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 righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. (Psalm 92:12)
These trees are not trained and pruned by man: palms and cedars are “trees of the Lord,” and it is by His care that they flourish. Even so it is with the saints of the Lord: they are His own care. These trees are evergreen and are beautiful objects at all seasons of the year. Believers are not sometimes holy and sometimes ungodly: they stand in the beauty of the Lord under all weathers. Everywhere these trees are noteworthy: no one can gaze upon a landscape in which there are either palms or cedars without his attention being fixed upon these royal growths. The followers of Jesus are the observed of all observers: like a city set on a hill, they cannot be hid.
The child of God flourishes like a palm tree, which pushes all its strength upward in one erect column without a single branch. It is a pillar with a glorious capital. It has no growth to the right or to the left but sends all its force heavenward and bears its fruit as near the sky as possible. Lord, fulfill this type in me.
The cedar braves all storms and grows near the eternal snows, the Lord Himself filling it with a sap which keeps its heart warm and its bough strong. Lord, so let it be with me, I pray Thee. Amen.
“Long ago, even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes. His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave Him great pleasure” Ephesians 1:4 & 5 (Life Application Study Bible).
Why am I here? What is my purpose?
Self-help books suggest you’ll find yourself when you go after your innate desires and dreams. But from experience I know this isn’t enough. The starting place must be our Creator and His eternal purposes for each life.
I was born of German parents in Ukraine which was then part of Russia. During World War II my mother with four small children fled from our country always just ahead of the Russian front. We lived in refugee camps across Europe. As displaced persons we knew that we were not as valued as children born in the country. We were second rate.
Later, when we immigrated to Canada, I became an immigrant girl who never fit in with her teen crowd. I didn’t speak English. I couldn’t relate to the culture. I was hopeless at sports. I was a misfit.
As I listened to the voices of the world and the voice within my own head, I knew I didn’t have what it takes to be a valued person. I carried this negative mind-set well into adulthood.
When I first heard that Jesus loved me enough to die for me (not just for the whole wide world, but for me!), I could hardly believe it. But there was more: He wanted to adopt me into His family. This would happen through Jesus Christ. If I would receive Him as my Savior and Lord, I would become a child of God. He would take me just as I am. One day, I asked Him to come into my life. And He did!
Slowly it began to dawn on me that because Jesus lives within me, I have a place. I have a destiny. I have an inheritance that is eternal. I felt like celebrating my new identity. After careful thought, I gave myself the name Grace. Every time I write my name Helen Grace Lescheid, I’m celebrating the fact that I belong to the best family in the world–God’s family. And all because of God’s grace.
Where are you in this faith journey? Has life dealt you some cruel blows? Do you feel excluded from the in-crowd? These hurtful things don’t have to define you. Stop listening to the world and to the negative voice within you. Start listening to what God says about you. The real truth about you is found in Ephesians 1:3-14. Put your name where it says “we” or “us”. Say the verses out loud to yourself, adding, “this is who I really am.”
Father, may all who read these words today experience the power of the risen Christ within and walk with dignity, confidence, and joy.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; and lean not unto your own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” Proverbs 3:5,6
The world is full of people pretending to be someone they are not.
Such people are not living a life of authenticity, a term used to describe the degree to which one is true to their own personality, spirit or character, despite external pressures.
Living a life of authenticity is not easy especially for Christians who are confronted with a pagan world and encountering external pressures and influences, which are often very different from our Christian beliefs.
You are capable of living authentically. You have the ability within yourself to stay committed to your core belief system, but it often is not easy. Your core values must be higher than your desire for social acceptance. You have the power to live courageously. You had the wisdom to live peacefully. You have the discernment to choose properly.
Living authentically will bring you personal peace. The ability to remain connected to your highest good will not escape you. Your convictions will be determined by integrity. Popularity will be a bonus but not an expectation.
A large part of the fact that Christian ideas fail to be considered as the popular norm is not for lack of professing Christians, but from the lack of professing Christians committed to life a life of Christian authenticity no matter what may be the push back of modern culture.
Our behavior is defined by those around us. As a Christian, I should constantly be in the presence of Christ, as He alone is my source of my authenticity. There is a difference between accepting a doctrine and being committed to the person of Jesus.
God created each of us in His own image, each with a specific ministry and He gave us all we will need to do it. But, oh how often the world tries to tear us away to its standards.
As we begin a new year, let us all commit ourselves to be the person within us that God created us to be and not the person the world would re-mold us into.
Are you willing to be the same on the outside as in the inside? If you will commit to walk through this year with Jesus, you will be the authentic person He created you to be.
Are you looking for a new beginning? Look to the One who makes all things new. Let’s dedicate this year as a year of worship and service to the One who makes all things new, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
‘US defense pact would render Saudi nuclear program unnecessary’ U.S. defense guarantees under an Israeli-Saudi normalization agreement would make Gulf states’ nuclear ambitions “unnecessary,” according to Jerusalem’s top diplomat. The Americans would be able to provide protection against Iranian aggression in the region, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen argued in an opinion piece published in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.
Risky promises: Biden’s Saudi normalization may cost Israel dearly The US government brokers a circular agreement: Saudi Arabia benefits, Israel broadens its Middle Eastern ties and, in exchange, Iran’s nuclear initiative is safeguarded; How much are we willing to risk in order to expand the Abraham Accords?
Russia Condemns Western Nations for Pressuring Iran Over Nuclear Program Russia on Tuesday aligned itself with its ally Iran in rejecting Western attempts to maintain curbs on Iran despite the collapse of a 2015 deal intended to restrain Tehran’s nuclear program in return for relief from sanctions. … Russia’s foreign ministry said Moscow and Tehran were unanimous in believing that the failure to implement the deal stemmed from the “erroneous policy of ‘maximum pressure’ pursued by the United States and those who think similarly”.
