims to cool off the Earth by reflecting sunlight back into space.1 The controversial strategy comes with significant risks, but that didn’t stop the White House from moving forward with a research plan for “solar and other rapid climate interventions.”
The Kissinger Report: US government’s policy to depopulate the world Dr. Robert Malone was sceptical about various “depopulation agenda” theories involving covid. But his mind has changed since receiving an analysis of official documents from a colleague. The incriminating documents included The Kissinger Report.
Schools are storing your Child’s Biometric Data without Consent Beginning in 2001, the UK was the first country in the world to introduce the use of biometrics in schools. About half of the children at school in the UK now use their biometrics to access services in schools, such as food and libraries. Before 2021, no parental consent was given for schools to take, store and use children’s personal data. After a law was enacted to require schools to obtain parental consent, the use of Radio Frequency Identification (“RFID”) may become the tool of choice for schools.
The first son’s outrageous plea bargain fell apart in court yesterday, and for good reason.
Douglas Andrews
Rule of Law may be on life support in this country, but we just saw its finger twitch. And we have a heretofore anonymous U.S. district judge to thank for it.
Actually, we have a carelessly abandoned laptop computer, a Republican House victory in the 2022 midterms, and a handful of courageous FBI and IRS whistleblowers to thank for it, but it was Judge Maryellen Noreika who brought things to a head yesterday in a stunning reversal of fortune for Joe Biden’s reprobate son Hunter.
As the Washington Examiner reports: “Hunter Biden reported Wednesday morning to a U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Delaware, and was expected to plead guilty to tax misdemeanor charges as part of an announced plea deal. He was also expected to enter a diversion agreement for a felony gun charge.”
But there’s many a slip twixt cup and a lip, and Hunter learned that the hard way yesterday when his outrageous one-of-a-kind sweetheart plea deal leaked out of his smarmy, influence-peddling mouth and all over his nice white shirt and silk tie. Judge Noreika asked a very simple question — whether the investigation into his criminal activities was still ongoing. When the prosecutor said that it was indeed still ongoing, Noreika replied: “I have concerns about the agreement. I can’t let him plea to something if he thinks he has protection from something and he doesn’t.”
Ka-boom.
As the Examiner added: “A major sticking point for Noreika was a provision that would preclude the Department of Justice from enforcing the Foreign Agents Registration Act against Hunter Biden if he were found to be in violation. The DOJ said it would reserve the right to charge Hunter Biden under the act if necessary.”
“These agreements are not straightforward and they contain atypical provisions,” said Noreika. “I’m not in a position where I can decide to accept or reject a plea agreement and I need to defer it.”
You’re telling us they’re not straightforward. As former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, himself a former U.S. attorney, told Fox News this morning, “The judge is required to look at all of the defendant’s relevant conduct, and that includes videotapes of a user in possession of a firearm, and whistleblower testimony … about payments from China and Ukraine and other countries to Hunter Biden, and potential FARA violations.”
Did Judge Noreika have time to delve into, for example, the devastating whistleblower testimony of recent weeks — especially that of the two intrepid IRS agents who testified before the House last week? We suspect not.
And we suspect she may have been put off by the scummy behavior of Hunter’s defense team, which came to light Tuesday night. That’s when one of their lawyers allegedly misrepresented herself when asking the court to remove amicus materials from the case file.
How did she misrepresent herself? By posing as a member of the legal team for the prosecution. Disbarment, anyone?
As for the other “relevant conduct” Ratcliffe mentioned, we can only assume he’s talking about all the incriminating material on Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop — you know, the laptop whose contents the FBI, in collusion with Facebook and Twitter, successfully kept from the American people just prior to the 2020 election; you know, the laptop whose contents we were told by 51 senior U.S. intelligence officials had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.” (We’ve gotta hand it to ol’ Vladdy: He and his comrades did an unbelievable job of making it look like Boy Scout Biden was schtupping Russian hookers, falling asleep with a crack pipe in his mouth, and waving a pistol around in his birthday suit.)
As Ratcliffe pointed out: “This isn’t just a sweetheart deal; this is a unicorn case. In over 4,000 cases involving users in possession [of a firearm] like Hunter Biden, the only one who’s been offered pretrial diversion is Hunter Biden.”
How will all this ultimately shake out? The Federalist’s John Daniel Davidson rightly warns against settling for the Garland DOJ’s appointment of a special counsel:
As this story develops, it’s becoming obvious that the point of the FBI and DOJ’s obstruction is to protect the president and suppress further evidence of the Biden bribery scheme. That’s why a special counsel won’t cut it. The deep state isn’t going to get to the bottom of this, and the corporate press is going to keep aggressively ignoring it. If the federal courtroom circus on Wednesday demonstrated anything, it’s that we’re going to need an impeachment inquiry to find out the truth about President Biden’s corruption.
As yesterday’s hearing drew to a close, Hunter Biden changed his pre-planned plea from “guilty” to “not guilty,” but he may switch it back again if the prosecution and the defense can agree on a revised sweetheart plea deal between now and the next scheduled court date, August 25. Let’s hope the white-hot spotlight that’s now on prosecutors keeps them from disgracing themselves any further. And let’s hope Hunter can now spend some sleepless nights wondering about what might’ve been.
But as our Nate Jackson noted yesterday, all roads lead to the Big Guy: “Cognitively disabled deadbeat granddad Joe Biden should be removed from office for a number of reasons, but perhaps chief among them is his involvement in influence-peddling corruption with his son Hunter Biden. It always bears repeating that Hunter doesn’t matter; Joe does.”
Indeed, much as we laugh about the hookers and the blow, this is a story about bribery, corruption, abuse of power, and two-tiered justice. Oh, and a mainstream media that’s been willfully blind to all this for the past couple of years. It’s definitely about that, too.
His episode in a press conference prompts a lot more questions about very old people in Washington.
Nate Jackson
Well, Mitch McConnell might have momentarily lost his ability to speak, but he didn’t lose his sense of humor.
After the Senate Republican leader froze during a press conference Wednesday, Joe Biden called to check on him. “I got sandbagged,” McConnell says he told the president. That was a reference to Biden’s own joke after he fell at the U.S. Air Force Academy last month, claiming he tripped over a misplaced sandbag.
In all seriousness, we can’t help but wonder if McConnell suffered a stroke right there in public, on camera. It was sad and alarming to watch the 81-year-old slur his words, fade to silence mid-sentence, and then stare blankly ahead for 20 seconds before Senate John Barrasso intervened and gently led him away from the podium.
