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Christians, do not be led astray by false prophets | Voice
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Daily Archives: October 25, 2023
Truth Transforms | Alistair Begg Daily Devotional
“You, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. I cried aloud to the Lord, and he answered me from his holy hill. I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the Lord sustained me.”
There is a direct correlation between thinking properly and doing wisely. It is as true in living the Christian life as it is anywhere else.
Take David in Psalm 3, for example. First, he calls to mind truths about God: “You, O LORD, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.” Then, out of that truth, he “crie[s] aloud to the LORD.” There’s a lesson in the order of those verses: we have to know and believe the truth about God before we can call out to Him and confidently expect His help.
Sometimes, as we hear God’s word being read and taught, we might think to ourselves, “I don’t need to know more stuff about God! Just tell me how to work in my office. Just tell me how to be a good wife. Just tell me how to get through my schooling.” But the reality is that you must know truth about God first. Then, and only then, what you know about God will empower you to press on, no matter your circumstances. It is truth that transforms us.
Truth also offers us rest. We know from the inscription of Psalm 3 (“A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son”) and from verse 1 (“O LORD, how many are my foes!”) that David was writing at a time when he faced great trouble. His son had rebelled against him and was threatening to take the kingdom from him. Yet, in this moment when all seemed lost and the temptation to despair must have been strong, David was able to say, “I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the LORD sustained me.” Sleep in itself is a gift—God “gives to his beloved sleep” (Psalm 127:2, emphasis added). But to sleep when you are faced with an insurrection led by a member of your own family—that is a phenomenal testament to God’s comforting grace.
David probably felt like doing a million things in an attempt to remedy his trouble. Nevertheless, he found rest because he knew God would watch over him. He knew the truth that ultimately, regardless of how dire his circumstances seemed, “salvation belongs to the LORD” (Psalm 3:8). Likewise, whatever your circumstances, the very same truth that transformed David and gave him rest is yours today. Will you believe it? For it is in knowing that the Lord saves and sustains you that you will find peace in the midst of life’s storms, and that you will find yourself able to rest even on the hardest of days. We can sleep because He does not.
Going Deeper: Psalms 3
Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotionals by Alistair Begg, published by The Good Book Company, thegoodbook.com. Used by Truth For Life with permission. Copyright © 2021, 2022, The Good Book Company.
Source: Truth Transforms
Those Who Fear Him | Study – Grow – Know
I was teaching on Daniel 3 this past Sunday evening regarding Daniel’s three young friends and their having to stand before King Nebuchadnezzar, accused of not bowing or worshiping the image he set up. I was amazed at their resoluteness in the face of imminent danger. That danger of course was the threat leveled by Nebuchadnezzar to throw all three of them into the fiery furnace as a form of execution for their unwillingness to follow his mandate. What gave the men that ability to seem unconcerned with Nebuchadnezzar’s threats even though they clearly realized he would not hesitate to follow through with those threats?
Their demeanor in the face of a painful death stands out for me. They were seemingly unafraid. They not only did not cower in the face of their impending death, but they seemed to fully embrace it in their response to the king. They were completely given over to God and His will for them; whatever that meant. They seemed to understand that one way or another, they would be tossed into the fiery furnace and it was completely God’s choice as to what He would do in response to that as we see in Daniel 3:16-18.
16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 17 If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. 18 But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.”
I consider their words and marvel. Would I, in that very same situation, do the same thing they did? Would I have that much confidence in God and His will? Would I seemingly not even consider my own life to save it, but instead, give myself over to the Father and the perfection of His will?
So I thought about those three young men, their demeanor and their response. I looked again at the confidence in which they spoke, not being rude or disrespectful, but clearly placing a far higher allegiance on being faithful to God than doing something that would save their physical lives, but potentially ruin their relationship with Jehovah. In our modern day, it’s a bit mind-boggling to consider being faced with something like this and setting the danger aside to see the greater goal; that of loving God more than life itself. How exactly did they do that?
We can certainly assume that God gave them strength and courage to face what they would ultimately face with no foreknown awareness of how God would respond. Would they die? Would God save them without harm? They had no clue but they were mentally prepared for either, according to the text.
Then it began to dawn on me. There was something within them that created a strong foundation, which made their hearts and will immovable. Because of that foundation, they faced King Nebuchadnezzar and his challenge to them with aplomb. They had only one response and knew of only one direction they could go. The other option was not even considered. It told me that the men had a palpable fear of (offending) the Lord. Psalm 147:10-11 speaks to this.
10 He does not delight in the strength of the horse;
He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man.
11 The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him,
In those who hope in His mercy.
Psalm 147 is beautifully written. It opens by expressing how good God is and how we should spend our time in abject praise of and to Him for all of His wonderful blessings. Many of these blessings we fail to see because we do not actively look for them. We need to be a people of praise, deeply considering exactly what God has done for us. Whether it is salvation itself, or the many blessings He pours on our lives throughout each day, He is worthy of our praise.
Unfortunately for many (myself included), we probably do not praise or consider Him enough. As for me, I do not wear myself out as it were, praising Him for what He provides for me on a daily basis. I need to be more aware and more involved in deliberate praise.
Psalm 147:8 begins to break down actual things that we should praise Him for and take to heart. He provides rain so plants will grow. He uses that grown grass and other plants to feed the animals. All the animal has to do is look for it and eat it. God cares for His Creation and the weather points us to Him. The beasts of the field and the birds of the air are all fed by God’s hand. How much more does He care about people, who have been created in His image?
But focus on verses 10-11 that I’ve listed above. There’s something in there that speaks (or should), to our hearts and minds. Notice the Psalmist lists several things that do not impress God. “He does not delight in the strength of the horse; He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man…”
I am blessed to live in the country. As I drive over the many dirt roads, I see cows, goats, chickens, sheep and horses throughout. Besides dogs, I love to watch horses. They are so majestic. As they jog or gallop, their muscles can be clearly seen and highlight the fact of the horse’s strength. Yet, they can be such gentle creatures as well.
Yet for all their beauty and strength, God “does not delight” in that strength. The same is true of the legs of a man. A man who works out can build up his legs to be very strong. They can be used to run, climb and even lift weights with those legs, yet, the Psalmist tells us that God “takes no pleasure” in a man’s legs, regardless of how strong that man’s legs might become through exercise.
Why does God seem to dismiss these things? I believe it is because God made horses and man’s legs for a specific purpose so why would He be impressed with His own creative work? Certainly, He would call His original creation “good,” thereby putting His stamp of approval on it. However, to be impressed with what He created as though He somehow surprised Himself is not something God entertains. As long as what He created does what it was created to do, then God is able to say it is “good.”
But in verse 11, the Psalmist tells us exactly what God does take pleasure in (emphasis mine).
11 The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him,
In those who hope in His mercy.
Why does the Lord take pleasure in those who fear Him and in those who hope in His mercy? Simply because those who do this are doing so of their own volition. Since humanity fell in Adam and Eve, there’s been a struggle between temptation and doing what God wants. We do not automatically revere, respect, fear, love and follow God, nor do we accidentally move toward God in greater fellowship and closeness.
People who actively choose to fear Him and hope in His mercy are the ones who please God and are rewarded with greater faith and knowledge of God. Now remember (based on my previous articles), when I say to “fear God,” I mean to fear offending God. In other words, looking at Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, their inner desire to fear (offending) God was so strong, that they really didn’t care what Nebuchadnezzar did to them. They would not budge. They would not cower or kowtow. They would not do or say anything that might save their own lives that would end up offending God deeply. Had they done that, they would have been telling Nebuchadnezzar that he was more important than the God they worshiped. It’s not something they considered.
It was their fear of (offending) God that kept them from caving into Nebuchadnezzar’s demands. Their fear of (offending) God overpowered any fear they might have had of dying a horribly painful death in a fiery furnace.
It is the simplest of concepts to understand, yet difficult to put into practice because it takes time, consistency, and perseverance to create that pattern within ourselves. We also need to pray that God will help us to grow in our fear of (offending) Him.
I personally do not like it when people define the phrase “fear of God” to mean “deep reverential respect, awe” or something similar. While it is that, for me, it detracts from the actual concept, reducing it to something rather simple and catchy. We can respect a person without liking them. But to fear (offending) God is said for a reason. It places God’s authority and our love for Him above everything else. We either get on board with that or end up being wishy-washy in our faith.
When we sin, we “grieve” the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30), and we often sin because we do not view not sinning as a high priority where God is concerned. Sin saddens, grieves and even angers Him. While we all sin, God’s graciousness and love for us is always on display. However, we do have an obligation to not knowingly do things that grieve Him. We grieve Him when we do, say or think things that offend Him. Our love for Him should be such that we want to avoid offending Him at all costs. Again, this takes time to develop like any other relationship.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego clearly feared offending the Lord. That fear was such that it made them think nothing of losing their own lives for the God they loved and worshiped.
The more we endeavor to serve God out of a fear of offending Him, the greater our fear of offending Him will become. The greater the fear of offending Him, the easier it becomes to make the right decisions that please and glorify Him.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego did it right because their entire lives were dedicated to living in a way that prompted them to avoid offending God at all costs. That was paramount for them (and Daniel). This desire to not offend God grew within them a very healthy, active and palpable fear of offending God so that their decisions became almost automatic in doing what was right without hesitation. A healthy fear of offending God leads to a lifelong practice of living rightly and therefore, pleasing God in the here and now.
I believe this fear of offending God can exist within each of us but it depends upon how badly we want to cultivate that fear of offending God. It’s a decision we will need to make sometimes many times throughout each day until it becomes habit.
It’s more important than anything especially in these days with the way the world is going that our lives are anchored in God, His truth and His righteousness. The only way I think we can accomplish that in reality, where the rubber meets the road is through an increasing fear of offending Him.
Walking in the Spirit: The Essence of Christian Transformation | Pastor Rich
Introduction: Welcome to another inspiring episode of “My Bible Thoughts with Pastor Rich.” In this episode, Pastor Rich takes us on a journey to understand the heart of Christian transformation, diving deep into what it means to walk in the Spirit and how it profoundly impacts our lives.
Episode Highlights:
1. Embracing Christian Transformation: Every Christian’s life is marked by transformation. In this episode, Pastor Rich unveils the significance of this transformation and how it shapes our daily existence.
2. Unraveling a Puzzling Paradox: Have you ever encountered someone who professes Christianity but their actions and attitudes seem to contradict their faith? Pastor Rich addresses this paradox, providing valuable insights.
3. A Profound Scripture Reading: This episode begins with a powerful scripture reading from Galatians 5:25-26. These verses call us to live by the Spirit and avoid boasting, challenges, and envy, emphasizing the importance of a Spirit-led life.
4. Living in a New Dimension: Pastor Rich explores the idea that the Spirit resides within us, leading to a whole new dimension of living in Christ. Discover what this means for your faith journey.
5. Practical Applications for Christian Living:
a. Submission to Christ: Learn how submitting to Christ is akin to choosing a trustworthy guide for life’s treacherous journey. Your life’s direction and purpose fully belong to Him.
b. Self-Evaluation: Discover the importance of regular self-evaluation, ensuring your heart and mind are in the right condition on your faith journey.
c. Having a Servant’s Heart: Pastor Rich explains how choosing to serve others is a reflection of Christ’s heart, bringing nourishment, growth, and renewal to those around you.
d. Reflecting the Fruit of the Spirit: Explore the conscious decision to reflect virtues like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control in your interactions with others.
6. A Heartfelt Prayer: This episode concludes with a sincere prayer, acknowledging our need for growth, humility, and the desire to serve and reflect the Fruit of the Spirit.
Conclusion and Call to Action: This episode highlights the profound message that every Christian life is a transformed life. It calls us to live in the Spirit, not in competition or envy. To listen to this episode, simply click [here].
Closing Remarks: Stay blessed, stay transformed, and keep walking in the Spirit. We invite you to subscribe to “My Bible Thoughts with Pastor Rich” for more insightful episodes and to share this podcast with friends and family who can benefit from the message of transformation and love.
Don’t miss this transformative episode that offers practical insights into Christian living. Listen now by clicking [here].
“Through,” Not Engulfed | VCY
When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.Isaiah 43:2
Bridge there is none: we must go through the waters and feel the rush of the rivers. The presence of God in the flood is better than a ferryboat. Tried we must be, but triumphant we shall be; for Jehovah Himself, who is mightier than many waters, shall be with us. Whenever else He may be away from His people, the Lord will surely be with them in difficulties and dangers. The sorrows of life may rise to an extraordinary height, but the Lord is equal to every occasion.
