There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true. —Soren Kierkegaard. "…truth is true even if nobody believes it, and falsehood is false even if everybody believes it. That is why truth does not yield to opinion, fashion, numbers, office, or sincerity–it is simply true and that is the end of it" – Os Guinness, Time for Truth, pg.39. “He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.” – Blaise Pascal. "There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily" – George Washington letter to Edmund Randolph — 1795. We live in a “post-truth” world. According to the dictionary, “post-truth” means, “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Simply put, we now live in a culture that seems to value experience and emotion more than truth. Truth will never go away no matter how hard one might wish. Going beyond the MSM idealogical opinion/bias and their low information tabloid reality show news with a distractional superficial focus on entertainment, sensationalism, emotionalism and activist reporting – this blogs goal is to, in some small way, put a plug in the broken dam of truth and save as many as possible from the consequences—temporal and eternal. "The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." – George Orwell “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ― Soren Kierkegaard
“I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.” (2 Timothy 4:6)
When you read the Pastoral Epistles carefully, you will find that Paul mentions cities that are not mentioned in Acts. The inference is that after he was released from prison in Rome, herevisitedEphesus and also visited a few other places. At the end of that time, he was imprisoned once again, and he then wrote his final letters.
Second Timothy is believed to be the last of them—which is surely no surprise when you read 2 Timothy 4. In this chapter, you will notice a significant shift in tone compared to Paul’s words in Philippians 1. In writing to the Philippians, he was convinced that he would be released from prison, but he wasn’t sure if he wanted to live longer or die. He was content, regardless of the outcome, and he made the remarkable declaration that “for me to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21). But now, in 2 Timothy 4, Paul writes as a prisoner who seems sure that he soon will die.
As Christians, once we’ve settled the issue of death, there is really nothing else for us to worry about. Death is the ultimate enemy and “the last enemy to be destroyed” (1 Cor. 15:26). Once we reach the point where we actually believe that “to die is gain,” then we’re able to say, “What can man do to me?” (Heb. 13:6).
It’s one thing to affirm Philippians 1:21, making it a nice little verse that we put on a dashboard or on a shaving mirror; it’s quite another to face our demise and rest in it. In 2 Timothy 4, Paul has moved from the theoretical to the actual. He is “already being poured out as a drink offering,” and he recognizes that the time of his death is near. He has lived his life for Christ, and now he says,I’m looking forward to a crown of righteousness, which is not exclusively mine but will actually be enjoyed by all who long for Christ to appear.
Christ has conquered death, and He’s made a way for you to conquer it as well. That’s surely good news in a world that is afraid of death and has no other eternal hope. Like Paul, you’ll one day realize and say, “the time of my departure has come.” Will you, too, embrace it?
Description:What is the kingdom of God? Is it mainly about social issues, or is it something supernatural? In this message, R.C. Sproul warns against unbiblical views of God’s kingdom.
I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass; and forgettest the Lord thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor?Isaiah 51:12-13
Let the text itself be taken as the portion for today. There is no need to enlarge upon it. Trembling one, read it, believe it, feed on it, and plead it before the Lord. He whom you fear is only a man after all; while He who promises to comfort you is God, your Maker, and the creator of heaven and earth. Infinite comfort more than covers a very limited danger.
“Where is the fury of the oppressor?” It is in the Lord’s hand. It is only the fury of a dying creature; fury which will end as soon as the breath is gone from the nostril. Why, then, should we stand in awe of one who is as frail as ourselves? Let us not dishonor our God by making a god of puny man. We can make an idol of a man by rendering to him excessive fear as well as by paying him inordinate love. Let us treat men as men, and God as God; and then we shall go calmly on in the path of duty, fearing the Lord and fearing nobody else.
“In freedom Christ has made us free and completely liberated us; stand fast then, and do not be hampered and held ensnared and submit again to a yoke of slavery”. Galatians 5:2 (Amplified Bible)
Frederick Douglass, leader of the abolitionist movement, discusses at great length the difference between the mindsets of slavery and freedom. In one book,* Douglass reveals how his demeanor changed when he began thinking—or visualized—what it would be like to be free. Conversely, he began to understand what it was like when he stopped dreaming about freedom. Adam Abraham writes that Douglass “gained spiritual sustenance and physical strength only when he had an active connection with his soul’s longings.”
We have a vivid biblical picture of this same kind of thinking in the story of the Israelites after they left Egypt. They were finally within stepping-into distance of the land promised by God, but when they heard the discouraging “majority report” of realities within that Promised Land, they balked in fear. They returned to slave thinking. David Stubbs writes, “Israel rejects God not because they want to be more, but rather because they are willing to settle for less.”
We who walk with Christ often experience this tendency toward slave thinking. We grow discouraged in the tough battle of addictions or grief or abuse or self-doubt. We quake with discouragement because it is easier to believe that nothing can ever change than it is to believe that “Christ has made us free.” Instead of “standing fast,” we let our weak legs wander off the path of discipleship. We are “hampered” by voices that shout true freedom is an impossibility. We succumb to the false teaching that freedom is only for the favored few.
God has built soul longings into us. The psalmist likens his own yearnings after God to a thirsty deer panting after water. When Frederick Douglass envisioned freedom and began to live like a freed man, he set out on the road to change society. What even greater miracles can God do when His children stand fast, are not hampered or ensnared and truly live as free people?
*Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: an American Slave,
“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” Galatians 5:1
A slave, released from years of bondage, wouldn’t need to be informed that it was for his freedom that he’d been freed. He’d never go back to that bondage. Amazingly, God must remind us that we have been set free to be free, and warns that if we go back, Christ will be of no value to us at all (Galatians 5:2).
There’s always a cost in being set free. Those forgetting this soon fail to appreciate what they have been given. When God left His throne, He came to set you free. Seeing you in prison, powerless, and in bondage to your sins, He left heaven to purchase your release with His own blood.
Be very careful to remember the cost of your freedom or you may drift back into slavery by subtly seeking approval from God for your good works, forgetting that it is His work alone on the cross that justifies you. Or slip into longing for the old world and its lusts, forgetting the yoke of bondage you were in. 2 Peter 3:17 states,
“Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position.”
Remember when you first believed and how precious He was to you at the beginning? Never forget it was for freedom that He set you free.
Lord keep me from my old way of thinking and take away my desires for worthless things. Remind me often that you alone by the death on the cross have removed my sins and given me a righteousness that was not my own. Amen.
Memorize this: “for apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5), which shows our total dependence on the grace of God.
IDF continues ground operations, over 2,500 terror targets struck IDF troops are continuing to eliminate terrorists in close-quarter combat and direct aircraft to strike Hamas terrorist infrastructure, weapons depots, observation posts, and command and control centers in the Gaza Strip. Overnight, IDF troops directed aircraft to strike a Hamas military compound containing command and control centers, observation posts, and additional terrorist infrastructure.
FBI raids Democrat gun group program The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) raided a “Safe Streets” program site in Baltimore, Maryland, reportedly over allegations that the taxpayer-funded program could be affiliated with gang members in the community. As a result of one of the FBI home raids, a Safe Streets supervisor is now facing criminal charges, according to documents reviewed by Fox45 News.
Pentagon announces: Nuclear-powered submarine has arrived in the Middle East US Central Command (CENTCOM) on Sunday announced the arrival of an Ohio-class submarine to the Middle East. Ohio-class submarines are nuclear-powered submarines which are capable of carrying cruise missiles and conducting special operations. They are designed for extended strategic deterrent patrols.
New Forecast Reveals Strong El Niño May Boost Wintery Activity Across Mid-Atlantic A newly published forecast map from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reveals that the El Niño weather pattern might bring increased snowfall to regions such as the Sierra, the southwestern mountains, the Plains, and the Mid-Atlantic states. This forecast aligns with the typical southward shift of the jet stream during an El Niño event, which usually carries more moisture and precipitation along the southern tier of the US.
FDA Responds After Being Urged To Recall Pfizer’s Vaccine Over DNA Fragments The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is refusing to recall the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, promoting the view that the inclusion of a previously-undisclosed DNA sequence that leaves behind fragments is not of concern. The FDA did not provide any evidence to back up its position.
Queers For Palestine: Identity Politics At Its Most Absurd the long-standing conflict in the Middle East leads to confused and contradictory thinking, as seen in the incoherent slogan (and now meme) “Queers for Palestine,” emblazoned on banners brandished at anti-Israel rallies. “Queers for Palestine” attempts to meld LGBT advocacy with Palestinian liberation, a juxtaposition that has precipitated a whirlwind of criticism and ridicule, since LGBT rights scarcely exist within the Muslim world; and the Palestinian territories are no exception.
Blinken on surprise visit to Baghdad, meets with PM Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia Al-Sudani met Blinken, the premier’s office said, with the two expected to discuss the risks of escalation in Israel’s war with Hamas. Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, a series of rocket and drone attacks have targeted military bases hosting US forces in Iraq. “I made very clear that attacks or threats coming from militias that are aligned with Iran are totally unacceptable,” Blinken said on Sunday. “We will take every necessary step ….
