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
It’s a concept that has caused many of us to stumble in our faith journey, leading to doubts and impure thoughts when we least expect it.
“So then, brothers and sisters, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh — “ (Romans 8:12).
All Christians find themselves looking down on others or engaging in ungodly conversations at times. But here’s the thing: you don’t owe anything to indwelling sin.
In the words of Paul, “for if you are living in accord with the flesh, you are going to die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Romans 8:13).
It’s a choice we all face. Do we let our own desires and self take the lead, or do we follow the path of the Spirit, even when it’s not easy?
The Christian life often requires us to make difficult choices, like turning down promotions or enduring challenging church situations. But remember, when your time on this earth ends, no one will bow to you as lord. Every knee will bow to the real Lord.
Following the way of the Spirit may not always be a walk in the park. There will be moments when you have to walk away from impure conversations or face criticism from others. But that’s the Christian life, and Paul assures us that it leads to true life.
“For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons and daughters of God” (Romans 8:14).
If you choose to live in this way, you are a child of God. You’re not who you used to be. You’ve received a new Spirit, one that guides you toward God’s will. It’s a deep knowing that you belong to God, much like a child belongs to their father.
“The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God” (Romans 8:16).
Do you have that Spirit within you? When tough times come, do you run away from God, or do you run to Him, even when you don’t fully understand? The indwelling of the Spirit always points you in a Godward direction. You can’t help but recognize what is good.
And here’s the incredible part: “and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him” (Romans 8:17).
As a child of God, you inherit blessings beyond measure. You become an heir of God, sharing in the same treasure that Jesus Christ enjoys for all eternity. What an extraordinary inheritance that is!
In the end, understanding indwelling sin and choosing to follow the Spirit’s lead is the path to becoming a true child of God, an heir of His magnificent blessings.
In what way is Jesus present with His church when Christians take the Lord’s Supper together? Do the elements of the Lord’s Supper become His real body and blood? In this message, R.C. Sproul contrasts the major views held by Roman Catholics and Protestants.
My people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the Lord. (Jeremiah 31:14)
Note the “my” which comes twice: “My people shall be satisfied with my goodness.”
The kind of people who are satisfied with God are marked out as God’s own. He is pleased with them, for they are pleased with Him. They call Him their God, and He calls them His people; He is satisfied to take them for a portion, and they are satisfied with Him for their portion. There is a mutual communion of delight between God’s Israel and Israel’s God.
These people are satisfied. This is a grand thing. Very few of the sons of men are ever satisfied, let their lot be what it may; they have swallowed the horse-leech, and it continually cries, “Give! give!” Only sanctified souls are satisfied souls. God Himself must both convert us and content us.
It is no wonder that the Lord’s people should be satisfied with the goodness of their Lord. Here is goodness without mixture, bounty without stint, mercy without chiding, love without change, favor without reserve. If God’s goodness does not satisfy us, what will? What! are we still groaning? Surely there is a wrong desire within if it be one which God’s goodness does not satisfy.
“Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise.” Psalm 51:15
During the recent pandemic, a dear friend of mine did something rather unusual. A wiz at sewing, she normally makes prayer quilts for hospice patients and the elderly as a ministry. But during the lock down, she switched gears. She made cloth masks, but with a distinct difference. Hers had clear plastic in the front, so deaf people could still read the lips of their family members and the teachers who wore them. She saw a need and knew she could fill it with her talents.
Jesus saw people’s needs and helped them. Then once their plight was eased, their hearts were open to the salvation and the love he offered.
We all can find a way to help others. That is what being a disciple is all about. It is following Jesus’ example and spreading the Gospel’s message that God loves us and wants to be with us. This is conveyed by our actions, and if necessary, words.
We may think the little things we do, such as smiling at a frenzied clerk, or waving to the widow sitting alone on her porch, has no effect. But God can take our acts of kindness, big and small, and use them to bring people to want to know him.
If you see someone in need, reach out in love. Find ways to ease their pain, hold their hand, or just listen without judgment. Let your attitudes and actions reflect Christ’s working in your life. Be willing to be Jesus to them and let God do the rest.
Lord God, please show me how you can use me. Help me be the disciple you want me to be as I read your Word and follow your Son’s example, seeing to others’ needs and then, when prompted, sharing that I do this because of the way your amazing, forgiving love has influenced my life. I pray this in Jesus’ name, my Lord and example. Amen.
I was the keynote speaker at the staff retreat for Christianity Today Institute, a media conglomerate that operates out of Chicago. The theme they gave me: Why CTI? (Christianity Today Institute) In other words, I was supposed to tell them why they existed, or at least why they should.
I chose to speak on Matthew 8, where a Roman Centurion comes to Jesus and asks him to heal his servant. Jesus offers to come to the man’s house right away. The Centurion tells Jesus he doesn’t deserve for Jesus to do that (interestingly, the Centurion was more sensitive than Jesus was to the cultural custom of Jews shunning the houses of gentiles). The Centurion doesn’t think it’s necessary anyway: “Just say the word”, he tells Jesus, “and my servant will be healed.”
Jesus is astonished. Such faith! He hasn’t seen faith like this anywhere in Israel. He hasn’t found it in the Temple, the synagogues, the churches. Everywhere he’s gone among the faithful he’s found hesitancy, wariness, a demand to prove himself first, to establish his credentials.
And then this pagan, this man of the world, comes to him and simply says, “Just say the word”. That’s all it will take.
The man wasn’t asking Jesus to quote Bible verses, or spout Christian platitudes. He just wanted Jesus to speak truth with authority. That alone, he believed, would change things: raise the dead, heal the sick, comfort the sorrowing.
Just say the word.
Don’t embellish it. Don’t apologize for it. Don’t argue in its behalf.
Just say it.
So that’s what I told this gathering of journalists and publishers. Write and speak with integrity, truthfulness, clarity. Believe in the One who has called you, who is with you, who is faithful to you. Do that and it will change things.
I’m not sure I inspired them. But I inspired myself, is the truth. I walked away freshly committed to just say the word.
“These Morons Are Pushing Us Towards WW3”: Sunak Backtracks After UK Defense Chief Wants To Send British Troops To Ukraine British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was forced to clarify the UK’s stance on sending troops to Ukraine, after newly appointed Defense Secretary Grant Shapps unveiled ongoing discussions about expanding the UK-led training program for Ukrainian troops, and potentially sending British instructors back into the country, while offering Kiev unspecified naval support in the Black Sea.
It’s God vs. the globalists: Guess who wins? The real problem for the globalists rolling out a new World War, to bring forth their One World Government out of the ashes, is that they are battling the Original Creator of the heavens and the earth for control of His Creation. God has a certain fondness for humanity, since Jesus paid for our Redemption by taking our death upon Himself and overcoming it, thereby redeeming all of us who accept his sacrifice. Arrogance before one’s Creator has only one possible outcome.
Taiwan unveils homegrown ‘sea monster’ sub Tsai said that with the Hai Kun – a mythical Chinese shape-changing sea beast with the power of flight – “Taiwan will have three submarines with full combat capabilities” in 2025. One more locally manufactured sub is planned for 2027.