The enemies of God can put in our way dangers of their own making, namely, persecutions and cruel mockings, which are like a burning, fiery furnace. What then? We shall walk through the fires. God being with us, we shall not be burned; nay, not even the smell of fire shall remain upon us.
Oh, the wonderful security of the heaven-born and heaven-bound pilgrim! Floods cannot drown him, nor fires burn him. Thy presence, O Lord, is the protection of Thy saints from the varied perils of the road. Behold, in faith I commit myself unto Thee, and my spirit enters into rest.
Gift of Strength; Peace to Bless | VCY
The Lord will give strength unto his people; the Lord will bless his people with peace.Psalm 29:11
David had just heard the voice of the Lord in a thunderstorm and had seen His power in the hurricane whose path he had described; and now, in the cool calm after the storm, that overwhelming power by which heaven and earth are shaken is promised to be the strength of the chosen. He who wings the unerring bolt will give to His redeemed the wings of eagles; He who shakes the earth with His voice will terrify the enemies of His saints and give His children peace. Why are we weak when we have divine strength to flee to? Why are we troubled when the Lord’s own peace is ours? Jesus, the mighty God, is our strength; let us put Him on and go forth to our service. Jesus, our blessed Lord, is also our peace; let us repose in Him this day and end our fears. What a blessing to have Him for our strength and peace both now and forever!
That same God who rides upon the storm in days of tempest will also rule the hurricane of our tribulation and send us, before long, days of peace. We shall have strength for storms and songs for fair weather. Let us begin to sing at once unto God, our strength and our peace. Away, dark thoughts! Up, faith and hope!
High Places of Defense | VCY
He shall dwell on high: his place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure.Isaiah 33:16
The man to whom God has given grace to be of blameless life dwells in perfect security.
He dwells on high, above the world, out of gunshot of the enemy, and near to heaven. He has high aims and motives, and he finds high comforts and company. He rejoices in the mountains of eternal love, wherein he has his abode.
He is defended by munitions of stupendous rock. The firmest things in the universe are the promises and purposes of the unchanging God, and these are the safeguard of the obedient believer.
He is provided for by this great promise: “Bread shall be given him.” As the enemy cannot climb the fort, nor break down the rampart, so the fortress cannot be captured by siege and famine. The Lord, who rained manna in the wilderness, will keep His people in good store even when they are surrounded by those who would starve them.
But what if water should fail? That cannot be. “His waters shall be sure.” There is a never-failing well within the impregnable fortress. The Lord sees that nothing is wanting. None can touch the citizen of the true Zion. However fierce the enemy, the Lord will preserve His chosen.
Treasures in Heaven | Daily Thoughts about God.
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal” Matthew 6:19-20 (NIV)
We often encounter this verse about laying up treasures in heaven, rather than on earth, as soon as we enter into a Christian walk. Jesus emphasizes hearts directed to God and not centered on material things. We know to invest our money into the work of God to invest in heaven. It shows that our hearts don’t hold anything back from God. However, it struck me recently that investing in heaven also means to invest into the hearts of people right here on earth. I lay up treasure in heaven every time I invest into the heart of a person, every time I lay down my life for another person, for the sake of the Kingdom.
Reflect:
– Who am I investing my life into at the moment?
– How am I laying up treasures in heaven?
– What do I treasure?
Prayer: Lord, It’s easy to get distracted by the noise and buzz of life on earth. Help me focus my attention on what truly matters to You. Help me invest my life into heaven, and not get bogged down by the seemingly urgent matters of earth.
By Idelette McVicker
Used by Permission
Further Reading
• Heaven on My Mind – by Katherine Kehler
• How to Be Confident You Will Go to Heaven When You Die
• Shunning Materialism – by John Grant
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The post Treasures in Heaven can be found online at Daily Thoughts about God.
For Me to Live is Christ | Daily Thoughts about God.
“For me to live is Christ” Philippians 1:21
A Christian did not always live for Christ. He or she began to do so when God the Holy Spirit convinced them of their sin, and when by grace he or she was brought to see the dying Savior substituting Himself in their place on the cross. Then, from the moment of our new and spiritual rebirth, we begin to live for Christ.
Jesus is to believers the one pearl of great price for whom we are willing to part with all that we have. He has so completely won our love that it beats alone for Him. To His glory we strive to live, and in defense of His gospel we would even die. He is the pattern of our life, and the model after which we aim to sculpt ourselves.
Paul’s words “For me to live is Christ” mean more than most people think. They imply that the aim and end of his life was Christ. His life itself attempted to embody Jesus. Jesus was his every breath, the soul of his soul, the heart of his heart, the life of his life.
Can you say, as a professing Christian, that you live up to this idea?
Can you honestly say that for you to live is Christ?
Consider your job: Are you doing it for Christ? Or is it done only for self-benefit and family advantage? If we profess to live for Christ, how can we live for another object without committing spiritual adultery?
While many carry out the principle of living for Christ halfheartedly, few would dare say that they live wholly for Christ as the apostle Paul did. Yet this alone is the true life of a Christian. This life’s source and nourishment are all gathered up in Christ Jesus.
Lord, accept me. I present myself, praying to live only in You and for You. Let my life be a ready sacrifice to you, and let my motto be, “For me to live is Christ.”
By Charles H. Spurgeon
Updated to modern English by Darren Hewer, 2008.
Used by Permission
Further Reading
• Serving the Lord Wholeheartedly – by Katherine Kehler
• Unexpected Turns on Your Pathway – by Gail Rodgers
• Serving Faithfully and Fully – by Julie Lairsey
The post For Me to Live is Christ can be found online at Daily Thoughts about God.
25 Oct 2023 News Briefing
With World Focused On Israel, WaPo Boasts CIA Is Behind Brazen Assassinations Of Russians
At a moment the globe’s attention is by and large completely focused on events in Gaza, The Washington Post has this week published a bombshell report which vindicates Moscow’s worst fears. Up to now, any pundit daring to write that Putin’s accusations that the West has for years backed a covert campaign to destabilize Russia while stoking the 2014 (and after) civil war in Donbass, was smeared as a ‘pro-Kremlin propagandist’. But now, the D.C. establishment’s premier newspaper is openly admitting that the CIA is actively running covert ops inside Russia, which has included the killing of journalist and geopolitical commentator Darya Dugina, the daughter of Alexaner Dugin. Another “conspiracy theory” has been belatedly admitted as conspiracy fact.
Pentagon Belatedly Reveals Two Dozen US Personnel Were Wounded In Spate Of Drone Attacks In Iraq, Syria
The Pentagon revealed in a late Tuesday statement that in just the past week, US and coalition forces have been attacked at least ten times in Iraq, as well as three times in Syria “via a mix of one way attack drones and rockets,” according to Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder,
Associated Press instructs reporters to avoid ‘terror’ label for Hamas
The world’s largest news agency, the Associated Press (AP), instructs reporters and organizations that rely on its style guide to avoid referring to Hamas as a terrorist organization, according to a review of the organization’s standards.
France’s Macron Proposes Anti-ISIS Coalition Fights Hamas
French President Emmanuel Macron proposed on Tuesday that an international coalition fighting against Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria be widened to include the fight against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza.
Fatah’s Terror Wing Brags It Helped Hamas in Massacre, Promises to Continue Terror
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah Movement applauded the massacre and promised more terror via its terror wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. In a video posted by the Brigades, a spokesman, Abu Muhammad, thanks Allah for the massacre and for “humiliating and defeating the Zionists,” and brags that Fatah’s Brigades are “fighting” with the Gazan terror organizations and that they also carried out their own terror attacks “behind enemy lines,” meaning within Israel.
Israeli Military Says Hamas Stockpiling 500,000 Liters of Fuel While Aid Agencies Decry Shortage
Israel on Tuesday released satellite images depicting what it described as stockpiles of half a million liters of diesel fuel controlled by Hamas as UN agencies claimed that their operations were on the verge of ceasing for lack of power. “There’s fuel in Gaza to run hospitals and pump water,” Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Lt. Col. (res.) Jonathan Conricus posted on X/Twitter. “But Hamas prefers to use the fuel to continue fighting Israel. All those who claim otherwise are whitewashing Hamas crimes against their own.”
Top Israeli Official Calls for UN Chief to Resign After Saying Hamas Massacre ‘Did Not Happen in a Vacuum’
“I will not meet with the UN secretary-general. After October 7th there is no room for a balanced approach. Hamas must be erased from the world!” Cohen posted on X . Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan went further, calling on Guterres to resign. “The UN secretary-general, who shows understanding for the campaign of mass murder of children, women, and the elderly, is not fit to lead the UN,” Erdan said.
IDF strikes military infrastructure of the Syrian Army in response to rocket launches
IDF fighter jets struck military infrastructure and mortar launchers belonging to the Syrian Army overnight Tuesday. The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said the strikes in response to the launches toward Israel on Tuesday evening. On Tuesday, shortly after 8:15 p.m., sirens were sounded in the Golan Heights area.
Qatar must be held accountable for Hamas’s actions against Israel
Al Thani’s first words are correct, enough is enough. But what is enough is not Israel’s campaign to destroy Hamas’s military capabilities, but rather that Qatar – a state that provides diplomatic, media, and financial support to a barbaric terrorist organization that murders and mutilates men, rapes and kidnaps women, and burns to death entire families – is accepted unblinkingly in the family of civilized nations.
IDF kills at least 10 Hamas terrorists in attempted maritime infiltration
At least ten Hamas terrorists were killed in waters off the shore of the southern Gaza border town of Zikim after attempting to infiltrate into Israel, Israeli media reported on Tuesday evening. The IDF stated on Tuesday night that a Hamas terrorist cell exited a tunnel along the coast of the Gaza Strip and attempted to infiltrate into Israel off the coast of Zikim.
Massive rocket barrage rocks central Israel
The rocket barrage in Tel Aviv, which triggered sirens across all of central Israel, sent more than a million Israelis to the shelters and wounded five people in Holon, Tel Aviv, Kfar Saba, Be’er Yaakov, and Yavne.
State Department says ceasefire would benefit Hamas, not stop rockets
During the U.S. State Department’s press briefing on Monday, spokesman Matthew Miller was asked whether Washington would support a call from European leaders for a “humanitarian pause in what’s happening in Gaza to bring in some aid.” “There are rockets, as I said a moment ago, that continue to be launched from Gaza targeting Israel. Any ceasefire would give Hamas the ability to rest, to refit and to get ready to continue launching terrorist attacks against Israel,” he said. “You can understand perfectly clearly why that’s an intolerable situation for Israel,
For the first time in 2,000 years: Priests blessing soldiers going to war
“I am a Kohen,” Saul said. “Can I give you a bracha (blessing)? Saul asked. Saul placed his hands on the young man’s head and gave him a heartfelt blessing, The young man’s eyes filled with tears. Several other young men who were about to leave to fight in the war against Hamas gathered around, asking to be blessed. Word quickly got out … Within a few days, over 4,000 names of soldiers were signed up and over 300 Kohanim were assigned to bless them individually.
Israeli army ready for ground offensive against Hamas, IDF chief declares
A ground invasion is thought to be imminent for the IDF to destroy the Hamas terror organization in the Gaza Strip.“The goals of the war as defined for us by the Israeli government are the destruction of Hamas, the restoration of security to the residents of Israel, and a supreme effort to free the abductees and return them home.”
Under attack from Lebanon, Israelis in north tell me Netanyahu must attack Iran & Hezbollah hard, fast, first
Are Israeli leaders delaying launching an invasion of northern Gaza because world leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden, are tying their hands? Or because they are planning something much bigger and completely unexpected – a massive preemptive attack on Iranian nuclear sites and on Hezbollah forces in Lebanon? Israeli war preparations in the north are clearly accelerating.
‘This fight against terrorism’ is a ‘matter of existence for all of us,’ says French President Macron on Israel visit
French President Emmanuel Macron made a solidarity trip to Israel on Tuesday following the Gaza-ruling Hamas terror organization initiated an unprecedented surprise assault on Israel on Oct. 7. The French leader conveyed sympathy for Israel on behalf of his nation following a meeting with French-Israeli families of hostages being held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Red Alert in Vanuatu, Lola becomes southern hemisphere’s earliest Category 5 tropical cyclone on record
The center of Tropical Cyclone “Lola” approached the islands of Maewo, Pentecost, and Ambae in Vanuatu at around 12:00 UTC on October 24, 2023, with maximum sustained winds of 185 km/h (115 mph). Maximum one-minute sustained winds were recorded at 205 km/h (125 mph), gusting up to 250 km/h (155 mph). The minimum barometric pressure was 941 hPa.