Aides later said McConnell admitted to feeling “light-headed” before his remarks, and earlier this year he suffered a concussion and a broken rib in a fall, needing weeks to recover. He reportedly fell again just a couple of weeks ago. But McConnell also came back to the press conference a few minutes later, insisting, “I’m fine.”
Asked whether he’d spoken to McConnell since the episode, 89-year-old Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley gave his youthful colleague a ringing endorsement: “He was with me on the Senate floor last night about 9:30, 10 o’clock. He was, uh, very, uh, strong in everything that he was doing. And, uh, he’s a good leader, and we need to keep him leading the Republicans in the United States Senate.”
We certainly wish Senator McConnell well.
The episode naturally brings up bigger questions about not just McConnell’s health but that of a number of other legislators — not to mention the president — who are in their 80s or even 90s.
We all know how cognitively disabled Joe Biden has become. Nancy Pelosi is little better — the 83-year-old former speaker has been incoherently bungling her way through remarks for years now. She joked the other day that Biden is “a kid to me” and insisted that “age is relative.” Besides, “The leader on the other side is not much younger,” she added. “I don’t like to use his name, but you know who I mean.” For Pelosi to so coyly avoid naming Donald Trump is behavior fitting for middle school, so yeah, maybe age is relative.
Senator Dianne Feinstein has likewise been scrutinized of late. The 90-year-old Californian has been in such poor health that her staff finally announced earlier this year that she won’t run for reelection. We say “her staff” because after her office released the retirement statement, she told a reporter, “I haven’t released anything.” Reminded of the statement by a staffer, Feinstein replied, “I should have known they put it out.”
It’s not just the handful of aforementioned legislators who are a bit long in the tooth. “Congress is older than ever,” headlined NPR after last November’s election. According to the Pew Research Center, “The new Senate’s median age … is 65.3 years,” the oldest ever. “In Congress overall, older generations — that is, Baby Boomers (born 1946-64) and the Silent Generation (1928-45) — constitute 54% of all members.” Thirty members were born before the end of World War II, and another 264 are Boomers.
Beyond the obvious age requirements for service, Congress is so old in part because America is older than ever. Life expectancy is high, so there just are more older people still with us. That’s a wonderful thing for passing on wisdom from previous generations, if only more Americans will let go of obsessing over youth and instead learn to prize that age and wisdom.
The downside when it comes to Congress is really twofold. We’re increasingly “represented” by people in such frail health that they need to be led away from podiums and pushed around in wheelchairs. And that’s true because of the second part — power incentives for staying in Congress way past prime time.
Think of that professional athlete who plays one too many seasons because he just can’t hang up the cleats. Knowing when to call it a career is a really hard decision to make. None of us should want to get to the point when others have to make that decision for us. That may be doubly true for the people who are supposed to represent us and make hugely consequential decisions affecting future generations.
GDP grows, Fed raises rates, Republicans grill Mayorkas, Senate seeks to end Chinese land buys, and more.
Thomas Gallatin & Jordan Candler
Cross-Examination
GDP grows and Fed raises rates: U.S. gross domestic product for the second quarter bested the anticipated 2% growth, coming in at a 2.4% annualized increase. This signaled a continued stronger-than-expected economy, with a widely predicted coming recession yet to be realized. With the strong economic news, the Federal Reserve once again raised the interest rate another quarter percentage point to 5.5%, the highest it has been in over two decades. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said the slowing rate of inflation is a good thing, but there’s still “a long way to go” to meet the goal of 2%. In fact, he warned that more rate hikes are coming, and it could be 2025 before inflation slows to 2%. Remember when rampant inflation was “transitory”?
More prime-age Americans working than pre-pandemic: The number of Americans age 25 to 54 working or seeking jobs has hit a 20-year high, which is helping to make up for the growing number of Baby Boomers retiring. The number of prime-age Americans currently employed now exceeds pre-pandemic numbers by nearly 2.2 million. Leading this surge are increasing numbers of women taking jobs. Now 77.8% of prime-age women are employed, which is the highest on record. Meanwhile, the percentage of prime-age men now working has hit its highest level since 2002 at 83.5%. One of the negative consequences for the increasing number of prime-age women in the workforce is a decreasing birth rate, as 2022 saw 655,000 fewer births than the peak numbers set in 2007.
Republicans grill Mayorkas: Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas once again appeared before Congress, this time the House Judiciary Committee, to explain the disaster that is the U.S. southern border. It was clear that Republican lawmakers have grown tired of Mayorkas’s vacuous claims that the border is under control. Representative Jim Jordan charged the Biden administration with violating “the law under the guise of instituting safe, orderly, and humane policies.” Noting that more than two million illegal aliens have been released into the U.S. interior since Joe Biden took office, Representative Tom McClintock asked, “What is the limit, or is there one?” In typical fashion, Mayorkas ignored the question by claiming, “Last year, we expelled or removed approximately 1.4 million people who did not have a legal basis to remain in the United States, the largest number in recent history.” Representative Chip Roy accused Mayorkas of lying under oath when he told the committee last year that the administration had operational control of the border. Mayorkas claimed that he was not afforded an opportunity to give a complete answer at the time. Mayorkas is currently under investigation led by House Republicans for “dereliction of duty.”
Good news: Senate seeks to end Chinese land buys: The Senate on Tuesday added an important amendment to the current national defense bill being negotiated. Agreed upon by the vast majority of senators, the amendment would ban China from purchasing agricultural land in the U.S. Iowa Senator Joni Ernst defended the amendment: “America is not for sale. There is no ignoring that China is in our own backyard and buying up land near our critical military installations.” She further noted: “I have worked to close the loopholes that have allowed the Chinese Communist Party to encroach on our farmland, and today I am proud to see those efforts are helping to strengthen our national security and combat our foreign adversaries. As Iowa farmers know, food security is national security.”
It’s the Daughters of the American Revolution: Just a decade ago this story would have been regarded as a satirical joke, but it’s 2023, and the fringe gender-bending craziness has become mainstream. Now the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) find themselves in the midst of the rainbow mayhem. At issue is a new bylaw passed at the recent DAR Continental Congress that could effectively allow for the entry of males into the all-female organization. Apparently, the greater cultural confusion over defining a woman is now confusing the Daughters.