Israeli Forces Destroy Weapon Manufacturing Machines in West Bank In a coordinated operation involving the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the Israel Police, and the Shin Bet, five weapon manufacturing lathes were located and destroyed in the village of Beitonia. The operation also led to the arrest of two individuals wanted in various cases throughout the West Bank, according to a statement from the IDF Spokesperson’s office.
One dead, three wounded in explosion and shooting near Kiryat Malakhi Initial investigations show that the criminals placed an explosive device in a vehicle, which exploded, and then attempted to escape the scene. Following a short chase, they were shot by the police officers who were pursuing them.
Raisi attacks Israel-Saudi deal, Gallant invited to US Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi attacked the proposed “reactionary” Israeli-Saudi normalization deal, as Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is to head to Washington to meet with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and discuss security issues relating to that agreement and Iran. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden discussed a proposed Saudi deal that could also include an American-Israeli security pact when they met in New York last month.
White House: ‘Basic framework’ for Israel-Saudi peace in place Jerusalem and Riyadh have “hammered out” the contours of a possible American-mediated normalization agreement, U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Friday. “All sides have hammered out, I think, a basic framework for what, you know, what we might be able to drive at,” he said, amid an ongoing effort to bring the Sunni kingdom into the Abraham Accords. Saudi Arabia is not conditioning a peace deal with Israel on the establishment of a Palestinian state, Reuters reported over the weekend.
Jewish Man arrested for attempting to bring sacrifice to Temple Yair Hanoch, an activist from the Return to the Mount organization, was arrested at a light rail station near the Old City of Jerusalem while bringing a male sheep to the Temple Mount with the intention of providing it for a sacrifice. “There is no more room for Muslim rule on the Temple Mount – the time has come to build a Jewish temple and renew the sacrificial works,”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul says last-minute disaster assistance is “unconscionable” after record-breaking rain New York Governor Kathy Hochul on Sunday criticized the federal government for leaving the fate of a huge disaster relief program in limbo until the last minute, calling Congress’ eleventh-hour deal late Saturday to stave off a shutdown and reauthorize the program “unconscionable” and “tone-deaf,” given the record-breaking rain that has pummeled her state and others throughout hurricane season.
Germany’s economy struggles with an energy shock that’s exposing longtime flaws For most of this century, Germany racked up one economic success after another, dominating global markets for high-end products like luxury cars and industrial machinery, selling so much to the rest of the world that half the economy ran on exports.
Here’s Proof all those Summer Fires were Arson – not Climate Change …How come some buildings remained untouched? Why did it take so long before help arrived? Why is the media selectively quiet? Why were escape roads blocked by the authorities? Why were people stopped and sent back towards the fires where they perished? Why are the hit areas shielded off and why is aid denied? Janet Ossebaard and Cynthia Koeter search for the answers in their new film.
American Christians increasingly ‘outsource’ discipleship of their children to ‘experts’ American Christians tend to rely on “experts” for the spiritual development of their children, according to new research from Arizona Christian University, a phenomenon which has contributed to declining shares of American young people who possess a biblical worldview.
WEF Running U.S Border Crisis from Military Bases in Panama The World Economic Forum (WEF) has taken control of several American military bases in Panama and is orchestrating the flood of migrants that are heading toward the U.S. southern border in their millions. The globalist organization is reportedly running an operation to round up migrants and transport them to the border so they can illegally enter the United States through President Joe Biden’s open border.
“Let justice be done though the heavens should fall.” —John Adams (1777)
Fellow Patriots, on this day in 1919, President Woodrow Wilson suffered a debilitating stroke that left him unable to fully function or discharge his duties. His wife Edith played an outsized role in running the White House for the last year and a half of his presidency. As Joe Biden’s health visibly deteriorates, we wonder if history will soon repeat itself. —Mark Alexander
The New York congressman willfully pulled a fire alarm to disrupt a congressional proceeding, and now he’s lying about it.
Douglas Andrews
Another day, another act of decadent Democrat behavior.
On Saturday, while Congress was preparing to vote on a stopgap measure to keep the U.S. government funded and thereby keep it from — heaven forbid! — shutting down, New York City Democrat Congressman Jamaal Bowman pulled a fire alarm in the House of Representatives’ Cannon office building. His deliberate action, which appears to have been an attempt to delay a vote by Congress, caused an evacuation of the building and has rightly triggered an investigation by the Capitol Police.
As The New York Times reports: “The alarm was triggered at the same time that House Democrats at the Capitol were stalling a vote on a spending measure to keep the government operating for another 45 days. Speaker Kevin McCarthy had unveiled the bill just minutes earlier, and Democrats were scrambling to read the bill and determine whether to support it. Later in the day, the bill passed 335 to 91, with more Democrats voting for it than Republicans.”
Bowman, as his Wikipedia bio notes, “is the founder and former principal of the Cornerstone Academy for Social Action, a public middle school in Eastchester, Bronx. He is a member of the Lower Hudson Valley chapter of the” — wait for it — “Democratic Socialists of America.”
In a Saturday night statement from Bowman, he claimed that he didn’t pull the alarm to delay the vote, as common sense dictates, but instead because he was rushing to the Capitol to cast a vote and came to a door in the Cannon building that would not open.
“I am embarrassed to admit that I activated the fire alarm, mistakenly thinking it would open the door. I regret this and sincerely apologize for any confusion this caused,” Bowman said. “But I want to be very clear: this was not me, in any way, trying to delay any vote. It was the exact opposite — I was trying urgently to get to a vote.”
Clearly, Bowman and his fellow New York City leftist, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, need to get their stories straight. AOC, a former barkeep who answered to “Sandy Cortez” before she decided to run for Congress, lashed out at Republican efforts to expel “a member who in a moment of panic was trying to escape a vestibule.”
“Give me a break,” said AOC to dozens of viewers of CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
No, Sandy, you give us a break. No one is stupid enough to believe your explanation of Bowman’s actions — not even the low-information voters who elected you.
For that matter, no one is stupid enough to believe Bowman’s explanation of an innocent mistake. The dude is a former principal. One of his duties as such was certainly to pull a fire alarm on occasion in order to conduct fire drills and thereby ensure that his students could evacuate the school in a safe and orderly manner. His claim that he thought he was pulling a switch in order to open a door doesn’t pass the giggle test.
As New York Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis put it: “This is the United States Congress, not a New York City high school. To pull the fire alarm to disrupt proceedings when we are trying to draft legislation to AVERT A SHUTDOWN is pathetic … even for members of the socialist squad.”
Malliotakis is right, of course, but she’s missing the real point: Falsely pulling a fire alarm is a felony, and Bowman must be criminally charged for it. Why hasn’t he been arrested for this felony? Why hasn’t he been finger-printed? Where’s his mugshot?
And not only that: In addition to the felony of having falsely pulled a fire alarm, Bowman appears to have been intent on disrupting an official congressional proceeding. And where have we heard that language before? Yep, hundreds of January 6 defendants were arrested and prosecuted on that very same charge. Some were even placed in solitary confinement while they awaited trial.
“If it really was just an accident,” asked House Speaker Kevin McCarthy this morning, “when the Capitol Police came to interview you, why would you lawyer up right away?”
The video of what Bowman did immediately after pulling the alarm should be very telling. Did he walk back into the building to explain his mistake? Or did he slink away in an effort to hide the fact of what he’d done?