October snow in Fairbanks almost doubles the seasonal average for this time of year
On October 22, 2023, Fairbanks, Alaska experienced a notable increase in snowfall, with the National Weather Service (NWS) Fairbanks office recording 8.9 cm (3.5 inches) of snow on that day alone. The snow depth in the region has reached 22.9 cm (9 inches), pushing the seasonal total to a remarkable 36.3 cm (14.3 inches), which is nearly double the usual amount for this time of year.
Tropical Cyclone “Hamoon” makes landfall in Bangladesh
Tropical Cyclone “Hamoon” formed on October 23, 2023, as the 4th named storm of the 2023 North Indian Ocean cyclone season. Hamoon approached the coast of Bangladesh on October 24 while rapidly weakening, and made landfall north of Cox’s Bazar at around 16:00 UTC with maximum 10-minute sustained winds between 110 km/h (70 mph) and 120 (75 mph).
Gun Grab: State Democrats Pass Sweeping Gun Control Bill in Reaction to Recent Pro-2A Supreme Court Decision
Democratic politicians continue to abridge Americans’ Second Amendment right to self-defense despite the terrifying nationwide crime waves ignited by their soft-on-crime policies.
Canadian Military Chaplains Directed Not to Invoke God in Public Prayer Except on Remembrance Day: Report
Liberal members of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government have gone on the defensive after media reports that the nation’s military chaplains had been ordered not to pray.
South Korean Christians turn to AI for prayer
The word of God is reaching the ears of South Korean Christians through chatbots. Online church services using artificial intelligence are rapidly becoming an essential part of worship in Korea, where Christianity is the biggest religion, as tens of thousands turn to chatbots and audio bibles for spiritual sustenance.
More than 100 pounds of drugs worth $4M found in NYC pizzeria
Pizza isn’t all they were slinging. Three people were charged with running a drug ring out of a Bronx pizzeria after authorities allegedly seized more than 100 pounds of cocaine, heroin, fentanyl and other illicit substances — worth an estimated $4 million — from the restaurant.
Samson Option: Mark Levin Urges Israel to Consider Firing Off Entire Nuclear Arsenal If Threatened
Fox News host Mark Levin went on an unhinged rant Sunday urging Israel to consider the Samson Option — Israel’s plan to fire off all their nukes and initiate a global nuclear holocaust if their existence is threatened — and arrogantly scolded a fellow Fox News host for suggesting America stay out of Israel’s wars.
The Toxic Brew That Is Going To Create Endless Chaos In The Streets Of America
Really bad policies lead to really bad consequences, and our leaders have been making absolutely disastrous decisions for decades. As a result, the streets of America are now teeming with thieves, drug addicts, prostitutes, violent criminals and sexual predators. We have raised an entire generation of young Americans that has no moral foundation whatsoever, and every day we are adding even more immigrants from third world countries to the mix.
Skimpflation: When companies swap ingredients to lower costs
In addition to hiking prices and shrinking product sizes, some food companies have also been quietly downgrading ingredients to reduce manufacturing costs.
US troops in Middle East attacked 13 times in last week: Pentagon
U.S. troops positioned in the Middle East have been attacked 13 times in the last week with a mix of one-way drones and rockets, according to Pentagon officials.
UK government is monitoring teachers’ online activity and recording criticism of government policies and Ofsted
A startling revelation indicates that the UK government has substantially amplified its surveillance of the social media activity of educators. Ranging from leading education experts to teaching assistants and librarians earning modest salaries, the magnifying glass of surveillance closely monitors posts criticising education policies.
An Inquiry into Australia’s Excess Mortality: Independent professionals investigate the disturbing rates of death which began in 2021
Beginning in 2021, Australians have been dying at disturbing rates. Yet, political and medical authorities continue to ignore this, says a group of ethical doctors and scientists who have investigated what is killing so many Australians. The Australian Senate voted against holding an inquiry into this excess mortality but independent, committed medical professionals have conducted an investigation.
Mortality Rates per 100k prove Quadruple Vaccinated Adults are 104% more likely to die than Unvaccinated Adults
An analysis of data contained in a report quietly published by the UK Government department known as the Office for National Statistics has shockingly revealed that four-dose vaccinated adults aged between 40 and 49 are up to 104% more likely to die than unvaccinated adults based on mortality rates per 100,000 population. Meanwhile, one-dose vaccinated adults aged between 40 and 49 are up to 185% more likely to die than unvaccinated adults of the same age.
Headlines – 10/25/2023
Saudi crown prince indicates Israel normalization can resume after war – White House
John Kirby Says U.S. Is Not ‘Dictating Terms’ For Israel’s Expected Gaza Ground Invasion
Biden asked if he’s pressing Israel to delay Gaza invasion: ‘They can make their own decisions’
IDF chief says ground op delayed by tactical, strategic matters; rockets target center
‘Netanyahu Got All the Warnings,’ Says Former Head of Israeli Military Intelligence
Qatar positions itself as intermediary in Gaza war, even as leader blasts Israel
Qatari emir, a Hamas ally, claims Israel’s allies granting ‘free license to kill’
Macron calls for international anti-Isis coalition to fight Hamas
UK ‘trying to make sure Israel abides by international law,’ James Cleverly tells Commons
US Treasury seeking international coalition against Hamas financing
White House exploring ‘contingencies’ for Middle East escalations, including ‘evacuations’
Milan probes death threat to Jews at nightclub, dozens of antisemitic incidents
Hundreds of Hollywood celebrities praise Biden’s handling of Israel-Hamas war
Leading Arab Israeli actor Maisa Abd Elhadi detained for supporting Hamas assault
Another Hollywood Talent Agent in Trouble – Shared Post Claiming ‘Fake Beheaded Babies’ in Israel
Department of Homeland Security Puts Pro-Hamas Radical on Leave
UFC Star Khmazat Chimaev Says “If Allah Allows Me to…Give Me a Rifle and Let Me Go to Palestine”
Man arrested in Germany on suspicion of planning to ram pro-Israel event with truck
At Least 23 Journalists Killed In Israel-Hamas Conflict
IDF publishes audio of Hamas terrorist calling family to brag of killing Jews
‘I went through hell’: freed Israeli hostage recounts Hamas abduction
Elderly hostage freed by Hamas details beatings, says terrorists were ‘friendly in their own way’
Freed Hamas hostage recounts ordeal, slams Israeli failures, speaks well of captors
Israel drops leaflets in Gaza offering reward for hostage information
Netanyahu Delays Gaza Invasion Amid Hostage Concerns
As war with Hamas rages, a campaign gets underway for a return to Gaza’s settlements
In apparent shift, Blinken says humanitarian pauses in Gaza should be considered
UNRWA says Gaza operations to halt unless fuel brought in
IDF says Gaza photos show half million liters of fuel held by Hamas
About 70% of tech firms face operating difficulties amid reservists’ call-up
Moody’s puts Israeli banks on review for downgrade
S&P downgrades Israel’s credit outlook to ‘negative’ amid war against Hamas
Israel-Hamas war threatens global economy, bankers warn in Saudi Arabia
600 civil security squads established since Oct. 7 to boost ‘sense of security’
DOD Admits It Is Returning Weapons to Israel that Had Been Dispatched to Ukraine
Rep. Tom Tiffany: This Is Obama’s ‘Third Term’
Joe Biden: U.S. Committed to ‘Palestinian People’s Right’ to ‘Self-Determination’
Hochul: We Need to ‘Free the Palestinians’ from Hamas
Cohen plays Security Council recording of Hamas terrorist bragging of killing Jews
Blinken to Security Council: Where’s the revulsion over Hamas attacks
Israel’s Holocaust survivors struggle with Gaza war as trauma deepens
UN calls for immediate ceasefire to end ‘epic suffering’ in Gaza
At UN, Israel Vows Again to Destroy Hamas, Rejects Gaza Ceasefire
UN chief alleges law violations in Gaza, angering Israel
U.N. Chief Guterres Shifts Blame to Israel, Claims Hamas Terror Attack ‘Did Not Happen in a Vacuum’
Israel denying UN officials visas after Guterres appears to justify Hamas assault
Israel calls on UN chief to resign; death toll from Israeli airstrikes passes 5,700
Hamas claims 700 killed in Gaza over past day, as hospitals filled beyond capacity
IDF says it struck Gaza refugee camp
IDF says sea-borne Hamas infiltration thwarted, several terrorists reported killed
The ‘Devil’s Playground’ of Urban Combat That Israel Is Preparing to Enter
Iran Is Wary of Crossing Red Lines and Could Leave Gaza to Fight Alone
Iran’s Raisi blames ‘lack of unity’ among Muslim countries for Israeli war on Hamas
‘The West Bank will ignite’: Israel’s operations spark anger in the territory
As Hezbollah attacks defy UN resolutions, Lebanon’s PM claims country commited to them
IDF foils more terror cells in southern Lebanon, strikes Hezbollah position
Massive rocket barrage on Tel Aviv leaves over a million Israelis scrambling for shelter
Yemen’s Houthi army emerges as a major threat to Israel and US
Saudi Arabia intercepted Houthi missile headed toward Israel – report
IDF hits Syrian military sites after rockets fired toward Golan Heights
White House: Iran Aiding Attacks on U.S. Bases in Iraq and Syria
Blinken Warns Iran That US Will Respond ‘Decisively’ To Any Attack
How Iran Is Infiltrating the Highest Levels of Our Government
U.S. sending U.S. carrier strike group, air defense systems to Persian Gulf
Australia sends aircraft and troops to Middle East in case ‘this gets worse’
China Deploys Warships to Middle East, Denies Connection to Israel-Hamas Conflict
Spain Follows Biden, Urges E.U. to Lift Sanctions on Hamas Ally Venezuela
Venezuela Threatens Legal Action Against Opposition Leaders After Biden Sanctions Relief
Elon Musk recommends to sacrifice Ukraine’s integrity to avoid World War III
Russian Defense Ministry says it repelled Ukrainian ‘sabotage’ attack on Sevastopol
Russia claims destruction of three Ukrainian boats off Crimea
Blasts Rock Crimea Hours After Zelensky Vows Full Fire Control Over Region
Kremlin Addresses ‘Absurd’ Rumor that Vladimir Putin Was Replaced by Body Double After Stroke
China removes two key figures from office in major leadership reshuffle
Americans Are Burning Through Savings to Keep Biden’s Economy Afloat, Experts Say
Not just Hunter: James Biden steps into the center of Biden family controversy
Federal prosecutors spied on Congress in search for leaks, now DOJ is being investigated for it
Tom Emmer wins Speaker nomination in GOP’s third try for the gavel
Opposition to Emmer Among Republicans Worse Than It Was for Jordan
Tom Emmer’s bid to be speaker on verge of collapse
Donald Trump: Voting for ‘Globalist RINO’ Tom Emmer for Speaker Would Be ‘Tragic Mistake’
Tom Emmer drops out of Speaker’s race
Louisiana Rep. Johnson nominated for speaker, full House vote expected as early as Wednesday
McCarthy Staging Comeback as GOP Speaker, Floats Jim Jordan as ‘Assistant Speaker’
Government shutdown looms over vacant House speaker role
Trump 2020 lawyer Jenna Ellis pleads guilty in Georgia election case, the latest to flip
Jenna Ellis Plea Deal Sparks Calls for Return of $216,000 Raised in Legal Defense Funds
Robocall Scammers Are Embracing AI’s Ability to Mimic People and Scam Targets
5.4 magnitude earthquake hits near Gansu, China
5.2 magnitude earthquake hits near Lae, Papua New Guinea
5.1 magnitude earthquake hits near Iceland
5.0 magnitude earthquake hits near Rio Grande, Panama
Klyuchevskoy volcano on Kamchatka, Russia erupts to 27,000ft
Sabancaya volcano in Peru erupts to 23,000ft
Popocateptl volcano in Mexico erupts to 23,000ft
Sangay volcano in Ecuador erupts to 23,000ft
Ruiz volcano in Colombia erupts to 21,000ft
Reventador volcano in Ecuador erupts to 17,000ft
Fuego volcano in Guatemala erupts to 15,000ft
Sakurajima volcano on Japan erupts to 15,000ft
Semeru volcano in Peru erupts to 14,000ft
Tropical Cyclone “Tej” makes landfall in Yemen
Tropical Cyclone “Hamoon” makes landfall in Bangladesh
Hurricane Tammy could strengthen, Tropical Depression 21 bringing heavy rain to Nicaragua
October snow in Fairbanks almost doubles the seasonal average for this time of year
Ancient rock carvings revealed by receding Amazon waters amid drought
Heavy smog descends on India, leaving residents struggling to breathe
Colorado school district to rely on diesel buses for challenging routes green buses can’t handle
Experts say to “go green” 50 million miles of new power lines needed, and that may be impossible
Rio de Janeiro deploys helicopters in extra security after gang torches 35 buses
Hochul extends state of emergency over immigration crisis
Hotels in Los Angeles Replace Striking American Workers With Illegal Border Crossers
More than 300,000 Illegal Aliens Entered U.S. through Southwest Border in September Alone
Texas sues Biden administration over federal efforts to ‘destroy’ border fencing
At least a dozen Mexican police killed, photos appear to show brutal execution-style slayings
Mexico deploys 300 National Guard troopers to area where 13 police officers were killed in an ambush
Women and nonbinary Icelanders go on a 24-hour strike to protest the gender pay gap
Trans runner dominates women’s high school cross country team in Washington State
Che Flores Becomes NBA’s First Openly ‘Nonbinary’ Referee
Drag Queen Attends Christian Music Awards to ‘Express Queer Joy’: ‘This Is Shameful’
New lawsuit means Georgia must pay for gender-affirming healthcare for state employees and families
Transgender Netflix Writer to Seek Sperm Donor During Stage Show: ‘Witness Queer Family-Making’
Despite State Bans, Legal Abortions Didn’t Fall Nationwide in Year After Dobbs
Cruise ship passengers win COVID outbreak lawsuit
Democrat D.C. Mayor Opposes Criminals Wearing Masks After Mandating Them
Colleges accused of blindsiding students with COVID vax mandates for clinical rotations
Contamination, myocarditis, seizures: COVID vax revelations put regulators worldwide on defense
Mid-Day Snapshot · October 25, 2023
“From The Patriot Post (patriotpost.us)”.