Headlines
UFO whistleblower alleges “multi-decade” cover-up in congressional testimony (National Review)
Mom who let child play at a park finally removed from unfit parent registry (Reason)
Hawaii Health Department trains future therapists to conceal conversations with LGBT youth from parents (Fox News)
Christian coach fired for stating views on obvious sex differences (The Federalist)
Anheuser Busch lays off nearly 400 corporate workers as Bud Light backlash continues (National Review)
Satire: Hunter Biden plea deal falls through after bribery check bounces (Babylon Bee)
Humor: Transgender women’s soccer player outed on free kick (Babylon Bee)
This dystopian prospect is gaining traction: 44% said misgendering should be illegal.
Emmy Griffin
In a poll conducted by Newsweek, respondents were asked about their thoughts on preferred pronouns and “misgendering.” The prompt stated, “Referring to someone by the wrong gender pronoun (he/him, she/her) should be a criminal offense.”
First of all, we won’t use scare quotes every time, but in the Left’s lexicon, “misgendering” means using pronouns corresponding to biology regardless of a person’s chosen “identity.”
One may assume that Gen Z would be the generation most ardent to support this. Surprisingly, it is the Millennials who are calling for the criminalization of misgendering. According to the poll, 44% of respondents aged 25-34 (Millennials) said they agreed that misgendering should be illegal. Only 31% disagreed. Millennials were the worst, but Gen X wasn’t far behind them. While the 35- to 44-year-old cohort includes some Millennials, 38% of that group think misgendering should be a criminal offense, with only 35% disagreeing.
Interestingly enough, Gen Zers (age 18-24) seem to have the most common sense. Thirty-three percent agree with criminalizing misgendering, and 48% oppose.
This seems like a far-fetched idea, but people have been thrown in jail for using the wrong pronouns. PJ Media lists several examples in Europe and Canada where people have been arrested or investigated as criminals. Townhall cites an Irish school teacher who lost his job for refusing to use a student’s declared pronouns.
If the Newsweek poll is to be believed, then who’s to say that the U.S. won’t start making misgendering illegal? Except we already are trying. In California, students were suspended for using a teacher’s “incorrect” pronouns. In Michigan, House Bill 4474 passed. This legislation would make it a felony to intimidate someone and misgender them. It is classified as a hate crime.
Preferred pronouns are perhaps the most confusing and egotistical part of the transgenderism canon. People who claim they are the opposite gender believe a delusion and aren’t satisfied unless you affirm their delusion. The next step is always force for this ideology.
People resist this ideology because it is a lie. A man cannot become a woman or a woman a man. A singular person is not a they/them, zhe/zher, or whatever other linguistic concoction they make up. Preferred pronouns are based on a lie, foisted on the public, and can be changed on a whim.
Preferred pronouns are also pretty egotistical because the user forces people to adhere to a personal whim, the results being that people are confused or exhausted trying to remember and insert the correct preferred pronouns for people.
Who’s to say a person can’t get legally charged if they “misgender” someone simply because the object of their misgendering had changed their pronouns half a dozen times? “Misgendering” might be considered a hate crime, but unlike race, age, biological sex, or physical/mental ability, gender expression and preferred pronouns aren’t immutable characteristics.
Why are so many younger and middle-age adults on the censorship and cancellation bandwagon? Some have speculated that these generations are simply the product of Boomer Hippie parenting, which is fair. It is far more likely that these people have bought into this ideology because they have children who are living the ideology. Our Nate Jackson recently wrote about such parents, who would rather go down with the transgenderism ship than admit they permanently damaged their kids.
Millennials have also been strenuously taught to respect everyone — even if that means lying to them, apparently. Hopefully this generation will wake up to the dangers of going down this road. Transgenderism isn’t the next civil rights movement. It is an ideology that preys on the vulnerable and should be refuted at every opportunity.
Harris revises history as she pushes a disingenuous narrative for political gain.
Thomas Gallatin
“In the state of Florida, they decided middle school students will be taught that enslaved people benefited from slavery,” Kamala Harris falsely asserted during a speech last week in Jacksonville, Florida. She then added, “They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us, and we will not stand for it.”
Harris’s characterization of the Florida Department of Education’s newly announced standards for the teaching of African-American history was at best disingenuous. To put it more accurately, it was a flat-out lie.
The new curriculum standards require a comprehensive teaching of slavery in the nation and in Florida, and in no way do the standards teach that slavery was anything but evil and reprehensible. Indeed, of the history curriculum’s 191 references to slavery, there is no positive reference to the practice of slavery, but there is a positive reference to slaves seeking to better themselves. That teaching guide notes “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”
Nowhere in that statement referencing a historical fact is slavery being condoned. Indeed, the curriculum is rightly concerned with noting that, despite slaves’ plight, they in many ways sought to make the best of their circumstances. To suggest otherwise is to not only give an inaccurate view of history but to cast the slaves as entirely devoid of any self-agency or even action toward independence. In other words, Harris’s simplistic view of history is insulting in its depiction of African-American slaves.
In any case, who’s going to tell Kamala about the AP curriculum that tells about slaves who learned to become “painters, carpenters, tailors, musicians, and healers” and subsequently “used these skills to provide for themselves and others”?
Well, there’s the firsthand account of former slave Booker T. Washington, who observed after slavery ended: “The slave owner and his sons had mastered no special industry. They unconsciously had imbibed the feeling that manual labor was not the proper thing for them. On the other hand, the slaves, in many cases, had mastered some handicraft, and none were ashamed, and few unwilling, to labor.”
The irony is that it is not Florida’s Education Board, almost half of whom are black academics, who are doing the gaslighting — rather, it is Harris herself. And she is gaslighting in order to peddle a simplistic oppressor/oppressed narrative that supports a political agenda motivating voters by appealing to identity rather than policy.
Dr. William B. Allen, former chairman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and Professor Emeritus at Michigan State University, was one of the authors of the new Florida curriculum. Allen, who happens to be black, blasted Harris’s claim as “categorically false.” He observed: “Grammar, for people of basic literacy, sufficiently refutes the charge. … But I came to understand this had nothing to do with the standards; it had everything to do with a larger agenda, starting with the teachers union and its allies and, of course, carrying it to the level of the vice presidency in order to give it heft … and to account for slavery as the soul of America and discount the accomplishments of America.”
Florida is the target of Harris and the Democrat Party due in part to its Republican governor, Ron DeSantis. He is, of course, running for president based in large part on his stance against the injection of leftist political ideology (CRT and DEI) into the state’s public educational curriculum. That’s why Harris is smearing him as a racist slavery apologist.
Preventing the promulgation of leftist ideology among a generation of Florida’s students represents a future threat to the Democrats’ political power.