Our Mark Alexander asks a great question: Was Bowman under the influence of drugs when his did this? Think about it: How stupid would a sentient being have to be in order to pull a fire alarm in one of the most heavily surveilled buildings in the most heavily surveilled city in the United States and think he could get away with it?
Here’s another important consideration: Was this act premeditated? Was it a conspiracy? Did any of his staff members know about it? Or, more seriously: Did any other members of Congress know about it? And if so, who else is involved in this conspiracy? Is it possible that Bowman conspired with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to delay the vote? As independent journalist Julie Kelly points out: “Dems were angry GOP didn’t allow enough time to read the funding bill before forcing a vote. Minority whip filed motion to adjourn; Rep. Jeffries used ‘magic minute’ privilege to delay vote.”
Finally, Bowman may have put others’ lives at risk by keeping firefighters from being able to respond to a real fire in a timely manner. Why hasn’t the FBI snatched up Bowman’s cellphone like they did to a Republican congressman on a family vacation? Let’s take a look at Bowman’s emails and text messages and see what they reveal.
“The House has only expelled five members in history,” notes Fox News’s Chad Pegram. “The last was Ohio Democrat James Trafficant in 2002.” Those who remember the, um, colorful Trafficant will recall that he was not only corrupt but also a constant burr in the britches of his fellow Democrats. “Beam me up!” he used to exclaim as he pointed out the latest Democrat legislative outrage in Congress.
Bowman deserves to follow Trafficant, and anything less than his expulsion from Congress will merely reinforce the notions that no one is ever held accountable in the Beltway and that our two-tiered justice system — one tier for those on the Right and another for those on the Left — is alive and well.
Moreover, if justice isn’t served to Bowman, it’ll reinforce the belief in our country that Democrats are utterly unserious about enforcing the laws on our books — from illegal immigration to rioting to shoplifting to falsely pulling fire alarms.
Republicans are infighting rather than governing, and the result is a loss for America.
Nate Jackson
We’ve seen this movie before, and we didn’t like it any of the previous times. Republicans in Congress decide it’s more important to fight with each other than to competently govern, and the government either shuts down or Democrats “save the day” with a last-minute measure to keep things open. Either way, squabbling Republicans look petty and incompetent, and the nation just keeps spending its way into eventual bankruptcy.
Don’t get us wrong — that last part means it’s critically important for our nation’s future to rein in federal spending. A quick trip down memory lane will illustrate.
In 1995, when Republicans began that particular episode of Shutdown Theater, the national debt was a quaint $3.6 trillion. In that case, at least, Republicans managed to balance the budget for a few years.
The national debt reached $11 trillion by the end of George W. Bush’s two terms, $20 trillion at the end of Barack Obama’s (despite more Shutdown Theater grandstanding), and $28 trillion by the end of Donald Trump’s single term. We recently surpassed $33 trillion thanks to Joe Biden’s commitment to “fiscal responsibility” putting us “on a sustainable fiscal path.”
Washington, we have a problem.
Which brings us to the deal reached over the weekend to keep the government running a bit longer. Having to rely on House Democrats to do it, Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy managed a short-term spending deal to extend funding through mid-November. The vote was 335-91, with 90 of the “No” votes coming from his Republican caucus. The measure passed the Senate 88-9, and Joe Biden signed the bill Saturday night, hours before the midnight September 30 deadline.
McCarthy is hardly the white knight of great statesmanship, and the deal is not an example of good governance, but House Republicans need to face a simple reality: They control one half of Congress, and by only four votes at that. They don’t have the power to enact the spending revolution some members would like to pretend to usher in.
Moreover, as Republicans led by Trump proved from 2017-2018, there’s little appetite in the GOP to actually control spending. And no we don’t mean that as a criticism of the tax cuts, which the Leftmedia always bring up as Exhibit A of fiscal irresponsibility. That across-the-board rate cut was the best thing to come out of those years in Congress and drove the economic prosperity pre-COVID.
There are basically two reasons profligate spending only continues to get worse. First, both parties have built coalitions based upon certain spending items, and those items must never suffer so much as a slight reduction in the rate of growth. The biggest drivers of the federal debt are what we might call “earned entitlements” — Social Security and Medicare. Nobody seems remotely interested in reforming those programs because it’s a political death sentence to try.
Second, Congress has largely abdicated its role as the first branch among equals. Why bother governing — and risk taking any blame — when the modern president can do anything he wants with the stroke of a pen, or when the courts can legislate from the bench? Instead, Congress bungles from one continuing resolution to another, largely abandoning the traditional budgeting process that, in hindsight, looks remarkably responsible by comparison.
It is that latter part that makes Republican infighting the spectacle that it has become. Too many members of Congress are more interested in building their own personal profile and brand than in governing. He’s a fighter.She’ll hold the establishment accountable.
What do we actually get? Business as usual, but with more theatrics for social media.
While a Democrat was literally pulling a fire alarm, Republicans are once again trying to tar and feather their own speaker.
“I have tried for eight months,” McCarthy said after relying on Democrats for the necessary votes to avoid a shutdown that would rightly be blamed on Republicans to their detriment. “I tried yesterday with the most conservative stopgap funding bill you could find. I couldn’t get 218 Republicans.”
Instead, Republicans got a bill with none of their priorities except for withholding more funding for Ukraine.
Representative Bob Good claimed it was “total capitulation.” That wasn’t McCarthy’s fault.
After totally undermining McCarthy, Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz promised to work to remove him. But there’s a catch, and National Review’s editorial board put it succinctly: “Matt Gaetz is so upset that Kevin McCarthy cooperated with Democrats on passing a temporary spending measure to forestall a government shutdown that he wants to work with Democrats to topple McCarthy as speaker.”
Who does Gaetz want to replace McCarthy? What conservative statesman is he putting forward to lead the herd of cats called the GOP to victory over the Democrat Senate and White House?
He’ll get back to you on that.
“I want to secure the border,” said McCarthy of Gaetz. “He wants to secure interviews.”
Gaetz’s House colleagues are growing weary of him. Mike Lawler called him a “charlatan,” and Carlos Giménez dubbed him “Joe Biden’s favorite Republican,” not without reason. In fact, some Republicans are making rumblings about removing Gaetz, not McCarthy.
But as for McCarthy’s speakership, either Democrats will help save him — for a price — or they’ll help Republicans topple him just to watch the GOP burn. Stay tuned.
The bottom line is the same as it always seems to be these days. Republicans in Congress don’t seem to be able to take a hostage without pointing the gun at their own heads. Democrats then have a field day, spending continues to rise at astronomical rates, and the nation careens toward an eventual fiscal cliff.
Maybe chaos really is the solution. Maybe blowing up DC is exactly the only way forward. But it’s easy to see why so many Americans who are not ideologically invested are so utterly fed up with everything in the swamp.
McCarthy had the no-win option of presiding over a so-called government “shutdown” or extending the bloated Biden-Pelosi budget Republicans inherited.
Tony Perkins
A conservative-led stop-gap spending measure, which would have reduced discretionary government spending by 8% and partially addressed the crisis on our southern border, failed by a vote of 198-232 on Friday, with 21 Republicans voting against it. Faced with an unpopular government shutdown, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) fell back to a longer, 45-day status quo funding measure.