Turkiye’s main opposition elects Ozel as new leader Turkiye’s main opposition Republican People’s Party, also known as CHP, on Sunday elected Ozgur Ozel as its new leader, ending a 13-year term for incumbent Kemal Kilicdaroglu, as the country gears up for local elections next March.
Amir Tsarfati: Is Israel Again The ‘Weapon In God’s Hand’ Against Those Who Shed Innocent Blood? When you look at Israel now, you see one country, one people. We are Israelis, and if you harm one of us, you harm us all. As a nation, we were attacked. As a nation, we were murdered and tortured and kidnapped. And as a nation, we will have our vengeance on those who perpetrated these heinous acts on our children, our elderly, our women, and our men. We will also ensure that those who attacked us will never have the capability to do it again, because we know that if they could, they would. Hamas didn’t just “get this out of their system” and now they’re ready to play nice. They are the same evil, antisemitic Nazis they have always been, and they will not be satisfied until every Jew has been pushed into the sea.
God Is Taking Note Of Individuals And Nations Who Are Cursing His People People who thought that the horrors of the Holocaust were long behind them have suddenly been shaken by a terrifying sense of foreboding as people the world over call for the annihilation of Jews once again. Sometimes this is agitated by nefarious forces who have a deeper agenda and sometimes it occurs organically, aided by a spiritual enemy who hates mankind, who hates the Jews and who hates God.
‘Something has been unleashed in antisemites’: Hamas war sparks global antisemitism surge The war with Hamas that ensued after the October 7 terrorist attack, resulting in the massacre of over 1,400 Israelis, has sparked a rise in antisemitic incidents worldwide, following Israel’s response in Gaza. And there is a growing concern that this surge in antisemitism is a harbinger of more significant actions, as it has emboldened antisemites to express their sentiments more openly.
‘Long live the intifada’: Hamas supporters vandalize White House Protesters vandalized the White House with red paint and shouted, “**** Joe Biden” at a rally backing Hamas in Washington on Saturday, one of many that took place in cities across North America and Europe.
IDF unleashes intense firepower as ground forces encircle Gaza City Israel Defense Forces launched an intensive wave of firepower strikes on Sunday night, targeting Hamas over and under the ground, as tanks and infantry completed their full encirclement of Gaza City and operated within it.
IDF and Hezbollah Exchange Fire Along Israel-Lebanon Border The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Sunday reported intercepting a Hezbollah drone “deep inside Lebanon.” Several missiles were fired from Lebanon towards the areas near the northern communities of Avivim and Malkia, to which the IDF responded with artillery shelling toward the sources of the fire.
IDF uncovers Hamas weapons cache, terror lab inside Gaza The IDF continued its counter-invasion of the Gaza Strip on Sunday, uncovering an arsenal of Hamas weaponry including armed drones and RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades) as Operation Swords of Iron entered its 30th day.
Pro-Israel Dems to challenge Squad members in primaries Members of the so-called “Squad” of progressive House Democrats will be facing Democratic challengers in the upcoming primaries over their stance on Israel, following the Hamas invasion of October 7th.
Russia and China working to undermine Israel abroad, bolster Hamas the Times report claims that Moscow and Beijing have aligned with Tehran in support of Hamas following the terror organization’s October 7th massacres of Israelis that left over 1,400 dead and more than 240 in captivity in the Gaza Strip.
Is Hamas the Biblical Amalek that must be wiped out? Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote a letter to the IDF soldiers fighting against Hamas. In the letter, Netanyahu referred to the Biblical commandment to remember Amalek: you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget! Deuteronomy 25:17
Oregon under rare threat of severe weather, tornadoes While much of the nation is basking in a mild, tranquil weekend, forecasters are busy in the Pacific Northwest with an autumn storm that is bringing a rare risk of severe weather to the Oregon coast, with even a small risk of weak tornadoes.
It Appears That We Have A Major Problem With The Banks In recent weeks there have been numerous high profile bank “glitches”, accounts are being shut down without warning at a staggering rate all over the nation, and more institutions continue to get into very serious financial trouble. For a while, I was ignoring some of these reports because I thought they were isolated issues. But when you step back and take a bigger picture view of things, it really does appear that we have a major problem with the banks.
Hamas Terrorists Committing War Crimes By Using Ambulances In Gaza The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) struck an ambulance inside Gaza late this week after discovering that it was being used to transport Hamas terrorists on the battlefield, which is a violation of the international rules of war.
Queers for Palestine: Identity Politics at Its Most Absurd …“Queers for Palestine” attempts to meld LGBT advocacy with Palestinian liberation, a juxtaposition that has precipitated a whirlwind of criticism and ridicule, since LGBT rights scarcely exist within the Muslim world; and the Palestinian territories are no exception. The slogan has been widely satirized. Variations like “Chickens for KFC” and “Blacks for the KKK” highlight its proponents’ basic lack of awareness of just how incompatible the values of the Western left are with those of the Islamic right they so readily champion.
God Is Taking Note Of Individuals And Nations Who Are Cursing His People In our current social and political paradigm, people tend to see things two dimensionally – usually to the left or to the right. Of course, as current trends bear witness to, this is causing a great deal of social and political friction, which often spills over into violence. Sometimes this is agitated by nefarious forces who have a deeper agenda and sometimes it occurs organically, aided by a spiritual enemy who hates mankind, who hates the Jews and who hates God. The latest trigger point for demonically inspired violence against Jews is the war that Israel is conducting against Hamas and Hezbollah.
Dr. McCullough Reveals More Bad News About the COVID Jabs “We’re seeing a disturbing continued trend of cardiac arrests in people who have taken the vaccine,” reported world-renowned cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough to Real America’s Voice Friday. “Now we have data from Nakahara in a human cardiac PET study showing that positron emission tomography scans of the heart change in almost everybody who took the shot, at least for six months or longer, where the heart’s metabolism changes.”
Britain’s Policy of Deceit – It’s Time To Set The Record Straight Israeli-Palestinian conflict was made in Britain. During the First World War, contradictory promises were made to Jewish and Arab leaders that have led to a hundred years of hostility and an intractable political stalemate today.
Students Protest Drag Show Planned At Notre Dame Students at the University of Notre Dame are protesting a drag queen event that the school administrators are in support of. The students are the smart ones here. It is ridiculous that the staff of a Catholic college would support that kind of immorality on their campus.
U.S. — Progressive Christians around the nation are sounding the alarm over the new Speaker of the House, warning that he is a Christian politician who actually believes Christian things.
“Believing the Bible without being a highly educated scholar like me is dangerous,” warned Kristin Du Mez. “Christian Nationalist nutjobs like this are exactly what we’ve been warning everyone about. He’s a Creationist who believes in Noah’s Ark for Pete’s sake! He believes gay marriage could destroy America! He has co-sponsored several bills to ban abortion nationwide! Can you imagine? BANNING ABORTION?”
“REEEEEEEEEEE!” She added.
Progressives started thinking something was off about the new Speaker when he prayed on the House floor to the Christian God and then claimed in his acceptance speech that “the Bible is clear” and that “God is the one who raises up leaders.”
“Watch out, America!” said Phil Vischer on his podcast. “Lots of politicians claim to be Christians so they can get votes, but this guy seems to actually believe this stuff! Sick! Sick! Sick!”
Sources claim that when asked to respond to these allegations, Speaker Johnson simply began singing the Sunday School anthem “The B-I-B-L-E” like a deranged lunatic.
At publishing time, progressive Christians were carefully analyzing what was wrong about Speaker Johnson being in a covenant marriage and installing Covenant Eyes on his new work computer.
Their culture is not your costume. DO NOT appropriate ghost, zombie, or vampire culture this Halloween.
“Man, once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without rudder, is the sport of every wind. With such persons, gullibility, which they call faith, takes the helm from the hand of reason and the mind becomes a wreck.” —Thomas Jefferson (1822)
Fellow Patriots, this day in history yielded more presidential election results: Abraham Lincoln (1860), Benjamin Harrison (1888), and Herbert Hoover (1928) were all elected. In today’s news, Joe Biden is doing everything in his power to earn himself a single term and very belated retirement. —Mark Alexander
Rashida Tlaib is lying when she claims the slogan is an “aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence.”
Nate Jackson
“From the river to the sea” is a chant begun 50 years ago by the Palestinian Liberation Organization, and it means the elimination of Israel in favor of a lone Palestinian state on the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. Let’s just say it’s not a peaceful slogan.
Yet that’s exactly what anti-Semitic, Hamas-supporting — and supported — Squad member Rashida Tlaib wants you to think. The Michigan Democrat posted a video Friday of various pro-Palestinian marches all over the country. One of the groups chanted “from the river to the sea” while marching peacefully.
“Mr. President,” Tlaib said midway through, “the American people are not with you on this one.” By “this one,” she means Joe Biden’s statement opening the video: “We stand with Israel.”
Tlaib concludes, “We will remember in 2024,” and the video closes with this graphic of what she’ll remember: “Joe Biden supported the genocide of the Palestinian people.”