THE FOUNDATION
“A morsel of genuine history is a thing so rare as to be always valuable.” —Thomas Jefferson (1817)
| On this day in Patriot history in 1812, the USS United States defeated the HMS Macedonian off the coast of Morocco, making Captain Stephen Decatur a national hero and fueling American spirit during a second war with Great Britain. Today, the U.S. Navy patrols the world’s seas, including the Mediterranean, deterring global threats from our adversaries. —Mark Alexander |
IN TODAY’S DIGEST
- Reprehensible Moral Equivalence at the UN
- Executive News Summary
- ‘Pharmacy Deserts,’ Courtesy of Democrats
- Victors Get to Write the History
- Campus Anti-Semitism: Billionaires Say Bye-Bye
- Democrats’ Noncitizen Voting Scam
- DAILY FEATURES: Videos, Best of Right Opinion, Short Cuts, Memes, and Cartoons.
ON THE WEB
- Mark Alexander: Profiles of Valor: Jack Lucas
- John Stossel: COVID Deception
- Linda Moss Mines: Grassroots History: That Red-Haired Virginian
- In Brief: The Sickness of Our Universities — and the Cure
FEATURED ANALYSIS
Reprehensible Moral Equivalence at the UN
The secretary-general sympathizes with Hamas terrorists, while Biden and Obama are little better.
Nate Jackson
The Biden administration has been somewhat strong in backing Israel after Hamas jihadis launched a surprise attack on October 7, wantonly slaughtering 1,400 Israelis. We’ll get back to what we mean by “somewhat.” But first, the United Nations has, unsurprisingly, been a bit less eager to back Israel in its military response. In fact, the UN secretary-general was downright disgraceful.
Antonio Guterres addressed the 15-member Security Council Tuesday, which he noted was “United Nations Day, marking 78 years since the UN Charter entered into force.” Part of the UN’s reason for being was to ensure “never again” remained reality for the Jews after the Holocaust. Yet after helping reestablish Israel as the Jewish homeland in 1948, the UN has increasingly become remarkably antagonistic toward Israel and often anti-Semitic.
Indeed, while Guterres reiterated his condemnation of Hamas’s attack, he qualified it with morally reprehensible moral equivocation and lies.
“Nothing can justify the deliberate killing, injuring, and kidnapping of civilians — or the launching of rockets against civilian targets,” Guterres said. But then he kind of justified it. “It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation. They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing.”
He then went back to not justifying the attacks — albeit with an added implied condemnation of Israel: “But the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas. And those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”
Guterres said much the same in his original October 9 statement about Hamas’s attacks.
Israeli UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan called his remarks “shocking” and demanded that Guterres “resign immediately.” The UN secretary-general “expressed an understanding for terrorism and murder,” said Erdan. “The Secretary-General is completely disconnected from the reality in our region and … he views the massacre committed by Nazi Hamas terrorists in a distorted and immoral manner.”
Guterres isn’t the only globalist “citizen of the world” pontificating about the need for Israeli restraint. “It’s understandable that many Israelis have demanded that their government do whatever it takes to root out Hamas and make sure such attacks never happen again,” wrote Barack Obama yesterday. He acknowledged that Hamas’s “leadership seems to intentionally hide among civilians, thereby endangering the very people they claim to represent.” Yet he added, “Still, the world is watching closely.”
And we wouldn’t want to upset Rashida Tlaib over any hospitals.
Like Guterres, Obama also morally equivocated, saying the Palestinians have been “forcibly displaced” and despite being “willing to make concessions for a two-state solution have too often had little to show for their efforts.”
Let’s go back to Guterres’s comment about how Hamas’s attack “cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people,” which is in the same vein as Joe Biden’s recent assertion that “Hamas does not represent the Palestinians.”
To steal another of his lines, that’s a bunch of malarkey.
The Palestinians overwhelmingly support Hamas before and after its October 7 atrocities. “Civilians” in Gaza participated in that assault.
Andrew McCarthy, who’s been studying jihad since before the 1993 World Trade Center bombings he helped prosecute, says Hamas is just a symptom of a broader disease. “The terror group was elected by Palestinians in Gaza precisely because it wants to destroy Israel and murder Jewish people,” he notes.
To further this goal, Hamas deliberately endangers civilians in part for the propaganda effect, as even Obama admits. “How many more killings [of Palestinian civilians] is enough for you?” shrieked Ilhan Omar recently. “How many more Palestinians would make you happy if they died?”
For Hamas, the answer is however many it takes. Hamas chairman Khaled Mashal effectively said “millions.” That’s why jihadists hide in hospitals and mosques and totally intermingle with all manner of “civilian” targets.
As for Obama’s complaint that the Palestinians “have little to show for their efforts” at peace, that’s just a BIG lie. “‘From the river to the sea’ is not a Hamas battle cry,” observes McCarthy. “It is a Palestinian battle cry.” In other words, eradication of Israel in favor of a single Arab state has been the decades-long goal, not just of Hamas but of the Palestinians, fabricated people group that they are. Their schoolchildren are taught with maps that do not include Israel, and Jew hatred is inculcated from the youngest age.
A recently publicized phone call illustrates this point. A Hamas jihadist made a call to his father using the phone of an Israeli woman he’d just murdered, and a recording of it was released by Israel Defense Forces. “Look how many I killed with my own hands!” the terrorist excitedly told his dad. “Your son killed Jews!”
In response, the father wept … with joy. His mother praised him, saying, “May god bring you home safely.” (Note: We lowercase “god” here because the god Islamofascists worship is not God.)
That doesn’t sound like victimhood to us. It sounds like demonic evil. Yet Guterres and Obama and their ilk want us to sympathize with them.
Which brings us back to the Biden administration. Also on Tuesday at the UN, Secretary of State Antony Blinken pointedly warned Iran regarding any attack on American forces by Iran or its proxy terrorists, which he cast as standing strong with Israel. “The United States does not seek conflict with Iran,” Blinken said. “We do not want this war to widen. But if Iran or its proxies attack U.S. personnel anywhere, make no mistake. We will defend our people.” And we’ll do so “swiftly and decisively.”
We hate to be sticklers, but that’s another phony leftist red line. Iran’s Hamas proxies did kill more than 30 Americans on October 7, and its clients have launched rocket and drone attacks on American assets in the Middle East numerous times in the past week alone. White House spokesman John Kirby acknowledged Monday that Iran is “actively facilitating these attacks.”
Not only has the U.S. done nothing, we’d argue that Team Biden has facilitated Iran — in part by unfreezing $6 billion in Iranian assets. The administration has since tried to act tough about that money, but Biden has been working for his entire term to reinstate Obama’s foolish nuclear deal with Tehran and generally appease the mullahs. That includes removing any mention of Iran in a draft UN resolution on the Israel-Hamas war.
Will Biden switch gears and actually deter Iran for a change? Don’t count on it. Yet that equivocation on top of the moral equivalence coming from Obama and the UN make Israel’s entirely justified defense all that much harder.
Executive News Summary
Tlaib keeps the hospital lie going, 41 states are suing Facebook’s parent company, detransitioner lawsuit, and more.
Douglas Andrews, Thomas Gallatin, & Jordan Candler
Cross-Examination
- Mike Johnson just might be your next speaker: The 51-year-old three-term Louisiana Republican is the speaker designate, and a floor vote is scheduled for noon today. Johnson, the current GOP conference vice chair, outpolled Florida’s Byron Donalds head-to-head in a secret ballot last night after Tennessee’s Mark Green and Texas’s Roger Williams withdrew their names from consideration. Johnson is a Freedom Caucus member with a strong 91 American Conservative Union rating, and he’s also a past president of the highly influential Republican Study Committee, the largest committee in the GOP conference. He’s a smart, likeable, Christian conservative, and he’s good in front of a camera. He was on Donald Trump’s impeachment defense team, but the support he’s already received from across the Republican conference indicates that he isn’t a polarizer. As Florida Congresswoman Kat Cammack posted this morning: “Congratulations to my friend Mike Johnson! As our new Speaker designee, he has already made incredible strides bringing our conference together. He is a good man and a constitutional conservative. He believes in #WeThePeople! Together, we serve on the Weaponization subcommittee. The new era of vision, faith, and freedom is here. Let’s do this!”
- Tlaib keeps the hospital lie going: When a Jew-hating “Palestinian” congresswoman tells you who she is, believe her. Detroit Democrat Rashida Tlaib, who early last week jumped to convulsions when she claimed, “Israel just bombed the Baptist Hospital killing 500 Palestinians (doctors, children, patients) just like that,” is refusing to walk back that hysterical and blood-libelous lie. As we noted shortly after the explosion, it wasn’t an airstrike, it didn’t hit a hospital, it didn’t kill hundreds, and Israel didn’t do it. But other than that, the reporting was accurate. Having doubled-down on her lie later in the week, Tlaib is still denying the truth of the wayward Islamic Jihad rocket that landed in the parking lot outside the Al-Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza and didn’t do significant structural damage to the hospital itself. “Media outlets and third-party analysts have raised doubts about claims and evidence offered by both Israel and the Gaza Ministry of Health, and I agree with the United Nations that an independent investigation is necessary,” Tlaib said. Perhaps someone needs to tell her that the UN is hardly an unbiased observer of Middle East affairs and that the Gaza Ministry of Health is run by Hamas and is therefore one of the terrorist organization’s most powerful propaganda tools.
- A massive and bipartisan antitrust suit against Google: Last month, to relatively little fanfare, a trial began between Google on the one side and the Department of Justice and 50 state attorneys general on the other. At issue is what to do about the death grip that Google has built on Internet search through its exclusive agreements with cellphone carriers, handset manufacturers, and the like. The case, which is expected to last 10 weeks and was filed in 2020 by the Trump administration, reflects “a broad reappraisal in Washington of the common wisdom that the Internet is open by nature and therefore can self-regulate through free-market competition,” according to The Washington Post. It’s also a relatively straightforward one, hinging on Google’s ability to monopolize the market on data collection. As former Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson notes: “It is no secret that Google has a durable monopoly over general search online. … Simply having a monopoly does not violate our antitrust laws. But monopoly conduct to control the vast majority of consumer data through exclusionary contracts, as opposed to fair competition, does.” Should Google, for example, be allowed to ink a deal with Apple that makes its search engine the default option on all iPhones? That, in a nutshell, is what’s at stake.
- Forty-one states are suing Facebook’s parent company: In another feel-good story about Big Tech finally being taken to task, 41 states filed a lawsuit yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging that Meta designs its products to — no shocker here — addict young users, and that the company “hid the amount of damage its apps caused to teenagers and youth, including addictive behaviors and physical harm,” according to the Washington Examiner. Industry groups say that the suit infringes on matters of free speech and privacy, and Meta says it’s added new tools to allow parents to regulate what their kids see on social media. But let’s be real: Just how interested is Facebook in limiting the access of its future customer base? According to the filing: “Meta has harnessed powerful and unprecedented technologies to entice, engage, and ultimately ensnare youth and teens. Its motive is profit, and in seeking to maximize its financial gains, Meta has repeatedly misled the public about the substantial dangers of its Social Media Platforms.” Regarding Meta’s efforts to mislead the public, it sounds almost like the Big Tobacco lawsuits of a generation ago.