Apocalypse Now? The end is near. Now that the Knesset has shut down for the summer, there is a new anxiety in the air, an apprehension about what will happen next. Will the prophets of doom triumph over the prophets of optimism?
Ignore President Biden, here’s what’s really happening in Israel Biden has reportedly asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop pushing through a “divisive” judicial overhaul bill amid protests. This is the same Biden, incidentally, who crammed through a massive, highly “divisive,” generational spending bill with zero votes from the opposition; the same guy who regularly rules by unconstitutional executive diktats; and the same guy who has done more to delegitimize the Supreme Court than any president in modern history.
“Temperature” Climbs on Israel’s Northern Borders The Israel National News website Monday reported that “Israel’s defense establishment is preparing for the worst-case scenario during a war on the northern border, which would include days-long blackouts, hundreds dead, and thousands wounded. …
Israel will become a world leader in AI, Netanyahu tells US delegation Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with a delegation of U.S. House Democrats in Jerusalem on Monday, during which he mentioned his goal of making Israel one of the world’s foremost powers in the realm of Artificial Intelligence. “I’ve committed to have [Israel] become one of the five cyber powers. AI is much, much, much bigger. The hype is not hype. It’s real.”
US deploys thousands of naval forces to Red Sea amid growing Iran tensions The United States has sent more than 3,000 naval forces, including the Marines, to the Red Sea in response to an Iranian seizure of a tanker in the region. The U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet confirmed that the American sailors and Marines arrived aboard two military vessels, which entered the Red Sea via the Egyptian Suez Canal.
Archbishop Viganò: World Youth Day has confirmed Bergoglio’s plan to provoke a schism World Youth Day, celebrated this year in Lisbon, Portugal, has confirmed the acceleration of Bergoglio’s plan to provoke a schism: his latest appointments, which are provocative to say the least; the statements of the newly-appointed Cardinals, all of which confirm the “Bergoglian revolution”; the presence of James Martin to propagandize the acceptance of LGBTQ ideology by young people; Bergoglio’s recent statement to a transgender person: “God loves us as we are; go ahead” The only thing missing was an interview in which the Argentine “confessed” to an editorial staff of genuflecting and cheering journalists to complete the picture … he speaks of himself as a “victim of the Holy Spirit and Providence,” as if to attribute the misfortune of this “pontificate” to God Himself and not to the maneuvers of both the deep church, through the Mafia of St. Gallen, and the deep state, through the emails of John Podesta and Hillary Clinton
Omar expresses support for woman who burned and buried aborted baby’s remains Courthouse News reports that the mother and daughter tried to hide the remains, “at one point attempting to burn the remains with apple-flavored charcoal briquettes.” A Nebraska teenager was recently sentenced to 90 days in jail after she burned and buried the remains of her aborted baby,
Edina Lutheran church recites ‘sparkle creed,’ professes belief in ‘non-binary god’ A Lutheran church in Edina stood for the reading of the “sparkle creed” during a church service, according to a livestream available on its YouTube page. “I believe in a non-binary god, whose pronouns are plural,” Pastor Anna Helgen said during Sunday’s service. “I believe in Jesus Christ, their child, who wore a fabulous tunic and had two dads.” Helgen is one of two pastors at Edina Community Lutheran Church (ECLC), which … also endorses “ecofaith” and abortion, and holds monthly “anti-racism vigils.”
Charges: Romanian organized crime group targeted stores metro-wide Charges filed in Hennepin County District Court say a Romanian organized crime group targeted stores across the Twin Cities metro for months, and participants are part of a group known to operate across the country. Two people have been charged in the last week in relation to the crimes which the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office (HCAO) claims has cost local retailers over $6,200 since March in just one of the cases.
Severe Thunderstorm Watches issued for nearly 5 million residents across South, Plains More than 1 million people were left without power and at least two people were killed during a severe weather outbreak across the eastern U.S. on Monday, and another severe weather threat is brewing on Tuesday from the Plains to the Southeast and to the north in New England as cleanup efforts continue.
UK banks are closing more than 1,000 accounts every day Banks are closing more than 1,000 accounts every working day, according to new data that has fuelled the growing row over so-called “debanking” and prompted Nigel Farage to call for a royal commission to investigate what he said was a scandal.
World Bank halts new loans to Uganda over anti-gay law The World Bank is pausing approval for new public finance projects in Uganda over the country’s adoption earlier this year of a widely criticized bill criminalizing same-sex conduct.
The Entire Globe Is Being Gripped By A Really Bad Case Of War Fever Most of us just want to live in peace, but leaders all over the world are preparing for more war. In fact, at this point it appears that the entire globe is being gripped by a really bad case of war fever.
Coffee Shop With No Filter Displays Image With Transgender Scars …But wait, what’s that? As your eyes glance toward the menu, something else catches your eye. No, it can’t be. Is that what I think it is? Yep, it is. On the wall is a cartoon like figure representing a transgender shirtless male, with scars indicating where her breasts were removed.
Matt Hancock turned Care Homes into Midazolam & Morphine Euthanasia Camps to create the illusion of a Deadly COVID-19 Pandemic If the world was both fair and just, then Matt Hancock, the former UK Health Secretary who oversaw the pandemic response, would now be in prison. That’s because while you stayed at home to “protect the NHS, and (allegedly) save lives”, Matt Hancock orchestrated the mass murder of the elderly and vulnerable in care homes using a drug known as Midazolam and then told you that they had all died of Covid-19; and we can prove it…
“The virtues of men are of more consequence to society than their abilities; and for this reason, the heart should be cultivated with more assiduity than the head.” —Noah Webster (1788)
Fellow Patriots, on this day in 1945, the U.S. dropped a second atomic bomb on Japan, this time at Nagasaki, prompting Japan to finally surrender a few days later. In today’s news, our commander-in-chief thinks the buck stops anywhere and everywhere else.
What accounts for the widening political divide in our country? Woke elites wrecked a bunch of stuff.