Here is my advice to those tempted to blame the speaker: Hold your fire! Those infamous circular firing squads are not the solution.
First, I applaud conservatives who have and are fighting to return fiscal reality to Washington, D.C., or at a minimum, move us out of the fiscal twilight zone that we have entered with $33 trillion in debt and $2 trillion in deficit spending in the current Biden, Pelosi, and Schumer budget.
Also, don’t dismiss the legislative drama that unfolded before the American public over the last week as dysfunction. This is how an open legislative process works. Had members of the House Freedom Caucus not held firm in January over the speaker negotiations at the start of the 118th Congress, we would not be witnessing a transparent and dynamic legislative process no longer scripted in advance by a handful in a back room.
In short, this often-turbulent, unpredictable process has been instrumental in returning Congress to operating as it once did and should — with individual members representing their constituents and having a voice in the process.
That said, if you’re 4th and 15 on the 20-yard line, the clock is about to run out, and the score is tied, you want to put points on the board. A touchdown would be incredible, but you’ve gotten as close as possible. A field goal would be a good option, since three points are better than none. House Republicans missed an opportunity to put points on the board by failing to approve the conservatively negotiated spending measure. The result wasn’t perfect; it continued Biden’s budget, but it cut it, addressed a critical need, and exposed a political liability of President Biden.
I learned this both inside and outside the legislative process: you fight with all your might for what is right. You never compromise principle, but you will settle for today what you can’t get until tomorrow.
As a result, Speaker McCarthy had the no-win option of presiding over a so-called government “shutdown” or extending the bloated Biden-Pelosi budget Republicans inherited.
The option of allowing the government to “shut down” would have been pinned on Republicans. While not true, it would have been a sticky claim since Republicans couldn’t even reach an agreement with themselves, let alone President Biden and the Democrats.
Speaker McCarthy made the right decision. The calls to replace him are nonsensical and counterproductive. I’ve spoken to a handful of those who might be potential replacements. No one wants the position. Why? Because they know they would have the same challenge of leading a very, very narrow majority.
This is why I said Republicans should hold their fire over this unpleasant, albeit avoidable, outcome. The speaker wisely canceled the scheduled recess this week and is keeping members in D.C. to work on the remaining appropriations bills. That means there is still an opportunity to bring some fiscal and policy sanity back to the federal government, even though Joe Biden is still in the White House and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is still the Scare Leader in the Senate.
The appropriations bills that have been inexplicably slow in making their way through the legislative process in the House are, considering the present political environment, good bills. The Republican-drafted funding measures rein in spending and eliminate a good bit of the leftist ideology that has saturated the federal government under the Biden presidency.
The Democrats’ push for a 45-day funding measure is by design. This play has been run so often that even the fake news media should see it. Here’s how it works. Go back to business as usual: the House can name a few post offices, and the Senate can approve more of President Biden’s leftist nominees until a week before the next deadline, which just so happens to fall before the Thanksgiving break.
At that point, we have another funding crisis. History tells us one of two things will happen: a handful of appropriators will cobble together a massive omnibus spending bill in a backroom and then unveil it right before Thanksgiving to their colleagues, giving them just hours to vote on a bill stuffed leftist priorities — or, if there are holdouts, another 30-day funding bill will be adopted, setting up the same scenario right before Christmas.
The House should stay in D.C. until all of the appropriations bills are done and send them to the Senate with an emphatic message that there will be no irresponsible omnibus spending package this time. Congress must do what it has not done since the 1990s: approve each of the 12 funding bills.
It will then be up to Chuck Schumer and the Senate, which has yet to approve any of its dozen appropriations bills, what happens next.
Now is not the time for conservatives to pound their chests or point fingers. It’s time to take the gains and the losses and move the nation toward the goal of greater fiscal and moral responsibility.
Tony Perkins is president of Family Research Council and executive editor of The Washington Stand.
Gavin Newsom taps Laphonza Butler, San “Frandalism,” RFK may go third party, and more.
Thomas Gallatin & Jordan Candler
Cross-Examination
Newsom taps Butler: Remaining true to his 2021 commitment to appoint a black woman to fill the term of the late Senator Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom tapped EMILY’s List President Laphonza Butler. Butler checks many of the Democrats’ diversity boxes, as she is not only black but also a homosexual, not to mention a rabid pro-abortion activist to boot. One glaring issue, however, is the fact that prior to Newsom’s announcement, Butler lived and was registered to vote in Maryland. However, Butler has lived in California, where she worked as a union organizer for nurses and home-care givers.
San “Frandalism”: It’s no secret that San Francisco has a growing crime problem, thanks entirely to the leftist city adopting soft-on-crime polices. And thanks to the rising crime, an increasing number of businesses in the city have pulled up stakes and left for good. A recent statistic, courtesy of a survey conducted by the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, demonstrates just how bad crime has gotten in the City by the Bay. Just 3% of restaurants in the city have not experienced any vandalism. Since 2021, San Francisco has shelled out $1 million to almost 800 businesses to deal with damages such as graffiti, broken windows, or other vandalism-related property damage.
RFK may go third party: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., longtime Democrat and scion of the party’s most famous family, is currently running a primary challenge against Joe Biden, but he may soon announce his third-party candidacy. RFK Jr. entered the race back in April and has maintained roughly 20% of Democrat support in the polls, but he has repeatedly been frustrated by the DNC’s blatant moves to “rig” the primaries to favor Biden. As a result, speculation has mounted that Kennedy would launch a third-party bid. Indeed, on Friday he promised that on October 9 in Philadelphia he’ll make a “major announcement” to bring about “a sea change in American politics,” which appears to confirm this. If Kennedy does go third party, just how much longer will the DNC hold onto the unpopular, age-addled Biden?
About those DEI hire stats… On Friday, we noted a rather jaw-dropping stat reported by Bloomberg, which claimed that 94% of S&P 100 companies’ new hires since the summer of 2020 were people of color. We could hardly believe it ourselves, and it turns out that shocking stat was unbelievable for good reason — it wasn’t true. The Daily Wire analyzed the data and found that demographic hiring numbers for 2021 had not changed much from previous years. The Wire found that of the new hires in S&P 100 companies, 46% went to whites, which is less than their 54% portion of the workforce at these companies. That is not new but merely follows a trend as the overall racial demographics of the country change. Bloomberg ended up with its eye-popping but misleading number by failing to account for the total number of two million jobs filled. There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.
Green subsidies: Just how much money is the green energy industry getting from the federal government? Well, the Biden administration quietly noted the number in a recently released 59-page report from the Energy Information Administration (EIA). According to the report, from 2018 to 2022, the federal government gave out $183.3 billion in taxpayer subsides to the green energy industry. Significantly, over half of that total has been given out since Joe Biden took office. The green energy industry isn’t the only energy industry receiving taxpayer subsides, as the fossil fuel industry does as well, which Democrats and the Biden administration are quick to point out. However, the return cost of the subsides (“investments”) to the American taxpayer are not even in the same ballpark. For the amount of energy created nationwide by natural gas, its $2.3 billion in subsides last year equates to $0.05 per every million of British thermal units (MMBtu) produced. As for the solar industry, which received $7.5 billion in subsidies last year, it received $11.9 per MMBtu it generated. In other words, American taxpayers are increasingly paying more for less.