That is reprehensibly false. Not only has Biden repeatedly warned Israel about not inflicting civilian casualties and even disgracefully called for a “humanitarian pause” in Israel’s response that would be detrimental to its mission, but there’s the small matter that Israel is not and has not ever been committing genocide.
Civilian deaths caused by the Israel Defense Forces are unintentional and primarily because Hamas jihadists set up bases in hospitals, schools, and mosques, hiding behind civilians and deliberately creating casualties for propaganda purposes.
Who wants to commit genocide? The people chanting “from the river to the sea.”
Hamas, founded in 1987, has in its charter the explicit mission to eradicate Israel, and the phrase “from the river to the sea” is found in its constitution. Hamas is an acronym of the Arabic phrase Ḥarakah al-Muqāwamah al-ʾIslāmiyyah (HMS), which means “Islamic Resistance Movement.” The Arabic word ḥamās means “zeal,” “strength,” or “bravery.” In Hebrew, that word (sometimes spelled chamas) means “violence” and “wrong.”
One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter, according to Tlaib and company.
Faced with more blowback for her obviously hateful anti-Semitism, Tlaib tried desperately to explain, “From the river to the sea is an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate.” Even if we give her the benefit of the doubt about what she means (and we probably shouldn’t), it does not follow that it’s what Hamas means. Hamas’s genocidal jihadists shout such things while slaughtering as many Israeli women and children as they can.
“From the river to the sea” is why the Palestinians have repeatedly rejected Israel’s land-for-peace overtures over the years.
Even many of Tlaib’s fellow Democrats are rebuking her. Tlaib is Muslim, and her Michigan Democrat colleague Elissa Slotkin, the only Jewish member of the state’s delegation, reminded her: “The phrase ‘from the river to the sea’ is one of division & violence, & it is counterproductive to promoting peace. None of us, especially elected leaders, should amplify language that inflames a tense situation & makes it harder for our communities to find common ground.”
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel told Tlaib that even though she had “supported and defended you countless times, even when you have said the indefensible,” the congresswoman should “retract this cruel and hateful remark.”
Democrat-turned-Independent Senator Kyrsten Sinema likewise explained: “[The phrase] means eradicating the state of Israel. It’s about eliminating Jews. It’s hate speech. It’s antisemitism.”
Of course, part of the Jews’ increasing problem with Democrats is the Left’s moral equivocation about Israel and Hamas. Some 45 House Democrats voted against sanctions for Hamas jihadists and their supporters.
Bernie Sanders mildly rebuked Tlaib, but also added to the problem. “People who are saying, ‘Israel, right or wrong, we’re for you all the way,’ that’s not going to work,” Sanders said. “You have got a right-wing government in Israel which is racist.”
Barack Obama also blamed Israel. “What Hamas did was horrific, and there’s no justification for it,” he said, but “what is also true is that the occupation, and what’s happening to Palestinians, is unbearable.” He added that “nobody’s hands are clean” and “all of us are complicit to some degree.” He can speak for himself about being complicit, given that he’s directed so much money to Hamas and its state sponsor, Iran, over the years.
Speaking of money, the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Office of Inspector General gets the “Keen Sense of the Obvious Award” for the week for reporting Friday that humanitarian assistance to Palestinians could “fall into the hands of foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) including, but not limited to, Hamas.”
Democrats have a long history of being “useful idiots” for Marxist causes. The oppressor/oppressed division so foundational to Marxism is precisely the justification for leftists who support Hamas. In their false construct, Israel is the oppressor, and the Palestinians are the oppressed. They’ll issue the perfunctory caveat that saying so doesn’t “justify” what Hamas did, but they nonetheless wink and nod at the jihad found in innocuous-sounding but bloody chants like “from the river to the sea.”
As his support from Arab Americans craters, the president goes into full pander mode.
Douglas Andrews
With Jews here in the U.S. and all around the world under unprecedented siege, the time for action by the American president couldn’t have been more apparent. And Joe Biden acted, alright — by protecting Muslims.
Yes, just a day after a poll showed that his support among Arab Americans was collapsing, Biden announced Wednesday that he and VP Kamala Harris are hard at work on a national strategy to defend against the non-issue of Islamophobia. It was a disgraceful attempt to pander to an identity group that has heretofore been a staunch supporter of the Democrat Party.
That poll, from John Zogby Strategies, was commissioned by the Arab American Institute, no doubt as a means to pressure the administration to reconsider its support for Israel in its war with the murderous cutthroats of Hamas. The poll found that Arab American support for Biden has fallen precipitously — from 59% in 2020 to just 17% today — and this is especially worrisome to a political party that cobbles itself together by playing identity politics. Arab Americans are a constituency that Gavin Newsom Joe Biden can ill afford to lose in next year’s presidential election, especially given that the 2020 result was decided by some 43,000 votes across the three battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin. The Arab American population in each of those states dwarfs Biden’s margin of victory in 2020, just as it does in Michigan and Pennsylvania.
How bad is it for Biden? The poll “marks the first time since its inception in 1997 that a majority of Arab Americans did not identify as Democrats — 32% now identify as Republicans and 31% as independents. Forty percent of those polled said they would vote for former President Donald Trump, the likely Republican candidate in 2024, up 5 percentage points from 2020.”
What the poll doesn’t show is the growing rift within the Democrat Party itself — a rift between the establishment, which generally supports Israel, and the hard-left base, which hates Israel with a passion. National Review’s Jim Geraghty shows the, uh, evolution of Biden’s position from pro-Israel to ceasefire. And a mealy-mouthed statement from Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy illustrates the Democrats’ predicament: “It’s time for Israel’s friends to recognize that the current approach is causing an unacceptable level of civilian harm and does not appear likely to achieve the goal of ending the threat from Hamas. I urge Israel to immediately reconsider its approach.”
Democrat Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, though, who moonlights as a “Palestinian” propagandist, was rather less equivocal. She went so far as to threaten Biden and her fellow Democrats come next November. Demanding a ceasefire in Gaza, she said on a video posted to X: “Mr. President, the American people are not with you on this one. We will remember in 2024.”
Unfortunately for Biden, it isn’t just his administration’s support for Israel that repels Arab Americans; it’s also his party’s promotion of the cult of transgenderism. But the Islamophobia pander is especially noxious given what FBI Director Christopher Wray said recently before the Senate Homeland Security Committee: that despite Jews being just 2.4% of the American population, attacks on Jewish Americans now account for “something like 60% of all religious-based hate crimes.”
Indeed, if there’s one thing Democrats love, it’s a good “hate” crime. Not only do these hoaxes energize key parts of their base, but they often serve as a distraction from the very real problems plaguing certain communities.
“President Biden ran for office to restore the soul of our nation,” said a straight-faced Karine Jean-Pierre. “He is unequivocal: there is no place for hate in America against anyone. Period. Today, he and Vice President Harris are announcing that their Administration will develop the first-ever U.S. National Strategy to Counter Islamophobia in the United States. We look forward to continuing our work with community leaders, advocates, members of Congress, and more to develop the strategy — which will be a joint effort led by the Domestic Policy Council and the National Security Council — and counter the scourge of Islamophobia and hate in all its forms. For too long, Muslims in America, and those perceived to be Muslim, such as Arabs and Sikhs, have endured a disproportionate number of hate-fueled attacks and other discriminatory incidents.”
Disproportionate? Certainly not compared to what American Jews are enduring.
As for the lack of support here in the U.S. for the Palestinian cause, we suspect that gathering in mobs and defiling our nation’s historical monuments isn’t helping matters any.
Here at The Patriot Post, we work hard to ensure an accurate and penetrating analysis of the week’s news, policy, and opinion — all from a constitutional perspective. Reader funding alone has kept our analysis coming for more than 27 years, allowing us to reach a vast reader audience with the message of Liberty without the limitations of a subscription fee. We humbly request your support for this important mission as we work to meet our daily operating budget requirements. From each of us here, our sincerest thanks for your support. —Nate Jackson, Managing Editor
Youngkin aims to turn VA more red, pro-Hamas mob descends on DC, low EV demand has lithium sales tanking, and more.
Douglas Andrews, Thomas Gallatin, & Jordan Candler
Cross-Examination
Youngkin aims to turn VA more red: On Tuesday, Virginians will head to the polls, and control of both the Senate and House of Delegates is on the line. Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin has been campaigning hard for GOP candidates despite the fact that he is not up for reelection. Obviously, Youngkin is heavily invested in realizing the political vision he has staked out. “I think that we are driving towards an outcome that I think is best for Virginia, and therefore I’m going to go to work with everything I have in order to try to deliver,” Youngkin explained. His vision includes a potential template for Republicans across the nation regarding abortion legislation. Youngkin has thrown his weight behind a compromise — a ban on abortions after 15 weeks, with exemptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother. Should Republicans successfully take control of the statehouse, Youngkin believes his approach to abortion “should be a national message that Republicans can learn from.” Furthermore, should Republicans win the day in Virginia tomorrow, it will serve to greatly elevate Youngkin’s national popularity within the GOP.