Nate Jackson
Regular Americans, the ones who didn’t attend Ivy League or other prestigious universities and who don’t live in DC, New York, or LA, have always known that the elites hate us. Their smug contempt for “flyover country,” the “bitter clingers” and “deplorables,” is what drives a lot of the anger and political divide in our country today.
The elites forget who we are as a nation. No, that’s not quite right. They detest who we are as a nation, and they endeavor to change everything about it.
Every once in a while, one of them self-reflects. Such was the case with David Brooks, one of the token “conservative” columnists for The New York Times, in a recent op-ed titled “What if We’re the Bad Guys Here?” The impetus for Brooks’s article was Donald Trump — specifically the sense that he “seems to get indicted on a weekly basis.”
That leads Brooks to an epiphany: What if Trump connects with the unwashed masses because the elites hate and rig the system against them, and because they view Trump as their defender?
We know; this just in.
Brooks explores how the elites — like him, he says — are part of the minority who go to college and who take up the majority of the nation’s economic reward. “Members of our class,” Brooks admits, “also segregate ourselves into a few booming metro areas.” Trump won more than 2,500 counties to Joe Biden’s 500 or so, but Biden’s account for 71% of the economy.
“The ideal that we’re all in this together was replaced with the reality that the educated class lives in a world up here and everybody else is forced into a world down there,” Brooks writes. “Members of our class are always publicly speaking out for the marginalized, but somehow we always end up building systems that serve ourselves.”
They became gatekeepers by going to university and then requiring college degrees for all sorts of jobs that don’t actually need degrees. The elites thus block lower-income people from advancing because, ironically, they couldn’t afford to advance. Brooks notes that universities also churn out most of the “journalists” who work for mainstream news organizations, and who then try to tell the rest of us what to think (by lying to us, we might add).
Therefore, Brooks acknowledges, “It’s easy to understand why people in less-educated classes would conclude that they are under economic, political, cultural and moral assault.”
Nevertheless, he basically defends himself and his “class.” They are not “vicious and evil,” he insists, but “earnest, kind and public-spirited.” Still, he admits, “We take for granted and benefit from systems that have become oppressive. Elite institutions have become so politically progressive in part because the people in them want to feel good about themselves as they take part in systems that exclude and reject.”
The compassion is short-lived. “I still basically trust the legal system,” Brooks eventually concludes, and Trump is a “monster” who “deserves to go to prison.”
Translation: Never mind everything I just wrote; screw the commoners, but maybe with a mere moment of utterly insufficient self-reflection first.
The problem is that the elites often are vicious and evil. Because of their aforementioned contempt for America and her regular, normal, hard-working people, the elites have destroyed our institutions and culture. They eroded trust in government by lying and controlling, they ruined our schools and colleges by indoctrinating our youth, they turned news reporting into propaganda peddling in service to one party, and they perverted Hollywood by churning out sanctimonious social messaging.
If there’s “systemic” anything, remember who controls the system.
Historian Victor Davis Hanson explains the Left’s “remaking of America” in a fantastic column by that title. “Every aspect of American life and culture is under assault,” he argues, “including the very processes by which we govern ourselves, and the manner in which we live.”
Hanson lists and explains “10 upheavals that the Left has successfully wrought” — free expression, weaponization of justice, attack on the Supreme Court, media-Democrat fusion, destruction of common law, erosion of the military, the sexes, race, debt, and universities. “The result” of this deliberate upheaval and revolutionary activity, Hanson says, “is an America that is unrecognizable from what it was a mere decade ago.”
Who did that? Elites like David Brooks.
On that note, let’s go back to The New York Times for a moment. The Times used pollaganda to spread the message that Republican voters may not be as interested in fighting wokeness as some candidates think. “Instead,” the Times says, “Republican voters are showing a ‘hands off’ libertarian streak in economics, and a clear preference for messages about ‘law and order’ in the nation’s cities and at its borders.”
The Times wants two things here: First, to create a phony divide between the breakdown in law and order and the wokeness that is responsible for it. There wouldn’t be a spiking crime problem if leftists hadn’t decided being “woke” was so necessary. Put another way, there is no contradiction between fighting for Rule of Law and combatting the woke ideology infecting all the parts of American life Hanson identifies.
Second, the Times wants to stop conservatives from using the word “woke” to discredit the Left. The Times even quotes Trump saying “I don’t like the term ‘woke’” because “half the people can’t even define it.”
When the Times resorts to quoting Trump to prove its own point, you know something’s fishy.
It’s important to remember that “woke” is a word the Left came up with a long time ago to describe its own policies. White nationalists (Nazis) and black nationalists alike, fascists of all colors, have used derivatives of it to describe awareness of the “need” for social justice and other leftist social engineering.
“What happened to ‘Woke’ is the same thing that once happened to ‘Liberal,’” argues political analyst Daniel Greenfield. “Conservatives seized on it and used it to sum up everything wrong with leftist extremism. Before long, no one wanted to identify as a liberal because it meant being seen as a lunatic fighting for sex ed for kids, free needles for addicts, political correctness in the office and surrendering to enemies.” That doesn’t mean leftists aren’t increasingly radical, he notes, just that they regularly “rebrand” because they are “chameleons.”
The beauty of America is that, as Sam Adams said during a previous time of shaking off elite tyranny, “It does not take a majority to prevail, but an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.”
Nearly two years after an entirely avoidable suicide bombing in Afghanistan, Joe Biden continues to lie and continues to shirk responsibility for it.
Douglas Andrews
It was a massacre we saw coming, a massacre we were warned about, a massacre we could’ve prevented. And nearly two years later, 13 American families are still grieving, still feeling the pain and the loss.
The date was August 26, 2021, and American forces were in the middle of a chaotic and disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan — a withdrawal for which Joe Biden bears responsibility. As we wrote at the time: “If ever there was a slow-moving train of an attack, this was it. Everyone who watched the news on Wednesday knew it was coming. Our intelligence services told us so, and our embassy sent emergency communications to the Americans in Kabul to stay away from the entry points to Hamid Karzai International Airport.”