Furthermore, Harris is literally engaged in the dissemination of misinformation, and yet there are no calls from Big Tech and social media to censor her damaging lies. In fact, the “fact-checking” site PolitiFact has once again beclowned itself by defending Harris’s lie as “Mostly True.” Gotta protect that narrative irregardless of the truth.
This episode with Harris also serves to validate why parents have become increasingly involved in their children’s schools. Their eyes have been opened to the reality that in far too many schools, what passes as education is in reality leftist indoctrination. Students are presented with dubious opinions as if they are facts. Just like those media “fact-checking” sites.
Harris might believe she is engaged in a fight against her political opponents, but in truth she’s engaged in a fight against the historical record.
Mother Nature is in charge — we’re just along for the ride.
Jack DeVine
Of course, hot days in July and August are nothing new. Those of a certain age might recall growing up without air conditioning. True, our fond memories aren’t always accurate (we also remember walking miles to school, uphill both ways), yet somehow we lived through it and we loved summer anyway.
But today it seems that everything is controversial, and weather is no exception. And for context, I must also point out that the summer of 2023 is shaping up to be exceptionally hot, breaking records in many places. It is one more reminder (as if we needed reminding) that steadily warmer summers are a manifestation of climate change, a very real and serious matter.
We might be inclined to take that serious matter more seriously if media coverage were more balanced. Several off-balance examples caught my attention in the past couple of weeks:
A sub-headline on a Washington Post news article noting that this summer’s extreme heat has environmental policymakers very worried.
Political commentary to the effect that despite the record-shattering heat, Republicans still do not believe that climate change is real.
Widely covered pronouncement from the scientific community that three days last week (Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday) were the earth’s hottest days in 120,000 years. (Yes, 120,000 years!)
My immediate thoughts about worried policymakers: Mother Nature couldn’t care less about them or their policies. There is an enormous chasm between climate change policy (ours or the world’s) and the weather that shows up on our doorsteps — and in some cases, they’re not connected at all.
Despite the trillions of dollars spent or pledged to battle climate change, we’ve not even nudged the needle. That should be no surprise to anyone. Those massively complex computer analyses that have convinced us that man-caused emissions of greenhouse gases pose an existential threat to the planet also tell us that our very ambitious (and thus far unachievable) emission-reduction targets will produce, at best, a barely detectible decrease in global warming.
One example: Our government-mandated transition of the entire automobile industry and supporting infrastructure to electric vehicles may in fact lead to sweeping changes in Americans’ car choices, driving habits, and personal finances, but it’s unlikely to produce even slight changes in the occurrence of forest fires, the intensity and frequency of hurricanes, or summer temperatures anywhere. Our own analyses tell us so.
Regarding belief in climate change, just about everyone with a pulse (GOP included) acknowledges its reality. What some of us deny — with very good reason — is the efficacy of the climate change agenda advocated by the Left. It’s unaffordable, drives cost of electricity up and availability down, and achieves little or nothing in return.
And the recent scientific assertion that this summer’s high temperatures were the highest in 120,000 years is, in my view, an embarrassing — and very telling — indicator of the mind-numbing hubris of those upon whom we rely for guidance in environmental matters.
The point here is not to throw cold water on the climatological studies conducted by scientists around the world. Theirs is a necessary and challenging endeavor. But it’s hard to buy into precise assertions about daily temperatures more than a thousand centuries ago when produced by the same analytical methods that consistently fail to predict what will happen next year. Worse, my own skepticism hit the flashing red light zone when one of the leading proponents of the recent analysis asserted, “We know exactly what the problem is, we know exactly how to fix it, and we have all the solutions we need.”
No. Wrong on all counts. That kind of unwarranted confidence in computer analyses can get us in big trouble.
Here’s what we do know. We know that over its lifetime, our planet has gone through both extreme cooling and extreme warming cycles, at times becoming barely habitable; we know that man-made emissions, and particularly the combustion of fossil fuels, since the Industrial Revolution (only two centuries ago) has contributed to global warming; and we know as well that factors unrelated to greenhouse gas emissions, such as changes to earth’s orbit around the sun, have also caused global warming.
We know that there are now nearly eight billion inhabitants on this planet (that’s about 100,000 for each human who lived on the planet 120,000 years ago) consuming food, sharing our natural resources, and relying on electrical and other energy sources. We know that we must wean ourselves from reliance on fossil fuels — but at the same time we must find the energy and resources needed to support all eight billion people.
And we know that our long-term survival will hinge on our ingenuity, resilience, and capacity to adapt to whatever curveballs Mother Nature throws at us.
Editor’s Note: Each week we receive hundreds of comments and correspondences — and we read every one of them. Click here for a few thought-provoking comments about specific articles. The views expressed therein don’t necessarily reflect those of The Patriot Post.
PopCon #6: Jason Aldean’s ‘Try That in a Small Town’ — In a recent bout of cancel culture, Jason Aldean’s music video for his new song “Try That in a Small Town” was pulled from CMT due to accusations of his work being “pro-gun, pro-violence and a ‘modern lynching song.’”
Biden Struggles to Stick to Script on Hunter’s Business Deals — In July, IRS supervisory special agent Gary Shapley and IRS special agent Joseph Ziegler provided extensive evidence of Biden’s efforts to avoid paying nearly $1.6 million in taxes from 2014 and 2019.
Biden Impeachment Coming? — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy says Biden corruption will lead to an impeachment inquiry. Will it lead to more than that?
Matt Taibbi: How the Left Lost Its Mind — Before Taibbi was sparring with congressional Democrats earlier this year over the Twitter Files, he was a darling of the Left, appearing regularly on Leftmedia shows.