NYT: Trump leads Biden in five of six swing states: It’s officially panic time for the Democrats, whose future hold on political power appears ever more tenuous with Joe Biden making such an awful mess of things. Typical of the angst is the increasingly pessimistic New York Times, which can only mutter about its most recent poll: “Voters in battleground states said they trusted Donald J. Trump over President Biden on the economy, foreign policy and immigration, as Mr. Biden’s multiracial base shows signs of fraying. … The results show Mr. Biden losing to Mr. Trump, his likeliest Republican rival, by margins of four to 10 percentage points among registered voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania. Mr. Biden is ahead only in Wisconsin, by two percentage points, the poll found.” Perhaps the most shocking numbers from the NYT poll concern Biden’s stark slippage among minority voters, especially young ones. In 2020, Biden enjoyed a 39-point lead with non-white voters under age 45. That lead is now a measly six points. Reacting to these numbers, the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board opines, “As voters focus on the election next year, Mr. Trump’s manifest liabilities will reassert themselves.” We’re not so sure. Donald Trump, more than any other politician, is a known quantity. Those who support him now already know he’s a mean tweeter. What’s more to learn?
Iowa’s Reynolds endorses DeSantis: As endorsements go, it’s a big one: the endorsement of a popular sitting governor whose state happens to be one of the first to choose its presidential candidate. But Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds doesn’t appear to be a kingmaker, nor does any other politician or pundit on the Republican side. In this election cycle, the kingmaker seems to be the Everyday Joe who’s assessed the GOP primary field and decided, overwhelmingly, to stick with Donald Trump. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who today will be the recipient of Reynolds’s endorsement, is no doubt happy for it, but not at all surprised. The writing was on the wall back in July, when Reynolds refused to endorse Trump while tacitly seeming to support DeSantis. Trump, who endorsed Reynolds in both her 2018 and 2022 gubernatorial campaigns, saw this as a sign of disloyalty, and he promptly burned the Reynolds bridge. Since then, Trump’s aggregate lead in Iowa has edged up slightly, from a low of around 26 points to a high of around 32. A recent Des Moines Register poll has Trump as the first choice of 43% of Republican caucus-goers, with DeSantis and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley tied at 16%.
Pro-Hamas mob descends on DC: Last week, Joe Biden launched an anti-Islamophobia counteroffensive, perhaps because he saw his 2024 reelection prospects slipping away with Arab Americans, who’ve become increasingly upset by even his modest support for Israel in its war with Hamas. But if this weekend’s events near the White House are any indication, the people he meant to placate aren’t at all impressed. As Trending Politics’ Collin Rugg posted: “Monuments in Washington D.C. have been vandalized by pro-Palestine thugs as rioters rage against President Biden’s support of Israel. The monuments include: Andrew Jackson statue in front of the White House. The General Marquis de Lafayette Statue in Lafayette Park. Benjamin Franklin statue. The White House barrier and more. ‘Democracy dies in darkness’ … Where is the media?” It’s a great question. The crowd in DC was estimated at more than 100,000, but the MSM mostly yawned about it — especially the destructive stuff. Thankfully, America’s Best Newspaper, the UK’s Daily Mail, was on the job, reporting at length on the pro-Hamas hooliganism.
Biden splurges on border wall: Remember back when Democrats said a border wall was “racist”? Back when candidate Joe Biden smugly vowed, “There will not be another foot of wall constructed in my administration”? Those were the days. As our Nate Jackson noted last month: “During the Trump years, roughly 450 miles of border wall were erected. Though far from perfect, the problem of illegal immigration was far closer to being manageable than it had been or is now.” Since Trump left office, our southern border has been a choreographed catastrophe, a cynical effort by the Democrats to make America more brown and, so their thinking goes, make her more Democrat. But that doesn’t seem to be working. And public opinion being what it is, and Joe Biden’s reelection prospects being what they are, our open-borders chief executive is now trying to burnish his phony border-security credentials. As the New York Post reports, Biden now says he’ll spend $950 million on various repair projects along the existing barrier in Texas, Arizona, and California. We’d say “better late than never,” but that would lend legitimacy to this naked political ploy.
Low EV demand has lithium sales tanking: America’s largest provider of lithium for the electric vehicle industry in the U.S., Albemarle Corporation, has reported a significant sales slump, as the company reported a third-quarter net income of $302.5 million, down from $897.2 million this time last year. Furthermore, the company downgraded its forecasted total sales for the year from an expected range of $10.4 to $11.5 billion down to $9.5 to $9.8 billion. The primary reason for the sales drop-off has to do with low and falling electric vehicle demand. Auto manufacturers find themselves stuck in an EV oversupply problem, as a majority of consumers are simply not buying into the “green dream.”
New Jersey’s wind blows: Speaking of green dreams, a green energy mega-project that New Jersey Democrat Governor Phil Murphy has been touting since 2019 — a planned wind farm off the Jersey shore — recently blew up in his face. Danish renewable energy company Ørsted backed out of the project, citing cost overruns making it impossible. Ørsted explained that it had already written off some $4 billion this year. As part of the original deal that Murphy orchestrated, New Jersey state power company PSEG had invested a 25% stake in the offshore farm, but thanks to project cost overruns, the power company sold its stake this year. In order to keep money flowing to the green project, Murphy is now planning to funnel federal tax credits earned when the wind farm is completed to offset the increased costs. Previously, he promised to use those credits to lower residents’ electricity rates. Once again, the green dream is shown to be little other than a climate cult that is fundamentally unconcerned about the negative impact it has on people’s lives and welfare.
FBI raids NYC mayor’s chief fundraiser: Last Thursday morning, the home of Brianna Suggs was raided by FBI agents. Suggs just happens to be New York City Democrat Mayor Eric Adams’s chief campaign fundraising consultant. The raid happened on the same morning that Adams was in Washington, DC, meeting with members of Congress and Joe Biden’s White House over the border and illegal immigration crisis. Upon learning of the raid, Adams quickly cut the visit short to return to New York to “deal with an issue.” Suggs was targeted by FBI investigators in connection with an alleged conspiracy involving the Turkish government and a construction company to move money via straw donors to Adams’s campaign. Suggs, who has worked for Adams’s campaign team since 2021 while earning over $150,000, has not yet been arrested or charged with a crime.
Woke AF colonel blocked: It took years for Barack Obama and Joe Biden to fundamentally transform our military, but they’ve succeeded beyond what we suspect are their wildest dreams. The rotten fruit of this effort is embodied in senior officers like Air Force Colonel Ben Jonsson, who, as The Daily Signal reports, “accused his fellow ‘white colonels’ of being ‘blind to institutional racism’” and is now “the subject of blistering criticism from subordinates at MacDill Air Force Base, where he served as commander from 2020 to 2022.” Thankfully, as the Signal continues, “Jonsson is among the more than 300 military officers awaiting Senate approval for a promotion.” And we have Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville to thank for it. Tuberville, as we’ve notednumerous times, has taken a principled stand against taxpayer money being used by the U.S. military to fly its personnel around the country for the purpose of getting an abortion. “Forgive me,” writes Not the Bee’s Harris Rigby, “while I LAUGH MY BUTT OFF at Lindsey Graham, Mitt Romney, and other RINOs for saying that not promoting THIS kind of dude is going to hurt our national security.”
Good news: More high school students protesting “transgender” policies: Last week, students in Loudoun County, Virginia, for a second time held a school walkout in protest of the district’s Policy 8040, which permits students who identify as “transgender” to use bathrooms and locker rooms that are opposite of their biological sex. Back in September, hundreds of students in Perkiomen Valley School District in Pennsylvania walked out of school in protest after the school board failed to enact a policy barring students from using opposite-sex bathrooms and locker rooms. These are just two examples of growing student-led opposition to the pushing of “transgenderism” in their schools. As Meg Kilgannon of the Family Research Council observed: “American adults and parents should be ashamed of the fact that students are forced to protest for the right to not undress in front of someone of the opposite sex. The students and staff are protesting because the Left is forcing progressive adult sexual priorities on children as a way of justifying their own adult actions, and it’s not acceptable.” Kilgannon contends, “If these kinds of protests continue, it’s going to make the release of the Biden administration’s redefinition of Title IX and sex itself much more charged.”
Headlines
More than 300 Americans escaped Gaza in last several days, but more remain (RedState)
Jews are turning to Fox News for the first time (Hot Air)
Top Dem strategist David Axelrod suggests Biden drop out of 2024 race (New York Post)
Supreme Court will review federal bump stock ban (Daily Caller)
Exposed by the Finnish doctor who pioneered this particular field of medical/psychiatric care.
Emmy Griffin
Dr. Riittakerttu Kaltiala is a well-respected psychiatrist at Finland’s Tampere University Hospital. So well respected was she that in 2011 she was chosen to head up Finland’s first youth gender clinic. She has long been publishing her findings and documenting the various struggles of her patients, but now she is trying to get the attention of the American public.
Dr. Kaltiala has a piece in The Free Press that documents her experiences. Her tale is an echo of what sane and honest people have been reporting here in the U.S. too. Those other voices — which include journalist Abigail Shrier, whistleblower Jamie Reed, detransitioners, and even fellow medical professionals — have so far been largely written off by the wider culture as “bigoted” or “not a credible source.”