And yet, at around 6 p.m. local time, two jihadist suicide bombers detonated themselves at Abbey Gate, one of the main entrances to the airport, and at the nearby Baron Hotel. The blasts were efficient and the carnage was appalling. Among the 182 dead were 13 American warriors — 10 U.S. Marines, two Army soldiers, and one Navy corpsman — making it the deadliest day for American forces in Afghanistan in more than a decade.
One of those 13 fallen Americans was 31-year-old Staff Sergeant Darin Taylor Hoover, and his mom, Kelly Barnett, was the first of several relatives to speak at a congressional forum held by California Republican Congressman Darrell Issa on Monday morning. “The event,” as Fox News reports, “marked the first time the relatives of all 13 fallen troops spoke in a public setting together.”
Barnett spoke of her son’s personality and his sense of duty. She also spoke about how she’s been mistreated by the Biden administration ever since her son’s death.
“I was told to my face he died on impact,” said Barnett. “That’s not true. The only reason that I know this is because witnesses told me the truth. I was lied to and basically told to shut up. He lived for a little while. … He was giving out his ammo. He tied a tourniquet around his leg. I don’t understand the reasoning of that lie. It makes no sense other than the fact that, did they really even do an investigation? Did they talk to witnesses? I don’t know.”
After Biden’s retreat and withdrawal, Staff Sgt. Hoover’s dad, Darren, called on Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley to resign. “Be a grown a**\ man,” he said. “Admit to your mistakes. Learn from them so that this doesn’t happen ever, ever again.”
Hoover’s family wasn’t alone in having been treated disrespectfully by Biden. The testimony of Cheryl Rex, the mother of Lance Corporal Dylan Merola, was particularly wrenching.
“When [Biden] approached me, his words to me were: ‘My wife Jill and I know how you feel. We lost our son as well and brought him home in a flag-draped coffin.’”
Anyone who knows the tragic story of Beau Biden knows this to be a lie, a stolen valor falsehood. The truth is that Beau Biden died of brain cancer in 2015 while at Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, many years after he’d left Iraq.
And yet Joe Biden shamelessly repeated this lie to a Gold Star mom. “My heart started beating faster,” said Rex. “I started shaking, knowing that their son died from cancer and they were able to be by his side. How could someone be so heartless to say he knew how I felt?”
It’s a good question, and one that deserves to be asked. The families of our fallen warriors deserve far better from their commander-in-chief.
“I am president of the United States of America,” said Biden shortly after the bombing, “and the buck stops with me.”
That might sound good, it might sound like something a commander-in-chief would say, but two years later, those words ring hollow. The Abbey Gate massacre was entirely avoidable, and yet no one has been held accountable — not Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, not Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley, not anyone.
When it comes to Afghanistan, history won’t be kind to Joe Biden. He and his team failed the American people. And more than that, they failed our warriors.
Dismissing country music as irredeemably racist is historical black-washing.
Emmy Griffin
When your hammer is racism, everything looks like a nail. National Public Radio (NPR) has been hammering away at the racism narrative for decades. The latest claim made on its podcast entitled “How racism became a marketing tool for country music” is that country music panders to white conservatives and is therefore racist.
The podcast host, Britany Luse, sets the stage by claiming she’s a big country music fan and was so happy that three out of the five top trending songs were country. That happiness was short-lived, she explained, because the top song was “Try That in a Small Town” by Jason Aldean. Aldean’s song about the lawlessness that started during the 2020 “Summer of Rage” and has continued in major U.S. cities asserts that such behavior wouldn’t be tolerated in a small town because neighbors there take care of one another.
Rabid race baiters on the Left (specifically Tennessee State Rep. Justin Jones) immediately attacked the song because they saw it as an anti-black song. Aldean’s protest song isn’t against a particular race; it’s against violence. The problem is NPR and other leftists don’t acknowledge that the BLM riots were in fact lawless acts of terror. They see them as “protests” … you know, the “mostly peaceful” kind.
As Luse looked deeper, the other top two country songs just became more tainted with racism. Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” is bad because Wallen once yelled the N-word at someone and was caught on tape doing it. Luke Combs’s “Fast Car” is bad because it’s a cover of an ‘80s-era black woman’s song, which, through Luse’s racial lenses, is cultural appropriation. (Who wants to tell her about Disney’s “Snow White” remake?)
Luse next brings on an “authority” to ask her burning questions about why country music is so racist. The so-called expert, Amanda Martinez, is a country music historian from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Martinez explains that country music has always been racist and music today is no different. We have country music, pop music, and rap — or, as she then clarifies, white music, music for everyone, and black music. She then introduces the idea that people have moral panic about rap music and hold country music up as the more virtuous art form, but then quickly moves on without really addressing that claim further.
This was an interesting proposition that deserves addressing: Is there a moral superiority/moral panic surrounding rap music vs. country music? An open-minded individual would be able to see that there are levels of greatness and talent associated with each art form.
Good rap takes great skill, poetic ability, and verbal flexibility. One could argue that in its best form, rap is a viable art form. Take, for example, the musical “Hamilton” or some of the more profound Tupac songs (“Dear Mama”) or the immense skill that Eminem has in being able to come up with fast-spitting rhymes on the spot. Bad rap (the one that is mostly consumed by the masses) is an expression of the worst of humanity, both emotionally and content-wise. To some, it even seems like the antithesis of music as an art form (the modern art of the music scene).
Good country music tells a story (generally about the human condition) or conveys an emotion. Bad country music has similar problems as bad rap in promoting bad morals, such as about drinking too much or the wife leaving.
Both art forms talk about not respecting the cops. In country music, that generally takes the form of a redneck running from the cops because he did something stupid. In rap, it’s about killing the cops because cops are bad. Both genres resonate with poorer people.