- Team Brandon turns loose 96% of illegals who use its CBP One app: And all this time we thought the border was closed. Apparently, though, the federal government’s CBP One™ mobile phone app — which is a creation of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency, was launched October 28, 2020, and is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play — is allowing “inadmissible aliens to make an appointment to fly directly to airports in the interior of the United States, bypassing the border altogether,” according to Todd Bensman of the Center for Immigration Studies. This sounds to us like an impeachable offense. CBP One serves “as a single portal to a variety of CBP services,” according to the agency. “Through a series of guided questions, the app directs each type of user to the appropriate services based on their needs.” Between January 12 and September 30, “fully 95.8% of the illegal aliens who scheduled appointments to claim asylum through the CBP One app were issued a ‘Notice to Appear’ and then were paroled into the interior of the U.S.,” according to The Daily Signal. Nothing like a sternly worded “Notice to Appear” to strike fear into the hearts of illegal border-crossers.
- Another Trumper pleads guilty in GA: On Tuesday, Donald Trump’s former campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis pleaded guilty to felony charges tied to her alleged efforts to subvert the 2020 Georgia election results. Ellis admitted to one count of aiding and abetting false statements, and she’s now the fourth to plead guilty of the 19 people charged in the alleged plot. Ellis was sentenced to five years probation, a $5,000 fine, 100 hours of community service, and to write an apology letter to the state of Georgia. Furthermore, she can be called upon to testify in upcoming trials related to the case. In offering her plea, Ellis tearfully admitted that she “failed to do my due diligence” and that “if I knew then what I know now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these post election challenges.” Sadly, Ellis seems like a good person who unfortunately is suffering for Trump’s refusal to accept the 2020 election results while he benefits with solid and growing support.
- Trump cleared in FBI relocation tiff: The Justice Department recently concluded a four-year investigation into allegations made by congressional Democrats who claimed that Donald Trump illegally sought to intervene to prevent the FBI from moving its headquarters out of Washington, DC, into the suburbs. The Democrats alleged that Trump’s motive for objecting to the FBI move was financial — that he wanted to protect his DC hotel from competition. The FBI move never happened, but according to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz, “We found no evidence that the FBI’s decisions were based on improper considerations or motives.” He added, “Specifically, we found no evidence that in making the decision to seek to have the new FBI headquarters remain at its current [downtown] site, Director Wray and others at the FBI considered the location of the then-named Trump International Hotel or how President Trump’s financial interests could be impacted by the decision.” The Biden administration is looking to relocate FBI headquarters to a new site in either the Maryland or Virginia suburbs surrounding DC.
- $50K more for EVs without tax dollars: What are the true costs of electric vehicles? Thanks to a recent comprehensive analysis from the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), that figure has now been quantified. The TPPF report found that without government subsides (read: taxpayer dollars), the cost of an average EV in 2021 would be an eye-popping $48,698 more to own over a 10-year period. This cost increase includes $11,833 per EV over a decade in added strain on the U.S. electrical grid. The report notes, “It is not an overstatement to say that the federal government is subsidizing EVs to a greater degree than even wind and solar electricity generation and embarking on an unprecedented endeavor to remake the entire American auto industry.” It further warns, “It’s time for federal and state governments to stop driving the American auto industry off an economic cliff and allow markets to drive further improvements in cost and efficiency.”
- Detransitioner lawsuit: Isabelle Ayala, a 21-year-old woman who detransitioned after having undergone “transgender” hormone therapy as a teenager, recently filed a lawsuit against the American Academy of Pediatrics alleging that the organization lied to her regarding the medical dangers associated with so-called gender-affirming care. Ayala claims that the AAP pushed youth “gender transition” and knowingly misled the public regarding the negative effects of this gender-bending malpractice. The suit says that the AAP’s “affirmative model” for gender dysphoria “included immediate, no-questions-asked ‘affirming’ of a child’s desired gender and quickly placing them on a conveyor belt of life-altering puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and/or experimental surgeries.” This is the first time the AAP has been named in a lawsuit directly related to “transgenderism.”
- Bad news: NHL caves to the Rainbow Mafia: Two weeks ago, the National Hockey League announced a new policy banning player promotion of LGBTQ “pride” before or during games. Notably, the policy banned players from wrapping their sticks with rainbow-colored tape. Perhaps predictably, the NHL has backtracked on its ban after a player chose to defy the ban and wrapped his stick in “pride tape.” A new policy will permit players to voluntarily make their sticks gay. At least the NHL is no longer forcing players to bow to the Rainbow Mafia by donning “pride” warmup jerseys, but it’s still disappointing to see sexual deviancy overtake even our sports.
Headlines
- Hamas used landline phones in Gaza tunnels to evade Israeli intelligence for two years while plotting attack (New York Post)
- DeSantis administration instructs Florida universities to suspend pro-Hamas student groups (National Review)
- More illegal crossers apprehended at northern border sector in 2023 than previous 11 years combined (Just the News)
- Strike costs GM $200 million in third quarter, automaker now taking $200 million hit weekly (Washington Times)
- “Slap in the face”: Gavin Newsom hammered for showing off $160K Chinese EV during China trip (Fox Business)
- It seems the UFC has forgotten about Mulvaney-Gate because it’s partnering up with Bud Light starting in 2024 (Not the Bee)
- ACLU: Giving people HIV intentionally is no big deal (Hot Air)
- Policy: The United Nations is rotten from the top down (National Review)
- Humor: Republicans place House Speaker job on ZipRecruiter (Babylon Bee)
For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.
‘Pharmacy Deserts,’ Courtesy of Democrats
Thanks to growing crime, pharmacies are closing stores in low-income neighborhoods.
Thomas Gallatin
The Washington Post recently presented an all-too-typical example of leftist cognitive dissonance when it comes to the root of social problems. In an article titled “Drugstore closures are leaving millions without easy access to a pharmacy,” the Post observes the legitimate and concerning problem of the nation’s largest pharmacies closing hundreds of stores over the last couple of years.
“After decades of expansion,” the Post reports, “the nation’s largest drugstore chains are closing hundreds of stores.” The paper then goes on to list a variety of factors leading to these closings, including “rising competition, a crush of opioid lawsuits,” and the conveniently ambiguous “other forces.”
“According to our estimates, about one in four neighborhoods are pharmacy deserts across the country,” says University of Southern California associate professor Dima Qato in the article. “These closures are disproportionately affecting communities that need pharmacies most.”
We suppose judging which community most needs a pharmacy compared to another is debatable. Demographically speaking, the average age of a given community or neighborhood would likely play a bigger role than would race. But with Leftmedia outlets like the Post, everything is seen through the lens of race.
Indeed, the Post soon injects its leftist critical race theory narrative into the story, explaining that those most impacted by pharmacies leaving just happen to be “Black, Latinx [sic] and low-income” neighborhoods.
The article goes on to list how each of the big three pharmacy chains — Rite Aid, Walgreens, and CVS — have all been reducing their number of stores. Just under a decade ago, these chains accounted for 64,000 stores across the country. Now, they are contracting, citing economic reasons. Rite Aid, which has lost $1 billion leading up to filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy, recently announced it’s planning on closing 154 stores, leaving it with fewer than 2,000. Rite Aid cited lawsuits related to the opioid epidemic as a leading cause.
Walgreens and CVS are shuttering stores as well, with the former planning on closing 150 this year, and the latter well on its way to closing 900 of its stores, which it first announced in 2021.
After citing these numbers, the Post notes that while pharmacies have been moving out of low-income neighborhoods that are majority black and Hispanic, they have been moving into middle- and higher-income neighborhoods that are predominately white. “Public health experts are concerned this redistribution could worsen long-standing racial and economic disparities in health care outcomes, too,” says the Post. “It’s what [Morgan State University public health professor Lorece] Edwards calls the ‘urban health penalty.’”
Why is this shift away from low-income neighborhoods to middle- and upper-class neighborhoods happening? The Post implies without naming it that the reason is their favorite bogeyman, “racism.” But that avoids the elephant in the room.
Businesses primarily exist to make a profit, and these pharmacies operate in low-income neighborhoods to sell their products and services. The obvious reason for closing up shop and leaving has everything to do with not turning a profit.
But why might they not be turning a profit? The Post blames 40-year-high inflation as a significant factor, but high inflation isn’t relegated to just low-income neighborhoods. So, leave it to a British tabloid, The Daily Mail, to pinpoint the inconvenient data point — crime.
Pharmacies are leaving low-income neighborhoods because rampant crime, specifically shoplifting and looting, has become a growing problem over the last few years. Capital One Research found that stores in 2022 lost an estimated $86.6 billion to retail theft. Drugstores have repeatedly been the target of shoplifting mobs — so much so that in places like San Francisco, store shelves are either empty or goods are kept behind locked plexiglass.
Excusing crime such as theft will only lead to more of it. Communities that have been most negatively impacted by crime are lower-income black and Hispanic communities, but culture, not color, is to blame. When a community not only tolerates but celebrates and lionizes criminals as the real victims, then it’s not shocking when criminal activity increases.
Furthermore, when law enforcement is demonized as the villains, it will result in fewer cops and more crime. Then as crime rises, the law-abiding leave if possible.
Bad government is to blame, as a good government would have held criminals responsible and punished them for their crimes in an effort to minimize their negative impact on the wider community. Blaming society, corporations, or big pharmacy companies for pulling out of crime-ridden neighborhoods by suggesting that racism is motivating them is an effort to shame the wise for avoiding the folly suffered by fools.
Victors Get to Write the History
Let’s hope that it’s the Israelis who get write this portion and not the leftist trolls.
Emmy Griffin
History, it is commonly accepted, is written by the victors. The story of World War II isn’t written from a Nazi perspective, the Battle of Waterloo from the Napoleonic sympathizers’ perspective, or the story of Mao Zedong’s revolution from the perspective of the people who lost. It’s also what makes the oft-used phrase “wrong side of history” such an inane one.
Please don’t misunderstand this as a moral relativism or moral equality comparison. Truth, beauty, and moral correctness always win out even in the history that is written. We know this because in the West, we have the receipts of the death toll of Mao’s communist takeover in China and the horrors of Joseph Stalin’s Russia. It’s not the history China and Russia tell, but it is the truth.
What is meant is simply that we are in a moment in history where the significance of the moral struggle is pretty cut and dried. Israel did not go into Gaza and murder Palestinians wholesale; Hamas did that to Israel.
Across the West, the pro-Hamas/anti-Zionist/decolonization proponents seek to place the lens of the storytelling on the great human struggle of power and oppression. They generally are still trying to push a two-state solution on the Israeli people (who have no one to negotiate with since all their neighbors want them dead) and are willing at every opportunity to point to any perceived infraction by the Israeli Defense Forces as examples of why both sides are equally bad.
What are these bad actors, these truth deniers, doing in actuality? They are using people’s ignorance of history to influence the current state of war in the Middle East. How often have we heard “But…” amongst protesters who don’t know much about what has gone on in the Middle East? Do they ever stop to think that this refrain is informed by bad actors? Do they even pause to consider that they are playing right into the hands of people who are just as malevolent as the Nazis?
No. They are following the lead of their activist professors and left-wing socialist ideology that dictate their worldview in lieu of The Truth and reality.
In the United States, university professors are actively calling for the eradication of the state of Israel. What does that mean? It means the annihilation of the Jews, another genocide for a perpetually persecuted nation of people.
Oxford University has esteemed academics calling for an “intifada” until Palestine is “free.” Israelis, you see, are the colonizers and must give back their land to the Palestinians.
(Side note: “Intifada” is in reference to the Palestinian attack on Israel in 1987. The Oxford academics who are calling for this intifada want blood, and they want to empower the terrorists. It seems most of London feels the same, as an estimated 100,000 protesters have gathered in the streets in support of Hamas.)
Israel has historic claims to that land far outdating not only “Palestine” but the religion of Islam. Israel also has a greater oppression claim (if you are judging by the victim hierarchy) than Palestinians could ever deign to claim. So perhaps it is the Palestinians who should give up the claim. However, as stated before, this isn’t really about leftist notions of oppressed versus oppressor. It’s about the ancient hatred of the Jewish people that has once again raised its terrible head even after we supposedly “learned our lessons” because of the Nazis’ genocide.