Dr. Kaltiala should be given more credence simply from the fact that the whole “gender affirmation” model of treatment was pioneered by her and others like her. She has watched as this relatively small psychiatric phenomenon — which generally manifests in boys — has turned into a full-blown culturally induced hysteria and craze.
It all started with the infamous “Dutch Protocol,” which introduced the idea of giving puberty blockers to prepubescent children suffering with the clinical condition of gender dysphoria. And it was off to the races from there: Activists declared this model a human right, politicians sprang on the idea of another victim group, and transgenderism ideology metastasized into a full-blown cultural cancer.
“Gender affirmation” as a model was adopted, but even so, Dr. Kaltiala was skeptical. This model went against her rigorous scientific and medical training. Right away, the “Dutch Protocol” model was proven to be the incorrect standard for universal care of youthful patients. First off, the majority of patients who were showing up at Dr. Kaltiala’s clinic were not gender dysphoric boys but girls.
In her own words, Dr. Kaltiala explains: “The ones who came were nothing like what was described by the Dutch. We expected a small number of boys who had persistently declared they were girls. Instead, 90 percent of our patients were girls, mainly 15 to 17 years old, and instead of being high-functioning, the vast majority presented with severe psychiatric conditions.”
She also notes that a fair number were on the autism spectrum (roughly 25%). Moreover, there was a significant number of young girls (many of whom were from the same towns and neighborhoods) coming in with the same backstory and buzzwords they had been told would get them the desired drugs and procedures (i.e., puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and gender mutilation surgeries). Hello, social contagion.
The worst part of all was that, no matter how affirmed they were or how many procedures or drugs the patients took, they got worse, not better. Their mental and physical health deteriorated. This was not the promised result outlined by the “Dutch Protocol.” Children were actively being harmed.
Dr. Kaltiala changed her standards for treatment at the clinic in 2016. Instead of the “gender affirmation” model, she adopted a policy wherein a patient’s most urgent issues need to be treated first before “gender transition” should be sought. This decreased the number of patients who qualified for the drugs and the surgeries to 20% of all patients.
Dr. Kaltiala began comparing notes with others in her field across Europe to see if they were seeing the same phenomenon. And they were. The United Kingdom and Sweden were also noting the same phenomenon.
Clearly, there was something desperately wrong with the “Dutch Protocol” and “gender affirmation” model. Like any good doctor, Kaltiala and her colleagues published their findings. So successful was she in proving her point scientifically and medically that, in 2020, the Council for Choices in Health Care in Finland declared that studies singing the praises of “gender affirmation” were “biased and unreliable.”
Dr. Kaltiala is extremely worried about the U.S. medical societies. Medical professionals here are so convinced by pseudoscientific philosophical nonsense — e.g., that children know their “authentic selves” — that they have been blinded to the reality of what these medical malpractices are doing to young children. The U.S. standard of care is even more lax than the “Dutch Protocol” model. It is now exceptionally easy for a child claiming gender dysphoria to obtain drugs and get a physician to sign off on the death spiral of “treatments” that ultimately sterilize them, mutilate them, or break them so utterly that they take their lives.
Dr. Kaltiala writes, “However, in the U.S. these groups — including the American Academy of Pediatrics — have been actively hostile to the message my colleagues and I are urging.” Her biggest worry is the reports she has been hearing about American physicians telling parents that their child will commit suicide if said parents don’t affirm their child’s delusion. She called it “dishonest and extremely unethical to pressure parents into approving gender medicalization by exaggerating the risk of suicide.”
What Dr. Kaltiala has documented, pioneered, studied, and lived through should be taken seriously. Sadly, we do not live in an age of reason. Ideology is more important than facts and reality. Queer theory (the umbrella that houses transgender ideology) is prime for the cultural Marxism that is dictating the radical left wing of society. After all, “trans” people are a perfect victim group for them to champion. In doing so, they are actually making the plight of the gender dysphoric/gender-confused person exponentially worse.
Do they care? No. They are getting cultural clout, political capital, money, and fame. The reality of struggling and hurting people who actually need competent medical help is a low priority to these vultures.
A quarter of adults in the world say they are lonely. There are important reasons for that.
Thomas Gallatin
There are an estimated 8.1 billion people currently living on planet Earth, and thanks to the Internet, people have never been more connected and in tune with events across the world.
Yet a first-of-its-kind mega survey conducted by Gallup found that the world is suffering from an epidemic of loneliness. The poll surveyed adults in 142 countries, and one in four of them reported feeling “very or fairly lonely.” To make matters worse, China, the world’s second-highest-populated country with more than 1.4 billion people, did not participate in the survey. It’s a good bet given China’s longtime one-child policy and draconian COVID restrictions that the Chinese would have pushed the loneliness percentage even higher.
Interestingly, the survey found that those adults reporting the lowest rate of loneliness were 65 years of age and older, coming in at 17%. By contrast, adults registering the highest rate of loneliness were the youngest adults, age 19 to 29, with 27% claiming a significant rate of loneliness. That’s incredibly ironic and also telling given that young adults are the most Internet-connected generation — often described as online natives, having not known a world without the Internet.
Furthermore, the study showed little distinction in loneliness based upon sex. High rates of young men and women both report feeling lonely.
This survey, as noted above, has raised concerns that the world is suffering a loneliness epidemic. A significant factor to be noted is that the survey was conducted from June 2022 to February 2023. That’s after the global COVID pandemic had abated, but before the shock was a distant memory.
We are living in the Information Age. From a practical standpoint, everyone is connected to local, national, and even global societies.
However, it would appear that this technologically based connection has not in fact led to greater individual social connection.
This raises the obvious question: Why?
There are likely a myriad of reasons and factors, including the delusion of unlimited choice the Internet can give. Prior to the Internet, the social pool from which an individual could choose friends and relationships was limited to their immediate physical location, the local community in which they found themselves.
Children had the option of neighborhood kids or kids at school from which to choose their friends. As adults, their options weren’t much different — their workplace, their neighborhood, a church, and/or some social club. In all of these instances, the people they interacted with on a regular basis were typically a relatively limited group. Furthermore, the only real outside influence came from TV shows, news, and movies, but these would all have been seen as distant factors to be evaluated within their local community, like the water cooler at work.
But the Internet, and more significantly the development of social media, changed all that. Now people can literally and in real time interact with individuals in any part of the world. The physical limits for developing relationships were theoretically removed. People can chose their friends based on their own interests rather than on who happened to be in their local community.
This likely explains why the youngest adults are experiencing the highest degree of loneliness. Social media has in many respects replaced their local communities. The trouble is that online communities are not real communities in the sense that a local community is both located in a physical time and place and individuals are in direct contact with each other. People simply don’t behave the same way toward each other behind the “safety” of a screen, either.
When the faux community replaces genuine community, the natural result will be a lack of true relationship. And the effect of a lack of true relationship is loneliness.
So, as the world has gotten more connected, people have ironically become more isolated. They not been forced by the limits of time and space to learn to engage and develop relationships with people in their immediate physical locale. The Internet has afforded a form of fantasy world, and yet that’s all it ends up being — a dream world where others project their fabricated selves, but few truly get to know each other.
Humans are social creatures, and that means they flourish most when they are living in genuine community.
“Pride Night cometh before the fall, as they say.”
The Babylon Bee
PHOENIX, AZ — The Lord has granted a World Series championship to the Texas Rangers, the one and only Major League Baseball team to not host a Pride Night.
“We’re so grateful to be champions, and also to not have to be involved in all that weird gay stuff,” said manager Bruce Bochy. “Pride Night cometh before the fall, as they say.”
After over fifty years of championship futility, the Texas Rangers finally captured the World Series title in the same year the team became the final Major League holdout on hosting Pride Night. Despite mounting pressure as the remaining 29 MLB teams honored satanic drag queens, the Texas Rangers held firm. Now, after being counted out as a playoff afterthought, the Rangers are hoisting the championship trophy.
“Sure, there’s lots of pressure to be gay — but this is Texas,” said star right fielder Adolis Garcia. “There’s still room there for people who just want to play baseball. Now, let’s get this trophy back to the Lone Star state where it belongs.”
The Bodycam Revolution — Bodycams do more than record the actions of suspects; they provide a profound insight into the astonishing patience, professionalism, and courtesy of the police in the face of unimaginable slurs, insults, and false accusations.
Pro-Palestine DC Rioters Vandalize Statues — On Saturday night, a mob of pro-Palestinian rioters vandalized statues in Washington, DC, and tried to invade the White House.
‘Absolutely Atrocious’ — Sen. Josh Hawley blasts Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over an ant-Semitic DHS employee who praised Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Biden’s Senior Moment of the Week (Vol. 67) — It’s never a good sign when you can’t say with certainty whether the president of the United States knows the ice cream cone he’s trying to eat isn’t real, but here we are.