However, if the contest is about overall moral superiority, it must be conceded that rap, in general, does transgress more egregiously on the moral front than country does. Country doesn’t really have anything quite on the same level of explicit smut as Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP,” which was the top song for several weeks in 2020. All in all, you can find good and bad music in both genres of music, and people are going to dislike songs that go against their beliefs and moral values regardless of the genre.
Martinez’s willingness to paint country music as this purveyor of racist tropes erases the richness and intricacy of the history of country music. Some of you may recall Ken Burn’s “Country Music” documentary. It’s one of his best works and opens up the doors to the rich history of country music both from its African and Scots-Irish roots. It highlights the stories of country musicians from all races. It’s one of the great stories of America and its musical history.
But that doesn’t matter to NPR. Country music can never make up for any of its racism. However, NPR also complains that country music doesn’t try or even listen to criticism that it caters to a certain demographic.
By dismissing country music as irredeemably racist, then ending with the hope that someday that’ll change, listeners are left shaking their heads. It’s historical black-washing in an attempt to shame a genre into being less “racist.” What leftists really object to is that country music tends to talk about issues of family, love, marriage, freedom, love of country, and other such conservative values that they despise. Calling it racist is just an excuse.
The new president of the American Library Association is “surprised” that Americans would object to her radical leftist worldview.
Thomas Gallatin
The current president of the American Library Association, Emily Drabinski, evidently finds herself in a state of bewilderment. According to a recent article from NBC News, the self-identified lesbian and avowed Marxist is surprised at the critical pushback she and the ALA have gotten since she took over America’s oldest and largest library association a little over a year ago.
In April 2022, Drabinski was stunned at her unexpected rise to head of the organization, and she posted in a since-deleted tweet: “I just cannot believe that a Marxist lesbian who believes that collective power is possible to build and can be wielded for a better world is the president-elect of @ALALibrary. I am so excited for what we will do together. Solidarity!”
Well, evidently unbeknownst to Drabinski, that revelation ignited a conservative resistance movement among librarians across the nation. Montana was the first state to officially sever ties with the ALA, and several others are lining up to do the same. Drabinski is seemingly perplexed over a significant percentage of the country now rejecting the once popular and highly esteemed organization.
As Drabinski told NBC, “I was excited to highlight and celebrate two aspects of my identity that are really important to me, and are often under a lot of scrutiny.” She continued: “I didn’t anticipate these kinds of targeted attacks being used as a bludgeon against library workers across the country. I really think that is regrettable, and I wish that wasn’t happening right now.”
NBC, naturally, was sympathetic, blaming “backlash” on “right-wing activists.” Strangely, the word “left,” much less “left-wing activist,” is nowhere in the article to describe Drabinski.
The supposed “backlash” and “targeted attacks” actually appear to be public criticism and legislative efforts by states like Montana to disassociate with the ALA, which has clearly lost touch with the values of a significant portion of the country and especially with parents.
When the Montana State Library Commission voted to withdraw its membership from the ALA, there was no mealy-mouthed mincing of words in explanation. Rather, as board member Tom Burnett explained, “Our oath of office and resulting duty to the Constitution forbids association with an organization led by a Marxist.”
Following the commission’s vote, one parent favorably observed, “I think this is a really good move to send a really clear signal to our national organizations that we are not in agreement with the direction they are taking these organizations.”
Drabinski represents what is wrong with organizations like the ALA — they have embraced radical leftist ideology. Drabinski has openly and unapologetically done so. Marxist values are inherently antithetical to the fundamental values and principles of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” upon which the U.S. was founded.
It would appear the reason NBC sought to elevate this story is to lend support to the Left’s false framing of the parents’ rights movement as an anti-free-speech “book banning” mob. For NBC, Drabinski is not the villain seeking to corrupt the minds of America’s youth with radical leftist ideology, but rather the victim of a “hate” campaign that seeks to enact book bans, censor speech, and prevent her from encouraging kids to discover their authentic selves.
The claim is as disingenuous as the Democrats’ claim that election integrity laws threaten democracy.
Libraries have long existed to serve their local communities. Thus, the notion that members of the community voicing objection to their libraries containing pornographic materials specifically aimed at grooming children amounts to a cry for “book banning” and “censorship” is disingenuous.
Furthermore, libraries have increasingly become focal points used by the radical Left to promote its radical gender-bending ideology with such things as “Drag Queen Story Hour.” No less than Barack Obama served to demonstrate this indoctrination reality, as he weighed in: “Today, some of the books that shaped my life — and the lives of so many others — are being challenged by people who disagree with certain ideas or perspectives. It’s no coincidence that these ‘banned books’ are often written by or feature people of color, indigenous people, and members of the LGBTQ+ community.”
Representative John Bear (R-WY) makes a connection between the modern Marxist movement and the radical effort to sexualize children. “The ALA has allowed this political point of view to infiltrate every aspect of their training,” he argues. “And their trainings are just completely full of things like, how to deal with parents who don’t appreciate the type of materials that are available to children in the library, how to deal with your state legislature or your local government.” It’s indoctrination, not education.
What the ALA is witnessing is the waking up of the pro-America contingent of the population, who have realized that they cannot simply buy the disingenuous arguments from the Left as they watch their values attacked and see their Liberty erode. Parents, not the state, have the primary role in raising their own children. The ALA has taken advantage of and abused parents’ trust, and now parents are pushing back and saying, “No more — not in our town, our state, our nation.”
Parents shopping for their kids’ school supplies are facing sticker shock and panic.
Samantha Koch
It’s time for the second-most-expensive time of year. Kids are getting ready to head back to the classroom, and for parents and teachers, it means long lists of supply requirements — and a hard hit to our already struggling bank accounts.
The cost of goods has risen for everyone in America, and especially low- to middle-income people feel it every time we make a trip to the grocery store or stop at a gas station. The firsthand experience of how much less we’re getting for our money, and the cuts to traveling and any other extras we’ve had to make to try to cover our basic needs, is crippling — on a good day.