Climate activist Greta Thunberg also sounded off on the Israel-Hamas war in a social media post that featured several people holding up pro-Palestinian slogans (which, in this case, are simply pro-terrorism). Thunberg herself held up a “Stand with Gaza” sign. She also had a “feelings octopus” in her photo but apparently didn’t know that the blue octopus was a derogatory symbol toward the Jewish people.
The result of her ignorant grandstanding has gotten her severe backlash from Israel’s Education Ministry, which declared, “This stance disqualifies her from being an educational and moral role model, and she is no longer eligible to serve as an inspiration and educator for Israeli students.” The Israelis are not going to let Thunberg be a part of the history they tell, which is wise on so many levels beyond her ignorant activism.
For her part, Thunberg did delete the social media post with the octopus because she was completely unaware of the Nazi-era cartoon that started that ugly anti-Jewish trope. This trope is propagated by varying Arab media sources like this one from Qatar. Thunberg is autistic and claims that she was using the stuffed animal to further underline her feelings on the matter. Sadly, she couldn’t have erred further if this was an innocent mistake. The stuffed octopus is even blue like the anti-Semitic cartoons.
All these examples go back to a complete ignorance of the history of the Jewish nation and history in general. These high school and college-age students might be written off as willing zombies to their leftist schools’ indoctrination, but once one reaches college age, there really is no excuse for not doing your own educating on the history of our world. There are still untampered-with history books in the bowels of the Bodleian library (or any college library, for that matter). There is an element of personal responsibility that is missing with these students, who will happily spew their professor’s tainted Cliffs Notes version of history.
Regardless, their ignorance and blind acceptance of the moral equivalence/cycle of violence narrative displays an utter lack of moral clarity. Is it really morally equivalent for Hamas, who deliberately keeps their people in harm’s way as a human shield, to go in and kill 1,400 Israeli civilians, many of whom were big proponents of the two-state solution? Do we really want these unscrupulous academics and their brainless student minions to write the next chapter in the history of the West? Or would we rather that The Truth and Israel’s story be told and children be educated so that they are not falling into the trap of these millstone teachers?
We have already fought a world war because of this harmful anti-Semitic ideology of Jew eradication. We are doomed to repeat it if we don’t nip it in the bud and stand against the genocide of the Jewish people and their state.
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Campus Anti-Semitism: Billionaires Say Bye-Bye
When Jew hatred found a safe haven at Harvard and Penn, some of the schools’ wealthiest donors said “Shalom.”
Douglas Andrews
We hate to see it, but Harvard and Penn are getting some serious blowback from wealthy donors about their — let’s face it — grotesque response to the barbaric October 7 attack by Hamas terrorists on the people of Israel.
In the wake of the assault during which Hamas took more than 200 hostages and massacred some 1,400 men, women, and children, including at least 33 Americans, more than 30 Harvard student organizations signed a statement holding Israel “entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.”
So much for an “elite” education. Former Harvard President Larry Summers, who was “sickened” by the students’ statement, noted, “In nearly 50 years of Harvard affiliation, I have never been as disillusioned and alienated as I am today.”
Under pressure, Harvard’s administration eventually released a statement from President Claudine Gay: “As the events of recent days continue to reverberate, let there be no doubt that I condemn the terrorist atrocities perpetuated by Hamas. Such inhumanity is abhorrent, whatever one’s individual views of the origins of longstanding conflicts in the region. … While our students have the right to speak for themselves, no student group — not even 30 student groups — speaks for Harvard University or its leadership.”
The statement would’ve actually meant something had Gay not waited to see which way the political wind was blowing before penning it. As The College Fix reports, it was too little, too late for one billionaire Israeli couple, Idan and Batia Ofer, who promptly left the executive board of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. But that wasn’t all. As The College Fix continues, “Another billionaire couple, Leslie and Abigail Wexner … has terminated their organization’s ‘financial and programmatic relationship’ with the university.”
Another Ivy League school, the University of Pennsylvania, felt a similar backlash, with billionaire donor Marc Rowan organizing a donor revolt. “Criticizing the university’s leadership for not taking a firmer stance against antisemitism, Rowan has urged other donors to ‘close their checkbooks’ until two top university leaders resign.” Other wealthy donors followed suit, with TV producer Dick Wolf accusing university leaders of failing to represent the school’s ideals and values, and former businessman and diplomat Jon Huntsman calling Penn “unrecognizable.” Ouch.
In other good news from the halls of academia, Cornell history professor Russell Rickford — the guy who told a crowd at an off-campus rally that he was “exhilarated” by the Hamas attack on Israel — has taken a leave of absence from the university. “I recognize that some of the language I used was reprehensible,” he wrote in a letter of apology.
In still more good news, some leading law firms are saying “Nope” to law students who’ve signed onto the despicable statements of support for Hamas and condemnation of Israel that have been making their way around college campuses. As our Emmy Griffin wrote last week, Cal Berkeley law professor Steven Davidoff Solomon is imploring employers to think twice before hiring a young anti-Semitic lawyer: “Legal employers in the recruiting process should … treat these law students like the adults they are. If a student endorses hate, dehumanization or anti-Semitism, don’t hire him. When students face consequences for their actions, they straighten up. … If a student endorses hatred, it isn’t only your right but your duty not to hire him.”
Now if we could get City University of New York to give Danny Shaw the gate. Shaw, a professor of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and Race, Ethnicity, Class and Gender, called the Israeli people “straight Babylon swine” and “racist arrogant bullies” in a since-deleted X post.
Finally, author and playwright David Mamet, himself a Jew, has a suggestion: “Thanksgiving is coming up. When your kids come home from college, don’t send them back. Stop funding anti-Semitic hatred. … For a Jew to send his or her son or daughter to these elite institutions because they’re going to make connections is the same thing as putting their daughters in a brothel because they’re going to meet powerful men there. … The liberals have never done anything for the Jews. The only person who ever did anything for the Jews was Trump. And he brought peace to the Middle East. And liberal Jews are saying, ‘Oh, I don’t like this Trump.’”
We’ve never understood the longstanding loyalty that Jewish Americans feel toward the Democrat Party, especially given Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s awful abandonment of the Jews of Europe during the Holocaust. Neither, it seems, does Mamet. But he’s clearly had enough: “It’s time to stop putting our heads in the sand,” he said, “and it’s time to stop letting people piss on our backs and tell us it’s raining.”
Democrats’ Noncitizen Voting Scam
Don’t be fooled. Dems see illegal immigrant newcomers as their guarantee of a permanent voting majority in local elections.
Betsy McCaughey
If you think offering migrants luxury hotel rooms, free meals, laundry service, transportation, health care and immigration lawyers is excessive, just wait until they can vote. Democrats are pushing to allow noncitizens to vote in local elections in New York City, Boston and other municipalities, as well as statewide in Connecticut.
The number of migrants pouring across the southern border hit a record high, according to data released Saturday. Illegal immigrant crossings soared 21% over the previous month. On a yearly basis, the figure hit 2.48 million.
Democrats may feign shock and distress. Don’t be fooled. Dems see these newcomers as their guarantee of a permanent voting majority in local elections. Not years from now, after the newcomers become citizens. Right now.
New York Mayor Eric Adams’ rhetoric is typical. He warns that the overwhelming number of migrants arriving — currently 16,000 to 17,000 a month — “will destroy New York City,” but he’s also leading the legal effort to turn migrants into voters.
Adams and other New York Democrats pushed President Joe Biden to expedite work authorizations for them. They said it’s about making migrants self-sufficient. Maybe, but Dems have another powerful motive.
If you read the fine print of New York City’s “Our City, Our Vote” law, enacted in December 2021, it says that anyone with a work authorization who has been in the city for a mere 30 days can vote, even if they entered the country illegally.
Biden’s recent action fast-tracking work authorizations for Venezuelan border crossers, who make up about 41% of recent arrivals in New York City, will make tens of thousands of them eligible to vote under New York City’s new law, as soon as they obtain their working papers.
That is, if New York City’s voting law is allowed to go into effect. A big “if.” The law is tied up in court.
A group of Republicans led by Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella sued, arguing the state constitution grants the right to vote to “every citizen.” A Staten Island judge bought that argument and struck down the law, but Adams’ law department is appealing that ruling in a higher court, arguing that the state constitution does not specifically prohibit noncitizens from voting.
Adams has a shot at winning. Vermont’s top court ruled in favor of allowing noncitizens to vote in municipal elections, even though the Vermont constitution restricts voting in state elections to U.S. citizens.
California and Maryland also already permit municipalities to enfranchise noncitizens.
The Boston City Council is debating allowing newcomers to vote, including migrants who recently came across the border illegally and have temporary protected status.
In Washington, D.C., Democrats rammed through a local law in November 2022 allowing noncitizens, even foreign embassy employees, to vote, as long as they’ve resided in the city for 30 days.
In Connecticut, Democrats want to amend the state’s constitution to allow noncitizens to vote in state and local elections. Amending the state’s charter is a multiyear complicated process, and it’s facing stiff opposition from the Republican minority in the legislature. House Minority Leader Rep. Vincent Candelora calls noncitizen voting “outrageous.”
For New York City, “suicidal” is more accurate.
Adding some 800,000 noncitizens to the 5 million registered voters in the city will have an impact, even if newcomers don’t always vote as a block.
Nora Moran of the United Neighborhood Houses, a New York nonprofit, predicts noncitizen voting will make political leaders “more responsive” to the needs of newcomers and their neighborhoods.
To the extent “more responsive” means spending more, that will be a disaster.
City spending on migrants already exceeds the budgets of the Fire, Sanitation and Parks Departments combined. “We are past our breaking point,” Adams cautioned two months ago, adding that New Yorkers will be facing cuts in every type of city service to foot the bill.
Letting noncitizens vote will dilute the political power of all other New Yorkers, who are the real victims of Biden’s open borders.
Tell Adams to withdraw his legal appeal and stop pushing for noncitizen voting.
Voting is a privilege reserved for citizens. Once immigrants follow the law, become naturalized and swear loyalty to this nation and its Constitution, they should be entitled to vote. Not before.
COPYRIGHT 2023 CREATORS.COM
VIDEOS
- The Reverse George Floyd — A man chokes a police officer during a traffic stop and is subsequently shot dead, and activists claim racism.
- Chicago City Residents Say No More Migrants — A city official was swarmed by protestors upset over plans to build a tent facility for illegal aliens in their neighborhood.
- How to Be a Good Man in a Time of Evil — It is more important than ever to remember what makes a man good, and aspire to those ideals.
- Oregon Declares Tests Are Racist — High schoolers in Oregon won’t need to demonstrate basic competency in reading, writing, or math in order to graduate for at least five more years because, according to education officials, such requirements are unnecessary and disproportionately harm students of color.
- Last Monday in Santa Monica — How far have the pathologies of the inner cities spread into the suburbs? Well, to judge from Bill Whittle’s recent experience in Santa Monica, the answer seems to be enough so that rampant lawlessness is absolutely routine.
- KJP: ‘We Haven’t Seen Any Credible Threats’ — The White House press secretary dismisses question concerning rise in anti-Semitism and then suggests the problem is rising “Islamophobia.”
BEST OF RIGHT OPINION
- BYRON YORKTrump’s Lead and GOP Decision-Making
- BEN SHAPIROThe Middle
- TIM GRAHAMNo One Needs Foreign Policy Run by Hollywood
- STAR PARKERWe Must Restore ‘Veritas’ at Our Universities
- RICH LOWRYA Deficit of Good Sense
For more of today’s columns, visit Right Opinion.