“What Hamas did was horrific, and there’s no justification for it. And what is also true is that the occupation, and what’s happening to Palestinians, is unbearable. … Nobody’s hands are clean … all of us are complicit to some degree.” —former President Barack Obama (“You sent over $100 billion to the monsters who committed these atrocities. And you continue to spread lies about Jewish ‘occupation.’ Yes, I do agree you are complicit.” —Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX))
“People who are saying, ‘Israel, right or wrong, we’re for you all the way,’ that’s not going to work. This is a horrendously complex issue. You have got a right-wing government in Israel which is racist.” —Senator Bernie Sanders (VT)
Tone-Deaf
“[The National Strategy to Counter Islamophobia] is born from a genuine desire to go after the kind of hate in America that could lead to real threats of violence against real people — our fellow citizens … who are of the Muslim faith or in the Arab community and the Palestinian community.” —National Security Council spokesman John Kirby
For the Record
“After the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and a breakout of pro-Hamas activism on campus, the White House is claiming Islamophobia is our top concern.” —Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR)
“Jews are 2% of population. They’re receiving 60% of the religious-based hate crimes. I don’t support Islamophobia … but today is not about Islamophobia; it’s about anti-Semitism.” —former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman
“To put things in order. Hamas did not become crazy and want to kill Jews because of the walls, checkpoints and blockade. The walls, checkpoints and blockade were put in place because Hamas are crazy and want to kill Jews. Oct 7 is what happens when terrorists break through.” —David Collier
“Whereas so-called Islamophobia typically manifests among people pointing out that Islamofascists are a real terror threat and we should be vigilant against attacks, Christophobia is the leftist affliction that equates adhering to Biblical Christianity while being a patriotic American to hate speech and violence.” —Nate Jackson
The BIG Lies
“From the river to the sea is an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate.” —Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-MI)
“I wouldn’t say it’s criticism; I’d say there are different observations on perspectives about the best way forward, but all of it coming from, as far as I can tell, a place of care and concern related to Israel’s safety and its well-being.” —House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY)
“[Biden] ran … to restore the soul of this nation, to make sure that no hate sees the light of day.” —White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre
Braying Jenny
“I cosponsored a resolution condemning Hamas for hostage-taking and urging their immediate release. We must ensure the safe return of all hostages and the protection of Palestinian and Israeli civilians.” —Congresswoman Cori Bush (D-MO) (For the record, Bush is finally seeing the light after her Jew-hating colleagues Ilhan Omar and Tlaib got spanked for their leftist spews.)
“The U.S. government should not be funding Israel’s war crimes against the Palestinian people.” —Cori Bush
Belly Laughs of the Day
“We can’t ignore the fact that people’s lives are harder. And this is not because of the president.” —failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams
“Biden has been [an] exceptional president. On [a] range of issues he has over-performed expectation[s].” —Stacey Abrams
And Last…
“There is no such thing as ethical porn; someone is always being used. As much as some try to paint pornography as fulfilling work, it’s not. It’s little better than slavery at the end of the day, and trafficking is rampant.” —Emmy Griffin
Schiess talks about how we can read, interpret, and apply Scripture with integrity to the working of our democracy. She also speaks to how we can rightly bridge these worlds and discover what God is saying to us through his word, the Holy Spirit, and our communities of faith. In an intriguing phrase, she calls America “a Bible-haunted nation,” and she speaks to why she labeled our country that way.
Ultimately, you’ll be led to ask: “How should I see myself, my opportunities, my problems, and my politics through the lens of Scripture and God’s eternal and good purposes?”
Topics
(02:20): “I think the rest of my life is studying this stuff.”
(06:16): How Schiess became involved with the Holy Post Podcast
(08:49): Why Schiess wrote The Ballot and the Bible
(13:37): The benefits of political fatigue
(18:28): “We are a Bible-haunted nation.”
(22:55): An overview of the history in The Ballot and the Bible
(27:54): Why should Christians “understand the times” and the Bible?
(33:50): Who should read The Ballot and the Bible?
(38:04): How we misapply “Render unto Caesar” today
(43:08): How Jeremiah 29 profoundly affects our political outlook today
(49:40): Culture warriors vs. cultural missionaries
(52:00) Schiess’s hope for The Ballot and the Bible
Kaitlyn Schiess (ThM, Dallas Theological Seminary) is a writer, speaker, and theologian. She is the author of The Liturgy of Politics: Spiritual Formation for the Sake of Our Neighbor and is a regular cohost on the Holy Post podcast with Skye Jethani and Phil Vischer. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Christianity Today, Christ and Pop Culture, Relevant, and Sojourners. Schiess is currently a doctoral student in political theology at Duke Divinity School. She lives in Durham, North Carolina.
About Dr. Mark Turman
Dr. Mark Turman is the Executive Director of Denison Forum and Vice President of Denison Ministries. Among his many duties, Turman is most notably the host of The Denison Forum Podcast. He is also the chief strategist for DF Pastors, which equips pastors and church leaders to understand and transform today’s culture.
A White House fence was vandalized Saturday night as pro-Palestinian protesters shook the gate to one entrance to the executive mansion. Some chanted obscenities about President Biden.
This was just one of many such events across the country over the weekend as protesters rallied to demand a ceasefire in the Israel–Hamas war. They were not alone in their sentiments: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for “humanitarian pauses” in the fighting to allow more deliveries into Gaza of food, water, medicine, and other supplies, echoing a similar call by President Biden earlier in the week. The New York Times editorial board agreed, as have numerous US political leaders and Arab ministers in the region.
The Palestinian death toll has risen above nine thousand since the conflict began; more than 3,900 of the total, roughly 40 percent, were under the age of eighteen. A journalist, grieving the death of a fellow journalist and eleven members of his family, said, “We can’t bear this anymore. We are exhausted, we are here victims and martyrs awaiting our deaths, we are dying one after the other and no one cares about us or the large-scale catastrophe and the crime in Gaza.”
In the face of such tragic suffering, widespread calls for a ceasefire or at least a “humanitarian pause” in the fighting are understandable. But there’s more to the story.
The Wall Street Journal editorial board warns that a “pause” in the conflict would only strengthen Hamas. In their view, “The way to help Palestinian civilians isn’t to slow the Israeli advance. The less control Hamas has over Gaza’s streets, the more civilians can escape the fighting and the more aid can be brought in securely.”
They note that “the ground invasion has already allowed humanitarian assistance to ramp up, with more than one hundred truckloads now arriving each day.” And they warn that “Hamas would use freedom of action to keep civilians as shields and pilfer more aid—limiting what Israel can let in.”
All this while, according to the Jerusalem Post, the “true fight” has not yet begun. It notes that most Hamas terrorists are in the southern part of Gaza, where Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers have not yet advanced. The IDF’s incursion into Gaza has not killed or arrested the vast majority of Hamas’s forces, which number approximately forty thousand and prepared for Israel’s invasion by creating a vast web of fortified tunnels. Nor has the IDF’s advance slowed, much less eliminated, rocket fire by Hamas on southern Israel and the Tel Aviv area.
“If we do not defeat Hamas, we cannot survive here”
Hamas officials and soldiers are known to hide in hospitals and among civilians. For example, an Israeli airstrike on Friday hit an ambulance that the IDF claims was being used by a Hamas terrorist cell.
Hamas has also spent years stockpiling enough fuel, food, and medicine in its tunnels to keep fighting for three or four months without resupply. Meanwhile, Palestinian civilians face massive shortages amid a growing humanitarian crisis.
All this to say, if Israel continues its offensive against Hamas, things are likely to get much, much worse for civilians in Gaza. However, as I noted a few days ago, if Israel does not defeat Hamas to such an extent that Jewish citizens feel they and their families are safe in their country again, many may immigrate to other countries, imperiling the future of the nation and fulfilling Hamas’s stated goal to “obliterate” Israel from the region.
This is why one Israeli commander stated, “If we do not defeat Hamas, we cannot survive here.”
So, Israel has to defeat Hamas without incurring civilian casualties to the degree that America stops supporting the war and jihadist groups in Lebanon and the West Bank join the conflict. But incurring such casualties is a central part of Hamas’s nefarious strategy to turn world opinion and Muslims in the region against Israel.
“Peace is not the mere absence of war”
My purpose today is twofold: First, to explain briefly why the conflict between Israel and Hamas is so complicated, defying simple resolution. Second, to use this crisis to illustrate our abiding need for the only true peace humans can experience in this fallen world.
In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus declared, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Matthew 5:6). He also stated, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (v. 9). In Gaudium et Spes (Latin for “joy and hope”), the Second Vatican Council noted:
Peace is not the mere absence of war or the simple maintenance of a balance of power between forces, nor can it be imposed at the dictate of absolute power. It is called, rightly and properly, a work of justice. It is the product of order, the order implanted in human society by its divine founder, to be realized in practice as men hunger and thirst for ever more perfect justice.
As a result, “peace” is a “fruit of the Spirit” that proceeds from “love” (Galatians 5:22). Accordingly,
If peace is to be established it is absolutely necessary to have a firm determination to respect other persons and peoples and their dignity, and to be zealous in the practice of brotherhood. Peace is therefore the fruit also of love: love goes beyond what justice can achieve.