The start of the school year is always a time for additional spending and stretching the family budget. However, this year will be one that hits everyday Americans harder than ever.
According to the International Council of Shopping Centers’ Back-to-School Consumer Survey, parents will be spending an average of almost $970 per student, up from about $910 from last year. While $60 might not sound like a lot, most households have more than one student supply list to cover, and this is on top of the regular day-to-day items that have also increased in price.
Numerous posts and articles have circulated on social media confirming the financial pain families are feeling as they search for the best sales and deals on backpacks and paper. Parents are just hoping to catch temporary drops in prices for their student’s most-needed items to save dollars wherever they can.
According to Axios, “Back-to-school spending is expected to reach $41.5 billion, up from $36.9 billion last year.”
A news organization in New Mexico interviewed several shoppers, all of whom confirmed the stress of higher prices and hundreds of dollars spent, even after their state’s tax-free weekend. Others expressed their concern for reaching their budget before school clothes had even been purchased.
NBC Bay Area told the story of a single mother of three who had a panic attack leading to tears before heading out to shop for her children.
Thankfully, to provide some relief for back-to-school shoppers this year, several states — including Florida, Texas, Ohio, South Carolina, and others — declared tax-free weekends prior to the start of classes.
This is more than the current White House administration has done for struggling families.
Vice President Kamala Harris’s idea of comforting American families in this particularly heightened time of financial hardship was to remind us, “President Biden and I came to office with a plan to strengthen America’s economy.”
The question most of us would ask in response to her tone-deaf reminder would be, “When are they going to start?”
In the same vein of total disconnection from reality, Joe Biden tweeted, “We’re growing the economy even as inflation is at its lowest level in more than two years.”
And just for good measure, the immensely intelligent Joy Behar shared her perceptive understanding of what everyday people are facing in today’s economy. “Inflation is down,” she claimed. “People are having an easier time putting bread on the table.”
This must mean that the panic attacks and empty bank accounts of thousands of American families and educators are just an illusion.
One thing’s for certain — we sure get tired of the elites telling us that the pain we’re feeling as a result of the policies they implement isn’t as bad as we’re making it out to be.
Judith Curry was the unusual researcher who looked at criticism of her work and actually concluded “they had a point.”
John Stossel
We are told climate change is a crisis, and that there is an “overwhelming scientific consensus.”
“It’s a manufactured consensus,” says climate scientist Judith Curry in my new video. She says scientists have an incentive to exaggerate risk to pursue “fame and fortune.”
She knows about that because she once spread alarm about climate change.
Media loved her when she published a study that seemed to show a dramatic increase in hurricane intensity.
“We found that the percent of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes had doubled,” says Curry. “This was picked up by the media,” and then climate alarmists realized, “Oh, here is the way to do it. Tie extreme weather events to global warming!”
“So, this hysteria is your fault!” I tell her.
“Not really,” she smiles. “They would have picked up on it anyways.”
But Curry’s “more intense” hurricanes gave them fuel.
“I was adopted by the environmental advocacy groups and the alarmists and I was treated like a rock star,” Curry recounts. “Flown all over the place to meet with politicians.”
But then some researchers pointed out gaps in her research — years with low levels of hurricanes.
“Like a good scientist, I investigated,” says Curry. She realized that the critics were right. “Part of it was bad data. Part of it is natural climate variability.”
Curry was the unusual researcher who looked at criticism of her work and actually concluded “they had a point.”
Then the Climategate scandal taught her that other climate researchers weren’t so open-minded. Alarmist scientists’ aggressive attempts to hide data suggesting climate change is not a crisis were revealed in leaked emails.
“Ugly things,” says Curry. “Avoiding Freedom of Information Act requests. Trying to get journal editors fired.”
It made Curry realize that there is a “climate change industry” set up to reward alarmism.
“The origins go back to the … U.N. environmental program,” says Curry. Some U.N. officials were motivated by “anti-capitalism. They hated the oil companies and seized on the climate change issue to move their policies along.”
The U.N. created the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
“The IPCC wasn’t supposed to focus on any benefits of warming. The IPCC’s mandate was to look for dangerous human-caused climate change.”
“Then the national funding agencies directed all the funding … assuming there are dangerous impacts.”
The researchers quickly figured out that the way to get funded was to make alarmist claims about “man-made climate change.”
This is how “manufactured consensus” happens. Even if a skeptic did get funding, it’s harder to publish because journal editors are alarmists.
“The editor of the journal Science wrote this political rant,” says Curry. She even said, “The time for debate has ended.”
“What kind of message does that give?” adds Curry. Then she answers her own question: “Promote the alarming papers! Don’t even send the other ones out for review. If you wanted to advance in your career, like be at a prestigious university and get a big salary, have big laboratory space, get lots of grant funding, be director of an institute, there was clearly one path to go.”
That’s what we’ve got now: a massive government-funded climate alarmism complex.
EV company touted by Biden admin goes belly-up, SCOTUS resurrects ghost gun ban, Hunter’s suspicious Ukraine connections, and more.
Thomas Gallatin & Jordan Candler
Cross-Examination
Biden family WH cocaine? According to reporting from Susan Katz Keating, three unnamed “security sources” with direct knowledge of the investigation into the cocaine found in the White House early last month know the name of the individual responsible. Furthermore, these sources claim that Joe Biden was personally informed by the Secret Service who this individual is. Keating attempted to contact members of the Biden family and Kamala Harris for comment but thus far has received no response. One of the sources claimed that the person responsible for the cocaine is not Hunter Biden, though “it was someone within the Biden family orbit.”