Trans anthropology: The science must be stopped. That is effectively what has happened at the world’s largest anthropological conference, where a planned panel on skeleton identification was canceled due to “transgender” activists. The panel was advertised: “Sex identification whether an individual was male or female — using the skeleton is one of the most fundamental components in bioarchaeology and forensic anthropology.” But since the notion that human sexuality is binary has become anathema to the radical Left, the Rainbow Mafia swooped in to demand that the “offending” science be banned. With cries of “transphobia,” the conference bowed to the pressure and pulled the panel.
Headlines
Student loan bills resume for 40 million Americans (CNBC)
Kathy Hochul wants to limit migrants, says border is “too open” — New York governor had far different message about illegal immigration not long ago (Blaze Media)
Donald Trump faces New York trial today for damages after judge finds fraud in real estate empire (USA Today)
Merrick Garland claims DOJ does “not have one rule for Republicans and another rule for Democrats” (Daily Wire)
Iranian official admits Islamic regime involved in ‘83 horror bombing that killed 220 Marines (RedState)
Judge orders New York to dole out nearly half a million in legal fees to NRA after Supreme Court victory (Fox News)
Keen sense of the obvious: Some Democrats fear Bidenomics branding is backfiring (Axios)
Nobel in medicine goes to two scientists whose work enabled creation of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 (AP)
Satire: Buffalo Guy kicking himself for not just pulling fire alarm to evacuate Congress (Babylon Bee)
Policy: Why the latest continuing resolution changed more than you might think (National Review)
If actions speak louder than words, then the answer is: Not likely.
Emmy Griffin
Bob Iger took back Disney’s helm in November 2022 after Bob Chapik, his protégé, embroiled Disney in the culture war fracas. Iger has overseen plenty of the company’s decline and has finally admitted that the company went too far.
In a recent meeting with investors — whose shares in the brand have seen a near-constant decline since Disney took an ill-advised political position in the culture wars — Iger said the goal was to “quiet the noise” and take a step back from the rancor.
There’s just one problem, and it’s a doozy: His company is infested with activists who are bound and determined to use the dying carcass of this once great company to peddle their ideological tripe.
Take, for example, the recent media attention regarding Rachel Zegler and the “Snow White” remake. They’ve hired an actress (Zegler) who hates the original princess that she’s playing and is actively pushing a feminist agenda. Plus, it seems from the released photos and comments that the new movie is going to be less about retelling the fairytale and more about virtue signaling to a woke audience — which, by the way, isn’t Disney’s main audience, as its declining stock should have already told them.
“Wish” is the story of a young girl named Asha who becomes apprentice to a magical king who grants wishes to those in his kingdom, Rosas. The king is like a benevolent god character to his people, but he only grants wishes that he is “sure are good for Rosas.” Asha is an idealistic 17-year-old girl who starts to question the order of her world. King Magnifico is revealed to be conceited and possessing a god complex, and Asha is troubled that not everyone’s wish is granted. She wishes upon a star, summons that star, and everyone’s wishes start to come true and threaten the order of the kingdom.
Aside from the usual complaint that this is yet another film about girl power with little to nothing to offer the young men except for cheap potty humor, the premise has two possible allegories that can be taken away from it.
Not the Bee’s Joel Abbott suggests that this story could be a thinly veiled anti-God allegory. In a way, it could be interpreted as a retelling of Eve in the Garden, except with the secular spin of Eve (Asha) overthrowing the god-king character in order to create her version of utopia. Asha is faced with the very same questions about the king in her world as Eve is asked in the creation story: “Did God really say?” and “Is God good?” Asha and the creators of this story have deemed the answers to be “No.” For Christian parents (and perhaps other Abrahamic faiths as well), this sort of anti-religious messaging is a no-go.
Another more on-the-nose allegory is that this story could be about Walt Disney himself. Walt Disney, as the founder and creator of the beloved children’s entertainment company, would be in the position of the king in the story, only choosing to grant wishes (or make movies) that he thought would be beneficial to his overall kingdom (Disney the company). Asha would represent the new activist Disney creators coming in to “save the kingdom” and remove the “evil king” from the throne. In this interpretation, it reveals the monumental problem that Bob Iger has created for himself.
Perhaps that’s reading too much into a movie trailer, but it’s hard not to speculate since this company has lost sane parents’ trust. However, the overall message of this upcoming film is loud and clear: Disney can’t help but continue to step on the rake when it comes to pushing messages that are unwanted by parents who vet the movies their children see. Bob Iger and Disney are either incapable or unwilling to extricate themselves from the culture wars.
The Energy Department trots out new “energy conservation” codes that will greatly increase the price of building houses.
Thomas Gallatin
Houses aren’t cheap. Since Joe Biden has been in office, they have only gotten more expensive. In July, homes on the market hit the second-highest average cost in U.S. history, coming in at nearly $414,000. The record came last summer, and despite the increasing rate of inflation, the only reason the price has dropped slightly this year is because interest rates are so high that few homes are selling.
By the way, in January 2021, the average home price was $309,900.
According to a recent report from real estate data company ATTOM, roughly 99% of average Americans cannot afford to purchase a house right now. With the average annual income of $71,214 and median house prices at near record highs, combined with high inflation and high interest rates, purchasing a home is increasingly unaffordable for most.
The Biden administration’s response to this reality is a gaslighting campaign it’s dubbed “Bidenomics.” Everything is getting better, more jobs have been created, unemployment is way down, the deficit is reduced — these are all bogus claims that Biden and his administration have repeated, trying to convince the American public to believe the lie that life in Joe Biden’s America is better than it was under Donald Trump’s.
Adding insult to injury, the Biden administration is not only gaslighting the public on the state of the economy but actively making life ever more expensive for more Americans via the regulatory state.
The Biden administration has gone after appliances in Americans’ homes, from gas stoves to ceiling fans to lightbulbs. But Team Biden is targeting new homes as well. Last week, the Energy Department trotted out a $400 million “incentive” program designed to encourage state and local authorities to adopt “green” building codes in an effort to “lower greenhouse gas emissions” and fight the “climate crisis.”
Of that $400 million, $240 million would go to governments to implement the “energy conservation code.” Complying with that code could raise the price of a new home by a whopping $31,000 — or about 7.5% for that aforementioned average-priced home.
The Biden administration claims that the upfront costs of these new green codes would be quickly recouped in overall energy savings to the tune of “billions.” But the National Association of Home Builders rejects that claim, saying these “restrictive” new codes are unnecessary due to the fact that new builds “are already highly energy efficient.” Furthermore, the association says, “Newer versions of energy codes add costs to housing production that are not paid back in efficiency gains, further exacerbating the housing affordability crisis.”
The association calculated that recouping the upfront costs of Biden’s green energy codes would take upwards of 90 years through lower energy bills. Some savings.
So, just as Biden’s push for electric vehicles is making all vehicles cost more, so his administration’s green building codes will likewise only make new homes even more unaffordable for Americans.
This is what happens when commitment to a pie-in-the-sky ideology trumps any genuine concern for people’s livelihoods and liberties.