“As we have said multiple times, our border enforcement plan works.” —White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre
“Our approach to managing the border securely and humanely, even within our fundamentally broken immigration system, is working.” —DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas
Lack of Self-Awareness
“Republicans have not established any legitimate grounds to impeach Secretary Mayorkas. … Policy disagreements and personal grudges are not a basis for impeachment.” —Congressman Jerry Nadler (D-NY)
“The Republican desire to impeach someone, anyone, no matter if there’s any evidence, just shows how they have descended into chaos.” —Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA)
Hot Air
“From day one, President Biden has treated climate change with the urgency it requires.” —Karine Jean-Pierre
“The importance of climate is shown on a 90-degree day.” —Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY)
Grand Delusions
“When my husband … took office two and a half years ago, he made a promise to the American people that he would rebuild the systems that were broken and fortify our institutions; that he would work to bring divided communities back together; and that he would put us on a path to a better, brighter future while restoring our leadership on the world stage. And he did.” —Jill Biden
“The greatest threat facing our homeland is white nationalist ideology.” —Congressman Hank Johnson (D-GA)
Observations
“[Texas Governor Greg] Abbott proved to [New York City Mayor Eric] Adams and other Democrats in sanctuary cities around the country that their rhetoric means nothing when confronted by the true scale of the illegal entry problem. Perhaps it made them feel good to talk about sanctuary and welcoming and unity in opposition to the hated Trump. But it won’t solve the immense problem that President Biden’s policies have created.” —Byron York
“The critics slamming the Florida [Social Studies] curriculum might consider the testimony of Booker T. Washington, the great 19th-century educator and civil rights leader. Though he was born into slavery and wrote eloquently of its bitterness, Washington was likewise of the view that ‘notwithstanding the cruel wrongs inflicted upon us,’ plantation life had left formerly enslaved people with one advantage: a degree of ‘self-reliance and self-help’ that many white people lacked.” —Jeff Jacoby
“Democracy cannot survive for long if one of the nation’s two major political parties wants to put blinders on the public, limiting their access to information and canceling political opponents. That’s a rigged system. Ask the Iranians, Russians or Chinese. … Trusting government to be your eyes and ears is crazy.” —Betsy McCaughey
“Feminism set the stage for trans activists by insisting for years that there are no significant or inherent differences between men and women apart from anatomy. They are the ones who came up with the idea that most differences between the sexes were ‘social constructs.’” —Matt Walsh
“One who justifies the wicked and one who condemns the righteous,
Both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord.” Proverbs 17:15
New American Standard Bible
Frontline Fellowship seeks to glorify God through:
Evangelising in War Zones
Assisting Persecuted Churches
Working for Reformation and Revival in Africa
Serving God in: Angola, Mozambique, Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan, Zambia, Zimbabwe and the Congo.
Evangelising in the War Zones
Frontline Fellowship is a Bible-based African Mission that has pioneered missionary work into neglected mission fields and areas resistant to the Gospel. Since 1982, Frontline missionaries have travelled hundreds of thousands of kilometres by foot, by motorbikes, by dugout canoes, trucks and aircraft to boldly proclaim the Gospel of repentance and faith in Christ to soldiers, guerrillas, resistance fighters and civilians on all sides of many conflicts in Africa.
The Founder and Director of Frontline Fellowship, Dr. Peter Hammond, has personally carried out over 140 missions in the war zones and presented over 18,000 sermons, Bible studies and lectures in 38 countries. In the course of their missionary activities some Frontline missionaries have been ambushed, come under artillery bombardment and mortar fire, been stabbed, shot at, beaten by mobs, arrested and imprisoned. The Frontline mission base and high school in Sudan repeatedly came under aerial bombardment by the government of Sudan Air Force (10 times in 18 months). Over the years, 20 people involved in Frontline Fellowship outreaches have been imprisoned in Marxist or Muslim countries. Yet, by the grace of God, every one was freed in response to persistent prayer and pressure (Luke 18:1 – 5).
Assisting Persecuted Churches
Frontline Fellowship has been in the forefront of:
Pioneering missionary work into war-ravaged Angola, Mozambique and Sudan; Researching and opening up neglected areas and restricted access areas;
Assisting persecuted Christians and prisoners with books, emergency relief aid (including tons of medicines, foods, clothes, seed, bicycles and tools), encouragement and Bible teaching;
Developing a network of couriers and evangelists to distribute many tons of Bibles, in over 100 languages, to suffering Christians;
Providing in-depth leadership training for thousands of pastors, evangelists, chaplains, teachers, nurses and civil leaders in neglected areas;
Speaking up for the persecuted, publishing the sufferings and testimonies of believers in print, on radio, and T.V.
Working for Reformation and Revival
Frontline Fellowship is a leading force in leadership training for Reformation.
Frontline Fellowship publishes over 100 items a year and has distributed millions of Gospel leaflets, booklets, books and Bibles throughout Africa.
Frontline Fellowship has distributed millions of Gospel leaflets, booklets, books and Bibles throughout Africa. Frontline Fellowship conducts an average of 30 seminars, conferences or workshops each year. Through literature and leadership training, Frontline Fellowship is educating and enlisting tens of thousands of Christians to “disciple the nations…teaching obedience.” Just in Sudan, since 1995, Frontline Fellowship trained thousands of pastors, chaplains, medics and teachers, and provided thousands of Christian textbooks to over 350 schools and delivered 950,000 Bibles and Christian books in 24 languages.
In Zimbabwe, Frontline is distributing food, medicines and Scriptures into some of the most desperately needy areas and providing leadership, training thousands of pastors, chaplains, medics and teachers.
Despite declining abortion numbers, the conservative turn among Russia’s leadership and a push from the Russian Orthodox Church have put a target on the issue.
Ukrainian and Western officials have admitted that Kiev’s counteroffensive has suffered heavy early setbacks, according to the outlet
The Ukrainian military is changing its tactics in an attempt to avoid the significant casualties that have so far blighted its counteroffensive against Russian forces, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing officials in Kiev and the West.
The outlet’s sources claimed that Ukrainian losses had been “heavy” in the first weeks of its much-anticipated operation, with attempts to penetrate Russian defensive lines so far costing Kiev “almost a fifth of NATO kit” provided for the effort.
The FT report follows a similar article by the New York Times earlier this month, which claimed that Kiev had lost almost 20% of the weapons it sent to the battlefield in just the first two weeks of the counteroffensive. White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has also confirmed that Ukraine has lost a “significant” number of troops, but claimed it still had “substantial” reserves.
After failing to achieve significant progress in the first phases of the operation, Ukrainian commanders have now begun to adopt new tactics, according to the FT. The shift reportedly involves a focus on bombarding Russian positions with artillery fire instead of trying to break through Russian minefields with NATO armored vehicles.
Ukrainian soldiers told the FT that while the resistance they have faced from Russian forces was stiffer than expected, they have started losing significantly fewer tanks and combat vehicles since adopting a more reserved strategy.
However, the more cautious approach has come at the expense of speed, with President Vladimir Zelensky admitting that the counteroffensive is developing “slower than we would like.”
The Ukrainian leader attributed the lackluster results of the operation to insufficient military support and training from Kiev’s Western backers, insisting that the Ukrainian army did not have enough weapons to carry out the counteroffensive on the scale initially intended.
Washington, however, has insisted that it is too early to call the counteroffensive a “failure,” with top Pentagon officials insisting that they always expected the operation to be bloody and protracted.
Russian President Vladimir Putin stated on Sunday that the Ukrainian operation has failed after suffering “catastrophic” losses of over 26,000 active service members as well as large numbers of foreign fighters.