Thus, peace ultimately depends on knowing the One who promised, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you” (John 14:27). As a result:
Peace on earth, born of love for one’s neighbor, is the sign and the effect of the peace of Christ that flows from God the Father. In his own person the incarnate Son, the Prince of Peace, reconciled all men to God through his death on the cross.
Paul greeted his readers, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:2). Note the order: we must experience God’s grace to have true peace with him, others, and ourselves.
The old truism is true: No God, no peace. Know God, know peace.
What will you do to know God and make him known today?
NOTE: Do you know why Jesus was called Immanuel? Or why it matters? You’ll learn the answer in our new Advent devotional, The Gift of Immanuel, which I encourage you to request today. But even more than the knowledge of that name, you’ll be drawn into the Lord’s presence in humility and gratitude for the incredible gift we were given at Christmas.
Israeli forces encircle Gaza City ahead of an expected push into the Hamas stronghold as Israeli leaders reject calls for a ceasefire as long as Hamas holds hostages saying it would only strengthen the terrorist group.
As antisemitism intensifies worldwide, the Israeli government tells its citizens not to travel if it isn’t necessary, and not to openly identify themselves as Jewish or Israeli.
CBN’s George Thomas talks from Jerusalem about why now is the most critical moment in Israel’s military operation, the future of Gaza after the war, and more; Israel is expanding its operation on the northern border ahead of a possible conflict with Hezbollah, and how Israelis in the region are preparing.
Families and friends of the Hamas hostages are pushing to see them set free. Rachel Goldberg, whose only son Hersh Goldberg-Polin is among those being held captive, tells CBN News what happened during the Hamas attack when he was captured.
CBN Jerusalem’s continuing coverage of Israel’s war with Hamas.
As you watch hundreds of thousands of military-age men storming the southern U.S. border, your eyes should be trained more on our cities than on the border itself. That is where all these criminal and belligerent elements are settling — and where they are changing our culture, society, and security for the worse.
What we are witnessing is the counterintuitive immorality of the open-border left on display in real time, as we allow our cities to become the very hellholes from which leftists supposedly want to save migrants.
The Daily Mail last week reported that among the hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans entering the United States, ex-communist security forces, gang leaders, and state-run militias from Venezuela have saturated neighborhoods in Miami, Dallas, and Chicago.
The cultural ills associated with Latin American socialist juntas have been imported in large numbers thanks to Biden administration policies. “The same people so many migrants left Venezuela to escape from are now here,” Miami-based attorney Rolando Vazquez told the Daily Mail. Government forces — the military and the police — would force Venezuelan businesses to pay a protection fee to President Nicholas Maduro. Now they are walking around Venezuelan communities in south Florida doing the same thing.
Meanwhile, in Dallas, the Venezuelan neighborhood called “‘Villa Dallas’ has descended into mayhem,” the Daily Mail tells us. “For months, once peaceful apartment complexes have been the scene of illegal street races, beatings, shootings, and extortion attempts.”
Where in the U.S. media — apart from Blaze Media, obviously — have you heard about any of that?
The truth is that what comes to the border doesn’t stay there. It migrates to our cities. Dallas is the second-largest city in Texas. The “Villa Dallas” section sounds like a Paris banlieue:
“Every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, the situation is out of control,” said a renter at the Oaks at North Dallas who didn’t want to be identified.
“These men hang around the complex drinking and doing drugs. Next thing you know, it’s bullets flying and people fighting. When I first arrived, it was calm, but things have changed in the last few months.”
In July, the Dallas Police designated the Oaks as a habitual crime property and confirmed officers have increased their presence there.
In other words, we are not letting in their best.
The Washington Post in 2018 reported on an “overwhelmingly Hispanic school” in Prince George’s County, Maryland, where MS-13 would “sell drugs, draw gang graffiti, and aggressively recruit students recently arrived from Central America, according to more than two dozen teachers, parents, and students.” It was so bad that “most of those interviewed asked not to be identified for fear of losing their jobs or being targeted by MS-13.”
The Post also reported on an illegal immigrant woman from Guatemala who paid ransom to MS-13 not to be killed. She ended up living among the very same criminal elements she fled. She had been living in the United States for 10 years, but things changed around the DACA surge when “MS-13 was on the rebound, fueled by fresh recruits from an unprecedented wave of almost 200,000 unaccompanied minors from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.”
Venezuela is a much bigger problem, however. More than 10% of the entire population has fled the country. The security threat is so bad that even the Biden administration is placing Venezuelans on planes headed directly to Caracas.
Even if we sealed the border today, the sheer amount of riffraff we have allowed in over the past few years would be enough to kill our civilization. And that doesn’t even begin to factor in the security threats posed by Hezbollah, which has diplomatic, cultural, and demographic ties to the highest levels of Venezuelan government and society. There is no way to dig out from under the flood of invaders with our current enforcement system.
The only solution is to allow states to begin deporting illegal aliens, beginning with transnational gang members. ICE has been neutralized as an enforcement force and has been marshalled into the catch-and-release process by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
State and local law enforcement, unshackled by federal restrictions, would know where the trouble spots are in their communities. They can focus their efforts on foreign nationals who pose a threat, and unlike with domestic criminals who cycle in and out of county jails, these folks can be removed from the country after the first sign of trouble. It’s time to give states the authority to complete the full cycle of law enforcement against foreign nationals, not only to apprehend them but to remove them from the country.
If Republicans need an example of how to get this done, they should look no farther than how Pakistan swiftly removed 1.7 million Afghan migrants in a short period. If Pakistan believes its neighboring Afghans pose a threat, then how much more do transnational gangs and criminals from all over the world pose an existential threat to our survival?
U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) have introduced legislation that would allow states to enforce federal immigration law, prosecute all immigration crimes, and remove scofflaws from the country. Additionally, the bills would authorize border states to construct their own barriers.
Anything short of state enforcement will not get the job done. This should be the top demand of Republicans during the upcoming budget fight, with appropriations expiring midnight November 18.
The reality is that the only way illegal immigration will end is if America becomes like the immigrants’ home countries and there is no longer any reason to come here. Sadly, we are well on our way to that outcome.
A brand new poll from The New York Times and Siena College shows Donald Trump beating Joe Biden for the race for the presidency in five of six battleground states, with leads between three and 10 percentage points. Yes. That’s how bad Biden really is.
The administration of President Joe Biden has sent more than $1 billion in aid to Palestinians, and proposes sending another $260 million in its FY2024 budget request yet to be approved by Congress, OpenTheBooks.com auditors found.
The U.S. government gave $318.4 million in 2021, $363.9 million in 2022, and $371 million in 2023, a reversal from former President Donald Trump’s August 2018 freeze.
While humanitarian funding is the finest tradition of American generosity, much of its use is now widely understood to have encouraged the culture of Jew hate promoted by Hamas, Palestine Liberation Organization, and the Palestinian Authority.
In 2021, Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged it’s possible the Palestinians could use U.S. aid to restock Hamas’ arsenal of hate.
“We’re going to be working in partnership with the United Nations and the Palestinian Authority to kind of channel aid there in a manner that does its best to go to the people of Gaza,” he said during a press briefing in May 2021. “I’m also sure that the government of Egypt will have some role in that. As we’ve seen in life, as we all know in life, there are no guarantees, but we’re going to do everything that we can to ensure that this assistance reaches the people who need it the most.”
Recently, after Hamas’ unexpected and bloody attack on Israel, Biden announced $100 million in humanitarian aid being sent to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, as the Department of Treasury announced sanctions on the cryptocurrency exchange that aided Hamas, The Washington Post reported.
Biden also said an “unprecedented” aid package was being readied for Israel – $14.3 billion out of a $105 billion package that Congress must vote on to fund Israel, Ukraine, the southern border and more.
In January 2018, the U.S. released $65 million to the UN for Palestinians.
Then-President Trump, sitting next to Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said he was hopeful for peace in the Middle East and noted that Palestinian support from the U.S. should end.
“That money is on the table,” he said before cutting the aid to zero later that year. “That money is not going to them unless they sit down and negotiate peace. Because I can tell you that Israel does want to make peace, and they’re going have to want peace, too, or we’re going to have nothing to do with them any longer.”
The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com
This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.
On Monday Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian claimed that the United States is desperately seeking an end to the fighting to Gaza, despite Israel being nowhere near dismantling and destroying Hamas at the moment, which is Tel Aviv’s stated aim.
The foreign minister said that “the Americans sent us a message in the past three days saying they are are seeking a ceasefire,” according to state TV.
AFP/Getty Images
This could indeed be the behind the scenes messaging now being advanced as Secretary of State Blinken shuttles between capitals in the region, having most recently met with with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday. So far he’s on record as seeking a ‘humanitarian pause’ in the fighting.
More interesting is that the White House has simultaneously dispatched CIA Director William Burns, who arrived in Israel Sunday for top level meetings. Burns will also go to Qatar, and then Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.
As with the Ukraine war, Burns is often sent to crisis spots to relay messaging that the US administration doesn’t wish to discuss publicly. This could involve further mediation to get the hostages freed, or working toward some kind of serious ceasefire agreement centered on the hostages’ freedom.