Shocker — They Lied — New documents reveal that Joe Biden’s “Disinformation Governance Board” planned a broad censorship effort.
God’s Guide to a Happy and Healthy Marriage — Voddie Baucham Jr. discusses the true purpose and intention of Christian marriage within a secular society that fundamentally misinterprets its significance.
Biden’s Senior Moment of the Week (Vol. 62) — Democrats are doing everything they can to prevent President Joe Biden from falling and injuring himself (or worse) before Election Day in 2024.
‘I’m Crazy About My Grandkids’ — Joe Biden said he is “crazy” about his grandchildren, despite refusing to acknowledge his granddaughter’s existence for years.
Leader of Canadian Freedom Convoy Speaks Out — Benjamin Joseph (BJ) Dichter was a leader in the 2022 Canadian convoy protest. He is a truck driver, author, and podcaster from Toronto, Canada.
“When I left the Senate, I was able to convince Strom Thurmond to vote for the Voting Rights Act.” —Joe Biden (“Thurmond died in 2003, while Biden didn’t leave the Senate until 2009. The Voting Rights Act passed in 1965, before Biden was in office.” —RNC)
“We do not have one rule for Republicans and another rule for Democrats. We don’t have one rule for foes and another for friends. We don’t have one rule for the powerful and another for the powerless, for the rich or for the poor.” —Attorney General Merrick Garland
Demagogues
“The thing that I have trouble trying to figure out is … other than protecting the Constitution, what is it that these MAGA Republicans think is extreme about what I’m doing.” —Joe Biden
“I worry because I know that if the other team, the MAGA Republicans, win, they don’t want to uphold the rule of law.” —Joe Biden
“People who support democracy, who support Ukraine, who support competence in government are gonna understand that the only way to preserve those things is to vote for Joe Biden.” —Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT)
Dumb & Dumber
“At this point we should be investigating the investigation for the [un]ethical conduct that is happening on the Republican side of the aisle.” —Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) regarding the Biden impeachment inquiry
“I vociferously disagree with any assertion that progressivism is somehow incompatible with fiscal responsibility. Progressivism believes in making investments that actually have returns.” —AOC
“The numbers of … people coming today are nothing … compared to the daily amount of people that we saw coming in … through Ellis Island in the first half of [last] century.” —AOC (“Her comparison is beyond inane: 12 million people came through Ellis Island (legally) in the 62 years from 1892 to 1954, as she herself notes. Yet in just 2½ years, 3.8 million have crossed our southern border (mostly illegally). At that rate, in 62 years, 94 million will have crossed.” —New York Post)
Cognitive Dissonance
“[The border] is too open right now. … It’s in our DNA to welcome immigrants, but there has to be some limits in place.” —New York Governor Kathy Hochul (“Our message to the world is: Send us your people, send us those who need the cloak of comfort.” —Kathy Hochul, December 2021)
Belly Laughs of the Day
“If you take a look at all I proposed, they’re overwhelmingly popular with the American people. Nothing I’ve proposed is extreme.” —Joe Biden
“Historically … Democrats have always wanted to be the ones that say, ‘This is how we are supposed to conduct ourselves.’” —Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (D-TX)
For the Record
“If California, New York, and other gun-grabbing states took fighting crime as seriously as they fight our constitutional rights, their own citizens would be safer.” —Brian Mark Weber
“[Joe Biden] has had more dinners with Hunter Biden’s business partners than he has going to the border.” —House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)
Political Futures
“I’m just not convinced that the reason Trump is well ahead in the primary is because the race is missing the correct traditionally conservative governor who doesn’t freak out soccer moms. Trump is well ahead in the primary because right now at least a small majority of Republicans want him to be the nominee.” —Jim Geraghty
GOP Debate Tomfoolery
“Fox joining Univision perhaps was the worst partnership I’ve ever seen since Bud Light hired Dylan Mulvaney. I mean, you have a host unload a litany of liberal clichés, whose premises we challenge successfully every day. And yet they were treated as approved truths.” —Greg Gutfeld
“This is just a sample, but you get the idea. Hunter was engaged in a patently corrupt scheme that involved selling access to his father, one of the most powerful politicians on the planet.”
(John Daniel Davidson – The Federalist) The corporate news media all but refused to cover the opening hearing of the House impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden on Thursday, and to the extent they did, it was only to repeat, at the behest of the White House, the exhausted mantra that there’s “no evidence” connecting Biden to his son Hunter’s international bribery scheme.
(The New York Times ran with a cursory and misleadingly headlined article, “First Impeachment Hearing Yields No New Information on Biden,” that boasted “even their [Republicans’] witnesses said the case for impeachment hadn’t been made.” Which, of course the case hasn’t been made yet. That’s why you launch an inquiry, of which Thursday was day one.) View article →
Washington has demanded that Kiev go at least 45 days without a scandal, according to lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak
Ukrainian MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak has claimed that his country has been given a “yellow card” for corruption by the US and must take action to avoid receiving a second one.
Writing on his Telegram channel on Monday, Zheleznyak acknowledged that Ukraine has serious corruption problems and said it must now be “holier than the Pope” if it wants to receive continued US assistance.
The MP further argued that Ukraine has become a “hostage” of US domestic politics. However, he insisted that Kiev must still press Washington to set aside funding for it in the government budget, which is set to be agreed upon within the next six weeks as part of the deal reached by US lawmakers on Saturday night.
“The main complaint against us is corruption,” the Ukrainian MP pointed out. “We must spend these 45 days without A SINGLE major corruption scandal. As far as I know, this is exactly what our representatives were told when they visited [the US]. No nonsense or pretentiousness.”
Zheleznyak stated that Ukrainian authorities must demonstrate their resolve in fighting corruption and should crack down on the biggest offenders, regardless of how “important” they may be to the president. Without providing names, Zheleznyak claimed there is a specific list of people who have become symbols of corruption in Ukraine and have been “cheating” international partners.
“Either they go to hell, or we get assistance. The choice is obvious,” the MP wrote. He added that the international community pays particular attention to state-owned enterprises, reconstruction, military procurement, customs, and law enforcement in Ukraine.
The leading figures in all these areas are “stupid corruptors” and should immediately be removed to preempt potential corruption scandals, Zheleznyak claimed.
Elsewhere, fellow Ukrainian MP Aleksey Goncharenko has suggested that Kiev needs to be more proactive in attempting to secure funds from Washington. According to the lawmaker, Ukraine should dispatch permanent delegations to the US Congress, send MPs to every US state to “convince”Americans of the need to support Ukraine, and even pledge to join any future military campaigns launched by Washington.
G.K. Chesterton, a critic of the kaiser and the barbarism of Berlin, noted ahead of the First World War that the “true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.”
While, as the title suggests, hatred is thematically central to BlazeTV host Mark Levin’s latest book, “The Democrat Party Hates America,” the penetrating analysis contained therein is unmistakably motivated by love — the author’s love for the United States, a nation that is now, more than at any other time, at risk of becoming something unrecognizable.
Unlike Chesterton’s idealized soldier, however, Levin appears pitted against an adversary that attacks not from without but from within and from the top down.
In his new 400-page book, Levin details a multitude of transmogrifying trends, attitudes, and events spanning well over a century, all of which have the Democratic Party in common. What the implicated Democrats have themselves shared in common is a desire to abandon the “American experiment” and to try something altogether new.