Since the Russian Invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, approx. 11,675 private military contractors (PMCs) from 84 countries have joined the Ukrainian Foreign Legion, the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed July 10. As the Ukrainian counteroffensive stalls, Western volunteers worry about being used as cannon fodder and thrown into the “meat grinder”, Russia claims.
The largest numbers of mercenaries apparently came from Poland (over 2,600), the US and Canada (over 900 from each), Georgia (over 800), Great Britain and Romania (over 700 each), Croatia (over 300), as well as from France and the part of Syria controlled by Turkey (over 200 each), Russia Today reports.
An unknown number of “retired” American service members have volunteered to fight in Ukraine, in addition to active DoD and CIA personnel deployed in-country.
The CIA mainstains “a network of commandos and spies among European partners set up to provide critical weapons and military intelligence to Ukraine,” Responsible Statecraft writes. “Even as the Biden administration has declared it will not deploy American troops to Ukraine, some C.I.A. personnel have continued to operate in the country secretly, mostly in the capital, Kyiv, directing much of the massive amounts of intelligence the United States is sharing with Ukrainian forces”, according to the New York Times.
According to the Pentagon Leaks, there are “at least 97 special forces from Nato countries active in Ukraine,” The Guardian reported. Of these 50 were British, 14 American and 15 French. “The UK’s special forces include the SAS, the Special Boat Service, the Special Reconnaissance Regiment, as well as several other secretive military units such as the 18 (UKSF) Signals Regiment.”
According to the Pentagon Leaks, there were a total of 29 DoD personnel in Ukraine in April. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) has filed a resolution to force White House Resident Joe Biden to reveal how many American troops are deployed in Ukraine, Breitbart reported.
How many US volunteers and “retired” service members are active in Ukraine is not known. A US mercenary was allegedly present at the killing of 11 Russian POWs in Makeyevka in the northern Luhansk region in November, as Gateway reported.
The peak influx of foreign mercenaries was immemiately after the Russian Invasion, but after the first casualties, the growth rate suddenly decreased, Russia claims. “Moscow now believes the number of foreign PMCs in Ukraine is rapidly declining. Russia’s Ministry of Defense believes that only around 2,000 remain today. It has also claimed that about 5,000 foreign volunteers fled Ukraine after seeing how the authorities treated them,” Russia Today writes.
President Vladimir Zelensky announced the formation of the International Legion of Territorial Defense in order to attract foreign volunteers to Ukraine Feb. 27, 2022. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba claimed that by March 6, more than 20,000 volunteers from 52 countries had joined. In March 2023, the New York Times found there may be only 1,500 members of the Ukraine Foreign Legion.
Moscow now claims that, due to problems with mobilization in Ukraine, considerable losses, and flagging recruitment in Western countries, Kiev has begun actively recruiting fighters from Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East – from Argentina, Brazil, Afghanistan, Iraq, and “US-controlled areas of Syria,” Russia Today writes.
According to French RTL television channel, foreigners who join the International Legion receive about €500 ($550) per month – or €3,000 if they serve on the front line. RTL claims that most French citizens who join the AFU buy their own equipment, since the Ukrainian army cannot provide all of them with gear. One mercenary, who has been in Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict and wished to remain anonymous, said that he spent almost €50,000. For example, an assault rifle costs €4,000, but some people go so far as to buy cars to go to the front. Some spend their personal savings, while others announce online fundraising campaigns, RTL reports.
During Russian interrogations, “captured Ukrainian servicemen have reportedly said the commanders of front-line AFU units are not held accountable for losses among mercenaries,” Russia Today reports. “The Ukrainian command throws units with foreign mercenaries into so-called ‘meat-grinder assaults’ on Russian positions. Wounded mercenaries are the last to be evacuated, only after all Ukrainian servicemen are removed [from the battlefield],” claimed the Russian Ministry of Defense.
Sky News Australia recently portrayed Irish volunteer Rhys Byne, who was leaving the front lines after “nearly getting killed” by “an encounter with a Russian tank.”
FIRST ON FOX: Republican presidential candidate Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., took aim Thursday at the “forces within Biden’s DOJ” that he said seek to protect the president and his family, suggesting that there may be individuals within the Justice Department that have been “suppressing” certain information.
“The only explanation for the sweetheart deal is forces within Biden’s DOJ protecting his family. We’ve seen it time and time again – DOJ weaponized to hunt Republicans and protect Democrats. It’s unAmerican and when I’m president we’re going to clean house and start over,” Scott said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “It shouldn’t take years for evidence and information on Hunter Biden’s transactions from drugs to guns to contracts to come to light unless there are forces within Biden’s DOJ suppressing that information.”
“We cannot continue to see the biased weaponization of the DOJ against political opponents, pro-life activists, and parents who want a better education for their kids, while simultaneously protecting Democrats,” he added.
Scott’s comments to Fox come one day after Hunter Biden’s first court appearance in Delaware, where his plea deal fell apart, and he pleaded not guilty as federal prosecutors confirmed he is still under federal investigation.
The president’s son was expected to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax counts of willful failure to pay federal income tax as part of the plea deal to avoid jail time on a felony gun charge.
Hunter Biden was also expected to enter into a pretrial diversion agreement regarding a separate felony charge of possession of a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user of, or addicted to, a controlled substance.
During the contentious court hearing at a federal court in Wilmington, Delaware, Judge Maryellen Noreika pressed federal prosecutors on the investigation and questioned whether there was the possibility for future charges and asked prosecutors if Hunter Biden was currently under active investigation. Prosecutors said he was, but would not go into specifics about the areas of investigation.
However, federal prosecutor Leo Wise did confirm to Judge Noreika that the DOJ is investigating Hunter Biden over a potential FARA violation. According to the DOJ, a willful violation of FARA could result in up to five years imprisonment and $250,000 fine, or both.
“Yes,” Wise stated after Noreika asked him whether the Justice Department could bring a charge against Hunter Biden related to FARA.
Prosecutors said Hunter Biden pleading guilty to the two misdemeanor tax offenses would not immunize him from future charges.
Hunter Biden ultimately pleaded not guilty because Noreika could not accept the plea deal as constructed. She repeatedly expressed her concerns about the constitutionality of the diversion deal related to the felony gun charge, specifying that the main issue with the agreement was that if Hunter Biden breached the deal, the judge would need to make a finding of fact on the matter before the government could bring charges.