SHORT CUTS
Moral Equivocation
“It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation. They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing.” —UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres
“Palestinians have also lived in disputed territories for generations [and] many of them were not only displaced when Israel was formed but continue to be forcibly displaced by a settler movement.” —Barack Obama
“Palestinian leaders who’ve been willing to make concessions for a two-state solution have too often had little to show for their efforts.” —Barack Obama
The BIG Lie
“We vaccinated a nation … and we did it with a strategy based on science, not on politics.” —Joe Biden
Dezinformatsiya
“As the US economy continues to improve, President Joe Biden continues to not get credit for it.” —Washington Post propagandist Matthew Yglesias
Dumb & Dumber
“From all parts of the political spectrum, one of the biggest issues that we have when it comes to immigration is the fact that we have an undocumented population. Now, you can fix that by trying to build a wall, or you can fix that by trying to document people and create a path to citizenship.” —Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)
“In this upcoming election … democracy has a chance to live forever. But it also has a chance to die.” —Congressman Eric Swalwell (D-CA)
Re: “The Establishment”
“So, what makes someone The Establishment? Insufficient posturing. That’s it. That’s the whole thing. Posturing. See, the only way to avoid being labeled ‘Establishment’ these days is to get nothing done, but to yell really, really loudly, particularly about The Establishment. To be anti-Establishment is to complain about losing elections while doing nothing to win them. It’s to shout, ‘The game is rigged!’ — while refusing to even engage in the game at all. Being anti-Establishment is apparently about whining.” —Ben Shapiro
Observations
“Hamas never planned to stage a preemptive war against the Israeli military. Its only agenda was to send killers to unprotected villages to murder the unarmed as they slept — in the manner of Nazi Einsatzgruppen and other mobile death squads on the Eastern Front. Almost immediately they counted on using hostages, human shields, and the media to avoid any accounting from the IDF.” —Victor Davis Hanson
“The IDF is the only military in the world told to be ‘proportionate’ in its use of retaliatory force — not the U.S. after 9/11, and not Ukraine after February 24, 2022. No Arab army or terrorist cadre has ever waged a war under the rules of ‘proportionality.’” —Victor Davis Hanson
“Essentially Hamas is an enormous mafia-like, shakedown and hostage-taking operation that threatens the general peace, the moderate Arab nations, the Western democracies, and Israel with terrorist operations and kidnapping unless sufficiently bribed to behave. … Hamas is primarily neither a government nor even an armed force designed to fight other soldiers, but rather some eerie updated SS or Mexican-like cartel.” —Victor Davis Hanson
“Hamas’s air campaign is specifically designed to kill civilians — Israel’s to avoid them. In Israel rockets are used to shield civilians; in Gaza civilians are used to shield rockets.” —Victor Davis Hanson
“Ordinary voters might not think much about foreign policy, but they can see the difference between the Trump and Biden records, and they feel it, too. The Taliban are back in power in Afghanistan, Russia is in Ukraine, and the Holy Land bleeds. In matters of war, Biden makes Jimmy Carter look like Dwight Eisenhower. And Trump looks Reaganesque in comparison with Biden’s worse-than-Carter record.” —Daniel McCarthy
“The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once wrote that ‘In the end, we will not remember the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.’ So many of these elite academic institutions and organizations remained silent in the face of the horrific attacks on innocent Israelis. Sometimes you have to pick a side, and refusing to do so renders you a moral cipher.” —Christine Flowers
And Last…
“The most important geopolitical power today is economic and technological superiority. You don’t achieve and retain that status by becoming the world’s premier debtor nation.” —Stephen Moore
TODAY’S MEME
For more of today’s memes, visit the Memesters Union.
TODAY’S CARTOON
For more of today’s cartoons, visit the Cartoons archive.
“From The Patriot Post (patriotpost.us)”.
WATCH: Dan Bongino Sounds Alarm on ‘Most Predictable Financial Apocalypse in Human History’ | Newsbusters
Syndicated radio host Dan Bongino sounded the alarm on the looming disaster posed by America’s precarious economic situation.
Bongino warned Americans of the federal government’s massive budget gap of $1.7 trillion during the Oct. 23 edition of The Dan Bongino Show. saying it would lead to “the most predictable financial apocalypse in human history.” Bongino pointed out that this spending would have serious ramifications in the near future: “[T]he U.S. budget gap this year, soared to an astonishing 1.7 trillion dollars, which don’t worry folks, is only the largest outside the covid-era ever.” He also mocked leftists and others who believe President Biden cut the budget deficit, telling them “the verdict is in, I’m sorry, you’re a moron.”
Bongino cited Heritage economist E.J. Antoni on the growing interest the United States will have to pay on the debt each year. Bongino added, “Here’s how bad the situation is. ‘Interest payments on the federal debt have now hit $879 billion last fiscal year, eclipsing all military spending by 103 billion dollars.’” Antoni made the harrowing point in a post on X that “if the treasury keeps issuing new debt ($500 billion this month alone) and rolling over old debt at higher rates, annual interest will exceed $2 trillion by 2030.”
Bongino responded to that figure by noting the steep slope of increasing federal spending, noting that the federal budget was around $2 trillion in the not-too-distant past. In fact, the federal budget remained under $3 trillion until former President Barack Obama’s first term.
Bongino pointed out the steep slope of increasing interest payments. He suggested that this expense would ultimately threaten programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, in addition to government departments like the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) or Veterans Affairs (VA). “Nothing to worry about folks, just the most predictable financial apocalypse in human history,” Bongino concluded.
Source: WATCH: Dan Bongino Sounds Alarm on ‘Most Predictable Financial Apocalypse in Human History’
VIDEO: Hamas Documented Atrocities – FOOTAGE RELEASED by Israel of Barbaric Attack on Innocent Civilians …WARNING ON CONTENT | The Gateway Pundit
MASSIVE RAW FOOTAGE Massacre Across Israel from the Eyes of Hamas
Israeli forces released RAW FOOTAGE of the Massacre Across Israel by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023.
Over 1,400 Jews were slaughtered by Hamas that day including at least 300 young adults who were attending the Nova concert near the border.
Hamas took over 200 hostages with them back to Gaza. Four women have been released.
We are publishing this footage for our readers to show the complete barbarism by Hamas on innocent civilians.
We pray for the safe return of the remaining hostages.
** This comes after Israel released 40 minutes of recorded atrocities to reporters in Tel Aviv on Monday.
WARNING ON VIOLENT CONTENT
The post VIDEO: Hamas Documented Atrocities – FOOTAGE RELEASED by Israel of Barbaric Attack on Innocent Civilians …WARNING ON CONTENT appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
Astonishing number of Americans have ‘no confidence at all’ in media | WND
David Muir of ABC’s ‘World News Tonight’ tapes a TV interview with Joe Biden on Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2021, in the Cross Hall of the White House. (Official White House photo by Adam Schultz)
Americans would have learned, by following the dictates of the legacy media in America:
_Those massive riots after the death of George Floyd, which left behind hundreds of millions of dollars in destruction, were simply “unrest.”
_And the still-surging evidence of potential corruption in the Biden family, involving payments from foreign interests, bribes and threats over nonpayment, is nothing but “Russian disinformation.”
_And the January 6, 2021, protest-turned-riot in Washington actually was a deliberate attempt to overthrow the government, complete with a plot to take control of the military and much, much more, as would be involved in an “insurrection.”
Further, they would learn that all America is racist and the solution to that racism is more racism.
Now a new polling from Gallup reveals nearly four in 10 Americans has “no confidence at all” in the media.
That’s up from 27% in 2016.
Also revealed was the fact that the trust among Democrats, with whom many media openly align and support, is down 12 points from a year ago.
The polling organization said, “The 32% of Americans who say they trust the mass media ‘a great deal’ or ‘a fair amount’ to report the news in a full, fair and accurate way ties Gallup’s lowest historical reading, previously recorded in 2016.”
“Another 29% of U.S. adults have ‘not very much’ trust, while a record-high 39% register ‘none at all.’ This nearly four in 10 Americans who completely lack confidence in the media is the highest on record by one percentage point. It is 12 points higher than the 2016 reading, which came amid sharp criticism of the media from then-presidential candidate Donald Trump – making the current assessment of the media the grimmest in Gallup’s history,” Gallup reported.
“In 2016, U.S. adults were most likely to say they had ‘not very much’ trust.”
The organization reported its polling was done Sept. 1-23, and was the second year in a row that “the share of Americans who have no confidence at all in the media has surpassed the percentage with a great deal or fair amount of trust.”
Gallup said, “Democrats’ confidence in the mass media has consistently outpaced Republicans’, but the latest gap of 47 points is the narrowest since 2016. Democrats’ trust in the media has fallen 12 points over the past year, to 58%, and compares with 11% among Republicans and 29% among independents.”
A report at The Washington Stand quoted JP Duffy, an editor at TWS who also serves as vice president of Communications at Family Research Council:
“Gallup’s survey timeline helps explain what happened. It’s been 18 years since this Gallup survey reported half or more of Americans have held a ‘great deal or fair amount’ of trust and confidence in the media,” he said. “In the Obama era, trust in the media began a precipitous drop and never recovered. President Obama sowed much of this division when he imposed policies that suppressed religious liberty as never before and used his bully pulpit to criticize those who ‘cling to guns or religion.’ The media cheered him on and even more so when he later endorsed redefining marriage.”
And Melissa Mackenzie, publisher of The American Spectator, told The Stand, “Trust in the media is at an all-time low because the media have become purveyors of dis- and misinformation. … They’ve repeatedly fomented emotional responses in the public by spreading lies about nearly every topic — health care with COVID, race relations, Biden’s foreign influence problems, and on and on. No one trusts the media because they’re liars. They deserve no trust and deserve the contempt of the American people.”
Gallup noted that a poll just a few months back revealed “newspapers and television news were among the least-trusted institutions in the U.S. Only 18% of Americans trusted newspapers, down from 21% in 2021, and only 14% trusted television news, down from 16% in 2021.”
Further, another Gallup study found “that 89% of Americans say they believe mainstream news to be politically biased, compared to only 9% who said they don’t see ‘too much’ political bias and only 2% who said they see no political bias ‘at all.'”
Source: Astonishing number of Americans have ‘no confidence at all’ in media
White House Would Rather Discuss Islamophobia Than Antisemitism | The Daily Signal.
There are times when the Biden administration expresses categorical, unequivocal support for Israel’s war of survival against the Iran-backed terrorist group Hamas. “Enough is enough should have been the case with Hamas two weeks ago,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday. “It would be good to hear the entire world speaking clearly and with one voice about the actions that Hamas took.”
But then there are times when the Biden administration demonstrates all the moral assurance of a blind man on a tightrope.
An exchange of this latter sort occurred on Monday, when White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded to a reporter’s question about President Joe Biden’s “level of concern right now about the potential rise of antisemitism in light of everything that’s going on in Israel.”
“Look, we have not seen any credible threats,” replied Jean-Pierre. “I know there’s been always [sic] questions about credible threats. And so, just want to make sure that that’s out there.”
Having disposed of antisemitism in 27 words, Jean-Pierre pivoted: “But, look, Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim have endured a disproportionate number of hate-fueled attacks. And certainly President Biden understands that many of our Muslim, Arab Americans, and Palestinian American loved ones and neighbors are worried about the hate being directed at their communities. And that is something you heard the president speak to in his address just last Thursday.”
Jean-Pierre spent three more paragraphs morally equating antisemitism and Islamophobia, noting that Biden has directed the Department of Homeland Security “to prioritize prevention and disruption of any emerging threats that could harm the Jewish, the Muslim, Arab Americans or any other communities.” She added that Biden “ran on … bringing people together … protecting the soul of the nation,” which means “we’re going to continue to denounce any sort of hate.”
Sadly, there have been vile acts provoked by anti-Muslim motives as a result of the Hamas attack. On Oct. 14, an Illinois landlord stabbed two Palestinian American tenants, a 6-year-old boy (26 times) and his mother (12 times). The boy died.
But anti-Muslim violence does not negate or mitigate anti-Jewish violence—which is actually a larger problem. Citing FBI data from 2021, National Review’s Philip Klein granted that Muslims were victims of a “disproportionate number” of “anti-religious hate crimes,” being the targets of about 10% of anti-religious crimes, although Muslims comprise only 1% of the population. But he noted that Jews (2% of the population) are the victims of 51% of anti-religious crimes.
Nor is anti-Muslim violence equivalent to the rising threat of antisemitism. Over the past two weeks, people in America have displayed swastikas, glorified terrorists who killed Jews, argued that Israel has no right to exist, tore down posters of Israeli kidnapping victims, beaten and taunted Jews, and fantasized about killing Jews.
Pro-Hamas demonstrators have grown increasingly aggressive, even entering congressional office buildings and clashing with police. Even before Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack, the Biden administration in May saw a need for a multidepartment “National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism.” Yet Jean-Pierre overlooked all of this to conclude, “We have not seen any credible threats of antisemitism.”
Jean-Pierre’s statement at the press briefing was not an outlier. Klein identified the same trend in the president’s social media posts. “Notice how Biden’s post about Islamophobia does not mention antisemitism, but the one on antisemitism mentions Islamophobia,” said Klein, with images of two tweets side-by-side.
Yet that does not mean Jean-Pierre’s response was good. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., criticized it as “a weak answer.” He said, “The simple answer is ‘yes,’ you are concerned about the rise of antisemitism.” Jean-Pierre clarified later Monday on social media, “To be clear: the President and our team are very concerned about a rise in antisemitism, especially after the horrific Hamas terrorist attack in Israel.” (By Tuesday, she claimed she had “misheard” the question.)
If so, why didn’t she say so in the first place?