They’ve done little to make this desire a secret, having gone so far as to campaign on the proposal.
For instance, in a moment of increasingly rare clarity ahead of the 2020 election, then-candidate Joe Biden suggested, “We won’t just rebuild this nation — we’ll transform it.”
Obama gleefully indicated in 2008 that the U.S. was on the brink of fundamental transformation. His wife, now thought by some politicos to be a real contender in the 2024 presidential race, underscored, “We’re going to have to change our traditions, our history; we’re going to have to move into a different place as a nation.”
Levin highlights also how Woodrow Wilson — whose leftist verve and dislike for the common man’s common sense is explored at length in George Will’s “The Conservative Sensibility” — regarded the Declaration of Independence as a non-binding “theoretical document” and was, like his Democratic successors, stricken with the misapprehension that he could best the Founders at nation-building.
Like the husband who would seek to radically transform his wife into somebody entirely different, Levin argues that those in the Democratic Party desperate for an American Year Zero don’t love that which has been entrusted to their care.
While readers may not be surprised that America’s refashionment is the goal toward which the Democratic Party strives, they might be troubled by Levin’s insight that the party’s champions are motivated by something far more cynical than just another case of Marxist utopianism.
The Democratic Party does not seek to acquire and maintain power in order to destroy America. It seeks to destroy America in order to acquire and maintain power.
“For them this is about power,” according to Levin. “The party comes before country, and the revolution is top down.”
With this coveted power, still only partially realized, those whom Levin terms “American Marxists” would “rule over the citizenry and remake not just society but mankind into the kind of image that these would-be masterminds prefer and demand.”
This insight, bolstered by evidence throughout the book, is the key to making sense of the Democratic Party’s lunatic policies and seeming inconsistencies.
Why, for instance, do Democrats castigate law-abiding gun owners while championing lawlessness in cities across the land? A defenseless population routinely subject to danger may one day accept the imposition of an omnipresent police state.
Why incentivize the breakdown of the nuclear family while bemoaning the consequences? Doing so creates malleable foot soldiers for Democrat surrogates in the education system, more dependents on the paternalistic state’s welfare programs, and more clientele for the regime’s lab-coat loyalists.
Why promote racial division and identitarian propaganda while urging unity? Greater balkanization diminishes the likelihood of resistive coalitions and justifies statist interventions disguised as anti-racist correctives.
Why push climate alarmism at the expense of the truth and the public’s well-being? The proposed remedies to the abstract threat largely involve greater centralization of power, confiscations of wealth, increased regulations of citizens’ behavior, and increased dependencies on Democrat-controlled institutions.
A critical part of remaining in control and gaining even more is neutralizing the regime’s opposition.
“Unlike the Republican Party, the Democrat Party is more than a political party,” writes Levin. “It is the state party. It seeks to monopolize the political system, the culture, government, and society. And while the Republican Party exists to try to win elections, the Democrat Party plays for keeps — that is, election defeats can never be allowed to interfere with the ideological trajectory the party imposes on the nation. And when the Democrat Party wins elections, it continues building upon the permanent parts of the government infrastructure it firmly controls.”
“Thus, the Democrat Party single-handedly builds permanent centers of power,” continues Levin, “including in the vast federal bureaucracy, subsidized nongovernment organizations, lifetime activist judges, tenured professors and teachers, party members in the media, etc. The Democrat Party uses the culture and politics to empower itself and its agenda. And Democrats have no intention of surrendering control of either.”
Everything within the state, nothing against the state, nothing outside the state.
Levin notes the various ways in which the Democrat regime is working to cement its one-party status. These include de-legitimization of the Supreme Court, Electoral College, and other institutional impediments to government overreach; suppression of dissenting views online; further weaponization of federal law enforcement and the surveillance state; bastardization of language to frame the terms of debate in the regime’s favor; dilution of the electorate by waves of leveraged foreign nationals, thereby ensuring opposition by historical outliers is neutralized; co-option of big business; and the criminalization of its opposition, as seen in the political persecution of former President Donald Trump and pro-life groups.
The party of Jim Crow, the Ku Klux Klan, slavery, the Confederacy, identitarian eugenics, critical race theory, child genital mutilation, and Japanese internment won’t play fair because power, like the justice system increasingly under its control, is blind to its sins.
The exercise of raw power against enemies of the regime will become more and more brazen as the opposition is further whittled down, suggests Levin.
Rod Dreher, author of “Live Not by Lies,” has suggested that America has become a soft totalitarian state in which coercion comes in the form of threats to comfort and status contra threats to life and limb.
Levin, noting parallels between Freedom House’s past evaluations of authoritarianism in Russia and in China to the state of play in the U.S., alternatively suggests that hard totalitarianism, if not already here, is surely coming thanks to the American Marxists.
Although Levin does not ultimately provide a step-by-step guide on how the Democrats’ hard-totalizing efforts might be stopped, he indicates that it is his “deepest hope that this book, like a Thomas Paine pamphlet to the early colonist, will help alert our fellow citizens to the existential threat and rally them peacefully to the cause before darkness descends on the republic,” adding that “every legal, legitimate, and appropriate tool and method must be employed in the short and long run to shatter the Democrat Party and its anti-American ‘fundamental transformation’ agenda.”
True soldiers abound, as many appear to still love the United States. Time will tell if they will heed Levin’s warning and ensure the party of radical transformation fails in its ultimate quest.
Mark Levin: The Democrat Party must be ‘obliterated’youtu.be
Americans view college campuses as far friendlier to liberals than to conservatives when it comes to free speech, with adults across the political spectrum seeing less tolerance for those on the right, according to a new poll.
President Joe Biden is losing substantial ground with minority voters while former President Donald Trump is gaining significantly, according to a poll released on Monday.
Biden’s support among black, Latino and Asian voters fell from 63% in July to 47%, according to the Monmouth University Poll. Trump’s support among these demographics rose from 23% to 33% during the same time period.
NATIONAL POLL: Few voters are enthusiastic about the idea of either Joe Biden (32%) or Donald Trump (37%) becoming the 2024 nominees. However, there is greater enthusiasm within their own party bases, especially for Trump.https://t.co/ENnP7pqRuLpic.twitter.com/KcLyIzw3aj
Biden won the 2020 presidential election with support from over 70% of nonwhite voters, according to The New York Times. Democratic Party officials are becoming increasingly worried that Biden will cost them the 2024 election, according to The Wall Street Journal.
“It would be irresponsible for us to not be concerned at this point,” a Democratic National Committee official told the WSJ. “People can be hopeful about what the result is going to be. But we don’t have any evidence as to why we should be hopeful. The polling is bad. The approval ratings are bad. We know about concerns about both the president’s age and about the vice president if she were to take over.”
The poll also found that 76% of voters view Biden as “too old,” which is close to the percentage recorded in a September WSJ poll. Although Trump is only three years younger than Biden, only 48% of voters believe he is too elderly.
The Monmouth poll was carried out via telephone between Sept. 19 and Sept. 24 and included 814 American adults, but the question results pertain to 737 registered voters. It has a 4.5% margin of error.