Fox News’ Brooke Singman and Thomas Catenacci contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – The Biden Administration played a vital role in both recent deadly attacks on the Crimean Bridge, providing Ukraine with the necessary technology, US journalist Seymour Hersh reported on Thursday, citing a US official.
On Wednesday Delaware Democrat Judge Maryellen Noreika rejected the shameless sweetheart plea deal for Hunter Biden. The plea deal had covered Biden’s tax issues from 2014 to 2019, drug use and a gun charge that were to be pled as two misdemeanors for the tax charges and a diversion on the gun charge.
During the hearing the court learned that the sweetheart deal for Hunter Biden via the Biden Department of Justice also included a non-written agreement that would prevent the court from charging Hunter Biden of any additional crime in the future. This came out in court today.
But they got caught. Even the Democrat judge would not sign off on this lawlessness.
On Wednesday evening Attorney and Article III Project Founder Mike Davis joined Steve Bannon on The War Room.
Mike Davis told the War Room audience what must happen next.
Mike Davis: What I would say is happening here is there was an even sweeter deal between the Biden Justice Department and Hunter Biden than what was even in the written sweetheart plea agreements. And what’s going on here. It was a wink-wink agreement between the Biden Justice Department and Hunter Biden. They didn’t want to put it down on paper that there was a broad waiver of all potential crimes in this plea agreement because that would cause way too much political blowback for the Biden Justice Department. It would also mean that the Biden Justice Department couldn’t say that there’s an ongoing investigation to try to rebuff Congress. And the judge correctly peeled at that, picked at that today. And that’s what blew up this whole deal…
…It’s even worse than that, Steve. Not only were they not going to prosecute Hunter for any other crimes, they were going to pretend the Biden Justice Department was going to pretend like there was an ongoing investigation. So the Congress couldn’t call in David Weiss, they couldn’t call in Merrick Garland, they couldn’t call in Hunter Biden because all they’d have to say is, there is an ongoing investigation. We can’t talk to you, Congress. It is so much worse than people understand…
…They need to call in Bill Barr, they need to call in Merrick Garlands, they need to call in David Weiss. They need to call in the Pennsylvania U. S. Attorney who found these allegations credible. They need to call in the IRS whistleblowers and they need to call in the FBI agents who corroborated these claims. Put all of them at the same table in front of the cameras and the lights. Put them under oath and make them answer the questions under oath of who did what, where and when. Because someone is lying here and they need to smoke them out.
Do it! Call all of them to Congress. Cancel the recess!
Emma-Jo Morris, editor at Breitbart and former editor at the New York Post, testified before the House Weaponization Committee about the censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop scandal, including the coordinated nature of the social media blackout as well as the potential collusion with federal agencies working with media outlets like Politico to derail the story as “Russian disinformation” right before the 2020 election.
It should not be easy to forget the level of mass censorship on display in 2020-2022, with widespread violations of free speech rights by government’s using Big Tech as a corporate hitman. From the blatant spin in favor of BLM’s “fiery but peaceful” riots, to the attempted deplatforming of websites like Zero Hedge in retaliation for coverage of covid’s potential Wuhan Lab origins (In light of congressional investigations, we now know it was Anthony Fauci that organized the suppression of the lab leak theory), to the complete erasure of the Hunter Biden laptop from public view – Social media has been a tool for controlling public perception rather than a means of free communication.
However, the populace has been bombarded with so many crises and scandals in the past few years they may need reminding of the numerous trespasses that took place not long ago.
It is of course now absolutely and undeniably confirmed that the Hunter Biden Laptop is real. The data on the laptop is the centerpiece of an investigation and impending impeachment against Joe Biden, specifically in regards to the exploitation of his office as a means to secure foreign business deals for his family members.
The Twitter Files, released by Elon Musk after his takeover of the platform, detail numerous instances in which federal agencies and politicians asked for censorship measures against individuals and groups in violation of the 1st Amendment, including the censorship of the laptop story. The Biden campaign routinely requested tweets be deleted in 2020, and while some requests also came from Republicans including Donald Trump, the majority of accounts actually censored by Twitter were in fact conservative or anti-establishment.
The relationship between the FBI and the old regime at Twitter was disturbingly direct. FBI Supervisory Special Agent Elvis Chan testified in a lawsuit against the Biden administration brought by Republican attorneys that he organized weekly meetings with Twitter and Facebook in San Francisco for as many as seven Washington-based FBI agents in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election.
The FBI is also noted as paying out at least $3.4 million to Twitter for their “help” in “processing legal requests” regarding censored accounts. Musk revealed that a crucial player in Twitter’s censorship of The Post and the Biden Laptop story was former FBI general counsel James Baker, a central player in the Russia collusion hoax, who had become Twitter’s Deputy General Counsel.
Thus far, no individual or agency has yet been punished for constitutional violations related to social media censorship of the American people, and establishment journalists have spent the better part of the last six months attempting to dismiss the Twitter Files and any government partnerships with Big Tech as nothing more than “conspiracy theory.”
What more information needs to come to light about the risks and negative efficacy of these shots before they are taken off the market?
Today, the House is voting on the Agriculture-FDA appropriations bill, which funds all of the FDA’s operations. At a time when we should be examining all the new information that has been published about existing vaccines and suspending the new ones, the FDA is still promoting the failed and dangerous COVID shots. Now the agency is acculturating the public to the acceptability of such a high threshold of injury that the rate of heart injury from the COVID shots – just one of many possible injuries – is a whopping 1 in 35, according to a new Swiss study. So is there any threshold of injury that will cause a vaccine to be pulled from the market?
The paper from the University of Basel, published in July in the European Journal of Heart Failure, followed 777 hospital workers who got Moderna boosters to see how many presented with elevated markers of myocardial injury. They found 22 had elevated levels on day 3 after the shot without evidence of an alternative cause. That is a rate of 1 in 35. Also, 40 participants, or 1 in 19, had elevated troponin levels, which could be a sign of subclinical myocarditis. This is aside from the 8% experiencing chest pain and 9% suffering palpitations.
What is further disturbing about the study findings is that 50% of those with markers for heart inflammation were not back to normal at the follow-up checkup. This was largely a young population, with the median age being 37. Also, out of the 24 people with confirmed prior COVID, two of them presented with higher troponin levels. Although that is a small sample size, it raises further concerns that all these seniors being pressured to get more COVID shots before the fall (along with flu and now RSV shots) will face an even greater risk of heart injury if they already had COVID.
While none of them suffered cardiac arrests, such a high rate of elevated heart markers for risk of long-term damage should be unacceptable even for a shot that actually works. This is a shot with negative efficacy for a pandemic that is long over. How can our government continue distributing and funding it?