EV company touted by Biden admin goes belly-up: Electric bus company Proterra filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday, citing “various market and macroeconomic headwinds” for the company’s failure. Just last year while touting his Build Back Better infrastructure boondoggle, Joe Biden pointed to Proterra as an example of the growing domestic electric vehicle manufacturing industry — that he is forcing onto the American public. “Since 2021, companies have announced investments totaling more than $200 billion in domestic manufacturing here in America,” Biden said. “Innovative younger companies like … Proterra, building electric buses, which I saw at a virtual tour last year when I met with the CEO virtually. And they really impressed me.” Well, it’s not so impressive now.
“The swamp” is racist? Washington, DC, has long had the moniker “the swamp” for two pertinent reasons. The city was literally built on swamp land, and it is the home of the nation’s political class, which is known all over the world as being notorious for trafficking in varying degrees of corruption — the figurative dirt, muck, and mud. In other words, the term “swamp” is entirely fitting, which is why when Republican candidates such as Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis reference DC and talk of wanting to “drain the swamp,” they are speaking of tackling the problem of Washington’s corrupt bureaucracy. But leave it to The Washington Post to assert an entirely false meaning behind the term. Following Trump’s most recent indictment, DeSantis argued that the trial should be moved outside of DC: “It is unfair to have to stand trial before a jury that is reflective of the ‘swamp mentality.’” Following that statement, the Post ran to its fainting couch to cry “racism.” Noting DC’s once majority black population, the Post ridiculously claimed that DeSantis was effectively disparaging black people. No, DeSantis was observing how the political corruption of the federal government has deeply impacted the mindset of the entire city. It has absolutely zero to do with the racial demographics of Washington.
SCOTUS resurrects ghost gun ban: On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court lifted the block that had been placed on the Biden administration’s new so-called “ghost guns” rule by U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor last month. The decision was made in response to a request brought by the Biden administration. The new rule issued by Biden’s ATF bans the purchasing of “buy build shoot” kits that then can be assembled into a functioning firearm. Prior to the rule, individuals could purchase parts and kits without needing a background check. It looks like the Court will eventually take up the case.
Hunter’s suspicious Ukraine connections: Joe Biden infamously boasted about how he got a “corrupt” Ukrainian prosecutor fired. That individual was Viktor Shokin, who was Ukraine’s prosecutor general at the time. After Shokin was fired, Yuri Lutsenko took over the post. Well, it has now been revealed that Lutsenko used the same lobbyists who represented Burisma, the energy company for which Hunter Biden was a board member when the senior Biden demanded Shokin’s firing. It just so happened that after Shokin was fired and Lutsenko took over, the investigation into Burisma Chief Executive Mykola Zlochevsky conveniently ended. Nothing to see here…
Bidenomics is going swimmingly: For the first time in U.S. history, the amount of collective credit card debt held by Americans has surpassed $1 trillion. From April through June, credit card debt rose by $45 billion, an increase of 4%. NerdWallet data analyst Elizabeth Renter observes, “Credit card delinquencies continue an upward trend, a growing sign that consumers are feeling the pinch of high prices and lower savings balances than they had just a few years ago.” This is what sustained high inflation gets you, and thanks to Joe Biden, it ain’t going away anytime soon.
Headlines
Foreign oligarchs moved millions to Biden-tied firms before meeting Joe Biden, investigators say (Just the News)
Images show men armed with rifles, body armor coming across southern border (Fox News)
Massachusetts governor declares emergency over immigrants (Washington Examiner)
DeSantis launches major shakeup, replaces presidential campaign manager (Just the News)
DeSantis throws another woke Soros prosecutor out of office (Daily Wire)
Biden declares national monument in Arizona, cuts off uranium mining on one million acres (National Review)
Anheuser-Busch to sell off eight beer, beverage brands amid falling Bud Light sales (National Review)
Bidenomics at Work — Americans’ credit card debt has surpassed $1 trillion for the first time in history.
DC Dem Begs for National Guard to Help Stop Crime — Trayon White Sr., a Democrat city councilman representing Ward 9 in the nation’s capital, is calling for the National Guard’s intervention in the city’s crime crisis.
“Wages are up and inflation has fallen 12 months in a row. Think about that.” —Kamala Harris
“These fancy people used to say, ‘Well, a recession is inevitable.’ Now, however, those same people acknowledge that President Biden and I have delivered strong and steady growth for our nation.” —Kamala Harris
Non Compos Mentis
“The economy is booming, inflation is down, the stock market is doing well, people are having an easier time putting bread on the table, etc. [Joe Biden] doesn’t seem to be getting the credit for that — only 41% approval. Is it because they think he’s old? Because I don’t see anything else they can point to with him particularly.” —”The View” co-host Joy Behar
Leftmedia Headline You Never Thought You’d See
“Joe Biden’s brand is being tested like never before.” —NBC News
Observations
“Pornhub would rather stop doing business in multiple states than verify that its users aren’t children. That tells you everything you need to know about the pornography industry.” —Michael Knowles
“When the majority of the people become like sheep, who will tolerate intolerance rather than make a fuss, then there is no limit to how far any group will go.” —Thomas Sowell
Insight
“The priceless heritage of our society is the unrestricted constitutional right of each member to think as he will. Thought control is a copyright of totalitarianism, and we have no claim to it.” —Justice Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954)
With a bombshell new release from the House Oversight Committee revealing the tens of millions paid out to the Bidens by Ukrainian and Russian oligarchs, Northeastern University Professor Max Abrahms asks an important question in a recent Newsweek Article: “Does Ukraine Have Kompromat on Joe Biden?” Well…does it?? Also today…Biden to send more money to…Ukraine. Today on the Liberty Report:
Republicans on the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday revealed over $20 million in payments they claim foreign actors from places like Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan sent the Biden family and their associates while Joe Biden was vice president.
Hunter specifically receivedmillions from Russian oligarch Yelena Baturina, Ukrainian energy giant Burisma, and Kazakh oligarch Kenes Rakishev while father Joe was VP, the committee found.
The records show Baturina wired $3.5 million to Rosemont Seneca Thornton, a shell company belonging to Hunter and Archer, in February 2014.