One possible reason is that the term “Islamophobia” functions as a Trojan horse to import an array of leftist dogma. According to Runnymede Trust, a British race-equality think tank that claims to have coined the term in 1997, the term “doesn’t mean racial hatred,” wrote Brendan O’Neill, editor of the independent British publication Spiked in 2018. He distinguished “Islamophobia” as a concept from anti-Muslim hatred, which he acknowledged does exist. O’Neill explained:
Runnymede’s definition of Islamophobia, which has been adopted by the Metropolitan Police, includes any suggestion that Islam is “inferior to the West,” and even the belief that Islam is sexist. If you think Islam is “unresponsive to change,” you are Islamophobic. And, get this, if you “reject out of hand” “criticisms of the West made by Islam,” you’re an Islamophobe. So, even to ridicule Islam’s view of the West is apparently to be infected with the “cancer” of this so-called racism.
According to this definition, “Islamophobia” accusations are a useful vehicle for Westerners to communicate their self-loathing. The definition is also internally inconsistent. It dictates that Westerners must not think Islam is “unresponsive to change,” but they must also accept Islamic criticisms of Western culture, even when Muslims criticize the very changes of which the same Westerners are most proud—the LGBT agenda comes to mind.
To be clear, Western civilization is far from perfect, and it is not “superior” to others for any racial reasons. Nevertheless, through centuries of interacting with Christianity, Western civilization has been infused with a recognition of biblical principles, such as the inherent dignity of each human life, the equal value of women, and the importance of caring for the poor.
These principles are widely acknowledged, even among non-Christians, and among those who don’t connect these principles with Christianity. The practical applications of these principles help to make countries like the United States of America much better places to live than places like Afghanistan or Somalia. Jesus described the kingdom of heaven as “leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened” (Matthew 13:33).
Some Westerners wish to distance themselves from Western civilization’s biblical legacy and increasingly embrace unbiblical ideas and policies. Exterminating “Islamophobia” provides perfect camouflage for their agenda. If the Biden administration wishes to distance itself from accusations such as these, they would have a difficult time proving that case based on their policy record.
Another possible reason why the Biden administration may want to equate antisemitism with Islamophobia is that discussing antisemitism raises uncomfortable questions concerning members of its own left-wing coalition. According to a Harvard/Harris poll conducted this month, 49% of Americans aged 18 to 24—a demographic the Democratic Party actively courts—explicitly supports Hamas; not Palestinians generally, but the terrorist group in particular in its war against Israel.
Even members of Congress issued anti-Israel statements in the wake of the terrorist attack against Israel and have falsely described the country as an “apartheid” state for years.
In other words, the Biden administration is reluctant to forcefully condemn antisemitism (and antisemitism alone) because a substantial faction of its own coalition is antisemitic. Decoupling antisemitism from Islamophobia—an entirely different issue—takes moral courage.
If Biden really cares about “the soul of America,” now would be a good time to show it.
Originally published at WashingtonStand.com
The Daily Signal publishes a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Heritage Foundation.
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The post White House Would Rather Discuss Islamophobia Than Antisemitism appeared first on The Daily Signal.
Is the US “on the brink of global war”? | Denison Forum.
The United States is preparing evacuation plans for up to six hundred thousand Americans in Israel in the event of a full-scale ground war in the region. In addition, there are as many as six hundred Americans still trapped in Gaza.
Meanwhile, we are seeing reports today that two dozen American military personnel were wounded last week in a series of drone attacks on American bases in Syria and Iraq. US officials have learned that Iranian-backed militia groups are planning to ramp up attacks against US forces in the Middle East as Iran seeks to capitalize on regional backlash to America’s support for Israel. There are “red lights flashing everywhere,” one official said. Another added, “We see a prospect for much more significant escalation against US forces and personnel in the near term.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the United Nations Security Council yesterday, “If Iran or its proxies attack US personnel anywhere, make no mistake. We will defend our people, we will defend our security—swiftly and decisively.” As our military heightens surveillance operations in the region, it is also sending an aircraft carrier, air defense systems, and additional F-16 fighter jets to defend American troops.
Where is this leading?
“The world is mustering for war”
Robert Clark is a British military veteran with postgraduate degrees in defense studies and Arabic. He served in operational tours in the Middle East and Afghanistan and is currently director of defense and security at the think tank Civitas. His sobering recent article for the Telegraph is titled “The US stands on the brink of global war with the Middle East and Asia.”
He writes: “The world is mustering for war. Conflict is already raging in Europe, with Russian and Ukrainian forces locked in offensive and counteroffensive. The aftermath of the Hamas terror attack upon Israel could now see the Middle East ignited.”
Clark points to drone and missile attacks on American forces by Iran’s proxies in Iraq and Syria. He adds that three cruise missiles launched by Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists in Yemen were potentially targeting Israel before they were shot down by a US warship. If successful, such an attack could have led to Israeli retaliation against Iran, potentially triggering a direct war—and US involvement.
Meanwhile, Clark writes, “Washington is engaged in frantically regearing its own military to face the threat posed by an increasingly belligerent Chinese communist regime, intent on reunification with Taiwan by force if necessary.” (Read more in “Why does China want to invade Taiwan?“) Between the war in Europe and our increasing involvement in the Middle East, “Beijing may see this as a once-in-a-generation opportunity.”
And Clark notes that Iran could “decide to further provoke the US in its attempts to assert regional dominance, attempting to drive the Americans to disengage and leave Israel to stand on its own.” In short, he warns, “Within months, the US could be directly involved in two devastating wars on two continents [while] bankrolling a third in Ukraine.”
The ultimate answer to all human conflict
One way I am praying for God to redeem the escalating crises of our day is by using them to expose our need for help beyond human capacity.
Our astounding technological advances in recent years have made our world not safer but more dangerous. Our growing secularism has directed our innate passion for transcendent causes into partisan tribalism. Our rejection of objective truth has rendered many Americans unable to recognize and condemn even gross immorality such as the atrocities committed by Hamas’s terrorists against innocent Israelis.
These facts remind us that the ultimate answer to all human conflict lies not in human agency but in divine transformation.
This is why we each need Jesus: “In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them” (2 Corinthians 5:19a). And it is why believers need to share the gospel: “and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation” (v. 19b). With this result: “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, to be reconciled to God” (v. 20).
Our message is clear and simple: “For our sake [God] made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (v. 21).
This is why Paul said of his fellow Jews, “My heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved” (Romans 10:1). And it is why apostolic Christians paid such a high price to reach the larger Roman world so that “the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe” (Acts 15:7) They were willing to give their lives so the world could say, “Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).
“The whole offer which Christianity makes”
In Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis described our need for personal intimacy with God: “There is no other way to the happiness for which we were made.” He explained: “If you want to get warm, you must stand near the fire; if you want to be wet you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them.”
He added: “They are not a sort of prize which God could, if he chose, just hand out to anyone.” Rather, “They are a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very center of reality. If you are close to it, the spray will wet you; if you are not, you will remain dry.”
Then Lewis asked: “Once a man is united to God, how could he not live forever? Once a man is separated from God, what can he do but wither and die?”
And he noted, “The whole offer which Christianity makes is this: that we can, if we let God have his way, come to share in the life of Christ. . . . Every Christian is to become a little Christ. The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else.”
Will you “let God have his way” with your life?
Will you help those you know “share in the life of Christ” today?
NOTE: This is the last note from me about our latest book release, Bold Faith: First-Century Lessons for Twenty-First-Century Christians. It’s a cultural commentary through the book of Acts, looking at how the Holy Spirit moved through the first-century church as they faced a culture staunchly set against them (which may sound familiar). I encourage you to request your copy of Bold Faith today.
The post Is the US “on the brink of global war”? appeared first on Denison Forum.
Palestinian Arabs Overwhelmingly Support Hamas And Its Genocidal Aspirations – Conservative Review
Throngs of Gazan civilians cheered the ghoulish site of Hamas parading the bloodied bodies of dead Jews through the streets.
Lankford: We’re ignoring all the lessons we learned from 9/11
On Wednesday’s “Wake Up America,” Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford says that by allowing people to freely cross the border, the Biden administration is leaving us open to attacks from within. Watch NEWSMAX, an independent news network with a conservative perspective, available in 100M+ U.S. homes.
Source: Lankford: We’re ignoring all the lessons we learned from 9/11
Flashback: Julian Assange Joins Ron Paul Institute Conference 2017
The Liberty Report will be back LIVE on Thursday. Please enjoy this flashback of Julian Assange joining Ron Paul Institute Conference 2017.
Treasury just dropped a financial bomb, but Bidenomics means the worst is yet to come | Fox Business
With all the chaos and heartbreaking loss of life around the world today, few noticed the Treasury Department drop a financial bomb: the deficit for fiscal year 2023 was $1.7 trillion, growing 23 percent in a single year as the Treasury used $879 billion just to service the federal debt. But Bidenomics means the worst is yet to come, and multi-trillion-dollar deficits are the new normal.
The impetus for these massive deficits is federal government spending, which tipped the scales at $6.1 trillion last year. Government receipts, meanwhile, were $4.4 trillion, woefully short of the $5 trillion previously forecasted. A slowing economy and counterproductive tax increases were key drivers behind the $457 billion drop in receipts from the prior fiscal year.
Yet, even these reduced revenues would’ve resulted in a balanced budget if President Joe Biden had simply allowed spending to return to its pre-pandemic level. Instead, Treasury outlays are up 38 percent today compared to pre-pandemic times.
That’s why it’s so deceptive for the Treasury to have recently announced that the deficit is $1 trillion lower than when Biden took office. Elevated spending levels in 2020 should’ve been one-time emergency measures, but the Biden administration institutionalized $6-trillion budgets by simply replacing pandemic-era outlays with the Biden agenda.
US BUDGET GAP SOARS TO $1.7 TRILLION, LARGEST OUTSIDE COVID ERA
Even worse, the $1.7-trillion deficit in the last fiscal year was really a $2-trillion deficit. It was reduced only in a technical sense by $300 billion when the Supreme Court blocked Mr. Biden’s student loan handout scheme. The Treasury has merely reallocated that money to be spent in fiscal year 2024 because the Biden administration is hellbent on achieving its unconstitutional student loan bailout.
In other words, the unfunded spending has merely been moved from one ledger column to another. Of that $300 billion, tens of billions have already been allocated to selective student loan bailouts, while the rest will fund a broader bailout beginning next summer, known as the SAVE repayment plan, an end-run around the Supreme Court’s ruling against the Biden administration.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ON FOX BUSINESS
But just looking at the spending that’s officially included in the last fiscal year is terrifying. It has resulted in a truly unprecedented level of federal debt: now more than $33.5 trillion. The breakneck pace of borrowing is increasing almost daily, with the Treasury borrowing $500 billion just in the first three weeks of the current fiscal year, which began October 1.
As the federal debt and interest rates rise, the cost of servicing the debt has completely exploded, eclipsing all but two line items of the Treasury’s report: the Social Security Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services. Interest payments even surpassed all military spending in the bloated Department of Defense budget by $103 billion.
Despite this being an obviously unsustainable path, the Biden administration is doubling down, promising more government spending and multi-trillion-dollar deficits forever. Financial markets are beginning to wake up to the fact that the Treasury eventually won’t be able to pay its debts—and that day may arrive soon.
Consequently, investors are demanding higher yields when lending money to the Treasury, which is increasing the cost to service the debt. As massive deficits continue growing the debt, gross interest outlays are exploding as new debt is issued at higher interest rates.
The icing on the cake is that the Treasury doesn’t actually pay off debt when it matures. It simply issues new debt to pay off the old, along with the interest. Trillions of dollars in existing debt at low interest rates will rollover at rates two to three times as high within the next year.
This all combines into a debt death spiral that will cost the Treasury—and therefore the taxpayer—over $1 trillion just in interest during the current fiscal year, which won’t reduce the debt by a penny.
Nevertheless, the Treasury recently praised what should’ve been described as a horrific annual report as proof that Bidenomics is working, “building the economy from the middle out and bottom up.” Have they not noticed that the middle has imploded, and the bottom has fallen out?
Two-thirds of Americans disapprove of the economy today. Since Mr. Biden took office, the typical American family has effectively lost $7,300 in annual income. The monthly mortgage payment on a median price home has more than doubled. It will cost 25 percent more to heat your home this winter. Rents are at record highs. Americans are drowning in over $1 trillion of credit card debt.
But while the family budget deteriorates to finance a burgeoning federal budget, the Treasury fiddles as the nation’s finances burn around it. We’re running out of time.
E.J. Antoni is a public finance economist at the Heritage Foundation and a senior fellow at the Committee to Unleash Prosperity.
Source: Treasury just dropped a financial bomb, but Bidenomics means the worst is yet to come
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