This could be what’s behind Iran’s Monday statement claiming that the US is frantically working toward ceasefire, given also world public opinion is fast turning against Israel, as the death toll mounts – as of Monday surpassing 10,000 deaths in Gaza. Al Jazeerareports:
Palestinian Health Ministry says 10,022 people have been killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza since October 7, including 4,104 children and 2,641 women.
The ministry added that 25,408 people have also been wounded.
A US official described to Axios that Burns’ trip is to “discuss issues of mutual concern including the situation in Gaza, support for hostage negotiations, and the US commitment to continuing to deter state and non-state actors from widening the conflict between Israel and Hamas.” As for world opinion, South Africa is the latest to join a handful of Global South countries which has recalled diplomats from Israel.
Via AP
Meanwhile, in light of this Iran has ratcheted its threats and messaging aimed at Washington, after its proxy arm Hezbollah has already blamed the US for overseeing the massacres in Gaza. Tehran is now warning that the US will be “hit hard” if it can’t press Israel to a ceasefire.
“Our advice to the Americans is to immediately stop the war in Gaza and implement a ceasefire, otherwise they will be hit hard,” Iranian Defense Minister Mohammad-Reza Ashtiani was quoted as saying by the semi-official Tasnim news agency on Sunday.
But importantly it remains the the Biden administration’s official positions it so say no to ceasefire, reflected in fresh statements by Blinken in Amman:
The Arab foreign ministers that Blinken met with on Saturday in Amman – from Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates – issued the same demand.
But Blinken said the U.S. would not push for one.
“It is our view now that a cease-fire would simply leave Hamas in place, able to regroup and repeat what it did on Oct. 7,” he said. Instead he said that temporary humanitarian pauses in fighting would be critical to protecting civilians, getting aid in and getting foreign nationals out “while still enabling Israel to achieve its objective, the defeat of Hamas.”
A US military build-up in the region has continued, after US bases in Syria and Iraq have been targeted by ‘Iran-backed’ militias over two dozen times, resulting in troop injuries. This new Iranian threat to hit Americans “hard” no doubt is a threat to step up these attacks further, as Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah also warned just days ago in a speech.
The White House could also begin to face more pressure domestically from with within the Democratic base, considering also again the death toll on the Palestinian side has just surpassed the grim 10,000 mark, with by far most of the casualties being civilians. While Biden has emphasized over and over again his “love” and commitment for Israel, the progressive wing of his base will increasingly wield influence on the issue at popular level.
The U.S. has sent/redirected over 17,200 military personnel to the Middle East since Oct 7th. This includes 12,000 sailors on the USS Ford & Eisenhower carrier strike groups, 4,000 sailors & marines with the Bataan amphibious ready group and 1,200 troops deployed to the region
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky showed this weekend that he is not about to accept loss in the information battlefield, launching what we can call his own ‘PR counteroffensive’ to push back to a campaign of several days of demoralizing news articles and opinion pieces in the Western MSM.
Perhaps even more damaging, his own Commander-in-Chief Valery Zaluzhny penned an op-ed in which he stated for all to hear that Ukrainian offensive efforts were locked in a stalemate.
The Presidential Office of Ukraine set about publicly rebuking Zaluzhny’s and firing his top military leader’s deputy.
Now, right as Zelensky is reaching out to the media trying to regain some lost terrain, yet another disturbing article arises, suggesting that Western powers have begun secretly moving towards peace negotiations.
“U.S. and European officials have begun quietly talking to the Ukrainian government about what possible peace negotiations with Russia might entail to end the war, according to one current senior U.S. official and one former senior U.S. official familiar with the discussions.
The conversations have included very broad outlines of what Ukraine might need to give up to reach a deal, the officials said. Some of the talks, which officials described as delicate, took place last month during a meeting of representatives from more than 50 nations supporting Ukraine, including NATO members, known as the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, the officials said.
The discussions are an acknowledgment of the dynamics militarily on the ground in Ukraine and politically in the U.S. and Europe, officials said.”
So Zelensky set about trying to reshape the informational battlefield in his favor. To begin with, an opening with a touch of not-so-subtle emotional blackmail.
He said that the cost of no more US aid is the onset of Russian war against NATO.
“’If Russia will kill all of us, they will attack Nato countries and you will send your sons and daughters [to fight]’, Zelensky said. Zelensky made the comments on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday.”
He proceeded to invite former US president – and frontrunner to 2024 – Donald Trump to visit and see the conflict for himself.
“Trump, running again for president in 2024, has been critical of US support for Ukraine and claimed to be able to solve the war in 24 hours.
‘If [Trump] can come here, I will need … 24 minutes to explain to President Trump that he can’t manage this war’, Zelensky said. ‘He can’t bring peace because of Putin’.”
He adopted a non-confrontational tone all along regarding the American leader.
“’If he’s not ready to give our territory for this terrible man’, Zelensky went on, ‘if you’re not ready to give our independence…he’s very welcome’.
Zelensky noted that he hasn’t had any contact with Trump since the latter departed the White House and conceded he doesn’t know if the former president would have Ukraine’s back.”
On NBC’s “Meet the Press”, Zelensky went overboard in his demonization of Putin.
In an interview aired Sunday, he said he is ensuring that Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘does not take away the freedoms of Ukrainians’.
“I have a lot of power, back even feeling strong. And I have a lot of energy. It doesn’t mean that we want to fight all our lives because the price is high, like I said.
“Because the war takes the best of us, the best heroes, the best men, women, children. That’s it. But we are not ready to give our freedom to this f—ing terrorist, Putin. That’s it. That’s why we are fighting. That’s it.
[…] It’s not the question for us. For us, that is real life. So, you know, we wanted to get your support, like we say, yesterday. That’s why it doesn’t matter it will be today or tomorrow. We just, I think, lose time, lose time. Time is very expensive. That’s why we need your support. But you will get more. You will get more, I’m sure. After our win, you will see all these things.”
Again in the New York Post, it is reported that “despite apparent pressure to negotiate with Putin, Zelensky argued that doing so would be foolish.
‘I’m not ready to speak to the terrorists because their word is nothing’, he declared defiantly.”
But perhaps the most pathetic aspect of his new media offensive is his attempt to counter the very damning assessment by Commander in Chief Zaluzhny.
The general said that modern tech impeded fast military maneuvers, and ISR capabilities mean both sides can see everything the other is doing – so there is not much of an element of surprise.
So Zelensky said that now they’ll be ‘fast and unexpected’.
“Our military is coming up with different plans, with different operations in order to move forward faster and to strike the Russian Federation unexpectedly…
[The Russians] thought they would checkmate us, but this didn’t happen…I don’t think that this is a stalemate.”
It appears the Democratic Party establishment is revving up to throw Old Joe under the bus.
The Gateway Pundit’s Cristina Laila previously reported on a recent New York Times poll showing absolutely devastating numbers for the White House occupant. An ABC panel even speculated over whether Biden needs to be replaced.
The poll shows Donald Trump absolutely destroying Biden in 5 of the 6 states that will determine the 2024 Presidential election. Just take a look at these devastating numbers for Sleepy Joe.
It’s very late to change horses; a lot will happen in the next year that no one can predict & Biden’s team says his resolve to run is firm. He’s defied CW before but this will send tremors of doubt thru the party–not “bed-wetting,” but legitimate concern. https://t.co/g6zeWF0T87
It’s very late to change horses; a lot will happen in the next year that no one can predict & Biden’s team says his resolve to run is firm. He’s defied CW before but this will send tremors of doubt thru the party–not “bed-wetting,” but legitimate concern. https://t.co/g6zeWF0T87
progress with voters of color in the last election thanks in part to his strong management of the economy and Biden’s racist history. Now minority voters have witnessed Biden’s terrible failures as “president” and their views of him have plummeted further.
CNN ON NYT POLLING: “The more diverse the swing state, the farther Mr. Biden was behind”
In addition to the bad horse race numbers and his issues with minorities, two-thirds of the NYT respondents said the country is moving in the wrong direction under Biden. Moreover, just 37% say they trusted Biden with the economy compared to Trump’s 59%. Voters also prefer Trump on immigration, national security, and Israel.
Even if Biden was able to miraculously turn all these numbers around, he has no control over his greatest vulnerability: age. There is a decent chance Biden dies in office should he seize power for a second term. America will then be stuck with clumsy Kamala Harris.
The greatest concern is that his biggest liability is the one thing he can’t change. Among all the unpredictables there is one thing that is sure: the age arrow only points in one direction.
Axelrod closes by essentially saying Biden running is neither putting America first or himself first. Message: if you love America and value your own health, Joe, get out now.
Only @JoeBiden can make this decision. If he continues to run, he will be the nominee of the Democratic Party. What he needs to decide is whether that is wise; whether it’s in HIS best interest or the country’s?
Steven Khoury, pastor of The First Baptist Church in Bethlehem, is living and ministering in a truly unique arena. With Hamas’ attack on Israel sparking war, Khoury is navigating unchartered and complex waters.
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