Three-quarters of a million dollars was then transferred directly to Archer, and the rest was used to fund a new company, Rosemont Seneca Bohai.
The bank record shows a transfer of $3.5 million on February 14, 2014 and a transfer of $2.7 million to Rosemont Seneca Bohai on March 11, 2014. –Daily Mail
“During Joe Biden’s vice presidency, Hunter Biden sold him as ‘the brand’ to reap millions from oligarchs in Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine. It appears no real services were provided other than access to the Biden network, including Joe Biden himself. And Hunter Biden seems to have delivered,” said committee chairman James Comer (R-KY).
“It’s clear Joe Biden knew about his son’s business dealings and allowed himself to be ‘the brand’ sold to enrich the Biden family while he was Vice President of the United States.”
In one instance, Kazakh oil oligarch Kenes Rakishev wired $142,000 to Hunter Biden‘s shell corporation to buy a new Porsche (which Hunter bought the next day), before a dinner was set up between the oligarch and Joe Biden, bank records show.
The president’s son photographed himself smoking crack in his Porsche while driving through a residential area to the airport in June 2018
And on March 25, 2014, there were two separate transfers for $2.2 million and $200,000 respectively into the Rosemont Seneca Bohai account, which Hunter and Devon Archer used to receive other personal payments such as those from Burisma. The committee says Hunter then transferred the money into another Rosemont Seneca Bohai account that he and Archer were able to access.
After this, then-VP Joe Biden attended a dinner with Baturina, Hunter, Archer and others at Cafe Milano in Washington DC.
And guess who was left off Biden’s list of sanctioned Russian oligarchs? Baturina.
The committee also says they have proof that Archer and Biden were paid $1 million each for their role on Burisma’s board, or $83,333 per month.
Nothing to see here, just energy expert Hunter Biden raking it in from the company has father would later protect by forcing Ukraine to hire its head prosecutor.
The committee has subpoenaed records from six different banks and have received thousands of records regarding the shell corps, but have not ‘yet’ subpoenaed bank records for the Biden family.
On Tuesday, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy called on President Biden to “give us his bank statements.”
Though I don’t think it’s a particularly wise or self-aware accusation for them to make, the progressive left continues to make political hay out of smearing conservatives as “anti-science.”
During his “My Take,” Wednesday, ” Varney & Co. ” host Stuart Varney unveiled “hard evidence” found by Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., showing how foreign money found its way into Biden family bank accounts – arguing there is proof the family is corrupt, and that Joe Biden has not been telling the truth.
NEVER FORGET… The regime said there was no fraud. They attacked you if you questioned the impossible results. The condemned you if you pointed out the obvious – that America’s most popular president was “defeated” by a corrupt lifetime politician with dementia who did not campaign.
Last year, in 2022, The Gateway Pundit purchased video footage from 13 drop boxes in the Detroit area from the 2020 election. What we found was astonishing.
In early September 2022, The Gateway Pundit released a shocking video compilation of individuals and sometimes teams of people depositing stacks of ballots into absentee ballot drop boxes at Detroit’s satellite voting centers before the November 2020 election.
The Gateway Pundit and 100 Percent Fed Up have been working with a team of investigators at MC4EI to uncover potential voter-related crimes and “irregularities” found on hundreds of hours of Detroit satellite office surveillance footage.
Thank you MC4EI for their investigative work on this.
Also on X.
In early September, The Gateway Pundit released a shocking video compilation of individuals and sometimes teams of people depositing stacks of ballots into absentee ballot drop boxes at Detroit’s satellite voting centers before the November 2020 election.
Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., released a third memo Wednesday about the Biden family’s foreign business dealings, producing bank records purporting to show that Hunter Biden and his business associates received millions in payments from Russian and Kazakhstani oligarchs when his father was vice president.
The 19-page memo, which provides screenshots of redacted bank records, says millions in payments came from Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings, as well as Russian oligarch Yelena Baturina and Kazakhstani oligarch Kenes Rakishev, and that then-Vice President Biden attended dinners with Baturina, Rakishev and a representative from Burisma.
“Then-Vice President Biden met—in person, for significant periods of time—with those individuals or their representatives,” the memo states. “Then-Vice President Biden joined approximately 20 phone calls on speakerphone with Hunter Biden’s foreign business associates and attended dinners with foreign oligarchs who paid huge sums of money to Hunter Biden. Joe Biden, ‘the brand,’ was the only product the Bidens sold.”
But it’s Project Veritas without James O’Keefe, releasing video evidence that was compiled by O’Keefe’s team while he was still with the outlet.
Project Veritas, in other words, hasn’t actually been able to pull off any undercover journalism of its own since the board ousted O’Keefe from the same company he had founded. All they can do is ride on O’Keefe’s coattails.
That’s the elephant in the room. Other than that, this is an astonishing video. Ashley Biden called Project Veritas to try to get her items back from the outlet. She had left a bunch of personal items at a home where she had been renting a room, including the infamous diary.
Ashley confirms that the diary is hers. Which means that she confirms, in her own words, the creepy Joe Biden is an alleged sex predator, pervert, pedophile and all-around jerk who took showers with his young daughter.
It’s time for Joe Biden to simply go away. That probably won’t happen, unfortunately, since House Republicans are always waiting for just ONE MORE PIECE OF EVIDENCE to impeach Creepy Joe any day now. Here’s the video of Ashley Biden confirming that the diary is hers…
Fox News contributor Byron York joined ‘America’s Newsroom’ to discuss the latest release of Biden bank records and Republicans’ claim they have proof the family received $20 million. #FoxNews
The New York Post is keeping us up to date on cocaine-gate at the White House and, according to the latest inside info, the identity of the coke owner is known, it’s someone in the Biden family orbit, and Joe knows who it is.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Ukraine has lost up to 370 military in the Donetsk direction over the past 24 hours, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.
Truth2Freedom's Blog 