Interestingly enough, this study found a much greater risk for heart inflammation among females. A Thai study published last year found 3.5% of teenage boys in the sample developed clinical or subclinical myocarditis/pericarditis. But this study shows women can also be at risk. This is particularly problematic as the medical profession and CDC continue to pressure pregnant women, including the overwhelming majority of those who already got the virus, to get a booster shot.
In a twisted irony, the only shot that is available is the bivalent booster for strains that are long extinct! The FDA has greenlit the manufacturer to make new boosters liability-free for the fall XBB. 1.5 variant, when, ironically, even this new variant is down to just 12% of cases and will likely be extinct in a month.
How is it that despite mountains of evidence showing these shots reaching criminals levels of dangerous risk and lack of efficacy, not a single policy surrounding the shots themselves or the approval, pharmacovigilance, and liability process has changed? How come it’s not even on the radar of congressional leaders, and RFK Jr. and Ron DeSantis are the only ones calling for a reckoning?
In addition to the Pfizer documents showing that Pfizer knew about millions of adverse events, new documents obtained from the FDA show that Moderna knew the same thing. An activist group named Defending the Republic obtained 15,000 pages of Moderna documents thanks to litigation, and they show the same pattern as the Pfizer documents: namely, suspicious deaths and injuries that were simply ignored and ruled as not caused by the shots. People who died suddenly were determined to have died from other causes despite no autopsy. Clinical trial participants who developed Bell’s palsy and shingles fewer than 10 days after getting the shot were ignored. People in the vaccinated group were observed to have experienced heart attacks, pulmonary embolisms, and spontaneous miscarriages. Yet none of this was flagged … and isn’t through this very day.
But now we know. There have been ubiquitous reproductive health issues, maternal-fetal adverse events that Pfizer was aware of in 2021. A new study published in JAMA observing 76 pregnant women who got the two mRNA shots revealed abnormal rates of birth problems, particularly for Moderna, which is a higher dose than Pfizer.
Although the sample size is small, the rates of NICU admissions, pre-eclampsia, and congenital anomalies in general are way over the baseline rates and are especially alarming because they show a dose-dependency relationship. And of course, nobody has gotten to the bottom of the mystery of what caused the unprecedented spike in neonatal deaths in Scotland right around the time the shots were administered.
To this very day, nobody in our government is interested in further studying thousands upon thousands of glaring and blaring safety signals, even as they rush out new vaccines – both for COVID and other ailments – built on the same technology, approval process, or fraudulent clinical trials and pharmacovigilance. As Public Health Scotland said last year, even embarking on a study of the relationship between vaccines and reproductive problems would be “uninformative for public health decision making” and has “the potential to be used to harm vaccine confidence at this critical time.”
The time has come to change the trajectory by supporting Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green and Mary Miller’s amendment to bar all funding for COVID vaccines in the FDA funding bill.
If we don’t put an end to Operation Warp Speed now, the COVID shots will just be the opening act. Officials have already approved several RSV shots with known problems and terrible data. There is now a $9 billion market our government created for unnecessary RSV shots.
The FDA also just suspiciously rushed approval for a new anthrax vaccine made by Emergent that has caused birth defects in limited trial data.
— (@)
Given the liability shield, the endless subsidies both for the manufacturers and for medical groups to promote them, the child vaccination de facto mandate, and the rampant censorship, there will never be enlightened consent for those who are administered the torrent of new shots hitting the market at warp speed.How can a GOP Congress pass a funding bill for the FDA without a reckoning of the therapeutic jihad establishment health officials continue to wage against us?
There was no joy in the ranks of Hunter Biden’s legal team after his plea deal struck out in court on Wednesday, according to a new report.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware had cut a deal in which President Joe Biden’s son would plead guilty to a pair of tax crime misdemeanors, resulting in probation, while a charge of having a gun while being a drug user would simply go away.
The deal fell apart amid questions from U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, whose approval was needed. As a result, the hearing ended with Hunter Biden entering a plea of not guilty to the charges against him. The two sides are now expected to iron out a new deal.
A report from Axios on Thursday summed up the mood of Biden’s attorneys as “angry,” dejected” and “fuming.”
Some on Team Hunter claimed the fact that Noreika was appointed by then-President Donald Trump in 2017 was possibly significant, the report said. Trump is the front-runner among Republican candidates vying to take on Biden in 2024.
Noreika had questioned the two sides about the agreement, revealing that they could not agree on whether the resolution to the gun charge was linked to the tax deal, and the judge said she was unsure the deal was constitutional.
Differences also emerged over whether the deal ended all matters concerning Hunter Biden, with the government saying it did not and Biden’s lawyers viewing the agreement differently.
Amid the hours of back-and-forth, Biden partially threw up his hands in apparent frustration.
“I know you wanted to get this done,” Noreika told the president’s son. “I’m sorry, but I need more information. We need to get this right.”
The New York Times reported that at various times during the hearing, the judge called the deal “not standard, not what I normally see,” possibly “unconstitutional,” unprecedented and potentially “not worth the paper it is printed on.”
“You all are saying, ‘Just rubber stamp the agreement,’” she said. “I’m not in a position to accept or reject it. I need to defer.”
At one point, Noreika asked prosecutor Leo Weiss whether the deal would avert the prosecution of Hunter Biden for allegedly breaking laws regulating foreign lobbying. Weiss said it would not, leading Biden to say he would not accept a deal without broad immunity.
“District Judge Noreika did the right thing by refusing to rubberstamp Hunter Biden’s sweetheart plea deal,” House Oversight Committee chairman and Republican Rep. James Comer said, according to Fox News. “But let’s be clear: Hunter’s sweetheart plea deal belongs in the trash.”
The Washington Post sought to explain Noreika’s issues by noting that the initial deal was on two very different levels.
A diversion agreement, which is the technical term for making the gun charge vanish, is cut by prosecution and defense teams.
Plea agreements to settle criminal charges need a judge’s approval.
The Post said the initial agreement put the judge in the picture as the enforcer of the gun deal, which she said she could not legally do.
Former Obama White House stenographer Mike McCormick joins ‘Fox & Friends First’ to discuss President Biden’s role in Hunter’s business dealings with Ukraine. #FoxNews
SUBSCRIBE: 
After subscribing, click on NOTIFICATION BELL to be notified of new uploads.
GETTR: 
RUMBLE 
odysee: 
Telegram: 
My WordPress blog: 
Truth2Freedom's Blog 