The Biden campaign and the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
The Biden administration is deeply concerned over corruption within Ukraine’s government and business sectors, according to documents obtained by Politico.
The Biden administration is pleading with Ukraine to root out corruption within its highest ranks and warns that already-strained western support will further decrease it if it doesn’t address the issue, Politico reported on Monday. The fears of corruption outlined in the private document are much more severe than the Biden administration has admitted publicly as it struggles to rally continued support for Ukraine’s war effort against Russia.
“Perceptions of high-level corruption… [could] undermine the Ukrainian public’s and foreign leaders’ confidence in the war-time government,” according to the documents obtained by Politico.
A rising GOP star provided an update on Sunday regarding President Joe Biden’s ongoing impeachment inquiry, telling a news program that the panel is set to call “firsthand witnesses and whistleblowers.”
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), a member of the House Oversight Committee, made her remarks during a Fox News interview just a few days after the panel’s first impeachment hearing, which looked into the “basis” for the inquiry.
“The first day of the inquiry was just to have experts in tax law [and] constitutional investigations to show a baseline of what is legal and what is illegal behavior,” Mace told “Sunday Morning Futures” anchor Maria Bartiromo. “In the future, in our next hearings, we will have firsthand witnesses and whistleblowers coming through to show that direct evidence.”
The host and her guest were discussing evidence that GOP lawmakers and their teams have uncovered thus far, while Bartiromo suggested that Democrats, in their criticism of the hearings, “keep saying there’s no direct line of money going directly to Joe Biden.”
But Mace countered that congressional investigators “know” that Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, “complained that half of his salary went to his father. And we know that he only got these deals from China, Russia, Ukraine, Romania because of his father, because of his relationship and selling that access to Joe Biden.”
That said, when Bartiromo pressured the Republican lawmaker about whether the GOP has been able to uncover any “specific policy decisions” that President Biden has made, Mace admitted that the committee had more work to do.
“I have not had the ability to research that,” Mace responded. “I have been looking more at the LLCs, the bank records, all of the lies that Joe Biden has told, and what evidence we have so far in meetings, dinners, appointments, White House records, et cetera, phone messages, text messages, e-mails, et cetera, connecting the dots with Joe Biden.”
At the conclusion of last week’s hearing, Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) announced that the committee would be issuing subpoenas for Hunter’s bank records, along with those of Joe Biden’s brother, James Biden.
“We have to connect the dots with the financial records and then show what policy decisions were made,” Mace told Bartiromo.
The host responded by saying, “it feels like the evidence at this point is overwhelming,” before asking the South Carolina Republican how much longer it would take.
“Well, I’m a due process person. I want to hear from every witness, every whistleblower,” Mace replied. “I really want to hear from the bookkeeper, Maria, and what — how these records were hidden, how the money was laundered, and how Joe Biden got paid.”
Last month, Comer told Bartiromo: “This is always going to end with the Bidens coming in front of the committee. We are going to subpoena the family. We know that this is going to end up in court when we subpoena the Bidens.”
“So we’re putting together a case, and I think we’ve done that very well. We’ve shown the bank records,” he said.
“If I had subpoenaed Joe and Hunter Biden the first day I became chairman of the committee, it would have been tied up in court, and the judge would have eventually thrown it out,” the representative said.
“We have put together a case that I think would stand up in any court of law in America,” he said. “We want to talk to about three or four more associates first. We’ve been communicating with a couple of them.
“We’re trying to bring them in just like we did Devin Archer for a transcribed interview.,” the representative said. “If they don’t come in voluntarily, then they’ll be subpoenaed.
He said the El Nino weather phenomenon will “affect how much snow we get and how often we see it, but it’s also going to change when the snow starts.”
Hall constructed a map of the US regions that usually see the first measurable snowfall:
Moving on to this light blue region, this is where we have a lot of data supporting an average first snowfall of around December 30th. This includes Raleigh, North Carolina, Nashville, Tennessee, Little Rock, and Dallas. Essentially, sometime in January is when you’re going to see your first snow down here. But beyond this, we can get a little bit more detailed with our first snowfall date because we have a lot to work with as far as historical averages go.
In the darker blue here, we typically see our first snow either after December 15th or before December 30th. So that narrows it down a lot. This includes places like Bowling Green, Kentucky, and St. Louis.
This light purple zone indicates an area where we expect to see snowfall sometime between December 1st and December 15th. And now we’re talking about places like Washington DC and Cincinnati and Peoria, Illinois.
Now, once we get into this darker shade of purple, we’re talking about a large area of the US seeing their first measurable snowfall between November 16th and December 1st. This is Chicago, Pittsburgh, and a lot of southern New England. It’s very important to remember that these are just historical averages.
Especially in this pink zone, where on average, we see our first snow between November 1st and November 16th. There tend to be some major swings up here.
And then, of course, the final gray zone here shows us where snow can occur as early as October 2nd, which is actually around the time that this video goes up. But there you have it.
Evangelist Lee Strobel delivered a guest sermon at First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, on Sunday, opening with a story about an encounter he had with Playboy Magazine founder Hugh Hefner two decades ago.
Reports have suggested that U.S. agencies experienced the highest number of border crossings at the southwest land border in a single month in September 2023, which would also push the yearly numbers past all-time records.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection sources provided Fox News correspondents Bill Melugin and Griff Jenkins with initial border crossing numbers that have yet to be officially released.
“Per CBP sources, initial data for September shows there were over 260,000 migrant encounters at the border, making it the highest single month ever recorded. This, as a government shutdown looms which would result in Border Patrol agents & CBP officers not being paid,” Melugin wrote.
“The previous highest month was this past Dec [with] 252,320,” Jenkins noted.
BREAKING: Per CBP sources, initial data for September shows there were over 260,000 migrant encounters at the border, making it the highest single month ever recorded. This, as a government shutdown looms which would result in Border Patrol agents & CBP officers not being paid.
An additional 260,000 would push 2023’s fiscal year total to an all-time high as well, at over 2.466 million. The previous year saw 2.378 million, while 2021 was significantly lower at 1.734 million. President Trump’s last year in office saw comparatively low numbers, with just over 458,000 for all of 2020.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre recently claimed the president has taken “historic action” to control illegal immigration, the Washington Examiner reported. “The president has worked very hard to implement a strategy, when it comes to the border, that is humane, safe, and has orderly enforcement,” she added.
However, when a reporter asked, “How many people coming into this country is enough for President Biden?” the press secretary replied, “Enough for what?”
The White House spokeswoman was unwilling to answer similar questioning from reporter Peter Doocy, who asked, “What do you call it here at the White House when 10,000 people illegally cross the border in a single day?”
Melugin also reported that “in late August” Jean-Pierre claimed that the White House was “stopping the flow” at the southern border.
Elon Musk visited the border at the end of the record-setting month to see the chaos firsthand. The billionaire noted that some rather extreme individuals were entering the country. The entrepreneur called the situation “insane” and mentioned that he saw a migrant who had “face tattoos including tears,” which meant “they have murdered someone and they are so proud of having murdered someone that they tattoo one tear on their face for every one person that they killed.”
“This is just a sample, but you get the idea. Hunter was engaged in a patently corrupt scheme that involved selling access to his father, one of the most powerful politicians on the planet.”
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